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All of the Pieces
[Episode Nineteen]
I've Listened to Preachers
Wherein there are two terrible approaches.
Touya jumped back as the disgruntled mechanic swung a tire iron at him. The very large human shouted something in Russian that the shinobi could only assume was a curse, his massive fists glowing as they squeezed tighter around the impromptu weapon. The mob behind the man, their eyes all glazed over with madness, followed with a chorus of their own approving howls. "It seems that we're back on track, Jin."
"Must be," Jin hummed from his safe place, hovering with his legs crossed about fifteen feet from the ground. Or, at least, what he had assumed was a safe place. His ears twitched in irritation at the screeching grandmother below him as he dodged a set of knitting needles thrown at his head. "Looks like the whole town's been hit with the crazy stick."
Touya looked behind him at the sound of something crackling. He tilted his head in confusion at the sight of a young boy, no older than three or four, throwing small fireballs at a goat; the animal easily avoiding the clumsy attempts. "This makes no sense, they attack without pattern or reason. Whatever is causing this, I don't believe it to be an intentional effect."
"I'd say that looked pretty intentional," Jin said curiously, his head tilted up to the sky. The flash of light above him was followed a shortly by the sound of the explosion, and he could make out the outline of a plane in the dark blanket of smoke that had long ago replaced the sky.
The ice demon jumped up to a rooftop to avoid the angry mob around him as he scanned the skies, his keen eyes quickly spotting movement not far from the plane. Black wings. "Tengu! Jin, that must be them!"
The Wind Master didn't need to hear another word, he was already headed up. As he closed in on the one-sided aerial battle, he had intended to go to his friends first, but the tengu had other plans. The winged-creature was preparing to attack again, and Jin knew that another hit would destroy the aircraft before anyone on board had a chance. He whirled his arm as he flew, winding up a tornado around his fist, and collided with the tengu's beak like a missile.
As the beast tumbled back through the smoke, a second swooped in before Jin could even think of a rescue plan. Talons locked around his shoulder, digging into skin, and spun him around to face his next opponent. The bird demon let out a horrible mix between a squawk and a shout, a gnarled dagger that smelled like acid coming up to meet Jin's throat.
The Wind Master smiled, his canines peeking from his lips in true amusement. "You've made a mistake, friend."
The parachutes were on fire, and Lieutenant Grayson had decided, definitively, that this was the worst day of his life. It didn't help that the short demon in black was awake now and apparently threatening to set the rest of the plane on fire.
"Hiei, you might wanna hold onto something!" Kuwabara shouted as he grabbed the bewildered Lieutenant Grayson and forced him down into a seat.
"Major, we have no clear path to land, we'll break up on impact!" Marsh shouted, pounding her fists against her control panel as none of her readouts would respond.
"Yup," Matapang grunted in the affirmative, still wrestling with the yoke, trying to level off as the plane careened downward. Even if it was hopeless, he would try to the very end. He spared a look down to his legs as he felt a strange crawling sensation. His heart nearly stopped beating when he realized that a web of vines was growing up from the floor, surrounding himself and Lieutenant Marsh. "What the–"
Yusuke leaned into the cockpit between the two officers, rapping his knuckles against the windshield. He looked back, gaining a nod of approval from Kurama as the cabin started to look a bit like a jungle. They had already depressurized, so the plan couldn't really hurt as far as Yusuke was concerned.
As far as the Major was concerned... well, he was just concerned. "What are you doing? No no no..." he stammered as Yusuke smiled and pressed his index finger against the windshield.
The blast of the Spirit Gun wasn't as loud as Matapang had anticipated; the act itself seemed completely silent, even as it disintegrated the glass and acrylic layers of the windshield. The only boom came from the sound of the wind abruptly rushing in. If they hadn't already lost cabin pressure from the last explosion, the sudden shift in air would have blown the ear drums out of every human on board. He quickly grabbed his oxygen mask, and nodded approvingly when he saw that Lieutenant Marsh had already beat him to doing the same.
As they rapidly approached the ground behind the blue stream of light, the humans in the cockpit could only watch in awe as the energy ripped into the earth, carving a trough through trees, dirt, and stone to give them a clear landing pad. The Major had managed to correct their angle just enough to prevent the entire fuselage from collapsing on impact, but the landing gear did not fare as well. The wheels snapped as soon as they touched down, sending the plane sailing forward on its belly.
