Title: Anger over Fear

Summary: Shirako and the rest of the teams go to have a nice relaxing picnic, but at the end of the fun, Mother Nature decides to test them and there friendship. Can Shirako save Porkchop from his own fear, or will the teams lose another one of there friends.

Parings: ShirakoXPorkchop friendship.

Disclaimer: Don't own Acceleracers, and all that

Second chapter: walking with friends

Hey there. I want to thank Zeni, lol I can't believe I spelled Karma's and Taro's name wrong. Thank you for your review, hopefully you enjoy this chapter as well. Anyway I tried to fix my mistake in this chapter, so hopefully it's a bit better. Alright, like I have said before, sorry about spelling mistakes, and I would love to hear all of your thoughts on this story.

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Chapter Two:

Walking with Friends

Shirako turned his engine off, and with it the sweet music he was listening too. He got out of the car, and made sure that the cupcakes that he had spent two houre on making were tucked under his arm. He looked around and spied the others sitting around a wooden bench with old red paint that had come off during the long years through the weather, and started towards them. Kurt, Markie, Porkchop, Vert and Karma were all there, with Porkchop, Markie and Kurt on one side and Vert and Karma on the other side. Looking at the watch around his wrist, he realized that there was about another 5 minutes before the time on which they had all agreed to meet. As he passed Porkchop, Shirako turned his head and gave him the brightest smile he could mange.

"Why you little good for nothing…" Porkchop growled under his breath, while giving him a glare.

"Yo, guys. Karma, how's it going?" Shirako asked, ignoring Porkchop as usual.

Karma was at the moment wearing a dark blue smug sweater. It was a nice sweater that showed off her shape, but was not overly tight. She was wearing used jeans, and had a jacket tied around her waist for later use. Over all, she was dressed for the weather. Considering that it had been raining for the last few days, it was not as warm out as people would have liked. Thought, it was not to cold out either, which meant that if everyone just put a sweater on they should be fine, Shirako was wearing his usual over-big pants with a belt that held them up. He had on two long sleeved shirts, both black and his hand gloves. And to top it off his heavy white vest and his earphones, which at the moment were on low. Kurt and Vert both had jackets on and jeans as well. Kurt was still wearing his orange sunglasses, of course so was Shirako. Porkchop was wearing a big Black sweater, with some scull patches on the arms, and his usual pants. Markie had a long black coat and was wearing black gloves.

After they had met with the Acceleracers, Tezzla had created a coating for Markie's robot arm. It was basically like a glove, but a lot more realistic, so much so that you could only tell it was a glove if you really looked closely. Of course, Tezzla didn't have mush of a choice of making it or not, considering the look everyone was giving him when Tork proposed the idea. Kurt was a bit afraid of how others would react when they saw Markie's new arm. Just by the simple fact that the technology was way out of human's rate of technology. Anyway, they figured it was better to be safe then sorry. Least Markie end up as some government project, trying to gain the new technology in his arm. So now, Markie did not have to hide his arm in front of other people. Of course when he was alone with the Teku and metal maniacs, he preferred to not wear the glove. Overall, everyone was dressed for the weather.

Karma gave him a quick glance, and then rolled her eyes at his little smile to Porkchop. Of course if you looked closely you could see the corners of her mouth curve just the slightest bit upward.

"The others should be here soon. Here, just put the food in the center of the table, when everyone else gets here we can walk thought that path over there and have a picnic in the clearing behind the trees. It's about a 15 minute walk from here, but it's a really nice place. There is a river that runs right beside the area."

As Karma spoke, she pointed out toward an area of trees. Sure enough there was a path that went right thought the middle. At the moment, they were in a clearing right now, with a few trees standing tall around them. There was a jungle gym a few feet away for the kids, which at the moment had about 4 or 5 running around; and the bunch of tree with the path was meant as a trail for people to walk their dogs. Shirako himself had never been here, since it was a bit far from his house as a kid, but Karma had said that it was a nice place to have the picnic.

Shirako placed his cupcakes with the rest of the food, while at the same time took a quick glance at what the other's had brought. There were sandwiches, nachos, brownies, a container with different kinds of fruit, and three different jugs of juice. Over all, it looked pretty good. Shirako then sat beside Karma, while listening to Vert explain this new game that he had just bought to Kurt.

It wasn't long before all the other made it. Each one of them of them wearing either long sleeved sweaters, or light jackets. Lani came with nice fitting Jeans and a red jacket. Nolo took one long glance then quickly looked the other way. Shirako always found it funny how both of them liked each other, yet at the same time was shy about it. Surprising it was Taro who was the last to arrive.

