As promised, I was alone when I woke. This should have depressed me, but I was actually relieved. Rolling onto my back, I stared up at the bit of sun that was shining through the skylight. This was not interesting in the least, and I was relieved by that too. There was so much going through my mind that the least amount of stimulation I had, the better. Stretching, I felt that my muscles were sore but it wasn’t anything a hot shower couldn’t fix. I also had a dull headache that a hot shower could possibly fix too. Considering how bad I felt last night after having the living fuck zapped outta me by that impudulu, this was a cakewalk.

To say I was completely blind-sided by this would be hitting the nail right on the head. I had no idea whatsoever who those men were last night, or what they could’ve possibly wanted with me. I couldn’t think of a reason why they would go through all that trouble to try and capture me alive, and then attempt to kill me in the end. I didn’t think I did anything to them to attract their attention, but then I didn’t know that someone snapped a picture of me to put into the Creature Catalog.

Well, I had questions to get answered and nothing was going to be accomplished with me wallowing in bed all day. I got up, showered and dressed in some ripped jeans and a black t-shirt. I brushed my teeth and combed my hair. I loaded my two Berettas and Jericho, securing them in my holster before pulling my holster on. I stomped into my boots, then strapped some short but thick-bladed knifes to my ankle holsters. Even though it was still warm, I threw on a light-weight black button-up to conceal my guns. Once I secured a black baseball cap on my head, I was ready to go.

***

I learned not so long ago how to sneak past members of the Pack. It was so simple it was genius: act like you weren’t sneaking past them. Whenever I tried to be quiet and clever, I was caught. If I walked around like I didn’t give a damn who saw or heard me, then I wasn’t paid any never mind. So, I tromped down the stairs like I always did. I went into the kitchen to get a cup of tea like I always did. I damn near broke one of the teacups like I always did. What was unusual was that the kettle wasn’t already filled. The eyes of the stove were cold. The sink wasn’t filled to the brim with dishes. The radio wasn’t on with a blond shape-shifter humming along as he cleaned.

Before I decided to panic, I went into the living room and noticed feet sticking over the arm of the couch. Coming around, I could see that Quatre was out cold. I frowned. Even though he was sleeping, he looked as if he needed more. His hair was a wreck. His skin seemed shadowed, as if he had lost weight. His clothes weren’t his usual preppy clothes. Instead, they looked to be someone’s oversized maroon sweatshirt and flannel pajama pants. I would’ve thought he was sick if I didn’t know that werewolves and shape-shifters didn’t get sick. At least I knew that he was safe. Pulling a blanket off the back of the couch, I draped it over him. With one last concerned look, I grabbed my keys off of the sidebar and locked up behind me.

It was obvious once I was outside that I was the only one around. The area felt completely empty. I knew Rashid and the Maguanacs had to go to one of their construction sites today, but I did expect a handful of them to be around. I didn’t know where Wufei had gone, but it seemed as if he took the ones that would’ve been home today. Damn. I couldn’t go alone. If I did and Wufei found out, I wouldn’t see daylight for years.

I glanced back at the house, and after a moment of thought I shook my head. No way was I waking Quatre. Whatever was going on with him, he needed his rest. I wasn’t going to wake him up just to follow me on a possible dead end. Glancing around again, I saw the back porch of my house. Judging by the sun’s position in the sky, it was still early. Howard would still be home. This was going to suck huge, bulbous donkey balls.

Making a noise of resignation under my breath, I started trudging home.

***

“Howie?” I called as I closed the door. I smelled coffee in the air, but the pot was nearly empty. Following my nose led me to the front of the house, where my uncle sat on the porch in the rocking chair. He had his legs crossed with his readers on the edge of his nose as he skimmed through The Herald. How normal. “Hey Howie.”

He looked up. “Hey kiddo!” he greeted with a smile, whisking his readers off to hang them in the pocket of his shirt. “You just missed your sister. She and Sylvia went out to see some kind of movie about magicians. ‘Magic Mike’ or something like that. Strange though. They’ve already seen it several times. Must be a good movie.” He made a puzzled face. I nearly choked on my spit. Shrugging it off, he reached out and swatted me on the ass with the paper. The displaced air blew my shirt around, briefly exposing my holster. It was enough for Howard. His easy manner completely fell away to angered concern. “Duo.” He threw the newspaper on the ground and sighed. “What the hell is it now?”

