Author's Note: This is my first Storm Hawks fic (I don't think I need to tell you that.) and I think I'll do okay on it.

Disclaimer: Storm Hawks and all characters belong to Nerd Corps Studios and Cartoon Network. I own the main character, and my friends own the main character's friends.

Part One: Mammalia

Chapter Ten

The first things that Ibis was aware of were her sore limbs, throbbing head, and dry mouth. Whatever she was laying on, she also noticed, was hard and flat and very uncomfortable. Then her other senses began to function. Her nose alerted her to a dry, dark, basement-y smell, like moldy cobwebs and rust; her ears picked up the faint sounds of tropical birds as if she were listening to them from inside a building. More curious than panicked, she summoned the last of what appeared to be the energy she'd come across near the end of her scuffle with the leading Raptor. It wasn't much, she came to realize, as her arms began to quake violently beneath her weight. She felt like she weighted a thousand pounds. Without opening her tired eyes, she let herself drop heavily to the floor again, whacking her chin and curling up into a decent sleeping position. She slept without dreams.

When she awoke next, she was rejuvenated enough to open her eyes. It was near pitch black in whatever room she was in, and her old childhood fears of the dark rushed back at a breakneck pace, making her insides writhe with terror and her spine prickle coldly. The air around her was very chilly, a sure sign that wherever she was, it was a summer-like climate, probably southern, and it was definitely nighttime. Although it was mild, most likely due to the fact that it was spring, but just barely. She shivered, trying to inspire some warmth in her frozen body parts. Once she became brave enough to lever herself up again, she made sure that she made very little noise, just in case there was an enemy or hostile creature nearby. Moonlight shone through a thin, grimy window some feet above her head. The resulting square of light that hit the floor illuminated the nasty, dirty floor. Ibis rubbed a finger along the surface beneath her and confirmed that she wasn't laying on dusty cement but a thin wooden board that rattled against something below it. Silently hoping that there was nothing around to attack her, she let her nervous system glow take over and shine on her surroundings.

She was sitting in the middle of a large metal cage with the wooden board spreading from corner to corner, providing a slight relief from the even more uncomfortable bars below. She moved her hand in front of her and saw nothing but unadorned cement walls. She looked to her left and spotted something lying in a nearby corner that looked like bones. Yes, she realized, they were bones, but they were too small to be human bones, and they were just as clean as the rest of the basement. She waved her hand to the right and saw that the room stretched farther than she expected. There were cages similar to her own, thankfully but sadly empty. Then, swallowing reflexively, she turned to see what lay behind her. She let out a high yelp as she saw a pair of yellow-with-black-pupils eyes watching her intensely. She scrambled back and whimpered.

Her own eyes took in more details as the person watching her made no move except to glance at the only door at the far end of the basement with what looked like severe apprehension. She breathed a slight sigh of relief then as she recognized the lithe, wiry limbs, the flat, broad face, and the bouncy cranial spine that she had noticed nearly a month ago in the dark of the caves.

"S-Spitz?" she whispered softly. He glanced at her and held a finger to his lips, still keeping a close eye on the door. She silenced herself at his command and listened. It was completely quiet save for the raucous cawing and twittering of the nocturnal birds outside. Apparently satisfied with the fact that no one was going to come rushing in at the sound of Ibis's loud shriek, he lowered his finger and looked her in the eye again, nodding with something like regret. "Where am I?" she asked.

Spitz averted his eyes and stared at the floor shamefully. "You're…. you're in the dungeonth of Terr—" He stopped himself, probably on the orders that he wasn't to reveal anything significant to her. "You're being held prithoner."

"By who?" Ibis gazed up at the ceiling, which was coated with filth and even more cobwebs.

"Repton."

"Repton…" she repeated. It sounded feral.

"Lithen, I only have tho much time before thomeone cometh to take my shift. I only jutht managed to get in a few hourth to guard you."

"How long have I been here?" She began to feel a bit more relaxed every moment she spent talking to someone she felt she could trust.

"Thith ith the thecond night you've been here. You've been out cold every time thomeone's come to guard you." He paused thoughtfully. "Are you hungry?" He gestured at a bowl that sat next to him on the floor. It looked like it was filled with some sort of stew. At the sight of the food, Ibis's stomach answered the question for her by growling loudly. She smiled sheepishly at Spitz, who returned her smile with a short laugh, like he wasn't really in the mood to do so. He carefully stood and brought the bowl to her cage. "I'm thorry that the barth are tho clothe together. If they weren't, I'd be able to give you thith to hold."

