If you guys are reading this, then you must have liked the previous chapter. This chapter now shows what steps the Karakuchi Dueltrack Racing Team will be making to figure out the masterminds behind the pre-dawn attack on Ikki's hotel room last chapter.
I had also made three main characters from The Vision of Escaflowne appear here as they would play important (yet intermittent) roles from this chapter onward.
This chapter will have also some action both on and off the streets as the pressure is mounting for Ikki and the rest of the Karakuchi Dueltrack Racing team to solve the mystery before the race even begins on Saturday.
Arkari - Don't worry. I'll add one more in this chapter but he's from the second season (Kilobots). Four more characters would be added in the next chapter and Ikki's old gang who are also characters of the said anime would also be showing up in the last chapter.
I am sorry, but there will be no appearances of the Rubber Robos, Dr. Meda-Evil, Nae, and Dr. Aki since I could not fit any of them into the story itself.
The misspelling of the duel track racing vehicle's name is deliberate because the first letter of the vehicle should be the same as the company's name. I only followed Mr. Scott Haring's (author of Dueltrack) way of naming the duel track car.
Be warned as there will be brief mentions of death and blood in this chapter though it is still not enough to push the ratings to M.
Of course, I do not own Medabots, Suikoden, The Vision of Escaflowne, Car Wars, and other stuff mentioned here.
The locations that are mentioned here are actually real places in Atlanta except for the Poison Ivy Bar & Grill, Karakuchi Industries, and KamTech Industries.
Those last three locations are fictional places borrowed from the game book with the latter two renamed for the purpose of this fan fiction.
Legend: ' ' are thoughts, " " are speech, ( ) are either mini A/Ns or words included in actual speech but may impede the dialogue. Words in bold are quotes, chapter titles, song titles and the artists singing them.
So sit tight and enjoy the show...
"Hello, square one, nice to meet you again." - Veronica Mars
Thursday - Meetings and Midnight Mayhem
Marriott Marquis Hotel - 7:00 AM, Thursday
As soon as the two hotel detectives had left the room, Ikki had left both the note and the matchbook beside the video phone on the small cabinet beside his bed.
Afterwards, he had taken a leaf of bond paper from his briefcase to pick up the knife and place it in between both items.
Only then did the duelist had taken a hot shower, followed by yet another sonic rubdown, and a quick shave before changing into his green Lacrosse polo shirt, tan slacks, and brown leather shoes with gray socks. Ikki had also ordered an American full breakfast, which he ate in his room.
After an hour, a police detective named Folken Fanel had arrived in the room with two uniformed police officers in tow, a black haired young male and the other a light brown headed female.
Folken had introduced one of the two officers as his younger brother, Van and the other officer as Van's fiancée, Hitomi Kanzaki.
Folken seemed to be the oldest of the three at twenty nine years old with cropped lime green hair and worry lines creasing his forehead, a sign of the eight years he has spent in the force.
As for the other two, they seemed to be twenty two years of age and pretty much joined at the hip.
As Ikki was explaining the situation, he had tried to hide his envy at how the two younger police officers had communicated with their eyes to avoid asking Ikki at the same time. He then picked up the three items and gave them to each of the three investigators.
The three police officers had now worn their plastic gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints on the evidences. Folken had examined the match book and gave the rest of the clues to his junior partners.
All three items were dusted for finger prints and carefully examined for creases, scratches (on the knife) or anything out of the ordinary.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Tenryou but this Bowie knife is common enough to be bought in Cabela's Adairsville branch up north," Van said as he had placed the Bowie knife in an evidence bag.
"The same can be said for this paper note. The letters looked as if it was neatly typewritten on the note and I found no finger prints (other than yours, Mr. Tenryou) on it. It would seem that this guy is a real professional," Hitomi added as she had placed the note in a separate plastic evidence bag.
"He has ta be," quipped Van, excited at having his first high profile case and with Hitomi and Folken. "He has easily disabled this hotel room's entire security system. These things are top-notch and tough ta override. He probably has some fancy tools to disable this system without leaving any traces, electronic or otherwise."
"Yes, I believe so too. Take a look at this, everyone. The Poison Ivy is a notorious Bannon hideout hidden in plain sight," said Folken, as he had showed the opened match book to the other three.
"Bannon? I have never heard of him, Mr. Fanel." said Ikki, scratching his head in confusion.
