Gemmy headed straight for the kitchen once she arrived home with her brother. She’d dropped him onto the couch as soon as she hauled him inside, and now needed to replenish the energy used from speeding through town. The monkey-woman’s red hair was damp with sweat. It was one thing to run through the city in a blur but doing so with a grown man of 180 pounds took extra effort.
She wasn’t entirely unused to her brother having to be retrieved from various scientists. Trav’s regenerative abilities were a marvel to behold, and that had unfortunately made him a target all too often. She honestly wondered if testing the limits of Malone’s healing was a rite of passage for newly minted biologists. But this time, it looked like they hadn’t done much damage to—wait a second.
Where was his left foot?
Gemmy knew there was blood everywhere when she picked him up earlier, and she saw that they’d cut into his ankle somewhat. But she had not anticipated that his foot was that close to coming off. Thinking about it, she decided it would be a good idea to grab something extra from the fridge for him. After all, when they were kids, Travis was always looking out for her, keeping her safe. She took a moment to put together two sandwiches. One had plenty of meat and cheese stacked between the slices of bread. The monkey-woman took that out to her brother and set it on the table beside him, before washing the meat-based contamination from her hands to make her own. Her brother may have been one to eat meat, but she certainly was not.
Once Gemmy had her own snack situated, she took it out to the living room and settled in her favorite chair. By then, Travis was sitting up. He was still a bit groggy, but there was food to be had. So focused was he on the sandwich in his hands, that he hadn’t even noticed that he was missing a foot just yet.
“How’re you feeling?” Gemmy asked her brother as she noticed him.
He finished his current mouthful of food. “Head hurts…guessing it was a lab again?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks for bailing me out again.”
“Not a problem at all.”
He reached up with a foot to rub his aching head. However, Trav’s inclination was to use the left foot for such a task. And once he realized that there was something missing, he paused mid-chew. Slowly, he finished that mouthful, swallowing it before letting out an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah, sorry,” his sister said. “I thought I got all of you out of there, but….”
He chuckled. “It’s not your fault…kinda hope nobody’s doing anything fucked up with it, though.”
“Like what?” she asked, almost amused at the thought.
“I dunno. Like trying to clone me, cannibalism, using it as a fu–”
“Okay, okay, forget I asked!”
He chuckled. “Sorry to freak you out, there. But yeah, I don’t really like the idea of people having parts of me to use for whatever…I mean, that happened with my blood and hair once, and things got kinda freaky, and this dude’s hair ended up eating people….”
He noticed the confused look in her eyes, before he remembered something.
“…Oh, yeah, Spence and I kinda agreed never to speak of that.”
She almost pressed further, but decided she’d just ask Spencer about it later. It wasn’t that she liked when her husband and brother hid things from her, but at the same time, it was understandable. They also knew that she didn’t need more stress in her life. Besides, whatever had happened, they’d come out of it okay, so there was no real use in prying now.
Before they could discuss things any further, the door opened. Travis and Gemmy both looked up at the sound of heavy metal footsteps. Their aunt Beast stood there, feline ears folded back in slight concern. And she wasn’t alone, either. Ivy and Yvette had shown up along with her, the twins staying closer to the door.
“Another lab, Trav?” she asked. “Ivy could pick up on your brainwaves earlier.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Lost a foot somewhere in the process.”
A laugh came from the doorway. “I figured that would happen eventually,” said Yvette, brushing a few strands of black and blonde hair behind an ear. “I just always thought it’d be from the way you eat.”
Travis rolled his eyes, picking up his remaining foot and raising the middle toe.
“Anyway,” Ivy interjected, brushing off her sister’s mean-spirited comment toward her boyfriend, “I think we could get that back for you. I know that’s what you’d want, right?”
He nodded. Damn, it was nice to be with someone that could read minds. That made communication so much easier.
Ivy glanced at Yvette, then Beast, before bringing out her flask and taking a long swig. “All right, so…figure out where the foot is now, get it back. Simple enough, right?”
Beast nodded. She didn’t especially like it when someone harmed a member of her family, and when she found out who had hacked off one of her nephew’s limbs…
She was ready for the hunt to begin.