Underdogs The First Stories

Underdogs The First Stories - By Geonn Cannon



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Strays





She was naked again. Of course.

Ari straightened, groaning as her bones shifted and her muscles popped. She felt like she'd run a marathon, her body soaked with sweat as she opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings. It was night, and the air was cold enough for her to see her breath. She was on a dead-end street with buildings on either side. The closest building had a security light that shone like a miniature sun so she could see that she was alone on the road. The street ended about a dozen yards ahead of her in an explosion of brush and a collapsed chain link fence. It took her a moment to get her bearings and realize where she was, and another few seconds to work out where she needed to go.

She ran to the end of the street and slipped through an opening in the fence. The ground on the other side was an overgrown baseball field. She crossed the neglected diamond and went to the concrete dugout on the far side of the sandlot. She dropped down into the bunker-like space, kicking aside dry, dead leaves and various debris left behind by high-schoolers.

Under the bench was an olive drab army duffel, but her hopes were crushed as soon as she saw the condition it was in. The material was soaked, the seams ripped out and claw marks revealing that her stash hadn't gone undisturbed by the local wildlife. She sighed and unzipped it anyway, hoping something might be salvageable within the depths.

The two T-shirts and her jeans were all ruined, ripped and soaked with urine of some damn canine looking to mark his territory. Fortunately she stocked each of her stashes with two changes of clothing, for occasions just like this. She dug deeper and withdrew the second pair of pants. At the very bottom of the pile, she found that her army jacket had miraculously survived completely unscathed.

She pulled on the jeans and her jacket, reaching into the pocket to find the cell phone. The battery was almost dead, but she prayed there was enough of a charge left to make one call. She dialed a familiar number and swept her hair out of her face as she looked back out across the baseball field. She wondered how late it was; there were hardly any cars on the road, and the entire world felt empty.

Her call was answered on the sixth ring with a muffled sound that might have been a greeting from the woman on the other end.

Ari said, "Dale. It's me. I need a pick up."

"Wh'r."

"The baseball field stash."

There was another muffled groan and then a sigh of acceptance. "A'right. It'll be a while. Thirty minutes, mebbe. Got clothes?"

"Barely," Ari said.

"I'll hurry," Dale said, already sounding more awake.

Ari hung up the phone and looked at the clock before sticking it into her pocket. Only a little past four in the morning. She decided to stay in the dugout a while longer before she went out to wait for Dale, and she took the opportunity to take stock of her injuries. Other than the typical lingering soreness after a transformation, she could feel three stinging lines running down her back. Scrapes, not very deep, probably just needed to be washed and bandaged. Her shoulder felt a little more tender than usual, and she rolled it slowly to check the range of motion. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the events of the night like a regular person would try to remember a dream.

She remembered running down the center of a street, loping easily along the pavement. A tall security fence. Crawling underneath it... that would be where the scrapes on her back came from. And... ah, yes. Twal. That was what the Doberman guard dog called himself in her mind, the mocking noise that overwhelmed her thinking as he strutted around the corner of the building and found her in his territory. Twal, twal, twal.

Ari had been told by several people that she was gorgeous in her canidae form. She retained her chestnut-colored hair and blue eyes. She didn't think it was fair that she had to deal with leering males of two different species.

Twal had been torn between his training and his animalistic instincts. Wanting to run her off while but also aroused by her mere presence. Ari let him get close enough to strike, and he had yelped as she pounced on him. After that, training took precedence. Protect the home. The scuffle was where her injured shoulder came from. She squeezed it with her hand as a pair of headlights swept across the dugout.

Ari climbed out into the night, assuming Dale had taken advantage of the empty streets to speed to her rescue. When she realized the new arrival was a police car, she was already exposed and it was far too late for her to run. She muttered a curse under her breath and held her hands out, palm-up, as she cautiously approached the cruiser.

The driver's side door opened and the cop stepped out. The door mounted spotlight rendered whoever it was into a vague silhouette against the slightly brighter night sky and Ari squinted into the light. "I can explain?"

The cop sighed. "Ariadne."

Ari closed her eyes and dropped her hands. "Officer Rios. You're back on the night shift."

