“Mayday, Mayday! Can anyone hear me? Our cargo is on fire! Is anyone out there?!” I screamed into the radio. My voice was getting hoarse from yelling at the radio, but I had no idea if I was even working the damn thing properly! I was covered in slime, a mixture of toxic and radioactive waste. It couldn’t be healthy.

I was still yammering away at that damn radio when the door burst open and slammed against the wall. The bloody apparition that was revealed by that door was something I didn’t expect to ever see again. The pirate was carrying an AK 47 and favoring his left leg. He didn’t bother to say anything, just leveled his gun and fired on full auto.”

I jerked awake, shaking and covered in sweat, just before the bullets would have torn into me. Damn, why do I have to have the same dream every time I close my eyes? I looked down at my bloody body, as I did each time I awoke from that dream. Those bullets had hurt, before I had blissfully lost consciousness. At least I never felt them in my dreams.

It still amazed me that I survived this long. My body was looking stranger each time I awoke, too. The pain had long since faded. The pirate hadn’t shown himself yet. Assuming he was still here and alive.

Once again I thought back to how I got here. I got a job on board ship to get away from my parents and make some money. Getting away from my parents was great, but I really should have thought it through better. Working in such a macho environment with nothing but muscular, half naked guys is great for eye candy, but they don’t appreciate being ogled too much. I managed to keep my orientation a secret, but it was a never-ending frustration.

Still, things were going pretty well until the pirates boarded the ship. It happens, but you never expect it to happen to you. We tried to cooperate with the pirates, who seemed rather trigger happy, but that all fell apart when they herded us into the cargo hold. The captain and a couple of the officers point-blank refused to go into the hold. There was a big argument, but the upshot was they admitted that our cargo was toxic and radioactive waste that we were going to dump illegally. This was news to most of us.

Naturally we were ticked off because many of us had handled that cargo. A huge argument broke out and the pirates were all but forgotten. They didn’t appreciate that, and started firing off over our heads to get our attention. That might have worked out, except some of the shots ricocheted into the cargo and started a fire. That started a panic that the pirates and their guns could do little about.

We all ran in different directions, and I somehow found myself hiding amongst the cargo. Before long it was a full riot, with the pirates getting trampled under the superior numbers of the crew, but not without taking a lot of them down first. Before long the cargo hold was choked with smoke. The floor was slick with toxic and radioactive waste. And I was covered in both and breathing the fumes.

Once the worst of the shooting was over, I crawled out of my hiding place to get away from the cargo. I found the hold full of dead bodies. I made my way up on deck, stepping over dead pirates and crew alike. Smoke was filtering up from the hold, and trailing up from a few small fires on the deck. More dead bodies littered the deck, and all the lifeboats were either smashed or gone. I went to the railing, but I couldn’t see any ships, pirate or otherwise. I circled the whole ship, but nothing.

I spent the next several hours searching the ship, but I didn’t find anybody alive. Finally I found myself in front of the radio. I felt sick, but considering all that had happened, I didn’t think much of it. I started broadcasting a mayday, or at least tried to. I’d never used the radio before so had no idea if I was using it right or not. Then that pirate came in and shot me.

When I woke up that first time, I was still in a lot of pain. There was no sign of the pirate. I tried to get up, but I passed out.

Each time I woke, I felt less pain, but more strange feelings took the place of the pain. My body seemed to change, though it was hard to tell under the tattered remnants of my clothes. I still hadn’t been able to move far without passing out.

This time there was a change I could see clearly. My hands were smaller and thinner, but my fingernails had thickened, lengthened, and curved into sharp claws. They looked kind of like a cats claws. I grabbed the steel frame of a table to pull myself off the floor and my claws dug right into the metal. I had just enough time to gaze at the holes my claws punched in the metal in astonishment before I passed out again.

Some time later I awoke again, after having that same dream. My back was itching abominably and my feet hurt like hell. I tried to move again, and managed to get to my knees without blacking out. That’s when my feet got stuck to the floor. I thrashed about for a while and finally managed to break loose, only to find I had talons! They had dug into the floor when I sat up and scratched and gouged the floor.

My feet were still hurting and I tried to take my shoes off. My claws were getting in the way, and my feet seemed to have changed shape. Finally I got frustrated and shredded my shoes with my claws. My feet were small and slim, but had changed their shape so that I had to walk on the balls of my feet. What the hell has that stuff done to me?

I managed to stand up, but had to lift my feet up with each step to get the talons on my feet clear of the floor before I could move my foot forward. I gingerly made my way to a chair and plopped down. The nails on my feet had changed, but not like on my hands. These were thicker and more like a birds talons. I flexed my toes and discovered I could keep the talons up high enough to not dig into the ground with each step. I could also retract my claws, leaving short but still sharp nails.

Once I had control over my talons and claws I stumbled out on deck. My balance was all wrong, but I could drop my talons into the deck whenever I lost my balance to keep from falling. Things looked much like they had. There was no sign of that pirate anywhere, nor any other ships. The fire had gone out at some point. My stomach grumbled so I went looking for some food.

Someone had ransacked the food supplies, but I managed to put together a meal and wolfed it down. I’d never felt so hungry! Almost as soon as I finished I felt exhausted and fell asleep in my chair.

I dreamed of flying through the sky and pouncing on my prey with talons and claws, like an animal. Strangely, though, it wasn’t disgusting or disturbing, but exhilarating! I was almost disappointed when I woke.

I felt a draft on my back and felt behind me to find that my shirt was torn away from my back. I shifted around to try and see what had caused it and felt a weight shift on my back. I reached around and felt feathers! I felt them both with my fingers, and with another appendage I didn’t have before. It took some concentration, but I managed to move it around to where I could see it.

I nearly fainted right then when I saw a wing which was clearly growing out of my back. When I stretched it out to see how big it is a second unfolded on the other side. They filled the room and had glossy black feathers. I felt ill and fainted again.

Once again I dreamed of hunting prey, this time on the ground. I was running on all fours, my tail whipping around behind me as I chased my prey. Then I leaped and brought it down and ripped out its throat with my fangs. Warm blood filled my mouth as it twitched and died.

I awoke with a start as I was about to take a bite out of it. I shuddered at the memory, as much from excitement as from horror at what I was doing. These dreams were weird, but enticing. It’s like I was becoming some kind of animal!

I reached up to brush my hair back from my eyes and my arm brushed against something that wasn’t there before. I reached down, careful to retract my claws, and felt soft flesh under my tattered shirt. It took my befuddled mind several moments to realize what I was holding, and several more to realize the significance. I had breasts?! I scrambled up and checked my groin, but that was still there!

I stumbled out to a bathroom, my wings and breasts were throwing my balance off like crazy. In the mirror was a very strange looking girl! I knew I wasn’t a girl, I checked again to be sure, but I sure looked like one! My eyes were angled strangely, like a cats. My hair had grown down below my shoulders and become glossy blue-black. And I definitely had breasts and wings!

Strangely enough, there wasn’t any trace of the bullet wounds. My clothes had holes in them, but I didn’t! My claws had changed to black, as had my talons. I felt yet another strange appendage and realized I had a tail! It had short fur the same color as my hair and wings.

I stared dumbfounded at my reflection until my stomach grumbled again. I gathered another meal and wolfed it down. I was out within minutes of finishing my meal.

I ran on all fours through the forest, chasing my prey. It broke free from the forest and ran towards its herd. I left the forest a moment later and spread my wings. Soon I was soaring through the air just a few feet above it. I folded my wings and dove onto its back, claws and fangs latching on until it stopped squirming. Its blood was like nectar, its flesh ambrosia. I ate my fill and took to the sky. Its herd scattered before me, but I was sated.

I awoke feeling a sense of power and joy from my dream that slowly faded. What was I turning into?!

I would say I stumbled back to the bathroom, but I found my balance to be perfectly natural now. My wings and tail felt like natural extensions of my body, as if they’d always been there. My walk was different, and my hips felt much wider, but that also felt normal. It even felt normal when I heard a strange sound and my ears swiveled to focus on the sound!

In the bathroom I saw a beautiful girl staring back at me. She looked much like what I saw last time, but more developed in face and figure. My teeth had sharpened and my canines had grown to proper fangs. My eyes were now slitted, and my ears were on top of my head and shaped like a cats, complete with fur just like that on my tail. I could hear all kinds of sounds from all over the ship, especially when I moved my ears to focus on the sounds. When I got back up on deck I could see better, too. I spotted a bird flying far overhead, but could sort of ‘zoom in’ my vision so that it looked like it was just a few feet away!

Even with these new senses, I couldn’t find any trace of any living people on board or nearby. My hunger got the better of me again, and I scoured the ship for food. I managed to find enough to sate my hunger, just. As I was dozing off I was thinking that I would have to find some food soon or I would be in trouble.

When I woke up it was dark outside. For once I didn’t remember any dreams. A quick check showed nothing had changed. I decided that, if I was going to survive, I needed to leave this ship. I used my claws and talons to climb up the tallest part of the ship and stretched my wings. I hope I know what I’m doing, not that I have any choice, I thought as I jumped off and spread my wings.

Within moments I had left the ship behind, and below. I quickly gained altitude and accelerated. As I gained altitude I circled around the ship, looking for the nearest ship or landmass. Once I was as high as I dared I widened the circle until I finally spotted something; a flickering light.

I wheeled around and flew towards that light. It was a long ways off, just at the edge of my enhanced eyesight, but I was there in only about an hours flight. The light was a bonfire on the beach of an island. There didn’t seem to be any structures on the island, and I wondered if the bonfire was a signal to attract help?

As easy as flying had come to me so far, I found going down slowly to be very difficult. I could fold my wings and dive, but that would probably hurt a lot. I circled around the fire, gliding and dipping my wings every now and then to drop a little faster. Soon I could make out a dozen or so figures around the fire.

I gazed intently at those figures, and realized they were crewmen from my ship! They looked a little worse for wear, but alright. They must have taken one of the missing lifeboats. They were now all looking up and pointing at me, not that I could blame them. How often do you see a bird with a thirty foot wing span?

I was worried they’d be hostile, especially since there was a small pile of AK 47s a little ways up the beach. I guess they were more curious than afraid, because they just moved back a little as I came down for a landing.

I just followed my instincts coming in, and ended up landing on all fours. My hips and legs shifted around and it seemed perfectly natural to be on all fours. After skidding for a stop in the sand I stood upright with a *pop* from my hips. We were all silent for several moments. I wasn’t sure what to say, it’s not like I planned to meet up with any of my former crewmates. For their part, they didn’t know what to make of me.

All those stares brought back to me how much I’d changed. Somewhere along the line my groin had changed, too, and I was all female. Maybe I could even have kids, I don’t know. I looked like a freaky crossbreed between human, feline, and avian. I felt the weight of their stares boring into me and I collapsed in tears.

My display only made the men even more uncomfortable, although for a different reason. Finally one of them stepped forward and said, “Hey there, uh, no need to, uh, cry, Miss.” He spoke hesitantly and stumbled over his own words, but he seemed genuinely upset to see me crying. I never could understand why most guys got so upset when women cry. I guess my being gay made me immune or something because it never had that effect on me.

I couldn’t understand why I’d broke down crying like that, I wasn’t prone to it before. His concern just upset me more and soon I was bawling! He seemed really uncomfortable, but another man stepped forward and knelt beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder. “Hey there, lass, no need for tears.” he said soothingly. “I can see you’ve been through a lot, but it can’t be that bad.”

I finally stopped crying and thought about what he said. I giggled a little, which turned into a semi-hysterical laugh. Tears were streaming down my cheeks again, this time from the uncontrollable laughter. Once I’d stopped laughing I tried to explain to the perplexed men what was so funny the only way I could think of. “Don’t you recognize me, Paul?” I asked. “I’m David.”

There was a long silence as all the men stared at me, and in particular at my ruined clothes. Every man on ship had his name on all their uniform shirts. My shirt was shredded and bloody, but my name was still legible. Paul, the man who was trying to comfort me, pulled back a bit. He looked closely at my name on my shirt, and my face. Finally he put his hand back on my shoulder and said, “David? You can’t be David, he’s a guy!”

I chuckled again, but more normally. “Yeah, well, before I took an ooze bath I was a guy. Now I’m just a freak.” I answered morosely.

The oldest crewman in the group, one of the officers who knew about the cargo, asked, “Before we go into mutations and sex changes, did you see any ships or other landmasses when you were flying around up there?”

I shook my head, my now waist length hair flying around me. “No. I circled out from the ship, but this island is the only thing I saw.”

He cursed and started pacing around the fire. The rest of us ignored him. “Are…are you…you know, all girl?” Paul asked hesitantly.

I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. On the outside, though, yes.” I answered.

There was a lot of muttering at this, which was silenced when Conrad, the officer, said, “We’ve been burning everything we can find for days without any sign of rescue. Will you circle out from the island and see if there is anyone close enough for you to contact to get help?”

I shrugged again. “I guess so.” I answered. I stood up and away from Paul and flexed my wings.

“Wait!” Paul called and ran towards me. “You should eat something, first. You look pretty tired.”

I couldn’t argue with that assessment, but warned them that every time I ate I ended up sleeping within minutes. Conrad wasn’t too happy at that, but Paul and the other guys insisted I eat first. They had gathered some food from the ship, and more from the island.

As was becoming usual for me, I was out like a light shortly after I ate.

When I woke there was a blanket draped over me and I was lying near the bonfire. Paul was sitting a few feet away, watching me. “How do you feel?” he asked when he saw I was awake.

I yawned as I sat up and stretched, my wings putting Paul in shadow for a moment before I folded them back. “Okay, I guess.” I answered vaguely.

Paul stood up and walked over to me. Squatting down next to me he said, “Look, I know this is all pretty weird. It can’t be easy for you to wake up as a girl with wings and a tail but you are not a freak. No matter what you were before, you’re now an amazingly beautiful woman. Don’t let Conrad boss you around or treat you like an animal or slave.” He said all this with such conviction and sincerity that I was moved to tears, though I managed to hold them back.

I touched the first two fingers of my right hand to his cheek before I realized what I was doing and pulled my hand back, blushing. “Uh, thanks, I guess.” I stammered. “But I want to help.”

Paul didn’t seem the least bit bothered by my abortive gesture. “Okay.” He nodded. “Just don’t over exert yourself. If you go too far you might not be able to make it back.”

I agreed I’d be careful and hurriedly took to the air. As much as I liked Paul, I wasn’t too sure about being treated like a girl. Even if I was one, now.

I spent hours circling out farther and farther from the island. It turned out to be a fairly large island, with lots of animals. Especially deer and pigs. It looked like there were easily enough resources here for our small group to survive indefinitely. Which was just as well, because even my keen eyesight couldn’t find any trace of land or any other ships anywhere nearby.

I was getting tired, so I turned back. Paul’s warning was right on, but I managed to get back okay. I did land a little rough, though. Conrad wasn’t too happy about my news, even when I told him what I’d seen about the island, but Paul was more concerned about me. He chided me about overdoing it, and then badgered me until I’d eaten as much as I comfortably could before letting me sleep.

I slept through the rest of the day and through the night. When I woke Paul was watching me again. I was a little confused by all the attention; didn’t he believe me about being David? And if so, why all the interest? There was no doubt that Paul was as straight as they come.

“You know,” he said when he saw I was awake, “you should really think about taking a new name. David doesn’t really fit you anymore.” Well, that took care of that question; he certainly seemed to believe me!

I honestly hadn’t given it any thought. My transformation hadn’t really sunk in all that much yet. “Any ideas?” I asked.

“Well, you could always go with Diana or Dana, I guess, but it should really be your choice. You’re the one that has to live with it.” he answered.

I thought about it for a while. “How about Catherine?” I asked with a smirk.

He looked confused at the smirk at first, and then laughed. “So you can be Cat, for short?” he asked and laughed some more.

I nodded and we both laughed over it. A couple of the other guys came over to see what all the fuss was about and Paul told them my new name, and nickname. They both laughed, too.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked.

Greg, one of the two who walked over, asked, “We? Can’t you just fly out of here?”

I shook my head as I answered, “Not really. I already flew out to try and find another landmass or ship, but I found nothing. I could try picking a direction and flying as far as I can in that direction, but if there’s nothing there I could end up drowning when I become too tired to fly.”

They agreed that’d be a bad idea. “Well, I guess we continue what we’ve been doing.” Paul said.

“That’s not going to work.” Conrad growled, as he walked over to us. “We’re going to run out of food before long. We’ll have to spend more time gathering food and won’t have time to get the wood together for the fire.”

The thought of food got my stomach grumbling, and I remembered my dreams. “Uh, I think I can take care of the food problem, or at least part of it.” I said sheepishly.

“What do you mean?” Conrad asked.

“I could hunt for you, and maybe gather fruits and vegetables, too. Or at least let you know where things are.” I answered.

“What makes you think you can catch enough meat for all of us?” Conrad asked with a sneer.

“I have all kinds of weird instincts I’ve inherited with this new body.” I explained. “Also, I have these.” With that I let my claws and talons out to their full length.

“Whoa!” Greg exclaimed. “Those look wicked!” He had jumped back at first, but now looked more intrigued than scared.

Even Conrad was impressed at that. “You really think you can get enough meat for a dozen people?” he asked.

“I’ll show you.” I answered, and took to the air. I wasn’t sure I could take flight from a standing start, but I could. I jumped several feet into the air and flapped my wings, and I was up!

I scouted out the area around the bonfire and spotted the shelters that the crewmen had built to sleep in. I soon spotted a grove of fruit trees and several berry bushes. Then I spotted a boar. Without even thinking I dived and landed on its back. My talons and claws dug in, preventing him from bucking me off. I loosed one hand and forced his head back to sink my fangs into his throat. I ripped out his throat and jumped clear.

I landed on all fours with my wings folded to my back and watched. He staggered around towards me but collapsed long before he could reach me. Once I was sure he was dead I picked him up and flew him back to the bonfire where I’d left Conrad. The boar seemed very light in my hands and hardly affected my flight at all.

Conrad was suitably impressed by the boar, and the information on nearby edible plants. He sent a few men off to gather fruits, berries, and whatever else they could find while I flew off to hunt for myself. I brought down a deer and ate all I wanted before flying the remains back. All of the men seemed a little queasy when they saw what I’d done to the deer carcass, but they didn’t argue with the extra meat either!

We got into a routine after that. I would do all the hunting, and either point out where the best edible plants were, or gather food from them myself. Meanwhile, the men would gather firewood for the bonfire and watch it to keep it going.

A few nights later a couple of the men decided that supplying food wasn’t enough of a contribution to our little community. After their rather forceful propositions, and a short flight over the bonfire, they decided that I would choose when and *if* we got together like that. The rest of the men were suitably impressed by my strength, and never tried to force me to do anything after that.

That’s not to say they weren’t interested. I confided to Paul a few days later that I’d always been attracted exclusively to men. He didn’t seem very surprised. He also seemed very interested.

Paul soon became my favorite, but not *only* nighttime companion. We eventually gave up on the bonfire after months without any sign of rescue. We soon built some proper homes and settled down into a small community. It was a reversal of the kind of community you might expect from such primitive conditions. The men were the gatherers and took care of the domestic chores, while I did the hunting.

It took me a while to get used to my new form, and especially sex, but I became quite comfortable with it. My part of the work was actually quite easy, if a bit physically demanding. My nighttime activities were even more so, but well worth it. I decided that, despite the traumatic way I found myself here, I liked my life on the island with these men. So when I saw a ship far off in the distance when flying one day, I didn’t say anything about it. Why mess with a good thing?

Maybe that’s what really pissed him off, the fact that I’m so much stronger than him, now. I didn’t really notice at first, it was Paul who pointed out to me how I was carrying boar and deer back like they were weightless. It was kind of a shock to realize that I could out muscle anyone there, even though I was far less massive (if you ignore the wings).

Paul was curious to see just how strong I am now. He had me lifting the lifeboat, and kept adding rocks to see how much I could lift. We couldn’t guess the actual weight, but it turned out it didn’t really matter. Even filled to the brim and beyond with rocks I could lift the lifeboat without too much effort. Even after I thought to add sand, it still wasn’t too much for me. Greg had guessed that the boat weighed a few tons, at least.

Our little experiment had gotten everyone curious about how far my changes really went. We tried racing, to see if I was faster, too. That ended pretty quickly. Even on two feet (I’m faster on four) I ran so much faster than everyone else that racing was a joke!

I already knew my sight and hearing were far superior to what they had been. My sense of smell was pretty good, too. And, of course, I could fly! That’s what I did in my spare time more than anything else, I flew around the island. I could stay aloft for hours now without difficulty, even if I wasn’t just gliding.

I had an accident one day while hunting and broke a wing. I was mortified, but it healed up overnight! So healing was added to the list. After that I insisted on doing all the most dangerous stuff, since I healed up so quickly. This just pissed Conrad off even more; I guess he felt I was taking over.

The other guys were perfectly happy for me to take over so, I guess, in the end I did.

They’d built simple lean-tos near the beach before I arrived. Once we’d given up on the bonfire, we decided to build something more lasting. Joshua, a quiet guy I didn’t know well, suggested adobe. He seemed to know what he was doing, so he supervised while we put together frames for adobe bricks and started gathering dirt, clay, sand, and grass.

As soon as we had some frames done we filled them with the adobe mixture and set them in the sun to dry while we made more frames. We were going to need a lot of bricks, and they would take a while to dry, so it made sense to make a large number of frames.

Within a week or two we had enough bricks to start construction. But Joshua warned us that building on uneven or loose ground could result in the bricks cracking or worse. We selected a meadow a little ways into the island, far enough in that flooding from high tide, even during a storm, was unlikely.

We pulled all the grass out in the area where we were going to build. We needed it for the adobe anyway, so it didn’t go to waste. The problem was that the ground was soft. How could we pack it down?

I finally came up with the idea to use a coconut. It was the only thing we had that was strong and round enough. I would roll it along the ground and push it down as I went. With my strength it was like a miniature steam roller. Besides how time consuming it was, my biggest problem was not pushing so hard that the coconut got buried in the ground!

The men kept making bricks and clearing ground while I leveled and compacted the building sites. Once one area was done, they started building while I readied the next site. We wanted to have a separate building for each person. Hey, we had time, why not?

The first building collapsed after we had it about half done. Fortunately no one was hurt. By then I had finished packing the ground and helped rebuild it. With my help we had it put back together in fairly short order. The reason it fell apart was that we had forgotten to use wet adobe as a mortar. Joshua would have noticed that, but we had him supervising the making of bricks.

After that we had Conrad supervise the brick making (He wasn’t too happy with that, but he was the oldest and most out of shape of us, so it made sense). Joshua had some good ideas on the building side of things, too, so things moved along really well.

It took months to get them all finished, and several roofs collapsed before we got it right. Finally we all had our own homes. Paul and I moved in together within weeks, so we used the empty house as storage. We were all really proud of our work, and were really feeling like we had a real home now.

Once the building was out of the way, we started looking for other ways to make things more comfortable. Fishing became the favorite past time of several of the men. Some fished from shore, while Conrad and Jacob (one of the idiots who tried to force me shortly after I arrived) used the lifeboat.

Adding fish to our diet meant that I didn’t have to hunt as often, which made me feel better. I had been getting worried that I would decrease the population too much. I used the extra time that allowed me to build a small garden next to our house. I flew all over the island collecting the seeds for it. I found several different fruits and vegetables to plant, and even planted a few fruit trees.

A few weeks after we started fishing things started to change. Conrad changed a lot. He became calmer, and was far more willing to let others take the lead. When Jacob started bossing him around we all knew something was up.

I visited Conrad at his house one night to try and figure out what was going on.

“Hi, what can I do for you Catherine?” He asked pleasantly when I knocked on his door (Vincent had become our blacksmith and managed to make workable hinges and latches for the doors).

I stood there gaping for a moment before I remembered why I was there. When did Conrad become pleasant, especially to me! “Uh, hi, Conrad.” I said, flustered. “I was wondering if we could talk.”

“Sure, come on in. Would you like something to drink?” He asked as he ushered me inside. He had hollow coconut shells lined up filled with water, we all did. He also had some unripe coconuts that hadn’t been opened yet. All you had to do was poke a hole (They pretty much left that task up to me, that shell is very hard) and you could drink the coconut water inside.

His behavior was really starting to creep me out, but I accepted and poked holes in two unripe coconuts and handed one back to him. “So, I, well we, were all wondering what is going on with you. You’re behaving a lot differently lately.” I said.

To my great surprise, Conrad started crying! This was so out of character for the Conrad I knew that I was too stunned to move at first. Then as Conrad continued to cry I walked over and hugged him. It seemed like the thing to do.

He accepted my hug gratefully and cried on my shoulder for several minutes. As he did I realized something. He had changed! He was no longer taller than me, but about the same height. He was also thinner and less muscular.

He finally stopped crying and sat down against the wall. His head was hanging down and his hair was obscuring his face. Wait a minute, he had a buzz cut before we got here, how had it grown so long?

I sat down beside him. I looked over at him a while longer and ran these changes through my mind. Something about them seemed important and I gasped out loud when I realized what it was. He looked up at me when I did with a questioning look.

“Conrad,” I began cautiously, “have you been experiencing any changes recently? I mean, physically?” I asked.

Conrad nodded mutely, more tears streaking down his face. “Yes. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone else noticed. Jacob teases me about it all the time. He keeps saying that I’ll end up like you and when I do I can be his…his woman.” Conrad said, and started bawling again, his face in his hands.

I had to remind myself to keep my claws in as my fists clenched in anger. That jerk had tried it on with me once already. If he tried something with Conrad I’d rip his heart out!

Conrad started edging away from me and I realized I’d been growling. I closed my eyes and took a moment to calm myself. “Sorry, Conrad.” I said once I had my anger under control again. “Don’t worry about Jacob, I’ll deal with him.”

Conrad looked ready to protest, then just nodded and looked down again. “Conrad?” I started, trying to make eye contact. “How much have you changed?”

In answer he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal the bandages wrapped around his chest. “Jacob noticed them about a week ago, and I started binding them. It didn’t help with Jacob, though. He’s convinced I’m going to be a woman before long.” He said quietly.

“You poor thing!” I found myself saying as I wrapped her up in my arms as she cried. Jacob had a lot to answer for, but right now I needed to concentrate on Conrad. He was changing a lot slower than I had, but it did look like he was becoming female.

When he had calmed down again he pulled away and re-buttoned his shirt. “Everything else is changing too.” He explained, with a voice that I suddenly realized was higher and smoother (He had a rather gravelly voice before). “Even, you know…” He trailed off and pointed at his groin.

I nodded. “You have changed a lot. I wonder if anyone else has experienced any changes…” I mused aloud. I had noticed that Stan (The other idiot who attacked me) had been a lot more aggressive lately. Not towards me, he’s not that stupid, but towards everyone else. And Joshua was a little more outgoing, though that could just be from living in close quarters with us for as long as we had.

“Do you think we’re all mutating, like you did?” Conrad asked fearfully.

I thought a moment and said, “Maybe. I don’t think anyone else is going to change as drastically as I did. After all, my change only took a week or so. Also, I was doused in that stuff, whereas you had very little contact with it. The changes will probably be less severe and take longer.”

“Less severe! You call this less severe?!” Conrad yelled angrily.

“Yes Conrad, I call that less severe. I shrank a lot when I changed. Not to mention growing talons, claws, fangs, a tail, cat eyes, cat ears, and wings! Oh, and then there’s the enhanced senses, super strength, and speed! I think just about anything would be less severe than that!” I replied, fighting to remain calm. It still bothered me sometimes when I thought about it, how much I’d changed.

Conrad wilted and gazed at the floor again. “Sorry.” He all but whispered. “Sometimes I forget that you weren’t always like you are. You seem so happy most of the time.”

I shrugged. “Most of the time, I am. I was gay before, you know. Being female is still a little weird for me, at times, but it’s a lot easier in some ways.” I said.

Conrad looked at me questioningly, “You were gay?” He asked in amazement.

“Yep.” I answered.

He looked down again as he said, “I think I’m going to be gay.”

I was a little confused by this at first. “Oh, you mean if you change all the way to female?” I asked once I figured it out. He nodded.

“I can understand that.” I said. “My orientation didn’t change when I did, so there’s no reason to assume yours would.” It made me sad to think about it, though, because there were no other women on the island and I had no interest in women at all.

We were silent for a while after that. I went back to thinking about whether anyone else was changing or not. Finally, I said, “Maybe we’d better see if anyone else is changing. There could be other people changing who are trying to hide it like you have. They may feel better knowing that they’re not alone.”

Conrad nodded. He wiped the tears from his face and I helped him up. “It’s getting on towards dinner time, why don’t we bring this up once we’ve got everyone together?” I suggested.

“Okay, as long as you don’t tell anyone about me.” Conrad answered. I agreed.

We had built a sunken fire pit in the middle of our little ‘village’. While we were all off on our own most of the time, we gathered there at dinner. We often discussed little projects or issues there, so that was the best place to bring it up.

Paul was already getting dinner together when we got there. Everyone but me took turns cooking. My tastes had changed when I did and I had little use for cooked food. I hunted earlier in the day, so I didn’t need to eat. I still joined everyone else, though, since I was sort of the unofficial leader of our little group.

I told Paul that I had something to talk about once everyone was gathered so he could pass the word. Conrad and I sat down and talked while we waited for the rest to show up. We stayed away from the subject of mutations for now.

Everyone arrived well before the main course was ready, as was usually the case. They would snack on fruits and vegetables while they waited on the meat. We still hadn’t managed to put together an oven for baking, so we had no bread yet.

Once everyone was settled I brought up the subject of mutation. “I’ve been noticing some changes in behavior in some of you. I’ve also noticed some physical changes. I suspect that some or all of you are experiencing a similar mutation to mine, only slower and less severe. Have any of you noticed anything unusual?” I asked.

Some looked shocked, others looked uncomfortable. A few looked nonchalant, but I suspected it was a put on. No one spoke at first, and I was careful not to look at Conrad anymore than anyone else. Finally Joshua cleared his throat and drew everyone’s attention to himself.

“Uh, yeah, I’ve noticed a few things.” He finally said. He spoke softly and only our close proximity made it possible for everyone to understand him. “I won’t point out changes I’ve noticed in other people if they don’t want me to, but I’ll tell you what I’ve experienced.”

We all waited expectantly. Joshua didn’t speak as often as most, but he usually had something useful to say when he did. “I’ve lost an inch or two in height, I think. I’ve also become thinner. My hair is growing unusually fast, too. And I’ve grown breasts.” He said, to a stunned silence.

Stan laughed nervously and loudly declared, “You don’t look like no chick to me.” Jacob laughed loudly, but nobody else did. I looked more closely at Joshua and realized that many of the changes I’d seen in Conrad earlier were visible in him, too. Only he had finer features to start with, so it wasn’t as obvious. He must have been binding his breasts also, because they weren’t visible.

“I’m not female, at least not yet.” Joshua answered Stan’s crude comment. “But I seem to be going that way.” Unlike Conrad, Joshua was very calm about it. Either he’d already vented his feelings on this, or he wasn’t as bothered by it. I was guessing the latter.

“Anybody else?” I called out, not wanting this to focus on any one person too much.

Jacob laughed and said, “Sure! Look at Connie over there! She’s turning too.” Everyone looked at Conrad, who blushed and looked down in embarrassment. Jacob laughed loudly at that until a rock struck him in the chest, hard.

I smiled sweetly at him when he got back up. “Let’s keep this civil, alright Jacob?” I asked.

He glared but didn’t say anything. Everybody else laughed, except Conrad who was still feeling very embarrassed to have everyone know about him. Joshua moved over to sit next to Conrad and put his hand on his shoulder and whispered something to him. Conrad seemed to perk up at that.

“Does anyone else have anything to say, about themselves?” I asked, with emphasis on the last part and a glare at Jacob. Stan looked down but didn’t say anything. I was sure he was changing in some way, but he wasn’t going to say anything about it.

Greg finally admitted to feeling strange lately, but he wasn’t sure what was happening. He didn’t look any different, so we’d have to wait and see. Most of the other guys reported the same thing, and Stan reluctantly agreed. Jacob even said he’d been feeling strange, but he didn’t seem too concerned about it.

The only other revelation was from Mike. He was one of the more friendly guys who was always talking to somebody and hated to work alone. He said he’d started to grow a tail, and his finger and toe nails were changing. He’d been clipping them to keep us from noticing, but a close look showed us what he was talking about. He wasn’t sure if there were other changes happening or not.

After that we were all talking about what kind of changes were happening and what could be causing them. We all agreed it had to be exposure to the same stuff that changed me. None of the men had come into physical contact with it like I had, but they’d all breathed the fumes from the burning goop.

The talk broke up when Paul announced that the meat was ready. I watched as they dug in. Mike was tearing into his food with relish and I noticed his canines looked longer. Conrad and Joshua didn’t have much of an appetite. That seemed to set the trend. Either they were ravenous or they ate less than usual. I noticed that there were three others who seemed to have reduced appetites, and Stan was one of them.

We all returned to our homes after that. Everyone was quiet, mulling over the discoveries of the day. Paul and I talked about it before we went to sleep, but Paul was as clueless about what changes he might be going through as many of the others were.

After that day we all watched each other closely, but none more so than me. I kept a special watch on those whose appetites seemed reduced, especially Conrad. By now everyone had guessed that that was a sign of changing to female and some of the men were trying to give them grief over it. I say trying, because I made sure they understood that that wouldn’t be tolerated.

If Paul hadn’t reined me in, there probably would have been some broken bones. As it was, Jacob and a couple of others were sporting a fair number of bruises. Paul and Mike joined me in watching out for ‘the girls’ as many started to refer to them.

One day I heard a scream as I was flying. I sped over in that direction and saw Jacob, in the boat, trying to pull down Conrad’s pants. I dove down and pulled up just in time to skim over their heads and slap Jacob in the face with my tale, hard. He fell over the side with a splash. I circled around and managed to land in the boat.

Conrad was busy trying to pull his pants back up, but not before I saw that his transformation there was nearly complete, at least superficially. Jacob was splashing around and cursing, trying to get back in the boat. I reached over the side and grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him in the air. “If I ever catch you trying something like that again,” I began menacingly, “I’ll hit you with my claws instead of my tale. Understood?”

He growled at me, but nodded. I braced myself and threw him towards shore. He landed with another splash and started swimming. “Are you alright Conrad?” I asked once I calmed myself down. Once I got my hackles up it took me a little time to calm back down since my change.

Conrad was silently weeping when I asked that. He managed to nod weakly. I pulled him close for a hug and enfolded him in my wings until he’d calmed down. “You might as well call me Connie, now. I’m not a man anymore.” He sniffled.

“Are you sure that’s the name you want to use?” I asked. “You can use any name you want. Even Conrad, if you like.”

“No, I’m a girl now. I might as well get used to it. And Connie works as well as anything.” She answered.

“Ok, Connie.” I said.

I helped Connie with the fishing after that. Once the boat was secured and the fish turned in to Greg, tonight’s cook, I went looking for Jacob.

I found him harassing Joshua. Doesn’t this guy ever learn? He had his back to me so I walked up and stopped right behind him. I was growling again, and I made no effort to stop. He finally heard me and turned around.

“What?! You going to say this bitch is off limits, too? You want everyone for yourself?” He yelled at me.

I smiled, making sure to show my sharp teeth and fangs. “I’m impressed with your bravery, Jacob. Or is it stupidity? You keep doing things you know are going to tick me off, even though I could rip you apart with one arm tied behind my back. What do you hope to accomplish?” I asked.

“Yeah, we all know how big and bad you are, bitch! But you aren’t the biggest and baddest on this island anymore!” he yelled, then took a swing at me. He moved pretty fast, but it was still easy for me to dodge. He growled, a rather canine sounding growl, and I noticed his elongated canines. Then he tried to tackle me.

I let him come and grabbed him in a bear hug. He struggled, and he was definitely stronger than he had been, but he was still no match for me. I started squeezing, slowly increasing the pressure. He started whining and whimpering and stopped struggling, so I dropped him.

Once back on his feet he slowly backed away from me. Then he turned and, grabbing Joshua, started running. He was fast, but again no match for me. He was running through the trees, no doubt to eliminate my advantage of flight. I ran after him on all fours and caught him in seconds. Instead of tackling him I jumped ahead of him and turned, hissing menacingly with wings outspread.

He skidded to a stop and growled, but made no move towards me. I guess Joshua was so stunned by being grabbed by him and his speed that he hadn’t really put up much of a fight before now. Now he started really struggling, and Jacob was having trouble keeping a hold of him. Finally Joshua head butted him and Jacob let go and stumbled back a few steps.

Joshua took advantage of this to move around and behind me. With Joshua out of the way, I stepped forward, growling and hissing at Jacob. He backed away, looking uncertain for the first time. He must have thought his mutation put us on even footing, or even gave him an advantage. He obviously didn’t take into account the severity of my mutation.

He finally broke and ran, but I was on his back in less than a second. I dug in with my claws on his back, and my talons on the back of his legs. He went down face first. I turned him over and grabbed him by the throat. “Let me make things perfectly clear.” I hissed. “Everybody here is off limits to you, unless they say otherwise, without coercion. You try to force anybody to do anything, or to hurt anybody, and I’ll drop you off where I left the ship. Maybe it’ll even still be there. Understood?”

He whimpered and nodded, so I let him go and stood. He scrambled away and ran like his life depended on it. Which in my mood, it probably did. Once he was out of sight I tried to calm myself. It was harder than usual.

“Cat?” a small voice called. The voice was muffled and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I looked up, but all I saw were my wings. I had wrapped myself up in them. I carefully opened them and saw Joshua sitting there, right in front of me. “Are you alright?” he asked softly.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. Sometimes it takes some work to calm down once I get my hackles up about something. And Jacob really pisses me off! I already smacked him one today for trying to force Connie’s pants down on the boat.”

Joshua’s eyes widened at that. “You called Conrad Connie! Does that mean he’s a girl now, all the way?” he asked with a peculiar eagerness.

“Yeah, she told me to go ahead and call her Connie from now on. What about you, how are you doing?” I asked.

Joshua smiled and shrugged. “Well, lets just say you can call me Elaine, now.”

“Elaine?” I said, confused. “How did you come up with that?”

She shrugged again. “I like it.” Was all she’d say.

She wasn’t hurt, but I walked back with her, to make sure Jacob didn’t try anything else.

“You seem to be handling this a lot better than Connie.” I said as we neared our homes.

She shrugged. “There’s no point getting upset about it. I’m a girl now. I can’t change back, so I might as well get on with my life.” She explained.

I nodded. “Then maybe you could help Connie?” I suggested.

Elaine smiled brightly at that. “Sure! I’d love to help Connie!” she enthused.

I looked at her strangely. She leaned towards me and stage whispered, “I still like girls, and I’m pretty sure she does too.” Then she winked at me.

I rolled my eyes at her and said, “Well, just don’t push her.” She agreed and we continued on in silence.

At dinner that night I brought up changes again. Connie and Elaine told everyone their new names and I told everyone that I would deal harshly with anyone who tried to force anyone else. I don’t think anyone missed the glare I leveled at Jacob, or how he cringed away and whimpered.

There were a lot of changes revealed this time. Mike asked if anyone knew how to sew, because he needed to put tale holes in his clothes. His hands and feet were developing short black fur and becoming more paw like. He’d been wearing gloves recently, but they weren’t fitting well anymore so he couldn’t hide it anymore. He also started going barefoot, as his feet had changed similarly to mine.

Greg had developed webbing between his fingers and toes, and had small gills behind his ears. He could breathe underwater now, and swim a lot better than before. He was also stronger. Vincent had also gained some strength, which helped with his work. He had no other changes.

Stan had finally admitted he was turning into a girl, and was most of the way there. He asked to be called Sarah from now on. She had no other changes as yet. John became Jill, and Tom became Tina. Jill gained enhanced senses with cat eyes but no other changes. Tina grew a fox tail and ears and gained claws and fangs. She was also faster and stronger than before.

Paul seemed to have no animalistic traits, but could move much faster than before. He still couldn’t match me, but he could outrun anyone else on the island. The last member of our group, Leonard, grew bat wings. He also gained extraordinarily sensitive hearing. That probably explained why he’d been keeping to himself even more than usual. Unfortunately, his wings were too small and weak for him to fly, but he was hopeful that they would grow more.

After that I told everyone that I wanted Mike and Tina to do the fishing from the boat, with Greg helping out from the water. I put Jacob on clean up. He would have to clean out our latrine and generally keep everything clean. That job had been, like cooking dinner, one we all shared.

Leonard preferred to keep away from everyone else most of the time, so he would be foraging for whatever fruits and vegetables we needed. Sarah opted to help him, probably because she didn’t want to be around any more people than she had to be.

I didn’t feel any need to change around any of the other jobs, and only Jacob complained about the changes. I think I started growling again when he complained, because he quickly shut up with a whimper.

Everyone but Jacob had now accepted me as the leader, including Connie. I was still a little uncomfortable with it, but I was too focused on keeping Jacob out of trouble to worry too much.

After that everyone returned to their homes. Paul and I talked about everything that had happened that day. We both agreed to continue to keep an eye on the new women in our group. We were sure Jacob would get into more trouble before he learned his lesson, assuming he ever did.

I asked Paul how he felt about his own mutation. He wasn’t too concerned about it, but admitted the fact that his appearance hadn’t changed might have something to do with that. He was rather curious to see how it might affect certain night time activities, though, and so was I! We had fun finding out.

The others were more reserved, but Connie seemed a lot happier once she hooked up with Elaine. Mike changed a little more, and we all agreed he was part wolf. We never did figure out what kind of fish or sea creature Greg took after, but his changes were pretty minimal, really.

Even Jacob seemed to settle down, though he threw me hate filled glances on occasion.

Jill became our carpenter and Vincent helped her to furnish all the houses with simple chairs and tables. The others copied my example and grew vegetable gardens and planted fruit trees. I also dug out a root cellar in the house we used for storage.

Our biggest problem was clothing and blankets. What we had was getting pretty worn. Elaine managed to sew up the tears and holes, but there’s only so much she could do. We had to resort to animal skins; none of us knew how to cure leather and we didn’t have the chemicals anyway.

We all tried to use our new abilities to their fullest, though some of them seemed pretty impractical. I discovered a new ability, myself. I couldn’t really explain it very well to Paul when I discovered it, but I could make sure I didn’t get pregnant. Apparently I’d been doing it all along, not being ready to deal with it yet, but I could now control it consciously. I decided to keep it up for now; I wasn’t ready for motherhood just yet.

All in all, our little village was coming along great. We were all resigned to living there the rest of our lives, and that was ok (I still felt the odd pang of guilt over ignoring that one ship, though). Things could have continued like that indefinitely, if not for the ship that appeared on the horizon.

I spotted it first, of course. The thought crossed my mind to ignore it again, but it was coming directly towards us. I was flying about for fun at the time, so I sped back to the village as fast as I could.

No one paid any attention as I came crashing down on the ‘Cat Pad’ as everyone had taken to calling it. It was a depressed section of ground next to our house. I had learned that a hard landing was a lot faster than a soft one, and I could handle the hard one easily enough. I used that spot all the time, so it got compressed from all my landings. Everyone gave that spot a wide berth, just in case.

Instead of gliding in and back-winging to slow down and touching down carefully, as I used to, I simply folded my wings in mid-air and plummeted. At the last second I would spin around and unfurl my wings to land feet first. At first my feet would sink several inches into the ground when I did that, but the ground was so compressed from my landings by now that it didn’t happen anymore.

