Triggers
Legacy Name: Triggers

Trigger hated to admit it, but even his past had a way of catching up to him, in memories. Sure, he smoked, rode a metal deathtrap, A.K.A. a motorcycle, and very rarely smoked the weed that he also sold on the side, but things like this might not have even went to his brain, had his childhood not have been a complete nightmare.He was just seven years old, sitting at the kitchen table and finishing his schoolwork when the people from family services knocked on the door. It startled him; he looked up and watched his mother answer the door while his father was on the sofa watching the news. They came in and took him from his family, without even saying why. He didn't understand then, why bad people would take him from his parents. They didn't do anything wrong and always made sure he had everything he needed, but they snatched him up and tucked him into the backseat of a car. He looked out the back glass as his parents rushed outside to try and save him, but instead of saving, they were choking on the dust as the car sped away. That was the last they would see of their bright eyed and bushy tailed, pink fluff-ball of a son.

Twenty-six years old now, he punched a hole through a wall."Damn, Trig, you're going to make the whole building collapse if you keep that up!" His best friend, Trip, commented."Y'know as well as I d'that if Spazz wants his fix 'e's gonna 'afta pay up, 'e already owes m'more than 'is life!" Trigger shook out his fur, calming himself. "An’ e's lucky I don't wring his neck right now!"Spazz could've paid up weeks ago, had the pink wolf given him an honest deal. Instead Trigger worked like this: if he really liked you, you got first dibs and paid normal price, if he didn't like you, you paid double, and if he really didn't like you, you paid triple. Spazz was the kind that paid triple, and Trigger didn't give a rat’s behind if he could pay it up or not. If he wanted it, which Trigger knew he did, he'd pay whatever it was to get it. Trigger was obviously pissed, he marched himself over to his office space."I ain't his momma, an' it ain't m'fault if e's outta dough. I gotta make-a livin too, gotta take care of err'yone in this buildin'!" Trig slumped in his leather chair and propped his feet up on his desk."Maybe you wouldn't have so much money trouble if you stopped giving it away for free all the time." Tripper was really just being honest, but it didn't sit well with Trig."They pay me'n'other ways an' y'know it..." He took a pair of sunglasses out of his hoodie pocket and slipped them over his eyes, hiding like the child he really was, once again. Trip just sighed and went back into the hall so his boss could mope in peace.

The child couldn't tell where they were going, but knew it was a long way from home.The car parked and the little wolf pup was squashed as far as he could get into the furthest corner of the car. The "family service" people eventually got him out of the car and brought him into a building. It was a strange place and it had a million and one scents. It was then that the owner of the place stepped over to greet him; they could tell he was scared. "It's alright Joshua, this is Family Services, we're here to help." Josh fidgeted with the end of his shirt, not saying a word. "We'll get him adopted in no time, I'm sure!" She couldn't have been more wrong; for the next few months he was in and out of foster homes. Just when he thought he had settled into a place, something would happen, and he'd be given a new home. He never did understand why he couldn't just go home to his actual family and no one ever told him. Eventually, he was just put into an “all boys” boarding house, due to the fact that they couldn't place him.

The gunshots that were heard from across the street shook Trig a bit. You'd think he'd be used to them, but he wasn't.Trigger put out a cigarette, checking the time, it was a quarter until 4 in the afternoon. Somewhere along the line he'd dozed off as well. He figured it was a good time to ride, it wasn't too late in the evening and it wasn't too hot for July. He left a quick note for Trip and took the stairs two at a time to where his bike was parked in the alleyway. He slipped on his leather jacket and helmet, making sure it was tightened down, then hopped on and took off. He must've been doing at least 90, but he didn't care. The air being forced down his lungs felt good, and he couldn't have been more free. That was when he started to remember his days at the "boy's home".

Oh, those terrible brats. It was no place for little Joshua Villalobos to be. The other boys there, for one, were much older than he was. It didn't help that he was seen as mixed and was thus a "mutt," either. For the most part, he just tried to keep to himself, but that didn't always work. He was picked on a lot, but nothing he said helped any at all. The owners had so many children to look after that they didn't have time to hear his pleas for help. They just dusted his words under the rug like an old vase that'd been broken. Speaking of vases, one crashed to the floor just then. Josh glanced up from his book and there stood the two biggest bullies in the whole building, the vase was littering the ground before them. He knew what they wanted, but he didn't want to give it. "Do we have to today?" Josh tried to reason with them. The bulkier and taller one of the two wiped his nose on his sleeve, "No, we don't have to. We want to. It's tradition, right, Ralph?" Ralph just nodded his head in agreement. Josh was led, more like dragged, to an empty room and the torture began.

