Hunters
Chapter 1
A new threat
Disclaimer! I do not own digimon. It's owned by Saban Brands right now. However, I do own the entire plot, almost all the characters and the settings for this.
Every journey always has a beginning. No matter how ordinary or crazy. -Unknown
(A/n: This is the rerevised version of the first chapter. I fixed Clara's and The Black Cat's character description and added some extra exposition.)
"Just another day to hunt down leaks and viruses, so I better get this day started right now." Ace thought as he switched into a clean bluish black t-shirt and tan shorts and equipped his weapon of choice, twin katanas on to his belt. He looked at himself. He guessed he was around 5'6 and looked to be around 15 years old. The blades were moderately curved and made of simple iron, and were both 23.5 inches long. The haft was a metal grip wrapped in cheap dark blue felt, and was about 6 inches long. As he did that, a girl in red pajamas got up and casted a simple spell causing her pajamas she was wearing to turn into a simple silvery gold dress with sandals and a belt for her magical kopis's. She looked to be 5'5 and 15½ years old. She then pulled out a comb and brushed her flowing blonde hair. Compared to her hair, Ace's was short and brown with a few spikes. The kopis's looked to be all one piece of metal with the blade curving forward and was 25.6 inches long.
"Good morning, Ace." The girl greeted drowsily as a living teddy bear wearing just a polka dotted bowtie and nothing else walked into the room without a care in the world. He stood about 1'5 and looked to be in his thirties. He also had a Guinness World Record for the oldest living teddy bear. He was actually
"Is it really morning already?" A bird asked as it flew out of her bed and started to flap her bluish silvery wings around and tried to not hit or ram into anything in the room. For being an Ice Phoenix, she was quite nice but slightly annoying. She stood about 1'1 and acted like a 10 year old who's addicted to sugar.
"Yes, and for a bird I would think you would know that, Ruby." Clara answered as she got out of her bed and Ace did the same. A few minutes later, the four of them headed downstairs and noticed breakfast had already been made for them. They then sat down at a table where they were joined by a tiger dressed in a gappa(travel cape) and zukin(ninja hood). It was about 5'6 and looked to be around 21. Then an explosion rang out, causing pigs to fall out of the sky and some wreckage to appear. Why they just fell out of the sky was unknown except they were still somehow alive.
"Yay!" Ruby shouted as she started to get overenthusiastic. "Free bacon for all of us to have and eat!" However, when she tried to grab at one of the pigs, it then vanished upon on her and pissed her off even more. It was one thing for a wall in your house just to be blown up, however whoever did this had to also drop a whole bunch of fake pigs on them.
"What was that for?" Ninjara questioned as she let out a short laugh." And why did those pigs just fall from the sky and into our home?" She looked around and all she got were clueless looks from the others. This was probably a typical response, but that didn't stop Ninjara from trying to get to the bottom of this mystery.
"I really don't know." Ace answered as he noticed a note in the huge wreckage that was once a wall being erased and the wreckage being reduced instantly into a small amount of nothingness. While the pigs just disappeared out of sight, meaning they got no free bacon. A second later, the wall then reappeared like nothing ever happened there at all.
"Who did that?!" Ted responded as he looked around for this mysterious perpetrator that caused the explosion to happen.
"I did so." A voice explained, scaring everybody in the room for a few seconds.
"Who are you?" Ruby asked as she shivered and fell to the ground.
"I'm the author, meaning I'm the "god" of this universe." The Author explained as the pencil disappeared into thin air a second later.
"What just happened?" Ace asked and noticed a black cat was waiting for him and motioned him to follow. The Cat looked like one of those Japanese lucky black cats except it was smaller, thinner, had shorter arms and a purple tint to her. On each ear, was a small violet hair bow. On its tail was a golden bell attached to a third small violet hair bow. Around its neck, was a tag holding a violet crest with a crescent moon on it.
It was sitting on it back paws and had big face with purple eyes and small pink lips. It might have possibly been waiting for them.
"What are you going to do now?" Stich asked." Also was the fourth wall broken, just then?"
"Who cares if that stupid fourth wall of reality is broken whatsoever by making jokes or talking about it all the time during this story?!" Ninjara added.
"Do not break the fourth wall whatsoever." A voice whispered but nobody listened to it whatsoever. At that very moment, Ace's HDA went off and he checked it. The HDA was similar to a PDA except it allowed for transportation of a Hunter's creatures, a better internet connection, and best of all a bacon dispenser for the times when you just need some bacon. It also had a phone capability which was probably why it looked like most smartphones. He held the HDA up to his ear.
"It's been awhile, DragonBlade." A voice greeted as Ace grabbed his dark blue bracer and attached his HDA onto it. He then fitted the bracer onto his right arm and then placed the phone into speaker mode.
