CH. 35
The Day in Meltokio
Part 2
Max laid in the tub with dozens of thoughts racing through mind on what he heard from Zelos earlier. He took a deep breath and sunk his head into the water. He closed his eyes. He was now deeper in his thoughts, 'A race of man that left this world which are known as Mana Carries, will soon came to end all discrimination between all races.' What does it mean?'
Max submerged his head out of the water for some air. He stared at the ceiling like if he was lost in space. He let out a low sigh. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, "Max, it's Genis, I was told to let you know that me, Raine, Sheena, and Lloyd are back."
"Alright."
"Oh yea, are you going to be out anytime soon? Cause some of us would like to get washed up also."
"Give me five minutes." The medic climbed out of the tub and put on some clothes that he wore under his ODST armor which included a black t-shirt, black cargo pants that has small pockets, and metallic boots that only went half way up his shin. At this very moment his armor was covered in brown, smelly, filth, and was being washed by some of the trusted maids of the mansion. He exited the bathroom and before he went on downstairs, he spotted Genis sitting next to Presea. He seemed nervous. Max just walked past them casually while over hearing their conversation.
"Um… P-Presea?" Genis spoke. Presea turned her head to look at him, "well…um… y-you're… p-p-p-pretty…" the young half-elf lowered his head to hide his blush.
"P-p-p-pretty? What does it mean?" Presea asked.
"Oh, I was giving you a complement."
"I see… I think you're p-p-p-pretty too." Genis was completely silent on how Presea kind of acts. It's not that she's quite most of the time, but it might be the way she talks.
Max walked down the steps to the main hall and entered the dinning room to find Raine and Sebastian putting out plates for dinner. Raine looked over at Max as he approached, "Ah Max, how do you feel after that bath. Refreshed?"
"I'm fine thanks for asking. When's dinner?"
"Not in another hour. Please feel free to keep yourself busy until then." Sebastian said as he placed another plate on the table, "Oh, Sir Doc…"
"It's Max."
"Alright Sir Max."
"No, just Max."
"Well, I have a request I would like you to do."
"What would that be?"
"Can you go out and get us a sack of potatoes for tonight's dinner, we're pretty low."
"Sure, should I go out and get it now?"
"But Max," Raine began, "What about your armor? Aren't you going to bring that as well?"
"Don't worry about it, I can just use my cloak. Besides, it'll be a quick recovery mission."
Thirty minutes later…
Lloyd, Colette, and Zelos were in the living room area chatting about the plans for when they get the EC ship. Suddenly they heard the front door of the mansion slammed shut. Everyone rushed to the sound to find Max with his back to the door, sweating like crazy, gasping for air, and a sack of potatoes swung over his shoulders. "Guys… I think I fucked up on our stay in Meltokio…"
"Max, what did you do?" Raine asked putting a hand on one side of her face.
"Would it make sense if I told you that as I was walking back with the potatoes a little kid ran past me as I walked past some of the city guards, the kid yanked my cloak off, and then I ran my ass off on losing the guards and on getting here."
"Damn Max, why did you have to let your self be seen?!" Zelos yelled as he threw his hands in to air when he walked away into a different room, "now security here will be tighter then earlier! We might be here a few more day!"
"Hey! It wasn't my fault that I didn't even notice the kid running. I was lost in my own little world thinking of that conversation you and I had of the Mana Carriers!"
"You and Zelos had a conversation on Mana Carriers?" Sheena asked.
"Well… it's… I don't want to talk about it. It's something I need to solve for myself." Max then walked too the kitchen with the sack with Sheena following behind him. After the medic dropped the bag and turned to the ninja, "Sheena listen, there's nothing to say, really. Everything's cool."
"But Max I…"
Before Sheena could finish, a maid came rushing into the kitchen, "Sir Doc!"
"It's… MAX!!!" after yelling, he pounded his fist on the kitchen counter. Sheena and the maid were surprised by his attitude.
"Um… Sir Max, we have a problem with your armor."
Max looked at the maid raising one eyebrow, "What?"
A minute or so later, the maid led Max out side where his armor was drying with Sheena following him again. When Max saw his armor, he wouldn't believe it. "Well, as you can see, we used the wrong soap to wash it. So your armor came out dyed… well… white." The maid was right, his armor was completely white except for the visor on his helmet.
"How in fucking hell did it…" Max began to mutter to himself. A second later he left going inside on the urge to explode.
After Sheena watched Max retreat inside, she then turned to the maid, "you did remove all the items out of the pockets right?"
"Yes we did, we placed it right over there."
