Luna hisses as she leaps forward to grab him, clasping her hands around Scar’s middle. She slides around him to end up on his back and lifts him, threatening to suplex him. Luna leans back to let gravity to her work when suddenly, mid-body slam, her body halts with a sharp sensation in her back. She looks around oddly as she see’s Scar’s legs in the air above her. What was keeping her up? She tilts her head back and notes that Scar’s tentacles had reached up to stop her from tipping any further back, efficiently halting the move.
Just as soon as the werewolf processes this, the tentacles wrench forward, throwing her several dozen feet across the mostly clear roof. She tumbles a few times, bashing through some of the patio furniture in the process. She eventually finds her footing, her claws scratching the stone roof. She picks herself back up and charges for Scar again, leaping on top of one of the AC units and then catapulting off of it towards him. Scar holds his hand out towards Luna as she flies in, remaining calm.
Two tentacles twist together to form a crab’s claw and fire outward, catching Luna by the neck and gripping it tightly. Her hands fly to the shadowy mass and start trying to pry herself from it, her lower body flailing wildly. Scar merely muses as he starts reeling her in, keeping her above the ground but closer to himself. A scared, shrill whine escapes from the werewolf’s muzzle.
“Let’s see...I’ve smashed someone today..and then crushed them...how about strangulation?”
The vice grip around her neck tightens, prompting Luna to squirrel around much more frantically. Luna feels the pressure build on her neck as her eyes water with pain. A sudden, terrible sensation grips her heart as if it were made of barbed wire. The pain is great enough to even distract from the fact she was being choked. The internal lacerations grow in frequency as they travel up her throat, as if something was trying desperately to claw it's way out of her. It passes by her mouth and ascends to her mind, pulling at it with sharp points imbedded along it's edges. A familiar voice bellows between her ears.
~"FREE ME."~
Luna whines as this voice couldn’t have picked a worse time to show up. She shakes her head the little she was able, the werewolf forcing more strength into her arms to pull apart the shadow. She calls back to it.
~”No! I have this! Just be quiet!”~
The voice calls out again, more insistently. ~”WEAKNESS SPEAKS. FREE. ME. NOW!”~
~”Shut the hell up!”~
A familiar voice drags Luna out of her inner monologue, the pressure on her neck loosening.
“Oh ho...or maybe I’ve got a better idea.” Scar says.
The tentacle he’d let slither free earlier returns to him with Miguel’s magnum in hand. He takes it from the wayward snake and brings Luna down close enough to press the gun against her head.
“It’s been an eternity since I’ve shot someone. How’d you like to be the first?”
Luna freezes solid as she feels the gun placed upon her temple. She looks morbidly morose as the possibility of her death swims in her frigid, pained mind. She passes a glance over towards Miguel, the man wincing in empathy for her sake. Scar looks between the werewolf and the human, a smile cresting across his features.
“Or better yet...ooh...I like this idea. The irony!”
Scar turns the magnum to point at Miguel’s downed form, his finger easing over the trigger.
“The cold, cruel irony.” Scar says. Miguel’s expression shifts to one of stalwart acceptance.
The voice in Luna’s head speaks with the utmost clarity, her brain feeling like it might split with the pressure.
~"DO NOT DENY WHO YOU ARE. UNLEASH ME.”~
Luna couldn’t see anything else she could do from here. If she did nothing, Miguel would die followed likely by everyone else. She didn’t completely understand who or what this voice was, but if there was the hope that it could pull her out of this, she had to try.
~”Fine.”~ She answered back. ~”Whatever it takes.”~
The instant she mentally spoke the last sentence, a bolt of lightning flows through her spine. Her muscles begin convulsing and growing uncontrollably, her mouth pulled back into a snarl. Her hoodie stretches as her body becomes more muscle-bound, her claws in both her feet and her hands growing outwards. Her pupils disappear, leaving nothing but glowing purple sclera in their place.
