Disclaimer: I do not own any Klonoa characters… The others are mine, though.

Chapter 11: Hardly Grateful

It wasn't long before all the children had made it across the thin board to the building neighboring the inferno. Then it was the adults' turn. They hesitated longer than the children. But a sharp bark from Guntz got them going. "Come on!" Why did these people always have to think so much before acting?

The three adults took their time crossing, each with a different style. The first simply walked; the second actually jumped, almost causing him to fall when he didn't exactly make it all the way across; and the last carefully crawled. Soon everyone but Guntz and Klonoa were over without any casualties.

The three young men holding the board in place didn't move. Guntz twitched his ear uneasily as a paused passed with them just staring at each other. It wasn't until one of the men spoke up that something happened.

"This building won't hold forever."

Though it was hesitant and uncertain, it was enough to assure Guntz that the board would still be there when he came back. He turned around and went to Klonoa, who was sitting, his back leaning tiredly on the door they had come out from. He looked exhausted and ready to faint at any moment, but he was conscious enough to look up at Guntz when he got closer.

"Come on. We have to go," Guntz insisted. He took Klonoa's arm and pulled him to his shaky feet. They barely had a chance to turn around before the building made a violent quaver, causing the two to fall over. The men holding the board lost their grip, causing the piece of wood to fall into the smoky abyss below.

The situation seemed hopeless, at least to their eyes. Though they weren't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. But Guntz and Klonoa seemed to have no fear of the fallen bridge. "Can you make it?" Guntz asked, giving his ill companion a side-glance. Klonoa took a deep breath before hoarsely replying. "Yeah."

The children were making a ruckus, just realizing the situation.

"What about the bunny and doggy?"

"Go save Mr. Doggy and the bunny!"

The young men barely had time to even try to calm the children down before something distracted them. A shadow flew over them from above. A second later the black figure of Klonoa landed the roof several feet behind them. His landing was unsteady, though, and resulted in him falling face-first.

It wasn't long before another figure landed on the building nearby in the same fashion, though his landed was much more elegant. Guntz quickly went to Klonoa as he weakly got into a sitting position. Despite it all, the cat-rabbit managed to make a bright smile, causing Guntz to make an exasperating sigh.

This was all before the children swarmed them with comments on how cool their jump was.

---

"So… you're an alien, right?"

The group of survivors were now headed downward the safe building to the crowd that awaited them on the ground. Curiosity of the young men who had rescued them drowned out their uneasiness soon after leaving the roof to go inside. Currently, they were asking more questions than the children had. Klonoa's reply especially got them excited.

"No... I'm a human."

"That's impossible!"

"You look nothing like a human!"

Klonoa might've taken those words slightly offensive if he weren't already to busy keeping to his weak feet and hiding his pain. Guntz kept looking at him, though. But he was determined to at least make it back to Nikki's apartment before giving into his fatigue.

Going down stairs was surprisingly easier and faster than going up. It wasn't long before they were passing the threshold to fresh air and countless loudly murmuring people. The crowd outside had gotten bigger over time. It seemed the ridiculously tall burning building was still standing, somehow. Flames could no longer be seen reaching out of windows, but black smoke still swelled the air above.

The thrilled cry of the children immediately caught a portion of the crowd's attention. Guntz made no effort to control the kids as they ran off to find their parents. Klonoa's vision was starting to blur. All he saw were the colorful, short figures running away, soon to be out of his poor view.

The crowd was all around them and the rest of the group still together had no choice but to travel right through it. By the time they had reached what seemed like the center, everyone had backed away, staring at the two boys as if they had guns. Of course, Guntz did, but they hardly looked like more than toy water guns to their eyes.

A fire truck was nearby. Guntz was carefully formulating a plan on how they'd swiftly get out of this crowd and back to the apartment without any trouble. Klonoa could sense the crowd slowly inching closer. Though his ears were sensitive and usually always picked any sound clearly no matter how far, he could barely point out any words out of the mingled murmuring and whispers.

Klonoa turned around, suddenly finding that Guntz was no longer close enough for him to clearly see. He hardly got the greeting he was looking for as he got only one part of Guntz' name out of his mouth. Loud yells suddenly started behind him, sounding mostly like commands. A second later Klonoa felt something small, sharp stab into his shoulder. Immediately following after, an unexpected amount of pressure body slammed into him and shoved him face-first onto the hard ground.

Guntz didn't realize what was happening until the yelling became more urgent and he heard a muffled cry from Klonoa. He turned around just quickly enough to narrowly dodge what looked like a bullet. Unable to piece the ground, the object shot at him became clearly visible. It was a tranquilizer dart.

