Title: Staying Put

Author: elektralyte

Rating: K+

Characters/Pairings: Sprinklings of Hank/Sheila goodness.

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Summary: Friends go missing and Hank's behavior arouses suspicion...

Chapter 7

The group stared in horror at their transformed friend.

"MEEHH!" It bleated again in a hellish voice.

The were-unicorn lunged forward and Diana leapt into action. She dove in front of the others and began swinging her javelin.

Hank drew an arrow on his bow and called out, "Move over Di, I'm going to shoot!"

"Nooo!" Screamed Bobby. "That's Uni! Don't hurt her Hank!"

"Ah crap!" Hank cursed.

He loved Uni as much as the next person but only when she was petting zoo sized. As soon as Diana was out of the way Hank fired a few arrows at the ground in front of the creature. The monster stopped advancing for the moment.

Bobby decided he was going to save his unicorn and ran forward. Eric managed to tackle him before he did something foolish.

"If someone has a plan now would be a good time to give it!" Hank yelled. Right now, there was in a standoff between him, Diana and the Uni-monster.

Sheila looked at the flowers in her hand and shouted, "I have an idea!"

"Guys, you have to pin Uni down first!" She called out.

Diana shot Hank a look and asked, "she's kidding, right?" Then she extended her javelin and bopped Uni in the chin with the tip.

The beast staggered back from the blow. Diana lunged forward and swung the pole so that it caught the monster under its chin. Then, with a tricky maneuver she slid her leg behind one of the creature's legs and executed a takedown.

The Uni-monster was too strong though and looked like it was about to slip out of the hold. Hank dropped his bow and launched himself at the opposite side of the beast. He put his weight on the javelin. Now, both he and Diana had held down an end of the pole, effectively pinning the creature's upper body to the ground.

Unfortunately its legs were still free and the Uni-monster was kicking wildly. Eric looked over his shoulder and saw the commotion. He quickly let Bobby go and ran to help the others.

Eric threw himself on the monster's legs but only manage to pin down one. Fortunately, Bobby was right behind and was able to grab the other.

"Stop it Uni, we're trying to help you!" the boy shouted.

Uni replied with more, angry bleating and even stronger attempts at bucking them off.

There were four of them holding the Uni-beast down and they were still struggling. Hank called out to Sheila, "You need to do something quick, we can't hold on much longer!

Presto was about to join them when Sheila caught his arm. "Presto, I need you!"

Sheila held out the flowers in her hand. "I need you to make a ton of these!"

"You want me to make flowers?" He asked skeptically.

"Can you do it? We need lots of them," she insisted.

Presto bit his bottom lip and took the flowers from her with one hand and pulled off his hat with the other.

He waved his fisted hand over the hat and chanted, "Magic hat, use your power, to turn these flowers, into a shower...of, um flower...power..."

Both he and Sheila winced at the rhyme as Presto dropped the flowers into the hat. He closed it and shook it as if it would help the magic along.

Nothing happened.

Presto shrugged apologetically to Sheila. Meanwhile the Uni-monster kicked Bobby off its leg.

"Any day now Sheila!" Eric yelled.

"Eric!" Hank shot the other boy a warning glance but Eric was too busy ducking a hoof to see it.

What Eric could see though, was beginning to scare him. The Uni-monster's horn started to glow. Hank saw this too and shouted, "No-no-no-no-NO! Guys, LET GO! It's going to--"

BAMPHF!

"--teleport!"

The beast disappeared instantly. Fortunately Diana and Eric heeded Hank's warning and let go in a nick of time. The three of them found them selves face down in grass and dirt. Hank rolled over and stood up just in time to see the monster reappear behind an unsuspecting Sheila and Presto.

Sheila shut her eyes against her failure when she was startled by a shout.

"Hey, I think it's working!" Presto shouted.

