Now for a redone chapter six. On a side note, I really hate Shakespearean vocabulary. Do I really need to know what moiety means? Will this be an important word in my adult life? I think not!
Cogito Ergo Doleo = I think therefore I am depressed.
Chapter Six: The Kidnapping ('bout damn time!)
(Approximately two weeks after last chapter)
At precisely six o'clock on a relatively so-far uneventful Thursday, in a small bedroom in a small but cozy apartment an irritatingly loud alarm went off, startling the occupant of the nearby bed out of a blissful slumber. A Hand reached out from under the covers, over to the alarm, and proceeded to beat it mercilessly until The Hand located the snooze button. The Hand then retreated to the warmth and comfort of under the bedcovers. Five minutes later, the alarm began to blare again as if to say, 'I dare you to hit me again!' The Hand appeared again, and beat it a second time, this time followed by a muffled groan from underneath the covers, presumably made by the person attached to the alarm-abusing appendage. An amused voice could be heard from near the doorway to the bedroom.
"To other people, that sound means get up." The muffled reply:
"Yeah, well, those 'other people' can bite me!" A chuckle, and then,
"Now Bunny, you do have to go to work today, remember?"
"I don't wanna. Can I stay home?" The voice, now identified as none other than our character Bunny, sounded so childlike that Rokusho could barely hold back a laugh. Then he paused, thinking, 'With the Rubber-Robo's after her, maybe she should stay out of sight.' Then he thought better of it. 'No, that would mean telling her about them, and that would put her on guard, which would tip off the Rubber-Robo's. Things have to stay as normal as possible.'
"Rokusho?" A graceful hand waved in front of his optics. He was startled out of his thoughts, and saw Bunny kneeling in front of him with a blanket wrapped around her, her snow coloured hair tousled and in disarray. She gave a cute little I'm-still-half-asleep-but-I-still-look-cute smile, seeing he was all right.
"It's nothing, just thinking. You should get dressed and have breakfast."
"Okay." She rose, and proceeded to the small adjoining bathroom to wash. Rokusho walked into the small kitchen and Quicksilver was preparing breakfast for Bunny.
"Good morning Rokusho." She chimed.
"Good morning Sil." Quicksilver felt all warm and fuzzy at hearing Rokusho's nickname for her, the same effect was felt whenever Metabee or Bunny called her Silver. It was nice to be loved.
Several minutes later, Bunny emerged from her shower and got dressed quickly in a nice black suede skirt which reached between knee and thigh, a dark blue and silver leaf-patterned brocade Chinese style top to match the skirt, and a pair of black calf-high boots and braided her hair and twisted it into a bun at the base of her neck. Some silver stud leaf earrings and a matching necklace completed the ensemble, which afforded a very interesting look. After taking a total of fifteen minutes to dress (a record for any woman), she appeared in the kitchen ready to eat, and found Henry already sitting at her table, eating some waffles. With Henry living just above her, a surprise when they had found out, he often showed up in the morning to:
a) Eat breakfast cause he hated cooking,
b) See the girl of dreams as often as possible, even though he was still too shy to ask her out, and
c) Walk her as far as the Hop Mart, which she went by every morning on the way to Medabot HQ.
Not that Bunny minded him showing up every day, considering she rather like Henry quite a bit.
"Morning Henry." She said happily. Henry looked up from his newspaper and smiled at her.
"Morning. I hear someone wanted to stay home from work today. Tsk, Tsk, very irresponsible." Bunny gave him an indignant look.
"Oh and I suppose you've never skipped out on work?" Henry flushed lightly, as he remembered how he had done so to show Bunny around town when she had first arrived. 'Definitely worth it.' He thought.
Bunny caught a look at the page of the newspaper Henry was looking at as she sat down to eat. A bold headline read, "PHANTOM RENEGADE STRIKES AGAIN!" Bunny smiled at her cute friend's apparent obsession with the masked thief, but then again, in her mind, she often thought the Phantom was a rather sexy and mysterious character, though she'd never tell anyone that.
"What'd he steal this time?" Henry scanned the article.
"An old medal right out of an armored transport van heading to a military base. Not bad."
"I like his hat." Bunny responded. "You can't find hats like that around much."
Bunny and Henry chatted during breakfast, and then left walking together to the bus stop, which was conveniently right by the Hop Mart (you got a problem with that???). The bus arrived shortly after they reached the stop, and Bunny called goodbye to Henry as it drove away. Henry waved in response. He was smiling outwardly, but inside he was worried about her. Nowhere was safe for her as long as the Rubber-Robo's were after her, he just hoped that Rokusho and Dr. Aki were on the job, because he already had one.
