Could it be? PART 8!! Pink Pony riders club. Insanity is welcome, sanity is not.

[MissPie]

The soldiers surrounded our jeep and aimed their weapons straight at us.

"Alright you freaks, come out with your arms in the air!"

Muholland looked at the group and shrugged. "I hope you damn well know what you're doing."

Soa nodded and climbed out slowly. The leader pointed his gun at the rest of us and scowled. "Get out."

We all climbed out slowly and raised our hands.

"You know, I don't like your kind. You think you're better than the rest of us. Think you're above the law. Well, this time, you're not."

He stepped towards Mickey, grabbed her throat and lifted her off the ground. "What's your power, freak?"

Mickey tried to loosen his hands, but he held on tighter. "Tell me!" He yelled.

"She doesn't have one!" JJL yelled back.

He dropped Mickey and marched to JJL. "What do you man, she doesn't have one?"

"I mean, she doesn't have one!"

"Oh really? Well what will she do if I smash your head in? Huh?"

The man signaled to two of the soldiers, who grabbed JJL and held her still.

"Watch the others." He growled to the rest of the soldiers. "If any of them make a move or uses a power, shoot them."

He raised the gun above his head and moved his arms to bring the butt of the gun down on JJL's head. The gun stayed in the air, floating above his head. He looked around, and suddenly the gun came down forcibly on his head.

The soldier went down heavily, as the rest of them looked at each other, confused.

"Who did it?" One asked.

A few of the soldiers shrugged.

Another of the soldiers went flying into their jeep. He was knocked out cold. A soldier ran over to check him, but he too was picked up and thrown against the jeep.

 

One of the soldiers backed up into Soa, who grabbed onto his head and wiped his memory of the group. Muholland grabbed onto him and shoved him inside our jeep, so the others wouldn't notice him missing. He took the gun and pointed it at the remaining soldiers.

"Alright, I want you to hand over the weapons and get down on the ground."

The soldiers handed the guns over, and got down on the ground.

The PPRs carried the unconscious soldiers back into their jeeps and guarded them while Soa wiped the memories of us.

 

Soa was almost at the end of the conscious soldiers when a voice shouted "Soa, look out!"

One of the soldiers had produced a tiny pistol from an ankle holster and had shot at Soa. The bullet stopped suddenly and was spinning in mid air. Everyone stood and stared at the bullet, and then looked at me. I was standing nearby with my arm stretched out, holding the bullet from hitting her.

"Soa, get out of the way, I can't hold it for much longer." I groaned, struggling to keep the bullet from hiting Soa.

Soa continued to stare at the bullet, and Muholland raced over to her and pulled her away as I let it go. The bullet hit the nearest jeep, causing a dent.

"Hurry up and wipe their memories." I stated, bending over and berathing heavily.

 

Soa walked back over to the next in line as Campbell grabbed the gun from the soldier's hands and kicked him hard in the ribs. He groaned.

Soa wiped all the conscious soldiers memories and stopped.

"Wow, that was hard."

"I know it's getting hard for you to kep doing this, but you have a few more to do." Arts answered.

Soa then took a deep breath and went to the men who had been hidden in the jeep. She frowned.

"Hey, where's that soldier that called us freaks?"

He then ran out from behind one of the other jeeps and grabbed me.

He grinned nastily. "I knew I would find one of you freaks. But even better, I found two!" Je nodded to the conscious soldiers, who stood up and grabbed the rest of the PPRs, Campbell and Muholland.

"Get them into the jeeps."

 

The group were almost at the soldier's jeeps when there were two loud growls behind the group. We all turned towards the source of the growl, which were not coming from Arts or Cal. The growls were coming from the nearby forest.

 

 

 

 

How's that?

 

Two young bears were coming towards us. One trotting behind the other, they approached us fairly quickly. The young soldier behind Soa was scared in no time, and even though the one behind Nico sneered at him for his lack of experience, the others soon retreated, too. Only Nico's, who was obviously playing the leader, stayed where he was, shouting at his fellows not to be such cowards. But since bears were rare here, none of them had learned to deal with them. While the second bear was holding the scared soldiers where they were, the first went up to Nico and successfully chased aways the last one. As it turned I could see a blue glint in its eyes - or rather his. Even I, having spent only a short time with the PPR, could sense he wasn't actually a bear. Apparently, he had made friends with the second bear and had now felt they were needed. At least I assumed the other one WAS a full bear, since he acted less ... "sensible", and tended to do what the first seemed to tell him.

