To your horror, the latex engulfs the man's body from his head to his chest. He is
another purple latex werewolf from the chest up. The virus, or whatever is doing this,
has obviously altered his brain already because he tries to lash out at you. You jump
back from him and he lunges at you.
But you had been in a fight or two...or twenty. You sidestep the half-man half-monster
and bring your elbow down on the back of his neck. Clearly, he wasn't completely
latex yet because you heard a loud crack and he dropped to the ground whimpering.
You had effectively broken his neck.
Obviously injury stopped the virus from spreading because he lay there on the ground
stuck halfway between man and rubber beast. He whimpered and panted, unable to
move or do anything. Now you wondered what to do with him. Should you call an
ambulance and try to help him? Or should you leave him there to die a vicious
animal's death?
Before you could decide, a purple blur darted out from the bushes. But instead of
going for you, the original werewolf attacked the man. With a hardened purple claw,
the beast slit the man's throat and cut open his torso. As soon as blood was spilled,
the man was freed from his curse as the latex inside of him returned to it's owner. He
was now a regular man with a horribly dismembered body lying dead on the ground.
You couldn't help but feel a little queasy at the sight, but you knew this was no time to
be faint. The werewolf had turned to you. It didn't attack, it just stood there and stared
at you. It almost seemed to grin—if that was possible for a wolf. Then, it spoke in a
harsh male voice.
"You look surprised that I have killed him," it breathed in an almost demonic tone.
"You wonder why I should kill one of my own. But he was weak. He would not do for
my race. I want the strong, the smart, the brave. He was not worthy of the gift I had
bestowed upon him. So I took it back."
"Yeah, well no one likes an Indian giver," you say and get the bright idea to punch the
smart-ass creature.
Unfortunately, this one was a bit more trained. He caught your fist and twisted your
arm around to your back so that you could not hit him again.
"A fighting spirit is good," the creature complimented, "Though it is near useless in this
current body. Join me. With a spirit like yours in a body like mine, we could be ultimate
lifeforms. Together we could start a new race; one of power and pleasure. That's right,
pleasure. If you only knew how this body felt, you would join me without hesitation. I
implore you to consider my offer."
"Why? What do you gain from it?"
"I am the last of my species and have been lonely for a millennium. You see, my
species cannot die of most causes. The only way my species was destroyed was by
the expansion of our sun. I had been in our space station at the time, the only one
aboard. I barely made it out of range in time and I had to watch as my world—my
family, my friends, my life—was destroyed before my very eyes. I traveled for a
thousand years before I found this planet; the only other planet with intelligent life. I
wish to restart my species. I need family and friends, but only the strong can survive
the amount of energy required to sustain this body. That man there would have died
anyway. I only lessened his suffering."
"But he was bigger and stronger than me!"
The alien wolf released you, but you were interested now.
"No, no, you misunderstand. The body can be made strong, but only the mind shows
true strength. That man was afraid of me simply because he did not know what I was.
I tried to restrain him and force him to listen, but he flailed around and I accidentally bit
him. He was weak in mind, so his body was useless to him. But you...you were
unafraid. You did what you had to. You did not flinch when he attacked you, you did
what was necessary to survive. You even tried to attack me. You are strong in mind,
so you could use your body. That is what I seek."
"Okay," you said taking all of this in, "Supposing I would join you. Then what? We run
around attacking people? Recruiting those we find fit and killing those we don't? What
use is killing an entire race to revive one that was lost?"
"Death is not what I want," the creature replied, less demonic sounding now that he
had calmed down, but still sounding quite ferocious. "This man's death was
unfortunate. I did not think before I acted. I was eager to have a companion after
these thousand lonely years. We would be sure to plan beforehand next time. We
would only present ourselves to those we were sure could handle it. And as I am
doing with you now, we would always give them a choice. Please consider it, I beg of
you. I do not know how many more are like you. How many more will have what it
takes to join me. I have been lonely so long, I need someone to be my brother."