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He was in such a rush that he didn't even notice me there until just before he'd run into me. He skidded to a halt and fell over. He lay there, quivering in fear, and curled up in a fetal position. "Are you part of that gang down there?" I asked, hoping he spoke English.

He didn't move, except to rock back and forth and wail in fear. What kind of bank robber is this? "I'm not going to hurt you." I said, hoping to calm him down.

I stood awkwardly for a while, trying to figure out how to deal with him. He seemed so terrified! I knelt down next to him and pulled him to me. He flinched and tried to pull away. "It's okay, no one's going to hurt you." I murmured encouragingly. There was something strange about his body's shape, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

He seemed to be calming a little. He was mumbling something in Japanese and I feared he didn't speak English at all. I don't know what I would have done if he couldn't.

He finally did calm down and pull away from me. "You not hurt me?" he asked fearfully in heavily accented English. I sighed in relief, at least we could communicate!

"No, I won't hurt you." I reassured him. "Why did you run away?"

He looked at me fearfully for a moment before replying. "Those mutants make me join them. You stronger than they. You make me join you?" he asked fearfully. I finally realized what was odd about his body, he was a she! Her voice is what gave her away.

"No, I won't make you join me. Did they hurt you?" I asked cautiously.

She thought a moment, no doubt translating my words. "They try. We fight. They make me join. I not hurt." she answered.

"So you fought them off, but you were afraid they'd still hurt you if you didn't do what they said?" I asked for clarification.

"Yes." She answered.

"So you didn't want to be involved in this bank robbery?" I asked.

"No, they make me. I not want in gang, I not want to kill." She answered fearfully. There seemed to be something to that last part that really bothered her.

"Kill? They made you kill someone?" I prompted.

"Fight with other gang. Man attack me. I lose control, bite him. Feed. Not know I can do this. Feel horrible. Can't die." She replied morosely.

I took a while to decipher this. "They made you help them fight with another gang and you bit one of them while defending yourself?" I asked. She nodded. "You didn't know you could feed off of him through that bite, and you killed him by accident?" She nodded again. "Can't die…do you mean you tried to kill yourself and failed?"

She nodded again. "After I mutate, I try cut wrists. I heal too fast, not bleed enough to die. I stuck this way." She said sadly, looking down at her wrists.

My heart just about broke listening to this. She hated herself so much she wanted to die, but her accelerated healing prevented her from doing that. She obviously had no home here, and no life. Maybe we could help her find the will to live? "I live on an island of mutants. We're looking for other mutants to live with us for security. Some people are trying to kidnap me so they can study me and duplicate my mutation. You can live with us, if you want. There's a chance we'll be attacked again, but we'll all work together to keep each other safe. We won't force you to do anything." I told her hopefully. I really felt like she needed us. And her abilities would certainly come in handy if she was willing.

"You want me? Why?" she asked.

"Because you need us at least as much as we need you. And because you've had a raw deal and I want to help." I answered truthfully.

"But I am freak, have six arms!" she protested, lifting her shirt to reveal the other four arms tucked inside. I admit I was a little startled by this.

"If you're a freak, so am I. I've got wings and a tail, after all. All of us are mutants, though some of us don't show it. No one will give you a hard time about your looks." I promised.

She looked long and hard at me and then dissolved in tears. "I go with you." She hiccupped.

I didn't say anything, just held her while she cried. I just hoped we could help her with her self image issues.

"My name's Catherine, but you can call me Cat if you like. What's yours?" I asked when she'd calmed down.

"Tokuro Hachiro, but that name not fit anymore. Call me Arachne." She answered after a moment of thought.

"As in the Greek myth?" I asked curiously. She nodded.

"All right, Arachne it is. Do you have anything you want to get before we go?" I asked.

"No, I lost all I own." She replied sadly.

"Shall we go then?" I asked. She nodded so I picked her up and took off.

It was getting late by now, so I landed near the coast. "We'll rest here and leave in the morning." I explained to Arachne.

