Learning to Bear It
Part 4
"Hey, what is that animal?" the man behind Foggy asked, and Foggy transformed. He was a bit surprised to find his paws unbound when the shift was complete, but then, he could take his clothes and his shoes and even his watch with him when he changed, so why not the rope around his wrists? With only a moment's hesitation, he turned to swat the machine gun from the man's hand, and then raked his claws back and forth across whatever part of the man he could get. The room filled with screams, and Foggy turned to confront the other men.
The ferret ran to the farthest corner, shifted back into his mother for one complete second, then transformed into a hawk, joining the fight with beak and talons. Foggy swiped and lashed out whever he could, defending himself from the guns the men were pointing at him. At least one of them went off, but although he heard the bang, he didn't feel anything. He was close enough now to open his jaw wide and take one man's shoulder in his mouth, biting down until he could taste blood and feel bones crack. He shook the man a time or two, pulling him around in a clumsy attempt at a human shield, then let him drop, hoping he was disabled enough to be out of the fight. His screams proved he was still alive, anyway.
One man was trying to get up the stairs. Foggy pounced, catching the man's leg with his claws, then bit into his calf. There was another gunshot as the man brought up his weapon, and the bullet shot past Foggy's ear, deafeningly loud. Foggy lunged higher, opened his jaws, and brought them down on the man's arm, biting until the arm dangled loosely in his mouth. Letting go, Foggy cuffed the man across the face for good measure, then hooked the claws of one paw into the man's side and pulled him down the steps.
Bullets spattered the ceiling, and Foggy belatedly remembered his mother. He turned around, only to see the hawk engaged in a tug-of-war with the man who had been driving the car, trying desperately to pull the machine gun out of his grip. Then his mother gave up and flew at the man's face, sinking her talons into his eyes. Foggy pounced again, raking his claws down the man's leg, then gripping his arm with his jaws and biting until the bones broke. The man screamed, slumping back, and Foggy went on to the next kidnapper. Despite the deep scratches that Foggy had given him earlier, the man was trying to make his way over his companions to get to the nearest gun. Foggy came in from behind and clamped his jaws shut on the back of the man's neck, pulling him backwards. Eventually, the man went limp, and Foggy let go, fairly sure he was still breathing.
He stood there on all fours for a moment, surveying the room, but none of the men was doing anything more threatening than whimpering or moaning. His mother obviously didn't sense any more danger, either, as she shifted back to her human form and moved over to the square opening in the corner of the room.
"I can smell Matt down here," she said, and Foggy sniffed. Oh, yeah, there was Matt's smell, very strong, very recent, and very heavy with fear and pain. Shifting back to human form as well, Foggy took one step towards her, then stopped. His mouth was full of blood and bits of something, and oh, g-d, he had human flesh in his mouth! He spit out as much as he could, gagging and trying not to swallow.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," he announced, running his tongue around his teeth and spitting more. But his stomach never quite heaved properly, and after a moment, he realized it wasn't going to happen. He took a deep breath.
His mother went around whree the desk had been knocked over, and produced a half-empty bottle of water. "Here, I saw this earlier."
Despite the fact that the rope around his hands was still there, Foggy reached out, took it gratefully, and rinsed his mouth again and again, spitting it out until the liquid was gone. The smell remained, though; there was blood all over the kidnappers and over much of the floor by now, too. When he'd finished, he dropped the bottle and extended his bound hands to his mother. "Thanks. And could you … ?"
His mother oblingingly turned into a squirrel, and Foggy knelt down so that she could gnaw on the rope. When she'd finished and had turned back into a human, they went over to look down the hole. Although it was light down there, he couldn't see anything except the floor; no stairs and no visible way to get down. Then Foggy realized that the bundle on the other side of the opening was a rolled up rope ladder.
There was a sound at the top of the metal steps, and both Foggy and his mother glanced up in alarm. It was only Foggy's father, though, leaping down the stairs in his Labrador form. When he saw them, he switched back to human. "Typical. I run all the way here, but I'm still too late. You both okay?"
"We're fine," said Foggy's mother, and they took time for a quick hug.
"Well, damn, if I'd known you didn't need my help following the car, I would have done an eagle instead," Foggy's father went on.
