Chapter 9: Cats out of the Bag
When I woke up Carnel was still on the floor from last night. So far I was the only one up, and I was really tempted to wake Alicia up to drench both Carnel and Falcon. I decided against it even though it would have been hilarious. Instead I decided to get up and shower. Just as I was getting out Alicia was just getting up.
"Morning." I said checking my scroll. I had a message from Ruby.
"Morning." Alicia said stretching. She notices Carnel laying on the floor in the middle of the room. "What happened to him?"
"I'm not sure. I woke up to him falling face first onto the floor this morning. I asked why he was on the floor and he told me to fuck off. So I did." I said. Alicia tried holding back from laughing. Realizing what I had said I immediately started blushing. "Not like that! I meant I said fuck it and went back to sleep."
"Suuure. Anyway think we should wake them up?" She asked.
"Well we could do that. I think I have a better idea though. Ruby just messaged me saying that team JNPR is making a breakfast buffet. I think it would be a shame to deprive them of sleep. It is very important after all. Besides it's the weekend so it's not like they have to be up." I said.
"That is true. Alright I'm in. Let her know we'll be over in a few minutes. Make sure Nora doesn't eat all the pancakes." She said heading to the bathroom to get ready.
"I can try, but I don't think I can make that promise." I said.
'Hey we'll be over in a few minutes. I'm supposed to specifically request that you try to save some pancakes.' I sent to Ruby.
'Cool! We'll see you soon. Don't be surprised if there aren't any pancakes left though. We have plenty of other stuff though.' She responded.
I took the semi alone time to take the kids books I got from the library and put them in my bag. I'll probably go see them later so better to have them ready. I plugged my headphones in and started to listen to music until she was ready. I was pretty sure Alicia wouldn't be able to hear me and the other two were passed out so I decided to quietly sing to myself. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the music started.
(Cue Heaven by Warrant)
I've got a picture of your house
And you're standing by the door.
It's black and white and faded,
And it's looking pretty worn.
See the factory that I worked
Silhouetted in the back.
The memories are gray but man they're really coming back.
I don't need to be the king of the world
As long as I'm the hero of this little girl
Heaven isn't too far away
Closer to it everyday
No matter what your friends might say
How I love the way you move
And the sparkle in your eyes
There's a color deep inside them
Like blue suburban skies
When I come home late at night
And you're in bed asleep
I wrap my arms around you
So I can feel you breathe
I don't need to be a superman
As long as you will always be my biggest fan
Heaven isn't too far away
Closer to it every day
No matter what your friends might say
We'll find our way, yeah
Now the lights are going out,
Along the boulevard
Memories come rushing back and makes it pretty hard
I've got nowhere left to go
And no one really cares
I don't know what to do
But I'm never giving up on you.
Heaven isn't too far away
Closer to it every day
ohhhh ohhh
No matter what your friends say
I know we're gonna find a way
Heaven, Whoah, oohh, ohhh
Heaven, Whoah, oohh, ohhh
Heaven, it's not too far away
Whoah, oohh, ohhh
Yeah yeah yeah
As the song faded out I opened my eyes and saw Alicia staring at me. I pulled my headphones down.
"I'm afraid to ask, but how much of that did you hear?" I asked.
"Most of it. Stage fright?" She asked.
"Yeah… pretty bad." I said trying to hide my face.
"Well if makes you feel any better you were really good." She said.
"I'm not that good. Anyway we should probably go if you want your pancakes." I said heading towards the door.
"You do realize both of them could have woke up and caught you singing right?" She asked.
"I'm already embarrassed enough. Don't make me paranoid too." I said as we walked out the door.
"Alright I'll drop it. For now." She said.
"That's the best I'm going to get isn't it?" I asked. She just smiled.
We got to team JNPR's room and were greeted by Pyrrha.
"Good morning. Aren't you missing a few teammates?" She asked.
"They had a late night. We thought we'd be nice and let them sleep in." Alicia said.
"Late night?" Pyrrha asked.
"I don't know what they were doing. All I know is they came in and crashed. Literally in Carnel's case. I'm not fully sure if Falcon was out with him or not but better safe than sorry." I said.
"Alright well come on in. We've got plenty for everyone." Pyrrha said.
We walked in and were welcomed by team JNPR and RWBY. We had to explain why it was only the two of us again. Which Alicia and I were happy to do each time. Pyrrha wasn't kidding when she said they had plenty for everyone. They must have been up for hours preparing everything. I didn't see Ren anywhere but Nora was on her bed, attacking a mountain of pancakes.
"Hey Jaune. Where's Ren?" I asked.
