Chapter 26

Toji had unloaded an entire magazine at the old geezer as he flew up but nothing connected. He had sprinted to the opposite corner of the roof and was reloading when he landed right in front of him. Toji had swung the stock around for the old guy's chin, but he had twisted it out of his hands by the barrel with one hand and thrown it over the side.

"You are a child, and you fight with a child's weapon."

"And your balls are wrinkled!" Toji swung out and had his hand batted aside like it was nothing. It was the perfect distraction to slam a kick into the back of his knee then jerk his own knee up into said testicles.

"And now they're flat! You're welcome!" Toji said and twisted out of the way just in time to let a lethal fist pass by his chest instead of collapse his rib cage. Toji let the twist carry him into a step back, then another to square off with the old man in the suit. The old man unbuttoned his jacket and threw it to the ground, then pulled off his tie.

"Tell me your name kid." He said as he undid the top buttons of his shirt, and then undid his cuffs to roll up his sleeves. Toji thought he sounded American.

"Hey man, you are coming to my home town, its only polite for you to introduce yourself first." Toji responded.

"Very well, you Japanese always did always have strange customs. I am Jeremiah Purcell, student of the true master of Sinanju, telepath, and telekinetic." The old man, who Toji could now see what quite muscular for his advanced age, said and raised his fists. "And you are?"

Toji opened and clenched his fists back shut. "My name is Suzuhara Toji, samurai in the service of Lord Ikari Shinji, avatar of Shiva the destroyer."

"Impressive, if not rather ridiculous sounding, wouldn't you agree? No matter, samurai Suzuhara, you die here you insolent rat!" The old man said, shouting the final words. Toji was more surprised by the fact he made no move to attack him.

"Um, so is the whole insult exchange a ritual thing we are supposed to do? Sorry I am not familiar with American customs." Toji said, not letting his guard down.

"I saaaaaid you are a rat!"

"Uh, okaaaaay, I get that, Japanese, buck-toothed, ha ha ha, you so funny. Why are you saying it in that weird voice?"

"You aren't acting like a rat…"

"An astute observation."

"Are you feeling at all ratty?

"I guess I am a bit hungry. Been fighting a while now."

"Hungry for garbage, crumbs, cheese perhaps?"

"Squeak?"

"Finally!"

"Uh no, was just trying to make you feel better. Sad old people are depressing."

"I am fifty-seven! Fine, I am just going to kill you the old fashioned way. You know this would have been easier if you had just turned into a rat." The Dutchman said and lashed out with a high kick while forming a mental image of a fist taking the boy in the gut. Get him bent over so the chest level kick caves his face in.

To Jeremiah's surprise, Toji stayed upright and sent the elder man's leg down to the rooftop with an open handed jab straight down. He felt his ankle bend, but not break with the impact. The same hand that neutered the kick swung out in a backhand swing. The Dutchman moved around the clumsy punch, thrusting out a his left hand in a knife strike straight for the kid's throat.

Jeremiah realized a couple things too late. One, the young samurai was faster than he looked. Two, that backhand was a feint.

The Dutchman's vision blurred as the kid's left hand came back and boxed his right ear with a closed fist. He lost focus a fraction of a second. It was enough.

As his left hand swung for the old geezer's head, his right hand pushed the striking arm away just far enough for his peaked fingers to go over Toji's shoulder, instead of through his windpipe. His had swung his arms together in a pincer, taking advantage of all the muscles across his chest and shoulders to push the much bigger man around. Missing made the old guy's body do the next part for him as he overextended.

Before the Dutchman could compensate, Toji ducked under the taller man's arm and grabbed his wrist with his left hand, driving his fingertips into the nerve bundle. He hooked his right arm around the man's tricep, up against the armpit, and then wrenched the wrist down as he pushed up with his left shoulder. He pushed until he heard a sickly POP.

