Subject: [FFML] Insertion[Part 61][R.5/Various][Darkish comedy]
From: Ryoga P Hibiki
Date: 8/1/2001, 1:29 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com

 Insertion

 Part 61

 Die Hardest

++++++++++++

 Yohiko smiled as Usagi did her homework at the table quietly and seemed
quite content to sit in front of the television with nothing to do but
relax with her cup of hot tea. She sat back and closed her eyes, or so it
appeared.

 "So? Now what?" asked Ranma as the collective plotted their next move.

 "We'll track them down tomorrow," said Carrot cheerfully. "They won't
find it before then. Herb has to rest and recover his power, plus,
they'll both run across a hot spring on the way there. "We've got time.
Besides, tomorrow is Friday, that'll give us the whole weekend to mess
with them."

 "So? We just sit around and relax then?" said Dan with a rough sounding
snort.

"We're going to need the rest, that last fight really hurt," grumbled
Xianfu.

 "Yes, it will be nice to just sit around the house tonight for once,"
agreed Pissant.

+++++++++

 Usagi looked up from her books and frowned at them for a moment.
"Shouldn't you be getting ready about now?"

 Her mother blinked and looked at her. "Getting ready for what?"

 "Your date with..." the girl stopped as her mother started to scowl at
her.

 "What date? I already went out with Yusaku."

 "Now you've got a date with Mitaka. He's taking you to some formal
dinner somewhere. He invited you a month ago, and managed to talk you
into it. Really mother, you're so absent minded sometimes."

 The woman blinked and stood up. "Really?"

 Usagi nodded and smiled at her. "Uh-huh!"

 "I guess I should go get ready then," said the woman as she sulked
towards her room with a frown on her face.

 "Oh, you're acting like I'm sending you off for a root canal!" said
Usagi angrily.

 "I don't have any more dates set up after this do I. You'd better not be
jerking my chain around daughter, cause if I find out..."

 Usagi smiled at her innocently. "No Mom. I wouldn't do that to you!"

 "Yes you would," replied the woman as she walked into her room and
closed the door.

 Usagi dove for the phone and dialed a number quickly.

 "Hello? Mitaka? Great. Look, I had to tell my mother that you talked her
into going a month ago..."

 She paused and listened for a moment.

 "Well, I had to trick her. It's like twisting her arm to get her to go
out these days. You know how it is."

 Mitaka spoke again on the other side of the line.

 "Look. I'm doing you a favor, all you have to do is cover for me, all
right?" said the girl quietly as she looked towards her mother's room
nervously. "I know we set this up last night, but all you have to do is
not bring up how long ago we planned this!"

 She sighed and put her hands on her hips while holding the phone in
place against her shoulder. "Look. You don't have to lie, just don't say
anything about short notice or anything! Got it? Good." She smirked to
herself. "I'm counting on you now, don't let me down!"

 She hung up the phone and got a satisfied looking smile on her face as
she went back to her schoolwork. "Got ya!" she said as she made a
shooting motion with her hand at her mother's door.

++++++++++++

 "When did you get that?" asked Usagi as she looked at her mother's dress
in confusion. 

 Yohiko smiled at her, she was wearing a red floral print Chinese dress
that was slit almost all the way up to her waist on both sides. "What?
This old thing?" said the woman as she waved her hand at her daughter. 

 "Old? I've never seen it," grumbled Usagi as she looked her up and down.
She was dressed quite a bit nicer than her date with Yusaku. "Maybe she
does like Mitaka more."

 "This is a formal thing right? I hate getting dressed up this much,
but..." Her mother got a slightly worried frown on her face as she looked
herself over. Her braid was done up in a bun on the top of her head, with
several expensive looking ornaments pinning it in place. She also wore
eye shadow with the bright red lipstick she had on now. Her daughter had
no idea how much the male portion of her brain was complaining at the
moment, but Xianfu was enjoying their torment quite a bit.

 Oddly enough, Carrot didn't mind as much as the others, and was
currently plotting ways to torment their date sadistically.

 "He said it was formal," replied Usagi as she smiled at the woman.

 "Right," said Yohiko.

 There was a knock at the door and Usagi went to answer it. "Oh. Hiya
Mitaka!"

 "Hello handsome," said Yohiko as she put her hand on her hip and grinned
at him. 

 The man smiled down at Usagi and turned to look up at the statement. All
brain functions ceased at that moment and he merely froze in place. He
dropped the carnation he had brought for her on the ground.

 Yohiko strolled up and pushed on his forehead, sending him to the
ground. She grinned as he sputtered after hitting the floor and scrambled
back to his feet again. "Miss Yohiko?" 

