Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Gaijin ❯ Gaijin 25 ( Chapter 25 )

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

Gaijin

Part 25

Light in the darkness.

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

3 days ago...


Dr. Tomo stared at the man behind the desk. He was in a tiny cramped office with a medical doctor frowning seriously at him from behind his desk.

"I don't understand! Nothing has changed! Why now? What happened to her?"

"I am sorry Dr. Tomo. There is nothing we can do for her."

"What do you mean?"

"Her body is degrading, and with it her mind."

"She's just a little girl!"

"I am sorry. She is beyond our help. I do not believe anyone can save her now. I have consulted with everyone I know of with a medical background. I have no idea what is wrong with her."

"She's begging me to make the angry voice stop. She's telling me she's hearing screams of rage inside her head, and each day she slips closer to death, and you're telling me there's nothing you can do?"

"Nothing."

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

The present...

Dr. Tomo stared at the television calmly as he watched the screen in front of him. It was time. His dart gun was already sitting across his lap as he picked up his hat and calmly walked towards the door.

Spiderman had appeared back on the scene.

He had to work quickly. Spiderman could be the key, the agility, the strength, and the unique abilities. He seemed to know when danger was coming somehow. He had to be altered in some way, on a genetic level. Perhaps he could figure out how and use that knowledge to save his daughter?

The screaming stopped, his daughter's madness hadn't. She said she could feel hatred, and she was constantly running a fever. She seemed to think the voice in her head was making it happen somehow.

It could be his only chance to save her. His own knowledge of genetics was useless, but if he could figure out how Spiderman was created he could hold the key to his daughter's life.

The man took short breaths as he gripped the door handle. He had to get this right, and strike while Spiderman was distracted. With luck he would pull it out reflexively and be unable to respond because of something more pressing.

He let out a long slow breath and opened the door. The sky above him was a beautiful blue, but in the distance, plumes of smoke rose from the city. His car keys jingled as he locked the door with another key on the ring after it was closed. Every exit in the home was locked from the out side. It was dangerous to leave her, but not as dangerous as leaving the doors unlocked. She'd also taken up sleepwalking, even though she really didn't have the strength to walk during the day.

He had to work fast. Placing a black fedora on top of his head he walked towards his car.

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

"Think Carrot!"

How could so simple a command be ignored so easily by his own brain?

"What are you going to do to stop me? You need both arms just to keep up, and you're running out of buildings tall enough to swing from!" Goblin cackled and readied one of his bombs as they neared the police choppers.

Venom was lagging behind somewhat. Carrot assumed that the girl inside was getting tired. It was still able to keep pace with them though.

"This is good. I might be able to wear Venom down after this is over," thought Carrot as he shot a line of web directly in front of the Goblin's path. The thing flew right into the line and jerked back, dropping the bomb from the force of the jerk he received.

Carrot used his momentum to switch to the other side of the street. He kept up pace with Goblin, who had tumbled downward a bit. The police choppers veered back in retreat as soon as Goblin's bomb exploded about a hundred feet above the streets.

"That won't work twice!" snarled the monster.

"It doesn't have too!" snarled Venom as he moved in on Goblin from behind.

"What?!" snarled the monster as it found itself pinned to a wall.

"Give up?" growled Venom. It had the monster's hands bound with it's own and was staying in place by gripping its feet against the wall.

"So easily? Please!"

"Good. We get to torture you until you do."

"Are you sure you're Usagi?" asked Carrot as he looked down on the scene from the wall just above them.

"Don't be so smug. You're next."

"Are you sure you want to be rid of me, and not him?" asked Goblin with a calculated looking smile.

"Hey. Sometimes you just have to let the dog have the toy. I'm not about to climb in there and save you."

"Who are you calling a dog?!" roared Venom.

"It's an analogy, not a comparison," replied Carrot.

"Actually it was both," corrected Goblin.

"You stay out of this!" snapped the boy angrily.

"All of this is very interesting, but I have to be going now." Goblin nodded his head.

"Oh shit! Look out!" cried Spiderman as he pointed behind Venom.

"Eh?" muttered the monster as it glanced over its shoulder. An energy buildup reading was forming behind it somehow.

Goblin's glider fired a green missile like projectile from its nose. Venom took the blast directly in the back and was slammed into the wall, crushing Goblin further into the concrete. The thing pushed against the monster and shoved it away and towards the street.

Carrot's eyes went wide as he saw a spray of red in the air. "Oh shit. Usagi!" He dove after the falling creature towards the street.

"You'll never make it," muttered the Goblin as he popped his arm back into place. "Didn't expect that thing to be so damn hard." He moved upwards on his glider and simply watched the scene play out.

Spiderman straightened his body and went into free fall. He caught up with Usagi a little higher than he expected and immediately sent out a line to swing off some of the momentum. "Jeezus you're heavy as hell! What the hell is this thing you're wearing made of?"

He managed to bounce off of the roof of a car parked by the sidewalk and come to a relatively painless landing.

"No new injuries this time, good," he muttered under his breath. Venom was immediately tossed to the ground. "I can't believe I just did that." He looked down the street and his eyes went wide. The place was a mess. "Shit. Wonder how much of this mess I'll get blamed for?"

"I wouldn't worry about that Spiderman. You've got other problems!"

"Man. I was hoping you'd gone home."

"I've got a schedule to keep. Seems your...ally has had a bit of a fall. Too bad, it's just you and me now."

"Believe me, I'm relieved," said Carrot as he readied himself to jump.

"Hmm. I wonder."

The front end of Goblin's glider began to glow green again.

Carrot looked over his shoulder and back up at Goblin again. "Okay Carrot, are you willing to die over this?" he stared the thing directly in it's eyes for a moment. "No. So you have to think of a way to save us both."

"Sorry, out of time."

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

Ami Mizuno blinked. "Mom?" She waved her hand directly in front of her own face and saw nothing but darkness. "Um, the lights are out."

Her mother was in the room immediately with a flashlight. "Something is wrong. We just lost power."

"Oh. How long do you think they'll be out?"

"Not long dear. We should go find some light though. The power is probably still on a little way down the hall."

Ami simply shrugged and stood up. Her mother was right. There was no way the whole hospital lost power. Was there?

Halls of darkness stretched on endlessly before them. Other confused looking people wandered the halls, usually grouping around those with flashlights. They could see crowds of people forming around open areas.

"Oh god," muttered her mother.

"Mom. Something's wrong. I know it," said Ami nervously.

"It will be all right dear. This is a real emergency though. I'm sorry. I want you to walk down the stairs and go home. Take my flashlight with you. I've got another one in my office."

"I'll come with you to get it," replied the girl as she took the light.

"All right, but we have to be quick," said her mother as she started jogging in the right direction.

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

Inside the hospital basement, the hum of machines once filled the air. Generators and backup generators, all of it useless. The bodies of mechanics and engineers littered the floor. Deep gouges could be seen in the machines if their destruction hadn't rendered that nearly impossible.

"What the hell is it?" It was spoken in a whisper. Hidden cowering under a desk. Two men in their mid-forties were hiding in the dark.

"I dunno. I hope it goes away," replied the other man quietly.

The writhing mass in the shadows twisted and changed, razor like tendrils seemed to jump out of it's body and back into the flow of ooze that covered it's body. "I can hear quite well you know. I could hear your heartbeats in the darkness as you hid from me."

Death like silence was the only reply.

"Do you know why I haven't killed you yet?"

No answer came, the sound of soft sobbing started from the other side of the desk.

"I wanted to do it in the dark, so you'd never really know what it was that killed you. I was just waiting for you to break the silence."

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

Goblin chuckled as he finished charging the weapon. "What'll it be?"

"None of the above! Mars fire arrow!"

"Huh?" muttered the Goblin as he glanced over his shoulder. A flaming bolt of energy slammed into his back and he was blasted off his glider. The bolt was shot into the ground nearby sending a shower of debris into the air as it tilted wildly.

Carrot was still standing in exactly the same position. "I..."

"Are you all right?" asked Sailor Jupiter as she ran up close to him.

"Huh? What the? Where?" stammered the boy.

"I guess he's surprised to see us," commented Rei.

"It would seem. Man, that was one ugly youma."

"What do you mean was?"

"Shit," grumbled Carrot as he turned to face the Goblin. "You two. Get her out of here. She's been hurt."

"Her?" muttered Rei as she looked down at the creature. Her eyes went wide as she realized just what she was looking at. "Usagi!"

"What?" said Jupiter as she stared at the thing. "Where?" she looked around in confusion.

"Hurry up! I'm not sure how long I can hold him off!" cried Carrot as he noticed the Goblin was growing bored with drama.

"Come on Spiderman. Let the girls play together. It's a boys night on the t..."

Carrot picked up a rock and nailed the monster dead in the face. "Cut it out with the corny dialogue!"

"Fine!" Goblin lobbed two bombs at the boy in quick succession. They were easily dodged and weren't aimed at anyone else.

Carrot caught on to what was going on rather quickly. He waited and dodged around two more bombs before he noticed his chance.

Goblin spun around to face the trio of girls. Usagi was sitting up now against a wall while Rei and Makoto tried to get the girl to her feet.

