Tears from the past: part three. A guiding hand.

Overnight, Brimstone Comprehensive was put on the map. The story of the brave rescue of Stacey, the cheerleader who had made a mockery of the five who in the end put their own lives on the line to save hers, was splashed across every newspaper in the Eastern quarter. These five students were, of course, Vincent Van Wham, Carbine Elizabeth Crosslazer, Modo Tharsis Maverick, and Harley and Throttle Shield. No one could remember a time when so much had happened in so short a time, but what bothered parents most was that all of these strange happenings seemed to gravitate around one individual, Carbine. Soon, Carbine became aware that certain people were avoiding her in the halls, along corridors, anywhere. She began to feel invisible to everyone but her closest friends, and finally admitted this to her friends after Vinnie found her crying alone in the lab after science class. He had just wandered in when he saw her.

"Carbine, sweetheart, what’s wrong?" his face showed concern, as did his voice. He walked around to her and held her close. She continued to cry, but said nothing. Vinnie let go and knelt down in front of her. "Isn’t there anything I can do?" Carbine shook her head decisively. Vinnie cocked his head slightly to one side. "You sure, sweetheart? Vincent Van Wham can fix just about anything that life throws at him and his…partners in crime." Carbine couldn’t help laughing. Partners in crime, a phrase reminiscent of their younger days together, when they would run round playing treasure hunt with people’s wallets and other valuables. She remembered it clearly, running out of the house, Kast’s Earth Rolex held carefully in her hands, before presenting it to Vinnie, who promptly dropped it into a hole in the ground they had spent half the morning digging. They found it two months later. Kast tried to be angry, but couldn’t quite manage it, much to his father’s amusement. Kast was a general amusement to the family, looking like no one in particular, apart from Exo, who was also bizarrely coloured. Both of them were had pure, shiny black fur, but Exo had shoulder length same tone hair, and Kast had long platinum blonde locks. No one knew why.

Carbine was so absorbed in these thoughts, that she didn’t notice Vinnie leading her out of the lab, down the hall to the classroom, which was empty, apart from three familiar faces. Carbine shook herself out of her daze and jumped when she realised she wasn’t in the lab anymore. She smiled at Vinnie, and all her other friends in school, who were seated in front of her in the dingy, badly lit room. "What is it?" was all she could come up with. Modo smiled back. "Carbine, darlin’, you’re not yourself. Vinnie says you’ve been depressed, confused, generally tuned out…do you have any idea why?" Carbine’s eyes filled with tears again, and Modo looked worried. "I’m sorry, Carbine, did I upset you? I sure as hell didn’t mean to." Carbine sort of smiled at him as Vinnie sat her down. "It’s a whole lot of things, really. Have you noticed how I seem to have become invisible to half the school? Or how even some of the teachers won’t acknowledge my presence?" the others nodded, silently, waiting for her to continue. "And all this stuff about that guy, I haven’t been sleeping too well lately," she admitted. "I sort of keep seeing his face in my dreams and stuff. Ex said I was screaming last night." She laid her head on her arms and sighed deeply. Vinnie stroked her hair gently. "Hey, sweetheart. It’ll be ok. We’re all here for you, we’ll never let anything happen to you, at least not without a fight." The others all agreed, somewhat loudly, and in this, Carbine found some comfort, cuddling close to Vinnie most of the time as he guarded her.

