An Azure Lake Werewolf in Riverside - The Complete Omnibus

The complete 7000+ word story arc introducing Laik's werewolf "form". Artwork by Specterpie

 

 

 The full moon was rising over the moors that made up the terrain surrounding the town of Riverside. Silvery beams of moonlight cut across the land, dowsing the serenity of the night in a gentle glow, accompanied by the symphony of crickets.
Lanolin the Sheep, following the massive failure of Operation Splinter in their pursuit of Infinite the Jackal, had returned to her hometown at the behest of her crew for some much-needed rest and relaxation.
She’d left Central City that morning, as soon as the tension in her sore muscles had slackened. Hefting herself up onto her motorcycle, suitcase tethered to the back-end, she sped down the streets of the city, mostly empty save for the occasional big rig or mail carrier making their routine deliveries. Any Mobians out right now would be on the sidewalk, or the running paths that streaked through the city like a gnarled lightning bolt.

The sleepy town never changed, even after being wiped out almost entirely during the war. Buildings were rebuilt in the same exact way, same patterns, even if there had been flaws in the overall layout. That’s just the way the residents of Riverside operated, and was exactly why she had jumped at the chance to get away from the village and join the Restoration: Somewhere she could make changes that mattered.
Lanolin had cut the motor as she crested the hill that overlooked the sleepy hamlet, allowing the bike to coast into town silently at the late hour. Few lights were on, which wasn’t surprising considering the clock was about to strike 10pm, but even still, something felt off. The lights that had been on were dimmed.
As she approached her hometown, occasionally pressing the brakes as she went downhill to slow her speed, she noticed something odd.
The closer she got to the town itself, the fewer crickets there were. No chittering of bats overhead. No elk bugles in the distance.
Nothing.

Lanolin pulled her red plaid shirt shut. The cool autumn night air had quickly found its way through her clothes, through the thin layer of wool that covered her body, piercing her skin with a sort of chill that she’d only ever related to…
Fear.
Shaking her wool-covered head, she finally eased her bike into town, parking it beside the sheltered bench and chaining it up. Not that she’d have to worry about it being stolen out here, but better safe than sorry.
Detaching her suitcase from the bike, she took one last look around the ghost town that was Riverside. No music playing. No wildlife. Not even the usual raucous from the bar that her mother had worked all those late nights at, before the job in Casino Night Zone, presented itself.
She’d called her mother up the previous day, asking if the house was still empty; Worried that she may have rented it out since neither one would be in Riverside anytime soon, or so she’d thought. It was still empty, the spare key still hidden in its usual spot, as the doorbell’s clacker.
She’d turned the key, leaving it in the hole as the door gently swung open, tapping it back in place with the heel of her hiking boot.
She stepped into the dusty old house that she’d spent her youth in. The lights blinked on the old VCR, denoting that it needed to be set again. Nothing she’d need to concern herself with as long as she had her phone with her to get the time.
Riding a motorcycle was fun and all, but doing so for such long trips, with a huge cloud of wool trailing behind you, made you what was essentially a huge, woolen net. Dust, debris, insects. You name it.
She needed a shower.

Lanolin’s family owned a modest two-story house right near the southeast exit of town. It had its usual shingled rooftop, white stucco exterior walls outlined by thick, treated pine boards and rounded windows. Not unlike something one might expect to see in a mountainous town in the Alps.
The sheep had been born and raised in Riverside, but her parents had moved here from far away before she was born. Though she’d never cared enough to find out why, she began to question a lot of things nowadays, with Mobius becoming the full-time disaster that it was.
All thanks to Sonic the Hedgehog, she reminded herself for the thousandth time that week.
Hot water washed over the sheep’s body as she stepped up under the showerhead. The cool air that had filled the house mingled with the heat and humidity of the bathroom, creating a thick fog that was almost as thick as the sheep’s wool. 
Allowing herself to be lost in the warmth of the water as it seeped into every sore muscle on her body, she began to think more and more about recent events. How Infinite had slipped right through their fingers at the last minute, those four uber powerful beings, and that blasted maned wolf.
The humiliation she felt once she regained consciousness. The defeat at the hands of that woman was something she’d never be able to live down in her own mind; All the training she had over the years, and the training Laik had given her—It amounted to nothing!
Lanolin squeezed the half-full shampoo bottle, a thick golden honey-smelling gel amassing in the palm of her hand. It took so much shampoo to get clean. Less so nowadays, following her makeover, but still.