What was left of the right wing snapped off, the shift in weight rolling the plane to the left. The remaining wing broke under the pressure, grinding off against the walls of the ditch, and taking a chunk of the fuselage with it. When the aircraft finally came to a stop on its side and the dust settled, Yusuke let go of his death grip on one of the control panels and set to ripping the vines from around his ankles.
"Everybody alive?" the Mazoku coughed, certain he had inhaled a few pebbles. The plane was on its left side now, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Grayson laying back in their seats, while Hiei and Lyra dangled from their airborne seats on the right.
"I hurt too bad to be dead, so yeah," Kuwabara grunted as he tried to sit up.
"Kurama, you and I are going to have a word when this is all finished," Hiei hissed as he cut through the vines pinning him to the now-roof of the plane and dropped down to glare at the fox, sheathing his katana with a purposeful click.
Kurama gave a small smile as he helped Grayson out of his web. "Of course, I'm sure these words will be entertaining."
Hiei was about to bite back when something crashed into the ground just a couple of yards from the wreckage, a cloud of dust and black feathers surrounding a lump that had once been a tengu. Jin floated effortlessly down next to the fleshy meteorite, making no more sound than the feathers that delicately fell next to the body in the crater. His red hair danced like a flame in the current of wind surrounding his body, his ears wiggling in satisfaction.
Yusuke was not impressed. "You could have jumped in to help before our plane was blown to shit," he grumbled as he dusted himself off.
Jin rolled his eyes and pulled a communicator out from his waistband, tapping it with his fingernail. "How was I supposed to know you nits were even close if you don't keep me in the loop? I don't keep this goofy lookn' mirror on me to check my mascara, y'know."
Yusuke patted his pocket where his communicator sat idle, pursing his lips in thought. Maybe Keiko had been right about him being absolutely terrible at calling...
"Who, and or what, the hell are you?" Matapang grunted as he stepped out of the wreckage. His hips and back popped in protest from the abuse, his inner Danny Glover quick to remind him that he was, indeed, too old for this shit.
Kurama opened his mouth to introduce Jin, but the breezy demon beat him to the punch. "Jin the Windmaster, air support extraordinaire!" he announced with a proud thumb pointed to his chest.
"You speak English?" Kurama asked, his brow arching almost imperceptibly.
"Yup!" Jin crowed in excitement. "I watched a lot of American movies at Genkai's place, got tired of reading subtitles."
Kuwabara cleared his throat, starting to feel a little left out as the pool of people around him not speaking his language increased. "So, what's the situation? Why did you call us out here? I thought that the Spirit Cannon would have blown anything interesting to bits."
"After hearing about the decimation in India from Jin, I expected as much," a calm voice emanated from the burnt remains of forest that surrounded the group. In true shinobi form, Touya stepped out of the shadows that he had been a silent part of. It hadn't been too hard for him to follow the descent of the flaming aircraft and catch up to his friends, especially not with the brilliant flash of the spirit gun to light his way.
"I investigated the explosion site and found no trace of whomever the target might have been, but the surrounding areas began experiencing some unusual effects. The nearest town to the west inexplicably erupted into violence, humans attacking each other and destroying buildings without any evident cause," the ice demon stepped passed the bloody lump of tengu, sparing a half-disgusted, half-impressed look between it and the Windmaster. "Before the media completely blacked out, I watched the news reports as more towns began exhibiting the same behavior. It started to look like a path, so I followed. I lost the trail for a short while, but found my way back at the town just north of here."
"So something is traveling, and spreading madness in its wake," Hiei didn't bother phrasing it as a question. Knowing that he was standing on a hunting trail focused all of his awareness to his surroundings, previous quarrels with a certain fox quickly forgotten.
"Yeah, and it's frustratin' as hell," Jin lamented as he picked at his ear. "Whatever this thing is, it doesn't have a regular energy pattern. Sometimes we feel it, strong as a swig from Chu's personal reserve, other times it isn't there at all. Like a firefly blinking in and out and– are you just gonna leave her up there all day?" he veered off course as he spotted Lyra still dangling from her vine-wrapped seat, a small smirk of amusement on his lips.
She hung there, silently fuming at being completely and utterly forgotten. "Good question!" she howled, but all pretense of intimidation was ruined by the image of her arms and legs flopping down like a rag doll.
