{"sf1_id":887502,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Attack of The Gremlin","author":"Volcan MacAingeal","words":9686,"posted_at":"2015-07-17T18:40:00.000Z","tags":["Destruction","Toronto","Violence","canada","canadian","caribou","gremlin","monster","mystery","superhero","teleporter"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/887502-attack-of-the-gremlin","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/887502","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=887502\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\n-City of Toronto, Midnight,\nunder the Gardiner Expressway near CN Tower-\n            As the vulpine cocaine dealer\ncounted the money handed to him by the young, twitchy rat standing before him,\nhe smiled in satisfaction when he found that the withdrawing addict had\nactually handed him a hundred dollars more than what he was actually due for\nthe item. Deciding not to voice it, he pocketed the cash and reached into the\nlower pocket of his cargo pants, passing a bag of white powder, teasing the\ntwitchy rat with it before finally giving it to him, the rat cradling the item\nin his hands as if it were his salvation, though it was really his damnation if\nanything.\n            \"There ya go, Bobby; good pound of\nthe stuff,\" the dealer said. \"Don't go using it all up in one night, now; I'm\nfresh out until tomorrow.\"\n            \"Thank you; I really need this,\" the\nrat said, sniffing up some blood running from his nose as he stepped away from\nthe dealer, seating himself on the ground and pulling out a bottle of water and\nsyringe that he placed down on a broken skateboard he was using as a table, due\nto lack of having a real one to work with and not willing to wait until he got\nhome to have his next fix.\n            \"See you next time,\" the dealer said\nbefore he tucked his hands into his pockets and turned away, leaving the rat\n-Bobby- to deal with his fix under the EXPWY. Of course the dealer was not\nactually out of coke; he'd just said that so he'd still have enough to sell to\nhis next customer, else Bobby would probably claw at him for more. 'Good thing he's too stupid from his\nwithdrawal to count his money,' the dealer thought with smug glee as he\nstrutted away.\n            He circled the CN Tower, Toronto's\nbiggest landmark, and made his way to the streets, walking proudly past several\nmulti-story buildings before he began to get the feeling he was being watched. Every\ntime he looked over his shoulder, though, he saw nobody following him. This\ntime of night streets were fairly empty except for a few cars, but nobody\nwandered this neighborhood on foot except those who were protected by the local\ndrug lords -people like himself, so feeling he had nothing to fear, he kept\nwalking.\n            The moment he passed an alley,\nthough, he suddenly felt someone seize his arm and was yanked into the\ndarkness, yelping in surprise as he was hurled into the side of a dumpster,\nstars bursting before his eyes when his head hit. Gritting his teeth and\ngrunting, he tried to get up and reach for his gun, but halfway to his feet, a\nsharp punch to his jaw sent him reeling to the ground, pretty sure he felt a\ntooth break.\n            \"Mother f-!\" He paused mid-profanity\nas he grasped on the back of his shirt, feeling for the gun normally stuffed\ndown the back of his pants, but it wasn't there.\n            \"Looking for this?\" A voice asked.\n            The dealer turned, and there he was;\na tall figure with caribou features -big, wood-ish looking horns and a narrow\nmuzzle, hidden under a red mask, clad in white clothes and red accessories,\nstanding between him and the way out of the alley, with his compact,\nconcealable handgun nonchalantly between two fingers. In two deft motions, the\nfigure ejected the magazine in the gun, pulled back the slider to eject the\nchambered round, and broke the slider off, letting the three pieces of the gun\nfall uselessly to the ground before he took a step towards the dealer, glaring\nat him with ominously white eyes.\n            The dealer lunged for the caribou\nand swung at him with his fist, only to miss completely as the figure suddenly\nvanished in a blink of light that briefly illuminated the alley. He looked\naround in confusion, before he felt a kick to his hindquarters that sent him\nstumbling towards the street; another flash of light later and his assailant\nwas in front of him, performing a clothesline-style elbow smash right to his\nmouth. This time teeth did break, and\nthe male fox fell onto his back, holding his mouth and screaming in pain after\nspitting out the fragments of what used to be his teeth.\n            He felt a foot roughly plant itself\non his chest; he felt the hard bone of a hoof digging into his ribs as the owner\nof the foot applied pressure, causing him tremendous pain. \"Where is his\nmoney?\" A cold voice asked.\n            \"What money?\" The dealer asked\nthrough the paws cupped over his muzzle.\n            \"The money that belongs to the man\nyou just sold cocaine to,\" the tall, white-clad caribou demanded. \"Where is\nit?\" He growled as he applied more pressure to the fox's chest.\n            \"Ah! Left pocket!\" He screamed\nthrough his hands, tears welling in his eyes.\n            He was roughly pushed over, and felt\na hand digging into his pocket, pulling out the contents before letting him\nfall back to the way he was lying. \"Don't go anywhere; I'll be back in a\nmoment,\" the caribou said as the fox curled up into a fetal position, sobbing\nin pain. In another flash of light, the caribou was gone.\n            Bobby finished mixing the cocaine in\nwith the water in his bottle, annoyed he'd spilt so much of it in the process,\nbut as he filled the syringe with the coke-water, he smiled as he raised it up,\nlooking at the needle with an almost drunken stare as he slowly lowered it to\nhis arm...\n            A flash of blue light in front of\nhim made the rat jump, nearly dropping the syringe as a tall, white-clad figure\nmaterialized from seemingly nothingness before him. He looked up with a start,\nand his eyes widened at the figure standing before him, his cocaine withdrawl\nbriefly forgotten as he stared at the six-foot tall caribou anthro standing\nover him, dressed in white from the neck down to the ankles, with red ankle\nwraps, red elbow-length gloves and bands around upper arms, a red cape hanging\nfrom his shoulders behind him, blowing in the light breeze passing under the\noverpass above them, and finally a red mask that hung over his eyes and\ncheekbones, concealing his identity. Even his fur was pale, a silvery white\nthat made his colourless eyes stand out even in the darkness.\n            \"My god it's you,\" he said. \"You're\nthe Ghost...\"\n            \"I prefer 'The Warp,\" the caribou\nsaid as he kneel down in front of the rat, who flinched away.\n            \"Whoa man, don't hurt me!