The front door silently opened as a long, thick snout nudged it forward. It sniffed the air in loud snorts. Its lips permanently drawn back, revealing jagged, yellowed teeth that grew out of the beast’s jaws at unnatural angles.
It wrapped a huge claw around the door frame, gripping it as it pulled the bulk of its mass forward. Its huge, shaggy head, crowned by gnarly, velvety black antlers, snaked its way into the sheep’s living room first, fixed to the end of a long, snake-like neck.
The creature’s torso followed. Broad shoulders and a muscular, wiry-fur-covered chest set between two spindly arms ending in hands wrapped in black, scaley skin. It walked on its knuckles like an ape as it moved through the darkened living room, sniffing at the discarded clothing articles. Shoes, plaid shirt, black sports bra, socks.
The sound of running water caught the monster’s attention. The staircase was small and would be impossible for the monster’s mass to make it to the top of without making noise that would alert its would-be prey.
The creature’s tail began to wag in anticipation as saliva laced with a shimmering purple-pink oil-like glow dripped from the corners of its paralyzed face. Its massive glowing red eyes fixed on the sliver of light coming from the door at the top of the stairs, thick steam pouring out like fog on the moors it had just loped through.
It backed itself into the corner of the open-air kitchen, tucking its massive form into the darkest shadow it could find, parking its haunches on the cold kitchen tiles, awaiting its prey.
It had failed to notice the dim, magenta glow of the Wisp that peaked out of the Bell Wispon.

Lanolin, having rinsed the last of the sweet-smelling shampoo from her wool, turned the nobs on the shower and cut the water. The constant massage of warm water flow against her body was already missed as the aches from her defeat began to creep back in. Another restless night, she thought, as she stepped out onto the bathroom floor. Her hooved toes clacked against the cold tile. Her mother never kept small rugs in here due to the sheer amount of water the sheep maintained after each washing.
Her father, rest his soul, had been a smart man. He’d taken that into account and had an additional drain built into the bathroom floor that the excess water could wash into following each bathing session.
It didn’t help in not slipping and busting your rump, though, and that had happened on several occasions growing up. It was how Lanolin had lost her first baby tooth.
Wrapping a thick towel around her body, Lanolin wiped the condensation away from the bathroom mirror, revealing the tired and bruised—not to mention soaking wet—sheep beneath. 
Her eyelids were heavy set, the bags under her eyes screamed exhaustion from a mile away. Thankfully, the welt on the side of her head had finally gone down after nearly a month, but it remained sore and tender to the touch still.
She tried to force a smile. But it wouldn’t come. Not knowing where Laik was, only that he was with the woman who had given her the worst beatdown of her life right in front of her own team. 
Seeing how she’d toppled that giant mechanical man should have tripped some sort of warning in her brain to not test the Mobian, but something had come over her and forced her to anyway; All sense of self-preservation gone in that instant.
That four-letter L-word had propelled her. Her usual levelheaded approach had gone out the window; her only mission then at that moment was to keep that woman away from Laik… She sighed, “I only hope you’re getting the answers you’ve been after, you stupid mongrel.”
The bathroom door opened, and in slipped a panicking purple Wisp. Maggie, her companion and the sole reason she even carries a Wispon. The musical note-shaped alien was in a panic, pointing downstairs.

Lanolin killed the light in the bathroom, tucking her towel in tight so she could move about in the darkened house with both hands free. Why hadn’t she turned the lights on before going upstairs? The front door was wide open, allowing the wind outside to blow leaves inside the entryway.
She noticed the key was still stuck in the hole. Stupid, she thought to herself.
Looking down into the spacious, open-air layout, her father had designed the first floor with. Vague outlines and dark masses sat in stationary locations. The couch, she knew. The rocker, a coffee table. 
The smell of dust that had tickled the sheep’s pink nose when she first entered her childhood home now mingled with a thick, damp odor. She didn’t want to believe Maggie in this case; That something had come into the house while she showered, but the smell was unmistakable: There was an animal down there somewhere, hidden in the darkness.
Nothing moved in the shadows. No growls or snarls emanated from the void. But it was there, and the closer she got to the staircase, the stronger the being’s presence was felt.
“Just… need to get… to my Wispon…” She mouthed to herself, Maggie floating close by to her head, the Wisp keeping its glow as dim as it possibly could. It used its little alien arm as a cursor, acting as a steady reminder of where the threat supposedly lurked.
In the kitchen

