COPS AND ROBBERS

"I don't like this."

"There's no other person we know who can get through to the other side and concentrate on this matter."

"I know, but…"

"But what?"

"There's a rule I learned a very hard way."

"Which is?"

"Never let the girlfriend of your friend do your work, even if she can do it better than you."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No, but I still don't like it, she's still under powered in comparison to him."

"Don't worry, she can take care of herself."

"You better be right for both our sakes."

******************************************

"Apparently strange forces are beginning to act in this world." Slayer tapped some tobacco into his pipe before lighting it and continuing, "An isolated, but dangerous event."

Slayer turned to face Sol Badguy, who simply leaned against a nearby tree to avoid the sun's rays, arms folded with one hand still holding the blade Fireseal in the 'incorrect' fashion. Slayer, on the other hand decided to bask in its warmth while sitting on his cape, which floated above the grassy meadow.

"What's this gotta do with me?" Sol gruffly asked.

"I come to inform you that I have felt someone, or something of great power targeting someone of your interest."

Sol's eyes narrowed, "Dizzy?"

Slayer gave out another puff of smoke, "Yes, indeed. The force is attacking the one Gear and Human. It has nearly succeeded in its last attempt, and it will attack again."

"I-no?"

"No, that reckless woman has already been dealt with accordingly by her master. This force is something…else, unrelated in anyway to this world, yet it decides to act in it. How peculiar…"

"Same could be said for you."

"My connection to this world is my curiosity to these humans. Of course, it is not my place to act in this affairs at the moment, but I believe I can aid you in your duties in a minor way."

"Shoot."

"I have received a minor foresight on this matter, and I see that the child will be heading to China shortly, but not after losing a dear friend to her. Not that you would care. You should be going to Beijing now."

"Of course."

**************************************

The Jellyfish (with Bridget and Axl around) had landed in Paris to inform Ky Kiske, the head of the IPF (and possibly the only police cop there who could wait longer than five seconds before biting a pirate's head off) about the new developments. Johnny, being captain decided he should go personally. He also told Dizzy to stay aboard the ship, where it was safest. As for May:

"Look, I'll just be giving the cop a quick visit, I'll be back in a flash, alright?" Johnny was trying to reason with his second in command, May, who was insistent on following him.

"But I wanna go with you! What if that creeps shows up?" May asked, pouting.

 Johnny got down on his knees and held May firmly by the shoulders "What if that creep shows up here, and there's nobody to lead the crew while I'm gone? Somebody's got to take care Dizzy while I'm gone, and I trust you can do that, okay?"

"Okay…" May mumbled

"Good. Don't worry I'll be back, you'll see." Johnny ended in a grin, which cheered May up somewhat. The pirate captain then headed out the door of the command deck and through the intricate passages of the Mayship towards the exit hatch.

*************************************

Ky Kiske was in his office, which had a large window behind his desk. He had received in secret a notice that the Pirate Johnny was going to meet him, which just simply meant that Ky called everybody off work early today. Ky himself stayed behind saying that he had some 'memos to finish up' which he did while waiting for the Pirate, who had the very bad problem of never arriving on time.

Ky then heard a tapping on the glass window behind him. Ky didn't even bother turning around.

"It's unlocked, just push on the window." Ky said while signing a paper. He then felt a gush of wind pour in while Johnny jumped into the room.

"Afternoon Kiske."

"Afternoon, Johnny."

There was an air of silence for a few seconds. Kiske and Johnny never really truly hated each other (that was reserved for someone worth the time), but still seeing your natural enemy is very trying on your nerves.

"So what do you want from me, Pirate?" Ky asked, "It sounded very urgent."

"It is. Somebody is trying to off Dizzy."

Ky whirled around in his chair to face the Pirate, "What? Who?"

"I don't know. He popped up on my ship and said he wanted to kill her, or turn her into a Gear. I don't think he's your run of the mill Bounty Hunter or Mad man either. His weapon can shape shift, and I have a feeling that isn't the end of the stuff he's hooked up with."

