It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. . .
By Dixxy
Chapter One: Late Night Driving
Disclaimer: I can’t remember the last time I did one of these. The reason for the disclaimer? We all know I don’t own RW (or else the action figures would be accurate {and all available. . .}, the series AND OAVs would’ve been on video years ago, and there would have been a load of merchandise to boot including coloring books, video games, ect.). The other main character here would be Robyn, who, duh, is owned by Ghost of the Dawn. This is a present for her because she’s nice, and, since I don’t have a scanner, I really can’t draw a picture. Well, I could, and I probably will if I ever get a scanner, but for now, she has to accept a Fanfic.
(Kento)
It was one of those classic "dark and stormy night" situation that usually has the characters (or, when done in first person, narrator) inside. Inside, all snug and warm by the fire (or radiator), sipping hot chocolate and telling ghost stories with friends. That or baby-sitting a bunch of psychotic brats. But either way, the people are normally inside a nice warm HOME.
That night, I was driving through a Niagara falls esque rainstorm.
Two of my friends and I had decided to go on a day trip to another part of Japan. There was some sort of an Anime convention going on (Rowen had spent the day dressed a Trowa Barton of Gundam Wing) that the three of us wanted to attend. We didn’t buy anything, but we got to meet some great names in the business. It was great.
But somewhere on the drive home, I must’ve taken a wrong turn, because I found myself on an unfamiliar road by the time the rainstorm had started in the form of a light shower. Now that it was raining cats, dogs, and every other quadruped on the planet, I could just barely see a few meters in front of the car, which wasn’t good. I tried to act like I had everything under control, but I think both Robyn AND Rowen saw right through me. They knew I was just as scared as they were. We were lost, none of us had a cell phone, and there wasn’t any sign of so much as a gas station anywhere.
"Kento, I’m scared," Robyn said from the front side passenger seat. She looked out the window, curled up on the seat. "I wish Cye was here. He’d tell me not to be scared and that everything was going to be okay. And he would’ve made sure that you, Kento, HADN’T MADE THAT WRONG TURN!!!!!"
I snapped my head over to look at Robyn. "I’ve been to this region of Japan maybe once or twice. Give me a break. We’re bound to find something soon and we’ll just call either my parents or Cye’s mom and have them come pick us up," I said. I sighed heavily, calming down. "I’m sorry, Robyn, I shouldn’t have snapped like that at you. It isn’t you’re fault we’re lost."
"That’s because it’s your fault, Kento," Rowen mumbled miserably from the back seat. "Had you just stopped and asked for directions like Robyn told you two, then we would’ve all been home by now. I would be watching that special on aerospace dynamics, you would’ve been stuffing your face, and Robyn would be doing what she does best."
"What is it that she does best?" I asked.
"Shaving years off of Cye’s life span, what else?" said Rowen.
"I’m not that bad," Robyn defended.
"Robyn, think about this one for a second. Between all of the things that ARE you fault and those that AREN’T you’re fault, it’s a wonder he hasn’t dropped dead yet," said Rowen. "I mean, everything with Nago, and Lady Ebony. . . you’d think that Cye would’ve had a heart attack from that alone. But no, oh no. It gets WORSE, yes it does. Like that haunted house thing you and Kento pulled. Even I wouldn’t do that!"
"That’s because you’d be too chicken to do it," I said.
"HEY!"
"Besides, Rowen, a lot of the things that have shaved years off of Cye’s life expectancy come directly from you," I said. Robyn started to laugh, and Rowen frowned from the back seat. "Hey, it’s true. He doesn’t like all of the ‘advances’- joking or not- you put on Robyn. Like the night before you went in for surgery- I told you what Cye’s plans for you were and so do you- you got to that car very quickly when you realized an infuriated Britt was after you."
"Yeah, so Cye worries almost as much as Ryo does, what else is new?" he said.
Robyn tapped my shoulder. "Um, Kento?"
"Yes?" I asked.
"The gas gauge. It’s getting. . . low."
I looked at the gas gauge to see the little pointer was getting dangerously close to empty. "Aw, crap," I said. As if on cue, the engine sputtered and spew, wheezing and coughing as it begged for more fuel. "Double crap." I pulled the car over to the side, parked it, and turned the engine off.
"Don’t tell me we’re out of gas," said Rowen.
I sighed heavily, resting my elbows on my knees and putting my head in my hands. "What else can I tell you?" I said. "We have no phone, no fuel, it’s raining cats and dogs, and we’re lost on top of everything else. . . we’ve got ourselves a genuine problem. Unless we can find a pay phone and reach one of our parents or legal guardians, we’re screwed."
