𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘳

Chapter 8. Don't Shoot

We stare down through the vents at the people filing about. "A blonde man with a red coat, and a girl with a hat and dark coat!"

"Ditch the hat," the kid tells me.

"No way, it's a part of my look!" I snap back, pulling it tight over my head. We've been crawling for only a couple moments. I thought turbulence was a rocket thing. Now we've got it in the ship.

"Tell me something." He looks at Vash. "Why'd you save me?"

Immediately, Vash punches him over the head. "What you really mean to say is THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME! Isn't that right?"

"Jeez, thanks, alright!" The kid rubs his head. "Anyways, the badlands are doing something real bad. They're gonna drop my dad's ship into the canyon."

"What the hell?!" I look from the kid to Vash. "I was wrong to follow you, you're a trouble magnet. I'm going to jump off this ship sooner than be with you, right now!"

He grabs my coat, barring me from leaving, "No way! I'm suffering ever since I met you!"

"Shit..." The kid grabs our attention again, "My dad's just a no-good workaholic."

"ALRIGHT!" Vash suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs, causing my to trip over my own boots and land flat on my back, covering my ears, "We need to get going, right away! This is not the time to be worrying about things like that. It's much more important you keep some room in your brain open. I'm stopping this ship." He punches the kid again. "You, my friend, are going to help."

"That Neon Badlands the leader... y'know if he has a warrant posted or anything? I'd be happy to abide by it and take him in. Piece of cake," I add.

The kid pulls out a piece of paper. A map, or more of a blueprint of the ship and slides it in front of us. Game plans. Alright, hate those.

I pause. "Okay, there's this thing I do called taking my chances-- so the planning that is about to waste my time is not my spiel."

Vash grabs my coat, forcing my head to look at the map. "This is amazing... you have it down to every little detail, the tiniest scribbles..." Vash gushes. "You must have had a lot of respect for you dad, Kite."

Sudden tears started to drop on the paper, and I see Kite beginning to cry. Sniffles, sobs, snot. He's doing it all.

"You made him cry, Vash!" I lewd sarcastically.

"I don't have a dad! What the hell am I supposed to for a living where I can help people?" Kite sobs.

Vash taps him on the shoulder, and as soon as their eyes meet, Vash bashes his head into Kite's skull. Vash seems awfully fond of hitting Kite today. He bashes Kite so much it's like watching whack-a-mole. "What. Are. You. Get-ting. So. Senti-mental. On. Me. For. You. Little. Squirt?! Feeling better now?"

"What the hell, Vash?! This is child abuse!" I'm astonished, reeling back from the tall man. "Seriously, what's up with you today?"

"We're going to survive, got that?" Vash states.

"Yeah, we both do Vash. But we might not survive you."

We drop out of the vents, sneaking into the cargo deck and grabbing to gas duds. From there, we roll it down the hall and hide, waiting for the three roaming the hall to freak out when we fire a bullet. They look in confusion when it doesn't explode and Vash jumps out, firing at them all. He takes their guns then sticks a sign on the back of one and sends him off running.

"You're such a showoff," I scoff.

"Don't worry your pretty little head, you can go all out on Neon. I'll leave him just for you," Vash chips, patting my head and we run into the voice pipe room, waiting for Neon to call.