Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Gaijin ❯ Chapter 29

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Gaijin

Part 29

Acceptance.

++++++++++++++++++++

It was an odd moment. I'll never really forget it.

I found myself wondering why it took me so damn long to realize it. I really should have figured it out a lot sooner.

I had no real choice in my destiny, no hope for peace in the near future.

I was finally free, there was no possible way I was going to have any semblance of a normal life. There was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck no matter what I did. It would follow me even if I ran to the other side of the world, even after the messes I was in now were long since gone.

I was Spiderman, costume or not. I had to help the senshi, I had to save the world, and I had to do it, or it was my ass that was going to suffer for it. I had to look death in the eyes and laugh. It was either that, or die.

Not as easy as it sounds really. Death was right in front of me, laughing madly as it waved the severed pieces of its victims around like flags as it landed on the rooftop in front of me. I had to wonder why I was the one who got stuck with it.

As Usagi Tsukino landed behind me, with a much heavier sounding thump than a fourteen-year old girl should be able to generate. I didn't have much time to be introspective. I knew I was looking at Carnage, and I was Spiderman, with Venom backing me up.

Something right out of a page in a comic book from back home. After all, here I was a lone hero against a monster, with a reluctant and unstable ally that would turn on me in an instant? I wondered why I felt so free at all. After all I was trapped between the two of them. Usagi hadn't exactly offered any assistance either yet. I knew it would be coming once she got a taste of that thing. Reluctant assistance probably, but better than facing this thing alone.

I had no idea what to do as it looked at me. It had landed on a rooftop in front of us after we had both passed by, catching up to us easily as we both tried to change our direction as the new threat appeared. Usagi stopped herself first, clinging to a wall just over the monster as I landed on the opposite side of the building from it. I was crouched over the street ready to dodge anything it could toss at me.

What the hell am I doing? I'm no superhero! That was what I was thinking at first glance. As I landed I thought about it a bit more. Damn it. Yeah, I am. Like it or not, I'm a superhero.

I still have no idea why anyone would dream about having a life like this. Gia really owes me for this one.

I did what I thought I should. I opened my mouth to speak first. I kind of wish I hadn't really.

++++++++++++++++++++

"Man, that's a nasty looking sore! Maybe you should get it looked at?"

Venom glanced over towards Carrot. She seemed slightly surprised by the smug tone the boy had used. She quickly discarded it as unimportant.
"It's the other! How? It isn't possible for the other to take a human host!"

Carnage's head rolled backwards at an inhuman angle as he looked up at the thing over his head. "Hello little brother."

"You're looking at it aren't you?" snapped the boy angrily.

"It doesn't matter. It must be destroyed. It is dangerous." Venom snarled angrily and hissed.

"Heh. That inferior prototype won't even scratch me. I've got the military model," replied Carnage hatefully. He had yet to move to attack. "Besides. I'm not interested in you. I want Spiderman!" It pointed its finger directly at Carrot and still did not move its feet.

"Give yourself up quietly, and we'll catch him for you," offered Venom.

"I'd rather play with my food and kill you too actually," responded the other.

"Usagi. That thing killed two hundred people and broke Rei's back," said the boy calmly.

"We are aware of that," snarled the creature hatefully. "We'll make sure it can't hurt anyone else!"

Venom was showing surprising restraint as it continued to cling to the wall overhead. That or the suit was worried about something and was holding Usagi back.

"How about you help me get rid of it, Tsukino? I'm the lesser evil in case you didn't notice."

"Very well. We'll help you again Spiderman, just don't get in our way."

"Yeah. That makes a lot of sense," snorted Carrot lazily. "So. Are you just going to stand there and make threats ugly?"

"No. I'm quite patient. I want to enjoy killing you both. In fact, I'd rather do it with an audience!" The thing shot upwards and nailed Usagi in the chest as its arm formed a long spike. The girl was ripped from the wall by the force of the blow and landed on the rooftop face first as Carnage stuck to her former position and started to move up and away.

"Damn it! Now we have to chase him!" snapped Carrot as he moved quickly to follow and ignored the dazed Usagi.

"Wait! Don't run from me coward!" snarled Venom as it jumped to its feet a little shakily. "Come back here!"

Carrot shifted sideways to get out of the black thing's path as it tore after Carnage. "I've found you at last, you're not escaping!"

"Holy shit, she's pissed," muttered the boy as he watched the pair tear after each other. "Maybe I can just duck this fight?" The pair ripped into the interior of the apartment complex through one of the windows. A huge cloud of dust erupted from the room they had entered and small debris showered down on the street below. The arm of an unfortunate resident fell by him. "Son of a bitch," he grumbled as he shot out a line of webbing and climbed towards an open window nearby.

In the distance behind him he noticed a giant plume of smoke had
started to form in the center of town. "Looks like I'm not the only one
who's busy tonight," he commented as he climbed through. "I hope Uranus
can get rid of that nasty scorpion thing. I sure as hell don't want to
deal with it again."

++++++++++++++++++

"We are being watched."

"Huh?" Minako's head snapped up from her magazine. It was resting on
top of an open textbook. "What do you mean?"

"We need to leave, now. There is a way you contact the others?" Mai,
her guardian shinobi, had simply strolled into her room and announced
her business.

"Go? Where?" asked the girl dumbly as she found herself being pulled by
the elbow.

"Someone watches us girl. This is not some perverted teen either. I've
only caught glimpses of him, but three times in one night is a bit much
for coincidence. We need to go, or your life, and the lives of your
family could very well end tonight. Do you understand that?"

The girl looked close to tears. "I can take them."

"Are you willing to risk your entire family on that assumption?" she
asked coolly. Her eyes gave away no emotion as she stared at the girl
she was forced to protect. Minako still hadn't seen her face yet. She
kept it covered with a black scarf. She imagined all the strange girl's
friends did that.

"Why do you hide your face that way? I bet you're really pretty!" said
the girl as she looked at the shinobi in front of her.

"Because, I am not to be remembered." The girl gave that simple reply.
"I've packed a small bag for you already. You won't need anything else.
Don't bother with clothes. Simply transform so we can leave quickly. I
do not know how long it will be before we are attacked."

"Are you..."

"Positive," replied the shinobi calmly. "Come on."

"I'll call the others!" cried Minako. "We can take care of this no
problem!" She fumbled around her room and grabbed her pen and
communicator.

"You should call them, but not for help. They will be far too busy this
evening I imagine. You should warn them, but do it while we move. As I
said before, time is important. I have alerted my comrades already."

"Just a second, this takes a moment," grumbled Minako sourly.

"I hope you're pleased with yourself!" snapped her mother as she
stormed into the hallway.

"WHAT?!" cried Minako in horror.

"Not now," growled Mai a she pushed the woman back.

"My daughter has a hit on her head!" snapped the woman.

"That is why I am here. If you delay us any longer, you risk the lives
of all in this home. Good evening." Mai stormed out of the hallway and
Minako quickly followed her, fumbling with the bag she had been given.
Both her parents looked angry, pensive, and worried. She felt like an
absolute ass as she hurried past them. "I can't believe you told my
parents! After all that yelling you had time to tell my parents?!"

"You can't return home until this is over. Your parents will not be
here. They will be leaving in a few hours to temporary residents. The
master likes you a bit more than you deserve I think." She glanced back
at the girl as she fumbled to keep up as they walked into the street.

"Hey! That wasn't very nice!" snapped Minako as she started to grow
annoyed with the rude girl.

"Would you transform? You're running around in your nightgown. We don't
need to attract that kind of attention right now."

"Right, like running around with a senshi in the middle of the street
is any less contemptuous!"

Mai growled under her breath. "Hurry up. I don't plan to travel through
the streets girl. You're not strong enough without those powers of
yours. I learned that much just by watching you."

Minako held her breath until her face turned red as she threw the bag
on the ground and raised her pen over her head.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Uranus huffed angrily as she glared at the thing standing across from
her. It didn't look like she had even scratched it yet. It simply stood
there, glaring at her hatefully. "Damn. What the hell am I going to do?
I've got to think of a way around that damn armor."

"Have you thought of a plan yet? Are you ready to destroy me yet?" said
Nine playfully. Her tail whipped about behind her and tossed the remains
of two cars into the buildings on either side of the street. Both of
them crashed through the glass windows of local businesses. The street
had been quite busy until they had landed in the middle of traffic.

