The doctors had Penny lay down on her belly and chest before they put her under. She had heard something about her pride mates doing a good job of stopping the bleeding, but after that, there was blackness...
++++++
Penny then came "to" in what looked like a barren wasteland with ruined buildings that looked like the photographs of bombed out cities from World War II. She thought it was a return to the nightmare she had when she unconsciously transformed Kirk and the newest pride members,and as she nervously made her way forward, she found it as worse...
She came across a large black mass with three heads that dwarfed the Smith manor, and before it lay unspeakable carnage... and both the Pack and the Pride were there. But not all of them were alive. She spotted a reddish brown she-wolf laying on her back and her bowls sliced open... her violet eyes staring off into nothingness. Elise and Fox lay nearby, looking like they'd been crushed by a tank.
"Throw me at them!" she heard an enraged voice growl.
Penny turned to see Brian talking to a black as night male wolf, that had tears in its eyes and looking enraged.
"Jensen, we'e not doing well," Brian answered, "Your gargoyles were smashed the instant they attacked and they blew up the police station. The only saving grace is that Mary and your pups made it to the island before this started."
Penny looked perplexed at this. As far as she knew, the Pack and the Pride were still on opposing sides. How could they be getting along.
"I don't care," Jensen growled, "They KILLED Kaylee... the first person I ever TRULY loved... and they killed her. Throw me at them."
Penny watched as Brian raised his hands together and Jensen crouched on them. It was strange to see a nine foot tall wolf crouching in the paws of a twelve foot lion, but she watched as Brian threw Jensen in the direction of the black mass. The wolf snarling as he flew through the air. Jensen landed near the neck of the central head and he quickly seized it's throat in his jaws and shook his head violently. The mass seemed to slow, but two large black arms and hands grew out of its sides.
They grabbed Jensen from two sides and pulled him away from the central head. Penny nearly threw up when she watched the black mass literally tear Jensen in half, and threw his lifeless body down in front of her.
"My God!" Penny swore.
"It's the witches... the game..." came Serenity's voice.
Penny turned to see Serenity there, alone, her face burned and one arm missing, and blood trailing down her side.
"What's going on?" Penny asked, confused by what she was seeing.
"The curse has come alive," Serenity spoke weakly, "We freed the Pack... which had already come to hate the game themselves, and the witches attacked both. They blew up the station... I barely got out... they then blew up the Smith manor, destroying their gargoyles and shattering every mirror they had there... the Pride and the Pack have been fighting them ever since, trying to save the city..."
Penny looked around. Nearly all of the pride was dead, with the exception of Brian, Kirk, and Mal'akh, and with the exception of three blond she wolves, it now looked like all of Jensen's pack was dead.
"We're not doing well, I see," Penny spoke, sounding truly afraid.
Serenity didn't answer her, instead she heard three powerful and evil sounding voices yell, "WE ARE THE CURSE OF GLENDALE! YOU TRIED TO FIGHT US! YOU WRETCHED HAPPY WOLVES AND LIONS! YOU DARED TO PERVERT ME! AND NOW YOU WILL ALL PAY!"
+++++++
Penny shot up to find herself back in Glendale's hospital in a room that was more then adequate to hold her size. Her legs still hurt a little, but it felt like everything was "fixed". Nothing looked destroyed. There were no sounds of evil. It had all been a nightmare.
"I'd rest if I were you, ma'am," came a kind voice, making Penny look to see the doctor who had been there for her surgery, "We're working on getting some crutches and a wheelchair that will support your weight, and you should be able to go with your boyfriend in a little while, but I urge you to rest."
"Kirk is my mate... though we haven't had time to set a date for the wedding yet," Penny spoke, "can I see him?"
"I'll let him now you're up," the doctor smiled and walked out.
A few minutes later Kirk came in. He was quick to hug her, making her feel comfortable.
"Are you alright?" Kirk asked.
"Physically, yeah," Penny sighed, "everything is still a little numb there."
Kirk looked at her nervously, "what's wrong?"
"I had a bad nightmare, Kirk," Penny said weakly, "the curse came to life and killed everybody... the Pride, the Pack, the police, everybody."
"It was only a dream," Kirk spoke, and hugged her tighter, "it was only a dream."
+++++++
"This has to stop," Amy whimpered as she recovered from seeing the gargoyle's forms be locked, "it has to stop."
Ulysses and Sarah looked at the pup and then at the she wolves returning to inside the manor.
