Get ready for the piece the voter dubbed the best roleplay of the series!

It's mostly Zanther Wolf and Becky, with Cattaras adding his magic at the very end. It's a silly and totally enjoyable piece! After this, we've only got a couple more pieces and we'll be into the Mission Finale.

But for now, enjoy Becky and Wolf's antics and battles.

 
We return to the story of Zanther Wolf's unlikely and shocking reunion with Becky Joy! Though overjoyed at the thought of being reunited with Becky, he wasn't happy with what he saw that his little friend was up to and who she was with. He wasn't sure weather or not Becky could tell this and was just trying to ignore it.

Becky skipped along happily despite being upset that Wolf kept refusing to let her steal presents for "Prince Baby," as she referred to Catrina's newborn son as.

Zanther still kept his distance while he watched her and the small goblin group that accompanied her. They twisted down the streets of this town which still amazed Zanther. It felt years, if not decades, more advanced than anything in the Kingdom he and Becky hailed from. Wolf had worked the city for a few weeks now thanks to the mysterious Shelly. Sometimes he'd worked along, and sometimes with others.

"Where do we go first?!" Becky asked, throwing her hands up in confusion.

While he looked around, Zanther tried to find something that Becky could have (but not have to steal) to take back to this baby prince she has talked about.

"We could steal a map," Green said.

Zanther arched a brow as to show that may work, but when he heard the work "steal" he growled and slowly approached the goblin showing his disinterest in that thought.

"Um.." Green panicked. "Steal a compass instead?!"

Zanther got closer and growled more with him bearing teeth as to get to tell the goblin that he was not going to let the goblins or Becky steal anything under his watch.

"Um... did I say steal?!" Green said, faking it. "I meant to say 'not steal.' Cause stealing is wrong. They teach us that in the Big Blue Book of Goblins. Heh.. heh. Silly me."

With a heavy snort Zanther calmed down, but still didn't fully trust the group nor their purpose here. For now, he'd continued to stay with them since he wanted to protect Becky. He could keep an eye on her while he was at it, since she'd gotten especially mischievous at some point during their separation.

"I think what we gotta do, is this," Becky said. "This's what we gotta do and it's me - EEP!" Becky jumped back at the last second to avoid a powerful blast of scorching hot fire!

As he heard Becky squeak he perked his ears up, jumped out in front of her and scanned the buildings and alleyways to see who or what was up to some serious trouble. After a few tense moments and no movement, Zanther slowly brought some of his guard down and looked back at Becky.

"Hey Wolfie, how come the city's gotta shoot fire at us?!" Becky asked, confused.

Zanther looked at her a little puzzled too, but knew that it was by someone else's doing since fire like that only went up straight and mushroomed, not a ball in any direction.

"Ohwell, let's keep going and don't talk about stealing anymore, Zanthie. You're making the city mad!" Becky suggested, happily oblivious to.. well most of the world around her.

With a small smile and a nod Zanther guided the group to an area that he knew that they could be safe; he couldn't shake the feeling that they were followed and kept note in his head; his ears were on full alert. Unfortunately, they noticed a figure ahead. No, three. Zanther recognized them as.. Heckions! When he saw the Heckions, Zanther arched his back; some of the hairs of fur stood up and he started to growl getting ready for battle. For the Heckions meant one thing, trouble. Well, three if you counted the annoying fire attacks and beer breath.

"Hi!" Becky said. "Are you here to protect us from the city?! Because you look really- yikes!" Becky rolled to the side to avoid a blast of fire, and pulled out her toy yeti to focus her ice magic into a shield to protect them.

"Goblins, prepare to fight!" Darson ordered, already in a battle stance.

"No no no," Becky said, adding in four more 'no's. "Use the team name. Kay?! Pllllease?!" Becky pleaded in a less than authoritative manner.

Darson sighed. "Team really awesome and Becky's buddy-friends. Prepare to engage," Darson said with notably less enthusiasm. But it was enough to make Becky giggle, squeal and clap with delight.

