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The Island of Free Wonders: Part 1 For Studley-Destiny By Draconicon

Studley looked over the horizon with more than a little trepidation as the cruise ship continued its slow journey across the Pacific. A little magic had rendered the top of the ship to look like the ocean around it, but he wasn't sure just how long that disguise would work, particularly with all the rambunctious antics that followed it.

The wolf looked over the railing, seeing a few of the passengers swimming and leaping through the water alongside the ship, shaking his head. The newly anthro dolphins and orcas were definitely enjoying their bodies - and more importantly, were keeping up with the ship - but he kept having to create little obstacles to shepherd them back to the ship, keeping them from slipping too far away. The few times that he'd been spelled at that duty ensured that he was still strong enough to do it, but that didn't mean that he was enjoying babysitting duty.

Hell, I get enough of that with my colleagues.

He looked over his shoulder, seeing that the deck was still something of an orgy between the more land-dwelling species. A giant pile of fur, scales, and flesh writhed about as people enjoyed their new forms and their more sexual minds. An unavoidable consequence of the transformation, as far as he had been able to determine. Not as drastic as some of the Transformed that he'd seen under Rannoi's and Mirari's care, but enough to leave them offensive to...prudish eyes.

Not his, though. He chuckled, shaking his head as he turned back to the railing. They were rather amusing, and every now and then, he swore that they came up with a new position, one that he planned to use on his next coupling.

He kept watching the people in the water for another hour before familiar, solid footsteps came up behind him. Two pairs, his sensitive ears informed him. One on scaly feet, the other on soles of stone.

"Rannoi. Mirari."

He slowly turned to face the dragon and the statue of a woman, smiling at them. They nodded back, and Mirari offered her hand, which he graciously took and kissed.

"Good to see you again, my dear lady."

"And you are welcome as well, Studley."

"Perhaps one day I'll get you to double my name."

"Perhaps soon, oh shifty one."

He chuckled before turning to her partner. Despite their new relationship, he still had a few bones to pick with the dragon. Rannoi had created so much of a mess with his whole 'park' incident, and the dragon was still one of the wild cards of the current operation. Studley doubted that his fellow Wonder would throw him under the bus for this, but...

Shaking his head, he waved for the pair of them to follow, and they did as he headed towards the bow of the ship. Nominally, he was the one in charge, but the wolf always thought of the pair of them as judges, as if they were waiting for him to make a small mistake so that they could step in.

Probably wrong, he thought, but he kept his guard up anyway. Rannoi and Mirari had always been troublemakers, and he knew better than to give them too much leeway. The only reason that they were going along with his idea was because they had similar goals, and because they needed him.

Old friendships, too, but he didn't put much trust in that. It would be rather foolish to trust a dragon and a magical construct to not give in to temptation, if they could get what they wanted and not have to share it so much. Just as they would be foolish to take their eyes off of him if he had the same idea.

It took them the entire trip to the front of the ship to leave the sound of coupling individuals behind. The sound of the waves and wind was all that could be heard, and the three of them rested in silence for almost five minutes.

Finally, Rannoi spoke up.

"You told me that you'd share the coordinates of the obelisk. Now would be a good time."

"Would it?"

Studley chuckled.

"We're going more or less in the right direction. That's all we need."

"If you excuse me, I think we need more than that."

Rannoi stepped up next to him, the black scaled dragon leaning on the railing.

"Even with all three of us, this is going to be a hell of an undertaking. I need to know where the obelisk is. I need to know how much water we'll need to displace, and how much land will need to come up. Without that -"

"Rannoi."

Mirari interrupted him, a fact for which the wolf was grateful. As the stone woman rubbed the dragon's arm, Studley debated what he could and couldn't share.

His 'friend' was right about one thing. They needed to hurry to the obelisk, and while he had a strong faith in his own power as well as theirs, he also knew that the dragon was more worried about the technical details of things than he was. If they weren't prepared, Rannoi might call the whole thing off and try it in a different way. A very loud, very dangerous way.

