Heyo I'm back! And check it out! I have a cover art for this series now! Tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: Stillllllll nopeeeeee.

The B- shots just continued to stand there. Silently shocked, as they absorbed what they'd just seen. Rikki had just killed three men. It was one thing to suggest you'd killed people before, but it was something completely different to prove it. Sure the men had fired first, and Rikki's friend had given them a warning, an out, and you could say this was technically self defense, but it was still, it was still….

It was still Rikki. Sweet, kind, innocent Rikki who'd pulled the trigger without hesitation. Rikki who'd helped all of them at one point. Rikki who'd helped save the world more than once. Rikki who was their friend.

Though they weren't sure what he was now.

"Hey Techno, I found something on one of the bodies it looks like a com device or something. Do you think you might be able to trace it's signal back to their base? That would at least help give us an idea of who we're up against." Came the voice of Picasso from the speaker by Itona's computers, it managed to shake the B-shots from their dark thoughts and bring them back to the present. "Hmmm, It's worth a shot at least. Just make sure it's disconnected so the they can't track it back here. I'll be able to find the last known signal it sent when you bring it here. If that's all, hurry up and get back here before you lot run into any more trouble." Itona said into his head set.

"By the way Nagisa, Ares and his Dogs of War should be back soon from patrol." Itona said to Nagisa as he turned to the blue haired boy.

"Hmmm, thanks for letting me know. Kataoka, do you mind running to the entrance to greet them? And take Nakamura and Hayami with you." Nagisa ordered the brunette girl who was still standing near the group. "Sure thing Boss #3." Kataoka said as she gave a mock salute with a small grin and left.

Nagisa simply rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Itona.

"Any news from our network?" Karma asked.

"We've recently got a response from Red Eye, he says he doesn't know what's going on, but that he'll keep an eye out and that if we need help to call him." Said a feminine voice from the speakers, before a screen turned on and purple haired girl with a bright smile appeared.

"We've also got a response from Gastro, Smog and Grip. They said they heard a rumor about someone hiring an armies worth of mercenaries. They don't know who though. They've also offered their assistance if we need it. Though they've acknowledged that we can take care of ourselves." The lavender haired girl replied with a bright smile.

"Good, tell them we say thanks, any news from Lovro-sensei?" Nagisa asked.

"None yet. Though I have received a message from Aphrodite and Zeus. They said that they'll be here soon." The girl replied cherily.

"Of course they did, thanks for the update Ritsu and let us know when the old man tries to get in touch." Karma told the girl with a slightly amused smirk on his face.

"Ok. Well if you don't mind, I'm gonna go monitor the underworld's online info networks to see if I can find anything more about this mystery person hiring the mercenaries. For all we know he could easily be our hunter." Ritsu told them with a slightly serious tone.

"You go do that, lets see how quickly we can turn our hunter into the hunted." Karma grinned at the girl as she gave a quick little solute before the screen turned off.

"Uh, who was that? And what the hell was she talking about" Jenta asked looking a little confused.

"That was Ritsu, the world's most powerful and advanced artificial intelligence, and our classmate. As for what she was talking about well that's none of your business." Nagisa said as he and Karma turned to leave. "Now come on Rikki and the other two should be back soon. Keep us posted Itona, and we'll send the com piece your way when gets here." Nagisa called back to Itona who simply waved over his shoulder.

"Now wait a minute, I think if we're going to be here we have a right to know!" Kamen declared, not at all liking being kept in the dark. Nagisa spun on his heels and got right up into Kamen's face despite their very large height difference.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure about that, huh? You being here is a courtesy on our part cause Rikki is our friend. Don't forget that. Hell just you guys showing up her put every single one of us in danger! We don't know who is coming after us or what they have access to and for all we know you could have been followed or tracked through your phones or god knows what else! The fact that we've told you anything at all is in itself a miracle that only happened cause Rikki knows you and trusts you enough to let you in. Despite our opinions on the matter. So tell me again why you feel so entitled to know?" Nagisa hissed at the taller redhead, venom oozing from every single word and despite the boy's small stature, girlish looks and big eyes, he managed to look even more terrifying the Dragold and Galucian combined.

