Chapter Two

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, head tilted back, his eyes cast up to the tall skyscrapers to the points where they vanished under the low hanging clouds, as if staring to the heavens silently would some how erase the past twenty minutes and bring everything back to normal. It was a silent, terrified prayer that seemed jumbled and pleading inside his head. All he wanted was to look back down and see the cars moving, the people walking, hear the chattering voices and the roar of engines. He knew, though, that it was wishful thinking. Whatever was going on, it clearly wasn't normal, nor was it a dream. The throbbing pain from the lump on his head told him that much.

"D!" a rumbling voice snapped the blue haired individual from his trance, causing his head to snap back down rather harshly and sending another jolt of pain from his injury down to the base of his neck. Wincing, 2D stared at Russel with a look of squint-eyed confusion. The larger man was about twenty or so feet away, down the road with a backpack over his shoulder that he'd rescued from the ruined Jeep. Some five feet behind and to the left of him, Murdoc and Noodle were rounding the corner to the cross street.

"Wut?" 2D muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking towards his band mate. Russel looked far more agitated than 2D had ever seen the normally calm, composed man, and that only served to make the situation rise up another degree on the 'bad shit happening' scale.

"We're leavin'. Gonna try to find out what's goin' on, maybe get some help. Or...sum'in..." he informed 2D while scratching the back of his head in a clearly nervous manner.

"Wut d'yeh fink is goin' on, 'nyway?" 2D asked aloud as the two started to follow Murdoc and Noodle down the street. Rounding the corner they found a scene that only added to the eeriness of the moment. Along a stretch of straight road bordered by buildings, bus shelters, and alternative art sculptures four or five large TriMet buses had stopped mid route, their large masses parked along the sidewalks or in the middle of the road, as if time itself had frozen them in place. None had any visible passengers or drivers. 2D likened them to sleeping dragons haven fallen in to a timeless slumber after a battle, though he couldn't figure out for the life of him why such a metaphor would come to mind.

"Man, how should I know?" Russel finally answered, having taken a moment of silence to stare at the strange scene of the halted public transportation vehicles, "All I know is that its wrong. I've never seen a big city lookin' like this,"

2D made a face but didn't respond as Russel had pretty much said exactly what was on his mind. There seemed no logical explanation for what they were witnessing, and even if there was one, the whole thing seemed so horridly wrong, just as Russel had said. It left a perpetually knotted, sinking feeling in 2D's gut and only added to the pounding in his head.

As they neared a large plaza that lay in what was essentially the center of the downtown area,

Murdoc pulled out his cell phone and searched for the number for the hotel that they'd been staying at on his list of received calls. Noodle heard the abnormally loud beeping from the buttons being pressed and glanced up at the older man who was giving a rather sour scowl to the phone while he walked.

"Murdoc-san, what are you doing?"

"Callin' the hotel, luv. Tryin' to get a bloody Scooby on wut's going on here," he responded gruffly, finally locating the number and hitting the 'send' button, putting the device up to his ear. What he received, rather than the comforting sound of ringing, was silence only rivaled by the dead air around them. Pausing, he pulled the phone away only to see that the screen still showed the calling icon complete with moving arrow and timer showing that the call was in progress. Thinking that his phone was in error, he hit 'cancel' and tried again.

Russel and 2D joined him and Noodle, and all three of his band mates watched with curious expressions. The calling icon returned and he put the phone back to his ear. Russel went to speak just then, but Murdoc lifted a hand to stop him. At first there was still silence, just as the previous attempt had, but after about ten seconds of nothing, a soft, erratic clicking could be heard.

Murdoc's eyebrow raised up a this, his lips moving silently though no sound coming from him. Adding to the clicks, a bizarre, abnormal static began to fade in and out as if the phone were moving up and down in an area of sporattic reception. The final noise was something like a broken turbine engine; a high-pitched whining that started muffled at first, but suddenly became loud and squealing. So quick was the sudden rise in noise that Murdoc actually cried out and dropped the phone from his hand, staring in wide-eyed disbelief. There was a soft click, and the screen indicated that the call had ended, putting the call timer at fifteen seconds.

"Muds?" Russel asked after a moment of tense silence.

