Author Note: This is a notice to those who are expecting great things to be coming up this summer. Due to several factors that are out of my control, I will not be able to get these chapters up as fast as I would like. So, there will not be a set time for updates until further notice.
Ok, enough bad news. Time for some good news… here's a new chapter!
Time until Pyron's arrival: Seven days…
Episode Two: Felicia, Catnapped?
As Pyron approaches the earth, his presence begins to impact the uncontrollable environment on a global scale. The ocean has risen several feet causing massive amounts of flooding and coastal erosion, tornados and severe storms ravage the continents, and animals begin to act strangely as the cosmic being closes in on the tiny blue planet. The world's scientific community is at a loss of words as the spontaneous events confuse even the best thinkers while the crazies continue the "end of the world" speeches from their street corners. However, the city of our chaotic hero is enveloped in a veil of clouds as a phone call causes excitement in Joe's house to erupt at ten in the morning.
"Well, that was him." States Jeff as he hangs the phone back on the wall. "Joe said he'll be home later today and I think this is a good time to celebrate."
"Why?" questions a reclined Lucy as she looks up from the latest "People" Magazine and sits up on the couch. "Well my anti-human cat friend, we don't know if we are going to survive this upcoming attack." The lone human looks at the calendar on the wall noticing that the tenth of June has been circled in red ink. Now I remember, that's the day Donovan said Pyron was arriving… "So what's wrong with throwing a party?"
"Hmm, let's do it." The little cats jump with joy as they dash into the basement to look for the party things while Jeff chases after them. "Hold on a second! Don't be going through my stuff!" The head banded cat woman sighs and returns to her reclined position as Felicia and Grace enter the room.
"What's going on Lucy?" questions Felicia as the commotion from the basement draws their attention. "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" A loud smash along with Jeff's scream forces Grace to go downstairs and wrangle the young cat girls. "Who was on the phone? It sounded like Joe…" A vein bulges underneath Lucy's headband as she hears the one person's name for the umpteenth time. I can't believe Felicia's still thinking about that guy… "Lucy?"
"There was something said about him coming home, but I didn't hear much."
"He's coming home?" Felicia hesitates to continue her statement as she grabs some money from Jeff's wallet. "I'm going to pick something up, can you tell the others I'm leaving?"
"Yea, sure." Felicia takes off as Lucy rolls over and falls asleep. "Like I'll have anything to do with him."
A few hours later, Felicia is happily walking down the street with a large package in hand. I hope he likes this. It has to be a while since Joe got something like this. The delighted neko suddenly stops dead in her tracks as something wet hits her in the face. Not now… Felicia dashes into a nearby alley and ducks under a doorway just as a burst of rain pours down from the sky. After checking on her package, Felicia looks up into the rain cloud filled sky and sighs. "Great, now I'll be late."
"That's not the only thing you should be worried about freak." Felicia looks around to find herself surrounded by a gang of four wet and pissed off humans. "Remember us?"
"Not really… are you guys from that boy band?" A thug swings a punch at Felicia only to be countered by a right hook from the cat woman. "Now I remember…" Felicia rolls into another thug and knocks him out with a three hit combo while remaining in the dry area of the doorway. "…you guys must be from that gang Joe beat up." Two more fellow gang members attempt to charge the Darkstalker only to be sent flying into a row of trash cans. "That was fast. But I thought the police arrested all of those guys…" The rain stops allowing Felicia to return home dry. "Time to get going… but why do I still sense danger?"
Suddenly, someone stabs Felicia in the back with a high voltage tazer causing the victorious night warrior to fall face first on the wet ground. The high shock has temporarily paralyzed Felicia's normal motor functions but she is able to find a fifth person standing over her before losing consciousness. Someone help…
"Huh?" A strange feeling breaks through Joe's body in the middle of the woods while Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling stare at him. "What is it now human?"
"Did you just feel something?" The two sisters shake their heads in disagreement as Joe starts running straight ahead gaining a large lead on the two hunters of the dark. "I have to leave guys… just keep heading south and you'll hit my home town." The human dashes off into the forest kicking up a small shockwave as he leaves the sisters in his dust. "How rude…eh sis?" Mei-Ling is staring at the path Joe took and ponders something to herself. "Sis!"
