Jen Credible: Until The End
Considering the latest events, to wake up in peace was virtually impossible to achieve. However, Jen didn't wake up unbearably disturbed either, at least right when she opened her eyes to find herself in her office's bedroom, where she had practically been living during the last month, since having added Kim's missions to her workload required her to be available 24-7. But out of the relief obtained from finding herself still alive, the feeling didn't last long when Jen explored her surrounding…
'What the…?'
What in the world was Ron Stoppable doing in her makeshift bedroom? She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, but the image of him sitting on a chair beside the bed didn't fade, nor did the items that he had between his hands which were… wait a sec! Was he knitting some baby clothes!? Those were definitely knitting needles and the yarn ball he was using was pink. But why, in the name of logic itself, was he doing that in her room!?
'All right, let's have a flashback!'
Let's see… she remembered going head-to-head with Cobalt, then Stacy came in and… she didn't want to remember anymore.
'Well, well… didn't I have my ass seriously kicked back there? And by whom…'
No wonder she was feeling like crap right now. That didn't answer any of her questions, but she was sure she didn't have any memory between back then and now. How much time had passed, anyway? Whatever. Better to just ask Ron than to keep wondering.
"Hey!" She called for, and even speaking made her jaw ache.
Ron, finally noticing Jen was awake, stood up instantly throwing his arms in the air.
"Jen! You're finally awake!" He cheerfully claimed.
"Yeah, so it seems" She replied, "What are you doing here?"
"Taking care of you," he said. "And Han."
He moved aside letting Jen see what his body was blocking from her view so far: A pink cradle in which Ron's baby sister, Hanna Stoppable, rested peacefully.
"What's she doing here?"
"Well… my parents are out for the whole week, so I couldn't just leave her alone at home."
'Well, at least that explains the weaving' She thought for a moment before asking the next question. "Dave called you, right?"
"Right, and told me what happen" He answered, a bit more serious than his usually cheerful 'Ron-ness', "How are you feeling?"
"Well, I…" She dared try to move… just to feel her entire body aching, every muscle suffering and reminding her of the beating she got from Stacy, "I can't move."
"It's okay, don't stress yourself," he said, approaching the bed and arranging the covers around her body.
"It'll take you time to recover, 'specially considering…" he followed, but stopped himself.
"Considering what?"
"Well…" He looked aside, scratching the back of his head "Like I said, Dave told me what happened and… well, he said the doctors claimed that… anyone else but you wouldn't have make it… you know, alive."
That sure sent a shiver down Jen's spine. But she had to admit that, while she had had near-death experiences, nothing could compared to what happen last night… wait, was it last night?
"How long have I've been asleep?"
"Day and half, or is it about two days, y'know, considering the time difference between Japan and here?"
"Does it matter?" She asked, but it didn't seem like he listened.
"Let's see, Dave called me an hour before your arrival so I could go and pick you guys up. That was yesterday in the morning and that's a day and half 'til now, but if we count how much time you were unconscious before that…"
Seriously, were sidekicks always this stressful? "Ron!!"
"What? I'm just trying to add up-" he started, but got interrupted by Rufus coming out of his pocket and climbing his body up to his shoulder to force his lips together.
"Zip it!" The naked mole rat ordered, getting his master to make an annoyed face.
Jen sighed, deciding to postpone a growing urge within her until she asked one last question first; "Dave is out?"
Ron nodded. 'Figured…' As annoying as he could be sometimes, Dave was no fool and knew what to do when desperate times demanded of him. He would be taking care of whatever he had to so they would be back in action as soon as possible. But for now...
"Uh… Ron? I kinda need to go to the bathroom."
"Sure! Left door at the end of the hallway!" He said pointing at the bedroom's door. "You can't miss it!"
"…"
If it weren't because it hurt so much just raising her arm, she would have slapped her face right there. 'Damn my luck…' She thought 'Out of four, I'm stuck with the idiot'. Was he deliberately trying to make this more uncomfortable?
"All right, Ron, try reading my lips: Me-Can-Not-Move!" She deadpanned for him.
Ron blinked continuously for a moment… suddenly going into serious-face mode as he thought of what to do, just making time for the pressure between Jen's legs to become more and more annoying for the injured woman. Just how long was it going to take him!?
"Damn it! Just call Rose so she can help me!"
"Uh… Rose's out" He replied.
"What!?"
"She went out with Dave" He said, sounding a bit nervous.
Jen blinked… realizing the situation was far more… "unmentionable" than what she first thought. Should she wait for them to get back? No way, the pressure was already too much to bear.
"All right" She told Ron. "This is gonna be Awkward with Capital A"
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At that time, outside of the apartment in which Jen's office was installed, a black car was being parked on the front street. Its driver a hero's sidekick, and a tan-skinned redheaded hero's secretary came out to the curb from the passenger side. But instead of closing the door immediately, she looked back at the driver, who had remained silent during the whole trip. The blond young man had barely had any sleep during the last twenty and some hours, and she could notice the bags under his eyes, but far beyond that, what was far more noticeable was the unusual seriousness in his eyes.
