Hello again. ^_^ Yes. Yes, I am probably on the verge of screwing things up...because I'm not sure but...oh well...so for me,Yes yes this gorgeous masked man we all know and love does sometimes rescue people by himself without the ladies directly in tow...though they do appear...they play a small part in my little world here so again, we all remember where the back button is...yes? Alright. Epic. Thank you to all and any who read this and I remind y'all of the slash (mmmm slash). Warnings for this chapter: Violence, reptiles, allusions to drug use, gratuitous use of Latin...(Suavite means 'Sweetly' btw that may or may not become important..._ ya never know) As always, I own nothing (except a dog and he makes me no money) so...don't sue because hey! It belongs not to me but to others! ENJOY
Aaron lay on the stage breathing hard as he clung to one of the innocuous red velvet curtains as his blue eyes swept desperately over the tall black clad figure standing to the right and slightly behind the blue haired woman...creature.
The other man wore something rather similar to himself though in a much more military cut. The silver buttons pinned his stiff vest over a stark white shirt.
His angular dinner jacket with its impossibly high lapels gave mind to his white mask, also sharp and angular-it covered nearly the entirety of the upper half of his face.
The way it sat made it impossible to tell exactly what kind of face he had, his eye colour, the cut of his jaw, the length or colour of his hair. The top hat on the top of his head completed the look quite nicely and he cut a figure of intense strength and defiance.
He reared his chin at the woman and narrowed his eyes as she glared and her lips tightened in fury. The stand off lasted about 12 seconds when the woman growled angrily "what do YOU want?" she demanded with a slightly childish pout.
"I already told you" he repeated slowly.
"But one voice will do no harm" she repeated, sulking.
"Even though you'd have to kill him?" the masked man asked, sarcasm fairly dripping from every word.
Aaron's eyes flew wide open and he gulped, jaw twitching, white fingers clung to the curtain and he pulled his long legs towards his body trying to recoil as far away from her as he possibly could. Terrified now that it became a reality. What she would actually do. Wanted to do.
"Well if you feel that way" she said and held up a small blue box, decorated with the same barbed wire stars that decorated her mouth.
"Go forth my pets. Go forth and deal with him" she said and threw the box in the air.
The masked baritone gasped as the box slid open and several glittering blue snakes materialized from nothing, from nowhere, as the box flashed into nothing. The squirming things flew through the air at unimaginable speeds straight towards the strange hero, not as if they'd been flung but as if they were floating free of any aid.
The man swirled his long cloak and they hit the ground, he threw a rose (which he seemed to pull directly from thin air) into one slithering body and slammed his boot heel down on a second.
He whirled to decimate a third one with the same movement but Aaron saw what was about to happen, he opened his mouth to warn the masked avenger but the other shook his head "Do. Not. Speak." he commanded sharply, with no small amount of authority in his words.
Aaron frowned for less then half a second as his rescuer delved uninterrupted back into the battle, leaping from the snake that Aaron had been about to warn him of when the french man realized the snake woman was fixed on him, not doing anything at all...waiting for something...waiting for what? And then the pieces clicked and it made sense.
His voice. She was waiting for his voice. Her bizarre demand, the mans insistence that he not speak, what she wanted...his eyes flew wide open and he released the curtain (which he still clutched as his one anchor to reality) with one hand which he promptly clapped over his mouth.
"oooo" the woman growled irritated and laid down her tentacle, and grabbed hard at the masked man who so far managed to evade the little snake demons. "I will send you down the snake hole to find true darkness Tuxedo Kamen" she hissed through her teeth, frustrated.
He managed to dodge her first and second blows, a smirk toying with his barely visible lips, which parted to retort but Aaron's grunting cry, restricted by his palm was the half second precursor to the agony the warrior felt in his wrist. He looked down and one of the hellish creatures -giggled- up at him before dropping to the ground and shrivelling to ash.
Mamoru blinked once and felt his whole body go rigid, he began to fall to the ground, when her main tentacle wrapped around his waist and hefted him into the air "You Failed Kamen" she almost purred, her tongue scraping the side of his face.
While he struggled the best he could more and more of his body fell to the poison and his eyes went wide as he felt himself start to slip, his hat fell from his head revealing his luxurious dark chestnut hair.
Aaron gulped and bit his lip, he knew that if he didn't do something VERY, VERY soon something horrible was about to happen. Gathering all of his courage against the demonic creature he leapt to his feet, removing his tie as quietly as he could he ran hard at her from behind, sending a soft prayer to the heavens he raised hard on the ball of his foot and kicked off the ground like the dancer he was.
Though he was loathe to touch her, he landed on her back and wound the cloth around her neck, yanking hard he cut off her outcry and pulled as hard as he could, rewarded when she dropped the dead weight of his rescuer to the stage, where he bounced once and rolled towards the left, stopping just short of a small lever that was hidden near a fold in the curtains.
