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It's not mine, except the plot and extra characters.

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Chapter Eleven- Caged Again

There were no stars, there was no moon. Wally had never been afraid of the dark before, but this darkness seemed that much more opressive. The once beautiful cavern seemed terrifying. The shadows seemed real, everything seemed evil. Wally was still feeling like crap for yelling at Kuki too, so that didn't help things at all.

Even the kittens were avoiding him, and they didn't even know what he had said.

There were several muffled 'whump' sounds as something was thrown from the hole in the roof of the cavern. Wally jumped and pricked his ears forward, he could barely make out unmoving shapes. Next instant he knew the cage was opened and his friends were shoved inside by..."Lizzie?"

"Elder, whelp." Wally flattened his ears at the sound of that cracked voice in that girls body. He never cared much for Lizzie, but he certainly pitied her being occupied by THAT freak. Wally leaned over, and instantly went to Kuki. His heart twisted, was she okay?

"Kuki, Kuki..." Wally whimpered, the girl opened her eyes, and blinked. He could barely make out her features in the darkness, and he had special cat-vision now. She probably couldn't see him at all. Still, it surprised him quite a bit when the palm of her hand suddenly slapped acrossed her face, "OW!"

"I thought you hated me!" She snapped, pain tore at Wally's heart and he backed off. Kuki glanced at him, and he could have tricked himself into thinking she felt badly for that, but the next instant she was waking everyone else up. Wally pulled himself into the corner again and buried his face in his arms.

"Wally..." Behemoth meowed.

"What." Wally grumbled, not looking up from his arms. That was it, Kuki would never forgive him now. He was sure of it. He'd messed everything up.

"Try saying your sorry." Behemoth said gently, Wally peeked at his friend to see the cat with his tail wrapped around his three kittens. They were pressed against Behemoth, and Wally could just make out the glint of their eyes in the dark. "It could work."

"She hates me."

"She never said that, you did, remember?" Behemoth pointed out, and padded away. Wally looked over at his friends, who were, at the moment, giving him the cold shoulder. This was turning out to be a fun night in captivity. Even Behemoth hated him. Wally buried his face in his arms again.

"Wanna tell me about it?" Wally blinked, and looked up in surprise. It was Kuki! She sat down beside him and stared at her hands, well, towards them. It was probably too dark for her to see them. He saw the glint of tears, "You really, really, really hurt my feelings Numbuh Four."

Ouch again. Wally stared down at his hands and watched idly as the claws slid in and out of them. He grabbed at his necklace and squeezed it so tightly that the tooth dug painfully into the palm of his hand. Finally he sighed, and wrapped his tail tighter around his feet, "Ya wouldn't believe meh if Ah told ya..."

"No? You don't even want to try?" She asked, sounding hurt.

"Ah didn't mean it!" Wally wailed, and burst into tears again. This time he was utterly and completely embarassed. He was CRYING. In front of ALL of his friends. Cruddy, crud, and double crud.

(Kuki)

Kuki's heart twisted, and she didn't know whether to be relieved, to start crying herself, or to just sit there and feel shocked. Wally was crying. He NEVER cried. Well, okay, sure, he cried SOMETIMES, like when things fell on his toe or he ate a WHOLE bunch of hot-sauce, or like the time Maurice left, but Maurice was SOOO cool. (Also when he accidentally meets his dad while taking part in Bully fights, but you weren't there for that, WERE you Kuki?)

He never cried because of things he said, he hardly ever apologized really.

He was really and truly sorry. Kuki stared at him for a moment, before suddenly tackling her friend and starting to cry too. (She picked option two) She was relieved that he didn't hate her, she had never been happier, but her friend had just broken down into tears because of what he said. He'd REALLY hurt himself doing that, maybe even more than he hurt her. She squeezed him tightly, and she was incredibly thankful to her friends, who decided to take this moment to reunite themselves with their respectable kittens.

"Ah'm sorry Kuki..." Wally said after awhile. She wished she could see his face, she was pretty sure he was blushing really badly. She giggled at the thought of that, "What's so funny."

"Nothin'." She said, "I'm just happy you don't hate me."

"Yeah...abou' tha'...Ah actually..." Wally stumbled a little over his words, "What Ah'm tryin' ta say...is..."

"Heeey guys..." Numbuh Two suddenly crawled over to them, making Wally shut up. Kuki blinked at him, wondering what he had been about to say. Seemed like poor Wally got interrupted like that an AWFUL lot lately, it was kind of annoying. Kuki wondered what he wanted to tell her...PROBABLY THAT HE LIKED RAINBOW MONKEYS! That would be SWEET! (Kuki you silly goof...)