"So what do you want now, GamblerGirl?" Ace greeted back as he looked down at the screen.
"How about we have a friendly little battle?" GamblerGirl asked as she gave Ace a cocky look.
"I'm fine with that." Ace answered and ended the call.
"Who was that?" Ninjara asked as she looked at Ace. She was curious who this mystery caller was.
"A friend that asked me to challenge her. Come on Clara, Ruby and Ninjara!" Ace explained as he motioned for them to follow him as Ted just watched them leave the room. "It's been a while since we've had any worthy challenge from somebody." Ace then got on to his chopper. The bike looked to be around five feet long and three feet long including sidecar. The frame was painted metallic silver with a black fuel tank and matching sidecar that could appear at will. Clara got on behind him and Ninjara got into the sidecar that had now appeared. Ace started the motor, and they headed off to their destination. They passed through their neighborhood, where people like Crazy Bob lived. The fact that none of his neighbors had actually not tried to pull anything on him was the most surprising part about it. After leaving their neighborhood, they headed out onto the open road and were finally allowed to feel the freedom of the open road.
"Why is there always traffic?!" Clara shouted as they drove slowly within the traffic. For some reason, that Black Cat was always ahead of them. It took them at least an hour to get to their destination. This was mostly cased by car crashing into a clown car.
"Well we're now here at our destination." Ace explained as he noticed the Black Cat was no longer there and that GamblerGirl waiting not that far from him. She was 5'1, which was a tiny bit tall for a 15 year old. She had on a purple boob tube and black shorts with her long black hair hanging down from her head. She was tapping her purple high heels together in true impatience as her purplish blue eyes watched for anyone to come. Her lips were smeared with purple lipstick in that complimented her outfit but not her flat chest at all. For some reason, she wore a purple bracer with her HDA attached to it. The bracer straddled her left arm close to her wrist."So that's our challenger?" Clara asked, curious if that girl that was waiting there was the one who wanted to challenge them.
"It nice to see you, GamblerGirl." Ace answered as he looked at GamblerGirl.
"You can just call me Nina." Nina explained as her partners Arana, Krystalia and Celestia appeared out of her HAD. Then Ninjara, Ruby and Clara got out of Ace's chopper. "It's good to see you also, DragonBlade."
"You can just call me Ace." Ace answered as their creatures examined their opponent's creatures.
"So were fighting a weird warrior girl, a living female statue and a catgirl that is for some reason also a gambler." Clara added as she looked at the ones they were about to fight against. Celestia looked to be around 4'8 and looked to be around 19 years old. Her skin was a metallic cyan color and she wore a simple white t-shirt and black skirt with a brown trenchcoat covering part of it. Krystalia was probably around 6'1 and age couldn't be determined. She wore nothing except for a skimpy leather shirt over her crystalline body in order to keep the censors from getting angry. Arana stood around 3'5 and looked to be around 8 years old. She wore a gray sweater and jeans while wielding her massive longsword. The sword looked to be as tall as her with a wooden haft and a blade made of bone and was probably 3 ft long.
"That means were probably fighting a totally unoriginal magical girl, a bird of ice and a ninja tiger." Celestia responded as she looked at her opponents and made a silly face to annoy them.
"I am not a magical girl!" Clara responded as she flipped Celestia off. Celestia wasn't impressed at all and just ignored her. "I don't have a human form at all!"
"And your point of your rant is?" Celestia taunted as she started to make silly faces at Clara.
"To change your opinion of me!" Clara answered but decided just to drop it.
"Hopefully, not anymore surprises to speak of." Ruby responded as Ninjara changed her to an angry glare.
"Unsay that right now, you stupid bird." Ninjara demanded as she gave an evil glare at Ruby.
"Fo kaeps ot sesirprus eromyna ton ,yllufepoh" Ruby reluctantly said backwards and was not happy about having to say something backwards.
"Doesn't that prove you're superstitious?" Ruby question as Ninjara conked her over the head.
"No. It's unwritten rule in this kind of stuff that you should never say that." Ninjara explained as Ruby gave her a curious look.
"Then how do know that it's an unwritten rule?" Ruby asked but Ninjara just gave her the cold shoulder.
"Let's battle!" Ace and Nina shouted, Ace then pulled out his katanas and Nina pulled out her butterfly swords at the same time. The handles on the butterfly swords looked to have been made of plastic and were probably designed to be cheap yet durable. The blades were probably made of iron and had been recently sharpened. A second later, Nina quickly looked down at her bracer and noticed now that two cards had appeared on the screen. They were the queen and king of hearts.
"Come and get me!" Ace taunted as he dashed towards Nina.