\"\n            \"I'm not here to hurt you,\" the Warp\nsaid gently as he held out his hand to the rat, revealing in his palm a thin\nwad of cash.\n            The rat eyed the money quizzically.\n\"What's that for?\" He asked.\n            \"It's the money that dealer took\nfrom you,\" the Warp replied. \"There's actually more in there than you owed\nhim.\"\n            \"How do you know that?\"\n            \"I'm good at calculations,\" was the\npale caribou's only reply.\n            Reluctantly, the rat reached for the\nmoney, eyeing it as if it were foreign to him, until he noticed that the\nstranger before him was right. \"Hey... there's a hundred dollar bill in here!\"\n            The Warp nodded. \"Like I told you.\"\n            Bobby looked at the Warp, before he\nset the money down next to him. \"So... you expecting a thank you? That dealer's\ngoing to be pissed,\" he said as he lowered the syringe to his arm.\n            Warp grabbed his wrist with\nlightning speed, and gripped it tightly. \"Don't,\" he stated firmly.\n            \"What? No way man; I need this!\"\n            \"Your hands are shaking; you might\nrupture a vessel.\"\n            \"I don't care, man; I'll die if I\ndon't take this.\"\n            \"You'll die if you do,\" Warp stated\nas he took the syringe away. \"Believe me on that.\"\n            \"Well then what the hell am I\nsupposed to do, huh?!\"\n            \"Five blocks north of here is a\ntwenty-four hour clinic. Take your money, go there, and make use of that\nOntario Healthcare card of yours... you are a Canadian Citizen, right?\"\n            \"Uh, yeah?\"\n            \"Then make use of it,\" Warp stated,\nleaning forward to the rat got an up-close look at those colourless eyes that\nseemed to peer right into his very soul. \"Go get yourself detoxed, and kick this\nhabit. The dealer's already been taken care of, so you won't be getting anymore\nfixes from here on out.\" With that, the white and red clad caribou stood up.\n\"I'll be watching,\" he said before he vanished in flash of light that, for only\nan instant, chased away the shadow of the overpass, leaving Bobby to ponder\nWarp's words as the caribou made off with his coke.\n            Warp reappeared at the alley where\nhe left the dealer only to find the man gone, but not far away. He could hear\nsomeone running up the street; peering out of the alley, it sure enough was\nnone other than his target. Warp reached beneath his cape, producing a pair of\nbolas from the back of his belt and twirling them as he strode after the fox.\nAfter a short sprint, he hurled the bolas at the fox; they whistled audibly as\nthey whirled through the air, closing the distance between the two in seconds\nbefore they whipped around the dealer's body, pulling his arms against his\nchest -as he was still holding his cupped hands over his mouthful of broken\nteeth- and jamming the heels of his palms into his chin. The two metal spheres\non the ends of the sturdy cable hooked together, and the man was trapped.\n            Losing his balance the dealer fell\nalmost flat on his face, nearly dislocating his jaw as he felt his hands jabbed\ninto his muzzle; the timing of his fall could not have been worse as he saw a\npair of bright lights approaching him on the asphalt, and looked up to see an\napproaching car coming at him! He screamed through his hands, until he felt\nsomeone seize him by the tail, and then felt a rush of weightlessness around\nhim before he felt his body fall onto pavement again, hitting the sidewalk with\nbone-jarring force as he landed unwittingly on his elbows.\n            Sobbing like a little kid the fox\nrolled onto his back to look up at Warp. \"Have mercy, man!\" He begged through\nhis hands, which were becoming increasingly bloodied from his earlier broken\nteeth. The caribou replied by seizing him by the head, hoisting him up to lay\nhim back against a wall, and then pulling his hands away from his face,\ndropping a bag of something in his open, bawling muzzle before letting his\nhands slap back against his face.\n            \"I wouldn't swallow that,\" the Warp\nwarned callously as he also left a filled syringe at the man's side before stepping\nback from him, reaching for a phone on his belt and pressing just one button,\nbefore he vanished from sight in yet another blink of light.\n            In less than a minute, the dealer\nheard police sirens wailing while he sat there bawling, unable to get up without\nhis hands which were still tightly bound to his body, holding a half-open\nbaggie of cocaine that was sitting on tongue, fighting the urge to gag as he\ncried. The source of the sirens, a police cruiser, screeched to a half on the\ncurb in front of him, but he didn't even look up as the cops got out of their\ncar, both of them eyeing the man with a mix of wonder and disgust.\n            \"Damn, looks like you had a bad day,\nTrevor.\"\n            \"The Warp... he's doing our job for\nus again,\" one of them remarked.\n            Above, sitting on the edge of a\nbuilding, Warp stared down as the cops questioned the dealer, and stayed until\nan Ambulance arrived on the scene. Lifting a finger to his ear, he tapped a\nbutton on the side of a small object concealed in the ear, and then held his left\nwrist close to his muzzle. \"Any other alarms out there, Akio?\"\n            \"None\nat all, Daniel; looks like it's quiet in town tonight,\" a voice buzzed in\nhis ear. \"You coming back to The Bunker?\"\n            \"Looks like I am. May actually sleep tonight,\" replied Warp as he stood\nup. \"See you in a moment.\"\n            With that, Warp vanished from the\nrooftop, oblivious to what was happening at the nearby CN Tower. A large, hair\nridden creature, giggling madly, scaled down the side of the building towards\nthe bottom of the elevator shaft...\n~~~~~\n            Akio, who was at the workbench\nassembling a new bolas, did not even jump as a flash of light filled the room\nand he heard the hoof clomps behind him, never taking his eyes off of his work\n\"Have you ever thought to use the door?\" He asked sarcastically, his voice\nheavily accented with that of his first language. Akio had only been learning\nEnglish when Warp had first met him, and though he spoke it fairly well now,\nthe thickness of his accent sometimes made him difficult to interpret.\n            Akio Akechi, a thirty-year old\ninventor and expert in all forms of computer analysis, once employed by the\nYakuza, was a Japanese Weasel who spent very little time in the sun, evidence\nby the pale skin of his nose and hat could be seen through his fur. He was\nshort and wiry, with a slight pot belly for spending so much time off of his\nfeet, and taking a liking to western snack foods ever since coming to Toronto\nbefore he'd met Warp. He had the typical black scalp hair of a Japanese man,\nbut his eyes were a different shade of brown than normal -they were much\nlighter, more of a tan colour. Around his pencil-neck he wore an\nemerald-encrusted locket, held up by a thin chain.