Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is owned by people other than me. I own nothing and claim no rights to the show.
**C&C, public or private, is appreciated. Since most of the fic is already written, we prefer grammar help. If you have a burning desire to give other C&C though, we will take it with a smile.**
by:
Ashes2ashes: slayer0@Zoomnet.net
AsheRhyder: ashrhyder@yahoo.com
RAGE
Chapter Eleven
Logan awoke to the scent of slightly burned meat.
'Funny,' he thought, 'I don't remember falling asleep again...' He stood up and pulled on his jacket; having left it over top his sleeping bag when he fell asleep. It was a silly little tradition that he had picked up in Japan, but it helped keep heat in during the night.
The boy, Ryouga, was already up and sitting by the camp fire, over which a small animal's carcass was roasting.
'Stranger still,' the older man paused. 'Don't know that many animals of that size up here with that much mass..... 'cept......' He paled.
"Ryouga-san, what are you eating?" Logan asked as the boy munched on a skewered piece of meat that must have been done before the rest. Green-brown eyes glanced up to him in slight surprise.
"Ohayo, Logan-san." Ryouga shrugged. "I killed a wolverine for breakfast. Nasty little critter that he was, he's got plenty of meat on him."
The Lost Boy failed to notice his companion look a little green.
"A wolverine?" Logan's face screwed up in a grimace.
"That's what it looks like," Ryouga replied, tossing the pelt, already strung out to dry, at
him.
'The boy's quick,' the X-man noted sourly. 'Fast, clean worker.....'
"Ryouga-san, you do realize that wolverines are an endangered species, don't you?" The wild-haired man glowered at his younger student. Ryouga shrugged, and continued to chew on the meat.
"Really?" He took a large bite, and then checked the roast. "Can't see why. They taste awful . . . Damn thing was pretty mean and unfriendly, too." Logan felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of his neck again.
"Ryouga-san, you are one of the oddest people I've met, and trust me, I've met some people."
Ryouga glared.
----
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shone brightly on a grassy meadow. A cool breeze ruffled a field of wild flowers sending fragrant petals floating into the breeze. Song birds chirped in lush evergreen trees. All of these factors would have awed any tree hugging nature lover.
The two men standing in the meadow, however, had never been big tree huggers. Well, the younger of the two had hugged a few trees in his time but not in the same connotation.
"Ok, sensei, what now?" Ryouga looked around at the sickening display of nature's beauty. He had seen enough "scenic routes" to last him twenty lifetimes.
"Well, first, finding yer calm center-"
"Ah, hell, not that again."
"--is not what ya want to do."
"Oh." Ryouga scratched his head. "Then what DO you do?"
Logan sat on the ground and motioned for Ryouga to join him. The pupil reluctantly sat down on the dew covered grass.
"Ya can't get rid o' yer anger. It's part o' ya. Trying to rid yourself of it would be like denying yourself. Bottling it up is even worse. It will eventually come out, not matter how hard ya try. One day ya could wake up in a pool o' blood and it not be yer own." He stopped and gazed at the sky in quiet contemplation. Ryouga stared at the sky also, dark visions flashing through his mind.
"Ya can't control it fully, but ya cannot let it control ya, either. Ya can take it in stride and let yer anger work for you." Ryouga crinkled his eyebrows in confusion.
"How do I do that?"
"Anger can be a strong motivation when ya don't let yourself be blinded by it. Red, searing, hot rage can't be controlled. But cold fury can be." Logan coughed to clear his throat.
"Not used to talking this much at once, huh, Logan-san?"
"No." Silence hung in the air for several minutes.
"So that's it? Can't get rid of it, can't bottle it up, take some cold fury and call me in the morning?" Ryouga grimaced.
"Shut up kid. I'm thinking all right? I never had to do this before."
The two sat in silence again for several moments. Ryouga idly pulled pieces of grass out of the ground.
"Hey, sensei, you got any gum?" Logan's eyebrow twitched.
"No, Ryouga I don't."
"Damn."
Suddenly Logan looked up from his musings.
"Do ya know that moment right before ya fall into a blind rage, where yer conscious o' what yer doing, but ya can't seem to stop?"
Ryouga nodded. He knew it all too well. Even before he fell into the spring, he had done it.
"Right at that moment, imagine yourself standing over the dead bodies o' yer friends with their blood dripping from yer hands." Logan glanced over at him. "Feel angry anymore?"
His pupil looked back at his haunted eyes and shook his head.
"Good. And that's the end o' the lesson."
Ryouga shook himself out of his reverie. "That's all?!"
Logan shrugged.
"If ya were looking for the wise man on the mountain yer not gonna to find him here, kid."
Ryouga wrinkled up his nose.
"I have a name you know."
"Of course ya do . . . kid." Logan smirked.
Ryouga glared at him and stood up, brushing stray grass off his lap. "Is that all your years of wisdom has taught you, old man?" Logan stood up also.
"What happened to sensei?" Logan glanced at his younger companion out of the corner of his eye.
"This was a waste of time! I should have never come here! All these weeks were wasted searching for you! After all I went through . . . what have I got?!" He narrowed his eyes at Logan, the corners of his green orbs turning crimson.
"Blood on your hands."
The lost boy blinked in shock as the redness drained from his eyes. 'What?' Realization hit him like a landslide.
"You . . . you tricked me!" He shook his head as he realized he was getting angry again and plopped back down on the cool grass. Logan sat down cross-legged again.
"And it was really easy to do to ya. Does that name still bother ya? Kid?" Ryouga looked down at the ground and let his bangs fall over his eyes.
"No, it doesn't; go ahead and call me that."
Logan nodded.
"Good, because it's just a name." Logan looked back at his pupil and heard a small snort from Ryouga.
"At least my name isn't Pantyhose."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Never mind."
"Ya can't let yourself be goaded into things. Use yer brain for once." 'Heh ' Logan grimaced. '. . .I feel like a bit of a hypocrite now . .'
"My mom used to say I got my brains from my father."
Logan raised an eyebrow again. 'His father must have taken a few too many hits to the head . . ' "Why do names bother ya so much, Ryouga-san?" He turned his gaze to the sky again. Ryouga looked back at the ground ashamed.
"When I was young . . .I used to be smaller than all the other boys, a runt. I was alone a lot of the time and I had to learn martial arts to be able to defend myself. They'd call me names like . . runt . . .and shrimp. One day I just couldn't take it anymore and I attacked them . . .I put them all in the hospital." He blushed in shame. "They were just stupid kids . . . "
"Why arn't you angry about it anymore?"
Ryouga raised his head and met his sensei's eyes. "Well I'm older now. I know better." Realization hit him over the head again. "Oh."
"See, ya can't let yourself be manipulated like-"
"Hey, you don't understand! There's this guy I know, and he always calls me names. He's cruel and mean and treats his fiancee badly! Cheats on her all the time too! He calls me stuff like pig-boy and pork-butt and--"
Logan shook his head and broke into his younger companion's rant.
"Why does he do that?"
Ryouga seemed to calm down and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, he likes to make me look bad in front of Akane and…"
"Because he knows it will make ya mad?"
Ryouga turned deathly pale and froze in shock for several seconds. Finally, he smashed his fist in his palm.
"SO THAT'S WHY HE DOES IT! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!"
Logan fell forward in the grass.
--
It was raining. Logan didn't feel like trekking through the rain, and Ryouga didn't dare, so they sat hunched over inside a tent, listening to the rain pour down on the water-proof nylon. Ryouga carved absently at a chunk of wood he picked up somewhere, and Logan's claws snikt-ed in and out. The bad weather grated on both of their nerves.
"Funny." The older man scowled. "I don't seem to remember Canada getting this much rain... usually, it just snows....." Ryouga grunted.
"Rain follows Junsenkyo cursed people like tornadoes in Kansas," the Lost Boy snorted.
"Hn." The elder popped his claws out, examined the sharp edge, and found it to be lacking. The second set shot out, and for a long time, the only sounds were metal against metal, or metal against wood.
"How do you do that?" The green-eyed boy asked after a while.
"Do what?" Logan looked up from his sharpening.
"That... claw thing..." Ryouga gestured with the knife in his hand at the talons from his teacher's hands. "The other day, you said I had them, and I saw somethin' weird..... but I can't seem to get them to come out...."
Logan scowled.
"Tense your arm," he commanded. Ryouga complied, his abnormally dense muscles bunching together.
'He's right,' the boy realized. 'For someone of my strength, I really do look scrawny.....'
"Now, just tense the muscles in yer forearm."
"Eh?" Ryouga's eyes went wide.
"Yer forearm. The muscles. Tense 'em."
"Er..........." The younger man tried, but the closest he could get to the muscles that ran through his forearm were his biceps.
"Look, imagine the claws coming out. Don't force 'em, they're a part o' yer body, just like yer hands." Logan sighed. He would never have believed in a hundred years that he would have had to explain how he retracted and extended his claws...
Ryouga's emerald eyes closed halfway as he exhaled his stress. SNIKT! Three claws shot out of the top of his hand. He yelped in surprise, and the claws retracted again.
Logan laughed.
"Now, do the same thing again, only, just think o' one claw."
"That hurt......." Ryouga pouted. "A lot."
"Don't tell me ya can't handle a little pain, kid..." Logan snorted.
"I'm serious! It takes an awful lot to make me hurt." Ryouga glared at him.
"You'll get used to it." The older man shook his head. The Lost Boy scowled, and the middle claw shot out of his upraised fist.
Logan was laughing for the next five minutes.
----
"Hey, Logan, is this it?" Ryouga spread his arms out and spun around, indicating the large area at the top of the hill.
"Yeah, this is the place." Logan gazed over at the horizon, the rising sun shone in a brilliant splash of orange. "Nice place," Logan muttered to himself. Ryouga rolled his eyes.
"Yeah wonderful place for a picnic," he answered sarcastically. Logan scowled. Ryouga walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. A churning river lay at its base. "Heh, that's a long way down."
He looked over to his older companion who was staring in a daze at the sunrise.
"So can you tell where we are now?"
Logan continued to stare at the sunrise.
"Hello?! Logan, are you paying attention to me?!" His mentor of sorts shook out of his reverie.
"Yeah, I think I know where we are now."
"Are you sure this place is safe? It looks like it would collapse, catch us in a landslide, and send us careening to a very painful fall into the sharp jagged rocks."
Logan nearly face-faulted off the cliff. Thankfully, he didn't, because if he had, he would have missed Victor Creed's entrance.
The larger man leapt onto the plateau, glaring darkly at Logan and at Ryouga, who seemed confused.
"Creed." Logan growled.
"Hey, Runt!" The tall blond glared at his shorter rival. "Think ya picked a damn hard enough place ta get to?!"
"Obviously not." Logan shrugged. "After all, yer here."
"Ano... Logan-san? Who's he?" Ryouga tapped his teacher on the shoulder. Creed took one look at the yellow-and-black attire and his mood worsened.
"Hey, Runt, what's Runt Jr. doing here? When'd you get a new woman?" Sabertooth grinned darkly. "A new frail?"
"That's Sabertooth, a.k.a. Victor Creed." Logan growled to Ryouga. "He's probably one o' the more dangerous psychos you'll meet.... he's got clawed hands, and a healing factor too. I don't think yer martial arts does fer much good against his kind."
"I don't care..." Ryouga's eyes shifted from dark green to ruddy red. "HE CAN'T TALK THAT WAY ABOUT MY MOTHER!!!" The Lost Boy charged the much taller man before Logan could pull him back.
"Ryouga! Don't!" The older man yelled, making a grab for the youth's collar, but the force of his lunge, combined with the fact that he missed, sent him face first in the dust.
"Ha!" Sabertooth laughed. "He's just a kid!"
"I'll show you!" Ryouga roared, "DIE!" His fist shot out, grazing Sabertooth's side, but it wasn't enough to do more than send the taller man spinning. Unfortunately, Sabertooth used the momentum to his advantage.
Logan looked up in time to see his arch nemesis spin around and violently kick his student to the very edge of the ledge. Only the young man's honed skills saved him, as he rolled with the blow and flipped up onto his hands.
"Ryouga?!" His keen sight caught the younger boy balancing precariously by his fingertips, upside down no less.
Then the ledge crumbled out from under the Lost Boy.
Ryouga's eyes were wide in shock, and all traces of Rage vanished as he plunged headfirst into the silent chasm. Neither Logan or Victor moved.
"RYOUGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
----
~No Tears
No tears I shed over the graves of the dead
crosses bared to the frigid night
the spirits whisper to me, can't you see?
death repays the endless fight
No tears . . .
No tears for the wicked & the pure
honey suckle bone, ashes to atone
blood is on mine hands
surrender to the cure
No Tears . . .
My banner's on my deathbed
I defy you to the last
damn you for making me care . . .
No tears for you
this is all your fault you know
reap what you sow, on your funeral day
the corpses arn't talking
not to me anyway
No Tears . . .
Revenge will be mine, till my dying day
your words are crumbling in decay
I'm weary of the sin
But I won't let you win
I don't care where you've been
screaming in my cell, I'll chase you to hell
No tears for you . . . . never again ~
--Ashes
Chapter Twelve
Logan and Victor glared at each other, each brandishing their claws.
"Yer a bastard, ya know that, Creed?" Logan growled. "That kid was my friend."
"I think yer emphasis should go on the was, runt." Sabertooth laughed.
"Yer gonna regret coming up here," Wolverine warned him.
Creed just laughed at him again.
"I'd like to see you make me," he grinned. Their verbal argument was cut short by a huge splash.
FWOOOOOOM! Something shot out of the river half a mile below them like a bat out of hell.
"Bub, yer just gonna wish you had some hot water." Now Logan grinned wildly, stepping away from the edge.
"Running away?" Creed sneered.
"From you?" Logan shook his head. "Never."
A dark shadow fell over Sabertooth. The taller mutant looked up to see what had blocked out the light, and saw the descending, red-eyed youth that was about to shred him like paper with claws that could not have possibly existed.
