Club Luna

"Are y'all planning to go see the fireworks tonight?" Melanie asked, in between licks of her fudge ripple ice cream cone. "They do a big show at City Hall, that's only like a ten minute walk from the house."

I smiled, "Yeah that sounds like fun! What time do they start?"

The wolfgirl replied, "Around ten I think?"

"Yeah it starts at ten o'clock," Cerys confirmed. Then she went back to enjoying her cherries-and-cream cone.

We were over at Mill Creek Park again, in a sort of replay of last July. Only this wasn't a club meeting, it was a holiday. Friday July first, Canada Day, and we were out enjoying the nice weather and celebratory atmosphere.

A few of our friends couldn't make it, Brooke and Paige were both busy and Melody was out of town with her boyfriends. But the rest of us got together, and we all got ice creams on our way to the park.

I had tiger tail, which was my favourite flavour of ice cream. Kaylee had a scoop of chocolate with chunks of fudge brownie in it. Nina went with something bright blue and filled with bits of candy. Willow got rocky road, and Sasha was enjoying her butterscotch praline.

Between the nice weather and the fact that it was a holiday there were loads of people around. We ended up sitting on the ground in some shade next to the creek, talking quietly to each other as we watched all the activity going on around us. There were people walking their dogs, kids were playing on the playground, a few college-age folks were tossing a frisbee around, and there were families having picnics and stuff like that. There was even a food truck over in the parking lot, every now and then the gentle breeze would shift and the smell of BBQ ribs was unmistakable.

"How's things going with getting up to speed on the modern world?" Willow asked as she looked to my cousin. "You certainly don't look like you're a century out of date."

The sorceress had that right, Sasha looked totally comfortable in her tight blue jeans, sneakers, and the small white top she was currently wearing. She even had a little white faux-leather purse dangling from one shoulder, and her new white phone in one hand while she held her cone in the other.

About the only thing that made her stand out was her pure white hair. Some time over the last couple days she'd used magic to make her hair grow out longer and straighter, so it reached partway down her back. Actually with her long white hair and bright blue eyes she contrasted nicely with Will's long black hair and exotic purple eyes.

"Thank you Willow," Sasha replied with a smile. "Nina and Cass have both been working hard over the past couple days to help me assimilate into modern society."

My little sister added, "Sasha's really smart and she learns fast, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem."

That made my cousin blush slightly, but she smiled "Thank you Nina. There's still quite a lot I'm not familiar with, such as modern slang and idioms, and there are a great many technical terms I don't know. But with luck any mistakes I make can be passed off as due to being raised in another country."

I was happy that most of my friends seemed to have accepted my cousin, despite the rough start. Only three days had passed since Nina and I introduced her to the group, but the two wolfgirls and Willow had all been getting to know her better. Even Kaylee was giving her a chance.

"Have you got any long-term plans yet?" my girlfriend asked the former goddess. "I mean, just a couple days ago you said your plan was to get caught up on everything you've missed, but it sounds like you've almost finished that already."

Sasha replied casually, "I expect I'll be working closely with Cassandra on our combined plan to destabilize and destroy the status quo by spreading magic and chaos around the globe. Although I doubt that will be a full-time endeavour, so there's likely to be plenty of free time for both of us to enjoy other pursuits in the meantime."

While my cousin went on to enjoy another few licks of her cone, everyone else had gone silent and they were all staring at me. My cheeks were bright red and I couldn't help wishing I had my big hoodie with me, because I desperately needed to hide.

Fortunately something came up to distract everyone before they could start questioning me about the stuff Sasha just blurted out like it was nothing. Unfortunately the distraction was a couple transmisic jerks, and none of us wanted to deal with that.

"Hey look," Kyle Harding loudly announced, "Our old buddy's wearing a dress out in public!"

Danny Bradley leered at Willow, "Dude I can't believe you're actually in a skirt. You're such a freak, you know that?"

The petite sorceress was wearing a pretty sleeveless purple sundress with a white and pink floral pattern, and there was absolutely nothing about her that was even the slightest bit masc. Literally no-one would believe she'd looked like a guy a couple months earlier.

Her two former friends seemed intent on making a scene though. Except as far as I could see the only people who ought to be embarrassed was themselves.

