DISCLAIMER!!! January, February, Kit, Dana, and Colin all are copyright to Jenna B. McDonald. Lorna Dane, Jamie Madrox and Rahne are copyright to Marvel Comics. The Quests and Bannons are copyright to HB. Let’s face it, I’m stealing them all and not paying for them. But I’m not getting paid, either, so let’s hope no one gets mad. :) Many thank yous to my wunderbar beta-reader, Patti! Yay Patti!

Shedding Light on the Shadows ch 1

Dana turned sideways and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Sighing, she turned back to the TV and hit “play” on the remote.

Jonny walked into the room, paused, then walked out back to where Jessie and Kit were playing catch. “What’s Dana doing?” he asked.

“She’s watching Merilyn Monroe movies,” Jessie replied, catching the ball and tossing it back to Kit.

Jonny leaned back and glanced in the door. He shrugged. Whatever. “Do you know when dad’s supposed to be back?”

Jessie shook her head, deftly caught the ball and threw it back.

Jonny started up the hill to the light house to go help Hadji with the computers.

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“Benton Quest?”

He looked up from his paperwork, polite smile poised. “Yes?”

A young woman stood in the doorway before him, her slim figure outlined. “I hear you’re the top expert on phenomenon. I have some questions for you.” She stepped out of the doorway, her red lips pulled back in a smile. She was stunning; tall, slender, with a model’s body. Her eyes were bright green and she walked with an authority that commanded respect. Her hair, however, was highly unusual. It was cut short in a wavy bob, curling around her face. And it was bright green. Benton sighed. People these days. Although, he had to admit, it was a very good dye job. There were no roots showing.

She walked forward and held out her hand. Benton took it and shook, then motioned to a chair on the other side of the desk.

“I’m Agent Dane, and this is my partner, Agent Madrox.” A slight figure came forward, lopsided smile in place. His short brown hair fell in his brown eyes, and his hands were buried in the pockets of his long trenchcoat.

“Nice to meet you,” Benton said, inclining his head.

Madrox nodded back and took a seat next to the woman.

“We’re agents from the FIA,” she fished a badge out of her purse, then held it up for his examination. “And we were told that to find something unusual, we should come to you.”

He handed her badge back and nodded, crossing his arms on his desk. “What precisely is the ‘FIA’?”

The man grinned. “We could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.”

Benton laughed uncertainly.

“Has there been any unusual activity in the area lately?” the woman asked, leaning back in her chair.

“Unusual activity? What sort?” He thought fleetingly of the vampire-thing, the were-wolf type bit in New Orleans, everything having to do with Surd, the twins, Risk, Race, Jessie, the cats. What *hadn’t* been unusual?

“Anything out of the ordinary. Unexplained disappearances. Unsolved crimes all happening in the same area. Buildings long abandoned suddenly occupied. Anything of that sort.”

Benton steepled his fingers, thinking. Another young woman came through the door, her red hair in a pony tail.

“Polaris,” she said softly, “We’re aboot tae have company. A think it’s time tae go.”

The green haired woman nodded and stood. “Thanks, Rahne. Doctor,” she nodded to Benton, “We’ll give you some time to think, and contact you later.”

The three turned and were out the door, leaving Benton Quest to ponder what had just gone on. Finally he hit the button on the intercom, contacting his secretary.

“Amanda, could you do a background check on the people that were just in here?”

“What people, Doctor?”

Benton frowned. “They just walked right past you.”

Amanda’s voice came uncertainly over the intercom. “I had to use the ladies’ room. I must have missed them.”

Dr. Quest frowned. “Well, see what you can get me on FIA.”

“Yes sir.”

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Jonny threw the ball again, then watched as Kit and Bandit took off after it. Jessie had gotten tired of the game, and had passed it off to the male teen.

“Having fun, blondie?” came a voice from behind him.

He grinned. “Thrilled. How ya doin’, Feb?”

She came up and leaned on his shoulder. “Okay, I guess. Saved the world lately?”

He started to laugh. “Nope. You?”

“Nope. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Things are about to blow up in our faces?”

February started laughing. “Exactly.”

“KIT!!!!” Jonny shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth, “IT’S TIME TO GO INSIDE!”

The cat loped up a few minutes later, Bandit right behind him. “Can’t we stay out just a little longer?”

“It’s too dark. Come on, let’s go. You staying for dinner?” he asked, turning back to Feb.

“Sure. Dinner with you guys is always interesting.”

Jonny laughed. “Is January coming?”

Feb shook her head. “She’s having trouble with her healing factor again--keeps making her sick.”

Jonny frowned. “Sorry to hear that.” They walked into the kitchen, where the smell of lasagna mingled with spices made any sane human’s mouth water. “What’s for dinner, Mrs. Evans?”

She shot Jonny a look and slapped his hand as he moved to open the oven and look. “Out. Outoutout, right now. And get that furry beatsie out of my kitchen!” She waved her spoon at Kit, who was moving away and into the shadows. He was shedding, and kept getting fur in the food. It was driving Mrs. Evans nuts. “Dinner in fifteen minutes, so wash up.”

Jonny and Kit headed upstairs, leaving February with Race and Jessie, who were working on her spanish homework together.

Thirty minutes later everyone sat at the dining table, laughing and talking all at the same time. Somehow, it seemed that since the cats had come to live with them, everything was noisier. On the other hand, life was never boring.

“Que’ es eso que comes tu’?” Kit asked, poking at Jessie’s plate.

“What?” She looked at him blankly.

“What’s that stuff you’re eating?” he repeated in English.

