Chapter fourteen- The Team Grows


"This is Blue Leader. Do you read me, Command?"

"We hear you. What's the status on the target?"

"It hasn't gotten far. According to the tracker, It's a few kilometres away. But it's already wiped out all of Red Team, and there's only three of us on Blue Team remaining. It's close, but it isn't moving very quickly. I think it's toying with us..."

"Alright. Stay alert."

It had been nearly an hour since the incident at the Natural History Museum, and the feral responsible had now been looking for a new prey. It had found an unexpected one in the forests, where a group of soldiers in SWAT style gear were conducting a training exercise. It had then proceeded to kill most of them, and only three of them remained. One of the feral's victims had managed to plant a tracking device on it before being ripped apart, and the three surviving soldiers were using it to track it down.

"It's heading right towards us!" said the soldier that was holding the tracker.

"Alright." said Blue Leader. "But be careful. Bullets don't seem to stop it. It just seems to shrug them off. Try and aim for the head, see if that's effective."

"Hold on... It's right on top of us. But I don't see it..."

Suddenly, the other soldier, who was standing next to a tree, was yanked up by an unseen pair of hands. He screamed right before his head was torn off and thrown on the floor, followed by the rest of his body. The two remaining soldiers started firing their guns into the trees, hoping to hit the target. It was too fast however, and it didn't help that it kept bouncing around the trees. Eventually, the soldier holding the tracker was knocked down by a mighty blow, and he turned around to see the feral about to pounce on him. But just as it was about to reach him, Blue Leader managed to take aim and shoot the beast in the head with his assault rifle. He emptied his entire clip into the beast's head, and it dropped to the ground. Blue Leader checked it's pulse to see if it was still alive. It wasn't.

"You okay?" he asked the floored soldier as he helped him up.

"Yeah. That was close, though. That thing nearly had me for dinner. Is it dead?"

Blue Leader nodded. Then he pulled out his radio and spoke into it.

"This is Blue Leader. The target has been terminated."

"Roger that. We'll send a clean up crew to recover the dead bodies. We don't need anyone finding out about our exercise tonight. In the meantime, report back to base."

"Roger. One more thing- You might want to call the CEO. She might want to see this..."



After Lucy had patched up Amy following her attack, she was left in the bedroom with Kelly, who had decided to stay in the room to keep an eye on her. However, her initial transformation into a werewolf and the events that followed had taken it's toll on her, and she fell asleep shortly after Amy was left to rest. A few hours passed, and Amy suddenly began to stir.

"Uh... Uhhh... What happened?"

Amy immediately sat up, and found herself in pain. She looked down and saw she wasn't wearing her usual clothes. Instead, she was wearing a pure white nightie. She looked around and saw she was in a room she was unfamiliar with. She also realised she had a big bandage across her chest. When she touched them, she let out a cry of pain.

"AGGHH! Ugh... Where am I? What happened last night? I remember walking home after the audition... Then I was attacked by a monster! That's right... Then some kind of wolf girl tried to save me. And then- wait a second..."

Amy heard snoring just to her right. She realised someone was in there with her. She looked around for a lamp, which she found right next to her. She turned it on, and saw the very wolf who had saved her. She was fast asleep, and didn't even stir when Amy turned the lamp on.

"Heh. You're one heavy sleeper, aren't you? Kinda reminds me of Kelly. She can sleep through anything. I still remember the time we went to Japan, and there was that earthquake in the early hours of the morning. It woke me and everyone else in the hotel up, but she just slept through the whole thing. Yeah, you're just like Kelly all right."

Amy's attention turned to the table to the right. She could see a pair of glasses sitting on it, and they looked very familiar.

"Hang on... I know those glasses!"

Though she was still in a little pain, Amy pulled herself out of bed and picked up the glasses. Very carefully, she then placed them on the wolf's head. The resemblance wasn't there immediately, but after a while, it became perfectly clear.

"Oh my god! It IS Kelly! So she was the one who helped me out. Oh, that's right. That's why I'm hurting right now. I set that thing on fire, and it slashed me as it died. Now that I think about it... She called herself Brains, didn't she? Yeah, that sounds like the kind of nickname Kelly would use. Why didn't I see it earlier? Dammit, you have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow..."



