Human
Part 2
by Star and CQ
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Sue yelped and her eyes flashed open after hearing an explosion nearby. She sat up immediately, then groaned and slumped when she realized how sore she was. All the emotions of what happened the day before hit her like a wave, and a new flood of tears ran down her face. She was alone, and when she grew more alert of her surrounding, she realized that she had indeed, slept in a box.
Taking a deep breath, Sue stood up, just as she heard another explosion, only this one was closer. A lot closer, it shook the ground like an earthquake. She looked around, then cried out softly in distress when she saw the building across from the alley where she was, start to shake, then sway to the side, and finally crumble and collapse to the ground.
Sue quickly ran from her cover and was about to go over to the building to see if anyone was hurt, but froze when she saw three shape shifters slither over to the building. She hid behind the dumpster to see what they would do. The first shifter returned to it's humanoid form, and looked around. When the two others were beside it, it spoke.
"Master wants most of these buildings destroyed so we can have materials for his new castle. Do you think we have enough for him?" it asked.
The second one shook it's head. "I doubt it. We should get at least two or three more buildings."
The third one pointed to Eunice's Penthouse. "What about that one? And the ones nearby? They would work. They're made out of a good, solid materials. Strong enough for Master's castle."
The two other shape-shifter's nodded. They became a goop-like material, and started to follow the first, slithering like faceless snakes towards Eunice's Penthouse. Suddenly, one of them stopped in front of the building, next to the dumpster where Sue was hiding. It shifted into a dog, and started sniffing around the dumpster. Sue whimpered, scared to death he would sniff her out.
The shifter barked, "I smell human . . . feminine, teenager, hmm . . . it actually smells like that black-haired teenage male that Kong Li took from that restaurant."
"Is it a feminine version of the Master's son?" one of them asked. Shifter Dog shook his head.
"No, the other male. The one who was screaming for his sister, whatever a sister is . . ."
"A sister is a female blood relation to the person, in this case the male, who both share the same parents. I believe that's what 'sisters' are." the other one answered. "So are you sure you smell his sister?"
Shifter Dog sniffed some more, until Sue could see his nose poking around the edge of the dumpster. Sue remembered the magic fortune cookies Nana made them carry around. It was only supposed to be used in emergencies, and this seemed like an emergency!
Sue quickly pulled out a cookie from her pocket, and cracked it right away, not caring if the shifter's heard the cracking of the cookie. Blue swirly magic surrounded her, and in a flash of light, Sue started to shrink. Raven black fur started to cover her body, and she grew a tail. She continued to shrink and grew a tiny muzzle with a pink nose and long whiskers. Her ears grew and were shaped like ovals. Her fingers and toes started to grow claws on the ends, replacing her nails. When the transformation was over, Sue smiled inwardly. She had transformed into a small, black mouse.
Sue Mouse froze as Shifter Dog walked over to her, and started to sniff her. Now being a mouse, her instinct at the moment was to bolt and hide in or under the dumpster, but she was also curious, and she twitched her little nose at the dog.
Shifter-Dog grunted in annoyance at the little mouse. Sue-Mouse tilted her head slightly, and gave a soft squeak, and smiled, showing her little, but sharp, mouse teeth.
"False alarm . . . it's just a mouse." Shifter Dog returned to it's humanoid form, and started walking back towards the other two. "I thought I smelt human, and it really did smell like a feminine version of that boy we kidnapped, but . . ."
One of the shifters shrugged. "Mice hang out a lot around people. Who knows, maybe it had chewed on that girl's body."
Sue Mouse's ears pricked up at the word 'body'. "Eeek!" She darted under the dumpster, and poked her head out to listen to the rest of their conversation.
"Kong Li said he killed that girl . . . do you think he really did?" The shifter asked.
"Of course! Do you not trust our master?" The other shifter snapped.
"I do, but he never checked to see if she really was dead . . . she may not be dead and she may be running around the streets, completely alive." the shifter explained.
Sue-Mouse listened, then whispered, "They think I'm dead! 'Master' is obviously Kong Li . . . and , oh no – they said he thinks he got rid of everybody . . ." Her expression fell, and a small tear rolled down her furry cheek. "That might mean I'm the only one who survived."
