Teh Lanchair Attacks!

Chapter 2

Amon parked next to Nagira's law office and got out. It was a risk coming back, SOLOMON knew that they were related, and if the organization was looking for Robin the building could be staked out. There wasn't anywhere else for the pair to go, he didn't have enough cash on him to pay for a hotel, and they didn't dare use a credit card. They were filthy, covered in dirt and soot and sweat. Amon walked around to the rear door and found that Robin was coming around.

Almost against his will he reached out and touched her face, her skin was unnaturally warm. At his touch her eyes fluttered open and Amon found himself looking into two wide green pools. Mesmerizing. He was caught, as he had been that day at Harry's, trapped in her gaze. A blink, and suddenly he was free.

"Please, I don't...I don't want..." she said plaintively, her eyes glassy. Amon suspected that she wasn't truly aware of what was going on.

He hushed her, and helped the girl to her feet, holding her upright. She shivered against him, and whimpered. He ran his hand up and down her back, his heart twisting at the way he could feel her bones through her skin. Amon frowned, this weight loss wasn't natural. The STN-J was unusual in that they had so few Craft Users compared to other the other branches of SOLOMON, he'd never had to deal with a fellow Hunter who had over-exerted their Craft. Certainly Kate had never extended herself in that manner.

Robin stumbled part way up the stairs and leaned against him, and pressed her face against his vest. He sighed and ran his hand through her hair. Somewhere back in the tunnel she had lost her ribbons and her hair now hung limply around her face. "Robin," he said.

Blank green pools captured his mind again. He tore his gaze away, and wondered what Witch spell she had cast on him. To drop everything he had lived and strove for, for one slight girl. Surely that couldn't be natural.

"Robin," he repeated. "We're outside, at Nagira's. You don't have to use your Craft."

That information seemed to slowly percolate through the exhausted girl's brain. She sagged against him, and he could feel her tears soaking though his shirt. Damn. This was not good.

He urged her up the stairs, unlocked the door with a key he had made without his brother's knowledge, and managed to steer her to the main office. Thankfully it was a weekend and the office was empty. Amon guided her to the couch and let her collapse onto it, she curled against the cushions and was asleep instantly, exhaustion crushing her down.

The girl was out of it for the time being. He just had to hope that Juliano would keep his promise. If not, well, neither of them were capable of defending themselves at this moment. It would be short work to kill them.

He found a couple of blankets someone had stored in a utility closet and tossed one over Robin. Looking at the other blanket he sighed. He really should call Nagira first, before he fell asleep. This was, after all, Nagira's office building. Amon walked over to his brother's desk, sat down, picked up the phone, and started dialing.

The phone rang in Nagira's apartment. He groaned and rolled over and nearly didn't pick it up. He ached horribly, and his right leg throbbed from a graze caused by one of Zaizen's men before Solomon's forces took them out two days ago. The last thing he wanted to deal with was Hanamura's scolding for not coming into work yesterday. It would be just like her to bitch him out when they were both at home. He didn't know why he kept her as a secretary.

Wait, yes he did. It was because she was the only one who had managed to not quit after the second week. He didn't want to know what that said about either of them.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"All right! All right! I'm coming," he yelled at the phone. He got up and stumbled to the kitchen, swearing to himself that if it was Mika then he was going to fire her, even if she was an efficient secretary. It wasn't until he picked up the receiver did he realize it was his rarely used land-line, and not his cell phone, that was ringing.

"Nagira speaking," he said, suppressing a yawn and starting a cup of green tea. He never understood Robin's obsession with coffee and it was too early in the morning to start thinking about drinking anything stronger.

"It's me, I'm calling from your office," said a familiar voice over the phone.

Or maybe not.

"Heh. I knew you would make it. How's Robin?" Nagira lit a cigarette. There was a moment of silence and Nagira felt his stomach drop. "She did make it out of there with you, didn't she?"

"Yes," his little brother said, "she's sleeping right now."

"Heh. So how are you guys?"

More silence.

Nagira growled with frustration, "Geez guy, getting answers from you is like pulling teeth. So what's the problem?"

"I think..." Amon's voice trailed off for a second and Nagira nearly bit through is cigarette in frustration. "I think she's exhausted. Burned out. She burned through God-knows how many tons of concrete to save us, and then getting us out. We were completely entombed."

