Kipo dove behind the broken wall, breathing hard. She wasn't sure if they'd seen her or not, what with their four eyes and all, but she was fairly certain her far-from-graceful exit had been generally noticed. She tried to calm down, taking deep breaths, frantically checking for damage. On herself, that was. Luckily, she'd gotten a lot faster at summoning the jaguar's power, and the building she'd hit wasn't as tough as she was, apparently.
"C'mon Kipo, don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out. It's just aliens! That's not that crazy, compared to everything else you've seen!" She wasn't sure if her self-convincing was working, but she was sure of one thing.
It wasn't their four shining blue eyes or the blade-bearing arms that had freaked her out. It was the guns. Whatever those beings were, they were armed to the incredibly pointy teeth, and Kipo wasn't about to mess with people like that. She'd heard of guns in her history lessons, and while nobody in her burrow had any -Mayor Hoag had hated them- she knew what they could do.
The aliens -THE ALIENS!- hadn't done anything bad yet, and technically she was the one invading their area, but... She peered around the corner, boosting her eyesight to catch a glimpse of her goal. The gate was still alive, alight with white energy, rippling in gridlike patterns. She sucked in a breath, purple eyes going wide. It was still open. She could get back!
Kipo stepped around the ruined wall, carefully stepping over the more fragile pieces of clutter, tightening the straps on her backpack anxiously. The ancient buildings rose around her, walls and roofs collapsed after years of neglect and damage. They looked almost exactly like a normal destroyed city from her world, save one thing which Kipo was gradually picking up.
This apocalypse was a lot older than hers.
An alien voice roared out, deep and commanding. Answers leapt up from around Kipo, causing her to shrink back from the chittering and screeching. The small band seemed to have been enjoying a normal night when the portal had decided to come along, spit out a dimensional foreigner and ruin absolutely everyone's day..
It was strange not being able to understand the alien speech -why had all the mutes known English, Kipo wondered- but she knew their tones. Surprised, on edge, willing to harm. So she was creeping around, debating between breaking her jaguar powers for a mad dash to the portal or waiting until the aliens chilled out. Kipo wished she could just talk to them, it'd worked so many times before, but she couldn't, and that annoyed her to no end.
She sank back to the rubble under her feet. It hadn't been a very long day, but here it was evening, just hours after she'd woken up. "Don't follow the one-eyed robot, Kipo," she said to herself, growling a whispered imitation of Wolf's annoyed voice. "Oh, it'll be ok," she replied to herself in her own voice, just more free-spirited and idiotic than usual, waving her arms above her head. "I'll stay back, it didn't even notice us!" Kipo crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes sourly. "How was I supposed to know the thing could teleport?" She sighed, slumping. This had been entirely her own fault, and here she was, paying the consequence in another world. Now her friends, family, they were all so far away. She ran a hand through her hair, blinking. She was so far away… no! NO! She didn't have time for this. No pity parties for Kipo.
She looked back towards the portal, perched as it was on top of a nearby building. Five stories up. Quite the jump, even for her jaguar strength. She would have to go mega to be sure of that, but then she wouldn't be able to fit. Smaller bounds then.
The aliens hadn't left yet, inspecting the ring, weapons raised. Kipo wondered if they knew anything about it or how it worked. They were definitely cautious. She figured she should be, too, but the aliens with guns were definitely the more dangerous unknown in this particular equation. Kipo watched as the aliens chittered amongst themselves, and an argument started to brew. Two were pointing at the portal, eager, but the last of the three was not a fan of whatever idea they were having. Some more sharp words, and the two aliens went into the portal, the circle of light swallowing them up like a hungry mega-catfish. The last cried out in consternation, putting two of its four arms on its head.
A roar, and Kipo instinctively shrunk back as another being leapt up beside the remaining. This one was massive, at least seven feet tall and heavily built, gripping a pair of sparking swords in its lower arms. It shouted at the other, which replied in the defensive.
Kipo narrowed her eyes, brain working to use this to her advantage. They would be distracted for a bit by their little spat, and she could hear other voices calling out to those up top. The pair jumped down after another furious exchange of words, and Kipo tensed. That was her chance.
The portal began sparking as soon as she put power into her legs. She leapt to the broken floor above her, beast strength carrying her high. Her hands became pink-furred paws, claws scratching at the concrete of the building's walls, and she climbed for all she was worth. She reached the top of her building quickly, heart racing as the portal sparked further, the gridlike energies whirling within.
Kipo heard shouts behind her-the aliens had seen her-but she paid them no attention. She took a deep breath, gauging distance and strength needed. She could make this jump. She charged forward, shoving power into her legs, muscle surging under the fur on her limbs. She cried out as she leapt, no particular words in mind, but the ground forty feet below echoed it back to her all the same.
