left my heart at the funplex [rikki!]

[Liam Burrow]

Liam scowled as he stared up at the television. He was currently sitting on the floor with his sister's children who were delighted with the movie that they were watching. He rolled his eyes as the valient prince lifted his princess into the air, singing about never letting her fall. He turned to the side and looked at the smallest child who was holding her mouth open as she watched the winged prince frolick, privvy to song and dance and deftly avoiding the dangerous beetle and toad. The song was about to end when the front door open. Liam couldn't control himself and leapt to his feet, ignoring the two girls who were dancing together, arguing over who would be the princess. "Thank you so much for taking care of them, Liam." Lauren gushed gratefully, her husband pushing past him and into the living room to hug his two girls. "Yeah, yeah, Christopher fell asleep a while ago so I went ahead and put him in his crib. He hasn't made a sound since then." He said, waving a hand behind him. While Lauren fumbled around for money, Liam pushed his hand through his pocket, looking at his cell phone that had recieved a strange text message, letting him know that a hurricane had hit Shifter Island as well as the Academy. His mouth grew dry; he kept a cool face. He gave a small sigh, smiling weakly down at his sister.

"Thanks." He said, pocketing the money and heading out the door. It was around 10 P.M. and he had been planning to get to the cook out pretty early. He strolled leisurely through the suburban area that his sister lived in. It was a nice place; he could never see ihmself living there. In fact, Liam could never really see that far past the moment that he was currently in. He pushed a thick hand through his hair and shook his head of thoughts for the future as well as the potential damage to the island. His island. His casual pace ended him up at the ferry around eleven P.M., the time for the last ferry of the night. After brief contact with the sailors of the ship, his identity was confirmed and he was allowed to sail over to his island. He stood on the edge of the ship, his arms braced on the rail as he looked between the two islands that he had been sailing between for the past three or so years. He leaned his head over, looking at the dark water that had partially been lit up by the bright lights of the ship. He looked at his blurry reflection in the water and then looked ahead at his home island, smiling slightly. Back to the place where his second form wasn't just a threat. There were other things in that school that could take him; it was different from the world of humans where be could take other people out in the blink of an eye. The lion inside of him roared; he could do whatever he wanted to anyone at the school. Liam knew better. And yet he pretended he didn't. Liam was in rare form, the one more conscience of the way he acted.

When the ferry reached his island, he was quick to get off and hustle onto the beach. Chaos. Everywhere he looked, there was some other piece of a buidling blowing and flapping around with the winds which had significantly weakened. He'd been gone a day or two and yet; here it was. Mother Nature's fury had set out on the school he'd grown to adore, if weary of it as well. He picked up the few things he would need out of his tacky purple fanny pack, a useful accessory (to the teenage boy who knew nothing past the fashionable accessories given to him by his mother, a reject from the 80's) strapped around his huge waist. He stretched out, spreading his arms out behind him and then moved down the beach, barely able to see in the dark from..well..the dark. He found a clean spot on the beach and sat down, facing away from the sea and looking up at the Academy placed in the middle of the island, towering above the other buildings. He ran his hands through his hair, making a silent vow to himself that made him slam a hand into the sand. "Damnit." He said quietly when he lifted his hand and had a piece of glass buried in the palm. He plucked it out and sucked at the steady flow of blood as he sat and reflected on the damage.

[Rikki Cross]

Rikki got dressed in her most durable clothing, Night Pattern Camouflage pants with a black Tank Top and Night Pattern Camouflage Jacket with Black Rainforest Combat boots with Army regulation socks and of course her dad’s hat with her hair in a tight pony tail. Rikki went to the Nurse and packed a pack full of surgical scissors, gauze, ace bandages, rubber gloves, and antiseptic. The hurricane had passed and she needed to go help people who had gotten lost In the storm if they were injured. Her dad had taught her basic field first aid and CPR so she was pretty much a qualified first responder. She left her dorm and started across the muddy school lawn and started towards the beach.

