Fan Fiction ❯ Shape Shift 2: La Manada Nina ❯ Chapter 4

"NO! I ain't gonna go!" Mayhem screamed, kicking at her father. "Nuh-uh," Rascal and Scamp agreed, looking as if they'd fight, tooth and claw, against the whole idea. "Rascal, you don't have a choice," said Prank, just as stubborn as his son. "I ain't goin'!" "Rascal-" Chaos began, but he cut her off with an outraged cry. "I don't even know them! I don't wanna go anywhere with them!" "Ruin and Despair are going with you," said Bloodbath. "No!" Mayhem cried, pulling away from Diablo. Diablo clenched his jaw and his eyes turned to flint. "Mayhem, you don't have a choice." His tone, reserved for the enemy and never before directed at either Bloodbath or Mayhem, froze the child in her tracks. "Okay," she whispered.

"Take care of my baby, Fury," said Chaos, quietly. Fury nodded. "Like he was my own. No one and nothing will ever hurt him while he's in my care. I swear it." Prank walked out, onto the roof, with his son. Chaos knelt before the boy, pulling him into her arms. "This is it, Rascal. Be good and help keep Mayhem out of trouble, okay?" He glared at her, hurt, anger and fear reflected in his blue and green eyes. "It's gonna be okay, I promise. You'll only be gone a little while," she said, fighting back tears. Prank laid a hand on her arm and she stood up. Fury took Rascal's hand, stiffly. "I love you, baby. Please, don't ever forget that," Chaos said, softly. "We'll call for you as soon as it's safe," Prank promised. "We'll be waiting," said Fury, and leapt from the roof, Rascal in tow. They disappeared into the blackness of the night.

Chaos didn't sleep. It was the first night that Rascal had not been in the house since his birth and she didn't like it one bit. Prank kept waking up, beside her and telling her to sleep, but she only stared at the ceiling. Finally, around 1 p.m., the middle of the night, in their time, she gave up and went downstairs.

Bloodbath was already there, in the kitchen, drinking coffee, a habit they'd all picked up on. She looked up when Chaos entered the room. "You too, huh?" Chaos nodded, mutely and poured herself a cup of coffee. In silence, the two mothers sat at the table, waiting for their world to wake up.

Psycho looked up again, as Mayhem whimpered in her sleep. He watched as she buried herself in the covers, between Rascal and Scamp. Ruin and Despair were awake as well, on the other side of the room. Fury and Demon had fallen asleep and, with the three of them awake, Ruin, Despair and Psycho had chosen not to wake them. None of them saw Rascal's eyes slightly open, watching them, waiting.

Jinx sat straight up in bed. "Shit!" "What is it? What's wrong?" Echo demanded, sitting up beside her. "Something's wrong! Something's very wrong!" He rubbed his hand over his face. "What are you talking about?" "Scamp. Something's happened," said Jinx, starting to get out of bed. Echo caught her arm and pulled her back to his side. "Baby, Scamp is probably a couple thousand miles away. He's with your brother. He's safe and even if he wasn't you couldn't have any way of knowing that." "But-" she began. He put a finger on her lips. "Shh. Just go back to sleep, Jinx. Everything's fine." Discontent, Jinx laid down, slowly. She stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

Chaos' coffee cup hit the table with a bang and she sat up straight. Bloodbath's eyes were wide and her whole body was stiff. "Something has happened," Bloodbath said, slowly. Chaos nodded. "Something bad." They stared at the window, where the sun shone in harshly, silent, knowing only that their children were in trouble and there was nothing they could do to help them.

"SHIT! They're gone! Psycho wake up, they're gone!" Demon yelled, looking around the room where three little bodies were conspicuously missing. Ruin, Despair, Psycho and Fury all sat up, confused, and then panicked. "My sister's gonna kill me," Fury mumbled.

"Prank, I'm telling you, something isn't right!" Chaos argued. Prank sighed. "Look, you said yourself that we could trust your brothers with the kids and that's what we need to do. Right now we need to talk about the plan for tonight." Her head snapped up. "Tonight? What about tonight?" "We're going after the humans. It stands to reason they'll come back, so we have to be waiting for them."

"No, Discord! I'm not letting to go out there and get killed. Not now. Not with the bab-" she stopped herself as he spun around to face her. "What?" Trouble nodded, slowly. "Yeah." Discord walked to her side and took her hands in his. "Trouble, I promise you, I'll come back to you and our baby. This is something I have to do. For Trickster and Anarchy, if not just to protect those of us that are left." With that, he turned and walked out the door.

They stood in a circle, at the cliffs; Diablo, Prank, War, Discord, Echo and Storm. "War, Storm, you go with Prank," said Diablo, "and Echo is with me." "What about Discord?" asked War. "I'm a lone Wolf," said Discord with a rueful grin. "All right," said Prank. "Shift."

Jinx, Trouble, Chaos, Bloodbath, Winter and Kismet sat on the roof, none too happy at being left behind while their men went on a Kamikaze run. "This isn't right. We should be out there!" Bloodbath seethed. "What are we waiting for?" asked Chaos, standing up. Without a moment's hesitation, all five of them leapt from the roof.