"Aren't you coming out, Dave?" Rose said.
He didn't reply, but did come out of the car right after her call, although he didn't move too far away from the door after closing it, either.
"Still worried about Stacy?" the Puerto Rican redhead asked.
The young sidekick rested against the car for a moment before answering.
"You don't get it, do you?" he murmured, barely audible. "Of course, you weren't there"
Rose wasn't someone who'd take things like this lightly, and Jen coming back like she did yesterday was something that almost caused her a heart attack. But she always used to remind them: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Besides…
"Jen didn't stand a chance" Dave continued, "She got totally thrashed by that cheerleader."
"By same-old Stacy?" she questioned. "That's ridiculous."
Dave turned back to look at her, Rose just rested her arms above the car while staring at him across the roof. The look he gave her was nearly accusatory.
"Listen to me" Rose ordered "I may not have seen whatever happened in Japan, but I still remember clearly seeing Jen breaking that idiot's nose when we were back in high school, and that "bitch-leader" couldn't even see it coming. There's no way Jen's going to lose against some attention-junkie with some inferiority complex, you hear me?"
"…I hear ya," he replied, his face down.
"We already called her doctor, and got new equipment for the next mission. Wade and Global Justice are searching for her and her partners, and you can bet they'll find her and contact us immediately. Next time Jen faces her, she'll be ready. But she also needs you to be ready to support her, you know?"
That got Dave to look up at her again, his expression changed.
"So get that annoying cockiness of yours back, regardless of how much I hate it, and let's get going. We got job to do, so I hope you aren't scared or-"
"Me? Scared!?" Dave interrupted her "Sorry, babe. But I don't even know the meaning of that word!"
She smiled a bit; surprisingly happy to see him with that grin of his that usually disgusted her.
"Well, call me babe once more and I'll make sure to you learn the meaning of it."
Nevertheless, Jen needed her sidekicks when the circumstances demanded them, and this was one such time. She was happy to see that at least one of the defeated members of their team was already back on his feet. Jen? She wasn't that worried anymore. She knew she would be all right with time. She just had to make sure Dave was ready for whenever Jen was.
"Now, how about you get the briefcases and we can finally head inside," she said before turning around and beginning to walk toward the building.
"I could use a hand, you know!?" He called for, but without much response. He cursed out loud, there were three briefcases. She could make things easier by taking just one, right?
As well as he could manage; Dave took the three silver briefcases from the car's trunk and carried them to the door Rose just opened, kicking it closed as he passed by. Two hallways and one elevator later, the duo arrived at Jen's office, and the sidekick left the briefcases on the table as soon as he could.
"I'm gonna check on Jen."
"All right," Rose replied, as she sat on the office's desk and turned on the computer. She needed to contact Wade and check if there was any news regarding the villains Jen fought and lost against. She was waiting for the laptop to load when Dave suddenly returned to the office, a scared look on his face.
"Jen and Ron are not here!"
"What!?" She exclaimed, standing up so quickly that the chair fell behind her.
"What was that!?" Both Dave and Rose suddenly heard. It was Ron's voice.
"Eek! Ron, watch out!" That was Jen! The voices were coming from the bathroom.
Sensing danger, both teens hurried through the short hallway, quickly but without making any sound, and stood close to the bathroom's door. Dave looked at the redhead, who returned the stare, and held three fingers up in his hand. Rose nodded and then the sidekick made a silent countdown to three with his fingers, and by three, he kicked the door open, both of them entering immediately and expecting anything… except what they found.
Both Ron and Jen (nobody else was in the room) were there. Ron standing still with his hands over his eyes, and Jen dropped on the floor between the blond boy and the toilet. Nothing wrong so far, but if someone took in consideration that both their pants, plus Jen's underwear, were covering nothing but their ankles, the picture took a whole different meaning.
"This-! This isn't what it look like!!" Jen exclaimed with all of her might, her face even more red than when Cobalt kissed her.
"We… we can explain!" Ron added, still not daring to move his hands from his eyes.
"No thanks!" Rose instantly replied, attempting close the door, but…
"Actually!" Dave interrupted, stopping the door from getting closed "I'm curios, so-AUCH!" But apparently, Rose decided that the door just needed to be closed, even if that meant smashing it against the very insolent sidekick who stood beside her. "Hey!"
"You asked for it!!" She told him as she walked away, back to the apartment's office.
"That's it, I'm ordering a camera!" He told himself. With the picture he could have taken at the Yamanouchi and the one he could have taken just now… heck, the skies the limit!
No sooner the sandy blond sidekick went back to the office, they heard someone stepping out of the bathroom. Dave attempted to look, but the team's secretary caught his ear stopping him right in his tracks, just letting him go when Ron entered the office. Like Jen, he was also blushing and seemed reluctant to make eye contact with them.