I sighed, not knowing how to start, and groaned as I sat down on the ground. I was still slightly sore, but at least my headache was gone. Howard watched me with something knowing, eyes raking over me for a hidden injury. In the end I looked out into the distance. I couldn’t stand to look him in his face, because I knew that what I would tell him would piss him off something fierce. “Howie, I need your help. Some crazy shit happened last night that I need to get a handle on, but I can’t go by myself. I need you to come with me.”

He was frowning. “Why me? Why not Heero or Trowa?”

I shrugged. “Everyone’s gone.” He snorted. “I really don’t need someone to protect me,” I jumped in, wanting to stop him from getting any wrong ideas. “I just need someone there to help me if I get caught in a thought or emotion that I can’t break free from on my own.”

“Uh huh. What’s it now? Another wolf is going about murdering people?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “They were shape-shifters.” He scoffed, muttering, ‘Like that’s any better.’ I continued on as if he hadn’t said anything, “And they were going to kill me.”

He fell silent, staring hard at me. Nervous, I started to ramble. “Look Howie, there are some things that have been happening lately that I haven’t told you about--”

“God fuckin’ damnit!” He shrieked, jumping up so fast the chair rocked hard against the house. “I have god damn had it!” He pointed his finger at me. “How is it that you’re not over this? Haven’t you had enough?” He threw his hands out, encompassing everything around us. “I don’t think I have ever known anyone, in all the years I’ve been on this earth, that have had so many things trying to kill him as you.” He dropped his hands roughly at his sides. “How can you be happy living like this? Having to walk around constantly armed, always trying to figure out who’s trying to get you and why? Trying to appease creatures who you owe jack shit to without gettin’ your head bitten off?” He looked as if he was going to continue his rant when he stood ramrod straight, almost surprised. I literally saw the light bulb come on in his head. “I bet that’s not the worse of it, is it?” He threw himself back into the rocking chair, crossing his ankles and arms. “Well, let’s hear it.”

I hesitated. He was already furious. I was afraid he would throw three coronaries before I got to the really bad parts. “You know Howie, I’ve already upset you enough.” I started to stand. “I can come back when you’ve had a chance to cool off a lit--”

“Sit. Your ass. Down.” I sat. He leaned back further in the rocking chair. I didn’t say a word. “Duo.” He didn’t need to say anything else. I heard the threat in the way he said my name.

“The night before last I shot a Hunter on the back porch and buried her in Comfort... with the other Hunters I’ve already killed.”

Howard stared long and hard at me for a good five minutes. Then, without a word, he stood up and went into the house. Closing the door behind him and locking it, I waited patiently as he screamed, swore, and broke things. This lasted a good twenty minutes, after which there was nothing but silence.

Finally, about forty five minutes later, Howard came back out onto the porch. He was much calmer, but I think it was due more to the bottle of Jimmy Bean in his hand. Knowing my uncle as well as I did, I was also sure that it wasn’t the first bottle he’s had since my arrival.

Throwing himself back into the rocking chair in a slightly less-controlled manner, he sighed. “Start from the beginning,” he said, quietly.

Knowing that all hell could still break loose, I crossed my fingers and began my tale.

***

It was as I expected. “Damn.”

There wasn’t a scrap of metal to be found. There wasn’t a speck of broken glass. I did not see any shell casings glinting in the sunlight. Even the bush I hid under seemed undisturbed. I swear, if the Pack ever decided to make a living cleaning crime scenes, we’d put the rest of them out of business in a week’s time. Unfortunately, this made my job harder.

Howard didn’t say anything. He only stood to the side of me, waiting for my next move. He wore his usual loud clothing and sunglasses, except he had on his timberland boots and his shotgun was hanging from his shoulder by its strap.

After I brought Howard up to speed, he simply went back inside the house to grab his car keys. We took his Avalanche to his house, where he grabbed his shotgun, Shinigami. From there we came straight here to see if there was anything of use I could learn. So far no such luck.

It was a harrowing drive. Howard was sober enough to drive (sort of). It was just that he was so flippin’ mad at me. He hadn’t said a word since I explained everything, but he didn’t have to. I constantly fended off thoughts where he toyed with the idea of knocking me out and hogtying me in the backseat, grabbing Hilde and making a run for the border (Mexico’s or Canada’s, he hadn’t made up his mind yet). He also considered driving somewhere where there was a high cliff and chucking me out of the car. He and Hilde would then move to Alaska and deny to the entire world that I ever existed.

I remembered Wanda Sykes once saying that if you hadn’t contemplated murder, it wasn’t love. So, that was the only explanation I could think of as to why Howard wanted to throw me off of a cliff... It was because he loved me so much.

