Hina Digger Chapter 3, a Love Hina + Gold Digger Crossover fanfic

Well, judging by the reviews, I think this one's well and truly past the front gate.

Also, thank you Cylone One for your many messages, I honestly didn't notice those errors.

Halibel: You should use spellcheck.

Kyuagn: I should shouldn't I? Roll camera.

The characters displayed in this work of fanfiction belong to their respective creators, I claim no rights of ownership save to this work of fanfiction...for now.

Chapter 3.

"How goes the interrogation?" one of the councilmen asked, a tall man with swept back black hair and the air of a carnivorous flamingo. The rather sullen head of the Hinata Police force, a grizzled veteran with a scar over one eye, saluted and shrugged dismissively.

"About as well as you'd expect." He muttered, chewing the end of his cigar with the air of someone experiencing agonizing bowl movement "Either they don't know where he is or they do and they're not letting on."

"Ah," flamingo noted, his fingers steepled before him in a manner that would remind most of towering peaks, dark nights, and lightning storms "In that case, could we presume they, in fact, stashed the body somewhere?"

"Perhaps." The commander noted, lighting up the cigar and shrugging in a non-committal manner as he tossed the match away into a corner, "Anyways, I've got one of my best officers interrogating the fox."

"This officer" the flamingo noted, one of his neatly plucked eyebrows rising ever so slightly "wouldn't happen to be that hulking fellow that was warned about carrying an anti-tank gun in lieu of the standard revolver would it?"

"Couldn't be helped sir," the commander noted in a way that hinted he was inwardly smiling, and even more inwardly laughing his arse off while dancing a jig "they're like Peashooters in his hands sir."

"Ah," the councilman noted, before turning his evaluating stare towards the door behind the commander, where the faint echoes of a large, booming voice could be heard, despite the reinforced armour plating, as it fired off the same questions repeatedly.

"Did you do it? Are you sure it wasn't you what did it? It was you what done it wasn't it?"

"YES!YES! I DID IT!" screamed the desperate voice of Konno Mitsune, AKA Kitsune, AKA the Hinata hustler, her voice rising above the repeated questions with manic desperation in every syllable "NOW PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IT WAS I DID!"

"That was fast," the commander noted with a grunt, checking his pocket watch with an offhanded air, quirking an eyebrow in what could have been dissapointment "Didn't even last an hour."

"But at least we are getting the desired results." The councilman opined, as the questions carried on despite the now hysterical woman's pleas for mercy. "By the way, I AM curious as to how you pulled the mission off without a hitch?"

"Sir?"

"Only," the councilman continued, his tone neutral "I'm well aware that one of your standard calling cards is to send a particular sergeant, whose name I won't mention, in first to knock the front door down."

"That's true sir," the cigar smoker agreed; face as decidedly neutral as a block of uncut granite, his eyes little blue marbles as he gave a non-regulation shrug "standard operating procedure."

"I also understand that this also involves knocking the BACK door down at the same time." The councilman noted, his tone still neutral "Not to mention the doorframes, a good portion of wall, and whatever has the misfortune to be in the way at the time."

"Couldn't say sir." The chief replied offhandedly, now focusing on a point several degrees to the right of the councilman's head, his eyes giving off a definite 'ask me no questions' message to those who knew what to look for.

"However," said councilman continued "I note than not only are the dorm's doors still intact, but that the damage, in this instance, was kept to a minimum, with all targets being acquired rather swiftly and without incident."

"I wouldn't call Narusegawa's capture 'without incident' sir." The chief reminded him pointedly, finally meeting the man's eyes again "Several good men lost a few fingers getting that straitjacket on her.

"All the same." The councilman noted, refusing to be sidetracked, though he made a mental note to see about having the appropriate hazard pay issued before the day was out "I assume you had some…help, in planning the attack?"

"Haruka provided the schematics for the dorm." The chief freely admitted, earning a nod of approval from the councilman "And as for the timing…" he shifted slightly "well, we've had a man on the inside for a while now."

"Ah yes," the councilman recalled suddenlly with a nod, stroking his neatly trimmed beard as he spoke "The infamous agent 623…I had quite forgotten." he admitted, a hint of self-annoyance in his tone.

