Alas, the two are bonding…heh…heheh…but yeah, I promised New Genesis action in this chapter. Well, all I can tell ya now is that yes, New Genesis makes yet another appearance AND we get ta see a rather odd side of our dear Edu-kun (as in 'Whoa…he'd do that!'). Yet another part of 'Waterworld' I thought was funny, only…it involved a plane…and the hero dude getting knocked into the water from like fifteen to twenty feet in the air. Sadly, I don't have a plane T.T.

Enjoy!


Chapter Four: For Every Action…

These past three days have been less then eventful, I really wasn't heading anywhere and yet those two insisted on following me. I shifted the strap of my bag, it had started rubbing a sore spot between my shoulder and neck, finally getting annoyed by the growing redness and irritation I stopped and set the bag down.

"Why are you stopping?" Carmon asked. I merely turned and glared at her, she returned the glare with on of her own but I didn't answer, "Well?"

"If you're still insisting on traveling with me, get used to my habits. I like to stop every so often, is that a problem?" I hissed. She crossed her arms; Ally looked up at Carmon then over at me before asking,

"When can we get something to eat?"

I didn't answer that, I just placed my hands on my hips and leaned back, everything was sore again. Perhaps it was stress; I went over my options of what to do next while I stretched, it wasn't long before something caught my attention. It was faint but I picked it up easily, turning my head slightly I listened. I listened to the faint breeze rustling the leaves, the sounds of the animals hiding in the vegetation, the sound of the trees twisting and fighting for room to grow…footsteps. I turned my head a little more until I had both Carmon and Ally in my peripheral vision; they were looking at me questioningly.

"What is it?" Carmon asked.

"Shush…"

"Don't 'shush' me, I asked you a question." She snapped.

"Shut up…"

"Why you…you've got some serious manner issues you know."

"I said shut," then I heard it, the whistling sound of something closing in fast, "Get down!" turning quickly, I ran over to the two and pulled them down to the ground. An arrow landed a foot away from where we were; I looked around again searching for the unseen attacker.

"What was that?" Carmon gasped.

"I don't know…now shut up." I got up slowly and pulled the arrow out of the ground, it looked like a regular arrow to me, and then something caught my eye. It was a small engraving near the tip of a snake; it was coiling around the base of the metal point.

"Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't see you standing there." A voice called from the trees, I looked up and around but didn't see anybody, but I could definitely feel them watching and it was aggravating knowing that they had the advantage of not being seen.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves." Two people in identical outfits jumped down from the trees, they both had short brown hair and dark eyes that gleamed in the way eyes' of a murderers' would.

"My name is Michael." The man on the right said.

"And my name is John." The other added. I looked them up and down before taking a step back asking,

"What do you want?"

"Simple really," Michael replied, "We heard there was a stranger around these parts with 'potential' and we wanted to see if it was true."

"Do YOU know where we can find this person? If you tell us, you may live to see another day, but if you don't…well…you get the picture." John said smirking.

I started twirling the arrow in my hand around, I had a feeling I knew who they were talking about and I sure as hell knew 'he' wasn't going to go with them…where ever it was they were planing on taking 'him'. Seeing no other way out of the situation at hand, I gripped the arrow tight in my hand and held it up,

"Potential huh? Well, that's a new one…but I'm sorry, I can't help you." Then I threw the arrow at them, it landed right at their feet with a muffled clatter, I wasn't aiming to be impressive but merely to get the point across that I was not someone to mess with. There were many different signs fellow travelers use to identify ourselves as either friendly or not, there were several subsigns we used such as the one I just used. If someone where to shoot an arrow at you and misses, you have two options, one is to take the arrow and hand it back to the shooter, that means that you have seen that it was an accident and expects an apology. Two, you can throw the arrow at the shooter to show that you are upset at the act and will not hesitate to retaliate if said shooter doesn't leave.

It was all very complicated and I really didn't like getting into it all, the two clearly though got the message and glared at me. It would seem that they were probably going to try and kill us now, I really wasn't to upset about that fact, I was in a pretty irritable mood and a good fight could be a good stress reliever. Sure enough, they made the first move, the one named John advanced taking out a knife, all the while Michael climbed back into the trees.

"You should learn some manners, allow me to teach you a few." He said, it was then that I realized that what I was looking at was merely an afterimage and that John was now holding his knife right under my neck. I laughed lightly and said,

"Well, aren't you special…guess I'll have to be careful." With this said, I pulled the same move I did on Carmon…with a few modifications. I took a step back, anticipating he'd be less likely to slip up like Carmon had, and spun around so I was face to face with him.

"What the…"

"Allow me to teach you a thing or two as well…" I smirked, dropping down slightly. Throwing all my weight into it, I tackled him causing the both of us to fall to the ground. Pinning his arms down with my knees and pressing my forearm into his throat just below his chin. "You've got some nerve attacking us like that…why is this person so important?"

"None of your damn business."

"Wait…who do you work for?" I asked. John smirked, I didn't like the way he was acting, and it was too calm, he replied,

"New Genesis of course…"

That's when another arrow shot out of the trees and narrowly missed my head, I rolled out of the way having to dodge two more. John jumped up and attacked again, this was not the best situation, having to fight two enemies, one I wasn't able to see and the other that was fast. John took out a second knife and threw it at me, it was a good thing I saw it coming because I quickly reached out and caught it. Reflexes that could rival a cat, probably one of my more useful traits, I looked up just as an arrow shot out of the trees again.