And after the whole Seattle incident, Studley didn't have the ground to stand on when it came to telling the dragon to be silent. Their whole master/pupil relationship could go right out the window, if he took things too far, and Rannoi was just powerful enough to be a pest, and smart enough to be a problem.

If he told, however, then he had the simultaneous problem of weakening his own leverage, in terms of how he could control the dragon. He didn't bring as much to the table as the pair of them did, not in raw power, and certainly not in teamwork.

He decided to gamble.

"Well, I was planning to share, but if we're going to move the plans forward, I think we need to do that for everything."

The spark on Rannoi's eye reminded him that his pupil was no fool.

"You want it now?"

"Not necessarily. I'll settle for when I give up the information."

"You are pushing it..."

"Am I? Am I really?"

He glanced past the dragon to Mirari, and smiled his best smile at the stone lady. She offered a hint of one in return, but he took it. After all, what other man could make stone smile even that much?

"Mirari seems keen enough for the idea. Why hold back?"

"Because I don't know how well this will work. It is a theory only, to meld us all together, to let you share this bond."

"And it's the only way that we're going to get the island up, isn't it? So let's not waste time. You let me in, and I'll give you the information."

"...Fine. But not until we reach the Hawaiian islands."

"Why? What's there?"

"Something to recharge some of our energy. We'll need it."

Studley had no idea what Rannoi was talking about, but he did his best not to show it. After all, why give away that he was still figuring out what his students could do?

Hawaii was a bigger island than he'd expected, but the wolf didn't get a chance to see any of it. He was stuck sweating his ass off in the middle of the volcano.

"You know, when you suggested the Hawaiian islands, this wasn't what I had in mind."

"I don't think it was what the little drones floating above us thought, either."

Studley grumbled as he lashed another bolt of golden light between Mirari's platform and the sides of the volcano. The red light coming up from beneath was a powerful incentive to keep working, and work hard; even Wonders would have a hard time coming back up from a lava bath.

Despite the dangerous working conditions - and the job of keeping all the different Transformed on top of the platform rather than jumping ship to the island - he knew that this was the best place for them. Rannoi wasn't kidding when he mentioned the drones; as soon as the cruise ship had made landfall, he'd spotted two of them circling in the skies above. He'd wanted to shoot them down, but the dragon had stopped him. Something about 'showing an example.'

If it had been Gleb, or one of the other specters out of his past, he would have been worried. With Rannoi, he was just curious.

A few more bolts of gold light created the supports that Mirari needed to stay above the magma below, and Studley took a deep breath, sitting on the very edge of her stony body.

"Are you comfortable, Mirari?"

I am content.

He shook his head, rubbing at her sides. It was still a bit strange, thinking of a giant slab of rock more than four hundred feet across in all directions as a body, but that was the case here. She simply was a bigger person, and could mold herself in ways that other Wonders could only marvel at.

The wolf glanced at the dragon flying down below, wielding a strange mix of the colors and the Wonder magic to set up a conduit of energy conversion.

"He's always surprising me. How long has he been able to do magic like that?"

He figured it out about a hundred years ago. It's been quite helpful.

"I bet. How many other shapes have you had? I bet you've been a dam at least once."

Three times, as a matter of fact.

"What's it like?"

I believe you are familiar with the feeling of being penetrated by another male?

"From both ends, yes."

Think of it as a constant in-flow from one end, and out flow from the other. I've experienced it both ways.

"...Yuck."

An acceptable summary.

He let the topic drop, not wanting to think about that sort of sensation.

Still, at least they were safe down here. The constant belches of smoke - increased since their arrival - should keep any of the drones from getting a good picture, and the heat should keep their other spectral views useless. All they needed was to wait for a day or two to get their strength up again, and they'd be ready to bring the world into a new age.

He chuckled as he kicked his legs back and forth, wiping his forehead a few times to get rid of the excess sweat building up on his face. Resting his hands on Mirari, he imagined what the new island would be like, with no council, and just the rule of a bunch of people that really wanted to make things better.

