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"Rain, that was delicious!" Mr. Kasshu said with a proud smile as he, Domon and Rain finished their lunch. Rain smiled with appreciation at his comment.
"Well thank you, it's nice to know that SOME people appreciate my cooking." she said, glaring at Domon when she reached the end of the sentence.
"What, I compliment you!"
"Then compliment me right now."
"ok............ well, the beans are definetly... interesting....."
"Domon!"
The phone suddenly rang, and Domon scooted out of the room before Rain could protest. His voice drifted into the room as Mr. Kasshu and Rain watched him pace. His voice sounded grim and serious.
"Rain," he started as he reentered the room and grabbed his cape. A frown was chiseled onto his face. "Let's go."
"What?" Rain asked, standing up from the table. "What do you mean 'lets go'? We've barely even sat down to eat..."
"We're going to Neo America to meet up with Chibodee and Argo. The plane's all set- we leave in an hour."
Rain almost fell over. "An hour?! Domon you can't be..." But Domon shot her a serious look, and she instantly understood.
'It's about the Tournament...'
"I'll get my things. I'm sorry we have to cut your stay short, Mr. Kasshu." Rain said with regret. Mr. Kasshu simply waved it off and smiled wisely at her.
"Don't you worry about it, Rain. And please, just call me Dad from now on. It would sound more natural that to have you call me Mr. Kasshu."
But Rain had already started up the stairs and didn't quite hear what he said. Mr. Kasshu followed and packed his things, then bid the two a farewell and left. Domon came up the stairs not long after his father had left and began to pack his own things.
"Domon..." Rain started. "Exactly what about the Tournament could be so important?"
Domon paused for a moment, then continued to pack his bag.
"You know how Argo and Nastasha have been on that pirate ship since the end of the tournament, right? Well last week the two were flying by the Devil colony... the skeleton of the Devil Gundam suddenly lit up, then broke into hundreds of pieces and fell to earth, right in front of their eyes. This can't be just a coincidence." He said gravely. Rain was taken aback- could the Devil Gundam have come back to life?
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"Well, Domon and Rain are on their way. They'll get here soon." Chibodee said as he hung up the phone. He, Allenby, Argo and Nastasha were back at the warehouse that the Maxter, Nobel, and now Bolt Gundam were being stored. Argo and Nastasha had already explained the situation to Chibodee and Allenby.
"I spoke with George yesterday evening, he'll be here around that time as well." Argo replied.
"Have you spoken with Sai Saici?" Chibodee asked, but Argo shook his head.
"I haven't been able to find where he is."
"Hong Kong," Allenby suddenly spoke up. "he's in Neo Hong Kong. I talked to Domon the other day, he said that Sai Saici was taking a vacation there. He'll know where he is staying."
The four sat around a table in the warehouse, each deep in thought.
'Why would the Devil Gundam suddenly explode like that? It couldn't have been an accident, things like that just don't happen!' Allenby thought as she stared into her clenched fists, which were resting on the table. She lifted her head to look up at Chibodee, but he was already staring back at her. They both turned a bit pink, then Allenby stood up.
"I'm gonna go change before they get here." Allenby said a little shakily. Chibodee stood up and followed her out.
"yea, I need to shower..."
Nastasha and Argo barely acknowledged their leaving, but started to talk after they were gone.
"This should have ended three years ago." Nastasha said quietly. Though she wasn't willing to admit it, she feared the Devil Gundam, and all it had brought her in the past. She could deal with it attacking her, she was used to being attacked after being in the military for so long. What she wasn't used to was the feeling she got when Argo was defeated. She would never be able to erase from her mind the sight of the ruined Bolt Gundam on Lantau Island, or the way that Argo was lying on the ground outside the cockpit, terribly still, but smiling. The sight had almost shattered her, and she was sure that she would have broken in two had Argo not begin to move.
Argo nodded at her comment.
"This time, it will end indefinetly. I'll make sure of it." he replied, lying his huge hand on top of her own as a silent reassurance. Nastasha lay her free hand over his, giving it a slight squeeze to let him know she got the message.
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"Hey wait a sec, Allenby." Chibodee started as he caught up to her in the long hallway that lead to their small rooms. It was about two hours later, and George, Marie, Domon and Rain were about to arrive at the warehouse.
Allenby turned around, her hands clasped together behind her back.
"Whats on your mind, Chib?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.
