Thicker Than Water: Part 7
AUTHOR’S
NOTE!
(Sorry, I was bored.)
Ok, this chapter takes place about two months after chapter six and after Death of Boredom II, Poor Phineas. Anubis and Ryo took Sage, Cye, Rowen, Dais, Cale, Sekhmet, and Yuli home after they took everyone else back to Buffalo. Tred was actually really injured after the battle with Phineas (plus all his energy was drained) so he has been recovering from that. The girls have been “training”, going to school, ya know, normal teenager stuff. Phineas has been who-knows-where, trying to figure out what actually happened that fateful day. As he stayed away from Kasei, her influence over him slowly went away. Kasei hasn’t been heard of for awhile. According to my sources, she’s making another plan to attack Tred (one that will work). She’s been sending her henchpeople to test the Sailor Ronins strength while she plans away. While not on missions, Athene and Ebiru are trying to improve their magic spells and Darker Shadow is in his room, reading his books.
There ya go, an AUTHOR’S NOTE! It’s a lot easier to write this than to actually put it in the story, besides, Sonic wants Phineas back and Kasei wants to have a long part in the story. Ok, now that I got that out of the way, back to the story. And if you haven’t read Death of Boredom III, you’d better, because you might be very confused if you didn’t. Well... not very confused, just somewhat confused.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Tred has an e-mail address for all you Tred fans (he has an ego, he thinks he has fans). Soooo, if you want to e-mail Tred, e-mail him at Tred_the_Man@hotmail.com. If you want to, you can send him comments and flames and such, because you sure as hell haven’t been sending any to me! Come on people, throw me a fricken’ bone here! It’s hard to please everyone when NOBODY tells me what they think! And if clicking on the e-mail link thingy on the page is too hard for you, then go to the guestbook and put your comments there! It’s another place that NOBODY uses except for us! Every Sailor Ronin PLUS villains have written in it! (Shadow doesn’t count, he’s evil, and Athene doesn’t have the internet.) So hurry up and write people, because I know that eventually you will read this and then you have to send me or Tred or Amanda something, or Shady will come after you! And trust me, you do not want to meet him. Mike is an evil creature, who doesn’t talk, he only glares. He glares until you melt! So be afraid and send me comments! (Darker Shadow, Mike, Shadow, and Shady are all the same people. As are Ebiru Shizaku, Ebiru, Lil Phoenix, Sonic, Dani, and Danielle. No, not that Danielle. I'm the other Danielle. There's two of us. S'why I get a different name in the fic.)
CHAPTER
SEVEN:
The Return of Phineas!
^_^
“I never thought I’d be happy to see this place.” Phineas set down his bag and took out a map. “Transit Road leads to there, so if I follow it... Here it is! Now to do something I should have done a while ago.”
* * * * *
Tred was lying on a lawn chair in Candice’s yard. The girls were all “training” so Tred had to be there to play referee.
Tred was right at the good part of the book when someone sat down on the chair next to him.
He turned his head and saw Danielle (AUTHOR’S NOTE!- another Danielle! This makes three of them!), Candice’s younger sister. “Can I help you?”
Danielle smiled. “Nope.”
“Do you need anything?”
“Nope.”
Tred frowned. Then he got up and moved to the other side of the yard. Danielle followed him.
As Tred tried to lose Danielle, he noticed the other Danielle pointing and laughing at him. “Just wait ‘till I get you back.”
“What did ya say?”
“Nothing.” With that, Tred ran to his apartment as fast as he could, leaving Danielle behind.
* * * * *
Tred walked up to his apartment and then stopped in the doorway. Something seemed wrong. He walked around, checking his stuff. Everything wasn’t quite in the same place that it was normally in. He kept searching, until he walked into the TV room. There Tred found the source of the problem. Sitting on the couch, watching one of Tred’s anime videos, was Phineas.
“What are you doing here?!” Tred scanned the area with his mind. There didn’t seem to be anymore of Kasei’s people, but one could never be sure.
“Oh, I’m staying here. By the way, hi!”
“WHAT?! You can’t just... what do you think...why?”