The beast watched from the corner, tucked as far into the small kitchen area as much as it possibly could. It held its head down low, nearly resting on the cold, dusty tiles thanks to its lengthy neck. It lay there like a snake, big red eyes fixed on the bathroom door.
The light had gone off, and the door had crept open, its prey thinking, believing it was outsmarting the hunter as it slunk about in the darkness, but its vision was perfect in the dark, perhaps even more so than in broad daylight.
It watched. The sheep had first approached the railing. It could smell her from here, the same smell as was on the discarded clothing, now mingling with soap and honey.
The sheep rounded the banister, holding onto the railing as she slowly descended the stairs, bringing the target closer and closer. The beast sensed caution in the woman’s movements. Its presence wasn’t as absent as it had suspected, but no worries.
It was fast, and it would have the sheep in its claws before it even had the chance to yell for help.
The monster fully opened its eyes. It was time.

Four steps down and three feet away.
That’s all Lanolin needed to pass in order to reach her Wispon. Didn’t matter what sort of being was hiding in the darkness of the kitchen, nothing was capable of withstanding the sonic waves from her Bell Wispon… At least nothing of this world. That giant robot man they’d all fought last month brushed it off like it was nothing.
One foot, then the other. Lanolin had made it to the ground floor. Then the eyes opened up.
Two huge, glowing red eyes froze Lanolin with raw fear. They started low to the ground, then slowly began to rise, the head they had been fixed in snaking to the left and to the right until the creature’s head reached its apex.
“What on Mobius…” Her heart began to beat rapidly, and her voice caught in her throat. Her chest pounding, the sheep bounded the last few feet, reaching for Wispon as the glowing eyes closed. 
Maggie fused with the Wispon, triggering the bell to come to life with a thick burst of purple energy, illuminating the living room and kitchen in a bright purple light.

To the sheep’s absolute shock, there was no monster at all in the kitchen. Her hoofed finger was only a hair away from having pulled the trigger on the Bell Wispon, which would have released a concussive blast that not only would have destroyed her family home’s kitchen and probably taken out a wall in the process, but would have been powerful enough to kill the creature that had spirited itself away in the cold, dark corner.
Laik the Wolf lay trembling, curled into a ball on the cold floor. The shredded remains of his shoes and gloves lay nearby.

“Laik!” She yelled.

Several days later…

Lanolin’s motorcycle screamed through the city, cutting tight corners around intersections as she headed south, leaving behind a steady stream of thick magenta Wisp energy in her wake.
Using more environmental friendly means of transport had steadily become the way of life all across Mobius in recent years, but the greatest advancements had once again, with the advent of the Wisp and the secrets to unlocking their energy.
Weapons using the Wisp had come about first, dubbed Wispons. They forever changed the way battles were fought on Mobius. The alien’s assistance didn’t come without trust, and though they could technically be captured in their corporeal state, they didn’t go willingly. Something that had always put them in favor of the good guys.

The sheep put the pedal to the metal as she hit the open highway, clearing the city limits with a burst of extra energy from Maggie that fanned out in a quickly dissipating purple shockwave!
Lanolin felt the tightness around her waist suddenly grow stronger, her riding partner likely having nearly fallen off as she floored it without warning him beforehand.
“You all right back there, wolf?” She yelled over the roar of the wind. “Didn’t scare ya, did I?”
Laik released his grip around her waist, much to her dismay. “Oh, no way, ya know I was just thinking about how awesome it would have been to return to Riverside with road rash and all that,” he looked over his shoulder at the big rig that barreled down the highway behind them. “Or, you know, end up as roadkill.”
She shivered as she felt him bury his muzzle back into her wooly ponytail. 

The scenery blazed by, with countryside populated by the occasional farmhouse, barn or small neighborhood quickly transitioning into open land dotted with trees, hills and boulders as the city receded into the horizon.
Laik had agreed to return to Lanolin’s hometown in order to apologize to the residents for that week-long horror film he had put them through as he honed his new moon-based transformation, or mutation, or whatever it is.
She insisted he drive with her, and he agreed without much arm-twisting. 
He had, however, expected a car, and not sitting on the back of a Wisp-powered motorcycle, with only a thin piece of plastic between his head and the pavement at a hundred miles per hour.
“This thing goes faster than I can run!” He yelled through her wool.
Lanolin’s eyes rolled inside her driving goggles. “No duh, you think?” The sheep eased on the brake, signaling to the driver behind her that she was turning off to the shoulder as the bike’s roar was silenced.

