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Hal dangles his legs off the edge of a cliff on a high mountain trail, watching the last rays of light fade away as the sun slowly sets over Granite Peak National Park, Barry sitting by his side.
While quite a few people(city-dwellers all) warned him away from going out to the park this late on a full moon night, he doesn’t listen to them. He's a Deputy Ranger, he knows the rules, and he can protect himself. He's done this before, plenty of times.
The wind is cold and sharp, especially given the late hour, and the creeping darkness and April humidity just makes the chill seep into Hal’s bones, even through his jacket. He’s used to the chill, though- there’s only one thing that can make him warm now, and it’s not worth it most of the time. (It’s not like the cold can hurt him, either way.)
“Remember, whatever you do, never run. Never run from me.” Barry whispers, voice already high and ethereally sing-songy as the first internal changes begin.
He hasn’t fully shifted yet, though no matter how hard he tries(and both of them have definitely tried ), he can never stay human(in body or mind) after the sun completely sets. The Call of the Speed Force is simply too strong to resist- even with Hal’s full power trained on trying to pull him back, the longest they’ve ever managed was an hour and five minutes after the sun dipped below the horizon.
Hal’s lucky, in that while he always has the gnawing urge to shift whenever he’s in darkness, it’s always possible to resist with enough effort, even on the new moon, and the mental changes that come with his shift are relatively harmless and take time to fully set in(even if the hunger is always there, gnawing away at the will to fight it.)
The sun finally passes the horizon, and Barry closes his eyes and squeezes them closed, even as white consumes the blue of his irises and the black of his pupil, and his eye sockets shift up and to the side.
He bares his teeth, giving his fangs room to extend, as his jaw pushes outwards and narrows into a lupine muzzle.
Hal gets up and backs off as the rest of the changes begin- human skin washed away by sleek crimson scales, claws sprouting from his fingertips, feet splitting into talons, a ruff of quills sprouting from his spine and thicker, webbed spines jutting out from the backs of his legs, angled, backswept golden horns framing the sides of his head, spine extending into a long, sleek tail.
Barry lowers himself onto four legs, limbs snapping into a new fully-digitigrade configuration to accommodate the stance. It looks like it should hurt, but according to Barry, shifting from two legs to four or back just feels like cracking his knuckles, except it’s all of the joints in his legs and spine at once.
Barry turns his head towards Hal, eyes wide and blank, but gaze undeniably fixed on him.
Even on four legs, he's nearly as tall as Hal in his shift, courtesy of being a fully-grown Chaser alpha. With Hal half-kneeling in front of him, Barry easily looms over him.
(Adult Chasers who don't lead their own pack are betas, apparently. Asking if there were omegas too got Hal subjected to a twenty-minute lecture on the origins of the A/B/O trope in the Supernatural fandom, the sexist, transphobic, gender essentialist and eugenicist viewpoints that crept into the fandom and were likely there from the start, how it's not all just porn, and finally the actual answer of "we don't, though I’m pretty sure by some definitions of the social roles and paradigms involved, non-Chasers we see as packmates and yearling pups count".)
"Yearling-wisp…" Barry murmurs, voice resonating like a pipe organ. "You sound like pack, sing like pack, burn like pack. You have been here many times before. You are pack, but you aren’t."
"Yeah, Barry. I'm your husband, you should really start remembering me by now." Hal holds out his hand, staring directly into Barry's eyes and meeting his gaze.
No matter how much his survival instincts(shriveled as they are) are screaming that this is a giant predator that could easily rip him to pieces and probably wants to eat him, Hal knows that Barry won't hurt him.
Not unless Hal runs from him, and even then, Barry probably won’t want to hunt him, just be compelled by the Old Laws of his nature that every Chaser has to follow.
Barry tilts his head, examining Hal. “You are small, yearling-wisp. Slow, like smoldering flames are slow.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m small and slow and therefore must be a yearling.” Hal pats Barry’s snout, and gets a confused blink in response, glittering gold nictitating membranes sliding over his eyes.
“No. Hunts like yearling, yearling-spark.” Barry corrects. “Yearling-spark, so bright in the dark, so bright in your heart. Glitters like a thousand suns, except just one.”
