The streets of New York were teeming with people, but this wasn't exactly different from normal. The streets were always practically bursting with people. It was a chilly winter evening and everyone in the city was bundled up, ready for what seemed to be a long winter’s nap.

It had been a little while since the video of the winged mutant getting the stuffing beaten out of her was put on the internet, and already the city was filled with unrest. There were always talks about police brutality and even the corruption of the NYC Cops, but now that there was a confirmation a lot more people were picking their sides a lot quicker than any of the respected “factions” of the city could expect.

However, despite how long it had been circulating on the internet, not everyone had seen the video just yet. Not everyone knew about the horrors that the young mutant suffered through, even if they were connected to the girl personally. Emerald Lupin was one of these individuals, having been out of town for the majority of this buzz.

She had been on a brief fishing trip with a few buddies of hers when these events occurred and since she didn't use the internet all that often, she didn't keep up with viral videos. In fact, Emerald tended to stay away from media in general, feeling it took too much away from the real world.

Speaking of the real world, at the moment, it was the full moon, which of course meant werewolf Emerald should be out in the forest rather than wandering the streets of NYC. However, due to a stream of convoluted events she did not have her normal route to the forest and every single taxi cab in New York did not seem to want to pick up someone dressed in a black hoody. It certainly didn't help when the clouds started to cover the sky and started a downpour. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Emerald, since she couldn't catch a cab, at least the rain obscured her appearance somewhat.

The hoodie certainly helped.

As she pushed past the crowded streets, she just happened to barrel right past an electronic store which was playing the latest newscasts. It was one of those stores that had the sound of what they were playing outside in order for the people to see what amazing sound quality they had. They were everywhere in this part of New York, the more shady park where everyone wanted to get things for a cheap buck no mater where they came from. It appeared that the newscast was replaying the viral video and was talking about its significance without its sound. Normally, this wouldn’t cause Emerald to bat an eye, but the sudden screams from the now unmuted video caused the wolf woman to stop.

”Gina?” Emerald growled, her voice hoarse and raspy. The hooded female pushed past the people and went over to where she heard the screams. The newscasters were talking again but were still playing the video in the background. It didn’t take much, however, for the pained alpha female to see exactly who it was on that camera. That, coupled with the screams from earlier, just confirmed her fears.

It was if the world had been sucked out from underneath Emerald. Everything was just quiet all around her. Her memories - so clear - of when she told that young girl about being the Alpha and making a silent vow about protecting her, as she did with all of those that were her pack mates. Problem was, right now, I wasn’t just Emerald the wolf woman looking at this event, it was Emerald the beast. On the full moon, her thoughts were considerably more feral, as well as her actions. She often found herself doing or saying things that she wouldn’t normally say or do and at the moment, the beast howled for blood.

"They hurt pack. They hurt pack mate. Hunt. Kill. No one hurts the pack!" Her mind howled, which caused Emerald to grit her teeth together.

A lot of times Emerald's wolf thoughts and her normal thoughts agreed with one another, things like family values and how everyone that she became close to was part of the pack. She wanted to go after these fools, but it might have been best to wait and see how the dumb court systems took care of this problem. There was nothing she could do right now. That said,she felt as if she had failed as a pack mate, as an Alpha to let something like that happen to Gina.

"Am I so blind? How the hell could I have not noticed she had been going out at night again? Of course it’s because I abandoned her - and Ruby for that mater. I failed…God damn it! I can’t keep doing this! I keep letting people I love get hurt all because I can’t protect them. WHY?! Why do I even exist if I can’t protect people I care about. Gina could have been saved if I had been watching her, but she has a useless alpha who couldn't even save her from a bunch of idiot cops! I need to find her and protect her or freaking teach her how to protect herself. Then maybe this won’t happen again.” Emerald thought, her own brain’s thoughts mixing with growls of anger.

Emerald's fists clenched by her sides uselessly, and she felt herself going through more of her shift, causing her to whimper slightly. She had to get to a forest quickly.

Emerald was jostled out of her thoughts by someone throwing a rock at the store and the glass of he window pane shattering. The She-Wolf looked at the assailant and noticed it was a bunch of beefy guys who looked like they just got out of a fresh work out from the local gym. The leader wore a red shirt with a red baseball cap, his stupid looking bleached white smile practically lighting up when he saw Gina fall.

”That channel was a bunch of trash! Bunch of mutie sympathizers, all of them!” He laughed and all his buddies laughed along with him. While he was caught up in his laughter, he noticed Emerald trying to shove past him to get to the other side of the street. “Wha- Hey watch where you’re going, you idiot! What are you trying to hide? Your ugly face?! Lemme see what’s under this hood…OH SH-“

As soon as random beefy guy grabbed her hood Emerald grabbed his hand and without hesitation grasped it as tight as she possibly could, shattering the bones inside. The man let out a loud, piercing wail that signaled to everyone around them what had happened. Unfortunately for Emerald, her hood had fallen down and people saw the reason why she had been keeping it up.

