I am so sorry about being this late with updates! Holidays tend to get very crazy on my side of the world! Anyways this is a fairly short chapter but I plan to post the next one very soon, maybe even tomorrow.

Also, no character pole today, but I'll put it up next time so still vote if you wish!

All of my time recently has been consumed with my new found Doctor Who obsession, and that didn't really help the writing thing. So as a little apology present I added a new character.

Meet, Crowbar Girl.

~Tiruneko

X~32~X

"Honest?"

"What?"

"Honest, you won't drop me?" IA whimpers, recoiling the slightest bit and squinting her eyes closed. Her small hands grip the first monkey bar and her bare feet squeeze the cold and red painted ladder rings. Len's hands are wrapped around the child's waist, positioned to catch her if she happens to drop.

"Want me to promise you?" Len jokes with her. IA remains silent, shifting slightly and contemplating. She turns her head around to face Len, her lips pressed into a large childish scowl. IA nods. "I promise I won't drop you." Len says, removing one of his hands and placing it over his heart. IA shrieks in response.

"You promised, Lenny!" She yells.

"What?"

"You almost did it! You almost dropped me, and I didn't even climb yet!" IA yells angrily.

A chuckle comes from behind them on a bench under a very large palm tree. Len writes it off, lifting IA down from the ladder and watching her run off after Miku and Rin in the distance. Miki had suggested that the group go and get their car and bring their stuff back to her house. Then, after Rin decided to eat half the things in her fridge without asking, decided to kick them all out for a while until she gets off of work. That's when they ran into some car problems.

"No, nothing is wrong with the car!" Len hears his sister scream from off in the distance. As IA runs off towards the car and the two girls she stops, turns around, and sticks her tongue out at Len.

"I didn't drop her…" Len grumbles under his breath.

"I dunno that was pretty sketchy. If I was her, I wouldn't let you hold me if I was her after that." A female voice responds from behind the blonde boy. His eyes widen with horror as he slowly turns around to meet the owner.

It's not that he knows the owner of the voice, he actually could have no smaller clue, but it is the mere fact that someone spoke to him, actually spoke to him that was startling. Being on the run constantly from a fate of unimaginable pain requires a certain type of guard, a certain type of awareness. After all, you never know who you're speaking too. Len stops in his tracks, refusing to let his body move anymore towards the owner of the dry laugh.

"Notice everything… hear everything Len… Hear…" He tells himself quietly.

The soft clacking of computer keys, the whoosh of the sea breeze, birds cawing and chirping somewhere far off, the sound of heavy shoes scuffing the ground with a rhythmic pattern. There are no ominous sounds. He forces himself to turn around with a straight and pleasant face. After all, you never really know who you're talking too.

On the bench behind the play set is short girl, very short. She has luminescent green hair and resting on top of her head a pair of orange biking goggles. The green haired girl sits in front of a silver computer, clacking away ferociously at something. Her cat like eyes are narrowed in intense concentration, yet they dazzle with a type of playful air. Resting on the bench next to her is a mustard yellow, almost orange, crow bar. A black and many pocketed leather jacket hangs around her shoulders, and black knee high boots kick back and forth at the grass flinging green chunks of well landscaped earth everywhere. The girl stays silent, deeply focused on her laptop. Her fingers work with tremendous speed.

"I think she was over reacting." Len responds.

"Eh? You decided to respond, did you? Thought you were just gon'a walk away. Most people do anyways ya' know. Guess no one's too fond of talking to me." The bizarre girl laughs to herself, but not one second does she stop typing.

"Sorry about that, I have a lot on my mind." Len treads lightly with his responses.

"Those your friends over there, with the car? 'Could probably fix it for ya', 'f you want." The green haired girl says, slowly closing the lid of the silver beeping laptop.

"No thanks, I uh… I think we got it." Len declines nervously as off in the distance Rin is heard cussing her lungs out as she kicks the smoking hood. The girl laughs, standing and walking past Len. Even standing the girl is still bizarrely short. She drags the mustard yellow crowbar behind her and it tears up the grass occasionally hitting a stone or tree stump.

"No seriously we can handle it." The panicking blonde boy argues a little forcefully while trying to keep up.

"-maybe the battery is-Len?" Rin slowly lifts her head from under the car.

"Really, this is handling it?" The girl chuckles. "You, teal-ie, prop the hood open, you angry face blondie, hand me the screwdriver." The crowbar girl immediately begins barking orders out at the group whose faces are messed into confused gaping expressions as they stand around exchanging worried glances.

Rin reaches in her back pocket for her gun and Miku slowly moves to hold the car hood open.

"Well, it's your car, why 'you just standing there looking like that, especially you ponytail, you look like you got hit by a truck in slow motion." The green haired girl laughs to herself, throwing a hand out towards Len.

"I like her." Rin says, smirking and leaning against the smoking van. Len scoffs angrily.

"Glad you do, most people don't, but I guess that's my fault- wait no, that isn't my fault that's their faults. People's faults, not my fault. Screw driver now, bow-girl."

"I don't have one… wait bow g-"

"Don't have one? Sheesh what kind of person doesn't carry a screwdriver around with them? What has the world come too?"

Suddenly a loud and piercing shrill like scream erupts from behind fan. The loud roaring of flames fills the air and orange towering and leaping things rocket from the top of the van.

"Oo, that's not a good thing, unless these types of vans are meant to do that…"

"IA!" Miku screams, jumping aside from the hood.

On the ground the child thrashes, her skirt singed with flames and fire eating away her shoes. Her face is twisted into an expression of pure horror and pain, her eyes the brightest shade of crimson red Len has ever seen. Miku slowly crawls backwards on the ground mumbling an inaudible chant of some sort, her eyes wide in horror, reflecting the orange and yellow towers of flames in a red back round. Rin runs forward towards IA when the green haired girl separates her from IA's withering and flaming form.

"You need to move, the van's gonna-!" A deafening clap and a roar tear through the air and metal shrapnel and flames fly in the smoke filled air. The green haired girl feels a pair of arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pushing her into the ground. Her face is shielded from the flames, but the heat is all around her, wrapping her in a boiling feeling. Her lungs scream for air and she is pushed down further. Loud screams and incoherent shouts echo rapidly around. Out of the corner of her eyes the girl sees the yellow handle of her crowbar and her fingers reach slowly for it. Another hand cups over her fingers. The hand is unbelievable warm and a voice travels to her ears.

"Keep your eyes closed, the smoke and heat will damage them." The voice is strained and scratchy yet distinctly male. A loud yelp of pain comes from it, then it falls heavily on top of the girl with all its weight. After a few moments the girl with the green hair feels herself being pulled across the ground. The heavy force pinning her remains adamant, pushing down on her as metal shrapnel and small fireballs ricochet around them.

"Len, get up! Len! We need to go!"

"Wait..." The male voice comes again, "Are you hurt?"

"I-I-I…" A loud hacking noise follows. The pressure leaves and Gumi forces her eyes open. She has been dragged, rather clumsily, under the bench she was at earlier. Before her is the smoldering wreckage of the van and her crowbar beside her face. The figure of the blonde boy from earlier is on all fours a little ways away from the van. His shirt is curling up and is surrounded by flames and a large and jagged piece of what seems to be metal or glass sticks out of his back as he hacks and wretches on the floor.

"It blew up…"