"I think he's in the kitchen cooking still." He said.
"Still? There is enough food here for like six meals." I said.
"You'd think so. Then again I'm about seventy percent sure Nora is a bottomless pit." He said pointing to Nora.
"Good point." I said.
I headed off towards the kitchen.
"Good morning Ren." I said.
"Good morning Crys. Anything I can get you?" He said.
"Actually I came to see if you needed any help." I said.
"Why are they running out?" He asked.
"N-no I'm pretty sure were fine out there. Did you cook everything on your own?" I asked.
"No. Pyrrha made coffee." He said.
"But you did everything else on your own?" I asked.
"Yeah." He said.
"Seriously? How?" I asked.
"It wasn't that hard." He said while flipping pancakes, bacon, hash browns, sausage, 3 different kinds of eggs and waffles all at the same time without breaking a sweat.
"Dude I doubt anyone in there could even come close to the skills you have in the kitchen." I said.
"I feel like you're exaggerating a bit." He said.
"Alright it's settled. I have to thank you, and your team for this. Lunch today is on me later." I said.
"You don't have to it was our pleasure." He said.
"Well I'll probably feel guilty later for not waking Falcon and Carnel to come here. So, I'll be doing it for them too." I said.
"That's a lot of people you're paying for. It wouldn't be right." He said.
"No not paying you back wouldn't be right. Besides I'm not worried about the expense. Plus remember a few days ago we agreed that it would be nice to have our teams get to know each other better." I said. 'Even though I unintentionally meant something else entirely.'
"That is true. Alright if you insist." He said.
"I do." I said smiling. 'May not be what I originally would have wanted, but oh well.
After we all had our breakfast Alicia and I decided to head back to our dorm.
"Think they are still asleep?" I asked.
"If they are it won't be for long." She said holding a small ball of water above her hand.
We got back to the room to see them both awake. Falcon was sitting up in his bed reading. I wasn't sure where Carnel was but he wasn't on the floor anymore so that showed progress was made.
"Morning big bro." Alicia said.
"Where were you two?" Falcon said.
"Team JNPR invited our team over for breakfast. Ren made a huge buffet." I said as Carnel exited the bathroom.
"Why didn't you wake us?" Carnel asked.
"Well after the warm welcome I was given this morning when you collapsed in the middle of the room we thought we would be nice and let you guys sleep." I said.
"You deprived us of endless bacon, because he playfully said to fuck off this morning. That's beyond sadistic." Falcon said.
"Would it make it better if I said I was taking our team and JNPR out for lunch later today? My treat." I said.
"You have enough to pay for two teams worth of people. Two of which were deprived of breakfast and are going to be extra hungry?" Carnel said.
"I mean if you guys don't want a free meal I could just take Alicia and team JNPR." I said.
"We didn't say that. Were more curious how you plan to pay for all that." Falcon said.
"That's not important. The point is its happening and there isn't anything you can say to stop me." I said.
They all looked at each other worried, but they didn't try arguing it anymore. Alicia had an evil smile growing that started to worry me though.
"Alright we won't argue with you on one condition." Alicia said.
"I'm kinda scared to ask, but what?" I asked.
"You have to sing for us right now." She said.
"On second thought if you guys wanted to debate this a little longer I won't stop you." I said
"You can sing Crys?" Falcon asked.
"N-no." I said.
"That's a lie. I caught her this morning while you guys were still passed out. She's really good." Alicia said.
"I'm not getting out of this now am I?" I asked.
"Not a chance." Carnel said as he went to block the door.
"Damn it. Fine." I said.
I started looking for a song to play while they waited. As the music started I saw them all staring at me and froze up. I turned it off and hid under my blanket.
"I'm sorry. I can't do it." I said.
"I have an idea." Alicia said pulling the blanket off of me.
She had me stand up again, but she had me face away from them.
"Alright. Now close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths." She said. "Okay you can only open your eyes to start the song otherwise keep them closed. We'll step outside and let you do a practice run quick. Just yell when you think you're ready."
I kept my eyes closed until I hear the door shut. I gave it a bit to let myself calm down a bit. I opened my eyes to hit play on the song before closing them again.
(Cue Catch the Moment by Amalee)
I sigh, saying that I'm fine with every breath of mine
This regret, it leaves another bitter taste
Yeah
Why does the sun shine?
But only when I slip and make a new mistake?
