Convinced that he was alone in that silent, bare chamber, he pulled back the sheets that were tightly wrapped around his body and tried to get up from the bed.

A hand -- that same hand from before -- caught hold of his arm and kept him reclined on the mattress.

“What?” Kara asked, looking up and around, finding no one.

“Don’t be afraid -- you’re safe now.”

That voice, the very same voice, was coming from behind.

“What happened to me?”A thin strip of cloth was placed around his brow.It had been dabbed in ethylene alcohol and both its cool feel and sweet scent were strangely comforting.

“You must have been hit on the head or had a nasty fall or something,” the still unseen man answered, massaging the lion’s head and temples.

Kara arched his back in a vain attempt to see him.“I honestly can’t remember.I did feel lightheaded and disoriented.”

The strip was removed and then the hand petted his mane, its fingers caressing the outline of his ears.The touch did not bother or shock the young lion -- he welcomed it, encouraged it with his soft purring.

“There, there,” he said in whisper, in a tone as dulcet as sugary silk.“You’re all right now.”The man stepped out from behind into the slants of thin light that shone from the blocked-out window.“You’re not from these parts, are you?” he spoke casually.“Did you get lost?”He took the sheets the lion had pushed aside in an effort to re-cover his near-naked body.

The Thunderian clasped the human’s hands in his own to stop him -- he looked at last into his now-revealed face.“Caesar!”He sat up swiftly at the visual confirmation of what he had hoped, what he had wanted to be true.“No, no, I’m not lost, not anymore.”

The well-built man let go of the blankets -- they fell limp over the lion’s legs.Kara eased his head up -- their eyes met and for what felt like endless, eternal moments they were lost in the wet, glimmering orbs of the gateways to their souls.Caesar was the first to break away from that ethereal coupling, he was distracted by a sound that he sensed coming the door.

“We must be careful,” he said.“How do you know me?”

“I saw you in a garden a few days ago.”

“A garden?”He paused, rubbing his chin in thought.“Yes,” he nodded at length, looking away, almost in shame.“I hope I really didn’t scare you, or anyone.”

“I wasn’t afraid.”Kara took hold of the man’s cheek and turned his face over to meet his.He stroked his black hair, noticing only then that his own fingers were smudged with ink.

Caesar looked down around the lion’s waist and gingerly ran his fingers across the dingy fabric of his garments that though tight and distorted was-- “I remember you now, you didn’t crawl away.Are you sure you weren’t afraid?”

“I’m sure I’m sure,” he said with an added grin.“I thought they were adorable.And the adults are just absolutely gorgeous.”

“You think so?”he asked, cheerfully surprised.“You’ve seen any of them?”The lion nodded in answer.“Hahaha, I’ve always thought so, too.”He chuckled a little more.“I’ve always been attracted to them, always, I think they’re beautiful, all of them.”

“And I think you’re beautiful, too, all of you.”Kara let his hands, that were around Caesar’s shoulders, dip down to lightly explore his back.

As the man looked at the lion, he saw something in the Thunderian’s face, in the lines and shadows the dim light produced and magnified, that he found irresistibly charming.He leaned in closer, to the point where their lips almost touched, but he broke away -- again -- and at the end all they could do was giggle in the heightened excitement they both felt at that moment.

“But I still don’t know who you are?”

“My name is Kara.”

A strange expression came to him and after the shock passed he whispered:“You mean that Kara?The Thunder --”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“What are you doing down here?”He looked around the room carefully, suspiciously.“We must be extra-careful.Um,” he stammered in utter nervousness.“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten so close.”His hazel eyes were again pointed down as if he was embarrassed.

“Oh, come now,” he took the man’s hand in his own paw and brought it up to his ready mane.“I’m a cat, I love being petted you silly human,” he teased.

“I might be a noble, too, but I’m not at your level, if people ever found out --”

“What does that matter?What do people have to know anyway?”

He purred as his mane was fretted with.

“You’re not like the others, I’m very surprised,” he spoke at length.“Would you like to see what we do here?”

Kara stood up from bed just then as he had wanted to all along.“I’d love to -- I’d like to help, too, if you need it.”

“You sly lion,” he laughed.“We could always use more help.Of course, we’ll have to give you another name.Wouldn’t want to attract too much attention.How about, hmmm --”

“Liono.”

“Liono?” he smiled, adding:“Sure, why not?”

