Hi guys! I'm sorry I didn't update for a really long time, school was horrible and my holidays only started two weeks ago, but I didn't stop writing as soon as I was finally able to.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wild Kratts, they belong to the Kratt brothers and to PBS and to more people I don't know right now.

Warning: Cheesiness overload in the beginning (I'm sorry, so so sorry!), and Martin and Aviva have a reaction later in the chapter that doesn't make sense AT ALL, but it was important for the chapter and I have no idea how to change it.

Well, I hope you still enjoy this new chapter and if you find any horrible mistakes, please tell me so I can correct them! Thanks.

Recovering

It had been two weeks since they had managed to free the tigers, but also since Jimmy had gotten hurt. He had been unable to leave his bed for the whole time, so the others had decided that, if there wasn't an emergency, they would just stay in the jungle. Aviva had just parked the Tortuga somewhere else, so nobody could find them and not too many animals were bothered. Martin and Chris profited from the fact that they probably had enough time, and spent most of the day and even some of the nights outside, watching the different animals. Aviva was mostly helping them with the suits and programmed new Creature Power Disks for them both, or she would put on her own suit and come along with them when she was too bored staying inside all the time.

Koki was the only one who barely left the Tortuga. She spent almost her whole time in Jimmy's room, taking care of him and talking to him. She had even moved in with her hammockso she could help him if there was anything wrong at night.

Even if she didn't tell anyone what she did exactly, the others could tell by her happy face that she was together with Jimmy now. Slowly, but steadily, she began to come back to her older self, and waited impatiently for the day when her friend would finally be able to leave his room for good.

One night, when Jimmy had already gotten into bed and had told Koki that he didn't need anything, she couldn't sleep, so she climbed up on the shell of the Tortuga and sat down, looking at the stars that were shining brightly in the velvet blue sky. She had been sitting there for quite some time when she suddenly heard somebody come over and sit down next to her. She turned her head, only to see the familiar red hair and small goatee of her boyfriend.

"What are you doing out here? You should be in bed, Jimmy." she asked, a surprised look on her face.

"Yeah, but after some time I realized that I couldn't sleep, so I thought why not come here for a bit of stargazing?" he answered, and laid his arm around her shoulders.

"You're right. Tonight, they're really beautiful."

Jimmy turned around a bit so he would face her. "Just like you." Then, he came closer to her face and placed a small kiss on her cheek.

Koki was a bit disappointed, but decided not to let it show. Even if they were together now, they had never shared a real kiss. But she hoped that it would happen soon. She reckoned that it was because Jimmy was pretty shy that he wouldn't kiss her on the lips. She herself had more determination everywhere else, but as soon as it came to relationships she was as helpless as a small bird that had fallen out of its nest.

Some days ago, she had already asked Aviva for some advice.

"Hey Aviva."

"Hi Koki! Glad to see you. How is it going with Jimmy?"

"His arm is healing, and his side is almost completely fine. But there is something I have to ask you."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Well, I'm sure that you figured out that we are together now, but we didn't do anything else than talking. I'd like to go – you know – a step further."

"But Koki, I don't know how I could help you with that!"

"Please. It worked out so good between you and Martin, and you kissed almost instantly. I want to do that with Jimmy, too, but I have no idea what to do exactly."

Aviva started to think."Well, I'm not a professional when it comes to first kisses, but I think that you should give him all the time he needs. Perhaps he wants to take it slow at first, so just let him move forward at his pace. And when you think that he is ready, just give him subtle messages that will show him what you want."

Now she was curious. It seemed like Aviva could help her more than she thought. "Like what?"

"First, move closer to him. If he doesn't move away that's a good sign. Then, carefully take his hand, and if he doesn't draw it back, it's almost perfect. And I guess that if he's just staring at your lips, it's the perfect time to make a move."

"Thanks, Aviva!" Koki hugged her friend thankfully.

"You're welcome." Aviva said. "Good luck with Jimmy."

Right now, she decided that she would try it out. Slowly, she scooped closer to him and laid her hand on top of his. In response, he laid his head on her shoulder. She looked down to him and noticed that he was looking at her.

"Why are you not looking at the stars, Jimmy?" Koki asked him.

"Because they're twice as beautiful reflected in your eyes." Jimmy whispered, and slowly came closer. Koki didn't know what to do, but she had a feeling inside of her, which told her that now was the right time. So she just carefully pressed her lips to Jimmy's.