"How is Dizzy?"

"She got hurt by a lucky shot, but she's fine at the moment." Johnny decided to censor the entire bit about his crewmember falling of the ship.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Ky asked.

"Keep your eyes peeled for this lunatic, and be sure to stop him."

"Fine, but would it be okay to check how Dizzy is doing first?"

Johnny shrugged, "I'm not stopping you."

Then someone outside screamed.

**********************************

Ky, with the Thunderseal Jinki in hand rushed out into the streets, the pirate captain following soon after. Throngs of people were running in one direction, all filled with fear of an approaching object.

"Sir, excuse me, what is going on?" Ky asked one of the fleeing men he grabbed by the arm.

"What are you doing standing around like that? Get out of here before it runs you over!" The man quickly flung Ky's arm of and began running again.

"Runs you over?" Johnny raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever it is, I don't like the sound of it." Ky responded. A rumbling of a machine soon filled the air, and fleeing peoples' pace quickened. Ky and Johnny then saw the cause of the problem. There he stood triumphantly, staff in hand as always, the lunatic 'author' who vowed to destroy Dizzy.

But what he stood on was the problem.

A massive metal beast clad in red steel and metal, the machine the size of a small house. Four large, fat treads were fitted on the sides of the machine. A wicked, oversized cannon was fitted into a moving 'head' section on the top of the machine where the man stood on, while two smaller multi-barreled cannons were placed on either side. The machine stopped in front of the two.

"Black tech!?" Ky gasped at the oversized red tank.

"What the heck is that thing?" Johnny said, in an equal gape at the device.

"Surprise everybody! Like my new toy?" The person called down at the two.

This is for sure the man Johnny talked about. Ky narrowed his eyes at the man, who was waiting patiently for an answer. "You! Where did you get that thing?" Ky shouted.

"Hey! I recognize you! Your that knightly knight fellow, Kisky. Look at you, all macho and everything." The person chuckled.

"Answer the question!" Ky shouted again.

"Well, I had the blue prints to this fine baby quite a while back. Oh yes, oh yes, a very good price I got this at. But enough about that! Let me introduce you to my friend!" The man hopped down of the turret of the tank to stand beside it.

"Ladies and Gentleman! I present to you Super Vehicle Oh-Oh-One-Ex. Better known to the world as 'Battle Slug' or even better, 'The first boss in Metal Slug Five'! 40 miles per hour, an anti-infantry Napalm Cannon on a 90 degree rotational swivel as its primary weapon, while dual 50 round-per-minute grenade launcher protect it from the air and behind, and my personal favorite, Jump-jets on the bottom to give the enemy the ultimate body slam! Thank god I said that finally. Memorizing all those lines was a pain." The man finished announcing with a sigh.

"Well, regardless of what it is, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace, being in possession of Black Technology, assault, and attempted murder from what I hear." Ky said.

"Well, why else do I have a freaking tank!? To go on a joy ride? No, this bloody thing I made to make sure to run over that pirate ship of his, and to be an anti-vehicle of you! You can't hurt me in this time! Battle Slug, it's show time!" The man jumped back onto the turret, opened a hatch on the top and hopped in. The moment he entered the vehicle, the machine gave a large revving sound of activation, while smog poured out of the exhaust pipes in the back. The Battle Slug moved forward towards the cop and robber.

Ky took no time to attack. Flinging out his weapon out at the machine in a wide arc, Ky gave a quick shout of 'Stun Edge' while releasing a crescent shaped projectile of electricity at the tank. The Stun Edge collided against the front of the approaching vehicle, which then briefly flashed.

"What? No damage?" Ky uttered, shocked at the change of events. Hidden speakers placed on the tank answered in the person's voice.

"No actually you did do damage. One point of it. While in Metal Slug this was not a problem since you could blast away at an insane rate, here you can only shoot one attack at a time, which is good new to me. Now suffer and all that related stuff!" The tank's main cannon fired a flaming orb at Ky and Johnny, who quickly ducked out of the way. The shell then hit the ground and exploded into a blanket of flaming gel, which stuck to the ground.