Toji had some respect for the guy when he only grunted as his shoulder joint was wrenched apart. Toji let go and pushed away from the geezer's back as he brought his right elbow around to dislodge the teen. Toji ducked it but was too far off balance to avoid the jab as the Dutchman changed directions. He managed to deflect the headshot into his shoulder and nearly fell as the impact shot through his body.

Toji clamped his hands over the Dutchman's good hand and held it to his shoulder to pull himself back upright, then swung his left elbow out while his opponent's arm was against his chest. He connected and let the man's hand go to twist around and slam his fist into his solar plexus, followed by jabbing his left hand into his side. It hurt to use his left arm after the shoulder impact.

Jeremiah Purcell guarded his abdomen and his slight hunch over was enough for Toji to raise both hands over his head and drop him to the ground with a hammer blow to the back of the head.

Toji stood over the man's body, catching his breath until he saw the man was still breathing too.

"You know man, that was good, I really haven't had someone that challenging in a long time." Toji said and stepped on the man as he crossed the roof to retrieve his side arm from his gear. "But you tried to hurt Shinji and that means I gotta kill ya. No hard feelings, 'cept my shoulder hurts so I hate your ass right now."

Toji pulled the weapon from its holster and turned around to finish the job. The man was gone. Toji looked left, then turned his head right into an oncoming fist that sent him sliding across the roof face first. Despite his vision being filled with stars and flashing light, he raised his pistol, only to have it snatched out of his hands before a foot slammed into his stomach.

The Dutchman stood over the young samurai and, taking the pistol in both hands along the barrel, tore it in two.

"You're right you little puke, that was good. I haven't stepped in a piece of shit as big as you for a while." Jeremiah said then reached down and lifted Toji off the ground by his injured shoulder, driving his thumb into the spot his knife hand had bruised to the bone.

Toji didn't scream. He gritted his teeth, growled through the pain, and forced his eyes open to look straight into those of his opponent. Purcell's blue eyes were so bloodshot Toji couldn't see any white.

"Scream little piggy. You got a few good shots in, so I want to get some fun before you beg for death."

"Fuck you!" Toji yelled and grabbed the white man's wrist. Before the Dutchman brought his other, injured, arm up, Toji drove his thumb into the man's wrist. Toji took the hit to his face and failed to escape the hold until he was thrown to the ground.

"On your knees boy, isn't that how you Japanese sit?"

"I'm not your mother last night!" Toji yelled and pushed himself off the ground to shoot for one of the old man's legs. Instead he took a kick so hard he rolled ass over head towards the edge of the roof.

"I will rip that tongue from your mouth boy." The Dutchman said and reached down for Toji's face. Toji very nearly caught a finger as he snapped his jaws shut then swung a fist for the man's crotch.

Another kick lifted Toji from the ground and he found his arms flailing to grab something as he saw the lip of the roof pass beneath him. He touched concrete and grabbed with everything he had before his body slammed against the side of the building. Pain shot up and down as his body as he hung from a tiny ledge a yard below the lip of the roof, eight stories off the ground, by his left hand. The hand connected to his injured shoulder.

Toji finally screamed as swung his other hand up, all the weight twisting through the injured joint. Once both hands were on the ledge he felt better though. His hold was stable. He was thirty meters off the ground give or take, but he wasn't falling anymore.

The sharp impact on his head brought him back to the dangerous reality at hand. Toji looked up and saw the geezer looking at him over the edge, with several bits of gravel floating in the air above Toji.

"Oh fuck me." Toji grumbled.

"I ain't your boyfriend last night." Jeremiah replied and bounced another rock off Toji's head. Toji felt the blood from that one start to run down his forehead. "I can do this all day little samurai, I give you maybe…"

When the whole building shook, Toji lost his grip on his injured side but held fast with the other. The old man let the rocks fall, while one hit Toji it lacked the force of the first two instead simply dropping.

"Lucky you little samurai, gotta go. We will finish next time, I promise." The old man said and disappeared back over the ledge of the roof.