Rikki would start at the beach and work her way inland. She had made it to the beach off campus and saw a burly looking boy sitting in the sand sucking on his palm. She ran up and knelt down to him and started pulling out the gauze, antiseptic, and the scissors. Rikki looked up from her work. “Hey big guy, let us take a look at that hand, then perhaps you could help me sort through this rubble with those guns huh?” Rikki was trying her hardest to be civil and friendly. “I’m Rikki Cross, Spotted Hyena and Law Enforcement Major, what’s your name?” once the guy would give Rikki his hand she would wrap the hand in a few seconds. “Have you hit your head? Do I need to test for a concussion? Can you stand on your own?” Rikki waited between each question for an answer and he appeared to be ok.

Once Rikki wrapped his hand the two could hopefully start looking for injured in the destroyed parts of the buildings. “Some storm huh? We never get them up in the Midwest this is my first Hurricane, and it sure makes one hell of a mess.” Rikki frowned at the carnage, she wasn’t trying to make light of it she was just thinking out loud. Rikki looked around, parts of the building structure were unstable and other parts had been just plain trashed. It would take allot of cooperation to get the building back to normal.

Rikki looked down at her first patient if you could call him that, he had probably just got to the island and got a bit of glass in his hand. Rikki had been here for the whole gruesome thing. She flashed back to her Hyena form pulling Caitlyn away from the falling trees, dragging her back to the Girls Dorms. It was one hell of an ordeal. She would have to call her parents soon to let them know she was ok. They were probably freaking out right now.

[Liam Burrow]

Liam 's attention was scattered between the slight pain in his hand and the desire to see more of the island. It was all surreaal; he couldn't accept that it had really happened. He had no idea if his room was in fact or if any of his were even alive. It was a disorienting thought that rendered him motionless for a minute or two. He then continued to suck on his hand as the blood still partially gushed out. Before he knew it, however, there was suddenly a girl next to him, treating him like some sort of fragile cancer patient. He blinked slowly as he allowed her to bombard him with questions, although he didn't seem like he was preparing to respond to her. He understood the situation, yes. But his mind sluggishly ruminating in the fact that she was treating him like some kind of four foot nine thirteen year old that didn't know what was going on. After a quick examination of her body (which he didn't mind, by the way), he assessed that she wasn't all that old. In fact, she was probably a student her at Shifter Academy, although she didn't seem like the frivolous "i turn into a cat-related animal" kind of girl that seemed to be plaguing the school lately. When she expressed her name and major, he rose his thick eyebrows and looked up at her as he reclined in the sand, thinking every word over before he would speak. He wasn't about to fumble around this sort of girl; she looked like she could take a hit or two. He allowed himself to think some more and then finally opened his mouth.

"I guess I could help you search through these remains. There are a few people that I couldn't live without if they weren't found." His thoughts were filled only by the blue eyes and the curly blonde hair that he hadn't seen in weeks. The stubs for fingers. The thick and full-bodied crow. Liam closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing the fear. He would find him; he had to. They'd been apart for this long before, but Liam was usually the first one to cave. He raised ah and up and pushed it through his hair. This was difficult. Just in time, he remembered his manners. "Oh right." He said awkwardly, holding his hand out for her to bandage. "Liam Burrow. I suppose I'm majoring in Criminal Justice. I'm looking forward to being a lawyer, cracking down on criminals and busting them for being stupid." He said, shrugging his massive shoulders. "Laws are there for a reason, there's never really a good excuse to break them. Pretty much eve." He added, looking down at his newly bandaged hand thoughtfully. Her reaction was nice and thoughtful, but unneccesary. "Thanks, but I, uh, just got here from the humane island." He motioned over at the ferry that had just brought him over. "So I just kind of walked across the sand and sat down. I don't have a concussion from that do I?"

Okay, he was getting a little snappy. But that was really only because he really did miss that crow. And he'd almost forgotten about the boy with the sudden apearance of the hurricane. He sat there, pushing both hands up into his hair, giving a soft moan of pain. "My parents don't really pay any attention to the weather, to be honest. They kind of ... mold things to their own needs. So if it's hailing outside, they just stay inside and pretend that it's not and deny any damage that it causes. I guess you could call it ignorance. But ignorance is bliss, I guess." He paused, suddenly remembering something. A sly smile slid across his face. "Did you say that you were...a hyena?" He grinned, almost laughing and ignoring all the pain and misery around him that was the island. "I just so happen to be a malnourished lion." He said, his grin still wide. The irony of the situation was amusing. It would have probably been twelve times funnier if she was some sort of mouse shift. A mouse helping a lion, like one of the cheap old fables. Or a lamb. And then he could fall in love with her. He flinched slightly. Where the heck had that come from? He gave her a weird look and then got to his feet, putting his uninjured hand in his pocket. "So do you want to go help me look for survivors and whatnot?" He asked, already starting to walk away. He was going to find his crow, with or without the hyena's help.

