The Nicest Kids In Town
-By Fenrir's Daughter and Arata Takamoto
)-(
It was a quiet morning; a morning like none other for the Metal Maniacs. They were all sleeping in their nice warm beds on an abnormally cold day. It was still somewhat dark out, the sun just coming over the horizon for the start of a nice and calm weekend.
There was a gentle rumble outside, something to think about, but nothing extremely threatening. Until it became more severe. The rumbling turned to a ground rolling terror.
Monkey was the first to be waked from the shaking. He jumped up and started to panic as small metal parts began to fall from the shelves in his room.
"Oh my God! Call the fire department, call the National Guard, FOR GOD SAKES, SOMEONE CALL MY MOM!"
Every one else woke from the mixture of the rumbling tremors under them and from Monkey's insistent calling for help. Porkchop was the first to say anything.
"Monkey? Ya alright lil' buddy?" The rumbling stopped and Monkey stopped in the hallway looking at Porkchop, breathing normally again.
"Y-y-yeah… I think so…"
"Then hush up and go back ta sleep. It's too late fer this."
"Uhh, actually, it's early."
"Whatever. Go back to bed." He closed his door of the mountain-side cabin in a flourish and left Monkey alone in the semi-darkness. He shook his head and turned around to head back to his own room. He had just got to his door when the floor began to shake violently again, eliciting a scream from his throat.
"HOLY CRAP! CALL THE MARINES! CALL THE POLICE! CALL THE FREAKING NAVY!"
He ran into his room and hopped on his feet, trying to figure out what to save first. The poster of Lara Croft or Sparky?
"Hello," the little robot said, and Monkey came to his senses.
"Run Sparky!" he said. "Save yourself!"
"Awesome." The little robot ran off through his window and down the path to the woods. Monkey then began to race around his room, stuffing mechanical parts into a duffel bag and ripped the framed poster from the wall as he ran out into the yard screaming like a little girl. He dropped his things and fell to his knees, sticking his butt in the air.
"DUCK AND COVER! DUCK AND COVER! MOMMY! Oh my goodness, call the Air Force, call the Army…"
The thunderous rolling suddenly stopped and everything was quiet for the moment. He was still shaking as he gingerly lifted his head and did a survey of the area around him. He saw that the other Maniacs were out of bed and all standing clear of the back porch.
Taro rubbed the sleep from his eyes and muttered in Japanese. "Damn Americans… too early for all this…"
Wylde flexed his new mechanical arm thinking that he should call his brother. Porkchop scratched his head, yawning, and Tork extended his hand to Monkey to help him off the ground.
"Like the book says, man: 'Don't panic.'"
"Huh?" Monkey said, and Tork handed him a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which the mechanic had dropped on his way out. He gave an embarrassed laugh and took the book from his leader.
"Well," he said. "I still think we should still call the Army."
"Don't call the army," a desperate voice whispered from the treetop. "They'll tell my dad where I am…"
Taro raised an eyebrow and glanced skyward. "Look!" he said pointing up, and his fellow Maniacs followed his gaze. Sure enough, a familiar blonde face stared down at them from the branches of the sequoia. Accompanying him, strangely, were two young girls in a state of total unconsciousness.
"Vert!" Wylde said, stepping up to the tree. "Where you been, man?! We looked all over for you!!"
"It's too long a story to tell from up here. Can you please just help me down before someone sees?"
Porkchop and Tork stepped up to the base of the tree and allowed the blonde to climb down on their shoulders. They began to lead Vert off to the house, which had stopped shaking after a while, but he pulled them back.
"Hey, what gives, man?"
"There were two girls with me", he said, looking around wildly before his eyes fell on the tree branches once more, and he waved his arms, calling out to them. "Arata! FD!"
Wylde had already come around with a ladder and the Metal Maniacs began the delicate business of getting the girls out of the tree, and within a few minutes, both of them lay on the back lawn, breathing gently. Vert kneeled down between them, shaking them.
"FD! Arata! Come on, don't do this to me," he pleaded. "Come on, wake up. You promised we could go to International House Of Pancakes after you sprung me…Please, FD, they'll have bacon there…"
The girl who lay on Vert's right sat bolt upright, gasping, her insanely curly deep brown hair whipping around her. Her frantic chocolate eyes were full of panic for a single moment, and then lit up.
"Pancakes! Oh, The pancakes!!" She grabbed the redhead still unconscious on Vert's left, lifting her up by the straps of her tank top and shaking her awake. "Arata, we must get pancakes!!"
The one called Arata groggily opened her eyes, and FD set her on her feet. "What about pancakes now?" she asked, her voice wavering.
Vert smiled at the two of them. "Arata, you promised me we'd go to IHOP as soon as we were free. And we're safe now! You girls saved my life." The blonde hugged both girls, and then took a good look around. "We should get inside. Uh, if that's okay, Tork?"
)-(
Arata looked around, taking in the sights of the cabin where the Metal Maniacs currently resided; the skuzzy cushions were only half tucked into the couch, a portrait of Elvis Presley painted on black velvet hung askew on the far wall, and various knick-knacks and curios lay strewn across the floor.
"What a dump," she said.
"I think it's cozy," FD protested. "Reminds me of home."
"Of course it does. Your place was a total sty."
"It was better than living between hotel rooms like you and Kurt were after he left the circus…" FD trailed off, and then gasped. "Dude! What happened to Kurt?"
