When the Senshi Are Away, the Cats Will Play
Chapter Ten
Final Battle
"ARTEMIS! LOOK OUT!" Luna yelled, the terror in her voice punctuated by the thundering roar of the firing pistol. She clenched her eyes shut, sure her scream was too late.
She was almost right.
Artemis threw his body to the side, the animal part of his brain taking control while his logical mind was still stunned. As it was the bullet still grazed his side, causing the white man-cat to hiss in pain. As a side effect, it also snapped him out of his shock.
"You shoot your own people?" Artemis yelled, peering from behind the oil drums. A bullet hit the steel, causing him to duck back behind the dubious cover.
"You're surprised?" The Gaki yelled, dragging Koneko, and by default Luna, towards the boat hanging just off the side of the ship. "I am, after all, named after a soul-eating monster!" He laughed.
"True!" Artemis called back. He brushed rain soaked hair out of his eyes, while looking around for an idea, both figuratively and literally. He gripped the radio that through everything had remained in his hand, popping the battery off the bottom of the transceiver by mistake. Looking at it, and feeling its weight, he smiled.
He peeked from around the barrels, spotting Gaki taking Luna's cage from the little girl, his attention turned away for just a second.
Plenty of time!
Artemis jumped up and over the barrels, launching the battery straight at the Gaki with as much strength as he had. While he had aimed for the mans head, he was satisfied when it hammered into his wrist, knocking the firearm out of his grip, and into the sea along with the heavy lithium battery.
"Oh damn!" The assassin muttered even as Artemis slammed into him, tackling him to the deck.
The angry moon cat roared in angry joy, finally having the bastard in his grasp. The roar soon became a cry of pain when the Gaki's fists came down on the small of his back in a double axe-handle.
The Gaki snarled, feeling the animal-man arms loosen around him, and kicked him off, rolling to his feet. He savagely drove a kick into the less skilled fighter's side, sending him splashing into a puddle several feet away.
Artemis hit and rolled, coming to his feet with his own snarl. He touched his side even as he extended his claws. "I am going to kill you!" He yelled.
Two knives appeared in the trained killer's hands. "Come and get it, pussycat!"
The two very different males charged each other, and soon blood flowed. Artemis, thanking the pen for the thick leather of the jacket, ripped a savage gash into Gaki's shoulder. The favor was paid back by a sharp uppercut to his furred jaw, the Gaki's knife working as a fist pack.
The Gaki quickly took advantage of Artemis's stunned stumble, and kicked Artemis in the stomach, sending him crashing into Koneko, knocking the little girl down, and crushing Luna's cage.
"Luna!" Artemis yelled, sighing in premature relief when the black cat slid mostly uninjured from the wreckage. The sigh soon changed to a scream, however, when one of the assassin's knives embedded its self in his thigh.
"Your strong, Kitty cat, I'll give you that!" The Gaki laughed, displaying confidence though he was careful to stay out of reach. "But you have no skill and a hole in your leg, now!"
Artemis snarled, and sparing a glance at Luna spoke. "Get Koneko out of here!" The last word turned into a cry of pain as Artemis pulled the blade from his leg, fortunate that it had gone through a pocket as well as the pants legs, and hadn't been as deep as he feared.
Standing, Artemis growled "Come here, Gaki... Time to die!"
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"We have to get to that SHIP!" Detective Shimaka screamed his professional manner somewhere beneath the waves with the pier.
His captain nodded. "Shimaka! Calm down! The Harbor Patrol is sending a boat ASAP! These waves would make it suicide for anything smaller then one of their cutters, so they aren't getting away, son!"
"How do you know that!"
'I don't' he thought silently to himself, but the captain pointed at the raging ocean. "You think they are going to risk THAT in a motor boat?" His radio called for his attention, and he quickly brought it to his lips. "Captain here!"
"Sir! This is Swat 3!"
"Go ahead."
"There seems to be activity on the deck."
"What sort of activity?" The captain said, turning so the wind wasn't so deafening.
The sound of the SWAT team man keying, then releasing the radios toggle came over the air, then he keyed and spoke. "I think a... Youma or something... is fighting the Terrorists!"
"Say WHAT!"
"Sir, Swat 1... Rolo's right. It looks like someone's fighting a guy with white fur and a tail! That ain't the weird part though!"
The Captain and Mr. Shimaka (Who had been shocked into awareness.) Looked at each other and blinked. "What IS the strange part then?"
"The youma seems to be keeping the terrorists away from the girl... but he's injured."
The two men blinked. "Well... I suppose I'll root for the Youma then... Don't tell my granddaughter." The police captain muttered to Shimaka, who just nodded.
