DISCLAIMER!!! Yes, I stole these characters from HB, even though I promised to give them back. I'm not going to!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! {gasp pant wheeze} What? They can *sue* me? Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I'll give 'em back. sigh. And here I was going to donate them to this ml. The cats--Kit, Dana & Colin--are mine. Risk and the kids are up for grabs!

"Where's Kit?" Jonny looked around, wondering where the cat could be. He was always late, if he came at all. But surely he would for this.

Dana shrugged, her black silk dress shifting smoothly over her skin. "Last I heard he was in the Philippines."

Colin frowned. "I thought he was going to be an assassin for a Japanese agency."

Jessie smiled and adjusted her hold on Chance's hand. The kid was starting to squirm away again. "I talked to him just a few days ago. Don't worry. He'll be here." She looked skyward, praying that he wouldn't let her down.

Not ten minutes later he showed up, his black curly hair striking against his pale skin. It was the skin the image inducer created. His bright yellow eyes shown with internal fire, laugh lines around his mouth for once serious. "Let's do this thing." He twitched his gray jacket into place, brushed at his pants futility, and sighed at the black fur that stuck there. He hated shedding.

Cal screeched and broke out of Jonny's hold to run to one of his favorite uncles, laughing gleefully as Kit picked him up and tossed him into the air. Jessie cringed, even though she knew that he was far stronger then he looked and could easily yank her off her feet if he wanted. Watching him throw her child around was just so hard though. She was certain he was going to drop him.

"Cal! Come on, sweetheart, let's go," she said, holding out a hand.

Kit cringed and held the child tightly, refusing to let go. "It's the closest thing I have to a son, Jess. You're not really going to make me give him back, are you? Not just yet?" His large eyes were pleading and Jessie groaned. She really hated it when he used that lady killer charm on her. Mostly because she could never resist.

"All right, all right. But I find a scratch on my boy and I'm coming after you." She leveled a glare in his direction, but Kit just smiled and winked at Jonny, who laughed grudgingly.

Dana took a deep breath, looking around at her family. These were the people who'd taken her in when she was just a kitten. Who'd fed her, and raised her, given her money for college and helped boost her career. These were the only family she had.

She smiled. "Okay then?"

Hadji opened the door, holding it for the others as they filed through. Dana ginned and kissed his cheek, then whispered "Wish me luck!"

"Break a leg!" he whispered back. The others seated themselves as the theater went dark and Dana hurried backstage.

Kit and Cal were playing in the dark, tugging at each other's hair and making faces as the lights came up.

***

Two hours later the crowds filed out while the Quests and family waited backstage for directions to the dressing rooms.

"This is stupid. C'mon, Cal, let's go find Dana!" Kit took the red-head by the hand and started weaving his way through the crowd, ignoring Jessie's yell for him to wait. Sheeya, right.

"That way!" Cal shouted, pointing. Kit nodded in agreement as he caught a whiff of Dana's scent, then turned down a hallway. The two burst into the room, singing the only song they could remember Dana singing up on stage during the concert.

She laughed and hugged them both, Kit muttering "You just saw us . . ." and Cal squirming. Jonny and the others came in then, fighting their way past the people.

"Great performance, Dana!" Jonny said, giving the girl a hug. Her slight frame felt like it would crack under his arms, but he knew she was far stronger than she looked.

"Hey there, Chance!" Dana said, taking the boy from Hadji's arms. "Did you like my songs?"

"Yeah! They were cool."

"Are we gonna go see Gengle now?" Cal asked hopefully, referring to his grandfather, Race. The original name had been--jokingly--General, but the boys couldn't say it, and so Gengle had stuck. Race didn't mind.

"We most certainly are! He said that since Kit only shows up once in a while, he wanted to see him." Dana ruffled Chance's hair and set him down. "But he said to leave you two ragamuffins home."

"He did not!" they protested immediately.

Jonny started to laugh. "Of course he didn't. Dana's just teasing you."

