Prometheus
Chapter 2
Ken's Encounter
The late afternoon sunshine sprinkled through the leaves like a soft drizzle of rain. The excited voices of children could be heard echoing around the mostly empty park. Younger children played in the sandbox and swings. Mothers and fathers sat on benches chatting quietly and watching their young ones. On the other side of the park, hidden from the rest of the world by a shield of trees, the older children played a lively game of soccer on a slightly overgrown field. Most had come that day with their parents and younger siblings, but had abandoned the "baby games" in lieu of something much more entertaining.
"Ken-ni-chan!!!"
"Look out, Ken-kun!!"
"Ken! Ken! Pass the ball to me!"
Rather than take the ball all the way down the field and score a goal, as he very well could have, ex-soccer champion Ken Hidaka instead passed the ball, with exaggerated clumsiness, to one of his much younger team-mates. "Go for the goal, Izumi!"
"Haaa~iii!" shrieked the girl before pelting the ragged ball in the general direction of their opponent's goalie. Ken slowed his pace to fall slightly behind the over-exuberant child. Izumi passed the ball back to him, and he pretended to trip over it. Gales of childish laughter rent the air as he hovered for a second over the errant soccer ball and then landed with a resounding thump on the grass. One of the members of the opposing team, a young boy named Takehiro, started the ball towards the other goal. Izumi peered down at Ken and asked, "Are you alright, Ken-san?"
"Hai, Izumi-chan, avenge me! They're getting away!"
Izumi nodded with a serious expression that only a ten year old could have and tore down the field after the treacherous ball. Soon she had it back and was racing towards the goal. Ken sat up and rubbed his bottom ruefully. The things he would do to hear the laughter of children! He spared a quick glance around the soccer field. The parents of these kids trusted him to keep an eye on them, and besides that he would die if he let anything happen to any of them. A shadow of movement in the bushes behind the goal caught his eye, and he stood quickly, his assassin senses in hyper drive. He headed towards the goal at a quick jog. Izumi gave the ball one last powerful kick and it cannoned past the goalie and hit the net with a resounding whoosh.
"Wai!" she cried, throwing her arms up in glee.
The shadow solidified and seemed to detach from the low hanging shrubs and sped towards the girl. Ken's jog turned into a desperate dash and he yelled, "Izumi!! RUN!"
Izumi, without bothering to look behind her, ran. She could see the horrified look on her Ken-ni-chan's face, and knew that whatever was behind her was one of those monsters that her ouka-san had told her didn't exist.
As Ken neared the girl he got a good glimpse of the child-sized creature also closing in on her.
And nearly fell over. Creature was right. The thing certainly wasn't a normal human. It vaguely reminded him of a bird with all of its feathers plucked out. Only somehow more humanoid. This was all the observation he got before he caught Izumi up in a rolling tackle and pulled her out of the way of that...that...thing.
He flung her towards the playgrounds and yelled at her to run again. He jerked himself around to see the monster, Yes, monster is the word, he thought, go chasing after another one of the children. Panic gripped his heart and he took off in hot pursuit. Just before it reached the boy, Ken dove for its feet. The thing turned on him in an instant and sunk its claws...since when did it have claws?!...into his arm and emitted an ear-splitting shriek. Ken twisted it away from the boy and wrapped his fingers around its neck.
I wish I had my bugnuks...
:nononononononononono...:
"What the hell was that?!" Ken gasped as he tightened his grip on the creature's throat. He could feel the larynx and trachea begin to cave in under the pressure of his fingers. The creature howled brokenly and snapped at his face.
:NO!:
The next thing he knew he was lying on the ground looking up at the sky wondering what had hit him. He heard movement next to him and gathered all of his strength to roll over. The…thing…was scrambling to its feet, its grotesque tongue hanging from its limp jaws. As if sensing Ken's gaze on it, the creature turned its eerie eyes on him. He felt a cold chill start at the base of his spine and spread over his entire body. He knew that if the thing wanted to kill him, he would be dead.
:you...one...:
He felt a soft caress on his mind, blinked, and then the thing was gone. Utterly, completely gone. Ken gathered his arms underneath him and pushed himself into a sitting position. His lip curled in pain. Kisama! He hurt all over. There was an especially painful feeling in his arm.
Oh yeah, that thing clawed me there...Dazed, Ken suddenly became aware of the sound of soft sobbing. He felt small yet strong arms wrap around his waist and looked down to see a brown head buried in his shoulder. "I...Izumi?"
"Ken...Ken-ni...are you okay?"
"I thought I told you to run."
"I did run, but then I came back. Ken-ni, you're bleeding..."
Ken hugged her and then pulled himself to his feet. I feel like I've been hit by a truck...
"I'm fine, Izumi. Let's get you to your father."