Through the bleakness of all this, there was one happy thought. Modo had become decidedly dreamier than usual, smiling almost all the time at almost everyone, spending longer on his appearance. The cause of all this was perfectly obvious to everyone, including Vinnie, somewhat surprisingly, since Catrina blushed deeply at even a mention of Modo’s name, as he did at hers. Although they had never been seen together, it was strongly suspected that some ‘extra-curricular activities’ were taking place, and so after one particularly fruitless day of asking Modo questions, the others took it upon themselves to find out what was happening, and set the record straight once and for all. As Modo left the school in the afternoon, four guilty looking individuals split up, moving in a double pincer movement around him, keeping watch from all sides as he made his dreamy way back home. He was so lost in thought, that he didn’t even notice Vinnie sneezing twelve feet behind him. Soon, he reached the front door of his house, and unlocked it oblivious to the four pairs of eyes watching with interest. Once he was safely in doors, the others huddled together to hold a whispered conversation. Harley was grinning from ear to ear. "All we gotta do now is wait. Shouldn’t be long. He dolled himself up right nice before he left." Carbine raised an eyebrow at this one, "And how, Miss Harley Shield, do you know that?" Harley tapped the side of her nose and winked. "Less said about that the better, at which Carbine and she laughed, and Vinnie and Throttle exchanged nervous glances. All tragedy, for those precious few minutes was forgotten, and soon, Modo was coming out of the house again, all dressed up nicely, looking all grown up, with a bunch of Martian peace lilies in one hand. Still oblivious to those watching him, he strolled on, grinning at some unspoken thought, towards Catrina’s house. The others followed at a safe distance, stifling giggles and holding whispered conversations, until they reached the comfortable looking home of Catrina. Modo rang the bell, and stood outside. Mask answered the door and smiled at him. "She’ll be ready in a moment. Please, come in. I just have to take out some trash, and then I’ll be back." Mask stepped out and carefully closed the door, smiling and shaking his head; he made his way across the garden until he was within three feet of the group’s hiding place. He knelt down, and heard someone twitch in the bushes. "Alright, kids, you can come out now. I don’t think they need to be disturbed any more now, all right?" the others got out, grinning guiltily, and he grinned back. "Call in tomorrow. They’re going out at six. Come after that and I’ll tell you what happened." He winked. "Or some of it, anyway." He turned to go in, but then pivoted back round to face Carbine. "Carbine, can I talk to you for a sec?" she nodded, confused, as he led her away to the side of the house. Once there, he looked her over. "A little mousie tells me that you’re not very happy in school right now. You wanna talk?" Carbine looked at him. "Who told you that?" Mask sighed and sat on his haunches. "I know a lot of people, sweetheart. There’s nothing I can’t find out. A lot of people are very worried about you, not least Raphael." Raphael was Exo’s slightly younger twin brother, who was identical to his brother in build and profile, but had his father’s colouring. Deep mocha brown fur, and black hair. Carbine looked down at him. "Really?" Mask nodded. "Anything you wanna tell me now?" Carbine shook her head. "Alright, but if you need to talk, me, Raid and Cat are always here for you." He gave her a quick hug and sent her on her way. When she reappeared, Vinnie looked at her. "What was all that about?" Carbine smiled and sighed. "He was just checking to see I was ok." Before anyone could ask any more questions, she had turned on her heel, and was walking away. The others looked at each other, but said nothing more on the subject.

The next day, at half six, the four arrived at the same house once again, where Mask was waiting for them. He welcomed them all inside and sat them down. He explained that he had never seen anyone as happy as Catrina and Modo, and that they were just enjoying each other’s company, at which Throttle and Vinnie exchanged knowing glances, and Carbine and Harley giggled. Mask rolled his eyes. "And they say youth is innocent." He laughed along with them, and then his twin, Raid appeared. He winked his left eye, covered by a half band of black at the five naughty looking faces gazing up at him, and muttered something about maturity had a funny way of showing itself, before he disappeared up to his room. Mask opened his eyes very wide and sighed. "There’s one in every family." But he smiled as he said this, since there was nothing that they hadn’t been through together. The four friends got up to leave, and he walked them to the door, and smiled warmly "Now, can you leave my sister and Modo in peace for a little while?" they nodded earnestly, and wandered off to their own homes. Later that night, Catrina returned home with Modo, laughing, and noticed a piece of red fabric on a Martian rose bush near by. She winked at Modo, who grinned at her. They said together "Vinnie." And Modo departed, laughing softly to himself.

