Second String Heroes Episode 2.5

The night was absolutely quiet. The only sounds heard in the clearing were the rustling of the branches and leaves as the chill autumn wind blew around them. The two groups stared at each other. The Sasquatch were frozen in position their heads turned to focus on the unlucky two, their dark eyes staring. Grande and Crusader also were frozen in position looking up at the eight and nine foot tall hair covered creatures.

“Why aren’t they…?”

“Woooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

At the sound of Crusaders voice all the creatures in the clearing let out an ears splitting howl and charged, their massive arms and fists waving.

Standing in their defensive positions Crusader and Grande screamed along, more in fear than bravado.

 

Sun Wolf was patrolling the woods as fast as she could when it suddenly got quiet in the clearing behind her. She looked over her shoulder back to where her team mates were in puzzlement. Her head snapped back forward when she thought she heard an unnatural sound. It sounded like a person speaking.

But before she could identify where it came from the howling resumed, louder, if that was even possible, than before. She snarled silently to herself and began to concentrate her search in the direction that she thought she heard the voice in.

 

Dodging left and right, respectively, Grande and Crusader tried to avoid the attacking Bigfeet. The howling and the smell of burnt chili and ammonia were overpowering and made it hard for either of the two heroes to think let alone coordinate anything.

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Holding the glowing blade in both hands and using it to block large hairy fists Crusader tried to make the sword pulse and strobe light in an effort to temporarily blind or stun the Sasquatch. It flared once and which worked fairly well for the three closest, but their bodies blocked the light from the others behind them who kept pressing forward. That managed to start a few brawls from the ones blinded when they attacked whatever jostled them. In total that one flash took four out of the fight as two of the blinded attacked each other in great sweeping punches and swings, the blows missing more than hitting. While the other blinded Sasquatch managed to start a grapple with another Bigfoot that it was evenly matched for. Crusader kept dodging having several near misses and occasionally trying to smack a fist with the flat of his blade. He thought to himself “Man I hope Grande is doing better than this.”

Grande was having a rougher time. Having no real offensive weapon he mostly tried all the dirty tricks he learned as a goalie to take down opponents without injuring them. Slide Tackles, shin scrapes, toe stomps, whatever he could do to slow them down. A few Sasquatch were limping but he really hadn’t taken any out of the fight. “Theis doesn’t look good.” he shouted aloud “Roland can you make them hate us a beit less?”

When he got no response from the cat he got a bit worried, worried enough to be distracted. A large foot connected with his side, completely catching him off guard, flinging him into a large rock outcropping. Rock chips and dirt flew from his impact. The seconds it took him to get to his feet were enough to have the Sasquatch close the gap and start punching at him again. Grande took a few more solid hits before he went flying again.

 

Sun Wolf meanwhile felt that she was getting closer to the controller. The wind had given her finely developed wolven sense of smell a whiff of something else in the air other than the cloying stink of Bigfoot, baby powder. She moved closer upwind to where she thought the scent was coming from. The scent became stronger the closer she got. When her ears actually picked up what she had heard before. A human voice.

Sun Wolf crouched low and crept forward, the indistinct human voice becoming louder and forming actual words as she got closer. The woman’s voice was at normal volume, it was apparent from what she was hearing that the speaker was not expecting for anyone to be near her to overhear anything she said.

“What are you doing? Come on! You stupid fur bags! Kill the druids, not those other things. Why aren’t they responding? It is like there is some sort of strange interference.”

Her ranting did not change or repeat itself as Sun Wolf got closer but the intensity did ramp up.

After about another minute of stealthy lupine belly crawling Sun Wolf’s head poked out from underneath a tall cluster of sword fern and she came in sight of the ranting woman.

