Ah, time for the next installment! We've got adventures in mind-land,
exciting courtroom battles, and the much-awaited screaming dude with a
big sharp thingy! Prepare to have your pants blown off!
Disclaimer: No pants were harmed in the writing of this chapter.
Rise of the Silver Stars
Chapter 14: The Long Arm of the Outlaw
When she woke, it took her a while to notice that she was, indeed, awake. In the pitch black darkness that enveloped the room, it was impossible to see anything, and she almost poked out her own eye while checking to see if she really had them open. Rolling over on the bunk, she tried to fall asleep again, but discovered to her dismay that she was too well rested now to get more sleep. Now she was stuck with another problem, one that she didn't just hate, but despised with every fiber of her being. The problem being that she had absolutely nothing to do.
That problem had hit her before, but every other time there were things she could do. Work on her reports, get a part-time job, even just get herself a banana sundae to poke at for a little while. In this room, unfortunately, there was nothing to be done. She laid on the bunk, listening to her own breathing. She didn't know how long she had laid there, because aside from her own body there was no sense of time. It could have been hours, or days, or weeks. Or probably five minutes. No wonder sticking people in jail was considered an effective correctional measure- the boredom was worse than anything else she could think of.
An idea on how to pass the time eventually emerged. During Vash's crash course on mental warfare, there had been some things going on that weren't entirely expected. The dream overlaps were one, but there were other effects besides that. Odd feelings, unusual headaches that she couldn't be sure were really there, twinges of emotions that just didn't seem to fit well with her. Nothing major enough for her to comment on, but there none the less. Without anything else to do, she tried to return to those /places/ Vash had shown her before. If she was lucky, maybe she could reach Vash and let him know what was happening. Taking a deep breath, she went /inside/.
There was nothing here. It wasn't even dark, because that would have been something. It was like existence ended at her skin, and she didn't like it one bit. So she focused on trying to feel what was past that, to reach out and touch... what? Now there were things around her that she could /see/. They were like lights, floating around above her, some just a little higher up and others quite a bit higher still. Some were close, but as she /looked/ at the far ones it was like she moved to where they were simply by wanting to get closer. The longer she stayed in a spot, the more lights appeared, and eventually she was in a huge cloud of lights. Most were too high up for her to reach, but one was drifting lower, close enough that she might be able to touch it. It was flickering, the glow tinged with streaks of red. It drifted just a little lower, and she /touched/ it.
The lights were gone. However, where she was now made far more sense. It was a city like any other, filled with everything you might find in a city, except for three highly important differences. No sounds, no smells, and if she looked at anything hard enough it seemed to melt under her gaze. Then again, it may have just been the raging inferno that was consuming the city. The flames were tall and danced with intensity, burning everything they touched, even the bricks. She could feel the heat, but only if she actually stuck her hand in a flame, and even then it wasn't very hot.
Then she finally heard something. A voice, distant, that was crying out for help. She ran through the endless streets towards the voice. The flames reached up all around, completely covering every building yet remaining stubbornly silent. It was more than a little creepy, but the voice kept her moving. She eventually rounded a corner, and finally saw who was pleading for help. It was a small boy, he couldn't have been more than eight or nine, who was running down the street filled with flame and shadow. His movements were all wrong- even though he was running madly, it was like the road kept tugging his feet back with every step, slowing him to a crawl. She ran towards him, glad that she was able to move normally. Then she saw what he was running from.
There were two things behind him, also moving normally, but very slowly, matching his pace perfectly so they never caught up, but also never fell behind. They were tall, too tall to be people even though their outlines looked like people. Their flesh was composed of shadows and the eyes glowed like the surrounding flames. They were swathed in garments the color of fresh blood, and as she closed in she could see the expressions of pure fury and hatred that they had. A few more strides and she was by the child. She swept him up and turned back to run away from the demons that pursued him. He clutched onto her and tried to hide under her cape- when had she gotten her cape on?
The mystery would have to wait, as the demons were now matching her pace. This was bad. "What are those things?!"
The child peeked up at her and blurted out something that made her skid to a halt. "It's Vash the Stampede and Derringer Meryl!"
"Those things are me and Vash?" Now that was completely absurd. She was right here, not over there, and she certainly wasn't ten feet tall with fangs for teeth and eyes of flame. Then she figured it out. Before she had met Vash and discovered just what kind of person he really was, she had a similar internal image of the Humanoid Typhoon. It was probably how most people pictured him if they'd never met him. That wasn't Vash at all, just the image she saw in her nightmares when she was growing up, a conjuring of intangible fears based off the stories she heard... Exactly like what this boy was seeing in this nightmare.
