"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." -Mark Twain

Chapter 2:

The sun's rays beat down hard against the sparkling, white sand, attempting to burn that which mockingly, day after day, remained unchanged. The waves crashed dangerously close with the incoming tide, each one foaming angrily before rushing off. Their intent on flooding the beach but only to fail, being pulled back at that very last moment… however, not before managing to snag something else.

Virgil woke to the water's slick touch drizzling down his sides; it didn't make that much of a difference, he was already soaked through. Blearily he coughed a few times before raising his head, his first dazed thought that it was better coming around to that then a nasty pinch from a crab. Shaking himself a few times, he scrambled further up the beach on all fours, slowly realizing how lame that sounded, even in his head.

What was he doing here? Where was here? Why wasn't he in his nice warm bed at home? There weren't any beaches in Dakota the last time he checked… and wasn't there something else he was forgetting? Well, he was kind of slow to remember a lot of things right now, but there was something important, he was almost sure of it…

Eyes shot wide open as everything rushed back, leaving him dizzy.

Ritchie…

"Rich…" he could barely get out the first two syllables before being thrown into a ragged coughing fit. He pushed himself up, fumbling to his feet… only to trip and fall over a step later.

"Ritchie!" He called out, forcing himself to focus, blurry vision doubling before settling into a… palm tree.

Okay, that didn't help.

He scanned the surrounding shoreline, fighting off immediate panic when he didn't spot his friend anywhere. Numbly, he tried standing up again and started awkwardly southward, blinking against the bright light…

Steadily he gained speed breaking into a light, albeit clumsy jog that zigzagged at odd angles. Frantically he called out, looking left and right, up and down… it all seemed the same to him.

What if he was badly injured?

What if he didn't even make it?

No, both of those were impossibilities… Ritchie was all right…

After all, he promised…

Suddenly he glimpsed what he hadn't been particularly fond of before while he was drowning in it but was just now his favorite color…

Blue…

Not ocean blue…

Bright electric blue.

As in that annoying sweater Ritchie insisted on wearing it to death, and right now Virgil was so glad he did…

Weariness temporarily brushed aside, he ran full force.

"RITCHIE!" Virgil bellowed, waving feverishly; he must have made quite the sight in his hysterics…

He tripped and skid in the sand, slipped and slid; practically falling over himself in his redefining of haste.

Finally, he tumbled and dropped next to his best friend, who in spite of the terrific performance given, hadn't moved an inch…

He froze.

"Ritchie?" He bent over him… "Oh, come on man… this… this isn't funny!"

Okay, first things first… was he breathing? Virgil placed a shaky hand over his friend's mouth. His breath was either too shallow to feel, or wasn't there at all. Not good. Swallowing panic, he brought an ear to his sidekick's chest. Listening, and listening…ever so carefully for…

…That! A heartbeat!

But it was so faint…

"Rich! Wake up dammit!"

He shook him, hard, but Ritchie's eyes stayed close…

All right, he learned this sometime ago in health class… if only he'd paid attention instead of folding paper airplanes! Let's see now… if his heart was still pumping that meant doing all out CPR could probably kill him… but he wasn't breathing regularly either and that indicates that he should…

…perform the Breath of Life until he could spew up the seawater and safely breath on his own.

Oh shit.

Virgil looked around helplessly for a moment more, as if hoping someone—preferably a trained professional—would miraculously step in and take the duty from him.

No such luck.

He gulped, suddenly uncharacteristically nervous. He licked at his parched lips, frozen, as he tried to remember the technique he'd used on the doll… but that had been a plastic figurine, not a person! And this was Ritchie he was about to do mouth to mouth on…

Oh God.

Virgil finally just groaned and got down on his knees with a thump besides the motionless body of his friend. Damn, he just knew he was going to regret this… but he couldn't very well do nothing now could he?

Nope, just like jumping into the water after him, a deep breathe then take the plunge…

He lifted his Ritchie's head, cautiously opening his mouth with thumb and forefinger. Cracked brown lips finally met salt-water wrinkled pink ones as the first wave of air was shared between them. Virgil's cheeks puffed up as he took in and blew out another then another lungful, forcing his friend's chest to expand and accept the offering of life-affirming sustenance.

Once…

Twice…

Thrice…

Was it working?

Why wasn't it working!

For several minutes he fought against himself to keep going, the suspense instinctively made him want to hold his breath.

Finally, he felt his friend's body convulse beneath him and he took his mouth away just in time. Ritchie rolled to his side and heaved.

