POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY: CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?

This is the second installment of our series and it starts the day after they defeat Arachnikhan. Oh, there will be a little bit of RJ/Gwen in this one...but this time we're focusing on Lily and Keenan. We just hope this lives up to our last fic. And also THANK YOU for reviewing Beauty and the Beast. Pass it on and TELL YOUR FRIENDS! :)

A/N: Oh, and for anybody wondering what little Makomba (the baby Cheetah) looks like, here's a link to the perfect pic. Tell me he isn't a cutie!

If the link doesn't work here, it's in my profile. ;)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was the morning after the rangers' defeat of Arachnikhan and at the Ocean Bluff Veterinary Hospital, pet owners were going in and out of the large ivory-painted building either bringing in new patients or taking them back home. Doctors and interns were scrambling from one emergency to another while the two leading vets were doing their morning rounds in the wild animal compound. Gwen was weighing Olmec and checking his vitals to make sure he was developing normally while Keenan walked over to Cita's pen with clipboard in hand. As he normally did, he jotted down a few numbers before looking into the actual pen to find Cita and ONE baby cheetah. After doing a quick scan around the compound and failing to catch site of the missing feline infant, he did the only thing he could think of at that point in time...

"GWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN!!" He shouted in a blind panic.

Her brother screamed at the top of his lungs and not only did it startle the animals in the compound out of a sound sleep for some, but it scared the living daylights out of Gwen so bad, she threw her clipboard into the air where Serena caught it in her talons. Gwen looked up at the golden eagle who was making her way down to perch and smirked.

"I owe you a huge fish for catching that but I'm afraid you're gonna be minus one owner in a minute."

The lead vet quickly ran to her brother who was running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off looking in baskets and peeking in any opening that a small, precocious little cheetah cub could crawl through. Gwen just stood there watching her brother searching manically for the wild kitten and would have been content to witness him go completely bonkers if she didn't need his help today. So, for reasons that had nothing to do with being the older sister and everything to do with the hospital, she just flat out asked.

"What's wrong, bro?"

Keenan hopped up from the kneeling position he'd taken to peer in between two bookcases and almost flew to his sister. He was in such a state of quandary, he couldn't form a complete sentence; his words just came out broken and scattered as he tried to convey to Gwen what he was trying to say.

"Baby...cheetah...gone...FFFTT!!" At the last 'word', his hands flew up nearly hitting Gwen in the face.

Gwen leaned over to look past Keenan and saw a very calm Cita lying down with an equally calm, albeit sleepy, female cheetah cub. She looks back to her flustered sibling and started to laugh. The second lead vet just looked at her like she'd lost her mind and went back to his frantic search, yelling as he did.

"Look, if you're not gonna help me look for the beady-eyed little anklebiter, move!" He looked over to see Cita staring back at him, her tail flicking stiffly back and forth meaning she didn't appreciate when Keenan called her baby boy.

"I meant that in the nicest possible way." He corrected with a nervous chuckle before resuming his search.

Gwen just shook her head and casually walked over to her deranged sibling. While his back was turned to her, she grabbed his right arm and swung him around to face her.

"KEENAN! Calm down, bro. Breathe! In through the nose, out through the mouth."

Both vets did their calming breathing and it seemed to do the trick. Keenan had finally calmed down enough to talk like a human being and not a malfunctioning robot.

"Gwen, I don't want to alarm you...but Makomba is missing. He's not in the pen with his mother."

Gwen just stood in front of her brother with her hands on her hips, not saying one word; her eyes did the talking as they said; 'You're kidding, right?' After remaining silent for a good minute and rolling her eyes, she brings her right hand off of her hips and balls her hand in a loose fist. She raises it towards her brother and raps her fist against his forehead three times as if she were knocking on a door, all the while making the clicking sound with her tongue.

"Um...hello, is anybody in there? Bro, did you forget what happened yesterday?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Speaking of cats...I need you to return little Makomba to the Animal Hospital, Lily."

Gwen had a playful smirk on her face. Keenan had told her about Lily's failed attempt to smuggle the spotted ball of fluff out of the hospital. Lily exhaled sharply, seemingly outraged that Gwen would accuse her of taking the tiny cheetah cub.

"Gwen, I am shocked that you would accuse me of taking the cheetah. How could you assume that I took that cute little baby?" She asked.

"Because that cute little baby is standing next to you with a stuffed rabbit in its mouth like it was a fresh kill."

Gwen pointed to Lily's feet. When the blonde ranger looked down, she saw the tiny cheetah with a stuffed yellow rabbit in its mouth, stuffing spilling out of its sides and one of its ears bitten off. Looking back up at Gwen, she sidestepped one step to the right to hide the little fuzzball and out of her mouth came the words...

