WAAAAUGH!
Link: What's with you?
AAH! I'M SO SORRY!1111!
Zelda: Lack of updates, I presume?
Yep. Semester Finals! DAMN THEM TO HELL!
Pichu: ...
Anyway, here's my too-long-awaited chapter. Please don't kick my ass in your review...
"Reverse psychology, failing miserably...
It's so hard to be left all alone.
Telling you is the only chance for me;
There's nothing left but to turn and face you.
When I look into your eyes,
There's nothing there to see...
Nothing but my own mistakes
Staring back at me,
And asking why...?" -P5hng Me Awy, Linkin Park (Neimi's theme)
Chapter 8: The Ruined Tower
The Queens Midtown Tunnel, Ground Zero
As the night slowly ticked on, with each and every second hanging upon the success of their next mission, the life of the young woman in Salazar's grasp hanging in the balance. Link and the others were creeping forward through the tunnel and, after what seemed to be a long time, finally made their way up to the tunnel entrance, where a troop of soldiers were gathered around a burning trash can in order to keep warm.
"All right, how do you say we do this?" Pichu asked the others.
"It's gotta be full stealth. Total silence. Covert ops." Colm whispered. "It may be dangerous, but there's a life hanging in the balance."
"Yes...we need to keep to the shadows." Ness agreed.
"What we need is a diversion." Link smiled, fishing a rocket launcher out of a nearby crate. "And I've got just the thing."
"Oh, crap!" Fox replied as his eyes widened to small ovals. He knew what Link was thinking, and he instantly covered his ears...
The Ruins, Ground Zero
"Man, are we ever going to get out of this place or what?" a soldier sighed, rubbing his hands together and holding them over the fire.
"Doesn't sound like it." Another replied, tossing in yellowed papers from a nearby ruin and throwing them into the metal barrel. The fire roared up back to life and blazed once more.
"Oh well...what can we do? Life's a bitch, and we are just its playthings." A third added, pulling out sandwiches, bags of chips and beers from a cooler. Passing them out, he sighed, "As long as we're here, we might as well get something to eat, huh?"
"Finally, someone who speaks my language!" the first replied, grabbing the sandwich from the third and digging his teeth into the soft white bread. "Mmph...man, thif if goodsh..."
"Dude, don't talk with your mouth full!" the second protested, taking a more 'civilized' approach at eating the sandwich. As the three sat down and ate. The Hylian pointed the muzzle of the rocket launcher towards a ruined gas station nearby. Oddly enough, though, he didn't pull the trigger...
"Geez, how much mess can you make?" the third replied as the first continued to devour the small dinner, drops of mayonnaise and chip crumbs falling to the ground near him.
"Sorry..." the first replied after a swig of beer. "But I needed that."
"You sure as hell got that right..." the second replied, pulling a foil package from the cooler. "Dessert's on me, boys; I sneaked a few brownies from the fridge."
"Cool." Finishing off the brownies in silence, the three soldiers seemed to have lightened up about their mood and even enjoyed what was going on. Amazing what a meal can do, eh?
"Well, that was good." The first soldier smiled. "Nothing could possibly go wrong now!" Smiling to himself, the hidden Hylian pulled the trigger, and seconds later a large BOOM echoed through the city.
The Empire State Building, Ground Zero
"Well, well. If it isn't my lovely little slut." Joseph snickered insanely, holding Neimi by her chin and forcing her to look him in the eyes. Her eyes of magenta diluted in fear as he began making little kisses on her neck and used his finger to trace delicate patterns on her back.
"EEK!" Neimi squealed, kicking at Salazar. Without so much as a stutter, he pulled back and stopped the kick, grabbing her leg and dropping it to the ground. "Please...don't do this..." she sobbed slightly.
"Have you ever...felt a man?" Joseph laughed insanely as he began to unbuckle his belt. "I assure you, I won't hurt you...much..." Unbeknownst to the perverted general, though, his subordinate Randall Liebo was watching his every move and hating what his boss was doing. Trying to kill innocent people was bad enough, but dragging this girl, an innocent maiden, to some tower and raping her before murdering her? His teeth ground in anger as he pulled out a revolver with a sniper scope out of his leg holster, aiming at Joseph's head...