Kipo tumbled across the ruined roof, nails and rough edges digging into her, but she leapt to her feet as fast as possible, trying to regain the wind she'd lost. She didn't have time to worry about smashing the food in her bag or the splinters, because… The portal! It was shrinking, the light disappearing. Kipo moved with all the speed she could muster, going to all fours, forcing her body forward. "No!" she cried, "don't you dare!" Desperation fueled her, a need to go home, to see her friends and family again, to leave this unfamiliar place behind, and that desperation gave Kipo a strength she didn't know she had.
But even that wasn't enough. The portal closed, and she skidded to a stop, almost tripping over its empty metal rail. "No! No! That's not ok!" she shouted, panic filling her. Fear gripped at her, and she sank to her knees, frantically ordering her claws back into hands, clutching at the unfamiliar metal. It was colder than ice. It didn't respond, not a flicker, not a spark, nothing!
Wolf, her mom and dad, Benson, Dave, and Mondu… were they out of her reach now? Because of her one stupid choice, to mess with something that shouldn't have been messed with? Kipo shouted another wordless cry, then grabbed at her head. "C'mon, Kipo, stop, stop! Think! That's what you're supposed to be good at, though obviously you're not! Ok. Ok." She took a tight breath. "The portal home closed… was that because of the aliens that had gone through? Did they set it off?" Then she remembered something just as noise came from behind her. "Oh no." She spun, rising.
The aliens stood behind her, tall and four-everything'd, lighting flickering on blades, spikey guns drawn. Kipo took a breath and spread her palms, and tried her age-old tactic. "Hello!" She smiled. "I'm Kipo. I don't want to fight, I just want to get home." The new weight of that statement almost made her choke up, but she continued. "I'm sure we can work something out, so please don't attack me?"
The tallest, apparently the leader, stepped forward, blades brandished. He shouted in his language, anger plain in his tone and body language. Kipo stepped back, pushing down the fear that was rising. A terrible realization had come to her; yes, she could go all mega on this guy if it came to that, but with her anchors in quite possibly a different side of the universe, Kipo had no idea how she'd end up after the fact. Also, there were guns, and she'd just be a bigger target if she had to run.
The alien made a move towards her, but the other, who Kipo had seen earlier with the two who'd gone into the portal, stuck out two arms, trying to hold him back. It spoke, and Kipo realized that its voice and form was definitely more feminine than the others. She spoke to the large one, trying to calm him. He shouted at her, and suddenly the female alien spoke urgently to Kipo. "Child! Leave, now! Cariks angry, blaming you!"
Kipo's eyes widened, curiosity sparking even under all the other roiling emotions. "What?! You speak English?"
"Go!" the alien shouted, but the larger roared, tossing her away, charging at Kipo with lightning blades spitting sparks.
"Oh no." Kipo decided to take her advice and bolted. As she ran, her small human legs pounding on the roof, she tried desperately to summon the concentration needed for her jaguar strength. "Herbs out!" she cried, screwing her eyes shut for a half-second. Fur sprouted on her legs, and that just barely gave her enough speed to get out of the reach of the alien's swing.
In the back of her mind, somehow making it past the fear and adrenaline, Kipo noted that her ears and tail had come out as well. Well, no time to worry about that.
She reached the edge of the roof, and this time she didn't even think about it. She leapt off, desperately muttering under her breath. "Herbs out herbs out herbs out!" The command worked, and muscle mass grew on her arms and legs just in time to absorb the shock of an impact that would have surely broken, well, everything had she failed. Even then, it sent her rolling and tumbling across the broken street, coming to rest against the skeleton of a rusted car. Groaning, she sat up, shaking her head and looking up at the rooftops lit by the evening glow of oncoming dusk.
The alien was there, silhouetted. "What's the guy's problem?" she grumbled, sitting up. He was lifting something. What was that-?
A crack split the air, and pain erupted in Kipo's right shoulder. She yowled and scrambled away, instinctively getting to her feet and running, grabbing at the place of agony. Another shot, a small bolt of lightning, darted past her head and she hissed at it. Kipo rounded a corner, then two, adrenaline driving her enhanced legs until she reached trees. Some way into it, after the tree-speckled ruins had become a thick forest, she stopped running, gasping for breath and from the absolutely ridiculous amount of pain.
