Tears from the Past: part two. A tale of two rivals.

Carbine woke up in a dark hospital ward a while later. For a short time, she had no recollection of the events that had caused her to be in hospital in the first place, but all too soon, visions of what had passed came flooding back. The look of utter enjoyment on the dark mouse’s face as he murdered Chris, her best friend and boyfriend. She curled into a tight ball, and cried bitterly until sleep claimed her once again. She awoke to distant voices the next morning, and opened one bleary eye to see her family- all four brothers, her sister, her mother and her father. Exo, the second oldest sibling, was talking to his slightly younger twin brother, Raphael, in hushed tones. Something about how lucky she was to be alive, and how he would have made mince meat out of whoever did this to her. Then Exo realised she was awake, he smiled at her, and stroked her hair gently. "We were so worried. I don’t know what would have happened if…" his voice trailed off, and he looked sadly down at his feet. Carbine made a weak attempt of sitting up, but her father, Diesel, lay her back down gently. "You, my love, are in no state to be up yet. Rest now, darling. Daddy’s here." He took her hand and held it tight, tears of anger and distress for his daughter and her friend. Arrhiyah, Carbine’s mother said nothing as she fought back tears, with one arm around her eldest son, Kast, who was clearly in great distress over the recent occurrence. Musket stood cuddling his little sister, Zandra. He was Carbine’s twin brother, and found the whole situation almost unbearably painful. He watched his sister like a hawk in silence, showing no emotion whatsoever on the outside, but almost hysterical on the inside. For a while he stood, before leaning over the side of the bed and kissing the now sleeping Carbine on the forehead, and breaking down completely. Carbine awoke, and tried again to sit up, pushing her father’s guiding hand away so she could grab Musket’s quaking shoulder and pull herself up. Once sitting close to Musket’s chest, she embraced him, and rocked him gently back and forth as he cried, speaking with unintelligible words to everyone but her. "I’m just so sorry. If I’d been there, you might not… he might not…oh Gods." Then Exo led him away, silently to sit with him and talk it out away from a very tired looking Carbine. Raph begged her to sleep, but she couldn’t. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw those awful dull black eyes staring out at her through the darkness, waiting, watching. Who was he, and why did he want to hurt her so much? Eventually, however, she fell asleep with this thought, and her mother singing softly to her with her angelic voice. Later that day, Carbine awoke to more voices, but she knew who they were before she even opened her eyes. A deep, concerned voice cut through the gloom, with a tone of restraint. "Hey man, don’t you think we should let her sleep?" Then another voice, quiet and contemplative, agreeing with the first. "Yeah, bro. He’s right. She needs rest." And then the most familiar voice of all... "But she’s gotta see me! A day without me, especially in a dump like this…" he was cut off by the first voice, "Vinnie, it’s a hospital." Vinnie’s voice came back on the defence. "I know it’s a hospital! Jeez! You’d think you guys thought I was unobservant or something, well, bros., I gotta tell ya, these senses are all in peak condition! There ain’t nothin’ that can escape the Vin man’s eagle eye!" then a deep sigh from Modo. The other voice, the quieter one, cut through this time. "Hey hey hey. Look, bros., she’s waking up. Hiya Carbine." Carbine opened her eyes to see Throttle and Modo smiling down at her, and a decidedly disgusted looking Vinnie sulking between them. He perked up, however, when he saw Carbine awake for the first time in ages. "Oh, Carbine, sweetheart! You’re ok! You’re ok!" he held her close, shaking with silent grief at the loss of one of his closest friends and the near loss of another. Modo placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and looked at Throttle, as if to say, ‘you take over for a second’, before walking off with his arm around his friend. Carbine watched them go, and then turned to Throttle. "We haven’t really met, I don’t think. Hi." She extended her undamaged hand (the other one in a cast from where she fell) and he took it. "No, we haven’t really, have we. Nice to meet you." Throttle had never really spoken to such a forthright female before, apart from his cousin, Harley. Carbine smiled at him, but then felt suddenly dizzy, and had to lie back down. Soon, she was asleep again, and Throttle, Vinnie and Modo left her to rest. When she awoke next, it was dark, and she was all alone, and very scared. She curled up into a little ball, and tried to stay calm, unsuccessfully, and she began to cry. Unknown to