"What cheetah?"

Casey, Theo and RJ groaned at Lily's feeble attempt to hide the results of her kitty heist. Gwen had her hands on her hips as she waited for Lily's flimsy excuse. This had to be good.

"Um...uhhhhh...it followed me home?" Lily gave her a 'you're not buying this, are you' grin as the baby cheetah mewed with the rabbit still in its mouth.

"Wanna try again?" The lady vet asked.

Lily sighed. She knew her love for babies would catch up to her. She had to confess.

"Remember our first round of searches for RJ and I was sent downtown?" Gwen nodded and waited for the yellow ranger to continue. "Well...I made a little side trip to the animal hospital and went to Cita's pen...where I kinda had some turkey in my backpack...and the cheetah cub kinda went to it and climbed in...and I kinda walked out with him." She cringed lightly.

"So you kinda stole him." Gwen said plainly.

"Stole is such an ugly word...can't we use..."

"Cat-napped?" Gwen interrupted.

"I was gonna say 'invited to a play date." Lily answered.

The yellow ranger picked up the cheetah cub which still had the mutilated corpse of her stuffed bunny rabbit in its jaws and held him closely to her chest.

"Come on, Gwen. Can't I keep him for just one night? Cita didn't seem to mind. Pretty please?"

"Lily, you know I can't..."

Before Gwen could finish, she looked up to see Lily turn on her version of the sad puppy dog eyes, only this time she added the dreaded lip quiver.

"Lily, that's not going to work. The only person who can do that to me is..."

Again, she was interrupted when she saw none other than RJ stand next to Lily...his own face displaying the sad puppy dog eyes and lip quiver. She had to admit, he just looked so cute...but she had to be strong. "Those eyes, RJ...whoever gave you those eyes should be shot!" She thought to herself.

"See, that's not fair! Two against one!?"

The two quickly turned to three when Casey joined in the puppy face onslaught.

"This is wrong on so many levels! How can you live with yourselves?!" She asked. "Well, at least Theo is exhibiting some maturity."

She was quickly proven wrong when the blue ranger added his puppy dog face to the mix. She now had four sad puppy faces.

"You little...RJ, what are you teaching these kids!? Keenan, do something!"

"Okay."

And Keenan completed the puppy staredown by adding his face to the group.

"Traitor! Lily, I know you love little Makomba but I'm afraid the answer is..."

She was going to say no; she had every right to say no; but she never got the chance to say no because all five started to whimper like a litter of crying newborn puppies. They were wearing her down with an overdose of cuteness. She could handle one puppy dog face...but five!? Gwen might as well be Superman locked in a room full of Kryptonite.

"You guys SUCK!" She groaned in frustration through clenched teeth.

They responded by whimpering even louder. She just shook her head and looked to her friends...which was very difficult at the moment.

"Alright! Uncle! I give up! Makomba can stay the night...ONE NIGHT! But you have to promise to take him back first thing in the morning."

"I promise! Thanks, Gwen!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Gwen continued to refresh her forgetful brother's memory.

"Yeah, you joined in with THEM and their puppy face assault. You sold me out!"

Keenan finally remembered the events of yesterday and chuckled nervously.

"Oh, yeah. I remember...but Gwen you should know me and my motto by now. I can't let my friends down, I can't stand by when innocent people need help and I..."

"Can't say no to a pretty girl." Gwen finished with her arms folded.

"Can't say no to...HEY!"

Gwen chuckled and patted her brother on the shoulder before speaking again.

"I NEVER want to hear you call me absent-minded again." She said with a smirk. "Besides, the cub in question should be making his way back right about..."

"Hey, guys. Is he okay, Gwen?" She asked with concern.

Lily greeted her friends with her usual effervescent demeanor. She had her yellow backpack in hand and gently set it on the ground.

"Now. Hey, Lily. You'll have to excuse Keenan; he's having a bit of a brain fart."

Both girls chuckled as the male vet sneered at his sibling.

"Not funny, sis." Keenan grumbled.

Both girls giggled and hugged him to apologize.

"Aww, we're sorry, bro. It was just a joke."

"Yeah, we didn't mean to make you feel bad; forgive me?" Lily asked batting her eyelashes.

Gwen had him pegged just right. Keenan took one look at Lily's blue eyes and all was instantly forgiven. His weakness for pretty girls had won out again.

"Of course, Lily. I can't stay mad at you." Keenan said with a grin.

"Thanks...oh, and I believe this belongs to Cita."