We curled up under the cover of my wings and slept. In the morning I told Arachne I'd need to go hunt before we left. "Hunt?" she asked. I explained what I meant and suggested she might want to do the same, since her dietary needs were similar to my own. Reluctantly, she agreed.

We rendezvoused where we slept that night after eating. She seemed even more down than before, and I guessed that her method of feeding had upset her.

I picked up Arachne and began our flight back to the island. Arachne gripped tightly with all six arms. She slowly relaxed as we flew, and I think she actually fell asleep about halfway through the trip. That ended abruptly as I dodged some kind of gas bombs that were exploding in midair all around me!

They were coming from a military vessel at anchor within sight of the beach on the island. I might have attacked the ship if I were on my own, but I didn't want to drop Arachne into that kind of situation. I slowly made my way to the island, dodging constantly.

There was a dull thump sound from the ship and it suddenly stopped firing. I took advantage of the lull to speed on down onto the beach where everyone was gathered. I back winged carefully, trying to keep the landing as smooth as possible for the frightened Arachne. "What's going on here?" I yelled as soon as I had set Arachne down.

Shawna had run over to us as we landed. "Are you alright Cat?" she asked worriedly.

"They missed, we're fine. Now what's going on?!" I repeated.

"They tried to kidnap Jill yesterday. Jacob warned them to leave us alone and it seemed to work, until we saw them shooting at you. Greg decided to make good on Jacob's threat and set off a bunch of grenades on the hull of their ship." Shawna rattled off rapidly.

I glanced over at the ship and saw that it was riding much lower in the water than before. "You sunk it?!" I exclaimed, looking over at the still dripping Greg.

He shrugged, "I wasn't sure how much damage it would do, but I had to do something."

I sighed wearily as I watched lifeboats being dropped, each filled with people. "Now we have to deal with all of them." I said, pointing at the life boats.

We all watched silently as the lifeboats were filled and started making their way to the beach. I estimated there were at least fifty people in them. "Shawna, how do you feel about having a roommate?" I asked suddenly.

"Uh, okay I guess." She replied uncertainly.

"Arachne, how about you, do you mind sharing with Shawna here?" I asked, turning to Arachne and pointing at Shawna.

"I do not mind." She said carefully.

"Shawna, why don't you go show Arachne her new home while we deal with our visitors." I suggested.

Arachne reluctantly left with Shawna. Once they were gone I turned to Paul. "Why don't we go collect a few things to give these guys a proper welcome?"

"You're not planning on attacking them, are you?" he asked worriedly.

"Of course not! I just want to make sure they don't try anything. I intend to disarm them as soon as they come ashore, whether they like it or not." I replied.

Paul nodded and we sped off to the village and collected weapons and armor for everyone. Once back at the beach we all started putting armor on. Elaine had altered a couple of bulletproof vests for Leonard and I. Once we were all armed we stood near the boats, so we could take cover behind them if necessary. Then we waited.

By the time the first lifeboat reached shore the ship was almost completely submerged. "That was good work with the grenades, Greg." I said as we waited.

"Thanks, but I thought you weren't happy with that?" he replied cautiously.

I shrugged. "Nothing we can do about that now, and I'm only bothered about what we're going to do with those soldiers, not with how you dealt with the ship. We were going to have more problems with them no matter what, I think."

By then the first lifeboat had emptied and twelve people had jumped out of it. They were all armed soldiers. "Hello boys! I hear you've been causing some problems. What say you put those weapons down so we don't have any more?" I suggested with a growl.

The soldiers looked at each other uncertainly. I motioned for everyone to take cover. Nobody fired a shot, but I could taste the tension in the air. Finally, the soldiers reluctantly lowered their weapons. "I'm not going to let you wait for reinforcements, drop your weapons!" I yelled.

They paused for a moment longer, and then dropped their weapons. After a growl from me they also dropped their pistols and grenades. We had them move away from their weapons and Paul and Mike collected them.

When the next boat arrived we repeated that process, though that group was a little more willing. They were also less heavily armed. There were three other boats and few of their passengers were armed when they came ashore.