Yeah.

However, he also had thoughts of blowing Wufei’s head off with a giant, pure silver bazooka.

.....

Maybe it would be better if I stopped thinking about this.

I was extra careful going around the area where I was shocked by the impudulu, but I didn’t find anything I didn’t already know. Sighing, I turned to Howard. “There’s nothing new here. I didn’t get a chance to search out the other crash sites. They’re this way.” I started walking. Howard followed behind me silently.

I didn’t realize how far away it was until we reached it. It was a good ten minute walk from my shack, and it took fifteen minutes to get to the shack from where we started. I guess fear could make you move. Anyway, I combed over that area the same as the first, but again I didn’t find anything of use. I stood up, frustrated with my lack of progress when I felt eyes on me. Just as I thought it, Howard voiced it.

“Someone’s here.”

“I know.” I dropped my shields to find where their thoughts were coming from. If it was a Hunter, things were about to get very ugly. It wasn’t. I mentally ran into a brick wall, up ahead into a slightly wooded area. If there was any place for a supernatural baddie to hide, that would be the place. “There!” I said, pointing. “They’re that way!”

Howard and I shot forward like our lives depended on it. I felt acute surprise from our watcher before whoever it was took off. Leaving my shields down, I learned that whoever was spying on us was male, and spoke the same language as the other shape-shifters. In fact, this guy was a shape-shifter too.

“Shifter!” I yelled, pulling my Berettas free from my holster. Pointing straight ahead of me I fired shots from both guns, hitting nothing but the trees. Howard continued to run beside me.

The chase didn’t last long. The presence disappeared suddenly, as if it vanished into thin air. I dug my heels in deep, leaving gouges in the ground as I came to a stop. Howard did the same a second after I did, then dropped to one knee, snatching Shinigami from his shoulder and sighting down the barrel in one motion. I stood with my back towards my uncle’s, Berettas out to either side of me and mind open for a flicker of anything.

Long moments passed before I learned that whoever had been there was really gone. Exhaling a deep breath, I clicked the safety’s on, dropped my arms down to my sides and gave in to the coughing fit I’d been fighting since the chase started. The headache was back and so was the muscle soreness. Howard, feeling the change in my posture, clicked the safety on his weapon before slinging it back over his shoulder. His knees creaked and popped as he stood and came towards me. Gripping my chin, he held my face up. With his thumb he wiped the blood from under my nose as I finished coughing into my hand. With a grimace, I spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

“Nosebleed draining down your throat?”

With another grimace, I nodded.

He sighed, and I could feel all of the emotion washing out of his body with it. “Let’s get to the shack then, kiddo. I think we both could use a drink.” Howard threw his arm around my shoulder and drew me in close. In that hold, I felt his forgiveness.

“Thank you, Howie,” I said, knowing he would know what I was really thanking him for.

He sighed again. “I guess your father was right all along.”

That got my attention. My uncle rarely talked about his twin. It was too painful. “Right about what?”

He snorted. “That my place in the universe will always be around you kids’ fingers.”

My laugh was whisked away with the breeze.

***

We did more than have unlimited fountain drinks. We also had lunch. Thank goodness I had a couple of sandwiches in the cooler, and one could never go wrong with Lays potato chips and Hostess’ cupcakes. If it weren’t for the fact that we were here for business, I think I would’ve laid down for a nap right behind the counter. Howard had already been out cold for half an hour.

As it was, we quickly tidied up and headed back out. Night would be falling in a few hours and I wasn’t exactly sure where the other two explosions happened. I had only heard them and didn’t see exactly where they were, as I was running in the opposite direction. Shit. I didn’t think this through, did I?

“Well, it’s worth a go,” I decided in the end. Howard grunted. I turned my head to the side to hide my smile. Howard was still mostly asleep, I was sure. Any other time he would’ve cussed me out for not knowing what I was doing.

My stiffness started loosening up as we trekked along, with quite a bit of pep in our step. Now that I knew that someone else was out here as well, it pushed a sense of urgency on me that I didn’t need. I was already stressed out about not knowing exactly where the crash sites were. I didn’t need the knowledge that someone could be breathing down my neck on top of it.

Unfortunately, it took me an hour to find the site where the second helicopter went down. Another two hours were wiled away as I combed over every speck of material for any sign of what they were doing here and why. I came up completely empty. Even more stressed out, Howard and I searched for the next site, which took a whole hour and a half to find. By this point we had no choice but to stop so that I could pitch a conniption fit. I thought it only fair since Howard already had his for today. It also didn’t help that I was hungry again, and since we were Men That Didn’t Bother Planning Ahead, we didn’t have any limited fountain drinks, sandwiches or, sadly, cupcakes.

