Full Moon Strays

This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere. It contains heterosexual and lesbian sexual activity.

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The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between actual persons, living or dead (or just confused) is entirely coincidental. Please do not copy/redistribute the story, in part or in total, without the author's permission.

This story takes place in the entirely fictional city of Springfield, California, so don't go looking for it on a map. And in my little fictional world, there are no unwanted pregnancies or STD's, except as plot driving devices. The author encourages the practice of safe-sex. Finally, as the name implies, this is part of an ongoing series. It would benefit the reader greatly to examine the earlier stories for background information and descriptions.

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Jane stood in the alley, her eyes closed to the night-time world. Strands of her magically empowered hair were "sniffing" the air, for all intents and purposes, trying to sense her invisible foe. She felt something brush against a single hair, making her senses dance like a spider at the center of its web. Her eight braids reached out, grabbing debris and garbage cans to use as weapons when . . .

"Stop!" came a sharp voice a little further down the alley. Jane's friend, mentor and lover emerged from the darkness. Red looked the younger woman over. "What did you forget to do?"

Jane's pretty face was masked by confusion, and then reality seemed to dawn on her. "I went for weapons with everything. I didn't keep anything for defense."

"Precisely," Red said, trying to sound soothing. She normally wasn't quite so polite when a trainee made a mistake, but Jane's fragile mental state earned her a few breaks. "Anya, how was her defense up to that point?"

A small section of apparently empty space replied, "Actually, pretty good. Even with her eyes clothed, I couldn't get near her. That hair of hers is pretty frickin' fast and sensitive." Anya materialized and started to get dressed.

Red, a red-haired lycanthrope and team leader, had decided the newest member of the Strays needed some topside training. She had wanted to launch another attack on the hellspawn that the Strays had been warring with for some time, but she realized that they had lost the advantage of surprise, so had decided to wait until her fellow leader, Tarloh, returned from Los Angeles with information about the Dark One. Tarloh and his companion Talia had been gone for a couple of days, and the waiting was making Red jittery. Whatever this Dark One was, it had to be a major mystical player, because the hellspawn were a warrior race that didn't bow down before just any old creature.

So Red had brought Jane and Anya (a human woman with the Talent of invisibility) to train Jane in the use of her own Talent. Jane had gained the ability to manipulate her luxurious hair as if it were actual limbs. She was able to control eight braids with relative ease, and could use some of her free strands as a sensory shield. Her hair was incredibly strong and resilient, and had the ability to stretch for huge distances. What some might interpret as a silly ability had turned into something quite extraordinary, and it actually got stronger when Jane felt extreme emotion.

Red walked over and stroked her lover's hair. "Let's take a break and go grab some coffee. I'm buying," she joked. Most of the money the Strays had at the moment had been provided by Jane. "C'mon girls," she said, sliding an arm around Jane's and leading the smaller girl towards the street, Anya on the other side.

"Should we be spending money right now?" Jane asked.

"It'll be okay. We're not going to Starbucks or anything. I just figured we could use a rest."

Anya stretched her long sexy body as she walked. "Good thinking," she said. "Hey, we could mug a drug dealer on the way back to make up for it. I heard there's a slime demon dealing meth over on Seventh Street, and it was eating some of the clientele."

Red looked over Jane. She was still nervous about getting the girl involved in a fight, despite knowing what Jane was capable of. "You up for it? Helping us make the streets safe?"

"I . . . I don't know if I'm ready," Jane whispered, pushing herself against Red's side, enjoying her warmth.

"You're going to have to find out sometime," Red replied, trying to sound stern while secretly wanted to wrap Jane up in her arms and protect her forever. "I think you need to see more of what we do . . . and you need to decide once and for all if this is the life for you." Red hated saying that. The last woman she had said it to had left her.

"Okay," Jane said, looking into Red's eyes, begging for her approval. "After coffee."

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A little while later . . .

