"Unnphhh..." TK groaned, the already-faint sound seeming barely able to make its way past the thick cloth around which the cage of the cruel muzzle kept her jaws pinned. She blinked slowly, her eyelids feeling like lead...and her heart seeming wrapped and weighted in the same. It had been many months...long, peaceful, joyous months since she'd seen hide or hair of Morgus. Or, his mad master, Doctor Sadarus. Things had, in fact, had been rather quiet, as far as the young heroine's eventful life usually went. That the blessed, unexpected reprieve had come to an end was enough to make her want to roar in fury. That she was now in the hands of - arguably - her two most hated and feared enemies made her want to scream.

But she was in their hands now... Drugged with something that had left her numb and slack-muscled, floating on the edge of consciousness - able to remain fuzzily aware of her surroundings and her predicament...but utterly unable to do anything about it. Making the other sinister restraints seem almost redundant. Even the nigh-indomitable tiger-girl found herself able to do little more than twitch her feet against the straps which hugged her legs. Or tug, kitten-feeble, at the leather sleeve which kept her arms pinned into a single useless unit behind her back, the sadistically-tight device buckled to a collar snugged firmly around her throat. Cradled in the arms of the hulking Morgus like a baby, her head lolling weakly against his shoulder with each lumbering step. Indignation, defiance, courage - and yes even fear - crawling around one another like a knot of sluggish, muzzy worms in her chest.

"Nnnnnhhh... Ghh...grrrrrhhhhh.....!" she grunted, summoning all the might she could scrape together into a fierce, but ultimately feeble, twist against her bonds. Against her captors. Against her fate. The determined growl of defiance which had launched itself from the depths of her soul somehow emerging as a dishearteningly soft, tired-sounding - desperate-seeming - groan by the time it emerged from behind the wad packing her mouth.

"Awww...what's'a matter, Tigger...?" Morgus crooned, voice a syrupy-sweet trickle of mockery, rotten molasses oozing over moldy gravel. "Lost your bounce there, have ya?" He bounced her in his arms for a moment, cruelly taunting, and setting the world to spinning around her woozy head. Even as her anger at him kindled from a flicker to an ember in her heart. "Well, don't worry, kiddo...we didn't forget about ya... It'll be just like old times, soon enough. Right, Doc?"

TK's eyes couldn't help but slide over toward the other, icy-cool voice as it replied...some of that ice slithering its way down into her gut and coiling its way around her heart. "Oh yes, indeed..." Doctor Sadarus intoned, the faintest hint of anticipation tinging his words and giving voice to the raging madmans' fervor which TK knew burned within that clinically-controlled shell. "We're so sorry we had to neglect you for so long, my dear...and I do hope you haven't been feeling forgotten." He waved them onward, an unnecessary gesture as the villainous procession passed without pause through the passageways of the Doctor's latest lab-lair. "But you're back now...and so are we...and we have so very much work to do..."



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Well, looks like the Doc has decided it's about time to bring TK back into the game again...whether she likes it or not. Of course I hope you do...though I know we're all rootin' for our heroine up there. ^_~ Hopefully she enjoyed her extended break, because I've a feeling her life is going to get a lot more adventurous again in the days ahead. At least that's the plan...unless you'd all rather she be left alone.

Seriously though, I've deeply missed working with TK...almost as much as I've simply MISSED you folks. Know there isn't anything specifically in this piece to make it a "thank you" per se, but I hope you'll accept it as a very, very small token of gratitude for all the good wishes, prayers, and support over the long months of this latest leg of my illness. If TK up there had or has half as many awesome people backing her up through her troubles as I seem to in mine, nothing in the world could ever beat her. Not that she couldn't handle things all on her own, mind ya...but mere mortals such as myself, frail as we are, need - and DEEPLY appreciate - some help now and again. Or often. ^_~ You folks have selflessly given that in more ways than anyone could ever expect...and though I say it often enough that it's probably worn thin by now, I can't thank you enough, or owe you enough, for that.

So, here's TK's return...as well as my own. And I hope you find hers more exciting and fun than mine.