"Well, there's no need to run now."
The child stared at her like she had just gone mad. For all he knew, running was the best idea, but she knew better. You can't run away from your fears.
"They can't hurt you. Nothing here can. This is only a dream. Nothing here is real."
"But, but, but-"
"And Vash and Meryl are nothing like that," as she gestured towards the giant red demons.
"But everyone was saying-"
"I'm really getting tired of what everyone says. You don't know someone until you meet them yourself. That's something that took me far too long to learn."
"But-"
She sighed. "I'm Meryl. Yes, the Meryl, though I'm really not liking that nickname anymore."
The child looked at her quizzically, and she noticed out the corner of her eye that the demon-form of her just faded away. "You don't look like a monster..."
"I don't look like a monster because I'm not a monster, and neither is Vash. He's really more like..."
All of a sudden, he was right there, red coat, tinted glasses, and a box of doughnuts in hand. However, he was lacking substance like everything else here besides herself and the boy. He crouched down after stuffing a whole doughnut into his mouth and offered the next one up for the boy, with a huge grin in place and bits of the last doughnut still stuck between his teeth. "...like that."
The other demon faded away too. "And this isn't the world we want, we want this world."
She dug up the memory and forced the burning city away. It was replaced by the endless fields of grass and trees that had dominated her last dream with Vash. The boy's eyes widened as he looked around, then he promptly set off to run around this new world. She sat down by the illusionary Vash, who was scarfing the doughnuts just like the real one would. One was offered her way, so she shrugged and took a bite. No taste at all. Then again, had she ever tasted anything in a dream before? Probably not, if the doughnut was any indication. The boy ran further on, stirring up a mass of butterflies. The colors swirled around the distant image, making everything look blurry. With a bit of shock, she noticed that everything was blurry, and soon it all faded away...
...to leave her back in the darkness with all the lights. The one she had managed to /touch/ had risen up out of her reach, now glowing a steady white tinged with blue. It didn't take a plant engineer to figure out that these lights must be people. However, everything else was still elusive. She was mostly sure that the color had some bearing on what emotions the people were feeling, but couldn't be sure. /Looking/ farther, she saw new things emerge. Lights that were far larger than the others, that had thin wisps connecting them together. One of them was drooping, the light fading as it dropped and the strands breaking. She got under it, and /touched/ it.
"Hurthurtworkpainworksuffernogonogonotoomuchworkmorehurtmorepainendingendi ngending.ending..e.n..d...i.....n....g........"
The sheer force of the feelings slammed her back like a sledgehammer. She flew back to the original dark place, and back /outside/. She bolted upright on the bunk, panting for breath, a cold sweat covering her. She could see her arm was shaking slightly in the harsh light that now pervaded the cell. "What the hell was that?"
Of course, there was nobody there to tell her, if indeed there was anyone on the planet besides Vash and Knives that might have an idea. The bulb flickered overhead as she collected herself. If it was 'morning', then she would probably be getting a visit from the wardens before long, and she wasn't about to let them see her looking dishevelled any more than they already had. Of course, there was no telling when they would come, so that meant an eternity spent sitting around waiting. Sure enough, after she had counted every one of the two hundred and thirty two rivets that were in the ceiling, she heard the clang and the footsteps that signaled the arrival of her escorts.
¤ ¤ ¤
Well, that had been fun. Of course, she knew it was only fun for the reporters and bystanders because of the spectacle her walk across the street had been. There had been lawmen everywhere as she was whisked across to the courthouse- there had also been some of the Cavalry on hand to keep the crowds back. She saw the waiting mob just as the prison gate opened, and had squeezed her eyes shut- if those vultures wanted a picture of her, she was going to be blinking in every damn one. Of course, that posed a problem with walking, so she just barely opened one eye so she wouldn't trip over anything. Thus they managed to cross the street and were now inside the courthouse, which was thankfully devoid of newsies with cameras.
Now the courtroom doors creaked open almost unbearably slowly. They had to have been made that way, it was just too foreboding to have been a mere coincidence. The judge at the end also looked rather foreboding. As they entered, she scanned the rows for familiar faces, and actually picked out a few. Mr. Bernardelli was there, so were Mark and Karen from the office, and all of them were giving her those stupid pity smiles. Feh, some help they were. There was only one more she recognized, and what a face it was. It sent a whole tangle of emotions running through her, and she took a step towards dad before the escorts steered her back. His expression was stony, but she could see his eyes light up as their gazes met, and then a fury as he glanced down at her wardrobe and restraints. But none of that fury was directed to her, and there was no pity or fear in him. For everything that was happening, for all the stories being told, he was still her father and he was here to support her no matter what. He was stubborn like that, probably where her own streak of implacability came from. Mother would be there too, but had probably been thrown out- the temper followed the women in their family, and mom had gotten a double dose. However, Sara was nowhere to be seen.
