(I forgot a couple of things… I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or Disney, or Final Fantasy, or The Red Green Show, Or Hollywood- NONE of that! I also don't own any other brand name you might find, or see, or have implied! Are we clear? Everyone? You over there, you clear with me, too? Okay, good… On with the show!)
"Are you sorry?"
"Yes…"
"How about you?"
"Yesss…"
"How sorry?"
"Very, very sorry…"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, now stop twisting…"
Ricca and Anna nod to one another, letting go of their respective guy's arms and allowing them to fall to the ground, tightly tied up by some old rope they had found around the corner of the Inn. With a dark gleam, they then look up at Karrie.
"Ready for yours now, girly?" Ricca inquires, ten years of hidden jealousy apparently chewing at the bit to be unleashed in the supreme wrath that was herself.
"Wh… but… Oh, I don't want to…" Karrie whines, looking down to the ground. "I want to be friends if I can't trick you all into hating each other. Can't we be friends?"
"There are way too many Miss Perfects out there who don't get what's coming to them! If I can get my hands on just one of you, and I think it will be you, I'll make it enough of an impact for all the rest of them to feel!" Ricca returns, taking a couple of steps toward Karrie. Karrie attempts to step back, but Ricca makes it to her before she could get away.
Grabbing her by the shoulder, Ricca takes one of her hands, holds it up to eye level, and personally bites into one of Karrie's meduim-long and meticulously-manicured nails, snapping off its tip and spitting it aside.
"Broken nail," she states, then taking a pair of small siccors from her pants pocket and, with a swift motion, using it to lop off three inches of a section of Karrie's hair.
"Bangs uneven. And eyeliner…" she continues,dabbing a finger on her tongue and wiping it swiftly under Karrie's left eye. "…smeared."
Letting go, Ricca steps back, looking hard at Karrie for her reaction. Karrie seemed vague, distant, until suddenly she fell to her knees and went into a desparate fit of drama-queen sobbing.
"Wow, way to put the ultimate shame on her, Ricca." Kate states, smirking a bit. Lumina nods a bit in the background, but seems slightly concerned. "I bet she'll never get over thi-"
"Festival in Town Square! The new Big Fish Festival! Everyone to Town Square!" Harris choruses, running by the group of them and ringing a random bell. After he had passed, the girls blink.
"So, he's out of the Forest…" Anna says plainly. "I guess he decided that the Forest was too lonely for even him…"
"Or too dangerous." William states from the ground. "I gave him one harsh poke in the eye back when I was bishounnen."
"Eh, you're still bishounnen." Ricca assures him, beginning to lift him up by the ropes that had his wrists tied. "Let's get to the festival, guys."
"Ooh, a festival!" chimes Karrie, who had apparently just gotten over her deep depression. She jumps up and begins to skip alongside the rest of the group as they walked (or were dragged) along. "Festivals always get me so excited! I wonder what this one will be like…"
- - -
A few minutes later, in Town Square, the whole of Mineral Town, and the visitors from Forget-Me-Not Valley, were assembled in a crowd before one of the largest common fish ever seen by human eyes. The two Jacks and Kai stood on a podium in front of the giant, dead fish and wave at the applause of the crowd and such. Mayor Thomas also stood there, and cleared his throat to make his hastily-written speech.
"Well, on this glorious Mineral Town day I am glad to present to you what I have recently found out is the largest Huchep ever to be caught!" he exclaims, to continued applause. "This day, Mineral Town shall be put on the map as the home of this magnificent, dead fish and the heroes who caught it!"
Shoving Thomas over politely, Kai stands before the crowd. "Now, who's ready for a fish fry?" he shouts. The people cheer, enthused.
"That is a big… big Huchep…" Muffy mutters within the crowd. She was a fan of that kind of fish, and was raring to sink her fangs into its tender hide. Celia gives her a sideways glance, and shuffles a half-step from her just to be perfectly safe.
"I will, however, give my dearest cousin the honor of first cutting this fish!" the hatted Jack proclaims, having asided Kai from the front of the podium. Picking up the not-until-recently ceremonial chainsaw, Jack hands it proudly to his non-hatted cousin, who takes it with a bow. Proceeding toward the fish, he puta a hand to the chainsaw's pull-cord in anticipation.