“Because. Haven’t you noticed that I wasn’t with the others when they attacked you? I left them a while ago. I need to sort out my memories and you’re the best person to help me with that.” Phineas suddenly looked a little sad. “Besides, you’re my brother and I miss you.”
Tred stared at him in disbelief. “You do not! You hate me! And you stopped being my brother when you sold your soul to that witch Kasei, you possessed, red-headed freak!”
“Hey, that’s mean. Mom always told you to stop being mean to me.”
“I’m surprised you remember that. I thought you lost your memories.”
“Not all of them, and they weren’t lost. And they’re coming back.” Phineas got off the couch and began to beg. “Please, please, please, please let me stay here! I really, really need your help and if you don’t help me, I’ll be left to wander the earth all by myself and I’ll turn into a pathetic person with no home and no family that cares and you don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“And what exactly am I supposed to tell the others? That one of their enemies just turned good one day and is staying here?”
“Nooo, say I’m your cousin or something. Look! I can change my appearance!” To prove this, Phineas did just that.
“So that’s how your hair is red now. It used to be darker.”
“No!” Phineas changed back and stuck his tongue out at Tred. “It’s natural! It changed. Just like me! I’m a good guy now!” He stopped to think about that one. “Damn, I am good now, aren’t I?”
“I wouldn’t say that. But you’re pathetic enough already, I wouldn’t want to see you even worse, so you can stay here for now. But wait here while I go and try to get the girls to agree to let you stay.” Tred turned around and walked out of the room.
* * * * *
“Wow. Yet again we got nothing done.” Tracy began to clean up the yard. Jackets and toy weapons were strewn all over. It was pretty warm for January, it was only about 35ºF out. No snow covered the ground, which was an oddity in itself. Amanda had declared it a almost-perfect winter day (to be perfect there would have to be snow) and that nobody was allowed to train on an almost-perfect winter day.
So Erica, Danielle, Candice, and Amanda had gone into Tracy’s house, leaving Tracy to clean up after them.
“Screw this... those slobs can pick up later.” Tracy saw Tred coming out of his apartment, so she decided to go bug him. “Hi Tred!”
Tred seemed startled. “Oh, hi Tracy. Where are the others?”
“Around.” Tracy tried to look at Tred, but he kept avoiding her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Really? Then why are you acting so weird?”
“I’m not acting weird, you’re probably just imagining every...” Tred stopped as Phineas ran outside.
“Hey, Tred. While you’re talking with them, make sure you say that... oops.” Phineas tried to teleport away, but Tracy reached out and grabbed his jacket.
“Wait a second. Tred, why is this loser here?”
“Umm, well...” Tred decided to try the honest approach. “He is going to stay with me for a while.”
“What?!”
“Why is everybody having that reaction to me?” Phineas’ question was met by a glare from Tracy. “Eep!”
“It’s a trap! Finny tried to kill you the last time you met and now you’re letting him stay here!”
“Tracy... it’s not like that...”
By this time, the others had heard Tracy’s yelling and had come out to see what was wrong.
Amanda was the first to notice their new guest. “Finny, whatcha doin’ here?”
“Tred said I could stay here so I’m staying.” Phineas stuck his tongue out at Tracy, who gave him the pinky.
Tred thwapped both of them. “Stop it. I say he’s ok, and I am the ultimate authority in deciding who is good and who is bad. So he stays.”
“But I am the ultimate authority of this house and I say that he goes.” Tracy gave Phineas another pinky behind her back. (A.N.- The pinky is a thing we Sailor Ronins do, as opposed to the middle finger. We just find it more insulting and a lot more funny because most people just give you the oddest look when you give them the pinky. ^_^)
The other girls had been discussing the turn of events. It was a tough decision- New person to play tricks on, or no one to bother.
Danielle stepped in between Tracy and Tred. “We agree with... Tred! It’s gonna be interesting to have Finny around.” She gave Phineas an evil smirk. He let out another eep and hid behind Tred.
It took a second, but Tracy realized what Danielle meant. “Ohhh, ok! Sorry, Finny. You can stay.” Then Tracy walked away. The others went with her.
Phineas turned to look at Tred. “Ok, what just happened?”