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Sue-Mouse ran along the wall and up the outside of a drain-pipe. Super athletic, even as a mouse she had no trouble scaling the pipe and wall, intending to get to the roof so she could look around.
On the way up she learned the mice can indeed, cry real tears. With tears clouding her vision, she climbed and leapt from edge to edge as she remembered Nana, Mr. Wu, Tobey and Sid. Sid used to be all she had left for blood relatives – she had never felt so very alone before.
When Sid's and Tobey's faces flashed in her mind, she teetered on an edge for an instant, but recovered. "Did that jerk even kill Barney? Why would he do that? He was no threat to anyone."
She got up on top of the residential building, she thought she counted three stories, but could have lost track since she was mourning the loss of her family as she went. It seemed much taller than that. Her little mouse mouth fell open as she looked back down, over the ledge and down at what was left of the city she knew so well.
As far as she could see in any direction, Chinatown already looked like a war-torn third world city, like the ones she had seen on TV and movies. Buildings half and completely destroyed, people homeless, lost, some injured wandering the streets, warming themselves at barrels full of burning trash.
Kong Li created a reverse-magic barrier, similar to Nana's, but his barrier kept Chinatown's residence inside and kept anyone who came to investigate out. Even the army had nothing that would bring down his barrier. It was all part of his plan. As the day's passed and Kong Li got stronger, after his feast, the barrier would expand, making more of the surrounding area part of his kingdom.
A group of frightened citizens were trying to push their way into a building nearby, and the people already inside were trying to keep them out. "There's no more room here! This is ours!" she heard them screaming.
Sue sat up on the roof, watching and thinking. "If the cookie that turned me into a mouse is like Nana's other transformation cookies were, I should have about an hour before I return to normal." Then she added sadly, "Ha, I'll be upgraded to normal – that's what Sid told Tobey once when he was a dog."
Sue Mouse remembered other things about the caring family she once had and started crying again. As a mouse, she didn't have sleeves or tissues, so she wiped her nose on the ledge and rubbed her face with her paws before she started back down.
Running along the edge of the roof toward the drain-pipe, Sue didn't realize how much danger she was in, and not from anything Kong Li was doing. She had no idea how life really was for a mouse. If she did, she would know that running out in the open, especially high up off the ground was a really bad idea.
With a sudden flurry of feathers right over her, Sue Mouse panicked and fell off the ledge. "What the hell was that?" she squeaked as she fell, spinning through the air. Her question was answered when a owl's face appeared right in front of her. Her spinning fall halted, the owl caught Sue Mouse in its talons and flew to the top of the nearest electric pole, planning to eat her for dinner.
Sue Mouse squeaked as loudly as she could, but even if anyone heard her, they didn't care. On landing, the owl's claws ripped into her mouse shoulder and the side of her tiny body right behind her ribs.
"Squeeeeeeeee! I'm hardly even a bite for you, you big glutton!"
Regaining some of her senses, and survival response learned over time from all Nana's training, she used her little paws like the weapons they were, and bopped the owl on the beak when he bit at her. The owl stopped in the middle of trying to take his first bite, but just came right back at his dinner from a slightly different angle.
"Squeeeeeeee!" Sue screamed angrily and flipped herself over onto her back in his talons. She kicked the owl's beak repeatedly with both of her hind legs and chomped down as hard as she could on one of his toes with her razor sharp teeth.
The owl screeched and faltered. Sue got out of his grip and fell a short distance before she grabbed onto the pole. With great mouse effort, she pulled herself inside a knot sized hole about two feet from the top of the pole. The hole wasn't even big enough for her to turn around in, but the owls short beak couldn't reach her after she pulled her tail under her body.
Lying in the hole, panting and listening to the angry owl who lost his lunch, Sue found it very hard to calm down. She was having such stress her chest started to hurt and she wondered if mice had heart attacks. She thought she remembered from science class that they could.
The owl lost interest after a while and flew away. Stuck headfirst in the hole, Sue knew she could back up, but that would mean she had to 'back' out and wouldn't be able to look around for the owl before she exposed her rear end. She lied on her belly worrying about it until the adrenaline wore off and she started to feel the pain from the holes made by the owl's claws in her side and shoulder.