The list of charges against her was read off- it seemed to have grown since her original arrest, no doubt to keep pace with the stories. After every charge, she was prompted to respond. It was a constant stream of 'not guilty', which was duly recorded by a half-asleep recordkeeper. She got a small sense of satisfaction when he had to jump and correct the last entry when she responded 'guilty' to the aiding and abetting a known criminal charge. Any way you cut it, Vash the Stampede had broken a number of laws, and Knives was certainly no angel even if he was officially just a lie made up by the Humanoid Typhoon. Once the charges were finished, an attendant opened her mouth to speak, but was cut short by a loud whistling noise from outside and a deep boom that happened very soon after, though the original whistling noise continued. Several people grew agitated and demanded that someone do something about it.
Then the enter side of the courtroom was blown in.
As everyone began to pick themselves up, she shoved aside a chunk of plaster that had landed on her and finally got a look at just what had hit them. There was a very large sphere sitting in the middle of the courtroom that wiggled a bit then broke apart. It turned around, and she saw a very deep frown on the face that was revealed- well, what was revealed below the armored goggles. The man jumped up and ran, first by an absolutely gigantic fist then out the newly enlarged windows. "Dammit, what the hell is the Nebraska family doing here?"
Her statement was mimicked by a number of the lawmen, though most choose even more colorful language. There wasn't much time to do anything, as the whistling started up again signaling that another family member was on the way even as the fist withdrew. "Everybody get down!"
This time, the roof was ripped clean off with only a minimal showering of debris on the people inside. Sounds of sporadic gunfire drifted in once the sounds of half a building falling a few stories settled down. The dust was thick, giving everyone a dull gray appearance. The whistles started again, punctuated by another boom. This time, she could just make out two huge figures through the dust- no doubt the mother and big boy of the family. Since the room didn't end up any lower, the targets must have been elsewhere, though the gunfire cut off. It was eerily silent, the haze still drifting down and getting in everything as a sneeze broke the silence. That set off the lawmen in the court.
"It's a breakout! Don't let the prisoner escape!"
"What?" Surely they didn't think-! Well, it did look that way. She heard footsteps coming towards her rapidly, and decided to just drop where she was rather than get shot up 'escaping'. Unfortunately, the lawman had been intending to tackle her, and ended up tripping over her to fall into another guard that was headed her way. The two of them were knocked out cold with a thunk that made her wince. That left nobody close enough to do anything when a hand reached in and snatched her up.
"Don't just stand there! Shoot her!"
As she was lifting up, she struggled in the grip but it was like iron bars were wrapped around her. That was when she got a perfect view of a group of three armed gray figures, rifles out and swinging up towards her. As this range, they couldn't possibly miss. Time slowed to a crawl as a light glinted off the gun barrels, and just as they swung into line an entire courtroom bench slammed into the group. "Eh?" Tracing its route back, she saw one dust-coated figure fall to their knees, panting heavily, but the smirk of success that showed through made it clear that he had been the one to throw that absurdly heavy piece of furniture and prevent her from getting a new hole in the head. An identical smirk reached across her face. "Never mess with a Stryfe."
However, the danger was just growing. She was cupped between two massive hands, and the rattling she was getting meant they were on the run. There were occasional sounds of crashing, smashing, and massive property damage coming from outside, and she redoubled her efforts to get out of the handlock. Nothing seemed to do any good, as her limbs were pinned to her sides. There was still one option, but it wasn't going to agree with her. She rolled her tongue back and sank her teeth into the hand.
"WAAAA!"
The hand let her go, and she abruptly remembered that the Nebraskas were quite tall, and the ground was a lot farther off than she'd like. For once, the restraints proved to be useful and kept her from falling some forty feet down. That still didn't make her new position as a puppet with tangled strings any less embarrassing, and it seemed that the more talkative members of the Nebraska family weren't too occupied in escaping to tell her off.
"How could you bite my mother like that you brute! You're just as vicious as the stories say!"
Oh, that was it. She didn't care that she was balanced precariously from a finger at a probably lethal height while being run through a city with clusters of gunfire and artillery rounds landing all around. She wasn't about to get berated by this pack of idiots without getting a few words back.