Toji didn't even bother looking down, he didn't want to know. He just concentrated on finding a way back up.

"You will die here, pig's ear, then the world will know the true Master of Sinanju and tremble before him."

"Yeah, you just try it sweet heart. I never met anybody with better dirty talk then you, Niuhc, even after all these years. You work the shaft so good you could sit in a window in Amsterdam."

"You jest while your unworthy son dies."

"Naw, just keeping your attention, you aren't worth my time."

Niuhc felt the bow wave of the air rushing past him and jumped forward, just dodging Viral as he slammed into the ground, leaving a cracked dent in the asphalt.

"My apprentice on the other hand is eager to meet you."

"Sup." Viral said and rose from his four point landing. He rolled his neck and stretched his shoulders. "Been wanting to take you on since Ssem first mentioned you."

"Viral, I shall be very disappointed if you should die." Remo said and began walking around the little man in the blue robe to address his grievously injured student. Niuhc moved to stop the master but suddenly found himself face to face with the apprentice.

"You dirty rat, I'm going to do you like you did my brother." Viral said in his best Cagney.

"What?!"

Niuhc just managed to dodge the blond man's swing, so close that four long slashes ripped through the chest of his robe and took everything below the waste off. One retreat turned into many as he jumped, ducked, and skipped out of the way from beast before him. He felt the claw like nails drag in the cloth of his robe and the sting as tiny ditches of skin were taken from him.

"Attacking this city, I can deal with. These people are not mine to protect."

He was talking, his breathing should be changing, he should be slowing down. But he was just getting faster, closer. Niuhc grabbed the shoulder of his robe and ripped it off, throwing it in the way of the animal that fought like a man. What was once a robe turned to ribbons and a cloud of fibers.

Niuhc was already there, spear hand raised. His entire body jolted when the broad hand arrested him by the wrist with his knuckles just inches from those golden eyes.

"I can even deal with you insulting this little family I got here."

Viral whipped the well-built little man like a ragdoll and threw him skidding across the asphalt and the concrete.

"But you coming for my kid brother over there, three on one, cause you don't have the balls to come see Ssem or me personally, that's a coward's work."

Niuhc rose from the pile of small rubble that fell to the ground as he slammed into the masonry of one of the tall towers. He was wearing only trousers and slippers, bearing his muscular chest and…

"Oh hello, what is that? Looks important, would be a shame if something were to….happen to it." Viral said with a toothy grin.

Over Niuhc's heart, bolted into the skin by iron spikes through crude black clips, was a stone face, no bigger than the palm of a man's hand. It had a neutral smile and eyes carved to look peacefully closed.

Niuhc dropped into a stance, hands raised with clawed fingers… then ran. Quickly. Amazingly fast even for a skilled practitioner of the most ancient and deadly art.

"Oh you son of… get your scrawny ass back here! I am not finished… hey look, fried cyborg ninja!"

Remo was at Shinji's side as soon as Viral had whatever that thing was' attention. Yeah it looked, talked, and acted like his master's nephew, but he had seen the man die himself. Shinji looked alright but for the hole the size of golf ball in his chest, just to the left of his solar plexus. And the fact he was white as a ghost.

Remo made sure he was still breathing. He was. Good, kid was a fighter, but Remo knew that already. When he reached down to lift him up, something like chalk came off on his hands. Remo ground it between his fingers.

Ash. The kid's skin was covered in white ash.

Remo lifted his head from the ground and wiped some of the chalky ash off his face.

"Shinji, can you here me? Come on Shinji, its Remo, its sensei."

His head twitched a little in Remo's hand. Remo pushed his hand back down when he tried to raise it.

"Sssh sssh sssh, don't you worry, I got ya. We are going to get you back to NERV and all patched up. No time off saving the world just for a little thing like a hole in your chest."

Shinji gurgled a little as Remo picked him up. It passed for laughter.

