Here is the next installment...Disclaimers in the first part. This is almost over folks. Thanks for the wonderful feedback.
Gone Fishing 7/9
"What are you doing here, Arnie? I'm sure it's not because you fish. You just don't seem like the woodsy type." Darien glared at Arnaud.
"Speak up De Freak." Hobbes said impatiently.
"Okay, if you must know. I'm here to help you, Fawkes. Someone wanted to use you as bait to catch Bigfoot." He looked at the surprised look on Darien's face. "Yes, Fawkes, someone knows about your little romp in the woods. I find it quite amusing actually, that some big hairy creature would be interested in you."
Darien picked up Arnaud and started to strangle him. Hobbes grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Not now, Fawkes, put him down. You can kill him later."
Darien reluctantly agreed. "Arnie, cut the crap and give me a straight answer. Who would use me as bait?"
"I think that you already know that one. Quite clever of Kevin though to use Bigfoot's gland as a model. He's smarter than I thought." Arnaud knew he had to switch the focus off of him to make his get away.
"See, I knew it, Chrysalis!" Hobbes retorted. "They want to make a gland of their own."
"Yeah, okay, one more question, Arnie, how did you find out? Chrysalis doesn't leak this kind of information out."
"Please, Fawkes, don't insult my intelligence, this is what I do, I find things out. How do you think I found out about Kevin and his project?" Arnaud heard something behind them.
Darien turned around slowly as he heard something too. "I think we better get out of here." Darien's voice was full of concern.
"Yeah, I think you're right. The two of you together are sending off signals that would make a ship load of sailors in port go crazy."
Arnaud was not a least bit amused by Hobbes' comment. "As much as I hate to admit it, but Hobbes is right; we should leave and take this conversation else where."
Arnaud suddenly fell to the ground with a grunt. Darien saw a fuzzy dart sticking out of him. All Hobbes saw was a fuzzy dart.
"How do you like it?" Darien said sarcastically.
Hobbes pulled out his gun and looked around. "Do you see anything?" he asked as he tried to find cover.
Darien found a tree stump to crouch behind, "No, I don'toh, waithold on here."
There was movement in the area, then silence. Hobbes whispered, "Do you think it's Wendigo?"
"Not sure, I don't" Darien was cut off by a sound of a small cannon going off. A cylinder flew through the air and landed near them. It started to emit some kind of gas.
"Let's get out of here!" Hobbes yelled as he started to run.
Darien tried to pick up Arnaud, but another can came near him. He couldn't take the nausea that had come over him. He ran as fast as he could to catch up to Hobbes.
"Where's Arnaud?" Hobbes asked, while trying to catch his breathe.
"I left him back there. Another one of those cans came at me. I had to run, I wasoh, nomove!" Darien pushed Hobbes out of the way and vomited.
"You left Arnaud back there?"
"Hobbes, it's not like I wanted to. Let's go back, but if I get sick again, it'll be on your shoes."
When they reached the spot where they left Arnaud, he was gone. "He couldn't have just gotten up and walked away?" Darien questioned.
"Maybe he wasn't knocked out at all, my friend. The cans are gone too."
"This is getting stranger by the minute. Someone had to fire those cans off. Who's helping him?"
~*~
Arnaud had been placed on the ground near the spot were Darien had been the other day. The two of them together had proven to be very useful. The two glands had sent of a very strong scent for the other Bigfoot. It didn't take long for things to happen.
Through thermals, she was able to see Bigfoot come running for the unconscious Arnaud. Bigfoot picked him up and started to run, but was hit with a dart. It staggered a bit, but would not let go of Arnaud. Another dart whizzed through from another direction and hit its target.
"What thewhere did that other dart come from?" demanded the voice behind the tree.
"I don't know ma'am. Shall we investigate?"
The look on the woman's face became angry, "The Agency! Get that hairy creature and bring back that sniveling weasel. Stark isn't done with him yet."