"Ow, I didn't realize he clawed me this bad. Oh crap - what's the point, I should have just let him eat me. I wonder if I die as a mouse, if I will still go to people heaven so I will be with Sid and Tobey. I wonder what happens to mice when they die."
Sue whined a little, sounding like the soft squeaking from a video player rewinding and had come to a decision after some more time had passed. 'I have to get out of here, I want if nothing else, to let Kong Li know he didn't kill me and cause as much damage to his plans as I can for as long as I can. I wonder how long it has been. Uh oh, if I return to normal while I'm in here I'll be crushed! I have to try to get out, I don't have any idea how long I've been in here, I guess it's now or never.'
Hoping the owl was gone and nothing else was waiting to eat her, Sue started backing out. She waved her tail around a little to see if anybody tried to bite it and when nothing did, she backed out the rest of the way.
She quickly looked around, "It should be easy for a mouse to run down this old wooden pole." But before she got eight inches, the owl was on her again, "Squeeeeee – AAAAahhhh!" In the middle of his attack, Sue changed back into a human. The owl panicked and flew away, vowing to never again hunt little black mice.
However, Sue missed grabbing the pole with her human fingers and fell, bracing herself for the pain she knew was coming. Her hands flailed about and grabbed onto one of the electric wires. Her body fell across the other two wires. She screamed again, expecting to be electrocuted, but wasn't. No place in Chinatown still had electric power or phone service.
"Oh, thank goodness. I never thought I'd be so happy that the power was out. What will Tobey do without his video games? . . . Oh. . . Damn. I'm gonna find Kong Li!"
Sue climbed down the pole, her shoulder and ribs where the owl grabbed her mouse body, still had deep puncture wounds and hurt, blood had already stained her clothes, but she still had no trouble climbing and jumping down.
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Over the next few days, Sue tried many times to even go near Kong Li's castle, let alone go inside, but there were always servants and loyal shape shifters that would see her. She didn't know if the boys were even alive, but she wanted to meddle with Kong Li's plan, and cause as much damage to anything that he claimed as his, as possible.
Several times out of desperation, Sue tried to infiltrate the castle, but a shape shifter or demon saw her, and tried to attack her. Sue managed to get away each time, but she kept going back to try again. Thinking she was just a rogue citizen, they didn't report her attempts to enter to Kong Li.
But there was other problems that she had to worry about - living on the streets and finding food and clean water. This became more and more challenging as the days went on. Food became scarcer and scarcer, even when looking in things such as dumpsters and garbage cans. People were stealing from supermarkets and even fast food restaurants, desperate to get some food. Sue didn't spend a lot of time looking for food, but she had found a little of edible food.
Sue had changed from now and nearly ten years ago. When she was five, she would steal from other people, even other homeless people just to get a bite to eat. But Nana had raised her well, Sue couldn't steal from others, especially since nearly all of Chinatown was homeless.
She didn't really focus on surviving as much as she should have. She wasn't eating as much, and what she did find, she ate right away, not even storing some for later in case she wouldn't find anything later.
Becoming obsessed with finding Kong Li and taking him down was taking it's toll on her, physically, and mentally too. All she focused on was finding Kong Li, and not taking care of herself. Sue was getting thinner already, and her strength was declining fast from lack of food. Her puncture wounds weren't healing. Her wounds were actually starting to hurt more and more each day. She only wore the clothes she had in the beginning of all this madness, her tank top, jeans, and the red jacket over the tank top, but the jacket had so many holes in it, it was starting to fall off her shoulders and she had to keep pulling it up to have a little relief from the cold night air. Her hair was matted, and looked like rats were living in it.
One day, about four days after turning into a mouse, Sue wandered the streets, thinking of a way to invade Kong Li's castle. Sue rubbed her arms and shivered as a cold rush of wind stung her skin like needles.
Sue kept going. Walking helped her think, and all she was thinking about was how to defeat Kong Li. She didn't pay attention to where she was going, and didn't notice that she had wandered into an area where the people who were homeless hung their laundry on clotheslines. The lines were connected between the old, half-destroyed buildings, and hung down low, or up high at least ten feet.
