Oreo, Oreo, Were-fore Art Thou Oreo (Save the Day Fanfic)
This is my first fan-fiction story, based on Zia McCorgi's Save the Day, which you can find here: http://www.furrag.com/viewuser.php?uid=442.
If you haven't read his stories, read them first. Then buy the book.
Oreo, Oreo, Were-fore Art Thou, Oreo?
Ted Rodriguez (AKA, Star Coyote, superhero of Portland, Oregon and the entire Pacific Northwest; mild-mannered meteorologist with the NOAA; and my adorable, snuffly boyfriend), hobbled in the door at half-past-midnight, his bright yellow and blue superhero costume clearly visible through the bloody gaping rips in his civilian clothing. He leaned against the doorframe drunkenly, and he left a crimson smudge on the white paint as he wearily pulled the door closed behind him.
I had been lounging on the couch, waiting for him to get home, with a small glass of sherry in paw. It was hard to tell when he'd be back, since he often had to make up hours at work due to his superheroing, and the heroics themselves often crept up unannounced. The jazz station I sometimes listened to kept me up to date with his more blatant exploits, and the CB radio I'd pulled from the mothballs helped me stay current with what the police knew.
The sherry nearly dropped to the floor when I saw the blood. "Oh my god, Snuffles!" I cried as I leapt to my feet, my black and white border collie ears stiff with shock, "What happened to you!"
Ted's bigger coyote ears flicked my way, and I saw the deep scratches that ran up his face and over those ears, barely missing an eye. He stumbled and nearly fell, but I was close enough to catch him before he could face-plant into the coffee table.
"D-Dr. Xerxes..." His speech was slurred. He didn't smell drunk; he was either drugged or anemic from blood-loss, though there wasn't quite enough blood on him for me to think it was the latter. "Hired bounty hunter... He shot me... Tranq dart... His experiments tried to eat me."
"But you're in your work clothes! How did he--" A chill ran down my spine. "Oh my god, did he figure out your secret identity? Do we need to go to ground?" My paw darted in my pocket to pull out my communicator, a beeper with too many buttons I'd gotten when I received Alpha-level security clearance and became an honorary member of Ted's superhero league, The Extraordinaries.
Ted reached out weakly and put his paw on mine on the communicator, and shook his head. "No, Jay. I...I destroyed the device the hunter used...to control the beasts, and they...they ate him before I-- He didn't tell Xerxes before he-- Oh, Oreo, it was horrible..." I hugged him against me and nuzzled his ears as he relived the horror of watching someone being eaten alive, trying to comfort him as best I could. It had to have been really, really bad, considering how he took some things in stride that would've given me nightmares. He was resilient, but even he had his limits.
I pulled him to the couch and sat him down (on an old blanket; blood was near-impossible to get out of suede), and comforted him as I surreptitiously checked the cuts and scratches made by claws and fangs. Nothing too severe that I could see, thank goodness.
"It'll be okay, Snuffles." And it would be, eventually. But for now, I held him as he cried silent tears, and I was so grateful, both that it hadn't been my wonderful, heroic Ted that was dead, and for knowing the secret of Star Coyote's real identity so I could comfort him at times like this. He may have been super fast and super strong, but he also had one of the biggest hearts of anyone I knew, and some of the things he saw while fighting crime wounded him a lot more than he would admit.
I had to be strong for my superhero coyote. He saved the world (or at least, our part of it) on an almost daily basis, so the least I could do was save his once in awhile.
"I don't think it's...going to be okay, Jay," Ted said, his voice still sluggish from the tranquilizers and thick with something else; it sounded like dread. "Those experiments were ly...lycanthropes. Were-creatures, Jay. They used to be people. Lions and tigers and--"
"--bears?" I supplied automatically.
"No, no bears... Saw a wolf, though, and big rats, and...and a bunch of other things..." He looked into my eyes and I saw fear there. "I got bit, Jay... One of them bit me...and I don't feel so good."
It took a moment for the idea to penetrate. "You mean, you think you might catch it?"