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Red had actually felt a little nauseous when she surveyed the carnage before her. Things had gotten ugly quickly. She and Anya had sent Jane topside to scout for any comrades the slime demon might have brought along while the two senior members of the Strays crept up on him. The pale-skinned thing that barely resembled a human was in the process of making a sale to an emaciated young man who was seriously jittery. The pusher had made some obscene gesture when the young man looked to make a purchase, indicating that more than money would be required. And the young man had stood up, his face caught between desperation and disgust, and reached for the button to his jeans as he turned around. When nothing happened, he turned back. The slime demon was gone.

Red and Anya had seen what had happened. Jane's hair had come shooting down shortly after the monster's intentions had been made clear and encircled the thing, pulling it up to the rooftop before it could make a sound. The two women found a fire-escape and quickly made their way up, arriving at the roof of the building just in time to see one of the demon's limbs land on the edge. Jane had ripped the monster apart. She was dripping with the green blood of her victim, and her eyes were barely human themselves. When she saw Red, the humanity returned and she dropped to her knees, crying like a child.

Red had shaken her head. She had hoped that Jane had stabilized on an emotional level, but seeing someone taking sexual advantage of someone had caused her to become unhinged. 'One step forward, one back . . .' the redhead thought as she and Anya escorted the sobbing woman back to the Den, where Jane curled up in a corner of Red's room and shunned visitors.

But if Red thought if things couldn't get any worse, she was wrong. She walked back out to the meeting area, leaving an exhausted Jane to sleep fitfully. There was a commotion going on . . . Tarloh and Talia had returned . . . and they weren't alone.

Mindy strolled up to Red. "How's she doing?" the blonde asked, hoping that her young friend wasn't going to go catatonic. Then she noticed Red's open-jawed, vacant stare, and she looked at the throng of people. She saw Tarloh and Talia, along with a number of other people, all of whom were talking to a beautiful, brown-haired brown-eyed woman with a tight, muscular body and . . .

"Holy shit!" started Mindy. "Is that Natasha?" Then she glanced nervously at Red. Things were strange when the two of them were together. They were friendly, but there was an unspoken tension there. Then Mindy thought of Jane . . . the girl had been standing on the edge of sanity for many weeks, and if she were to feel threatened by Natasha's presence . . .

"Yeah, that's her. Queen of the ball, as usual," Red muttered with a mixture of fondness and apprehension.

From across the room, the two powerful warriors' eyes met, and the crowd between them parted almost instinctively. A few stuck around to see what happened, while others found ways to busy themselves. The two women approached, and Nat was smiling.

"Hey gorgeous," she started in a voice so sultry that it almost melted Red's knees. "Long time, no see."

"Hey Natasha," Red said, keeping her voice firm, realizing she should get back to check on Jane. "What brings you down here? Besides our obvious peril, I mean?"

Natasha's face grew a little more serious. "Tarloh got a hold of me while he was in the area. After talking to that warlock, he thought he could use my help. Serious shit . . . I'm not surprised anything with any magical sense hasn't gotten the hell out of Springfield by now."

Red looked at Tarloh, who was standing nearby. "What's the damage?" she asked, now highly concerned.

Tarloh sighed. "Ever study the old magics? The sorts of shit that even immortals have long forgotten?"

Red's blood chilled. "No. The founders of the Strays never talked about that shit much. C'mon Tarloh, what's going on?"

"Get everyone together. This is important, and everyone's going to need to have a say in what we do. Where's Jane?"

Red glanced back towards the tunnels. "She's . . . she's in our room," she added, feeling a need to express something to Natasha without explicitly saying it. "She had a bit of a relapse," she added. She told Tarloh everything, unsure if Natasha had been told about the newest member of the strays yet.

"Holy crap," Nat muttered. "A slime demon? Those things are tough! But who's . . . "

"And she ripped it apart like it was made of twigs," Red reiterated. "Tarloh, what the hell do we do?" she asked, feeling more than a little helpless. She knew she should be concentrating on the big picture, but she felt so responsible for the young woman.

Tarloh steeled his shoulders. "We don't have time to coddle her now. She's going to have to toughen up or get out of the way," he said carefully, then moved to cut off Red when he saw genuine anger flashing behind her eyes. "And you know I wouldn't say something like that if this wasn't so fuckin' serious."