"…Wait a second, Jack!" Nami suddenly calls from the crowd, stepping out of it slightly. "That fish is a Huchep, right?"
"…Umm, yeah." Kai mutters.
"Huchep are river fish. What was it doing in the ocean?" Nami pursues. Several people in the crowd seem to give this a moment of thought.
"…Oh, of course!" the Jack currently holding the chainsaw chuckles, turning to face the crowd and leaning against the gigantic fish. "Well, you see, while you were, umm… out, Nami, I spent a little bit of the morning down by the beach. I saw I had a Huchep in my pack, so I thought maybe I could try something with it. And get this, I found this, um, propane tank, I guess it was just full of air because it was just lying there on the dock, and so I thought I could try seeing how big I could inflate the fish. So I stuck its mouth in the nozzle-thing, and I turned that handle, and it started getting bigger! And when it got WHOA huge I had to push it off the dock with that thing still in its mouth, but I thought it would pop at some point… But nope, I guess not, 'cause here it is now! Oh well."
As he turned around and faced the fish, chainsaw pulled, revved-up and at the ready, the collective eyeballs of the town widened enormously. Anna, Ricca, Lumina, Kate, Matthew, and William all state a sentence of disbelief, word-by-word.
"No…"
"One…"
"Could…"
"Be…"
"That…"
"Stupid…"
Nami, with a sigh, turns toward the six, and the crowd in general and spoke in an ominous, cautionary tone to them. "Never… overestimate… my husband…"
With his always astonishingly-unforeseeing mind too fixed on his honorary duty to realize what a catastrophic mistake he was about to make, Jack revs the chainsaw up and eagerly drives it into the giant, inflated fish.
Spark.
-
"Say, Miro…" Hugh begins, looking to him from over the limp head of the still-unconscious Bry they were currently lugging along. "…what if this guy doesn't wake up? Like, if he's in a coma or something…"
"Well, that's not really our problem." Miro replies, shrugging with his free shoulder. "We were just told to bring him along with us, and we're lucky to be able to do that."
"Yeah, you've got a point there." Hugh states, snorting defiantly once. "If they don't like the condition he's in when we bring him back, they can complain to my…"
Hugh trails off, hearing a strange sound in front of them. Miro hears it as well. It was a kind of… wooshing sort of noise, like a very uniform, strong gust of wind. They then notice the trees in front of them swaying in their direction, and the air warping in a large wall before them, about to meet them in moments. When those moments had passed, both Hugh and Miro are knocked off of their feet from the concussive shockwave, landing on their backs a few feet from where they were hit. Once it had passed over them, they slowly get themselves up, collecting Bry again as they did so.
"Ugh… Your Dad is cooking…" Hugh states, wincing as he touched the re-disturbed bruise on his back. Miro nods a bit to this.
"Well… If it was him, I think he just beat his record." He replies.
"For what?"
"Blast raduis."
"Oh…"
-
Jack stood there, his clothes burnt and tattered, his hair pointing uniformly backwards, his face full of fish, and with nothing left of the chainsaw but the handle he was holding and two links of chain currently stuck in his teeth. He turns, slowly, to the crowd before him, to see that they, too, were burnt and covered with fish. Indeed, fish was still raining from the heavens, further coating the slightly-blackened buildings, and although Muffy's silence seemed to be one of awe and joy of this miraculous occasion, the rest of the mass seemed just a little… upset.
Kai, the other Jack, and Mayor Thomas, having been knocked clear off of the podium, were slowly getting up again, also looking none-too-happy. Nami, who was still in front of the crowd, slowly reached her hand up and flicked a piece of fish from her brow before turning her head to look at the people behind her. Just as she expected, they were simmering, and the only thing that kept them from charging at this point was the brief period of aftershock. Sighing, Nami walks briskly to the podium and hops up on it, taking her husband's hand.
