Steven was on his way to the small market near his house, walking since he was glad to be on the ground again. His fridge was full of items gone bad over his absence, and he needed to restock. A tune filled his mind as he walked along, until he heard something fairly odd, mixed with a sight which was downright laughable.
Two guys were huddling together against a wall, and giggling like little school-children, and not wuite whispering their thoughts to each other. As the Elementalist neared the pair, he heard more clearly what their conversation entailed. The two men were high. And not just your usual, potsmoker/meth-head variety. The drug in question was V. Vampire's blood. One of the most unpredictable substances you can ever find. Since he wasn't the law, or a user, he continued along his path, passing a young girl of about twelve years old.
Steven was just about to turn the corner, when he heard the men's conversation get louder, and they seemed to be taunting the young girl. They were calling her a chicken, and trying to decide which of them would pluck her feathers, and which would cook her for dinner. "Great, there goes a quiet afternoon." He pulled out his phone, while watching the group, and texted Zack. ~Bro, get Owen, or someone, got some V-freaks down by the store near my house. Call me when you get near.~ Then he punched 9-1-1 into his phone, and started heading towards the trio again.
When the operator came on the line, he spoke softly, and assuredly. "Yes, I'd like to report a couple of men, one caucasian, one hispanic male, both in their early twenties, near Larry's Liquor store. As I walked past, they were talking about how good vampire blood felt, and now they are harassing a young girl. Please send some guys. You can reach me at this number. No, I'd rather not say my name, thanks." With that he hung up, and slipped the phone in his pocket, being about thirty feet from the men and the young girl. She was crying. That was enough for the elementalist.
Reaching up, he slowly unscrewed two gems from his necklace. In his hands he now held an ammolite stone, and a topaz. He stopped walking, and smiled. "Hey! I'd suggest leaving that young thing alone. Come get a piece of this if you're hungry." As he'd hoped, the men got pissed off easily, and started heading his way, thinking he was a large boar. The girl fled for her life, tears staining her cheeks. Steven concentrated, and the ammolite absorbed into his palm, and then as he held his hand out, bullets of stone flew towards the pair. The hispanic took a shot to the temple, and stumbled, but the V was in control. The white guy took a few of the bullets to his gut, although they didn't puncture, he was slowed a bit.
That was the opening the earthbender needed. He felt the topaz being absorbed, and the dust of it slipped through his fingers. He focused on where the men were going to be in a few steps, and the sidewalk split wide open. It looked like the streets of New Orleans wanted to eat these men for their crimes. They fell in, and couldn't seem to quite reach the lip of the rift. Instantly, Steven felt kinda weary. He hated using some of his larger tricks, but he knew not much else would stop V fanatics. He sat down against a shop wall, and lit up a cigarette waiting for Zack or the cops to arrive.
-- Edited by STEVEN TERRAFOR on Thursday 16th of June 2011 10:23:56 AM
Boredom! Zachary's day so far had consisted of movies, games, tv dinners, and tripping over a wolf that, for all intents and purposes, wasn't really there in the first place. He'd always thought that being alone was going to drive him crazy, but the pup seemed to be in a worse state now that the beast was finally around. Unsure of what to call him, Zack simply decided to go with the first stupid name he could come up with. Darrel wasn't his best work, but it made him laugh every time he looked at the thing and tried to say the name, so it was going to stick, at least for now.
As if there were some sort of pattern developing, Steven hit him up right before he was about to be driven off the edge. “...V-freaks? The hell?” Snapping into motion, Zack grabbed his essentials – conveniently stored in his zip-up hoodie – and ran for the door, the beast in hot pursuit. Before leaving the living room, however, he skid to a halt by the couch and lifted up one of the pillows, grabbing the glock that Nate had left behind for him. and shoved it into an inside pocket of his hoodie. Sure, it was filled with silver bullets, but they'd get the job done just as well against a normal squishy person. Whatever was going on, it was urgent enough for Steven to need some sort of backup. He sure as hell wasn't about to disappoint!
Since he still didn't know a thing about riding a motorcycle, some of the money left over from the house had gone to something a bit cheaper to insure and maintain. It wasn't glamorous, but his little purple Dodge Neon got the job done, and he really didn't give a rat's ass if he wrecked the thing doing something stupid. After fishing out a cigarette, Zack called up Owen, figuring that the whole crew might as well be down there. “Hey Owen!” Zack yelled above the rush of wind and squealing tires streaming through his window. “It's Zack. Steven's got some trouble with a couple druggies or somethin' by his house, and he's askin' for help. I'm on my way now, get your ass over there if you can!”
