Thank you for your wait. I give you chapter 4

I own nothing

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Chapter 4

-ALERT-ALERT-ALERT-

A telepathic message suddenly beeped urgently in the recesses of Keitaro's mind. Groaning, he shook himself awake and focused on opening it. Inside he found a large brightly flashing piece of virtual paper

"ATTENTION! WE HAVE ANOTHER SPIRATE ATTACK, EAST OF THE FORBIDDEN ZONE DOCKING BAY! ALL PESRONNEL ARE TO RESPOND! REPEAT, ALL PERSONNEL TO RESPOND!"

'OH CRAP!'

Jumping up from his bed, Keitaro instantly took off through the door. Not bothering to contact the door about his uniform, he ran through still in his civvies. Charging round the corner, he nearly collided with Yoko. Smiling, the tall boy looked down on him in excitement.

"Guess what! I'm apart of the team! Even though I only just learnt re-shift, I'm now apart of the squad! Something on the bottom of the letter saying we need even amateurs for this one. Haha pretty sexy suit though ay? So it's you and me now buddy!"

Frowning, Keitaro pulled his close friend to a stop.

"Yoko please listen to me. Gather as many people as you can and get back to your rooms."

Yoko raised an eyebrow. "You ok in there boy? For a second I thought I heard you ask me to disobey a direct order from the general."

Keitaro growled. "I just did! Please, do as I say! There is going to be an outbreak of spirates tonight and if we go out to this alert, we are all going to be divided! Please!"

Yoko took a step back uncertainly. "Uh, as much as I would love to disobey the general and receive punishment that puts hell to shame, I can't help you out there bud. I really gotta go and get briefed. See ya!"

Keitaro held out a defeated hand as he watched his friend run away. "But you won't be briefed on anything useful at all…"

Shaking his head, Keitaro frowned. 'I can still stop this. I must talk with the general.'

Turning, Keitaro sprinted down the hall, easily passing everyone running down alongside him.

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Exploding through the portal, Keitaro completely ignored the seats around the table and ran directly to the generals room. Pounding hard on the door, Keitaro called out.

"GENERAL! Please listen to me! Call off the run! Something terrible will happen if you don't!"

The door was pulled inwards with a force that splintered the wood. A gigantic figure filled the door. The almost 6'5" tall general stomped out, his bald head glinting red.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE URASHIMA? YOU KNOW THE PROCESS. YOU WAIT AT THE DESK FOR BREIFING LIKE A GOOD LITTLE LEADER AND THEN GO AND EXPUNGE PARANORMAL BOOTY FROM THE AREA. AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING OUT OF UNIFORM?"

Keitaro flinched slightly from the enormous amount of noise blasted from the doorway. No time to be intimidated though. Standing to his full height, Keitaro looked the general straight in the eye.

"Please sir, I beg you! If you send the troops out tonight, every single one of the untrained will become a spirate!"

The general leaned down, nose to nose with the smaller man.

"On what basis do you say this? For years you have done as I have said without question and everything has gone swimmingly. What makes tonight so different? Huh?"

The dangerously low voice of the general caused Keitaro to flinch even more than his loud bellowing. Hiding his nervousness, Keitaro again looked the general in the eye.

"As I was sleeping, I saw us all fighting in a small ally way. Uh, we were then attacked by about twenty spirates from a building…a warehouse behind us. They proceed to attack and divide us until only myself, the other leaders and most experienced soldiers are left. That is why sir!"

The general stood up straight and chuckled. "So, your saying we should let thirty-two or so more spirates out just because you had a nightmare?"

Keitaro's eyes shifted slightly. It sounded hollow even to him.

"Sir. At least only send us leaders to handle this. What is one spirate? Not worth an entire army."

The general leaned in grinning evilly. "And yet, you say you get attacked by twenty or so spirates in your dream. Surely this is enough of a reason to send out an army?"

Keitaro faltered. "But if it was just a dream…"

"Then I shouldn't have to be listening to your pathetic ramblings about how you need a pillow and your thumb to sleep. DISMISSED."

Walking into Keitaro, the general stalked past the smaller man in a huff. Keitaro wiped his forehead with his sleeve.

'Why is it so hard to alter things?'

Turning, he ran into the room just as the general finished the briefing. Turning to look at Keitaro, the general growled.

"URASHIMA, YOU ARE A TEAM LEADER. BUT DON'T THINK YOU WON'T BE DEMOTED LATER FOR YOUR IGNORANCE. DISMISSED!"

Holding out a hand, Keitaro almost said something but stopped. Dropping the hand, he sighed. "Sir, yes sir."

