Disclaimer: I do not own any Klonoa characters… The others are mine, though.

Chapter 9: Follow the Leader

Guntz had slowed his quick pace by the time he saw the enflamed building. Klonoa was no where to be seen, so he got closer. He shoved his way to the front of the crowd grouped a safe distance from the inferno. Of course, it wouldn't be safe if the building so happened to collapse.

Such a thing seemed almost inevitable. The fire had the bottom half of the building engulfed. In was impossible for anyone to get inside. At least, it seemed so. Guntz still couldn't find Klonoa and desperately hoped the blunt kid hadn't done anything stupid. A conversation by two men in black and yellow shattered that hope.

"Did you see that kid that suddenly jumped at the hoes and into the building?"

"Yeah. He's only adding to the trouble. That's saying he even survived."

"Kids these days… always trying to be the hero."

Guntz' ear was twitching. Typical. He should've guessed that at first. Klonoa never wasted any time when it came to helping people. Casually, as if it were all right, Guntz ducked under the yellow line of tape holding back the crowd and made toward the burning building.

Almost immediately someone stopped him, though. "Hey, kid, what do you think you're doing?" a stern voice asked as a strong hand gripped his arm. Guntz was in no mood. He made no effort to hide his face as he turned on the man and flashed his fangs with a loud snarl. The man, alarmed, let him go.

Guntz suddenly sprang away. He repeated Klonoa's act by jumping in front of the hoes. But, instead of leaping through a window on the bottom floor, he hopped onto the fire truck with little effort. A white ladder on it had been stretched out to reach several feet up. The men nearby, startled, had no time to stop Guntz as he ran up the ladder with surprising speed.

At the top, he jumped through a window nearby and disappeared from sight. The men could only stare in disbelieve.

Inside Klonoa quickly made his way up a flight of stairs to another floor. He stopped to catch his breath. His white fur was nearly black with soot. There was no sign of a fire where he was, though he knew by now that it could come from anywhere at any time. He didn't know what floor he was on, but he had been running up stairs for an awfully long time.

Klonoa's ears pricked at a soft sound. It sounded like voices, many of them, quiet and scared. He followed the sound to a closed door. Slowly he opened it a crack and peaked in. Inside was a crowd of people. They all sat against the wall, shivering and whimpering. To Klonoa's surprise they all looked like little kids.

"C'mon! We have to keep moving. Quite sitting there like a bunch of cowards!" a brave boy ordered, the only one standing up. The children's response was immediate.

"But the fire will get us!"

"I'm scared…"

"I want my mommy!"

The boy snorted impatiently, as if he had been doing this for a long time. Klonoa opened the door a bit more, causing someone to finally spot him. "Who's that?" a girl asked loudly. The boy looked over quickly. "Who are you?!" he demanded. To the kids, Klonoa looked like a short man under a large cloak that covered most of his body. His blackened face helped hide it from sight.

Klonoa didn't know how to reply at first. "I'm here to help," he finally said, feeling awkward. "We don't need help!" the boy said defiantly. "You're probably no older than me, anyway. What makes you think you can help?" The boy was right to think Klonoa was younger than him. He was nearly a whole inch taller.

By now Klonoa was starting to feel rather short in this world, for he had already guessed he was older than this boy, though not by much. "You can't stay here, the fire's coming. I know, I came here from the bottom floor," he warned. "Yeah, right! We're not going anywhere. We're gonna stay right here!" The boy said stubbornly. It opposed what he had been telling the children earlier.

Before Klonoa could reply the boy suddenly got closer. "Who are you, anyway?" he asked. "My name is Klonoa," Klonoa answered. The boy suddenly laughed loudly. "Klonoa?! What a weird name! And what's with that cloak? You gonna tell me it's fire-retarded?" he mocked.

It's "fire-retardant." And I wish, Klonoa thought with a frown. But he avoided the question. "Come on. We have to get out of here," he prompted. The boy ignored him, looking closely at his face. "I'll bet you're part of this class! Who is that? Evan?"

