Howl at the Moon 6/?
Title: Howl at the Moon 6/?
Series: TDS, Countdown w/ KO.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, or any known political figures who appear in this story.
Summary: AU. Sequel to Rage at the Moon
Life seems to be going well for the werewolf pack of seven. Then comes the call from the leader of the French werewolves. What does he want, and what will he do to get it from our werewolves?
Author's Note: Please comment. Feedback is good.
Also, shout-out to my lovely beta tigris18
One / Two / Three / Four / Five
Chapter 6
Rachel had expected something a bit more ominous than being taken to a large living room. Apparently, word traveled fast, because it looked like all the werewolves who lived in the compound were already there, hard stares aimed at the group.
Once again, they were forced down to their knees, waiting for Aldric and Dorian to come. They were probably discussing what to do with them. They only had to wait a few minutes until the two lead werewolves arrived.
Aldric stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Dorian paced behind him.
“Well? What are you going to do with us?” Keith asked.
Dorian stopped pacing. “We’re going to force you to work with us. There is only one way to assure your cooperation.”
“Dorian told me this method worked to get you here, so I believe it’ll work again. We’re going to hold some of you here-“
“You can’t just hold us hostage,” Jon protested.
Aldric had no more patience. He backhanded Jon across the face and smirked at Keith’s reaction.
“Now, as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted. At the moment, we’ll send two of you on a little mission, and keep the rest of you here. If anything else comes up, we’ll send out a couple more of you to take care of it.”
To the men holding the pack of seven down to their knees, Dorian said, “Let them up.”
Before any of them could say anything, Aldric started speaking again. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Two of you are going to go to Rome. One of the head vampires is named Raniero. He doesn’t live with the other leaders in the compound. He would be the easiest target.”
“Why can’t you send your own guys to do this?” Richard asked. “If he’s so easy to get?”
“I said ‘easiest,’ not necessarily easy. In fact, I expect it to be quite hard. He still lives in Rome, relatively close to the others. Anyway, I want you to kill him.”
“That is out of the question,” Keith hissed.
Aldric stepped close. “There is no question. You will do it.”
“We do not kill.”
Aldric shook his head and sighed. “I’m not going to waste time trying to convince you. You will do it, like it or not.”
Doing the whole ‘will not, will do’ thing wasn’t going to get them anywhere, so Rachel said, “Okay, give us some space and we’ll discuss amongst ourselves who will go.”
“No. I decide.” The lead werewolf took a few steps back and looked over each of them. “Unless I am reading you wrong, Keith and Dan have had experience with vampires.”
“I don’t think nearly being killed by them counts as useful experience,” Dan responded.
“Nonetheless, you two will go.” Aldric said to the five men flanking the group. “Escort them back to their room to get ready and say good-byes.”
The door as closed behind them when they entered the bigger of the two guest rooms.
“They can’t hold us hostage and send you two off to kill someone,” Lawrence immediately protested. “They just can’t do that.”
Jon sighed. “They can. We’ve got no power over them.”
“We try anything and they’ll be all over us,” added Richard.
There was a loaded pause in the conversation. Rachel broke it with, “Are you going to kill this Raniero?”
“No,” Keith answered without hesitation. “Not if it can be avoided.”
“We’ll have to make it up as we go along,” said Dan.
Jon started the group hug by jumping up into Keith’s arms and hooking his ankles around his back. Hugs and kisses were exchanged between Keith and Dan, and everyone else.
When Jon released Keith, Keith gave him one last deep kiss and assured, “I love you. We’ll be back.”
Dan knocked on the door to let the guards know they were ready. Keith shouldered his backpack and half-smiled at the rest of his family. “See you in a few days.”
Keith and Dan were taken back to Aldric and Dorian.
“I hope you are sufficiently rested,” said Aldric.
“We are,” Dan responded with a hard stare.
Aldric went into details. “Getting to Rome will not be so simple as catching a flight and getting off the plane. The vampires patrol the airports, making sure no werewolves leave the building. They will not bother us if we are simply passing through Rome’s airports. The same goes for Paris with us.”
“Sounds like a bit of an agreement,” Keith observed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Dorian snorted. “It is a very tentative one. Necessary by-product of layovers, delays, transfers, and all the other frustrations that come with traveling by air.”
“We recognize that not all vampires are part of this conflict. Still, we cannot take the chance of letting any of them get into Paris,” said the lead werewolf.