"What the hell?" The blond snarled, rolling to one side as the boy landed heavily, creating a foot-deep, six-feet wide crater in the process.
"Shit!"
The rage-possessed youth nimbly spun to face his opponent, his lean crimson eyes glowing from under the shadows his thick black hair created.
"What the hell is that?!" Creed recognized the expression the lost boy wore as one of death.
"That?" Logan tilted his head towards Ryouga, who's shoulders were heaving from the jumps to the cliff top. "That's my student."
Without awaiting a further word, the dark haired boy lashed forward, his claws moving almost too fast for Sabertooth to follow. Metallic talons shredded flesh and rendered it from bones faster than it could regenerate. Sabertooth attacked back, but received nasty lesions across his arms for attempting. Finally, the larger man ducked, and tackled his opponent from below with a claw-driven uppercut. Ryouga flew backwards, but he recovered quickly. While still in mid-air, the young man flipped so as to land on his feet.
Creed, by that time, had recovered enough to take the offensive. He slashed out at Ryouga's unguarded stomach before the Lost Boy even landed, and was rewarded with the tearing of flesh. Ryouga jolted in pain, and barred his fangs, only to have Sabertooth impale his stomach with his other hand. Scarlet eyes narrowed, and the dark haired fighter plunged both his claws into Sabertooth's arms. The taller combatant jerked back, growling angrily.
Ryouga's wounds didn't slow him down in the least, though, as if he couldn't feel the pain from the regenerating flesh. Sabertooth wondered idly what could drive a man to such rage, having seen something similar in Logan's eyes. Could it really have been that one crack comment about the boy's mother?
"Shine," the word was more of a twisted growl as it was spat from Ryouga's lips. "Die." Before Sabertooth could react, cold metal claws covered in his hot blood were plunged into his chest and twisted.
"RYOUGA! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Logan roared, charging over to the quickly ending battle. "STOP!" The Lost Boy, having lost interest in his still target, turned at the sound of new, fresh prey. He lunged at the running man, only to have a wave of hot water meet him in the face. He fell to the dust as the bloody rage receded.
"Lo... Logan-san?" The Japanese youth glanced wearily at his teacher of sorts, his hazel eyes unfocused.
"It's okay, Ryouga. The battle's over. You've won. I'll take care of Sabertooth." Logan spoke calmly to the young combatant who had just taken down one of the X-men's most aggravating villains.
He glanced over to the cliff's edge... but Sabertooth was gone.
'Bastard. Must've rolled off the edge to escape,' he thought.
"Sensei?" Ryouga whispered from his place in the dust, where he hadn't moved. "Is everything all right?"
"Peachy keen, kid." Logan lied. "How are ya feelin'?"
"I'm fine, Logan-san." The lost boy pushed his slender form from the ground. "No walking carpet is going to get the best of...." He collapsed of exhaustion.
Logan chuckled.
"Sure, kid. Whatever ya say."
---
Ryouga and Logan hiked through the crisp Canadian wilderness, the chilled air nipping at any exposed skin. Neither one seemed to mind, though, both were used to extreme weather. The younger man stopped to look up at the sky.
"The sky looks pretty clear today," he noted. "Finally, a day without rain."
Logan continued to walk silently.
"It still rains more in Nerima, though." The Lost Boy scowled, and hurried to keep up with his traveling companion. "I wonder what Akane and Akar-- er... never mind." The bandanna wearing youth stumbled suddenly in the middle of his sentence, to which his older mentor merely raised an eyebrow.
"You know, it's hard to carry on a conversation when you're the only one talking." Ryouga glared.
"Oh, heh, sorry kid." Logan shrugged. "I was thinking."
"Oh, so that's where the steam came from." Ryouga smirked.
"Heh. Funny, kid." The elder glowered.
They walked in silence for a few more feet, then Ryouga spoke again. "So what are you thinking about?"
"Nothin' that ya would be concerned about." Logan snorted.
"No, really, tell me."
"Just the past...." The Canadian mutant shrugged. "The ancient past."
"Ancient?" Ryouga blinked. "What do you mean?"
Logan paused mid stride. Ryouga did the same.
"I'm older than I look, kid." The wild-haired man sighed.
"So... what, forty?" The youth guessed. "That's not that old. Trust me, I know some old people."
"I was wondering when I should tell you this." Logan leaned up against a tree and took out a cigarette. "I suppose this is as good a time as ever. The healing factor... it makes you age slower than everyone else."
"What..." Ryouga swallowed nervously. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know how old I am." Logan lit up. " But, I've been fighting since at least World War Two."
Ryouga fell onto his rear out of shock.
"I don't know if it'll work the same way it did with me...." Logan paused to take a long drag on his nicotine filled tube. "You may have a very long life ahead of you."
Ryouga's brown-green eyes shone with a deep-seeded fear.
"I think I want that sake now." He muttered, and dug a well protected glass bottle out of his pack.
"I thought that was the coward's way out?" Logan arched one of his eyebrows. Ryouga responded with a harsh glare.
"Am I..." The Lost Boy paused to swallow his terror, and while he was at it, a healthy dose of sake. "Am I going to have to live on while the rest of my friends and family grow old around me?" He knew his eyes were tearing up, but his iron resolve forced the pain down.
"It's a possibility." Logan nodded solemnly.
"Maybe... Akari can find someone who can take care of her now..." The younger whispered hoarsely, blinking in an attempt to keep the tears from falling.
"... Who's Akari, Ryouga-san?" The elder stomped out the cigarette butt, steel-colored eyes reflecting the very same emotions Ryouga radiated.
"N-n-never mind." Ryouga shook his head violently, and then took a long swig. "It's not important. "Not anymore." He sighed, and whispered even more softly than before: "I must be destined to be alone."
The older man placed his hand on Ryouga's shoulder.
"I wouldn't go down that road, Ryouga. Loved one's drift away and die, but we can't go through life not giving a damn about anything. Hell, you'll turn into Creed."
Ryouga emitted a sound akin to a soft laugh into his bottle.
"Never happen." He snorted. "Even if I went crazy, I'd still take baths regularly."
Logan chuckled.
"What the hell is his problem, anyway?" Ryouga looked up.
"More like what isn't his problem..." The X-man grumbled.
Inspiration dawned on Ryouga.
"Hey, old man, do you have any kids?" He asked bluntly. Logan almost had a heart attack from the sudden change in direction of the conversation.
"None that I know of," he glanced out of the corner of his eye. "Why?"
Ryouga coughed nervously and took another drink. "You just seem good at this sort of thing. Ahem."
"What was that, Ryouga-san?"
"Well, if you're really that old, are you telling me you've never gotten married? Started a family? Had a girlfriend?"
"What do I look like, a monk?" Logan grumbled. "I've had many relationships...... they just didn't work out."
"Gomen nasai, sensei. That was rude and inconsiderate of me." Ryouga apologized formally, bowing his head. The Lost Boy paused. Curiosity still nagged at him, but he wasn't quite sure how to word his questions so he wouldn't seem like he was butting into the other man's life.
Logan knew what he meant, though.
"Yes, most of those relationships did end in tragedy." The older man sighed. "But I would do it all over again if given the chance."
Ryouga looked worried as he voiced his next inquiry, and drank before speaking.
"All of them ended in death?"
"No..." Logan sighed, and took out another cigarette. "There were two others. One I lost to another man, although I never really had her to begin with. Another... well, she may as well be dead. I'm not really sure. It was a long time ago.... if she isn't dead, then she probably moved on."
Ryouga seemed to brighten at the small ray of hope.
"Maybe you'll find her someday?" He offered, and gulped the sake again. "You never know. Every time I'm looking for something, it always ends up being right under my nose."
"Heh." Logan smirked. "Is that optimism I'm hearing, kid?"
Ryouga sweat-dropped. ".... must be the sake."
The elder coughed, embarrassed.
"That's another thing I forgot to tell you." He leaned back on his heels. "With the healing factor, it's almost impossible to get drunk."
Ryouga glanced at the small bottle of sake in his hands.
"DAMN IT!!!!"
---
Chapter Thirteen
It was a beautiful day.
Ryouga breathed in the scent of freshly cut grass and sighed happily. He stood in a large playground filled with happily children. It reminded him of the one he had played in as a kid. A large swing set sat in the middle surrounded by a jungle gym and a slide. The small faces of the children lit up with innocent glee as they rose higher and higher.
Suddenly a little girl jumped off the swings and ran toward him. He looked down in surprise as the girl held up a small yellow flower toward him. The pink stripe in her hair reminded him of something . . . no it was better not to thank about that right now.
The little girl giggled and ran back to another girl with a long purple bow in her hair. The wind blew gently, stirring cherry blossoms in the trees and sending them into a chaotic dance in the air. He reached out and plucked one from the hair. He gazed at it in his rough and callused hand. It seemed so fragile . . .
His head turned as a high pitched giggle reached his ears. It was a little girl with long purple hair playing tag with a young boy with glasses. She'd laugh and tag him on the back, then the boy would look around bewildered. Finally he'd see her and run toward her, only to slip and fall in the mud. Laughing, the little girl would tag him again and the process was repeated. It was strangely familiar. . .
"Hey look out!" He turned in time to see a little boy in a Chinese shirt hurl a water balloon to his face.
Then everything changed.
Blood . . . cries . . . you can't go back . . .tears of the screaming . . . innocence . . .you cant go back, you can't EVER go back. Nothing is left but the cold. You don't belong there. You don't belong anywhere. Tears of innocence bade you here and you shall never return. You don't deserve happiness. You don't deserve to be loved.
You're an animal . . . an animal in cage. Give in......to the rage.
The scene solidified once more. The children were gone, their cries mere whispering wraiths. The vibrant world of color was now gray, except for the blood. It congealed and dripped off the swing sets. Pools of it collected at the bottom of the slide and long finger prints smeared down the metal sides, as if someone had been dragged from it.
He looked down at his hands. They were covered with blood.
"You don't belong here." He looked up and found the children from before glaring at him through cold, lifeless orbs. Their skin was pale and many had lesions and open wounds.
"You can never go back," the girl with the purple stripes whispered sadly. The girl with the ribbon opened her cracked lips.
"You don't belong here."
"You don't deserve happiness," the group repeated in chorus together. Ryouga fell to his knees in pain clutching his head as the voices rose in intensity.
"YOU'RE AN ANIMAL!"
"YOU DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE!"
"YOU DON'T DESERVE HAPPINESS!"
He crawled up into a fetal position and let a long cry of anguish and torment escape his lips.
---
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ryouga woke up screaming, clutching his forehead in pain. Logan ran to his side and grasped his shoulders firmly.
"Ryouga, what's wrong?" The younger boy looked up and seemed to see Logan for the first time. He looked around, half expecting to see the wraiths of the dead children hovering over him. He shuddered violently and tried to get himself under control.
"Logan, it was horrible. . . I--" his voice wavered and fell silent, afraid that he would break down completely if he kept going. He bowed his head and let his bangs fall over his eyes. He wasn't going to cry in front of Logan.
He COULDN'T cry in front of Logan. Logan was a warrior, a strong spirited adult... something Ryouga only wished he could be. And Logan hadn't cried once in all the traveling they had done together, even though there had certainly been times that he could have.
Crying wasn't an option. Crying was a sign of weakness. He wasn't going to be weak.
"Kid?" Logan nudged him. "Ya okay?"
"Yeah." Ryouga whispered and rolled over in his bedroll. "I'll be fine."
"Nightmares tell a lot about ya, Ryouga-san. They expose yer inner most fears to the light. Ya wouldn't be able to overcome yer fears if ya did not know about them." Logan met his student's eyes as the latter sat up. He saw the fear reflected in his eyes that he wouldn't allow himself to show anywhere else. The boy was getting better at controlling his emotions.
Ryouga gazed down at the dew covered grass.
"What if it's something you can't fight?"
"All ya can do is try yer best. Nothing more, or nothing less can be expected of ya."
"Logan-san?" Ryouga's deep green eyes swam with sorrow as he looked up to his teacher. "Don't... Don't you ever get nightmares? I mean, you've lived a long time..."
Logan snorted and closed his eyes.
"Yeah, kid." He sighed at last. "All the time."
"What do you see, Logan-san?" Ryouga tilted his head to the side.
"People I failed... People I should've saved... People I could've saved..." The older man's voice became increasingly quiet as he spoke. "People I loved..."
"I know about failing your loved ones..." Ryouga shuddered. "The people back home... they mean so much to me... all of them... I couldn't bear the fact that I had let them down by becoming... well..." The soft blue aura that shone from him caught Logan's attention, but the X-man kept his mouth shut for the time being.
"It's not that they're my friends," the Lost Boy continued, trying to dismiss Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo from his guilty mind. "But I mean, they've been there for me... they tried to help me... And then I go and lose control over my feelings and my body like this..." Tears built up in the corners of his deep green eyes, even as his aura started to provide more light than the moon overhead.
"Um.... kid..." Logan blinked. "You do realize you're glowing, don't you?" The elder moved to poke the boy, but drew back sharply. The moment he touched the cerulean aura, a shock-wave of depression and despair had hit him hard.
"Oh... I am, aren't I?" Ryouga blinked. "Blast... Excuse me, Logan-san." The youth meandered out of the tent and to the center of the clearing. He tilted his head back, the azure energy licking eagerly at his skin and hair, and he screamed.
"SHISHI HOKOUDAN! " A blue pillar of light shot directly into the sky above him, towering higher than any trees and several of the mountains. Two or three dazed geese fell down around him, and even higher above, the newly repaired satellite STRTRK was hit by a wave of dissipating energy.
On a side note, it took five years to get the satellite working properly again, instead of displaying an error message: The world is a dark and lonely place.
"What the hell was that?!" Logan scrambled out of the slightly scorched tent just in time to see the blue pillar start to descend back to earth. "Oh shit." His steel-blue eyes widened, and he braced himself for the impact. Ryouga stood stock still in the same position as when he had fired the blast, having barely even breathed since then.