The traffic that had somehow amassed behind her, despite pushing a hundred miles per hour, blew by. A bunch of Mobians living out their need for speed, because sometimes running just wasn’t enough.
If half of these people could run as fast as Sonic, they’d never use their vehicles outside of work, she figured.
“Why’d we stop?” Laik asked, sliding off the back of the bike and stretching his back, his spine popping in multiple places as he pushed in on it.
“Because you were choking the life out of me, that’s why. What was the deal with that?” Why was she bellyaching over the fact as well? She liked it. She liked the wolf being close… touching her.
She’d not admit to anyone but herself, but this trip wasn’t just to clear the air for the residents of her hometown, but for her to finally confess things to Laik… or at the very least find out what his feelings were, if any. She wasn’t going to deal with the excruciating pain of waiting out another one of his offworld excursions.
Especially now with Renfri in the picture. Freaking maned wolf.

“Why?” He asked metaphorically, “Because if I fell off suddenly, I wasn’t surviving getting run over by that big rig. Let alone every vehicle that trailed it.” 
The sheep rolled her eyes as she leaned against her bike while Laik stretched. He couldn’t help but grab the occasional glance at the sheep: Dressed in a faux leather vest with large pockets over each boob. If she had a bra, it was well hidden because the peach-colored flesh that matched her muzzle was perfectly visible on her chest, creating a lovely track of cleavage that ended in a tuft of wool on her collarbone.
“I call shenanigans. You know as well as I do that only physical contact with other Mobians can cancel out the gravitonic aura. You’d get beat up and tossed under a tire or twelve, but you’d walk away.” She chided him, her tone staying playful and lighthearted, something Laik deeply appreciated; Not just because getting yelled at all the time wasn’t any fun, but because it was another side of Lanolin that seldom had a chance to come out.
When she turned away to rummage through her bike’s sidepack, Laik’s eyes drifted once again to the sheep’s casual wear: this time her blue denim pants, which hugged her buttocks almost too perfectly. The view was immaculate, but…

He better be taking this in, she thought to herself, wagging her little wooly tail in a further bid for attention. Ain’t no way the wolf is this dense.
“Here,” she finally turned, trying to breath in her too-tight pants. She hated denim with all her being; Too restrictive, rigid. What she liked, though, and that was all she liked about it, was how good it made her butt look.
“Wha’cha got? Oh!” the wolf asked, snatching the flying apple from the air. “Golden delicious. My favorite. How did you know?” He said, biting into the crunchy apple, perfectly ripe on this early October day.
She bit into her apple, the abundant juices overflowing against the pressure of her teeth as they punctured its flesh, causing the sticky-sweet fluid to drip from the corner of her mouth, straight into her cleavage.
She closed her eyes against the bite, pushing back the frustration. She dressed like this on purpose, but here she was constantly berating herself for it and wanting to blame Laik… who had not witnessed the embarrassing display.
“What the heck does that farm feed these apples?” She said to no one but herself through a mouth of chewed apple flesh, “So much juice; Like a freaking tomato.”
But Laik hadn’t looked. His focus elsewhere, looking out over the horizon, toward Riverside. The moon was just coming up over the mountains now, and she wondered if that meant something for the wolf and… whatever that thing is he turns into.

“I hadn’t intended on scaring the whole town like that, Lanolin,” Laik said, after swallowing another big bite of apple. “Heck, I only scared the first guy because he happened across me while I was exercising it that first night.”
She held up a hand. “Hold up. You were ‘exercising it’?”
“Well, yeah. It’s me, but at the same time it isn’t. Look, there’s a lot I still don’t understand about it, but the gist of it is it’s a being that’s tethered to me via moon energy, and the more moonlight I’ve absorbed, the stronger that tether is, resulting in tighter control over what it does.” Another line of vehicles roared past, headed to who knows where.
Lanolin remained silent as she processed the new info. He hadn’t reported any of this yet, which ignited a flicker of distrust in her. Just a small flame, but a flame just the same.
“So, if I am following you, then if you transform into this thing two days in a row,” The sheep crossed her arms under her boobs, propping them up and causing one to bulge out of the top of her vest. “It would be akin to letting a monster loose, and all you could do is watch. No multiple discharges…” 
Laik pursed his lips as the sheep pondered aloud this new info. Trying his best not to laugh at her last remark, he finally cracked, letting loose a snort-like laugh.
The sheep’s pretty blue eyes turned up, an eyebrow cocked. “What are you laughing— Oh, oh no.” She let loose her own bout of laughter, which caused Laik to finally cave and join in the laughter with her.
“Phrasing, Lanni! Phrasing.” He said through the laughter.