"I'm the brute?! Just what the hell are you doing busting in like that? They're already blaming me for all this when it's all your doing! I demand that you put me down at once!"
"Sorry, but we need you to collect that sixty billion double dollar reward! And they were about to throw the book at you, the least you could do is show some gratitude for us busting you out!"
She twisted around to get Professor Nebraska under her glare, noting that even with the distance and her predicament that he reeled back under it. "You cause me who knows how much more trouble that I really don't need, you admit to wanting me for bait, and you still want me to show gratitude to you?! I don't care what you think, but if you don't put me down this instant you'll find out that the stories don't even scratch the surface!"
"A bold move dearie, but I happen to know better. Vash is as harmless as a baby when it comes to killing, and all we need is some edge to keep him still long enough to squash him. I bet you can guess which edge we choose."
The other talkative Nebraska started to wail. "Tonkichi! There's something wrong with Tonkichi!"
That brought her attention downwards to where the ballistic brothers of the clan were running along. One of them was wobbling rather badly, then fell over flat on his face. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of his butt, which was now pointed skyward. The entire procession halted, just in time too because the next building in their path looked really expensive. A jeep that had been bouncing across the rubble behind them swerved to a halt, and more arrows shot out to peg the other two brothers.
"Chinpei! Kanta! How dare you hurt my poor little brothers! Don't cry mama, I'm sure they'll be fine..."
A red coat, a blond head of hair, and a flash of silver made her think that Vash has come to her rescue, but Vash certainly wasn't female. However, at least this was a face she knew and thus might be more helpful than most. The outlook got better when she spoke up and didn't shout about 'Derringer Meryl's Escape'.
"Nebraska family! Release your hostage and surrender! You can't escape, the Cavalry has this city surrounded!"
"'Nebraska family, surrender!' 'Nebraska family, you can't escape!' I've heard it all before, and they've always been wrong! Most of them even had much bigger weapons than that silly bowgun, though we've learned to never underestimate an opponent. So I'm sorry we can't chat, but it's time for the human mincemeat special!"
Gofsef started up the whirlwind punch, and still hanging like some absurd lucky charm there wasn't a thing she could do. It launched and plowed right through the jeep, sending bits of twisted metal flying out. Luckily, it appeared that the lady was just fast enough to avoid being shredded by the crushing blow. However, a building on the side wasn't as lucky, and slid away to crash on the next street over. Looking over the latest bout of wreckage, something struck her investigative sense as wrong- there was a trail of destruction that follow the path of the fist, but there was a thin line running through the rubble perfectly just in front of the jeep that clearly shouldn't have been there.
"How the hell did you dodge my son's fist?! Not even the Stampede could have done it at that range!"
"Because I intervened!"
All heads turned to look at the next addition to the situation. A man in pajamas with an oversized knife was standing across from the collapsed building, on top of the mostly intact one across the street. "Release the Stampede's concubine and face me in battle!"
Wonderful. The screaming insulting man in weird pajamas brandishing the large sharp object wanted to face off with the Nebraskas. If this was the sort of help she was getting today, she'd have been better off staying in her cell.
"Great, a loony wants to take us on? Don't you know that we're the infamous Nebraska family?!"
The sheriff down below shouted out to him as well. "This is too dangerous for civilians! Take cover or leave the area at once!"
"I cannot. The challenge is only half made, to back down now would be dishonorable! Know that my name is Rai-Dei, and now, we fight!"
Heh, bet you didn't see that one coming!
Wolfwood: I'll say! Didn't I shoot him extremely dead?! I thought you were against resurrections in this fic!
I am, you just didn't shoot him dead enough. Don't worry, all shall be explained!
Wolfwood: Then does that mean-
Nope.
Wolfwood: ...dammit.
Reviewer Responses
betsytheripper: The Stick may only be wielded by those well-versed in the arts of beatdown-fu. If you're just starting, you'll have to train with The Twig. ¤gives free demonstration of beatdown-fu with Legato's help¤
SapphireWhiteTiggress: I believe the current pop vernacular is "Thompsons are da shiznat, yo."
coffeetin: Entirely self-taught! ¤hides copy of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'¤
cjflutterbye: Well, I'll foreward the cake, though she might not need it now. Who else could get it...
Sorian: Yep, and now more friends(?) show up!
MidgetMinion: Ah, a new face! Well, I hope this chapter met expectations.