"Uh… Rose, could you go and help Jen go back to her room?"
The redhead looked at him for a moment, her mind puzzled, but decided not to ask. She doubted she would like the answer, so she just got up from the chair she had just rearranged and headed for the bathroom once more, leaving the sidekicks alone in the office.
"Man…" Dave said, loud enough for Ron but making sure Rose wouldn't hear it, "You got guts!"
"Uh?"
"I knew you had eyes for her, but I never though you'd actually make a move, let alone success! Just how did you make it!?"
"Make… what?"
"Did you play the generous caregiver!? I should try that one. Oh, wait. Lemme guess, it was your baby sister, right? Jen always had a soft spot for babies…"
"Uh… little lost here?"
"Seriously!" He walked up to him and patted him on both shoulders, "Talk about scoring!"
Finally getting what he was meaning, Ron's eyes grew wider than ever before, "WHAT!?"
Their attention was suddenly caught by the sound of the bathroom's door opening once again and Rose coming out of it with Jen in her arms and heading toward the bedroom. Jen and Ron exchanged glares for a moment, but instantly looked aside blushing heavily. Dave, who just couldn't have not notice that, waited until the ladies went to the room to go on.
"Ronald Dean Stoppable… you're the MAN, buddy!"
"NOTHING HAPPENED!!!" Ron screamed with all of his might, and Dave could swear he just heard Jen exclaiming the same thing over in the bedroom.
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"I swear!" Jen insisted, "N-nothing happened!"
"…right" Rose agreed, still carrying the girl towards her bed.
"Honestly, it wasn't what it looked like, he was just helping me!"
"I know"
"I… I seriously cannot move by myself, or barely at least, but I needed to pee and so he was doing it all for me and-"
"Do you think I really wanna hear this?"
"And he didn't take his pants off! That was me… no! Wait, not like that! It was my fault but not because I wanted to! He dropped me when you two came in and when I tried to grab something but the only thing my hand found was his belt, and-"
"ENOUGH!" The redhead stated, dropping her friend on the bed. "Look, I don't care, okay!?"
The young hero just lowered her head, looking like a child who had just been scolded. "…okay"
"Problem?" Rufus asked, emerging from Hana's cradle
"You stay there!" The tanned woman spoke at Rufus, who just went back to look after his master's baby sister.
Rose, for her part, let out a long sigh and sat in the bed beside her friend. "Seriously… you can do it with whoever you want. Who am I to judge? Besides, you always had a thing for blonds…"
"Hey, I'm telling you that-!"
"And speaking of blond-es" The secretary interrupted, and her friend knew where she was going now "Jen… was it really Stacy?"
The brunette looked unsure… and took a moment before replying. "It was Stacy, but… she wasn't the Stacy I knew anymore."
"What do you mean?" A puzzled Rose asked.
"She… changed," Jen explained. "She got strong, really strong. And not just that, her personality was really different too. I almost couldn't recognize her."
Both stayed in silence for a moment, 'til Jen looked up to meet her friend's light blue eyes
"What could have happened to her?"
"No clue" The Puerto Rican girl replied, "It's been a year since we last saw her, and a lot can happen in a year."
"Do you think you could try doing some research?"
"I'll see what I can find out."
"Thank you."
Again both stayed in silence, and Jen thought she'd better relax and try to get better soon. But for the moment, as much as it pained her to remember the last meeting with her, Stacy was all she could think of. She just couldn't understand it. She knew Stacy had never been a gentle soul, to say the least. In fact, she was probably the Queen Bitch back in high school; Empress of Meanness, as Rose put it once. Now… what was she? A super strong chick determined to…?
Her train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door, followed by Dave's "Can we get in?"
Jen nodded, Rose spoke, "Come in!"
The door opened and both sidekicks came in. Ron still wouldn't dare make eye contact with Jen.
"So… how are you feeling?" Dave asked Jen.
"Like crap."
"Couldn't have expected any less."
"So!" Jen started, and both Dave and Rose noticed that 'leader tone' of her, "Have you gotten anything regarding our favourite trio?"
"Stacy and her allies?" Dave asked, Jen's stare confirmed it. "Nothing yet, but we got Wade working on it, and according to him, so is Global Justice."
"We got the big guys' help? Wow, didn't expect that."
"I'm not sure they are giving us much priority, though," Rose commented. "Wade told me he got into a sitch with Global Justice and some vigilantes yesterday. Apparently, someone contacted him from Egypt."
"Someone contacted Wade?" Ron asked.
"Egypt?" But Jen got their attention "Isn't that where Jack is right now?"
"Oh, now that you mention him!" Rose exclaimed, suddenly remembering something, "We just got an e-mail from him. He's arriving back here tomorrow!"
"Really!?" Dave exclaimed letting Jen know he didn't known either.
"Yeah, he says he got a lot to tell us, by the way. Seems like he also had some adventure in the sand."
"That… wouldn't be related to Wade's stitch, would it?" Ron wondered out loud.