Trigger came to just as a truck almost ran him off the road, "Freakin’ asshole!" He slid around a corner, almost touching the pavement just to get out of the way. What he was cursing at, wasn't really the driver. He got his bike straightened back up and stopped at a nearby diner, parking his bike. He took his helmet off and put it in the trunk then went inside. He'd been here before, on more than one occasion. Nick was working and got him a table ready along with a beer "on the house". He didn't even have to look at the menu before he ordered two slices of the specialty pizza. It arrived within minutes and he wolfed it down. He always got hungrier this time of the month and he hated it, what he hated more was the giant nagging in his subconscious to breed. He just wasn't up to smooth talking anyone right now. Sure, in a few hours he'd be a hulking seven-foot tall beast weighing well over 300lbs, running wild and free and not caring if his next meal came from a restaurant or a garbage pail, but for now he just wanted to be normal Trigger, not picking up dates to shag with on a Wednesday night. He sipped at his beer, trying to tame it.

Backed up against a wall, that's where Villalobos was now. It was like this every time Razor wanted his "fix". They were in a bathroom, not surprising and Ralph was keeping watch outside. The atmosphere was pretty much perfect for the situation, considering how filthy the place was, and how filthy the things Razor planned to do were going to be. It wasn't like Josh didn't expect it, heck, it was basically a schedule that he wished he wouldn't have to keep. Razor didn't get his name just from being a bully; if you didn't listen to him, he took a razor blade to you, wherever he felt necessary. Josh wasn't stupid like the first time; his mouth wouldn't get a slice taken out of it from the blade today. He just obeyed and then Razor waltzed out of there the same as he always did as though nothing had happened. Josh didn't dare leave, not until at least twenty minutes later. It's not that he couldn't have, he just didn't want to. He rinsed his mouth out with water from one of the sinks, not that it ever did any good to get the taste out, and then he went to the back of the restroom and as always, tried to figure a way out of this mess.

The beer went down smoothly enough. Trigger left a tip, and then left the joint himself. The sun was setting now and he had to get to a safe place. He took off down the street more until he came to the edge of the woods. He carefully took his bike down a little dirt road until it ended at a cabin. He parked again, went inside, and locked the door with chain locks, deadbolts, padlocks and combination codes. He then sat in the middle of the room, where the moon was peeking just above the windowsill. It would be full tonight and his inner wolf would overtake him.

It'd been three years since the first incident with Razor and a month since the last one, Josh knew because he kept everything marked down in a book. So as usual that meant it was about time for him --another smash of a broken vase-- to show up again. "C'mon Villalobos, you know it's time for our play date." Josh was older now. It was his birthday and he was in no mood for Razor. "I can't, not t'day...""You don't get a choice, or do you want the blade again?"Josh muttered under his breath that it was his birthday."So see, makes it an even special-er occasion! You know if you don't want to, I'm going to have to get Ralph in here."Josh sighed, "Fine Razor, y'aren't gonna let m'get away. Y'never 'ave, y'never will, an' m'always gonna jus' b'yer play thing. That is, til yer old nuff t'leave on yer own.""I've got two more months in this hell hole, and I'm going to make the most of it, pipsqueak."Josh just shook his head and let Razor lead him to their normal place. There really wasn't anything he could do anyway. Razor had made his mind up.Joshua looked around, same restroom with the same grime and same whatever-that-was stains on the walls. It was night, Josh could see that from the tiny windows that were set up high near the ceiling."Since it's your birthday we ought to make this one extra, extra special." The grin on Razor's face was enough to make Josh's skin crawl and Josh knew he was in for a rough night. The torture was going to begin at any moment and the last thing Josh would see before it ended was the moon shining in through the tiny slotted windows.

The transformation always got to him, he couldn't help crying out from the pain. His bones cracked, breaking and refusing together. He was forced onto all fours as his body took over a new shape. A hulking pink beast looked back at him from a mirror. He'd hung it there himself, so he could get a good look at the monster he was. He swiped at it, breaking the chain it hung from clean in two. The wolf knew it was locked in that room and it hated it. It wanted to run, to breed, to feed, but Trigger had set up the boundaries against it. Unless some idiot was stupid enough to come busting down the door with a double barrel shotgun or something, there wasn't any way he could get out. Rage filled him; he stormed around the cabin, running from upstairs to downstairs, breaking tables and chairs on the way. Fine, the inner wolf was thinking, if Trigger wanted to keep him here then he'd just destroy things to bide his time.