Since she was not watching where she was going, Sue walked right into one of the low clotheslines and got tangled in a black jacket that was hanging up drying. Sue screamed, then tried to fight the jacket, thinking it was another person attacking her. She kicked and punched at the jacket, trying to defend herself. When Sue saw the black fabric of the jacket, she immediately thought it was Kong Li's cape.
Sue growled, and pulled on the jacket and started palming and kicking the air around her. She was screaming curses at 'Kong Li', and continued to viciously attack the jacket.
"Damn you Kong Li!" Sue roared, getting even more tangled up in the jacket. She thrashed and screamed, trying to get 'Kong Li' off her.
People heard her angry screams and curses, and came out from the destroyed building and their makeshift homes to see what all the ruckus was about. They were shocked to see a teenage girl fighting and screaming at someone's jacket.
"She must have cracked after everything that's happened . . ." Someone whispered, and the other person nodded.
"Go and die Kong Li!" Sue screamed, then fell on her back after tripping. "I want to kill you so bad for taking my family away!" Sue finally got free, and threw the jacket off of her, and it fell in the dirt. She lowered in her defense stance, but then froze, and started to back away slowly, realizing what she had done, and realizing she was being watched.
"I just attacked someone's laundry, thinking it was Kong Li . . . I really have lost it have I?" Sue sighed. The witnesses to her display of craziness went back to their own problems once they saw the action was over. Everything was quiet again in the streets.
Taking a deep breath, Sue's stomach growled loudly. She growled back in annoyance. "I don't have time to eat! I have to defeat Kong Li, and get revenge for him killing everyone I cared about the most!"
Sue looked around one more time, then darted down the allies towards Kong Li's castle. She wasn't going to lose this time. Kong Li had to pay for what he had done.
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Sue ran until she thought her heart would explode. Finally she was just around the corner from where all the construction was going on for the new 'King'. His castle was to be huge of course, and luxurious. Sue heard someone coming and ducked behind a dumpster.
Two shape-shifters were unloading a truck full of velvet curtains and a beautiful sofa that they had taken from the building that was once where Eunice lived. Just seeing the expensive items, Sue remembered Eunice and wondered what happened to her.
Sue hid behind the dumpster until the shape-shifters left the area. Once her attention wasn't on them or hiding, she realized she was shaking and her stomach was making loud noises. "Oh no, I feel awful." Sue had trouble getting up. Her legs felt so weak suddenly. "No, I don't have time to be sick. I have to take Kong Li down! But . . . I'm so cold, and thirsty . . . I'm not sure . . ."
Sue thought she was cold, really she was burning up with fever. Her wounds had become infected on top of everything else she had endured until now. She was in big trouble. She stood up and stepped from behind the dumpster. When she looked up, there stood Sid, Tobey an Nana, all smiling at her. "Sid! She cried and went toward him. Sid opened his arms like he would hug her and smiled.
When Sid started to speak, he changed. Sue slid to a stop and backed away, realizing that Sid, Tobey and Nana had been replaced by a shape shifter and two human thugs.
"Haha girl, you're hallucinatin'. Aren't ya? Who'd you think we were?"
"No – but I saw – no – you can't be!" Sue readied herself for a fight.
Even in her weakened condition, the two human thugs were easy for Sue to take down. One flew through the air and landed in an open trench on an innocent worker, already enslaved by Kong Li. The other fell back against the wall and slumped unconscious.
The shifter wasn't so easy, he tried to catch her in a tentacle. Sue barely reacted in time repeating, "Gei Kow No" her voice weak. Flame appeared over her palm and she shoved it into shift's tentacle. The tentacle burned in half, and the shifter quickly re-absorbed the stump. Sue took her chance and ran. The shifter grew wings and flew after her.
Sue ran around a corner and leapt down an open manhole into the sewers.
The shifter came around the corner too fast and didn't even see the manhole. He flew around for a while looking for her, but soon got distracted by something shiny and forgot all about her. The trinkets he found in a shop's window, he gathered up and hide for himself.
Wandering around in the sewer, at least Sue wasn't lost. She had been in the sewers many times as a young child and then more recently during their mission to stop Kong Li. Sue was thinking about how they failed and how events could have turned out this bad. Being in the sewers with all the dirty water, it wasn't the smell, as the sound of dripping water that reminded her how thirsty she was.
