Fire Upon the River

It was currently summer in the good old US of A, and that meant school was out, mobile homes were loaded for touring the country, and everybody was trying to find something major to do for the holidays. For some guys, this meant going with their girlfriends to the beach - a fair distance away, given the town of Alpha sat next to the Louisiana/Missisipi border on the river, on the Missisipi side - and taking every moment to ogle at them for bikinis. For others, it meant trying to find their way into permanent employment, or preparing for university next year. Newly graduated, they were no longer bound the rules of mandatory education, and free to do what they wished, within the boundaries of the law.
For one Jeremy Cole? His real big aim was to try and go the summer without a supervillain attack. Sure, one in a million chance, but a guy could dream.

In the meantime, he had a paper round to do.

"'Scuse me, coming through!" He screamed out a warning to several passers by as he raced down the hill, not even bothering to apply the brakes as he came towards the bottom. He was used to flying faster as the Wyvern Warrior, Alpha's local hero and favourite son, so managing to maintain control wasn't too hard. Not to mention, the gravity let him speed up, decreasing the effort he needed and making it easier for him to get across town in a hurry. Having done this route for god knows how many years now - had to be at least six - he was familiar with which ways were the best to go and the fastest way to get to them. Alpha was his home, and he knew it, and the people inside it, like the back of his hand.
"There!" Having been carried all the way down 23th street, the town using a grid system that started from first avenue near the river, Jeremy breathed a small sigh of relief as he turned the corner on 3rd avenue, and began to leisurely cycle his way down to 20th. One thing he'd certainly had to get used to was having to not take it too hard during these cycle rides, especially with the unrelenting sun above him.

After all, he was dressed in a long sleeved black shirt, with great big baggy beige trousers, in the middle of freaking summer. But then, anything less would reveal the vambrace hidden on his arm, and likely reveal his secret identity who knew of his superpowered persona. He even had to wear a full wetsuit when he went swimming, and having been so thoroughly annoyed by it - plus, well, the need to make sure the town stayed safe - he'd turned down joining his friends from school as they made the way to San Francisco. But hey, he was still gonna be earning his savings, and he smiled at the thought of his paycheck as he brought to himself to a halt near a bus stop. Stepping off his bike, and adjusting his black wig beneath his helmet, he locked it around the post of the bus stop, figuring that with so many people around, noone would really try taking it. Patting down the bag on his side, he made his way towards the nearest apartment building, and checked the address.

Delivering the day's edition of the Alpha Almighty - Alpha's longest standing news corporation, and still standing strong in spite of the recession a few years prior - he couldn't help but find his eyes occasionally draw to the frontline title - 'Werewolf in Alpha'. Whilst he wasn't normally one for the horror genre, his past few months had made him curious about this sort of thing, and during a gap between places to go, he pulled out one paper, undid the rubber band around it, and began to read to himself as he walked through the street.
"Mysterious killer stalks park... Yada yada... wolf fur at the scene... large feet... Yeesh." Sounded more like a murderer with a motif than an actual supernatural being, but it certainly took up enough of his focus that he failed to see where he was going, about to bump right into someone if they weren't careful!

"Hey kid, watch it!" Someone yelled out in front of Jeremy, leading the teenager to drop the newspaper from taking up the space in front of his eyes. Those same eyes quickly widened as he found himself staring straight into the chest of a man barreling straight towards him. The boy with hidden red hair quickly stepped to the side to make for a narrow dodge of the oncoming person, though he ended up briefly shaking his fist back at the guy. Sure, it was his own fault for not watching where he was going, but the other guy could have stopped too! Or just gone around! But noooooo.
"O manners, wherefore art thou?" Briefly taking some liberties with Shakespeare's classic play, Jeremy decided he'd probably been reading enough of the paper, and thus rolled it back up, slipping on the rubber band again. With a few twists, it was secure and holding the tube of paper as, well, a tube, and he deposited it back into his bag...

Only for his eyes to briefly draw skyward, as something seemed to block out the sun... and that something had wings.
"What the..." Jeremy muttered, looking up at the object in the sky. Way too big to be a bird... and it looked almost like a person. Normally, he might say such was impossible, but given his own life...
"Think I'll check that out..." Rushing back to his bike, and thankful that he kept in decent shape, he was there in record time and unlocking his bike, tracking where the object was falling... towards the park. Parts of 3rd, 4th, and 5th avenues simply lacked streets entirely, instead being filled in by Fullgreen park, which in turn connected into the Fullgreen forest - both named for the man who once owned the land. He rode his way there, briefly hopping over a wall to give himself a shortcut, and he found himself cycling towards a small crowd that had gathered. Coming to a halt on his bike, he let it drop to the ground as he made his way into the crowd, trying to reach whatever was at the art.