“Thanks, Barry. I know my heartlight is pretty, you’ve only told me a thousand times.” Hal’s shoves down the urge to shift and display his heartlight fully. Doing that would probably lead to one of them eating the other. (Honestly, it’s actually a tossup as to which one of them would survive, and they’re not going to test the odds, so it will remain a mystery forever.)
There’s a howl in the distance, resonant and deep, echoing over the hills for miles. If Hal didn’t know better, he’d mistake it for a wolf’s- but everyone knows there’s no wolves in Granite Peak National Park.
(Everyone living in Central City, at least. You’d be surprised at the amount of tourists who think late-night strolls in Granite Peak National Park on the full moon are a good idea, and somehow mentioning the risk of wolf attacks is the best way to keep those idiots alive.)
Barry raises his head, and in a blur of crimson, he’s off, off to join his mate in the Wyld Hunt. Hal’s never actually seen Eobard as anything more than a flash of yellow in the bushes, but he and Barry have hunted together nearly every full moon for years, and Barry’s tried to describe him to Hal in a way that makes sense.
(Keyword, tried. The most Barry’s ever been able to convey sensically is that he’s a beta that used to be an alpha and thus is bigger than most betas and still has spines, he’s yellow where Barry is red, and everything about him from his leg spines to his voice are pretty beyond words.)
Eobard apparently lives in the Park and rarely stays human, even outside of the full moon, doesn’t speak any language spoken by humans in this century, and has fully given himself over to the Call of the Hunt and the Speed Force, so any social interaction probably wouldn’t end well.
Even if Wisps’ heartlights feel like a yearling Chaser’s spark, Eobard apparently might accidentally hurt or kill him trying to scruff Hal or assert dominance like he would for an actual yearling Chaser.
Hal glances up at the moon in the sky, and then down at the twilit vista of the Park. There’s a reason people are so drawn to moonlit hikes here, and while part of it is definitely the Old Magic infusing every rock, tree, flower and drop of dew, the view is rather stunning at night, especially when the moon is full.
He takes a deep breath, the cold night air biting at the lining of his lungs, and then starts to walk down the side of the mountain.
He’s not entirely sure which mountain it is, and in any case, Granite Peak National Park is much, much larger and the peaks much, much higher than the maps say they are, so it’s unlikely that he’d be able to map the exact peak to any of the ones on Google Earth.
His phone already tends to refuse to connect to the Internet and occasionally glitch out from the Old Magic in the air whenever it’s inside the park, and that’s a device that’s been saturated in a Wisp’s Light and been taken inside the Spirit Realm multiple times.
Completely mundane, un-acclimated technology just refuses to function(properly or at all) inside the inner Park, especially newer technology- and Google’s surveyors would definitely be using newer and completely mundane technology.
Old tech seems to like the supernatural more than newer tech, which Barry says is because outdated tech had more time to soak in and adjust to ambient magic, tends to capture magic better, and usually has fewer and larger(and thus less vulnerable) components susceptible to magical interference.
Hal personally suspects the Law of Perception and the Narrative Theorem may also have a role in it- recordings on old tech are generally grainy and terrible with tinny audio quality, old tech just seems creepier, and old tech has less features and thus less things that interfere with horror movie plots. Old Things do not like to be seen accurately, but the more tropey something is, the more Old Magic tolerates it.
Still, the fact remains that regardless of the actual cause, other factors notwithstanding, 90s flip phones will take calls and send messages with some distortion, an early 2010s cell phone will glitch and freak out and lose battery at five times the rate, and a modern 2020s smartphone will encounter a fatal kernel error as soon as it’s turned on. Hal’s never seen one explode, but according to the older park rangers, it’s apparently happened at least twice.
Hal’s as safe as anyone can be on a full moon night in Granite Peak National Park. Most of the Old Things that come out when the moon is full and bright in the sky and the sun has taken its leave don’t like to be faced with concentrated light, especially actual Light, and there are few Things that are willing to go after a Wisp in darkness, even if they would be willing to go after a human who can channel Light.
He’s honestly more worried about running into a human than an Old Thing. Old Things are bound by Old Laws, Hal knows everything that normally lurks within Granite Peak National Park and most of the possible Things that could show up as occasional visitors or temporary migrants. Most of the Old Things know Hal too, and how much of a bad idea messing with him would be.