"I've been thinking... the Devil Gundam exploded, so we at least know it hasn't repaired itself and come back. But those pieces of the skeleton could still contain DG cells." He leaned against the wall as he spoke, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I wouldn't be surprised if they started infecting people right away."
Allenby paused, looking down at her feet before speaking.
"I wouldn't doubt it." she quietly agreed. "But ya know what?"
"What?"
"I'm not worried. Me and you make a great team, and if anything happens I'm sure we can handle it." she replied, smiling brightly. Chibodee nodded in agreement and the two headed back to the main room of the warehouse, where Argo, Nastasha, George, Marie Louise, Domon and Rain had all gathered. Allenby sat with her back to the huge door of the warehouse, which was cracked open, and Chibodee took a seat next to hers.
Nastasha and Argo spent the next half hour explaining the situation in detail to the newly arrived people. George and Marie Louise were quite surprised, but Domon and Rain had already heard most of the story.
"So, what do you propose we do?" George asked after the story had sunk in.
"We have no choice but to wait. There is no way of telling where the pieces could have fallen." Argo replied in his low voice.
"Hey, Chibodee mentioned something eariler, we already know the Devil Gundam won't be coming back, but what if those pieces still contained DG cells? They could start infecting people as soon as they liked." Allenby spoke up.
"There's a good possibility that that could happen, though the cells would still need someone telling them what to do. They cannot act on their own." Rain said slowly.
"Hey... where's Sai Saici?" Domon asked after a moment.
"Oh... we didn't know where he was staying, so we couldn't get a hold of him." Allenby said. As she spoke, a shadow crept through the door behind her, too low for anyone to see. "We were going to ask... AH!" she suddenly shouted. Her hand lung up to her neck and pulled out a small dart, which was dripping a clear solution.
"Sai Saici will not be joining you. His hands are full." A thin, sinister voice hissed from the doorway. Everyone sprung from their seats as the huge door rolled up and open, and more attackers (all were masked) poured into the warehouse, surrounding the group.
"Don't bother calling forth your gundams, you won't have the chance to get into them." the voice continued as the attackers approached the group from all sides. Jorge and Domon had placed themselves in front of Marie Louise and Rain. Nastasha was standing by Argo, ready to fight, as was Allenby with Chibodee.
"You sure you're alright, Allenby?" Chibodee asked her as his arm rose instinctively in front of her. She stepped in front of it and assumed a fighting stance, though her face was growing pale.
"I'm fine." she replied as she eyed the oncoming assailants. "Besides, I said we're a team, and I'm not gonna let you fight without me!" she said with enthusiasm. One of the attackers came at her full-force, and the attack began.
"Marie Louise, stay back!" George shouted as he kicked away an attacker.
'They aren't trying to fight me, they're trying to get past me, and get to Marie Louise... but what do they want with her?' He asked himself as he fought off another foe. 'Also, these men don't seem to be very experienced fighters, yet they are incredibly strong. It's as if they gained their strength in a day...' His face suddenly lit up in realization. 'could they be infected with DG cells?!'
Argo grabbed the heads of two attackers and slammed them together, knocking each of them out. Nastasha was busy taking out some baddies on her own, but they just kept coming, and it seemed that more were attacking her than Argo. Ten of them suddenly approached her, All attacking at once.
'Should I call for help? ...no, no I won't! I'm not a weakling!' She shouted in her mind as she tried to pick them off one by one. But one of the attackers managed to approach her as she was preoccupied. He picked her up by the waist and tossed her against the wall of the warehouse. Her glasses flew from her face, and her foot hit the wall with a sickening crack as her body followed.
"Nastasha!" Argo shouted as he saw her sail through the air and slap against the wall ankle-first. He barrelled over to her, angrily slammed through the attackers, then bent down, scooped her up and picked up her glasses, all in one motion.
"George, your left!" Marie Louise shouted as more attackers poured over the Fighter. An unusually large man had grabbed a fire extinguisher and was approaching George with it, fast. Before Jorge could look, the make-shift weapon was connecting to the side of his head and knocking him to the ground, totally unconcious.