 "Well, are we gonna get this over with, are have you creamed your shorts
already?" said the woman confidently.

 Usagi turned completely red, as did Mitaka. 

 "I uhhh..." stammered the man.

 "Mo-ther..." gasped the girl as she turned away from them.

 "Come on then, we should go," said Yohiko as she grabbed his arm and
pulled him away.

++++++++++++

 Mitaka fumbled with his car keys as he stared at her in the passenger
seat in shock.

 "What is it?" she asked him as she frowned suddenly.

 "What happened to you?" he managed.

 "Being an old maid is boring," she replied with a shrug. "So where is it
we're going?"

 "It's a formal dinner party. My family is invited every year, and father
though he should send me. It's at the Tanaka tower."

 "Oh, one of those fancy party things? With lots of rich people?" said
the woman as she looked thoughtful.

 "Um, yeah," he answered nervously.

 "Oh well. Eyes on the road, not on my legs darlin," she said as she
turned his head in the right direction.

 He swallowed and finally managed to start the car.

++++++++++++

 "Boring," thought Yohiko as she wandered through he party with her arm
around Mitaka's. She allowed herself to be led around by him.

 Occasionally, she'd move a little closer to him as a few of the younger
girls gave her a nasty look. It got an uncomfortable shudder from him,
and made the girls even angrier.

 There were a few other handsome young rich people around though, so it
was usually short lived.

 After a long period of moving about through the crowd she smiled at him
and let him go for a while. Wandering around a bit would do her some
good. There was a table with food set out to sate the guests while the
tables were being prepared. Roughly a hundred guests were present, all of
them rich. 

 She moved over by the punch bowl where a group of women were gossiping
lazily.

 "I came with Mitori Tanaka, he's got several successful businesses in
Kyoto and an office here in Tokyo," said one of the girls cheerfully.

 "Really? Well I'm here with Jiro Mitsuya, he's got a controlling stock
in three major corporations here in the Tokyo area alone," said another
of the girls as she added a bit more lipstick to her face.

 "Got that beat, Mitsuya Hirobi. CEO of Japan Corp software industries,"
said the woman next to her as she primped her hair. "He's the youngest
CEO that the company's ever had at only Twenty-five years old."

 "How about you honey?" said the first girl that had bragged as she
looked Yohiko up and down.

 "I'm here with Shun Mitaka," she replied calmly as she sipped at a small
cup of punch.

 "Who?" said the second girl in confusion.

 "His family is rich, he's a tennis coach," she replied with a light
smile.

 "Honey, you have to do better than that!" laughed the third woman.

 "Really? He's financially well off, he's athletic, really good in bed,
and he's actually asked me to marry him instead of parading me around
like a prize on his arm at a party, only to be used for sex, and then
discarded at a later date when your men marry more cultured and bred
women that their family approves of. I should also add, that he's in his
early twenties, and I'm thirty-six years old." The women looked at her as
she cocked her head and smiled at them cheerfully. "Isn't that nice?
Tee-hee!"

 She turned away from the insanely jealous glares they were giving her
and walked through the crowd again.

 Ranma Saotome, felt like he was about to have an aneurysm. 

 Carrot and Dan were actually chuckling.

 "Um, Xianfu...we didn't sleep with Mitaka," pointed out Pissant.

 "Yes, but they don't know that," said the woman cheerfully.

 She started looking around for her date as the crowd ambled towards the
dining hall. That is, until she noticed several men in black suits moving
around the edge of the crowd.

 "Hey Dan. I got an alert for us," said Carrot as he saw them.

 "What's up?" asked Dan as he locked their gaze on one of the men that
was closest to them.

 "They move like they were trained," pointed out Ranma. "Soldiers."

 "Something's up?" muttered Xianfu.

 "Oh no," whined Pissant.
 
 "Start backing off, head towards the restroom, quickly, but don't run,"
said Dan firmly as he started them off. "We don't want to catch their
attention. Slow down, swing our hips a bit and relax the arms. We don't
want to move like we know what we're doing right now."

 The others followed the example and they made it to the bathroom,
closing the door behind them.

 "Okay, now what?" growled Ranma.

 "Now, we disappear until we know what's going on," said Dan flatly.

 Carrot grinned and their clothes shifted. Their older male body
appeared, and their eyes changed to silver orbs as the coat, cape and
large round hat appeared on their head. The scarf seemed to melt into
place over their faces and they looked around.

 "There's an air vent," said Carrot as he pointed upwards.

 The cape moved up, unscrewing the grate from the ceiling and pulling
them into the hole. It closed behind them and small tendrils of black
cloth reached out and screwed the grate back in place. 