“Are you done?” Howard asked snidely as he leaned off one foot to the other, using Shinigami as a crutch to rest his hands and chin on. He looked towards the sky, particularly to the west. “I’m guessing it’s around five. By the time you get done, it’ll start getting dark and it’s gonna take a while to get to the car.”

I sighed. This wasn’t going to end well. I could feel it. “Maybe if you went to get the car now--”

“No way.” He waved his hand sharply. “I’m not leaving you alone to get eaten, and I’m not walking off alone to get eaten. Besides, that monster of mine couldn’t be driven through all of these trees.” He paused. “We could always come back tomorrow.”

Even as he said it, I knew he didn’t believe it himself. Someone had already been here doing who knew what. Any evidence not yet found would be gone tomorrow. “Well, crap.”

He looked up at the sky again. “Either get started looking Duo, or get started leaving. We don’t have time to dick around.”

I got to work.

Hours toiled away as I toiled away. I had to stop several times to calm myself down, because I was getting so mad at myself for not finding anything. It was making me impatient. Being impatient could possibly make me miss something. In the end, it didn’t matter. There was nothing. I was completely blown away. There weren’t any emotional stains, thoughts, last sights seen... I could only assume that they were dead before they hit the ground. That didn’t mean there couldn’t be something. Body fluids, hair, teeth, a toe blown off in the landing... something! This totally pissed me off!

Howard and I looked up as the sun glowed a bright and beautiful orange. “We’re done here?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Howard and I moved as fast as we could without tiring, but it still took a long time. By the time we were passing my shack the sky had darkened quite a bit, and it was getting harder to see. Howard had to even resort to taking off his sunglasses. This was not good. “Damn, I took too long.”

“You did what you had to,” Howard said, slightly winded.

“Yeah, but I didn’t find jack shit.” I shook my head to myself. “The guys cleaned up too well.”

“Maybe you didn’t find something because there was nothing to find,” Howard said, swearing silently when he tripped over a branch. “Have you ever considered that?”

Actually, I hadn’t.

“And just because this happened to you doesn’t mean it was about you. Not everything has to be about you.”

Hmmm... “But the thing with the Hunters... you don’t think that has anything to do with me?”

“The Hunters, yes. After all, they were at your house. This shit? No. Heero was with you, right? Who’s to say they weren’t after him?”

I felt a squeeze to my heart at that. The thought of someone trying to harm Heero made me ill. At least I knew when the Prince had him that he wasn’t going to raise a paw to hurt him. I knew that before I even knew of their bagillion-old feelings for one another. “Then why do you think that last chopper came after me?”

“Heero was protecting you.” This time it was my turn to trip and swear. “Getting a hold of you would make him obey whoever wanted to control him.” He shook his head. “Like hell he would fight them if they had you, if only to prevent you from being harmed.”

That made complete sense. If someone had Howard or Hilde and told me to cut off my arm or else they would die, I’d chop the fucker off with a thrown in song and dance. “All this intrigue crap is making my headache worse.”

“You walked into this shit with eyes wide open, kiddo. It’s no one’s fault but yours.”

Wow. Howard blew me away sometimes with his compassion. I didn’t know how he got through the day without handing someone the shirt off of his back.

I felt him coming all of a sudden, but he was moving too fast for me to do too much. I managed to kick Howard out of the way as the... thing ran past us into the trees. Unfortunately, as it ran past us he ran into my lifted leg. The inertia was so strong it felt like my leg had been nearly ripped out of its socket. I dropped to the ground with a shout of pain, clutching at my hip. Howard immediately jumped up to stand over me as he brought Shinigami up, front and center. I breathed harshly through my teeth as I tried to cope with the pain. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, but I blinked them away as fast as I could so that I could see what the hell was going on.

It was dark, but not that dark. There was still enough sunlight to see what we were facing if he came out of the shadow of the trees. “Come out into the light,” Howard demanded. “Now!”

When it did, both Howard and I gasped. In fact, I thought I threw up a little in my mouth.

The thing was absolutely hideous. It was... half of a human. I mean that literally--half. Only the right side was there: one arm, one leg, one side of his head. The other half where, you know, another arm and leg and all should be, wasn’t. Holy fuck.

“Jesus Christ!” Howard shrieked, in an octave I have never heard him use before. “What the fuck isthat?”