\n            \"If someone saw me entering this\nplace, then they'd know where we hide out,\" Warp returned as he walked around\nthe bench, hands behind his head to unfasten his mask. \"You can't trace\nsomething moving at the speed of light.\"\n            \"Hai,\nthat is true,\" the weasel admitted as he continued to work. \"I was watching the\nfight through your eye-mask; perhaps you were a little too rough with that\nfox?\"\n            \"He should be so lucky,\" replied\nWarp. \"Normally I leave drug dealers with worse than a few missing teeth; I\noften snap a few fingers too.\"\n            \"Also true,\" Akio admitted, nodding\nat Warp. \"So, are you retiring for the night then?\"\n            \"I'll listen to the radio a few more\ntimes first, but if there's nothing that I'm needed for then I suppose I will,\nyes,\" Warp replied as he pulled off his mask finally, and in the mirror next to\nhim, startling changes could already be seen occurring. His fur was rapidly\ngaining colour, turning to a mild brown, but his eyes remained white until he\npopped out a pair of contact lenses, revealing a pair of light green eyes. \nDaniel stared in wonder at his reflection and then\nat the mask in his hands; it was a newer mask, sitting flatter against his face\nthan the cut-up ski mask he'd been using before, which was prone to falling\noff, while this one could be tied to the back of his head and clung snugly to\nthe fur around his eyes, allowing him to be doubly sure he would never lose it.\n\"I am really liking this mask, Akio; how did you make this?\"\n            \"The Yakuza purchased nanites from a\nChinese company in Hong Kong,\" Akio explained. \"The purchase was illegal of\ncourse, but, money talks. When they had them, they turned the nanites over to\nme, and told me to use them to make their weapons more effective. Just before I\nstarted though is when you showed up and rescued me, so I stole the nanites and\ndecided to use the nanites to help you, and I used them to make that mask.\n            \"The nanobots are programmed to\ndistribute themselves across the fur on your head from the neckline of your\nuniform up,\" Akio continued. \"When they attach themselves, they emit a\nprojection that seemingly turns your fur white, when in all reality it's just a\nhologram, and when you lift the lower corners of your mask to remove it, it\nalerts the nanites to return to the mask and become dormant.\"\n            \"Certainly saves me money on that\ncustom dye I had to order anonymously before,\" Daniel said, gratuitously.\n\"Makes it harder to discern my identity too, considering now there aren't\nbusiness records of it.\"\n            \"I aim to please,\" Akio remarked,\nsmiling as he got back to work.\n            Daniel crossed the hideout over to\nthe radio and also the police scanner next to it, switching both on an\nelevating the volume as he began to unfasten his gloves, expecting -and hoping-\n he'd be able to call it a night. It had\nbeen a long week for Daniel, not only from fighting crime but also from his\nday-job at McKenzie Accounting. His boss was furious that so many of their best\nclients were turning out to be criminals, and just as furious that they were\nrunning rather short on clientele, causing a decline in business. He'd been\ntaking out his frustration on several others in the office, urging them to find\nnew clients before the business fell into the red.\n            \"A\nknown narcotics dealer by the name of Trevor Cain was apprehended earlier this\nevening,\"  the news reporter on the\nradio reported; the police scanner was only reporting a few reported muggings,\nspeeding drivers or a break-in at a store, all of which the police were\nreportedly on top of, leaving no need for Warp to make an appearance. \"Police are not giving any official\nstatements, but we have learned that it may have been the infamous vigilante\nknown as The Warp who caught this dealer; they were left with numerous broken\nteeth and found tied up with a bag of cocaine lodged in his mouth.\"\n            \"They're talking about you, Danny,\" Akio remarked.\n            \"I noticed,\" returned the caribou as\nhe lifted off his gloves. \n            \"Dispatch\nthis is 702, we've reports of an unclassifiable 10-33 at 301 Front St. West,\" the\npolice scanner buzzed suddenly, cutting in on the news anchorwoman. \"I'm making my way there now unless\nsomeone's closer.\"\n            \"This is 603, 10-4 on that 10-33; we've got a dislodged\nelevator at the CN Tower,\" another chimed in. \"We need some\nhelp out here.\"\n            \"Copy that, 603; contacting EMT's and Fire Department\nnow.\"\n            \"Hold it...\" the news anchorwoman returned. \"We're getting something from one of our reporter's in the field. It\nseems there's some kind of disturbance going on at the CN Tower.\"\n            \"The tower? Didn't you just come from that area?\" Akio asked, looking\nover his shoulder at Daniel.\n            \"I did, but all was quiet when I\nleft,\" replied Warp, already in the progress of putting his gloves back on. \"I\nbetter get back there.\"\n            \"Dispatch;\nI have visual on the dislodged elevator; we've got civilians trapped inside!\n10-78 stat!\" \n            \"Oh my god, there are people in that elevator!\" Another voice spoke through\nthe radio.\n            \"Better hurry, Daniel!\" Akio urged,\nnow fully alert to what was happening.\n            \"On my way!\" The caribou replied,\ngrabbing his mask and slapping it back over his eyes before vanishing in a\nblink of light, transporting himself back to the vicinity of the CN Tower.\n            The mounts of the elevator had\ncompletely given way, leaving it dangling ominously by only its cables at the\nside of the CN Tower. The five civilians inside were absolutely still, but\nterrified out of their wits, barely managing to contain their terror as they\nsaw the fatal drop they would soon face if those cables did not hold their\ncombined weight until help could arrive. Three women and two men, wearing\nrestaurant smocks; they were employees of the tower's famous rotating\nrestaurant, who had been working late after a large dinner rush, cleaning up\nthe restaurant and the kitchens. \n            Now, after finally ending their\nshifts that night, they boarded the elevator together so they could go home,\nbut on the way down the elevator suddenly fell away from its rails, and now it\nwas literally hanging by threads, with the five people inside helpless to do\nanything about it...\n            Down below, police had formed a\nperimeter to keep the people away in case the elevator fell while fire trucks\nwere arriving on scene, working to try and reach the elevator but it was too\nhigh for even their tallest ladders or elevation cads, sitting more than eight\nstories off of the ground. People at the perimeter were crying out for the\ndepartments to save the poor people trapped in that suspended glass box.\n            \"Chief, what do we do?\" A police\nofficer asked his superior, desperate for answers.\n            \"We need air support!