Project DDS Part 5...

Story by kaleemmcintyre on SoFurry

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Last part of the series that I'm going to be writing. Hope you've all enjoyed this! Do tell me whatcha think.


"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ESCAPED!!!" The angry blowhard of a lieutenant literally roared at the mouse intern while the rodent just stood his ground almost unconcerned with the other man. The fact that said mouse was looking to where a giant hole was situated in the middle of the floor of the experimental lab probably helped with this as it gave the intern something more important to focus on.

"I didn't say that they 'escaped'. I said that they are 'escaping'." The rodent corrected the lion while surveying the crater inside of the other room, almost completely unaware that the feline next to him wanted to grab him and choke the life out of his beady little eyes.

Almost.

The lieutenant barely wasted another second lingering on his homicidal thoughts as he quickly pulled his cell phone from out of his pocket and then punched the speed dial for his second-in-command. Waiting for a ten seconds the feline literally ripped the person on the other end a new one as he started to bark orders out into the receiver. The intern chuckled as he listened to the lion order a lockdown of the building and to have his people search the halls one-by-one. It was ludicrous really, but the military mind wasn't exactly made for advance contemplation, thought the mouse as he recalled his small part in the drama taking place.

***

The conversation with the three creatures had been relatively simple and clean: once they had disentangled from one another the Great Dane, Alexander, had come over to wipe some of the gunk the mutates had spayed across the only window between the adjoined rooms away to get a better look at the rodent that had tried to gain their attention. Alex then growled at the mouse with a very clear threat shining in his pitch black orbs as his tentacles reared up in agitation, warning the much smaller man that he was not to be trifled with.

"Now my suggestion, as it humbly is to you, would be that in the next couple of minutes you should all not be here when he gets back." The intern pointed over his shoulder to where the lion had gone out of the door behind him. "I know you probably heard all of that, but just in case you didn't I'll summarize." The mouse coughed into his palm dramatically and then said, "In the next twenty or so minutes the lieutenant will come back here with probably a small case of munitions and try to blast the door open. If he succeeds in his endeavor, and I do believe he will, given just how stubborn that man is, I don't think that I have to paint you a picture of what will happen to the three of you."

Alexander snorted and then looked to the metallic door standing between the outside world and the room where he and his pack were. The black tar that had congealed onto the metal frame looked strong enough to hold back an army but inner instincts told the Dane that while the door could do just that, if need be, it would be best not to test the substance resilience against that of a determined military mind. Alexander turned his head and watched as both Jessie and Maxwell cleaned each of with their tongues, trying to get as much leftover spooge from their chests and torsos as possible, and then stood up, looked between each other and Alexander in confusion, before grunting low and conversing between themselves. The Dane could hear the worry and concern in Max's voice while Jessie seemed ready to take on the world for the pack's security.

They were good subordinates indeed, Alex thought right when a tap at the window drew his attention again.

"Now being that you are on the up-and-up of the situation, I have a suggestion. Would you like to hear it?" The Dane snorted again, but nodded his consent. "Right below your feet there is a room that was once used as a storage area for some of the staff on duty here to keep supplies and medicines. If you could somehow get to this room you could also make your way down another floor to where the janitor's room is. Keeping going a little further and you could possibly make it to the garage area and then try to escape into the city." The intern let this new information roll around inside of the Great Dane's head and watched with rapt attention as the Alexander's black eyes seemed to shift around inside of his head as a mental picture was drawn inside of his brain.

"Now, where you go from there is your business, but I have it on a good...hunch...shall we say, that if you can get to the city sewers then you should be able to take a path all the way down to the subway and then use the tunnels there to get out as far as you can. Now I know it might sound like something rather generic coming out of a B-movie, but," The mouse shrugged in a devil-may-care fashion and then smirked. "You don't have a lot of options right now."

Alex hissed at the mouse when the rodent began to chuckle at him. Two of the black patched canine's tentacles reared back as if they wanted to lash out at the intern as the Dane's irritation began to rise to new and dangerous levels. The raw need to protect his pack, coupled with millions of years of ingrained canine instincts swirled up inside of the Alexander's head transforming the once timid psyche of the canine into a vicious and instinctual beast that saw any kind of danger to the pack as inexcusable.

