A/N: Ah man, writing that was surprisingly fun. I think I might get quite a bit of enjoyment from doing this. I just hope it's as fun for the ones reading it. Anyway, now that the romance session is over, it is time for the main plot to begin! I've also discovered that, to my dismay, asterisks don't translate between the original document and the story's final copy, so I can't use those as a divider. Oh, bother. Anyway, I will continue and try to keep a consistent standard of quality. Enjoy! I don't own canon characters, yada yada yada.

The song for this chapter is "Land Of Confusion" by Genesis (more recently covered by Disturbed for you less nostalgic readers).

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Passion was all that was taking place here. Me, her, the woods around us. It was all there was, the bliss of being totally isolated from the world and it's problems with nobody but her to soothe my troubles. When the embrace finally broke, the moment was slightly awkward. But after a time, she smiled, as I knew she would. I could see it.

"Well, Louie, that was, um, pretty...um..." She was nervous out of her mind. I simply smiled just about as awkwardly as she was and replied.

"Yeah. It's ok, Serena. It felt...good." Good was, of course, an understatement for the feeling I had felt. I put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she seemed calmer. But maybe our moment of raw emotion wasn't between just the two of us after all. In the woods, a figure could be heard coming ever closer to us, breaking through bushes and undergrowth alike. Serena soon heard it as well, and we stood as the figure, no, multiple figures, came into the clearing. It was Caleb, and two of his cronies to boot. Two normal boys, they were just his usual flankers.

"Serena, what are you an' this creep doin' here?" He said, obviously suspicious. She and I looked at each other, attempting to come up with an explanation as Caleb looked on with rising suspicion. But before the confrontation reached a head, one of his cronies tapped Caleb's shoulder as if to remind him of something, a gesture to which the bright red-haired swan nodded. "Serena, listen up. You too, I guess. That weird guy in town, he's trapped a bunch of people in the saloon and wired bombs there. He's holdin' 'em hostage! Serena, your mom, and you, your mom and brother are in there too!" My heart fell at the news. It was like a weight had been dropped onto the top of my head. I couldn't believe this. Serena and I exchanged dumbfounded expressions, disbelieving of this news. "Well come on, let's go!" Demanded my rival. We didn't hesitate.

Mere minutes later, all of us exploded from the woods onto the edge of the town. The town was like in an old western film, it was just a solid road with houses and other buildings lining each side. The saloon would have been easily spotted even if there wasn't a giant crowd gathered in front of it. It was the biggest building in town. We all ran toward the crowd, pushing to get to the front. Like us, the others were all desperately trying to get past the town militia, trying to get to their loved ones being held inside.

Theres too many men
Too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Cant you see
This is a land of confusion.

"Let me in! Mom needs me!"

"Sara! God, let me help my baby!"

"Please, please, my grandpa needs help in there, let me in, please!"

But the militia would not hear it. Pushing to the front of the crowd, I tried to talk to the leader of the local militia. Since the official law enforcement were way too far away to be of service in an acceptable time frame, the town militia was organized by the founders of the town to protect it. So, of course, when I finally got to the front of the crowd, I found myself trying to reason with my own father, Argus Swann.

"Dad!" I pleaded, "Mom's in there! We gotta get them out!" I was screaming over the panic. But dad wouldn't listen.

"I'm sorry, son. I want to save everyone in there too, but that man...he won't let anyone get in without some kind of object he's demanding."

"What? What kind of 'object'?"

"Something from the bank. The mayor-" He was briefly cut off by a sharp outburst of cries as the perpetrator appeared at the second story window. Not much of him was visible, as he didn't want to get shot and have his plans ruined. My father, myself, and everyone else glued their eyes to the villain up above.

"Listen up, people! Especially you, mayor! I want that object from the bank! The deepest vault! 2V-L! If my demands are not met within the next three hours, I will pull the trigger on this detonator and everyone in this building will die here today!"

My eyes widened. 2V-L was the vault they had...