"They're just protecting us," Sarah commented, "it's what the gargoyles are there for. People may not pay us much mind right now... but how long will that last? They could hate us eventually and will come after us. The gargoyles are to keep us safe..."
"It's escalation," Amy said, "the lions already hate us for our taking UNWILLING victims... even if they're happy as part of the pack. This will only make them hate us more, and you will have to fight them, and Mary will never forgive you."
Ulysses felt a lump in his throat. Much like Fran and Darla wanted to mutate Julie to be with her, Ulysses had wanted to mutate Mary so that they could be "best friends" again... maybe more, but that option was gone forever. He was a wolf forever more, and she was a lion cub forever more. They weren't even the same age any more, but still the purple male wanted things to be well between him and his friend... and in that moment, something snapped inside his mind.
He remembered everything. The blond she wolf leading the staff on a chase through the manor and then sending five at a time into the servants foyer to be transformed while the she wolf stayed with the rest of the staff and practically taunted the men with her assets. He remembered his own transformation, the threat of becoming a statue making him quickly take one of the straws in Alexandra's hand. He drew the short straw, which left him male... all of it had been unwilling... which was wrong... yet it was still for a good cause... for Pack and family... it made Ulysses realize that the manner in which the pack transformed was the problem.
It startled him. It was like the brainwashing he had gone through had been broken. He still loved his pack, and cared for Sarah like a big sister, but he wanted to do what was right. He had to help his Alphas see that. But what perplexed him more was the wonder as to how his brainwashing had been broken? Was it his old crush on Mary, that his love for her had broken it? Was it Amy? Did she have powers that her transform didn't mention? It all made his mind spin in circles.
"Amy's right, Sarah," Ulysses spoke, "we can certainly do better then this. Those gargoyles were part of the regular staff, like you were... I was only part time so I could attend school as well... they didn't deserve to become statues whose only purpose was to stand around attack anyone that looked threatening. Maybe we should have asked them if they could have become wolves like us, and they'd be part of the family and could talk with their families outside the Pack... but this will makes us evil... we can do better."
"Do you think we can do better?" Sarah asked.
"I believe so," Amy spoke, "but we must talk with Jensen-Sama, or our lives will be a nightmare and its beauty will never come to pass..."
+++++
Meanwhile in a different room, Kaylee found the triplets nervously standing in what was the Pack's medical room. They still did not look well.
"Are you three okay?" Kaylee asked as she entered, wondering to herself where this compassion was coming from. She hadn't been made to be compassionate. She had essentially been made to be a sex toy for Jensen... yet she'd become more then that. She was a mother, if only because of the Game, and proud to be one, and she had come to truly love Jensen. If her brainwashing suddenly ended, she would still love Jensen with all her heart. She knew that, and sensed the triplets would too.
"We're fine, Alpha female," Darla said slowly.
"The three of you don't look fine," Kaylee commented, making all three of them look up to her.
Kaylee sensed that they were confused by her "compassion" as well.
"The four of us are Jensen's mates, and the only wolves of real rank after Jensen, himself," Kaylee spoke, "we should be able to share things. What is wrong?"
Kaylee was silently amazed by this. She had witnessed Jensen become more and more benign, and now she was sensing it in herself. Like the hold of the fictional "big bad wolf" was breaking and they were reverting into humanoid wolves based of the animal that naturally existed. She wondered where it was coming from. It couldn't the Curse, as with every moment of benign transformation, they became happier.
"It was our battle with the lioness at the gallery, Alpha Female," Darla spoke...
"Call me Kaylee," Kaylee instructed, "we're all sort of sister-wives to Jensen anyway. No need for that formality."
The triplets smiled for a moment, feeling a sense of camaraderie with Kaylee that they had never felt before. They were with her because they loved Jensen and Kaylee was never far from him. But now... they were becoming friends.
"It was our fight with the lioness, Kaylee," Julie spoke.
"But you won that fight."
"Yes, but Darla and I were police before we met you," Fran explained, "Penny was a police woman... although I can not remember a woman named Penny while we were there... and its too soon for us to be replaced."
"Didn't you mention a man named Penn there?" Julie asked, "Penny has to be transformed by the game like we have been. Maybe when the lions from that house transformed Penn they made him Penny."
