More Lupin-y goodness! Yay! Lupin is not mine. Boo!
Chapter 10: End of the Innocence
Jigen didn't wait for further instructions. He kicked the loose panel from the pile with the control and finesse of a soccer player, sending it just high enough to catch it. Using it as a shield, he deflected the bullets and dove for cover between two rusted out cars.
"Dammit," the voice snarled. Jigen poked his head up enough to confirm it was Agent Peters. "Surrender now, or the samurai gets it!"
Peters' request was greeted by a thud, and a choked-off cry. "I suggest you surrender," Jigen said, grinning as Goemon untangled himself from the now unconscious government agent that had dropped on his head.
Goemon, for his part, looked slightly annoyed as he dusted his kimono off. "That hurt, you know," he said dryly.
Peters was momentarily taken aback. "I wouldn't try anything. I've got five of our country's finest assassins here and surrounding that bus."
"Does that five include this one?" Goemon asked, pointing at the fallen agent.
"I will leave with the alien!" Peters shouted, enraged. He took a shot at Goemon, who nimbly leapt out of the way and landed behind Jigen's shelter.
"He doesn't seem very concerned about the other agent," Goemon noted as Peters advanced on them.
"Just isn't the warm fuzzy type, I guess." Jigen had casually pulled out his gun and took aim at Peters' weapon. He winced as one of Peters' shots came uncomfortably close to his head, and then squeezed off a shot of his own. Peters' gun flew from his hand as the agent let out a cry of pain. Jigen and Goemon quickly rounded their temporary barrier, Jigen keeping his gun trained on the wounded agent and Goemon ready to draw Zantetsuken in a heartbeat.
"Damn you," Peters howled. "Do you know what that thing will do to you?"
"No, enlighten us," Jigen said, not wavering for a second.
Peters allowed a bitter, almost mad laugh to escape. He sat down firmly on the ground, looking the gunman straight in the eye. "We were only doing our jobs. But they came after us, attacked us. Somehow, they kept our weapons from firing, but that didn't stop me." Peters' laugh turned deranged. "She'll kill you without a second thought!"
Goemon soundly thwacked Peters in the back of the head with his sheath. Peters fell to the ground, unconscious. He then glanced over at Jigen, who looked slightly shaky. "Don't believe him, Jigen. He's gone crazy."
"We don't know that for sure," Jigen said, staring at the downed agent. "He may not be trustworthy, but he probably knows more about her that us."
"They don't," Goemon murmured softly, the words slipping out of his mouth before he could stop them.
Jigen stopped short and gave the samurai a cold, hard stare. "What do you know, Goemon?" he said suspiciously.
Goemon mentally cursed his momentary lack of discipline. "Eshe is telekinetic. She can move things with thought. When Agent Hanes cornered us in the woods, Hanes shot at her. She stopped the bullet without a problem."
Jigen paled. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Fujiko and I worried you wouldn't take the news well. It appears our worries were well-founded."
"Of course I'm worried!" Jigen spat. "Who knows what she can do with those powers? She can stop bullets...she probably stopped those guns from functioning. If she gets really upset, what's to stop her from hurling us into a fire, or squeezing our insides into pulp!"
Goemon prepared Zantetsuken for another blow. "You're starting to sound like him, Jigen," he said, pointing at the downed agent with his free hand. "I know you do not take well to change, but you need to trust her. And trust us."
The two thieves stared at each other, not backing down. The impending duel was luckily ended when the ground beneath them began shaking violently. The sound of twisting steel and loud explosions could be heard shortly thereafter.
"What the hell is going on?" Jigen said, looking around for the source of the noise.
"The bus," Goemon said, thinking quickly. "The others are in danger. Let's go!" Without a second thought, Jigen and Goemon made a beeline back to the center of Jed's ranch.
Fujiko peered out the window as Eshe hastily threw her disguise back on, Lupin scooped up the unconscious agent, and Jed tinkered with some old computers nearby. "There's at least five of 'em...they all look like super assassins or something." She squinted through the dusty window, trying to get a better assessment of the situation. "Agent Roth is the guy on the bullhorn. He looks pretty cheesed off."
"There's no way we're giving them Eshe," Lupin said firmly. "And I don't know how to get either her or our rogue agent out of here without them being able to take us out."
"Stand back, amateurs," Jed said with a fierce grin. He tapped three buttons on a keypad and a door opened up in the floor of the bus. "What, you think I'd be caught without an escape route?" he said, grinning at Lupin and Fujiko's startled reactions. Without a second thought, he jumped down the hatch.
"Fujiko and Eshe, you two first," Lupin ordered, quickly recovering.
As Fujiko herded Eshe over the escape hatch, Eshe suddenly turned back. "Goemon! Jigen!" she cried.