"Doubt it. Jack doesn't know enough about computers to be able to contact Wade from the middle of nowhere."
"But who contacted Wade?" He asked, getting curious regarding the stitch.
"Even he doesn't know, he has no clue of how that person contacted him either." Rose filled him in, "It's all a mystery."
"We got another case?" Dave asked. This mystery actually sounded interesting to him.
"Let's focus on Stacy's case first, okay?" Jen insisted, sounding just a tad more serious than what would be expected from her.
"Why are you so worried about her?" Her sidekick asked.
"Doy… have you already forgotten what she said?" The heroine replied.
"What did she say?" Ron asked.
Dave coughed and imitated the words, and gestures, as he remembered them, "The world is coming to an end, and I will be its judge!"
Ron blinked, "Is she planning to…?"
"Destroy the world" Jen finished for him, her expression thoughtful.
"C'mon" Dave said "It's not like we haven't heard THAT one already."
"Trust me" His leader replied "It sounds a lot more convincing after you get the beating of your life."
"Whatever" he countered, "We just have to find them and stop them, and we're already set for that. Rose and I just brought back new equipment from Wade's house, and we already contacted your doctor to get you better."
"My doctor!?" Jen exclaimed, suddenly looking scared "Wait, you don't mean…"
Her voice was interrupted then by the sound of the doorbell, which only made her feel even more scared.
"Oh, he's here!" Dave said before walking out of the room and to receive said person.
"NO!" The brunette screamed, much to Ron's surprise. She then forced her arm to move and grab Rose's arm to plead with her, "Please don't do this!!"
"Sorry" Rose replied, standing up and starting to walk toward the door, "You know you need this."
"Ron!" She pleaded. He was her last hope, "Get me out of here!!"
"Wh-what!?" The blond sidekick replied, feeling quite confused.
"Pleeeeease!!"
"You don't move a finger!" Rose ordered him just before finally exiting the room, leaving the poor boy quite confused and without an idea of what to do, yet, he did follow her orders.
"This isn't happening!" Jen cried.
Not much later (it would never be later enough), Jen and Ron heard the apartment's door opening and closing and a voice saying, "Hello," that sent a shiver down the heroine's spine.
Ron never expected, nor even imagined, he would ever see Jen whining like this.
Soon Rose came through the door followed by a man that Ron could have sworn he'd seen before. He was 'almost' tall, in his thirties, with dark blue hair with some bangs falling over his right eye, and wearing a doctor's typical lab coat, with the exception that his was, well, black. The secretary greeted him, "Welcome, Dr. Hadley."
Once again, Jen wished she could slap herself.
"Can someone please remind me, for the umpteenth goddamn time, just WHY is THIS guy my doctor!?"
"Reason Number 1" Ienzo Hadley started, "Your father's paying me a lot for this."
If anything, Jen was sure this was her father's way of punishing her for having taken up this job that he never approved of.
"Reason Number 2," Dave followed while entering the room, "He knows what he does."
"Are you actually supporting him!?" Jen asked him.
"And I actually enjoy it," He admitted with half a smile.
"Reason Number 3," Dr. Hadley went on, "I know your body better than anyone else."
"Do you have ANY idea of how wrong that just sounded!?"
"Oh, yeah!" The doctor stated cockily. "Reason Number 4: This is the best way I know to express my feelings for you."
"What FEELINGS!?" The teen hero barked.
"How much I hate you."
'Touché', Jen admitted to herself, "All right, enough with the reasons. Let the fun start."
"Why do I get a feeling I don't want to know what this is all about?" Ron decided to ask.
"Just grab your sister and your pet and leave the room," Rose told him, leaving as well.
The sidekick gave the hero one last worried look.
"I'll survive," She told him as her doctor approached the bed, putting the briefcase besides.
Ron just took the cradle, with Hanna and Rufus in it, and exited the bedroom with Dave closing the door after he left.
"Now, seriously," Ron said to Dave, "How bad can this treatment possi-?"
"AAAAAAGH!" But he was interrupted by the sound of Jen screaming from the recently exited room "YOU SON OF A- ACK! AGH!!"
Let alone said, the blond sidekick was already trembling with eyes wide open.
"It's like this all the time," Dave told him, as if the issue was anything but serious or dramatic. The screams could still be heard as background sound, "It usually takes about an hour."
And as if there was nothing to worry about, he just walked to the main room and sat on the couch in front of the table. Ron, trying to act as composed as Jen's terrifying screams allowed him to, left the cradle close to the table and sat besides the other sidekick. But he could swear, those screams were going to give him nightmares.
Rose, for her part, just went back to her computer at the desk.
Dave, unnoticed by the rest, took something out of his pocket and stared at it carefully. It was the Tarot Card that the self-proclaimed Emperor had given him the other night, "The Magician", thus earning that title, at least from the villain's perspective.