Yma: After acquiring my 'reference materials' ¤coughmagnacough¤, I've noticed that I did go overboard with BDN. Ah well. The familiar faces are on a rampage, so I've got lots of chances for extra screwups! And feel free to tear me a new one when I do, because I can't get better if I don't know what's wrong ;)
Disclaimer: No pants were harmed in the writing of this chapter.
Chapter 14: The Long Arm of the Outlaw
When she woke, it took her a while to notice that she was, indeed, awake. In the pitch black darkness that enveloped the room, it was impossible to see anything, and she almost poked out her own eye while checking to see if she really had them open. Rolling over on the bunk, she tried to fall asleep again, but discovered to her dismay that she was too well rested now to get more sleep. Now she was stuck with another problem, one that she didn't just hate, but despised with every fiber of her being. The problem being that she had absolutely nothing to do.
That problem had hit her before, but every other time there were things she could do. Work on her reports, get a part-time job, even just get herself a banana sundae to poke at for a little while. In this room, unfortunately, there was nothing to be done. She laid on the bunk, listening to her own breathing. She didn't know how long she had laid there, because aside from her own body there was no sense of time. It could have been hours, or days, or weeks. Or probably five minutes. No wonder sticking people in jail was considered an effective correctional measure- the boredom was worse than anything else she could think of.
An idea on how to pass the time eventually emerged. During Vash's crash course on mental warfare, there had been some things going on that weren't entirely expected. The dream overlaps were one, but there were other effects besides that. Odd feelings, unusual headaches that she couldn't be sure were really there, twinges of emotions that just didn't seem to fit well with her. Nothing major enough for her to comment on, but there none the less. Without anything else to do, she tried to return to those /places/ Vash had shown her before. If she was lucky, maybe she could reach Vash and let him know what was happening. Taking a deep breath, she went /inside/.
There was nothing here. It wasn't even dark, because that would have been something. It was like existence ended at her skin, and she didn't like it one bit. So she focused on trying to feel what was past that, to reach out and touch... what? Now there were things around her that she could /see/. They were like lights, floating around above her, some just a little higher up and others quite a bit higher still. Some were close, but as she /looked/ at the far ones it was like she moved to where they were simply by wanting to get closer. The longer she stayed in a spot, the more lights appeared, and eventually she was in a huge cloud of lights. Most were too high up for her to reach, but one was drifting lower, close enough that she might be able to touch it. It was flickering, the glow tinged with streaks of red. It drifted just a little lower, and she /touched/ it.
The lights were gone. However, where she was now made far more sense. It was a city like any other, filled with everything you might find in a city, except for three highly important differences. No sounds, no smells, and if she looked at anything hard enough it seemed to melt under her gaze. Then again, it may have just been the raging inferno that was consuming the city. The flames were tall and danced with intensity, burning everything they touched, even the bricks. She could feel the heat, but only if she actually stuck her hand in a flame, and even then it wasn't very hot.
Then she finally heard something. A voice, distant, that was crying out for help. She ran through the endless streets towards the voice. The flames reached up all around, completely covering every building yet remaining stubbornly silent. It was more than a little creepy, but the voice kept her moving. She eventually rounded a corner, and finally saw who was pleading for help. It was a small boy, he couldn't have been more than eight or nine, who was running down the street filled with flame and shadow. His movements were all wrong- even though he was running madly, it was like the road kept tugging his feet back with every step, slowing him to a crawl. She ran towards him, glad that she was able to move normally. Then she saw what he was running from.
There were two things behind him, also moving normally, but very slowly, matching his pace perfectly so they never caught up, but also never fell behind. They were tall, too tall to be people even though their outlines looked like people. Their flesh was composed of shadows and the eyes glowed like the surrounding flames. They were swathed in garments the color of fresh blood, and as she closed in she could see the expressions of pure fury and hatred that they had. A few more strides and she was by the child. She swept him up and turned back to run away from the demons that pursued him. He clutched onto her and tried to hide under her cape- when had she gotten her cape on?
The mystery would have to wait, as the demons were now matching her pace. This was bad. "What are those things?!"
The child peeked up at her and blurted out something that made her skid to a halt. "It's Vash the Stampede and Derringer Meryl!"
"Those things are me and Vash?" Now that was completely absurd. She was right here, not over there, and she certainly wasn't ten feet tall with fangs for teeth and eyes of flame. Then she figured it out. Before she had met Vash and discovered just what kind of person he really was, she had a similar internal image of the Humanoid Typhoon. It was probably how most people pictured him if they'd never met him. That wasn't Vash at all, just the image she saw in her nightmares when she was growing up, a conjuring of intangible fears based off the stories she heard... Exactly like what this boy was seeing in this nightmare.