It felt like a thousand butterflies were exploding in her stomach. The feeling of these soft lips on hers, the slight scratching of his goatee on her chin, and his hand stroking the back of her head, all these things were so overwhelming that she just melted away in the kiss. She never wanted it to end. If she had had some sort of real life remote, she would have pressed pause and left it like that forever, but Jimmy already broke the kiss, way too soon for her.

"That was amazing." he murmured, his forehead touching hers.

"Yes." she breathed. "It was totally worth the wait."

"But why didn't you say anything sooner?" he asked, brushing a bit of hair out of her face.

"Because I wanted to let you do it at your rhythm. I was afraid that, if I went too fast, you would get upset and leave me."

"Why did you think that?" he frowned at first, but relaxed again. "I would never leave you, and you know that."

"Yes, but I wasn't sure. It's my first relationship, you know."

"Mine too. I have to admit that I've had several crushes when I was younger, but you're the first woman that I really loved. You're the love of my life, Koki, and I'm not going to throw that away." Then, he pulled her in for another, more passionate kiss.

Inside the Tortuga, Aviva was getting worried.

"Hey Chris!" she called out to the brown-haired man. "Have you seen Koki? I wanted to ask her something about the new shadow-mode I've been working on for the last few nights, and I saw her going out of her room. Do you know where she is?"

Chris turned around and smiled. "Yes, she's on the roof with Jimmy, but you shouldn't disturb them!" he grabbed her wrist when she wanted to climb the stairs.

"Why not?" she asked.

Chris inhaled, his strong sense of smell analysing his environment. "They both seem to be very excited, and I think I know why."

For a few seconds, Aviva was stunned, then she understood what he wanted to say. "Well, it has taken some time, but at last she managed to tell him what she wanted."

Suddenly, they heard a yawn, and a very tired-looking Martin came in.

"What are you doing here, throwing a party? It's in the middle of the night." he managed to say in between yawns.

"It's Jimmy and Koki. They finally kissed." Aviva answered, and placed a small peck on his cheek.

Instantly when he heard that, Martin was wide awake. "Really? So my advice DID help!"

"Wait, you gave them advice, too?" Aviva asked, surprised about these news.

"Yes. Jimmy wanted to know how to kiss a girl, since I have you, and he had absolutely no idea what to do as soon as it comes to girls."

"Well, guess what. Koki asked me the same thing!" Aviva laughed. "I guess we should become professional advisers then, since it worked out so well."

Meanwhile, Chris stood aside of them, leaning his back against the wall with his legs crossed. "Looks like I'm the last one who's single around here, right?" he said, grinning.

"Oh, don't be sad. I'm sure that you will find your soul-mate someday." Martin stood beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not sad." Chris said, truth showing in his eyes. "Anyway, it's better if there is somebody who will keep a clear mind in the middle of all these love-birds." Then, he walked back into his room, but only to grab his backpack and quickly stuff some water and spare clothes inside. He then climbed out of the window and ran into the forest. He had wanted to spend the next two days there, alone this time. He had left a note that said that he would be back in three days, and that none of them had to worry about him.

The note was lying on his bed, but next to it he had laid the bracelet-like devices that were chaining him up as soon as he lost control. He knew that there would be a full moon the next night, but he wanted to go through it completely free. All the other nights since Aviva and Koki had developed these machines he had spent the full moon in the room they had prepared for him. He knew that it was the best way to protect himself and the crew when he transformed, but it was also a cell – no – a cage that was protecting the world from the wild beast inside of him.

But the next night, he would be free. He wanted to know what it was like to become one with the animal, and still be able to move and run around without the shackles that had been holding him back all the other nights.

After strapping the backpack onto his back in a way that his arms and legs wouldn't be affected, he morphed into his other form, but changed his fur colour and pattern slightly so he would be able to blend in with the shadows. Then, he ran off and disappeared between the trees. He knew he had to put as many miles as he could between himself and the Tortuga, so he wouldn't be able to reach it or even find it in his stronger form. He feared that he would hurt his friends if he happened to see them. So he just ran as fast as he could, skilfully avoiding the trees and stones that stood in his way. But at the same time, he always ran into the direction of the north star, so he would be able to find his way back as soon as the transformation was over.

