Sorry that this took my so long...blame Transformers Animated, i was watching a lot of episodes XD
After dinner Eric took our 3 hero's to the area of the faculty wear the animals were kept, they were going to go meet Jade near the Rhino enclosures. The encloser was made to be very strong and resilient; Rhinos are rather strong creatures after all. The fencing was so thick and close together that it was difficult to see inside, there were warning signs posted all around the area. Out of nowhere Jade jumped over the fence followed by an older yet shorter African woman. Something on the other side rammed the fence, Manny figured it was likely the rhino. Jade handed an empty syringe to a staff member. The African woman had her hair up in a blue bandanna and she wore a blue outfit that was clearly a super suit. The body suit was sleeveless with shorts, she had a thick adventures vest and combat boots.
The woman turned to look at the 3.
"Oh, you must be Manny, Marcus, and Frida! My daughter has told me nice things about you." The woman smiled happily. Her way of talking reminded Manny of his mother a bit.
"Well, thank you." Manny smiled politely.
"Wait…who's your daughter?" Marcus tilted his head slightly.
"Oh, Jade is my daughter! I wonder why people are always so surprised by that…?"
"Well, she's so stoic…and like a foot taller than you…" Marcus said, very clearly surprised.
"She's tall like her daddy." The woman said sweetly, gently patting Jade's shoulder in a parental manor.
"My name is Masika (mah-SEE-kah) by the way, so you don't have to keep calling me 'Jades mom'." She chuckled, she seemed like a very sweet woman.
"Though, she has been giving the nickname 'Mama' around here." Eric chirped up.
"Anyways, I've got a job for you, Manny." Jade chimed into the conversation.
"What kind of job?" Manny tilted his head in curiosity.
"Follow me, you too Frida and Marcus." The green haired girl stated as she turned and started to walk towards another enclosure.
"You see, those who have powers that stem from animal oriented magic's have a much greater ability to connect with them, especially those of the same species." Jade explained.
"What?" Marcus raised a brow in confusion.
"You're gonna have to give us the boiled down version…" Frida added, just as confused.
"If you have animal powers, you are less likely to be attacked by animals, and animals of the same species are far more likely to understand you." Masika added.
"So i can talk to animals!?" Manny asked excitedly.
"Not exactly, not with words anyways…" She continued.
"It's more like, feeling the others emotions I guess…it's hard to describe….you've probably done it with house cat's before without even knowing it." Eric chimed in.
"Well I hope he hasn't don…" Marcus's dirty joke was interrupted by Frida smacking her hand over his mouth, clearly she seeing the joke from a mile away.
"Do I need to be in my El Tigre form?" Manny asked.
"It would be best." Jade responded.
Manny switched to his Tigre form and they all walked up to a metal fenced enclosure, a cheetah sat on a rock. It didn't pay any attention to our hero's until it saw jade, then it happily pranced over to her.
"Hi there pretty girl." 3 Jade knelt down the pet the purring creature through the fence.
The 3 were a little surprised at her sudden change in tone.
"I guess you got a soft spot for that one, huh?" Manny chimed in.
"I love cheetah's." She answered as she pet the creature, not really paying attention to anything else.
Marcus elbowed Eric and winked at him about her statement. The blond boy's face turned bright pink and he looked away embarrassedly.
"Her name is Mimi, but she's not the cat we are here to see." Jade walked past the Cheetah's cage to one next to it.
Manny's eyes widened at a large tiger siting underneath a bush, it had one golden eye that seemed like it could see right into people's souls.
"This Black Jack, you're going to get in the cage with him." Jade said bluntly.
"I'm gonna what?!" Manny abruptly peeled his eyes of the tiger and snapped his attention towards Jade.
"You need to master this skill, and the only way to do it is by practice." The mint hared girl continued.
"It can bite my arm off!"
"Don't be such a baby, you've been through worse." Marcus mocked at the curly haired boy.
The Marcus leaned close to Manny and whispered;
"Besides, it might impress Frida if you can pull it off..." Then he leaned back and smirked at the tiger boy, who was blushing while also looking quite annoyed.
"Fine, I guess I'll give it a shot." Manny huffed and climbed over the fence.
"Anything to impress the girl..." Marcus snickered to himself.
The enclosure was a little bigger than the size of his living room. (his living room seemed kind of big in the show) Manny slid over the top of the fence and landed gracefully on the ground, the tiger took notice and watched him carefully. The back of the enclosure had lots of brush and small tree's.
"Hehe, nice kitty…." El Tigre chuckled nervously.
