Jensen thought calmly over the issues and proposals made before him. He and the entire Pack could become some semi-divine being that could take over the world, ending war, poverty, and all the ills that humanity had brought on the world. But then he thought of Madame Serenity's current investigation. She was immune to the powers of the game, and even if they took that route, their powers would depend on the game in some way. He currently doubted that even Martha or Alice could use their respective powers to change the woman, even though they didn't depend on the game.
And with her immunity, and since Julie didn't know EVERYTHING about her, Jensen didn't want to take the risk of Serenity being close friends with someone in the Pentagon. Glendale was a US city, but if the government could be persuaded that there was a group that was hostile too it, Jensen didn't doubt that the military wouldn't take steps to try and protect itself. Just as Jensen was trying to protect his Pack. Taking over the world seemed like a bright hope, but it was much like Bart's fantasy of "Wolvesdale". It presented too much of a risk. And he didn't think that they could upgrade themselves into being truly immortal. There would always be a loophole somewhere, like Superman's kryptonite.
"We will only use the game to make immune to its powers effecting us," Jensen said in a low voice, "We will still be able to use our turns as necessary, but no one will be able to turn us back."
"But, Master..." Lawrence began.
"It's too much of a risk," Jensen said in a low voice, "Our home is here, our territory is here. If we start doing that... who knows what could happen. We could still be vulnerable to some weapon that the government or some one could deploy from great ranges and strike at us before they become one of us. And if we're dead, what good would all that do?"
"But we'd end war and hatred, everyone would finally get along all over the world," Darla brought up, "it'd be a Utopian kingdom with you and Alpha Female at its head!"
"It sounds like a fantastic dream," Jensen nodded, "but no "utopia" has ever come true. Think about Marx and his dream. Has it come about yet?"
Darla, Fran, Julie, Bart, and Jenny all thought heavily on this. They had the college courses that they could remember that dealt with this. Bart and Jenny felt additionally proud that Jensen knew this, not really remembering that it was one of the private lessons they had taught when they were Jensen's parents.
Marx had dreamed of a utopia where there was no class struggle and everyone got along well. But it NEVER came to be. Many people followed Marx's philosophies, but the men who had the chance to create it ran smack into political realities that prevented Marx's utopia from coming. Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev, Mao... all of them failed to bring about Marx's utopia for various reasons. Mostly because Marx's dream was always just out of reach.
"If the world comes to Glendale within the limits of the game, that is one thing," Jensen said, "but we will not go beyond what we can directly see. What is already ours. Hopefully, we can live along side the people of Glendale and build a healthy Pack... and we live like a good and happy family. Ending war and hatred are all good... but I think that's beyond my ability other then who we vote for, if those of you that still match your birth certificates wish to vote."
The others slowly nodded.
"Very well, Master," Lawrence acknowledged. The idea seemed good, but Jensen was right. There just too many risks in something that big.
"There's also the thing that if we all become some immortal wolf-gods, we'd eventually eat ALL the available food for us," Julie spoke, "Our mortality needs to remain so that way we balance with nature."
The others nodded again. There was a point to that. And that settled the matter. Jensen then turned to Alice, who stood next to her mother with Julie on her other side, then Abbey, the Fran, and then Samantha.
"You may list the transform or the dare now, Alice that will preserve our wolf-hood and allow us to still use our turns on those not of the pack," Jensen instructed.
"Of course, father," Alice curtsied.
+++++++
Meanwhile, Serenity sat calmly at Mitch Hurteng's computer following whatever websites provided information about wolves. Their behavior their mentality, although she also had one page open to a site full of Latin translating aides. Mostly to double check the scroll she had been given. Trevor was resting as Paul flipped channels for him on the television.
She was currently following a website that listed information about the Gray Wolf...
ORDER: Carnivora FAMILY: Canidae GENUS AND SPECIES: Canis Lupus.
WEIGHT: 18-80 Kg (39.7-176.4 lb) Male is larger then Female
LENGTH: Head and Body - 1-1.47m (3ft 3in-4ft 8in) Tail - 33-50cm (13-19.7 in)
SHOULDER HEIGHT: 66-96cm (26-37.8in)
SEXUAL MATURITY: Female - 1 year, Male - 2 years
MATING SEASON: Typically, January to March
GESTATION PERIOD: 60-63 days.
NUMBER OF YOUNG: Usually 5-6
BIRTH INTERVAL: 1 Year
DIET: Mainly large grazing mammals, but some smaller mammals are also eaten.
LIFESPAN: Up to 17 years.
The largest Canid in the world, the Gray Wolf is a social animal living in packs with complex social orders, dominated by an Alpha Male and Female. Its pack organization allows the Grey Wolf hunt prey as large as moose, and even bison under the right conditions. The pack also allows for the raising of healthy pups, as other members of the pack care for and defend the pack's pups and nursing females, although it is usually common that only the Alpha Female is impregnated during the mating season.
