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Saturday October 22nd, 2011

Moon Phase - Waning Crescent

The warmth in Alex's skin vanished at the sight, and his heartrate shot up too. He lowered himself into a stalking gait in turn, setting his shoes down softly with each step around the back, and then towards, the thief. Though Marcus noticed him, within a second he glanced down again, resuming taking handfuls of the trading card packs and handing them onto the counter.

_Motherfucker._Alex snarled to himself. Letting his gaze break for only a moment, he took the heaviest thing he could see into his hand; a book was a shit weapon, but one good smack to the head...

The thief then started reaching for the duffel bag on the counter, and knowing what that meant, Alex closed in. With no sound from himself, he swung the book with both hands, spine first, when he felt close enough. The 'thunk' it made was muffled by the hoodie's material, but the action rocketed his pulse even higher. As the thief stumbled and grabbed the counter, uttering a pained swear in turn, Alex tossed the book and focused on the gun, grabbing it by the top, near the trigger guard, and by the back, over the hammer.

The thought of biting the thief's arm to make him lose his grip crossed Alex's mind before he noticed him swing for his head and ducked. In turn, he yanked the weapon up and then left, hoping it would injure the thief's wrist or pull it free, only for him to take advantage of his hands being full and land a punch against his stomach.

Alex let out only an exhale at first, but then came another strike, this one to his head. The pain and sudden headache from the strike loosened his grip for a moment, and in turn, he thrust his left elbow back. It hit something, what he couldn't tell, before he wound up for another.

It was when the second attack hit that Alex heard the clink from the hammer striking the firing pin.

No boom of gunpowder was heard, something that should've been a relief all-around. Alex however snarled openly, took the weapon in his hand again, and this time, thrust his left arm in a circle to the right until what came next: the audible crunching of bone and tissue.

With the thief's first pained scream, Alex swung at him again, embowing his face and pushing him back a step. It was then he felt the thief's grip give, and the weapon changed hands. With a thrust of his body right after, Alex shoved him aside, forcing him to stumble and then lose his footing, giving him the time he needed to get the weapon into his grip and plant a shoe on the thief's face and neck.

"Motherfucker. Stay down!" Alex's breathing was ragged by that point, his snarling escaping his notice until he heard Marcus telling him to calm down, and that he was getting the police. Though Alex only glanced at him, the fear in his eyes quickly jabbed a spear of cold into his heart.

No fangs. No claws either. His heartrate wasn't slowing down though, and now he could smell blood; his fingers were stained red after one swipe of the area where he'd been punched in the face.

Then came the voices behind him: Trevor and the other players. Unwilling to turn around, Alex held his foot in place and ejected the pistol's magazine. The sole 'bullet' inside was an aluminum snap-cap round, and when the slide was drawn back, another was ejected onto the glass countertop. Something that did bring him some relief to see, although didn't wipe away his anger at what had just happened.

As the next minute inched by, Marcus remained on the phone with dispatch, detailing the scene, while Trevor tried to ease some words out of Alex, mostly in regard to wellness questions. "Yeah, son of a bitch didn't get me too bad." Alex said before increasing the weight behind his planted shoe.

"Marcus, keep close to him." Trevor then said, waiting until he was out from behind the counter and by Alex's side before heading for the office.

In turn, Marcus got as good a look as he could at Alex's face. "He's bleeding a bit, near the eyebrow...yes, he is...I can't tell. It sounded bad...will do. Thanks." His next words went towards his friend. "Got a cruiser and an ambulance incoming."

"Good." Alex then turned his stare towards the thief. He was still whimpering, and mostly massaging what was broken.

"You alright?"

Alex licked his teeth again; still no fangs. He nodded in turn.

By the time the police arrived, four in all between two cruisers, Trevor had returned with a baseball bat and taken up a spot near the door. Still keeping his attention and head downward, as Alex noticed the officers approach the door, he released his foot from the thief and stepped back; he'd handed the pistol and magazine to Marcus by then, leaving him to show that it wasn't loaded when they entered and saw him holding it.

It was when Alex looked fully up, readying to vouch for him, that his father came into view. Though his expression was mostly relief, the rest was general unease, a bit of which bled over into Alex.

"We'll take those." Said one of the officers before Marcus handed over the pistol and magazine.

As the officer looked the weapon over, Alex's father told him to secure it, and then turned his attention to his son. "He's alright, Mr. Stryker." Marcus said.

"And you?"

"Shaken, and kind of angry, but alright."

After Alex's father nodded, he glanced around at the scene. Alex though was more focused on the ambulance that had just pulled up, their flashing lights adding to the annoyance against his eyes; Shane's father wasn't among the duo that emerged from the ambulance, though he could already see him hearing word of this.

As the thief was assessed, Alex took the downtime to try and relax some more. Catching Marcus, Trevor and two of the other players in glances before he was loaded into the ambulance, there was an even split between looks of impression and those of concern, the latter coming from Marcus and Trevor. Returning the impressed looks of the players once the thief was carted outside, the three remaining police officers started picking out someone to ask questions about the incident.

"You first." Alex's father said to him, to which Marcus gave him a nod. After being escorted a short walk away, his father continued. "You okay?"

Alex exhaled before he spoke; he knew his father wouldn't buy a simple 'Yeah', and already he was starting to tremble. "Mostly."