It’s not just the fact that they know how protective Chasers are over what they see as theirs, and that Hal is under Barry’s claim. It’s the fact that Wisps are apex predators of a subtle stripe, and are some of the most successful and infamous Old Things for a reason.
The vast majority of beings that can channel Light are weakened in darkness, but a Wisp is actually at their strongest when they’re the only light to be found for miles.
It doesn’t help that most Old Things are rather straightforward in their nature and the Laws they’re bound by, and Wisps are one of the few Old Things who are bound by practically nothing other than what they choose to bind themselves to.
Wisps have no bane, no bans, no compulsions other than the urge to feed, no rules other than the ones they set for themselves, and no glaring weaknesses other than their lack of obvious defenses.
And even that isn’t so much a weakness, as their greatest strength. A Wisp is just a tiny flame of Light in the darkness, with their only defenses being their cunning and their Light. It seems like if you know their tricks, you can snuff them out as easily as you would a candle.
Hal’s had that tried on him before, and you would be surprised how many people think water and fire extinguishers will put out a Wisp, or that the only way a Wisp can hurt you is by getting you lost in the navigational sense.
There are, after all, a lot of ways to be led, a lot of ways to be misled, and a lot of ways to be lost or lose your path.
Fun story- Hal managed to beat a cult once by leading them to lose their faith. All it took was five words, a little bit of mixed martial arts and the leader being stupid enough to let Hal trip him up.
So why are humans a problem? Because they will be led to Hal like a moth to a flame- which, like all metaphors involving Wisps, is surprisingly literal, and thus very real and very lethal.
It’s dark enough that Hal’s already struggling to hold onto his human body, and he’s pretty sure that if he talks to someone right now, he won’t be able to resist taking just a little of their flame for himself, and that that just a little will quickly turn into their entire soul.
It’s been years since he last fed deeply enough to taste memories or soul, after all, and while he doesn’t need to feed that deeply, it’s in much the same way a smoker trying to quit doesn’t need cigarettes.
Hal can’t afford to feel too guilty about all of the people he and Barry have killed, directly or indirectly. The nature of Old Things in the mortal realm usually results in quickly piling up a body count to bury, and most of the deaths are caused by the victim’s own ignorance and dismissal of the numerous warnings everyone from the park rangers to the hotel clerks give them.
What he can do is make sure that both he and Barry get something out of the Hunt, and that he has a guaranteed food source with safety measures built into the format that make sure that he can’t ever take anything more than what the donors are willing to give.
(It’s surprising how much people are still willing to give. Maybe it’s the fact that a Will O’ Wisp is filming and posting footage they took with a device saturated in their Light, maybe it’s just the nature of the format and audience, but each video almost always attracts more attention, emotion and interest than Hal can actually eat in one sitting, and much less of it is casual and superficial than you’d expect.)
Hal pulls out his phone, points the camera at the sky and hits record.
[A title card is shown, showing the stylized mountain-peak-and-crescent-moon logo of the Granite Peak National Park Rangers superimposed on the sky of a heavily stylized forest background, with “Peak of the Park” written in black block letters across the bottom of the screen.]
[After the title card, there’s footage of a twilit sky, the full moon visible and the stars just starting to come out. It pans down to a forested vista seen from high on the side of a mountain, and a green-gloved hand waves in front of the camera.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (cheerfully) Hey, guys, and welcome to Peak of the Park! I’m Deputy Ranger Jordan, and I’ll be your unofficial tour guide tonight!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Tonight, the moon’s full and bright, and you all know what that means- a Full Moon Special!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: What’s that, you ask? Well, a lot of the really interesting and unique wildlife in the Park is only really active during the full or new moons, and there’s also plenty of other phenomena that need monitoring or only appear during the full moon, so we get to do a full walkaround that’s practically guaranteed to have something more interesting than me yapping.
[The camera pans across the starkly-shadowed forest below, highlighting the beautiful contrast between treeline and sky, and the clearly-visible moon and stars.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: And of course, the Park’s prettiest on full moon nights, though I wouldn’t recommend coming to see it yourself.