Ever since he had learned of Meta-Evils' plans to kidnap Bunny and her medabot, the three of them (Aki, Phantom and Rokusho) had puzzled over why. Why Bunny? Quicksilver was understandable, her having a unique medal and all, but why Bunny as well? As much as Henry wanted to know the answer, he didn't want to have to find out at the cost of Bunny's safety. The Quicksilver element worried him as well, if one considered the power of the Rare medal, it frightened, no terrified him to think of what could be possible with a unique one. Henry shivered at the thought.
At precisely eight o'clock, Bunny walked through the security check at the entrance of medabot HQ with no problem (she does work there.), and proceeded to the fifteenth floor where she shared an office with Miss Caviar. She entered the adjoining office to find the aforementioned Miss Caviar hard at work with some design schematics.
"Morning Marion." Bunny greeted her friend. (I thought about a bunch of first names for Miss Caviar, but decided that Marion suited her best. If she actually has a first name, please let me know.) Marion, not looking up, returned the greeting.
"Good morning Elizabeth." As much as Bunny had tried, she just couldn't get Marion to call her Bunny, saying it was unprofessional, and that she liked the name Elizabeth better anyway. Not that it mattered, either name suited her fine; she simply used Bunny out of habit than anything else. In fact, everyone at work called her either Miss Monroe, or Elizabeth, and to a lesser degree, Liz, Lizzy and for some reason, the security guard called her Beth.
"Marion?"
"Yes?"
"Have you been here all night?" It was well known that Marion Caviar spent more time in her lab than anywhere else. It was rumored that she even lived in a small room disguised as a broom closet somewhere in the building. If it was true, no one had found it yet.
Marion finally looked up form her work, adjusting her glasses, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Not all night. I left at two in the morning and came back at five." Bunny blinked.
"Do you actually have a life?" she asked incredulously. Marion drew herself up haughtily.
"My work is my life, thank you very much."
"You need a hobby…or a boyfriend."
"You're one to talk. You and Henry have been pussyfooting around each other for weeks and nothing's come of it, so I wouldn't be so quick to judge."
With that, Marion 'humphed' and went back to work, which caused Bunny to laugh quietly to herself. She then hung up her coat on the rack by the door, and sat down at her desk, which was across from Marion's. 'And now, to work' she thought.
"Have we worked out the bugs yet?" she asked. Miss Caviar sighed and then pushed the schematics away from her. The schematics showed a design for a teleport system that enabled a medafighter to transport his or her medabot, without the need to have the medabot's medal in a medawatch. They had seen this was possible at the World Robattle Championships when Team USA had used this particular tactic against Team Japan. (Look at me I'm integrating actual events into my story.) Unfortunately, when Dr. Aki had asked how this was done, Joe, the team captain, had admitted he couldn't remember how he had done it in the first place (now I'm making fun of Americans), so they had to figure it out on their own. Every once in a while, Joe would contact them, and tell them something he had remembered, events few and far between.
When Bunny had joined the Medabot Corp. family, Dr. Aki had immediately assigned her to work with Miss Caviar, with the orders to 'figure the damn thing out', which was what they were attempting to do. Notice my use of the word attempting. Things weren't going so well, which I suppose is an understatement. As soon as they figured one thing out, something popped up and screwed it up. When they solved the variable causing the problem, another one appeared. When they finally thought they had gotten it all figured out, when they tested it, something invariably blew up, out or all over the place. Murphy's Law was having a field day with them. Yeah, it was a pain in the ass, to quote Miss Caviar. But on the bright side, they were clocking in some pretty good overtime.
This is what Bunny's workday consisted of:
8:00-12:00:Work, with a few well-timed coffee breaks in between. Lots of coffee involved. COOFFFEEEE!
12:00-2:00: Lunch. Two hours for lunch you say? Well, they're special, and it's the only time Dr. Aki ever pays for anything, so get what you can.
2:00-4:00: More work, again with generous coffee breaks.
4:00: Home…well in Bunny's case anyway. Miss Caviar has no life remember? (Back to her broom closet she goes.)