Although her wounds had fully healed, Anna was still feeling sore when she woke up the next morning. Instead of getting up, she lay in bed for a little bit longer, contemplating what had happened the previous night. Mostly, she was concerned about Kisa. She knew she had to be the one who Alice said was still in the museum when they escaped from the feral, but she didn't have the time to look for her when the police arrived. Then there was the case of Amy. If what Kelly said was true, she had been turned as well. Hopefully, they had both made it to Amanda and Lucy and they were still there. If so, Anna would have to head over there to try and figure out what to do next. As Anna's thoughts continued, her attention wandered to a pair of voices from downstairs coming from Alice and Steve. He must have stayed overnight. Eventually, Anna knew she wasn't going to achieve anything lying in bed. She decided to get up and go downstairs, where she found Alice and Steve chatting in the sitting room. They seemed to be on edge, which wasn't surprising after everything they had just been through.

"Gooooood morning!" said Anna in a sing song tone, pretending to be oblivious to the events of the previous night. "How was your date last night?"

"Don't ask..." said Steve.

"It started well, but then we went to the Natural History Museum..." said Alice.

"Oh? What happened there?"

"Well, we discovered it was shut." Alice continued. "But it turned out Kisa was doing a photoshoot there, and she managed to pull a few strings and let us in. But a little while later, we were attacked by... umm... a werewolf."

"A werewolf? I dunno what to believe less. Your story, or the fact it's coming from Little Miss Sceptical herself. I thought you didn't believe in that kind of stuff?"

"No, it was a werewolf alright." said Steve. "It gets better, though. We were rescued by another one."

"Another one? And this one saved you, you say? That's even crazier."

"You're right. It does sound pretty stupid." said Alice. "But it's the truth. What was really weird was the fact that the one who helped us was almost human. She stood on hind legs, she had a human hairstyle and she was even wearing some kind of skimpy ninja costume. And she spoke. She seemed more of an anthro wolf than an actual werewolf."

"She had a nice pair of tits, actually." said Steve.

"Yeah, she was really pretty. Almost glamorous. And she called herself Luna. Nice name, I thought."

"Wow. Did you guys hit your heads or something? I mean, one werewolf is silly enough, but two of them? And one of them looked like she'd belong in a Senran Kagura game? What happened after that? Did Kisa get out okay?"

"We don't know." said Alice. "We told this Luna that she was in there, but we don't know if she found her or not. We couldn't really go and look ourselves as it was too dangerous. But after we escaped, we came straight here, cleaned ourselves up and went to bed. Neither of us slept very well, though. I mean, who could after something like that?"

"Hmmm. That does confirm Kisa was the other person at the museum at the time." Anna thought. "I hope she’s okay too..."

Suddenly, the telephone in the kitchen rang.

"I'll get that." said Anna. "And hey- just so you both know, I'm glad you're alright."

"Thanks." said Steve as Anna made her way to the kitchen and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" said Anna.

"Hi, Anna? It's Poppy. Um... W- were you at the Natural History Museum last night, by any chance?"

"Yeah, I was. There was a feral werewolf on the loose, and I tried to fend it off. Emphasis on the word "Try"." Anna replied, talking quietly. "Sorry I'm being quiet, it's just that Alice and Steve are in the living room and I don't want them to hear. Have you heard from Kisa? Apparently she was there too?"

"That’s why I'm calling. She was admitted to the hospital last night."

"What?! Was she attacked?"

"That's the weird thing. She was found unconscious in a shower room, and there was a lot of blood on the walls. However, they didn't find a single mark on her. She had some blood on her, but there was no indication she was hurt in any way. They think someone tried to attack her in the shower, but she fought back and the attacker got busted up pretty bad. I don't think Kisa's strong enough to cause the amount of blood they found, though. Also, if she had fought back and caused that kind of damage, I'd have thought the attacker would have been the one who was found unconscious. None of this makes any sense. What do you think?"

Anna sighed.

"Yeah. That sounds bad, alright. She must have been attacked by that feral. But are you sure they didn't find any marks on her?"

"Yeah, they told me she looked perfectly fine. Do you think she's been turned? I mean, don't werewolves heal really fast?"