her, Catrina, a childhood friend of hers, was working in that hospital, and it was she who came in to comfort her. Looking at Carbine’s name, she gasped, and lifted Carbine gently onto her lap. "Hiya, sweetie. Remember me?" Carbine looked at her for a moment, undecided, but soon her mind cleared, and she remembered her old friend, and cuddled up closer. Catrina, who was five years older than Carbine at seventeen, very tall, with long grey curly hair and same tone fur, stroked her young friend’s hair, rocking her back and forth. "It’s all alright now, sweetie. No one’s gonna hurt you now. I’ve got you." Once Carbine had recovered herself, she looked over Catrina. "Aren’t you too young to be working nights?" she asked. Catrina smiled at her. "No, I got a place in med.-school because I understood everything and knew I wanted a career in medicine, so here I am, working with victims of attacks and stuff like that. They told me you were a special case, and that I should see to you because you weren’t sleeping too well. I can’t believe it’s you. Why would anyone want to hurt you?" she continued to take care of Carbine until she was fast asleep again, and then she left again. Carbine awoke the next day feeling much better, and discovered one familiar face looking over at her, plus two new ones. Catrina, the familiar face, smiled at her, "Morning, little one." She motioned to the two similar looking males sitting with her. "These are my brothers, Mask and Raid. They remember you from when you were a baby, and thought they’d just come and see you." Carbine smiled at the two. "I remember you. Mask, Raid kept breaking your arm, didn’t he?" Mask grinned ruefully at his brother. "You got a good memory. I’m really sorry about…" Carbine just smiled at him, and he stopped. She didn’t want to hear it. Mask and raid were twins, almost identical, in colour and build, apart from a few differences. Mask had a thin band of black across his eyes, standing out against his pale brown fur, and Raid had a half band so that it only covered one eye, stopping exactly half way over the bridge of his nose. Both had long black hair streaked with coloured dyes. They had been awful as kids, always in trouble, always beating one another up, or ganging up on girls. Now, however, those days were over, and they were a little more responsible, and much friendlier to females. Suddenly, Mask’s pager bleeped loudly, and he groaned. "Raid, we gotta be somewhere ten minutes ago. Marco’s getting impatient. Raid rolled his eyes and grinned at Carbine and Catrina. "That’s our boss." He looked at Carbine and smiled again, slyly. "Carbine, honey, you wouldn’t object to becoming an old friend for the afternoon, would you, just Marco is much more forgiving when a lady’s involved." He winked, Carbine nodded at him, and Catrina glared. "You two are awful! Go, get out of my ward! Out! Out!" she brandished a reflex hammer, and her brothers fled, and soon Carbine and Catrina were alone again. Catrina smiled at her. "I’m sorry about those two. There’s nothing I can do about them, I love ‘em really, but when they start getting ideas…well, that’s just painful to watch." She smiled. "A bit like your brothers, those two, aren’t they?". Carbine nodded. Catrina continued, "Mine are a little older…a lot older…aren’t they? Well, you gotta love ‘em, and I" she said, looking at her watch, "Am due to give a sponge bath to Mrs. Agasin." She groaned and shuddered. "All part of a days work. Maybe when I’m older, I’ll still be working here. I’d love to be a doctor, but that’ll come. This is just the training. Well, like I said, I gotta move, but before I do, I have some good news, the doctors say you’re doing much better, and you’ll be able to go home in a couple of days." She smiled at Carbine, who was beginning to fall asleep again. "That’s it, baby. You get some rest. You’re gonna need it if you’re gonna survive that family of yours." She winked, and stroked Carbine’s hair, before disappearing to Mrs. Agasin’s part of the ward.

Two days later, Carbine was discharged, with strict instructions to sleep lots, and drink and eat as often as possible. The whole family was overjoyed, it was hard to say who was happiest, but in the end, it was a close one between Diesel and Musket, both of whom were shedding tears of joy as their precious Carbine returned home. Catrina was to visit every second evening to check on her and see the family, and all Carbine’s friends were to come whenever they could. It was on one of these evenings that Catrina met Modo. In truth, it was all Harley’s idea, to set the two up, since they seemed so perfect for one another. Harley was about Carbine’s age, and also good friends with both Catrina and Modo, with a massive crush on Vinnie to match. Carbine found all this hilarious, and laughed so much when Harley went weak at the knees at the thought of Vinnie, that she thought her sides would split.