When it felt like the entire Atlantic, and all its various sea creatures included, had been drained from his system, Ritchie tried to look up.

After many squinting attempts at this and the conclusion that, even if he did get his eyes open wide enough to take in his surroundings without his eye-wear he couldn't be able to make out the details anyways, he gave up and simply turned to groping instead.

"V…Virgil?" he rasped out desperately.

"Right here man," Virgil soothed, speech returned to him after briefly being robbed in relief. Grabbing Ritchie's seeking hands in his own, he squeezed gently, very much aware that his friend's body was as covered in sunburn as his own. More so, because of his lighter complexion, Ritchie looked red as a lobster.

"Thank God," Ritchie relaxed a fraction at his voice, sending a silent prayer up to a deity he didn't really believe in and hadn't since he'd gotten his brainpower. Still, if it got them home safely, he'd promise to attend Catholic Mass. "So… I'm guessing there's little to no chance my glasses survived, right?"

"Probably not, though there's plenty of sand around to try and melt you another pair."

Ritchie blinked again; if he could have he would have glared at the bad joke. His tear ducts were working overtime to clear the sand specks from his eyes. And though they still stung, he stubbornly refrained from using his sand-covered arms to wipe away the rest, knowing it would only worsen the situation.

"And, just for clarification sake, we were ship-wrecked right?"

"Right."

"Lemme guess, no signs of civilization whatsoever?"

"Nope. Nada."

"Yeah… that would have been too easy." Ritchie thought it over. "Okay, to pinpoint where we are… we started out by sailing in the Caribbean right?"

"Yep."

"There are hundreds of islands in the Caribbean." Ritchie deadpanned.

Virgil nodded again unhelpfully, "Yep."

"However, thanks to technological advancement and recent GPS placements, there's no isles left uncharted."

"Really?" This was the first good news Virgil had heard all day. It gave him a sinking feeling. For, as Ritchie was fond of saying often, nothing was ever that simple.

"There are, however, uninhabited islands… vacant for assorted reasons though. Like some are too small, how big does this one look?"

Virgil checked left and right, he'd felt winded running over to where Ritchie was but that could have easily just been adrenaline. He saw where his footprints, the only ones marring the sand, had trekked and finally where he had started. The beach went on from there though, quite a ways, and then took a bend. Who knew how far it went.

"I'd say a mile or two from what I can see... but then again it curves, and I'm not very good at judging distances."

"Okay, well, the next step of worry then is… active volcanoes! Please tell me you don't see any smoking hills!"

Virgil's eyes widened, he hadn't even thought of that! His head whipped around to directly behind him. There were indeed some rising slopes… but no smoke.

Could that just mean they were inactive? And for how long would they so remain?

"Nothing I can see," he fought for calm in his voice, forcing the tremor aside. It was time for that superhero bravado to be good for something. "We'll have to check that out more closely though, as soon as we hike up there and you tell me what to look for."

"Yeah, I'm not going to be of much help in the sight department for awhile…" Ritchie huffed.

"Hey man, don't worry about it… Just as long as this doesn't turn into that plot from that stupid book we read in 6th grade. What was it called, Island of the Blue Dolphins or something? Was that it?"

"Nah, that was the one with the girl and the…dolphins. I think. You're thinking of the one where the little kid goes blind and ends up on the island with that strange man… The Cay. Uck, I hated both of them."

"Yeah, school reading sucks… especially when they make you listen to books on tape. Now that's the worst! Or do you remember Lord of the Flies when all the English kids go insane? Yeah, let's not do that…"

"You sure, cause if one of us just remembered to snatch up a volleyball we could've done Tom Hank's 'Castaway'."

"Ha ha, very funny Rich… are you sure it was Tom Hanks? I thought it was someone else…"

"V, focus! You know, the whole trapped-on-a-deserted-island deal?"

"Oh, huh, sorry…"

Ritchie made to look around once more but then gave up, scrunching his eyes shut and just reaching out for Virgil. "Come on, V-man, I don't think we need anymore tanning today… Not like you needed it in the first place!"

"Pfft, that was lame Rich…" Virgil trailed off, giving his friend a hand up and then swinging Ritchie's arm over his shoulders, steadying him against his side as he had done countless times before.

"Yeah, I know, what can I say? The sun's getting to me…"

Virgil felt dizzy too, not to mention sick to his stomach, but he wouldn't complain. Ritchie was undoubtedly the one between the two more susceptible to sun poisoning. Not just because of skin pigmentation but because he barely got out during the day at all. At night they patrolled together, in the morning it was off to school, and then right after that Rich ran off to the gas station to work on his inventions. It was why Ritchie was still shockingly ghost white even though his hero outfit allowed for more skin to show. Well, it was a combination of that and an Irish heritage.