The creature opened its palm and grinned as a ball of dark power formed
above it. "You'll die. You cannot defeat me. Not even with the power of
all those planets to aid you. Just die and be done with it." She
screamed and threw it at her.

Uranus screamed as her hands came into contact with the ball of power.
A horrible pain coursed through her body as she was pushed skyward and
repeatedly shocked by the power. She strained painfully to keep it in
front of her and struggled to push off of it for several seconds.

Finally she felt herself fly away from it and slammed into the side of
a building, destroying nine of the rooms inside in her passing. She
shook her head as she staggered and fumbled to her feet. That had really
hurt. Her head turned towards the twisted metal support jutting up from
the remains of the floor a few feet to her right. She snorted and
grabbed it by hefting it over her shoulder. She had a frown on her face
as she simply walked forward, unobstructed by anything in her way as she
pulled a twelve-foot beam of steel out of the building's structure.
"This should do." She turned her eyes down to the street as she simply
walked through the outer wall and into the air four stories above the
ground. Her body pivoted into the same direction her gaze was directed.

Nine was hissing at her below. "Still trying to fight."

Uranus said nothing as she floated down to the ground and landed
lightly. "Come on." She waved the monster forward with her fingers.

"Very well," snarled the beast. It charged her and squirted some of the
liquid from its tail at the beam in her hands. "You're not strong enough
to harm me anyway!"

Uranus skillfully twirled it out of the way and around her back as she
plowed the end of it into the thing's face. "I do have to keep my figure
somehow after all. Wouldn't want them getting too big you see. Ruins my
image."

The beast was sprawled out on the ground and got up a little slowly.
Green fluid was coming out of its mouth.

"So. You're not invincible after all?"

"True enough, but that will change, once I've destroyed you."

"You haven't got what it takes," replied the fuku-clad woman angrily.
Her cape fluttered in the wind behind her, pieces of it were torn away
and the ends were now very frayed.

"I'm afraid you are quite mistaken. Skilled as you may be, I will
overpower you." Nine roared angrily as she reached for the woman again
with her claws extended. Her tail lashed out over her head and slammed
into the ground, forcing Uranus back.

The girl replied to the assault by wielding the steel like a bat. It
cracked across the monster's skull and sent it flying into a thick
concrete brick that had once been the corner of a large building. Rubble
crumbled around the fallen creature as it struggled to recover from the
blow.

Uranus calmly walked towards the scene while bending her beam back into
shape again. She had a confident looking smirk on her face as she
stopped and waited for the monster to arise.

"I'm afraid you're about to lose your edge girl," snarled the thing as
it stood up in a shower of concrete dust and gripped into the remains of
the building above it.

"No way!" gasped Uranus as the monster ripped off almost the entire
wall above it. She watched helplessly as it came down on her in a wave.
"Damn it."

"Now, back to the task at hand," said the creature as it calmly walked
through the ruins before they had even settled. "She has everything I
need. Wait, something is missing... Heh. No wonder this was so easy." It
plunged its fist into the rubble and pulled out the fallen girl. Uranus
hung limply from its grip with the twisted beam still gripped between
her fingers. More because they were stuck into the metal than anything
else.

The thing paused when it realized that she had a smirk on her face.
"What?"

"I knew you couldn't resist picking me up," snapped the girl as she
swiped the monster across its skull with the steel beam. A car in the
street was cut in half by the motion of her swing. She gasped when the
weapon was ripped apart in her hands.

The monster had actually bitten her weapon in half. A large chunk of
twisted and smoking steel fell from its jaws. "Aw, You lose."

The girl growled angrily as a black armor plated fist slammed into her
face. She was thrown back across the concrete and ripped up large chunks
of the road in her wake as she skipped a few times. She looked back and
didn't see the monster before she even got up. It was too late for her
to realize what had happened when it landed on top of her and crushed
her chest with its claws.

"Now. To destroy you!" snarled the beast angrily. It beat on her
relentlessly with the end of it's tail, but did not use the hook.
"Pathetic creature. I'll have to hunt down the remaining outer senshi. I
had her power in mind as well when I designed this form."

"Designed?" muttered Uranus painfully as she felt about around her for
anything to defend herself with.

"Die, fool."

The girl pulled up one of the discarded steel beam halves. She twisted
her body and launched it at the monster. It took the blow in the gut and
was thrown back by the force. "Get off of me!"

"Very well. I'll end it quickly then," snarled the monster. Its tail
wagged behind its head and began dripping with fluid once again.

The girl's costume was torn to shreds; she was bruised and bleeding as
she glared at the thing in front of her angrily. She raised her palm and
gasped for breath, a slight smile formed on her face as she pooled power
in front of it. "Eat this, you bitch."

"Pathetic fool," snorted the beast as it closed its form up.

"Die!" screamed Uranus with an enraged cry. The monster had yet to
notice that the beam of steel was still planted between two of its
armored plates. A gap in the defenses was still present. Power exploded
from her palm and a painful sounding scream came from within the armor.
It folded back and the blast consumed her completely.

The dirty looking hero staggered to her feet and spit on the ground as
she wiped the blood from her chin. "Take that."

The monster was glaring at her on its back. Its breathing was labored
as it simply lay where it was and smoked. "Damn you. I'll destroy you
yet."

"Not if you're not around to do it," said the girl as she started
forming more power in her hands. "I'm not about to let you live and grow
strong again."

"Heh. So stop me then," snorted the creature. A beam of purple energy
shot into the sky from the monster's chest. Pieces of road and dirt were
thrown in every direction as it burned through the street.

"No!" The heroine rushed forward towards the blast as it started to
fade. She glared down at the hole in the ground. It had burrowed down
into the earth, and then sealed its path with that beam of power. She
had lost it.

She hung her head and rose into the sky. "I'm starting to realize why
that Spiderman guy is so pissed off all the time."

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Speaking of which...

"Where the are they?" growled Carrot. He could still hear panicked
screams as he strolled up the stairwell of the building. It was obvious
they were moving up, but Venom wasn't slowing his little brother down
much apparently. There weren't many bodies either. He'd give her that
much credit. He'd only found two dead people as he followed their
destructive trail up the interior of the building. It was a large
complex of about ten stories. He was on the ninth floor. "Hope they took
off already." He reached the door to the roof and opened it. Carnage and
Venom were squaring off in the middle of the rooftop. "Damn."

"Where the hell were you at?" snapped Venom angrily.

"Trying to catch up to you two assholes. Did you see the mess you made
back there?" The boy now had a red handkerchief tied around the bottom
of his face. All he was missing was a ridiculous American hat.

"Let the worms deal with it themselves," snorted Carnage. "Now, where
to take you? I know!" He cackled madly as he jumped off the edge of the
building and began hopping across rooftops further into the city.

Carrot and Usagi were hot on his heels. "I hope none of those chunks I
saw were yours, Tsukino."

"We protect the innocent," snarled the thing angrily.

"Where the hell is this jerk going anyway?" growled Carrot as he
ignored this.

Both of them passed on opposite sides of a building on parallel
streets. Carnage was moving fast enough to stay ahead of them, but not
by much, he wasn't even trying to dodge them.

"He's taking us somewhere. You couldn't even hold him in one place?
Some help."

Venom snarled in response to this as she squirted some of her webbing
in his direction. He dipped his head neatly aside and dodged the stream.
She was aiming for his mouth.

"Jerk." Something large an ominous loomed on the horizon. Tokyo
Stadium, and the Hikari Negashi concert. He didn't care for her music,
but she was popular enough that he recognized her name. There would be
thousands of people inside the stadium, with cameras, and all he had
covering his face was an unstable piece of cloth. "Aw, man," he whined.

It took a moment for what was leading them there to click in his mind.
"Shit." He glanced over at Usagi and called out to her. "Hurry it up!
He's heading for the stadium!"

"Good, lots of room," snarled the creature in retort.

"Do you see those lights? There's a concert tonight, it's going to be
packed with people you idiot!" snapped the boy angrily as he flipped
over a flagpole in his path. "He's heading straight for it!"

"He must be stopped!" Usagi picked up speed slightly as she rushed
towards the monster.