The moon had quickly moved into the sky, ushering in the chilly night air of autumn and the dark, but star-filled night sky. 
Riverside was just a few short minutes away now as the moors around it glowed with moonlight. Lanolin took quick glances to her left and right, wondering now what else gave off energies that the world was unaware of. Wisp, moonlight, emerald and even phantom energy. The latter of which were modifiers as they’d discovered, distorting Wisps and corrupting them. 
And then there’s whatever it did to Laik and that monstrous were-form of his. The Phantom Ruby had done far more damage to the wolf and the world as a whole than anyone could currently quantify.
There’d be no fixing every problem, not tonight at least. Tonight, she’d focus on easing the fears of the people from Riverside, from her hometown.
Laik had pulled himself closer to the sheep, his cold arms having wrapped around her entirely. At least her exposed midriff was no longer getting bombarded by chilled air, but the pants had already made breathing difficult; the extra pressure from Laik’s grip wasn’t helping even if it did make her feel tingly.
“Oh no…” Lanolin growled to herself as Riverside came into clear view, and the realization that the lights in her family’s home were on.
“Laik, eyes up. Mother’s home.” She said, drawing the wolf’s attention from the moors to the building that grew in stature before him as they approached it.
“…mother?”

“My goodness, Lanni, why haven’t you called me with everything that has been going on?!” The taller, older sheep chided her daughter. Voice sounding raspy and tired, the bags sagging under this older sheep’s eyes twice as heavy as they had any right to be.
“Mother, I have called. You just never answer your phone.” Lanolin offered in retort, crossing her arms against her chest again. “And why haven’t you tried calling me, since we’re on the subject?”
“Had one of our thoughtful neighbors not had the consideration to get hold of me,” she said, completely ignoring her daughter’s question, “and tell me about the monster roaming the area, I’d never have known about any of this!”
Laik backed further away from the growing tension between the two sheep, his instincts telling him not to get caught between this family feud.
But then not getting caught up in stuff wouldn’t be very Laik the Wolf, would it?

Lanolin’s mother’s gaze pierced him through the chest from across the room. Her eyelids were heavy, a trait she obviously passed down to her daughter.
“And you,” she said sharply, “Why was Lanolin bringing you back to her supposedly empty house, hmm?” 
Laik’s ears fell flat against his head. What the mother was insinuating with that question couldn’t have been further from the reality of the situation… right?
“Ma’am, we’re here on official Restoration business.” He squeaked out, the older sheep crossing her arms as she shifted from one foot to the other, cocking her head and doubling down on the glare. Lanolin got that from her mother, too. “We’re following up on—“
Lanolin’s arm shot out, silencing Laik mid-sentence. “What we’re here to do is clear the air, so to speak. And since you’re here now, as a resident of Riverside, you too have a right to know.” 
Silence filled the room, only the gentle rustle of dried leaves dancing across the sidewalk outside, and the chorus of crickets filled the dreadful, tense silence Laik found himself in.
“Well,” Her mother barked, “I’m waiting.”
Lanolin began the explanation, going over everything she felt her mother should know. About the expedition to the Fractured Island(the part about it being a failure left out), the reappearance of the Phantom Ruby, the Riverside werewolf, and, well, that’d be it. Her mother didn’t need to be privy to everything.
Especially the fact that said werewolf was standing in the room with her right now.

While Lanolin and her mother caught up, Laik took the opportunity to slip out, sensing the uneasy atmosphere the house had taken on. Lanolin’s mother was a case, putting down her daughter at every turn. Deflating any accomplishment Lanolin could offer. It’s no wonder his friend was so bossy when she had to grow up with a mother like that hanging over her.
The streets of Riverside were much brighter now, and far more populated than they were during Laik’s first visit to the town, and especially more so than the second visit that week when everyone had been aware of his presence. 
It hadn’t been that he liked scaring people; That wasn’t his intention when loping into town while in his transformed state. His goal was to see how much control he actually had over the bestial form and whether or not it could give in to some sort of carnal urge to maul other living beings.
It’d turned out to be, yes, it absolutely could—if he didn’t press his will onto it through a thick sheet of lunar energy. 

The were-thing form was not Laik. It shared similarities to the wolf Mobian when pulled into this reality, but Laik’s physical form ceased to exist whenever he allowed the were-thing to run free; Its only form of control being Laik’s mental presence and a heaping amount of lunar energy.
That meant that use of the form was strictly limited to just once every other day, assuming the night between uses was clear and Laik could absorb what he and Renfri started referring to as Moonglow, or lunar energy. He could feel his body pulling the glow of the moon into it now, familiar with the flow that existed inside him—right along with the phantom energy.
It felt simultaneously warm as it did cold. Once he embraced that chill factor, that’s when the beast came howling out of the eternal darkness.
“If we came here to clear the air with Riverside, now was the time.”

