Chapter 2

The three mutant animals all shared a collective pause at Kyle's statement. His niece went to Deer Meadows Elementary School? The same one that those terrorists on the news had invaded? And what sickos hold little kids hostage?

Sunny, the lioness, was the first to respond in her gruff voice. "Then they will pay", she growled. "The terror ones."

"First off", Cu the mastiff began, "It's terrorist. Second, where in the heck's Greenport? Do you even know how t'get there?"

Kyle slowly nodded. "I think so. Further down Long Island. But it took a couple hours".

"So", Kamai the ferret smirked. "We go there on a road trip, kick their asses and save some little kids. Easy!"

"Hold yer horses", Cu grimaced. "Are we really gonna help? You saw them cops there. No one could get anywhere near the school. If we got close to them terrorists, they'd pop us fulla holes. If not them, then the cops. And if not us, then the kids."

Sunny got up from her haunches in front of the worn sofa, walking to the coat rack near the door. Hanging there was a denim vest, or at least what used to be one. The faded blue fabric now barely poked out beneath iron plates of scrap metal riveted in shingles onto the denim. Before long she had this makeshift armor off its wooden hanger, throwing it on over her shouders.

Kyle must have followed the lion's unceremonious trek to throw on her armor too closely, for Cu now whirled around himself. "Sunny", he groaned. "Now c'mon. I wanna help as much as the next-"

"Coward", she snarled at him while buttoning up. "If you want to help, then help."

"Yeah", Kamai egged on, prodding Cu's knees with plenty of pokes. "We can even take yer car, dude. Tinted windows and all that, they'll never see us. And neither will those terrorist jerks when we sneak up and attack 'em. We'll stick 'em like pigs!"

Cu sighed. "Guess it's three t'one here. Aw, alright, I'll go. But when those crazies mow us down, don't come cryin' ta me."

"We won't", Kamai shrugged. "We'd be dead".

"My thoughts exactly", Cu said with a defeated look.

Kyle took in a deep breath, watching his companions chat about the tall order. From all he'd seen of them, the three animal-people all moved swiftly and without a sound. Cu's big-boned body and Sunny's ramshackle scale mail didn't betray either when they were on the prowl, and much less the short and speedy Kamai. He'd barely heard the trio close in on his ninja assailants weeks ago. Then again, it also helped he was concussed, and more focused on a sucking chest wound than wondering if anyone was coming to his rescue. If anyone could ambush the terrorists, they could.

Of course, Cu's cynicism was right. It would be an hours-long drive, depending on traffic. Especially with panicked relatives and more police called in, all headed toward the same scene. And he'd seen the carnage they could dole out to the private property. What happened if they turned those guns on the students and faculty? What happened if his new friends all fell in a hail of gunfire, too? Would the feds ship them off to some lab to dissect them?

A lab? An autopsy lab. Oh no. What happens if his older sister Jean had to identify her little Sarah's-

"Kyle?"

Big, maroon eyes glinting yellow-green in the dim light were staring straight at him, inches from his face. Kyle yelped and flinched. "Criminy! Don't do that, Sunny!"

The lion-woman, a couple inches taller than him, now stepped back. She had something clenched in both hands. A small, thin book with a gold-colored spine and a watercolor picture on the cover. It was the image of a little puppy dog in a meadow, sniffing curiously at a little yellow lizard. One of the picture books he'd borrowed from Sarah.

"It's her book", Sunny blinked. "Sarah's book. Right?"

"Yeah", Kyle frowned. "The same Sarah who let me borrow that book for you to read. She's in danger. C'mon, I just said this. Why are you making this worse, Sun?"

It was an awkward exchange to borrow that book, "The Pokey Little Puppy", and a couple others to sharpen Sunny's reading skills. It was an exchange one Kyle couldn't let Sarah tell his sister or her daddy about. It was weird enough to ask an eight-year-old for books for a mutant who, while clearly intelligent behind her mannerisms, was still struggling with language. All throughout the trade - a couple storybooks to borrow, and Sarah'd borrow a couple of his more kid-friendly comic books - he feared what questions her parents might ask a grown adult and her uncle. It would've looked just plain creepy.

