Random Warning: There is a bit of cussing in this one. Blame Kouga,

that evil poot. xD

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Chapter Twelve - Strange Allies

Kouga stood his ground, parying all of Tessaiga's blows if by nothing else, then by sheer frustration. Why were ALL of his men falling to these annoying people? Why were full demons getting beaten by a Hanyou and his humans? Out of the corners of his eye, he saw that the girl who previously stayed in the background with her old dog durring their first encounter was now in a battle rage (though he couldn't understand why she looked so pissed off at everyone as if they were personally her life-long rivals). She had just narrowly missed having her arm sliced off by a katana from a demon Kouga came to know as Lyka. Lyka was one of the better fighters that he knew. But just now, he was been caught my surprise as the girl suddenly roared and tackled him to the ground, katana knocked away by the force of the blow. But that was were that human made her first mistake. Lyka was best at hand to hand combat. Kouga smiled, then payed closer attention to Inuyasha, who seemed to grow angry at his smile. So he broadened it and brought down his sword for an attack of his own.

"Oh poot." was the first thing to hit Jessica's mind as the man she had just tackled rolled over, now turning the battle in his favor. The second thing to hit Jessica was his foot. "Thank God for furry boots," she thought as she was knocked to her feet. Having successfully gotten the girl off him, Lyka flipped so all his weight was on his hands and arms, brought his knees to his chest, and kicked, which sent the girl crashing into the rock wall behind her. Or, it would have if Diamond hadn't have seen that comming and ran with all his might and slammed into his legs. This caused Lyka to become unbalance, and he flipped and rolled a few times, his head very dizzy. "Now my shoulder hurts," whined Diamond, "you owe me for that. You need to be more careful!" "Sorry," Jessica appologized, "I kinda got lost in the moment." Diamond shook his head and trotted away (he was healing himself in the process), "Now she's acting just like AJ. All wreckless."

AJ was having a rough time. There were two men on top of her, beating her with their feet and fists. "This is really going to hurt tomarrow," she thought, feeling the bruises growing already. Just when she thought she had to give up, she heard a terrible yowl, and one of the men was lifted off her, and thrown to the side. The other man stopped what he was doing and tensed, then she felt his weight lifted off her back, too. She rolled over (painfully) to see a VERY mad Wednesday, gliding small circles around her. His tails were dangerously close to AJ's pants, so she scuttled away a bit to make sure she didn't have to run around with her pants afire. The two men that Wednesday had thrown off had gotten up, and were snarling when a loud voice commanded everyone's attention.

Kouga realized that his pack was being very pathetic, and right now just wanted to get away from it. So he summoned all the strength he could and brought his sword down mightily on Tessaiga. The force of the blow actually knocked Inuyasha to the ground. Kouga then put his foot on Tessaiga to keep him from lifted it against him, then he inhaled deeply, and using the most commanding voice he could muster, yelled "EVERYONE HALT!" The effect was instantaneous. Everyone was surprised into stopping what they were doing and turned to look at him. From the foot on Tessaiga, Kouga felt Inuyasha get to his feet and crouch, both hand still on his prized Fang. He sheathed his katana and lifed his hands as if to say "I'm not fighting you anymore". Then he lifted his foot of Tessaiga and took a few steps back. Then he turned to look at his men. He sighed, adopted an angry expression, and said "What is wrong with my pack? Are they so weak that they can't take on a Hanyou and his human companions! I'm beggining to think that I'd be better off with THEM than with YOU!" Those of his men that had the decency to look embarrassed, did. Then Kouga turned his head to face Inuyasha and said quietly, "In fact..I think I will." Inuyasha got a look of confusion/outrage, "WHAT! You can't just expect me too-" He was cut off by Kagome, "Kouga, WHY?" He turned his eyes to her, "Another annoying human...", and said "Because, one, you are way ahead of me in the Jewel Shard count." He had to put up his hand to stop Inuyasha from interrupting, "And two, because my men need to show me that they can defend themselves when I'm not around." He turned his attention back to his people and said "I'm leaving with them." That got some shocked looks. He continued, "And when I return I want to see TRAINED. SKILLED. FIGHTERS. Everyone, get inside, I want too .. talk with you." The men got the look of a boy about to be yelled at by his principal. They gathered the people who were worse for wear (most of those were from AJ, who could quite possible be described as an insane fighter) and shuffled inside the opening that Kouga had created breaking out one of Sango's cave-ins. When all his men were inside, he turned to Inuyasha's group and said, "I really hope you won't leave without me. 'Cause then I'd have to track you down and complain." With that, he followed in his men's footsteps and went inside his home.

