It was 4:00 a.m. in the town of Stansberg. Nothing but the sound of peaceful
breathing was heard in room 7A of the town's hospital. Milly Thompson lay on her
bed roll on the floor. By the light of her tiny travel lamp she quietly took out
a deck of cards from her suitcase and dealt them out for a game of solitaire. It
was her turn to watch Vash. There had been no problems on Meryl's shift. If
there had been, Milly would definitely have heard the commotion.
"Meryl was no shy girl when it came to guarding Vash," thought Milly as she set
a nine of spades on a ten of hearts. Unfortunately the feisty girl hadn't had
the chance to tell Vash how much she actually liked him. There were too many
unhealed wounds to deal with right now.
Milly pondered, "Now should I lay down the four of diamonds on the five of clubs
or the five of spades?"
"Milly?"
She heard Vash whisper her name. She walked over to his bed. Vash was
sitting almost upright and holding on to the bed rail with both hands. Even in
the dim light she could see that his eyes were much brighter and clearer than
the day before.
"Yes, Mr. Vash?"
"I need to go to the town plant. I'd like to go now. It should be safer for me
if I leave before most of the town gets up."
He waited for her reply.
"That's a good idea, Mr. Vash. How much time do you think you'll need?"
"About two hours. It shouldn't take any longer than that. The plant should have
all the tools there. We can be back before Meryl gets up."
"Do you promise you'll come right back here when you're done? If you leave,
Meryl and I will be left alone with Knives."
"I really don't want that to happen, Milly. I promise you, I'll come back."
"All right then. You can borrow some of my clothes and we'll leave."
From her suitcase, Milly quietly took out an extra pair of pants, suspenders,
and shirt for Vash. Milly left the room while he dressed in the dim light of her
travel lamp. Milly's clothing was not exactly a great fit, the back of the pants
sagged and the legs were a bit short but it was good enough for an early morning
walk in darkness. Unfortunately he'd have to go barefoot. Vash joined Milly in
the hallway and gently shut the door to room 7A behind him.
Milly showed Vash the way out of the hospital. Fortunately it was early enough
that they could duck into a empty corridor whenever they heard someone walking
towards them. Undetected, they reached the outside of the hospital. They could
see the plant; it was only about a mile away. They quickly walked toward it.
Happy songs drifted out from various bakeries along the way but otherwise the
streets were empty. As they walked, Milly filled in Vash on the specifics of the
plot of the Sheriff and Dr. Peliquine to get the sixty billion double dollars
for the town.
"So don't believe him, Mr. Vash, if he says you're too sick to walk," said
Milly. "I won't Milly."
They reached the huge plant building. Vash could feel the presence of a healthy,
content plant being inside.
"Milly, you wait outside. Just pretend you're waiting for that last bakery we
passed to open."
"Will you buy me a pastry when you get out?"
"I didn't bring any money with me." He thought for a moment. "One second."
Vash felt the pockets of his borrowed pants and took out a couple of crumpled
bills.
"Here's two double dollars. I'll pay you back when we get back to the hospital."
He handed the happy girl the money and darted inside the plant. Milly walked
back to the nearest bakery shop and sat on the outside steps.
"A pudding filled doughnut would be just perfect," she thought.
Vash tread quietly and carefully around the plant. Eventually he found an
unlocked entrance.
"They really should have somebody here at all hours," Vash thought to himself.
Vash had often taken the late-night plant duty back home. He didn't mind losing
the sleep and not surprisingly the plants had taken a liking to him. Vash
reached the main plant room and scoured the shelves for the tools he'd need.
After picking up a wrench-like object, and a large pair of wire cutters he
walked over to the plant bulb. He set down his tools and put his hand on the
glass. Her power was still strong, untaxed by the residents of this medium sized
town. Slowly she glided over to him. This was possibly the first contact she had
had with any other being since she was put in this bulb well over a century ago.
They talked through delicate electrical pulses and beams. She was fine with the
idea. She was healthy and could emit a whole range of power levels. Dampening
down her own power for a little while wouldn't be a problem. Vash thanked her
and took his hand off the glass. He gathered his tools and crouched down on the
floor. He opened a small door underneath the bulb that lead to the complex inner
workings of the interface between the plant and the instruments that controlled
her. He crawled through the opening taking the tools in behind him.