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Running through the teleportation pad, Keitaro appeared over a room full to bursting with soldiers. Looking over them all, Keitaro almost felt a tear slip out, remembering their anguished faces. Years of practice over took his emotions though and everything hardened up. Sappy emotions are for girls and when your alone. Not now. People needed to be saved. Concentrating, Keitaro summoned the troops to attention.

"Right people. You are being separated into three teams. Those of you who are now seeing the number one, take the door to your right. The rest of you who see the numbers two and three, wait until Uuji and Hatsune arrive. You will follow them as directed. Dismissed!"

Instantly, one third of the soldiers turned and ran through the open door. But this time, Keitaro made sure to take as many inexperienced soldiers as he could afford. Watching them all run, he felt over the group. Exactly Fifty-Eight of them were going to swap teams. Concentrating, Keitaro quickly connected with those few.

"If anyone is caught swapping teams, they will have their rations cut to half their normal allowance for one full month."

Keitaro smiled to himself as he saw faces quickly screw up in annoyance. That should deter them from jumping. Turning his back on the group, Keitaro ran down the shoot behind him. He appeared in amongst the mess of soldiers running down the exit. With so many bodies trying to run down the hall, progress was almost impossible. Keitaro grimaced as another few bodies collided with him.

'Oh I really wish I didn't have to do this.'

Taking a few flying leaps over the amazed troops, Keitaro landed lightly in front of them all.

Keitaro quickly thought up a white lie to cover what he was about to say. As for his extraordinary jumps, he let them soak in their juices of thought.

"Ok. The other two teams are going to hit the affected person from the front. Our job is to stay back and cover them. We are also called to disarm any spirates preparing to ambush the group. Understood?"

The groaning of unhappiness was louder than last time. All those newies were just too anxious to fight. Looking over his group one last time, Keitaro turned and began running out the door. He heard a pair of solid foot steps quickly close in on him. He knew it was Jill without having to look. Coming up along side him, the woman quietly voiced her concerns to her leader.

"Sir, what are ye doin'? This is slightly deviated from what tha big boss said."

Keitaro didn't look at her. "Trust me. Tonight, we all get tested on just how good we are at fighting these dam ghosts."

Jill looked at Keitaro queerly. "Sir? What be you talkin' 'bout? It's just a raid on one lone spirate. Nothin' worth gettin' excited over."

This time, he turned to face her. "Trust me on this. You are going to have to be on your very best aim tonight. There is going to be an attack and at the moment, only you and I know of this. I tried telling the general but he just brushed it aside as usual."

Jill looked at her boots thumping away at the ground. "Aye sir. But then, answer me this. Those jumps. How did ye manage that?"

Keitaro frowned. He wished he didn't have to do that display back there. "Well, its more a lost art that my family practiced. It just teaches you how to focus your…strength so you can do whatever it is your doing to your maximum potential."

Jill ah'd and fell silent. She then fell back into the group. Someone then pulled up beside Keitaro, replacing his second in command.

"Hey buddy! Hows it hangin'?"

Keitaro sighed. "Yea, could be better."

Yoko smirked. "What's wrong? Nightmares? That's what everyone's saying your having. Apparently, you even stood up to the general for something.."

Keitaro shook his head. "Rumours travel fast ay Yoko."

Yoko smiled. "Ah, that they do. So, what are these spirate things? A few of us haven't been told what we are actually dealing with here."

Keitaro growled silently. Even given a second chance, those pathetic briefers do nothing but sit and blow hot air. What a waste of space.

"Well, long story short, spirates are failed human clones."

Yoko's smile slowly slid off his face. Keitaro sure was acting weird tonight. "Uh, ok then. But wha…"

Keitaro interrupted Yoko with a wave of his hand. Pulling him as close as he could without them both falling over each others feet, Keitaro spoke softly.

"Remember what I said in the hallway back there? Well, its happening. If we follow orders we are all going to end up fighting for the spirates team. We are going to be ambushed tonight from the warehouse behind where the infected person is. So what I'm doing is sneaking up on those hellish ghosts and surprising them. For that, I'm going in with only myself and three of the leaders under me. I'm telling you this so you can keep the group stable with answers. And under no circumstances should you or anyone else follow me. I am asking you this as a friend. Please don't make me turn it into an order."

Yoko's eyes widened slightly. If Keitaro was actually going to turn a request into an order, things must really be tight. "Yer, no worries. SIR."

Yoko gave Keitaro a twisted smile as he disappeared back into the group. Shaking his head, Keitaro laughed gently to himself. 'That boy has serious lack of respect.'

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The group crawled up behind a building. A few of the soldiers began muttering nervously amongst themselves as they heard the shouting and gun firing around the corner. As like the first time, the other groups had engaged in the spirates already. Holding a hand behind him, he motioned for them to crouch down.

