The human pack

A wolf with dark grey fur trotted along the outskirts of the city of new york. A small pack followed the wolf as it neared the edge of a forest and drew closer to the houses. The leading wolf suddenly shifted into a large human with scruffy black hair and a long beard. He turned to the wolves. "Head on back. The city is no place for young pups to play. To many cars and angry people." The man's eyes glowed golden to reinforce his command and the small pack of wolves turned and vanished into the trees.

The large man next dealt with his nudity. Humans were very picky about such things, and he didn't want to offend anyone. Alistair seen a woman hanging out laundry. He hid nearby and waited for her to go back into her house, and then with a flash of speed stole a pair of jeans off the clothes line. He could worry about shoes and other things later, once his business was complete. Jogging steadily along he eventually entered the city for real, and continued until he made it to the coalition building.

Alistair walked up to the front doors and tried to enter, but was stopped by two guards who looked nervous. "Sorry, cant let you in." One man said. Alistair cocked his head. "I must speak with your Alpha. It is important." Alistair said. The second guard looked him up and down. The spat. "Piss off ya bloody bum, before i call the police and get you put in the drunk tank.

Alistair started to growl, and that put both men completely on edge. The impertinent one drew a hand gun and half raised it towards Alistair. "I said, piss off. And stop growling at me, its freaking me out you nut job." Alistair was close to attacking, and frankly he could have ripped both men's head off before the could fire their weapons. However he understood the necessity of tact, and the fact that neither man had done anything to him to warrant such an assault. So he did as asked, and backed off.

Alistair turned and walked away, crossing the street. He still needed to get inside. Looking around he decided he would try a more extreme approach. He started to climb a fire escape of one of the opposing buildings, right up to the roof. Looking directly across to the coalition building he picked a window into an unoccupied room. And then he ran. Soaring through the air he hit the window with perfect precision and crashed through. He hit the desk on the other side and took it out too, scattering paper and causing a large amount of noise.

He climbed over the rubble and stepped out of the room as glass was forced from wounds and his body started to heal. A young woman coming to see what happened seen him and started to scream and caused him to cover his ears. Other humans started to gather around, but for everyone that came, half of them turned and ran to escape him. "Who is your alpha? Your leader! I must speak with him."

The alarm went off. Kai sighed and looked at the cameras. What looked like a hobo had jumped through a window...on the 6th floor. He looked at the lobby and rewound it, and put sound to it. It didn't take long to figure it out. Along with what was said in the room. "Caleb, Eben. Bring this man to me. And tell everyone to stand down." The two magic users on either side of the door nodded and got out.

The duo got there just as the security force rose their shotguns and pistols, firing. The two pointed at the man, and put up twin magic circles. One crated an ice shield, and the other electrified it. "Stand down. The CEO wishes to meet this man. He's...not as crazy as what you might think." The five foot eleven inch tall man known as Caleb spoke, wearing casual dress clothes. The other was barely taller. They nodded and motioned for him to follow them. They first led him to the elevator. Then down a hall and to the left, through the door.

Behind the desk was an unassuming young man. Five foot eight, silver hair, and red eyes. His face was showed zero emotion. He wore casual dress clothes himself. Caleb and Eben flanked the door. "Please...come sit. My apologies for the security force's rudeness...they...don't have much experience dealing with werewolves. The one that we had here didn't stay for long. My name is Kai Allard-Laio. The leader of the Coalition. CEO. Alpha. Whatever term you prefer. How may I help you?" He did have some experience...but that was mostly the happy-go-lucky Zellbrigador Norman...Yuri's childhood friend...and Angel. He didn't know how much to expect with this one. But it was clear that he was strong.

Alistair realized he may have been slightly to rash. Of course a couple of bullets weren't going kill him but it wouldn't be good if he suddenly got angry. Or would it? he had started to contemplate going hybrid, if only  to scare the security forces off, when they fired on him. Alistair's hands morphed as he went into a partial transformation, and covered his head with his arms. But nothing hit him. The bullets were stopped be... Magic. Alistair looked at the two mages that had come to his aid. He hadn't seen a spellcaster in... He couldn't remember how long. He knew they were back, after he'd heard about chicago from the wolves.