"Mist Finer!"

"Stuuuuunnnnnn EDGE!" the new tone was followed by a charged version of the last Stun Edge.

"Ensenga!"

"Greed Sever!"

The Battle Slug flashed white at each attack, but then returned fire with several shots from the rapid-fire grenade launchers on either side of the tank as it continued on its war rampage towards the Mayship.

Such strength of Blacktech, that it even repels my Jinki "We hit it in every angle, but all it doesn't do anything!" Ky groaned, he then turned to his nearby companion, "Johnny, doesn't your ship have any large weapons?"

"Sort of, but I don't want to take the chance!" Johnny said before he had to duck under a low flying Naplam shot. He then retaliated with another Mist Finer attack.

"Its our only chance to stop him at this point!"

"I'll crush you under my treads! Gives me more style points when I beat this level!" The speakers on the vehicle said before giving an insane laughter. The Battle Slug's speed increased dramatically after that, threatening to run over the two as said in the person's threat.

"Your Mayship's weapons are probably the only thing that can give sustainable damage at this point, let's just go!" Ky shouted to Johnny amidst the continuing weapon's fire

"Fine!" Johnny then joined Ky in running as fast as they could while the red beast continued to rain flames on them and give chase to the fleeing men.

********************************

Axl Low laid on his belly on the top of the Mayship, bored out of his wits while he looked out at the horizons of the empty grass fields surrounding the city, hoping that he would see the Landlord of his current staying place, so that this giant plane would finally start moving out of here.

"Ah, blimey, does really take that long for one guy to talk to another guy and then walk back here?" Axl was about to sigh again for the fourth time in the past half hour when he noticed two quickly approaching figures, one in black, and the other in mostly white. Axl grinned, finally seeing things going right and he stood up and waved at the two coming in fast.

"Yo! What took you so long?" Axl hollered to the Johnny, who was becoming more visible each second.

"Stop talking and tell the crew to man the cannons!" Johnny shouted back

"The wha'?" Axl said confused. His confusion quickly turned to shock as he gaped at the sight of the ground exploding around Johnny and the Ky, while a huge red tank appeared over the horizon and towered over the escaping two. "Holy crap! I thought tanks weren't around during this time!"

"Will you stop talking and tell the crew to shoot this thing!?" Johnny shouted again.

"Okay!" The time traveler shouted back before running to a near by access hatch.

"Finally!" Johnny managed to say. Then the tank suddenly dropped in from the sky in front of them.

"How the-" Ky started.

"Stupid! I told you this thing got jump jets! Now prepare to be utterly smooglefied! That word I made up if you were wondering." The speakers triumphantly shouted

Johnny noticed the machine gun turrets on the Mayship starting to rotate to face the Battle Slug. That's it, keep talking, you crazy freak "Really? And I suppose you know where the word smoogle comes from?"

"Ah…. not really." The speakers answered back, then it's backside started exploding from weapons fire, while the vehicle started shaking from the impacts, and flashing white repeatedly. "Ah!!!! Enemy in the rear! Damn the Torpedoes!!! Damn them all! Run away and everything!" The red tank then blew up, leaving a large fireball behind that highlighted wreckage. There was a moment of silence.

A moment.

"Ahhhh!!! Fire!!!! This is taking flaming too far!!!" The lunatic ran out of the burning wreckage, while his coat and head was on fire. He was still carrying his staff miraculously, which quickly mutated into a fire extinguisher form that the author used to surround himself in a cloud of white smoky gas. "This actually feels good…"

"How could you have survived that!?" Ky said in shock.

"How the heck do you always lose to a moron who's only good for his Dust loop?" The person retorted.

"Who?"

"Oh nevermind, I'll just kill Dizzy since I'm here already." The person shrugged.

"Oh no you don't!" Johnny let fly his blade that the man blocked very easily.

"Oh! You really want to fight, eh?" The man sneered. He then swung his black staff around himself in a complex series of moves before resting in a stance, "Come, then! Have at you!" The person jabbed on end at the pirate mockingly.

