KISS in Paradise 21-G


"Not again," Gene muttered.  But no protest he uttered 
could halt the mist that was creating layer upon layer of 
moist curtain around the boats.  "Watch your compasses!"  
he yelled, hoping to be heard by the other boats.  "Keep it 
pointing the same way."  He just hoped they remembered 
which of the dials was the compass.

Peter gave a sigh and snuggled against Darkraven.  The 
lovers were as close as they could get, holding tightly to 
each other.  Both had come close to dying and both had come 
close to watching the other die.  All they wanted now was 
to hold each other close and never let go.  Peter was 
feeling a warm glow throughout his body:  He was unsure if 
it was the effect of Darkraven's blood that he had ingested 
or the aftereffect of their lovemaking, and he did not care 
which it was.

The mist enclosed the boats, cutting them off from each 
other.

Peter felt the mist touch him.  Cold, clammy, wet mist.  He 
shivered.  It felt like death, he thought.  And with that 
thought, a dark rage seeped inside.  He felt it flow 
inside; smothering the warmth he had been feeling.  A spark 
of outrage flared, that something would remove the good 
feeling he had been experiencing.  He resolutely banished 
the darkness, refusing to let it gain a foothold.  With a 
happy sigh, he pillowed his head on Darkraven's shoulder.

He felt Darkraven grow tense and cold.  Her claws suddenly 
gripped his arms, piercing the skin.  "Easy, girl," he 
whispered.  "I've only got so much energy.  We'll have to 
wait until I recharge my batteries."  He kissed her.  She 
melted against him, becoming soft and warm again.

(And the Beast withdrew, pulling back from a warm 
brightness that felt like cursed sunlight, sunlight 
filtered through leaves that left it tinted a soft green 
but no less deadly to it for the color.  How did the one 
create sunlight from within?  He was dangerous!  He MUST be 
destroyed!)

The hawk scream warned them.  Peter and Darkraven rolled 
apart as Calista struck where they had been.  Darkraven 
growled and rose to challenge her sister Changed.  No one 
threatened her companion!  Claw met talon and blood flowed.

"STOP IT!"  Peter grabbed Calista, trying to pin her arms 
back and getting a faceful of feathered wing.  He kicked 
her feet out from under her and followed her down onto the 
deck, pinning her under him.  "What is WRONG with you?!"

"She's shown her true side," Darkraven snarled, hand drawn 
back to slice the birdwoman's throat.

"STOP!  BOTH of you!"  Peter ordered.  "Why are you 
fighting?!"

Darkraven hesitated.

Calista felt warmth replace the cold that had chilled her 
body and sent her into a rage.  She shivered and drew 
closer to Peter, somehow instinctively knowing where the 
warmth originated.

Darkraven knelt on the deck.  "Calista?"

"I'm sorry."  Calista shivered as an emotion gripped her.  
Fear.  Fear of something that had happened once before.  
Fear of something she had locked away from her conscious 
memory, deeper than the memory of that night in the 
Forbidden Place, locked it away in the deepest depths of 
her mind.  The memory almost surfaced, she almost saw it.  
A face, a remembered face, the face of a loved one.  And 
then the fear slammed the door and left her shaking in 
Peter's arms.  "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Peter said soothingly.  "You're okay.  No 
one's hurt."

Something thudded onto the bow of the boat and scrambled 
towards them.

"Damn it!"  Gene cut the power.  "You cut right across both 
of us and about rammed me!"  He stood panting from exertion 
and adrenaline.  "What happened?"

"Calista attacked us," Darkraven said, her eyes smoldering 
still.

Aurora appeared on the deck.  "There's darkness here," she 
whispered.  "Death and evil."  She wrapped her arms around 
herself and shivered.

Gene opened his mouth but stopped.  He spun around, glaring 
into the mist.  For a moment he thought he saw something, a 
dark shape retreating perhaps, or maybe just a thicker 
pocket of fog.  And then the feeling faded and he knew 
whatever had been there was gone.

"You're going to be okay," Peter assured the hawkwoman.

Gene stood glaring into the fog.  What had been there?

(Two of them!  Sunlight and fire!  Sunlight and fire!  The 
Beast retreated to its own world, pulling its mist around 
it.  Two of them!  Life-tinted sunlight and red fire.  Only 
the blue-white of starlight and cool violet of moonglow 
remained to be found.  The four lights that would bind it.  
The stones could banish it but the Four could imprison it.  
It must destroy them!  It had to destroy them before they 
found the other two!  Not directly, it could not chance 
going near them again; but it would find a way.  Had to 
find a way.  The corporation!  The Enforcers!  Those tools 
had worked in the past.  It would use them again.  It had 
to destroy them before they locked it away again!)