The man asked him to follow and Alistair nodded and did just that. His hands returned to normal. As they entered the office he got a strong scent of power. The man before him was indeed the human alpha. Alistair gave the man a slight bow and sat. "It is fine. I must excuse my appearance, I have been in wolf form for many years, I sometimes forget how picky humans can be. I am Alistair Duine." Alistair said.

"Maybe later you can tell me about the other werewolves. I would like to meet some. Your knowledge of my kind is certainly a surprise, and you saved me allot of trouble. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't have harmed any of your men but trying to find the right way to scare them off was difficult." Alistair looked Kai up and down and then smiled a bit. "I came here to align myself with you. I am an Alpha, the term often means more than just leader for werewolves. I have no pack though.. Most of them were wiped out by hunters 2 hundred years ago. I found I fit in better with wolves than humans, however the time for me to return to this world has come. I wish to become a member of your pack. As you are all humans, I have no problem working under you. And I think I can offer you more than just strength in return."

"You are a spellcaster trained in england, yes? Or has magic spread farther than i could imagine? Have you heard of the druids? Spellcasters of celtic origin who obtained their power from the world and nature?" He asked and waited for his answer.

Kai simply nodded. Though he had already excused the man's appearance once he figured out what he was. He allowed the man to explain himself. He spoke. "Magic has spread throughout the world, though they weren't actually famous until Chicago. The academy that I went to was in Germany. I'm afraid we didn't really study much about druids or other styles of spellcasting. That was to be done on your own spare time. Something I didn't have much of. Why do you ask? Werewolves can't use magic if Angel's pack is any indication..."

When the answer was given, Kai's eyebrow quirked up. That was surprising. He knew some werewolves had unique abilities beyond their turning into a hybrid form. He knew Angel's two abilities was making a dense fog and turning into a normal looking wolf. Zellbrigador Norman's dealt with manipulating his body's muscle and bone structure...essentially a more varied and more enhanced version of the one that was here. Even a natural poison in his claws and teeth. "Well...I surprised you...and you certainly surprised me. I know some werewolves develope unique abilities...but I never thought that if they turn, they kept any of their former powers. My experience with werewolves are limited exclusively to Angel's pack. And I'm not very popular with them."

Kai thought some more. And nodded to himself. "I'd like a full demonstration. Eben, we'll be in training room seven. Tell Alex to record the fight." He got up and moved out of the room as Eben pulled up a hologram and spoke with a green haired man. Kai led them to a training room that was deep underground and had a very wide variety of environments. From urban to desert to rainforests to mountains. Kai blurred away, landing on top of a small cottage. "Begin whenever you're ready."

"Interesting. I'm not surprised because druids are rather elusive. I was one before I was turned so many years ago. Because we gain many of our spells from nature, we can easily have them taken away to keep Darach, or dark druids from keeping their powers and using them for evil. This is true with all druidic verses, but not Blood magic. Blood magic, you may have heard of. It was considered evil by most spell casters, but not druids, though very few know how to use it. It is more akin to your type of magic than the verses." Alistair said. Then he listened to Kai's comment about werewolves not being able to use magic.

"That is strange. I suppose to figure out why we lose our former powers bar a select few, you'd probably have to trace our heritage back to the very beginning. I believe werewolves have been gifted by the god of the forest, and if that were to be true removing old powers and replacing them with our new ones would be a way of maintaining balance. Then again, i would be wrong."

Kai asked for a demonstration and Alistair stood up. "Very well, I will show you, and if you so wish it, I will teach you too. You'd be surprised how much of a kick a drop of blood can add to your spells, if you know how to use it correctly." Alistair followed Kai down to the training room. Alistair was impressed by the size and range of the training room. It did smell unnatural, but it dampened the sound of the city above greatly which was a relieve.