The cop shut off the spotlight and Ari blinked away her sudden blindness. Diana Rios stepped forward and said, "It had been just long enough that I got the call and didn't immediately think you were involved. It never even crossed my mind when I heard a security alarm had been tripped and someone was seen fleeing into this field that my old friend might be sneaking around causing trouble again."

"Old friend?" Ari said. "Come on, we're more than that, right?"

Diana ignored her. "You didn't happen to be over by Bird Maintenance about an hour ago, were you?" She nodded toward the dead-end road nearby.

"You know, I was walking down that way not long ago. I saw a couple of dogs roughing each other up. They're probably what caused the alarm to go off."

Diana nodded slowly. "Sure, Ari." She turned on her flashlight and ran it down Ari's baggy army jacket and the ratty jeans. "Interesting outfit."

"You know me. Cutting edge of fashion."

"Interesting time for a walk, too."

Ari sighed. "What do you want me to say, Diana?"

"I want you to reassure me that you're not getting into trouble. But I also don't want you to tell me anymore lies, so I guess I don't want anything." She hesitated and then nodded toward the car. "You need a ride?"

Ari started to answer, but Dale chose that moment to pull into the gravel parking lot of the baseball field. Ari pointed at the car and said, "My chariot awaits."

"It's no use telling you to stay out of trouble, so I'll just ask that you try to keep out of it when I'm on duty."

"I'll do my best, Diana."

"Officer Rios," she corrected. "You gave up first-name privileges when you spent the night under false pretenses."

"My pretenses were good," Ari said. "I just took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone."

"Yeah, the other bird being that you hacked into my computer and looked at sensitive information. I could have gotten fired for that."

Ari smiled. "Good thing the first bird made you really, really like me."

Even in the darkness, Ari knew that Diana was rolling her eyes and trying not to blush at the same time. "Go. Get in your friend's car. Drive away. Let me forget I ever saw you tonight."

"Thanks, Officer Rios."

Diana got back into her car, and Ari jogged across the field to where Dale had parked. Dale was wearing her horn-rimmed glasses instead of contacts, her red hair tucked under a baseball cap. She was still in her pink pajamas. Her face looked puffy with sleep as she unlocked the door so Ari could climb into the passenger seat.

Ari waited until Diana's car had turned around and left the lot before she spoke. "All right. Tell me what I did tonight." She could feel Dale's spidey-sense tingling, so she said, "I'll remember it all eventually, I just need a little help right now, okay? I'm fine. No more blackouts."

Dale said, "You're sure?"

"Positive," Ari said. The blackouts were the worst part of going canidae. Long stretches where the animal part of her brain completely took over and she wasn't aware of what she was doing or who she really was. They were rare, but troubling.

Dale finally said, "You dropped off a listening device in the offices of Bird Maintenance, the owner and operator being Mr. Anthony Bird." She glanced at Ari's blank expression and elaborated. "Anthony Bird, who fired our client Jessica French for unspecified reasons two weeks ago. We're going to listen in on his search for a replacement and determine whether or not--"

"He fired her because she was pregnant. Right, I remember now." She rubbed her shoulder. "Wish I'd known he had a guard dog."

Dale said, "Did you have a tussle?"

"He was more horny than vicious. A couple of good tackles and he decided I was too much woman for him."

Dale smirked. "A lesson we've all learned in our time."

Ari chuckled and sank down in her seat. "Wake me when we get back to the office."





#





The fogged glass of their office door had the word BITCHES written in large black letters that arched over the smaller word 'investigations.' Dale turned on the light behind the reception desk and Ari went into her office. She unbuttoned her army jacket and took a spare blouse out of the wardrobe in the far corner. Dale followed her into the office and said, "Need a rubdown?"

"Ah, I'm fine."

"I saw you wincing in the car. Go on, sit on the floor."

Ari sighed and gave in. She dropped the shirt and followed Dale to the couch. She sat cross-legged on the floor, and Dale sat behind her. Ari closed her eyes as Dale began to massage the tight muscles of her shoulders. "You got a trio of nasty scrapes back here."

"Sliding under the fence," Ari said. "It's mainly the usual aches and pains."

