Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Dimensions ❯ Another Chaotic Day ( Chapter 6 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Here's Chapter Six!!! Please Read and Review!!!!!
 
I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho... just Chantelle.
 
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The next day was still over thirty degrees, but the sky was darkened by threatening clouds as far as the eye could see. Chantelle was keeping a close watch on the TV, and continually looking out the windows after she had taken the time to quickly feed and water the kittens, not bothering with watering the gardens since it was all too obvious it was going to rain.
Chu looked at her as she made another trip to the kitchen window to keep an eye on the clouds. “What's up?”
She shook her head. “After the massive heat wave we've had, having a storm pop up like this is NOT a good thing. It may cool things off, but it could also cause tornadoes to develop. And if one of THOSE hits, we don't want to be in the trailer.”
The rain started to fall outside as a caption warning those in the region of a severe thunderstorm warning started to run along the bottom of the screen. After a few minutes of reading off the regions that were going to be affected (their area was smack in the middle of it all), suddenly the Emergency Broadcast System popped up on the screen. Chantelle immediately grabbed the remote and turned the volume way up.
“This is Travis Potter at the Weather Detection Center. There is a series of regions experiencing rotation. If you are in the regions of Strathcona, Lac St Anne, or the County of Barrhead, you are advised to take immediate cover. Three tornadoes have already reportedly touched down in those regions and there is a very real possibility of more touchdowns...”
Chantelle swore and threw on her shoes, running out the door, the rain still falling in huge drops. She scanned the skies, the others all rushing out to join her.
“Look for any rotation in the skies! Look for clouds that are moving downward in a funnel shape! If you see one, point it out to me!”
After a few seconds of looking, Rinku blinked and pointed up and to their left. “Is that one?”
Following his gaze, she saw a huge funnel cloud slowly snaking its way down. If it touched down, the base would be about a quarter mile wide.
Her face went white. “Come on... go back up.... up... UP!!!” The funnel continued with its downward spiral until it was all too clear that it was going to touch down in the field not far from the trailer. “Shit!! I've gotta get the van outta the garage before it hits!!” Chantelle started forward before an enormous wind picked up, almost knocking her off her feet. Then she felt a large hailstone slam into her shoulder, and she gave out a cry of pain, only to feel another one land on the small of her back. She covered her head with her arms as an almost continuous barrage of hail stones fell down, trying to shield herself.
Someone suddenly grabbed her from behind and she found herself being held close by Kurama, who immediately summoned up a plant to shield her from the onslaught of rain and hail. Vines immediately intertwined, forming a hollow cocoon around her now trembling form and they hardened to prevent the hail from coming through. Through the cocoon, she heard Kurama shout.
“JIN!! CAN YOU GET RID OF IT?!”
“It's a big one, but I should be able to dispel the wind! Everyone just stay behind me!!”
She felt Kurama, still holding her beneath the cocoon of vines, leap backwards, and then she heard an enormous roar and several loud crashes. She just hoped to hell that it wasn't the trailer that was collapsing... because she knew something was. A few heart stopping moments passed when she heard Jin giving a loud cry and in that instant, the howling wind and torrential rain and hail seemed to come to a stop.
Chantelle was still trembling uncontrolably and held the front of Kurama's shirt in a death grip, her eyes screwed shut tightly, and she could feel her heart thrashing around in her rib cage. Kurama still had his arms around her protectively as he retracted the vines once more.
“Is she okay?” she heard someone ask in concern.
“I think she'll be all right. She's just badly shaken from the experience. Just give her a few moments.”
After a few moments of clinging to the yokai, she managed to her heart rate under some semblance of control and looked up, seeing Kurama's green eyes looking down at her in concern. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then she slowly pulled away. “I'm... okay...” she said slowly, still trembling slightly. Kurama still kept a hold of her hand, knowing she was still unsteady and very shaken. “I'm almost afraid to look....” she muttered. She rounded the corner to see what damage had been dealt to the yard.
The garden was absolutely destroyed, as well as the greenhouses, and the fences. Half of the old garage was collapsed, and debris was strewn everywhere. She was more than a little surprised to see that the oil well in the field hadn't been damaged, and that the van didn't look as if it had a single scratch on it, the other half of the garage having been the one to collapse. Looking down at the ground, she also saw the golf ball sized hail that had bombarded her moments before.