It was only two pair of warm arms drawing themselves around him that made Alexander's irritation stem. Both Jessie and Max nuzzled their faces into both sides of the Dane's throat and stroked their own tentacles up and along the greasy form of Alex's spooge covered chest. The warmth of his friends, or maybe family at this point, dissipated the Dane's ire and soon they were all muttering low in conversation as they, as one, turned away from the still snickering mouse.

***

"I'm not sure what happened." Which was a partial truth. "One minute I was looking in on them and the next I found myself with the need to go and relieve certain body fluids. When I got back...there was this big hole in the floor...so I thought it wise to call you and alert you of the situation."

"It took you ten minutes to go take a leak?" The lion said as he looked to his watch and then back to the intern.

"So I sat on the pot for a while,"

"Of course you did." The lieutenant knelt down next to the mouse and then looked squarely into the other's beady little eyes. "If I find out that you had a hand in helping those three escape the I will personally nail your ass to the wall. Do you understand me?"

"Lieutenant, you are about as full of hot air as a balloon at an amusement park." The lion drew back his lips and snarled at the intern but that only made the rodent seem more flippant about the whole situation than he already was. "To put your little ego at rest, then in my defense I have two questions. One, how could I have helped them to escape with the door's still barred?" The mouse nodded over to the ooze covered metal barrier which had yet to be touched. "And two, why would I help them to escape? There's nothing in it for me, other than being suspected of breaking protocol on this project and perhaps a life's sentence in prison. Both of which I am not overly fond of."

Before the lion could bite out a retort his phone went off diverging the feline's attention away from the intern. Raising himself back up and then slapping his phone up against one on his rounded ears, the lieutenant listened as his second-in-command began to relay to him the situation on his end.

Meanwhile, down on the second floor Alexander, Jessie and Maxwell were doing their damned best not to let the shrieking cries coming from within the sirens within the building stop them from making their escape. Keeping calm throughout the entire situation was a bit of a trick between them, but the three mutates realized that they were under the wire at the moment. It had been a clear stroke of luck for them to get as far as they had just from having tunneled together through the floor of the room they had been in. The concrete and metal had been torn apart like wet putty underneath their newly enhanced claws as they dug hole after hole through the building's floor on their way down. Sadly though, there little streak of luck had came to a halt when they had been found out by the janitors that had been drinking coffee while on break.

In an effort not to spill blood, something that none of the pack were looking forward to doing, though they might have been monsters now they still were people on the inside, Alexander and Jessie had sprayed the cleaning crew with their thick black venom and used the sticky substance to plaster the men onto the nearby walls of the small room. Maxwell had estimated that the janitors would be freed from their prison some hours later when either the venom lost its adhesiveness or when someone came to rescue the struggling men, but by then the Dane, dragon and 'roo looked forward to being long gone.

Leaving the service men where they were Alex, Jessie and Max resumed their efforts to claw their way through the building on down to the first floor.

A certain bored military zebra, now held under quarantine for being 'contaminated', blinked as listened to the sirens going off inside of the building and then looked up in awe as he watched bits of the ceiling starting to fall down around his bed. Not understanding what was going on, but sensing that danger was approaching, the ungulate moved over out of just in time as the wall up above gave in and three large forms dropped down onto where he had been sitting on his bed. Eyes shining with both bewilderment and fascination the zebra watched as the three muscular males stood up and then began to shake themselves off while grunting and growling between themselves.

The former soldier made no move to defend himself, or cower in fear for that matter, as the Dane, dragon and 'roo stopped suddenly and then turned themselves around to look at him. Memory surged up throughout the minds of the newly changed mutates and instantly they began to snarl and hiss at the zebra. Tentacles rose up into the air as dribbling black ooze was primed to be sprayed directly at the other man if he so much as made a single threatening move against them.

Against the three transformed males the zebra knew that he wouldn't have stood a chance, the sheer size of the 'roo alone was enough to make fear clench up inside of the equine's heart and he was the smaller of the trio, however...the former military soldier just didn't have the energy to care. Care about himself, his career, or what the three mutates would do to him. The only thing that the zebra could focus on was how much he seriously needed to be with a certain tiger that he could just not get out of his mind.

So much to the confusion of Alex, Jessie and Max, the zebra simply walked over to a nearby wall and then balanced himself against said wall with a foot bent back behind him and then crossed his impressive arms over along his chest.

