Meeting the Past
After arriving in front of lines of warehouse by the water, the hosts and the muscles began searching around, with the guys searching one end, and the girls searching the other.
"Can't believe we lost him." Walker complained.
"He's a ninja, the hell did you expect?" Francis stated.
"Shut up and keep looking."
At the other side Cerebella decided to strike up a conversation with Filia "So, tell me about yourself, Mop Top."
"Huh?" Filia replied.
"If we're gonna look, we might as well entertain ourselves."
"You're a circus star, why don't you entertain?" Samson retorted.
"Man, your hair's got an attitude problem."
"Its hard on me sometimes." Filia said.
"Sorry, kid, but we're stuck for a while, can't get me off, you know." Samson told her.
"Anyway, you haven't told me about yourself, yet."
"Well, I can't really say much. I like drinking coffee and milkshakes, radio dramas, reading comics and romance novels, and dogs."
"Huh, they are cute, aren't they? What else?"
"I…" There was a long pause before Filia finally said "I don't remember anything else."
"Huh?" Cerebella was confused at this "What do you mean?"
"Well, I sorta have…" Filia looked down "amnesia."
"Oh, I'm sorry I brought it up." Cerebella apoligised "Must be hard to not remember anything about yourself."
"N-no, it's fine. You didn't know."
"No, I was being nosy. It's not okay."
"No, it is."
Samson then perked up and yelled "FILIA, DODGE!"
Filia didn't think twice before rolling away as a wall broke with a man tumbling out, who is revealed to be,
"THE NINJA!" Cerebella yelled.
Kage looked to his side, to see the women and told them "Get out of here, it's dangerous!"
"Where are you looking at?!" The ninja looked to the side before meeting with an electrically charged foot and hitting against a stack of boxes.
"What the hell is that?!" The two ladies looked behind them to see Walker and Francis running up to them.
"You two okay?" Francis asked.
"Yeah." Filia said and looked back to the fight "The ninja is being attacked by this man."
"I can see that." Walker looked to see Kage in the air and throwing kunais at Spike, who turned invisible "The hell did he go?"
Kage landed and looked towards the group before his eyes widened in surprise "No, impossible!"
"You're really, losing your edge, dogboy." Kage felt something grab his head as he got electrically shocked before dropping to the ground. Spike uncloaked himself "This is supposed to be the strength of the Shinobi Hounds?"
"Shinobi Hounds?!" Francis eyes widened this time as he heard that name. Memories started to flash through his head.
"Hello, Earth to muscleman, you okay?" Cerebella said as she tried to get his attention.
Francis looked back at the ninja dog, ignoring everyone else "It can't be, is he-?"
"Hey, Frenchie, you awake?" Walker called.
"I need to find out something about him." Francis finally said.
"Huh?" They asked before he reached his arm towards Kage and pulled his scarf away.
"What?" Kage looked to see his scarf falling to Francis' feet.
"I knew it." Francis spoke quietly "It is you."
"Okay you mind telling me what's going on, Francis?!" Walker yelled.
"I finally got you, murderer." Francis said.
Spike scratched his head "What the hell is going on?"
"I kneow, I've been kept in the dark for too long!"
"You tell me-hm?" Walke looked to his left to see the orb that carried Ms Fortune "GAH! THE HELL?! DID THE BALL JUST TALK?!"
"Who you callin' a ball, buster?!"
Kage stood up "Tell me your name."
"Francis. The owner of the Serpent Armes." Francis looked up menacingly "The son of Jean-Pierre the Wrecker."
Kage stepped back as soon as he heard that "So, you're his son."
"Yeah." He cracked his knuckles "It's time for you to pay up for what you did, you son of a bitch." He threw his fist at him as Kage jumped up and back flipped.
"Listen to me, what happened was unintentional." Kage reasoned while Francis drew his fist back.
"I don't care if it was intended or not, you did what you did, and I'll do what I'll do." He launched it again as he performed the Tornado Punch, a punch that involves his hand twirled and untwirled as he punches.
Kage jumped back again but couldn't get far as the wind that the fist made drew him in and connected with him. Francis had his hands together as he raised them up and decided to smash him.
But a gigantic black parasitic hand stopped it from reaching the ground "Francis, calm down will ya?!"
"Move, Walker." Francis told him coldly.
"Not until I hear a full story." Walker retorted.
"What?!"
"You heard me!"
Francis was silent for a moment, then drew of both his fist back to him as Stalker reformed the hand into a sleeve "Fine. Back when I was a kid, when my mom was gone, my dad needed some cash. So he had to work…for the Medici."
"It actually wasn't bad, they gave us a home when we didn't have one, and everyone there was pretty great. My dad, who owned the family Serpent Armes, became the best of the best, and became a top-ranked. But then the day came."
"He was off with a group to go and take care of another gang, the Shinobi Hounds. They got in the Medici's way too many times, and we needed them to stop. They failed, and most came back injured, while a few died. My father was one of them."
"Francis." Cerebella said, feeling sympathy for him.
"He was murdered, by a Shinobi kid. He was praised by the clan for driving them back. I only remembered a scar on his neck." Francis looked to Kage "The same scar that you have!"
