Thank you for everyone's reviews thus far. And just so you know, I listen and consider all of your thoughts, but for now this part of the story is already planned out. But as for the future… who's to know?

Garfield took a step backwards, the look on the scientist's face telling him they were in trouble. Big trouble. "Mom…?" He called hesitantly, wanting reassurance, needing reassurance. Was this why they were running? Why his parents were trying to leave? Was this his fault? If he hadn't gotten the game, would this not be happening?

His mom's words did not reassure him, though. "Garfield, run! Get out of here right n-" she was cut off as the soldier hit her head with the butt of his gun. She fell towards the ground, his dad narrowly catching her in time. She was still awake, but there was blood coming from her hair line. She was bleeding! She was hurt!

"Mom!" Garfield rushed over, trying to get to his mom, protect his parents, but the soldier suddenly swung the gun at him, yelling at him to stay back. His eyes were wild as they looked at him, suspicious. Fearful. The eight year old stopped halfway there, eyes hypnotically locked at the gun trained to his chest. Now Garfield knew why his mom didn't want others to see him. They were scared of him, him.

A firm hand landed on his shoulder, holding him in place. He turned to face the scientist, fear towards the man coming back in full force. He looked the way the lionesses did when they took down a gazelle. Victorious. Satisfied.

Hungry.

"Your coming with me Garfield."

The green skinned boy tried to tug out of the hard grip that was steering him towards the doorway, but wasn't very successful. The scientist muttered angrily at him, trying to say things that were supposed to be calming, assuring, but weren't at all. He looked back to his parents, afraid. "Mom! Dad!" He finally got his shoulder loose, but before he could return to them, the scientist lunged and grabbed his arm, still dragging him away, his angry words getting less and less comforting. "MOM! DAD!"

"GARFILED!" His mother cried out, trying to get up and follow, but his dad was holding her down.

The scientist wretched him angrily out the door, looking back at the soldier. "Take care of them, already! We don't have all day!"

Take care of them, take care of them, take care of them- Garfield knew what that meant, he'd heard it all the time when the soldiers snuck into the villages nearby. He knew what 'take care of them' meant. "NO!" He cried out, watching as his parents huddled together, the gunman turned from Garfield, facing to gun towards his family. "NO!" He felt angry, he felt scared, he felt scared for them! He had to protect them! He had to be stronger than this man and protect them! But what protects? What protects? Then he thought of it, back in his zoology book upstairs, on top of the suitcase in his room.

The scientist released him with a cry as the green skin child morphed. His skin turned into heavy fur, his mouth growing into a long canine snout. Landing on all fours, he growled threateningly at the man who was attacking his parents, who was going to… going to…

No, he was not going to. Not if Garfield could stop him!

Snarling savagely the dog ran into the house, right at the man. He had witnessed the boy's transformation, and his eyes rolled white with fear as the giant Siberian wolf launched at him. "Back! Back you monster!" he cried in Bialian, turning the gun to face the changeling. He managed to fire one shot, easily missing the startled wolf, before Garfield's dad turned and punched him down, throwing the gun across the room in the process. The soldier stayed where he fell, knocked out cold by his father.

"You brat!"

Garfield swiveled his head to see the scientist had run in and witnessed the whole thing. The wolf eyes caught him catching sight of the gun across the floor. Swiftly, before the scientist could get close, Garfield ran in front of it, growling viciously. He won't let him, he won't!

The scientist stared hard at him, furious. "Is this what you truly are, Garfield? Nothing more than an animal that's going to tear my throat out?" Garfield stopped growling, surprised. No, he didn't want to tear this man's throat out! He wanted to… he just wanted to protect his family! "Are you a mindless animal now?" He pressed. "Are you going to bite and tear people apart, now that you're a dangerous wolf?"

No! Garfield didn't want to do that! He was a boy! He was just a boy, he didn't want to hurt… the wolf changed back to the small eight year old, his eyes wide with horror. Oh crap, he had changed back! He needed to be a wolf! He couldn't fight the man as just Garfield.