"Take a minute and calm down if you need to." His father then placed a hand on his shoulder as Alex closed his eyes. "That cut needs looking at."

"It'll heal. Quick."

"Still, just sit through the basic part, son. Alright?"

Alex nodded, and as he reopened his eyes, spotted one of the EMTs coming his way, asking if he was ready to be examined. Though tempted to ask how much damage he'd done to the thief's wrist, he kept quiet as the EMT did his job. "Looks like the bleeding already stopped." He said after dabbing the cut. "Hmm...doesn't look like it'll need any stiches. I'd say you're good, all things considered."

"Just what I wanted to hear." Alex said with a weak smile.

"What about your chest? Any pain? Discomfort?"

Alex felt the spot where he'd been punched. "No."

"Then, just keep that cut clean and you should be fine."

"Will do. Thanks."

Alex gave the EMT a fist-bump before he started heading back to the ambulance, after which his father resumed speaking, going through the range of questions typical of an attempted robbery, each part noted in his notebook. Aside from one: "Did you notice anything change?"

Alex was certain his eyes had, but that was ignorable. After he shook his head, his father followed up with "Good. Can't tell you how glad I am that you didn't get shot or end up changing in here."

Though unwilling to argue, Alex refused to think his decision to help his friend, however violent it turned out, was anything besides just. Sneaking a look in Marcus' direction, he was paying more attention to the officer speaking to him. Trevor was doing the same, with the duffle bag's contents emptied out onto the counter, likely for photographing and logging by the police.

"So, now what?" Alex said after a bit.

"That's up to your boss. Otherwise, it's better that we not leave your mother out of the loop about this."

Alex silently accepted, and until the police left half an hour later, he was left wondering and fearing what his boss would now see in him; as he and Marcus replaced the near-stolen trading cards and bills a while later, he kept sneaking glances at Trevor, watching for hints of unease.

As it happened, his boss didn't approach him until he was about to clock out. Alex saw no hints of unease in his expression, nor heard any within the first few words his boss said to him, which boiled down to if he needed to leave right away. "Good." Trevor said after Alex replied that he didn't. "Just wanted to thank you for stopping that thief."

"Oh..." Alex stumbled on his words for a moment, tossing a few replies aside before settling on "No problem. Never thought I'd see that here."

"It's happened before, years ago. That aside, I overheard the EMT give you a clean bill of health before; just in case, are you certain everything's fine?"

"Yeah, just..." Alex pointed to his left eyebrow.

"I can relate. Anyway, good to know. I'll see you on Monday."

"You too, boss."

Back at home, the good vibes that had built from Trevor's short talk with him served as fresh mental armor when his mother was given the news. Shock and overwhelming gratitude soon pushed her into giving Alex a lengthy hug, her fear scent flooding his nostrils in turn.

"That was very brave of you son, but you should've considered the chance that you might have been hurt much worse." His father said as his mother kept hugging him.

Figuring his father was implying what might have happened if the pistol had live rounds, for some reason, Shane's words snuck back into his head. About the blood on his skin and why he'd been bitten. It took a few more seconds for a chill to pierce his skin. If he had been shot... Damnit, no. Nothing happened and the EMT was wearing gloves. After his mother stopped hugging him and dinner was over, Alex settled back into his room to game for a while. Nothing really bad had happened. He had no reason to focus on the negatives.

Sunday October 23rd, 2011

Moon Phase - Waning Crescent

The next day, after looking and sniffing around the wooded area across the street, Alex eased Bailey south into the neighborhood. A walk to, and then back from, Nathan's house felt long enough for the day, even with the dipping temperatures contrasting the exposed sunlight.

Once there, Alex readied Bailey's portable drinking bowl and rubbed his head as he lapped the water from it. With the direction of the breezes, he couldn't smell Ginger or anything else from his friend's house, but on the way back, after branching off from the route he initially followed, he noticed what he was certain was Shane's scent. Figuring he was waiting for a reason to approach the house, and him, Alex reversed course, taking his original route north.

As he took his first steps in the grass leading up to the bundle of trees, Shane emerged from behind the left line of fences and gestured for him to come, moving further back into the area afterward. Once he'd stopped and Alex was close enough, Shane began with: "So, what did your parents think?"

"Of?"

"The offer my dad made you. What else?"

"Haven't told them yet."

"Or that you met us, I bet."

"No. They think I gave your dad a 'Thank You' note."

"You kinda did by visiting. You're not something we need to worry about anymore."

"Then what was that fuss about me being 'dependent' about?" Shane didn't immediately answer; Alex refrained from the first remark he wanted to make, as well as the second, and the third.

"If for some reason they don't like the idea, say something like my dad insists or something."

"No, I'll just tell them the truth."

"Suit yourself, but if that doesn't work, just come anyway." Shane then turned his attention to Bailey, urging Alex to rub his head. "While I'm here," he said after some silence, "who saw you attack that thief?"

Figures."Marcus...and my boss. Why?"

"Just curious."

"Nothing visibly changed."

"Then you dealt with whoever that was quickly enough, or you knew you had the advantage. Either way, be thankful."

Alex refrained from saying that he was, even though what concerns he had in relation to the incident were minute at best.