Kage reached up to an almost unnoticeable scar on the right side of his neck "I understand what you feel, but at least listen-"
"I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO JACKSHIT!" Francis yelled which made everyone shocked "You see, Walker. I can't let someone like him walk. I have to make him pay. So, move aside."
"…No."
"No?" Francis walked over to him and grabbed him by the collar "What do you mean no? You gonna stop me from avengin' my dad?"
"I'm stopping you from doing something you'll regret." Walker replied.
Spike, who was witnessing the whole thing, tried to sneak away "Not a big fan of drama shows. I'm out of here."
He didn't escape Kage's eyes, however "Stop!" He raced after him with orb behind him.
"You're not going anywhere!" Francis tried to reach a fist to him before being held by Walker.
"Sorry, Pretty Boy, but you're gonna have to go through me."
"Fine." Francis drew back the fist as Walker jumped back "Looks like we finally get to fight."
Walker spoke to the two ladies "You better follow him, my gut still tells me we need him."
"What about you?" Filia asked worryingly.
Walker grinned playfully "Looks like I need to knock some sense into Frenchie here."
"Mop Top." Filia turned to Cerebella at the sound of the nickname that she's apparently stuck with "We better go. I think they'll be fine."
Filia looked to Walker, then Francis, then back to Cerebella "Hey kid, if he says he's got it, he's got it." Samson assured.
Filia looked to her parasite before nodding "Alright." The ladies ran off, and before going out of site, Filia yelled "Be careful!"
Walker looked at them and smiled before back at Francis "You know, now that I got to fight you, it really isn't as fun as I thought."
Francis cracked his knuckles "You said you wanted to fight me. Now you got your wish."
Walker pooped his neck "Huh, what a pain. But at least fighting you shouldn't be so bad."
They got into their stances staring each other down for a while. Then at the same time, they shouted "LET'S GO!"
In a rather small room, there were two beds opposite from the door, a closet, and a table with a mirror. Mage was the only one present, as Parasoul had to discuss things with Arselite and Peacock was enjoying her free buffet. The cronies? With Peacock. Mage told them to go with her because he needed to be by himself. He was currently examining a picture that Arselite dropped a while back with a picture of a girl around 12 to 13 in a maid outfit.
"So, they're looking for Marie." Mage thought "Guess it was to be expected, since she is the Skullgirl."
He first thought that maybe he should tell that he knew her to the Princess, but he believed it would be better to keep silent for the time being. Moments later, Peacock bursted into the room, and Mage quickly hid the picture in his pocket.
"Whoo. You're missin' out on some good treat, Max. You wouldn't believe what they have here." Peacock told him.
"Actually, I do." Mage replied with a straight face "When you're a famous magician, sometimes you have to join in on these formal banquets. However, it gets rather tedious after a while."
"There you go, actin' like a snob again." Peacock lightly retorted. Peacock sat on the bed opposite of his "You know, you changed quite a bit."
"Hmm?" Mage lifted his head to look at Peacock.
"I mean, you're being this pompous, fancy guy, not to mention boring. Can't believe I hung out with you."
"Not everyone has to remain as a child, Patricia." Mage told her.
"Jeez. If I ever need a lullaby, I'll just have a conversation with you." Peacock told him as she lied down on the bed.
"Funny." Mage stood up from his bed and proceeded to the door.
"Hey, come on, no need to take it so seriously, Doc."
"It's not about that." Mage said. He had his head slightly turned in her direction before facing the open door again "I just...need to think." With that, he left the room.
Peacock scratched her head "What's his deal?"
Mage walked around the outside complex with a lot of things in his mind. Mainly the Skullgirl, his old friend Marie, what he should should he confront her, and the most important of all, how he was gonna break it to Patricia.
"Dammit, this is gonna break her even further." He took out the picture again and looked at it without staring what's ahead, causing him to bump into someone "I'm sorry, I didn't see where I was going."
"No, that's okay, neither did I." Mage looked up to see the Commander.
"C-Commander Arselite!" Mage exclaimed.
"Hey there, kid." Arselite gave a small two-finger salute.
"I told you, I'm not a child."
"Right, right." Arselite waved it off "Anyway, what are you doing out here?"
"I just decided to go out for some air." The magician half-lied.
"Well, nothing fresh, just military gas." Arselite joked.
Mage then thought if hes hould mention this to the commander. He didn't see the downside, so he proceeded "Commander, do you have any leads on the Skullgirls at the moment?"
"*sigh* Unfortunately, no. Right now, we haven't got any leads. You wouldn't happen to have one would you?"
"No leads, but..." Mage stopped.
"But what?" Arselite questioned "If you know something, you should tell us."
"...No, it's nothing. Just thinking about things." Mage lied. As he walked away he said "I'm probably gonna go back and sleep early. Day has been rather hard."
Arselite scratched his chin "I wonder, is he keeping something?" He mumbled.
Note: And I'm finally done. Now you're probably asking why this is short by one section. Because I wanna focus more on the good guys and keep the sections with the villains a secret.