Hina Digger Chapter 13, a Love Hina + Gold Digger Crossover fanfic

Whoo, no need for a reminder this time!

Crime Syndicate X saga starts up this time, how will Keitaro and co handle a group of hardened super criminals, led by 'stunning' Lex Luthor impersonator?

Chapter 13.

While all Ace and Penny were having their little misadventure with the mercenaries, the sun was just dawning back in El Dorado, the city of gold shining brilliantly within it's concealed valley, hidden from the modern world by a combination of dense, compass repelling mountains and magical repellents that made Hogwarts' strongest muggle repelling wards seem like a bad case of B.O.

In the master bedroom of the royal suite, Cheetah awoke from a rather…spirited, evening with her beloved Kryn prince, the details of which we'll leave to your imagination, to find her muffin leaning against the rail, already dressed (loincloths, so convenient) and looking out upon his kingdom reverently.

"Do you know how peaceful you look when you're sleep Brittany?" Stripe asked, smiling as his beloved joined him on the balcony, her hair, and fur by proxy, still tousled from sleep, and the activities that had led up to her sleeping past dawn.

"Not really," the were-cheetah countered, brushing the tangles out of her spotted hair with a handy comb that Stripe kept lying about. Hey, Even Princes needed to groom a little "Gina says I snore like a Jack-hammer."

"Still," Stripe countered, chuckling weakly at the comparison, as it wasn't that far from the truth "You make the cutest whistling sounds as you exhale."

Cheetah, honestly unsure as to HOW to take such a compliment, settled for embracing her lord of El Dorado from behind, resting her head against his and smiling "I love you..." she uttered softly "Always will, and I'll NEVER let you go."

Stripe, moved by her sentiment, turned to face the love of his life, a question he had posed but hours before rising to his lips, only to halt, struck silent with hesitation and doubt, as the memory of the Tanya-Cheetah's harsh refusal of his proposal rose up, unbidden to halt him. 'Get a hold of yourself!' he chided himself, looking into Cheetah's confused, but loving eyes as she asked him what was wrong 'TANYA was the one that said those words…even if Cheetah doesn't wish to marry, we can still be together…won't we?'

"Muffin?" Brittany asked, looking over the distraught Kryn in confusion, Stripe's resolve firming as he looked into those concerned, awe-enticing eyes, taking a deep breath as he reached behind him.

"Chee…Brittany." the Krynn prince corrected himself, using his beloved's first name as he stood tall before her, taking the were-cheetah's hand in his own, much to her confusion "Would you…do me the honour of…"

"CHEETAH-SAN! STRIPE-SAN!"

Stripe face faulted, effectively cock-blocked by the sudden arrival of one Urashima Keitaro, who had apparently just stepped out of one of Gina's light gates, an innocent smile adorning the Ronin's face. As he raised his head off the floor, a slight bump adorning his temple from the fall, the Lord of El Dorado also spotted the male elf, Tark, from their earlier mission to Atlantis, and a young woman that bore a passing resemblance to Cheetah, who was eyeing him up in a manner that he'd, until now, only associated with his beloved. Quite frankly it scared him.

"Keitaro?" Brittany asked, blinking in confusion at the sight of the innocently smiling Ronin and his unusual company "Tark and Brianna too?" she noting the male elf in particular with a hint of surprise "What're you guys doing here?"

"That's a fine good morning sis," Brianna scoffed, smiling good-naturedly at the taller blonde, her hands on her hips. She was wearing a pair of black pants that hugged her hips, with an unbuttoned jacket over what looked like a cross between a bodysuit and a boob-tube. Tark was simply wearing a casual suit and polo shirt, while Keitaro was decked out in black slacks and a checkered shirt, unbuttoned, over a black muscle shirt, his arrowhead on display around his neck "Dad sent us to pick you up," Brianna explained "I figured we could go on a shopping trip on the way back." She patted Keitaro and Tark on their heads with a smile "And these two volunteered to help carry stuff."

