(Disclaimer: don't own vhd; b…sigh I wish Urban Vision would create more merchandise… We need Markus Bros. Stuff!.)
Fear the Fans
Thank you reviewers!
Darksparrow2: Dear dear, it was not my intention to injure you…you should probably punish that chair. I hope you enjoy this chapter in a less painful manner.
Melissa Danielsen: Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement…as opposed to the threats some give me!
Red6523: Plez? Oh, very well. I go on with it.
Nobel Silver Dagger: What a name! Chibi politicians? Oo Goodness me! I'd hate to have to sic Borgoff-san on them; I suppose I'd better write more then!
A-chan: (Pats on back until choking ceases) Well you frightened me! I'm glad you found it so amusing though, tell me what you think of this one!
Little Giry: Ah, my faithful reviewer! Meier reacting will be intriguing…
Andrea and Seifer vanGriever: Wow! Good to hear from you guys again! (Watches them turn blue) Er…come now chaps, please breathe…
Vamp-Huntr-D FAN: (Bows deeply) I'm happy to please, sorry that my updates are so staggered but I've been very busy getting ready for college, the next one should be sooner, tell me what you think of this one!
Azimel: I'm not so sure about channeling Battousai…but he will figure more largely in the next chapter (Wink!)
Adalia Glenys: Thank you so much for bothering to tell me what you think! I know this chapter is somewhat short, but I'll have the next one up soon!
Bad speeling man: Again your comment is appreciated, do stop back again.
Mannariel: (Evil grin) Embarrassment is key… Sorry about the long wait, tell me what you think about this one, the next chappie should be up soon; sorry about the lack of D in this one, he's headed for something big next chapter.
Cage no chou: Colleen! Thank you! Here's the next one!
Chaotic Jinx: You, Becca, and Kyle could easily maul the world in as little as three hours. I fear you! Update your story soon please! I want my Borgoff-san! (Cries a sad cry) Ah well, tell me if you like!
Grove sighed, the sandcastle was rebuilt but he was beginning to feel slightly irritated by Mashira, who acted far too much like a toddler, when he was wound up, than Grove could approve of. Edward, as much as he appreciated knowing someone with a truly admirable sense of humor, was not on his level of thinking and disliked thoughtful discussion. Walking slowly through the surf, Grove headed over toward the mass of people in the center of the beach, hoping to find someone to talk to.
Bengee watched the youngest Markus brother approaching with an overly happy expression scrawled on his face.
"What are you staring at?" Caroline asked, raising her head from her formerly languid position; resting on a surfboard. She eyed her cohort's gleeful facial features and cast a dubious eye in the direction he indicated. Grove was still strolling down the beach, smiling softly and taking silent pleasure in the simple fact that he was walking. "Oh come on…" Caroline hissed at Bengee, shoving him in an exasperated fashion. "That one's all right, leave him alone, go beat up his hairy brother if you're bored."
Bengee scowled at Caroline, he was losing support from all of his allies! Mashira was out to make friends like a big puppy, what had happened to his swift violent friend of old? Meier was content to do nothing but sit on the sand and cuddle that damn human, and D wouldn't so much as listen to him…much less help him kill things for sport. Now even Caroline wasn't up for slighting the humans.
"I don't feel like beating up the hairy one." Bengee muttered, feeling extremely put out…as much fun as it was to laugh at someone's misfortune by yourself, it always made you feel more superior if there was at least one other person laughing behind you…this would lessen the fun somewhat. "He's too easy to knock about." Caroline snorted with mirth, she knew that Bengee just didn't want to go after Borgoff on his own, without Bengee's shadow stabbing abilities, Borgoff was far more than capable of beating the shit out of her fellow Barboroi.
"You just don't want to get your ass beaten in." Caroline murmured, returning to her former cat-like position and closing her eyes.
Stung by the comment and, what he considered the loss of a friend Bengee slid off through the water toward the silver haired figure receding down the beach.
Sanosuke regained consciousness slowly. Shaking his head and feeling dizzy, he attempted to gather his bearings.
"Where the hell am I?" He muttered croakily, gazing around at the beach and trying to remember how he could have gotten there. Slowly he began to realize that this must be the place Colleen had been preparing to take then, it wasn't so special…looked like every other beach he had ever been to…
Another piece of information was whizzing about in the back of his brain, Sanosuke struggled for a few moments, in the attempt to catch it. Finally grabbing hold Sano froze.
