Tom Green

Tom Green is Gary Dem's oldest friend, first confidant, and principal researcher into the supernatural problems created by the Werewolf System. He never becomes an Altered or a werewolf. Instead, his curiosity about computers, games, and Altered science gives Gary a language for testing the System, while his access to NIRV and later Howlers-funded laboratories lets him turn incomplete biological clues into practical interventions. Tom's work helps Gary survive his first full moon, choose the Warrior Class, expose infected Altered trafficking, convert Xin Clove into a werewolf, and hide vulnerable pack members from hostile werewolves. His lasting importance is personal as well as technical: when gang leadership and supernatural power separate Gary from his old life, Tom continues to treat him as the same friend and ultimately stands as his best man.

Biography

The ordinary friend who recognizes a werewolf

Tom and Gary begin as socially mismatched but inseparable school friends. Tom is the quieter computer enthusiast who supplies Altered-fighting videos and games; Gary is the impulsive friend he draws into them. Their shared fascination with the AFC gives both boys an imagined route out of Slough, although Tom is more interested in Altered science than fame or prize money. When Gary suddenly becomes strong enough to break a desk, overpower rugby players, and puncture a ball, Tom does not dismiss the pattern. He researches werewolf folklore, tests silver without a reaction, and then gives Gary chocolate. The chocolate violently poisons Gary, making Tom's improvised test dangerous as well as conclusive. Tom takes responsibility by getting him to the nurse, testing the offered medicine on himself, and confronting him privately instead of exposing him. (Chapters 1, 14, and 23–25)

Gary admits that he is a werewolf but conceals the Underdogs behind a story about a delivery job. Tom recognizes both the immediate full-moon danger and the wider danger of whoever created the package. He urges secrecy, recommends monitoring Gary's heart rate and mood, and tells him to leave rugby because a public partial transformation could kill someone. Gary refuses to surrender the sport, but Tom's willingness to look directly at the danger gives him his first person with whom he can discuss the transformation as a real condition rather than a private hallucination. Their promise to remain friends activates one of Gary's first voluntary Bond Marks, making Tom part of the System's mechanics even though Tom cannot see the interface himself. (Chapters 25–27 and 42)

The approaching full moon turns Tom's theories into an improvised survival plan. He finds an isolated shipping container, stocks it with restraints and meat, and waits near Cipen Park even after Gary tries to face the night alone. When Gary escapes in an uncontrolled full transformation, Tom refuses to abandon the search. Xin has to knock him unconscious to remove him from immediate danger, but Gary's transformed instincts later protect Tom and the others from Billy. The next morning, Tom describes what Gary cannot remember and offers to handle the container and its explanation to his parents. The experience does not make him romanticize the supernatural: he treats the loss of control as a problem they have one month to solve, even while Gary continues hiding his gang identity from him. (Chapters 69–93)

Tom also affects the System through judgment rather than force. When Gary receives a class choice, he disguises the question as a game problem and asks Tom which role fits him. Tom recommends Warrior because Gary repeatedly enters lethal situations and leads from the front; Gary accepts that assessment and selects the class. The advice helps define Gary's long-term combat progression, but it also shows the limit of Tom's knowledge: he is evaluating his friend's character without seeing the System's exact future skills or costs. (Chapter 163)

NIRV knowledge and a friendship under separation

Tom's parents, James and his wife, are scientists whose long hours have made their work both distant and fascinating to him. A school internship finally brings Tom to their NIRV facility in Brocknell. He signs a restrictive nondisclosure agreement and learns that Altered solutions do not come directly from fossils: NIRV reconstructs fossilized beasts through a Nest Crystal, employs powerful Recoverers to kill them, and extracts the resulting beast crystals. Tom is exhilarated by the discovery but disturbed by the organization's readiness to treat Recoverers as expendable and by the possibility that whistleblowers have been suppressed. The internship gives him valuable access without making him mistake access for institutional trust. (Chapters 276–277 and 316)

News of Slough's infected children forces the private and institutional parts of Tom's life together. James explains that some reconstructed beasts emerge with purple features and a dark shadow; crystals from those infected beasts produce crazed Altereds in most cases and are supposed to be discarded. Tom deduces that the Slough outbreak is linked to such material, while also inferring from public reports that Gary has become the Howlers' wolf-masked leader. He chooses not to contact Gary from the monitored facility and waits until returning to Slough, protecting both his parents and his friend from NIRV surveillance. Back at school, Gary finally admits the gang history, and Tom violates the spirit of NIRV's secrecy by sharing what he learned with the one person endangered by it. He decides to pursue NIRV work partly to investigate Gary's package and whether its effects can be understood or reversed. (Chapters 317 and 353)