There was a tremendous, earth-shaking crash when the massive ki attack hit the ground again. The clearing was increased a good ten feet more in diameter. The tent was blown into ashes, as were much of Logan's equipment, having not been designed to withstand such a blast. Ryouga stood unscathed by his release of energy, but Logan was not so lucky. The older man lay sprawled out on his back, eyes open wide in shock, breathing heavily as his healing factor kicked into overdrive. His flannel shirt and jeans looked like he had gotten into a scrap with Omega Red, with energy burns and lesions galore. Luckily, he was wearing his X-men uniform underneath his civilian cloths or he would have been feeling a little more than a draft in some places.
"Ryouga-kun." Logan wheezed, slowly sitting up. The Lost Boy snapped from his statuesque stance, and spun around to face his mentor.
"Logan-san!" He yelped. "Daijoubu ka? Gomen nasai de gozaru yo!"
"What?" Still dazed, Logan couldn't remember the translation for what the boy had said. "In English, kid?"
"Oops." Ryouga flushed. "Logan-san! Are you all right? I'm so sorry, honest, I'm really, really sorry!"
"It's okay, kid, I'll heal." The elder shook his head, attempting to clear some of the haze away. "However..."
"Eh?" The bandanna wearing martial artist waited while his teacher pushed himself off the ground.
"Do you always make craters when you get depressed?" The X-man gestured to the greatly indented ground around them. Trees that had been too close to the secondary energy blast were half eaten away by the fire of despair-induced power, and no other sign of life besides the two travelers existed inside the area. A bead of sweat rolled down the younger man's face.
"Oops?" Ryouga winced.
"I'll take that as a yes." Logan scowled. The youth hung his head in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, Logan-san." He whispered. "I didn't expect the blast to be so big this time."
"What was that, anyway?" The mutant stretched his healing muscles. "Some kind of bomb? Mutant power?"
"Ki blast." Ryouga answered quietly. "Shishi Hokoudan, Roaring Lion Bullet. A release of negative energy; can be done in two ways. Horizontal, a single blast, or vertical, hitting a target both on the way up, and with greater force on the way down. The latter is called a full Shishi Hokoudan, and does the greatest amount of damage."
"A Ki attack?" The X-man paled. He had heard of such things when he was in Japan years ago, but had yet to see any human perform such a maneuver. Several demons, yes, but no human.
Ryouga nodded numbly.
"Whenever I get really depressed, I've got to let the energy out, or it will poison my ki energy." He stared at the decimated ground, where only minutes earlier, there had been fine moss and grasses growing.
"The more depressed I am, the larger the blast."
A feeling of dread hit Logan in the stomach.
"You're not the only one who can do Ki attacks, are you." The older man wasn't questioning now, he stated the fact that he knew in his heart to be true.
"No." The umbrella-wielding martial artist shook his head. "My rival, Saotome Ranma, has a similar attack, but his is based on confidence. He also has mastered a technique called Hiryuu Shoten Ha, the Rising Dragon. Damn thing hurts like hell to get caught in..."
"Yeah." Logan held up his right fist, and all three claws shot out to their full length. "Maybe what ya need is a new technique… something to take your mind off o' this for a while."
"A new technique?"
"Yep. This is a little baby I came up with in a sparring match against Cyclops."
"Cyclops?" The bandanna wearing boy blinked. "Isn't that the guy with the blue uniform? Stick up his ass?"
Logan burst out laughing. He hadn't heard anyone describe the leader of the X-men in such a way, ever. It was refreshing, and a definite change from the dark atmosphere they had recently been pinned down by.
"Yeah, that's him." The older man smiled wryly. "This baby is called the Drill Claw."
"Drill Claw..." Ryouga paused, working his accent out of the English words. "Drill Claw." When he said it the second time, his accent was completely gone.
*The kid's a fast learner...* Logan noted glumly. *He might want to learn Tornado Claw, at this rate.*
"Watch me." The X-man chose his target; a large boulder five feet away, part of the debris that hadn't been completely destroyed by the Shishi Hokoudan. He shifted his weight to his left foot, balancing on the balls of both feet. He pushed off with the right, adding a spin to his lunge. His claws bore a perfect circle into the rock before he lost momentum and had to drop back.
Ryouga felt a drop of sweat run down his face.
"That's it?" He blinked, studying the three foot hole in the rock.
"Hey, it works wonders against people of flesh and blood." Logan snorted. "It's not really as easy as it looks..." The older man trailed off as his pupil chose an even larger rock, duplicated the stance, and then used small bursts of ki to help propel him as he spun through the target.
"Is that how it's supposed to be, sensei?" The Lost Boy asked from the other side of the rock with a perfect hole drilled through it.
"Yeah. Something like that." The elder felt a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach. Somehow, he knew, his pupil was going to surpass him. And quickly. The thought of something that dangerous roaming the earth...
"Sensei?" Ryouga waved his hand in front of Logan's dazed face.
"Wha--?"
"No offense, sensei, but if I wanted to break rocks, I could just do this..." One finger darted out and tapped the rock that Logan had drilled. "BAKSAI TENKETSU!" And then it was gravel.
"Great...." For a moment, Logan debated on teaching him Tornado Claw, but then realized it would be counter productive, since that technique required Rage to be building up. Maybe later, once the boy had gotten a better grip on his highly dangerous emotions…
"Like I said, kid." The X-man sighed. "It works on flesh and blood people, too. Not just yer rocks."
Ryouga blinked, then froze. "How'd you know it just worked on rocks?" He breathed.
"I know people." The older man smiled cryptically. "I've got connections."
Ryouga stretched, then did a double take at the still dark sky.
"It's still night," he gaped.
"Yeah." Logan snorted. "I'd recommend going back to sleep, kid, but there's one small problem."
The elder gestured to the tents... or rather, what was left of them. Ryouga's pack stood unhurt, but his tent was long gone. Logan's equipment was somewhere... as ashes.
Ryouga sweat-dropped.
"Oops?"
---
Disney World. The happiest place on earth.
Perfect place for a guy named Happy.
Cinderella sat on a bench, idly fanning herself. The heat was horrid in the park and her shift was only half over. If another little brat tried to hug her on her lunch break, she was going to get medieval. Err… more medieval than she already was.
glanced up as she felt the ground shake slightly.
"Great." She grumbled and pushed her crown back on top of her head. "Another earthquake."
Suddenly a black shadow descended across her path. It blocked out the sun, leaving the area she was sitting in shrouded in shadow. She blinked several times as her eyes adjusted, then did a double take.
One of the seven dwarfs was being chased by a giant bull with wings.
"Damn it! Why didn't someone tell me they were changing the times of the parades?!"
The dwarf, she thought it was Happy, slid to a stop in front of her. She later would swear that its head swiveled 360 degrees around and screamed.
"Sweetums!"
She shivered in fear as she stared at the path behind the monstrosity. Goofies, and Minnies, and Mickeys lay strewn about the ground like some kind of cartoon massacre. It was horrible....so very horrible. Or funny, if you happened to work for Warner Brothers.
The dwarf clamped itself onto her chest.
"ROOOOOOAAAARRR!" The giant winged ox thing roared eloquently and stomped through the tea cup ride, crushing the cute little cups. Cinderella threw the pervert off her chest and readied to stomp on it with a glass slipper. Well, it would have been glass, had the bastards not given her some damn cheap plastic ones.
The pervert was already gone when her plastic slipper came down. Suddenly, she was swept up in a mass of pissed off princesses. How could Ariel run in that thing anyway? ....Never mind, think later, kill pervert now.
Cinderella grabbed an official Disney World golf club and joined the mob.
Far above, Taro clutched onto the top of a castle, casually beating down helicopters with his fists.
Happy smiled. Truly, it was the happiest place on earth.
---
Chapter Fourteen
It had been a hard day at the Nekohaten. Customers seemed to file in by the dozens. It was invigorating. Cologne felt herself actually feeling a bit fatigued.
"Great Grandmother, time to close up, yes?" Shampoo looked up expectantly at her grandmother. Cologne winced. She hoped Shampoo's grasp on the Japanese language would improve eventually.
"Yes, it's a bit overdo. Go tell Mousse to clean off the tables."
Shampoo smiled and turned to go to the back room.
She knew she could always count on Mousse. Whenever she felt down, or depressed, he was always there to take her frustration out on.
Beating him up was definitely was one of the finer things in life, like caviar, wine, hitting Mousse with a bucket, locking him in a cage, etc. etc. Ah, sometimes you just had to sit back and appreciate the little things that make life wonderful.
Shampoo wistfully regretted that the Amazons had done away with man servants. Mousse wouldn't be so bad if all he did was hang around and cut the grass with his shirt off.
"MOUSSE! GO CLEAN TABLES NOW!" Shampoo smirked as her stalker....err admirer jumped to his feet.
"Yes Shampoo my darling!" He ran into the other room. She watched him and pondered briefly asking him to jump off a bridge for her. She wasn't entirely sure he'd decline . . .He'd probably stab himself with jagged pieces of metal if she asked him to.
She smiled even broader as she went back into the main serving area.
"Oh great-grandmother, Shampoo forget tell you there message on answering machine."
Cologne looked up and blinked. They had an answering machine?
The Amazon Matriarch shrugged and walked over to a short oblong box sitting on a table. A small red light flashed. She pushed the play button.
"Hello? This is Plum. Wow, who would have thought you guys would get an answering machine. I don't think you should have let Mousse make the message though. Unless Shampoo really is getting married to him next week-"
Sounds of a man in pain could be heard from the other room.
"--But anyway, I have urgent news for honored matriarch Cologne. It concerns that....spring you wanted me to look into. I'm afraid to say anything over the phone. Please come see me with the utmost urgency. It's a matter of life and death." The message ended.
Silence hung in the air for several seconds. Finally she hopped back to where her great granddaughter was beating Mousse senseless.
"Shampoo there is an urgent matter I must take care of in China. I leave the restaurant in your hands while I am gone." Without another word, she turned and hopped up the steps to pack.
Shampoo smiled. Cologne was leaving for China and she was leaving the Nekohaten in her care. That meant only one thing . . .
"Kegger party to get Arien drunk! Hiya!"
----
"I really don't think it's a good idea to go into town Logan-san." Ryouga sighed and hefted his pack up higher on his shoulders. His own equipment had miraculously survived, unlike Logan's. It always seemed to appear whenever he needed it. He never was exactly sure how . . . some things were just best left unanswered.
"We wouldn't have had to if you hadn't thrown your little chi hissy fit." Logan smirked as his companions face started into the tale tell signs of anger.
"Hissy fit?!"
Logan walked ahead a bit and then looked over his shoulder.
"Getting angry kid?"
Ryouga looked away with a pouting expression on his face.
"....am not."
"Good 'cause yer coming with me. I'm not gonna let ya wander off and get lost."
"There has to be some other way!" He looked pleadingly at his older companion. Logan shrugged.
"What else can we do kid?" Logan grinned, exposing a fang. Behind him, Ryouga raised an eyebrow. He hadn't noticed the fangs before . . . He had always thought it was a rare genetic thing in his family. Oh well, maybe more people had them then he thought. Logan chuckled, knocking him out of his reverie.
"Well, we could always attack a little bell with a collar around yer neck."
Ryouga turned pale.
"That's not funny, Logan." He shuddered.
"What? Been collared before?" The elder man snorted.
"Actually, yes. It's not a very pleasant experience, let me tell you. If you breathe wrong, or try to swallow, you get choked." Dark emerald eyes narrowed.
Logan gave Ryouga an odd glare. Ryouga glared back.
"Not like that, Logan-san." The Lost Boy growled. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
"My mind wasn't in the gutter, kid." Logan snorted. "I was wondering where anyone would get a collar big enough to go around your thick neck."
"Oi, Logan-san..." Ryouga's scowl deepened.
"Look, kid, I really need to get new supplies." Logan sighed. "I'm not taking the risk o' going into town myself and leaving ya to get lost out here. What happens if ya get splashed, or go berserk, without someone to talk ya back to a normal temper?" The bandanna wearing martial artist muttered something under his breath, which Logan, of course, heard.
"Hey, Ryouga, I've got more news for ya." He whispered back. Ryouga stiffened. "It looks like ya might have the same heightened senses I got. I'll tell ya now, there ain't no use whispering around me, kid."
The Lost Boy whimpered, but followed his teacher silently.
A few hours later, Ryouga and Logan stood at the edge of a small town. Ryouga was extremely nervous; he kept twitching and fiddling with the straps on his pack. Logan shot him a glare, but it didn't stop the young man from his anxious motions.
"Kid. Calm down." The wild-haired man snorted.
"Demo, Logan-san..." The youth winced.
"Calm. Down." The elder's stormy eyes narrowed. "That's an order. Yer going to have a panic attack. It's all right. There's nothing to worry about. We're only going to be here a few hours, tops."
Ryouga glanced around the small town. It could barley be called a town, there were only two stores, a run down cafe, and a old fashioned general store. His heart fell as two young boys playing soccer skirted in front of his path. At least they didn't have water balloons.
Logan strode forward with Ryouga close behind and stepped onto the threshold of the general store. With a creak, he opened the old screen door and stepped inside. The general store seemed empty. No one stood behind the counter. Oddly, a radio blared on the counter as if someone had left in a hurry and had forgotten to turn it off.
The two were instantly on the alert. Logan went to the back of the store to look around while Ryouga walked to the front. The shop keeper probably had stepped out for a moment. People in rural areas tended to be more lax than others. On the counter, the radio switched songs.
~ I've got to . . .get away. ~
Ryouga wrinkled his nose. He smelled something . . .he just couldn't identify it.
~ I've got to . . . run away ~
He walked behind the counter and abruptly stopped. He knew what the smell was now.