The person then raised his rod above his head to deflect a white blade coming from behind before swinging around to retaliate. Ky jumped back to avoid the attack while raising his own blade above his head.

The 'author' narrowed his eyes. "Don't fight me, kid. I have no beef with you. I'm not sharing pork either."

"But you are attacking someone I have agreed to look after, that makes you my problem."

"Fine! I'll destroy all who protect the mistakes of the world!" He shouted back annoyed. His pirate adversary then attacked again, which the person blocked again. Ky then struck on the person's other side, which the man swung back around to block as well. Soon enough, the three were caught up in a fierce sword battle with furious swinging, clashing of steel, and dodging of attacks.

"Johnny! We're coming!" May's voice suddenly yelled. The person turned to see the younger pirate running towards the battle with Bridget and Axl in tow, along with several other members of the Mayship who could fight.

"What is this?! I though only four players per match!" The person started, before Johnny's sheathed blade hit him in the side of the head.

 The person's entire body swung around in a very exaggerate manner. "Ow."

Ky then swung the flat of the Thunderseal at the back of the man's head, trying to knock him unconscious, which did nothing more than make the man stumble around more.

"Owie."

While the reinforcements were coming, Johnny and Ky soon were caught up just knocking the man around, while he just kept saying 'ow' and waving with the blows like a dummy. Ky changed pace by sliding into the man's legs and then swinging out his sword as his momentum ended, making the lunatic trip up and fly a distance back where he landed on his back. The man was yet again talking to himself as the crowd approached, lead by Johnny.

"Out numbered, out gunned, and out…something else that I forgot." The man got up, while motioning for one end of his staff to open up to reveal a smaller connected instrument that looked like a blue marker. "Looks like I'm going to have to make you guys play old school again!" He then swiped the rod against the ground, the end with the marker creating a blue line on the grass before the man jumped backwards. Johnny was the first to cross the line.

"Okay! Game start!" the man shouted. The line began to glow. But because everybody was more concerned about fighting the retreating figure, they all (with the exception of Johnny, who was the first to cross the line) collided against a blue transparent wall that emanated from where the line was drawn. The barrier, while visible was shown to completely surround the man and Johnny, trapping them within a rectangular arena-like confine. The captain turned around to see in shock at the new problem.

"What the bloody hell?" Axl rubbed his head while looking at the barrier. May was in the pounding against the wall, shouting and trying to find a way to enter.

"Let me in you FREAK! Let me in!" May shouted while continuing to slam her weapon and her fist against the obstacle between her and her aiding Johnny.

"How on earth did you do this?!" Ky shouted at the man.

"I dunno, I just know how to make 'em. I always wondered how Sol Dust Looped without one of these…" The man absently mindedly scratched his head at the baffling mystery.

 "Let me out." Johnny said, with a bit of edge in his voice.

"Um, I can't. You see this thing can only open up when one of us gets defeated. So the only way out is through me, which is rather impossible."

"Fine." Johnny turned to face May, who was outside the arena. " May, take the Mayship and get out of here. I'll stay behind and catch up later."

"WHAT?!" May said in shock.

"Excuse me? Nooooooo!" The person cried in a rather fake dramatic style.

"Look, I just don't want you guys to be in danger in case I actually lose. Just get out of here, and I'll catch up later."

"But I want to help!"

"You can help best by protecting your friends. That's an order from your captain." Johnny said sternly.

"That's an order from your captain." The person said mockingly.

"Johnny…"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Nobody can match your Johnny." The pirate said with confidently, which made his second in command cheer up slightly. Johnny then faced Ky. "Take care of my crew, just in case."

"Alright." Ky said, before ushering the others back to the ship.

"Go get him!" May said before running back to the Pirate's vessel.

"Bloody swear word! What was I thinking to set up the arena like this!?" the lunatic groaned and watched the propellers on the Mayship start up and pull the vehicle forwards.

"Do you ever think?" Johnny flew forwards, charging energy into his fist. The wind suddenly picked up as the Mayship left the ground and entered the air.