While he was running, he asked himself why he didn't just tell them about his plans, but he remembered that they would have probably tried to hold him back, telling him that it was much safer for him to stay where they could watch him. But they didn't understand. Since he had become a werewolf, it has been more difficult for him to stay inside the Tortuga for too long. He needed his freedom, his space, a territory he could hunt in and defend against enemies. And this longing became stronger when the time came near where the moon would trigger his transformation.

But tonight, and the next night, he would finally feel this freedom again. The energy flowing into his paws as they carried him forward, his powerful heart that made his blood course through his veins, and the wind that was slightly tugging on his dark fur. He knew that his heart would always belong to his friends, but nothing could replace the power he had right now.

If he had been a bit more concentrated on his environment, he would have noticed the dark figure that was sitting in a tree far away from the Tortuga, watching his every move.

"Well, well." Yami whispered to herself, an evil grin sprouting on her face. "The wolf is leaving, apparently for a longer time. Perfect! He is the only one who could have noticed me, but now that he's gone, nothing will stand in my way!"

The next morning, Martin woke up, a strange feeling making its way into his thoughts. Almost as if something was missing. He stood up, put on his usual shorts, white shirt and blue jacket and stepped out his room. In the main hall, Aviva had made coffee and was sitting on her chair, taking a bite out of her fresh-made croissant.

"Good morning, Martin." Aviva said, and stood up to get him a plate and his favourite coffee mug.

"Hi. Where are Koki and Jimmy?" he asked, gratefully taking the coffee she was handing him and sitting down next to her.

Aviva put some slices of bread on his plate, gave him the strawberry jelly he liked so much and went to get him another croissant. "You just missed them. They went into the forest for a walk, since Jimmy was feeling strong enough to go outside. And Chris was right about them, they really kissed yesterday evening!"

Suddenly, Martin remembered why he stood up in the first place. "Talking about Chris, where is he?"

Aviva shrugged. "I have no idea. Perhaps he is still sleeping."

"Yeah, he probably is. I should wake him up before the croissants turn cold." Martin said, and walked over to his brother's room.

"Hey, Chris!" he almost yelled, knocking on the door. No answer. So he just opened the door and entered the room, only to notice that it was empty! The floor was tidy, and the bed looked like nobody has slept in it last night. The only things that were out of place were Chris' bracelets he had to wear all the time, so he wouldn't hurt himself when he lost control outside of his other room. He went over and picked them up, ready to call Aviva, when he noticed a small folded piece of paper that was also lying on the bed. He unfolded it and read it:

'Hello guys. Please don't worry about me. I'm going to stay in the forest for a couple of days, but not for too long. I left the shackles here so I would be able to be free at least once. I don't expect you to understand what I'm going through once every month, but I can assure you that you would go crazy as well. So see you in about half a week.

Chris

P.S.: Martin, don't try to contact me, it won't work. I found a way to choose who I want to communicate with, and for these days I'd like to be alone.'

After he had finished reading, Martin put down the note again and walked back into the main room. Aviva was cleaning up her part of the table, putting her plate and mug into the small dishwasher they had and then brushing off the crumbs and throwing them into the bin.

"What about Chris?" she asked, when she noticed her boyfriend walking in without his brother.

"He...just needs some time for himself." Martin tried to explain it to her. "To always be trapped in that room over there when there's a full moon was just too much for him to handle, I think he needed to be free once, so he left for a couple of days. But I'm sure he'll be OK." he said quickly, as soon as she opened her mouth to protest.

She shut her mouth again and just sighed. "Well, it's true that being locked inside there for all these nights must be horrible, especially for a wolf. And I guess that he is too far away now, and even if we do find him, we would put us and himself in danger."

"Yep." Martin sat down. "I guess we'll have to trust him." Then, he turned around to face her. "So, what do you wanna do today?"

"I wanted to try a new program I developed to improve the Creature Power Disks. Would you like to test it for me?"

In an instant, Martin was on his feet again. "I sure do! What is it exactly?"

Aviva went into her laboratory, closely followed by the man in blue. "I call it 'Ultimate Power Mode'. It increases the strength of some of the powers you have. For example, when using a Cheetah Disk, it allows you to run even faster for a longer time."

Now, Martin was even more excited if that was even possible. "Really? Oh, Aviva, that's so awesome!" he cheered, and hugged her.

"Hey, you're welcome." she said, trying to release his grip. "But could you let go of me, please? You're starting to choke me..."