I ran into the ‘village square’ as everyone had taken to calling the area where the fire pit is. Greg was the only one there; he was preparing today’s catch for dinner. “Hey, Cat, what’s up?” he called cheerfully.

I skidded to a stop and took a moment to catch my breath before I said, “A ship! I saw a ship! It’s headed right for us.”

To my surprise, Greg didn’t seem as happy about that as I expected. I knew I wasn’t happy, there was no place for me off of this island anymore, but I expected everyone else to be thrilled. “Shit!” Greg said. “This could be a problem.”

I tilted my head and asked, confused, “Why? I thought that’s what you all wanted?” I asked.

“You all?” Greg asked. “Didn’t you want it, too?”

I opened my wings and extended my claws. “Do I look like I would fit in out there anymore?” I asked pointedly.

Greg grinned sheepishly. “Of course, I should have realized you wouldn’t want to go back. Some of us feel the same now, though. I might be able to do okay, especially with a little surgery, but Mike and Tina would have real problems. Besides, I don’t think it would be fair to unleash Jacob on the world. Do you?” He asked.

I laughed at that. “No, that wouldn’t be fair at all. Do you think everyone feels the same way, or just the ones with obvious mutations?” I asked nervously.

He shrugged. “Most if not all, I think, but we’ll have to see. Maybe you should find Paul; you two should be able to gather everyone up pretty quickly.” He suggested.

I agreed and took off. I found Paul easily enough, he was collecting firewood. “What’s up Cat?” he asked as I landed.

“There’s a ship coming straight towards us! Will you help me spread the word and get everyone to the square?” I asked.

His eyes widened at my news and he hastily agreed and sped off. I took off and, spotting the direction Paul was going, went the other way. It only took us a few minutes to alert everyone. Within half an hour we were all gathered around the fire pit.

Once everyone was settled I started it off by asking if everyone knew why we were there. They did, so I said, “I’ve known all along that I couldn’t go back to civilization, I’m just too different. How do the rest of you feel about it?”

I noticed Connie looked interested, until she glanced over at Elaine. Elaine looked terrified. “There’s no way I can go back!” Elaine said. “I’d end up in some government lab or something!” She was looking pretty panicky, but Connie calmed her down. Elaine had become as strong as Jacob or Mike, even though she looked completely normal.

Mike nodded after Elaine’s outburst. “I wouldn’t want to see what would happen to me, either.” He said. His furred paws and tail would make it very difficult for him to fit in.

Everyone else nodded along with that, although some were more reluctant. Jacob seemed torn on the subject, probably wanting to get away from me, but afraid what would happen to him. In the end we all agreed that we would stay put. We also agreed that Paul and Elaine would represent us, because they were two of the most normal looking, yet had strength and speed enough to protect themselves.

The rest of us would hide in the village until Paul told us it was clear. Well, all except me. I decided to fly over and watch, just in case. By staying high enough, I should be overlooked or ignored as a bird.

The ship was still quite a ways out; it was only visible from the air. From its speed we guessed that we had a day or two until it arrived. I would take turns with Leonard, whose wings had grown enough for him to fly some, keeping an eye on the ship. Leonard couldn’t stay airborne, especially at that altitude, long enough so he would stay in the village when the ship arrived.

We were all tense for the next couple of days. The ship approached slowly and stopped farther out than we expected. Finally, at the end of the second day after the sun had begun to set, they sent a boat towards shore. Leonard was on scouting duty at the time, and flew back to warn us. Paul and Elaine started towards shore while I took off and flew up to watch over them.

At this altitude even my enhanced hearing couldn’t pick up their voices, but I could see them clearly enough. I was alarmed to see that, of the six men in the boat, four of them were wearing body armor and carrying what looked like M-4s! We had talked about the possibility of them being armed so we’d hidden some of those AK-47s and ammo on the beach for Paul and Elaine to use if necessary. I really hoped they wouldn’t be.

I had to force myself to relax and not dive down to protect Paul. He and Elaine had just arrived and were waiting near the hidden weapons. It took the boat another half hour or so to arrive, and it was the longest thirty minutes of my life.

Once the boat reached shallow enough water the four armed men jumped out. Two kept watch on the beach, and Paul and Elaine, while the other two pulled the boat in. At least they weren’t pointing their weapons at anybody.

Once they stopped pulling the boat up they helped the other two men out of the boat. These two were wearing dark suits and sunglasses. Real MIB types. The four armed men were obviously guarding them.

The two unarmed (at least as far as I could tell) men approached Paul and Elaine. They stopped a few yards away. I presumed they were talking, but I couldn’t tell. They stood like that for a while. The urge to dive down was really strong now. What’s going on down there?

Eventually the suits turned around and walked back to their boat. Once they’d climbed in the guards repeated their previous performance. Two guarded while the other two pushed the boat. Then they all got in, turned the boat around, and headed back for the ship.

I watched until Paul and Elaine returned to the village. Then I returned via ‘Cat Pad’ and rushed to the square to find out what happened.

“So what did they say?” I asked as soon as I returned.

“They were looking for all of us, but David in particular.” Paul answered. I was stunned. Why did they want me? “Apparently they found out who sent an SOS by running the tape by the relatives of everyone who was onboard.”

I gasped. “My parents?! Do they know I’m alive?”

Paul shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know. I just know they were looking for survivors from our ship, and you in particular. We told them we’re happy where we are, and they went back to consult with their superiors. I don’t even know who they work for.”

“They did say that they’ll be back tomorrow.” Elaine continued. “We let them know we weren’t happy about the guns and they agreed to come without their guards. That’s the way they said it, so I’m guessing they were armed, too. They did say something about mutations, though.”

“What?! You mean they know about us?” I asked.

Paul shook his head. “No, we didn’t say anything, and they seemed to have no suspicions. I think someone else has been mutated by that stuff. Maybe other survivors from our ship.” He explained.

“Since they already know about other people with mutations, maybe it would be best if we all met with them tomorrow?” Elaine suggested.

Everyone else was giving this serious thought, which worried me. Could I afford to let anyone see me? “Maybe I should stay above, like today. Just in case.” I suggested hopefully.

Paul frowned, I’m sure he saw right through me, but the others agreed. I sighed in relief. I really didn’t want the world to know about me. I could understand the fears of the others, the military or somebody would probably want to know what makes them tick. But I’m an entirely different creature.

We agreed to have Paul and Elaine lead the men to the village. I would fly above as before. With that decided we all went to bed.

In the morning Leonard flew off to watch for the boat so he could alert us when they were coming. The others gathered in the square while I paced restlessly around it. Paul suggested I fly off and get breakfast. He pointed out that we’d have at least half an hours warning before they arrived, so I agreed.

I didn’t need to eat nearly as much as before, so sometimes I just ate a rabbit or something similar. Today I felt the need for a bigger meal, though, so I took off after the first deer I found. I brought it down in no time. Hunting and killing my prey relaxed me, as Paul knew, so I felt a lot better on the way back. The boat was on its way, but still fifteen minutes out, so I returned to the village.

Greg took the remains of the deer carcass off of me so he could prepare it for dinner while I washed up. Paul smiled knowingly at me as I sat down next to him. “You always know what I need, don’t you?” I said after a good long kiss.

“I try.” He replied modestly.

We cuddled there until Leonard returned, then I took off while Paul and Elaine walked down to the beach to meet our visitors. We had arranged some signals Paul could give that I could see from the air so he could let me know what was happening.

This time the boat had only four men. The two suits, and two men in jeans and t-shirts. Those two were handling the boat and pulled it ashore for the suits. Once the suits were off, they got back on the boat and moved it back out to wait for them off shore.

I watched as Paul and Elaine met with the men and led them to the village. Once at the village they led them to the square and they all sat down. Then the others joined them one at a time. I was getting really frustrated with not being able to hear them!

Nothing much was happening so far as I could see, which was good, I guess. After twenty or thirty minutes Paul walked over to our house and made the sign that meant land.

He stayed well away from the Cat pad and I dived down. He winced when I hit the ground; he always did when he saw it. “So what’s going on?” I asked.

“Not much so far.” Paul answered. “We talked about the mutations, and they mentioned others, but haven’t elaborated yet. Mostly they’ve been asking about David, and a winged person.”

“Did they see me?” I asked, worried.

“Yeah, I think they must have. Leonard tried showing his wings, but they look a lot different from yours so they didn’t buy it. Since they’re asking after you in both your incarnations, maybe you’d better put in an appearance?” He suggested cautiously.

I sighed. “I guess I can’t get away from it.” I replied. “Okay, lets go.”

Paul put his arm around my waist and guided me back to the square. I put my wing around him as we walked, wanting as much physical contact with him as I could get.

When we arrived at the square everyone turned to look at us. The two suits were the last to turn and were both shocked by what they saw. They recovered quickly, though. “Hello, my name is Thomas Gallagher.” The taller suit said, standing and holding his hand out to me.

I shook his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Catherine. Why were you looking for me?”

“Well, mostly because I didn’t feel comfortable with someone flying over head watching me.” He admitted.

“Oh believe me; I’m much more dangerous down here than I am ten thousand feet up.” I answered with a grin.

“Um, yes, I’m sure you are.” He said uncomfortably. “Uh, as I was saying, we’re also looking for David. He called in an SOS from your ship. We have reason to believe he may still be alive. In fact, we suspect he mutated.”

“Is that the real reason you want to find him?” I asked.

“Well, we wanted to talk to any survivors to find out more about what happened, but since we knew David probably mutated we were especially interested in him.” He admitted.

“Why are you so sure he mutated?” I asked. It was really getting weird talking about myself in the third person.

“The evidence we found,” the shorter man said, “indicates he was shot several times at close range. There was blood all over the floor. However, we also found feathers there with very similar DNA to the blood. We could only assume that he mutated to a form that had feathers.”

What surprised me the most about this was that neither of them suspected that I was David. I’m not sure how I knew that so surely, but I did. “So I take it you found the ship, then?” I asked.

“Yes.” Thomas answered. “It took us some time because it had sunk after taking further damage from a storm. We brought it back up to the surface. Unfortunately, most of the barrels that were still on board were empty. Most of their contents spilled out into the ocean.”

We all started at that. “So are there other mutants out there besides survivors from our ship?” Paul asked.

“Yes.” Thomas replied. “We got the first reports in about seven months ago. At first it was only affecting small fishing communities on the coasts. We’ve now had cases further inland as well.”

“Where exactly are the mutations showing up?” Greg asked.

“All around the Pacific Rim.” The shorter man answered.

We all exchanged glances at that. That’s a very large area. “How can it be affecting such a large area?” Elaine asked.

Greg answered before they could. “I think I know why. Ocean currents would spread the contamination around a lot, but it’s the ocean life that must be spreading it the most. Fish are caught all around the Pacific Ocean and brought back to shore. When people eat that fish they’re contaminating themselves. Not to mention swimming in the ocean?” He explained.

Thomas nodded. “Yes, that’s what we think, as well. Your own mutations may have more to do with ocean water and fish exposure than with the smoke from the fire on the ship.”

Greg nodded. “I wondered. It wasn’t long after we started eating fish regularly that we started to change.” I guess Greg would have a better understanding about things relating to the ocean after all time he’d spent in it.

The smaller man looked at me intensely. “That doesn’t explain you, though. Your mutation is the most extreme we’ve seen yet. Why did you change so much?” he asked me suspiciously.

Paul’s arm tightened around me. I squeezed him back with my wing. “I didn’t just breathe the smoke or eat the fish; I got doused in the stuff. I was hiding behind the barrels when the shooting started.” I explained.

His eyes grew wide and he breathed, “Are you David?”

Thomas looked at him incredulously. “You can’t be serious! Catherine doesn’t look anything like David!” he exclaimed.

I was staring in shock and was startled when Paul wiped away tears I didn’t even know I was shedding from my face. “I was David.” I answered softly.

Thomas shifted his incredulous gaze to me. “Really?!” he asked.

I nodded and hung my head. Paul pulled me to him and I wrapped us up in my wings while I cried. When I stopped he wiped the last of my tears from my face and kissed me. I melted into it and forgot about everything else.

“We need to talk to you, David.” The shorter man interrupted rudely. We stopped kissing and I was growling when I unfolded my wings.

“My name is Catherine.” I told the irritating little man angrily.

Thomas glared at him and then turned to me. “I’m sorry about that. We weren’t expecting you to have become female or we would have guessed it was you from the start. We would like to know what happened to you on the ship, though.” He said apologetically.

“They already told you what they saw, right?” I asked, referring to the rest of our village. He nodded so I continued, “I didn’t see most of the fighting.” I started, and proceeded to tell him everything that happened to me on the ship leading up to me flying out here to the island.

The irritating guy started to ask a question but was silenced by Thomas. “How badly were you hurt?” Thomas asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I lost consciousness right away. After that I was in and out of consciousness several times before I really became aware of my condition. By then my wounds had healed and I had already mutated a fair amount.” I answered.

“So you heal rapidly?” The irritating guy got out before Thomas could stop him. Thomas was getting almost as irritated with the guy as I was.

In answer I extended the claw on my right index finger and cut my left wrist. Blood pooled up for a moment, and then stopped. I wiped away the blood and the cut had already healed. “Want me to do a comparison cut on you?” I asked sweetly.

“Ah, no, I think I get the idea.” He stammered and shut up. Finally!

I think Thomas was suppressing a laugh at that. “We’ve set up a lab on board your ship. Would you be willing to come aboard and let us do some tests?” he asked.

My eyes narrowed at that, and I noticed a few others were looking cautious as well. “I don’t think so.” I hissed. “I’m staying right here.”

Thomas seemed taken aback at that. “We only want to understand what is causing these mutations. Could we at least get blood samples?” he asked hopefully.

I looked around at the others. We were all against going to the lab, I was sure of that much. “I think I’d rather not give any blood samples.” I finally said.

“Is that how you all feel?” Thomas asked, disappointed.

To my surprise, the others disagreed. “I’ll give a blood sample; I just won’t leave the island.” Elaine said. The others nodded agreement.

Thomas sighed in relief. “What about you, Catherine? Would you give a blood sample here?” he asked.

I thought about it. It did seem reasonable, but I was worried about what it would be used for. There were obviously other mutants out there, so they could get samples from them. But apparently none of them got the kind of exposure I did (No surprise there). That implied that they weren’t as powerful as me, either.

I shook my head and answered, “No, I think I’d better not.” Paul gave me a reassuring squeeze, to let me know he understood.

Thomas obviously didn’t. “What are you afraid of?” he asked.

In answer I walked over to the annoying guy and wrapped my pinky finger around his tie. With just that finger I lifted him up as high as I could reach and turned to Thomas. “Can other mutants you’ve encountered do things like this?” I asked.

The shorter guy was wriggling and trying to pull away to no effect. Thomas just gaped for a moment before shaking his head. “No. That’s obviously no effort for you. Even the strongest mutant I’ve encountered would have to work at keeping him up there with him struggling like that, and would use their entire hand, if not two.” He answered.

“You’re right; this is no effort for me. I could probably throw him to the beach from here if I wanted. Just using my smallest finger. Can you understand why I’d be worried about what a sample of my blood might be used for?” I asked, still holding the guy up in the air. My arm wasn’t the least bit tired, either. Sometimes my strength still amazed me.

Thomas was still staring in amazement and took a moment to answer. “I can understand that. Would it help you to know that we’re from the CDC?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not really.” I answered.

The shorter man had finally stopped struggling. “Would you please put me down?” he asked, almost politely. I shrugged and extended the claw on that finger. It cut right through his tie, dropping him to the ground. He glared up at me as he got back to his feet, especially when he saw his ruined tie.

Thomas was definitely suppressing a laugh, now. Paul wasn’t suppressing it at all and came over to give me a hug while still chuckling. I wrapped my right wing around him and turned to Thomas. “Are you really just trying to understand what’s causing the mutations, or is there more to it?” I asked suspiciously.

Thomas cringed guiltily. “There is more.” He admitted. “My superiors particularly wanted to study you. It was clear you’d been badly injured, yet survived at least long enough to mutate significantly. They’re really interested in that. We’re getting all kinds of information from other mutants. Some have accelerated healing, but nothing like yours.”

I nodded; it was exactly as I feared. My extreme mutation had already garnered interest before they’d even seen me! “I’m not going to cooperate with that.” I said firmly.

Thomas nodded. “I understand. I’ll tell my superiors that, but they may not leave it alone. I won’t try to force you, but someone else may.” He said. The shorter man looked incensed that he was warning me like that, but we both ignored him.

“I appreciate you warning us like that.” Paul said.

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t like where this is going anymore than you do. Some weaponization of mutation is inevitable. There are so many now that there are plenty of willing subjects. If the rest of you change your mind about blood samples I’ll understand.” The others did just that, and Thomas accepted the news graciously.

The other man was livid at this. “What the hell are you doing Thomas?!” he screeched.

“Want me to dump him in the ocean?” I asked with a grin.

Thomas rubbed his jaw thoughtfully as if giving it real thought. Finally he sighed and said, “No, I guess not. I’m going to be in enough trouble with my superiors as it is.”

We all had a laugh at that. Elaine brought the frivolity to an end with her question. “Do you think they’ll try to force us, and Cat in particular?” she asked fearfully.

Thomas shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I really hope not. You’re all still US citizens, so it would be illegal. But we all know that doesn’t always stop them.”

We nodded morosely. This meeting was turning out to be rather depressing, despite the fun with the idiot. “Well we’ve got the advantage if they do.” I said.

Everyone looked at me incredulously. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Tina asked.

I shrugged. “We’re on an island far away from any other land mass. If they want to try something they’ve got to come by air or sea. By air they can’t come in large numbers without alerting us to their presence. By sea we’ll see them long before they arrive. We’ll be ready for any large group, and we can take care of a small group on our own.” I answered.

“Maybe you can,” Connie said morosely, “but I can’t.”

Elaine wrapped herself around Connie. “Don’t worry, baby.” She cooed. “I’ll protect you.”

Thomas smiled at this show of affection, so I knew he couldn’t be all bad. “Well, I think we’ve upset you enough for one day.” He announced. “We should head back to the ship now.”

The shorter man started moving gratefully away, but I stopped Thomas. “Could you do me a favor?” I asked hesitantly.

He turned back to me and answered, “I can try.”

“Could you let my parents know I’m okay?” I asked.

He smiled. “Sure, that I can definitely do.” He answered and left.

Leonard took off to watch them leave. I would have done it, but they all insisted I sit down instead. “You just relax, Cat.” Mike said. I was touched that they were all worried about me (except Jacob). I cuddled up with Paul and thought about all that was said. I was glad my parents would know I’m okay, but I was worried what they’d say once they found out what I had become. Maybe they wouldn’t have to?

I was also worried about Thomas’ superiors. He didn’t say it, but I suspected he was talking about people in the government outside of the CDC. The CDC I could probably trust, but the rest of the government was an open question, especially the military. I just knew they’d love to get their hands on me.

“Don’t worry Kitty Cat.” Paul whispered in my ear. “You were right. They can’t get to us easily. We’ll be okay.” I wasn’t as confident as that, but I gratefully snuggled up and wrapped my wings around us.

---

« Raccoon Ruckus »

I brought up that idea with Paul that night, but he vetoed it immediately. “No way! You’re not going off on your own just to protect us. I’d follow you, and the rest of them would be in trouble without you to keep them going in the same direction. We’ll deal with anyone who comes after you together.” he declared vehemently.

He was so adamant about it I dropped it. If things got really bad I’d fly away.

In the morning I went hunting. I was just flying back towards the village when I saw a boat approaching from the ship. Thomas was the only one on the boat, so I decided to fly down and meet him. He was almost to the shore when I landed, so I waded out and pulled his boat up high enough so it wouldn’t wash back out to sea. “What brings you out here alone?” I asked as I lifted him out of the boat.

He seemed bemused by how easily I lifted him out of the boat. “A few reasons. I think you’d better gather everyone together, I have news that effects everyone.” he answered.

He had several packages with him. I handed him the smallest ones and I carried the rest. I led him back to the village and told Paul on the way to gather everyone in the square. Thomas was moving pretty slowly, I guess those little packages were heavy, so everyone was already gathered by the time we got to the square.

“What’s all this?” Elaine asked pointing out all the packages we were carrying.

Once he’d relieved himself of his burden Thomas explained, “I brought some supplies for you. Medical supplies, blankets, etc. Things you’d have a hard time making yourselves. I thought you could use them, and I needed an excuse to come out here.”

Elaine looked at the packages with more interest. I’m sure she was already planning to make a dress or something with some of the blankets. She was always bemoaning the lack of female clothing. I didn’t care much, my old pants and shirts were fine, once I made holes for my wings and tail. “So what’s the real reason you’re here?” I asked.

“I think they’re going to try something. Nobody was particularly surprised to learn you’d all been mutated, and that wouldn’t have been a cause for trouble. But when they learned how extensive your mutation is, they became very interested. I was sent out here with a mixed group of people from various military and government agencies. One or more of them is going to try to get their hands on you.” he replied.

Jacob groaned. “So now we’ve got the fucking military coming after us because of you!” he grumbled.

In a flash he was on the ground with his right arm twisted painfully behind him. “Don’t even think of trying anything Jacob!” Paul said into his ear as he twisted his arm.

“Ow! Shit, I wasn’t going to do anything man! Let go of my arm!” Jacob whimpered. Paul let him go and stepped back to my side. I was a little surprised at his reaction, but I guess Paul wanted to nip any such ideas in the bud before they got a chance to grow.

Thomas looked on, bemused. “What can we expect?” Elaine asked.

Thomas spread his hands and shrugged helplessly. “No way to know. I don’t even know who you’ll be dealing with. There aren’t any aircraft onboard, so they’ll have to come by boat or swim.” he said.

“Any idea how much time we have?” Paul asked.

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know how much time they’ll need to get ready. They might already be on their way.” he answered.

“Maybe you’d better head back before you get caught up in it too.” I suggested.

Thomas nodded and I led him back to his boat. I had him climb in and I carried the boat out and sent him on his way. I took a look around from the beach, but I couldn’t see anything. I returned to the square.

“So how are we going to handle this?” Paul asked me when I got back. Everyone else was looking at me, waiting. Did they really rely on me that much?

I thought a moment before answering. “Well, first thing is we need lookouts. Jill, find a tall tree in sight of the ship and climb up it. You can see in the dark, so if nothing happens until dark you’ll still be able to spot them. Tina, you’ll act as runner for Jill. When she sees something you’ll run to tell us.” I instructed. Jill’s only mutation was her cat’s eyes, so I’d try to keep her out of the fighting.

“What do I do after I send Tina off?” Jill asked worriedly. Being normal, other than her eyes, she often felt vulnerable.

“You’ll stay put. You’ll have one of the AK-47s and some ammo. If more come you can pin them down and the noise will alert us. If they manage to grab one of us, they’ll have to get by you, first.” was my answer. I hoped she wouldn’t have to get involved, but she would make a good backup. She was one of the only ones in our group who actually used an AK-47 fighting the pirates.

Knowing she would be armed seemed to calm Jill down. “What about me, am I only to be a messenger?” Tina asked.

I snorted. “Of course not. You may not be as strong as Mike or Elaine, but you’re stronger than most and fast as well.” I answered. Tina seemed mollified at that. “Greg will be our other lookout. He can spot boats, swimmers, and divers that aren’t visible from the surface. Paul will be his runner.”

Paul gave me a strange look at that. He probably wanted to stay with me, but his speed made him a natural choice for the role. “And where will you be?” He asked.

“Well,” I began, “I’m assuming you guys aren’t going to go along with me waiting for them on the beach.” That was my preferred plan because it would keep everyone else out of danger.

“Definitely not!” Paul declared loudly. Most of the others agreed, with the expected exception of Jacob.

I shrugged, I’d expected that reaction. “Okay, then my second choice is for me to wait for them in the square.” I continued.

“Bait?” Elaine asked. I nodded. “Where will the rest of us be, then?”

“Waiting on the far side of the village to come to the rescue.” I answered. I hoped I wouldn’t need their help, but I knew Paul, at least, would insist on giving it.

“How will we know when to come in?” Mike asked.

“More lookouts. The square will be lit up by the fire, so movement will be easily seen. Connie and Sarah will be hidden in the trees. When they see movement they’ll alert the rest of you. By then Paul and Tina should have joined you. Connie and Sarah will have rifles and can support the rest of you, all of whom have physical enhancements that will give you an edge over whoever they’re likely to send.” I explained.

“So you’re just going to take a nap and wait to get hit?” Jacob asked.

“Of course not. Tina and Paul will go to you through the square, so I’ll know someone’s coming. I’ll go hunting once we’re done planning and once I know they’re coming I’ll get comfortable and start eating. I’ll give them the opportunity to assume I’m more animal than human.” I said, knowing my eating habits would encourage that opinion. Probably unnerve some of them, too.

We discussed my plan for a while, making few changes. Then we broke up to take our positions while I went hunting. I got lucky and found a boar right off. Just what I was looking for! I brought it back to the square and ate some of it. That way even if they found me soon after I was alerted to their presence, they’d find a well-mauled carcass in front of me. It would reinforce the image I was trying to portray.

After that I curled up next to my kill and relaxed. As I expected, nothing happened until after it got dark. Then Tina came sprinting through the square, making sure to hit the ground hard right by my head. I was instantly alert…well, more alert, and started tearing at the carcass next to me. More to make a mess and look dangerous than anything. A few moments later Paul came tearing through, briefly making eye contact before reluctantly joining the others.

Shortly after he passed through I heard the first group, and there were two, coming out of the brush. They made an astonishing amount of noise, or so it seemed to me. I made sure not to look directly at them or otherwise let them know they were spotted.

There were only four of them, though one of them was holding back and making a little less noise than the other three. I made a mental note to watch out for him, he was probably a sniper or something.

Since the others would come when Connie and Sarah saw movement in the square, other than the small movements I was already making, I waited until the second group was in the village before moving. The first group was almost in the square by that time, so I would have had to move anyway. The second group was also composed of four people, and one of them was also holding back and moving quieter.

The fourth member of the first group wasn’t that far back from the rest, so I decided to deal with him first. I bounded over to where he was and struck the rifle out of his hands before clawing his throat out. He went down fast, so I turned on the other three. The nearest one raised his weapon towards me, but didn’t get a shot off before he joined his friend. The other two had a little more time and started shooting.

I dodged behind a house and went after the second group. They started running for the square when the shooting started, so I climbed onto the roof of one of the houses and jumped their sniper. He went down as fast as the other two, but his comrades reacted a little faster and got some shots off before I put the second one down. I was hit a couple times so I jumped back up on the roof and away.

By now Connie and Sarah were shooting (AK-47s sound a lot different than M-4s, what the attackers were using). I also heard the rest of our group running into the square. The two from the first group went down quickly, while the two from the second group were pinned down. They couldn’t get away, but their own fire was keeping everyone away. So I took to the roof again and took them from behind.

Just like that the incursion was over. All six of the men I took down were dead. One of the other two was alive with two bullet wounds. I sent Paul and Tina to check in with Jill and Greg while Leonard and Vincent treated the survivor’s wounds and Mike and Jacob collected weapons, ammunition, and anything else of use.

A few minutes later Paul returned, saying that there was another boat coming with six armed men on board. I was just about to tell everyone to get back in position when we all heard shots fired. Jill was in trouble! I sent Paul back to Greg after telling him that I would deal with the boat. I sent Mike and Jacob to help Tina and Jill while everyone else retreated to wait and guard Connie and Sarah.

Dealing with the boat was the easiest thing in the world. I flew up as high as time allowed and dived. Just like on the Cat Pad I flipped and landed feet first. The men on board had no warning before they were tossed in the water. Grabbing onto the boat did no good, as it sank immediately with the hole I tore in it with my landing. I did get a little tangled in the boat, but I just shredded it with my claws and talons until I was free.

Greg was waiting and helped me dispatch the men in the water. They were so loaded down with clothes, armor, and weapons that it was ridiculously easy. Greg carried everything of value to shore while I flew towards the shooting.

Jill was hiding behind the trunk of the tree she had been in; pinned down by the fire of another six man team. Tina was propped up beside her, unconscious. Mike and Jacob hadn’t arrived yet. As I approached I remembered that I’d been hit twice in the village, and yet it wasn’t slowing me down at all. If I can handle that, maybe I can handle a little more?

I came in fast and silently, strafing through the six man group with claws and talons extended. I tagged three of them, one in the throat. Jill took advantage of the distraction to take a few shots at them. Two more went down. I circled around for another pass. They were now distracted by their injuries and being attacked from two directions at once. The only uninjured one threw his weapon down and surrendered. Two of the injured men surrendered as well. The other three were unconscious or dead.

Just like that, the second round was over. I took Tina back to Leonard and Vincent, who had finished treating the wounds of the captured soldier. I flew back in time to direct Mike to lead the injured soldiers, now bereft of weapons or armor, back to the village. Meanwhile Jacob and I collected everything of value and carried it back.

Once back at the village I sent Mike to take Tina’s place. I wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be another group, though I doubted it after a total of twenty men were sent and didn’t come back. Strangely enough, none of the men had radios.

Paul arrived briefly to drop off everything Greg stripped off the men from the boat, and the boat itself, then returned. Of the six man team Jill and I took down, two were killed instantly and one more died of his wounds. So we now had three injured prisoners and one uninjured one.

I was hoping Thomas would return in the morning, so we could arrange the return of the prisoners. In the meantime, we had collected eighteen M-4s and two sniper rifles, plus ammunition. We also had pistols, grenades, knives, and Kevlar vests. We had more weapons and armor than we could use!

Thankfully, Tina only got shot in the shoulder and the bleeding had already stopped. So far everyone seemed to have gained accelerated healing, though only a few had been injured so we couldn’t be sure. The only ones we knew for sure were Tina, now, Jacob after I sliced him up a bit, and Greg after he cut himself on some rocks underwater. And me, of course, but my healing was much more rapid.

Once we’d sorted everything out, I sent Jacob with three vests to hand out to Jill, Mike, and Paul. Everyone else also got one except Greg, Leonard, and me. Greg would be weighted down too much underwater, and Leonard and I couldn’t wear them with our wings without major modification.

I returned to the square, but this time I was playing guard to the prisoners while the others watched from outside the village. We spent a tense night and were all relieved when no more attacks came.

Once the sun came up we all returned to the square. We were all tired, but Tina was the only injury on our side. We gathered all the corpses on the shore with the remains of the boat and the boats they’d managed to get ashore before we’d noticed them. We’d keep at least one of the intact boats, I figured, maybe two. The third we could use to send the corpses back.

As I hoped, Thomas returned in the morning. I helped him bring his boat to shore. “What happened here?!” he exclaimed when he saw all the bodies and the shredded boat.

“Like you said, they tried to take me. We’ve got four of them tied up, plus these sixteen that died in the attack.” I explained.

“You captured or killed twenty presumably armed men without any injuries and without weapons?!” he asked incredulously.

“Not exactly. We had some AK-47s retrieved from the pirates that we used. Also, several of us have natural weapons that work just fine. And two of us were shot.” I answered.

“Are they alright?” he asked anxiously.

Paul looked at me strangely when I said ‘two’. “Tina was hit in the shoulder, but she should be healed up in a day or two. I was hit at least twice. I felt them, but that’s about it. I have no idea what kind of damage I might have taken. By the time things settled down enough to check, I was all healed up.” I explained.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d been shot?!” Paul demanded.

I shrugged. “I was hit by the second group in the village. We were still fighting, so I ignored them and kept going. After that we were busy dealing with the soldiers, and then the second wave came and we had to deal with them. Frankly, I forgot all about it until now.” I said.

Thomas was gaping at me. “You were shot at least two times in one fight, then proceeded to finish that fight, clean up after it, and then get involved in an entirely different fight?” he asked.

I explained how everything happened, but he seemed even more impressed afterwards. I was a little shocked myself, but I’d just been too busy to worry about it at the time. Adrenaline, I guess.

“So,” I began after we finished explaining the night’s events, “can you help us get these guys back to the ship?”

He agreed and dropped off more supplies. We ended up sending the living back with him, and tethering one of the boats to his and piling the corpses up in it. We kept the other two. The remains of the fourth boat we could use for scrap, or something.

I flew up to watch out for any more attacks while everyone else got some sleep. Then they could guard me while I slept. We’d have to keep alert so long as that ship was there.

Nothing happened that day, or the next. We all relaxed a little, but we were well aware that further attacks were likely. If not from that ship, then from some other source down the line. On the plus side, we had more weapons to defend ourselves with.

Thomas returned on the third day, still alone. We all met him in the village. “So what’s going on now?” Mike asked.

Thomas smiled ruefully. “You really stirred things up with the way you dealt with those guys. I think somebody thought they could just pick you up and go. Now they’ve got to explain sixteen dead men, three injured, three lost boats, and all the weapons and ammunition you confiscated. I imagine someone’s going to be demoted over this, at the least.” Thomas said.

“Are they going to try again?” Jill asked fearfully. She’d been pinned down with an injured Tina for a few minutes before I arrived, it really shook her up.

“Not from this ship.” Thomas answered. “There weren’t that many soldiers on board to start with, and those that remain don’t want anything to do with you.” He said this last while pointing at me.

“Me? Why just me? I only took out…” I counted in my head and had to count again because the number seemed too high. “Um, well, I only took out twelve or so.” I said sheepishly, as I realized I’d accounted for more than half of them on my own. I noticed that Jacob wasn’t too happy, either. He still resented being weaker than me, I guess.

Thomas laughed. “Only twelve?! You’ve answered your own question. You injured or killed, and mostly killed from what I’ve heard, over half the attacking force on your own. Nobody on that ship wants to get anywhere near you.”

Paul laughed, “At least we don’t have to worry about being attacked right away. We could use the sleep.” he said.

“How can we keep them from trying again, once they’ve gotten more men and equipment?” Elaine asked.

“I think you’ve already done everything you can.” Thomas said regretfully.

“What are you talking about? We haven’t done anything.” Jill said.

“Haven’t done anything?!” Thomas laughed, “You’ve decimated two groups of well armed and well trained men with only a few AK-47s and your own mutations. Now that you’re even better armed than before, they know it’ll take a small army to accomplish anything here. I don’t know if someone will try something or not, but they’ll certainly think twice about it!”

“It’s too bad there aren’t more of us…” Leonard mused aloud. We all looked at him; he rarely spoke up like that. He looked up and realized he spoke out loud. He looked down and seemed to shrink back in on himself and didn’t say anything else.

Jacob snorted; he’d never had much respect for the quiet Leonard, “What good would a few more people make? They come busting in here with tanks and shit and we’re still toast!” he complained.

He seemed to shrink even more at that, but Sarah put her hand on his arm and said, “They can’t bring large things like tanks in without making lots of noise. If we had enough people we could have someone on watch at all times and they wouldn’t be able to surprise us. We could sink their ships before they landed, or set traps for their people if they come by air.” she explained in Leonard’s defense.

I was surprised by this outburst. Sarah had been very quiet since her transformation, sticking close to Leonard as if for protection. Now I started to wonder if there was another reason for it.

Thomas looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, “Maybe we can do something about that.”

“Do something about what?” Mike asked.

“About getting more people here to help you.” Thomas replied.

I shook my head. “I don’t think we want to be bringing anyone here. They could be working for one of these groups that attacked us. How could we know that we could trust them?” I asked.

“By picking mutants that need your help.” Thomas replied with a smile.

“Need our help? We’re not exactly in a position to help anyone.” Paul said.

“Sure you are.” Thomas replied. “This is about the only place in the world where being a mutant isn’t a liability. Mutants are discriminated against and mistreated just about everywhere. There are lots of mutants who would jump at the chance to live here.”

My eyes widened as I realized the potential of what Thomas was saying. Our island could support a lot more people than we had here. With extra hands we could develop our village even more, and be better prepared to protect it. And using mutants would mean we’d maintain our advantage.

“So, are you offering to ferry mutants here for us?” Paul asked.

Thomas shook his head regretfully. “No, I can’t do that. I’ve already done about as much as I can. I might be able to find some promising mutants with bad situations who would be willing to come and join you, but you’ll have to bring them here yourselves.” he explained.

“Well, there goes that idea.” Greg said with a sigh. “Our little boats won’t get us far, and I can’t go that far either.”

I cleared my throat nervously before saying, “I…I think I can.”

Paul looked at me in confusion before asking, “How? When you first arrived you flew out in all directions and couldn’t find any sign of land. You exhausted yourself then, what makes you think you can do it now?”

“I’m a lot stronger than I was when I first arrived. I think I was still changing. I haven’t really pushed myself since then, until this fight with those soldiers. I was running, fighting, flying, diving, and getting shot, and I wasn’t even winded. I think I can do it, so long as I know what direction to go.” I explained.

Thomas nodded thoughtfully. “I can get you some maps and a compass. I even have the first candidate for you.” he said hopefully.

My eyes narrowed at that. “You already had this planned?” I asked suspiciously.

He held his hands out as he hurried to reassure me. “Not like this! I was hoping I could get you to help someone I heard about in Australia. She’s had a really bad time of it, and things don’t look like they’re going to get any better. A friend of mine down there told me about her. Her family kicked her out when she mutated and she’s been beaten nearly to death several times already.”

The part about her family kicking her out got my attention right away, I still wasn’t sure what my parents would think of me now, and feared the same reaction. “How far is that?” I asked.

“Now wait a minute!” Paul interrupted. “You can’t go flying off on your own! You’ll have no one to protect you if someone else makes a try at you.”

Thomas just chuckled at Paul’s concern. “I think you’ve got it backwards Paul! It’s more like Catherine won’t have to worry about protecting anyone else if she’s attacked!” he said with amusement.

“He’s got a point. She pretty well carved those guys up all by herself.” Mike agreed.

I gave Paul a one-winged hug to reassure him as I asked Thomas again how far. “I’m not sure how far it is from here. I’ll get those maps and compass for you tomorrow and we can plan out the best route for you.” he replied.

Thomas left after that. We all discussed Thomas’ idea. Jacob didn’t see the point of it, but seemed pleased with the idea of me being gone for a while. Leonard and Sarah were in favor of me going, of course. The rest seemed mostly unconcerned about it, except for Paul.

We carried our discussion on into our house. Paul was adamantly against me going alone, but no one else could go with me. I might be able to carry someone, but if I were attacked I’d be helpless. He finally agreed to the plan, after making me promise I would be careful and come back as fast as I could. He still wasn’t happy about it.

I lay awake long after Paul fell asleep, thinking about what tomorrow would bring. Thomas would bring the maps and compass, and we would plan my route. Then I’d be off, on my own. And I’d have to worry about possibly being attacked again without anyone else to help me. And then I’d have to convince an abused, frightened girl to come back with me! How do I get myself into these situations?

« Raccoon Ruckus »

I went hunting first thing in the morning and then met with Thomas. We planned my route and I stuffed the maps in a bag and tied the strap around my waist so it wouldn't interfere with my wings. The compass I strapped to my wrist. I said goodbye to everyone and left.

I flew high and fast. I'd never really cut loose like this, and wondered why. It was so exhilarating! I must have been flying two or three times faster than I ever had before.

I checked the compass to make sure I was going the right direction. I had no idea how long it would be until I reached the first landmass. Thomas seemed to think it would take all day, but I was hoping to do better than that.

Flying for hours at a time gets dull fast, even at the speeds I was flying. I was inclined to play a little to break up the boredom, but I wanted to get there as fast as possible.

After a few hours of flying I spotted land in the distance. How fast am I flying? I wondered. Another hour or so later I was flying over land. The shape matched what I'd expected, so I knew I was in the right place.

I landed to take a look at the maps. The longest part of the flight was from the island to here, so I decided to change my route and fly directly to Australia from here. It would be almost as far as what I'd already flown. I didn't feel the least bit tired, so I took flight again and, after orienting myself with the help of the compass, flew on my way.

By the time I reached Australia I was getting a bit tired, so I landed in the first secluded area I saw. I took a nap there under a tree. When I woke up I was starving, so I went hunting again. I was still sleepy after that, so I slept a while longer. It was almost light when I flew off again.

Finding the city the girl had been seen in was easy enough. I knew I had almost no chance of finding her on my own, though, so I looked for the hospital where Thomas' friend worked. The maps Thomas gave me included one of the city with the hospital marked, so it wasn't too hard. The hard part would be getting to talk to Thomas' friend before security came to kick me out.

Lacking any better ideas I came in for a careful landing in front of the hospital and walked in. As I expected, everyone stared at me wherever I went. There weren't any screams, which shows there had been enough mutants coming through here for me not to be too strange.

I tried to act normal as I walked up to the desk and asked for Dr. Morris. The woman at the desk gaped at me until I asked again. She shook herself and asked why I wanted to talk to him. I told her I was a friend and she said she'd let him know I was there. I felt immensely uncomfortable sitting down there in plain sight of all these gawking people, but what could I do?

Thomas must have warned Dr. Morris that I was coming, because he walked in only a few minutes later. "Would you be Catherine by any chance?" he asked as he walked up to me. I was impressed that he didn't react to how I look.

"Yes, Thomas said you'd seen a girl here a few times who is homeless. He said her name is Shawna Carson." I answered.

Dr. Morris nodded. "Her parents abandoned her here after she mutated. She has raccoon traits; ears, eyes, claws, fangs, and tail. She's four feet six inches tall and can move quite quickly. She's been in here several times since her mutation after being beaten. There are a lot of people around here that hate mutants. For whatever reason they've taken a particular dislike to her." He said.

"Yeah, Thomas said she'd been attacked a lot, that's why I'm here. Where can I find her?" I asked.

Dr. Morris shrugged. "I'm not sure. I only know where she was when she was found after each beating. Hopefully that's where you can find her." He said, and told me where she'd been found. It didn't mean a lot to me, so he showed me on the map. I thanked him and headed back out.

As I was walking out of the hospital a group of people were approaching the door. They focused on me immediately and I got the distinct impression they were looking for me. They didn't look friendly.

"Look at that, another freak!" One of them yelled out. The others joined in on the verbal attack. I figured it was only a matter of time for it to become physical, so I ignored them and headed towards the clearing I landed in so I could fly away. I didn't really think it'd be that easy, but I had to try.

Sure enough, they moved to block my path. "You're not going anywhere, freak!" their leader yelled at me. I'd had enough at this point, so I just kept walking. One of them tried to push me back, but all he managed to do was fall down when I kept moving as if he wasn't there. Several of them grabbed onto my arms and wings. A quick flap of my wings sent most of them sprawling. The others fell down when their efforts to hold me back failed and they were dragged along with me instead.

I didn't want to carry them up into the air with me, so I shook them off. By now they were finally getting the picture that they were no threat to me and retreated. I wondered if they were the ones who beat up Shawna. At that thought I was tempted to go back and return the favor, but I managed to curb that impulse and fly off.

I didn't find Shawna where she'd been discovered before, so I circled the area looking for her. It wasn't long before I saw another group of thugs chasing a very small girl. Another group cut her off and they encircled her so she had nowhere to run. I didn't like the looks of this at all. They started beating on her, and I dived.

One of them had a baseball bat and seemed ready to hit her in the head with it, so I targeted him first. I smashed into him and used his body to cushion my landing. I hadn't extended my claws yet, so I figured he at least had a chance of survival.

