Chapter XIII: The (More Successful) Rescue Mission
"Are they still in their rooms?" Volta asked Chikori as she entered the living room of George's palace.
Chikori nodded.
"How long has it been now?" Volta asked as she took some lemonade from the tray on the table.
"A day or two," Chibodee said as he entered the room.
It had been two days since the catastrophic events of the fight with the Hell Gundam. Brad and George had both locked themselves in their rooms and hadn't eaten a thing.
"Oh, god, Chib! How long will this last? I can't stand it!" Volta broke down in tears. Chibodee sat down on the couch next to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey, it's okay, Volta. Everything'll be fine," he said gently.
"I just can't stand it!" she said through sobs. "Haaz-Haaz-What am I going to do without my brother?"
Chibodee smiled a little. Even though Volta always pretended that she hated her brother, he knew that she really loved him more than anyone else.
"I'm sure he'll come out of it soon," Chibodee assured Volta.
"Chibodee, half of the people who come out of comas are dead! How could I let my brother knock himself unconscious and go into a coma? Maybe I should just lock myself away in my room like Brad and George did."
"Don't be silly. You're way too pretty to lock yourself in a room where no one could look at you," Chibodee said, trying to cheer Volta up.
She smiled a very small smile and snuggled up closer to the love of her life. They just sat there for a while; there was no need to speak.
Brad and George had locked themselves up in their rooms, Haaz had gone into a coma, and they still didn't have Bunny back. Probably because it had been possessed by the Berserker system, but no one was sure, Eagle Gundam had not been destroyed What else could go wrong? Hundreds of Neo-Frenchman were trying to find the whereabouts of the princess and her kidnapers, but so far to no avail.
The silence was broken as Raymond entered the room. "I think I have some information that you might be interested in."
Chibodee, Volta, and Chikori popped up at the words, ".you might be interested in."
"What is it?" Chibodee asked, still holding Volta.
"We've found Miss Bunny and the kidnappers. They're in Neo-Germany at the moment and have come to a halt. We think it might be their headquarters. Or- " But the three Gundam fighters were already out the door.
"Brad! Stop mopping around this instant!" Volta broke down Brad's door in order to get into the room. "Stop blaming yourself and get that stupid Gundam of yours ready."
Brad looked up and stopped pacing the room.
"We know where Bunny is," Volta finished.
Before she could say another word, Brad was out of the room, heading for his Gundam.
"Please, George. Open the door!" Chibodee had been knocking for two minutes. Slowly, the door opened, revealing a seriously depressed King of Neo-France. "Oh, snap out of it!"
"Why did it have to happen to Bunny? I could have saved her! I could have stopped that thing.!" George rammed his fist into the wall.
"George," Chibodee said, cutting right to the chase, "we think we know where Bunny is."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
"I was busy knocking," Chibodee replied.
"Are you certain you know where she is?"
Chibodee lied and nodded.
"Let's go," George said and headed out the door.
* * *
"Let me go, you little-Ow!" Bunny screamed as Bersek pulled her along behind him and hit her on the cheek at her outburst.
"Almost there," Dr. Klements said.
They continued walking down a hill until a large gray building came into view. "Here we are," Bersek said as he pushed against a large boulder. The boulder rolled slightly out of place and Bunny saw a stairway behind it. She gaped in awe but was jerked back into reality as Bersek pushed her down the stairs. He led her through twisting cooridoors until Bersek finally stopped at one room. He opened a door and pushed Bunny into it. He threw the key up in the air and caught it, as if to show that there was no way out of the room. Then the blonde man closed the door and locked it.
Panic seized Bunny. I have to figure out a way to get out of here! she thought. Her eyes frantically searched the room, looking for some way to get out. Nothing. The door was the only entrance-and exit. Her hands still knotted together by the metallic rope, Bunny rammed her shoulder into the door. There was a slight creaking sound and the door only moved a millimeter. She tried again, but this time the door didn't move at all.