"That I can do." Nina answered and Ace slashed her with both of his katanas, which did surprising a lot less damage then one would expect if you just slashed somebody with a katana. Nina then slashed him back with both of her butterfly swords and followed that up by kicking him in the groin with her right foot, which also did surprisingly little damage.
"Twin katana beam!" Ace shouted, launching two cutter-shaped beams at Nina. In response to his attack, she did a backflip and dodged his projectile attack all in one motion.
"He's good." Nina thought as she watched Krystalia get defeated by Clara slashing her a few times, proving just pathetic Krystalia was.
"This isn't over yet at all." Celestia responded only to get frozen by Ruby's iceball that shot from off-screen. She then turned into a frozen statue for a few seconds before falling over onto the ground. She would just have to wait for the ice to melt away from her. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for that to occur thankfully for her. She then turned her attention over to Rukia. She dashed towards her opponent and threw a playing card. Rukia then stabbed the flying card with one kopi and whacked the card off with other one. She turned her gaze to her opponent and felt a weird feeling. She had seen Celestia before this, but she couldn't remember when or where. In truth, most of her past before she met Ace was mystery.
"I see that you're getting the same feeling as I am." Celestia whispered softly so only her and Rukia could hear.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Rukia questioned as they traded blows of blade and claws to hide their conversation.
"I'm just trying to figure things out." Celestia quietly explained."After all, the anniversary of "The Incident" is almost upon us."
"I was expecting some actual information, not a reminder." Rukia responded and launched Celestia into Arana, causing Celestia's defeat. Any talk about "The Incident" was rare and usually taboo. What seemed so weird was how casual the conversation went between the two of them. Clara just pushed the questions out of her mind. It wasn't the time to be thinking about this stuff.
"So I'm the last one, but who cares about that at all!" Arana thought as she hit Ruby with her sword, causing Ruby to fall to the ground however nowhere near death at all but still defeated anyway.
"This leaves the scores at Ace 2, Nina 1!" The Author exclaimed as Ace and Nina shook their fists at the air.
"Where is that ninja tiger thing?" Arana shouted before swiveling around 360° to try and spot Ninjara."Oh well, I guess that means she lost and I won." The childish tone of the insult was laughable at best. A few seconds later, a sharp burst of pain came over her and she fell to the ground, defeated.
"Those that are brash should never jump to conclusions." Ninjara explained as she removed the kunai from Arana's back.
"Where were you hiding then?" Arana asked curiously, still holding her bone sword in hand.
"I hid in the one place one can never look." Ninjara explained."I hide in your shadow." She then sat down and watched the battle that would decide it all.
"Twin butterfly stab combo!" Nina responded, jumping at Ace and stabbed him in the arm and then released a flurry of kicks on her opponent. However, Ace shook her off, causing her to fall onto the ground. As he did that, Nina's bracer activated and for brief few seconds showed the jack of hearts. "Game of chance!" As she said that, a quarter appeared in her hands. She then quickly approached Ace, who was instantly confused on what was happening at that moment.
"What do you want now?" Ace asked curiously as Nina held out the quarter for Ace to see.
"Heads or tails?" Nina questioned as Ace took a quick step back and hoped this wouldn't cause anything bad.
"Tails?" Ace answered weakly as Nina threw the coin into the air. The quarter flew through the air about a dozen times before landing on heads.
"I guess I get another card!" Nina shouted as her bracer activated one again and this time flashed the 10 of hearts.
"This isn't good." Clara thought as Nina and Ace sparred to a standstill. Then an idea came to her."Inferno Firework!" From her blades, she launched several small missile-shaped balls of fire that locked-on to Nina and exploded on contact with her target. It also released a whole bunch of multicolored sparks.
"Not fair!" Nina responded as her bracer flashed one more time, revealing the ace of hearts. "Good, it's time for my special."
"Special?" Ace asked and knew that it was time to go on the defensive at that moment.
"5- Card strike!" Nina shouted as the five cards she drew appeared around her. Ace dashed backwards, hoping to avoid the special. The cards surged energy into Nina's blades and she dashed towards Ace and released a flurry of slashes onto him. However, she only got in three slashes in before Ace countered with his own special.
"Draconic blaze flurry!" Ace shouted as his katanas lit aflame and he struck Nina with a flurry of flaming katana strikes and finally defeated Nina.
"Good battle." Nina answered as she looked at Ace.
"Any reason for this fight?" Ace asked as he shook Nina's right hand.
"I just thought it would be nice to have a friendly fight with you." Nina explained as she quickly changed the subject." The only thing that seemed totally seemed out of place was the fact that a black cat following right beside my vehicle as I headed towards."
"The same thing happened to me also." Ace added as they both looked at each other.
"But the question now is, why?" Nina asked as she looked around. Then a giant claw came out of nowhere and grabbed Nina. The claw then pulled her into a conveniently placed airship. The airship looked like one of those old pirate ships except it hovered in the air.