"Sob...how can you say that you love me...when you're trying to rape me?" Neimi growled through her tears.
"Meh, you're merely a liability. What I will do to you is merely that of fate. You can't escape it." Feeling enough was enough, Liebo got ready to pull the trigger on his boss...
BOOM!
"What the hell was that?" Joseph Salazar growled, buckling his belt and straightening himself before looking out over the city. Liebo quietly cursed to himself and slid the gun back into his holster before standing up and entering the chambers.
As Neimi turned to see what was happening, Joseph Salazar and Randall Liebo stared over the city towards the source of the BOOM in amazement. Ground Zero was in chaos. The gas station was ablaze and the military's soldiers were racing around trying to put out the fire. They were too shocked to understand what the hell was going on.
Suddenly, another soldier burst into the room, sweating and gasping from running up to their room. Upon reaching the observation deck, he ran up to the soldiers and reported, "SIR! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK, SIR!"
"Anyone with eyes can see that, you twit." Joseph replied acidly. Turning to the guards around them, he commanded, "Liebo! You hold the floor. Everyone else, follow me!" With that, Joseph and the other soldiers stampeded through the room and out the door, the messenger just staring out at the door.
"Not again..." the messenger gasped, looking at Neimi. "You don't know how good you have it, staying here..."
"Yeah, I'm sure I don't..." she replied acidly again, before frowning to herself. 'Oops...I think I've been hanging around Colm too much. Hee hee...'
The Queens Midtown Tunnel, Ground Zero
"Well, that was a fantastic idea." Colm replied, voice dripping with sarcasm as the three soldiers scrambled to put out the fire. "What was that!"
Luigi seemed to share Colm's opinion. "Subtle-a, Link. REAL subtle."
"Hey, at least we don't have to worry about the other soldiers." Link smiled. "Let's move."
Scrambling to get out of eyeshot with the other soldiers, Link and the others ran out of their hiding place behind the boxes near the tunnel and sneaked over behind the crumbled ruins to an alley that lead straight to the tower where Neimi was being held.
"All right, now be careful!" Fox replied. "Don't wander off!"
"But why?" Luigi asked, poking his head into a building before walking in completely. His eyes fell onto a map of the vicinity, and he snatched it and shoved it into his pockets.
"Luigi!" Fox yelled. "Get out of there!"
"I'm-a almost...whoa!" The ruins around them began to rumble incessantly as an ominous crack roared into life, shattering the silence around them. After one terrified look upward, Luigi began dashing to the door as fast as his legs could carry him. But it was too late as plaster and rotten wood came down in large quantities onto the door, covering Luigi's only chance of escape. "AAH-A! I'M TRAPPED!"
"This is why I didn't want anyone to wander off..." Fox growled to himself as he kicked the nearby garbage can in frustration. Upon contact, the can evaporated into rust and sent garbage flying all over Fox's foot, making him even angrier. Shaking it off, Fox yelled into the building, "Luigi! You all right?"
"Never-a better..." Luigi replied dizzily, shaking dust and grime from his overalls. "Man, I-a just washed these..."
"Who cares if you washed those clothes!" Colm blurted out. "Now we gotta rescue you too!"
"It's-a dark!" Luigi panicked. "I-a want my mommy!"
"Oh, for the love of..." Fox grumbled, slapping his forehead. Turning to Link, he asked, "What'll we do now?"
"...Luigi, why the hell did you go in there in the first place?"
"I-a saw a map, and I-a thought..."
"A map?" Link interrupted Luigi mid-sentence. Pushing his way up to the stone-colored doorway, Link managed to find a space in which a piece of paper could bee squeezed through. "Luge! There's a gap in the door! Hand me the map from there!"
"All-a right..." The yellowed paper stuck out of the hole, and Link snatched it up with one hand while waving the others over with the other hand. His cobalt eyes gazed over the paper as he triangulated their position using the map. After a few minutes, he pulled out a marker and began tracing a possible route to the Ruined Tower.
