The following day, my crew met Ty by the tunnel. He was accompanied by a vehical that resembled a stretch limo. The entire group filed into the limo and closed the doors. The limo, instread of driving foward, it hovered upward. The crew became nervous except for Ty and his driver. He told us that his technology was created with the help of the Galactic Police, but there was more to it than that.
"All right, I'll tell, my crew are the Galactic Police. I took control under the nose of McBain; they were tired of working for him."
"That explanes why I didn't have trouble convincing them to help!" I exclamed. "It's starting to make sence now, but I don't understand why you hid."
"There was a second person looking through the rubble. He left just before you arrived. I was hoping to get the chance of finding whom this person is. He's been seen at every accident site, there might be some connection between the two."
"I don't think so. It could have been a survivor." Ryan interupted.
"You might be right, he could've been looking for Paul or someone else and left after discovering it. So far, it's still a mystery to me and the Police." Ty moaned. This seemed to trouble him. "I get some good news for your people - Tor will recover from his injuries. Best of all, he recalls how to cure the McBain Project victims."
"I told you, I don't need his cure!" Strike growled.
"We talked about this yesturday, it's going to be used on the victims whom want to be cured. That's it!" I sharply spoke, it seemed to calm Strike down momentarily.
"But what happens if he forces them to take it?" Strike countered.
"He will be made to understand and respect the wishes of each victim." Ty agrued. "You don't need to worry about Tor."
The limo had exited the planet's atmosphere and was heading for a satellite-like base on the shadow side of the planet. Directing my attemtion to the planet, I saw shocked - it wasn't a planet - it was a moon! Somehow I landed on Io and never realized. That was hard for me to grasp that concept and fell back into my seat. How could a volcanic moon all of a sudden has able to turn to an Earth-look-alike?
"I've heard of Lost in Space, but I didn't expect to be living it!" I blerted. "How did you guys get all the way out here?"
"The humans of Earth considered us as outcasts and sent us to this moon." Leon explaned. "They done this over a hundred years ago. It was know as 'The Great Exile'. They first called us 'ani-men'. We had the statue of humans, but the physical attitbutes and the appearance as our animal ansters."
"So, they worked on splicing the DNA of humans and animals since - " I concluded.
"The year 1999." Ty interupted. "A year later, the boarded our grandparents and our parents on rockets and launched them to the moon you call 'Io'. We call it 'Clone Earth'. It's identical to Earth except that we inhabit it instead of humans. Some have come here, but were killed out of anger."
"Then it would be best for me to stay morphed," I whispered too loudly. I looked around and they weren't very happy about that. "I was given this power nearly 50 years before the humans started experimenting. I try not to think of myself as a human, but more as one of you. I've turned away from being human ever since that day."
"What day?" Ryan grunted.
"The day my friend was killed." I sobbed.
"This will be the last thing you'll ever see!" a man with a broke,blooding nase yelled, aiming his rifle at me.
My eyes began to widen with fear as the poacher gentally squeezed the trigger. A shell emegered from the barrel and was coming right at me. A friend that I've known all his life jumpped between me and the poacher; taking the bullet for me. He fell to the grassy ground as the bullet wized by my ear.
"No!!" I cried as I ran up to him. "I'm here, you'll be fine."
"No...I won't." the lion coughed.
Without thinking, I placed a pendent, that was in the shape of a lion, around his neck. It began to glow as if it was trying to help him.
I slowly stood up and poised myself to engage in battle, it has been nearly 18 months since the last time I fought. The walking stick that I carried began to rise high into the sky and turned into a familar shape. The area around the object turned to a blinding white. The object began to float down as the light vanished. When it settled into my hands, I knew what it was - it was the helmet to the tiger armor.
"I looked upto the sky and asked, "Does this mean that I should fight once more? If that is your wish, then so be it! I will become a warrior once again!"
I placed the helmet on my head and the armor started to assmble together. First, the boot and leg gear appeared. Then, the arm and hand gear assembled. Next, the torso and weapons appeared. After that, the face guard on my helmet split down the diddle and open far enough that it couldn't be seen. In an instant, the helmet fanished. Finally, I morhped into a tiger and my size increse tenfold.
"Look at the size of that tiger!" one of the poachers commented. "We'll make a mint skinning him."
"You won't need money were you are going," I growled as I slashed out both sabers from my right side. I slashed them back and returned then to their holders.
They laughed at me, then they began to cough up blood. I had slashed their throats open. I laughed with evil and there was hatred in my eyes. My teeth and claws were beared; I calmed down and returned to my friend's side. His fur was blood red.
"Take you pendant...before its power is drained. You did your best, but I...I'm not going to survive. Tell my kids that I'll miss them; tell my wife that I love here very much. Chester..."
"Yes," I choked, fighting back the tears.
"Let me see you as yourself once more before I leave," my friend said as I began to change back to my human form. "Thank you. Once last thing: never forget me..." his eyes rolled to the back of his head and closed his eyes.
"Noooooo!!" I couldn't hold back. The tears rolled down my face like race cars. I hugged him like I didn't want him to leave me, but I knew his was already gone.
"I don't know what happened between us after that." I told them as the tears began to fall onto my shirt. "I never forgot him; he had forgotten me."
"I would have never guessed," Panthra comforted me. His paw felt warm on my rigth shoulder. "I guess that's why you came here - to get away from you fears."
"It's more than my fears that I left. I'm trying to run from my humanity. If...maybe if I had built the boundaries sooner, he wouldn't have been murdered by the poachers all those years ago. I still believe that his death was my fault; I still can't believe he's done this."
"I hate to break this up, but he're here!" Ty spoke out. "This is Space Base. It was designed as the main assult if the humans ever decided to eliminate us."
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