"I don't remember volunteering…" Keitaro muttered a little guardedly, looking at the youngest Diggers' sibling warily. The Ronin had been yanked out of his warm, comfortable bed some time that morning by Brianna, promptly washed and dressed by the woman before his brain could catch up, and then told to follow her as she opened the portal to El Dorado, claiming she was going to pick up Brittany. He should have wondered, in retrospect, why she needed both him AND Tark to do so.

"Yep, you sure did…" Brianna chirped, smiling at the Ronin in a manner he thought only Gina could pull off…and the cat ears weren't helping "Why, you don't wanna come with me? Don't you like me Kei?"

"Oh…right…" Brittany recalled, sighing at how short, but magical, her birthday had been, ignoring the stammering Ronin and her flirting sister as she turned to her muffin with an apologetic smile "Sorry, Stripe, looks like I have to go." She beamed at him lovingly "What was it you wanted again?"

"Uh…just that you come back soon?" Stripe offered weakly, all his determination gone in the face of the new arrivals, particularly Brianna's ogling, which was making him dimly aware of how little escape room there was.

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away!" Brittany assured the prince, pecking him on the cheek and stepping through the light gate, Brianna dragging a sputtering Keitaro after her as Tark brought up the rear, shooting the Ronin looks of concern.

As soon as the portal closed, however, Stripe took a breath, turned round and then began one of the oldest, self disciplining rituals his people had developed to keep from flipping out, namely the fine art of smacking his own head against the wall, cursing his own cowardice and the gods of bad timing, until he either put a hole in the gold block or knocked himself unconscious.

Surprisingly, the former came before the latter.

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Keitaro grunted under the combined weight of Brittany and Brianna's bags, his legs threatening to give out as he and an equally burdened Genn crab walked out of Tiffany's, several New Yorkers, mostly men, shooting the poor Ronin looks of pity, before dragging their significant others out of sight before they got any ideas.

"Don't you think you've bought enough, Brianna-san? Cheetah-san?" he called out imploringly, peeking out at the conversing siblings with a pleading expression that occasionally garnered him a reprieve from the Hinata girls, only for said siblings to laugh and look at him as if he'd told the joke of the year. Though Brittany's look of mirth turned to one of anger in an instant as a random teen snatched her purse from her and made off through the crowd.

"Little purse-snatching-!" the lycanthrope growled, before dumping her goods on top of Keitaro, much to the Ronin's horror, as his legs buckled beneath the weight "Hold these a sec!" she ordered, dashing off just as Keitaro collapsed, catching up to the purse-snatcher in seconds.

"You know…" she muttered, looking down at the thief, the idiot had walked right into her outstretched palm, "I was in a pretty good mood before, so I think I'll let you off with rotting in a jail cell instead of beating you up." She held out a hand "Now…I believe I've got a handbag coming to me?"

"Oh you got something comin' to ya lady," the thug muttered, Cheetah shivering at the grin that was slowly making its way across his face, not liking it in the slightest "But it AIN'T what you THINK!"

Before Cheetah could react, a metallic whip wrapped around her ankle and hoisted her out of the alley like a fish out of water, the perpetrator a woman in a tight black, hooded leotard, with an assortment of blades and other such nasties about her person. "Well now!" the woman gloated "Looks like I've landed a BIG one!" she smirked "And this one thinks she can rough up one of MY boys!" she cracked the whip, causing Cheetah to arc through the air like a fly on a lure "That kid works for ME sugar, and anyone who messes with him pays the-huh?"

Cheetah, with all the grace of her ancestry, slipped out of the whip's clutches, performing a graceful somersault for a woman her height, landing with her back to the woman, before turning to level a look at her, her beret having come off in the leap "I got news for YOU, honey…" the lycanthrope growled "You're in DEEP Stink-Stink"

"Well I'll be!" the woman marveled, a smirk on her face that covered up her surprise rather well "That's not a costume, that's YOU isn't it! You're some kind of cat!" she slipped a throwing dagger from her belt "How…chic!"

