WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SOME SCENES FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE, PLEASE BE ADVISED.

Darqstar's Warning: I would rate this story about PG-13.

Far off, in an unknown part of the galaxy, one lone woman is trying to escape her pursuers,

“I can’t let them catch me. I have to get away so that I can find proof to clear my name.” she says. Unfortunately, the opposing ship is gaining fast,

“Helm, increase speed. We must recapture her. The empress has ordered that Cerise is to stand trial for the crew that she has killed.”

“I commander.” The helmsman answers and pushes the appropriate buttons on his instrument panel. Cerise sees the ship gaining on her,

“Oh no.” she exclaims and increases her speed as well. The ship chasing her, being a pursuit ship, continues to gain. “I’ll never get away from them like this.”. She presses a few buttons on her panel and the weapons array comes on line. She fires at the attacking ship. The laser beam blasts forth from the gun turret and hits the enemy shields,

“She’s fired at us commander, minimum damage to the forward shields.” The weapons officer says.

“Lock weapons and return fire.” The commander orders. The weapons officer press the appropriate controls and the ship’s lasers fire back at Cerise’s ship, hitting the aft shields,

“Damn them!” she yells. The computer panel displays heavy damage to the aft shields and some minor damage to the ships hull. The two ships continue to fire at each other, but Cerise’s ship is taking more of the damage, “The only way that I’m going to get away is escape with my Hyperspace drive. She presses many buttons on her panel to ready her Hyperspace drive. She also taps on some other buttons and opens up with all her lasers. A spread of about six lasers fire at the enemy ship. They all contact, with a few penetrating the weakening shields. The commander and his crew are thrown to the floor of the bridge as the lasers rock the ship. Cerise hits the activate button and the ship streaks off into deep space. The weapons officer gets up and returns to his station,

“Commander, the forward shields are down to ten percent and there’s damage to the navigation system.”

“Where is Cerise’s ship?” the commander orders.

“She’s gone commander.” The helmsman says.

“NO! Scan the area! Track her! Find her!!” he yells.

As Cerise’s ship streaks off, she continues to monitor the damage done by the fire fight, “I’m never going to make it to the galaxy I wanted. The engines are to heavily damaged. I’m surprised that they’re going this far.” Almost on cue, the ship suddenly take a heavy jolt as an explosion emanates from the rear of the ship. Cerise looks at her display and see that the main fuel tank has ruptured. The ships fuel is spilling into space and the ship is rapidly loosing speed, “I’m going to have stop here in this tiny galaxy and try to repair the ship.”. She presses the buttons to slow the ship to normal cruising speed. She proceeds to scan the nine planets of the nearest system and finds that the only one that supports life is the third one from the wee star in the middle of them. “That small planet’s the only chance that I have. I won’t be able to hide there long, they’re find me pretty easily there.”. She moves the ship in close to the planet and prepares to descend down to the surface. She touches the instrument panel and it explodes, throwing her backwards. The ship starts plummeting towards the Earth. She gets up and manages to get the thrusters working to slow the ship down a little. It passes threw the upper atmosphere and then whirs threw the sky.

Down below, Kurt, Eric and Stefen stand in front of the Big Top waiting for the others, so they can start practicing. Eric starts looking around, "Do you hear something?"

"Yeah, it sounds like a whistle or something." Stefen says.

"Its coming from the air though." Kurt notices, looking upward. Eric and Stefen follows his stare and what they see is something out of this world. It appears to be some type of alien space craft, in the shape of a giant beetle, that's been heavily damaged. "Look, its going to crash over the hill." They watch as the smoking ship glides over the hill and out of sight.

The ground comes up fast and Cerise braces just before the ship smashes into the ground. It skids threw a number of trees and finally comes to a stop in a dense part of the forest.

The impact rocks the entire area, nearly knocking everyone off their feet. "Come on, lets go see if anyone survived." Eric says excited, starting to hurry off. Kurt grabs his arm,

"Wait a minute, you have no idea what could be in that ship. It looked like something from outer space. What if there's some kind life sucking monster on there."

"Yeah," Stefen agrees, "we could go in there and have this big hairy beast come out and use us for lunch or something."

Kurt gives Stefen a sour look and Stefen notices, "Sorry, no offense Kurt."

"Well, if there is something dangerous in there, we'll deal with it." Eric objects and starts to head off again.

Kurt and Stefen give up and follow their circus mate.

After patching up the injuries she received in the crash, she goes outside and surveys the damage, “Well, this ship isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.”. She goes back inside and picks up the supplies that she can carry and heads out, “I’m going to have to find someone that I can trust to help me fix my ship. The others are bound to find me eventually, so I can’t stay here to long.” She thinks out loud.

The hill that the alien ship crashed over is far from short. It takes the friends almost twenty minutes to get over it and down the other side. The crash has severely damaged the ship even farther then it was before. Its hard to find a way into the ship for all the smoke and flames.

Once inside, they find nothing aboard still alive,

"They must have all died in the crash." Eric says, tapping one of the bodies with his foot.

"Unless they were all killed by whatever ship shot them down." Kurt adds. They look around the ship and find about fifteen dead bodies, with most of them on what appears to be the bridge of the ship.

Stefen takes a look at the main console on the bridge, as he does, a burning support beam from the ceiling of the room pulls lose and falls. It misses him by mere inches, causing him to jump about five feet in the air. Kurt and Eric hurry over,

"Stefen, all you all right?" Kurt says.

"Yeah, " Stefen replies, trying to catch his breath, "it just missed me."

"I think we better go before this whole thing decides to come down on top of us." Eric says.