Carrot jumped forward and pulled himself forward like a slingshot with a well-placed web line. Goblin took both of the boy's feet dead in the middle of his back and was tossed about twenty yards along the pavement before he finally stopped. He was still a fair distance from the girls when he landed and they ignored it in favor of the injured monster.

Carrot was lying on his back on the ground. That had really hurt.

The girls were still helping Usagi up and never really noticed the danger.

"Are you all right?"

"It burned really bad," muttered the monster.

"What is this thing? Why are we helping it?" asked Makoto irritably.

"We are...Venom," replied the thing.

"What do you mean 'we'?" asked Rei.

"The other has bonded with Usagi Tsukino. You are cleared for that information. I do not know why."

Makoto immediately slumped to the ground.

"Hey!" cried Rei as she noticed her friend faint. She fell to her knees unable to hold the monster's weight on her own and glared at it. "What do you mean by cleared?"

"Our standard orders are to protect the identity of the host unit. They are to be protected from harm at all costs. Others are not to know the unit is there at all. Tsukino asked that we exclude those known as 'senshi' from this order. I complied."

"Why didn't you just say 'because Usagi told me too?" Rei looked skyward nervously. "What's wrong with Usagi? Why am I talking to you?"

"Do not worry yourself Hino. The one you call Usagi is safe at the moment. Her body was damaged, but we are making repairs right now. She will be conscious shortly."

"Usagi's not awake?" asked Rei. She almost jerked back away from the thing, but did not release it.

"He's coming back!" called a voice from above them.

"Huh? Where have you been?"

"I was gonna nail that creep, but Spiderman beat me too it."

"Oh," said Rei as she hefted Usagi over her shoulder.

"Why didn't you say something? Do you have any idea how hard he is?!" cried Spiderman as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"Sorry. Jeez."

"I'm beginning to grow weary of this."

"That's okay. We're almost finished with repairs," replied Venom as it stood on it's own quite easily. "There. All done."

"Great," muttered Carrot halfheartedly. This was not a good thing, but it was nice to know ahead of time.

"What are you...? Self healing!" Goblin didn't look happy. "I've had enough of this!"

"What are you gonna do? Cry about it?" asked Carrot as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Venom hissed and crouched, ready to spring to attack at any moment.

Carrot looked around and realized that four of the combatants were preparing some sort of energy attack. "Oh shit. Time to hit the dirt." He dove for the ground just as the fireworks started. A war zone of miniskirts and explosions was happening all around him, and it wasn't nearly as cool as it should have been. A terrible fear of dying while crawling across the ground on your belly did wonders to suck the enjoyment right out of it.

"Man. I should have gone up," grumbled Carrot.

The Senshi were trading shots with Goblin while Venom kept him away from them and disrupted his aim. The monster didn't appear to be very pleased with his position and responded by lobbing a number of bombs in random directions. He was surprised he hadn't been targeted yet as he crawled into some debris and waited for things to calm down a bit. He wasn't suited for that sort of work in his opinion. Sure, he could shoot stuff too, but it didn't explode when it hit you.

Thunder rumbled from above as Jupiter put her two cents into the mess.

"This is amazing!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Hi!" Mei Lin was crouched up next to him with a camera in her lap. She was rather dirty and had a smudge of dust on her left cheek. "How's it going?"

"Have you seen the city? I can't believe this mess!"

"Polls show that the public seems to be cheering for you mostly."

"Mostly? Who the hell was voting for the other two?" grumbled Carrot.

"Anyway. I'm on the job!" She held up her camera and grinned at him.

"Right," muttered Carrot.

"I love this stuff! This is so unbelievably cool! I think I'm gonna stay!"

Carrot hit his head against the concrete slab they were sitting under. "This is not the time to be telling me these things! My head hurts enough already!"

"I've talked to Gia about it, I'm gonna hang around for a few more months until I can get my own place. I make pretty good money, but you wouldn't believe how much a decent apartment costs around here!"

"Yeah. Great. Well, I've got to go and fight monsters now."

"Do some cool poses while you're at it!"

Carrot simply put his arm back with his middle finger pointed up. The shooting seemed to have stopped mostly.

Jupiter was the first one he neared. "Damn. He's so fast!" muttered the girl before she noticed him.

Goblin was circling around in the air. Venom was standing near Rei and watching the sky. It hadn't seen an opportunity to go after the monster yet.

"How's it going?"

"Stalemate," replied Makoto. She smirked at him and looked up at the sky. "We've got him on the run."

"Bullshit, he's just playing with you."

"What?" gasped the girl in shock.

"Hey Goblin. You've been hanging around an awfully long time."

"Just waiting for my favorite toy to pop up again!" said the monster as he stopped circling and hovered in the air. "You disappeared when the shooting started."

"I was feeling a little inadequate at the time. Sue me."

Rei stared at Spiderman for a moment and looked back up at the sky. "He's not joking."

"I'm getting tired of this crowd! Come on Spiderman, you're coming with me!" Goblin swooped out of the sky and dove towards Carrot.

"What the?" cried the boy as he immediately jumped into the air and started swinging out of the way.

Goblin swerved in the air and moved up behind him. "Not so fast! I'm gonna take you for a little ride!"

"I think I can get there on my own thanks!" growled Carrot as he shifted direction again and spun around the creature.

Goblin tossed a bomb in front of him and it exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to knock him to the side and force him to release his line.

"I insist!" cackled Goblin as he nabbed him out of the air.

"No!" cried Rei as she watched the scene from a few hundred yards away.

"We have to do something!" agreed Makoto.

Minako started to run towards the scene.

"We'll take care of this. You won't be able to keep up," snarled Venom as it jumped into the air. "We're very angry at that monster."

"What?" stammered Rei as she watched the thing shoot into the air over her head. She slowed to a jog and simply stared into the air as it quickly became very small. "Wait! Come back! Usagi!"

"That thing is not Usagi!" cried Makoto in disgust.

"I think Makoto is right. No way that's her."

"That thing. It's done something to her," muttered Rei in horror. Her mind flashed back to her vision. "She'll be killed."

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

Carrot was being pulled by the back of his shirt and he wasn't happy about it. Goblin was going incredibly fast and it was difficult to even look forward. "Speed is nice, but you sacrifice control Spiderman. Should I slow down a bit, or is this too fast for you?"

Carrot planted his feet onto the glider around the creature's legs. "Shut up!" He used the force of the glider's momentum to drive home the punch. The pair wavered in the air.

"Not bad!" chuckled Goblin as he elbowed the boy in the face.

Carrot shifted and grabbed the thing in a headlock and started punching. The monster struggled in his grip and grunted painfully every time he was hit.

"Keep this up and I'll make you walk!" cried Goblin as he lurched forward and threw the boy off of him.

Carrot twisted and began to swing away.

"Good boy! We're almost there!"

"Great. I would have been happier with directions."

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

"You wanted to speak with me?" The Chinese man stood in his own office in front of the desk. It was a small wooden room with a large metal door. It housed little more than a simple desk and filing cabinet.

The old man was sitting in the chair with a cigar burning between his lips as he pretended to look over some paperwork in front of him. "I've been going over these numbers. You've been doing very well."

"Thank you," replied the man simply as he stood and waited calmly.

"Unfortunately, there is the little matter of your side business."

"I saw an opportunity to make us a lot of money. I took it. You have not been complaining about earnings."

"Money can only make the police look away so much. You are putting this organization at risk."

"Our operations are..."

"Over. I'm putting an end to this now. We have enough problems to deal with. The police may have overlooked a bit of small arms dealing, but this is too much for them to ignore. The shipments will be liquidated immediately, as will you."

The man simply stood there staring at the old man. He was trembling with a barely controlled rage. "My clients will not take that lightly. If you wish to sever ties with them so much, the transactions must be completed. After that..."

"Your clients will be satisfied with pieces of your body sent to them with a very short explanation and a cash settlement based on our estimation of the value of this cargo. I've dealt with these situations before, don't take me for a fool Wo Hin. You have my orders, make him disappear from my sight."

"What? I will not stand and take this!" snarled the Chinese man angrily. "I am not your servant!"

"No, but I am," replied the towering shadow that moved in behind the Chinese man.

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

Carrot flipped through the air over the street as Goblin chased after him. "Where the hell is this asshole taking me?" he muttered as he let go of one of his lines in order to avoid another blast. They were near the water, he could see docks ahead of himself.

"Come on Spiderman, you need to speed up!" cackled the creature as it swerved in the air behind him.

Carrot landed against a wall and looked up at his opponent quickly. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost," said Goblin as he hovered and didn't attack.

"Can we stop? I've got to pee," said Carrot.

"You should have thought of that before we left," countered Goblin as he readied another volley of bombs.

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

"We got him," said Saito as he put the camera into his lap. Kajura snorted and nodded seriously.

"Now comes the hard part," he said calmly.

"What's that?"

"No we've got to go in and see what those ships have been unloading. We need backup, turn on the radio."

Saito did as he was told with a rather dumb looking grin on his face. "Right!" He reached down and flipped the switch.