~ From the pain you drive into the heart of me ~
A human heart lay nailed to the wall, the fresh blood dripped down the sides of the wood. In blood next to it was written: "SABERTOOTH WUZ HERE."
"Shi--" Ryouga leaned back as a knife whizzed by his ear. He spun around and became face to face with the walking carpet with eyes, Creed.
He sneered at Ryouga showing a mouthful of fangs. His eyes reflected decades of hate that had recently found a new object to obsess upon.
"Hey, Runt Jr. Where's the old man? Did he find a new woman and abandon ya? I heard that can fuck up a kid real bad."
Ryouga stiffened, and his eyes narrowed.
"For your information, Creed-san, Logan-san is right outside." The Lost Boy faintly growled, barring his own fangs. "And unless you want to fight the both of us, you better start running for your life."
"What, not going to try to take me down all by yourself?" Sabertooth sneered, but noted that the young man's eyes had changed from emerald-green to a bronze hue.
"I'm a martial artist." Ryouga growled. "I don't pick unnecessary fights."
"Oh, a martial artist, eh?" Victor leered. "Ya do any o' them fancy Taiwan moves, Runt Jr.?"
"I'm from Nerima, not Taiwan." The bronze color in the boy's eyes gathered more red, taking on a shade close to brick.
Outside, the two soccer playing boys ran past the door, oblivious to the friction between the two. Ryouga heard their laughter, and froze.
'Children?' His anger-fogged mind registered the sounds, even as the haze cleared away. 'I almost fought him... in front of children...'
Flashes of his nightmares ran through his mind's eyes, filling his heart with dread.
'I almost went berserk...' He realized. 'Someone could have been hurt... or even worse... killed!'
Subconsciously, Ryouga's claws edged out of his hands. A few drops of blood accompanied them, running down the Lost Boy's fists and dripping onto the floor below. Sabertooth was watching with interest as his opponent's eyes changed colors rapidly.
Never once did the color in the boy's eyes reach a definite shade of red, nor did they stay green, rather, they melted into all the hues between.
"Hey, Runt Jr, did ya know yer eyes change color?"
"Eh?!" Ryouga scowled, his attention once more back on the deadly killer before him. "Anyway, I don't have time to play games with you today, Creed-san. And I doubt Logan-san will be pleased to find you here."
"Who, Runt?" Sabertooth snorted. "He's probably tracking my trail halfway through the woods by now. I set up a real wild goose chase for him, this time. No one here but you an' me, Runt. Jr."
"I really wish you'd stop calling me that." Ryouga's eyes were now a lovely shade of burgundy, and his claws shot completely out from the top of his hands.
"Awww, but it's such an adorable nick name, don't ya think?" Creed grinned wildly, flexing his own talons. "It's perfect for one o' Runt's offspring."
"You bastard..." Ryouga snarled. "I'm going to shut you up..."
"I'd like to see you try, Junior." The blond laughed.
"PREPARE TO DI--" Ryouga shouted, beginning to lunge.
"CREED!" Logan roared, busting in through the back door. Sabertooth turned to see the intruder, causing Ryouga to stumble past him and fall to the floor. The Lost Boy flipped to his feet and towards his mentor, kicking the blond in a smart kick as he did so.
The youth stood up by the dark haired mutant, and shook his head to clear his mind of the dark and bloody thoughts that had filled it mere moments ago. His eyes returned to their normal emerald hue, much to everyone's relief.
Creed scowled. Runt Jr. he was sure he could have fought, especially since the boy was no longer in a berserker's rage. On an average day, he might have been able to take Runt, or at least dish out considerable damage. However, both of them, at the same time, were definitely not favorable odds. A mutant berserker and a martial artist from Nerima...
'Wait...' the blond took a step away from the other two. 'Nerima, eh? I can screw around with his family and friends a good deal before fighting him... Just gotta track 'em down. Heh... A little pay back for the woods...'
"Well, it looks like ya got yer ol' man to back ya up, Runt Jr." Creed snorted. "I'll be seeing ya around, then." With a deadly grin, the burly mutant smashed his way out of the store and into the woods. Logan moved to follow, but Ryouga's hand fell on his shoulder. The wild-haired man paused and glanced back at his companion, who's deep eyes were glassy and unfocused.
"There are children here, Logan-san." Ryouga whispered. "Don't bother following him. He's not going to fight the both of us at one time. I don't want to endanger the people here any more than we already have. Please, let's just leave, Logan-san."
Wolverine paused, his blood burning and his claws itching for the fight.
"All right, kid." Logan assented. "We'll catch him later."
"Oh, and Runt Jr!" Creed's wild laugh rang out in a horribly warped echo. Logan and Ryouga alone could hear him, far off into the distance. "I'll tell yer friends in Nerima that ya said Hi!"
---
Chapter Fifteen
"I can't believe I was so stupid, Logan." He rubbed his forehead. "What the hell is wrong with me? . . . wait, what the hell ISN'T wrong with me."
Logan glanced at him and was tempted to roll his eyes. His blood pressure must be ungodly high.
"Throwing another hissy fit kid?" He inhaled a long swig of his cigar as he walked.
"I am NOT throwing a--"
"Pity-party?"
Ryouga glared at his smoking companion.
"Kid, you can't keep beating yourself up for your mistakes. There are plenty of people that'll do that for ya." He scowled and threw his cigarette stub on the ground, making sure to step on it. The goody two-shoes back at headquarters might get mad if he burned down a national forest. He pulled out another cigarette and looked at it. Hmm . . .maybe two would work better.
"Logan-san I thought you were cutting back." Ryouga raised an eyebrow at his mentor who had two cigarettes in his mouth at once. Logan turned his head toward him.
"Hmm?"
"Never mind. Where are we going anyway? I know we passed the border a few days ago." He looked at his surroundings. Large trees stretched out as far as he could see, and he could see quite far. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Logan? Why can't we get some of your friends to pick us up?"
Logan's eyebrow twitched.
"The Blackbird isn't a taxi cab kid."
"The Blackbird?" Ryouga blinked. "What kind of a name is that?"
"I wasn't there when the blasted jet was built, so I really have no idea what was going on in Cyke's head when he and the Prof. named it." The elder shook his head.
"It's a jet?! " The Lost Boy's eyes bugged out.
"Yeah, what'd ya think it was, a car?" the wild haired man snorted.
"... yes..." the youth flushed and looked at the ground.
"Heh. Don't worry about it, kid. No one's gonna get offended, 'specially not the jet."
"... how far ahead of us do you think Creed is?" Ryouga asked after many moments of silence. Logan noticed that his student had tensed up incredibly after mentioning the taller mutant, and didn't miss the soft blue glow emanating from the youth's skin.
"A day or two. Tops." The older man snorted. "He's not that much faster than I am, but he didn't leave much of a trail to go by, so he must be at least that far."
"A day... or two." The green-eyed young man shuddered, thinking the amount of damage that could be done in that spans of time. "Logan-san?"
"Yeah, kid?"
"Can we pick up our pace? Just a bit?"
"Of course."
For at least two hours, they walked without another word. The giant trees above them kept their silence reverent. It wasn't until the earth below them started shaking violently that they even broke stride.
"What the...?" Logan scowled, his claws slipping out of their sheaths of flesh.
"Logan-san?" Ryouga quickly managed to balance himself, despite the unstable ground. "Is it an earthquake?"
"I don't think so, kid," the elder growled, his eyes narrowing. "Claws. Now."
Ryouga obeyed, but winced as the blood dripped from his talons when they shot through the top of his hand.
"Kid..." Steel-blue eyes focused on one tree in particular, which was shaking even more vehemently than the ground, if possible. "Watch out. If this is what I think it is..."
"Logan-san, what's going on?!" Ryouga shouted as said tree exploded outwards.
"HALT. MUTANT." Before them stood at least a ton of gleaming steel and plastic, shaped roughly like a human.
"A MECHA?!" Ryouga whipped out his umbrella from the top of his pack. "In America?"
"Sentinel." Logan snarled, and leapt at the giant robot. "Huge piece o' metal designed to track and, if necessary, destroy mutants like me."
"Logan-san, sometimes I wonder if your social life is more screwed up than mine...."
The large machine moved suddenly, surprising the X-man. It swung its huge palm up to face the air-born fighter, and let loose a large laser blast that first burned away a good deal of his outer garb, and then slammed him into a tree.
"LOGAN!" Ryouga yelled, turning towards his teacher. He almost tripped in shock when he saw the older man stand up and brush tattered bits of flannel and denim from a yellow, black and blue spandex costume. The mutant combatant growled and donned a mask that hid his wild hair and turned his eyes white.
"Kami.... what is it with people and spandex these days?!"
"Later, kid." Wolverine growled, lunging at the Sentinel a second time.
The huge machine moved to blast him again, but was suddenly distracted by an explosion that blew off it's left 'foot'. Suddenly without balance, the robot began to teeter, allowing the spandex-clad mutant the perfect opportunity to disarm it with a well-placed strike of his claws. Likewise, Ryouga dodged the machine as it fell, nimbly twisting between trees.
"AND STAY DOWN!" The X-man roared, slashing through the connector joints between the machine's 'head' and 'shoulders'. Still breathing heavily, he glanced down at the area where the Sentinel's 'foot' had once been, and found Ryouga's red bamboo umbrella embedded into the metal almost up to the end of the handle. A few inches below that, there was nothing. The rest of the machine below that mark had been blown off by the force of the impact, and lay several feet away.
"Ryouga?" He looked up again, searching for any sign of his younger traveling companion. There was none. "Shit...."
"Kami, how could I be so stupid? I should have just blown it up..." He twisted and turned, leaping over smaller obstacles with ease. "Now I have no idea where I am.... And that... that... that PSYCHO is going to kill my friends!"
He felt his dark aura growing heavier, weighing him down, slowing his steps, and squeezing painfully around his heart.
'And it's all.. my... fault...' He slipped on a patch of moss, something that, had he been in his right mind, he would have carefully avoided. 'I should be able to save them... Instead, I'm lost in the middle of nowhere...'
'Lost... and...' He tried to turn over, but his pack dug into his back with a sharp pain. He slipped out of it easily, but in doing so, the contents spilled out. Among them was a package, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with some string. Ukyo's neat printing adorned the present; To Jackass. Have fun in America. Stay warm! Love, Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo.
"I forgot about this..." he murmured to himself. He had been forced to stuff the gift into his pack when he boarded the plane, and his wild trip-mates had caused him to forget about it since then.
His long fingers quickly made a mess of the already horrible knot, so he slashed through the string with one of his claws. The paper wrapping fell apart, revealing the heavy leather jacket inside.
On top of it lay a picture of the whole Nerima gang, smiling (or their personal equivalent there of) at the camera. "Good Luck," was written on it, again, in Ukyo's handwriting.
"You guys..." He whispered hoarsely, tears filling his eyes. He slid easily into the jacket, which fit perfectly. Briefly, he wondered when they had found his measurements, but that thought passed quickly. He zipped up the over garment, re-packed his bag, and slung it over his shoulder. His gaze was adamant as he stared at the distant break in the forest.
"I'm going back to Nerima. I'm going to save my friends." He snarled. "I'm going to save them, even if it kills me." With the photo tucked safely into his jacket pocket, he took off at a dead run to meet the distant goal.
---
Shampoo's head hurt. A lot. A kegger party had looked like a good idea on paper but in reality it was less than stellar. She had looked for her airen all night, and hadn't been able to find him. Violent Akane must have trapped him somewhere. If only airen would let her kill Akane, all their problems would be solved.
"Mousse, get ready close up shop now ok?" She rubbed her temples. Her head was throbbing.
"Ok." Mousse left the back room, without a single declaration of love. He had been really smashed. Come to think of it, maybe Shampoo hadn't really meant drinking was sexy. . .
He stepped through the door to the dining area and saw a large blur hunched over the counter top. He pushed his glasses back down.
"Excuse me sir, but we're closed for the night."
The figure stood and regarded the man coldly. The young Amazon man instantly tensed. His instincts were screaming that something wasn't right with this man. Even with Mousse's bad eyesight, the man looked threatening. His long black trench coat and hat , obscured his features from view. He towered over Mousse with an air of untrustworthiness.
"Kitchen still open for me." He spoke in halted and badly accented Japanese, almost as if he hadn't used the language for many years.
Mousse's eyes narrowed. "The kitchen is closed. Go home."
The figure began to laugh. The sound was almost sickly, twisting the expression into something cruel and morbid. Mousse involuntarily reached for something large, sharp and jagged from underneath his robes.
"Hibiki's been here. I knows it." He snickered, or began to cough it was hard to tell. "I smell the scent."
"I don't know where Hibiki is. And I don't really care."
The figure stopped laughing, and almost like an after thought backhanded Mousse across the face. The young man slammed into the wall of the Nekohaten loudly. A razor-edged pain slashed across his body. He slid from the wall and keeled over coughing up a bit of blood. Nothing that big should have moved that fast.
He rose to his feet and was about to retaliate when Shampoo walked into the front room. A frown was evident on her face.
"Mousse? What you do to make customer mad?" She looked over at him to make sure he was all right, he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him, and turned back to the tall figure.
"Restaurant closed now. What you need?"
"Hibiki. I smells him here."
Shampoo wrinkled her nose. "Stupid lost boy in U.S. He bother great grandmother sometimes. He no back soon and Shampoo not care. Stupid spatula girl at Ucchan's know where is, probably. Restaurant closed. Go home." She crossed her hands in front of her chest.
The figure turned and left without preamble. Slamming the door on the way out. One of the hinges broke, leaving it swinging on its side. Shampoo sighed and kneeled down next to Mousse.
"Mousse, when you learn? Don't get self killed. Shampoo need you."
Mousse looked up, shock evident on his face. Had Shampoo said she needed him? Oh rapture!
"Do you . . ." Tears threatened to spill over his eyelids. " . . . really mean it?"
"Course." Shampoo smirked. "It hard to clean up restaurant by self."
Mousse's face fell. "Damn it."