Once outside, they watch as the flames start to die down,

"So what do we do now?" Stefen says.

"We're going to have to contact the local authorities." Eric suggests.

"Oh yes, that would be a great idea and when they come and find an alien space ship, they swarm over the entire area." Kurt retorts, with his hands on his hips. "There would be no problem trying to keep people from seeing me with dozens of them swarming over the entire area."

"That's true." Eric admits. "I guess we'll just have to leave it there."

Kurt and Stefen agree and they all head back to the circus. Once they get back to the Big Top, everyone has already started practicing. Franklin is standing by the inside entrance waiting for them,

"Where have you three been. You know we practice every morning." he says a little more then aggravated.

"Yes, we know," Kurt says, "but didn't you feel that jolt a little while ago?"

"Yeah, so this area always has small tremors." Franklin replies.

"It wasn't a tremor. A ship crashed over the hill." Stefen says, stepping forward and pointing in the direction of the crash.

"A plane crashed? Did you find any survivors?" Franklin jumps, with his eyes as wide as saucers.

"Not a plane, a ship from space." Eric replies. "We did check it out, but everyone on board is already dead."

"Incredible. You know it won't be long before someone else comes looking." Franklin says. "Well, there's nothing else we can do for them. Go ahead and get to work."

Kurt, Eric and Stefen head inside to start practicing. They're opening night is coming up in about a week. They're in a particularly small town this time, but no reason to lessen up any.

Later that morning, after some unhelpful searching in the other directions, Cerise heads over the same hill that Kurt and the others came from. She hears some voices and creeps down to have a look. Down below, two young men are working on particularly unlucky job. One of them, about medium to tall in height with brown hair and dark color eyes. The other has a much more unique look. He has blue skin, blue hair and fur of an indigo blue shade. The most unusual feature is that he seems to missing a few fingers and toes. he also has a long pointed tail and pointed ears. She is very intrigued by the furry mutant, but from the distance she has to stay at, the most she can do is watch. If she could hear them, their conversation would amuse her.

“Oh, I hate doing this.” Kurt says, as he scrubs down the side of one of the circus’ elephants.

“Its all part of the life in the circus Kurt.” Eric says. “You know what I hate doing?”

“What?”

“Doing the laundry.” Eric sighs, washing his own elephant.

“What’s so hard about doing the laundry?” Kurt asks.

“Cleaning up your fur after I wash your clothes.” Eric replies. Kurt gives him a amusing look with his tongue sticking out, then they both bust out laughing,

“I do not shed.” Kurt argues between giggles.

“You shed worse then a long haired cat in the summer.” Eric returns.

“Do not.” Kurt laughs. After a couple more minutes of laughing and arguing, they continue washing the elephants. Kurt moves and starts on its trunk,

“You know Big Jake here almost crushed my hand once, not to long ago.” Kurt says.

“How? When did this happen?” Eric inquires.

“About a month ago. I was washing around his mouth and he decided to take a bite out of my hand. My hand slipped in accidentally and I felt my bones snapping and popping. I ported away before he got a chance to smash my hand beyond repair. I reappeared about a hundred feet from Jake and I didn’t think so many obscene words could come out at one time.” Kurt explains. Eric chuckles at the image of Kurt cursing an elephant out, especially since Kurt rarely used any bad language at all. “I remember Steward trying to reset these three fingers of mine.

“Oh wow, I bet that was painful.” Eric says, finishing up his washee.

“I’ve broken both rists a couple of times when I was first starting. I think it was more of a shock that so many different bones in my hand were being torn apart inside Big Jake’s mouth. My hand was twisted and bent in so many different directions, it looked like I was 120 years old.” Kurt says as he completes his washing of Big Jake without incident. Kurt pats him on the side, “Didn’t you?”. Jake grabs the hose with his trunk and throws it at Kurt. The water sprays Kurt in the face, knocking him backwards. The hose falls in front of him, drenching the rest of him. Eric goes over and turns off the water. Kurt gets up, dripping wet, “Aw, I hate it when my fur gets wet.”. Eric laughs,

“What do you do when you take a shower?”

“That’s at least tolerable and I don’t have wet clothes sticking to my wet fur.” Kurt replies, trying to shake some of the water off. Eric comes over and puts an arm around Kurt’s shoulder,

“Let’s get cleaned up and grab some breakfast with the others.” Eric suggests.

Kurt and Eric, his best friend, head for their respective trailers. Afterwards they meet up with everyone else for breakfast in the usual spot. Kurt sits down and Eric goes to join Jutta, who seems to look pretty down.

Eric and Jutta have been going together for about three years now and he cares for her deeply. Still, every once and awhile, when Kurt looks at them, it makes him think of Celena and Amanda. He’s had two loves in his life and has lost both of them.

Eric puts an arm around Jutta and gives her a kiss, “Hello love, What’s the matter?”

“I was thinking about Karnin,” she says., fidgeting with the glass in front of her,” its been four months today since he died.”

“He was a good man.” Franklin says.

“Only if that lion hadn’t gotten loose, he would still be here.” Jutta says.

“He died trying to protect some children from it,” Kurt says, “but it got the drop on him. There was just to much damage to save him.”

“The lion was out of control and we had to kill it before it mauled anyone else.” Eric says, holding Jutta tight.

“Did we ever find out what happened to cause the lion to go off?” Kurt asks.

“Yeah,” Franklin says scornfully, “someone snuck in and slipped something in its food. Something like a narcotic and it made the lion wild.”

“Karnin died because of a prank!” Eric says.

“I’m afraid so.” Franklin says.