Several other people were still beating on the little girl, so I jumped over the nearest ones and landed astride the unconscious girl. They were perfectly happy to turn their murderous rampage on me. Another flap of my wings sent several of them flying while I grabbed one with my tail and pulled him down. I was crouched over the girl to protect her, so I used my wings and tail to do my fighting.

Once I'd reduced their numbers a bit I stood up and tackled the nearest one. His head hit the ground with a dull thump and I turned on the next nearest thug with a growl. At least half the thugs were now injured, unconscious, or running away. This guy decided the latter was a good idea and ran. The others started to charge me, at least until I picked up one of their fallen friends and threw him at them. Several went down under the unconscious body and the rest lost the will to fight and fled.

I had to knock a few more heads together before the fight was over. Finally everyone was either unconscious or had fled. I walked over to the unconscious girl and noticed she had raccoon traits. This must be Shawna. I thought. I picked her up and flew her back to the hospital.

Once again I walked up to the desk and asked for Dr. Morris. As before he arrived pretty quickly. Seeing the girl in my arms he led me to a room and had me set her down on the bed. "So this is Shawna, I take it?" I asked.

Dr. Morris nodded absently as he checked the extent of Shawna's injuries. When he was finished he said, "Her injuries don't look nearly as bad as usual."

I nodded. "That would be because someone interrupted her attacker's fun. They didn't appear to enjoy being on the receiving end and ran away." I replied.

Dr. Morris laughed at that. Just then Shawna stirred and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Dr. Morris. "Dr. Morris?" she asked groggily, "Why are you here? Did they get you too?"

I looked over at Dr. Morris, wondering if he understood her strange question. "What do you mean Shawna?" he asked.

"Well, they set a trap for me so they could kill me this time. So this must be heaven. And here you are." Shawna explained. She sounded like she was still kind of out of it.

He looked at me questioningly. "Yeah, it looked like they were going for the kill." I answered his look.

Shawna looked over at me when she heard my voice. "Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Catherine." I said with a smile. "But you can call me Cat if you like. I'm here to offer you a home where being a mutant isn't a liability."

She smiled dreamily at that and closed her eyes, fast asleep. "She probably won't remember this conversation. She took a heavy blow to the head." Dr. Morris said.

I frowned at that. "I guess the guy with the bat had already hit her once before I got to him." I thought out loud.

"Baseball bat? I guess they were out for blood. Thank you for saving her." Dr. Morris said.

I shrugged. "I couldn't very well let them do that, could I? Besides, she's why I'm here. How long do you think it will be before she wakes up?" I asked.

"Her injuries are a lot less severe than usual, so I'm guessing a few hours. She heals very rapidly." Dr. Morris answered.

I nodded and took a seat in the only chair in the room. "If that's all then I'll just wait here." I said.

"Would you like anything to eat or drink while you wait?" he asked.

"That's probably not a bad idea." I said.

"Anything in particular?" he asked.

"Nothing sugary, please." I replied. He nodded and left. I glanced over at Shawna. I knew she was sixteen years old, Thomas told me that, but she looked a lot younger. She was truly tiny. I guessed she hadn't eaten much since she started living on the street. She was cute under all that dirt and blood though. Her raccoon traits were obvious when one saw her long fluffy tail.

Dr. Morris came back later with a sandwich and water for me. It was different eating like a human again, but the sandwich really didn't do much for me. I'd still need to hunt before we left Australia. Hopefully that wouldn’t put Shawna off, assuming she agreed to come with me.

Dr. Morris left us alone and I dozed while I waited for her to wake. I was awoken by a shrill scream.

"Aaaahhhh! What are you?!" Shawna yelled in fright.

I tried to smile reassuringly, but I forgot my sharp teeth and fangs. She seemed even more afraid of me after I smiled. Sighing I said, "Please relax Shawna. A friend of your doctor sent me here to help you."

"Dr. Morris?" she asked fearfully.

"Yes." I nodded, "His friend, Thomas, asked me to help you. I live on an island with eleven other mutants. It's not fancy, but we're comfortable there. And you don't have to worry about anyone giving you trouble for being a mutant." I explained.

Shawna took a while to absorb all that. "You're the only ones on the island?" she asked.

"Yes. We were crewmates on a ship that was attacked by pirates. We ended up on the island, which was uninhabited, and set up a little village for ourselves. It's primitive compared to most places, but we do okay. By the time someone actually found us we'd mutated, so we decided to stay there. Especially after we heard how other mutants are treated, like you." I answered.

"So you're a recruiter or something?" she asked uncertainly.

I smiled at that. "That's not too far from the truth. Especially when you consider the reason we decided to invite other mutants to our island." I replied.

"What reason?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, I'm the first mutant. I got a much more concentrated dose than anyone else so I'm a lot stronger and tougher than other mutants. Some people want to get their hands on me to study me and my mutation. I assume so they can weaponize it. I'm not inclined to cooperate with that, so they sent armed soldiers to get me." I answered. I figured I should let her know what she was getting herself into ahead of time.

Shawna gasped. "They sent soldiers with guns, and you're still here?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Now we're worried about any future attempts. There aren't enough of us to keep watch effectively and still get everything done that needs to be. So we thought we'd invite mutants who are having a tough time where they're at. They get a, mostly, safer place to live and we get a more secure position. Hopefully we can get enough mutants there to discourage any further attacks." I replied.

After a few minutes of thought she said, "So either I stay here and probably get killed by those mutant hating jerks, or I go with you and maybe get killed by soldiers out to get you?"

I shrugged. "That's pretty much it. I'll understand if you don't want to get involved, but it looks to me like you'd be better off with us." I said.

She laughed bitterly. "Of course I'd be better off with you. I'd be better off just about anywhere else! But how could I possibly be any use to you? I'm tiny now, and I didn't get super strength or anything." She said dejectedly.

"Oh, I don't know. I think you'd make an excellent lookout. I'm guessing you have excellent night vision, right?" She nodded. "And you can climb well with those claws of yours. Your small size means you can hide better, and your speed means you can alert us to danger quicker. You're just about ideal, really." I answered.

"Really?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, really. You'd be an asset to us. There's no doubt in my mind about that. And I'll do whatever I can to keep you safe. Would you like me to come back tomorrow so you can think about it?" I asked hopefully.

She shook her head, "No, that's not necessary." She answered. I drooped a bit at that, I hated to think what would happen to her here on her own.

"I understand." I said and stood to leave.

"Wait! I meant I'll go with you." She said hastily.

"Oh!" I said and dropped back in the chair. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes." She nodded, "I'm sure. I don't have a chance here. At least with you I will." She answered.

"Okay!" I smiled. "Once Dr. Morris says you're safe to travel, we can go. Uh…I should warn you that I'm going to have to eat before we leave Australia." I said uncertainly.

"Why would I need to be warned about that?" she asked with a frown.

"Well…I inherited a lot of animal instincts with my mutation. Particularly hunting instincts." I replied tentatively.

"So what does that mean?" Shawna asked.

I fidgeted a bit before answering. "I hunt wild animals and eat them. The only food I really get anything out of is a…fresh kill." I explained hesitantly.

"Ewww! You eat them raw? That's gross!" she exclaimed. "Do all of you do that?"

I hung my head as I answered, "No, I'm the only one that became an animal."

"You're not an animal!" Dr. Morris called out sternly as he walked into the room. "You're not the first mutant I've met that had unusual dietary needs. That doesn't make you an animal. In fact, I'd say you're a hero."

"Hero? What are you talking about?" I asked in confusion.

"Didn't you save Shawna's life?" he retorted.

"What?" Shawna asked.

Dr. Morris turned to Shawna and said, "Catherine here stopped those thugs from killing you and fought them off. You would most likely be dead right now if not for her."

"Really?" She asked wide eyed. Dr. Morris nodded. She turned to me and said, "Wow, thank you!"

Dr. Morris said, "We're not the only ones who thinks you're a hero."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

In answer Dr. Morris walked over to the TV, switched it on and set the channel to a local news station.

"…flew off. A young boy saw this happen." A reporter was saying. She turned to a boy of eight or nine years. "What did you see?" she asked him.

"I saw this big hawk flying in circles. Then it flew down and tackled a man with a baseball bat. Then she fought off all the men. Then I saw that she was a kitty cat, not a hawk. But she had wings like a hawk. So I guess she was a kittyhawk. And she picked up a raccoon girl and flew away." He said excitedly.

"The boy's mother managed to take a picture of this mutant with her cell phone." The reporter said, and a picture of me flying with Shawna in my arms was shone on the screen. The resolution wasn't very good, but it was obviously me.

"That woman is a hero." The boy's mother said. "She saved that little raccoon girl's life. Those men were trying to kill the girl, and then tried to kill her."

At that point Dr. Morris turned the TV back off. "It just repeats after that." He explained.

"See, I'm better off with you, even if you do eat disgusting stuff!" Shawna said with a smile. I smiled weakly back.

"So, Dr. Morris, when can Shawna leave?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

He examined Shawna. "As I expected, she's already healed up. She can leave at any time." He answered.

"Ready to go Shawna?" I asked. She nodded. "Thanks for your help Dr. Morris." I said.

"I should be the one thanking you! I did what I could for Shawna, but it wasn't nearly enough. Thank you for getting her away from all of this." He answered gratefully.

I nodded uncomfortably. I knew that where I was taking her wasn't necessarily safe. Still, she didn't have to worry about being attacked just because she's a mutant. And she didn't have to live out of a dumpster!

Shawna said goodbye to Dr. Morris and we walked out. Shortly after we left the hospital a group of reporters, including the one from the newscast we saw, came running up to us. "Kittyhawk, why did you attack those men?" one of them shouted out. I remembered the kid from the TV had called me that and hoped it wasn't going to catch on.

I was just about to answer that when another one yelled, "Are you kidnapping this girl?"

"Where are you taking her?" Another asked. The questions kept coming too fast to make sense of. In frustration I picked up Shawna and spread my wings. The reporters backed up hastily to avoid them and I was able to get to a clear area and take off.

Once we were in the air I asked Shawna, "Are you okay?" She nodded, so I kept flying.

I set us down in the same area where I'd napped before. "Will you be okay here while I go hunting?" I asked her. She nodded, so I set her down and flew off to find me something to eat.

That didn't take long, so we were soon on our way again. Shawna was so small and light it was almost like carrying nothing at all.

By the time we reached the first stopping point I used on the way over I was getting tired. I landed there and found a place to sleep. I curled up around Shawna and covered us both with my wings to keep us warm. I told her a bit about the island and the other people there before we fell asleep.

In the morning I went hunting again. Once I'd eaten I returned for Shawna and we flew off towards the island. I was surprised, as we came in sight (for me, at least) of the island, that the ship Thomas arrived on was nowhere in sight.

I almost used the Cat Pad to land, before remembering that I had a passenger that might not handle that well. Instead I made a careful landing in the square. Most of the village was already there, and the few that weren't straggled in shortly after I landed. I set Shawna down and almost as soon as I straightened up I found myself in Paul's arms. I guess he missed me!

When we came up for air I saw that Shawna was grinning widely at me. I blushed and wrapped a wing around Paul before making the introductions. "Shawna, the hunk here is Paul. The wolf man over there is Mike. The fish man next to him is Greg. Then there's Vincent, Leonard, Sarah, and Jill. The fox girl is Tina, and the glowering jerk over there is Jacob. The lovebirds in the corner are Connie and Elaine." I said, pointing out where Connie and Elaine were cuddling up on a log we used as a bench at the last. "Everybody, this is Shawna."

Everyone greeted Shawna. I told them about my trip and Shawna chimed in to tell them about the TV news coverage and the reporters we waded through on our way out. Paul seemed to like the name Kittyhawk, despite my glaring at him whenever he used it.

"So your parents just abandoned you when you mutated?" Mike asked at one point.

"Yeah, I never saw them after I started mutating. They left without even saying goodbye or anything." Shawna answered with wet eyes. I wrapped my other wing around her in a hug to comfort her.

"I guess there's no point in trying to get in touch with my parents, then." Mike said. He was the youngest person in our group after me. Not that it was obvious, we all looked younger after our mutations, especially those who changed the most.

"Makes me glad I don't have any family left." Connie said sadly. She was the oldest of us. She looked as young as me now, but she'd been grey haired as Conrad.

"So now what?" Shawna asked. I suspect she was trying to change the subject. I was glad of it.

"Well, first we've got to settle your living arrangements. Unless we empty out the storage house we don't have an empty house for you." I replied.

"Um…actually we do." Sarah said, blushing and looking at her feet.

"How did that happen?" I asked curiously.

"I moved in with her." Leonard said, hooking his thumb at Sarah. I smiled, my suspicions had been accurate after all!

"Okay, unless you've already allocated Leonard's house, then Shawna can use that." I said. There were no objections to that.

"So when did Thomas' ship leave?" I asked.

"Just a few hours after you did." Greg answered. "We assumed they were following you."

I shook my head. "If they were, they didn't have a chance of keeping up. I figure I must have been flying at least two hundred miles an hour."

"I figured as much, with you getting back so quickly." Paul said.

Shawna's stomach ended that conversation by grumbling loudly. We put together a large meal for her and she dug in like she hadn't eaten for days.

While Shawna ate everyone got me up to date on what had been happening since I left. Thomas had returned to the ship shortly after I left, which had left soon after. Other than Leonard moving in with Sarah, not much had happened.

Mike brought up the question of where we'd get our next mutant. I was leery of going back to Australia with the news coverage I'd gotten there. Besides, with the hostile attitudes we'd encountered we figured other mutants would be keeping a low profile. Without Thomas to tell us, our best source of information on the outside world was Shawna.

Once she'd finished eating we asked her what had been happening for the last couple of years. She didn't know much (What teenager would?). She did say that she'd heard something on the news about mutants in Japan being treated worse than in most other areas.

The next few days went by quickly. Shawna settled in quickly and was very helpful. Especially to Jill, the two of them got along wonderfully. I noticed that Leonard seemed to have come out of his shell a little, no doubt due to Sarah's influence. She seemed more confident, as well. We all discussed bringing more mutants in, and agreed that Japan was our best bet. It was a similar distance away as Australia.

A week after returning with Shawna I prepared to leave again. Paul was no happier about it than before, but had to admit that having Shawna around was an improvement. Hopefully I could find another mutant who would fit in as well.

I left early and headed towards Japan. I'd be flying for at least six hours if my previous trip was anything to go by.

Two hours out I heard the sound of a helicopter approaching. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, this couldn't be good! I kept on towards Japan, hoping they would pass me by. No such luck.

The first indication that they weren't just passing through came when I heard gunfire and felt several impacts. Rubber bullets? They're better prepared this time.

Now that their intentions were clear I turned and spotted the helicopter. It looked like a fairly standard helicopter except for the men with machine guns who were strapped in on either side of it. I climbed as I approached. They followed suit, preventing me from attacking from above. Not that I was particularly inclined to use that suicidal approach!

I dived when I was just a few dozen feet away. I pulled up as soon as I was below them and climbed again, managing to grab hold of it before they could get out of reach. The guy with the gun on this side fired it point blank at me. Fortunately I had a good grip, or the force of the impacts would have knocked me clear of the helicopter. As it was I wasn't able to move until he had to stop to reload.

As soon as his gun clicked empty I surged upwards and sliced the harness that held him in place. Now it was him that was holding on for dear life. I jumped inside and knocked the other gunner out. Turning towards the pilot I found the barrel of a gun pressing into my stomach. The pilot was the man Thomas arrived with!

He smirked at me, just before pulling the trigger. Big mistake! I barely felt the bullet tear through me. It didn't slow me a bit, either, as I grabbed the toad by the throat and squeezed. His eyes bulged just like the toad I thought of him as. He managed to pull the trigger one more time before I yanked the gun out of his hand. I tossed it out the open door, followed shortly by him.

I assumed the helicopter was on automatic pilot, so I decided to leave it alone. The gunners would have a chance of getting control of it and returning to wherever they came from. The toad would have to swim home.

I continued on towards Japan. I felt a little guilty about throwing the toad out of the helicopter; I wasn't entirely sure he would survive the fall. And I also wasn't sure that the gunners would be able to pick him up, or get someone out quickly enough to do so. On the other hand, that hurt!

I put that out of my mind. After a long and boring flight Japan came into view. With renewed energy I winged my way over to the least populous looking area I could see. I hunted for a snack and then settled down to rest.

After a short nap I took flight and started looking for a likely place to find mutants. Coastal areas made the most sense. I found a fairly large city on the coast and started searching. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I found it pretty quickly.

I saw a lot of people running away from one building, while what looked like police vehicles encircled the building. I was about to dismiss it as unimportant to my search when I saw an obvious dog mutant speed out of the building and attack the police! He was fast, at least as fast as Paul. In seconds all of the police were down. I suspected some of them were dead.

This wasn't what I'd come for. I'd come to find mutants who needed our help, a safe place away from those who would hurt them for being different. What I had here were mutants using their powers to hurt people and take whatever they wanted! In an instant my decision was made and I dived.

The dog mutant was staying outside the building, watching to make sure the police didn't come in, I guess. He was thrown off his feet when I crashed down right behind him, my abrupt landing cracking the pavement and shaking the ground under his feet. Damn, that was the hardest landing yet, and all I got out of it is a little soreness on the bottoms of my feet, which is already gone!

He was back on his feet in a flash, but I was on him just as quickly. With a quick punch I knocked him out. Running inside the building I found what I suspected I would, a bank robbery in progress. There were four of them. Two were not obviously mutated, though I suspected they were mutants. They were armed with handguns. One had fox traits like Tina, the other was a bull mutant. The horns were wicked looking, and he was very heavily built.

They greeted me with a babble of Japanese. I didn't understand a word of it, but I got the distinct impression that they thought I was on their side. I let them believe that for all of a second before I was rushing the two that were armed. The first had no chance to react before he was disarmed and unconscious. The second shot me in the arm. That slowed my knocking him out as I had to switch which fist I punched him with while the other arm healed.

By the time the second gunman was down, the fox hybrid was all over me. He wasn't as fast as his friend outside, though. One good hit and he was crashing into a wall. He didn't get back up.

The bull mutant hit me from behind and I was thrown onto the ground. I rolled and turned in time to meet his charge by grabbing his horns. He seemed stunned as I brought his charge to an abrupt halt. My instincts told me to twist the horns and break his neck, and I almost did. While I was fighting with myself he grabbed my arms and tried to break my grip. He was strong, at least as strong as Elaine, but not strong enough. With a knee to his face I knocked him out.

More police had arrived by this time and tended to their injured colleagues. More came poring in and surrounded me with guns drawn. Several people in the bank talked to them and they put their guns away and bowed to me. I'd seen enough movies to know to bow back.

An older man I took to be the bank manager approached me a bit fearfully and bowed his thanks (I assume) several times. I bowed back and left. Nobody tried to stop me thankfully.

I spotted a pair of eyes watching me from an alley across the street as I left the bank. They widened fearfully when I looked their way and disappeared as their owner ran away. I took flight in pursuit as I suspected he might have been working with the mutants in the bank.

The owner of the eyes ran back through the alley and then started climbing…nothing! A gleam of light on a strand gave me the clue that he was climbing a giant spider's web. I realized that the web would give him access to the rooftops. I landed on the roof and waited for him.

« ArachnePhobic »

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.

« ArachnePhobic »

In moments the fight was over. The surviving men were huddled against the walls in terror. Paul was standing by the entrance over the unconscious bodies of two others. I spotted the commander of the ship on the ground. His left arm had been torn from the socket, but he was still alive and moaning. I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed until I heard a popping sound. His eyes glazed over and his head lolled to the side at an unnatural angle when I released him. I think I was about to feed on him when I heard Paul's voice.

"Cat. Cat! It's over!" he yelled. I got the feeling he'd been saying it for a while. I looked down at the body of the commander and shook myself.

I looked around at the other men huddled against the walls of the cave. They were so terrified some of them had actually wet themselves. None of them would look at me. "Don't try that again!" I growled and stalked out.

Outside the cave there were two more men, both riddled with bullets from Jill and Vincent's rifles. "Are you okay Cat?" Jill asked worriedly.

Paul had followed me out. I looked around at all three of them and saw only concern. I looked back at Paul and stuttered, "I…I almost…I almost ate him!" before breaking down and wailing on his shoulder as he held me.

"Shh, it's okay." Paul reassured me. "You stopped, and he would have deserved it anyway. How badly are you hurt?" he asked once I'd calmed a bit.

"Uhm, I think I'm okay…" I began to say, and then everything went black.

I awoke in our bed. Paul was sitting next to me. "Uh, what happened?" I asked.

Paul smiled, "It's good to see you awake. You've been unconscious for several hours. When you passed out we checked you for injuries, but what you had were healing right before our eyes. I guess between the fight and your injuries you just needed lots of rest. I'm guessing you'll be hungry soon, too."

My stomach took that as a cue to grumble. "Yeah, I am hungry." Then I remembered what I almost did in the cave. "I don't know if I can eat right now, though." I said with a shiver. I had totally lost control. If not for Paul…

I felt Paul's arms around me. "It's okay Kitty Kat. It didn't happen." He murmured into my ear as he held me. I realized tears were streaming down my face and soaking Paul's shoulder. "Your instincts just took over when he shot you. There's nothing to be ashamed of." He said softly.

After a short eternity I managed to stop crying and pull back. "I'm sorry." I said.

"For what?" he asked with a smile. "Everybody gets a little emotional now and then. You have more reason than most. I'll always be here for you."

That earned him a good long kiss! "You expended a lot of energy healing yourself. You need to eat." Paul said insistently after we came up for air. I nodded dreamily without even realizing, or caring, what I was agreeing to!

"Good!" he said, and pulled me to my feet. "Off you go!" He slapped my rear end as he pushed me out the door. I squeaked and spun around but he had wisely closed the door!

Reluctantly, I flew off to hunt. He was right, I was starving, but I didn't want to be reminded of what I almost did. While I was cleaning up afterwards I reflected on that. I realized it was rather silly to get so upset over almost eating a human corpse, when I do the same with various animals all the time. The difference is purely societal, but I was raised in that society. I wasn't going to go eating any human corpses any time soon, but I resolved not to let it bother me.

When I got back to the village Paul was preparing dinner in the square. "Hey, babe, feeling any better?" he asked after a quick kiss and hug.

"Much, thanks! What happened after I passed out, anyway?" I asked curiously.

He shrugged. "Not much, really. We got you back to the house once we realized your wounds were healing up so well. Jill and Vincent didn't have any more trouble with those men; they spent most of the time whimpering in fear if you hear them tell it. Mike and Greg are over there now."

"Do we have any idea of what kind of damage I did?" I asked. I didn't really remember the fight other than a few flashes here and there.

"A lot." Paul said with a grin. After an elbow from me he grunted and continued, "Their commander is dead, along with fifteen others. Two of which were killed by Jill and Vincent when they tried to rush them. I beat up a couple when I came in to help, but they're not seriously hurt. I think there are about eight more that are seriously hurt and we don't know if they'll make it. Then there are another ten or more with less serious injuries. So between us we injured or killed over half their number. Not that we contributed all that much, of course."

I stared in shock. "That much?" I whispered.

"Well, they did try very hard to kill you. That head shot pretty well shut off your conscious mind for a while. Personally I think they came off light." Paul said angrily.

He went back to working on dinner after that. Shawna and Arachne found me soon after. "We heard about what happened, are you alright Cat?" Shawna asked worriedly.

"I'm fine Shawna, I heal very fast." I assured her.

"Were you not shot in head?" Arachne asked in awe.

"Like I said, I heal very fast. I'm less surprised that I survived the shot than I am that I retained consciousness. Well, sort of." I replied.

"What do you mean, sort of?" Shawna asked.

"I don't really remember much after the shot, but Paul says I was pretty much running on animal instinct alone. I'm just glad Paul got through to me when he did." I mused.

Shawna looked baffled at that. Arachne did too, at first. "Ah, you almost do as I did?" she asked. I nodded. "I am glad he there for you." She said softly.

"What are you guys talking about?" Shawna asked, confused.

"When instincts take over, enemies become prey. Natural to feed on prey." Arachne explained.

Shawna gasped. "You almost ate one of those guys?" she asked in shock. Then after a moments thought she said, "It would have served him right!"

I laughed weakly at that. "Paul seems to feel the same way." I said.

"Do you think they'll cause any more trouble?" Shawna asked.

"I doubt it. I think most of those men were just sailors, not soldiers. And those are the ones who were probably the first to back off, if they were ever involved at all. I suspect that most of the soldiers are dead or at least injured now. With all the injured men they have to care for, they should be kept too busy to try anything else. Besides, it sounds like they're too scared of me for that." I replied.

"As they should be! You're like a super hero!" Shawna said.

I laughed at that. "Hardly a super hero. I'm just dangerous, that's all. And I'm going to be especially dangerous if anything happens to my parents before I can get to them." I said.

"Will you bring them here?" Arachne asked.

That gave me pause for thought. "I…don't know. I'm not even sure if I should tell them who I am. But I have to make sure they're safe, at least." I replied.

Paul called out that dinner was ready, so Shawna went off to eat while Arachne left to hunt. Paul brought his dinner with him and sat next to me. "Have those men had anything to eat since this morning?" I asked him.

"They should be fine, you brought enough food for fifty six people, they have maybe half that many that are conscious. They will need water, though." He replied.

"Okay, I'll take it to them." I said and started to stand. Paul grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Cat, don't you think someone else should do that?" he said.

"I'm not letting anyone else go in there. They're a lot less dangerous now, but there are still too many of them to send anyone else in." I replied.

"Then at least wait until I'm finished eating. We can take Mike and Greg their dinner while we're at it." He suggested. I nodded and wrapped a wing around him.

Once he'd finished eating we collected food for Mike and Greg and enough water for the remaining men from the ship. We also brought more medical supplies; apparently Mike threw some into the cave for them after I passed out.

At the cave Mike gave his gun to Paul so he could eat while Paul took his place. I took the water inside the cave. The first thing I noticed was that all of them fled to the farthest corners of the cave as I entered and looked at me like I was a wild animal. Then I noticed the remains piled up at one end of the cave. I counted twenty two dead. At the other end of the cave were the injured. There were three who looked pretty bad, the rest were less seriously injured. That left just about twenty people who weren't injured.

I dropped off the water and medical supplies and left the cave without difficulty. "Any problems?" Paul asked. He was still standing guard, but now Greg was the one eating.

"No, they're too afraid of me to get anywhere near me. I don't think we'll have any more problems with them. It looks like six of the injured didn't make it, though." I answered.

"Don't worry about it, they brought it on themselves." Paul said. I nodded and we returned to the village.

In the morning I went flying for a while to think. I was worried about my parents, but also about how they'd react to me. Should I tell them who I am, or just warn them they're in danger, or what? I was pondering this when I saw another ship approaching. This one was much larger. I flew over to take a look at it.

Men were pointing in my direction, but not with weapons. Encouraged, I decided to land. I came in slowly so as not to alarm them.

Everyone in sight was gawking at me, but they quickly scattered when an officer yelled at them to get back to their posts. "Excuse me ma'am, but what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you weren't answering a mayday from a smaller ship that would have been transmitted the day before yesterday." I replied.

His eyes narrowed. "Yes, that's why we're here. Do you know something about this?" he asked suspiciously.

"You could say that. That ship sent a group of men to kidnap someone from my island. After that, I was shot at while returning to the island. In order to protect me and my passenger one of my friends stuck some grenades to the underside of its hull and set them off. Much to our surprise, he managed to sink it." I replied angrily.

The officer blinked in surprise. "They attacked you? Why would they do that?" he asked.

"I assume they were operating under the orders of the group or groups that have already tried to kidnap me on multiple occasions." I replied.

The officer shook that off and asked, "Where are the men who were on that ship?"

"We're holding them in a cave on the island. We'll be happy to hand them over to you, but you'll understand if we don't want more people, especially soldiers, coming to the island. We'll put them in the lifeboats they came ashore in and send them to you." I replied.

"Alright. How many are there?" he asked.

"I believe there are thirty four left alive. When I last checked in on them there were two or three who were badly injured that might not make it." I said.

"Only thirty four! There were at least sixty people on that ship! What did you do?" he demanded.

I glared at him and let out the growl I felt building in my throat. "I defended myself. They ambushed me when I was delivering food and water. After being stabbed multiple times and hit with rocks and fists from all directions I was shot in the face by their commander. Normally I would have simply knocked them out, but I was not fully conscious so my usual restraint was absent."

He gulped and backed away from me. "You killed over twenty people on your own? After being shot in the face?" he asked weakly.

I nodded. "Yes."

He stopped backing away and looked at me curiously. "You're Kittyhawk, aren't you?" he asked cautiously.

I sighed. "Yes, I've been called that." I replied wearily. I guess I wasn't going to get away from that name.

He shook his head in wonder. "You rescued a mutant from a gang of mutant hunters, you broke up a bank robbery by a gang of mutants who made mincemeat of the police, and now you've torn up half a ship of men after sinking that ship. You're a very dangerous woman, but I have to wonder; whose side are you on?" he asked.

"I'm on my side, and that of my friends. We've been living peacefully on this island for over two years now. We would have been happy to remain undiscovered here for the rest of our lives, but that's not what happened. Now we're just trying to keep ourselves safe." I replied.

"Well, if you really send those men back I might just believe that." He replied.

"I'll go get them ready now." I replied. He nodded, so I took off and flew back to the village.

I went looking for Paul and found him gathering firewood. "Paul, there's a ship here to pick up our prisoners." I told him after I landed. "We need to get everyone together so we can move the men to the beach and get them packed up in their lifeboats." Paul nodded and sped off to gather the others.

I found Arachne and Shawna grabbing a snack from the storage house. "We're gathering everyone to transport our prisoners to a ship that just arrived. You two don't need to be involved with that, so I suggest you stay in the village until we get back." I told them.

Before long everyone was gathered in the square and we started off for the cave. Sarah and Connie were already there guarding them. They were surprised to see us all there, armed to the teeth. We led the men out to the beach. We had them help us carry out the injured and dead. The dead went into one boat and the rest into three others. Then we sent them off and I flew up and watched them until they were collected.

That taken care of I returned to the village. I told Shawna and Arachne that we were back and then pulled Arachne aside. "Arachne, I was wondering if you could do me a favor." I told her once we were out of earshot of Shawna, which is quite a ways.

"What favor?" she asked curiously.

"Once that ship leaves, or maybe even before that, I'm going to go find my parents and make sure they're okay. I was wondering if you'd watch out for Shawna while I'm gone." I replied.

"Gladly, but why me?" she asked.

"I know you can keep her safe, and doing so will keep you out of the worst of any trouble that comes, which I think you would prefer." I replied carefully.

"I appreciate concern. I am willing to help others, but will keep Shawna safe." Arachne replied.

"Thanks, I'll feel better knowing you're watching out for her." I replied gratefully.

Arachne went back to Shawna and I talked to Paul. "When the rest of you are eating dinner I'm going to go to the ship and make sure they aren't going to stick around." I told him.

Paul nodded. "And once they're gone you are, too, right?"

"Yes. I have to make sure my parents are okay. I'm still not sure how I'll handle that, but I have to do something." I replied.

"I understand. Just be careful and come back as quickly as you can." He said.

I stayed with Paul until dinner time and then flew off to the ship. My reception wasn't as cordial as last time. Several were yelling at me as I came down for a landing, though at least they weren't armed. The same officer came out to talk to me. "I'm surprised you waited this long to come back." He said in a neutral tone.

I shrugged. "I thought you'd need time to get all those men settled and treat the wounded. I'm afraid we don't have much in the way of medical facilities on the island." I replied.

His expression softened slightly. "I appreciate that. I'm afraid you aren't very popular with most of the crew right now. Word of what you did to those people has already spread."

I nodded. "I expected that. I'm not trying to win any popularity contests, just take care of my friends. What I need to know now is what your intentions are."

"We've accomplished our mission here. We'll be returning to the nearest naval base to drop off the survivors, and the dead. You realize that someone's likely to be sent back out here after the damage you did." He replied.

"I know. There's not much I can do about that except make sure we're ready for any more attacks." I said.

"For what it's worth, I'm inclined to believe you." He said.

"It's good to know someone doesn't think I'm a murdering animal." I said with a weak smile. We said goodbye and I returned to the island. It sounded like they'd be gone soon. I told Paul what he'd said when I got back.

"Sounds like they'll be gone soon." He commented.

"I think so. Once they're gone I'll go to Boston and check on my parents. I just hope they're alright." I said worriedly.

"They are. If anyone is looking to use them against you they'll want them alive, after all." Paul pointed out.

"Good point. I guess I'm going to have to tell them who I am, aren't I?" I said sadly.

"Why so sad? At least you'll get to see your family. The rest of us have to stay clear of ours in order to protect them." Paul replied.

"Not necessarily. We could bring them here." I said.

"Maybe." He shrugged.

By noon the next day the ship had moved on. I decided to wait until the following morning to leave. I'd need all the daylight I could get to make the flight to California. It would probably take me a few days to get to Boston from there. I asked everyone to stick around after dinner.

"I'm going to head out for Boston tomorrow." I started. "Sooner or later they're going to use my parents against me. I think the only way I can deal with this is to bring them here. I wanted to know if any of you have a problem with that." I looked around as I said that and noted that no one seemed surprised.

Jacob snorted. "Of course I've got a problem with it! But you'll all ignore me like you always do!" he grumbled.

"What exactly is your problem?" I asked him, not really expecting anything other than his dislike of me.

"I want to bring my own family here." He replied. "But they're safer where they are because whoever's after you don't know who I am."

"Sounds like you've already answered your own objection." Paul said.

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though." Jacob groused.

"Anybody else?" I asked.

Nobody else had any problem with me bringing my parents to the island. Everyone wished me good luck, even Jacob! I was starting to think that guy might actually turn out to be alright. Maybe.

I spent the rest of the night with Paul, since we wouldn't be seeing each other for at least a week.

After hunting in the morning I set out. I didn't try to fly as fast as I could; instead I focused on keeping up a decent speed and doing lots of gliding. It was a lot less tiring, but would cover plenty of distance, too. I probably could have gotten there without that precaution, but I wanted to make sure.

The first day of flight was very boring. I arrived in California in the late afternoon. I was feeling alright, so I continued on. I think I was around the middle of Nevada when I found a place to sleep for the night. I was rather surprised I hadn't been intercepted. I assumed I could be detected by radar, but there was no sign of activity. I started to worry that they were purposely keeping everyone off my back so I'd go to my parents where they would have a trap set for me.

I was somewhere over Kansas the next day when I spotted another flyer. This mutant had silver wings but looked normal otherwise except for her silver hair. When she spotted me she started flying towards me, so I turned to meet her. She motioned for me to land on a nearby hill, so I followed her there. She landed gracefully while I did my usual dive and flip to land on my feet. She staggered when I hit the ground and looked at me in shock. "Are you alright?" she asked me worriedly.

I smiled. "I'm fine; I usually land like that when I can. It's faster."

"Wow!" she breathed. "You're as impressive as the news paints you out to be. You are Kittyhawk, right?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah," I said with a groan, "that's what some people call me."

"Sorry, I'm sure that's not your real name. Everyone calls me Kestrel, but my real name is Melissa." She said.

"I'm Catherine. Most of my friends call me Cat." I replied.

Melissa laughed. "I can see why! So what brings you to my neck of the woods?" she asked curiously.

"I'm headed to see my parents. Some people are trying to kidnap me so they can figure out how my mutation works. They've already tried to kidnap a friend from the island where I live to use as a hostage against me, so I figured I'd better get my parents closer so I can protect them." I replied.

"Someone's been trying to kidnap you?! That sounds kind of stupid, to me!" Melissa exclaimed.

"Well, it hasn't worked out too well for them so far." I admitted with a wry grin. "They keep trying, though."

Melissa fidgeted a moment before saying, "Um, would you like some company?"

"Why do you want to go with me?" I asked.

"People really don't understand or accept me here. They're always putting me down and I've been attacked a couple of times. Fortunately I can fly, but I still don't feel very safe here. I thought if I stayed with you I'd be a lot safer. I'll help you with your parents or whatever else you want me to do." She said hopefully and with a tinge of desperation.

"You realize that being around me is dangerous. I've been attacked several times already." I cautioned her. She seemed like the type of person we should be inviting to the island, and she would be helpful with carrying my parents home, but I didn't want her coming without knowing what she was getting into.

"I know!" she rushed to assure me. "But I've got nothing here. My parents…they were killed last week. Everyone else I know doesn't want anything to do with me because they're afraid it will happen to them, too. Mutants can't even get jobs here."

I wish I could do something about the way people treat mutants… I thought. "Okay, if you're sure you want to come with me, you can. But you've got to do what I say! If I tell you to run for it, you have to do it. Can you handle that?" I asked her. "I'm expecting trouble when I get to my parents place." I added.

Melissa nodded happily. "Yes, I understand! I'll do whatever you say!" she replied enthusiastically.

Sighing, I replied, "Okay, you can come with me. Is there anything you want to get before we leave?"

"Yes, there is, if you don't mind?" she asked hopefully.

"So long as you can carry it and someone else, I'm okay with it." I replied.

"Cool! It won't be a problem, I promise!" she said happily. "Do you want to come with me, or would you prefer to meet back here?"

"Are you expecting any trouble?" I asked warily.

"Um, I'm not sure. My aunt and uncle are living in my parents' place right now, and that's where my stuff is. They're not going to be happy to see me, but I don't think we have to worry about violence or anything." She replied uncertainly. The more I saw of her the more I felt she was younger than she looked. She looked like she was in her early twenties.

"I'll go with you, just in case." I replied. She seemed happy with that answer, so she took off and led me to her parents' house.

It wasn't far, at least not for flyers like us. The house was a fairly large two story with a large yard. We landed in the back and walked around to the front. There were two cars in the driveway. "Looks like my aunt and uncle are both here." Melissa commented as she pressed the door bell.

It wasn't long until a middle aged man answered the door. He frowned when he saw Melissa, but positively cringed when he saw me. "What are you doing here with that." he snarled.

Melissa sighed and said, "I'm just here to collect some of my stuff, then I'm out of here, for good. I'm going to help Kittyhawk here and live on her island, so you won't ever have to see me again."

He was still frowning, but he grudgingly opened the door and let us in. Melissa led me up the stairs to her old bedroom. "Um, would you mind waiting out here?" she asked hesitantly. I looked at her curiously and finally put together why she seemed so young.

"If you're worried that I'll notice that your room doesn't look like one a girl would have, you don't have to worry. Lots of men that mutate become women, it's no big deal." I said, hoping to put her at ease.

Her eyes widened in shock and she tried to stutter out a denial but finally dropped her head and mumbled, "Yeah, I used to be a guy."

I leaned towards her and whispered conspiratorially, "I was, too."

She looked at me in shock again and whispered, "Really?"

I nodded. "So why don't you let me help you pack?" I suggested.

She smiled weakly at me and led me into her room. It wasn't as stereotypically male as I thought it would be. There were several distinctly feminine touches that I presumed were new. What did surprise me was the main thing she wanted to bring with her. "Swords?" I said.

She smiled shyly. "Yeah, I like swords. I know I can't bring them all, but I can bring my favorites." She replied. She had several sword belts and harnesses and had apparently adapted some for her wings. She strapped on two harnesses that, together, allowed her to carry two swords on her back. Then she put on two sword belts that had two scabbards on each. She also secreted several knives and daggers about her person and in a backpack she wore backwards so it wouldn't interfere with her wings. She filled the pack the rest of the way with clothes and photographs of her parents.

She took off her sneakers and replaced them with black knee high boots and sheathed two more daggers in them. "You look like you're ready for a war." I commented.

She smiled and said, "From what you've said, I should be. But mostly I just don't want to leave them behind. I just wish I could bring my claymore, but it's too long." I could see what she meant; it was as tall as her!

"Do you have another backpack I could use?" I asked her. She nodded and dug out another bag and threw it to me. I strapped it on backwards as she had.

"Let's get some food for you; I doubt you'd want to eat like I do." I said.

She looked at me quizzically. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I hunt the same way a wild animal does. Cooked food doesn't do much for me." I replied sadly.

"Oh." She said quietly. "I guess I got off easy." We went down to the kitchen and raided the cupboard for non-perishables. After making sure to pack a couple of can openers and a box of matches we left. Melissa's uncle was obviously very glad to see us go.

"So where to now?" Melissa asked eagerly.

"Boston." I replied. She nodded and we took wing and headed east.

« Kestrel's Kalamity »

We stopped the first night in a state park. "How are you holding up?" I asked Melissa, who was breathing hard but looked okay.

"Tired! I've never flown that much in a single day before, especially while carrying so much stuff." Melissa replied. I helped Melissa put a fire together so she could cook up something to eat, then went hunting. We both fell asleep quickly after eating.

In the morning we ate again and set off. By the end of the third day we were nearing Boston. After eating in the morning we flew on. Once Boston was in sight I motioned for Melissa to land and followed her down. "What's up?" she asked curiously.

"I think whoever's after me may have set a trap for me at my parents' house. I'm not too worried about fighting off whoever may be there, but I don't want my parents getting hurt. I've been thinking about how to handle that the last few days and I think I've got a solution, thanks to you." I replied.

"Me? What do you mean?" Melissa asked.

"If they're there, they're expecting me, not you. Once I come in they'll be totally focused on me. I can let them take me. While their attention is focused on getting me wherever they want me, you can go in and get my parents away from them. Once you've got them I can break out and we can meet back here." I explained.

"How will I know where they are?" she asked.

"I'm sure they'll let me see them, so that I know they have them. I can make a fuss to make sure you know where they are." I said.

"Are you sure you can get away once they've got you?" Melissa asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm sure." I said more confidently than I felt.

"Well, if you're sure, then I'll be glad to help. I guess if I fly in a little after you, and at a higher altitude, it shouldn't be too hard to get close enough to see what's going on." She replied.

"Thanks." I said with a smile. "Are you ready to go, then?"

Melissa checked to make sure all her swords and other gear were secured and then nodded. I nodded back and flew off into Boston. I glanced back to make sure Melissa was staying far enough back and saw that she was still climbing. I faced forward again and started trying to find landmarks that would help me find my parents' house. Everything looks so different from the air… I mused.

After a few minutes of flying around haphazardly I spotted my old high school. From it's layout I was able to discern the direction to my parents' house. A couple minutes later I was touching down on the lawn. I kept my eyes open, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I walked up to the door and knocked. I listened and heard someone moving towards the door. I heard a few other sounds that indicated there were probably four or five other people in the house, maybe more.

The door opened suddenly and something shot out and struck me in the chest. I felt something flowing into me. It felt delicious! I felt a part of me I was never even aware of before suddenly wake up, and it thirsted for more! My eyes had closed at some point and I opened them to find I was lying on the ground. Several men were standing over me with tasers and cattle prods. Seeing my eyes were open one of them jabbed me with a cattle prod. Even more of that delicious something flowed into me. I shuddered in pleasure. I finally realized it was electricity I was feeling. Somehow I was absorbing it without injury, to say the least!

My eyes opened again and I was hit again with a cattle prod. This time I rolled with it and back on my feet. "Stop!" a man shouted. The men around me moved aside so I could see into the house. My parents were bound hand and foot on the couch. The man who spoke gave me a moment to see them and then stepped into my line of sight. "If you keep struggling we'll kill your parents!" he snarled.