\" The chief\nstated. \"We need choppers up there; call it in!\"\n            \"Already did chief,\" another officer\nstated. \"But it'll be ten minutes before they get here. Don't worry though;\nthat elevator's held up with steel cables, and long as they stay calm they\nshould hold.\"\n            \"For their sake, I hope so.\"\n            Suddenly, someone screamed in the\ncrowd. \"Oh my god what the hell is that thing?!\"\n            The officers turned to look, and saw\nthe crowd staring and pointing up at the tower; they followed here the people\nwere looking, trying to find what it was that had spooked them in such a way. \n            Their jaws fell agape at what they\nsaw.\n            Some kind of large, hairy creature,\nwas  in the elevator shaft, staring out\nat them through the window.\n            \"Shine a light up there!\" The chief\ncommanded.\n            One of the spotlights previously set\nup to illuminate the elevator from below was then elevated to shine on the\nstrange creature, which recoiled from the light. The police chief raised a pair\nof binoculars to look up at the creature once the light was on it, adjusting\nthe zoom to get a good, clear look at it.\n            It was an ugly, broad, terrible thing,\nwith a hideous angular face, pointed chin and large eyes shining yellow as they\nreflected the spotlights beam shining on it. Long, pointed ears grew from the\nsides of its head, stretching longer than even a rabbit's ears, and hair -lots\nof hair, all over its body, matted and bristling from head to toe, covering its\nfeet, its long, thick arms, its ears and even parts of its face. It grinned\nback at the police chief with a mouthful of fangs, and held itself to the wall\nof the elevator shaft with long, curved claws on its fingers and toes, digging\ninto the side of the building.\n            Irritated by the light, the creature\nunleashed a piercing shriek that was heard by everyone across the block, and\nleapt from its perch and onto the top of the elevator and shrieking a second\ntime as it grasped the cables, causing the entire elevator to swing\ndangerously, even bouncing audibly off of the building as the strange, hairy\nmonster added its own weight to the already endangered elevator.\n            \"Jesus; that thing's going to fall\nif he keeps that up!\" The chief growled, turning to one of his officers. \"Get a\npolice chopper up there and shoot that freak off!\"\n            \"Chief, that's too dangerous! We try\nshooting that and a bullet could ricochet and hit someone in the elevator!\"\n            \"Damn it...!\" The chief growled\nagain, frustrated by the situation; the elevator was bad enough, but now there\nwas a creature like something out of a freaky fairy tale climbing on the CN\nTower and using the elevator for a tire swing while there were innocent people\ntrapped inside! This was a situation he was not prepared for...\n            Suddenly, the creature looked down\nat the elevator cab it was standing on, before turning and jumping off of it, throwing\nitself up the elevator shaft again and slamming against the side, digging its\nclaws into the side of the tower and starting to climb. The act of leaping off\nof the elevator sent it slamming into the side of the shaft, shattering the\nglass walls and, worst of all, the glass floor in the center; one of the\nwaitresses would have fallen if not for a second waitress and a cook seizing\nher arm before she could fall out completely, holding desperately onto her.\n            \"Someone's fallen through!\" One of\nthe officers yelled.\n            The waitress slipped free of the\ngrasp of her coworkers though, and shrieked in terror as she started to fall down\nthe elevator shaft, waving her arms and kicking at nothing but air as she\ndropped, with nothing to stop her descent.\n            Suddenly, a blue light flashed\nbeneath the waitress; she felt her back touch something amidst her freefall,\nand a pair of powerful arms wrapped around her torso. She then saw the entire\nworld seemingly light up before her very eyes, followed by a sense of vertigo\nand weightlessness, as if she were being carried away by some unseen force. She\nwondered if this meant she was being carried off by some unseen angel -as if\nher spirit were being lifted into the heavens above...\n            But the vision came to an abrupt\nhalt as the light flashed across her eyes again; she heard a man grunt, and\nfelt herself jerk to a halt, the wind nearly stolen from her lungs and a\nstinging pain through her back... pain was good; it meant she was still alive.\nSuddenly alight with adrenaline, she broke free of whoever's arms were holding\nher and scurried to her feet, looking back to find out who had grabbed her.\n            Lying on the grass was none other\nthan Warp, who after recovering from the fall, sat up. His act of teleportation\nhad, although saved the woman, he'd had to take the brunt of the drop after he\nreappeared. Though considerably less than the fall from fifty feet in the air\nwould have been, the shortened drop had still managed to take some of the air\nout of him, especially with another person's weight on top of him when he\nlanded. He quickly recovered though, and jumped to his feet just as the police\nofficers came running over, one of them already drawing his firearm and aiming\nat Warp.\n            \"Hands in the air, Vigilante!\" He\nbarked.\n            But the other, more senior cop,\npushed down the other officer's hand. \"Are you kidding me, Pete?! He just saved\nthis gal!\"\n            \"Bob, he's the Vigilante; he's a\nwanted criminal!\"\n            \"And right now, he's about the only\none that can save those other people up on that elevator and get to the freak\nthat nearly cost that woman her life! Now stand your bony ass down!\" The elder\ncop shot back. Feeling sheepish, the younger cop backed away, holstering his\npistol while the elder cop, Bob, turned to face Warp, giving him an even look.\n\"That was a nasty fall; are you alright, do you need medical attention?\"\n            \"No, I'm fine,\" Warp assured,\ndusting off his pant leg. \"My suit's padded; it absorbed some of the impact,\nfor both me and the miss.\"\n            \"Good,\" replied Bob. \"Can you get\nthose other people off that elevator?\"\n            \"I can,\" replied Warp.\n            \"Then do it,\" he said.\n            Warp nodded back, and turned his\ngaze up to the elevator. Rapidly, he calculated the distance from his current\nposition to where the elevator was, comparing that along with its height and\nwidth in contrast to the approximate size of the CN Tower. When he was certain\nhe had done the numbers right, he teleported, vanishing in a blink of blue\nlight from sight of the cop, and reappearing instantly in the elevator.