Insanity: Chapter Forty-Nine

Insanity

Chapter Forty-Nine

~Aftermath~

Day Forty-Three

The Summer Festival was in full bloom in Transaction Square and everywhere for that matter. The fire hydrants were releasing their copious amounts of water while children played in them. Carnival games were set up and prizes were being handed out. Sprinklers were hooked up to their respective outdoor faucets. Air conditioners could break down and no one would mind.

Undertaker sighed as he looked at his store from the outside. He had donned his hat once again and his accent. Reighn sat on his shoulder and sighed right after his master. A 'For Sale' sign hung on the front entrance. Undertaker smiled a bit but it was obvious that he was going to miss his side business. However, a full retirement sounded like heaven. He didn’t think he could handle another save the world fiasco. Undertaker turned toward Transaction Square.

“You know, Reighn,” Undertaker said as he walked.

Reighn’s bell rang.

“I sure hope out little nook of a store finds a good owner soon. She looks lonely.”

Reighn nodded and looked over his shoulder. He raised a tiny paw and waved goodbye to the familiar building.

Undertaker walked toward a group of tables. He smiled at the familiar faces that he saw. Lumin and Arisa were eating ice cream. Penelope was reading another one of her manga. Alister and Shifter were discussing what cockamamie dare devil stunt to try next. Raven was a little introverted and just sat quietly and watched everyone. Shadow was talking to Sage who had amazingly decided to come. Fang seemed to be waiting for Undertaker’s arrival. Undertaker tipped his hat and sat beside him.

“It’s the perfect weather for the Festival don’t you think?” he said.

Fang nodded, “Its good weather.”

Arisa slapped down her spoon, “I win!”

Her ice cream bowl was crapped clean. Her strawberry vanilla ice cream with strawberry chunks topped with strawberry sauce and white chocolate chips was downed before Lumin’s ice cream. Lumin was deliberately eating his Blue Moon ice cream with white and dark blue sprinkles with the one cherry on top slowly. He could see Arisa’s hurried approach at her ice cream and assumed that she was racing him.

Arisa looked over at his ice cream, “Are you going to eat that?” she pointed to the cherry.

“How many times do I ‘ave ta tell ya?” Alister overheard, “He can’t—”

Lumin glared at him, “Say that I can’t talk and I will skin you alive.”

Alister froze mid-sentence, “Right. I forgot.”

“Sure, you did,” Lumin nodded.

Arisa gave up on the cherry, “Can we go swimming?”

Lumin looked at Fang for approval. Fang nodded. Arisa jumped up and ran toward the waterworks on the square. Lumin stood up and followed her. Reighn looked like he wanted to join the fun and rang the tiny bell on his tail. Undertaker smiled and Reighn followed Arisa and Lumin.

“You’re wastin’ a perfectly good bowl of ice cream, you know!” Alister called after him.

“Screw you!” Lumin called over his shoulder.

Unbeknownst to Alister, Lumin smiled smugly as he walked away. It really felt good getting back at all those times Alister had been to dense to get the message. Alister looked after Lumin and seemed very uneasy about Lumin’s transformation.

“Hey!” Shifter was wearing his beach clothes. He was looking upward at a weather vane on one of the surrounding buildings.

Alister looked at the weather vane, “What?”

“I’ve got this great idea! We should race to see who can get to that weather vane first!” Shifter said with excitement.

“Eh,” Alister didn’t see it as dangerous enough.

“Then we could borrow it and use it at the house for when the next thunderstorm comes through! You ever wanted to see a thunderbolt up close?”

Alister raised an eyebrow. Now that sounded interesting and dangerous. Both he and Shifter walked casually away and whistled awkward tunes. They walked to a local stand and pretended to look at the merchandise. When they though that Fang wasn’t watching they darted into the crowd and were lost in the crowd. Fang noticed of course but decided not to do anything about.

“Awwww! Kawaii desu!” Penelope chimed.

She paused, realized that she had said that out loud, and looked awkwardly around at the remaining people at the table. Penelope smiled. All eyes were on her.

“What are you reading?” Raven asked.

“Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino,” Penelope answered.

Raven looked confused. She really was only interested in the cover. Those were anime vampires? Raven and Penelope started talking about the manga/anime. Undertaker sat back in his chair.

“Hard to believe that only a week ago we were saving the world,” he said.

Shadow sighed, “And no one knows that we did.”

“It’s necessary,” Sage stated as he sipped his iced tea, “After all, you don’t exist.”

“Still,” Shadow muttered, “Some credit would be nice.”

Fang looked at Sage, “Did you find everyone you needed to find?”

“Most of everyone,” Sage paused, “but we think that Nest and Rose were caught in the initial blast. We are missing Thae and Edonya. They’re in the wind.”