"Yes!" Johnny's opponent rushed in as well.

"Divine blade!" Johnny flung his fist downwards, releasing a column of flame down at the 'author'. The man jumped away from the attack easily. Johnny landed in time only to roll out of the way to avoid a giant ax head that slammed into his last position. The man raised the black battle-ax from its fallen position to raise it in the air.

"I'll cut you into one half pieces!" the person swung his ax around to catch Johnny's side. The pirate jumped over the attack and retalitated.

"Mist finer!" The lightning fast attack smashed into the gut of the recovering man, who flew through the air and crashed into the nearby barrier wall making him fall down.

Wait, I can use this wall to my advatage! Johnny dashed forward and managed to make it before the man hit the ground. He then unleashed another Mist finer upwards at the falling figure, which made him bounce back up into the wall before, as Johnny predicted, falling back down again for another opportune Mist finer attack. Johnny obliged and continued to release his lightning fast slashed at the repeatedly falling man. The victim only sneered at his turn of events.

"Arc System Works saw this flaw long time ago! BURST!" Instead of falling, the man floated in the air for a few seconds while making a pose a releasing a blue energy around him, which knocked the offending pirate away from the 'author'. As Johnny got back up he saw the man rush forward, sneering.

"I'll give you a taste of your own Loop crap! Dragon Flame!" The man swung his rod into the earth, creating again the geyser of flame that smashed into the surprised pirate. Johnny flew into the air and hit the barrier like the person did, also falling down. As Johnny fell, his attacker quickly kicked him back up before jumping up and smashing his rod into Johnny, making the pirate crash back into the wall.

"Tcheiya!" the man shouted mechanically before falling before the pirate, while repeating the same attack. Johnny began to fall again before the person jumped up and repeated the process, complete with his strange war cry of 'tchieya'. But unlike the game that the lunatic was simulating, Johnny had not way to escape the Dust Loop, and he lost the same amount of strength with each repeated blow. Johnny only barely managed to grit his teeth and fly out his blade again, the weapon igniting against an unknown element and unleashing the embers on the man, setting him alight like a candle for a few seconds as he was knocked away. Landing on his back again, the man laid there while groaning in annoyance.

"This is getting boring. I'm going to end this right now!" The man announced while getting up again. Red energy lines suddenly appeared around the man while floating upwards for a few seconds and the man gained a red glow that followed his every move. "I suppose you have a move that can kill a man in a single blow? C'mon! Let's end this now!"

Johnny reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a playing card with a word 'joker' imprinted into it, but no symbol to accompany it and stared at the paper device for a few seconds. He then looked back up at the man, "Alright let's get this over with!"

The person's staff shortened and slimmed, and when it stopped morphing, the man grabbed one end of the new form to pulled outwards to reveal a blade a complete mirror image of Johnny's own sword, except the 'handle' was a reflective black metal hue, along with the rest of the 'sheath'.

Johnny took no time to admire the changed form as he flicked his wrist forward at the man in front of him, the card flew forwards on its own in a leisurely pace, while glowing with mysterious energies.

The person didn't flinch, but rather gave a sneer as he watched the object approach, "What?! You think your piece of game paper can stop me? Eat my IK! Chain the Soul!" The man flung his blade forward like a javelin, as the Johnny's joker card was about to hit him. The flying blade hit the card and ripped right through it. The pirate, who was previously sure that the card would hit his target didn't even have time to blink as the blade slammed into his chest, and became lodged there, the blade sticking out of his back. Johnny though, felt no pain with the shock nor did he see any blood appear from his wounds, only a numb feeling in his heart that was slowly spreading through his body.

"How… did you…?"

"Oh come on, a piece of paper versus a flying sharp metal, what are the odds of the paper winning?" the man rolled his eyes.

The numbness was making the pirate nauseous, and as the feeling reached his throat and gut he so dearly had the urge to throw up. Johnny then felt a something rushing up his throat and into his mouth, which he only complied with coughing out the foreign element that turned out to be… cotton? Johnny was coughing up cotton out of his body?

