Chapter Fourteen: Its unwise to anger A predator.

"you're MY prey!"

-???

Kori cursed under his breath, he'd been tracking these particuar giants for half a decade, his every waking moment he'd been devising ways to end his stepbrother's friend, and now that he'd found the perfect way, to destroy the monster's child and his partner, everything had been perfect, his vengeance in sight... and then this just had to come and ruin it for him!
on the path ahead of his targets, stood the german shepherd whom he loathed, and a white wolf buki, who had an old katana pointed at him, and a handgun drawn and ready to fire.
"How dare you?! these two are mine to hunt!" he snared at them, recieving a loud, feral roar from the white wolf as his eyes visibly changed to red.
"GO TO HELL!!"
in a flash of white and black, the wolf was upon him, hacking and slashing his armour to pieces.

collin savagely tore apart the fennec's armour with his sword, he knew of this murdering mongrel, he hunted giants to kill them, he thought of himsef as some kind of demented saviour, and now, he was targeting two of the most important giants in his life.
That wasn't gonna happen.
F that.
he slashed out at Kori's arms and drew blood, but that was something that disturbed him.
crimson didn't spill forth.
a dingy, murky grey did.
"what the... what the hell...?!"
Kori's demonic-looking eyes seemed to show amusement "oh, din' ya know? i'm nah fulleh Bukeh anymoar." he slurred as if drunk, but no presence of intoxication showed in his eyes.
"did... what? what'd you just...? why?"
"oh," kori chuckled and rubbed his eyes "yeah, i'mma bit fucked up in the head, too."
"why?" collin inquired, but kept his weapons ready.
"eatin' brains." kori said casually.
kevin retched, so did oriado and bailey.
collin recoiled in disgust "okay, you're seriously messed up."
"no, i'm fucked up. i went past 'messed up' about a year ago. i'm also double-bipolar now."
"wait," oriado gagged "four-way personality disorder?"
kori suddenly seemed very refined "oh, yes. first there's psycho Kori; the murderer, the one that talks like he's drunk, then there's happy Kori; he's kind of like a child version of us, then there's me, sane Kori; i'm rather studious, and finally, there's sad Kori; he's basically just a fennec-emo-fox."
kori turned and started walking away, which then turned to skipping "sorry 'bout all this, bye bye!" he waved happily back to them.

collin blew out a stressed breath "o-kay... he's seriously broken."
bailey clung to oriado's tail "scary guy... but... thanks, col..."
the little white wolf rubbed his eyes "you're welcome... c'mon, let's go back before he switches back to psycho-mode."

---

back in the safety of their home, the Ghasts sat at the kitchen table, collin stood atop it, his face full of distress and worry.
bailey fidgeted "so... your form... can you explain that... please?"
collin sharply drew in breath, and sighed "fair enough, i was born as a human on earth, but five years ago, i was abducted by 'someone' who needed help fighting bad guys, so, part of that was becoming 'Neowolf: The White Terror Clad In Shadows' ... i was trained as a ninja, and fought against the enemy... and along the way, i met your fathers and their friends..."
"so... this little wolf form... this is how you really look?"
"pretty much, yeah. the other form's another power i was given, i can turn into a 'feral' version of my 'Gliloutation'--"
bailey gasped "i know that word! it's the magic used by the famous wolf who saved the first Xlen and earth... wait... were you...?"
"i was," collin sighed "i was a member of 'the order', i served under the brown wolf himself."
bailey beamed "that's awesome! my pet's one of the Pack fighters!" his expression was elated, but then it slowly turned apologetic "uh... I- I mean... you're not--"
"no, it's fine, i AM still technically your pet wolf." collin interjected with a reassuring smile.

