DISCLAIMER!!! J, F, C, D, and K are mine. No one else is and I'm not making any money off this.

Lost in Shadows ch 3

Hadji reached down and pulled Risk out of the mud, smiling understandingly. She grimaced back, using his hand to pull herself up. "Race! Slow down! My legs aren't as long as yours, y'know!"

Race grinned and did as the tiny blond said. "That's right, I forget that you're short."

Risk fumed.

Hadji, trying to deny the inevitable, stepped up onto a large . . . root . . .and looked around. "How far do you think we are from civilization?" He asked as he wiped sweat of the back of his neck.

"Not sure. Hopefully not far." Race replied, sloshing forward through the underbrush and stirring up large bugs. Risk shuddered as something heavy landed on her foot, and was very careful not to look down to see what it was. She really didn't want to know. Whatever it was, it leaped of after just an instant, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think we'll be okay as long as we keep our heads," Race was saying, "And don't get bit by any snakes or anything of that sort."

Risk scoffed. "In other words, you hope we'll be okay because you know nothing about surviving in a rain forest. Right?"

Race glared at her over his shoulder.

Hadji sighed. They were almost as bad as Jessie and Jonny. Speaking of whom, he really hoped they were okay. "At least we did not land in water," Hadji offered. Both adults glared at him. Hadji fell silent.

"If I ever get out of here I'm taking a long, cold shower," Risk said wistfully.

"Me too," Race agreed.

Risk snorted. "I get the first shower."

"Only if you can beat me for it."

Risk glared. There was no way she'd win in a fair fight with him. he was too big, and she was too small. But then again, who said anything about fighting fair?

Race glanced back, made suddenly nervous by Risk's silence. It wasn't like her to just agree to something like that. "You're okay with that?"

Her smile was sweetly dangerous. "Of course."

Hadji gulped. "How did you two ever get along?" he asked before he could shut himself up.

Risk smiled pleasantly. "Race wasn't such a pin head at that point."

Race, simultaneously, stated, "Risk didn't have little woman syndrome then."

Risk glared. "Is that right, Roger?"

"Yes, it is, Daisy."

"Don't call me that."

"I can call you anything I want."

"Oh yeah?"

Race turned, using his far superior height to intimidate Risk into behaving. "Right." His voice was ominously quiet.

Risk straightened her shoulders, craning her neck to look up at him. She barely reached his enormous chest. "So help me, Bannon, I will take you down, hard."

Hadji threw up his hands, thoroughly infuriated. He supposed they thought he was going to break up the fight, just like he always did. Well, forget it. He was sick and tired of playing peacemaker. "You can both kill yourselves for all I care, but I'm leaving!" He turned and stormed off, furious.

He walked perhaps ten minutes before cooling off. He took a deep breath, shaking his head. That was really nothing to get mad over. He'd go back and set things straight with them. As he walked back he found his anger growing again, and suddenly wanted to bash both their stubborn, thick, pig heads in. Hadji stopped, slightly baffled. He never got this angry! What was wrong? He searched his thoughts, then when he found nothing started walking closer again, being very careful to keep a tight rein on his temper as it flared.

He stepped from behind a large tree to see both people tied up, gagged and unconscious. Both were bleeding in several places and looked as if they had traded blows. Hadji only hesitated for an instant, but it was enough. A man dropped to the ground behind him, then shot him in the back with a sedative. Hadji was out cold within seconds.

JJJJJQQQQ

"January?" Dana asked, panting as she trotted up to the young woman.

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you just 'port us out of here? You can do that, right?"

January stopped dead in her tracks, feeling decidedly stupid. Of course she could do that. She looked at Benton and Dana, trying to figure out how much it would tax her. She didn't think that she could 'port them and then 'port her sister, Jonny and Colin after. It would be too much. But she could 'port Benton and Dana to the others. She grinned big and mentally asked February to open her mind, letting January see through her sister's eyes where they needed to shadowport to. She reached out and took Dana's hand, watched as Benton reached to take her other hand.

"Get them! Quick!" Someone shouted from somewhere, though January had no clue as to where. She felt something hit her knees, hard, and realized with sudden alarm that they'd masked their sight, scent, even sound from the girls who were blessed with super senses.

She clutched Dana's hand as she fell to the dirt, praying that Dana had a good grip on Benton. If there were people, there were shadows. All she had to do was find one. She reached out with her mind, searching for anything. Faintly she found a tiny one, created by a small heap of sand. It was enough.