"Well finally!"  Gene said, watching the fog drift away.  
"Peter, now that you're on your feet, take over running 
this boat.  Calista, can you go aloft and keep watch for 
us?  Aurora, let's get back to our boats and back on 
course.  I want to reach Eric's island before dark."  Gene 
looked at Peter.  "And try to find something to wear.  Or 
you'll get a sunburn in a very embarrassing place."

*	*	*	*	*

"There," Paul said, pointing.

"I saw them five minutes ago," Samantha said smugly.  "You 
have poor eyesight."

Paul decided it was best he not make any comment.  Not when 
he was dangling above the ocean in the clawed hands of a 
dragon lady.  "Where's Gene?"

Samantha angled downward.  They landed in a small space 
between rows of barrels and the man turning from the 
controls.  

"Paul!"  Gene hugged Paul, both men pounding each other on 
the back.

A shrill whistle caught their attention.  Peter had piloted 
his boat over within earshot.  "Either turn off the engines 
or someone take the wheel!"

Paul released Gene and leaned out over the railing.  
"Peter!  You're looking great!  What's with the skirts on 
you two?"

Peter laughed, unconsciously reaching down to check the 
tuck at his waist.  The blanket from the emergency kit was 
the only attire he had been able to find.  "New style!" he 
yelled across the distance.

Gene had returned to the controls.  "What are you doing 
here?"

"Samantha offered to give me a lift," Paul answered, 
turning back.  "The rest of KISS is on Eric Carr's island.  
I have all the camps on alert.  We've got a bad situation, 
Gene, real bad."

Gene nodded soberly.  "Deadly dangerous.  Listen, if you 
take over the other boat from Aurora we can crank these 
babies up full throttle and be back in no time.  Let's put 
off discussion until we're all back there."

Paul nodded.  "Just don't expect me to do any fancy 
piloting."

"I've got the fuel," Gene said.  "You've got the Twinkies."

"They don't trust you on a boatful of Twinkies, eh?"  Paul 
laughed.

Samantha shot Gene a look.  "Four."

Gene sighed.  "I'm never going to hear the end of that."  
He waved towards the third boat.  "Samantha, fly Paul over 
and then if you wouldn't mind go up and let Calista take a 
break.  Watch for any pursuit."

"We have all their boats," Samantha chided.

"They may have another ship or a whole fleet," Gene warned.  
"And watch for any fog.  We want to stay out of the fog."

"Why?"  Paul asked.

"I'll explain once we're on the island," Gene answered.  
"With a fire going and friends around us.  I don't want to 
discuss it now.  But we stay away from fog."

*	*	*	*	*

They reached the island late afternoon.  Carr organized 
work teams and they quickly unloaded the cargo and stored 
the fuel in one of the caves until they could redistribute 
it the next day.  Gene vetoed sending it with some of the 
smaller boats that were going back to the various islands.  
Gene was sure the corporation had spies scattered 
throughout the islands, and he was not giving them back a 
boat and precious fuel.  The boats permitted to leave had 
only enough fuel to reach their destinations, not enough to 
try for the ship to the North.

Carr had also rounded up some clothes for Gene and Peter.  
The two men gratefully dressed in the shorts and sandals.  
They found themselves hesitating at the shirts, exchanging 
looks and chuckles as they donned apparel wings had blocked 
then from wearing.  Neither buttoned the shirts though, and 
Gene felt a little odd to not have a tail anymore.  Once 
adequately dressed they joined in to help around the camp 
until everyone could be free for the meeting.

Hunting parties foraged for extra food, Darkraven and 
Samantha proving themselves invaluable by bringing back 
enough meat for the entire camp for several days (although 
the butchers were a little nervous to find one of 
Darkraven's carcasses already bled bone dry).  A bonfire 
was built in the middle of the camp, and logs and crates 
pulled up to form seats.  Drakkon had been hesitant to 
leave the area near the forest temple but finally agreed 
that nightfall was close and it was better to hold 
discussions near the fire, with everyone fed and 
comfortable.

When all the parties were back in camp, introductions were 
quickly made, food and drink passed around, and people 
settled to find out what had happened.

Peter thoughtfully chewed.  It had been several days since 
he ate solid food.  He wondered how his system would react 
to having it back.  He felt a burning sensation in his 
stomach, like a mild heartburn.  He glanced at Darkraven 
and saw she was sipping the juice but had gotten rid of her 
plate.  Peter thought that a good idea and slipped his 
plate back in the shadows.