"They do, but when Kelly and I got attacked, it took about a day for our wounds to heal. If Kisa was turned, then she must have healed in around an hour or two? Even for a werewolf, that's insane. I can't think of any other explanation though. It gets worse too-Amy was also turned last night by another feral. Kelly found her and tried to protect her, but..."

"Amy too? Oh no... Where is she now?"

"Well, I told Kelly to take her to Amanda and Lucy, so hopefully they're both still there. I'm going over there to check up on them once I'm washed and ready. You want to come? We need to figure out what to do from here."

"Okay. You know my address, right? If you can pick me up from there, that'd be great. I'll see you once you're ready then."

"Sure. See you soon."

Anna put the phone down and went back to the sitting room.

"Right, that was Poppy. She just called to say Kisa's in the hospital. However, she seemed to be alright. They didn't find any injuries on her or anything..."

"So... She’s okay?" said Alice. "That's a relief. We were pretty worried for a while."

"Seems like it." said Anna. "She was found unconscious, so she either fainted or was just hit over the head. I don't think you need to worry too much. We might want to pay her a visit as soon as we're able, though."

"Yeah. If she's really okay, that should mean they won't keep her for very long." said Steve. "We'd better go when we can, eh?"

Anna and Alice nodded.



Having fallen asleep again, Amy next woke up mid morning. She was still hoping that the last few hours had just been a bad dream, but finding herself in the same room she was in earlier put paid to such a hope. Kelly was no longer in the room, but Amy could hear voices coming from outside the door. As she got out of bed, she realised that she wasn't hurting anywhere near as much as she had the last time she woke up. That concerned her a little, as she would have thought she would still be in considerable pain. She decided to get that thought out of her head for a little while and headed out through the bedroom door. Just outside, she saw Kelly speaking with three other people she didn’t recognise.

"Oh, hi Amy." said Kelly, catching sight of Amy as she came out of the door. "How are you feeling?"

"Could be better..." said Amy. "S-so... What's going on here? Where am I and who are these people?"

"I kinda owe you an introduction, don’t I?" said Kelly, gesturing towards Amanda and Lucy. "This is Amanda and Lucy. This house belongs to them. Oh, and Lucy owns the costume shop where Anna works. They're... also werewolves. Just like me. And now you."

"Yeah, I kind of already figured about the whole me being a werewolf thing." said Amy. "After what happened last night, it was pretty obvious. What did surprise me is the fact that you were the one who helped me out back there."

"You figured that out already huh?" said Kelly. "Well, yeah. That was me. And I'm a little pissed off because even though my hearing and sense of smell are now way better than they used to be, my eyesight still isn't amazing and I still have to wear my glasses when I'm human! So irritating!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" said Amanda.

"Not much. Still pisses me off, though."

Kelly then gestured towards Miyuki.

"Anyway, back to business. The hot Asian chick here is Miyuki. You're not going to believe this, but she's actually a nine tailed fox in disguise!"

"You what?" said Amy. "Like, in Japanese folklore? Don't tell me it's not just werewolves around here?"

"Far from it." said Miyuki. "I'll give you the full story later, but I can tell you that what you've seen is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more creatures out there that you believe exist only in legend, but are in fact very real."

"Seriously? Like, dragons and goblins and vampires and all that shit?"

"Technically, I guess. Dragons haven't existed as we know them for a very long time. Vampires are one of the few mythical creatures that don't actually exist. As I said, I'll fill you in on more of the details later."

Suddenly, the intercom started beeping.

"That'll be the door." said Lucy. "I'll go get that."

As Lucy went downstairs, Amy took the chance to ask more questions.

"So how did you get turned, Kelly? Was it when you got attacked at the Solstice Technologies building?"

"Yup. Last night was sort of my first full moon. It's kinda cool, actually. You're super fast and agile, you can heal any wounds real fast, your senses are much improved... You'll probably be a bit taller as well. We all know you always wanted to be taller."

"Thanks..." said Amy, rolling her eyes as Amanda chuckled.

"Haha, Kelly told us you have a bit of a complex with your height." she said. "But she's right. Your new abilities are a gift rather than a curse. It's just a matter of how you treat it."