Satisfied that I'd seen where my parents were at, I nodded and let them pull and push me to my feet. They half led, half dragged me towards the street. A semi truck pulled up with a van trailer. They dragged me around to the doors of the trailer, which were opened from the inside. A ramp was lowered and they shoved me up it. In moments I found myself pushed down to the floor in the center of the trailer, surrounded by a couple of dozen men in body armor. They were all armed with cattle prods, which were pointed at me. There were strip lights on the ceiling illuminating the bare metal walls of the trailer. The doors clanged shut and were locked from the outside. In moments we were moving.

I looked back towards the doors, I was facing the other way, and suddenly they were jabbing me with cattle prods from every direction. It was a real struggle to appear to be in pain as the delicious energy flooded my system. I felt stronger and more alive than I ever had before!

Writhing around on the floor was easy enough, as I was being hit rather hard and the electricity just felt soo good! How had I ever survived without it these last couple of years?

They finally stopped hitting me and I lay still. I felt something change inside, and I knew I could let this energy back out if I wanted to. I relaxed every muscle in my body and listened carefully for any word on my parents.

A few minutes later the man who had spoken before received a cell phone call. He moved to the far end of the trailer and answered it. Despite his precautions I clearly heard someone tell him that another winged mutant had killed the men at the house and taken my parents away. That was all I needed to hear!

I was originally going to fight my way out, but I decided I had a better option, now. I felt the energy inside me and released it, nearly all of it. Arcs of electricity shot out of my body to strike the walls of the trailer and the men inside. They screamed and tried to get away, but in moments they were all lying on the floor, twitching and unable to control their own movements. I cut a hole in the side of the trailer and jumped out.

I looked around myself, trying to get my bearings, when I heard the brakes on the truck screeching. I didn't see any reason to stick around and fight with the driver, so I took off and started flying in circles until I got my bearings. Once I had I turned towards the place we'd agreed to meet at. I had only flown a short ways before I heard the sound of helicopters approaching. I dived and took cover in an alley.

The helicopters flew almost straight overhead. I thought I'd evaded detection, but they turned around and came directly towards me. Running down the alley I looked back at the helicopters. These weren't ordinary helicopters, they were gunships!

I didn't think it likely they'd shoot at me on the ground, but I was wrong. I was running across a street towards another alley when bullets started tearing up the ground right behind me!

Not seeing any point in hiding anymore, I took to the air. They continued shooting at me, shattering windows as their fire tracked me. These guys are reckless! I thought.

Dodging their fire I tried to get at them, but they covered each other. Every time I got close to one of them the other would drive me away with a rain of bullets. Then I remembered how I disabled the men in the truck. When I got close to one of the helicopters again I released all the power I could into it.

The arc of energy that shot out of my hand was much smaller than before and didn't seem to have any effect. I felt drained and weak and realized I was out of power! I nearly crashed into a building I was feeling so weak. I dropped to the ground, trying to find something I could use against the gunships. That's when I saw the breaker box on the side of a small restaurant. I ran towards it, still dodging machine gun fire. When I reached it I didn't bother opening it, I just sliced right through it. Several wires were cut and exposed, so I grabbed them and felt the sweet energy flowing into me once more.

The energy was flowing much faster than what I got from the cattle prods earlier, but it still wasn't painful. I soaked it up eagerly, aware of the bullets tearing into the building only a few feet away. The helicopters couldn't stop as quickly as me, so they over flew me. That gave me all the time I needed to drink in many times more power than I'd had before. The gunships announced their presence with a missile. The wall next to me exploded, throwing me clear of the breaker box.

I felt no pain from the explosion. In fact, I felt wonderful! I jumped straight up, flapping my wings strongly, and was soon higher than either helicopter. They began to climb but I didn't give them a chance to fire any more missiles. I could somehow feel a path from me to each helicopter. I released a large bolt of energy at each through my hands. The arc of electricity was much stronger this time.

Sparks and smoke erupted from both helicopters. Their rotors stopped spinning and they dropped like stones. I noticed one of them was on fire as it dropped past me, but I didn't stick around to see what happened. I heard explosions behind me as I flew away.

I headed towards the edge of town. I'd used nearly all the energy I absorbed through the breaker box, so I was feeling rather drained. I was tempted to stop and charge up somewhere, but I didn't want to delay anymore than I already had.

Finally I arrived and saw Melissa and my parents waiting for me. Landing heavily, I stumbled towards them.

"Cat? Are you alright?" Melissa asked worriedly.

I shook my head to clear it. "I'm okay, just a little drained. Did everything go okay for you?" I answered.

We were standing in an empty field and there was no one in sight, so I sat down and got more comfortable. Strange, that fight wouldn't have taken this much out of me before, but now that I've discovered this new ability I seem to need the energy just to feel normal! I thought.

Melissa still looked worried, but sat down with me. "Yeah, everything went fine. When they drove off with you I waited a few minutes to make sure they were gone then I flew in through a window…" she began, but Dad cut her off.

"She did a lot more than fly through the window! She came in swords first, decapitating two of those guys on the way. Then she knocked another guy's gun aside with one sword and cut off the hand holding it with the other. The fourth guy got a shot off and hit her in the shoulder, but she just ignored it and cut him in half! And that wasn't the end of it! She led us downstairs and there were four more down there. She told us to stay in the stairwell and then she ran down and jumped over the nearest two, stabbing one in the throat and the other in the eye. Then she spun around and cut into the last two down before they could even draw their weapons!" Dad said excitedly.

I looked wide eyed at Melissa at the end of that explanation. "Really?" was all I could manage.

Melissa blushed and looked down, but nodded. "That sounds about right, I guess." She admitted.

"Wow, you must have gotten some substantial strength and reflex enhancements out of your mutation!" I exclaimed.

"I guess, I haven't really tested it before. I knew I healed fast, because I survived injuries that should have killed me, but I didn't know about the rest." Melissa said. She looked sad when she mentioned the injuries she'd had before. I would have asked her about them, but then Mom derailed me.

"Not that I don't appreciate getting away from all those guns, but why did you two come for us?" she asked.

Melissa looked to me and I sighed. "I had reason to believe you might be in danger. They wanted to use you to capture me."

"Why would they choose us for that? We've never met before! I've never even seen a mutant in person before today!" Mom replied.

"It's because of David." I said softly.

"David?! You know where he is?" Dad exclaimed.

"Is he alright?" Mom demanded worriedly.

"Yes, I know where he is, and he's fine." I replied wearily. I really didn't want to get into this, especially with how drained I was feeling.

Dad surprised me by grabbing me by the shoulders and yelling in my face. "Where is he?!"

I gently pushed him back. He released my shoulders as if he hadn't even realized he had grabbed me. "He's right…here." I replied, pointing at myself.

"I don't understand." Mom said.

"I mutated over two years ago, Mom. I used to be David, now I'm Catherine." I explained.

"You expect us to believe that you are our son David." Dad asked incredulously.

"Thomas said he would tell you that I was okay. He did, didn't he?" I asked.

Dad looked startled at my use of Thomas' name. "Yes, he did. But he didn't say anything about you, I mean David, being changed into a girl!" he replied.

I started telling them everything I could remember of my childhood. By the time I reached the age of eight Mom stopped me by wrapping her arms around me. "David! It really is you!" she sobbed, clutching me to her like I might disappear any moment.

Dad joined us, tears streaming down his face. "We thought we'd never see you again!" he said.

Melissa sat back and smiled as we hugged and cried all over each other. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, either." I said once we'd separated. "Especially once I knew the government wanted me, I didn't want to attract attention to you."

"Obviously that didn't work out too well." Dad noted dryly.

"Yeah. They tried to kidnap one of the other mutants on the island where I live, and that's when I realized you were in danger. I'm afraid the only solution I've come up with is for you both to come to the island." I said apologetically.

"It would have been nice if we could have packed first." Mom said wistfully.

"I'd go back, but they probably have another team there by now." I said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it." Dad said. "I'm just glad to know you're okay. How far away is this island of yours, anyway?"

"Um, it's several hundred miles northeast of Australia." I replied.

Dad started at that. "How did you get here then?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I flew."

"Uh, Da…Catherine, that must be several thousand miles away." Dad pointed out.

"I know. I can fly very fast and far." I replied.

"So how are we going to get there?" Mom asked.

I gestured towards Melissa and said, "We'll carry you."

She looked back and forth between us skeptically. "You can carry us and fly that far?"

"Not in one day, but we can do it." I replied. Melissa nodded.

"Maybe we'd better get going then, before they send someone looking for us." Dad said, looking regretfully back at Boston.

"I think we'd better take a little detour, though." I said, still feeling weak and drained without the energy I'd so recently discovered the use of.

"Where to?" Melissa asked curiously.

"Over there should do." I said, spotting some power lines and pointing at them.

"Do for what?" Dad asked as we began walking in that direction.

"I discovered something new about myself when I was attacked at the house. I can absorb electricity. Now I feel weak without it, and I used up pretty much all I'd absorbed taking down the gunships they sent after me." I replied.

"Gunships? Are you alright?" Dad asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. And I'll be a whole lot better in a moment!" I said and jumped up onto the power lines. I could feel the power flowing through the lines, even though I wasn't absorbing it yet. I knelt down on all fours, still balancing on one wire. Once I was settled I reached over for the next wire. Electricity slammed into me, a heady rush of power unlike anything I'd experienced so far. There was a bit of pain at first, but it was quickly overridden by the pleasure of filling that empty place inside. For the first time I began to feel like I'd had enough, so I hopped down from the power lines.

"Cat, are you alright?" Melissa asked worriedly. I looked down at myself and realized my clothes were smoking a bit.

"Yes, I'm great!" I replied happily. I felt like I'd just had a large meal, only I wasn't lethargic, I was energized!

Mom and Dad looked at me worriedly, as did Melissa. "Really, I'm fine. We'd better get going now. Melissa, why don't you take Mom and I'll take Dad." I said.

Before he could protest I picked Dad up in my arms and lifted off into the air. I felt light as a feather, even while carrying my father. Melissa rose up beside me with Mom in her arms. She didn't seem uncomfortable with the weight. We headed west.

The hardest part of the flight was holding myself back so I didn't leave Melissa behind! I'd had to do so before, but now it was so much harder. About four hours out of Boston she began to fall behind. I spotted a secluded area to land and headed down with Melissa following. I landed carefully and put Dad down, turning to assist Melissa if she needed it.

She was obviously tired, but she landed easily enough. I took off the backpack with the food in it and handed it to Dad. "Why don't you guys put together something for your dinner while I go hunting?" I suggested. Of course I had to explain my dietary needs, again, to Mom and Dad. They both looked a little green, but they didn't say anything.

Flying low I quickly spotted a deer but found I wasn't hungry enough for something so large. Spotting a rabbit I quickly ran it down. Strange that I'm not hungrier. I mused as I ate.

Dad had a good sized fire going by the time I returned. "Are you going to tell us about the gunships, now?" he said, or rather demanded, as I sat by the fire.

I sighed. "Alright, but I should start with what happened when I arrived at the house."

"We saw them hit you with that taser and drag you away." Dad interrupted.

"Yes, but what you couldn't see was that the taser energized me, instead of hurting or disorienting me. Well, I guess it was a little disorienting, too. I didn't know what was happening, and it felt very good! I let them lead me away so we could get plenty of distance between them and you, and Melissa could get you out. They put me in a semi truck's trailer and started hammering at me with cattle prods once the truck was moving. I let them until I heard someone tell them over their radio that Melissa had gotten you out. Then I released most of the energy I'd absorbed into them." I explained.

"You electrocuted them?" Mom asked in shock.

"More like tasered them, really. I wasn't as efficient as I probably could have been, so a lot of the energy was released into the trailer itself." I replied.

"So they're okay?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, most of them weren't even unconscious when I cut my way out of the trailer." I said.

"How did you cut your way out?" Dad asked. I extended my claws in answer. "Oh. Those can cut through metal?"

I nodded. "Yes. After that I started flying to the place where Melissa and I agreed to meet. Then two gunships attacked me. They were too well coordinated for me to get to either one, so I found a breaker box and charged up. They interrupted me by blowing up the wall the breaker box was on, but I had enough energy to fry both helicopters. They both crashed and one of them caught on fire. Something blew up as I flew away, but I wasn't sticking around to watch." I said.

Dad shook his head in wonder. "You destroyed two gunships, after incapacitating a couple of dozen people! How strong are you?"

I shrugged. "I don't know for sure. I know that I lifted a life boat filled with rock and sand without any trouble back on the island once. I feel even stronger now that I've got a good charge going, but I don't know if I just feel that way, or if I actually am."

"Why are these people after you again?" Mom asked in wonder.

"They want to make their own mutants that are as strong as or stronger than me. Weapons." I replied angrily.

Dad laughed, "They're fools to keep coming after you. You've only gotten stronger as a result. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave up the chase after this encounter."

I shrugged and the conversation moved on to catching up on the last couple of years. Mostly me telling everything that'd happened since the pirate attack. Melissa listened as raptly as Mom and Dad did. I was only halfway through the first year when we decided to call it a night. Since we didn't have any sleeping bags or camping gear, Melissa and I used our wings to cover all four of us.

We ate again in the morning and I continued to tell my parents and Melissa about everything that had happened on the island while they ate. Then we were flying again. I encouraged Melissa to glide as much as she needed to prolong our flying time. That pattern continued for three days. By then we'd reached California.

We stopped that night not far from San Francisco. "Can we make it to the island in one day from here?" Melissa asked as we gathered wood for the fire.

"I could on my own, but I don't think we can while carrying my parents. We can go to Hawaii first, though." I replied. She nodded and we took the wood we'd gathered back to where Dad had cleared a space for the fire.

"Catherine, why don't we make a stop for some clothes for your mother and I before we go on to the island?" Dad suggested.

"You have money with you?" I asked, surprised.

"I have my ATM card, my credit cards, and a little cash." He replied, holding up his wallet.

"Okay, but you should probably go in on your own. Melissa and I would draw too much attention." I said.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Mom said. "San Francisco has a lot of mutants; you'd probably blend in fine."

"Melissa might, but not me. I'm the only mutant so far who has characteristics of more than one animal. I'll stick out like a sore thumb." I replied. "But I will keep an eye on you from the air, just in case."

Mom was satisfied with that.

In the morning we carried them into Golden Gate Park. Mom, Dad, and Melissa went on to shop while I flew overhead carrying the bags and Melissa's swords. She'd been somewhat reluctant to part with them knowing the kind of trouble I've often found myself in, but she didn't want to leave them lying around in Golden Gate Park, either.

I followed them from shop to shop for hours. They stopped for lunch, then shopped some more. I hadn't expected it to take this long!

Eventually they returned to Golden Gate Park and I landed to meet them. "How much did you buy?" I asked in shock at the pile of bags they were carrying.

Mom shrugged. "You know how your father is, always wants to be prepared. You'd think he had been a boy scout!" she said with a chuckle.

We went through the bags and removed tags and packaging and threw that away. They'd bought two larger backpacks to put everything in. I convinced Dad to wear the old backpacks, one in front and one in back. "Are you sure I won't be too heavy with all that?" he asked.

"I'm sure. If it were only a matter of weight, I could carry all three of you and the bags." I assured him.

"Hmm, maybe in the future we should just all climb in a basket and you can carry that." Dad mused.

"That's not a bad idea. Maybe Jill and Vincent can cobble something together." I replied thoughtfully.

We had a lot of time to kill before any of us would be ready to sleep, and it was too late to be flying on to Hawaii. We'd already covered everything that happened to me on the island in the last couple of years, and everything that had happened at home. So this time the focus was on Melissa.

"You haven't told us much about yourself yet, Melissa." Mom said.

"Oh, well, there's not much to tell, really." She said self-consciously. "I mutated, my parents were murdered, and then I met Cat and agreed to help her get you and then go to the island with her."

"Your parents were murdered?" Mom gasped.

"Yeah, they were the only ones besides my friend George who accepted me when I mutated. The college I was going to at the time kicked me out, so I moved back with my parents. They were great, but one day four men came into our house and shot my mother. Before my Dad or I could do anything, he finished her off. I tried to protect Dad, but they killed him, too." Melissa said sadly. Tears began streaming down her face and Mom grabbed her up in a hug and held her until she stopped crying.

"Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Anyway, after my parents died George got threats against his life, but he didn't stop talking to me then. When they started threatening his family, though, he called one last time to explain why he couldn't have anything to do with me anymore." Melissa said.

There was silence for a few minutes after that, and then I thought of something. "You never did say how you mutated. Kansas is pretty far from the ocean." I said curiously.

Melissa looked uncomfortably at my parents before replying. "There was this clinic. They claimed to be able to control how a person mutated, at least to some extent. I volunteered."

"Claimed?" Dad asked.

"It was a lie. They had no more control over it than Cat did. They were just using us as guinea pigs while they tried to figure out how the mutation works and why. They tried to keep their clients in the dark about that, but if they found out they wouldn't let them leave. One of the mutants went berserk and tore the place up. I barely escaped with my life." Melissa explained.

"I heard about that, but all they said in the news was that a mutant went berserk, not what was going on there. Why did you volunteer, anyway?" Mom asked.

Melissa looked to me and I nodded encouragingly. They already knew I'd changed genders, so I couldn't see it being a problem. "I was transsexual. They were appealing specifically to transsexuals with promises of making us women. That's why the mutant went berserk, she became more male, not less, and they gave up on helping her." Melissa said without looking at either of my parents.

Mom looked thoughtful at that, while Dad looked angry. "Tell me they didn't get away with that!" Dad exclaimed.

"If any of them survived, they did, but Felicia killed most if not all the doctors and nurses that worked there." Melissa replied.

Mom turned towards me and said, "You're not…" she trailed off, but I knew what she meant as she glanced over at Melissa.

"No Mom, I wasn't transsexual, I was just gay." I replied, and then slapped my hand over my mouth, but it was too late. That cat was out of the bag!

I was a little surprised at her blasé attitude. "Uh, yeah, it is." I replied lamely.

Dad laughed, "You didn't really think we'd have a problem with you being gay, did you? Never mind, of course you worried about how we'd react! Don't worry; we love you no matter what." Mom hugged me to show she felt the same way.

"Thanks." I said. "I guess it was silly of me to worry so much, especially after you'd already found out I became a girl and Melissa was transsexual."

Mom waved that off. "It's only natural. Our society is so close minded! How are you dealing with being female?" she asked worriedly.

I shrugged, "Okay. It was difficult at first, but I've gotten used to it."

"Don't you have any more feminine clothes than that, though?" Mom asked, pointing at my ragged ship uniform. It had been patched several times, and the pants were cut off at the knees when the legs became too torn to be useful.

"We're kind of low on clothing on the island. We were shipwrecked, after all. Thomas brought us some blankets and medical supplies, but otherwise we've had to make do with what we were able to get off the ship. Elaine's been working on making some more feminine clothes for herself, but none of the rest of us were really interested." I replied.

Mom shook her head at me. "Well, I guess it's a good thing we got you some clothes too, then!" she said disapprovingly.

"What?" I exclaimed.

Melissa smiled and pointed at the bags, "Some of those clothes we packed up are yours. Your parents asked me to help them since I have experience with the difficulties wings pose for your wardrobe."

"You realize we'll be living on an island with no amenities to speak of, right? I hope you didn't get me delicate stuff that's going to get shredded the first time I wear it!" I complained.

"Don't worry dear, we took that into account. It's all durable enough." Mom replied.

"I've been thinking about the trip back." Dad said suddenly. "Melissa obviously doesn't have the stamina you do, no offense Melissa." She nodded. "Perhaps you should consider towing her so she can make it the whole way without being in danger of falling into the ocean."

"Towing her? How would I go about doing that?" I asked.

"If we got some rope we could tie it to your backpack and hers. If we make the rope long enough you won't interfere with each other. That way Melissa can glide and you'll be doing the lion's share of the work. You said weight wasn't an issue." Dad replied.

"I guess that could work." I said thoughtfully. "Do you think the stores are still open?"

"I think so, yeah." Dad replied.

"What do you think about this Melissa?" I asked her.

"It sounds like a good idea. We could even skip Hawaii if you want to. I can fly your dad in to pick up the rope right now." Melissa offered.

I shrugged, "Okay, go ahead." I replied. Melissa picked up Dad and they flew off to get the rope.

"I think we shouldn't skip Hawaii." Mom said after they'd left. "I don't want you overdoing it."

"Okay, I don't mind. I don't think there's a big hurry, the most immediate threat was to you two. I don't think anyone's going to go after the island too soon after what happened with that ship." I replied.

"Are you alright about that honey? You've had to do an awful lot of fighting since you mutated." Mom said worriedly.

She said fighting, but I was sure she meant killing. "I'm okay. I've only done what I had to. The hardest part was when I almost ate that commander, that still bothers me a bit." I admitted.

Mom hugged me again, "I can't imagine what it must have been like for you all this time! I'm so glad you're alright!" she murmured. I found myself tearing up and hugged her back.

"So, tell me about your boyfriend!" Mom said once she'd let me go. I groaned, but told her all about Paul. Shortly thereafter Melissa returned with Dad. He had a large coil of heavy duty rope, probably a hundred feet long.

We talked a while longer and then slept under the cover of our wings. We rose bright and early in the morning and made sure everything was packed up and the bags closed tightly. Dad put on the two smaller back packs and tightened them down, and then Melissa and I put on the larger ones and made sure they were secure. Then we tied the rope to both. We didn't use the entire hundred feet, of course, so I cut off the extra and stuffed it in one of the bags.

"Everyone ready?" I asked. They nodded, so I picked up Dad and took off. I made sure not to climb too high too quickly so as to keep some slack in the rope. Melissa picked up Mom and followed.

It was touchy at first, as I'd pull ahead too fast and pull Melissa off balance. Eventually we reached a good altitude and I motioned for Melissa to lock her wings and glide and I pulled ahead at full speed. It was weird towing Melissa behind me, but it worked out really well.

We made good time to Hawaii and I found a secluded area for us to land and rest. Landing was more difficult than taking off, but not too bad. I was glad to unload after the flight, though I wasn't really tired. Melissa's wings were tired despite gliding most of the way, so Dad's idea was a very good one.

"Why don't we stay here tonight and go on in the morning." I suggested once I'd returned from hunting for a snack.

"I'm rested now, we can keep going." Melissa protested.

"Catherine's right, we should rest here for today and go on fresh in the morning. There's no point taking chances." Mom said.

Melissa didn't argue any further. She really was still tired, I think, but didn't want to hold us up.

We got settled and spent most of the rest of the day listening to the rest of Melissa's story. It was a sad story that made me want to tear those bigots apart, but I settled on comforting Melissa, who had started crying once she'd finished telling us. I'd felt sorry for myself a few times since my mutation, but at least I still had my parents, and they were as accepting as Melissa's had been!

I thought a lot about the "clinic" that mutated Melissa as I lay awake that night. I could only assume that there were, or would be, other clinics like that. There was too much interest in figuring out and marketing the mutations for there not to be. I just hoped they didn't all end as violently.

In the morning we got ourselves all strapped in again and took off for home. The trip home was uneventful, except for the group of ships we saw making their way directly towards the island. There were six ships of various sizes, including an aircraft carrier! I powered home as fast as I could after seeing that. A jet was launched after us, but we were well past them by then so I had time to land and drop off Dad and get the bag off before flying back up to intercept the jet. I made sure to meet it out over open water and watched to see what it would do. I didn't want to fight if I could help it, but it seemed inevitable.

The jet never fired a shot. It flew past, and well above me, and flew over the island. I tensed up, afraid it might bomb the island, but it just flew a circle around the island and then flew back. I wonder what that was about… I wondered as I returned to the island.

As I approached I realized there was an amphibious aircraft anchored just off shore. I hurried back to the village, afraid that someone had already gotten soldiers on the island again.

My parents were talking to Paul when I got to the village and Mom gasped when she saw the way I landed on the Cat Pad. "It's okay Mom, I always land like that. It doesn't hurt at all." I assured her. She looked skeptical, but didn't say anything about it. "Paul, did you know there's an amphibious plane anchored out there?" I asked him.

"Yeah, Shawna's mother came on it, along with Thomas and two other people. Everything's okay." Paul replied. I sighed in relief.

"Oh good, I was afraid they'd already gotten some soldiers on the island." I replied.

Paul looked confused at that. "Already? What are you talking about?" he asked.

"There are six ships heading our way, including an aircraft carrier. That's where that jet came from. I think it's safe to say they're here to take the island." I said.

"Yes, that's what I was afraid of." A man I'd never heard before said as he approached with Thomas. "While they still want KittyHawk, they're more afraid of her disrupting their operations than they are interested in figuring out why she's so powerful." He was a middle aged man with light brown hair.

"Who are you?" I asked, glancing at Thomas questioningly.

"This," Thomas said, gesturing at the new man, "is Carl Kleinman. He's here because he wants to help."

"Yes. I used to work for Genarm Industries. They're trying to refine the mutation process. They've already produced some very strong mutants, though not nearly as strong as you. Since you've been collecting mutants from all over the world they've become afraid that you would try to disrupt their operations. They have strong connections to the US military and are using those connections to wipe this island off the map." Carl said.

"So it is safe to assume that they intend to bomb the island?" I growled. Carl seemed taken aback at that, but nodded.

"Calm down, Cat. We need to evacuate the island." Thomas said. Paul rubbed my back, which did a lot more to calm me.

I took a moment to look over our situation. We had an aircraft carrier filled with planes that could drop an awful lot of ordnance on the island coming our way, along with support craft that probably had some guns or missiles of their own. I knew I could destroy them all given time, but they weren't likely to give us that time. Then I noticed the rather dark storm clouds moving in. "No." I said firmly.

"Cat, we don't have a choice. We can't fight off bombers!" Paul protested.

"We can't, but I can." I replied. "I'll make sure those bombers never get to the island."

Paul sighed in frustration. "Cat, you're fast, but you're not as fast as a jet! They'll fly by you so quickly you won't have a chance to do anything!"

"They are fast, but they're not faster than electricity." I replied with a feral grin.

"Catherine, you were wiped out after only destroying two gunships! What makes you think you can handle an aircraft carrier full of jets!" Dad protested.

Paul looked at him oddly at that. "Paul, I discovered a new ability when we rescued my parents. I can absorb electricity, and I can direct it. I used that trick to take out the two gunships Dad's talking about. I was wiped out afterwards, but that was only because I'd run out of power. I'm currently holding a charge several times greater than what I had then. I can do this. Besides, I might be able to talk them out of this before a shot is fired." I said.

"I don't think that's likely." Carl warned.

I shrugged, "I know, but I have to try. And once they've made their intentions clear I can attack with a clear conscience."

"Cat, please, let's just leave!" Paul begged. "I don't want to see you hurt again."

I wrapped us up in my wings so I wouldn't feel self-conscious kissing him in front of my parents and pressed my lips to his as hard as I dared. He responded and time seemed to come to a halt. When we finally came up for air I breathlessly said, "Do what you can to protect the others, but I have to do this. I love you!" With that I took off and sped on towards the approaching ships.

I heard Paul call out, "I love you!" as I flew away. I smiled and winged my way over to the aircraft carrier.

I flew straight to the tower roof. I heard alarms going off below me, but ignored them and climbed down the side of the tower until I spotted a window. I cut my way in with my claws and jumped in. There were several officers inside, gaping at me in shock and fear. "Who's in charge here?" I asked as calmly as I could manage.

The man I should have guessed was in charge due to all the medals and such on his uniform spoke up, "I am. What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I'm here to find out what your intentions are, naturally. I think we all know, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. So, am I?" I replied.

"I don't know what you think you know, but we're here to sterilize a contamination zone and take care of some terrorists while we're at it. Chief among them you!" he said with a glance to the side. I glanced over and saw several men come in armed with machine guns and pistols. I sighed and let a little power out, stunning everyone in the room. It wasn't even as much as I'd used in the truck, but it was enough to keep anyone from shooting me as I climbed out the hole in the window.

Sounds like they're going to just bomb everything! Guess it's time to be destructive. I thought as I jumped down onto the deck. I walked over to the nearest aircraft and sliced into it, spilling jet fuel all over the deck. I moved onto the next one and did the same. By the time someone found me I'd already torn up five planes and fuel was covering the ground beneath them. I hurried on to the next plane, but gunfire rang out from multiple weapons, tearing into me. I still managed to tear open the fuel tanks of two more plains before I was forced to retreat.

I made sure to lead the pursuing soldiers into the area where the damaged planes were when I retreated, then let a few sparks hit the nearest part of the spilled fuel. In seconds all seven planes were engulfed in flames, along with several of the soldiers that were shooting at me. I hurried away from that area, putting lots of intact planes between them and me. Once I was out of sight I started slicing open fuel tanks again. I only got three open before another group of soldiers were shooting me again. This time there was so much gunfire going that I had to retreat immediately, but the only place to go was the ocean!

I tried to dodge to the side, but dozens of bullets tore into me, knocking me back and off of the aircraft carrier entirely. I fell a long time. I tried to fly, but my wings were all but severed from the many hits they'd taken. My arms and legs were in similarly bad shape. I hit the water, hard, sinking deeply under the surface. My limbs still wouldn't obey my orders and I continued to sink. I tried to hold my breath, but it took too long for my limbs to heal and I inhaled a mouthful of water. And then another, and another.

The strange thing was, I was feeling better instead of worse! After a minute or two of panicking I realized I was somehow breathing! By the time I realized this my legs had finally healed to the point that I could begin to swim back to the surface. I was still below the aircraft carrier when my arms started obeying my commands again. Soon even my wings were working, albeit painfully. With all six limbs working properly I fairly flew through the water. When I reached the surface I grabbed onto the side of the carrier and pulled myself up until I was high enough to fly.

Flying up above the deck of the carrier I realized it was poring down rain, and that this was helping them to get control over the fires I'd started on the deck. Roughly half their planes were damaged or destroyed, but that still left more than I wanted to think about. One of them was being lined up to take off as I watched. I looked around frantically, but there were no other planes in the air. Sighing in relief I started thinking about how I'd deal with the remaining planes.

I kept gaining altitude so I could see what was going on better. Someone must have seen me, because guns on the support ships started firing at me. At this distance they weren't too hard to dodge, but I couldn't do any damage while I was dodging!

In my frustration I reached in a way I didn't even know I was capable of. I felt a channel open up not from me, but to me. As soon as I felt the channel open a bolt of lightning struck me and my world was filled with light and pain! I reeled and began to fall, but recovered after a moment. The lightning had hurt like nothing else at first, but now I felt so powerful, as if I could take on the world by myself! I looked down on the ships shooting at me and opened a channel to the nearest one and released some of that energy.

Arcs of electricity shot out from my hands to the ship, striking specific points. Ammunition exploded, fires raged, and lights went out. In a flash, literally, that entire ship was dead in the water! This might be easier than I thought! I mused as I chose a new target. Fingers of electricity shot out from my hand again, leaving another ship without power or weapons. The only light illuminating either ship were the flames raging both within and without.

I was about to blast the next ship when the plane took off. I realized I could only hit a plane flying at that speed if my timing was right. I might be able to hit it when far away, but the distance would rob the blast of most of the power. Flying into the path it was most likely to take to get to the island I waited for it, idly blasting another ship while I waited. The power I'd adsorbed from the lightning was getting low, but I figured I had enough for the other two support ships at least.

As I waited more planes were taking off, one right after another. This is bad, if even one gets past me everyone could die! I thought frantically. Soon a dozen planes were flying at me, along with more gunfire from the remaining smaller ships. In desperation I opened up another channel to the storm clouds above, and left it open.

White hot pain filled my world and I couldn't see anything. But I could feel the planes approaching and easily swatted them out of the sky with fingers of lightning. I was distantly aware that I was channeling much more power than before, but I was too preoccupied to think much about it. Every plane that left the deck of the carrier was soon a burning wreck falling down into the ocean. Moments later, the remaining support ships were blasted into immobility, much more strongly than the first three. Then I turned my attention to the aircraft carrier.

Guns were still firing, so I assumed they were on the carrier itself. They didn't bother me a bit; somehow the impacts didn't even register. I turned the full fury of the storm on the aircraft carrier, reigniting the remaining fuel on the deck and starting several more fires. The entire carrier was soon without power, except for that I was pumping into it. Most of the ship was aflame, and then the fuel tanks caught. Unlike in the movies, they didn't explode. But they did burn, and hotly!

My vision slowly returned as I closed the path to the clouds. I could still feel immense amounts of power within me. I felt strained, or stretched, or something. I knew I had much more power in me than I could have handled before without pain.

Once I could see clearly again I realized that two of the smaller ships had sunk! The other three seemed alright, but they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. The aircraft carrier was burning from within and I suspected there wasn't anybody left alive on it. What have I done?! I thought, horrified. At the same time, I felt exhilarated at channeling such immense amounts of energy.

Shaken and confused, I flew back to the island. I feared I'd find it in ruins, that a plane had gotten past me without me noticing, but the island was untouched. I landed on the Cat Pad and went looking for everyone. No one was in the village. I was confused at first, until I tried to think what Paul would do. Then I remembered the cave and hurried over there. Sure enough, everyone was hiding in the same cave we'd held those sailors in.

"It's safe to come out now." I called into the cave.

Paul came out first, "Are you alright?" he asked with a concerned look. He took a close look at me and seemed even more worried. I looked down and realized I was covered in dried blood. My clothes were shredded and largely absent. What was left was smoldering.

"I'm okay Paul. In fact, I feel great!" I said, just before everything went black.

I awoke slowly. The sky was clear and bright, which told me I'd been out for quite a while. Paul was leaning up against some rocks at the entrance to the cave. I was surprised to find myself in the same place where I'd blacked out. "Paul?" I called out, but he had already seen I was awake.

"Hey Cat, how're you feeling?" he asked, kneeling down beside me.

"Okay. Why am I lying here outside the cave?" I asked, confused.

"You've got a little too much of a charge in you. When I tried to pick you up I got electrocuted. Thomas had to give me CPR to get my heart working again. After that we decided we'd better wait for you to wake up on your own." Paul replied.

"CPR?" I repeated, horrified.

"Don't worry about it Cat, you didn't have any control of it. But you do need to release some of that charge you're carrying." Paul replied.

I sat up and looked around. We were the only ones there and someone had draped a blanket over me. When I pulled it back I realized why, my clothes were less than rags! I climbed to my feet and wrapped the blanket around myself. "I don't suppose you have a target in mind?" I asked hopefully. If I was that charged up I'd do some damage when I let off the extra charge.

"Amazingly enough, the aircraft carrier didn't sink. It's been pretty well gutted, but it's still there. Why don't you unload into it?" Paul suggested. I nodded and took off. The carrier had drifted a ways from where it had been when I blasted it, but it was so big it wasn't hard to find. Especially since it was still smoking from a few places. I tried to feel how much energy I needed to discharge to get control of it, but couldn't be sure. I decided to just let it out until it felt right, so that's what I did.

I opened a channel and felt the energy draining out of me. Since I didn't need to worry about doing maximum damage to the carrier, I just kept the blast in one place. By the time I felt comfortable the hull was glowing white hot and had partially melted where the arc hit. I hadn't even realized how uncomfortable I was until I'd released the excess energy. I was still carrying a good charge, but nothing I couldn't handle.

I surveyed the damage to all the remaining ships while I was there. The aircraft carrier was totally gutted; it was just a floating chunk of metal now. The three smaller ships were mostly intact, but they still hadn't gotten power back. I marveled at the amount of damage I'd done as I flew back to Paul.

"Feeling better?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes, much!" I replied, touching his hand carefully. I easily kept the energy inside and he pulled me to him in a crushing hug. Well, it would have been a crushing hug if he was as strong as me, anyway!

"I'm so glad you're okay, I was really worried when you passed out." He said softly as he held me at arms length to look me over.

"I think I should be the one to be worried, you're the one whose heart stopped!" I replied.

Paul chuckled, "Come on, your parents are worried about you." We walked back to the village and I told him what happened on my trip on the way.

When we got back to the village we found everyone gathered in the square. Besides our original dozen, Shawna, Arachne, and Melissa, there were also Thomas, Carl, my parents, and two others. "Who are they?" I asked, pointing out the two women talking to Shawna, Arachne, and Jill.

Paul smiled, "Shawna's mother and neighbor. They came looking for Shawna and Thomas brought them here."

"What about her father?" I asked.

"All three of them mutated, but he didn't survive it. Shawna's mother is Millie, and the other woman is Kara. Neither seems to have any powers, though Millie has a rat tail." Paul replied.

"Well, at least one of her parents was able to come back. Are they going to stay?" I asked.

"I think so. Millie's been begging Shawna's forgiveness long past the point where she'd given it. Kara's also been apologizing constantly, apparently she feels responsible for the death of her father." Paul said.

My parents saw me then and there was a lot of commotion as everyone asked how I was feeling. It took me a while to reassure everyone, even with Paul's help. Finally we all got settled around the fire pit to exchange stories.

"You were amazing Cat!" Melissa said in awe. "They never got close to us, just like you said!"

"I saw you fall off the carrier. You were so long coming back up I was sure you'd drowned, how did you survive?" Mom asked

"Apparently I can breathe underwater." I replied. "I would have been up sooner, but I had to wait until I was healed enough to swim." I realized my mistake as soon as I said that, but it was too late.

"Healed?! How badly hurt were you?" Mom exclaimed.

I was about to pass it off as inconsequential when she gave me the look I'd seen many times before that told me she wouldn't accept any prevarication. "Um, well, I think my left wing was just about severed. My right wing was almost as bad, and my arms and legs were all useless for a while. I was pretty much Swiss cheese, I guess." I said sheepishly.

Carl shook his head, "I told you talking to them wouldn't work."

I shrugged, "I had to try. Besides, it wasn't talking to them that led to the damage. I got away from that encounter without injury. It was when I started trashing their planes that they perforated me."

Millie looked around at everyone in confusion, "How can you talk about being shot so many times as if it's not a big deal? How could you even survive it?!"

"She heals really fast Mom! She's the toughest, most powerful mutant in the world!" Shawna gushed.

"Yep, that's my Cat!" Paul agreed, putting his arm around my shoulders and giving me a squeeze. I responded by wrapping a wing around him and snuggling into his side. It was great to be back!

We spent the rest of the evening getting caught up on everything that had happened while I was gone. When they heard Melissa's part in the rescue of my parents Shawna and Arachne latched onto her as their hero. When they wandered off chattering about her heroics Paul asked Thomas why he and Carl were there. "You could have just dropped off Millie and Kara, so why are you really here?" he asked.

"A few reasons." Thomas replied. "First off to drop off Millie and Kara. Secondly, to warn you of the imminent attack. Thirdly because Carl wants to stay here, if you'll let him. And fourthly because of what Carl learned at his last job."

I frowned as I tried to remember what he'd said before the battle. "Genarm Industries, right?" I asked.

Carl nodded, "That's right. Genarm specializes in genetics and weapons research. A few years ago they were working on, for want of a better term, a super soldier formula. It used animal DNA in an attempt to graft on some of the most useful attributes of animals and insects onto humans. An ant's strength, a cheetah's speed, a lizard's ability to regenerate, that sort of thing."

"That sounds familiar." I said.

"Yes," Carl agreed, "it's an awful lot like the mutations you and so many others have experienced, isn't it? Anyway, the experiments were an unqualified failure. Animal trials showed little to no change at all, and many of the subjects died. All of the materials were scrapped and the project was ended. A year or so later people started mutating all around the Pacific Rim. An investigation revealed that the ship carrying the experimental formula, along with various other wastes, had been attacked and sunk. Seeing the goals of the project suddenly achieved by accident, the company went into action to try and replicate the process."

"So they've know what is going on the whole time and haven't told anyone?!" Paul said angrily.

Carl nodded, "Yes. They don't want anyone to know what's really behind all this, because they want to have the information all for themselves. Then they can sell it to the US military, or maybe even the highest bidder. They've made some progress. They've isolated which components are necessary for a successful mutation, and which ones will result in death if they're missing. They've also experimented with the strength of the dose, which has resulted in stronger mutations. Too much will kill them, but too little produces very weak mutants, comparatively speaking."

"Are they building an army?" I asked.

"Not exactly. They've recruited the most reliable of the strongest mutants into their security force, which is rather like an army. The strongest of the less controllable mutants are dumped or killed. The rest they've found a way to make money off of." Carl replied.

I felt a chill run down my spine when he said that. "What do you mean?!" I growled.

Carl sighed and said, "They're selling them as slaves. Most end up being used as prostitutes. Apparently there's a lot of demand for 'exotics', as they call them."

"Where?!" I growled.

"Cat, don't get too excited! You need to rest before you go haring off again!" Paul said.

Carl seemed to be getting used to the growling, or he'd expected it, because he didn't react. "It's in Thailand, a place called the Bangkok Zoo. It's not one building, though; it's spread out over a large area. There's no single place to attack." Carl replied.

That gave me pause for thought. If it had been a single building I could have stormed the place, taken out the guards, and broke everyone out. But this… "Genarm is going to pay for this, but the Bangkok Zoo is a bigger priority. I won't go flying off without a plan." I said, turning to Paul when I said the last. He smiled gratefully and I continued, "But I am going to shut that place down! I don't think going by myself would be very effective, though. I'm going to need Melissa, at the least. She's strong enough to fight if she has to, and her ability to fly will allow her to cover a larger area quickly. I wish we had more flyers, but Leonard isn't strong enough, and that just leaves Melissa and I."

"Another group on the ground would be helpful, to help the mutants out once you've rescued them." Paul suggested.

I smiled at that, he was obviously trying to get himself in on the action. "Okay, you would be a big help there." I agreed. He smiled widely. "Arachne would be helpful, too, but I'm not sure she's up to this. That would leave Mike, Jacob, and Tina as the best candidates. I'm not sure taking Jacob would be a good idea, though."

Paul looked thoughtful and said, "I agree on both counts. Why don't you leave Jacob in charge, but tell Arachne to keep him in line? She's strong enough, and that will assuage Jacob's ego if he thinks he's in charge. We can bring Mike and Tina. The five of us should be able to get a lot done in a short amount of time."

I smiled up at Paul and hugged him with my wing. "I knew there was a reason I love you!" I said. "Now the only question left is how we get there. I don't think Melissa and I can carry all three of you very well."

"I can solve that problem, but I think there's a bigger problem that needs to be solved first." Carl said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Publicity. Genarm will be telling the world that you attacked that carrier group without provocation and try to get the island destroyed. This time they'd attack from much farther away and you'd have no warning or chance to stop it. They might even use nuclear weapons." Carl replied.

"I've got an idea for that." Thomas said. "I've been working on drumming up support for a protected retreat for mutants. Lots of people have shown interest, but nobody wants to host it because they're afraid it might be attacked. If this became that retreat, Genarm would lose a lot of their support. You've already been seen rescuing mutants, so your story will have some believability to it."

"That sounds good." I agreed. "That's pretty much what we've been doing anyway. But do you really need me for that?"

"Well, not right away, I suppose, but eventually. Mainly I needed all of your permission for it to work. The others already agreed, so it's unanimous. If you'll sign this I can use it to get things started." Thomas said, handing over a clipboard with a petition on it with everyone's signatures, even Melissa's and my parents'! There was a pen attached so I signed it and handed it back. "Thanks. Eventually they'll want to talk to you, though. You're already known as the leader of the island."

I snorted at that, "I only got the job because I'm stronger than everyone else and I haven't screwed up too badly yet!"

"Don't put yourself down Cat, you've done really well! Your strength allowed you to put Jacob in his place, but it was your natural charisma and intelligence that convinced us all to follow your lead. That and the fact you're willing to listen to our ideas!" Paul said.

