Chapter 6: Dark VS. Espio! Clash of the Ninjas!

(Author's Note: We are still in a flashback. We never left it since last chapter)

                It has been many days of personal healing. It is day now, instead of all the many scenes that took place at night. Nurse Suzette and Dr. Dickson refuse to let Dark leave until he is at 100% that includes learning to control his new abnormal eye sights. Dark, on this fine, clear day, is not in his bed but in a meditation position on the floor. At that moment, Dr. Dickson enters the room with a glass of water. "Hello? Dark? I thought you might be thirsty so I brought you some wa…..ter." Dr. Dickson is surprised when he sees Dark like this. "Oh, thanks doctor." Dark gets up, walks to the doctor, takes the cup, and drinks some of the water. The doctor is even more surprised. "H…..How did you do that without opening your eyes even once?" "Oh, it's no problem, really. I merely used my ninja skills to memorize my surroundings, but there are other clues that help me out; your body heat, heart rate, and breathing all help me locate things. Oh, and Suzette, you can stop hiding behind the door way now." Suzette shows herself. "Are you REALLY a ninja?" she asks excitedly. "Yes. I was trained in The Doujou of the Phoenix." Dark goes back to his meditation.

                The second Dark sits back down, he hears something. "Hmm….. I hear some people coming." "Really? I wonder who it could be." The doctor goes to look down the hallway. "Hello! Can I help…..you?" The doctor becomes afraid of the three, bulky, tall, well dressed men that now stand in front of him. The middle one speaks first. "Yeah, you could say that, right boys?" Their sinister smiles turn to evil sounding chuckles. The one on the right speaks up as they slowly walk forward, making the doctor back up in fear. "You know the payments you have to make to stay here." The last of the three, the one on the left, speaks. "Well it's time to pay up!" The nurse begins to tremble. "Please, don't hurt us!" "Guys, please! I know I promised you I would pay, but can't you wait just a bit more? We've only had one patient in months! See?" The doctor shows them Dark, who is still in a meditation stance. "What a freak," insults the middle thug.

(Author's Note: I am not sure when the names of these gangsters will be said, so I will say them now so I can type less. The middle thug is Boss; the other two are Grudge and Stone)

                Boss walks up to Dark. "Hey, idiot, look at me!" Dark won't open his eyes. "I said LOOK AT ME!!!" The thug attempts to throw his beer bottle down at Dark, but with super speed, Dark dodges, grabs his arm, than tosses him. He flies and hits the wall HARD in the hallway. He hit is so hard, a lot of the bricks were wedged into the wall, and the wall paper was torn. Boss is in so much pain, he cannot un-widen his eyes. Soon, he hits the floor. The others are amazed. "Boss!" "Why you….." The other two begin to draw their guns from their coats when Boss stops them. "No! Just stop, you idiots! That guy is not normal… I think messing with him would be a mistake." Boss rises, dusts himself off, looks at the doctor, and points at him. "We'll leave for now, but we WILL be back!" All three of them leave. The amazed and speechless nurse and doctor look at Dark with dropping jaws. "That….. That was amazing! I didn't know you could do that!" says Suzette, very fascinated. Dark also seems surprised, but not in the same way. "Funny….. Neither did I."

                "What do you mean?" says a confused doctor. "That move was only supposed to twist his arm in the wrong way, or make him fall on his butt at most. Also, how fast did I perform that move?" "Well, most of the moves were so fast that we could barely see them." Dark thinks about this. "I was never able to move that fast before….. Plus, I never had that much strength before, and I was hardly even trying." "What are you saying?" "I think the accident I was in affected more than my sight. I believe it gave me super strength and super speed. This means I have more to get use to." Meanwhile, outside, the gangsters talk as they walk to the car. "So, when are we gunna go back, Boss?" "Simple, boys….. That freak cannot stay there forever; he is just a patient, right? So, we give him time, and when he leaves, we go back and get our money!" The 3 gangsters get in their car and drive off.

