9 – Wrong

Hey there my most faithful readers, I hated leaving you hanging from a cliff, so here's the next chapter. Asmith137, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but there won't be a transformation scene, again, sorry. Enjoy!

Skipper rushed towards the site of the sighting, the proximity of his own habitat, as fast as he could. "Everyone! Head home! I've spotted the K9!" he yelled into his earphone. The habitat soon came into view, but once he got there, he saw no sign of the beast. "Come out Jamaall, I know you're the terrifying tail-wagger!" he called into the darkness surrounding him.

He heard a sneeze behind him and turned towards it, "Gotcha!" he proclaimed and jumped the dark shape, which he could barely make out. There was some rolling around, but it soon came to a stop, "You thought you could get away with it, didn't you?" he asked, holding some of the Puli's locks while holding him on the ground with one of his webbed orange feet.

The dog remained silent for a few seconds before finally responding, "Bird, why the hatin', can't a dog get some fresh air?" he asked in a bored tone.

"Oh sure," the captain sarcastically replied, "Say, do you want some blood with that air – Don't play with me, we both know what you really are. Now stop the act and admit it already."

Rico, Private and Alexander joined him.

"Skippah, what are you doing to that doggie?" the smallest bird asked.

Skipper looked away from the Puli and at Private, "Boys, let me introduce to you Jamaall, but you might know him better as The Nighttime Canine," he dramatically said at the end.

There was some more silence, before Private spoke again, "If you ask me, he looks nothing like him Skippah. Don't you think you might be wrong here?"

"No dice, it all makes too much sense. On our first encounter Alexander here gave the skull wolf a good right hook. And later at the infirmary, we found out that there was a bone fracture in his muzzle. Can't you see the patern?"

The water monitor slowly raised an appendage and Skipper gave him the word. "It could all just be coincidental," the reptile said.

"Oh yeah! What about afterwards, when we followed him and lost all trace of the skull wolf, who did we find? And how about yesterday's pursuit? We followed the wolf back to the reptile house. It jumped on the roof and then disappeared. Now can anybody tell me, who was found on the exact spot where the wolf vanished? Or maybe I should say," he quickly bent over and picked up the Puli by the neck fur, or locks, "TRANSFORMED!" Skipper yelled directly in his face.

"…Do you know your breath smells like fish?" Jamaall asked.

The lead bird growled and was just about to smack the mutt.

"Skipper, your suspicions are all nicely backed up by your own findings, but I have to say that a "Transforming" animal just isn't possible," Alexander said.

"You're wrong, you're all wrong!" someone said.

The five animals, together with the dog, looked around and spotted Kowalski with a tired look in his eyes. "Nice of you to finally join us," Skipper replied, "Care to explain your last statement, soldier?"

The genius bird removed the sling and threw it away. He began removing the bandages from his flipper, showing them that it was all healed up. "Jamaall isn't the Hell Hound, I am!" he proclaimed.

The captain blinked a few times then let go of the Puli. "Oh come on, it can't be you, you're not even a mammal. This guy's a dog, dogs and wolves are in the same uh…"

"Genus," the medic helped.

"Genus," Skipper finished.

"It's not him okay, I did the math, I've seen enough horror movies to last a life time, I know how it all works. I was bitten and the original wolf is long gone. How is it then that the attacks continue? Huh? Simple, the beast has infected me and now I become the wolf during the night. And as for the accelerated healing process, I am certain it is all a part of my newfound powers."

"Actually," Alexander stepped in, "I think I can explain that. You see, during the operation, you lost a lot of blood, so I used my own. My plasma adapts itself to the host's body and therefore there is no adverse reaction to it, no matter what class of animal it is. As for the healing process, my blood contains vast amounts of stem cells, which would explain your recovery time."

Kowalski blinked a few times, then looked at his flipper, "But, but I was so certain."

"About what, that you would just waddle over here and then transform into the flipper eater? I thought you were smarter than that," Skipper said.

"Skippah's right, since when do you listen to movies over science?" Private asked.

Kowalski blushed and scratched the back of his head, "Well uh, I, hehe, it does seem that I cheated on science with the illogical mistress, doesn't it?"

Skipper shook his head smiling, "Forget about it soldier. Come on, let's go back to base for some hot chocolate," he suggested.

The five of them were just about to jump the moat surrounding the artificial ice floe, when something crossed Private's mind, "Hey wait, aren't we forgetting something?"

Falling from the sky, landing with a loud "thud", growling, came their old acquaintance, the Hell Hound. Everyone turned around and looked him in the empty orbits. They waited for the other to make the first move. "Kowalski, options!" Skipper whispered.

The lieutenant searched his naked persona, but found nothing. That's when he remembered, "Skipper, it just occurred to me that my clipboard had been destroyed by that infernal, uh, Imo-Inu."