"Come on, Jack, time to skip town…" she states, beginning to pull him off quickly. At this point, the general population of the Town had stirred from their addle, and were at the ready for a nice, old fashioned stake-burning. Upon hearing the yelling mob behind him, Jack's motivation was greatly enhanced and his legs began moving without the aid of Nami's tugging. In a moment, they had leapt down from the platform and were headed due east. The mass of people behind them, which had, with three torches and two pitchforks between them, officially become an angry mob, chased after them as they retreated from the eastern exit and leapt from the stone stairway onto the beach. Nami paused, getting to her feet and looking around for some means of escape. In a moment, she had found it; the motorboat.
"Hurry," she says demandingly, heading toward the boat at a dead run. Jack follows behind, the crowd having poured from the stairway and were again in hot pursuit. Once she had made it to the dock, Nami ran a few steps up it and then leapt onto the boat. Jack ran up as well, and as Nami hastily cut the ropes loose with her trusted knives and got into the pilot's seat, Jack also jumped in, landing on his feet near the back of the machine.
"Nami, wait!" he calls, seeing Nami turn the boat on (Kai had left his key in it due to all of the fish excitement).
"No, Jack, we have no ti-"
"JUST LET ME DO THIS!" Jack shouts, unable to allow himself the waste of such an opportunity. The crowd, having collected on the beachhead and the dock, glares at him in frustration. Nami sighs, and nods, to Jack's upliftment. Turning to the large group before him, Jack stands in clear view on the back of the boat.
"You will all remember this…" he begins, a wry smile on his face as he looked triumphantly at the people standing there. "…as the day that you almost caught… Captain Jack-"
"Flooring it!" Nami interrupts, suddenly pushing the boat's throttle all the way forward. Jack shouts and stumbles, quite nearly falling over, but manages to keep himself on the boat.
The last that they see of them is a flicker of Nami's hair in the wind and the waving hand of Jack in the far distance after he had stopped whining about not being able to finish his line.
-
"What the…?" Hugh begins, blinking as they exit the forested area and spot Mineral Town ahead of them. "…What are we doing here already?"
"The firework, probably…" Miro states. "At least it saved us a lot of time, huh?"
"Yeah." Hugh agrees. "…So, I guess we should get this guy to the Inn."
After a few minutes of walking, they make it to the Inn doors, though the town seemed much more empty and… fishy than they remembered. Just before Miro could open the door, however, he felt their blonde-capped luggage begin to stir.
"…Uh oh." Hugh begins, him and Miro immediately letting Bry go. He falls to one knee, but stays up under his own power, head still bowed. "…Oh, great, he's up…"
"Get ready…" Miro warns, preparing himself for anything. Slowly, Bry gets to his feet, his eyes opening carefully. When he stood up fully, awake, he turned to Hugh, and then Miro.
"Right then… Time to take the two of you down for good…" he mutters, raising his hands to some fighting stance in preparation. Miro and Hugh clench their teeth, getting themselves extra-ready for the coming fight.
"That was so. Much. FUN!" a voice coming from the east exclaims, causing the group to turn to it inquisitively. There came Karrie, trailed (far, far away) by the rest of the teens. "When that big fish just blew up like a load of dynamite and then we chased the guy who did it and his wife all the way to the beach, it was just great!"
Miro and Hugh, naturally – and even with Karrie's clothes a bit messed up and hair fairly frizzy – went into a daze at her very sight. Bry, however, suddenly runs toward her and slows to a walk when he was near, looking at her curiously. Karrie stops as well, giving him a quizzical look. Bry began to circle her, Karrie following suit shortly after. He sniffs the air and pauses.
"…You smell like fish and… girl…" he states, tilting his head slightly.
"Well, I am." Karrie replies with a smile. "…Not a fish, but a girl. You're a little funny. What is your name?"
"Bry…" Bry says to her, looking as though he was confused by something. "Am I funny? I'm not funny much, but… you make me feel funny. Something in my chest…"
"I do?" Karrie questions. "Well, I'm gonna be a model soon. I'll be touring a whole bunch of places, all over the world. So-"
"All over… the world…?" Bry echoes, his eyes widening a bit. "I… I want to go all over the world. I spent most of my life in one room, and… I want to see what I haven't seen yet, which is a lot…"
"Well…" Karrie begins with another smile. "Maybe I can arrange something. You seem like a nice boy, maybe you can come along with me… I mean, you're the first boy that's been really direct with me since I got here. You talk and listen a lot more, the others just like to nod and grunt… You know, you make me feel funny, too."
