Breath of Fire: Hunger
Author's notes: Sorry I was so long with this chapter. Moving into your college room will take up A LOT of time.
Breath of fire is the property of Capcom
Chapter 3
Surprise!
"Let me get this straight. I just want to make sure I understand" Ryu began as the lift began to descend.
"Fine" Momo replied
"You are telling me that you detected a source of noise that was interfering with a piece of equipment?"
"Yes"
"In the waters just outside the dig?"
"Right"
"And as far as you know, there is no sea creature that is capable of this"
"As far as I know"
"And so you come to the conclusion the source is man made"
"Right"
"And after coming to this conclusion you proceeded to do what?"
"To track its progress to see what it would do"
"And…?" Ryu looked at Momo, raising an eyebrow.
"It's docked with the dome that surrounds the dig itself"
"Ok… Wait, what?" Ryu looked at Momo again, confusion growing. "How do you know… whatever it was docked here? How could something dock here?"
Momo began explaining as the lift slowed down to a stop "Well as far as I understand it, it involves what the hell?"
Ryu turned his head and saw what made Momo exclaim: A woman dressed as a scientist was wounded and bleeding on an artifact in the dig while someone who obviously should not be there was standing nearby. Quick as lightning Ryu pulled his gun out of his jacket holster. "Civil Security force, freeze!"
The man did not react as Ryu thought he would. He did not put his hands up in the universal 'I'm-unarmed-please-don't-shoot-me' gesture. As a matter of fact he was showing no sign of concern or worry. He sighed, rolled his eyes and turned to Ryu. "You G-men are the same the world over, you realize that?" Using his left hand he made the 'I'm-mocking-what-you-just-said' gesture. "Release her, return this, stop doing tha-"
"PUT YOUR WEAPON ON THE GROUND NOW!" Ryu ordered. The man cocked his head to the side. "Yeah, they usually say something like tha-"
"WEAPON. GROUND. NOW." Ryu repeated.
"All right, all right." And with an un-strapping motion he removed the metal box from his right arm and threw it so that it was about halfway between him and Ryu. "There, are you satisfied now?" he asked, irritated.
"Now, who are you and what are you doing here?" Ryu said noticeably calmer now that his opposition was disarmed.
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies" the intruder stated matter of factly.
Silence reigned for a moment.
Momo and Ryu shared a Is-this-guy-for-real? Glance between them.
Nina lifted her head off the ground with visible effort and broke the silence with "His name's Alexander Drasari and he's a criminal."
"A category in which you fit in so nicely my dear, so unless you want to end up sharing a cell block, I suggest you shut up." Alexander replied to the prone woman, anger oh-so-slowly beginning to creep into his voice.
If looks could kill then Alexander would be on the floor in several bloody pieces under the venomous gaze of the young, angry woman.
After another moment of uncomfortable silence Ryu said "If you will not answer my questions here, then you leave me no choice but to bring you in for questioning"
"There we reach a disagreement" Alexander stated, applying just a little bit of unnoticeable pressure on his left palm with his fingers, triggering a layer of electronics just beneath the glove. "I would love nothing more than to enlighten the Kyoto officials of my doings, for the time being however, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you in the dark"
At that moment, chaos broke lose. All electronics in the dig shut off, rendering the bottom floor that all four occupied pitch black and completely silent except for the flurry of activity that followed: Momo yelped, Nina yelled "Get the bastard!" (Although to whom she was referring to was never known), and two shots were fired. A grunt was followed by another gunshot.
When the lights flickered on, Ryu found himself at the business end of his own handgun. Alexander had wrested it from him in the chaos following the electronics shutdown and was now using in his right hand to keep Ryu at bay. Momo, who had unconsciously wrapped her arms around Ryu's midsection in her moment of panic, who looked confused at the looks both men where giving her… until she realized where her arms where. As she straightened up and tried to regain her composure, Alexander gave a small laugh "Wow, you really are popular with the ladies today."
Momo inquired "What was that?" This got another laugh from Alexander, who still trained his eyes on Ryu.
"That was an artificially induced electronics failure. The length of time would make it appear as though the main generator shut down, which would be followed by the startup of the auxiliary generator. Standard procedure dictates that all personal would go to the top floor of the dig to the control room, to remotely reactivate the main generator, or if that is not possible, to evacuate." He cocked his head to the side slightly "Although, what they don't know is that all lifts will have frozen once all personal have reached the top level, effectively" gesturing towards Ryu and Momo "leaving you two stranded here for the better part of three hours, while I vanish off the face of the earth. Oh and…" Alexander squinted for a second at Ryu's security badge "Ryu? Yeah, your gunplay sucks."
Ryu eye's never left the face of the intruder looking for an opening: whether consciously or unconsciously, Alexander's eyes darted to the left for a split second, probably making sure that Nina wasn't trying anything.
That was all the time Ryu needed. Time seemed to slow down as his right hand which had been resting at hip level, darted into his pocket, found the hilt of his blade and, in a maneuver that he had practiced dozens of times, stepped forward and started the blade in an underhand arc, cutting through the flap that concealed his blade and scabbard.
At this point, there was little doubt that Alexander saw what Ryu was doing, leaving him with two options: he could either attempt to take a shot at him and most likely lose his right hand due to Ryu's sword or he could back peddle and prevent his hand from sustaining permanent damage. Being taken by surprise, the conspirator chose the second option trying to put as much distance between Ryu's rapidly moving blade and himself from a standing position. The katana sliced through the handgun and the tip only pierced Alexanders palm where it only left a deep cut, not in multiple pieces as Ryu intended.
The handgun drooped to the ground in several pieces while Alexander completed his motion, putting himself outside of Ryu's reach. "You are correct" Ryu said "My performance with a gun leaves much to be desired. My performance with a sword on the other hand…" Ryu punctuated his statement by lightly kicking one part of the handgun so it came to rest at Alexander's feet.
To everyone's surprise Alexander grinned "Now I've seen everything. A government employee willing to forsake standard issue weapons in favor of his weapon of choice? Ryu was it? You want to dance? Fine, we'll dance" Removing his ruined glove he snapped his fingers. Almost immediately the sounds of mechanical articulation filled the room as something very familiar appeared from the air vent. Ryu's eyes widened as he saw Alexander's weapon, the metal box had apparently grown legs. Not only that, six red mechanical 'eyes' were set on the perimeter of the gun barrel, giving it a very arachnid look. It leapt from the vent onto Alexander's waiting hand where it wrapped its legs around his wrist. Flexing his arm, two metal blades resembling lances or even fangs protruded from the device.
Assuming an En-Guarde position, he beckoned Ryu forward with his left hand. "Come on G-man. Show me what you got"
End of chapter.
Arthors notes: Yes, I'm aware I almost completely ignored Nina and Momo this chapter. Don't fret as next chapter Momo helps Nina with her current dilemma. Of course what happens after that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to all you die hard Breath of Fire fans out there. See you next time.