The man smiled that oily, not friendly smile, chuckling darkly at Garfield's terrified expression. Before he could take a step closer though, an ominous cha-chink! sounded behind the boy. The man froze, his smile gone. Garfield turned, afraid it was the soldier, and found his mom training the rifle at the scientist's heart.

"How dare you." Garfield felt scared again, his mom never talked like that, and the blood was still dripping down her face, just past her eyes. "How dare you try to hurt my boy!"

"Mom?" Garfield jumped slightly when her hand shot out, thrusting him behind her, keeping him out of reach of the bad man.

"Go ahead Marie, shoot me." The man smirked cynically at her. "Shoot a man right in front of your little boy."

Shoot him? His mom was going to shoot him? Like the soldier was going to shoot her? "Mom?" He asked again, his voice cracking slightly.

"Marie!" Garfield turned to see his father haul the soldier into the coats closet, slamming the door behind him. "Stop!"

"He's going to take Garfield, Rick!" She cocked the gun again, but the scientist only grinned wider, darker. "He's going to take him, experiment on him! I won't let that happen!"

"It won't happen," Rick walked over, glaring angrily at the man who was upsetting his family. Garfield clutched his mother's pant leg tighter, he didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to help. This was all happening because the scientist didn't like him. Didn't like who he was. Begin green wasn't so cool anymore. Rick placed a reassuring hand on his wife's shoulder, grabbing the gun from her trembling arms, keeping it trained on the man. "You and Garfield head to the jeep. Don't grab anything else, just go!"

Marie, now having a way to get her son out of there, grabbed the confused boy's hand and bolted out the back door. Garfield looked back at their house, the home he had grown up in. From the trees he could see Monkey, screeching questioningly at him, wondering what was going on. "Garfield." He turned back to look at his mom, the blood still seeping down her chin, it made him want to cry.

"Mommy," He hadn't said mommy since he was seven, "is this my fault?"

His mom looked even sadder when he asked. As she leaned down and picked him up, setting him in the seat, she hugged him tightly, protectively. "Listen to me Garfield Mark Logan, this is not your fault. You have done nothing wrong, nothing."

Garfiled sniffled slightly as she hurried to buckle him and climb in the other door. But because of me, they almost- He and Marie jumped as the BANG! of a gunshot echoed through the area. "DAD!" He called out. Where was he? Did he get shot? Why hadn't he stayed and protected his dad?

But then Rick was racing out of the house, no gun in hand, jumping in and yelling at his wife to drive, drive, drive! Marie didn't have to hear anymore, and suddenly the car was screeching out of the compound.

Nobody talked for fifteen whole minutes, just racing across the African plain. Garfield felt tears forming in his eyes again as he thought of all his toys, his animal friends, all left behind. Would they be alright? Would Monkey forgive him for leaving like this? Would he ever come back? He looked down at his green hands, his almost furry arms. He didn't want to be green anymore, he didn't want to be any animal he could think of, not if it meant losing his home.

His mother suddenly spoke up, eyes still scanning the road for any sign of other vehicle activity. "Rick, back at the house, did you-"

"No." He said brusquely, looking back at his son. "a shot to the knee. I didn't want him getting any ideas to follow us." His tone made it sound like he had wanted to do more, and it scared Garfield. His dad wouldn't kill someone, would he? Would his mom? All because of him?

"Where are we going?" Garfield asked suddenly. Were they still going to the states? How would they get there?

"I have a friend who will give us a ride down the river to an international airport." Marie quickly explained, her tone lighter than it had been, probably to make him feel better. It did. "They'll help up get to the states." Seeing her husband's panicked look, she added that the pass ports were in her pocket, she had grabbed them right as Hutchison (the bad man) had come in.

Rick stared at the ground zooming by, totally silent. "Marie, we can't go that route."

"What do you mean?" Marie looked at him in question, alarm only slightly cutting into her voice, trying to hide anything else painful from her son.

"Hutchison saw me grab the tickets, he was threatening reinforcements, if we go, there's a chance he'll find us."

Garfield looked between his parents in the front seat, feeling his stomach flip badly at the thought of having to face the man with the scary grin again. "Then what are we going to do…?"