"How does that even make any sense at all at this point in this story?!" Clara shouted as she watched the claw take Nina inside the airship. Almost immediately, Nina started to slash at the claw to no avail, she was trapped.
"Life isn't supposed to make any sense whatsoever." Ace responded as he looked up at the airship.
"Return, my leaks." Nina added, causing all three of her creatures to return to her HDA as she was pulled up into the conveniently placed airship. In the distance an older boy approached Ace with a sorrow look on his face.
"Crud, this is going to be great." Ace thought as an older boy ran up to him. The Boy looked to be around 5'9 and was probably around 17 years old. He wore an orange sleeveless jersey with brown cargo pants and spiky brown hair with blackish-gray combat boots.
"It's been one year, Ace." The boy explained sorrowfully as he looked at Ace. It was that kind of look you get when somebody reminds you of something in the past you want to forget. Ace just looked down at the ground for a few seconds
"Yes it has been, Kalin." Ace answered as he then looked up at the sky. "Don't remind me. Every time I remember what happened that day, it only makes me want her back even more." He pulled out a heart-shaped locket from his pocket and opened it up. Inside it was a single picture. A picture of him and a friend, taken just mere days before she disappeared without a trace. As he glanced at it, he quickly closed it and returned it to its original place in his right pocket. This wasn't the time to just tense up. No, it was time for taking action and figure this out. "It's time to get to the bottom of this."
"Ace, she disappeared without a trace." Kalin argued as he looked at his friend."Do you really expect to find any new answers after a year?"
"There's still a chance." Ace shouted as he looked up at the airship. "After all, weirder things can happen in something like this."
"Where did that girl you were fighting a few minutes ago go to?" Kalin asked as he changed the conversation rather quickly to something else pertaining to the plot of this story.
"Do not break the fourth wall." The voice from earlier shouted as his request went on deaf ears.
"A giant claw from a conveniently placed airship that's probably some big plot device grabbed her." Ace answered gloomily and right on cue, the giant claw came out of nowhere and almost grabbed both of them. He then gave the finger
"Kyrena, help us out with this!" Kalin shouted, causing a reptilian samurai creature to appear out of his HDA. Kyrena stood about 6'3 and looked to be in his older thirties. He wore samurai armor and sandals and for some reason, his tongue was hanging all the way down to the ground.
"What do you need me to do, Master Kalin?" Kyrena asked as he pulled out his samurai sword. The weapon was similar to Ace's, except its blade was a few inches longer than Aces. However, that meant it required a lot more control while wielding it to use it in the proper way and actually gain an advantage over your attackers.
"We need to get up on to that ship." Ace responded as he removed a grappling hook from his bag and activated his HDA, causing all three of his creatures with him and his chopper to disappear into the HDA for the time being.
"Well I can't help you there at all." Kyrena responded and stood around, almost doing something but didn't and become the living version of a rock." What did you expect me to do? Actually help?" Ace then preformed a facepalm as he said that.
"Ready to do this, Ace?" Kalin asked as he looked up at the airship.
"Yep, let's do this." Ace answered and threw the grappling hook, causing the hook part of it to catch on to the chain of the claw and somehow, the hook part held on.
"Going up!" Kalin shouted as the three of them zipped up on to the chain due game physics going into effect. However it didn't catch far enough on the chain, meaning they had to climb the last 10 feet up in the air and onto the airship.
"Now we just need to climb up the chain to the airship." Ace explained as they started to climb up the last 10 feet of the chain, soon reaching a ledge so they could climb up on to the airship.
"Thank you for that comment, captain obvious." Kalin responded annoyingly as they grabbed onto the ledge and climbed up onto the lower deck of the airship.
"It's the end of the line for both of you and your creature friend!" A voice shouted and the three of them heard the sounds of somebody starting a chainsaw up.
"Crud, this is totally absurd." Ace thought. "Clara, we need your help." This caused Clara to reappear again.
"So where are now?" Clara asked as she looked at her new surroundings.
"On an airship, floating above the park that you were fighting in a few minutes ago." Kalin explained as he looked at Clara.
"It seems were facing two opponents this time." Kyrena explained as they saw that the voice had came from a boy around 14½ and 5'4. He wore a black bandanna over his mouth and a grey hoodie with the hood over his head with some black pants. That way you know he's one of those cold unemotional characters. He held a Gatling gun in his right hand and was prepared to use it against the four of them. The gun looked to be around 3ft long and was something that you didn't want to be on the end where the bullets came out. The other boy was also around 14 and 5'3 with long gray hair who wore red shorts and a green t-shirt and was holding a 3ft long chainsaw who followed right behind his buddy. The chainsaw looked to be like the kind one would buy in the store, except it had 3in spikes designed to kill people.
