Chapter 22

It was towards the end of the summer when I was processing data that I came across a name I recognized. Sean Mackenzie. He was working in the basement with the R&D department, and I grinned when I changed and headed down shortly before lunch.

And I smiled when I finally saw my friend for the first time. He had a shock of red hair, and a big grin as he and Kirk were working on a computer. “Oh, Dire. Meet Sean, he joined our team last week. We were just going over plans for work on Clint’s trike.”

I went and looked, and sure enough, it was his trike, but better. “He told us he is having problems with it, the welds are not strong enough. As it is going to be used mostly for Control business, we decided to give him an upgrade. What do you think?”

I said it looked great, and that Clint should love it. “Oh, and the next project if you want can be your van. We both have some ideas for upgrades, it might even help you out. Sean, this is Dire Wolf, she is one of our best Paladins. Get to know her, she also works upstairs. She works directly for Dr. Tran, and has helped us a lot in planning new projects.”

We shook hands, and I smiled. “Actually, before I say anything else, is Mr. Mackenzie fully briefed and vetted?”

“Yes, actually I am. Before this, I already had a Top Secret clearance, so this is nothing new to me. Nothing you say will go beyond this room.”

I grinned, and reached down and gave him a hug. Sean looked surprised but hesitantly hugged me back. He looked at me questioningly. “Do we know each other, Miss Wolf? I admit I have seen you on TV several times, but we have never met before.”

“Oh yes, actually we have, Sean. And I am glad you are here working with us, but where is Maggie?”

He looked startled and said she was at home. “She’s getting a little old now, and since Control picks me up at home and brings me here in a van with a lift, I use my motorized scooter now. How do you know that?”

“Well, start to bring her again. Mister Jangles would love to play with her again I am sure.”

That got his attention, and he smiled. “Di, is this you? I mean, are you Dianne Wong?”

I hugged him again. “Yes, Sean. Dianne Wong is Dire Wolf, and Dire Wolf is Dianne Wong. And yes, as Dire Wolf I can see, but Dianne is still blind. This is one of the reasons for the secrecy, only a few people know I am both. Fang is upstairs, but I am serious. Bring her along, we can take breaks together on the roof and let them play. In fact, I bet her seeing him like that will be as big of a surprise as you seeing me like this.”

He agreed, and we chatted for a bit longer before I returned to my office. But it was also kind of nice, having another know my secret. And the next day, he did bring Maggie. I met them on the roof with Fang, and after they got acquainted with each other again, we changed. Maggie was pretty, but I could see the touches of gray on her muzzle. She seemed intimidated at first by this version of Fang, but soon they were playing as before.

And I noticed that he was very gentle with her. We had already had his bite force measured, and he could bend a steel pipe. But when he nipped Maggie’s ear, she just turned and nipped his leg, and both seemed to be having fun.

I asked Sean if that was how they had played before, and he assured me it was. “They did a lot of nipping, and it worried me at first. But it was all in play, neither of them ever hurt the other. You could not see that, but this is the same. He is just, bigger now.”

Towards the end, it looked like she was getting worn out, and Fang actually laid down and rolled onto his back. Maggie went and actually put her jaws around his neck, and I swear he was grinning. I knew this was the submissive position, he was actually letting her win!

But that was one of the few times they got to play that way. Control put out new requirements that unless there was a good reason not to, all chameleons had to work in their host forms. It seems that some were forgetting to change back or being seen by outsiders, so my being Dire outside of official business came to an end.

But the next week, my life changed and I did not even know it. I was starting to get stretched thin, what with my analysis of all the mutants and their powers, and trying to meet their needs. I finally called a meeting with Dr. Tran and Ms. Smith and told them I needed help. She asked me what I would rather do, and I admitted I would rather continue on my analysis.

“Let’s be honest, anybody can do things like arrange housing for the Paladins, and getting them new outfits and things like that. But this analysis, I think it is going to be the work of many lifetimes. So let me continue that, find somebody else to do the other things.”

And 3 weeks later, Doug Wood was hired. I was in my office going over some data we had on ratios of how many mutants had multiple abilities against those that only had one when Ms. Smith brought him in. I turned to face them and held out my hand, welcoming him as well as thanking him for taking that burden off of my shoulders.

He was soft spoken and had a hint of an accent. I briefed him on what I was passing off to him, and I reached into my desk and pulled out a folder of notes I had printed off. He laughed after I handed them to him, and asked how he could get them translated.

“Oh, I am so sorry. I forget, sometimes. Well, give me your address, I will shoot you a copy. They are stored in plain text, so you can read or print them as you wish. I will still box these up and send them to you, feel free to have them sent to storage though. And trust me, you are welcome to it!”