Kurama willed the vines to loosen and gently lower the angry human to solid ground before they retreated and disappeared altogether. "My apologies," he said quietly, almost, almost hiding the mirth in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah," Lyra huffed as she straightened her clothes and patted her hair down. She made her way over to the Major and his Lieutenants as they rummaged through the wreckage to find whatever bits of functioning equipment they could. She placed a gentle hand over Marsh's as she tried to turn on the mangled radio receiver, shaking her head. "Probably not a good idea to call for help just yet. If there are more tengu out there your rescuers will be shot down right along with us. We need to handle whatever is going on down here first."
Marsh looked at Lyra's hand over hers and bowed her head quickly to hide the ghost of a blush that rose on her cheeks. She turned to the Major for his approval, and distraction, and got a silent nod. "Marsh, Grayson, let's establish a perimeter. Every scrap of this wreckage is classified tech, we guard it until cleanup can get here," Matapang ordered, checking his sidearm to assure it hadn't been damaged.
"Don't know what you expect us to do with these, but okay," Grayson muttered at his own sidearm, just out of earshot of the Major. He grimaced at the dust and ash that coated the weapon, and blew on it to clean it up. The ash flew up and tickled his nose, triggering a loud sneeze.
"What the fuck?!" Marsh screeched and stumbled back over a chunk of fuselage, her face painted with shock.
"Grayson? Grayson!" Matapang shouted as he turned to look in all directions, "where are you?!"
Lieutenant Grayson tilted his head at his comrades' obvious stupidity. He hadn't moved an inch, after all. He held out his hand to wave at them, but his heart sank into his stomach at what he saw.
Or rather, didn't see.
"I'm invisible! Oh shit! Ohshitshitshit..." he spun around like a madman in an attempt to see any part of himself, but to no avail. All anyone could see of him was the dust kicked up from the ground as he scrambled in circles.
"Uh, is there something you left out, Touya?" Yusuke asked as he watched the hectic set of foot prints spin around themselves.
"We have noticed that many of the humans that have been infected by the madness have also been developing powers," the ice demon said. "I haven't seen the effect happen so quickly, however."
"Probably means were gettin' closer to it," Jin supposed.
"Or it is getting closer to us," Kuwabara shivered despite himself. Being without his spirit awareness was a cold, naked feeling that he was growing to hate.
"Is there any way to reverse–" Lyra was interrupted by a sudden flash of a fist in her periphery. She moved to duck, but Matapang already had Lieutenant Marsh in a full-nelson before she could close the distance. She shrieked and flailed in his grasp, her eyes glazed over and lifeless, but her body in full attack mode.
Matapang grunted with effort as the lieutenant tried to wriggle from his hold and claw her way toward Lyra. She stomped on his instep in an attempt to break free, but he gritted through the pain and repositioned his arms into a choke hold, dragging her backwards as he did so to keep her off balance. After a few short moments of struggle, Marsh fell limp and the Major set her gently on the ground. "Plant boy–"
"Kurama," the fox interjected.
"Kurama, tie her down before she wakes up," he ordered, his tone livid. "And somebody tell me what the fuck is going on with my officers!"
Lyra placed a calming hand on the Major's shoulder, but he quickly jerked away. She tied not to take it too personally, the poor guy had just choked out his own lieutenant, after all. Trust might be a bit of an issue. "There is a supernatural force around here that has been causing humans to go mad and gain strange abilities they didn't have before."
"Why was I not informed of this possibility before we came to this hellhole?! What if it starts to effect me, what if... where's Grayson?" Matapang scanned the area, eyes alert.
"I'm sure he's around here somewhere," Lyra tried to keep her voice even, but the Major had grabbed her by the shoulders with an iron grip.
"There is a potentially hostile invisible guy wandering around here. With a gun," he enunciated his last few words by shaking Lyra's shoulders with each syllable.
A shot echoed in the clearing, a ring piercing everyone's ears at the sound. Within a blink, Hiei had sprung towards the muzzle flash and tackled the unseen Grayson, and Matapang had instinctively thrown himself and Lyra to the ground. The group looked around in the heavy silence that followed, the demons unconcerned for themselves, but worried for their human companions.
"Kuwabara!" Yusuke shouted, breaking the eerie calm as a flush of red grew from his friend's side, staining his white muscle shirt with the brazen color.