She sighed. “Well... this sucks. My parents are gonna freak when they hear about this.”
Kurama looked at her. “If you like, I could repair the garden...”
She shook her head. “Don't worry about it. My dad's gonna be more relieved just by the fact that I'm alive, never mind that half the yard is completely trashed....”
“Someone's coming up the driveway,” Toya said.
Chantelle saw the white truck coming up the driveway and nodded. “That looks like the Coop family... from across the road. They must have seen the tornado and are checking to see if I'm alright.”
Sure enough, the truck stopped right by them, Jin making sure his hat was on his head.
“Chantelle!! Are you okay?!” the man behind the wheel of the truck asked.
She nodded. “I'm fine, Tod. How about Linda and the kids?”
He nodded. “We ran into the storm shelter when the broadcast came on. As we were running, we saw the tornado touch down in behind your house. That was a big bugger.” He looked around at her yard. “You got tonnes of damage, but at least you're still alive. I knew you don't have a storm shelter or even a basement, so I thought I should make sure you're all right.”
She nodded. “All I got was some bruises from the hail.”
Tod looked around the yard again. “If I was you, I'd call up the oil company to check the well back there for damage. If there's a leak, your yard could be blown sky high. I'm sure you don't need that after all this.”
She shrugged. “I don't even know if the phone lines are down or not.”
He handed her a cell phone. “Here. Use this. Just keep it for an hour or so and make whatever phone calls you need to. Call your parents and some repair crews if there's any damage to your house, all right? Just bring it back to me when you're finished with it.”
Chantelle smiled, accepting the phone. “Sure thing. You should probably check your own yard for damage from the wind and hail. Not to mention your cows in the North Pasture are probably freaked from what happened.”
He nodded once more. “Will do. If you need anything, you've got our number, all right?”
“You got it. Thanks, Tod. I'll drop off your phone as soon as I'm finished with it.”
He smiled, giving her a wave as he turned around and pulled out of the yard once more.
Hiei looked at her. “So... what's first on the agenda?”
She sighed. “Getting a better idea of the damage.” She started for the other side of the trailer and saw that the living room and kitchen window had been smashed in from the hail. She sighed. “Terrific.” After giving the yard a quick looking over, she saw that the damage wasn't nearly as bad as she'd feared. She pursed her lips. “Alright... time for phone call number one... my parents...” She took in a deep breath and started to dial.
Her mother picked up after the second ring. “Hullo?”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Uh, oh... you're calling us. Who died?”
“Well, I came close a few minutes ago, but I'm alright now. We just got hit by a tornado.”
An instant later, the girl was holding the phone a half foot away from her ear. “WHAT?! OH MY GOD!!!! ARE YOU OKAY?! WHAT ABOUT THE CATS?! IS THE TRAILER STILL STANDING?! PAUL, CHANNEY WAS JUST IN A TORNADO!!!! WE HAVE TO GO BACK HOME!!!!”
“Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!! Mom, calm down! I'm fine! Listen, the trailer's still standing. It's only got a couple of broken windows and maybe a few shingles missing. I'll have someone down to fix them up in no time. The old garage is half collapsed, the fences are all gone and the garden's royally fucked, but other than that, everything's fine.”
“But still, we should probably turn back and check for ourselves...”
“NO!!! Mom, you and Dad have been saving up for this vacation for the last three years. I can handle things over here. I've got lots of money and I'm sure I can get some help cleaning up the mess and getting the repairs done. Everything's all right. You guys haven't even made it to Ottawa yet. Just enjoy yourselves. I only told you so you wouldn't have a heart attack when you come back next month and see that the garage isn't standing anymore.”
Her mother relayed this information to her father, who then asked how the oil well was, expressing the same concern that Tod had.
“It doesn't look damaged to me, but I'm no expert, so I'll call up the oil company and have them come down to check it over for themselves.”
“... Are you SURE you don't want us to come back? It really wouldn't be a problem...”
“I'm sure. I can handle everything over here, don't worry.”
Her mother hesitated a moment longer. Then she caved in. “All right. But if you need ANYTHING, you give us a call.”
“I will. Now you stop worrying about me and enjoy your vacation. You know what they say... tornadoes never hit in the same place twice, so I'm safe from here on out.”
Her mother laughed a little weakly. “All right. I'll just get back to our vacation then.”