When Kai got into position and told him to begin, Alistair took a bite out of his finger as a circle appeared beneath his feet. He let a drop of his blood fall from the already healing cut, and when  it touched the seal a wooden handle emerged from the ground. Alistair grabbed the spear and pulled it from the earth. He then adressed Kai. "This spear is known as Carmine. It is both a weapon and a magical focus for the use of blood magic. As a pre warning, try not to get me to worked up, if I turn we'll have to cut this session short. My hybrid form cancels out my magic."

Alistair went into partial transformation and broke into a full speed run towards Kai. As he did he made an x shaped slash across the palm of his hand and tossed the spear up into the air. Slapping his palms together, a magical circle formed between them. Alistair slid to a stop, 20 feet from Kai and pulled his palms apart. a ball of ice formed between his hands, and then ice spires began lancing forward at kai in a random pattern, but never leaving the 30 foot long 20 foot wide cone.

If kai moved but stayed close enough Alistair would turn the cone to demonstrate that it could be done. a few seconds later and the spell ended, right about the same time Carmine landed head first in the ground and Alistair snatched the spear up.

Kai nodded and waited. He stayed calm and watched the man's actions. He wasn't kidding about Blood Magic, something they were specifically told to stay away from and knew why due to Eben, being similar to the current favorite style. But it seemed...different than the one Eben used. An ice spell shot out several spires. The red eyed man moved to his right, still in range, and noticed the spires change direction. He had mere moments to use a spell. Duel triforce symbols arranged in a type of star of David setting formed, blocking the spell.

Several magic circles with a snowflake symbol in the center formed around the werewolf in a fifty foot area, Kai backing off completely with a few hops. Each one exploded, sending 25 ice shards everywhere, each with a 10 percent chance of ice accumulating on his body should they hit and cut him. If ice does accumulate, it will slow down that body part by 5 percent, max of 30 percent on that limb, however that was extremely unlikely.

Kai summoned his katana. He pointed again at the man. A grey magic circle appeared and fired a saw-blade. It was a tricky spell...as barriers and things that can only block physical attacks doesn't work...and those that blocked both will be chewed through. However, the spear should be able to block it with little trouble...

As expected from someone who smelled so powerful, Kai blocked his ice, and countered with ice spells. Alistair crouched and jumped forward into the air, getting hit in the back by a few of the spikes, but he just shook the ice off by crashing into the ground and rolling. Next came an unfamiliar spell that shot at him with some speed. Alistair brought the spear around and knocked it aside. Then, impaling his hand on the end of Carmine, Alistair started a second spell. As blood ran down the blade, he aimed the spear up and threw it towards the sky. Even as it climbed, clouds started to accumulate.

Alistair Pointed at Kai, it wasn't necessary to point but he wanted to give a little warning. A sanguine colored magic circle appeared below Kai and lightning struck it with the power of a cero. Obviously if kai moved it would just hit the ground, but if he did, Alistair would form another where the man landed, this time without the warning.

Yes...this blood magic wasn't the same kind Eben had dabbled in. His was very much darker and forbidden. The wolf had impaled his hand, unleashing another spell of some sort. He waited as the weapon climbed and developed a storm. He grinned. A lightning spell. He jumped away a second after the wolf pointed at him. Upon landing, another one formed, this time without pointing.

Kai pointed above him. A magic circle formed, showing a mirror. It deflected the spell towards the wolf. Kai ran towards him, sword pointed at Alistair. A magic circle appeared, firing off a barrage of hollow yellow stars that had a one of three chance of either just cutting him, messing with his spiritual pressure that his magic may go haywire or backfire, or that limb will become sluggish.

Upon closing the distance, he would slash down, and then right to left at the wolf. If he tried to block, Kai would course his energy into the blade, making it go intangible just long enough to pass through the spear if it reappeared...and then rematieralize just in time to cut him.