The wolf has a highly maligned reputation as a predator of men, which stories like "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Three Little Pigs", "Peter and the Wolf" and various horror themes in both popular folklore about werewolves. In reality, wolves are not deliberate hunters of men. While human attacks have been recorded, in nearly every case the wolf involved was either alone, wounded, sick, or defending its pups. And at present there has been not confirmed case of a healthy wolf killing a human in the United States.
Because of this, the wolf has been heavily hurt by human hunting and extermination projects, and in more recent years, urban development.
The wolf today is largely extinct in the wild in Europe, where only a few scattered pockets remain. Their numbers across Russia, Alaska (USA), and Canada. Recent conservation efforts have also done much to increase the Grey Wolf's range, including bring healthy packs into Yellowstone Park and other parts of Wyoming. Other Packs even range south from Canada into Minnesota, Michigan, and possibly parts of Maine. This has lead to continued rivalry between ranchers and townsmen fearful of the largest wild dog and those who wish to restore the wolf to its rightful role as one of America's top predators along with the Mountain Lion and the Brown Bear (Grizzly).
Serenity sighed as she read this. It gave her useful information to know about wolves, but a lot of it clashed with what Trevor had told her. From what he had said about what he had seen, the adults had to closer to the size of the African Lion in terms of weight, and since they carried a more human like form, according to what Trevor had said, the length, shoulder height, and probably even sexual maturity, and other related facts wouldn't fit with Trevor's description.
Serenity then looked closer the page's description of the Grey Wolf's social behavior and then remembered something in Trevor's report. He had come across children... pups. And that made her realize something. Trevor said that the large quadrupedal wolf didn't attack him until after the transformed Abbey and Samantha pointed him out as the "weird lady's cat that had made us and mommy go away". The wolf didn't attack Trevor to be evil. He attacked Trevor because Trevor had been identified as a threat to the pups.
"It's a pack," Serenity spoke, "not a harem... at least not in the way I've dealt with... it's a pack."
"Par...dun...?" came Paul's voice as the orangutan came into the room.
Serenity turned to face him.
"I've been looking at some things about wolves to see if there is anything that might help deal with this harem that's taken over the Smiths," Serenity answered, "Much of the statistical data doesn't help, because Trevor has said that these wolves look like they're larger then what the Grey Wolf actually is, but there are things in his report strike me as odd."
Paul looked at her.
"He said he encountered children there," Serenity then answered the unasked question, "Now, I've come across harems where children have been born into them... but from what Trevor told me, these pups were made pups by the game. Now that could mean that the owner of this harem is really a degenerate pervert, as having one man making love to many women could be legal, so long as he can prove that the couplings were willing..."
"Pedophilia is not legal," Paul wrote down on a piece of paper on the table.
"I know, and it's what I originally thought," Serenity spoke, "but Trevor said it wasn't quite that way. And Trevor and Queen weren't attacked until after Trevor was identified as a threat to them."
"So?" Paul asked.
"It means that while it may be a harem in the sense that we have one male taking many females, the way they are operating differs from what some pervert would orchestrate," Serenity spoke, "They're establishing a Pack... a line, likely linked to the owner of the harem. Those pups were created to be their "Master's" children."
"Is this a problem? It means they aren't completely degenerate," Paul wrote down.
"Maybe not, but if we get someone with a turn and marshal enough forces, in order to save the kids there, it may mean we have to fight and subdue EVERY adult wolf there," Serenity pointed out, "everyone knows not to mess with an animal's next generation."
"Maybe they have bigger plans then sexual degeneracy," Paul wrote.
"Maybe," Serenity sighed, "but this will make things tougher. Trevor when he's healthy might be able to rally Glendale's cats to help us, but it's unlikely that they'd fully tip the scales in our favor. The average wolf is too big to feel threatened by a house cat, and if they met in the wild, the house cat would end up either treed or eaten."
"A lion, leopard, or tiger would not meet such a fate when encountering a wolf," Paul wrote down, "and since the leopard is about the same size as a wolf and the lion and tiger are both larger, in that situation it is more likely the wolf that will back down..."
"And a lion's Pride is just as social an organization as a wolf's Pack," Serenity nodded, "but how are we to gather such a force? We'd have to use the game ourselves, which isn't my mission, and could create trouble. A pack of wolf people on one side of Glendale opposed by a pride of lion people or mixed big cat people... we'd set off a fight that would destroy the town and make things worse."
"It was an idea," Paul wrote.
"I know," Serenity sighed, "but using it would make us as bad as these wolves are. We'll think of something. I'm sure of it."
In the meantime, Serenity suddenly felt a turn being used, and prayed that no one had stumbled into this pack of wolves.