after about an hour of explaining, kevin and oriado left their son with collin to prepare dinner, the wolfdog and little wolf relaxing on the couch on the first floor.
"so... you can just switch between your two forms whenever?"
collin sighed, exhausted "yeah, pretty much..." he looked up at bailey's face with a sad expression "why? don't you like my normal look? do you prefer my domestic form?"
bailey panicked, raising his paws defensively "no no no! it's cool, i'm sorry... i didn't mean to offend you col-- i mean, collin!... sorry..."
"calm down, it's fine... but, please, i'd like to stay in my normal form for a bit longer, i've wanted to spend time with you as collin for years... to be more than just a pet," he replied calmly "to be a friend, your friend."
bailey lightly hugged him against his abdomen with his paw "well, pets are considered a 'best friend' aren't they?" he smiled, feeling the little wolf hug his paw in return.
"that they are, that they are."
"col-- uh... collin?"
"yes?"
bailey hugged him a bit firmer "you're an awesome pet."
"and you, an awesome master." he returned joyously, then chuckled "by the way, my full transformation makes me bigger than you." he said with a smirk.
"what?!" bailey stared down at collin in surprise.
"it's true, 10X larger than a giant, a Megalith."
bailey scoffed "i'd like to see that!"
"sure, one day, and hey, if you let me ride with you when i'm small, you can ride me when i'm bigger, deal?"
he held out his paw for a handshake.
bailey offered his finger and they shook on it "oh, that's definitely a deal!"
collin chuckled, and casual clothing appeared in place of his armour, a black longsleeved shirt and black jeans, his gun and katana vanished.
"now, Master Bailerich--"
"just call me 'Bailey' when you're not in 'pet' mode."
collin's smile grew wider "Bailey, how good are you at Dominators Demolition 5?"
bailey shot him a sarcastically annoyed look "you know i'm good."
"well then," the white wolf taunted him "i wonder if you're better than me? i doubt it."
bailey accepted the challenge "we'll see about that!"

"oh, will you now?" came a pair of amused voices from behind.

bailey looked over his shoulder to see his fathers looking down from the top of the stairs with broad smiles on their muzzles.
collin scoffed "oh, think you're better than me, too?"
Oriado rolled his eyes "i don't think i am, i know i am."
kevin brushed a paw through his head fur "we're veteran players, after all."
collin looked up at bailey's smiling face "break out the controllers, time for a you big guys to learn just how wrong you are!"

---

[WELCOME TO DD5; DOMINATORS DEMOLITION FIVE, THE GAME WHERE FIGHT MEETS RIGHT.]
[PLEASE ENTER USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS.]

[Captain Canis logged in]
[Genix logged in]
[Brigadeer Bow-Wow logged in]
[Invincible 01 logged in]

[WELCOME BACK VETERANS. PREPARE FOR ENHANCED BATTLES BEYOND THOSE EXPERIENCED--]

the computerised voice was annoying, so the players largely ignored it as they spawned into the HUB city.
Invincible 01, as he always had been, was a sharply dressed white canine in a tuxedo, looking like some sort of secret agent.
Genix, Oriado's avatar, was a canine-shaped creature covered in a high-tech hazmat armour suit, obscuring any and all of his actual appearance.
Brigadeer Bow-Wow, Kevin's avatar, was a german shepherd in military attire from the late 1900's.
and finally, Captain Canis, Bailey's avatar, was a german shepherd wearing a black trench coat and black sunglasses, and unlike the others, he was bare-pawed.
the utopian city sprawled out all around them for many miles, everything was gleaming, pristine white and looked like the 1990's idea of 2010.
they stood outside a large museum-like building, and the textbox popped up to identify their location.
[Prisman, city of light]
Invincible 01 sighed "wow, this game's certaily had a revamp..."
Genix laughed "yeah, they added this stuff about a year back, it's a full MMO now."
Captain canis began moving forward "this way to the arenas, follow my avatar."
the group travelled through the endless city streets, bustling with players from around the globe, and even some from earth, shown by a white box next to their usernames floating overhead.
Captain Canis lead them to a port, where a pirateship was docked.
"someone i usually play with runs an arena service, sea battle, you fight on boats n'stuff."
Brigadeer Bow-Wow scoped out the ship "no-one on board. let's try somewhere else."
they were once again lead away by the trenchcoat-wearing canine, but not very far, just to a large holographic planetary globe under cover of a domed roof.
"this is the tele-port, sends you out into areas and arenas across the game."

"that it does, nephew."

the ghasts' avatars turned quickly, they knew that voice anywhere.
a metre away, and walking closer, was a german shepherd in 17th century clothing, whose username read "Masterwlf LV:500"
Brigadeer Bow-Wow laughed "little bro!"
Invincible 01 groaned "so, it was you in that event five years ago? but you sounded adult?"
the elite player nodded and smirked "against KDMX, yes, but it is not like i killed you, you died from KDMX, not me, if i remember right... and i used a voice changer on my microphone."
Captain Canis invited the player, and the battle was set up as a handicap, Invincible 01 VS the rest of them.

Invincible 01 groaned as they began to load into the battlefield.
"there goes my chances of winning."

(Next Chapter: Life's A Game...)