Chapter Forty-Nine

The Big Boss Baby Battles a Teddy Bear

Tooth awoke to someone dragging him by his arm, or rather, attempting to drag him. Whoever was trying to move him did not have the physical power required to move him. To be fair about it, there were few people who would be able to drag him along easily. He was far heavier than he looked and he looked heavy to start with.

His eyelids seemed to bear more weight than usual themselves. He could barely force them open to see who was tugging on his arm. He could hardly make out the sounds that were around him, they all blended together into a cacophony of white noise. It was similar to having electrical bee buzzes snapping and cracking in one’s ears.

Tooth also noted that he was experiencing vertigo. It wasn’t obvious at first, but when he pulled his arm away and tried to stand his world began to spin and twirl like a tornado going up and down various sized hills. It felt like he was bobbing up and down in the water, with just his head above the surface and hundreds of waves crashing down on him from every angle. It was impossible to get his bearings let alone know which direction was up or down.

His body did not obey him. It didn’t have the strength to do so. His bones weighed hundreds of pounds and his muscles were made of yarn. The only thing that seemed to be working properly was his mind. While everything outside him was chaotic and unknowable his mind was calm and clear.

The core companion tried to remember what had happened to him but events were a blur. He began to walk himself through what he did recall. He vividly remembered laying with Nix and trying to sneak out so as to not wake her up. He recalled the sun on her face and the way that her blonde hair framed her beauty as it glittered in the morning light. He had very reluctantly gone from there to the town square.

He’d made his announcements and motivated the town to arm themselves and prepare for the fight. He’d argued with the mayor and met a nobleman named, Lou? Something like that, and then he’d gone to the park to work on his emotional channels. He’d interconnected all of them via his bloodstream, and then he’d what? Been burned out? Something had been painful in an unimagined way. It had felt like every atom of his body had been divided; then subtracted, multiplied, and added with negative infinity.

He blacked out after that. He remembered now. The pain had overwhelmed him and then swallowed him whole. He was just now climbing out of its gullet. The emotions hadn’t just entered his system. He should have realized what he’d been doing. Blood was what made the system happen. It had so many functions, and he had added emotional energy to the mix. Blood was a transporter. It carried oxygen to every cell, and it carried nutrients from the gut to the liver. In one go he had completely altered it so that his body was infused with every type of emotion that was around him.

Blood was also a defense against foreign invaders. Granted, Tooth’s inhuman nature meant that he couldn’t get sick. He couldn’t come down with the sniffles or fall prey to some virulent plague. He had one disease, and it trumped all others. He had no idea of what this would do to his condition. For all he knew, he had completely rewritten what he was, and he didn’t know what language the new tale was in, or how the story ended.

With that realization, Tooth forced his eyes open. The world was bright. Searing white light scorched his bleary eyes, and he could barely make out vague black shapes moving around him. Tooth assumed that the dark blobs were some townspeople who had found him lying helplessly on the ground. Whoever had been pulling on his arm let go and his limb dropped like an anvil. Tooth swore the limb left an imprint in the ground from the way the impact felt.

The big man flexed and every bone in his body felt like it weighed a ton. The outside world was still a jumble of noise and light, but he forced his limbs to move, and somehow found his footing. He shook his head, as if to clear it, and tried to take in his surroundings. He was still in the park and from what he could make out there were a dozen people around him.

Everyone seemed panicked, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of the state he was in or if it was due to some other reason. He centered himself and took several deep breaths. It wasn’t a good time, but he tried to focus on his channels while his head cleared, but he was unable to get into the proper headspace. He could see the paths he had carved in his head, but they were muddled and dimmed by his bloodstream, which was on fire. His body was brimming with power, but it looked uncontrolled and wild. It was akin to starting a forest fire to keep warm. It did the job, but the destruction that resulted was off the charts. He had no idea what the distilled emotions were doing to him, but it didn’t feel good.