Modo was standing on one side of the couch that was serving as a daybed for Carbine, when Catrina appeared on the others. Carbine took the opportunity and coughed, loudly, so both sets of eyes focused on her for a moment, and then, when she calmed down, raised and met. Catrina smiled and blushed a little as Modo, also smiling and blushing furiously, extended a hand, saying in his most gentlemously of voices, "Evening, ma’am. You must be Catrina." Catrina almost lost sense of everything, until what had been said actually sunk in, and she shook his hand, "Yeah, that’s me. And you…" she looked at him, "From what I’ve been told, could be no one but Modo. Nice to meet you." Modo was away again. "The pleasure is all mine, Catrina ma’am." He smiled so sweetly that Catrina almost lost her balance and Vinnie, Throttle, Harley and Carbine almost lost the contents of their stomachs, Carbine especially, since all this was happening directly over her head. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to burst out laughing, but Vinnie was not so lucky, and the moment was gone. ‘Just as well,’ thought Carbine, ‘I was losing it’.

Some time later, Carbine was due to return to school. She had lost track of the length of time she had spent away, but was told it was, all in all, about two months, give or take a week. She was touched at how protective Vinnie had got, escorting her to all her classes, and if he wasn’t available, it was Throttle or Modo who took her along. There was one thing she had not missed about school at all. Stacey. A horrible little blonde cheerleader, who had been a thorn in Carbine’s side since the first day of school, when Carbine was four and she was six. Carbine remembered it as if it were yesterday. She would never admit it as she got older, but when she was little, Carbine had a little pink cardigan that she took everywhere, including to the first day of school. Stacey had come up behind Carbine on the first day and drawn a big ugly red squiggle on the back of the cardigan that had never come out, and as if this wasn’t enough, as they grew up, Stacey was constantly bullying her, surrounded by all her dumb cheerleading friends. Carbine had once been a cheerleader, but had quit not long ago after it all got too much, and she felt it was utterly demeaning. Stacey, of course, was furious, since Carbine had actually been a great cheerleader, better than most since she was smaller than the others and could do all the jumps easily, but she would never admit it. Stacey was, however, all looks and no brains. Her hourglass figure never earned her a decent mark in all her school days, as she had hoped it would, and this was a constant joke between Harley, Carbine and Catrina. Catrina no longer attended normal school, since on Mars, in a few exceptional cases, a student was allowed a head start in life, to go to med. School for example when they were fifteen. She did, however remember Stacey from three years below her, as the youngest cheer-squad leader in the school’s history, which was sickening. No one had thought, however, that Stacey could be as mean as she was a few weeks later, after she had finally agreed to go out with Vinnie. She had obviously been working towards this day for ages, since all her little friends were buzzing with a kind of malicious electricity that anyone outside their group found extremely unsettling. It wasn’t until Vinnie walked into the lunch room with Modo, Harley, Throttle and Carbine, that everyone went quiet, and they knew something awful was about to happen. Then, Stacey appeared, dressed in her usual knee high socks, bright white trainers and cheerleading outfit, pom-poms in one hand, baton in the other. She had just come back from practise. She walked up to Vinnie and said loudly, "I’m sick of you always hanging round me, using me to make yourself look ‘cool’ with all your little friends" she said these words with utter disdain, as though they were a disease. "So, I’ve decided, Vincent Van Wham, to dump you. Goodbye." And with that she skipped off. Vinnie was utterly devastated, but managed to smile around at those still watching him, before turning and walking out, followed by the others. When they found him, he was sitting at a desk with his head in his hands, sobbing quietly to himself. Everyone grouped around him, protecting him from anyone who passed by, looking for the ‘guy Stacey dumped in the lunch room’. Modo and Throttle laid comforting hands on his shoulders as he wept, and Carbine and Harley watched him, sadly. Suddenly, a scream was heard from outside. Everyone, including a red-eyed Vinnie rushed outside to see what was happening, and at that point, Carbine went white as a sheet, and took a step back. There, with a gun held to the side of Stacey’s head, was the great black mouse who had murdered Chris. He saw Carbine, winked at her. "Well if it ain’t Miss Crosslazer, fancy seein’ you here!" he almost smiled, but his dull black eyes showed no emotion, as usual. Teachers tore towards him, only to fall to the ground, stunned by the mouse’s laser. Carbine used all her telepathic skill to bridge (connect telepathically) to all her friends, showing them the quick sketch of a plan she had thrown together. If it worked, it would save Stacey and put her forever in debt to those she had just defiled, especially Vinnie. If it didn’t, there would be a lot of sad parents to inform that afternoon.