\n            His weight, added to that of the\nfour still on board, made the elevator creak ominously. The others jumped a\nlittle as the pale-clothed anthro caribou spontaneously emerged from a mere\nflash of light and into the elevator. The people inside consisted of two\nyounger women, one of them a waitress the other a cook, one elderly woman and\none middle-aged man. Warp knew this man. He was the sous chef for the\nrestaurant, while the elderly woman was the night-time supervisor. The\nwaitresses and dish washer were new faces to him. \n He held up\nhis hands, showing he meant no harm, and spoke softly to them. \"It's alright;\nI'm here to help,\" he said. \"I can get you out of here but I can only take two\nat a time. Please, you must trust me.\"\n            Naturally, the four of them seemed\nhesitant to trust Warp, but give their current predicament it was only a matter\nof time before they agreed to accept his help. The two youngest stepped forward\nfirst at the insistence of the chef and supervisor; Warp held out his hands to\nthe two, urging them to hold on to him. They grasped his gloved palms,\nclenching his hands tightly as he did theirs, and teleported back down to the\nground, vanishing in yet another flash of light, bigger than before to\nencompass the two 'passengers' he was bringing with him.\n            Warp reappeared at the edge of the\npolice perimeter with the two restaurant employees in tow, letting go of their\nhands before he teleported again, returning to the elevator. Unknown to the\ncaribou, however, the strange creature on the tower was not done playing with\nthe elevator; with a mad cackle it began to claw at the cable above; as unlikely\nas it seemed, the claws of the hairy monstrosity seemed to actually be cutting\nthrough the cable, weakening the last supports of the elevator. After several\nclawing attempts, Warp began to feel the elevator start to sway again, followed\nshortly by a jerk that nearly stole his balance and that of the two remaining\non board.\n            \"Come on!\" He barked at them,\nholding out his hands to them.\n            Without a second of hesitation, they\ngrabbed his hands, and just as he felt the elevator give way, he teleported\nagain with the two people. The metal box fell, the broken cable trailing behind\nit as it descended; fire fighters below scattered as they saw it falling. It\nhit the bottom of the shaft with a deafening crash\n            Warp had appeared out of teleport\nwith the last of the restaurant employees, letting them reunite with their\ncolleagues. The five of them expressed their relief with hugs and gentle words,\none of the waitresses was even crying. Warp could only imagine how terrified\nshe was; elevator accidents were often fatal, however few there usually were\n-especially on Toronto's most famous landmark.\n            Of course, this had been no\naccident.\n            Warp turned to face the tower again,\neyes furrowing as he glared up the wall of the massive structure, seeking out\nthe beast that had wrecked the elevator; searchlights were scanning over the\ntower, searching for the strange beast, but it had vanished -it could not have\nescaped that elevator shaft so quickly. Before anybody could approach him\n-either cops wanting to arrest him or civilians wishing to thank or interview\nhim- he teleported again, leaving them behind to finish up with the scene,\nwhile he pursued the unusual monster.\n            He reappeared on the floor of the\nobservation deck; a large, circular room that ran all around the supporting central\npillar of the tower, lined with angled windows allowing visitors to the tower\nto see the city of Toronto expanding for several kilometers all around them;\nthe view at night was enough to take your breath away, seeing the many lights\nbelow marking every inch of the city, and the day was no less breathtaking,\ngranting a bird's eye view of Lake Ontario, one of the three great lakes of\nCanada, as well as enjoy meals at a high-quality restaurant on the upper\nlevels.\n            Of course, Warp wasn't up here for\nthe view; he was here to find a strange beast.\n            As he took his first step, he felt a\ncool draft blow around his legs, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed\nhis cape toss a little, swaying from an unseen air current running through the\nobservation deck. Lowering himself closer to the floor and risking pulling off\nhis glove, Warp held his hand near the concrete flooring, waving his hand over\nit, detecting the direction the breeze was coming from.\nThere should not\nhave been a breeze in this room...\nPutting his glove back on, Warp crept through the\nobservation deck, seeking the source of the draft. The windows on this level\nwere not supposed to open, for safety purposes; if there was a breeze blowing\nthrough the deck, there was an opening somewhere -no doubt caused by the\nstrange creature that Warp was there to find.\nHe paused, mid-step... he thought back to the\nelevator, and how it had been hanging by its cables. If the creature had\nentered the building by climbing the tower, and attacked the elevator from up\nhere, destroying its motor or cutting its cables from above, then it didn't\nmake sense that the elevator had been hanging at all. That meant the creature\nwould've had to destroy the motors or cables on the ground first, before\nclimbing the elevator shaft to the point where the police had seen it. But if\nit had entered on the ground level, three hundred feet below, why did Warp feel\na draft all the way up here? Cool air travelled downward, not upward...\nNow morbidly curious, Warp increased the pace of his\nwalk, wanting to find where that draft was coming from.\n\"Danny, you\nthere?\"\nWarp raised his left arm, twitching his pinky to\nactivate the transmitter hidden on his wrist at the touch of a tiny button on\nthe heel of his palm. \"I'm here, Akio; what's the matter?\"\n\"You just went\nsilent for a while; I was getting worried,\" Akio replied. \"I saw you save the civilians on TV, but\nwhere'd you go after?\"\n\"I'm looking for that creature that was in the\nelevator shaft; right now I'm on the observation deck of the CN Tower. I\nsuspect he... it, is the cause of that accident.\"\n\"That is what\nI'm thinking too. I got a look at that thing too through the camera but it was\nshaky , so I didn't get a very good one; what was that thing?\"\n\"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it,\"\nreplied Warp, but suddenly stopped walking. \"It does seem to really like\nwrecking things, though...\"\nHe had come to the elevator door, or what was left\nof it. The sliding door was broken outward heading into the room, several parts\nof it sheared off by something sharp and pieces were strewn about the floor,\nmangled and riddled with claw marks. Seeing the pieces also led Warp to\ndiscover the cause of the draft; one of the pieces cut away from the doors had\nbeen hurled through a window, shattering the glass and letting in the wind, and\npeering into the shaft he saw the damaged steel cable that had been holding up\nthe elevator, still hanging freely in the shaft an relieved of the weight of\nthe elevator.\n\"At least I know he's in the tower,\" the caribou\nmuttered to himself.