Fairy Mi: (nibbling on a rice ball)
Michiru: "What are you doing, you-"
Fairy Mi: "Hey, I finished the chapter already and so I'm having a snack. Have a problem with that?" (stares daggers at him)
Michiru : "YES! Those rice balls took three days to make and where for the party later, not for you to sit around nibbling on!" (snatches rice ball away from her, knocking her to floor) "didn't you see the "DO NOT TOUCH" sign?"
Fairy Mi: (thinks) "vaguely….you are so mean Michiru, there are plenty of them and I only took one!" (starts to cry)
Michiru: (shrugs and walks off to kitchen) "I don't have time for this."
Fairy Mi: T.T (throws oversized history book at Michiru)
Michiru: "owwww…."
Fairy Mi: "Now I feel better, on with the story!!!!" (snatches rice ball back and runs off with it)
Chapter 3 Judgment, Pass or Fail?
Shalem carefully climbed off Ben's hover board and propped it against the side of the house "Oh man, this is really not going to blow over well with Ben."
She winced as the shuriken dug in another half inch and made her way into the house, she had yet to figure out how she was going to explain this one to Ben and as she made her way to her room, Ben walked out of his and paused concern spreading over his face " Sha, where've you been? How did you end up with…those all over you?"
Shalem bit her lip and avoided his piercing gaze "I…I ran into a-" "You went back to the base and tried to take them on yourself didn't you?" Shalem nodded guiltily and Ben swore under his breath "In the kitchen, NOW. And don't you go anywhere else until I come back in there!" he turned and walked back into his room, no doubt to get his huge first aid kit and Shalem walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table, looking at the shuriken as they continued to burn through her skin.
A few minutes later Ben walked in, slamming the box he called his first aid kit onto the table and opened it up, tossing out various bottles and bandaging. Shalem winced at the look on his face and said cautiously "Ben? Look I'm really sorry, you were right, I was in way over my head and I should've done what you said, but I did make progress! The red fox, you remember right? Well I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about her anymore-"
Ben cut her off with a glare and she fell silent. He sighed, controlling his anger and then set to work on getting the shuriken out and treating the wounds. After a few minutes he said as calmly as he could "It's alright, I know you are aware that what you did was stupid, but I don't think you realize that you could've been killed today. Then where would you have been? You have to start using your head Sha or you'll end up just like Nate."
Shalem turned her head away, those words stung her worse than the shuriken and Ben saw the look on her face and instantly regretted saying it "I'm sorry Sha, I didn't mean to say that. It's just I worry about you but I am proud that you fought well. Next time we'll go together and work as a team, alright?" Shalem nodded but Ben could tell that she wasn't really listening. He sighed and finished up.
"Finally" Shalem thought, she stood up and muttered a thanks to Ben with the remark that she was going to get some rest and left him alone in the kitchen. Ben looked down at the floor and shook his head, wondering how he was going to fix this one.
Meanwhile back at the base…
Takeru looked up from his work, he had just got the chilling feeling that something was wrong. He turned off his music and listened, he didn't hear anything but still…something didn't feel right. He set down his tools and walked back upstairs and looked around "Nobody in sight…..Flammera?"
He looked around listening, still nothing, not a sound or anything, it was deathly quiet for the base. Takeru started to panic a little, Flammera always answered his call unless…he tore off toward her room and as he was sliding around a corner spotted a shadow of something other than was normal in the base and quickly stopped and pressed himself against the wall
"An intruder?..." then he felt something warm touch his foot and looked down, eyes widening…it was blood " No, it can't be.." he peeked around the corner and saw Flammera slumped on the floor in a pool of her own blood and a kunai lodged in her stomach. "Flammera!" he ran down the hall, tears flowing to his eyes and fell to his knees upon reaching her and called out her name again.
She didn't respond or even move and Takeru lifted her up off the floor and onto his lap. She was silent still…and cold to the touch, he couldn't tell if she was breathing or not and his panic heightened as blood gushed from her mouth.