Cheetah braced herself to dodge the projectile, only to blink as a gloved hand snatched it out of thin air, her eyes widening as a woman in a fedora, cloak and mask crouched before her, addressing her attacker as 'Slasher', before looking over her shoulder at the lycanthrope.

"Leave this one to me, Brittany." The masked woman ordered, leaving the stunned lycanthrope to look on in shock as she leapt into a heated battle with Slasher, twirling her staff expertly to block Slasher's sword strikes, deflecting the whip as easily as she dodged it, shooting off one-liners that seemingly got her opponent in a right temper. Slasher, by this point seething at her opponent's mocking words, lunged in with a downward strike of her katana, swearing profoundly as she mistimed the stroke, the edge of her sword snapping off upon contact with the masked woman's staff.

"Humph…" the weapon-user snorted, backing up against the rooftop like a cornered animal "I know when I'm not wanted…" she muttered, before leaping off the building, using her whip and a street light to swing off into the night "I'll get you next time Avenger! Count on it!"

"Damn! She's too fast for me up here." The woman apparently known as Avenger muttered, scowling after the villain with her fist on her hip "But her time is coming…more importantly, are you alright Brittany?"

"How on earth do YOU know my…!" the were-cheetah began, only to trail off, her eyes widening as a familiar scent reached her nostrils, her face splitting in a delighted smile "NO WAY! That scent…PINKY?!"

"Long time no see Cheets!" Avenger greeted, pulling up her mask to reveal a smiling face, tears of joy glistening behind blue eyes "Finally decided to come visit you old high-school chum huh?"

Down in the alley, apparently forgotten by the gushing, embracing women above, the bag-snatcher came to the decision that now was as good a time as any to make a run for it, and made it as far as the entrance to the alley when an intangible fist crashed into his skull, sending him face first into the pavement.

"Bastard…" Keitaro muttered, glaring down at the unconscious hoodlum as he popped his spine back into place, a giggling Brianna looking on as Tark brought up the rear, the elf levitating their purchases for them, drawing a few stares from commuters.

"You're back early, Slasher." A deep, female voice noted offhandedly as the grumbling weapons mistress stormed into the darkened chamber of their warehouse headquarters in a foul temper "Slim pickings?"

"Your old pal AVENGER showed up." The smaller woman grumbled sourly, as if that alone explained all the world's problems "Seriously, you'd think she had better things to do than stalk after us!"

"She's a hero," an eloquent voice retorted, the speaker, a bald man in a white suit, sitting cross legged on a chair reading a self-help manual "They all assume it's their business to stick their noses where they're not wanted." He noted, his tone laced with disdain as he snapped the book shut, his eyes flashing with electricity, lighting the gloom around him ominously "Not for long I assure you…Crush, prepare the hovercraft, Slasher, fetch T-Hawk, we move now."

The owner of the deep voice, a giant of a woman with muscles that'd put the she-hulk to shame, merely grunted and went to prep the aircraft, though she hated herself for doing what the overachieving baldy wanted. The loon purposely turned off the lights so he could practice that 'ominous eye-glowing' sketch of his for crying out loud!

'Not that it matters what I think…' she muttered, flinching as she recalled exactly WHY she obeyed the madman 'Please Dani…' she prayed, as she fired up the engines for the bastards' flight 'Please don't let them take you!'

Keitaro couldn't help but chuckle, his bad mood, and the pulled muscle in his back, completely forgotten as he sat in a comfy armchair, listening to Brittany and Avenger, or Danielle as she was known outside her uniform, recount their early adventures from High School, back when they'd been the Dynamic Duo of 'The Pink Avenger' & 'The Cheetah'. For the life of him, the Ronin couldn't imagine Cheetah, who as far as he knew was always sporting the latest fashion, running around in anything that wasn't colour coordinated, nor could he imagine some of the villains they went up against. I mean, who'd ever heard of Phantom Lunch Ladies and Mind-Control Gravy?

He looked up from his mirth to see Tark struggling with the girls' shopping bags and moved to help him, not liking to let his fellow male suffer, only to grimace as his back twinged slightly. "I got this one Tark." He offered, taking the large Tiffany's bag off the elf's hands with a smile "Where do you want this Brianna-san?"

