Chapter 11: Prima
"Drat!!" Claire cursed loudly as she suddenly ran up from the end of the street where Blood and Smokey were loading crates into an old truck in front of Elroy's Library. She addressed the spikey red-headed boy who was standing on top of the truck, "Drat it, Trap Master, we've got company!!"
"The hell—" Trap Master exclaimed. "I thought he was supposed to come peacefully—!!"
"I didn't get a chance to drug him!" Pseudo-Claire shouted as she angrily pulled off her plas-skin mask and roughly threw it on the floor. "Time for Plan C!"
"Plan C?!! You mean Psycho Master—"
The girl known as Mode Master spat in disdain. "Brother Dearest couldn't handle the guy. Drat! Did I mention that she's here too?!" She cursed again. "That girl has gotten in my way too many times already! I'm splitting—I can't let them find me here or my cover's blown. Don't fail us this time, Narcius!" And then she was gone.
Dangit, Lockheed, you're always giving me the dirty work… Trap Master jumped down from the roof of the truck. He checked his several belts, making sure his weapons were on hand and easily gotten. He turned to Blood and Smokey, "Prepare yourselves, guys."
"Holy—!!" Blood shouted when the two high school kids suddenly appeared from the end of the street where Mode Master had come from. The two thieves both recognized Rue and the killer violin case… except that this time it wasn't a violin case… "No way Smokey and I are fighting him!"
And just like that, Trap Master found himself alone to face the wrath of two of Carona High's premier students.
They heard the spikey-haired boy shout loudly as they approached him. "You want me, you'll have to come after me!" Without further ado, he ran into the warehouse.
"How many whackos like this guy do we have to fight in a single day?!" Mint muttered under her breath as she stomped her foot in annoyance. "Well, are we going or not?"
Rue made no inclination to move as he surveyed the area with narrowed eyes. There was an old-fashioned, white-washed truck left with its back compartment doors swiveling open directly in front of Elroy's library. Inside the truck he could barely make out several boxes similar to the one he found before. They must've been loading the crates from the warehouse before he and the girl made their untimely appearance.
But he didn't understand—the Claire look-a-like obviously lured them there for some purpose. Or rather, the Claire look-a-like had tried to lure him. Mint's presence was probably an unexpected development, which did not entirely entail it was a good thing as the word trap suddenly sprang into mind. He was loath to involve anyone else in what obviously concerned him alone, but knowing his companion's tendencies, the mere mention of turning back now would probably just make her more determined (and angry).
"I don't like this at all, Mint," he admitted after some time.
"Who does? But simply standing here isn't gonna get us anywhere." That being said, she followed Trap Master into the warehouse.
Rue reluctantly followed her inside. They hadn't gone too far in when the girl stopped abruptly in front of him for no apparent reason. In one swift move she turned and shoved Rue backwards, immediately before a huge iron cage dropped down right on top of her.
It was a trap! But the trap had never been meant for the girl… Quickly, Rue grabbed one of the bars with his free hand, shaking it roughly and realizing that it was made of cheap metal. He readied his weapon. "Step back, Mint—that thing won't stand a chance against the weight of the Arc Edge."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice called from the opposite end of the room. "That cage is rigged with 4 kilos of good, old-fashioned dynamite inside those metal bars. Any sudden pressure on the bars will blow that thing sky high."
"Of all the low-down…" Mint muttered angrily. She pointed one ring in contempt at the spikey red-headed boy. "Come out and fight like a man!!"
Trap Master ignored her taunts, chuckling. "Well, I guess this evens the odds—I'm not known as Trap Master for nothing. Shucks, maybe it was too much to hope that the cage 'd get both of you…" He held up his hand to show Rue some sort of remote control. "The only way to open that cage without it blowing up in your face is the green button," he indicated the remote, "while the red button will instantly detonate it." He winked insinuatingly at Mint and leered. "Thanks for being such a cute, hapless hostage.
"So, Kincaid, are you gonna come peaceably?" He placed the remote face-up in a pouch that hung on the center of his chest—any attempt Rue made to attack him in that area will endanger the girl—and with his other hand he held out a pair of handcuffs. "I don't need to tell you what will happen to her if you refuse."
Rue frowned, clenching and unclenching his fists. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he should have seen it coming. But he knew he had no choice. "You'll release her afterwards?"
"Of course," Trap Master replied. "It's the usual drill."
"What the [expletive] do you think you're doing!" Mint shouted from behind the metal bars. "You idiot! Is this how you repay me for saving you from that fake Claire?!"
So, she knew it was him they wanted. All the more reason he shouldn't involve her, then. He purposely ignored the girl's shouts as he dropped the Arc Edge and slowly headed towards Trap Master, his arms held up in surrender.