Dale worked the muscles with her thumbs and Ari sagged forward. Transforming was a torturous procedure; it was like having her entire skeletal system placed in a vice and squeezed into a different arrangement. Her shoulder blades expanded out and then inward, her ribs contracted, her hips twisted, and every bone in her feet twisted into a longer and thinner arrangement. Her muscles followed the new arrangement like rubber bands tied to chopsticks, pulled right up to the breaking point before they relaxed. The sides of her jaw would break and constrict around her tongue, expanding her lower skull into a snout.

Changing back into a human was the same pain, only in reverse. Her body accepted the new arrangement and almost seemed to resent being forced back to the way it had been born. So every switch left her feeling like she'd gone twenty rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Having a licensed masseuse as her receptionist helped immensely.

"Was Lisa mad?" Ari asked without opening her eyes.

"I don't know," Dale said. "It's a few hours later in Chicago, so she might be up. You could call and ask her."

"Ah, shit," Ari said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It actually wasn't your fault."

Ari scoffed. "Sure. The four AM wake-up calls were a big hit with her. She was convinced we were sleeping together."

Dale said, "She would know the signs."

"Hm?"

"She was f*cking her boss."

Ari winced. "You're kidding."

"When I kid, I make myself look better. If I was kidding, I would have said that I kicked her out because I realized we weren't going anywhere." She worked the muscles of Ari's back and then reached for the end table and applied a dollop of oil. Ari groaned as the oil warmed against her skin, and then Dale's palm worked it into her tired muscles. "I didn't even figure it out myself. I work with a private eye, and I had to be told my girl was sleeping around."

"Pretty pathetic."

Dale said, "No, that's not the pathetic thing. I told her it wasn't a big deal. I offered to share."

Ari laughed. "You did not."

"I really liked her."

The sadness in Dale's voice hit Ari hard. "I'm sorry, D."

"It's all right. Thanks to you, I know there's always one woman who'll need me in the middle of the night."

"You deserve better than that."

"If we all got what we deserved, we'd all be movie stars." She patted Dale's back and said, "You're all done, unless you want me to bandage up those scrapes."

Ari grunted as she pushed herself up. "No, thanks." She picked up her shirt and pulled it on, buttoning it before she turned to face Dale. "I think I'll just crash on the couch. You go on home."

Dale shook her head. "I'm already up for the day. I'll just leave early this afternoon." She hooked her finger toward her desk. "I'll keep an ear on the listening device to see if Mr. Bird incriminates himself before breakfast."

"Thanks, Dale. And hey, don't worry about Lisa. You deserve someone who'll be happy with you and no one else."

"Thanks. Sleep well, boss."

Dale shut off the light as she left the office, and Ari dropped onto the couch and crossed her arm over her face. She was asleep before Dale got her computer booted up for the day.





#





"Bitches Investigations," Dale said. "No, I'm sorry, she's not in. Could I take a message?"

Ari was on her side, curled in the fetal position. Her dreams had been disjointed memories, flashes of her rampages as a canidae. Sometimes she worried that she kicked and twitched in her sleep like dogs, but so far no one who shared her bed had complained. She rolled onto her back and stretched. The large clock on the wall behind her desk said that it was nearly eleven in the morning, and she forced herself to sit up and leave the comfort of the couch.

Dale hung up and looked over her shoulder as Ari came out of the office. "Fresh coffee?"

"Godsend."

Dale pointed at the break table. Ari crossed the room and poured a cup for herself, drinking half of it before she attempted speech again. "Anything on Bird?"

"He has four male employees. I think I've heard enough male bonding to confirm I'm only interested in women."

Ari smiled. "Let me know if anything changes. Who was on the phone?"

"Potential client." Dale held up the memo slip. "Feeling up to it?"

"What else am I going to do this morning? Sleep?" She took the memo and went into her office. "Can you run down to the dry-cleaners and pick up my things? I'll schedule a meeting for after lunch."

"Will do. Want me to get some lunch for us while I'm out?"

"Get whatever you like. Use my credit card."

Dale pressed a button on the phones and said, "Calls will go straight to your desk."

"Thank you, D."