"People do that sir." The chief replied, saluting once again as he stuffed his pocket watch back into his pocket "And now, if you'll excuse me sir, it's ten to six."

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"I already said I was sorry!" Penny offered in Japanese, still blushing at the situation she'd gotten herself into. Getting into scraps with her eternal rival Gina Diggers was one thing, the two had been locking horns on excavations for years now, but never before had she intentionally gotten a bystander caught up in the fray.

Keitaro merely grunted, chest bare save for the arrowhead he'd tied around his neck with a piece of string, his battered shirt serving as an impromptu loincloth as he stayed behind the girls. Penny had offered him a pair of spare shorts she'd had on her, but they were form fitting, giving him the impression he was walking around with a permanent wedgie. That, and he hadn't liked the way Gina had been eyeing his rear one bit, it made him feel very self conscious and aware of how little escape room there was.

After they'd moved, Penny revealed that Stripe and Cheetah had been taken captive by the stone Kryn to Gyphon's lair, Gyphon apparently being the mastermind behind the enslavement of El Dorado, and a sorcerer to boot. She led them through a secret door into the ventilation ducts of the master chamber, which they were currently gazing down into, Gina eyeing her captive sibling with concern. Though the revelation of Gyphon's true origins certainly threw the two geniuses for a loop!

"Did you hear THAT?" Penny hissed, eyes wide with disbelief as she gaped down at the scene unfolding down in the invading Mage's apparent centre of operations "That guy's from ATLANTIS?"

"Atlanta?" Keitaro repeated in his horrible accent, earning a sweatdrop from the duo as they looked at him in disbelief.

"No Keitaro, not Atlanta," Gina corrected the Ronin gently in fluent Japanese, embarassing him further "Atlantis, it's a legendary sunken city, said to be one of the most ancient civilizations of the world."

"So what, he's the little mermaid's demented evil brother or something?" Keitaro asked incredulously, earning a giggle from Gina at the image his words brought up. Gyphon DID have the whole fishman thing going on.

"Highly unlikely," Penny countered with a frown, though she did chuckle "But enough about that, how're we gonna get Cheetah and that Stripe guy outta there?"

Gina was about to make a suggestion concerning a nearby drape when, to her horror, she realized that the section of ceiling beneath Keitaro was beginning to crack at her rival's words. Before she could even look at the startled Kanrinin, he'd fallen down into the chamber screaming at the top of his lungs amidst a hail of golden blocks. Looking down in concern the blonde scientist blinked as she realized the fall had not only decimated the ranks of petrified Kryn, but that Keitaro had somehow landed on top of a baffled Gyphon, looking none the worse for wear despite the fall.

"Well THAT works." Penny muttered, a sweatdrop running down the side of her head.

Cheetah didn't know what the hell was going on when Keitaro fell screaming through the roof, but she DID know that not only were Gyphon's henchmen temporarily out of the picture, but that the Atlantean mage's concentration had been broken, meaning the spell keeping her from kicking ass had been lifted.

With a yell she lunged for the man, pulling him out from under the dazed form of Keitaro and promptly supplexing him into the floor of the chamber with every ounce of strength she had. Stripe followed behind her, disposing of any of the fossilized Kryn that remained whilst Gina rained photon death on any stragglers that attempted to get too close from above.

Amidst all the chaos, Penny Pincer made her way across the room, sneaking behind the drapes as she made good use of the distraction to evaluate her future haul: Gyphon's 12-pound, 64-karat ruby. She blinked as some golden debris bounced off her hat, only to choke as Gina Diggers made an impromptu landing on her back, the ceiling having been damaged by the repetitive burst of photon energy.

"GIDDOFFME!" she snapped, only to blink in horror as Gyphon fossilized Cheetah amidst a chorus of maddened cackling, the stone lycanthrope turning her emotionless gaze towards the duo. "Um…Gina." She stammered, not taking her eyes of the approaching threat "You think we can take her?" she asked, already knowing the answer was a definite NWIH (NO WAY IN HELL).