"Oh just drop them over there Kei," the composite sibling suggested with a smile, before grinning coyly at Tark, who was hiding a slight blush "And YOU can drop the Tark Disguise, GENN."

Keitaro blinked, looking back at the elf just in time to see his form shift into the decidedly nervous Rakshasa, who promptly scuttled so that Keitaro was between him and the smirking Brianna. "How in the universe did you know it was me?" Genn stammered, hiding behind Keitaro despite the Ronin's efforts to extract him, not liking the way Brianna was smiling at them at all.

"Simple," Brianna offered, amused to no end by the duo's antics "You may be able to assume Tark's likeness and imitate his abilities from my memories with you ESP, but you're not perfect." She nodded at the Rakshasa's wrist "I imagined Tark had a mole on his wrist and one appeared on yours."

"I thought it was strange Mesha wasn't with you!" Brittany exclaimed, her eyes wide with realization as she looked the Rakshasa over in understanding "Tark and Mesha are almost always together!"

"And even if they are apart, they never stop talking about each other." Brianna continued with a smile, Genn's face growing more and more embarrassed with each passing moment "Your 'Tark' barely mentioned her Genn!"

"What on earth would make you want to disguise yourself, Genn-san." Keitaro asked, looking over at his horned friend in confusion, prompting a flush from the Rakshasa as he twiddled his fingers.

"Well…" Genn stammered, "You know that, as a Rakshasa, I sustain myself on the ambient magical energy from those around me?" He waited for that to sink in "Well one of the usual methods is for us to absorb it through hand-to-hand combat or…you know…"

Keitaro blushed scarlet at the memory of being faced by the Hinata Harem back at Genn's temple, understanding all too well what the shape-shifter was getting at. He still got guilty flashes of Haruka in harem pants till this day.

"Well…last night I got a little peckish…" Genn continued miserably "So I made a deal with Brianna; she'd let me consume her ethereal energy if I used my MASCULINE form and let her call the shots."

Keitaro shot the shape-shifter a look, the same look any red-blooded male who'd encountered anyone related to the Diggers' siblings would use to enquire if the recipient had some sort of death wish. He and Brianna might not have done the nasty, that night when she was first 'born', but he'd been felt up, goosed, and cuddled in the night more than a few times by Gina, long enough to learn that a Female Diggers' libido seemingly ran on nuclear batteries, which was made all the more evident in the fact that Brianna had kept his shape-shifting friend at it until dawn.

"That was MEAN Brianna!" Brittany scolded, mortified at this embarassing revelation in front of her childhood friend, though Danielle seemed to be honestly amused "Forcing yourself on Genn like that!"

"Oh I wasn't forced." Genn assured the lycanthrope, looking mildly affronted at the idea "Brianna merely wouldn't let me feed until SHE'D been sated…I wouldn't have minded if she wasn't so…energetic."

"So supplexing you onto the bed was a bad idea." Brianna offered apologetically "But I had to burn off the stress from earlier somehow…and poor Keitaro needed his rest after that fiasco at El Dorado." She winked at the Ronin, licking her lips coyly "Though maybe the two of you would have lasted longer…"

Keitaro and Genn turned violet at the insinuation, Daniel snorting behind her hand as Brittany choked back a laugh at their mortified faces, the lycanthrope to amused too chastise her sibling for her forwardness.

"Brittany," the crime-fighter coughed, clearing her throat and blinking back tears of laughter as she gained her friends attention "I'm glad you came to New York today, because I really need a favor." She sat up with a sigh "You see I've been fighting crime in New York for years now, and while nothing has come up that I, as Avenger, couldn't handle alone, recently there's been an increase in criminal activity, practically overnight!" she looked at her friend imploringly "I was wondering if you'd help me get to the bottom of this crime spree, Brittany?"

"You have to ask?" Brittany exclaimed with a smile, grasping her friend's hands between her own "Of course I'll help! We'll ALL help, right guys?" she leveled a glare at the rest of the group's silence "RIGHT guys?"

