Playing the Hero
Chapter One – The Missing Cat
"Do you think that we will ever see Train again?" said Eve, staring absently at the dashboard. Sven looked at her questioningly. "I never got to thank him for saving my life."
"Don't worry, Eve, I'm sure old Train will come around sooner or later," said Sven, grinning at her. "After all, a free stray cat always needs a doorstep to curl up on."
Eve sighed, remembering these words as she stood outside the front gate of her school, waiting for Sven to come and pick her up. If his words from four months ago had been true, then hopefully Train would come around soon.
True, he was annoying and devoured every bit of food and milk in sight, but there was a noticeable lack of his loud, boisterous presence, and Eve still hadn't thanked him for saving her. She wondered if Sven, Rinslet, or anyone else had heard from him since the fight against Eden. She would have to ask, because she knew for a fact that the only thing Train loved more than free milk was free food, which he could get from Sven and Eve, but he hadn't shown up for that, even.
Eve looked up as a car hurtled around the corner of the street and came to an abrupt stop in front of the school. The passenger-side door clicked open automatically as Eve approached it, and she climbed in eagerly, beaming at the green-haired man she was now face-to-face with, and who was beaming back at her, a lit cigarette between his teeth.
"Hey, Eve, how was school?" he asked, reaching over to close her door for her as she buckled herself in.
Eve shrugged, looking out of the window as the car started moving again. "Not bad."
"Oh, yeah?" Sven looked at Eve. She was usually more precise than "Not bad". She often said things like "Positively Chipper", "Dismally Informative", or even "Spectacularly Colourless". Obviously, something was wrong. "...Eve?" he asked cautiously.
Suddenly, she turned around and looked at him, her reddish-pink eyes full of curiosity. At least Sven thought it was curiosity, it was hard to tell. "Have you heard from Train at all?" she asked, failing at nonchalance. It was obvious she was worried, Train never passed up a chance for a free meal... or any kind of meal, really. Sven had to admit it to himself; he was starting to get worried, too. He was also fairly annoyed at Train for not at least letting them know how he was once in a while.
"No, I haven't, but I bet Kyoko'll know where he is. How about we call her when we get home?" he suggested comfortingly.
Eve nodded, and stayed silent for the rest of the car ride, remembering that she had an assignment due in the next day for Science, and wondering what the other students were doing for theirs.
Later that afternoon, Eve was kneeling on the carpet next to the coffee table, assembling a very complex-looking model of the Solar System. Sven was at Rinslet's place, a few streets down, and they were contacting everyone who might have any idea where Train was. So far, they'd had no luck. Not even Kyoko knew where on earth Train was, and she practically stalked him!
"Don't worry, Eve," Sven had said to her after calling Kyoko. "Train knows how to take care of himself... to a certain extent."
But the "certain extent" was that if Train had no money, he had no milk. And when he had no milk, he had no food. And when he had no food, he usually crawled to his friends for freebies. He may have picked up a big bounty and been able to go on from there, but the Train that Eve knew wasn't very economically savvy. His main moral was to buy as much food as possible, hence spending practically all of his (and sometimes his friends') money at once
Eve completed the assembly of her model, and placed it carefully on the shelf where she kept her school things. She then picked up her book and settled herself on the couch to read while she waited for Sven to return. She wasn't sure she liked this book, it was called Twilight, and it was very unrealistic and sickly. Eve decided that she didn't think much of romance novels.
After a while, the sky began to grow dark, and Eve, fed up with swatting at mosquitoes, put down her book and crossed to the open window.
Just as she put her hand on the latch to pull it shut, she caught a whiff of a familiar smell; blood. It was salty and metallic, as always, but also had a strange hint of pine, and was vaguely familiar. However, the additional scent meant nothing. Someone nearby was badly wounded.
Eve gasped, and timidly sniffed the air to catch the scent again. It seemed to be coming from a few streets away, near Rinslet's place.
"Oh, no," she whispered, and, hoping for the best, slammed the window shut and ran towards the front door, grabbing her coat on the way out, and setting off down the street at a run, clumsily pulling on the coat as she went.
