New Blood
by Saber Alexander McConnell
Rated PG13

CHAPTER 18: San Francisco

The next day, Nohano told Killian that he was going to explain some of this to the guys. "Not all of it," he said, "but I can't just let this attack happen and them not knowing about it. I've got to keep them safe. Hell if I thought leaving would do it, I would."

"No way. As pathetic as we are, I think we're better off close by."

"Yeah." Nohano sighed. "I think that after what happened at the faire, they'll believe me, too. I can ask then about taking a couple of the others with us in the van."

"When?"

"Tonight after supper. This morning, Gregory's gonna have a rehearsal, start getting you familiar with our songs and all. You don't play an instrument, do you?" Killian shook his head. "That's all right, not many of us do. We just sing. Gregory plays guitar and I've got drums. Robert--" He stopped short, wondering how long it would be before he could say Robert's name without nearly choking up. "He played guitar...guess we're okay with only one."

"I'm in the group now," said Killian. "It'll be awesome."

Nohano sputtered laughter, taking the time first to smack Killian for his arrogance, and soon both boys were laughing.

Gregory turned and looked around at their sudden spate of laughter, looking at them as if they had both gone mad. "You two going to get going, or just cackle like a couple of bloody hyenas?"

Of course that only made them laugh harder, but they did gather Nohano's drums and follow the guys outside to rehearse.

That night's explanation did not go as smoothly as Nohano had hoped it would, but it could have been worse. It was hugely difficult to explain enough so that the guys would be forewarned, without giving away something that could be harmful to the warrior group. (Nohano was still not up to thinking of themselves as the Ronin Warriors. It was still way too weird. "Warrior" alone was weird enough.) And of course there was some skepticism. Nohano understood that, he supposed. It was a lot easier to deny something so terrifying than to accept it, but it was exasperating as hell.

He had finally taken out his armor orb and summoned the riot gear. That had shut up all of the protests at once.

"Er—you can do this too?" Gregory asked Killian in a sort of faint voice.

The Australian nodded and summoned his own riot gear, then banished it again, slipping his hands back into his pocket. Nohano looked at the guys, deadly serious. "Those assholes who attacked us, they're going to attack again. But they're not attacking us. They're going to attack a whole damned city."

"We can't stop it," said Killian. "But we want you to be ready."

"Shouldn't we, I dunno, tell the FBI or something?" Manny asked.

Nohano snorted. "Right. Tell him that a demon's gonna attack Los Angeles sometimes in the near future. That'll get you a one-way ticket to the nearest mental-health ward."

"Guess you're right," muttered Manny, briefly biting his lip. "It's a lot to take in. Though...if I hadn't seen it myself..."

"I suppose we're in no more danger with you here than not," said Gregory slowly.

Nohano shrugged a little. "I don't think you are," he said. "And Killian and I might be able to protect you."

Gregory clenched his fists briefly, then let a very weary sigh.

"We'll help," said Aaron suddenly. "Dunno what we can do, but if we can help..."

Nohano smiled at him, grateful for the sentiment. "Don't think there's much you can do," he said. "Though I did want to ask one favor. We're going to head for San Francisco—we don't want to be too far apart. Could we take a few of them with us in the van? We have one car among us, and it's not big."

Manny and Aaron looked to Gregory, who considered for a moment before nodding his head. "All right, kid," he said. "They know we're leaving tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I told them I'd ask."

"All right. Well go ahead and tell them it's cool," said Gregory. "Gods."

"Yeah, that was kinda my reaction too. Oh. Keep an eye on the weather. Those creepy clouds? The green ones? It's a sign that someone from their side is nearby."

He headed for the phone then, to call the others, and heard an "oh, great" from Aaron. He ignored them for a moment while he called Suisei and let him know that Gregory was willing to take two or three of the others along.

"That's great," said Suisei. "Tarun wants to ride with you, is that all right?"

Nohano laughed. "Sure it is," he said. "I love that kid. Do you know who else will be coming with us?"

"Xander," said Suisei.

"That's cool," said Nohano. "I'll let the guys know, then. They'll have to sit on the floor, though, the back seat's gonna be covered in gear."

Suisei laughed and promised that he'd send the message along. "And Nohano, tell your friends thanks."

"I will, Soosay—er...how do you say your name again?"

Suisei laughed. "Swee-say. It's the Japanese word for 'comet'. It actually is the word for Mercury, also, which I never quite figured out."

"Hmm. How about I just call you Comet?"