"YES MA'AM!" Keitaro yelped, pulling off a salute that'd make any military drill sergeant weep with joy, his back rigid with terror at the lycanthrope's glowing eyes.

Brianna and Genn followed suit, the latter edging closer to the Ronin to avoid Brianna's wandering eyes, while the younger Diggers' sister eyed the terrified Ronin with a bemused smirk. None of them noticed the dastardly duo watching them from the roof of the opposite building, having tracked them to Danielle's apartment from the alley she and Brittany had faced off with Slasher.

"In there huh?" a raspy voice noted, sounding like crackling coals and smoke. No small wonder, as the owner, a skeletal figure that was covered from head to foot in what smelt like burnt flesh, his eternal, skeletal grin tainted with madness, had no doubt started his un-life in a burning house "Cool! When do we go in, Techninja?"

"Not yet!" his partner muttered, a young man decked out like a shinobi, only with cybernetics attached to his backpack and armguards, not to mention other assorted toys stashed about his person that "The worst time to take on a for is when they're alert!" he insisted, narrowing his eyes at Avenger's apartment window "We wait until we're CERTAIN they're asleep."

"Could we, like…set them on FIRE?" the skeletal wraith chuckled, his tone filled with twisted humor as he trembled with manic eagerness "The boss said we should, like…get Avenger and her pals out of the way before we make our Big Move!" Again the asthmatic rattle that passed for the undead creatures laugh "Fire's the best way to do it! Let's do it with FIRE!"

"Would you shut your damn maw?!" Techninja demanded coldly, shooting the wraith a look of pure disdain "Just because the boss requested we work together doesn't mean I have to put up with your stupidity!"

"Wouldn't it be cool if we ripped out their SPINES," the wraith continued, acting like he hadn't heard his partner, his asthmatic rattle grinding against the ninja's nerves "and like…shoved it down their throats and…!"

"Shut up, Burn Head!" Techninja grit out, his teeth clenching behind his facemask as he fixed his gaze on Avenger's apartment window, wishing that T-hawk had been assigned to partner with him instead; hell even Crush and Rabid would've been better, if only because they knew when to keep his trap shut, not that Crush said much to anyone in their organization if she could help it.

"We could make 'em drink liquid Drano and like…watch 'em gag and DIE!" Burn Head cackled, his mad rasping echoing in the night air as his mind continued to reel off the list of possible ways to murder the assembled heroes "THAT would be cool! Heh-heh!"

"Alright THAT does it!" Techninja muttered, drawing a beam katana off his shoulder pads as a vein bulged on his forehead, "WE go in NOW!" he ordered, shooting the wraith a glare that could melt steel "The sooner this is over, the sooner I can get away from your mouth, you IDIOT!"

"Cool," Burn head noted, watching as Techninja leapt across the gap between the window and their building with apparently little ease, kick-starting a free-for all inside the cramped apartment "Heh-heh!"

Keitaro had been leaning with his back to the wall, arms crossed as he listened to Brittany and Daniel discuss a plan of action, which meant he had a clear view of the window, and the night sky beyond it, when Techninja came barreling through, sending glass everywhere. The Ronin's first reaction had been to duck, a smart one, as the beam katana the cyber assassin swung at him missed his head by inches, allowing him to deliver a sweep kick to upset the man's balance.

"Not likely poindexter!" the ninja mocked, somersaulting backwards over the sofa Brittany and the panicking Danielle sat on, the latter hurriedly pulling on her mask as Brittany growled a warning at him "I don't think so babe," the ninja scoffed, leaning back as the lycanthrope leant over the sofa to get at him "Putting all your weight on that sofa's a mistake…" he flipped the whole thing out the window with his foot "cause where it goes, YOU go!"

"That's what YOU think Bub!" Cheetah crowed from on high, having leapt off the sofa the second she felt the sofa twitch, jeering mocking down at the surprised ninja "What? You didn't really expect me to just let you turn me into street-soup did'ja?"