Later in the day, everyone is doing their normal routine of practicing and cleaning. Over by the temporary stables that they use, Stefen is grooming the horses. He turns and notices Franklin heading his way,

“Hey there headman. How’s it going?”

“Ok,” Franklin nods, “have you seen Kurt around?”

“I think I saw him heading for his little training tent that he’s been using lately.” Stefen replies, pointing towards Kurt’s trailer. “How come he gets his own training tent?” he jokes.

“He didn’t pass it by me. He just went ahead and built it. After it was built, he asked if he could keep it. I told him it was his luggage between towns.” Franklin explains. “I sure wasn’t going to tell him to tear it down after he put all that work into it.”

“How long has he had it?” Stefen asks, looking towards the tent. Kurt has built his personal training tent right next to his trailer, so that he could get right home if he was working out late.

“About 2 weeks.” Franklin replies. “I’ve got to talk to him. I’ll see you later.”

Franklin walks over to Kurt’s trailer and tries there first. He knocks on the door a few times, but doesn’t get any answer,

“I guess he’s in his tent.” he says. Franklin goes over and steps in the small, makeshift tent. Its only about a forth the size of the big top, but still has plenty of space inside. As he enters the tent, he hears the sounds of metal ringing and shaking, as well as hands slapping against steel poles. He walks threw a small room, that appears to look like a dressing room. Kurt’s regular clothes are laying there on the bench. On the wall is a spot to hang another set of clothes, probably the workout suit he wears. Franklin continues to the main section of the tent and hears the sounds from before, but much louder. He looks up and sees Kurt swinging around on a small set of monkey bars. He also notices that there’s no net either. Franklin shakes his head in disbelief, “That guy is going to kill himself one of these days.”

Kurt doesn’t see Franklin below and continues his workout. He swings by his hands from one bar, curls himself into a ball and grabs onto the next bar. He spins on that bar and then catapults himself to the next one. He grabs onto it with his feet and tail. Kurt does a vertical sit-up and stands up on the bar. After wiping some of the sweat from his forehead, he eyes the next bar he’s going to head for. All around the set up is spots holding chalk for his hands. A vital part of this type of acrobatics and necessary to keep from splattering yourself on the ground. Kurt takes a handful and rubs it all over his hands and then pats off the excess. He looks at a bar that’s fairly far off. Confident that he can make it, he stoops down and lunges himself towards the bar. He reaches for the bar, but misses. It’s farther off then he thought. Franklin watches as Kurt bounces threw the bars, like a prize in a candy machine. Franklin hurries over, hoping that he can catch the furry mutant when he finally falls threw all the bars. Kurt’s head has hit so many of the bar, he’s barely aware of the dense layout of the bars coming up under him. He grabs hold of one with his hands, one with his feet and another with his tail, stopping his fall. Franklin looks up and is greeted by a small drop of blood falling on his face, “Kurt! Kurt!”. Barely conscious, Kurt, looks down and see Franklin standing there. He slowly makes his way down threw the bars, seeing the look on his boss’ face.

‘I’m going to get it for this.’ Kurt thinks. He drops from the bottom bar and next to Franklin, who has to catch him from falling over,

“Kurt, you are insane. I could see from down here that bar is way to far off.” he says as he looks Kurt over. He finds where the drop of blood came from. Kurt has a gash along the side of his head from the first bar he decided to head butt. His lips are also busted and his face is all bruised up. Kurt just leans against Franklin, trying to keep from passing out. Franklin takes one of Kurt’s arm and puts around his shoulder, “Come on, we’re getting you to Steward.”

Later in the day, while Kurt is resting from his battle with the monkey bars, Franklin is going over the sales reports for the last several towns they have been in. He looks at them, very worried and for good reason. Out of the last ten town, they have been progressively losing money. Its cost, in general, about 200 marks (German money) to get the performance together for the each town. With the exception of Brandenburg where they made a mear 230 marks, each of the other towns they only pulled in about 140 in sales. They are seriously losing money fast. With the loss of Karnin, the performance is really plummeting. The people enjoyed the strongman’s feats of amazing strength. Also with the larger circuses starting up, there isn’t as much demand for their traveling side show. Most of the people that come are usually the ones that just can’t afford the large circus and aren’t really interested in a big performance, just something do. Franklin puts away the papers in his top drawer and heads out of the trailer.

Meanwhile, off to the side, Cerise decides to move in for a closer inspection. The first one that she sees is the one that appears to be the head of the circus. She watches as Franklin comes out of his trailer and takes a walk around the grounds. She watches as he heads over to one of the other performance sitting on a small stool with a large, metal bucket in front of him. Franklin goes over and stoops down next to Stefen, “How’s it going? Having fun?”

“Oh yes, loads of fun.” he snarls back, as he continues to wash the other’s clothes. “I simply love doing laundry. I do believe that if I hadn’t joined this circus, I would have went for being a maid.” he laughs.

“And you do such a wonderful job at it. Keep up the good work.” Franklin taunts. He quickly continues on, cause it looks as if Stefen is about to kill him. Cerise continues to follow Franklin. One reason , cause he’s the main man and should be the most interesting, next to that blue furry guy and two cause he should know where everyone else is. She watches as he enters the main tent, where just about everyone is practicing. She observes how he goes around to each of the performers and makes suggestion to help improve their techniques, just as a good leader would. After Franklin makes his rounds, he head back towards the entrance to the Big Top, but stops and looks around the tent. He squints his eyes as he looks around and is somewhat confused, as if someone was missing. He merely shrugs and heads out. This time though, Cerise doesn’t follow, but resolves to stay and scope out the others.

