Chapter 15: Sing a song of love.

"Thank god you left Zeke at the base Van." Thomas said as they started to walk back into town. His blonde hair shining in the sunlight. "He would have caused an uproar in this town. It looks like zoids aren't on the top of their favorites list."

"Come on guys." MoonBay yelled from ahead. "Pick up the pace."

"MoonBay?" Rain asked as she walked in front of her to stop her. "Do we have to do this?"

Moonbay looked Rain up and down and giggled. "Look Rain. We need extra money and I want to get you some normal clothes." She looked her over again. Rain was wearing a baggy pair of pants that hung off her hips and a tight shirt was tucked in with one sleeve covering her right arm and her left arm bare. Still she was making sure her back and stomach were covered. "Come on Rain. Do you have a better idea?"

"Course she does." Irvine barked. "Don't you?"

"It's about time I get a say." Rain said as she hung her head. She pointed behind them and smiled. "Why not collect a bounty. Very fast cash."

"God." Fiona said as she looked up. "How many people around here are wanted?"

"Quite a few. But no one does anything about for fear of getting hurt or killed." Irvine said as he winked at Rain.

Rain walked up to the two men she had seen and bumped into one of them. She grabbed a knife from his pocket. "Oh whoa there lady. Hey. You're a pretty little thing." The man said as he helped stand up straight. "What are you doing in a town like this? You should come with me. I could really show you a good time."

"Thanks for the offer Romero Diego." She said as she backed up. "But I kindly refuse."

"Who are you?" Romero said as he got a little confused. "You act like you're trying to catch me."

"And what if we are Romero?" Irvine said as he grabbed his partner. "Now come with us."

Romero started fumbling around in his coat till Rain held up the knife she stole. "Looking for this? It's quite a beauty isn't it?" She asked as she touched the blade across her fingertips. "Now why not give yourself and your brother up? You know that bounty you have is quite a beauty."

"Bounty hunters!" He barked as he ran at her. She twirled away wit ha giggle. He ran at her again and she just dodged his next attack. "Hold still little women! I wouldn't want to cut up that pretty face."

"Cut my face? How can you… Ahhh. Ouch! Now that hurt!" Romero's brother had gotten loose from Irvine's grip and slashed his knife at Rain. He cut her left arm right below her elbow. She looked at the cut and smirked. "Now you've pissed me off."

"Shit. Rain!" Raven screamed as he ran forward. "Rai… Ahhh. Shadow! Let me go!"

("You can't go.") Shadow replied refusing to let his shirt go. ("You can't let them see you. Think of Rain. What would they do to her?")

"But? She's in trouble Shadow." He said turning back to Rain down in the streets. "I can't just sit by and watch."

("Yes you can. She'll be fine.")

"You really think so?" He said turning back to Shadow. "That gash in her side might slow her down." He looked back down at her and watched their fight in the middle of the street. They had a huge crowd of people watching as Rain and Irvine kept themselves on their toes. Irvine had one guy in a headlock and was punching him in the face and the gut. Rain was doing her best blocking everything Romero threw at her. She was really doing some fancy foot work while they tried to keep up with each other's movements. Rain suddenly stumbled across something on the ground and fell down. Only to be brought back up in a headlock by Romero. "Rain! Shadow! Let me go!"

"Rain!" Irvine yelled after he finally got the other guy knocked out. "Van. Hold him. Coming Rain."

Rain let a growl rumble deep from her stomach all the way to her throat. "I don't need any help Irvine. I don't need help from anyone!" Romero had gotten his knife back and was fumbling around with it in his free hand than he put it in his holder and clasped Rain's face with the free hand. "That's does it! Don't touch me!" She grabbed his arm and flipped him over her back. He landed on the ground with a sickening thud. Rain ran past him grabbing the knife as she went and held it to his throat. "Someone get the dammed police. We have them down!"

"She…She got him?" Raven said as he sat down with a thud totally shocked. "I can't believe it. It looked as though he had the upper hand, than it got switched around like that."

