A/N This might explain why I've taken so long to update other stories, well this and the other new one I have to post...umm yeah...I know, slap me, but the Randy old Tom Cat is wanting to play again...
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Kiara huddled behind the dumpster. She thought she'd lost them. She'd give it just a few more minutes, she wasn't going to move until she was sure the coast was clear. She glanced down at the small pouch on her side. She had enough food there to keep them going for a few more days.
She didn't like that she'd some how gotten Phong Ye's attention, his men were watching her, day and night, not interfering but watching. She knew Quan was waiting for her, and she needed to move.
Suddenly she heard them, they weren't going to give up so easily. The streets of Saigon were bad enough with the gangs of children, but the older gang members were chasing her now, too. She didn't care what the new government named it, it was still Saigon to her. She turned, her claws slipping out from under her claws as she quickly climbed the wall. She knew they wouldn't look up, so she took to the rooftops.
She finally found the cleaners they were living behind, and dropped into the section of the alley that she and Quan had blocked off for their own use.
"Shit, Ki, why the hell do you have to do that." Quan said as he gripped his chest.
"You're not dying." She said, her Vietnamese almost as good as her barely remembered English.
"Speak for your self." Quan said as he went back to his peephole. He was watching the street. His hero was in town, and he was dying to catch a glimpse of him.
"I keep telling you, if he's as good as you say, he's just gonna blend in." Kiara said as she unloaded her pouch. "I got some rice balls, some dried fish and monkey meat."
"Pass me some." He said, and she glared at him. First cousin or not one of these days she was going to kick his ass. She dropped a skewer of meat, best not to question what type, onto the hand he'd stretched out behind him.
"I bet he's eight feet tall, and wears leather and furs, like in the comic books." She snorted in disgust. If the man existed at all, he probably just looked like another American tourist.
She nibbled on a rice ball and some dried fish. Tomorrow it was Quan's turn to get food, if he remembered. She's made sure to steal enough, just in case he forgot. She still didn't understand his crazy worship of a guy that named himself after a cat that had been extinct for hundreds of thousands of years.
"You're never going to see him, not like that." She said, curling up under the awning of discarded metal Quan scrounged. They had a few more pieces they used in the rainy season to try to stay relatively dry. Since her parents died, and she'd found her cousin, they'd stuck together.
Quan ran away when he was twelve, and he was two years older than she was. He'd been on his own on the streets two years longer too. When men came to her grandfather's village and killed everyone in it, she'd been the only survivor, at ten years of age.
Kiara didn't know how she made it to Saigon, or how Quan found her those first few weeks after, but he was the only family she had left. She heard him hiss as he looked through the hole in the old plank.
"Who the hell did you piss off, Phong Ye has men watching the alley."
"They've been watching me for days." She said with a shrug.
"Holy shit...I bet he's doing a job for Phong Ye." Quan was excited now. "I wonder if we could meet him."
"Shut up, and forget that tiger person, already. If he'd work for Phong Ye, he probably eats babies for breakfast." Kiara said, nibbling a little more off her rice ball.
"You think." Quan said, with a dreamy tone in his voice. Kiara grabbed a long, thin piece of bamboo, and slapped him upside his head with it.
"I'm not sure who's worse, you or this Sabretooth you worship." She stretched out on the thin blankets under the awning. It was hot and all she wanted to do was sleep.
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He stretched in the heat, he felt drowsy, but wanted to get his business done as quickly as possible. Phong Ye was a good client, paid half up front and usually provided a bonus for work done well, and quiet.
Victor prided himself on his work, but without Jimmy to brag to, or commiserate when a job went bad, it just wasn't having the appeal it used to.
He was more alone now than he'd been in his stupidly long life, and the weight of it rested heavily on his shoulders these days. He kept wishing that Jimmy would just come to his senses and stop the whole amnesia game. After twenty plus years, it was getting old.
The door was open, but far from unguarded as Victor walked up to the compound. The guards frisked him quickly and he just grinned. Why would he bother with frail man made weapons, he was a weapon. Sure over the years he'd used a few, mostly to not be as noticeable, but among friends he never sported anything but his claws.