For some reason, he had been unable to leave this card behind, feeling as if it had some meaning for him. But what? And why? Regardless of how much he tried to think of it, he still couldn't figure it out.
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Witnessing irony was one thing, but being a victim of it? It was painfully annoying…
The shadow of a dead woman reflected on that as she helped the young ninjas of the Yamanouchi School clean up the grounds. The incident that happened two nights ago left it worse than the attack from the Yono, anyone would tell her. But it wasn't the comparison what called her attention…
It was that he had been involved in said incident.
How infuriatingly ironic, the women going by the names of Shego and Yori thought once they arrived here. They weren't even following a lead but they ended up exactly where he struck, along with two other women. One of them described as a blonde, powerful-beyond-belief cheerleader…
'So she survived… damn!!'
And on top of that: The Lotus Blade. Just what the hell did they want it for, anyway!?
After throwing a rock down a cliff, one of the many that belonged to the so called Temple of the Yono and that had to be removed from the school's training field, the green-skinned woman rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand, wiping off the sweat. Then she turned around to meet a face she had been trying to avoid.
"Here" Yori said, offering a white towel.
No, not the Yori she came with, not her tomboyish partner. She was in front of the Yori that had been raised at this school, and the person who was her only reason for being reluctant about coming here. But both vigilantes had agreed that this was their best checkpoint for now.
Still, she took the towel, and then drank from a small bottle of water the black-haired ninja was offering too, dismiss her right after. But the Japanese woman didn't leave…
"That woman," she said out of the blue, "the one that came with you… what's her name?"
"Yori," she answered quickly because she thought that taking her time would only seem more suspicious and drag this out.
"So I've heard."
"Then why did you ask?" Crap… she shouldn't have asked that.
"She…" Yori never finished that sentence. Instead, she walked off. Shego didn't stop her.
Yori went to face Yori.
She found the tomboyish girl sitting by a tree, the same one that had been cut down during the recent battle. Her face practically read; "don't talk to me", but it wasn't like they were going to get anywhere that way.
"Gokigen'yō," the ninja greeted.
Yori acknowledged her. She wasn't looking at her, though.
"Hi."
Well, it was something.
"Are… you okay?" She didn't want to seem meddlesome, but something about the tomboyish girl's eyes made her ask that.
Yori shook her head.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Was that… sadness?
Yori shock her head again.
"All right" The school's ninja said. It sounded like giving up, but she was just recognizing that showing kindness was getting her nowhere. "I wanted to talk with you."
The tomboyish vigilante looked at Yori through the corner of her eye, "About?"
"This might sound weird, but aside from the name, you really seem… familiar."
She might not be able to pinpoint what, but there was something with this girl… her eyes, her lips, her nose, her skin tone and hair. In short, everything about his girl looked familiar for her!
"It's as if we had met at some point in the past, but I just can't remember when or where."
"Don't."
"Uh?" Don't what? Hadn't they met?
"Don't remember. Don't try and dig up the past. Just… forget you ever met me."
"What?" the ninja didn't get it, and surprised herself for how loud she exclaimed her next words, "But why!?"
"Ignorance is bliss."
And so, the tomboyish Yori stood up and began to walk again.
"Wait!" The Yamanouchi's ninja called. "There's something else I had to tell you."
"What?" Yori asked, without even bothering to look her way.
"Master Sensei asked for yours and your partner's presence. He's waiting at the temple."
"Got it. Please inform Shego about it."
The ninja decided it was better to leave it at that, but… she'd never told the visiting Yori about the temple's location.
Nevertheless, she went to inform the green-skinned woman about that too.
"Thanks" Shego said and began walking, again without asking directions.
"You know…" The ninja expressed, "pain that is shared with those who care for you… happens to be far easier to bear."
Shego smirked "So I've been told more times I could ever care to count."
What was that supposed to mean? Yori wondered.
"Make sure to pass it down to your children," and so Shego left.
The temple Yori was talking about was a small Japanese construction located behind the Yamanouchi School, just a small walk away from it. Both secretive girls reached that place on their own and opened the double door once they were together, walking inside to meet the only person waiting there for them behind a small bonfire that served as the only illumination for the closed square space once they closed the door behind them.
"We are here," Yori said.
"What is it?" Shego asked.
"Please" Master Sensei began, "Make yourselves comfortable."
The girls stared at each other for a second, and then decided to sit in front of the bonfire and listen to whatever the old man had to say.
"My girls… I fear the price you may owe because of your decision might be far greater than what you believe."
Yori and Shego remained silent.
"But at the same time, just as great may be our need right now. I'm aware there's a special reason for your presence here, a reason that has paid us a recent visit."
Yori gritted her teeth.
"Because of that, if you're still willing to walk down this road, knowing you might never be able to return from it, I shall help you leading your way."
Shego blinked. "Do you know were we can find him? And his allies?"
"They stole our most protected possession, the Lotus Blade," he looked at Yori. "But as you may already know, the Lotus Blade is but a mirror of the soul and a mirror of itself."