"They're heading south! All units, respond immediately!"

"Huh?" grumbled Saito as he fiddled with the radio for a moment. "Hey. I think something is going on."

"What?" said Kajura as his frown deepened. He grabbed the microphone away from his partner. "Kajura here. We need backup at the docks. We've got Hisami cold..."

"Kajura? Where the hell have you been! Where are you located? Why haven't you been responding?"

The man blinked as he looked at the receiver for a moment. "What? We're sitting in front of the docks on the East side. What the hell is going on?"

"Something is attacking us, all units are tied up downtown. You are ordered to proceed towards the disturbance. Some maniac is blowing up half the city. We've got reports of a monster as well, and someone dressed like some kind of ninja."

"Did you hear what I said? We've got pictures of Hisami..."

"...some kind of blackout at the hospital..."

The radio signal started to fade away and Kajura pounded on the receiver with his fist. "Damn!"

"What's happening?" asked Saito. He scratched the back of his neck nervously and lit a cigarette.

"Something's going on. Everyone else is tied up dealing with it," said the man gruffly. He didn't look very pleased at the moment.

"So what do we do? Should we leave?"

"I guess I'll be seeing you later then," said Kajura as he opened the door to the car.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"Remember? I told you I wouldn't ask you to come if I decided to get myself killed."

"Oh man. Don't do this to me..." muttered the man fearfully.

"Sorry. I've got too much riding on this," said Kajura as he stepped out of the vehicle and popped his back. He walked over to the passenger side and reached into the open window over his partner to pop open the glove box. He pulled out his handgun and cocked it before placing it in the holster under his right arm.

Saito stumbled out of the vehicle and almost fell flat on his face. "Hey! What the hell are you doing?!"

"I told you. I'm not gonna let him get away this time. We may not get another opportunity like this one."

The radio crackled to life for a moment and Saito jerked his head back as Kajura continued to walk towards the fence that surrounded the compound. He started looking for a good place to climb up. The younger officer leaned into the car and reached for the dials on the radio.

"...remain in position...orders...your way," said the garbled voice.

"Huh?" muttered the younger man as he banged his fist against the side of the radio. "Come on. Repeat that," he muttered without bothering with the microphone.

Kajura was just starting to get a foothold on the fence when his partner looked up again.

"Hey! Wait up! Something's up!" cried the younger man as he stumbled out of the car once again.

Kajura was hanging from the fence and frowned back at his partner. "What? This had better be good. I don't have the patience to deal with you trying to stall me."

"The radio said something is heading this way. I couldn't make out what though. Maybe we should get it looked at when we get back?"

"I'll worry about it later," replied Kajura as he continued to climb. He was trying to navigate his way over the barbed wire at the top by this point.

Saito sighed and calmly went around to the back of the vehicle. He popped the trunk and puffed on his cigarette for a moment as he watched his partner take cover behind a few semi trailers. "What's his hurry?" He hefted a pair of bolt cutters over his shoulder and blew clouds of smoke into the air as he calmly walked towards the fence and proceeded to cut himself an opening. It took him about a minute. Kajura was still watching the open area between himself and the warehouse carefully.

"Jeez you're impatient," commented Saito as he went back to the trunk and put the bolt cutters back. He pulled out and cocked a shotgun from the trunk. He glanced back to see Kajura making his way across the open area. "Hey! Wait up you jerk!" He started running after his partner and sighed. "Man. This is gonna be a long day."

"Hmmm. You have no idea." Directly above him, Kei smirked as she watched the two idiots move in from on top of one of the trailers. Neither one had noticed her, naturally. "I suppose I should stop them. Lord Hisami will probably be quite upset if he sees them near the building. I'd hate to have to make it up to him." She gave a distasteful frown and hopped down onto the concrete.

The two men were about halfway there by this point and she chuckled. "Time to go to work."

She calmly removed her shirt revealing the black bodysuit underneath. There was a low click as she attached her wings to her sleeves and extended them. With a skillfully performed back flip she was on top of the trailer again and readied herself to strike. "Which one first?" The younger one had a shotgun, but Kajura was older and more experienced.

"The fat one dies then," she hissed as she narrowed her eyes at the older cop's back. The pair was crouching behind a stack of crates about two thirds of the way to the building. She tensed her legs and controlled her breathing as she slowly removed her knife from its scabbard.

Everything seemed to freeze suddenly. A cold wind blew from the northwest and Kei jerked her head back suddenly as a sound seemed to fade in and out of existence for the briefest of moments. "It couldn't be..."

Kajura and Saito suddenly started looking in her direction and she cursed under her breath. "Did they spot me?" She made a hissing sound as she watched them and almost jumped towards them to strike. "No. They're looking..."

The sound started again, more clearly this time. It was laughter. "What? What's he doing here?" she cried as she spun around and looked towards the sound.

A resounding boom filled the street as the ominous smoke trail of the Goblin's glider came into view, moving directly towards her position. "No! That bastard! He's..." She looked towards the warehouse and then back at the sky. "We have been betrayed!" She glanced down at the two cops once again. She had to warn Hakage and the old man, but there was still the matter of eliminating those two before they could cause a problem. Hisami could rot with his monster for all she cared.

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

Carrot was swinging as fast as he could, the Goblin's bombs were much more random now. He seemed to be tossing them more to make noise than anything else at this point. In fact, he only lobbed one or two every minute or so. "What the hell is he up too?" He saw the open area of the building in front of him. It was a large concrete area about twice the size of a football field. Beside it was a series of large storage buildings, and just beyond that several cargo ships were docked.

"Oh look! We've arrived!" said Goblin as he shot forward and turned to face Carrot as the boy found himself out of things to swing from. He landed on the concrete and glanced around.

"What? This is it?" muttered the boy. "You caused all that damage just to bring me here?"

"What better way to kill my enemies? Get them all together in one place, and boom! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Boom?" muttered Carrot dumbly. "Look. I'm sure you spent a whole ten minutes thinking up this stupid plan, but..."

"What do you think of my plan little girl?" Goblin spun around on his glider and faced a row of semi trailers.

Kei was standing on top of them with a deep frown on her face. Kajura and Saito were crouched on the other side of the boxes now watching the scene play out.

"Oh. Hi Kei," said Carrot dumbly as he waved his hand at her.

The girl ignored him and glared at the monster. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Eliminating my problems," replied the thing as it charged a bomb up and reared his arm back. "You've gotten an awfully big mouth lately. I guess I should kill you and the rest of that pathetic clan now as well. I'm sure you'd have died protecting your master anyway."

"Why do I get the feeling this doesn't have much to do with me at all?" grumbled Carrot irritably.

Kei shot into the air as Goblin's bomb ripped the trailer apart from under her feet. She extended her wings and flew towards the beast.

Carrot did nothing but watch as Goblin simply turned out of the way. He could turn on a dime; Kei was a different matter. She was fast, but gliding didn't exactly give her a great turning radius.

"Maybe I can get away while he's distracted?" muttered the boy to himself as he backed away. Usagi was out of danger, and he saw no reason to stick around anymore. "If I'm really lucky, they'll kill each other."

"Hello Spiderman, thought you could run away from us?"

"I was kind of hoping yeah," replied the boy as he turned to see Venom landing about twenty yards to his right. "Can this wait till later? I'm kind of hoping two of my problems will kill each other." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Kei was making another pass at Goblin. The monster easily evaded the pass and moved a little higher into the air.

"If that one is busy, we have you all to ourselves!"

"Hey! I thought we were going to take care of him first!" snapped Carrot as he pointed at the battle behind him.

"Let them play for a while. We'll take care of the monster if it wins."

"Of all the ungrateful..." grumbled Carrot as he glared at the thing.

"We appreciate you keeping Goblin distracted so we could heal ourselves. We won't maim you for now. That doesn't mean we're going to just forgive you though."

Carrot was sweating bullets and every part of his body ached. Whatever Venom was, it sure wasn't acting like Usagi Tsukino. That bothered him on more than one level.

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

Saito was cowering behind a stack of wooden crates with Kajura beside him. The pair was crouched down with the battle on the opposite side of the boxes.

The younger officer held his shotgun against his chest and looked at his partner. "Think the shotgun is big enough?"

"We're not here for this!" snapped Kajura angrily.

"We can't just ignore it," replied his partner.

"Fine, you stay and deal with it. I'm going after Hisami." He stood up and made a break for the door.

"Hey!" cried Saito as he rushed after his partner.

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

The interior rooms of the hospital were as black as death. A soft glowing ring of sunlight in the outermost halls was the only light on in the building. Every generator in the building was gone. Words were being passed through the upper floors, whispers of horrors below. Short radio transmissions cut off suddenly. Screams and moans of pain from floors below. Sensible people thought it to be nonsense. It was merely the dying moans of those who needed life support to survive.

Then why was the hospital staff so nervous?

"Hmmmmm." It reached out and played with a wire between two of its razor sharp fingers. "I wonder how long it will take this one to go?" It was hidden in the shadows of the hospital's interior. Waiting, biding its time. Cutting life support lines, and sometimes just monitoring systems. It wasn't really sure how it worked, didn't really care to look it up either. The information was there, but reading would be so boring right now. Better to watch them choke, or bleed, or spasm, or simply fade away. Those last ones weren't much fun. The real fun was when it found someone who didn't die.