However, just as all seemed lost, Urashima Keitaro took that moment to sit up, coincidentally placing his face into Cheetah's fossilized crotch. "Where the hell am I?" the Ronin muttered blearily, ignorant of the looks of shock aimed at him around the chamber, "and where'd this wall come from?"

He stumbled as he tried to push against a wall, arms flailing around until one hand slapped against a stony butt-cheek. He froze, both hands rubbing the posterior once out of confusion, before looking up in dawning horror at the now sufficiently enraged features of the fossilized lycanthrope.

"PERVERT!" Fossil-Cheetah bellowed in passable Naru-ese, before promptly using the hapless Ronin as a soccer ball as she bended him like Beckham, right into a group of partially reformed Kryn, lunging after the man in a berserker rage.

"Well that was different." Penny muttered, watching as Cheetah chased the screaming Keitaro around, actually surprised at how fast the Ronin was capable of running "Is he normally like that?"

"'fraid so." Gina sighed though it was with an understanding smile on her face, "I think he may have been on the receiving end of a bad luck curse, it seems to only come in effect whenever women are around."

"Well then he's screwed twice over." Penny pointed out, noticing that quite a large number of the fossilized Kryn in Gyphon's chamber were female, and were currently chasing after the hysterical Ronin alongside Cheetah, who'd at some point grabbed a battle-axe off the walls and was leading the pack in a hunt for the man's blood.

"Never mind that!" Gina exclaimed, reaching into her pouch as Stripe tackled the distracted Gyphon, the remaining fossilized Kryn still only partially reconstructed, "Stripe and Keitaro won't distract them for long! And if they go down we're next!"

She yanked out the gem of returning and held it up, the magical energies within the stone reacting to the presence of Gyphon's magic, just as Cheetah lunged at Keitaro, the Ronin having tripped over a reforming Female Kryn. There was a flash of light, a howl from Gyphon as he realized what was happening, and then a plethora of moans as the restored Kryn slowly climbed to their feet.

"Cheetah!" Gina called out, ignoring Penny's curses about giving her a warning before she went Supernova in the future "Keitaro! Are you all…right…?"

She trailed off, eyes wide as she slapped a hand to her mouth. Cheetah was leaning over the kannrin, eyes wide in horrified disbelief as she stared down at the pale features of the man they'd only known for less than a day.

There was blood everywhere; it stained the golden floor of the chamber a dull red as it seeped out of the spot that had once been Keitaro's shoulder. Cheetah had bitten a chunk out of it.

"K-Keitaro?" the Lycanthrope stammered, eyeing the man below her with fearfull disbelief as he turned his face towards her, a weak smile stretching onto his face as he gazed at her with half-shut eyes.

"Cheetah…san…" the ronin began shakily, his accent still deplorable, a shaky smile on his battered features "You…okay?" his smile widened at her look of shock, even as his eyes rolled back into his head "That…good…"

Cheetah watched on helplessly as the manager's head slumped back, landing on the floor with a thump.

"KEITAROOOOOOOO!"

Haruka stiffened. She didn't know why but she suddenly had a bad premonition.

The only daughter of Urashima Hina had had premonitions like this twice before. Once when their Grandfather had died on a dig in Greece, the other was when her own father died in a plane crash headed for Cairo.

She had come to respect those premonitions, as it usually amounted to something bad happening to a member of her family, but they had been quiet as of late, the only time they'd flared up had been that incident with Keitaro and the car years ago, but the boy had gotten through that with a bandage and a smile.

This felt worse, MUCH worse, the kind of worse a bandage just couldn't cover, and smiling would only make more painful.

"Keitaro…" she muttered softly, before dashing over to her phone, deciding it was time to bring out the big guns out of retirement.

At the top of Mount Everest, a cell phone went off, startling the dark haired young woman in a parka as she looked up at her grandmother, who was perched atop the flag planted there by the British explorers who'd 'conquered' it, despite the locals running up and down it for centuries.

"Moshi-Moshi!" The kind faced old woman chirped, eyes crinkling in a smile "AH! Haruka-chan! Long time no see!" She listened for a few minutes, her eyes widening slightly, a slow frown settling over her features after a few seconds "I see…very well, I'm on my way."