"That weird green haired dude…" Sano muttered, shoving the loose ends of his red headband out of his face. "He sold me a..a…cigarette." Sano rubbed his forehead and gazed around, suddenly realizing that his crotch hurt like hell. "What was IN that thing!" He yelped, dancing on the spot until the pain receded. Blazing with sudden indignant fury Sanosuke limped back toward the crowd of people, an image of Spike Spiegel clearly forming in his mind…holding a 'shoot me' sign.
Leila coughed and sputtered, trying to regain her breath after the severe dunking delivered unto her by the most recent wave. Something, aside from the gallon of salt water residing in her lungs, was not right… She gazed down at herself and gave a miserable cry of despair; her bikini top was unaccounted for.
Grove wiped sweat out of his eyes, the beach was fun but did it have to be this hot for them to enjoy it? He was suddenly very glad that he had put on sunscreen…even if it had made him revoltingly sticky.
"Hey!"
The youngest Markus sibling glanced up at the shout, looking out to his left he saw Caroline sitting up on her surfboard and waving at him. Only hesitating for a moment Grove waved back, the Barboroi had seemed to be a pretty good lot. Now that they weren't being paid to kill his family, he saw no reason to be impolite…even though he still felt mistrustful of the plant woman and Bengee… Caroline continued waving.
"What is it?" He called, shading his eyes in order to relieve them of some of the glare. She was pointing to his left; something seemed to be moving in the water. "What the heck is that!" He yelped scrambling quickly for higher ground as Caroline's voice reached him.
"You might want to move!"
Spike gazed out across the pleasant landscape; resenting it for being so happy. Grabbing another drink out of the cooler half buried in the sand beside him, he popped the top, took one sip, and flung it away, taking vindictive pleasure in the sudden burst of outraged cursing from the tall wolfish man that the container had hit.
"You wanna stop that, Spike?" Asked the man sitting on his right, as he removed the cooler from his partners' reach. "You're wasting good food and drink."
"Shut up, Jet." Spike muttered, reaching up and scratching his significantly shorter hair with a miserable look on his face. "I feel like being unpleasant."
"Look, I know you're pissed at that Colleen girl for taking off most of your hair but you did kind of deserve it. Imagine, you had your cigarettes and your gun hidden in it the whole ti-"
"I said SHUT UP!" Spike roared. Angry aura flaring, the man with the green buzz cut stormed off, leaving Jet behind on the sand; desperately suppressing a laugh.
Meier tried to relax. Charlotte was sleeping with a blissfully happy expression on her beautiful face right beside him, he had his umbrella, and could see the world in sunlight…shouldn't he be happy? Sighing, the aristocratic vampire shifted position; attempting to get comfortable and enjoy this time spent with his beloved…but the others were making it hard. Mashira was still screaming and cursing, trying to get the person who had hit him to own up and take what was coming to him…wasn't it obvious to the Barboroi that, when faced with an angry werewolf, no one in their right mind would own up?
Meier was most assuredly annoyed.
"Mashira!" The vampire watched as Mashira slowly let his screeching tirade die and turned to face him.
"Yes master, can I help you?"
"Yes, you can call me Meier and you can shut up!"
"Oh."
Mashira deflated visibly.
Meier rolled back over to face Charlotte, snuggling down and feeling much better. He began to drift off, completely unaware of Becca's evil Cheshire-like face hovering over him.
Sanosuke arrived, out of breath and feeling humiliated, in front of the group of people. Limping forward he began to head over to the large clump by the water when he heard the groaning. Staggering toward a rock he peered over cautiously.
"Kaoru?"
Sano gaped. His best friend's girlfriend was tied to the rock and gagged, her hair was mussed and she looked pissed.
"What happened to you?" The pained swordsman asked as he untied her. "Where's Kenshin?"
Kaoru spat sand. "I don't know where Kenshin is…my memory's all fuzzy…but I remember a…a cigarette, I-" Her head jerked up suddenly and her eyes narrowed. "What was IN that thing you gave me!"
"I didn't know there was something wrong with it!" Sano protested hurriedly, backing up slightly. "I got beat up too!"