Tooth pushed past it. People were counting on him, and he still hadn’t heard from Dev. He tried to make a mental connection, but the emotional static in his brain made it impossible to do so. He hoped the core was all right, but then how much trouble could Dev get in considering he was safely underground in their secret lair? Not much, he supposed. Dev was fairly capable on his own, and he could see everything in his domain. Dev, he was certain, was fine.

He, however, was not. Tooth had a lot going wrong and it was all his fault. He had no one else to blame, and even if he did, he wouldn’t. The big man took responsibility for his own actions, and he had been reckless. Tooth chalked that up to having to deal with physicality, emotions, not the ones he was cultivating, but his own. They were still novel to him. He understood them just fine, but knowing about something and knowing how to deal with it were two totally different things. An expert in anatomy would not necessarily make a great surgeon.

Tooth’s problem, he realized, was that he often acted rather than thinking through things. Tooth had no idea of who he was, he was still developing his personality. So far, he seemed to like to do what had to be done and damn the consequences, but that wasn’t good for Dev, who also liked to try new things out before considering all the effects his actions might take. Then again, he too was still trying to figure out who he was. The difference between them was that Dev seemed to have a far better grasp on that situation. He had already purged the troublesome aspects of his personality. Tooth hadn’t even accepted half of what he was. He had yet to transform or indulge in his bestial pleasures, Nix not counting in that assessment. There hadn’t been time, nor had there been a need to shift. His feelings had been that it would happen when it happened; he didn’t need to facilitate the process.

He doubted the good people of Goulcrest would appreciate his other side. That he straddled two worlds would only alienate them. He was already getting a reputation for being mysterious. Handing out magic swords and fireproofing homes without telling people the hows and whys made you a little shady, shapeshifting put you fully into the shadows. Tooth’s alternate form would scare the Goulcrestians far more than the raiders would.

So, Tooth could forgive himself if he sometimes did things that were a touch impulsive from time to time. In fact, he had taken on flesh so that he could experience life in every detail, the good and the bad of it together. He ought to be allowed to indulge himself in little ways. He was a companion, not a slave, and he had his own life to consider. If he blew out his chakra channels because he wanted to see what would happen when he rewired himself that was on him. Doing it prior to a raid that he was intent on mitigating was rather dumb, and he regretted it. It wasn’t the action, it was the timing.

He should have been more aware of what was going on around him and made an informed decision. He’d felt that it was something that he could handle, and he’d been wrong. Now, people were yelling and running around screaming.

Tooth’s hearing and sight were both coming back at the same time. He could hear panic and see people’s forms running pell-mell. Something was happening, and his heart dropped at the thought that he knew what it was. The raiders had come early, and he had incapacitated himself.

Leaden limbs and a foggy brain were not what he had planned on fighting the outsiders with; he had hoped that he would have time to coordinate with Dev and see what kind of defenders he had come up with before committing to a plan. Now, he had no plan at all and he was weaker than a kitten.

He squinted and looked at who had been pulling his arm, and was surprised to make out the form of Q’uillen standing over him. Numblee was beside the boy, who was staring down at him with a concerned look on his face.

“Boy here has been yelling at the top of his lungs and pulling on your arm,” Numblee said as he looked at the boy, “I think he was trying to drag you to safety.”

Tooth looked at the young man before him, or rather, above him. Q’uillen’s face was concerned, but he could see relief flooding the boy’s features. The poor kid had been in a near panic from what he could see from the sweat pouring from him and his heavy breathing.

Tooth signed, “I’m fine,” and stood up. Q’uillen gave him a quick nod and offered him a hand, but the big man declined it.

“What happened to ya, lad?” Numblee asked.

“I did something stupid, and paid the price.” Tooth explained. “What is going on around here?”

“Seems like there is some big fella scared off the gate guards,” Numblee answered.

“Big guy? Where are the, erm, troopers from the Empire?”

“Looks like an ogre, a big’un too. He’ll be here shortly. Dunno nothing about troopers. Looks like we’re all on our own.” Numblee explained.