Cerise creeps into the enormous tent and pokes her head around the corner of the main performing area. The first one she notices is Eric and Jutta discussing what they should do for the next show. They’ve been performing with the circus since it had started and are constantly improving on their pyro-techniques. Lately they’ve been incorporating illusion in with their act. They move to a 45 degree angle from each other and launch their fire jets. The two burst of flames collide with each other and start to rapidly expand. Cerise watches as the wall of flames are heading right for her. She yelps just as the wall disappears.

“Did you hear something?” Jutta says. Cerise quickly ducks behind the open way before she is seen.

“Hear what sweetheart?” Eric says looking around.

“I thought I heard someone.” Jutta replies, looking in Cerise’s direction. Jutta shrugs and chalks it up to imagination.

Cerise exits the tent and is now determined to find the blue guy that intrigues her so much. She searches around the grounds of the circus for almost an hour without luck. She’s gone everywhere from his trailer to the dining tent. She starts wondering if that blue guy was just another performer wear his costume or a figment of her imagination. She continues searching a comes across a small grassy area with a small stream nearby. There she finds the object of her interest. Kurt is kneeling down next to the stream and scoops some of the cool water into his hands. He proceeds to splash it onto his face, “As much as I hate getting my fur wet, I needed that.”. She watches as Kurt works on his handstands and acrobatics. Being with the Shi’ar for so many years, strange creatures are common place with her, but he absolutely fascinates her. His long tail, blue skin and especially the fur is most attractive to her. “And he’s cute too.” she whispers to herself.

Cerise continues to follow Kurt around the entire day. After dinner, Kurt goes back out to the stream to relax for the night. He lays on his side with one hand dangling in the water. Unknown to him, he’s not the only one there by the stream tonight,

“Hi there.” Cerise says, standing behind Kurt. Kurt jumps about five feet in the air. The only problem is, when he lands, he ends up in the stream. The stream is only about three feet deep, but is plenty to soak him from head to toe. Kurt stands up and holds his arms out to his side. He does not enjoy the feeling of wet clothes against wet fur, especially not for the second time in one day. He looks up to see who has just gotten him drenched again. Who he sees in front of him is nothing what he expected. He sees a woman of medium height, wearing a red and black uniform. Her violet hair is fanned out on each side with a long ponytail of white hair from the back. He looks on as she covers her mouth with her hand, trying to hold in her giggling. After a few moments, Kurt realizes that he’s standing in front of someone he doesn’t know and that he doesn’t have his costume. He quickly exits the stream and looks for the best way to get out of there fast. Cerise sees his distress,

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not suppose to be seen like this. I’m going to get in serious trouble if anyone finds out.” he says quickly.

“Why? What’s wrong with the way you look.” She ponders.

“Nothing, most people don’t take kindly to mutants running around.” he says starting to move away.

“Wait,” Cerise calls, “I don’t have any problem with it. Don’t leave.”. Kurt stops and turns back to her, “You’re actually kind of funny looking dripping like that.”. Kurt looks at himself again and smiles. He starts to try and ring as much of the water off of him as he can. He heads back over to Cerise,

“The thing is, when ever I perform, I have to wear makeup and junk so that the audience doesn’t know that I’m a mutant. The majority of the people in the world are against us and fear us.” Kurt explains.

“I guess that’s what makes the difference. See I’m not from this world.” Cerise says. Kurt gets a look of disbelief on his face,

“Excuse me.”

“I’m from the Shi’ar Empire in a star system several thousand light years away. My ship crashed here yesterday.” she says, pointing in the direction of the wreckage. The small conversation they have had so far, brings up a small level of trust in each other. Kurt and Cerise sit down in the grass and continue their discussion,

“That must have been your ship that we were looking at yesterday.” Kurt says as he starts to comprehend what’s been going on. “I assume that’s why the animals have been acting spooked also. They’ve known that a stranger has been wondering around.”

“I’ve noticed that about the animals here. They seem to be very aware of when someone they aren’t familiar with comes near them. They get very agitated and restless. Its almost like they know who to trust and who not to.” Cerise says.

“We’ve raised most of the animals in the circus since they were born. They trust us here like we’re their parent and have the highest level of protection for us.” Kurt states. “That is unless one of them decides to take a bite out of your hand.”

“One of them bit you?” Cerise says with a slight bit of amusement. Kurt nods,

“A story for another time.”

The night continues on pretty fast as they continue to talk about each other’s past,

“So what brought you here?” Kurt asks. As they continue to talk, her stories continue to get more and more interesting to him.

“I’m on the run from the Shi’ar. I’ve been convicted of a serious crime.” She explains.

“What crimes?” Kurt asks. Cerise’s mood changes from one of relaxed conversation to one of fear and worry. She turns her head from Kurt and looks down into the ground,

“I..I killed my entire crew.”. This time it is Kurt who takes on the look of fear. His mind starts to race threw several images of how an alien huntress might kill her shipmates. He leans back and prepares to defend himself if she tired to attack him,

‘Mein Gott, I’ve befriended a mass murder from another universe.’, he thinks, ‘This is not good.’. Kurt trains his wide eyes on her, watching her every move, “Why?”. Cerise turns her head to Kurt sharply, causing him to jump. Her face is wrinkles up in rage,

“Because they attacked a planet of innocent creatures. They had no reason to slaughter that poor planet. I was determined not to let it happen again. They planned to attack and pilferage every planet in the sector.” She explains. As she does, Kurt starts to relax, hearing how she had sufficient reason to do what she did. “This planet was inhabited by simple creatures. No more then a couple feet tall. I was enraged by their plans. So I released a toxic nerve gas into the air supply and killed all them. When it was all over, I was on the run from the Shi’ar’s attack ships. They were determined to blow me away, but I escaped.”. After she finishes, Kurt leans forward and looks in her eyes,

“Wasn’t there anything you could have done besides kill them?” Kurt asks.