Scar turns to see Luna mid-transformation and raises his brows in surprise. He summons all of the tentacles he could to engulf Luna, using the same technique he had on Sakura. It seems to work for a small period of time as the werewolf struggles against him, but a bubble soon forms around Luna, forcing the shadows off of her. The bubble pops shortly after, and the shadows are cast aside, the werewolf howling as she drops a few inches to the ground. Luna summons a wave of force that sends every single speck of snow from the rooftop away, leaving the whole area cold and exposed. Patio furniture flies, smacking into the guard rails around the edges of the roof. Scar’s glasses and fedora fly off of his face as he holds his ground.
Sakura and Miguel brace themselves against the ground, looking on towards a still transforming Luna. The werewolf’s arms and legs had become elongated and thicker, giving a gangly but strong appearance. Whatever feminine attributes she may have had were replaced with sheets of sinewy brawn. Her elongated fangs that jutted out of her mouth were monstrously large now and apart of a snarl so severe that saliva drips from her. Two stag antlers sprout from the crown of her head, sending trails of fluorescent whitish-green fluid pouring down her body. Each drop that hit the ground sizzles, burning a small hole in the roof before disappearing. A guttural growl vibrates from seemingly her whole body as a 7ft tall Luna glares at the bewildered Scar.
“...I stand corrected.” Scar says after a brief pause.
Luna growls at him in a feral manner before charging at the vampire. Somewhat panicked, Scar summons all eight of his tentacles and flings them all towards the charging beast. Rather than smack them aside, Luna grabs two of the ones closer to her and yanks them towards herself. The tethered tentacles have a little bit of leeway, but when the shadow pool at Scar’s feet gives out, he rockets forward from his position. Luna swings her mighty claws down, ripping through Scar’s chest and drawing thick streaks of blood. The vampire staggers back, holding his chest in agony. He leaps back to get some distance from the beast, unwilling to engage it in such close combat.
Luna charges after him again, her unsettling snarling drawing close. Rather than attack, Scar draws upon his tentacles once more, mashing them together to form a shadowblood hemisphere of a shield to protect himself. Luna slams into it like a freight train, sending the vampire skidding along the ground on his back. Still, the barrier holds. Just as Scar starts to recover, Luna barrels after him again, her howling cutting through the night sky. She vaults over on top of Scar’s prone body, pressing him and his shield into the roof.
Luna savagely starts dragging her claws through the shield Scar had over the top of him, trying her best to get to the meaty snack behind it. The werewolf pants as she starts to dig at him, trying harder and faster to get through the shield, but for each time she managed to pull the muck apart, it reforms, protecting its user from harm.
Miguel stares on in awe at the turn of events, the human urging himself to his feet. He stands warily now, his robotic legs spasming slightly from the damage. Just before he starts to walk forward, a white puff of smoke appears in the air in front of him. From that point, a man seemingly appears out of midair, the smoke dissipating.
The man is shorter than Miguel and was very lightly built, though his grey trench coat hides most of his form. His skin is pale, almost chalk white and his short hair follows suit. His fedora matches his trenchcoat and is tugged downwards to help conceal himself. The grey man turns back towards Miguel and speaks very dryly, his voice lacking any real emotion or tone to it.
“You guys have been making my life hell, you know that?”
Miguel blinks at him incredulously. “Who are you and..uh...how’d you get up
here?”
“You can call me Ash. The other part is not important. At all. What is important is that we need to stop your friend.”
Miguel gulps as he watches the feral Luna try in vain to get through Scar’s shield.
“Uh...why?”
The grey man reaches inside of his trenchcoat and brings up a cigarette. He rests it in his mouth and snaps his finger, creating a whitish-grey flame that ignites it. He flicks the fire monotone cinder away after that.
“She’s damaging a key witness for starters. And for second…” The grey man takes a long, dry pull from his cigarette. “She’s making an awful damn racket.”
Luna grows increasingly frustrated at the reforming shield, the werewolf’s clawing motions slowing. She raises her fist and slams it directly into Scar’s shield which oddly enough, cracks the earth around her, forcing scar into the roof further. Seeing success, she starts slamming her fists into the inky barrier with all of her might, arching her back as far as she could for as much leverage as she could get. It stopped moving Scar after a while, who’s shield remained firm, despite the battering.
