Warning this fanfic contains occasional coarse language.

Fanfiction by The Shadow

Disclaimer

The characters previously created and copyrighted by their respective owners that are used in this fanfic are still copyrighted by them as are the additional created characters. This fanfic is not for profit of any kind and as such may not be used for making profit by anyone. In other words you cant sue me and the characters I've created are mine muahhahahah ;; sorry.

The Underworlders

Part 1 - Scissors

In the less well used or travelled part of Crystal Tokyo two children who are more than they appear live in empty warehouses and junk yards. These two children one named Kenji and another named Hanako are sorting through the usual junk in their small part of world hoping that maybe today they'll get lucky. Kenji had black hair that spiked and jutted out in all directions due to it's uncut nature and had pale green eyes. Hanako had black hair that went down to the small of her back and deep blue eyes that looked out on the world almost expectantly.

These two are not your average children as would be expected. Abandoned at a tender age by someone the only remember as a vague face with warm hands though they could have just rolled over and surrendered, through bartering, buying or thieving they have managed to peace together an education for themselves.

So far they have managed to avoid being collected up by what passed for the mostly unnecessary child welfare agency in Crystal Tokyo. For which this group is extremely happy. Unlike some of their disappeared friends that have come and gone over the years these two know the price they must pay is they are found. Separation, separation from each other and separation from the life they know, they have no intention of paying that great a price.

As they search among the small piles of junk and disused machinery that created hills of metal madness they come across small items of importance. A sliver of data crystal here, a good condition circuit board there, they use these small pieces of evidence that there is an outside world to practice their mechanical skills which help keep them in the good books of those they think of as their shadows.

But on this particularly fruitless day those items of import are not found. Instead what is found is a pair of scissors which claim to be made of stainless steel. The fact that these scissors are alone the only item that hasn't started to rust from the light showers that occasionally sweep through Crystal Tokyo to water the gardens of it's citizens, testified to the stainless steel ability of this particular pair of scissors.

With the sun now reaching noon the two, brother and sister, decide to head back to the house they are currently rostered to. As they approach they check from the shadows of a disused soap factory the safety of the street and run across to their abode that they currently share with another Underworlder. Know as 'Old Gaffa' to those who new him, he has a slight weakness for paint cans usually the type that you can chrome but he would often settle from propane or some other cylinder gas. On this particular day Old Gaffa was sitting on an old moth eaten and ratty couch cushion on the floor with a cylinder of gas in his lap.

On this day that they had found a pair of stainless steel scissors Kenji and Hanako got bored, something that although they were technically children didn't happen very often to them.

Kenji sat down on the floor on a old dirty pillow next to Hanako

'Hey Hanako, you bored?'

'No actually I like watching the paint peel of the walls,' Was the slightly sarcastic answer he got from Hanako.

'Well what do you want to do then?'

' Hmm I have an idea,' She teased him while he waited patiently.

'Alright here it is go and get that piece of paper with the hole in it and stick it on that nail in the left post to Gaffa,'

'Yeah OK. Now what?' The nail was bent half way in but he was able to secure the piece of paper more or less levelly.

'Come over here, we can through these scissors and try to get them in the hole, you know play darts, Okay?'

'Sound good,' it's better than nothing he thought '

Great, you can go first then.'

' Thanks,'

Kenji picked up this scissors with his right hand and stood up. He lined up the hole with his hand, brought back his arm and through the scissors forward. The scissors flew straight and true, then wobbled, then dipped, then skewed of course towards a piece of metal that was sticking out of the ground and had been surrounded by some liquid. The scissors hit the metal dead on, a spark came life as if to mock the children's wide O shaped exclamations of surprise. The spark hit the liquid, fire was born in a small puff of old fuel and nearby paper and raced through the wall.