"Maybe... Probably... I don't know how long I--" Suddenly he doubled-over as the clouds outside parted and moonlight, moonlight from a full moon, streamed through the living room window. He curled around his stomach and gave a pained groan. "Augh! Oreo, I think it's--" He crumpled to the floor, still clutching his abdomen and whimpering. I don't think he was aware of anything in the room anymore, including me.
What was worse, it looked like something was crawling around under his skin.
My stomach dropped through the floor. Oh, No! No, no no! This wasn't happening! My boyfriend couldn't be...
...But he was. He lay on the floor, skin writhing. Something was trying to get out, and I was the only person he had, though I was just a normal run-of-the-mill gay border collie.
I couldn't just sit and watch while my snuffly coyote went through some horrible transformation, though; I had to do something!
The communicator was still clutched in my paw, so I flipped it open and hit the emergency button to contact the Bunker Base. "Yes, Alpha Thirteen? What is the problem?" It was Sam, otherwise known as the brilliant tactician and superhero Stratagem. The stocky badger was on monitoring duty tonight. He always seemed to be on monitoring duty.
"Stratagem! Te...err...Star Coyote is in trouble! He got attacked by some of Dr. Xerxes' monsters, I don't know if they escaped or what, but now he's on the floor, and he looks like he's in a lot of pain! He said they were lycanthropes, were-wolves and rats and...!"
Sam's voice was warm and reassuring. "Take a deep breath, Thirteen. Please calm down. I'm sending some assistance to you. Where is your exact location, and what is Star Coyote's condition?"
I took a deep breath, trying my best to stop my heart from beating its way out of my furry chest. "We're at my place, in the living room, right in front of the couch." Using the teleporter was far from accurate, but he had the layout of the house on-paw, and he could take care of the rest.
"Star Coyote is scratched up, but he's not bleeding too much. He was hit by some tranquilizer darts, and is weak and mildly disoriented, and like I said, he's on the floor and seems to be in a lot of pain. There's something crawling around under his skin. It's really serious, I think. Please hurry, Stratagem."
"Yes, Thirteen. Don't worry; the Wiccan Wolverine has been apprised of the situation and is getting ready for transport. Please stand by." Madame Wiccan was one of the Extraordinaries' newer, less well-known members, a quiet woman who used her magical abilities to heal rather than harm, though she was downright scary when angered. I'd only met her a couple of times since she joined, but she had a comforting presence, and we'd taken a liking to each other immediately.
I knelt next to Ted's twitching body, scared that he'd change into some monstrous animal before my eyes and eat me, but I couldn't move away. I loved him far too much to abandon him when he needed me, even a little. I rubbed his cheek-ruff softly, and the eye I could see fluttered faintly. "C'mon, Ted. Stay with me. Help is coming, Snuffles, I promise."
That was the moment when I saw a flash of golden-yellow light out of the corner of my eye, and then a short, squat wolverine dressed in blacks and whites and greens, and with a three-quarters face mask in swirls of the same colors (leaving only the lower-left of her face bare) teleported into the room. She'd told me once that she used a spell to ground the teleporter's static-charge that always seemed to make my fur go haywire, so hers wasn't mussed at all.
Her presence was immediately soothing, and I calmed down. I didn't know if it was magic she used, or if her force of personality was that strong, but I felt better right away.
She hurried over to us, and her eyes radiated a faint greenish glow as she knelt next to Ted on the side opposite me. Her voice had a low, motherly-tone that reminded me of hot cocoa on a winter's morning, rich and genuinely sweet. Her paw touched mine. "Calm, child. I am going to delve into him, to ascertain what we are dealing with. Please hold still, and say nothing."
I nodded.
The glow spread to Ted as she moved her paw from mine and reached down to touch his forehead. I felt my fur vibrate as the glow secreted a low hum, and the soft chant she muttered slid between my ears, but didn't stick; no matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn't remember any of the words. Well, it was magic after all. Maybe magic words were like Teflon, and couldn't stick to just anything.
A moment later she jerked back with a gasp. I couldn't see the expression on her face, but the set of her shoulders conveyed worry. "Oh, this is not good. Not good at all." She was breathing hard, and held the paw she'd touched him with, as if she'd burned it.
Fear punched through the aura of reserved calm. "What! What is it!"
"He is in the middle of becoming loup-garou. A were-beast. It cannot be stopped once it has begun. We will lose him, but at least we may ease the pain of his metamorphosis."
