Hi guys!

I have to say, you guys have been really good sports about the cliffhanger, so I'm giving you this episode a day early! And the fact that I got a bunch of reviews helped. (unsubtle hint)

On with the chapter!

Had I had the opportunity to think before I woke or, for that matter, before I jumped (if I'd thought I would lose consciousness), I would have expected to wake up at the Safehouse or in the back of the Cooper van with Bentley and/or Sly ready to chew me out.

I certainly wouldn't have expected to see a cat hovering over me. To my credit I stopped screaming when I saw he was wearing scrubs. He released his ears warily, as though afraid I would start screaming the instant he was unprepared just to spite him.

I sat straight up, fighting the head rush as I looked around, chest heaving. I was in a… a hospital or clinic of some kind. Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I hate hospitals. I loathe them, utterly and completely. I broke my leg once, skiing, and had to have surgery on it. I was in the hospital for three days before I threw such an unholy fuss that they let my dad take me home.

My head throbbed and I raised a hand to feel the tight binds that wrapped around it. When had I hurt my head? Now that I thought of it, most of my body ached, though it was mostly my shoulders and left arm.

My humiliation was complete when I saw I was wearing a hospital gown. Through my surprise I heard the beeping of a heart monitor increase and glanced down at my hand. Not only was there a sensor attached to my finger, but there was an IV in my arm.

"Kdo jste?"

Hahn? I looked up at the cat and it took me a moment to realize that his violet eyes were trained on me and yes, he had just spoken gibberish. He was really short and his fur was of the deepest black, it almost looked purple. He looked younger than me, but that couldn't have been possible, given that he appeared to work at the hospital, maybe he was just really baby-faced.

I blinked stupidly at him for a moment and he scowled, speaking again, "Jaké je vaše jméno?" I shook my head slowly. I had no idea what he was saying.

"Vaše jméno? Stejně jako ... Já jsem," He placed his hand flat on his chest, "Ristuka." He repeated the gesture and the word, then pointed at me with a questioning expression. Okay, that was easy enough. He was Ritsuka, I was…

I mirrored his gesture, placing my un-needled hand over my heart, "Kaia."

He seemed pleased with himself for a moment, then blinked, "Počkejte ... Kaia? Stejně jako v, Kaia Jenks?" Again with the pointing and the questioning expression.

Oh great, he knew my full name. I sighed and nodded. He muttered to himself for a moment, then made another gesture. This one was an open palm, perpendicular to the ground, with his arm fully extended. Any fool could figure that one out. "Zůstaň tady."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not moving." I crossed my arms as best I could, grumbling. He rolled his eyes and stepped out the door, but not before looking over his shoulder to check and see if I'd somehow disappeared in the last second. He started yelling, down the hall from the echoes, and several voices answered him. The more I listened to the language, the more it seemed familiar.

When I remembered where I'd heard it before, I was only a little surprised. My Biology teacher had spent a few years in the Czech Republic and sometimes spoke Czech just to annoy some of the more obnoxious students. This language sounded the same. Was I still in Prague? If so, where was the gang? What was going on?

When Ritsuka re-entered the room, there was a retriever in a lab coat with him and an old-looking grey squirrel in a suit trailing behind. The doctor immediately went over and started examining the equipment while the squirrel situated himself on stool by my bed. Ritsuka leaned against the wall near the door, pinning the scene with his eyes.

The squirrely spoke first in accented, but fully understandable, glorious English. "What is your name?"

Gee, cut right to the chase, why don't you? "It's polite to introduce yourself before asking another's name."

The squirrel appeared to be taken by surprise by my response, but give me a break. I'd just woken up in a hospital, surrounded by foreigners, with no idea where I was, what had happened to me, or where the gang was. I had a right to be snippy.

Ritsuka coughed into his hand and I got the distinct impression he was trying not to laugh at what the squirrel had just muttered, of which the only word I could understand was 'American'.

"I," The squirrel tried to puff up, which really just made him look silly, "Am a Professor of Linguistics. I translate for the hospital's foreign guests."

Okay… that wasn't really an introduction, so I just mentally decided to call him 'Professor' I never did learn his actual name, "I'm Kaia Jenks."

The doctor cut in with a question, which the professor translated, "Dr. Kuroi wants to know if you're in pain."

