Disclaimers in the first part. A special thank you to our Beta Reader, liz_Z! Is there a need for a rope at the end?...We're not sure you'll have to find out...hehehe.

Gone Fishing 5/9

Hobbes had seen Darien and Richard talking, so he decided not to interrupt. He figured it had to do with Ann and it was none of his business. A few minutes later, he heard a commotion down stairs and looked out the window. He didn't see anything, went downstairs and went to the back of the cabin.

He saw the lawn furniture knocked over, but no sign of his partner. `Maybe he went to his room and I didn't hear him?' As he went up the stairs to Darien's room, he called out, "Hey, Fawkes, you up here? I'm coming in, so get your pants on or something."

Hobbes opened the door slowly and peeked in. He searched around Darien's room. The bed was still made; everything was in its place. The magazine was still on his bed. Hobbes went over and picked it up, "`Philosophy Now', geez, kid, can't you read something else?" A piece of paper fell from the magazine. "Oh, hello, what do we have

here?"

He read the note and ran down stairs. He opened the door and Steven was standing there with a worried look on his face.

"Bobby, is Darien here?"

"I was going to ask Ann where he was." He was suspicious of her and there was something going on here.

"We haven't seen her and thought that she would be here."

"I found this note and they were supposed to meet out back." Hobbes ran past him and ran to the back.

He looked at the mess, "Hobbes, what happened here and where's Darien?"

"Ah, Fawkes, not again, I told you to stay inside. Your dad was with him last. Let's go talk to him." Hobbes went to speak with Richard when he came running out. He nearly ran Hobbes over.

"Hobbes, I'm sorry, it's Ann. She's gone."

"What? Where? When?"

"Wow, great questioning, they teach you that in spy class?" Steven was trying to make light of a tough situation. Hobbes looked at him and thought he heard a little of Darien's sarcasm.

"I don't know. I was out here talking to Darien. I left him right here. I went back into the house and saw a note. She's gone into the woods to look for Darien."

"Oh, Ann, we've got to look for her." Steven started to run towards the woods. Richard stopped him.

Hobbes saw how concerned the brother was about the sister. `Either this family is very close or they're great actors?'

"You can't go in there by yourself and you know it. Hobbes, shall we, again?"

"This is getting to be a habit with Fawkes. Yeah, let's go search and rescue again. Ann couldn't have gotten far. Let me get my stuff."

As he headed towards the cabin, he looked behind him and watched father and son. `If Ann had gone into the woods, where is Heather? She would be out here screaming up a storm. Something is strange here and I don't like it.'

Hobbes and Richard entered the woods. They headed in the same direction as they had last night. They widened their search pattern and called out Ann's name.

~*~

A shadow watched as Hobbes and Richard entered the woods. "Sir, they've started the search."

The voice on the other end of the line replied, "Good, is everything in place?"

"Yes, sir, the package is about to be delivered and the trail has been altered."

"Good work. Well done and proceed with caution."

With phone in pocket, the silhouette moved into the woods and out of sight. First it followed Hobbes, making sure to keep from making noises. This one was one of the best Agents the Agency had. No need to make him think he was being followed.

Richard cried out to Hobbes, "I found something here."

Hobbes came over to him and spotted the scarf on the ground, "It's one of hers. She may have left it here to find her way back."

"I guess we should follow it to see where it leads us?" Hobbes knew that that was convenient. Richard had found the trail last night and now tonight. He was glad they didn't call the Forest Rangers this time. He wanted to figure this out himself, without the interference from the outside.

~*~

Two men put Darien on the ground next to a huge tree. They had tied his hands behind his back and his feet as well. One patted Darien on the head, "Okay, pal, time to go to work." He looked at his partner, "Come on, let's get out of harms way. The big boys here don't play nice." With that said both men stepped backwards and got into their hiding spot, where they would be safe.

Darien waited until the men were out of sight and then he quicksilvered his hands, hoping to snap the rope that had his hand tied. It didn't work. He let out a slight moan as he heard what was coming.

~*~

Hobbes continued walking up the trail. There was something wrong about it and he knew. He hadn't seen anything new for a while but kept walking because of Jacobs. If Jacobs hadn't of been there Hobbes would have walked back and looked in another direction a long time ago.

Just then Hobbes saw some snapped twigs. He followed them onto another path. Someone had had a struggle here and he hoped it wasn't his partner.

"Richard, get over here!"

~*~

Darien quicksilvered his eyes to see what he already knew what there, two of them. He wanted to get up and run but knew he couldn't. His legs felt like they were solid led. Instead he watched the two green figures fight as they headed toward him. It looked like they were tying to see who would win while trying to get to him at the same time.

He heard a noise behind him and watched as the two men that had shoved him in front of the tree put on thermals. Darien snapped his head around as he heard the inhuman roar. What did these men want with a Bigfoot? Never mind, he knew the answer, the gland. Everything had to do with the gland.

Darien felt a sharp pain in the base of his skull. He cried out in pain as it grew sharper and he tried to fight off the demon. It was hard for him to get any sound out because there was tape over his mouth. The quicksilver had flaked from his eyes as soon as the headaches had started and all he could hear was the sound of two beasts fighting and moving closer.

Another ache of pain burst through his skull and he cried out in pain louder then before. But with the tape over his month is sounded like a moan. When Darien straightened his neck and looked straight ahead it was with crimson eyes.

~*~

Hobbes stopped walking the trial he was on. He waited and listened. He heard another roar and took off in a full run back the direction he had come. As he was running he pulled out his gun, taking the safety off. Hobbes heard a noise behind him but didn't have time to stop. He heard another in front of him and then everything went black.