"I wasn't expecting it to be that easy, and anyway, you just never know what might happen."
"Can we get back to what's important? Because Matt's down here," Foggy said, giving the bundle of rope a kick. It went over the edge and unrolled on its way down, hitting the floor with a metallic clang. Foggy thought he heard a faint cry, which could only be Matt, and practically threw himself onto the rungs.
It was like descending into an grain silo, with round metal walls at least twelve feet tall, a sloping metal roof with a lamp attached, and a metal floor. Matt was over to one side, flat on his back, but from where Foggy was looking, he didn't seem to be restrained at all.
"Matt?" he asked, jumping down to the floor as soon as he got close enough. Above him, his father started down the ladder as well.
Matt turned his head slightly, but made no other movement. "Foggy?" His voice was rough. "Are you hurt? I smell blood."
"It's not mine, I'm not hurt." Foggy came closer, wondering why Matt wasn't getting up.
"Who's there?" Matt asked before Foggy could say anything else. "Who's with you?"
"It's my dad," Foggy said, moving out of the way so that his father could step onto the floor. "He and my mom helped me find you. You okay, buddy, can you get up?"
"Hi, Mr Nelson," Matt said. He breathed in carefully, then asked, "Can you cut the wires?"
Foggy glanced down to Matt's leg, where his suit trousers had been cut away. There were two thick pieces of metal wire coming out through tiny holes in the metal walls, and each end of the wire had been cruelly jabbed into Matt's leg. There'd been a lot of bleeding, more than Foggy would have expected from just wire, but tracks of blood ran down each side of his shin.
"Can't we just pull them out?" Foggy asked, and reached for one. He'd barely touched it when Matt screamed, and his father pulled his hand away. The hair stood up on the back of Foggy's neck when he realized that there was only one wire, and it had been threaded through a hole drilled horizontally through Matt's shin. And what he'd taken for blood spots were other holes, some of them drilled straight down, some of them at an angle.
"Oh, g-d, Matt, I'm sorry," he babbled, then shut up as he saw they'd done the same thing to Matt's arm, just above the wrist.
"They were practicing on me … to see what would hold Daredevil," Matt explained.
"Is he okay?" his mother called down from the hole. "Do you need me to come down?"
"Anna, see if you can find a wire cutter up there!" Foggy's father called back.
"I'm looking!"
"And call an ambulance!" Foggy added.
In unison, both his father and Matt cried, "No!"
"We can drive him to the hospital ourselves," Foggy's father explained. "And then we won't have to explain to the paramedics what happened," he indicated the floor above with his thumb, "up there."
Foggy felt the taste of blood in his mouth again and nodded silently. They waited until Foggy's mother appeared at the top of the hole again. "I couldn't find any wire cutters, just a power drill, a sledge hammer, and a hedge trimmer. You want the hedge trimmer?"
"No!" This time, it was all three of them together. Then Foggy's father said, "See if you can find the keys to that SUV, Anna!"
"Okay," she called back, and disappeared again.
"This hole in my leg is fairly close to the surface," Matt said, gesturing a little with his good hand. "You could use the sledgehammer to break the bone … then cut the skin with the blade of the hedge trimmer … and pull the wire up and out."
Foggy stared down at him in disgust and disbelief. "Matt, I am not performing caveman surgery on your leg – how can you even think that we'd – that'd be worse torture than what they did to you! You'd be crippled for life if we did that! Not to mention your arm – that's your Braille hand, Matt!"
"They're both my Braille hand," Matt said. "But I can read with one hand if I need to."
"Dad, would you excuse my friend here for being a sadistic masochist?" Foggy didn't want to think about how much blood the blade of the hedge trimmer would cause, even if it wasn't switched on, but even the slightly thought of blood made him run his tongue around his teeth again anyway.
"They must have a wire cutter somewhere," his father mused, ignoring the squabbling because he was focusing on the construction of Matt's restraints. "These wires lead out over there … there must be some kind of access to the other side of this thing. We just have to find it."
"No, wait," Foggy said, suddenly realizing something. "I can bite through the wires."
"You don't have to break your teeth because of me," Matt said.
