Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Kirby: Right Back At Ya! Fan Fiction ❯ Alone In The Deserted Street ❯ The Legend of The Running Man ( Chapter 3 )

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Alone In The Deserted Street

Chapter 3: The Legend of the Running Man

"J... J... Jessie?"

"Y... Y... Y... Yes, J... J... James"
"D... Do y... you s... s... see w... what I... I'm s... s... seeing?"

"Y... Y... Yes. B... B... Beady e... eyes. E... Evil s... s... smile."

"J... J... Jessie?"

"Y... Y... Y... Yes, J... J... James"
"Run."

They ran as fast as they could. Sadly, 5 feet later, that scary guy appeared in front of them again. They turned around to run away, but that guy appeared in front of them again. They turned around again, but that guy faced them again. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)

Jessie, James and Meouth lay trembling in the ground, at the mercy of the strange man in front of them. The man, smiling a wicked smile, slowly extended one arm toward the Team. Halfway through reaching any of them, however, a strong wind started sucking. As...

Robert: Wait a sec. Sucking? What do you have in those membranes? The wind blows, not sucks.

Can you keep quiet and wait? Thank you.

As Jessie, James and Meouth feel this sucking; they try to fight it, despite the threat in front of them. But then the sucking got fiercer, so fierce that they had nothing else to do but try to run away. Unfortunately, When Jessie got up to start running, her hand moved right through the man's body, robbing her of her energy. Not a lot, but enough to make her unconscious. At this state, she was easily sucked in. James and Meouth, however, ran to their very limits, and as last resort, they grabbed the ground. But it was not enough. James eventually got sucked in, and even though Meouth tried to use his untrained claws, he was sucked too.

Total darkness. That's all they saw. Wherever they were, it was totally dark and really wet. At least they were alive. Then James had an idea. He reached into the bag and took out a Dragon Ball. It emitted a small light, but enough to see in the cramped place. As he looked around, he saw Meouth and unconscious Jessie on what it looked like a wall.

"Is she ok?" he asked.

"Yeah, she's fine." Meouth answered. "But she feels a little weak." Right after the comment, Meouth got a bonk in the head courtesy of Jessie.

"Who are you calling weak?" Jessie asked Meouth in a hoarse voice. She then turned to James when she noticed all the darkness. "Where are we?"

James shrugged in an "I dunno" position, then decided to use the Dragon Ball's light to look at the surroundings. "Teeth, tongue, saliva, big... mysterious... hole?"

"WE'RE IN THE MOUTH OF A MONSTER!!"

Jessie and James quickly embraced each other tightly, crying their hearts out. On the other side, Meouth was writing his will as fast as he could. Just then, they felt a loud rumble.

"This is it. It's the end. We're gonna die!"

Just then, the rumbling stopped, and then...

[SPIT]

[Loud Crash]

Jessie, James, Meouth and the bag were impregnated in the wall, behind the now broken front desk of the Lucky Cat. The noise made everyone rush down.

"Man, that was some cannon." Meouth said before falling to the ground with the others.

The people were holding surprised looks, not for the destruction, but for the creature standing in the middle of the room. Small, pink, and big black eyes. Not exactly the most normal animal around.

"Who... What are you?" Ami, obviously stumped, asked.

"I am Kirby, resident of Dreamland. I've been researching some strange disappearances related to the area. Also, we've been receiving some strange energy readings close by."

"And why haven't I sensed these energy readings?" Rei asked to no one in specific.

"Maybe they're not the type of energy you focus on, Ms. Psychic." Kirby pointed out.

"Hey! How did you know that?" Rei asked the pink creature. Then Kirby pointed at her shirt which had her own picture with a message that read: `Kiss me, I'm psychic'. "Oh. Ah, heh. Ah, heh."

"Well, if you want," Vegeta interjected, "you can ask the thieves here."

"Hold it there!" James, still recovering from the throw to the wall, protested. "We may be thieves, but we're no thieves."

"Kidnappers." Jessie quickly corrected.

"Kidnappers." James finished.

"Besides," Jessie continued, "what kind of strange energy would we emit?"