She stumbled to a halt, collapsing on a fallen tree. Kipo took a shuddering breath, trying to calm herself, bracing herself for what she would see. She bit her lip, then looked. Her upper arm was covered in blood, the fur damp and matted. She pushed panic down again, then took another look. The wound itself wasn't that deep, a graze, and it was somehow mostly closed? Whatever she was shot with, it seemed to have burned the wound as it made it, limiting the actual blood loss. Kipo herself had reopened it with her vigorous escape.
"He shot me," she said aloud. "I got shot!" That was such a foreign thing to say. She'd been shot, and wasn't dead! Sure, yeah it hurt like nothing else she'd ever felt, but she was still alive! But why had he done it? She thought for a moment about the aggressive alien. He'd been angry, specifically at her, but he'd been upset before that. About the other aliens going into the portal. Disobeying orders? No, he'd seemed too mad at her for that to be the case.
Kipo let in a slight intake of breath as she realized. Maybe they'd been related. And the larger one, a father or brother, had seen his family disappear in an unknown portal, something that could take them away from him forever. Maybe he thought she was the one that had taken them from him.
Kipo curled up on herself, hugging her legs with one arm. It was hard to stay mad at the guy with that perspective. She hoped the two aliens would be ok in her world, or wherever it sent them.
Kipo shook herself, and tried to remember what little she'd been taught about medical things. There wasn't a lot, except basic first aid and what she'd seen from books and movies. Besides, who even knew how accurate those were. First. Stop the bleeding. Well, maybe she should put the jaguar strength back? What would that even do?
"Nothing else for it." She gritted her teeth, and prepared herself. "herbs in." The power receded, and she cried out as pain tore through her. Jaw tight, she looked back down again, scared at what she would see. Surprisingly, the wound wasn't any worse, and seemed to have shrunk proportionally to the size decrease of her arms. It had opened further, though.
She looked down at her shirt, the white tee with the single ringed planet that had survived so many adventures. It was spotted with blood, now. She sighed and began ripping. Soon she had a bare midriff and a makeshift bandage, but Kipo knew that she'd have to get the wound clean sooner rather than later. The pain had subsided, and she stood, moving her right arm hesitantly. That would do, for now. She stood, picking up her backpack, which was pitifully light.
She forced a smile. "Well, Kipo? This certainly isn't the first time we've done this, survived in a strange new world we don't understand!" The smile fell slightly. "By ourselves." The smile fell away completely.
She'd just gotten everyone back.
Kipo sighed. "At least I have cool jaguar powers this time." She continued walking, seeing a break in the trees. She moved closer hoping for a better view of the surrounding area. She reached a cliff, and Kipo looked over the new world.
Her eyes widened.
The horizon was dominated by the tumbled and fallen shards of some massive spherical object, so huge that thunderstorms coiled within its broken curves, and the snow-dusted mountains beside it seemed merely hills. It was white, like ancient marble, or a perfectly bleached bone. Her mouth fell open at the sight, and she just stared for long moments at the majestic sight before her.
Eventually she was able to gather her thoughts and examine the rest of the alien skyline. To the strange shard's left lay a network of massive buildings lit by orange and red lights, a fortress of some kind, seemingly built over the ruins of an older city. She tried to see more, but her view was obstructed by trees. Kipo bit her lip in thought, and shrugged off her backpack. Now here was something she could maybe do something about.
Fur sprouted from her arms and legs, and she carefully let the claws out just a little. The big paws would only get stuck in the branches. In her effort of concentrating on her hands, the tail popped out again. "Ah! Darn that thing." She reached back and pulled it out, the long pink-spotted furry thing swishing and waving at her command. The tail was definitely the weirdest part. She concentrated again, eyes shut tight. "herbss… just a little tiny bit in." After a moment, the tail shrunk back quickly, and she perked up. At least she was getting a better handle on her powers.
Kipo leapt up and started climbing, using her legs as often as possible to lessen the stress on her wounded arm. Even with the loss of a limb, the tree was scaled easily. At the top, she scanned the entire area, lit by the setting sun.
There were more crumbling and destroyed towns visible in the distance, bridges going over a river, a lone church steeple poking above the ruins. A curiously dark forest, lit from within by strange blue lights. Floating vehicles-flying machines!?- moved across the sky, and a few seemed to be fighting each other. Above it all rose the shard of the great white sphere, threatening and sheltering at the same time.
"Yep, this is a different apocalypse all right." Breathing in the scents of the new world, she dared to hope, just a little. She knew what to do. It had worked the first time, it would work again.
She smiled, trying her best to actually feel it. It was time to go make new friends.
...
I'll just put this warning here. For any Kipo fans that don't know about how Destiny's guardians works, or what it takes to become one, the process is a little... traumatic. Do some research, if you like. It'll be rough, for a little bit coming up.