The Morning After

I woke up with my head pounding and stubbornly didn't open my eyes. Childish I know, but maybe if I didn't acknowledge it then reality would give up and leave me alone.

My stomach growled. So much for that idea.

I cracked open an eye, and saw the cold steel grill of a cage above me and leapt to my feet, banging my head on the roof and causing the whole thing to rattle.

I forced myself to calm down as a growl rose in my throat and crouched in the centre on the cage, lashing my tail and half looking for something to pounce out. I didn't have a clue as to how I'd got there; all I really remembered was being hit by a dart or something then… A flash of memory suddenly came to me, that Eraser that escaped me in the barn landing in a field and me, screaming at someone. I couldn't quite remember who though.

That was weird; for a start who would I be yelling at? More importantly though when had that happened? I looked beyond the cage; it definitely didn't look like any part of lab I had seen. Beige walls, the occasional painting and a few old fashioned wooden medicine cabernets that looked almost homely, though I couldn't read any of the labels from where I was so they might have contained evil medicine. There was also an examination table next to my cage and even posters on the anatomy of cats and dogs on the walls. I did note however that there was only a slim window near the ceiling, but that beat most parts of the Lab and that place looked almost lived in, a far cry from the labs unusual sterility.

My head throbbed and I put my hand to the side of my head where I found a massive bruise. I was sure was I supposed to have healing powers, but maybe it only healed serious injuries, though in my opinion a blinding headache was pretty serious. I growled in annoyance. I really hated being caged. Worst I had absolutely no idea just where I'd picked up that damn bruise. I'd been sitting down when I blacked out for heaven's sake.

An image of a man holding a shotgun flashed through my mind. Odd seeing I'd never seen him before in my life and I rubbed my eyes, sitting back against the wires of the cage which jingled merrily. It was just too confusing, not to mention the fact I had know idea how long I'd been there, I should get a watch. A door clicked closed somewhere nearby and I froze, flicking my ears to find another sound.

"So you're sure you have no idea just what it is?" I heard a man ask, a vague memory of him yelling something in panic flittered across my mind but it was gone before I could figure out just when it had happened.

"Your guess is just as good as mine," another voice answered. A woman this time, and I definitely didn't recognise her. Their foot steps were getting closer and I tensed, hopefully I would remain caged for long.

"You should probably just put the damn thing down," the man continued grumpily and I snarled in the general direction of his voice. "It shrugged of a shotgun blast from point blank and was still trying to get up after I'd hit it for a home run."

"I'll bear that in mind," the woman replied curtly and opened the door to the room. My eyes locked onto the man and I instantly recognised him.

The memories came back in a rush and my eyes widened in shock. Had I really been considering eating that little girl?

That was…

Monstrous.

What the hell had been in that dart?

Do you know the worst thing though? I hadn't really been acting that differently from normal.

It was disturbing that the lab could mess with how I thought, it was a good thing that they'd hadn't managed to do it before now. Then again, how would I tell? I thought back over the last two weeks, I couldn't think of anything that seamed irrational, sure I'd killed a few Erasers and devoured half a stag but old Kit would have done that. Wouldn't she?

Probably not actually. Old Kit felt like a different person, some of her… my memories didn't even make sense anymore. Like teams, how do teams make sense?

I snapped back into reality and realised the man a woman were still talking. I'd have to think about how I'd changed later, there were more important things going on.

"How's Elizabeth holding up?" the woman asked the man. Note to self: don't tune out of your captors' conversation, who knows what I missed. I actually looked at her for the first time and realised she was wearing a white coat, an involuntary growl rose in my throat though I kept my suspicion in check, lots of people where white coats and most of them aren't inherently evil.

"Still in hysterics," the man replied gruffly. "And Kay won't stop crying."

"Go take care of them," the woman told him kindly. "I'll deal with the tiger."

"You sure?" he asked. "You'd didn't see what it was capable of."

"I'll be fine," she said testily, rolling her eyes.

"Okay then." He left hurriedly and the woman entered and closed the door with a sigh, then crouched down next to my cage.

"You're not a tiger are you?" she asked bluntly, looking me right in the eyes.

I regarded her coldly for a moment, wondering if I should trust her or not. Sure I'd managed to pick up an instinctive fear of people in white coats over the last month but I wasn't ruled by my instinct. Hopefully. Besides, I'd managed to get myself into this mess of my own initiative and I doubted the lab could set up me going feral, attacking some random person and getting knocked out.