"Well, there's no need to run now."
The child stared at her like she had just gone mad. For all he knew, running was the best idea, but she knew better. You can't run away from your fears.
"They can't hurt you. Nothing here can. This is only a dream. Nothing here is real."
"But, but, but-"
"And Vash and Meryl are nothing like that," as she gestured towards the giant red demons.
"But everyone was saying-"
"I'm really getting tired of what everyone says. You don't know someone until you meet them yourself. That's something that took me far too long to learn."
"But-"
She sighed. "I'm Meryl. Yes, the Meryl, though I'm really not liking that nickname anymore."
The child looked at her quizzically, and she noticed out the corner of her eye that the demon-form of her just faded away. "You don't look like a monster..."
"I don't look like a monster because I'm not a monster, and neither is Vash. He's really more like..."
All of a sudden, he was right there, red coat, tinted glasses, and a box of doughnuts in hand. However, he was lacking substance like everything else here besides herself and the boy. He crouched down after stuffing a whole doughnut into his mouth and offered the next one up for the boy, with a huge grin in place and bits of the last doughnut still stuck between his teeth. "...like that."
The other demon faded away too. "And this isn't the world we want, we want this world."
She dug up the memory and forced the burning city away. It was replaced by the endless fields of grass and trees that had dominated her last dream with Vash. The boy's eyes widened as he looked around, then he promptly set off to run around this new world. She sat down by the illusionary Vash, who was scarfing the doughnuts just like the real one would. One was offered her way, so she shrugged and took a bite. No taste at all. Then again, had she ever tasted anything in a dream before? Probably not, if the doughnut was any indication. The boy ran further on, stirring up a mass of butterflies. The colors swirled around the distant image, making everything look blurry. With a bit of shock, she noticed that everything was blurry, and soon it all faded away...
...to leave her back in the darkness with all the lights. The one she had managed to /touch/ had risen up out of her reach, now glowing a steady white tinged with blue. It didn't take a plant engineer to figure out that these lights must be people. However, everything else was still elusive. She was mostly sure that the color had some bearing on what emotions the people were feeling, but couldn't be sure. /Looking/ farther, she saw new things emerge. Lights that were far larger than the others, that had thin wisps connecting them together. One of them was drooping, the light fading as it dropped and the strands breaking. She got under it, and /touched/ it.
"Hurthurtworkpainworksuffernogonogonotoomuchworkmorehurtmorepainendingendi ngending.ending..e.n..d...i.....n....g........"
The sheer force of the feelings slammed her back like a sledgehammer. She flew back to the original dark place, and back /outside/. She bolted upright on the bunk, panting for breath, a cold sweat covering her. She could see her arm was shaking slightly in the harsh light that now pervaded the cell. "What the hell was that?"
Of course, there was nobody there to tell her, if indeed there was anyone on the planet besides Vash and Knives that might have an idea. The bulb flickered overhead as she collected herself. If it was 'morning', then she would probably be getting a visit from the wardens before long, and she wasn't about to let them see her looking dishevelled any more than they already had. Of course, there was no telling when they would come, so that meant an eternity spent sitting around waiting. Sure enough, after she had counted every one of the two hundred and thirty two rivets that were in the ceiling, she heard the clang and the footsteps that signaled the arrival of her escorts.
Well, that had been fun. Of course, she knew it was only fun for the reporters and bystanders because of the spectacle her walk across the street had been. There had been lawmen everywhere as she was whisked across to the courthouse- there had also been some of the Cavalry on hand to keep the crowds back. She saw the waiting mob just as the prison gate opened, and had squeezed her eyes shut- if those vultures wanted a picture of her, she was going to be blinking in every damn one. Of course, that posed a problem with walking, so she just barely opened one eye so she wouldn't trip over anything. Thus they managed to cross the street and were now inside the courthouse, which was thankfully devoid of newsies with cameras.
Now the courtroom doors creaked open almost unbearably slowly. They had to have been made that way, it was just too foreboding to have been a mere coincidence. The judge at the end also looked rather foreboding. As they entered, she scanned the rows for familiar faces, and actually picked out a few. Mr. Bernardelli was there, so were Mark and Karen from the office, and all of them were giving her those stupid pity smiles. Feh, some help they were. There was only one more she recognized, and what a face it was. It sent a whole tangle of emotions running through her, and she took a step towards dad before the escorts steered her back. His expression was stony, but she could see his eyes light up as their gazes met, and then a fury as he glanced down at her wardrobe and restraints. But none of that fury was directed to her, and there was no pity or fear in him. For everything that was happening, for all the stories being told, he was still her father and he was here to support her no matter what. He was stubborn like that, probably where her own streak of implacability came from. Mother would be there too, but had probably been thrown out- the temper followed the women in their family, and mom had gotten a double dose. However, Sara was nowhere to be seen.