I gulped nervously. "When you say 'lose,' do you mean...?"
Her voice was terribly sad as she put a tender paw to the side of my face. "He will not die, but his mind and body will not be his own. Whatever Dr. Xerxes has done results in a permanent perversion of all aspects of a person into whatever animal has bitten him. I am sorry, child, but it is not something I can prevent now. Star Coyote is lost."
"Are...are you sure?" My heart was in my throat. I couldn't be hearing what I thought I was hearing. My Ted couldn't be leaving me. "Maybe you're wrong. Isn't there anything you can do? Anything we can do? I'll do anything, so long as you can fix this." I was begging, pleading. I couldn't lose him; I just couldn't.
She shook her head and touched my face again. I wished I could see her expression, but her voice was mollifying and filled with sorrow. "No, child. I cannot do such a thing. All I can do is to ease his pain, but to truly ease his passing, you must assist."
I hung my head. She was among the best, most knowledgeable healers in the world. If she said it couldn't be done, then I had to trust her.
As much as I wanted to, I didn't burst into sobs, but the world turned watery anyway. Ted needed me in his last moments, and I had to say goodbye to my Star Snuffles. I couldn't do that if I broke down now. "Tell me what to do, Madame Wiccan, to give my Star Coyote, my Ted, his last few moments free of pain. If that's all I can do, that's what I will do."
"You are a good and brave and kind man, Jay Carson. Star Coyote is lucky to have such a lover as you." She waved a paw, and a faint green glow solidified into a leather handbag, which she opened and began rifling through. A few bottles full of liquids and pastes and powders were quickly pulled out and laid in a row on the floor.
The first two were sprinkled generously onto Ted, from head to foot. "Powdered wolf's bane, mixed with salt," she explained as she worked. "It will draw the transformation out for a bit, giving us time."
A thick paste, which was applied to his nose, lips, on his eyelids, and several other key points on his face and head. "Distillation of agavé, which will calm the turmoil in his mind." His twitching muscles stilled.
She directed me to hold Ted's mouth open, while she poured a cup of greenish liquid into it, forcing him to swallow. "Absinth, mixed with willow sap and powdered jade, to ease the pain of the body and heal his wounds." I watched as a flash of green raced along all of the cuts I could see. There were still lines of red left (since the healing wouldn't pull his blood back in), but the wounds were healed. The ones on the outside, anyway.
And finally, she pulled a dagger covered in runes from the bag, and coated the blade in a fine yellow powder that she mixed with another clear liquid. She took the blade and made a small, clean cut on each of Ted's inner forearms; she began chanting in a language that somehow felt ancient, though I didn't retain a single word. "Skullcap pollen and the purest of water on a silver blade, to give us momentary control over the beast that comes. You need not fear him, for now."
She laid a paw on my arm. "Now, Jay Carson, it is your turn. I have done what I can to ease his body and his mind. You must make peace with his soul. Tell him what you will. Tell him goodbye. He will hear you."
The tears overflowed as I reached out to hold Ted's paw in mine. "Ted, I...I love you. I know I say it all the time, but it's not just words. I mean it; now, forever, and always.
"Over the last five years, I've learned what it means to have someone that means the world to me, to have a friend and a lover that means more than life itself. You're my soulmate, and what I feel for you makes the word 'love' seem so...plain. So dreary. So petty. It's not enough to say it; there just aren't enough words.
"I know you feel that your being Star Coyote somehow ruined my hopes and dreams, even though we talked about it and I told you it didn't. But it's true; you're my hopes, Ted. You're my dreams. You've shown me what it means to be truly happy, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. 'Star Coyote' is just a name for that spark of nobility you hold in your heart. 'Star Coyote' is who you are, and I wouldn't love you nearly so much if he weren't, because then you wouldn't be you.
"You wouldn't have shown me what it means to really be a hero.
"And you really are a hero, you know. You try to play it off as something that you have to do, that it's nothing special, but it is special. You're the strongest, most pure-hearted person I've ever met. You've lived your life with more honor, given more to the world, than any fifty ordinary men, and you should be proud of that. Not everyone has the guts, the decency, to lay their life and happiness on the line for the happiness and well-being of others, and I can only dream of living up to your kindness, and being worthy of your love."
