The last part ended with a vicious rat jumping over Tod ready to tear him apart with his claws. But the rat will soon find out Tod is not a mouse to mess with ;)

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Christopher nods a little to Sarah, offering her a paw to help her stand up,
blinking as he sees Anne land in a heap.

Anne groaned and tried to sit up but collapsed again passing out briefly and
not mooving.

The rat's claws come up empty as Tod drops backwards and rolls on the
ground. Kicking up with his hindpaws, Tod catches the rat's hips and sends
it sprawling overtop, and past him, then uses that momentum to carry himself
back to a standing position. It all seems so effortless, so easy a maneuver, as
Tod whirls around to face the rat, catching his dart in one paw behind his
back. "You game for a rematch?" Tod taunts...

Sarah takes Chris's paw and barely manages to stand up, still a bit fuzzy. She
leans against the wall of the pipe to stay on her two "Please help Mrs.
Decker, Chris. I'm ok just..." When she next sees Tod he has somehow
managed to get out of the rat's way, even more taunting it. "T-Tod what are
you doing? Get away from there! My godness what is he thinking???" she
says while still trying to stabilize her equilibrium after the hit against the wall.

Christopher nods to Sarah, biting his lip. He leaves Sarah, though he's
careful to keep an eye out for her as he goes over to Anne, kneeling next to
her. He checks her pulse... fortunately still there. He gently lays her back on
her back, looking for broken bones or signs of a concussion.

Anne's eyes slowly open and she groans again reaching a paw to her head
"Ooohh My head, what happened?" she asked as she tried to sit up nursing
a lump that started to form on the back of her head.

One very disoriented (and pissed off) rat recovers and snarles at Tod. "You!
You little inbred! Did you think that was /funny/?" Tod stares the rat down,
but his expression lightens a bit, "Actually, yes." The rat's eyes narrow, and
it bares its teeth. Tod widens his stance, shifting back and forth in his toes.
For a long time, the two just stare at each other, the rat trying to circle, and
Tod keeping himself between the beast and the others. "You will die,
mouse!" the rat snarls. "You will die and go to HELL!" The rat lunges,
expecting Tod to do the same tricky maneuver again. Tod sidesteps and
slams his dart square into the rats chest, hard enough to dump activate the
plunger and send the dart's poison straight into the rat's heart. Bug eyed, the
rat gasps, tightens, and convulses, then, a moment later, goes limp. Tod
kicks pushes the rat aside with his hindpaw and dryly whispers, "You first."

Sarah lets out a deep breath "My God..." she was just about to express her
pity for the rat, but she changes her mind, better taking care of their injuries
first before sympathize with the already dead creature. She knees at Anne's
side "Mrs. Decker are you ok? What a dumb question... lemme help you out."
she bites and rips a tip of a sleeve of her dress to make a sort of bandage,
dripping some alcohol from a little plastic bottle she carries in her pocket and
wraps it around Anne's head carefully. "How about you Chris, check if you
have any open wound. You could get a serious infection down here" she
says while gently wrapping the bandage over Anne's forehead.

Christopher is relieved the rat's been taken care of, though most of his
attention is on Anne at the moment. He helps her sit up, leaning her against
the wall of the sewer pipe. He lets Sarah take over from here, though not
before looking her over carefully to see if she's wounded in any way. As for
himself, he doesn't seem to have any open wounds...

Anne groans and smile faintly to Sarah and Christopher "I think my footpaw
is scraped as well my dear. Are you two Okay?" she asked as she allowed
Sarah to bandage her head. She shook her head a little to bring the world
back into focus. "What happened? and what are you three doing down here
anyway?" she asked groggily as she sat up a little more against the pipe.

Tod stares the dead rat down, slowly, methodically moving around it. There
is no sympathy in his eyes, no remorse in his breath. Tod isn't proud of
killing the rat. In all honestly he would rather /not/ have. But that doesn't
change anything. He pays the 'unwanted visitor' not heed. She may be
injured, but she wasn't supposed to be out here in the first place. After a few
moments, Tod yanks the spent dart out of the rat's chest and wipes it clean
on its fur, well, as clean as one can on such a filthy animal, and disappears
into the shadows of the sewer again, still silent. Eerily so.