Arata whirled around to Vert, who was on the couch, holding his knees to his chest. "Where's the German guy who was with us?"
"There was a German guy?" he asked, puzzled, and then it dawned on him. "Oh! You mean the circus freak!"
Arata slapped him upside his head. "Kurt Wagner is more of a man than you will ever be, blue fur or not! Now what happened to him?!"
"I-I don't remember! Stop yelling at me! YOU SAID WE'D GET PANCAKES!!" Vert began to sob and hugged his knees tighter to his chest, rocking back and forth.
FD put a light hand on his shoulder, speaking softly. "Blondie, that isn't going to help anything, now, why don't you stop that, okay?" FD turned to Tork. "Excuse me, Tork, was it? May I use your kitchen?"
The burly leader of the Metal Maniacs nodded in the appropriate direction, and FD clapped her hands, jumping and giving a girlish squeal. "Who wants pancakes?" Almost immediately, Vert brightened up, mimicking her squeal, and Porkchop, Monkey, Taro and Tork couldn't help but wonder, why?
Why would something so insignificant as a breakfast item cause him so much joy? What possibly could have happened to cause him to react in such a way? More over, who were these girls who fell from the heavens with their lost friend? And why on earth was she so obsessed with pancakes?!
Wylde came through the hallway from his room, stopping next to Tork. "I called my brother," he said. "The Teku are on their way."
Tork nodded. Vert had obviously been through a great deal and the best thing for him would be to be surrounded by friends. He needed people who cared about him. Tork advised Wylde to call Dr. Tezla while he was at it; with all the trouble they had been through, he knew the old man would want the information.
)-(
"You said we were going to IHOP," Vert sulked from his chair. Arata flicked his ear, and he cried out indignantly.
"IHOP has security cameras, security cameras are monitored by the government, the government is looking for you," she said. "Besides, FD is better than IHOP. She won't spit in your food."
"Satisfaction guaranteed," FD purred with a sultry grin, her hair brushing Monkey's shoulder as she placed a plate in front of him. Arata rolled her eyes, but said nothing, and Monkey scooted his chair a few inches away from her.
As FD finished passing out the plates of her award winning pancakes, Arata wasted no time in digging in to the yummy breakfast. Everyone else was hesitant to eat the food from the strange girl who fell from the sky. But Porkchop was hungry, so he took a huge bite of the pancakes and finished half the plate in one bite. Anata's eyes opened wide with abject horror.
"Dude…. It's a fork… not a shovel. Daaaaaamn."
"I dun care. It's mighty tasty!" Porkchop continued to eat the "mighty tasty" pancakes and had a satisfied look on his face as he sat back and contemplated a second helping.
"Y-yeah… well, you have an iron stomach," Monkey said, poking the pancakes with his fork. Porkchop pointed at Monkey's plate with a meaty hand.
"Ya gonna eat that?"
Monkey got protective and pulled the plate closer to him and began to eat. After a few bites, his eyes and face changed from skepticism to pleasant surprise and joy.
"H-hey… this is actually pretty good." The others each looked around and shrugged and also began to eat. If Monkey ate it, then it had to be good. Monkey was a picky eater. Their own expressions changed to joy and they all ate happily, small mutterings of approval going around. FD smiled and ate her own plate while she sat on the counter. Arata smiled as she finished her food, pushed the plate away, burped gently, and reached for the local newspaper.
The sound of screeching tires were heard from outside. FD turned her head to the door with collie-like attention.
"Someone's coming…" The sound of the front door opening went through the house and FD slipped from the counter she sat upon and growled as the members of the Teku Street Racers each filed into the kitchen. Arata moved swiftly from her seat and went to FD's side, taking her by the collar gently and humming to calm the ookami, knowing well how she could get.
Kurt was the first one in the room. "We're here, what's going…." - he stopped and looked at the two new girls. He raised an eyebrow. - "…on?" He looked around the kitchen and saw the little blonde boy shoving pancakes into his mouth with utter joy.
"Oh my… Vert! Dude, you're not dead!" He turned to the rest of his team with happiness. "Karma, guys, Blondie lives!" Vert paid no attention as he continued to shove the fluffy goodness down his throat as the Teku filled the kitchen one by one, their expressions brightening as they each saw their missing team mate.
FD began to calm down and Arata looked up to survey the new comers. Her eyes landed on a Japanese boy with a slight build with a bubble vest that just looked awesome on him. Orange tinted glasses graced his face just in front of almond shaped eyes. He briefly looked at her before looking away towards Vert.
"Heh, dude, you're alive. Cool."
As the Teku and Metal Maniacs all surrounded Vert, FD was released by Arata. She went over to the group, wanting to be a part of the gathering. She moved close to Monkey, the action going unnoticed by the mechanic. Arata glance around, her eyes stopping on the Japanese boy with the glasses. She couldn't pull her eyes from him, and she went slightly insane without knowing his name. She figured going outside for some air would be a good idea.
She put her hand on FD's shoulder as she passed. It was the universal sign they had created to let each other know that something was bothering them and they needed to be alone for a bit. She walked out of the house and sat on the front porch steps and looked out at the mountains.
Arata rested her head on her hand and thought about how they got there. She remembered very little about what happened at Lake Baikal. Somehow she had beaten the vampire lord who had inflicted the vampire curse upon her. Everything was fuzzy, but she remembered FD being there when she said to run. FD, her most loyal friend.