"Problems Obaa-sama?" the dark haired girl asked, as she watched her Grandmother fire off a flare into the air to summon their pick-up, a good hour ahead of schedule. If there was one thing the lollita knew about her Grandmother, it was that the old bag didn't rush things unless something BIG needed her attention.

"Indeed Kanako-chan." Urashima Hina conceded, her face set in a rather grim expression on concentration as the Urashima family's private chopper, armed to the teeth, appeared through the clouds "Indeed."

Gina grimaced as one of Stripe's people stopped the bleeding and bound Keitaro's shoulder tightly. They'd marveled at how he seemed to be recovering well, but it didn't change the fact he was a pound of flesh lighter. Cheetah was still throwing up in the bushes, Stripe holding her hair as she vehemently tried to rid herself of the taste of blood. The Were-cat couldn't bring herself to even LOOK at Keitaro; the man had never intentionally done her any harm, had been dragged into this simply out of coincidence, and had suffered greatly trying to rescue her from Gyphon's spell.

She couldn't even vent her frustrations on the Atlantean either, Gyphon had done a runner when he realized that not only was he outnumbered, but with the Gem of returning in Gina's possession he couldn't utilize his most effective spells to their fullest, taking the artifacts with him, much to Penny's ire.

"It wasn't your fault Cheetah." Stripe tried to assure her for what felt like the umpteenth time, "You've seen through my people that they have no control over their actions when controlled by Gyphon."

So what!?" Cheetah snapped, tears streaking down her cheeks "That still doesn't change the fact that I…I-!" her face turned green and she ducked her head into the bushes as another wave of nausea swept over her, her choked sobs mixing in with the noises, adding to the already terrible mood.

"Is there anything we can do?" the Kryn prince asked one of his advisors, who shook his head, but with a calm, relieved smile on his face that set the young prince's mind, if not at ease, on a less tense footing.

"The wound is deep, but not fatal." He reminded the prince, grimacing at the memory of the bloody, tattered wound "Though I must confess some amazement at how fast the rest of his wounds are healing."

"He said he's been through worse." Gina noted, though it was with a shaky air as she tried not to look at the blood, "I didn't really believe it till I saw his wounds healing from being caught in the tachyon beam."

"Do…do you think he'll be okay?" Cheetah asked hopefully, knowing that creatures like herself could easily regenerate a severed limb due to their magical origin. Keitaro may not be a lycanthrope, but the guy's healing factor sure gave hers a run for it's money.

"I don't know." Gina replied sadly recognizing her sister's look "He checked out as human, and besides, even if he was a Lycanthrope he couldn't, since wounds inflicted by another Lycanthrope can't heal properly."

Cheetah flinched and stared helplessly as the Kryn lifted the comatose ronin onto a makeshift stretcher and carried him off to a guest room to recover.

The first thing Keitaro was aware of as he regained consciousness was that he was alive, which was a mildly pleasant surprise. The second thing he realized was that he was currently resting on one of the softest beds he'd ever felt. This was less pleasant, as it seemed the mattress was determined to swallow him into its feathery depths. On the other hand, the room he was in was fit for a king; the golden wallpaper, drapes and fruit bowls was a clear giveaway.

'Waitaminute…' he wondered, eyes crossing humorously as he tried to recall why this seemed all seemed so familiar, and at the same time decidedly not so 'When the hell did I get A bed? And Golden Wallpaper for that matter?'

His brain promptly gave itself a kick-start and the events of the past few hours raced across his eyeballs, causing him to sit up, or try to at least. As he went to put pressure on his right arm he found himself falling clumsily onto his side, hissing in pain as he reached for his shoulder, only to freeze, horror slowly dawning across his features as he felt the bandaged space across his shoulder.

He refused to look at it; he COULDN'T look at it, some a deep-rooted self-preservation instinct telling him that accepting the fact that Cheetah had taken a chunk out of him would be a REALLY bad blow for his already abused psyche.