Once he was confident he was close, the pup dailed over to Steven, unsure of where this all was actually taking place. Of course it was hard to give specifics over a text. “Alright, I'm close enough, I think. The hell's goin' on, and where are ya?”
Steven picked his phone up, and pressed it to his ear. "Zack. About four blocks down from that little store near my house. Got two junkies holed up-" He chuckled at his little pun. "-they wanted to eat a little girl, man. What kinda shit are they- Aw hell, they're coming back at me. Hope you're close." He hung the phone up, and turned to face the V-addicts.
They had crawled or jumped out of the hole, he had no idea since he was focused on the phone too long. "Look, guys. You really don't want to piss me off more than you have." The tattoos swirled violently on his arms, legs, neck, and face. His power was surging through him, wanting more release. He was happy to oblige. First, one of the sapphires around his neck vanishes into dust, and the rift in the sidewalk disappears. Stumbling from the sudden exertion, Steven leans on the building. He was prepared to do what he must to stop these idiots, but he didn't want to lose focus and allow them any kind of opportunity.
Too late. One of them leapt forward, and slammed a haymaker punch into his jaw, spiining him three hundred and sixty degrees. "OhyoumotherfuckingbastardVdrinkingsonofabitch!" He grabbed the man's arm, and a bloodstone evaporated into his skin. Where his fingers touched, the man's limb began to turn gray and hard. The color spread rapidly, and soon his entire arm just short of his armpit was turned to granite.
Steven was about to slam the guy's arm into a wall when he heard the squealing tires. And when he turned back, he saw stars. The other man had roundhouse kicked him in the temple. Steven went down. Hard.
If Zack had just been there a few seconds later, the whole thing might have been avoided. Alas, the little Neon didn't have quite enough get-up-and-go, so he finally rounded the last corner just in time to see Steven take a kick right to the head, sending him straight to the ground. The pup could feel the buildup of fear and anger, but he had to try and keep himself as calm as he could. The last thing anybody needed was for him to shift in the middle of town.
“Steven!” Zachary shouted as he slammed on the breaks and jumped out of the car and ran forward, barely taking the time to assess the situation. One man was leaning against the wall, and arm looked really bad from this distance...if it was even his arm anymore. What the fuck had Steven done to these guys? The other one was in much better shape, and looked like he was about to start pummeling the elementalist while he was down. “Over here, punks!” The pup was dashing towards them faster than he'd ever moved before, closing the distance within a couple seconds. The one standing above Steven took a jab at Zack's head, which he ducked under fairly easily. Taking another step forward, he sent his right arm towards the mans face faster than he could have possibly reacted, nailing him square in the nose and causing the drugged out man to stumble backwards, blood flowing down his face.
Oh, for fuck's sake. Blood. Zack bent down to Steven, checking to see if he was even conscious anymore. There wasn't any time to do more than check, however, since both of them had propped themselves off their respective parts of the wall and started to advance toward the two. How the one could move with his grayed-out arm nearly dragging the ground was beyond Zack, but it wasn't his place to question it.
With his breath quickening, the pup reached into his inside pocket and drew the Glock, cocking it and pointing it between the two men. “Just...get back!” Zack tried to yell in as commanding a voice as he could muster, but it was becoming to much. The situation was just to stressful for him, and the blood was freely flowing from the other druggies nose and dripping to the ground. Darrel seemed to grin wickedly up at the young man, knowing that it was close to taking matters into its own hands. Still fried out by the V, the two men continued to walk forward with almost no regard to their own well being. “Christ...not another step, ya hear?!?” Shaking, Zack stood above Steven and took aim at the men shuffling towards him, hoping to god that the elementalist would get up before he lost control.
It was actually a good thing that the man had kicked him in the head. It took his mind off the splitting migraine trying to rip his skull apart, and turned his vision red. He clumsily got to his feet, barely registering the fact that Zack had shown up, or that no cops had responded. Typical, really, but he was enraged.
He ran up behind the men, and in a fluid motion, he grabbed the stone arm, and bashed it into the other man's face, shattering his nose, his cheek, and probably his jaw. Using the momentum of the impact, Steven dropped towards the ground, and obliterated the first man's arm on the pavement. The cry of pain from his attackers just fueled him on. As blondie was clutching his jagged stump, the elementalist wheeled back on blue-eyes, and kicked him repeatedly in the ribs.