"Sorry for not telling you, Mr. Tenryou. The Bannon syndicate handles all the illegal sports betting in this part of Georgia. We'll check on this lead right away but I cannot make any promises. These guys are real slick. We cannot pin anything on them, especially without more evidence to back it up."
Ikki nodded and had taken the given opportunity to surreptitiously memorize its address for later use.
"Well, Mr. Tenryou. May I call you Ikki?" Folken said as he had held out his callused hand.
"Yes, and may I call you three - Folken, Van, and Hitomi?" Ikki replied as he had clasped Folken's large hand and shook it.
"Of course. It would be an honor for us especially Van since he's a long time fan of yours," The older man said with a stifled laugh.
"Not funny, big brother."
As they were talking, Ikki had scribbled something in the hotel's blank notepad that was placed near the phone.
"Ha ha ha. Well then, please accept this autographed hotel note. It's not much but it's all I have at the moment," Ikki said as he had given the uniformed police officer the said note, which was accepted gratefully.
The three police officers had turned to leave with the evidence at hand.
"Goodbye, Ikki."
"We'll crack this case before you know it, Ikki."
"Please keep in touch, Ikki." Folken added as he had given the duelist his calling card as he went out behind the other two.
-oOo-
An hour later, Ikki himself had left his hotel room for his car that is parked in the hotel's underground garage. Along the way, he was greeted by the hotel staff and even asked for an autograph by the maids, the bellboys, and the concierge of the hotel.
By the time Ikki had reached his car, his fingers were worked to the bone from writing so many autographs.
After a few minutes of exercising his fingers, he had entered his car and left for the arena in Rosewood at the corner of McDonough Blvd SE and Sawtell St SE.
-oOo-
As the duelist had arrived in the arena's McDonough gate, a mob of fans, reporters and well-wishers were there eagerly awaiting him.
Security in the said gate had a hard time moving the people out the way of the Night Hawk's path partly due to its numbers and mostly due to the stubbornness of some of the fans to even budge.
The rest of the day went by quickly as Ikki had tested the Kobra's maneuverability through a virtual race track with Kasumi's help.
The Indy car's vehicle computer was earlier connected to the pit's mainframe by the said technician and each move that Ikki had made in the driver seat was reflected in the large screen in front of him.
Both Metabee and Brass were also connected to the vehicle computer's secondary ports and they had vocally reported power plant performance and other vital information taken directly from the car's mechanical sensors.
With each virtual test drive, the mechanics had gotten busy replacing axles, wheelbases, power plant components, brakes, clutches and even parts of the car's wings and spoilers to maximize the Kobra's racing performance.
By four in the afternoon, all of the pit crew except for the Metabee and Brass were called in to report at the Karakuchi Industries third floor conference room at exactly five o'clock in the afternoon.
Most of the pit crew had taken this news with loud groans as they were already exhausted from work.
Nevertheless, they had stowed their respective equipment and left the pit. The robots themselves were carried to their storage facilities in the said pit to be kept from would be industrial thieves and spies.
-oOo-
By 4:45 PM, the convoy of a black Mitsubishi GTO Spider (Soul Eater) , a metallic green Ford Taurus (Green Whirlwind), a gray Nissan Altima (Sword and Shield), and the Porsche 997 GT3 (Night Hawk) had arrived at their assigned parking spaces in the Karakuchi industrial complex.
The whole Karakuchi Duel track team were in full attendance in the board room at seven minutes after five o'clock.
As the team had entered the spacious board room, they had seen the frowning face of their boss, Koji as he sat in his seat at the farthest end of the conference table.
"I hate threats," Koji said to his assembled and sitting pit crew. "Only cowards make threats. And I know one person who is cowardly enough to do it – Kam Kamazaki."
"The Kam Kamazaki, our rival company's owner and CEO?"
"Yes, I always knew that snake in the grass was up to no good. Now he's trying to scare us from showing Metabee's hidden abilities in the Atlanta Classic," answered Koji, as he had wrung his hands in anxiety.
"Maybe we should report this to the police, boss. I mean, it is their job to arrest people." quipped Eilie, fearful on who would be their next target.
"Not if we have solid evidence that he had ordered that attack," countered Tir, more fearful of his wife's safety then of his own.
"Tir has a point, honey. We have to prove that Kam did order that attempt on Ikki's life or he will humiliate us for sure," Karin said as she had given her husband a pointed look.
Ikki had suddenly gasped but only Riou had heard him since everyone else was busy talking about the dangerous situation they had found themselves in.