"Ok troops. What we're going to do is stay back here as long as possible. It's way too cramped in there as it is and adding us into the confusion will only serve to get people hurt. So we wait and see how they handle it. If needs be, I'll send in a few leaders to help out. The rest of us will stay back until its over to help with the wounded. Clear?"

More grumblings at missing out.

'At least there will be a next time for you guys this time 'round.' Keitaro thought.

Looking around the corner, everything was happening as it should. Guns, noise, chaos and screaming were rampant just like last time.

'Ok, either I change everything now or it's all as good as gone.'

Turning to face his little group, Keitaro actually talked with them instead of a telepathic message.

"Ok. It is really bad down there. So what I'm going to do is take three leaders, you know who you are now, and get into there and help. Please, don't follow me, anyone. I have a really bad feeling about this and I don't want to lose anyone. Understood?"

The soldiers looked at each other nervously. Normally, Keitaro just entered their minds with the directions of what he wanted done. For him to actually talk to them really meant something was up. And it couldn't be good. After a few seconds, a few quiet "Yes Sir's" reached Keitaro's ears. Smiling, he turned and disappeared into the shadows trailed by three leaders. Now alone, the group didn't really know what to do. They sat there as the noise and fighting reached their ears from around the corner. Some began drawing in the dirt to pass time. Eventually one of them piped up with a novel idea.

"How 'bout a game of 2 by 4 naughts and crosses?"

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Keitaro crept along, keeping close to the wall. Looking around the final corner, he shivered apprehensively.

The warehouse.

Turning to face his three leaders, he signalled them in closer.

"Ok. We are going into that warehouse over there. Inside I am expecting to find no less than Twenty spirates. Probably more like Fifty or even Sixty. Now, what I need done is for you three to stun as many as you possibly can. Jill, you go left. Kerry, Axel, you two go right. See anything that looks fainter than a rock, pump it full of energy. I want these things so charged that our hair stands on end. I'll follow behind and trap all spirates left immobile."

The two youngest of the four looked at each other quickly.

"Sir? I thought we were going in to help Hatsune and Uuji's groups?"

Keitaro faced Kerry. "Trust me, what we will do in there will help them more than if we just barrelled into that ally way, firing into the air. If you aren't up to it, you can go back if you wish."

Kerry's face dropped. Not what she wanted to hear. "Sir, if I took even one step back I would consider it a mission failed."

Keitaro grinned as the supportive words hit his ears. "Well, load them carriers. We're making ghost flambé this evening."

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The old doors creaked as they were pushed from their resting place. The group flinched at every little noise made, even the smallest squeak sounding like human size rat having its tail stood on. Finally the door was wide enough for everyone to creep through. Crawling into the room, Keitaro quickly made it into the corner. Joined by his little group, Axel looked around.

"Sir…we are the only ones here."

Keitaro ignored the statement. He glared around the room trying to find anything that resembled a ghost. He saw nothing.

'No, no, NO! Where are all the spirates?'

Motioning for the three to stay, Keitaro got up and cautiously made his way into the middle of the room. Keitaro almost felt the unseen eyes bore holes into his body. They were most definitely not alone in here. Turning around slowly, Keitaro looked into the shadow of the corner. Slowly, he raised a finger over his lips. Seeing them nod, he sighed softly.

'How to get them to show themselves…they seem attracted to fear and hyperventilation…ok, try that then.'

Keitaro began taking deep breaths and tried to bring up every fear he had about being along in the dark.

The time of when he was banished into the meteor crater came to mind. The rock that had hit earth had been gigantic. At least half earths size. Thankfully, it only clipped the edge of the planet. But even then, the chunk taken out shrouded the earth in dust, turning it into a murky heaven of bandits and murders for almost ten years. When things calmed down, things in the hole had gotten eerie. New plants and animals evolved in there, due to all sorts of new types of minerals that lay thousands of kilometres down in the earth. Every tree was a deep green, almost to the point of black. The animals that dwelt in there had become accustom to minimal light. The towering cliffs that surrounded the impact sight cut out all but three hours of light to the forbidden zone. Many animals in there now were of humanoid resemblance. But after that, they were of their own kind. Most had no eyes and relied on echolocation to find pray. The bigger of the creatures in there were double the size of humans, equip with deadly close combat weapons, mostly comprising of razer sharp retractable claws and projectiles that could slice a tree in half. Many of the worlds armies copied these, resulting in catastrophic losses during any war. There was then a gap in animal sizes as the next biggest were no larger than a dog. But what they lacked in size, they made up in shear aggression. Every single one had poison so strong that if even a single drop entered the body, the victim would be dissolved from the inside out within a matter of minutes. Keitaro had the unfortunate pleasure to see this happen first hand. As expected, the area was strictly out of bounds. The only people ever to enter were Ascended Professors, the highest ranked military personnel and condemned criminals. For some reason, Keitaro had been accused of murdering over two thousand people during a massively botched enquiry into an entire islands destruction. But thanks to his inability to die, Keitaro had made it out of the forbidden zone completely unharmed. But during the time in there, he lost count of how many times he should have died from unimaginable wounds that completely covered his body, turning every single inch of skin to red. That along with the excruciatingly painful poison that cursed within his veins for months after meant that more than a few of his dreams still haunted him with these images.