Kuwabara looked down at himself, his motion robotic as the sudden shock of pain temporarily made him forget how to move his own body. His legs crumpled and he fell to his knees, his hands finally remembering how to function and rushing up to grasp at the hole in his flesh. He made no sound, mesmerized by the hot blood seeping through his fingers. After brushing bullets off so easily with his battle aura, he'd taken for granted how much getting hit with one would actually hurt.
The Mazoku was by him in an instant, the others quickly gathering in a protective circle. Hiei unsheathed his katana, the black of his eyes growing deeper than black had any right to be, and had the blade against the ghostly neck of the struggling human underneath him.
"Hiei, no!" Kuwabara shouted and threw his arm out, wincing from the motion. "He isn't in control, it isn't his fault. I'll be..." he faltered through his ragged breathing and forced a smile, "I'll be fine. I was jacked up worse than this after tangling with Rinku!"
Hiei relaxed the taut muscles in his neck and sheathed his sword, silently cursing himself for giving into anger so easily. Over Kuwabara, of all people. He tried to not look disgusted with himself as he removed one of his belts and hogtied the growling, invisible lump beneath him.
Matapang approached the bloodied Kuwabara with a medical kit he had dug from the wreckage, only to be stopped by the bone-crushing grip of Yusuke. The Mazoku narrowed his eyes at the man that was getting too close to his human. He didn't bother to speak, knowing that the Major wouldn't understand a word of it, but the look was more than enough to convey the message.
'Don't you fucking touch my brother.'
The Major took a deep breath, fighting back his first instinct to start swinging at being held like that. "I can help. I know more about gunshot wounds than any of you, I'm willing to bet on it."
"Yusuke," Kurama whispered with a cool stoicism that brought the former detective back to reality.
Yusuke released his grip and nodded for the Major to go ahead, snatching the holstered sidearm from his hip before he could make any protest. The human hadn't shown any signs of being affected by the madness yet, but recent events had proven that the switch could be instantaneous, and he would not hesitate to rip Matapang's head off if necessary.
Everyone stood quietly, blood pumping and auras on high-alert as the Major cleaned the wound and stitched it up. Something was wrong, even Lyra and Kuwabara could feel it, despite their missing energy. Hushed, stale air had replaced the wind and the sounds of the distant fire. Every breath, every scuff of a shoe booming loud in the void. They all felt as if they were standing on the tracks and a noiseless train had its headlight pointed at them.
The snip of the scissors brought all eyes back to Kuwabara as Matapang completed the knot in his final stitch. The Major's hands were shaking, his breathing nearly as rough as Kuwabara's now. He let out a shaky sigh and sat back in the dirt, scooting himself away from his patient. His eyes carried a tinge of panic as he looked up to the red fox next to him.
"Get me... get me away from everyone, before it happens to me," Matapang said through his teeth as they began to clamp together against his will.
Before Kurama could even reach down to help the Major up, the air in front Kuwabara began to ripple like a mirage, a ball of prismatic light growing around it. Jin popped over and placed a hand on Kuwabara's back as he started to shake like a leaf. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the human looked up at him with blank, white eyes.
"Ay, what's this creepiness, then?" Jin floundered as he took a step back.
Kuwabara's mouth began to move, but the voice that came out of him belonged to someone else. Fearful and distorted, a feminine voice called out, "he is coming!"
Lyra felt the voice crawl through every nerve in her body, remnants of dreams playing through her mind. "Kannon."
The dead stillness of the air gave way to a flood of energy, sinister tidal waves of power sucking the air from every lung. The smoldering trees began to snap as something massive plodded toward them, slow and deliberate. Whatever was approaching them was darker than shadow, completely swallowing the orange glow of the surrounding embers as it came closer.
"Run or die," Kannon warned.
[AN] I have a confession, the first little snippet of this episode with the little boy was inspired by my goofball of a husband. Every time he plays Skyrim he launches every goat he sees with a fireball spell, and now I've gotten into the habit of it as well, so the little boy was a shameless nod to his derpyness. I know that I've been very spotty with my updates, and I apologize. I have a new schedule, and it's been playing hell on my chronic illness, but I think I'm getting back into the groove. I'm super thankful for the love I've gotten in reviews, messages, and on Tumblr!
Today's episode title comes from Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, a song that I have a massive love/hate relationship with because it was pretty much the only damn song my local rock radio station played growing up.
Much thanks to my wonderful reviewers from last episode, Baoh joestar and casjowar!