To Valentine380, Popolopy, Kaneshiro-sama and Kasumi x Syazel Aporro: So what's up guys? I was finally able to write Chapter 3! Schoolwork kept me busy, so I'm so sorry if it took some time to develop. Anyway, thanks for reading my story; I promise, the following chapters will have characters with more depth, more awesome fight scenes and appearances of Hayabusa! Enjoy! XD

Spies! Seriously?

CHAPTER 3

SHIBUYA STATION 10:30 PM

Lei-Fang already received an analysis on the ring by the time we arrived at Shibuya Station. The place wasn't that crowded; only a few people occupied the benches, waiting for their train to arrive. We hid in the background, hoping that both the police and the civilians wouldn't catch a single glimpse of us. After all, we were in our spy gears.

Lei-Fang subtly opened her beeper. "What do you have for us, M?"

"Apparently," M replied with a slight hint of curiosity, "the ring belonged to a member of an organization known as the Triad. A fingerprint was stuck on it, so he was identifiable."

"The Triad? That sounds like a good name for a rock band!" Tina exclaimed, although a bit quietly, towards the beeper. M, Lei-Fang and I groaned, chagrined by the very fact that she can be distracted so easily during times of crisis. Tina smiled sheepishly.

Well… at least she eases the mood. No doubt about that.

Anyway, back to the case. The road leading to the culprit's whereabouts suddenly became a bit clearer. "What's his name?"

"His name's Rig. He used to work in oil manufactories across Asia, Norway and the US, until he got fired due to his bad temper, consistent physical abuse towards a number of co-workers and his inability to pay debt on time despite his top ranking." Wow, and I thought our runner-up role model in the university was worse.

"That name sounds familiar… but I'm not really sure…" Tina whispered, scrunching up her face trying to remember something about it. Lei-Fang and I threw her a worried look, then we looked back at the beeper's monitor.

Something's wrong…

"Anything else?" Lei-Fang asked.

M apologized. "Sorry ladies. It looks like you'll have to figure this out on your own. Our main computer apparently got tampered with so we're checking that out." Tampered with? What's going on in CHERUB?

There was a slight pause before he continued. "If you need anything though, Ryu can help you out. I got the information on Rig through him. He told me he's going to keep looking, so keep your hopes up."

The three of us smiled. "Thanks M."

"My pleasure, ladies." M logged out, and Lei-Fang closed her beeper. We stood there, processing the information relayed to us earlier. I wonder how all of this is connected to the incident…

"So the man who owned the ring with the Free Mason-like logo is Rig. He got fired from his job prior to becoming a member of the Triad." I recalled while thinking about his motives. Tina and Lei-Fang nodded, putting their thumbs on their chin—a sign that they were also in deep thought.

What happened here? Why'd he leave his ring? Was there a fight that took place… and it forced his ring to detach from his finger? If that's the case, shouldn't have there been blood present in the crime scene?

If that really did happen, who fought him?

But if that wasn't the case… if he just dropped it…

Was he trying to lure someone?

…

Could it have been anger or revenge that propelled him to take on the role of a menace?

Maybe I'm just over thinking things, but something tells me I'm not…

So many pieces missing, so little time.

"He's pretty much our only suspect. Let's not waste this opportunity." Lei-Fang optimistically remarked with a smile on her face. She was right. We had to focus on our mission—innocent lives are at stake! We can't let anything happen to them.

I don't like it when my emotions run over me. I have to calm myself down.

"I'll get my memory checked later. Right now, we gotta fire things up!" Tina pounded her fists together, thrilled with the thought of beating people up.

Uh… beating up bad guys at least.

Luckily, we had a plan before we came here. "You know what to do, right?" I asked Lei-Fang, confident that she can pull this off without a sweat. I still cared about her safety of course, but knowing Lei-Fang, she can do the most strenuous things without complaining—even in a partially-revealing black Chinese dress and three-inch heels, which is actually her spy gear. That's probably the result of her years of mastery in Tai Chi. If you could see her fight in tournaments, you'd be surprised as to how focused—and deadly—she could be in the ring. No signs of emotions whatsoever.