After a few minutes of heated discussion and resurfacing memories, both swords people sat; rather abashedly, upon the ground…staring at their feet.
"I can't believe I kept attacking that poor man." Kaoru whispered, turning beet red. "No wonder he tied me to a rock…"
"At least you didn't drag him to a cave, hold him prisoner, and then get the hell kicked outta your crotch by one of his freaky friends…" Sano offered. Both stared at the ground again.
"We should apologize." Kaoru muttered.
D shook the handle on the frail looking door violently.
"It's locked, D," His hand said smugly. "Lets just go back out to the beach and hang out, that blonde chick with the trench coat was pretty hot."
D continued to attempt to get back inside. Overheating in a matter of seconds, water filled with salt, mad women, talking to people, all of this was supposed to be entertainment was it? He rattled the handle again…he was getting out of here. He didn't know where he was going…but it wouldn't be here.
Nolt was feeling irate. He had ditched his dancing banana towel with Kyle, and was now standing in the surf, trying to feed D's horse an apple. The beast shivered, frightened of the strange surroundings, and just huddled closer to the second oldest Markus brother.
"Why do I have to get stuck with the horse?" He muttered, patting the beast on the muzzle in a vain attempt to calm it. "Can't we just tie it to the fence again? I think it's had enough exercise…" The horse seemed to think it had had enough exercise as well, and was edging back towards the dry sand. It would have been a horrifically inopportune time to attempt to ride the poor, frightened equine… Fortunately Nolt had seen this and had suggested politely to a harassed looking Dunpeal, that someone be put in charge of keeping the horse away from some people…like Kyle. Nolt had NOT intended for himself to wind up minding the beast, and the Dunpeal's remark had stung.
"If you're so worried about the various ways your brother might get himself killed again, why don't you handle the…problems?"
Nolt had refrained from mentioning that he had been trying to protect the horse and not Kyle, but D had seemed so pissed that, at the time, it was pointless to draw attention to that side of the issue.
Nolt's thoughts were interrupted by a sharp scream off to his right, and the resultant action of the jittery horse's hoof landing squarely on his foot.
Becca smiled and hummed 'row row row your boat' under her breath as she pulled a large, beautifully gilded magnifying glass out of the pocket of her stylish beach cover-up. Her head turned to stare down the beach, expression pulled into vague surprise at the shrill scream from the direction of the water. She whipped back to her intended victim as he began to move and quickly shuffled into a crouch behind the vampires' beach bag…she would NOT be denied her fun!
Josh rubbed the side of his head ruefully, what could possibly have gone wrong now? Everyone had finally been calming down and then his cousin vanished and that odd scream had rung…what the hell? Spike trudged past him looking about as thrilled with life as a neutered dog, Josh felt vaguely sorry for the cowboy…though he had deserved what he had been given… Josh's train of thought was interrupted by a sudden, different scream from further up the beach…accompanied by smoke…Josh ran.
Kyle sighed and stretched languidly, gazing out at the gently rolling waves and clear blue water. For once the red head felt peaceful, not wishing to disturb or piss off anyone…an exceedingly rare time indeed. Paddling his fish shaped raft in a slow circle he looked around, over to his right he could see Caroline.
"Sexy green babe…" Kyle mumbled, thinking he might paddle over and attempt a chat, his raft continued to spin with the gently drifting tide. Mind still on Caroline, Kyle nearly missed Leila…she was only about eight feet from him, her back to him, crouched up to her neck in the water. "Hey, Leila," Kyle called lazily. "What's happni- huh?" Leila had given him a startled look over her shoulder and, crouching lower, had mover quickly away. "Hey!" The red head cried, paddling after her.
"Go away, asshole!"
Kyle grinned and sped up, he loved a challenge…even an obscure one.
Meier beat at the small flames on his left leg. They went out quickly and the aristocratic vampire felt distinctly embarrassed at having shouted so loudly over something so small. He gazed suspiciously up at the umbrella, wondering if it had torn in any places when he let out another sudden shriek as his right ear burst into flame. Charlotte put the tiny fire out, looking frenzied.
"Oh Meier, darling! I'm so sorry, maybe we should go back inside…" She rested her beautiful head on his shoulder in an attempt to soothe him. Grudgingly, the vampire allowed himself to be coddled in front of Mashira, who was not even bothering to suppress his mirth…(it really was revolting how that mouth in his abdomen tended to bark along with the Barboroi's laughter), in order to please Charlotte.