A female, snow leopard Kryn with washcloths and a bowl of water entered the room, blinking in surprise as she realized he was awake. Setting the bowl down she maneuvered closer to him, turning him so that he was sitting at the edge of the bed. She didn't say anything, but in his stunned state the ronin couldn't resist as she undid the bandages around his wound and cleaned it, not even flinching at the pain of the salve she rubbed into the raw flesh, a look of surprise upon her face as she noted the wound was almost gone.

Rewrapping the wound in fresh bandages, the Kryn bowed slightly, excusing herself as she made a hurried exit. Keitaro merely sat there in shock, only to blink as the curtain across his doorway was pushed aside, admitting Gina, Brittany and Stripe. "Gina-san!" The ronin greeted, a smile coming to his face, "Cheetah-san! Stripe San! You're okay!"

Gina flinched, eyeing the smile on the ronin's face as she tried to NOT look at the bandages that covered his right shoulder. 'How can he be so cheerful?' she wondered in confusion, 'how can he put the health of others over his own like that?'

Brittany flinched as she noticed the look of relief on the man's face, the guilt that had been building up inside increasing yet again "Keitaro," she began, looking at the man in sorrow "I am so s-"

"Cheetah-san okay?" Keitaro asked in accented English, startling Cheetah as she nodded uncertainly, his smile widening at the gesture, "Then everything okay."

The Diggers stared at the man in awe, Stripe smiling at the injured ronin, feeling pride at how the man was putting their health over his own. As Prince, he felt the same for every one of his people; to have them returned to normal would have been worth any injury to himself. But for someone like Keitaro to suffer for Gyphon's crimes…No, that didn't sit well with the Kryn Prince at all, and he vowed to make it up to the man come hell or high water.

"Where Gyphon?" Keitaro asked, shivering as he recalled the feel of the Atlantean's skin, what little was uncovered by robes to be felt, when he'd landed on him "You kick ass?" he asked Brittany, who chuckled despite herself.

"He ran off back to Atlantis with his tail-fins between his legs." Gina explained in Japanese, much to the injured Ronin's relief, sitting on the edge of his bed as she spoke "We're planning to go after him."

"When do we leave?" Keitaro asked, earning a startled look from the girl, which he didn't miss.

"Keitaro-san," Gina began in a calming voice, trying not to injure the bespectacled man's pride "wouldn't you rather go home?" she pointedly tried her best not to look at his shoulder, though it was hard to with her eyes trailing back to his, surprisingly trin, chest "You've already done enough…I could have you back before the day was-!"

"Gina-san." Keitaro cut in, surprising her, not to mention himself, with the firmness in his voice "We may only have met a short while ago, but if you think I'm turning my back on my friends at a time like this you're dead wrong." He grimaced as he felt the raw flesh of his shoulder rub against the bandages before grinning up at the group "I still have my arms after all."

Gina blinked at the man's words, unable to comprehend what she was hearing, before sighing and shaking her head, a hand on her hip as she smiled in fond exasperation at the ronin's bravado.

"Men."

The flamingo felt a shiver run up his spine as he read the message on the fax he had just received from a trustworthy source. Getting to his feet, he calmly ensured his suit was impeccably clean, a force of habit, as they were ALWAYS impeccably clean, before making his way to the council room, where a meeting was taking place.

"There is a problem." He stated, silencing the conversation with that one statement. He had always been known as the most calculating member of the council, the kind of person everyone wants to off but can't because A: he was too valuable, B: the price on his head would bankrupt the city and C: they wouldn't be sure he'd STAY dead. So if HE admitted there was a problem, it might be a good idea to invest in some foreign property, preferably on Pluto.

"Does it involve Urashima Keitaro?" an older councilman asked, trying to assess the collateral damageand whether or not he should look into the aforementioned real estate as soon as possible.

"It may very well do." flamingo replied, face not betraying an iota of the nervousness he was feeling on the inside.

"Have you located him?" a second councilman asked, sounding oddly hopeful, then again he WAS head of tourism for the district so it was understandable. The rocket man figurines weren't selling as hotly as they used to.

"No," Flamingo countered, frowning slightly as several others muttered amongst themselves "and this is what makes our problem all the more troublesome." he added, earning looks of concern from the others.