“How’d he know how to say that? I can’t say that,” she said, pushing his fork away.

“He read the Spanish-English dictionary,” Hadji answered, grinning. “He’s very good at learning when he wants to.”

Jonny got up to get a drink, and February poured salt on his food, laughing gleefully. Hadji almost choked on his own food, trying not to laugh with it in his mouth.

Kit stopped suddenly, looking up and around. “Someone’s in the house,” he said quietly as Jonny came back in and sat down. Those words had everyone frozen, looking around and listening.

“Nonsense. I already turned the security system on,” Race murmured, knowing that they’d just installed the best security system money could buy. Not that that ever seemed to stop anyone.

“No, someone’s here,” Kit insisted.

Benton frowned and stood, and Race reached for the gun he kept.

“You can put that down,” Agent Dane said, one eyebrow cocked as she stood in the doorway, “We’re not going to shoot you, rob you, or anything else of that sort.” She turned and nodded at Benton, who had stood up at the intrusion. “Dr. Quest. I see you do know of something unusual.” She tipped her head in Kit’s direction, and he melted back into the shadows. Her lips twitched in a smile and she looked at the other two cats. “Quite unusual for this area, no?”

Benton glanced over at Race, trying to figure out what to do now. Finally he looked back at Agent Dane. “What do you know of these?” he asked, waving for her to take a seat as he sat himself.

She smiled and slipped gracefully into her chair. “I think a better question is what do you know of them? Where did they come from?” She turned and smiled warmly at Dana, who was nearest. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to dissect you,” she whispered with a wink.

Dana laughed uncertainly.

Benton leaned over and whispered to Colin. The eldest cat stood and took Dana’s arm, leading her out of the room. Kit had already disappeared.

“How did you get in?” Benton asked quietly, folding his arms across his chest. Hadji and Jonny exchanged glances and stood, Hadji taking Jessie’s arm and Jonny taking February’s and leading them off too. Agent Dane smiled at them as they left, the look highly disarming.

“There are ways when you really want to,” she answered easily.

Benton’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

Dane smiled slightly. “I want to know where they came from. It’s a matter of great urgency, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

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Jonny glared at the figure sitting on the couch. The figure smiled lopsidedly.

“I’m Ja--er, Agent Madrox,” he said, holding out his hand.

Jonny took it warily. “You guys make it a habit of breaking into people’s houses when they’re eating?”

Madrox looked slightly shocked. “You mean this is your house?? Man, I knew there was something strange about this abandoned warehouse!”

Hadji put his hand over his mouth, trying to keep from smiling.

“Uh, guys? If you don’t mind, I think I’ll just head on home.” As February passed Jonny, she tugged lightly on his hand. He glared again at the intruder, then followed her to the door. “If you don’t call and say things are okay in half an hour, I’m calling the cops.”

Jonny nodded and turned back as she closed the door behind her. “What do you guys want?” he asked the brown haired man coldly.

Madrox sighed and sat up, pulling his trenchcoat around his narrow shoulders. “Another Agent of ours is missing, and we have good reason to believe he’s around here somewhere. He was kidnapped.”

Jonny eyed him.

“So for that you break into a house?” Jessie asked acidly.

Madrox smiled cheerfully. “He’s very important.”

Hadji cleared his throat, sitting down in a plush chair. “Why don’t you tell us what he looks like?”

The man hesitated. “Well,” he said after a minute, “He looks like me.”

They waited for further description, but none was forthcoming. “And?” Hadji finally asked.

“That’s it. He looks exactly like me.”

“Twins,” Jessie said, cocking her head.

The man hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Twins.”

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“Have you ever heard of genetic alterations?” Agent Dane asked, sipping her drink as if she broke into people’s homes everyday.

Benton nodded slowly. “As you have seen, we’re fairly familiar with them.”

One side of Dane’s mouth twisted upward in a sardonic smile. “Of course. Do you know of any technology advanced enough to be able to do that?”

Benton frowned. That was something that had been bothering him quite a bit lately. “I don’t believe so.”

Dane nodded as if she’d been expecting this answer. “I need to find out who has that technology.” Her green eyes narrowed briefly as she saw he was about to protest, and she interrupted with “It’s a matter of national security.”

Benton watched her for a moment longer, trying to size her up. “I see,” he said at last, standing and walking to a panel in the wall. He pressed his hand against it and it swung out, revealing shelves full of notebooks and charts, graphs and maps all having to do with the cats. “We found them here,” he said, pulling free a map and laying it out on the table. “A small, uncharted island.”

Dane looked it over, then started to stand.

“That island is now gone.”

She stopped halfway and looked at him. “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

Benton shrugged. “It’s gone. Blown up, to be precise.”

For a moment she looked indecisive, then she sat back down. “If someone were to move a facility of this sort,” she said quietly, planning each word, “Where do you think they might put it? They would need huge underground places, probably, an airtight room, massive equipment and an energy source.”

Benton smoothed his mustache in a habit he’d developed long ago. After a minute he walked to another panel, opening up Questworld and entering the things she’d said would be needed. Five places worldwide blinked up. “Pick one,” Benton said, shrugging.

Dane eyed the screen, nonplused at the computer. Either she didn’t know what she was looking at, or she had a computer better then Questworld, Benton realized. Probably didn’t know what she was looking at.

“It can’t be a populated place,” she said quietly, effectively knocking out three of the five places, “And it would almost need to be someplace solid, where there was no chance of it caving in, no matter how much it sprawled underground.”

There went another place, leaving only the one.

“Well, whatdaya know,” Race said quietly, “I just happen to have an ex-wife working there.”

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