Phong was sitting at his usual spot at the table, a nice pile of South African coins piled in front of him. These days Victor liked his payment in gold, everything else was just too volatile. Victor dropped into the chair opposite the Saigon gang leader.
"Very impressive, as usual, my friend." Phong said. "I wonder if you would be interested in a tidbit of information that has come my way."
Victor glared, but knew Phong didn't say anything without weighing all of the consequences. He leaned back in his chair, two flunkies bagging up his gold under his watchful eye.
"Depends on the info?"
"Let me tell a story." Phong said, Victor bit back the growl, Phong liked to tell stories, it was the price of doing business with him.
"Once upon a time, in a village near the Cambodian border there lived a family with strange characteristics. They all looked slightly animal, with long claw like nails and sharp teeth. They were also reputed to have senses as sharp as a Tiger. To many it was the Village of the Tiger People. Twenty-six years ago, a white man, a missionary came to this village. He fell in love with one of the daughters of the chieftain. They were married, and he took her far away. Six years ago they returned, with a ten year old daughter. Three days after they returned, some say Cambodian Army, some say a warlord, but in the middle of a village celebration, the village was attacked, wiped out, with no survivors." Phong paused.
Victor didn't give a shit about some long dead place that might have had mutants living there, he was long past those days. Stryker didn't call the shots anymore.
"No survivors, except one. The ten year old daughter somehow survived, and made her way to Saigon, even now, I have men watching her and her cousin."
"If she's the only survivor, how is there a cousin?" Victor almost kicked himself. He didn't have time for stories, and now Phong would draw it out.
"The cousin ran away years before. He is a useful little urchin, at times." Phong was smiling, and Victor knew he was going to hate himself for this.
"Why do you think this would interest me?"
"The boy, he just has the family's traits, but the girl, she has added strength and agility, is a fairly good lock pick, and can heal." Victor slowly sat the front legs of his chair in the floor, and sat up, leaned both arms on the table.
"Tell me more."
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She woke up, claws out as she heard the noise coming from the other end of the alley. It was Phong Ye's men. Quan took off running, and she climbed straight up the wall, and right into the men waiting for her there.
"The boss wants to see both of you." One of them said, before stuffing a gag in her mouth and a dirty, smelly bag over her head. It stank of fish, and she knew she'd never be able to track where they were being taken through it.
"Hey, let her go..." She heard Quan shout and be cut off by another gag. One of the men threw her over his shoulder and she knew they were in big trouble. She tried her best to get a sense of direction, but the constant up and down buildings and being passed from person to person had her quickly confused.
In the jungle she'd be fine, she'd spent almost a year out there, alone, until she made it to Saigon and Quan's help. She could hear Quan grunting as they were carried across more rooftops. She could feel the direct sunlight on her back. They would have picked noon, she couldn't even get a sense of direction from the sun shining on her back. They bounced and dropped her from one man to another, hands careful not to grope or fondle, and that was when she got really scared.
Someone bought her, for a lot of money, and that someone had to be powerful enough that Phong Ye's men wouldn't take liberties. But why grab Quan? Unless one of the big whore houses bought them both. Now she started to struggle in earnest. There was no way she was going into one of those places, she'd been avoiding them for years.
She felt a sharp slap across her backside as she was carried out of the sun, and into a cool shaded building. She could smell her own panic over the stale fish of the bag, and knew she was close to the Tiger taking control. She remembered her father's warnings, about not letting the Tiger take control, about remembering she was the one who controlled the animal, it didn't control her. She was dumped on an floor, and she heard Quan's 'ooffff' as he landed near her.
She heard a voice, educated, speaking English like her father used to.
"So which one is she?" The voice asked. She felt the bag being tugged off her head, and hands pulling her to her feet. She looked at the floor. She didn't want to warn them, as soon as her hands were free, she planned to try to escape.
As the stale fish cleared her sinuses she caught a new smell, one that took her completely by surprise. It was a jungle smell, but something else, something she remembered from her childhood, forest, pine, from camping trips, fresh turned earth, and something else, she associated with her father, blood, fresh blood. Human blood. He'd not just been a missionary, but a doctor, a healer, a surgeon.