Once again I could thank my quick reflexes, with the knife I was able to deflect it, but in doing so I didn't see John come at me from the side. I side stepped but wasn't able to completely avoid his attack, the knife just grazed my shoulder.

"Damn…" I jumped back, just then something flew past my head but it was sent sailing towards my attackers, "What the…" I turned and saw that Carmon was standing a foot away holding several stones in her hand.

"Oh, does somebody else wish to join our little fight?" John smirked, he tossed his knife up in the air then caught it then threw it at Carmon. I reached out quickly and caught the blade just inches away from her face, I twirled it around in my fingers before glaring and snapping,

"Don't do that again!"

"Hey! I was just trying to help." She snapped back.

"Well don't! I can't be saving your sorry ass every five seconds!"

"Then don't!"

I was about to retort but was interrupted by an arrow whizzing by my head again, getting fed up with these arrows, I rounded and ran straight at the tree Michael was in. I managed to build up enough momentum to bound right up the tree side, I lost it though about half way up and had to grab one of the branches, and dropping the two knives I'd acquired, so I wouldn't fall. Glancing up I saw Michael standing on a branch several feet up, he had a crossbow in one hand and a quiver of small arrows at his side, he was smirking. I suddenly realized I was in a very bad position, it made me a sitting duck and now we both knew it. He loaded the crossbow and held it up, I quickly let go dropping down to a lower branch, the arrow buzzed right past me again just barely missing.

"Well! You certainly are a hard target! Tell me, where did you learn to climb trees that way?" Michael smirked, "And your reflexes, inhumanly fast no?"

"Shut up and come down here and fight me like a man!" I shouted back, "What's the matter! To scared to fight me hand to hand!"

"No, just smart." He retorted flatly.

"Fine, I'll just have to come up there and beat the crap out of you!" I leaped onto the next branch started climbing till I reached him.

"Impressive, too bad you're to riley or else we would have considered honoring you with an invitation to join New Genesis." Michael taunted.

"Don't flatter yourself!" I jumped at him and threw a lightning fast round house kick at his head. He dodged and loaded his crossbow again, he raised it to fire but I moved faster and was now standing just behind him, he turned to try and fire again but I moved again remaining behind him.

"Grr…hold still!" he snapped trying to get a clear shot, he finally got fed up with trying to keep up and aimed his crossbow at Ally, "Fine, if you won't sit still, I'll aim at an easier target."

Drawing my pocketknife and flipping out the blade I tackled Michael stabbing him in the back, he lied still in the branches, blood trickling from his mouth. I stood up quickly and examined my now blood-stained pocketknife and hands; I grimaced and tried to wipe it off on my pants. I then looked down to see that John had abandoned attacking Carmon and Ally and was now glaring up at me, I was just about to jump down when suddenly he vanished. John had moved fast again and was now up in the tree with me, he was standing just a foot behind me and about to attack.

Just below, Carmon was pulling on a vine, she had noticed it was attached to several tree branches and if it was pulled a certain way the branches would come loose. When she did this, they sure did come loose because several branches suddenly lurched forward knocking John out of the tree. That would have been a good thing had it not been for the fact that the branches didn't stop there, they kept going and slammed into me knocking the wind out of me and me out of the tree.

John had ran off just as I landed with a rather painful thud, I lied there in the dirt on my back wincing and cursing, that had really hurt. Carmon had gasped and covered her face quickly; she then hesitantly approached me saying,

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry…I didn't think it would hit you and…" she stopped as I slowly sat up, then finally standing up, very slowly and very painfully. I brushed myself off then turned my head slightly and glared at her.

"I'm really, really sorry." She continued. I don't think it was possible for me to even conceive the thought of being able to handle any more of this. It must have been my severely wounded pride and irritation that caused me to draw my pocket knife again, Carmons' eyes went wide as she backed up quickly saying,

"Hey, wait…what are you going to do?"

I stormed over and backed her into a tree and grabbing hold of her ponytail, then holding it tightly in my hand I took the pocketknife and cut it off. I backed up and held out the ponytail saying,

"If you are going to travel with me and insist on constantly getting yourself in danger requiring my saving you, you'll have to do what I tell you! And I told you not to help me!" I then threw the ponytail on the ground and turned to leave, little Ally stepped forward and glared up at me saying,

"Hey! She said she was sorry!" I frowned, "That means you have to do the same thing! For being so mean!"

Due mostly to the fact that I was already in a very foul mood, I didn't hesitate to give the little girl a hair cut as well. We continued walking, my being irritated and silent and them being in stunned irritation. I'd pause every so often and ask if they said anything, it was more or less me venting again, that incident really irked me for some reason. It was either what those two New Genesis characters had said or how it ended, perhaps it was a bit of both, but both Carmon and Ally would just shake their head no, they hadn't said anything.

-To Be Continued-


Yes! I finished! I stayed up extra late (3:15 a.m.) to finish this chapter and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. (Snickers) I don't think our dear Edu-kun would have the guts to do what he did ta Winry…oh no…she has a wrench, fear the wrench. But yeah, review! For I have completely lost it and now must go and sleep or else I'll be all funky today (hee, hee, that sounds funny) and I won't be able to stare blankly into the library computer screen right and I'll get a nasty headache and then I won't be able to enjoy going to Bridge Fest. (That's a yearly thing my town does, I guess it's celebrating the building of our lift bridge or something).