Thunder crashed out in the world such as that of a train crash. The sky was dark, so incredibly deep in the abyss of night that one could not see a man fifteen feet away. Rain fell from the sky in torrents. The water barrels had overflowed themselves hours ago, and steady rivers of water shot from the gutters as if they were fire hoses. Fortunately, most of Manches dwellers had tucked themselves away in their beds and spent their time in the sunny warm days of their dreams. Their dreams carried them in any weather save this kind - let me tell you.

                However, to your and my surprise, there were humans in this rain, along with something less of a man. This weather formed smothering blankets of cold November rain over the creatures, which were all in a desperate struggle of some kind. Woe to any beast, bird, fish, or man traveling these deserted roads in the hour of the tempest. The hour hand had passed midnight several hours ago, and two clangs did the bells ring. The players in this drama were separated and lost to the thoughts and plans of each other. Now let the play unfold.

                Lightning cracked the sky into several pieces, illuminating a horrible creature perched on a triangular cone of a rooftop. Jack gazed about, searching the city for his other self. His blood and flesh, his foe. In the streets below, the lamps fired viciously, trying to maintain themselves in order. Leaping to a far building, Jack dug his daggers deep into the shingled roof. Thus he saved himself from slipping to a plummeting doom. With enormous strength, the man hauled himself up to the top. Jack closed his eye, placing a dagger near his face. He could feel it. Other Jack was here. Somewhere around here. Suddenly, light burned below. Something was ablaze in the tunnel. Peeking the clowns curiosity, Jack scrambled for the near point of the roof, trying to catch a glimpse of the action.

                "Hehehehe. Fire dancer no doubt, fighting myself. Hehehehe." Jack laughed. He then aimed to the siding, slinking himself down like a spider. Like a spider wrapped in a mans disguise…

** *

                Rouge, by all means the Fire Dancer, was trying to fend off the attacker. The in construction tunnel was lighted violently as flames emerged around Rouge. The offender, a tall, lanky bandaged creature with one red eye and twin daggers leaped backwards with the precision of a locust. Rouge lit a flame upon her silk glove fingers and watched the attacker. Her face was the entity of determination. The bandaged green coated man moved too swift to get a good look, but this was defiantly Jack or his clone. If what was said earlier about the latter was true, then she in for quite the ride.

                "Fiend! If you're looking to slay a woman this night, then you've chosen the wrong target!" Rouge shouted at the thing.

                "HE------HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE! None stop the fun of Jack!" Other Jack shouted.

                "Is that so?! Then let's see how you like to play with fire!" Rouge bellowed.

                Rouge leaped forward, flinging her feminine right arm, trailing a line of fire through the moist air. Jack flipped through the air, placing himself unto the stone curvature of a ceiling. He then dropped behind Rouge, swinging the dagger with a swift blow. Rouge was able to dodge just be a hair. She quickly placed a finger behind her head, making sure the dagger hadn't cut. No blood. Good. Other Jack swung again, slicing a good portion of Rouge's long braid clean off. Rouge leaped backwards, sending a volley of fireballs towards the fiend. Where Other Jack was caught, he blazed. Other Jack was soon dotted in fire, which was quickly consuming him.

                Rouge placed a hand to her hip. "No man cuts Rouge the Scorching beauty and lives!"

                But not one howl came from the beast. Other Jack flung himself onto the ground and quickly extinguished himself. His jacket had been burned, however he seemed in total unhurt. This was surprising.

                "Hahahahahahaha! Fool! None can cut Jack the Slayer! Tis I who will cut you! HE---hehehehehehehehehe!" Jack laughed.

                Rouge brought several more fireballs into her palms, preparing to lunge them at the foe. Jack leaped forward. The Scorching beauty sent the flaming orbs flying, but every one fell behind as Jack rose higher and higher into the tunnel. With the force of an ox he crashed into the ground, narrowly missing the lady. His blades buried an inch into the stone earth below. Rouge stepped back as Other Jack attempted to pry loose his weapons of disaster.

                "Hehehehehe! Come here my pretty! Jack likes pretties. Just stand still so I can drink your screams!" The green-coated monstrosity roared.

                His weapons were free from the earth. Other Jack scuttled across the floor at unimaginable speeds like that of an insect, human bones breaking with every step. Other Jack soon gained enough momentum and lunged daggers first at the woman. But with a quick flaming round house, Other Jack crashed into the wall.