"Uh, well, like you said we're Rikki's friends!" Kamen said, desperately trying to hold his ground against the little snake assassin. Though the sight of Karma standing protectively and glaring viciously at the other redhead behind the smaller boy wasn't helping much. Ken stepped up behind Kamen followed by Mizuru who both attempted to glare back, and though Kamen was infinitely grateful for the support from his two best friends, he could very clearly see that this would not be a battle they could win.

"Friends?" Nagisa asked sarcastically. "Oh, please. You've known him what? Three months? And suddenly you feel entitled to have his complete trust? To know all his secrets? To know everything about all of us? Just cause you think you're friends? You've got to be kidding me, Rikki has fought as one of us since the beginning, for three years. You couldn't even imagine the things we've been through together, the bonds of trust we've developed. The longest any of you have known him is maybe a little over a year. You don't deserve anything from him, or us for that matter. Hell you guys don't even know who Rikki is. So, no, you don't deserve to know, and you may be his friends. But you are not one of us, you are not family." Nagisa growled in his face, his blue eyes blazing with barely held in check anger that showed Kamen had stepped on a landmine he shouldn't have.

It was only then that Kamen became fully aware that others had gathered behind Nagisa. At least eight other teens all with rather scary looks on their faces. Kamen wished he'd just kept his big trap shut, he'd just worsened their situation.

"Can I talk to you guys for a minute." Rikki growled as he came stalking in from the main entrance, clearly having heard at least part of the conversation, and grabbing Kamens arm roughly and dragging him to one of the side doors, the other B-shots following without another word. "I'll be right back, Sugaya has the com device." Rikki called out to his old classmates as he continued to lead the B-shots to somewhere more private so they wouldn't cause even more of a scene than they already had.

Once opened the door he pulled Kamen through angrily and waited for the others to enter as well. Before closing the door. The door lead to another brightly lit hallway, luckily no one seemed to be using it promptly.

"What the fuck was that! I leave you guys alone for twenty minutes and you go and piss Nagisa off, and you know he was right! You guys are here on a courtesy! You're not entitled to anything! Especially secret information like that! These people don't even know you! What the hell were you thinking pushing for information like that!" Rikki scolded furiously at them. For a moment Kamen opened his mouth to retort, but for the first time ever he noticed the exhaustion in Rikki's eyes and the stress in the line of his shoulder. And realized it was the same that was in Nagisa and Karma and every single other teen they'd seen here. Sure he may not have known Rikki for long, but he knew what it looked like when people were under large amounts of stress, he'd seen it from time to time in his mother when it came to her demanding job and in his brother during the weeks before he'd been possessed. Kamen didn't know what it must be like, being hunted like they were being right now, not really knowing who they could trust. Just how much stress were they all under? He suddenly thought better of it.

"I...I'm sorry I shouldn't have pushed like that. Listen I know what he said was true, honestly all of it is true. Half of us haven't even known you for a year. But we want to know so we can understand. Please Rikki, if we don't know you then tell who you are." Kamen decided to say instead.

"How's about you start off with why you lied to us, and why even get involved with B-Daman in the first place? Has everything you've told us been a lie? Is it true what he said, do we honestly not know you at all?" Samuru added, wanting to honestly know if his friend, the one person who'd managed to bring him out of his shell, was really all a lie.

Rikki took a long breath and seemed to calm himself down. "I lied to all of you about what I was cause, well honestly, what'd you expect me to do? I couldn't exactly just go up to you and say 'oh by the way did I mention I'm a member of a professional assassination squad?' Ya that woulda gone over real well. And also it wasn't just my secret to tell. Every single member of Shattered Moon is affected by this. If I told even one person I could put us all at risk, it's one thing if it's just me, but E-class have been like family to me for years. I couldn't betray them like that. Especially, and no offense, to a bunch of dudes I basically just met or haven't really known that long. As for why I bothered to get involved with B-Daman, well I've always loved a good mystery and it seemed like a fun game, and besides it's helped improve my aim a ton. Though I admit it took a bit of adjusting considering shooting a B-Daman is nothing like shootin a gun, the weight, size and stance are all really different." Rikki explained to them, gaining a slightly sheepish look towards the end before returning to a more serious look.