Being so close to her transformation, Emerald’s cheeks had started to rip slightly, dried blood caked down the sides of her face. In fact, her face had started to crack and extend into the long, third form lupine muzzle, but not fully, yet. It still fit on her human body, for now. Her fangs, far too big to fit into a normal mouth, were fighting to get out and were very visible from her half transformed maw. Her eyes showed the wolf look about them and fur was already growing around her face and neck, replacing her red hair almost completely.

"Get away from me,” Emerald snarled. The fact that she had opened up her jaw as wide as she did caused drool to splash down on the already wet ground. Of course the crowd dispersed to more safe areas, but the meatheads - of course - stuck around. It didn’t take long for Emerald to find herself surrounded, which of course included the meathead with the broken hand.

”We aren’t going anywhere, mutie! You’re gonna pay for what you did, just like your little friend,” he grunted, The pain in his voice was apparent, but it didn’t look like he was backing down. “You are a monster, and all of you deserve to be punished.”

Emerald’s eyes were icy cold, her teeth still bore into a snarl. She stalked around the circle of men, her eyes staring at each and every one of them.

"She did nothing wrong. She is just a child,” Emerald told them, as she felt her arm shift and break, bones cracking as her hoodie ripped to reveal a massive, clawed hand. It was twice the size of her body, covered in black fur with razor sharp claws on the tips of the “fingers”. It could easily fit around a human body and crush it. “Me, on the other hand…Well, you’re right about one thing. I am a monster.”

A blood curdling howl left the werewolf’s throat, and she lunged for the nearest male slapping him aside as if he was nothing more than a fly. Blue shirt Meatbag went flying across the pavement and skidding into a car, in which he left a sizable dent. He wasn't dead, however, Just as they saw their buddy go down, the boys attacked and the battle began.

Say what you want about the big Apple, it had one factor about it that no amount of money or power could change. The rain. No man or woman could command the force that was Mother Nature(okay, a few mutants could but that's besides the point), tell her when to unleash her tears upon the city or when to shine the light of the sun. That was also the one thing you could count on in New York too; Mother Nature made sure the Big Apple was well watered.

It made riding a motorcycle that much more dangerous, but having spent more then enough time traveling on his own and within the city during downpours already, Kyle was accustomed to moving about the city streets without becoming part of a major accident. He never took turns too sharply when the ground was slick, kept his eyes peeled for those who lacked the brain power to pay attention to the fact that they were driving easily four tons of killing steel and knew when to pull off the road to wait for a truly horrid storm to pass over.

Then again, New York traffic did have a habit of making moving about town easily enough; it was always backed up in one place or the other. Traffic that doesn't move isn't much of a threat and doesn't require any daredevil moves to avoid. Especially in the rain.

Still, this downpour was thick, enough so that most cars were only blurs of light around him. So Kyle made the tactical decision to pull over into the overhang cast by a nearby alley and to wait out the worst of it. His outfit, while not entirely rain-proof on the outside, was on the layer of rubbery fabric he wore on the inside, which also kept him insulated and warm. Humidity's a bitch, although Kyle tried not to let it irk him too much.

One of the first things Kyle had done upon coming to the city was to get a radio scanner. Back when he'd been intending to help people in need(which he still did but only when occasion called for it), he'd grabbed the device from a local store in order to monitor police waves. Now it served both its original purpose and another; letting him keep track of police activity related to his kind. Or himself. Whichever came up.

So when a cop started calling for backup, reporting that a mutant was going berserk and laying into innocents, Kyle listened just a bit more intently. Details from the cop barking into his radio were sparse and barely informative; all Kyle managed to get was that the offender was a woman and was smacking around a bunch of men as if they were ants. Kyle pondered that for a moment, listening to see if any white flashes or names were mentioned. When none were, the cop blaring about how he didn't recognize the perp, Kyle relaxed slightly. It wasn't her. But then, that didn't make it any better.

The cop had already reported his position and called for backup. With the rain and traffic, those reinforcements would likely be delayed. Big cop cars don't get through New York traffic that easily. Easier then most, but still not that greatly. Kyle' bike, on the other hand, could. He had time; time to get there, assess the situation and with any luck, pull a mutant's arse out of the fire before she got nabbed by the cops.

Or she nabbed the cops. Neither of those endings was heart-warming.