"Goddammit what's the problem?" the chief of police ground out, stubbing his cigar into an ashtray and lighting a fresh one with an air of annoyance "You make it sound like a war's gone and broken out."

"That may in fact come to happen." The flamingo-esque councilman replied, pulling out the faxhe'd recieved with the air of one holding a doomsday switch, "For at this moment Urashima Hinata is currently on her way back to Japan."

The council froze, the chief of police's cigar dropping to the floor as his body went numb with shock. They were all stalwart men, not one had not sacrificed something over the years to get into their position, nor were they God-fearing men, placing their merits and failings plainly on the backs of humans, usually themselves or some deserving idiot.

As such there were few things that could entice such terror into the councilmen, and the very prime concern was currently on her way in her private helicopter, possibly with that damnable adopted granddaughter of hers, not to mention the brat's blasted cat.

"Now while I'm certain Hina-san is a woman of reason," flamingo noted dryly, "I am also well aware that when it comes to her family she tends to toss that reason out the window, along with whatever happens to be in the general vicinity." He paused for effect "Sometimes the window didn't even EXIST until Hina-san saw fit to make one."

The councilmen shivered, the head of them all raising his head slowly, concern in those old eyes that only sparked a greater sense of group terror "Speed up the searches." He ordered, his voice a little more urgent than before "and send out a bounty for Keitaro-kun, Alive and, emphasize this, Unharmed."

'I still can't believe this is happening.' Keitaro muttered, eyeing the area around him in amazement. Not too long ago his greatest concern would be whether or not he could get into Tokyo U whilst simultaneously living long enough to pay off the repairs to the inn, now he was involved in a plan to save the world from, of all things, an Atlantean mage.

He personally thought it was an improvement.

Penny had pulled out her personal hover carrier, complete with Mini-sub and helipad for this trip, though Keitaro suspected she was in it more for the plunder than the whole 'save the world shtick', though he of course kept this to himself, not wanting to be dodging crossbow bolts with so little room to escape.

The ronin was currently sporting a skintight black top and khaki shorts with buckles (think Keitaro's final fight with Seta outfit) purchased and treated by Gina to withstand almost anything that got thrown at it, which would certainly serve better than what he'd worn the first time he'd joined their expedition. She'd even gone out of her way to purchase some new glasses for him, consigning his old dorky pair to the nearest incinerator, the arrowhead he'd picked up now tied to a fetching silver chain.

He winced as he overheard the two rivals arguing for the umpteenth time, before turning his attention to marvel at Gina's car, which looked like something out of West Coast Customs' wet dream. He swore it was moving, even with the hood up and engine parts sitting half assembled across the deck, the bright red and gold paintjob, nearly blinding him with its intensity.

The sound of an osprey descending heralded the arrival of the rest of the team, Brittany dashing over, near knocking Keitaro off his feet, and promptly glomping Stripe, who was wearing something more modest than his loincloth. The ronin snorted as he watched the lycanthrope shrink into her human form, shaking his head at Stripe's look of bemusement; HIS reaction had been the same after all, though he knew better than to crack jokes around the woman.

"YO, K!" a loud voice called out, Keitaro looking up into the grinning face of Kevin 'Ace' Koss, professional pilot-for-hire and the only one Gina and Penny both agreed worth hiring for transportation to sites. The two had been introduced shortly after the pickup from El Dorado, Kevin even attempting to show him the basics of flying a plane to pass the time.

"Hi Ace." The ronin greeted, feeling chuffed at how little his accent showed after such a short refresher course, Gina's tutoring having been thorough. That, and the ronin was less inclined to drift off around HER than with Seta...for one thing Haruka' Ex hadn't been in the habit of goosing him if he let his mind wander. "Rough trip?" he asked, looking the genial pilot over concernedly.

"Naw, business as usual." Ace replied dismissively, failing to mention the group of mercenaries he'd pissed off as he eyed the arguing rivals with a bemused shake of his cap-sporting head "Dayum...They never change."

