Minx Ep. 02: Return to Anima

"Fran. That was a human man in armour. He's from another world. He and some others have come here..." Minx frowned. She assumed they had come here to recover the gold, just as the soldier had said, but was it the truth? "There was a criminal who stole a lot of money and fled to Anima. He disguised himself as a minotaur-man named Frag Thorn. Remember? He left all the gold and platinum near the entrance. These mercenaries came to recover the stolen loot." Fran visibly calmed. "It's not all good, honey. These humans intend to take the hyperman away with them when they go. They're also going to take us."

"Away from Anima?" asked Fran in a small voice.

"Yes. They plan to sell us as slaves. I plan to stop them."

"But what can two cat-girls do...oh, Minx! You must think I'm so stupid! I forgot you're not a cat-girl!"

"That's all right; I consider it a compliment coming from you. Now, I'm going to leave you here guarding our prisoner over there."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're staying here. I know how to use these weapons and I can move faster and quieter alone."

"I'm coming with you. I have to find Rudy and make sure he's okay, Minx."

The bounty hunter nodded at her friend and the two walked over and stared at the soldier. Minx crouched down and removed two daggers from the unconscious man. She handed one to Fran and bound the other one up in her hair where her laser pistol would usually be hidden.

"He doesn't look so scary like this, Minx. Just ugly."

Minx smirked, and then led Fran to the door. She took a quick look up and down the length of the hallway, and saw no-one.

"I don't see any other guards, so I doubt the other prisoners are being kept behind any of the doors in this hall. They're probably all storage rooms. We have to move fast, Fran, before he starts to wake up," said Minx, pointing at the man she had knocked out.

"Shouldn't we just," Fran hesitated, "kill him?"

"Let's only do that as a last resort, Fran." The bounty hunter wondered about the sudden blood-thirst in her friend, but then she remembered what these mercenaries had done and planned to do.

Minx slipped into the corridor and crept down the hall. She was halfway towards the open doorway at the far end before she realized she had forgotten to tell Fran to follow her. Turning her head, Minx was surprised to see the cat-girl close behind her. She winked at her and they continued.

The open doorway led to another hallway that was perpendicular to the one they were in and contained many doors. Minx didn't see or hear anyone, but there was another open doorway to her left. The two quickly crept down the hall and then stopped and listened.

Minx could make out the sounds of men complaining about some heavy work. She peeked out and saw this doorway opened into the foyer. There were five armoured mercenaries keeping watch as animen carried the bars of gold and platinum out of the House of Morovan. A quick glance revealed that the corridor leading to the laboratory was two doors to her right. She ducked back out of sight.

"Fran, we'll wait until the animen are occupied, or all happen to be looking the wrong way, and then run. There are five of the armoured humans, but none of them are looking in our direction."

Minx peered around the corner. She waited until just the right moment, then grabbed Fran's arm and bolted from the doorway. Seven quick and breathless steps took them to the desired corridor, and once again they hid from sight. Minx could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

"That was exciting, Minx," Fran whispered, "but I don't think I want to do something like that again." Her friend smiled in response.

They made their way along the hallway slowly, listening at every step. The door to the laboratory was closed.

"When I open the door, I'm going to rush in and shoot whatever looks like a threat. You stay here, Fran."

Minx pointed at the panel used to open the door and then nodded to Fran, and after a brief hesitation the cat-girl opened her hand and placed it on the flat panel. The door slid to the side and Minx rushed in.

Too late, Minx realized there were six mercenaries in the room. On the run, she fired at three. Two fell amid a shower of glowing metal and sparks. The bounty hunter leapt behind some machinery.

"Who was that? He moved so fast!" called out a mercenary.

"It was one of the cat-girls! Damn! We should have..."

Minx bolted again, firing as soldiers raised themselves from their hiding positions to get a better shot at her. As she slipped behind some machinery again, she heard two more heavy thuds as armoured corpses hit the floor. She had also seen Dragon, frozen in some sort of stasis field behind the mercenaries. She knew that if she could free him the fight would be over quickly.

"Grenades!" called out one of the mercenaries.

"Damn! Fran get away from the door!" Minx shouted. She threw her laser rifle out to her left, and then turned to her right and ran. She saw the distracted mercenaries raise their rifles towards the door and then train them on the thrown rifle. The bounty hunter slipped around some more machinery. The man to her right fired a shot at her, and she felt the heat of the laser as she leapt at the other. Her target turned too slowly and Minx was upon him.

