*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 5

Frightful

Developments

 

                Kim watched the window anxiously.  Johnny had said he'd be gone for a little while...just a little while.

                He'd been gone hours.  Where was he?  Was he hurt?  Had he found James?  Why was Christina always glancing out the window with the look of worry on her face?  WHY WOULDN'T THE DAMN DOCTOR LEAVE?!!!  She couldn't leave this spot until the doctor was gone...and he was certainly taking his sweet time!

                After another nerve-wracking hour of waiting, the doctor finally leaned away from Poseidon.  Christina and David both looked at him expectantly.

                The doctor stretched, glancing back and forth at the two of them as he did so.  He spoke, "He's been poisoned...with the amount of time it's been in his body, I'm surprised he's not in worse condition!"

                "Yeah?  AND?!"  David asked, looking just as impatient as Kim felt for this doctor to LEAVE.

                The doctor gave him a slight frown, "Hell...I don't know what his physique is like, but if he's like us humans, I DO have a medication for him.  It'll take a few weeks for the medication to get rid of the poisons completely, but it'll make him tired too...and I want him to get some exercise...to help the medicine along...so, here."  The doctor handed over two bottles, "Now...for the poisons, he needs one teaspoon at each meal.  For the drowsiness we don't want, he needs to take these pills...TWO at each meal.  I have some other things I think he may need, but at the moment, this should be it."

                David nodded, wrote the man a check, and stayed as polite as he needed to be until the doctor was finally gone.  When he was, David leaned against the door, relieved, "I hope this never happens again..."

                Christina looked at him, "What do you mean?"

                "Huh?  Oh!  Don't you worry about it...it's nothing..."

                "What is it?"  She demanded.

                David smiled, shook his head, and held her shoulder, "Don't worry about it."  He glanced around the room, a puzzled expression now on his face, "Where's James?"

                NOW Christina started crying...and the story that came after her tears frightened Kim immensely.  Johnny had gone off LOOKING for James!  That meant that whatever had happened to Jamed could easily have happened to Johnny as well!  She stared longingly at the window, wanting to be gone...now.  But she couldn't leave Maiky in Don's hands.  He was so big, Maiky got lost without trying!  Don wouldn't be able to watch him anyway, since he was sick...so...what could she do?

 

                Don woke up slowly, "Huh?.."  He started to sit up, blinking away the sleep in his eyes, "Wha...where'm I?..David?  Christina?.."  He held his head, which was throbbing for some reason, "What happened?"  Poseidon could honestly not remember a thing that had happened past the fact that James had somehow found him and brought him back.

 

                "My head..."  James sat up.  His bed felt hard, like he was sleeping on the floor again.  Had he gone to sleep acting like an anim--"The robots!"  Eyes now wide open, James noticed, sort of, where he was, "Metal door...metal walls...looks kinda like the prison cells back home."  He thought gloomily.  Where was he?  The--things had knocked him out.

                "It seems our esteemed visitor is awake finally."

                "What the--who's there?!"  James shouted.

                The voice spoke again, "I'm not in the room with you, dragon.  I'm speaking to you through a device known as an intercom."

                James scowled.  The guy, whoever he was, was talking like James was a little kid, "Where am I?!  You'd better let me out, you hear me?!"

                The voice laughed, "And what are you going to do about it?  You can't break out of THIS cell!  Testing Griffin showed us your limits!  You'll be better off cooperating, dragon."

                "I'm NOT gonna let you keep me here!"  James shouted and proceeded to slam himself against the door.  He stepped back, rubbing his shoulder.

                The voice spoke again, "I told you, you can't break out!  In precisely one hour, someone will bring you a meal--"

                "Father?  We need to talk."  A new voice spoke.

                What the hell?  James listened intently.

                The first voice sounded annoyed, "Griffin, I thought I told you never to come in this--WHAT IS THAT?!"

                The voice that belonged to this Griffin person answered, "His name's Johnny."

 

                Don held the two bottles in confusion, "These are supposed to help me?..how long do I need them?"

                Christina pushed David forward until he answered, "He didn't specify...he said it was for a few weeks at least..."  David tried to back up, but Christina wouldn't let him.

                Don put the bottle with the pills down, absently rubbing his head when his hand was free, "I need one at every meal?  But...but what if the bottle doesn't last that long?"  He hated the idea of having to stay here until he was better, but that seemed like the way things were going...