He could hear the others around him in the other rooms, cowering in fear in the darkness, hoping death would pass.

Perhaps it would, perhaps not.

A scream echoed through the hallways. Another body found by the hospital staff. Anyone with a radio died instantly, along with anyone nearby. The game was to see how much damage he could do, before the real panic started. It was fun too.

A shimmer of light caught its attention. It was shining through a small window on the door opposite the room it was hiding in. The old man in the room with it breathed softly in slumber, unaware.

"Hmmm?" It was a flashlight heading down the stairs. A quick analysis of the area using its thermoptics told it everything it needed to know. A young girl, walking alone down a dark stairwell. "Oh. This is just too much. Heh."

It looked down at the old man and grinned darkly. "I'll have to be quick with you. If this isn't an important wire, you're one lucky old man." He snipped it cleanly in two and started walking towards the door.

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

Ami Mizuno walked silently down the stairwell. She'd taken the nearest one to where she was, the one through the center of the building. It was the largest one and could accommodate four or five people passing each other easily. She walked along the inner edge with her hand on the rail that was bolted into the wall. It seemed like she'd been walking forever.

She'd caught quick glimpses of activity within the hospital. Every doctor and nurse in the building was scrambling around the hallways as best they could with flashlights and electric lanterns.

It didn't take long before activity started to die down some as she climbed downward. The area she was in now was mostly offices and non-critical care areas. There was a brief moment of activity as she passed the pediatrics hall. She paused and looked back at the door through the window with her flashlight. The place was a mess. Papers were strewn around the floor as if a file had been dropped in the doorway before it closed, and the window kind of looked cracked.

She held her flashlight steady on the damage and leaned in closer to get a better look at it. A red stain could be seen inside the cracks. "Is that?"

Slowly she reached for the door handle, something inside of her was telling her that she should leave right then.

She blushed as she realized how she was acting. It was probably an injury that happened when the blackout started.

It wasn't any easier to open the door for some reason. She held her breath and closed her eyes as she struggled with it for a few moments. Finally it was too much and she gasped for breath.

"I don't believe this. I'm acting like there's a monster on the other side of the door or something."

"Maybe there is?"

A tiny voice long forgotten in the back of her head piped in. A voice she hadn't heard talking to her since she was a child.

"This is silly!" She stepped back and jerked the door open as her hand failed to release the doorknob. She would never be really sure if it was an accident or not.

Her heart jumped into her throat as a dull thud sounded near her feet. Not the empty silence she'd been expecting. Her light was shined upwards as she clutched her chest in terror. "What was that?"

"You know what it was," replied the voice inside her head. She realized why she knew the voice so well. It was her own voice, from her childhood.

Slowly she pointed the light downward. "It was probably just a mop or something."

"Told you so."

Staring up at Ami Mizuno was a lifeless face. The body's chest was a wet mess of blood and intestine.

She began to scream.

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

"What should we do? We'll never catch them!" cried Makoto as she ran along side Minako and Rei.

"We have to try! I'm not sure they can take that thing on even together. Usagi was hurt pretty badly. It might be able to fix an injury, but I doubt if it can bring her back to life if she dies," replied Rei.

"I dunno, Usagi looked pretty strong to me. Are we sure that was her?"

"Yes. I've seen her death. We've got to stop her before it's too late."

Minako looked at Makoto as Rei pulled ahead of both of them. "Did she just say she saw her death?"

"I guess?" replied Jupiter with a small shrug.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

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

"Sir. Something is going on outside."

"Eh?" muttered Hisami from behind the desk. Wo Hin Shu was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood and both of his hands had been removed.

The shinobi was wrapping up the severed remains in a black cloth as he looked around the room. "Explosions? You need to leave. Now."

"Damn," growled the old man as he slammed his fist onto the desktop.

"We will ensure this mess is cleaned up properly. The master will take you out of here. Kei and I will remain behind and complete the unpleasant business of our visit here."

"Very well." He hefted himself from his seat and began to walk away.

The small old master appeared beside Hakage and looked up at the younger ninja. "A wise decision. Watch your back, there is more to the events outside than we might suspect."

"Be careful as well. This stinks of treachery."

-+++++++++++++++++++

Venom jumped towards Carrot with its jaws open and claws out.

He jumped to the side and barely avoided the monster. He couldn't go up, there was nothing to swing from in the open area. The nearest large structure around him was the building about seventy yards away.

His spider-sense started to tingle and he rolled away as a black blur dove at him from above. Kei swooped into the sky again as the boy cursed and checked Venom's position again. The thing had stayed where it had landed and looked up into the sky angrily.

"Spiderman is ours!" roared the monster as it sent a line of web into the girl's chest a she passed overhead again. It was about two hundred feet above the ground. Venom jerked its arm back and pulled the girl out of the sky. Kei was sent crashing into the roof of a nearby trailer. It caved in under the impact and a large cloud of dust erupted from the open doors.

"Ouch," commented Carrot.

"Thanks, she was getting annoying. I wasn't expecting her to be so fast."

Goblin hovered between Carrot and Usagi with a bomb for each of them in his hands.

Carrot growled as the thing looked at him. He jumped back away from the explosion as the monster attacked them at the same time. Venom jumped away as well, but moved to the Goblin's right instead.

Carrot wasn't feeling quite so brave and started moving towards the building. He needed some kind of cover if he was going to live through the both of them. Goblin's movements would be more limited as well inside. The building was huge though, and it wouldn't be an easy fight if he got cornered. He would be lucky to make it out alive at all.

Goblin buzzed over his head and lobbed another bomb. He had almost convinced himself to make a break for the city again, but the explosion behind him changed his mind.

"Get back here! Both of you!" snarled Venom as it closed in from behind.

Carrot shot out a web line and snagged the roof. He went airborne and smashed through one of the windows. They were in large panels near the top of the building. He rolled in the air for a moment through the broken glass. It had hurt quite a bit, but the cuts were minor. Finally free of the glass he extended his body and sent a line into the ceiling. His eyes went wide as he found himself swinging directly towards several towering stacks of boxes. "Shit!" Twisting in the air as best he could he ran along the side of the first giant pyramid of crates. He pushed off the corner of the far end and latched onto the side of the next stack on his hands and feet. "That wasn't so hard." There were a lot of large crates, they pretty much filled the building, leaving long dark hallways far below him, a maze of crates so to speak. A few of them were stacked a little differently. Some were in giant pyramids, others were just giant cubes or rectangles. It almost looked like a scaled down city. It was almost too perfect.

Of course things couldn't possibly be going that well for him. He knew there had to be a catch somewhere.

Goblin smashed into the building in the same manner he had and quickly zeroed in on his target. "Hello Spiderman. I'm afraid you'll not be escaping this time."

"Yeah. Like I haven't heard that one before," grumbled the boy.

"You're right. We said that earlier didn't we?" said Venom from directly behind him.

"Gah! Don't do that!" cried the boy as he grabbed his chest.

"We'll hurry up and kill that stupid monster so we can get back to what we were doing earlier."

"Yeah. Let's do that," muttered Carrot as he turned his attention back to the Goblin.

"Goodbye Spiderman!" cried the monster as he tossed two bombs at the pair.

Both of them jumped off in different directions. Carrot was a bit more strategic about it. He jumped away and behind a few crates into the shadows. Venom just hopped away in a random direction, moving across the tops of the boxes.

Carrot landed just as the bomb exploded and turned to look at the damage as he backed into the darkness. He could hear a lot of metal in the debris. Goblin's bombs had pretty much shattered a fourth of the crates in the stack. The wooden boxes were burning quite easily. "He's trying to trap us in the fire?" It was growing, but he knew he could escape before it got large enough to get him. Usagi was heading for the other side of the building already. Goblin had flown off after her apparently. He could hear a few explosions in the distance.

"What the hell is in these things anyway?" he muttered as he glanced at the box next to him. The light from the flames made it quite easy to see they were largely unmarked. That didn't sit well with him.

Finally deciding Goblin was occupied enough with Venom he started climbing down towards the floor. The pair was chasing each other around the far side of the building he'd heard quite a few explosions.

He got near the floor and frowned at the mess he found there. There were small fires starting all over from burning debris. Mixed into the debris was a large number of dark looking objects tangled together in piles.

He moved a little lower and froze as he realized what he was looking at. Guns, he was sticking to a crate of weapons. The building was probably full of them. He jerked back into reality and realized that he had to move fast. Goblin's plan was now painfully clear.

"What better way to kill my enemies? Get them all together in one place, and boom! Ha ha ha ha!"

There had to be ammunition for some of the weapons. He wouldn't doubt it at all if there was a large stash of explosives, or explosive munitions in the building somewhere. He had to get the hell out of there, but first, he had to go pick up Usagi.

"Son of a bitch!" he screamed as he jumped towards the battle. Almost the entire warehouse was burning at this point.

"There!" cried a voice from above him.