She had beaten the vampire lord and, because of that, the curse left her and she had returned to her normal kitsune form and regained her memories. She learned her actual name was Arata and not Shimo. She was no longer pale but more olive toned since she loves the sun now more than ever. After all that happened, they went on to their original plan to bring Democracy to Cuba.
But, once again, FD drank in honor of the victory over the vampire lord. FD cannot drink, especially since she's the only one with the geographical sense. Somehow they managed to end up at a military base somewhere in Nevada. From there, all hell broke loose and they were separated. Tsume seemingly went to Las Vegas to find one of his old flames from when he was still human. Sasuke took the next plane back out to Japan to find the Leaf Village now that his service was freed when Shimo wasn't afflicted with the curse anymore.
Then from there, FD got her nose into something and found Vert. He begged them to get him out, so they did. He was just so innocent, so they just had to help the poor blonde. So they broke him out and FD got her nose into something else. Whatever it was, it opened a portal and the three of them were sucked into it. The last thing she remembered was a bright pink and purple light before everything went black and she woke up behind the cabin with FD and a crap load of new people.
She sighed. She was happy that nothing went wrong and they all didn't end up being separated from each other in the vortex. Her mind then wrapped around the fact that Kurt was gone. She couldn't believe that he was. He was her blue fuzzy boy, but there was nothing she could do right now. She didn't even know if she could find the military base again. She could only pray to the Japanese gods that he's okay and safe.
She looked up to distract her thoughts and to keep herself from crying her eyes out. Her eyes then landed on one hell of a nice car. The entire back end of it was gutted out to make room for huge speakers, leaving only two seats in the front. She went all googily-eyed at it and made a bee line right to the driver's side, which was on the right of the car, it being European styled. She put her hand on the door handle thinking that a small joyride was all she needed to get her mind off of her Kurt.
She slipped into the driver's seat and ran her hands over the dashboard and down the controls and the stick shift. She turned her head back towards the cabin with an evil grin before breaking open the steering column and messed around with the wires a little. She hotwired the car and instantly took off as soon as it purred to life.
"WOOHOO!" She raced away from the cabin just as the Teku and Maniacs rushed to the porch. Poor Shirako looked wide eyed as he saw his car, Raver, speed off into the distance and out of sight. He stared for a long moment before turning and sobbing on Karma's shoulder.
"My caaaaaaaaaaaar!" Karma gently pat his head as he continued to sob.
"There, there… it's alright."
FD stuck her head out of the window and saw the car going off. She grinned. "Go Arata!" she said, pumping her fist into the air. Shirako sobbed even louder as FD laughed and shook her head. "That little fox, I swear…"
Nolo was the last of the group to walk out onto the porch. He noted that Shirako was crying on Karma's shoulder and that one of the Teku race cars was missing. Shirako's car was missing, and that didn't sit well with him.
"Shirako, who took Raver?" he asked. He sobbed even louder and the strange girl answered for him.
"Her name is Arata. She does that sometimes. I don't know how her mind works, but she just likes stealing stuff. She'll bring it back though, she has a terrible sense of direction, and I'll guarantee that. But I won't guarantee that it'll come back in one piece."
Shirako fell silent and stared at her in absolute terror before breaking into a fresh batch of sobs. "My baaaaaaabyyyyyyyyy!"
Porkchop stood to the side and smiled. "Ha. Couldn't 'ave happened ta a nicer guy."
"Shut up, mullet boy." Nolo sent a warning gaze towards the southern trucker.
"Mullet Boy?" FD asked. "You mean that Memphis moron who, in conjunction with Hardcore Cowboy, wanted to brain wash the world with evil repetitive country music?!" She balled her fist, growling at Porkchop, and everyone only stared at her, Shirako's sobbing still going in the background.
"Of course, that wasn't nearly as bad as when Captain Jock and Sk8terkid teamed up; poor Emo Boy cut his wrists over that… again…"
Nolo stared at her, his eye twitching. "Stop that! We already played Babble-Like-An-Idiot! Can we stick to the situation at hand? My team mate just had his CAR STOLEN!"
FD paid no attention to the statement, looking at Nolo thoughtfully. "Actually," she said, "you kinda look like Emo Boy. You're not going to steal my nail polish, are you?"
Karma snickered, still comforting Shirako. "I told you that was a bad haircut."
"SHUT UP! My hair is not the problem!" He shook his head, bangs whipping dramatically from his face. "Karma, track the thief. Kurt, take the west side road. I'll go east and we'll trap her in the middle!"
FD smiled. "You do that." She snickered. "They'll never catch heeeeerrrrr…" she added under her breath in a sing-song voice.
As the Teku started for their cars, the deep beating of Shirako's techno music thrummed though the ground and got louder as the car came closer to the cabin. Arata pulled up quickly and hit the brakes, skidding to a stop in a rush of dust from the dirt path. The beats suddenly stopped as the car was turned off and she pulled herself out of the driver's seat and walked towards them.
"Damn! That was a wicked ride! Just what I needed to clear my head."
"BABY!" Shirako rushed to his car and threw his upper body and arm over the driver's side door and gently stroked the mirror. "The evil woman didn't hurt you, did she? I missed you!" FD and Arata looked at Shirako and then at each other. They broke out laughing.
"Oh god, the SPARKLES!" They said in unison. Nolo shook his head and grabbed Arata's shoulder, turning her abruptly to face him.