He took the kunai out of her stomach and pocketed it, unable to stop the tears flowing from his eyes, cursing himself "Damnit, I just had to train her so hard and then leave her alone like that…how could I have been so careless?!" he recalled her words that morning" You've been training me to the point beyond exhaustion, if someone were to come and try to kill me right now, I probably wouldn't have the strength to defend myself."
He slammed his fist into the ground sending off a bit of lightning and continued to curse himself but as his tears hit her face she coughed up more blood and started to breathe shallowly,she was unconcious but at least she was breathing. Takeru called her name but she didn't respond but he tore off a piece of his shirt and bandaged the wound and jumped up and ran to the garage, careful not to jostle Flammera too much.
As he reached the garage he opened the door to one of his racing cars, carefully put Flammera in the back seat and threw open the garage door before hopping into the car himself and speeding off "There's still time and I know one person who has the right connections to save her. I just hope I'm not too late."
Meanwhile in a castle in the Arctic…
A white wolf sat on her throne staring off into space and twirling her crown on her finger "Arrrgggggghhhh, I'm so BORED! Isn't there anything to do today?" One of the guards coughed "Well Princess Yuna, you could visit Prince Manic there's no important work to be done here…"
"That'd be nice, but he's out on some mission and won't be back till late." she pouted, thinking to herself "Why couldn't I go? He better have a good explanation when he comes back" she glared at the letter he had left her "Out on an important matter, sorry but I have to go solo this time. I'll explain when I come back. Love, Manic"
The guard shook his head "Sorry your highness..." Yuna sighed "It's alright, I just hate being bored…I wonder how Flam-" she paused as she heard the screech of tires outside the castle and brightened "Speak of the devil, about time they came to visit". Yuna hopped down from her throne and ran to the front doors, throwing them open just as Takeru came running up the stairs carrying Flammera.
"Yuna! Thank Chaos you're here, no time to explain, Flammera needs a doctor NOW!" Yuna stood shocked for a second and then whipped around walking quickly towards a set of double doors "C'mon Tak, in here!" she threw open the doors and walked in hastily barking out orders as Takeru walked in and gently placed Flammera on a nearby operating table "Please don't let me have been too late".
A doctor rushed over and looked at Flammera, calling out to nurses to get supplies before turning to Takeru "We have to work fast and my apologies but I'll have to ask you to wait outside."
"But-" Yuna placed a paw on Takeru's shoulder "C'mon Tak, you can tell me what happened while they fix Flammera up." Takeru reluctantly walked out of the room and sat down on a nearby bench, placing his head in his paws.
Yuna cast a worried glance at Flammera before walking out herself and sitting down next to Takeru as the infirmary doors were slammed shut behind her.Yuna cleared her throat and looked over at Takeru "S-So what happened?"
Takeru sighed, looking at the blood covering his fur and tears reappeared in his eyes "I-…I'm not sure actually. One minute I'm working in the workshop and the next I find her in the hallway with this kunai lodged in her stomach" he pulled out the kunai and handed it to Yuna before pressing on.
" I sensed something was wrong and I had been playing my music too loud to hear anything before I felt like something wasn't right…I didn't see anybody around but the hall was scorched and it looked like there had been a fight…I was so stupid to have left her alone like that, especially training her the day before non-stop and knowing she didn't have the strength nor energy to be able to defend herself…and…and, this morning she'd said…-"
Takeru shook his head, unable to speak those words or anything else for that matter. Yuna patted him on the shoulder "It's alright, you can't blame yourself, you didn't know. And besides, I have my best doctors working on her, she'll be just fine."
Takeru looked up at her "Thank you Yuna, I appreciate your help." Yuna nodded "No prob, after all she is my best friend." Takeru smile, hope restored "So you really think she'll make it?" Yuna nodded but honestly wasn't so sure, Flammera looked so pale and had lost so much blood…
Yuna and Takeru jumped as a nurse walked out of the infirmary and over to them. Takeru stood up "Well?" The nurse smiled "She's just fine, but she will need a lot of time to recover, so it'll be strictly bed rest for her for about a week at least." Yuna sighed a breath of relief "Thank you very much, is she ok enough to go see?"