"Haven't I had enough of a pounding tonight?" The boy landed in the
parking lot just after Venom. She was already chasing after Carnage
towards the stadium. The monster was currently crawling up the side of
the building.

"Come on!" snarled his companion impatiently.

"All right all ready!" he snapped as he rushed up and jumped onto the
side of the building. "Jeez. What does that thing do, put you on the
monthlies permanently?"

"Mind your own business!" snarled the beast as it lobbed a large
section of wall down at him. It missed by a large margin, but silenced
him for a few moments at least.

They reached the rooftops and found Carnage standing on the edge of the
stadium, looking down into the crowds. "Look at them. Pathetic cows,
none of them suspect how close to death they are." His fingers were now
long barbed knife-like edges. "You can't stop me. I'll destroy you both,
when I'm finished playing with you."

"Who are you?" Venom crouched low as it awaited an answer.

"Death, Chaos, Carnage..." It replied and turned to face them, waving
its claws dramatically. "All the fun things in life."

"So, Carnage," growled Carrot.

"Yes?"

"What you're telling me is you intend to walk into that place, and
murder as many people as you can?"

"That is correct," replied the thing.

"Lethal force...engaged," said Venom in an electronic sounding tone.

"Thanks," said the boy cheerfully.

"What?" snarled Carnage as the creature in front of him turned silver.
It's head elongated and its claws grew larger. A whip-like tail thrashed
behind it. "I see. Should be interesting, come on, let's go make the
front page!"

The monster dove into the stadium and into the crowd with its claws
extended.

"Sick him," growled Carrot as he pointed down and glared at Venom.

The creature snapped at him. "We'll discuss this later." She dove down
after him and roared angrily. People were already scattering away from
the thing.

Carrot smirked at this. Usagi would not be able to access that form
once the danger had passed. It was a code that responded to certain
phrases, or threats. As angry as Usagi was, in the eyes of her costume,
he was only a level two threat. It would only respond to one threat
level at a time, she couldn't attack him in that form unless he did
something really stupid in front of her. The fact that he was only
considered a level two threat annoyed him for some reason.

Yoshi was a bad drunk. He'd been really lucky to find him.

He jumped into the panicking stadium, Hikari Negashi was standing on
stage watching the events unfold with her backup singers. The show had
stopped quite abruptly. Showers of blood spraying from your audience
periodically was quite the buzz kill for a J-pop singer's act.

"Oh no! Not again!" she whined.

"We should run!" cried one of her backup singers.

"Yeah!"

"Maybe that Uranus babe will show up again?" she squealed happily.

"Darn," muttered the two backup singers as they scurried away without
her.

"I don't want to be reduced to a tribute band!" whined one of them as
she dashed off stage.

Hikari glared at the direction the girl had gone in. "I'll be all
right," she told herself.

Then she turned to see the blood soaked monster that had climbed onto
her stage by carving a path through her fans. The liquid metal monster
that was tearing through the crowd didn't look any friendlier.

"Hello. Can I have your autograph?" asked the monster.

"Move!" screamed someone as she felt a soft impact as her feet left the
ground.

The metal beast had rammed into the monster full force and tumbled
across her former position in a flurry of claws and razor edges.

"Wha?" she muttered as she squeezed her rescuer's chest a bit tighter.
She glanced at him as they landed on top of the stage. "A guy?"

"What the hell is wrong with you? What the hell were you still doing on
stage?!" he cried angrily. He turned his eyes towards the battle below.
There wasn't much he could do at the moment. Carnage and Venom were
beating on each other and wrestling around with little real result from
either side. Aside from destroying their surroundings that is. The
supports for the area they were standing on began to shake precariously
and he grabbed her.

"Wait a minute, where's that hot Uranus babe?"

"She's busy. You get me or you can stand here and fall. I've got more
important things to worry about. When we land, run away."

"What? Do you have any idea who I am?"

The boy simply frowned and squirted a jet of liquid over her mouth. He
hefted her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and jumped down and a
fair distance away from the battle below. He sent out a line and slid
down to land lightly. He placed her back on her feet and pointed towards
the nearest exit. "Go. Now. I'm not saving you again."

She glared at him and growled as she tried to scream something at him
from under his webbing.

"Lesbians," he grumbled as he ignored her ranting and walked closer to
the battle.

Venom was on its back with Carnage diving for it. The silver monster
slammed its feet into the evil creature and sent it flying off the stage
into the now abandoned lower bleachers. People were still scrambling
into the exits to escape.

Carrot watched the thing sail over his head and growled irritably as he
realized exactly where it was. "Shit."

Hikari Negashi was firmly in the monster's grip as soon as it landed.
She was frozen in terror as the thing wrapped its claws around her
throat. "A great loss for society I'm sure. Murdered, with her own loyal
fans, the star of the show. Front page material indeed."

The boy froze as he watched this. The monster was holding her out and
up, looking at her face as if it was a prop from a Shakespearean play.

She gasped and stared at him. "Help me you idiot!"

Carrot had no idea what to do. His mind was a complete blank as he
stared at the monster.

"What are you going to do?" it asked coldly. "What can you do? It is
too late."

"I can do this," he replied sharply as he reached behind his back and
drew his blade in a cutting motion. To his surprise, a trail of power
crackled in the afterimage of his swing. The monster's arm fell off with
Negashi still attached to it. She hit the ground hard and fell into a
heap.

Carrot rushed forward and twisted out of the way of the shards the
monster was sending towards him. The creature landed next to its arm
after flipping over his head. The boy twisted towards the monster and
growled when he noticed the arm had attached itself to its leg. "I'll
fix that later."

"Not if we have any say in the matter!" roared Venom as it dove at it
from above.

Carnage whirled around and thrust its good arm towards her. A long
spike formed from the costume that pushed her back away from him, but
did not penetrate the metal surface.

"I think it's time I cut my losses and ran, for now," said the monster
as it jumped away from the boy's sword swing and forced him to dodge
another volley of spikes as it jumped into the air away from him.

"Stop him!" snarled Usagi.

He didn't need to be told. He was already jumping after the creature.
He had little doubt Usagi had seen what he had done to Carnage. She was
staying a good distance away from him at the moment.

The monster ripped through the wall and out into the hallways of the
stadium.

Carrot and Usagi both climbed into the room and glanced around. The
creature had vanished.

"You lost him!" snarled Venom. It's form shifted back to the low-level
threat form.

"What? All that sensor equipment and you can't see him?"

"He has an advanced cloaking system," replied Venom irritably. "Like
ours."

"Great," grumbled the boy. That meant it was possible for Carnage to
bypass his spidersense like she had. He didn't want to put any ideas
into the thing's head if he could help it.

"Well. I guess that's that then," said the boy with a heavy sigh.

"Not quite yet Spiderman. We still have unfinished business. We are
quite irate with you for losing the monster as well."

"Haven't you had enough tonight Usagi?" He turned to look at her with
his sword gripped in his hand. "I don't want you dead and never did."

"Lies!" snarled the beast.

"Since when did you take a liking to tossing people around Usagi? If
we're working together, I am not a weapon! Don't look at me like you
don't know what I'm talking about Tsukino. You didn't kill anyone, but
some of those people still haven't gotten up yet."

"They are acceptable losses. Many would have died if I had not reacted
quickly."

"Yeah. Well I know something you don't kid."

"What might that be?" growled the beast. It hunched down and hissed at
him as it prepared to attack.

"Sailor Moon can fix Rei Hino's back. Venom can't." He lit a cigarette
and turned away from the beast. His mask was pulled down around his neck
and his face wasn't a pretty sight to look at.

"Wh-what?" said the tiny sounding voice of Usagi.

"I don't like repeating myself, and I don't particularly like you. You
want to really help your friends? You find a way to change back. That
thing will only get you killed in the end."

"What would you know?" growled the thing angrily.

"The Silver Imperium Crystal is inside you," he said as he continued to
smoke and leaned against the wall. "It's the crystal you've been looking
for remember? It was sealed away inside you, the Princess of the Moon.
Without it, you don't stand a chance against Metallia. That's not
something brute force will destroy."

"We will find a way to stop this evil then," replied the creature.
"Sailor Moon was weak!"

He flicked the butt away and stared her down. "I can't kill you. If you
die, I'll die when that monster comes anyway. I'm not strong enough to
fight it on my own. Sailor Moon can win, Venom can't. It's that simple."