"If you're going to go," The zebra said suddenly right before he hiked a thumb over his shoulder to the door behind before continuing. "I'd suggest not going that way. There are guards all over the place keeping watch, though I suspect that they will probably be coming this way soon to check this side of the building's wing." The zebra said as he lowered his hand and then adjusted his swelling equinehood as the enticing scent of the drying cum on three males began to awaken his arousal.

It was clear by the look of the ungulate that the equine wanted out. Max's eyes watched as a nervous energy seemed to flitter right above the zebra's body like a static current, yet was tightly controlled by years of enduring military training. The fact that the zebra was getting horny, if the way the blue gown the other wore was tenting in the groin area, just seemed to make the mounting tension inside of the equine well up more and more.

Jessie went over and to tower over the smaller man as memories of earlier slipped rapidly through his mind to remind him that the zebra had been one of people to point a gun at him and his packmates earlier. A reassuring croon from Alex made the reptile stop halfway from what was surely going to be a grotesque form of murder and then back away from the scrub wearing zebra before violence could ensue.

"Hey, I don't know what you're thinking but I'm unarmed and under house arrest because of what you did to me and Jimmy back then." The ungulate challenged as he looked up to the larger dragon without fear in his eyes.

Jessie bared his teeth at the smaller prey animal, his wings fanning out behind him as annoyance began to well up inside of his chest. All it would take for the dragon to end the ungulate's miniscule life was for Jessie to reach out with a single hand, coil his fingers around the equine's throat and then snap the man's frail neck. It would take the reptile minimal effort to do so, and in knowing this the temptation rose up quickly throughout the dragon's very being.

A tentacle reached around to stroke the line of Jessie's back making the black and red winged lizard calm down and then purr openly before turning to look behind him. It had been Max who had slipped one of his extra appendages out to soothe the aggression seeping into his packmate. Alex was too busy looking around the room and then getting on his knees to sniff at the floor to focus his attention onto the happenings with the others: duties of the alpha and all.

"What are you doing?" The zebra inquired but stopped himself from moving over to the Dane when Jessie hissed sinisterly in his direction.

Alex began to claw at the ground but had to bark in frustration when his claws failed to get him very far. The sharpened ends of his talons did scrape across the ceramic, tearing at the material like it should, but when it got past that the solid material underneath failed to give into the serrated weapons.

"If you're trying to get out through this level of the building's floor then forget it." Three heads looked to the zebra with varying degrees of confusion. "This old building is reinforced with some sort of super tough alloy that they were experimenting on back thirty years ago. Nothing short of a high grade incendiary device with put a scratch into it, and no offense, but I doubt you have anything like that on hand."

The three mutates looked to one another in slight concern before grouping themselves together in a small huddle. What followed next between them was some kind of weird hissing and growling conversation that completely befuddled the zebra. A few seconds of this and Max's head popped up as the door to the room slowly came open. Much to the surprise of the military pair that walked in to check on their former comrade the men in uniform barely had the time to not the three mutates standing together before tentacles lashed and sprayed them with a thick and gelatinous black gunk. The force of the volley of black sludge made the two soldiers hit outside wall on the other side of the hallway with a resounding 'whump' noise. This had little effect on the Dane, dragon and 'roo because as soon as they noted that the potential threats were neutralized they went right back to discussing their plan of escape as if nothing had happened.

Right behind them the zebra silently noted where the now trapped and bound men were struggling together and then turned his attention to where the guns they had managed to drop were sitting idly onto the floor.

"Hey!" Max's head popped up again, followed by Jessie's and Alexander's, as the three mutates stared at the ungulate in mild irritation. "I've got an idea, if you feel like listening."

Three sets of eyebrows rose up at that...

"What in the hell????" The lion lieutenant was all but beside him as he found his back pressed up against one of the walls of the research building while several streams of black goop sprayed the air right where his head had just been.

Apparently the three mutates had been able to formulate some kind of plan with the zebra and were now holding down the lion and his men in an attempt to wage a mini war against them. The mutates used their prehensile tentacles to spray the walls next to where the men and women in uniform were hiding in an effort to force them back while the lieutenant and his soldiers tried desperately to hold onto their ground. Neither the lion nor anyone else on his assigned team realized that this was actually diversion to get the military personnel to focus their attention on the Dane, dragon and kangaroo and ignore a certain stripped ungulate that was moving his ass as quickly and quietly as he could around the backside of the hallway to get to the elevators. The plan had been that if the zebra could get to where a certain fluffy tiger and the rest of the first group of military personnel were kept under quarantine then they could double the manpower Jessie, Alex and Max possessed and muscle their way out of the research facility.

