And now, a message from T.R Fanatic:

If you're one of those people that didn't get a chance to read chapter eight, turn back right now! You missed a stunt only Kirika could pull! XD

Disclaimer: Yes, you guessed right! I don't own Noir or Pokemon! And I do own Daisuke, Claude and General.

Forces of Darkness

Chapter 9: Finding Your Alter Ego

(Scene: Team Rocket Base, Seoul, South Korea.)

Daisuke pulled the rifle off of his shoulder and aimed out to the other soldiers and the Rockets in front of him. "Under the table, now!" he called to the Rockets in his fluent Japanese.

As ordered, all of the Rockets slid under the table as Daisuke pulled the trigger of the rifle sending out a hail of bullets that left a trail of bullet holes, moving from left to right.

The other soldiers jumped back at the impact of the bullets hitting them, adding six more to Daisuke's "sinful" toll.

Claude, hiding behind the door when the shots were fired, jumped back into the room with his handgun drawn and fired a round at Daisuke.

He missed. The bullet only grazed his hair. Had it not been for a female grunt that tackled him at the last second, he would've hit Daisuke without error.

"Scatter!" Daisuke ordered as he hopped over the table and ran out of the meeting room, taking a sharp left, in the direction of the female grunt.

The rest of the Rockets did as they were ordered: Cassidy, Jessie and General taking the right route and Butch, James, Meowth and Mondo taking the left route.

Otaku was left sitting at his desk, looking at the empty room from his computer. "Good job, agent." he muttered, complementing the female grunt. "He cannot die just yet. Especially not in the hands of that corrupt GP officer -- the one who disobeys his superior's orders to stay in Japan."

Claude quickly regained consciousness and peered inside the empty room as the monitor turned off. He closed his eyes sadly and rubbed the small cut under his left eye. "Who in the hell... was that?"

(Scene: A hallway leading to the laboratory.)

Coming from another hallway, a second wave of soldiers encountered Daisuke and began to fire at him.

Daisuke slid behind another hallway as the bullets flew past him.

"Damn! I'd never thought you'd be the life of the party!" a voice from behind told Daisuke. He looked back and found the Rocket grunt that informed of the phone call.

"I didn't think so, either." Daisuke replied. "Did you find out the location of that phone call?"

"Yeah! You'll never guess where, though."

Daisuke smiled. "It was here, wasn't it?"

The grunt nodded. "When we looked for that person that made the call, she disappeared. Then the military barged in and I've been here ever since!"

"Wonderful! Do you where I could find Mondo's Jeep?"

"It should be over by the hangar. We got word that you guys have to go the border of France and Spain. The closest place we can take you is Italy via cargo plane. You'll have to make the rest of the trip by Jeep."

"That's fine. As long as we get to this Manor place and see if I can get a premature freedom from my death sentence."

"Here. Let me take the rifle. I'll hold these guys off while you make a run for it, okay?"

"You sure?" Daisuke asked, handing the rifle over to the grunt.

"Yeah." the grunt replied. "No use in staying here! You'll get killed off in no time flat! Now, get a move on!"

Daisuke got up and made a few steps down the quiet hallway. "Just remember, if we both survive this, I owe you big time!"

"Go already!" the grunt said, shooing Daisuke away.

Little did the grunt realized that he was being watched through the reflection of a silver dagger...

(Scene: A hallway leading to the bunkers.)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, Jessie, Cassidy and General ran along the series of hallways.

"The hangar that you're looking for is on the other side of this base." General informed. "It may sound dumb of me to go this way, but rest assure that we will not encounter any of the GP forces."

As the three turned the corner, they were ambushed by a GP squadron with guns drawn.

"You were saying?" Jessie and Cassidy said as the three rose their hands in the air.

"WOOOBBUFFET!" the annoying blue Pokemon said as he made another random appearance, standing in front of the trio.

"Get back inside!" Jessie yelled.

Lacking in knowledge of Japanese and taking this as an attack, the GP troops fired at the Rockets.

Wobbuffet made another salute-like pose, causing him to be surrounded by a red aura, causing all the bullets to stop mid-air in front of his face.

"WOBBA!" the Pokemon yelled as the bullets turned one-eighty and were fired back at the troops. (This would be considered as seven for Jessie's toll, now rivaling Daisuke's.)