"We won't be fooled so easily Spiderman."

"Fine." He started walking down the stairwell away from Venom. "I'm
going home. You can waste the rest of your night looking for that thing
if you want. I'm not in the mood for a fight."

"What makes you think I'm giving you a choice?" growled Venom as he
started after her.

"Usagi has too much to think about for that."

"She doesn't need to think on it at all. We don't trust you."

"Darn. I was hoping that would work," he said with a heavy sigh.

"Come on," hissed the creature.

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the boy as he held the blade out in front of
himself.

She charged him and he tapped the edge of the blade against one of the
things arms. It jumped back sharply and growled at him as it gripped the
injured arm. "That hurt." It glared at him and noticed that his entire
body was crawling with electricity, she'd need more time to plan around
this new development. The flashing sirens closing in on them clenched
the deal. "I see. Another time then Spiderman!"

"I can't believe that worked," he said with a relieved look on his
face.

Venom would probably come back ready for that trick next time. He hung
his head and sighed. "Didn't take much to get rid of her." It was
something of a break in his eyes. He tried to smile, he really did, but
that was about the time his adrenaline stopped, and the beginnings of
his aches and pains would start.

"Son of a bitch," he grumbled as he fell flat on his rear and scrunched
up his face. It only served to worsen the pain as the numerous bruises
flared to life.

Finally, he was simply looking up at the ceiling. The sound of sirens
forced him to stand up. He glanced around and melted back into the
shadows of the stadium. He stealthily took the same path he had taken to
enter and avoided detection as emergency teams began to swarm up to the
building. They had a long night ahead of them. The fans had become an
uncontrolled mob of panic and had still not been brought under control.
It wasn't a pretty scene though.

It did, however, make his escape quite a bit easier. He quietly moved
into the streets unnoticed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Um, what?" Ami Mizuno stared at the shinobi in front of her. She was
at the hospital again with another shinobi standing next to her. Both of
them looked to be quite serious. The most authoritative of the group
appeared to be guarding Rei.

"You are being gathered together, so that we can find safe places to
put you until your lives are out of danger. You must remain hidden until
the enemy is defeated from now on. All of you." He glanced back at the
ninja behind her and nodded. "Where are the others?"

"Kenshi is on the way now. I'm not sure about Mai, she should be here
by now."

"I know. I'm getting worried," said Aman coolly. "We can't abandon them
to check on her either. I must remain here, no matter what happens. When
Kenshi arrives, he will be sent to find her. You will guard his charge
while he is away."

"That means keeping two of them together," warned the ninja coolly.

"I am aware of that, but our orders are to keep them all alive and
ready to fight should the need arise."

"Then I'm going now!" said Ami firmly. "I won't wait here while someone
attacks my friends!"

"We do not know that is the case yet," replied Aman.

"I'm not willing to take that chance," she snapped angrily as she
turned away from him and stormed towards the door.

"What should I do?" asked Hito nervously. He had thin black hair that
he kept short. The scarf around his face was red and his uniform was a
dark brown in color. On his back was a hefty looking broadsword.

"Follow, keep her safe. Our command includes letting them operate as
they see fit. Aid them if need be. According to the Master Hakage, they
have very powerful magic at their command."

"These brats? That doesn't sound good," grumbled Hito as he turned
towards the door and followed after the girl. "I'll see you when we meet
up here again I guess."

The ninja found himself standing alone with the sleeping senshi. He
stood silently for several minutes thinking to himself. He often had
time to do just that in his duty. The girl was young, and pretty. She
had awakened several more times earlier, but had yet to stay awake for
more than a few moments. That worried him on some level. She was taking
far too long to wake up given her status now. What he didn't understand
was why she needed him. What made her so important to warrant such a
guard? Their new master wasn't exactly trusting of them from what he'd
seen. Perhaps he was hoping it would keep them out of his hair for a
while? "I wonder how long I'm going to be stuck here?" He wasn't sure he
liked the idea of spending the rest of his life guarding this girl on
some long forgotten duty.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with them about security when they
all arrive," growled Aman irritably. He didn't really feel like dwelling
on the other subject. None of the doctors seemed worried about her not
waking up just yet anyway. His frown deepened as all the lights in the
room went out suddenly. "Shit."

Standing in the hallway with a wide grin plastered onto his face was a
slim looking man in a gray uniform. He had long white hair that flowed
down his back as he simply looked through the glass of Rei's hospital
bed. The boards that had been placed over the hole were carelessly
tossed to the ground below by the man's entrance. He hadn't even noticed
him until he was already standing in front of the glass.

"And who might you be? Boy?" asked the white haired man calmly.

"If I gave you my name, you'd get it dirty," replied the boy coolly.

"How quaint. I am to assume you are charged with guarding this one?" He
turned to face the boy with a grin on his face. "Easy prey, too easy to
resist."

"Not so easy as you might imagine," said the boy firmly as he drew his
katana from his back. He took an offensive stance and held the blade up
in front of his torso.

"So, you want to play with swords do you? Very well." A rapier like
blade appeared in the stranger's hand. "Come, let us see how well you
guard your princess."

"I don't serve her," replied the boy firmly. Both of them were standing
off in the middle of the empty hallway. The staff of this area had long
since been driven to a skeleton crew and it was completely empty and
open.

"Come!" snarled the man as he stabbed at the boy.

The strike was easily blocked and the boy spun into a kick that nearly
planted itself in his opponent's face.

"I am Zoicite. I am impressed by your skill boy."

"I give my name to no one. It is our way to remain hidden." The boy
slashed at the man a few times as he said this and all the strikes were
skillfully blocked.

"A pity skill alone will not be enough," he raised his palm and a ball
of flames shot out of his hand.

"Fortunate that I have more than skill to aide me," he replied as he
became engulfed in flames. He stood up tall as the inferno burned around
him. "Fire, makes me stronger." He raised his sword as the flames
ignored his body and uniform. "Face me now, and I'll destroy you. Go,
and do not return here again."

"You piteous fool. You think I might be impressed by such weak human
magic? You are the one who will fall." He charged forward swinging his
blade at the shinobi's exposed abdomen.

The boy performed a low sweeping arc in front of him as the man charged
and yelled angrily as he did it. "Back off!"

The man was thrown back as an arc of fire shot ripped across his chest.
He fumbled back to the ground and stared at his ruined uniform for a
moment. Calmly he stood up and dusted off his sleeves. His chest was now
exposed, but unharmed. "This isn't over worm. Perhaps I underestimated
you a little bit this time, but I won't make the same mistake again."

Aman glanced around as the flames around his body slowly died down. "It
is as I feared. This one will need to be moved as well. I hope the
others get back soon."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mai Frowned as she stood on a rooftop overlooking Tokyo with Minako at
her side. "We must hurry. The others will be waiting for us. We have the
most distance to cover."

Minako simply nodded and sighed. "Where are we going?"

"To the hospital," said the shinobi calmly. "We should arrive within
the hour."

"Great. We have to run all the way there?" Minako didn't seem pleased
with that.

"I'm going to have to do something about that whining girl. Your life
is at stake here, and I take my orders very seriously."

"Right," mumbled the girl as she hung her head.

"It is not wise, to pick such an obvious meeting place, nor is it wise
to take such an obvious route," said Kunzite as he stepped out of the
shadows in front of him. He was eyeing them both coldly and had his
hands behind his back.

Two large ugly lizard youma stood on either side of him. They resembled
chameleons and were almost comical in appearance. One of them opened is
mouth and lashed out with its tongue. Mai was tossed across the gravel
on her back in front of Minako. A large red mark was present on her face
as she slowly stood back up.

"Damn," she growled.

Minako strolled forward. "I'm not gonna let you hurt my friends!"

"Stop me," said the man with an arrogant chuckle.

The two lizard men hissed at her and started to stalk forward.

Mai reached behind her back and pulled out two silver sai. She spun
them skillfully around her hands and stopped in a ready stance. "Come on
then."

The man turned his back on her and started walking to a comfortable
place to view the battle.

"We'll attack them together," said Mai firmly. "I hear you command some
rather powerful magic?"

"You got that right," said Minako as she realized that things might be
just a little more in her favor than she had thought. "Let's get them!"