 "Where does it go?" asked Xianfu.

 "Right to the main hall. We can keep an eye on things from here," said
Carrot as they vanished into the shadows.

 "I told you we should have bought a gun today," grumbled Dan.

 "We play this right, and we probably won't have to buy one," said Carrot
as they edged up to the grate and looked out at the party.

+++++++++++++

 Mitaka frowned, he looked around for Yohiko among the crowd and sighed.
"Where did she go off to?" He looked towards the bathroom and frowned.
"Maybe she went in there?"

 His thoughts were abruptly cut off as the sound of machine gun fire
filled the room.

 The crowd screamed, people dove to the ground all around him and he
followed quickly. The attention of everyone in the room was now on the
group of eight men standing around the edge of the room with automatic
weapons in their hands. They were all European, and had briefcases in
their grasps. 

 "Hello. I'm sorry to inconvenience you all. I am Olif, and I will be
your terrorist for this evening," said a tall blonde man with a thick
European accent as he stepped forward and smiled at them. He had a
machine gun in his hands as well and waved it over their heads without
firing. "For the duration of the evening, I will be keeping you here. I'm
sorry if this conflicts with any of your schedules." He chuckled to
himself as he lit a cigarette. "Vahn, seal the doors."

 One of the men near him, a large man with long flowing blonde hair,
walked over and punched in a number to one of the security panels on the
wall next to them. The room went dark suddenly and was lit by large
flashing yellow lights near the ceiling. Heavy metal shutters came down
over all the windows and doors, closing off the building's bottom three
floors.

 "Now, if you will all please stand up, and follow the gentlemen with the
automatic weapons into the offices on the second floor, then we shall
begin our work. Do not worry, after we are finished, you shall all be on
your way. Please feel free to deposit your valuables and any weapons you
might be carrying in the large bags carried by my assistants. Thank you!"

 "Sir," said one of the men as he walked up next to him and held out a
small computer. It was a laptop and had a schematic of the building
displayed on it. "Fifth floor."

 "Well, we're taking a little trip then. You two guard the hostages, you
two stay down here and guard the perimeter. The rest of you know what
your jobs are. The sooner we are finished, the better!" He turned away
from them, walking towards the elevators. Three of the men following
behind him.

+++++++++++++

 "Aren't we going to do something?" asked Ranma as he tried to force them
into action.

 The others managed to hold him back.

 "They've got hostages," said Dan firmly. "Our first priority is to
remove that threat."

 "Right," agreed Carrot. "How?"

 "They're taking the stairs, one guard in back, one in front," said Dan
as they looked at the screen of the Mercury computer. 

 "Next floor up, then what?" asked Xianfu.

 "When they get there, they'll put them all together, probably here." Dan
pointed at a large open area in the middle of the building. "I'm betting
that's full of cubicles though."

 "Right, lots of places to hide," agreed Carrot. "Good for us."

 "Bad for them," agreed Dan.

 "So then what?" asked Ranma.

 "Then we work on figuring out what they're doing here, and take them
out," said Dan. "The others are moving up to the fifth floor. They're
taking the elevator."

 "Should we stop the elevator now?" asked Xianfu.

 "No. They'll get out. We shouldn't mess with that group just yet.
They've got radios. A simple call and they'll start killing hostages if
we mess with them just yet."

 "The fifth floor," said Carrot as he keyed up a map of the place. "This
looks like..."

 "It's a computer," agreed Dan. "The whole floor is one big computer."

 "So they're after something there," said Carrot with a small snort. "Are
there any other points of interest in this place? A vault maybe?"

 "In the basement," said Dan with a nod.

 Carrot nodded. "I'll bet they'll hit that when they've finished with
whatever it is they're doing here."

 "What about the police?" asked Xianfu.

 "That guy new the command code for those shutters. I'm willing to bet
they can get past any alarm systems without much trouble. I'd wager that
they can keep us from calling out of here too."

 "He's right, plus I'll wager robing those people had a dual purpose.
Getting rid of any cell phones they might have been carrying, or other
communication equipment."

 The room below went dark as the last of the hostages were pushed into
the stairwell after receiving a pat down. 

 "Who first?" asked Ranma as he grinned dangerously. 

 "Night vision," said Dan as they looked out and saw the pair of guards
wandering around below. "Not much good against us."

 "Right," agreed Carrot.

 Dan watched them for a moment, noting a small gesture they made each
time they passed within each other's line of sight. "That's interesting."

 "They can't see very clearly with those on," agreed Carrot.

 "Can we go kick their asses now?" muttered Ranma.