"Just great," said Robyn. "Now what?"
"I don’t know," I said slowly. I looked outside (err. . . TRIED to look outside- stupid rain) and bit my lips. "There’s no way to tell if there’s any sort of a pay phone close by. We’re going to have to get out and walk."
"In the rain?" Rowen whined.
"We could always leave you here," said Robyn, reaching for the door.
"No, no, no, that’s okay, I’ll go too, I’ll go too," said Rowen. He laughed lightly, opened the door, and stepped outside. I gave Robyn a thumbs up for getting Rowen out of the car and opened my own door. I stepped outside and closed the door, finding myself soaked even before the door was latched in place. Rowen looked rather. . . upset about being in the rain and somehow resembled a drowned cat. Robyn ran over from her side of the car and joined us.
I looked around. I had pulled the car over on a highway out in the middle of nowhere. Not so much as a telephone poll to tell us which way would lead us back to civilization. It was dark out, we were all wet and cold, and it didn’t look like out situation was going to improve anytime in the near future.
"Kento, I don’t like this," Robyn said, shivering from lack of warmth.
"Then we do something about it, that’s all," said Rowen, starting to head back towards the highway. "If we keep walking, we’ll have to find an exit or something soon, but we have to keep walking. It doesn’t seem as if this road is used very often and I doubt that sitting around here waiting for someone to show up is a wise idea. So, our best bet is to keep walking until we find either some sign of civilization or a place that we can spend the night in, like an old diner or a cave."
"Ooo, a cave, fun," said Robyn. "Sounds like a WORLD of un-creepy joy. NOT!" She then began to follow Rowen, her shoes squishing with each step she took. I took off after them and the three of us began our journey to try and find some hope of getting home.
I’m willing to bet over an hour passed by the time something came up. Robyn was just about done and was dozing off on my back as I piggy-backed her down the road. Rowen was in the lead, walking in silence with his arms folded and his shoulders sunken. Not at all the Rowen I was used to. He was usually such a. . . not-sulky person. There are a lot of things that Rowen can be described as, and depressed is not one of them. But seeing the scariness of our situation, I didn’t blame him.
Handling demons, crazed scientists, and a multitude of other things that fall into the supernatural field is one thing. Rowen and I could take a monster or something in that case. We were given mystical armors and I’ll be damned if I don’t use it when I think it can correct a bad situation. But being lost. . . there wasn’t any way our armors could help us. Yeah, Rowen can fly, but he couldn’t fly with both Robyn AND me. Ryo OR Sage, sure, he’d done that before, but. . . I wasn’t sure how he felt about that much extra baggage.
"Doing all right back there, Kento?" asked Rowen.
I blinked. None of us had spoken much since Robyn started to fall asleep and I’d offered to carry her. I’d been so used to just walking through the rain at that point and just concentrating on balancing my weight and Robyn’s that it took me a while to answer Rowen’s question. "Yeah, I guess," I said. I yawned. I was starting to fade, too. "I think I’m ready to take a leaf from her book, though."
"Okay, we just need to find a place to stop for the night," said Rowen. He turned to face me, never stopping in his tracks. "Keep going. Once I spot something I’ll tell you, all right?" I nodded. Rowen smiled and gave me two thumbs up before turning around to start searching for some sign of refuge.
In the distance, I saw a bright flash of light briefly light up the sky. "Damn," I said. "Rowen, the storm’s just gone from a rainstorm to a full blown thunderstorm. There was lightning in the sky. And, and there aren’t any tall things around except for us and that’ll make us targets for a lightning strike!"
"Ah, so you WERE paying attention in science class," Rowen mused.
"Rowen, we’re in danger of being electrocuted and all you can care about is that I was awake long enough during a science class to remember something about lightning?" I said. "I was serious! We need to find shelter NOW before we know what it’s like to be on the wrong side of Sage’s sure kill."
"Can you run?"
"Sure," I said.
"Then let’s pick up the pace a little," said Rowen, beginning to jog. Shrugging, I took off after him. Luckily for me, Robyn was so tired that she didn’t seem to notice all the jostling she was being put through as the speed at which we traveled suddenly changed. Instead, she just tightened her grip around my neck, forcing me into a rather uncomfortable run.
In the distance, I saw some sort of a building. Rowen saw it, too, and immediately picked up the pace. A building, finally! We’d see if anyone was there, or, better yet, if there was a phone there. Then we could at least call one of our parent(al guardian)s to tell them we were all okay, just completely lost without so much as a slight clue as to where we might be.