"Oh, and that's different from me breaking your arm and leg, how?" Foggy shot back. "And anyway, guess what, Daredevil? I can turn into a bear."
"Foggy?" his father asked, but Foggy waved away the implicit "what the hell are you doing?" and said, "Matt knows how to keep a secret, don't you, Daredevil?"
Matt was silent, obviously trying to process the completely unexpected turn of events, and Foggy went on. "Everybody in my family can shapeshift. Even me, except usually I don't. But this is an emergency, so don't panic, but I'm going to turn into a bear now, and bite through those wires. I'll try to be careful where I put my claws. It might hurt a bit, though, so be ready. Well, okay, it'll probably hurt a lot. Maybe you'll pass out, if you're lucky."
Taking Matt's continued silence for assent, Foggy shifted, then placed his forepaws between Matt's legs and lowered his head to the wire. It took him a few tries to find the right position for him to get hold of the wire, and he was aware of Matt trying not to scream, and clenching his good fist. Foggy moved his jaws until the wire was between his back molars, and bit down as hard as he could. The wire flattened, and for a moment he wasn't sure it was going to work, but then it separated in his mouth. He opened his jaws and spit the pieces out, then backed away.
Matt was making a long, drawn-out "huhhhh" sound and Foggy switched back to human form.
"Dad, can you help me move him a bit? Otherwise I won't be able to get to the wire on his arm without standing on him," he said. "Okay, Matt, you think you can take it if we slide you over a bit?"
"Uh huh," Matt replied through gritted teeth.
"Do you want to hold his leg while I pull? Matt, try to keep your other arm from moving," his father said, and Foggy lifted Matt's injured leg as carefully as he could. His father grabbed Matt by the arm and the waistband of his trousers and pulled. Matt made the involuntary sound again, and it rose in pitch as Foggy laid his leg down and took the opportunity to pull out the wire. It emerged soaked in blood, and he tossed it away in disgust.
"Sorry, buddy," Foggy said. "I'm going to go for your arm now. I mean, the wire."
"Uhhh," said Matt. Foggy shifted into his bear shape and squeezed into the space between Matt's arm and his body, then got his jaws around the wire and ground them together. Matt was screaming openly now, and Foggy resisted the impulse to lick his face. Instead, he switched back and patted Matt on the chest, then pulled on the long end of the wire until it came out of Matt's wrist.
Go to Part 5
The ferret ran to the farthest corner, shifted back into his mother for one complete second, then transformed into a hawk, joining the fight with beak and talons. Foggy swiped and lashed out whever he could, defending himself from the guns the men were pointing at him. At least one of them went off, but although he heard the bang, he didn't feel anything. He was close enough now to open his jaw wide and take one man's shoulder in his mouth, biting down until he could taste blood and feel bones crack. He shook the man a time or two, pulling him around in a clumsy attempt at a human shield, then let him drop, hoping he was disabled enough to be out of the fight. His screams proved he was still alive, anyway.
One man was trying to get up the stairs. Foggy pounced, catching the man's leg with his claws, then bit into his calf. There was another gunshot as the man brought up his weapon, and the bullet shot past Foggy's ear, deafeningly loud. Foggy lunged higher, opened his jaws, and brought them down on the man's arm, biting until the arm dangled loosely in his mouth. Letting go, Foggy cuffed the man across the face for good measure, then hooked the claws of one paw into the man's side and pulled him down the steps.
Bullets spattered the ceiling, and Foggy belatedly remembered his mother. He turned around, only to see the hawk engaged in a tug-of-war with the man who had been driving the car, trying desperately to pull the machine gun out of his grip. Then his mother gave up and flew at the man's face, sinking her talons into his eyes. Foggy pounced again, raking his claws down the man's leg, then gripping his arm with his jaws and biting until the bones broke. The man screamed, slumping back, and Foggy went on to the next kidnapper. Despite the deep scratches that Foggy had given him earlier, the man was trying to make his way over his companions to get to the nearest gun. Foggy came in from behind and clamped his jaws shut on the back of the man's neck, pulling him backwards. Eventually, the man went limp, and Foggy let go, fairly sure he was still breathing.
