Well, the blizzard has struck and it sounds like we're in for another 20 inches… yikes.

So I hope this chapter warms you up… and just to give you a heads up, it involves romance- for those of you who can't stand that sissy-stuff, you may skip it.

Note: Underlined sentences will be monologue over different scenes.

~9~

Nessie, Kiffang, Eric, Erica, Lily, Norm, Jo, Sirius, and Fikk had split up together (make sense out of that, if you can) and were exploring the east side of the field. "Are we done yet?" Lily moaned, slowing down her pace, hunching forward. "We've been walking all over the tooniverse for the past six chapters! My feet hurt, I'm tired, I think I might collapse-"

"Look at the moon!" Nessie snapped.

Lilly did so, as well as Eric and Erica, and they transformed into their werewolf halves, Blackrose, Fangpuss, and Claw. "Woo! About time I got in this story!" Blackrose exclaimed, then began to sprint ahead. "C'mon, you guys! Get your rears in gear, we've got Nobodies to find!"

"Hey! Wait up!" Kiffang called, racing after her.

"Looks like we're all splitting up again," Norm said, then put his arm around Nessie. "How about the rest of you go after the two werewolves, while Nessie and I go- OOF!"

Nessie had elbowed him in the ribs. "Nice try, moron." she sneered.

"Norm, you can come with us," Jo suggested.

"yeah… sure…" Norm wheezed, getting his wind back, and walked with Jo and Sirius.

"Lets go make sure our cousins don't get into trouble," Claw said to Fangpuss.

"Yeah, last time we let them out of our sight, they set fire to a pool," Fangpuss replied, and turned to the reader. "Don't ask how it happened, because we're still trying to figure it out."

Nessie looked at Fikk. "I… guess it's you and me then." he said, awkwardly. "I know a place we could search, just uphill,"

Nessie sighed, rolling her eyes. "Whatever." she muttered. Better than going with Norm, at least. she thought.

~9~

Meanwhile, Lamone, Riffraff, Drista, Chase, Sam, and… um… Edwin were in the west side of the field, looking for any signs of the mysterious figure. "Alright, I can't handle it anymore!" Edwin shouted, then floated over to Riffraff and Drista. "How did you guys have a kid?! I gotta know!"

"ED!" The others shouted, obviously not wanting to know the answer.

"Well, when two people fall in love-" Drista began to joke.

"Stop right there." Lamone said quickly.

"What I mean is, how DID you guys fall in love?" Edwin clarified. "Judging from the people you materialized from, there's almost zero chance you could find a spark WITHOUT the possibility of trying to kill each other first!"

Riffraff chuckled. "Believe me, we didn't really zing right away," he replied.

"Yeah. Riffraff was the last of our little group to join, and when we were in a room together, Xyro and Zane had to make sure we didn't try to kill each other," Drista answered. "We'd argue, we'd fight, we'd brawl… and mostly we were just uncomfortable around each other,"

"Mostly because she always had a short temper and violent streak,"

"… while HE had an intense glare and even shorter temper,"

"Not to mention SHE always got into trouble- no matter HOW many times she claimed she could handle herself,"

Drista glared at Riffraff. "Excuse me? I always got into trouble? How about that time I had to save your ass from getting eaten by werewolves, or pull that stake out of your heart before you slipped off to the afterlife?"

Riffraff "Well, which one of us had to save the other from drowning AND from being caught in a burning building?"

"Which one of us has a fear of Twinkies?"

Edwin snickered, until Lamone punched him. "So, let me guess- it was the old 'boy and girl hate each other but by the end fall in love' story, correct?" the stoic vampire guessed.

"Eh, pretty much." Riffraff said with a shrug. "Only ours took a whole year to come around," he put his arm around Drista. "I'll never forget the moment it happened…"

Drista smiled. "Neither will I," she said.

~9~

Fikk and Nessie reached the top of the hill. "Here we are," Fikk said. "You can see everything from up here,"

Nessie looked around. The scenery was beautiful- a clear pond rested at the base of the hill, with a small creak leading to it with a waterfall, batches of flowers growing at the corners, a tall weeping willow arching over the edge with a rope tied to one of its branches, and fireflies blinking here and there. "Wow…" she whispered.