Cal smiled sheepishly, the movement mirrored by his twin. "Oh."

***

After the hour required to tell everyone Dana was leaving, sign the few autographs that had been snuck in, and gather her things while answering questions, the gang was off. Kit did his best to try and get Jessie to let Cal ride on his motorcycle with him, but the mother was having nothing to do with it. In the end, Hadji, Chance, Colin and Jessie went in the suburban, Kit and Jonny rode the motorcycle, and Dana took Cal in her red sports car--the one with "meeow" on the license plate. A twenty minute drive brought them to the giant "cabin" where Race lived upstairs, Risk below. The floor level was shared, the kitchen and family room cluttered with a mismatch of football posters--which Race had put up years ago to make Risk mad--and rag dolls--which Risk had put up shortly after the football posters went up to make Race mad.

Cal and Chance ran inside, barreling into the family room to be swept off their feet by their grandfather.

"Gengle!" Cal shouted happily. Chance planted a noisy kiss on Race's cheek. Race dropped them on the couch and proceeded to make a big deal about the grossness of being kissed, at which the boys laughed hysterically.

"You guys want ice cream?" Race asked suddenly, wrapping an arm around his daughter.

"Yeah!"

"Dad! You can't just give them ice cream! Cal, Chance, no."

Faces were suddenly sad, but Race smiled. "It's okay, this is my house--"

"My house, actually," Risk pointed out as she came upstairs.

"--And my daughter, and since I'm older then she is I get to say what you can and can't do, and I say you get ice cream."

Cal and Chance laughed delightedly as Jessie poked her father in his ribs.

"C'mon guys, before your mom pokes me to death. Did you know that dolphins can poke sharks to death?"

Jessie groaned as they said "Cooool!"

Race took one boy by each hand and led them down the two steps to the bar room, which was stocked not only with liquor but ice cream and candy too. Each boy climbed up onto a stool and listened avidly while Race told them a gory and mostly fabricated story about dolphins killing sharks. Kit came down to listen too, pulling out a spoon and eating with the others straight from the container.

"Mom doesn't let us do this at home," Cal said as he shoved more of the sticky stuff into his mouth.

Race smiled. "Well, you're not home."

Something exploded, rocking the whole house.

Kit and Race were instantly on their feet, Race reaching for the gun he kept under the counter and Kit ripping his image inducer off. Black fur and fangs appeared, a tail behind him. "You guys stay here," he said, pulling them off the stools and pushing them under a table, "And we'll be right back."

Kit and Race bounded up the stairs in time to see Cadaver's men pulling out guns and shooting at anything that moved.

"I'm retired from this, people!" Race said, opening fire, "And I don't like either my house getting ruined or my family getting shot at!"

Kit jumped at the throat of a man who had gotten the upper hand with Hadji, tearing into him with barely controlled fury. The surprise attack was being beaten off when another shell hit the house. Part of the upper story fell in, trapping Risk underneath.

Jonny moved quickly, pulling off timbers and things as another bomb hit. The whole house shook, things falling off shelves, walls trying to crumble. Race swore creatively and grabbed Dana out of the way of the falling entertainment center. Kit pitched in with Jonny, one of them taking Risk's arms and pulling and the other lifting things off her. She finally was free, and Kit turned back to Race.

"We have to get to that gun."

Race nodded his agreement as the house shook again, and something else broke. "Now!"

The two of them ran out, dashing across the grass.

"I knew I should have lived in the city!" Race muttered as he took out the first of the men. Across from him he could see Kit's black form sneaking through, killing off things as he came across them.

They both reached the thing as another blast went off, and quickly crawled inside. Once there it didn't take them long to dispatch the men and shut the thing down.

They crawled out of the monstrosity, took a few minutes to read the note painted on the side:

I will kill all the Quests

and went back in. It was just Cadaver again, trying to get revenge for something they'd done to him. Some horrible, mutilating thing that none of them could remember. Probably bought a hot-dog before he could get it.

