Moonlit walk through the words P1(finished)

He stopped short of completely entering the forest and turned to Trini.
"If we hunt it down we can scare it again. Scaring it will have it running for a safe place, and that safe place is probably going to be its den. We can find more clues there or maybe even find the lab somehow. As for its survival, I believe it possible. Tales told of a bear surviving worse isn't unheard of, and if it has nanites it might be able to heal itself. We're pretty much going on conjecture here." He elaborated. His focus on the task at hand made it easier for him to ignore the pang of... whatever it was he felt at having been called a stranger even though the word was technically true. Then there was the last question/declarative statement:
"I'm all for stomping through the forest with you, stranger, but what're we up against? It'd be a nice thing to know."
"Your guess is as good as mine. Technocracy conventions, SF0 agents, Pentex, government cyborg testing facility, orrrr little green men at this point, I'm actually not sure." He responded, the last part of the statement being a way to lighten the mood a bit.

He was hoping it wasn't any of the first three. Little green men would be nice, but with the school being what it was it could just be a students testing out his powers or "training". He wouldn't be able to confirm anything until they got some more pieces of the puzzle.
"Do you know how to use human tracking methods?" He finally asked.

Uh oh she was taking charge now. He was inclined to let her, but that would mean that he would be focusing on the fact that he was in the woods with an attractive trench coat wearing female who had nothing on beneath said coat. A smile crossed his lips and momentary distraction darted into his mind about mentioning the unfair exchange of her having seen him naked and feeling one sided, but after what he had just said it somehow didn't seem like the time.
"Jesus whoring at bars is easier than actually spending time with someone. Who would have thought." He thought to himself.

Back to the hunting, yes that would be the safest thing obviously. He paid attention to the details of the forest, but besides general observational prudence he really was not an experiences tracker either. He started to open his mouth when she did first.
"What're we waiting for? If the thing ran this way then so should we," She had said with a hand on her hip blowing a bubble with the gum he had given her and it was probably the most attractive thing anyone had done ever. Wait. That wasn't logical was it? Despite the fact that it seemed completely innocent with no subtext and that her words were straight forward he couldn't help it.

"To be honest I'm not exactly a master tracker. I've seen it once or twice on the discovery channel, but I think your average boy scout has me beaten when it comes to the whole looking for stuff concept." He spoke as he removed his trench coat and tried not to think about exactly what was under hers.
"Also.. and I can't believe I'm passing up on many opportunities to see a beautiful bastet naked, this will change with you... or at least it should. There's a secret." He said with a smile as he handed her the jacket, blushing somewhat visibly and moving forward to view the terrain in the direction the bear had run off to.

Zachary took his coat back and put it on. If he had to shift again she might notice that the clothes changing with him, or not. Regardless her words uplifted him and he moved forward, at a point following her.
"You know you don't have to do this right?" He offered, breaking off from his thought at the sound of metal grinding against metal.
"You really messed it up back there...it looked like it's nose was falling off- ugh, all the wires- that thing probably won't be able to scent us anymore, so our ally at this point is going to be steal." At this point she was right but if there was any kind of surprise they were going to lose the advantage.

"If it had been an actual bear I might have been able to heal it enough that it could have recovered. Right now we have an issue." He said as they exited the forest canopy into a cave clearing.

The grass was low and barren in patches and oil slicked portions of the ground. This was corruption at its finest and he was furious.
"How dare they corrupt the forest. How dare they destroy the animals! How dare they encroach on Gaia's domain!" He roared, starting to loose control of his temper. He could feel frenzy coming on (rage 8/8). The natural world was his race's charge to protect. Here, there were obviously not enough of those protecting the forest and that had to be assuaged.

He started the slow transformation process involved in the loss of control indicative of a frenzy. His eyes flashed to a brilliant red not like his usual yellow or violet. Anger became him, it enthralled him, he had to destroy this abomination,
cleanse the area, destroy- wait he was with someone. He was.... what was he doing? He mustered all of his willpower and dropped to a knee as the he fought the frenzy off. When control was at last his he stood again, purposefully not looking at Trini, not wanting to look at the person who had just narrowly avoided seeing his fury... on anything that happened to be in the area. More embarrassingly, she had also been his reason for being bale to fight it off, an ability usually reserved for very close pack members or mates.
"Let's... keep going. I think I've got myself together." He said, still angry, but in control.