Lanolin rubbed the bridge of her muzzle, pinching her eyes shut and trying her best not to shout. Her mother, troublesome and bullheaded as always, wasn’t worried about the actual issues at hand.
“All I’m asking from you is honesty, Lanni. Why are you making this so hard?!” she pleaded to her daughter once more, her tone sounding both aggravated and as if she were enjoying it.
“Because there’s nothing else to tell you, mother!” Heavy inflection on the M sound, “Laik and I—“
“Yes, you and that wolf. That is the problem here.” The older sheep leaned against the back of her rocking chair, her legs uncrossed. “That. Wolf.”
Lanolin knew exactly what her mother was getting at. Interspecies coupling was something her mother had always been firmly against, despite herself being born long, long after the notion carried any real weight in Mobian society.
“Be honest with me, Lanolin: Why did you bring him here—“
And before Lanolin could even begin to protest answering her bullish mother, a blood-curdling scream suddenly ripped through the calm autumn night, followed by a horrific, monstrous howl.
Lanolin’s mother shot up out of her chair and rushed to a nearby window, pulling the curtains aside. She yelled, “Was that the werewolf?! I thought you took care of it!”
Lanolin herself just exhaled deeply. “Laik, what are you doing?”

Outside, Riverside had quickly fallen into chaos as the were-thing crept through the city streets. Windows and doors slamming shut in his wake. Blinds were closing and curtains pulled together. One woman, a pink rabbit, tried to flee from the alley as Laik-thing approached, tripping over herself multiple times as she went.
“Man, maybe the movies aren’t too far off in how they portray people in these sorts of situations after all,” Laik’s conscience said, eliciting a shrug of the were-form’s shoulders in response. 
The monster walked on two legs, standing upright at nearly seven feet. Uncomfortable as it was, Laik was willing the beast to present itself in a more relatable manner. 
What he got was a barrel-chested wolf-monster with gnarled antlers, looking like it was mocking how Mobians walked.
“Maintain. Maintain…” He said, the wolf-thing growling in reply. “We just need to wait for Lanolin, big guy. She’ll talk us down, I’ll change back, and—“
“Halt! You won’t go any further, monster! You don’t belong in this world.”
Laik-thing’s snakelike neck turned back on itself, his head hanging upside down over his back to catch a glimpse of the voice of the person who dared to defy him.

A mobian. A rat, by the looks of it, sat in the cockpit of what could have been nothing else but a broken and battered Death Egg Robot. Sparks flew from the joints as metal rubbed against metal as the jockey attempted to manipulate the doctor’s creation.
“You will terrorize our village no longer, beast!” He yelled from the Egg Pod that had been hastily repaired and placed into the dock of the mech.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Laik asked as the were-form fell into a more feral position on all fours. “If Lanolin saw this—“
“WHAT on Mobius are you doing, Conrad?!”
The were-form shrugged again.
“And there she is,”
The rat turned his head to the sheep as she rushed toward them from down the street. “Are you for real right now? Why are you driving that thing?!” She pointed at the beaten and battered but still functioning egg robot.
“Lanolin! Thank goodness you’re here; You can bear witness to the destruction of the Riverside Werewolf once and for all.”
The sheep walked up to the robot, ignoring the snarling, hulking form with glowing red eyes that loomed in the darkness down the street.
“By using the same weapons that nearly wiped out our town to begin with?! Are you an idiot, or just plain dumb, Conrad?”
The rat turned his attention back to the monster. “We’ll figure that out later, Lanolin. Now you get back while I’m the hero!” 

The sheep looked dead at the were-form, their eyes connecting. Laik was seeing everything at a slight angle, somehow looking Lanolin dead in the eyes and from slightly above the head of the were-form at the same time.
Laik knew the sheep was frightened. There’s no way she couldn’t be, seeing him like this for the first time. He hadn’t intended for a fight to go down, but now, seeing a Mobian willingly piloting a piece of Egg tech, something was going to have to be done.
He’d simply delay his plans a bit longer.
The were-form sensed its Mobian host’s resolve, meaning it was time to let loose.

Lanolin knew what was going to come next and had the sense to get off the streets. She only hoped Laik wouldn’t allow the thing to hurt the idiot rat that was piloting the machine.
“Laik…” She shook her head, “I’m beginning to think you aren’t worth all this anguish.”
Her thoughts were drowned out as flesh collided with metal.