The list of charges against her was read off- it seemed to have grown since her original arrest, no doubt to keep pace with the stories. After every charge, she was prompted to respond. It was a constant stream of 'not guilty', which was duly recorded by a half-asleep recordkeeper. She got a small sense of satisfaction when he had to jump and correct the last entry when she responded 'guilty' to the aiding and abetting a known criminal charge. Any way you cut it, Vash the Stampede had broken a number of laws, and Knives was certainly no angel even if he was officially just a lie made up by the Humanoid Typhoon. Once the charges were finished, an attendant opened her mouth to speak, but was cut short by a loud whistling noise from outside and a deep boom that happened very soon after, though the original whistling noise continued. Several people grew agitated and demanded that someone do something about it.
Then the enter side of the courtroom was blown in.
As everyone began to pick themselves up, she shoved aside a chunk of plaster that had landed on her and finally got a look at just what had hit them. There was a very large sphere sitting in the middle of the courtroom that wiggled a bit then broke apart. It turned around, and she saw a very deep frown on the face that was revealed- well, what was revealed below the armored goggles. The man jumped up and ran, first by an absolutely gigantic fist then out the newly enlarged windows. "Dammit, what the hell is the Nebraska family doing here?"
Her statement was mimicked by a number of the lawmen, though most choose even more colorful language. There wasn't much time to do anything, as the whistling started up again signaling that another family member was on the way even as the fist withdrew. "Everybody get down!"
This time, the roof was ripped clean off with only a minimal showering of debris on the people inside. Sounds of sporadic gunfire drifted in once the sounds of half a building falling a few stories settled down. The dust was thick, giving everyone a dull gray appearance. The whistles started again, punctuated by another boom. This time, she could just make out two huge figures through the dust- no doubt the mother and big boy of the family. Since the room didn't end up any lower, the targets must have been elsewhere, though the gunfire cut off. It was eerily silent, the haze still drifting down and getting in everything as a sneeze broke the silence. That set off the lawmen in the court.
"It's a breakout! Don't let the prisoner escape!"
"What?" Surely they didn't think-! Well, it did look that way. She heard footsteps coming towards her rapidly, and decided to just drop where she was rather than get shot up 'escaping'. Unfortunately, the lawman had been intending to tackle her, and ended up tripping over her to fall into another guard that was headed her way. The two of them were knocked out cold with a thunk that made her wince. That left nobody close enough to do anything when a hand reached in and snatched her up.
"Don't just stand there! Shoot her!"
As she was lifting up, she struggled in the grip but it was like iron bars were wrapped around her. That was when she got a perfect view of a group of three armed gray figures, rifles out and swinging up towards her. As this range, they couldn't possibly miss. Time slowed to a crawl as a light glinted off the gun barrels, and just as they swung into line an entire courtroom bench slammed into the group. "Eh?" Tracing its route back, she saw one dust-coated figure fall to their knees, panting heavily, but the smirk of success that showed through made it clear that he had been the one to throw that absurdly heavy piece of furniture and prevent her from getting a new hole in the head. An identical smirk reached across her face. "Never mess with a Stryfe."
However, the danger was just growing. She was cupped between two massive hands, and the rattling she was getting meant they were on the run. There were occasional sounds of crashing, smashing, and massive property damage coming from outside, and she redoubled her efforts to get out of the handlock. Nothing seemed to do any good, as her limbs were pinned to her sides. There was still one option, but it wasn't going to agree with her. She rolled her tongue back and sank her teeth into the hand.
"WAAAA!"
The hand let her go, and she abruptly remembered that the Nebraskas were quite tall, and the ground was a lot farther off than she'd like. For once, the restraints proved to be useful and kept her from falling some forty feet down. That still didn't make her new position as a puppet with tangled strings any less embarrassing, and it seemed that the more talkative members of the Nebraska family weren't too occupied in escaping to tell her off.
"How could you bite my mother like that you brute! You're just as vicious as the stories say!"
Oh, that was it. She didn't care that she was balanced precariously from a finger at a probably lethal height while being run through a city with clusters of gunfire and artillery rounds landing all around. She wasn't about to get berated by this pack of idiots without getting a few words back.
"I'm the brute?! Just what the hell are you doing busting in like that? They're already blaming me for all this when it's all your doing! I demand that you put me down at once!"