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Back on the ship, Artemis was still gesturing a challenge at the assassin.
"Come on! Is the big bad hit man scared?"
"Not at all!" The man reached into a jacket pocket, pulling out an electrical lighter, flicking it on. "I just realized that you're standing in a puddle of gasoline!" Tossed the red-hot lighter into the fuel.
Artemis, quick as light, grabbed Koneko and Luna, and dove away from the barrels. The heat of the explosion of flames scorching his coat and the ends of his braid. They fell into a pile, Luna yelling "We have to get out of here!"
"I know that!" Artemis jumped up, looking behind him without noticing the disguise pen falling from his bloodied pocket. He didn't realize that there was an open door right near them, or that another door on the same hall was right next to The Gaki's last position.
The Gaki did!
Koneko was the only one who saw him burst out of the door, and screamed "MOMMY!"
Artemis spun around and blocked the knife, but both flew back into the flames, Gaki's knee hammering Koneko, and kicking her over the side and into the raging ocean.
"KONEKO!" Luna screamed.
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Artemis and the Gaki fell through the fiery hell of burning gasoline, and through an open cargo hatch. Both men yelled as they hit the foot of the same ladder that Mrs. Shimaka had used to escape only hours before.
Artemis, true to his nature, landed on top of the assassin, and plowed both fists, one after the other, into the mans face. Yelling in inarticulate rage and savage joy as he felt the mans head bouncing off the metal deck.
The Gaki, growling in pain and his own psychotic rage, took both blows, then retaliated by digging his thumb into the bleeding gash on Artemis's leg. When the cat flinched away from the pain, he threw him off, and rolled away and too his feet. With a stumble, he tossed his smoldering jacket away.
"Your good cat... but I am afraid playtime is OVER!"
"Same for you!" And again they met in a flurry of rage and blows. This time, however, the Gaki's skill didn't help him as the enraged cat dropped to all fours instants before they met and plowed into him with a pounce like tackle, taking him to the floor with all four sets of claws digging into the humans flesh.
"You are a MONSTER!" The white cat yelled. "A beast preying on the weak!"
"You're calling ME a beast?" The Gaki grabbed the braid and pulled with all his maddened strength. "I guess it takes a beast to hunt one!" Slamming a palm into Artemis's nose, knocking him over a table.
Artemis and Gaki rose again, both breathing hard and hurt. Artemis snarled "May the better beast win then!"
"Don't worry! I will!"
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Luna ran to the rail, stopping when her foot hit the blood coated disguise pen. With a yell of joy she called "Make Me HUMAN!" Gripping the pen even as her hands formed she hurled herself over the side of the ship after Koneko.
Koneko, meanwhile, had bobbed to the surface and was struggling to stay there, even as she cried in terror. Her mother had taken her swimming every weekend for as long as she could remember and she was very good, but quick to tire.
Koneko cried in renewed terror as arms wrapped around her, the cry changing to joy as she saw the golden moon on the woman's forehead. She gripped Luna with all the power in her small form, not even noticing she was an adult and not the child she knew.
"I want my MOMMY!" She yelled even as Luna started swimming to shore.
"Let's find her then!" Luna said. 'You better come back to me, Artemis. If you die I'll KILL you!' Her thought repeating for every stroke in the sea, and as she climbed to the relatively dry beach, holding Koneko to her body, and turning to face the ship, the flames visible even from shore.
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The Cargo hold was filling with smoke, even as the flames spread from the Gaki's coat. Artemis had his back to barrels while he watched the assassin who was glaring at him from some distance off. Both were bleeding from many wounds, and noses and both limped now, tired but neither ready to give up.
Artemis, his eye caught by the red warning label on one barrel, spared on instant to look away from the Gaki. 'Ether! We are fighting in a BOMB!"
That moment of inattention almost killed him, as the Gaki's knife swung in for his throat. The cat, catching the flash of steel out of the corner of one eye blocked with leather sheathed arm, screaming as the blade bit through the leather, cutting a shallow but long line of blood from his arm. The Gaki's body followed, and as had happened to the assassin so many times, Artemis found himself beneath the man, grappling with the knife even as his injured but still fighting fist pummeled his chest and stomach.
"This place is going to explode! We have to get OUT!" Artemis yelled, between grunts of pain.
"To bad! I suppose you'll only lead me into hell by a few instants!" The crazed assassin screamed forcing the knife blade against the cat's throat, a small trickle of blood escaping the shallow nick.