The plant behaved beautifully. An hour later Vash emerged with four pieces of
curved metal. Each piece was about 40cm long and 1cm thick. If all four pieces
were put together they would've looked almost like the metal rim of a wagon
wheel. The outside of the metal was a coppery orange but the inside had a
purple-blue tone that gleamed in the light. Vash was careful to touch the metal
only on the outside. He set the pieces down on the ground and picked up several
more tools including a large pair of gloves from the shelves. He put the gloves
on and picked up a soldering iron. He picked up a spool of metal and wrapped
several coils of its thin silvery metal around one of the coppery curves. He cut
off the wrapped section of coiled metal from the spool and soldered the two ends
of the looped metal together, creating a circle of looped silvery wire around
the copper.
Vash found another room in the plant with small square sheets of various types
of metal. He chose several of the sheets and went back to the main plant room.
He cut off circular and rectangular sections of metal from the sheets and
soldered them to the outside of the curved metal. When he was finished making
the additions he bent the metal into a half circle. Vash set the altered plant
dampener on the ground, then took off his gloves, unbuttoned the cuff of his
angel arm, and pushed his shirt all the way up to his shoulder. He sat down on
the floor and started to breathe deeply gathering his courage. He picked up the
device and held it over his exposed arm. The angel arm effect started to appear
at his fingertips. He lowered the instrument closer. Vash screamed as
purple-blue sparks exploded from his angel arm. The fragments of light traveled
out for a split second before arcing inward drawn into the device's silvery
coil. Struggling against the draw of the device, Vash pulled his arm away and
dropped the device on the floor. The angel arm effect and sparks completely
disappeared from his arm as Vash fainted on the floor. A few minutes later Vash
awoke and looked at the device lying in front of him.
"It's perfect."
Vash buttoned his sleeve, put his gloves back on and made another addition to
the dampener. He soldered a four centimeter spike of silvery metal to the new
coils so that the spike pointed into the center. Vash made three more of these
devices from the other pieces of the plant, but on the fourth device he left off
the spike. Vash took the spikeless dampener, and several new tools back
underneath the plant. A half hour later he emerged with the tools. He put each
tool back in the exact place he found it and swept up the metal shavings and
bits of wire off of the floor.
Vash walked back to the plant being and raised his hand to glass. She came to
him quicker this time; their trust was established. He felt her energy increase
to its usual level as he thanked her for letting him modify the dampener. He
removed his hand and the plant being drifted off to the center of her bulb. It
was almost seven o'clock as Vash left the plant building. He saw Milly sitting
on the steps of the bakery cheerfully chomping on a cream puff.
"It's really good and cheap, Mr. Vash. Would you like one?"
Vash patted his stomach.
"Not yet Milly."
A few townsfolk had woken up and were heading towards the market area near the
hospital.
"Ooh! Those are pretty Mr. Vash. What are they?" said Milly, pointing to the
coppery circles of metal.
"Something for Knives. We need to get back right away."
He helped Milly up off the steps and they hurried back to the hospital. They
slipped through the hallways and reached the basement room undetected. Meryl was
still sleeping.
Vash nudged her with his foot and whispered, "Meryl, wake up. There's a lot of
work I need you to do today."
"Hmm ... work?" she said as she lifted up her groggy head and opened her eyes.
Her lethargic expression changed into one of astonishment when she saw Vash
standing in front of her, barefoot, wearing Milly's clothing.
"Vash? You're up? Huh? What happened? Oh! That blouse actually looks good on
you... Wait a second."
Meryl noticed the dust on his feet, pant legs and the copper metal pieces in his
hands.
"Have you been outside already? You were supposed to get a good night's rest,"
she said angrily.
"Its all right. I went with Vash. We left early so the town wouldn't fill him
with bullet holes when they got up," chirped Milly.
"Oh, um, hmmm," said Meryl, still a little drowsy. "You got back okay. I guess
that's fine then. Did any one see you?"
"Maybe. If they did, they didn't do anything about it," said Vash.
"Good. Then get back into bed so the doctor still thinks you're still sick, and
then you can tell us what you need us to do today."
Meryl went in the bathroom to change out of her pajamas while Vash shooed Milly
into the hallway so he could get back into his hospital gown.
"That blouse actually did look pretty good," thought Milly. "Meryl and I are
going to have to make him some new clothes. I wonder what happened to his red
coat?"
(Vash's coat had blown into the next town and was adopted as a new home by a
certain black cat. Inside it, a large brood of kittens was currently being
raised.)
A few minutes later, Milly heard the elevator ding. The door opened and Dr.
Peliquine walked out.
"Good morning, Milly!" said the doctor "Good morning Dr. Peliquine."
"How were things down here last night?" asked the doctor.