Guntz staggered back in alarm. These were those same heavily dressed men that attacked him only a few days ago. Their whole bodies were covered, as if they were planning on going into a fire. One was on top of Klonoa, keeping his whole body tightly under him as if his life depended on it.

The darts were surprisingly easy to dodge when you could actually see them. Five were wasted by the time Guntz finally decided to counterattack. He took out the guns from his belt and targeted them forward. The men hesitated, not sure what to expect from such strange looking guns.

"N-No… Guntz, stop—" Klonoa's words were barely audible and were cut short after the man on top of him tightly gripped one of his long ears to shut him up. A growl rumbled in Guntz' throat. He knew Klonoa was right. The last thing they wanted to do was prove these men right by making themselves a threat. He thought quick.

Guntz could easily get away by jumping on and over the fire truck several feet behind him. But he had to get Klonoa first. How the hell would he do that without hurting these men? Klonoa's ring, which was out in plain view in his hand as he struggled, started to glow. It soon became blindingly bright and the man above had to cover his eyes.

Klonoa managed to struggle out from under him in this moment of confusion. The light was suddenly got and the man, realizing what had happened, bared his gun. Guntz was there in a flash, snapping his fangs over the barrel of the gun, knocking out of the surprised man's grip.

As the surrounding, heavily armored men began wildly shooting their guns, Guntz and Klonoa quickly made for the fire truck behind them. Klonoa managed to get another dart stuck in him as Guntz was just leaping onto the vehicle. The cat-rabbit fell to the ground again, unable to pick himself back up.

The men around swarmed in and Guntz hesitated as now two people restrained Klonoa, who was no longer struggling anyway. He twitched as a poorly aimed dart was fired up at him. He waited a moment longer as more of the men pointed their guns upward, ready to fire. With a low growl, he suddenly spun around.

Before the men knew it Guntz had jumped off the other side of the truck and was now out of their view. The crowd made way swiftly as Guntz sped past them with amazing speed and was soon gone. He had gotten away from the heavily armored agents again, but this time their efforts weren't a complete waste.

A man held Klonoa's limp body up by the scruff of his shirt, as if he were a doll. "Now we can finally see just what these freak-shows are," he said, his voice a bit muffled under his mask. Sudden, loud yelling nearby made the men stagger back in surprise.

"What are you doing?!"

"Leave him alone!"

"Don't hurt the bunny!"

The children were grouped together again and now ganging up on the man holding Klonoa. "Back off, brats. This thing is dangerous," another man warned, roughly pushing a kid back with the barrel of his gun. This, naturally, made several adults upset. A ruckus was slowly beginning to arise.

Another man, dressed slightly differently than the others, suddenly lifted his gun at the crowd, knowing all too well how easily uproars were started in this city. "Shut up!" There was silence. "We were commanded by the mayor to confiscate these little monsters. Call us exterminators, if you will. Free of charge, so don't get in our way!"

He let out a warning shot in the air. Obviously his gun wasn't for tranquilizing. No one objected, though low murmuring echoed through the air. The children were quickly gathered up by their parents and pulled away to safety. The man with a rifle, apparently commander of the group of the heavily dressed men, waved a hand simply. As if on cue, the rest of them turned to leave to whence they came. Only one voice bothered to try and stop them.

"They're not monsters."

The commander turned around. It was one of the young men from before. He stood determinedly out of the crowd. "They saved all those kids from this fire," he said. The commander was unmoved. "I'll bet they started the fire," he said in a dull voice. "He said himself he's human," another one of the young men spoke, regarding Klonoa.

The commander chuckled quietly. He suddenly turned around to the man holding Klonoa. "Does this look like a human to you?!" He snatched Klonoa and held him up by an ear for all to see. Klonoa's narrowed eyes suddenly snapped open and, with a rather odd snarl, his teeth were clamped around the man's arm. But, despite his sharp fangs, the commander's suit was too thick to pierce through.

The man didn't move, letting Klonoa hang. "See? Anything with teeth like that is only a savage. Like every other disgusting beast on this planet," he grimaced. He turned to his men. "Get this thing off of me," he ordered. With another dart shot into his back, Klonoa's grip loosened and he felt to the ground.

The commander nonchalantly turned around and stomped off. "I want that beast put in a muzzle," he said as he left.

A little short, but it seemed the best place to end it. I'm trying to finish this quickly. I've yet again thought up another "series"(tis what I call lengthy fanfics) I'm too anxious to wait to start… I need to control myself.

I'm starting to become a serious K/G fan, so you can expect a bit of that(not here, though)...

Fandoms are contagious.