Sue was sure she recognized where she was. "I'm near Chung Li park, and the wishing well is close. That water used to be drinkable. I don't know where else I could find clean water. It won't take long and then I can get back to trying to get into Kong Li's castle to find him and make him pay for taking Sid, Tobey and Nana from me."
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Sue could hardly push the manhole cover to the side, but after great effort she got it open enough that her slender, too thin body could get through. She sat for a moment and looked around. There was already a crowd of people around the well. "Well that's just fine, I guess I won't be sneaking a drink from there."
Down the park a short way away, there was another mob of people yelling, some cheering, some shaking their fists. Many were being knocked away, and knocked unconscious by beings Sue recognized as shape-shifters who had taken different forms. Even though some had clothing on, they still had that dark translucent skin, and it really gave it away when they created large fists just to hit someone with, or grew wings to fly up and get ahead of the crowd.
It became obvious that the shifters and several other humans near the front of the moving crowd were protecting someone. Sue got low and ran closer, behind a row of bushes to watch. Who would shape shifters be protecting other than Kong Li himself? Her heart started racing.
Then she saw her enemy. It really was Kong Li himself. There he was walking confidently and carrying her Nana's cookbook. The wishing well still had four poles around it with a roof covering the well, a new pulley and rope were attached to a beam over the well. Locals had been drawing water out of it since the town lost it's running water. The poles and roof that had once been beautifully decorated, were now painted black with scary-looking gargoyle statues on each corner of the roof.
Sue realized what was happening. "Oh, no, Kong Li is going to try and cook his feast. He must have created dozen's of shape shifters to protect him and somehow transformed more people to serve him too. How am I going to stop him?"
Sue stayed low behind the bushes and moved up closer from behind the well. She stayed on the side that had a small, dry creek with a decorative bridge over it that she could hide behind. The bridge had been broken and that saddened her even more.
She grumbled, "Senseless destruction, just what Nana knew would happen."
When she saw the broken bridge. "Well the prophesy said that Kong Li would join with his son to do this. Maybe since Tobey, d'- . . . um - isn't here, the recipe won't work and the prophesy can't come true."
Sue watched Kong Li carefully as he opened the cookbook, and laid it on the well's edge. Sue lowered her eyes and then lowered her head, looking away, afraid to watch Kong Li take on all the power of the cookbook – and trying to think of a way to stop this all at once.
Another rustling in the crowd and voices shouting commands made Sue look up again. "Walk you reject . . . if you don't use you're legs - I will break them! But you'll still have to stand beside you're master."
Two thugs were half pushing - half dragging someone in chains to the well. Sue couldn't see very well through all the people watching, until they got close to the wishing well. The prisoner had black hair, and was very dirty. He stood with his hands bound by heavy chains behind his back. Sue concentrated harder to see him in the dark, not realizing at first that her vision was becoming blurry; her high fever taking it's toll on all her senses.
The reluctant prisoner wore a dirty, white tank top and dark pants with one leg missing completely, the other gone from from just above the knee and torn almost up to his hip. He wore no shoes or socks; his ankles wore shackles and chains, but the chain was just long enough he could take small steps. Sue could tell he was young, a teenager perhaps.
She couldn't see much of his hair. It was dirty, but very dark at least – and almost completely covering his face, there were two, dirty gray clothes tied around his head, one was a blindfold the other, a gag.
Kong Li smiled when he saw the prisoner getting close and announced to the crowd. "Now with this book, and the power contained in it – the prophesy will finally come true!" He held up his staff and his cape dramatically flared out behind him like there was a strong breeze on the still, chilly night. He continued, "Chinatown will become the center of the world! The world government will be here - with me as your King!"
Most of the crowd cheered, Sue thought they must be cheering only because they were afraid of Kong Li. Shifters had already banished all the people who showed up to protest and weren't afraid.
Kong Li turned toward the prisoner, "And my son has joined me - willing or not – Mwahahaha – he will watch me, his loving father - rise to power!"
"His son?" the realization of what Kong Li said was slow to sink in, Sue whispered, "Tobey?" and tried to see over the bushes and people blocking her view of the prisoner. "Could it really be . . . Tobey?"
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Tobey continued . . .