The mechanic had tapped Ikki's shoulder and mouthed "what's wrong" but the duelist simply shook his head and replied "later".
"Hmm...you're right, my dear. We may have to do some detective work ourselves to nail that bastard and his hired henchmen."
"Wait a minute. Aren't there other individuals or companies involved in this plot, sir?" said Kasumi, trying to make sure they were not led on a merry chase.
"For now, we're not even sure on who or what is really behind this so we may have to start with what we do know." said Koji as he had drawn a plastic card from his brown wallet.
"Ikki, here is my company money card. You're the only one who can do the roadwork part of the job while the rest of us use the internet and our own connections to find out who is responsible for your early morning attack."
"Thanks a lot, chief. I'll get on it as soon as I eat."
"How about we all eat out? It will be my treat," said Koji to the cheers of the pit crew.
-oOo-
After arriving in a well-known restaurant in Lennox Square, the Karakuchi couple and the duel track team were eating a fancy dinner where they had small talk about various topics. This was done to prevent information leaks and even doubled as a pressure reliever.
By 7:00 PM, the owners and crew had finished eating and said their farewells to each other.
Ikki had taken a minute to get a hard copy of the Atlanta Inquirer from its computer terminal to read while he was staking out the main office of KamTech Industries in Sandy Springs a few miles up north.
Along the way, Ikki had once again turned over the information he has so far while listening to the CD player now tuned in to the local radio stations. Kam Kamazaki is Koji's bitter rival in the high stakes electronics industry.
If anyone had a motive to scare Karakuchi Industries to keep the MTB and BRS projects under wraps, it is Kam.
-oOo-
By the time, Ikki had finished his musings; he found out that he was now a hundred meters away from the front gate.
From what he could see through his night vision binoculars, the entire complex was surrounded by a chain link fence with what looks like sound and motion sensors attached to it.
In addition, a group of guards either on foot with flashlights and search dogs or on armored trikes were seen doing the rounds just outside the fence.
The plant had only one main gate and it too was heavily guarded. An armored concrete guard house straddled the gate with another bunker on the main road's left shoulder further in.
A single guard had checked IDs of the entering and exiting personnel just outside the gate with two more guards hidden inside. Two tire traps were placed right below the steel pikes and a heavy rocket was installed in each pike's middle length.
Ikki had to whistle at how formidable the security at Kam's industrial headquarters really is. He led his car around the complex to look for a clearing wide enough and dark enough to hide the vehicle from sight.
He had found one near the southwestern corner of the complex and consequently parked the Night Hawk there.
Ikki then neared the darkened portion of the fence to study the sensors only to find out that he could easily disable them since they were a Karakuchi model.
The duelist had disabled the sensors in a matter of minutes armed with only his trusty pliers. After the sensors were made off-line, Ikki lost no time in vaulting the fence after he dropped the pliers in the ground.
As soon his feet had hit the concrete ground with a soft thump, Ikki ran to a stack of crates near a slightly ajar titanium door. The crates further inside had made shadows that successfully hid the duelist from view as he had entered the deserted building.
After a few minutes, the duelist had walked carefully through the nearly deserted complex. His black irises had darted back and forth, searching for trouble and the closest hiding spot.
-oOo-
After half an hour searching the premises, Ikki had stumbled upon a workshop that seems to be lighted and the tell-tale sound of an arc welder being used.
From his vantage point behind a series of barrels, he had seen four men through the opened door. One of them was shown to be burlier than the others.
Under cover of darkness made by the arc welder's sparks, Ikki again had hid himself in a pile of crates within the workshop and watched the said men.
Three of the men were studying something placed on a work bench while a fourth had leaned on a wooden crate looking bored. Two of the men had also worn technician's lab coats while the third man with the technicians was Kam Kamazaki himself.
The bored large man was Kam's bodyguard who was now spinning his gun just to amuse himself.
One of the technicians was currently using an arc welder and when the tool's sparks had illuminated parts of the workshop, Ikki was able to sneak into the darker parts of the workshop and hide behind some steel crates.
"Is it finished?" said Kam, as he had began to lose his patience at the delay caused by the painstakingly long finishing touches of the said technician's work.
The other technician had sighed as he flipped a page of the orange morocco folder he was reading in the low light. His back had stiffened a bit against the steel bench he was sitting on when he heard the condescending tone his boss had used on his fellow researcher.