[Rikki Cross]

Rikki gave a twisted smile when he said he was a lion. Leave it to Rikki to be the one to bandage the lion’s paw. It was kind of humorous when you thought about it, a Hyena helping a lion. In the wild Spotted Hyenas and African Lions were always at odds, only at Shifter Academy would a hyena help a lion. Rikki sprung to her feet and followed Liam keeping pace with him easily. “I think we should hit the destroyed parts of the building first, search for people who might be trapped.” Rikki looked around her, the carnage was beyond description. There tree branches everywhere, a few coconut trees were ripped from their roots. This is crazy, Rikki thought how could this much happen so fast?

Rikki looked up and along the path, if she handn't been looking out for it she would have never heard the tell tale groan and crack of a tree about to come down, she looked to her left and instantly dove into Liam pushing both of them out of the tree’s path. It landed with a resounding crash as the trunk slammed into the concrete buckling it from the impact. Rikki looked up at Liam who she was laying on top of at that moment. Rikki hastily stood and brushed herself off even though she really didn’t have anything on her, more like ridding herself of the sensation of laying on top of a guy. She shot a hasty “Sorry” and started down the path again. Hopefully he wouldn’t make a big deal out of what had just occurred. It was the second person she had saved from a falling tree that day.

Rikki kept walking down the path. She was a little red in the face about tackling Liam but there wasn’t anything behind it other than saving his skin. given he is rather good looking and fit looking and big. Rikki shook her head she didn’t know what her problem was she had never really had a crush before, not that she had a crush on Liam, Rikki had the emotional hide of a rhino but she wasn’t made of stone. Rikki looked back at Liam to see if he was following her then looked back to where she was going. They were getting close to the main building of the school. It was about time to get to work. They would have to start moving rubble and hauling away branches and trees. It would be slow going but it needed to be done who knew who was trapped down there.

[Liam Burrow]

Liam listened to her as she spoke, his eyes flickering up to the cap on her head. Why was she wearing it? Wouldn't it look a little bit more, well, feminine to have a pony tail? As it stood now, she was looking like she was trying to hide her gender which made Liam frown inwardly. She also - oh right, she was expecting an answer. "Yeah, I think there's so rubble or something over here." He motioned to a pile of broken rock and stepped toward it, holding his hands up to start rubbing one of them across the smooth concrete to seemed to have broken with ease underneath the wild torrent of the winds. So strong and mighty was what they had seemed to be and yet they'd busted like twigs and crumpled to the ground, not caring for whatever was in their paths and crushing people in their descent. Liam's hands moved slowly against the stone as he started pushing them aside, putting the smaller ones nearest to his feet and tossing the larger ones away. Great for strength building, doing the harder things extra hard. He tossed another stone over his shoulder and his gut suddenly dropped, his mouth falling open in horror. A mother cat lay crushed beneath a rock with four mewling kittens huddled up against her body, staring up at Liam in fear at the sudden removal of their hiding rock. Three were covered in scratches while one looked fairly unscathed.

He turned his head up, looking anguished. Why had this happened? Nothing wrong with a family of cats simply wandering around and living, right? Who decided which ones were crushed and which ones had babies on the streets for the rest of their lives? Who got picked and chosen to be adopted and find good homes? Who got chosen to get hit by a car? It just didn't make sense. He stood there, mouth half-open as he stared into the sky, his hands at his sides, the wind pulling and tugging at his shirt. Everything had gone numb, even as the kittens began to slwoly crepp out and sniff at his feet. He welcomed the numbness, let it wash over him as his senses dulled and he was no longer paying attention. He didn't hear the cracking and he didn't hear the loud, inhuman groan. Not until Rikki had taken him out and he was sprawled on the ground, staring up in the light brown eyes that were staring down at him. He blinked a few times, his arms two seconds away from looping around her waist and holding her close until she was suddenly off of him, prancing away. He sat up and looked over at the kittens who were suddenly back against their deceased mother, watching Liam with even more fear since the fallen tree.