It would have to be a big place. The whole of Wonder society - minus those that would harm it - would want to come there. They could live their lives openly, conduct changes in the world, go out on missions that would change the way of life as they knew it. No more council to regulate them all the time, no more troublemakers that wanted to hide the island or freeze the world as it was.

"And no more Hai Mei."

"I'm surprised you still hate her so much."

He turned as the dragon joined him on the edge of the platform, and sighed.

"She's going to ruin the whole world if she has her way. Not just us, but the world."

"People are afraid of change."

"And she is petrified of it."

"I don't know. I think that's an insult to Mirari and other petrified individuals."

Studley chuckled, shaking his head as he leaned forward. Looking down at the lava, he couldn't help but imagine the power of the red goo, how it was always rolling, always changing, always shifting in state. The sheer heat molded it, and the moment it collapsed, it would turn back to rock. From one state to another, constant flux.

Just like the colors of chaos.

It wasn't until he felt the tingle in his fingers that he realized he'd called on them, and he quickly swished his hand around to get rid of it. However, it didn't go unnoticed, and Rannoi shook his head.

"I thought that you had a better handle on chaos than that, old friend?"

"I do. I just need to make sure that I don't slip into thinking of it...like that."

"Please do. I prefer the shapes that we have, and I'd prefer not to become something like a manticore without my choice."

"You of all people should know chaos doesn't necessarily work like that."

"It works strangely enough that I have no idea what it will do. And I don't think you really know, either."

That was a fair point, though one he hated. His ability to work with the colors of chaos was a fairly new one, and random in a lot of ways. It could do things that Wonder magic, for all its transformative qualities, couldn't, but not always in the way that one expected.

But with the obelisks...

Studley shook his head.

"I can make it work, as long as we do it in the right place."

"Speaking of which."

"Yes, yes. Melding first, location after."

"Location first, Studley. I've been patient, but -"

Perhaps we can make a compromise.

The pair of them looked down at the stone platform, which shifted underneath them. A pair of hands formed, gripping both of them by the wrist. Studley suddenly had the feeling - both horrible and nice - that they might never let him go, and he could never break free.

I will meld with Studley first, and you may join after the information is shared.

The dragon looked down for a moment, and Studley thought for sure that Rannoi would dismiss the idea. After all, it had been something he'd opposed, almost jealously, right from the start. Why would he -

"Fine. Do it."

"...You are full of surprises today."

"We need this. I'll put my other feelings aside for now."

"Well, I'll be gentle."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that. I'd be more worried if she would be."

"What?"

Rannoi nodded down again, and Studley followed his glance. His eyes immediately went wide as he saw that the stone was sliding up his arm, covering him from wrist to just a bit above his elbow. He wrenched at it, but the stone was too strong. Red lines came up it, and he realized that here, now, Mirari was stronger than she'd ever been. She was drawing power from the mountain itself, and he shuddered at the thought of just how much like a mountain goddess she could be.

The stone slid over his body, pulling him down flat as it wrapped him up like a cocoon. He tried to ignore the way that it covered his face, tried to tell himself that this wasn't a trap. Yet, as the light faded and his chest barely moved from the pressure on it, all of his suspicions urged him to jump up and fight.

He squelched them, if only barely, and the stone layer spread further and further over his body. It laid on him like a heavy blanket, surprisingly warm, and holding in heat. The wolf jumped as it slid past his waist and somehow managed to cup at his crotch, squeezing him before releasing it, giving him space to grow.

By the time the stone reached his legs, and completely covered him, Studley was on the verge of losing control. A buried memory of the dark, of having no ability to move, of being lost to all things, reared its head. He reached for his power -

No.

Mirari's voice reached into him, and like the hand of a real god, pushed down on his mind. His grip on his magic faltered, and then slipped away completely, leaving him helpless. The wolf whimpered, surprising himself in his own fear. What was this? What was this feeling, this terror?

Studley.