"What the hell was that? You hotwired my team mate's car and took off with it? What were you thinking pendejo?"
She looked at him, her eyes hard and a frown hit her gentle lips. "Retroceda."
'Uh oh,' FD thought.
Nolo clenched his jaw and stared down at her. "Chinga, putana," he said slowly, with a self important look. He really did have an aristocratic face, so Arata decided to rearrange it for him.
How did she do that? Simple: she sent a hard fist square into his gut. His eyes bulged with pain and he dropped down to his knees, clutching his abdomen, in front of the petit orange head.
"Y-yikes…" Monkey said, shivering.
Arata turned around and stomped her foot on the ground and looked at FD. "I can't believe it! He called me a whore! It was in Spanish, but it still meant whore! I need to freaking break something!"
"Honey, I think ya already broke one of his ribs…"
Arata looked down at the shriveled Mexican at her feet. She growled a little. "Pendejo."
She walked away from him towards the cabin. Everyone parted like the Red Sea to get out of her way as she stalked by and into the living room and plopped down on the couch next to the now sleeping Vert.
)-(
The next day, Arata had calmed down. Nolo was still in pain though and he now had a healthy fear of the orange haired short woman. Shirako came in from outside, having slept in his car as penance for allowing her to be ripped off like that the day before.
He slugged towards the kitchen, noting that no one was awake yet. But he was wrong. He learned this when he walked into the little kitchen and saw that Arata was sitting at the far corner of the breakfast table, drinking some cranberry juice.
He stopped slightly at the doorway and looked at her. She felt someone watching her and looked up and their eyes connected.
"Yo," she said.
"Yo."
She lifted the corner of her mouth in a tiny smile as he went to the fridge and looked for something-or-other. Arata held onto her juice glass and turned it aimlessly in her fingers.
"Hey, I'm sorry about taking your car," she said slowly. "I shouldn't have."
"Yeah, that was a real dick move." They looked at each other and then he grinned and started to laugh, Arata soon following with her own laughter.
"So, does that mean I'm forgiven?"
"Yeah," he said grinning, closing the fridge door and leaning against it casually. "I couldn't stay mad at a cutie like you."
Their eyes met, a tender moment of silence passing between them like two ships in the night, but the silence was suddenly broken by an anguished, strangled voice butchering a Berry Manilow song.
"Oh, Mandy! Well you came, and you gave without takin', but I sent you away! Oh, Mandy! Well, you kissed me and stopped me from shakin', and I need you today!"
Shirako grimaced, his eyes asking Arata for forgiveness. "Vert's in the shower," he muttered apologetically. Slowly, a trail of groggy and unhappy looking street racers ambled out from the guest rooms in the large cabin in the woods.
"Sounds lahk a dyin' giraffe," Porkchop grumbled. A very irritated looking Monkey agreed with him, saying something under his breath that caused the trucker to laugh. FD staggered into the kitchen, growling. She tramped past all of them towards the bathroom and flung open the door.
"Stop killing small animals in there, would you, you psycho?!" She slammed the door and stepped back into the kitchen with a self satisfied smile. Arata raised her eyebrow with a smirk, and FD smirked right back. She raised one hand to eye level, holding her index finger and thumb together as if to indicate something small. Arata scoffed, eyes wide, and then fell out of her chair laughing hysterically. Still half asleep as they were, it took most of them a moment or two to register just what they meant, even as Shirako snickered endlessly, banging his fist on the table. Anata gave one final laugh, gasping for air and wiping a tear from her eye, extending her hand for Shirako to help her up, and he obliged.
"Tiny-tiny," FD said with a Cheshire grin, sending Arata into another fit, and this time, every single person in the room joined her. She fell back on her knees, dragging Shirako down with her, and this caused them all to laugh even harder. The laughing stopped when the singing started up again.
"Music and passion were always the fashion at the Copaaaaaaa! They fell in loooove…"
Annoyed groans filled the room as the God-awful caterwauling continued, and FD turned to Nolo; she had gathered through the way they interacted that Nolo was the boss of the Teku. She had eventually confirmed her suspicions through Monkey, who had babbled nervously while trying to think of a way to ask her to leave without upsetting her.
"Does he always sing Manilow?" she whined. Nolo shook his head sadly.
"I never heard him sing before," he admitted. "He was acting really weird yesterday, too. He just kept rambling the weirdest things…"
"Like what?"
Nolo hesitated, and after a moment, he finally said, "It sounded like quadratic equations at first… Then he started begging someone to stop, to please stop…"
Karma nodded. "After that, he started rocking back and forth, hugging his knees to his chest and saying 'wrong, it's wrong!' over and over again."
Arata and Shirako managed to untangle themselves and pulled each other up from the floor. She nodded her head in reference to what they were talking about.
"He was acting weird when we found him," she said. "And we didn't even know who he was at the time."
The phone rang just then. Tork went and answered it. He picked it up and didn't even have time to say 'hello'. He listened intently with a furrowed brow and closed his eyes in concentration.
"How much time to we have? Twenty minutes? You sure? Right. Got it." He hung up and turned back to the Maniacs and the Teku. "We have a problem. The last vestiges of Drones are coming right for us this very minute. That was Dr. Tezla. He's driving as fast as he can with them right on his tail. He says if he doesn't make it, it's been nice knowing us all. Oh, yeah, get ready for a fight."
