Chris was jolted from his slumber by a rude pothole in the highway. The window beside him had gone dark with the night, but the city lights of Ridgeville shone like stars in the fast approaching distance. He wiped the sleep away from his eyes as the thrill of reaching his destination began to rise throughout his whole being. Checking to make sure his bag was still safely beside him, he reached into it for another quick snack.

    He took in as much of the city as the night would allow as the bus toured the streets on it's  way to the downtown terminal where it's mission of transporting passengers would come to an end for Friday. The hour was late, near midnight, but the town was buzzing with life until they neared the mostly desolate blocks of downtown Ridgeville, which served as the business district during the normal operating hours of the day.

    Chris got off the bus with the duffel bag strapped to his shoulder and the excitement of literally chasing a dream in his eyes. He breathed in the exhilarating air that swirled around him with the presence of Bergstad in it's cold touch, then asked a passing attendant at the station for a hotel recommendation. The attendant was happy to comply, and told Chris about a relatively new hotel just a few blocks from the station. Chris offered a smiling thanks, then started his trek into what he hoped would be a memorable weekend.

    Once he was a block or so from the bus station the flow of people along the sidewalks diminished to only an occasional passerby. Chris walked with his hands buried in his pockets and his head low, but his roving eyes paid attention to everything in their range. Most of the buildings he passed were quiet, showing with unlit windows that their occupants were long gone. These were the office buildings of nine to fiver's who deserted the downtown area at quitting time on Friday, leaving it a ghost town until their weekend reprieve ended early on the dreaded Monday morning of each week. The alleys between the buildings were darker than the night ever could be, so Chris opted to keep his path closer to the street, where dutiful lamp posts kept a lit watch over the sidewalk.

    The well lit, intentionally visible sign of the hotel appeared up ahead, to Chris' relief, whose sweater wasn't quite thick enough for the more northern air of Ridgeville. Only a few more buildings with their ominous dark alleys stood between him and the hotel, but a loose feeling at his left foot brought his journey to an unscheduled stop. Upon inspecting his left sneaker Chris discovered what he'd suspected, the shoelaces were loose, dangling on each side of the worn sneaker.

    He knelt down, setting his bag off to the side in order to free his arm from it's strap, then began retying the troublesome laces. As he finished up the new loops, the distinct clacking of  boot heels approaching from behind made him turn his head to sneak a look over his shoulder at the person coming up behind him. The sight he saw compelled him to keep his gaze fixed upon the seductive beauty swaggering his way. She was wrapped from top to bottom in shiny black leather that owed a debt for being put on display by such a gorgeous body.

    When she drew near, the lamp posts illuminated the dark brown hair that fell straight down behind her shoulders as well as the darkest eyes Chris had ever seen, made darker with black eyeliner which perfectly complimented her dangerously attractive features. To Chris she seemed like the Harbinger of Night, come to stroll among mortals while admiring her handiwork. 

    He didn't realize he'd been gawking so severely  until she cut her dark eyes at him with a winking smirk as she passed by. He jerked his head back down to his sneaker, as if it still required his attention, and hoped that his embarrassed blush would be hidden on his bowed cheeks. He didn't dare look up until the sound of her boots began to fade. That's when he saw two dubious looking guys run from the opposite side of the street toward her while one of them got her attention with: "Hey, Shade!"

    Chris barely had time to process what he'd just heard before the two guys grabbed the girl and forced her into an alley. He snatched his bag as he took off in a sprint toward that alley with his mind racing faster than his legs ever could. Shade was a name, and with that name in particular the girl had to be what he was looking for; although he would be running to that alley no matter what her name was. He didn't consider himself a tough guy or anything, but the combination of his lean physique and earnest intentions was nothing to scoff at, although neither had ever been tested quite like this before.

    Chris put on the brakes at the partially lit opening of the alley, where he found the girl pressed up against the brick wall by a hand around her throat from the larger of the two guys while the other one was trying to intimidate her with the glimmering blade of a serious-looking knife as he held it near her face. In truth, she didn't seem too concerned about her situation. The flat thud made by Chris' bag when it let it fall to the sidewalk along with his excited pants for air, announced his presence at the alley's entrance.

    The knife-wielding hoodlum turned and inspected Chris with an agitated scowl, then snapped: "Mind ya own business punk, or I'll break ya face!"

    His partner snickered to himself while the girl eyed Chris calmly, then said to him: "It's okay guy, I got this."

    The guy with the knife, suddenly infuriated by the girl's remark, swung around to her and put the knife's edge dangerously close to her cheek as he growled through angry, gritted teeth. "You ain't got nothin' Shade."

    The elevated threat awakened the surging strength Chris had experienced before his change the night before, he reacted without thinking. He rushed toward the hoodlum only to have his own momentum bury the knife deep in his gut when the guy swung back around to intercept his rash advance. The cold steel set Chris' belly on fire, taking his breath away in a sharp gasp as he stared into the unremorseful eyes of the hoodlum. The thug jerked the knife out and pushed Chris' slumping body past them into the darkened recesses of the alley where he collapsed helplessly to the ground in a bleeding pile.

    "Now, see whatcha made me do Shade. If you'd just do like Viktor said and stay away from here, things like this wouldn't happen," the hoodlum snidely taunted as his partner loomed over Shade with his confident grip around her throat.