 

Several hours later, some twenty bewildered soldiers were awake at the rest stop, while we were sitting around a camp fire in the forest. The bear boy had lit it to cook lunch after making sure the surrounding plants were just wet enough not to burn. We had been talking for a while now.

His name was Jared, he had told us after taking on his human form. He had indeed blue eyes, and his blond hair showed a hint of red. I guessed he was of Scandinavian decent, and at most 20 years old.

In fact, he was nineteen, he had said, and he had volunteered for a science project a year ago. "Since the war began, people have been dreaming about using superhuman powers. The first thing they went into was men and women with animal DNA, encouraged by stories of werewolves - and catwomen." He glanced at Artsy and Cal. Either he knew the stories of the PPR well or he could simply sense their animal DNA. Putting some potatoes in the fire, Jared continued.

"It's actually amazing how much stories influence this kind of stuff, no matter if they're fictional or not. Anyway, those labs they had for that were top secret. Finding volunteers for the experiment was hence a very difficult task, and it involved lots of money going to people stepping back last minute, so they'd shut up about it. Getting animal DNA in a lab is quite a complicated thing, but they did it to ten people. Since wolves are protected, they used mostly bears, but there's also two deer, a penguin and a dog."

"A penguin?", I asked, curious but also slightly bemused. "Yes. She's been going on Polar expeditions", Jared grinned. I nodded.

"Interesting ... but what did they give people animal sides for? For war?", Calvin inquired.

"Basically, yes.", replied Jared, "the bears have been spread all over the world for training. If they can successfully be integrated in battles, there are going to be more of them." JJL raised her eyebrows. "That doesn't sound like something you'd be supposed to tell us, Jared." He shook his head. "No, it isn't. But I broke free. It's not easy because of the anti-power propaganda and the general situation of war - I don't even have a flat, so I live here - but I didn't want to be in battle, and nobody had actually told us we were going to be used for that. I took my friend here with me. He's one of the bears who had to give their DNA to them. He provided mine, actually." The real bear trotted over to Jared, placing a paw on his lower arm. "I call him Len."

Len now lay between Jared and Campbell, lazily gazing over to our side. Even though everyone knew that he was very tame, it was still odd to have a bear sitting at the camp fire. "By the way ... why didn't you trigger the power bubble?", Mulholland wanted to know. Jared shrugged. "Simple. I've been wearing a coat." Everyone smirked when they realized those pills they'd taken really belonged to the Nation. It seemed logical - equip all of their own "powered" soldiers with them and anyone triggering the bubble had to be from the Confederation. Just how had they got into the house, and how had whoever put them there known we'd come? It was a mystery. The letter signing the message had been H, not J. It definitely wasn't Jared.

We spent at least another hour discussing the matter, as well as the fact that the Confederation, too, was experimenting with powers, and how dangerous a business having them had become. We'd missed our flight long ago.

I got out my computer to check when the next plane to Japan would go. Looking at Jared and Len, I hesitated. "Shouldn't we take them with us?", I asked the others. Getting a bear on a plane was going to be difficult. And we still had the mystery of the pills' origin...

[MissPie]

*bump*

[soangel]

I'll post

[soangel]

Two young bears were coming towards us. One trotting behind the other, they approached us fairly quickly. The young soldier behind Soa was scared in no time, and even though the one behind Nico sneered at him for his lack of experience, the others soon retreated, too. Only Nico's, who was obviously playing the leader, stayed where he was, shouting at his fellows not to be such cowards. But since bears were rare here, none of them had learned to deal with them. While the second bear was holding the scared soldiers where they were, the first went up to Nico and successfully chased aways the last one. As it turned I could see a blue glint in its eyes - or rather his. Even I, having spent only a short time with the PPR, could sense he wasn't actually a bear. Apparently, he had made friends with the second bear and had now felt they were needed. At least I assumed the other one WAS a full bear, since he acted less ... "sensible", and tended to do what the first seemed to tell him.

 

Several hours later, some twenty bewildered soldiers were awake at the rest stop, while we were sitting around a camp fire in the forest. The bear boy had lit it to cook lunch after making sure the surrounding plants were just wet enough not to burn. We had been talking for a while now.

