The hounds of the underground...

Having tracked the Hound of Hyde Park to a disused underground station once used by Churchill as a war bunker, MI6s team of enhanced individuals have organised some soldiers from Hanslope Park to help them capture the beast. MI6s team consists of Alfie Baldrick, the one man rifle section; Mimi Dubois, maîtresse of skills; Madeline Forsyth, the living shadow; and Sven Hyse, the Norwegian shapeshifter.

London, England, July 1948

As I listen to the snuffling sounds of the beast closing in on the lumps of drugged meat that Sven had laid as a trap, I push out with my senses and slip beyond the animal intelligence to borrow the Hound's enhanced invisibility power. As I am doing that I hear the distant rumble of a train approaching and it was then that I realised that even though the underground station was abandoned, trains still passed through. As the train rushed through the station unstopping there was a long howl from the platform.

I spot one of the cow legs grabbed by invisible jaws and lifted into the air, the drugged meat then seemingly floats back along the tunnel towards the platform. I slide back to the others along the ceiling of the stairwell and tell them what is happening, before heading back in the direction of the platform. As I pass the pile of remaining meat I realise that another hunk is floating down the corridor at the height of four feet, I follow it back towards the 'nest' of detritus and watch as it is slowly devoured by the invisible creatures.

Once again I drift back to the others and Sven confirms that based on his calculations the beasts should be falling unconscious within twenty minutes. Alfie mentally contacts Charlie and tells him to get the soldiers ready for retrieval. As he does so a low mournful howl echoes through the underground tunnels. Sven cocks his head to one side and says that he believes that the drugs are having an effect based on the sound of the creatures howl, and so I slip back to above the nest and push out with my enhanced senses in order to ascertain how the creatures are able to interact with each other. I discover that as well as being invisible, having an enhanced bite, and possessing dark vision, they are also gifted with enhanced strength and an acute sense of smell. I borrow one of the beasts sense of smell, believing that this might be how they can sense each other, but as soon as I am in possession of the enhanced power I am overwhelmed by the stench of the underground station and am barely able to make my way back to the others.

After a few minutes my brain begins to cope with the overwhelming extra sensory information and I am able to start discerning the different scents of my friends within the tunnels. Once I am able too, Madeline and I head back to the nest. There is very little movement and as we arrive a long, low, melancholic howl echoes along the platform. Leaving Madeline on the ceiling above in shadow form, I slide invisibly down the arc of the station roof to the platform level and toss a small animal bone further into the nest to see if I get a reaction. There is an immediate single bark. A bark made by a very large hound. That is all it takes for us to rush back to the others and get them to prepare the nets, as by our estimation at least two of the hounds are now unconscious.

Using his outdoorsman skills, Sven rigs up a net trap at the bottom of the stairs from the tunnel that leads back to the spiral staircase leading back up to ground level. Alfie pushes out all of his duplicates and while Sven instructs Corporals Georgie and Harry Baldrick how to operate the net trap, Corporals Alfie and Billy Baldrick grab tranquillizer rifles and check that they are loaded, while Corporals Davy, Eddie, and Freddie Baldrick check their handguns just in case things go south. Madeline and I grab one of the extra nets and lift it up to the roof of the tunnel between us, we then start to slide towards the platform holding the net aloft. As we are slowly moving forwards Madeline whispers for me to stop, and as soon as we do I can hear why. There is the sound of a large hound panting very close by. I quickly push out with my senses and get only two returns, one of which is only ten feet away.

As soon as we stop moving the hound stops moving as well, almost as if it can sense us. We hear it sniff the air and I am close enough to realise that its snout is at least nine feet in the air, this thing is not the size of a Great Dane. Madeline and I hold our breath, but the beast turns around and pads back towards the platform. Madeline listens to it go and then whispers;

We're going to need a bigger net!

We agree to follow through with the plan and continue towards the platform, and the nest. I push out with my senses again, and again I only get two returns one of which is the larger beast moving away from us along the platform. The other return is unmoving in the middle of the nest and so we continue to move in that direction. Once we are directly above Madeline can see that there is a visible hound within the nest, it is the size of a Great Dane and is not breathing. We drop the net, capturing both the visible dead hound, and the invisible unmoving hound which appears to be of a similar size.

With the slowness of dawns first light, an idea starts to form in my mind. The Great Dane sized hounds are just puppies, hence the tentative bite and the nervous stalking. And that can only mean that the massive hound is their mother, and she is not going to be very happy that one of her pups is dead and the other is captured. Madeline rushes back towards the others while I continue to stalk the mother hound using my enhanced senses to follow her. She doubles back along the platform and then jumps down onto the rails and disappears off into the underground tunnel.

I hear a noise behind me and can see the others rushing down onto the platform. Sven rushes to the side of the invisible hound and with the use of the contents of his veterinary bag he manages to quickly stabilize the condition of the invisible hound, he is also to confirm that the other puppy has died. Sven is disappointed with himself and tells us that if he had known that they were puppies then he would have been able to adjust the dose of tranquillizer drugs in the meat. I slide back along the ceiling to Alfie and get him to contact Jonny at Hanslope Park and relay my message;

Three targets located. Enhanced powers identified. One creature has escaped. The mother is loose. We are in pursuit.

While the Corporals Baldrick assist Sven in getting the puppies up to the truck, Madeline and I grab the tranquillizer guns and head into the underground tunnel following the scent of the she hound. We follow the scent of the hound through Hyde Park Corner underground station and onwards towards Knightsbridge station. We pass through Knightbridge and we realise that the hound is moving a lot swifter than we are able to, but we push on knowing that we have to track her down as we cannot be responsible for forcing a beast the size of an elephant out into London's populace. We discover that the hound leaves the tracks at Brompton Road station, another abandoned underground station, and so we follow it's scent upwards towards ground level.

As we are sliding along the ceiling of the stairs up towards the stations closed entrance I push out with my senses and discover that the beast is stood at the top of the stairs. I whisper to Madeline to freeze and then I slide down onto the stairs and transform from a shadow into a invisible human once again. I raise the tranquillizer gun to my shoulder and push out with my senses again. As I do so I realise that Madeline has turned solid next to me on the steps, obviously having the same idea as me. Unfortunately, Madeline is not invisible and as soon as she becomes solid the beast leaps at her.

I pull the trigger and I believe that my tranquillizer dart flies true and hits, but as the beast leaps at Madeline it slams into me on the narrow stairwell. Madeline manages to dodge the beast and quickly transforms back into a shadow and slides up onto the wall of the stairwell. For a creature so large it moves with tremendous speed and whips around to sink it's teeth into me, I raise my arm but the bite is huge and it clamps down on my arm and shoulder. I manage to keep my wits about me and turn into a shadow allowing me to slip out of the beasts mouth, it snaps at me again but this time I am grateful that my armour protects me.

Madeline throws one of her prepared flour bombs at the sound of commotion and manages to hit, the next things she knows there is a massive crash from above as the beast smashes through the doors of the station entrance. She also hears me shout;

Merde! La chose sanglante m'a presque mordu en deux!

We rush out of the shattered doors and I sniff the air. The beast has run North and so we follow as fast as we can. As we chase along Brompton Road it becomes obvious that the scent is being dissipated quickly by the evening breeze and the beast is becoming harder to track, but it doesn't take us long to realise that the hound is heading straight back to Hyde Park.