Young Writers Society

Lena

Wait, what did he just say? Suddenly, I felt my jaw slacken as I slowly came to realization of the statement that had come out of Taki's mouth. Jorden didn't show up. I knew it, something in my gut was telling me that something was wrong about this situation, but no, I had to ignore it and continue on with my life. Damn. As my thoughts porcessed one particular one popped in to my head.

Lena sighed and laid her head down on the counter of the kitchen. We just stood there for a couple minutes in silence, each thinking about there own thing.Then, somthing then popped in to my head. "Hey Taki." I questioned.

"Yeah? What is it?" he said.

"What about Cait...?"

((Sorry not really sure what to write and my business is over now. So hopefully I'll be able able to post more rapidly now.))

(I guess you and Kitty can do a bit where they think Ren is as good as dead and decide to break the news to Cait. But when they get there they find Ren and Motoharu, the new character, already there. That's when Ren can explain their current situation.)

***Yay! I'm back! lol ***

Cait

She had relaxed and settled down in the hospital bed, which was a little uncomfortable, but still... The nurse had come in and given her a dose of pain medicine, which effectively knocked her out. She fell asleep and took a nap.

"...shouldn't disturb her," a woman whispered.

"It won't take long," Ren insisted. He sounded eager to talk to her.

"But, dear child, she is asleep!"

Cait grunted. "Not anymore, I'm not." She opened her eyes and sat up, wincing when her side seared again. "Ren? You okay? Did it work out?"

Ren

"Not exactly," he said as he entered the room with another kid.

Cait's attention immediately turned to the newcomer with the bright Hawaiian shirt and spiky hair. She had never seen him before. Was he one of Ren's friends? "Ren, who's this?" she asked.

"This is Motoharu, another person who's with Necessarius." The newcomer smiled and gave Cait a nod. "It's because of him that I'm still alive right now."

"What do you mean?" Cait asked. Already she could feel a knot forming in the pit of her stomach.

Ren sighed and said, "Jordan didn't show up at the meeting."

(Hey Undertaker, Kitty, can you two get Takeo and Lena over to the hospital sometime during your next posts? I'd like to have all the characters together so Ren only has to explain their situation once.)

Takeo

"He asked me to tell her, if... if something goes wrong." Taki said solemnly. That was not something he was looking forward to. But he owed it to the guy. Ah, man. "Grab your coat."

"But nothing's gone wrong yet," Lena said, even as she went to get her things together.

"I know, and hopefully it won't, but I'd feel safer with us all in the same room. And then. And then if he fails to show, at least she'll have people there with her." Lena nodded and they didn't speak for some time as they made their way to the hospital, each lost to their own increasingly despairing thoughts. Because Taki didn't doubt that when they were done with Ren, they'd be coming back for the rest of them.

And maybe, just maybe he'd be able to save the girls. But he was missing that extra power punch more than ever, especially now he knew that he'd given it up and gotten nothing in return.

Lena

Silence. That was all I heard as Taki and I walked to the hospital to tell Cait about what had happened. Our pace getting there was a slow, leisurely walk. Not that I minded of course. I mean how could we tell her something like that? Do you just come out and say it? Several thoughts that were much like this one passed through my head. The different scenarios that could happen also came in went. None of them seemed good.

After a couple minutes of walking, we came to where Cait was staying at. We went inside the hospital and found the room that Cait was staying in. I stared that the door, willing it with everything I had to go away. Unfortunately and much to my dismay, it did not. I let out a deep sigh. I saw Taki turn his head to look at me. Glancing over at him, I saw in his eyes that he did not want to do this either. Numbly I reached my hand out and put in on the door knob. Suddenly voiced erupted from inside. I froze and turned to look at Taki, this time confusion on my face. One of those voices was Cait and the other was...no way. Bursting through the door, Taki and I laid eyes on no other than Ren.

"Ren, you're okay!" Takeo nearly shouted. He had expected never to see the kid again after their talk on the phone, but here he was in the flesh with not a single scratch on him.

"I have Motoharu to thank for that," he replied. "If he hadn't shown up when he did I wouldn't have lived through the night."

Takeo and Lena both looked at the kid in the bright shirt. "Were you two able to fight off those two people?" Lena asked. If they had fought them off, then this kid must be one hell of an esper.

Motoharu laughed. "Fought them off? Are you crazy? If I tried to raise my hand against those two I'd end up as a pile of minced, burnt flesh. I've got even less power than Ren over here," he said as he stuck his thumb toward Ren. He frowned a little at the comment, as if Motoharu was implying that being weaker than Ren was an astonishing feat.