Remo was glad he was awake, but was troubled. As he picked the boy up, Remo noticed he was way too thin, too light. Not that he trusted her at all, but he would let Dr. Akagi have a look at him. First they had to get him there though.

When Remo heard the boom he moved to shield Shinji until he saw the ninja fly past overhead.

Kali, skin black as night and eyes like blood, stared down the machine man.

They had tricked her, the filthy cowards. Weak, pathetic, prey had to use tricks, and corner them in groups. They feared us, she thought. They feared the wrath of Kali and Shiva, so they tricked us because they knew it was the only way they could win.

Her teacher and brother had the leader, the little man who talked. She had felt Shiva's warrior fighting the old one, the one who made fire from nothing. The shadow warrior covered in metal skin had been left for her.

She would have liked to have all of their skulls for a necklace. She would settle for this one. Perhaps once Shiva was well again, she would demand such a necklace from him to make up for his shame at being beaten.

The warrior flipped his short swords around to hold them with the blades tucked back against his arms and charged her. She did not move to block or avoid him. She only snarled and the light of her soul stopped a blow with one of the sword pommels that would have shattered stone.

When the ninja flipped the sword around and the point passed right through her field, she drifted to the side like water parting before the bow of a ship.

Interesting

Sword thrusts like rain fall, as if everywhere at once, came upon her. With slow, lazy steps she sidestepped the ones she could. The rest she deflected with fingertip strikes to the flat of the blades.

Kali was becoming irritated. He was moving barely faster than a human. Even if his knowledge of Sinanju was a lie, the machines should at least give him some advantage. She came to the conclusion that he must be toying with her, or was really just that weak. Either way, how insulting to waste her time so.

Without any sign or unnecessary movement, Kali thrust a blade hand out for the ninja's shoulder. With the light of her soul she aimed to sever the arm.

The sound was like a church bell being struck… as the bell tower was blown to bits. The metal plate her hand struck was not on the shoulder, it was on the arm. He had moved so fast she was impressed. As the plate buckled and tore from the metallic muscles, the ablative shaped charge turned it to hundreds of pieces of shrapnel. The ninja floated on the opposing force of the blast and landed on the side of a nearby glass tower in a three-point stance some forty feet off the ground.

Kali looked down at the bloody stump at her right shoulder. Her arm was in pieces nearby.

A clever technique. You know enough to anticipate the devastating power of a single strike from Sinanju. So you turn the power of the strike against the attacker and then some.

Her glowing red eyes flared and new flesh created itself. It came in close waves. First the ivory bones, then the muscles and tendons, then the night black skin. The nails sliding into place made a sound like a switchblade being deployed.

Mentor Chuin had told her a secret technique must be deployed in such a way as to be seen yet totally unseen. This armor fit that description well.

Thank you for showing it to me. Allow me to reciprocate. I had a meal recently that taught me a valuable lesson.

Tiny lights, like stars in the night sky against the blackness of her skin, began to glow along her newly healed arm. She held up her hand, fingertips spread wide with her palm facing the enemy. The metal ninja cocked his head.

Vajra Shara

The material on which the ninja improbably clung shattered beneath his hand and feet. Senses as finely tuned as Remo's would have seen little threads of energy reach out from the dust motes, touching each other and extending all the way back to Kali. What followed was a simple matter of letting her own power flow through that connection.

What it looked like to mere mortals was a lightening bolt reaching out from Kali's hand to the ninja and blowing all of his ablative armor at once, sending him flying like a cannonball across the intersection and down the street. Into a building upon which two men, one young and one old, were fighting.

Kali calmly walked towards her enemy. As such she was beaten there by Viral and was quite sullen when he informed her the ninja was gone. The sound from her lips as the darkness receded from her skin, leaving it pale white again, was between a sigh and a moan.

"Not bad sis." Viral said and patted her on the head.

"I would have liked to kill him." She said as they both started back for Remo and Shinji.

"Yeah it sucks when they run away like that. Its like getting blue-balled." Viral said, hands stuffed in his pockets and rocking his neck back and forth. He was thinking about the knot he could feel forming.