“You do that. You've been waiting for it for three years. Enjoy it. I'll talk with you later, okay?”
“Okay, hon. Bye, bye.”
“Bye.” She hung up and let out a sigh. “Well... that actually went better than I thought it would...”
Kurama looked at her. “I suppose the oil well is next?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I'll have to look in the phone book for that one...” They all headed back inside, all except for Hiei who walked around outside assessing the damage for himself.
Chantelle was pleasantly surprised when she picked up the phone inside the house and found that it was still working. She set Tod's cell phone aside and looked up the number. Then she made the call, and started flipping through the book to find someone to repair the broken windows. She called up one of her fathers friends who was a retired handyman, and he happily agreed to fix up her windows for only a small sum of money.
Hiei came walking in a moment later, his expression serious. “You have another problem in the back yard.”
Chantelle moaned. “Do I even want to know?” she asked as she stepped outside to take a look for herself. And she soon found out that it had been a tree that had fallen on the end half of the trailer. She was just thankful that it hadn't busted through the roof. “Wonderful,” she said dryly. “How the hell are we gonna get THAT down....?”
Kurama smiled and reached a hand up behind his ear and brought forth a rose. “Rose whip!!” he said, making a quick motion with his hand and a thorny vine protruded from the end of the rose. Then he made a few quick motions and the tree fell apart as if they were neatly cut logs and landed on the ground.
“Your problem is solved.” he said, a gentle smile on his face as he let the whip retract once more and placed it behind his ear.
Chantelle couldn't help but smile. “Why do I get the feeling that fixing up the yard's going to be easier than I thought?”
Chu grinned and placed a hand on her shoulder. “'Cuz you've got eight super strong and powerful people here ta help you.”
Kurama nodded. “It's the least we can do after everything you've been doing to help us.”
Rinku grinned. “So let's start getting this place cleaned up!”
Yusuke looked at her. “It's your yard. What's first on the agenda?”
“Getting the van out of the garage... that building's unstable to begin with, though, so I'm just going to ask the oil well worker who's coming down if he can tow it out.”
Jin's ears twitched a little. “And speaking of which... I think he's here. Someone's coming up the driveway.”
Chantelle looked down the driveway and saw a white van pull up. “It's not the oil well worker, but it's the next best thing!” She said as she stepped forward. An older man with white hair and a portly stomach stepped out. “Hey, Harold! Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
He smiled at her pleasantly. “No problem! I owe your family a few favors.”
She grinned. “Good! Then you won't mind if I ask you to tow the van outta the garage for me?”
He laughed. “Of course! I'll do that quick before I get started on your windows.”
He got a chain out of the back and hooked up the rear of her van to his own, and then hauled it out. The rest of the garage collapsed as he pulled it out, the crash making the girl jump slightly. All that was left was the west wall. Chantelle climbed into the van and started it up, moving it out of the way so the oil well worker could get through with no problem.
Then when she got out once more, she quickly checked it over. Miracuously, it escaped with only a few scratches on the roof and hood, and one headlight being busted from the debris.
As she had been looking the van over for damage, Harold got started on the windows, Yusuke and Kuwabara helping him. And the oil well worker arrived, driving slowly through the yard to avoid the debris and made his way up to the oil well.
Chantelle looked at the yard with a critical eye. “I guess we should get rid of all this debris... pile it up where the garage's rubble is...”
Jin leaned in close to her. “If we wait until your guests leave, we could make that job MUCH easier and faster for ya...” he said, giving her a wink.
She smiled, remembering that Jin was a master of the wind. “I got it. We'll wait on that one, then.” She looked up the road toward the oil well. “But we should get some of those posts and barbed wire out of the way for the oil workers right away. The last thing we need now is someone getting a flat tire.”
The others nodded and started up the road, carefully removing the poles and barbed wire from the road. They saw a young man, only around twenty or so, milling around up there, carefully checking over the well and all the pipes and hoses that were up there. Once they were satisfied that the road was free of anything that could damage the tires of a vehicle, they headed back into the yard where Yusuke and Kuwabara were still helping Harold, holding the windows in place as he sealed them. He was finished by the time they got to where they were.
He took a cloth from his belt and wiped the sealer off his hands. “Well, thank you, boys! You sure took some time outta my work!”
