Dogs howled that night—a portent of things to come.
Tatin and Isabella were awakened from sleep, upon hearing the endless yapping and howling of canines. They looked at each other and decided to get up to check what the problem was.
They switched into their wolf form, ran outside the house, around the sleeping town. There were no people but dogs waiting for them; there were many.
The leader of the pack was Tom's half-brother. The couple was surrounded. The enemies looked at them like they had cornered some helpless preys.
"So these are the wise wolves that glorify aliens and are responsible for the death of my brother."
Tatin tried to control them because they were his people. "I have to warn you that this is treason. I have to remind you too that my father was also a casualty of war—we both lost our loved ones from a situation where we had no total control. And for you to continue in the path is to court destruction."
"The more you deserve to die, our king. You had your father murdered by taking the side of that woman beside you." Zep was going around the two.
Tatin and Isabella stood their ground. It was useless to agree with a person who only understood his side and was carried away by his emotion.
As Zep kept talking, Tatin and Isabella made contact with Apollo.
Apollo II was in his bed but was awakened by the telepathic signals he received in his brain. Hurriedly, he stood up, rang the telephone numbers of Andrea, Lobo, Hugh, Matthias, and Julius. The six shifted to their animal form and went off.
They found Tatin and Isabella being rounded off by wolves, sadly, they could see that some of them were even their friends, blinded by the belief that that a wolf-alien marriage was evil. The six joined the two with their fists ready to fight, Apollo asked Tatin. "Have you tried diplomacy?"
Tatin said, "He is uncontrollable," referring to Zep.
The wolves lunged; and so, Tatin and friends also jumped on their feet, their sharp claws ready. The fight went on.
When Zep saw that his pack was at a disadvantage, he transformed into a huge octopus, the three eyes appearing on its head.
Its numerous limbs rolled up and down, whipping whatever it did not recognize came in its way. Its trunk was soft as a jelly and its slug-like mouth emitted a mucus-like substance that could turn an enemy into a stone.
Tatin, Isabella, and friends stood their ground. Zep's limbs began to swing around, trying to catch them. They kept running. The monster could not catch any of them, so the friends thought that they were in for a chase-and-run.
However, the monster began to wave its elastic limbs, catching the six in their abdomen so that they could hardly breathe. Tatin and Isabella could not stand to see their friends suffer from the hands of Zep, whose mouth was salivating for his would-be victims. Oh! They had to avoid his mucus or it would stick and turn them into stones. The octopus wanted to suck them all. The couple threw fireballs, without let up, aimed at the head of the three-eyed monster.
The fire was too painful to Zep that it finally let go of Tatin and Isabella's friends. The octopus-sy creature was hit in the head and suffered from the blows. Later, it fell on the ground, dead. The wolves that saw their leader fall dead ran away and were scattered.
"Whew, that was a comedy," Julius chuckled.
"Yeah, all that he needed was fire to dump in his idiotic head," Matthias agreed. He had a good laugh too.
"That's one point deduct in your sterling investigative career," Lobo was talking to Hugh.
"I thought they were hard to beat," said Hugh. "Ha ha…"
But Tatin was serious. "Those who came with him, charge them with treason, unless they renounce their loyalty to the rebel group."
He turned his back: "They almost got us all killed. That's serious."