WolfGear Presents: Negima? The mage and the Gunslinger
Pairings: Negi X ku-Fei Kaede X OC
Chapter 56: Dead men flying in the sky's above.
I don't own Negima
"I have claimed the lives of countless men, but this land has claimed more than can be counted." Ray McCoy
Ray had a bad feeling in his gut. The kind of bad feeling that said the shit was about to hit the fan, and then some, kind of like when he was serving on the frontlines. The signs of trouble hidden from the sight of civilians were clear in his eyes. Members of the red dragon clan scattered thought out the arena in discuses, a large number of earth Dragovian's baring Dgir's seal sat among the crowd, weapons in plain sight, and finally the biggest sigh of all was the stench of sinister dark magic that filled the air. Ray could not tell if it was from Jack's strange curse or of something even more vicious.
"I don't like this," He muttered. "I don't like this at all." To make matters worse the screens showing the race had gone blank, and even the life monitors of the racers, most likely sabotage. "Stay sharp, and prepare for anything." He warned the girls. They firmly nodded in understanding. "Good, someone go down to the sick bay and warn the ninja girl as well. She gets too distracted fussing over Jack."
"I'll go." Ku volunteered, and started to make her way down below the stands. Following behind her were two members of the earth clan, who though they could have a little fun, before their master's plan started.
Inside the infirmary Kaede was busy pacing the floor, the soul flask, the item needed to break Jack's curse was right here, and she had to wait for this stupid race to finish! That didn't sit well with her, not at all; she wished she could do what Jack would most likely do in this situation. Sneak past the guards and take the soul flask without any thoughts about what happens afterwards. Actually that didn't sound like too bad of plan, now that she thinks about; after all she was a NINJA! Master of stealth, it would be easy for her to steal the Soul flask without anybody being the wiser.
"What should I do?" Kaede pleaded falling to Jack's side. The black marks had covered all but his left arm, and his hair was now completely white. "Oh Jack I could really use your help."
"D-wh…yo…mu…" Jack muttered in his sleep.
"What?" She leaned in closer, again he spoke and she heard it clear as day this time.
"Do what you must do."
Kaede squeezes Jack's hand, and nods. "I will and thank you."
Rummaging through Jack's satchel bag, Kaede pulls out her official ninja uniform, a black from fitting top and shorts, and as an added touch she dons a spare gunslinger's jacket and pistols as well as hat and bandana to help hide her face, if she was going to do this, she was going to do it right, which means making any survivors report to that they saw a gunslinger in black than a ninja. Hell they might even think it was Jack's grandfather Jake coming back to his items. Wouldn't that be convent?
Kaede had to laugh at herself for that one. "Yeah, like we would ever be that lucky. Well that should be everything I need, time to go save the day Jack's way." She said squeezing Jack's hand once more for luck. "I promise I will succeed." And then she vanished.
Only a minute later Ku-Fei arrived at the infirmary completely empty, except for Jack, who was still sleeping. Confused as to why the ninja would leave Jack unattended, Ku began a comical and inadequate search for her tall friend, looking under the bed, behind all the closed curtains, and even the cookie jar.
"Hmm, I wonder were Kaede when? Do you know Jack?" Ku asked the sleeping cowboy, she received no response, at least from Jack.
"Don't worry little girl we'll take you to your friend." A man with brown hair and scale tipped ears told the blonde. His partner snickered. "Yeah will be taking you all to hell soon, but first we'll be having a little fun with you!"
Ku reached for her Pactio card, but one of the goons threw something at her, and she couldn't move.
"Like it? It's a special scent bomb that renders the target paralyzed. What's more it also leaves the senses unaffected so you'll be experiencing everything we plan to do, starting with those cute little breasts of yours!" The goon snickered reaching for Ku's shirt. She shut her eyes tight; she couldn't believe this was happening!
"Someone pleases help!" She cried, and then something hot and sickly landed on her face. She was afraid to see what it was, but she opened her eyes, and saw RED lots and lots of red! It was blood; it stained the front of her shirt and the white walls and floors of the infirmary. The goons that had been about to rape her, were nothing more than piles of meat on the floor, and standing over them, covered in blood was Jack. His skin was a grayish/black now, and his eyes… his eyes were terrifying, black Sclera and blood red iris. It was like looking into the eyes of a demon.
"J-J-Jack is that you?" Ku asked fearfully as the being before just stared blankly at her as if he was hearing her, but not seeing her.
"Sorry girl," A voice said from the shadows. It was Haze Highland, and he was looking like he just won the grand prize at a game show. "But Jack here is one of us now. A knight of the Death for the Princess of Death Shihime, and that he has finally succumb to my mistress curse he will be known as Blackjack. Now as a thank you for bring him all the way here for us, my mistress has decided to let you live… for now." He said disappearing in a void of shadows, and Jack along with him!
"Hiya what am I going to do now?" Ku asked herself, but unfortunately she was still parlayed and now one was around to help. For now she would wait for the drug to wear off, and then she would tell Ray what happened, hopefully the old gunslinger would send someone soon, unless he wasn't at all curious on what could be taking her so long.
