Polekitty/Not So Secret Origin of Polekitty
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
February, 2005. Somewhere in Northwest Florida
Rhonda bounced miserably in the passenger seat of the truck. She would have rather been anywhere, even in school, then in close quarters with the bane of her existence, the source of all evil-her eight year old brother Jake. The two of them were riding with their father, Randy Evans, an officer with the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish commission. It was 'take your kids to work day” so instead of being in class the two of them were next to their father, bouncing along what could almost be called a road, the red clay of northern Florida sticking to the side of the truck as it headed deeper into the Apalachicola national forest. Truly, if there was hell for a 14 year old girl, being cooped up with her bored brother was it. She could have been with her friends, or at the Tallahassee Mall, or at her grandparents farm, anything would be better than this. She sighed theatrically “are we there yet?
Her father suppressed the urge to laugh, though to be honest, his son was in the stage where you could go from being amused to wanting to strangle him in 2.3 seconds. He was behaving himself at the moment, playing with the GPS receiver on the dash of the state truck, not that he needed it, part of his job was going out to the object every week or so to check the monitors. “Almost there” he said, slowing the truck and pulling the Chevy off of the trail along the side of the road. “Everybody out of the pool” he said as he shut it off “it's still a bit chilly outside so you might wanna take your jackets.”
Rhonda started to reply as she opened the door, however she wasn't moving fast enough for her hyperactive sibling, climbing out over her and jumping down onto the soft ground “Ack-Jake, getoffa me! Daddy, tell him to leave me alone!”
“I didn't do nuthin, she wasn't movin and ah had to get out”
“Both of you , shush.” he opened the bed cover on the back of the truck, pulling out a bulky package “now we gotta go a ways into the woods, ya'll both stay close” they were both dressed similarly, comfortable jeans, t shirts and light jackets, feburary in Florida isn't that warm most times. Rhonda stood a good foot taller than her younger brother, though both of them were obvious mutts, Randy was Seminole/Irish, and their mother was half African-American and half Japanese. “don't forget your camera Rhonda” he reminded his daughter as they set off down the trail. It was fairly well traveled, though after about half a mile there began to be warning signs, both state and US Government ones, not that from the pockmarks of bullet holes in some of them that people paid much attention to them.
“What are we doing out here anyway?” asked Rhonda, her Nikon digital camera around her neck, pausing to take a picture of a squirrel chittering at them from up in a pine tree.
“you'll see” replied Randy as he kept an eye on his youngest, Jake running ahead, then lagging behind as he saw something else to look at. Like most boys his age, his attention span was measured in nanoseconds. Finally after a while there was signs of a clearing up ahead, as well as black burn marks on some of the trees., as well as a rather fresh looking chain link fence. Pulling out a key he stopped and frowned, cussing under his breath “dammit, looks like folks snuck in here again, be glad when the Air Force finally gets rid of the damn thing.” Sure enough while the lock on the gate was intact, there was a hole in the chain link around the clearing. In the middle of the clearing was what they came out here to see, both of the children gasping in surprise.
“is that one of those...Rikki?” Asked Jake, wide eyed as he looked at the crashed spaceship.
Rhonda rolled her eyes “Rikti” she said, looking out at the ship. It was a small one, scout of some kind perhaps, though from the hole in the side, black scorch marks, and fresh maroon and gold paint showing the letters “FSU” and “Gators Suck” it had obviously seen better days. “ ah thought they didn't get this close to home, ah knew they hit Atlanta and Orlando.”
Randy nodded “there's a couple of these down south around there too. From what we've been told, this one was a scout in the Atlanta attack that got mixed up in a thunderstorm, and got way off course. “ he grinned “there's even rumors that Chief Osceola himself took it down, but that's just a rumor.”
Jake got even more wide eyed, while their neck of the woods didn't have, nor need many heroes, many believed in the Chief and claimed to have seen him. Some claimed he was a descendant, others that he was the legendary chief himself returned to protect the people of Florida. Or it could have been shot down by Air Force fighters from Tyndall AFB to the southwest in Panama City, which Rhonda thought was more likely, though she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to get Jake arguing.
“is it safe to be around?” she asked, taking some pictures of it , and the colorful graffiti
Randy opened the case he was carrying pulling out a replacement sensor for the one that had failed “Air Force says it is from this distance, they're supposed to haul it and the ones down south off eventually, not holding my breath waiting for that.”
She nodded, then gasped, pointing up “that what ah think it is Daddy?”
He glanced up and chuckled, nodding “now you see why i told you to bring your camera” On top of the derelict there was a large mass of sticks and branches, and arrowing in towards it as Rhonda's camera whirred was a large bald eagle, building a nest. They watched it in silence as it flew off again..then noticed.. it was silent.