"I'm here!" A boy suddenly yelled from the group, hand high.

"Mike?"

"Present!"

"Nick?"

"Here!"

Klonoa could sense the children's anxiety dying away. "Well, whoever you are, I'm the leader here! You have to do what I say," the boy grunted. Klonoa paused thoughtfully. "Okay. But a real leader would know that staying in one place in a burning forest is the last thing you should do," he said.

"We're not in a forest," the "leader" remarked sharply. Klonoa had obviously never been in a burning building before, but he guessed fire was just as greedy wherever it was burning. "The fire will spread and reach here soon," Klonoa repeated. "I know that! That's why we're going to move. I was saying that before! We're gonna go down to the front door," the boy said loudly.

"No! That's where the fire is!" Klonoa quickly objected. The boy looked annoyed. "Than where do you wanna go, smarty pants?" the boy asked. Klonoa's answer was immediate. "Up."

Somehow the boy finally agreed to go up and his loud yells encouraged the kids to stand and leave the room. The boy immediately went to the front, not allowing Klonoa to seem like the leader. Klonoa was sticking toward the middle of the group anyway, making sure no kids got left behind or lost.

A girl came toward him, smiling friendlily. "Hi!" she said happily, before suddenly introducing everyone. "I'm Susan, that's Mike, that's Evan' that's Amy…" It was almost as if she was obliged to this job. "And that's Kevin." She pointed at the "leader". Klonoa couldn't possibly remember all the names she had recited and kept his mind on only Kevin's. He feared this boy would cause more trouble later on.

Kevin suddenly stopped, causing the others to stop. Klonoa quickly made his way up front to see what the problem was. "We're gonna take an elevator instead of climbing all those stupid stairs!" Kevin announced. Klonoa stared at the two large metallic doors they had stopped in front of.

"Elevator?" he echoed. "Duh. Don't you know what an elevator is?" Kevin sounded as if Klonoa were committing a crime. He reached up a pressed a button almost out of his reach. It shone and after a minutes a ding sounded. The doors parted, revealing a rather small square room. The children quickly ran inside.

"Come on! Or you can climb those stairs by yourself if you want," Kevin prompted to Klonoa. Klonoa wasn't so sure if he wanted to trust his life with this odd machine. But soon another ding sounded and the doors began to close. Quickly, Klonoa leapt inside.

Kevin pressed a button and the elevator motioned. Klonoa could feel it lifting them higher. After a few minutes he was beginning to think that this was going to be much easier than he thought. Kevin had a smug look of satisfaction of his face. He glanced at Klonoa a few times, as if looking for some sign of defeat.

But Klonoa wasn't paying attention to that, nor had he ever been. He kept his nose up, smelling for fire. Alarm struck him when he suddenly smelt a wave of heat nearby. The elevator shivered slightly and suddenly stopped. "Stupid elevator. I guess we're gonna hafta walk the rest of the way," Kevin snorted.

The boy pressed a button on the wall and stood in front of the door. Klonoa gaped in alarm as a ding sounded and the door started to open. He suddenly leapt at Kevin, shoving him to the ground away from the door. As the door opened flames suddenly reached in from where Kevin had just been.

The children screamed and pressed against the far wall in terror. Klonoa looked up at the several buttons on the nearby wall, finally pressing one he guessed was right from the picture on it. Another ding came and the door slowly closed. The flames disappeared behind it, leaving the floor in front of it soot-black.

Kevin stared wide-eyed at the door, before quickly regaining his posture. "Get off of me!" he yelled, pushing Klonoa off roughly. He stood up, wiping his pants as if nothing happened. Klonoa felt it was time to teach this kid a lesson. He suddenly stood up. "This isn't a game, you know! This is real fire in a real burning building," he snapped.