We had lunch together, and that was when I found out he was from Wyoming. That explained the accent I could not place, and I admitted I did not think I had met anybody from there before. For the next week he shadowed me, whenever a mutant came in with needs, he joined us in my office as we went over them.

Mostly it was fairly basic. Arranging to have them retested if they thought they might have Paladin class abilities that had been missed. And arranging new ID cards, new uniforms, one of the pyros even needed a new house after a nightmare caused him to burn his down. He was moved into a brick structure on the old Navy Base.

We were having lunch one day when he admitted that he could see why I was overworked. “I have a feeling that part of your job alone was more than enough for one person. And your analysis is very important, so I am happy to leave you to that.”

The next week we were having lunch together when the PA announced all Paladins were to assemble in the basement. Doug excused himself and headed on down when we got to the elevators, and I caught the next one and went to my office. A few minutes later I arrived there myself.

And I had now learned what all the tones meant, and this was one that signaled disaster, not battle. Turns out a building being demolished had collapsed, onto another building. There were already 15 confirmed dead, and they wanted any of us that could to go and help in the recovery efforts.

Fang and I went to the basement, and grabbed one of the trucks, and headed over. And for the next 2 days, we scoured the site. Fang turned out to be an excellent rescue dog, he would point if there was a body under the rubble, but if there was a living victim he would start to dig frantically and bark. Between all of us, we rescued over 30 people. And sadly, recovered another 25 bodies.

And it was at the Office Christmas Party that things really changed. Sean, Kirk, and several others were at the same table I was, as was Doug. More than once he had even joined Sean and I on the roof, and I was getting quite comfortable with him.

After the meal was done, the party devolved into drinking and dancing. And I was standing by the table swaying when Doug asked me if I danced. I turned towards him and smiled, asking if that was an invitation. And thankfully, he said it was not, but he would be honored to dance with me.

And I have to admit, the most I could say is that he was competent. Not trained at all, but he held me just right, in a proper school dance sort of way. One hand on my waist, the other holding my hand as we moved around the floor.

After we bumped into somebody for the third time, I started to instruct him on how to guide me with signals to my hand or waist. He apologized, saying he had never danced with somebody who was blind before.

“Oh, those have nothing to do with my being blind. Those are normal signals for dancers. Why do you think we do not collide with each other all the time on the dance floor?”

“You are a dancer?”

I laughed and told him that it had been a lifelong passion of mine. Even before I became blind. “Wow, I had no idea. But now that I think about it, that makes sense. So long as one of you can see, I guess it would not be a problem.”

“Oh, two blind people can dance also. When I was at the School for the Blind, we had dances every weekend. We just do it to slower music, and tend to stay in place more is all. It was after that when I took up ballroom dancing. A boyfriend I had in College was into it, and I have been doing it ever since.”

He brought us drinks and we took a break on the patio and spent almost an hour talking about dancing. Then when we returned I taught him a basic waltz step. All in all, it was the most fun I had dancing since asshole John moved. I had continued going to the Manchu for a month, but then stopped when I realized I was simply sitting by myself most of the night.

At the end of the evening, I kissed his cheek and thanked him for everything as he called a taxi for me. The only frustrating thing that night when I went to bed was that I had forgotten to pick up a pack of batteries. So it was entirely manually and without the electronically applied assistance that I was able to relieve my tensions enough to fall asleep.

It took two more weeks until Doug got up enough courage to ask me out. He asked if I knew of any ballrooms in town, and I told him that indeed I did. He arranged to pick me up after work, where he would take me home then come and pick me up again an hour later. Thankfully he had a GPS, and once at the address, I had him drive around to the alley that ran behind my apartment building. I got out and with Fang told him I would be waiting, and to give me a call when he was close by.

Grateful that I could get ready fast, I stripped and changed twice. I then spent most of the time applying my makeup, and after picking up 4 different bottles decided on what perfume I would wear that night. But I had already decided right after he asked me what I was wearing.

An ankle long hunter green dress, with a garter belt and black stockings. Matching bra and panties, of course. I took fang for a walk and was just settling on the couch when Doug called. I pet Fang and with my cane in hand headed out the door and down the stairs.

I heard the car pull up as I got there, and Doug quickly opened the door and let me in. I had gotten the address the day before, and he punched it into his GPS. “OK, it’s only about 10 minutes away. How does Italian sound for dinner?” I told him that was fine, and soon we were in a place not far away from the ballroom. The dinner was nothing special, but the company and wine were great. And the dancing was great, Doug really was a good partner. And by the end of the evening, it was not ballroom style we were doing anymore, it was simply holding each other and swaying together.

We shared a soft kiss goodnight at my door when he insisted on walking me upstairs. And I had to admit, it was one of the nicest dates I had been on in years. And it was actually kind of strange, as I did not even have the almost overwhelming desire to masturbate after I heard him drive away. Maybe because he was already friendzoned, and not a potential lover?