"Viral-sensei…"

"Come on Rei, you know you can call me bro."

"Very well, nii… bro. What is blue balled?"

Oh shit I said that, Viral thought. If I tell her, I will probably get in trouble. If I don't tell her, she will ask someone else, possibly Ssem, and I will still be in trouble. Crap, crap, crap… got it.

"Well, uh, its when you really want to do something and you are ready to do it, then you don't get to."

There, not dirty, won't get in trouble. Ha. In no way possible for this to come back and bite me in the ass, Viral thought to himself.

Remo had Shinji in his arms. Rei ran the last few meters and was only stopped from grabbing Shinji by Remo warding her off with a look.

"Viral, get on the horn, get us transport back to the geofront."

"Uh, I thought you had the radio Ssem"

"No I told you to… Rei, do you..?"

"Do you see any pockets?"

"No, uh… shit." He really did not want to run him back on foot. Would shake up his inside something bad.

The incoming roar of engines was not welcome when one did not who was driving. Military vehicles of all descriptions came from all four directions of the intersection, along with troops on foot. The wore uniforms of all kinds and wielded many weapons, but each bore a yellow color on his body, and the vehicles had hastily daubed yellow stripes over whatever camouflage they bore.

Remo was getting ready to drop Shinji, and Viral had his hands up in knives. Remo knew something was up when Rei did not react at all. Viral relaxed when the troops rushing towards them began taking up positions with their weapons facing out and away from them. The final ones to arrive made a tight circle around the four of them as medics rushed up with a stretcher.

"Reeeeeeei, care to share…" Remo said, scanning all around them.

"To know the start of a thing is not to know the whole of it."

"Not helpful. And you sound like Chuin, which is even less helpful."

The medics each gave a sharp salute once they put the stretcher on the ground. "Are you the pilots' teacher, Sir?"

"Yeah, who are you?" Remo answered.

"MSF Sir, we are here to secure Shiva for transport."

"Shiva? Who the f-"

"Apologies Sir, call sign for Shinji Ikari. Mr. Aida can tell you more, but please, we have an ambulance waiting."

"Yeah, ambulance, right good." Remo said and set Shinji on the stretcher. "Now where is this Mr. Aida?"

"Right here Mr. Williams." Remo heard behind him and turned. He found a kid, Shinji's age, wearing an eyepatch…

"Lost the eye during the school attack, right? Kensuke Aida, knew I remembered that name. What the hell is all this?"

"A very long story, Mr. Williams." Kensuke said then slung his rifle to his back and bowed to Rei. He waited until she gave him a short wave before standing up.

"Yeah I'm sure." Remo said as the medics picked up the stretcher after strapping Shinji down and double-timed it away.

"Why don't we talk on the way to the geofront? We have a few Warrior APCs, you know the brits have tea kettles in all their vehicles?" Ken said as he led Remo and Viral through the soldiers while Rei followed Shinji and the medics into the ambulance.

The cordons of troops broke up and reformed into columns of escorts as tracked and wheeled vehicles formed a convoy. At the center was the ambulance, a civilian machine commandeered from the hospital. A total of perhaps one hundred men either walked or road with it.

Remo and Viral sat across from Kensuke in the crew compartment of a British Warrior APC. As promised, there was tea.

"Okay kid, thanks for the lift. And I know Viral says you are good from back on the fleet killing fishmen. Now would you mind explaining what the hell is going on?"

Ken had a metal tea cup in one hand and was loosening his scarf and unbuttoning his shirt with the other.

"Well, it started with just me and Toji, but then we ran into some of the team guys from Over the Rainbow. Seeing as the whole fleet is still in port and they don't make these guys waste time, they were ashore. So they joined up with some pillaged equipment and we started offering anyone who wasn't killing civilians or pissing themselves the same thing. Join the fight, protect this city, and what that really means is protecting the pilots. Since if we don't have the pilots, we don't have a chance, you know?"