\nHe turned.\nHis gaze met a pair of yellow, slitted eyes.\nHe felt something hit him, sending him flying\nthrough the air followed by a mad cackle as he suddenly crashed through one of\nthe windows of the observation deck, out into open air and free-falling from\nthe tallest building in Canada!\nHollering in fright, he waved his arms as he\ndropped, for a brief moment of surprise forgetting he could teleport, and then\nshut his eyes, forcing his mind to focus on the observation deck of the CN\nTower again before he mentally activated his powers. With that, he disappeared\nin a blink of light before he started going too fast, reappearing back in the\ntower; the moment he materialized the momentum gained from his fall transferred\nwith him, and he hit the floor like a falling brick, stars exploding across his\nvision as his head bounced off of the floor.\n\"Ow...\" he groaned, moving slowly as he reached back\nwith one hand to rub the back of his head.\nHis fingers brushed over his antlers as he raised\nhis hands... and noticed something missing. Reaching up with his other hand to\nfeel his other antler, he found it; one of the spines on his antlers had broken\noff. He rubbed over the stump where the spine had once been, and felt around\nabsently, looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found anywhere around him.\nNo doubt it was tumbling end-over-end down to the streets, three hundred feet\nbelow to the foot of the CN tower.\nWarp scowled. \"Okay... now I'm pissed.\"\n\"Dan! Dan, are\nyou alright?!\" Akio suddenly shouted in his ear, making Warp cringe.\n\"Ow! Ow! Yes, I'm here!\" He replied as he brought up\nhis transmitter. \"Don't yell; the receiver's right in my ear, you know.\"\n\"Sorry, but the\nTV cameras caught you flying out of the tower. What happened?\"\n\"That creature snuck up on me,\" replied Warp. \"Broke\na chunk off of my antler.\"\n\"Ooh... how\nyou explaining that one to the guys at the office?\"\n\"The usual excuse; I fell down the stairs,\" replied\nWarp.\n\"Didn't you\nalready use that for the bruise from that baseball bat?\"\n\"You got a better one for me?\"\n\"Um... not\nreally.\"\n\"Right. Now, I'm going to find that cretin.\"\n\"Careful,\nDaniel; he might jump you again.\"\n\"I'm ready for him this time.\"\nCarefully, Warp crept back up the corridor of the\nobservation deck, keeping his back to the inside wall so that he could not be\nlaunched out a window again if the creature somehow surprised him a second\ntime. It was better to be cautious until he knew what it was he was up against,\notherwise the next surprise attack, he might not be teleporting out of.\nHe arrived back at the destroyed elevator shaft, and\nmuch to his dismay, the creature had left. Had he expected any less? He stayed\nwhere he was for a moment to listen, ears flicking absently as he tried to\ndetect any sounds that seemed out of place. At first, silence; silence was\ngood. Cautiously, he crept over to the elevator shaft, leaning through the\ndestroyed door carefully and looking down the shaft, to see if perhaps the\ncreature had climbed down to attempt an escape, but there was no sign of it.\nSuddenly, he heard it; a crashing noise from above.\nHe looked up the shaft, and noticed another destroyed door above; the door to\nthe restaurant level. Picturing the restaurant in his mind -thanks to having\nbeen there before- he teleported, reappearing in the dining area expecting to\nfind a disaster zone, but surprisingly the tables had been left untouched so\nfar -not so for the cash register, which had been demolished, leaving loose\nchange scattered all over the floor, but it seemed that the creature had not\ngone after the furniture.\nThe crash again, this time coming from the kitchen.\nWarp followed the sound, sprinting through the restaurant with his cape\ntrailing behind him, until he reached the staff entrance to the kitchen,\nleaning against the wall around the corner as he carefully peered around at the\ndoor. To no great surprise, it had been vandalized, and as he peered around he\nsaw a glass jar shatter on the floor in front of the doorway, throwing the\ncontents across the tiled floor. He dashed through the door, turning towards\nthe creature. Another jar was flying at him, which he narrowly blocked with his\nglove, the sound of glass hitting metal as it shattered against the bracer\nconcealed beneath his glove, instinctively turning his head away as the\ncontents exploded from the jar.\nAnd there it was. The creature was seated over by the\npantry, reaching in with its long arms to grab the next item in sight,\ndevouring most of the food items while throwing anything non-edible over his\nshoulder. The first thing Warp noticed about the creature was its stench; its\nvery presence in the room made the place smell foul -like the rotten egg smell\nof natural gas, mixed with mold. Its fur was bristled all over its back,\ncovered in stains that Warp wasn't sure he wanted to know what they were, and\nit didn't even bite whatever food it chose to eat; it simply stuffed the\nmorsels right down its throat, giggling like a little kid with its mouth full.\nAfter scarfing down an entire loaf of bread and a raw steak, the creature\ngrunted before letting out a horrible belch, followed by a contented sigh.\n\"Nasty,\" he muttered.\nSuddenly, as the hairy creature reached in to help\nitself to more food, it paused, and sniffed the air twice. It looked over its\nshoulder, spotting Warp with those yellow, cat-like eye, and then spun around\non its backside to look at him fully. He was perfectly still, fists raised in\npreparation if the creature decided to attack him, his gaze meeting those eyes,\nwatching them for any sign of hostility. But his mind was still struggling to\ncomprehend just what he was looking at -what in the world was this hairy creature and what was it doing in Toronto? He had\nnever seen anything, furson or feral, that remotely resembled this creature,\nleaving his mind constantly pondering the question of what it was.\nThe creature bared all of its teeth, raising both of\nits beefy arms and slamming them on the tiled floor, cracking the tile with its\nknuckles, before it threw back its head and roared as it pounded the floor with\nits fists like a child having a tantrum. Its voice was scratchy yet at the same\ntime, sounded almost like it was gargling water at the back of its throat...\nAnd then it spat.\nA big, wade of bluish-white sludge, filled with food\nparticles, erupted from the mouth of the creature, soaring across the room at\nlightning speed before striking Warp with a watery splat! The stuff smelled worse than the creature itself did, and\nmade Warp gag as the stench found his nostrils, making his head swoon.\n\"Ugh, disgusting!\" Warp bellowed, wiping off some of\nthe sticky gunk and glaring at the creature. \"Now I'm -ho!