Revving his bike, Kyle spun out into traffic, driving down the middle of the street or on the sidewalk if needed. Heavy rains like this kept foot traffic low too and anyone on them got out the way quickly enough when he came zooming down them. The place of the attack wasn't far, thank whatever higher power you pray too, so it wasn't long before Kyle was in sight of the situation.

And it was a situation. A hairy one, at that.

Three men lay bleeding in the rain, another was crumpled awkwardly against a nearby car. The car's door had pretty much been dented inward, which left the fate of the man laying there in one of few places. Kyle quickly took that in and then ignored it entirely for the moment. His attention fell on more immediate problems...like the half transformed beast that was laying into the rest of them. The cop's assessment had been right; they might as well have been ants in the wake of that creatures fury. Of course, just like ants, they were trying to fight back anyway, thinking numbers would effectively gain them the day. That or they were extremely stupid. His bet was on the latter.

Numbers would make no difference against this creature. It was still in the midst of finishing its transformation, but that made it only more terrifying to look upon. It was the better eight feet tall, so it easily stood over any of the men attacking her. One arm had morphed into a heavily muscled claw; lean, throbbing and it ended in what looked to be razor sharp claws. Hair was sprouting in spades from the head, covering most of his line of sight of her. He couldn't see her face from this angle but a brief motion gave him the impression that she had teeth to match those deadly claws. And she was fast; the men against her weren't even aware they were hit until a moment or two after she'd hit them.

If her transformation finished, Kyle had no doubt she'd be a combination of both beauty and terrible power. Part of Kyle was tempted to just leave the men to their fate, rather then try and fight that beast to bay. The other part, the less cynical, realized that there were innocent bystanders around though; children included. Human or not, children did not deserve to die because of a mutant's wrath. Even if the adults were. But how to get the beast's attention? It wasn't as if he had a bone. And, with a slight click of his mind he realized something...the cop had said it was female.

He had a good track record at pissing off woman. How would this be any different? Oh right...giant werewolf mutant. So slightly different.

Revving his bike, he scooted across the empty street and locked in on his target. A puddle that had overwhelmed one of the cities many sewer trains. At the last moment, he skidded the back tire through the puddle, sloshing a thick wave of dirty, slimy water at the werewolf, effectively giving it a stinky shower. He stopped for only a second to readjust and to stare at the beast through his visor, uttering a single word.

"Fetch." Then he gunned it off, speeding his bike for a place he could counter the creature better. One away from people. Only one place came to mind.

Everything was quiet, which was surprising considering what just took place before the gathered crowd. It wasn’t like what they had witnessed wasn’t an absolutely horrifying battle between man and beast; they just didn’t want to get involved. There was no screaming, no sounds, just people standing frozen in pure horror, aghast at the scene they had just witnessed.

The group of men that had formerly surrounded the wolf creature was no longer standing. They weren’t dead-- oh no. Amidst the massive amounts of destruction, the dents in cars, and the shattered windows, where it looked as if a storm had torn up the entirety of the street, where the ground was cracked and cars were thrown over onto their sides, the unconscious forms of the gang lay prone, unmoving on the cold, hard pavement.

In the center of it all stood a ten foot tall, several hundred pound creature, covered in black fur with a crest of red surrounding its head. It wasn’t a human, but it wasn’t entirely a wolf either; it was something else, something with the head of a wolf, massive jowls that could easily snap around a person’s body in a single bite, and large hands, nearly mistaken for human, if it was not for the sharpened claws at the fingertips. Whatever this creature was, its form left no doubt: this creature was definitely one that shouldn’t be tampered with. She didn’t even notice the water splash on her and even if she did, she probably would have reacted the same way. A wet coat was the last thing the beast would worry about.

The beast let out a snarl, its blue eyes looking back and forth between all the people. It had been standing there for quite some time, blood dripping off its claws from the wounds inflicted on the idiots that had dared to challenge it. This creature was no longer Emerald Lupin, this was something else entirely and, this, this was what she feared the most about her abilities: the fact that, once she shifted into this thing, she was no longer in control. The werewolf let out a long howl, its voice hoarse and in pain. Sirens blared dimly in the distance, but it was enough to make the creature to howl in pain, clasping its hands over its mauled ears. Without even hesitating, the creature darted away from the road, running on all fours, swiftly avoiding cars and anything irritably squishable in order to get to one place:

The forest.

Apparently, soaking the giant werewolf in dirty, New York water hadn't been the best plan. The beast, after all, didn't even seem to notice that it was drenched from head to toe. Still, for a reason that Kyle couldn't fathom at this point in time, the werewolf suddenly put on a burst of furry speed and bolted across the street, dodging those cars that weren't paused to gawk as if they were standing still. In one dazzling display, it dodged a slow to realize cabbie by leaping over the vehicle...and when Kyle said leap, he meant flew through the air to land twenty feet away and still moving.

