And now, because nobody demanded it – here's the fourth chapter! Yay!

Condensed Version: Inu and DP meet at long last – and what fun they have! …Also some other stuff happens with some other characters, blah, blah, blah.

Inuyasha…

From where he lay, Inuyasha could hear the old man scramble up the incline and into his automobile which pealed off into the night. He cursed savagely – what had that bastard done to him – his body was completely paralyzed!

With all the strength he possessed, the half-demon struggled against the enchantment locking his limbs in place for quite some time; at last a tingling began to creep into his extremities. Almost as quickly as it had hit him, the spell now dissipated. The boy got unsteadily to his feet, shaking off the lingering funk.

Amidst his bewilderment, Inuyasha suddenly remembered Kagome waiting in the clearing. He sprinted to the place where he'd left her, a sense of foreboding already settling in his guts. Upon arrival, his stomach gave a sickening lurch – she was gone.

'How could I leave her alone like that,' he berated himself.

"Kagome," he yelled in the vain hope that she was only hiding nearby, and would emerge at his call. The mocking noises of the alien city that had swallowed her up were the only reply he got.

He knelt down and sniffed the spot. Immediately his hackles rose – the man with the beads had been here; he'd taken Kagome!

Inuyasha tore back up the hill, his nose confirming what his brain already knew with every step. She was gone – carried off in that maniac's mechanical carriage.

He wasn't sure about the amount of time that had passed between now and when he'd first been stunned, but it seemed like an eternity. The dog demon sniffed the asphalt – the trail was already beginning to get lost in the myriad of other smells from the machines that traveled the nearby road; even if he were able to follow it they would be miles ahead of him by now. As swift as he was he doubted he could catch up before the scent failed entirely. Never-the-less, what choice did he have but to try?

Before he could make a move, a crumpled form in his peripheral vision caught his attention. Inuyasha spared the lifeless man a glance – taking in his strange appearance. Every inch of his skin was concealed by a tight-fitting material; even his face was lost behind a featureless red and black mask.

The hanyou briefly wondered who he was and about his connection to Kagome's captor. After sensing a strong demonic aura, Inuyasha had followed it to where he'd first beheld the pair conversing in an unintelligible jargon, all the while the smaller man siphoning strength from the other through the same string of demonic beads that he'd afterward turned on Inuyasha.

Now his massive victim lay motionless, the boxy container he'd been carrying abandoned on the ground beside him.

Inuyasha moved to inspect the object, hopeful it would yield some clue as to the whereabouts of Kagome and the old man, and what the latter planned to do with her. Busy fiddling with the brief case, the half demon didn't notice the body behind him stir. Something like a bird suddenly chirped and immediately a searing pain ripped through the back of his rib cage.

Goshie…

Three and a half years ago a man named Carl Fitzgibbon had come across a beautiful string of prayer beads in an antique shop. Being a man who dabbled in yoga and meditation, he'd purchased them, curious about their mystical properties. From the moment he'd placed them around his neck all those months ago, he could count on one hand the amount of times he'd ever taken them off.

Not only did the simple stones live up to his expectations, they surpassed them. As he meditated on them he perceived himself growing in spiritual discipline by leaps and bounds to the point where he felt compelled to seek out others and form Goshie Ashram.

But now he was lost, it was lost, and everything was lost! Fitzgibbon could not find the strength to move from the spot where he'd lain for hours upon end now. Everywhere around him people were leaving: he could hear his followers emerging from their dwellings like awakened sleepwalkers. Feet, bikes and automobiles crunched on the graveled path leading through Goshie's gates. There was nothing left to hold them here – he realized that now.

His charisma and enlightenment had fled along with his instructor; he felt like a discarded vessel. When the beads had first inspired him to start his own following, it seemed the more spiritual seekers he'd gathered, the more powerful he'd felt – not only physically, but mentally and emotionally he was at his peak. He'd possessed boundless confidence, secure that the prayer beads would always be available to grant his every desire.