Everyone looked at him. Monkey was the first to break the silence.
"AHHHHHHHH!!! Call the Marines, call the AIR FORCE! Sparky! Ruuuuuuun!"
As he ran past FD, she reached out and grabbed him squarely by his shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes. "First off: SHUSH. And second, don't worry, sweetheart, Arata and I have this totally under control."
Arata smirked and nodded once. Nolo was more hesitant to let that slide.
"What do you mean you have it under control? Last time I remember, SHE," – he pointed at Arata – "stole a Teku racer. How is that being under control? She could have smashed it to pieces."
FD glared at the Mexican racer. "She sure has you under her thumb." She paused, snapping her fingers three times. "Told you biotch."
Nolo quickly shut his mouth and stepped away from the two girls. There was a comical feeling in the room as all the eyes were put on him, the image of his gut wrenching flashing out there to plague his mind. He whimpered just under the hearing range.
Karma stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "Stow it Nolo, we need all the help we can get," she said. "But what exactly are you two planning on doing?"
Arata grinned. "Mind if I use your phone?" she asked Tork. He handed her the phone in his hand and she quickly dialed a number and put it to her ear.
FD jumped for joy when she heard the familiar voice on the other line. "EEEEE!!! Scrawny red-head evil boy geniuuuuuus!" Karma looked at her strangely. "Aaaaaand he's a goth! How hot is that?!"
"Jackie!" Arata said happily. "How are you snack-man?"
"Oh god… not you…" he said.
"Listen, we need a favor."
"And whyyyyyy should I help youuuuuuu?"
"Because if you don't I will hunt you down and fulfill my threat of turning you into an actual meal. Now, here is where we are…"
)-(
Arata and FD stood in the middle of the path outside. FD could hear the buzz of the Drones as they raced towards the cabin. The dust cloud was a positive notion they were actually coming. The Maniacs and the Teku were positioned along the lot behind the two with various metal parts to use as weapons while the two girls had nothing to arm themselves with.
Wylde got a little nervous. HE was ready for them to come so he could take them out. But the other side of him was deathly scared of them. They chopped off his arm, what's not to be afraid of?
"Hey, w-where's your favor?" Monkey asked, knees knocking together in fear.
"Oh, he'll show," Arata said. "Or else."
FD stepped over to Vert who was babbling incoherently to himself. She took him by the shoulders and spoke gently to him. "It's going to be okay, Vert," she said. "Now, I'm going to say something. You might not remember any of this later, but I have to say it."
Vert stopped babbling and looked at her. "But… if they're already dead, why are they trying to steal my bananas?" FD looked him in the eyes and spoke in a calm and even voice.
"Galileo, Galileo, Galileo Figaro."
Vert's eyes hardened and his lips pursed into a cold, cruel line. "Agent Small Wonder awaiting orders, Ma'am."
"The racing Drones have learned our Twenty," she said. "They could attack at any moment. The people around you are your allies."
"What resources are at our disposal, Ma'am?"
"The cars and almost nothing else. Just remember whose side you're on."
"Yes, Ma'am."
The collection of Metal Maniacs and Teku all stared at the little blonde boy in slight terror.
"What in the Sam Hill happened ta him?" Porkchop asked.
"His brain was cleaned, dried and pressed," Arata said blandly.
"And with light starch!" FD added gleefully. "Poor little thing's a government puppet."
"Yup, basically put he is a puppet. One hell of a good soldier though."
Vert produced a Glock 9mm pistol from seemingly nowhere and ejected the clip to check his ammo. Satisfied, he locked the clip back in place and cocked it. FD started walking gently back and forth behind Arata, waiting for the favor.
"Spicer," she said. "Where are you?" Arata looked back and then at the sun, figuring out how long it had been since she called. "Damn it, emo dork, get your ass here."
"I AM NOT EMO!" came the shout from the sky; a pale boy in a black trench coat, his eyes and hair the same shade of red, was flying towards them with a jet pack like item strapped to his back. He was surrounded by robots with helicopter propellers coming from their shoulders. Looking at him coldly, Vert aimed his gun but FD grabbed his wrist.
"NO! These are your friends. Differentiate them from the Drones."
"Yes, Ma'am," he said lowering his weapon.
Jack landed behind Arata, hoping she would keep FD away from him. "I'm here Shimo," he said.
"My name is Arata and what the bloody hell took you so long?"
"There was a bad wind coming up from the Gulf," he whined. "Some of the Jack-Bots got blown off course."
"Riiight…" Arata looked back when she heard the sound of a racer coming their way. They all looked in time to see a silver purple car racing down from a mountain path.
"Watch out for the black and green thingies!" FD shouted, leaning over and going down on all fours. The back of her shirt and jeans split as she transformed into a huge wolf-like creature and took off into the trees, out of sight.
"WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT THING?!" Monkey screamed, starting to climb up on Porkchop's shoulders. This caused the southerner to stumble and cry out in protest.
"GETTOFF!" he said, pulling the Irish man from him and dropping him on the ground.
"That," Arata said with a smirk, "was Fenrir's Daughter."
She turned her attention back to the racer that was coming towards them still only to see the horde of Drones barreling down the path behind him. After a few seconds, the Drones seemed to wave up and then come crashing down on top of the car, completely covering it from sight. When the wave of Drones passed over it, the car was on its head, completely upside-down and ripped almost to shreds.