Obviously, this isn't going to work, she thought in frustration and sat down next to the door. Bunny put her head in her hands and started to curse in ten different languages. She had learned something from Volta, though it wasn't very useful. As Bunny stared at the rope that tied her hands together, she realized that part of the rope was fraying. Quickly, Bunny jumped to her feet and started biting ferociously at the rope. It tasted awful, but that wasn't important now. She could use as much mouthwash as she wanted once she was free of this prison. The rope unraveled. "Yes!" Bunny whispered under her breath. She turned to the door. It was only a door. How many times had she broken down doors while training with Domon? Bunny tried to break the door down. The only result was a throbbing pain throughout her leg, which climbed up to her hand.
The crest was glowing again. That Hell Gundam thing must be near, Bunny figured. She tried to door again. Whoa! Bunny thought. This thing is solid stone! How am I supposed to break a thing like that down? Maybe Mirror Gundam. Bunny was about to snap her fingers when she realized that the impact any Gundam would cause when it broke through the ground would crush her immediately. She sighed and let her hand drop to her side. Bunny stared at the door in dismay. She rushed at it head on, determined to get out of the room. The Jack of Diamonds crest glowed brighter and the door shattered into a thousand bits. Bunny looked at it, then at her hand, then at the now- shattered door and at her hand again. She shrugged. The problem of how a crest could brake down a door could be solved later.
Bunny started running down one of the halls. If you follow the right side of a wall, you'll eventually get out of a maze, Bunny thought to herself. Or was it the left side? Oh, god! She continued running, not caring where she went.
* * *
Brad stared at his surroundings in dismay. There was a large gray building near by, a few boulders, but nothing more.
"Yeah, right. Thanks Raymond," Chibodee said to the sky. "It was really considerate of you to give us the coordinates for THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!"
"Calm down, Chib. I'm sure he told us to come here for a reason," Volta said and patted Chibodee's shoulder.
Chibodee grunted in response.
"I thought you said you knew for certain where Bunny was," George said suspiciously.
"He, he," was Chibodee's only reply.
Volta moved in front of Chibodee protectively as George stared at him, deciding if he should ram the Neo-American fighter to bits now, or wait until later.
"You wouldn't want to kill me in front of ladies, now would you?" Chibodee asked nervously.
"This could get ugly," Sai observed and leaned against a nearby boulder. He quickly got up again as the boulder started to move away. "Whoa," Sai Sici whispered.
"You're a genius, Sai!" Volta congratulated the baffled Neo-Chinese fighter after a moment of silence.
"I am? Oh, of course I am! Remind me, why am I a genius again?" Sai asked.
Volta gave him a look that meant "I swear, Haaz is your long-lost brother or something".
"Let's just go, already," Domon intervened.
"Where are we going, bro?" Sai asked.
Now everyone gave him the same annoyed look. "Down there!" the others said and pointed down the stairway that had emerged.
"But-but there could be ghosts down there! Or-or-goblins or ghouls or Dark Gundams or-" Sai was unable to finish his sentence as Domon pushed him down the stairs.
"Just move!" Domon responded.
"But-but-" Sai Sici stammered.
"You want to stay out here and guard the place? You'd be alone, though, as it would probably be easier for the ghosts to get you. You know, strength in numbers. But hey, it's your life." Domon shrugged.
"Now that I think about it, I'll stay with you, Bro," Sai recovered hurriedly.
"Good. Then let's go." Brad started down the stairs. I have to get Bunny back. I just have to! She-she means the world to me, Brad thought as everyone silently followed him through the underground labyrinth.
* * *
Bunny stumbled forward, hungrier, thirstier, and more lost than every before. She felt like she had been searching for the entrance for days, but as she checked her watch, she saw that it had only been three hours. It finally registered in her brain that there were not guards. Just Bersek and Dr. Klements. At first, Bunny had thought it would be easy to escape. But there were many more twists and turns than she had thought possible.
She started cursing under her breath in Latin. Although a dead language, Bunny thought that some words sounded better in Latin than any other language. Besides, no one ever knows what I'm saying, Bunny figured as she stopped for breath.
The crest started glowing. Bunny clutched her hand to her breast. "I want to go away from the Hell Gundam, not towards it," she said out loud and started in the other direction.
Bunny thought she saw a glimmer of light. She started to run towards it, but it suddenly disappeared. This time Bunny cursed in Indian. Latin and French were too classy to be used the way she was talking. She walked around a bend and saw the shattered door that she had broken through. "Ugh!" Bunny said in frustration. I'm back where I started!!!