[The silence as Deputy Ranger Jordan walks down the side of the mountain is broken only by the croaking peent peent calls of unseen birds, and occasionally by the sound of a rock tumbling down the path as he kicks it out of his way.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Hear that? That’s the call of the common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor. Despite the name, they’re not birds of prey, and are actually more closely related to hummingbirds. They’re hard to spot, due to the intricate patterns of black and brown on their feathers that make them look kind of like a pile of tree bark.
[A flicker of pale purple light in the distance makes Deputy Ranger Jordan turn the camera towards it, and zoom in the flickering purple flames dancing through the night sky, a gloved hand coming up to point at the lights.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: You see those purple lights? Those are lesser wisps- lavender balefire wisps, to be specific. Lesser wisps are pretty much harmless, unless you’re a bug, so feel free to stare at them as much as you want. And no- they’re not actually on fire, they’re just naturally bioluminescent!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Lesser wisps are pretty friendly, though they’re scared of humans, especially unfamiliar humans, and ones with cameras. These ones know they’re safe being recorded, but not all of them do, and the ones that won’t will try to hide.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: If one comes up to you, be careful not to hurt it by squeezing too hard- you can touch them, and they kind of feel like fluffy marshmallow goo. Adorable, but I unfortunately have no footage since they’re uncomfortable being recorded close-up.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Alright, that’s enough staring at these little guys- they’re probably overstimulated already. Let’s get a move on, shall we?
[Deputy Ranger Jordan turns the camera away from the lavender balefire wisps, and starts walking further down the trail. The sound of rushing water can be heard nearby, echoing strangely in a way vaguely reminiscent of steel clashing against steel.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Oh, it looks like Vengeance’s Fall is coming up soon. I’d wondered where I was for a moment, but it looks like I’m on Avenger’s Peak!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Pretty much everyone, even old-timers like Ranger Joe, gets lost in the Park from time to time. It’s just something about the place that makes it hard to keep track of exactly where you are and not get turned around.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Maps help, but even the most detailed and accurate paper map can’t help you as much as knowing the landmarks, paths and terrain, and how to survive out here if you get really lost.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: It’s one reason why we recommend that visitors stay out of the Park at night, and that tourists stay within sight of their guide at all times.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Rangers are vastly more likely to survive getting lost, especially at night, than an unprepared tourist used to relying on Google Maps and instant messaging. Even then, we occasionally lose people.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: After all, we don’t get signal out here, sometimes not even AM radio, and sending up a signal lets wildlife know where you are as well as potential rescuers. Sometimes we just can’t find or get to people in time, or it’s not worth the risk to send a rescue party at all.
[Deputy Ranger Jordan sighs.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: It’s sad, but unfortunately a fact of life. You can’t save everyone, especially not while saving yourself, and the most we can do is make sure visitors are prepared and warned against risky courses of action.
[The footage glitches into color-negative for a moment as the trail turns the corner, then settles as the camera pans up to a small cliffside waterfall, with thick, blood-red water strangled with aquatic weeds. Occasionally, a glimpse of something steely and metallic can be seen breaching the surface of the water, a clang like steel on steel echoing over the sound of several tons of water tumbling over stone.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (shouting over the waterfall) Alright, we’re at Vengeance’s Fall! The water here’s not actually blood, but it looks, feels and smells similar enough that it can fool both people and most wildlife!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Just be careful near the Fall- many of the shards of broken weapons and armor that tumble down from the top of Avenger’s Peak are still sharp, and they’re going fast enough that even the blunt ones can still crack skulls!
[The trail continues downwards for some length with the blood-red river on one side and a sheer cliff on the other side. The path itself is narrow, crumbling and overgrown with weeds, though the rushing of the river is only a faint murmur in the background once Deputy Ranger Jordan gets far enough from Vengeance’s Fall.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Now, this trail leads almost straight down the side of the mountain, and it’s pretty sheer, so there will be a few stiff drops along the way. Sorry for the bad angles and blurriness, it’s unavoidable when you’re in freefall.
[The camera bounces up and down somewhat as Deputy Ranger Jordan makes his way down the trail, occasionally shaking and pointing to the sky or a shot of Deputy Ranger Jordan’s muddy combat boots as he jumps over a gap or down a short cliff.]