The captain shot him a questioning look.

"I ran out of names, okay? There, I said it," the genius bird admitted.

The wolf made a step forward, startling Private. Rico regurgitated his baseball bat and charged at his opponent. The beast didn't even move, when the impact of the wooden bat left a visible crack on its jugal. Rico looked up and saw the wolf slowly turn his "gaze" towards him. The maniac wasn't afraid, but he didn't know what might follow.

"Men, operation: Muzzle without a nuzzle, GO!" ordered Skipper from behind. Kowalski and Private slid towards the wolf. The wolf snatched at Rico, but the maniac jumped back avoiding the attack. Private and Kowalski began circling around him, distracting the canine, while Skipper turned towards the medic.

"Give me a boost," he ordered. The reptile nodded and joined his claws. Skipper jumped and Alexander threw him into the air. The wolf was too confused by the two birds circling around him, to spot the third one until it landed on its neck.

The wolf began jumping around like a rodeo bull, trying to get the penguin off, "Rico!" Skipper called. The maniac knew what he needed without any further instructions. He regurgitated a dog muzzle and threw it to his leader. Skipper caught it and strapped it on. "That should even the playing field," he remarked and jumped off.

The remaining team members joined him by his side and together they watched their slightly incapacitated opponent. "Great job men, any ideas what to do now?" he asked. The beast was tending to the muzzle and wasn't paying any attention to them. "Come on people, I came up with the muzzle idea, so how's about some help?" the leader said.

"We could try talking to him and becoming friends," Private suggested.

"We should tranquilize it and examine its biology," Kowalski proposed.

"Severing the spinal cord would paralyze it and get it out of our scales and or feathers," Alexander said.

Rico simply regurgitated a lit stick of dynamite, "Kaboom?" he asked his leader.

Skipper snatched the dynamite and threw it away, "All your ideas are horrible," he said. An explosion was heard, followed by the "My car!" yell. "This is what we're going to do, we'll beat the living daylight out of that thing and then we'll trace its origin, no matter where it may lead us."

"That might not be necessary," Kowalski said.

Skipper looked around, not knowing what his lieutenant meant with that, and saw the wolf slowly coming to a stop. Next it fell over on its side, completely stiff. "What the deuce?" the leader asked and slid over to it. "Analysis," he demanded.

Alexander checked the wolf's vitals, "Presuming that he had a pulse before, there's no pulse now," he reported.

What happened next surprised them even more, the body of the Hell Hound evaporated into the air, leaving nothing but the muzzle behind. Skipper blinked a few times, before turning to his scientist. "Kowalski?" he asked, but the lieutenant just shrugged. He thought about it some more, "Could it be that… the sunrise is getting closer and that's what happens to it during the day?" he tried.

Rico regurgitated a watch which he handed over to Kowalski, "No, it's before the time of the first attack, which means that can't be it." Skipper scratched his bottom beak and continued listening to his lieutenant, "But it is amazing, the disappearance, it simply cannot be scientifically explained. It's almost like, like,…"

"Magic," the leader muttered to himself. He turned to his team, "It doesn't matter, nobody got hurt," Kowalski was just going to correct him, but, "Or is hurt anymore!" he shot him a glare. "No one died and so on. We can't explain this to anyone, so I guess the best thing to do here is to simply forget about the incident of the past 48 hours, is that understood?"

Everyone saluted and answered simultaneously, "Yes sir!"

"Good, now get some shut eye," he looked around, searching for someone, "And Alexander, go and find that guest of yours. Looks like Bob Marley ran off when the wolf appeared."

"Nah man," they all turned around and saw the dog emerging from the hole, leading into the HQ. "You said there was going to be hot chocolate, so I thought you guys were fighting that thing after we drink it. I've been waiting in here for fifteen minutes," he complained.

Skipper rolled his eyes, "Alexander, grab Jamaall and take him back to the reptile house, I think we're done for the evening.

The water monitor proceeded as told and left for the reptile. The penguins entered their HQ and jumped into their bunks, where they quickly fell asleep.

To be honest, I should've ended the chapter here, but I decided to finish the story instead. But still, consider this part, a chapter of its own

10 – Unfinished Business

A pinch of torture and a dash of horror, all served cold, as the desert called REVENGE. Enjoy!

Slowly leaving the zoo, was a small dark figure. Judging by the way it moved, you could tell that it was a quadruped. The figure threw the zoo a last glance, "I'm definitely never coming back here again," it said and continued with its departure. "The stash was nice and all, but it wasn't worth the trouble," the figure began talking to itself, "Not to mention that guy gave me the creeps," the figure shivered.

"Oh come now, maybe that guy was just misunderstood," said a different voice.