"Can you all see that tower?" Link asked, gesturing toward the Empire State Building. After receiving a series of nods from the others, Link pulled out a green magic marker and bean tracing an alternate route for the Green Machine while the Hylian explained, "We'll take this route, up Broadway and through Fifth Avenue before reaching the entrance. Luigi can escape from the rooftops, jump down to Central Park and cut through the Plaza Hotel before following the street up to the tower."
"Good idea." Fox replied. "That particular route doesn't have any soldiers near it."
"All right." Link pulled out a headset with a by-ear communicator from his satchel, wrapped it around the map and carefully wedged in back through the wall to Luigi. "Luge! Put the headset on when you get it!"
Luigi, although a little claustrophobic, heeded Link's advice and placed the headset into his ear. Link's voice came through after a few cascades of static. "...kssssh...uigi! Can you hear my voice?"
"Loud-a and clear!" Luigi replied.
"Good. Look at the map before you. Can you see the route in green I marked?" Link asked the Green Machine through the headset. "Follow that route to escape the building. We'll meet you at the tower!"
"All-a right..." Luigi replied as he crawled under a pile of rubble and began his escape.
Meanwhile, outside that ruin (which was named the Mean Streets Pub, coincidentally...)
"Well, there he goes..." Colm replied. "Hope he doesn't get himself killed out there."
"..." Link sighed as he motioned for the others to follow him to the tower.
The Empire State Building, Ground Zero
The jeep bounced wildly through the rubble-strewn streets of New York as Joseph Salazar and his guards sped through the ruined city. Passing the once-great Times Square and Broadway, Joseph growled to himself as the wind blew a yellowed poster into his face. He tore it off in disgust and continued to speed single-mindedly toward the tunnel.
"S...sir!" One of his guards yelled above the engine's rumble. "Don't you think we...should slow down?"
The tires came to a sudden and unceremonious screech as the jeep squealed to a stop. Lifting his foot from the brake, Joseph growled threateningly, "Is there a problem, guard?"
"...no sir."
"Good." As the jeep started up again—slowly this time—the general ran a hand through his wavy brown curls as he scanned the landscape ahead of him. Yet every thought in that twisted mind of his turned back to the beautiful young archer he had tied up in the tower. His eyes flared up, and his mouth began to water. Such a beautiful, delicate creature ripe for the harvest... to hell with what was in her head; he just wanted what was in the young girl's skirt. His mouth curved into a hungry smile, no thanks to Liebo constantly being in that room with her and him having to hold back on his delicacy.
Then he gets word that an attack was instigated near the tunnel entrance.
Joseph was fed up with it. The second he found Neimi, he wouldn't care who was around. He'd gobble her up then and there, and walk away chuckling like he had done with so many other beautiful girls in his lifetime. But this time, he'd actually keep her around.
He was growing hungrier just thinking about it.
But, goddamn! Stubborn, air-headed, magenta-eyed Archer-Girl had to run away on them the exact hour he was going to eradicate the aliens of the land and personally deliver swift justice to their assailants, escaping with that man-whore of a thief she called a "friend" and botching his plans...and trying to make off with a delectable body still untasted. It had infuriated him to no end.
He was so caught up within his chamber of rage that he didn't even notice they were almost at the entrance until his guards warned him they were going to crash. At that, he swiftly hammered his foot onto the brake, and the jeep skidded to a complete, albeit sudden, stop.
As Joseph hopped out of the car, the soldiers near the vicinity were racing around every which way, pouring water and dousing the flame-ridden car. Grinding his teeth in disgust, he yelled, "WHERE ARE THEY?"
"SIR!" the soldiers saluted. "We were able to put out the car! And there are no reported casualties, sir!"
"That is good and all, but you have YET to answer my question." Joseph replied, somewhat aggravated. "Where are the intruders?"
"Er, well..." the soldier in charge stuttered considerably, "When we searched the nearby area, we didn't find anyone suspicious."
Meanwhile, during the conversation between the soldiers, a blur of green had stumbled out of a nearby ruin and was running down the garbage-ridden asphalt, taking great care to avoid the eyes of the nearby patrols. As he tripped and landed on a sharp rock on the ground, he felt like screaming in agony. Remembering his situation, he instead snapped his vision up, calculating running through his tired mind. If he could muster up the strength to pick himself up out of the hole, he could sprint back through the town and lose the soldiers in the marshy Central Park. It was an incredibly insane risk, but it was worth getting away.
