Basil and Dawson stared, slack-jawed as the airborne Ratigan swiftly escape. Dawson raised the gun to fire, but Basil stopped him. "This is wrong in so many ways", Basil muttered.
On the ship, the bomb exploded, throwing both mice off the boat into the water. "This is very wrong", Basil added out loud, before the strange jade light froze them, pulling them into the aircraft hovering above...
~ * ~ * ~ *
Ratigan skimmed over the surface of the water. "Neo!", he shouted, looking for the missing meerkat. No reply came, except for the slow crashing of the waves. "Neo!" Still nothing.
"Ratigan!", someone called, off in the distance. Ratigan looked, and there was Neo, off in the distance, fighting off some weird robots. Turning in the direction of Neo, Ratigan headed towards the battle. Suddenly, there was a crack like lightning striking, and he was plunged towards the water. The last thing he saw was one of the robots knocking Neo unconscious and pulling him up into a strange aircraft, then everything went dark…
~ * ~ * ~ *
Lyra sat there, catching her breath, when she finally noticed the other person on the life raft: A kid, about ten years old, she guessed, apparently Afric (AN: Not spelling error; it's probably the name of the continent in Lyra's world), and lacking a visible dæmon like they did in Will's world. Looking while using the technique Serafina Pekkala had taught her to see the dæmons of people who didn't have them on the outside, she saw that his was a cat, head tilted to the side in interest. Finally, she waved gently. "Ah… hi."
"Er, hi", the boy said in reply. "Are you… okay?"
"Yes", she said. "We're okay."
"'We're'?", the boy asked, confused. "What do you mean by 'We're'?"
"Me and Pan", Lyra replied matter-of-factly.
"Pan?"
"Don't you know what a dæmon is?", Lyra asked. This was odd.
"Nope."
"I didn't think so. A dæmon's pretty much your soul in physical form."
"Um… right. You're not from around here, are you?"
"Was it that obvious?", Lyra asked with mock-concern.
"Look!", the boy cried, pointing in another distraction, changing the subject. "What's that on the water?"
Strangely enough, there was some strange form floating on the surface of the water. Moving slowly towards it, they saw it was an unconscious rat. However it was abnormal from other rats of its time in one aspect: It had large bat-styled, gargoylish wings, jet black with red scales.
"What is it?", the boy asked, awe and fear in his voice.
"I don't know…", Lyra replied. "Hey, Pan, do you think the alethiometer might know?", Lyra asked Pan.
"It depends… Do you think you can read it that well?", Pan asked in reply.
"I dunno…", Lyra said, pulling the golden compass-like device from the rucksack out of instinct. Suddenly the strange creature moaned, and Pantalaimon jumped in front of Lyra panther-formed, ready to defend her, although he probably couldn't actually fight the stranger. After a tense moment of silence, nothing happened.
The boy sighed. "Just a fluke." He sat for a moment, then asked "Do you think we could get a DNA sample?"
"A what?"
"Just try and see if you can get a sample of fur or something."
"Let me get this straight", Lyra said. "You want me to get close to something that could probably rip me to shreds, just to 'get a piece of fur or something'?"
"Good point."
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Ratigan opened one eye to see where he was. There were two humans, one, short with black hair, probably African-American, and the other was a few years older, with tawny blonde hair, who was holding a strange creature, like a ferret with reddish fur. It wasn't a normal animal, that was for certain. They were deep in conversation, so they weren't aware he had woken up.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Well", the boy said finally, "I guess we kinda got off on the wrong foot. My name's Wade Load, but my friends just call me Wade."
"I'm Lyra", Lyra replied. "Lyra Silvertongue, and this", she added, indicating Pan, "is my dæmon, Pantalaimon."
"Silvertongue?", Wade asked doubtfully. "What kind of name is Silvertongue?"
"What kind of name is Load?", Lyra asked in return, a smile on her face.
"Good point", Wade said, shrugging.
"Ah, hello?", a voice asked from somewhere on the boat.
Both Lyra and Wade looked up. Apparently, their guest was awake.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Me: Okay, to make the story more understandable, I'll put up character profiles of Neo, Wade and Lyra, 'kay?
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Name: Lyra Silvertongue (Belacqua)
Race: Human
Dæmon: Pantalaimon
Age: 14
Dæmon's Settled Form: Used to be Pine Marten, but no longer settled
Gender: Female
From: His Dark Materials
Hair: Fair blonde
Bio: Lyra Silvertongue, then Belacqua was born to Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter, Lyra was brought up in Oxford by the scholars of Jordan college. Up until the General Oblation Board started abducting children and severing their dæmons through intercision, Lyra never knew about the alethiometer or who her parents were. But, in time, she would learn of a great destiny, lose a love, and grow up more than any other person needs to.
Lyra takes to Ratigan quickly the way she took to Iorek Byrnison and Will Parry, although she has to adjust because Ratigan is as clever as she is. She dislikes Basil for not willing to accept her belief that "no one is purely good or evil", but is acquainted with Dawson and the others, despite Basil's unease. Meanwhile, Pantalaimon has a strange feeling about Ratigan's future, and how he and Lyra will play a part in it.
----------------------------------------------------
Name: Wade Load (Yes, this is his name.)
Race: Human
Age: 10
Gender: Male
Hair: Black
Voice: Tahj Mowry (Smart Guy)
From: Kim Possible (Slight Alternate Universe)
Bio: Wade is Kim Possible's webmaster and gadget-maker, and has helped Kim on many missions, though he never leaves his room. However, when Kim, Ron, Rufus, Drakken, and Shego are captured by Dementor and Frugal Lucre, he helps Ratigan and Lyra to rescue them, and is the first to reveal Ratigan's dæmonic nature to him.
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Name: Neo
Race: Meerkat/Dæmon hybrid
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male
Voice: Liam Neeson (Star Wars Episode 1)
Hair: Black (the style of Neo from The Matrix)
Fur: Tan with brown stripes on the back (Meerkat stripes)
From: Fan art
Bio: Neo is the meerkat who comes to Ratigan to ask him to join the side of good in the battle between their side (good) and Eris (muy evil), and unwillingly leads him to his own transformation into a rat/dæmon hybrid. Not ironically, it is Neo who is the Yoda to Ratigan's Luke Skywalker. Not ironically, Neo senses a great destiny in Ratigan's future, and asks Pantalaimon to keep an eye on Ratigan, because he and Ratigan both have a sensitive topic that's going to be unearthed in the near future for both of them…