“You’ll get used to this, don’t worry. That was ‘normal’ behavior for them.” Tred walked back into his apartment.
“Wow, I wonder what happens when they act odd.” Phineas shrugged his shoulders and followed Tred.
* * * * *
“Ok, so if we get Finny to stand right about... here then...” Candice looked at the plans that Erica and Danielle were drawing. “Are you finished yet?”
“We’re getting there. We would be done a lot sooner if somebody would help us!” Erica pointed to Amanda, who was brushing her cat.
Amanda glanced at the plans. “They look ok, you don’t need me.” Then she got up and left the room.
Danielle and Erica looked at each other and then at Candice. “What was that about?”
“I guess she was bored.” Candice went back to designing the ultimate prank on Phineas.
* * * * *
“Come on, Hunter, let’s go see Tred.” Amanda walked along the path to Tred’s door. It had snowed since Phineas had come, so Tred had shoveled a path through the snow. As Amanda walked into the apartment, she realized that neither Tred or Finny was there. “Ok, time to go find them.”
When she went back outside, Amanda saw their footprints leading out past the pond, into the woods. “I wonder why they’re out here.” She followed their tracks further into the woods. After walking for a bit (the woods behind her house is quite large) Amanda came upon the same clearing that she had received her gem at. In the center of the clearing was Tred. He was floating a few feet from the ground. He appeared to be meditating. At the edge of the clearing was Phineas. He was leaning against a tree, with his arms crossed. He looked extremely bored.
Neither of them had noticed Amanda yet. Time to fix that. “Finny!” Amanda ran up to him and wrapped her arms around Phineas’ waist.
“Ack! Get it off me!” Phineas reached around and pulled Amanda off him. Not realizing that it was her, he then flung her into a snow bank. Hunter, seeing that her owner was in danger, jumped out of the bushes and attacked Phineas.
“Help!”
“Hurt my cat, will ya! Get him, Hunter!”
Tred opened his eyes and observed what was going on. He smiled as Amanda punched Phineas in the eye. Finny should have sensed her coming, he needed to practice using his powers more.
Seeing that Amanda and Phineas were not going to stop their fight anytime soon, Tred encased them each in a force-field, suspending them both in the air. “Having fun?”
“No! This little brat hit me!”
“It wasn’t my fault, Finny attacked Hunter!”
“You’re stupid cat attacked me!”
“Stop it!” As they both fell silent, Tred checked their injuries. Amanda and Hunter were fine, but Phineas’ left eye was becoming more swollen with each passing moment. Tred sighed and released them. Amanda easily landed on her feet from where she had been suspended, but Phineas crashed into the snow. “Amanda, why are you out here? It’s too cold to wandering about the woods.”
“I’m sorry, but I was bored and I wanted to find you... And what do you mean, it’s too cold! You’re out here and you’re not freezing! I’m a born and bred Buffalonian! I live for the cold, I thrive on the chill! If all of us were trapped outside in a blizzard and it was 50 below zero, I would be the last to perish...”
Tred quickly went over and put his hand over her mouth, to stop the ranting. “Ok, I’m sorry. If it makes you feel better, I’m really cold. Let’s go in and I’ll make you some hot chocolate.”
“Whippee!” In her haste to get back to the house, Amanda stepped on Phineas, who was still laying in the snow. “Come on, Finny.”
“Itai!”
“Yeah, you really need to train more.” Tred shook his head and helped his brother up. “And you need some ice on that eye. It really looks bad.”
“Is training the magical cure for everything?” Finny pushed Tred away. “I’m not hurt. Go away.”
Phineas brushed the snow off his clothes and teleported away, leaving behind a confused Tred.
* * * * *
Tracy had been sitting next to the fireplace, reading, while the others had been outside. She looked up as Amanda opened the door for Tred. “Back so soon?”
Tred nodded. “Yeah, well... we had a bit of a problem.”
“I beat Finny!”
“Amanda...”
Amanda smiled smuggly. “Well I did! And Hunter helped!”
“You’re not supposed to be proud of that!”
Tracy sat there and blinked a few times, before picking up her book and leaving the room.