They continued down the path and were mere yards away. At that moment, Arata whipped out a six foot battle staff with shining blades on both ends.
"Vert! Commence attack!" She ran head first into the Drones, swinging her weapon dangerously around and attacking any Drone that came a mere foot from her. A car raced past her and she took a quick glance to see all the race cars attacking the Drones demolition derby style.
"FD! NOW!"
There was a blur of teeth and claws coming from the woods and the most horrible throaty sound that most people would only hear in their nightmares came thundering from FD's lungs. She landed on the hood of one Drone car and ripped off the top, grabbing the robotic driver and shredding it like paper. She jumped from car to car and repeated her performance about five more times before she was hit with a blast from a plasma cannon mounted on a Drone fighter jet.
"Jack-Bots! ATTACK!"
The chest plates on the Jack-Bots slid open and revealed gattling guns and started to shoot down the planes, choppers and scouts.
It was a complete and utter dog fight in the air as the demolition derby continued on the mountain side.
Shirako slammed down on the brake and hit the gas simultaneously, careening in an arc and took out three drone cars. With a smirk, he turned on the Megabass, but out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Arata with four fox tails and large orange ears.
This momentary distraction was just enough for a Drone car to rear-end him and send him into a nearby tree. His head hit the dashboard and he passed out from the hard collision.
Arata was aware of what had happened and this sent her into a small mood swing. "Shirako!" She finished off the Drone she was currently working on and raced over to the door of Shirako's racer. She tried the door but it was jammed so she smashed the windshield and slipped into the passenger seat. She leaned over and gingerly leaned him back from the dashboard. He groaned, but he didn't open his eyes.
"Shirako… are you okay?" she asked, shaking him gently. He didn't respond. Anata saw a Drone car barreling down on them, but Vert T-boned it into the other direction just in the knick of time. Arata scooped up the unconscious boy, holding him protectively, and took a huge leap into the branches of an ancient redwood that towered over their heads. Two Jack-Bots grouped around them as bodyguards.
The battle continued to rage both above and below them, the two alone and unnoticed like Ann Frank in her hidden annex.
)-(
Monkey drove wide eyed, turning the wheel back and forth desperately, trying to avoid the trees and the evil robots that pursued him. As opposed, of course, to the evil robots who were his allies? This was crazy! At least they were almost gone. The strange boy in the trench coat was cowering in the back seat of Monkey's SUV, whimpering like a little baby girl as he slammed away on his laptop, sending out battle strategies to his robots.
Monkey rolled his eyes and was about to say something to his unwanted passenger, but he slammed on the brakes, sending the unbuckled Goth in back into the dashboard, and then the trunk. A gigantic hairy creature with huge dripping fangs and curved claws stood in front of him. Monkey was ready to make peace with his God, thinking it was all over for him, but the creature jumped over the idling SUV and tore apart a Drone car that had been charging its plasma cannon, its sights set on Monkey.
In the back seat, Jack groaned and swayed back and forth.
"Buckle up, you idiot!" Monkey screamed, turning the wheel and hitting the accelerator. VROOOM!
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
)-(
Nolo and Kurt both circled clockwise around the pilot of a downed Drone chopper like hungry sharks. Refusing to give up, the Drone launched itself at Nolo's car. It wasn't fast enough, so in response to that, it was run over by Kurt's car.
"Nice one Kurt!" he called over the intercom. "Show'd 'em who's boss! Yeah!"
"Thank you, a-thank you very much!" Kurt said and backed over the Drone again.
Over the intercom, they could hear Porkchop give a rebel yell.
"YEEEEEHHHHHAAAHHH!" he called, narrowly missing Karma's car as he destroyed another Drone vehicle. Karma accelerated out of his path.
"Shirako's car hasn't moved in two and a half minutes," she said, playing chicken with a Drone. The Drone lost, of course.
"That's 'cause it's empty!" Wylde said over the radio. "I just passed it. The windshield is busted in and he's gone!"
"What?!" Karma said incredulously, dodging another plasma cannon blast. "Where the hell is he?"
"I'll be fucked if I know!"
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" she screamed, ramming a Drone car's side. It was stuck to the grill of her car and she skewered it into three more cars before it hit a tree.
"Who the man?" she said victoriously and backed up.
"Not you, you're a chick," Taro replied.
"We're fighting Drones and you're worried about my grammar?" she said blandly. Karma headed into a straight away and led on a Drone. As it caught up to her, she pulled a hard right and it went over a cliff.
Taro merely shrugged and said nothing in return.
"The Drone forces have been decimated. We've got two more cars left." Upon saying that, Vert slammed into the last two cars. "Correction: They're gone."
Everyone stopped their cars back near the house and each of them got out one by one and looked around.
"What about Shirako?" Nolo asked, getting out of his car and going over to his mechanic's damaged racer.
The wolf-like creature stood up on its hind legs before them; its fur receded and the shape slowly returned to that of a girl. FD stood naked before them, shaking her head to come back to her senses.
"I saw her climb up in a tree with him," she said. "They're around here somewhere."
The male drivers (except for Vert who was still in Soldier-Boy mode) only stared dumbly at her and the reality of FD's situation slowly dawned on her.
"Oh… oh crap…" With a feminine squeak, she ran into the cabin.
"Woah…" Monkey whispered.
"Daaaaaaamn…" Nolo said. "I didn't know she had all of that!"