"My Sofa!" Danielle, who was currently fully garbed in her Avenger outfit, yelped, pointing at the flying piece of furniture with a look of absolute horror on her face "It'll kill someone if it falls on them!"

"I got it!" Gen yelled, leaping out the window to levitate the falling piece of furniture, just as Techninja slashed at him with his beam Katana. Brittany foiled the man's assault by blinding him with her coat, only for Burn Head to descend on the Rakshasa from on high, skeletal fingers reaching for his throat "By the Maker!"

"Genn's in trouble!" Brianna yelled, delivering a flying kick to Techninja's kisser after Brittany disarmed him of his beam katana, hurling the thing over her shoulder, out of the villains reach. Danielle, now Avenger, rushed past the ensuing scuffle to perch at the window, hurling her grapple at the falling sofa, realizing to late that it wouldn't be taught enough in time to save the couple standing at the curb below, only to blink as Keitaro leant past her, gripping the line with a frown on his face.

Unseen to the crime fighter, Star Platinum loomed out from behind its master, wrapping one spiked gauntlet around the line and hoisting it up with a roar that rattled the windows, forcing the tether taught. Below, Burn Head let out a decidedly un-masculine squeal as the line snapped taught right beneath his jewels, possibly the only part of him still susceptible to damage, the specter falling right on top of the tough fiber rope as Genn hoisted the other end into the air with noticeable effort.

"That was too close…" Keitaro breathed, holding onto the rope and beaming at the confused Avenger in relief, only to yelp as one of Techninja's stray explosive capsules detonated the crime-fighter's T.V, sending smoke and glass everywhere, knocking him sideways into Avenger, his face pressed up against her cleavage. "SORRY!" he yelped, struggling to distance himself from the blushing woman, just as Brittany pulled the rug out from under Techninja's feet, sending the ninja wannabe barreling backwards out the window, dragging the startled Ronin and Avenger out with him. "OH CRAP-!!"

"Hang on!" Avenger urged the Ronin, hugging him close, unintentionally pressing him against her chest as she fumbled for the grapple line, watching as Techninja sailed past with a yell. She cursed as they overshot the line, trying instead to angle their fall so that they landed on the sofa, only to blink as Keitaro somehow turned them around in mid-air so his back was to the ground.

"I'm used to falling from higher than this!" the Ronin offered in explanation, bracing himself for the impact, only to blink as a whip lashed out, wrapping around their ankles, snapping taught and causing them to crash into the side of the opposite building, the impact rendering them unconscious.

"Can't we trust you to do ANYTHING Tech?" T-Hawk demanded sourly, the dark-skinned man swooping down and catching the flailing ninja before he became street pizza, looking up as Slasher reeled in their catch from the side of the building "At least we nabbed Avenger…and a hostage too."

"Wait! What about Burn Head?" Techninja demanded, looking around for his annoying ass back up. Annoying as hell as the case may be, the undead sunuvabitch was still a teammate, and last he checked the Boss frowned on co-workers stabbing each other in the back off schedule.

"No time, the boss is here." T-Hawk muttered, nodding down to the hover-craft parked below, the hatch opening to reveal a bald man in a well-cut white suit helping Slasher drag the comatose forms of Avenger and their hostage into the vehicle "Let's jet."

"Crap! They got Dani and Keitaro!" Cheetah swore, glaring down at the hover-craft as the villains scrambled into it "Dani…" she breathed, noticing how her friend's head rolled as Slashed carried her like a sack of potatoes into the jet.

"What happened?" Genn called out, hovering back in with the tether, still attached to the dangling sofa below in one hand, and an unconscious Burn Head in the other, the undead Con holding his damaged jewels in his sleep.

"They got Danielle and Keitaro!" Brianna exclaimed, her eyes wide with alarm as she turned to look at the shocked Rakshasa commandingly "We've got to get down there! Genn, can you fly us down?"

"I'm afraid not." Genn replied sadly, his face lined with concern for their friends, particularly Keitaro "I can only levitate objects that have no aura in them, like the sofa and this undead creature."