The Agency agents were outnumbered by Chrysalis and were easily defeated. Bigfoot had collapsed and dropped Arnaud. He was moaning, but not awake. The woman bent down and gave him another sedative.
"Take him back to his cabin. Make sure that those agents are not around here, we need to get this creature loaded up without any more interference from the Agency. I'll go back and take of Fawkes myself."
~*~
Arnaud woke up with a slight hangover; the strange thing was, he was back at his cabin. He had some new bruises and slightly sore. That prick, he tranquilizes me and then he beats me up... But, why he didn't just kill me, why bring me back to my cabin' His thought trailed off, Wait, Fawkes doesn't know what cabin I'm in. He doesn't even know I'm staying on the grounds. Unless, I was used for bait, but, Stark got his bigfoot yesterday' Arnaud was starting to put this together.
Someone else used Fawkes for bait and the Bigfoot caught yesterday wasn't for Stark, but' His thought trailed off yet again as he heard Darien and Hobbes outside his window. They were so close and didn't know that he was practically under their noses.
He tried to listen, but they stopped talking when a cute girl came up to Darien. He looked at her; he had seen too many Chrysalis agents not to recognize one. It was her, the one next door to Fawkes. Now this is interesting, you have no clue do you Fawkes? You certainly are not as smart as your brother, now are you?'
He decided it was time to go before Darien and his little neurotic partner got a hold of him again. He had hoped that Stark was able to catch that other Bigfoot that was running around. He wanted his gland fixed so that he could be visible again.
He packed his bags and got out as soon as possible. There was a Chrysalis agent on the campground. Using Darien as bait was an ingenious idea and he really didn't like the job of being bait himself. When he returned, he would have to have a little chat with Stark. The woman who was now talking to Darien and Hobbes had sedated him, he was sure of it. He wanted to find out who else had wanted the Bigfoot, but he had a pretty good idea on who it was.
~*~
"Darien can we talk, alone?" Ann snorted as she eyed Hobbes with a certain distain for him.
Hobbes gave Darien with apprehension in his eyes. Darien had learned to read his partner, they had spent nearly a year together now and they were getting to know each other quite well.
"Fawkes, let me go on record here, this is not a good idea, my friend."
"I'll be careful, okay. Will ya trust me on this?"
Hobbes watched as Darien and Ann walked away, "That is one tricky chick, there Fawkes, keep your eyes and ears open."
"Okay, well, here's a question for you. Why did you leave a note for your dad saying that you went into the woods looking for me when you were at the spa with your mom?" Darien remembered what Hobbes said about looking to the left or right, but he couldn't remember which way meant that she was lying.
"Darien, I never left a note for my dad."
"Really, he told Hobbes that you did." Darien couldn't remember if Hobbes had seen the note or not.
"Darien, I didn't leave a note, I'm telling you the truth. Besides, don't you think it's kind of sexy? Me leaving a note to go look for you; shows you that I care." She tried to move closer to him, but he just backed away more.
"Ann, please, you are a hot chick, but I'm seeing someone already." Darien backed up even more until she nearly pounced on him; he tripped over something and landed on his butt. She fell on top of him and looked into his eyes as she moved her mouth just inches above his.
"Ann..." Darien started to say something when she put her hand over his mouth.
"Shhh, don't talk. What your girlfriend doesn't know won't hurt her." She placed her lips on his and tried to force his lips apart with her tongue.
Visions of nano-bugs danced in his mind, not to mention a very angry Cordelia. He pushed her away from him and stood up. "Ann, I'm sorry, you'll just have to find someone else. There are things about me, I can't go into them right now, but you're better off forgetting about me." He helped her up and walked away.
She watched as his tall lanky frame walked towards his cabin. "Oh, I know everything I need to know `See Through Boy', even about Cordelia."
~*~
Darien made it back to his cabin and walked inside. He saw Hobbes cooking up something in the kitchen. "So, how did the chat go with Ann?"