A transformation took over Joshua that night too. No one is sure what happened that night, but whatever it was it scared Razor to death and he never talked about it. All at once Joshua was gone from the boarding house as well. All they found was a broken window in one of the hallways and giant paw prints heading in a random direction. Josh woke up hours later to a pounding headache. He was dressed again, and he wasn't sure how or why or even where he was.A kid about his age was sitting next to him, "Jeeze, I thought you were dead. You were asleep for so long!" This was his first look at the guy who would become his best friend."W… where am I?" Josh was trying to make sense of the previous night, but he couldn't remember a thing. "Oh, I'm not really sure. I've been living here for a while now and then you showed up this morning with a shirt and pants next to you... So I took the liberty to get you dressed.""Uh, well, thanks I guess." His stomach growled. "Y'don't, b'chance, 'ave n'e'thing t'eat d'ya?""Well, there's a store near here that I ‘borrow’ from all the time, but it's not open yet. By the way, I'm Trip. Who're you?""Oh I'm... J-just call m'Trigger.""Trigger? That's an awfully funny name. Where'd you get a name like that?""B'lieve me y'don't wanna know." To be honest, calling himself "trigger" should've been the furthest thing from his mind, but it was the first to, well, pop up. It was just something that stupid, idiotic, Ralph had said one time and it stuck. Something about "trigger happy," whatever the hell that meant. Trigger just sounded better of the two, considering happy didn't sound like anything that Josh was at the moment. That was the start of one heck of an awesome friendship, and Trip didn't even ask why Trigger's speech was so impaired. Josh didn't want to mention it anyways, doubted he'd believe him. The cuts from the razor blade were still fresh, after all, Joshua didn't always like to tickle someone's fancy on demand.

Trigger came to early in the morning as soon as the sun slid into the room. He picked himself up, got his clothes back on, and unlocked all the locks and opened the door so he could assess the damage. His wolf had really played a number on the cabin this time. It was going to cost him a fortune to get it all replaced. He didn't care; he'd figure it all out later. For the time being, he just got back on his bike and headed to the rundown building that he called home. Trigger really couldn't remember who'd gotten him into weed, whether it was just some joint smokers on the corner or Trip, but he knew it landed a lot of cash if sold to the right person. He and Trip eventually just moved in to an abandoned building in town and set up shop there. They hadn't expected to get residents, but Trigger refused to turn anyone away. It went against his nature; he could remember many a night when he didn't know where he was going to sleep. None of the current residents, apart from Trip, took any liking to the drug. At the age of sixteen, a little bat had shown up on his doorstep, and again, he allowed her to stay as long as she wanted. She ended up being one of his favourite people, but saw her as nothing more than a little sister that he promised to take care of. She grew up and left too, in due time, but that's just how things go. Had she not, he might not have met the people he knows now. Days are long, and nights are longer, but even now he can remember everything that had happened to him in his past. He took a pill this time, set his shades on the nightstand, and slowly drifted off to sleep it all off again.

Epilogue:
Running his business and doing pretty much whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, when it wasn't the time of his wolf, was the norm for the longest time for Trigger. Of course that is until he was given a long overdue vacation. He went expecting to finally not be on edge from his inner werewolf and what he found was something far better. It was where he first met his shark boy. It was strange for Trig when he first met Ply because he could feel his inner werewolf stirring, which never really happened unless it was close to the time he would undergo the transformation. It was completely out of the ordinary for it and Trigger could tell it meant something more. Despite the shark trying to obviously scare him off when he first got there and brushing off any tiny thing Josh tried to do and eventually filling him in that he had a girlfriend, his werewolf and he weren't going to stop. Eventually the shark let his guard down though and that was when Trig pretty well knew he had him. In the weeks Trigger stayed with Ply they both learned a lot about each other. Trig taught him about his inner werewolf, his past, and just how much the shark meant to him. While Ply taught Trig about his own past, Buddhism, and island life. Eventually he had to leave though as much as he didn't want to, but he made sure to leave Ply his old cell phone and Ply left him with a few souvenirs. One of his shark boy's teeth and a scallop shell, as well as explaining how to do the shaka symbol when they next met. He hadn't mentioned it before, but during the time they were apart it bothered him that his shark boy had to make trips to the city on that island alone to talk to him. On Earth Day 2015 he received a rather giant box of letters along with a sapling. One of the letters explained that he should plant the small tree and so of course he did. Reading through them he eventually got to one written in that native tongue Ply spoke. He could only understand a few words... mainly his shark boy's signature, but it made him happy nonetheless. Eventually the phone calls stopped, but the letters kept on. Months after this Trigger took it upon himself to make another visit to the island and when he arrived and saw his shark again, making sure to make the shaka symbol, it was one of the happiest moments of his life. He didn't know how much of an impact Ply would have on his life, but he's not regretted a bit of it. He's not sure how it's all going to work as plans aren't one of his strong suits, but he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with the love he met on that island.

Art/Credits
X by IngiVamp(483490)
Pet Overlay and Motorcycle Edit by Luck
Layout and Coding by Zay
(With help from Luck)