The pair charged forward towards their enemies. A ball of golden light
shot from Sailor Venus's fingertips as she ran girlishly forward.

Mai was a bit more direct, she rushed towards her target in full
sprint. Both attacks hit home at once. Minako's ball of power exploded
on contact and sent the monster on its back.

Mai ducked under a claw strike and stabbed the monster in its eye with
one of her sai as she shifted back upright. A quick slash with the other
opened its throat wide open. It fell back and struggled to breathe as it
suffocated and vanished into dust.

The remaining lizard was slowly rising up as Minako perched herself
higher up on a small air vent that was wide enough for her to stand on.
"Now you're going to get it!" She pointed the wand her pen had become at
the monster and smirked. "Take this!" A golden beam of light shot
forward and went right through the monster's chest. It collapsed to the
ground on its face and vanished.

Kunzite merely chuckled. "Most impressive, I look forward to meeting
you again young lady."

Mai growled at him as he floated into the air and away from the
rooftop. "He's getting away!"

"Drat," snapped Minako. "We'll get him sooner or later."

"Thinking like that leads to failure," said the older girl irritably.
"Not that it matters. You're no fighter."

Minako bristled slightly at this, but didn't argue. "Fine. Be that way
then!"

++++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot stumbled through the window of the clinic. He was dirty, tired,
and in a lot of pain.

"Um. I hope you don't mind..." said Mei Lin as she met him at the
window with a pensive frown on her face.

"What?" he growled angrily.

"Um. I was at the concert tonight, so were a lot of other
photographers..."

"You took my picture?" he grumbled. "You've done it before. So what's
the big deal now?"

"Well, you said not to take any if you weren't wearing that costume,
but I wasn't the only one there, and I didn't want you getting upset
about it later..."

"Whatever. I just want sleep. Tomorrow is going to suck."

"Michiru called a couple of times," muttered Mei Lin sheepishly.

"What are you, an answering service? You don't know half of what
happened to me tonight!" He didn't sound that angry with her when he
said this and leaned against the wall.

"I'll bet. You look terrible," she said with a small sigh.

"Yeah. I know. I'm goin to bed. If there's any other business, I'll
deal with it in the morning."

She shuffled over to the phone and picked it up. "Sometimes it's hard
to tell he's a pretty nice guy." She glared in his general direction out
if spite and dialed the number as instructed. It rang a few times and
Spike picked up the other line.

"Yo."

"He's not going to be any help until tomorrow. You can come over and
talk to him if you want."

"I guess we'll just keep him here. Keeps messin up the bathrooms
though. Jiro's gonna make him clean it up when he sobers up tomorrow."
The man sounded somewhat disinterested in what was going on at this
point. "I'm gonna hit the sack myself then. We'll meet him here
tomorrow."

"I'm not sure how long he'll be around here tomorrow, but I'll give him
the message. Michiru called earlier and said she wanted to see him when
he got back. I'll call her and tell her to stop by tomorrow." Mei Lin
grumbled as she realized that she was acting like the secretary for the
group. Carrot's comments didn't really come at a good time.

"See you then I guess."

"I've got to work tomorrow, but maybe I'll see you," she replied
cheerfully. "I've got to get these photo's developed."

+++++++++++++++++

Minako and Mai walked into the hospital and found everyone standing around them.

Makoto was standing with a skinny looking boy with straight black hair. He looked quite serious, as all of their guardians did. "Hi," she said irritably as she realized Minako had entered the room.

Ami and her shinobi stepped in right behind Mai.

"Everyone is here?" said Aman coolly. "Good."

"We were getting worried," said Ami nervously. "What's going on?"

"You are being taken to safe places, away from here. Someone was here earlier, I had to drive him off." Aman turned to the other ninja and glanced at them. "Any other reports?"

"Minako and I were attacked by monsters of some sort. There was what appeared to be a man commanding them. He had strong magic." Mai's tone was even and collected as she said this.

"We should be on guard then. You all know where to take them, make sure they stay hidden. You are only permitted to go out as Senshi from this day forward. Personal lives are a thing of the past for you."

"What?!" they all cried in unison.

"Do you understand that you are targets? You are dangerous to anyone near you. You must remain hidden, until this evil is defeated. Your identities are not safe." Hito frowned down at Ami as he realized that she understood at least.

"You can't do this to us!" cried Makoto angrily.

"They're right you know," said Ami softly. "We're not safe. What happened to Minako is proof enough of that. I believe him about what he saw here. What about Rei though? She's not stayed awake long yet."

"She will be moved to better facilities in the morning. You will see her when she has recovered a bit. I am certain her life is no longer in danger medically. Her magic has protected her this long after all." Mai turned towards the door and glanced at Minako. "Come on. We should go."

"We aren't staying together?" asked the girl in confusion.

"That will be too dangerous. You may only communicate with each other through your personal communicators," said Aman firmly. "Please. You must trust us. It is how we earn our living after all."

The girl nodded quietly and followed after her guide. She knew this was something Luna would warn against. Artemis spent his days with Usagi, but she imagined he would advise caution as well. They weren't winning! It was time to throw caution to the dogs!

Mai glanced back and growled. She could tell by the look on her face that the girl was being stupid again. "I did not imagine my career would include such things." She steeled herself to be ready for the trials ahead.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot put an expensive cell phone up to his ear as he put on a clean shirt and adjusted his sunglasses. "I don't care about that. Look, just get it done all right?"

Gia was watching him from the door of her bedroom. She looked terrible and her hair was a complete mess. "What are you doing?"

"Business," he replied simply. "My broker insisted that I buy a phone. It's damned annoying."

"Broker?" she asked dumbly.

"Yeah. I stole some money from those Yakuza that where trying to kill me a while back and made a few investments." There were still a few bruises on his face, but he looked mostly healthy. Of course, it was nearly two in the afternoon at this point. If he still looked as bad as he did it had to be a rough night. He did have a sly looking grin on his face though as he spoke to her. She didn't know it, but the market was doing pretty much exactly the same thing it did on his world. He knew more than enough to put his money into fast growing industries and companies. He was already making excellent returns on more than half of his investments. Others would be a bit more long term, but would probably pay off more given time if things kept going the way they were. The eighties were the age of excess after all.

"Why didn't you wake me up last night!? Look at you! I'll bet you were a mess!"

The boy glared at her and frowned as he puffed on a cigarette and started to button up his shirt. "It's nothing to worry about. You've got enough problems, and I'm starting to get a handle on mine."

"Michiru wants to speak with you," said the woman as she yawned and rubbed at her eyes. "You haven't called her in the last few hours or something."

He snorted at that. "I'm going to give her this number later," he replied as he held up the phone. "I'm leaving it for you guys too. Don't give it out. I only want a few people to be able to get in touch with me."

"You look nice," she commented. He was wearing clean slacks and a button up shirt. A brown leather jacket was being hung across his shoulders as she said this.

"My costume is torn to shreds, and every thing else I owned was destroyed. That's why I made a costume in the first place actually. I'm gonna have to make more than one this time," he responded casually. "I've got some people to see today anyway."

The woman nodded slowly and sat down at the nearby table. It was easy to see she was starting to feel better. "Where's Luna?"

The cat was sitting in front of the television screen purring cheerfully as the usual soaps played on the screen. "You need to ask?"

"I heard that," she growled at them.

"It's true. You're lazy, and you don't contribute."

"I remember stuff, just not a lot," she muttered irritably. "I'm not going to keep hitting myself on the head just to please you."

"Tried it and it didn't work?" he asked calmly.

"Shut up!" she muttered as she settled back down on watching the show.

"Mei Lin is at work. She said to call her about that lead you've got for her later tonight."

"I need to talk with some people today. Maybe I can find Uranus? I'd like to ask her how her fight went for myself."

He tapped the paper in front of him. He was sharing the headlines again, this time Uranus fighting Nine was next to a rather fuzzy photo of his barely covered face and another picture of the two monsters fighting just below that. "Spiderman Unmasked and Mid Town Rumble! Tokyo in rubble once again!" Most of the story involved a few sorted facts about the fight the night before, and what the government was planning to do about the new problem they were facing. This was starting to cost the people of Japan quite a bit.

