Chapter 27: A Bestial Fury

 

Warnings for violence and gore. With the people involved you shouldn't expect anything else.

 

Her appearance caught the soldiers completely unprepared.

There were no intrusion alarms, no perimeter breach alerts. No sensors indicated anything, not even those based on magical arts designed to detect intrusions from other dimensions. There was nothing they could do.

A sphere of shadows materialized in the center of the hangar area, attracting the attention of a handful of soldiers. They were the first to see the humanoid figure that emerged from it.
They were the first to die as it leapt upon them in the blink of an eye, outstretched claws slitting their throats with astonishing ease.

Panic soon set in. At some point someone managed to trigger a general alert, sealing off the base's access to the refugee population area. Armed, the soldiers and agents of the Nevermore Society proceeded to counterattack. The hangar became a small battlefield, with soldiers firing at the intruder, who moved among them like a knife through butter, leaving trails of blood and mutilated bodies in her wake.

This was the scene Yoko encountered, being the first to arrive. The vampire entered the hangar, semi-incorporeal, transformed into a cloud of shadows and bats. This gave her a valuable moment to observe the enemy more clearly.

It was a woman, completely naked. A lycanthrope in what looked like a painful state of partial transformation. Her face presented a deformed muzzle, one of her arms was abnormally larger than the other, and the same was true of one of her legs, giving her whole figure an asymmetry that was uncomfortable to observe. Lumps of musculature were constantly moving all over her body, as if the transformation wanted to be completed but could not. Sprouts of fur appeared and disappeared sporadically on different parts of her torso and limbs, tearing at the skin. A cloud of a black, strangely liquid-looking substance despite behaving like a gas enveloped her, embracing her body like a shroud. It seemed as if her body was bathed in flames made of shadows.

It took a few seconds, but Yoko recognized her.

Don't tell me that... No, it can't be her, she thought.

Before the vampire could do anything else, a group of soldiers opened fire again on the intruder. Yoko could see that they were all firing silver nitrate ammunition, but the wounds didn't seem to take effect. The silver wounded and burned the werewolf, causing her to emit inhuman screams, but her wounds healed extremely fast in a way that was impossible for a normal lycanthrope. Occasionally the shroud of shadows covered her, blocking the hits.

And then, the intruder arched her back backwards and howled.

It was not a normal howl. Something that could only be described as a kind of sonic shockwave emerged around the intruder, expanding around her and damaging vehicles and infrastructure, throwing soldiers to the ground and striking Yoko. The vampire felt as if an invisible wall hit her and she became corporeal as she fell to the ground. The moment her back touched the cold concrete of the hangar's surface, the intruder focused her attention on her. Yoko watched as the creature leapt in her direction, almost hovering, propelled by the mass of darkness that enveloped her.
Only succeeding in crashing in midair against a conjured magical shield of reddish energy that suddenly appeared in front of her.

Yoko sat up without looking back, sensing Agent A's comforting presence at her back.

"Thanks wifey," she said.

"No need to give them," the Agent replied. Her outstretched hands still glowed with the crimson aura of the magic used. She frowned as she watched the intruder rise again, "That's…"

"Fuck me! Granny Bitch!?" an incredulous voice exclaimed behind them. They turned for a moment to look at the group of interdimensional visitors who had just arrived. Dora was the one who had uttered that exclamation, pointing at the intruder with an expression of incredulous fury. Beside her, Enid had her eyes fixed on the attacker, her face pale and paralyzed in a grimace of dismay.

"...Esther?" she muttered.

For a millisecond something desperate seemed to gleam in the eyes of the mutated Esther Sinclair as she looked at Enid and Saint-Clair. Wednesday noticed it, as did her counterparts. But that gleam of recognition disappeared as quickly as it had manifested itself. In the end, Esther Sinclair merely snarled like a rabid animal at the newcomers.

That, combined with years of past trauma and a cathartic desire for accountability, inflamed one of those present.

"Yeah? Well, fuck you too!" exclaimed Saint-Clair. The werecat took off her shirt and pants remaining only in her underwear for a few seconds before her entire body was covered in striped brown fur. Newly transformed she threw herself against Esther.

"Uuh... Shouldn't we think of a strategy?" asked Yoko.

"We attack. All hands on deck. As soon as you see an opportunity or a gap to attack, neutralize or subdue, go for it," replied Agent A. after that she turned to the soldiers, "Covering fire and suppression only! We'll take over!"