She knew she stood no chance in a simple physical brawl; the armour magnified strength. She grabbed at his rifle and then jumped high and somersaulted over him. Grabbing him by the shoulders, she crouched and threw with all her strength. The soldier, armour and all, flew over her, landed on his feet, and then bounced back into Dragon and the stasis field holding the hyperman fast.

Sparks flew everywhere and the field sputtered. A kaleidoscope of colours flashed upon every surface that Minx could see, and then the field was down and Dragon blinked his eyes.

The mercenary who had fired at Minx trained his rifle on the hyperman, recognizing him as the greater threat despite what Minx had just done. Dragon ducked and grabbed the barely-conscious man who was now rising to his feet, using him as a shield.

Minx reached up into her hair, whirled and threw the dagger at a soft joint in the armour of the armed mercenary. The blade sunk deep. Dragon used the distraction to step forward and swing the armoured man in his grasp at the other. The two collided with a loud clang and both fell to the ground and did not get up.

"Fran! Get in here right now!" yelled Minx.

The cat-girl ran into the room. "Minx, the others are coming!"

Minx ran to her gun and trained it on the open doorway. Fran crouched behind her. "Dragon, I hope you can do something about these mercenaries!"

She spied the hyperman running over to a control console. "Sorry. The two on the ground were barely unconscious and I had to deal with them first." Minx divided her attention between Dragon and the open doorway. The man's hands raced across buttons, levers and switches. The door closed. "That's temporary. Don't relax yet, my dear."

Minx shouldered her rifle and led Fran over to the busy hyperman.

"What's he doing?" asked the cat-girl.

"I assume he's creating a weapon against the mercenaries," replied Minx, raising an eyebrow at him. Dragon ignored both the question and the response. After a few minutes he smiled at Minx and stopped his work. A door slid aside, revealing a tunnel that Minx had not yet been down.

"Follow me." Dragon jogged to the doorway, followed by Minx and Fran. "When I first came to this world, I was attracted by the sight of a small spacecraft, sitting idle in a gulley. But when I arrived in town and announced that I was looking for the off-worlder, I was set upon by a minotaur. I soon realized that you were the off-worlder I'd been looking for, the owner of the ship, but the minotaur's attack made me wonder. Then Fran told me that you had been hunting this Frag Thorn, and I realized he couldn't be a native of Anima. You never told me who he was, Minx."

"He was a bank robber, and all that gold and platinum near the entrance was his loot. The mercenaries came here looking for it."

"Yes, led here by your complete report to the bounty hunter's guild, I'm sure. So, how did Frag Thorn get to Anima?"

"You're taking us to his ship. But we're not fleeing, Dragon. The mercenaries have hurt and killed a lot of animen, and I'm not satisfied that they're going to leave peacefully."

They jogged into a large chamber where their voices echoed. Minx saw a single ship sitting in the middle of the hangar. There were repair and fuelling stations along the walls.

"These mercenaries, their armour doesn't look to have a large power supply," said Dragon suggestively, glancing at Minx.

She looked at Frag's ship. It had been poorly maintained and didn't look very sophisticated, but she guessed it would fly well enough. "Actual military armour tends to have a nuclear power plant strapped to it, well at least for the military from rich worlds. Mercenaries and poor worlds power the suits from a central location like a base or a ship." Minx looked up, as if she could see the vessels in orbit.

"I had Hephaestus examining that space station very carefully, Minx. Morovan built a planetary defence system that was designed to prevent large meteor impacts on Anima. He wanted his people to have a chance to really develop and evolve without the nuisance of extinction events. So, if we program this ship to fly at the space station..."

Minx finished the sentence. "...then the satellite will activate its defence system. And you expect it will perceive the mercenaries' ship as a threat?"

"It will when they fire upon it."

"And they will fire upon it because the ancient device will suddenly reveal it has powerful offensive capabilities. Dragon, you are such a Machiavellian bastard!"

"Will this plan save us, Minx?" asked Fran.

"I think so." She reached over and held the cat-girl's hand.

"This won't take long, Minx. Keep an eye out for unwanted visitors, please." Dragon disappeared into the ship. A couple of minutes later he emerged, gloating. "All we need now is to open the hangar doors and the ship is programmed to begin its mission."

Minx pointed to an obvious console on one wall.

