Shifting Worlds
Alex Cartwright took one last look around the Eagle before deciding to call it a night. A clothing optional gay bar in Portland, it was his favorite hangout, but tonight was quiet, and he didn't see anyone he knew, or had a hankering to get to know, tonight. Downing the last of his root beer, having switched from alcohol an hour or so ago before heading home, he put on his clothes and headed out.
Almost immediately after leaving the din of the bar, he heard what sounded like a scuffle from the back, in the shadows. This didn't sound good, and he ran around to see what was going on. What he found was every gay man's worst nightmare: two rough looking men with swastikas on their shirts kicking another man laying on the ground, his shirt ripped off and pants pulled down. Alex immediately pulled out his cell phone and called 911 while blowing on the whistle he kept in a pocket for exactly this situation, though he hoped he'd never need it. Unfortunately, rather than scaring them off, they focused their attention on him and started for him.
"Another fucking faggot whose ass we can kick!" yelled one of them.
With their attention on Alex, and their backs to the man on the ground, they didn't see what Alex couldn't believe he was seeing: the man on the ground blurred, and suddenly became a large - very large - owl. With a couple of wing beats, the owl took to the air and, using its sharp talons, clawed at the heads of the attackers. The attack was brief, but successful, as the human attackers broke and ran, and the owl flew off into the night, after making a low pass and grabbing the clothes it had been wearing in its human form.
It took a stunned Alex a few moments to realize that his call to 911 had gone through as they kept asking "what is the nature of your emergency? Hello?" He responded, "Sorry, they've gone now so there's nothing to report." Although stunned, he knew there was no way he was going to get anyone to believe what he'd seen and hung up.
Knowing that the victim was likely a patron of the bar, Alex resolved to become a more frequent visitor, as he had many questions.
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Jim Wiseman, known as Hoot to his friends, particularly those in his Shifter community, knew he'd been stupid to go into the shadows behind the bar to shift, but flying was so much easier than trying to find parking. He thanked his lucky stars that hot young man had come around just in time to distract the neonazi assholes enough for him to Shift, having the dual effect of healing him and giving him weapons to drive off the scumbags. Unfortunately, that meant he'd had to Shift in full view of a mundane. This was not going to go over well.
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