The yellow ranger kneels down beside her backpack and unzips the top. As she does, two tiny ears peek out of the opening before being followed by its fuzzy head. The baby cheetah's eyes peer over the side before it darts his head back in making Lily laugh. Little Makomba thought it was another game they were playing.

"Come on, little guy. Time to go see mama." Lily coaxed.

The little feline poked its head out again and mewed cutely. When it saw his mom and sister, he hopped out of the backpack and bounded over, immediately playing with his mother's tail. Cita wasn't the least bit worried; she knew her baby boy was in good hands.

"So, did you have fun, ya little stinker?" Gwen asked little Makomba.

The baby cheetah mewed cutely making Lily squeal. It was clear she'd grown attached to the 'little anklebiter' as Keenan called him.

"And how about you and the guys, Lily? Did he behave?" "Makomba? Behave? Ugh, even I knew that was a dumb question." She said to herself.

"Oh, he was great...a little angel." Lily lied through her teeth.

Gwen smirked. She knew Makomba had a reputation for being a little troublemaker and wondered if Lily was hiding something.

"Little angel, was he?" She prodded.

Lily knew Gwen could see through the lie. So she relented and decided to come clean.

"Okay, I'll admit it. He did give us a run for our money back at the loft..."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It was an hour after Keenan and Gwen left RJ's loft bickering like the brother and sister they were. The three teen rangers and RJ were using Lily's plushie rabbit corpes to play tug-of-war with the tiny cheetah cub that they and Keenan had conned Gwen into leaving behind for the night.

"This is gonna be so cool! Who else can say they hosted a slumber party for a baby cheetah?" Lily asked cheerfully.

"Siegfried and Roy?" Theo suggested.

"Tarzan?" Casey added.

"Jack Hanna?" RJ chimed in.

Lily looked at each guy with an annoyed expression.

"It was a rhetorical question." She shot back as she rolled her eyes.

While the four loft tenants were involved in their riveting discussion, none of them noticed that Makomba had wandered off on his own little adventure. Someone once said that curiosity killed the cat...apparently nobody told HIM that. By the time the rangers had finished their meaningless debate, Theo noticed that the stuffed bunny he was holding was missing something...the cheetah kitten tugging on the other end.

"Um...guys? Where's the kitten?"

"What are you talking about, he's right...here?" Casey answered with uncertainty.

The red ranger looked down and realized that little Makomba was indeed missing.

"Let's not panic. He may be a cheetah but he's still just a baby. He couldn't have gotten far, right?" RJ asked hoping that the cub didn't wander off.

"He's right. He has to still be in here...somewhere. Let's split up."

Everyone nodded and each took a different section of the loft: RJ took the sitting area, looking around each of his 5 tvs and under his beloved green chair; Casey searched the training area and Theo and Lily both scoured the upper level.

"Here, kitty, kitty. Come out, come out wherever you are." Lily called in a sing-song voice while looking under the kitchen table.

"Come out, little Macaroni." Theo called while checking the upper loft near the hammocks.

"Where are you, Macintosh?" RJ addressed as he checked under the cushion of his chair.

"Where are you hiding, Macarena?" Casey asked as he rummaged through the training equipment.

Lily stood up, hitting her head in the edge of the table and looked down at her friends while she ribbed the back of her throbbing head.

"Where do you come up with these names? His name's Makomba." Lily said in slight annoyance. She knew they knew his correct name.

"We know that; we're just having a little fun." Casey grinned as he looked by the basketball hoop.

"We have to find him. Gwen's gonna go ballistic if she finds out I lost him." Lily replied.

They were about to resume their search when they heard mewing coming from above them. Each person looked up and, lo and behold, there was the tiny spotted ball of fluff up in the rafters.

"How'd he get up there!?" RJ asked in shock.

"He probably climbed one of the pillars. If he falls from up there..."Casey started.

"Don't finish that sentence. We need to get him down from there." Theo surmised.

"I'll climb up there. Just get a blanket to catch us in case we fall." RJ ordered as he started up one of the pillars.

"Be careful, RJ." Lily called out.

What they didn't know was that the tiny cheetah cub was very capable of getting himself down from such a dizzying height. He would give the other vets fits whenever he went on one of his excursions. RJ had climbed up the pillar to the rafters above the teens and saw little 'Macintosh', as he mistakenly called him, laying perfectly on the beam in front of the pizza master; his eyes looking right at the would-be savior as it mewed.

"There you are, little fella. Don't be scared. I'm gonna get you down from here." He cooed as he crawled towards the tiny kitten. "Get the blanket ready." He called down to Casey and Theo.