"Then dump the freak and let's slide down the rope!" Brianna insisted, only to blink as Brittany held up a hand to waylay her, the were-cheetah's expression darker than anything the hybrid sibling remembered "Sis?"

"Calm down…we're too late anyways." Brittany muttered, watching the bastards pile into their get-away vehicle and jet off into the night sky "We're just going to have to track them down and rescue them!"

"But how can we track them Brittany?" Genn implored, looking over at the were cheetah in confusion as he dumped both the sofa and Burn Head on the floor of Danielle's apartment with less care than they deserved "They're leaving by air, and even if I CAN fly, I'm pretty certain that their craft is much faster than I am."

"That may be so Genn." Brianna allotted, walking over to the semi-concious Burn Head, towering over the undead freak with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face "But they left us a guide to follow them with."

"Huzzubah-whuh?" Burn Head muttered, rousing slightly at the sound of her voice, only for his eyes to bulge, a choked squeal tearing from his throat as she ground the business end of her brand-name heel into his groin. "I'LL TALK! I'LL TALK!"

Crush sighed as she answered the baldheaded loon's summons, walking into the 'interrogation room', simply a cleared out store room with a dingy light bulb for that terrorist feel, only to blink at the sight of Avenger, and some bespectacled man she'd never seen before, bound back to back on their chairs, stripped to their underwear.

"Ah, Crush." The bald ringleader of this little freakshow greeted, looking over at the giant woman with his hands clasped behind his back, an approving smile on his face "As punctual as always."

"Where are their togs?" the giant woman demanded, looking away from the sight of her friend stripped to her bra and panties with a glare, noting Techninja and Slasher's obvious discomfort. Subservient to their boss or not, the woman was still over twelve feet of solid muscle.

"We had to…er…strip her Crush." The ninja wannabe explained, holding up his hands defensively in what he presumed was a placating gesture "She had all kinds of hidden pockets and stuff in that suit of hers."

"Yeah!" Slasher agreed, nodding vigorously alongside her fellow culprit, though Cr8ush suspected that the woman had enjoyed stripping them down a little TOO much to be considered 'professional' "We couldn't be sure we nabbed all of her gear so we took the whole suit."

"Right…" Crush muttered, her face lined with disbelief as she watched the two perverts sweat it out "And what about HIM?" she muttered, nodding towards the bespectacled man, who looked about as likely to be a spy as a politician was likely to tell the truth.

"Well…he was hanging with Avenger right?" Slasher stammered, shrugging defensively as the giant woman towered over them "Stood to reason he could have a few things on him…" she flushed slightly "Plus he looked adorable in his sleep and I just couldn't help myself."

"That will be QUITE enough." The bald man spoke out, shooting the frowning Crush a warning glare "You act like Slasher and Techninja should CARE about these two," he held up a hand to silence her "Remember, Avenger and this man, whoever he is, are merely bait to lure out their friends, nothing more."

"I swear I've seen this brat's face somewhere before though." Techninja muttered, holding the unconscious Keitaro up by his chin to get a better look at him "Where was it though…? Pretty sure it was on a Bounty list…"

"Look into it later." The bald man muttered, clenching his fist and holding it to his face as electricity arced through the air "First we must deal with Avenger's new allies! When Burn Head leads them here…" his voice changed from eloquent to dark and foreboding, echoing with malice "WE SHALL CRUSH THE IMPOTENT FOOLS LIKE INSECTS!"

He held the pose for a minute, the group looking at him with awe, and a little fear, before promptly stopping the light show and turning to regard Slasher out the corner of his eye, still frozen in place "How was that?"

Crush rolled her eyes, wondering how on earth a poser like this managed to rope together a bunch of criminals like this, before casting the bound duo before her a look of concern. None of them paid Techninja, who was fiddling with a PDA attachment on his gauntlet, muttering to himself as he looked between the screen and Keitaro's face with a scowl.

Hoo boy, it looks like Keitaro done got himself into another fine mess.

How will things go down this time? Will Keitaro make it out in one piece? Or will Techninja's hunch net Crime Syndicate X some new problems?

Send reviews in to find out!