He kicked and kicked and kicked, his mind thinking of what could have happened to the little girl, and his head wailing in protest at the adrenaline induced blood rush through his cranium. There was no words coming from Steven's mouth, but his gravelly voice grated in a growling stacatto with each impact of his foot in the man's side.
The glock shifted slightly to the right, the sights lining up on the blonde man's chest. The general area of his chest, at least. Zack's hands were shaking so much that he was more than likely to hit the other guy on accident without really aiming that way. The pup tried to control his breathing, but there was nothing he could do at this point to calm himself down. His eyes were just fixed on the blood dripping from blue-eyes' nose, and so were the wolf's.
Just as his finger was starting to pull the trigger, Steven came from seemingly out of nowhere with an incredible display of force. In a bit of shock, Zack lowered his gun and watched the elementalist first shatter one druggies arm, then proceed to kick the other's chest in. There didn't seem to be any sign of him stopping, either. Maybe he'd have just continued until his foot finally punched through his chest and started hitting the concrete on the other side. The act of aggression only served to excite both halves of Zack even more.
Breathing heavily, the young man tried to take a shaky step forward while bringing up his hand to clutch at his chest. It felt like he was starting to cramp up. “Dude, he's done. You ain't gotta...” The sentence was ended with a low grunt of pain as Zack dropped the gun and went down on one knee, the pains in his chest spreading throughout his body. He was still looking forward with clenched teeth, however, towards the limp forms in front of him. He just couldn't take his gaze from it all. The shattered arm. The blood. “Fuck...don't think I shoulda came, Stev-” This time, his thought was interrupted with a loud cry of pain with the feeling of bones beginning to crack all through him. Zack ended up curled up on his side in the fetal position, but he never took his eyes away from the carnage in front of him.
Living in the life of luxury, the finest cuisine ever, and boy the food here was to die for! He could float in limbo. The rice, mixed with fried shrimp and chunks of white chicken with a touch of lemon on every meat bursted with a lot of flavor. He picked up his beer, draining most of it down when that same cute waitress had an excuse to come to HIS table. As his leopard was named, he amplified everything Owen was and could use it to his advantage save for another set of words for flirting? As she was about to say something to him, his cellphone rang, the loud music coming from it was a ringtone he sat that was a hit song from one of his favorite bands, Sting. "Let me get that" He can play it like a Dr.Claw with out his pussycat to pet as he stared on his screen. Owen held up a finger to the pretty, short dark haired waitress then stood to his five ft ten height. For a guy, he wasn't six ft as one would have pictured many are and was already fit for the basketball team. He saw a name that was familiar, very familiar!
Zachary's name was listed in his incoming calls then pressed for voice-mail sent from his good pal, Zach and his other was Steven that was being identified with the young wolf. He sensed trouble afoot as the tone of Zack's voice was urgent and his presence was needed ASAP. This called for point A strategy. Owen did not have weapons nor have skills in that, but his intellect could make very clear that sometimes strength is not really all that. Owen proved this many times to most of the foes he's experienced, but even so his logics sometimes did backfire and he was at times out of options.
He paid the bill, winked at the woman, her hand reached out to nearly stop him but noticed he was already out the door in lightning speeds almost a blurr. He got into the driver seat of his car then started up the engine backing out of the parking lot then thirty minutes later he was shining the light on these so-called thugs that ruined the day and decided to play ball with his allies. Since Zach did not give him an address directly, he used what he can by rolling his window down a notch then let the scents of Zachary plus Steven help track them. It lead him to a house or he saw a mess happening here.
Blood was scented in the air, it made his young leopard excited and wanted that crimson for himself but Owen knew better than to let his beast lunge forward to whereever this coppery smell was coming from. His brown, white-laced, hiking boots trailed through the grass, there were smells everywhere including unfamiliar presence, his cat sensed danger, not good. Not sure what was going on, he simply darted quicker in a human run but could switch to felidae mode, cats were tricksters? Yeah, everyone wanted to be a feline but if someone is looking to harm his friends, that is when the real Owen took a stand. Reaching into his left pants' pocket were four copper canisters, he tossed one on the ground where the men was trying to do a number with Zack but the other was close by. Once the tiny object landed it burst with a bellowy, gray fog that covered the entire area. It was smoke, the way this is done fool foe into thinking it's some toxic gas, but it wasn't. Slipping by, Owen handed both Zack and Steven some damp, wrinkled up white rags he brought with him in case Steven and Zack needed them. "It's toxic!"He lied, why? Theatrics was a useful tool, it fooled some enemies.