"Yes." I said simply, enjoying the twitch that seemed to develop under the professor's right eye, "My turn. Where am I?"

"Prague Pediatric Center," Professor said. He listened to the doctor for a moment, then translated, "How did you come to be injured?"

I shrugged, "Don't remember." That was half true. I figured it had something to do with the fall.

Professor frowned, like he didn't believe me, big surprise, and translated for the doctor. The retriever frowned and came over, pulling a pen light from the pocket of his coat. General concussion exam followed and I guess I passed because the doctor frowned again, like he was confused.

I ignored their unintelligible conversation in favor of looking on the bleak Czech landscaped out the widow to my left. The sky was dark and overcast, but I could tell it was late in the evening.

I frowned in thought. Why was I here? Why wasn't I with the gang? Had they been captured? No, if they had, I'd be in a hospital where they knew who I was and my dad would be with me... so what happened?

I gnawed on the inside of my lip absentmindedly, trying to force myself to remember. I was interrupted by the doctor shining another bright light into my eyes and, in general, giving me a thorough examination. The translations of the professor let me know that I didn't have a concussion, that I'd been in the hospital for several days, etc...

It seemed like hours before they left me alone to think. The only conclusion that I could truly come up with was that the gang had dropped me off in an emergency room and immediately taken off.

I was making a spirited attempt to kill them with my mind when the door opened again. I thought it would be the doctor or the professor, but it was Ritsuka, holding a tray in one hand and a laptop under his other arm.

He handed the tray to me and I took off the top, finding what was probably food and digging in while Ritsuka made himself comfortable at the foot of my bed. I wasn't even sure what I was eating and it tasted suspiciously like potatoes, so I decided not to think about it too much.

The cat was doing something on his laptop and I'm not going to lie that I was curious as to what he was doing in my room, but I figured I'd find out soon enough.

He turned the laptop to face me and I almost choked on the water I was drinking. He was on Google Translator and had used it to find out how to say 'Hello'.

I took the laptop and switched the languages so I was able to say hello back to him. He gave a small grin when he saw his idea was working and we began our communication.

Not to say that the computerized translator was perfect, we had our share of mistranslations and confusion, but the simplified version of our transactions is this, obligatory small talk excluded:

Ritsuka: You do not seem very glad to be free of the Cooper gang.

Me: Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that I was ever really their prisoner. They've been trying to get rid of me since The National History Museum.

Ritsuka: Did they not kidnap you?

Me: Not really, I kind of jumped Sly outside the Museum and wouldn't let go of his cane. I was trying to keep him from getting away. I didn't consider the secret third option of him taking me along.

Ritsuka: Why did you not leave?

Me: At first I it was because I wanted to be able to give information to Interpol as to what they were up to, but they kept too good of an eye on me to allow me to get away with that. I'm not so sure anymore, but I'm worried about them.

Ritsuka: Worried?

Me: Well, yeah. I don't know what happened to them. I wish I could find them. They need as much help as they can get. They aren't all bad and they're completely outmatched. And I need to pay them back for dropping me off and running away!

Ritsuka: I noticed you didn't like the hospital very much.

Me: Well, yeah, that too. Do you know what they're planning on doing with me?

Ritsuka: I believe they will call Interpol and an officer will come to collect you as soon as we have determined that there is no brain damage.

Me: That's not good. I know that at least one member of Interpol is a member of the Klaww gang. I know another one is a backstabbing sociopath. In fact, the only good member of Interpol I know of was falsely accused of collaborating with the Cooper gang and was arrested. If more Interpol members are part of the Klaww gang, then I'm not sure I'll make it back home.

Ritsuka: The Klaww gang? I agree, if they believe you know of their gang ties, they will have no problem with removing you. And if you truly do not know of any members that would be safe, you would not know you were in danger.

Me: Exactly. Ironically, the safest place for me this side of the Atlantic Ocean is probably with the Cooper Gang. They're constantly on the run from the law.

Ritsuka: Is there anything you need from outside? I could bring it for you.

I looked down at my horrid hospital gown and quickly typed in:

Me: Different clothes would be nice. And food I recognize.

Ritsuka nodded to himself and closed his laptop. I protested, seeing as how there was still more I wanted to tell him, but he just waved as he made his way to the door.

