I woke with a start, hair tussled sticky with, midnight sweat. I was breathing heavily, propped up on the palms of my hands, and trying to slow my heartbeat. My once coherent and vivid dream slowly began to fade from my memory, piece by piece. What I could scavenge from the deep depths of my subconscious was that, it had been about the attack in Las Vegas. What else was new? Dr. Jimmy said I seemed to have a really severe case of post traumatic stress disorder, which would explain my frequent nightmares over the years

I began to wiggle my toes to bring myself back into reality faster. It was kinda like my secret weapon whenever I would get anxious, as I so often did. From there, I idly went about my usual morning routine morning routine: crying into the sink, complaining to myself, pulling my hair into a braid, brushing my teeth till my gums bled, and finally reminiscing about better days from before this stupid facility.

Susan said the first week is always the hardest, and she was right. Good thing I'd be out of here sooner rather than later. I slipped into my old sweatshirt they'd let me keep on the day I got here. The psychologists thought it would help make the transition easier for me if I still had a few things from my old life.

It was a faded green, torn, Colorado University sweatshirt that my dad used to wear around the house when I was little. It was two sizes too big, and my boney hands were lost at sea beneath the fabric of those sleeves. But it made me feel hidden and safe. Kinda normal, for a werewolf on a Wednesday.

A mechanical beeping interrupted my thoughts as I heard a small vibration on my dresser top. My walkie-talkie was ringing, and I sluggishly approached it and picked it up, pressing the red button on the side.

"Good morning, sunshine," a taunting male voice came through the other end.

"Piss off, ogre," I said dryly.

Link let out a belly laugh."Always such a doll in the mornings, aren't ya?" He said.

"Only for you, dear," I said sarcastically. "What do you want? I'm still getting dressed."

"Yeah, uh, Susan told me to tell you that Monger wants us all to meet up in the mission assignment area. Get out your guns, little lady, looks like you might finally be riding with the big dogs now."

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Why doesn't Susan just tell me herself?" I asked, annoyed.

"Oh, she had to go find Squeep. 'parently she let loose another one of her experimental dust bunnies in the cafeteria again."

"Oh yeah? You're so big and tough, why didn't you go take care of that yourself, hotshot?"

Link stuttered on the other end of the talkie for a moment before he found his words. "Cause! The Doc and I had orders to wait here for Monger. Plus, last time I tried to take it out, the little fucker almost gnawed my finger off!" I laughed at his defensive tone.

"Fine. Do I at least have time to grab some coffee from the common area? I woke up like ten minutes ago. I can tell you now, I'll be pretty much useless if

I don't get some caffeine in me." I rubbed my eye sockets slowly, waiting for a reply.

"…Bob, what the hell? I said you couldn't touch my replica of She-Ra!Yeah, uh get down here ASAP little lady…Bob, Bob stop it! She's fragile…!" Then static.

"Link?" No answer. Guess that was my cue to head up to the third floor. But not without that cup of coffee.

I had never been to the mission area before, Monger said it was strictly off limits to everyone except him, the "President of these United States", and the monster team, give or take a few. When I scanned my palm, the double doors slid wide open and revealed the most top secret looking liar I'd ever seen. A large oval shaped table that could seat at least fifteen people sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by twisty dials, red buttons, and gigantic monitor screens. I was met with a few familiar faces and a few unfamiliar faces. I felt as though I'd just interrupted an important adult conversation. Link sat with a huffy expression, fiddling with his She-Ra doll. TheDocroach was twiddling his thumbs expectedly, while Bob, Monger, Dr. Collins, and the ever illusive Dr. Wilson were also conversing quietly with one another..

I wasn't expecting to see everyone, and I found myself standing awkwardly inside the automatic door. All eyes were on me, and my feet felt as though they were glued to the floor. Surprise, surprise. Werewolves weren't exactly a big fan of attention. The doors almost closed on me and I stumbled out of their way, almost spilling my coffee on the polished floor. With my head down, eyes glued to my clumsy feet, I sheepishly found a seat next to Dr. Cockroach, who was one of the only ones not trying to stifle laughter or looking at me with a pair of condescending eyes.