"Let's stand clear," suggested Dragon. Less than a minute later, a large portion of the wall was silently sliding to the side, revealing an open patch of blue sky until smoke tumbled in through the opening.

"I think those mercenaries were rather thorough with the army encamped outside," muttered Dragon. Minx thought she heard a trace of bitterness in his voice and was reminded once again that his personality didn't match the stories that his ancestors had inspired.

Frag's ship jumped into the air with a gust of hot exhaust, and then launched itself through the opening and away into the sky.

"Wow!" said Fran. "I didn't really believe that it would fly!"

"What about our ships, Dragon?" asked Minx.

The hyperman rubbed his chin. "Well, I gave Hephaestus specific instructions to flee if he was no longer in contact with me. He had further instructions to happen by every six hours to see if communications were renewed. I would suspect that Aphrodite went with him. She seems rather attached to him."

"Ship!" Minx called out. There was no response. "Well, let's go and surrender ourselves."

Dragon nodded while Fran's eyes went big. "What?"

"Fran, very soon the armour the mercenaries are wearing is going to shut down and they won't be able to move. If we surrender, they'll have no reason to shoot at us. Once they're immobile, they won't be able to shoot us."

They walked towards the doorway, but noises in the corridor made them stop. Dragon and Minx nodded at each other, then removed their weapons.

"Drop the knife, Fran," instructed the bounty hunter. Once the cat-girl had done so, he yelled, "We're down here and we all surrender!"

They raised their arms as six mercenaries stomped into the hangar. They froze, with their weapons trained on the two cat-girls and the hyperman. "All of you, face down on the ground with your hands behind your backs!" ordered one of them.

Dragon, Minx and Fran complied with the order and waited. There was a clang and Minx chanced a glance. One of the mercenaries had fallen over and was lying immobile on the floor.

"Okay, you two. The plan worked." Minx jumped to her feet.

"Boss!" came Ship's desperate call. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Ship, just busy. I'm glad you're all right. I'll contact you later," Minx whispered.

"I'm certainly glad the plan worked." Dragon brushed his pants off. "My next plan was to blow up the base by having Hephaestus slam into it at orbital velocities."

"We'll have to have a long talk about Hephaestus once we leave orbit, Dragon."

Fran pushed at the fallen soldier with her foot. "So, what do we do now? How do we find Rudy and the others?"

Minx marched over to one of the standing soldiers. "Let's see..." she said as she felt around the face plate. It suddenly split down the middle to reveal a woman's face. "Where is the tiger-man...and the other prisoners?"

"You've got to help me! You're human! Get me — get us out of this armour and we'll split the bounty with you! Don't let him near us!" the woman pleaded.

Minx glanced back at the bored-looking hyperman. "Him? He shouldn't worry you; I keep him on a short leash. Answer my questions!"

"Okay! The prisoners were all put in separate rooms down the halls from the entryway. We gimmicked the doors so that they only open from the outside."

Minx turned to Fran. "Do you know where you're going?" The cat-girl nodded. "Remember to put something in the doorway so it doesn't close behind you!" she called out as the cat-girl ran from the room.

"Now help me out of this armour! Quick!" the woman begged.

Minx ground her teeth.

"We're not doing that," said Dragon. "What chance did you give the animen camped outside this facility before you bombarded them from space? Come, Minx, we're leaving."

"You can't do that! You can't just leave us here!"

Minx ignored her and followed Dragon out of the room. Part of her wanted to free the mercenaries from their armour, but another part of her was thinking of the General and the others in the army, and whether they were incinerated instantly or merely incapacitated and left to bleed to death from their wounds.

Minx awoke. Her hands went to her face and felt no whiskers or fur. The cover of the bed slid away and she sat up.

Fran and Rudy were seated on some chairs, staring at Minx as if they were a little afraid of her. Dragon was busy over some controls and Julius was standing in a semi-opaque booth. Minx didn't recognize the room.

"What's going on?"

"Is that really what you are supposed to look like?" asked Fran.

Minx raised an eyebrow. She glanced around and caught her image in a reflective surface. She was back to her old, un-furred, human self. "Yes, it's me, Fran."

"You're so..."

"Furless," finished the tiger-man.

"There's a poncho on the stool beside the bed, my dear," said Dragon without even looking at her. She picked it up and pulled it over her head, before climbing from the bed.