* * *
"Tie the rope around this rock," Argo instructed.
"Are you sure?" Sai asked.
Argo just looked at him. "Okay, okay. But I don't see how this will help us. I'm sure the rock will find this ball of string great company," Sai said sarcastically.
"You idiot!" Volta hit Sai over the head. "We tie the end of the string around the rock and then bring the ball with us as we go, so that we can find our way back. Right, Mr. Guilsky?"
The Neo-Russian fighter nodded his head.
"I thought girls were supposed to be the submissive gender," Sai Sici muttered under his breath as he finished tying the rope and stood up, rubbing his head.
"You want to run that by me again, Mr. Sici?" Volta asked, striking an interrogating pose.
"Um no, not really," Sai said nervously. How can a girl hit me and then call me 'Mr.'? Sai Sici thought. Oh well.
"Let's go," Brad said impatiently.
Everyone filed around a corner. Volt suddenly rushed back to the rock. "Mr. Sici, I swear, next to Haaz you are the stupidest being on this planet! Didn't I explain that we take the ball or string with us?! Some people are just so." Volta lapsed into her native tongue. "Sorry, gentlemen," she explained when she was done. "I don't think even Mr. Kasshu and Chibodee combined could match what I just said."
* * *
Although they had started out in good humor, Domon and the others were now completely pessimistic. They still had the dwindling ball of string with them. But there had been no sign of life-intelligent or otherwise (besides Sai Sici of course, who had drifted away from the group a number of times).
"It's hopeless. How are we supposed to find Bunny in this underground maze?" Rain complained.
"I'm getting too old for this," Chikori commented.
"You're thirteen. How can you be too old for this?" Volta asked, stepping in line beside Chikori.
"I know I'm thirteen. I'm too old for this," he repeated.
"Okay. Whatever you say," Volta said skeptically.
"You think you're too old for this? Chik, I'm like three times your age plus two!" Chibodee complained.
"That make it even more depressing that you fell for a twenty-year-old!" Chikori said innocently.
"Volt, should we kill him now, or later?" Chibodee asked casually.
"Later," Volta replied.
"Will you three stop acting like circus clowns?" Brad asked, annoyed. "We have a serious job on our hands. Pardon the expression, Mr. Crockett," Brad apologized as he saw Chibodee's face.
They continued walking in silence. "Isn't it strange that there aren't any guards or anything?" Sai Sici asked.
Brad nodded. "Maybe they didn't want anyone else to know about it," he suggested.
"You father must-"
"Don't you ever call that man my father, Mr. Sici!" Brad cut into Sai's statement.
Domon remembered himself saying something similar about Kyoji, his brother. He was brought back to the present when Rain hushed him. "Shhh, Domon! There's someone in the shadows there," she whispered and pulled Domon behind a corner, where everyone else was hiding.
The figure emerged from the shadows. The person was being supported by the walls, who was obviously very weak. Domon could see that it was a girl now. Blond-red hair, violet eyes.She stood panting against the wall for a moment, her eyes staring in disbelief as everyone came into plain view.
"Bunny!" George yelled. Bunny stood there for a moment then ran right past her father into Brad's arms. George looked stunned. Brad twirled Bunny around, looking into her deep violet eyes. Then he set her down on the ground gently and bent forward. It started as a light caress, but soon grew into more. Bunny pressed herself close to Brad, enjoying his body-warmth as they kissed. Finally they broke, more for need of air than anything else.
"Um, wow," Sai Sici observed, astonished. Everyone could hear their own voices echoed in Sai Sici's.
Volta turned to Chibodee, accusingly shaking her finger.
"How come you were never so romantic with me?" she asked. Everyone laughed, except Bunny, who just stared at Volta and Chibodee. She snuggled closer to Brad.
"Brad, I love you," she whispered in his ear.
It didn't matter what happened now. He had Bunny back. "Oui, mademoiselle," Brad responded in Bunny's native French. "I love you too."
If you think this is the end, you better be kidding. Hello! Bersek and Dr. Klements are still up to something, in case you had a temporary brain freeze or something like that. A lot of people get lost. Anyway, yah. Oh, by the way, "Oui" means "Yes" ( I think, hehe). ~* ShadowTide *~
"Are they still in their rooms?" Volta asked Chikori as she entered the living room of George's palace.
