7. Missing

Thanks to Edward's help, Blossom had managed to finish early for the first time in ten years (or, for the first time since Sonic was sick.) Still, she was troubled, trapped between dashing one kid's dreams or another's. She had talked to Buttercup about it.

"You best get it over and just say it Blossom," she'd said, "but you must talk to Eddy about it first."

Blossom didn't know how she was going to talk to Eddy. How was she going to start by semi apologising and end by throwing up another problem? So as Edward watched television, Blossom tried to get though to the Professor. When MJ got home she thought, I'll send them off there for the evening, and then me and Eddy can trash this out.

When she called him however, she didn't get through.

"Must have turned the phone off or something," she said. Then she looked at her watch. Four thirty. Might be doing something complicated, she began to think, when something occurred to her. Shouldn't the school bus be here by now?

Eddy slumped at his desk slightly. Double D came into the office, excitedly.

"We just sold five cars in an hour!" he said excitedly. "That's a new record!"

"Horary," said Eddy with out any enthusiasm. Double D paused, and sat down.

"What's wrong Eddy? You're normally delighted with any sales. Trouble at home?"

"Why do you always ask that when I seem depressed?"

"Why don't you just tell me what the problem is?" So Eddy did. Double D thought about it for a moment.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Eddy said quietly. "How do I apologise for how I spoke without apologising for what I said." Double D coughed slightly. "Yes, I'll apologise for the personal insult bit we got on to at the end," Eddy noted.

"Well, you can't really," Double D said. "But your both so stubborn it was bound to happen eventually."

"I'm not stubborn!"

"Okay, okay. But one of you needs to back down, so you can open a dialogue over this problem, for the sake of your kids. Is Blossom likely to back down?"

"Maybe if Buttercup got to her."

"Then all you have to do is start by apologising for your tone. Say you accept you weren't helping as you should of. Then she'll probably apologise for what she said, and you can work forward again."

"Maybe…" They were interrupted by the phone. Double D and Eddy looked at it.

"It's her," said Eddy, looking at the read out.

"Then go on," said Double D, "answer, and sort this out."

Eddy took a deep breath. "Hello?" he said, even though he knew who it was.

"Eddy have you got MJ with you?" He was rather taken aback by this. There was panic in her voice.

"No, why what's wrong?"

"Shit!" said Blossom. "She didn't come home from school, and they claim she never came in this morning."

"What? But I saw her on to the bus! Maybe she's with the professor."

"I tried that, he's in the medical bay or something at work, but he's fine. Shit, where could she be?" Blossom now really sounded like see was scared.

"Don't panic Blossom," said Eddy jumping to his feet, "don't panic, DON'T PANIC!" he shouted generally.(sorry, british joke)."I'll go call the police, and umm… you go find her!"

Brick was having a good day. He'd been so efficient that he arrived at the hospital early. Katharine landed in the corridor and quietly trotted down it. Brick felt too lazy to walk, and his horse seemed content to do the work.

He did dismount when they reached the ward. Removing the hourglass from his robe, he had a good look at it.

"I believe Mrs Hixson has a few more minutes to live," he said, "so let's just stand out the way a bit." He gestured to Katharine to do so, but the horse just ignored him, letting people walk through her. Brick sighed and pressed himself into the wall, he couldn't stand people walking though him, especially when he wasn't expecting it. The hospital seemed quite, the calm before the storm, he supposed. Then, he heard some faint screams. Normally he would ignore that, but something told him that he ort to check this.

The room he passed into looked more like a bomb site than a hospital. Beds were over turned, and equipment smashed. The window had been completely ripped out, and stringy stuff hung from the ceiling. Yet Brick completely ignored all this, because his eyes had been drawn to the chaos in the centre.

Two kids, of about seven/eight, were cowering in the centre of the room, battered, bruised and absolutely terrified. One of them seemed to be missing a chunk of his arm. They were both staring are another thing that was standing on the ceiling. It looked like a monster, with blood running off two fangs, but as Brick looked, the orange hair, the pink eyes, the green tongue all gave it away. But he could barely believe it.

"Who makes the rules NOW!" it leered at the two kids; spit flying from her mouth, which then dissolved through the floor. The two victims whimpered miserably below. But fortunately for them, Brick found his tongue.

"MJ NO!" he shouted. The girl swung round. The two boys didn't move, they couldn't hear him or even see him. But she could.

"You… MJ…" she muttered confusedly. Brick approached carefully.

"Come on MJ, come down of the ceiling." MJ licked the blood around her lips, she looked completely insane.

"MJ…" she considered again, then she turned to Brick, and spat at him. The heap of acid went straight though him, and cut a hole in the wall behind. For once, Brick was glad he was dead.

"No MJ," he said as calmly as he could, "Come down."

MJ looked at him, shrieked, and jumped out the wrecked window. Brick sprinted over to it to look for a pink trail to see where she'd gone, but there wasn't one.

"Shit," he said (using the swear word of the day.) "So she can see me. I better get after her…"

Crash alarms went off round the corner. Brick jumped.

"Ahhhggg. Mrs Hixson, I'm coming…"

Blossom had been searching the streets for hours now. So had Buttercup and Butch. Neither of them had reported anything. Eddy was also looking, as far as she knew, Edward was being looked after by the police.

Blossom wasn't searching right this moment though. She was having a brief cup of tea. But the company was not good.

"Do I have to listen to this Sonic, it really isn't a good time." She didn't hide her anger, but she hadn't told Sonic about MJ yet.

"Now Blossom," said Sonic, "I think you'll find this very interesting. Those two kids that bullied your daughter were attacked today…"

"It wasn't me!"

"Oh don't worry about that," said Sonic dismissively, "we got a good description. Orange, shoulder length hair, pink eyes, no nose, green tongue, about five or six years old, and in a torn pink dress. She entered by the window on a twelfth story, and left by it." He smiled at his shocked second in command. "So you decided to tell MJ, did you?" He could barely hide his glee.

"No." Blossom was stunned.

"Oh." Sonic seemed rather deflated. "Well I had a word with the police chief, and he's agreed to cover it up for you. Apparently your old friends."

"MJ…" moaned Blossom distantly.

"BUT," Sonic broke her trance, "they view her as a serious threat to public safety. And they are going to shoot to kill from the day after tomorrow. So you have 30 hours," he finished, looking at his watch.

Rather inconveniently, from Sonics view, Blossom started sobbing. For a moment he felt guilty, but thirty hours was as much as he'd been able to prise out of that police chief. He sighed mentally, by managed to show no emotion on the outside.

"Chop chop," he said, trying to sound upbeat, "It will be dark soon. You don't want her out in the dark, do you."

So her name was MJ. That was a start she thought. And she'd had some element of revenge, MJ thought. She'd be back for them later.

She was hanging off the side of a building, the wind in her hair, feeling free and invincible. She could do what ever she wanted now, she thought. And what she wanted now was food.

The sun was setting. Good, she thought, soon hunting conditions would be perfect. As long as it was meat, she didn't really care what she ate. Oh, and it had to be alive…

Thanks for reading, please review. Oh, and remember the happy ending promise and all that. Thanks. MJ's condition will be revieled next chapter.