Nagira snorted, "No wonder she's tired, then. Sounds like a normal enough reaction, so why are you worrying?"

"She collapsed twice while getting us out." Nagira thought he detected a trace of emotion, possibly guilt, in his brother's voice. "Twice. She looks like warmed-over shit."

Nagira winced. "I hope Robin's not there Bro, do not ever say a woman looks like shit where she can hear you. Personal experience."

"She's asleep."

The lawyer sighed, and pulled a notepad over, "I suppose you didn't call me to chat about what a nice little family reunion we had yesterday. So, what do you want your big brother to buy you for Christmas?"

This is how the damned existed.

They floated in their green hells, bodies violated with tubes and wires inserted into lungs and stomachs and other places best left unnamed. The fluid they floated in drained their life and personality away, until all that was left was a shell of suffering. Once in a while their captors, demons in human form, would become visible as they raised the green hells from where they were stored. It was then that a new member of the damned would be added, or one who was no longer useful was removed.

In the beginning a damned one was aware of their hell. They could feel the viscous liquid, which was not water or anything else they recognized, surround them, filling their eyes and ears. The taste of it infiltrated their mouths and minds. They could feel as it sucked away their personalities and powers, until they faded far enough to be insensible to everything. Or so their captors thought.

Even in their extremity they knew that they were damned, and nothing could help them. That is, until She came.

Some knew Her. Some had been hunted by Her, sent to this green hell by a vengeful goddess. Two had met Her as friends, and loved Her as they loved their daughter, with whom they were now reunited. But even those who had not met Her understood what She was, and what She could give them.

Deliverance from the valley of tears. Salvation from the hell. Death, a sweet release from suffering. Forgiveness.

Love.

The damned, mindless with suffering, reached out to their savior.

"Robin!"

The girl sat bolt upright on the couch, jerked out of her dreams by the shout. She wavered, disoriented by her sudden awakening. The light was dim and greenish, and for one long horrible moment Robin thought that she was still in the Factory trapped under the rubble with the taste of the Witches', her people's, death still in the air, and would have to burn (and burn and burn and burn with fires like the ones that once killed her people) her way out. An unending tunnel in Hell...

"Robin," the voice repeated. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, the green hell and the memory of her orange flames faded. Robin shook her head and was finally conscious of the man who knelt by the couch just inches from her.

"A...Amon?"

"You were dreaming." Robin saw his silhouette shift and moved away. A moment later the lights flicked on and Amon returned with a glass of water. He handed her the glass and then silently stood over her while she drank it. It wasn't until the cool liquid touched her tongue did she realize just how thirsty she was.

"Nagira's going to be here in a couple of minutes."

Robin rubbed her eyes and looked around, finally figuring out where she was. She stared blankly at the empty desks, wondering how they had come here. She could remember drilling her way out the tunnel, but she didn't remember leaving it. All she could remember was casting her Craft out again and again, pouring flame out until she thought she couldn't burn anymore, her entire world becoming nothing but flame. She shivered, a Witch could kill themselves with their Craft, if they misused it badly enough.

"Robin?"

Amon's voice startled her out of her reverie, she jumped slightly, and then blushed with embarrassment. "Y...yes?"

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes." He looked at her expectantly. "Nagira is coming over soon," she repeated dutifully. The man nodded curtly and turned to leave the room. "Amon?" He turned to back look at her. "How did we get out?"

He shrugged slightly, then winced, and Robin remembered that Zaizen had shot him in the shoulder. "The rest of the tunnel was clear, I carried you out."

"Oh." Robin blinked at the thought of Amon carrying her, it seemed so... strange. But nice in an odd way. She wished she could remember it... Robin finally looked at Amon and noticed that he was dressed in what appeared to be in a spare suit that Nagira kept at the office, and was clean. He must have taken a bath while she was asleep. It made her aware of how filthy she actually was. "I want to take a bath."

Amon nodded, turned and disappeared into the staff breakroom. Robin sat on the couch, her head feeling like it had been stuffed with wool. She looked down at herself, she was filthy, coated in sweat and grime. Nagira would be there any minute, but suddenly Robin didn't want to wait for him. He could wait while she had a bath, she decided. She stood up, and had the grab the couch hurriedly as the world turned momentarily red. Several long moments later, during which she concentrated on her breathing and nothing else, the red faded, and she stepped away from the couch. Shaking only slightly, Robin made her way to the stairs up to her studio.