Instantly, Martin put his arms at his sides again. "Oh...sorry. I sometimes forget that I'm a bit stronger than – well – than you." he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's OK." Aviva laughed. "But I didn't program it onto every Disk yet, so I hope that Chris left his Disks here so I can finish the work while he's gone. Did you see them in his room?"

"Yes. I'll go get them!" her boyfriend answered, walked back into his brother's room, got his Disks and hurried back to the inventor. "Here they are." he then said, handing her the box where Chris kept all his Creature Powers.

"Great. But before I finish programming them, we'll have to try one of them out first. Are you ready?"

"Does a fish have scales?" Martin laughed. "You can bet on that! Which power do I get to try out?"

"Well," Aviva was thinking for a short time. "since we're in the jungle, we could take the hummingbird power. There, you would be able to fly for a much longer time without having to drink nectar every few minutes. And I even have a feather somewhere so you don't have to go through the same thing as last time." She chuckled as soon as she recalled these moments, and Martin blushed fiercely when he remembered the embarrassing seconds before Chris and himself had been able to put on new clothes.

"Amazing!" he cheered, after he had been able to stop blushing. "When can we start?"

"Right away! Here's the disk, and the feathers are over there. Good luck!" she called after him, as he already ran outside to find a good spot where he could activate.

After he had found a small, hidden clearing, he carefully grabbed the feathers and pressed the activation button.

"Activate: Ultimate Hummingbird Power!"

Instantly, his suit started to glow light blue and he began to shrink. At the same time, feathers grew out of his arms, special goggles covered his eyes so he would have the same eyesight as the bird, and a very long beak appeared on his face, so he would be able to drink nectar to get energy. An outsider wouldn't have been able to see the difference between the normal Creature Power and this one, but the Kratt in blue felt it instantly. There was much more power in his wings now, and he knew that he needed a smaller amount of energy to get the same flying power as a normal hummingbird.

"Wow, that's amazing!" he yelled, trying out his new freedom. The wings responded to every change in the wind strength or direction, adjusting the feathers to have maximum power while using minimum energy. He was sure that nothing else could match this experience until Aviva had programmed every single disk with this new possibility.

Some time later, he came back to the Tortuga, deactivated his suit and went inside to tell Aviva how it had worked.

"Great!" she cheered, after he had finished. "It won't take me a long time to program it onto the disks, I think I'll have finished working by this evening. Tomorrow, you'll be able to try out some of the others, well, at least the ones that you can find in this environment. But you could help me with choosing the special strengths I should increase, you know best what power you preferred."

"Yeah, I'd love to help you." Martin said, and followed her into her lab.

In the late evening, they finally came out, satisfied with the work they had finished that day. Martin was tired, and he wanted to try out as many Ultimate Creature Powers as he could next day, so he decided to just instantly go to bed. But just before he fell asleep, he silently asked: "Please, Chris, wherever you are, take care of yourself."

BG music: Supermassive Black Hole – 2Cellos ft. Naya Rivera

Far away from the Tortuga, in a small clearing, Chris finally came to a stop. He had been running for the whole night and the whole following day, only stopping for small amounts of time so he could catch his breath again. He sincerely hoped that his stronger form didn't have enough stamina to find the way back to the HQ in a single night, but to be sure he had tried to run through as many mud puddles as he had been able to, so nothing would be able to detect or even follow the trail his scent had left.

But now, he could feel that it was only a few seconds before his transformation, so he quickly changed into his human form, climbed up a tree and hid his backpack between the branches. Then, when he was sure that no inhuman creature would be able to snatch it away, he climbed down again, changed back into his wolf form and marked the tree, so he would be able to find it again after the night with the full moon was over.

Just after he had finished, he could feel the familiar pain in his chest that was initiated by the growth of his chest and heart. Shortly after that, he felt how his bones grew longer and stronger, which in turn made his muscles enlarge. He cringed and closed his hazel-brown eyes in pain, but when he opened them again, they were fiery-red and the white that surrounded the iris had turned yellow.

After the transformation, the werewolf shook himself and enjoyed the wind that was cooling down his heated skin. It had really been a long time since he had seen the full moon and felt it's attraction that gave him all that power. Taking a deep breath, he raised his muzzle so he was facing the celestial body and howled as loud as he could. All the trees around him began to shake as birds awoke and flew away, the ground shook lightly from the stomping hooves of many fleeing animals, and the predators that were brave enough to do so answered his call, but none of them showed up.