"'Scuse me, coming through!" His own words echoed in a more serious tone, he eventually broke past a pair of men to find himself standing before an older woman... with wings. So she was the one who had been in the sky... and she was bleeding.
"Has anyone called an ambulance?!" He immediately asked, a couple voices calling out that they had. Rummaging past a pile of newspapers, he extracted a small first aid kit from his bag, and laid it out on the ground. Boy scout training, don't fail him now.
"What happened?" He asked, pulling out some cotton wool and a bottle of anaesthetic. If the woman let him, he'd begin applying it to the wound, to try and stop infection.

Jeremy had a wary eye on the blade the woman carried. He wasn't even sure if it was legal to have a sword like that around, but he wondered if she was a foreigner, or a collector of some kind. Whoever she was, she was kinda beautiful... though, probably not best to dwell on such things when there was a leg that needed treating.
"Right, and I'm Superman. What actually happened?" He may not have been an A grade student, but even he could tell that this kind of wound wasn't from a puppy - not unless it was some kind of super puppy that stood several feet tall and was part sabertooth tiger.
...What? Like it was totally impossible.
The cotton was given a few drops of the anaesthetic, and seeing there wasn't anything physically in the wounds, Jeremy began to apply the fabric to them. It would sting a little, but it was in the name of keeping it from getting worse, so hopefully this woman, whoever she was, wouldn't hate him for it.

"Your town has a werewolf problem," She heard him say, and he briefly paused in his work as she said that. Her delivery made it seem like she was telling the truth... And it would certainly fit, if the typical idea of werewolves being outright huge was at all accurate.
"You don't say..." He muttered, as he was just about finishing up his work. He could swear he'd managed to get just about every part covered, and he next took out a small roll of bandages.
"Scared of them, kid?" The woman asked as he began to wrap the material around her leg, taking care not to move it too much, in order to avoid harming her further.
"Well... I'm not for believing in them, so can't say I'm scared of what I don't believe in. That there's no full moon out probably helps. Now just hold still..." He told her, before after a few moments, he was finally done, and held the bandages together with a safety pin. He was admittedly a little scared by the idea... but it didn't show on the surface.

"Best I can do... sorry, not a Doctor. Though I don't think 'Doctor Jeremy Cole' sounds that good." He chuckled a little as he packed away his first aid kit, before closing the bag up.
"That'll hopefully hold you together till one actually arrives though. Who - or what - ever you are. Though, are you serious about the werewolf thing?" It had been in the news... and that bite mark was very real. And there certainly weren't wolves native to the area - let alone large enough - to deal that kind of damage... they'd learnt that in geography.
"I mean... someone's gotta go look." He looked towards the forest, off in the direction where the woman had come from. It was hard to see too much in there, particularly once things went up the hill. And even if not him... the Wyvern Warrior could certainly check things out.

Jeremy looked back at the woman as he considered whether or not to walk into the forest as he was, or leave the scene and come back in his empowered form. Given her reference to faeries, and her subsequent desire for him to not say it lest she die...
Oh wow, had he just tended to the wounds of a faerie?! That was freaking awesome! Okay, sure, the fact she was injured, after an apparent encounter with a werewolf wasn't as awesome as potential other circumstances, but hey, a guy would take what he could get.
"Well, I guess, and I can't say this with certainty, that faeries probably heal up better than we humans do. Just... do try to take it easy. I didn't patch you up so you die later." He said to her, though given how she'd been thus far, he was actually unsure on whether or not she'd take him up on that advice. Not like he could argue with the lady swinging a several foot long sword, whilst he was still in his shirt.

"If it isn't a werewolf it is skin changer. Ugly thing. With a mate. They murdered a child, I found his body before they came home," Jeremy recalled what had been mentioned in the newspaper... and the victim was not a child. So, at least another person had died - all the more reason to bring a stop to this...
"They need to be exterminated."
But that was not the way he intended to do it.
"Thats the kind of decision for the cops, or the army. Whoever gets called in to deal with it." Whilst one might certainly think it not to be terribly pragmatic when the bad guys in question were existing killers... the simple fact was that he didn't personally find himself any better just because he was a 'hero', if he were to kill.
"Though, are skin changers this thing where like... they're shapeshifters? But a specific kind?" Though maybe not the 'become whatever the hell I want' kind of shapeshifter.