 "Not yet, at least, not these two. Hostages first," said Dan.

 "What?" snorted Ranma in disgust.

 "We don't want them missing a call in before we save the guests Ranma,"
said Carrot.

 The boy grumbled at this, but complied.

 They moved away from the grate and backed into the ventilation system.
After a moment, they were staring straight up a long dark shaft.

 "How do we get up there?" asked Ranma irritably.

 Carrot chuckled as their clothes seemed to come to life again, grabbing
the walls and pulling them up the shaft.

 "Gah! Spider web!" cried Carrot in disgust after they went a few meters
up. He reached up and brushed off their face. "Is it on us? Is it on us?"
he muttered as he slapped around his head looking for the arachnid.

 "Stop that! Aren't you a man?" cried Xianfu.

 "This from the one who had us bragging about sleeping with a tennis
coach a few minutes ago?" retorted Carrot.

 "Don't ever do that again!" agreed Ranma.

 "Sorry," she muttered under her breath.

++++++++++

 Five minutes later...

 The two armed men stood around the large group of guests, each holding
their machine guns lazily as they walked back and fourth in the room. 

 The hostages were huddled together in the middle of the room, surrounded
by cubicles. None of the phones were working in the room, and they
ignored the group for the most part, merely keeping them corralled in the
area they were in. 

 One of the men stood up and walked up to one of the armed men. "If you
let us go, I can make it worth your while."

 "Sit down and shut up," said the man as he pointed his weapon at the
man.

 The man backed away and sat back down. 

 The armed man chuckled and shook his head in disgust as he continued to
pace.

 The lights in the room were off, leaving them in darkness, save for a
few emergency lights that dotted the edges of the room.

 The men had all the guests stuffed into one of the halls between two
rows of cubicles, ensuring that they stayed in place and didn't have much
room to do anything.

 One of the men turned his back for a moment and lit a cigarette. He
never saw his companion being pulled to the ground with a hand over his
mouth.

 "Hey. Gunther," he said as he turned around with a smirk on his face.
His smile fell as he turned and saw the opposite side of the room was
empty.

 On the ground, one of the guests was looking directly at the black clad
figure that was crouching over the fallen guard as he raised a finger to
his scarf in a shushing motion and melted away into the shadows. The
automatic weapon in his hand was pointed at her. Her eyes rolled up into
her head and she passed out.

"Gunther?" asked the first man as he stepped towards the crowd of
hostages with an uncertain frown on his face.

 A rustling noise caught his attention and he turned to see a cloud of
blackness descending on him from above.

++++++++++++

 "We're in place sir," said one of the men to Olif as he sat in one of
the high backed chairs in the middle of the large mainframe that took up
the entire floor of the office. He had a cigar in his hands and a laptop
on resting on his legs as he idly tapped a few keys.

 "Begin then," he said with a smirk on his face. "Gentlemen, we are about
to become very rich men."

 Those around him laughed and cheered as they started to run the program.

 "It'll take five minutes to compile and find the security codes. Then
the transfer will take around ten minutes," said another one of the men.

 The man chuckled to himself and looked down at his screen. He paused and
frowned suddenly. "What is this?"

 One of his men was standing next to a black clad figure with the muzzle
of a gun pointed to his chin.

 "Good evening Mr. Olif. It's the Shadow, the local super hero. Sorry
about the rhododendrons," said the figure cheerfully.

 Olif stood up and frowned. "What?"

 "Anyhoo. Gunther here needs you to give up!" continued the figure
obliviously.

 "Hello boss," said the man nervously as he read a cue card that couldn't
be seen. His companion was tied to a chair behind him.

 "If you don't, you'll get..."

"Ta-da!" said the man as the man held up a sign with the words 'The
Shadow' written on it. It was little more than a piece of cardboard with
the words written in marker.

 "Tell em what you get!" said the Shadow cheerfully as he held up another
sign.

 "You get, beaten up henchmen, nasty explosions, no hostages, and..."

"Very good Gunther," said the Shadow. "And Mr. Oldleaf."

 "Uh, Olif actually," corrected the henchmen.

 "Whatever. If you act now, I'm sure you'll escape with your life!"

"Perhaps that's why the Shadow is Japan's favorite super hero?" said
Gunther nervously.

 "Hmm. Perhaps..." said the Shadow as he rubbed at the scarf on his face.

 The Shadow turned towards the tied up henchmen and pointed the gun at
him. "You ready?"

 "Mmmmfff!" cried the man in terror.

 The screen went blank abruptly, leaving Olif and his men staring at it. 

 The man stood up and screamed angrily. "Find this idiot! Kill him!"