Carrot's spider-sense exploded and he twisted out of the way of a sword slash from above. "What the? Someone else?! Holy shit! Can't you just leave me the hell alone?! I'm dealing with enough right now!"

"You!?" muttered the shinobi as he glared at his target. Carrot had landed on top of a stack of boxes opposite him. "Why are you here?" growled the man angrily as he pointed his sword at the boy.

"It was his idea! I've been chasing him all over the city!" snapped the boy as he pointed at the Goblin.

"Hikyu!" gasped the ninja as he seemed to just realize who had started the fires. "He followed you here?"

"He dragged me here," replied the boy flatly.

The ninja was clutching the hilt of his sword in a rage, but did not draw. "I leave him to you."

"What? Hey!" cried Carrot as he watched the man jump back into the shadows. "Of all the... Oh well. At least he's out of my hair."

"I should thank my brother for distracting you," said Hikyu as he floated up directly in front of Spiderman.

"Nah. I knew you were there the whole time," replied the boy. He wasn't surprised when his spider-sense started, the explosions had been growing closer again while he spoke to the ninja.

"Spiderman, where have you been?! We should just deal with you now if you aren't going to help!" Venom landed just over the both of them.

"Usagi! We have to get out of here! This place is going to explode!" said Carrot as he jumped into the air away from Goblin.

The monster chuckled as he shot forward and simply punched him across the jaw. It was enough to make the boy lose his grip on his web line. Carrot tumbled for about twenty feet before he finally caught himself.

"Eh? Explode?" muttered Venom. It looked around. "There are no hazardous..." Its head turned almost completely around as it looked back behind it. "Perhaps retreat would be best."

"Thank you, I was beginning to wonder where they were hiding the ammunition."

"Great going!" snapped Carrot as he landed nearby after catching himself.

"We'll just have to stop him then!" snarled Venom as it jumped towards the monster.

"No you idiot! The fires will set it off anyway! We need to leave!" cried Carrot. Venom either ignored him or didn't hear him.

"Shit! Get back here you crazy bitch! You'll get us both killed!" He moved after her immediately.


Venom snagged the boy out of the air and used him as a projectile. Goblin was preparing to toss a bomb and dropped it as they collided. Carrot tumbled towards the ground and didn't react fast enough. Fortunately, bounced off several boxes on the way to the floor. "That wasn't so bad," he muttered irritably. Goblin crashed his glider into one of the walls of boxes after being unable to regain control after the impact. He hit the concrete pretty hard, but the boy doubted if he was seriously hurt.

He started to push himself up when he heard a loud groaning just over him. He turned to look up and his eyes went wide as he saw the crates over him crashing downward. "Man. Why me?" He scrambled away crawling at first and eventually pushing himself to his feet as a thunderous roar shook the ground behind him as the tower fell.

A huge cloud of dust rose up from the impact and Venom chuckled. "Lucky shot."

The monster was standing in front of the edge of the avalanche it had caused with its arms crossed over its chest.

There was a slight disturbance as Carrot pushed himself up from under the edge. He'd taken quite a beating and was barely able to stand. His costume was in shreds and he had an angry glare in his eyes. He was standing right next to some of the munitions Goblin was looking for. Barrels of Napalm.

"Oh. That hurt," growled Goblin as he staggered to his feet and hopped back onto his glider. "You'll both pay for this!" The monster rose into the air and started looking for explosives immediately. Fortunately, it missed the barrels because of another stack of boxes.

"You're in no condition to fight. We'll take care of him, then we'll come back and take care of you!" Venom laughed as it jumped into the air and went after the monster again.

Carrot was standing on the edge of the mess, he pushed himself out of the shattered crates and pushed a large one off his legs. There was no way he hadn't broken anything. Luckily, his arms and legs still seemed to work quite well. His ribs would be wrapped up for a while.

He looked down at his feet, still not quite fully aware of where he was. His head was starting to clear again and he simply stared down at his feet. "I've had enough of that bitch." He reached down into the debris and grinned. "This was almost worth taking that shot."

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

Hakage appeared beside the old man as he calmly walked beside Hisami towards the exit.

"Hikyu has betrayed us," he stated simply. "This is an assassination attempt."

Hisami said nothing and continued to walk quickly towards the exit.

"I was afraid of this. I warned you not to trust him. Still, it cannot be helped now. Hakage, go and make sure the car is secure."

The shinobi vanished into the shadows and quickly moved ahead of them.

"This is almost fortunate. Wo Hin Shu can easily be blamed for this mess now," commented Hisami.

"Not as long as I'm still alive." A dry click sounded in front of them and both men froze. The old man narrowed his eyes.

"Inspector Kajura I presume?" asked the old man.

Hisami snorted, almost in disgust. "You just threw your life away. I hope you understand that. You won't be leaving this building alive."

The old man merely sighed. "Such a pity. We must move quickly sir, our time grows short. I do not think the building will last much longer. He will find the explosives sooner or later."

"What are you talking about? You're not fooling anyone!" snapped Kajura.

"Ask your partner to open the crate he's standing on."

"I'm placing you under arrest Hisami," growled Kajura as he ignored the old man.

"Hey buddy. The old guy isn't joking," said Saito. He was looking down at an open crate just below his position above and behind Hisami and the old man. "These boxes are full of guns, and the fire is starting to get pretty big."

"You should have mentioned something about these two," muttered Hisami.

"Even a ninja can be surprised Hisami," replied the old master calmly. "Catching us, well that's another matter."

Kajura jerked forward suddenly and slumped to the ground. His hands went to his belly as his weapon fell to the ground.

"No!" cried his partner. The old man's arm was extended in a toss he didn't even see happen.

"Your partner will not survive without medical attention. I suggest you evaluate your priorities."

"What?" snarled Hisami. "I command you to kill him!"

"We are running out of time. I only had one dart, and that boy has a firearm. I am not a god Hisami. If you still value your life, you will follow me. Perhaps they will not survive the explosion, otherwise you will have to leave Japan for a time."

Saito did nothing but watch as they walked away. Something in the old man's eyes told him that if he tried to shoot them, he and Kajura would both die. "Damn." He jumped down to aide his partner.

The man was groaning in pain, that was a good sign. He could see a fairly small red puddle forming on the ground though. "Come on, we've got to get you out of here!" He rolled the man onto his back and looked at the wound. There was a small throwing star embedded there. He removed it and tossed it aside carelessly. "Damn. I really liked this shirt too." He started tearing pieces of his shirt into strips. "You're gonna have to hold this on. I've got to carry you."

Kajura nodded weakly with a painful gasp.

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

Goblin growled angrily. His hands were bound in a thick web as the monster jumped at him and forced him to swerve in the air. "You're pathetic if you think this can stop me!" He wheeled around on his glider to face the monster and shot out one of his energy missiles. The boxes behind the thing exploded as it swerved out of the way.

"You won't trick us with that twice!"

Goblin cursed his luck. He knew there was enough explosives in the building to take out a city block. He just couldn't get them to explode. He was just going to have to keep trying, and hope he was fast enough to make it to one of the windows.

He turned to fire again and growled as he found nothing behind him. Venom had vanished. "What the?"

"Surprise!" cried the monster as it appeared directly behind him. It seemed to fade out of nothing.

"Impossible!" snarled the monster as Venom snagged him by his neck.

"We're through playing in here. It's getting stuffy!" snarled the beast as it tossed Goblin through a window.

"Hey! Ugly!"

Venom turned and hissed at what it saw.

Carrot was standing behind it with a frown on his face. Attached to his back was a flamethrower. It was lit and hissed as he pointed it at the monster. "This is for using me as a weapon." He opened up a jet of flame that engulfed Venom completely. A high pitched scream filled the air as the monster jumped back. Carrot kept the weapon trained on it. "I'm tired of playing nice with you Tsukino!"

The beast looked almost like it was melting, it was starting to grow bright red as it screamed in agony.

Almost Violently, Usagi was ejected out of its back in a messy spray of black. She was lying on the ground in the nude and slowly her eyes fluttered open as Carrot continued to burn the puddle.

"No!" she tried to scream angrily. It came out as a sort of squeaking sound.

Carrot stopped burning the monster and punched her dead in the face. She slumped down to the ground out cold. He knelt down beside her and lifted her over his shoulder. Goblin was outside now and he had to worry about getting attacked as soon as he made it outside. "Shit."

The puddle was still smoking, but mostly out now, even though the floor around it was still burning. There were still a few glowing orange spots, but it seemed to be cooling down quickly.

"Great. I've got to carry a naked teenager over my shoulder and hope I don't get blown up. He sighed as he reached down to pick her up. He doubted if she'd be out long, she was already starting to stir.

His spider-sense screamed suddenly and he jerked back instinctively. It was almost too fast to react too. The puddle on the floor jumped to life and shot itself into the air in a wide arc. The sharp looking point narrowly missed carrot. Rather than go after him, it poured onto Usagi's chest.

He was uppercut in the face by a black ooze covered arm and sent flying back. He landed on his back and shook his head as he looked up. Usagi was gone, and Venom with her. "Son of a bitch!" He looked around and didn't see anyone nearby. He had to get out of there, now.