"Uh...hoi Numbuh Two." Wally said after a moment of awkward silence. "Ah'm sorry...for...erm, scratchin' ya."

"I was surprised you didn't punch me. Clawing and biting is kind of a girly thing to do don't you think?" Wally's friend said cheerfully. Numbuh Five decided that was a good enough reason to hit him with her hat, only she hit Kuki instead.

"Owie! That actually hurts..." Kuki complained.

"Sorry Numbuh Three, Numbuh Five can't see ANYTHING in this place. It's too dark!" Numbuh Five said, the words of agreement that met that statement were even added to by Behemoth and the kittens. How cuuuute. Everyone seemed to hate the darkness, well, except Wally who muttered something under his breath that Kuki barely caught.

"Ah kinda loike it, makes things less awkward." He muttered, she tipped her head to the side in confusion. Suddenly, because she had a short attention span and was bored, she stood up (to see how tall the cage was...)...and stepped on something too. "OW! Watch it! Tha' hurts!"

"Sorry Wally..." Kuki said, wondering if she'd stepped on his hand.

"Maybe we all shouldn't be moving around so much." Numbuh One pointed out, "It is kind of a cramped space. We'll wait until morning to figure a way out of here, it won't work out if we can't see what is in front of our faces."

"So we should go to sleep?" Numbuh Five suggested, "To have our strength up tomorrow."

"Good thinking Numbuh Five, try and get comfortable guys." Numbuh One said, "We'll think of something."

(Hoagie)

They all tried to get comfortable then. Hoagie felt kind of bad for Numbuh One, he was pretty sure that the guy was taking this predicament with Lizzie pretty hard. Abby was leaning against the hard bars. Hoagie couldn't make out features, just a blob that he was pretty sure was her shape. (Since it had a hat thing on the top) "Why are you sleeping there? The ground is actually pretty comfortable..."

"Numbuh Five is keepin' watch." She said, "There aint much room down there besides."

"So? You can sleep next to me." Hoagie said, grateful for the darkness since he was blushing furiously as soon as the words left his mouth, he continued hastily, "What is there to keep watch for anyways?"

Abby seemed to consider this for a moment, "Nothin." She agreed with a heavy sigh, and was suddenly down on the ground next to him. She put her head on his shoulder and Hoagie's face warmed up again, "Numbuh Five hopes you don' mind if she uses you as a pillow."

"It's okay..." Hoagie said softly, he didn't mind at all. Actually he had to stop himself from fiddling with her hair, it was surprisingly HARD to do too. He decided to think of other things, Lizzie, or Elder or whoever it was for one thing. That electricity, the fact that Elder could kill them so easily, "We might not get out of here..."

"Yeah." Abby agreed tensely, Hoagie felt a little scared because of that. "Are you playin' with Numbuh Five's hair?"

"Huh? Woops..." Hoagie laughed nervously, darn it, while he had day-dreamed his hand had taken a mind of it's own! Curse you hand and your hair-fiddling needs! "Sorry, I was thinking and...yeah..."

"It's fine..." Abby said, but she had reflected on it awhile as if she had to think about it. Hoagie bit back a laugh, for some reason he found that funny, her seriously considering whether it was okay or not for him to mess with her hair. Silence stretched between them, and Hoagie suddenly felt a little sick.

If they died...Abby would never know he liked her.

He didn't want that.

Hoagie fiddled with the ground, had he said it was soft because it actually felt pretty hard. "N-Numbuh...Five...A-Abby?"

"Mmmm, what?" She said, sounding slightly surprised that he used her name. Hoagie decided to buy for time, make something up, he wasn't really ready to tell her yet was he? Oh, right, they might not live through tomorrow. Hoagie narrowed his eyes in determidation, but he still found himself blabbering nervously. Sometimes he wished he could just stand up straight and do things the brave way, like Numbuh One or even Numbuh Four. (Not that his friend was DOING much with his love-life but still...)

"I-I have to tell you something important. Um, but you gotta promise you won't hate me, or think I'm weird. Oh sheesh, I never thought of that, that'd be REALLY awkward if I said something and we DID live, or even if I said something and we DIDN'T live and we just felt really awkward around each other because that would be awkward. How many times have I said awkward just now? Ack, um, heeey...I just thought, hope those cat's won't eat us since we're JAIL BIRDS hahah...no, really though that wasn't..." Hoagie stopped as Abby suddenly turned and hit him with her hat. This time no innocent bystanders were injured instead. "Oh, sorry..."