Steven heard Zack's voice, but it was as if it was coming from a radio station in an area with bad reception. The whole message was definitely not getting through. His head was throbbing like war drums, and his limbs felt like lead. He attempted one last kick, but it threw him off balance due to his fatigue, and he fell backwards. His golden brown locks did nothing to cushion his skull from slamming into the pavement, and instantly knocking Steven unconscious.
With the deep folds of oblivion caressing his mind, the elementalist lost what grip he had left on his power. Shields were dropped, and had he been awake, he would be able to distinguish the rapidly approaching leopard with ease. His tectonic senses would be able to measure the exact weight and general mass of the conisters as they hit the ground spewing their harmless smoke. Slowly, his body started to crust over, as if he had been covered in a light layer of sand. Once the initial layer had been complete, it would solidify more and more as one of the stones of his necklace seeped into the base of his neck. Slowly, he was looking like a statue.
Greenly was the officer's name. Stoley had taken off and left her with the uniform. He was human. The call came through on their way back to the clinic and Llidya had just gotten Ash's voicemail. Greenly picked up his radio and gave her a glance. Now that Llidya knew Ash was ok she nodded.
"Go for it." They were the closest black and white, and Llidya didn't mind street work. Besides, if they were on V Greenly might not cut it. Halfway there the second call came in from another witness, shots fired. The sirens lit up and cut through the humidity of the town, and Llidya braced herself against the dash as Greenly raced to the scene. They pulled up to smoke and blood. Llidya scented a new wolf nearby and she jumped out, gun in hand as they surveyed the scene. There was yellow gas, but it wasn't toxic, only irritable on her nose. "Stay here, call for back-up," she told Greenly. He nodded and moved back to the car. The new wolf, Zack, that was his name, was mid shift and blood frenzied. Shit. Shields dropped immediately and she reached forth with her power, her Timberwolf moving forward in a gesture of dominance. The full weight of control blanketed over him, helping him through the change and keeping him down and calm. But her Bahamas-clear water hues were fixated on the forming statue dead center of the scene when she finally made it through the smoke.
After a moment, she turned her gaze to the werewolf and knelt in front him, looking him in the eyes until he looked away. It was only then she noticed the leopard. She glanced at him as he held out rags, and she declined.
"Name's Chapman. Who's the statue? And there's more black and whites on the way." She glanced at the limp forms then back to the wolf before settling on the leopard.
Police sirens were off in the distance, Steven looked like he was some sort of gargoyle, and Owen had finally shown up throwing some sort of 4th of July smoke bomb. None of it mattered to Zack, who was writhing and screaming in pain on the concrete. Pops and cracks could be heard from within as muscle and bone shifted to accommodate a new form, and the pup was looking less and less human by the second. 'This is it', he figured. If the shift didn't kill him, he was afraid of doing something he'd regret without even realizing it. He could kill everyone here, and he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. He might have felt a little sympathy for the wolf that attacked him in the park right then, were it not for the splitting pain that made the sickness after the bite feel like a full body massage.
The sirens had finally caught up to him, and Zack could barely make out the figure moving towards him. He could feel and smell her long before his eyes could make her out, and he might have welcomed Llidya to the party if his clothes hadn't started to burst to accommodate his changing form. As her shields lowered, there seemed to be a great weight falling over him. For a moment, the pup felt...almost calm. As if the whole situation wasn't going to be so bad. The last thing he could remember was looking up to see Owen and Llidya standing over him, and then there was nothing.
Grayish-red fur began poking it's way out of Zachary's back, and with one last scream, there was a violent explosion of clear goop. At the center laid the red wolf, eyes blinking rapidly to do away with the disorientation. Hunger. All the wolf could feel was a raging hunger, and the need to sate it on anything it could find. But before it even had the chance to pull itself off the ground, Llidya was right there, staring him down. He could still feel the waves of power rolling over him, and knew full well that she was superior to him. The wolf laid his head back on the ground to break eye contact, prefering to stay on her good side and get a sense of his surroundings from there, at least until she saw fit for him to stand. It didn't, however, change how hungry he felt.