Reluctantly, he unhooked the belt on the flame-thrower. He knew how to get it off her now, but swinging across the city with that thing strapped on was bound to cause problems. Not to mention the fact that it might make it difficult to swing around, it wasn't exactly streamlined, and it was pretty heavy. Just using it had slightly burned him anyway.

He sighed as it hit the floor and jumped towards the windows.

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

Goblin snarled in rage as he glared at the building. He managed to catch himself before he hit the pavement, but barely. He was floating just a few feet over the ground and had the front end of his glider in his grip. "Grrrr."

The sound of a vehicle engine started a short distance away and he narrowed his eyes as he spun around. "Oh no you don't."

Without even thinking about it he started to glide towards the noise.

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

"We are finally safe."

"I'll believe that when we are very far from here."

"Where is Hikyu?"

"He is going to remain behind, and make sure any evidence linking you to any of this is destroyed. Kei has not yet reported back."

"Humph, she's failed me repeatedly recently. I'm getting tired of it."

"I will take the proper measures," replied the old man diplomatically.

"Good. I expect her to act more civilly in the future. We should be back at the office within the hour."

The old master merely nodded. "No. We will not."

"Eh?" Hisami turned his head to look out the back window. His eyes went wide with horror. "No!"

Goblin cackled as he swooped down out of the sky, a green light shining from the front of his glider.

"Get us out of here! Drive you idiot!"

The driver slammed his foot down on the pedal and the tires squealed to life suddenly as he simply drove as fast as he could. He turned towards the docks, hoping to find cover in the mass of cranes and boxes that had been unloading before the explosion's started.

"You're mine!" snarled Goblin as he fired.

The old master stood up as the green glow of the missile filled the vehicle as it closed in from behind them. "So. He is who I feared he was. A pity, I had hoped to live to see him claim his blade."

Hisami's vehicle was tossed into the air as the gas tank ripped open in a spectacular ball of flames. It sailed in a wide arc through the air and tumbled into the water. The roof was peeled away as it impacted against the edge of the dock and sank the instant it landed in the sea.

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

Saito turned his head back down to his partner. "Hisami just died."

The man didn't look to be in the best of condition, but he had quickly recovered once it was wrapped up a bit. He could at least move on his own now. "Then it's over."

"I guess so."

Kajura merely stared forward into nothing, not bothering to move at all. His chance was gone. Without that arrest, he would never be able to offer enough proof to his father in law. He was now truly alone.

Saito leaned against the boxes next to him and lit a cigarette. He calmly passed it to his partner and lit another for himself. "I'm sorry."

"At least...it's finished now," said his partner simply.

He looked at Kajura and then back towards the explosion. The Goblin was heading back towards the building and ignored them.

"I think we should leave while we can. There's nothing we can do here now."

They could hear sirens in the distance and stood up together to walk back to the car. No one bothered them.

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

Ami Mizuno was sitting in the corner backed as far away from the dead body as she could possibly get. Her arms fumbled desperately along the walls beside her. She was searching for something, anything to help pull herself to her feet. Finally the familiar cool of the guardrail touched the inside of her palm. Her arm jerked back almost violently as she pulled herself into a jog and started up the stairwell.

"Run away." It was almost a whisper, and it most definitely wasn't inside her head.

She stopped cold and spun around, shining her flashlight all around her. "Who's there?" she asked softly. Her voice was shaking and the light in her hand was slipping from her grip because her palms were becoming so sweaty. She licked her lips as she surveyed the area around her carefully. There was only darkness, and a partially opened door.

She slowly backed away from it, stepping up on the first stairwell she shined her light behind her for a moment. When she turned back to check the door again she paused. It seemed to be open a little bit wider, and there was a small pool of something on the floor, as if something on the other side was leaking. It didn't look like blood. In fact, it looked absolutely black. She shined her light towards the top of the door above the puddle. The door was clean and undamaged. "What is that?" she whispered to herself quietly. She took a step back again, her curiosity not enough to quell her fears.

"I see you," whispered an almost inaudible voice.

Ami's head whipped around as she frantically shined the light around the room looking for the source.

A low creaking sound filled the room and Ami froze in the act of looking up the stairwell behind her. She slowly turned and shined the light on the now fully open door.

It was a black thing covered in blood. It's skin moved as if it was dozens of living things crawling across a human form. "It's much more fun if you can't see me though." It pointed a finger at it and a sharp point formed at the tip.

Ami screamed as she heard a distinctive hissing noise, it quickly became a scream of pain as the flashlights remains were now pinned into her hand. She clutched her wrist and staggered to her feet. Tears started to fall down her face as she struggled to catch her breath. She was being up the stairs in the darkness by something she couldn't even see now. She could hear it all around her though. Every scrape, every step it made, the thump of it hitting the ground after jumping up a few flights to keep up just behind her as she desperately raced for her life.

It was playing with her, it's pacing was lazy and slow.

She had to find a way to lose it before it got bored. A distraction, anything.

"Mercury power makeup!"

"Wha?" came a confused mutter. "Aaargh!"

The bright light that surrounded the girl when she transformed blinded the creature rather badly and forced it to shield its eyes. Her costume appeared on her body and she landed after it completed a little higher and farther away from the thing than before. Her hand was still badly hurt and she had to lose it still. She jumped up three steps and shoved through a door. She wasn't sure what floor she was on, but she could find her bearings after she escaped with her life.

That monster could see in the dark, and the entire building was still almost pitch black. She had to find light, and help. "I've got to warn someone!" There had to be someone with a radio, or a cell phone, or something. She raced down the hallways trying her best to avoid running into things, but ultimately failing in that. She stumbled through the darkness clumsily and ran into all kinds of equipment that was lining the hallways around the rooms.

"Oh god," she muttered in horror as she realized that she had no idea of where she was, or where she was going. There were a lot of dead ends in the building, not all the hallways were connected to each other.

"I need help," she whispered softly. "How? How am I going to get out of..." Without even finishing the thought she fumbled desperately for her pocket. Her fingers closed around something small round and smooth. She flipped open her communicator and blinked. She looked around and noticed that a small area around her was now lit up from the screen.

She stood up and started walking as she started to work the controls as quickly as she could. "Rei? Rei where are you? Anyone. Come on, pick up!" She looked around at the walls trying to find out where she was as she listened for the sound of a response.

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

Carnage frowned as his vision finally returned. "I'm going to enjoy this one. So sweet." His head scanned around as he started walking forward. He noticed the sound of the door while still blinded and opened it fearlessly. "Now, where did you go?"

His skin slithered excitedly as he searched for some clue about where she had gone. It had taken about ten seconds for his vision to recover completely. Mostly because he was using heat vision to find living targets in the dark. She couldn't have run out of its range in the time she'd been gone. He could see the faint glows of life on a few floors above him at the moment. Somehow, the girl had vanished.

"Impossible," he snorted irritably. "Whatever she did, it made her invisible to my thermoptics. Night vision is a bit more primitive, but it should make this more interesting to say the least." This one, he decided, he would kill her slowly.

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

Carrot frowned as he carefully crawled outside the window of the building. The fires inside were growing larger by the moment. Venom was missing, and Goblin wasn't within his immediate field of vision. With a small sigh of relief he hopped down to the concrete.

His relief was short lived though as his spider-sense told him there was something just behind him. He turned and saw Goblin floating along side the building, watching him.

"Well, you look like you've had a fun night."

Carrot growled and removed his mask. It wasn't in the best of condition anyway, there were several holes torn or burned into it. His costume looked worse than the mask, and small scrapes and cuts were still bleeding all over his body. "You know, I'm getting a little tired of you."

"If I'm boring you, perhaps I should finish you off."

Carrot smirked slightly as he glanced at the wall directly beside him. "Stick around." He jumped to the left and extended his body in the air as he dove and shot two streams of web line into the monster.

Goblin was caught by surprise and found himself bound to the wall. "You think you can escape?"

"No, but my spider-sense is telling me you're out of time," said the boy as he jumped back again.

"Eh?" muttered the monster in confusion.

The building exploded in a spectacular ball of flames. Debris were sent flying for blocks as the blast shattered windows ten blocks into the city. The sound ripped through the air as trailers and other heavy equipment in the shipyard was pushed along the ground and knocked over by the blast wave.

Carrot was tossed in the air like a doll and came down hard on the pavement almost twenty feet from where he started. That had really sucked a whole lot. He grunted in pain as he pulled what felt like a sharp chunk of metal out of his back and tossed it aside carelessly. It hadn't gone in very deep at all and appeared to be the only real damage done to his body by the explosion. He was a bit singed as well, but that would probably be gone in a few hours at most.

He groaned in pain and staggered to his feet as he looked at the burning remains of the structure. "Damn. That was cool."

A few secondary explosions inside the burning debris told him he wasn't standing in a good place. It was possible there was still a lot of live ammunition that the initial blast didn't destroy.

He looked to his right and arched his eyebrow as a smoking chunk of burning fur and bat wings hit the ground next to him. "I guess that takes care of him."