She felt fingers on her chin, sharp, thin blades or claws sliced along her jaw line, cutting the gag out of her mouth, but not the skin, she didn't flinch, even as he forced her eyes up to his.
"Hello, Kitten." He hissed, almost a growl. She was shocked to look into eyes as black as hers. She spit at what saliva she had left in her mouth at him.
"Needs to learn some manners." The American laughed.
"If you don't want to be bothered, My Friend, my men can train her." She'd know that serpent's voice anywhere, Phong Ye.
"NO!" She was surprised by the growling roar. She didn't flinch, and somehow knew he'd noticed.
"Is this the cousin?" The bag on Quan's head was removed, and the gag disposed of the same way. She watched as her cousin took in the man in front of them. Her heart sank as his eyes lit up, almost glowing with hero worship as he met the man's eyes.
"Shit, cub!" The American growled.
"You're really him! Sabretooth, you have to be." She actually blushed in embarrassment at being related, as her cousin literally dropped to his knees and started kissing the man's strangely made boots. Were those slits in the toe? She caught an amused look in those black eyes and knew he didn't miss anything, not even a blush. She finally kicked Quan.
"Get up, you idiot." She hissed.
"But Ki, it's him. See, I told you, I knew..." She kicked him again for good measure, and Sabretooth laughed, it was a rolling chuckle that started low, more a vibration than a sound, that traveled along her skin, until she actually smiled as he threw his head back, and the laugh erupted from his mouth.
"You are too cute, kid." He chuckled as he caught his breath. He reached into one of the heavy pockets and dropped three or four solid gold coins on her cousin's head. "As for you, I don't like male competition. That should help you make your self scarce."
She watched Quan's face drain of color as he picked up the coins. That was the kind of treasure that got you killed on the streets. His idol just gave him a death sentence.
She felt a heavy hand on the back of her neck. "I have to say Phong, this is the best bonus yet." She felt him dragging her behind him, completely ignoring her resistance. She ducked under his loose grip and took off running, dodging Phong's men to the sound of his laughter. She made it to the street and grabbed the side of the building and climbed quickly to the roof. She didn't look back, knowing Phong's men couldn't keep up with her. She jumped across a gap between buildings and caught a movement out of the corner of her eye.
It was him, he was pacing her, not moving to catch her. He was letting her run. She let out a primal growl and leaped for one of the overhanging jungle tree branches. She'd see if he could really keep up.
She lost sight of him as she moved from the city and into the jungle. She hadn't realized they were this far from the city center, and knew she could lose him in the jungle that protected her.
She paused, there was no sound of pursuit, so she moved to one of her favorite resting places. She felt her pouch with the food in it, and knew she could hide for weeks if she had to out here.
The 'cave' was in the top of one of the tall trees, and she dropped into it with a sense of relief that only lasted a split second as strong clawed hands gripped her wrists.
Even in the dim lighting of the old nest his eyes seemed to glow.
"Nice moves, Kid." He growled, pushing her back against the wall of woven bamboo. "Why'd you run?"
"I'm not a whore and I won't be turned into one." She hissed, noting his slight surprise when she spoke in English.
"Who said anything about a whore?" This time he laughed.
"Why else would you want a girl like me." She struggled against his hands.
"Right now, to train, later as a partner. I've been without my back-up for too long, and I really don't like working alone." He slowly released her hands and she leapt out of his reach, but stayed in the nest.
"Partner?" She was confused.
"Yeah, back-up, help with clean-up, watch my back, maybe, when you're clean, and not so damned flat a cub or two to train up right." He glared at her chest. "You're not woman enough for me to fuck. My brother, he'da had ya on your back already."
"Brother?"
"Don't worry about him, we're not workin' together anymore."
"What do you mean train?" She felt something like hope, if he could teach her, she could go after them, the people that killed her family.
"I mean train, teach ya how ta hunt humans, track them, and when you have them right where you want them, kill them." His eyes were alight with a primitive joy.
"How long?"
"I don't know, five, maybe ten years." That was too long for her, but then he said something that lit that primitive fire in her.
"I figure we'll start with the humans that killed your parents."