Coming back from his less than pleasant memories, Keitaro found himself sweating heavily along with his breathing deep and irregular. Looking around, he made out forms swirling in the walls, a head or arm appearing every now and then.

'Their hungry tonight.'

Watching every single movement, Keitaro waited until he saw something in the corner of his eye. Whipping to face the incoming spirate, he fired a telekinetic blast at it. The scream that echoed out upon impact brought a smirk to Keitaro's mouth. But it was short lived as he heard a few gun shots crack out. Turning, he saw bloated spirates floating around, their bodies overloaded with energy. His three leaders were picking out any spirate that flew through the wall with perfect aim, not one making it any further than five feet from the wall. Slowly the room began to crackle as excess energy sparked between the spirates, the zaps causing them to scream in pain. A sadistic smile spread across Keitaro's mouth as he heard the cries.

'Music to my ears.'

He began to run forward, re-shifting up a massive box of air. Holes formed in its sides if a spirate got too close, the apparition being sucked in. It quickly began filling up as more and more spirates became captured. But the ghosts still poured in through the walls, their numbers hardly slowing. Looking over at his group, Keitaro saw Axel shrug his shoulders, ammo all gone. And from what he could make out, Jill and Kerry were almost out too. Concentrating, Keitaro connected with them.

"A few shots before you run out of ammo, leave. Immobilise any spirates that try to follow you. I will take care of things here."

He saw them look at him in confusion before quickly return to target practice.

"Sir, what do you mean? You know you can't do this on your own."

Keitaro smiled at their concern.

"Don't worry. I have a new idea on how to kill them outside of capturing the human host. But the problem is if you get caught up in it, you will probably get injured. So please, return to the group. Get reloaded and come back. If I haven't got it sorted by then, well, you'll be ready to go again. Fair?"

He saw them look questioningly at each other. They couldn't deny his logic but then, they didn't want to miss this 'new idea'. After a few seconds, Keitaro saw them nod once in his direction before moving away. Thankfully, only two or three spirates saw them and were quickly disposed of. Watching them leave the room, Keitaro focused, closing and locking the door behind them. Turning to look back at the incoming spirates, he let his eyes flare a deep black as the sadistic smile spread across his face again.

'Now for the fun part. Lets see just how loud forty or so spirates can scream as one.'

Gathering up the last of the floating balloons, Keitaro raised his Ki. Channelling his energy, a crackling black aura engulfed his hands. Waiting a few seconds for the charge to complete, Keitaro grinned and fired it off into his air box.

Instantly the box lit up in a black light, multitudes of agonised screams exploding out. Shielding his eyes against the anti-light, Keitaro saw, quite to his satisfaction, that all the spirates began to pop, their charred remains falling to land softly on the bottom of his cube. Eventually, the sparking black energy began to subside, leaving just a slightly warped space of air with a whole lot of ash sitting near the base of it. Smiling happily, Keitaro released the box from his hold. Now with no power source, the transparent cube vanished, the smoky remains of the spirates drifting lazily towards the floor. At that moment, the doors burst open revealing Kerry, Axel and Jill, all armed to the teeth with all sorts of new weapons. Quickly surveying the area, they saw that the spirate threat was gone. In the middle of the room stood Keitaro, looking quite content with himself as the last of a grey dust drifted to his feet. He smiled as they looked at him questioningly.

Jill began walking towards Keitaro, wanting to make sure he hadn't been attacked.

"Sir, what happened to all the spirates?"

Keitaro just smiled.

"I beat 'em."

Jill raised an eyebrow. Nearly asking a question, she slowly closed her mouth. Why bother. It's not like she ever got a straight answer out of the unusual boy standing in front of her anyway. Dropping her gun to have it hang lazily at her side, she sighed and turned. Walking towards the door, she passed two surprised leaders. She gave them a gentle shove to bring them round.

"Come now laddies. Time to call it a night."

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Well, that's chapter 4. I am trying not to rush things too much, so it should be an easy read...at least, I'm trying. Did finish this about 11 last night though so there may be one or two errors I missed. Please forgive.