"I'll be happy to help you hone your abilities when you transform for the first time during the next full moon." said Miyuki. "Adjusting to your new lifestyle can be difficult, but your friends and I can help you overcome that."

"It's something she's been doing quite a bit of lately." said Amanda. "First Lucy and I, then Anna..."

"Wait... Anna? Anna’s a werewolf too?"

"Yup. That I am." said Anna as she came up the stairs with Poppy and Lucy behind her. "And there's a chance Kisa is, too. They found her unconscious at the Natural History Museum with a lot of blood, but no visible wounds."

"Dammit..." said Kelly. "Wait, what do you mean, no visible wounds?"

"Exactly as I said." Anna replied. "There wasn't a single mark on her. Either she wasn't attacked at all- which doesn't explain the blood found at the scene- or she was, and her wounds healed up really fast. And I don't think even werewolves heal that fast. So I don't know for sure if she's really been turned. We need to keep an eye on her, just in case."

"It's possible." said Miyuki. "As you know, when certain people are turned, there is a chance they will develop enhanced abilities that purebloods don't have. If Kisa has indeed been turned, it could be she has the ability to heal even faster than regular werewolves. The first power to manifest itself after being turned is that of quick healing, so if she does indeed have an even faster healing factor, it would have developed immediately. I could be wrong, but it's not out of the question."

"We need to tell her." said Kelly. "If she really is gonna become a werewolf, then she needs to be prepared for it."

"Are you sure?" said Amanda. "I mean, Kelly had no worries when Anna told her everything, but that doesn't mean Kisa will react the same way. She might not believe it. And that's in the best case scenario."

"No prob." said Kelly. "Anna, Poppy and I could talk to her about it, and if she doesn't believe it, Anna can just shift in front of her as proof. Then, she'll see that becoming a werewolf won't be so bad. She'll be fine."

"I don't know." said Poppy. "It's true if Anna showed her wolf form to Kisa, she might take it better, but what if she hasn't been turned? You could risk exposing your secret for nothing. I'm not sure she could keep it to herself as well as I can."

"Hmm." thought Anna. "That's an issue. We won't know for sure until the next full moon. But if we don't tell her, and she IS a werewolf, then she'll freak out for sure when she shifts for the first time. Is it really a good idea to leave her in the dark?"

"So what do we do, then?" said Kelly.

"I don't know." said Poppy. "But we have plenty of time to figure something out. Until then, maybe we should keep an eye on her."

"Okay, new question." said Amy. "Is Poppy a werewolf too?"

"No, she just knows our little secret." said Anna. "Long story. In any case, how are you feeling right now? Kelly told me you'd been turned..."

"Yeah. I'm... okay, I guess. I've accepted it if nothing else. What about Alice and Steve?"

"They're not werewolves either, but they were nearly turned last night. They were also at the museum when that feral attacked. Thankfully I got to them in time, and they managed to escape."

"I see. Thank god for that..."

"What gets me about this whole thing is that there were two ferals last night..." said Lucy. "It makes me wonder if they were part of the same pack."

"Funny you should mention that." said Kelly. "The feral I fought said something about a master. It didn't say much more than that, but I think both of them could have been taking orders from this master..."

"Wait a second." said Amanda. "Are you saying it spoke to you? From what I'm aware of, ferals can't talk in the human language."

"Not in the usual sense, no. More like I could understand it. Like, I can talk to animals."

Anna raised an eyebrow.

"You... can talk to animals?"

"Yeah. Can't you? Isn't that something we can all do?"

"I can't do that." said Anna.

"Me neither." said Lucy.

"First I've heard of anything like that." said Amanda.

"Hmm." said Miyuki, stroking her chin. "That sounds rather more like an Esper ability. How interesting. I didn't realise Kelly was one."

"An Esper?" said Anna. "Is that another Inner World thing?"

"Not necessarily." said Miyuki. "An Esper is a person with special psychic abilities which vary between people. Rather like how werewolves that have been turned as opposed to being born one have their own unique abilities, so too have Espers. Some may have more simplistic abilities, like mind reading or the ability to communicate with animals- like Kelly. Those are the most common ones."