Getting the faintest wisp of an idea, she pulls up from Scar and instead leaps into the sky as many stories as she could reach. With gravity on her side, she comes crashing down on Scar with all of the crushing weight, sending the both of them through the roof entirely. Dust, metal, and wood go flying everywhere as the two crash into the ballroom, the impact being enough to send furniture within a small radius flying outward. Luna lands on top of Scar who hits the ground limply, the vampire’s eyes closed with unconsciousness. Scar’s tentacles wither away underneath his feet, the shadow pool disappearing.
Sakura uses her sword to push herself back to her feet, her body wracked with pain. She approaches Ash just as Luna goes through the roof, grimacing at the wreck her friend was creating.
“Not to make a scene but in my experience, that’s usually pretty bad, right? That’s not just a 'me' thing? Punching through the ceiling?” Sakura muses.
Ash turns a wary eye towards her, taking another drag on his cigarette and flicking it aside. He exhales his smoke in a thick cloud. “You got me into this mess, you two are going to get me out of it. Huddle close.”
Sakura takes a few steps forward towards Miguel as Ash drapes an arm around them both. With a brief feeling of disorientation, the group teleports down to the ballroom, a few feet from the savage Luna. Miguel nearly loses his balance outright, taking a few shaky steps back from the ashen man. Sakura turns just in time to see Luna start clawing at Scar, ripping his suit to shreds and coating her claws in blood.
“Distract her.” Ash quips tersely, the man drawing his hands into his trenchcoat and pulling out a syringe gun. He loads it with a cartridge of sickly blue liquid.
Sakura jogs over towards Luna and grabs one of her meaty paws on the backswing, digging her feet down. The vampire barely registers's to the werewolf, who rips Sakura off of her feet as if she wasn't there. Realizing something was on her, Luna stops swinging at Scar long enough to look at Sakura. The young vampire gives the werewolf a promising smile as she presses her petite weight against the limb. Uncaring about her, Luna wrenches her arm out of Sakura’s weak grasp and backhands the vampire across the room, sending Sakura over the top of one of the gambling tables and into the ground.
Miguel draws near, hobbling a little bit as he walked. He holds his drained prosthetic arm with his other and near her.
“Luna...you have to listen to me. Just...stop okay? We won. We did it. We took him down. Just...relax...it’ll be o-”
Luna felt something near her just after she batted the other vampire away. She reaches down to bite Scar, her jaws mere inches from his face when a voice starts speaking to her. She tries to refocus on her bested enemy, wanting nothing more than to mash him into nothingness, but the voice kept talking. It felt familiar but...what was it trying to say? She couldn’t make it out. In either way, it was annoying. Distracting. Unneeded. Out of brutal frustration, Luna mindlessly swings her hand outwards, slashing Miguel across the chest and pushing him back. As soon as she looked over to who she just hit, her motions stop, staring blankly at Miguel.
Miguel takes a few steps back, clutching his chest in pain. He falls onto his back with a muffled cry and curls up to self-consciously. Luna’s mindlessness snaps away are her pupils begin to fill in her purple eyes once again. Tears start to well in the corners of her eyes.
Seizing an opportunity, Ash teleports right next to Luna and jabs the syringe into her neck. The werewolf growls at the intruder for a brief second before her vision starts to fade. The weariness of the battle caught up to Luna in an instant, and she falls over on her side, sliding off of Scar. She weakly looks over at Miguel’s still cringing form and tries to reach over towards him, but she falters, unable to retain consciousness any longer.
Ash's finger curls around the trigger of the syringe gun as hard as he could, putting the entire dose of sedative into the werewolf before drawing himself back. As Luna falls, Ash stands, recapping the gun and tossing the spent cartridge in a nearby trash can with perfect accuracy. Ash looks over towards Miguel and offers a hand to help him up.
Miguel opens up an eye to look at him, sweat beading on either side of his temples. He looks down towards his chest wound and clutches it closed. The cuts weren't deep, but the pain from them is acute, unlike the general soreness of everywhere else. He grabs Ash’s hand with his still functional one and pulls himself back up, Miguel panting with exhaustion.