I sat with a huff and winced as I accidently jerked on the IV in my hand in the act of crossing my arms. I sighed and flopped back onto the bed aimlessly. What was I supposed to be doing? I mean, I wanted to leave the hospital, but I had no idea how to go about that, especially when I only had the one hospital gown to my name.

I returned to my window-watching, not being able to understand the TV. The sky had been dark for several hours now and it wasn't long before I used that as an excuse to try to go to sleep.

After a nearly sleepless night, I was desperately wishing for at least a tennis ball to throw up and down to alleviate my boredom. The phrase 'if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride' popped into my head, but I angrily stomped it down.

I did take the opportunity to have a shower, as the last time I could remember having a proper one was back in India, if you didn't count the rain.

There really wasn't anything to do but brood and angst about finally being ditched by the gang, which I tended to avoid on principal as I disliked being depressed. I mean, I had logical arguments to combat the questions of whether or not they really disliked me or if they were glad I was gone, but that didn't stop me from thinking.

Then the door cracked open and Ritsuka slipped inside, looking hunted. I got to my feet instantly."Ritsuka, wha-?"

He held a finger to his lips and put an ear to the door, listening carefully. I took this opportunity to notice that he wasn't wearing scrubs, but baggy jeans and a hooded jacket that made him look much younger than he had appeared even before. A backpack slung over his shoulder drew my attention just before he shrugged it off and opened it, digging around for a moment before producing a bundle of cloth and throwing it at me, pointing insistently to the bathroom.

I pointed just as insistently at the IV stuck in my arm, raising an eyebrow at him. He rolled his eyes and hurried forward, pulling on the tape and the cover that protected the needle, sliding it out carefully and pressing a cotton ball to the tiny prick in the skin, taping it in place with one of the pieces of tape he'd just plucked from the plastic cover.

I leapt to my feet and took the bundle of cloth from him, hurrying into the bathroom. I yanked the gown over my head and tugged on a pair of jeans that were a bit short and a white hoodie that was way too big. I glanced at myself in the mirror, then did a double take. My hair was disheveled and lackluster, my eyes bloodshot. I quickly splashed some water on my face, rubbed it dry with a towel, and rearranged my hair so it mostly hid the bandage on my head.

I stepped out of the bathroom and Ritsuka handed me a pair of ragged Converse that I pulled on with no small amount of difficulty. He looked me over and finally nodded his head, stepping forward and pulling my hood over my head. He gave a satisfied smile and gestured for me to follow him, at the same time putting a finger to his lips.

My heart pounding, I followed him. Just what was he up to?

The bustle of the pediatric ward was the perfect cover for us to slip into the elevator, which was, thankfully, empty. Ritsuka hit the button for the third floor, fidgeting and shifting his weight anxiously as he watched the numbers over the door slowly decrease. I really wanted to ask him what was up, but the language barrier made it difficult.

We finally made it to the third floor and, keeping his head down, Ritsuka led me to an adjacent corridor, which was a bridge that connected the hospital to the parking garage. He was walking at a sort of trot between a fast walk and a jog, which would have been amusing if I weren't so worried about what was making him nervous.

The parking garage was more or less deserted, but Ritsuka led me up the stairwell to our left, up to the seventh level. The only vehicle on that level was a motorcycle. Leaning against a nearby pillar was a tall, skinny fox, who was weaving a string through his fingers with the air of the exceptionally bored. His ears flicked toward us before his eyes followed, the latter a startlingly green.

"Ritsuka," he addressed my companion as we ran up to him, "Teď se mi říct, co se děje?"

The cat launched into a hurried conversation with the newcomer to our posse. I took the brief interlude to have a look at said newcomer. He had goggles perched on the top of a flaming red mane of hair and a black leather riding jacket zipped up to his throat.

His mildly agitated expression changed to one of worry at whatever Ritsuka was saying to him. There was a moment of silence after Ritsuka finished talking, out of breath, where the fox reached out and tousled his black hair, grinning. Ritsuka actually hissed at him and he chuckled, turning to me.

"Well, Kaia Jenks, you've got yourself into quite a bit of trouble. Shall we go?" My jaw, understandably, dropped to somewhere around my ankles. He didn't have an accent, but he'd spoken Czech with Ritsuka fluently. Who was this guy? I voiced my question aloud and he rolled his eyes at me, producing a helmet from a side bag on his motorcycle. "I'm Ahanu. We'll have a better introduction later. Put this on."