(Speaking of rivals...) "Is it over?" Cassidy whimpered, embracing the person next to her.

"You're next!" the person that Cassidy embraced growled.

Cassidy opened her eyes and saw that she was embracing a very ticked-off Jessie. She quickly let go and looked away furiously. "I'm going to need a bath when this is done!" she hissed.

"Same here!" Jessie hissed back.

"True. You mustn't bathe in the smell of death after a while..." General said, not even knowing that his nose was bleeding...

Cassidy and Jessie, turning and seeing General's bloody nose, grabbed him by his collar and threw him down the hallway... where another GP team of seven were appearing from another hallway and collided with the flying General.

"It was only a flesh wound." General whimpered as he laid there, crushing the soldiers under him. "A bullet grazed my lip... that's all..."

(Scene: A hallway leading to the dojo.)

About two minutes of wandering aimlessly through the base, Daisuke stopped in a small, poorly lit hallway, with two sliding doors between him and a fork in the road ahead of him ((holding laughter) Fork... (snicker) sorry, couldn't help it...).

He could not make the choice to run or hide. He knew that both choices were good ideas but he feared that they would have the same outcome.

Slowly, the door on his right began to slide open. Daisuke slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out the dagger that he was struck with, aiming the tip at the opening door.

When the door was opened wide enough for a person to fit in, a hand reached out, grabbed Daisuke by his arm and pulled him into the room.

Stunned by the small ambush, he nearly tripped into the sun-tinted dojo. "What the hel-" he yelled before his mouth was covered by a hand.

"Shh..." the voice of a female, clad in a black Rocket grunt uniform, said. "They won't suspect that you're here if you keep your mouth shut!"

Daisuke broke free of the hold, turned and pointed at the female Rocket grunt. "You obviously need to have more respect for your superiors!" he barked.

"You should be thanking me for saving your life!" The girl hissed back.

"Wait... You were the one who tackled Blackhawk?"

"That's right! My name's Kuro-...hey!"

Before the grunt could finish introducing herself, Daisuke ran past her, dagger in hand, to the moving door and drove the dagger into the sneaky GP soldier's gut. As the soldier fell, Daisuke took his hands off of the dagger and grabbed the assault rifle from the soldier's hands and the handgun in the holster.

With the rifle in his right hand and the handgun in his left hand, Daisuke fired at the charging soldiers, coming in from both sides.

(Scene: Writer's house, Minnesota.)

The young writer from Minnesota looked at the CD player as the song ended without warning. "It was getting good, too..."

The writer glared at the CD player, memorizing the track number. "Fourteen... I gotta remember that..."

(Scene: Inside the dojo.)

The female Rocket grunt watched in interest as Daisuke slew seven more soldiers without mercy, never looking once at the soldiers.

Daisuke turned back and looked at the grunt, her hair and eyes hidden under the beret. "Sorry," he apologized. "What was that?"

The grunt smiled. "My name's Kuroi. I've been ordered to protect you."

"Really? Who gave out the order?"

"Sorry, I can't tell you. It's confidential."

"Aww, that's all right." Daisuke said as he dropped the rifle and handgun. As he stepped back into the dojo another figure appeared behind him, handgun drawn.

"Don't move." the voice of Claude said to Daisuke.

"Again?" Daisuke asked. "You're more reluctant than ever. Is the reward money on my head that valuable to you?"

"Silence!"

Kuroi ran over to the side of the dojo and took a kendo sword out from the rack. "Daisuke, catch!" she said as she threw the wooden sword to Daisuke.

Daisuke took the sword by the handle and turned to face Claude, aiming the tip at the officer's face.

Claude burst out in laughter. "You're going to beat me senseless with that thing?"

"I'm not that good, but I'll try!" Daisuke barked back.

"Ha! You'll try? I bet you couldn't even swat a fly!" Claude fired a round from the pistol, knowing that he would hit his target, without flaw this time. Even if he blocks with that useless kendo sword, the bullet will still have enough power to drive through his cold heart!

Not even knowing of his own actions, Daisuke held up the sword in front of him, hoping to block anything that comes his way. What the hell am I doing? This flimsy sword couldn't even break brittle bones!

To be continued...

AWW! You must hate me for stopping here, huh? Too bad:D There is more! This is NOT the end!