Another laugh came from Suisei's end of the line, this a longer one than the last. "Okay," he said finally. "Just so long as I don't have to endure any jokes about antique powder-cleansers."

Clueless, Nohano asked what he meant, and was told that an old brand of cleanser was called "Comet", and that people seemed to think it was mightily amusing that Suisei was named that. Nohano laughed and promised not to call him anything having to do with cleanser. "Seeya tomorrow, Comet," he said, chuckling. He liked the name. It sounded far more personable to him than "Suisei". And easier to pronounce.

"It's settled then?" asked Manny.

"Yeah, we'll have a kid my age and a little kid," said Nohano. "Who can't sit still. I'll keep him from tormenting you guys, though."

"After dealing with your hyper ass for year, I think we can handle it," said Manny.

Nohano rolled his eyes, but laughed anyway. He was just glad that things were okay again between him and No Quarter. "Look, I'm going to sleep. You yahoos try and keep it quiet for once, willya?"

"Ha!" scoffed Manny. "'Yahoos,' he says. Listen to him. He's getting too big for his breeches."

"His headband's wound too tight," agreed Gregory, smiling a bit.

With a gesture of mock exasperation for the dimwits he had to deal with, Nohano stalked to his hammock and lay down. Chuckling, Killian curled up on his sleeping bag for the night.

---

In the morning, No Quarter piled up their stuff in the van and crowded into the four available seats, ready to head for Los Angeles. They picked up Xander and Tarun, who was jumping up and down with excitement. The rest of the Ronin had piled with their belongings (Amaya had the largest amount of stuff) and gone in Suisei's car.

Killian and Nohano let Xan have the empty seat, and sat on the floor with Tarun, who all but quivered with eagerness. "I can't wait to see it!" he said.

"What, San Francisco?" asked Nohano, amused.

"Yes! I've never seen it before." The boy stood up, grasping the back of Manny's seat. Manny turned around and grinned at the kid, who grinned back.

"Guess you didn't go through too many big cities on your way here, eh kid?" asked Killian.

"We did," said Tarun logically, "but they weren't San Francisco, so it's different."

Nohano laughed, shaking his head, and ruffling the kid's hair. "The big cities aren't all that different from each other," he said. "Unless you get into a different country, anyway. Hey. Don't you ever sit still, twerp?"

"Nope."

Okay, that was a silly question. Grinning, Nohano caught the waistband of the boy's shorts and pulled him down onto his lap, launching a tickle assault. Tarun squawked with indignation and began to thrash around, giggling.

"Hey!" Gregory called irritably from where he sat in the driver's seat. "Knock it off or I'll stuff you in a suitcase! Both of you!"

Tarun laughed, sprawled half in Nohano's lap and half on the floor of the van, and proclaimed that he was dead, now. Killian, who had taken cover up against one of Nohano's drum cases, watched with a grin on his face. "You're no fun," Nohano accused Gregory.

"Would it be fun to run into another car at a hundred miles an hour?"

He had a point. "All right, you," said Nohano, giving the little boy a shove. "Off my lap, you reprobate."

Of course that meant that Tarun had to refuse to leave Nohano's lap, leaving Nohano with the dilemma of removing him without resorting to physical actions that would annoy Gregory. Manny and Xan, who sat in the middle seats flanking them, were both shaking their heads.

There was one advantage of Tarun's low attention span; he was soon tired of being "dead" and sat up, relocating to the floor and asking questions as they rode. Most of the questions had to do with California, and the faires, and the group Nohano sang with. Nohano was glad to answer them, while Killian or one of the guys would sometimes interject an answer.

After the questions, they engaged in some word games; such as being the first to spot a license plate from a specific state, or answering trivia from one of Aaron's pocket games, or picking a letter and having people guess different things that began with it.

The trip wasn't as evil as it could have been. Gregory only got grouchy a few times, Tarun managed not to be too obnoxious with his hyperactivity, and Xan even joined in the games.

When they got into San Francisco, Tarun began asking about all the things that he saw, and Gregory pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center. "All right," he said. "Hey kid, you wanna use Manny's phone to call your friends? Find a meeting place?"

"Yeah, good idea," said Nohano. "Tarun needs to meet up with Comet."

"'Comet'?" asked Xan, raising an eyebrow.

Wondering briefly how he was able to just raise one eyebrow, Nohano laughed a little sheepishly. "I can never remember his name, so I asked if I could just call him Comet. That's what his name means, anyway. It's the word for 'comet'."

Xan laughed, shaking his head. "I see."

"Hey Manny, cough up the c-phone, willya?"