“Beastitrix controls them. They are Beastitrixes. Obey Beastitrix!” She was ranting and waving her arms about as she paced around a small clearing kicking bushes, sticks and leaves in her fury. She seemed to be in her late twenties early thirties and very fit like most people of the superhero set. And she wore a distinctly odd costume that looked like a classic safari uniform of jodhpurs, calf high boots and the requisite half buttoned shirt with the rolled up sleeves, but with the whole outfit was in shades of black and grey instead of the expected khaki. Her black hair was piled up on her head in whorls of braids and random hair spikes. Her face was hard to see in the moonlight but appeared to be done up heavily in dark tones and looked to be in an animalistic design.

“Roland, “Sun Wolf sent her thoughts out “Do you have any idea who this Beastitrix is? She seems to be the one controlling the Sasquatch.”

She received no reply. So she tried again.

“Roland, are you there?”

Still no reply.

Her wolfy brow furrowed in thought. ‘Strange, He usually answers fast. Maybe he is helping the guys.’ She looked at the woman again and made a decision ‘if I jump her that might throw off her concentration and free the Bigfoot. They will probably run away.’

Her actions decided she tensed readying herself for her attack. The fern rustled slightly as she shifted her footing. Beastitrix instantly looked directly at Sun Wolf and locked eyes with her.

She smiled a wide eyed slightly deranged smile.

“Hello puppy. Be a good dog and come here.” She spoke in her raspy sing song voice.

Sun Wolf’s limbs seemed to have a mind of her own as she stood up and walked into the clearing.

“Oh you are a big wolf, not a dog at all. And what a pleasant color you are.”

She brushed her hands along Sun Wolf’s fur as she walked from her head to her tail. “So soft. Stay. Don’t move. Good wolf.”

Sun Wolf struggled against the command willing with all her might to move, but to no avail.

When she got to her tail Beastitrix grabbed it and lifted. “Good Girl Wolf. “ She emphasized.

If Beastitrix wasn’t in control her face would have been torn off by the angry werewolf. As it was a slight growl rumbled from her.

Beastitrix looked surprised. “Pretty wolves shouldn’t growl at their masters. Beastitrix does not like that.” She sauntered to face Sun Wolf’s face while shaking her own head and waving a finger back and forth.

“Beastitrix needs to show you who is the boss. Sit.”

Sun Wolf sat.

“Roll over three times.”

Sun Wolf fought with all her will power and rolled over two and a half times.

Beastitrix frowned and stared Sun Wolf in the eyes again.

“This will not do. You need to Obey better.” She stressed the word obey.

Sun Wolf’s vision blurred for a moment and she had a hard time focusing. Her thoughts were sluggish and hard to form.

Beastitrix smiled her creepy smile. “Do a back flip. Then sit.”

Sun Wolf didn’t even try to resist that time. She executed a near flawless back flip and promptly sat staring at her new master.

She pointed towards the clearing with the protective shields and the rampaging Sasquatch. “Good Girl. Now go kill some Druids and whatever is distracting my Bigfeet.”


Sun Wolf turned and started to run toward the confrontation. But before she managed to get ten feet she was rudely interrupted by a white and red blur falling from the sky that was cursing in Spanish.

“Feos monos peludos apestoso! Hijos de madre de los zorrillos! Sucio pulgas sarnoso alfombras montado!”

The blur collided with her, tumbling them both through bushes, ferns and all sorts of forest debris. Skidding right back into the clearing that held Beastitrix.

Grande stood brushing twigs and dirt off of his mask and pants and spitting out a leaf or two. “What deid I heit? Eit was softer than a tree that’s for sure.” He looked around and spotted Sun Wolf rising to her feet groggily shaking off the blow. He was so concerned for his teammate he didn’t notice Beastitrix until she cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Pardon Beastitrix little Mexican man. Oh Beastitrix is sorry you people prefer to be called Hispanic don’t you.” She said with a slightly distracted thoughtful look on her face and an index finger tapping on her chin. “Pardon Beastitrix little Hispanic man. Are you the one causing Beastitrixes Bigfeet to be distracted? If Beastitrix wants to get paid Beastitrix really must kill all of those druids.”