“What’s her problem?.” Amanda picked up her cat and began to brush it. “I guess we won’t be able to play any jokes on Finny for a while, right Tred?”
“Yeah...” Tred thought back to what had just happened. “Amanda, how were you able to hurt Finny that badly?”
“I dunno.” Amanda set the cat down and flexed her arm muscles. “Maybe the non-existent training we’ve not been doing is finally paying off.”
“I highly doubt that. Go put on the tea kettle for me.” When Amanda was gone from his sight, Tred went over to the bookshelf and pulled down one of the books that Mia had given him. “Something odd is going on here...” Tred muttered to himself. “And I don’t like it.”
* * * * *
“Ha ha! Look at that!” Amanda dragged Tred over to the window. “It stopped snowing!”
“What?” It was a few days after Phineas had been hurt, and it had snowed nonstop the whole time. “It’s about time.”
“Yeah, I thought it would never stop.” Amanda ran past Tred, and returned with her jacket. “Let’s go outside!”
“No! You can’t go out, everything is covered with snow.”
“You act like it’s a monster. Come on, Tred!” Amanda took hold of his hand and started dragging him toward the door. “It’s fun to play in the snow!”
“Noooooo!”
Even though Phineas was in the library, located at the other end of the house, he could still hear Tred’s protests loud and clear. He shivered and picked his book back up. “Better him than me.”
Danielle looked at him from where she was playing a game with Erica and Candice. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Ok...” Danielle tossed a stuffed animal at him. Finny caught it with a little portal and dropped it back on her head. “Finny! You can’t do that!” She picked up another stuffed animal, everyone was sleeping over that night so there were plenty to choose from.
As Danielle was about to throw it, Tracy stopped her. “I’m going for a walk. I have my cellphone with me if a problem comes up. No fighting.”
Everyone put on their innocent faces. “Bye!”
* * * * *
Ebiru peered into the crystal again. “Wow, look at all the snow. I love snow.”
Darker Shadow snorted. “What’s so great about it?”
“It’s pretty and fun and...” Ebiru was going to say more, but Sorceress Kasei walked in, with Athene. Both siblings bowed before her.
“You can get up.” Kasei walked over to the crystal. “See this? The stronger Sailor Ronin is off by herself. Bring her to me. And make sure that you don’t fail this time.”
“Yes, Kasei.” Shadow quickly teleported himself and Ebiru a small distance away from where Tracy was walking. “Come on, let’s go. We can’t fail this time”
“But I want to play in the snow!”
Shadow sighed and thwapped Ebiru upside the head. “No!”
“Eep!” Ebiru began to walk a little faster through the snow covered streets. “And don’t worry, I won’t fail. You can, but I won’t.
* * * * *
It began to snow softly a few minutes after Tracy had left the house, but it didn’t discourage her. The full moon was illuminating the snow, so it glittered as it fell around her.
“This is amazing.” For some reason, Tracy was enjoying the cold weather more than usual. Being from Buffalo didn’t mean a thing, it was just a little joke that everyone who lived here tried to keep up. Tonight the snow seemed to energize her, making her forget all the problems that the world was facing.
“Hello, Halo.”
Tracy turned around to find Darker Shadow and Ebiru standing behind her. “How do you always do that? Nobody else can sneak up behind me like you evil guys can!”
“It’s a trade secret.” Shadow prepared his attack, waves of black energy began to swirl around him.
“This time, we won’t run away until you are defeated.”
“Would you like to know how many times I’ve heard that from you goons?” Tracy pulled out her gem, but before she could transform, Ebiru knocked it out her hand.
“Don’t think that you’re powers will help you out this time.” Ebiru raised her hands above her head. “We’ve become stronger and much more powerful. Starburn!” Ebiru released her surekill at Tracy.
Tracy managed to jump out of the way at the last second. As she dove to the ground, she pulled out her cellphone. But, when she opened it up, all Tracy heard was static. When Tracy got up, she noticed that all the energy that Shadow had summoned was surrounding them, effectively blocking her cellphone. Darker Shadow was standing off to the side, holding Tracy's gem, leaving Ebiru to win the battle. "Ok, this isn't hopeless yet, I can still win. Even without the gem!"