"Jeez man, what took you? Blow a tire or something?" Monkey yelled out as Taro made his was across the clearing. Like the rest of them, he had parked his car on the side of the road, and had the food he was bringing tucked under his arm. Shirako noticed just as a side note, that even thought his jacket looked worn out and a bit fried, if you looked closely you could see that it was made with very good quality. Taro always had good stuff, yet at the same time you only noticed it if you looked closely. Taro had never shown off being rich at all.

"Sorry, got stuck behind this slow old couple out for their Sunday afternoon drive."

"Next time you should just drive them off the road, it would make everyone else a bit happier" Markie laughed

"Anyway," Tork said to get the rest of his teams attention "how about we start moving, or do you guys plan to eat here, with the little kids?"

Vert gave a small chuckle, but looked the other way when Markie and Porkchop both glared at him. "Come on Teku, you don't want to be left behind." Nolo said, taking Tork's order as a que to get his own team moving as well.

Everyone got up from the bench that they had been sitting at, graded their food and started walking toward the path thought the trees that Karma had pointed out earlier.

"So, like are there going to be wild animals, or what?" Monkey said while looking around nervously.

"Ha Ha, don't worry Monkey-man, just let them try to came and get us, I'll teach them a lesson about hunting myself." Porkchop said loudly.

"There are no wild animals here; there are too much people here. The most you'll get is a few rabbits, birds, and squares." Karma said at the front of the line.

Shirako just smiled and tried not to trip on the rocks and sticks that littered the path. Thought it was worn away from people walking on it, there were still tree roots that you had to look out for, and the occasional big rock or two. The path wasn't too small, so there was about three of them walking side by side. There was a bunch of big trees that gave testimony that this place had been left alone for hundreds of years before humans had decided to turn this into a park for people. Vert gave another cure on Shirako's right, and smacked his hand.

"Fucking bug's" he said as an explanation to a few of the other's looks.

"How far do we have to walk for?" Taro asked, on Karma's left.

"Not too far now, just up this hill, and then there's a bridge we have to cross and that's it. The area's on the other side of the bridge."

"Hey. I can hear water!" Nolo said.

Shirako paused his music, and sure enough, there was the sound of rushing water. It had been dimmed down due to the trees, but the closer they got the loader the sound became.

"So, um, just how much water is there? Are we talking a tiny little river, or one of those big rivers?" Porkchop asked. Shirako noticed just how Porkchop seemed to grow just the tiniest bit tense at the thought. Tork and Monkey both gave Porkchop a look as well, seems he wasn't the only one to notice.

"Well its fair sized, it's a lot bigger now then what it usually is since we have had so much rain the last few weeks, but the bridge will hold us, so there nothing to worry about."

Porkchop seemed to not believe her, but he took a deep breath and then let it out slowly.

Soon enough, as they followed the path, they came to the bridge that Karma had been talking about before. It was about as wide as the path, so three people could walk side by side without felling cramp. It was made out of golden tinted wood that gave it this nice newish glow to it. All of the wood that was used was left as round timbers that gave the bridge a thick look to it. Porkchop gave it a look, and relaxed. As they stepped on the bridge, even the floor was used with round timbers, it was a bridge you would expect to see with a wooden cabin on the other side. But it held everyone up, and looked to be quite a few feet long.

"You better watch it Teku, cause if you annoy me you're all going over." Markie threatened with a smirk.

"We'll see who it is that goes over, little brother" Kurt teased back with a smile.

Under them the river rushed with a loud roar. The edge of the path that they had been following had steeply gone right down into a fast moving body of water. Looking over the sides of the bridge, you could see that the river looked to be quite deep. But like Karma had said, it was only a few feet under them, the river was a lot higher then it usually is due to the amount of rain that they have had over the weeks. Porkchop was walking right in the middle of the bridge, and was a good few meters in front of them, due to the speed that he was walking at.

"Hey, just so you all know, if you jump, I ain't gonna save you" Nolo yelled with a laugh.

"Darn, guess I'll just have to find someone else to save poor little me" Lani replied with a smile

"Don't worry Lani, if it was you that fell in the river, Nolo would be right behind you to try and save you from cretin death" Vert yelled out and laugh. This resulted in Nolo turning bright red and Lani going a slight pink from pride.