"Broken," he muttered, barely coherent as he bent down and snatched the phone off the cement, checking it over for damage, "Noodle, let me use yers," he added, holding one hand out while the other slipped his own phone back in his pocket. Noodle made a face but reluctantly handed her own Pink RAZR to him. He took the object and opened it, notably ignoring the fact that the case was bright screaming pink and that she'd hooked about ten little clinking charms to the top of it. He searched through her own call log and choose the main phone line in to Kong Studios, their home and recording studio back in Essex, London. Holding the phone further away from his ear, he received the same exact distortion and noise, right down to the high pitched whine at the end. Giving a grunt, he shook his head and handed the phone back to the younger girl. She took it out of his hand and stared at the bright pink surface, wondering what could possibly be making their phones behave so strangely.

Just then a far away noise reached their ears, causing all four to look up from the corner that they'd stopped on. Inlaid tracks lined the cross street they were near, bordering what was apparently a small station of some kind. A tall rectangular kiosk of some kind declared in white letters upon maroon paint "Pioneer Square North", and up the road a bright light was cutting through the dimness of the evening, still far away but able to be heard in the absolute silence of the city.

"A train," Noodle said, sounding rather numb, her mobile still clutched tightly in her fingers like some sort of psychological anchor to her sanity that seemed to be wavering. 2D winced visibly at this and found himself putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly to get her attention. She jerked her head around to stare at him, her eyes wide beneath her mass of bangs, fear clearly written on her pale features. 2D offered her a smile and released her shoulder, moving towards the brick built platform that stood flush with the many tiered stair structures that made up the huge plaza known as Pioneer Square.

"Where you goin', D?" Russel called after him. 2D paused long enough to look over his shoulder and jab a thumb in the direction of the coming train.

"You got 'ny better ideas, Russ?" he asked, a tiny smirk coming on his lips.

Russel glanced at Murdoc, who simply shrugged as if he didn't care, then at Noodle, who was watching the singer walk away as if she was watching a dream fade in and out of consciousness. 2D also looked at the younger girl, his almost cheeky expression fading in to a frown. He returned to the corner and crouched down, taking Noodle's hand in his own large one and looking her straight in her emerald green eyes.

"Noods," he said softly, snapping her out of the trance she'd seemed to slip in to, "We're not gonna let 'nything happen to you. We'll find out wus goin' on, 'nd everyfing will be okay," when he received only a fearful stare in reasons, he gave her hand a squeeze much the way he'd done to her shoulder earlier, "Noodle," he urged, "we promise," he said, looking up to the other two. Russel some how found the ability to force a small smile of his own out and give a reassuring nod. Murdoc made a face as if he were about to be sick but finally nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah, yeah, wut he said," he muttered, waving a hand and crossing his arms over his chest. The train had stopped somewhere above them for a brief moment and was just then starting to move once more. 2D looked back down at Noodle, hopeful that she would respond in some way. Though tougher than most girls her age and normally unphased by even the oddest of things, she'd been known to completely shut down from time to time if something particularly crazy and hard to grasp arose, which was not something the boys needed right then.

She nodded, muttering a soft "I trust you," and 2D felt a tiny bit of relief flow over him. His grin returned and he pointed to his back, to which she nodded once more. Russel and Murdoc began moving to the station as 2D turned around, still crouched low, and let Noodle crawl up on his back. Rising and following the other two, she dropped her arms around his neck loosely and he held on to her knees. It was something they used to do all the time, Noodle piggybacking around on 2D's back when she was younger and the circumstances of growing up had changed so many things. At that moment, though, when fear was the emotion at the forefront for everyone, even Murdoc who would never, ever outwardly admit it, the simple act of such a childish thing brought comfort to Noodle and at least brought her to a calmer emotional level than before.

The troupe went across the street and trekked up to the top of the platform, near an area where several pieces of artwork had been made to look like the fallen, ruined pillars of a Grecian style structure.

The train whooshed by, the wheels making a rapid clacking noise along the sunken in tracks before it came to a slow, smooth stop, halting the second of two cars right before them. The train, marked as a "MAX: Metropolitan Area Express" on the side and painted with two large blue and goldenrod circles, sat only a few inches above the ground but rose nearly ten feet in height, with sets of black bars that connected to power lines stretched above. Sets of outward sliding double doors lined the sides, four pairs per car, and upon stopping they pushed open, revealing the interior. On the outside was what appeared to be some sort of destination sign, but it was strangely blank.

"You sure this is a good idea, man?" Russel asked uncertainly, noticing with a heavy heart just how empty that car was.