Yori's eyes opened wide.
"You know what you must do."
'Leave it to him to guess everything about us without even telling him,' Shego thought as her tomboyish partner stood up and walked toward the fire, unsheathing the sword from her back and placing it right on top of the blaze, letting the heat dig into its blade, turning it red, a crimson red that started to emit a terrifyingly scarlet light.
Soon, the light spread out over the whole room until nothing else but the light could be seen. All that remained to the present ones' sight was an illusion brought by the sword, which now looked like a blood-red double-edge long sword, and it looked as if it was placed on top of a table, along with a candelabrum, in the middle of a living room. Shego and Yori could only watch, but not interact with the scene. Not like other two individuals they were now staring at…
"Are you just gonna sit on your ass for the whole day?" a cerulean-haired woman asked to a blonde one sitting on a chair in front of the table where the sword was, arms crossed in front of her and her legs on top of said table. Shego and Yori recognized her.
The cheerleader just looked back at her. "Why?"
"I dunno," the woman in the blue spandex replied. "Aren't you bored?"
"And what can you offer?" the other one retorted. "If you want to do something for me, go and tell Emperor to find the next Fiend already."
"Actually, he already did," the thief replied with a smirk on her face. "Just wanted to mess with you."
The blonde teen didn't reply.
"He's waiting for us in the living room," the older woman added, "Seriously, what is it with you two that once you settle down somewhere, you don't want to move around anymore? I'm tired of playing the messenger girl."
Stacy stood up. "All right. Get ready, we're leaving soon."
Cobalt winked at her. "Want to see me getting ready?"
"Why not?" The cheerleader replied with shrug and, after picking up both items from the table, followed the older woman.
The fact that the sword was being moved was the only thing allowing Shego and Yori to keep tracking them. It made the vision a bit dizzying, since the blade was like the camera that was transmitting the images, and the fact that it was being moved around constantly made everything but the sword move around from their perspective.
The constant move stopped once both women entered a room that, for its purpose, it was much wider than needed in either Shego's, Yori's or Stacy's opinion, but as Stacy would have pointed out if she'd give a damn about it, this was Cobalt's stuff. It did, however, make the two "voyeurs" learn that this was Cobalt's house, wherever it was.
"I wonder what should I bring now," She wondered out loud, looking at the insanely big collection of guns, shotguns, machine-guns, rifles and plenty of other firearms that decorated all the walls of the room and several shelves included. There was enough firepower in this room like to supply an army. "Any idea of what we'll be facing?"
"Us," Shego said out loud, even though she knew they wouldn't hear her.
"No," Stacy replied simply.
"Oh, well, in that case, this will do" She said picking a FN P90 submachine gun. An expert in guns would remark that as a weak choice because of the P90 being considered a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), but would they know of Cobalt's enhancements on her little baby, one would think twice before even attempting to make the comment. "My little Thor is good in any field and against any opponent."
Both secret witnesses smirked.
"Whatever, let's get going," the cheerleader replied, and the dizzying effect started once again until both women reached a luxurious living room (Cobalt surely enjoyed finery), where he was…
"I am so glad you've arrived…" The man wearing a ninja suit and sitting in the floor while playing with the Tarot cards replied.
"Emperor," Stacy called, "What did you find out?"
"Find out?" he repeated. "Fool, there was never anything to find out. The truth lies within us, for us to decipher."
"Get to the goddamn point already!"
Emperor moved his hands around the floor, placing the Tarot Cards in certain positions. By the time he finished, there were eight cards placed as a circle. The Fool, the Magician, the Emperor, the Chariot, Strength, the Hermit, Wheel of Fortune and the Devil were all placed in a way they were all pointing to a central point in the middle of them.
"Life is nothing but a travel to the grave," he said, placing the final card in the middle of the rest. "That's why… those like us, players of destiny, constantly seek our way toward Death."
Indeed, the final card placed was no other but Death itself.
"And where is Death?" The blonde asked.
"Madrid, Spain!" the ninja replied, smoothly standing up and, just by raising his hand, claiming all the cards back, which flew and hid in the book he always held with him. "He's waiting for us."
"Cobalt," the cheerleader called, "Get everything ready."
"Roger!" She said, then saluted, and left the living room.
But leaving Emperor and Stacy alone, as Shego and Yori realized, brought about… tension.
"What are you planning to do this time?" Stacy asked, lifting the crimson sword and pointing it toward the tall man. Last time, Emperor hadn't done much beyond acting as method of transportation with his teleporting abilities. She expected him to do as much this time, but…
"I'll cooperate with the two of you," the ninja replied. "This time, you'll need our help."
"Why? Do you think someone else will be present there?"
"Oh, I'm sure we'll have plenty of guesses there," he said, approaching her and suddenly grabbing the sword by the blade, moving it in a way that, for spying girls' surprise, it twisted their angle of vision so that it ended up with him facing directly at Yori.