He didn't dare remove the dampened rag from his nose, the chemicals in the cloth overpowered the blood that filled the area with it's copper aroma that he almost shifted the second he stepped out from his dark blue volvo. Dr. Connors used the fog to give him time to think on what to do next. His eyes could see through the thick clouds of the mist, then soon as it dissipated, an arm slipped around his throat as the same thug Steven was fighting decided to choose a weaker contender. Owen gurgled for mere second as the wrapped arm tightened it's grip. The man who drained that girl with the "V" wasn't down for the count yet. The woman coming up was but a moment too soon. Thank the heavens she had come or there will be more of these buffoons slipping without knowing it. The rag had fallen to the ground during the quarrel between the man behind him and he was suddenly the victim. The Counselor wasn't known to fight, the metallic scent started heading up his nose, that spotted male had been lying on his side the entire time.
He saw a new figure, she smelt unfamiliar to him even during the struggle of the one Steven had tried to kick under him, but failed due to the exhaustion. He heard screams from Zachary, he immediately wanted to rush over to his friend there who the two connected since the first night when he was the one who pulled him through it all. Yes, and even when he wasn't up to par with lycanthropes as Jessica was knowing he could have sent Zach in her care but he seemed to do well on his own.
As he watched the young lad trying to indulge this painful process, some part of him almost went into a sympathic mode but Owen Connors was taught by Maximillian Connors, his father, to be strong no matter how crazy it had gotten. Zachary was an exception to that lesson. Suddenly, he gripped the arm of his assiliant, his fingernails of his right fingers curled into the man's flesh long enough to dig his nails deep into it until he drew blood.
Owen chose to heal never to fight, he lacked proper self defense but as far as instincts went he'll have to use that in it's place. His captor started to scream and had to break free from his captive holding his bleeding arm. That was close, but the red wolf standing there where Zach had been was under the new woman's control. Doctor instincts came into focus, though, his own beast climbed the metaphysical walls separating it from the light outside. That huge feline wanted blood, the kill even better became it's motivator. He wasn't going to shift, can't do it, he was sure the thud came from Steven who laid sprawled on the ground like a broken ragdoll. There wasn't no time to waste as he raced to do what he can, apparently, he did not have knowledge of what he was but the scent, all that energy coming off of him was no doubt some form of magic, his beast wanted to take a chunk out of all this power it felt but Owen's will kept pulling his kitten back some to give room to do his job as a doctor. It will immediately make his record look bad if he had not have any concern for any hurt or wounded, the strange scent was not ignored as Dr. Connors knew from when they first met he was less than human.
He went to kneel down on the left side of Steven, hoping he heard him in the way any doctor would have asked it. "Steven? Steven? Is everything alright? "Hopefully, those men including the one openly attacked him was apprehended, knowing Owen, he pick up a weapon or use the next tool to one. His nails wasn't claws, not yet, he wasn't feeling too hot as Zach right now. The change could come sooner than later. He so in hell wasn't ready to shift in the middle of his job! The inner feline wanted out now! He felt him, knew he was so close to the surface of that dark tunnel that shone a bit of light. The woman called herself Chapman, Owen introduced himself pretending not to have any qualms of the sudden problems between he and the animal that wanted too much, as if that isn't all. "I'm Dr. Connors. It's Steven, think something happened. It's a good thing you're here. "Professional, not going about making humor when their all having a topsy-turvy moment. The bad guys versus those who stood in the justice circle. Bad guys will soon be behind their cells before the day is over with. He can rest knowing this whole bullshit would have slithered on by like a slithering serpent.
-- Edited by OWEN CONNORS on Sunday 3rd of July 2011 12:24:45 AM
On the contrary, Llidya was fully aware of the inner struggle that Connor was having. So she pulled a dirty trick, and did to him what Ash had done to her so many years ago. She reached out with her power to the feline, and commanded them to sleep.
Llidya reached out to shake his hand just as she did that little trick, so she caught him just as he passed out. Llidya gently lowered the man to the ground, and glanced over to the red wolf.
"Don't look at me like that. I don't know if I can handle two of you guys at the same time, and now's not the time to test it." She told him, and then stood to face the approaching detectives. Greenly was one of them, and he had an apologetic look on his face. He stopped short at the sight of the wolf, and swallowed.