Karma rolled her eyes and smacked him in the back of the head. She walked into the woods then and cupped her hands to her mouth.
"Shirako! Arata!" she called in a sing-songy voice, looking for the missing two. Jack stepped out of the back of Monkey's SUV, shaking.
"Two Jack-Bots are still unaccounted for. They're guarding Arata and a boy in one of the trees half a click southwest of here."
Dr. Tezla walked shakily out of the front door of the cabin, blushing slightly and his eyebrows half way up his forehead. "Did anyone else see that naked woman run past, or was that just me?"
"That was FD…" Monkey said dreamily. Porkchop punched him lightly in the arm and the other Metal Maniacs started whooping and cheering.
"Ooof… she was hot," Tork said. "She was a werewolf, or something, but she was hot!"
"She was totally hitting on me earlier!" Monkey said. "She wants me so baaaad man."
"You're dreamin," Wylde sad. "She wants me." Monkey stared at him.
"She didn't even talk to you!"
"Oh yeah? Let's settle this right now!"
FD walked out on the front porch now clothed. She was still blushing ever so slightly. "Umm, Vert? Where are you?"
"Yes Ma'am?" he said expectantly, his eyes cold.
"Ishkabibble, tastes like skittles!" Vert's eyes closed and he dropped to the ground in a heap, falling unconscious. "He'll be just fine in a minute," FD said. She looked around. "Where's Arata again?" She sniffed the air and stumbled off into the woods.
"ARA-CHAN! You gots some splainin ta dooooo!" Watching her walk, they noticed she had a fluffy tail and ears as she went on all fours and found Jack and Karma who had just found Arata and Shirako. The fox girl was standing near Jack and Karma with Shirako still unconscious and positioned piggyback style on her back as she carried him towards the cabin.
Everyone was relieved to see them all okay as the small group returned from out of the woods. They didn't care about the strange tails and ears on the two girls as they passed them to the porch. Arata gently placed the sleeping boy on the porch swing and smiled down at him.
"Awwww," FD said. "He's so cute when he's sleeping." She smiled, showing her fangs. Arata smiled back, her own fangs glittering.
"Now what?" Porkchop asked.
"Well," Arata thought out loud. "German Kurt is still missing. I wanna know if he's okay. But I don't want to leave."
FD looked at her good friend and sort of figured out why she didn't want to go look for Nightcrawler herself. "It's okay, Ara-chan," she said. "I'll find him. It's not like I have anything better to do. I'll call up Tsume; maybe he'll come and help me."
"I umm…" Monkey stammered, looking away. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I could help you, I guess."
FD looked at him. "You sure?" she asked. He nodded.
"I dunno. I couldn't keep my eye on a human every second… Of course, we could solve the human problem here and now…" She grinned, her fangs glittering in the afternoon sun.
"Dammit, FD, don't make me get the hose."
"Let the boy make his own decisions," she growled, for once standing up to the kitsune's authorities. "Maybe he's sick of being a monkey-man. Maybe he'd rather be a wolf instead."
"You know you're not supposed to turn any more until 2012! There are more than enough of your kind running around as it is!"
"Just because I'm not supposed to, doesn't mean I can't. Just a little bite, that's all." She gave Monkey a sultry look, showing him her fangs. "Just one little bite, and then you're so much more, Monkey. So much more than a woman or a man could ever hope to be. So much more…"
He stared unblinkingly into her eyes, unable to move, transfixed in her gaze, and stood there when she put her arms around his waist.
"…J-just one little bite?" he said, his voice faltering. He closed his eyes, and bent his neck down. Her hair smelled like pine needles from running around in the woods so long. He felt her fangs break the skin over his collar bone and cried out.
"Just one little bite," she said, his blood staining the corner of her mouth. She held him possessively and giggled. "Oh, I can't wait 'til the next full moon! This is gonna be grrrrreat!!"
Tork glared at the pair; there went his mechanic. They'd get along fine enough without him, sure, but he was the comic relief! Without Monkey, who would balance out Taro's morbid sense of humor? Who would lighten the mood after a bad day? Who would play with Sparky?
"…Has anyone seen Sparky?"
There was a sound of sparks flying somewhere in the rubble. Dr. Tezla moved through the mess and pushed some metal away from the poor damaged robot. Monkey stumbled away from FD for a moment and went to Tezla. His eyes were wide, tainted with just a little bit of moisture.
"Sp-sparky…" He took the robot and fell to his knees. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO! He was so young."
FD walked up behind Monkey and draped her arms around him soothingly. Monkey sobbed over the loss of his best robotic buddy. "He went out fighting…" he said. "He's a true hero…!"
"There, there," FD purred. "It'll be okay."
Arata went up to the sobbing mechanic and knelt down in front of him. She took the broken robot from his arms gently and smiled friendly.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm pretty good at mechanics. I'll have him back to his old self before you know it. You deserve a rest."
FD took Monkey by his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. She guided him towards the cabin and inside to his room to lay him down to cry to his hearts content. Arata held onto the broken robot and placed it on the porch next to the porch swing. Buy this time, the collected racers were dispersing, seeing that it would be better to start cleaning up and disposing of the rubble.
)-(
The following three days were tough for the Metal Maniacs and for the Teku. The Teku racers decided it would be best to stick around the cabin and continue to clean up the mess they made. Jack Spicer had returned to Springwood and he hasn't been heard nor seen since. Arata thought it best. She never liked the emo kid anyway. The real reason the Teku stayed was for their injured companion. Shirako took more of a hit than anyone originally thought and it took him slightly longer to recover from it.