The nurse nodded and bowed "Yes, she's probably waking up as we-" The trio jumped as the doors of the infirmary were blown off their hinges by a large fireball "OI! What the hell is going on here, get your paws off me!" "Please miss, settle down we are doctors and only trying to help-" "Well where the hell am I, where is Takeru? He is sooooo dead!"
"Sounds like she's alright, I'm gonna go see her before she blows anything else up" Takeru smiled and raced off to the infirmary. Yuna sighed and shook her head "Guess I'll go see her too." she followed Takeru into the infirmary and stood against the singed door frame, watching as Flammera got Takeu into a headlock and started wailing on him
"What was that?! Your idea of a training session and who was that girl?! Someone you've been seeing?!" " Oi!No, I don't know what the hell happened or who that girl was. You think I'd actually send in someone that would try to kill you?! Do you have any idea how worried I was, I thought you were…were..." he paused, saying that he thought Flammera was dead was too hard for him to say.
Flammera hit him a couple more times before releasing him and sinnking back down on the bed, coughing. When she had quit coughing she looked over at him, all anger gone "Sorry Tak, I know better than that. It's just I got so worked up and-" she noticed Yuna standing in the doorway and Yuna smiled and waved" Morning miss blow my doors all to hell. I see you're feeling better." she walked over to Flammera's bed and the trio sat silent for a moment before bursting out in laughter.
"Guess you're not a morning person, huh?" "Nope, Tak knows that all too well. Don't ya Tak?" "Yep, the singed fur is a tell-tale sign." they sat laughing a few minutes more and then Yuna cleared her throat" So Flammera, what really happened to you?"
Flammera thought for a moment "Well, I was asleep when I heard the alarm go off and so I go to check it out and next thing I know I'm being tackled to the ground by some girl. About thirteen judging from her height and voice. I didn't see her face but whoever she was she must've been trained by an elite assassin she had good skills and if I hadn't caught her off guard by using my fire she probably would have killed me. She ran off after I covered her in my fire shuriken and she stabbed me."
Takeru gritted his teeth "I'm sorry, it was all my fault. I left you defenseless and-" Flammera held up a paw "It's fine Takeru, you didn't know. I just we had more to go on to find out who she was..." Takeru shook his head "Sorry but not this time, your in no condition to go looking for assassins or anything else for that matter"
"But-" Yuna shook her head as well" Nope, you have to get better and going around trying to find a potential killer is not going to help." she turned to Takeru "When Manic gets back you and him can go and search the base and see if you can find anything that might help us find the would-be assassin. Flammera, you're to stay put until you are fully recovered. Doctor's and my orders."
Flammera scowled but nodded "Fine, but I want to know every detail about what you guys find." Takeru nodded "That's reasonable, we can do that." Yuna nodded and laughed as Flammera yawned "Guess we better let you get some rest, we'll let you know anything we find right away"
Flammera nodded sleepily "Damn it's been a long day…" she yawned again and settled into the bed, Takeru placed a kiss on her forehead "G'night love, sleep well and get better soon you hear?" she nodded as she fell asleep. Takeru followed Yuna outside the infirmary where some of the guards had set to work on getting the doors repaired and back into place.
"C'mon Tak, lets see if we can get a hold of Manic." she walked off to the communications wing of the castle, closely followed by Takeru who said to himself "I will find whoever did this to her, they won't get away with this if I can help it".
End Chapter 3.
Fairy Mi: (asleep in chair from eating so many rice balls)
Michiru:(fuming) "Stupid Fairy, now I have to make more rice balls to replace the ones you ate!" (stares daggers at Fairy Mi)
Fairy Mi: (still asleep)
Michiru : . "OI FAIRY WAKE UP!" (flips chair over)
Fairy Mi: O.O"Ack!" (tumbles to floor) "Hey, what's the big idea?!"
Michiru: "You ate all my rice balls and my friends are coming over in less than an hour!"
Fairy Mi: (stands up dusting off dress) "And your point is?"
Michiru: "So YOU are going to make some more before my friends get here." (points to kitchen)
Fairy Mi: (scowls and walks off to kitchen muttering curses under her breath)
Michiru: (walks off to start chapter 4)