Cause I hate the feeling it's all a waste
If I could cut away my fate with this blade,
I would, if that'd let me re-start
But something tells me if that happened,
I might not see you there
I'm only held by the limit inside my soul
The voice in my heart
I trust it will break the mold that it holds
It will never end, May it never end
No matter what's in store
We must be faster cause right now there's no more time
I fear at this rate, the world will leave us behind, and so I
Wonder how long I have left with you, in this life?
There's not a minute we should waste
Catch the Moment
So will you seize today with me?
Because it's fleeting, like a dream
Catch the Moment
I took a deep breath. "Alright. How was that?" I asked.
"You knew we were here?" Falcon asked.
"I only heard one set of footsteps. Plus I've lived with you guys long enough to know how you guys act. So how was it?" I asked. After a brief moment of silence they started clapping.
"See I told you." Alicia said.
"Yeah. I know." I said.
"You know you can turn back around right?" Carnel said.
"I'd like to, but my body doesn't want to." I said.
"I got this." Carnel said snapping his fingers.
"What is he doing?" I asked.
"Don't you think honey badger is a bit extreme for this?" Falcon asked.
"Nah I think it'll work perfectly." Carnel said.
"Alright you win. I'm turning... around." I turned and saw he hadn't even pulled anything out of his rift.
"Damn right I win." Carnel said.
"I hate you guys sometimes." I said. Alicia walked up and gave me a super strong hug. I thought Hazel squeezing me was bad.
"You love us and you know it." Alicia said.
"If you didn't you wouldn't be taking us out for lunch." Carnel said.
"Speaking of which where are we going?" Falcon asked.
"Yeah I have no idea. Anyone have any suggestions?" I asked.
"Oh. How about Kirby's?" Alicia said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"It's a restaurant our mom took us to once in a while when we were younger." Falcon said.
"Sounds good to me." I said. Carnel nodded in agreement.
A couple hours later we met up with team JNPR near the docks for the airships. We boarded our ship and headed off towards town. Most of the ride consisted of picking on Jaune and me. When we got there Alicia and Falcon started to lead the way to the restaurant.
"Does anyone else smell smoke?" Jaune asked.
"Yeah now that you mention it." Nora said.
We all looked around trying to see where the smell was coming from. I saw the smoke cloud rising up from where Tim and Ally were living.
"No..." I said. I immediately started running in the direction of the smoke.
"Crys wait!" Carnel yelled.
I couldn't stop I couldn't stand the idea of something happening to them. I pulled my weapon out and placed it into the pistol mode. I loaded it with ice rounds. I got to the building to see the second floor engulfed in flames. I fired multiple rounds into the front door. It iced the door over but was quickly melting away. I switched to my weapons axe mode and swung at the door causing it to shatter on impact.
"Crys what are you doing?" Falcon shouted.
"She can explain later. We don't have much time." Carnel said snapping his fingers. He pulled a small crate out of his rift and opened it. "These capsules are filled with water dust powder. They are essentially fairly powerful water balloons. Alicia and Crys get in and look for survivors. Everyone else start throwing."
I switched back to my pistol mode and started firing around inside the building. Alicia put any fires around us out creating a path.
"Tim! Ally! Where are you guys!" I shouted. I heard a faint crying coming from upstairs. "We need to get upstairs."
When we found the stairs a majority of the center was gone. Alicia cleared the flames from what was left of the stairs. I took a few steps back and switched to my sniper. I ran up the few stairs there were and jumped. I fired a shot in the center of the hole allowing me to clear the steps. What remained of the stairs collapsed afterward, Alicia lifted a large chunk of the ground up where the rubble from the stairs had been. She jumped on it to get to the top. We split up checking the rooms. I eventually found Ally and Tim unconscious. Tim had few boards laying on him.
"Alicia! In here!" I yelled collapsing my weapon.
I ran over and started pulling the boards off of Tim. Alicia came in and picked up Ally. After I cleared the boards I picked Tim up.
"Is there anyone else?" Alicia asked.
"There shouldn't be. Let's get out of here." I said.
We ran back where the stairs had been. Alicia forced a couple more chunks of ground up to make it easier to carry them down. We ran outside to see the fire department had finally shown up. A couple paramedics came over and took the children from us. They were loaded into an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital.
"Please tell me they are okay." I said.
"It's a little early to tell. They both inhaled a lot of smoke. It doesn't look like they have any serious burns, but the boy has some injuries to his back." The paramedic said.
"A-alright. Thank you." I said. I walked over to a nearby building and collapsed to the ground next to it. I put my hands over my eyes and started crying. Carnel sat next to me and put his arm around me. I leaned over and burred my head on his shoulder.
"You realize you are going to have to answer a lot of questions right?" Carnel said. I nodded.