Title: "Crash into Me"
Author: FelineFemme
Rating: PG
Summary: What made Haruto Sakaki join STN-J?
Chapter 1: "Our lifestyle is contagious"
It's another night in Yokohama, and the 14-year-old boy is bent over his papers, trying to do homework from both school and cram school. The phone's shrill ringing interrupts him, and he sighs noisily, wishing he hadn't forgotten to reset the ring volume. "Hello, Sakaki residence," he says.
"Haruto, what are you doing?" a boy's voice says on the other end. "You said you'd hang with us tonight."
"Guys, it's a school night," Haruto groans, running a hand through already messy hair. "And my parents will kill me if I don't raise my grades this semester."
"It's just one night," his friend wheedles. "Come on!"
The boy looks at his watch. There's still time, and his parents won't be home for a while. "Fine, but we gotta get back early, Tatsuya, I don't wanna get busted."
"Okay, whatever," Tatsuya sighs, "see you in ten!"
Haruto debates scribbling a note, then nixes it. He shucks off his house shorts and pulls on his baggy jeans, shoves his feet into Reebox, and grabs his skateboard. "See ya," he mutters to the empty house, then checks his jacket for his cell phone and wallet, just in case. Knowing the guys, they'll probably be hungry and come back late anyways.
It takes a little longer than ten minutes, but he finally makes it to a sweet spot, a place devoid of yelling people, and full of railings, potted plant holders, and, most important, a nice, wide open area that makes up the concrete front yard of the municipal building. The occasional lights in the building makes it seem like it's their own sky, and the street lights provide enough illumination to skate, and wipeout, by.
"Hey, you made it!" a pimply-faced boy shouts, grabbing some air.
"Sweet," another boy with dyed-blonde boy notes, copying the move on his much-decorated board.
"Hey, Tatsuya!" Haruto calls out, and comes to a stop when the ground trembles. "Whoa."
A tall boy chuckles nervously. "They say Yokohama's getting ready for a big one, like the one in Kobe," he says. "Weird, huh?"
"They always say stuff like that," Tatsuya snorts. "Hey, check that!" he says, as the earth shakes hard enough to topple the potted plants from their shelves. "Cool!"
As the tremors increase, the boys yell out their ideas of what magnitude the earthquake is, anywhere from a 3.0 to a 6.9. And then the unthinkable happens -- the ground splits before them, and the tall boy falls in.
"No big," he grins, but the split gets bigger, and, to their surprise, closes up after he falls in completely.
"No way!" Tatsuya yells, and they all try to skate away from the treacherous earth.
"What the hell," Haruto murmurs as he sees a guy out of the corner of his eyes. Maybe it's a security guard who woke up with the earthquakes. It doesn't stop him from skating as fast as he can, though.
One by one, however, all of his friends disappear into the hungry earth. Haruto feels like he's caught in some horror movie, as the ground continues to split into ribbons before him. Even as he makes it to more populated areas, it seems the earth hates him, and he tries to shut out the noise of screaming people behind him. Finally, after hitting one turn after another through the small, backalley streets, he comes to a dead end.
"No," he wheezes, trying to catch his breath. The ground continues to shake, and as unwanted tears come to his eyes, he tries to climb the wooden fence that's blocking him.
The earth shakes, and now he can see the same guy he thought was a security guard approach. For some reason, even though the man hasn't said anything like he might if it were a bad horror movie, Haruto knows this guy is the source of the earthquakes, even as his common sense says it can't be. Desperately, he grabs on to an electric pole while the ground disappears between them.
"No!" the boy shouts as the pole shakes, then sinks into the ground. "No!" Terrified, he looks at the impassive man. "Why are you doing this?"
There is no answer, and now the boy scales the pole until he's reached the top, about a half a meter from the edge of the crevice. He leaps, and grabs desperately to the edge, using his board as something like a grappling hook. He's determined not to let the earth, and this strange man, kill him.
A voice above says, "Grab my hand!"
Surprised, Haruto does just that, grabbing onto the proffered arm. When he's pulled to the surface, he sees it's a guy in a trenchcoat, looking like he escaped from some goth club with his long hair and old-fashioned clothes, except for the guns he and his compatriots are shooting. He's about to ask what's going on, when the older man yells at him, "Stay down!"
Haruto does that, even as the ground treacherously shakes beneath him. Whatever the guys are shooting at earthquake man is doing its job, and he could swear the bullets glow green in the dark. The point man looks cool, especially since neither he nor his shooting buddies seem to be affected by the earthquakes. When the earthquake man falls down, the earth stops trembling, and Haruto realizes he's been holding his breath. A van pulls up seconds later, and the earthquake man is loaded into it.
The boy gets to his feet on shaky legs, his baggy pants hiding most of the tremors. "Who are you guys?" he asks in a squeaky voice, jogging up to the goth guy. "What the hell was that?"