Ch47: Unknown Family Ties
While the team did their duties of getting back Rioichi's sushi shop and getting fish for Rioichi to use in his cooking, I did my own reconnaissance work on El Jefe the tiger. How did I do this? I stayed invisible and followed him as he traveled into a house I wouldn't expect him to go into. It was one of the river houses.
I followed him in the house without a sound and tried to stay at an arm's length away from him as he looked around. "Hmm... I could've sworn I heard... something..." he growled, looking all around the house but finding nothing with my invisible trick working. "Eh, it was probably just the river again... man I hate water," he growled. 'He hates water, eh?' Neyla smiled in my head. 'Looks like we've got a second Rajan on our hands...' 'Yeah, but remember that we have to do this by the book, Neyla,' I thought back.
"When will that stinking skunk come here to give me a lift back to my own time? I've already got him that blasted raccoon's cane, so why is he not doing anything to help me out?!" His words took me for a loop. He wasn't supposed to have Rioichi's cane yet at all! I know I didn't see it on him at the prison, but I didn't know it had already been stolen!
"But... that isn't to say that I should still be careful around that Japanese mongrel," El Jefe continued. "After all, the only ones I could think of to bust him out of prison are those blasted Coopers and that pussy cat android. That cat, though... she sure is tough. Able to go... invisible, WAIT A MINUTE!" he suddenly yelled, hurting my metal ears with their sensitive hearing. 'Note to self... don't use the ears around loudmouths,' I thought to both of us.
I must have made a noise when I covered my ears because El Jefe actually grabbed hold of my arm even though I was still invisible! "Ow! Let go!" I growled, letting myself turn visible for obvious reasons. I tried to pull away, but saw that his claws were actually buried in my skin. If I did manage to pull away successfully, I'd only get severely hurt. "What're you doing here, little kitty?" he asked, a grimace of a smile on his face. "I WAS going to find out what your plans are, but now I'm more interested in beating you up for stealing Rioichi's cane!" I growled myself, biting the hand that El Jefe had clawed in my skin.
I made sure to retreat my ears as he yelled in agony, blood seeping from both his paw and my arm where the claws were. "BITCH!" he growled, pulling out a katana with his good hand and trying to slice me with it. It failed, however, as I blocked the slice with my left wing and tripped him with my cane.
"It'd be best if you give up now, El Jefe, cause Le Paradox isn't going to help you get back," Neyla growled, which El Jefe momentarily stopped swearing for a second. "I-Is that... is that... N-Ney-" El Jefe stuttered, something that I didn't understand at all. "What have you done to my daughter?!"
I jumped when he said that phrase, but managed to still keep him pinned on the ground. "I did this to myself, 'daddy,'" Neyla growled back at the tiger. Wait... El Jefe was a tiger as well as Neyla... I had to ask. "Am I... missing something here?" I asked, very, VERY confused about the situation. "I... I didn't want to say this but... El Jefe is, in fact, my dad," Neyla sighed, her healing beam hitting El Jefe's damaged hand and then moving to my arm. "Except... this isn't him. My dad was never like this... in fact..." Neyla sighed, a single ray of red light coming from her eye and entering Jefe's eyes. "I think he's been hypnotized."
"H-Hypnotized?... What?" I asked, wondering if she was right. "Yes... he was a warmonger, sure, but he never attacked a girl for any reason. He's a Casanova type, which is why my mom divorced him. I never saw her again afterwards... But he'd never EVER law a hand on any female."
When the light ended, El Jefe seemed to be in a kind of comatose state of mind, his eyes wide open and his breathing staying regular. "He'll be out of it for a few hours, so I think it best that we take him back for now... besides, he could be useful to us since he knows about Le Paradox," Neyla smiled. "Y-Yeah... just don't count your chickens before they hatch, Neyla," I frowned back. "Just remember how things went when you joined us. It may be like that with your papa for a while..."
Just as we exited the house, however, something from the sky, plain out of nowhere, hit me right on the head and it hurt. "Ow!" I growled, looking at what could have landed on my head. To my and Neyla's surprise, it was actually the Sheriff badge we needed to go to Tennessee's time of the 1880's... which meant we needed to be much more careful...