He grinned, baring his teeth. No one was able to stop him, he was the king of this jungle, more powerful than anything else.

The wolf began to wander further into the forest, stopping every now and then to mark his new territory. At first, he could only register the faint scents of the animals that had fled, but he would still be able to hunt after he had finished his current task. At first, he didn't encounter a single creature, but as he progressed into the thick woods, he could feel an unknown presence, watching him from in-between the trees. It didn't seem to be hostile, it only watched him from a distance and slowly followed him, careful to stay out of sight.

This game continued for a few minutes, with the wolf stopping every now and then to mark another tree and turning around to look behind him, but only to see nothing apart from the shadows cast by the leaves and branches above him. After some time, he could smell something that was familiar, but he couldn't really recall what it was. The creature didn't come out until he crossed a line, invisible to the eye, but the wolf knew exactly that it was the outline of another territory, probably of the one that this animal tried to defend.

Behind him, he heard a deep growl, a warning that he shouldn't go further. He ignored it, and took more steps ahead, leaving the territory's border behind him. Instantly after, he could hear footsteps and another growl, the last warning before this territory's owner would attack him. Instead of leaving, he turned around and bared his teeth, a clear sign that he wanted to fight.

The animal he saw there was a bit smaller than him, and even though he knew that he was stronger, it surely was more agile than him and it's claws and teeth weren't less deadly than his own. It's name showed in a part of his mind, but it was the part he couldn't access, his weaker side, the one that controlled HIS body during the times without the moon to break him free. From the things he could understand, that animal in front of him was some sort of cat, another animal he had encountered during the time before he had been locked away, but it was much bigger and showed a fur pattern that was unknown to him, almost like paw-prints.

But what it looked like wasn't important. What was important was that it was angry and would kill him if it had to. He began to get excited: finally, a possibility to show his strength, to explore the power he had. He just hoped that his challenger would be a worthy opponent, one that would actually be able to fight back, unlike that weakling in blue he had battled last time. And creatures like that called themselves the supreme rulers over all the animals!

He shook his head, focusing on his enemy again. The way it was standing showed that jumping on top of him would be it's strongest attack, so he decided to use that to his advantage, but first, he wanted to have the chance to battle. The creature growled again, the sign that it was time to fight.

Just as he had expected, it jumped towards him, it's powerful legs propelling it high and far. A moment before it could hit him, he moved to the side, making it land on the ground, and slashed it's side. Blood slowly began to drip out of the wound, but even at long term it wouldn't be lethal. After that, the animal began to fight more fiercely than he had expected, running and jumping around him too fast for him to land another big blow, he only managed to scratch it at some places. Himself however, had taken more damage than he had wanted, only his thick skin had protected him from being seriously injured.

Narrowing his eyes, he decided to end this battle before his enemy could inflict him any bigger wound. So he bend down a bit, looking as if he was exhausted from the fight. The cat let out a satisfied growl and prepared to jump again, thinking that he wouldn't have enough strength to dodge this time. But as soon as it was right above him, he rotated onto his back and bit it's throat. The creature was dead after a few seconds, it's limp body was lying right behind him.

He was a bit disappointed when he realized the fight was over and the adrenaline in his bloodstream slowly disappeared. But now that he had a new territory, he would start hunting. Sniffing the air, he tried to localize any prey nearby. After only a few seconds, he found a scent he didn't recognize right away, because it was slightly different from what he knew, but it seemed to be a deer, one of the animals he used to hunt some months ago. The animal wasn't that far away, so he crouched down and slowly moved forward, careful not to brush against anything that would give away his location. There was a light breeze into his direction, and he made sure that it stayed that way, so the deer wouldn't be able to smell him.

There it was, only a couple yards away from him, drinking from a small pond and not suspecting anything. He smiled to himself. The hunt was on...

At the same time, many miles away, a dark form moved in the tree branches, watching the closed down ship.

"Well, well. You think that you will be safe inside there? Think again!" Yami grinned, but there was only hate showing in her eyes. It was time to make her move, before the night would end.

Moving swiftly like a shadow, she climbed down towards the big blueish-green turtle and made her way to the entrance. It was extremely secured, this Aviva knew almost everything about this king of technology, but even the best invention had it's weakness, and the Tortuga's weakness was Yami herself. Because she had retrieved every single entrance code, none of the doors or locks would be able to stop her.