"What are you cooking there, Hobbesy?" Darien was looking over Hobbes shoulder.
"Don't avoid the question."
"Nothing happened. I can't seem to get it through to her that I'm not interested. When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow, do we still have time to get one last fishing adventure in?"
"Yeah, we can go later, after lunch. I'm going to lay down for awhile. This has been one heck of a trip. Arnaud, wendigos, quicksilver madness hey, Arnaud, wonder what happened to him?"
"I don't know, seems strange though, doesn't it? We're missing something here, my friend. I can feel it." Hobbes was making soup for the two of them. "You want to eat or lay down?"
"I think I'll eat, and then lay down. I sleep better on a full stomach."
"Just like a baby aren't you, Fawkes?"
"Oh, wait; hold on, she did tell me something. She said that she never wrote the note. Did you actually see the note, Hobbes?"
"Come to think of it, no, I didn't. You're on to something here, partner. The scarf, didn't she say that she lost her scarf, well last night looking for you, her dad found it."
"So, why didn't he tell her he found it when they were here?" Darien questioned.
"Partner, we do have a case here. Something is going on. I mean, both times you get taken into the woods and he finds the trail. Not a coincidence in Bobby Hobbes' book, my friend."
"How much more of the counteragent do you have?"
"You are thinking about a little recon work, my friend?"
"That's what I'm saying, bro. How else are we going to find out what's going on with these two." Darien stared at him for a moment.
"Enough, for one more shot." Hobbes gave Darien a worried look.
"Okay, so I can't go invisible for long. Still think she's with Chrysalis?"
"Oh, yeah, I'd bet my salary on that one."
"Well, that isn't much, Hobbes. What about Richard, he's not Chrysalis?"
"No, doesn't fit the profile. He's working for someone though." Hobbes expression showed that he was deep in thought.
"Okay, we'll wait for it to get dark; I'll do my trick and see or not see what happens."
~*~
Darien snuck out the back door invisible and headed for the Jacobs cabin when he heard someone talking. He stepped quietly on the grass so that he could get closer. There was a tree for him to hide behind and he let the quicksilver flake off. He recognized the two voices of Ann and Steven and their conversation was not a friendly one.
"I can't believe that you haven't accepted your place yet!" Ann's voice was harsh, even towards her brother.
"You're insane Ann. We never got a chance to decide. What is so fair about that? I don't want anything to do with it, ever!!" Steven stormed off.
Ann stood there and watched her brother go inside, "You have no idea what you're talking about. We have a chance of a lifetime here and you are, going to blow it."
Darien watched as Ann went inside. "Okay, there is definitely something wrong on the home front here." Darien was about to quicksilver when a small hand tugged at his pant leg. He looked down to see Michael staring up at him. "Hey, there big guy. What are you doing out of bed?"
"Darien, can I ask you a question?"
"You just did."
"What?"
"That's two questions."
Michael looked confused; he didn't understand what Darien was saying at all.
"Okay, I'm sorry. Ask your question." Darien giggled and thought to himself, `Okay, this isn't Hobbes you're talking to.'
"What is Chrysalis?"
Darien took Michael by his arm and sat him down. "What did you just say?"
"Chrysalis, what is Chrysalis?"
"Listen, kid, where did you hear that?"
"You know, don't you? Can you help us?"
"What are you talking about Michael?" Darien was becoming concerned.
"Am I in trouble?" Michael was looking worried.
"No, dude, not at all; Hobbes and I will not arrest you. I want you to tell me the truth though; can you do that for me?" Darien was looking straight into his eyes.
"Yes, my mom always tells me to tell the truth."
"Yeah, that's right. Now, where did you hear Chrysalis? Was it from daddy?"
"No."
"Okay, from mommy?"
"Yes."
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Okay, Michael" Darien was cut off by a voice behind him.
TBC...