"At least it puts you in a good light," said Gia nervously. "No one can identify you either. That mask of yours worked." She laughed a little. "They're not calling you a bad guy. They're just wondering why you and those others are doing what the government can't."

"Or more likely won't," responded the boy casually. "Beryl has a hand in someone in the system. Things are getting too out of hand now to keep things quiet though. That makes whatever sap she got her claws into a dangerous man to be right now."

He glanced over his shoulder to look at her for a moment. "Sorry about your sister. This thing won't be easy to get rid of though."

"You know something?" she gasped.

"I ran into it last night. That thing at the concert, that's your man."

"I realized that," she said softly. "It even says so in the paper."

"Mei Lin?" he asked as he stared down at the credit. Someone else had written the story, but her photos had made the front page.

"You should have seen her face. Turns out the photos fit the piece that was already written for the front page. They just added a bit about the fight last night."

He sighed as he turned towards the door. "I'm going out again."

"You just got back!" said the woman dumbly.

"I needed new clothes. All of my others have been destroyed. Now I've got to go take care of business."

Gia was staring at the bags on the floor. The stores were expensive. "How much money do you have anyway?"

"Enough to pay for any damage to the clinic after I'm gone," he replied as he frowned at her. "The rest is my business." He calmly left the building.

She sighed at this. He didn't buy much, but he usually spent a bit of money when he did. Nothing he owned was inexpensive. She was starting to become suspicious of him. She could actually smell after-shave? She cocked her head and sniffed at the air.

"I feel sorry for that poor girl," she muttered as she shuffled off to grab some coffee. She was going to open the clinic back up the next day, and it would take a lot of preparation to do it.

+++++++++++++++++++

Carrot calmly walked down the street. His sense kept him informed of any danger, and at the moment it was free and clear. The streets were busy, but he wasn't really deep into the Urban jungle. He glanced up at the small temple and smirked.

An old man opened the gate for him and stepped back in slight shock. "What do you want?"

He glanced down at the old man coolly. "I understand you're keeping something here for me?"

"You?" muttered the man dumbly. "Please forgive me, I was not expecting a..."

"Gaijin?" asked the boy cheerfully. "I don't think anyone was expecting me really. That's the whole problem."

"Please, this way..." said the old man as he bowed slightly and waved his arm.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot removed his sunglasses as he walked into the temple. His shoes were gone, and the floor was a polished wood. The remaining three senshi were all glaring at him angrily. Ami was looking into the screen of her communicator. She could see Rei lying in a hospital bed with an open book on her lap. The ninja Aman was leaning against a dresser beside her with his head down. He appeared to be sleeping.

"What have you done with Rei?" asked Makoto angrily.

"She is in a medical facility that will remain unnamed," replied the boy calmly as he strolled into the room. "She is safe, you can see that clearly enough. I wouldn't worry. The facilities where she is are state of the art. Unfortunately, there is only so much they can do to help her."

None of the girls looked happy with him. Each of their shinobi stood calmly aside while the meeting took place.

"I'm giving you the help you need. Don't look at me as if I'm the bad guy here."

"All right," said Ami as she stood up and glared at him firmly. "What is your plan?"

"We're going to have to start gathering information for one. Getting Usagi back to normal is another priority. I know better than to think that will be easy." He paced back and fourth in front of them for a moment. "Your families are under guard as well, but I doubt they'll see much excitement. You on the other hand."

"We don't like hiding," growled Makoto.

"So don't," he replied with a small shrug. "I mean, how long will it take them to attack you if they know exactly who and where you are? Isn't much we can do about who you are."

Aman arched his eyebrow slightly at that. They could easily acquire such false documents. He didn't speak any more than that though. "This will make them easier to watch," he commented to Mai softly.

She nodded and wondered exactly what their new master was plotting. He didn't seem entirely stable.

The senshi weren't really arguing with him. None of them looked pleased.

"Don't look at me like this is my fault," he growled. "You got your names in lights on your own. I may have threatened it in the past, but I didn't follow through."

"How dare you talk like that?!" snarled Makoto. Rei had nearly died, her identity had been revealed along with their own when help had arrived.

Carrot sighed. "All right. You think I like paying for this?! You ungrateful little brats! I'm going out on a limb for your sorry butts. I don't even like you!"

Ami's face softened a little at this. "We can't just abandon our lives." She seemed quite adamant about it.

"Don't you get it? Those things have already destroyed any chance of that," said Mai firmly.

"What she said," agreed Carrot. "I've been hiding from things like this for a while now. That's how I got into this mess in the first place." He didn't look very pleased with his situation at all.

"What are we supposed to do?" cried Makoto.

"Same thing as always. Once we defeat Beryl and Metallia and all that, you should be all right to go home at least." The boy actually looked like he was really looking forward to that day.

"Is there anything else master? It is not wise to gather together this way," commented Hito somewhat impatiently.

"Wait! What are we doing? You've got some sort of plan right?" cried Minako anxiously.

"Not really no. Getting you guys safe like this was Aman's idea. I just found out about it this morning. I'd trust his judgement if I were you though. I'm sure we'll think of something though." He actually smiled at them as he said this.

"Are you feeling all right?" asked Ami.

"Not really, no," he said cheerfully. "I think I'm gonna die. Might as well go down fighting though!" With that said he turned away from them.

"Oh god," muttered Ami as she cradled her face. "This situation doesn't seem to have improved anything."

"Have faith Mizuno," said Mai. "Master Hakage says he will become a great man one day. I have faith in what he tells me. Times have been very hard for him. If all what I have heard is true, I am amazed he still lives."

"Well you don't know him as well as we do," growled Makoto. "I was fine at home! I don't have a family to worry about!"

"I would not risk my own life so needlessly," said Kenshi firmly. "It was better for both of us if we left."

"Are you sure I can't get you to go out with me?" she whined as she looked up at him.

He growled under his breath. Mai was laughing at him silently, he could tell. "I am not to be seen," he replied coolly. "Keep your hands to yourself."

The girl looked completely frustrated with him and walked after him as he and the others began to depart.

"Why won't he tell us where Rei is?" asked Ami as she glanced at Hito.

"If one of us fails, and one of you is captured, you cannot give away the location of the others. That is why we ask that you not tell each other where you are staying. It is for your own safety."

"We would not betray each other that way! Even if we were tortured!" snapped the girl angrily.

"Enemies like this one, have ways of making even those with the strongest will speak. It is not wise to tempt fate."

The girl blushed and nodded slowly. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation. That was probably what worried her most.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot landed on the rooftop of the bar and strolled over to the door. He pulled it open and walked down the service stairs into the building.

Spike was standing next to Jiro. "Where's Yoshi?"

"I've got him doing dishes in the back. That man has no spine," said Jiro calmly. "I appreciate you letting me watch him. I haven't had to do anything besides pour drinks all day."

Carrot blinked at this. "No problem. I need him back though. I've got to make him build something for me."

"You can go and get him. He's in the back, by the sink." Jiro nodded his head and the boy simply turned away.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot walked into the kitchen and found the man humming cheerfully as he washed dishes in a large metal sink. "Yoshi. I need to talk with you."

"I have some ideas on how to deal with our problem!" said the man as he instantly seemed to forget about what he was doing. He did stop to take off his apron and gloves, but did not stop speaking to do it. "Unfortunately, none of them would take less than a million yen to build."

The boy was taken completely by surprise. "Huh?"

"The sonic gun is our best bet. I've been kicking around a few other ideas as well. It wouldn't take much more than a large tuning fork and some high-end motors and electronic parts. The tricky part will be building something to focus it properly. Unfortunately, a tuning fork large enough for our needs won't be easy to find, or inexpensive. We'll probably have to get it custom made. It will also be fairly heavy."

Carrot sat the man at the small table in the back for taking breaks and folded his arms on the table after sitting across from him. "Okay. That's a start."

"Well. I've had a few ideas about a bomb that might do it with minimal damage to the surrounding area as well."

"Bomb?" asked the boy. He was quite interested in hearing the rest of it.

"Yes. It would be a relatively small explosion that would emit massive amounts of Gamma radiation. Harmless to your average human, but levels that high would definitely have an adverse effect on the unit's electronics."

"Actually. I'd rather steer clear of that sort of thing," said Carrot as he stared at the man dumbly. He wasn't touching that one with a pole.