As she drew nearer to the horrible scent of blood, she slowed down, as to better sniff out the injured man, woman, child, or even animal, though Eve had a strong feeling that it was a man's blood she smelt. She finally located the place where the scent was the strongest; a small and dusty side-alley with two skips; one overflowing, and one overturned. The unusual smell of pine grew stronger as she drew nearer to the overturned skip, along with the overwhelming scent of blood, and now, a new scent. It was a bit like... milk? But that would mean...
"Train?"
Silence. Eve put her ear against the filthy metal, to be greeted with the sound of muffled, ragged breathing, and an even stronger pine smell (not to mention rotting fish and the kind of things you usually smell in a rubbish skip) now that she was this close. Sighing with relief, she pulled away from the skip and attempted to move it in any way she could, but it wouldn't budge.
Giving up, she turned and ran a few blocks down the road to Rinslet's place, knocking urgently on the door.
"Who is it?" came Rinslet's slightly annoyed voice.
"It is I, Eve," replied Eve.
Suddenly, the door was wrenched open to reveal Sven, who had evidently just shoved Rinslet, who looked very indignant, out of the way. "Eve! Is everything alright?" he said quickly.
"I have found Train," said Eve coolly
"...Train?" replied Sven meekly, as if he had never heard such a thing in his life. Rinslet looked confused.
"Yes. I have found him. This way." And with that, Eve grabbed Sven's hand and started dragging him down the street towards the alley.
"Hey! Wait up!" Rinslet cried, once again indignant.
Sven stumbled after Eve, wondering what the hell was going on. "Eve! Slow down! Where are we going?"
Suddenly, she stopped, causing Sven to almost smack into her.
"Eve... what are you... where are we...?" he panted, as Rinslet finally caught up with them.
"Train is under here," Eve said, rushing towards the overturned skip. "Quickly, we must get him out."
Sven and Rinslet exchanged looks of confusion. "How do you know he's there?" said Rinslet, as Sven stumbled towards Eve, dumbstruck.
"I smell blood, and milk, and..." Eve wondered whether or not she should tell them about the pine smell, "...and rotten fish."
"Fair enough," shrugged Rinslet, and rushed forwards to help lift the large skip.
Finally, after much lifting, pushing and complaining, the three of them managed to roll the heavy, metal rubbish disposal thingy onto its side, leaving a mountain of garbage bags in the middle of the already-crowded alley.
Eve sighed, and extended her hair into nano-hands to push them aside. She knew that Train must be at the bottom of the (literal) garbage pile.
"Oh, come on!" cried Rinslet. "How can Train not contact any of us for months, and then randomly appear underneath a pile of trash?"
Sven looked sideways at her, thinking along the same lines that she was, but knowing better than to question Eve. "Rinslet, go call an ambulance," he said, a minor, yet brilliant plan forming in his head.
"Why? Do you think he's that badly injured?" she replied, puzzled, but concerned.
Sven shrugged. "I have no idea. I just want to humiliate him for keeping us on the line for so long. He hates hospitals."
Rinslet rolled her eyes, but all the same left the alley to get help.
"Sven..." said Eve quietly, the minute Rinslet had disappeared down the street.
"Hm?" Sven turned around to face her. Her hair-hands were covered in scarlet blood, and she looked down at something which was hidden from Sven's view by garbage bags, her expression one of fear. "What's wrong?"He picked his way around the trash towards her, stepping in something wet as he did.
"...I have found Train."
Sven followed her line of sight to a large puddle of blood, part of which they were both standing in, and a dark mass sprawled across the center of it. Train's hair was matted and congealed with blood; his right arm appeared to be broken, and a chunk of flesh looked like it had been gouged out of his side.
Sven's cigarette fell into the puddle of sticky blood as his jaw dropped. He smacked his forehead with his palm "Damn it, Train!"
A/N: Hiya! This is my first Black Cat FanFic, and I'm not too sure about it. I'm cackling evilly on the inside about my plot, but it was a bit stiff writing this. Usually I do some warm-up fanfictions to get into the characters and stuff, since they aren't mine and I'm not entirely sure how to portray them for some situations, but I think I did okay. But my opinion doesn't matter too much, so I want YOUR feedback. So please, please click the review button and let me know what you think, and what I can do to improve.
Aside from that, if you like it, I'll probably be updating very soon, so let me know if you do!
Thanks in advance!
- Silver