"We were camping out, and Xyro and Zane had shown us this amazing spot, not too far off," Drista was explaining to the others. "It was the most beautiful place we had ever seen,"

[Now Playing: "Strange Love" by Karen O]

"Would you… like to walk down and look around?" Fikk asked.

"Sure," Nessie replied, walking with him.

"Things started off the usual way- Zane and Xyro would be goofing around, while Drista and I would try to keep our distance," Riffraff said.

Fikk was walking too close to Nessie, who gave him a look and quickened her pace, going around the tree. Fikk, distracted by a couple fireflies that flew close to his face, ended up walking around the other side, bumping into her.

"Except, no matter where we went, we kept bumping into each other,"

Nessie sneered at Fikk, walking on.

"That's when he started to joke around," Drista remarked. "While I was just trying to chill, he was taking every opportunity to show off,"

"Hey, watch this," Fikk said, grabbing onto the rope and climbing up the tree. He then swung downward. "Woo-hoooo!" and with a *splash*, made a perfect five feet into the pond.

"I, on the other hand, didn't want to take part in his games,"

"We're on an investigation, dimwit. This is no time to play around," Nessie scoffed.

"…that is, not without the right provocation," Riffraff chimed.

"Yeah… but I suppose when you're not that athletic, walking around is all you're good at," Fikk teased.

Nessie glared at him. "Oh yeah?" she grabbed onto the rope. "I'll show you… watch THIS!" She swung down and, reaching out, made it to the middle of the pond, swimming under.

"I figured, if I chose the right words, she'd give in,"

Fikk dove under, swimming by her, giving her a smirk. She sneered at him, shoving him, then resurfaced, swimming back to the shore, deciding to get back to the matter at hand.

"Yeah, but I knew when to be mature and ignore you, too." Drista scoffed.

"Which, didn't exactly come easy for you that day, did it?" Riffraff replied.

"Watch out!" Fikk exclaimed, swinging on the rope again, right by Nessie, startling her enough back into the water.

"Why you…!" Nessie snarled, spreading her wings and flying after him.

"Yes… and that's when I decided to try to kill you,"

Fikk had swung back up into the tree, Nessie following him as he leaped from branch to branch, going higher and higher.

"That is, IF you could catch me…"

"Gotcha!" Nessie exclaimed, pushing through some leaves on the last branch he was on… only to see he wasn't there. She stepped out, wondering where he was.

"Hello!" Fikk exclaimed, flying up right behind her, scaring her off the branch. She flew up, seeing that he, too, had bat-wings (which made sense- I mean, his dad IS half-vampire) and also had wolf-ears (which also makes sense). He then tapped her. "You're it!" Laughing, he shot off.

"You little…!" Nessie snarled, flying after him. Didn't he know how serious their situation was? Why was he playing games?

Fikk chuckled, then dove, flying beneath the waterfall, Nessie following him, soaring higher and higher into the air until they were in the clouds. He dove in one, hiding from Nessie, who dove into it, but couldn't find him. She popped up, looking left, then ducked down; and he popped up, looking right, then ducked back down. Nessie popped up, then felt Fikk tap her shoulder and spun around, after he went back into hiding. She glared, then hovered behind the cloud. Fikk poked his head out, noticing Nessie wasn't there, and air-stepped out.

"I managed to catch you that day…" Drista scoffed.

"GOTCHA!" Nessie shouted, air-tackling Fikk and they spiraled downward… noticing he was laughing!

"Yeah… only because I wanted you to," Riffraff told her.

Nessie arched an eyebrow, and Fikk spread his wings, making them turn to the side, the tips of their wings touching the water, and swirled as they turned. Nessie loosened her grip, and Fikk hooked his arm with hers, and they flew beneath the waterfall and back into the air. He smiled at her, and she smiled back a little, and began to chuckle- it was pretty fun. They then touched down at the top of the waterfall to catch their breaths.

"Too bad I didn't realize that until the last minute," Drista replied.

