Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Tecmo, Team Ninja, nor Dead or Alive...no matter how cool I'd like to think I am...
Thank you for the reviews Wolf, Kurmoi, & Sagistar!
Chapter 4
Mad Man
"That guy can fight pretty well," thought Ayane as she entered the restaurant, past the large sleeping man at the door. Normally, she would have snuck past the doorman to be extra careful that her meeting would stay secret, but with the thunderous rumble of his snoring, Ayane figured she could have stormed down the street yelling on a megaphone and he wouldn't have budged. As much fun Ayane was having poking fun at the sleeping man, she focused on the problem with the sudden intrusion of the hot shot playing hero. "He beat up Leon, and I need my stuff for tonight."
With no one around to seat her, she took a table off in the corner, away from the two tables with blonde girls at each. She didn't see anyone else in the bar, which was good. After the beating in the alley, Ayane wondered how long it would take Leon to come back to consciousness. She sure as hell wasn't going out there to help the big lump.
Kasumi hid behind her drink. How long did she have until Ayane would spot her? Then she'd yell at her for leaving the clan grounds without asking permission from anyone. Then again, why was she restricted to the forest when Ayane ran around wherever she pleased? She watched Ayane from the shadows of her side of the bar. Ayane appeared to be waiting for someone.
Across the bar from the red-haired kunoichi, Helena was also waiting for someone, but he entered through the front doors, kicking Bass Armstrong off of his stool with his entrance. Donovan stormed to Helena's table and dropped his tired body down on the booth.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked, noticing the blood dripping to his lip. Helena couldn't tell if his nose was crooked, but the guy looked pretty beat up.
"I was on my way here, when this stupid fucker come out harassing me!" he growled, holding the bridge of his nose to keep it from moving too much as he spoke. Donovan looked around the empty bar for someone to get him something for his bruises, but impatiently gave up and screamed at the top of his lungs. "What does a guy have to do to get some ice here?!"
An answer came in the form of a towel in Donovan's face. Even the lightest brush of the cloth sent sharp pains throughout his face. He removed the cloth and angrily looked up at whoever threw it to see the same man from the alley shaking his finger at him. "No need to shout here, sir," he said calmly, his stare menacing.
Donovan eyed his outfit; the alley hero worked here! His name tag said Jann-Lee. "Will you bring me a bag of ice, sir?" Donovan asked slowly. Jann-Lee raised his eyebrows at him, expecting no disrespect or mention of their tryst from five minutes ago. "Please?"
Jann-Lee nodded and walked away, keeping his eyes on Donovan. Helena did the same as well. "What was that about?" she asked, raising an eyebrow curiously. Words of courtesy, especially "please", were not in the man's vocabulary.
Donovan only shot her a disgruntled look as best as he could between his fingers.
Entering from the emergency exit connecting The Wok and the alley way, a tall man came stumbling in, and despite his flustered movements, he was unperceived by anyone else. He took a seat at Ayane's table.
"Did you bring it?" Ayane asked, glaring at Leon's dizziness. So the big lump finally regained consciousness and remembered that they had important business. And Ayane wouldn't be delayed by anyone.
He slid a black briefcase under the table towards Ayane. "There's an address of the place she'll be at and a picture of your target. But you can look at her for yourself; she's at the front table, with the big retarded bow in her hair."
Ayane's brown eyes darted across the room. "So that's the girl," she thought to herself. Ayane continued to analyze her latest target. "Very pretty, no wonder she's into entertainment. Not too strong, I suppose, I wonder why they need me to take her out?"
"Do you accept what I ask of you?" Leon spoke quietly, but very sternly. He wanted to get the meeting over with; the purple hair weirded Leon out, and Leon saw three girls with the unnatural hair shade were floating around in his line of vision.
"Only if you keep with the deal will you have a dead opera singer."
Leon slumped against the back of his seat. What was this ninja girl getting at? In Leon's professional opinion, the girl asked too many questions about her jobs. "You make this hit, and Donovan will be so pleased, he'll ask you to join the company personally. Do we have an agreement?"
Ayane smiled, a rarity for the girl bent on achieving her goal. She slid Helena's picture into the cloth tied around her waist for a belt. What Leon didn't know was that tucked discreetly into this belt was her tonto, and now with a target, Ayane felt deadly power surging within her blood. She reached over the table and shook his hand.