"They're good friends." Keitaro agreed, earning a laugh from the taller man that promptly ended the argument between the two as they looked round to see what was so funny. Keitaro, turning his gave back to Ace, blinked in disbelief as he spotted the two figures behind the pilot for the first time, the pointy ears and slender frames practically screaming the word 'Elf!' to his otaku side even before they were introduced.

"Keitaro, these are Tark and Mesha." Brittany introduced, "Gina and I bumped into them a while back, and they figured since Gyphon's a mage they could help out, what with being magical themselves." she shot Ace an exaserated look, "By the way, Gina's not taking the sub down, she's going in her car."

"Say what now?" Ace stammered, looking put on, a look shared by the equally skeptical Keitaro, who was pretty damn sure that whilst cars were indeed comfortable modes of transportation, they didn't make particularly good submarines outside of James Bond films.

"Anybody wanna ride with me?" Gina asked, an excited Mesha raising her hand from the get go, much to gina's delight "Alright, then you and Keitaro can come, that way there's more room in the sub."

"Uh, why Keitaro?" Ace asked apprehensively, noting the look of concern, make that dread, cross the ronin's face as he eyed the, admittedly FINE, car with trepidation "Wouldn't Tark or Brittany be better?"

"For one, having a mage with each party is common sense for defensive purposes since Gyphon's a mage himself." Gina countered, "Brittany wants to go with Stripe anyways and besides," she smiled at her currently human sister teasingly, "there isn't that much room and Keitaro's smaller than you."

"GINA!" Brittany snapped, looking irate as everyone laughed their socks off, though Keitaro felt a little self conscious about falling short of the, currently petite, girl's physique, his head lowered as a funeral bell sounded over it.

Though he had to admit, as the water rushed over the reinforced sunroof of the hotrod, opting to take the Gina mobile, even if he HAD been drafted, was much better than sitting stuffed together like a bunch of sardines in Penny's sub, for one thing there was an AC, surround sound speakers, and a handy little container for sodas under the armrest.

Once they were in the water, away from prying eyes, Gina eyed Keitaro in the rearview mirror as the ronin lounged in the backseat, listening to Dragon Force through a pair of spare headphones he'd borrowed from Ace and sipping on a soda. One of the reasons she'd wanted him with her was simply out of concern, he'd already gotten hurt being involved with them once, but unlike some people she'd met in the past he wasn't about to just leave them out to dry.

'At the very least I can make sure he doesn't get hurt again.' She reasoned, though she guiltily noted that he suited the shorts she'd bought him rather well 'Especially certain parts in particular.' she noted with a blush as she recalled the incident with Penny at El Dorado. The image of what she'd seen had been permanently etched into her minds eye. 'Sure he's a little scrawny now.' She noted, humming to herself as she started up the engines, 'But a year or two, a few more expeditions and a good tan…'

Mesha blinked as she noticed Gina beginning to giggle quietly to herself, a bead of sweat running down the elf's scalp as she noticed the drool on the girl's chin; Keitaro, blissfully unaware of the plans being laid in his future hummed idly away to the music, not a care in the world.

Abruptly, Penny's face appeared on the screen, just as a pair of MIG-35's shot past them "Gina! We're under attack from some Merc-weirdos!" she yelled "They've already sunk my hover carrier and now they're coming after us! We need help!"

"What's going on?" Keitaro wondered only to choke as Gina pressed the accelerator, the Gina-mobile surging through the water like a designer model torpedo. The blonde adventurer swerved as she passed the attackers, before pressing a button and unleashing several waterproof landmines from a compartment in the boot right into their faces.

Needless to say it got their assailants' attention, enabling the distraught mini-sub to make some much needed repairs. However, things took a turn for the worst when the lead plane emptied several rounds into the left side wing of the Gina-mobile, sending it spiraling down into the murky depths, Keitaro's shrill scream slowly dying out as they went.

Evil, I know, leaving on a cliffhanger again, but if it gets you to come back, then who'm I to complain.

Halibel: They'll hate you.

Kyugan: Not if they want updates they wont.

Halibel: We shall see.

Note: Yes, the carniverous Flamingo and surly Police Chief ARE a reference to two VERy famous fictional characters. Try and guess which.

Review if Halibel is Hawt.