**C&C, public or private, is appreciated. Since most of the fic is already written, we prefer grammar help. If you have a burning desire to give other C&C though, we will take it with a smile.**
by:
Ashes2ashes: slayer0@Zoomnet.net
AsheRhyder: ashrhyder@yahoo.com
RAGE
Chapter Eleven
Logan awoke to the scent of slightly burned meat.
'Funny,' he thought, 'I don't remember falling asleep again...' He stood up and pulled on his jacket; having left it over top his sleeping bag when he fell asleep. It was a silly little tradition that he had picked up in Japan, but it helped keep heat in during the night.
The boy, Ryouga, was already up and sitting by the camp fire, over which a small animal's carcass was roasting.
'Stranger still,' the older man paused. 'Don't know that many animals of that size up here with that much mass..... 'cept......' He paled.
"Ryouga-san, what are you eating?" Logan asked as the boy munched on a skewered piece of meat that must have been done before the rest. Green-brown eyes glanced up to him in slight surprise.
"Ohayo, Logan-san." Ryouga shrugged. "I killed a wolverine for breakfast. Nasty little critter that he was, he's got plenty of meat on him."
The Lost Boy failed to notice his companion look a little green.
"A wolverine?" Logan's face screwed up in a grimace.
"That's what it looks like," Ryouga replied, tossing the pelt, already strung out to dry, at
him.
'The boy's quick,' the X-man noted sourly. 'Fast, clean worker.....'
"Ryouga-san, you do realize that wolverines are an endangered species, don't you?" The wild-haired man glowered at his younger student. Ryouga shrugged, and continued to chew on the meat.
"Really?" He took a large bite, and then checked the roast. "Can't see why. They taste awful . . . Damn thing was pretty mean and unfriendly, too." Logan felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of his neck again.
"Ryouga-san, you are one of the oddest people I've met, and trust me, I've met some people."
Ryouga glared.
----
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shone brightly on a grassy meadow. A cool breeze ruffled a field of wild flowers sending fragrant petals floating into the breeze. Song birds chirped in lush evergreen trees. All of these factors would have awed any tree hugging nature lover.
The two men standing in the meadow, however, had never been big tree huggers. Well, the younger of the two had hugged a few trees in his time but not in the same connotation.
"Ok, sensei, what now?" Ryouga looked around at the sickening display of nature's beauty. He had seen enough "scenic routes" to last him twenty lifetimes.
"Well, first, finding yer calm center-"
"Ah, hell, not that again."
"--is not what ya want to do."
"Oh." Ryouga scratched his head. "Then what DO you do?"
Logan sat on the ground and motioned for Ryouga to join him. The pupil reluctantly sat down on the dew covered grass.
"Ya can't get rid o' yer anger. It's part o' ya. Trying to rid yourself of it would be like denying yourself. Bottling it up is even worse. It will eventually come out, not matter how hard ya try. One day ya could wake up in a pool o' blood and it not be yer own." He stopped and gazed at the sky in quiet contemplation. Ryouga stared at the sky also, dark visions flashing through his mind.
"Ya can't control it fully, but ya cannot let it control ya, either. Ya can take it in stride and let yer anger work for you." Ryouga crinkled his eyebrows in confusion.
"How do I do that?"
"Anger can be a strong motivation when ya don't let yourself be blinded by it. Red, searing, hot rage can't be controlled. But cold fury can be." Logan coughed to clear his throat.
"Not used to talking this much at once, huh, Logan-san?"
"No." Silence hung in the air for several minutes.
"So that's it? Can't get rid of it, can't bottle it up, take some cold fury and call me in the morning?" Ryouga grimaced.
"Shut up kid. I'm thinking all right? I never had to do this before."
The two sat in silence again for several moments. Ryouga idly pulled pieces of grass out of the ground.
"Hey, sensei, you got any gum?" Logan's eyebrow twitched.
"No, Ryouga I don't."
"Damn."
Suddenly Logan looked up from his musings.
"Do ya know that moment right before ya fall into a blind rage, where yer conscious o' what yer doing, but ya can't seem to stop?"
Ryouga nodded. He knew it all too well. Even before he fell into the spring, he had done it.
"Right at that moment, imagine yourself standing over the dead bodies o' yer friends with their blood dripping from yer hands." Logan glanced over at him. "Feel angry anymore?"
His pupil looked back at his haunted eyes and shook his head.
"Good. And that's the end o' the lesson."
Ryouga shook himself out of his reverie. "That's all?!"
Logan shrugged.
"If ya were looking for the wise man on the mountain yer not gonna to find him here, kid."
Ryouga wrinkled up his nose.
"I have a name you know."
"Of course ya do . . . kid." Logan smirked.
Ryouga glared at him and stood up, brushing stray grass off his lap. "Is that all your years of wisdom has taught you, old man?" Logan stood up also.
"What happened to sensei?" Logan glanced at his younger companion out of the corner of his eye.
"This was a waste of time! I should have never come here! All these weeks were wasted searching for you! After all I went through . . . what have I got?!" He narrowed his eyes at Logan, the corners of his green orbs turning crimson.
"Blood on your hands."
The lost boy blinked in shock as the redness drained from his eyes. 'What?' Realization hit him like a landslide.
"You . . . you tricked me!" He shook his head as he realized he was getting angry again and plopped back down on the cool grass. Logan sat down cross-legged again.
"And it was really easy to do to ya. Does that name still bother ya? Kid?" Ryouga looked down at the ground and let his bangs fall over his eyes.
"No, it doesn't; go ahead and call me that."
Logan nodded.
"Good, because it's just a name." Logan looked back at his pupil and heard a small snort from Ryouga.
"At least my name isn't Pantyhose."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Never mind."
"Ya can't let yourself be goaded into things. Use yer brain for once." 'Heh ' Logan grimaced. '. . .I feel like a bit of a hypocrite now . .'
"My mom used to say I got my brains from my father."
Logan raised an eyebrow again. 'His father must have taken a few too many hits to the head . . ' "Why do names bother ya so much, Ryouga-san?" He turned his gaze to the sky again. Ryouga looked back at the ground ashamed.
"When I was young . . .I used to be smaller than all the other boys, a runt. I was alone a lot of the time and I had to learn martial arts to be able to defend myself. They'd call me names like . . runt . . .and shrimp. One day I just couldn't take it anymore and I attacked them . . .I put them all in the hospital." He blushed in shame. "They were just stupid kids . . . "
"Why arn't you angry about it anymore?"
Ryouga raised his head and met his sensei's eyes. "Well I'm older now. I know better." Realization hit him over the head again. "Oh."
"See, ya can't let yourself be manipulated like-"
"Hey, you don't understand! There's this guy I know, and he always calls me names. He's cruel and mean and treats his fiancee badly! Cheats on her all the time too! He calls me stuff like pig-boy and pork-butt and--"
Logan shook his head and broke into his younger companion's rant.
"Why does he do that?"
Ryouga seemed to calm down and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, he likes to make me look bad in front of Akane and…"
"Because he knows it will make ya mad?"
Ryouga turned deathly pale and froze in shock for several seconds. Finally, he smashed his fist in his palm.
"SO THAT'S WHY HE DOES IT! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!"
Logan fell forward in the grass.
--
It was raining. Logan didn't feel like trekking through the rain, and Ryouga didn't dare, so they sat hunched over inside a tent, listening to the rain pour down on the water-proof nylon. Ryouga carved absently at a chunk of wood he picked up somewhere, and Logan's claws snikt-ed in and out. The bad weather grated on both of their nerves.
"Funny." The older man scowled. "I don't seem to remember Canada getting this much rain... usually, it just snows....." Ryouga grunted.
"Rain follows Junsenkyo cursed people like tornadoes in Kansas," the Lost Boy snorted.
"Hn." The elder popped his claws out, examined the sharp edge, and found it to be lacking. The second set shot out, and for a long time, the only sounds were metal against metal, or metal against wood.
"How do you do that?" The green-eyed boy asked after a while.
"Do what?" Logan looked up from his sharpening.
"That... claw thing..." Ryouga gestured with the knife in his hand at the talons from his teacher's hands. "The other day, you said I had them, and I saw somethin' weird..... but I can't seem to get them to come out...."
Logan scowled.
"Tense your arm," he commanded. Ryouga complied, his abnormally dense muscles bunching together.
'He's right,' the boy realized. 'For someone of my strength, I really do look scrawny.....'
"Now, just tense the muscles in yer forearm."
"Eh?" Ryouga's eyes went wide.
"Yer forearm. The muscles. Tense 'em."
"Er..........." The younger man tried, but the closest he could get to the muscles that ran through his forearm were his biceps.
"Look, imagine the claws coming out. Don't force 'em, they're a part o' yer body, just like yer hands." Logan sighed. He would never have believed in a hundred years that he would have had to explain how he retracted and extended his claws...
Ryouga's emerald eyes closed halfway as he exhaled his stress. SNIKT! Three claws shot out of the top of his hand. He yelped in surprise, and the claws retracted again.
Logan laughed.
"Now, do the same thing again, only, just think o' one claw."
"That hurt......." Ryouga pouted. "A lot."
"Don't tell me ya can't handle a little pain, kid..." Logan snorted.
"I'm serious! It takes an awful lot to make me hurt." Ryouga glared at him.
"You'll get used to it." The older man shook his head. The Lost Boy scowled, and the middle claw shot out of his upraised fist.
Logan was laughing for the next five minutes.
----
"Hey, Logan, is this it?" Ryouga spread his arms out and spun around, indicating the large area at the top of the hill.
"Yeah, this is the place." Logan gazed over at the horizon, the rising sun shone in a brilliant splash of orange. "Nice place," Logan muttered to himself. Ryouga rolled his eyes.
"Yeah wonderful place for a picnic," he answered sarcastically. Logan scowled. Ryouga walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. A churning river lay at its base. "Heh, that's a long way down."
He looked over to his older companion who was staring in a daze at the sunrise.
"So can you tell where we are now?"
Logan continued to stare at the sunrise.
"Hello?! Logan, are you paying attention to me?!" His mentor of sorts shook out of his reverie.
"Yeah, I think I know where we are now."
"Are you sure this place is safe? It looks like it would collapse, catch us in a landslide, and send us careening to a very painful fall into the sharp jagged rocks."
Logan nearly face-faulted off the cliff. Thankfully, he didn't, because if he had, he would have missed Victor Creed's entrance.
The larger man leapt onto the plateau, glaring darkly at Logan and at Ryouga, who seemed confused.
"Creed." Logan growled.
"Hey, Runt!" The tall blond glared at his shorter rival. "Think ya picked a damn hard enough place ta get to?!"
"Obviously not." Logan shrugged. "After all, yer here."
"Ano... Logan-san? Who's he?" Ryouga tapped his teacher on the shoulder. Creed took one look at the yellow-and-black attire and his mood worsened.
"Hey, Runt, what's Runt Jr. doing here? When'd you get a new woman?" Sabertooth grinned darkly. "A new frail?"
"That's Sabertooth, a.k.a. Victor Creed." Logan growled to Ryouga. "He's probably one o' the more dangerous psychos you'll meet.... he's got clawed hands, and a healing factor too. I don't think yer martial arts does fer much good against his kind."
"I don't care..." Ryouga's eyes shifted from dark green to ruddy red. "HE CAN'T TALK THAT WAY ABOUT MY MOTHER!!!" The Lost Boy charged the much taller man before Logan could pull him back.
"Ryouga! Don't!" The older man yelled, making a grab for the youth's collar, but the force of his lunge, combined with the fact that he missed, sent him face first in the dust.
"Ha!" Sabertooth laughed. "He's just a kid!"
"I'll show you!" Ryouga roared, "DIE!" His fist shot out, grazing Sabertooth's side, but it wasn't enough to do more than send the taller man spinning. Unfortunately, Sabertooth used the momentum to his advantage.
Logan looked up in time to see his arch nemesis spin around and violently kick his student to the very edge of the ledge. Only the young man's honed skills saved him, as he rolled with the blow and flipped up onto his hands.
"Ryouga?!" His keen sight caught the younger boy balancing precariously by his fingertips, upside down no less.
Then the ledge crumbled out from under the Lost Boy.
Ryouga's eyes were wide in shock, and all traces of Rage vanished as he plunged headfirst into the silent chasm. Neither Logan or Victor moved.
"RYOUGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
----
~No Tears
No tears I shed over the graves of the dead
crosses bared to the frigid night
the spirits whisper to me, can't you see?
death repays the endless fight
No tears . . .
No tears for the wicked & the pure
honey suckle bone, ashes to atone
blood is on mine hands
surrender to the cure
No Tears . . .
My banner's on my deathbed
I defy you to the last
damn you for making me care . . .
No tears for you
this is all your fault you know
reap what you sow, on your funeral day
the corpses arn't talking
not to me anyway
No Tears . . .
Revenge will be mine, till my dying day
your words are crumbling in decay
I'm weary of the sin
But I won't let you win
I don't care where you've been
screaming in my cell, I'll chase you to hell
No tears for you . . . . never again ~
--Ashes
Chapter Twelve
Logan and Victor glared at each other, each brandishing their claws.
"Yer a bastard, ya know that, Creed?" Logan growled. "That kid was my friend."
"I think yer emphasis should go on the was, runt." Sabertooth laughed.
"Yer gonna regret coming up here," Wolverine warned him.
Creed just laughed at him again.
"I'd like to see you make me," he grinned. Their verbal argument was cut short by a huge splash.
FWOOOOOOM! Something shot out of the river half a mile below them like a bat out of hell.
"Bub, yer just gonna wish you had some hot water." Now Logan grinned wildly, stepping away from the edge.
"Running away?" Creed sneered.
"From you?" Logan shook his head. "Never."
A dark shadow fell over Sabertooth. The taller mutant looked up to see what had blocked out the light, and saw the descending, red-eyed youth that was about to shred him like paper with claws that could not have possibly existed.
