Jason Low presents A Gold Digger "Minus TWENTY" story Hello, Cheetah From a concept by Jason Low and Mario Di Giacomo Gold Digger characters Copyright by Fred Perry {Note: Some of the things in this story such as the ages are mucked up in comparison to the official GD timeline. I apologize and hope it doesn't detract from your enjoyment of the story. --j.} Britanny Elin Diggers toddled her way into the living room that morning, looking for something interesting happening. Being just around three years old, she was interested in everything and had an attention span measureable in nanoseconds. Awakening from her nap to find Gina no longer in their room, she decided, with the inquisitive stubborness of all children her age, to go looking for her missing sister and playmate. Low voices told her that her parents were in the kitchen, but somehow, something dragged her attention towards the living room instead. The first thing that struck her eyes was a colorful tower, looming over her head, composed entirely of Loc-Blocks, and about a foot and a half to a side. The feeling grew stronger as she toddled over to it, cooing over the bright colors. She knew Gina was nearby, but wasn't sure why. She couldn't see her, but she sensed she was there. Britanny stood before the tower and looked curiously at it. She walked around it once, forehead furrowed in thought, and finally lifted a hand to reach out and touch the tower.. ..only to have the tower burst into a hundred pieces before her very eyes, and spit forth a blonde-haired four-year-old girl with her arms raised up high and her mouth a wide playful grin. "RAAARRR!" Gina roared as she lunged out of the disintegrating tower at Britanny, but just then, Brit gasped and screamed, and in the blink of an eye, Gina found a frightened little kitten crouched there where her sister had been, tangled in a pile of her sister's clothes. Naturally, Gina did what any little girl would do when confronted with such a shocking turn of events: she covered her eyes with her hands and screamed as loud as she could. The kitten, more upset with this than with the initial fright, tucked in her tail, folded back her ears, and fled for the nearby screen door. Theo and Julia came running into the room seconds later to find Gina sitting on top of a pile of Loc-Blocks, bawling her eyes out. At first, they thought she'd hurt herself on the toys' sharp edges. Julia started checking Gina over while Theo said, "Gina! Honey, what's wrong?" "I.. Brit.." Gina tried to say through her crying, but it all came out muffled by her sobs. Julia crouched beside her. "Gina, it's okay. What happened?" she said soothingly. "Brit.. I turned Britanny into a kitty an' she ran away an' it's all my fault an' I don't have a sister any more!" Gina wailed. Julia looked up over her daughter's head to Theo, who mirrored her troubled expression. "It's happened," he whispered with a nod. "Gina, where did she go? Where did Britanny go after she turned into a cat?" Julia said, first looking at Gina and then looking about the room. "Outside," Gina said, still crying and pointing at the side door, with a jagged hole in the screen, as if it'd been clawed through. Theo got up and went to the door, opening it and looking out into the side yard. "Britanny?" he called out. "Brit? Come on inside.." he said with a hint of desperation after a moment. "It's okay, it's okay," Julia was telling Gina in the meantime, hugging Gina to her tightly and rocking. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right." "B..but Britanny's a CAT now," Gina protested, her tears slowing but not stopping. Julia picked up Gina and carried her in one arm to the screen door, out which Theo had disappeared. "It's okay, dear. We'll find her." Theo heard Julia as she came outside, and he looked up, seeing her there staring at him in the backyard, Gina's hands wrapped around her neck and clinging to her for dear life. Theo shook his head quickly. "Not here," he said quietly, hoping Gina wouldn't hear it and start crying again. He nodded towards Brit's empty clothes, lying on the ground near the corner of the house. "I'll check the other side and the inside of the house, but you'd better get the car ready, just in case." Julia nodded and took Gina out to the car, strapping her into the back seat. While Julia was putting Gina into the car, Gina was again getting upset, but Julia managed to soothe her down some more. As Julia finished putting Gina in the car, Theo came out of the front door with his jacket on, pulling