The bodyguard just wished he could get this over with and go home.
"I-in a mi-minute, sir. We still have to ensure that that the end result is a perfect likeness," answered the first technician, his trembling voice betraying his fear.
"That fool, Koji."said Kam, his large forehead going up and down in his megalomaniac laughter. "He had to put that robot in front of the cameras just to show it off. Then again, I did save a bundle by not going after its blueprints anyway. ha ha ha. "
The second technician had moved to one side so that his companion could move a bit to weld a still loosened arm of their newly made creation. In their jostling, Ikki had seen what they were working on – an exact replica of Metabee.
After a few minutes, the first technician had stopped welding and Ikki had backed himself against the steel crates, praying to the heavens that he would not be seen.
"It is done, Mr. Kamizuki. We now have a reasonable facsimile of the MTB-01," said the first technician as he put away the welding machine.
"Excellent, excellent." Kam said as he had stopped his pacing on the concrete floor some distance away from the work bench. "We cannot just steal MTB -01 without an exact duplicate to allay any suspicion."
Kam then faced the second technician and looked at him square in the eye as he said. "Are you sure that this will fail miserably like I told you?"
"Ye-yes, sir. We're close but the Karakuchi's lab rats have some sort of breakthrough." The first scientist replied quickly. "This robot (taps the robot's left "horn" with a technical pen) cannot do half the things they claim the original can. When we do get the MTB-01 to our labs, I'll figure out why."
"Well then, get this tin can in my car right away." Kam had ordered the two technicians. "We're going to the Karakuchi pits and make the switch tonight."
"But boss since we will come across a guard, how will I know which one to grab?" said the bodyguard as he had scratched his head.
Kam had hit the burly man on the head with his rolled up red morocco folder in reply.
"It's easy, you moron. Right here, under the serial plate is a small K-120 in a box. When this thing goes on the fritz, Koji will tear it apart and see it. Only then, will he know that I have outsmarted him again." Kam said before he had once again laughed maniacally.
The bodyguard had sweat dropped a bit before joining his boss in laughter.
Ikki had seen and heard enough. He had spun from his hiding place, drawing his trusty .44 Desert Eagle from his shoulder holster in the process. His first shot had hit Kam's left thigh, surprising the dark haired millionaire and making him drop to his knees in pain.
The bodyguard had returned fire as Kam had regained enough of his bearings to limp to the emergency exit some distance to his right.
Bang!
A second shot had hit the technician with the robot in the side, making him let go of his precious cargo. The robot had skidded a bit on the concrete floor with some sparks just before it was picked up by the other technician who was still unharmed.
The two technicians had escaped although one was obviously in pain as he held his bleeding side.
The bodyguard, meanwhile, continued to exchange fire with the partly covered duelist. Bullets had ricocheted of the steel crates where Ikki hid, making small sparks as they do so and filling the concrete walls and wooden crates on the other end of the workshop with holes as the gunfight continued unabated.
The black haired duelist had tried to hit the escaping technicians and Kam but was kept busy dodging the shots fired by the retreating bodyguard.
In the end, all four men had escaped with only two being slightly injured in the firefight. Alarms were also sounded through out the compound.
Hearing the alarms, Ikki had turned on his booted heel and ran back to where he had secretly entered the compound.
Luckily for the him, most of the guards that had arrived remained to protect Kam from further attacks. The remaining few had spread out in the hopes of catching the unwanted visitor by surprise.
-oOo-
Ikki had found one of the latter group jogging to the spot where he had overrode the sensor. Loud footsteps had clued him in to the guard's arrival.
"Talk about being on borrowed time," Ikki muttered to himself as he had quietly gone to a nearby gray down pipe with its lower half almost detached from the sturdier upper half.
He had easily broken off the lower half and tiptoed to the building's corner with the gray pipe held in both hands.
As soon as Ikki had seen his target's head poking out of the corner, he had struck him with the storm pipe's gray length as it were a plastic club with holes on both ends.
Foom!
The guard had gone down like an newly cut oak from the force of the blow, his forehead and face soaked in blood.
"Sorry, pal. It's either you or me," Ikki said as he had dropped the pipe length with a clank.
Ikki then quickly climbed the fence and ran for his hidden car. He had also stopped for a second to pick up his dropped pliers.
A few minutes later, Ikki had escaped to the busy city streets thankful for the car's stealth ability and his own driving abilities to lose whatever tail Kam's flunkies had given him with.
