Cruel Fates Entwined
A/N: I'm obsessed with Get Backers right now, so this explains the stories. Anyhow, I hope this one works out. Note, for story purposes, Akabane might be a little OOC here and there, but I'll do my best to limit that. I'm starting with scenes from episode five, but all else was made up by me. I just wanted episode five to be where it started. I don't feel like transcribing their lines, so I'm making up dialogue to better suit my story.
Enter Fire Fox
Ginji Amano: the Lightning Emperor and former leader of the VOLTS of the Limitless Fortress. A fiery spirit combined with the white hot powers of electricity, Ginji was not someone to be messed with by just anyone.
Kuroudo Akabane, aka Dr. Jackal. The terror of the transport service world and nearly invincible, he pursued nothing but enjoyment from his various assignments, slicing his enemies into unrecognizable bits with a hundred and eight razor-sharp surgical knives stored neatly in his body.
Ginji Amano had chosen to fight Dr. Jackal while his partner, Ban chose to fight the other transporter, Himiko, aka Lady Poison. The location was an old temple a few miles away from Shinjuku. Everything was still as the opponents sized each other up, preparing for an all out war. Akabane drew his first set of knives, chuckling. "While I do enjoy fighting, I hope that you'll be somewhat of an interesting opponent."
Ginji snarled angrily. How could this guy be so cool about it? He'd just slaughtered seven interceptors not a half hour ago! He braced as Akabane took aim. Little did they realize the chaos that was about to ensue.
Before Dr. Jackal could launch his first attack, the ground beneath them began to shake slightly. Ginji looked down at the pebbles at his feet as they bounced with each vibration in the earth. "What the?" he muttered.
Behind him, Ginji heard the sound of something heavy fall over. He turned to see what appeared to be a woman lying on the ground, unconscious. Not considering the question of what she was doing in the shrine in the first place, he completely turned and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Hey! Are you okay over there?" he called.
Akabane just stared angrily around him. What was going on? Why was the earth shaking? Shaking as though something big was headed toward them...and in a hurry?"
He looked up, following Ginji's line of sight. He too saw the woman lying on the ground. But he also saw the orange glow coming off of her as well. Instantly, he gasped and shook his head.
"It-it can't be!" he exclaimed. He rushed forward as Ginji started over to help her and bodily shoved Ginji aside just as the gentle orange glow erupted upward and outward with a bellowing roar to the night sky. Ginji got to his feet, rubbing his head where he'd fallen. He stared in bewildered astonishment at Akabane who stood watching the fiery mass rise up and take shape before them.
"Hey!" Ginji yelled over the roar of the flames, "Why'd you push me out of the way?"
Dr. Jackal grinned. "It'd be a shame for anyone else to kill you." he answered. But when he turned back to the flaming creature rising up from the body of the unknown woman on the ground, Ginji saw his face turn grim.
Ginji shielded his face from the white hot blaze, watching in horror as the flames molded and took shape, forming an enormous creature of some sort. Four legs as thick as tree trunks lifted its mass off the ground and four long, flaming tails waved fiery trails back and forth in the air. The head, the size of Ban's Ladybug, rose up with a snarl of hot wind into the night air. Ginji backed up until he reached a post holding up the shrine path. Akabane held his ground, a look of disbelief on his face as he watched the giant fiery fox take shape before him. With a snap of cinders, its eyes opened, revealing bright red irises in a black eye. It bellowed out a hissing growl as it stared into the darkness of the other side of the shrine. Ginji could feel the movement still rocking the ground beneath him. Something was coming and he could somehow tell that all hell was about to break loose. But he kept his gaze on the woman at the fox's feet. He was scared as heck that the fox's fiery body would catch her and she'd burn to a crisp before he could do anything.
"Ginji!" came Ban's voice over the roar of the fox's flames. Ginji turned to see Ban hurrying toward him, Himiko hanging off a good distance away, just staring up at the fox. Ban shielded his face from the heat and came to a stop beside Ginji. "What the hell is that!?" he yelled.
"I don't know! It just appeared! There's a woman beneath it! I think she's unconscious! We have to get her out of there!"