“If I didn’t, they would have continued to attack helpless planets.” she objects.

“What about the authorities?”

“You’ve got to be kidding. It would be my word against the rest of the crew.” she answers, throwing her hands into the air. “And making such an accusation without proof is almost as bad as murder.”

“I’m just not one for violence unless provoked.” Kurt says.

“I understand, I too wish I didn’t have to, but I didn’t see any other options.”

The night continues on and morning follows. Cerise sits there in the grass, watching the morning sun rise. Its orange and yellow glow is absolutely beautiful to her. Being with the Shi’ar for so many years, she rarely gets to see such a wondrous site. She looks down at the sleeping body next to her. Kurt’s blue skin and fur looks so cute when he is asleep. He had been practicing all day and then stayed up all night with Cerise. His body pretty much just gave up on him. Cerise gets up and looks in the direction of the circus, as she hears someone calling for Kurt. She heads over and finds Franklin and Stefen looking around for him. Cerise walks over and waves to them,

“Hello. Are you looking for Kurt?”

“Yes,” Stefen says, “Who are you?” knowing that no one outside of the circus should know who Kurt is.

“I’m Cerise. I met Kurt last night. The poor guy is exhausted. He’s out by the river sleeping in the grass.” she says. Both Franklin and Stefen look at each other with very naughty expressions. “Don’t you two even think it, you verharion snake trash.”. Now their looks go ones of confusion, having no idea what she just said. Cerise turns sharply and heads back toward Kurt, with Franklin and Stefen following. Once they reach Kurt, Stefen stoops down next to him,

“Come on fur ball, time to get up.”. Kurt opens his eyes and sees Stefen looking down at him,

“Hello mein bruter. What time is it?”

“Its only about 6am.” Stefen says, helping Kurt off the ground. “What happened man, she wear you out?” Stefen whispers in Kurt’s ear. Kurt jumps back, looking at Stefen with wide eyes,

“Stefen?! No. I just met her.” he retorts, pointing in Cerise’s direction. Stefen puts an arm around Kurt,

“I was just joking.” Stefen says as they head back towards the circus grounds. Franklin goes over to Cerise,

“Care to join us?” Franklin says. Cerise moves over next to him,

“Sure, I’d love to.” she replies. “I have a question though,” she says as they follow Kurt and Stefen, “is that guy’s mind always in the splooge like that?”

Franklin, once again, is at a loss for the terminology that she has just used, but is able to get the jest of what she is asking. “It not really...um..spl.. dirty minded, he’s just got a funny sense of humor. He likes teasing his brother about such things. Their only playing and Kurt doesn’t mind.”

Once Franklin and Cerise get back to the circus, he offers a proposal to her, "We could use another act in our show. Do you have any talents that we might be able to use?"

"I don't know, being from another part of the universe I'm sure that I could find something useful to help out your show." she says. Franklin looks at her again with a look of utter disbelief,

"Pardon me, I don't think that I heard you correctly."

"Yes, I'm from a far off part of the universe controlled by a government by the name of the Shi'ar. I've been on the run from them for a long time. That's what Kurt and I were up all night talking about." she explains. Franklin worries about what kind of consequences might come from having an intergalactic fugitive as part of his performers,

"Do you think there's any chance of them finding you?"

"They probably will track the antimatter residue from my vortex engines, but how long it will take for them to actually find out where I am, I couldn't say." she says, looking to the sky. Franklin nods,

"Ok, get together will Kurt sometime and see what you two can come up with. Let me know as soon as you can."

Later that morning, everyone arrives at the Big Top at the normal time to start the day’s practicing. As Kurt walks in, he sees Cerise leaning against the ladder to the trapeze. Kurt, a little surprised, walks over to her,

“I didn’t expect to still see you here. I thought that you would have left a long time ago.”

“Nope. Franklin offered me to join the circus.” she says.

“Really? Isn’t that kind of dangerous, staying in one place for to long being on the run?” Kurt asks. Cerise shakes her head,

“That’s the thing. This is a traveling circus right?”

“Ja.”

“So, since we’ll always be on the move, it will be harder for them to track me down.” she continues. “So, now all we have to do is find out something for me to do here.”

“Do you have any special powers?” Kurt asks. Since she is from another galaxy, he figures she has to have some kind of special ability. Cerise nods and puts her hands together in front of her. She separates them slowly and a strip of purple, condensed light energy stretch from one hand to the other,

“I can created this light energy and control to do what I want.” she says. She terminates the strip of light and points her hand to the ground, “I can make it do anything from a concussion blast,” and fire a small shot to the ground, “or a funnel causing a vacuum.”

Kurt feels the slight inward breeze of the miniature tornado in front of him and then she shuts it off.

“That’s really amazing. Eric and Jutta can do pretty much the same thing, only they do theirs with fire jets.” Kurt says, pointing over in their direction. Kurt motion for Cerise to follow him over to another part of the tent, where they can work on her powers without disturbing anyone else. Threw out the day, they try to come up with a practical use for her light energy that would be beneficial to the show. About half way threw the day, they find something that looks like it should make for a good performance. They spend the rest of the day working out a routine for the next performance.

“I think that we’ve got it.” Kurt says. “With your light manipulation, Eric and Jutta’s pyrotechniques and my arial show, we should have a great opening night.”

“I agree, lets go tell Franklin.” Cerise says, hurrying off.

“Hey, wait up.”