                Back in the hospital, Dark and the others are still talking. "So, what were those three neanderthals here for anyways?" "Oh Dark, I was hopping this subject would not come up. Well, as you may already know, this place is not exactly new. You see, me and the nurse always wanted to help people in the medical world; we wanted that to be our jobs, but there were not many hospitals that would hire us. We did not have enough money to go to far out in the world, so we had to accept whatever we could find. One day, we met this mob boss. He said he would give us the building and equipment we needed, just as long we paid to keep the building and our jobs. Feeling we had no other choice, we agreed. At first, some gangsters would come to us for help, but soon, we stopped getting any patients at all. And because no one would give us funds to update the building, it continued to look like the wreck we found it as, and people continued to mistake it for abandoned. That is why we sometimes go out in search of people we can help, because hardly anyone will actually come to us. We can't even get government help." "So those criminals were just here to collect the rent."

                Suzette speaks now. "Yes, but thankfully, you were there to protect us! Also, we have something to tell you. The doctor and I have noticed how much you have healed, and it would not be proper to keep you hear on this floor, so we will be putting you in a special room until you heal fully. Also, you will have plenty of room to practice your ninja training, if you wish." Dark thinks about it. "I'll do it, but I will only change rooms under protest since it will be harder to get to you the farther away I am, especially if you need my protection." Dark moves and indeed continues his training. There are times when he trains on the roof. He puts himself through many tests. Finally, after long, hard work, he can easily open his eyes, and control all his new abilities with ease. The time has come. Dark puts on his new clothes then walks into the doctor's office, where Suzette is waiting.

                "So, I guess this is goodbye….." Suzette nods. "I just wished I could have at least learned your full name instead of having to call you Dark." Dark notices how disappointed Suzette looks. "Suzette, I grew up without need for emotions. I was told love was just a worthless, chaotic, energy wasting theory made by the minds of the weak. However, you have shown me the closest thing to love and caring that I could ever know. I will honor you and all you have done for me by telling you my name. I have no real name. I was never given a name after my birth. But in the underworld, my full name is….." The scene cuts to a close up of the shadows of his mouth. He says his name as the scene cuts it out with an eerie silence. The censoring stops when the nurse gasps. "Why do you have such a horrible name?" "Because I am so good at killing that one could say I am the 'deliverer of death'. I am an assassin." "Will you just keep killing?" "Maybe, but there is something I have to do first. So, I will become an assassin for hire. And I will return one day, I promise you." "But why? Why for hire? What could you need the money for?" "You'll see….." Dark then leaves.

                Later, Dark is seen approaching a different, VERY LARGE hospital. "They say they attach robotic limbs here. Thank you Dickson and Suzette for keeping the joint preserved." Later, in one of the operating rooms, a doctor says farewell to a patient. He turns around and sees Dark fall from the ceiling, drawing his sword. Panicked, he runs for the door, but Dark flips over and blocks his way. "Give me a robotic arm!!" "W…..What?" "I won't hurt you. I just want you to attach a robotic arm to the joint where I lost my real one, and I want it to have blaster abilities! I KNOW you can." "But, you have to fill out paper work and the procedure costs over five…" "No!" Dark interrupts. "No one is to know a thing about me! I can't pay for it now, but give me time, and I PROMISE I will pay you back for it in time. Please, just attach it, or die!!" Dark raises his blade more to show he means business. So, forced into it, the doctors attach Dark's new transformable arm. Days later, the second ninja of The Doujou of the Griffin, the one that got away, is walking down a street alone. He is stopped when Dark's voice is heard but he cannot be seen. "Did you really think you could get away?" The ninja frantically looks around. The scene then focuses on his shadow, and we see Dark leap out of the darkness and cut his head off. The scene changes again. Dark is walking away. "Now I really can be an assassin for hire."

                Back to reality….. Dark has remembered it all. "Yes, part of the money will go him….." Dark thinks of the doctors that have attached his mechanical arm. "…..but, it will mostly go to her….." He thinks of Suzette in the broken down hospital owned by the gangsters. At that moment, Dark hears three thumps. He looks behind him. It's the Chaotix team. They have followed Dark to his hiding place. "Hold it right there, Dark!" Dark turns to the three behind him. "Well, well, if it isn't a team of detectives." Dark faces them. "I don't like intruders. If you've come for a fight, I'll grant it." Vector and Charmy are about to fight when Espio stops them. "No! Let me handle this." "Are you sure, buddy?" Vector looks down at Espio, confused. "Yes. He is a ninja. I understand his pride better than anyone else. I shall fight him alone." Espio steps up. Dark begins to draw his sword as Espio reaches for his ninja stars. The tension is deep. They stare each other down as if in a quick draw match.