the door shut behind him and walking to the passenger side of the car. "Theo, where's my baby?" Julia said. "She must be somewhere out in the neighborhood," Theo answered in a near-panic state, or as close to panic as he'd ever been. "I can still feel her somewhere out there, so we'll be able to track her down." Julia took the keys from Theo with a nod and got into the driver's side, starting up the car and backing out onto the street. "Left," he said. "Towards town." Julia nodded again and headed off in that direction. A few moments later, Julia looked over the seatback to check on Gina, as was her habit. Gina was still crying silently. "Gina, honey, it's okay," Julia said, reaching back with her hand to wipe away some tears. "It wasn't your fault." "Yes it was," Gina blurted out. "I scared her an' she turned into a cat an' ran away!" Julia looked at Theo for a moment. "You want to field this?" He shook his head, eyes focused on infinity, staring straight ahead. "I need to concentrate on her location. She must've moved rather fast to be this far away. Keep going straight for now.." "Gina," Julia went on, trying to wipe away some more tears from her daughter's face, "You didn't do it, Britanny did it. Brit is different.. she can turn into a cat." "Why?" "Well,.. because she comes from a different place where they can do that." "How?" Julia looked at Theo for a moment, thinking, Then Julia looked back in the mirror again at Gina. "I'm not sure, honey," she smiled. "She just can. It's some kind of magic, I think. (Actually, I'm surprised she can do it at all, since she's never had proper training.)" Theodore nodded, partly in response and partly to get Julia's attention. "Go right!" "Okay, right at the lights," Julia confirmed. "No, right now!" "Dear, the fruit market's in the way." Theo's hard, I'm-a-mage-and-I-know-what-I'm-talking-about expression faltered. "Oh. At the lights will be fine, then." "Mommy," came a tiny, scared voice from the back seat, "..am *I* gonna turn into a cat too?" Julia turned to face Gina with a warm smile and a hand resting against her cheek. "No, dear," she said, "and Britanny'll turn back into a little girl soon enough. Don't worry." Julia turned back to concentrate on her driving, but she asided to Theo in a whisper, "Am I right?" He shrugged ever-so-slightly. "Don't know," he whispered back as Julia turned the corner at the stoplights. "I thought, like you, that it was something she needed to be taught. Perhaps it's instinctive. We can hope." Not far away, the object of their pursuit was running as if her life depended on it. Britanny was scared, more scared than she'd ever been. She didn't know what had happened to her, if it was supposed to happen, or why. Gina's reaction had been enough--she'd screamed and screamed and screamed, looking at Brit with a fear Britanny had never seen before. She could sense it though, almost, and figured out that whatever had happened was very bad. That, plus the fact that Gina's screaming was drilling through her brain, suggested to her that she do what came naturally, which was to run. She ran for over an hour, scampering about the entire community, hiding under decks and porches, and racing through backyards and alleys. She made it all the way to the river before she calmed down enough to take stock of her situation. She walked around in the grass by the river, collecting both her breath and her marbles. What had happened? Why? Of course, being three years old, her questions weren't so analytical or thought-out, but still, she had an overriding need to find out what was going on. She sat down and began to clean herself while she thought about the situation. Gina had screamed. That was enough; Brit was sure that Gina hated her for some reason all of a sudden, and didn't want to be around her. And if Gina didn't want her, then their parents would feel the same way, too. Gina was older. They liked her more. No, that wasn't true; even though she was three, she could still tell that her mom and dad were always paying attention to her, not just to Gina. In fact, she probably got more attention than Gina if she'd been able to think about it, especially where her father was concerned. She didn't know why, but she knew that it was going on. She finished cleaning off her one forepaw and went to work on the other. But what had she done that caused Gina to get so angry? she wondered. Then it came to her: the tower. She'd been going to touch Gina's tower, and Gina didn't want that. Britanny told