Even so, Willow was obviously still upset. She was blushing and it looked like she was struggling to keep her composure as she responded, "Just get lost ok? Leave me alone."

"Y'all should do what Willow says," Melanie added with a distinct warning tone in her voice. "You don't want to keep kicking this hornets nest."

She wasn't exactly growling at the guys, but she definitely didn't appreciate the transmisia any more than Willow or me. And the wolfgirl already had a reputation for being tough, which the guys had to know about.

Kyle just laughed, "Yeah whatever. No surprise you freaks are all hanging out together. Should'a guessed a guy who looks like a girl would want to hang out with a girl who acts like a dude. You lot just need to get your heads sorted out."

"You don't know when to stop, do you Kyle?" Willow glared. "Seriously you two, walk away before you say something you're going to regret."

"Shut it bitch," Danny retorted. "You think you can take us, go for it."

Then Danny deadnamed Willow and added, "Heads up!" as Kyle suddenly threw something he'd been hiding behind his back.

It turned out to be a water balloon, but his aim was off and instead of his former friend the balloon struck Melanie square in the chest. The wolfgirl was instantly soaked, while both Cerys and Willow got wet too as the water splashed left and right.

Danny and Kyle were both laughing as they took off through the park, while Melanie wound up to nail one of them in the back of the head with her half-finished ice cream cone. But before she could throw it something unexpected happened. The wolfgirl dropped her cone and doubled over, clutching her stomach in pain.

"Oh crud!" she groaned. "I'm... Crud I can't stop it!"

A moment later Cerys did the same thing, she let out a yelp of pain and almost collapsed as she curled up on the grass.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Nina gasped as she and I both moved to check on the wolfgirls.

Meanwhile Kaylee and Sasha both looked to Willow. My girlfriend asked her, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," the sorceress nodded. "Just a little wet."

Cerys whimpered and Melanie let out a growl. The older wolfgirl had her teeth clenched and her muscles were straining as she groaned, "Gonna change... Can't control it!"

I could feel a sense of growing panic as I realized what was about to happen. We were in a crowded park, in the middle of a sunny afternoon, surrounded by hundreds of people. And our two werewolf friends were going to shift in broad daylight, where everyone could see. Some folks were already looking, their attention drawn by the commotion.

My mind started to race. I knew it had to be the water, something in that balloon must have affected the two wolfgirls. I didn't see any magic on either of them though, there wasn't anything I could dispell. And I didn't know if it was safe to use magic to stop them from shifting, I didn't want to risk hurting them. I didn't want to touch them and drain their own magic out either, since I knew that upset Melanie the first time we met.

"I can't..." Cerys whimpered again, then just like that she shifted.

Her jeans and t-shirt were torn apart as her body changed shape, and someone a few meters away screamed. The scream drew even more attention, and more people turned to look and see what was happening. It almost felt like a nightmare, knowing what was coming and having no way to stop it.

Then with dozens of people watching, Melanie shifted too and things got even worse. There were more screams and a few shouts as the ravenette's plaid shirt and white tank top were torn apart, along with the loose jeans she'd been wearing.

Suddenly there were two large dangerous-looking wolfs there in the park with us, surrounded by hundreds of humans. And the whole park was full of people shouting, some were fleeing while others were recording everything with their phones.

I was about ready to start panicking as well, when I felt that calm confidence smother my fear like a thick heavy blanket. After that everything almost felt like I was in a dream or something.

"Nina," I heard myself tell my little sister. "I'm sending you and the wolfs home. Look after them."

The small demon opened her mouth to respond but she was gone before she had a chance to say anything. So were the two werewolfs. Internally I was panicking even more, like it was bad enough a few people saw Melanie and Cerys change but now everyone would have seen them get teleported away in broad daylight.

Except that's not what happened. Apparently divine magic could be subtle and unseen, and somehow despite being surrounded by a hundred witnesses not one of them actually saw two big wolfs and one teen girl vanishing before their eyes.

Then I addressed my girlfriend, "Kaylee, take Sasha and Willow back to the house. I'll meet you all there in a little while. There's something else I need to do first."

"What?" Kaylee gasped. "Cass what are you doing!? We can't just -"

I missed whatever else she had to say, as I teleported myself away using the same subtle magic. All the noise and cacophony of the park went silent as I appeared on a quiet residential sidewalk about two blocks away, standing next to a tall fence in front of a house.