As she came closer to the first door, she sent a signal to the captors that were taking in any movement around the HQ to analyse it, and jammed their systems to prevent any alarm from going off. The door itself was too strong to break it down by force, and Aviva and Koki had modified it to open only to somebody who was part of the crew, via a DNA-scan.

After she had been able to scan the HQ's hard disk, she had copied every single information about the crew's DNA, and had managed to build exact replicas in her lab, using what was left of her own DNA. She had brought samples of all of the replicas, so she would be able to try out the others if one didn't work. But the first one worked instantly. Others would have called that luck, but not Yami. She didn't believe in luck, only in skill.

As soon as she was inside the main control room, she scanned the other rooms to find the ones where the two Kratts slept in. One tenth of a second later, her scanner indicated two rooms to her right, both doors unlocked.

She first tried the one that was further away from her. She pushed the button and it opened without making a sound, letting her enter. She took a look around. It seemed to be Chris' room, with green bed sheets, dark green leaves painted on the walls, and climbing gear hung up neatly at a hook next to the door. But she didn't have time to admire this room, she had to find something special.

Later, after she had searched through his whole closet, she finally held it in her hands.

'Bingo!' she thought to herself. She was holding the box where he kept all his Creature-Power-Disks, all of them already programmed with the Ultimate Power Mode.

Yami raised her arm and typed a special code in the keyboard that had appeared there. Instantly, some sort of disk-reader appeared, but it was a lot more than that. It was able to adapt to any sort of disk and copy all the information onto her own server, all of this without leaving a trace on the original. As fast as she could, she copied all of the disks, put them back in their place and cleaned the mess she had made, before proceeding to Martin's room.

It was a lot messier than in his brother's room, and the bed sheets were blue, just like the walls where somebody had painted ocean waves. She instantly spotted his disk-collection, he had just put it on his night-stand before he had gone to sleep. Again, she copied all of the disks she didn't already have, and wanted to leave the room, but was attracted by the sound of snoring.

Martin turned around in his bed, apparently he had a pretty bad dream, but Yami only watched him, clenching her fists and barely managing to retain a growl of anger, pure hatred filling her eyes. This was the man who had mutilated her body, who had eradicated her feelings, who had turned her into this monster!

"Martin...Kratt!" she whispered between clenched teeth. She couldn't hold it in anymore: the mere sight of this man made her want to destroy something!

The hissing of a blade that was being pulled out of her scabbard was heard, and she held her sword to his neck. It wasn't close enough for him to feel it, but it was so close that a small movement would have been enough to cut his throat.

'Really, I don't know why you shouldn't kill him right now! I'm tired of waiting, and now is your chance!' a small part of her mind whispered to her.

Yami moved the blade closer to the sleeping man's throat, but she hesitated. 'No! If I killed him just like this, he wouldn't have suffered the same pain as me. I'll never be able to leave this world on time if I don't follow my plan, and you know that!'

With these thoughts, she left the room, ran out of the door and locked it behind her, and disappeared into the depths of the forest.

Far away from the ship:

Some time later, he stood up again after finishing his meal. The blood-lust was gone, but before he could start looking for something else to fight, he felt the sun slowly rising over the horizon. He began howling as the light almost burned his skin, and changed back to his other, weaker form.

After a few seconds, Chris was lying on the ground, breathing heavily as he tried to recall the events of the last night. It was still difficult, but after all these past transformations he had tried to remember what he had done so he would be able to fix any of the problems he had caused. He sat up to be able to concentrate. The only things he could see in his mind were blurred still images, but he was able to distinguish a big cat, probably a jaguar, attacking him, and then the same animal, but this time lying on the ground and bleeding.

He was sad that he had killed an innocent animal, but he was still glad that he hadn't been able to find the Tortuga and attack his friends and family. Lying back down, he decided to rest a bit before returning to the ship.

He had only slept for about two hours when some sort of slimy worm moved around on his face. He opened his eyes, only to see that it was a giant ant-eater that was looking for some food, and apparently it was trying to get it from his clothes, which were covered in ants!

"Darn, I think I lied down in the middle of one of their paths. Well, thanks for getting them off me, buddy." he said, patting the big grey animal on it's back. The ant-eater just looked up to him and licked one last ant off his cheek. Chris giggled and brushed his trousers to get the dirt off, then, he morphed into a wolf again and tried to make his way back to the tree where he had hidden his backpack. When he finally found it, he climbed up and first drank some water and ate an apple he had brought along. As soon as he had finished his meal, he climbed down again, this time with his backpack, and tried to find out in which direction the the Tortuga was.

