*continued from last post... dur*



Once inside Carrotus City, Lori wasted no time in asking passers-by if they had seen a grey rabbit, moving super-fast and carrying another grey rabbit with him. Though she was almost positive that Coppertop hadn’t made it this far, especially in the hands of the enemy, she couldn’t help but carry a glimmer of hope that even one rabbit would say he or she saw them. As she had regretfully expected, she was systematically disappointed by the number of apologetic citizens who had not seen the rabbits in question.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lori saw Jazz asking a similar question to others a short distance away. However, he was also being followed by a throng of rabbits who recognized him as the lone adventurer who fought his way through more than two dozen planets crawling with reptilian goons and singlehandedly rescued the Princess from the slimy grip of Devan Shell, not to mention the renowned hero who was originally to be her husband. Jazz did his best to stick to the task at hand, but Lori could see that the fame was going to his head.
While Lori was watching Jazz, she bumped into a white rabbit, who turned from his gaze into a store window only to glance at her.
“Um, sorry about that,” Lori mumbled.
“S’okay,” the rabbit replied, looking back into the window.
“By any chance, have you seen a greyish-furred rabbit go by here lately? On foot, going real fast, carrying another grey rabbit with him?”
“Can’t say I have, sorry,” he answered quietly.
At that moment, a smaller, blue-furred rabbit came bounding up, a wide smile on her face. “Ooo! I have, I have!”
With a new sense of hope, Lori looked at the excited little rabbit. “Really? You’ve seen them?”
“Yee-up, seen ‘em! They go-ed by fast!” the blue rabbit giggled, grinning from ear to ear.
“Which way did they go?” Lori asked, feeling rejuvenated from hearing this good news.
The little rabbit pointed down the road. “They went that-a-way!”
Lori was almost surprised to realize that the direction in which the overexcited rabbit was pointing was, indeed, the way to the Carrotus City Hospital.
“Thank you very much,” Lori said gratefully to the blue rabbit.
“Y’welcome,” she replied, and bounced away again.
Lori turned around. “Come on, Jazz! This isn’t an autograph session! Let’s go!”
Jazz quickly extricated himself from the crowd that had formed around him, and was close behind Lori as she sped off toward the Carrotus City Hospital.

The receptionist behind the front desk of the Carrotus City Hospital nearly fell out of her seat in surprise as the main doors burst open, and Jazz and Lori Jackrabbit practically flew through them, making their way to the front desk in a matter of split seconds. She looked from one to the other, an expression of mild confusion on her face.
“Um, can I help you?”
Jazz nodded quickly as Lori spoke. “Have you seen two grey-furred rabbits come through here? One was carrying the other on his back?”
The receptionist raised an eyebrow. “Actually, yes… they came racing through here about two minutes ago, and just bolted up the stairs at full speed—”
At that moment, a grey blur dashed past the two Jackrabbits, almost knocking Jazz over as it passed. He fell slightly against the front desk as the rabbit in question slowed to a stop, and turned to face them.
Vaper smirked. “Well, I’m glad that you two were finally able to catch up with me. I’ve just delivered your friend Coppertop into the capable hands of a good doctor; hopefully I didn’t give her anything worse than a broken nose.” He snickered.
Lori’s expression was considerably less friendly, and her fingers traced along Jazz’s blaster. She was momentarily startled by the fact that it was not her own, but she quickly remembered that she had been carrying her brother’s weapon for the last while, and wondered why she had involuntarily chosen that moment to forget before turning her attention back to the situation at hand. “That’s not funny, you realize that. First off, I want to know just who in the Queen’s name you think you are, and secondly how you have the cajones to even think of allying with us after all the crap you put us through back at Whitespire.”
“To answer your first question, my name is Vaper. As for the second, it wasn’t a matter of having ‘cajones’ enough to join your side. It was simply due to the fact that I was more than sick and tired of my once-dear Lord Shell treating his greatest achievement ever like sh—”
Vaper glanced to one side to see a mother with her leveret calmly strolling by; other than a quick glance from the young one, the two paid the grey rabbit no heed. Nevertheless, Vaper cleared his throat, and corrected himself. “…ahem… like dirt. Besides, what kind of sensible soldier turns down an ally toward the cause?”
Lori muttered something under her breath, and forced herself to bring her hand away from the gun so close at hand. “I suppose you have a point,” she said through gritted teeth. “Unless this is all part of an intricate ploy, in which case I’ll be using your spine for a backscratcher, there’s really no reason not to trust you, is there?”
“Then it’s settled,” Vaper answered. “I’ll fight alongside you and your group against L… er, Devan Shell, until this whole threat is neutralized. Come, we’d best make haste back to the mountain.”
Vaper sped off, with Jazz and Lori not far behind him, and were out of Carrotus City in less than a few minutes.

About two kilometers away from the city, Jazz came up beside Lori. “You’ll use his spine as a backscratcher? Where the heck did that come from?”
Lori frowned. “I just don’t like him, Jazz. I really don’t.”
They continued in silence.