A moment later Danny and Kyle came around the corner, they were still laughing and joking about their prank. Both of them stopped in their tracks when they nearly ran into me, they were clearly surprised to find me there but neither were the least bit scared.

After all they were a couple tall tough guys, while I was just a petite girl with a reputation for being shy and quiet and occasionally anxious. Except they weren't really that tough. They were more like Gord Potts, and like how Willow used to be. They weren't jocks, and they weren't terribly athletic. Danny was about six feet tall but skinny, wearing some torn blue jeans and an old black t-shirt with some metal band logo on the front. And Kyle was average height and kind of stocky, dressed in baggy black pants and big hoodie.

"Tell me where you got that balloon," I stated calmly.

"As if," Kyle scoffed.

The two of them tried to push past me as Danny added, "Outta the way, freak."

I saw my body reach out and I grabbed them both, my left hand on Danny's arm and my right hand on Kyle's. And despite weighing less than either one of them, I held both of them firmly in place. Even working together they couldn't budge me or get me to release my grip.

Somewhere deep inside my heart was racing and I was in full-on panic mode, but on the outside I remained so calm it was almost scary. I didn't bother with questions, I didn't need to. It was trivial to find the answers I was looking for, and I didn't have to dig any deeper than their surface thoughts.

They'd been at the park, in line at the food truck to get some ribs. Someone approached and offered them fifty dollars each to hit Melanie with a water balloon. They didn't need any persuasion, they both accepted on the spot. They were each given a fifty dollar bill, and Kyle was given the balloon. That was the extent of their instructions, so the transmisia was all their own idea.

That information revealed a few very worrying details. First, the guys had no idea what was in the balloon. Second, Melanie was the target all along rather than Willow. And third, neither of the guys had any memory of who it was that spoke to them. They didn't know if it was a man or woman, they didn't remember what the person's voice sounded like. It was just a fuzzy grey blur in their minds. Which meant whoever was behind this had already covered their tracks. They'd erased themself from the guys' memories, probably with magic.

"I might have let you off for the balloon since you didn't know what you were doing," I heard myself tell the two boys, "But the transmisia was your choice. And for that, I'm not in a forgiving mood."

Deep inside I was shaking my head, I didn't want to do what I knew was coming. I didn't want revenge, I knew it was wrong and I knew it would only lead to more trouble down the road. I couldn't stop myself though, all I could do was watch as I showed two helpless human teenagers why angry gods are so terrifying.

There was a flare of magic, then I let go of the two tiny adorable bunnyboys. They were smaller even than Kenzie, their bodies were short and slim and petite.

Kyle had a pair of dark grey bunny ears sticking up above his shoulder-length light-grey hair, and a cute dark grey puffy tail poked out over the back of his tight baby-blue shorts and below his pink tank-top. And finally he had a white fannypack around his little waist.

Meanwhile Danny's chocolate brown bunny ears stood up above his long luxurious cream-coloured hair, while his poofy chocolate-coloured tail stuck out at the back above his pink leggings and beneath his lavender t-shirt.

Both of them stared up at me in shock, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

"You might want to read up on Netherland Dwarf rabbits," I told the two shocked buns. "I think you'll find the information relevant to your situation."

Kyle gulped and asked in a soft shaky voice, "What are you?"

"What did you do to us?" Danny added nervously.

My voice remained calm and quiet as I replied, "I am Chaos, and I just re-rolled all your physical stats. If you ever bother any of my friends again things will only get worse."

I saw myself push past the two cute little bunnyboys as I disappeared around the corner, heading back towards Mill Creek Park. Magic flared once more and with my next step I was at the park standing beside the food truck, but none of the mortals noticed my arrival.

My magic spread out as I started searching for the culprit, peeking into the thoughts of everyone around me for any sign of the guilty party. Unfortunately no-one had anything to do with the water balloon. Nobody even remembered seeing someone give it to Kyle and Danny.

There wasn't anything else I could do about that for now, so I stifled a sigh and began covering things up as best I could.

Wandering unseen through the crowd I modified and erased images and videos from people's phones. I refrained from doing the same to the minds of those who'd witnessed the wolfgirls shift, but I took note of anyone who'd already posted the images and video clips online so I could try and purge those as well.