"If you didn't fight them, then how did you get out of there?" Takeo asked.

"I know Kaori and Stiyl through work. I just happened to be in the area when they were about to flay Ren alive." The joking tone in his voice did not add up very well with the imagery his statement conjured and ended up making everyone feel uncomfortable. Even so, he didn't seem to care. "I talked them out of it and managed to strike up a deal for you guys that wouldn't end up with them killing all of you."

For a moment everyone felt relieved that they wouldn't have to worry about those two magicians trying to kill them anymore. But the relief soon turned to worry when Takeo asked, "Wait, what kind of deal?"

Ren sighed a little before explaining, "Basically, we have to work for Necessarius now. If we refuse, they'll kill us."

(Can someone post please?)

(...Please?)

***Oops, I guess it was my turn! lol ***

Cait frowned. "Wouldn't they kill us anyway?" she asked, not too thrilled about the entire situation. "And what about Jordan? How are we going to get the orb back?"

Ren shrugged, unable to answer immediately.

The girl sighed, wincing when the action pulled her side. She would probably be down for a little while with that wound she had received... She would have to pay Styil and his band back for that, at the very least...

**Sorry...all I've got right now...***

(Oh, and Ayumi, don't forget to have Jordan look for Accelerator.)

"So, what do they want us to do?" Takeo asked, obviously not happy with the current state of affairs. He had been hoping tonight would be the last they would have to deal with these people.

Motoharu stepped forward. "I'll fill you in on that," he told him. "We want you kids to use whatever skills and connections you have to locate the second Zodiac Stone that has popped up within Academy City."

Everyone but Ren perked up. "A second one? You mean there's more of these things in the city?" Lena asked.

Motoharu nodded. "At least two that we know of, the one you guys lost and this new one. If you kids help us find this thing we'll let you off the hook scot free. But this information wasn't too hard to come by, so it's very likely that the person your friend Jordan is working for knows about it too." He smiled. "It's a sweet deal if you think about it. If you help us we'll let you go without a fuss, and you'll also get the chance to lay the beat-down on that guy for betraying you. I know it's pretty redundant asking this since you don't really have a choice, but what do you say? Will you help us?"

(A little off topic, but does anyone knew a better term than "tree farm"? Prefferably something that's only one word.)

Perhaps 'Orchard' would work. That's what we'd call it Also, I will hopefully be able to post tomorrow after work so in the evening some time. Soorry it's so late in coming but I'm having to fight for free time at the moment!

Takeo

It sounded like a crappy deal but they didn't have much choice so Takeo and the others slowly gave their consent and after that there wasn't much to talk about. Everyone wished Cait a speedy recovery in their own way and gradually began to file out of the room, though some stuck around longer than others. Taki was one of the first to leave. He was feeling exhausted after the day's emotional roller coaster and just wanted to get home and kick back for a little while before the treasure hunt began.

How were they meant to find these things anywa? It wasn't like they were easily defined and going around asking after orbs with zodiac symbols printed on them would take forever. And be very dull and unsatisfying. There was only one orb Taki wanted and the other side had it. Man. That power boost was so far away now. And he knew it shouldn't be important and he shouldn't be lusting after something that almost got him killed, but Taki just couldn't take his mind off that small, smooth sphere.

It was mostly an unproductive evening which suited Taki just fine, though he did make a few half hearted phone calls to antique shops. The orbs were old so that seemed as good a place to start as anything but as evening closed in, no useful leads had turned up so Taki happily wrapped himself up in bed and drifted off to sleep.

(So, I guess now we need to get all our characters to bed and have them get ready for the next day. In the morning they have to go to school for their last day of the semester. It's important that they get there because that's where they're going to find the next orb. How they're going to find it, you just leave up to me.)

Lena

I stood there and watched as Taki and some other people filed out of the room. I then had decided that I wanted to just go home tonight and get some rest because of school tomorrow. Telling Cait that I hoped she felt better soon and waving to Ren, I then proceeded to walk out the door.

The way home was filled with restless thoughts about anything and everything that had happened since the beginning of this. The more she thought about it the more she realized that she never regretted getting involved. If she had not she would have never talked to Ren or Cait, and she would have never met the real Taki. A small smile then made it's way to her face as she thought about how much fun she had had with him that night.

Finally, I had made it home. Walking straight to the bathroom, I took a quick shower and then went to lay down on my bed. Snuggling in to the bed, I fell into a dreamless sleep.