Modo appeared at school the next day, and laughed as soon as he saw four guilty faces trying to look innocent. "It’s alright. We expected visitors sooner or later. Glad you find us so interesting." He laughed again, and dashed off to science class. Carbine sighed and smiled and went off to her class, leaving the other three in the hallway, alone. They all looked at one another, all with a free period, they decided to go out to the racetrack for a while, since the sun was up and Phobos was looking beautiful. As they wandered down past the restricted area where the climbing wall had been shot to bits not long ago, and Throttle had saved Carbine’s life, Harley thought she saw a shadow flickering across it, but dismissed it as a trick of the light. They continued down to the track, where the seniors were taking a well earned break on the battered school bikes, rolling around having fun. Throttle took a long, deep breath as a light breeze ruffled his hair, but then something caught his eye. A shadow skirting round the wall of the school. He mentioned this to the others, and Harley said what she had seen. Suddenly, awful realisation dawned on them. As they raced back up to the main building, Vinnie yelled "Why the school? What’s he gonna be able to do?" then he stopped dead in his tracks. The others turned to look at him, seeing horror twist his young features. He looked at them, almost paralysed with fear. "Ground floor…the science labs!" they put on a burst of speed, but it was too late. As they neared the building, there was a massive explosion, and the whole bottom half of the school buckled outwards. Vinnie was beyond all reason now, he hurtled on towards the burning building, calling out distractedly for Modo. The first thing that struck the friends was the awful silence that seemed to echo throughout the grounds. Vinnie ran about, searching through the rubble, until he heard something under a large piece of bench, and he called for Throttle and Harley, who dashed over to him. With one almighty heave, they carried the piece of wood off, and there underneath, were four people, all being shielded by Modo’s massive back. Vinnie rushed to his assistance as he tried to get up, but failed. The four who had lain beneath him all gasped as the massive grey mouse was lifted carefully off, and they found that they were hardly injured at all. Modo, on the other hand, was in agony. People poured out of the building, thankfully mostly unscathed, though some injuries had been sustained during the main collapse. Carbine was among them, carried out of the rubble by her brother, Exo. She was terrified, as Exo carefully set her down and held her tight as she shuddered with the shock of the impact. Eventually, all were recovered, miraculously, no one had been killed, although many of the pupils and a few of the teachers spent a fair amount of time in hospital.

Two weeks later, the six friends met to discuss what had happened. Carbine lay with Vinnie’s arms wrapped tightly around her as she thought of what had happened, Catrina sat massaging Modo’s massive shoulders carefully, since his left arm was still in a cast since it had been discovered that during the impact, it had been broken in four places. Harley sat with her cousin, Throttle, and held Carbine’s hand. Eventually, Catrina broke the silence. "So it’s official. This guy isn’t gonna stop until he’s dead. Either that, or until…" she paused and looked at Carbine who nodded. "What exactly is it he wants with you? I mean, if he was some deranged stalker, I might be able to understand it, but the fact that he’s trying to hurt your friends as well, it’s just not the way it works." The others nodded. This had gone on way too long. Carbine shook her head. "I knew this would happen, but what scares me, is that so far he’s killed one, he’s put me and Modo in hospital, I don’t know what he’s gonna try next." The others nodded understandingly. Harley rested her chin on her hand. "Well, at least the authorities are taking serious notice now, I mean, it must have been him, that guy. If only we knew who he was, or why he was doing this…" no one could add to that, it was true, it was a total mystery.

That night, Throttle lay awake in bed, trying to block the thoughts that had gone round and round his mind since he first saw Carbine, he knew it wasn’t a good time, but instincts were instincts, and he knew he loved her. He wanted to help her so much, to make all the pain go away, just to make her smile, only once, at him, to have her feel the same way…he fell asleep with that thought. Little did he know that Carbine was trying not to think the same things about him. She sat up and looked at a picture of her and all of them, taken on the night of Vinnie’s victory celebrations after he had helped the school win the last Carva match of the season. That was the night that Chris had died. She reached out and touched Chris’s face, smiling out at her from behind the glass of the frame, and fought back tears, whispering "I’m so sorry." With that, she fell asleep, and far away on the dark side, the resting place for all Martians, Chris watched her and sighed. It was time for her to move on.