The sound of sirens became clear over the inferno and Carrot started moving towards the fence. It would not be a good idea to get caught standing around where he was.

He glanced around at his surroundings for a moment. Kajura and Saito were helping each other up about a thousand yards to his right. They were both looking at him.

He frowned at the pair and watched as Kajura was led towards the fence by his partner. Whoever the guy with Kajura was, gave him a small nod. Carrot smirked as he turned his attention back to the fence. Those two wouldn't bother him again tonight at least.

The fence was still a fair distance away, and he wasn't in much of a hurry. The police were still trying to navigate the mess that the streets had become. It would be another five or six minutes before they arrived. He pulled the tattered remains of his sleeve up and looked at his watch. Well, he looked at what was left of it anyway. It was actually smoking, and there was what appeared to be a piece of metal lodged into the center of the screen. "Shit."

"You don't sound very happy. You should be, you've only got one big problem now."

Carrot spun around and glared up at the ghoulish figure that rested on the remains of a few shattered wooden crates. "Haven't you had enough tonight?"

"Relax. We're letting you go this time. You did save us after all."

"There was a time you might have saved me Usagi. I'll bet you would have just watched me fall. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"What are you talking about? Of course We'd have let you fall. We're much stronger now than We were then. You made Us grow up. So, until next time, and there will be a next time." Venom jumped into the air and swung away leaving Carrot standing alone.

"Yeah, great." His spider-sense had apparently been knocked silly by the stupid explosion. He could still feel the sensation all around him. It didn't feel off though, maybe it was Venom? The creature could still be around. "No. That asshole has found a way around that..."

"Hey," said a familiar voice.

"Who the?" Unfortunately he only turned fast enough to see a large piece of wood slam into his face knocking him out cold.

Kei tossed the now broken chunk of board away and dusted off her hands as she cocked her head and looked at him. "Hmm. Seems I've caught you. I'll return the favor and take you somewhere I can take your clothes off." She hefted him over her shoulder roughly, making sure to elbow him in the chin as she put him in place. "This place is a mess, you caused quite a bit of damage. I'm almost grateful too you for freeing my clan. However, there is still the matter of my curse." She rummaged around in her shirt and pulled out a syringe. After taking the cap off with her teeth she injected it into his leg and calmly walked towards the shadows.

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

Carrot groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He was cold and felt remarkably bare. Unfortunately this was mostly unnoticed because of the throbbing pain in his head.

"The headache only lasts a few minutes. It wouldn't do if you weren't fully aware to enjoy this."

"What?" he muttered as he stared at the blurs around him. He could see a lot of gray and black, and not a lot of light. A small desk light was the only lamp in the room, and it was pointed towards the wall. "Where am I?"

"Somewhere. Naked, alone, helpless, sound familiar?"

"Vaguely, I'm not into the whole role reversal thing though," grumbled Carrot as his mind said "shit" a bunch of times.

"I can see that, but this time is for me."

He still couldn't see Kei, his vision had cleared up considerably. He now knew that he was handcuffed naked to a table in a barren concrete room. He was in a torture chamber. His feet were chained to the bottom of the chair, and his handcuffs were attached to two thick iron rings at the head of the table. Plus, he was naked. This was going to suck.

Finally she walked out of the shadows. She was wearing her leather flying suit and simply smiled at him darkly. "You know you left me wanting last time. Playing hard to get."

"Right. Can we get this over with? I've got this thing about pain."

"Pain?" The girl laughed, she actually looked somewhat like a normal girl doing it.

"This is a torture room isn't it?" he grumbled as he jerked his hands against the cuffs.

"Hmm. Yes. I suppose that it is. You don't carry any weapons on you anymore?"

"I'm kind of attached to some of them," he replied snidely.

She rubbed her fingers along the bottom of his wrist against the small marks there. "I can see that."

"If you're not planning torture, what's your game?"

"Oh. I'm going to kill you. I want to enjoy it though."

"Long and painful death? Have I really pissed you off that much?" growled the boy as he turned his face away from her.

"Of course you have, but that's not what this is about." She started making circles with her fingers on his chest.

Carrot's eyes went wide as he stared at her. "What?"

"I'm finally going to get what I want from you, and then I'm going to plunge this knife into your heart." She unsheathed her blade and glared at him coldly. "The better you perform, the longer you get to live. Who knows, maybe you'll think of a way to escape? Don't count on it though."

"You didn't even buy me dinner," said Carrot calmly.

Kei smirked. "Hmm. Good boy."

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

The fire was still burning at the docks. News crews, fire department, and police swarmed the scene.

He didn't even look slightly out of place as he walked across the concrete pavement calmly. He was wearing a suit and tie with a black fedora on his head. Dr. Tomo merely walked up to the scene with a security tag from one of his older jobs clipped onto his shirt. No one bothered him.

He casually knelt down next to the ground and picked up a tiny dart. He opened his briefcase and placed it inside carefully. There was a special slotted area with a few clean darts and the dart gun he'd used to fire it disassembled inside. Quickly closing the case he stood up again and pulled a tiny wire from behind his ear. It was attached to a small homing device for the dart.

Without a single word he walked away with a slight smirk on his face as he left the shipyard without even getting an odd stare. The dart had been fired when the building exploded. Spiderman never even knew what it was that hit him and he had what he needed. In the end, it worked out well for everyone. He never imagined he'd get such a perfect shot.

"That wasn't so hard. Now comes the difficult part," his features fell into a deathly serious frown once again as he headed towards his car.

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

Kei was enjoying herself quite a bit. She had him straddled and wasn't wearing any clothes. The boy under her had scratch marks from her nails all across his chest and back. There was even a bite mark or two on his neck and shoulder.

Carrot was trying his very best to not enjoy himself. It shouldn't have been as hard as it was considering her plans ended with his death. "Stay focused," he told himself inside his head as he tried to block out every sensation his body was feeling.

The girl looked up at him with a seductive looking smile on her face. He appeared to have the chains over his head in a death grip. "I'll bet you'd have already finished by now if not for this." She rubbed the flat of the blade on her knife across his chest and forced her lips onto his.

Carrot was covered in sweat and completely nude. He gasped for breath as he struggled to hold himself together.

"Hmmm. You're almost done. Too bad," said the girl as she pushed the blade of her knife lightly against the bottom of his chin. A thin trickle of blood started where she had cut him. "There's no escape. No weapons, no tools, just your body, these chains, and my knife."

The boy growled angrily as he thrust his head forward directed at her.

She punched him in the face and jumped off him. "Nice try. You're getting too feisty, time to end this." She flipped the knife around her wrist and raised it over her head to stab down through his chest.

"Surprise," said the boy as he pointed his hand at her.

Kei merely stared in disbelief as a bent piece of metal that appeared to be a small coil of wire attached to it fell to the ground as this happened. "Impossible! I searched..." It was at about this point that she realized that she couldn't pull her hand down. She looked up and saw that her hand was covered in some sort of string that stuck to the ceiling over her. She screamed in rage and began to jerk her arm against it violently.

By this point Carrot was sitting up on the table looking at her. She punched at him with her free hand but found the strike almost casually blocked.

The boy then proceeded to beat the living shit out of her. He punched her dead in the face and kicked her in the stomach as the web line holding her knife wielding hand in the air pulled her back. The boy was silent as he kneed her in the stomach three times and elbowed her in the face a few times as well. Kei's memory became a bit fuzzy after that though, the strikes came faster and grew in strength.

Finally it stopped.

Carrot was panting for breath as he glared at her. He was still naked, but didn't give it much thought. Kei was beaten badly. She hung by her arm over the floor limply, her entire body was covered in bruises. A nice black eye and a busted lip left her less than pretty. Carrot decided he was getting too soft, he hadn't broken anything.

With a slight limp he staggered over to his clothes. They were still in tatters, but they would have to do until he could find more. He walked towards the door and paused to look back at the hanging ninja again.

"Man. I'd love to see Batman get out of that one."

"Leaving so soon?" whispered Kei.

The boy didn't move as she turned her head to look at him with her one good eye.

"This isn't over. If you let me live again, I'll just hunt you down."

"I guess I'll be seeing you around then," he replied calmly. "The rope will dissolve on its own in about an hour. If I were you I'd stop to think about what just happened to me Kei. I won't be this nice to you again."

"You shouldn't have been this nice to me this time."

"You're probably right," he replied with a small shrug. "I've got the strangest feeling you've still got a part to play in this though."

With that said, he calmly walked out the door.

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

Carrot found himself standing inside a familiar place. "Shit. The Hisami building." The hallways were vacant and the sky was growing darker outside. He could see the sunset in the distance. "Great. Now what?" He was in one of the inner hallways of the upper floors, near Hisami's office.

He turned a corner and scratched the back of his neck. It seemed a bit odd for the offices to be vacant at this time of day. "Maybe something is going on?" It might have something to do with the mess he'd helped make earlier outside.

Carrot decided as he turned the next corner that this was the worst day of his entire life. Four men in black suits and ties were looking at him with rather surprised expressions on their faces.

He simply stared back. "Um. Hi."