"Welcome to DOATEC."
Helena finished off her second martini, absolutely frustrated with Donovan's childish behavior. The meeting was running late and taking away from her time to relax before her performance. She looked around the bar; Bass was still at the door, semi-conscious, Zack finally joined their table after the tenth rejection from Tina Armstrong, the bartender was noisily throwing glass bottles in a trash can looking like he meant to disrupt the bar's atmosphere, and Donovan sulked across from her seat at the table. But something in the back corner of the bar alarmed Helena: it seemed that two figures moved silently through the darkness.
She squinted, inquisitively trying to decipher what her cerulean eyes showed her. Suddenly, a giant and familiar body emerged from the darkness. It was Leon. "Shit!" she cried out at the burly man. "You scared the hell out of me."
Leon froze when he realized Helena had been watching him approach. He dropped his body in a chair at her table, trying to keep his cool. "I had to go to the bathroom."
"Please," Helena said, sticking out her tongue at the newest arrival. "That is too much information."
Suddenly, another, and much smaller, shadow caught Helena's eye. Her heart skipped a beat when their eyes met. There was no doubt of the extent of malice in the sharp brown eyes, curtained by the uniqueness of short, purple bangs.
"No, princess," Leon growled. "Telling you that I took a shit rank enough to suffocate a camel is too much information."
Zack and Donovan groaned at the explicit analogy, taking Helena's focus away from that face. "You're disgusting!" snapped Zack, shaking his head and hitting Leon on his thick arm. The larger man only hit him back in response, sending Zack flying out of his seat and to the floor.
Helena ignored the immature males at her table and looked back at the shadowy figure, but it was gone. She blinked rapidly, yet the same area Helena was surveying remained empty. Not much scared the confident singer, but even the mere thought of the pale face and round eyes sent shivers down her spine.
"Maybe you're too stressed, Helena," she rationalized to herself. "The thing is gone, so I must have just imagined it."
Somehow, she still couldn't shake off the chilly feeling.
"Now that everyone is here, we can start this meeting," Donovan interrupted, eyeing Leon with concern. The other man only shrugged.
"Wait!" Helena exclaimed. "My father isn't here, we can't start."
Donovan glared at the blonde. Everything about her, the royal air, up-turned nose, and especially that gigantic bow, annoyed him. He clenched his free hand, the one not pinching his aching nose, into a tight fist. "He called me when I rode over here. Douglas will not be attending, but has been informed of what we are discussing…if I can get to that matter, naturally."
Helena shot him an evil glare. Things between her and her father had been tense for the past year because she had decided to fully pursue her opera career with her mother instead of taking over his company, DOATEC. Furthermore, she disapproved of the man named to succeed Fame Douglas: Victor Donovan. And Helena let her father know it. Sometimes, she felt that Douglas loved science more than his own family, and for him to miss a meeting about the precious DOATEC was highly uncanny.
"If you weren't such a drama queen, maybe you could stop wasting our time and get to the matter," Helena snapped back.
Donovan slammed his fist onto the table, shaking the drinks on top. "You know you weren't requested to be here anyway, Miss Douglas. You already expressed your dismissal of the company quite some time ago to go chase your fleeting aspirations," he spat. "Unless you wanted to stop playing pretend and do real work in the real world for once."
"Performing IS real work, and I earn a hell of a lot of money for my talent," Helena replied coolly. "But DOATEC is still run under my family's control, so I thought it would be nice to help, see father, and be interested in what he loves."
"You mean pretend to be interested…"
Not wanting the arguing to continue, Leon leaned between the two warring people and looked them both in the eyes. "We are all adults at this table, can we please behave like it?" he said calmly. His head was throbbing, but somehow managed to come up with some philosophical reasoning to stop the insults. "The future of DOATEC depends on these projects going as well as we plan." At least, he thought he was being philosophical.
Glaring at their bitter rival, Donovan nodded and Helena rolled her eyes quietly. Donovan cleared his throat and brought up business. "As you know, I've brought a lot of public awareness to DOATEC, and with that, new, unimaginable amounts of money to the company. While sponsoring Bass and Tina Armstrong for their wrestling careers, we've caught the support of American scientists and now expanding our empire to the east, here in Japan."