"As for if I've been simply acting all this time. To be completely honest, Nagisa's right you guys don't know me like they do, partly because I hid this part of me from you, partly cause you just haven't known me that long, but aside from that I'm still the same. I still love mysteries, I still love B-Daman, I still think it's fun to hang out with my friends and just play and have fun, I still think Dracyan is the coolest thing ever and B-Daman is one of the greatest games I've ever played, and I still think that you're all great guys and I do consider you my friends. If I didn't you wouldn't be here. I'm still me, just a little extra." Rikki finished with his usual bright grin that had them all relaxing a little. They'd been a little worried for a moment.

"Good." Samuru said in a relieved tone. If Rikki had turned out to be little more than a lie he didn't think he could take it. Not with how he felt about the blue haired boy.

"Hmmm, pardon me, but speaking of Dracyan. I was just wondering where is he? We haven't seen him with you all this time and he normally never leaves your side." Dravice questioned curiously. If it was anyone else he would feel more concerned for his blue friend, but the ice dragon knew that Rikki would never let anything happen to the water dragon. He cared too much for Dracyan to let anything happen.

"Huh? Oh yeah! I almost forgot with everything that's happened, I left him with Kurahashi to look after him while I sparred with Karma. I should probably go get him." Rikki said with a slightly sheepish grin.

"So does that mean that Dracyan knows about all this?" Asked Dragren.

"Well yeah I told him not long after we became partners. After all if we were going to be a team we needed to be able to trust each other completely, that and I needed to go on a mission with Hayami and Chiba and couldn't come up with a good enough reason to explain why he couldn't come with me without having to explain everything so I did and he promised he wouldn't tell anyone else. And besides he gets along pretty well with Itona, who gives him a bit of a tune up every now and then, and he likes to watch Kanzaki play video games, she's really good, he also like to talk shooting styles and tricks with Hayami and Chiba." Rikki explained with a bit of a grin.

"Uh hey Rikki? Sorry to break up your conversation, but Ares and The Dogs just got back and guess who's with them!" Said a bubbly orange haired girl as she burst through the doors.

"Oh hey Kurahashi! I was just about to come looking for you!" Rikki greeted the girl with a big grin. "Well I found you first now come on, you have to come see who's here." She said excitedly as she grabbed Rikki's arm and began to drag him away.

"Uh, wait Kurahashi! Where's Dracyan?" Rikki asked slightly flustered. "Oh, he's right here!" She said as she stopped and reached into one of her pockets and pulled out the blue dragon B-Daman.

"Hey Rikki! Uh, what are you guys doing here?" Dracyan asked in confusion at the sight of the other B-shots. "It's a long story bud. I'll tell ya later." Rikki said to the little dragon. "I hope you don't mind, but I oiled his joints and polished his armor so know he's all sparkly and clean!" Kurahashi said brightly as she handed the dragon back to his partner. "Not at all Kurahashi! You're an absolute sweetheart! You said thank you, right Dracyan?" Rikki said brightly. "Of course I did!" Dracyan replied slightly insulted.

"Oh, you. Anyways, come on! You'll never guess who's here!" Kurahashi said as she grabbed his arm again and began dragging him out towards the main entrance of the hall, the other B-shots following curiously.

So who do you thinks arrived? Who is Zeus and Aphrodite? Who is the mystery person hiring all the mercenaries? So many questions. Let me know what you think in the reviews. And ya, if you didn't get yet, E-class don't trust the B-shots at all. Sorry if Nagisa was a bit ooc there, but under the circumstances I can kinda see him being on edge about these things what with already being quite a bit stressed out.

Also we have more codenames

Ares = Terasaka

The Dogs Of War in the myths are suppose to be Are's four dogs of war who bring certain aspects of war wherever they go or something, a little like the horsemen of apocalypse. I decided to give the Terasaka gang that codename cause I found it just kinda fit. The specific codenames are each one of the dogs of war from the myths.

Oblivion = Hazama

Famine = Muramatsu

Pain = Yoshida

Panic = Mimura

I'm not sure, but I remember Mimura being part of Terasaka's gang.

MotherfuckingDamianWayne over and out.