"Sorry…"
"You've been doing that for a while now… care to explain why?" Mei-Ling looks ahead and points something to her blue skinned sister. "What the?" Joe's "little" shockwave has shattered all of the trees at his starting place. All of the trees along the path of the running human are left with several deep cuts into the bark. The piles of splinters on the ground are lifted into the air by a gentle breeze as Joe continues to dash head home. "That human… he's destroying the forest just by running through it!"
"I'm afraid that his power is begging to evolve faster than anything we have fought in the past Hsien-Ko. At this rate, he will…"
"He will what? Out with it!"
"That boy… he will become stronger than any Darkstalker in existence!" Hsien-Ko wipes away tears from her eyes as she laughs at her sister's idea. "Nice one. You almost had me believing for a second that…" Mei's eyes are fixated on the ground as Hsien-Ko backs away from her sister. "You aren't kidding are you? He's really that strong?"
"Not yet, he is on the edge of breaking through his limitations. If he does that, there is nothing that can stop him."
While the two sisters decide on their next course of action, Joe is busily running through the forest not realizing that his speedy return is causing damage to the area. Joe's arms and legs have become blurs while he keeps his eyes fixated on the horizon and the city that is rapidly approaching. I know I heard Felicia's voice… The speeding human exits the forest and stops on a small cliff that sits over the city and finds the citizens going through their everyday business. He shuts his eyes and begins to sweep the city for any sign of his furry friend. Where is she? I can sense Felicia is hurt, but how could she be moving so fast? Joe sharply opens his eyes and launches off of the cliff in a burst of white energy towards the center of the city.
Meanwhile, an average black delivery van travels down a busy city street carrying a strange cargo. The stunned Felicia is shocked several more times by her captors before they toss the defenseless cat woman against the side of the van. A red light stops the van at an inner section allowing the leader of the pack to turn around from the front seat. "Hey, knock it off back there!" shouts the driver. "Wait until we get out of the city before you guys start that rough stuff."
"But Boss, can't we start now?" whines a subordinate. The light turns green and the leader turns the truck onto a multi-lane highway leading out of the city. "Now you can begin, but I want to finish her off." Felicia rolls over and sits up against the inside of the truck to find her four attackers starting to close in with impure thoughts in mind. Just then, someone appears on the highway lane straight ahead of the van with a black hooded cloak covering the person's identity.
"Who's dumb enough to be standing in the middle of the…?" Two aqua colored eyes stare at the driver as he slams on the accelerator throwing the passengers in the back around. "What's wrong boss?" questions one of the tossed followers as he moves into the front passenger seat. "Boss, that must be the guy who took out our gang!"
"Oh really? I'll make this quick." The van quickly closes in on the intended target who refuses to move out of the way. Felicia looks through the windshield from the back of the van and notices the mysterious individual. Who is that? Only a few feet separate the person from a deadly impact when the person in questions vanishes from sight. "Where did he go?" The driver looks all over the front of the van for any sign of a hit when something in the sky catches his attention. "The fuck is that?"
The unknown object drops out of the cloudy sky and slams full speed into the roof of the van nearly splitting the vehicle in half. The force of the impact blew out all four tires at the same exact time causing the crippled van to roll onto the driver's side and skid along the highway for several yards. The wrecked automobile finally comes to a stop with broken glass and shredded rubber scattered across every lane of the highway as one of the men crawl out of the back of the van with a large bleeding cut down the side of his face and pulls out an unmoving Felicia over his shoulder. A voice speaks to the man as the sirens of highway patrol cars being to close in.
"Drop the girl right now or else…" The man pulls a handgun out from the back of his pants with a free hand and turns around to face his visitor. "Or else what?" The man aims the weapon at the area of the cloaked person's head and pulls the trigger. The shot echoes through the air as the weapon lands at the feet of the shooter who now has a face full of the cloaked figure's right elbow. Felicia lands in her savior's arms just as the knocked out man falls backward with a cocktail of injuries to his face. "That or else." The figure's hood is blown off by a gust of wind to reveal Joe's face. She's unconscious, but at least Felicia's safe. After grabbing Felicia's smashed package, Joe takes to the sky as the police arrive.
That night, the TV in the living room is tuned to the eleven o'clock night news as the report of the last five members of the gang finishes playing. Even thought the gang was broken apart when an unknown assailant knocked out the majority of the gang over six months ago, a few members had eluded the police's attempt at capturing them. The report also states that the same unknown, unnamed individual had assisted in the capture of the last five members when their van had overturned on the local highway leading out of town.