The doctor had his large black medical bag with him.
"Vash and Knives are looking as wretched as ever!"
"Sorry to hear that. I'll have to start giving Vash some medication to help with
the healing then."
Milly knocked on the door. "You done changing, Meryl? The doctor is here to see
the boys."
"Yes," came Meryl's voice from the other side.
Milly opened the door and admitted the doctor into the room. Vash was back on
his bed, hooked to the machines just as before. Meryl was rolling up her bed
roll.
"Mr. Vash, how are feeling this morning?" questioned the doctor as he walked
over to Vash's bed.
Vash gave the doctor an anemic smile and spoke with a weak broken voice. "Better
I think. Wounds still hurt a lot, doctor. I didn't sleep very well."
Dr. Peliquine changed the bandages on each of Vash's wounds checking each wound
for signs of infection.
"Vash, your wounds really haven't healed as much as I would've liked them too.
I'd like to give you a shot to help you sleep and relax your muscles."
"Are you sure that's necessary, doctor?" said Meryl quickly. "Couldn't you wait
another day to see if he improves?"
"This really should be done as soon as possible to give him the greatest chance
of a full recovery."
The doctor took out a syringe from his bag. Meryl peered at it. He set the
syringe on the table in between Knives and Vash. The doctor examined and changed
the bandages on Knives wounds.
"Knives hasn't healed much at all. The bleeding has stopped but he just isn't
healing. Also the wound in his right rectus femoris looks inflamed."
"What's a rectus femoris?" asked Milly.
"It's a muscle on the front of the thigh," answered the doctor.
He went into his bag and pulled out another syringe.
"I'll send the nurse down to give the shots. I'll be leaving this morning to go
to a wedding so I will be out of the office for the rest of the day."
Just then nurse Mirado walked into the room.
"Oh, nurse Mirado, I was just going to call you down here. I changed the
bandages of the patients myself. They both need a shot of meprolamate. The
syringes are on the table," he said as he left the room with his bag.
Vash gave Meryl a pleading look.
"Get me out of this," it said to her. The nurse picked up a syringe, flicked it
several times and walked over to Vash. He winced.
"Um, nurse?"
"Yes, Meryl?"
"Milly and I don't think you should give that shot to Vash."
"We definitely don't," added Milly.
"Really, why?" said the nurse, with genuine concern.
"Because, I really don't want to say this but, I'm sure doctor Peliquine is a
good man on some level ... "
Milly growled.
Meryl continued "but, we think he may harm Vash and Knives in order to get the
reward money."
"Are you sure? I mean, that's awful if it's true. Murder is still illegal on
this planet isn't it?" said the nurse.
She looked at Milly, and she nodded in agreement.
Meryl continued.
"I heard him talking in his office yesterday. He talked about the kinds of
things that would be done with the reward money, and he said that he really
wanted to see Vash dead."
The nurse looked down at the two syringes.
"We've seen with our own eyes that the deaths and damage that have been blamed
on Vash we're caused by someone else. He really isn't to blame, but because the
rumors are so strong, he'll die if he's caught by the government. If the doctor
doesn't kill him now, when he's injured, he'll miss his chance at the reward
money. Nurse Mirado, Vash doesn't deserve to die. He and Knives really aren't
doing as badly as the doctor say's they are. I'll show you he's lying."
Meryl walked over to Knives and unbandaged his thigh.
"Vash really is one of the most caring people I've met." said Milly. Meryl
looked at Knives wound.
"Dr. Peliquine said that Knives wounds weren't healing and that his ... his ..
front right thigh was inflamed. You look."
The nurse set the syringes back down on the table and looked at the wound. She
was astonished.
"This isn't inflamed at all. It looks like this wound has had a week to heal."
Vash breathed a sigh of relief. Milly looked at the nurse sympathetically and
held her hand.
"We don't want you to kill an innocent man, Sara, and you don't want to either.
I know you're a good person."
"If I didn't know your family, I'd have a hard time believing this, Milly, but I
know you wouldn't lie. It was strange for the doctor to mention this wedding
just today. If these two are innocent, and with me giving the medication, I'd be
the one going to jail." The nurse was pensive as she looked back to the
syringes.
"I'll do this. I'll have the lab upstairs analyze what's really in those
syringes. They should have the results back by this evening."
The nurse picked up the syringes and walked towards the door. At the doorway she
looked back at Vash.
"If you really are a killer, you sure have these two fooled," she said and then
she left the room and headed back to the elevator.
"Thank you, Meryl, Milly," said Vash.