"Yeah, I get ya. What's with the yellow?"

Ken shrugged. "Anybody else flying yellow colors you know of?"

"Fair point. Medic called your little group MSF, seen it written on a few hulls too, what's that?"

Ken chuckled. "A joke, or at least it started as one. Ever heard of doctor's without borders, Medicines Sans Frontieres? Well we are an army without a country, mercenaries when it comes down to it, working for the people, and by extension as I said before, the pilots. So we are soldiers without borders, Militaires Sans Frontieres, thus MSF."

"And you are running this whole thing?"

"Worked out that way. Toji isn't really the executive officer type."

No sooner was his name said than there was banging on the hull as Toji climbed aboard and slipped through the open roof hatch.

"Talking about me behind my back, should of known."

"Good of you to finally make it, where did you disappear to?"

"Long story."

"I'm sure, these are…"

"Remo and Viral, Shinji has told me a lot." Toji said and extended his hand once he sat down. "Toji Suzuhara."

"Nice to meet you. So have you been in communication with NERV? I don't see them letting a bunch of mercenaries into the geofront."

"Well I was hoping you might help with that Mr. Williams…"

"They WHAT?!"

Misato Katsuragi was not a happy women. She had been up for nearly twenty-four hours and was running on coffee fumes at this point. Rits had refused to pass out more than one dose of amphetamines to keep everyone awake. Misato was awake, but she had lost her edge, and her patience, a long time ago.

"Hey, look, I don't know how they started a private military company in the middle of a battle. Hell, I don't think they really know, but they have the Rei safe and Shinji in an ambulance and they want to bring him in personally… One sec…"

Remo covered the receiver with his hand. The convoy was outside the gate to one of the main freight elevators down into NERV HQ. He was talking to Misato on an intercom telephone attached to the gate control.

"Yeah, they uh, also have some invoices they want to submit. Totals of property and lives they saved, their fees, that sort of thing. So, you going to open the gate?"

"Uuuuuugh. They can bring the ambulance and a small escort down, leave the heavy artillery up there. We will meet them with our own people… and an accountant. If this gets ugly it is your ass, Remo."

end

Useful notes:

Vajra Shara = Vajra (thunderbolt) Shara (one of many sanskirt words for arrow)

Rei ate Ramiel and got more than just repair material out of it.

Regarding the Dutchman:

He is incredibly deadly and was a match for Remo for a long time. However he is used to fighting with his mental and physical abilities together, thus why Toji had him off guard when he first saw Toji was immune. The fact Toji could go toe to toe with him at all says a lot to Destroyer fans.

The whole rat thing is a reference to a favorite trick of the Dutchman, instantly brainwashing the weak willed into thinking they are animals.

Niuhc being a cowardly little shit is not out of character for him.

For those who are not fans of metal gear solid, MSF is a reference the game Peace Walker, and was Big Boss's first mercenary outfit. Ken would like people to believe that's all they are. As we will soon see, Ken isn't telling the whole truth and they are something much more deep than a video game joke.

Not so useful notes:

Ugh. I had a really hard time with this. Something I have realized is I have a hard time writing a fight scene without it being super detailed, as was the case with Toji Vs. The Dutchman. I can visualize it well when I am saying okay this strike here with this limb, then this here, counter, counter-counter, etc etc. Supernatural shit, and kind of the evas too, I default to describing it in purely physical, or almost legendary terms.

Something else I have realized is that I have an issue with the story getting away from me. I am going to do my best to reign this thing back in.

As I have said before, this is my first thing kind of out there for people to see, and it is ambitious for a first attempt. It is not perfect and I know that. Someday when this is all said and done I may do a full rewrite or something.

Until then, I am just happy many of you are enjoying this. This story will continue as long as people keep enjoying it… well okay that's not entirely true, I do have a definite end point in mind. There will be more than enough material for a sequel however, given interest.