"The Lunar Effect: The Carry Out"

By: Faita

Danny and Shay hid in the shadows of a small house; long dark green cloaks covered their entire bodies as they waited to move. A golden carriage was pulled by two white horses with gold headgear through the center of the town, lines of people pushed and shoved their way through the crowd to see the two people sitting inside of the carriage. Shay looked into the crowd on the other side of the path; he saw the top of a dark purple cloak move through the crowd. He motioned to Danny and the two of them carefully made there way through the crowd too. The stopped when they got to the inside of all the lines, careful not to attract much attention. They both watched the top of the purple cloak as it came to the front of the crowd, and they saw Alisa's face from underneath it. She was holding a basket full of vegetables and a few flowers. She watched the carriage for a few minutes, waiting for it to get closer to her. When she felt a small push on her back as someone shoved to get a closer look, she jumped out in front of the horses. The horses stopped, stood up on to their back legs, and neighed. Tons of people ran into the middle of the path and helped Alisa up and picked up her basket and rushed her out of the path. Shay and Danny ran quickly towards the carriage and underneath it. They held on tightly to the bottom of the carriage making sure that their cloaks didn't touch the ground. They held their breath as the crowds moved away and the carriage began to move again. They smiled at each other and saw Alisa being asked things from underneath the carriage as it rode away.

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Adam and David walked into the kitchen quietly. People ran around the sliver kitchen quickly, some of them yelling and giving directions. David and Adam were only noticed when people had to walk around them. They quickly made there way through the kitchen, not talking to any one and not touching anything. They walked right out of the huge kitchen and into a white hallway filled with basket filled with food. They walked around the corner where would be by themselves.

"What's gonna on around here?" David asked him.

"The Earl's Lady is coming remember, they're preparing," Adam explained.

"So what's so important about her?" David asked.

"Well, her husband has died recently, 765 years old, pretty young. Her eldest is now earl, and is unmarried," Adam answered.

"And?" David asked interested.

"He's coming with her, and he's about Emily's age," Adam said.

"So? Emily's already royalty," David said shrugging.

"There's no way she can become Queen, an earl's lady is the next best thing," Adam whispered. David nodded.

"Let's not tell Terry that," David said.

"Let's not," Adam agreed, the two laughed slightly.

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Terry and Chase brushed light brown hair off a horse by rubbing a brush in a circle repeatedly along the horse's side. Chase frowned and did it sloppily. Terry rubbed the horse in neat circled and concentrated solely on that, well, he looked like he was.

~ I should be doing something besides cleaning this stupid horse! I should be running from door to door inside that palace looking for Emily! I'm sure the moment she sees me she'll remember everything! How could she not? We've known each other to long, too much for her not too! This is a stupid plan anyway. I don't even know why I'm going along with it. Oh wait yes I do, because I didn't say anything to change it, because I was thinking of Emily. Emily Grayson, she's kept me on my feet and in a world beyond earth since I meet her ~ he thought. He smiled when he picture her face the way she looked when she was 17, then when he saw her the night he found her in the club, sneaking through the club. Then the images of her face in that cave the first night she was Batgirl, the last night she was Batgirl, when Eric died, then the night Bruce died. Remembering Bruce made him extremely sad.

~ I'll do it for Bruce ~ he looked up at the roof of the stable, it was wooden and covered with webs, ~ and for Emily. ~

Terry was unaware that he and Chase had both stopped working, and that Chase was looking at him curiously.

"I miss him too, we all do, and we're getting Emily back," Chase said. Terry's thought came to Chase and what he said.

"I know," Terry said beginning to brush the horse again, Chase did so too.

"I just don't think I'm ready to be Batman without either of them, they've always been there for me," Terry explained as he placed the brush in his hands and picked up another one. Chase did the same thing and the two of them began to brush off access hair.

"I don't know if you've noticed this, but in the past four years you've become a lot like Bruce," Chase said, Terry looked at him surprised.

"I have not," Terry said, Chase grinned.

"You have too, you don't tell us any of your plans, you just do them. Not mention you've become a lot meaner and colder, I don't think I've really seen you smile in a long time," Chase said.

"I've smiled" Terry said as pieces of horsehair fell to his feet.

"I know, but you've never really meant it. Sometimes I wonder what you were like before you became Batman," Chase said and smiled.

"Trouble some and angry," Terry told him, Chase laughed lightly.

"I said before you became Batman," Chase said, Terry laughed under his breath.

"See, you may laugh and smile, but it always looks forced," Chase told him.

"We haven't exactly had a lot to laugh about lately," Terry said. Chase opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off. A big man with a fancy pin on his right side walked into the stable entrance, everyone stopped what they were doing and watched him. He walked through the stable; the only sound was the echoing of his feet in the ceiling. He looked from each of the guys brushing horses. He stopped in front of Terry and Chase, turned on his heels to face them. He looked right at Terry and narrowed his eyes.

"What's your name?" the man asked him. Terry looked at him surprised for a moment.

"Terrill McKenna," Terry told him, almost wanting to say Terry McGinnis. The man smiled a comforting smile. He handed Terry another pin.

"We need a few more guards in the palace, can you do it?" the man asked, Terry smiled.

"I could try," Terry answered.

"Good, get up to the northwest wing, there'll be a guy there to help ya," he said. Terry placed the brush back on he stand, said good bye to Chase, and walked out of the stable.

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Terry jogged lightly through the white stone hallway. He was half looking where he was running and half changing the pin on his jacket. He slowed down as he approached an older, rounder, balder man. The man somewhat reminded him of Santa. The man wore similar armor that the girl was wearing last night, only this was dark blue.

"Hey kid," the man said. Terry smiled a little bit; he hadn't been called 'kid' in years, not since he was 19.

"Hello sir," Terry said. The man chuckled.

"Call me Chur," he said.

"Okay Chur, what do we do?" Terry asked.

"Well first we," Chur began to say but was cut off by a loud whistle sound. They heard several pairs of armored feet run along the marble hallway. When they came around the corner Terry saw one person running ahead of two guards. The moment Terry saw the person running towards him, he knew it was the same person from the night before. She ran as fast as she could with her head facing downwards. Terry couldn't move as the person neared him. He could hear Chur and the other guards yelling at him to move. The time slowed as she looked up at him, and fear filled her eyes. She ran right into him and the two of them flew out of the stone window that was behind Terry. They fell down the side of the castle wall towards a river feet below them. Terry was facing upwards and the girl was facing him above him, and time sped up quickly all at once. The girl's helmet blew off her face and began to fall above her. Her long dark brown hair flew violently above her head. Terry's eyes widened at what he could see through his hair blowing in his face. She fell closer to him, so close she wrapped one of her arms around his chest, a pair of green wings sprouted from the back of her armor, just like the wings did on Batman's costume. Terry could only just stare at her in amazement as all her features perfected in his view. He could see her brown flicker around her face and sharp brown eyes. The wings held some of the wind, but part it broke and they began to fall as before. The girl frowned and folded the wings back to where they were before so you could even tell they were there. She let go of him and the two fell down into the cold river water.

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