"We have a problem," Gene began, standing in the firelight.  
"For starters, our being marooned was no accident."  He let 
the murmur go around the circle.  He was going to be 
careful to not reveal anything Dr. X's organization did not 
already know.  Spies could be anywhere.  But he was not 
going to withhold information about Dr. X from his people.  
They deserved to know.  "Some organization deliberately 
arranged things so we'd be left on these particular 
islands.  And the people here are why.  You've noticed I'm 
sure Samantha, Darkraven, and Calista.  And Drakkon Fyre."  
He nodded to the sabertoothed man sitting to one side, 
slightly aloof from everyone else.  "These people were once 
like us.  They're HUMAN, just like us.  But experiments 
changed them, and the organization that had me and Peter 
are trying to discover how to re-create those experiments 
so they can sell the process to the highest bidder."

Drakkon Fyre rose and stepped into the firelight.  Silence 
fell over the group.

"I am known as Drakkon Fyre," he said solemnly.  "But once 
I wore the name Derek Farrier.  I have a masters degree in 
zoology and I was hired as an assistant by Dr. Herbert G. 
Moreau.  We sought to find a means to use animal organs in 
transplants.  We never ever meant for anything like this to 
happen."

Drakkon gazed into the fire.  "Moreau's great-uncle did 
similar experiments long ago.  Moreau wanted to prove him 
other than a demented madman.  I was hired after he decided 
to move his experiments to the islands.  He needed someone 
with a solid background in the animals he sought to use as 
donors.  He had the medical knowledge; I had the biology.  
Together we were going to make medical history."

"We've heard this part before," Eric Carr said.  "The girls 
found Moreau's last letter in the lab."

"A letter?!"  Drakkon rushed across the clearing to grab 
the paper from Eric's hands.  He read through it, tears 
coming to his eyes.

"The experiment was sabotaged," Eric Carr explained to the 
others, giving Drakkon a chance to recover his composure.  
"A man named Justin changed the donor samples.  He was 
working to create a race of super soldiers rather than save 
lives, all for money."

"And Justin's death unleashed the Beast," Drakkon said 
raggedly, clutching the precious letter to his chest.  "The 
Beast in the Mist.  The natives warned us of it.  But we 
have the means to destroy it forever.  The native shamans 
had kept it pinned up for generations but we finally have 
the means to destroy it."

Peter shuddered.  Darkraven gave him a concerned look and 
he smiled for her, not wanting her to worry.

Samantha stalked into the light of the fire.  "You and your 
Beast," she scoffed.  "There is no Beast."

Drakkon started to speak but was interrupted.  "There is 
something," Gene said.  "Something was in the fog this 
afternoon.  I didn't see it clearly, but it was there."  He 
turned to Peter.  "Did you see it?"

Peter felt a mix of hot and cold go through his body.  He 
clenched his hands into fists and tried to ignore it.  "I 
don't know about anything in the fog but something was 
affecting us in my boat.  I felt it touch me, I think it 
also touched Darkraven, and it probably was what made 
Calista attack us.  SomeTHING was in the boat with us.  If 
you asked me what, I'd say a demon."

"A demon?"  Vinnie asked with a faint sneer.

Peter shot to his feet and walked into the firelight.  
"Yes, a demon.  You haven't seen the things I have here, 
Vinnie!  You don't know what..."  Pain shot through him and 
he fell to his knees.

"Peter!"  Darkraven rushed to his side.

"No," Peter whimpered.  "Hurts.  Feels like I'm turning 
inside out.  Burning."  He pulled his shirt off and tried 
to scratch at his back.

"Peter," Gene said, kneeling beside him.  "Did you drink 
any of her blood?  This is important.  Dr. X said her blood 
contains the enzymes that triggers the..."

Peter screamed.  And the bat wings began to form.

"Oh boy, here we go again," Gene observed.

Peter writhed as his body changed.

Gene stood.  "Both me and Peter are infected with the 
changed DNA," he explained to the crowd around them.  "I 
can turn into something similar to Samantha.  As you can 
see, Peter is linked with Darkraven.  It's still us.  But 
some of the Altered humans can infect others with their 
blood."

"He drank her blood?"  Vinnie asked in disgust.

"Shut up," Darkraven snarled, "or I will rip out your 
throat and drink yours."

"Don't," Peter said shakily, the transformation complete.  
"You'd just throw up."

"You have your fangs back!"  Darkraven said happily and 
kissed him.

Gene walked over and grabbed Peter's arm, pulling him to 
his feet and away from Darkraven.  "Don't you two start 
again.  If you're going to do that, go find a tent."

"Uh, Gene."  Ace kept looking at Peter, Gene, Samantha, and 
back.  "You say it's in the blood?  That if we drink any of 
the blood we're infected?"