"I'm thinking of building it anyway. It would be quite an interesting experiment!" said the man cheerfully. "I've been working on funding for the project since I started this one. We were always interested in ways to stop one if it got out of control. We weren't very good at it. They didn't seem interested in funding it though."

"Yoshi. Have I ever made you angry?" asked Carrot suddenly.

"Huh? Well. I mean, I could have been treated a little better. I want to help you though." The man shifted in his chair nervously.

"I think you and I should become friends Yoshi. If there's anything you need. Just let me know." The boy seemed quite nervous at this point. "I mean it man. I like you for some reason." He patted the man on his shoulder and received a large dumb grin in return.

"Really?"

"Sure Yoshi. Gamma Bomb is it?" asked the boy.

"Oh yes. I'm sure it will be quite impressive. I think this problem will be solved by then though. So I suppose it's just a personal project now." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "It will have practical applications against all sorts of electronics though. A very high tech weapon for use against advanced electronics!"

"Really? Sounds dangerous. I'd be careful if I were you," warned Carrot with a false looking concern. "You like staying here?"

"Well, I'd rather not," muttered the man. "I do have an apartment though."

"Your boss will be looking for you there. Anywhere you can go where he can't find you?" asked the boy.

"I suppose my Aunt Mika will take me in for a short time," grumbled the man nervously. "She was always my favorite aunt. Such a sweet old lady."

Carrot grinned at him. "Why don't we go see her right now? I'd rather not make this uncomfortable if I can help it. I'd rather think of us as a team really."

"I'm having trouble trusting you," said the man nervously.

"I'm not real good at the whole being nice thing. I think it's a good idea if the two of us get along though. After all, we'll be working together, and I don't want to get smashed."

"What?" asked the man dumbly.

Carrot shook his head. "Come on. I can't keep you here forever, and I can't take you home with me. I'm gonna trust you Yoshi. You seem like a nice guy."

"Thanks," said the man cheerfully. His mother would be so pleased to hear he was making new friends. She'd been asking about it for years.

++++++++++++++++++

Carrot grinned as he found himself standing no more than a block away from Michiru's place. Yoshi was at his side as he stood in the gateway of a kindly looking old woman.

"Oh. Yoshi! Have you come to visit?" she asked sweetly.

"Hi Aunt Miko!" said the man cheerfully as he waved at the woman.

Carrot was trying his best to look pleasant. The woman glanced at him nervously and seemed to realize that he was trying. "Is...this a friend of yours?"

"Yes," said Yoshi cheerfully.

The boy hung his head in defeat. "Look. I need your son to lay low, so he can help me with something."

"Has something happened?" asked Miko with a worried looking frown.

"Something kind of got out at work. I need his help to catch it. My boss is trying to cover it up because some people died because of it. We have to stop him!" said Yoshi firmly he clenched his fist in front of his face and stood as proudly as he could. "He shot up the lab auntie!"

"That's nice dear. You can have the spare bedroom."

"Oh. Thank you auntie!" cried the man. He seemed to be getting into his adventure. "Don't worry my friend! We shall defeat this evil!"

"Yeah. We'll do that." Carrot looked both annoyed and embarrassed. The sound of tires screeching to a halt behind him caught his attention. He turned around to see Michiru driving up with a smile on her face.

"Oh. Hi," he said as he looked down at her. This was exactly what he needed. His girlfriend had come to watch him make a complete ass out of himself. She was already out of the car and standing with them by this point.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"You know this boy?" asked Miko cheerfully.

"Yes. This is my boyfriend. Good afternoon!" she said cheerfully to her.

Carrot could feel the vice that had started to crush his skull grow tighter. "You remember Yoshi? He's going to be staying here for a while."

The girl looked up at the man and her face fell slightly. "Oh. Hello." The man waved at her nervously. "Are you working right now?" she asked Carrot.

"Not really. I was planning on going out with Yoshi here. He needs to get lucky." The boy nodded at the man.

The old woman sighed. "Ain't that the truth. I've been trying to calm his mother down for years. She's growing quite worried. We would appreciate any assistance you can give him."

The boy had almost forgotten she was there and scratched the back of his head as Yoshi passed out in embarrassment. "I know. It's fairly obvious."

Michiru blushed and stared down at the man. "Um, what?"

"We might wanna go out tomorrow or something. I don't think you'll be very happy with me if you come along. I'll call you."

"What?" she said as her gaze suddenly went stone cold.

"Well. I'm taking a guy out to help him get laid," said the boy as he pointed at the fallen Yoshi. The man had not yet risen, and everyone pretty much ignored that fact. "Do you really want to watch me do that, and find out just how big a pervert I really am? Trust me, no woman wants to know these things."

"That's disgusting!" cried Michiru.

"It's normal," replied the old woman flatly. "They never grow out of it either." She turned her head slowly back towards the small old Japanese man who was casually smoking a pipe on the porch.

"Oh," muttered Michiru. "Really?"

"I'm afraid so," said the old woman.

"Now that we have that covered," said Carrot as he picked the man up by his shoulders. "If we're lucky, I'll have him back sometime tomorrow."

++++++++++++++++++++++

Neon lights flashed pink and blue into Yoshi's face as his jaw simply went slack. This was the greatest thing he'd ever seen in his entire life span.

Carrot was standing with Spike just behind him laughing hysterically at what had happened when the man had walked through the door of the club.

His senses were pounded with a techno remix of 'Baby got back'. Scores of beautiful women were dancing on slightly elevated poles all around the room. Most of them completely nude, all of them were at least partially nude. There was not a single covered female breast in the entire building.

He could not take such a powerful blow to his senses, so he simply froze.

One of the girls bounced up to them cheerfully. "Hey Spike! Friends of yours? Um...Is he all right?" she looked concerned suddenly.

Yoshi tried his best to say something, but all that came out was a tiny squeak.

"You were right, dis is fun!" said Spike.

"Told ya," said the boy as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Who's gonna help our friend tonight by the way. I understand you've got someone set up already?"

He puffed on his cigarette and tapped Yoshi on the shoulder. "Hey. I'm paying for this by the way. Just to let you know up front what you're getting into."

"Dis is Sasha," said Spike as he walked over with a small but incredibly well built girl with long dark hair. She was completely nude and smiled at him warmly.

"Sasha here is going to be your special friend tonight, Yoshi," said the boy cheerfully. "You're gonna sit over at that booth with me and Spike, get drunk, and wake up with a warm glow and fond memories. How does that sound?"

The man was already bowing before the boy on the ground. He plucked him to his feet by his collar and grabbed him firmly around his shoulders as he pushed them towards their waiting table.

"Hey. How ya doin!" said Spike to a group of dancers. They all knew him of course. He worked for the people who owned the place. They owned a lot of things on that side of town. He came in and did this sort of thing for people doing business with his bosses sometimes.

"Spike. We're in a dangerous place right now. Let's not get ourselves killed. I'm fairly sure my girlfriend will shoot me."

"Right," said the man glumly as he allowed himself to be pulled away.

Yoshi was passed out cold with his face between Sasha's breasts. She didn't seem to mind that he'd landed there. "Hey guys." She waved at them both. "This ones gonna take a little time I bet?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Make sure he knows he can't keep you," said Carrot.

"And you are?" asked the nude girl casually.

"Dangerously attached to someone right now," he replied calmly as he gave her a short bow. "Sasha? You a brat or something?"

"Dat ain't nice!" said Spike irritably. Carrot's face was now covered by his fist and his head was driven into the padding in the seat.

"Actually, he was asking if I'm a military child," said the girl with a small sigh. The man in her chest hadn't woken up yet. "He's right too." She lit a cigarette and puffed on it.

Spike was too interested in the rear of the dancer in front of him as his fist simply slid off the boy's chest.

"Ouch," grumbled the boy irritably as he shook his head. "I told you about hitting that hard!"

"Aw, you can take it," said the man with a shrug. He had yet to take his eyes off the dancer.

Carrot was watching as well, but not with near as much interest. She was a pretty girl, but didn't really appeal to him for reasons he could not explain.

"Boys," muttered the girl as she leaned back a bit. The man's head slid into her lap and he uttered a muffled squeak. "You know. You can do more than just look at it if you want. I've already agreed to the rest of it. Just keep it under control until we get somewhere private." She paused as no response came. "Can you talk?"