“An ogre? Are you sure?” Tooth hoped that his friend was wrong.

“Looks like a big fat baby with a huge head? Pretty sure it that fits the description of an ogre. You think you can handle it?” Numblee’s face was a stoic mask of indifference, but the emotions that were rolling off him told another story. Q’uillen, was oddly calm now that Tooth was conscious. The emotions in his body might be wreaking havoc on him, but he could still feel them as they came in. He didn’t have to actively cultivate, the stones did that for him. When he cultivated it only sped up the process.

“Is it alone? Where are the raiders?” Facing an ogre in his current condition was going to be hard. Going toe to toe with one while other combatants were around would make the likelihood of him winning somewhere on the front lawn of impossible. At full health, he was certain he could take the beast down quickly, but right now it felt like his bones had just been introduced to gravity, and his muscles had been sleeping for twenty years. Otherwise, he felt great.

“Seems that way. It’s either stone to grind us down, a distraction, or it is faster than the raiders.” Numblee’s face fell to a woeful countenance. “Son, I think you need to find someplace to hide. Ain’t no shame in it. You’ve done all you could. Now ya gotta try and survive.”

“Survival isn’t living, and I came here to live. You do me a favor. Get Q’uillen and anyone else you can find and get them to the Weapon of Choice. That is the safest place to be.” Those buildings were nigh indestructible, Dev had seen to that. He prayed that Dev was all right. The ogre posed as much a threat to Dev as it did the town.

Numblee nodded and began to turn away, but Tooth placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. “Get Nix. Keep her safe, and don’t let her argue with you.”

Tooth didn’t wait for a reply. He turned towards the gate and trudged forward. He had no weapon and could barely move. This was going to be brutal. He looked at his thumb and thought, It’s just you and me buddy. My first real fight in this reality, and I can hardly think and my body feels like it is in a cast.

While his body was in disarray Tooth’s other senses were still working above and beyond capacity. He could hear the ogre bellowing in the distance, and feel the impact of its feet as it approached. The steps didn’t have a pattern; most bipeds had a cadence to their steps, a rhythm, but the ogre moved like it was just learning to walk. Two hard and deliberate steps were followed by three rapid steps to the side, then one step, then three. Tooth could practically see it wobbling along, arms outstretched for balance. He knew that while ogres would not come close to being considered clumsy when they walked, in battle they were as graceful and agile as a greased-up snake winding its way down a tree. It wasn’t pretty, but they always seemed to strike in a manner that you didn’t see coming.

Tooth could smell the sweat and gingivitis of his approaching opponent, and his stomach roiled. The thing reeked of putrescence, vomit, and bile. It practically had a life of its own, and its strength was impressive, as it nearly knocked Tooth over all by itself. His amplified senses were overwhelmed, and the ogre hadn’t even made it into Goulcrest yet.

The guttural voice didn’t gibber incoherently either as he had expected. Ogres were foul stupid brutes for the most part, but once in a while one with some real brains showed up, and they were even more dangerous. The one that was coming was detailing the fun it was going to have fun peeling the flesh from the residents like grapes. Most ogres would just grunt, growl, snarl, and maybe say, “Me smash!”

The incoming monster was far beyond any “smart” ogre that Tooth knew of. It was not just a rarity, but also a singularity. It was probably unique among its kind, which meant that Tooth’s own unique status meant nothing. Choking his body with purified emotions had been poorly conceived and poorly timed.

What did he do wrong? How had he goofed up such a simple process? And then it hit him. His blood channels, aka his literal bloodstream, had only been fortified to channel blood. He had never built emotional channels to work in unison with his sanguine pathways. His blood system was only meant to withstand blood energy! It was an easily rectified situation; when he had time, but it wasn’t something he could do while fighting, but he could stop shunting the emotions into his bloodstream. He had time to do that, but it wasn’t going to help him in the present. Distilled emotions were still going to be flooding his cells without the proper filtration. His blood system could still infuse him with blood power, but he couldn’t let it. The blood that was in his body was mixed with emotions and so he couldn’t even take a little strength from there.