"That's good…" Sheena gazed back at the doorway that Max enter through, 'Max… I'm worried about you…' Then Sheena walked inside as well. First she walked through the kitchen, as she walked, she saw where Max pounded his fist. There was some specs of blood right over a small crack. She then looked over at the sack of potatoes noticing that there were small stains of blood on it as well, "now I'm deeply concerned about him." Sheena muttered.
"Then why don't you go check on him?" The female ninja looked down to see Corrine.
"You think I should?"
"Most defiantly!"
Max walked through the hallway on the second floor of the mansion heading to his assigned bedroom that he'll be sleeping in later. He walked in closing the door behind him. Then he sat on the bed looking at his hands. There were small scratches that were bleeding a bit still, 'why the hell did I go through a rose bush just to lose the guards that were chasing me? Well, I lost them anyways.' He laid back on the bed closing his eyes and decided to rest before dinner's ready.
He laid there for minutes with many thoughts as before. Then there was a knock on the door. Max just rolled over facing away, "Max, are you there?" Max didn't respond, he lay there silently till he heard the door creak open. He turned his head just enough to see who was entering. Sheena stood there looking back at him with her arms crossed. He then rolled onto his back staring at the ceiling as the ninja approached him, "Max, how are you feeling?"
"Tired."
"I see." There was silence between the two for a short amount of time, "and I notice that you're under a lot a stress and pain right now so… say, can you sit up for a moment?" Max did as she asked and sat up on the side of the bed. She then sat down next to him holding out a hand, "may I see the cuts on your hand?"
"How did you know my hands had cuts?" Max asked as he brought his hands up to Sheena to examine them.
"There were stains on the sack that you brought back. Huh, your cuts don't look too bad."
"Funny, they were bleeding a bit a while ago. Maybe it stopped."
"Maybe. Do your shoulders feel stiff?"
"What?" Sheena then put a hand on Max's shoulder.
"They do feel a little stiff. Here, lie down on your stomach."
"Um… ok." The medic laid on his stomach on the bed, "what now?"
"Just stay calm and try to relax."
"But what are you planning to…" before Max could finish, he felt a hand placed on each shoulder. It didn't take long to know it was Sheena about to give him a massage. He then felt the fingers start moving around slowly till one of the fingers landed on a pressure point. Instead of feeling some pain, he felt comfort, "whoa…"
"Feel any better?" Sheena asked.
"A bit, thank you." There was then a moment of silence again between them. Sheena lowered her head so that she could speak into Max's ear.
"Max, I need to apologize."
"For what?"
"Back in the sewers, you know? The time when we thought you drowned and the part where I tried to give you CPR."
"Why do you need to apologize for that?"
"Because I gave you CPR and after Raine said that you were alive the entire time, yours and my lips were… well… locked…" Sheena then let out a little blush.
"It was probably an accident. Delayed reactions to news and messing up on who's alive or dead. It happens."
"Are you saying that it's alright?! We were worried! I was worried…" Max rolled over and sat up. Sheena sat next too him on her knees staring at him. They both traded gazes into each other's eyes. Suddenly, the ninja leaned over towards Max putting her arms around him, "Please, don't ever say everything is ok. I know when you're lying. Please tell me what is it."
"Sheena, what's been on my mind is something I need to solve by myself. Because I have a feeling that if anyone that might be traveling with us including you that help me on my own kind's history, might have to pay the consequences."
"But you can't be putting all that weight on yourself."
"But I have too." Max the placed his hands on the side of her head bring her forehead to his, "you hear? I have to do it on my own."
"But I don't even know what you're trying to solve." Sheena's arms then tightened around Max. "Alright, but remember that you can let me or the others know when you need help."
"Alright." Max was about to get up and leave, until Sheena reached out and grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait a minute, where do you think you're going?" Sheena then yanked him back onto the bed making him fall onto his belly. "Let me finish giving you a massage before dinner."
"And why are you doing this?" the medic tried to struggle free, but Sheena jumped onto his back with her knees right by his hips pinning him to the bed.
"Like I said, I'm concerned about you and I don't want you to be pissed off while having dinner."
"Yes mother…" Max said sarcastically.
"I dare you to say that again!" Sheena yelled as she smacked the back of Max's head.
"I don't know, that whip to the head maybe gave me brain damage." Instead of hitting him again open handed, the female ninja hit him with her hand balled up into a fist, "ow… ok I'll stop now."
"Good."