He simply put his hand on the table and gave a small thumbs up.

"Why are we doin this again?" asked Spike.

"I've got a funny feeling about this guy. Having him around might be useful. You never know when you might need a scientist, or someone who knows a few. I don't think it's a good idea to make him mad either."

"Why would you need a scientist?" asked Spike dumbly.

The boy looked at him and grinned. "You never know. Besides, I like this guy. I wanna make him less of a wuss."

"You said not to make him angry," said Spike dumbly. "What for? S'not like he can hurt you."

"Yeah. Now," muttered the boy as he took a sip of the beer that had been placed in front of him.

Spike decided that the dancing girl was more interesting.

He didn't notice the girl sitting next to him as her eyes narrowed slightly at him. "I'll be seeing you around I think," she said quietly. This one definitely needed some more looking into. He was one of the really dirty ones. She could feel it in her gut.

She winked at him and scratched his chin lightly with her fingernail.

He shifted a little uncomfortably and ignored it. She had a strange look in her eyes when she had done it. It was quickly forgotten though.

++++++++++++++++++

Morning came and Carrot stood outside of Yoshi's new home away from home. The man had tears in his eyes as he clutched at the boy's shirt and muttered his thanks over and over.

"My god! You've done it!" said the old woman as she walked out to meet them. She looked completely shocked.

"Took him four hours just to regain normal movement again."

"I'll make sure his mother sends you a nice thank you card!" said the old woman cheerfully.

This caught him a bit off guard. "Yeah. Sure."

"I'll do anything you want! Name it!" cried the man as he repeatedly bowed as he backed towards the house.

"Don't build a Gamma bomb?" said the boy as he arched his eyebrows at the man.

"Anything but that," responded Yoshi. "It's my life long dream! I'm grateful, but not that grateful. Why wouldn't you want me to do that?"

"Darn. All right. Just forget about it. I want you to lay low for a while though. Stay around here for a few days or so. I want you to make a list of what you need. I'll probably be able to find whatever it is through someone I know." Carrot smirked. His delivery boy days were paying off now. "I'll stop by to pick it up in a day or so. Don't tell anyone where you are. Not even your friends."

"I wouldn't worry about that," grumbled the old woman.

"Yeah," muttered the man.

"If you talk to them, don't tell them where you are. No matter what they say. I'm betting your friends are people you used to work with."

The man nodded slowly. "I've got a few others, but you're right. A few of us graduated together."

"Are you willing to bet none of them will trade your career for yours?"

The man frowned at him. "They wouldn't do that to me! Well, most of them."

"Don't tell any of them." Carrot frowned at him and stared at him very firmly. "I mean it Yoshi. This is dangerous, not just for me. They didn't seem too concerned with shooting you in that lab."

The old woman slowly turned her head towards the boy. "I had no idea this was that serious."

"Afraid so. They've been quiet since then so far too. I'm betting it's because they don't know where we are. They wouldn't think much of eliminating the both of us to keep this quiet." He turned away from the old woman and walked away.

"Get into the house. I've got to call your mother! She'll want to speak with you! I'm so proud! Such a good friend! What's this trouble you're getting into anyway? What's wrong with you boy? On such a wonderful day, you have to go and ruin it for yourself by getting yourself killed. Your mother will be beside herself!"

"What?" muttered Yoshi in horror. What very little strength was left in his body became sapped away as he slowly dragged his feet towards the home.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Carrot frowned as he held the phone up to his ear. He was about halfway to Michiru's home when it started ringing. "What?"

"You promised me a story!" snapped Mei Lin angrily.

"I got you one. You were at the stadium last night!" he growled in retort.

"I want the big one!" she said firmly. "You'd better promise me!"

"When this is over, you can have it. I'm still not sure what's going on completely myself all right? These things take time. It's too dangerous for us if this is in the papers right now."

"I just want to take that inside info on what Venom is to the editor!"

"No," he replied Calmly.

"What? Why?!"

"Because that will put heat on me, and Yoshi. Plus, they'll be gunning for you as well. I'm not going to be around to save your ass if you get a hit on your stupid reporter ass. I've got enough trouble as it is. Keep a lid on it until this is over. You can release the exclusive details then. If you want me to keep you informed about what's going on, you have to obey the rules."

"Asshole!"

"This line is for emergencies Mei Lin. I could have had something trying to take my head off."

"You haven't been around to talk about it!" she snapped.

"Obey the rules," he said simply. "They are there to keep all of us alive. Have a nice day." He hung up on her and continued towards his girlfriend's house.

++++++++++++++++++++++

"That jerk!" snarled Mei Lin as she hung up the phone.

"What's up?" asked Hibiki.

"Carrot is holding out on me," she grumbled.

"The guy is a great source," replied the man with a small shrug.

"Yeah. I know," she said with a small sigh.

Yamada strolled by her desk and stared daggers at her as he walked by towards the editor's office. He looked somewhat tired and dirty. He was also covered in small sores.

"What's with him?" asked the girl as she noticed his mood. "He's never in a good mood, but lately..."

"He hates your guts. You keep stealing the front page away from him. He's been killing himself over those murder stories. Word is Nagami beat him to the punch this time when he covered both of them in the same story. Just bureaucrats screaming about losing control of the city with a few paragraphs about both events tacked on really. This town is becoming dangerous. That's how he got the front page away from you."

The Chinese girl nodded and settled down into her seat. Yamada had just walked into the editor's office.

+++++++++++++++++++++

"Yamada. I think we need to talk," said the old man as he puffed on a cigarette and offered the man a seat.

"What is this about? I've got work to do," said the man irritably.

"No. You don't," said the old man calmly. "I want you off this story. You should see what you look like. Investigative is one thing, this... Are you following this thing Yamada? Because if you are, we need to talk to the police about it. They're starting to ask questions about you. I don't think its lead to anything yet though. I'm growing worried."

"This is my story," replied the man flatly. "I'm not losing it now. It's too important to give to someone else."

The old man glared at him and frowned deeply. "You are sure about this? I'm not going to protect you from the police Yamada. If there is something going on, I won't be brought into it."

"I don't need you to protect me from the police," said the man as he stood up and turned towards the door.

"I'm glad to hear that," said the man diplomatically. "You're fired."

The door opened and a small cheerful looking young man popped his head into the office. "Hi! I need to get you to go over these...sir..." He trailed off as he noticed Yamada standing there. "Hey. I've been following your work on that monster. Great stuff!"

The man did not smile at him and he backed away a little nervously.

"This is not a good time, Nagami," warned the old man.

Yamada merely turned his head to look at the old man. "No. It isn't."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Around fifteen minutes had passed since Yamada had gone into the man's office. It had been surprisingly quiet once the shades had been drawn to the window. No one noticed or cared as they went about their business throughout the newsroom.

Mei Lin was rushing across the isle between the desks when Yamada brushed past her. She stumbled back and shied away from the look in his eyes as he glanced down at her as he passed. "Something isn't right here."

She looked down at her shoe and gasped. A small drop of red liquid had splattered onto it. She bent down to peer at it a little closer and touched it with her finger. It was blood. She looked up at the elevator as it closed on the man. He was still staring at her as the doors closed between them.

"This is giving me the creeps," she muttered under her breath.

The girl froze quite suddenly. Yamada had been with her on the day that thing had escaped the lab. Slowly she stared at the elevator as something unsettling started to form in her head. Tears flowed down her face as she came to a horrible realization. "It...it can't be!" She quickly snapped herself out of it and rushed towards the editor's office.

Without thinking she burst into the room. "Mr..." Her voice trailed off and left the rest unsaid. She opened her mouth and screamed.

The editor's throat was slit as his body sprawled across the top of his desk. Negashi's head was shoved firmly up the man's ass up to his throat. Both of them were quite dead. She noticed that the editor's mouth was full of some sort of sticky red fluid that looked a bit too thick to be blood.

She fell to the floor on her rear and scrambled out the door to the office. Everyone in the office was staring at her as she screamed and tore across the newsroom to the opposite wall.

The last thing she noticed before she fell and rushed out of the room was a photo of her that was stabbed into the editor's back with a pair of scissors.

+++++++++++++++++++++

TBC...

Next Time: The big meeting.