All he could do was to stop the co-mingling, and not use his blood or emotional energies to empower himself. He had to ignore all his channels, and just be himself. Tooth stopped cycling altogether. He didn’t know how long it would take for the rampant emotions in his body to clear from his blood, but it wasn’t going to be in the next five minutes. Besides, that would be his kidney’s job. They cleared out toxins, so he was going to have a wicked piss later on.

With everything shut down, Tooth felt a little better. It was probably psychological, but he felt some strength returning to his limbs and he didn’t feel as wooden. He shook his arms just to limber them up and return some sensation to them. His whole body was tingling like a limb that had the circulation cut off for a brief period of time before blood flow was restored.

It took him five minutes but he made it to the gate without tripping and falling on his face as he feared. From what he had seen Goulcrest was a ghost town. The people that had been running helter-skelter when he awoke had to have been the last people to look for shelter. It was one thing to give people magical weapons and ask them to fight off raiders and something very different to expect them to stand up to an ogre. It would be akin to giving everyone in town a mouthful of water and asking them to use that water to put out a raging forest fire.

Wherever Dev’s backups were Tooth knew one thing, they weren’t there with him. He was on his own. He nearly gasped when the great monster stepped into view. It was unsteady on its feet, but he knew not to count on that working for him. The ogre stopped when it spied him, and as Tooth was doing to it, it began to assess him.

The ogre was taller than Tooth by a good two or more feet. He had to look up to see its face. The creature was also grotesquely fat, but again, it was a deceiving appearance. Beneath those rolls of lard were muscles like coiled steel. The fat was actually useful in defending the ogre against blunt weapons, and all Tooth had was his fists. He would have to change that. In fact, he was going to have to change a lot of things, and he might as well start now.

Tooth struggled but managed to pull his shirt over his head. The ogre watched him with interest, but let him do what he was doing. It smirked.

“My name is Bannedgeik. Are you Goulcrest’s defender, the one they call . . .,”

“Tooth,” the big man replied, “And I am this town’s protector.”

“Raiders,” the ogre snickered and shook his head in disbelief, “Like babes in the woods exaggerating sounds into terrible tings. You don’t look like much to me.”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Tooth replied coldly. He tried not to let the numbness in his lips affect his speech.

“Truly,” Bannedgeik questioned, “do you believe such drivel?”

Tooth was simultaneously surprised at the ogre’s intellect and scared by it. He’d been expecting a “smart” opponent. One that was clever in the manner a predator is clever. This one was so much more. The way it acted and spoke indicated that it could possibly cast spells, and if that was the case, he was done. It was going to be iffy challenging it to a physical confrontation. If it could cast spells Tooth’s chances, as did Dev and the town’s, for survival fell to zero.

That decided it. Tooth had taken off his shirt because he didn’t want to tear out of it. First transformations were painful and messy, and he didn’t need to contend with having his shirt end up around his neck and choking him. There was no reason to hold back any further. He let his body do what it had wanted to do from the moment Tooth had taken physical form. It shifted.

Tooth’s bones cracked as they broke and separated, refilling the missing space with more calcified marrow making him become larger and larger. He screamed as his jaw shattered and elongated into a snout and his teeth became fangs. It was a heartrending sound, one of pain and sorrow and even a little fear. His muscles, which had felt like wet yarn, stretched and grew until they felt like unbreakable chains. Tooth’s skin stretched, tore, and reknitted and hair began to grow all over his body.

Back in the mayor’s office, when he’d first been attacked Tooth had only increased his strength to make short work of the assassin, and had grown a nice thick beard as a result. Now, his hair was no longer a salt and pepper blend, but a deep brown. It was in fact, a thick coat that covered the hide of the largest bear that had ever trod on the planet.