All in all, what he did next wasn't one of his best decisions. But then, not many choices he made were smart, from a logical point of view.

Kyle raced after the beast. If they'd been on foot, Kyle would have easily lost sight of the creature as it raced for the city's outskirts. As it were, the motorbike only evened the odds so that he could keep the creature within visual range. And even that was only possible because the creature had to dart among vehicles in order to maintain its path.

Some might as why he was chasing something that, without a doubt, could rip him cleanly in two should it try. There was no real direct answer, so by Occam's, the simpliest was the best. Whatever the creature was, it was a mutant. He was a mutant. If he didn't try and stop whoever that was, the humans might. With all the tension in the air after that broadcast, Kyle knew that the human authorities would not handle the situation so well.

Or be equipped to handle this thing. Call him whatever you wanted, Kyle wasn't going to let this mutant, or anyone else for that matter, be further harmed if he could help it. Even if it was likely to get him killed in the process. Putting aside those thoughts for now, Kyle focused on only one thing; getting this thing under control or at least somewhere where it couldn't hurt anyone. As luck would have it though, the creature was making a beeline for the forested areas outside the city, a primal instinct to head to something familiar perhaps. No matter the reason, it worked for Kyle's purposes.

Just as the creature hit the outskirts of the city and was bordering on the edge of the forest, Kyle struck. A single bolt of energy, given just enough juice to pack the equilviant of a solid punch, was launched for the fleeing beast. With any luck, it would smack the beasts neck, stunning it...or silver lining, get its attention. Provided it worked, Kyle readied himself for trouble...and to turn his bike towards the single dirt road that was nearby.

The beast ran and ran for what it seemed like hours, it's paws crushing the ground beneath it, avoiding any, cars or people but managing to smash a few abandoned buildings along the way. The most interesting thing about this beasts trek was the fact she was deliberately avoiding people. While she was enraged, and filled with such a beastly lust for destruction it seemed that nothing Nothing seemed to be able to catch her.

It took her a while but she had now reached the edge of the forest, preparing herself to dive head first into the fir trees. Blue eyes, clouded with hunger gazed into the forest, feeling the overwhelming presence of the world of nature from within. It was one of the few places that this creature truly felt at home. The beast sniffed the air, it's mouth open, tasting every fabric of scent in the air.

"Food" The beast thought, it's mouth agape, drool dripping down s from her massive maw.

The wonderful scent of a nearby deer was ruined by the scent of something else from the road. The beast's pointed ears twitched, it's entire body tense with anticipation as that bolt of energy was fired at it. She leap out of the way, nearly skidding into some nearby trees as she landed.

With all four paws on the ground, claws digging into the loose soil the beast bared it's fangs at the creature that hurled that thing at her. Every single fur covered muscle seemed to twitch in anticipation as her eyes zeroed in on Forte. The Beast didn't move though, not a muscle, her tail stuck straight out, her teeth were bared but she didn't move, she just stared with those blue eyes of hers, staring at the young man and his machine.

The beast was quick, Kyle had to admit. She'd been facing away from him, entirely focused on making a beeline for the forest when he'd unleashed her energy bolt and yet she'd still managed to evade it. The creature had good sense, which made a small shiver run down his spine. If the creature instinctively was that capable, Kyle might have attempted to bite off more than he could chew. Still, without a doubt, this creature was a mutant. If Kyle didn't make sure it didn't hurt anyone, the police would...and that wouldn't end well.

For the next few moments, the only sounds of the world were the gentle pitter patter of the rain, the low humming of his engine, the distant sound of thunder...and the low growling of the creature. Finally, Kyle kicked his bike's stand down and slowly removed himself from the vehicle, his boots squishing in the mud. Calmly, his eyes never leaving the creature and his body stance slack, he walked away from the bike, circling the creature carefully.

He was aware of the creature's eyes on him, tracking his ever move. A hunter tracking possible prey, or determining if he was a threat to its well being. One wrong move might set it off, so Kyle was careful to keep his movements controlled and balanced. Finally, he stopped and looked at the creature square in the eyes before attempting the first trick up his sleeve; diplomacy.

"I don't know if you can hear or understand me, but if you can, know that I'm no danger to you unless you make yourself a threat. Or threaten to harm anyone else. I don't know if this is how you were born or if this change is something you can control...but if you can, change back now. I don't want this to get complicated or anyone else hurt. So stand down, right now...or I'll make you."

His hands sparked with energy, his body preparing itself for combat just in case. The creature was quick, he'd seen that himself. He would have to move fast if it made a move on him...or his blood would be washing away with the rain.