The little cheetah tilted its head and mewed in confusion; he was wondering why this guy with the weird collar and messy mane was up here with him. Surely, he wasn't trying to get him down from there; he was having too much fun. RJ crawled closer to what he thought was a scared baby and tried to reach out to grab the little feline. Only his efforts were thwarted when Makomba inched backwards. He liked it up there and was gonna come down when he was good and ready.

"Come here, ya little-WHOA!"

As he tried to grab the little kitten, he slipped and was hanging by his arms above the floor. As RJ tried to pull himself up, Makomba thought he was playing a game and padded over to his hands that held a death grip on the beam. RJ looked up and saw the twinkle in the little cub's eyes and the twitch in his tail and started to plead with him.

"Please don't do what I think you're gonna do."

But the little kitten didn't listen. Makomba mewed cutely and started to lick RJ's gripping fingers with his sandpaper-like tongue. The Pai Zhuq master began laughing as his fingers slowly began to loosen.

"HAHAHA! STOP! THAT TICKLES! HAHAHA!"

He kept trying to pull himself up but his laughing kept him from succeeding and the tiny cub kept on tasting his fingers until one hand slipped off. Makomba quickly went to town on his other hand as RJ called down to his students, laughing.

"Guys, help! I'm slipping!"

Theo and Casey held out the blanket under their teacher ready to catch him when he fell; they were hoping that little Makomba would follow suit. Three fingers...two...one...

"AAAAHHH!"

RJ lost his grip and fell the to floor; fortunately, the blanket held by Casey and Theo caught him...unfortunately, the force of his fall pulled the two male students inward until the crashed into each other on top of RJ. Lily ran down from the upper level down to her friends who were piled on top of each other in a crumpled heap. As Theo tried to lift himself up, Makomba jumped from his perch, hopped down onto Theo's back, pushing him down again, and jumped into Lily's arms. The baby cheetah curled up in her embrace and mewed cutely as it looked up at her innocently.

"Oh, you had us worried, sweetie. Don't ever do that again, okay?" Lily cooed.

Makomba mewed in agreement as he reached up to lick her nose as her friends slowly rose from the floor, stretching every aching muscle in their bodies. They looked at Lily holding the offending cub and sneered.

"You mean that little twerp could come down anytime it wanted?" Theo asked annoyed.

"I can't believe we did all that work for nothing!" Casey added.

RJ was about to add his two cents when Makomba eyed something even more interesting; something big...and green. He hopped from Lily's arms and swiftly ran to the tv area, much to RJ's horror.

"Don't even think about it." He shouted.

But it was too late. The little kitten had made its way into the forbidden green chair of the Pai Zhuq master. He curled up on the plush green cushion and purred contentedly. RJ stood in front of him with his arms folded and looked down at the spotted kitten. Makomba looked up as the pizza chef began to speak.

"Okay, if you don't obey any other rule while you're here, you obey this one: NOBODY sits in that chair but me. Not Casey, not Lily, Not Theo and especially not a little ball of fluff..."

But he didn't finish. He couldn't. Makomba did the very same thing all of them pulled on Gwen to allow him to stay here for the night. The tiny cub looked up at him with sad eyes and mewed pathetically.

"Come on, you're not fighting fair here. You can't sit..."

Makomba kept mewing sadly and put his tiny head down as if to say 'I'm sowwy. You want me to leave?' Theo and Casey watched and their anger soon vanished. RJ let out a long sigh and shook his head. He was being done in by his own technique.

"Oh...alright. You can sit there. But just for an hour. After that you're gonna have to give it back." RJ relented.

Makomba mewed happily and settled back into the cushion. He turned to walk from the sitting area when his students smirked at him.

"What?"

"You caved. You couldn't go through with it." Theo commented, his smirk growing.

"You're just a softie deep down." Casey added with a grin.

"So, what if I am? The little fuzzball used my puppy-dog eyes against me and turned them into kitty-kat eyes. I couldn't get mad at him." RJ defended himself.

"It's not that, RJ. Babies have the cuteness market cornered and they know it." Lily giggled.

"I don't know how Siegfried and Roy do it." RJ chuckled as the little cheetah cub watched Animal Planet on the largest tv. Deciding it was better to join him instead of beating him, RJ and the other rangers sat on the floor around the green chair and watched tv with a very happy cub.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"...and that's what happened." Lily finished with a nervous giggle.

All Gwen could do was chuckle; she knew that little troublemaker would do something crazy.

"He outdid himself this time." She thought. "He's full of surprises. So, you wanna say bye to the little guy? I mean you can visit him anytime you want; you all can." Gwen offered.