XXX

Hutchison braced his leg, trying to stave off the continuous flow of blood. Damn Logan! He knew the man was too much of a bleeding heart to kill, but hell! Once he retrieved the boy, he'd be sure to give Rick his own bullet. Right between the eyes.

That boy, stupid brat. As bad as his father. The scientist had never actually watched the boy transform into anything other than a monkey, and when he turned into the wolf... it had been amazing, terrifying to watch. It was even more incredible to think what his… superiors could do with such a genetic miracle. He had worked for Bialya for seven years now, had been apart of some of their… less than ethnic projects. Garfield would be just the tool they needed to get a leg up on Qurac. If they could use his DNA the way he hypothesized, it could even win them the country.

Not to mention it would make him one of the greatest geneticists alive once he tore open and mapped out the boys morphing abilities, maybe even found ways to clone it. The profits he could make from such a thing were… immeasurable. Blast it, he needed to find that boy.

Hearing a vehicle pull up to the house, he couldn't help but grin. It's about time. If his muscle, that stupid Bialian soldier, didn't report back within a certain amount of time, another covert group was to come in and investigate. The soldiers filed in, taking note of the destruction and location of the scientist. "Help me!" He exclaimed angrily. "The buffoon is in the closet, they're getting away!"

"Tisk, tisk, Mr. Hutchison, that's no way to treat your 'rescuers'."

Hutchison felt his stomach turn to ice. Oh hell no, don't tell me they sent-

"As a matter of fact, Hutchison, they did." The scientist felt his face pale as he took in the thin frame that entered the room, the hood covering his overly large cranium, but you could still see the pink spony material of his brain peaking out.

"P'Simon." He breathed, a horrible knot forming in his insides.

"Very good little lab coat, it seems the Queen's faith in you wasn't entirely misplaced." He watched detached as the soldiers helped the unconscious man out of the closet and back to the car.

Hutchison turned to the soldiers that had surrounded him. "Don't just stand there, help me up! They're getting away!" The soldiers remained impassive, not even throwing out a hand. That cold, fearful part of Hutchison rose up again, telling him this wasn't going to end well. "What is this!"

"This, my dear scientist, is your farewell party." P'Simon smiled, Hutchison associated that smile to that of a cobra's when it was sinking it's teeth into its prey. Assured, sinister, and deadly.

Before he could say anything else, his mind was suddenly assaulted by a psychic blast. He watched for helpless seconds as everything that had just occurred replayed, P'Simon having a front seat to it all. A sudden dive backwards also showed him all the times spent with Garfield, every calculated thought he made of the small changeling playing at super speeds. Then, after it was finished, without so much as a good-bye his brain overloaded. There was a moment of intense pain, and then his brain just… burst.

Outwardly, the soldiers watched with some unease as the bleeding scientist fell mutely to the floor, blood draining from his ears and eyes.

"Thank you for your services, Mr. Hutchison. They were most… mundane." P'Simon glanced around the room, taking in the family photos, some breakfast food still uneaten at the table. He turned away and headed for the door. "Burn it to the ground, along with the barn and anything else you find."

Stepping out onto the front porch as his men got to work, P'Simon couldn't help but smile to himself. It seems my little pretty has 'made' herself a friend. It might be the Queen who wants him, but tracking down the she- Martian's creation will be far more interesting than I expected. Hmm… Hearing a screech, he turned to see a small monkey on the railing, facing him angrily. The monkey gnashed his teeth at him, thumping tiny paws against the rail. A soldier walking in with fuel watched as suddenly, the little creature flew off the rail, thrown against a nearby tree. It fell to the ground, unmoving. With a shudder he hurried past his superior, trying not to think about that crocodile smile.

Poor Monkey…

My favorite YJ villains (and by villains I mean VILLINAS villains) are as follows: Klarion, Lex Luthor, and P'Simon. They are all creepy, all manipulative.

And all deadly.

For the record, the first chapters WILL be dark, it's just the nature of things until the YJ show up, so bear with me.