He stood there on all fours for a moment, surveying the room, but none of the men was doing anything more threatening than whimpering or moaning. His mother obviously didn't sense any more danger, either, as she shifted back to her human form and moved over to the square opening in the corner of the room.
"I can smell Matt down here," she said, and Foggy sniffed. Oh, yeah, there was Matt's smell, very strong, very recent, and very heavy with fear and pain. Shifting back to human form as well, Foggy took one step towards her, then stopped. His mouth was full of blood and bits of something, and oh, g-d, he had human flesh in his mouth! He spit out as much as he could, gagging and trying not to swallow.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," he announced, running his tongue around his teeth and spitting more. But his stomach never quite heaved properly, and after a moment, he realized it wasn't going to happen. He took a deep breath.
His mother went around whree the desk had been knocked over, and produced a half-empty bottle of water. "Here, I saw this earlier."
Despite the fact that the rope around his hands was still there, Foggy reached out, took it gratefully, and rinsed his mouth again and again, spitting it out until the liquid was gone. The smell remained, though; there was blood all over the kidnappers and over much of the floor by now, too. When he'd finished, he dropped the bottle and extended his bound hands to his mother. "Thanks. And could you … ?"
His mother oblingingly turned into a squirrel, and Foggy knelt down so that she could gnaw on the rope. When she'd finished and had turned back into a human, they went over to look down the hole. Although it was light down there, he couldn't see anything except the floor; no stairs and no visible way to get down. Then Foggy realized that the bundle on the other side of the opening was a rolled up rope ladder.
There was a sound at the top of the metal steps, and both Foggy and his mother glanced up in alarm. It was only Foggy's father, though, leaping down the stairs in his Labrador form. When he saw them, he switched back to human. "Typical. I run all the way here, but I'm still too late. You both okay?"
"We're fine," said Foggy's mother, and they took time for a quick hug.
"Well, damn, if I'd known you didn't need my help following the car, I would have done an eagle instead," Foggy's father went on.
"I wasn't expecting it to be that easy, and anyway, you just never know what might happen."
"Can we get back to what's important? Because Matt's down here," Foggy said, giving the bundle of rope a kick. It went over the edge and unrolled on its way down, hitting the floor with a metallic clang. Foggy thought he heard a faint cry, which could only be Matt, and practically threw himself onto the rungs.
It was like descending into an grain silo, with round metal walls at least twelve feet tall, a sloping metal roof with a lamp attached, and a metal floor. Matt was over to one side, flat on his back, but from where Foggy was looking, he didn't seem to be restrained at all.
"Matt?" he asked, jumping down to the floor as soon as he got close enough. Above him, his father started down the ladder as well.
Matt turned his head slightly, but made no other movement. "Foggy?" His voice was rough. "Are you hurt? I smell blood."
"It's not mine, I'm not hurt." Foggy came closer, wondering why Matt wasn't getting up.
"Who's there?" Matt asked before Foggy could say anything else. "Who's with you?"
"It's my dad," Foggy said, moving out of the way so that his father could step onto the floor. "He and my mom helped me find you. You okay, buddy, can you get up?"
"Hi, Mr Nelson," Matt said. He breathed in carefully, then asked, "Can you cut the wires?"
Foggy glanced down to Matt's leg, where his suit trousers had been cut away. There were two thick pieces of metal wire coming out through tiny holes in the metal walls, and each end of the wire had been cruelly jabbed into Matt's leg. There'd been a lot of bleeding, more than Foggy would have expected from just wire, but tracks of blood ran down each side of his shin.
"Can't we just pull them out?" Foggy asked, and reached for one. He'd barely touched it when Matt screamed, and his father pulled his hand away. The hair stood up on the back of Foggy's neck when he realized that there was only one wire, and it had been threaded through a hole drilled horizontally through Matt's shin. And what he'd taken for blood spots were other holes, some of them drilled straight down, some of them at an angle.
"Oh, g-d, Matt, I'm sorry," he babbled, then shut up as he saw they'd done the same thing to Matt's arm, just above the wrist.
"They were practicing on me … to see what would hold Daredevil," Matt explained.
"Is he okay?" his mother called down from the hole. "Do you need me to come down?"
"Anna, see if you can find a wire cutter up there!" Foggy's father called back.