"So, you’re saying all those people on TV who claim to be psychics are actually Espers?" said Poppy.

"No, most of those are fake." said Miyuki. "But there are a couple whose skills are genuine. They are born that way, but their powers won't always manifest. Some of them can go their whole lives without ever knowing about their abilities. In some cases, should an Esper become a werewolf, that could potentially awaken their abilities as well. That's what I believe happened to Kelly. Were you able to talk to animals before?"

"Nope." said Kelly. "At least, not to my knowledge. That's kinda cool, though. I didn't know there were people like that out there."

"Well, there are." said Miyuki. "Some Espers have bigger and more dangerous abilities like mind control or even telekinesis, but thankfully those cases are rare. For most part, it's the smaller powers that are most will have."

"I hate to break this whole thing up..." said Anna, pointing to Kelly. "But shouldn't we be thinking more about this master that Fluttershy over here mentioned?"

"Anna's right." said Lucy. "Do you know anything about this, Miyuki?"

"No. Even I can't keep tabs on everything around here, and I'm unaware of any packs that may be living in London." said Miyuki. "Up until now, the only werewolves here that I've been aware of have been you lot. I also believed that the feral that turned Anna and Kelly was alone. But that turned out not to be the case."

"I wonder if they were even attacked by the same feral." said Amanda. "It might be that they were attacked by different ones..."

"Yeah, and probably not the ones from last night either..." said Kelly..

"It's not impossible." said Miyuki. "I'll do what I can to look into it. If there is a pack of ferals under one person's control, then that could be very dangerous. More innocent people could be at risk..."

"Well, I won't let that happen." said Anna. "I'm using my powers to fight crime, and ferals attacking people fits into that bracket quite neatly. If any more try anything, I'll be waiting for 'em!"

"Yeah, count me in, too." said Kelly. "We'll take down any feral stupid enough to attack innocent people!"

"Not the way you are now, you won't." said Miyuki. "Neither of you were able to beat the ones you faced last night. You both still have a long way to go before you can stand toe to toe against a feral."

"I managed to kill one, didn't I?" said Amy, who up until now was listening to the conversation with a certain degree of puzzlement.

"Yes, through sheer luck alone." said Miyuki. "Plus, you got hurt in the process. Even once you're a full fledged werewolf, you won't be that lucky again. No, none of you would would be able to take a feral on your own. As a team, however... You might just stand a chance. Anna... Kelly... Lucy... Amanda... I think it's for the best that the four of you come together as a team. If there are any more ferals out there, you'll stand a much better chance if you all work together."

"Whoa, whoa whoa!" said Amanda. "What do you mean the four of us? Lucy and I aren't the hero type!"

"I'm afraid you may have to be." said Miyuki. "Anna and Kelly won't be able to do this alone. Yes, I think the four of you will become quite a force to be reckoned with if you all work together. Perhaps the six of you, if Amy and Kisa agree to join as well. As ever though, it's your decision. I can't force you both to help out."

"It wasn't what I was expecting to do, but it's clear people are in danger here." said Lucy. "I agree. We should work as a team. I'll certainly lend a hand- er, paw, I guess... What about you Amanda? I know you seem reluctant, and it has to be your decision as well..."

"Okay, I'll join this little superhero team." said Amanda, sighing. "If nothing else, if I don't I'm just gonna spend my time worrying about Lucy. So sure. You can count on me, too."

"Thanks, guys." said Anna. "Guess I'm gonna have to come up with some codenames for you both as well, huh?"

"Codenames?" said Kelly. "You gave yourself one, too?"

"Huh? Yeah, I did. Because I felt it might help to keep the whole secret identity thing, well, a secret. You got one too?"

"Sure. I called myself Brains, since that's pretty much what I seem to be in this little operation of yours. Plus, that's the name of the tech guy in Thunderbirds. Seemed like a good one to me."

"Cool, cool. I chose Luna as my code name. It kind of fit with the whole werewolf and full moon thing."

"Cute."

"Damn straight." replied Anna, before turning to Amy. "So, Amy. In case you're a little confused..."

"You decided to play at being a superhero." said Amy. "Yeah, that's not hard to figure out. How long have you been at it for?"

