XII: Interlude
The small mound-shaped dwelling was dark and quiet. A very thin, couple of days old layer of surface dust rested peacefully on everything. A thin ray of sunlight streamed in through the partially opened curtains, illuminating the silent dance of a few dust particles in the air.
The roar of an approaching bike shattered the peaceful stillness. Dust unsettled as somewhere in the centre of the dwelling, a sleeping computer purred to life. With a barely noticed cascade of dust, the sliding door slid open. The dying rays of the evening sun poured in.
The child sneezed.
It made Stoker chuckle. And he needed a laugh after that harrowing experience. His mind was still trying to sort it all out. It was amazing what the mind could do. Even though he had convinced himself that he had accepted the fact of the existance of these hitherto mythological shapeshifting creatures (even if they weren't quite what they were in any story he remembered), he had still managed to almost but not quite forget that Windsong was not originally Martian. Despite the bizarre eyes. And he was having a lot of trouble working his way around what had just happened.
Carbine was business as usual. She walked straight into her room, undressing as she went and was practically half naked before the door to her room slid shut. Stoker took a bit to realise he was staring and quickly turned his attention to the kitchen shelves.
Grabbing a biscuit tin from the shelf and opening it, he grabbed one for himself and held the tin out to Windsong, taking a bite out of his biscuit in the process. Windsong reached into the tin and selected a biscuit, nibbling delicately on it as she wandered over to sit on the couch.
There were some female standards that Carbine blatantly and unconsciously refused to adhere to. Taking five hours to get ready was one of them. She was out of her room in just under two minutes dressed in desert colours, flicking her black mane back. A travel bag was slung easily over one shoulder, probably containing a few clothes and some other essentials. She bustled busily around the kitchen area, throwing seemingly random foodstuffs into a different compartment of the bag.
Stoker glanced at Windsong. The child was sitting cross-legged on the couch, staring into space, still eating her biscuit. He walked over to the kitchen. "I think the army knows something," he said quietly to Carbine.
"The army knows a lotta things Stoker," she returned, throwing a few more things into the bag which was in the middle of the kitchen.
The leader of the Freedom Fighters folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the fridge. "Anything you know? Scabbard seemed to have some idea what was goin' on."
"Scabbard overheard some things he shouldn't have. It was well above my clearance." Carbine dropped a couple more items into the bag, then dropped to one knee to zip it up.
"So," Stoker treaded lightly, "Quickshift would know?"
Carbine paused. She looked up at Stoker with a carefully blank expression. "Yes. He would."
"Then we should go ask him."
Carbine snorted, standing up and hefting her bag over her shoulder. "You won't get anything out of him."
Stoker had to admit that trying to get young Quickshift to associate even remotely with the Freedom Fighters despite the fact they were basically supposed to be fighting for the same cause was like trying to wrest prey from a sabersquid. He'd just short of disowned his little brother. Trying to wrest classified information from him would be an astronomical feat. Stoker conceded. "Good to go?"
"Whenever you're ready."
"Nyaamu," the cat called over her shoulder, half turning carefully. She clicked at them, her tail waving gently.
"Wish she'd learn how to speak a language we could understand," Benihana muttered. "Come on Rimi. We gotta keep moving."
"Don' worry 'bout me," Rimfire slurred, pushing her away.
Benihana sighed. "Dun be stupid. Would you leave Quartz behind?"
"No," he answered immediately, then blinked and focused on her. "Jus'...gimme a bit."
"I'd love to Rimi but we don't have a bit."
Rimfire groaned. "Help me up." Benihana pulled him to his feet, slinging his arm over her shoulder. He was trying his hardest but for the last leg of the journey he'd been leaning more and more on her. She was getting tired. The cat thing, while doing a great job of slogging it out under Quartz's weight, didn't look particularly healthy either. She had only stopped when the mice collapsed and even then had not dropped Quartz, but listened to something they couldn't hear and egged them on. "They can't run that fast can they?" he complained almost childishly.