Dorian handed Keith a credit card. “As you get closer to Italy, you will have to become more creative.” He also gave Dan a folded piece of paper. “Details of where Raniero lives, and other things about him.”
Aldric looked to the blonde werewolf behind Dan. “Pierre, escort them out. Gentlemen, I wish you luck.”
Keith was very tempted to say, ‘Take your luck and shove it up your ass’ to Aldric in French, but didn’t know how the man would react. He and Dan turned and followed Pierre out.
Once out of the secret hallway and the subway station, and on the street, Pierre slightly bowed his head. “You must understand, Aldric does not usually force people to do things against their will. He is actually quite the-“
“I don’t care what he’s ‘usually’ like. He could be the most sensitive and sweetest man in the world. Until he lets the rest of my pack go, I’m not inclined to believe it,” Keith stated.
“Understandable. They didn’t give you a map, did they? No, doesn’t look like it.” Pierre pointed down the lamp-lit street. “Go about halfway down this road and turn left. There’s an internet café that’ll let you print online maps and stuff. Good luck, really. I mean it.”
Dan nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Without another word, Pierre hurried down the stairs into the subway station.
Keith glanced around at the small groups of people walking around at this time of night. Dan put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close. “I guess we’re on our own now.”
“Yeah, guess so.”
Keith and Dan went to the internet café and logged into the network on one of the available computers in a corner. Dan went to the counter to order a couple of caffeinated drinks, while Keith searched for maps of Paris, Rome, and different ways to get to Rome.
Dan came back with a cappuccino for himself and a latte for Keith. “Any ideas yet?”
“Going straight to Rome through Geneva, Milano, or Torino is out of the question.”
Dan took a sip of his drink and nodded. “They’re all big Italian cities. We’re bound to be caught.”
Both men stared at the computer screen for a few minutes, sipping their hot drinks.
Keith suggested, “How about we go directly east into Germany, until we get to Munchen, then go south through Austria. We’ll end up in Venice, Italy. From there we follow the east coast of Italy, until we can go straight west to Rome.”
Dan tilted his head in thought. “That seems pretty complicated, KO.”
“Aldric did say that we were going to have to be creative with this. It’s not like we can just cross the France-Italy border.”
“Scoot over. Let me see something.” As soon as Keith moved his chair over, Dan took control of the keyboard. He opened another browser window and pulled up a search engine.
He typed so fast and scrolled through the options so fast that Keith couldn’t keep up. “Hey, Dan, you want to fill me in?”
“Just a minute,” Dan replied, a concentrated expression on his face. He clicked into a webpage, then switched from that page to the map a few times, trying to match something up between them.
At the victorious “yes” from Dan, Keith asked, “Care to let me in on it?”
Dan took the pen from the table and used the tip to trace a path on the screen. “We go down Marsielle, which is here on the south coast of France. There’s a ferry-“
“You want to go across the water?”
“Let me finish.” Dan clicked to check the other page, then went back to the map. “There’s a ferry that goes to Bastia on the island of Corsica. Then, you can transfer to another ferry that takes you to Civitavecchia, Italy. From there, it’s not far to Rome. What do you think?” Dan tapped the pen tip against the dot labeled as Rome.
“It’s a hell of a lot more direct than my idea. It looks a lot easier, too.”
“We’d be on the boat for fifteen hours-“
“But that’s a lot of time saved from trying to hitch rides through Germany, Austria, and half the east coast of Italy. Rome is pretty close to the west coast anyway, so this makes the most sense.”
“No objections?”
“No objections. Print it out and let’s mark the way.”
Dan printed out the maps of Paris and Rome, then the map that showed the cities of France and Italy. He took the pen and looked to Keith.
“Let’s just try to go as directly to… to Marseille as we can,” Keith said.
Dan drew a relatively straight line going south and slightly east. He looked at the map on the computer and zoomed it in a bit. “There are towns pretty much all along this route.”
“And once we get to that port in Italy?”
“Best way from there would be to go through Cerveteri, then on to Rome.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, Dan. A lot less complicated than mine.”
Dan folded the maps and put them in his backpack. His face fell as he zipped the bag. “KO, for a moment, I forgot that we weren’t just planning a fun road trip.”
“So did I, actually. A less-than-desirable goal meets us at the end.”
“You really think we can go through with… with it?”
“I don’t know, Dan. Like you said, we’ll make it up as we go along.” Keith glanced at his watch. “Well, since we were kicked out of the compound, we might as well make a start on this now.”
“A couple more lattes for the road?”