'He couldn't…'
"Isn't that right?!" Emperor asked, his brown eyes focused…
'No way!'
"Sister!?" …on Yori.
The shock was great, but not enough for Shego, who turned her attention toward her partner, whose facial expression and trembling body didn't hide any of the anger boiling inside of her.
"Sister!?" Stacy repeated, moving the sword away from him "What are you talking about!?"
"Oh, nothing," he replied, his voice sounding casual. "Just nothing."
But his head still turned… to look at the shorthaired girl once again, and even though he wore a mask, they could feel him smirking!
Yori wouldn't have it anymore, and following her instinct she ran toward the image of Stacy, grabbing the sword she held by the grip and, screaming out her fury, slashed the image of Emperor, who vanished… along with the rest of the illusion.
A couple of seconds later they were back on the dark and small room, with the fire in the center being the only source of light. The pale skinned woman walked over to her partner and placed a hand over her shoulder, stopping the heavy breath that could only keep up with her anger.
"It's okay," she told her. "We'll get him."
Yori nodded, and placed her sword back on the sheath on her back. Shego then looked at Master Sensei.
"Thank you for your help. We'll be leaving now"
"Wait," he called, only when they were already at the door. "My girls, please… do not forget, for your own safety, what you're really fighting for."
They looked back at him, stern expressions on their faces, but… with uncertainness in their heart.
What were they really fighting for? They had an objective, but…
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Ron had been looking at the door of Jen's bedroom for the last two minutes, the moment since Jen's screams had ended, to be precise. Was this because the treatment was finished? (It had lasted "only" 45 minutes) Or because the – he gulped – patient was finished? He didn't even dare to open the door, let alone ask for either Dave's or Rose's opinion. He had already learned during the time the screams lasted that their completely different ways to take them would make it hard, not to mention uncomfortable, to even have a conversation regarding whatever Jen was going through.
In the end, the door was opened from the inside. But when the person who came out was not Jen, but rather Dr. Hadley, he stopped breathing.
"I-Is s-she okay…?"
"Unfortunately…" He stared, taking a moment to sigh and raise his briefcase to leave it resting behind his shoulder "…that brat survived my treatment, again."
Without waiting another second, Ron moved the doctor aside and ran into the room screaming the brunette's name. Ienzo Hadley, for his part, walked toward the exit without waiting for anyone to open the door for him.
"Bye-bye," Rufus said, waving his little paw from Hanna's cradle.
"Get cancer," The doctor told him, giving him the finger.
"Hey!" The naked mole rat exclaimed, "Be nice!"
"Get cancer, please."
And with that, he left the apartment. Moments later, Dave and Rose noticed Jen coming out of her room, with a worried Ron walking close to her to make sure she wouldn't trip and fall.
"You sure look like hell," Dave told her.
And indeed: Not only Jen's hair was a mess, but her entire body was covered in sweat, also releasing steam, and she evidently had wet her pants during the treatment. Not that she seemed to mind any of these facts, anyway.
"How are you feeling?" Rose asked.
She moved her head to both sides. They could all hear the crack-like sounds of her bones. "Good as new"
"Great," Rose replied, standing up. "Ready to go and say: 'Ole, Toro!'?"
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"A plague of demons have emerged in Madrid," Rose explained to the team from the monitor of the jet they were flying on. "I've heard these are some sort of demonic bulls."
"Not something we've faced before, have we?" Dave wondered out loud from his seat.
"Can't say for sure," The Puerto Rican girl replied. "I hate making assumptions, but the description I was given 'bout them was pretty vague, yet it has lead me to believe that these might not exactly be demons, but rather specters."
"That explains the Holy Water you made us bring along," Jen commented, double-checking the small bottles on her equipment belt.
"Exactly," she confirmed, "Should my suspicion be proven right, be sure that whatever you guys attempt to fight them with, be it weapons or your own fists, is bathed in that water."
"Madrid already in sight!" Crash, the agent from Global Justice (previously member of Team Impossible) sent for them as pilot, reported. The crew of three (four counting Rufus) looked through to windows down at the Spanish city. "Reaching drop-point in five minutes."
"What's the drop-point?" Dave asked.
"The bullfighting arena," Rose informed them, "Reports say that the specters are coming from there."
"Specters from an arena? How much sense does that make?" Jen questioned.
"How much sense do any of your missions make?" Ron asked, notably worried. His experience fighting supernatural things wasn't anything to brag, not like he had anything to brag about anyway, but this particular inexperience had him scared.
"Hey!" Jen protested, "It's not like my profession involves defying logic –! Okay, sometimes it does! But hey, someone has to do it!"
"And someone has to be careful," Rose added, catching her friend's attention. "Remember Jen, you have just recovered, and you know even now you're not one-hundred percent. Know what that means?"
The brunette sighed and rested on her chair. "Yeah, I know… I'll be careful."