For the next 4 months, Friday night dancing had become our regular activity. And once a month or so I stopped in at Lala Spa. I never did more than chat with the girls, but each time a different one would show up that night at Dire’s apartment. Mei Ling had left months ago, and while very enjoyable, I never felt that kind of connection with any of the other girls there.

But it did help quite a bit. Even after making love at least once almost to exhaustion, and I had to quickly chase her off before I fell asleep. That would have been rough to explain I am sure.

But it was nice as things were progressing with Doug. Over the months, our kissing sessions had grown increasingly intense. But for some reason, he never once tried to push me. I even began to wonder if he was actually gay, as he was one hell of a kisser. And his hands felt really good on me. But only on my back, or along my sides. Once or twice I had even let a hand move down to caress his bottom briefly, but he never did it in return.

One night we were having a date at my place. I was still not sure if we were a couple or not, and that night I was hoping to find out for sure. I had gone all out and had made a nice stir-fry and he had just opened a bottle of wine. I went and turned on the TV, planning on changing it to channel 950, which was the soft rock music station.

But immediately I heard that it was a newscaster that was talking. A Rogue was downtown, and an 8 block area was cordoned off. The reporter was saying that this mutant was a new kind of pyro, he was breathing fire. Also, it matched the reports of a Rogue out of Florida that had dropped off the grid a few months before.

And then he started talking excitedly about a Paladin showing up and approaching the Rogue. I was already starting to formulate an excuse to send Doug away when the announcer gasped. “I’m not sure, but The Sensei appears to be down! The Rogue hit him with a blast of fire, the flames seem to be out, but he is barely moving! Oh no, he just got hit again, he’s burning! The Sensei is burning! But the Rogue is turning and moving away.”

I gasped, and turned to the TV and looked. I had not even realized I had changed, I had to see! And Clint was indeed on the ground, and burning! Oh, god, no! I heard the bottle crash onto the ground and looked into the kitchen. Fuck, Doug!

“Doug, I gotta go, Clint needs me! I promise if you want to, wait here and we can talk when I get back, but I have to leave now!” I ran into my room and three minutes later was passing through the secret passage and running downstairs to the ground floor. I was frantic as I raced to the scene, thankful that they had said the intersection right before Clint got hit.

I was four blocks from there when I could see the flames. The radio was telling people to stay inside or evacuate the area, and I actually screamed when I hit the police roadblock. I threw open the door and Fang and I rushed out, we had to save Clint! I had the radio in by this time, and Sarge was patched in, telling me that Clint was back on his feet. He then guided Fang and I to a position a block away in the direction that this guy was moving. And that other paladins were responding and closing in, but I would be the first on the scene.

In the end, it was a lot messier than usual. Racer and I kept him distracted by moving in and out of the 50-foot cone he seemed able to breathe his fire in. During that, Fang crept in closer and closer. I also learned for the first time that when somebody had their arm bitten clean off by a dire wolf, it takes all of the fight out of them. Fang had rushed in like a bullet and literally bit through it, then after shaking his head, the arm was off.

I yanked his belt off and tied it around the spurting stump as Racer raced off and back with the restraints. He had also grabbed a syringe of sleepy juice and pumped it in, so it was a comatose Roaster who was hauled away to surgery.

By that time Clint staggered to the scene. He looked like shit, his hair burned in patches and his breathing was a bit labored. But thank heavens his healing factor was almost off the charts, as he was already healing from that. And he told us what I had not seen on the TV. That when he heard Clint’s trike arriving, he hid and waited for Clint.

That was not just an attack, it was an ambush. And there were a lot of questions we had for the Roaster, he had a lot to answer for. We gave our statements, and with a lump in my throat, I headed home.

I pulled the van into the garage and paused long enough in Dire’s apartment to change us twice. What was coming was going to be rough enough already, without Fang’s muzzle, face, and chest still covered in blood. I carefully went inside, and Fang followed. And I was more than half surprised to see Doug sitting on the couch, watching what had happened on the news. He jumped up when we came in, and I waited for what I knew was to come.

But his first question is if we were alright. I told him that neither of us was hurt and that Clint was doing fine. He told me to take a seat, which I did. He then went back to the kitchen and returned with a glass of wine, which I downed in a single gulp. I held the glass out and he refilled it, and I took a sip before closing my eyes for a moment.

I put the glass on the coffee table, and he was sitting on the love seat right in front of me. I reached out and took his hands in mine, thankful that he did not pull away. “Doug, I am sorry. But as you can imagine, my identity is a closely guarded secret. And I was being so very careful, but Clint is my mentor and one of my closest friends. When I heard he was hurt, I could not stop myself. I had to try and save him.”