This was Bunny's day. Where was Quicksilver you ask? She runs errands around the building, cause she's so fast about it, and simply to give her something to do. If she gets particularly bored, she may leave the building and go to Ikki's school and hang out with the other medabots. Metabee especially. Unfortunately, Rokusho, Henry and Dr. Aki don't know about Quicksilver's little forays into the city during the day, so while Rokusho and Dr. Aki are keeping track of Bunny in the building, and Henry is busy working, Quicksilver is out and about without anyone else's knowledge. With recent developments concerning the Rubber-Robo's, I'm sure you can figure that this is a bad thing.
Quicksilver was having a bored day; so as she was sometimes want to, she was wandering around the city, just enjoying the outside. She had already visited the school, but her medabot friends were nowhere to be seen, which was disappointing. 'Maybe I'll go by Ikki's house.' She thought. 'Metabee might be there. I might even see Brass on the way.' She considered going to Rosewood to visit Sumilodon and Neutranurse, but it was too far away and Sumilodon wasn't really the fun type. In fact, she noticed that Sumilodon was particularly quiet when she was around, so she figured he probably didn't like her much (Poor Sumilodon).
"I know!!" she exclaimed out loud, startling some birds on the ground nearby. "I'll go see Henry." Knowing how dull working at the Hop Mart was, she figured Henry would be glad of her company to alleviate the boredom. Resolute, she headed towards the Hop Mart and Henry, not knowing that she was being watched from a distance.
* * *
A being watched the blue and silver medabot from behind a tree. He chuckled to himself. Everything was going according to plan. Even better was the fact that the two were now separated, which made it a Hell of a lot easier for them. 'Perfect.' the being thought. 'I grab the medabot, and the others can get the girl.' Then a thought struck him with great force, knocking him to the ground. Profound insights often did that to him. 'What the hell do we need the girl for anyway? The medal is what's important, right?' Another voice in his head popped up. 'Why don't you ask?'
'I did, and I got hit. Repeatedly.'
'So why are you asking me? If you don't know, then why would I?' He thought about this.
'Good point.'
'As usual.' Pause.
'What were we talking about?'
'Sigh. Never mind. Just get the medabot when she's alone.'
'Oh, right.' Poor Squidguts, he just doesn't get it. But then, neither do we. What does Meta-Evil want Bunny for?
* * *
Quicksilver walked into the Hop Mart to the great shock and dismay of Henry.
"Quicksilver? What are you doing here?" Quicksilver looked a little shocked at his outburst.
"I was bored and I thought you might want some company." Henry thought fast. Maybe this wasn't such a bad development. With Quicksilver here, he could keep an eye on her himself. He recovered.
"Sorry, I was just surprised to see you. What are you doing here by yourself? Shouldn't you be with Bunny?" Quicksilver sighed. "She's working, and I don't like it there. The labs creep me out, seeing all those dismantled medabots being tested. It's a bit unsettling."
"Just like me and hospitals. All those sick people." Henry replied understandingly.
"Are you in love with Bunny?" Quicksilver's totally unexpected question threw Henry for a loop. He made an unintelligible sound that sounded like a cross of what, huh and eh. He recovered enough to get out a coherent noise.
"What?" Quicksilver blinked. (Can medabots blink?)
"I asked you if you…" Henry interrupted her.
"I-I heard what you said. Wh-Why do you ask?" He asked somewhat calmly. He had mostly gotten over the shock and now wondered why she was asking. 'God', he thought. 'Am I really that obvious. If Quicksilver knows, does Bunny know as well? Shit! Does Rokusho know? Christ I am so dead!'
"I've been talking with Rokusho and we've noticed that you act different around Bunny than anyone else. He explained to me that it was because you were in love with her, and I wanted to verify that with you." Henry was so surprised that Rokusho had figured him out, that he wasn't thinking when he spoke next.
"So he knows huh?" Then he realized what he'd said. "Shit!! Uh, what I meant was, uh...um…oh screw it, I give up." Henry dropped his head onto the counter and heaved a heavy sigh. Quicksilver on the other hand was thrilled.
"This is excellent!" She cried, jumping for joy. "Everyone else said that there was something going on, but I didn't know what they meant, and then Brass and Erika explained everything to me, but I still didn't understand, so then I went to see Neutranurse, then Sumilodon, then Metabee, and they all said the same thing." Henry fell over.
"What!!" He yelled. "How many people actually know about this???" Quicksilver thought for a second.
"Well…" she began slowly. "Bunny doesn't know." Henry began to beat his head against the counter in time to his cursing.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!" Then he stopped, realizing something and giving his poor abused noggin a rest. "You said Bunny doesn't know?"
Quicksilver nodded. "Nope. She's been really busy lately, so she probably hasn't noticed anything."