Bry pauses for a moment, and then, in a sudden change in attitude, the two of them blush heavily. Karrie takes Bry by the hand quickly and the two of them, passing Hugh and Miro without a glance, walk down the road in a silence that didn't need words. They then turn at the corner and walk northward, maybe to Karen's old house, maybe to the bench, who knows…
"…That kid is gonna hit first base with A FEW FRIGGIN' WORDS!" Hugh snaps, glaring at the general world around him. The other teens walk toward the two, Matthew and William now free from their bonds.
"Don't be upset, Hugh." Lumina says, putting a hand on his arm assuringly.
"But it took so long for me to get your attention…" he mutters, slumping his shoulders disappointedly.
"But you can say you've earned it." Lumina reminds him.
"…Yeah. Yeah, I didn't wimp out. He would've wimped out if that Karrie girl wasn't so loose." Hugh states, smiling a bit.
"Glad you agree." Ricca says. "Now come on, let's catch up inside the Inn."
A few minutes later, they enter the Inn and, pulling a couple of tables together, take their seats and order up some Pineapple Juice from the still-grumbling Doug.
"So, umm…" Miro begins. "…Why is it that Doug's upset and everyone has fish on them?"
"Oh. Well…" Kate begins, unsure of how to begin the story. "…You know that time that your Dad stuck the electric knife in Wally's medicine ball?"
"Yeah…" Miro replies, nodding a bit. "It poofed like a turkey with a firecracker in it…"
"And it was my favorite one, too…" Hugh mutters.
"Yeah," Kate begins. "Well, think of that, times a thousand."
"The knob stuck a chainsaw in a fish full of propane…" Ricca hisses, her hair, like most others', still askew. "The blast fried us, tipped all of the cows and plucked all of the chickens…"
"The sheep could absorb the impact since they're due in for a shearing." Matthew adds. "They look very odd-shaped at the moment, though…"
"Hm… So, where are Mom and Dad now?" Miro inquires, glancing around a bit.
"Well…" Kate begins. "We, I mean the town, chased after them for a bit and… well, they got away."
"They jacked Kai's boat and drove right off." William states. Miro blinks once and then sighs.
"Well, at least I get to be independant again." He points out.
"…Do you think we should go after them?" Anna inquires.
"Naah, they're adults, they can handle themselves." Miro replies, shrugging.
"…Well, look at that…" Matthew mutters, looking to another table a distance from theirs. The others turn and see Stu, sitting alone with a small lunch, with a piece of fish on his forehead like many of the town's inhabitants. He was focusing his attention on another table, which, as the group turned their heads to spot, housed May. She didn't have any fish on her, as she had only recently left the Clinic shortly after the explosion, and she sported a white cast on one of her arms.
"…So?" Miro inquires.
"It looks like Stu's finally almost ready to ask her." William states.
"We've been waiting for this moment for years…" Matthew adds.
"Why hasn't he asked her by now?" Kate inquires. "He looks older than us…"
"He's nineteen." Ricca says, taking a sip of the juice recently brought to them. "And he hasn't asked her yet pretty much because he's… shy about it."
"Shy about it? Somebody with that kinda build?" Hugh scoffs, suddenly rising up from the table. "I think I can fix that right up."
"Hugh, what are you…" Lumina begins, trailing off as Hugh walks over to Stu's table, stopping once he was there.
"Yo," Hugh begins, waving a little at him.
"Uh, yo…" Stu replies, looking at Hugh strangely. Hugh sits down on a chair opposite his without even asking.
"Hey, finally, some guy with meat hooks as impressive as mine!" Hugh proclaims, noticing that Stu's build was something like his own. "You want to try an arm wrestle?"
"…Yeah, sure, okay." Stu agrees, clearing his throat and putting his elbow down on the table. Hugh does the same and, without a countdown, the two begin the contest. At first, the two seem equally matched.
"Hah… So, hey, that girl there…" Hugh begins, nodding his head in her direction for a moment toward her while they battled for the upper hand. "…you got an eye for her?"