"Alright little children, we're here" Karma said with a smile. And sure enough, after they had crossed the bridge, there was a clearing a few feet away. Markie gave Kurt a look, and then ran as fast as he could to the clearing. After that everyone was running trying to get there first, before the others could follow. Shirako joined the fun, if only to see if he could beat Porkchop. As he passed Karma and Taro, he smiled and wave, they both just rolled their eyes.

"Aww fuck man" Vert yelled out from behind. Since he was the last to start the race, he was lagging behind. Shirako was running at full speed, and jeez man, the clearing looked a lost closer then it actually was. Yet Shirako was a lot faster then he looks. He was slim and small; he figured he had to have something that put in the same leagues as the rest of the other big guys out there. Soon enough, he passed both Nolo and Lani who had decided to join in the fun. Monkey was coming up too, and Porkchop was just a little bit ahead of him, Shirako smile, he could make it. Of course there was no way he could catch Markie and Kurt considering the head start they both had. One quick glance showed him that though Markie was winning, Kurt was right behind him and giving him a challenge for the title of the 'fist one to make it to the clearing.' Shirako looked back at Monkey, saw that Porkchop was only one or two steps ahead, and then Shirako put a burst of speed on. His legs were already starting to burn, considering the sprint that he was doing, but he ignored it. It would be worth it when Porkchop saw him race by him. Come on, Shirako hissed to himself, he passed monkey, who gave a small yelp of surprise and then he was right beside Porkchop. Porkchop gave him a look, and tried to pick up his speed. Yet he as already panting, and speed was not one of his strong skills in strength. Shirako waved to him and raced ahead. Number one rule, don't slow down. A lot of people make that mistake, and end up having the person that they just pass, pass them back. Shirako kept his head up, and saw that both Markie and Kurt were already sitting down and waiting. He smiled to them as he finally ran up to them. Shirako paused, and tried to even his breath out. He had a great urge to sit down, but decided it might be safer to stand up so that he can jump back if Porkchop tries to do anything.

"Shit man, you don't look that entirely fucking fast." Markie said, referring to Shirako's speed of passing almost everyone in front of him.

"Ha, I think that all it took was the right motivation" Kurt chuckled while looking at something over Shirako's shoulder. And sure enough Porkchop came panting up behind him

"Don't think this is the end you little punk. It was just a lucky chance that you won, nothing more." Porkchop growled, or at least tried to between panting for his breath.

Shirako smiled, he had already evened his own breath out for just this reason alone.

"Don't tell me you're out of breath already Porkchop, you better be careful that you don't get out of shape."

"What!! Why you little I'll show you who's in shape when I break your fucking legs!!"

Shirako jumped back when Porkchop made a grab for him.

"Whatever man" Shirako replied with a laugh as he put his music back on, and then just to throw salt into the wounds, made sure that it was loud enough for Porkchop to hear each beat clearly.

"Jesus Shirako, when did you get so fast?" Lani replied as she and Nolo caught up with them. They both look around for places to sit, and moved to sit down on Kurt's left. Porkchop and Monkey were both sitting beside Markie, while Porkchop was biting down on the bone around his neck, a clear sign that he was pissed. Nolo looked at Porkchop, turned his head, smiled and shook his head at Shirako's little display of friendly competition.

"So who won?" Nolo asked while looking at the two brothers.

"I did of course." Markie said

"The only reason you won is because you said so the minute I was about to pass you" Kurt argued back

"I was the first one to make it to the clearing, and if you would look around, you would see that we are in a clearing." Markie snorted.

"Well now that you all have made it safely to our picnic site, would you guys like to start eating, or should we have another race for you guys" Karma said a few feet away with Taro and Tork right behind her. They had all decided to let the younger racers have their fun while they just walked to the clearing.

Tork chuckled "Good idea, how about the first person to jump into the river wins?"

"Ha ha, very funny asshole." Markie said with as much sarcasm as he could master

"Eating sounds good right now. And anyway, wouldn't want to embarrass Markie with a defeat now would we." Kurt joked. Which resulted in him getting a punch to the arm from Markie.

Yet as they all laughed and got ready to have their picnic, away from their eyes and ears, none of them would notice that the bridge they had all just walked across gave a small morn, and moved a few inches to the right. And how with that move, the sturdy ground that had held up that bridge ever since it was made, sunk down to the earth as it became more like mud then ground , weighted down with all of the water it had socked up from the rain.

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Hint Hint, Nudge Nudge. :P I'm sure you can all figure out what's going to happen in the next few chapters. Anyway I hope that you enjoyed my work, and hopefully another chapter will be coming up soon!!