"Fer once I agree with face ache," Murdoc grumbled, running a knobby hand through his hair, "We don' have 'ny better ideas, an' stayin' here ain't lookin' too pretty either, mate,"

Agreement hanging on their tense silence, the three men and one carried Japanese girl entered the MAX just as the doors slid and clicked closed behind them, locking them inside the car.

Sets of mauve and silver chairs lined the walls in various directions, yellow bars and gray rubber hangers were stretched about, and near where they stood two bike hangers were positioned. Behind them a small set of stairs rose for another section of chairs, mirrored on the other side in the same manner.

"2D..." Noodle whispered, lifting her head up slightly to peer over 2D's mussed blue hair. All heads turned to look, and a strange, almost dreamlike moment seemed to make time stand still.

A girl with thick wavy gold-ish red hair stood at the other end of the car, a purple messenger back slung over one shoulder and a navy blue Dickies jacket that was clearly a few sizes too big slipping down the other. She, too, was staring at them, as if disbelieving of their presence and the fact that they'd boarded the MAX. Even from that distance they could all see how intense and bright her teal eyes were behind a set of tortoise shell frames, and the frown set on her rounded face indicated that they weren't the only ones aware of the weirdness at hand.

Ending the clearly odd scene was the sound and feel of the MAX beginning to move. It gave a jerk, which caused everyone to shift his or her weight in order to keep from falling, then continued to glide along the track. The girl blinked, seeming to come out of a trance, and made her way to the center facing seats, flopping down on a seat furthest away from them. She pulled her bag on to her lap and began digging around.

"Brian ache," Murdoc suddenly hissed in 2D's ear, causing him to twitch involuntarily, "Go talk to 'er,"

"Eeeh?" 2D muttered, looking over his shoulder, expecting to see a devious smirk on Murdoc's face. After all, it wasn't every day Murdoc actually told him to go talk to some random female. Instead he was suprised to find that the older man's face was completely stoic, "Wut, why?"

"Maybe she knows sum'in," he informed 2D. Face screwing up in confusion, 2D looked back at Noodle who gave a nod and slid off his shoulders, landing with a light thunk as the train continued to roll along. Finding himself running a few teeth over his lower lip in a strange and sudden nervousness, 2D looked to his band mates. Russel gave him a 'shoo' motion with his large hand and turned up the stairs to the raised platform of stairs. Murdoc followed, and Noodle went to the doors, staring out the oblong windows that were set in them.

2D sighed, muttered a few explicative words under his breath and looked back to where the girl sat. Her bag still on her lap, she'd removed a slightly crumpled pack of ciggeretes from her bag and was holding them in front of her face with a rather confused expression.

Grea'. Ge' the bloke tha' can barely speak t' talk. Dis makes sense how exactly? ...'least I have a chance of gettin' a damned fag tonight. Here goes nufing...

Scrubbing a hand over his hair in frustration, 2D let out a strained sigh and walked down the isle, wavering a bit as the train rocked slightly under the momentum. Eventually he made his way to the seats and took one two down from the girl. She glanced up with a clearly surprised expression, blinked twice, and broke in to an unexpected beaming smile that 2D couldn't help but return.

"Er...'ello," he managed to fumble out, dropping the hand that was on the back of his neck to his lap and giving an awkward wave with the other one.

"Hi," the girl said, her voice heavy with uncertainty. She appeared friendly enough despite that, and 2D didn't blame her for being a little uneasy right then.

"Erm. I know dis sounds a bi' wierd, bu'...would it be t' much o'a bother if I asked you for a smoke?" 2D asked, stumbling over his words a few times before getting the whole sentence out. The girl blinked again, about five times rapidly before opening her mouth to say 'I don't smoke', which actually came out as, "I don't sm-...oh...these..." when she came to the realization that she still had the pack of cigarettes in her hand. Upon closer inspection 2D saw they were a pack of Camels.

"They're not mine," she explained after a moment of silence, causing 2D's hopes to instantly deflate. Her eyes moved away from the container and noticed the man's slumped shoulders and defeated expression, "...wow, some one's having a nicfit," she muttered with a smirk. 2D forced a smile and found himself rubbing the lump on the side of his head gently.

"Long day," was all he could think of to explain.

"Hm. I know that feeling. Well, its Tony's fault for leaving them in my bag. He shouldn't have expected me to baby-sit the damn things. Here," she said, handing the pack over to 2D, causing his dark eyes to go wide.