"What the hell?" The blond snarled, rolling to one side as the boy landed heavily, creating a foot-deep, six-feet wide crater in the process.
"Shit!"
The rage-possessed youth nimbly spun to face his opponent, his lean crimson eyes glowing from under the shadows his thick black hair created.
"What the hell is that?!" Creed recognized the expression the lost boy wore as one of death.
"That?" Logan tilted his head towards Ryouga, who's shoulders were heaving from the jumps to the cliff top. "That's my student."
Without awaiting a further word, the dark haired boy lashed forward, his claws moving almost too fast for Sabertooth to follow. Metallic talons shredded flesh and rendered it from bones faster than it could regenerate. Sabertooth attacked back, but received nasty lesions across his arms for attempting. Finally, the larger man ducked, and tackled his opponent from below with a claw-driven uppercut. Ryouga flew backwards, but he recovered quickly. While still in mid-air, the young man flipped so as to land on his feet.
Creed, by that time, had recovered enough to take the offensive. He slashed out at Ryouga's unguarded stomach before the Lost Boy even landed, and was rewarded with the tearing of flesh. Ryouga jolted in pain, and barred his fangs, only to have Sabertooth impale his stomach with his other hand. Scarlet eyes narrowed, and the dark haired fighter plunged both his claws into Sabertooth's arms. The taller combatant jerked back, growling angrily.
Ryouga's wounds didn't slow him down in the least, though, as if he couldn't feel the pain from the regenerating flesh. Sabertooth wondered idly what could drive a man to such rage, having seen something similar in Logan's eyes. Could it really have been that one crack comment about the boy's mother?
"Shine," the word was more of a twisted growl as it was spat from Ryouga's lips. "Die." Before Sabertooth could react, cold metal claws covered in his hot blood were plunged into his chest and twisted.
"RYOUGA! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Logan roared, charging over to the quickly ending battle. "STOP!" The Lost Boy, having lost interest in his still target, turned at the sound of new, fresh prey. He lunged at the running man, only to have a wave of hot water meet him in the face. He fell to the dust as the bloody rage receded.
"Lo... Logan-san?" The Japanese youth glanced wearily at his teacher of sorts, his hazel eyes unfocused.
"It's okay, Ryouga. The battle's over. You've won. I'll take care of Sabertooth." Logan spoke calmly to the young combatant who had just taken down one of the X-men's most aggravating villains.
He glanced over to the cliff's edge... but Sabertooth was gone.
'Bastard. Must've rolled off the edge to escape,' he thought.
"Sensei?" Ryouga whispered from his place in the dust, where he hadn't moved. "Is everything all right?"
"Peachy keen, kid." Logan lied. "How are ya feelin'?"
"I'm fine, Logan-san." The lost boy pushed his slender form from the ground. "No walking carpet is going to get the best of...." He collapsed of exhaustion.
Logan chuckled.
"Sure, kid. Whatever ya say."
---
Ryouga and Logan hiked through the crisp Canadian wilderness, the chilled air nipping at any exposed skin. Neither one seemed to mind, though, both were used to extreme weather. The younger man stopped to look up at the sky.
"The sky looks pretty clear today," he noted. "Finally, a day without rain."
Logan continued to walk silently.
"It still rains more in Nerima, though." The Lost Boy scowled, and hurried to keep up with his traveling companion. "I wonder what Akane and Akar-- er... never mind." The bandanna wearing youth stumbled suddenly in the middle of his sentence, to which his older mentor merely raised an eyebrow.
"You know, it's hard to carry on a conversation when you're the only one talking." Ryouga glared.
"Oh, heh, sorry kid." Logan shrugged. "I was thinking."
"Oh, so that's where the steam came from." Ryouga smirked.
"Heh. Funny, kid." The elder glowered.
They walked in silence for a few more feet, then Ryouga spoke again. "So what are you thinking about?"
"Nothin' that ya would be concerned about." Logan snorted.
"No, really, tell me."
"Just the past...." The Canadian mutant shrugged. "The ancient past."
"Ancient?" Ryouga blinked. "What do you mean?"
Logan paused mid stride. Ryouga did the same.
"I'm older than I look, kid." The wild-haired man sighed.
"So... what, forty?" The youth guessed. "That's not that old. Trust me, I know some old people."
"I was wondering when I should tell you this." Logan leaned up against a tree and took out a cigarette. "I suppose this is as good a time as ever. The healing factor... it makes you age slower than everyone else."
"What..." Ryouga swallowed nervously. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know how old I am." Logan lit up. " But, I've been fighting since at least World War Two."
Ryouga fell onto his rear out of shock.
"I don't know if it'll work the same way it did with me...." Logan paused to take a long drag on his nicotine filled tube. "You may have a very long life ahead of you."
Ryouga's brown-green eyes shone with a deep-seeded fear.
"I think I want that sake now." He muttered, and dug a well protected glass bottle out of his pack.
"I thought that was the coward's way out?" Logan arched one of his eyebrows. Ryouga responded with a harsh glare.
"Am I..." The Lost Boy paused to swallow his terror, and while he was at it, a healthy dose of sake. "Am I going to have to live on while the rest of my friends and family grow old around me?" He knew his eyes were tearing up, but his iron resolve forced the pain down.
"It's a possibility." Logan nodded solemnly.
"Maybe... Akari can find someone who can take care of her now..." The younger whispered hoarsely, blinking in an attempt to keep the tears from falling.
"... Who's Akari, Ryouga-san?" The elder stomped out the cigarette butt, steel-colored eyes reflecting the very same emotions Ryouga radiated.
"N-n-never mind." Ryouga shook his head violently, and then took a long swig. "It's not important. "Not anymore." He sighed, and whispered even more softly than before: "I must be destined to be alone."
The older man placed his hand on Ryouga's shoulder.
"I wouldn't go down that road, Ryouga. Loved one's drift away and die, but we can't go through life not giving a damn about anything. Hell, you'll turn into Creed."
Ryouga emitted a sound akin to a soft laugh into his bottle.
"Never happen." He snorted. "Even if I went crazy, I'd still take baths regularly."
Logan chuckled.
"What the hell is his problem, anyway?" Ryouga looked up.
"More like what isn't his problem..." The X-man grumbled.
Inspiration dawned on Ryouga.
"Hey, old man, do you have any kids?" He asked bluntly. Logan almost had a heart attack from the sudden change in direction of the conversation.
"None that I know of," he glanced out of the corner of his eye. "Why?"
Ryouga coughed nervously and took another drink. "You just seem good at this sort of thing. Ahem."
"What was that, Ryouga-san?"
"Well, if you're really that old, are you telling me you've never gotten married? Started a family? Had a girlfriend?"
"What do I look like, a monk?" Logan grumbled. "I've had many relationships...... they just didn't work out."
"Gomen nasai, sensei. That was rude and inconsiderate of me." Ryouga apologized formally, bowing his head. The Lost Boy paused. Curiosity still nagged at him, but he wasn't quite sure how to word his questions so he wouldn't seem like he was butting into the other man's life.
Logan knew what he meant, though.
"Yes, most of those relationships did end in tragedy." The older man sighed. "But I would do it all over again if given the chance."
Ryouga looked worried as he voiced his next inquiry, and drank before speaking.
"All of them ended in death?"
"No..." Logan sighed, and took out another cigarette. "There were two others. One I lost to another man, although I never really had her to begin with. Another... well, she may as well be dead. I'm not really sure. It was a long time ago.... if she isn't dead, then she probably moved on."
Ryouga seemed to brighten at the small ray of hope.
"Maybe you'll find her someday?" He offered, and gulped the sake again. "You never know. Every time I'm looking for something, it always ends up being right under my nose."
"Heh." Logan smirked. "Is that optimism I'm hearing, kid?"
Ryouga sweat-dropped. ".... must be the sake."
The elder coughed, embarrassed.
"That's another thing I forgot to tell you." He leaned back on his heels. "With the healing factor, it's almost impossible to get drunk."
Ryouga glanced at the small bottle of sake in his hands.
"DAMN IT!!!!"
---
Chapter Thirteen
It was a beautiful day.
Ryouga breathed in the scent of freshly cut grass and sighed happily. He stood in a large playground filled with happily children. It reminded him of the one he had played in as a kid. A large swing set sat in the middle surrounded by a jungle gym and a slide. The small faces of the children lit up with innocent glee as they rose higher and higher.
Suddenly a little girl jumped off the swings and ran toward him. He looked down in surprise as the girl held up a small yellow flower toward him. The pink stripe in her hair reminded him of something . . . no it was better not to thank about that right now.
The little girl giggled and ran back to another girl with a long purple bow in her hair. The wind blew gently, stirring cherry blossoms in the trees and sending them into a chaotic dance in the air. He reached out and plucked one from the hair. He gazed at it in his rough and callused hand. It seemed so fragile . . .
His head turned as a high pitched giggle reached his ears. It was a little girl with long purple hair playing tag with a young boy with glasses. She'd laugh and tag him on the back, then the boy would look around bewildered. Finally he'd see her and run toward her, only to slip and fall in the mud. Laughing, the little girl would tag him again and the process was repeated. It was strangely familiar. . .
"Hey look out!" He turned in time to see a little boy in a Chinese shirt hurl a water balloon to his face.
Then everything changed.
Blood . . . cries . . . you can't go back . . .tears of the screaming . . . innocence . . .you cant go back, you can't EVER go back. Nothing is left but the cold. You don't belong there. You don't belong anywhere. Tears of innocence bade you here and you shall never return. You don't deserve happiness. You don't deserve to be loved.
You're an animal . . . an animal in cage. Give in......to the rage.
The scene solidified once more. The children were gone, their cries mere whispering wraiths. The vibrant world of color was now gray, except for the blood. It congealed and dripped off the swing sets. Pools of it collected at the bottom of the slide and long finger prints smeared down the metal sides, as if someone had been dragged from it.
He looked down at his hands. They were covered with blood.
"You don't belong here." He looked up and found the children from before glaring at him through cold, lifeless orbs. Their skin was pale and many had lesions and open wounds.
"You can never go back," the girl with the purple stripes whispered sadly. The girl with the ribbon opened her cracked lips.
"You don't belong here."
"You don't deserve happiness," the group repeated in chorus together. Ryouga fell to his knees in pain clutching his head as the voices rose in intensity.
"YOU'RE AN ANIMAL!"
"YOU DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE!"
"YOU DON'T DESERVE HAPPINESS!"
He crawled up into a fetal position and let a long cry of anguish and torment escape his lips.
---
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ryouga woke up screaming, clutching his forehead in pain. Logan ran to his side and grasped his shoulders firmly.
"Ryouga, what's wrong?" The younger boy looked up and seemed to see Logan for the first time. He looked around, half expecting to see the wraiths of the dead children hovering over him. He shuddered violently and tried to get himself under control.
"Logan, it was horrible. . . I--" his voice wavered and fell silent, afraid that he would break down completely if he kept going. He bowed his head and let his bangs fall over his eyes. He wasn't going to cry in front of Logan.
He COULDN'T cry in front of Logan. Logan was a warrior, a strong spirited adult... something Ryouga only wished he could be. And Logan hadn't cried once in all the traveling they had done together, even though there had certainly been times that he could have.
Crying wasn't an option. Crying was a sign of weakness. He wasn't going to be weak.
"Kid?" Logan nudged him. "Ya okay?"
"Yeah." Ryouga whispered and rolled over in his bedroll. "I'll be fine."
"Nightmares tell a lot about ya, Ryouga-san. They expose yer inner most fears to the light. Ya wouldn't be able to overcome yer fears if ya did not know about them." Logan met his student's eyes as the latter sat up. He saw the fear reflected in his eyes that he wouldn't allow himself to show anywhere else. The boy was getting better at controlling his emotions.
Ryouga gazed down at the dew covered grass.
"What if it's something you can't fight?"
"All ya can do is try yer best. Nothing more, or nothing less can be expected of ya."
"Logan-san?" Ryouga's deep green eyes swam with sorrow as he looked up to his teacher. "Don't... Don't you ever get nightmares? I mean, you've lived a long time..."
Logan snorted and closed his eyes.
"Yeah, kid." He sighed at last. "All the time."
"What do you see, Logan-san?" Ryouga tilted his head to the side.
"People I failed... People I should've saved... People I could've saved..." The older man's voice became increasingly quiet as he spoke. "People I loved..."
"I know about failing your loved ones..." Ryouga shuddered. "The people back home... they mean so much to me... all of them... I couldn't bear the fact that I had let them down by becoming... well..." The soft blue aura that shone from him caught Logan's attention, but the X-man kept his mouth shut for the time being.
"It's not that they're my friends," the Lost Boy continued, trying to dismiss Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo from his guilty mind. "But I mean, they've been there for me... they tried to help me... And then I go and lose control over my feelings and my body like this..." Tears built up in the corners of his deep green eyes, even as his aura started to provide more light than the moon overhead.
"Um.... kid..." Logan blinked. "You do realize you're glowing, don't you?" The elder moved to poke the boy, but drew back sharply. The moment he touched the cerulean aura, a shock-wave of depression and despair had hit him hard.
"Oh... I am, aren't I?" Ryouga blinked. "Blast... Excuse me, Logan-san." The youth meandered out of the tent and to the center of the clearing. He tilted his head back, the azure energy licking eagerly at his skin and hair, and he screamed.
"SHISHI HOKOUDAN! " A blue pillar of light shot directly into the sky above him, towering higher than any trees and several of the mountains. Two or three dazed geese fell down around him, and even higher above, the newly repaired satellite STRTRK was hit by a wave of dissipating energy.
On a side note, it took five years to get the satellite working properly again, instead of displaying an error message: The world is a dark and lonely place.
"What the hell was that?!" Logan scrambled out of the slightly scorched tent just in time to see the blue pillar start to descend back to earth. "Oh shit." His steel-blue eyes widened, and he braced himself for the impact. Ryouga stood stock still in the same position as when he had fired the blast, having barely even breathed since then.