Zanther then lounged at one of the Heckions as he started to shift from all white to his white with blue markings. His eyes started to shift to blue as he had to chase the Heckions as they ran around taunting the wolf that was chasing them.

"Bout time we caught up with you, you mangy furbag!" one of the Heckions called out. "You've ruined our plans to steal old women's purses one hundred twenty times to many so now it's time for us to ambush you as you're on your way to a far more important mission!"

"Yeah!" another one called out. "It makes us feel significant in the grander scheme of things."

"Yeah, well, you're in for a major butt kickin now, right, bro?!" Green called out.

"That's a right!" Red responded.

Now that Zanther was on full attack mode, he swiped at one of the Heckions, feeling he was owed a little payback for being called a furbag. Now upset, his eyes glowed a bright blue. The temperature around his body began to drop and ice crystals coat his fur. Becky's eyes, of course, went wide. "Ohhh, ice ice wolfy!"

Zanther then picked one of the three Heckions and got directly after him, jaw open, ready to have himself a warm appetizer. Unfortunately, about six more appeared behind the group, rushing at them for an ambush!

Green and Red intercepted them, engaging them in battle and trying to hold them off so Becky and that mysterious Wolf could deal with the initial three thugs first. After chasing one of the little demons, Zanther realized he forgot about Becky in the chase and started looking for her. Becky was doing well for herself.. until suddenly a thug blasted her from behind, slamming a baseball bat into Becky's spine! Becky fell forward to her knees, the breath forcibly taken from her body.

As Zanther soon returned to Becky he sniffed her to make sure she was alright then looked over his shoulder and he growled more and darker. He slowly turned around and then lifted a wing for everyone to get under to protect them. Before he could get anything communicated, he found himself blasted by a searing hot blast from a damned Heckion. He winced in pain since he has a weakness to heat, but continued to stand over Becky protecting her. The Heckion swung the bat at Zanther who caught it in his jaws, snapping it in two. Unfortunately, that left him open for the other Heckions to kick Wolf in the ribs, causing him to howl in pain.

"We better go help them!" Red told Green, who was still cowering in fear, and Darson.

"Ahhh, which ones?!" Green said. To one side of them, Becky and Wolf were in trouble. To the other side, two Heckions picked up Goblina and threw her into the side of a building, while nearby, old Darson was backpeddling and trying to fight off three Heckions at once!

Another Heckion kicked Becky, who cried a bit, and lashed out, kicking his legs from under him. "I don't like these meanies! Cause, cause, they're mean! Someone better get them and protect my Wolfie!"

"Shut up, you moron!" a Heckion shouted at Becky which made her cry!

Suddenly Zanther stood back up, growling furiously and his eyes burned a dark blue. The temperature started to drop rapidly; he looked around to tell the goblins to get under him, now!

"Over here, and hurry up or else I can't say what, but you gotta hurry!" Becky provided a cover fire of ice, and Darson backed off to help Goblina over to Becky. Red and Green helped cover them as well, and within seconds they were all gathered under Wolf's widespread wings!

He hunched his back then suddenly a huge amount pressure released from Zanther and a huge blast of solid ice about the radius of full city block. It left nothing but layers of ice and snow, trapping all the Heckions, but everyone else was perfectly fine as they all looked around from the inside of the ice bubble.

Becky giggled. "Ohh that's pretty cool!"

"So to speak," Goblina said, not quite used to Becky's frequent ironic use of the word yet. A few of the Heckions tried to rally an offense, but Darson showed surprising expertise with his pole staff, using it to snap the arm of one of the first Heckions to try to approach Wolf while he was recovering from the attack. Becky then whipped up a nasty ice storm, causing the Heckions to help each other flee the scene while Becky turned to Wolf to see if he was okay!