Nagira flicked a cigarette butt and ground it out with his foot before unlocking the door to his office building, feeling strangely naked without his fur coat. While he had escaped the Factory with only a mild graze, his coat had been mauled and was now in intensive care at the tailor's. He didn't think it was going to make it, between the encounter with raw sewage a few weeks ago and having the edge shredded by bullets it was starting to look rather ratty. He snorted, it was all his brother's fault, as far as he was concerned. A quick check through the office revealed that Amon was in the breakroom.

"You owe me a new coat," Nagira told his brother as entered the room. Amon gave him one of his patent glares, designed, Nagira suspected, to destroy the glaree's ego. Too bad it didn't work on his big brother, the lawyer thought gleefully.

"I'll be sure to buy you one that's tackier then the last one," Amon said, and as usual Nagira couldn't tell if it was in deadpan or not. Heh. Sometimes he suspected his little brother's sense of humor was surgically removed.

"Heh, well, any ways, you look good in that suit." Nagira said, eyeing his suit that Amon obviously stole from him, "It's a bit big for you, though."

Silent glare.

Nagira ignored that and set the bags down on the table and looked around, "Hey, where's Robin?"

"She's taking a bath." Amon's eyes flicked upwards briefly, and back again. Nagira suppressed another grin, it probably bugged the hell out of his little brother that his partner was so attractive. And so young. Nagira decided that teasing Amon about Robin was not the right thing to do right now, but they would have to talk about it later.

"Heh, I take she's feeling better, then," was all he said. His brother grunted at that, clearly he wasn't convinced. "So," Nagira said after a moment of awkward silence, "how are you doing?"

Amon shrugged, then winced. "Zaizen shot me."

"Fuck." Nagira stared at his brother. "Shouldn't you be in a hospital?"

"No." The ex-Hunter glared at his brother. "I'm fine, the bullets aren't designed to cause serious injury. I'm a Seed, so the Orbo had no effect on me, one way or the other."

"Heh. I take ityou cleaned yourself up, then." Amon didn't respond. If he wanted to ignore a wound it wasn't any skin off Nagira's nose, his brother was an adult and could take care of himself.

Just then Robin appeared at the door, freshly bathed and wearing a clean dress. Nagira discovered why Amon seemed so worried where Robin was concerned, the girl really did look like hell, even after the bath and clean clothing. She was unnaturally pale, her eyes had dark circles under them and were slightly glazed. She looked less like she was exhausted, and more like she was in shock. He frowned, according to Amon she had not been injured.

"Here, kid," he said, pulling out a chair from the table and gesturing to it, "Sit down, both of you. I brought some food since the stuff here is all pretty old. Wouldn't want my only brother and favorite kid to get sick."

Robin sat down and murmured a word of thanks. He got out the soba noodles and made a plate for her, and even remembered to give her a fork to go with it. Amon was already shoving his portion inside his mouth in such a way that made Nagira realize that neither of them had eaten in over twenty four hours.

"Well," Nagira said, "I have news."

Amon looked up sharply at that, and Nagira laughed at him.

"Yeah, news. Sakaki and Doujima are fine, Michael's got a bum leg, and Miho's in the hospital for observation."

"What?" Amon asked. Robin was slowly picking at her noodles, dividing her attention between the news of her friends, and her food.

"According to Doujima Karasuma didn't want to go in, but she, Doujima I mean, made her because Doujima suspected that Karasuma might have hit her head, or something."

Out of the corner of his eye Nagira could see Robin picking at her food, she didn't appear to have much in the way of an appetite. He frowned, that didn't seem right, somehow. She should be starving after going for so long without eating.

"Doujima say's she'll be out of the hospital in a day or two, if the doctors don't find anything wrong," Nagira continued.

"That's good," Amon said. The man glanced quickly at the girl and Nagira thought he noticed a small frown on Amon's face. So, he had noticed Robin's lack of appetite too. Somehow that didn't make Nagira feel any better.

"So, when did you talk to Doujima?" Amon asked, turning back to his brother and helping himself to some rice.

"Just before I left my place. I called her to see what information she might have had."

"I trust you didn't tell her that we survived."