~*~

Darien quicksilvered his eyes again, but this time without a worry. He watched as the two men shot darts at the two fighting creatures. One was hit with a dart, which Darien could only guess to be a tranquilizer. The now staggering Bigfoot headed towards the two men and he heard them cursing under their breath.

The creature blacked out and hit the ground with a huge thump just as it was about to attack. Darien wandered for a second how many tranq's they had used. It didn't seem anything would work. He felt kind of disappointed. He would have rather watched the beast snap the men's necks. Darien turned his attention back to the other. It was coming toward him.

He quicksilvered the ropes and tried to snap them again but it still didn't work. He quickly started rubbing the rope against the tree and hoped it would help loosen it. He smiled as the rope snapped and he jumped to his feet and took off running. The creature started after him. The two men ran after the Bigfoot.

Darien didn't look behind him but he knew that if a hunter had passed by at that minute, the Rangers would have been called. Darien thought how silly it must have looked to have an invisible man running from an invisible Bigfoot and being chased by two mystery men holding guns with enough tranq's to knock out several elephants. Then again, they could only half see, since he and the Bigfoot were both invisible.

~*~

Hobbes rubbed his head. Pain surged through it. The last thing he remembered was running; looking for his partner. He slowly remembered the figure he had seen, the one who had knocked him out, but the question is why?

~*~

Darien had long last lost `Bigfoot' and the two men who were chasing it. He was thinking about what to do for fun when he saw a bright orange jacket. He smiled. Hunters, he was going to go have some fun of playing hide-and-seek when he saw a familiar face.

"Hey there little guy," He said to the buck, "you know you shouldn't be here. Those nasty men might shoot you." After the buck didn't reply, not that it could anyway; he came up with an idea.

A few minutes later Darien Fawkes was running through the woods like a wild animal chasing away the wildlife and screaming out warnings that there were hunters after them and they needed to run.

~*~

Hobbes watched a very quicksilver mad Darien chase away wildlife. He couldn't help but smile. This was something he didn't expect. Sure, there were different reactions to the madness, once Darien had even tried to strangle Hobbes to get the counteragent. But Hobbes never thought in all his life that he would see this.

Hobbes reached for the syringe of counteragent he had brought with him before he headed into the woods. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a half empty syringe, "Aw crap!" He muttered. It must have cracked when he took the blow to the head. At least there was some left. Hobbes would give Darien another shot at the cabin.

"Hey buddy."

Darien turned around and eyed Hobbes, as if deciding whether to attack him or thank him. "What do you want?"

"I brought your blue kool-aid." Darien licked his lips and Hobbes felt relief that his partner actually wanted the counteragent.

~*~

Hobbes and Darien walked into the cabin and Darien wanted nothing more than to fall over and sleep for hours. "I'll get another syringe." Hobbes said, watching as Darien went to the closest chair and sat down.

Hobbes walked into his room and pulled out a shiny silver case which held the counteragent. By the time he had got the syringe of counteragent to Darien, it had been almost empty and had only turned three of the ten segments back to green.

Hobbes pulled out a small glass jar and stuck a syringe in. He filled it up with the blue liquid and flicked his finger against the glass to knock any air bubbles to the top. After getting the air out of the syringe, he headed back down the steps towards his partner. The last thing he needed was Darien going red eye again.

~*~

"Did he see you?"

"I don't think so sir, I knocked him out really fast."

"That's not good enough. If you compromise this mission you don't want to know what will happen to you!"

"I understand sir; there won't be any more mistakes."

"And how is the package?"

"Its fine, my people are getting ready to deliver it now. But sir, there is something I think you should know."

"Well?"

"There is more then one."

"Excellent! Two will be even better."

"Well, then we have a problem. We only caught one, the other went chasing after Mr. Fawkes."

"I don't care what you have to do, just get me both!"

The person in the shadows snapped its phone shut. Another plan needed to be arranged. Quickly and quietly it headed toward the cabins.

~*~

"Fawkes, just shut up and let me give you the counteragent!" Hobbes said in exasperation.

"Man, do you know how many needles people stick in me! I feel like a freakin' junkie!" Darien looked at him with pleading eyes, "Can't you wait until tomorrow? I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine." Hobbes replied. But as soon as Darien relaxed Hobbes jumped at him and shoved the needle into a vein. It was over just as quickly has it had started. Hobbes watched as all the segments on Darien's wrist turned green. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Hobbes, I'm gonna kill you!" Darien said getting ready to jump up from the chair he had been relaxing in seconds before.

Hobbes stopped him, "I wouldn't do that, you are already sore. Going after me will only make you hurt more in the morning."

Darien sat back in his chair, "Fine, but I am doing this for your sake, not mine. If I went after you you would hurt too much to even walk in the morning."

"What? You actually think you can take me?"

"No, I know I can."

"Fawkes, if you weren't already hurt I would prove you wrong." They both started laughing. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Hobbes went to go get it.

"Hey Jacobs, what's up?"

"Hey Bobby, I just wanted to let you know that Ann came back. Apparently she was over at the spa's relaxing."

"I thought she was in the woods looking for Fawkes?"

"So did I. But she said she was never there. I guess from what she told me she and Heather were relaxing and they both lost track of time. Ann forgot that she was supposed to meet Darien at 9:00 and you know the story from there."

Hobbes looked around and then looked back at Richard. "Where is she now?"

"Oh, I told her to stay at the cabin. As soon as she had heard about Darien she wanted to come over and see how he was." Richard smiled, "But, I said he would be to tired and she could try in the morning."

"Thanks man," Hobbes said. Richard said his goodbyes and Hobbes headed back to the main room where his partner was at. There was something he needed to talk to him about. Someone.

TBC...