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Despite the calm and composed air of the medbay full of medics, nurses and doctors going about thier work, Mellissa somehow couldn't shake the unsettled feeling that gripped her. Something she might have simply put down to her instincts either feline or military; had it not been for the presence of Arty, Koum, Ilya and Alice. After all, the tigress knew well enough those instincts and animal senses to be as sharp as hers.

Which surely put her unease down to the senses she didn't share with her companions and teammates. While Mellissa had made no attempt to hide or keep secret the magic she had at her disposal; none of them knew the true extent of her abilities. Not from any deception on her part. They simply hadn't asked and she hadn't told. Maybe simply from a desire to fit in, to not be seen as an outcast or outsider more than she was. Just as none of them knew or could feel the..watchfulness that surrounded them.

A watchfulness that trickled into her senses from the female laid out on the gurney in the isolation room usually reserved for highly infectious patients. Not that this wing of medical centre had any other patients, it's use normally only sanctioned for out breaks of an unknown disease.

Despite not having moved from where she lay, or indeed moved a muscle, since Mellissa had arrived, she couldn't shake the watchful emanation pouring from her. Almost like she was watching and observing everything around her with some sense she couldn't quantify.

'...better to see she is still sedated.' Alice's idle musing brought Mellissa back to the now, the feeling of watchfulness still tickling around the edge of her mind. 'She is still sedated right?'

'For now.' The Nurse who had escorted them here replied, her black and white falcon feathers rippling around her head and down her neck to the neck line of her loose green scrubs in a tick that could have been nerves or just a twitch. 'Each dose is wearing off much faster than the last one. If this keeps up, we may have to increase the dose past the recommended limit.'

'Wouldn't that be dangerous?' As the team's field medic as well as communications expert, Mellissa wasn't entirely surprised to hear that question posed by the white fox that was Ilya; her black tipped ears alert and attentive.

'Honestly..' the falcon said with obvious hesitation. '...we have no idea. Every metabolic process she has is off the chart. Brainwaves. Pulse. Temperature. Heart Rate. Blood oxygen levels. Immune System. Brain chemicals. Medically the stresses of that should have killed her anyway. Either her heart should have given out. Or her blood should have boiled. Yet she just seems to be sleeping peacefully. The closest I can liken it too is some runaway chemical process is taking place. And it's changing her.'

'Changing her?' Alice stepped back into her role as leader despite the medical nature of that question, those two simple words as much concern as threat assessment. 'Changing her her how?'

'I don't even know. This is beyond me. If she does wake up again, I'd rather be out of the room this time. Or out of the hospital.'

'She woke up already?' Koum asked, her eyes narrowing as they often did when she asked a question that troubled her. It was a dragon habit, Mellissa would later learn. An ingrained instinct to focus on that which troubled you. Which for a imposing female scaled in living armour from head to toe wasn't much under normal circumstances. A reaction Mellissa couldn't help but take as a measure for how troubling this was for all of them.

'She did. We were two minutes late for her second dose and before we knew it she had torn her way out of the restraints like they were tissue paper. Damn near tore the bed in half as well. That's why we moved her out here. No one else around to get hurt. Not that I'm convinced she wanted to hurt anyone. It looked more like she was reacting on instinct.'

'Doesn't mean she isn't dangerous.' Alice mused. 'Keep us updated if anything changes.'

____________________

'So...what have we been able to determine about what happened at the mine?' Hitomi let that question hang over the table around which Mellissa, Arty, Ilya, Koum as well as the newly returned Drake and Fireheart had now assembled. Mellissa for her part was taking comfort in the familiar surroundings of the briefing room; the antiseptic smell of the hospital unsettling her a little.

While that question was directed to the room in general, it was Arty who answered, the white haired Panther nodding to the imposing duo that was two of his Dragon teammates. 'Thanks to the security camera footage Drake and Fireheart just returned with, we have footage of the moments leading up to the accident. Just give me a second..here we go.'

On those words the screen behind Mellissa flickered to life, prompting her to turn almost in time with Ilya to see the burst of static fade to the image of the narrow tunnel dominated by the half buried artefact; an artefact being examined by a figure who was clearly the young fur they had just left in the care of the medics. Mellissa along with the others just had time to recognise that fact before everything went crazy, the artefact suddenly wreathed in a brilliant halo of purple energy which lanced out to strike the startled scientist. Rather than sending her flying or instantly burning her to a crisp as might have been expected with a discharge of that size, all that seemed to happen was that she froze with the once steady beam lanced into her chest as it seemed to pulse in time with the flashes from the device itself. Pulses that only grew in power and frequency until the whole tunnel shook and the camera feed went dead.

'Well..that was interesting.' Arty mused. 'I'm sure you all saw that. Looks like that artefact was some kind of battery for an energy I've never seen before. And she took the full force of that discharge. I'm amazed she is still alive really.'