His name. Yes, his name. Come back to that. Come back to that. The wolf struggled, pulling himself towards the 'sound' in his mind.

No...Studley's not right...

Yes it was. How could it be anything else? He was Studley, Wonder of the Weres. He'd never been helpless like this before, but it was still him. Still -

More than Studley...more...

Her presence was like a light in his mind, and he realized that she was casting her energy across all corners of his mind, even into the dark corners that he'd never seen before. The colors of chaos twinkled there, and he realized that it had been deeper in him than he'd ever seen before, deeper and more integral to him even than the Wonder magic.

You are more than Studley...Rannoi was right.

Right about what? What does he know? Tell me!

He reached for her, but she held him back, effortlessly. The power she was drawing and used against him was impossible to get past. Even as he momentarily marshalled his power over chaos and threw it against her, she managed to dismiss it. Here, in his mind, drawing on the power of the world, she was nothing short of a goddess.

A minor goddess...

The thought came and went, but its import lingered. What did he mean by that? Why did he make that comparison? And why...why had it sounded so sneering?

Mirari lowered her wall again, and this time, he tried to keep himself calm as she extended her light over his mind. It was at once soothing and loving, and he let out a slow sigh as she 'collected' him into her arms. Her figure in his mind was...much softer than he remembered her being in reality.

She pulled him to her chest, and he laid his head upon her breasts. They squished out under him gently, and she stroked his cheek like...like someone in his past. Someone that had been very important, someone that had disappeared long before his earliest memories.

It was at once a taunt and a comfort to him, and he held tight to the latter. Wrapping his arms around her, he slowly looked up.

How...how do we meld?

I am told that the function is similar to how you bond with some of your own kind.

You are...heh. We have sex in here?

I believe that is the term, yes.

Well...I can do that...if you'll tell me the mysteries you're seeing.

Those are Rannoi's to tell or not. You already owe us much, Studley. Please don't make me regret this offer.

I assure you, my dear.

He smiled up at her, raising his head to kiss her on her lips. Already, he could feel that he was more than ready for her, and he laid her down in the plains rapidly forming in his mindscape.

I assure you...You won't regret anything.

And as he slipped into her, he was sure that he wouldn't regret anything either.

He couldn't have said how long he remained in the rock bindings, but when they were removed, the moon was high in the sky. Studley realized two things as soon as he opened his eyes. One was that he had more staying power than he thought. The second was that the smoke screen was gone.

Sitting up immediately, he spotted Rannoi staring up at the moon, and grabbed for him. The dragon looked down.

"I thought you'd be asleep for another hour or two."

"What...did...you...do?"

"An example."

Studley panted, staring at the dragon as he feared the worst. An eruption to wipe out the island? A mass transformation? What had happened? What -

Then...he felt something. A wriggle. A twitch. Almost like something walking across the surface of his skin. He shook his head, trying to dismiss it, but there it was again. It was like a flea, some sort of interruption.

Rannoi turned at the same time he did, and they had very different reactions. The dragon was calm, and the wolf was shocked as the two drones - now somehow turned into a pair of metallic bird humanoids - dragged a human being across the surface of Mirari. Studley realized that he could feel every bit of contact as if the human was a creature being scraped across his own skin, and shook his head.

"This..."

"You're bonded now. Did you give Mirari her information?"

"Yes, but - but what are you doing with this? Who is he?"

"An experiment. Close your eyes, Studley."

"What -"

"Indulge me. Close your eyes."

The wolf did, slowly letting himself sink back down. He reached for his magic...and paused.

Within him, he'd always been used to the golden pool of light that he used for his Wonder magic. It had been there for years, and next to it, around it, were the colors of chaos that had been there even longer, but he'd only started using recently.

A new thing was around that. It was a strange, silvery mass, something that seemed to touch and connect to everything inside of him. When he 'touched' it, he felt a swell of sensation, of heat and contact and so many voices filling his head at once. He pulled back immediately, gasping for breath.

"Again."

Being instructed was not how he'd imagined this going, but he had little choice. He needed to know what this was. He reached out again, this time barely touching it.

