Chapter 4: Things Start to Get Interesting
What do I do now, huh? This psycho is after me now… and things are getting really weird…
Xavior jumped back as Kanbu continued to attack him, just waiting for an opportunity to get away. "God damn, what's the problem here? Who hired you, anyway?"
"I think I'm the problem right now, gaijin."
Chris suddenly leapt from behind Kanbu and tackled him to the ground, catching the assassin completely off guard and stunning him.
"Woah… where the hell'd you learn to do that?"
"Eh, there was this little period where I decided to try out for football. I think maybe I went nuts. Then again, it seems pretty sane now."
"No kidding." Xavior stepped on the blade of one of the katanas, trying to kick it out of Kanbu's hand. But Kanbu grinned, and twisted the blade, bringing it up to slash Xavior's leg.
"Damnit!" Xavior rolled back, holding his now injured leg. "So you were playing possum?"
"If that's what you want to call it…" Kanbu swung around, slashing at Chris, who jumped back to avoid the blade.
Xavior took this opportunity to lunge, swinging quickly on Kanbu and proceeding to beat on him with a flurry of punches, no real style or technique beyond inflicting damage, just hoping to take him down. Again busy, Kanbu was taken down by an unexpected punch to the head, and rolled back to his feet. "Damn. I can't take on one of you brats without the other getting involved… I guess I'll just wait for a better time. I'm out of here." Kanbu jumped out of the way, grinning. He jumped up towards the roof and then disappeared.
"Who the hell was that?"
"I… have… absolutely no idea, Chris."
"Oh, great."
Kanbu grinned, speaking quickly into his communicator. "So far, so good… how's things on your end, Eddie?"
"Honestly, boring as hell. I need some action, Kanbu."
"You'll get to fight them both soon enough, gaijin. Now relax, and take care of what needs to be done."
"Right. I'll take care of it."
"So, Mercury… you're not half bad." James was now soaking wet, having been blasted several times with the Aqua Rhapsody, and still seemingly unfazed. "But I'm a professional… gotta do my job, ya know?"
"I've got a job of my own to do. Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" Ami blasted him again, and James stumbled a bit.
"Damn, that's cold!" He spit a bit of water, then leaped, swinging the huge buster sword in a near 180-degree arc. "Shit!"
Ami could only stumble back as James continued to advance, swinging the sword in a huge arc, still managing an impressive speed with each swing. Finally she fell, and quickly did the only thing she could think of, dousing the area in an icy fog and making her way as far away as she could before James could find her.
"Damn… lost her. Back to base, then…" James disappeared, and the fog dissipated, leaving no trace of the assassin who had just attacked her.
Eddie sighed. Bombs weren't really his style… but all's fair in love and war, right? He waited, tapping his foot. The Mizuno girl's mother would already be home by now and could find the bomb any time… what the hell was taking that man so long! Finally, there he was! He saw his chance… and pushed the button. The Mizuno house, and Xavior's as well, were quickly turned into a mere fireball. "Well… that's that."
Xavior walked out of the movie theater, smiling. "That was a good movie, I gotta admit."
"I wanna know how you managed to enjoy that with your leg all cut up."
"It was pretty easy… cut's not that deep, anyway."
"Still, who knows what that psycho was up to? He seemed to give up way too easily… sword could have been poisoned or something…"
"I guess so." Xavior nodded. "Wait a second…" Smoke drifted into the air, the sort of black smoke that fire creates. "Holy crap, that's coming from my neighborhood!" Xavior took off running towards his house. "I gotta see what's going on!"
Ami looked up as she walked towards her house, finally noticing the smoke. "Oh, no, there's been a fire! This'll keep mom busy for a while… I'd better go see what's going on." She soon realized the house it was coming from… their own. "Oh no!" She rushed off to get to her house. The inside was completely burnt out, almost nothing recognizable of what had been their house. She saw a paramedic leaving. "What… what happened?"
"It looks like some sort of bomb went off… luckily, the place was pretty much empty, and only one person inside, but she's pretty burnt up. Dr. Mizuno, I think, works at our hospital… wait a second… you're her daughter, aren't you? Oh, jeez…"
"Wait a sec… how bad is this?"
"Pretty bad. We found her unconscious right in the same room as the bomb… we think it went off as she was coming in… just be glad she wasn't any closer, or she wouldn't even be alive."
"Oh… I'm… going to go see if my one friend can get me to the hospital. He lives pretty close, really." She took off for Xavior's house. This has to have something to do with that James Migato… he must have attacked me to keep me from getting home in time or something…
Xavior rushed to his house, which was scorched, little flames still kicking up here and there. His dad was sitting outside, burned in places and looking more than a little out of it as the firefighters took care of the last of the flames. "Dad, what happened?"
"I don't know, Xav… I went to open the door and the whole thing just exploded on me. Whole place is burned like that… everything's destroyed."
"The hell? This is getting really weird, dad…"
"Yeah."
A paramedic walked up. "Um, excuse me, sir? It may seem like a bit of an annoyance, but you should probably come to the hospital… We can't tell how serious your injuries are unless we have a doctor look you over."
"Fine, whatever… couldn't hurt to get away from this mess anyway."
"I'll tag along… I cut up my leg pretty bad anyway, maybe they can check it out."
Ami suddenly came running up, panting and out of breath. "Xavior… something weird is going on… my house… it's on fire… some sort of bomb… my mom's at the hospital."