"Now things are now finally getting really interesting." Clara responded." I thought this was going to be just another boring story that's so totally random with no plot at all in it."
"Hey!" The Author shouted." I heard that remark, so shut it!"
"To you even think I care about your opinion at all?!" Clara added as she started to make silly faces at the sky. "One of the people you're making us face uses a chainsaw as his main weapon of choice!" For that she got no response from The Author. She was mostly glad that nothing had occurred to her at that moment.
"Who brings a chainsaw to a fight?!" Kalin added as he looked at the spectacle of it.
"Because one can bring a chainsaw to a fight, because in this universe what can be used as a weapon is everything!" The Author shouted." In other words, the weapon kitchen sink of writing for stories and fanfics. That means you can use anything as a weapon even the kitchen sink itself for all I care."
"Why are we even listening to him right now?!" Clara added as she wondered if she was the only sane one there on the airship.
"That guy brings a chainsaw to a fight it means he is truly crazy in the head." Ace shouted as he pointed at Bill. Already, this didn't make any sense to him at all.
"Who are you two buffoons?" Kalin asked and a bunch of lasers obliterated Kyrena. However, he didn't notice that he was dead at all.
"Kyrena just died and you didn't even bat an eye about it!" Ace responded as he looked at Kalin with a stern look.
"He did?" Kalin asked as he looked around their surroundings and finally noticed the pile of dust that once was Kyrena. "He was so useless I didn't even notice at all that he was dead at all."
"Then why did use him at all to help us?" Ace answered as they went into a state of battle.
"Because I thought he would actually do something this time." Kalin responded.
"I guess you're right." Clara exclaimed as she just watched.
"My name is Gabe." Gabe answered cockily." And I'm going to kill you and maybe use your corpses as punching bags!" His harsh attitude and his plan for Ace and Kalin didn't sound that fun for them.
"That's morbid!" Ace shouted as he wondered if this guy was actually for real.
"And I'm Bill!" Bill added and Ace unsheathed his katanas and Kalin unsheathed his longswords. The wooden hafts looked to be 6in long, with the blades being around 3ft." And if I kill you I'm going to eat you both after Gabe is finished with using you guys as punching bags!"
"Are these guys truly for real?" Clara asked as she pondered that question. However, Ace and Kalin weren't in the mood to have their corpses used as punching bags and/or be cannibalized.
"Twin Katana beam!" Ace responded, launching both beams at Gabe and hoped that the attack would actually hit an opponent. However Gabe dodged the attack partially with one of the beams actually hitting him barely. But didn't do any damage whatsoever to his opponent. It was almost as if his special attack was purposely designed to fail just to keep the battle going longer. However, he just kept on spamming the same attack and guess what! It had little effect on Gabe.
"Now The Author is just being an evil guy to me." Ace thought as he decided instead just to fight for now without his special attack and just use normal sword slashes instead.
"Nope, I've decided there just bluffing about the punching bag and cannibalization part. But it's still possible that they aren't." Clara added as she finished pondering her question and found an answer somehow as something came over her.
She was 10 now. Her mother was talking to her about something, but she couldn't remember what, possibly because she had zoned out during it. She looked to the right and noticed something strange. Standing in the doorway was the Black Cat. Right next to her, was a man in his late 30's and was about 6 ft tall. He wore a blue vest with red flames on it. His hair was red and was spiky all over with a pair of goggles on top. They were here for some reason, but as the man was about to open his mouth, the memory faded away from her.
Flashback end…
"What just happened to me?" Clara asked herself but she couldn't explain it at all. The memory lasted only about twenty seconds, but that twenty seconds had lasted an eternity to her. More questions circled in her mind. Who was that man? Why was he there? Why was that black cat from earlier there? Finally, who was the black cat? She wanted to know. But she realized she would have to wait. All she could do now was fight.
"Earth to Clara!" Ace shouted and Clara immediately turned and looked at Ace.
"What?" Clara asked as she looked at her partner.
"Are you going to help us?" Ace asked as he blocked some of the gunfire with the blades of his katanas.
"Heck yeah!" Clara shouted as she equipped her kopis's and decided to use a different attack."Lightning Blade!" Clara then ran up to Bill and slashed him twice. This resulted in everybody in the room the privilege of seeing Bill's skeleton that also included being able to see his dinosaur pea-brain on display.
"You won't be able to win that easily!" Bill responded angrily and attempted to slash Kalin with his chainsaw but failed at it miserably. Kalin retaliated with a few quick sword slashes with his longswords. Bill just backed away, which allowed for Gabe to open fire on Kalin. Kalin just dodged out of the way.
"Ooh! The big guy is afraid of a little gunfire!" Gabe taunted as Kalin felt the anger inside of him erupt.