Sarah rips another piece of the sleeve of her blouse and proceeds to wrap
Anne's foot paw aswell. After finishing, she looks back at Tod and frowns.
"So cold... she thinks to herself. Her attention centers now on Anne. "We
could ask you just the same, Mrs. Decker... Um I guess it's too late to escort
you back so, looks like we're out of options. You'd have to come with us from
now on to be safe, and we're in search of mice specimens infected by the
original bacteria. We believe the one that affects the rats it's a mutant from
the original, but since those are just wild guesses we need to do this by our
own. To not involve anyone else, hope you understand Mrs. Decker that
we're doing this without the Council's approval, and for that we expect
consequences, even if we succeed." explains Sarah.

Christopher groans a little at the news that they'd be accompanied by a nosy
injured mouse. Still, he can't argue with Sarah; it'd be suicide for her to go
back alone, and they were already quite far to accompany her back... and
there's the whole trying to avoid questions thing... He blinks when he
realizes Tod is no longer around, glancing around for him.

Anne tries to pat Sarah paw "Your right I think I do need to explain myself. I
was originally looking for you, but when I saw you three heading toward the
sewers I guess my curiosity got the better of me. I think its a noble thing you
three are doing. I'm sorry about having to burden yourselves with me, But I'd
like to help where I can." she said looking ashamed at herself for getting
herself into this mess.

CLICK! CLACK! SNAP! Echoes from the darkness. There's some muted
shuffling, and a murmur, a whisper of something that "great. this is just
lovely, isn't it?"

Sarah sighs "Well, we better get going now before something more
happens..." she stands up and offers a paw to Anne to help her stand up.
"Here, you can lean on me Mrs. Decker" Was just now when Sarah noticed
blood dripping from a wound on the back of her head, made by the hit
against wall but she pays no attention to that. "That was so brave,
Christopher" she says to him grinning "Thank you, for saving me Chris I owe
you a big one." and kisses Chris's cheek

Christopher smiles to Sarah, feeling himself blush as she kisses his cheek. He
blinks a bit when he notices some blood dripping from her head. "Wait,
Sarah..." He gets some gauze out of his pack and starts wrapping it around
her head. "Don't want you to get infected either," he says.

Anne smiles as Sarah offered her paw. she takes it and stands up a little
shaky at first but it quickly passes "Thank you dear." she said and tried
leaning on Sarah for support.

"Check yourselves," A very stern, commanding voice bellows from the
darkness. "They can smell blood from a half mile away." A few moments later,
the still very annoyed figure of Tod materializes out of the shadows. "If we're
lucky, they'll only assume that it was that bastard." One of his forepaws
makes a half point at the dead body. Tod looks at the group, giving an
annoyed scowl, "And, next time," he checks his weapon, and sets the safety,
"Listen to me." he looks away and starts off down the sewer, again, "I'm not
spending all my time babysitting you three."

"No, I guess not" Sarah replies to Christopher, letting him to wrap her
wound "Thank you again Chris. Ok lets get going, watch your step Mrs.
Decker." As she passes at the dead rat's side, she knees and solemnly closes
his eyes. "May you rest in peace now..." she whispers, standing and holding
Anne again to help her walk. "There's no need of..." she was about to add
something, but decides to not let go her words, simply nodding but visibly
annoyed by Tod's babysitting statement. "Ok Tod, lead us. Watch your step
Mrs. Decker, just lean on me ok?"

Christopher gulps a little at Tod's announcement, nodding a little to Tod. He
gives Sarah a significant look; as much as he likes her, running off like that
was a rather foolish thing to do. He seems a little surprised as Sarah gives the
rat his 'last rites', but he makes no comment on it. After retrieving his needle
pistol, he takes his place at the rear, to cover their backs.

--------------------------------------------
"Dream! What you dare to dream.
Go! To where you want to go.
Be! What you want to be.
Live!" R. Bach