Red looked torn, then turned on her heel and left to go get Jane, and Tarloh breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought she was going to punch you," Talia muttered.

"Me too," he replied.

Natasha looked at them both. "Okay, who the fuck is Jane?"

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Back in Red's room . . .

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Jane was curled up in a fetal position next to the bed when Red stormed in. She saw that Red was angry, and instinctively assumed it because of her.

Red saw her lover cringe. "Stop that!" she started, then caught herself. "I . . . Jane, I need you to get up off the floor. We . . . need to talk."

Jane didn't want to stand. She wanted Red to kneel down and comfort her. But Red wasn't going to budge, so Jane slowly crawled up onto the bed and sat down.

"Jane, practice is over. Whatever Tarloh found out about, apparently it's the big time. That means you're going to have to suck it up. You know I want to help you, but we need you to be a grown up now. When whatever it is that is goin' on is done, I'll help you fight your demons. But right now, we need you to help us fight ours," Red finished.

Jane tried to steel her shoulders. She had destroyed that demon and though it had deserved it, she was afraid of how it had felt . . . the pure hatred she had felt as she ended the monster's mortal existence. And she had never even seen its face . . . she had seen a familiar, hated countenance from the past she strove to forget.

Red's face softened against her will. "This is your home now," she said softly. "Defend it. If the Strays mean anything to you . . . if I mean anything to you . . . then you'll be strong for me now." Red hated doing that . . . it felt like a cheap shot, but it seemed to work. Jane stood up, showing a little more strength, but Red was about to challenge her again. "And so you know, Natasha is here. Tarloh and Talia brought her back with them."

Jane's fists clenched, but whether from anger or tension, Red couldn't tell. "Let's go . . ." the girl whispered.

The two of them headed back topside, and Jane saw Natasha for the first time. Her first thought was that if Natasha wanted Red back, Jane would never be able to stand against her. Nat's strength was obvious and beauty undeniable. Jane was just a gnat in comparison. She tried to fall behind, but Red wrapped an arm around her shoulder and escorted her to the meeting table. Much to Jane's chagrin, Natasha sat on Red's other side.

Tarloh stood up, a grim look on his face. His gaze swept over the crowd. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, here's the scoop. We've got trouble with a capital 'S.' We've got some mystical power that feeds on madness, and it redefines evil as we know it. Does anyone remember the stories of the Elder Gods?"

Some people at the table looked confused. Some looked incredulous. Others looked downright terrified.

Tarloh stopped, took a breath and then, "What we seem to have here is a Shoggoth. For those who remember, the Shoggoths were servants to the Elder Gods, at least in the beginning. And when I mean the beginning, I mean the 'BEGINNING,' as in the beginning of creation. Back before reality as we know it came into existence, the universe was a thing of chaos and nightmares. There were no rules . . . no boundaries . . . no sanity, and certainly nothing resembling our version of 'morality.' It was a veritable orgy of violence involving creatures of power beyond anything any of us could truly imagine. Primal forces formed their own armies and made war against each other until only a few remained, but they were so powerful that they remained locked in a standstill for time unending. These powerful few have since been dubbed the Elder Gods. The Shoggoths were the soldiers of the Elder Gods, supposedly to be mindless servants. But in a universe of chaos, there are no rules, and the Shoggoths found will and desire of their very own . . . though they tended to serve, but mostly because the Elders were far too powerful for them to challenge. But don't let that fool you," Tarloh said, "these 'servants' could devour planets whole if they were at full strength."

Some gasped, while other failed to believe their ears.

Tarloh continued. "When Jane mentioned something about this 'Dark One' feeding on madness, it got me to thinking of a story I heard Olaf telling me once . . . a story that had been passed down in his own dimension for generations. Apparently the Elder Gods, in order to end the standstill, tried something new . . . they tried to form alliances against each other. But this caused a problem, because alliances require rules . . . they require some kind of order. Almost unwittingly, the Elder Gods gave birth to a new entity that would be their undoing." He scanned the room again. "The universe was still just a mixing pot of energy back then. When something new was introduced at a particular moment in a particular point in time, or singularity, that concept took on a life of its own. It was order . . . it was law . . . and it was unlike anything that had come before it. This new entity grew powerful on its own, and drove back the Elder Gods, imprisoning them somehow . . . somewhere. And at the moment of its victory, this universe and all its dimensions was created with a specific plan and purpose. Everything in this universe is connected . . . cause and effect.