"Sorry, but we need you to collect that sixty billion double dollar reward! And they were about to throw the book at you, the least you could do is show some gratitude for us busting you out!"
She twisted around to get Professor Nebraska under her glare, noting that even with the distance and her predicament that he reeled back under it. "You cause me who knows how much more trouble that I really don't need, you admit to wanting me for bait, and you still want me to show gratitude to you?! I don't care what you think, but if you don't put me down this instant you'll find out that the stories don't even scratch the surface!"
"A bold move dearie, but I happen to know better. Vash is as harmless as a baby when it comes to killing, and all we need is some edge to keep him still long enough to squash him. I bet you can guess which edge we choose."
The other talkative Nebraska started to wail. "Tonkichi! There's something wrong with Tonkichi!"
That brought her attention downwards to where the ballistic brothers of the clan were running along. One of them was wobbling rather badly, then fell over flat on his face. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of his butt, which was now pointed skyward. The entire procession halted, just in time too because the next building in their path looked really expensive. A jeep that had been bouncing across the rubble behind them swerved to a halt, and more arrows shot out to peg the other two brothers.
"Chinpei! Kanta! How dare you hurt my poor little brothers! Don't cry mama, I'm sure they'll be fine..."
A red coat, a blond head of hair, and a flash of silver made her think that Vash has come to her rescue, but Vash certainly wasn't female. However, at least this was a face she knew and thus might be more helpful than most. The outlook got better when she spoke up and didn't shout about 'Derringer Meryl's Escape'.
"Nebraska family! Release your hostage and surrender! You can't escape, the Cavalry has this city surrounded!"
"'Nebraska family, surrender!' 'Nebraska family, you can't escape!' I've heard it all before, and they've always been wrong! Most of them even had much bigger weapons than that silly bowgun, though we've learned to never underestimate an opponent. So I'm sorry we can't chat, but it's time for the human mincemeat special!"
Gofsef started up the whirlwind punch, and still hanging like some absurd lucky charm there wasn't a thing she could do. It launched and plowed right through the jeep, sending bits of twisted metal flying out. Luckily, it appeared that the lady was just fast enough to avoid being shredded by the crushing blow. However, a building on the side wasn't as lucky, and slid away to crash on the next street over. Looking over the latest bout of wreckage, something struck her investigative sense as wrong- there was a trail of destruction that follow the path of the fist, but there was a thin line running through the rubble perfectly just in front of the jeep that clearly shouldn't have been there.
"How the hell did you dodge my son's fist?! Not even the Stampede could have done it at that range!"
"Because I intervened!"
All heads turned to look at the next addition to the situation. A man in pajamas with an oversized knife was standing across from the collapsed building, on top of the mostly intact one across the street. "Release the Stampede's concubine and face me in battle!"
Wonderful. The screaming insulting man in weird pajamas brandishing the large sharp object wanted to face off with the Nebraskas. If this was the sort of help she was getting today, she'd have been better off staying in her cell.
"Great, a loony wants to take us on? Don't you know that we're the infamous Nebraska family?!"
The sheriff down below shouted out to him as well. "This is too dangerous for civilians! Take cover or leave the area at once!"
"I cannot. The challenge is only half made, to back down now would be dishonorable! Know that my name is Rai-Dei, and now, we fight!"
Heh, bet you didn't see that one coming!
Wolfwood: I'll say! Didn't I shoot him extremely dead?! I thought you were against resurrections in this fic!
I am, you just didn't shoot him dead enough. Don't worry, all shall be explained!
Wolfwood: Then does that mean-
Nope.
Wolfwood: ...dammit.
betsytheripper: The Stick may only be wielded by those well-versed in the arts of beatdown-fu. If you're just starting, you'll have to train with The Twig. ¤gives free demonstration of beatdown-fu with Legato's help¤
SapphireWhiteTiggress: I believe the current pop vernacular is "Thompsons are da shiznat, yo."
coffeetin: Entirely self-taught! ¤hides copy of 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'¤
cjflutterbye: Well, I'll foreward the cake, though she might not need it now. Who else could get it...
Sorian: Yep, and now more friends(?) show up!
MidgetMinion: Ah, a new face! Well, I hope this chapter met expectations.
Yma: After acquiring my 'reference materials' ¤coughmagnacough¤, I've noticed that I did go overboard with BDN. Ah well. The familiar faces are on a rampage, so I've got lots of chances for extra screwups! And feel free to tear me a new one when I do, because I can't get better if I don't know what's wrong ;)