The scientists on duty were all watching and recording this from their seats where they were safely overseeing the spectacle at hand. Each and every one of them agreed that this was exactly the kind of environment that they needed to understand the depths of just how desperate and resourceful the three altered anthromorphs could be while under conditions that were both brutal and demanding in design.

Just how could did they plan? How did they work together? And how much were they willing to risk in order to gain their freedom?

These were the questions that bore theories that needed to be understood by the research team. And they would all be damned if they were going to let this prime opportunity slip past them to help out jaded military officials that didn't understand what the costs of evolution and progress really were. All eyes were focused on the scene being played out so no one was aware of when a small blinking light came on to signal that someone was moving through the elevators onto the second floor. Had even one of the 'white coats' been paying attention then there would have been many raised eyes wondering what the hell a certain zebra was doing running around the building and not assisting his fellow soldiers.

All the way on the other side of the building the equine was huffing it hard as he could as he moved to try and get to where Jimmy and the rest of the crew were. His plan had been to get to the others and then get them their freedom in exchange for the Dane's, dragon's and kangaroo's aid. Getting to the unoccupied door where he could literally smell the other man waiting for him the ungulate had to take several deep gulps of breath before calming his racing heart and then stepped forward to take the handle of the door into his palm. Turning the knob and then pushing the metal frame open the zebra wasn't ready to be tackled and then laid out flat onto his back as a two hundred and something odd pound feline pounced on top of him.

Feline kisses and licks showered over the zebra's face as private Jimmy Wakes literally doused the other soldier in as much affection as he could muster. Obviously, the tiger had been able to scent the ungulate's aroused odor just as much as the zebra could his.

"Jimmy! JIMMY!" The tiger pulled himself back and looked down at the zebra with eyes that were half clouded with lust. "I-I'm happy to see you too, but right now I need you to get up off of me and help me, help the assholes that got us in this situation!"

"Ed? Wh-what?" Jimmy shook his head as he tried to fight off the lingering effects of the toxin that he had been sprayed with earlier by Alexander, not to mention his own physical need for private Edwards. "What do you mean? What's going on?"

"I'll tell you later, not get your sweet ass up off of me and let's go and free the others." Ed watched as Jimmy did as he asked, though somewhat shakily as the tiger's pre soaked cock seemed to be trying to undermine the feline's efforts, and then grabbed Jimmy's hand when the tiger offered it to him. "I'll explain everything on the way, but right now we gotta move!" Jimmy gave an unsure nod to his partner and then clenched his claws into his palm to focus his attention off from wanting to strip the ungulate out of his medical gown and pound his sweet stallion ass into the wall.

"Ok..." The tiger grunted and then stepped on side of the zebra as his mind slowly began to clear, and nearly leapt through the roof when a firm hand grabbed him underneath his tail and squeezed along his ass, tauntingly. A wink from Edward let the tiger know that the other soldier still wanted him, even if now was not the time to deal with such things.

The two privates quickly rounded everyone that had been quarantined together and then gave the lot of them the business. It was simple; either they were for getting out of the building together with the three mutates and possibly being hunted down and captured for treason, or they were going to stick around and wait to see what the brasses decision for them would be when the current clusterfuck came to an end.

Surprisingly only two of the ten soldiers vied to stay behind and take their chances. No one could say that their choice didn't make sense being that those who fought against the military were essentially putting themselves up to be hunted down and possibly imprisoned for life. However, it made even greater logic for them to lock the other two up, together no less, and then scrambled to where the leftover weapons and gear that had been confiscated from them were stashed. It took the group five minutes to get to the munitions room and three to suit up and then another three minutes to get back down to the first floor. Once the men and women did though the research building became a true and veritable warzone as lasers fired from both ends of the hallway followed with only one side spewing black tar to give an opposing side just an inch of leverage.

"What are you doing privates!" The lieutenant shouted as he tried not to get his mane fried off from around side of his head.

"Sorry, sir, but we're tired of being lab rats and want out of this place!" Jimmy replied as the soldier's former training began to take the place of the chemical imbalance that had taken over his mind.