                Damn it, his forehead itched!  He started scratching at it, not understanding why it was acting up like this now.  It wasn't normal.  But then again, he wasn't normally off the island...maybe it had something to do with being close to people?  A fear?  He could trust David and Christina, he knew that, and it wasn't like he was here alone!  He had James and the Greenwoods to keep him company.  Thinking of them made him wonder how Johnny was doing, "Hey...have you seen Johnny?  I brought his family with me again."  This was the second time in a row he'd done that, actually.  They knew the Greenwoods.  David seemed a little more at ease with them than with Don or James or any of the full sized anthros.

                Asking that sent a wild, desperate scream through the room.  Kim flew down from her hiding place atop the bookcase clutching her son close.  Don held out a hand, which Kim landed on, bawling uncontrollably.  It took some time, but when they calmed her down, she told them where Johnny had gone...and Christina, having just been forced away from James, feared that the things that had come after him had also taken the tiny anthro.  This just made Kim start crying again.

                They could all tell she wanted desperately to search for Johnny, but each could tell just as easily that she couldn't leave Maiky in anyone else's hands.  David and Christina were human, and would probably be accepted somewhat better if they found whoever had James, but Christina was only a child, and poor David was terrified of James.  He might have gone looking for him if he was only lost, but with these NEW monsters out there he couldn't be persuaded.

                It fell to Poseidon.

                He was fine now...and he didn't have anything to tie him down.  There was no good excuse for him to stay put.  There WAS his being sick, but, he felt fine now, "Why me?"  He thought unhappily as he headed out the door.  He felt better knowing there was a chance to meet that look-alike of his.  He hadn't remembered much of the encounter except his name and that Griffin had been nice toward him.

                But did Griffin remember him?  Probably, but who knew?  Sighing, he started for the forest around him, listening for any sounds that could mean he was getting close.  Usually a scream, or a scared, 'down boy' was all he needed...but this was the human world.  A scream would probably be ALL that he heard...

                If whatever came across James was human.  Christina had said a bunch of metallic things had come after him.  She hadn't hung around long enough to tell what.  Now, if POSEIDON came across those, what would happen?  Would they manage to subdue him, like they'd done to James?  Would he be able to stop them?  Would he even FIND James?  Or Johnny?

                Right...he was looking for Johnny, not James right now.  Johnny was smaller, less able to take care of himself than James.

                So what would that mean?  Would it be simple to get Johnny back?

 

                Beremin, for what seemed to him like the first time in his life, could not wipe the smile off his face.  If THIS is what Griffin did when he broke out, then by all means, Griffin could KEEP doing that!  What a specimen!  How could there be a race so huge, yet one so small at the same time?!!  Was it some sort of birth defect?  If so, how come this tiny dragon wasn't misshapen in some way?  Runts, by all means, stayed the size of a child.  This one was smaller.  He could carry it in its containment unit!!

                Which he was.  It was a smaller version of Griffin's 'sleep' chamber.  The only drawback was that if you didn't get it to a power source of some kind, the gel would warm up, allowing the occupant inside to wake.  It had to be kept cool.  A new problem, but one that was easily solvable, rose with this creature.  How much blood could they take out of it?  They needed some for testing, as well as samples with which they would recreate this being.  The larger one would be simple enough.  He was the same size as a human...bigger.  They could safely draw out six separate blood samples and not have to worry about the creature fainting from loss of blood.

                At the moment, moment, Beremin was on his way to the communications room, preparing himself for a change he hoped to make in their plans.  The long-range receiver sent out a signal which their benefactor soon answered, "What is it, Beremin?  Has Griffin done his job?"

                "Better than that.  He's CAPTURED him!"  Beremin thought it best to give Griffin the credit, since it was Griffin who, at the moment, paid their bills.
                "And you plan to do WHAT, may I ask?  I want that army you say you can create.  I'm NOT sending you the money so you can experiment with something else."

                "But think of the STRENGTH our creation will have!  It'll be at least TWICE as good as Griffin!"

                There was a pause..."True...I suppose...how much longer would this take?"

                "A few more months, if all goes well."

                "Hell, what's a few more months?  Fine then...but NO MORE DELAYS!"

                "WAIT!"  Beremin shouted, hoping to stop him from ending the call.

                "What is it?!!  I have a lot to do!"

                Beremin chuckled, "I haven't told you everything."

                "What else is there?"  He had a suspicious sound to his voice.

                "Griffin also caught a very SMALL anthro.  I was hoping you might let us do some reasearch on it..."

                "SMALL?!!!!!!..so they do exist...Do it.  Tell me EVERYthing."