Thankfully, it was less overwhelming this time around. The voices came from all over, but one at a time they became clearer, and he could shift between them. He recognized voices from here and there, from the security officers that had been hired before their trip, to the newly transformed former Seattlites, thinking of how much they enjoyed their new life.

And then...

He opened his eyes, keeping contact. As he looked at the stranger, he could hear his thoughts. He could HEAR what was going on inside of the human's head.

"Is this...can you do this?"

"All the time. Anything that's on Mirari, I can hear. Except you."

Studley didn't know why that was the case, but he was thankful for the strange protection that he enjoyed, and seemingly still did, if Rannoi and Mirari still didn't know some of his plans. He'd have to be careful, though; if he shared plans with anyone else, he'd never allow them to come to this place.

Despite himself, he started rooting through the human's mind, exploring it, feeling it out. He could almost taste the sensation of fear in there, but more than that...anger?

And more...

"He's not human, is he?"

"No. Care to go further?"

"I...yes."

He almost felt hungry as he ran back into the newcomer's mind, rifling through his thoughts like they were so many file cabinets. He didn't bother picking up after himself, but instead threw the pieces of thought paper onto the floor, stomping over them as he looked for more information.

Hai Mei's agent, was one of the first things he found. A killer. Someone that wanted the world to see this group burn, so that the humans could forget all about the Wonders. Someone that agreed with the elephant's thoughts, and wanted to push isolation. Someone that wanted to help her make the old island strong and secure...and more than that, under the thumb of the council, now that there was a space open.

He opened his eyes as a bloody face filled his head, shaking his head as he got to his feet.

"They got Yama."

Rannoi shook his head.

"Hurt him, but not killed, at least."

"It doesn't matter."

Studley walked over to the bound human, and grabbed him just as the captive glowed gold. His clawed grip didn't break, even as his fellow Wonder revealed himself. A giraffe with fear-filled eyes, the agent didn't look so scary as the memory had shown.

"What did you do with Yama?"

"The old...old councilman? We needed him gone. He was -"

"He was the council's saving grace."

Studley squeezed, his grip tightening until his arm was a veiny bunch of muscles beneath his fur. He'd liked the old man. They'd disagreed on occasion, but he'd been the voice of reason among the council. If things had gone that far, then the island was worse off than he thought. The extremists were in power, and they were in trouble.

"What did you do to him?"

"We..."

"If he is dead -"

"He's not, I swear."

The giraffe held up his hands, almost begging as he tried to push the wolf's arms away. Studley didn't even bother knocking them away. As angry as he was, he knew that this little agent had no chance of getting free. At this point, he had little enough chance of staying alive.

"We didn't kill him! We just...we just wanted to scare him. Make him leave the council. How were we supposed to know -"

"Where is he? What did you do?!"

The giraffe was incomprehensible. Almost against his will - almost - Studley slipped into his mind once more.

Amidst the image, he saw the giraffe and a gang of other Wonders jumping Yama on one of his walks. They beat him with fists and rocks, bloodying him to the point of a broken arm and leg, and chasing him to the edge of a cliff. They threatened him, they shouted at him -

And he fell.

Studley watched from the point of view of the giraffe as the memory played out, watching as the old man fell from the cliff towards the waves. He waited, hoping to see the flash of gold as the clever old councilman shifted into another shape and got away...but it never came. A wave came and crashed him into the cliff face, and as it slipped away, there was nothing. No blood, no body, no life.

The wolf pulled himself out of the memory. It had taken less than a second to view, and the giraffe still blubbered and pleaded for himself.

"Rannoi."

As the dragon stepped over, Studley threw the giraffe at him.

"Do something...appropriate. I don't think I can trust myself right now."

"Certainly."

"And Rannoi?"

The dragon turned.

"Mirari has the information. Before we go, make sure that this giraffe knows the mistake he made. No mind warping; I want him to understand every single thing that he's done, and knows where he messed up."