Chikori nodded.
"How long has it been now?" Volta asked as she took some lemonade from the tray on the table.
"A day or two," Chibodee said as he entered the room.
It had been two days since the catastrophic events of the fight with the Hell Gundam. Brad and George had both locked themselves in their rooms and hadn't eaten a thing.
"Oh, god, Chib! How long will this last? I can't stand it!" Volta broke down in tears. Chibodee sat down on the couch next to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Hey, it's okay, Volta. Everything'll be fine," he said gently.
"I just can't stand it!" she said through sobs. "Haaz-Haaz-What am I going to do without my brother?"
Chibodee smiled a little. Even though Volta always pretended that she hated her brother, he knew that she really loved him more than anyone else.
"I'm sure he'll come out of it soon," Chibodee assured Volta.
"Chibodee, half of the people who come out of comas are dead! How could I let my brother knock himself unconscious and go into a coma? Maybe I should just lock myself away in my room like Brad and George did."
"Don't be silly. You're way too pretty to lock yourself in a room where no one could look at you," Chibodee said, trying to cheer Volta up.
She smiled a very small smile and snuggled up closer to the love of her life. They just sat there for a while; there was no need to speak.
Brad and George had locked themselves up in their rooms, Haaz had gone into a coma, and they still didn't have Bunny back. Probably because it had been possessed by the Berserker system, but no one was sure, Eagle Gundam had not been destroyed What else could go wrong? Hundreds of Neo-Frenchman were trying to find the whereabouts of the princess and her kidnapers, but so far to no avail.
The silence was broken as Raymond entered the room. "I think I have some information that you might be interested in."
Chibodee, Volta, and Chikori popped up at the words, ".you might be interested in."
"What is it?" Chibodee asked, still holding Volta.
"We've found Miss Bunny and the kidnappers. They're in Neo-Germany at the moment and have come to a halt. We think it might be their headquarters. Or- " But the three Gundam fighters were already out the door.
"Brad! Stop mopping around this instant!" Volta broke down Brad's door in order to get into the room. "Stop blaming yourself and get that stupid Gundam of yours ready."
Brad looked up and stopped pacing the room.
"We know where Bunny is," Volta finished.
Before she could say another word, Brad was out of the room, heading for his Gundam.
"Please, George. Open the door!" Chibodee had been knocking for two minutes. Slowly, the door opened, revealing a seriously depressed King of Neo-France. "Oh, snap out of it!"
"Why did it have to happen to Bunny? I could have saved her! I could have stopped that thing.!" George rammed his fist into the wall.
"George," Chibodee said, cutting right to the chase, "we think we know where Bunny is."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
"I was busy knocking," Chibodee replied.
"Are you certain you know where she is?"
Chibodee lied and nodded.
"Let's go," George said and headed out the door.
* * *
"Let me go, you little-Ow!" Bunny screamed as Bersek pulled her along behind him and hit her on the cheek at her outburst.
"Almost there," Dr. Klements said.
They continued walking down a hill until a large gray building came into view. "Here we are," Bersek said as he pushed against a large boulder. The boulder rolled slightly out of place and Bunny saw a stairway behind it. She gaped in awe but was jerked back into reality as Bersek pushed her down the stairs. He led her through twisting cooridoors until Bersek finally stopped at one room. He opened a door and pushed Bunny into it. He threw the key up in the air and caught it, as if to show that there was no way out of the room. Then the blonde man closed the door and locked it.
Panic seized Bunny. I have to figure out a way to get out of here! she thought. Her eyes frantically searched the room, looking for some way to get out. Nothing. The door was the only entrance-and exit. Her hands still knotted together by the metallic rope, Bunny rammed her shoulder into the door. There was a slight creaking sound and the door only moved a millimeter. She tried again, but this time the door didn't move at all.