“Where's your brother?”
Jake had slipped away while his dad and sister were watching the stupid bird. Forget getting to get out of school, this was an honest to goodness alien spaceship! He had to get a close look. Impulsive he may be, but he was canny enough to realize if he just cut across towards it, he'd be easily spotted in the clearing, the underbrush had grown back, but was not much taller than he was. So he was heading down the trail, to loop around and come around from the other side. A most cunning plan..until he found something else to distract him.
Rhonda muttered under her breath, trust her brother to act up and get in trouble. This time at least it wouldn't come back on her she thought with some satisfaction. She used her telephoto lens to zoom in, looking around the clearing “ah don't see the twerp”
“Go back to the truck, he may have gone that way. I'll go see if he went towards the ship, there are still some things in there that are hazardous.”
She nodded and turned back down the trail, as her father didn't bother to open the gate, but ducked through the hole in the fence that was already there. “maybe the aliens are still there and they'll take him back to Riktiworld, or whatever it's called” she muttered. She had made it almost back to the truck when there was an explosion of bright blue nylon, her little brother bursting out of the underbrush “Hey Rhonda, lookit what ah found! “ he said, holding a squirming black furball in his hands. Rhonda blinked “where you been, dad's out there looking at you, and you know better than to be messing with wild animals!”
“Aww, it ain't wild, it's just a baby skunk, think we can keep it?” Rhonda peered at the terrified kit in her brothers paws, a skunk kit the size of a rather fat house cat
“that looks awfully big for a kit, acting funny too” she said worriedly, like most kids in rural areas, she knew the danger of rabies. “you'd better put it down-whats that sound?” she said, as a strange growl came from off in the brush.
“Nuh-uh! It's just a baby, not rabid, and I'm gonna keep it!” he gripped it a bit harder unconcously, causing it to squeal louder. Rhonda was opening her mouth when there was an answering roar to the squeal, and a hulking form, easily the size of a german shepherd exploded out of the underbrush. It sort of looked like a skunk...if it was greenish, a couple hundred pounds, and had large fangs and claws, and had an unhealthy looking greenish cloud around it.
“Wh...wha...what the heck is that?!”
“Ah think that's it's momma...Jacob, put it down slowly and back away.” Said Rhonda. Usually when his full name was said, it was an indicator of the seriousness of the situation, and he usually complied. When his parents said it. This was just his stoopid sister though, what did she know?.
“Nuh uh, I found it, I'm keepin i-eep!” as he protested the kit gave off another squeal, answered by its mother as it leapt at the boy. Rhonda thought that alone was weird...skunks aren't aggressive like that. She had been franticly looking for a stick or something, when it leapt she did the only thing she could-she jumped between it and her idiot brother, trying to scare it off “Git! Scat! Shoo- YEEP!”
Randy cussed under his breath as he worked his way towards the downed Rkti scout ship. “I swear, I need to get a leash for that boy sometimes” he said as he neared the wreckage. No sign of his wayward son, but there seemed to be tracks of something large coming out of one of the holes in the downed craft, something using it as a den probably. Bending down to take a closer look at him he was puzzled...looked like skunk tracks...but they were as big as a panther. “What the hell?” He shook his head, making a note to check it out later when he heard the screams from back in the woods. With a shout of his own he turned and ran full speed towards the sound.
The pain was bad, but it wasn't the worst of it. Instead of doing something useful, like getting a stick or something, Jake just stood there , screaming like a little kid in as he watched his the creature sink its teeth into Rhonda's arm. She stared at the beast on top of her, blood soaking through her jacket sleeve as she felt its teeth grinding along the bones in her forearm, beating at it with her other hand. She kept promising herself she wasn't gonna scream-Jake was doing more than enough for both of them after all, then the critter began raking its claws along her as it bit down harder on her arm, raking long bloody furrows in her jeans. That was enough to get her to join in, especially from the painful burning sensation from both the claws and the jaws of the mutated skunk. She tried to push it off but it was too heavy, and had too good a grip on her, so close she could smell it's breath. It swiped with its forepaws too now, digging through her shirt as she screamed again-then there was a blast of thunder. The creature let go of her arm, claws still sunk into her as it snarled at something past her, then there where three more quick blasts, knocking it off of her. She turned her head and saw her father, his Smith&Wesson gripped tightly as he proceeded to empty the rest of the magazine into the creature, until it finally stopped moving.
“D...da.daddy?” she said weakly, slipping into shock, her brother still wailing at the top of his lungs “please...get him to shut up?” she said as she finally passed out.
