G7

The Prince of Mongo

By Marzena

Chapter 1: Worried

"I wish you would consider this, Duffy."

Daphne Gordon and Kit Walker were on duty at Monitor, the headquarter of the Defenders of the Earth. While everyone else was busy on several missions, Duffy and Kit had the job of keeping an eye on unusual happenings all over Earth and checking in with their family and friends on a regular basis to coordinate and in case they needed backup. But everything had been quiet, there was no sign of Ming's forces and nobody had called in for backup. Even LJ was handling his first solo mission just fine, despite Lothar having been so worried about it. That, unfortunately, left Kit with plenty of time to talk to Duffy about personal matters.

"Well, I won't!" Duffy snapped, wishing that Dynak would sound the alarm and that there would be something other to do than Kit trying to talk to her. It wasn't his business anyway, and Duffy was just tired of him trying to interfere all the time. Ever since she'd met Dan, Kit had been on her case, trying to tell her that Dan was bad news.

"You should," Kit urged her. "I have a bad feeling about this, Duff. About him. And you know my instincts are almost never wrong."

"They are this time!" Duffy insisted impatiently. "Kit, we've been through this before. I even asked you what you think is wrong about Dan, but you couldn't even give me a reasonable answer to that!"

"That's because I can't," Kit tried to explain. "This is just how my jungle senses work, and you have to trust me on this one. I don't know what's wrong but something about that guy just feels very fishy."

"And that's just not enough, Kit," Duffy sighed. "I mean, Dan saved my life when we first met. And he's been nothing but nice and polite ever since, even to you, and you've been nothing but rude to him."

Kit had made it clear from the very beginning and despite Dan saving Duffy's life that he just didn't like the blue-eyed, dark-haired boy. He'd been very curt with him and whenever Duffy had tried to bring Dan home to introduce him to the adults and Kshin, Kit had convinced them that the timing was just wrong, that Dan could end up getting involved in one of Ming's attacks, that Duffy didn't know Dan well enough yet to bring him home or anywhere near the Defenders headquarters and so on. Of course, this had resulted in Duffy spending a lot of alone time with Dan away from Monitor, something which Kit had also been trying to prevent with keeping her busy with Defender duties, but Duffy had managed to sneak away quite a few times. She liked this young man a lot. They'd been to the movies together a few times, he'd asked her out for dinner and they had made out in the car.

Kit shrugged. "Well, I don't like him, so you can't blame me for not trying to be his buddy, Duff. And I wish you wouldn't be so damn trusting!"

"What?!" Duffy glared at him angrily. "Don't patronize me, Kit! You're neither my father nor my brother! You can't tell me who I shouldn't date or that I'm too trusting! I think Dan's a cool guy. I have fun when I'm with him, we like the same kind of movies, we both love spicy food and we have a similar kind of humor! All those weeks I've known him, he's been nothing but funny and perfectly nice and friendly! If you can't trust a person like that, then who can you trust?! … Oh, right. Then there's you and you don't seem to have many friends outside of the Defenders. Hmmm. I wonder why?!"

Kit looked very hurt at this and Duffy was immediately sorry, but not sorry enough to tell him so. Instead, she just sulkily glared at him.

"Well, I'm right, aren't I?" she asked. "If I'm too trusting, you're to distrustful. You can't make friends like that. You certainly won't find a girl like that."

"I'm not trying to find a girl," Kit replied curtly, staring right past her. "I'm trying to protect you. But, as always, you're too stubborn to realize that. I mean, if you don't want to believe me, fine. But could you at least consider taking it slow with him until you know him better?"

"How much slower do you want me to take it!?" she groaned, rolling her big blue eyes at him. "Honestly, Kit, I know, jungle upbringing and all, but this is 2016 – you do kiss and and everything with someone you like. It's normal. You go out on dates, you hold hands, you kiss, you..."

"Yeah, yeah, I got the picture, alright!?" Kit hastily interrupted. "It's nothing I'm not familiar with and it's certainly nothing I'm not comfortable with – like I said before, I have a bad feeling about this guy, not about you dating guys in general!"

She wasn't so sure about that. LJ had hinted a while ago that Kit had a soft spot for her. And that was also a reason why she didn't take his warnings too seriously. Kit was jealous. She kind of enjoyed the thought of that, the thought that he liked her and thought so much of her. But she really liked Dan and she wouldn't let Kit and his silly jealousy ruin this for her.

"Whatever." Shrugging, she got off her seat. "Look, I appreciate that you're trying to look out for me, but don't. I'm a big girl. I'm all in control here. You're just jealous, Kit."

He looked taken aback and, again, hurt by her words, but she was just so sick of Kit trying to intervene all the time. Why couldn't he leave her alone? She had so much fun with Dan, she didn't need Kit playing babysitter or overprotective brother.

"Where are you going?" Kit finally asked when Duffy turned around. He sounded a bit distant and hurt and again, despite feeling annoyed with him, she also felt sorry. No matter how annoying his protectiveness was, it came from the right place.

"Out. There's nothing to do for me here. Nothing's happening. You can do this on your own, Kit. And if you really should need me, which I highly doubt, you can call my communicator and I'll come right back to do my job, okay? But this is boring and I do have a live outside of saving the Earth, you know."

"Stop being such a brat!" he snapped, getting up too. "Besides, I know you're going off to see him. I'm not stupid. I know you're sneaking out all the time."

She gave him a long look. "You didn't tell Dad though."

"Of course I didn't. I might not approve, but I'm still your friend, Duffy. Although you don't deserve my friendship when you behave like this."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Kit. I shouldn't have said some of those things. They were perfectly mean. I just wish you would let this go. There's nothing wrong with Dan. If you don't like him, fine. You don't have to. But unless you actually have some evidence that he's a bad influence or whatever, don't mention this anymore. It only drives the two of us apart, and I don't want that. I like you, Kit. You're such a great friend."

"Yeah..." Kit just nodded and then sighed too. "Just go, Duffy, do whatever you want to do, even if it's seeing him. You're right, there's not much to do here and you're right, all I have against Dan is my instinct telling me something's wrong. You're also right that I can't stop you seeing him if that's what you really want to do."

"I promise I won't do anything stupid," she replied with a smile. Then she finally turned around and headed straight for the door, leaving Kit back in the controlroom of Monitor, worried.

----------

Article

Author

Chapters

1: Worried

Kit disapproves of Duffy's bond with her new romantic interest.

2: Aftermath

Duffy is left reeling after the truth comes out.

3: Vanished

The Defenders are stunned by Duffy's disappearance.

4: Imprisoned

Duffy rejects her captor's advances.