Obviously, this isn't going to work, she thought in frustration and sat down next to the door. Bunny put her head in her hands and started to curse in ten different languages. She had learned something from Volta, though it wasn't very useful. As Bunny stared at the rope that tied her hands together, she realized that part of the rope was fraying. Quickly, Bunny jumped to her feet and started biting ferociously at the rope. It tasted awful, but that wasn't important now. She could use as much mouthwash as she wanted once she was free of this prison. The rope unraveled. "Yes!" Bunny whispered under her breath. She turned to the door. It was only a door. How many times had she broken down doors while training with Domon? Bunny tried to break the door down. The only result was a throbbing pain throughout her leg, which climbed up to her hand.
The crest was glowing again. That Hell Gundam thing must be near, Bunny figured. She tried to door again. Whoa! Bunny thought. This thing is solid stone! How am I supposed to break a thing like that down? Maybe Mirror Gundam. Bunny was about to snap her fingers when she realized that the impact any Gundam would cause when it broke through the ground would crush her immediately. She sighed and let her hand drop to her side. Bunny stared at the door in dismay. She rushed at it head on, determined to get out of the room. The Jack of Diamonds crest glowed brighter and the door shattered into a thousand bits. Bunny looked at it, then at her hand, then at the now- shattered door and at her hand again. She shrugged. The problem of how a crest could brake down a door could be solved later.
Bunny started running down one of the halls. If you follow the right side of a wall, you'll eventually get out of a maze, Bunny thought to herself. Or was it the left side? Oh, god! She continued running, not caring where she went.
* * *
Brad stared at his surroundings in dismay. There was a large gray building near by, a few boulders, but nothing more.
"Yeah, right. Thanks Raymond," Chibodee said to the sky. "It was really considerate of you to give us the coordinates for THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!"
"Calm down, Chib. I'm sure he told us to come here for a reason," Volta said and patted Chibodee's shoulder.
Chibodee grunted in response.
"I thought you said you knew for certain where Bunny was," George said suspiciously.
"He, he," was Chibodee's only reply.
Volta moved in front of Chibodee protectively as George stared at him, deciding if he should ram the Neo-American fighter to bits now, or wait until later.
"You wouldn't want to kill me in front of ladies, now would you?" Chibodee asked nervously.
"This could get ugly," Sai observed and leaned against a nearby boulder. He quickly got up again as the boulder started to move away. "Whoa," Sai Sici whispered.
"You're a genius, Sai!" Volta congratulated the baffled Neo-Chinese fighter after a moment of silence.
"I am? Oh, of course I am! Remind me, why am I a genius again?" Sai asked.
Volta gave him a look that meant "I swear, Haaz is your long-lost brother or something".
"Let's just go, already," Domon intervened.
"Where are we going, bro?" Sai asked.
Now everyone gave him the same annoyed look. "Down there!" the others said and pointed down the stairway that had emerged.
"But-but there could be ghosts down there! Or-or-goblins or ghouls or Dark Gundams or-" Sai was unable to finish his sentence as Domon pushed him down the stairs.
"Just move!" Domon responded.
"But-but-" Sai Sici stammered.
"You want to stay out here and guard the place? You'd be alone, though, as it would probably be easier for the ghosts to get you. You know, strength in numbers. But hey, it's your life." Domon shrugged.
"Now that I think about it, I'll stay with you, Bro," Sai recovered hurriedly.
"Good. Then let's go." Brad started down the stairs. I have to get Bunny back. I just have to! She-she means the world to me, Brad thought as everyone silently followed him through the underground labyrinth.
* * *
Bunny stumbled forward, hungrier, thirstier, and more lost than every before. She felt like she had been searching for the entrance for days, but as she checked her watch, she saw that it had only been three hours. It finally registered in her brain that there were not guards. Just Bersek and Dr. Klements. At first, Bunny had thought it would be easy to escape. But there were many more twists and turns than she had thought possible.
She started cursing under her breath in Latin. Although a dead language, Bunny thought that some words sounded better in Latin than any other language. Besides, no one ever knows what I'm saying, Bunny figured as she stopped for breath.
The crest started glowing. Bunny clutched her hand to her breast. "I want to go away from the Hell Gundam, not towards it," she said out loud and started in the other direction.
Bunny thought she saw a glimmer of light. She started to run towards it, but it suddenly disappeared. This time Bunny cursed in Indian. Latin and French were too classy to be used the way she was talking. She walked around a bend and saw the shattered door that she had broken through. "Ugh!" Bunny said in frustration. I'm back where I started!!!