"That sounds like good leadership to me." Thomas said. "I take it you want to take care of the Bangkok Zoo situation before getting personally involved in setting up the mutant retreat?"

"Yes. Do you think it's likely that anyone will attack soon?" I said worriedly. I wanted to shut down the Bangkok Zoo as soon as possible, but I didn't want to put everyone else at risk to do it.

"Not likely. They'll be too busy licking their wounds and trying to explain how you destroyed an entire carrier group by yourself. It'll take time for their PR efforts to pay off, and hopefully we'll counter those before they can do too much damage. Some people are very anti-mutant, though, so some people will latch onto what they say and ignore everything else." Thomas replied.

"So there should be enough time to break up that Bangkok Zoo before I'm needed here, right?" I asked hopefully.

Thomas looked at Carl who shrugged and said, "I can fly them there, so that should work. Just call me when you need her and I'll fly her back. If that's alright with you Kittyhawk?"

"Sure, but my name is Catherine. How many can you fit on that plane?" I said.

"There are only four seats, but we could probably fit a couple more people if they're willing to ride in the cargo area." Carl said.

"That will work if Melissa and I ride in the back. But first we have to find out if they're all willing to come along." I said.

"I’m sure Mike and Tina will go, but I'll ask them to make sure." Paul offered. I nodded and he sped off.

"I'll go ask Melissa, and talk to Arachne while I'm at it." I said before lifting off to find Melissa. She, Shawna, and Arachne were not far away, still talking about the rescue of my parents.

"Hey Cat, isn't Melissa amazing?!" Shawna asked as I landed next to her.

"Yes, I think so." I agreed. "That's why I was hoping she might be willing to help me with something."

"What do you need?" Melissa asked.

"I just found out there's a place in Thailand where Genarm is selling mutants as slaves called the Bangkok Zoo. I want to shut that place down and free all the mutants there. I could really use your help, if you're willing." I said.

"Just let me get my swords!" Melissa said angrily.

"Whoa, wait up! We're not leaving tonight. I'm getting everything set up right now. We'll probably leave tomorrow or the day after that. I'm not sure how long we'll be gone, so you'll probably want to pack up most of your stuff for the trip. And thanks!" I said.

"It's the least I can do." Melissa said sadly, and I knew she was thinking of that mutant in the 'clinic' where she mutated.

"Arachne, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked. Melissa shrugged and went to pack up, and Shawna followed her after a glance at Arachne. "I'm going to leave Jacob in charge while I'm gone…" I started to say, and Arachne started to protest. "I know I said to watch out for him, but he's turning out to be an okay guy, I think. Anyway, I'm not about to leave him here without making sure he doesn't get out of line. I'll have a talk with him, but I want you to make sure he doesn't do anything while I'm gone. You're the only one who'll be left who's stronger than him."

"Stronger?!" she exclaimed.

I nodded, "Yes, stronger. I've seen you, and any one of your arms is as strong as one of Jacob's. And you've got six! You're at least as fast as he is, and you've got your webbing. You should be able to handle him easily. I know you don't have the same confidence in yourself, but you really are that strong. I wouldn't ask you to do this if I weren't sure you could handle it. Even so, if you say no I'll respect that. I told you I wouldn't make you do anything, and I meant it."

Arachne was shaking a bit when she answered, "I am…scared. But I…will do."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" I asked.

She nodded, "I am sure. I will watch dog man."

I laughed and said, "I hope you don't call him that to his face!"

Arachne smiled shyly, "No, I call him by name. But it fits, yes?"

"Yeah, I think so!" I agreed. We both laughed as we went looking for Shawna. Once we found her I went back to where I'd left Thomas and Carl. As I suspected, Paul was already there waiting for me.

"Mike and Tina are in." he said.

"Good, Melissa is, too. I've also asked Arachne to watch Jacob while we're gone. How soon do you think we can go?" I replied.

"Well we're not going tonight, that's for sure! I think you should take it easy tomorrow, but I guess there's no reason not to go the day after that." Paul said.

"Good!" I said with a smile, "That's what I told Melissa and Arachne. Melissa intends to bring her swords, should we bring other weapons, too?"

Paul looked thoughtful and then said, "I think we should bring body armor and a few smaller weapons, but not overdo it. We may want to blend in at times, and carrying around a lot of weapons will make that difficult."

"We won't have a lot of space for cargo, anyway." Carl added.

"Will Melissa and I fill up the cargo area all by ourselves?" I asked.

"No, but I've got fuel barrels back there. I can remove some of them, but we may need the extra fuel so I want to keep a few on board." Carl replied.

I shrugged, "Oh well, we'll take what we can, then."

"You do realize that some of these people may not want to come with you, right?" Thomas asked.

"Why wouldn't they?!" I asked in surprise.

"Lots of reasons. For many it may be the only life they know. Others may be addicted to drugs or just too intimidated to leave." Thomas replied.

"Well, I won't force anyone. If I can't convince them to leave, either on their own or with us, then I'll just have to leave them there. But I don't like it." I said.

"Nobody does, Cat. Come on, it's been a long day." Paul said. I nodded and we went to bed.

The next day was filled with preparations, which I wasn't allowed to get involved in. Except for one part.

"Catherine, I'm not going to let you go gallivanting around in rags! I want you to wear those clothes we bought for you!" Mom said sternly when I tried to pack the few old clothes I had left. She took them away and presented me with the clothes they'd bought in San Francisco.

"But Mom, I'll be fighting to get these people out! They'll be ruined!" I protested.

Mom nodded, "Yes, they may be, but at least you'll be presentable to start with! All of those photos circulating around of you make you look like a vagabond! You can at least make an effort to look presentable. In fact, I think it's time I taught you how to braid your hair. That should work well when you're flying." So Mom spent the rest of the day teaching me about female clothing and how to braid my hair. And anything else she could think of. Paul thought it was hilarious.

Jacob was pleased when we told him to take care of everyone while we're gone. Hopefully Arachne won't have to knock him around too much.

Thomas spent the whole day on the satellite phone getting things going to have the island named as a protected retreat for mutants. Another amphibious plane would be coming for him in a couple of days. He seemed upbeat about it, so hopefully it will work out. I'd hate to take on another carrier group, especially without an electrical storm to draw on!

It felt strange to just laze around while everyone else was busy loading up the plane, but Paul wouldn't let me do anything strenuous. Everyone seemed to be involved in the preparations to some degree. Arachne and Shawna helped Melissa load up her swords and clothes and Elaine packed up some clothes for Tina that she'd made. The guys would be the only ones looking like castaways, except for Carl.

In the morning I went hunting and then got dressed and ready to go. This was the first time I'd actually worn women's clothes and it felt weird. They fit a whole lot better than what I'd been wearing, though. After brushing my hair and braiding it I was all set to go. I met up with Paul on the way to the beach and he did a double take when he saw me.

"Wow Cat, you're even more beautiful than usual!" he exclaimed. I blushed at the compliment but felt a strange warmth from it.

"Thanks Paul, these clothes feel a bit weird, but they do fit better. Do they really look okay?" I said self-consciously.

"It's not the clothes. Well, it is, but it isn't. I mean, your old clothes were kind of shapeless. These clothes aren't! I guess what I'm trying to say is that these clothes look great, but the real benefit from them is that they allow your beauty to be seen instead of being obscured. Am I making any sense at all?" He asked sheepishly. I laughed at his awkwardness, but it also made me feel good that he got so flustered because of me.

"Yes, I think I understand what you're saying." I replied. "Come on, let's go." I continued walking to the beach. He didn't move right away, but eventually fell in beside me. I don't think his eyes ever left me the entire time!

"Good morning Catherine! How are you this morning?" Mom asked from where she was waiting by the boat. We'd be taking the boat to the plane, though Melissa and I could just as easily fly there.

"Great Mom, I'm all set to go!" I replied, grinning.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling well," Mom said, and glanced at Paul who was still staring at me. "Are you beginning to see the advantages of wearing the proper clothes?"

I groaned, "Yes Mom, I am. You didn't have to set me up, you know, you could have just explained it."

Mom grinned and said, "You wouldn't have believed me if I had. When you get back I'll teach you how to use makeup!"

I groaned again, though I was curious now. Mom laughed and Paul just looked confused.

Everyone else arrived shortly thereafter. Everything was already on board the plane, so we didn't have anything to carry with us. After saying our goodbyes we climbed in the boat and Jacob pushed it out while Greg pulled it. Once it was deep enough Greg pulled us out to the plane and held the boat steady while we climbed aboard.

Melissa and I climbed in the back. There were enough bags of clothes to make a reasonably soft nest, especially with the blankets they'd piled on top of them. It was comfortable enough, if cramped, but we'd curled up to sleep for warmth on the way to Boston, so it wasn't a problem. We passed the time talking about what we might find in Thailand. Carl was proving to be quite the pessimist; he was sure most of the mutants would be controlled with drugs and unwilling to leave. Tina was sure they'd hail us as heroes and our biggest problem would be keeping them from slaughtering their captors. Paul and Mike both thought most of them would be too scared to come with us until we'd fought off some of their captors. Melissa brought up the possibility that there might be another 'clinic' operating there, like the one she went to, or worse yet, dumping their 'patients' there when they were done with them. I didn't say anything, but I was beginning to suspect that we'd find all of that and more.

Once we'd explored all the possibilities we could think of the subject turned to Carl himself. "So what did you do at Genarm, anyway?" Melissa asked suspiciously.

"I worked on the original project. When it was scrapped I started on a new, unrelated project. When the mutations began I saw the connection, but I was never involved in the new research on it. I got curious as to why we weren't reorganizing the original team to look into the mutations. One of the others had been eager to try human tests, even though the animal tests weren't going anywhere. I found out he was put in charge of investigating the mutations. He built an entirely new team and cut us out of the loop, probably because he knew we were against human testing.

When I figured out that he was experimenting on mutants and purposefully mutating ordinary humans I was all set to report him. Thankfully, a friend warned me of some of the other illegal things the company, and the head of the mutant project in particular, were doing. My friend and I both believe that, if I had reported him as planned, I would have been the next experimental subject and would probably be languishing in the Bangkok Zoo by now, myself. So I quite my job and left." Carl explained.

Melissa seemed somewhat mollified by that answer, but still seemed a little weary when she asked, "But why do you want to live on the island?"

"My work is part of the reason this situation exists in the first place. I'd like to help resolve it, as much as possible. I doubt we'll find a way to undo mutations anytime soon, and many mutants may not want to change back anyway. So the only way to help is to help to keep mutants safe from people like my former employers. When I found out what Thomas was doing I volunteered to help. He needed transportation, so that's how I helped. So here I am." Carl replied.

"But if you're just going to provide transportation, why not stick with Thomas and cart him around everywhere he needs to go?" Melissa asked.

Carl shrugged, "I wanted to help. And I didn't say I was just going to provide transportation. That's just the first way of helping I could come up with."

"But why live on the island? You could help without moving there." I asked. I didn't have the same suspicions about Carl that Melissa did, but I was getting curious to know where he was coming from. Living on the island could result in him mutating, so it was a big step to take.

Carl sighed and said, "Okay, the real reason I want to live on the island is because I feel guilty. I feel responsible for all of this and I want my fate to be yours. I do want to help, but if things go badly I want to be part of it. It's the least I can do."

"Oh, don't feel like that!" Melissa exclaimed, her attitude changing completely. "It's not your fault; you were just doing your job. You're doing what you can, and putting yourself at risk to do it! I'd say we owe you, not the other way around."

"That's kind of you to say, but it doesn't change the fact that my work resulted in all of you, and thousands of others, mutating. Some have died either as a direct result of their mutation, or through the intolerance of others. I don't know that I'll ever be able to do enough to make up for all of that." Carl said sadly.

"Carl, you're just one of many people who worked on that project! And it never would have had the effect it's having if not for those pirates. There are lots of people to spread that responsibility out to, but none of you knew this would happen or intended for it too. Even we could be considered complicit in this, since we were the ones transporting the stuff. Don't hog all the blame to yourself, you didn't earn it!" Tina said firmly.

"I agree." I said softly. "You're taking the world on your shoulders and you don't have to. Your guilt is misplaced. Besides, this hasn't been all bad. Some people have gained from this, and I don't just mean Genarm Industries!"

"Who else could have gained from this mess?!" he asked incredulously.

"Me." Melissa said softly. "I would have been stuck as a guy if not for this mutation. Now I can be the real me, and even have children some day! There are a lot of people like me who are extremely grateful to you."

Carl glanced back in surprise, "You used to be a guy? And you wanted to change?! Why?"

Melissa shrugged, though he couldn't see it under our wings, "I was never really a guy. Not where it matters most. But I was stuck with a male body. If you woke up one day with a female body, wouldn't you want to change back?"

"Yes, I suppose I would. I sometimes forget about the gender changing aspect of the mutations, as it was never intended or expected in the original project. It's a totally unexpected byproduct. That's probably the only reason that someone isn't already building an army of mutants; half of them would be traumatized by the gender change." Carl said thoughtfully.

The conversation petered out after that and eventually I fell asleep. When I woke we were within sight of land. Mike and Paul were sleeping, but Tina and Melissa were chatting away.

"So, Melissa…do you think I'm attractive?" Tina asked hesitantly. I was surprised by this question, as Tina hadn't been very accepting of her gender change. She had looked oddly at me when we met up at the boat though…

Melissa shrugged, "Sure, I think so. Why?"

Tina shrugged, too, and said, "It's just…after seeing how hot Cat is in those clothes her parents bought for her, I started to think that maybe there's something to this female clothing thing. Elaine packed some stuff she made for me and I'm starting to think I might like wearing them. The only problem is guys. I don't want to deal with guys; I'm totally uninterested in them."

"Oh, yeah, I can understand that. You're certainly pretty enough to attract a lot of attention from guys. I thought I'd have that problem, too, but my friend George was the only guy who could overlook my mutation. He somehow got the impression I was attracted to him, but I'm not attracted to guys." Melissa replied.

"You're not?!" Tina asked in surprise.

"I've always been a girl in my head, but a lesbian girl." Melissa said.

"Oh. I think Arachne will be happy to hear that." Tina said. That surprised me, as I'd not noticed Arachne showing any signs of being interested in anybody!

They lapsed into silence after that and I couldn't help saying, "So, you think I'm hot in these clothes?"

Tina glanced back at me and blushed, "Uh, yeah, you know I've always thought you were beautiful. And those clothes really show you off to good effect."

"Thanks Tina, but you know I'm not into girls. And Paul and I have agreed to not 'play' with anyone else." I said sadly, remembering that Tom had been one of the ones who I 'played' with before Paul and I became serious.

"Yeah, I know." Tina said quietly. "Jill and I 'play', as you put it, sometimes, but it's just physical. That's the problem with living on an island with so few people, there aren't many people to pick from, and right now they're all accounted for."

I frowned in thought and said, "What about Shawna's mother and her neighbor?"

"Millie's straight as a board, like you. Kara's not, but it looks like she and Jill are hitting it off." Tina replied.

"Well, this trip will probably result in a population increase on the island, as will what Thomas is doing." I said in an effort to lift Tina's spirits. I hadn't realized this was bothering her so much, as she was usually very cheerful seeming. I began to wonder how much of that had been an act. I also wondered how many others on the island were getting lonely. It was true that there simply weren't that many people on the island. It was a minor miracle that as many of us had paired off as had. But that still left Mike, Tina, Jill (maybe not for long), Jacob, Greg, Vincent, Shawna (though she's still young), Arachne, and Melissa unattached. That was more than half our population!

Just then Carl said, "We'll be landing in about thirty minutes. If you're not strapped in, now's the time. As for you two in the back, hold on to something!" Melissa and I did as he suggested and waited. Neither of us were worried, we were both tougher than normal people and heal fast, besides.

In any event, the landing wasn't very rough at all, especially considering the size of the plane and the fact we were landing on water and not on land! It was enough to wake Mike and Paul, though. Soon we had taxied in to a pier and started piling out. We had decided to use the plane as our base of operations, as we didn't really have any money to pay for hotel rooms. Besides, none of us spoke the language!

Carl took care of getting the plane refueled and Mike and Paul went out to scout around a bit. Tina stayed behind to guard Carl and the plane while Melissa and I took to the air. The locals didn't pay us much attention, so I knew there had to be a lot of mutants around. Carl had given us a pretty good idea of where the Bangkok Zoo could be found, so we headed straight for it. It was quite late, nearly dark, but we were determined to get to work right away.

Soon we were coming into sight of the area known as the Bangkok Zoo. It was just like any other part of the city, except for the high concentration of mutants and the fact that many, if not most, of them were slaves. I knew we had our work cut out for us, but we were all determined to shut this slave business down for good!

Melissa and I split up to cover more area and I began scouting the area. I stayed low enough that I was able to make out the odd conversation as I circled overhead. Most weren't in English, of course, but some were. One such conversation was about a girl that had been giving her 'owner' trouble, so I knew I was in the right area. They were clearly not afraid of the police, so I assumed they'd been bought off.

I circled the two men and listened. They weren't talking about anything useful for a while, but then another man came running up. He was speaking rapidly in Thai and they seemed quite agitated at what he was saying. After he left one of them turned to the other and said, "Kill that bitch! She's caused me too much trouble already!" The third man nodded and ran off, so I decided to follow. He collected a couple of other men, who were armed with machine guns, and kept running. Soon I saw who they were after, as a tiger woman was running frantically away from the building they were running towards. She was obviously injured and stumbled into an alley. She seemed to be trying to find a way out, but the two men with the machine guns cut her off.

I realized that they were about to kill her, and I strongly suspected she was one of the people I was here to save. She was dressed like a prostitute. Without another thought I closed my wings and dived. At the last moment I opened my wings and grabbed her. In seconds we were out of sight of the gunmen, who hadn't even gotten a shot off. The tiger woman looked up at me and asked, "Who are you?" She sounded like she might have been American.

"My name's Cat. And you look like you might be in need of a career change about now…" I replied. I was smiling, I realized, as I made my way back towards the plane. One down, who knew how many to go!

« Tiger by the Tail »

"She looks pretty bad, maybe we should get her to a doctor or something." Tina said when she got a good look at the tiger woman.

Carl was setting up a camp stove and came over to see what was going on. He checked the woman's pulse and said, "Her pulse is steady, and it doesn't look like she's bleeding anymore. So long as we get her plenty of food and water she should be alright. She wouldn't have survived this long unless she had a strong regenerative ability."

"Do we have any food or water?" Tina asked, looking doubtfully at the injured mutant.

Carl shrugged, "I've got a few odds and ends on the plane, but not much. And I have some bottled water."

"I'll take care of the food issue." I told them and took off. After a bit of hunting I was flying back towards the plane when I had a thought and made a quick tour of the area until I found some berries. I didn't have any way of carrying them, so I returned to the plane first.

"Here you go." I said when I landed, and dumped the animal at Carl's feet. "I need a bag or something, I found some berries." He went rooting through the plane and came up with a box and handed it to me.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" he asked, gesturing towards the carcass.

I shrugged, "I don't know. Do you need me to skin it for you?" He turned a little green and nodded. "Okay, I'll take care of that when I get back." With that I returned to the berry bushes and collected as many as I could. When I returned I handed the box to Carl and got to work. I had a bit of a snack while I was at it and turned over the remains to Carl.

"Uh, thanks, I guess I can make a stew or something." he mumbled. He set up a large pan on the stove and started adding ingredients. I left him to it and checked in on Tina and the tiger mutant.

"How is she doing?" I asked.

"She's all skin and bones." Tina replied. "And I swear she's gotten even skinnier since you dropped her off. Maybe her body is cannibalizing her muscles and whatever fat she had to replace all the blood she lost?"

"Not all of that blood is hers, but you may be right." I replied. She did look rather sunken; I hoped she'd recover okay. The more I looked at her the more angry I got at those who had used her. "I'm going back out." I told Tina. She nodded and waved as I took off and flew back towards where I'd recovered the tiger woman. There was no sign of the men who'd shot at her. I was feeling angry enough to want them to attack me, so I landed and started walking.

I was mostly ignored as I walked down the street. I walked past where I'd found the tiger woman and still no reaction, so I continued on to where I'd overheard the conversation about her. I saw no trace of the men so continued aimlessly wandering through the area. I was getting some suggestive looks from some of the men, but couldn't understand what they were saying. Which was probably just as well.

There were too many people; too many sights, sounds, and smells, for my enhanced senses to do me much good. That's the only explanation I can think of, anyway, for how they got the drop on me. Several men jumped me as I rounded a corner and pulled me to the ground before I could react. They obviously didn't know who they were dealing with!

With a feral grin I pushed up from the ground and threw them off of me. One managed to keep a grip on my arm while the others staggered back or were thrown away from me. I growled as I grabbed the man who was still holding onto my arm and threw him into the nearest wall. Two men pulled out pistols and started shooting at me. But they were slow, and bad shots anyway, so I had no trouble slipping in and disarming them. They stumbled back, holding their bleeding hands, as I wasn't gentle about it.

The man I'd thrown looked to be knocked out, but there were two other men who had just picked themselves back up and pulled their own weapons. One of them had an automatic so I took him down first. The gun, and his hand, hit the ground and he frantically tried to stop the flow of blood. The other man saw the damage I'd done and tried to run for it, but I ran him down in less than a second. I slammed him up against the wall and growled, "Do you speak English?"

He babbled something in Thai, so I knocked him out and turned to one of the others. The third guy I asked spoke English well enough. "Where are the mutants being kept?" I growled into his ear. He shivered in fear and gave me directions to a house a couple of blocks away. I knocked him out and followed his directions. Nobody else tried to get in my way, but there were two men with assault rifles guarding the house. I walked right up to the door and they pointed their weapons at me.

"You lookin' for a job?" one of them asked with a leer. "Cause that's the only way you're going in there."

"Oh really?" I said and released a small jolt of electricity into both guards. Their eyes rolled back into their heads and they collapsed. To my surprise, the door wasn't even locked, so I let myself in. The house didn't look like much on the outside, but the inside was an entirely different story. From the looks of it I figured one of the higher ups in this slavery business must live here. The first floor was empty, so I walked up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a short hallway ending in a single door on each side.

I tried the door on my left. Inside was an office, so I decided to have a look around. If the owner of this house was someone of importance in this slave trading scheme, I figured there might be some information on where other slaves were being kept. After an hour or so of searching I'd found a notebook that might be useful, if I could read Thai. There were also some video tapes of some of the slaves to be sold, by the looks of it. I threw the notebook and tapes in a bag, along with a few other papers that looked like they might be useful.

I dropped the bag by the second door and opened it. Inside was a huge nest of cushions with a man and two girls sleeping on it. The girls were both catgirls and looked like locals, though it's hard to tell with mutants. All three were naked, and the girls were covered in bruises and dried blood, especially around their breasts and groin. I started to literally see red and had to stop and take several deep breaths to keep from tearing the man limb from limb right then.

Instead I quietly stepped over to the side of one of the girls and shook her awake. I put my finger to my lips and whispered, "Shh, I'm here to get you out of here." She seemed confused and frightened. I stepped around the sleeping man and woke the other girl and cautioned her to be quiet as well. Then I beckoned both of them towards the door, but they shook their heads and huddled together in fear.

"No go, he hurt!" one of them whispered. Well, at least they understood me.

"He won't hurt you ever again, I promise!" I said, but they didn't seem very convinced. Especially when the man stirred and opened his eyes.

He looked around in confusion at first and then his eyes settled on me. Either he'd heard about me, or was just frightened at a strange mutant with bloody claws standing over him. He scrabbled away from me, getting caught up in the cushions as he tried to get away. The girls looked confused at his reaction and looked questioningly at me.

"Come with me, I can protect you." I told them. They still didn't look convinced, so I gave the man a jolt of electricity to knock him out. Both girls backed away from me with wide eyes when they saw that, but I just held my hand out to them and tried to look friendly.

They were still too afraid to come with me and I was thinking I might have to leave them there when I heard a noise from downstairs. "Stay here!" I told them and rushed out of the room. I stopped at the corner and glanced down the stairs to see who was there. The front door was wide open, revealing the two guards still unconscious on the ground outside. But their weapons were no longer there.

Should have taken those with me. I thought. I couldn't see anyone, but I heard a rustling in the room below. Whoever they were, they probably thought they were being quiet. But in here, away from the noises of the city, it was easy to hear them. There were two by the sounds of it, one on each side of the staircase. I waited for a few minutes, but neither man made any move. Obviously they knew someone was up here, and had no intention of coming up.

I shrugged and ran down the stairs on all fours as fast as I could. As soon as I burst into the room they started firing, but apparently they weren't as smart as they thought they were. They'd positioned themselves on either side of the staircase and when I came down faster than they expected, they missed me by a mile. But they didn't miss each other. I jumped to the side to attack one of them and realized the fight was already over. Both men had multiple bullet wounds and probably wouldn't survive. This time I took the weapons with me as I went back up the stairs. The bag I'd put the tapes and papers in was pretty big, so I shoved the weapons in it, too.

The girls seemed surprised to see me, especially toting two assault rifles. After stowing away the rifles and hefting the bag in my left hand I held out my right again and said, "See, I can protect you, and I promise I won't hurt you or make you do anything you don't want to do. Please come with me?" One turned to the other and I realized she probably didn't understand English. The one who had spoken before said something to her in Thai, but they still didn't make a move towards me. I waited with my arm outstretched for a few minutes, but they stayed where they were.

I let my arm drop in defeat and, with slumped shoulders and my wings dragging the ground, turned to leave. I screwed up and scared them, and now they're going to end up being abused again! I thought dejectedly as I walked towards the stairs. But I stopped when I felt hands cautiously touching my wings. "Wait. We go." one of the girls said. I turned and found them both standing there, with the one who doesn't speak English nodding her head along with the other girl's words.

"Really?!" I exclaimed. They both nodded and I smiled widely in return. I really didn't want to leave them there! We walked out of the house and I glanced around to see if there were any other threats around. I didn't see anything, but I didn't want to risk getting them in a fight in the shape they're in. "Why don't I carry you two back to the plane?"

The English speaking girl explained my words to the other one and then they both nodded. I asked one of them to hold the bag for me, and put an arm around each of their waists from behind. Once I was sure they were as comfortable as they could be, I took off. They both screamed, but settled down pretty quickly. It wasn't until I got back to the boat that I realized that one of the girls had fainted.

"She okay, scared." the other girl explained as she helped me carry her over to the plane. I introduced them to everyone and suggested they get some rest in the plane. Once they were settled I asked Tina about the other woman I'd found.

"She woke up long enough to eat the berries and drink some water, and then passed out again. Carl says the stew will be done soon, though, so we should have some more food for her when she wakes up." Tina said.

"Okay. Do you need anything else?" I asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about that. I talked to Carl, and he agrees that if you keep bringing people in at this rate, we're going to run out of room way too fast. And we're kind of exposed out here, too. Maybe we should look into finding another base of operations? Something on land, but near the water so we can move the plane nearby, maybe?" Tina said.

I nodded, "Okay, I'll take a look around and see what I can find. Just make do as best you can until then." I was about to leave when I thought of something else, "Has anybody come around asking after her?" I asked, pointing at the sleeping tiger woman.

"Yeah, a couple of guys did come out. Only one of them spoke English, and not very well, but it was pretty clear who they were looking for. I'm hoping Mike or Paul get back soon, so they can help me guard the plane. I'm sure they'll be back." Tina replied.

"Why are you so sure?" I asked.

Tina laughed, "They'd have to be pretty dumb not to figure out she's here, or that we at least know about her. I mean, a bunch of mutants come in and scatter all over the city, with the most famous mutant of all coming and going all the time? They've got to know we're involved, even though I told them I'd never seen her."

"Maybe I should stick around." I said thoughtfully. I hadn't really thought a lot of this through. Tina's pretty tough, but she couldn't be expected to guard the plane all by herself if several men with guns came here. And besides, stray shots could hit the girls inside the plane.

"Just don't go too far. I'm sure with your ears you'll be able to hear gun fire easily enough." Tina said.

"Okay, but be careful." I said. With that I took to the air again and started scouting the shoreline. I mostly just flew up, rather than out, so I could see or hear it if Tina ran into trouble. I saw a couple of promising spots before I saw Melissa coming in, carrying a couple of women. I flew down to escort her in, as she was flying a little erratically.

"Hey Cat!" she said with a weak smile when she saw me. The two women she was carrying looked terrified, but considering the amount of blood on Melissa's clothes, I could guess why.

"Run into a little trouble?" I said as we circled in for a landing. Melissa wasn't up to landing hard, nor were her passengers, so we took our time to shed speed before landing on the pier.

"Just a little." Melissa replied as she set the women down. She seemed a little unsteady on her feet, so I helped her along. "Hey, I'm okay!" she protested.

"Sure you are." I replied sarcastically, looking pointedly at all the blood on her. I'm sure most of it wasn't hers, but some of it certainly was. By the time I got her settled in the plane and the women she'd rescued had started helping her clean off the blood, I could hear shouting, and it was getting closer by the second. "Stay here." I said and motioned for Tina to follow me. When we got past the plane where we could see down the pier there were several men coming our way, and they all had guns of one kind or another.

"Guess it was a good idea not to stray too far." Tina said as she checked her gun.

"Guess so. Don't stray from the plane, I'll see if I can't disperse them. And don't let Melissa get involved; I think she's taken a beating getting back here." I said. Tina nodded and knelt down to where the plane would give her some cover. I checked to make sure Carl and the others were as safe as could be and launched myself into the air. The men on the pier spotted me right away and started shooting. I was moving too fast, though, and they only grazed me once before I was diving down into the center of the group.

I didn't take into account the fragility of the pier, so I smashed right through it, taking most of the men with me into the water. They were too busy trying to get themselves out of the water to give me any trouble, but the ones still on the pier were another matter. They started shooting into the water randomly. I dove down and swam out from under the pier without getting hit too many times. Once I was about halfway back towards the plane I climbed back up on the pier and turned to see how many were still on their feet.

Roughly half the men were on their feet, though some of them were wet. The rest were either struggling back onto the pier, or had been shot by their reckless comrades. As much as I was tempted to cut them all to ribbons, I decided I'd better end things quickly before things got out of hand. I held my hand out and tried to blast them, but the electricity was getting redirected by all the water I was covered with. But in a second the flowing electricity heated the water up to the point it was steaming off of me. Soon I was dry, but surrounded by a cloud of steam.

A breeze cleared the steam away and I could see the gunmen were looking rather uncertain now. I smiled and released a bolt of electricity into the group, somehow hitting all of them at once. All of the men who were standing were knocked back, unconscious. Seeing this, the others quickly pulled themselves out of the water and ran for it. I turned back and walked up to Tina. "Keep an eye on those guys for me, will you?" I asked.

Tina smiled, "Sure."

I checked in the plane and found Melissa had fallen asleep. The three I'd rescued were also sleeping, but the two Melissa brought in were wide awake. "Do either of you speak English?" I asked them.

"Oui, I mean yes, I do." the taller of the two said with a strong French accent. She had cat ears, but no other animal traits that I could see, not even a tail.

I turned to the other woman, who seemed less than fully aware of her situation. There was a faint pattern to her skin that made me think she might be a snake or lizard hybrid. When she looked up briefly at me I was sure as she had slitted eyes like a snake. "What about you?" I asked.

"Yess." she replied so softly I probably wouldn't have even heard her without my enhanced hearing.

"Do not mind her, she is not used to being a girl." the French woman said. The other woman flinched but didn't look up.

"My name is Catherine, what's yours?" I asked them.

"Je m'appelle Clarice. My friend is called Jordan." the French woman, Clarice, replied. "Are you the famous mutant, Kittyhawk?"

I shrugged, "I don't know about famous, but that's what some people call me, yeah."

"What will happen to us now?" Clarice asked.

"Well, that's up to you. A friend of ours is looking into declaring our home as a protected sanctuary for mutants. We can take you there, if you want. Or we can see about getting you home. Our resources are a little limited, but we'll do what we can for you." I said.

Clarice shook her head sadly, "My home, it is not friendly to our kind. Your home sounds interesting, I will go there if that's alright."

"Of course, what about you Jordan?" I asked.

She shrugged, "I'm...not even...me...anymore. I'll go...with Clarissse." She seemed upset at the hissing in her voice and hid her head in her arms. Clarice held her and looked apologetically at me.

"She is having a hard time with her changes. She says she is not human, and won't listen to me." Clarice said.

I nodded, it was hardly an unusual reaction amongst those with more dramatic changes. Arachne still has some trouble with her mutation, and how she has to eat. "Will you take care of her?" I asked Clarice.

"Of course!" she replied. I nodded and returned to Tina.

"What's going on over here?" I asked.

"The men you zapped are still out, and the others haven't come back, but someone is moving around down there. I'm just not sure who." Tina replied.

I took a close look at what she was talking about and smiled. "That would be Paul and Mike, with another addition." I said. Soon they were picking their way over the pile of unconscious gunmen, collecting weapons as they went and piling them in the arms of a stunned looking woman with a big bushy tail like a squirrel's.

Once clear of the men Paul dashed ahead and grabbed me in a fierce hug. "Whoa, what was that for?" I asked, laughing.

"I was worried. We heard gunfire, a lot of it. The sounds were moving towards the plane, so we came back to make sure everyone is alright." he replied, looking me over carefully and frowning at the blood on my clothes.

"I'm fine, Paul! Most of the gunfire you heard was from the men pursuing Melissa. She's a little beaten up, so she's sleeping in the plane. One of the women I brought in was hurt pretty badly, too, but she seems to be a fast healer. Other than that everyone's fine." I said.

"Then where did the blood come from?" he asked.

"Lots of people. And yes, some of it's mine, but I was only scratched, really. You know it takes a lot more than a bullet to slow me down." I replied. "So, who's the new girl?"

Mike and the girl had caught up to us by this time. Mike introduced Jessica, the squirrel tailed woman, and told me she was visiting from Australia and they'd happened across her just as some men were trying to abduct her. Apparently she had already mutated before coming to Thailand. She had been harassed a lot at home and thought this would be a good place to get away from that because there are so many mutants here.

"She was studying to be a doctor." Mike finished by saying.

"Really? In that case, we have some injured people here. Maybe you could take a look at them?" I said. She nodded and Mike led her back to the plane.

"So what was all the shooting about?" Paul asked. I explained everything that had happened since we split up. We turned and started walking back towards the plane when I felt a pain in my chest and I staggered forward a step from the force of an impact. The sound of a gunshot caught up with me just as I looked down at the hole in my shirt.

The wound had already closed and would be fully healed in moments, but I was furious. Growling, I turned to look for the source of the bullet. I saw a group of armed men approaching from the city and, just beyond them, a man with a rifle up on the roof of a small building. "I'll be right back." I told Paul. He ducked out of the way as I spread my wings and launched myself into the air. The man with the rifle took another shot at me as I approached, blowing another hole in my chest. That hurt!

I dived and crashed into him. We broke through the roof into the room below. When I picked myself up I saw that he was probably dead and jumped back through the hole I'd made to see what the other men were doing. They must have been watching for just that, as I was hit by a hail of bullets as soon as I was within sight of them. I fell back through the hole and lay there a moment while my wounds healed up. I was really getting tired of getting shot up. And my clothes were ruined, just as I'd feared they would be. My mother would not be happy.

I decided an alternate exit was in order and smashed through the flimsy wall. The men were surprised and I took full advantage of it. In the blink of an eye I was among them, slashing about wildly. I was hit several times, but I didn't even slow down. Seconds later the fight was over and the survivors were running away, their weapons lying on the ground forgotten.

I started to chase after them, but Paul was suddenly there in my path. "Calm down Cat!" he said. I paused and he pulled me into his arms and held me. The red I hadn't even noticed faded from my sight and I slumped, realizing I'd been running mostly on instinct again.

"Sorry." I mumbled into Paul's shoulder.

"For what, defending yourself? Come on, let's get back to the others." Paul said. He pulled back far enough to kiss me and then took my hand. We started walking back towards the plane, pausing to pick up the discarded weapons on the way. No point leaving them around to be used against us later.

Tina and Mike ran out to meet us. "Are you alright Cat?" Tina asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, I'm okay. Just got a little carried away."

Mike snorted, "I don't think she was worrying about what you did to them. You look a little pale, and you got shot up an awful lot. I know you can take it, but maybe you should take a break and rest a little?" The others agreed with him. I felt alright, but I realized the charge I was still carrying might have something to do with that. I wasn't sure how much of the feeling of health and energy that gave me was real, this electrical powers stuff was still kind of new to me. So, after washing up and changing clothes, I climbed into the plane and curled up among the other girls to take a nap.

It was morning when I woke. Jessica was sleeping but the others were all out of the plane. I carefully crawled out so as not to wake her. I found the others sitting on the edge of the peer eating the stew Carl made. The tiger woman was among them and seemed okay. "Hey, I never did get your name yesterday." I said, startling her.

"Oh, hi Cat, I'm Kim. How are you?" she replied.

"I'm fine, but the question is how are you?" I said.

She smiled, "I'm still a little weak, but I'm feeling a lot better."

"She wants to help us, but since she's had five bowls of stew this morning, I think it's safe to say she needs more time to recover." Melissa said.

I nodded, "Yes, I'd say so. How about you Melissa? You looked pretty out of it last night."

"I'm fine, I just needed to rest a little. Just like you, I guess." she replied.

I didn't see Mike, Paul, or Tina anywhere, but the girls I'd found in the house were sitting next to Kim. "Where's Paul and the others?" I asked.

"They're on guard duty. They're down the pier a ways, they didn't want any fighting to wake you up." Melissa said.

"How are you two?" I asked, looking over at the catgirls. They'd been cleaned up and were wrapped up in blankets. As they turned to look at me I realized they were younger than I'd thought. Especially the smaller one who didn't speak English.

There were tear stains down the younger girls cheeks and she seemed to be on the verge of crying again. The older one seemed okay and spoke for them as she had before, "We okay. Squirrel woman take care of wounds."

"Can I talk to you for a moment Cat?" Kim asked after looking over at the two girls. I nodded and we walked down the pier a ways, almost as far as Paul and the others were standing guard.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I speak Thai, and I've been talking to those two. I haven't gotten a whole lot out of them yet, but it's pretty clear they've been badly abused. They're healing up fine physically, but I'm worried about the little one, Lek. She's taking everything that's happened to her harder than the other girl, Muay." Kim replied.

"That's their names, Lek and Muay?" I asked.

"That's their nicknames. I haven't gotten their real names out of them yet." Kim said.

"Okay. Any idea why she's taking it harder, other than her age?" I said.

"I'm not sure. I just wanted to warn you that she's fragile. And Muay may be, too, and just doesn't show it as much. They've both been through a lot." Kim replied.

I remembered how I'd found them and nodded, "Yeah, they have. Could you keep an eye on them for me? Oh, and how old are they, anyway?"

"Sure, I'll keep an eye on them. Muay is sixteen and Lek is thirteen." Kim said.

I was shocked to learn how young they really were. And to think what that man had been doing to them...

"You okay Cat?" Kim asked worriedly. I looked up and saw that she had backed away several steps. There I go scaring people again. I thought as I realized I was growling.

I took a moment to calm myself and nodded, "Yeah, sorry. It's just...what was done to them is horrible enough. But to do that to children!" I clenched my fists and took deep breaths to calm myself again as I once again remembered the shape they were in when I found them.

Kim looked uncomfortable and waited for me to calm back down. I was about calmed again when we heard a scream followed by a splash, and then another. We hurried back to the plane to find Melissa and the girls gone.

I looked around frantically and spotted several figures moving through the water. The nearest one was Melissa. Like me, she was using her wings to help her along. You'd think wings would get in the way underwater, but ours are strong enough that they help us to swim faster. I had a little trouble at the pier, where there wasn't as much room to move, but once I was clear I started gaining on her.

I stayed well off to the side of her, so our wings wouldn't interfere with each other. Thanks to that I was able to see where she was going. About twenty feet in front of her, I could see Lek and Muay being dragged through the water by a mermaid! She was moving pretty quickly, but the thrashing of Lek and Muay was slowing her down. Both of the girls had some kind of breathing masks on, so at least they wouldn't drown.

We were keeping up with the mermaid, but despite our strength we couldn't overtake her. As I realized this Melissa suddenly moved upwards, so I followed. When she got her head above the water she was gasping for breath, so I realized she had run out of air. "Let me give you a boost." I said when I caught up with her. She looked at me quizzically so I explained, "I can breath underwater, you can't. So I'll follow underwater and you can follow in the air."

"Oh, okay." she agreed. I braced myself as best I could with my wings flat on the surface and grabbed her around the waist. With her help, I managed to throw her several feet up into the air. She floundered for a moment; unsurprising with wet wings, but managed to get herself airborne. The force of the throw pushed me back under water and I wasted no time getting back on the trail of the mermaid. She was quite a ways away now, but with Melissa tracking from the air I was sure we'd catch her.

She must have thought her pursuit was over, as she'd slowed down a little. As a result, I was able to make up most of the lost distance before she realized she was still being chased. She put on a burst of speed, but she couldn't maintain it and slowed back to the pace she'd been swimming at when I first entered the water. I still couldn't overtake her, but I wasn't too far behind.

I'd been following her for only a few minutes when something suddenly plunged into the water directly in front of the mermaid. She was caught completely by surprise and Muay managed to break free. I hurried forward and helped Muay break the mermaid's grip on Lek. With both girls firmly in hand I turned to see the mermaid being held with a dagger to her throat by Melissa. I pointed up and Melissa nodded and followed as I headed for the surface. She dragged the mermaid girl with her.

"Are you two alright?" I asked Lek and Muay once we'd surfaced. They nodded, but kept their eyes fearfully fixed on the mermaid.

"Why did you grab them?!" Melissa growled in the mermaid's ear.

"Si...sister!" she stuttered, staring fearfully at the dagger in Melissa's hand.

"One of them is your sister?" Melissa asked.

The mermaid shook her head carefully, "My sister! I had to!"

It was hard to tell since water was dripping down from her hair and she was, of course, soaked; but it looked like she was crying. "Is someone threatening your sister?" I asked. She nodded cautiously. "Let's take her back to the plane where we can talk more easily Melissa. You take the girls and swim back on the surface, and I'll take her underwater." Melissa nodded and she and the girls started swimming back to the plane.

"Will you...kill me?" the mermaid asked fearfully.

"No. What's your name?" I said.

"Janet." she replied meekly. She didn't seem to have any fight left in her. For that matter, she'd never really fought us at all.

"Ok Janet, let's go back to the plane." I said, and waited for her to start swimming. Once she did I followed closely behind. I wasn't sure she was telling the truth about her sister, so I wanted to keep my eyes on her.

We got back to the plane well ahead of Melissa and the girls. Once we'd surfaced and could talk, I directed her to climb up on the pier. She was reluctant, but complied. She was very clumsy on solid ground, which might have explained her reluctance. Kim's proximity might have had something to do with it, though. She must have figured out what happened, as she was growling a bit as she kept her eyes locked on Janet.

"Relax Kim. I don't think she's an enemy, and you're in no shape to fight yet, anyway." I told her. She relaxed a little, but she still kept a close eye on Janet.

"So she kidnapped the kids?" she asked.

"Yeah, but it sounds like she was coerced into doing it. Why don't you tell us about your sister?" I said, directing the last part to Janet.