"Well... Suppose there's not much else but to wish me luck, Miss Faerie." Scratching his cheek, he gave out a small, dry laugh, actually a little embarassed that he didn't really know the name of the woman he had just helped - so he defaulted to her species.
"Like I said, name's Jeremy Cole... And I really hope the whole 'werewolf' thing doesn't ruin your time here in Alpha. Its a nice place, really." He tried to assure her, before looking around.
"And uh... can someone look after my bike?" He asked around, a tad sheepishly, figuring that that forest wasn't really the kind of place for his kind of bike - it was meant for streets, and fair grass, not the woods.
"Right so... See ya!" Jeremy gave one final goodbye to the woman, backing away with a few small steps, before bounding at a fair pace towards the forest. It didn't take much to jump the wall that separated park and untamed wildland, though his landing could have been better. Stumbling until he hit a tree, he was thankful he still had his helmet on as he shook his ringing skull, before proceeding further in the darkened maze of trees.

Whoever that woman was, she had gotten Jeremy thinking - which may or may not be a good thing, given how it was just feeding his imagination. Like, whilst he'd had fun thus far in saving his little slice of the world, she was the first real reminder of just how much might go on out there. And she'd brought up so many things. Werewolves, faeries, skin changers/walkers, shapeshifters (as he'd guessed, there was a difference) and even angels apparently existed. Well, the woman had certainly had angel like wings - even if she was actually a faerie. He wondered if the existence of angels meant that there was really a God as well, or if they were like, the physical inspirations for the concept. Or could they be like those angels were they weren't so much humans with wings, but actually indescribeable horrors which caused you to... to...
What? He hung out on the internet a fair amount - and some of this stuff was just plain cool, even if he could barely get how it worked.

He had been leaping over a tree when the knife passed him by, cutting over so slightly into the flesh of his cheek. Falling to the floor and landing, though managing not to make it a crash landing, he looked back to find...
The woman from before.
Who was running without her boots.
Hoped those faeries healed faster than he thought.
"Do you WANT to get killed?" And then she yelled at him, leaving him a dumbstruck expression on his face, blinking a couple of times as he checked he hadn't misheard things.
"Uh... not particularly. I don't think throwing a knife at me helps on that front. Just who are you anyway?" Wiping his cheek of the blood that had been drawn, he looked down at the small red stain on his shirt sleeve, before back at the woman.

"My name is Arabella Montez," The woman answered his question, though as she moved to retrieve her knife, her movements... made him spot something.
"Wait..." The gears began to slowly turn, though this Arabella clearly wasn't about to let him get there at the rate he was going.
"And you were about to be snared," She pointed out the trip wire and traps fairly well, and Jeremy grabbed a nearby stick. Making sure Arabella was out of the way, he had the stick touch the trip wire, and a second later, the group of sharpened jaws had shot up and snapped the stick like it was nothing.
"Well... uh... thanks then. Do I call you Miss Montez, or Arabella?" He asked her, knowing that some people would've found it rude for a stranger to call them by a first name, though he was much more comfortable with that.

"The Louisana Black Bear has lived in the area for a long time, so people sometimes hunt them... though to think they'd have one so close to the park. Bears don't normally roam near the town, so it actually seems kinda silly. But whatever." Seeming to brush off his, well, brush with death rather easily, he progressed forward again... though he was noticeably much slower in his pace and looking around.
At least the kid could learn.
"I think we can consider ourselves even though. I patched up your leg, you made sure I wouldn't need to patch up my own. Seems fair, right?" He chuckled a little, coming towards the hill after a while.

The more that Arabella spoke, all the more curious Jeremy grew about her. Maybe it was because she was a foreigner, and thus he was fascinated by all the oddities about her that could be attributed to her culture. Then again, he didn't really hear about Romania being a country of faeries - and he was sure that might have made major news otherwise. But then there was also the fact she seemed to be Romanian, so why had she asked tha-
Too many questions, and too few answers, at least for now. Though, at the very least... he could appreciate the view, though only in occasional glances. If she was accurate with her knife as she claimed, it was probably in his best interest.
Having looked up the hill though, there wasn't any immediate tracks for him to follow, and something seemed to have peaked the faerie's curiosity, so Jeremy journeyed back to the trap
"Ari, you can call me Ari," She had told him, and Jeremy noted the name in his head as the woman began to inspect the trap. She seemed to have some experience in hunting - definitely put his boy scouts knowledge to shame.

"Skin-walkers don't shift, they shed their skin. This is a tasty dinner trap," That... okay was lost on him, but he nodded his head as if he understood.
"So they were hoping for people to go beyond the boundaries of the park... is what you're saying, right? So if I got caught, I'd be the next meal?" Rather elaborate trick... certainly the 'dumb, mindless animal' kind of werewolf to say the least.
"They'll be awfully disappointed their trap was sprung but they have no food," And that actually got him to laugh, if only for the fact he had indeed, yes, been officially degraded to 'food' on the grand hierachy of things.
"And I have you to thank for that, madamoiselle." He gave a short bow with a smile... before scratching his head. "...Its not offensive to call you something french, is it?" He asked, with a little concern in his voice, though he stopped with the question once Ari raised the rather eagle eyed point... what had happened to the bird songs?