"So what you're saying is that you didn't see ANYONE here?" Joseph had the soldier in charge repeat.
"Affirmative. There's no one here..."
"Yeah, except for all of us..." Joseph whispered to himself as he whacked his own forehead for not realizing it sooner. "THIS WASN'T AN ATTACK; IT WAS A DIVERSION!"
"WHAT!"
"Landon! Scan the landscape for any possible intruders!" Salazar yelled to the soldier in charge. "I'm going back to the tower!"
"Right." Landon replied.
"SIR! There's an intruder, RIGHT THERE!" a soldier yelled excitedly as he pointed to Luigi, who was lying dazedly in the pothole nearby.
"LUIGI! Get out of there now!" Link yelled, vexed, into the earpiece as Luigi struggled to pick himself up out of the hole.
"L...link!" Luigi had finally regained enough consciousness to remember what he was doing, and pulled himself out of the hole before fleeing to the tower. Unfortunately, Joseph had also noticed, and didn't think twice about shooting as a bullet whizzed by Luigi's ear. "Holy-a...!"
"AFTER HIM! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" Joseph yelled as several soldiers aced after the Green Machine before the general himself followed suit. Luigi, after one terrified look backward, tore off part of his shirt, wrapped it around his knee to contain the bleeding, and sped off as fast as possible through the hellish concrete canyons of the city.
Coming to the brick wall that marked the entrance to Central Park, Luigi winced in pain and hopped the wall with some trouble as the wound tore open from the sudden rush in movement. After landing somewhat roughly onto the mulch-covered ground of the park, his legs became numb and invulnerable to pain as adrenaline mixed with terror propelled him onward. Unfortunately for the poor Green Machine, Joseph, in one fluid motion, had hopped over the wall and managed to get a few shots off at Luigi, barely missing the plumber and splitting a nearby dead tree into myriad shards of rotten wood.
Pure terror propelled Luigi on, as his leather shoes crunched in the dusted, dead ground below. Grey specks of ash blemished his torn emerald shirt and overalls. His breathing was labored, mixed with dry sobs of frustration. Why he deserved this, he didn't know. But one thing he did know- he wasn't planning on dying now, and not to these freaks.
Reaching the end of the park, Luigi nearly fell into a huge glob of sludge and raw sewage, dwarfed by moss-covered rocks and rotted trees. Desperately, he scanned the surrounding landscape for any kind of escape until his tired eyes fell onto a fairly new dock at the edge of the toxic brew they called a lake. Running over to the dock, he found several speedboats, and an insane idea formed in his mind.
Jumping onto the first of the three speedboats, he yanked the gas lines from it, and followed suit quickly with the second one and repeated the procedure. Then, working quickly, he fished a key from the dock and stuck it into the ignition of the third speedboat, relieved that the boat started at once. Smiling to himself, he drifted away just far enough so that he could avoid Joseph, and still be close enough to reach the speedboats.
Joseph and his platoon emerged from the trees only minutes later, guns drawn and minds sharp. Spying Luigi in the boat several feet away, he yelled, "GET HIM!"
Luigi smiled before he released a fireball from his hand...
BOOM!
Several soldiers flew into the air and landed in various spots around the dock: some in the lake, some in the trees, and some ducking down onto the dock to avoid flying metal and glass. Joseph nearly fell into the water after the blast, but he ended up crashing ass first onto the dock, nearly getting hit by a piece of the boats in the process.
"Everyone all right?" Landon asked the other soldiers as Luigi's speedboat sped off into the blackest night.
Joseph growled to himself as the soldiers scrambled back onto the docks. "Blows up my city, blows up my boats; who the hell are these guys?"
Meanwhile, Luigi was zipping through the toxic lake on the speedboat and yelled into the headset, "Link! Where-a the hell am I supposed to-a find you?"
"Uh, we might have a problem..." Link replied somewhat blandly into the earpiece.
"YOU THERE! STOP! THIS IS THE MILITARY PATROL!"