Without making a sound, Carbine took a step forwards when the mouse wasn’t looking. The others all took gradual steps back until they were positioned in a semicircle behind her. The big mouse was either so caught up in the moment that he didn’t notice, or wasn’t interested. On a swift nod from Carbine, Throttle and Vinnie disappeared back into the shadows and made their silent way to the race track, where four big, black senior school racing bikes sat all alone. Taking the two bikes best suited (with maximum fuel and minimum damage), they wheeled them back into the shadows that they had just gone from to wait their moment. Harley moved back some more, before taking the tear gas her parents always mad her carry with her and shaking it quietly. Modo just stood near Carbine, before sneezing loudly. It wasn’t a bad impression, and the noise made the mouse spin round in confusion, leaving his back unguarded for Harley to leap onto and spray him with tear gas. Despite all this, he kept a hold on Stacey, which meant that plan A hadn’t worked, so plan B had to go straight into action. The mouse recovered almost instantly from the tear gas, which amazed all others present, except Carbine, who was counting on it. She remembered how she’d sliced across one of his eyes and had appeared oblivious to the pain a moment later. The scar was still there, she noticed, and his eyes were as dull, black and foreboding as ever. Carbine plucked up all her remaining courage and walked out directly in front of the mouse, and locking her eyes with his, before saying in her quietest, hardest voice, "Catch me." And beginning to scramble effortlessly up the side of the rock climbing training wall. The mouse, however, took Stacey with him, and scrambled up as well. Half way up, the mouse looked set to drop Stacey and just go after Carbine when a roaring sound appeared from the shadows. There was Vinnie, on the racing bike, flying towards him, mid jump. A look that could almost be described as fear decorated his face, and he dropped Stacey and scrambled out of Vinnie’s reach, just in time. Vinnie aimed a kick at him, striking where his head had been a moment ago with massive force. He then dived down on the bike, pushing it to its limits as he grabbed Stacey as she was about to hit the ground with his tail and lifting her onto the back of the bike. She clung onto him, quaking as they made a perfect landing, amidst cheers from everyone, but then they realised, the mouse was back on the ground again, looking up at Carbine who was still on the wall, looking down at him. He almost smiled as he whispered "Goodbye, Miss Crosslazer." And shooting right across the wall with his laser, and vanishing into the shadows once again. Carbine didn’t scream. She took a deep breath and prepared for the impact as she fell along with rubble and wood framework towards the ground. Having shut her eyes, she waited for the end, but it didn’t come. There was a roar, and a whoosh, and then cheering. She opened her eyes and realised she was on the back of Throttle’s racer. She gasped and laid her head on his shoulder, whispering "Thank you." When they screeched to a halt, Throttle got off the bike and helped her off, holding her to him as they watched to see what would happen next. Just as expected, Vinnie got off the bike and started to walk off, whereupon Stacey called after him, "Vinnie, wait!" Vinnie looked at her, with a look of utter disdain on his face. "Since when am I taking orders from you, Stacey." Stacey looked ruffled but continued. "Vinnie, you saved my life, you and all your idi…I mean…friends. Thank you." Vinnie nodded at her, but walked off towards Harley and Modo, followed by Carbine who was still holding hands with Throttle. Carbine turned quickly to see Stacey, who looked at her. "Carbine…I’m…I’m…I’m sorry for what I did, and I’m sorry I embarrassed you, Vinnie, and I’m sorry I was mean, Harley and Modo, and I’m sorry for calling you a geek, Throttle." Everyone turned in shock at what had just passed. Stacey had admitted she had been mean. No one could believe it, all apart from Carbine, Throttle, Modo, Vinnie, Harley and later on, when she was told, Catrina.

Although she was happy that tragedy had been averted, Carbine lay awake in bed that night wondering. If he had found her at school, did he know where she lived? And if he did, who would be next…and what if she couldn’t save them?