“Sure. Why not? We’re going to be up all night anyway.”
Series: TDS, Countdown w/ KO.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, or any known political figures who appear in this story.
Summary: AU. Sequel to Rage at the Moon
Life seems to be going well for the werewolf pack of seven. Then comes the call from the leader of the French werewolves. What does he want, and what will he do to get it from our werewolves?
Author's Note: Please comment. Feedback is good.
Also, shout-out to my lovely beta tigris18
One / Two / Three / Four / Five
Chapter 6
Rachel had expected something a bit more ominous than being taken to a large living room. Apparently, word traveled fast, because it looked like all the werewolves who lived in the compound were already there, hard stares aimed at the group.
Once again, they were forced down to their knees, waiting for Aldric and Dorian to come. They were probably discussing what to do with them. They only had to wait a few minutes until the two lead werewolves arrived.
Aldric stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Dorian paced behind him.
“Well? What are you going to do with us?” Keith asked.
Dorian stopped pacing. “We’re going to force you to work with us. There is only one way to assure your cooperation.”
“Dorian told me this method worked to get you here, so I believe it’ll work again. We’re going to hold some of you here-“
“You can’t just hold us hostage,” Jon protested.
Aldric had no more patience. He backhanded Jon across the face and smirked at Keith’s reaction.
“Now, as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted. At the moment, we’ll send two of you on a little mission, and keep the rest of you here. If anything else comes up, we’ll send out a couple more of you to take care of it.”
To the men holding the pack of seven down to their knees, Dorian said, “Let them up.”
Before any of them could say anything, Aldric started speaking again. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Two of you are going to go to Rome. One of the head vampires is named Raniero. He doesn’t live with the other leaders in the compound. He would be the easiest target.”
“Why can’t you send your own guys to do this?” Richard asked. “If he’s so easy to get?”
“I said ‘easiest,’ not necessarily easy. In fact, I expect it to be quite hard. He still lives in Rome, relatively close to the others. Anyway, I want you to kill him.”
“That is out of the question,” Keith hissed.
Aldric stepped close. “There is no question. You will do it.”
“We do not kill.”
Aldric shook his head and sighed. “I’m not going to waste time trying to convince you. You will do it, like it or not.”
Doing the whole ‘will not, will do’ thing wasn’t going to get them anywhere, so Rachel said, “Okay, give us some space and we’ll discuss amongst ourselves who will go.”
“No. I decide.” The lead werewolf took a few steps back and looked over each of them. “Unless I am reading you wrong, Keith and Dan have had experience with vampires.”
“I don’t think nearly being killed by them counts as useful experience,” Dan responded.
“Nonetheless, you two will go.” Aldric said to the five men flanking the group. “Escort them back to their room to get ready and say good-byes.”
The door as closed behind them when they entered the bigger of the two guest rooms.
“They can’t hold us hostage and send you two off to kill someone,” Lawrence immediately protested. “They just can’t do that.”
Jon sighed. “They can. We’ve got no power over them.”
“We try anything and they’ll be all over us,” added Richard.
There was a loaded pause in the conversation. Rachel broke it with, “Are you going to kill this Raniero?”
“No,” Keith answered without hesitation. “Not if it can be avoided.”
“We’ll have to make it up as we go along,” said Dan.
Jon started the group hug by jumping up into Keith’s arms and hooking his ankles around his back. Hugs and kisses were exchanged between Keith and Dan, and everyone else.
When Jon released Keith, Keith gave him one last deep kiss and assured, “I love you. We’ll be back.”
Dan knocked on the door to let the guards know they were ready. Keith shouldered his backpack and half-smiled at the rest of his family. “See you in a few days.”
Keith and Dan were taken back to Aldric and Dorian.
“I hope you are sufficiently rested,” said Aldric.
“We are,” Dan responded with a hard stare.
Aldric went into details. “Getting to Rome will not be so simple as catching a flight and getting off the plane. The vampires patrol the airports, making sure no werewolves leave the building. They will not bother us if we are simply passing through Rome’s airports. The same goes for Paris with us.”
“Sounds like a bit of an agreement,” Keith observed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Dorian snorted. “It is a very tentative one. Necessary by-product of layovers, delays, transfers, and all the other frustrations that come with traveling by air.”
“We recognize that not all vampires are part of this conflict. Still, we cannot take the chance of letting any of them get into Paris,” said the lead werewolf.
Dorian handed Keith a credit card. “As you get closer to Italy, you will have to become more creative.” He also gave Dan a folded piece of paper. “Details of where Raniero lives, and other things about him.”