Mint stomped her foot twice in annoyance. "Rue, you are such an [expletive]!!"
He turned to look towards her then, unable to ignore the emotion he heard in her voice. He watched quizzically as she wielded one ring and circled it slowly about her head. "Mint, what're you…?" And then realization came.
"Mint— NO!!"
Too late. She threw the ring—he heard its familiar whoosh as it flew past him to hit Trap Master at the center of his chest.
The last thing he saw was the cage blowing up before his eyes. And then everything went black.
When the dust from the explosion had cleared, the scene that unfolded before her literally took her breath away.
Rue was fighting Trap Master. The latter kept throwing small bombs at him, but Rue would sidestep them each time, the bombs sometimes exploding so close to him that his clothing had frayed in places and there were raw burns on his arms. Trap Master was retreating as he threw the bombs, but doggedly Rue kept attacking. His Arc Edge was still lying on the floor unnoticed.
Trap Master suddenly faltered as he ran out of explosives, and at last Rue caught up to his target. A single blow was enough to send Trap Master down and keep him there.
But Rue didn't stop. He knelt over Trap Master and started to strangle him.
Rue, what are you doing…?! "Rue! Rue, stop it!" The cage was gone—blown up into rubble—and Mint ran up to the white-haired boy, grabbing one of his arms from behind.
What he did next happened so fast that if it hadn't happened to her, she never would have known it. Rue's body twisted sharply, both his fists aiming for her neck and chest, his eyes glazed over and his face contorted in fury. She evaded but not swiftly enough, one of his blows hitting air while the other hit her old wound. She screamed as white pain momentarily blinded her, and Rue, still not realizing what he had done, attacked her again. Mint's instincts took over, and she kicked him dead in the stomach.
The force of the kick threw him several meters backwards and down onto the floor. Clutching his abdomen, he propped himself up on one elbow and shook his head in an attempt to clear it. When he finally looked up, the first thing he saw were a pair of bright, bright burgundy eyes that gazed back at him from a distance.
No way. There was no way she could've survived that explosion. But she was there, she was very real, and she was very much alive. "Mint!"
He quickly stood up, and with brisk steps he practically ran towards her. He didn't stop to think and he gathered her into his arms, so relieved was he that she was alive. But she abruptly pulled away, as if his mere touch had suddenly brought her pain—he had embraced her so fervently that he had too hard squeezed the sore shoulder.
"Mint, I…" he was gaping as he took a half-step backwards. "I hurt you again…!"
"Drop it, Rue," she whispered through gritted teeth. Mint knew well that he didn't mean to, and she was getting tired of him always apologizing for things that weren't always his fault. But she was relieved that he was his normal self now.
"No, Mint, that's the second time I—"
KAPOW! Rue slammed against the wall, right after the girl's boot connected with his abdomen for the second time in the past two minutes. He had quite forgotten how powerful her jump-kick really was.
"There, we're even. Now, will you shut up?!" Mint's face was flushed. "Let's get out of here."
She walked over and offered her hand to him, and helped him to stand. His ears didn't stop buzzing until they had found their way outside again.
Trap Master had escaped, during the time that Rue unconsciously turned against his friend when she had tried to stop him. They discovered him gone when they had paused to pick up their weapons.
Mint kept her face impassive, but inwardly she was scared. No, scared wasn't the word, (an East Heaven scion is never scared, hah!) …apprehensive, uneasy? Just like that time in the underground tunnels, she couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong.
It was the first time she had seen him that way, and although she remembered everything clearly, still she couldn't believe it. The gentle, quiet Rue, the somewhat reserved class representative of 2-A… He had gone ballistic when he thought she had died—and she would've died if she hadn't been able to protect herself with her magic—and for a single instant afterwards there was that look on his face of pure gladness when he realized that she was still there. She felt herself start to blush unbidden (again), and she forcibly pushed the thought away.
But it was the way he had gone ballistic that made her anxious. He had almost killed Trap Master in anger, and when he had suddenly turned against her in frenzy, there was the fierce look that he had on his face… A fierce look that was almost, but not quite, bordering on insanity…
For a brief moment, it was as if he wasn't Rue at all.
They finally found their way outside to be greeted by the half-loaded truck, exactly as Blood and Smokey had left it less than a couple of hours ago.
"Shouldn't we call the police, and ask them to check this out?" Rue had asked her.
To which Mint replied, "…and tell them what? That a couple of underage kids had stopped some militant terrorist gang who were loading contraband… err… what were they loading into this truck?!" And so they both agreed that they should investigate.
They stepped inside the truck's compartment, and found it half filled with square boxes a meter long to each side. The boxes were metal, unmarked and painted a reddish brown with black linings. They were very similar to the box that Rue had found a year ago in Elroy's library, but there was something different that Mint could sense about these boxes. And frankly, she didn't like it at all.