                "That should teach you to mess with me!" Rouge panted. Crates, signs, and tools were either crushed or ablaze.  The Jack creature did not stir from his position behind several smashed boxes. The blow would have been strong enough to kill any normal man. Rouge did not want to step any closer, but she had to see if he were alive.

                Rouge stepped closer with every step. Slowly she made her way towards the crates. Slowly, ever so slowly, she peered into the dark crater in the stonewall. In a blink of an eye a dagger came rushing out, just snipping the very end of Rouge's ear. Blood began to flow, licking the side of her face like that of a small stream. Her ear was still whole. Instinctively, Rouge poured fire into the hole as if she were creating her own blazing hell. Fire came blazing out to meet the dark rain, engulfing the entire tunnel as it slid out.

                The Jack upon the rooftop narrowed his one eye as he paid witness to the inferno. Flames burst out as if it were a volcano, leaving every stone in the tunnel charred. Immediately, great clouds of steam rose into the night, becoming denser with every passing moment.

                "Hoohahahahahaha Hahahahahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Jack howled with laughter. He raised his daggers to the rainy skies and laughed at them. "Oh how they tempt fate's sickly hands! Fools! Ahahahahahahaha!"

 Rouge fell to the ground. Most of the flames had burnt themselves out. However, the tunnel was still Dante's Inferno, seeming more like a recreation of Hell than an unfinished tunnel. Rouge felt certain that Other Jack had burned an agonizing death. She expected to find the charred remains of him, still clinging the blades, which would have melted. She smiled as she sweated.

                She couldn't have been more wrong.

                Rising from the flames like that of a ghost, Other Jack's blackened form crushed the burning crates about him. The look in his eye remarked happiness. Rouge was at a loss for words.

                "Hahahahahahaha! Your flames are nothing to me! They do, however, hehehe create a fitting atmosphere. Do you think not?" Other Jack mocked.

                Rouge could not do anything but stare in disbelief.

                From outside the tunnel, Jack heard the swish of a blade and the scream of a woman amidst the crackling fires. And for some reason this brought a look of cheer to the leper's bandaged face…

** *

Accel placed a hand to his hat to adjust the brim. The constant waterfalls that had made a new home with his hat distorted his view of the French town. It was driving him nuts, so to say.

Ayame caught up with the cowboy, allowing her self try and wipe water from her face. It was futile. "What's going on Accel?"

Accel frowned, not once glancing to Ayame. "I smell a fire. A big un too."

Ayame's own keen senses turned on, allowing her sensitively trained nostrils to pick up the odor of burning wood. "Aye, so it seems. That's peculiar."

"I'd say so, especially with this kind of weather." Accel stated.

"Do you think it has a connection with Jack?" Ayame asked.

"I'm way ahead of you partner. Let's get going!" Accel started to rush ahead.

Of coarse, Ayame is no turtle when coming to speed, mind you. In a flash she was out pacing the American, finally kicking her ninja talents in by leaping to and fro on the sides of the French architecture.

Accel could only grin. "And she says her ninja skills are of no use…"

It was only a matter of a score or so minutes before the lightning reflexes of Ayame Uematsu brought her to the wicked scene unfolding before her. The gates of hell had opened before her, taking on the persona of a tunnel a gape. Barrels crushed, wagons smashed, crates burning away. And the frail form of Jack sat on his haunches before the scene, glimmering in the watery light.

"Ha! So the child comes to senses, so it seems. Hahahahahaha!" Jack cackled as Ayame slowed her pace. The fire reflected in evil ways in the rain and soaked street.

"Jack… what is going on?" Ayame had to ask.

Jack had his back turned to her. He was fondling something in his hands, out of sight. "Tis nothing of your concern, girl."

"Now Jack, that is no way to talk to your supervisor! Now what in the name of the Emperor is going on?!" Ayame fussed.

"Supervisor? You insolent wench! Hahahahaha! You think you are superior to Jack? Jack the Slayer? Tis Jack whom has no faults, unlike a small girl like you." Jack chuckled.

Ayame raised an eyebrow, ignoring Jack's rude language. "What do you have in your hands?"

"Only shinies! Shinies for Jack, none for a small girl like you!" Jack said in a wicked tongue.

With great skill, Ayame bounded to her right, only to become shocked by the item's visage. In Jack's cradled hands was Rouge's golden hair band.

"Get your filthy eyes off my shiny, you beast!" Jack shouted in his high-pitched voice.