She flailed underneath him and tried to get him off, but Aaron's heavy woolen coat prevented the success of her two remaining magical snakes. He pulled harder as she on the ends of the tie but the woman managed to wrap a tentacle around his waist as she gasped for breath, she threw him to the ground as well where he slammed into the wooden boards hard, sliding the same was as his hero only he slammed with his right side first INTO the lever.
She giggled her demonic giggle, though he found a small sort of pleasure that it was raspy and pained. She took a step towards them pulling yet another box from a flash of light in mid-air. "Just sing Suavite, just sing and this will all be over..I might even spare him for you" she squealed with delight.
Aaron struggled for a breath, pushing himself away from the lever he narrowed his eyes and got an idea, he took in a deep breath and his eyes fell on ...what had she called him...Kamen? And the other man was looking at him with pleading, quickly fading eyes.
He tightened his jaw and bit down on his lower lip, shaking his head impudently. She growled and slammed one of her tentacles down into the soft middle of the prone hero, his masked eyes went wide and his body bucked once, vomit leaking from the corner of his mouth his eyes slid shut.
Aaron curled his arm around his side protectively, and putting an expression of fear and agony onto his face he began to search frantically in his vest pockets, scrabbling for what he KNEW lay within. Bought the night before he had not yet had time to break it into parts or dilution. He wasn't sure what it would do against this thing of demonic beginnings, but if snake poison -however magickal it may have been- could bring down his rose-as-weaponry saviour then by the Gods he would try.
As his fingers closed around it the snake thing brought the new box right to his face, "I will have your voice" she hissed in his face, licking at his cheek with her forked tongue one more time. He gulped but managed not to recoil or cry out, waiting until she pulled her lips back in an evil grin he stabbed the hypodermic syringe into the side of her 'neck' and slammed the plunger down. She pulled away screeching and Aaron took the opportunity to kick out with his right heel slamming the lever down, he grabbed one stiff military lapel and dragged the unconscious man with him the trap door gave way underneath them and they both fell hard to the floor underneath.
He lay with the man beside him and he lashed out with his foot again to slam the lever down that would close the trap door above them. He scrambled in his upper vest pocket again and yanked out a pen, he quickly shoved it between the latch and the handle, it wouldn't last for LONG but it might be enough. SO far she didn't show signs of following them.
None the less he moved quickly, leaping to his feet he almost cried out as pain ripped through his side and lungs, but he remembered at the last moment, not sure of what he was or was not allowed to do he slapped a hand over his mouth and scrabbled through the abandoned set pieces as best he could as tears stung his eyes from the almost overwhelming pain.
He didn't know what he was searching for but things cried out in his head quickly as he sorted through old props, an old fencing foil, a small bottle from 'Faustus' a small handful of rags were the things he gathered. Rushing back to the side of his fallen hero, he turned him to his side, almost crying out again as something slammed into the ceiling from above, accompanied by a furious scream.
He turned his attention to the matter at hand he pried open Kamen's mouth and let the vomit pour out, he leaned over and listened to his chest, placing his icy fingertips over the opening he leant over frantically only pausing to wipe at the sticky mess from his lips quickly before he breathed air into his lungs, compressing his chest, Aaron gave pause to give him another breath, a soft whimper escaping his own throat at the agony searing his chest.
At last the man heaved a breath and coughed weakly, though his body went rigid in a seizure again, Aaron held him still this time with his head turned to properly expel.
When he had calmed again, the man moved to try and speak but Aaron just shook his head as another slam came to the ceiling-the boards would never last. "Later" he hissed as quietly as he could.
He grabbed him and hefted him to his feet, mostly dragging him down a small passage Aaron let out an actual soft cry as the pressure on his side became almost too much and he buckled to the ground. A scream threatened to break through as the floor finally exploded in what seemed to be a shower of explosive blue scales but he threw the bottle in his head and thick red fog began to spill into the air.
Aaron managed to drag the other man to a rather out of place tapestry, many people had joked about it but Aaron insisted it was a throw back to his father-there was no secret. A bald faced lie of course. He slipped it out of the way, kicked the screen (decorated to look identical to the surrounding rock face) out of the way and slid the body of the once again unconscious Kamen behind it, putting it back in place he let the tapestry fall over the space.
He hopped off down the hallway as quickly as his agony would allow. He may have been the current target of some sort of inexplicable creature but this was HIS opera house and he would use it to the best of his ability.
As he doubled back to the main auditorium he gasped and hid himself against a wall, peeking back into the room everything seemed to be calm. On the stage he saw a small group of girls, regular looking for the most part, no snake parts anyways, they had a strange aura about them, and their garb seemed strange and out of place...but that by no means meant that he trusted them.
The only person he felt trustworthy at that moment was his twin sister...and the half dead hero stashed in the secret passage.
He was terrified, confused, and in agony so he hurried to his office and locked himself in. He crumpled in the corner, put his face in his hands, and waited for them to go away, never giving pause to think about what they had been looking at.
So he hadn't seen their departure, or their tears over what they had found there on the half decimated stage...a crushed rose and a blood stained, velvet top hat.