"We're not moving that fast."
"Prrittnrrowwww," the cat said, cocking her head slightly to one side, twitching an ear and then her tail. She clicked again, and continued on down the corridor. Benihana and Rimfire followed. Rimfire unslung his arm from across Benihana's shoulders and shook his leaden limbs out.
"I'll be alright," he said determinedly, and slogged on. Benihana glanced over her shoulder, listening for whatever the cat thing was hearing. She must have pretty damn good hearing. Benihana couldn't hear a damned thing that wasn't immediately around them. But then again the cat thing had huge ears, bigger than theirs were.
The cat thing glanced back at them out of the corner of her gem-like eyes, then picked up the pace. They walked through a tunnel and onto a narrow walkway over a decent-sized drop. Below them, a large expanse of sewer network reeking of something like chlorone, spread out, looking like every sewer junction in the known history of civilisation. Quite suddenly, she turned sharply and ran up a pipe, shocking Benihana and Rimfire briefly out of their deadened stupour by sprouting a pair of tentacles out of her shoulder blades and wrapping them securely around Quartz before doing so. Her paws made odd suction noises as she bounded rather clumsily up the pipe, disappearing into another tunnel.
From just inside the tunnel mouth they heard her clicking at them.
"Go," Rimfire said, turning to look back the way they'd come.
"Don't you do anything stupid," Benihana said. She carefully climbed onto the pipe. It was fuzzy from being covered in some kind of mould or something, but not slippery. She scrabbled up it, kicking off some moss here and there and exposing the tarnished yellow metal of the pipe. As she got halfway up, a large, handlike paw extended out of the darkness towards her.
Benihana paused briefly, then took hold of it. The remaining distance was a breeze as the cat thing apparently experienced no difficulty pulling her up. It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the dark. She was about face to face with the cat, half raised on her back legs. Quartz was slumped on the ground about five metres behind her. The cat dropped back onto all fours, peering up at her, then nudging her towards Quartz on the way past. Benihana walked over to Quartz and slumped against the wall beside him. Suddenly her limbs felt dead. She wasn't sure if she could get up again even if she wanted to.
She could hear their pursuers now. They sounded very far away. She heard a scrabbling as Rimfire clambered up the pipe, being pulled up the rest of the way by the cat. He collapsed noisily beside her, breathing heavily.
"Where's the cat?" Benihana wanted to know.
Rimfire shrugged, taking a few deep breaths before responding. "She jumped out after she pulled me in."
"Great." Benihana glanced at Quartz, still unconcious where he'd been put. "We on our own now?"
"Give her a bit. She might come back." Rimfire rested his head against the wall, determined not to close his eyes. He just wanted to sleep. He wanted to wake up back on Mars, at home, with grandma making one of her overkill-enough-to-feed-the-entire-Martian-army breakfasts. Primer would be there on leave from her training, and Uncle Modo would be back from Earth, and they would go fishing. His mum would be back from wherever it was she'd gone to all those years ago. Maybe Throttle and Vinnie and Stoker would come over. And Vinnie would bring Harley. He wondered if Beni and the cat would be interested in joining them for lunch.
Benihana shuddered. Rimfire automatically touched her arm comfortingly, the motion drawing him back into the real world. A light sneeze at the entrance of the tunnel caused both to start and reach for weapons that didn't exist. The silhouette of the cat parked its rear in the entrance, her tail flicking as she went through the motions of cleaning herself, occasionally sneezing and spitting.
Not long afterwards she padded towards them, settling herself next to Quartz. Her body elongated before their eyes, stretching towards them. They were too tired to protest as she gently plucked them off the wall, dragging them towards Quartz. She settled loosely around them. The velvet sheen covering her was wonderfully soft, and her strange, pliable body was comfortably warm and rumbled soothingly with the ambient purrs that came from somewhere deep inside her.
"Want me to take first watch?" Rimfire mumbled sleepily. He had enough time to register that Benihana had passed out before the world went black for him.