"First of all, Numbuh Five won't hate you, your Numbuh Five's friend, she don't think she can think of you as any weirder than she already does, and she handles awkward things pretty well, thank you. Also, that joke was one of the WORST Numbuh Five has heard outta you yet, get ON with it." He could almost see her glaring at him through the darkness.

Nevermind! Nevermind! Just shut up Hoagie, if you do die at least you'll be in a happy situation with her! His mind screamed but his mouth often had a habit of not listening to his head, "Well, you se-see I...kinda...sorta l-l-l-like you. N-not li-like friends b-but..." He fell silent and gestured hopelessly (since no one could see it ANYWAYS) in the darkness in an attempt to...what? Add to the words? Take them back? Hoagie had no idea, just that he was on a precipiece now.

It was dead quiet in the cage, except for the smothered laugh of Wally which was immediately silenced by a wacking noise and a really quick, "OW!"

Oh yeah, Hoagie just wanted to crawl away somewhere and die of embarassment. Nervousness made him laugh, and it sounded incredibly loud to him in the cave too. "Welp! IIIIII think I'm going to go crawl in a hole somewhere and never show my face, what do YOU guys have planned for your future..." He stopped because she was shaking or something...no...

She was laughing. Abby was LAUGHING at something HE said. Not that he really wanted to be laughed at now, had she thought the entire thing was a joke? He looked away feeling hurt but unsure of what to do. Something told him that he should probably move away or something. Just as he shifted to go she grabbed his hand, "Numbuh Five's s-sorry, she didn't mean to laugh at you..."

"Ooookaaay..." Hoagie said, still feeling slightly hurt.

"It's just that Numbuh Five like's Hoagie, he's a pretty cool guy." She said with a smile that he could almost make out in the darkness. Hoagie felt disappointment ready to crash into him like a tital wave.

"But he's only a friend..." Hoagie whispered sadly. She snorted at him, and he looked at her in surprise.

"That, is the worst joke you come up with yet boy." She said, Hoagie blinked in confusion, "Abby like's you, not only as a friend, don't be stupid and don't say somethin' like that again or she'll have to kick your butt."

"Something...like what." Hoagie said, honestly the real meaning of her words hadn't sunk in yet. (And he's called Wally slow...)

"That he's only a friend." She said, and hit him with her hat. Slowly, ever so slowly, he got it. Hoagie sat there feeling a mixture of elated, stunned, lost, and...elated...did he already say that. He jumped up suddenly, yanking Abby to her feet with him. The girl staggered with surprise.

"YEAH! WOOHOO!" Hoagie yelled (The writer just adores that kid right now) he actually jumped high enough to smack his head on the roof of the cage, "Ouch, YIPPEE!"

"Trying to sleep here Numbuh Two..." Numbuh One finally said, saving Abby from the embarassment of her cheering crush. The boy hugged her giddily, he could have kissed her, but hey, they hadn't even been on a date yet! Sure, they'd been on a not-a-date but that didn't count. He wouldn't move any faster than any gentlemen would. (Somebody say awww and squeeze the life out of this kid!)

Abby laughed, he loved her laugh. It made him feel special when she laughed. He sat down and grinned so wide that it hurt, and even though he knew nobody could see it he kept on grinning. He was HAPPY right now, genuinely happy. It was the feeling he got when he flew, a feeling of elated freedom. He hugged Abby tightly. "Woah, calm down..."

"Sorry..." Hoagie said breathlessly and lay back down. Abby stayed sitting up for a few more seconds, watching him in the darkness.

"Abby made you really happy, didn't she?" She said, sounding...slightly in awe. Hoagie wondered why, she was somebody who was, in all honesty, WAAAAY out of his league. Yet she liked him! Really liked him! She said so herself! As childish as it was he kicked his feet a little in the air for it. She chuckled lightly at him.

"Really happy." Hoagie decided, even if death was at their door. No, he wouldn't let Abby die. He couldn't now, he had an obligation to uphold to at least stand by her side. (Because Abby would never be protected) He'd be her wingman, if anything, and he was proud of himself for that.

(Wally)

He felt like telling Kuki now would be a bit copy-cattish, and he didn't want to be a cruddy copy-cat. (REALLY!? The writer wants to beat you up for that! Oh...right she technically...made that...up...what, who's that over there!? -flees-) Heeey, he totally just made a joke that Numbuh Two would have made.