Rain looked around for a bit till she found a running fountain and she walked over to it and stuck her bleeding arm under the water. "Rain?" Moonbay asked as she walked up to her. "Do you need someone to bandage that?"

"Nope." Rain replied with a smile. She looked down at the sleeve covering her right arm. She shifted her shoulder and grabbed the fabric with her teeth and ripped the sleeve off and tied it to her cut. "All better. Come on guys. Let's go get our bounty and get something to eat."

"And get you a new shirt while were at it." Moonbay said while she giggled. "Come on Rain. I know just where to go."

Everyone grouped up real tight as they tried to walk past all the villagers. Rain was looking around and she heard a small cry. When she looked over she saw a man holding a young boy by the arm and holding a knife in his hand. "You know stealing is a crime around here boy!" (Yes I know, just a little cliché, but I can't help it, I couldn't think of anything else to help brighten Rain's day.) "And you know the penalty for stealing." He slammed the boy's hand down on the wood and raised the knife. The little boy's screams were s loud that everyone turned to the two.

"HOLD IT!" Rain screamed as she ran up and grabbed the mans hand. "What are you doing? What did he steal?"

"The little thief stole a papaya. Now let me go girl." He shook his hand free and raised the knife again.

"Wait please." The little boy said through his sobs. "Please don't."

"I'll pay for the fruit." Rain said sternly as she grabbed the mans hand again. "How much. And don't try to rip me off. It won't work." She looked up at the sign in his store. "One papaya. Only ten, here is your ten, now let the boy go."

He grumbled and let the boy go. Who ran straight for Rain and wrapped his arms around her legs. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

She bent down and put her hands on his shoulders. "It's ok kid. Just go home now." She wiped off the rest of his tears and he nodded his head and ran off. Rain stood up with a solemn smile on her face. "Now I feel better. Hey guys. Come on, it's getting late."

"Hey Rain." Fiona said as she grabbed her arm and pulled her aside. "There's a store. You wanna go see?"

"Sure. Come on guys." Rain waved for them to follow and they all went inside to scout it out. "Man. I like this shirt."

"It's yours." Moonbay said as she set it on the counter. By the time they were done the guys had armloads of clothes. "Hey. It's getting dark, let's head back. Hey Rain? What's that you got in your hand?"

"A new laptop. I couldn't help myself. I left my old one back at that one cottage and I don't want to go back so I decided to buy me a new one." Rain said as she smiled. "Hey guys. Look. It's starting to rain."

"Funny Rain." Van said as he propped an arm over her shoulder. Not knowing that Raven was still watching from the rooftops and was getting infuriated at the sight of Flyheight touching her. "You name is Rain and your talking about rain. Come on. Let's get back to the hotel before we get soaked to the bone."

They made it back to the hotel and all went to their rooms. Moonbay and Fiona went to Rain's for awhile so they could get Rain to try on her new clothes. "Hey guys. Come on. I've tried on everything and now I just want to lay down."

"All right, all right." Moonbay said flailing her arms in defense. "We can take a hint. Goodbye Rain. Oh, and don't get caught in the rain."

"Very funny. Bye Fiona, bye Moonbay. See you tomorrow at eight."

"Oh yeah." Fiona said walking back over to her and pulling out a bottle. "Here's your pill." She heard Rain groan in disgust and looked at her plainly. "No complaining. Just take it."

They left the room and Rain walked over to the sink and about threw the pill away till she thought of what Raven would say. She groaned and swallowed the pill with a disgusted face that could make an onion cry. She heard a low growl and quickly turned to the balcony to see Shadow sitting in few feet in front of her. "Hey Shadow. What are yah doing this late at night huh?"

"Grrowwwllll"

"Oh really. Raven is busy. All right." She walked over to her bed and fiddled around with her laptop. She finally started to set it up right when Shadow nudged her in her arm. "What Shadow?"

("Do you know what time it is? I think you need to go to sleep.")

"Shadow?" She said looking over at the clock. "It's only eleven. Why do I need to go to sleep now?""

