Ryu- Well, here's another chapter from me, I hope you enjoy.

shizu Fumikari – Ah yes, the magic of timezones, and as for Byakuran, he recently moved up on my list of favorite characters. Hopefully maybe his younger self will appear, maybe at the inheritance ceremony. As for the lion, you'll see.

-xShiroi-chan – You'll see who the lion is. As for Byakuran, well, it's just who he is.

Laptop Newbie – With my fictions, I take certain things into account. Like Irie's lack of thoughts, when someone is really occupied by something, they don't tend to think much of anything else. As for Irie's lack of concern for his allies, there's more to Chimera than meets the eye, and don't worry, helpful (as in pointing out flaws, errors, etc) criticism is welcomed.


Infected

Irie opened his eyes, to stare back into soft brown eyes, eyes of none other than Tsuna. Irie's eyes widened as Tsuna got off of Irie.

"It is you. I thought you had died from Chimera." Tsuna said as he embraced Irie slightly.

"It turns out I had some resistance to the virus, but besides that. What happened while I was gone, and why are you here?" Irie said.

After Irie said that, the smile on Tsuna's face went away. "A lot of things happened after you, left, but we'll get to that later, I'm currently trying to find Gamma, he was captured by Byakuran's underlings." Tsuna said.

Irie's face turned grim, and then he collapsed on the ground, clutching his stomach. "Y-you're here to save, Gamma?" Irie said.

"Yes, what's wrong?" Tsuna said as he knelt down.

"You should have come sooner, Gamma was, executed." Irie said, whispering the last word.

There was silence, the only noise being the alarms, and far off roars of the Chimera. Then Tsuna broke the silence.

"But it wasn't all for nothing. We found you, and the serum can't be analyzed after hours of being injected into the body." Tsuna said. Before Irie could ask what the "serum" was, there was an explosion, followed by roars and growls that were getting closer. "Come on, we need to get out of here." Tsuna said as he changed back into his lion form.

Irie nodded and changed into his adult wolf form, only surprising Tsuna a little, but didn't say anything as Tsuna took off in the direction of the exit, followed by Irie.

As they ran, many Chimera were appearing, but it seems Tsuna was prepared for them, as Tsuna flicked his collar, which Irie just noticed, and one of Tsuna's pills flew into the air. Tsuna jumped and swallowed the pill, and the familiar sky flames erupted on Tsuna's head.

Then flames erupted on all of Tsuna's paws. The back paws had small flames, but the front, which seemed to be gloved, were intense.

Immediately, the Chimeras were taken care of, and soon the exit was in sight, but a iron door was steadily coming down. Not wanting to risk Irie getting trapped, Tsuna intensified his flames and tore threw the door.

The shredded and melted door was then thrown aside, allowing the two to leave, but the hard part was soon to come.

Byakuran's Control Room

"Byakuran-sama, two Chimeras are leaving the premises. One lion, the other a red wolf."

This caused Byakuran to frown, but then a smile slowly replaced the frown. "Maa, Shou-chan is being cruel, but I guess it's to be expected. You, prepare the booster, and you, prepare for capture." Byakuran said as he pointed to two scientists.

They obeyed while Byakuran turned to Kikyo. "Since you have the best aim, you'll fire the booster at Shou-chan." Byakuran said.

Kikyo bowed while saying "As you wish."

With Tsuna and Irie

As they ran, Irie could see two chimeras up ahead, but unlike Byakuran's Chimeras, they weren't acting savage, and Irie knew that they were Tsuna's guardians, but before Irie could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a whizzing noise, which was followed by a sharp pain in his back leg.

Irie yelped and fell to the ground as pain suddenly flared from where he originally felt the pain.

Irie's pain alerted Tsuna, who stopped and turned to Irie, beginning to give short rumbles, translating to "Irie-kun, what's wrong?"

Irie either didn't hear, or couldn't as his body began to twitch and jerk violently. This worried Tsuna, but then Tsuna's worries grew worse as his senses picked up the sound of engines coming in their direction.

As for the chimeras that were not Byakuran's, they were worried by Tsuna's halt, and also wondering who the other Chimera was.

"Tenth! What's wrong!?" The cat chimera meowed out.

"It's Irie-kun." Tsuna rumbled.

"Irie!" The other chimera said in surprise.

"There's no point in worrying about who it is, what's important is what happened." Tsuna said as he changed into his human form and inspected Irie's shaking wolf form. A dart protruding from Irie's hind leg caught Tsuna's attention.

"That dart seems to be the cause." Yamamoto said as he changed to his human form.

"Well what else could it be baseball-freak!" Gokudera said with his now human voice.

"Guys, we can't fight, lets just hurry back to base, then we'll worry about the dart." Tsuna said, and the two nodded. "Good, now we need to find a way to carry Irie, before Gokudera's mines run out." Tsuna said as explosion were heard in the distance.

"Why not shrink him. Pups only weigh about seven pounds." Yamamoto said.

Tsuna nodded and flicked his collar again. This time a small vial came out. Tsuna then poured out the contents on Irie's nose, then changed into his lion form and lightly nipped at Irie's neck. The results were immediate as Irie's size changed to that of a pup.

"At least Giannini's invention worked this time." Gokudera said before changing, followed by Yamamoto.

The three nodded, and then ran off into the trees, making sure to cover their scent with other substances from their collars.

Control Room

"S-sir, targets have disappeared."

"Then lets hope that booster works, otherwise the chimeras will have extra meat." Byakuran said, causing the scientist to shiver.

"How will we know if the booster works, Byakuran-sama?" Kikyo said.

"When Shou-chan comes running back to me." Byakuran said while smiling.

Back with Tsuna and the others

After some hours of running, the three, sans Irie who was now panting heavily despite not running, looked around.

"Is it clear?" Gokudera meowed.

"Yeah." Yamamoto barked as his dog ears swiveled around.

So with the okay, Gokudera lifted a manhole cover and a putrid smell drifted from the hole. Everyone, except Irie changed to their human forms, put on surgical masks, and jumped in, Yamamoto being last and putting the cover back on.

Even in pain, Irie gagged from the smell, alerting Tsuna who was currently holding him.

"Don't worry, once we get to base, the smell will be gone and we'll figure out what happened." Tsuna said.

Although Tsuna was not whispering and the sewer echoed Tsuna's voice, Irie did not hear Tsuna's voice, but someone else's.

Shou-chan, come back to me and I'll make the pain go away...... come back to me and I'll make the smell go away...... come to my voice and you'll be happy.....

-TBC-


Ryu- Well, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter.