Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 21: Prison Breakout
After docking the damaged airship near the riverbanks, Naruto and the others made their way through the city of Shang Tu and arrived at the entrance of the Royal Palace where they encountered General Gong who smiled upon seeing them.
"Ah my friends, how did the negotiations go?" asked General Gong.
"We had arrived there to speak with Mayor Zao, but Prince Dail led his sky battalion to attack the city and stole the Kingdom Stone," said Lilac sadly.
"We need to speak to the magister immediately," Torque disguised as always spoke up.
General Gong frowned at the news "I see…very well then, he deserves to know. Follow me." He walked off with the others quickly following him.
They passed through several hallways and ascended a few floors up until arriving in a large chamber with a balcony overlooking the city. There they saw the Royal Magister dressed in a royal robe of blue and gold with a headdress which conceals his face save for his magenta eyes, close by was a black-haired panda girl dressed in a purple and white short kimono, and black boots reaching up to her knees as she wields a long spear. At the moment, she was glaring at the group or more specifically Lilac and Carol which Naruto was quick to notice and got a bad feeling about it.
"A thousand good greetings to you magister," said Torque as he along with the others bowed in greeting.
"It's my understanding that Shuigang is now in possession of the Kingdom Stone," said the magister.
"Not exactly, your greatness. Someone else has it,"
"…explain,"
"It's been taken by a warlord named Brevon, he has been manipulating the three kingdoms into waging war,
The magister became skeptical by the statement "and you have proof of this?
Torque stepped forward and present a piece from Serpentine's mech before the magister, Naruto noticed that the panda girl become tense at the sight of it "This is a fragment of one of Brevon's machines. Have your scientists examine it, you'll find that its mineral composition doesn't match anything that's built on your world,"
The magister was about to take a closer look when the panda girl sharply called out.
"Wait! Don't touch it," she strode forward towards them "This theory you have of a man from another world sound highly suspicious at best. If you'll allow me to explain magister, I have different theory in mind,"
"Proceed," the magister gave her the go-ahead.
"I have a bad feeling about this," thought Naruto, getting a grunt of agreement from Kurama.
"This is nothing but an attempt from Mayor Zao to cover up the atrocity he committed against our Kingdom Stone, he must have offered you a generous reward to come here and make up this ridiculous story. After all, you can't resist money. Sash Lilac and Carol Tea," said the panda girl.
"And you know our names because…?" Lilac asked with a quirked eyebrow along with the others.
"You were quite the fortune teller yesterday, so I couldn't resist doing a little background check. Not only have the two of you been stealing crystal shard, you've been working for the same group that claimed responsibility for the stone's theft…the Red Scarves!" she held out a wanted poster showing Lilac and Carol much to their shock.
"Not good, this could turn out ugly for us," thought Naruto.
"Look Lilac, it's our identical twin sisters!" Carol tried playing it off with a smile which was obviously not working.
"They're criminals and spies, your excellency," the panda girl then back after speaking.
"Is this true?" asked the magister.
"We were just-" Carol tried to explain but Lilac interrupted her.
"Wait," the dragoness turned to the magister "Magister, we're no longer members of the Red Scarves. It was a long time ago, we did what we had to do to survive,"
Naruto then stepped up "Your excellency, we travelled to Shang Mu in an agreement to serve as a neutral party between the kingdoms to prevent any potential conflicts during the negotiations. As you were aware of Prince Dail attacking the city to extract the Kingdom Stone, we also fought an enemy that belonged to neither of the three kingdoms and that alone confirms the presence of a hidden enemy. Even more so, we were attacked by Prince Dail and his sky battalion on our way here to deliver the report and evidence of the encounter. As of now, none of the three kingdoms are in possession of the Kingdom Stone and Brevon intends to leave the world with it, never to be seen again,"
The magister turned his back to them and remained silent to contemplate on their words for a few moments, then he finally spoke up "Detain them until further notice, make sure that the commander and his 'evidence' are quarantined,"
No sooner he said that did the panda girl suddenly point her spear upwards for multiple cages made out of ice to materialize in the air before falling on top of them, much to the group's shock, Naruto could have avoided or even smashed his way out but couldn't afford to make an already bad situation worst.
"Choa!" Yoru bared his teeth, ready to crunch his way but Naruto quickly grabbed him to prevent that with the Dark Chao protesting while Kou looked worried.
"Heyheyheyheyhey! Easy!" Torque cried out in dismay.
"Magister, please! We don't have time for this!" Lilac protested.
"You're right, take them away immediately," the magister replied.
"Examine the fragment, examine it!" Torque only yell as they were taken away.
Minutes afterwards, Naruto was sitting in a cell with his gear taken away from him and the Chao were also quarantined much to his displeasure. Naruto was meditating quietly as he contemplated on a plan, he definitely can't afford to waste any more time in the cell when Brevon is still in possession of the Kingdom Stone because someone refused to believe their story.
"Ugh, this is one of the reasons why I hate politics," thought Naruto with annoyance.
"Aside from the fact that they babble about stuff that make no sense at the time?" asked Kurama.
"Pretty much, too bad these guys don't have good enough security to hold in a ninja," Naruto smirked as he activated his Aura Sight and looked around a few times before managing to locate the others in different parts of the palace then he crossed his middle and index fingers of both hands to create some clones for his next phase of the plans.
In another part of the dungeon, Lilac and the others were also locked in a cell and Carol was slashing at the barred door in an attempt to get to open for them to escape but to no avail.
"Grrrrrr, that stupid panda girl! Things would have gone smoothly if she hadn't gone to open that big mouth of hers!" Carol growled in anger.
"Come closer, we can't let the guards hear us," said Lilac, Carol walked over to them to listen what she has to say "Now let's try to figure this out. We need to bust out of here, but we can't leave without Torque, Naruto, Nicole and the Chao,"
"You got any bright ideas, Ms. Heropants?" asked Carol.
"It's not going to be easy, Torque is quarantined and the others are locked up elsewhere,"
"What if we bribed the guards?"
Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that suggestion "Uh Carol, we don't have any of our belongings,"
"Oh, I'll pretend that I'll have to go to the bathroom real bad, and when they open the gate we make a break for it!"
"I told you, we can't leave without the others,"
"Oh," Carol felt bummed about plan's flaw.
"Looks like the boss is not the only one thinking of an escape," a familiar voice suddenly spoke up.
"Naruto?! Where are you?" asked Lilac looking around confusedly.
"Down here," everyone looked to see a small brown mouse staring back at them "Yo,"
"Na-Naruto, is that really you?" asked Carol.
"Actually I'm a clone of the boss sent here to let you know that he's currently working helping Torque out of here," said the transformed clone.
"That's a relief to hear, so what happens now?" asked Lilac.
"You guys will have to wait till he's out of the city before busting out to follow him,"
"Guess we'll just have to wait until then," said Carol while sitting on the ground with a plop.
The clone shrugged "That's pretty much the gist of it,"
"Sooo, what do we do till then?"
"Well I can tell you about the pranks the boss pulled back home,"
That got Carol excited and got the others' attention
Meanwhile in the Shuigang palace, Brevon was sitting on the throne with Prince Dail, Serpentine and Syntax before him while behind are what appear to be a multiples of a tan/greyish purple robot with a glass visor that have green liquid and a single eye on the inside, wields an energy rifle.
"It has come to my attention that there are still Chasers among us, we must neutralize them," said Brevon. Syntax then projected a holographic screen, displaying Naruto and the others, causing Serpentine to glare at them.
"Tssshah! I'll those three!" Serpentine yelled in anger.
Then the holoscreen switched to displaying a map of Shang Tu and Syntax spoke up [According to our intelligence reports, direct infiltration of the city will be impossible with exposing our operations]
"As soon as they leave, I want them dragged back to our remote base. Do whatever it takes to bring them under our control," said Brevon, getting nods of affirmation from his soldiers and commander before they left to carry out their assigned mission.
Back in the palace dungeons, Lilac and the others were still waiting for Naruto's signal for their escape but were currently laughing at the pranks the original did from the transformed clone.
"And I'm sure till now that he still subconsciously scratches his butt after sitting on that whoopee cushion bloated with itching powder!" said the clone amusedly.
"That's funny!" Milla giggled.
"Most definitely!" Lilac nodded in agreement.
"That's a total riot! I wish I was there to see it happen!" Carol rolled on the ground in laughter.
"And there's more where that came from, next there was a time tha-" before the clone could say anymore, there was the sound of crumbling which was coming from the wall behind them. They looked to see a long crack run down the wall then began split apart to form a large opening and behind it was Naruto with his hands emitting a bronze aura with Chao sitting on his shoulder and Nicole flying in faerie form.
"Yo, sorry I'm late. I had to make sure that Torque was safely out of the city and left him with a shadow clone before coming back to get you girls," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"Well we had fun waiting, your clone had some interesting stories to tell us," said Carol happily.
"Now let's go and meet Torque so we can get more evidence on Brevon," said Lilac, they were passing through the opening when they heard the sound of rapid footsteps approaching before the panda girl whom they learnt her name is Neera Li rounded the corner and her eyes narrowed upon seeing the convicts escaping.
"Where do you think you're going?" Neera demanded.
"To get more proof to our 'highly suspicious theory', we'll show ourselves the way out," Carol sneered in reply before they all ran off.
"I won't let you escape!" Neera Li took off to alert the security of the breakout.
Naruto and the others were currently running through the passageway when they heard the sound of alarm much to their annoyance.
"We need to hurry and get away from the police before meeting with Torque!" said Lilac.
"Uh hello? My bike's was totaled remember? I won't exactly be able to keep up with you guys," Carol pointed out, feeling depressed about the loss of her favorite ride.
"Then I can lend mine to you," Naruto tapped the interface on the touchscreen of the S.A.C for streams of data to flow out and clump into shape before dispersing to reveal his streetbike.
Carol was in awe of the two-wheeled and got on before starting it up then revved the engine a few times to hear its roar "Man, this thing has got some serious power,"
"Well you haven't seen anything about this baby yet…" Naruto turned towards the wall ahead of them and prepared a Rasengan in hand "…we'll need to spilt up and make it harder for them to chase us, let's go!" he rammed the jutsu into the wall and blasted an opening for the others to rush through with Lilac and Milla taking one route, and he and Carol taking another.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Jade Creek 1
Naruto and Carol were seen speeding down a hill in a temperate creek covered in thick bamboo forests in the outskirts of Shang Tu, the duo rushed up and down the rolling hills with Carol being able to keep up with Naruto thanks to his streetbike. They dashed up a slanted hill which a large dandelion grew at the top and Carol grabbed on to a leaf while hanging tightly to the bike and was gliding in air across a riverbank to land on the other side and Naruto followed after her by using the Shadow Flight technique before catching up with her.
"Man Naruto, this bike of yours is pretty wild!" Carol spoke excitedly.
"I know right? I know I can be faster than it, but riding is a whole different experience," Naruto replied, suddenly he sensed multiple heat signatures diving towards them from above and looked up only to be surprised at the sight of small meteorites heading for them "What the? Carol-chan stay sharp!" the duo darted from left to right in order to evade the meteorites but they crashed into the group, they became wheeled red/black and silver robots equipped with boosters to high-speed pursuits as they gave chase.
"I don't think so, Terra Mold!" the Star Ball emitted a bronze aura as Naruto performed a one-handed cartwheel while using the other to punch the ground, causing it to quake slightly before rising suddenly in the form of a makeshift ramp which launched the robots into the air. Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and flung several kunai wrapped in explosive tags to strike some of them before detonating to destroy all of the robots.
Naruto and Carol drew close to the edge of the ridge when large plants with flat tops began blooming rapidly to which they used as stepping stones to quickly cross to the other side. They continued to move along whilst jumping from one isle to the other till reaching a rocky area where more of the Meteor rollers crashed to the ground and gave pursuit, Carol rapidly clawed at the robots and would switch to kicking at times, Naruto unsheathed Hazy-Moon and sliced them to pieces as they stayed on the move. The duo then came across a large stationary green froglike robot, it squatted slightly and opened its mouth to blow green bubbles at them. Naruto stood in front of Carol and channeled chakra into his ECG X gloves and unleashed a barrage of chakra shuriken to pop all of the bubbles, Carol rode past him and lunged into the air with the streetbike then spun around to strike with a Wild Kick, destroying it.
Apparently there was a diagonal bounce pad which the duo used to ascend to a higher ledge to bounce off another pad towards another ledge, but it suddenly broke off and slid down a hill with them on it. Naruto looked ahead and saw a platform incoming and quickly called out.
"Jump now!"
Carol revved the engine as both leapt off the sliding rock to land on the platform and continue on their way by dropping from one ledge to the next before grabbing leaves from another large dandelion to glide safely to the ground then sped off. Suddenly they heard the sound of sirens and looked back to see a police hovercraft chasing them from behind and was launching the meteor rollers in meteorite form at them. The duo were chased to was cliff wall with no other way out, however Naruto channeled chakra to his feet to latch on to the wall and run upwards, Carol revved the bike and popped a wheelie for both wheels to make contact with the wall and ride up along it which forced the police hovercraft to stop watch them climb before seeking out an alternate route.
Naruto and Carol arrived at the top of the cliff wall before dashing down a steep hill afterwards to the ground which suddenly broke under their weight but then large bubbles rose from below and engulfed them, the duo were sent bouncing along the ground and gaining height with each bounce to which was used to their advantage. They ended up falling deep into the river, Naruto had his Star Ball emitting a blue aura as he switched into his water aspect and stretched out his hands to have the bubbles be covered in the same aura to prevent them from popping. However, underwater were small gray/purple robots with blue gems which were producing spherical electric sparks, Naruto carefully controlled the bubbles to move around the buoylike robots and back up to the surface on solid ground.
"Thanks for the help Naruto," said Carol gratefully.
"No worries Carol-chan, we need to keep moving before those enforcers catch up with us," Naruto replied.
Naruto and Carol used nearby bounce pads to ascend which then switched to floating rock platforms, though Carol located a jump pad and used it for a quicker climb to the top. Up ahead were long rows of spikes, making it almost impossible to get across safely, however the duo located another large dandelion nearby and used it to glide to the other end. There another Bullfrag ahead and it attacked them with green bubbles, Naruto ignited hands with azure flames "Foxfire shot!" then thrusts them forward to launch several fireballs to pop the bubbles then he rushed with a blue spiraling sphere in hand "Rasengan!" he rammed the jutsu into the robot to send it flying before ground with caused it to break apart and reveal another pathway.
Naruto and Carol dropped through the opening to land on a shallow river when they heard the sirens again with the police hovercraft in pursuit once more. With a groan of annoyance, the duo picked up speed to outpace their pursuer who began to fire ice missiles in an attempt to freeze them solid, however the duo were aware and took evasive actions to avoid getting hit then quickly ascended a few ledges to dashing sideways along a cliff wall then using a group of dandelions to float to higher places, away from the hovercraft.
Naruto and Carol traversed through the bamboo forest where they came across some clover-like plants which suddenly spiraled upwards when Carol landed on top of it. So they used it to get across to the upper ledge above where they encountered a small blue/purple robot surrounded by swirling purple orbs.
"Be careful, I'm detecting toxins inside those orbs," Nicole called out in alert.
"Thanks for the heads-up but how do we deal with it?" asked Carol.
"Attacking from above will cause the orbs to disperse upon destruction,"
"Or from below," Naruto stepped forward with a bronze aura emitting from his right fist "Earth Spike!" he punched the ground, causing it to quake then a conical shape of earth jutted out and pierced through the robot, making the orbs split apart "That takes care of that problem,"
They continued onwards as they raced through to downward loop to land near a stream where there were more of the robots with the orbiting poison orbs, but they were able to bypass them without any issues. And again the police hovercraft appeared from behind them.
"Will these guys ever give us a break already?" Carol whined a bit.
"Preaching to the choir here, sister," Naruto replied, they dashed ahead with the chase resuming when they passed through a passageway too narrow for the police hovercraft to pass through, much to their relief "Finally, we lost em," they were halfway through the clearing to the other when a beam of ice shot over their heads and freezing the exit to block their way out, then Neera Li landed before them with her spear poised to attack.
"For less than a minute," Carol grumbled while glaring at the panda girl.
"You have betrayed the law, surrender!" Neera Li declared.
"Guess the only way out is through her," Naruto reached into his pocket and took out a coin which he flipped into the air then catches to slam on top of his palm "Call it, heads or tails?"
Carol was confused for a moment, then she realized what he's getting at and responded "Heads," Naruto opened his palm to reveal that it was tails "Oh well, go and show her what for Naruto,"
"You know it Carol-chan," Naruto replied with a foxy grin, making her duck her head behind the bike's handlebars to hide her blush before stepping forward to face their pursuer.
"I advise you surrender instead of fighting to escape for breaking the law," Neera Li spoke up.
"As of now, your planet is in danger and if the laws are preventing me from helping it, then I'm afraid I'll have to keep on bringing them till our mission is accomplished," Naruto stretched out a hand for Masamune to float into it before he sharply unsheathed the blade then took a stance.
"A foolhardy mistake,"
Music Switch: Muramasa The Demon Blade OST; Magnificent Palace B
Both warriors dashed towards each other very quickly and clashed in the middle with their katana and staff, they struggled for dominance with Naruto taking a moment to be impressed with her level of strength before they jumped away from each other. Neera Li reared her Cyro Staff and charged energy into it before swinging several times to launch spinning copies of the ice rings at her opponent, Naruto slammed the sheath on the ground and balanced himself on it with one hand then started spinning around then consecutively kicked the spinning ice projectiles away from him, then he used the momentum from the spinning to send himself sliding across the ground towards Neera Li to unleash a low slash attack.
The panda girl quickly performed a pole vault to jump over Naruto then spun around to strike him with her staff, Naruto quickly rolled to the side and countered with a slash to parry the strike then spun round to attack with a roundhouse kick to knock her back. Neera Li grunted from the impact but quickly recovered and charged back to lash out with multiple stabs, Naruto switched to a reverse grip with Masamune and rapidly blocked the incoming attacks while stepping backwards. He saw an opening and took a step forward while using the blade to grind against the staff's shaft and slammed a palm into her torso, knocking the breath out of her chest and followed up with a roundhouse kick for additional damage.
Carol along with Nicole and the Chao watched as the two were going at each other while cheering Naruto "Go for it Naruto, show that panda girl what you're made of!"
Neera Li jumped back and charged up her Cyro staff then pointed it upwards for large icicles to appear above before launching them at the fox, Naruto's tails rubbed against each other to ignites themselves with foxfire before he twirled to bat the icicles away while melting them into nothing but steam before instantly rushing forward to slash at the panda girl under the cover of the steam. Neera felt the blade strike her repeatedly and jumped back to examine her wounds which to her surprise where nothing more than bruises.
"What's with that sword of yours? How come I'm not bleeding?" Neera demanded.
"My katana Masamune is a special weapon, it shall cut that which is truly evil but spares the innocent and underserving. It may not cut you but it won't change the fact that it will hurt," Naruto explained then he rushed up to her and unleashed a diagonal slash, Neera channeled her energy and released an energy shield around her to block the attack then struck at him in the chest, forcing him back while feeling the biting cold on his chest "Didn't expect that to happen, she's pretty good,"
"Pay more attention to the battle, or you'll end up an ice statue," Kurama alerted him.
Naruto looked up and quickly jumped into the air to another barrage of spinning ice rings launched at him and saw Neera leap after him, both clashed weapons multiple times but Naruto couldn't properly attack with the energy shield in the way so he clashed with the staff one-handedly and quickly used the other to form a half-powered Rasengan to smash through the energy shield and send her crashing to the ground and landing afterwards. Neera got back to her feet and saw Naruto charging towards her, so she quickly jumped into the air and spun to create spiky ice crystals then scattered them about. Naruto nimbly evaded the ice projectiles but began to notice that any crystals that hit the ground would spread out and soon found himself standing in the middle of a makeshift ice rink
"Now you're mine!" Neera skated along the ice floor at a quick pace and was soon circling around Naruto while launching multiple ice constructs at him with the fox using his foxfire the defend himself while channeling chakra to his feet to avoid slipping on the ice.
"Come on Naruto! Don't lose to her!" Carol called out.
"I know, which is why I'm going to turn it around!" Naruto summoned his Star Ball from within himself as it radiated a flaming aura "Burning Shot!" he reared a leg back and kicked to launch the Star Ball as it left behind a trail of fire to melt the ice and began to ricochet off the walls multiple several times and nearly striking Neera along the way until all of the ice had been completely melted before returning to Naruto and phasing into his body "You had the advantage, but now it's my turn to end this battle…Water Spout!" the Star Ball switched to a water aspect as Naruto slammed a palm to the ground and a large jet of water shot out from beneath Neera's feet, launching her up in the air but Naruto wasn't done just yet "Whirlpool!" he waved his hand in a circle for the water to engulf Neera whilst spinning rapidly then quickly sent her flying into a wall before falling to the ground. Neera painfully got to her knees and glared at the duo.
"Sorry about this but, you'll soon come to understand why we're doing this," said Naruto apologetically, then he used his foxfire to melt the ice blocking their way as Carol and the others quickly followed after him.
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Jade Creek 2
The group were nearing the edge of a lake when suddenly a massive submarine rose from underwater before them much to their surprise.
"A sub? These guys must like us very much to go this far," said Carol sarcastically.
Naruto was about to reply with he suddenly felt the memories of the shadow clone that he left with Torque flow into his mind and his eyes widened in alarm at the information "We have to hurry over to Torque, he's being pursued by Brevon's soldiers!"
Carol was just as shocked "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going already!"
Naruto nodded in affirmation and formed a handsign which cause the wheels of the streetbike to emit a blue aura much to the wildcat's confusion "That will enable you to ride on water, now let's hurry,"
They launched themselves off the bank and landed on top of the submarine then proceeded to move along it, however several compartments began to open up around them and were launching missiles into the air before towards them, Naruto and Carol quickly took evasive action to evade the incoming ballistic missiles. Carol used one of the sub's fins as a ramp to launch herself up to the higher platform while Naruto climbed up with the ladder to follow after her. Another Bullfrag got in the way so Carol shot towards it and performed a powerslide to knock it off its feet and quickly raised the foot wheel into the air before bringing it down to smash the head. The group continued to rush along the top of the submarine, suddenly it began to dive underwater but Naruto and Carol remained on top of the lake's surface with chakra being emitted from the soles of feet and wheels respectively.
"Bet those guys in the sub are struck dumb at this right now," said Carol with a playful smile.
"I won't take that bet though," Naruto smirked in reply, he looked down to see that they had just launched homing torpedoes towards "Uh-oh, let move!" then they took off with the explosives chasing after them and slowly gaining. Naruto stretched out his hands for water to stream out of the lake swirl around his open palms and took on the form of spinning shurikens "Water Shuriken!" he turned and threw them at the torpedoes, slicing through them. The submarine rose back up to the surface with the duo on top of it again and fired more missiles at them, Nicole flew in front of the others and stretched out her hands to emitted high volume sound waves, causing the airborne missiles to self-destruct before they could fall towards them.
The group finally got to the other end of the submarine and jumped off to land on the shore of the lake, they were following the pathway to the mountainous when Neera Li landed before them again and battle-ready.
"Freeze, I won't let you escape!" Neera declared, the next everyone knew was that she was struck from behind and was frozen solid by an ice missile from the police hovercraft with the driver shocked at his blunder and quickly used a grappling hook to carry her away.
…
…
"…okay, someone froze alright…but it wasn't us," said Naruto with a sweatdrop.
Carol broke into laughter "Hahahahaha…did you see the look on her face when she got frozen? Man I wish Lilac and Milla were here to see this!"
"Well we can save that for later, right now we need to get to Torque fast!" said Nicole.
Naruto and Carol sped off and went up a ramped wall all the way to the ceiling, then hopped off the land on a platform right below them and jumped onto another one of the clover-like plants and used it to ascend to the higher level. They zipped down a slanted hill and picked up speed to launch themselves off a ramp to catch some air to land on one of the floating platforms, after crossing over to the ledge and using several bounce pads to continue with their ascent. They continued to climb when something flew by them at high-speed, the only thing they could see was that it was large and green.
"What was that?" asked Carol curiously.
"I caught a slight view, and it appears to be some sort of starship," said Nicole.
"That must have been Brevon's ship, and it's heading towards Torque," said Naruto, they hastened their ascent to the top as rain began to fall and rushed over only to see an unconscious Torque being carried by a robot into the ship before it flew away "Damn it!" they chased after it as Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a kunai with a red light blinking on the handle then he threw it as hard as he could to embed itself in a part of the ship "We were too late,"
"What do we do now?" Carol as worriedly, Naruto was about to reply when something caught his eye then he quickly dashed to position him in front of Carol as he unsheathed Hazy-Moon to rapidly deflect the blue projectiles heading towards them. The others turned round sharply to see Serpentine aiming a blaster at them.
"I've got you now, prepare to die!" said Serpentine, Naruto was glaring at him but then he started to smile instead "What's so funny?"
"Actually, I'm glad to see you, cause you just saved us a lot trouble," Naruto replied with a smirk.
"What do you mean, Naruto?" asked Carol confusedly.
"We originally escaped to find more evidence against Brevon, and what we have here is a mother lode of it right in front of us,"
Carol figured out what he meant and smirked as well "Oooohhh , I get it now," she got off the bike with Nicole digitizing it back into the SAC as both her and Naruto took a fighting stance.
"Enough of this senseless talk, you'll die here!" Serpentine yelled in rage.
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle
Naruto and Carol dashed forward with the former moving ahead and twirling Hazy-Moon like a propeller to deflect the incoming shots from Serpentine's blaster, Carol vaulted off Naruto's tails to pounce at the opponent to strike with a Wild Claw, however Serpentine darted to the side and countered by lashing out with his tail to knock her away. Naruto skidded along the ground and performed a rising kick to launch Serpentine into the air, Carol quickly recovered from the blow and jumped after the viper to knock him down with a roundhouse kick.
"That was for the tail whip earlier!" said Carol with a glare.
Serpentine got back up and fired a homing missile at them, Naruto took out a small scroll from his ninja pouch and quickly raveled it. He carefully timed the missile's rapid rate of closure then channeled chakra into the seal to activate a suction effect to seal the explosive projectile much to the shock of the viper, his momentary unguarded state wasn't missed by Carol as she rushed to launch a barrage of claw attacks. Serpentine struck out with a straight so Carol tilted to the side and caught it by the wrist then maneuvered herself to throw him over her shoulder to a certain distance, Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai to intercept and flashed out with a fist reared back before slamming a haymaker punch to the face.
The viper was still refusing to give in as he drew out dual pistols and fired rapidly into the sky for the energy bullets to fall to the ground like that of a hailstorm, Naruto and Carol darted from left to right in order to evade the attack, however Serpentine took the opportunity to lunge at Naruto and constricted him with his body before proceeding to squeeze him very tightly.
"I'll squeeze you till you pop," Serpentine sneered menacingly.
"Maybe so but…" Naruto triggered his fire aspect for flames to radiate from his body, causing the viper to let go with burns on his scaly body as he screamed "…I can be too hot to handle!" Serpentine, still smarting from the burns didn't see Carol rushing up to him and was subjected to a barrage of claw attacks with a last strike packing a lot of power to knock him back. Naruto took a three-point stance with chakra radiating from his body "Shadow Rush!" he blurred from sight then multiple afterimages began appearing around Serpentine to unleash an onrush of punches and kicks at high-speeds till they disappeared and the original reappeared behind the viper with his arms crossed.
"Face it Serpentine-teme, you couldn't beat Lilac and I back at Shang Mu, and you certainly aren't having any luck at all in fighting us. Why do you just give up and save yourself the pain of being pummeled?" said Naruto.
"He's right, you don't stand a chance against us," said Carol with a shrug of her shoulders.
Serpentine looked at the duo with eyes full of hatred "I've had about enough of your Kung Fu trick and powers, I'll destroy you all here and now!" he leapt off the edge of the cliff much to their surprise, next thing they knew was that a yellow VTOL gunship rose into the air before them and Serpentine could be seen at the cockpit behind a green windshield "And now prepare to die!"
"I think we made him mad," said Naruto.
"Gee, you think?" asked Kurama sarcastically.
"Naruto, heads-up!" Carol called out as a platform from the fuselage of the aircraft was lowered then a pair of tan/greyish purple robots with green glass visors that have green liquid and a single eyes on the inside, while equipped with energy rifles jumped off to land on the ground, then they took aim and opened fire at the duo.
"Terra Mold!" Naruto slammed a palm on the ground for a large wall of earth to rise in between them to serve as a shield from the shots fired at them, Nicole hovered above the wall and thrust her hands out to launch sound waves towards the robots which caused blue arcs of electricity to course around their bodies and were unable to move. Naruto and Carol dashed from behind the wall and lunged at a targeted robot, Naruto quickly closed in and sent himself and the robot into the air with a rising uppercut then went into a combo of aerial punches and kicks before performing a heel drop kick to send it crashing to the ground "Eat this!" he channeled chakra to the gloves to form a construct of a large spiked ball before throwing it at the battered robot and finishing. Carol was using her claws to slash in a feral manner then switched to a barrage of lightning fast kicks to smash to pieces.
Then Serpentine lowered the gunship and began firing yellow energy flares from the propeller engines which upon hitting the ground raced towards Naruto and Carol, the duo somersaulted over the incoming flares before they could make contact, then Carol performed a wall jump against one of the cliff walls to reach the cockpit of the gunship and lashed out with a Wild Kick to bash at the windshield before falling down to the ground, however Naruto leapt towards her and grabbed an arm then spun round to fling her back at the gunship to strike with a Wild Claw.
"My turn!" Naruto flung a Hirashin kunai high into the air then flashed over to grab it in midair as the tips of his nine tails lit up with foxfire "Will-o-wisp!" he swung his tails to launch blue fireballs to strike the windshield repeatedly. Naruto created a shadow clone before curling up and spinning rapidly with the foxfire still active to perform the Kitsune Fire Wheel, the clone spun round and kicked hard to launch him towards the gunship and impact the windshield with great force to leave numerous cracks on it.
"Let's see you dodge this!" Serpentine sneered as he pressed a button for the wings on the gunship to open up to reveal missile launchers which he fired a salvo towards them. At that moment, Milla ran in between Naruto and Carol as she quickly projected her Reflection Shield which sent any of the missiles that collided with it to be flying back to gunship and strike back with its own barrage.
"Milla! It's a good thing you showed up when you did, where's Lilac?" asked Carol.
"She'll be arriving soon," Milla replied.
"Well she better hurry if she wants to have a piece of this action," Naruto spoke up as the gunship dropped off another pair of Shade Elites to attack them with laser fire, Milla used her energy shield once more to reflect the shots back at the shooters. Naruto then stepped out from behind her with flames conjured from his hands in the form of whiplike objects "Fire Whip!" he lashed out to knock the energy rifles out of the robots' hands then quickly switched to his earth aspect "Bedrock Rhino Rush!" Naruto stomped the group for a large piece of rock in the shape of a rhinoceros's head to emerge from the ground before launching it with a palm thrust to smash into the robots. Milla conjured a phantom block for a Super Shield Burst to strike at the gunship with Carol following up with another Wild Kick after using a wall jump to get up to it. Serpentine launched another salvo of missiles, Naruto was ready for it as he activated his air aspect "Wind Vortex!" he swung his arms in an X formation to produce a large tornado in front of him which sucked in all of the missiles and explosions occurred as they collided into each other before dissipating. Wind swirled around Naruto's arm as he formed a knife hand and reared it back "Wind Arrow!" he thrust it forward to fire an arrow made out of wind which pierced through the cracked windshield, shattering it.
Moments afterwards, a purple streak smashed through the gunship which caused it to explode before landing nearby to reveal it to be Lilac. Then something burst out of the gunship for them to see that it is Serpentine equipped with a jetpack.
"You haven't seen the last of me, you only prolonged your inevitable death!" shouted Serpentine as he quickly flew away before they could give chase.
"Damn it! Why isn't anything going right!?" thought Naruto in anger.
Music End
The group stood silently in the rain, until Milla spoke up to break the silence "What do we do now?" there was no response and she asked again "Lilac?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" The dragoness turned to yell with frustration in her voice, but then she saw Naruto frowning at her in disapproval and felt regretful "…I'm sorry, but I don't know,"
Naruto let out a sigh "Let's just find some shelter from the rain, and try to come up with something at least.
Moments later, the group found shelter in a small cave not too far from where they had the fight. Naruto was using his fire aspect to keep himself as well as Milla and the Chao whom he had wrapped with his tails while Nicole sat next to him, and Lilac and Carol were looking at the rain falling outside.
Naruto cleared his throat to get everyone's attention "To begin with, I managed to place a tracker on the ship which was used to capture Torque…" he tapped the crystal on the ECG X gloves to project a holographic map of the region, then he pointed to a blinking dot on the map "So far it appears that he has been taken to a base just at the outskirts of Jade Creek which is not that far from where we are,"
"Since we know where Torque is, then we should go and rescue him," Lilac spoke up.
"But we must be cautious, there will be a lot of enemies lying in wait," said Nicole.
"Even so, we'll continue to press on. Right Carol?" Lilac noticed that the wildcat wasn't responding and turned to her "Carol, what's the matter?"
"Maybe…maybe we're not cut out for all this after all…we should go home," said Carol while looking away.
Lilac's eyes widened in disbelief at what her best friend just said "So that's it? We just leave and let Torque die?"
"What are we supposed to do? I like Torque, but…this is much bigger than us. We're just kids,"
"That doesn't anything,"
Carol was now glaring at Lilac "Doesn't mean anything? Look at what they did to me! To us! Sometimes I feel you're trying to get us killed!"
Lilac glared back at her "How can you say that? I put myself out there on the front lines so you don't have to!"
"Yeah, and I always have to bail you out!"
"Kit, the stress of everything that's happened so far is getting to them now," said Kurama.
"I know, I better stop this before things get out of hand," thought Naruto, he made to get up but he took note of Milla whimpering sadly while watching the two argue and held her close so as to comfort her before turning to the others "Girls calm down…" however they weren't listening.
"What's the problem with that? We're helping each other do the right thing!" Lilac argued back.
"But I don't want to do the right thing! I just want to spend time with my best friend!" Carol yelled with tears brimming at her eyes, causing Lilac to step back in shock. Carol slowly walked to the edge of the cave "If the only way I can do that is by risking my life…then maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore,"
"Carol…" Lilac stretched a hand out to talk to her.
"Don't…just don't…I'm done," Carol ran out into the rain, leaving the others and a distraught Lilac behind.
Naruto was saddened at the sight of all this but stood up with his tails unfurling and walked up to Lilac "She didn't really mean what she said Lilac-chan,"
"How are you so sure?" Lilac asked, still feeling depressed.
"Because I could sense her worry for you plus the stress of everything that has happened since Shang Mu was finally getting to you," Naruto gave her a warm hug with Lilac leaning her head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat before he let go, much to her disappointment "I'll go look for her and make sure that she's alright. I'll be back soon,"
"I'm coming along," Nicole returned to the SAC as she spoke, Naruto nodded in affirmation before running in the direction which Carol went.
The cavern was silent for a while then Lilac spoke up "I'm going to rescue Torque…alone,"
Milla and the Chao looked up at Lilac in shock "But what about Naruto, he said to wait for him,"
"Chao/Choa!" the Chao chirped in agreement.
"I know, but I feel he should look after Carol,"
"Then let me come with you!"
"No, she's right, Friends shouldn't let each other get hurt, you should stay behind with Carol and Naruto," Lilac started running out into the open, but Milla was following her, causing her to stop and turn to the young hound "Milla, stay here,"
Milla shook her head in refusal "I won't leave you…,"
"STAY!" Lilac used her Dragon Boost to take off, giving Milla no hope of catching up with her.
"Lilac wait!" Milla looked down at the ground worriedly "I know something bad is going to happen…I just know it!"
Kou flew in front of Milla's face, chirping with it little arms waving around "Chao chao! Chao chao chao!"
"You're right, we should let Naruto what's happening!"
"Choa!" Yoru nodded in affirmation.
The hound and Chao quickly ran off to find Naruto and Carol, and tell them of what Lilac is doing in hopes of going after her before anything terrible could happen.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and the others finally arrived at Shang Tu where the visited the royal palace to have an audience with the royal magister. There they gave the report of what happened over at Shang Mu and even presented evidence in addition. However, the magister's guard Neera Li falsely accusing of playing a part in the theft of the Kingdom Stone's theft after looking at Carol and Lilac's background, resulting in the group getting imprisoned. Naruto helped the others to escape with the law hot on their trail but upon successfully escaping, they were ambushed by Brevon's forces and Torque got captured in the process.
Later on, there was a fallout between Carol and Lilac with the latter leaving, so Naruto went after Carol to talk to her, unaware that a guilty Lilac went to rescue Torque on her own despite the risks. Just what is going to happen next? Read and Review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.