The real roughness of the time was with Monkey. The effects of FD's bite were severe as the full moon came closer and closer. He would snap at anyone if they said something slightly wrong in front of or near him. FD was constantly by his side, a continued support for him in the midst of his transformation. Poor Porkchop had a run in with this when Monkey flipped and tried to steal the bone Porkchop wore around his neck. Both FD and Arata had to pull him off the large southerner.
Vert was recovering from his brain tampering in the military base. While he wasn't a hundred percent yet, Karma thought it best he stay with her out of the kindness of her heart. She truly cared for him and soon he'd be back to his old self once again. He never spoke of what happened at the base; Arata never mentioned anything either, much to the blonde's relief.
)-(
It was finally the night of the Full Moon. Monkey sat on the porch of the cabin and looked out into the woods of the mountain. The moonlight shined down on him, his red head outlined in silver. After a while, he was accompanied by Porkchop. He sat down beside the mechanic and looked out at the moon as well, silently thinking.
"So," he said. "Yer leavin'?"
Monkey looked down at the ground. "No choice," he said. "You know what would happen if I didn't. I mean, I almost tore your head off earlier. No control."
"So you're not going to fight against it?"
"You're all my pals," Monkey said, looking at him. "Besides, we'll back after we find this German kid FD and Arata have been talking about."
"Ya promise?"
Monkey nodded an affirmative, even if it was a little sad. "Promise." He turned his head and looked behind them when he heard FD's familiar footfall. She smiled at him and walked down the porch steps, taking his hand and leading him towards the edge of the woods.
"Ready?" she asked him.
"Ready as I'll ever be." FD nodded and went down on all fours and started running. As she ran, her body transformed into the wolf and she slowed to allow Monkey to catch up. By the time he reached her, he was fully transformed into a stunning red wolf. Then they both took off into the moonlit distance.
)-(
Arata was invited by Shirako to live with him in his apartment. He was grateful for her rescue of him that it was the least he could do. He really couldn't help it all that much, she was such a cutie.
The kitsune was working down in the Teku garage, trying her best to put little Sparky back together for Monkey for when he returned. She made him a promise and she was going to fulfill it.
But her work was slow. She kept reflecting on past events as she screwed on a bolt to Sparky shoulder. It's been three months now since FD and Monkey left in search of Nightcrawler and that plus a few days since she moved in with Shirako.
She had received a few postcards from her wolf friend. One of them had a very interesting piece of trivia for Porkchop that she relayed to him when she went to get some parts for Sparky.
"Yanno, Porkchop," she said. "FD learned that in the tropics, Human flesh is considered the long pork." She made a face and wiggled her eye brows in the way FD would if she were actually there.
"Woman, don't do that," was all Porkchop could say. Arata thought that it just wasn't the same without FD there. It was even quiet in the cabin without Monkey.
But she was lucky things ended up the way they had. Maybe being normal would be okay; maybe leading a somewhat quiet life with the Teku was what she was searching for.
She wiped her forehead to rid it of some grease, but the action only smeared it a little more. She reached for another bolt and screwed it onto Sparky and he suddenly animated to life.
"Hello," said the little robot. "Hello. Hello."
"Heya, Sparky," Arata said with a smile. "Monkey will be extremely happy to see you."
She went to work on finishing the bolts on his neck area when suddenly the hair on the back of her neck rose on end and the sound of the metal bolt clanking onto the cement ground. The one sound she didn't think she'd hear was a very resounding BAMF!
THE END... or is it?
A/N: I have nothing much to say except, OMFG! It's an actual post from MOI! But considering the topic of the post, More than 90 percent of the credit to this fanfic goes to Fenrir's Daughter since she is the AcceleRacers maniac fangirl. I just like Shirako. (lol). And we were really thinking about pankcakes when we started this story. It began with a Stewie Griffin quote about him wanting pancakes and yadda, yadda, you know what I mean.
"I want pancakes! God, do you people speake every other language except English? Yo quiero pancakes, done et moi pancakes, CLICK CLICK, BLOODY, CLICK PANCAKES!"
-Stewie Griffin does not belong to us either.
Oh, FD, I know we started with the name Akira for me, but remember when I said I was going to change my penname to that? I checked it and there's about 120 names with 'Akira' in it. So I did some searching and 'Arata' was hardly used. You know my obsession, so I just HAD to add 'Takamoto' at the end of it.
Disclaimers: "Smite us, oh mighty Smiter!" The mention of Kurt Wagner is from X-Men: Evolution. Tsume is from Wolf's Rain and Sasuke is from Naruto. Of course, the AcceleRacers don't belong to us either. If they did, Monkey would be FD's play thing, Shirako would get all of his human rights demolished and be forced to marry me, and ya know how it goes. They're not ours. Damn it...
The little Mullet Boy skit is not ours also. Sk8erkid, Emo Boy and the other wierd-named people in that tiny thing don't belong ot us either. They came from a comic strip on deviantArt. The link to this will be posted on my profile.
FD's character belongs to Fenrir's Daughter and Arata's character belongs to me.
Uhhh, yeah! That's everything. Soo, reviews would be so totally awesome! Right Sparky?
"Awesome. Awesome."