In all there were fifty six people. "Anybody have any ideas what we're going to do with all these people?" I asked quietly.

"There are some caves up in the hills." Leonard suggested.

"Are there any there big enough to house all of them?" I asked hopefully.

Leonard thought for a moment before saying, "I think so."

"Why don't you go scout them out and then you can lead us there." I suggested. Leonard nodded and took off. He flapped laboriously up into the air, weighted down by his weapons and body armor.

"So, which one of you is in charge?" I asked our captives.

A balding man with grey hair stepped forward. "That would be me. What are your intentions?"

I shrugged. "To keep you lot contained and out of trouble until someone can pick you up."

"That will take a couple of days at least." He replied.

"Our friend is locating a cave large enough for all of you to stay in now." I said.

They talked among themselves after that, while we watched them. I wasn't confident that we had all their weapons, there were bound to be a few holdouts.

It took Leonard half an hour to find the cave and get back to us. "You found one?" I asked as he landed heavily.

He took a moment to catch his breath before answering. "Yes." He replied.

"Okay, lets lead them there, but let's keep them away from the village." I said. Then, turning to our prisoners, "We've found a cave for you. Let's go."

Leonard, Sarah and I took the lead, with the others following behind our prisoners. We took the long way around the village and into the hills. With such a large group, and the need to keep any of them from wandering off, it took a couple of hours to get them all into the cave. The entrance was fairly small, many of them had to duck down to get in, but inside it was huge.

"There aren't any connecting caves, are there?" I asked Leonard in a whisper as we watched them file in.

"No, definitely not. One or two people should be able to keep them in there indefinitely." He replied.

I was silent for a while after that, thinking about the logistics of the situation. If it was going to be at least two days before anyone could pick them up, then we'd have to make sure they had food and water, as well as guarding them. "We'll take turns guarding them, always in pairs. Shawna and Arachne won't be involved in that. I'll deliver their meals myself." I finally said.

By now all the prisoners were in the cave and the rest of our group were standing with us. "Okay, I get why you don't want Shawna involved, she's a kid and tiny besides, but why not the new girl?" Jacob asked.

"Arachne's had it pretty rough. She's not up to guard duty right now. Despite her strength they could easily intimidate her. And I promised we wouldn't force her to do anything, so don't put any pressure on her." I replied.

Jacob snorted, but didn't say anything else. "Why do you want to deliver their meals yourself?" Paul asked.

"Whoever delivers their meals has to go into the cave with them. I'm not handing them a hostage, and I'm the only one strong enough to take them all on at once if I have to." I replied. Paul accepted that reluctantly.

We left Mike and Tina on guard duty and returned to the village.

We found Shawna talking to Arachne in the square. "How are you two doing?" I asked.

"Shawna is very nice. She help me with my English." Arachne responded with a smile. It was the first smile I'd see from her.

"Yeah, I've been telling her about how I ended up here." Shawna added.

I nodded and introduced everyone to Arachne. She was very reserved with them, as I expected. She seemed more comfortable with me, and especially with Shawna. I wondered if it was her small size that allowed Arachne to be more comfortable around her.

After introductions Greg began getting dinner ready, as it was his turn. Shawna volunteered to help and asked Arachne if she wanted to help too. She agreed.

"So how was your trip?" Paul asked once we'd settled down on a log near the fire pit.

"Interesting, to say the least. I was attacked by that toad that traveled with Thomas on the way out from the island. He was piloting a helicopter. He had two gunners with machine guns loaded with rubber bullets. I left them on the helicopter and dumped the toad in the ocean." I replied.

"Did someone pick him up?" he asked.

I just shrugged. "I did a flyover of the first large coastal city I came across. As I was flying over I spotted a bank robbery in progress by a gang of mutants. They made short work of the police, so I intervened. I thought I was going to have to fight the police myself for a minute, but people in the bank apparently told them I wasn't with that gang because they put their weapons away and bowed to me. Then the manager did the same. I was kind of surprised, I expected a less friendly response from what Shawna told us."