++++++++++++

 "Where are we going?" asked one of the nervous looking women as the
Shadow led them to the stairs. 

 "The top floor," he replied calmly as he moved them into the stairwell.

 The others filed by him and started moving upwards. 

 "What if we run into one of them?" asked one of the men nervously.

 "Naw. He's sending his two lackeys up from downstairs," said the Shadow
cheerfully. "Get moving, go all the way up, and lock the door behind you
until the police arrive."

 "What about them?" asked the same man as he looked back at the two
henchmen.

 "Don't worry, I'll take care of them," said the Shadow as he turned away
and started walking towards them.

+++++++++++++

 "Now hold still, you should be all right if you don't play with that,"
said the Shadow as he stood up.

 Both men were now tied to chairs and leaning back against one another.
Beneath the legs of both of the chairs were a pair of hand grenades being
held in place by the legs.

 The hero walked away from them, vanishing into the shadows again.

+++++++++++

 Below the two men received a call on their radios. "Vahn. We have a rat
on the second floor. Do something about it."

 "Right," said the man as he turned to his companion and nodded.

+++++++++++

 In the stairwell the hostages were steadily moving towards the top
floor. They moved quietly, the whimpering of a few frightened individuals
could be heard in the crowd.

 "We're nearing the fifth floor," said one of the men in the front as he
turned back to the rest of the crowd. "Quiet down."

 "There's no need for that," said a voice from above them.

 The man turned and saw a man grinning down at them with an automatic
weapon in his hands. He trained it on them and smiled. "Goodbye."

 The group started to panic, but stopped when the man suddenly dropped
his weapon and was lifted up into the air.

 The Shadow landed near to where he had been standing and was holding his
hands as if he was grasping a rope. The man's feet kicked as he tried to
grab for his weapon, only to find it wasn't there any longer. He choked
and gasped as his struggles slowed, a red line of blood appearing along
his neck as the thin wire that he was hanging from cut further and
further into his neck.

 The dark figure turned towards the head of the crowd and motioned for
him to keep moving. 

 "How did you..." said the man as he looked back over his shoulder.

 "I took the elevator," replied the shadow calmly. "Get moving."

The man nodded and continued his trek, giving the man a wide berth as he
passed by him.

 After everyone had passed, he released the wire, which was in fact a
part of his costume. It melted back into place, dropping the man down
into the stairs below. He whirled around and opened one of the doors,
vanishing into the building yet again.

++++++++++++++

 Olif scowled as he looked down into the street below. Dozens of police
vehicles had started to surround the building. "How much longer?" he
asked angrily.

 "Still five minutes," replied the man working at the console.

 "Hurry it up, the faster we take care of this, the better." He nodded
towards the other two men and they smirked at one another.

++++++++++++

 On the second floor, Vahn slowly walked into the room with his companion
at his side. The two men were still sitting in the middle of the room
with the grenades holding the front end of their chairs up.

 The made muffled sounds as they pair approached.

 "You stupid bastards. I should leave you both here," snarled Vahn as he
brushed his hair over his shoulder and frowned at them. "Get them out of
there."

 The other man nodded and knelt down over the grenades. He looked up and
shook his head. "It's booby-trapped."

 "They're just grenades," snorted Vahn as he pulled several grenade pins
from his pocket. "Always carry a spare."

 The other man chuckled and shook his head as Vahn replaced the pins.  
 He ripped the tape off of one of the men's mouths and jumped back as the
man screamed at him.

 "No! Idiots!" cried the man just as Vahn removed one of the grenades
from under the leg.

 "Shit!" cried the blonde man in shock as he looked down and saw that
there was a hole actually dug into the floor underneath a thin cut in the
carpet. Inside was another grenade, the spoon flew off of it and he
backed away.

+++++++++++

 The shadow turned at the sound of the explosion and chuckled to himself
as he continued to walk through the rooms on the fourth floor of the
building.

 The radio in his hand came to life suddenly. "Vahn? What happened? What
was that?"

 "Vahn isn't answering," said the Shadow calmly. "I'm afraid he's quite
busy now."

 "Ah, you must be our friend with the large hat. What do you think you
are? Some kind of cowboy?"

 "Could be," replied Carrot as he smirked.

 "You speak English," said the voice cheerfully. "An American? Your
accent would point to that."

 "Yippie Kai yay motherfucker," said Carrot as he shut the radio down.

+++++++++++

 Olif thrust his hand down in anger. "Is it finished yet?"

 "No sir," said the man working at the console. "Three minutes and..." 

 The room went completely black, the connection severed as the
mainframe's power went down. "Shit."

 "That son of a bitch!" cried the computer henchmen angrily. "He..."

 "He shut down the power, yes I know," said Olif in frustration. "We'll
salvage what we can, and escape. There's nothing we can do."

 "Right," agreed one of the henchmen to his right.

 They opened the briefcases they had brought with them and began to build
a small minigun out of the various pieces in the room. After a few
seconds, they shattered out the window, and began to fire on the police
cars below.

 The officers scattered as they were pelted with bullets, tearing through
the cars and officers lethally.

 "That should get their attention, come," said Olif as he strolled
towards the stairwell. "You two make sure our guest has a warm welcome."

 The pair nodded at him and moved off together.

+++++++++ 

 "This is so cool," said Carrot as he moved through the shadows within
the building. "Here we are."

 They looked up and smirked to themselves as their coat began to reach
for the ceiling.

 "It's showtime."

+++++++++

 The two men turned in shock as the floor under them exploded upwards,
sending the minigun flying across the room. Pieces of debris moved in
every direction, and a strange light seemed to be shining from the hole.
Occasionally, a searchlight from the police outside would pass by, giving
the room a strange eerie ambiance. 

 They slowly stood to their feet, getting ready for a fight.

 "Attention K-mart shoppers!" said a booming voice as something began to
rise from the floor.

 The two men looked on in shock as a giant thing emerged from the floor.
Its arms were rolled up to its elbows in curls, and it had a sort of
umbrella thing on its head. Its face was covered with a scarf still, and
it was jet black.

 Two spotlights shined on them from somewhere in the back of the room,
forcing them to shield their eyes. They held their guns ready and began
to fire blindly into the lights, hitting nothing.

 The thing unrolled its arms and they reached all the way to just in
front of the pair. Neither noticed the strange test of strength style
boards rise up behind them. They were too busy staring at the thing's
hands, as they inflated into giant mallets.

 "What the fuck?" said one of the men as he looked up at it dumbly.

 It raised the mallets into the air, and slammed them into the ground in
front of them. The floor beneath their feet buckled, sending them flying
into the air, headfirst into the ceiling. 

 The Shadow morphed back into his original form, laughing as the two
men's bodies hung from the ceiling, each up to his neck with blood
running down from where their heads had struck the concrete beneath that
was just above the ceiling panels.

 "I've always wanted to do that," said Carrot cheerfully as they turned
to give chase. 

 They were stopped though, when a third henchman appeared in the
stairwell with a rocket launcher over his shoulder.

 "Take this you freak!" he cried as he fired the weapon.

 The shadow rolled away and dove for the window, breaking through it and
sailing out over the police cars below. The explosion shattered the
windows on the fifth floor and he fell a few dozen feet before his
costume reached out to grab the outer surface of the building, stopping
his decent rather roughly. They slammed into the side of the building,
cracking another window. They simply hung there for a moment in pain. 

 "Oh. I am so going to hurt that guy," growled Dan angrily.

 The costume started to move, climbing up the wall at an amazing rate.
They paused when one of the searchlights focused on them and turned to
look at the ground below.
 
 Hundreds of police officers were looking up at them and training their
weapons.

 "Well shit," said Carrot as they increased their speed a little and
managed to move out of the way of the searchlight. It caught up quickly
enough and passed over nothing. He had vanished once again.

 The cops below looked on dumbly, searching for him sporadically.

 "They were going up, you know what that means?" asked Dan.

 "Yeah. It was really stupid of us to send those hostages upstairs,"
grumbled Carrot.

 "No shit! You morons!" snapped Xianfu.

 "Hey, you weren't complaining when we thought about it lady!" replied
Ranma.

 "Thanks," said Carrot.

 "Don't mention it," said the boy in reply.

 Their camouflage faded and they made their way up the building, stopping
long enough to hide themselves when the searchlight passed them.

++++++++++++

 "I got him sir," said the henchman as he strolled up to his boss. He
tossed aside the rocket launcher and moved up beside his boss brandishing
two handguns.

 "Excellent," said Olif as he turned away and started up the stairs
again. They were on the eighth floor and steadily moving to the
fifteenth, which would lead them to the roof.

 "Olif. Who knows the evil that lurks in the hearts of men?" asked a
chilling voice from all around the pair.

 "No way!" cried the henchman as he turned and started firing down the
stairwell. His shots bounced off the walls and stairs, doing little more
than making noise.

 "Take care of him!" snarled Olif.
 
 "There's no way he could have survived that! He can't be human!" cried
the henchman as he started down the stairs with an angry frown on his
face.

