There was shouting from the inside of the small building that housed the latest anomaly. I moved forward to stop the confusion, but found the door blocked by the lithe government brunette.

Narrowing my eyes, I hissed, "Those who guard me have an odd habit of ending up hip-checked into the boards."

She moved aside and followed me in, protesting. The shouts had put me in to my fierce game-mode, ready to do whatever it took to ensure Tom's safety. I knew he could take care of himself, so sue me for being a bit of a mother bear.

What I saw made me feel as if the puck had hit me in the temple. I blinked, tugged at me ears to clear them, and then decided that what hovered before me was not a hallucination.

The brunette gasped behind me. A huge column of think, black smoke moved throughout the room, grabbing things and people to upend as it clicked and seethed. I grasped at a weapon that did not exist, then threw the cup of coffee I still held right in to the middle of the smoke beast. It clicked louder, more eerily, and retreated thought the fading anomaly. Frantic, I searched for Tom's black-clad body and short blond hair.

I sighed with relief as I saw he was safe. Then the smoke sent a tendril back through and pulled the head scientist through the anomaly with it. Captain Thomas Ryan charged after his commander, right through the quickly fading anomaly.

I was leaping through the anomaly before I realized my stiff and aching legs had the strength to carry me across the room without skates on. I landed hard, rolling through lush moss and decaying leaves, fearing the clicking that intruded on the pounding of my heart in my ears. I realized I was screaming.

I stopped, rolling to my feet in a face-off crouch, having grabbed a downed branch when I came up. I scanned for the smoke beast or the men, but I found neither. What I found was the lack of anomaly. I backed up, still scanning for the smoke beast, but the lack of clicking made me think it had gone.

I stopped, eyes popping, bruised but adrenaline-pumped muscles freezing at the bump into my back. I spun, throwing a hard check into whatever assailed me, the foliage that grew in place of ice tripping me up. Ryan met my shoulder with a steel fist. Me both staggered back, me breaking into relieved laughter.

"Oh thank God you're all right!"

"We need to find Cutter," he told me tersely, bring the hand that didn't clutch his machine gun up to rub his shoulder. The dull aching where he had hit me didn't really bother me. I'd had worse. We turned back to back again, and walking together, we searched for the scientist.

We found him leaning against a tree, holding together a gash where he had hit a tree branch full force. I hoped that was his only injury.

"Are you… what happened…" I stammered, only now beginning to feel the let-down of adrenaline.

"It let me go," Cutter told us," slumping to the ground. I then realized there was blood. A whole lot of blood. Way more than there possibly could be. My head began to feel very light, stars shimmering at the edges of my nauseous vision. I had flunked out of cop school in Montana because of my reaction to any semi-substantial amount of blood. What spattered a hockey rink was about all I could deal with.

Tom was there, holding me up, supporting limbs that threatened to make like quicksand and drag me into oblivion. He soothed, stroking my hair, and set me down against another tree before he went to Cutter. I did some deep breathing while Tom bandaged the other man.

Tom was sitting beside me again when I remembered the lack of the anomaly. "Tom…" I started, but he silenced me with a kiss.

"Shh. It's okay." I wondered vaguely whether he used this calming tactic with his men. "He's all bandaged up. We've got to get back to that bloody anomaly."

"That's what I was trying to tell you -- it's gone. It closed when I came through." I looked up into his beautiful, brave blue eyes and saw shock, but it was quickly repressed.

"We should just check," he squeezed my hand to tell me he believed me, but continued nonetheless. "Just to make sure."

He helped me up, then motioned to Cutter. Will you be alright? his eyes asked me. I nodded and began to retrace our steps. The men followed. I realized I was still clutching the stick I had grabbed when I came through the anomaly. I kept it, telling myself it was the comfort of having a stick in my hands that drove the decision. The sweater was all the comfort I needed. The stick was just in case the smoke thing returned. Okay, I was lying to myself and it wasn't very convincing.

We must have searched for an hour before Cutter collapsed again. We decided to make camp, and I went into to the nearby foliage to relieve myself. I found a huge grove of tropical fruit. And a polar bear.

I was really starting to hate this place.