The Bouncer
The Continuing Series


"Ow! Hey, don't put it on so tight!" Sion flinched as this
newcomer attached a brace to his shoulder. He didn't remember
much but based on Kou's explanation, and that of his cohort he could
grasp a few basic, and somewhat unnerving concepts. He
numbered them off in his head.
( Number one, Dominique has been reactivated...? Ok,
number two, she's looking for something. Number three, she's
stronger than Dauragon it seems...Number four...She's killed two
people today, and injured 3.)
"Sion, did you heard a word I said?" The woman clad in the red
in black uniform took a hard squeeze on Sion's shoulder to bring him
back to reality. Luckily her hair was getting in her eyes so she
released him a moment to push back golden tresses. Sion focused
on the minor cut that she had unearthed next to her eye, shaking his
head.
"Ugh...Alright, now Dominique did the same thing to those
street punks she did to you. But since the incident at Mikado your
vitality's pretty amazing. Now did she say anything before she
attacked you?" The woman hadn't even bothered to introduce
herself yet, and her odd military-like uniform didn't have a name listed
on it either.
Sion stared out into space a moment, trying to grasp where he
was...His appartment, that's where they had brought him. Echidna
was lying on Dominique's bed, and Kou was typing at a laptop. A
laptop? Sion didn't own a laptop. The young man's thoughts tried to
focus. What had occured...
"She asked me where was...uh..her father." Sion stammered
out, wasn't that what she said? Something along the lines of What
have you done with my father? The woman got up and walked over
to Kou at the laptop, of whom's usual attire of vest and pants lied on
the floor beside him. Kou was wearing a uniform similar to the
woman's, only the male version.
"This shouldn't be happening...It's a good thing we let you keep
this assignment." The woman would state in a superior tone looking
over Kou's shoulder.
"Assignment?" Sion called out to the woman, but no answer.
He wasn't discouraged by her silent tone, it was Kou's that worried
him. "What do you mean by assignment? Is this about Dominique's
special abilities?"
There was still a long pause as the woman seem to take in
what was on the laptop screen. She'd stomp her foot down on the
ground after a while, a small dent forming, the floor boards not so
sturdy from recent repair. "You should have just eliminated her."
"If we eliminated her, then they could have just repaired the
sattellite. Wait, do you think they did that?" Kou's voice was cold,
stern, and serious for once. Sion had not heard such since that day
on the Galeos.
"No, Mikado's gone down the drain, and roughly all the MSF
were eliminated by you." The woman would begin to pace back and
forth, the screen showing some kind of loading symbol from what
Sion could grasp. It was time for some answers, his own voice
would match their tone.
"What is going on? What are you two talking about?" He'd rise
slowly from his own bed, a hand clasping the injured arm that the
newcomer woman had recently mended. "Who are you anyway?
What's wrong with Dominique?"
Both Kou and his cohort ignored him further as they had done
on and off for the past hour since he had slowly come to. Tapping of
keys resumed and what appeared to be the fellow bouncer's
superior took her position again over Kou's shoulder.
"So where is she headed now? Can you get anything?" The
woman's speech would be very anxious. "A signal? A transmission
from headquarters, anything!?" She seemed to be getting very
annoyed.
"...All I can find relating to Dominque is that two students that
had minor criminal records were killed by a young girl today. That's
just out of the news. They say the bodies were man...." Kou would
trail off, sighing to himself as he maneuvered a mouse along the
wooden table. A simple click, and then he would close the laptop.
"So there's nothing? That's it? She's on the loose and we have
no clue what her motives are?" The woman's voice was becoming
somewhat enraged. Her hands would close tightly into fists.
"Leann...What about what Sion said..." Kou would finally speak
the woman's name, pulling the laptop off the table and shoving it into
a padded case. "You know, she asked about her father. You think
that has anything to do with it?"
"Dominique Cross was an orphan, the only people who know
anything about her are dead. Including the person she's looking for.
Do you think it's the obvious?" Leann, as she seemed to be called,
was talking almost too fast for Sion to understand. The young man
was still standing there at the side of his bed, waiting to hear
something that he could possibly grasp.
"Not true, Leung's body was never found that night when they
were concluding the investigation." Kou continued to pack up, his
uniform was now completely visible to Sion, a red and black variation
of something similar to what a certain psychotic super ninja of the
past had worn. But Sion took more heed to the words that Kou
spoke...Wong Leung..The name of his master.
"A lot of good that does us, look I'm getting out of here...You're
job now is to find and disable her. Take that order in any way you
interpret it. " The woman of soldier calibur would begin her treck out
of the small appartment not taking heed to Sion or the still
unconcious Echidna.
"What the hell was that all about, Kou?" Sion's voice couldn't
be too threatening, he was somewhat weak and only steadily
recovering. This was all so confusing to him, more so than that night
where he had quested against the one who had in most ways
destroyed his life time after time.
Finally, the slim, muscular figure clad in black and red turned to
him. The usual guise of calm was gone, and Kou actually looked
concerned. What was this all of a sudden? Sion stated his question
again, more firmly this time. "What was that all about, Kou?"
After another long drawn out pause, Kou began to speak. "I'm
not telling you much, but your princess is on a rampage." He'd sling
a duffle bag over his arm. Kou took a quick glance over to Echidna.
"You and her are going back to the bar, I'm going to go find Volt."
With that, Kou began his own start towards the door.
"Wait...I thought that woman said go find Dominique..." Sion
said that without thought, then soon after he'd take thought that Kou's
mission was to seek and possibly destroy her. "I mean..."
"She doesn't know about Volt's former profession. He's the
last person alive that was around during that era." Kou left those
words as he took leave of Sion.
"He's wrong..."
Sion was knocked out of his daze with much surprise.
"Echidna!?" He'd call out her name, turning over to Dominique's bed
watching the woman rotate an arm to excercise her shoulder. "You
heard the whole thing?"
Echidna switched to the other arm, her eyes were locked on
the floor, Sion could see much thought in them. Throughout this
whole ordeal that had taken place all in the mere course of an
evening, he had felt very much like an outsider. In previous times of
crisis, even if he didn't know what to do, he always led the pack. Now
he was relying on gaining information from his limited point of view.
"I've got a lot of explaining to do... Do you remember some
time ago when I confessed to Volt that I aided in the assassination of
the former head of Mikado...?" Her words were very quiet,
somewhat choked. An odd occurence given Echidna's track record.
"Y-Yeah..." Sion nodded, thoughts were starting to course
through his somewhat dazed mind finally. He was beginning to toy
with the idea in his mind that Echidna might have a small connection
to what was going on as well as Kou.
"What neither of us mentioned, was that I too was the previous
guard to original Mikado. I have an idea what's going on."