Disclaimer: You should know by now that I don't own anything, but if you don't, now you do.
Hyde A/N: Woo, I feel weird today. Maybe it's lack of sleep. Must…find…caffeine…
Anyway, um, I think maybe I was going to say something about the lateness of the last chapter and my intention to get this one up much faster, but now I'm not. So enjoy.
Ais sez: Good morning/afternoon/evening/night. This is Ais, of course. This Hyde chapter is posted some months after it was written. If you think that's bad, her birthday is in early April, and she got her present in late July. So she wrote this around her last birthday and it's now almost my birthday. That, my friends, is a long time. Sorry, computer death was a part of the lateness. The other, larger part is that Ais is just a slacker and somewhat of a bad best friend. Hey, at least I TRY! Have fun. Especially with the macho dark waving hair. Hyde doth rock.
………………
In a deserted area, the macho black Audi sat motionless. Through the tinted window, Amon's profile could be indistinctly seen. He was staring hard, straight ahead, not moving (except for the occasional macho and dark waving of his hair). From the dashboard, the bottle of Kylenol sat staring back. Amon, though the master of the Sullen Glare, blinked first.
Amon closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his headache and the bottle were still there.
Suddenly restless, he grabbed the bottle and opened the car door, climbing out and setting the bottle on the hood of his car, staring at it as though he expected it to suddenly pop open on its own.
His frustration mounted, and finally broke the tension. He swatted at the bottle, knocking it to the ground. He watched in fascination as it rolled a few feet away and stopped. It paused for a moment, and then the cap fell off, spilling a few pills onto the street.
Had Amon not been Amon, he would have smacked his forehead. As it was, he stooped over, picked up the bottle, and ground the cap and spilled pills under his heel, as natural as drawing his orbo gun and as naturally and expertly as if he ground things under his heels twice daily for a living.
………………
"Darn it, Marge, we haven't seen a single one in two hours!"
"Isn't that a good thing, Mildred? It means we're doing something right!"
Mildred sighed in response, and her fingers clutched her cane tighter, until her knuckles turned white.
Marge noticed her tenseness. "It's okay, Mildred, be patient."
"Marge! I see one!" Mildred gasped excitedly.
"I see who you mean. Look at the dark threatening manner in which he's grinding something under his heel!"
"Okay, partner," said Mildred, "Let's go. Remember, keep your cool."
"I'll be fine, Millie. We've done this together ten zillion times, and every time you tell me that, as though I were just a green recruit!"
"Sorry Marge. Let's go."
Mildred and Marge hobbled off, clutching their respective cane and fuchsia umbrella tightly.
………………
Amon swallowed a hefty dosage of Kylenol without the aid of water. He then leaned against the hood, giving the topless bottle a Sullen Glare That Reduces All Stubborn And Contrary Bottles Of Medication To Small Piles of Rubble.
Suddenly, Amon's finely honed witch hunter senses tingled. He turned just in time to see a fuchsia umbrella hurtling toward his aching head. He ducked, and it swished by, his macho dark hair rippling in its wake. But the old lady wielding the umbrella was not inexperienced. She came back with a devastating blow aimed at his back.
He turned, and it glanced off his side, hardly seeming to faze him. Though Amon usually used his orbo gun to solve all problems (especially those involving violence) one thing Amon did not do was pull his orbo gun on little old ladies (non-witch ones, that is). For a few minutes he skillfully fended off the fuchsia umbrella, but the little old lady was as persistent as he was. It seemed that the battle would go on forever.
Then Amon saw something move out of the corner of his eye. It cracked into his head, and everything went dark.
………………
Mildred stood over Amon with her cane still raised in triumph.
"Good shot, Millie. I was beginning to think he'd hold out forever."
"I didn't kill him, did I?"
"I hope so, but I don't think so. Come on, it's back to patrol now."
Mildred turned back to Amon. "If it wasn't against the rules, I'd finish you off!" she growled, shaking her cane at him.
So they left, leaving Amon to lay there in a black heap, the sun melting the Kylenol on the pavement beside him.
………………
"So you haven't seen him since you left?" Doujima asked.
"Nope," said Karasuma. "That was…six hours ago."
"He was supposed to be coming back here?"
"Yes."
"Michael?" She turned to the hacker.
"I've been trying, but he's not answering."
"Great. Amon's gone missing again. What do we do?"
"I'll go check his apartment," said Karasuma. "The rest of you, just go around the city looking. Michael, keep trying to get him on his communicator."
"Gotcha," Michael replied.
Sakaki muttered something dire about Amon. Robin looked worried. Doujima noticed.
"Don't worry, Robin. He can take care of himself."
"I know."
"Personally, I can't wait to give him a major chewing out," Doujima added. "We were behind already. He can't just disappear whenever he wants to."
They dispersed to search.
………………
Robin motored through the streets, looking hopefully at every black car and every person wearing a black coat. As she kept going, the streets kept getting more deserted.
I should turn back, she thought.
But then again, you never know with Amon, she retorted to herself.
He's going to be in so much trouble, she thought.
Down a side street, she noticed a black car. Turning, she headed for it, not really hoping. As she approached it, she saw it was an Audi. She pulled up next to it. Squinting through the tinted windows, she saw his communicator. But the car seemed deserted.
"Amon?"
She climbed off and walked around to the other side of the car. She didn't realize at first what the black heap was. Then she saw his oh-so-familiar pale face.
"Amon!"
………………
As he slowly came back to life, the first thing he saw was Robin's face. It was blurry, and he blinked to clear it.
"Amon!" she said, "Are you alright?"
He moaned and tried to sit up. Looking around, he saw that he was in the STN-J headquarters. He faintly heard Robin saying in the next room, "He's awake."
Karasuma was the first in the room. "Amon! What the heck happened?"
He moaned again.
Next came Doujima. "Amon! What the heck happened?"
He moaned even louder and turned away.
"Amon," said Karasuma, "You've got to tell us what happened!"
"No," he mumbled thickly.
"What?"
"I don't want…go away…"
"Amon!"
"I'm not…going…talk about it…"
Karasuma heaved a frustrated sigh and she and Doujima left.
Robin still remained. As she approached him, he mumbled, "I'm not…going…talk about it…" again.
"It's okay. You need some rest," she said softly. She put her hand on his shoulder and gently urged him to lay back down, which he did. Then she left, turning off the lights as she went.
………………
That night, Robin stayed with Amon at the STN-J headquarters, as he still didn't feel well enough to be moved. She sat beside him for a while, looking at his relaxed, sleeping face. Then she got up and walked out. Michael was asleep. She was alone.
Walking over to her computer, she sat down and buried her head in her hands. The tears, the shock, all that she had repressed earlier, came rushing back, and she laid her head down on the desk and cried softly until she drifted off.
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Yes, it's Sad and Emotional Robin Scene III. But I can't help it.
--puts away box of tissues and emits a few parting sniffles—
Okay. Wow, that was a pretty long chapter. Well, longer than last time. Yay!
–does a victory dance involving the waving of arms and legs and the strewing of flowers—
May your cheese never mold,
Hyde