("Please?")

"Oh for crying out loud. Fine. I'm going to sleep now." She closed her laptop and set it on the floor a curled up under the covers. Shadow got on the bed and curled up in front of her. She could feel the warmth of his metal skin. She gave a small sigh and shut her eyes. Only to wake up a few minutes later to someone playing with her arm. "What the hell? Raven?"

"Hey Rain. How's your arm?"

"Fine." She said sitting up. "What's up?"

"Shadow. I thought I told you to have her asleep when I came by so I could surprise her better."

"It wouldn't have been much of a surprise either way." Rain said when she heard Shadow's moan of "I tried". "Now what's up? Why did you want to try and surprise me?"

"I wanted to scare you. But it wouldn't work very well if you're awake."

"You're being weird Raven. Not many people can scare me. But I can sure scare them."

Raven sat down next to her with a smirk. "Yeah. I saw what you did to Flyheight and the others. And than that one man you got in a fight with."

Her face went from shocked to worried. "You saw that?"

"Yeah. Why do you look so worried now. It was a good fight."

"I'm glad you didn't come flying down like a bat out of hell. That's why I'm worried. If Van or one of the others saw you. They'd kill you on the spot."

"If it wasn't for Shadow I would have come down."

"I'm glad you didn't. I don't want to see them kill you or have you arrested."

"Rain? Is this you being worried about my safety?" Raven said sarcastically as Rain sat up and picked her laptop up and set it on her lap. "Well, is it?"

"What gave you the first clue Raven?" Rain said as she stared at her screen. She started typing in some info till Raven grabbed her hands. "What Raven? Something wrong?"

"Look at me Rain. Leave the computer out of this for a minute." He closed the laptop and pushed it aside and sat in front of her. "I was really worried about you today Rain. You got in a fight for no reason…"

"There was a reason. We needed money and they had a bounty." She replied as she reached over and dug through a drawer. She pulled out an envelope and laid it in Raven's hand. "And this is your share of it."

"No Rain. I can't take your money. And my share? What do you mean."

"What I mean is that you need this money more than I do. Or Moonbay and the other's for that matter."

He shoved the envelope back into her hands and stared at her. "I don't need your charity or pity Rain."

"It's not charity or pity Raven. I can't trust it in their hands, or mine."

"I refuse to take money that I can't pay back."

"Think of it as a loan Raven."

"A loan?"

"Yeah. You said you refuse to take money you can't pay back. Well. I'm loaning this money to you." She shoved the envelope back into his hand. "All right?"

"Uhh…" She could see that Raven was shocked by her persistence. She couldn't help but giggle. "Uhh, sure Rain. Whatever you say."

"Now what'd yah want Raven?"

"Huh? What? I can't come see you without a reason?" He scoffed as he gave her a warning glare. She reached over and placed a hand on his cheek and gave a sly smile. "Well. So there is a small reason."

TBC

Kena) Soooooo what's the reason Ravy?"

Rain) Ravy? Kena? Are you trying to corrupt him or his name? I think it should be Rave.

Raven) Come on guys. It's Raven, plain n simple.

Van) Besides. He's already corrupted. You made him nice in this story. But only to you. Can't he like me? We can actually stop our useless fighting.

Thomas) Your fighting may be useless (plops on the couch with a bag of popcorn) But it's quite entertaining. Get em, Raven!

Irvine) Hey, ur supposed to be cheering for our side.

Thomas) Really?

Rain) ok ok guys. This is my story, so no fighting unless I say so.

Raven) But that's no fun.

Rain) I no care. (Grabs Raven and kisses him) Your all mine tonight Raven.

Everyone) OOOOOOHHHHH GO RAVEN!

Rain) I don't own zoids. Or Moonbay, Fiona, Raven, Irvine, Thomas, Van, so on n so forth.

Van) But there is Her, Willow, Kena, helldiver, and a little guys called….

Rain) If you mention him yet I'll rip your head off and feed it to the zoids. Oops, u readers never heard that. Catch yah later.