Crud.

Wally heaved a sigh, he was still in his corner (it was a comfortable enough place he supposed) but Kuki was sleeping with her head in his lap. He hated to admit it, being a non-romantic tough-guy like himself, but it gave him the warm fuzzies. And made him feel better too. She had forgiven him for being stupid.

He didn't deserve that. Or Kuki.

Wally grimaced at the thought of dawn. With dawn came light, and with light...well, his cat-state wouldn't exactly be a secret anymore. How was he going to explain everything, without springing it on Kuki completely the wrong way. He wanted to tell her HIS way, he wanted to tell her on his OWN time, a time that he could take it and not be embarassed.

Crud this falling in love stuff was making him soft. Maybe it had something to do with being a cat too, since they were squishy and fluffy. But then, Elder had been a cat and he was freaking PSYCHO, with all of his electricity and such. His friends might DIE...all because of him. Wally held Kuki a little tighter, if that freak even touched one HAIR on Kuki's head he'd gut him...her...it.

This was all terribly confusing.

Wally twitched his ears and put his chin on Kuki's head, his eyes drooped. He had never been so tired until this very moment. He couldn't help it, he found himself...slowly...drifting...off...into s l e e p...

He woke up before everyone else, except maybe Behemoth and the kittens but he wasn't really worried about them. For a moment the boy wondered what he could possibly do, dawn had come and gone and the once pitch-dark cavern was now lit with some sunshine. The clouds had left in the middle of the night, not that that would have provided sufficient darkness to hide ANYWAYS...

Wally lashed his tail, and sighed. "Hey kid, good morning." Behemoth meowed softly. Wally blinked at him, and, almost as an after-thought the tabby added, "They'll find out no matter what now, might as well get it over with. Besides, today is your last chance to tell Kuki how you feel, or you'll be Tiger for the rest of your life."

"Yeah...wait, WHAT!?" Wally yelled, startling Kuki into wakefulness and the entire rest of the team. "Last day!?"

"Woops...did I not mention that. Sorry, between worrying about my children and trying to save your life it slipped my mind." Behemoth replied dryly. Wally lashed his tail, which...well, kind of drew attention to it. Which he realized straight after he did it too, he looked over at his friends and gave them a fangy-sheepish grin.

"Is...that a TAIL?" Numbuh Five said.

"Nah, it's a snake." Behemoth said sarcastically. (Somebody's in a bad mood...)

"Uh...yeah...hehehe..." Wally twitched his ears, which made Numbuh Two's eyes practically bug out of their goggles. "An' ears...an' claws...an'...erm, fangs Ah think..."

"YOU'RE SOOOOO CUUUUUUUUTE!" Wally winced as Kuki screamed that in his ear and tackled him. "That's adorable, loookit how FLUFFY they are!"

She tickled his ears and Wally clasped his hands over his mouth when a PURR rumbled out. A cruddy purr! ACK! He felt like he could just disappear right now, he was utterly humiliated. Kuki, however, thought it THAT much more cute, and decided to squeeze the life out of our Australian cat-hybrid.

"Heheheh, how cute." Numbuh Five said, though she had a tone of amusement and mischeviousness mixed. Wally twitched his ear, which resulted in another excited squeal from Kuki, "Mind explainin' this Numbuh Four?"

"Yes, I'm sure it's INTERESTING..." Numbuh One said.

Wally took a deep breath, "Well about six months ago Ah made this old lady mad, she was with Father tha' one toime? Yeah, Ah think so, anyways Ah made her mad and she was all: Ah curse ye with...somethin' about fur and paws and such. Then Ah turned into a cat an' then Ah ran to tell you guys but ya didn't recognoize meh..."

"TIGER!" Numbuh Two yelled, startling Wally so badly that he almost jumped out of his hoodie. The boy glared at his friend and pointed at the ears, "Oh, sorry, you're hearing is sharper now isn't it! COOL!"

"You were Tiger!?" Kuki said, making an effort (Bless her) to keep her voice down this time, "THAT'S why he reminded me so much of you! And why he disappeared when you came back!"

"Yeah..." Wally said, rubbing the back of his head and flattening his ears at the memory of his first life lost. "ANYWAY, whoile Ah was livin' with ya gouys Ah went ta look for a way...whoy did Ah go outsoide again? Oh! Ah went ta foind that lady an' make her change meh back. Then Ah met Behemoth."

