Concert Deathmatch

"Hey, Annie, you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"'Tallica's coming to concert!"

"When?"

"Tomorrow. We all got tix, but I thought you and your dad might wanna go, too, so I picked up two extra."

Annette tackle-hugged the speaker, Toni. They fell off from their perch-the lockers-and tumbled to the floor.

"Whoa! Hey! Warn me next time, okay?"

"My apologies."

The skool was in total chaos. Some top official had thought to remove the stone blocks from the commons, and the resulting outrage had banded together all students, prep, Goth, and reject alike. Riots were commonplace as the teens protested the horrid destruction of their favorite meeting places. Wolfgang was currently off by administration helping some cheerleaders set fire to the disturbingly infantile banners that hung on the walls. It was a rare and momentous occasion.

"Hey, guys, the fire alarms just went off. We should get going." Eric pulled Toni to her feet while Kayako picked Annette up bodily and ran.

"Who feels like ditching?" asked an ash-covered Wolfgang running beside Kayako.

"Ooh, me!" Remi giggled and kicked out a glass door.

"Let's go, kids!" Tom dodged through another door. "Whoo! God, I love vandalism!"

"Shut up and run!" Toni did a flying leap that landed her on an abandoned skateboard. Eric, Remi, and Tom pulled out skateboards of their own and took off with only a quick promise to meet up at Annette's house.

Kayako headed straight for her car, and Wolfgang followed. Annette allowed herself one wordless scream of exhilaration before diving into the back seat. Kayako and Wolfgang took the front, and the former floored it.

Later, the group gathered at house number 777. Nny was downstairs, only leaving his lair when Annette went to ask him for money. A brief nod to Kayako, and he was gone again.

"So we're up for the concert tomorrow, then?" asked Toni, examining a bloody dagger.

"Yes, I believe so. My...father did not say anything when I asked him, but usually that is a good sign. We can plan on Nny joining us."

Kayako stole the dagger from Toni and with a shifty glance, hid it in her trench coat. "Good. I love concerts. They refresh me, give me some target practice."

"Please don't cause a scene again, Kay," groaned Eric, miming being stabbed. "You know what happened at the Disturbed concert."

"I was only arrested! They didn't even hold me in jail that time!"

"Only because you decapitated half of the policemen."

"Oh, well, they were annoying me..."

Annette stared at the pair with wide eyes. Kayako smiled in what was apparently supposed to be a reassuring way, but the murderous glint in her eyes-not to mention the rat she had speared on the end of a katana-didn't do much to calm Annie's fears.

"So where do we wanna go now?" asked Remi, lazily stroking one of the many black cats that roamed the house. "Any ideas?"

"Movie?"

"Shopping?"

"Kill something?"

"Nothing that'll get us jailed for more than a year, please."

"Oh, come on-"

"How about we all go to Carpe Noctem?" suggested Annette as she searched for a dragon necklace that had gone missing the day before.

"Ooh, I like. Maybe we can search out Squee."

"Toni, please don't bore us with your romantic prose again."
"Shut up, Kay. you know he's hot."

"Okay, I'm leaving." Kayako stood and stretched. "Anybody else wanna ditch the lovebird?"

"Hey, stop being a bitch, Kay. I'm not going to talk about it anymore."

"Our savior!" Tom hugged Kayako, but released her when he saw the eight-inch blade hovering near his eye.

"Hee hee. Good boy." Kayako resheathed the blade and tucked it away.

"You really scare me sometimes, Kay. Did you know that?" Tom shuddered.

"Hey, guys, let's take the bus up to Carpe Noctem, okay?" Toni effectively defused the situation, and there was a clamoring to find money.

"Don't worry, mes amis, I can take care of bus fare. Nny gave me more than enough." Annette smiled shyly. "Um, if that's alright with you..."

"You mean we don't have to pay? Sweet!" Eric was not one to pass up anything free, even if it was makeup.

Hey, his girlfriend wasn't too picky.

Annette just giggled and left the house, closely followed by the others. Kayako gave the neighbors a shifty-eyed look and made a loud death-rattle at the elderly man who was getting his mail.

Ten minutes later, the bus pulled up to the end of the University's driveway. Annette and posse left the bus and its riders with a few gallons of water and something that caused a small explosion to occur in the rear of the vehicle.