"Nice entrance, kid. You're a real showstopper," Link smirked.

I shot him a hostile glance.

"Molly, kind of you to finally join us," Monger said, propping himself up on the table with his palms. Beneath his fingers, broadcast on the table was a a highly detailed map of the globe, with a few red dots glowing in Southeast Asia and scattered across Russia. "We were just reviewing some of our more…pressing issues. I'm sure you won't let word slip to anyone on the outside of our plans?" He said with a suspicious look.

"With all due respect, general," I gestured with my arms outstretched a tad, looking around. "Who'm I gonna tell?" Link and Docroach snickered a little and regained their posture after a stern look from the general.

"Well, I'm sure I have no idea. But that janitor was looking rather suspicious to me!" He put his hands on his small hips. "Diana," he shot a pointer finger towards a small lady in the back corner with glasses and typewriter. She had completely alluded me. "Remind me to fire Janitor Simpson tomorrow. He's always, cleaning thangs," he said raising an eyebrow and surveying the room, almost like he was looking for a hidden camera.

"General Monger? Sir? Thats his job," she said.

"Cant be too careful these days! Now! Onto more important remember Dr. Collins and Dr. Wilson." Monger gestured their way. Dr. Collins nodded in my direction and gave me a quick, half-hearted smile.

"Molly, good to see you up and about," Dr. Wilson spoke up, with kind eyes and a wide grin. I flattened my lips and fiddled with my sweatshirt drawstrings.

"Good to, uh, see you guys again," I said quietly. "Why am I… here again?" I said. This made the table let out a diffused chuckle of tension. Monger however, was not amused. He merely raised an eyebrow and straightened his jacket.

"Susan thought it would be good for you to sit in on one of our here meetings. Said it might straighten you out, or be good for your health. Yes, strong bones and stuff like that," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

I blew a strand of hair out of my face. "Glad to know everyone is still making decisions for me." I crossed my arms.

"Yes, well, under our care, we serve all kinds a' kinds. Big, small, fat, skinny, monochrome…"

"Can't forget about lactose intolerant. Can't forget 'em." Bob shook his head solemnly.

"Speaking of which, where is Susan anyways? She's almost never late!" He said, lightly pounding his fist on the table. "Not to our top secret mission briefings!"

"I do believe a certain alien's," Dr. Cockroach squinted his eyes and leaned forward slightly. "….experiments were set loose again."

"You mean, Condreoks-gigzok-struktoks-vrenpholis!" Bob corrected him loudly with his pointer finger in the air.

"I beg your pardon?" Dr. Cockroach looked absolutely bewildered. "The dust bunny has a name?"

"Mhm," Bob said matter-of-factly. "Gotta admit, heh, she makes a mean tuna casserole."

Dr. Cockroach tried to speak up. "But that—that doesn't—"

Link put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head slowly. Docroach's antennas slumped down his shoulders. "Oh, never mind."

"Sorry, everyone!" Susan stood triumphantly with her hands on her hips in the automatic doorway. "I had a dust bunny to vacuum. Definitely took me a little longer this time, little fella put up quite a fight." She wiped her hands of the remaining dust. "In the end, he was no match for these bad boys." She held two mini-vacuums in each hand with a look of pride.

"That's what I'm talking about! Up top!" Link put up a hand and Susan high-fived it enthusiastically as she slid into her seat.

"Molly! You actually…came," she said looking genuinely surprised to see me joining in on their meeting.

"Surprise," I said sheepishly, waving jazz hands half-heartedly. "I still don't know why I'm here," I said, looking to the faces at the table.

"W-well," she said cautiously, eyeing Monger for the green light to speak. "We thought this would be a great way for you to get to know the team a little bit, see what we do. We feel bad for how your first week went and figured this would be a good way to help you feel more included," she smiled . I wanted to believe she was blowing smoke up my ass, but something about her demeanor was so genuine and kind, I had no choice but to listen.

"Another, 'slam-dunk' idea, Susan," Dr. Cockroach said happily.

"You definitely didn't get the warmest welcome," she said eyeing Link and Bob.

