Fauna

Fauna is the twenty ninth chapter in the Wombles Eight.

Dom retrieved the communication link from the wreck of his car, and asked, “How are the others doing? Are they back yet?”  “Not yet,” answered Tej. “But if we can do this, then they can do that.” Added Roman.

In truth, though, the others were actually struggling hard. Hobbs had found Shaw with O’Connor, who was chasing a slim woman with chocolate brown hair in a ponytail who was wearing a lot of leather. She had been standing next to her motorcycle, about to get on it, before Shaw had started fighting her, seemingly for no reason. Hobbs had then tried to restrain Shaw, but O’Connor thought he was being too violent, so started trying to restrain Hobbs. Now the four of them were all fighting each other.

“WHO ARE YOU!” shouted Hobbs at the woman just before being punched in the nose by Shaw, who then got smacked in the mouth by O’Connor.

“M-my name is Fauna…” spat the woman, while wiping blood off her lip. Everyone stopped fighting to listen very carefully to what she was saying. “I-I’m the daughter of… J-John Steed…”

“Nah, no you’re not.” Said Shaw decidedly. “You can’t be. I would’ve heard of you if you were a princess.”

“I’m not a princess.” Fauna answered. “Because my father doesn’t even know I exist.”

“Well that’s a lot of nonsense, how could he not notice his wife get pregnant and give birth?” said Hobbs, “And from what Toretto’s told me, Queenie wouldn’t be the type to abandon her children.”  “Queenie isn’t her name, and Cathy isn’t my mother!” shouted Fauna. “You wouldn’t catch me dead with someone like her! No- nobody ever knew, but my father- he was with Emma Peel a long time before they had a married relationship. He was, how should I put it- having an affair with her even before Peter Peel was dead. The only reason they temporarily went separate ways was because of me. I’m the daughter of those two people. But nobody except for my mother knew about me until now. I turned eighteen this year, so it’s about time I showed my face. Hadn’t you noticed? I look a lot like my mother. Except my eyes. I have my father’s eyes.”

Hobbs, Shaw and O’Connor all looked blank. “Who’s Emma Peel?” asked Hobbs. Fauna smiled and disappeared. “Where’d she go?” Hobbs looked around him, then realised that both Shaw and O’Connor had been knocked out. Fauna reappeared in front of them. “Haven’t you heard?” she asked, “My mother is Invidia! That means I’m the granddaughter of Dar-I mean-the devil! So he gave me these powers, in return for one thing.”  “And what’s that?” Hobbs asked, unsure if he really wanted to know. “I just need to help him complete his plans to become the New God.”  Fauna laughed as she disappeared and then beat Hobbs to a pulp before reappearing and escaping on her motorbike.

She rode it to Katy’s mansion, where she disappeared again and watched invisibly as a conversation between Katy and Catwoman occurred.