"That's just whatever those things hit you with is telling you to do! Help us capture them and then we can get you straightened out later!"

"Sorry sir, but I know how things work in military the same as you!" Two blasts of laser fire hit someone on the lion's side making a soldier yelp and then drop down onto the ground as smoke rose up from holes in the other's arms. "Any contamination with unknown viral strains and the poor SOBs that get infected are to be treated as lethal and expendable. Right?"

Silence reigned on both sides of the conflict as this new information got digested. "We both know that you have no plans to let any of us out of this place, ever. So instead of being trapped here or sent to some unnamed facility in bum-fuck nowhere, we're going to take our chances with these guys and we will get out of here!" Nods and grunts came from the three mutates and the other soldiers as they, as one, made this promise together.

The lion had nothing to say about that but did growl and sigh before opening fire on the others again.

Ten minutes of fighting netted more of the lion's men with injuries than Jimmy's group, though this might have been because of the lieutenant ordering his people not to try and harm the other soldiers, if they could help it.

"Alright! Fall back!" Jimmy shouted suddenly and everyone, save Jessie, Alex and Max, all did as commanded. "This means you too!" The tiger roared at the three mutates.

Confused looks passed between the Great Dane, dragon and kangaroo, but a wily smirk from Alex had his pack moving on hurried feet to follow the retreating soldiers. Jimmy was the last to leave, the tiger making sure to watch the backs of his comrades before the feline sent two bolts of plasma out from his gun to startle the lion's team and then quickly ran after his own group.

"Jimmy, what's the plan?" Edward asked the tiger as the zebra slowed his pace until he was running side by side of the other man.

"The 'plan' is for us to get downstairs and hijack some of the vehicles that our former employers have set up in the garage." Ed could see where this was going, but that didn't stop him from asking his next question with trepidation in his throat. "What happens once we hit the streets? They'll be on our asses as soon as they can figure out what's going on." The zebra watched as the other soldiers made their way to the emergency exit of the building, followed the three mutates, and then returned his focus back to his...companion.

"I know, but I'm hoping that we can get the vans working and make it into the city, get far enough away so that we can lose our importune transports and then split up and slip away into the metropolis before we get caught." The tiger watched as bodies raced down the stairs in a two-by-two formation towards the garage before he turned back and slammed the emergency door closed. With that done the tiger used his gun to melt the metal of the door into the wall and then pocketed his weapon. "I know that it's not much but I think that the brass might give us a little leniency to try and make a clean break before they sick the 'hounds' on us." Jimmy prophosized before following after the others with Edward right on his heels.

A shiver raced up through the zebra's spine as he recalled what exactly these so-called 'hounds' really were. In essence they were mobile search units that could hone in to a person's biorhythm and then trace them through several hundred miles of terrain by followed traces of DNA that were left behind. Supposedly they had been made for escapees from prisons, at least in the beginning, but it was only afterwards that they had been modeled to try and find missing persons and 'terrorists' around the world. How ironic that they might now be used on the same people that they were meant to serve.

"Jimmy..."

"Don't...I know exactly what you're thinking, but it can't be helped." The tiger turned towards the zebra and then stared at Edward once the two of them were in the middle of the garage. "We can always go back, but you and I know what that would mean at this point." Ed only nodded to his friend. The zebra then blushed when the other man took his hand and then clasped their fingers together. "If you don't mind being with a slightly pushy stripped cat, then I wouldn't mind you and me trying to do this thing together, Ed."

"Hey, don't get all soft on me now." The ungulate whickered before bringing their two intertwined fingers up to his lips to kiss their hands. "I with you 'til the end and I'll be damned if you think you can get rid of me otherwise." Jimmy just smirked at the stallion and let a dark flush color his orange and white muzzle as blood quickly rose up to his cheeks.

A rough bark, the likes of which made the fur on the tiger's tail fluff out in mild terror, broke the two from their quiet moment together. Turning their heads the two looked to see the large Great Dane snorting at them and then waving them to 'come on' with a tentacle. The two soldiers released each other's hands, very reluctantly, and then made their way over to where a large van was roaring to life with a female cheetah sitting behind the wheel.

"Let's move out!"