"Yeah, right!" Dave retorted, even though Jen didn't speak to him. "There'll be flying bulls before you ever actually start being caref–" But then his words were interrupted by the sound of something breaking into the back part of the airship. When the group turned around… "Okay, I take that back."
"Those cows can fly!?" Ron yelled before the recently arrived specter bull rushed toward them even on the insides of the flying, considerably small airship. All presents barely managed to avoid the ramping ghost, but nobody could stop it from destroying everything on its path, including the airships control before it finally got out.
"We're going down!" Crash exclaimed, stating the obvious while Rufus started yelling "Mayday" continuously.
Seconds later, the ship crashed on the streets of Madrid, a big explosion following, only adding up to the chaos present in the city. People running, screaming, fighting for their lives as the demonical phantoms attacked them, killing them more often than not.
Jen's group and the pilot, whom had jumped from the airship to a building's rooftop on the last moments, saw the massacre with shock in their eyes.
What Jen lived for… was to prevent this. To stop the interaction between demons and human that could provoke events like these. They always managed to, so far, as this type of results needed days of preparation, and it could hardly ever expand like this, but…
But in less than one day, this city was pure chaos. Wherever they'd look at there was bloodshed, corpses, bull-like demons causing havoc and more people dying. Who in the world could have caused this during less than a day?
Jen didn't know, but she did vow to herself: 'That person is going to pay!'
"Jen?" Her sidekick called out once he noticed the look on her face, but it was too late. She didn't listen… he knew, this was the kind of things she simply could not forgive.
She picked up a bottle of holy water, threw it up to the air… and slashed it with her axe, bathing the weapon on the sacred liquid, just before jumping off the building and slice through a bull flying at her, and finally landing on the street.
The bullfighting arena wasn't too far from there, and it was quite obvious now that that was the epicenter of this supernatural infestation. Without wasting any time, Jen began making her way through the bulls with all the agility her experience as a demon hunter had given her. The holy water was surely helping, practically letting her cut through these creatures' "bodies" like a hot knife through butter. However, knowing she would not be able to move forward so easily, she concluded she would need a ride… even if said ride had to be a demon.
Without thinking twice, she lured one of the bulls at her and jumped on its back; glad to see the supposed ghost's essence was actually solid enough to sustain her. She held it by one horn and stabbed the axe on its neck, keeping it controlled as she leaded the beast to where she wanted: The arena.
She killed the demon right at the entrance, and after getting rid of two more that got in her way, she finally entered the huge complex, running through a dark tunnel until finally arriving at the central area… just to find it empty.
Nobody in the arena, nobody at the grandstands. The place was deserted, but then, how come the bulls were coming from here? There HAD to be something here.
"C'mon, show yourself!" She exclaimed. She knew someone had to be here, and she'd get him or her to come out in any way possible. "Think you can unleash a horde of specters and leave it at that? Come here if you dare and I'll show you something mightier than bulls!"
"I'm GLAD to hear that!"
The young woman shivered for a moment. Had that voice come… from inside of her head?
"Who… what the…!?"
"The flames of your passion beckon me to the battlefield, human!"
That voice… it was not human, and she couldn't recall any demon actually speaking with such clarity. And again, the voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Whoever was responsible for this… wasn't normal.
"Who ARE you!?"
"I am who, amidst blood and applause, has slain countless beasts in myriad lifetimes! I have come to be recognized as Death itself! Along my trustworthy Espada, I've made of my purpose to seek through eternity the true art of assassination, and for that, my hunt can no longer be limited to beast, but to those who are willing to challenge me under the name of Grim Reaper!"
"What are we waiting for then?" she dared mock. "Here I got a one-way ticket straight to hell for you"
She heard him laughing… and then, in the middle of the arena, an explosion occurred and quickly dissipated, leaving behind a figure standing among smoke. The human-shaped creature was dressed like a classical torero, his flamboyant uniform blue and gold, all with boots, hat and gloves and wielding a Mameluke Sabre and Capote. His most distinguishable trait, however, was his skull face, which proved his words: It was like starting at none other but the incarnation Death.
"I am Matador."
He vowed, accompanying his introduction, and then, with the same apparent formality, looked at his opponent.
"What is your name, my challenger?"
"Jennifer Angela Credible" She replied, taking a fighting stance.
"It's been centuries since I have last had a worthwhile battle. To think I'd find this passion coming from a human's heart… it's even nostalgic!"
He, too, adopted his posture for combat.
"Your body seems rather weak, if you allow me to say, but I certainly hope your will shall make up for that."
She reminded silent. Never before she had faced someone like this. It might even be so that all of her experience might prove useless in this battle, so she'd really have to extra careful.
She couldn't afford losing, after all.
"Jennifer… it's truly regrettable that we have no public to please, but regardless, I am confident in that we will prove an outstanding performance"
"Can't wait," She declared. "Come at me!"
"Let's dance!!"
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Author's Notes: Not much to say here. Yeah, the fic is taking its time, but it's still going on.
Next Chapter: The living meets the dead.