"This story may sound impossible, and I'm asking you to take a lot on faith. But you've heard some version of this story before, though you may not know it. The winning entity has been . . . experienced . . . by living creatures since our universe began, and it has influenced every civilization on every habitable planet in every dimension. The great Evil defeated by the great Good . . . the Titans imprisoned by the Greek gods, the forces of the Devil tossed from the walls of Heaven by . . ."

"God?" Jane said out of the blue.

"Yes," Tarloh replied. "Vampires, lycanthropes . . . every civilization has some kind of story, legend or religion of some ancient battle in the heavens where evil was displaced. And unfortunately, every civilization it seems has a legend of that evil returning." Tarloh started to pace around the table. "The winning entity . . . we'll call it Order for the sake of argument . . . had created an army of its own. Its soldiers were also initially supposed to obey, but the remnants of the old universe were caught up in the creation of the new one, and they developed Will, as has every intelligent race since. But some of them chose not to serve Order, and when out into the universe to experience it. They apparently drop into civilizations from time to time and expose some scholar or wise man . . . or woman . . . to the history of our creation. That means that everything we know . . . everything I told you . . . may simply be revisionist history of the winning party. But it's all we have to go on."

"So where the hell does the Shoggoth come in?" Natasha asked. Despite having more important things going on, she kept glancing out of the corner of her eye at the frail-looking woman to Red's right, wondering why everyone treated her with such reverence.

"Well, since some of the servants of Order got loose, it only makes sense that some of the servants of the Elder Gods would still be loose. They're not as powerful as they once were because they have to abide by the rules of the universe, but they're still formidable and they want everything to go back to the way it was . . . no rules . . . no restrictions. When the mind of a sentient creature starts to break down, it feeds the Shoggoth. That's what clued us in," Tarloh said, giving Jane a nod. "And it won't stop . . . it's going to keep growing in strength. I don't know what its end goal is exactly, but I guarantee it won't be good."

"So let me get this straight," Arthur said, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "We're facing a ancient enemy of unimaginable power and indeterminate goals that probably wants to drive as many people as possible completely insane and we're not sure why."

"That pretty much . . . sums . . ." Tarloh had begun to reply. But the meeting had been interrupted by a . . . a buzzing sound. It had been faint at first, like white noise. Then it had built and crescendoed to a feverish hum until suddenly it burst into the room on the wings of millions of insects. And they were no ordinary insects . . . they consisted of nothing but burning hellfire, churning wings and teeth . . . oh so many teeth.

"HellSwarm!" Tarloh shouted. "Where the hell were the sirens?!?"

Shield was throwing up his magical force walls between the swarm and the grouped Strays when he replied, "I don't know! Everything was in place just an hour ago!"

The Swarm consisted of millions of hungry mouths, but those mouths served a single purpose. Like a pulsating arrow, they shot towards Red, eating there way into the shimmering force shield that now separated them. It was obvious to all what their target was.

"What the hell . . ." Red mumbled. All the lycanthropes began to morph, though none were sure why. A HellSwarm was a demonic foe that was generally not fought . . . merely experienced. To raise arms against it was like threatening to attack an earthquake. The swarm had no reason and no rhyme, and anyone who knew of them realized that someone called in a lot of favors and paid a terrible price to unleash one.

Talia was afraid for her friend. "Red, get out of here! They were sent for you!" She knew it was a useless attempt . . . Red would never run.

Natasha was wondering what she had gotten herself into, but moved to guard Red out of instinct. Protecting people was her job, and she had added incentive where THAT particular woman was concerned. She almost grinned, wondering what those little insects would think, assuming they were CAPABLE of thought, when they bit into Nat's skin and broke their little fangs.