Saint-Clair had thrown herself at Esther like a ball of furry rage and sharp fangs. Her claws flashed through the air slashing the lycanthrope's flesh and splattering her blood, spraying the ground around her. Esther responded, grabbing one of Saint-Clair's arms in one of her thrusts and pulling her up, lifting her into the air before throwing her back down to the ground, cracking the concrete with the impact, and then fully intending to leap at the fallen werecat and sink her fangs into her jugular.

But she was unable to do so when a combination of knives, crossbow bolts and an electric shock hit her at the same time, scarring her back. Pup, Woe and Theo couldn't go toe-to-toe against that monstrosity, but they could damage her from a distance.

Esther turned in the direction where those attacks came from, ready to retaliate, but the mutated she-wolf's face was struck head on by the claws of an enraged Hyde.

"That's it Tay! Play wrestling with that lady!" exclaimed Pup.

The transformed Taylor Galpin laughed at her mistress' words, a cavernous, gravelly laugh, as she skewered Esther Sinclair's torso with her claws, lifting her over her head with a triumphant roar before flinging her through the air in the direction of where another combatant waited. Pandora Enid Addams could not transform without a full moon, but the young lycanthrope had enough strength to deliver a heavy blow to her hated grandmother's variant as it flew at her like a bloody mess. Esther Sinclair felt Dora's fist strike full in her deformed face and a handful of fangs went flying from her mouth, leaving behind a fragmented jaw.

The mutated lycanthrope stood up. The mass of shadows that enveloped her expanded into shadowy, disembodied arms that lifted her off the ground. To what extent this was an instinctive act, a sign of control on Esther's part or an indication that these shadows had a mind of their own was impossible to determine. What all present were able to observe was how once again the intruder's wounds healed with an unnatural speed even for werewolves. Saint-Clair, Taylor and Dora jumped back at her just as a mist of reddish magic conjured by Agent A exploded before Esther's eyes like a grenade, blinding her.

The beast responded with another howl accompanied by a sonic wave that stopped the trio of attackers in their tracks, but this time the attack had been directed head-on. That left her back totally unprotected as Wednesday Addams leapt onto her shoulders, hoisting a saber from God knows where and thrusting it into the trapezius muscle between her neck and shoulder.

Esther winced in pain. Wednesday noticed that the mass of shadows enveloping her was beginning to concentrate on the area of the body she was standing on. The Addams jumped backward with a somersault through the air, narrowly dodging the cluster of needle-sharp barbs that the shadows enveloping Esther Sinclair suddenly formed on her back, like a spiked armor. If Wednesday had not jumped she would have been impaled.

The Addams fell to the ground rolling over herself to minimize the impact and to be able to get up as quickly as possible. She realized that her boots, which had been sunk in the mass of shadows that covered the enemy, were soaked with traces of a goo-like grayish ectoplasm. Those shadows were of the same nature as the Shadow Hyde.

Her saber had been sunk into the flesh of Esther Sinclair, who ripped it from her body unceremoniously and threw it to the ground without further attention. The mutated she-wolf's face and skull had become fully lupine, even though her body still fluctuated with human proportions. The result was a figure even more grotesque than before that was forced to walk hunched over. That didn't stop her from lunging toward Wednesday again.

She tried, at least.

For she had barely taken a step when a mass of muscle and golden fur rammed Esther full on, knocking her to the ground. Above her, holding her immobilized with sheer brute force, a transformed Enid Sinclair roared angrily in the face of her mother's variant.

Observing the scene, Yoko couldn't help a hiss of surprise as she spoke to Wednesday, "Correct me in case I'm hallucinating, but your Enid just transformed without a full moon…"

"Enid is the custos lupus of her generation," Wednesday explained, with a gesture of assent.

As soon as those words left the young Addams' mouth, Agent A turned her neck as if startled, focusing her full attention on Wednesday, "The custos lupus? The Guardian Wolf?"

Wednesday frowned slightly, there was something in Agent A's tone that put her on guard, "Indeed. From what little we could find out a lycanthrope is born every few generations who is not subject to the phases of the moon…"

"No, that part I already know," Agent A interrupted, "But it seems your texts are incomplete. The custos lupus is much more. In the entire multiverse…"

The conversation was interrupted when a howl of pain flooded the area, drawing their attention. The mass of shadows enveloping Esther had repeated its strategy from before and generated multiple barbs, or spears, that had pierced Enid's torso at multiple points though fortunately without hitting any vital spots.

"Enid!" exclaimed Wednesday, rushing towards her, ready to pick up her saber from the ground and drive it straight into Esther Sinclair's skull.