* * *
"Tie the rope around this rock," Argo instructed.
"Are you sure?" Sai asked.
Argo just looked at him. "Okay, okay. But I don't see how this will help us. I'm sure the rock will find this ball of string great company," Sai said sarcastically.
"You idiot!" Volta hit Sai over the head. "We tie the end of the string around the rock and then bring the ball with us as we go, so that we can find our way back. Right, Mr. Guilsky?"
The Neo-Russian fighter nodded his head.
"I thought girls were supposed to be the submissive gender," Sai Sici muttered under his breath as he finished tying the rope and stood up, rubbing his head.
"You want to run that by me again, Mr. Sici?" Volta asked, striking an interrogating pose.
"Um no, not really," Sai said nervously. How can a girl hit me and then call me 'Mr.'? Sai Sici thought. Oh well.
"Let's go," Brad said impatiently.
Everyone filed around a corner. Volt suddenly rushed back to the rock. "Mr. Sici, I swear, next to Haaz you are the stupidest being on this planet! Didn't I explain that we take the ball or string with us?! Some people are just so." Volta lapsed into her native tongue. "Sorry, gentlemen," she explained when she was done. "I don't think even Mr. Kasshu and Chibodee combined could match what I just said."
* * *
Although they had started out in good humor, Domon and the others were now completely pessimistic. They still had the dwindling ball of string with them. But there had been no sign of life-intelligent or otherwise (besides Sai Sici of course, who had drifted away from the group a number of times).
"It's hopeless. How are we supposed to find Bunny in this underground maze?" Rain complained.
"I'm getting too old for this," Chikori commented.
"You're thirteen. How can you be too old for this?" Volta asked, stepping in line beside Chikori.
"I know I'm thirteen. I'm too old for this," he repeated.
"Okay. Whatever you say," Volta said skeptically.
"You think you're too old for this? Chik, I'm like three times your age plus two!" Chibodee complained.
"That make it even more depressing that you fell for a twenty-year-old!" Chikori said innocently.
"Volt, should we kill him now, or later?" Chibodee asked casually.
"Later," Volta replied.
"Will you three stop acting like circus clowns?" Brad asked, annoyed. "We have a serious job on our hands. Pardon the expression, Mr. Crockett," Brad apologized as he saw Chibodee's face.
They continued walking in silence. "Isn't it strange that there aren't any guards or anything?" Sai Sici asked.
Brad nodded. "Maybe they didn't want anyone else to know about it," he suggested.
"You father must-"
"Don't you ever call that man my father, Mr. Sici!" Brad cut into Sai's statement.
Domon remembered himself saying something similar about Kyoji, his brother. He was brought back to the present when Rain hushed him. "Shhh, Domon! There's someone in the shadows there," she whispered and pulled Domon behind a corner, where everyone else was hiding.
The figure emerged from the shadows. The person was being supported by the walls, who was obviously very weak. Domon could see that it was a girl now. Blond-red hair, violet eyes.She stood panting against the wall for a moment, her eyes staring in disbelief as everyone came into plain view.
"Bunny!" George yelled. Bunny stood there for a moment then ran right past her father into Brad's arms. George looked stunned. Brad twirled Bunny around, looking into her deep violet eyes. Then he set her down on the ground gently and bent forward. It started as a light caress, but soon grew into more. Bunny pressed herself close to Brad, enjoying his body-warmth as they kissed. Finally they broke, more for need of air than anything else.
"Um, wow," Sai Sici observed, astonished. Everyone could hear their own voices echoed in Sai Sici's.
Volta turned to Chibodee, accusingly shaking her finger.
"How come you were never so romantic with me?" she asked. Everyone laughed, except Bunny, who just stared at Volta and Chibodee. She snuggled closer to Brad.
"Brad, I love you," she whispered in his ear.
It didn't matter what happened now. He had Bunny back. "Oui, mademoiselle," Brad responded in Bunny's native French. "I love you too."
If you think this is the end, you better be kidding. Hello! Bersek and Dr. Klements are still up to something, in case you had a temporary brain freeze or something like that. A lot of people get lost. Anyway, yah. Oh, by the way, "Oui" means "Yes" ( I think, hehe). ~* ShadowTide *~