herself, thinking of Gina's expression and roar when she burst out of the middle of the tower. Then she thought of herself as she'd been about to touch it. Brit could see it in her mind's eye.. she was reaching out with her right paw, just about to lay it on one of the tower's sides, when.. Wait.. a paw? Britanny opened her eyes to see that in fact it was a paw that she was holding out, mimicking what she'd been about to do to the tower. For the first time, she became aware of her form, and if she'd been able to piece together a coherent thought, it would've likely been She stood up on all four feet and hurried to the edge of the bank to look at herself, like the duck did in the story mom and dad kept telling her at bedtime. She hesitantly peeked into the water and gasped to see a cat's face staring back at her. Then, as it was a fairly steep bank, her rear end tried to overtake her front, and she went tumbling into the water with a mrowl and a splash. She tried to swim, but all the lessons she'd been taking were only good for when she was a little girl. She thrashed about, taking some water on board, and yelped a couple of times. She panicked again, and stayed more underwater than not, causing her to panic more, and add to her problem. She was terrified of the water, and in some small corner of her mind, surprised at that reaction. She'd always liked being in the pool. What was wrong with the river? Mom and dad had even brought her to the river before, so that wasn't it. So it had to be because she was a cat. She didn't want to be a cat! she told herself. She wanted to be a girl again and grow up with her sister and have fun and play games and.. ..and suddenly, before she drew what might've ended up being her last breath, some sort of instinct kicked in. She suddenly powered her way to the surface, broke it with a tremendous gasp, and swam as fast as she could manage to the nearest shore, where she frantically scrambled up and out, and up the bank a ways. She shook herself, getting rid of some of the water soaking her to the skin, and then took a few steps, shaking each leg one at a time. It took several moments for her to realize that something had come to her just before she figured out how to swim and get herself to safety. This wasn't some kind of punishment, she realized. Gina didn't do this to her for wrecking the tower. Brit did this to herself. She was both a girl AND a cat; she could remember being around other people who were girls and cats or boys and cats, but it was hard to remember much about it. She changed into a cat all on her own, because she was scared of Gina. Gina hadn't been roaring because Brit was about to touch the tower, Gina had been roaring for the sole purpose of scaring Brit. And she did that perfectly. But the problem was that when Brit got scared, Brit turned into a cat. Britanny decided. She tried to will herself into the shape of a girl, but nothing happened. She even tried to picture it in her mind's eye, playing with Gina on the swings near their house, but all she could see was Gina playing on the swings and Gina's pet cat sister sitting beside her watching. Brit started to cry as she started to run again, up the opposite bank she'd run down before falling in the river. Fifteen minutes later, Theo was walking down the same bank that Britanny had walked down and then fell off of into the river. "What's wrong?" Julia called out from the car, parked at the top of the hill. Theo looked up to her. "The.. the trail ends here. She must've gone into the water." Julia gasped. "You mean..?" "No, I don't think so," Theo suddenly said with more confidence. He pointed across the river to the other bank, a few hundred yards downstream. "She got out over there and went that way." Julia let out a sigh of relief. "Come back up and we'll find a bridge and get over there." Theo nodded and started climbing the hill/bank; however, as he got to the top, a police officer was approaching the car. "Can I help you folks with something?" "We're all right, thank you," Theo said with a nod and a faint smile. "You look like you've lost something, sir," the officer observed. "Is everything okay?" "We're searching for our daugh--" Julia called out, cutting herself off. The policeman looked surprised. "Our daughter's cat," Theo amended, gesturing to Gina. "Ah," the officer nodded. "That's always terrible. What did it look like?" Theo did his best to describe Britanny without coming out and actually saying 'cheetah'. He could sense Julia's eyes boring into the back