Somehow, they stumbled in the direction of shade.

Ritchie took notice of V's wincing. Even if he couldn't witness his best friend biting his lip, he could feel the tightening of Virgil's muscles across his back as he fought off the pain. Woozily, he tried to take more of the weight but Virgil wouldn't allow it. Once there, they both collapsed in a heap of tangled limbs. With Ritchie's blurry vision it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended, he found this amusing but kept it to himself. Instead, he made to sit up and started running concerned fingers over Virgil's body, unbeknownst mimicking his friend's earlier fretful actions over him.

"I'm all right Rich, really! Probably just sprained an ankle or something… and got a few little scrapes and bruises from the rocks…Ouch that hurts! Be careful will ya?"

Finally the frantic movements started slowing down, all the muscles and ligaments had been checked and no bones were found to be broken. Ritchie still didn't remove his hands all the way though, it was fast becoming very disconcerting, not being able to see clearly.

"I'm fine," Virgil's voice was gentle as he detected the trembling in his partner's hands. "What about you?"

"If you mean besides being blind as a bat, then yeah I'm fine. The salt water in my eyes isn't helping much either. But I'm serious V; my vision's no good without my glasses!"

"You never have them when you're wearing your visor as Gear…" Virgil began dubiously, then stopped.

"I corrected that through the visor! That green tint, you know… not only does it make a great screen for reading data and stopping any sort of glare, so I can't be blinded in battle, but it magnifies my vision by various degrees. I'm better than 20/20 most times! I can even zoom in close on any object any distance by variables of ten. Like a portable microscope, or telescope, depending on what I want… and I told you this all ready!"

"Yeah…well…" Virgil mumbled nervously; how was he supposed to let Ritchie know he didn't tune in to all his equipment updates?

"Speaking of my visor, where's Backpack?"

Virgil's insides froze and turned to putty simultaneously.

"I know I had him on when we jumped ship…"

Ritchie gave three sharp whistles in quick succession, "Backpack! Here boy!" He turned to Virgil to explain, "He only replies to my voice command while off so don't worry about calling him."

"Rich… oh God, how do I say this? It's gone. Backpack's gone. I had to let it go."

Even unfocused, Ritchie's eyes gave off a very good impression of his hurt.

"You… what? We could've used him to find fresh water! To build a shelter! To fucking be found! How's that going to work without his tracking system? His chip? How are we gonna spot planes or ships? How are they going to spot us? Did you even think about that!"

"No! I didn't! All I knew was that it was too heavy and that it was bringing you down! That was enough for me… I wasn't going to loose you because of that machine, all right!"

Suddenly, Ritchie went quiet. Both of them were breathing hard and both tried to get their bearings. Virgil could visibly tell Ritchie was struggling with this. He always used pronouns with Backpack and Virgil knew it was much more than 'a machine' to Ritchie.

"Listen, bro, I am sorry… I promise I'll help you rebuild when we get back. Bigger, stronger, and better than ever. But I wasn't going to loose you. I'm not…"

Rich sucked in a shaky breath. "I know I… would've done the same for you, if it had been reversed. It's just…"

"It… he meant something to you." Ritchie was mourning; Virgil realized that now was not the time to argue over whether that piece of AI deserved subjective forms of speech. "He was one of your first inventions as a bang baby."

"It's fine, we've got to worry about more important things right now… food, water, shelter, getting home. I was actually wondering more along the lines of why I didn't think of it when I first woke up…"

"Well, judging from this large lump you got on the back of your skull." Virgil touched his fingers gently to where some of Ritchie's blond hair was stained red, watching his friend flinch. "I wouldn't blame your self too much."

"But that's not it either, not entirely anyways. I haven't had one brain blast since…" He broke off, turning to stare blankly out into the ocean.

"Ritchie…?" Virgil nudged, something within him plummeting fast at his reactions.

"Virgil, try to use your powers."

Virgil frowned, partly at the use of his full name and partly at the request. He tried to summon a charge and the frown deepened when nothing came out.

"Well… that's no biggie. I mean, I was drenched! And still a little damp… I need some time to re-"

"Not quite," Ritchie cut off intensely. "Can you even feel it anymore V? Feel the capacity of your power?"

