Chapter 5: Together Again Part 1
"Hard to believe that just a week ago this city had thousands of people in it… now it's completely deserted… talk about your ghost towns." Nina said as she and Jack made their way through the deserted streets of Los Vegas. Nobody was sure why Vegas was suddenly deserted, but it defiantly had something to do with Jacks older brother Gabriel, better known as the Sin of Sloth and now the absolute ruler of North America.
"Yeah, but it's convenient for us." Jack said. "The isolation will help me concentrate and all the technology that casino's around here put into their vaults will make perfect material for what I'm working on."
"And that would be?" Nina asked.
"A portal to the Yin-Yang world." Jack answered. "With any luck I'll be able to build it so that it can lock onto the immense energy that the Sins give off and then it will expand over the entire world, taking them into the Yin-Yang world but leaving everything else in tact."
"You really think that will work?" Nina questioned.
"If not this entire planet is royally screwed." Jack said. "Now let's try to find a big casino. Big gambling equals big vault."
They continued to work their way further into the labyrinth that was Las Vegas, trying to find the biggest casino they could. But as they continued deeper into the city they were completely unaware that some one was watching their every move… someone with an army at his disposal. "There you are, Li'l Jackie."
LATER THAT NIGHT
"Oh, this is just too perfect." Jack laughed as he ripped his way through the computers and security controls of the casino he and Nina now occupied. He had practically everything he needed to build the inter-dimensional portal here. All he needed was a way to lock onto the Sins and a way to break into the Yin-Yang world without fail. Breaking into another dimension wasn't the problem, Jack had done it before. The problem was getting to the right dimension. There was no way of determining which dimension the portal would open to unless he had something directly connected to that dimension. "This would be so much easier if I had the Yin-Yang Yo-Yo or something."
"Why send them to the Yin-Yang world?" Nina questioned. "Wouldn't it be better to send them to a random dimension that we can't access otherwise?"
Jack shook his head. "We need to make sure they can't get back, and the best way to do that is to make sure we have all the keys to that dimension." He explained.
Nina just shrugged. "Well, either way, you're not going to find a way to the Yin-Yang world in Vegas." She said.
"Just ruin my day, why don't you." Jack laughed.
"You're a wanted criminal, you're on the run from your psychotic brother who's actually evil, you're sitting in a casino trying to build something that usually only exists in science fiction, and to top it off Gabriel has your own robots hunting you. How could your day possibly get any worse?"
At that moment Jack dropped everything in his hands, walked over to the red headed girl and pulled her into a tight hug. "Something could happen to you." He whispered into her ear."
Nina just giggled and gave him a kiss. "You're so sweet."
After that Jack went back to his work, trying to figure out what parts he needed to break the inter-dimensional wall. Nina tried to understand what he was doing but the mess of wires, circuit boards, and metal just looked like junk to her. So instead she did something else that needed taken care of: she and Jack hadn't eaten in days. She headed back to the ground floor of the casino and stared searching for a restaurant. It wasn't long before she found one and, thank god, there was a pantry the size of a house filled with food that wouldn't go bad for a year at the least. "We could last for months on all of this… maybe it won't be so bad here for a while."
"You won't last an hour if you don't get out of here soon."
Nina swung around to find a man wearing strange armor standing in the doorway behind her. "Wh-who are you?" she stuttered.
"Unimportant." The armored man said. "All you need to know is that in about ten minutes an army of skeletal soldiers, which I know you're familiar with, and robots, which I know your boyfriend is familiar with, is going to rampage through here. If you're still here they'll find the both of you, drag you out of here, and they'll execute you but keep Jack for certain reasons."
"How do you know this?" Nina questioned.
"Again, unimportant. Now get Jack and get out of here." With that the armored man turned around and walked away, disappearing through the swinging doors of the kitchen. Nina chased after him but found him already gone when she passed through the swinging doors. She waited there for a bit, trying to figure out where he'd gone, but gave up quickly and ran to find jack.
"Jack!" she shouted as she threw open the door to the vault room. "We need to get out of here, now! Gabriel's found us!"
"What? Damn it!" Jack shouted, throwing his work to the ground. "How'd he find us so fast?"
"I think we should be more worried about how we're getting out of here unnoticed." Nina said as she scanned the security monitors. "Every camera outside shows Gabriel's army has completely surrounded this place."
"I other words, Gabriel's royally screwed me, again!" Jack growled, slamming his fist against the wall. "What I wouldn't give to kick his ass right about now."
"So, how're we getting out of here?" Nina asked.
"Let me think…" Jack started pacing around the room, trying to think of any way to get them out of there. It seemed hopeless at first, but then an idea hit him. "I don't have much done yet, but I think I can get my portal done quick enough to at least take us somewhere else… I'll need some time though."