-oOo-
As soon as he had found a well lighted street corner, Ikki had parked the car, pulled his Nokia N70 cellular phone from his right pocket, and dialed Koji's number. The duelist told his boss everything that he saw and heard in the workshop.
"Alright, meet me and Riou at the arena pits in an hour. Hold them there until we arrive with back up, ok?" was Koji's excited reply.
"It sounds like you don't trust me, Koji."
"That's because I know you well enough to try to take them on by yourself. Therefore, my advice is not to even think about it so you can be a big hero. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Father." Ikki said with a sigh as he had closed the line, thereby cutting off his best friend's reprimands that had included some swear words.
The Night Hawk had taken off in a squeal of tires, taking the shortest route to the arena.
-oOo-
Half an hour later, Ikki had arrived at the arena gate. The gate itself was already opened and the security guards that had been assigned there were missing.
Fearing the worst, the duelist had guided his car to the pit area two hundred meters away from the gate and hidden from plain view.
To his horror, he had seen two idling cars (a Ford Taurus and a Lexus IS 350) without license plates parked in front of the Karakuchi's pit. The huge sliding doors were slightly opened, enough for a person to enter and exit quickly.
The idling cars were facing away from the pit, their drivers talking quietly to each other through their opened windows.
Unfortunately for Ikki, one of the drivers had spotted the Night Hawk's dusty nose, as the latter car had rounded the corner, and fired a warning shot that holed the corner wall instead.
The Night Hawk had immediately backed out to the arena's visitor parking lot with the two Kamazaki duel cars chasing it.
.50 caliber bullets and recoilless rifle rounds fired from the chasing cars had cratered the concrete roadway, holed the barbwire fences and felled the young trees planted in the plant boxes.
Ikki had retaliated with his vehicle's weapons and got some crucial hits on both cars. The first car had its headlights blown off and hood splattered with hot lead, knocking out its machine guns.
Its power plant was hit enough times to be disabled but the damage was not enough to cause an explosion.
The second cart had its power plant blown off by the Night Hawk's more powerful pulse laser and was out of the fight quickly. Its hood had caved in at the power plant's controlled explosion while ejecting some armor around it.
The Night Hawk had also taken some damage mostly to its front and top armor but it was still drivable
The drivers of both cars had exited their cars and ran for their lives, screaming like madmen. Within five minutes, they had disappeared into the dark alleyways never to be heard of again.
-oOo-
By ten-thirty pm (fifteen minutes after the fight had ended), the Sword and Shield had arrived at the gate followed by Koji's personal car – a metallic blue Ford Taurus with two lasers in front and a recoilless rifle on its turret (Tiger Claws).
Koji had hand signaled his best friend to follow them to the pits.
As the convoy had rounded the corner, they had seen nothing except the still opened pit door. Ikki had just finished reading the hard copy of the Atlanta Inquirer and was now stowing it in the glove compartment.
The three vehicles had stopped and seven Karakuchi security guards filed out from both the Tiger Claws and Sword and Shield. All of them had drawn and readied their M-4 assault rifles and surrounded the entrance.
"Attention, eunuchs! Come out with your hands in the air! Your cars are destroyed and we got you surrounded. The police are on their way to pick you up and bring you to a nice jail cell," said Koji through his car's built in loudspeakers.
Both Riou and Ikki had covered their faces in shame at Koji's horrible way of scaring the intruders inside the pit to surrender.
The security guards had shaken their heads at the embarrassing display. Koji did not notice any of this since he had thought that his amplified threat was enough to scare the intruders to submission.
"Screw you, bug fearing loser! We got two security guards in here and we won't hesitate to kill 'em!" answered a gruff and loud voice from within the pit.
"That's it! Men, storm the place now!" Koji roared in his rage.
The two security guards nearest the door had thrown flash grenades and smoke grenades inside before they had all entered, two at a time.
After a brief scuffle, all the remaining Karakuchi goons were escorted outside in handcuffs, the arena security guards were freed and Metabee was given a once over by Riou along with the bad copy.
"I've got a bone to pick with you, Tenryou." said Koji as he had gotten off his car and marched to the parked Night Hawk.
"Save it, chief. I was jus' joking earlier and it wasn't my fault that they attacked me," Ikki replied as he now leaned over his car's opened driver side door.
"That may be true, Ikki but you still should have waited for us before making your move," said Koji as he had stopped marching and just crossed his arms.