"Sure. Bye, little guy. See you tomorrow."

Makomba padded over to Lily as she knelt down to pet him and cutely licked her nose. She then petted his sister and Cita who walked towards Makomba's temporary guardian.

"Keep an eye on this one, Cita. He's liable to get away with murder." Lily warned jokingly.

Cita looked at Lily and winked making the yellow ranger do a double take.

"Am I going crazy or did she just wink at me?" Lily asked as she turned to face Keenan.

"This coming from the woman who attempted 'KittyGate' not once, but twice." He said with a smirk.

All Lily could do was blush furiously as she looked away.

"Oh, leave her alone. They look adorable together and you can't blame her for kitty-napping him. Some girls just love cute babies." Gwen defended her blonde friend.

"Well, I better get going. See you later tonight, guys." Lily said before making her way out of the compound with Gwen, Keenan and the animals voicing their farewells.

Before leaving out fully, she turned back to deliver a message to Gwen.

"Oh, Gwen, I almost forgot. I spoke to RJ before I left JKP and he said he couldn't stop thinking about you." She delivered with a big grin.

"Really?" She asked as her thought went back to yesterday and the 'phone call' last night. A grin appeared on her face as she replied. "Tell him he's on my mind, too."

"I will. Bye." She said one last time before leaving.

Meanwhile at Dai Shi's lair...

The black lion lord was livid...not only did the panther ranger get over her insurmountable fear of spiders...not only did she save RJ from Arachnikhan's poison...but the rangers defeat him with a new megazord! Camille tentatively walked in after her master bellowed for her; to say he was none to happy about yesterday's failure would and understatement.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself? Choose your words wisely, Camille; they just may be your epitaph." He warned in a low voice as he gripped her chin in his hand forcefully.

Camille was trying desperately to find something to say...anything to convince Dai Shi that her stunning defeat wasn't as bad as he made it out to be.

"The one called RJ has a strong will. I still don't know how he managed to break free from Arachnikhan's spell or how SHE managed to change him back!" Her words dripped with venom as she remembered how the Black Ranger had bested her before.

Dai Shi pulled her face closer to his as he spoke his latest order.

"Make sure you rectify this...or I'll rip out that tongue of yours and use it as a whip!"

Camille clamped her hands over her mouth and let out a frightened squeal as her eyes widened in fear.

"Of course, sire. I'll come up with a way to destroy them once and for all." She replied bowing and leaving his sight rather quickly.

Back at JKP...

Lily returned to the loft with a smile on her face, of course Makomba always made her smile.

"Morning, guys." She greeted with a cheerful wave.

"Morning, Lil. Do I need to ask what got you in such a good mood?" Theo already knew the answer.

"I just dropped off little Makomba at the animal hospital...you should have seen Keenan. Gwen said he was panicking when he noticed the little guy missing." She giggled.

Casey was in the kitchen area on the upper level when he heard the conversation.

"Did he forget you had him? He was here yesterday when the little fella came out of your hiding place. He even put us over the edge when we ganged up on Gwen with the puppy face attack." Casey added.

All three rangers laughed as the memory came flooding back to them.

"I know! Did you see her face when all five of us started to whimper? She couldn't take it!" Theo laughed.

"'You guys SUCK!' That was so priceless!" Casey quoted the lady vet.

RJ decided to make an appearance from his meditation room and join his students whe he heard them talking. When he hears Gwen's name, a warm smile came to his face; she stole his heart.

"Lily, how is Gwen doing, by the way?" He asked with interest.

"Oh, she's fine, RJ. She can't stop thinking about you." She giggled with a wink.

"She said that?" RJ asked dreamily.

"Her words exactly." Lily grinned. Well, she paraphrased but it was the same thing.

"Wow. She's been on my mind, too." RJ replied.

The teen rangers smirked as their master thought wistfully of the lady vet he'd taken a shine to.

"No doubt about it...he's in love." Theo observed.

As the three rangers looked on, a loud explosion outside rocked JKP and the loft above. RJ runs to the viewing area and sees the source of the commotion on his five tvs.

"We got trouble, dudes. Time to go to work."

"We're on it, RJ! Let's go, guys!" Casey ordered.

Each ranger grabbed a vine and swung out through the portal above RJ's veiwing area that led outside.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

So, what's causing havoc in Ocean Bluff this time? If you want to know, Read and leave LOTS of reviews! I'm working on...Hey, how'd you get in here, ya little twerp?

AJG smiled as Makomba mewed up at her. She then looks at her readers.

Yes, there will be more of this little scene-stealer. Say bye, Makomba.

Makomba meows cutely.