Later, the following week, Cerise finds Kurt out laying by the river. He looks so relaxes with his hand dangling in the water and his body stretched out along the river side. His eyes are closed and he is breathing so softly, as he naps. Cerise kneels down next to him and is almost sorry to disturb his peaceful sleep. She looks his body up and down and pays special attention to his face. She absolutely adores the fur and the pointed ears. She watches as his tail twitches from his dreams. She gently rubs the back of her fingers on the side of his face.

Kurt’s eyes open slowly and blink a few times as they come into focus. He looks up and sees Cerise hanging over him,

“Hello fraulin. How are you?”

“I’m doing fine. How about you?” she replies.

“Just taking it easy for a bit. It nice and calm out here. The circus can be so hectic sometimes.” he says and sits up. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Cerise looks into his solid, yellow eyes, “You know, even since I’ve crashed here, I’ve been keeping my eyes on you”. Fuzzy gets a look of curiosity on his face, wondering how much she has seen. Cerise smiles and places a hand on the side of his face, “I’ve been attracted to you from the instant that I saw you. You’re cute and those ears are adorable”. Kurt opens his mouth as if about to say something then stops. He moves her hand from his face and stands up. She looks up at his with considerable concern, “Kurt, what the matter?”

“I’m flattered that you think so highly of me, but we haven’t known each other that long.” he objects.

“Long enough for one to know you’re the cutest guy I ever met.” looking into his eyes.

“You just met me last week. You’re moving a little fast here. We both need a little more time for this.” he says, taking a step back.

Cerise stands up and replaces her hand on the side of his face, “OK, we’ll give it some time then and see what happens?” Kurt nods in agreement. “I’ll see you tomorrow ok?” she says and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“Guten tag.” he replies and watches as she walks away. Once she is out of sight, he flops back to the ground. He lays back in the position she found him in and drops his entire hand in the stream. The water splashes up as his frustrated hand plops into the stream. “What am I going to do? I can tell that she really likes me and I like her to, but if she gets taken back to the Shi’ar, I will have lost a third person that I’ve fallen in love with. How am I going to deal with that? Why is life so difficult for me?”

The opening performance comes and goes. Cerise is able to generate a good size crowd and bring in some good money. A new performance is always good for an attention grabber. For the first few weeks, she is able to make the circus a good profit, but over time, the crowds start to dwindle again. The circus has enough to maintain itself for a while, but is starting to hurt again.

Also, with Cerise continuing to stay with the circus and working with Kurt, he finds himself daring to get close to her. They continue to get closer when helping each other with their routines. During their practice sessions, Kurt will go behind her and put his arms around her. He guides her arms in better patterns to help design more exciting light effects. Cerise simply keeps her arms around him, as he’s gritting his teeth, straining to get his legs to spread further apart to increase his flexibility. They even been seen falling off the tightrope at the same time and taking several minutes getting out of the net.

A couple of weeks later, Kurt and Cerise are practicing by themselves. She looks over at him and decides to try something that she had heard about the humans. Kurt is coming down the ladder from the tightrope. He reaches the ground and turns around. When he does, Cerise is standing right in front of him, waiting. She places a finger at the base of his neck and runs it down his chest, “I understand that humans have a activity that causes great pleasure between them.” Kurt instantly starts sweating and takes a step back, shocked at what she is proposing. She matches his movements without hesitation and moves closer. Kurt doesn’t get far and is now pinned between the her and the ladder. She is right up against him now and shows no signs of uncertainty.

“Uh, Cerise. I don’t think that we should...” Kurt is cut off by her pressing her lips against his. He is caught off guard and trying to find a means of escape. His hands are behind him, holding onto the metal rungs of the ladder. After a few seconds though, he starts to relax into it and even encourages it. Kurt moves his hands from the ladder to around her waist. Cerise breaks the kiss after a few moments and takes a step back,

“Its true, that is very pleasing. See you later.” she says with a smile and heads back to her trailer. Kurt stands there rubbing his finger gently over his lips, recalling the most pleasant lip lock. A slight giggle escapes from him, “All she wanted was a kiss.” he says with a smile.

Later that night, Cerise find Kurt out by the stream. He is in his usual position whenever he is out by the stream. He is on his back with his hand dangling in the water. She walks up to him and sees that his eyes are closed. She can’t tell though weither he is asleep or just resting. After a couple seconds of debating, she kneels down next to him and decides to wake him up with a kiss.

“Hello liebchen.” Kurt says. He opens his eyes and sees Cerise standing over him. His sudden alertness startles her a bit. “Please continue. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Cerise replies with only a smile and gives him the kiss that she intended. She lays on her side next to him, running her hand over his chest,

“Kurt,” she begins looking down at his chest, “I’ve fallen deeply in love with you. Please tell me you love me the same.” Kurt’s eyes open a little wider. He turns his head to look at her,

“Yes, I do. I’ve found myself falling for you more and more everyday that I see you.. Its also been a couple months and no sign of anyone from the Shi’ar. Hopefully they’ve forgotten about you.” Cerise’s hand starts to trail a little south on him,

“I was intrigued with you the first time I saw you.” Kurt’s breathing starts to pick up. He can feel her hand brushing the fur on his stomach as she runs her hand under his shirt. Her hand start to drift further down his body, causing his breathing to accelerate even more. “Would you...” she pauses a second, “be interested in showing me the more physical side of love?” she asks as she slides her fingers into his pants. Kurt gives her a wide smile and a passionate kiss. He turns on his side and pulls her up against him. He runs his hands up and down her back as she reaches into his pants and takes hold of him. Kurt gives a moan of pleasure. She continues to play with him and his moaning excites her. He rolls on top of her and pulls her shirt off. She quickly starts undoing his belt and removes it. She kisses all around his neck and pulls his shirt off him. His tail is rapidly rubbing against her inner thigh. He straddles her, allowing easy access to the fastenings of his pants and she quickly undoes them. Kurt uses his tail and feet to pull her pants off her. Once separated from her, he moves his tail between her legs to pleasure her. The constant playing with each other causes their desires to increase rapidly.