I leaned down and wrapped my coyote in an embrace, hugging him tightly, with my eyes closed. "If this is goodbye, my love, then I hope we can be together again someday in Heaven. If there is a kind god somewhere -- anywhere -- then I know we will be.
"I love you, Snuffles...more than you'll ever know."
The fur, the skin, the muscles, and the bones softened and reshaped themselves under me, and I didn't dare look as I heard the tearing of cloth as his clothes split apart. I held him to me, remembering everything we had, thinking of the life we'd made together, and I cried.
I felt two strong, furry arms wrap themselves around me, and it took me a moment to realize that they didn't come from behind, that they weren't from the wolverine woman, or from someone else in the room, but that they were Ted's arms...or what-used-to-be-Ted's arms. I froze, half in fear, too scared to hope in case I was wrong.
"I love you too, Oreo," came the whispered reply, with a nuzzle of a muzzle into my ear.
"Wh-what?" I was in shock, and couldn't believe my ears. I still didn't dare to open my eyes, in case it was a dream.
"I said, 'I love you too, Oreo'." This time it came in a normal voice. Ted's voice. I opened my eyes to see my boyfriend at point-blank range. He was half-naked, with everything but his blue spandex pants hanging off him in shreds. Kinda like Lou Ferretno as the Incredible Hulk, really. He...bulged...more than I was used to, which was quite...distracting.
His fur was longer and thicker, and he seemed to have grown about six inches, but it was him, all right, even though he did look kind of strange -- wild -- like he had gone feral or something. Hell, he looked even more muscley, and sexier than before, if that was possible.
It was still him, though; I'd notice those eyes and ears and that smile anywhere.
"B-but...the Wiccan Wolverine said you were gone! What happened? Um...Not that I'm complaining, of course."
He shook his head, but gave me a squeeze. "I dunno, Jay. At first it burned really badly, then the pain went away, and then it felt like I was melting, and I woke up. I could hear everything you said though, Oreo, and you're wrong about one thing, at least. If anything, I'm the one that's unworthy of your love, if that's how you feel. I don't know what I did to deserve a man like you."
I started to protest, but then he kissed me, and I kind of forgot everything else for a minute.
"Ahem."
Oh, right. I'd forgotten about Madame Wiccan, too. I saw Ted's ears blush, and felt my whole body do the same. Oops.
"Well, that was touching, and I do not wish to interrupt, but I would like to find out just what happened, if you two do not mind. Then I shall leave you to your...festivities." She grinned. It somehow managed to be cheerful, and mischievous, horribly knowing, and wonderfully uncouth, all at the same time. It was quite a feat for someone with only a little face exposed.
We separated, but he kept his paw in mine. Ted let her touch him as she did before, but this time the glow encompassed me as well. A minute later, she calmly pulled away.
"That is interesting."
"What?" Ted and I said, simultaneously. We grinned at each other. His fangs were...massive. I was surprised that he didn't lacerate me when we kissed.
"It seems as though Star Coyote is, indeed loup-garou, but he is truly fortunate, as he seems to have been bitten by a were-coyote, and one that was, perhaps, not so much in Xerxes' thrall." She indicated Ted's new and, possibly, improved version with a wave of her hand. "He shall become as this beneath every full-moon, but it is not nearly as bad as I had feared."
"A coyote were-coyote? Is that even possible?" I asked.
"Apparently. I also do not believe you need to worry about him going berserk, either, as he is in full control of his own faculties. A coyote becoming a coyote is still a coyote, after all."
A wicked glint in her eye ensued as she said, "Although from what I felt when I delved into him, he may well go on a rampage once I leave. I would run were I you, Jay Carson. Run quickly. You may wish to flee to the bedroom; it will not save you, but it will save time." She winked.
And with that, she spoke a clipped syllable in some eldritch tongue and disappeared in a flash of green.
I looked at Ted.
He looked at me.
He growled hungrily.
And I ran.
Story and the Wiccan Wolverine © Lycanthromancer
All other characters, including Jay Carson and Ted Rodriguez © Zia McCorgi
10/28/2010