The boxes weren't quite unmarked, she noticed upon closer inspection. Each box had a small control pad, just a little bit bigger than her palm, and a display unit of the same size. At the corner of each box was a small LED marked occupied, but this box's LED was turned off. She clicked a few buttons to open the display unit, and it promptly bleeped with the words 'occupant: (empty)' and 'life support status: active'. She stopped short.
She knew what they were. She knew the theory behind them—similar to the principle of cryogenics, except that this one didn't involve freezing temperatures. These 'boxes' were containers designed to hold human life forms in total stasis for indefinite periods of time.
"…a life capsule…" Mint shuddered, cursing under her breath. "I didn't think they actually existed."
She cursed again, louder this time, when she noticed that one of them was occupied. Rue was already fiddling with the controls. "Gotcha!"
They heard an eerie fizz, and cold steam escaped from the capsule's linings. When the mist cleared and the box had opened completely, they found him inside.
He couldn't have been more than six years of age. He had platinum-white hair, very similar to Rue's, and he was sleeping peacefully. Suddenly his eyes opened, and Mint noticed that his irises were a deep, coal-black as well.
"Umm, hello." Rue greeted. "Can you talk?"
The boy nodded. "Did you come to free me?"
"Yup." Rue smiled reassuringly at him. "What's your name?"
"They call me 'Prima'." He reached out his hands, and Rue bodily picked him up to carry him outside.
"So, Prima," Mint said as she too stepped out of the truck compartment, "My name is Mint, and that guy holding you is Rue. Any ideas why you were in that box?"
Little Prima shook his head. "They said they were taking me to someplace new. But they didn't say where. They were bad men," he pouted. "Mean, bad men. They killed my mama and papa."
Rue started, almost dropping the boy in his astonishment. But he wasn't startled because the bad men had killed Prima's parents. He was startled because the bad men had killed Prima's parents… and yet Prima had said it so indifferently.
"Anyway," Mint spoke again, "let's get out of here, alright? I'm sooo hungry… Are you hungry, Prima?" Prima nodded.
Rue put the boy down. "But we can't just leave these," he indicated the empty capsules. "We'd better call Klaus and tell him to pick us up."
Mint wrinkled her nose at him. "I've a better idea. Why don't we just take the truck there? Don't tell me you don't know how to drive?" Rue shook his head no. Mint grinned. "Then I will."
What?! Mint wasn't old enough to get a driver's license yet. But she had already walked up to the driver's side of the truck and promptly stepped in.
He closed the back door of the truck, making certain it was locked securely before running over to the girl. "Are you sure you know how to drive?!"
"I can handle it!" He noted that she didn't really answer his question. She continued, "Wheel controls the direction, knobbly stick sets the driving mode, right pedal for the brake and left to accelerate."
"That stick is called the gear shift, and the left pedal is the brake…!"
"…whatever. The point is, how hard can it be?" She adjusted herself on the driver's seat, trying to get the feel of the vehicle, and Prima eagerly jumped into the passenger side. "Well, Rue? You're welcome to walk all the way back if you want to."
Sighing resignedly, Rue rounded the truck and reluctantly hopped into the front seat of the vehicle, squeezing beside Prima. He made sure that all three of them were wearing their seatbelts before Mint started the engine.
Mint whooped. "Here we go!"
The things I get into… All of a sudden the vehicle jarred, and Rue almost bumped his head onto the windshield. "—Mint!!"
"Oooh, you're right, the left pedal is the brake…" she broke into a wicked grin.
The truck lurched forward bumpily, and Rue thought he was going to be sick. But Prima was ecstatic, and Mint was keen on indulging him.
"Yay, Mint! Can you go faster?" "…want us to take the long way around, Prima?" "Yayy!! Faster! Go faster!" "You said it!!"
Rue's knuckles had turned white as he gripped his seat. The vehicle swerved, and he shut his eyes tight as the truck barely missed hitting a telephone pole. He didn't open them again until they had stopped completely in front of the Klauses' driveway.
Author's Notes
26 October 2002 Greetings! Thanks for reading, and thank you more for reviewing! ^_^ Never in my wildest dreams could I have done so much work on this fic in such a short time if it weren't for the people who review me… ^_^
People of note this installment: Viccy-chan, Vampyre, Liol, Kawaii Doll, Access, Mana Angel and Lil Duckling (can't answer your question, sorry—unless you count Psycho and Mode being siblings) and last but not least, Ms. Cherry Lee! ^_^; Shinji-kun, my gratitude to you is on a different level, as we know each other personally. Oh, and there's someone who reviewed without signing… Since you know when my birthday is, I have to assume you're a friend. My guess is either Kendra or Billy Joe. Thank you!