[Eventually, Deputy Ranger Jordan comes to a seemingly impassable gap between two sections of the trail, a section of the cliffside seemingly having been melted and charred by what looks like a set of superheated claw marks until it collapsed. The mountainside is equally charred, and looks like it was alternately heated by a flamethrower until the surface charred and basted with thick layers of salt crystals.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (completely unconcerned) Hmm. Looks like the feud between Heatwave and Brineweaver is escalating to physical combat. I’ll need to report that once I get back to the station- wonder why no one saw it earlier.
[The camera is pointed at the staggeringly high drop off the side of the trail. The salt crystals covering most of the cliffside gleam in the moonlight.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (still completely unconcerned) Well, only one way down now!
[Deputy Ranger Jordan walks towards the edge of the cliff, and the tip of his boot is visible for a moment as he steps off the edge, before the footage freezes and blocky color artifacts consume the screen for several seconds, before the footage returns to normal looking out at the base of the cliff, a few particles of distortion remaining momentarily.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Sorry about the glitching, it’s unavoidable. Whoo, that was a long fall.
[A scream can be heard in the distance, high and terrified, and undeniably human. Flashing streaks of red and yellow dance through the trees, the undergrowth rustling and breaking in their wake.]
Alpha Chaser: (ethereal and sing-songy, echoing through the trees) Run, run, far away, and you might live to see another day! Stop and pause… and face our jaws!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Aaand there’s some of the Park’s most famous wildlife- the Chasers. Yes, they can talk, and yes, they’re smart enough to lie.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (shouting at the top of his lungs) AND YES, THEY’RE LYING! STOP RUNNING, THEY’LL LEAVE YOU ALONE IF YOU STOP RUNNING!
[The rustling noises are coming closer, accompanied by the faint sound of heavy breathing and footsteps. Deputy Ranger Jordan starts walking towards the source of the noise, noticeably faster than his usual walking pace.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Now, I’m honestly trying my best to reach whatever poor soul ignored the dozens of warnings they’ve already received- I was warned three separate times on my way to the park, and I’m a Deputy Ranger- but you can only go so fast without running.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: See, the Chasers really will leave you alone if you’re not running. They only hunt prey that runs from them, and they have to hunt prey that runs from them.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (shouting at the top of his lungs) SERIOUSLY, STOP RUNNING! I KNOW IT SOUNDS LIKE A STUPID IDEA! I KNOW IT’S COUNTER-INTUITIVE! THEY WILL NOT CHASE YOU IF YOU AREN’T MOVING!
Hiker: (faintly) THEY’RE…TOO…CLOSE!
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (shouting at the top of his lungs) THAT DOESN’T MATTER!
Alpha Chaser: (hissed and lyrical, echoing through the trees) The hunt is ours, the chase is ours, you shall not steal our prey, you who lead astray!
Beta Chaser: (unintelligible howling, reminiscent of a pipe organ at full blast)
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (shouting at the top of his lungs) TRUST ME, YOU’LL THANK ME COME SUNRISE FOR STEALING YOUR PREY!
Alpha Chaser: (thrumming like a violin chord run through autotune) We may, when the moon is not here to stay, but when the moon is bright, we claim our prey!
Beta Chaser: (triumphant and still unintelligible howling, like a brass band)
[There’s a loud thump, followed by a pained yelp that quickly turns into an agonized scream. Deputy Ranger Jordan exhales sharply, and turns the camera towards the ground.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (softly and sadly) …Like I said, you can’t always save everyone. I tried my best, like I always do, but not everyone listens, or follows my commands.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: I don’t think I’ll be in a place to prevent any more fatalities tonight, from the Chasers at least- there’s only three Chasers in Granite Peak National Park, and Chasers tend not to move on from a kill until they’ve finished eating it, unless something or someone disturbs them.
[The camera pans up to the sky, which is now fully lit with stars, and near-completely dark, then back down to the forest, which is pretty much just shadows of various levels of deepness, except for the area close to the camera, which is lit much more brightly, with a strong green tint.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Twilight’s over now, giving way to full night, so visibility will be heavily limited, and I’m pretty much the only consistent light source for miles.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Well, except for the Chasers, if they happen to start moving. The skintight- well, scaletight - aura that protects them lights up with friction sparks when they move, and that makes them gleam in the dark when they’re moving.