"I'm looking!"
"And call an ambulance!" Foggy added.
In unison, both his father and Matt cried, "No!"
"We can drive him to the hospital ourselves," Foggy's father explained. "And then we won't have to explain to the paramedics what happened," he indicated the floor above with his thumb, "up there."
Foggy felt the taste of blood in his mouth again and nodded silently. They waited until Foggy's mother appeared at the top of the hole again. "I couldn't find any wire cutters, just a power drill, a sledge hammer, and a hedge trimmer. You want the hedge trimmer?"
"No!" This time, it was all three of them together. Then Foggy's father said, "See if you can find the keys to that SUV, Anna!"
"Okay," she called back, and disappeared again.
"This hole in my leg is fairly close to the surface," Matt said, gesturing a little with his good hand. "You could use the sledgehammer to break the bone … then cut the skin with the blade of the hedge trimmer … and pull the wire up and out."
Foggy stared down at him in disgust and disbelief. "Matt, I am not performing caveman surgery on your leg – how can you even think that we'd – that'd be worse torture than what they did to you! You'd be crippled for life if we did that! Not to mention your arm – that's your Braille hand, Matt!"
"They're both my Braille hand," Matt said. "But I can read with one hand if I need to."
"Dad, would you excuse my friend here for being a sadistic masochist?" Foggy didn't want to think about how much blood the blade of the hedge trimmer would cause, even if it wasn't switched on, but even the slightly thought of blood made him run his tongue around his teeth again anyway.
"They must have a wire cutter somewhere," his father mused, ignoring the squabbling because he was focusing on the construction of Matt's restraints. "These wires lead out over there … there must be some kind of access to the other side of this thing. We just have to find it."
"No, wait," Foggy said, suddenly realizing something. "I can bite through the wires."
"You don't have to break your teeth because of me," Matt said.
"Oh, and that's different from me breaking your arm and leg, how?" Foggy shot back. "And anyway, guess what, Daredevil? I can turn into a bear."
"Foggy?" his father asked, but Foggy waved away the implicit "what the hell are you doing?" and said, "Matt knows how to keep a secret, don't you, Daredevil?"
Matt was silent, obviously trying to process the completely unexpected turn of events, and Foggy went on. "Everybody in my family can shapeshift. Even me, except usually I don't. But this is an emergency, so don't panic, but I'm going to turn into a bear now, and bite through those wires. I'll try to be careful where I put my claws. It might hurt a bit, though, so be ready. Well, okay, it'll probably hurt a lot. Maybe you'll pass out, if you're lucky."
Taking Matt's continued silence for assent, Foggy shifted, then placed his forepaws between Matt's legs and lowered his head to the wire. It took him a few tries to find the right position for him to get hold of the wire, and he was aware of Matt trying not to scream, and clenching his good fist. Foggy moved his jaws until the wire was between his back molars, and bit down as hard as he could. The wire flattened, and for a moment he wasn't sure it was going to work, but then it separated in his mouth. He opened his jaws and spit the pieces out, then backed away.
Matt was making a long, drawn-out "huhhhh" sound and Foggy switched back to human form.
"Dad, can you help me move him a bit? Otherwise I won't be able to get to the wire on his arm without standing on him," he said. "Okay, Matt, you think you can take it if we slide you over a bit?"
"Uh huh," Matt replied through gritted teeth.
"Do you want to hold his leg while I pull? Matt, try to keep your other arm from moving," his father said, and Foggy lifted Matt's injured leg as carefully as he could. His father grabbed Matt by the arm and the waistband of his trousers and pulled. Matt made the involuntary sound again, and it rose in pitch as Foggy laid his leg down and took the opportunity to pull out the wire. It emerged soaked in blood, and he tossed it away in disgust.
"Sorry, buddy," Foggy said. "I'm going to go for your arm now. I mean, the wire."
"Uhhh," said Matt. Foggy shifted into his bear shape and squeezed into the space between Matt's arm and his body, then got his jaws around the wire and ground them together. Matt was screaming openly now, and Foggy resisted the impulse to lick his face. Instead, he switched back and patted Matt on the chest, then pulled on the long end of the wire until it came out of Matt's wrist.
Go to Part 5