'Unless that was the point.' Drake rasped. 'It didn't seem to even hurt her. So maybe it wasn't meant to hurt her. I mean, I know we've all been thinking it's a weapon but what if it isn't.'

'What if it is?' Fireheart countered. 'Maybe it's just a very slow one. We don't know if she will survive yet. Maybe we just got lucky that she was the only one close to it.'

'I don't think it's a weapon.' Hitomi added slowly. 'I think she could be instead. Now..this isn't common knowledge yet. And by all rights I shouldn't tell you this. But I've seen that energy before. It was at the sight of the terrorist attack a few weeks back. It was that energy that caused the explosion. I don't have access to the footage to show you but it was the same.'

'Wait wait.' Ilya held up a paw quickly. 'Does that mean this new victim is turning into some sort of living bomb?'

'I wish I had an answer to that.' Hitomi said. 'But my gut feeling is no. Which isn't to say she isn't turning into something. I feel it's more like she is changing ánd we need to work out how and in what way.'

'You want to work out what she is changing into?' Mellissa asked.

'No.' Hitomi said firmly. 'I don't want to think like that. While I'm sure someone down the line will, I won't be the one to condemn her to being seen as some kind of monster. I more want to understand what has happened to her.'

'It's not that I don't agree with that.' Mellissa replied. 'It's just..it's a given that we can't keep this a secret forever.'

'You're right.' Hitomi seemed willing to overlook the bordering on insubordinate tone in her voice, perhaps a sign of how far she was willing to go beyond protocol to solve this. 'So far the only thing anyone knows is that we have recovered a patient. I'm hoping to keep it that way for now; by keeping my reports as vague as I can. I'm hoping that will buy us enough time to find out as much as we can. To that end I'm having the artefact brought here under heavy guard. The more we can learn about it, the better I'm sure.'

'Maybe I could throw together a device to track the energy it gives off.' Ilya mused maybe to herself.

'Not a bad idea.' Fireheart rumbled. 'If we can, we could also track more of these living bombs if any are out there.'

'Then you have your orders.' Hitomi stood slowly with a nod to the assembled officers. 'Dismissed.'

____________________

'Well..she didn't exactly give us any orders.' Arty said as he preceded Mellissa out of the briefing room. 'Not directly anyway. We are still in a bit of militaristic limbo. Which means no standing orders at all.'

'I hadn't forgotten.' Mellissa replied with a smile as she saw a matching one appear on his face. 'And I know that smile. You have something in mind, don't you? I don't think we can go tearing around looking for our mystery feline at the moment.'

'As much as I would like to find her, that wasn't what I had in mind.' Arty replied with a smile that grew a little broader. 'I was just thinking now would be a great time to check out another flat. As it happens, I got a call about another this morning. And they can squeeze us in this afternoon.'

Arty must have seen the slight flicker of doubt that crossed Mellissa's face given how his paw dropped lightly on her shoulder. 'Hey..I know the others didn't exactly work out. But I've got a good feeling about this one. Besides, we don't like it, we can just leave. So let's try it.'

'Alright.' Mellissa said with a slight nod. 'Let's go for it.'

____________________

'Well..this is nice.' Mellissa said and meant it. When she had heard from Arty this new flat was in one of the new towers blocks at the end of the city, she had been skeptical. After all, the towers of her home were functional constructions of severe and featureless stone set in equally severe surroundings. Yet what she saw when she stepped out of Arty's car couldn't have been any further from what she had expected.

It wasn't just the elegant, even artful, styling of the towers themselves; the tall spires of tapered glass seeming more like a mansion than socially affordable housing. Nor was it the perfectly sculpted and curated gardens and gloriously cultivated rows of trees that filled the space between the towers without making them seem crowded.

It was more the way it blended in perfectly with the rest of the city, created not as much as an afterthought of necessity but more as a sympathetically planned development. As she said, it wasn't what she had been expecting.

'Isn't it?' Arty replied, leading the way towards the middle tower block. 'I never thought we'd find a place here. They all went off the market years ago. Maybe I'm jinxing it but I really want this to work out.'

'Then it will.' Mellissa said as she and Arty stepped back to allow a red squirrel and a striking white furred ninetailed fox to exit the lift before them, the latter holding a bundle that as Mellissa took a closer look was revealed to be a child wrapped in a heavy black hoodie, the hood pulled up around her head. 'Then it will.'

'So..what's this guy called again?' Mellissa asked as the lift quickly rose towards the floor Arty had chosen.

'Mykal.' Arty responded as he pulled out his phone. 'Sounded like your average guy really. And you know I'm an excellent judge of character.'

'Well...I hope so.' Mellisa said. 'We haven't been having a lot of luck recently.'