She sat down and put her feet up on the desk, massaging the bridge of her nose as she tried to arrange her thoughts. She figured she had spent almost five hours as a canidae the night before. She hated those marathon transformations for many reasons, not the least of which she wasn't entirely sure what she'd spent all that time doing. Her mind wasn't always reliable when it came to remembering her activities in the other form. It was better than her first change when she was thirteen, when she'd returned to human form convinced that she'd lost her mind, but fortunately her mother had been there to help her through it.

After that, her world was split between a normal, real life and training with her mother. They roamed the streets at night, the elder wolf teaching the younger how to avoid detection. She taught Ari how to stash clothes in convenient places, in case the transformation ended before she was ready. All that garbage about full moons was just from the movies. A true canidae could transform at will. Changing back to human took a bit more effort and concentration. Usually it was easier to just let it happen naturally.

She opened her eyes and saw that she'd been dozing for nearly fifteen minutes. She dropped her feet from the desk and picked up the phone to call the potential client Dale had spoken to earlier to set up a meeting.





#





By the time their client arrived, Ari had changed into what she called her respectable businesswoman outfit. A white blouse under a gray vest and a knee-length black skirt. Dale greeted Roberta Sampson, and Ari came out of her office and offered a smile. "Thank you for coming down to see us, Mrs. Sampson. I'm Ariadne Willow, and this is my partner Dale Frye."

Mrs. Sampson smiled and nodded a greeting to Dale. "I'm a bit nervous. I feel ridiculous coming to you like this. I wasn't even going to call anyone, I was just looking in the phone book to see if there was actually a service or if it was just something from the movies. I saw your name, and I thought..." She blinked back tears. "I thought it was something my daughter would get a kick out of."

"Your daughter?" Ari said.

"Rebecca. She turned twenty last month, so I suppose she's entitled to make her own decisions. But I just... I can't help being worried."

Dale gestured for Mrs. Sampson to go into Ari's office and said, "Why don't you just start from the beginning, Mrs. Sampson?"

Mrs. Sampson sat on the couch and withdrew a well-worried handkerchief from her purse. "Rebecca lived at home until she was eighteen, and then she moved into a small apartment so she could work her way through college. Independence, that sort of thing. We were so proud of her, my husband and I. She would come back home to do laundry, and she stayed in touch until... about a year ago. She stopped calling and stopped coming by. Finally I went to her apartment and discovered she had moved out.

"I was panicked until one day, out of the blue, she just showed up at home with another load of laundry. I was livid, as you can imagine. I demanded to know where she had moved, and she refused to tell me. The girl who told me everything growing up wouldn't even tell me where she was sleeping at night. So we argued. Eventually, she told me. She was living with a woman. They were lovers."

She dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief and took a trembling breath. "I don't have a problem with... that sort of relationship. If Rebecca is happy, then I'm happy for her. She's made her own decisions and she can deal with the fallout. If there is fallout, I mean. I just... I don't want her to be hurt. I want to make sure that she's okay. I want to know if this woman is taking advantage of her."

Ari said, "I'm sorry, but... what exactly do you want us to do?"

"Watch them. Observe how they are in public. I know that if I tried to see what they were like, they'd just put on a performance. I want a third party opinion. If you don't find anything, I can relax. I can start to mend my relationship with my daughter and we can get past this. But if she is being hurt..."

"I think we can handle that," Ari said. "Dale will explain our expenses and rates. It shouldn't take us very long to make a determination, once we start observing them."

"I want three days, minimum," Mrs. Sampson said. "Just to be sure."

Ari said, "That's doable. Dale?"

"Step out into the main office and we'll make the proper arrangements." She escorted Mrs. Sampson to the door and turned to Ari. Ari nodded, and Dale closed her door behind her. Ari went to the window and crossed her arms over her chest. She was still lost in thought when Dale came back into the office. "Get everything settled?"

"She gave us a check for five days," Dale said. "She'll write another to cover our expenses. When do you want to start?"

Ari turned around. "Did she tell you where to find Rebecca and this mystery lover?"

Dale held up a notepad, along with a few photographs for visual identification.

"Then let's go for an afternoon walk."