His name was Jared, he had told us after taking on his human form. He had indeed blue eyes, and his blond hair showed a hint of red. I guessed he was of Scandinavian decent, and at most 20 years old.

In fact, he was nineteen, he had said, and he had volunteered for a science project a year ago. "Since the war began, people have been dreaming about using superhuman powers. The first thing they went into was men and women with animal DNA, encouraged by stories of werewolves - and catwomen." He glanced at Artsy and Cal. Either he knew the stories of the PPR well or he could simply sense their animal DNA. Putting some potatoes in the fire, Jared continued.

"It's actually amazing how much stories influence this kind of stuff, no matter if they're fictional or not. Anyway, those labs they had for that were top secret. Finding volunteers for the experiment was hence a very difficult task, and it involved lots of money going to people stepping back last minute, so they'd shut up about it. Getting animal DNA in a lab is quite a complicated thing, but they did it to ten people. Since wolves are protected, they used mostly bears, but there's also two deer, a penguin and a dog."

"A penguin?", I asked, curious but also slightly bemused. "Yes. She's been going on Polar expeditions", Jared grinned. I nodded.

"Interesting ... but what did they give people animal sides for? For war?", Calvin inquired.

"Basically, yes.", replied Jared, "the bears have been spread all over the world for training. If they can successfully be integrated in battles, there are going to be more of them." JJL raised her eyebrows. "That doesn't sound like something you'd be supposed to tell us, Jared." He shook his head. "No, it isn't. But I broke free. It's not easy because of the anti-power propaganda and the general situation of war - I don't even have a flat, so I live here - but I didn't want to be in battle, and nobody had actually told us we were going to be used for that. I took my friend here with me. He's one of the bears who had to give their DNA to them. He provided mine, actually." The real bear trotted over to Jared, placing a paw on his lower arm. "I call him Len."

Len now lay between Jared and Campbell, lazily gazing over to our side. Even though everyone knew that he was very tame, it was still odd to have a bear sitting at the camp fire. "By the way ... why didn't you trigger the power bubble?", Mulholland wanted to know. Jared shrugged. "Simple. I've been wearing a coat." Everyone smirked when they realized those pills they'd taken really belonged to the Nation. It seemed logical - equip all of their own "powered" soldiers with them and anyone triggering the bubble had to be from the Confederation. Just how had they got into the house, and how had whoever put them there known we'd come? It was a mystery. The letter signing the message had been H, not J. It definitely wasn't Jared.

We spent at least another hour discussing the matter, as well as the fact that the Confederation, too, was experimenting with powers, and how dangerous a business having them had become. We'd missed our flight long ago.

I got out my computer to check when the next plane to Japan would go. Looking at Jared and Len, I hesitated. "Shouldn't we take them with us?", I asked the others. Getting a bear on a plane was going to be difficult. And we still had the mystery of the pills' origin...

 

"Uh a bear on a plane? If you can work it with your computer then they can come," I replied. "And before you ask, yes I could make him look like a dog or something, but only to people. My power doesn't work on machines of any type since I need a memory to alter."

"And they'd use some kind of machines in the scanning process on him," added Artsy.

"I guess I'll see what I can do," Mickey murmured, playing with her computer.

Jared and Len shared a glance, before Jared spoke up. "Len says its alright. He doesn't really want to go on a plane anyway. He'll stay here and get up to mischief. Japan is no place for him." Even though he said it, we could tell he was a bit sad about it.

"Right well since we've ditched the jeeps at the rest stop we need to get walking to Glasgow people. Hopefully you can use your powers under the coats to get us past the checkpoints," stated Mulholland.

"Or we could use use the shiny new IDs we picked up in Dumfries. We have a few different names for each of us here, in case one gets tagged," replied Nico, pulling one out of the bag.

"You guys like to come prepared, don't you?" asked Mulholland, one eyebrow raised.

"Well it always helps. I mean we can't always expect to get out of situations by the skin of our teeth. Sometimes the ways we escape are a little too perfect, like a movie or book script or something," I replied, shrugging. "Anyways we need to start walking. Mickey put the computer away, you can book us in a flight when we get closer to Glasgow. I think tonight we'll be camping under the stars," I ordered.

"I just hope it doesn't rain," added Mika. "I don't want my curls getting messed up and I don't think we've gotten tents yet."