The trouble had started only recently when the beads – that would whisper instructions to him – began to demand more bodies in the enclosure, a task Fitzgibbon apparently wasn't meeting fast enough for the object's liking. He began to feel less like a leader than a puppet as he finally realized it wasn't he wielding the beads at all, but they were a separate entity who controlled him.

Perhaps it had never been his idea to become a guru in the first place, but only the beads manipulating him for their own cryptic reasons. Everything he had he owed to their authority, and they (it?) wouldn't let him forget. He knew he was at the mercy of this entity, but didn't care; after all this time he saw he was nothing without it – he must find it again. Somehow he must find out where that masked thug had taken the enchanted stones and get them back.

The former swami forced himself up; he needed to collect his thoughts and to concentrate.

Deadpool…

Wade's gradual return to consciousness was punctuated by a series of loud thumping sounds his muzzy brain refused to recognize. 'Am I dead,' he wondered, trying to feel his body. Who was making those sounds – was Suzuki still there, and if so, what was he doing?

The numbness faded as his healing factor began to kick in. Gingerly, he opened his eyes; a hazy red and white blob hovered next to him which abruptly emitted a menacing growl. Wade, feeling the gun still cradled like a child's beloved toy in his hands, instinctively did what he knew best.

PFFT chirruped the .38 caliber, merrily. His target let out a louder, somewhat less happy noise, but failed to go down. Seeming less hurt than enraged; the injured party instead leapt to its feet, full of piss and vinegar.

Dragging himself to a sitting position – Wade suddenly found himself aiming at the knee caps of someone in red pajamas.

The second thing he noticed as he drew his gaze upward was a fist being pulled back beside a snarling face. Moments later, he was lying sprawled against the pavement once again, this time with a definite fractured jaw; a bare foot stomped down on his right wrist as the semiautomatic was pried from his fingers and flung away.

The guy in the pj's growled something incoherent at him: in the amount of time it took Deadpool to realize he was speaking Japanese, the long-haired youth had him by the throat, jerking him to his feet.

Wade's mind struggled to recall any of his own rusty Japanese, so he began with his defaultphrase:"Have you any octopus today?"

Pajama guy's grip loosened slightly as he gave Wade a baffled look, "Say what?"

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have cat's ears," Deadpool now pointed out –picking the language back up rather rapidly.

This time the guy in red flung him unceremoniously to the ground yet again. "Shut up you idiot! Where did he take Kagome?"

Picking himself carefully up – he still smarted from Suzuki's attack and the kid's sucker punch – it was Deadpool's turn to be confused. "Who's Kagome?"

"Never mind," barked the white haired teen glaring impatiently toward the street, "who is he?"

"That's what I'd like to know," demanded Deadpool, arms akimbo.

The other regarded him with growing ire, "What would you like to know?"

"…Who he is."

"The old man I saw you with!"

"No, the other guy!"

"What other guy?"

"The one you mentioned – Karochi."

"Do you mean Kagome," growled the boy.

"Yeah, that's the one – who's he?"

"Kagome isn't a 'he'; tell me about the man wearing the beads, you moron!"

"Why should I," challenged the merc, "maybe I should ask who the moron wearing the beads in front of me is!"

"None of your business," the guy with the ears grumbled, shooting the busy street an almost panicked glance, "I don't have time to screw around with an idiot like you; Kagome needs help."

"In case you haven't noticed, you need the help," stated Wade offhandedly, "you're the one who's bleeding everywhere."

Dark gore indeed oozed lazily from the boy's back, but he remained unfazed. "No thanks to you," he snapped, but his anger sounded hollow and distracted.

Somehow the kid's demeanor had a weird effect on Deadpool – a feeling akin to commissary stirred within him. He couldn't help thinking he was somewhat responsible for the strange individual's current situation, although he was still trying to figure out what exactly it was. Wade was in a rare mood for some bizarre reason; perhaps he was finally beginning to mellow after all – or maybe it was just because the other's little fuzzy ears were so gosh darned cute!