As the children ran out the door of the old house the walls of dry rotten wood seemed to explode from within with flame all at once. 'Old Gaffa' woke up to the sound of hungry flame eating up the walls and floor coverings and screaming children

'Oh shit,' was all he managed to mumble before the flame's raced back to the source of their origin and exploded the gas tank. Instantly incinerating the old man and turning him to so much white ash. Kenjiand Hanako had due to their close proximity to the door managed to get half way across the street before the tank exploded. They felt heat at their back then a pressure that pushed them along. The managed one-step ahead of it before they were thrown by a burst of superheated air rag doll style, landing hard on the concrete.

Kenji picked himself up from the ground and looked at his sister,

'Hey Hanako you alright, Hanako?'

'Oh man that hurt, I don't think anything's broken only bruised.'

Hanako stood up and began to dust off her clothes as Kenjiturned around to survey the unintentionally done damage. The house they had just vacated with such haste moments before was now almost non-existent. All that was left were burning stumps of wood and scorched earth.

Kenji and Hanako quickly turned around in a circle, the flames were starting to spread to the dried out buildings and warehouses around them

'Come on we better get out of here, the fire brigade will be here soon.'

They started to walk of between the still as yet unlit buildings deeper into the areas and territories they knew best. Then they picked up the pace, their old shoe soles slapping loudly on the cracked concrete as sirens started to wail. They rounded the last corner at a run straight into a pair of hands covered in black gloves. Hanako crashed straight into the man at and felt fingers close over her wrist in a vice like grip as another hand attempted to get a wet looking cloth out of a pocket. She tried to get away and heard Kenji doing the same. She bit, scratched then managed to get her arm around in a hook past the shadowy man's defences, it connected with something solid and their was a grunt of pain. Then blackness as the sickly sweet smell of chloroform covered her nose and mouth, invaded her mind and stole her defences.

He looked over at his partner as he let the girl down gently onto the concrete.

'Man that was painful,'

'Your telling me, that boy's got a punch.'

Mort stood up and rubbed his jaw where the girls hook had hit him. He'd barely been able to stay up after that one that was a nasty punch. Tad his long time friend and work mate stood up from the boy and put his cloth away.

'Where are we supposed to take them now?'

Mort put away his own cloth, bent and picked up the girl in a fireman hold while he tried to remember their instructions.

'If I remember right we where supposed to take them to the drain system entrance in sector 4.'

Mort adjusted the girl's position and waited while Tad picked up his own bundle of joy.

'Alright let's get out of here, the cops and firemen will be here soon.'

The two men started walking at a quick pace towards the nearest gap between two buildings and blended into the shadows.

In the control center of Crystal Tokyo an alarm went off on a technicians console.

"Sir we have a fire detected in the east quadrant of the city, it looks big sir, I'm getting spreading heat on the infrared scanners." The technician turned to his superior

"Well I don't think we need to worry Lady Rei about this, she has enough on her mind of late, just send out the men to put out the fire.'

'Yes sir roger that, though i think knowing her she already probably knows about it,'

'Most likely your right,'

'Calling all fire stations in east quadrant this is a general emergency alert, there is a fire in the warehouse district proceed immediately to the given co-ordinates. Proceed with all speed, keep ambulances on stand by."

As the call went out across the East Side of Crystal Tokyo fire men climbed into trucks and speed off in the direction of the growing column of smoke rising in to clear bright sky.

'Sir do you think She will take a hand in this?' The tech asked the commander.

'I wouldn't be surprised if She did. She takes great pride in the city and how it looks, if the entire east side were to go up, granted there only empty warehouses, it wouldn't look very good now would it.'

'No it wouldn't. The first fire engine has arrived on site sir, I'm receiving reports, they say that they have to use foam there's oil and motor fuel mixed in with the other combustibles so they cant use water.'

'Roger that, what about casualties?'

'There doesn't appear to be any so far sir, but the flames are too hot for them to get in close and look closely. Ah sir the air pressure around the fire has dropped and I'm getting reports of clouds amassing over the fire.'

'I guess that answers your question.'

'Yes sir I guess so,' the tech replied with a smile.

Authors notes

Well that's the first part done please R&R if you want to give me an e-mail it's