From the Darkness, Comes the Innocent

Chapter 2

"Alright everyone," called Nigel "it seems that a man by the name of Pyro is running around in the streets and stealing candy from kids while torching Halloween decorations. We have to stop him at all costs. Understand?" Everyone nodded. "Alright then, Kids Next Door, Battle Stations!"

Everyone ran towards their rooms to change into their battle clothes and grabbed their weapons, water guns.

Kuki gulped as she picked up her water gun. You can do this Kuki, she assured herself as she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She was terrified of fire.

"Oi, Numbah 3, you comin'?" shouted Wally who was standing in her door way, his own water gun clutched in his hands, ready to be fired at a moments notice.

Kuki pasted a smile on her face and nodded, running from the room with Wally.

They were the last two to reach the docking bay, and Nigel didn't look to happy with them.

"Hurry up you two, we have to put a stop to this quickly," he said angrily as he hurried them onto the Skyclaw.

They took off and swooped over the city, spotting the cause of the disturbance quickly. Kuki could see the flames leaping around and gulped, an icy knot of fear forming in her stomach, not just because of the fire but because they were near her house.

She scanned the ground, praying that Mushi was else where with her mother.

(A/N: I'm not sure how to spell her sister's name, so if anyone knows please tell me.)

But Kuki wasn't so lucky, and she quickly spotted Mushi trapped between a fallen tree and a burning fence. The target, Pyro, was standing near by throwing flaming pumpkins at houses and fences. She glanced back at Mushi. She was right below them.

"Mushi," whispered Kuki as she jumped from her seat and flung open the door to the flying craft that Hogie had built, nearly ripping the door from its hinges, and leapt into the air. She landed lightly onto a tree branch before dropping to the next and the next, not stopping or pausing.

"Numbah 3!" shouted Wally as he ran to the door, watching as she leapt to the ground with ease. "What the heck? Ah didn't know she could do that!"

Landing in the middle of the flames which imprisoned Mushi, Kuki was relieved to some degree that she wasn't conscious. Picking up her light sister, Kuki ran forward, using a part of the fallen tree which hadn't caught fire yet as a stepping point to vault over the leaping flames. Landing safely on the opposite side, she handed Mushi over to some of her friends, before racing to help her friends who had engaged in battle with Pyro.

They were shooting steady streams of water at the man, but she could tell the pressure wasn't enough. Still, she had to stall for time. Gripping her own gun, she began bombarding the pyromaniac with a constant jet of water, knowing that the supply would only last so long.

Look around herself once again, Kuki spotted a fire hydrant on the side of the road. That gave her an idea and she pulled out her communicator.

"Number 2," she called "Listen to me, I want you to get my bag from the back of the ship and bring it to the front of the ship, pronto."

"Why?" asked Hogie.

"Just do it you Baka!" shouted Kuki into the communicator.

"Alright, alright," said Number 2 as he threw the ship onto auto-pilot, startled by the normally happy girl's sudden temper. "Ok, I have your bag now what?"

"Reach inside and grab the large silver case and throw it out the window."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it already!"

"Fine."

Hogie pulled out the silver case and threw it out the window of the ship, farther down the street from where they were.

"Number 2, you idiot! I meant throw it out the window when you were over us!" shouted Kuki into her communicator as she ran to catch the silver case, grabbing it just before it hit the ground.

"Well, sorry," snapped Number 2 in return "I was only doing what you said."

"Just get back to the others and help them distract the pyromaniac," shouted Kuki as she flipped open the case and smirked. Perfect.

Running back to the others, she found that her fears had come true. They had used their whole supply of water and were being backed into a corner.

Kuki shot towards the fire hydrant she had seen earlier. Pulling out a wrench she twisted the nut on to of the hydrant to get the water pumping and pulled out a small metal disk with a timer on the top. She then grabbed a hand full of spheres and a lighter from the case as well before clicking it shut and kicking it off to the side where it wasn't likely to get damaged. Not that titanium-steel could be easily damaged.

"Hey, Blister-boy," shouted Kuki "over here!"

Pyro spun around to face Kuki, his eyes narrowed in anger.

"Can't catch me!" she shouted as she lit and tossed one of the small spheres. It exploded in front of Pyro, sending dirt flying in all directions and putting out some of his smaller fires.

"Ah! My precious flames!" he shouted, turning again to face Kuki with flames in his eyes. "You'll pay for that you brat!"

He tossed a flaming pumpkin at her, but Kuki easily dodged running back towards the fire hydrant. She glanced at her watch. 10 seconds.

She dodged another flaming pumpkin head as she leapt over the hydrant.

Now, she thought as Pyro tried to pull the same move, only when he tried it, the time bomb Kuki had attached to the hydrant earlier blew, sending a jet of water straight up and catching him in the back. He went flying over backwards as water flew in all directions, putting out the fires. A broken piece of hydrant struck Kuki in the side of the head, sending her flying in the opposite direction of Pyro.

Shaking her head and cursing her clumsy-ness, Kuki stood from where she had been thrown as saw her friends racing towards her at full speed. However, before they could reach her a wall of pure flames appeared between her and them. She looked over and saw Pyro had removed his flame thrower. Kuso.

Kuki rolled away from the flames just as another wall appeared on her other side. She realize quickly from the smell the flame thrower also blew out a line of oil before it blew out a line of fire, igniting the oil and trapping who ever was behind the wall. Kuki glanced behind her and found a burning fence. She glanced in front of her and found Pyro with a maniacal grin on his face.

"Now you'll pay you little brat. I'll let you burn alive!" he shouted releasing one last blast from his flame thrower, forming another wall and sealing the last chance she had at escape. Kuki looked around herself and felt her blood turn cold as the fear she had been suppressing to this point came out. She panicked as the fire began to feed off some oil which also lay around her feet, causing the ring to shrink.

"No," muttered Kuki as an image of her mother striking her sister and sending her reeling backwards appeared in her mind. "No," she cried louder as the image of her mothers' dead body and the knife in her hand rose from the haze which was falling over her mind. She screwed her eyes shut and dropped to her knees as tears began to form in her eyes. "NO!" she cried loudly as the memory of being trapped in the burning ring appeared in her minds eye. Her mind and body couldn't take the stress anymore and she fainted.