“Thanks man, I appreciate it.”
Ash pulls another cigarette out of his jacket. He offers it towards Miguel. “Sure. We humans have to stick together don’t we?”
Sakura rubs her head as she finally recovers from the hard smack, treading back towards the two men.
“God...even her backhands hurt. So uh..guy. Why are you here anyway?”
Ash smiles towards Miguel and Sakura flatly.
“Because by the order of the Duskguard, all four of you are under arrest.” He states plainly. Ash then gestures towards Miguel, creating that same white-ish black flame again on the tip of his thumb.
“Light?”
Chapter 18
A Whole New World
Vague sensations and voices pass Luna by while she was unconscious. Like a dim memory, she couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention, as her overwhelming desire was to sleep. Even so, she felt someone lift her off of the ground and take her somewhere, the werewolf’s lethargy preventing her from even opening her eyes. And soon enough, everything went quiet for awhile, allowing her to sleep firmly.
Luna awakens to an overwhelming soreness in her entire body as if some chewed on by some massive dog. Her eyes open immediately after, and initially the brightness made her squint. Her head thumps with a dull pain, particularly at two points near the top of it. As she focuses, it’s quite clear that she was in some patient room of a hospital, albeit very small. The stiff bed she was lying on was one amongst a dozen or so, all of which were empty. Sitting next to her bed is an attractive woman Luna had never seen before. She is wonderfully dark-skinned, with long curly black hair that hangs naturally from her head. A pair of rounded glasses rest on her nose, and her white lab coat gave Luna the impression that she was a doctor. The woman had her attention on a book resting in her lap and seemed to be lost in its contents.
Luna coughs politely to get the doctor’s attention, who looks up immediately and snaps her book closed. Luna quickly caught the title of the tome: ‘Unusual creatures of the Underground.'
“Good evening.” The doctor spoke in a calming voice. She stands and sets the book in her chair, standing next to Luna’s bed. “How are you feeling right now?”
Luna shakes her head slowly. “Uhm...I feel..sore..all over. My head is pounding. Even the tips of my ears are sore.”
The doctor stifles a small chuckle as she leans back, producing a glass-panel tablet from her pocket and begins reading over some information on it. Luna couldn�
��t help but notice the sharp fangs underneath her lips.
“Well Luna, that’s normal. Most werewolves complain about that after a transformation. It’ll pass in a day or two.” She looks up towards Luna and offers a hand. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Tayla Smith, the on-staff doctor here in Bastion.”
Luna tilts her head slightly in confusion. “Bastion? What’s Bastion?”
Tayla looks down at her tablet and begins writing on it with a stylus while speaking. “Bastion is the headquarters of the Duskguard in Underground Ravenport.”
“...Underground Ravenport?”
“Yes Ma’am.” Tayla states plainly.
“As in UNDERGROUND-underground?”
Tayla looks up and gestures towards a sizeable closed-blind window a few beds down from Luna’s position. “You can take a look for yourself if you’d like.”
Luna commands her legs to move, and although they listen, they weren’t happy about it. She pushes herself and lands somewhat warily on her soft feet. The shock of the cold tile retracts her foot claws considerably. The werewolf makes her way over towards the window and pulls the blinds apart, the sight that follows giving her significant pause.
The sky was not visible, being replaced by the ceiling of a massive cavern that led to the conclusion that she was thousands of feet underground. Still though, at the cave’s roof sits orange, purple, blue and white crystals that mimic the appearance of stars. Casting her gaze down a bit, the Bastion looked to be a fairly tall, multi-story building, one of the largest, though only one massive black skyscraper appeared to be taller. The city streets below looked like the ones she’d been living on all of her life, but citizens were noticeably different, with humans looking intermixed with the occasional werewolf or other creature she couldn’t identify. The street lights on the ground level kept the urban sprawl nice and illuminated, even allowing her to see that this small city had businesses, restaurants, and housing that all looked quite normal.
Ravenport: Luna's Awakening Page 24