The Death Egg Robot had been one of the smaller units that Robotnik had deployed to Riverside in a bid to wipe the town out post-war, but was quickly stomped out by Sonic the Hedgehog, who was once again running at full speed.
It now looked like the machine had been quickly pieced back together using the more primitive tech of the Mobians. 
Primitive by Robotnik standards at least.
Joints screeched as metal met metal when the two clashed. The were-thing bit down on the Death Egg Robot’s new left arm, the metal warping against its bite force, halting the spinning blade at the end as oil gushed out of the bite wound.
“Blast you!” the rat pilot yelled as he wrestled the joystick controls in an attempt to shake the monstrosity off. He’d already lost his primary weapon, and things could only get worse, he figured out very quickly.
Were-thing tried biting the machine’s other arm, but ended up hurting its teeth as it clanged against the hyper-reinforced steel of original Eggtech! The rat laughed as the were-form reared back in pain, releasing his grip on the Mobian.
“Why didn’t you just bite through that arm, too?” Laik asked, but knew he wouldn’t get an answer. The were-form couldn’t speak, but it understood well enough and could communicate in its own way, much to his surprise. It was a vicious, feral creature, but primitive it was not.
Using the wrecking ball that had been welded onto the end of the mech’s other arm, Conrad the Rat swung it upward and decked the were-thing in the jaw, sending it flying onto a small convertible, crushing it instantly!
“Ah man, we’re going to have to pay for that, you know?” Laik lamented, looking over the crushed car as the were-form pulled itself from its wreckage. He sighed, “There goes my plan to end this peacefully.”

“We’re going to have to pay for that,” Lanolin said out loud as Were-Laik pulled himself from the car’s crushed remains. Whatever the wolf’s plan had been when he willingly let that thing loose was probably out the window now.
Her communicator started flashing. It was someone from HQ.
She ground her teeth.
It was Sonic the Hedgehog all over again.

Were-Laik shouldered the robot, knocking it off balance as the rat pilot cursed. Reaching a long, bony hand up, Were-Laik’s massive claws landed on the control panel, slicing into the touch screen that the mechanics had used to run diagnostics on.
“Ah, heck!” Conrad the Rat yelled before reaching up and pulling on a handle. The shield that completed the evil genius motif of the robot slid down, crashing into the werewolf’s hand and trapping it between thick plates of steel!
Were-Laik howled, loosening some of Laik’s hold over the beast. 
“Whoa there, buddy, don’t give in. We’re here to perform, remember? Don’t hurt ‘em, okay?”
Were-Laik’s other hand swooped around, gripping the robot at its crotch! Using his immense, otherworldly strength, the werewolf lifted the Death Egg Robot over his head and shook it violently. The rat screamed in terror inside.
Freeing his claw, Were-Laik tossed the mech aside, demolishing the rest of the crushed car from earlier.
Like a child that had just pinched their finger in a doorway, the great, menacing were-form took his damaged hand and rubbed it in a bid to smooth away the pain.
“You gotta be careful, big guy,” Laik said with a soothing tone. The beast, as ancient evil as it looked, was an infant in this world and reacted poorly to pain. It had to be talked to like a child… which was also something Laik wasn’t familiar with.

“Yeah, Tangle, I copy that. I’m actually watching…” She inhaled deeply, then exhaled. “Everything’s happening right in front of me, ugh… Yeah, he’s literally crying in the street as we speak.”
She hadn’t seen her mother approach her, otherwise she’d not have spoke so blatantly about the beast like she’d known.
“Excuse me? Who is this ‘he’ you speak of, Lanolin?”
Lanolin balled the tightest fists she’d ever made. This had to end, and she’d be the one to take the fall for it.
And like that, any feelings she had for the wolf had evaporated like water on the surface of the sun, a change in her core that would plague her for the rest of her life as she would seek out the How and the Why.