There was a tremendous, earth-shaking crash when the massive ki attack hit the ground again. The clearing was increased a good ten feet more in diameter. The tent was blown into ashes, as were much of Logan's equipment, having not been designed to withstand such a blast. Ryouga stood unscathed by his release of energy, but Logan was not so lucky. The older man lay sprawled out on his back, eyes open wide in shock, breathing heavily as his healing factor kicked into overdrive. His flannel shirt and jeans looked like he had gotten into a scrap with Omega Red, with energy burns and lesions galore. Luckily, he was wearing his X-men uniform underneath his civilian cloths or he would have been feeling a little more than a draft in some places.
"Ryouga-kun." Logan wheezed, slowly sitting up. The Lost Boy snapped from his statuesque stance, and spun around to face his mentor.
"Logan-san!" He yelped. "Daijoubu ka? Gomen nasai de gozaru yo!"
"What?" Still dazed, Logan couldn't remember the translation for what the boy had said. "In English, kid?"
"Oops." Ryouga flushed. "Logan-san! Are you all right? I'm so sorry, honest, I'm really, really sorry!"
"It's okay, kid, I'll heal." The elder shook his head, attempting to clear some of the haze away. "However..."
"Eh?" The bandanna wearing martial artist waited while his teacher pushed himself off the ground.
"Do you always make craters when you get depressed?" The X-man gestured to the greatly indented ground around them. Trees that had been too close to the secondary energy blast were half eaten away by the fire of despair-induced power, and no other sign of life besides the two travelers existed inside the area. A bead of sweat rolled down the younger man's face.
"Oops?" Ryouga winced.
"I'll take that as a yes." Logan scowled. The youth hung his head in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, Logan-san." He whispered. "I didn't expect the blast to be so big this time."
"What was that, anyway?" The mutant stretched his healing muscles. "Some kind of bomb? Mutant power?"
"Ki blast." Ryouga answered quietly. "Shishi Hokoudan, Roaring Lion Bullet. A release of negative energy; can be done in two ways. Horizontal, a single blast, or vertical, hitting a target both on the way up, and with greater force on the way down. The latter is called a full Shishi Hokoudan, and does the greatest amount of damage."
"A Ki attack?" The X-man paled. He had heard of such things when he was in Japan years ago, but had yet to see any human perform such a maneuver. Several demons, yes, but no human.
Ryouga nodded numbly.
"Whenever I get really depressed, I've got to let the energy out, or it will poison my ki energy." He stared at the decimated ground, where only minutes earlier, there had been fine moss and grasses growing.
"The more depressed I am, the larger the blast."
A feeling of dread hit Logan in the stomach.
"You're not the only one who can do Ki attacks, are you." The older man wasn't questioning now, he stated the fact that he knew in his heart to be true.
"No." The umbrella-wielding martial artist shook his head. "My rival, Saotome Ranma, has a similar attack, but his is based on confidence. He also has mastered a technique called Hiryuu Shoten Ha, the Rising Dragon. Damn thing hurts like hell to get caught in..."
"Yeah." Logan held up his right fist, and all three claws shot out to their full length. "Maybe what ya need is a new technique… something to take your mind off o' this for a while."
"A new technique?"
"Yep. This is a little baby I came up with in a sparring match against Cyclops."
"Cyclops?" The bandanna wearing boy blinked. "Isn't that the guy with the blue uniform? Stick up his ass?"
Logan burst out laughing. He hadn't heard anyone describe the leader of the X-men in such a way, ever. It was refreshing, and a definite change from the dark atmosphere they had recently been pinned down by.
"Yeah, that's him." The older man smiled wryly. "This baby is called the Drill Claw."
"Drill Claw..." Ryouga paused, working his accent out of the English words. "Drill Claw." When he said it the second time, his accent was completely gone.
*The kid's a fast learner...* Logan noted glumly. *He might want to learn Tornado Claw, at this rate.*
"Watch me." The X-man chose his target; a large boulder five feet away, part of the debris that hadn't been completely destroyed by the Shishi Hokoudan. He shifted his weight to his left foot, balancing on the balls of both feet. He pushed off with the right, adding a spin to his lunge. His claws bore a perfect circle into the rock before he lost momentum and had to drop back.
Ryouga felt a drop of sweat run down his face.
"That's it?" He blinked, studying the three foot hole in the rock.
"Hey, it works wonders against people of flesh and blood." Logan snorted. "It's not really as easy as it looks..." The older man trailed off as his pupil chose an even larger rock, duplicated the stance, and then used small bursts of ki to help propel him as he spun through the target.
"Is that how it's supposed to be, sensei?" The Lost Boy asked from the other side of the rock with a perfect hole drilled through it.
"Yeah. Something like that." The elder felt a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach. Somehow, he knew, his pupil was going to surpass him. And quickly. The thought of something that dangerous roaming the earth...
"Sensei?" Ryouga waved his hand in front of Logan's dazed face.
"Wha--?"
"No offense, sensei, but if I wanted to break rocks, I could just do this..." One finger darted out and tapped the rock that Logan had drilled. "BAKSAI TENKETSU!" And then it was gravel.
"Great...." For a moment, Logan debated on teaching him Tornado Claw, but then realized it would be counter productive, since that technique required Rage to be building up. Maybe later, once the boy had gotten a better grip on his highly dangerous emotions…
"Like I said, kid." The X-man sighed. "It works on flesh and blood people, too. Not just yer rocks."
Ryouga blinked, then froze. "How'd you know it just worked on rocks?" He breathed.
"I know people." The older man smiled cryptically. "I've got connections."
Ryouga stretched, then did a double take at the still dark sky.
"It's still night," he gaped.
"Yeah." Logan snorted. "I'd recommend going back to sleep, kid, but there's one small problem."
The elder gestured to the tents... or rather, what was left of them. Ryouga's pack stood unhurt, but his tent was long gone. Logan's equipment was somewhere... as ashes.
Ryouga sweat-dropped.
"Oops?"
---
Disney World. The happiest place on earth.
Perfect place for a guy named Happy.
Cinderella sat on a bench, idly fanning herself. The heat was horrid in the park and her shift was only half over. If another little brat tried to hug her on her lunch break, she was going to get medieval. Err… more medieval than she already was.
glanced up as she felt the ground shake slightly.
"Great." She grumbled and pushed her crown back on top of her head. "Another earthquake."
Suddenly a black shadow descended across her path. It blocked out the sun, leaving the area she was sitting in shrouded in shadow. She blinked several times as her eyes adjusted, then did a double take.
One of the seven dwarfs was being chased by a giant bull with wings.
"Damn it! Why didn't someone tell me they were changing the times of the parades?!"
The dwarf, she thought it was Happy, slid to a stop in front of her. She later would swear that its head swiveled 360 degrees around and screamed.
"Sweetums!"
She shivered in fear as she stared at the path behind the monstrosity. Goofies, and Minnies, and Mickeys lay strewn about the ground like some kind of cartoon massacre. It was horrible....so very horrible. Or funny, if you happened to work for Warner Brothers.
The dwarf clamped itself onto her chest.
"ROOOOOOAAAARRR!" The giant winged ox thing roared eloquently and stomped through the tea cup ride, crushing the cute little cups. Cinderella threw the pervert off her chest and readied to stomp on it with a glass slipper. Well, it would have been glass, had the bastards not given her some damn cheap plastic ones.
The pervert was already gone when her plastic slipper came down. Suddenly, she was swept up in a mass of pissed off princesses. How could Ariel run in that thing anyway? ....Never mind, think later, kill pervert now.
Cinderella grabbed an official Disney World golf club and joined the mob.
Far above, Taro clutched onto the top of a castle, casually beating down helicopters with his fists.
Happy smiled. Truly, it was the happiest place on earth.
---
Chapter Fourteen
It had been a hard day at the Nekohaten. Customers seemed to file in by the dozens. It was invigorating. Cologne felt herself actually feeling a bit fatigued.
"Great Grandmother, time to close up, yes?" Shampoo looked up expectantly at her grandmother. Cologne winced. She hoped Shampoo's grasp on the Japanese language would improve eventually.
"Yes, it's a bit overdo. Go tell Mousse to clean off the tables."
Shampoo smiled and turned to go to the back room.
She knew she could always count on Mousse. Whenever she felt down, or depressed, he was always there to take her frustration out on.
Beating him up was definitely was one of the finer things in life, like caviar, wine, hitting Mousse with a bucket, locking him in a cage, etc. etc. Ah, sometimes you just had to sit back and appreciate the little things that make life wonderful.
Shampoo wistfully regretted that the Amazons had done away with man servants. Mousse wouldn't be so bad if all he did was hang around and cut the grass with his shirt off.
"MOUSSE! GO CLEAN TABLES NOW!" Shampoo smirked as her stalker....err admirer jumped to his feet.
"Yes Shampoo my darling!" He ran into the other room. She watched him and pondered briefly asking him to jump off a bridge for her. She wasn't entirely sure he'd decline . . .He'd probably stab himself with jagged pieces of metal if she asked him to.
She smiled even broader as she went back into the main serving area.
"Oh great-grandmother, Shampoo forget tell you there message on answering machine."
Cologne looked up and blinked. They had an answering machine?
The Amazon Matriarch shrugged and walked over to a short oblong box sitting on a table. A small red light flashed. She pushed the play button.
"Hello? This is Plum. Wow, who would have thought you guys would get an answering machine. I don't think you should have let Mousse make the message though. Unless Shampoo really is getting married to him next week-"
Sounds of a man in pain could be heard from the other room.
"--But anyway, I have urgent news for honored matriarch Cologne. It concerns that....spring you wanted me to look into. I'm afraid to say anything over the phone. Please come see me with the utmost urgency. It's a matter of life and death." The message ended.
Silence hung in the air for several seconds. Finally she hopped back to where her great granddaughter was beating Mousse senseless.
"Shampoo there is an urgent matter I must take care of in China. I leave the restaurant in your hands while I am gone." Without another word, she turned and hopped up the steps to pack.
Shampoo smiled. Cologne was leaving for China and she was leaving the Nekohaten in her care. That meant only one thing . . .
"Kegger party to get Arien drunk! Hiya!"
----
"I really don't think it's a good idea to go into town Logan-san." Ryouga sighed and hefted his pack up higher on his shoulders. His own equipment had miraculously survived, unlike Logan's. It always seemed to appear whenever he needed it. He never was exactly sure how . . . some things were just best left unanswered.
"We wouldn't have had to if you hadn't thrown your little chi hissy fit." Logan smirked as his companions face started into the tale tell signs of anger.
"Hissy fit?!"
Logan walked ahead a bit and then looked over his shoulder.
"Getting angry kid?"
Ryouga looked away with a pouting expression on his face.
"....am not."
"Good 'cause yer coming with me. I'm not gonna let ya wander off and get lost."
"There has to be some other way!" He looked pleadingly at his older companion. Logan shrugged.
"What else can we do kid?" Logan grinned, exposing a fang. Behind him, Ryouga raised an eyebrow. He hadn't noticed the fangs before . . . He had always thought it was a rare genetic thing in his family. Oh well, maybe more people had them then he thought. Logan chuckled, knocking him out of his reverie.
"Well, we could always attack a little bell with a collar around yer neck."
Ryouga turned pale.
"That's not funny, Logan." He shuddered.
"What? Been collared before?" The elder man snorted.
"Actually, yes. It's not a very pleasant experience, let me tell you. If you breathe wrong, or try to swallow, you get choked." Dark emerald eyes narrowed.
Logan gave Ryouga an odd glare. Ryouga glared back.
"Not like that, Logan-san." The Lost Boy growled. "Get your mind out of the gutter."
"My mind wasn't in the gutter, kid." Logan snorted. "I was wondering where anyone would get a collar big enough to go around your thick neck."
"Oi, Logan-san..." Ryouga's scowl deepened.
"Look, kid, I really need to get new supplies." Logan sighed. "I'm not taking the risk o' going into town myself and leaving ya to get lost out here. What happens if ya get splashed, or go berserk, without someone to talk ya back to a normal temper?" The bandanna wearing martial artist muttered something under his breath, which Logan, of course, heard.
"Hey, Ryouga, I've got more news for ya." He whispered back. Ryouga stiffened. "It looks like ya might have the same heightened senses I got. I'll tell ya now, there ain't no use whispering around me, kid."
The Lost Boy whimpered, but followed his teacher silently.
A few hours later, Ryouga and Logan stood at the edge of a small town. Ryouga was extremely nervous; he kept twitching and fiddling with the straps on his pack. Logan shot him a glare, but it didn't stop the young man from his anxious motions.
"Kid. Calm down." The wild-haired man snorted.
"Demo, Logan-san..." The youth winced.
"Calm. Down." The elder's stormy eyes narrowed. "That's an order. Yer going to have a panic attack. It's all right. There's nothing to worry about. We're only going to be here a few hours, tops."
Ryouga glanced around the small town. It could barley be called a town, there were only two stores, a run down cafe, and a old fashioned general store. His heart fell as two young boys playing soccer skirted in front of his path. At least they didn't have water balloons.
Logan strode forward with Ryouga close behind and stepped onto the threshold of the general store. With a creak, he opened the old screen door and stepped inside. The general store seemed empty. No one stood behind the counter. Oddly, a radio blared on the counter as if someone had left in a hurry and had forgotten to turn it off.
The two were instantly on the alert. Logan went to the back of the store to look around while Ryouga walked to the front. The shop keeper probably had stepped out for a moment. People in rural areas tended to be more lax than others. On the counter, the radio switched songs.
~ I've got to . . .get away. ~
Ryouga wrinkled his nose. He smelled something . . .he just couldn't identify it.
~ I've got to . . . run away ~
He walked behind the counter and abruptly stopped. He knew what the smell was now.
~ From the pain you drive into the heart of me ~
A human heart lay nailed to the wall, the fresh blood dripped down the sides of the wood. In blood next to it was written: "SABERTOOTH WUZ HERE."