Link surrendered his hands in the air."What? Don't look at me, I was a perfect angel," he said, smiling. He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his neck triumphantly.

"In what world?" I asked, crinkling my nose.

"This one, duh," Bob said, blowing a raspberry. "And they say I'm the brainless one," Bob whispered to Docroach, pointing my way with his thumb.

"Bob, you are the brainless one. You literally have no brain," Susan said, exasperated. "How many times do we need to establish this?" She chuckled.

"Monsters!" Monger barked, and the table went silent. "Behave yourselves. This is still a place of high priority, life savin', top secret, government work! There's no time for flimflammery!" He calmed himself down and slicked back his buzzed hair. "Thank you. Much better." He said. "Ms. Richardson, you're joining us today, because we see the potential that you have as a player on this here team. Now I'm not sayin' I think you're ready, but maybe it's a good introduction. Since you'll be spending quite some time at this facility."

I sat completely still, in a state of semi-shock. Once again, everyone's eyes were on me.

Susan's were excited, as she anticipated my answer.

"I—" I began to utter.

"General, if I can intrude for a moment," Wilson gestured.

"I don't see why not," Monger muttered, a little blindsided.

"I don't know if now's the time to be testing Ms. Richardson's—"

"—Molly," I said plainly.

Wilson raised his eyebrows and cracked a small smile with the corner of his mouth. He began to speak, but slower this time.

"I don't know if now is the time to be testing Molly's powers and abilities right now. At least, not in the field. She's far more powerful than I think she realizes. After Vegas, that might not be whats best for her, or any of us."

The table nodded and murmured in agreement. He wasn't just trying to decide for me, but he was trying to protect the community.

"I mean, be sensible, general. Molly has endured quite a lot in the past few weeks. Scientifically, it's not beneficial to her learning to control her powers or keep them at bay by putting her through a great deal all at once. In my study of the supernatural, usually lots of excitement and overwhelming situations should be avoided if we have any hope of helping this young woman."

Monger was in agreement, and stroked his chin thoughtfully. Susan was hanging onto every word he said, while Link and Docroach were eyeing him suspiciously.

"But of course, I can only speak for myself and my research. Molly, care to share your thoughts?" He extended his hand.

"Uh," this was the first time anyone here had actually asked for my opinion. Invited me to be heard and listened to. "I've been here a week, I haven't spoken to my family. I hardly know what's going on. I know about as much as any of you."

"Fortunately for you, we have the best of the best minds on our team. We're here to help. To keep you and the community safe," Monger said in a calmer tone.

"We're going to do everything we can to help all of us understand this situation better and hopefully, get you back to normal," Wilson said reassuringly. "I have the pleasure of working with one of the most brilliant minds the country has to offer right here in our laboratories!" He signaled at Collins, who had been silent almost the entire time. Not like she was much of a chitty chatty type of gal, but there was something wrong.

"Oh stop, you flatter me," Collins said without looking up from her notepad and tablet screen. "I'm here for observation of a monster who seems to be inhabiting that girl." She pointed with her pen. "Don't get it twisted, I'm not a humanitarian scientist."

"All in all, it is my professional opinion that we should put more focus on Molly's treatment, physical therapy and observational analysis. Perhaps some training to help aid us in forced transformations in the lab—more successful than last time."

I felt my face grow red hot from embarrassment.

"Still was not your fault," Susan said kindly.

Monger spoke up.

"Well I believe we've all come to an agreement regarding the situation. I would ask Ms. Richardson to stay nonetheless, you know for…educational purposes. Now can we move on, please?" He barked.

Link gave a lazy salute and the rest of the table nodded.

"Now, if you'll look here, we have another situation on our hands this week, folks. In southeast Georgia, there's been a sighting or two of some kind of beast. Now, I love me a good Bar-B-Q, but this thing is no we can fry up this thing on the grill, we need a plan. We got word of people's hogs and sheep being snatched up in the night, but not by any coyote I've ever seen." Monger shivered slightly and pushed a red button on his remote that displayed a series of pictures from badly captured film presumably by the innocent bystanders who just so happened to be in the right place at the wrong time.