"Aw, c'mon chief. If I did, then one of 'em would have escaped in the ensuing melee."
"Alright. I admit you're right on that count too, Ikki but that doesn't change the fact that we were worried about you. Hell, I even lied to Arika when she had called up Karin and I at home while you were out investigating the Kamazaki premises."
"Eh? What did she say?" asked the duelist as he had stood at attention upon hearing his crush's name.
"She was planning on interviewing you tonight at your hotel room but we told her that you were busy at the pits along with Tir and the others," answered Koji, clearly enjoying the startled reaction of his best friend.
"I'm just glad that she didn't go to the pits to meet 'us' there," Ikki said as he had let out a sigh of relief.
"Me too. Oh good, the police are here."
As Koji had correctly remarked, two dark blue Dodge Charger police cruisers of the Atlanta police force- Night Division had arrived in the pit area. Their flashing lights and shrill sirens had brought mixed reactions to Koji, Ikki and Riou.
On one hand, the police would take over the investigation and bring the prisoners to jail. On the other hand, a paparazzo would be alerted by the obvious sign of police and may blow the whole case wide open for the public to see.
This may then tip the hand of the real culprits and make the whole investigation more difficult than necessary.
The police had interviewed Koji, Riou, and Ikki before they had headed for the goons taken prisoner. After fifteen minutes of interrogation, the lead officer on scene had gone to where Koji and Ikki were standing as his men had brought the prisoners to the cruisers.
The K-120 likewise was placed in the trunk of the second cruiser as further evidence.
"Which one of those knuckleheads had attacked me early this morning, Lieutenant?" asked Ikki, eager to punch the guilty one's lights out.
"Actually, I was hoping you knew. From what we gathered, there was no mention of your early morning attack but rather a lot of shenanigans including a few that we didn't even know about."
"That one (nodding to the first goon to be placed inside backseat of the Lieutenant's cruiser) is Kam's main toady who leads these 'extra-curricular activities' and he says he did not have anything to do with the fracas in your room. He may be lying but I don't think he has a reason to be. The person you're looking for is probably somebody else."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. We'll take it from here," said Koji as he patted the police lieutenant at the back.
As the police had left, Koji turned to Ikki and told him to go to bed. The latter had complied and headed for his car. Riou then tried to catch up to ask the duelist about his behavior in the meeting earlier but Koji held him back.
Riou then explained to his boss about the said incident only to be told that Koji would ask Ikki himself about it when they meet the next day.
-oOo-
As the Night Hawk was passing through a dimly lighted block of Juniper St, it was ambushed by a dark blue Mitsubishi Eclipse (Black Widow). Ikki was so surprised by the sudden appearance of the Black Widow that he was not able to escape when he had the chance.
Two simultaneously launched rockets had blasted a trash can and a display window of a dress store while a recoilless rifle round had damaged the Night Hawk's rear armor and spoiler.
Thankfully, the projectiles were not powerful enough to break through the 80 mm thick armor to reach the Night Hawk's power plant behind it.
"Come and get me, you little weasel." muttered Ikki as he had driven his car in between a narrow ally. After some tight maneuvering, the Night Hawk had emerged at the other side with some minor scratches on its paint job and had its right side view mirror torn off its hinges.
"Try to get through that," he gloated on the radio.
The Eclipse did emerge from the same alley but with a busted headlight, two torn side-view mirrors and some damage to its side armors.
The two duel cars had continued their deadly game of cat and mouse as they traded rockets and laser beams.
Yet Ikki was clearly winning since his pulse laser had already damaged one of the rocket launchers and even got some critical hits on the pursuer's power plant.
40mm Rockets had blasted the road on each side of the Night Hawk and even destroyed a fire hydrant and yet another trash can on both sides of the street. Only a few rifle rounds was able to do damage, mostly on the lead car's already battered rear armor.
After a few more dead on shots, the Black Widow's power plant had blown up. Its powerful explosion had sprung the hood onto the windshield and ejecting the front end of the car to the street.
The power plant itself had caved in as the car skidded to the sidewalk and collided with yet another fire hydrant.
Treated water had gushed from the hydrant's damaged stoppers and splashed both the sidewalk and the curb before flowing down to the drain.
Ikki had parked his car half a block away from the wrecked vehicle and cautiously moved closer to the crashed vehicle, armed with his gun. As he went closer, he could see the driver slumped unconsciously on the wrecked car's bent steering wheel.