\" \nThe creature sprang at him; he ducked, and it flew\nover his head, slamming into the wall with bone-jarring force. Although that\ndid not seem to deter it from making a mad dash through the kitchen door and\nback out into the restaurant. Warp turned and ran after it as it made a beeline\nstraight for the wrecked elevator, destroying what was left of the doors as it\nleft through and dropped through the shaft, cackling all the way down. He\npeered down the shaft after it, seeing it digging its claws into the side to\nslow its drop as it descended back to the ground level. \n\"Insane monster!\" Warp blurted before he turned away\nfrom the elevator and teleported, his target the yard outside of the tower to\nintercept the creature.\nHe appeared on the sidewalk, startling a few police\nwho were nearby; he spun around to face them. \"Everyone get back; the\ncreature's coming!\"\n\"From where?\" An officer asked.\nAlmost as if on cue, the monstrous creature erupted\nfrom the tower, smashing through the side and falling thirty feet out of midair\nand down to the ground with a thunderous crash, before running on all fours\nstraight at the police barricade. Officers drew their guns; Warp teleported out\nof the line of fire and perched himself atop a street lamp, and they took\nseveral shots at it, trying to stop it. Several shots missed, but three found\ntheir marks, and the creature howled in pain before it made a mighty leap over\nthe cops and their cars, surprising them with how far it could launch itself.\nThe creature arched through the air, landing on the hood of an ambulance and\ncaving it in before jumping again, and running off into the night streets.\nWarp reappeared from his perch, teleporting back\namidst the cops and reaching behind him to the back of his belt, only to find\nnothing there. \"Dammit! I didn't grab another bolas!\" He cursed to himself, and\nwas about to pursue the creature, but it was already out of sight.\n            The cops were staring in the\ndirection the creature had gone, many of them with mystified or disgusted looks\non their faces -the latter probably having a chance to the smell the creature\nwhen it had passed over them. They put away their sidearms, one of them voicing\nthe obvious question. \"What the hell was that thing?!\"\n            \"A good question,\" replied Warp,\nbefore he teleported away, not giving the cops the chance to turn their\nattention onto him again.\n            ~~~~~\n            Normally, it would be the flash of\nlight that would alert Akio to Warp's return to their hideout. But this time,\nit was the stench clinging to Warp's uniform that told the Japanese weasel he\nwas not alone; he looked up from the computer he was seated at, peering over\nhis shoulder and spotting the caribou, along with the discoloration on the\nfront of his shirt as he crossed the main room to the back.\n            \"Kuso!\"\nAkio exclaimed, holding a paw over his nose. \"What happened to you; you smell\nlike garbage heap!\"\n            \"Compliments of our new furry\nfriend,\" replied Warp as he entered the back room they both called the wash\ncloset, when really it was like a bathroom/laundry they had built in when\nsetting up the hideout.\n            \"What did he do?\" Akio asked. \"Kami, do I want to know?\" He added, silently.\n            \"He... spat on me,\" Warp called,\nplainly.\n            \"...Kimochi waruidesu.\" Akio muttered, before he called back to Warp.\n\"Try not to use all of the hot water.\"\n            \"I won't,\" Warp promised. \"Did I\nwash my spare uniform day before?\"\n            \"You did; it should be hanging up\nback there,\" Akio called.\n            Always smart to keep a spare.\n            ~~~~~\n            There were no more sightings of the\nstrange creature throughout the rest of the night. By three o'clock in the\nmorning, Warp decided that it was time he headed home so that he could at least\nget a few hours of sleep before he went to work that morning; he didn't work on\nweekends, and it was Friday that day, so he could pick up where he left off\ntonight. Saying goodnight to Akio, he left the Bunker, and teleported home.\n            Warp, now as his regular self of\nDaniel Tonraq, appeared outside of his condominium after he was certain nobody\nwas watching, entering the building and climbing to his room on the fourth\nfloor. He walked down the hall to the door that led into his own house,\nunlocking the door and stepping inside, letting out a sigh of relief as he\nswitched on the light and peering absently around the house, seeing everything\nwas just as he left it. \nThe layout of the house marked his preference for\nsimplicity; a small corner kitchen, a single bathroom, a small dining area and\na large living room -most of the space of which was unused, occupied only by a\nsofa, a bookshelf, a television and a coffee table on the right, and a stand-up\npunching dummy on the left, sitting in front of his balcony door. The dummy\nbore the marks of many uses, the foam caved in in various locations, including\nthe top of the head which bore a good impression of the tip of Daniel's elbow. \n            Daniel approached the living room,\nstepping onto the carpet and then making a right, coming to a lone-standing\ndoor across from the sofa. A regular-sized double-bed sat in the room,\nneighbored on both sides by night stands -the one closest to the door was\nunused, while the one opposite had a lamp, an alarm clock and a half-full glass\nof lukewarm water resting on top of it. On the wall opposite the bedroom door\nwas a 5-drawer dresser, with four small drawers and one large one at the\nbottom, each one filled with a different article of clothing. \nMeanwhile, the small walk-in closet next to it held\nhis business suits -he only had three, total, and it was also where his laundry\nmachines were located. An odd place for them, he always thought, but then he\nlearned the building was actually quite old, and back when it was built,\nlaundry machines were not invented yet. The closet had been renovated in order\nto accommodate the new -at the time, technology.\n            Without another thought, Daniel took\noff his clothes, barring his underwear, and laid down in bed, the mattress\nfeeling like he was lying on a bed of clouds as he collapsed onto it. In his\nbare fur, he could smell the fur wash he'd used to get that horrible smell left\non him by the strange creature's spit, successfully covering up the rancid\nstink that had seeped through his costume and right to his fur. Now at least he\nknew it wasn't like a skunk smell that did not come out easily.\n            Still didn't mean he wanted to be\nhit by it again.\n            Propping his head up on his pillow\nhe checked his alarm, making sure it was set to the proper time, before laying\nback his head and relaxing until he drifted off to sleep.\n            When he awoke later that morning, he\nstarted his day as he usually did; a high fibre breakfast with a tall glass of\ncold milk, a quick shower to help fix up his fur, getting dressed and picking\nup his briefcase before heading to work forty-five minutes before he was due to\nstart in order to catch the next bus; his office was located in Westmount, over\nforty blocks away, and the only way to get there conventionally was by bus. In\norder to keep up his guise as a regular person, he did not use his\nteleportation casually under any circumstance.