Back in Sylvarant…
Fred sat nearby a window for hours in an abandon room on the second floor that was part of the garage for vehicles. His sniper rifle was already set up at the windowsill. A rocket launcher that he found with only two rockets in it and two extras laying next to it, was leaned against the wall along with the two extra rockets that were with it. In his right hand was his SMG and in his left was a hand held radio.
The sniper let out a small yawn as he heard the conversations going on the other end of the wireless, "Sir look what I found." A voice of a marine said.
"Good, now get those grenades over with the rest of the supplies we found."
"What do these do?" a Grunt's voice came next, "they look like those kind of foods that you humans eat called chocolate."
"DON'T TOUCH THOSE!! PUT THOSE DOWN!! DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER TOUCH THAT C4!!"
Fred then let out a bigger yawn due to boredom. He then looked out the window. There wasn't much to look at though. All he could see was torn down tents, small impact craters, debris, vehicle wreckage, and lifeless bodies of UNSC personnel, Elites, Grunts, a few Hunters, and a lot of Desian corpses, "It was pretty hectic that day." Fred muttered. He looked at the time, 7:50 PM it said. Although, the sun hasn't fully disappeared from view yet, but it's getting darker every minute.
"Lieutenant Fred…"
Fred brought his wireless up to his mouth and spoke into it, "Yes Major?"
"We're almost done here. Get your things together and meet us back at the LZ."
"Ok, meet you there." The sniper was about to his sniper rifle and rocket launcher, but then he heard the sound of tank treads getting louder and louder. He looked out the window to see two Scorpion tanks moving towards him. Behind the two tanks were twenty Desians all armed with SMGs. Fred took out his radio and whispered into it again. "Major… Major do you hear me? Over."
"What is it now Lieutenant?"
"We got company. It's the Desians." HE placed his back to the wall and peeked out through the window, "I count two Scorpions, and twenty of their infantry."
"Hold on, we're approaching our exit. Let us look out and see what we're dealing with here………… ok we don't have that kind of firepower to take those down."
"Hold on… Hold on…" Fred watched as one of the tanks stopped in front of the window where was at, while the other one went around and stopped next to the garage door. Both of the drivers got out and met up at the tank near the window. He then saw the group of Desians move towards the torn tent area and then began to scavenge around it. "Um, it doesn't seem like they'll be leaving any time soon sir."
Back in Tethe'alla…
"Do you feel any better?" Sheena asked Max as the two walked down the stairs to the dinning room.
"A lot better thanks." Once the two walked in, they found that everyone else were already in their seat putting food on their plates.
"What were two doing?" Zelos asked sarcastically.
"It's not what you think so get your mind out of the gutter." Max said calmly when he took a seat between Lloyd and the professor.
Everyone ate silently at the table. After Lloyd finished his forth plate, he looked up at find Zelos was done with his forth round as well. When their gazes met, they gave each other strange looks reading, 'it's on!' they then rased their plate in the air yelling, "more please!"
While waiting for another round, Zelos looked over at Sheena and see if he could try getting any action from her. Once looking at her, he notice that she only made it through half her meal and she was watching Max who was playing with his food instead of eating it.
"Acho!" Sheena suddenly let out a sneeze making everybody look towards her. "Excuse me… Acho!"
"Are you ok Sheda?"
"I'm fine Shego… Acho!"
"You sure you're ok? Sounds like you got a runny nose." Said Max.
"I'm fine really…"
"Well, we are heading into the raining season." Sebastian announced as he point out the window as it began to rain. "She must have gotten it during the last down pour last night. Miss Sheena, I would suggest that you should go to your room and rest. It also seems that you didn't get enough to eat so I'll send someone up with some soup soon."
"Fine…" Sheena left the table and made her way out of the room. Once she walked out to the bedroom she was assigned to, Max got up from the table.
"I'll be the one to make her soup." Max then walked off towards the kitchen leaving everyone else a bit silent until Genis spoke up.
"Is it just me or has Max and Sheena been getting a lot closer lately?"
"Now that you mention it, it seems that they have been getting a lot more closer. It almost sounds like they're actually boyfriend and girlfriend."
"Well, we should let them be." Raine said calmly as she continued her meal.
"But… but… isn't Sheena my babe?" Zelos complained.
"From the look of things it looked like she wasn't yours to begin with."
Max entered the kitchen and looked around. There were lots of dirty pots everywhere. He let out a sigh and began digging around the pile till he found a clean one. 'Ok, from the look of things, I should make her chicken soup.'
Sheena sat up in bed yet again looking over her cards. She was now wearing PJs that were in the closet for guests, they were light blue. Corrine was sitting next to her watching. "Are they all there?"