Hand in hand, they limped slowly toward the playground were all of the other children, screaming about monsters, had already gone. As they neared the edges of the trees, several fathers who looked very ready to defend their little ones burst into the field. One that Ken recognized as Izumi's father ran over to them and scooped his daughter up into his arms. Ken swayed a little. He still felt incredibly unsteady after the wallop he had gotten from that thing, plus a massive headache was gathering right behind his eyes. He felt a strong arm steadying him and looked up to see Izumi's father holding onto his shoulder.
"Are you okay kid? You're bleeding."
"So I've been told." Ken wrapped his fingers around his slightly bleeding arm. He had had much worse than this before. "I'm fine, Mr. Takuto."
"Daddy, Ken-ni-chan saved me from the monster!!"
"What was it? The kids were screaming about a monster."
"I don't know, maybe it escaped from the zoo or something..." Ken's vision dimmed and he felt Mr. Takuto's grip tighten.
"Easy, kid! Are you sure you're alright? Should I take you to a hospital? Maybe it was poisonous!"
"No, no, it's fine, I'll just walk home..."
"Nonsense! You saved my little girl! I'm taking you to a doctor, and that's final."
Ken was about to protest and decided that he just didn't have the strength. He needed to tell the rest of Weiss about that thing, but he supposed it could wait an hour while he got patched up. Sighing, he followed Izumi and her father to their car.
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Reader number 358 raced from shadow to shadow, easily avoiding any contact with the many humans it passed. To them it was little more than flickering darkness, a blur at the furthest edges of their vision. As night finally fell, it reached its destination, the prestigious Prometheus Foundation, and, with the barest whisper of sound, crawled into the opening to the sewers beneath the building. It neared its home, and paused outside the door, clutching at its crushed throat. Reader number 358 had already forgotten its earlier brush with death, its memory was not designed to house such simple things, but that did not mean that the pain from its wound did not exist. Now, that pain and the all-consuming need to relay the information about the jenus psychic that had caused it were the only things residing in the simple creature's mind. With a garbled chirp, it made its way inside.
:master...:
"Yes, 358?"
:...tagged...jenus...:
The creature debased itself before its lord. A high pitched whine escaped its destroyed vocal cords. The master would fix its wounds, stop its pain, the master could do anything...
A voice filled with utmost gentleness cried, "My child, my poor child..." Reader number 358 found itself suddenly scooped into a loving embrace and a hand softly stroked its ruined neck. "There, babe," the master said, running his hands over the creature's grotesque features.
:fix it...: 358 pleaded. :hurts...:
"I know," the master said, choking back a dry sob, "I know it hurts. I'll make it stop, I promise."
:find...jenus...tagged...:
"Hush now, love. I will take care of everything." Reader number 358 whimpered softly and snuggled into its master's embrace. With tears running down his face, the master did the only humane thing, and quickly snapped the neck of his child, killing it instantly. He lovingly lifted the lifeless body in his arms, and carried it over to a corner of the room, where he laid it down with utmost care. He would see to the funeral later.
He dried his tears and pushed his grief to the back of his mind. Now was not the time for sorrow, now was the time for business. The master returned to his seat on his throne. If only the scanner from Beta Quad hadn't escaped. He would have been able to locate the tagged psychic within minutes, and as an added bonus, tell him the exact HPF level as well as the general area he lived and whether or not he had jenus level friends...
The master's musings were cut short by the return of Readers number 217 and 453. The two once human creatures rubbed their jaws together in some bizarre display of affection. Suddenly, twin howls of grief erupted as they sensed the demise of their sibling. After a few minutes, the wails quieted, and they turned again to their master, the memory of their pack-mate already slipping from their minds.
"Now, you two, I want you to find this tagged psychic. When you do, follow him to his home. Then, come back and inform me. Understand?"
They twittered their agreement, and loped out of the room to begin their search. Yoshitomo Sugimoto, the god of the Readers, grinned with resigned evil. The game had just gotten much more interesting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken climbed out of the car with a muffled groan. The flower shop looked ominously dark and forbidding. He turned to the driver's side window and said, "Thanks, Mr. Takuto."
The man grinned. "No problem kid, and thank you. You're a real hero, you know."
Ken, extremely embarrassed, rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I...uh..."
Mr. Takuto laughed. He gripped Ken's uninjured hand and shook it vigorously. "We had better get going, it's pretty late. See you around, and take care of yourself, you hear?"
"I will, Mr. Takuto! Goodbye!"
Ken watched the car pull away from the shop and turned towards the door, sighing. Aya was going to kill him. He had had no idea that the wait at the doctor's would be so long. He was extremely late. Aya was going to nag him, he just knew it.
