Hola Buenos Dias! I'm back again, I decided not to do the same thing I did a while ago! Thanks to all of you who reviewed, even if it did look like I had a chronic case of writersblockitis.

Capt. Cow- I'm glad.

LotRseer3350- I'm glad you've kept reading! I hope that too, but it should be more than just wishful thinking. Only 9 days left of school!

Transformations

Huck and Quatermain had walked quickly back to the Nautilus in order to get there in time to—according to Quatermain—talk to the beast. Huck really wasn't quite sure Hyde would be coherent, but Quatermain seemed to know what he was talking about.

They walked up the gangplank and through the winding corridors to the freezer room. When Huck walked in, he shivered not only from the cold. Hyde was chained all over but Huck couldn't see the use of the chains; Hyde was still sending people flying with his humongous arms. Strangely enough, the monster still had his pants and shoes on. For this, Huck supposed he should be grateful.

When the others came in, Huck stepped off to one side, not wanting to be the center of attention. Quatermain was pacing in front of Hyde, and said to the newcomers, "Stay back—if you value your life." Apparently they did, for they all stood at a respectful distance. Off to one side, Dorian yanked Skinner away from Hyde—who happened to be concentrating on some sailors on the other side of the room at the time. Something flashed in Dorian's hand before it was gone, but Huck decided not to worry about that.

"Ow!" said Skinner. He faced Dorian challengingly. "You scratched me!"

"Better me than him," Dorian said, obviously implying Hyde.

Huck didn't pay any more attention to them, because Quatermain began to speak to the great beast, as if it would understand him. Huck really didn't have any reason to believe that it had any sort of intelligence. All it had done was grunt and roar and smack crew members senseless. "Mr. Hyde." That got the beast's attention. "You've done terrible things in England." England? Huck thought this was France.

Quatermain started after pausing. "So terrible that you fled the country." Oh. That cleared that one up. All these pauses for dramatic affect were getting tiring. It appeared that the things Quatermain said were agitating the beast, something Huck wouldn't have done if he was paid to do it. He had to respect Quatermain for that.

"And I'm ashamed to say that Her Majesty's government is willing to offer you amnesty," Quatermain said, stressing the last word. "You want to go home."

Then the Hyde began speaking, nearly scaring Huck out of his wits. "Home," it began. "Home is where the heart is; at least that's what they say. And I have been missing London so. Its sorrow is as sweet to me as a rare wine." Huck was amazed at Hyde's intelligence—from his voice he could sense that Hyde knew all the emotions that any other man knew, but twisted; it was missing the compassion, the caring that made men whole, which gave them their civilization. "I'm yours." It was then that Huck noticed that he had stopped referring to Hyde as 'the beast' and now thought of him as 'him' rather than 'it.'

Hyde turned to look at the rest of the League, and his gaze rested on Huck whose mouth was wide open in surprise. Hyde sniffed the air. "Don't be afraid," he said, shaking his head.

Huck shook his head in amazement. "How in the heck can everybody but me smell fear?" Mina and Quatermain chuckled at his frustration. As Huck realized he had unwittingly made himself the center of attention, he blushed and stepped back.

Dorian, who at first had been just as shocked as the rest of them at Hyde, easily regained his cynic composure. "Quite the parlor trick."

Hyde sneered at the immortal, and then said, "You wait to see my next one." He twisted his head to one side and groaned, as if forcing down something inside himself.

The next moment, there was a great phoomp and Hyde was severely out of proportion. He began screaming in pain, but it was distorted. It was a mixture of his roar and something smaller, something weaker than human. It was more human, and yet less than any Huck had ever heard before. The distortions of his body continued, until one last phoomp and Hyde was no longer. All that remained was a tall, skinny man covered in sweat yet shivering violently.

"Dr. Jekyll," he said panting, "at your service."

"So the League is set," Quatermain said, as if absolutely nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Huck stared at him incredulously. It appeared to him as if he had signed on for more than he was ready for. Oh well. Couldn't turn back now, not when it looked like these people would have the best chance for getting the Fantom. Not when he was so close.

The man—Dr. Jekyll—looked like he was about to collapse, so Huck walked over to him and grabbed one of Jekyll's arms and pulled it around his own shoulder. Skinner followed Huck's lead. "I'll show you to your room, if that's all right, sir," Huck said. Jekyll nodded with some form of dignity and they trudged slowly out of the freezer room. It was very easy to forget that this weak, polite man could have anything in the way of relation with the beast they had just seen, but it was apparent that they shared the same body. Huck consoled himself that, perhaps in time, he would become accustomed to such oddities.

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The frustrated-about-smelling-fear Huck came from me wondering that myself as I watched the movie. I always wondered why Tom didn't wonder either, but now I know: 'cuz Huck was! Also, little hints about Dorian's betrayal are not going to be figured out by Huck. He was never(at least I thought) the one to figure out mysteries in our Dynamic Duo, and even Tom didn't figure it out.