There was also the little matter of the cage wires being a little too fine for me to fit my fingers through so I was actually going to need someone to open it from the outside.

"How do you figure that? I asked nonchalantly, sitting forward and resting my head on my hands. Her eyes widened in shock and I fought to keep a straight face, that was probably a rash decision but her reaction was worth it.

"You're talking," she said after a moment's stunned silence, kind of answering my question but it was more a shocked statement. "Well you don't look like a tiger," she continued stammering. "Real tigers are bulkier. Not to mention the fact that you're sitting up, wearing clothes and have thumbs."

"It's true, my disguise sucks," I admitted, wiggling said thumbs. "But at least I can still play my console."

"Who are you?" she asked in shock and confusion. I seem to be getting that reaction a lot lately, maybe it's the stripes.

"I'm Kit," I told her frankly. "Who are you, and where the hell am I?"

"I'm Dr Rainer," she explained, still sounding flabbergasted. "And you're in my surgery. I'm the one who pulled the buckshot out of you."

"Oh," I said simply, coming off my high a little. I'd almost forgotten how I'd ended up here. "Well I suppose I should thank you for that. Any chance of letting me out?" I suggested casually, trying my best to make it sound a reasonable request-

"No," she said instantly.

And failing miserably. It's the teeth I swear, it makes my voice all growly.

I sighed and sat back against the grill of my cage, crossing my arms in front of me and trying to look relaxed while keeping a steely eye on Dr Rainer. My tail continued to lash though, as I sized up the various ways to escape so maybe my casual air fell down a little. It didn't particularly look I was going to able to talk my way out of there, though I was beginning to wonder just how tough the wire really was.

"Why did you attack Paul?" she suddenly asked, catching me by surprise.

"I was hungry," I said automatically and then realised just how bad that sounded. "Plus I wasn't really myself." At some point I was really going to have sit down to figure out just what they had done to me, and I'm not just talking about my feet anymore.

"Just who are you anyway?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"I told you, I'm Kit," I said with a shrug.

"Okay, what are you?" she amended a little testily. See you should be specific.

"You don't want to know," I told her after a moment's consideration. "The last guy who asked was fleeing for his life ten minutes later." Her eyes widened and I hastily added. "Not from me by the way."

"Who then?" she asked frowning.

"The…" I began, and then thought of Michael and his sister. "Really you don't want to know," I completed.

"I think I do," she said contrarily.

"No, you don't," I assured her. "These people were perfectly willing to kill someone for even talking to me. Hell, they'd probably kill you just for seeing me so I guess it actually doesn't matter in the slightest." I paused for a moment after finishing that sentence.

"Shit!" I swore suddenly, just figuring out what even being here implied. "This was exactly why I was trying to keep away from people," I muttered angrily to myself. "HHHHHhhow could I have been so stupid to get caught by bystanders?"

"I guess if they're after me already there's no harm in telling me all about it then?" she suggested diplomatically and I fixed her with a steely glare. She was right but I don't think she quite realised quite how far in over her head she already was.

"Let me out and I'll think about it," I countered, leaning forward.

"I still don't know that you won't try to eat me," she said calculatingly.

"And I still don't know that your not one of them," I snapped back. "But I'm not the one that has to worry about Lab goons breaking down that door at any second. I can just escape again."

"Deal," she said after a moment's consideration and pulled a ring of keys out of her coat pocket. I sprang out of the cage the moment I heard the lock click and got slowly to my feet, starching in a way that only felines can truly manage.

"I hate cages," I said simply and eyed Dr Rainer who'd leapt backwards when I'd rushed out.

"I'm not going to bite," I assured her, smiling faintly and trying my best not to show too many teeth. My supposedly harmless image was kind of ruined as my stomach chose that moment to let out a loud growl, reminding me that I was still very hungry and there was a potential food source about six feet away, though that last bit may have just been paranoia. Seriously, how can you tell the difference between instinct and your own overactive imagination?

"Hungry?" she asked, as soon as it looked like I wasn't going to pounce.

"Starving," I told her honestly and probably redundantly.

"Let's find you some food then," she said taking a nervous breath. "And you can tell me all about this grand conspiracy.

"Wait a moment," I said taking the wire mesh of the open cage door in both hands and twisted. It warped easily beneath my hands and I muttered, "Thought so," to myself, before following Dr Rainer out.