"Do I look stupid? I think she guessed, but she didn't even ask, just mentioned that you two were thought to be dead under all that rubble. Something about multiple collapses, and the lack of structural integrity of the pile."

"Oh?" Amon arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah, apparently the thing's still settling. That's supposedly normal for a collapsed building like that. It might be days before SOLOMON decides it's safe enough to start digging."

"That's a relief," Amon said. Nagira looked inquiringly at his brother. "Robin cut a cavern into the debris, and I was worried that it might give away the fact that we survived."

"Heh, well, I think we three need to start making plans, and..."

Clink. Something about that soft sound made both the men turn to Robin. She was staring at her half-eaten plate, her for, which had made that sound, lying on the table beside her. Nagira thought she looked decidedly green around the gills.

"Robin?" he started to ask, "What's wrong?"

Robin leapt to her feet and dashed out of the room, Nagira a half a second behind her. Behind him he heard Amon leapt to his feet as well, and then trip and fall as his legs tangled in the chair's. There was the brief sound of a struggle between man and inanimate object, and normally Nagira would have gone back to point and laugh at his usually dignified younger brother. Not today. Robin had apparently reached the bathroom just in time, and Nagira could hear the sound of retching coming from the room.

Nagira knelt beside her and placed a hand on her back. He could feel her muscles knot and clench with each heave in a way that looked painful. He bit his lip, she was blazing hot through the fabric of her dress. "Hey, Kiddo, the food wasn't that bad," he said, half jokingly. The miserable look Robin gave him immediately gave him a twinge of guilt.

Behind him Nagira heard Amon finally limped into the room, the chair having clearly won Round One.

Finally she stopped, just before he wondered whether she was going to bring up her toenails. The girl made an odd whimpering noise in the back of her throat before sagging against Nagira for support. "Jesus," he said, "you poor kid. My brother was right."

"I'm sorry."

Amon sat down on her other side. "For being sick?" The girl pulled her knees up to her chest and hid her face in them, nodding. The ex-Hunter sighed and gave Nagira a bewildered look. "There's nothing to be ashamed about that, you know," Amon told her.

"It's going to make hiding harder," she whispered.

"Is that what you guys want to do?" Nagira asked.

Amon gave a one-shoulder shrug and Robin simply looked miserable. Nagira sighed. It looked like it was up him to make plans.

"Well," he said, "let's see what a few days of rest won't do, first, before we start worrying." Something occurred to the lawyer. "Robin?" The girl looked up at him. "How much have you had to drink lately?"

She shrugged. "A glass or two."

"You think she might be dehydrated?" Amon asked.

"Yeah, if you guys didn't have any water in there. You must have been inside the Factory for almost a day after it collapsed."

Amon frowned. "It was fairly warm because of Robin's Craft use."

"What are we going to do?" Robin asked.

Without thinking about it Nagira idly rubbed the kid's back. He stopped when he saw Amon's possessive scowl. It looked like his little brother had finally found someone, Nagira thought with amusement. Turning his attention back to Robin he answered her, "Get some liquids in you and give you some Tylenol to bring that temperature, I think. We'll see how you feel tomorrow."

Nagira helped Robin to her feet since his brother was still suffering from his bout with the chair. Just then the phone in his office rang. The three paused for a moment and exchanged glances. The phone rang several times before the answering machine picked it up.

"Nagira? This is Doujima again, I had such a fun time the other day I would love to go out on another date. So give me a call back as soon as..."

The lawyer dashed across the room to pick up the phone before she hung up. Amon replaced Nagira at Robin's side.

"Yurika! How's it going?"

"Thank God you picked it up. If I couldn't contact you I don't know what I was going to do. You need to get any 'friends' out of this country tonight. SOLOMON is sending the big guns, and if they are caught here when they are supposed to be dead..." her voice trailed off.

"What?!" He thought of Robin, and winced at the thought of sending her off without a proper rest. She couldn't of had more then a couple hours of sleep since yesterday, and Amon had even less. The thought of those two running in that condition chilled his blood. "Can't it wait a day or two?"

"No! They need to get out of here tonight! SOLOMON is going to be sending a team of Hunters, mostly Craft Users, in to 'help' with the Hunts for the next couple of weeks. I suspect that they are also going to be retraining us to insure loyalty. Any ways, I know that girl is powerful, but is she so powerful that she can take on several Craft Users working together?" Her voice sounded hurried and strained.