But Enid was quicker. Despite the pain and multiple wounds, the she-wolf struck Esther so hard that the mutated lycanthrope was thrown yards away, bouncing off one of the hangar's armored vehicles before falling to the ground, leaving a trail of blood behind her courtesy of the new claw marks on her face. The mass of shadows that enveloped her went with her, tearing away from the fragments still stuck in Enid, which began to dissolve.

Without pause, Enid ran back towards the fallen Esther, who lay face down on the floor. The shadows still enveloped her like a deathly black flame, but the lupine malformations seemed to have subsided again. She sat up slightly, turning her head to look at Enid with a face that had regained human features. Again, a faint gleam of recognition flashed in her eyes for a fragment of a second.

And Esther Sinclair spoke.

"...Daugh...ter?"

That word seemed to ignite something in Enid. The lycanthrope threw herself at Esther again and began to strike at her. Not with her claws but with her clenched fist. Normally, Enid would have displayed more self-control, but the combination of having a variant of her mother attacking them, the transformation and the pain of her wounds had been ingredients that sapped her rationality, letting a bestial fury wash over her.

So Enid struck Esther Sinclair's head with her giant lupine fist, again, and again, and again. And as she did so…

"YOU HAVE!”

Punch.

“NO RIGHT!”

Punch.

“TO CALL ME!”

Punch.

“DAUGHTER!"

She continued, until the crunch of bone gave way to a wet sound and a delicate hand accompanied by a familiar scent rested on her shoulder. Enid paused, her raised fist bathed in the red of blood. Beneath her rested the limp body of the mutated variant of Esther Sinclair with her skull completely shattered, turned into a mass of flesh, bone and scattered brains.

The other combatants approached the scene. Saint-Clair and Taylor in particular looked equal parts shocked and disappointed in their beastly forms. They would have liked the combat to last longer.

Enid stood up, separating herself from the corpse and letting her senses cling to Wednesday's calming presence.

"Weds...," she said, "I…"

"Enid," replied the Addams.

"I don't know what came over me, it was as if everything I had repressed regarding her suddenly…"

"Enid!"

The lycanthrope fell silent at the sound of her name being exclaimed by Wednesday in such a manner. She looked down at her beloved, who was watching her with an expression of equal parts awed admiration and restrained lust, not even bothering to disguise the smile that peeked over her lips.

"Weds? What...?"

"Enid, you are talking."

"Uh... yeah, it's something I usually do, Wednesday. You used to love to complain about it."

"Enid," Wednesday repeated, giving a slight shake of her head partly in disbelief, "You're talking despite being completely transformed."

Enid felt as if someone had pressed a pause button. After a moment, the lycanthrope looked at her hands. Claws, fur, large size... Then she felt her face. Lupine, with a snout. And of course, noticing her still enormous height and frame. It wasn't a partial transformation, Enid was in her full werewolf form, where human vocalization should be an impossibility. And yet…

"What the fuck...?" she mumbled.

"Okay. This is new," Dora interjected, exchanging a glance with her brother. Theo nodded, watching Enid in awe.

"Certainly," replied an unfamiliar voice.

With a start, they all turned around. The sound had come from Esther Sinclair's corpse. But the voice was not hers. There was something... wrong, artificial, distorted in that voice.

The mass of shadows enveloped Esther's body, lifting her off the ground and making her kneel on the floor. Everyone stood on guard, but the corpse did not seem to move from that position. With an unpleasant sound, the shattered skull began to reform. Her mouth opened and the entire mass of darkness was pushed inside, widening the throat grotesquely for a few moments until it was completely absorbed, leaving behind a naked Esther Sinclair, seemingly unharmed and with no apparent mutations or forced transformations.

Until she opened her eyes and they were two pits of infinite darkness staring into nothingness. A hideous grimace that could have passed for a smile formed on her face and she spoke again in that strange voice that was clearly someone else's.

"It was a magnificent spectacle. Sublime!"

"The puppeteer pulling the strings, I presume," said Wednesday.

Esther's body, reanimated by the shadows, convulsed. A gurgling whimpering sound came from her throat in what was obviously an attempt at laughter.

"Ah, my apologies. It's complicated to control physiological functions for communication accurately. That was supposed to be friendly laughter and not retching, but I think you've hurt my Hound more than you should have," the voice said.

"Who are you?" asked Wednesday, with barely contained fury.

The presence possessing the body of the deceased variant of Esther Sinclair smiled again, "Ah, direct and to the point. No masks of social pretense, relentless and totally confident that you will be given an answer because you feel it is what you are owed."

This time Wednesday had to fight the urge to take a step back and the nauseous feeling that came over her. That smile... the tone of voice...

It was unnerving, the almost sick levels of love she could feel in them. Especially when the intruder spoke again.

"I've always adored that part of you."