"R-really? Y'sure? I mean, der no' yours an'-"

"Hey, chill," the girl intrrupted, her smile getting a little bigger, "I'll buy him a new pack. It doesn't put that much of a dent in my bank account. Seriously, take 'em. I know how hard it gets,"

"Wow," 2D muttered, slowly taking the pack and lifting the top. Only two cigarettes

were missing from the whole pack, "Dat's really generous of you, 'specially t' give 'em to a complete stranger,"

"Well, you don't have to be. I'm Makara, but everyone calls me Kara for short," she said with a soft, slightly abashed giggle. A little bit of pink rose on her cheeks as she held her hand out. 2D took it and gave a light shake.

"Ever'one jus' calls me 2D. Pleasure t' meet you, Kara,"

"...'two-dee'? Like the number and letter?"

"Eeeerr..." 2D stammered, feeling his own cheeks gain a little blush as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Long story,"

"I'll bet!" Kara giggled, pushing a wayward piece of red hair back behind her ear. She shifted in her seat, putting her bag off to the side. 2D put a smile back on his face and shoved the pack in his pocket, stopping when he felt the bulk of his mobile against his fingers.

I though' I lef' it in the Jeep...

Mentally shrugging off the confusion, he watched the city scenery go by, the train still going along the tracks through downtown.

"'nyway, dat's Noodle over der by the window," 2D continued, gesturing to the small Asian with the pigtailed hair. Looking up, she gave a weak smile and a wave, her eyes all but invisible under the mass of purple-black bangs. Kara couldn't help but grin and wave in return, "An' dat's Russ, up der, and Murdoc, too, bu' we usually call 'im Muds,"

"Russ, Muds, Noodle and 2D? Now that's a combination if ever I've heard one!" Kara exclaimed, shaking her head with a quiet laugh. 2D actually managed a soft chuckle of his own, surprised that he could find humor at all in the crazy mess they were in. It was easy to tell just how strained everything was, though, when the silence returned not a second later.

"'nother odd question, Kara," 2D said after a while, his eyes watching the passing buildings rather than looking at her. Further away he could vaguely hear Murdoc making a comment about a digital sign that was near the area where the two of them were sitting. From what he could pick up, it was supposed to tell the next stop on the route, but was currently blank.

"Yeah?"

"There sumfink goin' on today?"

"Er. What do you mean?" 2D sighed, that horrible sinking feeling returning to his stomach and knotting his insides like some one grabbing two ends of him and pulling in opposite directions. Breathless, he quickly explained with erratic hand movements and a slightly agitated tone what had occurred in the car park, and what the band had found when they exited. When he finished, he chanced a look at her, expecting to see a disbelieving expression and to hear a nervous laugh. Instead she, too, was gazing out the window, her teal eyes distant and her lips pulled in to a tight line.

"I woke up about seven or eight stops up, just coming out of Beaverton, the next city over, and no one was on the train. I...didn't think anything of it until I looked out the window and saw the city deserted," slowly she turned her head, a stricken look upon her now pallid features, "This metropolis houses two million full time residents that live either in the Portland common or in the outlining cities. Portland is never this empty. Its physically impossible for it to be so,"

"So...sum'fink is wrong," 2D muttered, scratching at the side of his cheek absently. Kara nodded in quiet, worried agreement, the same lip-tugging frown on her features. A sigh escaped her lips a second later, and a tiny twitch brought her face back in to something close to a smile, as empty as it felt to her.

"At least we're not alone now. We'll find a way to where people are together, rather than stumbling around alone and uncertain, not to mention I'd probably go a little crazy if I was abandoned in a city this big completely alone."

This earned a good natured chuckle from 2D, "Worst way t' be, when yer town's gone ghost. Alone, tha' is,"

Kara opened her mouth to respond as the train started to pick up a little bit of speed, going beneath and large overpass that bordered something that looked like a small, slightly hidden square complete with a large fountain and archaic looking buildings. Not a second before she was to speak, the whole car gave a rather unnerving and shuttering jerk back and forth over the tracks, a loud clank coming from the car in front of them. Noodle let out a squeak but grabbed a near by bar to steady herself, Murdoc let out a string of curses after the motion caused him to knock his head on the window behind him rather roughly, and Russel simply raised an eyebrow and looked to the side. Kara, however, had been leaning forward with her arms resting on her knees, and the pull of the car in two different and sudden directions caused her to nearly be flung from her seat. Luckily 2D, who was still sitting back, was only jostled around a bit and was able to snatch her by the arm at the last second, stopping her from falling flat on her face.