"Technically, since the previous full moon. I used my abilities to bring those two rapists to justice. Last night was my first full fledged night of crime fighting, and I'd say at the very least I'm quite good at fighting regular bad guys. Anyway, would you like to join us? Obviously you'll have to wait until the next full moon, and even then you might want to spend your first night adjusting to your new body. But once that's out of the way, I'm sure you'll be a big help to us. But as Miyuki said, it has to be your choice, and yours alone. So, what do you say?"

Amy thought for a few moments before speaking out.

"Swan."

"Huh?" Said Anna.

"Well, if we're going to have codenames, that's mine. Swan. You know, because I love Ballet, especially Swan Lake. Kind of works, if you ask me."

"I'll take that as a yes." said Kelly. "Welcome to the team!"

"Thanks." said Amy. "This should be interesting at least. So, what now?"

"Well, we're all going to need gadgets." said Kelly. "Might not be a bad idea to get some costumes like Anna has, either."

"I can deal with that." said Lucy. "I make costumes, so I can make those for us as well. Just tell me how you all want your costumes to look, and I'll make them. I'll just need to take your measurements for your wolf forms and I'll be good to go."

"I can continue to teach you how to make the best of your abilities, too." said Miyuki. "In particular, I'll teach you how to shift between human and wolf forms at will like I did with Anna, so you don't even have to wait until the full moon to get out there. Of course, I'll carry on teaching Anna how to fight, as per her request. Maybe I can do the same for all of you. As for Amy, there's not much I can do for her until her first full moon, but I'll be happy to teach her as much as I can when the time comes."

"All right, then." said Anna. "I guess that's that then. All we need to think about now is what to do about Kisa. Unless anyone has anything else to say?"

"Just one." said Kelly. "Lucy, If Miyuki's gonna teach us how to shift as and how we please, I don't think you need to take measurements of anyone as a wolf. If you could come see me at my place later on today, I have a little something I'd like to show you. I think you might find it useful..."

"Sounds interesting." said Lucy. "I guess I'll find out soon enough."



That night, Ben was working hard at his desk. He had been looking at the incident at the museum, which had been reported on the news as an act of vandalism. Ben wasn't so sure. He had already been on the scene and noticed there were claw marks all over the place, and they looked unlike anything he had ever seen before. He also found traces of blue fur which looked just like the ones he found at the Intercity Shopping Centre the previous month. Not only that, he was also told about what happened to Kisa, and was shown the scene where she was found unconscious. He ultimately took a sample of the blood found on the scene, and sent both that and the fur to a laboratory for analysis. With that done, he spent the rest of the day writing up his report while waiting for the test results. He was just wrapping things up when Max showed up.

"Hey, Max. What's up?"

"Just got the results back from the lab. Turns out the hair sample is wolf fur, just like the sample you found last month at the shopping centre. That makes me wonder if it was the same one?"

"Hmm. That does beg the question though, doesn't it? What was our wolf doing at the museum last night? And why would it wreck the place?"

"Well, it's a wild animal, isn't it? They don't know any better, right?"

"That doesn't explain why it's been scaring off criminals, though. Rumour has it that our wolf had also been thwarting a series of crimes last night as well. It just doesn't add up."

"Really? So we're dealing with some sort of furry vigilante then?"

"Maybe, maybe. What about the blood found near where they found Miss Justine? What came out of that?"

"You're not going to believe this. It belonged to Kisa, alright. And yet, when they found her, she had no injuries whatsoever."

"Now that is strange. I'd have thought if she'd been attacked, there would have been some sign of injury. How's that even possible?"

"Beats me. Maybe you should talk to her and see what she can tell you. I'll be happy to accompany you if you want..."

"You just want to meet her, don't you? Still, maybe it won't hurt to give her an interview. Maybe she can lift some light on the whole thing."

"Oh! I know! What if she IS the wolf? Oh man, if that's true, that would be the best thing ever..."

Ben gave out a sigh.

"Is that all you can think about? Sexy furry girls? Anyway, I'll see what I can do regarding an interview. Thanks for giving me the info, Max. I appreciate it."

"Sure. That's why I'm here!"

Max left the room while Ben leaned back in his chair.

"Jesus Christ... What the hell is going on in this city?"