"No, George!" Marie cried as she ran over to him. The attackers loomed over her as she held on to him tightly. "Get back!" she shouted, then suddenly pulled a small box from behind her back, squeezed her eyes shut and opened it. A scorching bright light shone from inside, blinding the attackers for a moment. A huge arm suddenly folded over her as the other hooked around Jorge, and Argo slammed through the attackers to the green car that was waiting outside, with Nastasha already in it. He set Marie Louise down, who jumped into the back seat and pulled George in from the other side as Argo set him inside. The four then sped away from the warehouse, leaving the four that remained behind.
"Wait, can we just leave them there like that?!" Marie asked in alarm as she cradled George's head in her lap. Argo frowned and pressed the gas harder.
"We're not out of the woods yet, the ones that were attacking us seem to have followed. Once I loose them we'll go back to our ship. There's nothing we can do for the others right now, I just hope they fair better than we did." He replied. Marie nodded slowly. He was right, they had no choice but to leave. Poor George was definetly in no shape to fight, and even Argo wouldn't have been able to protect the three of them, plus himself.
"What about the Gundam? We can't just leave it there..." Nastasha said as she gingerly moved her ankle onto the seat by her side.
"They weren't after the Gundams, they were after you girls." Argo replied. Marie and Nastasha looked at him, startled.
"What?" Marie asked with alarm.
"Those men weren't trying to get us, they were going after you." He repeated. "We were wrong, this isn't about the tournament. This is about Revenge."
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"Hey, where did Argo and the others go?" Chibodee shouted to Domon from across the warehouse.
"Dunno, but I saw George take a pretty bad hit. My guess is they took off." He shouted back, kicking a guy in the stomach as he did so. Rain stood behind him, in a fighting stance.
"Hey Allenby, how you doin?" Chibodee asked over his shoulder. Allenby was standing, shakily, next to him. She had stopped trying to attack people a while ago, now she was only trying to defend herself. She looked much more tired than she should be, and all the color was drained from her face. "...Allenby?!"
"heh... no good..." she stammered as her legs gave out underneath her and she tumbled forward towards the ground. The poison had finally taken it's effect.
"Allenby!!" Chibodee shouted as she hit the ground, breathing heavily. An attacker lunged forward at her, but was hit in the gut by a furious Chibodee, sending him sailing towards the gound 8 feet away.
"S-sorry, guess I'm not... not holding up my half of the deal..." Allenby said weakly.
"You just hang in there Allenby, I'm getting you out of here!" He said, scooping her up and racing towards his car outside as their attackers followed them.
"Domon, we gotta get out of here!" He shouted as he kicked someone to the side, Allenby still in his arms. She lifted her head and looked up at him as he ran with her in his arms, then smiled weakly.
'he's so warm...'
"Domon! Chibodee's right, we need to get out of here. You need that bandaged, and I need to care for Allenby as well!" Rain said worriedly. Domon frowned angrily as she spoke, knowing she was right. One of the attackers had already managed to slice him in the chest with a knife, and the people that Argo & co. had lost were coming back in through the door, ready to attack those who were left.
"Domon..."
"Right. Let's go." Domon replied. He grabbed her hand and plowed through the attackers in front of them, running towards the door. Chibodee had just put Allenby in the back seat of his car when Domon and Rain burst out of the building. Domon hopped into the driver's seat and Rain jumped in next to him. Chibodee shut himself in the back seat with Allenby and the four took off.
"Argo probably headed for his ship. They'll have the equipment we need for Allenby." Domon said as he sped down the street. The attackers that had followed them were long gone, all that was left was to arrive at the ship.
"Hey, Chibodee, how does she look?" Domon asked seriously, peeking into the rearview mirror at Chibodee, who was still holding Allenby.
"Not good." he replied. There was a hint of anger in his voice as he spoke.
'Damn... I was right next to her and I didn't even see the damn guy coming. I should have noticed...'
The four drove quickly and silently, and 10 minutes later they finally approached the docked pirate ship that Argo and Nastasha had traveled on, along with Argo's crew.
"Hey Domon... what do you suppose that man meant when he said that Sai Saici 'had his hands full'?" Rain suddenly asked. Domon's gritted his teeth and frowned, pressing the accelerator down harder.
"I'm sure they've found him too." He said angrily. "And I'd bet anything that Cecil's with him."
Rain looked at him with a confused expression.
"I'll explain when we get inside." he said quietly.
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Whew, well THAT only took like 4 hours o_O. In the next chapter we'll see how Sai Saici and Cecil are fairing, and we might even get a look at the baddies. Review pweez!!!! :-p Hope you enjoyed!!