After a couple minutes of this, neither can withstand the rushing hormones inside. She rolls over on top of him and takes him in. She moans Kurt’s name, enjoying him inside her and the ride. Eventually, Kurt rolls them over so that he can be on top. She wraps her legs around the back of him, as he starts thrusting into her as fast as he can. Several minutes of wild, passionate love making leads to a loud, mutual climax between them. Kurt rests himself on top of her, being sure not to lay his entire weight on her. He kisses and licks her about the neck, tasting the salty sweat, before rolling off her. He lays, on his side, right up against her and keeps a protective arm around her. She turns on her side and gives him a well deserved kiss,

“I wasn’t aware that love could be so wonderful.” she says between breaths. Kurt just lays there, basking in the pure joy that he’s feeling. “Are you all right Kurt?”

“Wunderbar. I just haven’t made love for a long time.” he says as he looks her in the eyes. “I just forgot how exhausting it is.” Cerise giggles at the novice sounding remark. Kurt rolls over onto his back, with his arms open in invitation. She slides over, resting her head on his chest and he wraps his arms around her. There they stay for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Kurt and Cerise exit his trailer after cleaning up. They head off to a nearby field for a early walk. Cerise snuggles up under Kurt’s arm and wraps her arms around his waist,

"Its so pretty out here in the morning." Cerise says, looking at the sun that has just barely risen.

"From what I hear, the mornings here in Germany are suppose to be the brightest in the world, but I'm sure that someone here said that." Kurt laughs and Cerise replies with a smile. They continue to walk along, enjoying the view. Cerise turns her look to Kurt,

“I really enjoyed being with you last night.” she says.

“So did I. Its not often that someone will get this close to me, because of the way I look. I can’t even let anyone see me, outside of the circus, without loads of make up on.” he explains. “There’s only been one other that truly loved me and she left me for who knows what reason.”

“Oh Kurt,” she sighs, “I hope I don’t have to leave you also. I can’t imagine how much pain it would cause you.” She holds onto him tight, “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to hide from them forever.”

“Even if they do find us, I won’t let them take you from me.” he commands. An unknown voice is heard behind them,

“I don’t see you having much of a chance of that fuzzball.” the voice says as the stranger materializes. Another one appears in front of them and holds a blaster at them,

“The princess is returning to the Shi’ar for her trial. Now move aside blue one!” he orders.

“They’re Shi’ar soldiers.” Cerise cries, justifiably frightened. “They found us! They’re going to take me back!” Fuzzy moves between her and the soldiers,

“Not while I’m still breathing.” he demands, taking hold of her hand. The first guard jams his blaster in Kurt’s stomach,

“That can be easily halted.” The second guard begins to approach them.

Kurt leans his head back and whispers into Cerise's ear, "When I teleport, head for cover."

"Move mutant or we'll blow you away right where you are." the second threatens. Kurt reaches behind him and motions for Cerise to get ready to move. As he does, he leans forward and bows to the soldiers,

"Guten Tag." {BAMF} The implosion of smoke and brimstone left behind by Kurt's teleport gives Cerise enough cover to duck behind one of the trees. The instant they see Cerise move, they start to open fire with their blasters. Their lasers go right threw the trees and miss Cerise by inches. She screams as the shots singe her hair.

Kurt reappears behind the soldiers and delivers and punch in the head to the first one and a kick to the second one. The first soldier jumps up and attacks Kurt. He throws a jab followed by a punch. Kurt blocks them and counters with his fist and an elbow to the soldier’s face. The soldier stumbles backward but quickly regains his balance and advances on Kurt again.

Meanwhile, the second soldier sees Cerise hiding behind the tree and goes over to her. He moves around the tree and grabs her arms, "Now, you are coming back to the Shi'ar to be tried for that entire crew that you killed."

"In your dreams." she replies and gives him a head butt, smashing his nose. The soldier takes a couple steps back, holding his bleeding nose. Cerise moves up and kicks him in the head, but the soldier blocks it. She throws another from the opposite side and that one is blocked also. The soldier retaliates with a punch. Cerise catches his arm and flips him over. The soldier lands on his back with thud. Cerise goes to kick in the face, but he catches her leg and throws her off her feet.

The first soldier throws a punch to Kurt, which he blocks, but is nailed in the stomach by a kick. Kurt buckles over and it caught by an uppercut to his face. Kurt falls onto his back and sees the soldier coming for another assault. He throws his foot up and brings it down hard on Kurt. Fortunately, Kurt rolls to the side, dodging and the soldier's foot lands right next to him. Kurt swings his tail around and wraps it around the soldier's legs. Kurt gives a yank and pulls the soldier onto his back. Kurt jumps up the same time that soldier does. The soldier throws a punch and Kurt catches it. Kurt delivers a punch to the soldier's stomach and then drives it up into his face. He twists the soldier's arm, pulling him down and into Kurt's rising knee. The soldier groans as the force of the blow smashes his face. Kurt twists the soldier's arm again and flips him on his back. Kurt straddles himself over the soldier and lands a final blow, knocking the soldier out.