"Geez! What was that?" she cried out, looking over her shoulder at 2D, her teal eyes wide with fear. Her heart was hammering something awful in her chest, and her stomach seemed to be doing flip-flops inside of her.

"I 'unno. It doesn' do dat often?" he asked, getting to his feet and helping Kara stand back up again. She straightened, shaking her head slowly.

"No, it's never done it that b-"

"DAIKAIJU!" Noodle suddenly shrieked, her voice high, thin, and full of terror. She stumbled back from the door she'd been standing at, pointing with a trembling finger at something in the sky, "DAIKAIJU! DAIKAIJU!"

Murdoc and Russel both sat up in thier seats as Kara and 2D turned to stare at the suddenly frightened girl.

"Wut's she yammerin' on about?" Murdoc grumbled rather gruffly, unable to see what it was she was pointing to from his angle.

2D stared in equal confusion at Noodle, who seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that she was shrieking in a language none of them had managed to become fluent in during her time with the band. Whatever it was, though, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was bad. Instinctively his hand tightened on Kara's arm, though she didn't react to it at all. Her eyes and attention were on Noodle as well.

"DAIKAIJU!" Noodle screamed one more time before stumbling away from the door, throwing her arms over her face as if preparing for some sort of impact.

"Wut's she scre-"

2D's sentence was abruptly cut short as something insanely large came slamming through the wall mere inches from his head, sending a shower of sparks and peices of broken plastic and various other materials showering down on him and Kara. Kara let out her own terrified scream and the two of them toppled to the floor roughly, the momentum of the sudden slam causing that section of the car to slam downwards and the back end to hurl upwards.

Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel all cried out as they were sent tumbling about like a set of super light rag dolls. Metal on pavement caused the entire car to fill with a horrid squealing noise, and whatever had slammed in to the back simply continued to tear through, taking out the entire front end as it some how continued moving along the tracks, leaving a gaping hole where the train should be. The back end dropped back down again, which created a few seconds of a seesaw affect, throwing everyone about as the two ends, one completely ruined and the other starting to accordion from the impacts, bounced up and down like a child's thrown toy.

2D yelled in pain, his entire back, head, and right shoulder throbbing in agony from the various bumps and knocks he'd taken in just the past few seconds. He was sure a few places were bleeding, but everything was happening so fast he couldn't be bothered to find out where or how bad. Some where near him Kara lay, but over the intense and loud noises the broken car was making he couldn't tell if she was conscious and screaming as much as he was or knocked out and venerable.

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, what was left of the cables that connected the leading car to theirs twanged, pulled, and finally snapped, their length extended as far as they would go as the two pieces of the MAX got further and further away from one another. This in turn caused the car to spring forward, free of its restraints, and literally slingshot down the track at a rate far too fast for the damaged vehicle to take. Several fallen pieces of both MAX cars lined the path that they were taking, and for a short stint the screeching, sparking car was able to push these things out of its way as it slid along, the front, broken end dragging completely. This caused enough of a constant tilt that 2D saw Kara's unconscious form go sliding by him.

Yelling out her name in hopes of rousing her, he some how managed to snag the girl by the back of her shirt and latch on to a metal bar behind him, effectively keeping the both of them from a rather nasty end. His arms trembled, her weight quite a bit more than his skinny frame was used to supporting. He held on as tightly as he could manage, though, refusing to let either of them get sent flying out the open front end.

Somewhere amongst all the noise 2D could hear Noodle crying out in high pitched Japanese, and Murdoc was screaming something about Satan, though there was no way he could make out all the words. A single, quick glance back was all he chanced, and he could see Russel, Murdoc, and Noodle all hanging on to various poles and chairs for dear life.

A large piece of the train, what appeared to be a section of seating from the front lay, directly on the tracks. The front end rammed headlong in to it only to find that it some how had enough stopping power to not only halt the train but also send it reeling backwards, the back fishtailing on to the nearby sidewalk. A shadow descended upon the train once more, but this time, it was the looming screen of a building they were careening towards very, very quickly.

"HOLD ON EVERYONE!" Russel bellowed loudly above the din. Everyone except Kara held on to their holdings as tight combinations they could, 2D managing to hoist himself up with one arm and grab Kara around the waist with the other, his eyes squeezing shut as he uttered a very fast prayer to whatever deity above might grant them a chance to survive.

The last thing 2D remembered was the cab rolling on to its side with thunder-like crunch noises before he completely lost consciousness for the second time that day.