'I know.' Arty nodded understandingly. 'But I've got a good feeling about this. It should be just around here.'

Trusting Arty's instincts, Mellissa followed behind her long time friend and comrade as he lead her around a sharp corner of the corridor the lift had carried them too; this corridor leading past a few doors of varying colours until it stopped abruptly at a lone door at the very end.

'A penthouse maybe.' Arty grinned as his paw raised to press the buzzer set beside the dark stained wood set within the lighter frame. 'Well..a corner apartment anyway.'

'Yeah.' Mellissa hoped she kept the sudden wave of uncertainty out of her voice. 'I guess.'

Uncertainty that only grew as the seconds ticked, silence having followed the ring of the bell.

'Funny. I'm sure we said this time.' Arty said, his apparent surety seemingly not enough to stop him glancing at his phone again. 'I guess we give him a minute. Maybe something came up.'

Or maybe this was a bad idea. Mellissa held back saying that aloud but it didn't stop her thinking it. Or from going one step further, the suggestion they could come back later hovering on the tip of her tongue. Which was where she worked very hard to keep it. All her doubts aside, she would never forgive herself if she walked away.

'Maybe we should...' Arty moved to reach for the buzzer agsin when the sound of a latch opening made him drop his paw again.

'I'm sorry. So sorry.' The youthful African wild dog who opened the door said, his voice sounding as sheepish as the grin on his face looked. 'I was just getting some cookies out of the oven and had to get them on the cooling rack. Anyway, please come in. It's Arty and Mellissa yes?'

'That's us.' Mellissa answered, privately relieved to find that Mykal did indeed fit the bill for an average guy dressed as he was in worn jeans and a blue tshirt with a logo from some franchise on the front Mellissa knew but had never really gotten into. 'Nice place you have here.'

'It's not bad.' Mykal agreed. 'Not huge maybe but comfortable enough.'

'I don't know.' Mellissa added. 'I've lived in more cramped places in my time.'

'Well..that's a start.' Mykal replied. 'Please..come this way and I'll give you the tour.'

____________________

'And here we are, back in the lounge.' Mykal said as he gestured toward the couch opposite him before slipping into the arm chair opposite it. 'So..what do you think? As I said, you guys have your own rooms and can be as social or not as you please. We do ask that you help out with chores around the place and keep things tidy of course.'

'I had a feeling there was a we.' Arty followed up shrewdly. 'This place would be too much for one person to rent by themselves.'

'Indeed.' Mykal replied. 'It used to be four of us here. But one left to take a new job and the other to get married, so now it's just me and Colleen. She wanted to be here but had to grab some shopping. She never feels a house is prepared without a few bags of flour and sugar. It's a quirk but that is why I love her.'

'Makes sense to me.' Arty replied with a smile. 'So..talking seriously..how much are you expecting us to contribute? In ballpark terms.'

'Ballpark, about 250 a week for rent and another 200 for bills. I hope that doesn't sound too steep.' Mykal said.

'That sounds reasonable to me.' Arty said with a glance at Mellissa who nodded her agreement. 'To both of us.'

'Perfect.' Mykal said. 'If it's not too soon, you could move in next week.'

'Oh..no..that's not too soon.' Arty said with a smile.

____________________

'Well..that was painless.' Arty said as the door closed behind them. 'Almost easy. It's a pretty cool place huh?'

'You are only saying that because you saw the entertainment system Mykal has set up.' Mellissa teased. 'I think you two will be best buds in no time after some late night gaming together.'

'Oh..don't act like you will enjoy it too. I saw the way your eyes lit up when Mykal mentioned the tv package. You have to admit its more appealing than being invited to an orgy.' That teasing comment catching the ears of the owl who crossed the corridor ahead of them; Arty holding his gaze until he moved away.

'That's true.' Mellissa agreed. 'Me, I'm just looking forward to living somewhere that isn't the barracks. I'm going to have to get some books for my room though. I'll have the room to store them now.'

'Some posters for me.' Arty said. 'Bit that will have to wait. We both have some packing to do.'

Mellisa couldn't argue with that. While it might just have been a small victory in the grand scheme of the world, it was a sign that things were finally starting to settle into some kind of routine. For now a small victory would have to be enough.

_____________________________________________________________________

And there we go. Another chapter up pretty quickly by my standards. I hope these aren't proving too short but with the events I had planned next this seemed the most logical break. Some new faces to be appearing over the next few chapters will be instrumental to events to come, so I hope I can do the introduction to them justice while keeping this pace going. We will see. Take of easy guys and gals.

All characters herein are the property of thier original creators and, in a few cases, are used with permission. Those other cases are characters are my own creations. In either case neither these or this story can be used or reproduced without the permission of the original authors.

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