"Don't bother." came the last voice they expected to hear. Akabane had moved back as well to escape the intense heat. He was holding his hat in place and watching the fox along with them. Ginji stared angrily. "Don't bother? What do you mean don't bother? That woman is going to burn to death!"
Akabane pulled the rim of his hat down. "She won't." he said. "This is her trump card."
"What?" Ginji exclaimed. But before he could ask Akabane what he meant, the Jackal suddenly leapt to the side out of the way as the fox's tails swept past them, igniting the shrine in flames. It was standing up fully. It raised its muzzle to the heavens and let out a horrible sound that was a cross between a howl and a moan, it seemed. It pierced their ears with a throbbing pain and Ban and Ginji took off in Akabane's path to avoid the flames licking their skin.
"Get Backers!" Akabane yelled. He'd gone to a secluded area in the corner of the courtyard, far from the flames of the shrine. Ban and Ginji looked at each other and then at the flaming fox.
"Any port in a storm!" Ginji exclaimed. Ban turned and glanced back at Himiko, but she was already running the other way. He didn't bother to worry about her; she was smart and would find a place to hide from the fox's wrath. Ban and Ginji stopped at the wall and turned, gasping to watch the fox. It was pawing the ground angrily, snarling and screaming at something on the other side of the wall.
"Tell me something," Ban said, panting and shielding his eyes as cinders took to the air around them, "Why are you helping us?"
"Because as much as I'd like to watch you two die, I'd rather it be by my hands. Besides, I know what this fox is capable of. We're safe so long as we avoid the four tails."
"How do you know all of this?" Ginji exclaimed. But Akabane stretched his arm in front of them. "Quiet!" he hissed. "It's beginning and believe you me, we don't want to be caught in the crossfire."
The wall in front of the fox exploded inward and the fox skipped backward, snarling. A gargantuan scaly creature slithered inside, hissing at the fox. It rose up on his reptilian legs, snapping at the fox's neck. The fox moved away from the spot, revealing the woman lying on the ground. Ginji drew a sharp breath.
"You were right!" he said to Akabane, "She's not burnt to a crisp!"
"I told you. But we should watch ourselves. If we get caught between these two behemoths, it's all over."
Ban studied the enormous scaly reptile that was terrorizing the fox. The long lashing tail and sharp knife-like teeth gnashed viciously at the fox as it screamed and snapped at it with matching force. It made lunges toward the woman on the ground, but was intercepted by the fox each time.
"A basilisk." Ban said.
"Huh?" Ginji said. "What's a basilisk?"
"It's a mythical creature, a frog's egg hatched by a rooster. It's deadly poisonous with a fatal glare."
"So, if it's mythical, what's it doing here?" Ginji asked irritably. The basilisk slammed its head into the fox, sending it flying at the shrine. It crashed into it, reducing it to flaming tinder. The flames roared to life and reached to the sky, illuminating the entire area. The fox stumbled to it feet, feigned a lunge to the right and snapped back to the left, sinking its jaws into the back of the serpent.
"I don't know," Ban replied to Ginji.
"It's very simple; someone is controlling it." Akabane said. "Its master must be around-"
But he never finished his sentence. He suddenly stopped, glanced back toward where the woman lay on the ground and gasped slightly. Ban and Ginji followed his gaze to see a man in a thick black cloak, rushing toward the woman with an ax in his hands. With a cry of triumph, he raised it up, preparing to swing it down on her neck.
"No!" Ban and Ginji yelled. There was a tremendous rush of wind beside them and Akabane vanished, reappearing in front of the woman and dismembering the wooden body of the ax in the time it took to blink. Ban and Ginji were frozen in shock at Akabane's actions. Was he actually defending that woman?
The fox suddenly slammed the serpent down on its side, burrowing its enormous jaws into the creature's soft belly and ripping it open with one lash of its powerful neck. The creature hissed in agony, struggling to right itself. The fox determined that it was no longer a threat and paused, panting.
"Out of my way!" the unknown cloaked man cried. Akabane didn't move, but brought forth three scalpels, slicing viciously at the man and driving him back. The man took a few seconds to realize his arm had been severed and lay twitching on the ground in front of him. He screamed in horror and fell back, waving his stump wildly. Akabane hummed and flicked the blood from his knife. "How odd. I don't usually miss. I suggest you salvage your good fortune and leave now before I get angry." he said ominously.