"Its summer too... birds are north for the warm air, not south." Well, yeah they were in the Southern halve of the country, but from a global perspective... you get the idea.
"Uh... stay close? And remember not to take it too hard on your leg?" He shrugged as he stepped towards the woman, keeping an eye out around them... Not only for the potential hostiles, but also a quick hiding spot, if he could find one. If this did turn South... whatever, then he needed a way to change quickly. Call him paranoid, but he didn't really need to expose his secret identity in front of a woman he had just met, if he could help it.
"How... big was this werewolf, might I ask? Twilight 'fun' size?" He asked, clearly dejected by the reference he used. "Or... the Hulk with fur?"

...Curse his natural curiosity - why was spanish such a big deal to this woman, where french (or any other language really) was not? Was it some kind of bad blood on her part, or had something happened to her at some point? She didn't seem the type to be a bigot, having met a few horrid ones in his time, so he wondered what was up with that.
He followed the woman as she moved, trusting in her to guide them through the forest. This was admittedly one part of the town that he didn't know all too well, though he'd done the occasional walk through it with the boy scouts - but that hardly covered it all. It was after all, a forest, and it was twice as big as the town it neighboured - at least. He'd never really looked at it all on a map.
Though, that probably explained why it could hide werewolves - or people who liked them - and not have been rather obvious about it.
That all being said, Ari wasn't exactly objecting to his presence here, and Jeremy appreciated it. Partly because it meant he could find out what was up for himself... and partly because he could keep an eye on the woman herself, for various reasons.

"They're about 6ft tall," She answered his question on what exactly the size of the 'werewolves' were, and Jeremy paused a moment. His hand was moved to hover above his head, by a couple of inches as he tried to estimate just how big that was. He himself was about 5 and 2 thirds... so yeah, these were some pretty big werewolves, especially if they had muscle to match their height.
"And they can jump like a bitch." And again he paused - though this time, remembering to quickly catch up to the woman - as he considered the thought of what was probably gonna be several hundred pounds of carnivore jumping like 'a bitch'. Though, taking it literally...
"Don't think something thats pregnant can jump that well... unless your angel friend says otherwise." Spotting the slight coincidence, and for whatever reason finding himself amused by it, he quickly shut up.

"You uh... won't mention that some kid from Missisippi said that, right?" Jeremy asked as a branch snapped underfoot, providing some audio to an otherwise silent forest - aside of crunching leaves that were already on the floor.

"I must have gotten your slang wrong. I meant they can jump really really high," Jeremy couldn't help but form a cheesy grin at Arabella's response - no, she'd gotten her slang right. He'd just managed to confused her by playing with the words a little... though thinking on it, when had the idea of pregnant dogs being able to jump really high come to be? Seemed so weird when one thought about it...
"These are fresh and they are hungry. They can't be more than 10 minutes... maybe 20 minutes old. They're either really close or they can cover a lot of ground quick," Though, it also appeared that her tracking skills were really good, as somehow just sniffing the dirt enabled her to make a judgement. Faerie power, or something she had trained? God, he could write an essay with all the questions he had...
Too bad he wasn't at school anymore, so no decent excuse to make such an essay. Drat.

"Angels know everything," Now of all the things she had said, he found that one hardest to believe. Surely, if they knew everything, couldn't she just have asked them what the deal was with these so called Werewolves? Or was he taking things too literally again?
"Do you know how to fight, kid?" Like many things she said, Jeremy paused at the question, though continued forward, doing mock punches.
"I can do the old one-two. Never really got into martial arts though - didn't need it." He was lucky, and was one of those kids who managed to avoid being bullied too much at a young age. He was otherwise fairly sizeable, and well, that made for a good deterrent as he got older.
"And can you run fast?" She then asked him, and he grinned even wider than before, feeling a little proud.
"You saw me run across the field there - and I wasn't even giving it my all. Was on the track team at school." Sure he wasn't like, their star player or anything... but he made reserves. That was good, right?

"Maybe you should go home. If you were Romanian I wouldn't mind, kids your age have probably killed a man, but American culture is different." This time he stopped... and instead of picking up the pace, he stared across at Arabella, his expression a mixture of confusion, and concern.
"Are you... serious? Actually serious?" And the confusion began to fade, leaving only the concern.
"I am eighteen. Unless Romania's military like... conscripts people, there is something wrong with that statement." By no means could he get how having killed someone would be the norm for someone his age, and it seemed to make him angry.
"If thats the attitude you're gonna have, you should be the one who leaves now. I came here to make sure nobody else dies, not have people murdered. And don't say that them being werewolves changes that - Faerie." He strode forward now, keeping a cursory eye towards the floor for traps, but otherwise wanting to get the woman out of his sight. He'd probably calm down later, but now... he just needed this.