The sound of racing footfalls attracted their attention to Josh, who was running up the beach front with Borgoff in tow, if there was a fight to break up the tech had NOT wanted to be the one to resolve it, and had grabbed the eldest Markus for that reason.
"What's………the…p…problem?" The tech gasped; pop-eyed, staring around as though expecting to see that the Nightmare Before Christmas cast had been let loose to wreak havoc.
"Nothing much," Charlotte replied, stroking Meier's shoulder. "Just a small accident." She put her head to one side and laughed softly to clear the air…directly before her hair caught fire.
"C'mon Leila, come here!" Kyle called in a pitch of voice that he knew others found horrendously annoying…slimy, and alluring. "Why're you leavin' me all alone?"
"Kyle…I SAID back off!" Leila snarled in barley-contained rage, looking over her shoulder at him as she moved further into the ocean. "I don't want to talk to anyone right now!"
"Why not…?"
"Go suck cock, man bitch!"
Kyle looked startled; THAT had stung something awful.
"Are you saying I act gay?" The red head asked, still collecting his wits from this alarmingly barbed verbal assault.
"Sure, if it'll make you go away." Leila muttered, face flushed with anger, and that strange thrill humans receive from cursing at others of their species.
"Well… Well, FINE!" Kyle exploded, smacking the water in irritation, turning his fish shaped raft around and paddling off in a huff to see if Caroline was still floating about somewhere.
Leila sighed in relief, that had been too close for comfort, the last thing she needed right now was for Kyle to tell the whole beach she was topless…she noticed a slight tugging around her claves and suddenly realized how far away the shore seemed. Struggling desperately, it dawned upon the huntress that this was most probably that 'rip tide' that Josh had mentioned. Her struggles became more intense until she was practically flailing at the water.
"Oh crap… Kyle! Kyle, come back!" She shrieked, trying to paddle after his receding form. If he heard, he took no notice.
"Mashira…please shut up." Josh's muffled voice pleaded, his face was buried in his hands. The werewolf's barking laughter was grating and it made the tech's stomach turn to watch the extra set of jaws moving in tandem to the laughter of the Barboroi. "I really need to think about what to do…"
Meier and Charlotte were standing under their umbrella, arms around each other and looking enraged…enraged Charlotte was a frightening thing…Josh hoped never to have to bear witness to it again. Mashira was flat on his back guffawing at the idiocy of the lover's expressions when the found out what had been causing the flames, and Borgoff was sitting off to the left, looking repulsed, and holding Becca at arms length while she twisted and bit in an energetic attempt to escape.
"You obviously need to take that…that…THING back inside before IT causes any further damage!" Meier growled.
"She's causing further damage right now, damnit!" Borgoff interjected, hissing between his clenched teeth as Becca sank her fang-like canines into his flesh between forefinger and thumb. "OW! Holy-"
"Becca! Enough!" Josh cried, yanking his cousin away from the now fluently cursing Borgoff and grabbing both of her wrists. "I'm calling Colleen to take you inside right now!" He said angrily, shaking her slightly for emphasis. "Go sit on that blanket until she gets here or you really will be in trouble!" Becca, looked furious, but obeyed, however sulkily, sitting down hard on the blanket; clutching her magnifying glass.
"Maybe we should go inside too…" Borgoff muttered, nursing his injured appendage. "All I've gotten out of this trip so far are more near-death experiences…"
Josh nodded in agreement, he would have to round the others up, shaking his head he stood. "Watch Becca, ok Borgoff?"
"Like hell I will!" Borgoff yelped, snapping upright. "I'm going to find my brothers, get that pansy-assed vampire to watch your monster!"
"What did you call me!" Meier fumed, watching the eldest Markus brother stomp off.
"Ignore him, dear." Charlotte murmured. "He's in pain and probably just worried about his family…I haven't seen Grove in a while, have you?"
Meier looked thoughtful. "No…but then I haven't seen D or Bengee for a while either…" His voice trailed off.
The two uprooted the umbrella immediately and headed quickly down the beach.
Josh sighed resignedly and sat back down, glaring at the bright day before him as a well-aimed pebble bounced off his skull.