It was cold, really cold! It literally was like being out in the artic without a jacket, with they basically were dragon gear was designed to be resilient against the cold, but even it had its limits. But with the death of his new friend, the cold felt even colder to Negi. It still felt so surreal to him, Ragazzo was right there beside him, and then in flash he was wrapped in the tentacles in that monster! Shiki told him after he had awaken from his forced sleep, that Ragazzo blew himself up to make sure, he made it out. He had kept his promise; it was only fitting that Negi do the same.
"Hey kid you alright?" It was Kallen Saarland, one of the two female racers; it looked like her material instincts were kicking in. Cha also pulled beside the mage, but offered no words of concern.
"I'm fine." He lied. He was anything, but fine a friend was dead, and he was worried about what Dgir was planning to do with the crowd at the stadium. Eventually people would have to come and confirm whether they were dead or not, and that was something that Dgir couldn't allow if he wanted the other Dragovian clans trust.
"Children your age should be more honest with their feeling. Otherwise you grow up to be a shutout, lying adult." Char said. "At least that's was master always said when I was growing up."
Negi knew it was rude, but he couldn't help but stare at the woman flying beside him. The hair, and eyes were different, but the face, the voice, and the strangely shaped ears were all too similar to Chachamaru's for it to be acquaintance.
"Is there something you wish to say?" Cha asked. "Staring is quite rude you know."
Negi blushed with embarrassment. "Yes sorry about that, but remind me of a friend of mine."
"I'm not surprised. I have many sisters, and we all look very similar."
"Really? Do happen to know of a sister named Chachamaru?" Negi asked. It was starting to come together now.
"No. I have no record of a sister of that name, but it is possible one of them changed their name. Some of us don't really like being part of Chachaone's army in the wastes." Cha said.
"Chachaone?" Negi questioned. Really how many dolls could Evangeline had made?
Cha nodded. "Yes, Chachaone or Britta for her individual name, she was the first unit made after Chachazero. I myself am Chacha unit #1534 or Charlotte, but in recent years I have found Cha an appropriate name as well." It was a good thing they got to pick different names, addressing everyone by their number was starting to become a mouth full.
Negi couldn't help but blink #1535? That is a lot of Chachamaru's, but there was something that he was still curious about. "What does Chacha stand for? I mean does it mean anything or stand for something?"
"No, not really," Cha said with a giggle. "The only reason Master used the phrase Chacha is because it was her favorite dance."
He blinked, "Really?" The image of Evangeline doing the chacha was rather funny.
"Yes, and she was rather good too, especially when she danced with Master Jake." She paused; she wasn't supposed to tell people that!
"Jake…?" thought Negi, he had heard the name before, and an army of dolls, plus Evangeline… equals… holy shit!
Don't breathe a word if you want to keep living boy! Shiki warned. Making Negi clamp his mouth shut with hands. Kallen looked curiously at him, but shrugged off his strange behavior, things were about to heat up, literately!
The Volcano range of Ifrit the fire beast was dead head! Hundreds of active volcanoes erupted daily, and about ten seconds apart from each other. Making this the number one most naturally dangerous place in the whole magical world!
Timaius grinned; this was going to be fun! "Alright troops follow my lead and you'll maybe survive!" The dragon lord shouted driving low, the others followed, and together they dashed around the oversized craters of fire in seconds! Sheering hot sag fell from the sky as pillars of lava rocketed into the air and fell back to the ground. Even the tiniest slip up would result in death.
"This is good, keep it up!" Timaius encouraged, if things keep going like this they would reach the entrance to the underground caves in no time. As usual though fate had another plan in mind, off to the south a horde of black spots flew in the distance. Drawing closer the black spots revealed themselves to be an all too familiar enemy, the black creatures that made up Cosmo Entelecheia's army.
What in the hell are they doing here, Negi wondered, but he had no time to think on the matter and further because they opened fire!
Black beams of energy flew towards the racers, everyone used every Ariel move they knew to dodge the beams, but between those and the column of lava there wasn't much room to move around. It seemed like this would be the end for them when Kallen caught sight of something in the distance. It was a cave; more over it was the entrance to the caves they were looking for.
"Over there!" She pointed, steering Guarren towards the entrance of the caves, when suddenly a stray beam blasted the lava rock beside her, engulfing her in flames!
"KALLEN!" Negi screamed in agony. They may have just met, but the kindness and concern the dragon racer had shown him was forever engraved in his heart. He flew into the caves vowing to avenge his fallen commands by putting stop to this senseless violence.
Well Negi was pushing head the others gathered at the entrance of the cave. Chen and Gale had proposed a bold and daring strategy. They were going to stay behind, and collapse the entrance and hold of the black monsters as long as possible. Well Timaius, Rakan, and Cha go on ahead.
"You do know if you do this there is only a 5% chance you'll survive, right?" Cha told them. "And that's not including those black monsters."
"We know." Gale replied solemnly. Beside him Chen nodded in agreement. They would die, so that many more would live.