Lei-Fang pulled out a train ticket and gave both Tina and I a wink. Kudos to you if you know what she's doing. "Leave it to me, Cherry Blossom. I'll leave my earrings communicator on and report anything suspicious that's happening in the train."

I nodded. "Good. Tina and I will do our best to follow along."

"You go best friend!" Tina cheerfully exclaimed, giving Lei-Fang a two-finger salute. "Be careful though. You might ruin your beautiful face."

Lei-Fang stuck her tongue out. "Cut it out!"

Best friends. Never get tired of them.

I hugged them both. "Alright guys. Let's focus. We don't want to get our heads caught up in the clouds now, do we?" Yup, that's my role. I play the cool-headed (but really emotional…) elderly sister even though I'm the youngest of the three. We laughed, albeit silently, until moments later when the train arrived. Lei-Fang waved us a goodbye and she dashed towards the train along with the other passengers. When it started to move faster, I told Tina to carry me on her back so that I could teleport both of us onto the hood of the train.

Tina nodded. She lifted up and secured my legs with her arms as I leaned onto her back while studying all the angles and the momentum of the train. Teleporting from one place to another is a dangerous activity, so I have to time it right.

Otherwise, we're going to end up as either road kill or in another place.

"You ready, Hon?" Tina remarked as she stood up with me latched onto her back.

I nodded. I was ready.

I closed my eyes, concentrated on our destination and teleported, leaving a trail of cherry blossoms behind—dancing with the night wind that circulated almost endlessly…

Little did we know, someone was watching us from afar.

…

The train was moving really fast when we (successfully) got on top of it. Tina almost lost her balance; in order to avoid an accident whatsoever, she sat down and let go of me. I crawled towards her and we helped each other stand up, keeping our balance at all times.

Tina rubbed her butt. "What a ride! It's been months since I last experienced your teleportation techniques, Kas."

I chuckled. "It's not easy. Trust me."

Being a ninja did have its limits.

After seeing that the coast was clear, I opened my earrings communicator and asked Lei-Fang if she could hear me. I was aware that the signal could be disrupted by the strong gusts of wind within the area so I walked around a bit, hoping to strengthen the signal. Moments later, a cheery voice popped into the speaker of my communicator. Thankful that she was safe, I asked her about what's happening inside the train while at the same time signaling Tina to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Tina nodded and she slowly walked towards the other end of the train.

"Nothing's happened so far." Lei-Fang remarked. "Most of the passengers are fast asleep, except for a few others. I'll keep checking though."

I smiled in relief. "Alright. Keep me posted."

"No problem! Phoenix, out."

"Cherry Blossom, out." I kept my communicator on stand by; this means that I can't hear what's happening in Lei-Fang's side but if ever something were to happen, I can contact her immediately with only a push of a button.

"What'd she say?" Tina asked as she walked towards me with her hands over her eyes (probably still checking out the area). I made a small smile towards her.

"Everything's okay so far. Anything suspicious on your end?"

Tina shook her head. "Nope, nothing so far. It's either the bad guys are cowards or they think we're too hot to handle." She made a hip bump. Yes, Tina has the knack of doing things like that… during really inappropriate times.

While Tina and Lei-Fang continued to investigate and watch out for things, I took out the GPS sunglasses from my bag, wore it and adjusted the lens to track the train's movement on a scaled map of Shibuya. So far the train ride seems to be going on smoothly, until an explosion occurred right down below.

Tina and I ran immediately to the left side of the train and noticed that one of the wheels was burning. The train swerved a bit out of the track but it managed to keep moving.

Suddenly, Lei-Fang's worried voice reached my communicator. "Kasumi! The passengers and the train conductors are panicking! I'm trying to calm them down but they won't listen!"

I'm panicking too, and you don't know how much. "Just continue to calm them down as much as possible. We'll be there in a second." I stood up and looked for an opening into the train until another explosion occurred on the other side.

Fudge! What the heck's going on?!

"Kasumi! I found a broken window right below me!" Tina shouted while taking out the ice hair sprayer from her bag. "I'll stop these wheels from burning while you go inside and help Lei-Fang!"