"I know that!" Kevin yelled back. "Then act like it! You attitude is going to get someone killed," Klonoa rebuked. "You can't talk to me like that! I'm the leader! I'm class president. That makes me the leader! Right?" Kevin turned to the other kids.

By now they were glancing at Klonoa, clearly starting to think that he was the better leader. Kevin looked furious. "It's not about being a leader. It's about getting out of here with our skin still on our backs!" Klonoa remarked. But Kevin wouldn't listen. "I'm the leader!" The boy suddenly lunged to Klonoa out of pure frustration.

Klonoa swiftly dodged, but his loose cloak was a disadvantage. Kevin grabbed it a pulled back. It dragged Klonoa back a bit before coming free from his body completely. Kevin was about to dispose of the cloak and run for Klonoa again, but the sight stopped him in his tracks. Everyone stared at Klonoa silently, eyes wide.

Klonoa's revealed ears twitched nervously. Would they scream like those people had that other time? Would they attack him, too? He prepared for everything except for what actually happened. "It's him!" a boy suddenly said loudly, pointing. Klonoa looked at him. He was a bit shorter than himself and a few others.

"I told you! It's that rabbit guy who saved me from Bill!" he accused. Klonoa could hardly recall anything that involved this kid. "You guys didn't believe me!" the boy remarked. "Of course not, you said a rabbit beat up Bill and his gang," a girl replied. "Lookit! He really does have huge ears!" another kid said excitedly.

All at once the tension disappeared and the kids gathered around Klonoa. Kevin stayed where he was, though, staring. The children randomly threw several questions and comments at him at the same time.

"Is this a costume?"

"He's so furry!"

"What are you?"

"Are you an alien?"

"You look like my cat!"

"Do you have special powers?"

Klonoa blinked, now backed up against the wall, which was surprisingly hot. He looked at it, then at the doors. The fire was still out there, and it was only getting hotter in here. They had to do something. "Questions later. We have to get this thing moving again," he quickly said.

A kid turned to the button-filled wall. "Up," he said, pressing a button. But it didn't move. He paused. "Down?" He pressed a different button. The elevator shifted, then slowly started moving down. It stopped after a few seconds and opened. To Klonoa's relief there was no fire here, only smoke. They were probably only a floor below the blaze.

"Come on. We have to get to the stairs. Hopefully there's no fire there," Klonoa prompted. The kids obeyed without a word, though Kevin seemed a bit unhappy. For once the arrogant boy wasn't saying anything. The children automatically kept their heads low as they traveled through the smoke.

Klonoa's sensitive eyes were becoming watery from the smog, but he forced himself to look around for the stairs. It wasn't long before he found the familiar heavy door that distinctively led the whole set of stairs on every floor. He carefully put his hand on the silver knob, relieved that it wasn't hot. He pulled it open, motioning all the kids to go in first.

The smoke was becoming threateningly thick as they traveled up. Klonoa pushed his way to the front, not wanting any children to run into the flames that felt so close. "I can't breathe!" a kid complained. "My throat hurts!" Klonoa couldn't afford to attend to them. They'd all suffocate if they didn't get to a clear floor soon.

The whole staircase suddenly vibrated. Klonoa could hear something heavy falling from high above. He looked up the spiral of stairs, alarmed to see large rubble falling straight towards them. "Get back!" he yelled, pushing the kids down the stairs as best he could. A few tripped and fell, but it was better than being crush.

Dust filled the air as the huge piece of cement crashed into and right through the stairs in front of them. When Klonoa thought it was safe to open his eyes without sharp fragments flying in them, he was shocked to see that the stairs in front of them had been demolished. Like a broken bridge, a wide gap stopped the group from traveling further up the stairs.

We're trapped!

I love playing with Klonoa's personality. He can act like such a kid under normal circumstances, but when it comes to helping people he becomes so mature. He makes a pretty good leader when it comes down to it. Or maybe it's just because he's dealing with a bunch of kids…? -shrugs- Anyway, stick around for the next chapter which I've yet to give a name!