It's not like Sunny could've been Sarah's classmate or something. A big lion with the brain and body of a young adult like Kyle, sitting at a tiny desk made for a child half her size, raising a big paw-like hand to ask questions? What a bizarre sight that would be. She wasn't even like like Cu or Kamai, who received their basic education in secret. Some kind of mad scientist taught Cu, and the hound got more education than just Kamai's basic literacy.

At least she wouldn't be the only student to have temper tantrums. But the problem was, her particular temper tantrums got particularly... bloody.

Sunny continued to stare at Kyle, one of her ears flicking. She was a weird one. According to what the boys knew, she had little contact with people before she'd met Cu and Kamai. Maybe that explained it. A few feet behind her in the small living room, Cu was tightening the straps of his hip holster against his beefy thigh. Kamai was tucking various small metal items, taken from a tin container and a previously tightly-wrapped towel, into hidden compartments on his dark purple outfit. Wait, was one of those things a hand grenade? Couldn't be. Kyle squinted to try and get a better look. He failed as the lioness finally stopped staring, and started wrapping her arms around him in a bear hug instead.

"Sunny", he grunted. She was squeezing his breath out. And those bits of metal were digging into his chest. "What're you-"

The lioness pressed her forehead into his cheek. She nuzzled him as if she were an oversized house cat. "If Sarah is a part of your pride", she answered, "Then she is in mine, too. I will save her, Kyle. I promise."

Kyle coughed, "O-okay. St-stop crushing me." What was he thinking? She acted like an oversized house cat.

Raising her head suddenly with a concerned look, Sunny loosened her grip. Kyle took a breath of sweet relief, now awkwardly hugging Sunny back. She always seemed to like physical affection.

"I'm scared for her", Kyle sighed. "And I'm scared for the three of you, too. I'm starting to regret telling you guys she's there. For all I know, she could be home sick or something."

With a click of his pistol's slide back into place, a crouching Cu cast his sights on the boy and his cat. "Don't matter if she's there or not, Kyle. None of them kids deserve this", he said. "They're too young fer that. I bet those teachers don't, either. I'm scared too. Guns make everything scary. This thing's a peashooter to theirs, I'd bet. I wanna help. But we've got to be careful about it."

"I'm sorry about all of this", Kyle replied, "Really".

"Yo", Kamai blurted as he whirled around, slipping a three-pointed shuriken into one of his chest pockets. "Quit yer belly-achin', buddy. You know I'd spring into action even if you didn't have relatives in danger. It's a perk to kickin' gun nut butt, right? Besides, I'm a ninja and they're..." He paused, looking between Cu and Sunny. "They ain't too bad at sneakin', either! Hey Kyle! You know how to drive stick? 'Cause I sure don't!"

Cu grumbled, slipping his gun into its holster and, now holding the rattan shaft of his spear, used it to heft himself up off the floor. "Where would you even get a license, Kosugi?"

Gone from his spot in a flash, Kamai had climbed halfway up the coat rack. Grabbing a long, light, dark blue scarf and yanking it down as he gracefully hopped off the rack, the ferret shrugged. "Who cares? Where'd you learn to drive, anyway? You drive like some guy's drunk grandpa!"

"Hush", Sunny shot back, letting go of her human friend. "Are we going soon?"

"Hell no", Cu complained. "Not like this. We'd be three freaks in broad daylight".

Kyle shrugged, "Well. I guess I've got spare throw blankets. Maybe they'll cover you guys up while we get to your car, Cu?"

"And of course", Cu grimaced. "It's still as hot as the dog days o' summer. In September. Hell's bells. At least I've got the AC runnin' again on the ol' clunker. Let's get them blankets on n' hit the road, gang".

Good old Uncle Matt and his assorted hand-me-downs. Where would Kyle be without them?