    Shade heard what he said, but her dark eyes were fixed on the consuming darkness where Chris' wounded body had disappeared. The calm look on her face tensed into a focused display of scorn for her two assailants as she turned her head in the annoying grasp around her throat and rested a no nonsense stare on the grinning knife wielder.

    "You're gonna wish you hadn't done that," she warned.

    The hoodlum, amused by her threat, chuckled at his partner who returned his own entertained snicker. "What're you gonna do about it," the hoodlum prodded as he twiddled his knife.

    Shade raised a cocky eyebrow, then replied plainly: "This." 

    Before the hoodlum could draw in a breath to respond, Shade sent him crashing into the opposite wall of the alley with a lightning fast kick that was little more than a streaky blur to the human eye. His partner's grip on her throat loosened as his stunned attention turned to his fallen comrade, but he quickly forgot about him when Shade infused him with pain by grabbing his wrist and wrenching his hand away with the same turbocharged force used with the kick. The looming man cried out in agony and was brought to his knees by Shade's unrelenting twisting of his forearm that tore muscles and snapped ligaments. She hushed his pain-filled yelps with a streaking knee to his jaw that left him unconscious, then she let him fall face down to the hard ground. She tossed a glance at each of the defeated men, pleased with herself for their disabled conditions.

    During Shade's brief and precise attack that was executed with superhuman speed, Chris had wallowed in the darkness of the alley until the growing strength within him took the pain in his gut away and his clothes ripped away from  the emerging form of the Beast. Shade left her two victims behind in order to search the dark alley for her would-be knight in shining armor, but she stopped wide-eyed with a gasp when the imposing form of the Beast rose from the darkness and stared down at her with It's purple eyes ablaze.

    She cautiously backed away as the Beast stepped forth from the blackness of the alley which almost seemed like one with the inky black pelt of the creature's towering form. As she back-tracked to the dimly lit edge of the alley's entrance, she got a good look at the creature's imposing, brawny form. She grew still and held her breath at the sight, afraid to provoke the creature unwittingly. Her eyes moved slowly up and down to examine it's huge clawed hands that rested at it's sides, along with it's calm, muzzled face that resembled the dignified pose of a wolf with deeply set purple eyes.

    From inside the hulking creature, Chris' consciousness stared at Shade's terrified demeanor through the eyes of the Beast, which saw in the night as plainly as if it were day. When the Beast took a step toward her he realized that the stride of his alternate form covered much more ground than his normal self. With the completion of that one step he was easily within arm's reach of her, especially now that his arms were so long. She did not cower under his presence, but only tensed in preparation for whatever his intentions might be. He studied her for a moment, thinking about her name and the pull it had at memories laced with feelings that had been locked away inside him from another time, a time when doorknobs were out of reach and words were new. He fought for those memories that urged him of this girl's importance, but the memories struggled to be known. Instead, a gesture summoned by her presence surfaced.

    Shade looked in awe at the Beast as it cocked it's head and seemed to peer harmlessly down at her. She restrained a subtle flinch when the massive creature suddenly raised it's right hand up to her head, easily eclipsing her whole head with it's huge hand. Slowly the Beast rolled it's clawed fingers safely away into the leathery palm of it's hand, but kept it's index finger slightly extended in a nonthreatening curl. Shade tracked the hand with her eyes as the Beast offered the furry knuckle of it's finger to her cheek, gently stroking that delicate portion of her face as it calmly breathed deep, powerful breaths.

    The gesture disarmed Shade's frightened apprehension, easing her tense body into a more calm example of herself. Her demeanor became one of bewilderment and intrigue at the incredible creature before her, whose gesture she knew only from a select few. Her face wrestled with thought and she whispered up at the Beast: "Could it be?"

    A heavy moan from the hoodlum who'd wielded the knife flooded the acute hearing of the Beast's raised ears. It snatched it's head away from Shade to zero in on the squirming fellow who was trying to use the wall to get to his feet. The Beast withdrew it's hand from Shade and leapt past her with alarming speed for a being of such size, to the dazed man. Shade watched as the man was snatched off the ground with one clawed hand, snarled at through rows of menacing fangs , then slammed back down with such crushing force that even she winced.

    The Beast kept the lifeless body planted on the ground with it's grip, staring down at the body with an angered brow, until Shade boldly walked near. It turned it's head to her, softening it's gaze in her presence, then let go of it's victim as it stood. Shade quickly eyed the broken body of the hoodlum, then looked inquisitively at the Beast.

    "Can you...understand what I'm saying?" She asked uneasily.

    The Beast responded with an affirming nod of It's head.

    Shade smirked nervously, then presented a question that sounded more like an answer. "You're not gonna hurt me, are you?" 

    Again the Beast answered with a nod, this time side-to-side.

    "That's good, that's good. Your touch back there kinda told me that," she admitted.

    The Beast surveyed the two men lying near it's feet to make sure they were no longer threats, then it wandered over to one of the alley's walls and sat down with it's back against the wall, keeping it's eyes on Shade for a few breaths, then closing them. Shade watched in amazement as the Beast's mighty form began to change. It shrank down as it's inhuman shapes receded into Chris' naked form, leaving him wounded and bleeding profusely from the gash in his gut, which he covered with his hands as he slumped over with a pain-filled grimace.

    Shade rushed over to him, inspecting his bloody stomach as she knelt beside him. "Don't worry, I'm gonna go get my car so I can take you to someone who'll fix you right up. I'll be right back," she assured, then bolted from his side in a blur.