"Serena!" I shouted. I needed to find her. Maybe she remembered as well. I looked for her in the crowd, but I couldn't seem to find her anywhere. "Serena!" I repeated. No sooner was I about to give up hope than a hand grabbed my shoulder, but it was too strong to be hers. I turned around and saw it was Caleb. He said something to me, but I couldn't distinguish what it was. There was no time. I may not have liked Caleb, but this time, we had to team up for something more important. I grabbed his shoulder back and motioned toward the woods. It took a minute, but he soon got the message and followed me into the woods.

Ooh superman where are you now
When everythings gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, the men of power
Are losing control by the hour.

"Alright, songbird. What the hell have you got goin' out here?" He asked, as pushy as ever. I just kept going with him in tow, explaining little bits on the way.

"A long time ago, Serena and me were out in these woods and we found this thing. It was a forgotten tunnel from ages and ages ago that runs under the town and goes right through the deepest level of the bank. I bet if we follow than tunnel, it'll put us out right in that vault he's trying to get that thing from." After hearing the explanation, Caleb went along with it. We both knew time was of the essence.

When we finally arrived at the place, it was still there, just as we had left it all those years ago. Weird, I never thought I'd be coming to this place with just Caleb. I wouldn't ever have thought about that before today. The tunnel on the outside appeared to just be a wood-framed square hole in the ground, kind of like the entrance to a mine, but vertical. After we leapt into it, it soon became apparent that the ground leveled out fast, although when the elevation became steady further in, it was still proceeding at the slightest downhill angle.

We walked for another few minutes until we reached what I was looking for. There, painted in white on the wall of the damp maintenance tunnel was the code, 2V-L. Just like before. This was the vault he was after. The stone wall that comprised the rear part of the otherwise secure vault was insecure and unstable. There were bricks with holes in them, and ones missing altogether.

"Now, how to..." I trailed off, feeling the wall for an insecurity or anything. At least, I was until a shout of "Move!" from behind prompted me to get scarce fast. Caleb smashed into the wall with a steel pipe that had been lying on the floor. The wall shattered piece by piece as he took to it with the piece of metal.

When the obstruction was gone, what lay within greeted the two of us with open arms. Gray, unfeeling stone walls stared us in the face as we gazed upon the room's single occupant. A small package wrapped in cloth sat there, just waiting for somebody to take it. It looked like it had been there for a long time.

"He went through all this just to get this thing?" I said, confused. Caleb was a bit less hesitant. He walked forward and took up the package, shedding the cloth from it to reveal a metallic object with a few openings, which were covered by strong-looking glass of some kind. In truth, it looked like a more advanced car part. Caleb put it in his coat and walked back to the entrance, where I grabbed his shoulder.

"Caleb, that guy went through all this just to get that thing. If he did all this for something that small, do you think we might be unleashing something terrible? What if..." I trailed off for the second time in the last few minutes, still trying to come to terms with my thoughts. I was conflicted, as much as a man can be. But my conflicts were put paid to as Caleb grabbed my shoulder back.

"Listen, Lou-ser. If we don't get this thing up to that guy now, he's gonna kill all our people in that place. I'm going. You gonna try an' stop me?" Said he. With that, I made up my mind. Whoever this guy was, whatever he did with 'the object' probably wouldn't affect us anyway. We ran as fast as our legs would carry us back to the surface. However, when we reached the entrance to the tunnel, we realized that getting back up the dropoff would be a chore. After a few failed attempts, I came up with a plan.

"Caleb, boost me." I requested. At first, he looked bewildered, until he got it. He clenched his hands together and boosted me up to the ground above. Once up, I crouched and prepared to give him a hand up when a sharp uproar in the commotion from the town was heard.

"Just go!" He demanded. I didn't give it a second thought, and bolted off back towards town. When I arrived, it seemed I was almost too late. The people were panicking more than ever. The stranger must have been getting impatient. I needed to hurry. I couldn't get in through the front, for the mayor and the town militia would stop me. I could go in through the back. That was it. I sped off towards the back door of the large inn building.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands were given
Use them and lets start trying
To make it a place worth living in.