Panting, barely having enough energy to stand, he whimpered then dropped down and looked over a Becky. He slowly tried to get back up to his paws. Becky, concerned, reached to steady him. "Careful, brave powerful Wolfie! You did pretty good there!" When wolf heard her praise him for his bravery, he slowly smiled and wagged his tail slowly.

"I know someone who could teach you all about magic and pacing yourself," Becky said. "But we gotta go look for dem princesses now!" Becky made a silly face at Wolf, feeling more like her old self than usual.

Slowly, the winged wolf nodded as he took a step following her. Then another as he slowly gained his strength back.

Eventually, after a few minutes, wolf was able to move mostly without any help and continued to scan the surrounding area with his ears. He looked up to see Becky playing cards with her Goblins. Then, he moved over to Becky and sniffed around curious as to what they were playing.

"Six hearts, what do I win?!" Becky asked. "I wanna get hearts for Prince Baby!"

Goblina looked at Becky, curiously. "Wait, we're not even playing with poker cards.. how'd you get those?"!

Green whined, "Can I use a lifeline? I wanna buy a vowel!"

The others just looked at him odd. Then, Darson spoke up. "It looks like your wolven friend is healed. Shall we continue our hunt?"

"Awwww," Becky said. "Okay."

While smiling Wolf gently brushed Becky with his wing over Becky's head. Becky giggled and rolled, putting her cards away in her dufflebag. "Let's go be silly! I mean.. save princesses."

The other Goblins got up with weary sighs, lacking Becky's unlimited energy.

Wolf nodded again and then used his head as a plow to get Red and Green moving since he could see that they were falling behind.

"Heya, no pushin!" Green complained.

"I'm comin', I'm comin!" Red said, taking a bite out of a sausage sandwich.

As he looked at them he nodded as he looked at Becky, as he wondered she was headed.

"Let's get going, we gotta ask Kadlin what to do!" Becky said.

"Why don't we just follow the leads she already gave us?" Darson asked wearily.

"Oh yeah, let's do that!" Becky pulled out a list. "We looked by the park.. I wonder what one we should go to next?!"

Wolf blinked at them he wondered what was going on, who they were talking about, also where they all were going off to.

After sometime, Zanther approached Becky and nudged her to see if she had fond what she was looking for.

"Good idea, Wolfie!" Becky said. "We is gonna look at the next place on the list.. Social Carriage! That's a neighborhood down the Metal Gulch section of town! I know that cause, cause.. um.. I forget how.. I just know it is all!"

"Ohhh, maybe you're psychic," Goblina said, mystified. "Quick, close your eyes, focus on what I'm thinking, and tell me what you see."

"K-Kayerz," Becky said. She shut her eyes tight and after several minutes finally said, "I don't see nothing."

Goblina gasped. "Whoa.. you don't see nothing and that's exactly what I wasn't thinking!"

"That is eeerie!" Green said, hiding behind Wolf.

"Oh, let's just get going!" Red said, anxious. Or maybe hungry.

Zanther started to sniff the air and also the ground as he too was starting to get hungry as he tugged on Becky's shirt arm.

They all started walking and Becky giggled. "What do you want, Wolf?! Wanna play? Cause I can't play cause this's important work. Oh, okay, we can play later if you're bad enough!"

He looked at Becky then shook his head and tugged her sleeve again and began to lightly chew on the edge of her shirt's cuff.

"You can't eat my shirt, I'll be arrested for shirtlessness!" Becky said, horrified at the thought. "Do you need to be fed?! Wait.. who fed you if I wasn't here?!"

He sat down and looked around and waited for something small to make a sound so he could hunt and have a small lunch. As he sat waiting he started to sniff the air and followed a scent, which led to Red's backpack. Red made that Three Stoogies sound they make when they're terrified.

Becky just barked, "Red! Share something with my Wolfie, he's hungry and you gotta share!"

"Awww," Red whined, pulling out a rather large ham and reluctantly tossing it to the winged wolf.

He licked his chops as he started to take large bites into the ham and he also wagged his tail as he enjoyed his ham.