"I don't think you want it after he's coughed it up, mate," said Killian as Manny handed the phone over. Nohano ignored him as he reached into the pocket of his jeans to grab the paper he'd written down everyone's numbers on. Finding Suisei's, he called the older boy.

"Hey!" Suisei greeted him. "Is this Nohano?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Only number I didn't recognize. Where are you?"

"We've just gotten into the metro area," said Nohano, looking over towards a nearby street sign. "Just off of highway one-oh-one, near Candlestick Park. We're at a Wal-Mart, in the parking lot."

"All right, we're not too far behind. We should be there in maybe fifteen minutes. Hopefully I won't get too lost, but Rashida's really good with maps. We should be fine. Did Tarun drive you too insane?"

"No, but I owe him some tickle torture," said Nohano, looking sideways at the boy, whose eyes widened in gleeful alarm. "So the mad, whirling dervishes you'll see on your way in'll be us."

After he was finished laughing, Suisei said he'd see them soon, and Nohano hung up the phone. Tarun screeched and flung the side door open, dashing outside towards the nearby empty lot. Nohano leapt out after him, hoping suddenly the kid didn't put his armor on. He'd never catch him then!

But he didn't, and Nohano swooped down on the boy, grabbing him and lifting him in the air. Tarun shrieked and started laughing as Nohano pretended to slam him down on the ground, where he began the tickle attack.

He wasn't merciless. He let Tarun get in some good licks as they roughhoused, and Nohano wished he'd known this kid sooner. He'd forgotten what it was like to roughhouse with someone, and was having a lot of fun. Not to mention he, too, was sick of being in the van. He liked seeing new places, but he hated riding in the van!

Killian and Xander had joined the roughhousing (Killian had discovered that Xander had a ticklish spot right below his ribs and was taking advantage of it) and the rest of No Quarter was watching amusedly from the van, when Suisei's Toyota pulled into the lot. Tarun noticed it first, jumping off of Nohano's back and sprinting towards the car. "Suisei!"

"Hey, they're here," said Killian, grinning and jogging after the kid. Nohano got up off the dirt and brushed off his jeans, stretching, and turning his face up to the hot midsummer sun. It was beginning to set, but it was still quite warm out, and Nohano enjoyed it.

"That was fun," said Xan, brushing himself off and grinning as if he was amazed he'd enjoyed the romp.

"Yeah!" said Nohano. "I haven't done that in forever. Come on, let's see what horrors the others have endured on their trips."

Xan laughed a little and followed Nohano as he started towards where Suisei and his group were greeting the others. "It's been a while since I been part of a group." Xan shrugged. "We moved a lot. Never really got used to makin' friends."

"Must be rough," said Nohano sympathetically. "Guess bein' a...Ronin Warrior...has advantages. Friends as a side-effect."

Xan laughed. "So now being a Ronin's a prescription drug, huh? 'Might result in odd side effects, such as loss of life, psychopathic dreams, and friend gain'."

Nohano stopped and smacked his head to his forehead, laughing hard as he imagined such a label on a red pharmacy bottle. Taking a breath, he resumed walking, shaking his head at the wry smirk on Xan's face. "Hoo boy. You know you're life's gotten weird when someone can say something like that, and it makes sense."

"You said it, man!"

When the pair reached the main group, Suisei seemed to be in the middle of telling a story that involved a public toilet whose commode had exploded just after Demetrius had gotten up off of it. "I was lucky," said Demetrius ruefully, his look one of disgust. "I was able to dodge and get out of the bathroom before I got hit. The man in the booth nearly had a heart attack, though. He was on the phone when we left, complaining to someone about it."

Manny was laughing so hard he'd had to sit down on the van's running board, and most everyone else either looked amused or disgusted. Nohano raised his brows, looking to Suisei. "Sounds like you guys had a more interesting trip than we did."

"Just the one incident," said Suisei with a grin. "So what's the plan?"

"Well I figure we can get checked into some cheap motel while we go apartment hunting," said Nohano. "Aaron knows several places that have a lot of fairly good apartment complexes in the area, and it's not all that difficult to find a place. Killian and I have first and last months' rent, and I have all my emancipation papers, so there shouldn't be any trouble there."

"An apartment sounds good," said Suisei. "Once settled in, we can meet and exchange our contact information. I will follow you, then, to a motel we can stay in." He grinned. "This is kinda fun."

"'Fun' isn't the word I'd use," said Gregory, rolling his eyes, but he smiled all the same. "All right then, we'll head there for now, and tomorrow, we go apartment hunting."