"They'll be okay. They can take care of themselves," Fujiko said, urging Eshe down the ladder. With one last, almost heartbroken glance, Eshe followed Jed. Fujiko started down, stopping to help Lupin support Agent Hanes between them. It was awkward, but they somehow managed to get her down between the two of them. Eshe and Jed waited at the bottom of the tunnel. "Let's go," Jed said calmly. "I've got a surefire way out of here."
"We'd need a tank to get out of here," Fujiko noted gravely.
"Funny you should say that," Jed said, throwing open a rusty metal door. Sure enough, a rather large artillery tank sat inside a small cave. Fujiko looked up and realized the top of the cave was made from the humungous junk pile behind the bus.
Lupin wasted no time in helping the three women into the tank. Once they were safely ensconced inside, Jed pushed a large red button on the wall. As he made his way into the tank, the vehicle began to slowly rise; Fujiko quickly realized that they were on some kind of platform that would take them up to the surface.
Jed closed the hatch and took the pilot position. Lupin grabbed the controls for the tank's cannon. Fujiko was about to take the navigator's seat when she felt a pull on her arm. She glanced over at the concerned Eshe.
"She waking up," Eshe said quietly, and sure enough Agent Hanes was finally stirring. Fujiko decided to stay put, going over to sit next to Eshe. Hanes opened her eyes; the loud noise and vibration of the tank and platform made her wince. "Where am I?" she asked weakly.
"In a tank," Fujiko answered matter-of-factly. "We're escaping from some of your friends, if you really want to know."
Hanes groaned and covered her face in her hands. "It's gone wrong. All wrong," she muttered.
"What has?" Fujiko asked. Before Hanes could answer, the tank lurched forward, sending piles of rusting metal toppling to the ground.
"Yee-haw!" Jed said, waving his hat in the air. "Take that, you agents of oppression!" Lupin, peering though the slight of the cannon, grinned as the ultra-assassins shed their training and scattered like roaches before the tank. Agent Roth, stood dumbfounded as the tank rolled forward over not only Agent's Hanes's car, but his own government vehicle. As the tank rolled triumphantly out of sight, Roth spotted Lupin's small rental car buzzing along in the dust behind it, the former mobster at the wheel and the samurai perched on the roof.
Agent Peters, incensed, staggered out of the wreckage of the ranch, rubbing his head painfully with his uninjured hand. "They...are...so...dead," he said in an eerily calm voice.
"Thanks for your help, Jed," Lupin said cheerfully. Now a safe distance away from the government killers, Jed had kindly stopped to let Jigen and Goemon catch up. "Sure you don't want to come with us?"
"Naw. I suspect you'll do just find without me. Anyway, got to head on home, salvage what I can, and hit the road."
"Sorry about your place," Fujiko said.
"Happens all the time. Well, maybe not quite so flashy, but enough it's just a part of life for me." Jed tipped his hat back. "Anyway, good luck. Hope you get back home, Miss Eshe."
Eshe nodded at him. "You are too kind."
"Shucks," Jed said, blushing. With a wild wave, he slid back into the tank and started it up, heading off into the desert.
There was a long silence. "Where on earth do you find these people, Lupin?" Jigen sighed.
"I don't think you really want to know," Lupin said. He looked over at Agent Hanes, who was curled up against the side of the car and had remained silent through the whole exchange. "What about you, Agent Hanes? Can we drop you off somewhere?"
"I want to come with you," Hanes said quietly.
The gang stopped short, stunned. "Are you going to double-cross us?" Jigen asked bluntly.
"No. I can help. I want to make things right." With that, Hanes stood up, dusted herself off, and looked each gang member in the eye.
They sent each other a meaningful glance. Without a pause, Lupin waved his arms. "Alright, everyone into the clown car." After much rearranging, shoving, and general discomfort, the gang plus two were off for their final goal: Project Turquoise.
Crowded in the backseat between Goemon and Agent Hanes, Eshe sat silently. The landscape rolled by, no longer as interesting as it was. It held threats instead of promise.
Eshe had come to Earth as part of a scouting mission, to assess the level of civilization on this planet. At this point, her people felt it prudent to look and not make contact with the people of the Earth. Nevertheless, Eshe, who was one of the few beings of her people that held the position of interplanetary ambassador and mediator, was sent along just in case.
Things were fine for the first few weeks. Undetected by anyone, they quietly observed Earth's society, figuring out the various cultures, technology, and politics. It was all greatly confusing, but interesting nonetheless. And then, suddenly, without warning, came the emergency. The ship lost power, and nothing anyone did could get it to stabilize. Eshe, the only non-technologically gifted crew member, sat to the side and watched as her crewmates made a futile effort to re-power everything up so they could at least escape the pull of gravity from the planet below. Nothing worked.