"Maybe," Darla nodded, "but the point is, Kaylee was that we DID fight her. The force is like the pack. We were all friends as officers of the law. Fighting her... was like fighting with a Pack mate. We had to do it to protect ourselves and carry out Master's wishes, but it still feels like fighting a Pack mate..."
"And you won't want to fight the lions when and if they attack the manor?" Kaylee asked.
"No," Fran spoke.
"Then you'll go with the pups to the island," Kaylee instructed, "the gem wolves will need leaders if we can not make it. And you three are the betas. You'll succeed Jensen and I if we're killed, and the pups will need you."
"But Master will..." Darla began.
"I'll deal with Jensen on this issue," Kaylee spoke, "and who knows... hopefully something will come along and there will be no war with the lions."
"Thank you," the triplets said together while Kaylee turned her attention to Julie.
"Now, Julie, you mentioned something about reducing the size of the Japanese female's over-sized assets?"
"Yes, Kaylee," Julie said, "not that the males probably don't like them, but they're impractical. Amethyst is large and bouncy... we are large and bouncy... you and your copies are large and bouncy... but we're all within the range most human women have bust sizes to remain practical. You're a large C, it seems to me. We're DD, and Amethyst is an F... but these Japanese females are twice the size of Amethyst's!"
"I didn't think they made bras that big," Kaylee commented.
"Not for common stores," Julie spoke, "some human women have had extremely over active hormone levels and naturally became that large or close to it and they have to specially order them to get that support... but even with them, breasts that large are a problem. It'll give them back pains and when they become old, I doubt they'll be able to move at all, not to mention the threat of breast cancer, and I doubt they can open cabinets easily."
Kaylee suddenly thought of an episode of the Simpsons when Marge accidentally got breast implants, which impeded her housework and prevented her from hugging Maggie normally. Kaylee realized that if they were to stay in the pack there would be some things that they would need to do... especially when they all began having puppies the natural way.
"Can you make them smaller?" Kaylee asked, "more in proportion for their body size? So they can function?"
"Do I have the knowledge?" Julie asked, "Yes. It was part of my transform... the problem is that breast reduction surgery is serious work... and the manor is not equipped for it. I need a real hospital setting."
"Couldn't we give them a transform that makes them smaller?" Kaylee asked, "I'm sure Alice could word the reduction transform, and it wouldn't change their species, which means it wouldn't challenge the locked form."
Julie was silent.
"And since we're still evacuating the manor," Kaylee spoke in a depressed voice, "I doubt you'll get the setting needed to perform the surgery. The game might be our only option for it."
"We'll need to talk it over with Jensen first," Darla sighed, "He'll want to know."
++++++
"We'll drop the charges," Brian and Felicity said to Gill.
Felicity remembered what went through her mind when she freed Ashley. Wondering about what made the situation with her "wrong". Was it really her species or the fact that she was brainwashed. And seeing Ashley and the other two she-wolves and the glass pup peacefully playing "Go Fish" with Mary, confirmed to her that the problem was the brainwashing, not whether they were lions instead of wolves... or human. She found it odd that that thought came to her. Her family had given up being human and insured that the Pride would never be human again. It made her wonder how much she and Brian were being affected by the curse and how "civilized" they really were.
"Both for Ashley and for the others that were at our house," Brian added.
Gill nodded. The pride also heard Mary give a relieved sigh.
"That's good," Mary spoke after a bit.
"What is it, Mary?" Brian asked his daughter.
"I didn't want Uly to go to jail," Mary spoke after a moment, "He was there too... though he didn't want to fight... strangely. Before I knew he was a wolf and his form was locked as ours is... I must admit I had wanted to make him a cub... a male cub... so we could still be friends and grow up together..."
"If we free him from his brainwashing he could still be your friend," Bobbi spoke.
"And I do want him to be my friend... even though I'm younger then he is now," Mary nodded, "but I'd loose him if he went to jail..."
"You love him..." lioness Megan spoke, "shouldn't that have been able to break his brainwashing? Even if not his form?"
"It was only a teenage girl's crush," Mary answered, "and Mommy, Daddy, and I do not have your "true love" powers. Daddy gave them to you so that if the pride is to be added to... those who join will join willingly and so that the game won't need to be used for it."
"I think Ulysses had hoped to transform you during the attack for a similar reason," Ashley commented, "like he liked you, and wanted you to be with him. He's too old to be grouped with the pups and he's not mature enough to take mates, yet, and has no one else his age. He's had Sarah as a big sister for him, but ultimately I think he's wanted a friend or someone he can relate to. Someone his own age."