I did, feeling a bit wary still. Ahanu started to get on the motorcycle, but Ritsuka seized a handful of his jacket, holding him back for a moment. Ahanu blinked and looked down at the cat, who was a good head and a half shorter than him, a question in his eyes.

"Ahanu, buďte opatrní, v pořádku?"

The fox's green eyes widened in surprise before he broke out in a grin and reached out quickly, pulling Ritsuka into a one-armed hug, "Budu v pořádku, nebojte se tolik."

Ritsuka turned a variety of amusing colors as he shoved away from Ahanu, who was still laughing to himself, with a fierce glare. The fox got on the motorcycle and I hesitantly got on behind him, not thinking it was safe. I was proven correct when, with a final wave to Ritsuka, Ahanu gunned the engine.

If it weren't for my inherited feline reflexes, I would have fallen off instantly. As it was, I just lunged forward and clung to Ahanu for all I was worth while we peeled out of the parking garage and, in moments, into traffic.

I probably could've been spending my time watching the scenery pass by and marveling at my sudden freedom or something equally poetic… but I was too busy trying to become one with Ahanu's leather jacket and thinking, 'Oh God please don't let him kill us Oh God please don't let him kill us Oh God please don'tlethimkillus…'

It could have been seconds, minutes or hours, but after some indeterminate amount of time, Ahanu drove into a parking lot outside an apartment complex and parked the motorcycle. He was surprisingly patient while I detached my claws from his jacket, after which he led me up to apartment '238'.

I swept my hood off when the door closed behind me, looking around. The apartment was actually pretty nice. Off to my left was a kitchen and dining area. Directly in front of me was a living room and immediately to my right was what could only be a closet door. There was also a hall that had a door on the left, two on the right, and one at the very end that was halfway open, allowing a glance into a bedroom beyond.

Ahanu strode past me, closing the curtains on the windows and disconnecting a phone that was plugged into a wall. I raised an eyebrow at this moderately suspicious behavior, but he just gave me a disarming grin, "Telemarketers are universal to all countries," and continued looking around the apartment.

Seemingly satisfied with whatever he'd been looking for, he headed right back for the door, gently pushing me aside.

"I have to go out now, but I'll be back in an hour or two. Feel free to explore and make yourself at home. The TV is actually set to pick up American CNN right now, so you could watch your story, that's all they've been airing for the past month or so. Anything you need while I'm out?"

Caught off guard by the question, I said the first thing that came to mind, "American food?"

He blinked at me for a couple of seconds, then seemed to register what I'd said and started laughing, "Alright, I think I can find that. Between now and then, though, I think I have some Oreos stashed in a cabinet in the kitchen somewhere."

I was shoulder deep in the first cabinet I'd laid eyes on before the door shut. I was about three seconds away from yelling 'Accio, doublestuff!' before I saw a trace of telltale blue plastic under copious amounts of ramen packages. I yanked in out, causing an avalanche of ramen that I completely ignored because I had cookies and they actually were doublestuffed.

I had the presence of mind to pour myself a glass of milk (a really big one, I had an entire package of Oreos to go through) before I took my spoils to the living room, kicked up my feet, and turned on the TV.

I almost felt like a normal teenager again except that I was, y'know, watching my own face on national television and listening to the reporter talk about, well, me.

…

So… not so normal then.

They were just finishing up a recap of my story, saying, "A Czech Hospital in Prague claims to have had the elusive hybrid in their care for several days. Constable Neyla of Interpol, who was put in charge of the Cooper case after the arrest of Inspector Carmelita Fox, has been sent to ascertain the truth to this."

I shuddered. It was good I got out of there, if Neyla had been the officer they sent. I couldn't imagine how that conversation would've gone, but it wouldn't have been good.

"We will, of course have the details as soon as they are made available. Sgt. Jenks, of the FBI and the father of the missing girl, has still not been able to be reached for comment."

Dad… I hadn't contacted him to let him know I was okay for a while now. I needed to find a way to do that, but it would have to wait. Even if Ahanu hadn't unplugged his phone, my dad was probably tracing (or attempting to) every single call I sent at him. I wasn't sure if you could trace a call overseas, but I wasn't going to find out the hard way.