“Dianne, there is no reason to apologize. If I could do what you did, I would have done the exact same thing. And now I have to admit, I feel a lot better now.” Turns out, he was concerned, because he had a sense that I was concealing something, but he could not figure out what. In fact, he had even insisted on having dinners alternating at our houses as a way to make sure I was actually single!

“I will admit, my first time here I was looking closely to see if you were living with somebody else. And I was actually relieved when I saw no evidence of that. Only one toothbrush in the bathroom, not a single sign that a man had ever stayed here. But I could tell you were hiding something, but I could not figure out what.”

I asked him how he knew, and he laughed. “Advanced analytical ability, that is my mutation. Remember? And part of that is putting things together when they do not quite add up properly. A few times you canceled dates, and you always apologized afterward but never explained fully what the family emergency was. And for quite a while, you would have me pick you up and drop you off here, but never invited me inside. I figured you were hiding something. And oh was I right, but not in the way I had ever expected.”

I squeezed his hands, and he squeezed them back. “So, Dianne Wong is really Dire Wolf. And Mister Jangles is Fang. Now I actually feel incredibly stupid, kind of like how Lois Lane must have felt when she finally realized that Clark Kent was Superman. Everything was right in front of me the entire time, yet for some reason, you’re being blind was the perfect cover. And I know I should not need to ask, but you are really blind, right?”

“Oh yes Doug, at least Dianne is. And just as I said, a car crash when I was 10. You can look it up in the papers if you want. On the Night of Madness, I became Dire Wolf for the first time. And in this form, I can see again.”

“Then why not live all the time as Dire Wolf?”

“Well, it’s not quite that simple.” I then explained to him the limitations of being a chameleon. Including reverting to our host form whenever we fell asleep. “To be honest, if you had arrived a few weeks earlier, you would actually already have known this about me. It was right before you arrived that that directive from DC came, ordering us to not appear as our guest form during work. But prior to that, Dire Wolf was a regular thing to see on the upper and lower floors. In fact, I was a bit surprised when after that building collapse you did not connect us. You went to the auditorium, I ran to my office to change then went there.”

“Well, I admit it would have been less of a shock. I just wish it had not cost a bottle of good wine to learn this.” We both laughed, and I took a chance and moved onto my knees and hugged him. And his return hug was warm and felt wonderful.

“So, is that what the reluctance I had been feeling was between us, Doug? That I was keeping a secret that you could not figure out?”

“Mostly, yes. Trust me, it was nothing about you at all, not directly. I just knew there was some kind of secret, and it was causing me to hold things in place.”

“And now?”

He smiled, and bent his head down, and gave me a long kiss. And it felt strange, wrapping my arms around his neck, and feeling that he was actually smaller than I was. We kissed tenderly, then increasingly passionately. Then finally we parted, both of us breathing a bit heavier.

“Now, I am actually happy. I know your secret, and it is not something that I can not deal with. Not a hidden family, or that you had been a Rogue before you became a Paladin. No secret children, nothing dark or sinister at all. Just that you are one of the most respected Paladins in the country. And trust me, I have absolutely no problems with that.”

We kissed for a bit longer, and I then asked him if that was why he was holding back. And he admitted that it was. Like me, he had been burned in the past, if not in the same way. No girls that had really been married, but one who he found out after 6 months was also dating another guy. And another turned out to have a son and daughter that her mom would watch during their dates.

“And it’s not even that she had kids, it was that she felt like she had to keep them a secret from me, you know? If she had just been honest with me about it, I could have handled that.”

“Yea, I have had some pretty shitty luck also. Boyfriends who were actually married, one who tried to rape me, things like that. I promise, no more secrets. And I will admit, I was afraid you might be keeping some from me as well.” And when he raised his eyebrow at me, I actually looked down and blushed.

“Well, to be honest, I was almost afraid that you might be gay.” I did not expect him to burst out in laughter. He asked if I really thought that, and I nodded. “Doug, no guy had ever moved as slowly as you did. In fact, I was thinking that maybe I was just a kind of disguise for you like that.”

But looking into his eyes as he reached out and caressed my cheek told me how wrong I was. “Oh, I assure you Dianne that I am very straight. In fact, the only thing that shocked me more than you changing in front of me like that was when you almost ripped off your clothes, and in only your panties ran into the bedroom.” I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand, blushing furiously. “Oh yes, and I got to see an amazing thing when you did so. Even if I had been gay, that vision of you alone might have cured me.” I laughed and admitted that I had not even considered that.

“I know, the concern for The Sensei was obvious. You did not even seem to notice that you had just shown me your secret, or that you were almost naked in front of me. The only thing you were thinking about was going out to help him.”