 The shadows around him began to move as if they were alive. He turned
and fired with each step, hoping to catch his hidden adversary.

 A booming laughter filled the hallway and he gasped in terror. Spinning
around to fire again he found himself nose to nose with the intimidating
figure. His arms were on either side of the thing pointing the weapons
just behind it.

 The Shadow's hand reached up and grabbed his face, hitting his head
against the wall and knocking him out cold. The two handguns fell from
his hands and he tumbled down the stairs. The dark figure walked down and
kicked him in his stomach lightly before snorting in disgust. It bent
down and lifted him up by his neck for a moment before dropping him
again. 

 The Shadow seemed to envelop him, and then backed away, holding a pair
of handguns in his grasp. "Well, no more weapons? Not much of a threat
anymore are you my friend?" He turned away and started up after Olif.

++++++++++

 Olif banged against the door on the top floor. His gun in his grasp as
he sweat bullets and tried to shove the door down with a few thrusts of
his shoulder. It was a heavy metal door though, and he did little but
make noise. "Let me in! For the love of god!" he cried in terror.

 His radio came to life and he fumbled for it. "Did you get him?" he
cried with hope filling his voice.

 "Olif. Do you like scary movies?" said a sadistic voice on the other
end.

 "What?" he muttered.

 "I said, do you like scary movies?" said the voice.

 "No," whimpered the man pathetically.

 "Me neither," said the thing on the other side. "I prefer action movies.
You know, the ones where the evil terrorist dies at the end?"

 "Please god no," muttered the man as he slumped down against the door. 

 "Well, guess what Mr. Fancy Pants? I'm a hero, and you're...hmm...what
are you?" said the Shadow.

 "I'm a..."

 "Oh yes. You're an evil terrorist," said the voice sadistically.
 
 "Olif, turn around and look at me when I'm talking to you," said the
Shadow from the radio.

 The man screamed, jumping to his feet and whirling around with his gun
in his hand.

 There was a shot fired, and blood splattered against the doorway behind
him. He slowly turned his head and looked at the wet smear for a moment,
working his jaw in horror.

 His arm was hanging limply at his side, and his gun was clattering down
the stairs. 

 "Nice shot," he muttered to himself as he slumped down again, this time
sitting with his back against the door. He couldn't move his right arm,
the shadow had actually sent a bullet into his hand, and it had come out
his shoulder. The thing was standing there, looking at him with a smoking
weapon in its grasp.

 "I'll see you in your dreams Olif. You be sure to get lots of rest in
prison," it said as it faded into the darkness.

 Olif closed his eyes and began to cry.

+++++++++++

 "I'm sorry," said Mitaka as he stood next to Yohiko after the police had
arrived. He hung his head in shame as she smiled at him.

 "It's all right. I wasn't hurt," she said with a shrug. "It certainly
was interesting."

 He looked at her for a moment with his mouth hanging open. "I..."

 "Don't worry about it Mitaka. It wasn't your fault," she said to him.

 "I know...but..."

"Come on, we were lucky," said the woman as she helped him through he
police lines with the other guests. 

 "Where were you?" he muttered as he looked at her.

 "I was in the bathroom," she said as she looked away from him. "I hid in
there, and managed to crawl into an air shaft until it blew over," she
said as she grinned at him sheepishly.

 "Oh. Good," he said with a short nod. He was obviously quite upset.

 "Well, not really," she said to him with a slight shake of her head. 

 "Oh, sorry," he said to her with a pathetic frown. "I didn't mean..."

 "I know dear," she said as she walked by one of the ambulances. 

 A large European man with no legs and an arm gone was screaming in pain
as they shoved him inside. His long blonde hair half burnt away.

 "It was rather messy wasn't it?" she said with a sort of apologetic
frown on her face. 

 "Yeah. I'm sorry," he mumbled.

 "Come on, we should get back," said the woman as she ushered him away.

+++++++++++++

 "Mitaka, I'm sorry our little date got ruined," said Yohiko as she
stepped out of the car.

 "Yeah. Maybe we can make it up?" he said weakly.

 "Um. No, I don't think so," she said as she backed away.

 His face fell and he sighed heavily.

 "Well, at least part of it was nice!" she said as she smiled at him. Of
course, she wouldn't tell him which part she had enjoyed more, but he
wouldn't know the difference.

 "Yeah," he said as he hung his head again.

 She leaned into the car and kissed him on the lips before backing out.
"Bye!"

 His eyes glazed over as she closed the door and jogged away, heading
towards her apartment.

 "I..." He smiled and drove off, not sure of what that meant.

+++++++++++++

 Yohiko Hibiki stood up coughing from behind the bushes in front of her
apartment building. She growled angrily and wiped the bile off of her
chin. 