"Ohh, can I have some?" Green reached for it without thinking.

Zanther started to growl and almost had an `arm of Green` on the menu along with his hunk of ham. Green eep'ed and ran around to hide ineffectively behind the nearest lightpole. Becky laughed and lead the eclectic group down the road, not knowing what danger lied ahead. "Can we get on the trolley this late at night, Zanthie?"

Zanther looked at her and started to sniff the air to get a "feel" for the surroundings. Not sensing any danger, he turned to Becky. He looked to Becky and gave an approving nod; he smiled and started to make his way to get on the trolley, taking them away from the walls of the park and into the main center of the city. Wolf smartly kept them to the roads, hoping to minimize the chances of another fight. The group was nearly at the trolley when Zanther heard signs of a huge fight!

"Hey, don't get lost again!" Becky called and chased after Wolf, who glided down the street, only to see a huge gang war between the Heckions and the Bay City Bullies.

Red and Green were panting as the four Knob Goblins finally caught up with Becky and Zanther.

"Ohh, it's like they're all kung fu fighting!" Becky said, excited. "But without a lotta kung fu. Actually, I don't see any."

"So what," Red asked. "We're going to watch 'em fight?"

"I'll get the popcorn!" Green said, probably confused.

"Oh, Wolfie, you know the fun things to do in the city!" Becky said, happily ready to watch.

Concerned, Zanther tugged on Becky's shirt sleeve seeing that people were in danger. He tried to get her to help the people, then jumped off to rush to the scene to help out. Upon reaching the fight, Zanther growled and stood in front of the innocent bystanders with his teeth bared, wings spread, and gave a furious growl.

"Guess we gotta star in this one," Darson said, turning to Becky. He didn't seem quite sure of her intentions. "Right?"

Becky's eyes lit up with an icy blue glow. "Yeah, let's go!"

"Come on!" one of the Heckions yelled. "Take care of this freak and these freaks and we can get back to business!"

As Wolf looked back at the young couple he slowly backed up still with his wings spread, guiding them to a safer location so that that the couple would not get hurt. Meanwhile, Becky and Green jumped in front of a businessman who was out way too late and needed defending! Before Becky could do anything with her ice magic, an oversized Bay City Bully clubbed her from behind. Whereas the Heckions wielded the power of dark fire, for the most part, the Bay City Bullies were just oversized, well, bullies. They tended to prefer using simple weapons like spiked brass knucks or platinum shillelaghs.

After seeing that his citizens were now safe Zanther then looked to see who else was in danger, then saw that Beck was down on the ground. He sprang into action with a loud howl as he jumped into the air with the glow of the moon against his back, but was cut off midair by a blast of fire from a Heckion Darned. In a bit of a smoke Zather landed hard on the ground in front of a couple of Heckions, who looked like they were about to wet themselves after what they realized who they shot down.

"Oh crap!" on looked at the other. "We might want to get out of here before we get our butts frozen again!" The two started to run away. The brawny Heckion Darned looked at them and tried to rally the Heckions by claiming they'd already won, but the other Heckions still ran off. One stopped and laughed at the Darned. "Your funeral pal, that...that thing isn't going to be down for long and then you're skewered!"

The Darned responded by turning and blasting the disobedient Heckion with a powerful blast of dark flames, taking him off his feet and sending him crashing to the streets. The other Heckions decided they'd rather take on the wolf and his strange friends than be the next to be hit by the Damned's dark fire.

Slowly Zanther started to rise to his paws along looking over his body. When he looked at his chest and saw a singed, bald area his eyes flashed blue as he look over at the Heckion. With a deep breath Zanther let out a deafening howl in to call everyone over. His ears flicked as he also shot an enraged look over at the Bullies, who had stepped back seeing that he was a large wolf. One of them rushed at Wolf, eager to snap his wings off, but Green and Red hit him with a pair of rotten fishes to the head. Becky, meanwhile, started blasting the other enemies with a flurry of ice.