He could tell she was changing the subject, no questions were asked and he didn't have any answers to give right then. Garou were Gaia's warriors, they were created to protect the earth from corruption. Thinking it out in words actually made them all sound like flightless captain planets now, but explaining it might come across just as silly. His connection to the spirits of the natural world as well as the unnatural made this whole situation an affront to everything he was born to do and just thinking about it kept his blood boiling, but he let those thoughts go and focused on what was going on right now. He doubted he would be seeing much of Trini after they left the forest and he wanted to get as much done with her as he could.

"You think it's in there? He heard her ask.
"Yes, but I think whatever created it could be there too. I can't say for certain but this doesn't seem like the kind of work a bear would do." He was thinking clearly now but that was mostly a front. His blood was still boiling over this and he wished more than anything there was a wolverine spirit to teach him how to hold that in until he needed it.

"I'm moving in. We need a plan though, something that will keep you from swallowing any more of their fluid."

———————-


The bear came limping weakly into the cave, moving toward the back and down a hole into the actual facility. Normally guard bots would have grabbed it but it was already one of those very machines and it had somehow been destroyed. None of the technicians were anticipating it so when the bear came tearing into the repair room most of them ran... most of them.

Robotics director Nicholas Menoslov shook his head at the state of the bear, annoyed at first but then perplexed. What could possibly have done this to a bear? Moreover what was in the forest that was strong enough to destroy the machinery? He shook the questions off as he dumped the nanite solution into the bear's wounds and watched as trillions of nano robots began knitting flesh, melding with machine parts and getting welded in by others, and resetting bones, reinforcing them with aerocarbon. Worldlessly he turned away and went back to his work, taking a Jaguar he had stolen from a zoo he began fitting it with nanite tubes, vibrational wing blades that would extend from its back and carve through targets, and muscle replacements that would make it capable of running at speeds it had never even dreamed of. In light of recent events, however, he decided to take one of the eyes and replace it with a camera, never could be too careful or informed these days.

He liked her pack mentality and when she mentioned her lack of ability to fight without shifting he thought maybe there he could find a way to spend time with her when and if they got out of this alive. He had done a number on it, but he remembered his sparring matches with Damien, damage done wasn't always the important part.

When she started mouthing the words "it goes deeper" his first thought was 'that's what she said' but then decided this wasn't the time for childish humor, it was always time for adult humor, but not childish. Nevertheless he moved closer, edging more slowly than Trini had and taking in the surroundings. It was good to travel with a pack again and he slid his hand down to his side reaching into the pocket on the right leg of his pants and considered pulling out a cigarette then decided against it.

When he finally got to the mouth of the cave he could see inside well enough to make out the movements of light coming from the cave. Once he got close to Trini he started to back up slowly.
"Trini-san, back up... slowly." He suggested urgently as a hulking figure, familiar yet different came out slowly walking out of the cave. It looked like the bear they had fought before, only the jaw was fine and the rest of it that had been broken and damaged looked stronger than ever. What was more were the plates covering its underarms, skull, jaws.
"Um.. got a plan yet?" He asked as he stood ground just a little bit from where Trini had motioned him to.

————-

Dr. Menoslov finished his work with the Jaguar and started the heart with an electric shock from a defibrillator. Machine parts whirred at first before the creature stood up marching as if under a prime directive.
"Follow the bear. I want to know what is hurting it." The doctor ordered, pointing toward the exit of the den.

As the creature left, he turned on the monitor connected to it's eye and watched as it ran... ran to the exit of the den and saw the bear stalking towards two hapless victims. On this island, kids were often oddities. Regardless they would make a good first test for his newest test subjects. His mind thought back to his boss back in New York and the countless other creatures in the basement he was holding onto for a rainy day.
"Attack." He ordered the Jaguar.

—————-

The two stood out of the cave with the bear approaching as a large Jaguar stalked up beside the bear letting out a mighty blood curdling roar. The situation had just gotten deadly, and Zachary started to worry more about what they were going to do.