The hat began expanding like a Jiffy Pop popcorn tin. In fact, it grew alarmingly large and Presto was having a struggle trying to hold it. He failed to notice the rather large angry goat-wolf behind him.

Sheila, however, was aware of it. "Presto? Don't move," she whispered.

Presto stilled at the urgency in her voice. He could also feel heavy breathing down his back and suddenly realized how screwed they were. Sheila, though had an idea.

She slowly spread her hands apart and brought them to either side of the hat. She took a deep breath and held it all the while watching the monster. The Uni-monster blinked and that's when Sheila clapped her hands.

The hat made an explosive noise, reminiscent of a balloon popping. A blast of air and petals assaulted the monster and caused it to take a step back. It snorted and spat because it accidentally swallowed some of the flowers.

"Bleeeehhh!" The creature furiously tried to scrub the offensive petals off its face. Then it froze up.

The young ones waited breathlessly to see what would happen next. The Uni-monster's face twisted up into a comical grimace as it rubbed its nose. Its breathing became erratic and it hitched twice.

"MEH...MEH..."

"CHOOOOO!"

A flurry of blue and white petals swirled around the group like blinding snowflakes. Soon the floral blizzard slowed and where a monster once stood, now a small, ordinary, baby unicorn sat.

"Meeh. Baabee!" She called out.

"Uni!" He answered before bounding towards her. He grabbed her in a hug and tumble to the ground with a grin.

Uni for her part bleated happily. She was glad to be back to normal and that no one was hurt because of her. Everyone else hugged each other and cheered for the thief.

"Sheila what were those flowers and how did you know they would work?" Diana asked breathlessly.

She had an uncharacteristically smug look on her face when she answered, "those flowers were from the wolfsbane plant. People say it's a cure for lycanthropy. Some of us paid attention in botany class."

"That was a great plan Sheila," Hank remarked quietly.

He looked at her with such admiration that she couldn't help blushing. She also couldn't figure out what to do with her hands for some reason. He knew what to do though. Hank reached out and took her hands in his. Suddenly everyone else was trying to look at more interesting scenery.

"Thank you."

Sheila was surprised. "For what?"

Hank looked at her seriously and answered, "for believing me this time."

Just as seriously Sheila vowed, "I won't ever doubt you again."

Someone coughed and the two of them looked over at the others. It was Eric looking like he had something to say.

"Uh, yeah Hank," he started while scratching his head. "About all that doubting and werewolf stuff--I'm, a, sorry. I shouldn't have accused you or anything..."

Hank looked at his friends. Presto and Diana were nodding their heads in agreement. Bobby meanwhile, was busy cleaning the small bite wound Uni received from the werewolf.

Hank was still a little mad at his friends but decided to let it go. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge anyway, (well, maybe at Venger) and he knew his friends were genuinely sorry.

He reached out, clapped Eric on the shoulder and nodded.

Eric smirked and asked, "Are we cool?"

Hank smiled back and replied, "Yeah, we're cool."

Eric and the others were relieved.

"Okay everyone. Let's gather our stuff and go," Hank ordered.

"Go? What about sleep? I'm beat," Eric complained.

"Well, you can stay here with the other werewolf if you want, but I'm getting the heck out of Dodge." Hank began gathering his gear. He grabbed Sheila's hand and the two of them stood up together.

The other watched the newly formed couple walked away hand in hand. Bobby pretended to gag while the others stood there, smiling.

"Ain't that sweet," Eric mocked. He turned and gave Diana a wink. She held up her hand and rolled her eyes at him.

Right then something howled loudly and the kids scrambled to gather their belongings. As each young one finished they took off after Hank and Sheila leaving Eric to be the last as always.

"Hey Di, how many werewolves does it take to change a lightbulb?"

"Di? Di? Presto?"

The cavalier had found that he was all alone. His friends were off in the distance now.

"Oh come on, give a guy a break! My jokes aren't that bad..." he called out. Then he ran like crazy to catch the others.

The End.