Inuyasha turned to his stunned group of friends and newcommers, and exploded, "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS? We can't just let that damned bastard tell us to just let him come along!" "I don't know," said Kagome, "I didn't feel as much hostility comming from him. Well, other than the kind from him that never goes away." Sango and Miroku were settled on Kilala, Shippou was with them. Sango voiced her opinion, "I don't see a reason not to trust him. He wasn't hiding anything from us that I could tell." Miroku agreed. Inuyasha looked at them like they were insane, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!" "What's wrong," taunted Shippou, "afraid he's gonna take Kagome away from you again?" "What? I-eh-NO!" he retorted, face turning red (embarrassment or anger, who could tell?). "You don't care if I'm taken again!" said Kagome, doing her best to look utterly depressed at the notion. "What! Of course I don't want you taken away from me again!" he yelled back at her. "Oh, I didn't know you cared so much," she said, playing. Inuyasha didn't catch it, sadly. "Of course I care, you're the only one that can locate the Sacred Jewel Shards." From the look on Kagome's face, that wasn't the right thing to say. "Well guess what, Mister I Can't Ever Show Any Feelings, no I'm not! Those two can too," she said, pointing to a bewildered pair of Jessica and AJ, "and so can their friend!" Jessica and AJ flinched, then Jessica said, "Oh crap. We forgot about Dianna! When's Kouga gonna get back out here!" As if that was his cue, Kouga reappeared. He looked at the group "Heh, Mutt and Kagome were fighting again, by the look on her face" and said "Okay, wait a little bit longer, I have to go get my bitch." That remark totally lost AJ, Jess, Diamond, and Wednesday. Apparently, the rest of the group knew. Especially Kagome, who knew he only meant "my woman". But that still didn't mean she liked that phrase. Miroku looked from Kagome to Kouga and said "She's already here with us." Sango, Inuyasha, and Kagome gave him a look of death (especially Inuyasha). "KAGOME IS NOT -HIS- BITCH!" he yelled. Kouga smiled, this was going to be fun.

"Oh, she isn't my bitch?"

"NO!"

"Are you sure, because she really seemed to like that title a while ago."

"WHAT! NO SHE DIDN'T!" ("Did you?" "OF COURSE NOT!")

"Really? I'm pretty sure she did."

"No. She. Didn't."

"Okay then, does that make her your bitch?"

"Yeah, she's my bitch -- oh .. uh .. shit."

Kagome was now giving Inuyasha the look of death. "Uh..I didn't mean it!" he pleaded. Kagome was having none of it. She continued to glare. "Is THAT what you think of me as!" she yelled. "NO!" he yelled back desperatly.