Suddenly, Kirby's energy tracker went wild, aiming for the Lucky Cat's office. He carefully opened the door, only to see Meouth with kitchen mitts operating a high power oven.

"What?" Meouth asked.

1000001101100101010101110100101111010010001010011010010101011001 01001010

"Yeah" Makoto shivered as she looked at the picture. "That's him."

"So what's the big deal with that guy?" Goku wondered.

"Well," Kirby opened a manila envelope and started reading something. "According to what I've recollected by interviews and by sucking up..."

"Sucking up?" Goku had to ask. Jessie, James and Meouth were shaking their heads wildly and waving their arms about. Too late. Kirby sucked up Goku in, but instead of spitting him, he swallowed him, letting the saying out through the back exit. At this time, Kirby was showing a faint yellow glow.

"So, how are ChiChi and Gohan?" Kirby asked.

"Oh, they're fiiiiiiiiiiiiii.......... "Goku let the sentence drop and stared at the pink puff. `How could he know about my family?'

"As I was saying..."

"People call him the Running Man, because he's always seen wearing running gear and almost always he's seen running. Incredibly, there's a comprehensible tale behind his acts. Well, comprehensive, considering the dozens of hillbillies I had to interview."

[Flashback]

"So you say you met him in a bar."

"Yup." Pa Hillbilly Bear answered him. "He [mumbling] at the bat at [mumbling] then he [mumbling] and I just [mumbling]."

"Uhh, yeah. Thanks." And with that, Kirby slowly crept away.

[End of flashback]

Kirby shudders.

"Well, anyway, according to what I found, this Running Man was once a normal human being. He decided to cross this long street to train for the next Malelo Marathon. And then, tragedy struck. He was walking down the middle of the street, and a few miles away a certain school bus was getting closer and closer..."

[Flashback]

The Running Man (still a human) is seen, well, running on the lonely street with his headphones glaring...

"Everybody, yeah. Rock your body right. Backstreet's back, all right!"

And far away, but closing in, an elementary school bus was returning from its field trip and decided to take a "shortcut".

"Man, this shortcut is bogus."

"Hey, Otto man"

Yo, Bart dude."

"Give ya 50 bucks if you let me drive."

"Done."

Otto gave up his seat to let Bart drive and he knelt down to work the pedals. Just then, Otto got into reasoning.

"Just how did you got 50 bucks?"

"Well..."

[Bart's flashback]

"Homer, today's the field trip and I need 50 bucks to..."

"Here." Homer said in a distracted tone and gave Bart a Franklin.

[End of Bart's Flashback]

"Here and there." Bart answered.

Back to the Running Man. He's still running, and now murdering Cher's greatest hits.

"Do you believe in live after love? I can feel something inside me say..."

And then he tripped. Not only that, but his foot got stuck in a crack.

"Great. Now what?"

[Horn honks in the distance]

"I had to ask."

"Hey, Otto, step on it. There ain't a soul in miles."

"Are you sure, Bart?"

Bart looked up to his severely limited field of view. "Yeah."

"OK." And with that, Otto revved it up to the max.

"What the,,,?" The Running Man looked in horror as the school bus closed in. "No, no. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

[SQUISH]

"What was that?" Some children asked.

"Oh, probably just a bear." Otto eased the kids worries.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and... "

[Punch!] "Stop it with the stupid songs." Nelson... eh... corrected Martin in his singing.

"And with the last tones of that song," Kirby narrated, "The Running Man perished."

"Oh, that was so tragic." Usagi said.

"I found it kinda funny." Vegeta commented.

"And then what happened?" Minako inquired.

"Well." Kirby continued, "Some say he went directly to the underworld, where he met a being so vile, so evil, so fugging disturbing, I dare not speak his name. I'll just call `im..."

"HIM"

"Since where are we on Cartoon Network?" Jessie asked ironically.

"Since 2003." James answered her.

"Huh? Hmmmmm.... wait... ah, oh, yeah."