I nodded. After carefully considering the train's speed, I lowered myself from the hood so that I'm facing the broken window, kicked the remaining shards of glass stuck onto it and went through. By the time I got inside, the passengers, the train conductors and Lei-Fang were held hostage by a group of hooded men with a Free Mason-like logo on their chests—a gun pointed on their heads.

They were members of the Triad!

I immediately positioned myself into a fighting stance. Adrenaline was pumping all over my body.

"No! Don't come near! They might shoot you!" Lei-Fang agitatedly spoke, looking at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. I glared at each one of them, and dropped my arms.

One of the hooded men pointed a gun towards me while keeping a passenger in his grip. I winced at his cowardice.

"If you calmly obey our orders, we'll let everyone go."

I didn't trust his words; I started to formulate a plan in my head as I conversed with him. "What do you want me to do?" I clenched my fist.

He continued to walk towards me, his hand tightly holding the gun in a shakily manner. That's weird. It seems like he was a coward after all.

That's when I seized my opportunity.

When he was five inches away from my face, I lowered myself down immediately and kicked his leg, causing him to fall down on the floor and free the passenger. Lei-Fang smirked and threw the man holding her over her shoulder. Before the other hooded men could shoot, Tina suddenly froze their guns from outside the broken window, totally catching them off guard. Lei-Fang and I saw this as an opportunity to attack, so we kicked the guns out of their hands, grabbed both our net-shooting umbrellas from our bags and shot it at them. As they struggled to free themselves, a group of angry passengers along with the train conductors positioned themselves behind them and started to beat them up.

The result? They were unconscious.

Tina carefully entered through the broken window and tied the hooded men up. Even though they were out cold, the train continued to move at a rapid speed.

We're going to end up crashing if we don't do something!

"Tina! Are the wheels fixed?!" I shouted as I ran towards the conductor's area. Lei-Fang closely followed behind me.

"Yeah, but they ended up breaking into pieces as soon as I froze them so I joined you guys instead!" She replied.

Crap, this isn't good. Way to go Tina.

As Lei-Fang and I went inside the conductor's area, I looked for the brakes. Lei-Fang found a microphone used for announcing important information to passengers during a train ride, so she grasped the opportunity to tell everyone on-board:

"Attention fellow passengers. This is Lei-Fang, your co-conductor speaking. Your temporary main conductor, Kasumi, will do her best to make sure that we don't crash. So, if you have any regrets, say them now just in case we do crash. Thank you."

…

"Seriously?" I commented, cocking an eyebrow towards her. "The whole burden isn't only on my shoulders, okay?"

She sheepishly smiled at me while helping me find the brakes for the train.

The clock was ticking—time was running out.

Eventually, after a few seconds of looking through a series of complicated mechanisms, I found the brake. Gripping the lever with as much concentration as possible, fear and anxiety creeping into my chest and psyche, I pulled it down. Soon, the train's wheels echoed a screeching sound through our ears, and then everything stopped.

I gasped for air. I didn't even know I was holding my breath for so long.

Lei-Fang gave me a high-five. "Nice job, girlfriend! You saved us!"

I smiled towards Lei-Fang and we helped the passengers out.

…

"Good job, ladies." A deep voice complimented as we walked out of the train.

The three of us grinned. "It's our pleasure."

Hayabusa-san, along with a helicopter, was outside the train when we helped the passengers out. We contacted him earlier to fetch them and take them to their homes, and surrender the hooded men to CHERUB for further interrogation. Before he left, he gave us three of the hooded men's uniforms and information on the Triad's whereabouts.

His green eyes depicted seriousness. "With the information I gave you, your GPS sunglasses should be able detect their hideout now. If you need any more data to work with, I'll try to look it up for you right away."

The three of us stood straight and saluted him. He gave us a quick nod and dashed towards the helicopter. After he left, we wore the hooded uniforms he gave us to keep us in disguise and, wearing our GPS sunglasses, looked into the night sky.

With the information on their location and the superb teamwork we had, I knew we were ready to defeat them.

Get ready, Triad. You're ours.

Review if you want! :D Chapter 4 will come soon!