Kouga smiled pleasently, waved, and turned around to go and get "his bitch". He was just about to enter his home again when he was stopped by a familiar voice. He couldn't put a name to it, so he turned to see who it was before he answered, "What did you say?" "I said can you bring out our friend," said Jessica, who had run up to him when Kagome had started yelling "SIT!" over and over. AJ and Wednesday stayed behind, they were enjoying the show. Kouga raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Describe her to him," Diamond told Jessica. "Uh .. ehem. She is yay tall," she put her hand a couple inches below her head to show how tall she was, "brown hair, eyes. Has a poodle who barks a lot-" "Oh, her," said Kouga, recognizing the description, "that's who I'm going back to get." Jessica looked at him disbelievingly ((is that a word?)), "Dianna is your bitch? Okay, I thought that whole shirt collar thing was you being perverted! But now-" He cut her off, saying "I don't know what you're going on about, but I'm going to get her now." With that, he left. Jessica looked at Diamond, "I don't believe him! Dianna isn't like that!" Diamond stopped her before she started working herself into a frenzy, "Jessica, did you notice what he was?" Jessica thought and said, "Someone mentioned wolf demon..." "Okay," said Diamond, "now think of what bitch means to a dog." Jessica got a look of "Oooooh" on her face. "I guess that's okay then," she said, "but if I found out he tried to do anything I'll rip his nice little elfin ears off!" With a couple of jogged steps, they rejoined the group. "Uh..what happened?" asked Jessica. Miroku had his hand over Kagome's mouth, who was trying to yell something at Inuyasha. Inuyasha was slowly and painfully pulling himself out of a small crater, Shippou was helping him. Sango was trying to calm Kagome down. It was working, slowly. AJ was trying very hard not to crack up laughing. She tried to explain, but had to stop every once in a while to breath properly, "Apparently when ..hehe.. Kagome says .. says .. heh .. 'sit' the necklace that Inuyasha is wearing piledrives him into the ground!" Wednesday was hissing quietly in cat laughter, every time hissed the fires on his body flared up a tiny bit. Jessica looked at Diamond and they mentally sighed together. At least this wasn't going to be boring. Not that it was boring at all so far.

---Into the tunnels and through the door, to Kouga's room we go--

Dianna and Romeo had heard the fighting going on, but it sounded so far away from where they were. Once the fighting noises stopped, they had gotten rather bored. At the moment, Dianna was randomly flicking specks of dirt and small pebbles accross the floor. Romeo was laying on his side, starring at the wall like he was hoping his vision would burn a hole through it. Now they heard small scraping noises, and every once in a while a sound like a heavy object dropping, and some voices that didn't sound to happy. Then they heard soft footsteps, so they didn't freak out this time when Kouga opened the door. Kouga looked from Dianna to Romeo and said "Get up and follow me, we're leaving." Dianna stayed where she was, Romeo got up to his feet and shook, but other than that didn't make any movent to follow Kouga's orders. Kouga did a small annoyed snort and said "Come on. Your friends are out there, and I'm not leaving my bitch behind." Dianna looked at Romeo, and then hunched her shoulders as if to say "Okay, whatever" and stood up. When she and Romeo had exited the room and Kouga shut the door, she saw the reason for the voices and scraping sounds. There were some of the pack cleaning up the cave in near Kouga's room. When they had finally walked to the (now only) opening outside, she got up the courage to ask, "Uh.. why didn't we go get your.. eh.. woman?" Kouga looked at her and said, "What are you talking about? You're my bitch." "I AM!" "Yeah." At that moment, they exited to the outside. The first thing Dianna saw were two things flying at her. They got to her at the same time and gave her a death hug, both of them sqealing "DIANNA! YOU'RE ALIVE!" And then she clearly heard Jessica's voice whisper, "And not de-flowered!" AJ laughed at that. Dianna's eyes got wide and she said, "Jessica! AJ! YOU'RE HERE!" She returned the hug untill Kouga pulled her from her friend's grasps. Jessica and AJ looked at him annoyingly, "Why did you do that?" demanded AJ. Kouga simply snorted and said "She's mine." Dianna looked at him worriedly, "Don't I get a say in this?" "No." "Darn."

While all that was happening, Romeo found Diamond and yipped happily. He almost had a heart attack when he saw Wednesday. Wednesday hissed/laughed and powered down so Romeo would run away. "When did you learn to do that!" yelled Romeo. "Kilala taught me," the cat answered smuggly. "Who's Kilala," asked Romeo. Suddenly Kilala appeared right up in Romeo's face. She sniffed his nose, snuffled, and kitty-stepped back to Sango, where she flared up. Sango and Miroku got back on her again. And she mewed impatiently for everyone else. "That .. is Kilala," said Wednesday, dreamily. "Man, cat, is that all you think about?" asked Diamond. "Why, yes. I AM the most handsome cat-" "In the universe, we know," finished Romeo and Diamond. While the deman, half-demon, and humans were all talking, Diamond and Wednesday explained everything that had happened to Romeo, who promised to relay it to Dianna later. Once things were ready, the group of thirteen set off on their journey.