Yusuke grinned at him. “No problem. We've gotta pull our weight around here.”
Chantelle reached for her wallet and handed the man three hundred dollars. “Here. Consider the other hundred a tip for your expedient arrival.”
He smiled happily as he accepted the money. “You're such a sweet little lady, Channey. If I were forty years younger, I'd go for you myself!” He nodded to her. “Well, I've gotta be headed out now. I promised Martha I'd bring her out for dinner tonight and she'll have my head on a silver platter if I don't make it back in time.”
She smiled. “Okay. Thank you again.”
He nodded. “Anytime.” He climbed back into his truck, gave everyone a last wave, and pulled out.
Chantelle nodded. “All right. As soon as buddy up at the oil well pulls out, we're in the clear to make short work of the rest of the yard.”
It didn't take long. The man stopped in the yard to talk to her out his truck window. “Well, I looked everything over for you. There was one broken valve and a cracked pipe that I repaired. Everything else looks like it's in perfect order, so you're in the clear.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
He smiled and gave her a wink. “Not a problem. If I'd known a cutie like you lived here, I'd have come faster. I don't suppose you're available to go out to dinner later, are ya?”
She blinked slowly at a loss for a second, when she heard eight men meaningfully clearing their voices behind her, and she could almost see them giving the man in the truck a glare. He confirmed this when his face paled looking past her.
“Um... actually, now that I think about it, I should probably check the other wells in the area, and then report back to my boss, so I really don't have the time. Later, Miss!”
Chantelle sighed in relief. “Why do guys do that to me?” she muttered. She didn't expect anyone to respond to her question, but Toya did just for the hell of it.
“Because you're a totally hot woman. Now let's forget the idiot and get started cleaning this yard.”
She fought off a blush and nodded. “Yeah. I guess the debris has to go first.”
Jin grinned. “As I said earlier, leave that to me! Just stand back and watch me do my thing!” He looked back at her. “Where would you like it all piled?”
She blinked. “Um... may as well put it with what's left of the garage. I'll call my Dad later and see what he thinks should be done with the debris.”
He grinned broadly. “I got it! Step back folks! It's about to get windy once again!” He made a few quick motions with his hands and several whirl winds picked up and pulled in the debris, forming a small tornado carrying it all. Then he motioned the tornado toward the garage and lifted his hand up. It dissipated and all the debris fell amongst the planks of wood that was the former garage.
He turned back to them, a grin on his face. “All done!”
These guys never failed to impress her, she found herself thinking. She felt a smile coming across her face. “Awesome! I'll call my dad tomorrow to see what he wants done with the debris.” She looked up in the sky briefly and was relieved to see that the clouds were starting to break up.
Kurama looked at her. “Are you sure you don't want me to repair the garden for you? It really wouldn't be a problem...”
She shook her head. “I'm sure. Besides, how the hell would I explain THAT to my dad? He was already told that the garden was trashed. I'll just give mom and dad some money to buy some fresh vegetables from the farmers market in September. We can just work with those.”
He nodded and let the matter drop.
They headed back inside and Chantelle started cleaning up the mess left by the rain and hail that had come through the broken windows. Kurama immediately joined her to give her a hand, cleaning up the broken glass and trying to wipe away the water. That job wasn't difficult and they had everything cleaned up and in good order in a half hour. Then Christina decided to get started on cooking supper. It was a simple stew with chopped carrots, potatoes, peas, beans, and some beef chunks with some spices thrown in to add to the flavor. She quickly served the food to her guests and smiled at them.
“I'm just going to return Tod's cell phone. I'll be back in just a few minutes.”
When Christina came back, she saw that a certain kitsune had decided to take it upon himself to start on the dishes in her short absence. She quickly ushered Kurama away from the sink to finish the dishes for herself. As she was putting the last of the dishes away, she looked out the window and was surprised to see it was dark already. Looking at the clock, she was further shocked to find that it was after ten.
She decided at that time that she could most definitely use a drink after the crazy day she'd had, and so she headed to the cold room and grabbed herself a cooler.
After she had three coolers and had her head swimming pleasantly from her alcohol intake, everyone started heading off to bed.
 
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In the next chapter, something seriously unexpected happens!! Read and find out what it is!! And please, please review, everyone!!!! I really want to know what you think of my stories!!!! Thanks!!!!! ^_^