"Okay, let me get this straight: Suzuki, the wanker that just now tried to cash in my chips, has kidnapped your lady friend?"

The boy nodded silently, his bronze orbs fixed intensely on Deadpool.

"Well, the good news is that our goal is momentarily the same: sending little Suzy to the cornfield. Whatever rock he's crawled under won't be dark and slimy enough that I can't slither in after him – man he doesn't know who he's dealing with!" the mercenary ejaculated, punching his hand for emphasis, "I'm gonna make him a new necklace out of his own intestines after I string him up with them!"

"Feh, whatever," grumbled his companion, "I'm going to get Kagome; do whatever you want – just don't get in my way!"

"Oh really," Wade crossed his arms over his broad chest, amused, "and where do you plan on looking first in a city of over twelve million people – provided he hasn't already gotten out by now? Do you carry around any high-tech tracking equipment in those pajamas?"

"The only 'tracking equipment' I need is this," the other pointed a clawed finger at his nose.

"O-kaaay," replied an unconvinced Wilson, "but it sure would help if say you had someone with you who knew a little about the piss-ant that's got your girl friend and who makes a living out of finding people that don't want to be found."

The kid's amber eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, "What are you getting at?"

Deadpool shrugged, kicking at the ground in mock bashfulness, "just that I kinda think, ya know, that we'd make a pretty swell team maybe – c'mon, pwetty pwease!" He laced his fingers in front of his face and squatted down to be at eye level with the fair-haired boy.

The teenager looked mildly revolted, "I don't need any help from you." His harried expression said otherwise, however.

Wade shrugged in defeat, "alrighty then, have it your way; I guess I'll just go back to my street corner now, peddling my services to the less discriminating girlfriend-less clientele," he turned and started to walk away, heading in the direction he'd first came from. He paused as he approached the heavily trafficked street; listening for the sound he knew was coming.

"Wait a minute," called the kid after him.

Wade whipped back around, pretending to be surprised by the beckon, "Who, me?"

"What can you do to find this guy," the youth had marched up; his face was inches from Deadpool's masked one.

"All in good time," the merc assured him, "first we need to go back to the beginning."

He suddenly thought of something, "Oh yeah, I'm Wade, by the way."

The boy hesitated, and then replied, "I'm Inuyasha."

Undetermined location…

Kagome awoke feeling weak and dizzy; most alarming, however, was her new location. She was no longer sitting in the twilight of the park, but now lay upon a simple straw mat in the middle of a sparse room.

The flustered girl struggled to her feet, gaping around at the four white walls containing a single door and no windows. Trying the door she (of course) found it locked. Panic began to set in.

"Help," she called, "Inuyasha!"

Silence.

With effort, Kagome managed to calm herself – it wouldn't do to loose her head right now. She had to find a way out before whoever brought her here returned to do whatever they'd planed to do to her.

She tried to think of a reason why anyone would abduct her – it wasn't as if she'd fetch a good ransom. More importantly, what had been that sensation that had come over her earlier before she woke up here? Whatever it'd been, she knew it was bad and must have to do with why she was here.

She'd never quite felt anything like it before, although it was similar to when she'd nearly had her soul sucked into Kanna's mirror. Could it have possibly been a demonic force – if so, where could it have come from?

'Why me?'

Her eyes traveled up the walls to the ceiling. The first thing that struck her was the stained, cracking plaster above an otherwise new and intact looking room. There were no vents anywhere – nothing she could possibly climb through; the only way out remained through the single door.

Briefly checking over her person for any potential tools/weapons, it suddenly occurred to her someone might be watching. She didn't see any cameras, but that didn't mean anything. She decided she needed to be very discreet for the time being until she found out more of what was going on. Now was the time to assess her situation and formulate a plan of action.

Maybe Inuyasha would find her soon; then she wouldn't have to worry about anything. Kagome hoped for the latter.