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Jon had revenge on his mind after the interaction with Rollo died down. Feeling
he had grown into his powers, he judged the time was right to take out his boyhood
nemesis. Asking Jonas for some of his time in exchange for the chance to harvest
a powerful werewolf, they drove all the way out to Maine to locate and terminate
the Allagash Beast, the lycanthrope who murdered Jon's surrogate mother. Moving
into his old cabin, he asked Jonas to get a hotel room in Bangor to scan the local
police blotters and news reports to find possible lairs. Jon took to the woods
looking for signs, hiking hours every day and roaming as a were at night.
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Eventually they pinned down an area where the Beast seemed to use as a home range.
Although his entire territory was extremely large, it seemed he would return to
this smaller, rocky valley every week or two. Jonas found that hunters would report
a mauled animal carcass, or a hiker would go missing, or a local dog would disappear
here on a regular basis. After searching the area, Jon found the lair. Hidden behind
a huge rock, a small crevasse slowly wound around until it opened to an overhang
with a dirt floor. Strewn with old bones, broken camping gear, and torn clothing,
this was clearly a killing ground for the area's apex predator. Thanking Jonas for
his time, he told him "This is something I want to do myself. I'll call you in a
few days to come harvest the body of the Beast. If you don't hear from me in a week,
come harvest what's left of mine."
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Jon was determined to kill this mongrel with human intelligence and savvy, and
to avoid reverting to a beast himself to do the deed. He spent tens of thousands
of his Rollo bounty to get the latest and greatest gear he could, with a local former
Navy Seal demolitions expert (recommended by Agent Pryce for his discretion) on
site to help him install it all. Infrared cameras, motion detectors, remote controls...nothing
was beyond his budget. Not knowing how much time he had before the Beast returned
home, Jon and his helper set to work over the next 8 hours. With the electronic
surveillance, he would be able to see exactly when the Beast came and went. He also
set up several flash bangs and claymores on remote detonators. Lastly, he put remote-activatable
bear traps in locations that were off the main path, but in areas where he could
lead the Beast to trip them. He sent the contractor home with a cash payment for
his services, and another stack of cash to forget everything he just did. After
covering everything in odor neutralizers, he set up a hunter's blind in a tree across
the river and waited.
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A dark and moonless night found Jon sitting still 40 feet in the air in his blind
until his legs cramped and his back ached. Finally, close to dawn, Jon saw the
movement he'd been waiting for. The huge wolf lumbered silently over the rocky terrain,
ambling towards the den. The animal was clearly not natural, its hunched gate affected
by the huge arms and chest that no normal wolf possesed. It moved with a power and
potential for violence that closer resembled a bear than a wolf. Jon waited until
the Beast was nearly to the den; feeling safe in the hubris of a top predator, assuming
that nothing would dare attack it this deep inside his own territory. As the Beast
rounded the last corner of the path and started into the crevasse, Jon held his
breath. Five more steps...three...Puh - POW! Jon popped flashbangs on either side
of the walls, right next to the Beast. The silver dust he taped to the front of
the flashbangs glittered in the smoke of the successive blasts. He then set off
a claymore inside the den, the blast wave pushing out shrapnel and rock debris down
the confined space between the rocks and into the maw of the Beast. The silver-packed
claymore had its effect, causing damage that even this monster would feel. Stunned,
the Beast wobbled in place. A clear 'clack' indicated that one of his bear traps
had taken hold of the Beast's rear leg.
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Jon then calmly lined up his AR-15; he knew he might never get another shot this
clean, and he had to make it count. The milliseconds creaked by, stretching out
to what felt like hours. Pfft! The silenced shot was quieter than the remaining
echoes of the blasts. The silver-tipped bullet entered the chest of the Beast, tearing
through ribs and muscle and mushrooming into its heart. The Beast dropped instantly,
legs spasming and back arching. But Jon knew this wasn't over yet. Another shot,
followed by two more, all to vital areas. He avoided the head, he was saving that
for a more personal, closer interaction. Climbing down, he hustled over across the
river to the body. It was still moving. The back leg that wasn't in the trap was
scratching into the dust, instinctively trying to push towards the safety of the
alcove, but the creature was still in the vice grip of the leg trap. The eyes rolled
around to meet Jon's. There was no recognition, no anger...but there was a hint
of fear. Something deep inside that animal brain knew its existence was ending,
and that Jon was the cause. Seeing those eyes wide, whites showing, quickly turned
the sweet feeling of vengeance inside Jon into something closer to pity. Raising
his Anaconda, he knew he couldn't waste any more time on emotions. The Beast was
already moving more now. Its arm was reaching towards the bear trap, ready to wedge
it open. A low growl emitted from its throat, and the fear left his eyes, replaced
by hatred and fury. "For Anna." The thunderclap of the Anaconda echoed down the
valley. Jon stood for a moment, then pulled out his cell and called Jonas. "It's
done, get up here."
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Forty five minutes later, Jonas arrived to a bonfire. Jon was burning all his equipment.
Jon was quiet, and in an uncharacteristic show of consideration, Jonas asked "Did
everything go OK? Did you get the battle you wanted? You seem untouched, and this
guy -" Jonas bent down to the corpse, scalpel in hand "has definitely seen better
days. I don't see an inch of his body that isn't torn up. Doesn't seem like it was
even a fair fight." He winked at Jon and chuckled dryly as he sank the scalpel
into the throat and began slicing. "Too bad the head is gone. What'd you use, a
howitzer? Yeesh"
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Jon kept stacking the fire with more gear. Eventually, facing away from Jonas and
staring into the blaze, he said quietly "I didn't want a fair fight, I didn't want
an epic battle...I didn't want a fight at all. I wanted that bastard dead. I got
that. So yeah, I guess everything went OK."
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