"Time's something we don't have." Nina said. She was looking down at one of the monitors with Gabriel looking right back at her, flipping off the camera. "I'd say we have about three minutes."
"Then that's all I need." Jack agreed, getting back to his work on the portal.
Meanwhile, just outside of the casino, Gabriel was standing in front of the doors waiting for the perfect moment to storm it and take his brother and Jacks girlfriend into custody. "You brought this on yourself, Li'l Jackie… could've been so much easier." He turned around to his army of skeletal soldiers and robots who were patiently awaiting his orders. "Gentlemen… go to town." The skeletons and robots all shouted simultaneously to show they were ready and then stormed the casino, crashing through the doors and walls.
Jack and Nina could feel the building around them shake as Gabriel's army stormed the casino. "C'mon Jack! They'll be here any minute!" Nina pleaded.
"I'm going as fast as I can here!" Jack shouted as he carefully attached a wire to a circuit board. "This isn't exactly simple."
Up in the main lobby the robots and skeletons were tearing through everything. Turning over slot machines, ripping tables in half, tearing doors right off their hinges, had their been people there they probably would've been slaughtered. It was like a war zone out there and they wouldn't stop the carnage until they found who they were looking for. Gabriel watched with a grin on his face as his army trashed the casino. "Only a matter of time, Li'l Jackie… why don't you just give up now… maybe I can persuade Pride to give you a last request before we imprison you."
At this point Gabriel noticed that a single door remained intact. From what he could tell it led to the security stations and the vault. Gabriel snapped his fingers and about a dozen of his robots and skeletons came to his side. "Go through there." He ordered. "Knowing Li'l Jackie, he'll probably try to invent his way out of this and there's probably tons of tech back there." The robots and skeletons obeyed and ripped the doors opened.
"Crap, they're getting closer." Jack muttered while attaching a few more wires together. "Don't have much time left."
"Just go as fast as you can." Nina said. "I can hold them off for a while if needed."
"Don't bother." Jack said enthusiastically as he attached one more wire and then turned a dial on the side of his machine. It wasn't much, just a large metal ring leaning against the wall with a small consol sitting next to it. As Jack turned the dial a pink and purple vortex appeared within the ring with a thundering boom. "We're out of here!"
Just then three robots came crashing through the doors and started firing off lasers and Gatling guns. Jack called to Nina who dashed for the portal and jumped through it. Jack quickly went back to work, pressing a few buttons and turning a different dial.
"Well, Li'l Jackie… ready to give up?"
Jack froze as the sound of his older brothers voice stabbed at his mind like a knife. "Sorry, Gabriel." Jack said without even turning to face him. "But the second I pass through this portal you won't be able to find me again for a long time."
"Well then I guess you won't be passing through it." Gabriel chuckled. With that Gabriel quickly pulled a revolver from his pocket, aimed it at the portal and pulled the trigger. If that bullet passed through the portal before Jack did then Jack would be trapped there. Gabriel was confident that he'd won, but then Jack did something that Gabriel never would've expected. Jack jumped in the bullets path, took it in the shoulder and the impact threw him back through the portal. When Jack had passed through fully the vortex in the ring vanished and the ring cracked in half, the two pieces falling to the floor.
"Damn it!" Gabriel shouted, turning his revolver to one of the robots and reducing it to scrap with the remaining five bullets. "Pride's going to have my hide for loosing him again."
"Then maybe Pride doesn't find out."
Gabriel didn't need to look to recognize that voice. "And how do you suggest I pull that off, Wrath?" he asked. "Pride sees everything we do. How could I possibly pull something over his eyes?"
The shaggy haired Asian man walked up to the Sin of Sloth, snaked his arm around his shoulders, and punched him in the arm. "Simple." He said. "Pride may see us all the time, but he can't hear jack. I tell him that you're driving Jack my way, that way we both get the glory when he's captured, and we both move up the totem pole, possibly above that bitch Lust."
"You really think that'll work?" Gabriel questioned, raising one eyebrow.
"Would I lie to you?" Wrath chuckled.
"You're a gun slinging psychopath so… yeah, you would."
CAIRO, EGYPT
"I still don't see why that guy wants me to go to Cairo." Mimi said as she flew the Silver Manta Ray over the streets of Cairo, Egypt. Seriously, what could she possibly be looking for in Cairo? Shouldn't she be headed back to China where her friends were most likely headed too? Well, regardless of why she was here Mini felt that the words of the armored man were the only ones she could trust at the moment. So until she found what she was here for, or she got pissed off, whichever came first, she would stay in Cairo.
It was at that moment that Mimi noticed a bold of lightning shoot up from the ground and at an angle. But there wasn't a cloud in the sky and lightning always shot straight down. There was only one explanation she could think of. "Saya?" she mumbled as she turned the Silver Manta Ray towards that location.