"Whoa, great, supers!" one of the thugs said. "They sure don't look like it!"

"Nooo!" another cried. "Not.. fish melee!"

Then Wolf snorted; the markings covered his body and cold breezes came out his nostril. He looked at the lead Heckion, as to say, "Bring it pal.....now I'm mad." In an instant he rushed at the Heckion with his jaw open and ready to take a bite out of Heckion crime. The brutes fought back, but it was clear Wolf and Becky had the tables turned on them now. When three thugs surrounded Becky, she just willed a sheet of ice under their feet and they went a'tumblin!

After clamping down on the Heckion he ran himself and his "passenger" into an old dumpster Heckion first, he walked over to Becky and watched her take care of her thugs.

"Yeah, and don't come back!" Green yelled at the thugs as Red belly bumped another one down off his feet.

"Guess they gotta go play kick the can," Becky said to Wolf as the Heckions and Bully thugs took off running.

He wagged his tail and nods to her as he looked over at the Goblin gang and snorted a little annoyed that they didn't do anything really useful to help him or Becky. Except the older looking Knob Goblin which Becky referred to as "Darson." He seemed handy in a fight. Becky petted Wolf, and pulled out a meaty treat for him.

Becky held it up over her head. "I been savin this for you, for.. for.. forever, it feels like! It's a spicy wolf treat! Who's a good Zanthie?!"

He saw the treat and started to stand on his back two legs, then danced around with a twirl from time to time as he begged for his treat.

Becky winked. "I was gonna say Green, but I guess I'll let you have it Wolfie." Then she tossed it to him. Green looked up from the old newspaper he was trying to read and shrugged.

Wagging his tail, Zanther more than happily ate his treat as he looked over at Green and shook his head. With that, the group made their way towards the trolley, stopping only to battle a group of rogue mages on the rooftops, to stop three more robberies, and for Red and Green to stare longingly at an Italllix brand restaurant which Zanther Wolf dissuaded them from breaking into. Before long, they made it to the local trolley and a very confused ticket taker. When he looked at the ticket taker not really thinking, Zanther smiled and showed his white sharp teeth and wagged his tail. It didn't seem to reassure the ticket taker much.

"Hi! He's Zanther Wolf, he's my zanthie!" Becky said, pausing to hug Zanther. As she did, she looked up at him. "We're not from around here, and we wanna get around here! We're like heroes, and we need a lil help!"

The ticket taker looked at her, confused by someone who looked and moved like a young adult at first, but acted much younger than she clearly was. Then again, in this city, you get used to the unexpected fairly quickly. "Ahh, I see ma'am. And how can I be helpin' you on this fine evening?"

"We're heroes!" Becky said, still distracted by her own bravado. "And Wolfie can fly, isn't that cool?!"

"Yes, but how can I be helping you?" the ticket taker asked. "Do you need a ride?"

"And I can do.. oh oh, sorry!" Becky realized she was about to start rambling. Her eyes lit up, anyway. "We got this ticket for a group.. and we're a group. We come from a Kingdom!"

He smiled at her, oddly taken by this hyperactive, immature mess of a young lady. Darson stepped up, more tired than amused, and showed him the ticket. "We need to make our way to a part of the city named 'Maliciousmomento.' Can you help us?"

Red burped. "Calm down, Becky. You're gonna start shooting steam out of your ears!"

"I am?!" Becky looked like she believed him. "Oh, you're being sarcastic. Haha, very funny."

"Next trolley should be here in about five minutes."

Wolf waited until one pulled in, looked at Becky and wagged his tail more before boarding. As soon as the group got in, Wolf went over to a window and looked out to the city and wondered where they were off to. He hopped down and jumped around, excitedly.

Then, surprisingly, another figure entered the trolley. A familiar figure. Cattaras Whiteclaw strolled along, not looking as if he was looking for Becky- not looking for anyone, really. He looked like his mind was elsewhere.