“What? Lady you must be crazy. Sane people don’t say their names like that in third person. And yeah Grande eis the one messing weith your Sasquatch. See saying my name einstead of I sounds really dumb.” He gestured to his wolfy companion. “Come on Sun Wolf let’s take theis crazy and save those druids.”

With a gesture from Beastitrix Sun Wolf stood up and padded over to Beastitrix and sat down next to her facing Grande, her eyes void of all independent thought. Grande’s jaw dropped.

“You poor mistaken man. Your wolf belongs to Beastitrix heart and soul. You don’t control her any longer Beastitrix does.” She pointed imperiously at Grande and with a demented giggle ordered “Destroy your former master!”

 

Crusader was nose deep in curdled milk and raspberry scented Sasquatch. He dodged, weaved and blocked as much as he could of the attacks coming in from all directions. But with Grande gone he had to work harder and was still receiving a pretty good beating.

He managed to scramble away up to the top of a nearby boulder and get a few seconds breather. While breathing in gasps trying to regain his breath Crusader held his sword up above his head “Come on flash, come on flash. Flash!” Nothing happened. “Damn it! Do something!”

Before he got a chance to try anything else his brief pause was over, the Bigfeet swarmed up the boulder and managed to knock him to ground level to continue their beating.  

 

Sun Wolf Hesitated a moment then leapt with a snarl at her former team mate. Grande still stunned didn’t even try to dodge and was bowled over by over two hundred pounds of platinum furred wolf.

Her teeth snapped at his face and throat while she held him down with her forelegs. After he got over his initial shock Grande began to fight back. He punched and kicked and thrashed around until he somehow managed to get out from under her.

“Come on loba! Don’t do theis!”

Beastitrix clapped “Get him! Obey Beastitrix!”

She hesitated again before leaping at him for a second time. This time Grande was ready and managed to get mostly out of the way. Unfortunately it was just mostly. The mind controlled werewolf managed to get her jaws around his right forearm. She clamped down hard, breaking a few teeth on Grande’s impenetrable skin. She yelped but still held on and began to shake him back and forth like a rag doll. The fight carried them all around the small space in a cursing growling flurry, kicking up dirt and plants and ricocheting off of trees in a minor swath of destruction.

Grande fought back, punching her as hard as he could in the head aiming for her eyes apologizing the whole while. “Sorry Sun Wolf. I really don’t want to do theis. But I gotta.” He got a good shot in hitting her eye so hard that she opened up her mouth wide in a howl of agony.

Grande went airborne. He tumbled through the air out of control on a direct course for Beastitrix. Her eyes opened up wide as she tried to avoid the airborne Argentinean. But to no avail. He crashed into her knocking her to the hard ground. Beastitrixes head hit with a hollow sounding bonk and she went limp, knocked out cold.

Grande quickly rose to his feet facing Sun Wolf, fists at ready.  But they weren’t needed as Sun Wolf sat on her haunches at the other end of the clearing shaking her head as if trying to clear it from a bad dream.

Grande slowly walked towards her still ready to avoid an attack. “Chica, are you ok? Does that crazy woman steill have you under control?”

The large wolf sat there for a little while before shaking her head in a negative. She unsteadily walked over to him and sloppily licked her tongue across his face then rubbed her head on his chest seeking comfort and offering apology. Grande in turn gave her a big hug around her neck while patting her back.

“I know you deidn’t do eit on purpose. Mrs. Talking-in-third-person over there deid eit to you.” He gestured towards the unconscious villainess. “We need to secure her and let Crusader and Betony know that the beigfeet aren’t under control anymore.”

They started to walk over to her and paused.  Then simultaneously the both looked at each other and Grande cried out “Crusader!” they both turned and started to bolt to the ritual site.

Before he got to the edge of the clearing Grande stopped and doubled back to his fallen foe. He looked down at her and spoke “Theis eis for hurting my friend.” He then rabbit punched her in the head ensuring that she would remain out of the fight until he could return. That done he turned and sprinted in the direction his wolfy companion went.