"What… have you… done? You killed Rouge…" Ayame stuttered.

"The beautiful woman … ahahahah …I did in." Jack took precise measure of each loving word.

"WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?!" Ayame screamed as she burst into tears.

"I do what I must. I do as Itells me to do! Jack …loves …womens …and …loves ….shinies." Jack responded.

"YOU- YOU MONSTER!" Ayame propped a shrunken in her fingers with lightning skill. She braced herself and through the metal star, sending it flying towards the hunched over thing.

But Jack was able to dodge the ninja star so fast he was trailing images of himself in the firelight. He was upon Ayame in half a second. Her back was on the stone floor as she fought to keep the insect like clown off her. The daggers were a breath's width from her face.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAA haha. Woman you are not, but a potential kill you are!" Jack breathed.

Ayame clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, expecting a painful end. But what she heard was quite different. A gunshot resounded through the tunnel outer court, and the oppressive weight upon her was lifted off. She opened her eyes.

Accel walked towards, her his six shooters firing away at the green-coated Jack. Shot after shot was fired from the silver pistols and Jack's form flailed in every direction as he took every blow. Accel arrived at Ayame as Jack finally fell to the ground.

"Ayame! Are you still alive?" Accel asked.

Ayame picked herself up, due to both of Accel's hands preoccupied with aiming at the fallen creature. "I think so."

"I told you that he was trouble from day one, didn't I. But no one wanted to listen to me, the American. I-I'm not American by choice you know. It is the fact that I was born unto the nation I was. But now I know I'm right, for once, in the presence of European intellectuals."

Ayame suddenly felt a wave of pity for the cowboy. "You saved my life Accel. I don't think any one else would have been able to do it in the time you did."

As the two conversed, the fire licked the stone in the tunnels. The rain still fell, and the limp figure of Jack stirred. The charred holes in the green over coat began to shrink until the disappeared. The rain danced in the firelight as the holes vanished. Jack began to rise.

"Hehehehehehe." Jack's red eye glowed in the darkness.

The two warriors turned their face towards the creature. Mouth a gape, Accel stepped back. Ayame stared wide-eyed in horror.

"Fools! Do you not know who I am! I am Jack the Slayer! I shall never fall to mortal hands! Gahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Jack shouted.

"O-Other Jack?" Ayame questioned.

"I-I shot him! Twelve bullets! Every one flew inside him! Every one!" Accel recounted in disbelief.

Other Jack staggered forward, towards the fear stricken couple. One hand raised a dagger, the other taunting them as the fire burned behind him. Manches was burning away in the storm, and the ghost who haunted her was alive and well. Unexpectedly, twin streams of fire burst from the tunnel entrance, knocking the vile Jack down. Amidst the flames, a familiar sight walked out.

"Always make sure your foe is dead, fiend!" The battered and bloody Rouge spat.

"ROUGE?! You're alive!" Ayame shouted with glee.

"Aye, thanks to Jack." Rouge said as she watched the burning Other Jack rise.

As if on cue, the Jack other than Other Jack sprang from the tunnel like a bat out of Hell. He flung himself upon his adversary, knives digging deep into Other Jack.

"Other Jack?! When will you die, you disobedient wretch!" Other Jack called to Jack as he pried him loose and smashed him into the stone floor. The courtyard caved in a foot with the blow.

"Jack!" Ayame called.

Other Jack's dagger hilt mysteriously crashed into the back of Accels' skull. The move was so fast that no had seen the move. Accel fell to the wet street, blood oozing from the back of his head.

"Accel!" Ayame shouted.

Ayame tried to strike at Other Jack with a quick kick, but she was just too slow. Other Jack rose into the air with a single bound.

"Rouge! Look out!" Ayame launched herself across the courtyard to knock Rouge out of the way.

Other Jack sent a dagger hurtling to Earth with an accurate throw. The dagger buried itself in Rouge's shoulder. Rouge fell down. She had taken several blows before, and this was the last straw her stamina could hold. The dagger unburied itself from Rouge's flesh and flew through the raining night air until it met Other Jack's hand. With a gleeful laugh, he vanished like smoke in the wind, not to be seen for another night.

Ayame glanced at the sky as she hauled Rouge away from the flames.

"What in the name of all that is great have we got ourselves into?" Ayame asked herself.

The clock struck three, and the faint clamor of the bell tower echoed through the night…