"…Rgh… What do you care…?" Stu replies, sounding a little defensive behind his timidness.
"Name's Hugh…" Hugh states. "And I care because I spent years trying to get a girl, and it worked. You, from what I've heard on the grapevine, haven't even tried once yet. As a fellow ambassator to jockkind, I'm proud to be the one to tell you to strap a pair on and ask her already!"
"…Well, I was going to…" Stu grunts as he begins to push Hugh's arm a bit back. "…Stu, by the way."
"Yeah, I'm sure…" Hugh counter-grunts, returning their arms to a neutral position. "When you were walking here, you told yourself you'd ask her after sitting down. And when you were sitting down, you told yourself you'd ask her when she's getting up to leave. And when she does get up to leave, you're gonna say to yourself 'eh, maybe tomorrow instead. Yeah, tomorrow's better', won't you?"
"That's… not the problem…" Stu states, attempting to recover since Hugh had pushed his arm down slightly. "The trouble is, our friendship is ruined if she says no…!"
"And why would she do that, you think?" Hugh pushes, keeping his position of being on top of the match.
"Well maybe I think I'm just not impressive enough…" Stu mutters, holding his ground with what he had.
"Heh, you know, I thought just like that once before…" Hugh recollects, smirking a little. "You want a useful tip? Find yourself a demonically-powered toy, use it to bring the girl you've got your eyes on to a certain spot, and try to kill your competition for her love right in front of your eyes! Trust me, it's win-win either way!"
"Yeah? Well, that'd work, but…" Stu grunts, forcing their arms back into the middle once more. "…I don't really have any competition for her. I'm the only one in town that's her age…"
"…Wh… THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SO SCARED ABOUT?" Hugh shouts, giving him a strange look. "If there's nobody else, then there's no WAY that she should say no!"
"Y… yeah, sure there is…" Stu mutters defensively, beginning to lose some ground in the match again.
"The only way you wouldn't be her selection is if she thinks you're a pansy," Hugh states, being sure to emphasize the last word. Stu gives him a dark look, his teeth chenching quite hard.
"I… am… not… a… PANSY!" he spits, suddenly slamming Hugh's arm down on the table with force. Without another word, Stu rises up from the table and walks around, his eyes and mind fixed now on one thing and one thing only.
Hugh smirks, looking triumphant, and turns to watch what Stu was going to do. His arm was pretty sore, and the table was hardwood so he might or might not have broken a knuckle just now, but it was a small sacrifice to allow one fellow strong-guy the bravado to complete one of the great missions of his lifetime.
With all haste, Stu stamped up to May's table, pulling a chair next to hers, sitting down, and looking at her determinedly.
"…Hello, Stu." May says simply, smiling a little oddly. "…What brings you to this table…?"
"May, when you were… when that bull hit you, I should have been there," he begins, shaking a bit and glancing once to her cast. "I mean, at least I should have been around to bring you to the Clinic, but I, I wasn't…"
"…Oh, it's okay." May reassures him. "I mean, it wasn't very late in the afternoon yet. You're usually out hiking in Mother's Hill by then-"
"But don't you see?" Stu begins, looking at her desparately. "I should have been there! I should be there all the time… I…"
He falters, trying to steady his breathing somewhat. May looks at him strangely, expectantly. After a moment, Stu takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes tightly in focus.
"May, I'm pretty much sure that I'm in love with you!" he spits out. A silence follows this statement. Stu opens his eyes slowly, expecting to see May frowning, looking offended or shocked. She did look shocked, but her widened eyes and ever-enlarging smile caused Stu's heart to lift substantially.
"S… Stu…" May begins, the corners of her eyes beginning to tear up. All of a sudden she flies from her chair and wraps her one good arm around Stu's shoulder so tightly that it was as though she was afraid of him floating away. "Stu, thank you! I wasn't sure if you did, but then I thought you might just be giving me a lot of time to think about it, but after so much time I was starting to think you didn't! You're so nice!"