"It's okay. I don't mind," Ibis replied, trying to think of how she would be able to get the stew if he set the bowl right next to the bars. Instead, he produced a spoon from inside his short leather vest and dipped it in before he held it between the bars at her. She stared at it stupidly as if she didn't know what it was. "Oh. I…you're going to feed it to me?"

"It'th the only way if you want any food; I thnuck it from the kitchenth just an hour or two ago. Repton doethn't want you to be fed at all, tho come here and hurry." He dipped the spoon in the bowl again and refreshed its contents.

"Here. You don't need to feed me yourself; you can just hold the bowl." Ibis took the spoon from him and hungrily devoured every bit of the cold, meaty stew. She knew she would've felt guilty if she had allowed him to feed her when she could've done it just fine herself. When she quietly set the spoon in the empty bowl, Spitz lowered both utensils onto the floor next to him and looked back at Ibis, then rapidly dropped his eyes back down and shuffled his feet like he didn't know what to do or say next.

"You, um…. you were falling, tho I…. I caught you." His voice became hushed like he was telling a forbidden secret. Perhaps he was, Ibis thought. "Look, jutht don't tell anyone that, okay? Repton would kill me if he knew that I did that on purpothe."

Ibis eyed him with more than a hint of curiosity. Why would he save her? "Is it because I saved you in the caves?" Spitz looked almost startled, as if he didn't expect her to guess why. He examined the floor again with interest.

"N-…yeah." Ibis pretended she hadn't heard him change his answer. Was there something more that he wasn't telling her? Just then, a clanking came from the door at the far end of the room. Spitz immediately grabbed the bowl and spoon and hid them behind the bones Ibis had seen earlier. "I'll be back, Ibith. Jutht hold on until then, and if anyone bethideth me giveth you food, don't eat it; it could be poithoned. Don't thay anything about thith." He grasped one of her hands lightly through the bars, then turned and sat down in the place that he'd occupied before. Ibis willed the cybernetics to darken and disappear into her body just as the door opened, and three Raptors strode in carrying lamps, the one at the front familiar to her. Ibis assumed that he was the leader and also the one that she'd ended up attacking a few days ago. He walked with a quick, impatient stride to her cage, and, as he neared, Spitz stood and saluted him. The leader ignored him and shot angry daggers at Ibis with his eyes. He was a massive, tall creature with mud-brown scales and long whip-like cranial spines that curved up behind his skull. His face was sharply angled; clearly he was older than any of the others present. His upper body was very thick and hard looking, much like Junko's, but his legs were just as wiry as Spitz's were, if a little beefed up. His tail was also reminiscent of a whip, but even more so than his spines were because it lashed back and forth like it was itching to slice across something. His lips were curled in preparation for a snarl, and he did so as he came right up to the bars and grasped them with his large, spatula-like hands then shook the entire cage as he screamed.

"You BITCH! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!" More surprised that he spoke without a lisp like Spitz than the jarring motions of the cage and the yelling, Ibis merely gave him a faintly withering look and crossed her arms over her chest as he grabbed a gas lamp and held it close to his body. Ibis just raised her eyebrows, knowing full well what she'd done to him. A shallow, black, claw shaped hole was positioned close to his heart, directly left to his sternum, and weeping a purple pus that dripped down his chiseled abdomen. The lantern light washed over his arms and face, illuminating every black wound that she had dealt him, each one oozing varying amounts of violet mucus and looking very swollen and irritated. As she sat admiring her own handiwork, Ibis smiled coyly and winked at him when he caught her eye next. Incensed, he threw the lamp down to the ground, shattering it, and returned to rocking the cage. "What have you DONE? FIX ME!"

"Not until you give me a proper place to rest and treat me with a measure of respect, lizard lips."

The leader growled and made the bars shudder even harder than before. "You are in NO position to be making demands, you little whore. Do as I say."

"Or what? You'll shake the cage again? I'm terrified." Ibis sat back leisurely and grinned. Behind everyone, she spotted Spitz making frantic but silent motions at her to make her stop goading the leader.