"You probably would have had a more hostile reaction if you hadn't just helped catch a group of mutant criminals." Paul pointed out.

"True. Anyway, when I left the bank I spotted someone watching from an alley across the street. When they saw that I'd spotted them they ran away. I assumed it was someone working with the gang, so I followed. Turns out it was Arachne." I said.

"Arachne was with that gang?" Paul asked in surprise.

"Not by choice. From what she said she had already fought them off once, and probably could have again. But she has no confidence in herself and was afraid of them. They bullied her into joining and had her working as their lookout. They got her involved in a gang fight sometime before that and she found out she has to feed off of live animals in the process." I said.

"She ate one of the members of the other gang?!" Paul said in shock.

"Not exactly. From what I've been able to figure out I think she feeds just like a spider. She bit one of the gang members, that much she told me, and fed off of him. I think she injected him with poison that incapacitated him and dissolved his insides. She then basically drank him. She was horrified by her own actions, as you can imagine. Her instincts must be as strong as mine." I replied.

"Poor kid. She's had it rather rough, hasn't she." Paul said sadly.

"I think it's worse than that. She's scared of just about everything, I think. And I think she used to be a guy." I said.

Paul raised an eyebrow in surprise at that, "What makes you say that?"

"The name she gave me. She said her name was Tokuro Hochiro. She said it didn't fit her anymore. That, and the way the name sounds, make me think it's a male name." I answered.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to have her rooming with Shawna? If she was a guy, she's probably still attracted to girls." Paul pointed out worriedly.

"I don't think that will be a problem. Arachne isn't very assertive. That may change as she adapts to her new body and surroundings, but that will take time. I think Shawna will be the one taking charge of the two of them, if she hasn't already." I replied.

Paul was mollified by that. We cuddled while Greg, Shawna and Arachne made dinner. Once it was done I pulled Arachne aside and suggested we go hunting. She reluctantly agreed with a look at Shawna that told me she was worried about how Shawna would feel about her once she knew about Arachne's eating habits. "Don't worry about Shawna. I told her about my eating habits before I brought her here. She was a little grossed out at first, but she's fine with it now. I'm sure she'll take you're eating habits in stride."

Arachne nodded uncertainly. Once we were well away from the others I softly said, "Arachne, did you use to be a guy?"

Her eyes widened in shock and she started to back away from me. "It's alright, I was, too." I hurried to add, hoping it would reassure her.

She stopped in shock and stared at me. "You were male?" she asked. I nodded. "But…you are with that man…will I too?" she asked fearfully.

I laughed, "Not likely! I was gay, as a guy. So you'll likely be gay, as a girl. From what I've seen, most if not all, mutants retain their sexual orientation after mutation."

She seemed greatly relieved to hear that. "I would like you to tell Shawna that you used to be male, or at least that you are attracted to women. It would be best she doesn't find out some other way than you telling her. Are you okay with that?" I asked.

She looked somewhat alarmed at that idea, but calmed quickly. "I will tell, I do not want upset her." She replied.

With that decided we went our separate ways to hunt. I knew she didn't want anyone to watch her feed, and I usually hunt from the air. Afterwards we met back at the square.

"Where did you go Arachne?" Shawna asked as we entered the square. They were just cleaning up from their dinner.

"I go to feed." Arachne explained with trepidation.

"You eat like Cat?" Shawna asked. Arachne nodded. "That must suck."

"I am monster." Arachne agreed forlornly with bowed head.

"Hey! No calling yourself a monster! You can't help your mutation any more than I can." Shawna replied sternly.

Arachne nodded slightly but her gaze did not leave the ground. "So what was this about those people trying to kidnap Jill?" I asked, remembering what Shawna had said at the beach.

"Shawna had taken it upon herself to watch for trouble, particularly at night. I sat with her. The night before last Shawna spotted that ship out there and I told her to run back to the village and tell them about it. While she was gone some men snuck up on me and knocked me out before I knew they were there. They were in the process of taking me back to the ship when Tina interrupted them." Jill explained.