“All right, so you do bleed. And since you bleed, that means you can be killed.” The rat yelled as he righted the robot, stomping across the street as onlookers watched from the relative safety of their homes.
“I’m going to smash you like last night’s mashed potatoes!” 
Were-Laik sat upright, groping his injured hand, wrapped in his own tail as tears welled up in his vicious-looking eyes. The Death Robo loomed overhead, hanging the wrecking ball weapon up high, ready to bring it down on the antlered monster’s head.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Lanolin roared, her voice amplified a dozen times over by her Wispon Bell, the sound waves seemingly ignoring the monster, but knocking the robot over once more.
Laik and the were-beast both sighed a sigh of relief. “Saved by the sheep.”
“Laik,” Lanolin yelled, this time using her normal voice. “Stop toying with that badnik and destroy it already.” She demanded.
“Wait, what?!” Conrad’s voice was frantic. “Lanolin, what are you doing?! HELP ME!”
“Hoo boy…” Laik’s voice echoed in the beast’s head as it exploded into action, cocking its arm and then impaling the downed robot through its crotch. Using his hooked claws, the monster ripped out what was essentially the Death Egg Robot’s innards, spilling black oil and fuel all over the street.

The concealed cockpit that housed Conrad the Rat went dark as the machine finally croaked. Had the monster left him alone?
The sound of claws streaking across the egg-shaped torso said otherwise. Moonlight quickly illuminated the interior as the werewolf ripped the head off the machine, revealing the pilot within.
Were-Laik’s huge head, fixed on the thick snake-like neck, slithered into the cockpit, pinning the rat against the wall of the machine. His chest was rapidly going up and down from fear.
Conrad closed his eyes, expecting the monster’s next action to end it all.
Instead, the rat felt a huge, slimy tongue lap across his face, leaving a trail of foul-smelling saliva in its wake, glimmering with a purplish shimmer.
“Oh no, oh no, he’s taste-testing me first. This is it, I’m donso!” The rat said to himself before the presence of the beast, or the lack thereof, had registered in his fearful mind.
He opened his left eye, slowly at first, the thick sticky saliva burning his retina at first and blurring his vision. Flashlights were shining on the being that sat at the rim of the cockpit, revealing that the werewolf was gone, and in its place was a normal wolf Mobian.
Conrad quickly lost consciousness.

The next day…

The day following the fake attack on Riverside, Lanolin scheduled a press conference. One that would ultimately hurt the Restoration’s image, but one that was going to be ultimately necessary at this juncture, or at least she felt.
Not a word had been shared with Laik since the previous night. Try as he had, Lanolin wanted nothing to do with the wolf now unless it had been strictly Restoration-related.
“You’ll need to be there as I deliver the speech, explain your predicament, then give the mic back to me. Do you understand?” She’d said with the most militaristic voice she could muster. Void of any emotion. The wolf had to know she meant business. “I will not have another Sonic the Hedgehog running around, do you understand me?”

The press conference had gone over as well as Laik had expected. Lanolin ultimately took the blame for the damage, for lying about having dealt with the werewolf and offered to move back to Riverside temporarily to help replace any damage her actions, or lack thereof, had brought to her hometown.
“I don’t want you ever coming near this town again, do you understand me, wolf?” She’d called him wolf again, something that she’d only really done in the beginning, before they had gotten to know each other.
Laik was lounging beside the same river he’d survived on during his initial stay out here in the moors. Going over everything in his head, how he could have done it differently.
He’d gone back and forth over who exactly was to blame here, ultimately deciding it was everyone’s fault. He shouldn’t have used the monster for fun and games, and definitely should not have gone out and acted out an attack without talking to his friend about it first…
Was she even still his friend? She didn’t talk to him like he was anyone of value now, and whatever that energy had been between them all this time had instantly vanished overnight, with Lanolin looking at him with the same sort of disgust that flashed across her face whenever the subject of Sonic was breached.
“You really screwed things up this time, Laik…” He said to no one but the wind and the gently flowing river.

Elsewhere, Lanolin was dusting her bedroom, getting things in order for the extended stay she was going to be putting in as she carried out her self-inflicted community service for her town.
Her mother had left without a word earlier that morning, headed back to Casino Night Zone now that everything had been squared away in Riverside. It was just as well, the sheep thought, her mother never truly cared anyway. She just wanted to make sure her property was still intact.
She didn’t care about her daughter. Not as much as she tried to make it look, publicly at least.
She couldn’t think of Laik now without feeling anger. It hadn’t burned the same way it did if a certain Hedgehog was brought up, but Laik had definitely hurt her on a more personal level; Deprived her of something that had fueled her spirit until now.
The love she had for Laik, that she kept bottled up, had shattered amid the chaos. Now replaced with, not hatred, but a sort of disgust. Not in the wolf, but herself.
How could she let herself fall for someone who was so careless? Love was too fleeting; she’d simply go back to focusing on her career, the Restoration, and her friends. The stuff that really mattered.
“Oh, Laik, you really screwed things up this time.” She sighed, slamming her underwear drawer shut.