I found the door surprisingly unlocked. Slipping in through it, I made my way through the kitchen and into the main room. The main room of the saloon was as was to be expected. It was vast and somewhat grand-looking, comprised of two stories. The bottom floor was the main part. Tables were arranged here and there, with a bar beginning on the far right wall (from the entrance) and going all the way left until it hit the staircase. The staircase was arranged against the left wall of the bottom floor and went up to the second story, which contained little. A small landing was at the top of the stairs, but other than that, it was nothing but a ledge circling the main room, and connecting to the different personal rooms above. Now, of course, there were people of the town on their knees all throughout the lower floor.

The door through which I entered was behind the bar. I made my way into the main area through a small section of the counter acting as a door for going to and from the outside. I looked around and tentatively shouted "I'm here! I have the object! Please let everyone go!" All eyes turned to me. The hostages looked at me as they may have at Jesus had it been he who walked through that door. I looked through them until I found who I was looking for, my mom and brother. I walked towards them until a booming voice broke the eerie silence.

"You, boy! Come forth, bring me the object now!" He commanded, the voice coming from the top floor, just at the top of the stairs. I looked and saw him there. He was an ape, complete with sideburns and everything. His black overcoat concealed what surely was an intimidating body structure. In his hand could be seen a shiny metal object, obviously the trigger for the explosives. I cautiously made my way up the stairs toward him before coming to a stark and humbling realization. I didn't have the object. Caleb took it. In the heat of the moment, I had run off, forgetting that I wasn't the one who had it. It's a good thing I had pure white feathers, because if I had anything darker, it would have gone chalk white then and there with the petrification that now filled me. I continued my path up the flight of steps, trying to pretend like everything was ok. When I finally did reach the top, I found the man, about my same height, staring me in the face.

"The object?" He demanded in a gruff voice. I looked at him, absolutely devoid of both thought and action, as my mouth hung open. I began to spout out the word "I" when the other voice spoke from the corner.

"I got it. You after this?" Said Caleb. He was here! But there was no time for relief flooding my heart. Too much adrenaline right now. I smiled as he presented the shining thing to the villain, who gazed at it hungrily, like a meal he had been awaiting for a long, long time.

"That's it! You, boy, give it to me!" He demanded pushily as my rival threw the thing to him. He caught it and smirked as an evil laugh escaped his wicked lips, facing towards me, and away from Caleb. It must have been just what Caleb wanted, for I caught the action he was making. He made the move so hastily that I couldn't process what he was doing at first. In a flash, he pulled the pipe from earlier in the tunnel out from behind his back and rushed the offender. I tried to scream to stop him, but he wouldn't have heard it even if I had had time.

Instead of hitting the man in the back, he did what I guess was the best thing under the circumstances. He aimed straight for the detonator in the man's left hand. He hit it with a sharp cracking sound and the detonator went skidding toward the far wall just before he retaliated.

The events that happened in the next minute or two I don't exactly recall, for it all moved as a blur rather than a fluid event in my memory. All I know is that I joined in the fight afterwards and the militia began to move people out of there. Caleb got disarmed at some point. Apparently, this guy was stronger and more skilled than I, or apparently Caleb, was prepared for. We fought him hard, but our advances just weren't enough. I remember panicking after being knocked from the fight as he made a move toward the detonator. The people weren't out yet! They were still moving them to safety! I also remember that I was too late. The man escaped through the back door I had used to enter.

I don't know how I got out. I might have run, or been dragged out by somebody. It made little difference, because I can still see the horrified faces of the ones left as the man destroyed that building, innocent people and all. That I remember quite vividly. The faces, the wave of heat and sheer force as the building burst into what could have been mistaken as hell itself. Those were the images that burned into my memory as I...I...

I disappeared into darkness.

I wont be coming home tonight
My generation will put it right
Were not just making promises
That we know, well never keep.

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Gawd, that chapter was hard to write. Ugh, there was just so much I wanted to get done in this chapter, and the way it came out just felt repetitive and...rushed is the best way to put it. But I did like the way this song fit with the theme of the chapter. That's why I picked it. Overall, I disliked writing this chapter, but I feel the flow might be improved from here on out. This was just to get through an important plot point, and an important point in the character development of our eager young protagonist. Anyway, more reviews, please! I need to know what I can do to make you guys like my stuff more! I need a posterity, and you're the only ones who can give it! Review away!