Ok so don't forget to check out PipTheKitten and LoorTheDarkElf. So I decided that I'll try to post every week. Like once a week and not daily or several times a day. And I think that I'll post on Wednesdays.

Chapter Two: Keeps Your Friends Close, And Your Enemy's Closer.

"What do you mean 'there was an accident', Cedric? Or sister is missing and the first thing you say is that you messed up in your lab." The man who growled this was tall and well built. Combine that with his angry tone and he became more terrifying than nice looking. Unlike half of Haven City';s residents his hair was a single one tone color and it was a neon bright or pitch dark color. Platinum blond like his wasn't seen much and with his pale complexion he didn't look just plain angry, he looked like a vengeful spirit in black clothes.

Cedric, though only one year older at eighteen, was scared of the other man. His own brother. When it comes to their sister sure all of them were protective of her, but the boy in front of him was more so. He figured that it had to do with being her twin in a way. "A-actually, David, Avery did." Now Cedric wasn't a small man, but with the way David was looking at him he felt smaller than their missing four feet eleven inch sister. The ironic this is that all the men in this family are at least five six and she didn't even reach five feet. Hell her maternal twin was six feet four inches. The youngest brother of this family, age fifteen, stood at five feet six inches. And Cedric himself stood at Five feet Eleven inches.

David looked Cedric over with his icy blue eyes. The slightly shorter man looked nothing like himself. Cedric's hair stood naturally spiked and at the roots they were black and faded to light brown by the time they reached the tips. Even his dark green eyes and lanky build differed. "What happened?" He asked. After Cedric explained everything including the simple lock Avery had picked to get into the lab, David regretted more than ever teaching that to her, to how the machine Cedric was working on shorted out because of a cup that was set on it then knocked down. "What was the machine supposed to do?" David asked tentatively.

"You know about Jak's friend, Daxter? Well he asked me if there was any way I could possibly make something that might turn himself and his wife Tess back. But the thing is, this machine requires someone to work it the entire time. So even if it had shorted out someone had to be back here." Cedric pointed to where he was standing.

"Foul play?" David suggested, and to his chagrin, Cedric nodded. "Don't tell anyone about this. Got it?" And David was glad to see Cedric nod. "We have to find her before anyone else does. Then we will go after the person who did this. I will not let him getaway with this." Again Cedric nodded. Once that was said David left. Almost instantly Cedric started to become twitchy and paranoid. He thought felt eyes watching, following, him. Wanting out of there he quickly finished his business. He reached into a part of the machine and removed several, important looking, objects and ran from the building. After locking the door of course. In his rush he failed to hear the chuckle that sounded purely evil.

He caught up to David and said he was heading home to put the objects into a safe place. David didn't question his brother but told him that once that was finished to help him look. So Cedric raced towards their large home. It wasn't long before Cedric saw the four story building come into view. The loft and Basement weren't included. The loft belonged to their sister Avery, currently it was a complete mess because she and one of their brothers, Raven, got into a huge fight about something Cedric couldn't remember. But he did remember that they threw stuff back and forth, breaking many things. Then Avery had stormed off and that was the last any of them had seen of her. AT that time Cedric was in the basement, his own space, working on a model of his molecular displacement system- the machine's model. In theory even if Avery had managed to get into the machine and get it turned on she would have stayed human. The MDS was programed a single way- to make an animal, specifically and Ottsel, into a human. So he couldn't figure out how she got turned into an animal.

Unless, as David had suggested, foul play had happened. But he had the interior under tight security measures. Again that begs the question how did the sensors not trip when Avery entered. Everything seemed to be pointing to fouls play early in the building of the machine. Only Casey had been with him though, he was their youngest brother. And Casey loved Avery. So it couldn't have been him. Cedric realized he had stopped moving and quickly entered the house. And coincidentally he ran into Casey. "What's the rush Ced?" Casey, the fifteen year old, said with slight laughter. Cedric rarely moved fast unless he was getting close to finishing an 'invention'.

"Me and David are going to look for Avery." Oops. Hadn't David told him specifically not to tell anyone about that? Casey suddenly became serious. His light green eyes narrowed and his entire demeanor shirted into a wary one. "She's been gone all night and David is freaking out. I think she's just fine but you know David." Cedric tried to cover for himself and for a bit he thought that Casey was going to fall for the lie. But then the younger boy turned and headed towards the door. "Don't tell David I told you. Please." Cedric didn't get a reply but he could have sworn that Casey gave a slight nod.

Once outside Casey took off running. This wasn't good, not at all. If the boss found out that Avery wasn't dead then it would be his ass that got to be the next test subject. If Boost hadn't fucked up the other night then Avery would be gone. Casey's long purple hair flew behind him, occasionally whipping him in the face. It should have been so simple. Get Avery and one of their brothers, just not David, into a fight so that when it escalated too much she would leave. Then make sure that she was at Cedric's lab where all he had to do was hit a few things and boom it should have no effect on Avery and the machine would be operational for the boss. Suddenly Casey's feet just stopped moving and he stumbled. How had he not noticed the cup? It wasn't supposed to be there. And because of it Avery got changed into that- that thing. Then the boss said it was too risky to keep her alive now that it malfunctioned. Casey knew that he couldn't get rid of his sister so he caught the confused looking animal and passed her off to Boost.