"Stop that, animals can sense your fear and it will agitate them." Jade instructed bluntly from the outside.
"I'm not scared!" Manny snapped defensively
"Were not that stupid dude, you're shaken like a leaf." Marcus chuckled from outside.
"Well, most of us anyways…" Frida smirked, side eyeing the demonic boy.
"HEY!" Marcus snapped.
Tigre would have snickered if he wasn't so concerned with the large predatory animal in front of him. His body froze when the creature slowly stood up. Black Jack slowly walked towards the nervous boy; the tiger seemed curious, which seemed like a good sign.
"H..hi there Black Jack…" Manny tried to stay calm; he wasn't sure why this creature freaked him out so much, he's faced far more dangerous situations than this.
The tiger stopped a few feet in front of him and tilted its head curiously. It made a strange Pfffff noise at him; it seemed like a friendly noise.
"Well he seems like he likes you, Tigers make that noise as a way of saying hello." Masika chirped up from the other side of the fence.
It was at this moment that Manny made a mistake; he locked eyes with Black Jack. Manny suddenly felt twice as much fear; he could swear those eyes were staring straight into his soul. The tiger sensed something was wrong and growled. Manny began to back up, which was his second mistake. Black Jack charged aggressively, Manny quickly scrambled up the fence and outside the enclosure. Marcus and Frida back away from the fence to avoid the claws of the tiger as he smashed into the fence.
El Tigre started to calm down now that he was outside the cage, Jade walked over to him with an unreadable expression.
"Sorry…I don't know why he freaked me out so much…" Manny's ears drooped a little bit
"It's ok, Black Jack has that effect on people." Jade stated.
Marcus looked at the large cat, who was now walking back to his bush. "He is a pretty big tiger, dang he must eat a lot…"
"Yes, yes he does." Eric responded.
Jade's mom looked over at the sunset; it was starting to get dark out. "It's getting kind of late; perhaps you should head back to your rooms for the night. You're probably tired from that plane ride." She smiled.
"Well I'm not really tired, but I need to call my dad. I promised him I would call each day. .." Frida responded.
"Ether way you'll need your rest, I'll be testing your fighting skill's tomorrow." The mint haired girl added. Then she turned around and began to walk away, Eric closely following.
"Ok, well I got to check on the animals in the vet center, have a good night." And with that Masika left the three.
"Well I guess we should head back to our room's…" Marcus stated.
Manny and Frida nodded.
The three started to walk back to the building; Frida had gotten out her phone and was currently talking to her parents. Her father sounded worried, while her mother seemed curious. Those two really made a perfect pair; Emiliano is protective while Carmela is patient. The two balance each other out.
"Ok, I guess we'll let you go now, be careful." Carmela stated from the speaker.
"I will Mom, love you!" Frida responded.
"Love you too, bye!" Both parents could be heard saying.
Frida hung up and put her phone away.
The 3 were only a few feet from the steps of the building when Marcus spoke up.
"I wonder why they have armed guards…" He was looking towards a tower that was in the corner of the facility, a man stood at the top with padded cloths and a gun of some kind.
"It because of the Tiger Slayer." Chen suddenly said from behind them, scaring the heck out of the 3.
Chen burst out laughing; she clearly didn't mean to scare them, she tried to apologize to them between her fits of laughter.
"S..s..sorry! I t..though you…" * laughter* "Ok, I thought you knew I was there! My shadow was well with in your peripheral! (bigcatdereck reference!) Sorry!" She chuckled as her fit of laughter came to an end.
"It's ok, wow you can be quite when you want to!" Marcus responded, still a little startled.
"Anyways, who is the tiger slayer?" Frida asked.
"He's the leader of the poacher group that's hunting animals on an extreme scale. He sometimes attacks our transport trucks, were afraid he might attack this place directly. That's why we have the armed guards." The white haired girl answered.
"Wow, he sounds messed up." Marcus responded.
"Yeah…anyways goodnight, I'm going to go do some exercises before bed." Chen waved before turning and heading towards the back of the housing building.
The three headed for their rooms. Once Frida got to her room she sat at the table and began wrighting something down in her journal. Once Manny and Marcus got back to their room the tiger boy laid back on his bunk, resting and thinking. Marcus grabbed the chest and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Manny asked curiously.
"I'm going to the roof to see what's up with this chest's wonky aura." He said.
"Don't forget your room card, cause I will not let you back in." Manny chuckled a bit
"I got it."
"And try not to release any demons upon the world."
"No promises."
"Fair enough."