Xavior blinked a couple times. "Well… that's convenient. Our house just had a bomb go off… and we were just heading to the hospital… I think they'll let you ride along."
The paramedic nodded. "Sure… no problem. If you're a friend of theirs…"
"Yeah, she is. Alright, let's ride…"
Before too long, the ambulance pulled up to the hospital, with Ami, Xavior, and Xavior's dad in tow. "This still seems a bit much…" Xavior's dad said, shaking his head. "I feel okay… a little shaken, but not that bad."
"Hey, Xavior… I need to go see my mom. I'll try and find you when I'm done, okay?"
"No problem, Ami… Just get a hold of me when you can."
"Okay then. Thanks for helping out, Xav." Ami took off, rushing to find her mother.
"Dad… somehow I find it hard to believe this whole thing was an accident… there's something strange going on here."
"Maybe so, Xavior, but even so… I don't know who would plant something like this…"
"Me either…" Xavior frowned as he said this, not happy about lying to his dad. But then again, if I told him, he'd just rush off and get himself killed. "But we should probably find out… if there's some sort of psycho after us, we might have a problem."
"I guess. But if we've got some psycho after us, I'd rather you stay out of it."
"Alright then." I can't do that…I need to find some way of fighting back…
"Look, here's Ami."
"So it is." Xavior stood up, seeing the expression on Ami's face. "What's wrong?"
"My mom… she's really burned up. Critical condition… I'm really worried… and I think it's more than a little weird… anything strange happen to you lately?"
"Well… there was this one weirdo who we saw on the way to the movies that looked kind of odd…" He made a slight nod towards the door, hoping she caught the gesture.
"Oh… Xav… maybe… but my mom…" Ami suddenly burst out crying, then quickly wiped her tears and stared at Xavior's dad. "I'm sorry, mister…"
"It's alright. Don't worry about it…"
"I think I'm gonna go get some fresh air…" Ami made the same gesture towards the door Xavior had earlier.
"I'll come along."
"Alright…"
"So… what happened, Ami?" Xavior stared at her, wondering what could be so important.
"I was attacked on my way home… guy called himself James Migato, said he was an assassin… knew I was Mercury and everything."
Xavior tilted his head, surprised. "You're kidding! No way… I was attacked at the movies. Guy called Kanbu, nearly killed me. But he took off for seemingly no reason… I don't know what was going on…"
"Yeah, James seemed to give up way too easily, too… you don't think…"
"It was them, definitely…" I knew it…"I'm not gonna take this. I'm gonna find a way to fight back…"
"But… that James, he seemed almost to be playing, and he still could have killed me with a single lunge… These guys are serious, Xavior, and you don't have any magic you can use."
"Well, I hate to say it, but your magic is only so good in itself… I mean, it's just water for the most part… there's no real potential for damage there."
"It's what I've got…"
"There's no way to improve it?" Xavior seemed determined now, concentrated on this possibility.
"Not that I can think of, no…"
"Then I'm fighting."
"What?"
"You've got your magic and all, but I'm not convinced it'll be enough, if these guys are as dangerous as you think they are. Even the all of you Senshi… I won't leave it up to you. I'm fighting."
"You'll just get yourself killed! I've seen my friends die before… I've seen two of the Senshi die…" She looked down, suddenly having trouble keeping eye contact with Xavior.
Xavior's head snapped up. "What? So you mean some of the Senshi are dead?"
Ami shook her head. "No… they were killed, but they're alive now… Magic is a strange thing, Xavior, but I can't guarantee you'll be brought back if you die…"
Xavior nodded. "Look, Ami, I know it's dangerous… trust me, I understand that…" He sighed. "But I can't let these people get away with what they've done. And we can't guarantee you'll be brought back to life either. And honestly, I think it's more important for you to be alive… You're the superhero."
"If you say so. I don't know, though…"
Xavior suddenly recoiled, something he should have realized a while ago. "Oh, shit, where are you going to stay? We have this little place we keep for emergencies but… Do you even have a place to stay until your mom recovers?"
Ami was shocked. "No… I hadn't even thought of this… Well, it's not exactly a common occurrence…"
"You can… I guess… You can stay with us. I owe you, anyway… I think they've been tailing us for a while… only way I could explain how that guy knew you were Mercury. So I insist. If dad says okay, of course…"
"I guess… I don't really have any other option… Alright, Xavior."
"Let's head in…"
"Alright… and thank you."
"Hey, it's what I do." Xavior smirked.
"I guess she can stay…" Xavior's dad nodded. "It's kind of small, but I suppose we could find some place to put you. Just don't get up to anything with Xavior, alright?"
Xavior growled in annoyance. "DAD!"
Ami suddenly turned red. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Xavior's dad laughed. "But you haven't met me before, have you? The name is Akira Ragieki."
"Doesn't sound English, really…"
Akira shrugged. "Eh, I haven't done a whole lot of work into my heritage, really… but yes, it is an unusual name… what can I say?"
Ami nodded. "Sounds almost Japanese. Who knows? Maybe you're part Japanese, Xavior."
Xavior nodded. "Could be, Ami. Could be. Who knows?"
"Neither of them are excellent fighters, Master Shinei… But both show major potiental. The girl's magic, in particular…"
"I wouldn't know. I didn't get to fight."
"You'll get your chance, Eddie… and of course I've promised you can have your 'fun' with the one I do not choose…"
"Excuse me for saying this, Eddie, but you have a weird sense of humor."
"Thank you, James."
A/N: Well, here ya go! Yet another chapter of JADAS!