"Oh, you have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Neither do you me." Ibis faked a bored yawn and looked at the window; the sky was beginning to brighten. Dawn was coming.

"Do you even know who I am?" he asked in a soft, threatening voice.

"I suppose not. Do you know who I am?" The leader tossed his head back in frustration.

"Cease these childish games! I want an antidote!" Feeling bold, Ibis glanced at Spitz and giggled.

"And I want a decent guy to do me right, but we can't always get what we want, scaly butt." She ran a hand through her hair and discovered with mild disgust that she was very greasy after two days without a bath.

"Come here, girl." The large lizard crooked a thick finger at her beckoningly. Ibis rolled her eyes at him.

"Do you really think I'm that stupid? I'm staying right here." She patted the board below her. "Unless you'd like to let me out so I can talk with you as an equal. I don't hand out antidotes to just anyone. You have to earn it." She calmly looked him in the eye as she said this, attempting to convince him that force wasn't going to get him anywhere.

The leader screwed up his face and turned away, rubbing his eyes in frustration. He made a straining noise like he was having a hard time suppressing the urge to reach through the bars and choke the life out of his captive. Finally he grumbled something to the second tallest Raptor, whose heavy-set body had scales the color of a swamp plant, and the leader was handed a ring of keys. He turned back to Ibis and inserted a rusty key into the padlock on the cage. He didn't turn it but instead stared Ibis down. "If I let you out…" he paused here to tamp down a low growl, "If I let you out, you'll give me the antidote?"

"Only if you give me a real bed to sleep in and an edible meal if you plan to keep me around." She glared back at him, making it clear that she wasn't kidding. After a moment of thought, the leader turned the key, swung the front of the cage open, and stepped aside to let Ibis crawl over and out.

As she stood and stretched thankfully, the leader lazily closed the cage door and came up close behind her so that she could feel his breath on her hair. She hadn't been able to gauge how tall all of the lizards actually were until she was within a comparable situation. The leader was very tall, at least a head taller than Spitz, who was about five inches taller than Ibis. The other two were just as tall as Spitz.

"Give me the antidote." She felt a slight vibration in her chest from the low, husky timbre of the voice that came from the wall of reptile behind her. Turning and facing him, she examined the largest, most puffy wound, which was the one on his own chest, then held out a hand to the two Raptors at her right.

"Do either of you two have a knife?" They hesitated before she explained that it was her blood that she needed. The closest one, the key holder, brought out a hunting knife and slashed the palm of her hand brutally. She groaned and hissed a breath through her teeth. "Okay, that's not what I was going for, but it'll do. She waited for the blood to well up a little, raised it and then halted, looking up at the leader's expectant face. "Ah, you might want to grab onto something sturdy. This'll hurt a little." She waited until he took her seriously and gripped the top of the cage. Then she held her cut palm over the gaping chest wound and dripped three small drops of her own, immune blood onto it. They sizzled audibly and the leader's fingers tightened hard on the metal. It took a few minutes for Ibis to go over all the wounds and drip her precious blood on them, only pausing once to have her hand cut again when the blood began to coagulate and form a freshly closed gash.

Finally she stopped her search and held her aching hand close to her chest, stumbling a little. She felt Spitz reach out and hold her up roughly, most likely putting on a tough show so his leader didn't think that he was helping her because of personal want. Ibis gazed up at the leader, who was in the middle of watching his chest wound stop leaking pus with a satisfied grin on his face. "Okay, you got your antidote. How about helping me out?" Her voice was soft and breathless. She felt a little lightheaded. The leader looked up and his grin grew wider.

"Ah, yes. Turn around." Not thinking clearly, Ibis followed his instruction and blinked in a disorientated way at Spitz. His face was half shocked (most likely because she looked punch-drunk) and half…sympathetic? She wondered why he would be feeling sorry for her for only a second before a thick hand grabbed her throat and lifted her off her feet. She hadn't the strength to fight back as the leader tossed her limp body into the cage once more, making her head crack against a bar, and slam the door shut. He laughed evilly and locked the padlock, then told the other lizards to follow him back upstairs. Ibis pushed herself up weakly just in time to spot Spitz from across the room. He turned back and mouthed, "I'll be back as soon as I can" at her. She nodded once before she collapsed onto the board.