The men swore as one by one the three disappeared, falling into the shadowport and ending up who knew where?

JJJJJQQQQQ

February watched as her sister came through a deep shadow, face pale as she pulled the two after her. Colin jumped at them, landing square on the chest of one of the men who had just attacked, keeping him away from the 'ported humans who were still in shock.

February lashed out at a large man with a gun, making contact with his jaw. She was holding her own for the moment, but they were nastily out gunned and if January, Dana and Benton didn't come around soon they were going to be in big trouble. She breathed a sigh of relief as January, used to the effects of shadowporting, stood and sprang around a tree to flush someone out into the open. Between Colin's claws, Jonny's self proclaimed expertise at fighting "bad guys," February's karate training and January's multitude of powers, it quickly became apparent that the men were overwhelmed. Dana finally caught her breath and stood, covering Dr. Quest's back as they made a stand.

"Dad! In back!" Jonny shouted, then watched out of the corner of his eye as his father twisted around and knocked the man trying to ambush him away.

"Thanks, Jonny."

Colin grabbed the last one, then lifted him high, snarling. "Why are you here?"

They man started trembling, the sight of the boy looking almost demonic in his anger enough to send the most persistent insurance salesman running. But he didn't answer.

January took a deep breath, trying to calm her lungs, and sat down in the mud. "There was a group of them attacking us, too."

Colin reached back a hand, unsheathing his claws. "Why?" He snarled.

The man watched him blankly for a minute, then reached down a pushed a small button on the side of his belt. Instants later gas was released around his head and face, and Colin was forced to drop him to the ground and back off, or inhale the deadly stuff. In minutes the man was dead.

"Y'know, I really hate it when they get professionals who'll kill themselves like that. It's really annoying," January remarked irreverently.

February looked at her sister, appalled.

Jonny made his way over to his father, limping slightly from where he'd been kicked in the knee.

Dana leaped up, running over to Colin ecstatically. Jumping, she leapt on top of him, wrapping her legs around his waist and hugging him for all she was worth. Colin fell back, unable to hold her with the momentum she'd gained.

Benton grinned and Jonny chortled. "Think you could stay standing if I did that, dad?" he asked, eyes twinkling mischievously.

Benton smiled patiently. "Jonny, if you did that I'd step to one side and let you fall."

February laughed, finding this thought hilarious. January thought she might be slightly hysterical. Jonny looked at the twin thoughtfully, then slowly walked over and bent down next to her. When she calmed down and looked up at him from her position on her back Jonny smiled slowly.

"The dead dog howls at the moon in broad daylight."

February found this extremely funny too.

Jonny grinned evily and looked up at her sister. "Is she always like this?"

January smiled resignedly. "No. Just when she's tired, or really upset."

Jonny nodded and looked down at the girl, who was starting to compose herself again. "Don't laugh," he stated. That was enough to send her into peels of giggles.

"Jonathan, leave her be," Dr. Quest said, putting a hand on his son's shoulders.

Jonny sighed and stood up, hauling Feb to her feet with him. She took a few shaky steps away and leaned on her sister, still chuckling.

"What do we do now?" Dana asked, looking around.

Benton sighed. "Well, I think it's safe to presume that since we were both attacked, the others were attacked too. Wherever they are. I think we need to find shelter, food, and then some way to possibly get back home to try and figure out where everyone else was deposited. I think we'd better take this one step at a time though, which means that we need to find food and shelter first."

Colin stepped forward, his black fur wet. "Dana and I can find food. And we can keep our eyes open for shelter."

Dana crossed her arms over her chest sullenly. "I'm not going hunting like some animal. I'm--"

One look from Colin and she fell silent, sulking as she took to the trees.

"All right, Jonny and I will start hunting down some fire wood--"

January interrupted, putting a hand on his arm. "With my claws it might be easier for me to chop wood then it will be for you. If I can cut, then Jonny can drag, and you and Feb can look for some shelter."

After a moment of hesitation, Benton agreed that that was probably the best idea, though the thought of a young girl chopping wood just didn't seem quite right to his older way of thinking. But then, these were changing times. Equal opportunity and all that. Benton smiled at February and offered his arm to the still unsteady girl, then they went off in search of something they could use as a home for the night.

JJJJQQQQ

When Kit woke he found himself tied up, manacles on his hands and feet, a makeshift muzzle over his mouth. Something with an incredibly strong scent was by his nose, effectively blocking his ability to smell what was around him. What sounded like a broken hearing aid was by his ear, humming wildly and keeping him from hearing anything other then that. Even his sharp eyes had been taken care of, something black and hard had been placed over them to keep him from seeing. Kit was effectively blind.

He knew he was bleeding, could feel it dripping wetly down the back of his neck. It wasn't much though, and he doubted it was more then a puncture wound. What he was afraid to think about was, from what?

Rough hands grabbed his arms, hauling him up unceremoniously. He was dragged into another room, where the blindfold-like device was taken off and he could see Risk, Race and Hadji bound against a wall. Risk and Race were both sound asleep, Hadji moved just enough so that Kit was certain he was awake, and trying to hide it.

Whoever had him shoved him over to a bed, and laid him down, tying his arms and legs to keep him from moving. He hissed, and was promptly laughed at.

"Is the girl out?" someone asked.

A woman walked over to Risk, felt her pulse and nodded.

"And the man?"

Race's pulse was felt, then the woman nodded again.

"Good. We might as well do all three at once."

Risk and Race were laid on tables across from Kit, where he wasn't able to quite raise his head high enough to see.

"Sedate the cat. Start the re-programming." A needle came into view and Kit hissed, his fangs gleaming. In another minute it was inserted into his arm, and he passed out.

JJJJJQQQQ

Jessie looked at the wound in Theresa's shoulder, marveling at the fact that the woman had been able to shoot with that arm as badly damaged as it had been. But shoot she had, saving Jessie's life before passing out again. It had been a race to hide the body and get Dr. Mandoza to safety before someone came looking for the gunman. It had been inspiration when she'd undressed the man, then pulled her own clothes off and dressed him again in those. She'd taken his, then pushed the body down a small cliff. He was far enough away that you couldn't tell it wasn't her unless you really looked, and even then he had a bullet wound. The man who had come to see what was going on had believed it was her, going back and telling his superior that the other man had defected.

Now Jessie shoved the too long sleeves up her arms, trying to stem the doctor's blood flow so she could get a look at the wound.

Theresa smiled weakly at her. "And you do this all the time?"

Jessie laughed, shaking her head. "No. Only most of the time."

Theresa grimaced at the thought. "Check to be sure there's an exit wound, too." She said quietly, then watched as Jessie checked around her back to be sure.

She nodded. "It's there and bleeding happily."

Dr. Mandoza laughed. "That's a good thing. Hopefully it'll bleed all the infection out."

Jessie just made a face and proceeded to bandage it like the doctor had shown her. "So, what do we do now?"

Theresa shrugged, then made a face as her shoulder protested. "Look for civilization, I guess."

Jessie nodded. "That sounds like a reasonable idea."

Theresa just smiled grimly.

JJJQQQ

"What was that?" January asked, sitting straight up, almost banging her head on the tree above them. They were all tucked underneath a giant root system, which was quickly growing warm with all the bodies.

Jonny grinned, thoroughly enjoying her skitishness. Before he could answer, February chuckled.

"Sounded like a great, big snake!"

January turned to glare at her sister. "Even I know that snakes leave at night."

February laughed. Jonny joined her. Benton tried to roll over and get some sleep.

January slowly laid back down, carefully checking her bed for bugs.

Jonny grinned evily at the night, then reached over and ever so gently trailed his fingers up January's arm.

Her scream, as she was sure she was being attacked by insects, was gratifying.

February laughed out loud, unable to help herself and Jonny chortled. Dana sighed and got up, going to join her brother in his tree-top bed. Even though she wasn't much cat, she could still sleep relatively safely in the large branches.

January turned and hit Jonny, hard. He just grunted, his laughter getting louder again.

Finally Benton sat up, about to give them a lecture. When he hit his head on the top of the roots it was cause for more laughter.

Jonny and February agreed this was the most fun they'd ever had. January thought about going to sleep outside, but was daunted from this idea when she thought about the large spider web she'd seen earlier. She really didn't want to stumble into something like that. How gross.

February blew at the ground, causing leaves to rattle loudly by her sister's head. January sat up again, this time hitting her head. February giggled.

January was just about to give her a scathing insult when Colin landed softly near them, his eyes sharp.

"I smell Kit!"

JJJJQQQQ

Did you know . . .
The difference between a "big" cat and a "little" cat isn’t size, but is the fact that little cats cannot roar, and big cats cannot purr.

Back to the Lost in Shadows page
Back to the Hangar
Back to the living room