Caesar told him that they were in an modest, area hospital, one of only a handful in Metropolis that admitted throwbacks, one that had been run by his parents before an accident had killed them when he was very young and that he had found to be more homely and comforting than anything else he had known in that snobbish world above.The two walked out of the room into the main corridor of that floor.Nurses and doctors in white, lab coats strutted through the passage, room to room, lost in the machinations of their respective jobs.

The man began his impromptu tour by explaining the reason everyone was so busy.“Several days ago one of the dynamos overheated and exploded.”The simple words brought back nightmarish visions and vivid memories in the lion’s mind but he did not interrupt.“Five workers died on the scene, another five more died here.The rest are in intensive care right now.Some might be out in a few days if they just have minor injuries, some might be here weeks, even months before they must return to the underworld.One or two, I’m afraid, might never be able to work again, ever.”

“What happens to them, if they can’t?”He stopped as he passed an open door and looked in to see a group of nurses applying bandages to an injured, burned, malformed Thunderian.

“If it wasn’t for places like this,” he said, nudging him forward, “they would just be allowed to starve to death in a cell somewhere.Here we train them to do other, less demanding jobs.”

Caesar wanted to show him more but it seemed that there just was not enough time.For Kara’s part -- or Liono’s, as he was being introduced -- every second with that silly, sweet human was like an eternity of blissful euphoria.He was like a god and the lion felt he had no choice but to worship him.He was grateful then for the empty lobby they had wandered into.He wanted to say something, something anything out of the blue but the dark-haired man cut him off with a coy and playful peck on his cheek.

The two hugged and laughed uncontrollably for a passing, fleeting moment.Caesar fondled the lion’s pointy, hidden ears.Kara ran his paws up and down the man’s back.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, you know, but someday, someday soon we’ll be living in a better world than this.I know it, I believe it, Kara.This hell we created for ourselves can’t possibly last forever.Evil always fails, no matter how powerful or invincible it might seem to be.”

Again he wanted to say something --

“Ah, there you are,” came a sharp, feline voice -- the two stepped apart in that sudden intrusion.A cheetah doctor in a blue, yellow uniform, walked up to Caesar.I was just about to page you.”

“Yes, doctor?”

“That lion cub you found on the street, well, his fingerprints were recognized.”

He looked at his hands, at the dark stains on his short fur around his digits.

She looked down and flipped a few pages on her clipboard then turned her face back up to the man.“They wouldn’t say who they were or who the teenager is,” she paraphrased what she had scribbled.“They just said they’d be here shortly to pick him up.”

“Thank you, doctor,” the human said, cordially.“We’ll be waiting here for them -- who ever they are -- to come.”

The cheetah nodded and with a flash vanished, a smear of blue, yellow trailing her swift movement through the otherwise still air.

The two looked at each other nervously.

“I hope my father isn’t to angry at me.”

“I’m sure he couldn’t be mad at you, for long.,” he patted the lion’s chest lightly over his heart.

“No matter what happens, I’ll be back -- I promise.”

“I --”

Mechanical glass doors slid open and let a gust of cold wind into the small, cushy lobby.Potted plants shivered, their wide, green leaves rustled together.Magazines on an end table shifted to the side, their glossy pages flapping about wildly until the doors shut and the effect subsided.

Heavy, thudded footsteps stopped about ten feet from the pair, approaching no further.The two friends turned around to see who had intruded upon yet another of their private moments.

“Marsala,” Kara gasped, the face of the Master of Activities was long and cast in shadow despite the intense light from the hanging, fluorescent fixtures above.The lion approached him anxiously, taking several looks back at Caesar all the while.“I’m sorry if I worried you.”

“Let’s go home, son, it’s late and you cut a whole day of school -- you have some explaining to do.”He clasped the youngster by the arm, surprisingly very gently and directed him to the door.

“I --” he tried to speak as he looked back once more, but he managed only a slight wave before vanishing past the sliding, glass doors.

In the rear of the car, that then began to drive away, Marsala turned to the youth and said:“I know what you’re going through, but it’s just a phase, it’ll pass.You must remember that you have duties, responsibilities.”He stopped for a moment, took a breath and looked away.“Your life will be changing very soon and you must be prepared for it.You can’t be doing things like this anymore.”

“What do you know about what I’m going through?”

More than you know -- he thought but gave no answer.