"Now, instead of sending him to the eternal darkness, HIM thought of a deal to make with the Running Man, a deal he couldn't refuse. HIM offered RM a return to the world of the living, With extended benefits. As a drawback, HIM kept his eyes and replaced them with a sensorial system of sorts. Also, he could only feed now from the energy of living things."

"So that's how he got those beady eyes." Jessie points out.

"And what about the big crater in the middle of the road?" Usagi asked.

"That's where some say he came back to this world." Kirby added.

Suddenly, a pixilated man on red garb appeared and faced Kirby.

"Never use the initials `RM' again in this fic, or else!" and with that, the pixilated man left.

"Who was that?" some asked.

"Red Mage" Mamoru answered.

"8-bit theater." Goku added.

"Web comic." James finished.

"Anything else?" Minako inquired Kirby.

"As a matter of fact..."

"He used his second chance to visit his family, but things didn't go the way he wanted..."

[Flashback to the Running Man returning to his home]

[Knock Knock]

[door opens]

"[GASP] Honey, it's you!" his wife greeted him. "It's really you! Oh, I missed you so much! You were gone for a week!"

"But I'm here now, and that's what matters." The Running Man, hidden under dark shades, comforted his wife.

"PAPA!" His 3 kids shouted in unison upon seeing him.

And the Running Man delighted himself on seeing his family at least one more time.

But something wasn't right...

The Running Man started feeling this urge, this itch that was driving him mad. Then as he was holding his wife's hand on the table, ready to eat, his hand slowly slipped into his wife's hand. The sudden energy surge, along with the screams, scared him, but then it felt... so good. He drained his wife to death, but still, he needed more. And then he saw his children, weeping.

"Papa, what are you gonna do?" The kids crept away as he got closer.

"Papa, you're scaring us..." Suddenly, they were stopped by the wall.

"Papa? Papa? PAPA!!!"

[End flashback]

Everyone stood slack-jawed after hearing the story.

"Man, that was like a drug to him." Goku commented.

"Yes." Kirby continued. "It became a vice, a need for him. So much that what was left of a town here disappeared and it became the deserted place it is today. You know, one thing you should know, the Running Man isn't triggered easily. You have to practically call him to get him to appear "

"And what makes him appear?" Ami asked.

"The clue lies in what he heard when he died. He'll appear if you sing a children's song or silly song."

Everybody gasped, as flashbacks of moments like that flashed through their heads.

[Sleep, sleep, my dear Minako]
[The wheels on the bus go round and round]
[We're rich, we're rich, we're filthy, stinkin' rich]

Suddenly, a big earthquake rocked the place. Looking outside, the only thing anybody could see was thick grey clouds.

"WHAT IS THAT!?!?" Usagi asked... or more accurately, screamed.

"That's him, the Running Man." Kirby explains, "He's trying to trick us into leaving the building..."

"Ehh..." James slowly pulls his hand away from the front door doorknob. "Yeah, I knew."

"But I don't understand why doesn't he just come in, just like that? Wait..." Kirby turns to Jessie and James. "Did the previous owner tell you anything about these terrains before you bought it?"

"Well," James answered, "He did say this was built on an old Indian groove... yard, field place."

"Idiot," Vegeta scolded him. "That's an Indian graveyard!"

"That's it!" Kirby cried out "He can't bother the old spirits of the graveyard, so he can't get inside the building."

"You know," Meouth spoke to Jessie and James, "for once, I am proud of you and your little accident."

"Okay, we have the advantage," Rei told the people, "Not what do we do?"

"We do what we do best," Goku said. "Fight." Then Goku and Vegeta marched straight out the place.

"WAIT!" Kirby tried to warn them. "You gotta watch out when you touch hi...!" [SLAM] "Puff."

The Running Man was ramming the Lucky Cat like it was going out of style. Then the energy of Goku and Vegeta caught his senses, and stopped.

"Hey, short, grey and hideous!" Vegeta yelled at the Running Man. "Let's dance."

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Finally, the next chapter in the series!

Part 4 is on the works as we speak, but I'm having a slight case of writer's block. We'll see if I can work around that... and the fact that college just started.

R & R please. Take care,

JCM 2oo4