"Oh, hello, children!" cooed Mary, the university's holo-droid. "Come on up. You're visiting the kids in 1306, right?"

"Hai!" Kayako saluted the hologram, much to its amusement.

"Let's take the shortcut this time!" squealed Mary.

"What shortcut-"

Mary darted through a curtain and into what appeared to be a solid wall. Upon following her, however, they found the wall quite passable. A moment, and they found themselves outside the door to 1306.

"How the hell-" started Remi.

"Simple worm-hole theology. I love the little quirks of this university," sighed Mary. "Open up, girls! You've got visitors!"

The door slammed open, startling the teenagers outside. A very disheveled-looking Tenna dove out, rolling into a crouch just before she hit the door on the opposite wall. She jumped up, grinned, and waved energetically.

"Hi!" she squealed, nearly falling over with the ferocity of her arm movements. "How're your SPLEENS?"

"We're good, Tenna." Remi rolled her eyes. "We're just stopping by for awhile. How are you?"

"I'm GREAT! I just got fourteen hours of sleep and I'm just FANTASTIC and oh, look at the time! I HAVE NEED OF FOOD!"

"Shut UP, Tenna." Karasu appeared at the doorway, her hair unbrushed and last night's makeup smudged across her face. "What the hell? What are you guys doing here? Is it Saturday already?"

"No, we skipped skool." Toni stretched. "You gonna invite us in, or what?"

"Shit!" Karasu ran back into the dorm, shouting after her "Come on in! I'll be there in a minute!"

The group wandered into the dorm, shortly joined by Tenna and the boys. Devi was nowhere to be seen, but Kari came back a couple minutes later with newly applied makeup and somewhat brushed hair.

"So, guys, how's life?" asked Squee, sitting down on the floor.

"Good, you?" Toni's eyes were on full-out sparkle. "How's college treating you?"

"Uh, I'm fine..." Squee gave a scared glance at the lovestruck teenager. "Can anybody tell me why Toni's being such a psycho today?"

"She's madly in love with you, mon ami," giggled Annette, dodging a kick from Toni. "She cannot stop declaring her ever-deepening amour. Why, she's spoken of nothing else for ages. Please do us all a favor and kill her."

"I could take care of that for you," murmured Kayako, slipping a hand into her pocket.

"Um, how about not?" Squee gave a small squeak of terror. "K-Kari, how's lunch coming?"

"Almost ready!" she called from the hearth.

"Damn..." Kayako took her hand out of her pocket, looking disappointed.

"Man, Kay, you're the psycho!" Toni's eyes were wide.

"Let's not talk about this, guys..." Pepito grinned. "Hey, Toni, if you need to satisfy the hunger for a relationship, I'm single."

"Piss off, you little demon," growled Toni.

"I'm up to it, Hellspawn." Kayako grinned evilly. "Whaddaya say?"

"Sweet! I get the psychotic one!" Pepito grasped Kayako's hand and kissed it. "I pledge my heart to you, senorita."

"Lovely. I've always wanted to date a demon..."

"Oh, get a ROOM, you two." Wolfgang mocked gagging and rolled his eyes. "And I thought you weren't the romantic type, Kay. Wasn't it just an hour ago that you were getting pissed off at Toni?"

"Shut up before I kill you."

"Lunch is ready!"

The next night, everyone arrived at the concert, including Nny. Devi almost walked out right then, but eight people can easily restrain one, even a desperate painter.

"Woot! Let's go purchase forty-dollar concert shirts!" screamed Kayako in a rare fit of hyperness.

"Sweet! free stuff!" Eric ran off and didn't return until the concert started.

"Exclamation!" cried Annette. "Let us go find our seats and put on our new concert shirts!"

"Yeah!"

Nny was very annoyed. There were too many people here. Security had taken his knife, and he didn't even have a screwdriver with him. Oh well. He could still get a Molotov cocktail together, seeing as how they were selling vodka at refreshments and plenty of people had lighters. Even so, it was hard not to snap and randomly start killing things. But he had made a promise to Annie, and he was going to keep it.

Or at least, he was going to TRY to keep it.