"I don't really look that different to you, do I?" she asked, standing in front of Fran and Rudy. She could tell from the look in their eyes that she really did look different in their eyes, too different. She would never be Minx the cat-girl to them again, no matter how she appeared. "I'm human, just like Morovan was."

Fran and Rudy's hands met. Minx sighed, understanding that they were both having trouble comprehending all of the information they'd been given. She hoped they'd be happy together.

"What are you doing to Julius, Dragon? And remember, he's a friend."

"Morovan was quite the genius! After we leave, we'll need someone to keep an eye on this place, Minx. I'm modifying the chimp-man to fulfill that role."

"I don't like the sound of that!" She advanced on the hyperman, who continued to concentrate on the controls in front of him.

"I'm almost done."

Minx stared at Julius. He was conscious and didn't appear to be in pain, although he did look a little frightened.

"Ah!" exclaimed Dragon.

The booth slid into the floor, leaving Julius standing there and looking a little confused. "Did it work?"

"Of course it worked! You're lifespan has just been extended, perhaps to double or triple of what it would originally have been." Now Dragon turned to face Minx. "And are you happy with my work?"

She cast a suspicious glance at the hyperman. "How do you feel, Julius?" she asked.

The chimp-man stepped away from the machine, then turned and put his hand on it. "No different...such a big change and yet I feel no different." Julius turned and stared at Dragon. "You alone among all your people will be welcome on Anima."

The hyperman bowed. "And for my next trick..."

"Oh, shut up Dragon!" Minx turned back to Fran and Rudy. "Are you two going to be all right?"

A big smile grew on Fran's face. "Rudy's invited me to live with him! I'm going to take care of his house and cook and clean and..."

"And she'll be my mate, for the rest of our lives," finished the tiger-man, in his deep voice. "I..."

"I'm very happy for both of you!" Minx rushed over and hugged them both. "She'll be everything you could possibly want, Rudy." He smiled and nodded in response. "And you, Fran, make sure that Rudy and his men understand that you rule the house. It belongs to him, but you're not their personal slave to clean up after every mess they make."

Fran smiled mischievously. "They'll learn that. After all, I've already been running a bar by myself."

Minx left them to discuss things and joined Dragon and Julius, who were in a whispered conversation.

"Minx," said Julius, "I cannot allow these mercenaries to die while in the House of Morovan!"

"I've been trying to explain to him that it's in his best interest to leave them to die," explained Dragon.

"They were going to kill any animen that stood between them and their money, Julius. I can't guess how many of your people they've already murdered." Minx stared at the chimp-man. He seemed more worldly than he had a few short weeks ago.

"Since you two are leaving, it isn't really up to you. Thank you for stopping them, but this is Anima and animen decide the law here. The surviving mercenaries will live, but they will have to pay penance for their crimes." Julius crossed his arms across his chest.

"I have an idea about that," called out Rudy. Everyone turned to him. "Fran will need a servant to help her around the house, and I lost some good men out on the battlefield, so I'd like a strong pair of arms to help out with the farm work. I'll take a mated pair, if there is one."

"You're talking about slavery again, Rudy, and after I've been going through all this effort to free the cat-girls!"

"No, Minx, not slavery. Penance. The House of Morovan is going to become a school, and cat-girls will be welcomed. Your dream is not being forgotten. However, for the invaders I think ten years of labour should be sufficient punishment for the crimes they have committed upon Anima."

Minx and Dragon looked at each other, and each could see the other was in favour of Julius' plan. "Good enough for me," responded the bounty hunter.

Minx stood in yet another laboratory that Dragon had led her to. He was intent on showing her all he'd discovered. She had quickly and uncharacteristically become bored with the whole tour. She twisted back and forth a little, watching the fabric of the shawl swirl around her. She was glad that the environmental controls in the House of Morovan still worked as her legs were bare.

"You're not listening," noted Dragon.

"Not completely, no. This just seems like more work, when we should be celebrating after the way everything turned out. The cat-girls will be free, although it may take some time. Julius is setting up a school here, open to everyone who wants to learn. Fran and Rudy have each other. The surviving mercenaries are being allowed to live, and Julius is seeing to it that they're being divided up and kept far away from each other so they can't stir up any trouble. Their ship is destroyed so they can't call for help. And Julius will see to it that all of Frag's loot is placed on an open plain, far away from here. So if the bank sends more mercenaries to recover their stolen money they won't interact with any of the natives."