'OK, the Tortuga is in the south compared to my position, but waiting for the north star to come out would take way too much time.' he thought to himself. But then, he had an idea. He walked around the tree next to him, and saw moss growing on one side. He then ran to the next tree and compared the two. "Bingo!" he cheered. "The trick with the moss that grows in the north also works in the jungle." Then, knowing where he had to go, he transformed back again and began to run into the direction of the HQ.

In the late evening, he started to feel the attraction of the moon again, but this time, it wasn't strong enough to control him. Instead, it gave him the power to run even faster, and so he was able to run without stopping for the whole night.

At sunrise, he could finally make out the familiar shape of their ship. Then, howling as loud as he could, he told the others that he was back.

Martin was sitting in his room, throwing a ball against the wall, watching it re-bounce and then catching it, before repeating that same process all over again.

"Martin, what are you doing?" Aviva walked through the door and sat down next to him.

"Oh, nothing." he said, not even looking at her.

"Hey." she said carefully, and took his hand. "I can see that something happened that is wearing you down, but you can tell me. Is it about Chris?"

Martin shook his head, and watched the ball bouncing up one last time, then rolling away. Finally, he sighed, and looked at her.

"I just had a really weird nightmare yesterday, and I can't seem to get it out of my head."

"Really?" Aviva frowned. "What was it?"

"Well, as I said, it was weird. All of us were standing in some kind of room, but it didn't seem to have walls or a ceiling, and there was fog all around us. And suddenly, Donita and Gourmand came and attacked us, but we were able to defend ourselves and defeat them. But then, Zach arrived and brought along a giant army of his robots. For some time, we could fight back, but suddenly, the fog around us came closer and closer, and then it started to get tentacles and pulled us in, one after the other: First Jimmy, then Koki, then you..." Martin's voice broke. "Chris and I were all alone, surrounded by this strange fog. Zach was laughing maniacally and the tentacles slashed us, opening wound after wound. And then it pulled me in, everything went black and then I woke up." he finished.

Aviva didn't say a word, she just stroked his back because he had started shaking.

"But it was just a dream, right?" she finally whispered.

"Yes," Martin said. "just a dream."

But before he could go and pick up his ball again, he heard a howl.

"Chris? Yeah, it's Chris!" he cheered, and ran outside to welcome his brother.

The dark brown wolf was running towards him, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Just when he was in front of Martin, he jumped and tackled his brother to the ground.

"Yes, yes, I know you're stronger than me!" Martin laughed, completely forgetting his nightmare. "But you'll have to tell me first before you just run off, I was worried about you!"

'Yeah, OK.' Chris got off him. "Did I miss anything important while I was gone?" he asked, after he had turned back human.

"Oh yeah! Aviva developed a great new program for the disks. It's called 'Ultimate Power Mode', and it allows you to have the same Creature Powers, but even stronger and better!"

"Amazing!" Chris almost yelled. "Can I try it?"

"Sure. Let's just get our suits and a disk we can use here." his brother said, and they both hurried inside to choose a Creature Power. Martin took his Jaguar Power, and Chris wanted to try out the improved Spider Monkey Power. Then, they ran back into the forest, to try out the new powers together.

Well, that was one long chapter, and it took me ages to write it, even if the only really important part was the one with Yami and perhaps the one with Chris.

OK. First, I wanted to apologize for the cheesy beginning, I'm not very good at writing stuff like that. But if you enjoyed it anyway, I'm happy. Just don't wait for me to write anything else similar to that. From what I already planned for this story (and the possible threequel), nothing points to another scene like that.

I'm already working on the next chapter, but that one requires a lot of research and will probably be twice as long as this one (I already wrote 10 pages, for the people using LibreOffice), and in addition to that I will be gone for two weeks starting next Friday, and then the two last and most important years of school will start, where I'll only be able to write at the week-ends, so forget everything I said about deadlines and prepare to wait for a longer time, even if I'm working as fast as I can.

Anyway, see you next chapter, perhaps in October, when I have my next holidays, perhaps even earlier, who knows.

Greetings and have nice holidays (for the ones who have holidays now)

GreenxLady