"Nny, let's go! The concert is starting!" Annette tugged on her parental figure's sleeve, only barely pausing to confiscate the razor blades she felt tucked inside. It was sad how used to this she'd gotten. She deposited the weapons in a trash can, wondering if Nny would be irritated with her. Probably not; he was usually pretty good when it came to Antoinette.

"Fine, fine. I suppose we wouldn't want to miss the opening act…"

Noise blared into the group's ears, spiraling into their minds and rewiring their hearts to beat in time to the music. It almost drove Nny insane, but the noise was pleasant enough to negate the effects of the volume itself. The cheering and the physical contact was an entirely different story…

"Nny, what do you say we have a little fun?" whispered Kayako from nowhere. "I've got the vodka and a lighter. Or would you prefer a dagger?"

"Vodka. I'll get the rest with the dagger." Nny accepted the bottle.

"MOSH PIT!" screamed a random kid, and suddenly everything was fighting and throwing things.

Nny lit the end of a rag on fire and threw the vodka bottle into the crowd. It exploded into flames, and all at once the inferno of fire and screaming engulfed an entire section of the crowd. Annette and her friends ran while Kayako and Nny continued their onslaught.

Blood fire screaming chaos. This was what Nny lived for. He dove through the crowd with ease, managing to avoid almost all contact with the doomed irritants. His knife gave an almost audible ring as it sliced through everything in its path. He laughed quietly to himself as they fell before him, their lifeless corpses burning in his wake. A small portion of burning something landed on his arm, but he only paused to put out the flames when they had seared through his sleeve and actually started singeing the flesh.

"Nny…" A voice reached his ears, far off and weak. "Nny, come back!"

He turned to see Annette running toward him, jumping over the bodies and skirting flames. The girl was obviously hysterical, ash-covered and crying. He stopped, put away his knife, and let her tackle-hug him. After all, fathers had to endure a certain amount of childish antics.

"Nny, stop! You said you weren't going to do this!" she cried, burying her face in the front of his shirt. "We need to get out of here!"

Reluctantly, Nny grabbed Kayako by the wrist as she ran by and towed both girls out of the mayhem and to the entrance. Annie stopped crying and looked much happier by the time they had cleared the fire.

"Oh, Nny, why did you have to stop me?" whined Kayako. "I was just getting started!"

"Time to go, Kayako. Annie's upset."

"O…kay…I GUESS we can go…" Kayako pouted, but let herself be led to Nny's car. "But next time, I get to stay. Got it?"

"Yes, yes, whatever you say. Let's just get out of here before the authorities start crowding up the escape routes."

Nny floored it, and the three were on their way back to house number 777. Annette wiped her eyes and stared up at the man she called father, wondering just how he decided to listen to her pleading. Of course, Nny never debated not listening for a second. She was under his care, and so she was immediately placed before all else. It was logical that he should obey the child. He owed it to her, if nothing else.

"…Nny?" asked Annette, shrinking back as if expecting him to lash out at her.

"What is it?"

"Um…why did you leave?"

"You were distressed."

"Oh. Can we get ice cream before we go home?"

"Kayako, would you like some as well?" Nny glanced at the sullen teenager in the back of the car. "Or do you just need to drain someone's blood?"

"Ice cream. Make it vanilla and I'm happy."

"Good. It's settled. Annie, what did you want?"

"Um, vanilla. You?"

"Same. So, Annie, did you enjoy the concert?"

Annette thought about it for a moment.

"Oui. It was very entertaining. I apologize for my childish behavior earlier."

"No need. I understand. You were scared. People do strange things when they're frightened."

He thought back to the six months he'd spent in prison. The endless hours of worrying. He never thought anyone, much less a CHILD, could evoke concern in him. The six armed guards who were witness to his concern were currently resting under six feet of dirt.

"Um…father?"

"What is it?"

"I'll need to go shopping tomorrow. I need new clothes. These ones are all burnt and ashy."

"Fine with me."

Nny turned on the radio, and Metallica blared through the speakers. Ah, the sweet sound of chaos.

Author's note: …..o….kay….then. That one was weird. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but whatever. Im not sure how many more of these things I'll write, but I know I'm not done yet. These characters are just too much fun. My apologies for the weird ending; I had everything until the actual rampage planned out, and then it just sort of happened. Whatever. I have to go do stuff now, so byes!

raven, your friendly Neptunian pyro