Artemis growled and yelled all at once. Closing his eyes he looked for the strength to push the man off of him. His closed eyes meant that only the Gaki got to see the moon on his forehead glow blindingly silver, instead of its normal gold. Then an implacable wall of force, and into the bulkhead hit the Gaki knocking him across the room.
Artemis opened his eyes, not having any idea how he had thrown the man so far away, and not even caring. Seeing the Gaki stumble to his feet, wiping blood from his lips, he made a decision. "Later, Looser!" He yelled, then jumped, landing on top of the Pyramid of explosive liquid, then jumping from them in a display only a cat could give to catch the ladder and scramble free of the cargo hold.
"GET BACK HERE CAT!" The Gaki yelled, running to the ladder, not realizing the barrels had started to topple, nor that he was in the path of the top most drum's fall until it hit him, and the flames at his feet.
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"NO!" Luna screamed, feeling as though her soul had been ripped from her body as the cargo ship exploded, the rusted hulk literally ripped in half by the titanic forces released by the explosion. "ARTEMIS NO!!!"
She clutched the little girl as closely as the girl held her, crying tears she wouldn't admit to having under any other circumstances.
Gasping for breath, and grappling for her hard won control, she walked to the edge of the water, staring at the flames for a few more moments. She was feeling so much she didn't know what to do, or say, or think. Koneko slipped from her arms, looking at the flames as well, though she didn't know what it meant or what had happened as the ship sank.
"Where is Mr. Artemis, Ms. Luna?" The frightened girl asked, worried about her other cat friend.
Luna's hands clenched into fists, as her mind settled on the one emotion she always relied on for Artemis "DAMN YOU ARTEMIS! HOW DARE YOU DIE ON ME!"
"Gee...Thanks." A male voice said, followed by a couple of coughs. Looking to their left, the two females saw a white cat-man on the beach, obviously to injured and not quite able to stand.
"ARTEMIS!" Luna yelled, as her emotions flipped around in her mind, she ran to him, dropped to her knees. She looked at him with tears in her eyes for just a second.
Then her lips found his in a kiss so deep that for a few moments, Artemis felt no pain, no fear, and no anger. His mind stopped working, even as his arms went around the black haired cat turned woman, pulling her closer to him. A kiss so deep that it was not between lips, but between souls.
Koneko stood there watching, and like all children her fear had passed quickly when her friends were there. "I knew you were boyfriend and girlfriend!" Her musical giggles breaking them out of their own little world, the one that consisted only of each other.
"Artemis..." Luna said, returning to her proper behavior even though her face was flushed rather prettily. "Take the pen, and change back into a cat. I don't think you can walk anywhere and we have to get you to a vet."
"What ever you say, beautiful..." The white cat said, even as he touched the pen and changed. "Whatever you say."
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"Let me go damn it! LET ME GO!" Detective Shimaka yelled at the officers holding him to the pier. Sgt Hibuki was holding his wife back, both of them having tried to dive into the ocean, and the flaming wreckage.
The captain just stood there and watched, knowing what was coming. That explosion killed anyone on that ship, and their only hope was that Koneko wasn't on that ship. The flaming hull of a red speedboat destroyed that hope for him.
He opened his mouth, about to say something, though he didn't know what, when a scream of "MOMMY!" Came from behind them. He, and Mrs. Shimaka, turned, to see Koneko, wet, muddy, and limping, running straight for her mother, grabbing her and crying. "MOMMYmommymommy..."
"Koneko? KONEKO!" The mother, and then father screamed, both soon wrapping their arms around the way ward child.
"I'll be damned! Sgt. Make a note that we are to leave Cat like youma alone in the future!" The captain said, laughing as he turned... only to blink in surprise when he found the Sergeant gone. "What the..."
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"Hold on, Artemis... I'll find you a doctor." Luna was whispering. Artemis had drifted into unconsciousness a while ago, but she had to keep talking, otherwise she might panic.
"LUNA!" A voice yelled, she spun around, only then realizing the person shouldn't know who she was.
"Who.." She tried to ask who the man was, but he held up his uninjured hand, then grabbed her arm pulling her to a police car's passenger door. "Get in, I'll take you to a doc!"
"But... How do you know...?"
The Hibuki pointed down to the wounded white cat. "I owe him me and my partner's life. I owe him." He replied, and pulled out, flipping on the lights and rushing through the streets.
"You know about... Us?"
"Yeah, and he already made me promise not to tell. I'll make sure my wife knows that, too." He winked. "She's a fine veterinarian though I am sure you two won't think so!"
"Um... Thank you..."
"No lady. Thank you."
AN: Now all I have to do is type the Epilogue and then all the T's and I's will be done, and the Cat's first tale will be over. Then on with the NEXT one...heh.