Virgil somehow knew the answer to that before he even lifted his fingers for another go. Ritchie was right. He couldn't even feel the atmosphere around him. The electricity that was always there, anywhere on earth, just…wasn't.

"Oh, hell."

He was officially scared, beyond anything he had ever felt before, beyond words. He would have been lost then, if it wasn't for the tight grip on his wrist.

"I think—okay, good God—I think… let's see. We started out from Jacksonville, Florida…"

"Cause before that we stayed in Orlando and went to Disneyworld and Universal Studios!" Virgil chimed in.

"Yes, thank you for that, now shut up! Let's see if I can remember anything… Okay, so when we left we were around 30 degrees North and 81 degrees West. I memorized this so I could formulate the whole trip into Backpack, much less annoying than 'are we there yet?'"

"Rich!"

"Wha…? Oh, yeah, sorry. Right, so, we were only gone for about a day and a night before that blasted storm hit. It really shouldn't be possible but, well, what if…?"

"What if what?" Virgil was growing impatient, not because of the excessive babbling and the lack of focus, that he was used to, but because for once he really didn't know what would come out of it…

"Well, what if it managed to get us off course to about 27 degrees North and 70 degrees West?"

Ritchie was clearly giving him that look that said this should have a bigger impact than it did.

"I dunno, what?"

"V, that's the Bermuda Triangle you dolt! Most plotted courses go around it, what if that storm made us go through it? Virgil, what if we're in it?"

"Then… that would be bad?"

"Bad! That's it! When we get home, I am so making you start watching the Discovery Channel with me! This is a catastrophe! No wonder Backpack wasn't functioning properly…I wonder if our distress signal even got out! Oh shit and like I said, no one flies or sails around here! How are we gonna be spotted?" Ritchie put his head in his hands and moaned.

"Rich…"

"It's supposed to be like this massive electromagnetic field and you can't even sense that! Ships and planes and people get trapped here all the time! Oh fuck, we're so screwed!"

"Ritchie, shut up for a minute!"

Ritchie's mouth snapped closed.

Virgil had once again made out the important parts of that garble and ignored all the rest. The only thing he got from it this time was that they were in major trouble and most likely weren't to be rescued any time soon.

"What time is it?"

Ritchie shrugged, "How should I know… neither of us have waterproof watches, another purchase we'll have to consider if—when we get back. How far is the sun across the sky?"

"Um, about half, I guess."

"Right, then mark the direction its setting in as West somehow. Tonight we'll search for the North Star."

"I dunno how."

Ritchie smiled slightly, and for the first time since they came to, Virgil felt relieved. "I still do." Squinting, he glanced up; even knowing the effort was futile. "Sun's been setting around 6:30 or so this time of year, we have around five hours left maybe."

"We should get some important stuff done." Virgil made to rise. "Or I should. You banged your head pretty hard. You just sit here for awhile Rich and I'll bring you stuff to try to make a fire out of. I've always wondered if rubbing two sticks together really works…"

Ritchie let out a snort and nodded. Virgil turned to make his way off down the beach, promising to check in every hour or so if he could keep time. Ritchie remarked in jest that maybe he could even figure out a sun dial. Virgil just laughed and started to whistle, or at least he tried too. Upon finding his lips too parched for that activity he switched to humming.

When he was about a quarter-way gone, he turned back to verify his friend's safety one last time. He observed with some worry that Ritchie looked really red from this vantage point.

His friend's voice called after him, tauntingly. "Um…Virgil? Just to be clear… was I imagining things before or did you really kiss me?"

Well, perhaps not all of that flush had to do with heat…

"It wasn't a kiss! It was resuscitation!"

"And there's no cure like travel,
To help you unravel,
The worries of living today.
When the poor brain is cracking,
There's nothing like packing,
A suitcase and sailing away.
Take a run 'round Vienna,
Granada, Ravenna, Sienna,
And then a-'round Rome.
Have a high time, a low time,
And in no time,
You'll be singing 'Home, Sweet Home…'"

Excerpt from "Anything Goes"

A/N: Okay, I'm not going to be explaining anything here. Not my long absence or the random late update. Instead, I'm just going to be reminding everyone of the recent disaster of Hurricane Katrina here in the US. I'm going to remind everyone to keep donating time, effort, money, food, water, clothing, shelter, blood, whatever you can spare. In times like this we realize just how fortunate we really are and to be thankful for what we have. I'm grateful for every last review I've gotten that has encouraged me thus far. I can only hope my continuing this story could be something someone else could be grateful for too.