Just a bit of Teslen fun with the children... Though I promise they will go to bed soon ;) (Read that whichever way you will...)

Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think... (a.k.a stroke my ego :P)

xx

"Please try to keep it down," Helen said for the umpteenth time. Crashing through the undergrowth was never going to give them the element of surprise but the yelps and squeals weren't helping her nerves either. It wasn't every day that the entire team picked up and went to the Amazon in search of a highly venomous and invisible abnormal who had a nasty habit of capturing and torturing those who attacked it.

"Yes doc," Henry replied, shoving Will hard in the back. Will opened his mouth to respond but Kate reached out and thumped him in the arm, a warning to be quiet. Having been assaulted on all sides, Will contented himself to mutter furiously under his breath about this not being in his contract. Helen had to force herself not to turn around and berate him for a lack of professionalism, he'd been sour all trip, having been pulled away from Abby to attend.

Not that she'd ever admit it but Helen had been finding herself using Nikola's term of 'the children' more and more often, Will's current behaviour not helping one bit. Although she was noticing that Kate and Henry weren't happy with his behaviour either which made her feel less like the only adult.

Just then, she heard a noise coming from up ahead. Something was crashing through the flora and fauna with as much finesse as Will. In an instant she pulled her gun, aiming it into the clump of bushes not 5 foot from her. Slowly and with much noise, a dishevelled Nikola emerged, tripping over another knot of roots. Sighing, Helen put away her gun.

"I told you to stay at the campsite," she chided as he straightened himself out.

"Which was my intention," Nikola said, carefully picking a route over to her."But when the site was attacked and you didn't answer my radio calls, I had to improvise. Thankfully Dr. Expendable over there made enough noise that I had very little trouble finding you," he explained with a flick of his wrist. Helen stole a glance at Will who was too preoccupied with the mud seeping into his shoes to care.

Helen opened her mouth to continue to chastise him but stopped when she took in his appearance. His hair was caked with mud, his face smeared with several different colours of green scum and what had begun the trip as a highly impractical but beautiful suit now had several tears in it, displaying what would have been bloodied patches of skin than had since healed.."You're filthy, Nikola," she exclaimed. Nikola made a face before trying to brush off some of the mud on his jacket.

"When I was…"

"Running?" Kate supplied with a grin.

"Escaping," Nikola corrected with a glare, "I fell down an embankment." Helen held back a laugh and turned away from him.

"Do you know what attacked our site?" she asked, scanning the area around them. Nikola shook his head.

"No, everything was fine and then all of sudden, BANG! The tent came down around me and I was thrown across the field," he explained, a note of annoyance appearing in his voice.

"Why didn't you fight it?" Helen queried, concerned at the fact the cocky vampire had run away from a fight.

"I tried," he growled at her, "But fighting something you cannot see is harder than it sounds." All of a sudden, Helen grew worried. If the creature was a powerful as legend said, no doubt it would be tracking them right now. Quickly she spun around, whipping out her gun as she surveyed the jungle around them. "I now understand why Nigel was so fond of his gift," Nikola continued, not paying her any attention.

"What's up doc?" Henry asked, approaching her warily as he bought out his own gun. All of a sudden there was a loud screech from somewhere behind him and Henry whipped around eyes wide as trees started to fall in front of them, creating a path as something crashed towards them.

"Take cover," Helen yelled before she started firing madly at whatever was approaching. Henry, Kate and Will dived to the side, using fallen trees as shelter as they too began firing. Nikola vamped up, clearly ready for a rematch. There was another loud screech and Helen, making a rough estimate of proximity, jumped to the side, dragging Nikola with her. They'd barely taken a breath when the tree that was just behind them fell. Helen rolled out of the way and Nikola threw his arm up, catching the tree moments before it crushed them. With an almighty groan he threw the tree away from themselves.

"Come on!" Helen called. She'd already sprung to her feet and was following the path of destruction, stunner in hand. Nikola jumped up, catching up with her in no time. It wasn't until she paused some minutes later that the rest of her team caught up to them, out of breath and exhausted. "Damn it," Helen exclaimed with a sigh. "We lost it."

With another curse, Helen turned back to her panting team. Nikola was standing next to her, back to his normal human self, although she could never use that word to his face. She secretly loved that he had his powers back, it wasn't that she didn't enjoy his company anyway, it just made her feel more normal when he was around her team. "Why do want that creature?" Nikola asked, his voice heavy with disgust as he found yet another tear in his suit.

"The locals are threatening to hunt it down and we have a responsibility to protect it. It's only violet when provoked," Helen answered, trying to convince herself. In truth, this whole mission was annoying her. The abnormal was evil, pure and simple and they'd spent far too long in this hell hole as it was. With a sigh Helen sat down on a fallen tree.

"How do you lose a giant, jungle destroying monster?" Will grumbled and Helen gave up on trying to be polite. She stood up, ready to let him have it for his attitude but Nikola beat her to it.

"Perhaps if you hadn't been so disgustingly loud in vocalizing your distaste for the expedition, Huggybear, you wouldn't have been so easy for it to track," Nikola said bitingly. "And this is hardly outside the realm of your usual work so why you are complaining is beyond me. You don't see Heinrich over there pinning for his little wolf girl."

Nikola turned away from him before adding snarkily, "Keep it your pants William, or at the very least to yourself." Helen bit her tongue as she tried not to smile.

"Nikola!" she chided. The things he said, while completely true, were not appropriately phrased. "And William, while Nikola was out of line, your attitude has been totally unacceptable this entire trip," she started, turning to her sulking protégé. "The work we do is vital and your complaining will not make any of this any easier."

She did open her mouth to continue but out of nowhere, she was knocked forcefully to the ground. She didn't even have time to scream as she was pinned to the damp ground cover, something large and warm squishing the breath out of her and if it continued the way it was, maybe her internal organs. Nikola roared, nails extending as his eyes went black. He lunged, swiping blindly above her. There was a screech and then blood started dripping from above her.

Helen rolled out from under the beast which flickered into existence, displaying it's snow white fur before shimmering away. The only way they could see the beast now was the dark patch spreading on its side. Instinctively Helen grabbed for a stunner, shooting at the blood. There was another, angrier screech before she was knocked to the ground.

The rest of her team spurred into action, grabbing up their stunners, Kate taking the more violent route of a regular gun. "Don't kill it," Helen screamed as Nikola began advancing on it. His shoulders rolled in frustration and she knew he would heed her warning. With what she assumed was a swipe of its giant paw, everyone went flying. Helen felt herself again pinned and this time a warm, rather foul smelling breath wafted over her. The creature screeched and then Helen screamed. It seemed the creature had sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She withered in pain, fighting tooth and nail but it was no use. She could feel herself growing woozy, barely realising that a few seconds should not have been enough time for this level of blood loss.

And with one last feeble wail, Helen Magnus shut her eyes, preparing for the darkness she'd been running from for quite a while.