Zanther looked at him and tilted his head and looked at Becky then back at Cattaras. Becky yelled, "Kitty!" and rushed over to hug Cattaras, who clearly wasn't expecting it. "Look who I found!"

Cattaras looked at the wolf, tilting his head a bit before realization dawned. "Your...wolfie?"

Zanther slowly approached the cat and slowly sniffed around him and snorted, a little suspicious about him, but nodded to Cattaras.

Becky smiled, taking it as a sign they'd get along. "Yup! That's my Zanthie!"

Cattaras fought to keep his hackles down as the wolf sniffed him.... momentarily feeling for his butt. He then smiled at Becky. "I'm glad you've found him. So, what have you been up to?"

Becky's eyes went ride as they started moving. "We're heroes! We protected a statue from ourselves, so we didn't steal it. Then we beat up some .. I don't know what they are but I'm pretty sure they're evil!"

"Yup, local thugs," Red said, as Green flopped in a trolley seat and almost immediately fell asleep. They were alone on the trolley. The other three passengers who were on it when Becky got on suddenly realized it was a good stop to get off at.

"Whatchya doing, bit Cat?!" Becky found herself a bench on the trolley. Wolf hopped up on her, resting on her lap, still looking unsure about this "Cattaras," but deciding if Becky liked him, he couldn't be all that bad.

"I'm... not sure... We should be rescuing the Princesses.. but I... got separated from Dash and the KOKOL'ers." He didn't mention the events that caused that separation.

"Oh, then I guess it's up to us to save the day," Becky said, stifling a yawn. "Why we gotta be heroes at nighttime?! We were always daytime heroes at home, and.. ahh.. nighttime sleepers? Yeah, that's it!"

Cattaras purred. "Hey, Felines are known night prowlers."

Becky giggled. "Yeah, but we ain't kitties. Do you think we'll be okay? This city looks dangerous." Becky watched as the trolley rumbled past a couple larger, darker buildings.

Cattaras put his arm around her, pulling her to himself. Wolf watched the move with mixed emotions. "Then I will stay with you and protect you until the light comes again."

Becky cuddled up against the big Feline, closing her eyes. Seeing her close her eyes, Zanther settled in next to her, head on her lap. Cattaras looked down at the large wolf and felt...

Now why did he feel like that? It wasn't like he and Becky were.... Cattaras chuckled. Yeah like that'd ever happen!

"This's great," Goblina said to Cattaras. "I mean, you're an Elite 7 member, right? With you on our side, those princesses will be ours in no time at all."

Cattaras growled. "They will be free- where they go when we return home only the voyage will tell."

Goblina gulped, not used to the idea of rescuing people just to set them free. She was still a Knob Goblin, after all. "O- yes, of course. Sir!"

Red's stomach grumbled. "I just hope we got time to stop by for dinner after we're done.. oops, I mean breakfast!"

Green mumbled, "Stop thinkin' about your tummy, big brother. It'll still be there when we're done."

Cattaras smiled at the gobliness, ignoring the Rainbow Patrol. "Don't worry... I'm sure we can invite them all over so you can play." He chuckled. "Catrina might join in on that."

Becky looked up at Cattaras, and whispered, "Can you please, pwease, wake me up when the trolley ride is finished, k-kayerz?!"

Cattaras smiled down at her. "Sure nuff hon." He then licked her cheek, drawing a confused but amused giggle from her. The rest of the trolley ride was fairly mundane; a few passengers declined to ride with our crew, but most of them swallowed and did their best to ignore it.

As for what lie ahead of them, however.. well, that's a topic for another time.

An extensive little piece that flushes out some of the evil of the city, has lots of awesome Becky and Wolf action, and throws Cattaras back into the story at the end!

And we're not even done yet. Okay, the upcoming Becky and Vixen piece is a little short, but the Aleena/ Dash/ Cyber Sunset piece, up next, was pretty solid.