Janet looked fearfully between us for a moment, and then started talking, "Well, she's like me. We were grabbed by somebody and separated. Then they mutated us. It was just luck, I think, that we were sold to the same person. Anyway, he tried to get me to have sex with men!" she looked really angry, and rather disgusted, at that part. "After I bit the dick off the guy they tried to get me to have sex with, they gave up on me. But then they tried to get my sister to do it! They kept us in the same tank, so I didn't let them get near her."

"But you can't protect her if you're out here." I pointed out.

Janet smiled, "Yeah, but I don't need to anymore! She's got this sonic thing she does. She can shatter glass, or eardrums! We discovered it after all of that, so I let her protect herself, so they would know she could. After that discovery they just used us as eye candy. I still didn't like it, but we're just about helpless on land so I couldn't risk trying to get away without a water route. But they setup a separate tank and moved her to it while we were sleeping." She seemed really upset by this. I guessed they were the kind of twins who were especially close.

"So what did they threaten your sister with?" I asked.

"They said they'd kill her if I didn't cooperate! They get the salt water for our tanks from the ocean and setup a way for me to come and go from my tank, but kept hers separated." Janet explained.

"So what exactly did they want you to do?" Kim asked. She seemed to have calmed down more, so I guess she believed her.

"They wanted me to retrieve the girls you freed. I think they were going to ask me to kill some of you, too, but they haven't yet. Look," she said, "I never wanted to help those creeps. I only agreed to protect my sister. If you can help me rescue my sister, you won't have to worry about anybody coming at you from underwater ever again!"

"How many people are in this place where your sister is?" I asked.

Janet stopped to think for a minute and then said, "I think there's about thirty there during the day. But they have 'customers' there a lot at night, so there are a lot more people."

"How are we supposed to get her out if there are that many people?!" Kim exclaimed.

"I can take you in the same way I go, but it's completely underwater for a ways." Janet said.

"That's not much help!" Kim griped. "And how do we know this isn't some kind of trap to get Cat?" she added suspiciously.

"Who is Cat?" Janet asked. "Is that one of the girls you rescued?"

"I'm Cat, and I think I've got an idea. How is this place laid out?" I said.

Janet did her best to give us as many details of the place as she could, but her experience of it was limited since she was restricted to the water. Still, what she told us was enough to confirm that my idea would probably work. "Okay, I think I know how to do this. But we'll need Melissa for this, and maybe some of the others as well." I said.

Kim went to wake the others while we waited for Melissa to return. Paul and the others returned once they realized we were back and we filled them in on what was happening. Finally, Melissa returned with Lek and Muay, who were exhausted from the swim. After getting them dried off and settled in the plane to sleep the rest of us got together to plan the rescue of Janet's sister. The others were still a little wary of Janet, so she was left out of the conversation.

"I don't like this Cat. You go in the way she's described and you'll be all alone in the middle of that place with thirty or more guards all around you!" Paul said.

"I won't be alone." I said. "I'll have Janet with me, and her sister before long. Besides, I don't plan on fighting anyone."

"How are you going to pull that off?!" Tina asked.

"A distraction. Melissa can go in with grenades and make lots of noise to pull the guards away from Janet's sister. Some of you will then start shooting to draw more attention. The idea is to make it look like they are under attack from multiple directions, but not to actually go inside." I explained.

"What about all of them?" Mike asked, pointing at the girls resting in the plane.

"I can guard them." Kim said. She was the only one of the girls we'd rescued so far who was involved in the conversation. Jessica, Clarice, and Jordan were still sleeping, and Lek and Muay had joined them.

Tina shook her head, "No, you're still not recovered yet. You need more food and rest before you'll be ready for that, and even then guarding the plane by yourself would be too much."

"Everyone will fit on the plane. I can take it out away from the pier until you all return." Carl suggested.

"Okay, that should work. Paul, you should take Tina and Mike and some weapons and get moving. It will take you three a lot longer to get there than it will us. Make sure you take some rifles and plenty of ammunition, along with some grenades. We want to make lots of noise. Melissa, you should stay airborne and drop the occasional grenade to keep them off guard. Just make sure the explosions are well away from the building Janet's sister is in!" I said.

After a little more discussion they all agreed to my plan and started gathering weapons. I waited until they'd all left before going back over to where Janet was waiting. "Okay, let's go get your sister."

Janet nodded, so I helped her back into the water and jumped in after her. We started swimming back in the same direction we had been going when we'd chased Janet before. Even at the fast pace Janet set, it still took us almost an hour to reach the pipe that gave her access to her tank. She pointed it out to me and then swam in with me right behind her.

The pipe was a tight fit for me; I was forced to fold up my wings and push off from the walls of the pipe at times to keep from running into it. Janet didn't seem to have the same problem, but then she was built for it. Before long we came out into a large open tank. One side of the tank was thick glass and I could see a large empty room beyond it. That would be where men came to look at the mermaids, from what Janet had said. The other side was also thick glass, showing a very large room with another glass tank in it. A slightly smaller, sleeker mermaid was resting inside.

Janet shot to the top of the tank and gestured for me to follow. Once our heads were above water she said, "We're in luck, there's nobody here! Please hurry and get my sister, she's right over there!" She was, of course, pointing at the mermaid in the other tank.

"It's not luck, my friends are providing a distraction for us. I'll be right back." I said, climbing up onto the rim of the tank and jumping down. I was tempted to simply smash the other tank, but the girl could be hurt that way, and it would make too much noise. So, I jumped up and climbed inside the tank and tapped the sleeping girl on the shoulder.

She started awake and stared at me in shock for a moment before she started screaming! Everything seemed to be vibrating, and my ears hurt more than anything I'd ever felt before for a moment, before everything went strangely quiet. I shook my head to clear it and saw blood floating around me. Janet's sister looked away for a moment, and then looked back at me and pointed upwards. I followed, a bit confused. When we both got our heads above water her mouth started moving, but I didn't hear anything!

Oh yeah! Janet said her sister could project sonic pulses. That must be what that scream was. But does that mean I'm deaf now?! I thought. Sure enough, I couldn't hear anything! I decided now wasn't the best time to worry about it, though, and climb up onto the rim of the tank. I held my hands out to Janet's sister. She grabbed on and I pulled her out of the water and over my shoulder. Once I had a good grip on her I jumped down to the ground.

I couldn't really climb into Janet's tank while carrying her sister, so I tossed her in as gently as I could. Then I jumped up and climbed into the tank myself. I heard a weird buzzing sound, so I was hopeful that my hearing would recover. In the meantime, Janet was saying something but I couldn't hear it. I just gestured downwards and dived down towards the pipe. I glanced back to make sure Janet and her sister were following.

They seemed a little confused at first, but soon followed me. Once we were clear of the pipe I surfaced and waved at Melissa. It took her a few moments to notice me, but when she did she flew off to tell the others that we were clear. Then we started swimming back to the plane.

I'd been feeling a bit disoriented since the scream so I probably wasn't moving very fast. As it was, Melissa and Paul were back before we were. I was just starting to feel normal again by the time I climbed back up on the pier. "What happened Cat?" Paul asked worriedly.

"I made the mistake of startling Janet's sister, I think." I said ruefully.

"I'm sorry!" she called from the water.

I waved that off, "I should have known you'd be frightened by some stranger showing up in your tank like that. And my hearing has healed up now."

"Is that why there's blood on your ears?" Paul asked. I was a bit surprised at this, but when he handed me a towel and I pressed it up to my ear it came away with blood on it.

"I guess so. Not surprising, now that I think of it. I was deaf for a while there." I said thoughtfully. "So, how did things go on your end?"

"Fine. Melissa started things off by dropping a couple of grenades. We spread out and started firing so it would look like there were a lot more of us than there were. I'm afraid we're all out of grenades, though; Mike got a little over enthusiastic." Paul replied.

Mike smiled sheepishly and shrugged, "What can I say, it was fun."

"That's all right, hopefully we won't need any more. So nobody was hurt?" I asked.

Tina shook her head, "Nope, not even on their side. I think the only casualty this time was your ears."

The sound of the plane's engine started up then, and we all turned to see the plane start moving back towards us. "I don't suppose you've made any progress on another place for us to stay yet?" Tina asked.

"Actually," I said, smiling, "that's the easiest thing in the world. There's a bunch of fishing boats at another pier nearby. They've all been abandoned and it looks like the entire area with them."

"That makes sense." Melissa said, nodding. "Arachne was telling me about how all the fishermen in her village had to give up fishing because they couldn't afford the expensive testing to make sure the fish wasn't contaminated. And I think even some of the ones that could afford it were driven out of business when too many of their fish were contaminated."

"Exactly. So that should be the perfect place for us. The pier will still provide limited access so we can guard it easily, and the boats will provide us with plenty of shelter. And our new friends, I believe, can keep us from having to deal with attacks from under the water." I said, looking inquiringly at Janet and her sister.

"Huh?" Janet's sister said. Janet hadn't had time to tell her everything that had happened yet, obviously.

"Uh, I kind of kidnapped two of them to keep those creeps from killing you." Janet said sheepishly to her sister. "I promised to keep anyone else from coming at them from underwater if they helped me get you out."

"Janet! I could have gotten myself out without you having to resort to that!" her sister said.

"Jeannie, that wouldn't have worked and you know it. We're helpless on land!" Janet replied.

"Not that helpless. I do have my scream, after all!" Jeannie said petulantly.

"Your sister's right, there were too many men there for you to get out if you had to go over land for any distance at all." Paul said. "Even Cat would have had trouble with all those guys if we hadn't kept them away, and she doesn't have the same mobility issues you do." Jeannie accepted that reluctantly.

"So, when do we move to our new HQ?" Mike asked.

"As soon as Carl gets the plane back over here we'll tell him the plan and get anyone else on board that we can. Then we'll go. Melissa and I will fly ourselves, of course, and Janet and Jeannie would probably prefer to swim." I replied.

Jeannie shuddered, "Yeah, I don't want to ever leave the ocean again!" Janet nodded her agreement. I felt rather bad for them, as it would be difficult for them to have anything remotely resembling a normal life. Not that any of us really had that!

When the plane arrived we filled Carl and the others in on what happened. We were able to get Mike and Tina on the plane, but it was stuffed at that point. So I carried Paul while Melissa and I flew to the pier. It wasn't far, so the others caught up fairly quickly. As I'd thought, there was no sign anyone had been on any of the ships or the pier itself for a long time. The ships were stripped bare, of course, but they were still shelter. Carl tethered the plane at the end of the pier and everyone started touring the boats tied up at the pier to see if anything was left behind, and which ones were in the best condition to use. While they did that I talked to Jeannie and Janet.

"So how did you two end up here?" I asked as I sat on the end of the pier by the plane. They were in the water, of course.

Janet looked nervous when I asked that, but Jeannie answered, "We were kidnapped. They took us somewhere and separated us, so I don't know exactly what happened with Janet. But I know that they injected me with something, and within a couple of weeks I was as I am now. I wasn't too happy about it, as you can imagine, but there wasn't anything I could do. They kept me locked up in a small, concrete room the entire time. Then one day they drugged me and I woke up in that tank. Janet was already there. She looked a lot different, of course, but I recognized her right away because she looks so much like me."

Janet glared at Jeannie, who nodded and turned back to me. "They wanted to use us as prostitutes. Janet took care of that, though! She's pretty strong, even on land, and has some very sharp teeth. And she wouldn't let them near me. And then I learned about my scream, so I could protect myself, too. Then they separated us, but I didn't realize what they had in mind until now." she said.

Janet's glare made me curious. Obviously Jeannie was getting close to something Janet didn't want her to tell me. I also noticed that Janet's behavior had changed fairly drastically since rescuing her sister. She was much more withdrawn and her entire attention was devoted to her sister. I had the impression that she would hide under the waves if not for her desire to be near and or protect her twin.

"Are you okay Janet?" I asked.

Jeannie looked to Janet, but she shook her head. There was obviously a lot of unspoken communication going on between these two! "I'm fine. Thanks for helping me get my sister out." Janet said.

"No problem. I would have even if you hadn't offered to protect us from underwater threats. It's kind of what I do, these days. Would you two want to come to our island when we leave?" I said.

Janet looked to Jeannie as if deferring to her. "That's probably a good idea." Jeannie said.

Paul came back then, wanting to show me a small boat he'd staked for us. It had been gutted rather aggressively, but Paul had piled some blankets and cushions from other boats inside to make a nice nest for us. When we came back out I found Lek and Muay waiting.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, noting their fearful expressions.

"Not want alone. Stay with you?" Muay said hopefully.

I glanced at Paul and he nodded and squeezed my hand. I turned back to Muay and said, "It's alright with us, but it's going to be rather crowded."

Muay smiled, "Thank you! We not mind crowded!" She turned and said something to Lek, who then smiled at us. "Lek thanks, also." Muay said.

"Your welcome." Paul and I said. With another 'thank you' Muay led Lek inside to look around. And to rest, I guessed. They'd been pretty exhausted after the struggle with Janet and the swim back.

We headed back to the plane and found Carl unloading a few things from the plane. "Have you found a boat to stay in, too?" Paul asked him.

He shook his head, "No, I figured I'd stay in the plane. I've got everything I need in there. I think this is a great idea, though. We can see an enemy coming even better than we could before, and we have plenty of space. Food and water are going to be a problem, though."

"I can take care of the food issue, I'm used to that." I said. "I'm not sure about water, though."

"I think we should have the girls handle the food gathering, or at least most of it." Paul said thoughtfully.

"Why?" I asked. Kim was the only one I felt was strong enough to venture out, and she still needed some time to recover from her wounds.

"Well, they don't really have anything to do. That's not much of an issue right now, but it will be eventually. And they might like a chance to feel useful." Paul replied.

"But sooner or later those men will figure out where we are. It isn't safe." I said.

"We don't have to send them out alone. We're farther from the Bangkok Zoo area out here, so you and Melissa will have to do most of the rescue work. That leaves Mike, Tina and I to guard them whenever they leave the pier." Paul said.

"So you're content to stay behind now?" I asked, surprised.

"Well, I'd rather be with you. But that's not practical. And the girls here will need me more than you anyway." he replied.

"He's right Cat. I'm not much good as a guard, and these girls need to not just be safe, but feel safe. The more people who can defend themselves that are around, the better." Carl added.

I had to agree with that, some of these girls are very fearful. Especially Lek and Muay. Paul decided to help Carl unload the plane, and I wandered off to see how everyone else was doing. Melissa had found a good sized boat and was already decorating it with her collection of blades, along with a few new ones, I noticed. And a few guns, too. Tina had settled in the smallest boat that had a covered cabin area and was already wandering around the area.

"This was a great idea Cat." Tina said as I got closer. "We won't run out of room for quite a while. I'm all settled, so I'm going to get familiar with the area and keep guard." With that she walked off again, towards the shore.

As I wandered down the pier it seemed that everyone was settling in nicely.

"How many languages do you know?!" I exclaimed.

Kim glanced at me and smiled, "I was an interpreter. I'm fluent in seven languages, and can get by in a few others. French is one of my favorites."

"Oui, she speaks excellent French, and with almost no accent at all. It is almost like being back home." Clarice said happily.

They started speaking again in French and I left them to it. Jessica and Mike had both found themselves somewhere to sleep, so that accounted for everyone. I let Paul know I was going and flew back into town.

On the way I remembered the tapes I retrieved from the house I found Lek and Muay in. I berated myself for not taking the VCR as well, we had no way to watch them! I wasn't sure if we could plug it into the plane for power or not, even if we had the VCR, but I decided to go back to that house and see if it was still there.

I was surprised to find no one guarding the house. Maybe that guy moved somewhere else? I thought. I did a quick flyby to see if there were any guards around back, but I still didn't see anything. I circled back around to the front and landed. As before, the door was unlocked. Inside I found that just about everything of value had been stripped from the room. Each room was the same, including the one where I'd found the tapes. It was when I was examining that room that I noticed the smell.

The smell was not pleasant, and it was coming from the room I found the girls in. I cautiously pushed the door open and looked inside. The man who had abused the girls was still lying there on the cushions, but he was covered in flies. The cushions and part of the wall were stained with blood. I guess he wasn't too high up, after all. Or someone decided this was a good time to give themselves a promotion by taking out their boss. I thought.

I quickly left the house, the smell was making me nauseous. I felt nothing for the dead man, he had it coming several times over in my book.

Once out of the house I took to the air and began searching the area. It was getting late in the day and many people were just finishing their work day. I noticed an awful lot of men were making their way into one particular club. No mutants were going in, only normal looking men, mostly young. Mutants and women seemed to go well out of their way to avoid it. Looking at the pattern of movement around the building gave me a bad feeling, so I decided to take a closer look.

I landed on the roof. Much to my surprise, there were two guards at a door that must lead down into the club. They began yelling angrily at me in Thai. I decided I didn't want to fight with them without knowing what was going on, so I jumped off the roof to the alley behind the building. I heard the door on the roof open and more yelling, and suspected someone would be coming looking for me soon.

Sure enough, just as I was about to open it the alley door flew open, knocking me back. Several men stormed out with various blunt weapons in hand. A man with a rusted pipe took a swing at me, but I caught it and tore it out of his hand. A wild melee ensued, with the men hitting each other as much as I did! Since they weren't using guns I was able to take my time and just knock them out. Once they were all out I dragged one that had fallen in the door out of the way and stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

Inside I was immediately assaulted by all kinds of noises and smells. I was in a short hallway that ended in another door. If it's this bad in here, how bad must it be on the other side of that door? I wondered. I braced myself and opened it. As I feared, the noise level rose dramatically. The room was a very large one, and poorly lit for the most part. The bulk of the room was one big open area filled with men. They were shouting and staring up at a lighted stage area.

I turned to look at the stage and gasped. There were several mutants up on the stage, all of them naked. They had spiked collars on with chains attached to them. The other end of those chains were held by mostly naked men who held whips in their other hand. They were forcing them to...well, do lots of things they obviously didn't want to! I was disgusted at the men on the stage, and the men in the crowd, as well. A growl rose up in my throat and a red haze began to fill my vision again.

Screams startled me out of it as men began to notice me and try to run away. A few didn't move quickly enough, and small arcs of electricity arced out from my body to theirs without me willing them to! I've got to get control before I hurt those mutants! I thought. I managed to fight back the haze and get the electrical arcs to stop. I was still pissed off, but I wasn't going to lose control, I hoped.

There was a balcony area above with wealthier patrons sitting in booths watching the show. Several men moved out from the shadows and started firing at me. I couldn't do anything about the mutants with bullets whizzing around me, so I jumped up on the balcony and started smashing my way through the gunmen. I moved as fast as I could and knocked them all out quickly. Most of them didn't have automatic weapons, thankfully. As it was I took a few glancing hits, but no more than that.

I collected all the weapons and ammunition I could find and carried it down to the stage. The...animals...on the stage hadn't even stopped what they were doing during all the fighting. Unlike with the men in the alley and the gunmen, I showed those filth no mercy. Once they were all bleeding on the ground I started cutting off collars.

There were six mutants, four women and two men. They all had very noticeable animal traits. They were traumatized and badly beaten, but I managed to coax them into movement. One of the women seemed a little more aware than the others, so I asked her to carry some of the weapons. I wasn't about to leave those lying around to be used against me later.

I wish I had a cell phone to call Paul or Melissa with. I thought as I guided the mutants out of the club. There was no way I could carry them all back at once; and there was no way I'd leave any of them alone here while I carried them back two at a time. That left walking, and slowly.

One of the men was nearly comatose, I finally just threw him over my shoulder and carried him after the third time he kept going straight when we turned a corner. Two of the women wouldn't stop crying, but they were following along pretty well. The woman who was helping me carry the weapons also helped keep the others together. They were all Thai and none of them seemed to speak English. Fortunately escape needs no explanation, especially from a place like that!

We walked for hours before we finally made it back to the pier. I didn't dare fly up to get my bearings, so we made several wrong turns. And even the woman who was helping me with the others was badly beaten and unable to move very quickly. Finally, I spotted Tina and Mike guarding the entrance to the pier. "Go get Kim, we're going to need a translator!" I yelled out. Tina ran back to find Kim, while Mike ran over to help me with the mutants.

"What happened Cat?!" he asked after hefting two of them over his shoulders. They were too sore and tired to protest and hung there limply.

"I found them in a club. You don't want to know what was going on there." I replied tiredly. The trip wasn't so strenuous for me physically, but it was extremely tense. I was surprised no one from the club had found us.

Mike took a look at the woman carrying the guns and nodded. "Okay, lets take them to that big boat over there. There are some mattresses that are in halfway decent shape in there. They can move their beds somewhere else later if they want." he said.

Nodding, I led the other mutants to the boat Mike suggested. It was a large fishing boat that probably had a crew of a couple of dozen or more when it was in use. Kim, Tina, Paul, and Jessica met us there. Paul and Tina picked up the other mutants and we carried them all into the boat and laid them down on the most intact (and cleanest) mattresses we found.

"What the hell happened to these people?!" Jessica exclaimed when Paul brought in a kerosene lamp and lit it so she could see their injuries.

"You don't want to know." was my tired response. Paul looked worriedly at me and set the lantern down next to Jessica.

"You okay Kitty Kat?" he asked worriedly, moving over to wrap an arm around me.

I gratefully leaned into his embrace and wrapped both arms and a wing around him. "I'm okay. I almost lost it when I found them, though. If the crowd hadn't started screaming when my electrical powers got out of control, I probably would have killed everybody there." I replied sadly.

"That bad, huh?" he asked after giving me a proper hug.

"Yeah." I said. We stood there silently while Jessica went to work cleaning and bandaging wounds. Being mutants, their wounds would probably heal up quickly. But a little TLC would speed things up a little. Jessica kept up a constant stream of curses under her breath the entire time.

"Come on, you don't need to stay here for this." Paul said, tugging me towards the door. I didn't resist and let him lead me all the way back to the boat where we'd set up our nest. We found Lek and Muay sleeping soundly curled up in one corner. They took up a surprisingly small area. They looked cute with their tails wrapped around each other.

"Cute little things, aren't they?" Paul said with a smile.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"You ever think about having kids someday? I imagine it must be a weird thought for you, seeing as how it would work a bit differently for you than you could have ever expected." Paul asked.

I chuckled at his understatement. "Yeah, a bit different! I...don't know. Like you said, it's weird. I think I might be up for it someday, though." I said thoughtfully. I surprised myself with my response, but looking down at the two girls curled up in our nest I knew it was true. But I needed to take care of a few things before I could think about that. And it was still a little strange.

Paul smiled widely and picked me up. He grunted a little, I'm not exactly light! I'm quite slim, but dense. And the wings and tail probably didn't help any, either. But he managed to carry me over to the nest and set me down without it looking like it was too hard. He laid down next to me, on the opposite side from the girls, and I snuggled into his arm. It wasn't long before I was asleep.

"It was just a dream?" I said as the fog slowly lifted from my mind. I'd been dreaming about that club... No, better not to think about that.

"Are you with me Cat?" Paul asked more quietly, seeing that I was more aware now.

I nodded weakly, "Yeah. I guess I was having a nightmare." I looked around again to reassure me that I was back at the boat, and then looked more closely at Paul. His shirt had four parallel tears in it and was stained with blood. His neck was also scratched pretty deeply. "Did...I do that?!"

"Shh, it's alright. I heal pretty quick, remember?" Paul said, pulling me to him. I sank into his embrace and started sobbing. I'd nearly killed him once before, and now I'd attacked him in my sleep!

"Maybe I should sleep alone." I said into his shoulder.

"No way! You think I'm giving up my cuddly little Kitty Kat because of a few scratches? You're stuck with me." Paul said fiercely.

"But I hurt you...again! I could kill you next time." I protested.

Paul shook his head without letting me go. "No you won't. You have more control than you think." he said.

It took him a while to reassure me, and I was still a little unsure, when I remembered the girls. "Where're Lek and Muay? I didn't hurt them, did I?!" I exclaimed. I looked around wildly, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"They're fine, they had already gotten up and gone out to get something to eat when you started thrashing around. Relax." Paul replied patiently.

"Hey, are you two okay down there?" Tina called out from the top of the stairs. "I heard Cat screaming."

"She's fine; she just had a nightmare about that club." Paul replied.

"Okay, do you need anything?" she asked.

"No, thanks Tina. We're okay." Paul said.

"Okay, I'll see you later." Tina said.

"Are you sure it's safe for you and the girls to sleep with me?" I asked worriedly.

Paul nodded and pulled back so he could look me in the eye, "I'm sure. You were moaning and moving around before they woke. You only got violent after they left. But if you're not convinced, we can go ask them."

I was reluctant since I didn't want Lek and Muay to be afraid of me, but followed him out. Carl had made a makeshift kitchen out of the cargo area of his plane and a few of the others were getting something to eat as we walked up. "Have Lek and Muay been here already?" Paul asked.

"Yes, they're eating over there with Melissa." Carl replied, pointing over to the boat Melissa had claimed as her own. She and the girls were there eating and talking.

"Hey Cat, how are you feeling this morning?" Melissa asked with a note of worry in her voice.

"Okay, I guess." I said.

"She had a nightmare and now she's worried she might hurt Lek or Muay in her sleep." Paul said, pointing out the cuts on his chest.

Muay's eyes got wide upon seeing the cuts and she turned to me, "You cut? Why?"

Paul answered too quickly for me to get a word in, "It was an accident. She was having a nightmare about the club where she found those people last night. That's why she was thrashing around so much when you two got up."

"Oh." Muay said, and turned to talk to Lek in Thai. Lek looked worried for a moment and said something to Muay. She turned back to Cat and said, "We trust Cat. Stay with you?"

"Are you sure?" I asked.

Muay nodded, "We sure." Then she surprised me by coming up and hugging me. Lek was a little less enthusiastic, but Muay managed to goad her into hugging me, as well.

"Why don't you two go back to your meal, now?" Paul suggested. They nodded and rejoined Melissa while he guided me away. "You okay Cat?" he asked once we were halfway back to our own nest.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said while wiping my eyes.

"They got to you, didn't they?" he asked with some amusement.

"You didn't see how I found them. To see them now..." I said, choking up again.

Paul wrapped his arms around me and held me until I'd calmed again. "I understand. They've been through hell, but they're coming around nicely. And the trust they're showing you is a big thing. I'm surprised they can trust anybody after what they've been through." he said.

When I pulled away I noticed his eyes were moist, too. "Have they gotten to you, as well?" I asked with a smile.

"Maybe a little..." he said, holding his thumb and forefinger apart by a hair's breadth.

We started walking again. "What are we going to do with them? Not just Lek and Muay, but all of them? So many of them don't speak English, and there's nobody at the island to translate. I don't think Kim will want to go back yet, she's determined to help us here." I asked after a long, comfortable silence.

"I don't think we need to decide that just yet. We have lots of room right now. Hopefully we'll come across some others who can translate and send them with the first group once we've gotten a few more people here. I think Carl is right, that we should try to make them all feel safe. Keeping our numbers up will help with that, I think." Paul replied.

I nodded, "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I guess I'd better get something to eat and head back into the city."

"Nobody would blame you if you took a day off, you know. Last night was pretty extreme, from what I gather." he said worriedly.

I thought about it, but finally shook my head, "No, I think I need to get back out there. Besides, now that I know what that club is about, I want to shut it down for good."

"Is that safe? They're bound to beef up security after last night." he said.

"Probably. But that will be tonight, when the club is open. I doubt they'll be expecting an attack during the day. And I'll bring Melissa with me this time." I said.

Paul nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, I guess that should be safer. But you both need to be careful. We've been pretty loud since we got here. There's bound to be increases in security in all their operations soon, if they're not in place already."

"We will. Will you let Melissa know my plans? I'm going to go find something to eat." I said. Paul nodded, so I pulled his head down and gave him a long, toe curling kiss. "See you later!" I called out as I took to the air. I giggled as I looked back and saw him standing there, frozen in place for several seconds before he turned to wave to me.

Hunting didn't take long, and I had a sizable amount of meat left over for Carl to cook up. After dropping that off, he still looked a little green when I did that, I headed over to Melissa's boat. She was still talking to Lek and Muay when I arrived, but she was finishing strapping on one of her blades and looked to be ready for action.

"Hi Cat, I'm almost ready. Do you think we'll find any more mutants in that place?" she said as she finished strapping on her blade. Then she picked up an M16 and put her arm through the strap. At my look she shrugged, "Just because I like blades doesn't mean I won't use a gun if I have to."

Muay, and Lek in particular, looked a little uneasy at all the weapons Melissa was carrying on her. To their credit, though, they didn't shy away from her. Why they'd attached themselves to her I didn't know, but I was glad there was someone else here they felt comfortable with.

"You careful, khun mae?" Muay said, looking worriedly at me. Lek look worried, too.

"Don't worry, Cat's tough, and I'll watch out for her." Melissa said with a curious grin.

"I'll be careful girls. We'll see you later, okay?" I said. They nodded somberly and we headed down to the pier. The boat Melissa had picked was a little crowded to take off from.

"What's with the grin?" I asked her as it showed no signs of fading. At my question her grin only got wider.

"You don't know what khun mae means, do you?" she asked.

"No, why would I?" I said.

"Kim overheard them earlier and said that mae is Thai for mother." Melissa said, grinning even wider, if that was possible, at my shocked expression. By then we were clear of the larger ships and she took to the air, her laughter floating back to me. I took off after her, but it was impossible to hold much of a conversation while flying.

Do they really think of me as a mother? I wondered during the short flight. It was a sobering thought, but also a surprisingly pleasant one.

I led the way to the club and landed on the roof. The guards were back, but Melissa and I made short work of them. This time we went in through the roof door. This led down to the second level of the club, where the wealthier patrons had been last night. There were also some offices where I found a VCR and pointed it out to Melissa, "We're going to need that. Let's get it and set it aside to take with us when we leave."

Melissa nodded and started unplugging it. Once it was disconnected she wrapped the cords around it and set it on a table in the customer area, along with a small television. "Do we have a way of powering these?" she asked.

I shrugged, "I don't know. I guess we should keep our eyes open for a generator."

With that we continued looking through the club. We were surprised to find there was nobody there beyond the two guards. The area where the crowd had been was empty, as was the stage. But it was as we were examining the stage that we found another door hidden behind some curtains. "Maybe this is where they brought the 'entertainment' in from?" Melissa suggested. She looked grim, having seen the many blood stains on the stage.

"Probably." I agreed. Melissa didn't bother with the handle, she drew her sword and kicked the door in. I followed her in and looked around in surprise. Almost immediately beyond the door was a room full of cages made of steel bars. Each cage had at least one mutant in it.

"Why would they leave all of them here without guards?" Melissa muttered.

I had a bad feeling about this situation and opened up my senses. "They didn't. It's a trap. I hear and smell many men approaching. Start opening cages and I'll guard the door." I said, turning to put action to words. The door was a wreck, but I picked it up and pushed it back into its frame. There wasn't anything else around to use to brace it, though, so I knew it would come down soon.

The sound of metal striking metal temporarily distracted me and I glanced over my shoulder to see Melissa had cut off the lock on the first cage. "Won't that trash your sword?" I asked as I turned back to the door.

"Probably." Melissa grunted as she swung at another lock. "But it's worth it."

By this time the smell of the men was much stronger and I knew it was only a matter of seconds until they came bursting in. Glancing to the side at all the metal cages made me realize that using electricity would be dangerous, at best. Great, I've got to stick with hand to hand. I hope they don't have many guns. I thought.

"Here, take this." Melissa said, holding out her M16 to me.

"I've never fired one of these." I said, hesitantly taking it from her, along with a couple of clips she'd had stuck into her belt.

Melissa shrugged and turned back to her work, "Neither have I. But it's pretty simple. Just point and shoot. The recoil shouldn't be an issue for you, so you might even manage some decent accuracy."

By this point there were several starved, beaten, broken mutants wandering timidly out of their cages. Some stayed put, which would make it a pain to get them all out.

Just then the door was kicked in and a large man burst in. He wasn't armed, oddly enough. He grinned when he saw me standing there, but lost the grin when he saw me aim the M16 at him. I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. "It's not working!" I called out, getting ready to fight without it.

"Safety!" Melissa called back.

Oh, yeah. Should have thought of that. I looked for the safety, but the man charged forward before I could find it. I dropped the gun and braced myself. He seemed surprised when I stopped him dead in his tracks. But then, he was obviously a mutant himself, considering the amount of force he was exerting. "There's always somebody stronger." I said as I picked him up and flung him back through the doorway.

"Not always." Melissa pointed out.

"Someone will show up eventually." I replied, picking up the M16. I found the safety and switched it off and turned back to the door. The mutant saw what I was doing and dove aside to reveal several men with automatic weapons crouched and ready to fire. "Look out!" I called out as I brought my weapon to bear and pulled the trigger.

I was taking way more hits than I liked to think about, but I managed to keep shooting and force them to take cover. Those that could, anyway. I heard cries of pain behind me that told me some shots were getting through to the people we were trying to rescue.

"How you doing up there, Cat?" Melissa yelled over the occasional gunshot still coming from outside the door.

"Could...be...better." I growled through gritted teeth. "Things...getting...hazy." One eye had been shot out, but the red haze covering my vision wasn't just from blood.

"Shit!" Melissa grumbled. She knew about the red haze, and what can happen in these situations. "Try to hold on a little longer, I've just got two more cages to go!"

Easier said than done. I thought groggily, but just grunted in answer. A few more shots rang out before I returned fire to keep them under cover, but one hit my right knee. I managed to kneel on my good knee and keep myself upright with my wings.

Someone got brave and ran across the doorway, firing in with an Uzi. I got him, but he hit me a lot more. As I slumped forward, being held up slightly by my wings, I caught a glimpse of Melissa jumping over me with sword and gun drawn. It took all my concentration just to stay conscious and not lose control, but I still heard the gunshots and screams. I could only hope that Melissa knew what she was doing.

I felt a touch on my left wing and growled involuntarily. Someone made calming sounds behind me and I realized it was one of the people from the cages. When the touch came again I managed not to react. Within moments I was upright again, with four people holding me, and my wings, up.

Somehow, I'd kept my grip on the M16. With them supporting me, I managed to reload it with the last clip and we moved forward to try and help Melissa. We were just in time.

The stage area beyond the door was a scene of carnage that reminded me painfully of the cave. There was blood everywhere. Dead and dying were scattered about, with the occasional severed limb, or head, for variety. Melissa was lying in the middle of the mess, her blade snapped in half. It was impossible to tell how badly injured she was, since she was covered in blood from the fight.

There were only two men left standing, and they were both injured. One was busily trying to staunch the flow of blood from his severed hand, while the other was pointing his gun at Melissa's head. She lifted herself up slightly and aimed her own gun at him, but he easily kicked it away. I fired, hitting the man beside him instead. He looked up at me in surprise and I realized he was the same mutant who attacked me at the beginning.

I had managed to heal up a little, thanks to Melissa taking their attention away from me, so took a firmer grip on the gun and fired again. This time I hit him in the chest twice before he fell.

"Melissa? How badly are you hurt?" I asked, gesturing for the others to help me over to her. We shuffled over, and found she'd passed out. I checked her pulse and it was very weak. "We've got to get her out of here!"

"We'll get her." a man with a German accent spoke up from behind me. He and several others moved over to her and lifted her carefully. They were all malnourished and covered in bruises, but there were enough of them to carry Melissa and half carry me down to the floor of the club and out the door. I noticed several of them arming themselves on the way.

"Do you have someplace to go and heal?" the German asked.

I nodded, "A pier, that way." I said, pointing. He nodded and gestured for the others to follow him. It was a grueling walk for all of us. I nodded off several times, with the German waking me whenever he needed directions. Within seconds of coming into sight of the pier Paul was there.

"What happened?!" he exclaimed, running over to help the others with me. I was mostly healed by this point, but so very tired...

As soon as I moved both Lek and Muay grabbed onto me tightly and cried in relief. I held onto them until they'd cried themselves out. "You are okay, khun mae?" Muay asked after wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I'm fine, Muay." I assured her. They both hugged me again and stayed close as I found some clothes to wear and got dressed. "How is Melissa? Where is she?" I asked, remembering how bad she'd looked when I found her.

"This way!" Muay said, pulling me by the hand. Lek smiled and grabbed my other hand, so I let them lead me over to the ship where we'd taken the people I found on my first visit to the club. Inside it looked like Jessica had converted it into a hospital. Four of the five I brought back from the club the first time were still there, while most of the people from last night were there, as well. Melissa was lying on the mattress closest to the entrance.

"Hi Cat." Jessica said from where she sat beside her. "Here to check on Melissa?" I nodded. "Well, it's a good thing you got her here when you did. If she wasn't a mutant she wouldn't have even made it this far, but she still would have died without help. I found over a dozen gunshot wounds and had to remove eight bullets.

"I also had to reattach her left wing, and I didn't have the tools or, quite frankly, the knowledge to do it right. Fortunately, she heals faster than most mutants and that finished the job for me. It probably won't be usable for a day or two, maybe longer. The rest of her injuries are healing up rapidly. What she really needs at this point is to wake up and get something to eat and drink." Jessica replied.

"But she will heal, right?" I asked worriedly.

Jessica nodded, "Yes, she will. I see you've healed up already. Paul insisted you didn't need any help, and let Lek and Muay there clean you up. It's really amazing how fast you heal!"

"Yeah, I think I was mostly healed by the time we got back. What do we have in the way of medical supplies, anyway?" I asked.

Jessica gestured to an open first aid kit sitting next to her with an almost empty bottle of alcohol and a few scraps of cloth in it. "That's all we've got left. We've cannibalized every bit of spare cloth we could for bandages, but we're still just about out. Fortunately we heal rapidly so we'll be able to reuse many of them soon, once they've been boiled to sterilize them."

"I hadn't thought about that. We don't usually need much in the way of medical supplies, but so many of the mutants we find are so badly mistreated..." I said, thinking about the condition of the mutants from the cells.

"Yes, if they weren't mutants they probably wouldn't have survived in many cases. As it is we lost one last night due to bullet wounds." Jessica said sadly.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

Jessica nodded, "Several of them were wounded by stray bullets and one of them took one to the head. He was very young, maybe twelve or thirteen. There wasn't much I could do with an injury like that."

"Damn! I tried to block the bullets, but..." I couldn't continue as I remembered the cries of pain from the other mutants during the fight.

Jessica stood and stepped over to me, laying her hand on my shoulder, "It's not your fault, Cat. You're tough, but you're not bullet proof. Frankly, from what that German fellow was able to tell me, I'm amazed you managed as much as you did. Or came back alive, for that matter."

Lek and Muay hugged me from either side and I smiled down at them. "Thanks girls." I said.

"They've become quite attached to you, haven't they?" Jessica said.

"I guess so." I agreed. "Have you seen Paul?

Jessica nodded, "He was by earlier to see how everyone was doing. I'm not sure where he's at right now, though."

"Okay, thanks." I said and went outside to see if I could find him. I was surprised to see the position of the sun, which meant it was morning. Either I'd recovered very quickly, or I'd been asleep for an entire day.

As we walked down the pier I saw a group of the newest additions to our group leaving another large ship that nobody was living in yet, as far as I knew. They all stopped and thanked me and asked if I was okay. Paul strolled out of the ship as the last of the group was leaving.

"Hi Cat, finally woke up, huh? You missed all the fun!" Paul said cheerfully.

"Fun? What happened?" I asked, worrying that someone had attacked while I was sleeping.

He smiled, "Nothing major. I just had to talk down a bunch of your recent finds. They wanted to go back and burn the club to the ground."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." I said.

He shook his head, "No, it isn't. But they wanted to do it while you were still sleeping! With you and Melissa down I didn't think it was a good idea for any of us to go back into the city right now. They could walk right into another trap."

"Oh, yes, that's a good point. And they're not in very good shape, either. I'm afraid Melissa won't be in any shape to help out for a while, but I'm okay." I said, glancing back at the group who had just passed me, guessing they were the ones Paul was talking about.

Paul shook his head ruefully, "I knew you'd say that. You know you'll need to eat and rest for another day or so to really be back up to speed. From what they told me you were practically torn to ribbons."

"I feel fine..." I started to say, but was interrupted by a loud growling from my stomach. Smiling sheepishly I said, "Oh, alright, I guess I could use a break. They need to rest, anyway. Do we have enough food for this many people?"

"For today, maybe. Mike's going to take a group out to hunt in a little while, and Janet and her sister are doing some fishing for us. We'll have to be careful not to mix things up, though, or we're likely to mutate Carl if any of the fish are contaminated." he replied.

"Well I have to go hunting anyway, I'll see if I can't bring something back with me." I said.

Paul nodded, "Sounds like a plan. Why don't you go do that before you fall over from hunger?"

I agreed, and once he'd peeled the girls off of me I took off. He was right, too, I was very weak. I think it was only the charge I still had inside me that was keeping me going. It felt like that charge was greatly reduced, though, so I'd have to see about getting a recharge soon. I wonder if I used up some of it healing? I wondered as I flew.

After a short flight I spotted a good sized buffalo off by itself and took it down. Devouring all I could, I carried the remains back with me. There was still a good bit of meat left, so I hoped it would help. I felt like I was about to fall asleep in the air so I didn't dare go back for more.

I found Carl, once again, working on dinner. Only this time he had help from a few of the other rescues who were in better shape. They'd set up a large fire pit a little ways off of the pier, so I dropped the carcass off with them. Carl was finally starting to get used to it, but the others...not so much.

From there I glided back to our boat and landed heavily. Lek and Muay were waiting, apparently, as they appeared a moment later to help me down inside. They curled up on either side of me like big kittens, their tails wrapping around whatever part of me was handy. I could swear they were purring as I fell asleep.

"I'm fine girls, I'm just going to get something to eat." I told them as I dressed. They insisted on coming with me anyway.

I stopped in to check with Jessica first. "How is everyone doing this morning?" I asked her.

She was kneeling over Melissa when I entered and turned to answer, "Other than Melissa, pretty good. She still hasn't woken up, though. I don't have the means to set up an IV for her, so we really need her to wake up."

"We have a little money we collected from some of the men who attacked us before. Maybe Paul could go into town and buy what you need?" I suggested.

"That would be wonderful!" Jessica said with a relieved sigh.

"Okay, I'll go talk to him before I go hunting, then. Do you know where he is?" I said.

"No idea, sorry." she replied.

"Okay, I'll go find him." I said, leading the girls out of the ship. There weren't many people out and about, but it was still fairly early in the morning. I decided to head over to Carl's plane and see if he knew where Paul was.

About halfway there I saw Kim talking to Paul. "I can take care of myself." Kim was saying as I turned my attention to them.

"I'm sure you can, but I don't want anyone leaving alone. Mike and Tina are on guard duty, so that just leaves Melissa or Cat to go with you, neither of which are in any shape to do so right now. Just wait until tomorrow, Cat will be chomping at the bit by then. If she's not already." Paul said.

"What's up?" I asked as I wrapped my arms around Paul from behind.

"Just trying to convince Kim to wait to go into town. She's in a hurry to help out." Paul said.

I frowned, "Haven't you already been helping out?"

"Yeah, I guess. But there are so many mutants out there that still need help." she said.

"And you want to get a little payback, right?" Paul said.

"No! Well, that, too. But I need to help them!" she said, growling in frustration.

"Why do you need to help so bad?" I asked. She'd been eager to help out from the moment she woke up, but now that she was well enough to do so she seemed to have a whole new urgency to her.

"I just do, okay?!" she growled. She wouldn't look me in the eye and started pacing angrily.