"Yup." Behemoth affirmed, nudging his kittens with his nose to get them to wake up.

"An' he took meh to Acacia, who lived here when it wasn't creepy. She told meh...erm...h-how ta break the curse. Which Ah did in toime to rescue Kuki from Father, and then have her rescue me from him, and then weh went home...an...well Ah guess it started actin' up again awhoile ago...cause...of stuff..." Wally coughed nervously, "An' this Elder gouy faught meh only he was a cat named Scythe only not Scythe cause he'd taken over Scythe somehow with electricity..."

"So this Elder was a CAT!?" Numbuh One said, Wally glanced at him as if to say well DUH, why did THAT matter? (Heeeey, Operation M.A.U.R.I.C.E. is on...) Still, if he had been a huggy kind of guy he would have glomped the snot out of the team leader for taking the conversation away from the fact that he didn't exactly mention HOW he had broken his curse. Phew.

"Yes, so?" Behemoth asked, twitching his tail.

"Behemoth says, Yes so?" Wally translated, the cat snorted and turned his back on the leader of the team. Numbuh One's brow was furrowed in concentration.

"Electricity..." Numbuh Two suddenly said, snapping his fingers, "Hey guys! Do you know what happens when you get a light bulb wet?"

"No." Wally said, "Whoy would Ah cruddy want too?"

"Becaaaause it might be just the thing that'll beat this Elder guy!" Numbuh Two said, Numbuh Five grinned at him, and Wally decided that made for an appropriate moment to make a gagging motion with his finger and mouth. Kuki was not amused, and she hit him for it. "When you get lightbulb's wet, ones that are on, it shorts them out! If we could get this Elder guy near some water..."

"THE TUNNELS!" Behemoth yowled, jumping up and down. Everyone shot a questioning look at the cat, then glanced at Wally expectantly.

"What!? Ah'm jus' a cruddy transl...word changer to make ya gouys understand him thing?" Wally snapped, forgetting the word he wanted halfway through and switching to his own meaning. Kuki giggled by him, and fiddled with his tail, "Heeey, Kuuukiii stooop..."

"I'm SORRY it's just so SOFT!" Kuki giggled, Wally smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. Inside though...he was so happy, so relieved. He hadn't realized how worried he'd been that his friends would think he was a freak until he told them. They were FINE! (Buddy, they saw how FREAKED you were about telling them, duh, they aren't going to tease you.)

"He said tha' the tunnels...TUNNELS! OH ROIGHT!" Wally jumped up and yelped a bit since Kuki was still holding his tail. He shot her a quick look.

"Hehehe, Sooorry Numbuh Fooour..." Kuki said, releasing his tail. Wally hung his head. It was hard enough acting tough when he was a good foot shorter than most of the people he hung out with all the time, it was about thirty times worse now that he had ears and a tail.

"There are tunnels over there!" Wally said, pointing, "They got water in em'!"

"Can we get through with Lizzie?" Numbuh One asked, Wally tried to remember, the cavern had been pretty spacious there. Behemoth's head tipped to one side, and finally the tom nodded.

"It might be a tight squeeze for Elder, but maybe we could do something to lure him back there?" Behemoth meowed excitedly. Wally relayed this idea to his friends. It was Numbuh Five who, of course, pointed out the major flaw in their plan.

"Numbuh Five just has one question..." She said, "How do we get outta this?"

Numbuh Two grinned, and held up a marble with a mischevious grin. Not ANY marble, of course. It was a M.A.R.B.L.E. "I saved it just in case, if we have to go out we're goin' out with a bang."

Abby's smile turned into a frown, and she smacked him upside the head. "If we get outta this you'll hafta remind Numbuh Five WHY she decided she liked you."

"Awww, I'm hurt." Numbuh Two said with a wicked grin, "I found it really funny."

Hope Hoagie's confession wasn't anti-climatic. I tried to make it cute, and show both of their personalities in that situation.

Aww, I'm so happy they made up. XP

...

...

I'm confusing myself now. Reviews are much appreciated. Will they ever escape the EVIL clutches of Elder!? Who knows...

Wow, I'm thinking that there might be two more chapters left...

Three tops...

In other words this fanfiction is going to be finished tomorrow. 0.o

Sorry, I know that the part where Wally's secret was discovered wasn't that great. -.- I tried but my juices ran to a screeching halt...so yeah.

Reviews much appreciated as always.