Gary's departure for the AFA separates the friends physically but gives their roles a useful division. Tom attends several NIRV-supervised special lessons, watches reconstructed beasts from the observation deck, and privately briefs Gary on infected material. He warns that black liquid derived from infected beasts can create crazed Altereds and that even an Altered seriously wounded by such a beast may become infected. He also challenges unsafe experimental decisions when an unfiled beast is substituted into Gary's lesson. Gary gathers lived evidence about beasts and his System; Tom supplies laboratory context the System does not explain. Their meetings are brief and constrained by surveillance, yet they preserve the division of knowledge that later makes Tom useful to the entire Howlers organization. (Chapters 421–422 and 505–511)

Building a laboratory outside NIRV

By the time the Phoenix assault devastates Slough, Gary trusts Tom as the person who should examine injured or infected allies. He specifically sends Olivia and Marie to the hospital under Tom's care, then directs Tom toward Gil's infected body for research. Tom subsequently works with Vlad, whose infected Altered state places him under a dark compulsion, and achieves partial control of the condition. Kai funds a dedicated laboratory in Slough, recruits dissatisfied former NIRV personnel, and gives Tom the institutional freedom to study Altered biology without returning the work to the organization that helped create the crisis. Tom is not merely handed authority because he is Gary's friend: the Howlers rely on the expertise he developed while separated from them. (Chapters 930 and 934–935)

The One Gang's infected solutions make that expertise politically consequential. Tom identifies the material brought to the Howlers, helps frame the need for evidence connecting NIRV founder Rumper Karn to the trade, and accepts a mission Gary considers too dangerous for an ordinary human. Using his parents' access and Dean Dem's name, Tom obtains a meeting with NIRV founder Rickle Epman. He carries a sample through security in a forearm device of his own construction, states the accusation directly, and asks Rickle to investigate because the Howlers lack the reach to prove it. The meeting could expose Tom, his parents, and Gary, but he proceeds because scientific certainty alone cannot stop the distribution; someone inside NIRV has to act. Rickle agrees to investigate, helping move the conflict away from a blind assault on the corporation. (Chapters 1043–1047)

The encounter also clarifies what Tom wants for himself. When Rickle asks what he would pursue without external barriers, Tom answers video games rather than Altered research. Later, after stabilizing Vlad and exhausting much of the work immediately available to him, he begins using the Howlers' laboratory computers to study game design. This does not erase his scientific role, but it prevents that role from becoming his entire identity. His research began through his parents and Gary's crisis; his interest in game development is a choice that belongs to him. (Chapters 1046 and 1364)

Research that changes the pack

Tom becomes central to Gary's attempt to create a Luna because he can interpret experimental records that Gary's System does not supply. Data sent through Dean and Rickle shows that an Alpha's first bite does not normally convert an Altered. Instead, it initiates a slow process that temporarily suppresses the Altered cells until the subject loses the ability to transform. A second bite can convert the subject only during that powerless interval; if the window is missed and the original powers return, later bites will not repeat the opportunity. Tom explains the process and its uncertainty to Gary rather than presenting it as guaranteed. This knowledge makes Xin a possible Luna, but the cost and choice remain hers: she must permanently surrender her wyvern Altered form and endure a monitored, one-time conversion. (Chapters 1147–1153)

When Xin accepts, Tom continues behind the decision rather than claiming ownership of it. Gary uses the first bite, waits for her Altered powers to disappear, and then applies the second with Tom and Marie ready to monitor the delayed transformation. Tom's records indicate that conversion time varies, so the absence of an instant change is not treated as failure. The successful outcome changes both Gary's relationship and the Howlers' pack structure, but it also demonstrates Tom's limitations: his method is derived from earlier experiments, requires an Alpha and a consenting Altered, and offers only one narrow timing window rather than a general cure or reliable transformation technology. (Chapters 1153, 1182, 1199, and 1202)

Tom also designs countermeasures around supernatural detection. Because members of different werewolf packs can recognize one another by smell, Gary cannot enter Ruin City unnoticed. Tom tests a spray on dogs and then on Gary with Kai acting as the detector. The formula makes Gary smell human without impairing his own sense of smell, but its strongest effect lasts no more than about three hours and fades enough that close inspection can expose him. Tom and his staff produce more spray on short notice. For Austin, whose Altered body is detected by heat signature rather than werewolf scent, Tom makes a cooling shirt that lowers the reading around his core; it works beneath the Hunters' clothing but leaves Austin uncomfortably cold. Both measures are temporary disguises, not transformations; they buy Gary's team time to infiltrate rather than removing the underlying risk. (Chapters 1156, 1170, and 1201–1202)