"Oh, for-a the love of..." Luigi grumbled. "Where-a are you!"
"Directly in front of the tower..." Link answered somewhat sarcastically.
The normally timid Luigi was now totally high on adrenaline as he turned the speedboat very sharply in the direction of the Empire State Building, water sloshing through the lake and flying all over the nearby coast. As the road got closer and closer, Luigi could see Link and the others inside a jeep being slowed down by another jeep with military personnel carrying some serious guns. Gunning the throttle, Luigi winced and braced for impact...
"Who are they?" one of the soldiers inside the jeep asked his superior. "Don't look like any soldiers we've ever seen."
"Right, then. Ready your weapon." The commander warned, chambering the gun's first round and polishing it before stepping out of the jeep. Nervousness could be present on everyone's face as the soldiers stepped ever closer to the driver's side of their jeep. "Well, who do we ha-?"
"LOOK OUT!"
"Wha-?" Before anyone could respond, a speedboat burst forth from the Central Park area, crash-landing onto the soldiers' jeep and causing the soldiers to duck for cover and barely escape with their lives. As the soldiers warily got up, Luigi hopped out of the speedboat and walked over to the jeep, slightly bloody but still alive. As he did so, the jeep exploded behind him, sending both jeep and boat flying upwards and on top of the soldiers, incinerating them alive.
Luigi just walked into the jeep and sighed heavily, slumping over. "Man-a, I-a almost got killed out there-a!"
"Don't worry. You're safe here." Link responded, before hitting the clutch and riding off towards the tower.
The Empire State Building, Ground Zero
"Sniff...Colm...where are you?" Neimi sobbed quietly to herself as time continued to pass by. "Please don't forget about me...sniff..."
"Hmph. Stop sobbing." Turning towards the door, Neimi gasped as Randall Liebo slinked dangerously towards her, knife drawn and gun cocked. The more steps the commander took towards her, the more the young archer grew fearful and scared. Ignoring her intermittent sobbing, he crept over to her position and crouched down behind her, staring at the knotted rope before making a move. Then, he reached out and carefully grabbed her wrist in order to avoid accidentally cutting it...
"EEP! What are you doing!" Neimi squealed, putting up one hell of a fight as she kicked behind her and connected with Liebo's ankle. "Let go of me!"
"Shut up!" Liebo growled as he grasped Neimi's wrists again.
"Aaa! Stop it!" Neimi cried, trying to free herself from his grasp.
"I said stop moving! Don't you listen!"
"Capture changes a girl..." Neimi said somewhat obstinately. Liebo, put out by her determined thickheaded-ness, simply smacked the back of her head and grabbed her wrist for the third time. "Oww! Please...don't hurt me...sniff...I don't want to die..."
"Will you shut up, woman?" Liebo growled, put out by how much commotion Neimi was causing. "You won't be able to escape with all the noise you're making."
Neimi gasped a little, and turned her head to look at Liebo, her soft eyes shining with a glint of hope. "Then you're...?"
"There's a supply convoy making its way into town in thirty minutes." Liebo explained quickly. "If you hurry down that lift..." He nodded towards an abandoned supply elevator near the corner. "...you should be able to make it down and escape detection."
"But why are you helping me?" Neimi asked Liebo curiously, cocking her head to the side like a puppy dog.
"I have hatred against the military, Joseph in particular."
"Hatred?" When Liebo refused to elaborate on what he meant, Neimi added, "Putting it that way makes me more curious."
With one final swipe of his switchblade, Liebo cut up the final bind and removed the ropes around Neimi as the magenta-haired girl stood up, picking sadly at her ruined clothes. "Time's running short. Go!"
"...thank you..."
"You ungrateful little bastard." Liebo's face paled considerably as he and Neimi turned around to face the general, Joseph Salazar. His eyes narrowed into little slits as he picked up a rusty pipe from the floor and began waving it precociously like a baton. "I thought you were better than that, Randall! I take you in as my personal subordinate...my successor...and THIS IS THE THANKS I GET!" He swung wildly at Liebo, but instead Neimi kicked his hand hard, breaking it and forcing the general to drop the rusty pipe. "You dare turn on me, Neimi? After all the time we spent together?"