“Are you going to look for them?” Undertaker asked.

“We’ll try for about a year.”

“You aren’t trying very hard though, are you?” Fang stated.

Sage shrugged, “We have better use of our resources and time. They aren’t that great of a threat anyway. If we find them, we’ll apprehend them but if we don’t, we won’t lose sleep over it.”

“So Zero is dead?” Fang stated.

“I don’t know very many people who can survive a building falling on top of them,” Sage let the statement hang in the air. He took another sip of his drink, “I hear your leaving the island Undertaker.”

Undertaker smiled, “I need a real retirement.”

Sage managed a quick small smile.

“Where will you be headed?” Shadow asked.

Undertaker shrugged, a huge smile spread across his face, “I’ve always wanted a little house on the prairie.”

Fang rolled his eyes and Sage hid his smile behind his drink. Shadow stared blankly ahead. He was pretty certain he was missing a reference somewhere but didn’t want to ask.

Undertaker sat up as if he remembered something, “Oh, Fang, I just remembered something. This is for you.” He brought out a folder.

Sage awkwardly looked away. Officially, he wasn’t supposed to know about said transaction. He busied himself with watching the festivities. Fang took the folder, opened it and read its contents. Shadow tried to get a view of their next mission. Even Penelope and Raven paused their conversation to listen.

“What does it say?” Shadow asked.

Sage cleared his throat and sipped his drink again. Fang closed the folder and placed it in his lap.

“We’ll discuss it later,” he said sensing Sage’s awkward position.

Shadow smiled, “Ha! We’re back in business!”

“If I may ask,” Fang directed his question to Sage, “who will we get our missions from?”

Sage thought about it a moment, “Well, I guess Shifter could cover those responsibilities,” then he had an expression of mock surprise, “Did I say that out loud?”

“What will happen to the Pawn Shop?” Penelope asked Undertaker.

Undertaker shrugged, “She’ll have to survive without us for a while. Hopefully she’ll be bought by a person that really cares for her and treats her kindly. Reighn is really taking it pretty hard. He really had the most investment in the place. The poor thing really is the sentimental type, you know.”

“What are your plans now, Fang?” Sage asked.

“Well,” Fang started, “We all need some rest still. After that, I think we’ll visit China.”

“China?” Sage looked skeptical.

“China,” Fang confirmed, “From what I hear, China is beautiful this time of year. Especially near the Shanghai area.”

“Shanghai?” Sage smiled. He shook his head, “Good luck, Fang,” he muttered, knowing full well why Fang was going to Shanghai, China.

“But for now,” Fang continued, “We’ll lie low.”

There was a long period of silence. Suddenly Sage’s phone rang and he answered it. He talked for a few seconds and hung up the phone. He stood up to leave.

“Something came up at the office,” he said looking a long while at Penelope, “Something about our servers being down.” She smiled back as innocently as she could manage.

Fang and Undertaker stood up to bid Sage goodbye. When Sage left Undertaker smiled, “So what do you have planned?”

“Yeah,” Shadow said, “What do we have planned?”

“We’re going to China,” Fang said.

“What happened to “we’ll lie low”?” Raven asked.

“Let’s call that a white lie,” Fang stated, “Get the others and get ready to go.”

Shadow, Raven and Penelope stood and went to find the others. Undertaker and Fang were left standing by the table.

“I hope to see you somewhere, Undertaker,” Fang stated.

“Aww, you’re going to miss me Fang?” Undertaker smiled.

“No,” Fang said a little too quickly, “I was just saying that maybe when we’re on one of our missions we might see each other sometime.”

“Oh, Fang! I’ll miss you, too!”

“I’m not going to miss you!”

“It’s okay, Fang!” Undertaker smiled, “I’ll be sure to visit every once in a while!”

Fang sighed and kept his mouth shut. Inside though, he had to admit that having the crazy ex-Agent around had been a welcomed stress. Undertaker looked at Fang, his eyes glittering with laughter underneath his bangs. Fang looked at Undertaker, nodded, and left toward the mansion. Undertaker watched him walk away.

Reighn walked up to him and stood by him. Undertaker smiled. There was no way to know for sure what would happen in the future, whether or not they would actually see each other again. However Undertaker knew that the wolves would have many adventures yet to come in their future. He knew they would try Sage’s patience. He knew that Shifter would always get on Fang’s nerves. Undertaker laughed.

“Oh, Reighn,” he said, “I’m going to miss this them and this place.”

Reighn nodded.

Undertaker took one last look around the square. He sighed and placed one hand on Reighn’s shoulder. Together they took in one last sight of their surroundings. With a smile and a laugh, both Undertaker and Reighn vanished in a swirl of grey mist.