The full-moon war expands the same principle from an individual spray to area protection. Tom converts a secluded property into a hiding place for the pack members who cannot safely transform, fitting sprinklers and smaller emitters that saturate the area with scent-disrupting chemicals for roughly six hours. He chooses an isolated site known to few Howlers so that a breach will not expose civilians, monitors Slough's force positions by tablet, and stays with the hidden group as its only human. When Xin experiments with Luna foresight, Tom asks where and when she sees the casualties; that analytical question helps the group recognize an attack away from the expected front. He later remains out of direct combat while Xin's team confronts Ghost. His protection works by information, preparation, and distance, and the scenes consistently preserve the physical vulnerability that makes those choices necessary. (Chapters 1366, 1392, and 1406–1408)

The medallion, absence, and the restored circle

One of Tom's least informed choices becomes one of the story's most consequential. During his NIRV work he takes a wolf-marked medallion from an excavation cache that the company considers worthless and gives it to Gary. He initially knows only that the site contained old armor and human remains and that Gary's System recognizes an ancient connection it will not unlock. During the battle between the Alphas, the medallion activates and removes Gary, Kai, and Lupus to another world. Tom does not claim to understand the result. He brings the survivors together, tells the Bookkeeper where the object came from, and learns that it was made to support cooperation between Alphas, but neither of them can trace the missing men through that history alone. (Chapters 1147, 1313, 1364, and 1522)

For the next two months, Tom searches through every remaining connection he has. NIRV's partial dismantling and the closure or destruction of its facilities deprive him of both records and infrastructure, leaving his effort to trace the medallion without a result. This is an important failure rather than a missing feat: Tom cannot solve a supernatural transport mechanism merely because he once worked near its excavation. While Marie and Xin hold the Howlers together, his contribution is persistence and the best available technical search, not a fabricated portal or rescue. (Chapter 1582)

Gary, Kai, and Lupus eventually return by means Tom did not create. Tom is present at the Wolf's Pool Club, openly admits that he feared Gary was dead, and listens as the three explain what happened. Learning that his gift helped unite the Alphas shocks him, but reunion restores the personal pattern that the separations never erased: the two friends can again argue, joke, and use their shared gaming language without Gary performing the role of Alpha for him. During the final crisis Tom participates in war-room planning and later monitors public reporting on the Glutton catastrophe, documenting how posts about werewolves are rapidly removed. His latest technical function is therefore observation of the fragile secrecy around the new peace, not combat against Unzoku. (Chapters 1735, 1739, 1820, and 1843)

Two years later, Tom remains part of the circle after the Howlers cease operating as a gang. He stands with Gary's former fighters before the wedding, jokes about the green hair he has known since school, and serves as best man at Gary and Xin's ceremony. That position confirms the continuity of his role: Kai may be Gary's strategist and the werewolves his pack, but Tom is the friend who knew him before either identity and stayed after both had changed the world around them. (Chapters 1847–1848)

Appearance and personality

As a teenager, Tom wears his dark hair in a number-one buzz cut because it requires little maintenance. He is physically scrawny and unathletic, a limitation he acknowledges rather than trying to conceal. His room is crowded with computers he built himself and multiple screens holding long-running research tabs. As an adult researcher he is often shown in a white laboratory coat, while formal scenes place him in the Howlers' black-and-gold clothing with the rest of Gary's circle. (Chapters 1, 14, 42, 1043, and 1847)

Tom is introverted, conflict-averse, and uncomfortable with casual social interaction, preferring computers, games, television, and books to conversations with strangers. That discomfort does not make him passive when someone he loves is threatened. He confronts Gary with evidence, waits near an uncontrolled werewolf, enters NIRV to accuse one of its founders, and remains with powerless pack members during an invasion. His courage is deliberate rather than physical: he is frequently afraid, knows he cannot fight the people around him, and acts within those limits. (Chapters 1, 25–26, 78–93, 1045–1047, and 1406)

Curiosity is his defining strength and recurring risk. It leads him to build computers, follow his parents into Altered science, steal a dismissed excavation object, and test incomplete theories. The chocolate incident shows how poorly sourced experimentation can hurt Gary; his later work is more methodical, explicitly distinguishing experimental records, assumptions, tests, and time limits. Tom also retains a playful, occasionally indiscreet side. He explains the Luna role to the wrong listeners and spreads confusion at the Howlers' celebration, but the same humor lets Gary speak to him as a friend rather than only as a subject of research. (Chapters 14, 23–26, 1147–1151, 1364, and 1847)

Powers and abilities

Tom has no supernatural power, Altered form, System interface, or confirmed combat enhancement. His contributions come from scientific training, engineering, observation, and a long familiarity with Gary. He cannot directly verify System messages and must work from Gary's reports, experimental data, biological samples, and field tests.

