Chapter 29
Last chapter Mariko Miko left the team, for good. Now she's being followed by Gizmo; why is that do you wonder? I've decided to make Gizmo a bit of a masochist like Tony haha. Mostly for comic relief, he'll be leaving soon in this chapter—I sincerely hope—anyhow ONWARD TO THE BATTLE FIELD!
"Jigoku…Shonen." Mariko mumbled then glared, "What are you doing here?"
"You're in a good mood." Klarion said snidely. Mariko's glare intensified, Teekl hissed at her from Klarion's shoulders.
"Does your appearance mean you're on my side?" Mariko asked, Klarion shrugged.
"I'm on my own side; but I like you Mariko, so I'm going to stick around for a while." He said then looked to Gizmo, "I see you spared him."
"I plan on dumping him off a cliff soon actually." Mariko said a bit more calmly as she crossed her arms.
"What?! Screw you old hag!" Gizmo shouted, Mariko leered.
"Tony, gag him." She said, Tony nodded as Yukie barked and began growling at Gizmo.
"So what now Miko?" Klarion asked, Mariko shrugged.
"Well now that both the Light and now probably the Justice league, are after me I'm going to need to hide." She said.
"Oh?" Klarion asked with a grin, Mariko wove her hand in the air dismissing the conversation.
"Not now; I gotta find a safe house." She said.
"Shouldn't be too hard; you have over a dozen in the US alone." Klarion said plainly, Mariko frowned.
"How the heck do you know that?" She hissed, "Actually second thought I don't wanna know."
"Are we taking him with us?" Tony asked as he held Gizmo by the shirt collar. Mariko shook her head.
"No; we'll drop him off in Belle Reve." She said, then turned her back to the group, "Well what are we standing around for? Let's go!"
~0~
"So what are we going to do about Mariko?" Zatanna asked, "We can't just leave her out there; who knows what she'll do with that kind of freedom."
"We all know what she's going to do. She said so in her letter; she's going after savage." Wally said. Robin shook his head.
"No Mariko's smarter than that. She's not gonna go out on blind rage if she thinks the Light and the Justice League is after her." He said, "She's probably going to lie low for a while, we won't be hearing from her for a while."
"Are you sure about that?" Conner asked.
"I'm ninty-nine point nine percent sure on this." Robin said.
"I say we should still be on the lookout," Artemis said, "Keep track of internet hackings or whatever it is she does."
"Probably a good idea," Robin said, "I'll be sure to do that."
"I can't believe she actually left." M'gaan said, she had gotten so close to Mariko within the time she had been there, and the team was starting to trust her—except Wally who was flip flopping the entire time about it.
"She didn't feel this was the place for her, and maybe…maybe she was right to think that way." Artemis said, "Let's face it no matter what she did none of us really trusted her."
"Can you blame us?" Wally asked.
"The point is she tried, and the League agrees that it's best to just leave her to herself for a while." Robin said.
"The league agreed with this?" Conner asked. Robin nodded.
"At least for a little while, anyway. They may go after her when she shows herself again." He explained, "but only time will tell on that one."
"And so we play the waiting game." Zatanna sighed, "Fun."
~0~
"Wow this place could use some cleaning," Mariko said coughing as dust flew into the air as she pushed open the door to her safe house. The place was decent enough; but extremely dusty—which was to be expected since joining the light she never had much use for her safe houses. Yukie, Tony's dog, went around and sniffed at the ground and sneezed from all the dust. Mariko smirked then walked inside.
"Tony go find a broom; you're going to be busy for the next few days." She said, Tony groaned, cleaning definitely wasn't what he was hoping to do. Klarion smirked scratching Teekl's head as he watched Mariko dust a few cobwebs from a computer.
"At least I hope this thing still works." She mumbled, as she fiddled with a few buttons. Soon the computer hummed with life as the screen lit up. Mariko sighed and sat in the old chair that sat in front of her.
"I hate moving." She sighed as Yukie yipped and walked up to her placing her head against Mariko's hand.
"This place has seen better days." Klarion said walking to her computer, "This thing is outdated too."
"Not really; I built this thing when I was a kid starting out with the Light, its outside might seem obsolete but the hardware automatically hacks and updates every few years." Mariko explained, "With any luck it has already updated and I won't have to sit here and do it manually."
"Let's keep in mind your luck hasn't been the greatest in the world lately." Klarion mocked, Mariko leered.
"You're reassuring." She grumbled, then stood up, "Well whatever, I'm gonna have Tony clean the bathroom so I can take a bath."
Mariko then walked off as Tony swept buy them with a broom. He looked to Klarion who smirked devilishly.