30 October 2002 Wrong on both counts—Sacha, I know now it was you! ^_^ Anyway, I apologize for the previous postings. I didn't like the intro to the 'iron cage' thing, so I did some (very) minor rehashing.
22 October 2002 Finally! A negative review… Thank you very much for telling me so. (I understand that not everyone is going to like this fic. Oh, you won't believe how long I've been waiting for that…but I doubt if you'll ever know it.) ^_^. I won't pretend that it didn't sting—OUCH, it did, _; —but personally, I've never claimed that this isn't cliché… in fact, I keep reiterating I'm just doing a remake of the entire game in an (sort of) alternate universe, and I've given fair warning in the summary. But, no, I don't think I'm going to post this down just yet. You could always complain to management about me, though.
On the other hand, it is kinda flattering… I think I'm the only author in our revered section of ffnet who has (recently) gotten such a worded negative review so far. Ouch again. _;;; Oohkay, so maybe I'm indulging in self-pity now—sorry, it was my first in this lifetime, and it was quite blatant in spite of being short, and obviously wasn't meant as constructive criticism, so please give me time to get used to (and get over) it…
If this story sucks that much and unknowingly I've offended anyone… I'm really sorry. I can't objectively analyze my own work (without bias)… If I'm annoying, offending, or embarrassing anyone with my fic, please do tell. I apologize in advance, and I assure you I didn't mean to offend anyone. If I get enough requests asking me to put this down, I WILL put this down permanently.
Btb, constructive criticisms and non-offensive criticisms don't count as negative reviews and are very much appreciated.
25 October 2002
To Mana Angel: Thanks! Oh, maybe *that* was why I got a… err… flame? Is that what you guys call it? _. I guess I don't feel bad about it anymore. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! And the skull beast bloopers are my favorite (plus Mint's fake arm), too. ^_^
To Access: VERY MANY THANKS TO YE AS WELL!! It's two chapters again this time (one in the beginning), and I'll do my best not to disappoint you. ^_^ (Btb, what's 'TIIIIIIITE' ? And can anyone please tell me what 'OOC' stands for?)
Almost half done! Only a couple more chapters 'til the halfway mark!! The up-coming chapter is my 2nd personal favorite: Chasing the Rainbow. With Starlight Duke! ^_~.
Deleted Paraghaphs
Sometimes, I keep coming up with ideas for scenes that won't fit in the real story, but I find them quite fun to think about (and to think up). The funny deleted scenes, I will put in the bloopers. (That'll probably be the longest chap when I finish this story.) As for the others… hmmm. Let's ask the question, what if this really is a Rue/Mint Romance fic? I did say (many times) that I am a Rue/Mint fan… _. I don't really go for romance fics, but I believe that some of you guys do (judging from the reviews I got for chapter 07 :P)…
By the by, the same warning as the deleted paragraphs of Chapter 07 applies. As far as the story is concerned, these paragraphs never existed.
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. PG-15, but I do tend to over-rate (pardon the pun). Can I repeat that, just for emphasis?
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
It was as if he wasn't Rue at all…
There was only one thing she could think of to stop him right then.
She kissed him.
"Mmph!!" Arc Edge and Dual Haloes dropped to the floor, and Mint wrapped her arms about his neck, pulling his head down so she could kiss him better. His glazed eyes had suddenly returned to normal, but she wouldn't have noticed it anyway.
Rue was fully aware now, fully aware of the girl and her warm body that was pressing against him. She was so close, damn it, and he found himself unable to think clearly. In fact, he found himself unable to think at all. He was aware, yet it was as if his body had a mind of its own… he embraced her about the waist and pulled her even closer. He returned the kiss, groaning involuntarily as he felt her respond to his movements.
"Riiiiiggght. This is getting too weird for words… I'm outta here." Narcius was shaking his head in disdain. The other two were so busy that they didn't see him leave.
"M-Mint?" Rue whispered when she finally let him up for air. "Mint, wha-a?"
She opened her eyes and gently pulled away. "Hello. I see that you're back." She blushed deeply, uncharacteristically. "Sorry, that was the only way I could think of to stop you…"
"Huh?"
"You almost killed Trap Master." She was suddenly serious now. "But he escaped while we were… err…"
Rue blushed too. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "This never happened?"
"You got it," she said evenly, matching his tone. "I think it's time we get out of here."
Eww, lemony fluff… is that the term fanfic writers use (i know, I'm ignorant…)? It's too, err… it isn't that kind of_ funny_ to include in the bloopers. And, I just can't believe I wrote that. _. No, I mean it—I really, really can't believe I wrote that. _;;; Suffice to say, there isn't going to be anything that even closely resembles this in the real story…