Tracy faced Ebiru again. "You think that the gem is what gives me my power! Ha! You're wrong!" Tracy pulled out a plastic bag from her pocket. "The true source of my power is... Pocky and Pixy Stix!" Tracy opened up a handful of Pixy Stix, and dumped the sugar in her mouth.
"What are you doing?" Ebiru tried to launch a spell at Tracy, but it missed. "Get over here and fight!"
"Hee hee, no way!" Tracy ate more Pocky and checked her watch. "Just a few more seconds!"
"A few more seconds to what?" Ebiru heard a rumbling behind her, as a huge trunk come up from behind. "AAAHH!"
"Hee hee, snow plows. Always on time." Tracy broke into a run for her house.
"No you don't!"
Shadow just watched as Ebiru chased Sailor Halo around the block.
"Pitiful. Oh well, can't worry about that now. My mission is to get the gem back to Kasei... Hey!." Shadow felt something smack into the back of his head. "If that's another cat..." Turning around, he saw a teenage guy, with blonde-brown hair and brown eyes. He was holding a snow shovel, which he had just used to hit Shadow. "What is this?"
"You're on my property, weirdo! Now get off!" Instead of attacking with the shovel again, the new guy pulled out a remote control and a pair of sunglasses from his pocket. He put on the glasses and hit one of the buttons on the remote. All the spotlights in his yard turned at once, blinding Darker Shadow. As Shady dropped the gem, the guy quickly scooped it up, and ran away before Shadow could recover.
* * * * *
"I really think that we give these kids way too much credit." Athene walked through the upstairs hallways of Tracy and Amanda's house, at the same time she was working on her laptop. "They haven't even detected me yet! Not that it's a bad thing..."
She typed furiously on her laptop. "Plan A is underway, Mission 1 was completed. Note to self: Steal their printer for Ebiru before leaving. Ok, the others should be done with their parts by now. Time to wrap it up and we should be finished."
* * * * *
"Get back here!" Darker Shadow shook off his temporary blindness and now was trying to get the gem back.
"Too slow!" The boy dodged Shadow again. "You can't catch me!"
"Give me the gem!" Darker Shadow tried to hit him with an energy blast, but he was too fast.
“Loser!” The guy ran into the Stockwell’s backyard and through the pine trees that surrounded it. “You will never get me, haha!”
“Yeah, that part I heard.” Shadow growled something about stupid kids that keep getting in the way.
Jace (A.N- That’s the new person’s name) ran through the yard until he reached the pond. There he saw Amanda and Tred. Amanda was putting the finishing touches on a snowman and Tred was sitting on the dock, reading the book that he had smuggled out there. They both looked up when Jace ran into the pond area.
“You guys... have to help. This creepy looking guy is after me!” Jace sat on the ground, completely exhausted, and unmindful of the snow.
“Creepy looking guy? Sounds like Shadow!” Amanda pulled out her gem. She was about to transform when Tred stopped her.
“You can't do that here! He'll see you!”
“Oh...” Amanda realized that it would be bad if the new guy saw her transform.
“Hey, you have one of those too.” Jace came over and pulled the green gem out of his pocket. “That guy had this, but I managed to get it away from him.”
“What! But that’s Tracy’s gem!”
“Yeah, I saw her being chased by another girl, or maybe she was making the girl chase her... I’m not sure, and that dude had this. By the way, what are the gems for?”
“They do this.” Amanda quickly transformed into Sailor Strata.
“Great...”
“Don’t worry, Tred. I’m sure he won’t tell anybody.”
“Yeah, I won’t.” Jace looked though the trees and saw Darker Shadow coming closer. “Ummm, shouldn’t you be attacking him or something?”
“Nope, I have to wait until he’s right here and about to attack me. It’s the rules.” Amanda waited and Darker Shadow eventually came. “Ok! Now watch this!”
Amanda went up to Shadow. “You can’t beat up on defenseless civilians like that! I fight for peace and crap like that so all the good people of the world can enjoy Pocky and Pixy Stix!”
Jace looked toward Tred. “Why did she just do that?”