Aldric looked to the blonde werewolf behind Dan. “Pierre, escort them out. Gentlemen, I wish you luck.”
Keith was very tempted to say, ‘Take your luck and shove it up your ass’ to Aldric in French, but didn’t know how the man would react. He and Dan turned and followed Pierre out.
Once out of the secret hallway and the subway station, and on the street, Pierre slightly bowed his head. “You must understand, Aldric does not usually force people to do things against their will. He is actually quite the-“
“I don’t care what he’s ‘usually’ like. He could be the most sensitive and sweetest man in the world. Until he lets the rest of my pack go, I’m not inclined to believe it,” Keith stated.
“Understandable. They didn’t give you a map, did they? No, doesn’t look like it.” Pierre pointed down the lamp-lit street. “Go about halfway down this road and turn left. There’s an internet café that’ll let you print online maps and stuff. Good luck, really. I mean it.”
Dan nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Without another word, Pierre hurried down the stairs into the subway station.
Keith glanced around at the small groups of people walking around at this time of night. Dan put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close. “I guess we’re on our own now.”
“Yeah, guess so.”
Keith and Dan went to the internet café and logged into the network on one of the available computers in a corner. Dan went to the counter to order a couple of caffeinated drinks, while Keith searched for maps of Paris, Rome, and different ways to get to Rome.
Dan came back with a cappuccino for himself and a latte for Keith. “Any ideas yet?”
“Going straight to Rome through Geneva, Milano, or Torino is out of the question.”
Dan took a sip of his drink and nodded. “They’re all big Italian cities. We’re bound to be caught.”
Both men stared at the computer screen for a few minutes, sipping their hot drinks.
Keith suggested, “How about we go directly east into Germany, until we get to Munchen, then go south through Austria. We’ll end up in Venice, Italy. From there we follow the east coast of Italy, until we can go straight west to Rome.”
Dan tilted his head in thought. “That seems pretty complicated, KO.”
“Aldric did say that we were going to have to be creative with this. It’s not like we can just cross the France-Italy border.”
“Scoot over. Let me see something.” As soon as Keith moved his chair over, Dan took control of the keyboard. He opened another browser window and pulled up a search engine.
He typed so fast and scrolled through the options so fast that Keith couldn’t keep up. “Hey, Dan, you want to fill me in?”
“Just a minute,” Dan replied, a concentrated expression on his face. He clicked into a webpage, then switched from that page to the map a few times, trying to match something up between them.
At the victorious “yes” from Dan, Keith asked, “Care to let me in on it?”
Dan took the pen from the table and used the tip to trace a path on the screen. “We go down Marsielle, which is here on the south coast of France. There’s a ferry-“
“You want to go across the water?”
“Let me finish.” Dan clicked to check the other page, then went back to the map. “There’s a ferry that goes to Bastia on the island of Corsica. Then, you can transfer to another ferry that takes you to Civitavecchia, Italy. From there, it’s not far to Rome. What do you think?” Dan tapped the pen tip against the dot labeled as Rome.
“It’s a hell of a lot more direct than my idea. It looks a lot easier, too.”
“We’d be on the boat for fifteen hours-“
“But that’s a lot of time saved from trying to hitch rides through Germany, Austria, and half the east coast of Italy. Rome is pretty close to the west coast anyway, so this makes the most sense.”
“No objections?”
“No objections. Print it out and let’s mark the way.”
Dan printed out the maps of Paris and Rome, then the map that showed the cities of France and Italy. He took the pen and looked to Keith.
“Let’s just try to go as directly to… to Marseille as we can,” Keith said.
Dan drew a relatively straight line going south and slightly east. He looked at the map on the computer and zoomed it in a bit. “There are towns pretty much all along this route.”
“And once we get to that port in Italy?”
“Best way from there would be to go through Cerveteri, then on to Rome.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, Dan. A lot less complicated than mine.”
Dan folded the maps and put them in his backpack. His face fell as he zipped the bag. “KO, for a moment, I forgot that we weren’t just planning a fun road trip.”
“So did I, actually. A less-than-desirable goal meets us at the end.”
“You really think we can go through with… with it?”
“I don’t know, Dan. Like you said, we’ll make it up as we go along.” Keith glanced at his watch. “Well, since we were kicked out of the compound, we might as well make a start on this now.”
“A couple more lattes for the road?”
“Sure. Why not? We’re going to be up all night anyway.”