My hand went to my throat to toy with the necklace that had been there for weeks now. I frowned; they must have taken it off at the hospital. Maybe Ritsuka could get it back for me? It was a really nice necklace; I liked it a lot…

I reached over and seized the remote, pressing the off button with a little more force than absolutely necessary. Rocking onto my feet, I dunked an Oreo into my milk and shoved it in my mouth, savoring the chocolate and sugar as I paced around the apartment, suddenly restless. What was it Ahanu had said after talking to Ritsuka? I'd 'gotten myself into quite a bit of trouble'? What did that mean?

If Constable Neyla had been at the hospital at that point, how had Ritsuka known she was bad? Had he known? Was there some other reason I'd been whisked away from the hospital?

For lack of anything better to do and because if I just sat around thinking about everything, I'd probably get paranoid; I decided to snoop through the apartment. Did it count as snooping if I'd been given permission to do it? Hmmm…

I made for first door on the right side of the hallway. It revealed a rather drab and plain guest room, so I ignored it and moved on in my search. The second door opened into a bathroom, so I ignored it too. Feeling the urge to do some hardcore snooping, I made for the end of the hall, which I could clearly see to hold Ahanu's bedroom.

I pushed the door the rest of the way open. The room had a queen sized sleigh bed pushed against the middle of the far wall, a closet to the right, a bookshelf… to the left was a desk with shelves all around it. I headed for the desk. You can earn an awful lot about someone from their computer.

"Please let it be in English, please let it be in English…"

It was, but it was also password protected.

"If I were a password…" I mused, "Where would I be?" Personally, I just memorized my passwords because I didn't like the idea of leaving them around, but if I had a bad memory I'd put mine…

I dropped to the floor and wriggled under the space where the person at the desk would normally put their legs, trying to ignore the plethora of cords. I laid on my back and pushed the keyboard shelf out.

"Wow… I can't believe that worked."

Etched into the underside of the wood was the word, 'Ice-storm'. Feeling incredibly proud, I extracted myself from underneath the table and plopped down, once again, in the comfy leather desk chair. I typed in the password and took the opportunity to examine the shelves while the desktop booted up.

Most of the contents on the shelves were yellow because they were taken up with countless Rosetta Stone programs. My jaw dropped at the amount of them. French, Spanish, Czech, Russian… There was every language that I'd ever heard of and a few that I hadn't.

"Well," I mused to myself, "That explains his proficiency in Czech."

The rest of the space was taken up by computer games. Old ones, new ones, ones I myself remembered playing at the age of ten. I shook my head at the mix of signals I was getting and reoriented my attention on the desktop.

The desktop was a positively priceless picture of Ahanu and Ritsuka and two girls, one a wolf, the other a calico cat. It looked like it had been taken during the opening of Christmas presents by a timed camera. It was the tail end of a wrapping paper fight. Ritsuka was mid-way through tackling Ahanu to the ground, a fistful of ribbons in one hand and a maniacal glint in his eye. The wolf was blocking Ahanu's exit and the calico was rolling around in a pile of wrapping paper, either having a seizure or laughing hysterically.

I smirked and took hold of the mouse, directing it to open Mozilla Firefox.

The home page was an email inbox that I carefully avoided looking at as I clicked on the address bar, still grateful that the computer language was in English, and typed in the address for Facebook. I'll admit I was curious and that was really my main reason for doing so.

I typed my name into the search bar and clicked on my profile.

What I saw on my wall… I did not expect.

There were dozens of posts, all from my friends, even those I didn't know very well. Some were worded in an encouraging way, but some of my closest friends had just been posting questions about what I was up to, if I was having fun gallivanting around the world, and requests to send them post cards.

I smirked as I scrolled through all the comments, wanting so badly to reply to them but knowing I couldn't without alerting anyone who might trace the source of the login.

I logged out, feeling much better, and strolled back to the living room, where I sat and ate Oreos and caught up on the news I'd missed in the last month.

A/N

I know, I know, there's a disappointing lack of the gang in this chapter, but don't worry, it won't last long!

Oh, one other thing. I usually update every other week, but I'm now going to update either every other week OR when I get ten reviews on the last chapter I posted. Oh, and 'update soon' does not count as a review. I love you guys, but no. Just no.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought of the chapter (particularly the new characters), if you're like! God Bless, see you soon!