The last thing to grow was Tooth’s claws. Unlike a bear’s or even a standard werebear’s claws, Tooth’s claws were not only long, holding an edge like a blade, and tipped with a barb-like a fishing hook; they were practically unbreakable. Tooth was a greater werebear, and that meant that his fangs were also barbed and nigh indestructible. The great change complete, Tooth clicked his claws together and drew back his arm to strike.

One thing that he hadn’t noticed was the numerous colors that stained his coat. His transformation had purged him of his emotional issue. He had purified himself by changing. Lycanthropes tolerate no alien substances in their bodies. They were immune to disease and poisons and so that defense had treated the unwanted emotions as invaders and purged them as Tooth transitioned from man to bear. It was unexpected, but one that he welcomed the moment that he realized that he suffered no ill-effects from the mistake at all.

Bannedgeik hadn’t been idle during Tooth’s transformation though. The instant that Tooth began to transform the ogre recognized what was happening and rushed forward to kill his foe as he transformed. Tooth, however, transformed faster than normal weres, and was ready for the monster when he arrived. The ogre slammed into Tooth with a loud SWACK! His forward momentum was halted but Tooth was knocked back into city hall, which was almost two blocks away.

The hall, which hadn’t been protected by Dev, crunched under the impact. A wall on the first floor collapsed behind Tooth, but the structure held firm. It would be able to handle a few more shots like that before it became a pile of kindling. If Tooth was honest with himself he would have admitted that he’d angled for the building as he flew through the air. The ogre’s blow was powerful, but it did little damage to him.

“I knew it, I knew it!” Keong screamed as he looked at Tooth’s new form. “A monster, you are a monster!”

Tooth turned and looked up at the mayor and did his best to give him a wink. It was hard to wink and be obvious about it while wearing a bear’s face, but Tooth conveyed the message; then he charged back at the ogre while issuing a roar that cut through the air like a blazing fire.

Bannedgeik leapt into the air, both arms behind his head, hands rolled into massive fists, and brought them down on Tooth’s head when they clashed. The bear-that-had-been-a-man dropped like a sack of rocks. The ogre kicked his prone opponent in the ribs and there was another crack. Tooth chuffed in pain, but rolled away and found his feet before the ogre could strike again.

“Let me introduce you to my thumb,” Tooth growled. His voice was deeper than the ogre’s and rougher around the edges, too. He sounded like an animal and his voice echoed down the empty streets of Goulcrest. Bannedgeik looked at Tooth’s hand and was surprised when the bear’s foot found his nether region.

“On second thought, you get the whole hand.” Tooth swiped his paw across the chest of the ogre and tore out a massive chunk of flesh while the ogre yowled from the pain emanating from his tender region. Foul blood poured onto the street and sprayed into the air. The putrid green liquid that managed to fall onto Tooth’s body was absorbed instantly, as was the blood that landed on the earth. He was a blood collector for Dev, and his body was just doing what it was supposed to, but it sickened his stomach to think of the rancid material passing into him.

Bannedgeik, having no qualms about his own blood landed a crushing blow to the side of Tooth’s jaw. The werebear felt several of his teeth become loose and tasted iron on his tongue. An uppercut followed a moment later and Tooth’s lower jaw crunched. The bear was certain the strike had resulted in a partial fracture and nothing more.

Tooth took several steps back from the ogre and eyed him appreciatively. He’d thought that if his human self hadn’t been full of emotional toxins that he might have been able to face the monster one on one without changing. He could see now that he’d been wrong. The ogre was tougher than he’d imagined. Tooth still considered the fight to be uneven, giving himself the edge in the long run, but the gap wasn’t as wide as he’d hoped.

“A bear? Really? You tot tat a bear could beat me?” Bannedgeik mocked, “My loinclot is from a bear. Lycan or not you do not have a hope when it comes to beating me.” He smiled at Tooth and said, “I’m going to enjoy ripping you from limb to limb.”

Tooth replied with a healthy swipe to the ogre’s jaw. His claws cut deep trenches in the ogre’s skin, tearing away a goodly portion of his cheek revealing the black, cracked, and rotting teeth to the air.