"I was only there as soon as I was because Shawna asked me because she was worried about Jill being out there alone. Otherwise Jill would have been long gone. As it was I was only able to slow them down, but Shawna woke everyone else as well, and they came and pinned them down. Then Greg swam over and retrieved Jill and Leonard dropped a grenade on them. That was pretty much the end of that." Tina added.

"Well, good work Shawna it sounds like you saved Jill. And you were worried that you would be no use to us." I chided.

Shawna blushed and said, "Tina's the one that stopped them from escaping. Greg's the one that saved Jill."

"Don't argue, you did good!" Mike said.

"So why did they try and grab Jill…" I mused aloud. They all looked at each other but seemed reluctant to speak. Then I realized what they must have been after. "They wanted a hostage to use to get to me, didn't they?"

Paul sighed resignedly. "Yes, that's what we think. Jill was just handy because she was alone on the beach away from everyone else. It could have been any of us."

"Damn, and I can't leave yet!" I exclaimed angrily.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked worriedly. "You're not thinking about leaving to lead them away from us again, are you?"

I shook my head. "No, that obviously wouldn't work. They'd just try to kidnap one of you and lure me in. No, what I'm worried about is my parents! They know who I am, or more accurately, was!"

"Are my parents in danger, too?" Shawna asked with mixed feelings evident in her expression.

"I don't know. They could be, but then again they did abandon you. And they're a more indirect method of getting to me than kidnapping one of you would be. My parents would be a more prime target, I'm sure." I replied.

"What about our families?" Jacob asked. I was rather surprised it was him doing the asking.

"They don't know who you are, and I hope to keep it that way. Your families should be safe." I replied.

"Especially those of us who look much different than we used to." Tina pointed out.

"I wonder how my family would react to me now…" Elaine wondered. "Not that I care, mind you, but it would be interesting."

"Why wouldn't you care?" Connie asked.

"Well, they kind of disowned me." Elaine admitted.

"Oh?" Connie replied curiously.

Elaine shrugged and said, "They were embarrassed to have a cross dresser in the family."

"So that's why you're so comfortable being female, and like wearing feminine clothes!" Connie exclaimed. Elaine was the only one of us who changed gender that had made any attempt to change her wardrobe. She couldn't do much with what we have, but she did manage to make a couple of skirts out of extra blankets. She also modified her shirts and always wore them with the top few buttons undone.

"Yes. It wasn't as big of an adjustment for me as it was for the rest of you." Elaine agreed.

"Well, I'd better see about feeding all those men." I said, getting up.

"The boats they used had food on them, use that." Jill suggested. "It's stacked up just inside the storage house."

I agreed and went and collected enough for all of them. Paul and Mike carried coconuts of water and we walked over to the cave. I carried the food in and then returned for the water. After dropping off the water I stopped to talk to the man in charge of them. "What were you planning to do with the person you tried to kidnap?" I asked.

"I just commanded the ship and followed orders. The marines on board were given their orders by someone else. I don't know what their plans were." He replied. I stared into his eyes for a long moment and then nodded. Somehow I knew he was telling the truth.

I returned to Paul, Mike had already left, and we walked back to the village hand in hand. "I guess you're stuck with me for at least a couple of days." I said to Paul with a smile.

"I guess I am." He agreed, smiling back.

We stopped and kissed for what seemed an eternity. When we stopped I found I was breathing hard and my body was molded to his. "Let's go do lots more of that!" I exclaimed. He laughed and we walked back to our house.

After hunting in the morning we brought more food to the cave. Jill and Vincent were on guard duty when we got there. "Had any trouble?" I asked.

"Not trouble, but they have been asking for you." Jill replied.

Curious, I made my way into the cave carrying more of the food they'd brought with them. As soon as I was all the way inside the cave I was jumped from all sides. I was stabbed from two directions while the others pummeled me with fists and rocks. I dropped the food and just as I was about to respond to their attack the commander of the ship pointed a pistol at my face and fired.

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 To Be Continued…
 

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