 "Don't ever, ever, evereverevereverever! Do that, again," said Carrot.

 "I think I'm gonna be sick again!" cried Ranma as they lurched over the
bushes again.

 "Oh, don't be such a baby! It was just one little kiss!" said Xianfu.

 "You kissed a man! A MAN!" cried Dan in disgust.

 "Well, he did look kinda sad," muttered Pissant.
 
 "Don't tell me you enjoyed that!?" cried Carrot in horror.

 "No! Of course not! But...I understand why she did..." said the voice
sheepishly. "Please don't do that again Miss Xianfu."

 "You jerks!" snapped the woman irritably. "He just looked so pathetic, I
couldn't help myself."

 "Well, I've managed to contain my urge for a piece of sweet ass since we
got here!" snapped Carrot. "Now I'm gonna kick yers!"

 "Ouch! Quit it!" cried Xianfu as he punched them all in the face.

 She elbowed them in the gut and fell to the ground on their face,
preventing him from hitting them anymore.

 "Witch! How dare you make me kiss a man!?" cried Dan as he pulled at
their hair.

 "Ouch! I'm not sorry!" she cried painfully. She reached down and twisted
their breast. "I'll do what I want! You assholes don't seem to have a
problem with that!"

 Carrot clutched at their neck and tried to choke them. "Die!"

 "Ingrate!" cried Ranma.

 "Foul temptress!" said Dan.

 "A little too much Kuno there man," said Carrot as he paused the fight
for a moment.

 "Oh, sorry," muttered Dan as he slugged them across their cheek.

 "Stop it!" cried Pissant. "Can we just forget about it this time?" he
pleaded.

 "All right, I'll let it slide this one time," grumbled Carrot as he
rubbed his jaw. "Don't let it happen again though."

 "Let it slide? You assholes!" cried Xianfu.

 "Let's just go inside, before I get sick again," muttered Ranma.

 "Right," agreed the others.

++++++++++

 "Oh! Hi Mom! How was your..." Usagi trailed off and looked at her
mother. She was filthy, dirty, and had several red marks on her body.
"Oh! Are you all right?" cried the girl. "That jerk! He didn't!" she
cried in horror.

 Yohiko snorted. "Ha! Like that idiot could hurt me if I let him! Don't
be stupid dear."

 Usagi sighed with relief and looked her mother up and down. "What
happened then?" She suddenly went red as she realized that her mother
must have gotten lucky. They probably rolled around on the ground in
passion, that was the only explanation for what she looked like. "Really
mother, you could have come up and used the bedroom. I wouldn't have
complained..."

 "Huh? What the heck are you on about?" asked the woman as she looked at
her daughter in confusion.

 "Well, it looks like the date went well!"

 Yohiko stood up and turned on the TV. "You tell me," she replied as a
news report showing the tower was on.

 The girl gasped as she heard the reporter talking about what had
happened.

 "Mom! Are you all right? I mean, they didn't hurt you did they?"

 "Huh?" said the woman as she walked out of the kitchen with a bottle of
sake in her hand. "Heck no. I was in the bathroom and managed to crawl
into an air vent when all this started." Once again, she omitted the rest
of her tale.

 "That's good, but then why do you look like that?" asked the girl.

 "Oh, this? I kissed Mitaka and got sick in the bushes outside," she
replied as she poured herself a drink, looked at it, and then started to
drink from the bottle.

 "Oh," said her daughter dumbly. "Okay." She turned towards the report
and watched it intently. "What's this about some sort of super hero?"

 "The Shadow," said the woman as she looked up at the screen. "Some guy
came and beat up or killed all the terrorists."

 "Oh," said her daughter in confusion. "Well. I'm glad you're safe."

 "Yeah. Me too, had a close call there," said the woman cheerfully.
"Anyway, it's time for little girls and their mothers to go to sleep.
We've got school tomorrow." She stood up and turned off the TV before
hugging the girl tightly.

 "Well, I suppose you're right," said the girl as she walked to her room.
"Goodnight."

 Yohiko smiled at her warmly and went into her own room. 

 She lie down on the bed and reached inside her clothes, pulling out
several objects; a few hand grenades, a pair of handguns, and a radio.
She tossed the radio aside and took out a few ammunition clips for the
guns. 

 Reaching under her bed, she took out a shoebox and placed the items
inside before sliding it back under and rolling over onto the sheets. Her
clothes shifted into her pajamas and she closed her eyes to sleep
finally.

++++++++++++

 TBC...

 Next Time: The Race for the Open Water Kettle!

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