Meanwhile, back upstairs inside of the building, a certain lion was sighing and looking over the few of his wounded men while watching the doctors go around and tend to soldier's injuries. A crestfallen frown marred the maned cat's face as he, for the first time in his career, didn't know what he should do. On the one hand it should have been easy for him to call the higher ups and have the escapees tailed or send a catch group after them to hunt them down. But on the other, those were still soldiers that deserved better than what they would no doubt be getting once they were caught.

'Decisions, decisions,' The lieutenant thought tiredly as he watched out of the corner of his eye as someone came up to him. His head turned just in time to see a black maned lion scientist, much smaller and leaner than him, stop some feet away and then grunted low into his throat at him.

"...yes?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you right now, but I would like to inform you that those men and women who left with the three mutates are driving off in a military van as we speak." The other feline reported impassively.

"I see...so that's how they were planning to escape." The lieutenant said more to himself than the other.

"What would you like the staff and I to do to assist you with this new development?"

"Magically summon them back here..." The scientist let his eyes go wide for a split second before readjusting his face.

"Sir?"

"Nevermind. I'll get on the horn and have someone else decide what to do about this whole thing." The lieutenant then turned to face the other lion. "You just tend to my men here and let me handle things."

"Understood, though if I may ask...?"

"You may not."

"I see..." The lieutenant turned onto his heel and then prepared to step towards the door of the medical room, however, before he could get very far something pricked him on the side of his shoulder and then he dropped like a light. "If that's the case then we'll do things my way then," The black maned scientist turned and looked to the strapped down men and women that were drugged on the tables before him and then reached into the pocket of the fallen lieutenant to take the other man's cell phone.

Dialing a single number the lion put the phone close to his ear and then listened to the dial tone. When someone picked up the lion said, "We have a situation. How would you like me to handle it."

"As you normally do. Just don't make too much of a mess." A nondescript voice at the other end said passively.

"And about the three mutates?"

"Leave them be."

"Of course...and as for the lieutenant here and his men?"

"What lieutenant?"

"As you say," The lion then hung up the phone, pocketed it and then made his way over to a nearby intercom and pressed a button. "Cornelius,"

A mousey voice piped up and then spoke from the other end of the line, "Yes Doctor?"

"Do we have anymore of the pathogen left?"

"Less than a half of a cup full,"

"That will do. Bring it down to me and then prepare a room on the third floor for...a new experiment." The scientist looked at the unconscious feline on the floor with empty eyes.

"As you say, sir. On and sir, what should we do about the 'others' that stayed behind?"

"Make sure to keep monitoring their vitals via the nanocams."

"As you say," And then the lion removed his finger from the call button.

With Alex, Jessie, Max and the soldiers the group quickly, but carefully making their way through the back roads of the city in an attempt to gain ground. While none of them really wanted to try and flee this way, this was the only option left to them...or at least it seemed that way before a hard bark from Alex made several heads turn to look as the Great Dane stood up inside of the van all of a sudden.

"What's going on?" Jimmy asked as the tiger reached down to clench his hand around his gun's holster.

When the other two rose up and walked over to their alpha Jimmy had the cheetah slow the van down and then kill the engine before looking at the three mutates in puzzlement. Nobody was ready for the three mutates to get out of the back of the van and then look around as though they were searching for something. So when the Great Dane began to sniff at the ground like a quadruped, on all fours no less, and then made his way over to where a manhole was situate into the middle of the road everyone, save Jessie and Alex, looked at him in total disbelief.

"What the heck?" And then the Great Dane pulled a serious whammy on the military personnel when he opened his mouth and then said,

"We need to catch a train." In a rough and gravely kind of voice.

Jimmy, Edward and the others just looked to each other as though the Dane had grown a second head out of his rear end before they turned to watch as the canine reached for the manhole and then threw the metal cylinder keeping it sealed over the side of his shoulder with a flick of his wrist. Realization quickly hit the tiger's brain and soon Jimmy was barking more orders.

"Elana," He looked to the female cheetah that had been driving. "Find somewhere inconspicuous to dump the van and then get out of those clothes before meeting us back here. You've got ten minutes!" The cheetah wasted no time before she got back into the van and then kicked the engine into gear and then tore off down the road.

"She should take five to lose the van some place and then get her butt back here. The rest of us need to break and then dispose of our cell phones." The tiger turned just in time to watch as the very tip of Jessie's tail wiggled down the manhole as the dragon followed both Alexander and Maxwell into the sewers.

"Looks like we're running away underground style."