The next thing Eshe knew, she was lying in the wreckage of the ship, with a few minor injuries. She could tell though that several of the crew were already dead or severely injured with little hope for recovery. The only thing she and the survivors could do was activate the distress beacon and hope the people of Earth left them alone long enough for a rescue ship to come.
While the only two survivors of the engineering crew set to work on the damaged beacon, Eshe, Thau, the ship's captain, and the two remaining bridge crew, Ujim and Kwa set out exploring the immediate area. When they came upon a group of humans just outside the ship, talking excitedly and hauling what looked like observational equipment, the two groups stopped and stared at each other for what felt like forever. Eshe made the first move as part of her ship's duties. She tried to communicate with the humans, trying to express that they were not there to hurt anyone. For a while, it seemed okay.
And then the men in internal-combustion vehicles came. Some, including a very tall human with dark skin, shooed off the first group of humans while a second group tried to communicate with Eshe's race. Thau stepped forward and identified himself. They kept repeating the same things over and over in an attempt to communicate, and Eshe tried to pick up on it as best she could. Just when she was about to make an attempt to reply in their language, a loud popping sound came from in the woods not far away, followed by several more. And then one of the first humans burst from the woods, looking frightened and clutching his leg, obviously injured. He ran towards Eshe and her people, screaming and in distress. The dark-skinned agent, tearing after him, paused and fired his weapon at the victim. And he missed the human, striking Thau instead.
Eshe let out a cry of alarm. She ran to Thau's side, but he was already dead, killed instantly by a tiny metal pellet. The other crewmembers stood, dumbfounded, before Ujim let out a howl of rage and ran at the agent, closely followed by Kwa. The human pulled the trigger of his weapon just as Eshe detected a high-pitched whine from inside the ship...the distress beacon had been fixed and activated. That agent's weapon...none of their weapons would fire. The electromagnetic radiation from the beacon was too great.
But that didn't stop the agents. Within minutes, Ujim and Kwa were dead, brought down by repeated, brutal blows from the agents. Eshe did her best to remain out of sight, but another agent, apparently female, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the vehicles they had arrived in. The agent who had started shooting stormed after the two of them, yelling something angrily while the rest of the agents left the battered bodies of Eshe's people and boarded the ship.
The explosion that followed was deafening and blinding. Eshe never quite figured out what had happened, but she suspected that the ship's power source had probably become unstable and highly combustible. And something...quite possibly the energy from the beacon, finally caused a reaction of some sort, resulting the catastrophe.
Not that it mattered. Eshe and the two agents were the only survivors, shielded from the blast by the car. The male agent screamed and threatened Eshe, but the female agent stopped him before putting Eshe in the battered but useable vehicle.
As Hanes and Peters drove her from the mountain, Eshe wondered, frightened, what would become of her. As it turns out, after a very long drive, Project Elijay was her destination. For two years, she was poked, prodded, injected, and sampled. No one attempted to communicate with or befriend her. The men and women in the green uniforms and the white coats became the only beings she saw day in and day out, treating her like a lab animal. They yelled at her and berated her, probably more out of fear than anything else.
And then one day, all of the lights suddenly went out. This had never happened before, and the guards outside were yelling. Eshe sat in the dark, alone and scared. She eventually heard soft footsteps coming down the hall and someone checking the doors of the other cells. When hers opened, she expected to see one of the soldiers checking on her. Instead, a man with long dark hair and wearing loose-fitting robes entered, unlike any human she had ever seen. Even more puzzling, he began talking to her quietly and ventured to be friendly. So she told him her name, and he said his...Goemon. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Eshe was brought back to reality by Jigen abruptly slamming on the brakes to avoid a dead animal carcass in the road. Jigen spouted a few bad words, Lupin and Fujiko responded with a few of their own, and everyone settled back into their seats. Eshe did her best to settle closer to Goemon, mostly because she didn't trust the woman sitting on her other side. After all, Hanes had taken her prisoner, tried to kill her, and had apparently decided she was less than intelligent.
Lupin's gang on the other hand...Eshe quite enjoyed them, even if they were troublemakers. She had taken a real shine to Goemon simply because he rescued her from Elijay and had spoken up for her. Lupin was also nice, but very brash. Luckily it was balanced by his charm and amazing cleverness. She had warmed up to Fujiko a bit, even if the female thief was sometimes hard to figure out. And although Jigen was pretty cold to her, he did try to help, even if it was motivated out of self-preservation. Eshe found she really couldn't blame him and wondered what her reaction would be if she found herself in a similar situation.
For now, she decided, she'd wait and see. Perhaps she could be rescued by her people, or escape home in her ship. Before, she wasn't going to count on it, but since she was with Lupin and his gang, things didn't seem quite so impossible.