of his head, needing no magic to realize she wanted him to make up some kind of excuse to the cop so they could rush off and get back to finding Britanny. Theo protested to himself. The officer wrote down the description. "Name?" he asked. "Britanny." "Okay." He put his pen away. "I'll keep my eye out for it." "That's all right," Theo nodded. "I saw her--er, it--over there just now, before you showed up. We're going to go pick it up now and make our way home." "Fair enough," the officer said. "At least let me let animal control know so they don't take it away just before you get there." "Thank you very much," Theo acknowledged, stepping towards the car. The officer gave a wave and walked along on his beat, pulling out his radio and checking the description he'd written down again. Theo got back in the car and Julia looked at him for a moment. "Thank you for covering my slipup," she said. "You're welcome," Theo said urgently, belting in. "Let's find a way across this river before she gets too far ahead of us again." An hour later, they were finally there. In a picnic area on the far side of town, they found Britanny cowering under a table. She didn't come out, but when Theo stepped from the car, she recognized him and let out a meowing cry. "Why do I hafta stay in the car?" Gina protested. "Your father wants you to," Julia said, staying inside with Gina. "Britanny may still be scared of you, and we don't want her to run away again." "I'm sorry," Gina repeated, upset once more. "I'll never ever ever do it again!" Julia smiled and turned around in her seat. "I know, honey," she said, reaching back and hugging Gina. "It was an honest mistake. Nobody could have known it would happen, not even you or Britanny." "SHE didn't even know she could turn into a cat?" Gina said with surprise. "Probably not," Julia admitted. "She's very young still. Did you know you'd turn out to be such a smart little girl at only four years of age, for example?" "I guess not," Gina shrugged. Julia smiled and set Gina back down. "Well, there you go." Julia turned around to see Theo returning. "Ah, good. Here's your father now." The two ladies watched as Theo, with a frightened mass of fur cradled in his arms, approached the car and went to the back door on the driver's side, opening it. As the bundle in his arms figured out what was about to happen, it stirred back to life and tried to claw its way up his front and over his shoulder to freedom again. "Oh no you don't, young lady," Theo said, reaching up and grabbing her. "You're getting in this car. Now behave." Britanny put all four legs out against the frame of the door, grabbing on tight with her claws. Theo pulled her loose and got her inside, muttering, "I'm glad I brought my jacket.." as he looked at the claw marks on the leather lapel. By the time he wrestled Britanny into the car, she'd calmed down a lot, although she was still altogether too fidgety. It didn't help that Gina was staring at her with wide eyes, either. Naturally, she wouldn't fit in the car seat, and the seat belt wouldn't fit around her properly, so Theo just said, "You'll have to just hang on, Britanny. Be VERY still and don't run around, okay?" The kitten nodded at him, and he shut the door. She walked along the edge of the seat until she was hiding between the child safety seat she normally occupied and the door, only her folded-back ears and frightened eyes peeking over the edge of the child seat at Gina. Julia smiled and touched Britanny on the head to comfort her, then slipped the car into Drive and headed for home as Theo climbed into the passenger side. "You had us all scared there for a bit, little one," Julia said. Britanny just continued trading stares with Gina. After the longest time, Britanny heard a tiny voice coming from the other side of the back seat of the car. "..brit?" She looked up and saw Gina still looking at her with a sorrowful expression on her face. "britanny, i'm sorry," Gina said quietly. "i didn't mean to scare you." A long moment passed, and then Britanny nodded her furred head at Gina once, shallowly. "i didn't mean to turn you into a cat," Gina said, looking down at her feet dangling from the seat. "i hope you turn back soon. i miss my little sister." Julia and Theo sat in the front seat, inconspicuously listening. Britanny's frightened, alert, nervous expression finally gave way, and as much as a cat can emote, she did, adopting a sympathetic look. Despite her father's earlier admonitions about moving around, Brit climbed out of her