"Shi--" Ryouga leaned back as a knife whizzed by his ear. He spun around and became face to face with the walking carpet with eyes, Creed.
He sneered at Ryouga showing a mouthful of fangs. His eyes reflected decades of hate that had recently found a new object to obsess upon.
"Hey, Runt Jr. Where's the old man? Did he find a new woman and abandon ya? I heard that can fuck up a kid real bad."
Ryouga stiffened, and his eyes narrowed.
"For your information, Creed-san, Logan-san is right outside." The Lost Boy faintly growled, barring his own fangs. "And unless you want to fight the both of us, you better start running for your life."
"What, not going to try to take me down all by yourself?" Sabertooth sneered, but noted that the young man's eyes had changed from emerald-green to a bronze hue.
"I'm a martial artist." Ryouga growled. "I don't pick unnecessary fights."
"Oh, a martial artist, eh?" Victor leered. "Ya do any o' them fancy Taiwan moves, Runt Jr.?"
"I'm from Nerima, not Taiwan." The bronze color in the boy's eyes gathered more red, taking on a shade close to brick.
Outside, the two soccer playing boys ran past the door, oblivious to the friction between the two. Ryouga heard their laughter, and froze.
'Children?' His anger-fogged mind registered the sounds, even as the haze cleared away. 'I almost fought him... in front of children...'
Flashes of his nightmares ran through his mind's eyes, filling his heart with dread.
'I almost went berserk...' He realized. 'Someone could have been hurt... or even worse... killed!'
Subconsciously, Ryouga's claws edged out of his hands. A few drops of blood accompanied them, running down the Lost Boy's fists and dripping onto the floor below. Sabertooth was watching with interest as his opponent's eyes changed colors rapidly.
Never once did the color in the boy's eyes reach a definite shade of red, nor did they stay green, rather, they melted into all the hues between.
"Hey, Runt Jr, did ya know yer eyes change color?"
"Eh?!" Ryouga scowled, his attention once more back on the deadly killer before him. "Anyway, I don't have time to play games with you today, Creed-san. And I doubt Logan-san will be pleased to find you here."
"Who, Runt?" Sabertooth snorted. "He's probably tracking my trail halfway through the woods by now. I set up a real wild goose chase for him, this time. No one here but you an' me, Runt. Jr."
"I really wish you'd stop calling me that." Ryouga's eyes were now a lovely shade of burgundy, and his claws shot completely out from the top of his hands.
"Awww, but it's such an adorable nick name, don't ya think?" Creed grinned wildly, flexing his own talons. "It's perfect for one o' Runt's offspring."
"You bastard..." Ryouga snarled. "I'm going to shut you up..."
"I'd like to see you try, Junior." The blond laughed.
"PREPARE TO DI--" Ryouga shouted, beginning to lunge.
"CREED!" Logan roared, busting in through the back door. Sabertooth turned to see the intruder, causing Ryouga to stumble past him and fall to the floor. The Lost Boy flipped to his feet and towards his mentor, kicking the blond in a smart kick as he did so.
The youth stood up by the dark haired mutant, and shook his head to clear his mind of the dark and bloody thoughts that had filled it mere moments ago. His eyes returned to their normal emerald hue, much to everyone's relief.
Creed scowled. Runt Jr. he was sure he could have fought, especially since the boy was no longer in a berserker's rage. On an average day, he might have been able to take Runt, or at least dish out considerable damage. However, both of them, at the same time, were definitely not favorable odds. A mutant berserker and a martial artist from Nerima...
'Wait...' the blond took a step away from the other two. 'Nerima, eh? I can screw around with his family and friends a good deal before fighting him... Just gotta track 'em down. Heh... A little pay back for the woods...'
"Well, it looks like ya got yer ol' man to back ya up, Runt Jr." Creed snorted. "I'll be seeing ya around, then." With a deadly grin, the burly mutant smashed his way out of the store and into the woods. Logan moved to follow, but Ryouga's hand fell on his shoulder. The wild-haired man paused and glanced back at his companion, who's deep eyes were glassy and unfocused.
"There are children here, Logan-san." Ryouga whispered. "Don't bother following him. He's not going to fight the both of us at one time. I don't want to endanger the people here any more than we already have. Please, let's just leave, Logan-san."
Wolverine paused, his blood burning and his claws itching for the fight.
"All right, kid." Logan assented. "We'll catch him later."
"Oh, and Runt Jr!" Creed's wild laugh rang out in a horribly warped echo. Logan and Ryouga alone could hear him, far off into the distance. "I'll tell yer friends in Nerima that ya said Hi!"
---
Chapter Fifteen
"I can't believe I was so stupid, Logan." He rubbed his forehead. "What the hell is wrong with me? . . . wait, what the hell ISN'T wrong with me."
Logan glanced at him and was tempted to roll his eyes. His blood pressure must be ungodly high.
"Throwing another hissy fit kid?" He inhaled a long swig of his cigar as he walked.
"I am NOT throwing a--"
"Pity-party?"
Ryouga glared at his smoking companion.
"Kid, you can't keep beating yourself up for your mistakes. There are plenty of people that'll do that for ya." He scowled and threw his cigarette stub on the ground, making sure to step on it. The goody two-shoes back at headquarters might get mad if he burned down a national forest. He pulled out another cigarette and looked at it. Hmm . . .maybe two would work better.
"Logan-san I thought you were cutting back." Ryouga raised an eyebrow at his mentor who had two cigarettes in his mouth at once. Logan turned his head toward him.
"Hmm?"
"Never mind. Where are we going anyway? I know we passed the border a few days ago." He looked at his surroundings. Large trees stretched out as far as he could see, and he could see quite far. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Logan? Why can't we get some of your friends to pick us up?"
Logan's eyebrow twitched.
"The Blackbird isn't a taxi cab kid."
"The Blackbird?" Ryouga blinked. "What kind of a name is that?"
"I wasn't there when the blasted jet was built, so I really have no idea what was going on in Cyke's head when he and the Prof. named it." The elder shook his head.
"It's a jet?! " The Lost Boy's eyes bugged out.
"Yeah, what'd ya think it was, a car?" the wild haired man snorted.
"... yes..." the youth flushed and looked at the ground.
"Heh. Don't worry about it, kid. No one's gonna get offended, 'specially not the jet."
"... how far ahead of us do you think Creed is?" Ryouga asked after many moments of silence. Logan noticed that his student had tensed up incredibly after mentioning the taller mutant, and didn't miss the soft blue glow emanating from the youth's skin.
"A day or two. Tops." The older man snorted. "He's not that much faster than I am, but he didn't leave much of a trail to go by, so he must be at least that far."
"A day... or two." The green-eyed young man shuddered, thinking the amount of damage that could be done in that spans of time. "Logan-san?"
"Yeah, kid?"
"Can we pick up our pace? Just a bit?"
"Of course."
For at least two hours, they walked without another word. The giant trees above them kept their silence reverent. It wasn't until the earth below them started shaking violently that they even broke stride.
"What the...?" Logan scowled, his claws slipping out of their sheaths of flesh.
"Logan-san?" Ryouga quickly managed to balance himself, despite the unstable ground. "Is it an earthquake?"
"I don't think so, kid," the elder growled, his eyes narrowing. "Claws. Now."
Ryouga obeyed, but winced as the blood dripped from his talons when they shot through the top of his hand.
"Kid..." Steel-blue eyes focused on one tree in particular, which was shaking even more vehemently than the ground, if possible. "Watch out. If this is what I think it is..."
"Logan-san, what's going on?!" Ryouga shouted as said tree exploded outwards.
"HALT. MUTANT." Before them stood at least a ton of gleaming steel and plastic, shaped roughly like a human.
"A MECHA?!" Ryouga whipped out his umbrella from the top of his pack. "In America?"
"Sentinel." Logan snarled, and leapt at the giant robot. "Huge piece o' metal designed to track and, if necessary, destroy mutants like me."
"Logan-san, sometimes I wonder if your social life is more screwed up than mine...."
The large machine moved suddenly, surprising the X-man. It swung its huge palm up to face the air-born fighter, and let loose a large laser blast that first burned away a good deal of his outer garb, and then slammed him into a tree.
"LOGAN!" Ryouga yelled, turning towards his teacher. He almost tripped in shock when he saw the older man stand up and brush tattered bits of flannel and denim from a yellow, black and blue spandex costume. The mutant combatant growled and donned a mask that hid his wild hair and turned his eyes white.
"Kami.... what is it with people and spandex these days?!"
"Later, kid." Wolverine growled, lunging at the Sentinel a second time.
The huge machine moved to blast him again, but was suddenly distracted by an explosion that blew off it's left 'foot'. Suddenly without balance, the robot began to teeter, allowing the spandex-clad mutant the perfect opportunity to disarm it with a well-placed strike of his claws. Likewise, Ryouga dodged the machine as it fell, nimbly twisting between trees.
"AND STAY DOWN!" The X-man roared, slashing through the connector joints between the machine's 'head' and 'shoulders'. Still breathing heavily, he glanced down at the area where the Sentinel's 'foot' had once been, and found Ryouga's red bamboo umbrella embedded into the metal almost up to the end of the handle. A few inches below that, there was nothing. The rest of the machine below that mark had been blown off by the force of the impact, and lay several feet away.
"Ryouga?" He looked up again, searching for any sign of his younger traveling companion. There was none. "Shit...."
"Kami, how could I be so stupid? I should have just blown it up..." He twisted and turned, leaping over smaller obstacles with ease. "Now I have no idea where I am.... And that... that... that PSYCHO is going to kill my friends!"
He felt his dark aura growing heavier, weighing him down, slowing his steps, and squeezing painfully around his heart.
'And it's all.. my... fault...' He slipped on a patch of moss, something that, had he been in his right mind, he would have carefully avoided. 'I should be able to save them... Instead, I'm lost in the middle of nowhere...'
'Lost... and...' He tried to turn over, but his pack dug into his back with a sharp pain. He slipped out of it easily, but in doing so, the contents spilled out. Among them was a package, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with some string. Ukyo's neat printing adorned the present; To Jackass. Have fun in America. Stay warm! Love, Ranma, Akane, and Ukyo.
"I forgot about this..." he murmured to himself. He had been forced to stuff the gift into his pack when he boarded the plane, and his wild trip-mates had caused him to forget about it since then.
His long fingers quickly made a mess of the already horrible knot, so he slashed through the string with one of his claws. The paper wrapping fell apart, revealing the heavy leather jacket inside.
On top of it lay a picture of the whole Nerima gang, smiling (or their personal equivalent there of) at the camera. "Good Luck," was written on it, again, in Ukyo's handwriting.
"You guys..." He whispered hoarsely, tears filling his eyes. He slid easily into the jacket, which fit perfectly. Briefly, he wondered when they had found his measurements, but that thought passed quickly. He zipped up the over garment, re-packed his bag, and slung it over his shoulder. His gaze was adamant as he stared at the distant break in the forest.
"I'm going back to Nerima. I'm going to save my friends." He snarled. "I'm going to save them, even if it kills me." With the photo tucked safely into his jacket pocket, he took off at a dead run to meet the distant goal.
---
Shampoo's head hurt. A lot. A kegger party had looked like a good idea on paper but in reality it was less than stellar. She had looked for her airen all night, and hadn't been able to find him. Violent Akane must have trapped him somewhere. If only airen would let her kill Akane, all their problems would be solved.
"Mousse, get ready close up shop now ok?" She rubbed her temples. Her head was throbbing.
"Ok." Mousse left the back room, without a single declaration of love. He had been really smashed. Come to think of it, maybe Shampoo hadn't really meant drinking was sexy. . .
He stepped through the door to the dining area and saw a large blur hunched over the counter top. He pushed his glasses back down.
"Excuse me sir, but we're closed for the night."
The figure stood and regarded the man coldly. The young Amazon man instantly tensed. His instincts were screaming that something wasn't right with this man. Even with Mousse's bad eyesight, the man looked threatening. His long black trench coat and hat , obscured his features from view. He towered over Mousse with an air of untrustworthiness.
"Kitchen still open for me." He spoke in halted and badly accented Japanese, almost as if he hadn't used the language for many years.
Mousse's eyes narrowed. "The kitchen is closed. Go home."
The figure began to laugh. The sound was almost sickly, twisting the expression into something cruel and morbid. Mousse involuntarily reached for something large, sharp and jagged from underneath his robes.
"Hibiki's been here. I knows it." He snickered, or began to cough it was hard to tell. "I smell the scent."
"I don't know where Hibiki is. And I don't really care."
The figure stopped laughing, and almost like an after thought backhanded Mousse across the face. The young man slammed into the wall of the Nekohaten loudly. A razor-edged pain slashed across his body. He slid from the wall and keeled over coughing up a bit of blood. Nothing that big should have moved that fast.
He rose to his feet and was about to retaliate when Shampoo walked into the front room. A frown was evident on her face.
"Mousse? What you do to make customer mad?" She looked over at him to make sure he was all right, he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him, and turned back to the tall figure.
"Restaurant closed now. What you need?"
"Hibiki. I smells him here."
Shampoo wrinkled her nose. "Stupid lost boy in U.S. He bother great grandmother sometimes. He no back soon and Shampoo not care. Stupid spatula girl at Ucchan's know where is, probably. Restaurant closed. Go home." She crossed her hands in front of her chest.
The figure turned and left without preamble. Slamming the door on the way out. One of the hinges broke, leaving it swinging on its side. Shampoo sighed and kneeled down next to Mousse.
"Mousse, when you learn? Don't get self killed. Shampoo need you."
Mousse looked up, shock evident on his face. Had Shampoo said she needed him? Oh rapture!
"Do you . . ." Tears threatened to spill over his eyelids. " . . . really mean it?"
"Course." Shampoo smirked. "It hard to clean up restaurant by self."
Mousse's face fell. "Damn it."