He held out a hand and laid flat on his belly, extending his arm forward. It took a while for the first one to come out, sniffing at the muscles in his arm and then darting past him, leaving him with the other three kittens. When he turned back, one was hissing and holding her paw up at him, one was rubbing against his hand and the other was crouched with its mother, unmoving. Liam picked up the friendly one and held it close, blowing on the belly of the small female kitten. She gave a soft, barely audible meow and he headed after Rikki, clutching the kitten close to his chest. He looked over at her, seeing that she had awkwardly fallen silent. "I got a kitten." He said, pointing out the obvious as he held the cat out. Minus ten points for being Captain I-Can't-Make-Conversation. "You wouldn't want to help me take care of her, would you? She seems like a nice girl but it might be nice to share a kitten with someone." Add seven points for Mr. Suave. "Though it might be kind of weird to have a rendevous point to pass her off." Minus twenty thousand for Sir Overthinks-A-Lot. " But I'm sure we could work something out?" Plus thirty thousand points of Senor Optimism. This really wasn't the time, but he couldn't help it; he was saving someone.

[Rikki Cross]

Rikki looked down into Liam’s hands at the little ball of fluff. Her family never had a pet. Her dad said he had a cat once, he told stories about how it had chased off a raccoon when it had tried to make a move on him, and other tales of how the cat could take on anything. Rikki thought about how this was going to work out. She would need to dedicate part of her weekly allowance to at least half of the expenses for the little kitten. Liam said it was a girl so it would have to be spayed eventually. The little Kitten would also need shots, food, and all that stuff, and god help the little thing if it clawed up her stuff.

Rikki looked at Liam; his face was a cross between suave and pleading. Rikki couldn’t stop herself. ”Fine ill help you with the Kitten, but you are paying for the food, big guy.” Rikki gave him a stern look like her mother use to give her when she was expected to do something. Rikki walked over and gently picked up the kitten from Liam and held it to her chest. The little thing quickly curled up and fell asleep again in her arms. Rikki instantly softened, just a little bit. She couldn’t help it. It something so damned cute, so innocent, so unlike herself, Rikki was hard, a warrior, and so not innocent.

Rikki looked back up at Liam and the small smile that had snuck its way on her face was cone in an instant. ”Great we saved a kitten now let’s see if we can’t save some people.” Rikki wasn’t trying to sound cruel she was trying to be practical, but sometimes the line between the two could be a bit blurry. Rikki carried the little kitten while she walked, she looked around to make sure nobody was caught under fallen trees or stuck in the mud that coated everything. Rikki’s combat boots crunched against the sticks and small rocks that littered the path they were on. Rikki was dressed for a relief effort Liam looked like he had just got back from the arcade.

”Where were you when the storm came anyway? We sure could have used Lion strength and senses to help find people and get them inside during the storm.” Rikki was just trying to make conversation and maybe, secretly learn more about Liam. Rikki couldn’t help herself, he was after all really cute. Rikki looked to her side and Liam was having no problem keeping pace, even with Rikki’s tallness and long legs.

[Liam Burrow]

Liam's mouth fell open slightly when he allowed Rikki to take the small kitten away from him. When the little girl cuddled down into the arms of the woman next to him, a warm smile spread across his hard face and he naturally crossed his arms, looking down at the kitten. He reached over and rubbed a large finger along her back, careful not to push down too hard so as not to wake her. Liam stepped closer so that he could properly rub the small kitten's spine and, even as she slept, she purred and made Liam's smile grow much more relaxed and happier. In the process of trying to pet the kitten, he'd stepped close enough to Rikki that he could have easily put his arm around her shoulder and, in the instant that the image slammed against his skull, he shoved it back, stepping away from her all of a sudden, like the plague. Thank Zeus she had decided to change the topic. He was beginning to suffocate in his own burial of convoluted language. Wlel, she was obviously condemning his saving of the kitten. Although he had seen that instant, the one moment where she'd dropped that rough, manly exterior and cuddled the kitten, just like any girl should have been doing. Liam smiled at the thought, wanting to wrap an arm around her and pull her close to him and not let go.