"Shut up!" Kalin shouted as he slammed the haft of both of his longswords into Gabe's stomach. "If I die now, I won't be able to fulfill a promise I made!"
"What kind of promise?" Gabe mocked as Kalin flipped both blades to a stabbing position.
"It doesn't matter!" Kalin screamed and slashed at Gabe a few times. Then he threw his opponent against the wall repeatedly.
"Please, stop this!" Gabe responded and Kalin released his grip off of him.
"We still have the other one to deal with now." Ace responded as Bill accidently tripped and dropped his chainsaw straight down, causing a hole in the airship because that's what happens when you drop a running chainsaw straight down.
"I'll just let you pass." Bill responded and Ace, Kalin, Clara and Kyrena ran past him into a hallway and found they were now in some weird prison block that sort of made sense on the airship.
"That was way too easy to defeat those two." Kalin added as they looked around. "It makes me think that whoever is controlling this airship isn't the sharpest knife in the knife block."
"The only reason Bill was easy was because he dropped his chainsaw." Clara answered as she studied the walls of the prison block.
"That could be entirely possible." Ace added as they ran down the path.
"Hello, Hunters." A creepy voice called out, causing them to look around see no one in the dark corridor of the airship.
"Who are you and what do you want with us?!" Kalin shouted.
"….."The voice responded and a girl appeared out of nowhere. Somehow, the three of them didn't bump into her. "I am the Empress and hopefully soon I will be the ruler of the world!" She looked to be around 15 and 5'6 and wore a hooded black gown that covered her upper face, showing only her red lips with black stiletto heels to compliment her outfit. In her hands was a pair of pistols. The silvery guns looked to be Glock 22's
"What is your so-called great plan to accomplish that?" Ruby responded as she and Ninjara reappeared from the HDA beside Ace.
"I'll send out four assassins and use syringes filled with a special elixir that puts them under my control!" The Empress responded." Then I can take over the world with all the hunters and their creature in the world under my control and be my slaves!" Ace and Kalin then bursted with laughter over that idea.
"Hey!" The Empress shouted as she looked at them. "Actually take me seriously!"
"Why should we?" Ace taunted as Ruby and Ninjara reappeared from the HDA.
"Because I'm the villain!" The Empress responded but no one cared.
"I think big black rings that put creatures under the throwers control sounds a lot better and cooler in theory." Ninjara responded as she examined The Empress.
"No, she should use big blackish-purple gears to infect creatures and Hunters!" Clara added and only annoyed The Empress even more.
"I don't want your suggestions!" The Empress shouted and fired off both of her pistols, and actually inflicted some damage onto her opponent's chests. All it did was just tear their clothes in a few places.
"Yeah that would be cooler!" Ace added excitedly, forgetting that he was just shot at a second ago.
"Same here!" Nina shouted, not happy at all about being trapped in a prison cell for no reason whatsoever.
"That has already been done before so I decided to do something entirely different." The Empress responded as both Ace and Clara preformed a facepalm. "At least I'm being a somewhat original villain." Then Kalin also preformed a facepalm.
"She's an original villain." The Author explained. "That means she sort of has to have an original concept to use to take over the world."
"Who cares if she can't use the black hoops, just use them since they actually work in this kind of situations!" Kalin shouted as he waved his sword in the air.
"How do you know about these "black hoops"?" Ruby asked and finally realized where the conversation was going.
"Those were in that Digimon anime!" Nina responded as she looked at The Empress. From the looks of it, she was one of the few that actually liked
"Who cares about that stupid and pathetic s***!" The Empress ranted as Ace turned around and took a step back.
"You realize that's the series this is classified under?" The Author explained as every character on the airship except Nina attempted suicide. This failed spectacularly after everybody's weapons started to have no effect on them.
"But that means…." Ruby responded as everybody started to panic due to that notion. By that point, the characters had successfully disrupted the story.
"I guess all have to call in the big guns in…" The Author explained. A few seconds later, a free-floating purple oval appeared and a teenage girl jumped out. She was draped in a dark purple cloak that hid her entire body from them. She was barely taller than Ace and was holding some kind of metal spike.
"Who are you?" Ace questioned weakly, afraid of his potential faith.
"I'm here to give you a warning." The girl responded, the spike now turning into a throwing knife. The knife was all one piece of metal but gave off black smoke.
"A warning about what?" Kalin asked as the girl brought the knife right onto the flesh of his neck.
"If you had to ask, you've already done it." The Girl responded and jumped back into the portal.
"In other words…" Nina added, trying to get a look at the spot where the portal once stood."We have to keep some opinions to ourselves."
"Fine." Katherine grumbled as the story continued.