"Wait, wait," said Zack suddenly. "That fine lady and her bear of a father are wrestlers?"
Donovan nodded. "The only undefeated tag team in the WWF, and not to mention, Tina is probably rated the best female wrestler in the ring."
While drool oozed out of Zack's mouth, Leon shook his head in confusion. "What do wrestlers have to do with our science?"
"My friend," said Donovan smoothly. He motioned at Zack to look over at Tina, who chatted happily on her cellular phone. "Look at Tina. Do you like what you see?"
"Oh yes!"
"Tell me what you think about her."
Zack licked his lips excitedly. "I think…I'd like to see her in something black and see-through…"
Helena promptly smacked him on the side of his head. "Not like that, pervert."
Her target rubbed where Helena hit him. "But what do you expect? I'm a guy, and when you ask me what I think about that fine piece of ass, I'm going to tell you that I think she should be naked to some degree, for starters…"
Everyone at the table groaned. Leon rested his chin on his thick fist as he studied Tina, deep in thought. "I think that she has the perfect height to take on many men, but too slow to maneuver so much body. Even for myself, what I lack in speed, I make up in power." Donovan grinned in approval. He got along with Leon very well, despite his insufficiency earlier in the alley.
"You plan to perform experiments on wrestlers to improve them so they'll make more money for DOATEC?" asked Zack.
"No, not at all," replied Donovan, shaking his head. "You see, DOATEC's current top-billed research is focused on making the ultimate fighter. The best and most difficult to defeat, complete with perfect and efficient body structure, immeasurable stamina, gravity-defying acrobatics, and extensive knowledge of combat skills from all over the world using bone-crunching strength."
Helena gave a look of disgust. "And your fighter is still human?"
"The perfect human," grinned Donovan. "Completely constructed, but completely homo-sapien.
"You see, the Armstrongs also agreed to allow us to study their superior genes, fighting tactics, and brain activity while they utilize those tactics. Combining their knowledge with Asian martial arts, standard military drills, and all that crazy stuff will allow us to make a well-rounded, versatile fighter."
"What do you do with something like that?" Zack asked slowly. It was as if he was scared to know the answer.
"When we make the perfect fighter, every military in the world will beg for an entire army of them," Donovan finally revealed. "Mass producing trained fighters for governments and supplying our training programs as well will launch DOATEC into the most sought and successful business in the world! What country wouldn't want their own patented fighter protecting their citizens, their president, king, or high-profiled diplomat, or their economic wealth?"
"But, having your own killing machine could lead to the abuse of power," Helena replied, her eyebrows wrinkling in worry. "If two warring countries with their own steroid soldiers fought against each other, all of their people could be wiped out."
"But surrounding countries have the power to stop it," replied the doctor, with an assured smile on his face. "Besides, our models don't fight on their own free will. Our Project Epsilon is an experiment striving to perfect the mental training of the soldiers. It has shown on our test subjects to strengthen their can-do attitude and restrict the brain only to act viciously when commanded to or provoked in a matter of survival. Project Epsilon has been relatively successful."
"Relatively?" repeated Zack.
"Of course, every experiment has its successes and failures. In our earlier attempts, we discovered that our choices in test subjects must be very selective before we begin the rigorous test process," said Donovan. Then he laughed. "We learned that it helps that your subjects are willing, first of all."
Everyone fell awkwardly silent as Donovan continued to laugh.
Kasumi's breath caught in her throat, and she crumbled to the table top holding her side. The scar on her belly started to hurt fiercely. Then, as the cold laughter came flooding through her ears, sweat began to fall from her forehead. It was him: the man from her torturous dreams. Something inside her yelled for an escape, but Kasumi struggled to her feet. She had to know who the man was.
"I'm just kidding," Donovan said, noticing that the others at his table were silent. "Our first experiment didn't have the desired results due to the fact that we were trying to overload one subject, but upon realizing that we needed to expand our researching, Project Alpha laid the building blocks of DOATEC's most ambitious project. In fact, using Project Alpha's superior DNA, one could say we started with the genetics of a human and built ourselves a god."
Helena could only shake her head; Victor Donovan was a mad man. The doctor, on the other hand, smiled to himself. His career, and his entire plan, was working out as he expected. He would soon be a very powerful man. Donovan mustered the courage to remove the ice pack and his freezing fingers from his nose to meet with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. The beautiful and round chestnut eyes he stared at so many times before.