"Look, I need to eat and recharge yet. Melissa is out of action for who knows how long. After us you, Tina, and Mike are the only ones strong and fast enough to fight. With them guarding the rest we can't let you go by yourself. If you walked into a trap like I did you'd be torn to ribbons. How much help can you be if you're dead?" I said.

"I know!" she growled, still pacing.

"Look, how about you help Jessica out with the injured today? I'm sure she could use the help. I'll be ready to go back tomorrow and you can come with me then. Is that good enough for you?" I said.

Stopping her pacing she sighed and nodded, "Okay." With that she turned and headed for the ship where Jessica had set up our little hospital.

"What's with her, anyway?" I asked Paul once she was well on her way, though she could probably still hear us if she really wanted to.

Paul sighed, "I wish I knew. It's almost like she feels guilty or something. Maybe some kind of survivor's guilt?"

"I suppose." I said doubtfully. "Anyway, I was looking for you because Melissa still hasn't woken up yet. Jessica wants to set up an IV to get some fluids at least into her, but she doesn't have the equipment. Think you could go into town and pick up what she needs?"

"Of course. What exactly does she need, anyway?" Paul said.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask her. Just don't take too long, I'm worried about Melissa." I said.

He nodded, "So am I. She's tough though, I'm sure she'll be fine. I'll go get that list from Jessica now. Just don't leave except to hunt, okay?"

"I won't. I'm going to go hunting now and then relax for the rest of the day, okay?" I said, rolling my eyes.

Paul smiled, "Okay. See you later!" With that, Paul ran off, quickly disappearing from sight.

"You stay, khun mae?" Lek asked with the biggest, most adorable puppy dog eyes I'd ever seen.

"I have to go hunt, but after that I'll stay here for the rest of the day, okay?" I said.

Lek exchanged glances with Muay, then they both turned and nodded. "Why don't you help Kim and Jessica while I'm gone?" I suggested. They nodded again and I took off. I noticed they watched me for a while before turning and going after Kim. I hoped they wouldn't cause too much of a fuss when I went back into town tomorrow.

A few minutes of searching later I spotted a small group of buffalo. Yesterday I wouldn't have been strong enough to risk having to fight them all, but today I felt up to it, so I dived. The one I targeted was dead instantly of a broken neck. As I crouched over my kill I watched the other buffalo, but they didn't seem inclined to do anything but run away. Once they were away I ate my fill, far less than the previous day, and carried the remains back.

"You realize how disgusting that is, oui?" Clarice said distastefully as she looked at the carcass. Apparently she was on cooking duty as she was starting up a fire in the fire pit.

"How do you think I felt the first time I ended up eating raw meat from a freshly killed animal like this?!" I growled.

Clarice held her hands up defensively, "Sorry! I guess that would be pretty bad. I guess you were worked over more than most of us by your mutation."

"You don't know the half of it." I grumbled. She gingerly began cleaning the carcass and I left her to it.

There still weren't many people out and about yet as I made my way to the hospital ship. When I entered I found Kim, Lek and Muay helping Jessica set up her IV for Melissa. As soon as they saw me they ran over and wrapped their arms around me. "Khun mae!" Lek yelled happily.

I looked down at the two and couldn't help but smile at how much happier they seemed than only a few short days ago.

We spent the rest of the day together as Paul and I checked in to see how everyone was doing. The German, Stefan, and some of the others were eager to tear the club apart. Paul put his foot down, for them and for me, that he didn't want anyone going back into any buildings or confined areas in the city without going in force with at least one of Kim, myself, or Melissa in the group. And lots of guns.

Stefan wasn't going to go along with it until Paul pointed out how badly hurt Melissa and I were despite being armed and the two strongest mutants in our group. He still wasn't too pleased, so I said, "I'll take Kim and see what we can see tomorrow. Without going in." I had to add the last part as Paul was giving me dirty looks.

Stefan finally agreed, which was the last of the drama for the day. Paul had managed to get some more medical supplies while he was picking up the IV stuff, so Jessica was happy. And Carl said Thomas was making progress, helped by sightings of a 'super hero mutant' in South and then Central America. I think he called her Chrysalis.

When I got back I led Kim into the city. She was pretty fast so I didn't have to fly too slow to let her follow me. Paul insisted we both carry weapons, so we each had a backpack with guns and ammunition inside. I didn't want to carry the weapons openly since we were only scouting.

We were only a few blocks from the club when I noticed a column of vultures flying in circles just outside of the city. There must have been hundreds! I thought about going over to take a look, but decided that we'd practically have to go right by the club to do that, so continued there first.

When we got to the club I circled a few times to see if there was any unusual activity around. The club seemed deserted and there wasn't much movement in the area around it. Certainly nothing unusual looking. Kim had similarly circled the club on the ground. I landed next to her to compare notes.

"See anything?" I asked.

She shook her head, "No, it looks empty to me. Do you want to go inside and take a look around?"

"Hmm... tempting. But no, Paul would kill me. You too." I said as I glanced around. Nothing was visible inside the windows, but there could be more mutants inside, or another trap.

Kim grimaced, "Then why come out here if we're not going to do anything?!"

Setting my hand on her shoulder I said, "We are doing something. But while we're here, have you seen a breaker box on the outside of this building anywhere?"

She looked strangely at me for a moment, and then smiled, "I get it, you want to cut off their power and see if they come out, right?"

I shrugged, "Kind of. I seem to have used up most of my charge healing myself after my last visit here. I thought I'd get charged up and disrupt their power at the same time."

"What do you mean?" Kim asked, looking confused.

"I guess you haven't see me use it yet, but I have the ability to absorb electricity. I can also release it wherever I want." I said, remembering that she was still recovering, or not with us, when I'd used that ability here.

Her eyes widened at that, "Really?! I didn't know that. Cool, let's do it!" I think she was as enthusiastic about maybe driving someone out of the club to beat up on as she was my ability, but I let it go. "I think I saw a breaker box over here you can use."

Kim led me over to the box and kept watch while I opened it up and started charging. It was slow compared to some other sources I'd used before, but it would get the job done. It also caused what few lights were on inside and on the outside of the club to sputter and go out. I kept charging until I felt pleasantly 'full'. I could take more if I really wanted to, but it was more comfortable not to.

We waited a few minutes, but there was no sign of activity inside the building, or of anyone coming towards the building. In fact, I noticed everyone seemed to be avoiding the building altogether. Not too surprising considering what all went on in there; both before I crashed the party and after.

"I guess it's abandoned, or they're waiting for us to come in." Kim said, clearly disappointed.

"Well it tells us something. Either there is no one there, or they've laid another trap for us. If there's no one there, then there's no hurry to go back in. If it's a trap, then we need more help. Either way we might as well come back later. Besides, I saw perhaps as many as a hundred or more vultures circling something outside the city. I'd like to investigate that before going back." I said.

Kim shrugged, "Okay, lead the way."

I did, noticing it was more difficult to restrict myself to a speed she could match now that I was charged up. I'd have to think about getting some kind of power source for the island so I could charge up when I needed to. Relying on thunder storms probably wouldn't work very well.

As we left the bulk of the city behind I was able to get an unrestricted view of what the vultures were circling. I 'zoomed' in my vision to get a better look, and wished I hadn't.

Circling was difficult with all the vultures around, but they knew better than to get in the way. One thing about my mutation; most animals recognized me as a very dangerous carnivore and steered clear. Once again I was wishing I hadn't, as flying nearly directly above it the smell was horrendous. Gasping, I came down to land beside Kim, who was still a few hundred feet out.

"What is it?" she asked.

I choked and coughed a few times before I was able to speak, "You don't want to know."

As Kim was about to protest we heard a scream from the direction of it. It sounded like a child. Without a thought we both started running towards it. Kim skidded to a stop as she reached the edge. "What is that?!" she gasped.

"An open... mass grave... I think." I said, gagging again at the horrid stench of dozens, if not hundreds, of decaying bodies. At least some were mutants, though it was hard to say much for sure in the mess. But in the middle of it all was a little girl covered in blood screaming her lungs out.

"Are you..." she started lethargically, then stopped as if surprised by something. After a moment she continued, "Kittyhawk?"

I nodded, "Yes, I am. Let's get you out of here." I picked her up gingerly. She flinched a little at my touch, but otherwise remained still. Rather than continue to walk on the corpses I hopped/flew to the edge of the pit where Kim was coughing up her breakfast.

"How can you stand that smell?!" she said when she stopped vomiting.

"Not easily." I replied, gagging again. We quickly put some distance between ourselves and the grave, if you can really call it that.

We walked in silence for a little while until the smell cleared enough to breath a little deeper. The girl was stiff at first, but then started sobbing into my shoulder. That's when I realized she wasn't as young as I thought because her breasts were pushed up against me. She was far too developed for a child her size. Taking a closer look at her face I realized she was an adult, just a very small one.

"How did she get out here?" Kim asked. "And is that her blood?!" The girl was liberally covered in it, including her wings. I hadn't even noticed the wings at first, since they blended in with all the blood on her clothes, body, and the other corpses that were around her. There was something odd about them...

"I certainly hope not!" I said in response to Kim's question. "But she isn't acting like she's badly hurt, physically. I think we should get her back to the others as quickly as possible, though, so Jessica can take a look at her."

"Lead on." Kim said. I nodded and took off. The girl screamed for a moment, but then relaxed. Her wings moved a few times, but the movements were erratic, like she wasn't doing it on purpose.

Once I'd leveled out she relaxed. The trip back was without incident and I glided to a landing as close to the hospital ship as I could manage. By the time I'd come to a stop Kim caught up with me. I looked down to ask the girl her name, but she was asleep.

Lek and Muay were walking towards the ship as we arrived, both carrying an armful of food. "Khun mae!" they yelled happily. They clearly wanted to run to me, but instead ran inside the ship to drop off the food. We followed them inside.

By the time we got inside they had already deposited the food next to Melissa, who was devouring it like there was no tomorrow, and latched themselves to either side of me. "Why don't I take her off your hands?" Jessica suggested.

"Thanks." I said, handing the sleeping girl over.

"What happened to her? She's covered in blood, and so are you!" Jessica exclaimed as she took the slippery bundle from me.

"We found her in some kind of mass grave of mutants. We don't think it's her blood." Kim said while I tried to get Lek and Muay to at least relax their grip.

"Relax girls," I said, "there was no fighting this time." That seemed to calm them somewhat. Enough, at least, for them to relax a bit.

I was happy to see Melissa awake, at last. She waved absently at me between bites, but was otherwise absorbed in her feast. When I asked Jessica how she was doing she said, "Much better, now. I think she'll be back in action in a few more days, so long as she takes it easy." Then she turned to the girls who were still sticking to my side, "Why don't you two take the new girl here and get her cleaned up. I can't find any wounds that need treating."

Lek and Muay looked at the little winged girl, back at me, and then at Jessica before finally nodding. Muay took the girl and they hurried off to clean her up.

Jessica looked oddly at me, "You seem more energetic then when you left."

Kim laughed, "That's true, literally! She took an electricity snack while we were out."

I shrugged at Jessica's incredulous look, "I was pretty drained, from healing myself I assume, so I charged back up. I seem to be stronger when I'm carrying a good charge."

She nodded, "I guess that explains how you were able to recover so quickly after losing so much blood."

With that we left her to her work, which seemed a little less hectic than it had been the day before. As we left the ship I spotted Mike leading a group of people back in. They were all carrying handfuls of fruit or vegetables and a few had caught small animals. We really needed a better way to carry stuff, not to mention a better food supply. If we got all these people back to the island it would be difficult to feed them all as it was.

I spotted Carl and Paul talking by Carl's plane and headed that way. "I'm going to keep an eye on the new girl if you're not planning on heading out right away?" Kim said.

"No, I'm not. I have some things to talk to Paul about, so go ahead." I replied. She went after the kids while I snuck up behind Paul and wrapped my arms around him from behind.

He jumped a bit and then relaxed, "I can think of worse surprises. How did your trip go?"

"Fine. I got charged up at the club, but there was no sign of anyone in it. But we spotted hundreds of vultures circling outside of town and found a hole filled with corpses. I think they were all mutants. We also found one that was still alive. Lek and Muay are getting her cleaned up right now." I said.

"How many were there?" Paul asked angrily.

I shook my head, "I don't know how deep it was, so I couldn't guess beyond saying there were probably over twenty. They were already decomposing, so we didn't want to stick around for a body count. Especially since we found that girl."

Carl looked thoughtful, "You know, I bet Thomas could use that."

"Use it! What are you talking about?!" Paul demanded.

"I just meant if we could get some pictures to him he could use them as evidence to help convince the UN to take steps to protect mutants." he replied.

"Oh, yeah, I guess that would be a good idea." Paul said, calming. "Do we even have a camera?"

Carl nodded, "I have a small digital camera. It's not much, but it should do the job."

"I'll go back out and take the pictures later. I wanted to talk about our supplies first, though." I said.

Paul shrugged, "I don't know what we can do about that. We're managing to find enough food to eat at least. But even sharing what we have we barely have enough clothes for everyone. Especially after we scrapped so much of it for bandages. At least we don't need so many of those now. But we don't have much else. I used up the money we had on the IV supplies and a few other things."

"For one, I could take a group of the healthiest people back to the island." Carl suggested.

I nodded, "I think that's a good idea. We have too many people here, especially since many of them are too weak or injured to help much. How soon could you leave?"

"The plane is fueled and ready, we could leave right now if you wanted." he replied.

"Let's wait until tomorrow." Paul suggested.

We agreed and left Carl to get his plain ready. Like on the island everyone got together at dinnertime; even our aquatic friends came by and added a few fish to the meal. We decided to take that time to find out who wanted to go. We expected to have more volunteers than we had room.

In the meantime I decided to help with the food situation and went hunting. Being the only flyer in operation at the moment, I went farther afield then the others could easily go and found quite a bit to take back. Far more than I could carry, really. After rounding up a good selection of fruits in a piece of bark and carrying another buffalo in my other hand I flew back.

After dropping off the food with the cooks of the day I went in search of the girl from the grave. As I expected I found her in the hospital ship. She'd been cleaned and dressed in some very oversized shorts and tee shirt with the back partially cut out to accommodate her wings. At first I thought they hadn't cleaned her wings, but then I realized they were just naturally a deep red, like blood. The IV was now in her arm, to my surprise.

"She wasn't hurt but she's skin and bones." Jessica said, startling me.

"I'm very curious to find out how she got out there." I said.

"So am I. If she was dumped with the other mutants than I'd have to assume they somehow thought she was dead. How they got that idea I don't know. Perhaps she hid among the corpses and they just didn't look very closely. I know I wouldn't want to." Jessica said.

I nodded, "Neither would I. I'd also like to know where all those mutants came from. I can only assume from Genarm. Failed experiments, or rebellious ones."

Jessica shuddered, "I can't understand how any corporation could become so corrupt. Isn't there anyone there with a conscience?"

I shrugged, "Probably. But I doubt everyone at the company knows what's going on. The worst stuff is probably done by individuals taking advantage of the situation. So many people see mutants as less than human that it provides plenty of opportunities for abuses that on normal humans wouldn't be tolerated. Even treating animals that way wouldn't be acceptable to most people."

"I didn't know it was that bad." Jessica sighed, shaking her head.

"I didn't either, until recently. I've heard some of the things people experienced before they ended up here and I'm getting the impression that's just the tip of the iceberg. Plus, the first mutant I brought to the island was persecuted despite being a child and nearly killed. I hadn't really thought about that being a prevalent attitude at the time, but it must be to allow so many atrocities to happen." I replied sadly.

"I heard Carl talking about a friend the other day, who was trying to set up some kind of retreat for mutants?" Jessica said.

"Yes, Thomas. He's trying to get the UN to declare our island as a sanctuary for mutants. Maybe we'll even be able to get some help to develop the island a bit and get endangered mutants there, I don't know. Speaking of which, I'd better get Carl's camera so I can take some photographs of the grave. Is she going to be alright?" I said, nodding at the girl.

"I have no idea. Besides being malnourished she's fine, physically. Considering how you found her though, there's no saying how she is mentally. We'll have to wait until she wakes up." Jessica replied.

I nodded and said goodbye. After collecting the camera from Carl, who was removing everything he didn't need from the plane to make room for more passengers, I flew back to the grave. With all the vultures around it was easy enough to find again. So far nobody seemed to have noticed it...or cared.

I wasn't sure what Thomas needed, so took pictures of the grave and the surrounding area to try and give some idea of where it is. The smell was no better, though, so I got my work done quickly and returned. Carl took the camera in hopes he would get a chance to deliver it to Thomas on the way to the island, or back again.

The natives were getting restless, as it were. The rescues from the club were eager to go tear it apart. I wasn't sure anymore if it would accomplish anything, but then I remembered the VCR and television Melissa and I had been preparing to take with us before we found them. The problem was that we'd have to go inside to retrieve them, if they were still there.

Paul and I talked about that with the German and a few others. They were sure numbers would prevail, but I knew that if it came to a fight some of them would likely die. Protecting them was more important to me than trashing the club. Finally, we got them to agree to wait until Melissa was ready to join us. That way she and I could come in through the roof while Kim, Mike and Tina would lead the rest through the ground entrances. It was still risky, but they were adamant about it.

At dinner we discussed who would go back. Carl said that he didn't want to try and take back more than ten people; less if any of them had wings. As expected, there were many volunteers. As soon as we brought up leaving Lek and Muay grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go until we assured them that it was their choice.

Jessica was interested in going, but decided that staying where she was would be more useful for now. She also didn't want to leave the little mutant girl until she had at least woken up. Clarice and Jordan were the first to volunteer. Kim, Lek, Muay and Jessica were the only ones found before the last visit to the club who decided to stay. A couple of women from that trip also chose to go. They were still healing, though they were well enough to travel. They seemed more interested in putting as much distance between themselves and the club than they were in burning it down.

Some of the others were interested in going, but decided to leave later either to let someone else go or so they could get in on the planned destruction of the club.

With that settled we finished our meals and went our separate ways. Paul, Lek, Muay and I stopped off with Jessica to check on the little winged woman. She still hadn't woken up. "I hope she wakes up soon. I think she may be as in need of solid food as Melissa was." Jessica said.

Melissa was lying next to our newest addition. She looked fine, if a little pale. The only other sign of her injuries was the binding holding her wing together so it could finish healing. "Go on to bed doc, I'll let you know if this one wakes up." she said.

Jessica nodded and headed up to the cabin of the big boat where she was sleeping.

"How are you feeling Melissa?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Still a little weak, but otherwise okay. I figure I'll be ready to fly tomorrow, the day after at the latest. You still planning on tearing down that place?"

I nodded, "Yes, once we're sure you are up for it. We're planning to attack it from both the ground and the air. I want to see if that VCR and television are still where we left them before we torch the place, though. I still want to get a look at those videos and see if there is anything useful on them."

Melissa grimaced, "I don't think I want to see what's on those things. Judging from what we've found so far, they'd probably just piss me off."

Paul nodded, "I'm with you, but they may lead us to other mutants who need help. There certainly doesn't seem to be a shortage of them around here."

The conversation wound down after that and we said goodnight to Melissa. I was glad to see her looking so lively. Lek and Muay must have still been thinking about the possibility of being sent away, because they cuddled up close that night.

I made sure Carl understood that nobody else was to leave the island. They would need everyone to get the new arrivals settled in and I was still worried about another attack. I knew some of them would want to come help when they found out what was going on, but they were needed there.

Paul anticipated my desire to follow the plane to the island and talked me out of it. He did agree that I could shadow it for a couple of hours to make sure nothing happened to it, though.

Those two hours were uneventful, so I waved at the plane and turned back. When I got back Lek and Muay were all over me. Since we were still waiting for Melissa to recover, and the new girl was still sleeping, we decided to relax for the day, other than doing a bit of hunting and gathering for food.

It was a pleasant day, the four of us spending it together much as any family might. Lek and Muay had quickly become like daughters to us both. I had been preventing myself from getting pregnant in part because I worried about not being able to protect everyone if I was pregnant. Now I was wondering if I'd made the right choice.

I still knew so little about them, but I was afraid to push them. They had been abused so much that I thought it might be best to let them forget the past, at least for now. I could see a day coming very soon when we'd need a whole slew of psychiatrists for all the abused mutants we were collecting, though. Maybe that was something Thomas could help with, whenever we were able to contact him again.

I was awoken in the morning by screaming. I quickly threw some clothes on and rushed out, Paul and the girls close behind. I expected to find us under attack. But when I got out of the boat there were no strangers in sight. Everyone was looking at the hospital ship, though, so I headed there. Several others had the same idea.

When I got inside the hospital ship I found Melissa and Jessica trying to calm down the small woman we'd found the day before. She seemed to be talking over herself and nobody could understand her. That led to another scream of frustration from the little woman. When she saw me enter she turned to me.

"Whycan'tanybodyunderstandmearoundhere?!" she yelled.

I took a moment to break down what she'd said, "If you spoke a little slower it would help." Everyone else looked at me in surprise. "What?"

"You understood that?!" Jessica said.

I nodded, "Yeah. It was all jumbled together because she's talking so fast, but I managed to figure it out. Couldn't you?"

She shook her head, "No, it wasn't just a jumble to me. It was more like a high pitched squealing sound. I couldn't hear any words in it at all."

The small winged woman, meanwhile, looked even more frustrated, "Whyareyoutalkingsoslow?!"

We spoke back and forth like that for a while with both of us having trouble understanding the other while the others looked on in shock and bewilderment.

"What are you saying to her now?" Paul asked.

I looked at him in surprise, "Can't you understand me?"

"Now, yeah, but when you were talking to her your speech was getting faster and faster until I couldn't understand it at all." he said.

The small woman stopped to stuff some food in her face and Jessica nodded as she watched the little woman eat at an incredible pace. "I think I understand now. She must have an amazingly fast metabolism. Look at the way she eats, and talks. She's going so fast the rest of us are having a hard time following her movements, let alone understanding her speech. Cat seems to be the only one who can come close enough to her speed to understand her."

"You can't follow her movements?" I asked. Sure, she was moving fast, but not that fast!

Paul shook his head, "A little, but she's mostly a blur when she moves like that."

"And to me she's moving even faster. I'm guessing Paul is pretty fast, himself." Jessica said.

Paul nodded, "Yeah, that's about the only thing I got out of my mutation. But Cat's a lot faster than I am. I guess you've got translation duty with this one."

I didn't really feel like I was doing anything differently, but they were right that I could, almost, keep up with her. Eventually my own speech seemed to speed up enough for us to converse more or less normally.

"So, why is everyone else so slow?" she asked me.

I shrugged, "I think it's more a matter of we're so fast, especially you. If you could learn to slow it down some you could probably talk to them okay. You weren't this fast yesterday when we found you, but maybe you were just tired then."

She blinked several times in surprise, "Oh, that makes sense, actually. That's how I escaped, I slowed myself down to the point where they thought I was dead. Then they threw me out with the other rejects, I guess. Let me see if I can do it again."

She stood there concentrating while I consciously slowed myself back to normal to talk to the others. "She's trying to get herself slowed back down now so we can all talk to her." I explained.

"How did you do that, anyway? I've never heard you talk anywhere near that fast before." Paul asked.

I shrugged, "I really don't know. I just seemed to do it automatically while talking to her."

"Caaan...yyyyooooouuuu...uuunnnnddderrrrstttttaaaannnndddd...mmmeeeeee...nnnooooowwwww?" she said, very slowly and carefully.

"Uh, pick it up a notch, will you?" Paul said.

She nodded and tried again, "How's that?" She was obviously working hard to pronounce each word clearly, but otherwise sounded normal enough.

"Much better. What's your name?" Jessica asked.

"Lu...uh, that won't work anymore." she said and stopped to think. We all knew what she meant, whether she realized that or not, so waited patiently. "How about...Alicia?"

Jessica smiled, "Hello Alicia, I'm Jessica. This is Paul and I imagine you know Kittyhawk, though she goes by Catherine or Cat most of the time."

"Uh, hi. Am I still in Mexico?" Alicia asked.

"No, you're in Thailand. Just outside Bangkok, to be precise." Paul replied.

She shrugged, "Guess it doesn't really matter where I am. My old life is gone now, anyway."

"Isn't there anyone you know that might be able to deal with the new you?" Jessica asked.

She snorted, "Yeah, right. I'm a third of my former size, with the wings, and have to concentrate really hard just to talk like a normal person. Oh yeah, and I used to be a guy. I'm sure that would go over real well."

"Well you're welcome to stay here as long as you like, or go on to the island later when Carl gets back with his plane." I said in hopes of cheering her up, or at least distracting her from what she'd lost.

"I guess. It's not like I have any other options." she replied morosely.

"Why don't I show you around?" Jessica suggested. She agreed noncommittally and they wandered off.

"Is it just me, or is that little girl seriously depressed?" Paul said.

"She's an adult, you know. But yes, I think you're right. Not that there aren't plenty of others here who've had a bad time but she seems to be taking it worse than most." I said.

"Yeah, I think she was a rather macho guy." Melissa added.

"How are you feeling this morning?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Pretty much normal, really. Jessica insists I take it easy for another day or two, though. So I'll be helping her out with the injured. Although at this point we're dealing with more mental injuries than physical ones, I think."

"How bad is it?" Paul asked.

"Pretty bad. Honestly, I'm amazed most of these people can even function after everything they've been through. By the sounds of it Alicia had it easy. I think the only reason Lek and Muay aren't comatose is you two." Melissa replied.

"They are very strong." I said.

She shrugged, "Sure, but they've been through hell. Have you noticed how they shy away from every man here except for Paul?"

I had, but thought little of it considering what I knew they'd been through. "Yes, but they seem to be doing well."

"Sure," she agreed, "because you two love them like nobody probably ever has. That's something most of the people we've rescued don't have. Heck, that's something I don't have, anymore. It makes a difference."

Paul and I left Melissa to help the wounded after that, but I couldn't get her words out of my head. Did we really make that much difference?

"Still thinking about what Melissa said?" Paul asked after I'd wandered aimlessly for a while. Lek and Muay had elected to help show the new girl around. I suspected they thought she was a lot younger than she was.

I nodded, "Yes. Most of these people...they've been treated so badly. I can hardly imagine what it's done to them. Can we really make that much difference to the girls?"

Paul laughed, "Melissa was only half right about that. You made the difference. You're the one they call khun mae. I'm just the guy with you."

I snorted, "Right, that's why they aren't afraid of you when they're afraid of every other guy they come into contact with? Try again buster."

He shrugged, "Okay, maybe they're attached to both of us. They are cute little things, aren't they?"

I sighed as I watched them chattering away to Alicia as Jessica gave her a tour. "They are. I guess we've gotten ourselves a family without even trying."

"Regrets?" he asked.

I shook my head and smiled, "No, no regrets. Other than what they had to go through before we found them."

After that I went hunting again to stock up on food. I figured we'd need it after the attack on the club, which was likely to take place the next day. Jessica wanted Melissa to take it easy a little longer and I was inclined to agree. Besides which, I wanted to talk to Alicia.

When I got back from hunting I went looking for her. She was sitting on the pier dangling her legs in the water and looking miserable.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked.

She jumped a bit but otherwise didn't move. I sat beside her and waited. It was a good ten minutes before she finally said anything.

"What do you all expect me to do?" she finally asked.

I looked at her in surprise, "Do? We don't expect you to do anything except get on with your life."

She snorted, "What life? I had everything and now I have nothing. Everyone thinks I'm a kid and, by the looks of things, I'm not going to get any bigger. I don't even have an identity anymore! If I went back 'home' I'd probably get locked up or killed. What kind of life am I supposed to get on with?"

I shrugged, "A new one, I suppose. Do you really think you're the only one who has it tough? A lot of the people here didn't even have the ability to escape; they had to be rescued after unspeakable things were done to them. But they are, at least for the most part, looking forward to a new life."

She turned on me angrily, "So what, I'm supposed to go back to that island with you and do...what? Sit around eating coconuts?!"

"You can do anything you want." I replied while trying to keep my own anger in check. "Stay here if you want. Or go back to Mexico or wherever else you want. You can fly now, so you don't even need us for transportation."

That stopped her. She looked surprised and sat back to think for a while. She turned to stare at the water for several minutes before she finally said, "Will you teach me how to fly?"

Maybe flying will help get her out of her funk? I thought. "Sure. Want to start now?" I said.

She smiled a little and nodded. "Okay, let's go." With that I picked her up to a startled, "Eeep!" and flew past the boats to a clearing nearby.

I'd never taught anyone to fly before, but figured if I showed her how I did it she would figure it out. She watched me intently as I took off, landed, took off again, and glided around the clearing before she felt confident enough to give it a try.

After half a dozen failed attempts she collapsed in tears. "I can't even fly! What good is this puny body?!" she screamed.

I'd been watching her the entire time and noticed her wings were shaped differently and seemed to move differently, as well. Thinking about that, and her increased metabolism, gave me an idea. "Maybe we're taking the wrong approach."

"What do you mean?" she asked. She managed to stop crying and looked up at me hopefully. I could see this meant a lot to her, to have something good come from all this.

"I have wings like a hawk and I fly similarly. My wings are larger and probably stronger than yours. Trying to fly like me is probably getting in the way more than it's helping. Plus, you're moving too slow. Your body is geared for a much higher speed. Maybe there's a reason for that." I said.

"Like what?" she said.

"Well, what kind of bird can you think of that moves very fast but is very small?" I replied.

She didn't have to think long before a look of comprehension came over her, "A hummingbird! Do you think that's why I'm so small now?"

I shrugged, "It's a thought, anyway. Why don't you try letting yourself move at your natural pace and see what happens?"

She nodded and gave it a try. It still took her several tries, but she finally found her rhythm. As I'd thought, she flew by flapping her wings extremely fast. Possibly even faster than a normal hummingbird would. But then, she had a lot more mass to move.

She needed some work on her control, and her landings, but after a few hours of practicing she was satisfied that she could, indeed, fly. She seemed much happier than before, though I suspected she was far from recovered from her depression. For whatever reason her transformation hit her harder than most.

Our practicing had used up the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. She was starving after all her exertions and neither of us realized we were both moving and speaking at her speed until we got back to the pier. There we made an effort to get ourselves back to normal speed. It seemed to be more of an effort for her, but then she's faster.

She joined in the conversation a little at dinner, but immediately afterward she went away from the rest. I was about to follow when she began moving in obviously practiced ways. She was having some difficulty, presumably from her altered body, but I could only assume from her movements that she was practicing some kind of martial art.

She kept at it for hours and we took it in turn to keep an eye on her. We all suspected she wasn't recovered yet.

Her clumsiness in her new body obviously frustrated her. So much so that she accidentally punched a hole in one of the unused ships at the end of the pier. She looked down at her fist in surprise. Then she did it again. I ran over to make sure she wasn't hurting herself.

"What's going on?" I asked when I got close enough to be heard, assuming she had near normal human hearing.

She turned to me with a wide smile, "I'm still strong! Even though I'm so tiny I'm as strong as I was before. Maybe stronger!"

I laughed at the almost childlike delight in her eyes, "I guess you're happy about that?"

She laughed, too, "Of course! I thought I'd be helpless in this body. But I'm still strong and I can fly! I need a little work to get used to this body, but otherwise I think I can take care of myself okay."

Lek and Muay had also run over to help their new friend. "Why silly girl punch boat?" Muay asked.

Alicia laughed in embarrassment, "I guess I got a little frustrated."

Lek was looking at Alicia differently and said something to Muay. "Lek say you know how to fight. You teach us?" she asked.

Alicia smiled, "Sure, I'd love to!"

I left them to it and returned to Paul, who was working on dinner with Kim. "What was that all about?" he asked.

"I guess part of Alicia's problem was that she felt helpless because of her size and apparent weakness. Now that she knows she's as strong as before and is getting the hang of her new body it seems to be helping her confidence. I think Lek and Muay wanting her to teach them helped, too." I replied.

Kim nodded thoughtfully, "That's a really good idea, you know?"

"What's that?" Paul asked.

"Martial arts." she replied. "A lot of the girls, and some of the guys, feel really helpless after everything that was done to them. Hell, I wouldn't mind learning a few things myself. I'm strong and reasonably tough, but I really just act on instinct more than anything."

"Hmm, maybe Alicia would be willing to start a class? I'll ask her later." I said.

With the girls keeping Alicia occupied I decided to help with dinner. Something I don't often do as the smell of cooking meat just seems... wrong, somehow now.

At dinner I brought up Kim's idea. Alicia was a little reluctant, but the others were thrilled with the idea. They practically begged her to teach them. Paul suggested it might even be a good thing for us all to do together. Alicia looked a little overwhelmed at the idea but caved in when the girls started pleading with her with those great big eyes of theirs.

We decided to start in the morning since it was already getting dark. One by one everyone left to get some sleep. Melissa, Kim and Stefan stayed around to talk about the club. Melissa felt she was ready for action and even Jessica agreed with her.

I would have liked to do the attack at night, when there would be fewer people around. But few of the others had good night vision. So it was decided to attack in the early afternoon. Hopefully everyone would be busy at their workplace and there wouldn't be too many people on the street.

The mood was more sombre after that and Lek and Muay were clingy again that night. I didn't complain; I understood their fear a little better now.

In the morning Alicia began her class. All of us took part except for Jessica and those with the most serious injuries. There were only four left who hadn't healed enough to take part. They were all from the last trip to the club and one of them was in such bad shape we still didn't know if she would make it. Even mutant healing has its limits.

The class was rather chaotic at first, but Alicia soon got the hang of teaching. She kept to the basics to start, but most of us picked things up pretty well. I was glad we were finally getting this training; we'd been in far too many fights already. I usually relied on speed and brute strength so it'd be nice to have a better idea what I was doing.

After a break from Alicia's class we all had lunch. Nobody talked much as we were all thinking about the upcoming attack. The first time I was there it wasn't too bad, but last time they nearly killed Melissa and I, and they did kill one of the ones we were trying to save. And another might still die yet. This attack could get a lot of people killed on both sides if they were ready for us.

Alicia insisted on joining the air portion of our attack. She has a lot to learn about flying, but seeing as she's our most skilled fighter I could hardly refuse. Although after seeing the glee in her eyes when I agreed I began to question my decision.

"Deep thoughts?" Paul asked, startling me. I was away from the others since I'd already eaten all I needed that morning.

"I was just thinking about Alicia." I said after making sure she wasn't near. I didn't think she had enhanced hearing, or very anyway, but I couldn't be sure.

He frowned, "What about her? Isn't she doing a lot better now? I think she really appreciated being able to help with that class. She'll make a good teacher, I think."

I sighed, "Yeah, but you didn't see her face when I said she could join the attack on the club this afternoon. She wasn't just happy, she was... I don't know. I think she's way too eager to get some of her own back."

Paul took a seat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "You may be right. But really, can you blame her? It sounds like she had a really good life before. Many of the people here; they never had a good life to begin with. So they didn't lose as much, in a way."

"I know, I just get the feeling her interest isn't healthy." I replied.

"Perhaps. We'll just have to keep an eye on her. But some of the others are just as eager. I'd really rather we just torch the place from outside, but there's no telling if there are more mutants in there being treated like the others were. We'll all have to be cautious and try and rein in the overeager." Paul said thoughtfully.

I nodded, "That's a good idea. Why don't we take the more level headed people who are going aside before we go and spread the word. I'll talk to Melissa and Kim and you can talk to Mike and Tina, okay?"

"Sure." he agreed. After a quick kiss he got up to find Mike. I had an easier time with Melissa thanks to her wings.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" I said once I'd reached her.

"Sure, what's up?" she asked.

"Paul and I were talking and I think some of the others, Alicia in particular, are a little too eager for the attack on the club this afternoon. If they've set another trap for us it's going to be extremely dangerous. Several of us could get killed if we're not careful. We were hoping that you, Kim, Mike and Tina could help to reign in the overeager." I said.

She shrugged, "I can keep an eye on the shrimp, but since we're going in from above I'm not sure how much help I can be with the rest."

I nodded, "I know, but that would still be a big help. If you could take up the rear and keep an eye on her it would put my mind at ease so I could concentrate on the task at hand better."

"Sure, I'm fine with that. I'd hate to have something bad happen to our new martial arts instructor, anyway." Melissa said.

"Thanks. I don't suppose you know where Kim is?" I asked.

"I think she might have been talking to Alicia." Melissa replied. I thanked her and went looking for Alicia. It's generally a lot easier to find people with wings than those without and that proved true with her. She was talking to Kim out on the pier.

"I'm just saying we could make a bigger difference if we hunt down the people doing this." Alicia was saying with more intensity than I'd seen in her yet.

Kim nodded, "I kind of agree, but we can't ignore all the mutants they've victimized, either."

Alicia seemed frustrated and, seeing me approaching, wandered off in a huff. "What was that about?" I asked.

Kim shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure. But I think she's more interested in getting revenge than she is in helping other mutants. I'm a little worried about her, actually."

"So am I. That's why I've asked Melissa to keep an eye on her at the club today. I'd also like to ask you to do the same. Stefan and some of the others are a little too eager and could easily get in over their heads." I said as I watched Alicia storm off with some concern.

Kim turned back to me at that, "I can see what you mean. They're extremely angry about what was done to them. In some ways I think guys handle being raped worse than women do."

"Probably true; it's not something they usually have to worry about. I know I never did, before." I said thoughtfully.

"I didn't either. Not that it's a big concern for me anymore. But I know that being strong isn't always enough. Guns have a habit of equalizing things that way..." she said sadly.

"Are you okay?" I asked, worried at the way her voice trailed off at the end.

She shook herself, "Yeah, I'm alright. I'll keep an eye on everyone I can at the club. I was already expecting to have to reign Stefan and his friends in."

I looked at her for a long moment before nodding, "Okay. I'll see how Paul is doing, then." I didn't believe her for a moment, but I knew just about everyone we'd rescued had their issues to deal with and now wasn't the right time for that.

I found Paul finishing up his talk with Mike and Tina. They had also anticipated the problem. The three of them were each going to take separate entrances, with a half dozen or so others following their lead. I knew they'd have difficulty reigning everyone in with that setup but attacking from many directions at once was our best chance to deal with any traps that might be waiting for us.

It was time to go before we knew it so we gathered everyone up, armed them as best we could, and started the long walk into town. Paul would stay behind with those not involved in the attack. Which mostly consisted of Jessica and the injured.

The walk was slow and eerily quiet. As soon as we got to the edge of town I started noticing people going indoors and closing up their homes and businesses. They could see that something big was about to happen and didn't want any part of it.

The first problem that we faced none of us had really anticipated. We probably should have, but they'd been absent during all of our previous fights so had never considered that they might get involved now. But a couple of blocks from the club we encountered a roadblock manned by several police officers. Others, not in uniforms, were also there. All of them were armed.

I took one look at the roadblock and knew that fighting our way through was far too dangerous. "Let me handle this." I told Kim. She nodded and motioned for everyone else to stop. Melissa and Alicia started forward but I shook my head, "No, I've got this." Reluctantly, they stood back with the others.

The men at the blockade yelled at me, presumably to stop, but I ignored them. Once they started pointing their guns at me I stopped and started feeling for the paths I'd need. Once I had them all lined up I raised my hand and released a blinding bolt of electricity. It branched out from my hand and struck every one of the men. Most were thrown back by the force of it, but all of them fell and dropped their weapons.

Moving forward I checked each one to make sure they were unconscious. I had to knock a few heads to make sure, but soon I was clearing the road and the others quickly ran up to help. We relieved the men of their weapons and continued on, with a short stop at some power lines for me to recharge. I hadn't used that much power but I figured I might need all I could get.

"I can't believe you took them all down like that!" Kim said after we'd been moving for a few minutes. There were a few murmurs of agreement from some of the others.

I shrugged, "I'm getting better at controlling it. Not that long ago I would have had to release a lot more power to accomplish the same thing and I probably would have fried everyone within range to a crisp to do it. I doubt I'll be able to pull the same stunt again, though. If we encounter another group they'll probably start shooting right away. Especially at me."

She nodded somberly and we continued walking in silence. We often saw movement out of the corners of our eyes, but whenever we turned to look there were only closed doors and covered windows. Whether it was enemies or just people getting away from a potential fight we couldn't tell.

At my direction we circled the building before breaking up into our four groups. Once I was as sure as I could be that there wasn't anybody outside the building waiting to attack us, I took my little group into the air. We surveyed the outside of the building but still saw neither sign of occupancy nor any guards. So, we dropped onto the roof and prepared to open the door.

The others were waiting for my word to attack, which I'd give only after we'd gotten inside. But I'd taken only a few steps inside before Alicia grabbed me and began frantically pulling me back, "Tripwire, we've got to get out of here!"

Melissa, hearing Alicia's words, grabbed us both and jumped back just as the building erupted into a giant fireball.

She had something in her other hand, which I finally realized was an unconscious Alicia. Turning to scan the ground, I saw a thick pillar of smoke and flame where the club had once been. I looked around frantically for the others, but I couldn't see much beyond the smoke. "What happened?!" I yelled to be heard above the roaring of the flames.

"They must have rigged it! I don't know where everyone else is. I'll get us back down to the ground." Melissa replied.

Several tense moments later I was finally standing on my own two feet. Melissa carried Alicia liked a small child while we looked for the others. We found Mike's group first.

He was covered in dust, but looked alright. The others were much the same, though one had a little blood on her head. "Are you alright?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, we're okay. Yvette back there got a bump on the head but nothing serious. What about her?" He pointed at Alicia.

"She's okay, just knocked out." Melissa replied. "Have you seen any of the others?"

"Not yet, but Tina's group should be over there." Mike said, pointing off to his right. We all started in that direction, but Tina found us first. She was carrying one of the men from her group, but the others were moving on their own power and seemed unhurt.

"Hey guys, everyone okay over here?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yes, how about that one?"

"I'm not sure, he got partially buried by rubble. We should get him back to Jessica soon. But what about Kim?" she replied.

None of us had seen her group, so we circled halfway around the building to where we thought she should have been. There was no sign of her group. But then we heard a whistle from an alley nearby. Turning, I saw Kim waving for us to come over.

We hurried to her and saw she had three injured; one of them covered in blood. It was Stefan.

"What happened?!" Mike asked.

Kim frowned, "Stefan was pushing to go in right away. He got the door open before I could grab him, but I stopped him there. But when Alicia screamed he pulled away. The blast threw him back out, but he got pretty banged up. Two of the others got hit by flying debris, but I think they'll be okay."

I took a quick look at all the injured. Alicia and the woman with the head wound from Mike's group seemed the least injured. The man Tina was carrying could have internal injuries, so that was a worry. Stefan was the only other whose injuries might be serious, though.

"Okay, we're going to have to split up a little. Melissa, hand Alicia over to Mike. Tina, hand that guy to Melissa and she'll take him back to Jessica. I'll take Stefan. The rest of you, head back to the pier as fast as you can. If you run into any resistance, try to avoid it rather than fight through it. I'll come back as quick as I can." I said, putting action to words. In a moment I had Stefan in hand and was flying back.

Glancing back I saw that Melissa was right behind me, and the others seemed to be doing as I asked. I kept one eye on the ground, but saw no other road blocks or ambushes that the others might run into. Even so, I flew as fast as I could. In minutes I was handing Stefan off to Jessica and heading back.

A couple of minutes later I waved as Melissa flew by. A few more minutes of flight brought me back to the group. They were making good time so I decided to follow in the air.

Thankfully, there were no more surprises. Everyone got back to the pier in half the time it took to get there. Once I saw the last one safely inside the area I considered our 'territory', I headed inside the hospital ship.