"That's truly a totally unoriginal idea!" Clara explained as everybody looked at her. "I mean can't you come up with a whole lot better reason for it!"
"The Empress is required to have an original concept because she's an original villain." The Author explained.
"Just go away!" Ace shouted up at the ceiling.
"Well I can't." The Author explained.
"Whatever, I just ignore you part of the time." Ace added, mad that The Author wouldn't just go away and just leave them alone for a long time in peace.
"Let's now get on with the story for the second time, people!" The Empress responded as she gave them all an evil glare.
"Where are you holding Nina captive, you low life hunter!" Ace shouted, noticing something about The Empress seemed very familiar. He couldn't figure about what it was about her that was familiar. In time, maybe even that question would be answered.
"She is in one of my totally unguarded prison cells." The Empress answered and Kalin punched The Empress multiple times only for her to react by shooting off one of her pistols and missing her target.
"At least she's being honest." Clara responded as she watched it all happen as she made a box of movie popcorn appear and started to eat from it.
"Ace is right. You shouldn't just jail people just because you can do so." Kalin responded." Also, you're not supposed to tell us where you're keeping your prisoners. That's supposed to be a secret."
"I don't get why you give a care about these two." The Empress answered as she realized what Kalin just said." Really, I didn't know that at all? Nobody told me that and I'm just winging it on this whole "villain" thing."
"Her honesty is a nice touch." Clara added as she ate more of her popcorn.
"It makes her more interesting." Ruby responded as the three creatures just watched. "And a heck lot stupider.
"But, does that make her original?" Ninjara questioned but no one answered.
"Why you ask, you so called "empress"?! Because you just threw Nina into your cruddy jail for no particular reason whatsoever! You're truly an idiot for a conqueror!" Ace explained and lightly slashed at the Empress's neck, causing a key to fall from her gold necklace that he hadn't noticed. Ace then grabbed the key and ran over to a nearby jail cell. Inside were Nina and a boy. The boy looked to be around 5'7 and was probably 17 years old. He wore a gray t-shirt and gray combat pants. His eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses with black lenses. The lower half of his face was draped with a gray bandanna. In other words he was dressed like an angsty teen who was cold to all those around.
"Both of you are now free as the birds." Ace added as he unlocked the cell and opened the metal door.
"I don't need your help to get out of here." The boy muttered as he and Nina exited the cell.
"Well you didn't." Ace responded as he looked at the boy."What is your name?"
"Mark." Mark coldly muttered as he turned around and walked away.
"What's his problem?" Ace asked as Nina looked at him.
"I'm guessing he isn't much of a people person." Nina explained as she dusted herself off.
"But least he could be a tiny bit more open to others." Ace added as Mark came back and flung his fist forward at him causing Ace to move to the right."Hey! What was that for?!"
"Mind your own business about people." Mark coldly answered. "It could be the difference between life and death." And with that, he walked over to Kalin.
"We better get going before the Empress tries to get us again." Kalin explained as Ace just looked at The Empress.
"Agreed." Nina responded as she ran over to Kalin.
"Ruby, can you give the seven of us a ride?" Ace asked as he threw the Empress into the prison cell. The Empress just growled and gave him a cocky grin.
"Of who that you care about do I have to hurt in order to break you?" The Empress taunted as Ace just watched her.
"What do you mean?" Ace asked as he soon realized what she meant.
"You know…People I can kill that would drive you over the edge." The Empress remarked in a cocky tone as Ace's expression changed to anger.
"I wouldn't tell you at all!" Ace argued as he looked at his foe. He then turned around at looked at Ruby, who just shook her head no to his question from earlier.
"How about that girlfriend of yours?" The Empress explained and caused Ace to turn back around."You know…that crazy girl that claims that fairies actually exist!" Ace stepped close to her, his hands now balled-up into fists.
"Don't you talk about my friend like that, you idiot." Ace threatened as The Empress made a funny face at him.
"Ace! This isn't worth it!" Rukia shouted as she ran over to the situation. "She's just trying to get you goat!" It was good advice however, Ace didn't listen.
"What are you going to do about it?" The Empress joked as Ace pulled out both of his katanas. "Ooh! I'm super scared now!" Ace approached slowly until he was about within inches of The Empress. He then threw his left arm forward and stabbed his right katana right above The Empress into the wall.
"Be glad I missed." Ace responded as he pulled the katana out of the wall."If you do hurt her, I will hunt you down and make you pay." The Empress just laughed.
"Oh what an empty threat that's going to be to me" The Empress remarked as Ace perform a flurry of slashes onto his opponent's cloak and walked away, sheathing his katanas in the process.
"We'll have to see about that." Ace responded as he joined up with his friends. "The choices you make in the coming days will decide my actions towards you."
"Choices? You crack me up!" The Empress proclaimed."By the end of these coming days, you will be no more. Even then, everything has already been planned out to the t!"