“You are making me more attractive to te lady ogres wit every blow,” Bannedgeik laughed. His indifference to the pain troubled Tooth. That blow had just taken off a quarter of the ogre’s face, and he’s shrugged it off as a lark. Perhaps he’d miscalculated his own strength in comparison to the ogre.

Bannedgeik followed his statement with two quick jabs to Tooth’s stomach and a retaliatory kick into Tooth’s own exposed twig and berries. Ham-sized hands grabbed Tooth’s loose pelt and tightened like vises. Bannedgeik then slammed his head into Tooth’s skull, and again the werebear dropped to the ground like a stone.

“I had hoped for more,” the ogre lamented. “It is so boring never finding a challenge. You disappoint me.”

Tooth did not have time to reply as Bannedgeik dropped his full weight onto Tooth’s ribs. The bones splintered and pierced his lungs. The lycanthrope purged blood, which poured from his mouth and nose making breathing almost impossible. Tooth could feel his lungs filling up with fluid and struggled to find air. Tooth would heal so long as he wasn’t wounded by magic, fire, or silver but his regeneration would not kick in until whatever had caused the damage was gone. As long as the ogre remained where he was there was nothing that Tooth could do.

The ogre might have sat there waiting for Tooth to drown in his own fluids, but he did not do so idly. Bannedgeik casually reached own and grabbed Tooth’s right arm. The ogre began slowly twisting Tooth’s limb in a manner a demented child might pull the wings off a fly, and Tooth realized that he was living up to his promise to tear him limb from limb.

The implication had been that the ogre would do so quickly, perhaps in some fit of pure rage, but his slow application of the threat was far too horrifying. Not only was the ogre twisting his arm, but it was also pulling his arm in incremental bits. He turned his arm and pulled with an ever-increasing intensity and Tooth wondered if dismemberment might be able to kill him.

Tooth reached deep inside of himself and tried to find some hidden cache of reserve strength, but without being able to breathe it was impossible. Muscles mystically enhanced still needed oxygen to work.

Suddenly, Tooth’s arm popped from its socket and he gurgled an involuntary protest. Bannedgeik dropped the arm and took hold of his other one.

“We’ll just loosen tem up first so tat when te time comes I won’t have to work so hard to rip you to pieces.” This time the ogre did not go quite as slowly or as gently as it had with the first arm.

Tooth spat what felt like a gallon of blood and managed to growl, “When I get up I’m going to eat your still beating foul heart after I rip it out through your arse.”

“And I suppose tat you always keep your word, too,” the ogre replied nonplussed. “Tell me, bear man. How do you expect to get out from under m…!?!” The ogre’s last word was cut short when a dagger smoothly sailed into his left eye up to the hilt. Bannedgeik dropped Tooth’s arm and rolled to the ground as he pulled the weapon from his eye socket.

Not sure of what happened, but glad that he could breathe again, Tooth stood up and scanned the area only to have his eyes land upon the familiar figure of Q’uillen. The boy was thirty feet away, and still in his throwing pose, a look of stunned amazement on his face. The boy clearly could not believe what he had just done. He still clutched a dagger in his other hand, and Tooth realized that he had gotten his daggers from the Weapon of Choice. Where the hell was Numblee? He was supposed to be watching the boy. Tooth thanked the gods that Numblee wasn’t keeping an eye on the lad; because if he had then the werebear would be dead or at least lying in the street without a single limb.

Bannedgeik rose from the ground and dropped the blade he had just pulled from his eye. He looked at Tooth and then spied the boy. A sneer painted his face as blood poured from his now useless eye. He raised a trembling hand and pointed an accusatory finger at the boy.

“Tis fight was between men, and you interfered. I will make certain tat you suffer for weeks after I take this town as mine own, child.” The bulbous baby form quivered in suppressed rage, and drool poured out the gash in his face.

“You run along to my shop, Q’uillen,” Tooth said in a voice that was both guttural and gargly while keeping both his eyes on the ogre, “I’m about to teach him what a Greater Werebear is.”