"What's with that smile?" Tony asked frowning at Klarion.
"Not of your concern." He said, Teekl hissed at Tony as he took a step back. Yukie growled up at the cat, "Mariko wants you to hurry up and clean the bathroom."
Tony groaned then suddenly the two heard Mariko let out the most ear piercing scream. The duo ran to the direction of which they heard the scream. When they found Mariko she was standing on the back of the toilet on her toes, pressed tightly against the walls.
"Miss Mariko, what's wrong?" Tony asked, Mariko let out a frightened squeak as she pointed to the cabinet on the ground.
"Th-there's a cockroach! It scurried under the cabinet!" she shouted, Tony let out a sigh of relief whilst Klarion burst out into laughter.
"DON'T mock me! Kill it!" Mariko screamed, "Tony kill it!"
"A child genius…haha…and you're….you're afraid of a little bug! HA! That's just hilarious Miko!" Klarion mocked, "You're worth it!"
"Shut up Klarion! This isn't funny! Cockroaches can live five days without their heads, and they can survive a nuclear explosion!" Mariko growled her face growing red, "They aren't little bugs their walking death tanks! TONY KILL THE DANG THING!"
"Yes Miss Mariko," Tony sighed, only to have Teekl jump down from Klarion's shoulders and go snooping around the bathroom floor. As it turned out the little bug that Klarion had described was actually about two or three inches in length. It hissed as Teekl pawed at it. Mariko let out a small whine.
"I'm gonna be sick…" She mumbled, not coming down from her perch as Tony came back with a news paper and glass cup.
"What are you doing?" Mariko asked, Tony shrugged.
"If you smash it it'll go everywhere," He said nudging Teekl aside and catching the bug under the glass and over the paper, "I'll go put it outside."
With that he stood and walked out bug in hand. This in turn allowed Mariko to come down from her perch.
"I want this place cleaned and I want it cleaned NOW!" she growled. Klarion chuckled.
"This is funny. Eh Teekl?" He asked, Teekl meowed as Mariko glared.
"Sadist…" she mumbled then walked off, "Tony hurry up and clean the place."
"Yaknow I'd have a lot more done if I had a little help." Tony said dryly, Mariko scowled as she walked passed him.
"Don't get mouthy with me Tony-boy remember you volunteered for this life." She huffed, Tony looked over.
"Actually from what I remember; I was lured into a false sense of security and was knocked out by blunt force trauma." He grunted, Mariko looked back.
"Oh you remember that? I thought I erased that from your memory; guess I got sloppy." She said nonchalantly. "Now hurry up; I'm going to go install a few things on Momo."
"Momo?" the two boys questioned. Mariko nodded.
"My computer? Duh." She said then walked away toward her computer, meanwhile back further away Tony looked to Klarion.
"Have you noticed Mariko's gotten a little odd…er than usual?" Klarion asked, leering over at Tony. He nodded.
"Yeah I noticed; I guess that's what happens when you're abandoned by the people you trust." He said Klarion scowled.
"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?" Klarion asked.
"You know why she's like that, all because that jerk tossed her away like she was garbage." Tony said in a shouting whisper. Klarion glared then wove his hand in the air, snagging Tony in a magical bind.
"That might work on the brats in the Justice League's band of sidekicks but not me punk." He growled, "And if you wish to do something about it; don't tick me off, or you won't see another morning."
"Oh would you two get a room!" Mariko shouted from across the room, "Tony get back to work. I want this place spotless by the time I'm done updating."
"Y-yes ma'am."
~0~
"So Mariko has joined the Justice league's band of sidekicks." Savage asked looking out his window and down at the city below. Behind him Gizmo nodded. He had been removed from Belle Reve not even two hours after Mariko and Tony.
"Yeah, but the Crud-muncher left them after our fight, she's on her own now with that stupid cyborg and some snot with a cat." He said, Savage turned his head.
"Klarion..?" He questioned. Gizmo nodded, "Well that comes to a surprise, however Klarion isn't our concern. Mariko's going to be some trouble finding, I want you to hunt her down Gizmo, and terminate him."
"I've got just the plan to get her out of hiding." Gizmo said with an evil smirk.
Wa-oh Mariko's in trouble, Gizmo's gonna be out for blood after she fried him in their fight. Will he find our little Anti-hero? Will Mariko change her ways? Will she get her revenge? All this and more in the next chapter. And yes, Mariko—like many girls—is afraid of bugs. But come on who isn't afraid of cockroaches? They can stand on their back legs and hiss! They're gross! *shiver* I'm getting the crawls just thinking of them. Review! 'See you later armadillos—unless I see you first! Haha!'