"Don't make me laugh." Neimi replied venomously, something Joseph or the other soldiers didn't expect from her. "All you did was try to rape me! I'd rather die before doing...THAT with you!" She added, shuddering at the memories of his touch on her skin.
"That can be arranged." Sneering ever so slightly, Joseph first turned the gun on Liebo, who began to run but was unable to escape. Two bullets, one in the head and the other in the back, effectively ended his life as Neimi ran away as fast as possible, trying to escape to the elevator. However, Joseph expected this and lunged at her, tackling her to the ground and pinning her against the wall. "You think you can escape the military! Nothing you do will work against our might!"
"No...even if I die here, I know Colm will hunt you down and kill you himself." Neimi relied boldly, even with the tears rolling down her face.
"Heh. Too bad that won't—"
A painful, shrill scream pierced the thick suspense of the moment, and Joseph turned around to see that one of the guards was lying on the ground, dead, with a dagger sticking out of his neck. Turning towards the door, Joseph was none too pleased that a particular blue-haired thief was standing in the doorway.
"C...COLM!" Neimi squealed. "I knew you wouldn't forget about me!"
"Let her go, Joseph." Colm replied, pulling out another dagger from his cloak and pointing it menacingly at the general. "She has nothing to do with this."
"Heh heh heh. You think that flimsy piece of metal will even HIT me?" Joseph taunted cockily. "I have a bullet that travels faster than you do. How far do you think you can get, huh?"
"You're not going to get far, Salazar." Colm sneered, stepping closer to the general. Panicking, the lecherous pervert inched away a little slowly, then quicker as he dragged the magenta-haired archer with him. "You feel that? That's fear...it's so bad that sometimes people would kill themselves to escape it."
"Don't make me laugh." Joseph replied, the gun muzzle tasting Neimi's forehead. "Don't move any closer! I WILL shoot!"
Colm snickered even more. "Heh, you think shooting her will solve anything!"
"YES!" Joseph blurted out. "I'm willing to kill anyone who gets in my way!"
Several of the Smashers, led by Link, finally showed up in the doorway to the observation lounge and got involved in an altercation with the guards as Colm inched closer to the insane madman. Joseph glanced around worriedly; now things were switched, and the invaders on the verge of victory. Sweat ran down his temple as the Smashers finished beating up the other guards and turned to face him in a Smash Island standoff. "There's nowhere to run, Salazar. Give it up already; we'll let you live."
Joseph growled. "NO! Never! I'm not giving up; I'm not finished yet! You may THINK you have me cornered, but I have another trick! And while the head babbles on about not admitting defeat, he continues in a plot twist: he will take his OWN life along with the girl's if they don't drop their arms!" Suddenly, he grabbed a sharp shard of glass and drew it close to both his and Neimi's neck in such a way so that if he slit his own neck, he slit Neimi's as well.
"NO!" Colm protested, faltering in his grip on the dagger. "YOU BASTARD!"
"You better not do anything stupid, boy..." Fox growled.
Joseph turned to face the vulpine. "Heh, look who's talking. Your stupidity has led you to your deaths at the hands of the military. You'll regret messing with us!"
At that precise moment, Neimi escaped Joseph's chokehold and astonished the entire company by smashing his leg with her fist. Her success was due only partially by catching Salazar off guard, but Colm had to admit that the blow was rather painful and surprisingly fast. Joseph fell backward, discharging his pistol into the ceiling above them. A shower of plaster descended on all the Smashers and onto Colm, who coughed after breathing in a bit of dust. "For God's sake, Neimi, that was a stupid trick to pull! I might have been shot!"
"I'm sorry...sniff..."
"Aw, geez, don't start crying..." Colm replied.
"WHY YOU LITTLE—!" Joseph growled. Staggering up, he hurled the gun into Neimi's leg, causing her to stumble wildly as he punched at her. Unfortunately, when he did so, his leg shot out with a sharp pain, and he tripped, sending Neimi stumbling backwards out the window!
"Aiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
"NEIMI!" Colm yelled, jumping after her.
"That fool!" Link yelled.