When I looked into his... well... eye, I saw that it glowed a dark yellow. It was the same color that I remembered Anakin Skywalker’s eyes turning when he killed the Younglings; an amber that was supposed to be warm but instead chilled. Judging by the way this thing looked at us, I realized that this wasn’t the shape-shifter that we had chased earlier. This thing wasn’t and had never been human. This creature looked at us like a tiger looked at a gazelle.

Also, I had absolutely no problem reading his thoughts. They weren’t words so much as desires, and I felt his desire. He wanted to drink our blood as well as bathe in it. He wanted to rip the skin off of our bones with his teeth, and then use our bones as spoons as he ate our brains like soup. I was beyond horrified.

Howard’s mind screamed in disgusted terror, but his trigger finger worked just fine. My uncle lit into that damn thing like there was no tomorrow. I reached forward to grab one of the Berettas that I dropped. It was almost a hairs-breath out of reach, but as soon as my fingers closed around it I let my rounds loose. The thing had taken several steps forward, but didn’t last long against the onslaught. As soon as he dropped, Howard ran forward and pressed his shotgun to the creature’s half-head, blowing the damn thing clear off. Then he ran back to me and pulled me into a sitting position. I shrieked in pain. Ignoring that, he pulled me to my feet and threw my arm around his shoulders. With his help, we made it all the way back to the shack.

“Grab some rubbing alcohol,” I cried, as Howard ran forward to do just that. “And lighters. And some sodas. And cupcakes!”

“Shouldn’t we get some gloves or something?” Howard asked as he grabbed a plastic bag and started just throwing shit in it.

“Howie, we’ve been out here all damn day! Our DNA is all over the place. We are beyond concealing we’ve been here. See, you’d know this shit if you watched CSI!” I took a deep breath. “Hurry! I want to make sure the Hai-Uri is dead!”

Howard didn’t stop what he was doing, but I could feel his mind pull a knee-jerk reaction. “A Hai-whatie?”

I stopped and thought. “Oh my god.” I looked back at my uncle, terrified. “Howie... he was going to eat us. Literally. I-I saw...” I swallowed thickly. “I’m gonna be sick.”

“We don’t have time for you to be sick.” He handed me the bag and pulled my free arm over his shoulder. “Throw up on me and I’ll kick your ass.”

I didn’t throw up on him, but breathing my bile-breath into his face was just as satisfying.

***

Luckily, the Hai-Uri was still there. I didn’t think it was dead though. There were still some flickers of thought that I could sense. So Howard make quick work of drowning the thing in rubbing alcohol as I sat on the ground with Shinigami in my hands, ready to light the fucker up again if he moved. I also kept an extra sense out for the shape-shifter, because he was back. I didn’t know if Howard knew it or not, but I wasn’t going to mention it if he didn’t. Howard was tighter than a bowstring, and the additional presence was going to make him snap.

Curious thing though was just that. I sensed a curiousness from the shape-shifter. He didn’t seem to be there to harm us. Instead, he only watched what we were doing. That gave me a bigger headache. If he wasn’t here to hurt us (which I wasn’t going to complain about) and he certainly wasn’t here to help us (which I will complain about), then what did he want?

I snapped to attention when I heard the quiet snick of the lighter being lit. Jumping back, Howard threw it on the creature. There was silence for a moment before an unearthly shrieking began, so powerful that we had to cover our ears. It might have been too powerful for the shape-shifter. I felt his presence suddenly vanish at a particularly high shriek. I had every shield I owned up and bolted into place, as the creature had no mental shields of his own and leaked his pain everywhere. Howard threw up from the smell, but I was concentrating so hard on keeping the Hai-Uri’s mind and mine separate that I didn’t even register the stench. Midway through eternity though, it finally died, flames dying out as the body turned to ash.

I laid down on the ground as Howard walked over and sat beside me, knees up with his elbows resting on them. We were both quiet as we allowed reality to catch up with us so that we could absorb what just happened. I wasn’t having an easy time of it. My head was pounding once again, I ached, and I felt more charred than I did last night. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was seeing smoke rise from me as if I had been the one on fire. I chalked it up to being so close to the Hai-Uri’s remains.

Howard and I sat there way past nightfall in the darkness. However, we wouldn’t have been able to see at all had it not been for the dying embers. It wasn’t safe to remain though. Not just because of shape-shifters, but because of deer, bobcats, and everything else Texas.

“Make the call?” I asked, feeling too pathetic to do anything else.

Howard did. He pulled his cellphone out and dialed Heero.

(tbc)