"We'll just have to wait and see." Ace taunted as he looked over the edge of the airship.
"So how are we going to get down from here?" Nina asked as they all looked at Ruby.
"I'm not going to!" Ruby added as they all started to stare at her.
"If the stupid bird refuses to help us, then we just have to jump."Mark explained as he jumped off.
"That guy is crazy!" Ninjara added as she watched Mark somehow land safely on the ground. She just turned around and walked closer to The Empress. As she got closer, she made sure that nobody was following or watching her. She approached the cell The Empress resided in.
"What do you want?" The Empress whispered as Ninjara sat down next to the right wall. It had a dull metal glow that sort of made sense for a cell.
"I can help you." Ninjara mumbled as she looked at The Empress.
"How?" The Empress questioned as she watched Ninjara.
"I can act as a double agent for you." Ninjara explained as she held out her right paw.
"What do you want in return?" The Empress whispered as Ninjara softly whispered something into her ear that only the two of them could hear. "I believe we have a deal." She then pulled out a small silver flip phone, placing into Ninjara's right paw as they shook hands.
"Remember our deal." Ninjara responded as she hid the phone in her cloak. She then ran back over to Ace as if nothing had happened. He hadn't noticed at all what happened. However, she was doing this for him. As long as she was alive, she would do all she could to repay Ace. "Sorry, I just needed to get something done."
"If it's done, then we can now get off of this evil base." Rukia answered as she watched Ninjara.
"It's time to jump!" Ace shouted as he launched himself forward and into the air. The rest reluctantly followed as they hurtled to the ground and actually landed safely.
"What took you guys so long?" Mark sarcastically asked as the others dusted themselves off.
"Ninjara had to do something that was important to her." Nina explained sarcastically, only for Ninjara to throw a kunai into Nina's arm.
"We all have reason for actions." Ninjara explained as she approached Ace, her mood going from calm to angry in a matter of seconds.
"It's all right." Ace explained as he looked at Ninjara and gave her a hug. "Nina was just being sarcastic." As they hugged, Nina pulled the kunai out, and the wound closed surprisingly quickly.
"Fine." Ninjara answered as she just looked away.
"So, what is our plan now, "Leader"?" Mark rudely asked as he paced back and forth.
"We hunt down The Empress's four assassins and get to the bottom of all this." Ace announced as the others looked at him. "But first we need a team name."
"How about Hunters?" Nina suggested as Ace looked at her.
"I'm fine with that." Kalin answered as he sheathed his longswords.
"Same here." Ace added as he turned his gaze at Mark.
"Whatever, I don't really care." Mark shouted and walked away.
"Then Hunters it is!" Ace shouted as he looked at Nina and Kalin.
"I'm heading home." Kalin added as he headed off in a different direction.
"Same here." Nina remarked as she hopped onto her sport motorcycle. It was painted a metallic dark blue with a royal flush painted on the right side of the tank. The engine roared and she headed off to the west. The only ones there were Ace, Clara, Ninjara and Ruby.
"So now what?" Clara asked as she looked at her partner.
"We head home." Ace explained as he ran over to the chopper, his creatures following right behind.
"I'm fine with that." Ruby responded as Clara and Ninjara sat in their respective seat as she floated overhead. Ace then jumped on, and the chopper roared into life. It only took 10 minutes to get back, due to the mass decrease of traffic on the road.
"Did anything happen while we were gone?" Ace questioned as they looked at Ted. In Ted's hand, was a rolled-up piece of paper.
"Ace, you got a message from somebody." Ted explained and handed Ace the piece of paper. Ace quickly unrolled it, and revealed its contents.
Wanted: One Black Cat
Reward: The Answers you seek
"This seems weird." Ace remarked and read it over once again.
"Hey, I want to see it!" Ruby shouted and accidently knocked over a cup of water onto the sheet. In a stroke of luck, the water revealed a second message on the back. Ace turned the sheet over and looked over its contents.
If you are reading this,
You must act quickly. There isn't much time to stop The Empress.
So Good Luck.
What is the meaning of this?" Ace asked as he looked over the paper one more time.
The Black Cat watched. It was funny to her. A new adventure was beginning and they couldn't figure out a simple message. However, that was the least of their worries for now. In time, things would come clear to them. She took a quick glance into the window and jumped onto the white picket fence and out into the neighborhood. It was show time.
"May the hunt begin." She thought, waiting for her first challengers. All she needed to do was wait…
Next time on Hunters: The first of the assassins makes himself known. How will Ace fare against this new opponent, as more questions and answers surface…
If you enjoyed, please leave a like or review! I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Nexus quaerendum vis veritatis is my only hint for the coming chapters… –The Author, KatnaAce.