Cerise hits the ground and rolls backwards and hops back up to her feet. The soldier gets up also and goes after Cerise. Cerise jumps up and flips over the soldier. As the soldier turns around, she lands a kick followed by a spinning back kick to his chest, sending him backwards. Cerise advances on him as he is getting up. As she goes to attack, he lands a backhand to her face, sending her down. The soldier moves in for another attack, but is greeted by a blue furry forearm to his face. Kurt goes over and helps Cerise up,

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she starts, then pushes Kurt backwards and then moves back, as the second soldier comes after them again. He throws a punch at Cerise, who ducks it and lands a kick to his knee, breaking it. She continues with a hit to his face, smashing it beyond repair. The soldier drops to the ground, holding his face.

Kurt comes over and picks the soldier up by the shirt, "When whoever comes to pick you up, tell them that she does not want to go back and will not be going back!!!" he yells and drops the soldier on the ground.

Kurt and Cerise head back towards the circus,

"Kurt, thank you for not letting them take me. Their trial system is horrible and if they found me guilty, I surely would have been put to death." she says.

"Don't worry, I will do everything in my power to keep them from taking you." he says and gives her tight hug. After a few seconds, she takes a step back,

"Oh Kurt, look at your face."

Cerise tears a piece of cloth from her shirt and starts to clean the blood from Kurt's face.

"I'm sure its not as bad as it looks." Kurt says.

"My foot its not bad. Your nose might be broken. We better get you to Steward as soon as we get back." she insists.

“Those were some nice moves back there.” Kurt says.

“Being in the Shi’ar, you have to know how to fight or you’re easy prey. You did quite well yourself. Its not easy to bring down a Shi’ar soldier.” Kurt smiles at the compliment,

“A couple years ago, someone wanted to buy out the circus and Franklin refused. So, the guy decided to try and ruin the show.” He explains, “ He succeeded in killing Markus, my trapeze partner. I went after him and he did quite well at beating me down, after he knocked me in the nuts. A couple months later, I got one of the other performers to give me some training. I sure wasn’t going to let that happen again.”

“I’m sorry about your friend.” she says.

“He was a good man, but that verdamnt murderer was killed to.” Kurt replies.

Kurt and Cerise get back to the circus and head directly for Franklin’s trailer. Kurt raps on the door hard while keeping a firm grasp on Cerise’s hand,

“You better be here for Gott’s sake.” Cerise constantly watches over her shoulder for anymore of the soldiers. Franklin opens the door and Cerise is practically dragged inside by Kurt.

“Please come in.” Franklin says sarcastically.

“Franklin, we’ve got serious trouble.” Kurt exclaims. “They found us.”

“Who?”

“The Shi’ar!” Cerise yells.

“Where are they?” Franklin asks.

“We just beat a couple of them down. They probably got more on the way.” Kurt says.

“It looks like they got a couple of licks in also.” Franklin says.

“We can’t let them take her!” Kurt shouts.

“I don’t know if we have any choice. “ Franklin says with his hands out to his side. “From what she’s told us about them, they’re technology is far beyond us.” Kurt comes up and takes Franklin by the shirt,

“I am not going to just let them take her from me!”

“I didn’t say anything about just letting them take her.” Franklin retorts, trying to get Kurt to let go.

“She’s staying with me! I’m not losing another lov.....” Kurt is cut of by a call from Stefen outside,

“FRANKLIN! Get out here, quick!” Franklin pulls lose from Kurt and hurries outside, with Kurt and Cerise following. When they get outside, they see that everyone in the area are locked into some type of energy bonds. There are several Shi’ar soldiers around along with the bridge crew of the ship that was chasing her. Cerise wraps her arms around Kurt and holds on tight.

“Cerise, it is time to go.” The commander says.

“NO! I’m not going!” she protests.

“She’s not going anywhere with you. She doesn’t want to. Now leave her alone!” Kurt pleads, holding onto her.

“Why can’t you just leave her here?” Franklin asks. “Regardless of whatever crime she has committed, she’s here on Earth now. She won’t be able to hurt anyone else on your world.”

“She has to be tried for the murder of 28 crewman on board her ship and I don’t have time to argue with you.” the command yells and fires and energy beam at Kurt, Franklin and Cerise. The three of them are separated and trapped in the energy bonds. The beam also levitates Cerise over the command.

“NO! Let me go, please.” she begs. Kurt looks over with total rage in his face,

“LET HER GO!!” he screams and teleports over. The bonds fall to the ground. Kurt’s teleport is cut short by a magnetic field around the command. Kurt reappears and falls to the ground in immense pain.

“Foolish mutant. You’re powers are primitive to us. The instant you teleported, my arm sensor detected it and knew how to defeat it.” the command explains. “You should be more careful who you fall in love with. A criminal will always cause heartbreak.” He turns to Cerise, “say goodbye to your boyfriend.” She looks down at Kurt and he looks back,

“Please..... ahhh.. don’t take her from me.” He pleads between the waves of pain. The command presses his communicator,

“Let’s go.” Cerise drops to her knees to be closer to Kurt. She quickly shuffles over to him. They lock in one last passionate kiss, moments before she and the rest of the Shi’ar dematerialize. All the bonds release themselves. Kurt is on his knees, curled over in a ball with his hands covering his head. Franklin hurries over to him,

“Kurt, I’m so sorry, but you’re hurt bad. You need...” Kurt pushes him away.

“Don’t touch me!” Franklin tries again and is pushed off his feet this time. “I SAID DON’T FREAKING TOUCH ME!!”

Franklin motions to everyone to leave him alone for awhile. Kurt stays there for the rest of the day, sobbing. At times during the day, everyone would hear him screaming in pain.

Maybe one day, he’ll find someone that won’t be taken from him.