hiding spot and walked across the seat slowly, carefully, until she was beside Gina; then she sat down and rested her head on Gina's shoulder. Gina was surprised at first, but then relaxed and grew a smile to mirror Britanny's, as she reached over and tentatively touched Brit with a hand. Slowly, gingerly, Gina petted her sister's furry head and neck. "Wow," she whispered, looking at Britanny. "You're a real cat." Britanny nodded, an unenthusiastic "mm-hmm" sound coming from her throat. "What's it like?" Gina wanted to know. Brit's head and neck dipped in a sort of a shrug. "Wanna chase some mice when we get home?" Gina grinned mischievously. Brit looked intrigued by the idea, but then stuck out her tongue. "Yech!" Gina giggled a little. "I'll get you some milk when we get home." Britanny hissed and lifted up a forepaw. "AAH! MOM! DAD! SHE'S GONNA SCRATCH ME!" Gina said, covering her face with her arms. Both parents turned around as Britanny shrank back, dropping her paw and looking frightened. She scampered over to her hiding place and peeked out from behind it again. "I don't think she was, Gina," Theo said, looking at Britanny. "She was only teasing you like you were teasing her. Isn't that right, Britanny?" The kitten nodded and made an apologetic mewing sound from behind the carseat. "You two behave," Theo scolded, turning around to face forward again. "I'm sorry, Brit--" Gina began, turning to face Britanny, but the kitten was already curled up in the carseat taking a snooze. Theo looked back again as Gina trailed off. "She must be tired," he observed. "She's had a long, hard day, Gina." "Okay," Gina acknowledged, watching Brit's tail flick back and forth as she slept. "And this might not be the last time this happens," he added. "This is something your sister is going to have to deal with for the rest of her life, and she'll need all our support." "Uh-huh," Gina said slowly, her own head drooping as well. "You tired too?" Theo asked Gina with a smile, but she was already out. Theo turned back to face the front after making sure both girls were safe and asleep. He sighed. "Quite a day," Julia said. Theo nodded. "Indeed." They drove on in silence for a few moments. "What about Britanny?" Julia said. "What are we going to do about her?" "Well,.." Theo trailed off. "I suppose we'll just have to adapt to her being able to change now." "I mean, what are we going to do right now?" Julia said, nodding back towards the back seat. "Is she going to be able to change back?" "I'm not sure," Theo said, looking at his youngest once again. "Her aura looks unimpeded, so she should be able to shift back. I'm hoping, then, that it's just a case of inexperience." "I hope you're right," Julia said, pulling into the driveway. "So who's going to sit up with her all night and try to coach her?" Theo smiled. "Sounds like I was just volunteered," he said as he climbed out of the car. THAT EVENING Theo looked up as Julia came back into their bedroom. "Did she go to sleep?" "Eventually," Julia said sleepily, climbing into bed. "She's still upset, though. Thinks Brit's stuck like that." "I can imagine," Theo said as Julia noticed Britanny, still in cat-form, in the bed in between her and Theo. "This one's a little scared too, and wants to sleep with us tonight." Julia cradled Brit's face in her hand. "Aw, don't be afraid, honey," she smiled. "It'll be okay. Mommy promises." Britanny nodded and meowed, then curled up into a ball between the two of them and went to sleep. Theo smiled and put his own head down on the pillow. "We're coming up on 24 hours," he said to Julia as she lay down as well. "If she doesn't change back by then, I'm going to start worrying." "You and me both," Julia agreed. LATE THE NEXT MORNING "Gina? .. Gina?" Gina awoke to the sound of her mother's voice lilting quietly in her ear. She woke slowly, saying, "I'm awake, mommy.." "Good," Julia said, as Gina fully woke up and sat bolt upright in bed as she remembered what'd transpired the day before. "Because there's someone here to see you." "To see me?" Gina echoed. "Who--" The bedroom door opened, and Theo walked in, holding Britanny's hand in his. Brit was back in human form and smiling somewhat. "BRIT!" Gina blurted out, leaping from the bed and running to hug her sister. "You're a girl again!" "Yeah," Britanny nodded, hugging Gina tight. "Happy sister." "Very happy!" Gina exclaimed. "Come on, let's go play!" "Okay!" Brit smiled and nodded again, hurriedly toddling after Gina's departing form with a laugh. THE END