"I think there's a very simple answer there, Studley. He messed up when he was caught."

As the dragon walked off, the wolf walked to the edge of Mirari again. The roiling magma below was no longer as lovely as it had been. Now, he could only think of how much he'd wanted to drop the giraffe in it, and how good the screams would have sounded. The rage, the need to punish and...and not just enjoy, but exult in the screams, was still there, buried under what self-control he'd managed to summon.

What's wrong with me?

They'd stayed in Kilauea for nearly three days, gathering energy and pulling two more of their friends to their cause. Idesin, the otter Wonder, had shown up on the first day, and an old companion, a wolf named Blaze, had shown up just as they were getting Mirari back down to the harbor. Even with their help, it wasn't easy, but with the extra aid of the converted drones flying people around out of sight, it was much easier than it would have been.

Studley set their course for a place halfway between Peru and French Polynesia, deep in the emptiness of the Pacific Ocean. He vented what anger he had left on the drones that he spotted in the sky. Somehow, he never actually 'saw' them, but the new senses that Mirari lent him gave him all the information he needed.

He marveled at the sheer sensitivity that the woman had. Every person that set foot upon her body - which in this case, was the cruise ship - was something he could feel. Once he got past the feeling of thinking he had fleas all the time, it was almost pleasant. The temptation to read their thoughts never completely went away, though, and he had to struggle to keep from reading through their minds like the books of a library.

Most tempting was Rannoi. The dragon's mind was well-guarded, and so far, he hadn't been able to find a way in that wasn't the equivalent of using a battering ram. However, he knew that he could get in, using Mirari, even if he would get caught. The temptation to try, to glean some of the plans and some of Rannoi's clever ideas, was almost overwhelming.

He distracted himself in as many ways as he could, from taking part in orgies to taking some of the younger Wonders - both old and new - to his quarters and teaching them some of the basics in how to use their powers. It was never more than a basic lecture here and there, but it at least served to pass the time. Not to mention it kept them from experimenting without knowing those basics, and leaving a pile of innards sitting on deck, displaced from where it should have been.

Most of all, he spent time with Mirari. With their new bond, it was as easy as thinking about her, and after their shared experience in his mind, he thought about her a lot. Just the most recent one, leaning on the railing as he stared out at the horizon, still left him thinking.

She still thought of him as 'more than Studley', but refused to tell him what that meant. She had some secret, and she told him that he needed to talk with Rannoi about it, but he refused to go along. Not when she knew something, and not when she was deliberately keeping it from him. He would have the information. He had to have it, before he went to the dragon.

Why do you keep putting me off?

Because he asked me to.

I thought we were supposed to be bonded now, too. What about my requests?

He was first, and...well, there are reasons.

What can I do to get you to help me?

He reached out for her, touching that part of her inside of him. He felt the slightest of trembles through the ship, and the wolf smiled, drawing that 'finger' down her as he felt that presence heat up.

I can give you whatever you need, Mirari. All I want is this one little thing. It wouldn't hurt to whisper it to me, would it?

Rannoi entrusted it to me, Studley. I can't just...give it up to you.

I think you gave more than that up to me, when we bonded. And I know you loved it. I remember just how much you moaned. I didn't think you could moan, before that.

...You were very skilled.

Did you know I was holding back? I can do much more than what you felt last time.

That...doesn't seem possible.

Oh, but -

"Studley."

He was ripped out of his thoughts at Rannoi's mutter. The ship immediately straightened up, and he realized that it had started quivering more noticeably. He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh, hey, Rannoi."

"I appreciate that you are very fond of Mirari. I would appreciate it more if you would delay your antics until after we're on land again. That was nearly an earthquake."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. So keep it in your pants, and keep your mind out of hers for a little while."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I'm serious. Wait."

The wolf watched as the dragon walked off, and slowly reached out for Mirari again. To his surprise, she didn't push him away, and instead welcomed him.

Do you want to wait, Mirari?

...No.

Tonight then, after he falls asleep?

I'll be there.

The End