Summary: Basically, it's an AU based on what has happened to MegaKat City after Viper took over in "Mutation City". First chapter from Kathy's POV, then one from Razor/Jake, then David, etc. etc.

Disclaimer: Don't own this, don't own that, chars not appearing bla bla bla.

It's getting harder to find any places, that are not infected with those creatures. I look out of the broken window of what was once a penthouse apartment, down on the dark waters that are flooding the streets of what was once MegaKat City. Quickly, I duck out of view as I hear a faint buzzing in the distance.

Mosquitoes...*his* giant mosquitoes....

They are like the KGB, or the Nazi's from Megawar II....they seek out the target, strike, then leave again before anyone can react. In the beginning, it was difficult to hide from them, because we where so many bundled up together, like flies on sugar. But now we are spread out, so very far from each other. And, I know we are getting fewer by each day...

As the mosquitoes have now passed, I dare look out again. They are far away now, the buzzing from their wings disappearing in the distance...absently, I turn away from the broken window, feeling a chill as a ghastly wind blows past, making the leftovers of a curtain blow gently around like a veil for a wedding-dress. Slowly walking through the dark, I come out to what used to be a
bathroom. Clean water that is not affected by the mutagens is so hard to get these days...The best you can get is collected from dew or rain, and even that is difficult. Like now, where it has not been raining the past 10 days...

Looking up, I see my face in the cracked mirror on the wall. My eyes, once seeming to shine like emeralds, seems to have dimmed into a sad kind of algae-green. In my black hair, there are streaks of grey, and fine webbings at my eyes show how stress has done it's work on me. My ears perk up as I hear a noise and alert, I turn my head. Automatically, my hand jerks down to the Desert Eagle by my side, but I retract it in relief when hearing a faint whistle...

"Kathy?" A voice gently calls out. Now I know it's Jake...

Slowly, I go out and smile to him in the dark, and he tiredly smiles back, one arm clenching around a bag.

"Jake, I was getting worried..."

He shakes his head in response, and as I have come over to him to help with the bag, he gently puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Nothing to worry about, Kathy. Nothing happened..."

When he uses that kind of tone, I know he is lying to me. Frowning, I look him over, then note a dark stain on his leg. He is clad in his old G-suit, that is ripped and torn so many places that I can't tell what is old and what is new of damages.

"Your bleeding," I state, not in a panicked voice like I had once, some time ago.

He shakes his head again, putting the bag on the floor. From the scrambling inside of it, I can hear the sound of conserves and glass.

"It's nothing," he says again, tiredly.

In respond to that, I grab him by his arm and drag him firmly to the nearest chair, making him sit down before leaving the room. Returning with a first aid in my hands, I kneel down and rip in the fabric.

"Kathy, don't. It's not...."

*SHHRRRRIIIIIP*

"....Necessary...," he sighs, exasperated.

I ignore him, looking over the damage. He has gotten a deep cut from something, but I can't tell if it is from thorns or claws.

"What happened, Jake?" I ask him as I soak a clean clothe in the box with some antiseptic before pressing it against the wound to prevent infection.

With a slight hiss and a wincing, Jake finally complies.

"T-bone happened..."

Startled, I look up at him in disbelief. None of us have heard of T-bone, or Chance as he was also known as, since.....since the past 5 years where this madness has been reigning in the city...Jake sits now, one hand tiredly supporting his head as he rests it against the arm of the chair.

"He surprised me as I was collecting the cans...he moved so silently, I didn't know he was there until..." he shook his head before motioning to the wound.

I nod once.

"Until he attacked..."

He nods again.

The rest of the treatment is done in silence, except for a sharp gasp from Jake as I tighten the bandage, the soaked clothe with antiseptic with no doubt stinging badly. Pain before pleasure someone once said. I can't remember who anymore, and it doesn't matter. Culture such as TV, art or literature is wasted in MegaSwamp City.

Jake sighs as he leans back in the chair. I can see he is exhausted, and the blood he has lost doesn't help either. I look up hearing a door open, and see the feminine form of Callie in the moonlight that slip in through the window. Her eyes blink tiredly, dark shadows below them showing clearly how much she has slept.

"Jake? What happened?" she asks, eyeing the bandage on his leg.

He stands up, saying nothing.

I stand up too and give him a nod. "Get some sleep Jake. You'll need your strength for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" he asks me weary.

I only nod darkly.

"We will have to find a more safe place tomorrow night. At noon." From old experience I have learned that very few of the creatures in the remains of this chaotic metropolis, can handle being in sunlight, thus making it safest to move at high day. "The blood from your wound will no doubt attract some of *his* creatures... we can't risk that."

Jake nods, common sense showing in his amber eyes. "Yes..yes of course..that's right..." he mutters before slowly heading
past Callie, ears drooped in fatigue, his tail almost dragging.

Callie frowns as she watches him, then she turns and looks at me.

"What was *that* all about!?" she whispers as if she was speaking to a holy goddess and not just me, a normal she-kat like herself...then again, I can seem difficult to trust, as we have only been in companion-ship of each other for 1 year.