"Probably?" Quicksilver shrugged.
"Hey, I can't read minds. I was designed to keep Bunny out of danger and trouble, not intuit her every thought and feeling about the people around her. Not unless she tells me anyway, which she hasn't." She paused for a second. "What are you going to do about it?" She asked.
"I don't have a clue." Henry answered. The Hop Mart, empty but for the two of them was enveloped with a silence as the two of them were immersed in their own thoughts.
* * *
It was 7:00. Once again, Bunny and Marion Caviar had worked out all the bugs in their transportation system, only to have it blow up in their faces…literally…twice. Technology's a bitch ain't it? The two women had given up for the day and were calling it a night, satisfied that they had at least earned some good overtime. Earlier Bunny had discovered that Quicksilver had left the building to explore the city, but Bunny wasn't that surprised, it did get boring here, especially when everyone was always doing something else. After a quick chat with the security guard at the entrance, Bunny left Medabot HQ, and headed home. She stopped momentarily at a small diner to eat something quickly, and headed to the bus stop. She arrived at the stop just in time to see it cross the intersection.
'Damn!' she thought. 'Now I'll have to walk home.' With a resigned sigh, she set off toward home.
After walking in silence for several minutes, a familiar voice sounded from a dark alley.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you that you shouldn't walk alone in the dark?" With a startled cry, she jumped back, and then realized she knew the voice. A pair of glowing red eyes could be seen, and then Rokusho stepped forward out of the darkness.
"Rokusho! Don't do that! You scared the Hell out of me!" Rokusho only chuckled.
"Sorry, but you really shouldn't be out alone right now…it's dangerous." He became suddenly serious. "It's late, we should get home fast." Wondering what he meant by dangerous but not given the chance to question him, she followed him anyway. She was confident that Rokusho would effectively and quickly deter anything or anyone who attempted to harm her.
They had walked without any interference until they were about a block away from the Hop Mart. They could see Henry exiting the building, his shift for the day over. Quicksilver was with him, and they spotted Bunny and Rokusho, and waved to them. Bunny and Rokusho sped up to reach them, when suddenly a small explosion knocked all of them off their feet. When the dust began to clear, Rokusho heard Henry cough and then call out.
"Bunny! You all right?" He called. There was no answer. Rokusho called this time.
"Elizabeth!" Still nothing. "Quicksilver!" A few feet away, Henry could hear that panic had begun creeping into Rokusho's voice, but then, Henry was also starting to feel panicked himself. 'Oh God' he thought. 'Please don't be the Rubber-Robos.'
The dust was completely gone now, and neither Bunny nor Quicksilver could be seen anywhere. Sinister laughter was heard coming from above them. They both looked up and saw…you wanna guess? No? Fine. It was the Rubber-Robo gang, and one of them had an unconscious Bunny in his arms, and a non-operational Quicksilver lay at his feet. Henry was furious.
"You bastards!!" He yelled. "Let them go!" The leader simply laughed at him
"Not likely! We've got plans for these two! But hey if you really want to fight, we'd be more than happy to oblige you. Go Whitesword!" The ninja medabot leapt out of nowhere, and went straight for Rokusho.
Rokusho leaped into a defensive mode, and the two medabots clashed for several minutes. Rokusho was about to strike the finishing blow, when Whitesword suddenly moved onto the defensive and ran away. Rokusho was slightly puzzled, but Henry called out to him.
"Rokusho! It was a diversion!" Henry slumped to the ground and Rokusho approached the distraught young man. "I've failed." Rokusho said dejectedly. "I was supposed to protect them from the Rubber-Robos, but I failed."
"Now what do we do?" Henry asked the medabot, but Rokusho was already leaving.
"I have to see some people. Don't worry Henry, we'll get them back." Then Rokusho was gone. Even though he was seriously depressed about losing his almost-girlfriend, Henry admired the way Rokusho could just disappear like that. 'I've got to figure out how he does that." He thought. 'But first, I have an appointment to keep.' Henry got up, and rushed to his apartment, where he had to pick up a few items he needed for his just recently scheduled appointment with Rokusho and Dr. Aki.
'Don't worry Bunny.' He thought. 'I'll find you.' It was now more important than ever that the three of them discover what Meta-Evil wanted with Elizabeth Monroe, granddaughter of the late Dr. Hushi.
* * *
I suppose that's that for this chapter. I didn't actually change a lot in this one, I guess because it was closer to what I had been going for structure wise.