Altered and infected-beast research

Through his parents and NIRV internship, Tom learns the reconstruction chain from fossil to revived beast to extracted crystal and Altered solution. He studies beast classification, observes special lessons, recognizes infected crystals and solutions, and understands that infection can produce crazed Altereds or spread through serious wounds from an infected beast. In Slough he applies that knowledge to Vlad, Gil, and the One Gang's solution cache, while coordinating a laboratory staff with former NIRV experience. His work can identify patterns and partially suppress an infected Altered's compulsion, but the corpus does not show him curing the underlying infection or independently manufacturing safe Altered solutions. (Chapters 276–277, 316–317, 421–422, 505–511, 934–935, and 1043–1046)

Werewolf and System analysis

Tom is the first human to treat Gary's werewolf condition as a testable system. He correlates transformation with heart rate and full moons, researches pack terminology, records Gary's uncontrolled behavior, and translates game-style class language into a judgment about Gary's temperament. Later he works with Dean and Rickle's experimental data on Alpha bites and helps the Howlers reason about Luna abilities, vows, transformation intervals, and pack scent. This is inferential expertise, not privileged supernatural knowledge: folklore is sometimes wrong, Tom cannot see Gary's interface, and he repeatedly labels uncertain conclusions as guesses. (Chapters 14–27, 39–42, 78–93, 163, 1147–1153, and 1334–1407)

Chemistry, engineering, and surveillance

Tom develops short-lived scent-masking sprays, larger scent-disrupting emitters, and an automated sprinkler deployment that conceals a group over the vulnerable full-moon interval. He also builds a forearm compartment to carry an infected sample through NIRV security, makes Austin a cooling shirt that changes the heat signature read by Altered Hunter masks, and uses networked maps to monitor defenders across Slough. These devices solve narrow detection problems rather than increasing anyone's strength. The spray fades within hours, the cooling garment is uncomfortable, area protection depends on prepared equipment and chemicals, and none of it prevents discovery by sight, betrayal, equipment failure, or an opponent who already knows the location. (Chapters 1046, 1170, 1201–1202, 1366, and 1392–1407)

Limitations and combat role

Tom remains an ordinary human throughout the corpus. Lack of sleep affects him, he cannot keep pace with Altereds or werewolves, and he is kept away from direct engagements because a single attack could kill him. Even his most important item interaction—the medallion he gives Gary—is accidental: he neither creates it nor understands its activation. In crises he contributes by choosing safer positions, preparing others, monitoring information, and asking the questions fighters overlook. The final war preserves that division; Tom joins planning and public-information monitoring, not the supernatural clash itself. (Chapters 42, 1202, 1313–1364, 1406–1408, 1522, 1820, and 1843)

Relationships

Gary Dem

Gary is Tom's oldest friend and the relationship that defines his role in the story. Tom discovers Gary's secret without recoiling, becomes the first person with whom he can discuss the System, and repeatedly accepts danger that Gary tries to keep away from him. Gary in turn protects Tom physically, creates a sincere Bond Mark with him, seeks his judgment on class and pack decisions, and eventually funds the environment in which his research can operate. Their conflicts arise from Gary's secrecy and Tom's risky curiosity, but neither treats those failures as grounds to abandon the friendship. (Chapters 1, 23–27, 42, 78–93, 163, 317–353, and 1043–1047)

Their later separation changes frequency rather than loyalty. Tom cannot accompany Gary through most gang wars or supernatural battles, yet his research repeatedly determines what Gary can safely attempt. Gary's return from the other world restores their everyday humor, and choosing Tom as best man places the pre-Howlers friendship at the center of his new family. (Chapters 421–511, 1147–1202, 1522–1739, and 1847–1848)

James Green and NIRV

Tom admires his scientist parents and initially follows their field partly because their secrecy and long absences make him want to understand them and spend more time with them. James uses his connections to secure the internship and teaches him how beast reconstruction works, but NIRV's NDA, surveillance, and willingness to sacrifice Recoverers force Tom to distinguish his parents' scientific work from the institution's ethics. He later uses the same family access to approach Rickle, exposing James to some risk while attempting to stop infected solutions. The corpus does not show a final break with his parents; rather, Tom carries their technical inheritance into a laboratory answerable to the Howlers. (Chapters 14, 276–277, 316–317, and 1043–1046)

The Howlers

Tom is not a founding enforcer and does not claim a battlefield rank, but Kai makes his knowledge organizational by funding laboratories, staff, and field deployment. Marie, Olivia, Xin, Austin, and the other core members rely on his medical attention, bite research, disguises, and scent protection. Tom also depends on them: Marie and Olivia escort him to the NIRV meeting, Kai supplies resources and tests the scent spray, and transformed fighters keep physical threats away from him. His place is therefore neither honorary membership nor hidden command; he is a trusted human specialist within a group whose core dangers he cannot survive alone. (Chapters 930–935, 1043–1047, 1147–1202, and 1364–1408)

Items

Tom has no configured notable item inventory. He builds or handles several temporary research devices, but the medallion associated with his history is given to Gary and is not his retained equipment.