"Okay, I get the point. Thanks for giving me a heads up," he said, trying not to feel a stab of concern for the woman. Clearly Yurika was worried about it, she had to have a reason.

She sighed, with relief?, and said, "Really call me tomorrow, it was nice meeting you and I would like to go out with you sometime. I mean it. Oh, and I left a message for you at your house, you might want to erase it ASAP." Click.

Nagira was left staring at the silent headset torn by conflicting emotions. Worry for his brother and charge, strange admiration for the woman he had just talked to, and irritation that she had left a problem for him to deal with. If SOLOMON got it into their heads to check his apartment...

Then erasing that tape might mean life or death for his two newest clients.

"Guys," he said, as Amon carefully laid Robin down on the couch again. The girl's eyes closed instantly, but Nagira could tell from the taughtness of her features that she was still awake, and listening. "Doujima says that you two need to leave tonight, there's some Hunters coming to 'help' the STN-J until the STN-J is fully recovered, and she doesn't seem to think that you two can hide from them. I don't think so either." He met his brother's eyes silently, and saw that Amon knew exactly what he was talking about. Right now a five-year-old armed with a stick could take the pair out, let alone a fully trained Hunter.

"I need to go back to my apartment, she said she left a message on the machine there, and it would be a bad thing if SOLOMON's agents raided it and found the recording. She seems to think that SOLOMON thinks you are dead. Meanwhile, Amon, you should buy some plane tickets to the destination of your choice, use my travel account, I'm sure you know how to access it." He checked his pocket for keys, and all but ran out the door. "Robin, you get some sleep."

The apartment was undisturbed, he noticed with a sigh of relief, and the message light on the answering machine was blinking. He hit the playback button and listened to Yurika's voice again. There is was, that same strained quality that made him want to jump up and run over to her place and play the hero. Heh, Yurika didn't need a hero, she was just as proficient with the guy as he was. Idly he wondered what she would be like on a date, maybe somewhere fun, a comedy club. She probably partied like no tomorrow, and afterwards...He smiled, a fun party girl like Yurika, some one who loved fun as much as he did, but could also pull through and do it, was exactly the type of woman he was looking for. Maybe he should call her up after all...

Besides, with Amon gone he was now missing his best source into what is going on at the STN-J, if he started dating Yurika he would be getting a new source that was even better then his brother, he hoped. Even if she was a spy.

He hit Erase and deleted the recording. He then took the tape out, put a fresh one in, and recorded a new greeting, something he did regularly. The old tape disappeared into a pile of audio tapes he did for depositions, hopefully for the rest of the foreseeable future, before turning to leave.

A quite tapping at the window was all the warning he had. A vague man-like shape appeared at the window and suddenly it burst inward, and the room filled with dark suited figures. Before he could react two of the grabbed him and forced him to his knees. A cloth appeared in front of his face and the last thing he saw before the chloroform took over was a dark man, and face shields like faceted bug eyes.

A/N: Yes, a cliff-hanger, and boy did I NOT see that one coming until I wrote it. Broke some things loose, it did, and no, I won't say more. You'll just have to find out like the rest of us.

This one probably has LOT 'o typos, because other then running it through spell check I didn't proof-read. I is lazy. The title, for those not in on Harry's jokes, is actually spelt correctly. One day I may get around to proof-reading some more. So don't worry.

Robin X Amon: Yeah, I figure everyone has limits, and Robin, as you can see, damn well near killed herself getting them out. That sort of thing has got to have consequences, like how they don't recommend doing more then three or four marathons in a year. Amon's near the end of his rope, too, he's just too manly to admit it.

Lara1786: Romance? We'll have too see. Right now it's more like OMG WE NEARLY DIED!!!1111! than OMG I HEART YOU11!11. They're thinking more like partners then anything else, really. Not that partners can't fall in love!

Antaera: Thanks for the reassurance. I'm not real good at judging my own stuff.

Sakura Rain: You mean I have to get an invitation to live in the gutter? Funny, I thought I was born there...

Thank you Rori-san, Poliphilio, Dark Mistress Mali, Lucifer's Garden, and Kawaii Pearl of Kickass. I hope this chapter meets with your approval.