[A gloved hand waves at one particular section of forest, which is dark and far away enough that it’s impossible to really make out anything more than the faint outlines of trees and hills.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: You can’t see it, but the Chasers made their kill and stopped about fifty paces thataway. Yes, they actually got that close to me- I’ve been closer.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: This particular pack isn’t really a pack, per se, as much as a mated pair that hunts together- Scarlet Alpha and their mate Yellow Beta, who was apparently a solitary alpha long enough to grow to nearly the same size as Scarlet, and somehow kept their ruff and leg spines, albeit at about half or so the usual length.
Deputy Ranger Jordan: Normally, solitary alphas don’t keep their spines for long after joining a pack and becoming a beta, whether ruff or leg, but Yellow’s just special apparently. It’s honestly more of a pain than anything, both for Scarlet and for me.
[A pair of shrieking, vaguely lupine howls split the air, and the light surrounding the camera flares brighter, tinting faintly yellowish. Deputy Ranger Jordan exhales sharply.]
Deputy Ranger Jordan: (slightly strangled-sounding)…Seriously? They both know I’m like twenty feet away and can see them, right?
Deputy Ranger Jordan: …I think it’s best if we call it off here for tonight.
[A gloved hand waves in front of the camera, and the footage is promptly replaced by a title card reading “Thanks for Watching!”]
The sun is just barely above the horizon, the first rays of dawn spilling over the skyline and painting it with lurid shades of orange, red and yellow.
Hal’s been sitting on the front porch of Ranger Station Nighthawk for three hours now. There really isn’t much else to do while he’s waiting for the sun to rise and Barry to join him at the station, other than make and drink several pots of blueberry tea.
Ranger Station Nighthawk, after all, is pretty much abandoned after dark, despite its name. It’s deep enough in Granite Peak National Park that no matter how much protection is built into it, if there’s someone in it at night, especially on a full moon night, something will try to break in to feed on them.
Thankfully, tonight Hal only had to stab one Shade through the gut with a spear made of concentrated Light before the rest of the creepy crawlies in the dark got the picture and left him alone.
He was hoping for zero, but a Wisp isn’t obviously a major threat(not that he really wants to be seen that way), and even if they were, Chasers are some of the few beings that can easily tell a Wisp in their human skin apart from a normal human, without their heartlight being visible.
Barry blurs into the room in a flutter of red, gray and white. The red, of course, is because of the blood soaking through his pants and shirt- Chasers’ spines are sharp, and while the tiny puncture wounds left behind on the front of his thighs and torso are small and thus heal quickly, they were held open for quite a while and many of them are quite deep.
“Did I kill anyone?” Barry asks, sounding just as resigned as usual. He probably already knows what the answer is, even if he rarely remembers what happens on full moon nights as anything more than flickers of sensation.
“One, as far as I know.” Hal takes a sip of his blueberry tea. “Barry, Granite Park National Park actually has a death rate per capita only slightly higher than North Cascade National Park. It’s just that the vast majority of deaths are from the supernatural rather than mundane wildlife or ordinary hazards like stupidity, car accidents, heatstroke or drowning.”
“Did you factor in missing persons cases?” Barry asks, fingers twitching.
Hal snorts. “Of course I did. I treated all missing persons cases that did not result in a living human being located as deaths, regardless of the level of supernatural involvement in the area.”
There’s an awkward pause for a moment, then Barry looks away and murmurs a soft “I’m sorry for making you watch that.”
“Barry, if you’re talking about the murder, that’s what gets me viewership.” Hal waves off. “I tried my best to save that guy.”
Barry gestures awkwardly to his still-bleeding thighs. “No…I was talking about the…er… mating. In front of you.”
“Barry, this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and you’re not yourself during the full moon. Moon instincts will be moon instincts.” Hal finishes his tea, sets the cup down on the table next to him, and holds out his hand. “Come on, let’s go home already. Get you cleaned up and out of those bloody clothes, get the footage edited and posted.”
Barry sighs, and then there’s a blur of color and Hal’s being set down on the couch in their house. The clock ticks in the background, shortly followed by the sound of the shower running.
Hal sighs, and makes his way over to his computer. Editing the footage will take a while, and then he has to submit all of his official reports for the night.