Stu couldn't believe it. His face was washed over with red as he slowly, in a stunned fashion, put his arms around her as well. And then, slowly, the two stand up, still in a tight embrace and bumping into the odd chair or table as they edged absently to the door. Thankfully, it was ajar, and the two simply pushed it open and shuffled off and out of sight…
"And that, pals, is a job well done!" Hugh proclaims, getting up from his seat and walking to the group again casually. They all nod and hum in reply. "…Oh, and hey, since we're already on this kind of theme…"
With all kinds of casual flair to his movements, Hugh steps toward Lumina with a very strange smile on his face, and with a sudden movement, pulls something from his back pocket.
Everyone in the group nearly fell from their chairs.
"Wh… When did you get your hands on that?" Miro nearly yells, staring at it incredulously.
"While you were sleeping like a log until past 10 in the morning." Hugh replies, giving him a sideways glance before looking back to Lumina. Twirling it between his fingers once, Hugh lowers himself to one knee and presents Lumina with the Blue Feather, his smile ever-present.
"So, what do you think?" he asks simply. Lumina stares at it for a few moments, looking out-of-breath. She seemed almost at risk of hyperventalating. Finally, she takes in a normal-sized breath.
"Yes!" she shouts, no longer her usual timid smile, but one of complete, shyless affection on her face as she stands up from her chair, looking unsure of what to do now. Hugh gets up to his feet, knowing full-well what to do next. Quickly, but with enough emotion involved to make it seem as though in slow-motion, the two lock one another in an embrace and… do what is expected of two people who just got engaged in true Hollywood fashion.
"Oh, that's so sweet…" Anna coos, watching in a mesmerized way.
"Kinda early, though, isn't it?" William returns. "I mean, they were only official about a few days ago…"
"Yeah, but they've known one another for a while…" Miro points out, to William's shrugging nod. "And, you know, there's not that much choice in the matter, really…"
"…Is anyone else getting a little bored?" Kate asks, stretching her arms once.
"What?" Matthew asks sharply. "You just saw one relationship finally begin and another forge an eternal bond, and you're bored?"
"Yep." Kate states, getting to her feet. "I have an itch to head back home. Who wants to come see the Valley?"
"…Yeah, okay, sure." Miro replies, getting up as well. The others, albiet a bit more confused than the two of them, nod and muter in agreement and get to their feet as well.
"Come on, no time like the present." Miro states, heading for the door.
"But what about our parents?" William asks. "We should tell them…"
"Oh, that's okay." Anna assures him. He then turns to Doug. "Grandpa, can you tell everybody that we're headed for Miro and Kate and Hugh and Lumina's town?"
"Sure, yep." Doug replies, performing the routine Innkeep task of polishing a random glass with a cloth. Anna smiles, turning to the rest of the group.
"There, done." She says conclusively, walking out the open door first. Matthew follows, shaking his head slightly. Miro and Kate proceed after, their sudden and slightly odd inclination to head back home still not explained. Ricca, and then William walk through after them, looking a little interested in this idea. Finally, Hugh and Lumina, arm around one another, tail along behind.
Doug sniffs the air once, and then looks up to notice the door open and everyone gone.
"…Town's full of fish and the kids can't shut a door for the sake of keeping the smell away." He mutters. He then takes a second sniff and realizes something. "…Oh, wait, it's just me."
-
"Aww… Looks like Bry's found love." Celia states, her and Muffy walking down a street after eavesdropping on the scene outside the Inn from the shadows of the building. "…Then again, he failed to finish even one of them off."
"Oh, that doesn't really matter…" Muffy replies, shrugging a bit. "I mean, now that he's happy, he won't be after us for revenge. We're free to live our lives all happy and peaceful and…"
"Yes. That, and Jack and Nami got away before he could get here." Celia adds. "…I suppose we should just be happy with what we have."
Muffy nods to this. "I mean, if we spend the rest of our lives planning evil, jealous revenge plots, what does that leave us with? Maybe it's time to settle down and just live out our days as normal, non-evil pe-"
The two of them stop walking and pause suddenly, feeling a tap on their shoulders. They turn around to see who it was, and both jumped upon seeing Bry, with Karrie in the background, staring at them hard. He looks to Celia, and then Muffy glaringly, keeping his eyes on her as he cracked his knuckles.
"Hello, Mom…"