Gene nodded.

"Oh boy," Ace muttered.  He started checking his arms for 
scales.

"But there's more than just the Beast," Gene warned.  
"There's a ship of scientists who have been using these 
islands as a lab to try to figure out what Moreau did."  He 
looked at Drakkon.

"I do not know the whole process," Drakkon said with a 
shake of his head.  "I know the transplants.  The drugs.  
But there was one more thing, the M Factor, that Moreau 
never told me about.  I saw it.  It was kept in several 
small vials.  I never saw where he kept it locked away.  He 
had many hiding places on the islands.  He said it was a 
distillation, a concentration of some special element he 
had found in something here and on the mainland.  I watched 
him administer it to the patients.  Usually only a few 
drops injected directly into the vein."  He walked over to 
Darkraven.  "But we used two whole vials on you.  Something 
had gone wrong and we were losing you.  I think now that it 
was something Justin did wrong.  My memory is still full of 
holes.  But I remember you.  Your name was Scarlet.  You 
were a quiet young lady who liked music and books.  I think 
Moreau thought of you as a daughter."  He gently took her 
hand and kissed the back of it.  "He cried when he saw what 
Justin's treachery had done to you."  He turned to the 
other Changed.  "Moreau cried for all of us.  We are his 
children.  He would have never hurt us.  He died trying to 
find a cure for us."

"You 'know' our past.  What was my name before I became 
Samantha?" the dragon lady demanded.  "You say he 
deliberately made me this way.  So for me there would be no 
cure then, right?"

"You have always been Samantha," Drakkon said gently.  "He 
meant you to have the wings of fire.  The strength and 
tail.  But the other things?  No.  I saw the drawings he 
made of what he thought you would be.  You are powerful and 
not unpleasant to look at now, but his vision was 
breathtakingly beautiful.  For you he sought a cure even 
more than any other except perhaps Scarlet."  He looked at 
Calista.  "Justin substituted hawk for songbird.  Moreau 
said he wanted to make another songbird."  He looked at 
Shandi.  "Yours was to be house cat not the big cat Justin 
substituted.  But we thought it had not affected you since 
you did not change."

Gene stood silent as he looked to one side.

"What was Dark-, what was Scarlet to be?"  Peter asked.

"I saw it only once," Drakkon admitted, a gentle smile 
forming as he remembered.  "Butterfly wings.  But it was 
not a drawing.  It was a picture.  Moreau did the 
experiment on some volunteers before he hired me and moved 
everything here.  He wanted to find a way to do it without 
using the M Factor.  We were trying to discover what made 
the M Factor necessary when everything fell apart."

"It doesn't matter how all this happened," Gene said, eyes 
closed tightly shut.  Past and present were crashing 
together, but he had to find a way to give them a future.  
"What matters is we have a ship out there somewhere, with 
the means to contact the mainland and get armed men in here 
after us.  We have something in the fog, your Beast in the 
Mist.  We have got to band together, castaways and Altereds 
together.  Because they're going to be coming after us.  
And all we have to fight them with is what we have on these 
islands and what we can take from them."  He opened his 
eyes and looked around the crowd.  They had spies for the 
corporation among them, spies he could not let learn 
certain things.  "We need to meet, KISS, Drakkon, the 
ladies.  In private.  And make plans."  Away from listening 
ears.  They would have to be careful to not let any more 
information than absolutely necessary leave their 
conference.  They had to distrust any of the ship personnel 
among them.  They could not even trust the fans unless they 
knew them well because the corporation was no fool and 
could easily place spies there.  And they could not trust 
any of the Altered outside these few who had already risked 
much to help them.

Gene felt a flood of hopelessness.  Unarmed fans and a 
handful of Altereds versus an army?  They had no chance.

And then he smothered the feeling.  These were his people.  
His responsibility.  He would find a way to win.  He had 
to.

*	*	*	*	*

Nicodemus woke from his dreams.  Sunlight.  Fire.  Could it 
be?  Were they here?

On the ship, Dr. Xavier read through the answer he had 
received.  Not as many men as he would have liked.  And he 
was not happy about HIM being in charge of the force.  He 
never had liked working with him.  But business was 
business, so he would swallow his pride and follow orders.  
But the trigger-happy idiot better not damage any valuable 
specimens.

And elsewhere on the ship, a man paused to look out at the 
dark ocean.  He had sent the coded report.  Did it reach 
his superiors?  Would they act on it?  Had it been 
intercepted?  How long could he continue to go undetected?  
H looked at the stars and wished it was all just a 
nightmare.

The fog curled over the water, drifting, spreading.
(End of #21.  Continued in #22 by Kori/Jessi)