"Finish my work!" the man bellowed to the sky. Akabane frowned and turned in time to see the great head of the serpent rise up, hissing. He found he was unable to look away, but calmed when he saw that the fox had crushed part of the serpent's head, rendering its paralyzing stare useless. But he was still in trouble; he knew his scalpels couldn't pierce its thick armor, but he also knew that he wasn't going to leave her behind. The only thing keeping this devil alive was its master's command.
The fox suddenly leapt up into the air, crashing down behind Akabane and moving so that he stood underneath it. He looked up, holding his hat in place as the fox snarled at the creature. The basilisk opened its jaws to snatch Akabane out from underneath the fox, but the fox intercepted its maneuver and grabbed its armored neck in its jaws. The fox pinned the struggling creature down with one massive front paw, searing its open wound with flames. The basilisk screamed in agony as the fox bit deep into its neck, shaking it back and forth and tearing at the inner muscles until finally, with one last mighty tug, it yanked its head up and took the creature's head along with it. With a snarl of disgust, it hurled the head clear across the courtyard, barely missing Ban and Ginji. It shoved the body aside into the flaming shrine. Then, it stepped away from Akabane and the woman's body.
"Crap, it's gonna eat him!" Ban yelled as the fox lowered its head to peer down at Akabane.
"Well, we can't just let him get eaten!" Ginji protested. "Come on!"
"Wait," Ban said all of a sudden. "Look at that. He's talking to it!"
It was true; Akabane's mouth was moving, like he was telling the fox something. But the fox growled low in its belly and turned away. It sniffed the body of the woman, as though checking it for damage. Then, with a heavy sigh, it lay down beside her and rested its great head on its paws. As they watched, the fox's fiery form began to dissolve, the flames licking the woman's body, but not burning it. In fact, she seemed to be absorbing it. Ban and Ginji approached slowly, staring in cautious awe as the fox's flame disappeared into her body. To further their shock, Akabane knelt down and gently shook her awake. She moaned and her eyes opened slightly. She sat up and sighed.
"She's okay!" Ginji exclaimed.
"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" she mumbled. In the light of the fire, they were able to get a better look at her. Her hair was long, reaching down to her hips, at least. In the firelight, it seemed to be black, but took on an auburn hue in the light. Her eyes were brilliant emerald green and to Ginji, they appeared sad. She rubbed her head and sighed. Then she noticed Akabane. Her face instantly showed first surprise and then somberness. She stood up and moved away from them. She looked at the burning shrine and sighed. "Overdid it again." she muttered.
"What's that mean?" Ban asked. "There was a giant flaming fox rampaging through here just a few minutes ago. Then it disappeared; like it went into your body."
"Yeah, I should hope it did." the woman said. She looked only about nineteen or twenty, but the way she carried herself and spoke, Ban suspected she was probably older than that.
"What's that mean?" Ginji asked suspiciously.
"That fox was me, of course." she replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must take care of something quickly."
She pushed past them and approached the cloaked man trying to crawl away through the hole in the wall. As she approached, his eyes widened considerably and he screamed, backing up against the crumbled stone. "No! No, stay away from me!" he yelled.
The woman raised her hand and clenched it tightly. When she opened it again, there was blood spreading through an open wound in her palm. She clenched her fist and three long, blood red needle-like rods shot out between her fingers. Ginji gasped and whirled to stare in shock at Akabane to get his reaction to this similar ability. He didn't move a muscle. Instead, he seemed like he wasn't all there. He just watched as the woman approached the cloaked man, raising the rods up threateningly. The man screamed in fear as she slashed down at him viciously, effectively slicing him nearly in two vertically.
Ban stared in horror and Ginji covered his mouth. As they watched, her hand fell to her side and the rods had disappeared. All that remained was her dark blood dripping through her fingers. She turned around again and slowly made her way over. The light from the fire gave her an eerie sense of surrealism, almost like a wraith. She stopped a few feet away from Akabane.
"It's been awhile, Kuroudo." she muttered.
A/N: I'm taking a break on Of Promises and Perseverance. While that's being done, enjoy my first Get Backers story. I hope it works.