"How old his he?" Elise asked curiously.
"About fourteen or fifteen, I think," Ashley spoke, "His family outside the Pack is dirt poor and they needed his part time job at the estate to insure that he could be taken care of at home... and that probably makes his situation worse as far as the curse is concerned. His folks might be "okay" as they no longer have the third mouth to feed, but they might not... and it doesn't change the fact that despite their poverty... Ulysses's family was a happy one."
"Which will make freeing Alpha Male Jensen and the pack all the more important," wolf Megan spoke, "free of the curse, we can explain to our families outside the pack what happened to us, and maybe bring those like Ulysses family to the manor to live in comfort... even if we never transform them... there is so much good that we could do, but couldn't because of the curse..."
The other wolves nodded.
"We're getting off track here," Serenity sighed, "we can settle what we'll do to fix the problems this whole thing has caused after we've settled the problem."
"When do you plan to go?" Gary asked curiously.
Margot looked at her pack mates and to Abbey. She put the cards she was holding down.
"Right now," Margot spoke, "Jensen is evacuating the manor because he fears you will split up the pack and kill him or harm the pups. The longer we wait the longer something else could happen. And who knows what the curse will try to do. We must move quickly... by the time you reach the manor, the Pack should be free."
"But what about Jensen?" Lexi asked, "what if he's suspicious and attacks you? You should wait till we can back you up... or take us with you."
"Father would see you in the mirrorverse," Abbey spoke up, "While you can be in the mirrorverse and not be seen while living in its reflections... in order to leave the mirrorverse, my sisters and I would have to take you to the reflective edge where you could be seen."
"Reflective edge?" Sasha asked.
"Yes," Abbey nodded, "My sisters and I prefer mirrors, as they're the easiest to use and are reflective at all times, but the surface tension of water, TV and computer screens, highly polished metals like brass to a certain extent, even normal panes of glass would work, so long as the light hits it right all work. It's a thing to insure that my sisters and I can never be trapped in the mirrorverse, even if it is our world... Either way, if you came along, Father would see you and we couldn't be free."
"And we can't wait for you to move into "backup" positions outside the estate," Ashley added, "we've come to distrust the Game, and if it is sentient or semi-sentient, it probably doesn't like us for that and for our happiness as a Pack. It will certainly try to influence Alpha Male Jensen and Alpha Female Kaylee to some extent... I don't think it will work, but if it tries, it could still be trouble. Our forms are locked, just as yours are, so our species or form can't be changed... but small things can be changed. One of our pack mates was altered when she brought in the gem colored wolves, and she was the asker in that situation. Right now, the Pack wants to stay at the manor. We don't want to evacuate. If we do this now, and explain to Jensen that after "freeing me" Margot and and Megan overheard something with Abbey in the mirrorverse that will allow the pack to remain at its home... any attempt the curse may take to influence them will fail as their desire to stay at their home will top any attempt by the curse to secretly manipulate them."
"Once you get to a backup position," Margot spoke, "the pack should be free and we can begin using this "cure" Serenity has told us about."
"Alright," Gary reluctantly nodded, "good luck."
The wolves all placed their cards down and stood up. Mary looked a little sad at seeing their game end, but it was to end the wolves' brainwashing and prevent a war between them. Abbey came around the table and gave her a friendly hug. It felt a little weird to Mary to feel Abbey's smooth glass body rub against her fur, and was surprised when Abbey licked her check.
She then watched as Abbey took Margot and Ashley's paws while wolf Megan took Margot's other paw and approached a nearby mirror that had always been there. All of them watched in amazement as Abbey walked into it like it was a liquid, and then appeared inside mirrorverse as a blond flesh and blood pup in a dress. Ashley, wolf Megan, and Margot were all dressed like middle class women from the Victorian Era.
"They wear clothes in there," Mary gasped.
"And they fit," Gary nodded, "perfectly. Strange as all three of the she wolves are bigger then human women... and by that I mean taller and more heavily muscled..."
"Not to mention that out here they go around naked, like we do," Sasha commented, "I wonder though... would we wear cloths if we were to go in there? I mean we can't be affected by their transform powers thanks to our lock... so it wouldn't hurt to be curious right?"
"If we get Fran and Darla back, you'll have to ask them about that when there's a "bring your kid to work day"," Bobbi told the other lioness.