Inside Melissa and Jessica were hustling to take care of the wounded. Jessica ignored the others as she focused on the men Melissa and I carried back. She seemed particularly concerned about the man Melissa carried back. I had expected Stefan to be the greater concern, but she seemed more concerned about the other man.

I found Alicia resting on one of the mattresses, along with the other three with minor wounds. I walked over and shook her shoulder, but she didn't wake.

"Why are you trying to wake her?" Melissa asked, glancing over from where she was cleaning Stefan's wounds.

"I was hoping she could tell me something about what she saw before the explosion." I explained.

"I think she took a blow to the head or something, she's pretty out of it. Let her sleep for now." Melissa said. I nodded and stood aside helplessly.

Paul found me there a few minutes later, "How are you doing Cat?" he asked.

I shrugged, "I'm fine. Melissa got us out just before it blew."

"That's not what I mean." he replied.

Sighing, I said, "I just feel helpless."

He wrapped his arms around me, "I know, so do I. But standing here isn't going to do any good, either. Perhaps we should get out of the way?"

Reluctantly, I allowed him to pull me out of the ship. Before long I found myself sitting on the end of the pier with him. Kim and Tina joined us a few minutes later.

"So, what exactly happened, anyway?" Kim asked.

"I'm not really sure. I started to enter and then Alicia suddenly grabbed me and screamed something about a tripwire. Then Melissa pulled us both back just before the place exploded. I guess they decided to write the club off and move their operations elsewhere, but wired it to blow in case we came back. At least that probably means it was empty." I said.

"There is that. I'm amazed no one was killed." Kim said.

"Unfortunately, the jury is still out on that one." Melissa said, startling us. She sat down next to me. "Stefan should be alright. He's pretty banged up, but Jessica thinks it's nothing serious. He'll be out of action for a while, though."

"So..." Paul said, waiting for an explanation for her cryptic remark.

Melissa sighed, "Yeah. Jimmy, the other one that got hurt the worst, may not make it. He was crushed by rubble. Jessica is pretty sure he has some internal injuries and she just doesn't have the tools or skill to do much about it. She's put him on the IV in hopes that it will provide enough nutrients for him to heal himself. But it doesn't look too good."

"I should have talked them out of it." I said, wiping tears from my eyes.

Paul pulled me to him, "You couldn't have. Even if you told them not to go, they would have. And then a lot more of them would have been hurt and killed. You did the best you could."

"He's right, they were determined." Melissa agreed, with Kim and Tina making sounds of agreement as well.

"See? Besides, Jimmy might make it yet. Mutants are pretty tough." Paul said.

I nodded against his chest, but the tears weren't ready to quit yet. It surprised me how emotional I was getting. I didn't even know Jimmy, or Stefan really. I was beginning to think I wasn't cut out for this. Maybe I should just go back to the island?

A moment later I was engulfed in hugs from Lek and Muay. They'd been helping Jessica but had finally managed to get away and track us down. Melissa, Kim and Tina wandered off while the girls and Paul tried to cheer me up.

Eventually they succeeded, though I was still worried about Jimmy. We checked up on him and the others, but Jessica had no news on them. Alicia was still out, so we returned to the pier. Paul pulled the girls aside and said something to them before wandering off. When they returned to me they were suddenly intensely interested in knowing as much as they could about me.

I had to laugh when I realized how little we really knew about each other, and how transparent Paul's attempt to distract me was. But I humored them and told them all about growing up in Boston, the ship, the island, and everything. I think they were genuinely interested, or are very good actors.

Before I knew it the sky was darkening. I wondered how long it would take for Carl to get back. The original trip had taken most of the day, so it was unlikely that they would return until the next day, at the earliest. I hoped that he would manage to contact Thomas while he was out. We could really use some help both here and on the island. I was beginning to feel very out of my depth.

I eventually managed to convince the girls that it was time for bed. They whined that they wanted to know more about me, but I insisted. Paul joined us a little while later. They still clung to me as we prepared to sleep, but the long talk must have calmed them as they weren't as bad. I hoped that one day they would feel a little more secure than they did now.

Afterward I pulled her aside. "How are you doing?" I asked.

She shrugged, "I'm fine. I only took a knock to the head, after all."

"What did you see yesterday, anyway?" I said.

"I noticed a wire snap back as you were stepping inside. I think your talons must have cut it. My eyes kind of automatically followed the movement of the wire and I saw what looked like explosives. So I tried to pull you back. Then Melissa grabbed us both, and the rest you know." she said.

"I wonder if all the entrances were rigged." I mused.

"Probably, though they might have put the tripwires further in to make sure you were all the way inside the building. Judging from what the others have said it sounds like it was rigged to blow upwards more than outwards. They probably had you in mind, specifically." Alicia said.

"You're probably right. I guess I'm still on their most wanted list." I said, sighing. I hoped a day came soon when I wouldn't be fighting for my life all the time. It was getting tiresome. Especially when other people got hurt as a result.

Alicia shrugged again, "I imagine you're on a lot of people's most wanted lists, in one way or another. You are the most powerful person in the world, after all."

"I suppose so." I sighed.

"I'm going to go practice flying again." she said and wandered off. I thought about following, but I got the impression she wanted to be alone.

Melissa found me a little later. "Hey Cat, good news! Looks like Jimmy's going to make it after all. It's still too early to say for sure, but Jessica says his pulse is stronger and he looks a little less pale."

I sighed in relief, "Thanks, that's great news!"

"Yeah, it is." she agreed, looking down at her feet.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Well, I was just thinking... That club, the people who run it, anyway? They must have long since moved on somewhere else. And I bet these people are going to be keeping the mutants they have under their control hidden now that they know we're here." she said.

I nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense. What are you getting at?"

Melissa shrugged, "Well, that pretty much removes our reason for being here, doesn't it? I mean, we have to take care of these people until we can get them back to the island or wherever they might want to go, but after that there's no reason to stay. And then there's the grave."

"What about the grave?" I asked, though I suspected I knew where she was going.

"Well, there were a lot of mutants in there. Too many. I suppose they could have come from the Bangkok Zoo, but if what Alicia experienced is anything to go by they didn't. I doubt we'll find the people who ran that club, at least anytime soon, but Genarm is bigger. Them we might be able to find." Melissa said.

I nodded, "Yes, that's true. From what we've learned so far, it seems likely that Genarm are behind the grave, and most of the mutants we've found here."

"Exactly." Melissa agreed. "And we really need to deal with them. I mean, mass graves?! They're killing and mutating and torturing people by the dozens or maybe even hundreds! Shouldn't we be doing something about that?"

"I've thought about that, too." I said. "But going after Genarm is a more dangerous proposition. We'll need all the help we can get for that. We can't possibly do that until we've got all of these people out of here. Even then we'll need all the strongest mutants we can get, and maybe other help as well. From what Kim and Carl have said they probably have some strong mutants working for them, after all."

Melissa sighed in frustration, "I know! It's just so wrong. And I bet they were behind that clinic where I mutated, too. Although I got what I wanted out of it, mostly, other people really suffered because of that place. How many other clinics might there be out there? The only way to stop this is to go after the source, right?"

"Yes," I agreed, "and we will. But we have to be patient. You saw what happened in the club, both times. We've already lost one and may lose one or two more. You almost died, and so did I. It's just too big to go in unprepared. Plus, we have to find out where they are. Taking out clinics and dump sites isn't changing anything, you're absolutely right. But that means going after the research sites; maybe even the people running the company. But if we go after executives and such, we'll have everyone after us. We might not be able to do anything until Thomas gets the United Nations on our side."

"Nobody's going to like hearing that." Melissa said.

"No, but it's reality. We jumped in here without knowing what we were doing. We're lucky we've been as effective as we have. But like you said, they're ready for us now. They'll be in hiding. The best thing we can do right now is to get these people to safety, along with any others we might run across while we're here, and wait for word from Thomas." I said.

"I know you're right, but I think we're going to have trouble convincing some of the others. They want payback, and I really can't blame them." Melissa said.

I sighed, "Yeah, I can't either. I'll bring it up when everyone's together at dinner tonight. And I'll talk to Paul before then and brainstorm. Hopefully we can convince everyone. But we can't hold them back if they really want to go after Genarm, either, as much as I'd like to."

Melissa nodded and went looking for Kim to see what she'd heard from the others. I went looking for Paul.

I found him before long and we talked. He had noticed much of the same sentiment in the others that Melissa had. Mostly the people who came from the club.

At dinner that night everyone was on edge. Nobody was happy about how things had gone at the club. Once the discussion got going it was very heated. The ones rescued from the club were eager to fight the people who had abused them and Alicia was, if anything, even more eager. Most of the rest of us understood the need to wait. Kim was the only other one who wanted to stay and fight.

We went back and forth for an hour or more. I could tell that several were wavering and would probably go along with us when we left. But Alicia, Kim and Stefan, along with a couple of others, were more stubborn.

It was Muay who finally convinced them. She had been watching the arguing going back and forth silently but suddenly stood and spoke, "We almost lose khun mae, and blade girl. We lose other. Many get hurt. We stay, it get worse. Lose too much. We go, we live. Not lose khun mae. Not lose anyone. Maybe save others later. Get help."

Lek stood awkwardly by her side and nodded her agreement, her tail lashing anxiously. The sight of those two girls standing up against everyone else had tears streaking down my face. Lek turned towards me and nudged Muay and they came over and hugged me. "No tears khun mae, we no stay." Lek said.

"Thank you, girls." was all I could get out as I hugged them back.

I guess the others were as moved as I, because the arguments stopped. Some still weren't happy about it, but they realized that they weren't going to get anywhere on their own and decided it would be best to stick together. Alicia took it the worst, as I expected.

Jeannie and Janet had been there, as they usually were at these dinner gatherings. Jeannie called to me once the arguments were over. Lek and Muay stayed with Paul; they still didn't trust the twins.

"What's up?" I asked once I was seated on the pier near them.

"You're talking about leaving, right? Going back to that island?" Jeannie asked.

"Yes, once we've gotten everyone healthy enough and get them wherever they want to go. Why?" I asked.

Jeannie looked to Janet, but she just nodded to her to continue, "Well, we've talked about it and we really don't want to be left all alone out here."

I nodded, "Of course, you can come along if you want. Or we can drop you off somewhere else."

"We would like to go to the island, but we're not comfortable getting on the plane. We feel very vulnerable out of the water." Jeannie said.

"Hmm, are you sure you couldn't manage it? Going by water would take a long time." I said.

Jeannie looked to Janet again, but she shook her head, "I think we'll have to. But how do we find the island?"

"I'm not sure. I suppose I could guide you, but I think Thomas is going to be needing me soon for the UN thing, and that would take too long. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you, okay?" I said.

"Sure, thanks." Jeannie agreed.

I went back to Paul and filled him in. We decided we should talk to Carl about it, since he knows the route better and probably has some maps.

With the decision made the atmosphere was calmer over the next couple of days. Three days after the club explosion Carl returned.

Paul and I waited on the pier as he pulled up to it. We helped him secure it and then sat inside. "So, how did it go?" I asked.

"Fine, we didn't hit any problems. Had some rough weather on the way back, but nothing unusual." Carl replied. "I did manage to track down Thomas, though."

"Really, what did he have to say?" I asked.

"I gave him the pictures of the grave and told him about it, and the club. He said that should be enough to win over some of the more reluctant, if you come and talk to them." Carl said.

I nodded, "I thought that was coming. That's going to complicate things. Our situation here is still dangerous, especially since we're looking to move out. Our numbers will dwindle and without me here to help I'm not sure how things will go."

"I anticipated that, actually. I talked to Thomas about it and he managed to scrounge up some supplies for you in time for me to take them here. There's a lot of non-perishable type stuff in the plane that should hold everyone over for a while so you're not needed for hunting as much. And Thomas promised not to keep you for long. If we can arrange a time to meet so you can speak, we could probably be back in two or three days. About the same time it takes to make the trip to the island and back, without side trips." Carl replied.

"Okay, that might work. It would probably be better to do it sooner rather than later, though. While we still have a lot of people here." I said.

Carl nodded, "Okay, I'll call Thomas and see when he can get you in."

"Before you do that, do you have any ideas how to help a couple of mermaids find their way to the island from here?" Paul asked.

"I take it they don't want to fly?" Carl asked and Paul shook his head, "Okay. Obviously the first option would be to have someone show them the way. But that would either mean Greg, who isn't here, or Cat. You could wait until everybody else has left and then take them back yourself, but I'm not sure you'd know the way all that well yourself underwater."

"Right. What about the compass? Would that give them a precise enough heading to find their way?" I asked.

Carl shook his head, "Not likely. Not at this distance. And I'm pretty sure a direct route would be impossible without going over land, anyway."

"So we're pretty much stuck with me guiding them, unless we get Greg out here. Then again, we'll be sending you back a few times, so that would be doable. But could he make the trip and find his way?" I wondered.

"He knows the ocean around the island like the back of his hand. If anyone can find his way there it'd be him." Paul said confidently.

"At least with him traveling with them he could go on land to ask for directions, couldn't he?" Carl said.

Paul and I exchanged a glance and nodded, "Okay, if he's up for it we'll have him lead the twins back to the island. Obviously when this happens depends on that phone call, so we'll leave you to it." I said.

We left Carl to make his call on his satellite phone.

"So do you think Greg will be willing? It's a long trip." I asked Paul.

He shrugged, "Probably. He loves the ocean, always has I think. I know he's ventured out a fair ways before, just for fun. It'll be difficult, of course, but at least the three of them are perfectly capable of getting food on the way. And I suspect he'll appreciate the challenge."

"Okay, so that's one problem probably solved. I wonder what it will be like when I have to talk to the UN?" I wondered.

"I'll be there with you." he said.

"No, you probably won't." I said, putting my finger up to his lips to keep him from arguing. "I'm going to need you here to keep things going in my absence. You're good at organizing people and they are used to following you."

"But you can't go alone!" he protested.

I shrugged, "I won't be alone. Carl and Thomas will be with me. And I'll just be there to talk, not fight."

"Like that's ever stopped you from getting into a fight before?" he said.

"True," I agreed with a wry grin, "that does tend to happen a lot. But I'll be as prepared as I can be. Besides, this is the UN! There will be a lot of important people there so there will be plenty of security. I doubt anyone would try to attack me there. It would be suicide."

Paul didn't look entirely convinced, but dropped it. But I caught a gleam in his eye and knew he had something up his sleeve.

Carl came out a few minutes later as we were sitting silently on the pier together. "Cat? Thomas has arranged for you to talk at a UN meeting in four days, if that's okay?"

I nodded, "Sure, that will work. How long will it take us to get there?"

Carl sighed, "It's going to be in New York, so it'll take a couple of days to get there. I thought it would happen in Europe, but that's the way it came out."

"It's not that much longer than what you said already. Go ahead and tell him I'll be there." I said.

"Uh, I already did, with the understanding that I'd be calling him back if there was a problem. I hope that's okay?" Carl said hesitantly.

"Sure, that's fine." I agreed.

We left him then so he could get some sleep after his long trip. Paul said he had something to do and wandered off. I was sure it was some scheme to give himself an excuse to go with me.

At dinner that night we told them our plans. Some were annoyed that it would delay their departure to the island, but most agreed it was a good thing in the long run. The only ones who really seemed to have a problem with it were Muay and Lek.

After dinner they ran over to me, "No go khun mae!" Lek was crying over and over again.

"Girls, it's just for a few days. It's not dangerous at all, I'm just going to talk to some people who will hopefully be helping us out. There's no reason to worry."

"You no go without us khun mae!" Muay said, or rather ordered. Lek nodded as she held on for dear life.

"Maybe I'd better come along to keep the girls out of trouble?" Paul suggested as he walked over with a satisfied grin.

"That's low, Paul." I said.

He nodded, looking at least slightly remorseful, "True, if I'd done anything. But I didn't have to. One mention of you being gone for four days or more was enough to get this reaction."

I sighed, "We'll see." is all I said. None of them looked too pleased at that answer, but it was enough to calm the girls down. For now.

I told the twins the tentative plan and they were happy with that. They weren't in a great hurry to leave, it seemed, only anxious about being left all alone. I could certainly understand that.

In the morning Carl got his plane refueled and ready to go. We decided to leave the next day. I'd do some hunting to stock up and supplement the supplies Carl brought. Mike and Paul unloaded the supplies, which included more medicine, bandages, blankets and a few other odds and ends.

The next day we got ready to go. As expected, Lek and Muay stayed glued to my side and insisted on going. It seemed clear that I wasn't going to get away without them.

Paul approached with a hopeful expression, "So, what's the verdict?"

I shook my head, "Okay, the girls can come. But I still think you need to stay here."

Paul sighed, "Yeah, I figured you'd say that. I don't like staying behind, but I have to admit there's still a lot of work to do here. At least this time you shouldn't get into any fights, I hope."

"I'll do my best." I said. I hugged him and kissed him goodbye before getting on the plane with the girls. Carl was already strapped in and ready to go.

"All set?" he asked. I nodded, so he started the engine. I waved to the people who had gathered on the pier before closing the door.

Soon we were in the air. The girls were a little anxious but happy. I just hoped there wouldn't be a problem with bringing them along. Carl didn't seem to think so.

The flight was long and boring for all of us. We had to stop to refuel a few times, stopping longer for Carl to sleep on occasion. We'd kept enough food and water on the plane for the trip so we didn't have to try and find food as well. I wondered about the amount of money Carl must be spending on fuel, but he seemed unconcerned.

Finally we arrived in New York. That's when things got crazy. Thomas had made preparations for our arrival, we soon learned. We were met at the dock by police, FBI, Homeland Security and I don't know what other groups. They weren't too pleased by the presence of the girls. The fact we three had no identification of any kind didn't make them any happier.

I was about ready to pick up the girls and fly away when Thomas arrived. It took an hour, but he finally got everyone to back off. "Hi Cat, sorry for the circus." he said once he finally made it through the crowd. The only ones he wasn't able to get to back off were the press. They arrived a little later, but were quick to swarm in. There were camera flashes coming from every direction and it was clearly scaring the girls.

I pulled them close and wrapped my wings around them as best I could, which seemed to calm them some. "Yeah, I should have expected it, I guess. What now?" I said.

"The meeting isn't until tomorrow, so I've arranged a hotel room for you. I wasn't expecting these two, though. Why did you bring them?" he asked, looking curiously at Lek and Muay.

"This is Lek and Muay. They've sort of adopted me and wouldn't let me go without them." I said.

He shrugged, "Okay. The room has two beds, so that shouldn't be a problem. There's another room for Carl, so he doesn't have to sleep in the plane again."

"Okay, let's get away from all these cameras." I said. He nodded and led the way. The government people who had been such a pest just a short time ago were becoming much more useful as they made a path for us through the crowd of reporters and the curious.

A large stretch SUV was waiting for us. I had to wrap my wings around me to get in, but it was pretty spacious inside. Lek and Muay shot in quickly to get away from the cameras and Thomas and Carl followed them in. "Traveling in style, huh?" I said, looking around with interest.

Thomas laughed, "You are kind of a visiting dignitary, in a way. Besides, I figured we'd need something this big for you to fit inside!"

"A good point." I agreed. "So, we just sit in the hotel until tomorrow, then?"

"Mostly. I don't think it's safe for you to wander the streets right now, and the government wouldn't let you anyway. At least not without a substantial escort. But there is something else I'd like you to do, if you're up for it." Thomas said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A press conference. I want to put all the pressure on the UN we can. If you tell your side of things publicly before the meeting it might help us." Thomas replied worriedly.

I had to think about that one. I knew better than to think that the press would necessarily be on our side. It was at least as likely that they'd brand us terrorists like that officer on the aircraft carrier. "Won't they just try to make me look bad?" I asked.

Thomas shrugged, "Some probably will, but not all. You've got more friends than you know. Chrysalis isn't hurting matters, either. There's been some bad press here and there, and there will always be those who put people they don't like in the worst light they possibly can, but a lot of the mutant coverage lately has been positive."

"Really?" I asked in surprise. "I was under the impression mutants aren't exactly popular."

"In many places they aren't, but the worst excesses are usually not in the more developed countries or are out in the country away from the big cities. There are exceptions, of course, but public opinion has been slowly shifting in our favor." Thomas said.

I nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, I guess I could give it a shot if you think it will help. But there is the matter of the girls. I doubt they'd be happy being left alone in the hotel while I'm doing the press conference, but all the noise and lights would probably scare them if they were there."

"We brave, khun mae, we stay with you." Muay said.

"Are you sure? It's likely to be very loud and chaotic." I said. Muay and Lek both nodded emphatically. "Okay, you can come then." They both smiled nervously.

"Okay, so it will be the three of you, then." Thomas said, not seeming bothered by the change in plans. "There's one other thing. While your current appearance will play up the 'downtrodden' angle, I think it would be best that you all look more presentable for both the press and the UN."

Frowning, I said, "I don't have anything nicer than this with me, and the girls don't have anything else. I don't have any money to buy anything."

Thomas smiled, "I know, so I took the liberty of getting you some help. A woman named Emilia Carter will be meeting us at the hotel. She'll get your measurements and go find something suitable for all three of you. I'm assuming by the way they are clinging to you that you'll want to bring these two with you to the UN meeting?"

I nodded, "I hope that's not a problem?"

He shook his head, "No, I don't think so."

"How are we going to pay for all this?" I asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about it. Remember I said you have more friends than you know?" he asked. I nodded, "Well, some of them are wealthy enough to donate funds for this trip. They're paying for the limo, hotel, food and clothes. They're even paying to refuel Carl's plane."

"Really?! That's the first I've heard of that." Carl said in surprise.

"A charitable foundation was setup to help mutants, and they're footing the bill. I put in the part about fuel since I figured you could use a break from paying for it yourself." Thomas said.

"I could have handled it, but thanks. Anybody we know in this foundation?" Carl asked curiously.

Thomas shook his head, "I doubt it. Several wealthy, but not overly well known, people are funding it. Most of the funds come from them, though they're starting to raise money from the general public as well."

That surprised me and gave me something to think about on the drive to the hotel. It was a big building, called the Millenium UN Plaza Hotel. It looked like it would be expensive so I was glad we were getting help.

There was another media frenzy at the hotel for the thankfully short walk from the limo into the lobby. As soon as we stepped into the lobby everybody stopped to look at us, although most went about their business quickly. One woman didn't and started walking towards us.

"Cat, this is Emilia." Thomas said, gesturing towards the middle aged woman. "She'll be helping the three of you with clothes for the conference this afternoon and the meeting tomorrow."

"Three?" Emilia asked in surprise.

"Yes, there was a small change in plans. I hope that won't be a problem?" Thomas asked.

Emilia shook her head, plastering a professional smile on her face before turning to me, "Hello I'm Emilia Carter." she said, holding her hand out expectantly.

I shook her hand, "I'm Catherine, but everybody just calls me Cat. This is Lek and Muay." The girls waved shyly while trying to hide behind me.

"Well, I can see you are going to need the works. I'll go get that arranged. Room 386, right Thomas?" Emilia said.

Thomas nodded and she walked off. "Works?" I asked with a sinking feeling.

He smiled weakly, "She probably means haircut, manicure, that sort of thing. Everything should be able to be done from the room."

"Manicure?!" I repeated weakly.

Thomas chuckled, "I keep forgetting you used to be a guy. It should be painless. Come on, I'll show you to your rooms."

I numbly followed Thomas. He and Carl started talking about a sports game on the elevator ride up while Muay giggled at the stunned look on my and Lek's faces.

I shook it off when we got to the room. It was quite large. Lek and Muay immediately began jumping on the bed and giggling like they didn't have a care in the world. I realized for the first time that they might never have had a real bed, at least not one as nice as this.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Thomas said.

I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes, "So, what happens now?"

"Emilia will be back with her helpers soon, and that will take up several hours of your time. But they'll be doing most of the work, so you can use that time to think about what you want to say to the press." he said, tactfully ignoring my tears.

He took Carl to his room and left us alone. The girls were having fun, so I left them to it and looked around. I was standing at the door to the bathroom contemplating being able to take a real shower when there was a knock on the door.

When I came back out Lek and Muay were calm again, quickly rushing to my side as I walked to the door. I looked first, but it was just Emilia and some other women. As soon as I opened the door she breezed in with the other women close on her heels.

"Okay, first things first!" she said. "We need to get your measurements."

And that began one of the most... interesting experiences of my life. First we were measured, then told to take a long shower. It felt great to have a real shower again, and the girls certainly were having fun when they had theirs by the sounds of it, but we weren't allowed to linger too long. As soon as we were clean they started working on our hair. With many a frown they washed, conditioned and cut it. At the same time someone was trying to work on my fingernails and toenails. That proved a bit more difficult than they were accustomed to.

They couldn't do a thing with my talons, finally deciding to just leave them as is. My fingernails proved too tough to cut, but they were able to shape them somewhat once they tried using a metal file. They painted them black, to match my talons. They tend to look that way anyway since my claws, which are just below my fingernails, are also black. They had much better luck with Lek and Muay. Muay seemed to enjoy all of it, but Lek was much more reluctant.

Next came a pile of clothes to try on. All of mine took my wings into account, so were low-backed or backless. They also took our tails into account, thankfully. Because of my wings they didn't bother trying to put me into a woman's business suit, so it was dresses for me. The girls got the same, though Lek chose a much longer skirt than Muay or I did.

Finally the clothing was sorted, a huge pile being taken away while a smaller one remained with us. Then they started on our hair. I didn't even try to keep track of everything they were doing. After that came makeup. I tried to protest that it wasn't necessary, but they insisted.

I felt like an entire day had passed by the time they were done making us over, but at last Emilia declared us ready. There were no mirrors in the room, so she shooed us off to the bathroom to see what we looked like. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

"Thanks Lek, but you look quite pretty yourself!" I said. She shrugged and looked down uncomfortably.

"She get used to it." Muay said apologetically.

"That's alright, it took me a while to get used to this, too." I said, having already guessed that Lek didn't start out as a girl. Either Muay did, or adapted very well.

That was, thankfully, the end of that. Muay and I thanked Emilia and her helpers for their work. I was just beginning to wonder what we would do in the meantime when Thomas returned.

"Wow, Cat, you look great!" was the first thing he said upon seeing me. Then he turned to the girls, "And you two are beautiful!" Muay preened at his praise but Lek just looked down, blushing.

"So, when is this press conference?" I asked.

"Whenever you're ready. Everything's set up in one of the hotel's conference rooms." he replied.

Sighing, I said, "Okay, let's get this over with."

"Do you know what you're going to say?" he asked as he held the door open for us.

I shrugged, "More or less. It's the questions that I'm worried about."

Once out of the room he led us to the elevators and down to the first floor. We bypassed the lobby and went into a small room with a connecting door to the conference room. "You three wait here and I'll get things started." he said, walking through that other door.

We waited anxiously for a few minutes before he returned and beckoned us through. Immediately I was blinded by camera flashes and felt Lek and Muay grab onto my hands tightly. My wings were tightly folded to get through the doorway but once through I opened them enough to curl them around the girls as well as I could.

I didn't have a speech prepared, per se. Just a rough idea of what I wanted to talk about. So I told them some of the ways mutants were being mistreated, and how we were trying to establish a safe place for them. It was pretty short, really, since I don't have any experience with giving speeches and didn't want to make a fool of myself.

Then the questions started. They weren't as friendly as Thomas had made them out to be, but they weren't as bad as I'd feared, either. Only one person asked about Lek and Muay, which I think they appreciated. The rest of the time they concentrated on things I had done or seen.

All in all it wasn't too bad. Still, I was glad when Thomas ended it and led us back to the room.

"So, how did I do?" I asked on the elevator ride up.

Thomas smiled, "You did great. You brought a lot of things out into the open that most people aren't aware of. Many won't believe it, of course, like some of those reporters showed. But it should help."

Once back in the room the girls jumped on the bed again, obviously relieving some nervous energy from the press conference. Thomas smiled as he watched them playing around and then asked if we wanted anything to eat.

"The girls could use something, I'm sure. And I suppose I could manage with a steak or something, so long as it's cooked as little as possible." I said.

There turned out to be a menu in the room, so I read through it and told the girls what they had. Once they'd chosen what they wanted Thomas called it in for us. "Well, I'll leave you three to eat. Carl and I have some things to discuss tonight, so will you be okay here for the rest of the night?"

I shrugged, "Sure, that's fine. When will the UN meeting be?"

"Ten o'clock in the morning, so you'll need to be ready by nine. Just order from the menu in the morning and we'll meet you here." Thomas replied.

We said goodnight to Thomas and waited for our food. It arrived about twenty minutes later. The girls loved it. Mine was okay, but not nearly as satisfying. I hadn't considered the food issue, having spent most of my time in wild areas where I could hunt on my own since my mutation. Fortunately I could get by with mostly raw meat for a little while without too much trouble. Especially since I had a good charge going for me.

There wasn't much to do in the room, so we ended up talking. Somehow the conversation came around to how I mutated. I told them my story, and asked how it happened to them. They both grew quiet at that.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I said.

"No, khun mae, I tell." Muay said. "Meesang family poor, have no money. Sell Damni to bad people."

"Meesang? Damni?" I said, not quite following.

"Family name, Meesang. My name Damni. Parents sell me." she explained. "Bad people stick needle in me, change me. They have no use for weak girl and sell to very bad man." Lek was clinging to Muay, or Damni, at this point as tears silently fell from both their eyes. This story was clearly not news to Lek, but I was horrified to learn her own parents had sold her, presumably to Genarm.

I wrapped my arms and wings around them both and held them until all our tears stopped. When I pulled back I said, "Why have you always gone by Muay?" in an attempt to shift the conversation a different direction.

"Muay nickname, public name. Damni only for family." Damni replied. That prompted another tearful hug. I was honored and touched that she considered me family.

Once we were calm again the focus naturally shifted to Lek, who hadn't told us how she mutated yet, though I suspected Damni knew. She looked down and nudged Damni. Damni nudged her back. Sighing, she looked hesitantly up at me and said, "Maha change fish eat. Sold bad man. Mai now."

I was stunned to hear her say so much, in English anyway. It was easily the longest sentence I'd heard from her. Her English obviously still needed a lot of work, though. I looked questioningly at Damni.

Sighing, Damni explained, "Lek born Maha. Eat bad fish, change into Mai. Juntasa family sell to very bad man. Meet Damni, meet khun mae."

I nodded, assuming that Maha was a male name, even though it really sounded more like a female name to me. Obviously she'd been transformed from eating contaminated fish and her parents (I guessed that Juntasa was her family name), too, had sold her. But since she was already mutated she was sold directly to the Bangkok Zoo where she met Damni.

We had another hug-fest. Mai bawled her eyes out once I'd made it clear I didn't care who she was before. I cried, as well, knowing what a rotten life these kids had. Both had been extremely poor, but the real tragedy was their own families turning on them. One for money and the other because of prejudice (and money). And I didn't even want to think about the way that man had treated them. I almost wished he was still alive so I could kill him again... slowly.

We didn't speak much after that. Damni and Mai were both tired, but seemed just a little more relaxed and calm now that they'd told me their stories.

In the morning we all had to wash our faces to clear all the dried tears out of them. That reminded me of our previous conversation and their revealing their names. "Damni, Mai?" I said, hoping I understood correctly their wish for me to use their names.

They both smiled widely at my use of them. "Yes khun mae?" Damni asked.

"You said your names are only for family. Does that mean I should only call you Muay and Lek around everyone else?" I asked.

They nodded, "Yes khun mae. But khun pho okay."

"Khun pho?" I repeated. "Do you mean Paul?" They both nodded, smiling. This was the first I'd heard them refer to him this way, but I was glad to hear it. "So only Damni and Mai when it's only Paul and I?"

They nodded again, "Yes, only family." Damni and Mai both smiled very widely when Damni said it, obviously happy to have a proper family.

We were just finishing breakfast when Thomas knocked on the door.

"How are you this morning? Sleep well?" he asked.

"We're fine. Is it time to go?" I said.

He shook his head, "No, not yet. Emilia will be here momentarily to help you three get ready. We'll be leaving immediately after that."

I nodded and finished eating. Emilia arrived on schedule and we went through the hair and makeup business again after getting dressed. The girls looked great, even if Mai was still uncomfortable with being a girl.

After that we were hurried down to another limo; wading through the press to get to it. Police kept things from getting too crazy, though. From there it was a short drive to the UN building and a walk through another crowd of reporters and cameras. Mai and Damni stayed glued to my side as usual.

Thomas led us to another room to wait much as before the press conference. A few other people came in as we waited, none of whom were mutants so far as I could tell. They kept their distance.

Damni and Mai stayed glued to my side as we waited. We seemed to be there for hours before someone came for one of the others. They cast one last look at us before following the man out. This happened a few more times until it was only the three of us. Finally, Thomas came for us.

"What's happening?" I asked.

He shrugged, "They're ready to hear what you have to say now. There have been a few other people called in and it's hard to say how things are going as yet. I'm hopeful, though. I know I have the support of at least two countries so far."

"Okay, but what do we do?" I asked, feeling very out of my depth.

"I'll lead you into the meeting room. Then I'll explain what we're looking for from them and we'll answer whatever questions come our way." He replied.

"Okay...lead the way." I said nervously.

Thomas led us through a hallway and into a large meeting room. We found ourselves surrounded by representatives from dozens of countries. It was intimidating, to say the least. Though, I did find the way the security people went on guard at the sight of me oddly comforting.

There was some talking going on amongst the various representatives before they asked Thomas to explain what he wanted. He gave a fairly long, impassioned speech about the need to establish a safe place for mutants to go to avoid persecution. He mentioned various atrocities; not all of which I was aware of. Hearing it all laid out together like that seemed to bring it home to some people. Others were skeptical. They asked him many questions, some of which revealed the prejudices of the person asking them. It was disappointing, though not particularly surprising, to find that so many people in positions of power were so close-minded.

The representative for the United States seemed particularly stubborn. He kept going on about how lawless mutants are, using myself and Chrysalis as prime examples. I did my best to defend my actions but wasn't sure how convincing it was. Thomas' talk about Chrysalis seemed more so. She really did sound like a super hero the way he talked about her. It made me wish I could meet her and see if she was everything he was making her out to be.

When the US representative went on another spiel about how dangerous I am I was surprised to find it was the representative for Japan that stepped in before Thomas or I could. He had nothing but good things to say about me, and about how his people had changed their attitudes about mutants after I stopped those bank robbers, which was news to me!

Finally they said they'd heard all they needed to hear and we were dismissed. Thomas led us back to the room we were in before. "So...is that it?" I asked.

He shook his head, "No, not yet. They'll deliberate and call us back in to tell us what they've decided. It could take a while, so you may as well get comfortable."

We sat down, Damni and Mai curling up on either side of me. Thomas sat across from me. "Did you know about that bit about Japan?" I asked.

He grinned, "Yeah, that's one of the countries I knew was on our side. You've done more good than you know."

I shook my head in confusion, "Okay, what's the other one, then?" I thought about Australia but figured it was a little arrogant to think that both were because of my actions.

"Costa Rica. It's become a haven for mutants. But they don't really have the space or resources so they're happy to have another refuge established." Thomas explained.

"Are there any other countries that are friendly to mutants?" I asked.

"Yes and no," he replied, "there are countries that talk about equality for mutants but their actions are not always as positive as their words."

We sat in silence for a while after that. Finally, a man came to lead us back to the room. I noticed right away that there were quite a few hateful glares being directed our way and got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

There were a few speeches after that that weren't particularly encouraging. Finally, the representative for Costa Rica spoke up and said that the council had decided to go ahead with the mutant refuge! They called it Kittyhawk Island, at which I cringed. I started to correct them but Thomas shushed me. Then the representative for Japan spoke up, promising to donate 50 million dollars towards the refuge! I was so shocked I really didn't hear much of anything else after that.

Sometime later Thomas led us away. I was so shocked by the result it wasn't until we were in the limo again that I came to my senses. "50 million dollars?!" I squeaked.

Thomas chuckled, "That's really not much, as such things go. But it's a start. Other countries will join in, I'm sure."

"So what happens now?" I asked.

Thomas shrugged, "Not much right away. They'll hash out the details between them over the next few weeks or months. Nothing substantial will happen until after that."

"So what, we just leave, then?" I said.

"Well, I think it would be a good idea to speak to the press again before you do. That will help get the word out more quickly." He replied. "It won't take long to set up another press conference in the hotel, if you're up for it."

"I suppose we can do that. But I'd really like to head back soon, if we can." I said, worrying about Paul and the others.

He smiled, "Of course, you can leave right after the press conference if you want. In fact, I suspect the government types would appreciate it. I don't think you realize what a commotion your presence here makes."

I shrugged, "I'll take your word for it. The sooner we get going the happier I'll be. If nothing's going to happen for a while on this end then I need to get back and take care of business on my end."

"What are you planning?" Thomas asked worriedly.

"Nothing much right now. Just gathering any other stray mutants we can find who want to join us and taking care of the ones we've found already. We've already started moving them to the island and will continue with that. Once everyone's safely back at the island, though, we'll have to start thinking about dealing with Genarm." I said grimly.

He frowned, "What do you mean, 'dealing with'?"

"I won't know until we get to that point, but we know that Genarm is purposefully mutating hundreds of people without their consent and then killing the rejects or selling them as slaves. We can't just let that happen." I said, working hard to keep my anger in check at the thought of all that company had done.

His frown deepened but he nodded, "I see. I'd like you to stay away from illegal activities as much as possible but I admit the line gets rather blurred in these circumstances. If you can, try to find proof of what they're doing...even if you do tear them down by force. It'll help keep your enemies from using your actions against them. And maybe we can avoid force altogether and let the international community deal with Genarm."

"I don't have much hope of that last part," I said, "but I'll get what I can. Saving mutants has to take priority over gathering evidence, though."

"I understand." Thomas said with a sigh.

We were silent through the rest of the drive to the hotel and the hectic trip inside. Then Emelia was back to make sure we were ready for the press conference. Then the conference itself, where I tried not to make any more of a fool of myself than I had to. It seemed to go well, or at least Thomas said it did.

Finally that was out of the way and we found ourselves back in the hotel room. "Feel free to take these clothes with you." Thomas said, pointing out everything Emilia had selected for us. Not all of which we'd worn, other than trying it on for fit.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"It's already bought, so you may as well. I'm sure the three of you could use the clothing, anyway." Thomas said.

I shrugged, "True enough, though I'm not sure how often we'll be able to wear fancy clothes like these." Damni seemed happy with the idea, though, so I didn't put up any more resistance. Mai, on the other hand, wanted to change back into the clothes she arrived in. Thomas advised against it until we were away from the press.

"So what will you be doing now?" I asked on the trip back to the plane.

"I've been chosen to act as the liaison between the UN and the island so I'll be busy enough." he replied happily.

I nodded, "Makes sense...that's pretty much what you've been doing anyway. What about your old job?"

He shrugged, "I was about done with that, anyway. Too much time working with people who had no concern for other people. I'll have to deal with my fair share of that type now, too, of course, but I'll also be working with all of you on the island so I'm okay with that."

The limo stopped then as we'd arrived at the pier where Carl's plane was waiting. Carl was already there getting it ready to go. So was the press.

Thomas insisted on carrying the bag with the extra clothes, which seemed silly since I'm so much stronger than him. But it did take some concentration for me to get out of the limo because of my wings so I didn't complain. Once the bags and the girls were on board he shook my hand and wished me luck.

"I'll be in touch through the satellite phone on the island. Carl can keep you updated on things until you get back. Be careful!" he said, waving us away. I ducked inside and soon we were on our way.

I filled Carl in on what had happened as we flew away. But I hadn't gotten far before something flew right in front of us! "What was that?!" Carl exclaimed, recoiling but quickly regaining control of the plane.

"I don't know..." I said, scanning the sky in hopes of seeing it again. It wasn't small, that much was certain. And it was fast!

It flew by again and then took up a position in front of us. It was a mutant with beautiful butterfly wings! I'd never seen anything like her. She was pointing down, like she wanted us to land.

"What do you think?" Carl asked, looking around as if expecting an ambush.

I shrugged, "We're still pretty close to New York. It seems unlikely to be a trap. Besides, she's a mutant! I say we land and see what she has to say."

He looked skeptical but sighed and landed the plane. The mutant circled until we'd stopped and then landed on top of the plane. Rather gently, in fact. I was impressed.

She hopped down onto the pontoon as I opened the door and I let her in. She was able to fold her wings up rather impressively to the point they took up less room than my own. Her hair had an interesting spectrum of pink to purple going and her skin seemed almost inhumanly pink. Her violet eyes were wide and innocent looking.

"Uh, hi, you're, uh, Kittyhawk, right?" She mumbled shyly.

I nodded, "Yes, that's what they call me." Then I remembered something Thomas had said. "You wouldn't happen to be Chrysalis, would you?"

She smiled shyly, "Uh, yeah, that's what I've been calling myself now."

"Well, this is a surprise...I've heard good things about you. What brings you out here?" I asked, remembering that Chrysalis had mostly been active in South and Central America.

"I came looking for you, actually." She replied, looking nervous. "I need your help."

"Oh? From what I've heard you don't need anybody's help..." I said. By all accounts she was a very powerful mutant. Maybe up to my level.

She looked down in embarrassment and shrugged self-consciously, "I guess I can take care of myself okay...but this is bigger than anything I've dealt with before. I can't do it alone."

"What's the problem?" I asked, wondering if I dared get involved in anything else. My plate was already pretty full...

"There's this place, where I was mutated, where all kinds of horrible things are being done. It's called the Bubble. Supposedly they're researching a cure for mutation there, because that's where it all started or something, but they're actually doing just about the exact opposite!" she said.

"Where it all started...could that be the ship...?" I wondered aloud, glancing at Carl.

Carl nodded, "Yeah, the ship was brought back up and converted into a lab to research the mutation. They thought at first to quarantine the area, but of course it was far too late for that. So now it's used to try and reverse mutations. Having ready access to plenty of contaminated sea water makes it a logical source. Not to mention having the containers it all came from right there. The US government is doing the research, but I believe Genarm managed to get some people there."

"Genarm?" Chrysalis asked.

"It's the company that came up with the stuff that mutated all of us. It was a failed super-soldier formula. It was to be dumped along with various other chemical and radioactive waste. I was on the ship it was being transported on, without the knowledge of most of the crew. We were attacked by pirates and the containers were broken up and caught on fire. That's where I mutated. We've learned that they've continued their research and have been forcibly mutating people as part of their research. Not to mention killing or enslaving their rejects." I explained.

"Oh my god!!" she explaimed, obviously shocked. "I had no idea it was that big! Now it's even more important we put a stop to them. Will you help me? Please?!" she begged.

"Of course!" Carl declared before stopping and wondering, "Why did I just say that?"

I'd felt a sort of...urge...to say the same but it passed quickly. "We've got a lot of weak and injured people to take care of back in Thailand...but once everyone is safely back at the island, of course I'll help you. We were already planning on taking on Genarm. But we need to be careful about it. They're a big, powerful company with lots of powerful friends."

"But you'll help me?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course, we can use all the help we can get against Genarm." I said, happy to have someone like Chrysalis on our side.

"Thank you so much!" she cried happily, suddenly hugging me. I felt amazingly happy for a moment, then it faded again. I began to wonder if there wasn't more to Chrysalis than met the eye. But that only made her an even better ally against Genarm if I was right.