"That brother of yours can't keep out of the spotlight can he?" comments Lucy as Jeff walks into the living room and plops down on the couch. The cat woman has been trying to find a news channel that doesn't have a story about Joe. "My brother isn't the type of person who enjoys extra attention."
"And why's that?"
"Well… for starters, he has never been recognized for anything of great value. He's just an average college student-athlete who has no desire to become famous for anything." While Jeff continues his talk with Lucy downstairs, Felicia begins to toss under the blankets in Joe's room. Her necklace begins to glow with a green light as Felicia begins to talk in her sleep. No… don't leave me alone!
Inside the dreaming neko's mind, Felicia is standing in a barren wasteland as a harsh wind forces her to shield her eyes. Where am I… a city? As Felicia strains to see through the wind a figure appears and shields her from the harsh wind. Mother? The figure is wearing a black shirt with blue jeans, leather gauntlets on both arms that reach up to the forearms and matching boots. Who are you? The figure turns towards the cat woman just as a bright light explodes behind the person blocking Felicia's attempt at identifying said person's face. The light absorbs the unknown person and travels towards Felicia who is frozen with fear at the oncoming light. What is this? Why can't I move!
"Hey, wake up!" Felicia wakes from her nightmarish dream to find Joe pinning her to the bed by her shoulders. "It's about time you woke up." Joe releases the dazed cat woman who sits up against the headboard of the bed to collect her thoughts. Felicia pulls a pillow close to her chest, wraps her arms around the softness of the pillow and looks down at the bed. Joe grows worried as Felicia refuses to speak to him.
"Are you ok?" The neko jerks her head up in surprise even though her friend has been in the same room for the past several minutes. "Huh?" Joe sits down on the end of the bed with a leg bent perpendicular to the edge. "That must have been one hell of a nightmare if it caused you to rip apart my bed." Felicia checks out the condition of the bed to find that her claws have accidentally ripped apart Joe's blankets and tore several large holes in the mattress. "Sorry."
"You've never acted this way since we met…" Felicia puts down the only thing that survived her nightmare induced thrashing and crawls over to Joe. The cat woman stares into the peaceful brown eyes of her friend with great intensity. "What's the matter?"
"Tell me… why has your scent all but vanished?"
"My scent?" Felicia pins Joe's head down to the bed and sniffs through his hair. "Hey!" The human breaks free of his feline's companion's grip to fix his hair back to its spiky formation. Joe's hair has almost doubled in size from being out in the wilderness for the past six months. "I can't seem to pick up your unique scent anymore…"
"I'm sure it's nothing. You can't smell me anymore because I just got out of the shower. I was starting to get sick of smelling six month old sweat anyway."
"I guess you're right." Joe places a hand on Felicia's head between her cat ears and calmly scratches the worried female. Felicia is shocked to see a faint image of her mother Rose outlining Joe. How can this be? Only mom knew how to calm me like this… The calmed cat follows Joe as he heads to exit the room and stops him before he opens the door. "Uh, Joe?"
"Hmm? What is it?"
"I want to ask you a favor… I want you to train me!" Shocked and a little in denial Joe questions Felicia's favor. "I must have missed that… did you just say that you wanted me to…" Several minutes pass by before Felicia allows Joe to leave. "Thanks Joe." Felicia gives her teacher a quick wink before closing the door between them.
"I can't believe I just agreed to that." The chaotic hero now turned fighting tutor leans up against the door at the exact time his feline student leans against the opposite site. The pair share a synchronized thought as the stars shine in the night sky.
I have to get stronger…I want to protect those I care about.
To Be Continued!
Trailer for the next episode:
As Joe and Felicia take a break in an attempt to improve Felicia's strength in a short period of five days, Morrigan arrives with some disturbing news.
Felicia: What do you mean you can't find the others?
Morrigan: Something is blocking their Dark Force or someone is taking out Darkstalkers one at a time.
Felicia: That can't be! Pyron doesn't arrive for several more days.
Joe: I have a bad feeling about this…
Next time… Episode Three: The Silent Hunter
Felicia: What could have happened to them… hey, where's Joe?
Author Note: Well, the glorious return of everyone's favorite Darkstalker OC (allegedly) has happened. Has Joe become yet another overly powerful fanfic character who cannot be defeated by anyone? Or am I just spreading bull around? Keep tuned!