Well, that was a new one. He turned his head to the side, no longer needed to carry the small kitten. His thoughts filled with nothing but the care of her as he and Rikki walked along the beach, his hands stretched behind his head as they went. What would they name it? It had to be something nice. Pretty. Traditional. Talulah? Margaret? Prudence? Barbara? No, absolutely not. Delilah? Delilah. He kind of liked the sound of that. Just as he turned to tell her his decision on the name, he heard low groaning from behind a fallen tree. He tugged off his flip flops and climbed over the tree, the bark snapping and crumbling from his weight. He looked over to see a young student pinned against another tree via the one he was standing on. He didn't say anything, no words of encouragement, no asking if they were okay; he figured that he would leave all that drama to Rikki. When he'd finally manuevered the boy from the weight of the heavy tree, he pushed him down onto the ground to begin recieving medical treatment from Rikki.

"To be honest, I was over on the Human Island, babysitting my oldest sister's children. I've got a huge family and they all live with the humans on their isolated island. Why, I couldn't tell you. But the whole of the Burrow family is all clumped on that island. There might be a few who've already shipped for the mainland, but I certainly hope that they're all safe." Oh god, he was babbling. Something that always seemed to pop up when it especially needs you to come clean. "I've got a whole slew of other things that have to get done when I"m allowed to be off campus." He couldn't win, clearly. He either sounded like he was bragging instead of sounding like he was Mr. Cool. "How's he coming? Is he really bad injured?" He asked, looking down at the kid, rubbing his hands together.

[Rikki Cross]

Rikki gave the kitten to Liam and was on the boy instantly, ”Don’t move, tell me your name, what day it is, what color that boy’s shirt is, and what you had for breakfast.” The boy answered all the questions and a few more correctly and was giving no signs of a broken neck or spine, he reacted to pricking of his legs and felt it when she squeezed his feet. He wasn’t paralyzed and Rikki helped him to his feet. The boy nodded a yes when Rikki directed him to the building to go to his dorm and lay down, he stumbled for a second but caught himself and picked his way around felled trees and piles of rubble.

Rikki started walking again motioning for Liam to follow. She walked with purpose, her boots crunching on the ground. Rikki looked ahead and saw part of the building fallen. Her Adrenalin instantly kicked in and she took off like a rocket, vaulting trees and nimbly jumping over rocks and other strata, long strides carrying her with a steady speed till she was at the pile of bricks and other building materials. She immediately started sorting through the rubble to make sure no one was hurt, for the life of her she couldn’t remember what building this was.

Rikki picked up rocks and pieces of the building, a tree stood at the center of the wreckage, from what Rikki could tell the tree was picked up by the wind and thrown against the building. This was insane, this was as close to a war zone Rikki had ever come and she had played extreme paintball with her mother and father in all kinds of crazy settings. Luckily Rikki just had to administer help instead of being shot at by two expert marksmen, even if Rikki was a pretty good shot herself, no one could compare to her parents.

Rikki picked her way through the rubble, she wasn’t finding anyone in the wreckage but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t buried under all this chaos. ”I’m thinking one of us should shift and try to sniff out survivors, your bigger so you can lift more than me as much as I hate to admit it. Turn your butt around so I can shift and if I catch you looking we will know if a Hyena can beat the snot out of a Lion.” Rikki didn’t wait she stripped out of her cloths and let the beast out, sandy blond hair sprouted all over her body, her muscles detaching form their human places as her body took her animals shape, her face elongated as her teeth reformed to the bone crushing jaws of a Spotted Hyena, her arms and legs reformed and she fell onto four legs as her spine shot out her backside leaving a scruffy tail.

She was finally finished, she took a deep breath and let it out in a whooping noise called a Loam letting Liam know she was finished. She sniffed around searching for a human scent. She worked her way over the rubble, her tough padded feet scaling the hill of destruction easily. Her sensitive nose and ears scanned the rubble, she finally caught a hit, a faint waft from under a boulder she rushed over fallowing the smell and let out the haunting cackle Spotted Hyenas were known for, indicating she had found something.