Firefly sighed as he slumped down in a torn up couch. Another rough night gone by, as the efforts of the masked hero once again saved the day. His hideout was about the size of an apartment, with some clothes in a corner, a giant pan for bathing, a small cooler for food, and a radio linked up to the police department’s frequency. He let himself go, feeling the nostalgic memories return to him...

Firefly yawned with the morning sun, a light shadow blanketing his face. His lean body slipped through the crack of his best friend’s door, and he mumbled, “Good morning Hecate.” Hecate, her long red hair sitting on her shoulders looked at him with a soft smile. She had just finished painting her nails black as she said, “You can call me Faye Redwood. We trust each other don’t we?” Firefly knew that the knowledge of another wizard’s name gave them a significant advantage over the owner of the name. However, they told each other their names in friendship, the greatest trust a mage could give to another.

Firefly smiled and said, “And you can call me...”

Firefly’s memories quickly switched, the sight of Faye laying on a metallic floor, her face covered in blood. Firefly, his hands bloody from his rage against the wizards who opposed him and his friend, he knelt before her, trying to stem the blood rushing from her shoulder. She whispered his name, as a knife protruded her back. Firefly up and gazed in horror at the master of death holding a wolf’s head and a bloody knife...

He couldn’t take it anymore; he leapt from his couch and cried, “Traitor! You vile traitor! Traitor!” He slumped back down on his seat, catching his breath. A tear slipped from the bottom of his mask, and he whispered, “Faye...I’m so sorry.” He trembled in sorrow, a few more tears escaping the pearl white mask. Suddenly he heard the radio set up on the wall opposite of him, a crackling voice of a man calling, “This is Sergeant Howard; I got a robbery in progress and...” suddenly gunfire erupted. “Damn, I need backup! Get down here now! I’m on the outskirts of town!” He yelled out the address, Firefly attentively listening to the desperate cop’s message. He stormed out of his hovel, taking the opportunity to let out his misery and anger.

By then, three cop cars had arrived, a real hot zone for anything that wasn’t truly human. Two cops lay dead, and the rest had pinned their backs to their cars and were popping up only to let loose a few bullets. Their opponents were large thugs, easily 6’5” each and with a mean streak. They took care to appear as human as possible; most humans didn’t growl or leap many yards to tear out their victims’ throats.

As the lycanthropes continued to fire their assault rifles upon the poorly armed city police, two lycanthropes took their time and prowled closer to their targets. The two werewolves, both fully changed, roared, as they leapt from the small forest next to them. Half of the roughly five man group turned to meet their two feral opponents, but their keen reaction time wasn’t quick enough to meet the deadly ambush. The first two fell, their cries of agony gurgled in a mixture of yelps and growls. The others remained on the police, ending the fight quickly by firing at the hood of the cars. Each one exploded one by one, and the cops flew several feet away. They rolled around desperately, their bodies engulfed with merciless flames. The red and yellow serpents of pain devoured their hosts, ending their miserable lives.

The first two dead and the other three now on their furry adversaries, they had fired at the wolves, forcing them to scatter. The two wolves, one blonde and the other brown, leapt clear of the strafing, finding cover behind some nearby trees. They stood still when the firing stopped, recovering from the shock of being bombarded. They regained their wits, as the sound of cracking bone and tearing flesh echoed in the night. They charged their now fully changed opponents, the brown one pinned by two, and the blonde one caught in a duel.

They didn’t notice Firefly creeping towards the fray, hiding behind an abandoned building. He eyed the wolves and went, “Damn, who do I fight?” He looked around the battlefield, collecting as much information as he could. He sighed at the sight of what he deduced to be the human victim, her body eviscerated. He noticed the fallen and empty assault rifles, and the bullet holes in the demolished cop cars, and quickly assumed his major clue: look for the owners of the assault rifles.

He also knew that even with this knowledge, it would be hard to figure out which balls of bloody fur were the true killers. He knew this fight was early, for no major wounds had been made. So he nodded and said, “The wolves with the most blood lose.”

Firefly took out a set of metallic spheres and brought out their electric properties. Sparks flew from the spheres, a thin electric line connecting them. He threw them at the bloodiest wolves, and the spheres collided with their bodies. They screamed, as their bodies fried from the intense heat. Their charred bodies fell lifelessly to the ground, and the two ambushers looked up at their new ally. The masked man merely looked at the two hesitant wolves, and in a flash, Firefly remembered the werewolf head from his dream. He couldn’t explain it, but there it was, burnt in his brain, the image of the decapitated wolf.

His attention was drawn back to reality, when the duo appeared missing. The green eye guards glowed bright green, his excitement bubbling inside of him. He took off into the forest, calling out, “I mean you no harm! I just want to talk to you!”