Meanwhile, in the streets, Saya stood in the center of a circle made of a crowd of Egyptian people. Just a few minutes earlier some pervert had tried to drag her into an ally, but a well timed blast of lightning knocked some sense into him. Unfortunately, that gave her away and somebody recognized her from a wanted poster. About half a dozen other men attacked her after that but again she easily got rid of them. Now she was just standing there, catching her breath and waiting for someone else to come after her. "C'mon." she breathed. "Anyone else wanna mess with me?" If she could she would've just flash stepped out of there, but the flash step takes a lot of energy which she didn't have at the moment.
Just then a large shadow was cast over her and she heard something like heavy breathing. "All right, tubby, you asked for…" she stopped as she turned around and found no one there. The shadow was coming from above her. She looked up to find the Silver Manta Ray hovering overhead and slowly floating down to land. Saya stepped back, but still avoided the crowd, as the Silver Manta Ray touched down and the cockpit opened up. Saya was overjoyed to see the red headed French girl that she knew all to well. "Mimi!" she called out.
"Hurry up and get in." Mimi called. "We need to get going."
VENICE, ITALY
Rai sighed as he leaned on the railing of the bridge and looked down to the water in the canal below. It had been quite a while since he, Jet, and Jess had left Rome to go to China. He'd been hoping to figure out more about his past but still all he could remember was Kimiko, and he was even starting to forget her face. "Why can't I remember anything?" he asked himself.
Jet and Jess watched their friend sulk from the other side of the bridge. The siblings wished there was something they could do to help him cheer up. Jet had tried various things; everything from reassuring words to having a monkey throw a pie in his face, but none of it seemed to faze him… which was weird because the monkey throwing a pie in his face made Jess, the mellow one, laugh hysterically. Jess, on the other hand, tried the more traditional approach and simply reassured him that everything would come together in time.
"Poor guy." Jet said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Wish there was something we could do for him."
"God has a plan for all of us, Jet." Jess said, clutching the cross hanging on the chain around her neck. "Rai must have lost his memories for a reason… and maybe they could come back any moment."
At that very moment a large shadow was cast over the three of them and some kind of silver jet slowly flew overhead. It eventually turned to its side and lowered to be level with the bridge. The cockpit then opened up to reveal a red head at the controls and a blond sitting next to her. "Rai!" both of the girls jumped from their seats and ran across the wing of the jet to meet Rai at the bridges railing. "C'mon, Rai, we've got to get going." The blond said, grabbing his arm and pulling.
"Do I know you two?" Rai asked, utterly confused.
The two girls froze, completely shocked by what they'd just heard. "Rai, it's us." The red head said. "Mimi and Saya… your friends. Don't you remember?"
"No, actually." Rai said, pulling his arm away from Saya. "I don't remember much of anything."
"You guys know him?" Jet asked as he and his sister walked up to him.
"What's it to you?" Mimi asked.
"Well, as you guys would put it," Jess said, snaking her arm around Rai's shoulders and pulling him closer. "We're his friends too."
"Whatever. All of you just get into the Manta Ray." Saya ordered, pulling Rai and Jess over the railing and onto the Manta Rays wing. "We've got to get to Moscow quickly so we don't have time to screw around." Jet the jumped over the railing and all five of them climbed back into the cockpit before taking off again. Rai still didn't remember anything about these two girls that had just, to put it bluntly, kidnapped him, but for some reason their names did seem familiar to him.
"Maybe they can help me." he mumbled.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
"Well isn't this a fine kettle of fish." Julia mumbled as she watched the Sin of Gluttony rampage through the crowds in the street from the roof tops. "I'm stuck in Moscow with almost no way of leaving, I could be arrested if anyone sees me, and to top it off one of my mortal enemies is about five stories below me. The only way this could possibly get any worse is if the devil himself decided to burn Moscow to the ground." She paused to think over that last sentence. "On second thought, I guess one of seven devils is already here and trashing the place."
Jewel turned her attention away from Gluttony as she noticed something shiny flying towards her. He couldn't tell what it was at first, but as it got closer and closer she could make out the jet like shape and silver exterior easily. "The Silver Manta Ray?" Sure enough, the Silver Manta Ray was soon hovering over the building she was standing one and was slowly descending to land on top. Soon it had landed and the cockpit swung open to reveal five people inside; three she recognized and two she didn't.
"C'mon, Jewel." Saya called from inside. "Get in. We need to get going."
Jewel smiled, nodded and jumped onto the wing. "So, where are we headed?" She asked as she jumped into the back row of seats with Rai and some guy she didn't recognize with dark hair and sunglasses.
"We're going home." Mimi said as she took hold of the controls and they took off.