\n            Besides, he had a friend that he\noften met up with on the way to work.\n            After walking a few blocks, he\nboarded his bus, and only three blocks later at its next stop, a face he\nrecognized boarded the long vehicle as well. The one who stepped inside was a\nfox, named Colin Stanford -he was an accountant at Daniel's office, only he was\na little higher on the chain than him. However, Colin was a nice guy; friendly,\noutgoing, often bought dinner for everybody on the weekend and most of all, he\nwas the one who had given Daniel his job with McKenzie Accounting.\n            In a way, Colin had helped Daniel on\nhis path to removing several foreign crime groups from Toronto, but he was\nhappily oblivious to that fact.\n            \"Daniel!\" Colin exclaimed, joyously\nas he moved towards the caribou. Daniel scooted over to let the fox sit down\nnext to him, greeting him with a warm smile as Colin patted him on the\nshoulder. \"How you doing?\"\n            \"Not too bad,\" replied Daniel.\n\"What's new with you?\"\n            \"Just learned about a new client\ncoming in today; big name with the oil companies, and big names mean big\nincome,\" replied Colin. Suddenly his eyes darted up to Daniel's antlers, and\nthe caribou knew what question was coming next. \"Looks like you're missing a\nchunk there; what happened?\"\n            \"I... fell down the stairs,\" Daniel\nlied.\n            \"Again,\nman?\" Colin asked. \"First it was that king-sized bruise on your back, now you\nbusted a piece off of your antlers?\"\n            \"I don't know what to say,\" returned\nDaniel with a helpless shrug. \"I was going downstairs to head across the street\nlast night; wanted some munchies so I was heading over to the store, but then I\nslipped and fell down.\"\n            \"Geez, man, you really are a klutz,\"\nColin stated, shaking his head and chuckling heartily.\n            \"I don't try to be,\" Daniel returned. In his mind, he laughed; he\ndeliberately acted like a clumsy oaf many times a day to keep up the facade of\nhis secret self. Everyone knew The Warp as the epitome of grace, strength, and\nfearlessness; Daniel could not let himself appear that way or someone might\nmake the connection.\n            \"Well for someone not trying, you\nsure do succeed a lot!\" Colin teased him further. \"So anyway, besides falling\ndown the stairs -again- how were your days off?\"\n            \"Pretty quiet; used the Saturday to\nclean my house,\" explained Daniel. \"After that, spent the afternoon on the\nphone with my aunt and went out for dinner that evening.\"\n            \"Was it on a date?\" Colin asked.\n            Daniel rolled his eyes. \"You ask me\nthat every Monday; no, I wasn't on a date.\" Why\ndoes it seem like, even when a superhero is out of costume, someone always\npushes him or her to pursue a relationship? He thought.\n            \"You're what, twenty-seven years old\nand you've never been on a date?\" Colin asked. \"You really need to get out\nthere, buddy; you need to find a nice lady -cute if possible, take her to\ndinner, take her to a movie, and then take her on a nice little...\" He paused.\n\"Dan boy, have you even gotten laid yet?\"\n            Daniel gave him a stern look. \"You\nare pushing the boundaries of our relationship,\" he warned.\n            \"Whoa, hey,\" Colin said, putting up\nhis hands. \"I surrender, man. Won't push any further.\"\n            \"Good,\" returned the caribou.\n            They changed topics, and continued\nchatting until the bus finally came to their stop. Picking up their briefcases\nthe two disembarked from the bus, stepping out onto the street and walking\ntogether up the street to their workplace; they didn't have go far, as their\noffice was only two blocks from where the bus stopped. A few crossings later\nand they were approaching McKenzie Accounting; it had the look of a bank on the\noutside, with a concrete overhang above the doors, supported by four round\npillars at the top of a short set of steps, leading up to two pairs of\ndouble-glass doors. The reason for this was that, before it was an Accounting\ncompany, McKenzie had been a bank, which had expanded and had need of a larger\nbuilding, relocating to another part of town. With the building cleared,\nMcKenzie Accounting had moved in and set up shop, handling private accounting\nand taxes for the public, with Daniel himself working in the former.\n            Climbing the short dais to the door,\nDaniel and Colin stepped into the building and made for their offices to get to\nwork. Daniel multi-tasked by going about his daily job tasks, but also used his\ntime to check the local news on the internet, looking up other possible\nsightings of the strange creature that had gotten away from him last night. His\nhoof-tipped fingers clicked noisily as they tapped the keys, searching for\nother sightings of the creature, checking every network he could find.\n            Finally, he found something that\ncaught his eye; the sighting of a strange creature. Leaning close to the\nscreen, he stroked his chin as he read the report; it had first been seen in\neastern Toronto, four months ago. The report spoke of a car dealership attacked\nby what appeared to be a large animal; according to security footage, posted as\nstill-images on the report, the creature responsible looked very much like the\none The Warp had crossed paths with the night before. The police had responded\nto a complaint about numerous car alarms sounding off from the dealership, and\nwhen they had arrived they'd found half of the vehicles in the lot had been\ntorn apart. They first sighted the creature running through the door into the\nmain hub, and when they followed it inside, it was found in the lunch room,\nraiding the refrigerator for the staff lunches.\n            A single gunshot on the creature had\nsuccessfully scared it off, but not before it hurled a table at the cops; they\nsustained no injuries, but the creature escaped, and there were no further\nsightings that night. Daniel read the article with intrigue, before moving on\nto the next; the unusual creature had been seen three other times, always in\nthe act of wrecking machinery, and had also been suspected in numerous other\nmachine-related acts of vandalism across the city, including at the docks and\nthe airport -the latter of which it had completely wrecked the engines of a\nhuge airliner. \n            Daniel pondered the attacks; what\nwas it about machinery that set off this creature? It was as if its entire\nexistence was the purpose of wrecking any kind of mechanized device, regardless\nof where it was found. Curious, he saved the links and sent them to Akio via\nemail, after which he promptly erased any record of doing so, and resumed his\ndaily work...\n            ~~~~~\n"}