                Espio throws his ninja stars. Dark blocks each one with his sword and slowly begins to make his way towards Espio. Dark leaps up only to see he is gone. "But how?" BLAM! Somehow, Dark gets kicked down. A second or two after the kick, Espio makes himself visible. He preformed the kick while camouflaged. Dark gets up. "Neat trick, but you can't pull the same trick on me twice." Espio lands. "We'll see." Dark aims his gun arm at Espio and energizes. Espio flips over Dark, and Dark tries to blast him a few times, but keeps missing. Espio vanishes before he lands. Dark gets up and leaps into the air. Suddenly, he turns, and gives MANY punches to the air beside him. Something the hits the ground before he does. It is a beaten Espio, who reappears soon after falling. "But, how did you….." Espio stops when Dark lands and he sees how his blue eyes have now become red. "Infrared Vision; helps me only see the heat levels items give off. I knew you could not make THAT invisible either. Told you you couldn't perform the same trick twice."

                Espio rises and they charge each other. They fight each other at fast pace speeds, also leaping off the walls and the ceiling. At one point, Espio throws a beeping ninja star at the wall Dark is headed towards. Once Dark nears it, it explodes like a bomb, causing Dark to fly and crash into the back wall. Espio lands, runs up to Dark as fasts as he can, and delivers the HARDEST double jump kick he possibly can, putting all his weight into his two feet. This causes the wall to break as Dark is shoved into it. Espio looks into the smoke, waiting for it to clear. Before that happens, Dark charges, taking Espio surprise. He manages to ram Espio into the opposite wall, making it crush behind him as well. Then, after a yell of rage, Dark uses his super speed to punch Espio BILLIONS of times in just a matter of seconds. "Hey! We can't just keep watching this!" Vector says in defiance. "Right!" Charmy agrees total. Vector grabs Charmy as Charmy readies his stinger. "Here's the wind up!" Vector indeed winds up. "The pitch!" He throws Charmy hard, stinger first. Dark sees Charmy coming and gets out of the way just in time. Dark runs toward his desk, and pulls out an electric shocker from one of the draws. Charmy gives chase and Dark keeps running forward. "A strike? Hmm… shall we try for strike 2?!" Vector tries to use his bad breath on Dark in an attempt to knock him out. Dark flips over Vector, land behind him, turns, and shocks him. The shock is so big; it makes Vector faint and fall. "Strike 3, YOU'RE out!" jokes Dark. Charmy is getting closer. Dark dodges turning to the side and shocks Charmy when he is right beside him. Charmy faints and falls. A flying ninja star knocks the shocker out of Dark's hand.

                Espio has recovered. They face each other and charge towards each other once again. However, halfway in the charge, Dark uses the spin dash attack he copied off Sonic. This attack surprises Espio and hits him HARD. "Time to end this!" Dark does a number of martial arts gestures and ends in a special stance. "Flying Phoenix Strikes! Super Speed!" In that instant, Dark launches a super fast attack that covers Espio's side of the room in nothing but one HUGE grey blur made by Dark's super speed. Though nothing can be seen, BILLIONS of HARD strikes can be heard. Soon, it stops. Dark lands where he started, facing the opposite way, kneeling. When the area clears up, Espio is not on the ground. Dark rises, and Espio hits the floor from the air. The attack has knocked him out. "I win." Scene fades to black.

                Later, the Chaotix team is slowly waking up. They are all together in the same place. They are waking up moaning and grabbing sore spots on their bodies. "Ooh, what a pain," says Espio. "Yeah, talk about a splitting headache," says Vector. Vector looks around a bit. "Uhh….. Guys, WHERE ARE WE?!" As Vector yells, the scene pans away to show that they are on top of some unknown building in the middle of the day in some unknown part of Station Square.

End Chapter 6

Coming Soon: Chapter 7

I'd also like to give credit to Dark Obsidian for helping me make names for the three gangsters! Thanks man!