"Don't show fear and he won't eat you," she advised jokingly. She smelled fear from the kid, but not as much as she would have thought. "Would you be ok if he rode in the back a short ways? I'll sit with him." Greenly looked at the wolf, and then nodded. "And why'd you walk over looking at me like that?"
"Well, we got another call, about something over at the Lake...the lou wants you to check it out before we get back to the station..." Llidya swore when he said that, and looked down at the pavement. "Yeah ok." She looked up at him, then to Zack. "Come on." She motioned for Zack to follow her, and they walked side by side, following Greenly to the car. She opened the back of the car and climbed in after the wolf. "Ok, first we need to stop by a Mickey D's, and then I have to make a phonecall."
Llidya ordered thirty quarter pounders and then pulled apart the burgers to feed the patties to the wolf. It wasn't fresh meat by any means, but it would have to do. Chapman gave directions to Greenly about where to go, and they made it to the warehouse just as the wolf finished off the meat. Llidya got out of the car and had the wolf follow, thanked Greenly for the ride and told him she'd be out by the like in the next thirty minutes.
They went inside, and she looked down at him as she turned on the lights. One of the breakers popped as it hadn't been used in so long, but other than that the place lit up smoothly. Llidya looked at the red wolf with sympathy, and crouched down.
"Sorry Zack, but this is really going to hurt." With those words, she reached out with her power and forced him to shift human. Ten minutes later she had a goop covered naken man on her floor. Llidya grabbed up a blanket and picked him up, dumping him on the bed. Llidya scribbled out a note and left it on the night stand, just in case she didn't make it back before eight hours. That done, she moved to her bike, much cleaner than the rest of the place, and put on her helmet and gloves. The motor started up and she rode out, activating the bluetooth and calling Ash about what was going on.
As Llidya turned her attention away from him, the wolf quietly slid up into a sitting position, but didn't dare go any further than that. This woman was clearly his superior, and she wanted him down for the moment. A low rumble that sounded like a growl eminated from him, but it was merely his stomach. Surely, the woman would pick one of these morsels for him to dig into. After all, that's what pack leaders did, right? Provide for those under them?
A wave of excitement and anticipation rolled over him at seeing Owen begin to go down, but it was quelled almost instantly at seeing her catch him and gently ease him to the ground. Feeling rather confused, the wolf tilted it's head to the side,as if asking her what the hell she was doing. Within moments, however, he was already looking between her and the detectives that had arrived on the scene, totally ignoring her response. With her still not giving permission to just eat something, he patiently contented himself with familiarizing himself with their scents, the one called Greenly in particular. His mouth dropped open in a toothy grin, one that might have been interpreted as more playful than threatening, though without her consent, it was up to the rookie to draw on its meaning.
Like a loyal dog to its master, the wolf sprang up and trotted alongside Llidya to the car, where he tried to make himself comfortable. Unable to lay out, he shoved his face against the window and scratched at it a bit, occasionally looking back to Llidya and giving her a pitiful whine. He felt rather confined in here, and it only felt right to at least get his head out of the window. The trip thankfully didn't take all that long, and soon his 'master' had a large bag of what smelled like microwaved dog food. The partial beef patties were, of course, better than nothing, and the pup rubbed his head along her arm in a gesture of thankfulness before gingerly taking it from her hand and chowing down.
Just as the last slab of meat disappeared into his maw, the car came to a stop once again with Llidya leading him out to god knows where. Still fixated on the smell on her hand, the wolf kept reaching up to lick at her fingers as they walked, not quite paying attention to where they were going. At least, until the lights kicked on, then he was spinning in circles, wagging his tail excitedly as he took in the new sights and smells. Oh boy, what were they gonna go do next?!?
Unfortunately, it wasn't something he wanted to do at all. The apology didn't mean all that much, as she didn't even give him the chance to reach up and lick her face before he was on the ground, howling out in pain like he'd just been shot. Gradually, the fur started to recede back into his skin, and his body, along with his screams, became more and more human-like. Finally, with the same violent explosion of goo as before, Zachary had come back to himself, laying naked in the fetal position on the floor. His vision blurred and his body wracked with pain, the pup looked up to see Llidya crouching over him, and he tried – rather pathetically – to reach up and say something to her. He'd never get the chance to spit it out, as his body and mind finally gave out and he went limp on the concrete, unconscious.