The driver's head was in an awkward angle with his chin protruding through the space under the steering wheel and the spokes. The airbag did not even inflate as it was disabled by debris from the exploded power plant.
After opening the driver side door, Ikki had reached into the bulging left pant pocket and found a billfold and an access card along with a knife in its left pant sheath.
As soon as the duelist had gotten himself out from the car's interior, a loud report of a still unseen rifle was heard and he had instinctively ducked for cover.
Ikki had realized that it was not meant for him but rather to the unconscious (now dead) driver inside. A faint beeping sound was also heard from inside the car.
Recognizing the source of the sound as a self-destruct device, Ikki had quickly turned on his heel and ran like hell.
Thirty seconds later, the wrecked car had exploded leaving no visible traces. The lights in the neighborhood slowly winked on and the faint but familiar sirens was heard from a distance.
The sirens had grown louder with each passing moment and soon the fire trucks of Atlanta's fire department had arrived along with three police cruisers and a white ambulance.
Firemen had gone to work putting out the blaze with fire extinguishers while the police officers interviewed Ikki. The first responder had examined the charred driver and radioed for a coroner before returning to the ambulance in grim silence.
The fire trucks had soon left along with the ambulance as soon as the fire was put out.
In their place, a yellow tow vehicle and a black hearse had arrived. The former was to tow the Black Widow's charred remains to the police laboratories for further study, while the latter had picked up the dead body placed outside the burned wreck for autopsy at the city morgue.
Ikki had taken a quick peek at his Rolex wristwatch to avert his view from the disfigured and burned body and found out that it was already 11:30 PM.
In the hullabaloo, no one had noticed the arrival of an unmarked police cruiser as it parked in a curb near the now revving up tow truck. Folken had emerged from the said car before approaching the tired duelist.
The latter had leaned on his car in a desperate battle to keep himself upright and awake.
"You look like hell, Ikki. What happened?" asked the detective as he had stopped near the Night Hawk's hood.
"I got a hot tip that Kam's men are in the pit area and went after them. Then as I was going home, this guy (referring to the dead body being loaded to the hearse) had tried to kill me. I also found these before his car exploded." Ikki said as he had given the detective- the Bowie knife (identical to the one recovered in the Marriott hotel), the coded bank access card with A-119 written in the upper corner and a slip of paper with a phone number on it.
Ikki had already written the number in another piece of paper and kept it in his left pants pocket.
"Hmm, the knife is enough evidence to posthumously convict him for attempted murder and we can look into the phone number right away, but this card is going to be tough. " said Folken. "How about you call me up when I end my shift at seven am tomorrow morning? If not, Van's available until five pm. It's already a quarter to midnight so you should get some sleep."
"Thanks Folken. I'll take you on that offer," said Ikki as he had waved at the older cop before he boarded the Night Hawk on his way back to the hotel, only a few blocks away.
When he had arrived fifteen minutes later, Ikki had taken his keys from the hotel counter and headed for his new suite across the hall from the old one.
As Ikki had entered his new room, he immediately stripped to his boxers and settled down in his bed. He was so tired that he never double checked the room's security system or even noticed that he was not actually alone.
Well, that's one suspect down and three more to go. Next chapter will be Arika's introduction and the rest of Ikki's investigation of the remaining suspects. There will not be as much action and suspense but rather a lot more humor and a hint of romance, trust me on this.
The reason Ikki had gasped in the emergency meeting is because he had noticed how similar Karin's voice is with Hitomi's.
Actually, both anime characters share the same voice actress- Maaya Sakamoto. She is also the voice behind Lunamaria Hawke and Mayu Asuka in Gundum Seed Destiny too. Just a bit of trivia, folks.
For those who like a sneak peak at the upcoming chapter, here it is:
-o0o-
"If that is the case, then I do not have anything to do with it since having people nearly killed in their sleep is not my style. It is too distasteful and ineffective, y'see. If I were to threaten you to drop out of this race, I would have done so in a more 'appropriate' manner."
-00o-
For Darren White - The dialogue between Ikki, Koji and the police lieutenant is one I was asking about in the forum. I'm really sorry if I was not able to follow your suggestion but I tried my best to make it normal and in character.
I do hope you and the other guys at the Furnace are alright with it. If not, please let me know so I can revise the chapter accordingly.
Once again, this A/N is closing shop until the next chapter. Have a nice day.