He did have the power to destroy cities and kill thousands of people but without
these two women he would have been chopped up by the government or a bounty
hunter a long time ago. Sometimes he forgot that.
"Sara is a good women," said Milly. "My brother always said she had a kind heart
and lot of good common sense."
Meryl looked at Vash. That confident look he'd had on his face this morning was
gone.
"The last thing I want is some money-grubbing doctor sticking you with needles,"
she said sternly. "Let's get back to business. What kind of work do you need us
to do today?" she asked.
"We need to get out of here tonight," he said.
Meryl and Milly agreed.
"Knives can't wake up in a place like this. You two need to get some food for a
long trip. We need to go back home, to my home. It's the only place where Knives
can be kept safe."
"Vash," said Meryl, "didn't they throw you out?"
"I have Knives now. Doc will let me back in. I've known him for 80 years. He
knows no more cities will be destroyed."
Meryl and Milly looked at each other warily. They really hoped that what he said
was true. The trio discussed the kinds of rations and other accouterments they'd
need for the long trip. Meryl and Milly divvied up the list between them.
"Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay here with you?" asked Meryl. "No.
I'll be fine," said Vash. "The nurse won't be back until this evening and the
doctor is gone. Besides, I can catch up on my beauty sleep." He laughed his
maniacal laugh.
"Goodbye, Vash," said the two agents as they left the room.
"That was the first time Vash had laughed in a long while. It's nice to hear
again," thought Meryl as she walked down to the elevator with Milly.
After the agent left, Vash got out of bed and went over to Meryl's suitcase. He
opened it and carefully retrieved two of the copper bands Meryl had hidden
there. He walked over to Knives. He put his hand on Knives' head. He could feel
the consciousness of Knives' mind safely placed far back into a deep state of
healing. What Vash was about to do was going to hurt. Badly. There was no risk
of his brother waking up. He straightened one dampener. Vash held it just below
where his brother's arm met the shoulder. It was poised so the metal spike
pointed straight in the center of the arm. Vash breathed slowly and deeply and
thought about Rem and the hundreds of other people Knives had killed. Now it was
going to stop.
Vash slammed the copper band down onto his brothers arm. He hammered it in with
his fist until he was sure the spike could go no further and had penetrated the
bone of the arm. Vash bent the band around his brother's arm so the ends of the
band touched on the other side. Blood trickled out from underneath the copper
band. Vash repeated the process on his brother's other arm and another trickle
of blood appeared . Knives remained unconscious. Vash wiped the blood off his
brother's arms with the white bed sheet.
"This should've happened a long time ago, brother," Vash said with a low
stinging sarcastic bite. "I've taken care of Knives, Rem."
Vash's third band was safely wrapped up in Meryl's suitcase. He climbed back up
on his bed. For the first time in many, many years Vash slept soundly.
Several hours later Vash was startled out of his sleep as the tiny insurance
agent pulled on his arm.
"Wake up, Vash. It's midnight. We're ready to go. We've already made an escape
plan. Sara helped."
The agents helped Vash out of bed. Meryl and Milly were dressed in nurse
uniforms. They told Vash their escape plan. Meryl brought in a spare gurney that
had been placed outside the room. Vash covered his brother with the slightly
bloodied white bed sheet and Milly and Vash lifted him up and set him on the
gurney. Vash stayed in room while Meryl and Milly wheeled the gurney out and up
into the hospital.
"Headed to the funeral parlor with Vash the Stampede and his brother," Meryl
said to any nosy passers by.
Meryl had already brought their car around to the front of the hospital. They
laid Knives down on the back seat of the car. The agents went back in the
hospital to retrieve Vash in the same manner. Back in the basement, Vash got on
the gurney and Milly covered him with his bed sheet. They pushed him out to the
elevator and through the hallways. They were stopped by another doctor at the
hospital.
"Vash the Stampede, I don't believe it."
"Yup," said Milly.
The doctor pulled the sheet up. There was a very good impression of a dead man
underneath.
"What did he die of?"
"Dr. Peliquine prescribed them an antibiotic injection. We can only guess they
were both allergic to it," said Meryl.
"Now that we're out of a job we thought we'd both become nurses," added Milly.
"Well, mistakes do happen. Glad you could join the crew, ladies."
The doctor smiled and walked off down the corridor. Milly pulled the sheet back
over Vash's head. They hurried out the hospital and placed Vash in the back seat
with Knives. Meryl took the wheel and Milly took the shotgun seat. They quietly
drove to the outside of town and sped away through the desert.