The men were all average looking in build and appearance. The leader though was a thin man with slicked back hair and glasses. "Kill him."

Carrot swallowed as the men began to reach inside their coats. "Time to go." He turned and ran full steam into the hallways. Holes began to explode in the walls just behind him as bullets shattered the plaster and drywall.

"Damn it! I thought bad guys were supposed to be terrible shots!" he snapped as he stopped as a bullet whizzed by his nose and into the wall.

Two of the armed men turned the corner with their weapons ready.

Carrot dove between a large set of double doors and rolled across the ground into another room. He turned and locked the doors before backing further into the room. "That won't hold them long," he muttered as he glanced around.

He was standing in the middle of Hisami's office. "Great. This place again."

The doorknob of the door was torn to shreds as the men on the other side fired through it. Carrot hopped on top of the desk and looked back at the glass behind him. The window had been replaced, and the new glass was about five inches thick. "Shit."

The door slammed open as the two men kicked it open and trained their weapons on the boy.

Carrot didn't feel any kind of warning. "Hey. You guys are out of bullets."

The pair looked at him and pulled the triggers of their weapons. They got nothing but a dry report.

"Man. You're not bad shots, but you're still lousy henchmen. Always count your shots," quipped the boy.

The pair calmly pulled another set of clips out of their coats and began to reload.

Carrot snorted and the two men found their guns yanked out of their grip before they could finish. The boy simply pulled the strange ropes he had used to snag them and both weapons were in his hands. He casually disassembled them and tossed the remains into the trash. "Now it's my turn to play."

The two men didn't look impressed and immediately pulled weapons from their surroundings. The one on the left hefted a spear off the wall, and the other removed a thick curved scimitar off of a small end table.

Carrot realized that there were all sorts of fun things to play with in the room. Hisami was apparently enjoyed collecting bladed weapons.

Both men cut a defensive pattern through the air with their chosen weapons with quite a bit of skill.

The boy glanced over his shoulder at the wall. There was the sword, the case was still shattered from his last visit for some reason.

The men noticed what he was looking at and actually chuckled.

The one on the right spoke up. "Go ahead and pick it up kid."

"Either he's got a pretty high opinion of himself, or there's something wrong with that sword." Carrot moved towards it slowly, it was sharp enough the last time he'd grabbed it.

The two men stood and waited as he reached back towards the blade. Energy started to crackle across the blade as the boy's hand neared it, he didn't appear to notice it though and they got ready to strike.

Carrot felt something at that moment. It was almost like a wind from behind him. He knew that wasn't possible because there was a wall there. He turned his head to look at the source of the disturbance and found his fingers mere inches away from the blade's hilt. "What the?"

Thick tendrils of power shot up his arm suddenly. Somehow, all he felt was a slight tingling sensation, similar too, but different from his spider-sense.

The two men rushed forward with their weapons held in front of them. They stopped cold when the boy turned his head back to look at them. His hand closed around the hilt of the sword and he lifted it off its place on the wall.

"What the?" muttered one of the men dumbly.

Carrot removed the blade from its scabbard slowly and looked at the length of the blade. He could see the energy crawling across the surface of the blade. Finally it all seemed to collect near the tip as the edge began to grow impossibly light.

"Oh shit," muttered the boy as he realized something was about to happen.

A sudden and impossibly strong gust of wind slammed everything in the room except for Carrot against the nearest wall. The thick glass of the windows shattered outward, raining down on the street below as a resounding boom filled the air.

Carrot was on his knees holding his right ear as his left arm held the sword out away from his body. He had his eyes squeezed shut and slowly opened them as the sound died down. "What the hell was that?" He stared at the blade for a moment and stood up a little shakily.

The two men were lying on the ground, he wasn't really sure if they were dead or just knocked out, and he didn't care enough to go find out. His mind wandered back to the skinny man he'd met in the hallway. "What an asshole."

That was something to be dealt with later though. As it was now, he had an open window right next to him.

"Okay. I am so out of here."

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

A few minutes later...

"Look at what's happened to me,
I can't believe it myself.
Suddenly I'm up on top of the world,
It should've been somebody else.


Believe it or not,
I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free-.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me.

It's like a light of a new day,
It came from out of the blue.
Breaking me out of the spell I was in,
Making all of my wishes come true-.

Believe it or not,
I'm walking on air.
I never thought I could feel so free-.
Flying away on a wing and a prayer.
Who could it be?
Believe it or not it's just me."

Carrot simply stared dumbly from the side of the building at the woman. "What the hell?"

Haruka screamed and blushed as she realized he was sitting there watching her. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!"

"Stop saying that!" he snapped irritably. "I've had one hell of a day, and I've about had all I can take!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" she snapped as she stared down at him. She paused and stared at him for a moment. He was a complete mess, his costume was torn to shreds and there appeared to be a lot of small cuts all over him. He also had a sword strapped to his back. "Are you all right?"

"What? How dare you! Look at you! Floating around? Singing a song? I can't believe you actually know all the words to that song! Have you no shame!? Where the hell have you been all damn day! I've been up to my ass in monsters and Yakuza, and fucking ninjas, can't forget them, all day, and all you're doing is floating around singing!? Welcome back! Now get to work." He jumped straight down and swung away.

Haruka was simply floating with a shocked look on her face as she watched him leave. "I'm not sure if I feel bad or not. I guess he's right, but what an asshole." With a heavy sigh she floated back towards her apartment. She wasn't really sure just how long it would take her to get back. She'd been goofing off with her new powers for most of the day, testing them out more or less. She didn't think it would be a good idea to start anything until she knew how far she could push them, and have some idea about her current limits.

Still, that left her wondering. Exactly what was she going to do? She had invoked the final protocol. That meant looking for other Senshi was pointless. Saturn and Neptune had lost their powers now. What did that mean for her? Still, somehow Pluto had awakened. Actually, Pluto probably awoke first anyway. She was always up before anyone else. It was a guilty pleasure of hers to call the others early in the morning with important information about their day. Usually, it was a carbon copy of their schedule for the day. None of them were really certain how she got them and they were all positive she wasn't using the Gates of Time to get them.

Haruka shook her head and gasped as she realized what she was thinking about. She'd never experienced this before, she'd had haunted dreams, and quick flashes of barely remembered moments that she couldn't quite place. She was remembering a past life, remembering it as if it were only yesterday.

"What's happening to me?" she whispered as she clutched her head.

"Calm yourself Uranus." Pluto was floating in front of her with an emotionless frown on her face.

Haruka quickly composed herself and glared at the woman in front of her. "Why are you here?"

"Because, as you probably suspect. I was the first to awaken. I was the one who set the events into motion that would revive you. I then went away for a while so to speak." She smirked at the woman in front of her for a moment, "I will awaken once again soon enough."

"Yeah. I think I understand," grumbled Haruka.

"Your choice freed the others from their obligation. You now shoulder that burden alone. Do not be surprised if I divert your attention from time to time this way. The queen is a little too liberal with this power for my taste as of late, but I cannot refuse her."

"Was there something you wanted?" replied Haruka followed by a rough snort.

"Yes."

"Well? What is it?"

"I'll tell you when the time comes. For now I was simply a distraction, as I have said."

"You wouldn't come here without the queen's order. You're up to something. Why not just tell me? If it's from the queen, you know I'll help."

"You forget her already? A moment of comfort, someone to tell you it's all right? A single moment that can erase a difficult and ultimately pointless suffering on your behalf? The fear you are losing yourself? Becoming someone else? The truth is simple. The memories are just that. Only memories."

"Thanks," muttered Haruka dumbly.

"Do not thank me. I did not do this. I obeyed my queen's command. I would have left you to suffer."

The girl gasped as she backed away slightly. "What?"

"In time, you will understand. Goodbye Uranus, it has not been pleasant."

Pluto vanished and left her floating alone.

"What the hell did I do?" Though she'd never admit it, that statement frightened her. Had it been anyone else she wouldn't have cared for more than a moment or two. This was Pluto though. If the senshi of time was letting on she was upset about something you had already done it.

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

"Carrot?" Michiru Kaio stood in the doorway with her hand covering her mouth. She wasn't quite sure what to say.

The boy's face was bruised and he didn't look up at her yet. He was still in the remains of his costume, and a haggard looking mask was gripped in his fist. He didn't look good, his face was bruised and there was dried blood on the corner his mouth and below his nose. "Can you take a rain check on tonight?" He then promptly collapsed on her doorstep.

She gasped and fell down to her knees beside him. She reached down to pick him up and screamed as a strong shock threw her hands back. "What the?" she muttered as she looked at the crackling energy that pulsated across the surface of the sword on his back.

"Shit," she muttered as she sucked on the side of her finger for a moment to help cool the burning. She stepped to her feet again and reached inside the door to find an umbrella with a wooden handle. Carefully she poked at it and managed to slide the blade out. She managed to get it inside the door with a little careful maneuvering and reached down to help him again. She carefully poked at the scabbard and sighed in relief as nothing happened. With a final sigh she reached under his arms and hefted him inside. Luckily, her parents were still away.

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

TBC...

Next Time: We find out what happened to Ami during all of this. ^_^