Using his force magic, he heard the sound of a gun clicking. He fell behind a tree, a sniper bullet narrowly missing him. He crouched low and caught his breath, feeling wood and bark chip off the tree protecting him. He tossed out the spheres in front of him and worked the electromagnetic energy within them. They spun in a disk, lightning meeting at the center. He magically moved the disk and ran towards the shots. More bullets were poised at him, but were deflected by the powerful electric shield. He reached the sniper wolf and let his spheres do the rest. They encircled her rifle, tearing it from her grasp. Firefly pleaded, “I’m not here to kill you. I just want to talk.”

He would’ve said more, but instead he only managed a grunt, as the other wolf, fully changed and extremely angry, barreled into Firefly. Instinctively, he grabbed whatever his hands could grasp and focused. Sending electrical impulses into the burly beast, the monster keeled over, having every nerve ending pinched and pulled. Writhing in pain, it lashed out more, sending it closer and closer to a full on blood rage, where one was ignorant of pain. Firefly decided to shut her down; he palmed either side of her head and sent one big impulse, knocking the wolf out. No longer conscious, she slowly reverted to human shape.

Firefly immediately looked for the other wolf, and at the last second, he saw her, rifle poised at his head. As much as his morals forbid him too, instinct had taken over, and he placed his hand on the fallen werewolf’s head, hoping a hostage situation would force the remaining wolf to reason.

The sniper cried, “Leave her alone you bastard!” Firefly, using every bit of his strength to remain calm, answered, “I’m not here to hurt you or anyone else. Please, you have to understand, this is important.”

“Go away wizard!” she commanded. “Nothing good can come from your kind!”

“Stranger,” began Firefly. “Does the name Blackjack mean anything to you?”

Firefly’s patience and levelheaded conduct finally paid off; the sniper, although still very unstable, seemed more curious now. Suddenly, suspicion threw her off, forcing her to yelling, “You’re one of his henchmen aren’t you? So my father wasn’t enough huh? Had to make sure none of the family was left alive? Well you’re not leaving alive; I have a pack to rebuild and I won’t let you or anyone else get in the way!”

Firefly was starting to get a little frustrated; the woman wasn’t listening to anything he was saying, and the more he explained, the deeper the trouble for him became. Focusing on the sound waves he produced, Firefly whistled, and used his magic to increase the frequency. Although he couldn’t hear the dog whistle leveled pitch, the sniper could, and she immediately clasped her ears, looking around instinctively to find the source of the infernal sound. She quickly realized it was the magician, but by then, he had kicked the rifle away and had placed his Zippo to her face. With that, he yelled, “I hate Blackjack too! He killed one of my best friends, and if you’re going to act so suspicious, then I’m just going to leave!”

“Wow, that’s threatening!” she remarked sarcastically. “If I’m not careful, the big bad witch will disappear.”

Having no more patience, he let loose a small ember of flame, lightly licking her arm. There was barely a mark, but it let her know that sarcasm wasn’t going to do her much good. Firefly’s eye guards were intense now, his frustration from the incompetent woman and his past mounting. Suddenly, the dumbfounded woman tilted her head and asked, “Wait...are you Firefly? The masked mage who left Blackjack’s gang before he took over and killed the top Alpha, Arch-mage, and Vampire Lord?”

“You don’t recognize me?” questioned Firefly. “Many people in the Night Society know who I am.”

“I had no idea,” she tried to explain. “I...I had a feeling it was you from your magic. Your name associates with your magic.”

“I do more than fireworks,” explained Firefly. “I’ve read up a little on space magic. Very useful now that I’m an outcast.”

“I don’t have a home either,” she responded, her senses finally coming to her. “My father was the head Alpha of the wolf pack in this city. Now that he’s gone, the pack’s in chaos.”

“Knowing Blackjack,” reasoned Firefly. “I think he assassinated the leaders of our races to create this mess and put the blame on me. With me as the scapegoat, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was using this as a way to take over all the races. Why else would he bother with the vampire and werewolf races?”

“So this democracy, this Night Society,” the woman began, “is nothing more than a way to take over all of us? I knew this whole thing was rotten the second I heard it!” She then leered at Firefly in suspicion and asked, “How did you know to find me?”

“I met you by chance,” explained Firefly. “I was merely doing justice when I saw you guys. I didn’t think you were the enemy, because infighting in a wolf pack mission didn’t seem like normal wolf behavior. Feeling as though you were after the same thugs, I thought I’d try to talk to you. I need help to get to Blackjack, and I didn’t if your pack...”

“Me and Sarah are all that’s left,” she said, pointing to her unconscious friend. “Seeing as you can’t possibly be on Blackjack’s side, I suppose we could work together. The three of us can get more done that way. By the way, I’m Karen.”

“Pleased to meet you Karen,” Firefly said, shaking her hand. “We should help your friend back to your hideout; we can discuss our next move from there.” She nodded in agreement, and they lugged the naked and unconscious juggernaut back into the forest.