Tred tried to locate the closest tree to bang his head on. “It has to be the cartoons. I certainly do not tell her to say that. In fact, I could have sworn that I told her to stop saying those speeches. But does that one listen, nooo.”
“Tred, shut up! I’m trying to beat this creep and I can’t concentrate with you rambling on like that!” Amanda notched an arrow and aimed it at Darker Shadow. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. So, now I’m going to punish you!”
She let the arrow fly toward Shadow, but he lifted his hand and blocked it with a force field.
“You still think that you can beat me with these toys? You have no idea what you are truly up against.” Darker Shadow was about to attack, when Athene teleported in the way.
“Come on. We’re going.”
“What?”
Athene tapped her foot impatiently. “I said we’re going. Mission complete. Ebiru has already left.”
“Ok...”
He shrugged and teleported off with Athene.
“What was... odd.” Amanda looked at Tred for an explanation.
He just shook his head. “Maybe they left something on the stove or something. I don’t know! They’ve always acted strange. Come on, let’s get back to the house and try to figure this out.” Tred pointed to Jace. “You come too.”
“Cool.”
* * * * *
The three villians teleported back to the throne room.
“Kasei! We did it! We completed a mission!” Athene made victory signs with her fingers. “It’s all here, all the info I could get on the gems.”
“It’s about time you three did something right. Are you sure it’s accurate?”
“Yep.” Athene pulled out her laptop from that spiffy pocket behind her back and brought up what she was typing earlier. “Just as you suspected, the gems are the main source of energy for Tred, but the process is also working backwards.”
“Explain.”
“Well, I really can’t... but it seems that their is a major energy flow between Tred and the gems. But it is not consistent. One gem is more powerful than the others, two are reaching that level and I couldn’t determine the level of the fifth.”
“Why not?”
“Ummm...” Athene didn’t quite know how to explain that. “It’s undetectable.”
“Fine then. Athene, figure out a way to cut off the energy flow from the gems. If they are weak, then Tred is weak, and then I can defeat him faster.” Kasei started laughing. “If this works, then it won’t be long until I rule the world! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
Author’s Note
(#2)
Wow... ::blinks a little:: I truely beleive that everyone needs help... or maybe I do since I kinda wrote this... So... now that I was nice and wrote another chapter PLUS revised the other chapters... YOU ARE ALL GOING TO WRITE NICE COMMENTS OR MEAN FLAMES OR INTERESTING STORIES! Please? Duo? (don’t ask) I would really, really appreciate it if somebody, anybody would send me something! It would just be nice I guess. So, away I go, off to Bishounen Land to find my next victim for the CRAP PAGE! (If you are on the yellow site, Sailor Ronin Fan-fic, don’t worry, you shouldn’t know. The CRAP PAGE! exists on the other page. Jedi got the commercials, Sonic got the CRAP PAGE!) Wow, there’s a lot of space on page 14 to fill up. I’ll just have to ramble more. Amanda went away to camp so nobody is around to tell me to stop. I’ll get complaints later from Sonic and Jedi (Ebiru and Sailor Hardrock, respectively) that these notes suck and that they take up too much space and that big letters are too hard to format. Oh well, like I care. I’m having fun. Try typing to yourself sometime, or better yet, go talk to yourself. It’s fun. Eat lotsa sugar while you’re at it. Go to that Japanese snacks site (I’m gonna ask Sonic to make a link on the page) and order some Pocky. And then go to Wal-Mart and buy Pixy Stix. Enjoy life! Ok, I’m done now, I think. End stupid moment. God, I sounded like someone really creepy or Barney or something for a moment there. I’m almost done filling up the page! 14 pages, that’s a lot of space to fill up, damn it! It’s hard to write that much! And that’s just one chapter! And you just wait, I’ll write more! I’m warning you now, I’m writing more chapters, so long that you will never finish! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I actually don’t think I can write much more. I have this new issue of Animerica waiting for me and Orion wants to be fed, so I should stop. In fact, I will stop! For now. I’ll be back to torment you next chapter. So will the Sailor Scouts. I think it’s about time we visited them. Maybe. I’ll think about that. Don’t yell at me if they aren’t in the next chapter, one day I will put them in.
Ja ne!
*Tracy*