From what I could make out of the pixelated film, Monger was exactly right. It had a thirst for livestock, and it was big. One picture displayed three sheep getting scooped up by the claws of some kind of weird hairless, toothy monster. It was blurry, and filmed at dusk, so the camera quality was shit but it was clear enough for me to know that I had seen this thing somewhere. Or it looked oddly familiar. After the run in with this motley crew, I didn't think anything could surprise me again. But I guess I was wrong.

"Oh my god! What is that thing, general?" Susan asked disgusted.

"It looks like Link in the morning!" Bob gasped, mouth gaping and eyes full of wonder.

"Hey! That looks nothing like me! I don't have horns like that. And besides, all my hunting was for show, I never actually ate anyone's livestock—no, wait I totally did. Yeah that was a lie."

"It is quite grizzly…" Dr. Cockroach grimaced at the gruesome sight.

"I apologize for the pictures. Comin' from a farm myself, I can confirm that this was not easy to look at." Monger flipped through a few other photos and videos.

"Is it…alien?" Susan asked, squinting. "No bigfoot I've ever seen has teeth quite like that. Maybe except for Link."

"Hey! What gives you guys?" Link exclaimed.

"I would imagine someone would've found this sooner if it was an earth dwellin' creature a' sorts. Something this big couldn't have stayed under the radar this long. And there ain't no one else more fit to take on this case than my best monsters. Y'all fought a giant robot on the Golden Gate Bridge , an alien spacecraft in the sky, and an army of thievin' pumpkins!"

"Oh yeah, we did do that…" Link said with a sigh, scratching his belly button.

"You almost died!" Bob said excitedly, much to Link's dismay.

"Why—why would you bring that up now?" Link said. "Do I have a 'kick me' sign on my back or something?"

"This shouldn't be a problem. We just gotta strategize how to fight this thing. Or at least, how to get you there and the proper precautions in case things get too hog wild." Monger said. "Any ideas?" He looked around patiently.

"Well, this creature does seem to have a preferential bias towards nighttime, so our window of opportunity is a little slimmer." Dr. Cockroach stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"But we can't rule out any weaknesses like the sun or cold. Monger, do you have any other information on this…er…giant slime bag?" Susan questioned.

"I'm glad you asked," Monger said, pulling up a few notes.

"These are copies of the police reports, made right before they were confiscated for government purposes. It says here in one report, that one farmer was woken up by scratching on the windows and the shed. He went out to explore the commotion with an AR-K riffle but soon as he got to the door with a flashlight, two of his cattle and the monster had disappeared."

I felt a shiver run down my back suddenly.

"So we're dealing with something fast," Link rubbed his hands together. "Not to brag but this body was build for speed and agility," he said with a smug look.

"I love to burst your bubble Link, but you're amphibian fins and muscles were built for speed and agility under water. Let us not forget what happened on the tram in San Fransisco," Dr. Cockroach hummed.

"Who's to say this thing doesn't dwell in the lake somewhere? I mean there's lakes and rivers all over Colorado, right? Maybe it's retreating back there." Link ignored Dr. Cockroach's snide comment.

"I thought the same thing, but it doesn't have any fins or gills. None that were reported anyway. And there isn't a lake or creek deep enough to house something like that for miles where it's been causing trouble," Monger tapped on the table and it became a touch screen, changing right before my eyes. He typed in a code and a few geographical points, and a heavily forested area came to sight.

"It looks like a rainforest. There's no way anything is gonna end up getting found out in there." I said, staring at the endless range of thick trees and rivers.

"We have to try. I mean, how long until this thing gets hungrier for more than just livestock?" Susan said, worried. "I've never seen anything like that before. It looks like a hairless bear or something. What kind of encyclopedia is gonna have that thing in it?"

"What if we create a ring of fire? Pour some gasoline on a circle of trees and trap it! It definitely won't know what to do then." Bob nodded, very convinced by his own genius.

"Bob? Trees are made of wood. If we set one tree on fire, the entire forest will go up in flames. Then all of us with it."