"Kasumi," he whispered, not wanting to move as if the girl was a mirage that could fade away with the wind.
The ninja breathed slow and deep, recognizing her captor. He really did exist. She suddenly wished she had equipped herself with shuriken before she left her house so she could impale him against the bar wall. There was so much hatred inside of her, all so new to Kasumi.
But before she could react physically, her ninja reflexes turned into high gear. Kasumi leapt out of the way of a glass thrown at her; Donovan had grabbed Helena's martini glass and threw it with all of his might.
"Get her!" he screamed, pointing at Kasumi. Once she righted herself, her eyes once again met Donovan's gaze. He smiled evilly at her.
Leon rose from his chair and rushed like a rhino at the girl. Kasumi flipped into the air, tucked into a tight ball, and landed her feet onto Leon's face. The smack of the blow echoed throughout the bar, and Leon fell to his back while Kasumi returned to her take-off position. She was ready to fight.
Not caring about his associate, Donovan reached into his coat pocket and aimed his gun at the rogue ninja. Tina and Helena cried out in terror, and Bass, who had run in from his post outside, froze in his shoes. Kasumi calmly stared at the deadly weapon head on. There was so fear.
He shot three times.
Like lightning, Kasumi grabbed her gift sheathed to her back and waved her tanto through the air. Three clinks sparked as the bullets hit the metal and sent Donovan to the floor as he dodged the deflected shells. When he got back to his feet, re-aiming his gun, the girl was gone. The only thing left was a swirl of pink leaves fluttering to the ground.
Donovan kept his gun leveled in front of him. He smiled broadly. "So she's come back to show herself," he thought. "I've always known she is a strong one."
He turned to look at Leon on the floor, but his view was blocked by Jann-Lee. The bartender arched his eyebrow in disapproval. "What did I tell you about fighting?" he asked sternly.
Before Donovan could reply, a fist went straight to his mouth. Jann-Lee knocked Donovan to the ground, only to hear Bass screaming at him. "What did you do, you idiot?!" Bass bellowed. "Do you know who you just hit?"
"A disturbance to the club, sir," replied Jann-Lee coolly. "Something a real bouncer should take care of."
"No! That's one of our best clients!" Bass yelled back. "I want you out of here! You're FIRED!!"
"And dead!" added Donovan from the floor. He aimed his gun at Jann-Lee, but the Dragon kicked Donovan's arm away as he sprinted to the door. Bass tried to block his way, but Jann-Lee slid under the massive body through the door.
Outside, Lei-Fang stood outside her father's restaurant contemplating on whether she wanted to go inside. The boy who had saved her acted very smug towards her, and no one spoke to her that way. She wanted to assert her gratitude to…that guy. Something else told her to just go home and tell her father about Victor Donovan. Such a ruthless man couldn't possibly be associated with her prestigious family.
She closed her eyes, taking in a breath. "Just go in," she said firmly. Then she heard the loud bang of gun shots and shuffling inside.
Lei-Fang opened her eyes to see a girl appear in front of her. Her long red hair blew around her pale face and the faint scent of cherry blossoms swirled in the wind. She seemed just as surprised to see Lei-Fang standing there, but proceeded to sprint past her. Although startled, Lei-Fang stepped out of the way and turned back to The Wok's entrance once she heard the familiar battle-cry. Her savior was fighting again. She took a step forward, but suddenly felt her legs being swept from under her. Lei-Fang expected to meet the hard pavement, and instead, landed on top of something very soft and warm.
Jann-Lee let out a deep "huff". He held onto the waist of the small girl he bumped into and tried to stable her. Surprised, Jann-Lee looked into the brown eyes of Lei-Fang, the girl he had saved in the alley. "Are you okay?" he asked quickly.
The girl could only nod. Lei-Fang was so close to him, and he smelled quite good. She looked at his chest, embarrassed, and noticed his name tag: Jann-Lee. "Yes," she mumbled.
"Great," he said. Jann-Lee rolled over, helped Lei-Fang up, but still held onto her hand. "Then run!"
Lei-Fang was almost swept off her feet for a second time as the hurricane force of Jann-Lee's running suddenly pulled her through the streets of Tokyo.