Well, might as well face the gauntlet. He pushed open the door and stepped in.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Wow, that was fast...Irritation warred with exhaustion. Irritation won. He carefully closed the door behind him, leaned back on it, and snapped, "The hospital."
"What were you doing in the hospital?" Aya scowled.
Omi appeared behind Aya rubbing sleep from his eyes. He had been woken up from his position on the couch, where he had fell asleep while waiting for Ken to get home. He caught the tail end of the conversation. Slightly alarmed, he gave Ken a look over.
He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. He was pale, and shaking. Ken held his left arm in one hand. When he shifted, he moved stiffly, as if he was really sore from a hard workout.
"Ken, are you alright?" He looks like shit...
"Ken, you look like shit."
Omi jumped. "Jeez, Youji! Don't sneak up on people like that!"
Youji grinned.
"I'm alright," Ken said as he pushed himself off the door and headed past his team-mates towards the kitchen. He was so thirsty! He needed a drink.
Omi followed close behind, intent on mother-henning him to death.
"Why were you at the hospital? Are you sure you're alright? You look..."
"Like shit," Youji finished. Omi shot him a look.
Aya silently followed the three into the kitchen. They watched with concern as Ken filled and drank three large glasses of water then sagged against the counter with an exhausted sigh. Their worry heightened as he stumbled past them as if they weren't there and practically collapsed onto one of the kitchen chairs.
"Ken..." Omi started.
"I'm fine," he said. Ken was finding it hard to concentrate. His headache was worse, the pain-killers the doctor had given him weren't working in it, and he was incredibly tired.
"Ken," Omi was getting exasperated, "Why were you at the hospital?"
Ken sighed. The sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go to bed. I hope they don't think I've gone insane...
Ken laid his throbbing head on the table and began to tell them about his rather odd day.
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"...and so, because of that car wreck with the bus, the emergency room was already pretty full. Mr. Takuto wouldn't let me leave until I'd seen a doctor, so we waited…for hours…I finally saw one, and he patched me up…then I came home and…well you know the rest." Ken shrugged tiredly. "But I still have no idea what that thing was." The looks on his friend's faces ranged from extreme irritation (Aya), to mild disbelief (Youji), to concerned curiosity (Omi).
Aya growled under his breath and said to Youji, "Contact Manx. She may know something about what the hell is going on. Omi, get on the computer and find everything and anything that might be related to this. Ken..."
"Ken should be in bed," Omi interrupted, "He looks just about ready to die."
"Yeah," A grin curled Youji's lips, "He really looks like shit."
Ken shot Youji a scowl and muttered, "Gee, thanks."
"Fine," Aya snapped. "I'm taking him upstairs. You two, get to work." Youji and Omi nodded sharply and headed off to their respective destinations. Aya turned back to Ken to meet a glare almost as dark as his.
"I'm not a baby," Ken growled, unsteadily pulling himself to his feet, "I can get upstairs on my own."
As he stood, the blood drained from his face and he broke out in a cold sweat. The world seemed to spin around him, but he never broke his gaze from Aya's.
Aya met him glare for glare, and asked, "Ken, are you going to faint?"
"What?" Ken sputtered, "I...no! I'm not going to...that's ridiculous..." The spinning room accelerated, and Ken gulped dryly and clung to the table to keep from falling over. "Well...maybe..." he conceded.
Aya sighed in exasperation and pulled Ken's uninjured arm over his shoulders and slipped his own around the young soccer player's waist. The pair slowly made their way up the stairs. Aya was sure Ken had some kind of concussion, but according to him, the doctor could find nothing at all wrong with his head. He grunted angrily, kicked open the door to Ken's room, and all but carried him in.
Aya eased the mostly unconscious Ken onto the bed and began to remove his shoes. That done, he yanked the covers back with a violent jerk and maneuvered the younger assassin under them. He didn't quite have the courage to change Ken into his pajamas. Not yet, anyway.
Ken murmured, "Thanks, Aya," then sighed and slipped into a deep, healing sleep.
Allowing a rare expression of affection to grace his features, the katana-wielding redhead pulled the blankets up to Ken's chin. He then stepped back and peered down at his teammate. Though he would never admit it to anyone, not even himself, Aya enjoyed watching Ken sleep.
An odd feeling crept into his stomach as he stared at Ken. With his chocolate hair whisping around his face and the pale pallor of his skin, Ken's resemblance to Aya's comatose sister was eerie. He pushed the feeling aside. Now was not the time for such sentimentalities. Someone, or something, had hurt one of their own.
Retribution would be swift and final.
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To be continued in Chapter 3: Sui's Decision
Gah, I'm glad that's over. Today's my birthday! -_- Chapter 3 will be up much faster than this was, I promise. I hope you guys liked it. Anyway, I'm going to go play with my present now. See ya later!