"Yep, except for this one, which is now all covered with crap and stuff…" the ninja held up a spell card that had dark brown stains on it. "I should see if it could still be useable tomorrow."
Sheena then took off the small ribbon that tied back her hair letting it droop down. She then laid back on the bed letting out another sneeze, "Wow Sheena, you sound pretty sick."
"Yeah, this sucks though." Suddenly Corrine's ears perked up once he heard something that Sheena couldn't even hear. He even sniffed the air. He showed a smile before picking up Sheena's ribbon and ran out of the room with it. "Corrine! Where are you going? Comeback with my ribbon!"
Sheena jumped out of bed sneezing again as she made her way to the door. She looked out in the hall seeing that no one was around. Before going out to look for Corrine, Sheena pulled back her hair and kept it pulled back with one hand. She didn't want to have someone from the group see her with her hair down. She would feel a little embarrassed.
She walked out into the hall quickly gazing around. "Corrine, Corrine where are you?" after calling out, Corrine dashed past her down the hall and made a left turn. "Hey! Where're you going?"
She quickly went after him silently so that she wouldn't make a racket on the second floor above everyone else. After making one swift, sharp turn, she noticed that she was now falling into a flight of stairs. She wasn't prepared to go down the stairs yet. In fact, she forgot that those stairs existed. But there was someone else that laid directly in front if her, Max. He stood there eyes widening with a tray of soup in his hands.
Sheena's heart skipped a beat knowing that she wasn't going to be able to avoid falling down the stairs and ramming into Max at the same time, 'oh crap…' She thought.
Their bodies collided and tumbled down the stairs like two toy balls that were thrown by a five year old. Max was the one that landed at the bottom first. He leaned up and felt a great deal of pain on the forehead from Sheena's foot.
"What was that?" Lloyd, Genis, Zelos, and a maid walked in finding Max and Sheena in an awkward position one on top of the other. Both of them also had swirls in their eyes. Corrine came out of hiding with a bowl that was once filled with soup on his head.
"Oh dear, that didn't turn out what I expected."
"Damn… it… Corrine." Sheena muttered before passing out due to dizziness.
"Hey look! Sheena has her hair down! I know that happens once every full moon. Ha!" Zelos laughed.
"Max, how many fingers am I holding up?" Lloyd asked the dizzy Max as he held up three fingers. Max's vision kept making everything look like it was two times of what he saw until it stopped and he could see the number of fingers that are held up.
"Five in a half…"
Lloyd looked at him funny before saying, "close enough…" the swordsman then tried to help Max to his feet, but was having trouble, "hey, get a grip Max. Can you stand?"
"Of course I can." Max tried to walk up the flight of steps to the second floor, but upon going up the first step, his foot slipped causing him to fall forward bashing his head on the forth step with a 'thunk!' His unconscious body slid down till part of him was on both the stairs and the first floor.
"Genis, you better go get the others. We're going to need help getting them to bed…"
Genis rushed off to everyone else to tell them what they heard and found. Minutes later the young half-elf came back with Colette, Rain and Shego behind him. "I see that you weren't kidding." The professor said. "Since Sheena and Max are having a bad day, Max especially. I think we should put them in the same room."
"Which one? Sheena's or Max's room?" Genis asked.
"It's most likely Max's. Cause his has a spear bed. Wait, why are we putting them in the same room together? Doesn't that sound a little suspicious" Zelos turned to everyone else for an explanation.
"So that way we have some people with bad luck shared a room. It's just like some math saying, "If you times two negatives, it will end up being a positive." Doesn't makes sense?"
"Sis, I know what you're talking about. But we're not talking numbers here, we're talking people."
"Guys," everyone turn their attention to Lloyd, "Max is coming around."
"Shiiiiiit… what the fuck happened?" the medic said making his way to his hands and knees.
Zelos walked over to a table picking up a empty metal vase and came back with it holding it high in the air before saying, "Hold on Doc, we're still trying to figure something out here." The Chosen of Tethe'alla bashed Max over the head with the vase knocking him unconscious again. He then turned to everyone else who was staring at him with wide eyes. "What?"
"Was it really good enough to knock Max out again?" Lloyd asked.
"Umm… whoops…"
A.N. If some of you are wondering why Max's ODST armor is white is because I think it might be cooler if he had different color armor, and the second fanfic I posted "Where Am I Now" which I haven't updated in a really long time, will be having a new chapter sometime this month. I promise you, I will make sure that it is longer and better.