"He had a clash with T-bone," I answer before returning to my previous position at the window. My watch is not over until the moon touches the top of the enormous tree that used to be MegaKat Tower. He made it his headquarters when he was sure everything was his...from there he gives his commands, and from there he sends out his troops to patrol for perfect test- specimens for his sick experiments.

I hear Callie gasp softly at my news, before she with a stupefied expression sits down in the same chair Jake rose from a minute ago. She shakes her head slowly in disbelief, before looking up at me, her jade-green eyes worried and upset. I try to ignore it. In the times we have now, it's no use being soft and weak. I have learned it in many a hard way these past few years...

"...why are you up anyway?" I ask out of nowhere. "You should be sleeping."

Callie shakes her head, her blonde hair waving gently as much as it can. It has been cut short, like my own. Else it would hang on to something and you could get caught.

"Can't sleep...," she mutters softly. I look at her, a twinge of pity coming to surface as I look at her.

"Nightmares again, huh?" I ask softly. She only nods. It has been like this for as long as I've known her. I remember one of the first nights she and Jake was with me and David. She had started screaming in her sleep and I came running at once, gun out and ready to fire. I remember how angry I got about this false alarm. I had grabbed her and shaken her angrily, sneering to her how she should wake up and stay quiet or we would be found by Plantimals or something worse. The moment she woke up, her eyes staring wide and frightened into my own furiously narrowed, she had broke into tears. I darkly told Jake that if she
would make a such noise again without a reason, I would leave her behind without hesitation. He only looked mournfully at me as he comforted Callie, David saying nothing. He had gone to the nearest window to check out for any unwelcome guests.

"You need your strength Callie. You haven't slept properly the last 3 days," I tell her, knowing that she knows it's all too true. She shakes her head tiredly with a sigh, resting her head against her arm. "I know...it's just..." she sighs again, squinching her eyes shut with a mournful expression. Slowly, I stand up and walk over to her, kneeling down on one knee, forcing her to look at me.

"Callie. It's been 5 years now. There has been no sign of change, and you know it," I say calmly but with a stern undertone, like a parent about to tell it's child that there has never been any Santa Claus. She looks up at me with a dark almost angry expression, but I do not withdraw my hand on her shoulder.

"As long as there is life, there is hope..I *know* something good will happen...," she says stubbornly.

"Like what?" I respond sharply. "Like the city turned back into what it was!? Every kat and every plantimal returning to what they where before all this!?" I gesture with my arm towards the window, where the view of the moss, vine and plant-covered buildings and water-flooded streets are clearly seen in the light of the full-moon.

"Or T-bone becoming what he was before that leech bit him!?" I finish, my eyes darkly narrowed. She looks like I had just slapped her hard across the face. Then with an angry sound, she suddenly stands up, glaring at me with lighting glinting furiously in her green eyes.

"You don't know anything!" she barks at me. "You know nothing about how it is for me! How that everytime I close my eyes, I see him! I see him turn into that...that *thing* for my very eyes...how he *looks* at me, like...like.." half of her words become unclear in her furious sobs of anger. Stress, sorrow and insomnia claims it's prize slowly, as I look at Callie's sobbing and shivering form. Slowly, I raise to my feet and put my arms around her, and she clings to me like David clung to me once in a time that seemed like a forgotten dream. Softly, I stroke my fingers through her hair as she cries into my shoulder, soaking the fabric of my shirt with her salty tears.

"Get some sleep. Empty your mind before you fall asleep," I say to her softly, before I gently lead her back to the bedroom.

David is sitting up in his sleeping-spot, yawning as he's waking up. It's his turn to take watch I vaguely note, as I cast an absent glance behind me, noting the position of the full-moon. Slowly, I reach down and withdraw the Desert Eagle from my belt and
hand it to the kitten as he comes over to me. He takes it, slowly as if it was the finest china instead of a deathly weapon. Then I lift a hand and ruffle my fingers through his black hair slowly before sending him a vague tired smile. He returns it before heading the spot by the broken window, to begin his part of the watch. In the distance, I can hear the sound of screeching. Most likely plantimals in a quarrel about a prey. Then I watch as Callie has curled up in her sleeping- bag on the floor, her eyes open and non-seeing. As I pass her, she casts one glance at me before closing her eyes, exhaustion finally kicking in. I go to my own sleeping-bag that lays messed up on the floor, and I stretch it out a bit before crawling down into it, shuddering slightly at the cold of it. I note on how heavily asleep Jake already is and I give a satisfied nod before laying down. They both deserve to rest. Both he and Callie.

As the moon slowly disappears out of the sky, and the sun slowly pours out it's magenta, rosa and orange colors, I feel myself drifting to sleep, knowing well how David will alert us all, should any unwanted guests appear out of nowhere....

Then as I close my eyes for the final time, I embrace the soft warm darkness surrounding me, giving in to the power of sleep...

TBC...