"That idiot." Casey growled. Not only had boost failed to do as told, but he gave her to a KG. A fucking KG, for Christ's sake how stupid could someone be? They could be charged for animal abuse, and many other things that the Boss had them do. Casey again began to run. He would have to get rid of Avery himself if he got the chance. The boss would forgive him then and he wouldn't be harmed himself. And the boss would leave the rest of his family alone. Then Casey spotted Boost. "Boost!" He hollered and the boy stopped. "We have to fine the Muse." When Boot made no move to go search or reply Casey grabbed him by the shirt collar and lifted him several inches off the ground. "If you don't find it then I'll hand you ass over to the boss personally." Boost gulped and nodded. Casey dropped him and watched as he took off. The boss really was a scary person.

Casey then began to walk around the Bazaar District. He bumped into a man by accident. "Sorry man." He said without looking and just continued on. The man watched Casey for a moment then continued on his way. His green eyes moved from the purple haired boy to the cage he held. It was covered with a tan blanket and he knew that inside was an immensely angry Muse, her hisses and growls were proof of that. The man, Torn, sighed heavily. Had had woken up this morning to find her running around his hose, as he called the ex HQ. She was using all four of her paws so he figured that she was fine and well enough to get turned into the vet. And after he washed her, it was amusing to watched the wet Muse try and get away from him and the sink until she bit him. Subconsciously he flexed his thumb on the hand not holding the cage. She had a good set of jaws and teeth on her. But After her semi-bath he had made breakfast for himself and realized he didn't have food for her. As he was going through the fridge to find something she might like there had been a crash and he turned to see her holding the sausage with her front paws and teeth while kicking out with her legs.

Looking up Ton realized he was outside of the Vet's. He entered and walked up to the desk. A woman sat behind it and when she saw him she tried to sensually blink at him with a sexual smile. He knew this woman. Her name was Page and no matter how many times he turned her down she still tried. "Is the vet in?" Torn said in his gruff voice. Page nearly swooned. Still she managed to nod. Without waiting for her to recover he headed back and saw Galek, the male vet. "I found this muse the other day and it was hurt. I put green eco on the wound and it seemed to have healed." Torn informed the vet.

Galek didn't say anything. Instead he just checked the muse out. "Good specimen, strong and fast." He was stretching out her limbs and Torn winced at the sounds she made. It was like she felt that she was being tortured. "Vocals seem to be good so the lungs have no virus." He continued to check her out and say off hand comments about her health and little things. When he finished and finally released her she raced to Torn and up his shoulder hissing at the vet. "All we need to do is give her several shots and she's good to go home with you Torn. No worries. For a KG officer this is all free."

"Actually." Torn said roughly so as to get the vet's attention before he left. "I'm not keeping her." The vet looked shocked. Almost as if he felt personally betrayed by Torn. "My building doesn't allow pets." He lied but it seemed that the vet didn't buy it. It didn't matter to Torn though, he didn't want the rat so he wasn't going to keep her. The muse rubbed her head against his cheek and he leaned away from her with a slight blush. "Here." He said and removed her from his shoulder. Just as he was about to drop her into the vet's awaiting hands he hesitated. She was looking up at him with large, scared, eyes. Torn did like the animal and for a moment he considered keeping her. Then reality kicked in. He wasn't the type of guy to keep animals. So he dropped her into the vets hand and turned. He was almost at the door when the Muse gave a soft and uncertain mew.

Torn didn't look back.

When Torn was all the way out of the building he made the decision to go back and get the Muse. Somehow she had stolen his heart. It couldn't have been her licking the eco or her biting him as he tried to clean her. It couldn't have been her attacking the sausage either. Could it have been when she curled up against his head the night before? It didn't matter. He was going to go back in there and demand the Muse back. "Hey there Torny buddy ol pal." An amazingly annoying voice said right in his ear. "Whatcha doing at the vets? You ain't one for animals. So what's going on?"

"Leave me alone Daxter." Torn growled. There was no way he was going to go back in and get the Muse. Daxter would harass him for an eternity if he was caught caring for someone other than himself. In a split second decision he decided to go back tomorrow. Besides, by then all of her shots and vaccines would be finished. So torn turned and started to walk away from the vets. A kid that looked vaguely familiar passed him. The kid knew Torn as a KG, a higher up at that, but he didn't know more than that.

He could see something orange on his shoulder and he was sure that this was the Muse from the other night, the one that Casey was so desperate to get his hands on. He himself, Boost that is, didn't know why he Casey and the Boss wanted the animal so badly. But he did know that people that went against orders from the Boss of ones that Casey relays, well those people seemed to disappear. So he made to grab the animal. But he was caught. The KG caught Boosts hand before it even got close to the animal. Then the animal spoke. The animal spoke. No Muse he knew could do that. And it sounded male. "What's the matter pal? This is my tail, leave it alone." Boost mumbled and apology and he ran off not wanting to get caught for anything else.

Casey stopped him at the next corner. "What happened? Why didn't you get her?"

"It wasn't her. I- I think it might have been an and... Ottsel? Is that the thing that can talk. And it was a male." Boost informed Casey.

"Damn." He cursed. "I thought for sure he had her. Are you sure that he was the one that was there the other night?" Boot nodded. If there was one thing he would never forget, it was the KG's face. Stoic and heavily tattooed along with his arms and, Boost was guessing at this part, his chest. "Fine, he must have gotten rid of her. Let's not go anywhere near him again. Don't wanna get caught.

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