We closed in on the building to see it was an old abandoned diner of some sort. Rowen walked up a few steps to the door. He tapped it, then nearly jumped out of his skin as the entrance fell over, landing with a smack on some sort of a floor. Looking nervous, Rowen stepped inside, then signaled for me to follow.
It was almost as if we’d stepped right back in time. The diner looked just like the diners in the movie- kitchen in back, bar infront of that, a few booths and tables, and a checkered linoleum floor. An old clock hung on the wall, stuck permanently at twenty minutes of nine. Almost everything was covered in a thick blanket of dust, resting almost as if once the dust were removed it would be a bustling, active place again.
Rowen was sitting on one of the booths, shivering in the cold. I laid Robyn down in the booth facing Rowen’s after I cleaned it off a little, causing a thick cloud of dust to rise. "I’m going to go and see what’s out back," I announced. "Blankets, maybe some non-perishables if we’re lucky."
"Is that really all you can think about? Food?" asked Rowen.
"Look, we don’t know where we are and because of that we don’t know how far away we are from civilization. This might’ve not been a diner- it might’ve been a truck stop. And truck stops really ARE out in the middle of no-where. If we’re on our own for a few days, we’re going to NEED rations," I said. "And if you didn’t notice, I said BLANKETS before I said NON-PERISHABLES."
"Even non-perishables go bad after a few YEARS, Kento," said Rowen.
"Yeah, yeah. . ." I said, looking down at the floor. My eyes widened as I recognized something odd. A set of footprints led from the doorway and wound all to way to behind the bar, all of them dry (our footprints created a sort of paste from all the rainwater we dragged in). "Hey, Rowen, did you walk out back anywhere?"
"No, why would I do that?" asked Rowen.
"There’s some footprints over here," I said. Obviously getting curious, Rowen got up and walked over to where I stood, kneeling down before some of the foot prints. He looked up at me, his face set into a sort of neutral expression. He stood up and folded his arms. "Well?"
"You’re right- they’re fairly fresh," said Rowen. "I’d say we aren’t the only people who’ve been here in a long while. Those can’t be more than a few days old- there’s almost no dust covering them. That means that there’s a chance they’ll be coming back and we can figure out where they’ve taken us."
"Good," I said. "Unless of course like us they got lost and we only looking for a phone or something. In that scenario, we’re pretty damn screwed if you ask me, Rowen." I walked behind the counter and let out a cry of success. "All right! They ARE coming back after all!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Rowen, coming behind the counter with me. I pointed at my find, which was a small collection of cookies, cereals, and other foods in recent, almost dust-free boxes. There were also some bottles of sake, water, and what appeared to be a cooler. "So?"
"Somebody obviously plans on coming back here," I said.
Rowen gave me a small snort. "I had no idea you were so. . . smart."
I gave him a dirty look. "Gee, Rowen, thank you so much for your confidence in me," I said. "And for your information, because my virtue is Justice, I have an interest in the JUSTICE system. I happen to like reading murder mysteries and I remember all the stuff that the detectives point out as clues."
"Okay, okay, hold your horses, Kento," said Rowen, holding his hands up in defense. "You just surprise the rest of us sometimes whenever you come up with something really intelligent. And don’t act surprised at OUR surprise- you act like a macho muscle-head all the time and you know it. Of COURSE we’re going to think that all the lights aren’t on upstairs."
I fumed at him. "Well, they ARE all on upstairs. I don’t HAVE to flaunt my knowledge around. I DID graduate with the rest of you, in case you forgot. I DID pass all of my finals. And I bet that you don’t know the first thing about managing any kind of a small business, which is a skill I’ve known how to do for a LONG time!"
In my anger, I slammed my foot down onto the linoleum floor, and, to my surprise, the titles all broke and found myself with one foot about a foot into the floor. I let out a yelp of surprise as it happened. Rowen took my hand and pulled me out. In curiosity, the two of us looked down into the whole I’d made.
Down in the whole was a large collection of pillow cases, all of them stuffed with something other than pillows. The two of us exchanged looks before Rowen spotted a not-as-filled back and pulled it out of the whole. He opened it and gasped, pulling out a handful of money.
"What the hell?" I said. "Who’d leave money out here in the middle of nowhere?"
Before Rowen could answer me, we both heard the undeniable clicking sound of someone cocking a gun. Slowly, we turned around and found ourselves face to face with the barrels of two guns. I could hear Robyn whimpering somewhere nearby.
"If you care for your own safety and the safety of the girl, you won’t run, you won’t scream, you won’t fight back, and you’ll do every last thing we say," one of the gunman said. "Turn around and put your hands behind you backs. Now."