The figure stopped in its tracks, "Who's there?" it asked.

"It's funny, your life is at stake and you want to know who is going to end it, when there are more important questions you could ask."

The original figure tried making out where the voice was coming from, but it couldn't. "Show yourself!" it demanded.

There was a silence until the figure heard a whisper in its ear, "Hello Jamaall," said the second voice. After that, everything went black, for the dark figure.

Meanwhile, somewhere inside the zoo, light snoring is heard inside a cave. A female scream suddenly rips through the darkness, waking up the remaining inhabitants. A light is turned on, revealing Darla the baboon. The mammal looked around and saw one of her roommates waking up as well. "Where's Melissa," Darla asked.

The other baboon shrugged. Darla narrowed her eyes and got out of bed, "Wait here," She ordered and went outside. It was still pretty much dark, but she looked around anyway. The other baboon was nowhere to be seen, "Now where did that girl wander off to in the middle of the night?" she asked.

Another female scream was heard coming from inside the cave. Darla quickly ran back inside and found here roommates tied up to one another, each with a "Mort doll" in her mouth. "Melissa, Marissa!" she called and ran over to them, "Who did this to you?" she ungagged one of the girls.

"Behind you!" Marissa screamed.

Darla quickly turned around and immediately received a slap on her mouth. She stumbled back slightly and soon realized that it was something more than just a simple slap. She touched her mouth and felt something sticking to it. She tried removing it, but failed to do so.

"Don't bother, according to Kowalski, the glue binds with the animal's cells. It's the stickiest substance in existence."

Darla lowered her gaze and spotted the flat headed penguin.

"But don't worry, it'll wear off in about thirty hours, which is about the time you'll need to get to India," Skipper said.

The lead baboon's eyes widened, but she still couldn't say anything.

"I'm really sorry about shutting you up like this, but I had to make sure you wouldn't use any of your "Backwood" magic on me."

Darla had enough of this, she charged at Skipper, but was no match for him. She didn't even realize what had happened. All she knew was that she was now tied up together with her roommates. There was some pain in her foot, stomach and neck.

Skipper sighed, "Where do animals even get the idea that they could beat me?" he asked and then turned towards the baboons.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I came here, well, let me tell you. I figured out that you created the beast I dubbed "Hell Hound" and released it on the zoo inhabitants. During its rampage, it assaulted my lieutenant. So consider this a little "Off the books" payback," he said with a smirk.

"We didn't mean for the wolf to hurt anybody," Marissa said, "It was just supposed to be a harmless Halloween prank, you know, to scare the animals."

Skipper waddled over to her, "I understand," he pushed the Mort doll back into her mouth. "And I hope you'll understand that your little trip is going to be my prank, to you guys. Happy Halloween!" he said and left the cave.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, someone was waking up because of some powerful lights shining above him. He tried shielding his eyes, but realized he couldn't, because something was preventing him from raising his paws. He turned his head to the left, to get a look at the restraints, but the truth was, there was no paw to see. He began screaming from the top of his lungs and while gasping for air, he heard footsteps.

He seized his screaming and waited for someone to come, "Hello Jamaall, I see you are awake," greeted Alexander, entering the room, carrying a bleached paw skeleton and an electric power drill. There were wires, springs and hinges run through the bones, making sure any possible movement with it, was the same as the muscles enabled it before.

"Do you know why you're here?" Alexander asked calmly and sat down on the Puli's left side. He positioned the bones where they once were and took the power drill.

Jamaall tried focusing and answering the question, "B-b-because I-I S-stole?" the dog stuttered.

"Oh, that's right," the water monitor acted surprised and powered up the drill, "But more accurately, you stole from me." He made a hole in the dog's shoulder blade. The Puli was once again screaming. This whole scenario was like a visit to the dentist, only it was happening somewhere else on the body, and the dentist was a psychopath.

There was a hinge, with a screw end, on top of the humerus, which Alexander began screwing into the freshly made hole, "There, good as new," he proclaimed. "You know, painkiller addictions are very common," he began explaining while making his way to the other side of the dog. "The drugs are easy to get to and the possession isn't illegal, but like I said, your mistake was stealing from me."

"He began sharpening his claws with a knife sharpener, "I bet you want to know how I figured it out. It's simple actually, I went to the spot where we found you, with a spray bottle of luminol. I figured out that those injuries were self inflicted and voila, here we are." He applied shaving cream to the dog's right paw and shaved off the locks with his claws. "It's easier to cut this way," he explained and pressed one of his claws against his skin, "Any last words?"

"A-are you g-going t-to kill me?" he asked.

Alexander formed an evil smile, answering his question.

There you have it, my Halloween fic. To be honest I didn't think it would be this long. My next story requires some more research, but it should be up some time in the next week. Hope you liked it and review!