The Prison of Luna

Wolf

WOLF intently rummaged through a box. Out of the whole ship, he had found a gun (though no bullets), a machete (he didn't really want to know what Levana might use that for), and a glove with spikes ridging the knuckles. He'd deemed to gun useless, found a sheathe for the machete and strapped it to his back, and kept the spiked glove in his pocket, just in case. Cinder told him, if they were lucky, he wouldn't have to beat up anyone. Wolf half-hoped he would have to, he wanted to be useful. Wolf wasn't sure why there were so little weapons on the ship.

"You look good," Scarlet said. She was leaning against the doorway, arching an eyebrow playfully. Wolf stood up from the box.

"Well ... thank you. So do you," he added quickly, making Scarlet laugh. Wolf smiled.

"Are you ready?"

"Mm-hmm. Cinder says we should eat before we go." She pulled a tomato out of her sweatshirt and threw it to Wolf. He caught it, but accidentally squished it, making the contents squirt all over his face and down the front of his shirt. Scarlet stifled a laugh. "Bon appétit."

Wolf smiled awkwardly, and Scarlet left the room.

Wolf exhaled exasperatedly. "I am such an idiot." To let off steam, he unsheathed the machete, threw the rest of the tomato into the air, and swiped his blade through it. He must have tripped some sort of switch on the machete's hilt, because it suddenly hummed to life, glowing a golden yellow at the blade.

Wolf jumped so badly he accidentally swung the electric sword into a cable hanging on the wall, slicing it clean in half.

Ohhhh ..." Wolf winced. "Hope that wasn't important." He played with the hilt of his blade, finding a button you wouldn't be able to see if you didn't know where to look. What was with these new laser/sword thingamajigs.

He shrugged, he'd just have to be careful when he sheathed it. He turned off the laser and the golden light dimmed. As he put his sword back, he heard a knock on the room's swinging door.

"Wolf! Cinder says it's time to batten down the hatches. We're meeting in the cockpit, and wipe those tomato guts off if you will."

Wolf swiped down the front of his shirt. Once he was done rubbing off the chunks, stains were still left, but he shrugged it off. For battle, you needed to look fierce, maybe his enemies would mistake the tomato for blood. That would probably play in Wolf's favor.

Wolf walked out of the room and down the spotless corridor. He was about to turn a corner, when he heard a knock. He halted midstep and turned toward the sound. His hearing was enhanced and surpassed normal human abilities, a he knew exactly where where the sound came from. Trouble is, when he was transformed into a super wolf human, his brain was not enhanced. He wasn't dumb, just average, and with his average brain, he couldn't exactly figure out how something had knocked on the ship from the outside. Maybe debris? Space trash? Only one way to find out. He knocked three times on the wall.

Knock knock knock

A heartbeat.

BANG BANG BANG

Whatever was knocking answered back.

Wolf recoiled. Definitely not space junk.

Just to make sure, Wolf knocked a specific rhythm, an old French song Scarlet had taught her. He hummed along. Au clair de la lune ... mon ami, Pierrot ...

He laughed softly, Scarlet always said his French was terrible.

There was a longer pause this time, but eventually, the knocks answered in a hasty kind of parody of the song. Not an android.

"Wolf!" Scarlet materialized next to Wolf, making him jump.

"Scarlet! Don't do that!"

"What are you doing?"

"You scared the living daylights outta me."

"No excuses, come on!" She took his wrist and dragged him away. Wolf looked back a moment, until the wall he had knocked on disappeared around a corner.

They emerged in the cockpit, where everyone was buzzing with activity. Thorne was at the main controls, his fingers flying over them. Cress was next to him, apparently the one causing the caterwaul beeps and bloops. Three men stood around the control panel dashboard, squabbling, probably over all the papers they were shuffling around.

"Wolf! Pass me that wrench next to your feet." Cinder was underneath the control panel where Cress and Thorne were working, clanking and hacking. Wolf looked down at the ground. Seeing the wrench, he kicked it to Cinder. "Thanks," she said, grabbing it with her cyborg hand.

"Was that all I was needed for? Or ..."

"Cinder, we've got a comm." Cress knelt beside Cinder, her eyes still on the portscreen in front of her. The clanking of Cinder's work stopped, and she slid out from underneath the control panel. Her face was smudged with machine grease. She wore goggles over her eyes and held a lighter in one hand, the wrench in the other. She dropped them both and raised her goggles to her forehead.

"A comm?" she asked, standing. "Who could be sending us a comm?"

"Not sure." Cress stood as well. "Yet," she added, catching Cinder's concerned look. "I'll trace it, give me a moment."

Maybe this was a good time to bring up Wolf's little conversation.

"Hey, uh, Scarlet, can I talk to you a minute?"

"Yeah, why?" Wolf took Scarlet's arm and turned her to face him.

"I think there's something outside the ship."

"What d'you mean?"

"It's a little hard to explain. I'll show you."