"They deserved it." Joseph laughed wryly.
"You bastard!" Link hollered, kicking Joseph in the gut. "Come on, we have to go after them!" As the troupe ran off, they didn't notice the general crawling over to the service elevator...
As the ground got closer and closer, Neimi's life flashed before her eyes: the river incident, her grandfather's death, the journey with Eirika through the land of Magvel, and yet the happiest of all was not those, but all the times that Colm helped her, had been with her...she seemed to have been resigned to her fate. And she could also hear Colm, calling out to her...what? Neimi snapped her eyes open, and she found herself in Colm's arms.
"C...Colm?"
"Nice to catch up with you again, huh?" Before the archer could react, Colm pulled a grappling hook out of his satchel and hurled it upward, towards the building next to them, and it clung itself to the side window next to a large pile of rubble. The rope stretched beyond breaking point as it slowed their descent to a pittance. Then the rope snapped and they landed less than gracefully on the ground a few inches below them. At last, Neimi sat up, holding her head and coughing while Colm was tending to his aching back.
"Ack...Colm...thank you..."
"You idiot!" Colm yelled. "You could have been killed!"
"But...I..."
"You're so hapless! Do you THINK you could at least a bit more competent on the field while we're performing duties to our country! HUH!" Colm nearly exploded. "You could have botched everything! Can't you do ANYTHING right!"
SLAP!
"..." The thief's head had jerked to the side to the point where he lost balance as he collapsed onto the ground. During his tirade, the thief hadn't noticed that Neimi as crying again, her tears dropping onto the ground in front of her. She had slapped him out of despair, and Colm had trouble looking her in the eye after that.
"You... why are you always so mean?" Neimi sobbed. "All I ever seem to do is hold you back! Do you not want me here anymore! Is that it! All you ever do...is criticize me! Nothing I ever do is good enough for you!"
"Neimi..."
"WHY? Do you want me to leave! You...you...WAAAAA!" Neimi broke down and fell to her knees, sobbing and wailing loudly as her tears dropped to the dry, dusty ground in front of her. She couldn't stifle her tears as she poured out the sadness and despair bottled up inside her. Colm, pained by her tearful tirade, had stooped down next to her as he brushed the tears out of her eyes.
"...Neimi, I'm sorry..."
"...sniff..."
"...I never meant to hurt you like that." Colm replied, sitting down next to her. "I never meant what I said. You're one of the few friends I have in this world, and I only say those things because I...wanted to protect you. I would never have wanted you to leave my side."
"... ...th...thank you, Colm."
"Heh. No need to thank me." Colm smiled.
"But...you've always been there for me." The archer smiled. "Like that time I fell into the river and you came and rescued me. Or the time I broke Grandpa's bow. You helped me fix it. All the times bullies picked on me, you defended me. And when Grandpa died, you were by my side the whole time, holding my hand...thank you." If her eyes weren't so red from crying, you would have been able to see the bright shade of red running across Neimi's face right now.
"Neimi..." Colm sighed. "I think your haplessness is permanent. But I'll always protect you."
"Sniff...thank you." Neimi replied, scooting closer to the thief and placing her head on his shoulders.
"Neimi... we may end up hurting each other again over our disagreements, but as long as we have each other, we will be fine. Please...smile for me. I may end up making you cry, Neimi; but I will always do my best to make you smile."
"Oh...Colm...thank you." Neimi sniffled. The thief smiled roguishly, laughing a bit and scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. But the next thing that happened was one he certainly didn't expect. Neimi leaped on him and planted a kiss on his lips. Once again, his eyes widened, but Colm leaned into the young archer when the warm sensations of Neimi's lips on his overtook him. She squeaked and muffled a giggle, and it was unlike anything either had experienced, and they never wanted the kiss to end. However, biological urges being what they are, eventually Colm and Neimi were forced to break apart. As they stood before each other awkwardly, breathing heavily, neither was able to meet the other's eyes out of embarrassment until Neimi finally broke the awkward silence.