"Where are the boys?" Jessie asked, panic in her voice as they reached the giant hole in the wall.

Race's eyes widened and he ran downstairs. The place was ruined, the ceiling above already having given in and died in a few places, and ready to fall apart any minute.

"Calhoun! Chance! Answer me!" Race said in his best authoritative voice.

"Here . . ." Came Cal's answer, weak and unsteady. The ceiling had fallen in on the table, one side crumbling but the other side okay.

Hadji came downstairs, saying he'd called 911 already.

With all the men helping, and Dana, Jessie and Risk ready to pull the kids out, they lifted the section of ceiling and held it up.

Jessie shimmied under in a second flat, grabbed Chance's leg and pulled him out. Risk pulled him totally free and picked him up, taking him outside where it was safe. A minute later a crying Cal was pulled out too, bone white, and everyone ran out of the deadly house.

An ambulance was already there, strapping Chance to a bed and wheeling him in. Jessie and Jonny ran over, almost in a panic.

"What--"

"Ma'am we need to get this boy to the hospital now. If you'll excuse me," the attendant said, pushing her gently out of the way. Jessie was having none of it.

"I'm going too. He's my son and so help me if you say I can't ride with you--"

The attendant helped her to a seat.

"I'll be there as soon as I can!" Jonny shouted as the doors closed and the ambulance pulled away, sirens screaming and casting a blood-red glow.

***

Jessie and Jonny paced back and forth, waiting for someone to say Chance was okay. It had been three hours. *Three* hours! How long could it take for doctors to figure out if he was going to live or not?!

Finally a door opened and the surgeon stepped out, hollows under his eyes. "He should be okay. I don't know how, but I think he will."

There was a collective sigh of relief and Jonny collapsed into a chair.

"Wait a minute," the doctor said, holding up a hand. All eyes were riveted to him instantly. "There's bad news. His right eye was severely damaged. He'll be lucky if he regains a quarter of the vision, which is better then none at all. He may be able to walk, but much more then that . . .it's hard to say. His head was smashed rather hard when the table broke and the ceiling fell on him, so there's no telling what kind of damage that did." He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "There's nothing more I can do."

***

A week later Jessie sat next to the hospital bed, sleeping. In the bed, Chance sat, watching TV without sound. He knew the sound was on, but he couldn't hear it. He picked up the VR game his dad had brought him and started playing. At least he didn't need sound for this. The bandage over his right eye itched and he frowned. He wasn't supposed to scratch it.

The door opened and Jonny walked in, carrying a box.

Which was moving.

Cal came in behind him, grinning broadly. Jessie woke up.

"Hey there, Ace. Me an' Cal got you a 'get well soon' present," Jonny said with a grin.

Chance, who couldn't hear a word he was saying, got the gist of it and reached out. Jonny set it in his lap and the boy untied the bright red ribbon. From the box rolled a dog--a pug.

Jessie started to laugh.

"What is that mongrel doing here?!" a giant nurse screeched, diving into the room.

"He was just leaving," Jonny said as he picked up the dog and started to hurry out. Cal laughed.

Once he'd been thrown outside, Jonny turned back to look at the building. Well, at least Chance knew he had a dog. And a cute one too. Looked a lot like Bandit had. Turning, he piled the dog and Cal into the car and headed home.

***

--Jonathan Quest's computer log, code: adventures--

My youngest son by thirteen minutes is getting better. His vision is coming back, but his hearing is still gone. That must be the brain damage they were talking about. I still feel guilty, like I could've stopped it some how. Stupid, I know. I didn't ask for Cadaver to attack us. I guess . . .

I wish dad were back here. Anasazi come home . . . I'm going to try to talk to him again tonight, see if I can get through this time. He needs to know about Chance.

It's not my fault, I keep telling myself that. It was an accident. Accidents happen.

Especially when you're growing up a superhero.

JJJJJJJJJJJJQQQQQQQQQQQ

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