Fikk then lied back in the grass, looking up at the stars. Nessie sat down beside him, sharing his gaze.

"Then again, I didn't mind. Once we were alone, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered,"

"When we weren't arguing or picking fights, it turns out we actually enjoyed each other's company." Riffraff added. "The emotions we felt seemed sudden for us, but… we didn't really care."

Fikk smiled at Nessie, holding her hand. "You know… I never met another quarter-werewolf, quarter-vampire before," he told her. "You're pretty cool,"

"You too," Nessie replied, and noticed how close she was to him and cleared her throat. "C-C'mon, we'd better check with the others, make sure they're alright,"

Fikk nodded. "Yeah… lets go," he replied, wishing that- if the situation wasn't so serious- the moment could last longer.

"But I had a feeling we'd ease into it," Riffraff said. "Because that night was only the start,"

[End song]

~9~

"I can hear Brielle vomiting from here," Sam commented once Riffraff finished.

"…and I can sense Kiff is going to kill the author very soon," Edwin added.

"He won't be the first one," Lamone muttered.

"Alright, enough chit-chat, lets get back to searching," Drista scoffed. "Unless you guys want to know what happened after romance sparked between us-"

"Moving on!" Chase interrupted, shoving everyone forward.

~9~

Chance, Nightclaw, Gin, Hardy, Drew, and Shadowslasher were searching the north side of the field. Why was no one searching the south, you may ask? …They just came from that direction. "No sign of that nut-job, anywhere," Nightclaw said.

"Yeah, and no sign of that creepo who tried to keep us werewolves at bay," Hardy added.

"Uh, Hardcore? That's who we're searching for!" Shadowslasher snapped.

"Oh… I thought we were searchifying for one of the missing Nobodies."

"Hey, watch it! One of those Nobodies happen to be part of my human-half and her counterpart!" Drew scolded.

Hardy cringed. "Ooh, ooh, sorry babe. I didn't mean it, (grr) didn't mean it."

"Just stay focused, dipstick. We've got two universes at stake here," Shadowslasher sneered.

"Hey, lighten up on our brother-in-law. It's not his fault we've got so many people to track down," Nightclaw told her.

"Well considering the circumstances, he ought to keep track of who we're tracking… and he's not 'my' brother-in-law,"

"He is, considering you and Matt are married," Chance said, holding up his camera. "Our photos from our Vegas trip is enough to prove it,"

Nightclaw gave Chance a glare. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO DELETE THOSE PHOTOS, YOU RETARD!" he shouted, reaching for the camera, only to be held back by Chance.

"I deleted most of them… but some of them were just too hard to get rid of- like this one of you getting strangled by that boa we kidnapped,"

"Give me that!" Nightclaw then tackled Chance, who wrestled to keep the camera away from him.

"If we didn't have a kid to support, I'd file for divorce," Shadowslasher muttered, then turned to the reader. "Nightslasher, if you're reading this, you'd better get a good college degree for all I have to put through!"

"Guys, we've got an investigation to get to, remember?" Gin snapped. "Focus!"

Nightclaw had pinned Chance to the ground, successfully retrieving the camera and deleting the photos on it. "Sure thing, Ginny." the werewolf said, smiling victoriously as he stood up, tossing the empty camera back to Chance.

"Stupid nitwolf," Chance sneered. "Now I know what my brother has to go through…"

There was a growl, and something in the tall grass grabbed Chance by the throat, strangling him. "Chance!" Drew gasped.

"Hang on, bro! I'll help ya!" Hardy shouted, then took out his key-blade, swinging it at whatever had a grip on Chance, scaring it. They watched it take off, seeing it was wearing a long trench-coat and hat… and had long leathery wings, which it used to take off into the air.

"What WAS that thing?!" Gin stammered.

"Our second sign of trouble," Shadowslasher replied. "C'mon, we've got to get back to the others!"

~9~

Hello, suspense, we were hoping you'd stick around.

Well, it seems like there's a sudden-romance blooming, we've got a creature on the loose, meaning our heroes here are in for one heck of a night in the next chapter.

Please review. No flames, though. …Flames are bad.