"Oh, yeah, that's true. I guess it wouldn't be good evidence if we bring back the monster totally charred." He was stumped once again, and Susan buried her head in the crook of her arm. I took a closer look at the map and the longer I looked at it, the farther down the fourth of my stomach sank.

"I know this forest," I said. Wait, did I say that out loud?

"What was that, Molly?" Susan asked.

I looked up suddenly, my fear confirmed. "What?" I said, wide eyed.

"I thought I heard you say you've been here before?"

I sighed and stood up out of my chair to get a better look at the map as a whole. I recognized the river that ran through it and some of the mountain ranges surrounding it. This was the place for sure. The place where I had been bitten. Chills went down my back and my arms as I recalled the blurry details of that fateful night. I felt a lump in my throat starting to rise, and my face grew hotter and hotter.

"This…this is where I was attacked," was all I managed to utter. The entire room went silent.

"Molly you don't have to—" Wilson spoke up.

"No, I'm coming with you." Did I just speak out loud again?

Everyone in the room looked genuinely surprised, even Monger.

"Molly, I really don't think that this is the best idea. I would strongly advise you not to make any rash decisions." Collins finally spoke up. "Who knows what kind of state going back to that location could potentially put you in? You could hurt someone, or worse, you could hurt yourself."

"I have to agree with Dr. Collins on this one, Molly. This is a high risk situation." Wilson gave me an over concerned look.

"Molly?" Susan looked me in the eye, and I was waiting for the disappointment and disapproval to come. "The decision is yours. No matter what you decide, we've got your back, right guys?" She looked over at her colleagues.

"Even though you're kind of a pain in the ass, you're a damn impressive chick. You've got my vote." Link gave me a lopsided smile.

"Yep, mine too." Dr. Cockraoch gave me two thumbs up and a toothy smile.

"Us monsters gotta stick together! Like syrup, bro. If we didn't, there'd be no more syrup for people's pancakes! That would literally be the worst breakfast ever!" Bob exclaimed

"I think what Bob is trying to say," Dr. Cockroach said rolling his eyes. "Is that we're in this together. Monster to monster. But the decision is ultimately up to you."

I smiled, and for the fist time ever, I felt like I had someone who believed in me, just as Molly the human, but the werewolf inside of her too. I took one last look towards Collins and Wilson, who looked more worried than ever.

"Look, kid, I know you want to prove yourself. But this might not be the way. If I were you, I'd think twice before getting back in the game after an episode like you had the other day in the lab," Collins said coldly.

"Well," I said with confidence I hadn't felt in a long time. "Good thing for you, it's not your choice."

Collins took a deep breath and gave me a long cold look. But I turned my attention instead to Susan and the gang. They all looked like they were secretly about to cheer.

"I don't know this area very well. It's easy to get lost, especially at night. But fortunately for you guys a few things have changed since I paid my last visit. I scored with a killer sense of smell and some dope ass night vision."

Susan and the gang chuckled and nodded.

"Look, Dr. Collins, I can avoid triggers with their help. They were able to sustain me once, totally successfully, so if it happens again, we can be better prepared. I'll go purely for directions, and as a third eye to the team."

"But wait, there are…" Bob squinted and began counting everyone's eyes. "Um. What whats thirty-nine divided by six?"

"General, put a tracker on me. If I run, or get turned by accident, you guys can track me, and maybe find that beast anyway."

"Yew-wee! I like the sound of this!" Monger exclaimed.

"Molly, can I ask, whats the sudden change in attitude? At the rate we were going, I'd sooner count on pigs learning to fly than you wanting to join us on our escapade," Dr. Cockroach asked.

"That beast looks familiar to me. Like, really familiar. What if that's the thing that bit me? What if I can prevent someone else from suffering my fate? Even if its not, we can stop it from hurting anyone or anything ever again. I wouldn't wish this curse on my worst enemy."

"I think I like this new Molly," Susan smiled. "Monger we'd be pretty stupid not to take her along. She is kind of a badass."

"Then its settled, get the ship fueled up! Grab the tranquilizers! Milk the cow! Scoop the ice cream! We'll depart immediately."