"I love you, Colm." she said. "When you met before Princess Eirika, I thought you thought about trying to be friends, or even more with her. I couldn't let these feelings go without finding out the truth. When you told me I was cuter, I thought, 'Maybe he sees me as being someone special.' However, hearing you talk high praises about everyone else left me to think that you wouldn't understand, that everyone to you are just friends. But I didn't want to be. I couldn't be. I wouldn't be. But, you care for me, right? I mean, not just as a friend?"
"Of-Of course I do," Colm stammered. "You're cuter than Eirika, but there's more to you than that. You're kind, helpful, and selfless; you're clumsy, but that's cute in its own unique way. There's nothing to you that I wouldn't turn down...not in this world, not even royalty. I guess I got carried away."
Neimi giggled. "So, do you—?" she began, but Colm stopped her.
"Yes, I love you too. I didn't realize until after this horrible experience. But they're pure, and they can't be argued with. There's no one in this world or in Magvel that I would have feelings for other than you."
Neimi smiled. Suddenly Colm's shoulder shot out in pain as he clutched it. "C...Colm? What happened?"
"It's just a scratch." Colm replied, trying to hide the blood oozing out of it. Apparently sometime during the earlier stunt he cut his shoulder in the same spot as the gunshot wound.
"Colm! You promised..." Neimi sniffled, smacked Colm playfully upside the head.
"Sorry..." Colm chuckled.
"Please be careful." Neimi replied as she poured a vulnerary over his wounds. Suddenly a thought came to her mind. "I wonder what Link thought about that stunt of yours?"
"He'd say, WHAT IN THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" a masculine voice screamed right behind them.
Both Colm and Neimi jumped and spun around to find Link, Zelda, Ness, Pichu, Fox and Luigi standing at the door of the building behind them. Link had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot impatiently; Ness had a smirk that could only be matched by Pichu; Zelda was smiling secretively; and Fox and Luigi's faces were characteristically neutral.
"Have fun?" Zelda asked. "We would've let you have your fun, but we had to stop you since we ran out of barf bags."
"How long have you been watching!" Colm asked, turning so red that a tomato would be put to shame.
"Just ten minutes or so," Pichu said casually yet slyly. "We heard Neimi sobbing to high hell earlier, so we thought we'd eavesdrop."
"So that's how loud you get when you're sad?" Ness asked incredulously. "Man, remind me never to make you cry, Neimi."
"I believe it's time for us to depart." Fox stated matter-of-factly. "Excuse me while I find our location via our GPS system..."
He departed from the group, and everyone stood somewhat idly.
"Indeed. Maybe we should take a nap first..." Link yawned. "But don't let me catch you both in the same bed, or there's going to be hell to pay."
"You can count on that," Pichu piped up.
SLAP!
"Oww!"
"Idiot..." Ness said, turning to leave. Pichu ran off after him to defend his words.
Zelda and Luigi snickered at their doings as they left to search for ammo and supplies. That left only Link, Colm and Neimi remaining.
"Now you two, get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us." Link told them.
"All right..." Colm and Neimi chorused.
Link paused, then smiled at the teenagers. "I'm glad you were able to work things out. I'm proud of you." Walking off to join the others, Colm and Neimi were blushing furiously as they smiled at each other.
"That went well, didn't it?" Colm replied somewhat sarcastically.
"Oh well." Neimi giggled before sneezing.
"Here." Colm removed his cloak from around his neck and wrapped it around Neimi's body to form a makeshift dress. "You need it more than I do."
"Thanks." Running over to the others, she asked, "SO now what do we do?"
"We need to escape before the rest of the military finds us." Fox replied. "There's an ammo depot a few miles north of here, so we should check it out first."
"THERE THEY ARE!"
"So much for going undetected..." Link sighed as several soldiers chased after them. "RUN! WE'RE OUT OF HERE!"
"Ready for another adventure, Neimi?" Colm asked the archer.
"Ready when you are!" Neimi chirped before following Link and the others. In this ruined city, where hopes and frustrations flow in abundance, the youth run on!
"Precious and fragile things need special handling.
My God, what have we done to you?
We always tried to share the tenderest of care;
Now look what we have put you through..." –Precious, Depeche Mode
Sorry for the lack of updates. I'll be more vigilant next time. At any rate, read and review!
Gamer21