"What are you doing to me?" Johnny growled at the triumphant figure above him.

"The cotton? Oh don't worry about that, it happens when you're being plushified."

"What!?"

"Soon enough, you'll be part of my proud collection, and maybe I'll be able to finally rival the collection Sheo Darren has!" The man laughed loudly at the thought.

"What are you talking about?" Johnny managed to say before coughing up more cotton out of his system. His entire body had no feeling now, and the numbness was finally leaking into the grooves of his brain.

"Never mind about that, I'll just add the finishing touches on you." The man snapped his fingers, and cartoon looking machinery appeared around the pirate before surrounding him within a metal tube of some sort. The man walked up to the side of the machine that had trapped Johnny, and upon closer inspection, found a certain lever he was looking for, along with a small metal slot above it. Grumbling, the man reached into his pocket and sorted through his change.

"Friggin' quarters, always quarters. What do they think I am, rich?"

Finding the correct coin, the man inserted into the machine and pulled down on the lever. Whirring sounds and noises were heard and flashes of light and glowing sources appeared and blinked all over the machine. The person simply waited for it to end, giving a smirk during the process.

"Welcome to my collection Johnny, I'm sure you'll like it there."

********************************

An early, misty morning in China and Jam Kuradoberri raised the metal protective barrier in front of her third new restaurant. Of course, the puny place wasn't up to Jam's taste, but it was much better than small booth she been running for a while, and she already blew all her money on her first restaurant. Beggars, unfortunately for Jam, could not be choosers. 'How fate must hate me', Jam thought. She didn't even have money to pay for a waitress now.

"Um, excuse me but is this place hiring work?" A female voice asked behind Jam. The asked unsung waitress turned unsung master chef turned around to face the voice. Jam's reaction could be described as a mixture of surprised and confused. There in front of Jam was an Asian girl of about seventeen to eighteen years of age, with her shoulder length hair tied back into two pigtails. She was dressed in one of those… 'Japanese thingies' of red color, along with two black arm and leg guards and Japanese looking sandals, Jam decided described best the girl's attire. Bundled in one of her arms was a lengthy parcel wrapped in cloth. Apart from that, she seemed to be carrying nothing else. Jam then returned to the topic at hand.

"Er, yes I am desperately in need of help here. Good thing you showed up now."

"I guess."

"So how much do you want for salary? I'm willing to pay any amount!" Jam's tone sounded rather pleading, which matched her thoughts. Please let it reasonable, please let is be reasonable…

"I don't really need any pay, I just need a place to stay for now." The young woman simply stated. Jam, had she seen any stranger things in her life, would have fainted at her turn of luck.

FATE MUST LOVE ME!!!! "Well, I guess you could room with me at my place for the moment."

"Thank you for your kindness." The girl bowed at her new employer.

Jam laughed sheepishly at unexpected sign of respect. "Nah, its okay! But I think we should really introduce each other. I'm Jam! So, what's your name?"

"Takane Hibiki."

"Well,  Takane-"

"Hibiki is my first name." The girl corrected.

"Whatever. Hibiki, you are officially my newest, and only waitress at my restaurant now. Welcome aboard!"

"Haii."

As Jam gave Hibiki a tour of her restaurant, her mind was piecing together the information of the girl. This girl…She couldn't really be Japanese, could she? Jam thought this fact over with great concern. If Hibiki really was of Japanese descent –of which many things the girl did and wore screamed that out- Jam might get in a lot of trouble.

Perhaps she escaped a colony, and she's on the run from the law? Jam shook the 'foolish notion' out of her head.

Nah, colonies are pretty tight in security. Probably the only people who escape are really good fighters, and this Hibiki person doesn't really look like fighter. She looks too young for that kind of stuff anyways. She's probably some Otaku freak or something.

With that theory sounding most likely correct to Jam, she nodded to herself in confirmation and set plans on how to effectively use one waitress within a two floor restaurant, which was a very small place to Jam, indeed.