"Go my friends; you have not much time to waste." The monk said bowing with his prayer beads in hand.
"We will not forget your sacrifices." Timaius declared and began his way into the caves. Cha nodded respectively, and followed, Jack gave his signature thumbs up, and wished them good hunting.
"Well, which side do you want?" Gale joked as he loaded his gun for the last time, behind him the cave entrance was rigged to blow. "I think I'll take the thousand on the right."
Chen cracked a smile. "Then I shall take the thousand on the left then." He said swinging his Bo staff around.
"Bring it!" They yelled together as the horde poured down on them. This was the stuff heroes were made of and of those who will be remembered.
Back at the stadium things were getting tense. It had been hours sense the monitors were offline, and people were growing restless. To make matter worse more members of Dgir's faction filled the stadium, making proclaims of his victory and his entitlement as the new Dragovian leader. This did not sit well with the other clans, or the other species, they could smell something rotten in the air.
And they weren't the only ones, Ray too smelt it. After he found Ku-Fei in the infirmary and heard what Jack had become. He noticed that the dark aura that was flooding the stadium had disappeared. It was the calm before the storm. Just like twenty years ago during the war when the shit was about to hit the fan, and then burst into flames.
"Bow to your new leader Dgir!"
"And there's the fucking match." Ray grumbled. Dgir had finally arrived and in first place too. There was something wrong though, he was too clean.
Normally you wouldn't think of that as a problem, but when you fly though an ocean, a volcano field, and then an underground cave. You tend to have a bit more dirt then a few stains here and there. The fact he was also uninjured too was suspicious only one person had ever accomplished that and comparing him to Dgir was like comparing a worm to a mountain and saying the two were even. In the history of entire dragon race nobody had ever finished this early, and this good of shape. Even if Timaius had fallen, he wouldn't have died without either killing Dgir, or maiming to the point where he would die anyways.
"Get ready, and check your weapons." He warned the girls. "Thinks are about to get messy."
"Dgir you basterd I'm going to gut you and hang your intestines on my wall!" Timaius, Rakan, Cha, and Negi entered the stadium, weapons at the ready. Thing were going just as Ray expected, straight down the shitter. "You are cheating basterd, Dgir! You had your minions ambush us and caused the death of four brave souls, and you will pay for the blood you had shed with your cowardly deception."
"My, my, my you are such a sore loser Timaius," Dgir mocked, "And accusing your new leader of cheating and murder. Un un ah." He wiggled his finger. "That a pretty bad sport, and since you have no proof I have no choice, but to detain you and your friends for treason. Guards!"
Timaius smirked. "Who said we didn't have any proof? I have all the proof I need thanks to these memory spheres I attached to each rider's saddle, including yours." Timaius let loose a chilling smile as he activated the spheres, showing everything that had happened, from the ocean to the caves, and even some footage of Dgir boasting about his plans to himself. Not the smartest idea.
Not the smartest idea at all for he had broken the most important rule, in fact the only real rule of dragon racing, no cheating! Now Dgir is banned a liar, and is disowned from the Dragovian community as well as is followers. Oh and they are also to be killed on sight, starting now.
"Let's get the basterd!"
"Hang em' high!"
"Shit in his mouth and let him choke on it!"
Is what some of the crowd were yelling at the shamed Dragovian, which made him very, very pissed off!
"You damned ingrates! Soldiers attack!" The members of the earth clan went for their weapons, but Timaius's men had already scooped them out and quickly and effectively took them down. Any that were missed, were quickly taken down by Ray and company. Dgir's rebellion had been stopped before it could even begin, or so they thought, Dgir had one more card to play.
"You think you've stopped me? Please one of my standing always has a backup plan!" With a snap of his fingers, a flash of light appeared and dissipated to reveal Fate! As well as his girl squad. "With the power of Cosmo Entelecheia at my back nothing can stop me!"
Just then an explosion blew open the north wall of the stadium and ragged figure smashed into the stands holding a strange looking gourd like thing in its hands. Closer inspection revealed the figure to be Kaede! And she was in pretty bad shape; her body was littered with cuts and most noticeably burn marks.
Imitatively Negi flew to the ninja's side. Her injuries were borderline server. She wasn't in any imitate danger but that could change quickly. Luckily Konoka was on the job having already charged a up a healing spell and began healing the downed ninja.
"Kaede… who did this to you?" Negi asked, Kaede was their third strongest fighter, it would take someone insanely powerful to do this to her.
She opened her eyes, and weakly she pointed towards the hole in the wall, and whispered, "He did…"
Standing there was Haze Highland and standing next to him was a creature with gray skin, crimson eyes and white hair. He looked different, but Negi could tell… it was Jack.
Slot 1: Timaius of the Red fire dragons, Dragon stead Drakus Red fire type dragon
Slot 3: Jack Rakan of the Crimson wings, Dragon stead Shining Star Golden Fire type dragon
Slot 9: Cha of the wastes, Dragon stead Diamox crimson fire type dragon
Slot 10: Negi of the McCoy Ranch, Dragon stead Shiki Pale white wind type dragon