$Ah, about time I got to send this.  I've moved, I've no easy internet 
access, sometimes life is just troublesome.  This is my last post from 
nugar@tds.net.   All future replies should be made to 
nugarthebarbarian@yahoo.com until I get internet access again.

Avenging
Act II
Chapter 4
Backstabbers

 

$No pre-title blurb?  Aww.

Waves lapped against the sides of ships moored at the docks as they had 
since the dawn of man.

$I don't think we had ships at the dawn of man. 

The men were busy as they urged a group of women toward the only wooden 
sailing vessel tied to the docks, its sails unfurled as though it would 
leave at any moment. The women�s hands were bound together and gags were 
forced in their mouths, preventing any noise from leaking out. Each was 
forced to wear a set of longer iron chains clamped to their ankles, 
allowing enough room to walk carefully but no more.

$carefully, but

Their gait held the 
weight of despair that weighed them down more effectively than chains 
ever could.

 

$Ah, I see.  Their parents signed them up for a diet camp with Callista 
Flockhart.

The group of sailors was dominated by a huge man who watched them 
carefully from the side. He stood over six foot high and weighed at 
least two-hundred and fifty pounds.

$'Snot _that_ big.

His yellow shirt, faded from sun and 
water, had its sleeves torn off, displaying massive biceps. He wore a 
loose fitting pair of black pants and leather boots. His belt held a 
cutlass on one side and a flintlock pistol in the other. But his most 
bizarre characteristic was his lack of a left leg, which had been 
replaced with, of all things, a peg leg.

 

$Suggest you replace peg leg with wooden peg.  Leg's got too many 
repititions there.

The man growled, �Move quicker, you scurvy dogs. We weren�t able to 
bribe all the watchmen to turn a blind eye to our loading of the cargo 
and we don�t want troubles on this fine evening.�

One of the sailors said, �Actually, Commander Kraken, calling us scurvy 
dogs is inappropriate since, thanks to the miracles of nutrition, we now 
eat a balanced diet with plenty of vitamin C to stave off the effects of 
scurvy.�

 

$Ah, how progressive of them, despite the anacronisim.

Commander Kraken turned to the man. The speaker couldn�t help noticing 
his comrades suddenly backing away from him.

 

$Kraken: That's it.  For contradicting me, your ration of vitamin C and 
sunny D has been cut.  Ye'll be toothless and delirious before we tie a 
rope around you and keelhaul you to Los Angeles!

Kraken walked toward him, moving with fluidity despite the peg leg. �Oh, 
a comedian. You must be the new swabbie we hired in Thailand, is that 
right?�

The man gulped. �Yes, Sir.�

�There�s something you should probably know about me before you can 
continue with yer employment here.�

�Sir?�

 

$Kraken: I sleep with all the new crewmembers.  It's a lonely life, that 
of a pirate.

In a flash the cutlass was pulled free of Kraken�s belt and swung, 
neatly decapitating the man�s head from his shoulders. �I hate 
comedians!�

$No sense of humor.  I thought pirates were supposed to be jolly grog 
swilling pigs?

As the body fell to the ground, gushing blood, Kraken turned 
to the rest of his crew. �Now then, you scurvy dogs, don�t stand there 
gawking. Get that merchandise on board.�

The men had started to move with renewed zeal when a voice from perched 
above a large stack of crates said, �Well, well well, either this is a 
really off Broadway production of �The Pirates of Penzance� or I�ve 
stumbled on Commander Kraken and his amazingly outdated crew.�

 

$Random pirate: Outdated?!  Outdated!?  I'll have you know I've got root 
on five warez servers, an AMD 3600+ with two 500 gig SATA RAID drives 
and a satellite broadband connection on board running torrents, and we 
just loaded up fifteen crates of freshly stamped bootleg CDs bound for 
Korea!  So nyah!

Kraken remained staring at his men as he said, �Now I wonder who the 
dead man that spoke to me in such a tone wa�� A billy club slammed into 
Kraken�s wrist, knocking the pistol he had drawn out of his hand.

Daredevil had to credit the commander. His voice had remained steady as 
the man drew the weapon when he got to the word �spoke� and continued 
talking as though nothing had happened. Had Daredevil not been able to 
sense the sudden jump in the commander�s heartbeat, even he probably 
would have been taken by surprise.

Kraken rubbed his sore wrist. �Oh, a meddling would be hero, is it now? 
And just which one might you be?�

�Daredevil, the Man Without Fear,� he said. �And you�re Commander 
Kraken, a pirate who�s been plaguing every country with a seacoast for 
the last twenty years, and is one of the most wanted men in the world. 
You were a super villain ahead of your time.�

Kraken shouted, �See here, now! I ain�t no super-villain. I just be a 
humble pirate.�

 

$Arr.

Daredevil was taken aback. �But your clothing, your archaic weapons, 
your crappy dialogue.�

 

$Need a question mark there.

One of the sailors said, �Commander Kraken�s always talked like that. 
It�s not a costume, that�s his everyday clothing. He doesn�t have any 
super powers either.�

�And Kraken be my god given name. I started as Midshipman Kraken before 
being promoted to Commander when the former commander took a walk out an 
airlock without Scuba gear. Nasty business, that was,� Kraken explained. 
�In any case, this is no act. Pirating isn�t an occupation; it�s a way 
of life. So I�ll be appreciating it if you didn�t slander my good name.�

�Good name? You�ve been smuggling drugs, arms, and slaves,� Daredevil 
pointed to the captured women, �for years all around the world.�

 

$years, all

�I prefer to think of myself as a purveyor of rare and exclusive goods. 
Besides, you speak of the laws of other countries. The rules of mere 
landlubbers hold no dominion over Commander Kraken. My home is the ocean 
that covers three-quarters of the world, and there the law be survival 
of the fittest. I am a law unto myself. And I say, you be the dead one 
here. Get him, swabbies!�

The men rushed as a group toward Daredevil. He leapt in the air, a 
fishing net he had picked up thrown from the folds of his sleeves. The 
men quickly found themselves caught up in the net, which grew tighter as 
they struggled against it.

Satisfied at his handiwork, Daredevil turned his full attention to the 
only man standing before him. �Now it�s your turn.�

�I see it falls to me to take care of matters.� Commander Kraken drew 
his cutlass and pointed the tip at Daredevil.

The masked adventurer reached out with his senses. Despite the five 
meters of distance between he and his foe, Kraken�s heartbeat was 
excited, as though he was about to launch an attack regardless of the 
distance. An errant memory crossed Daredevil�s mind, one of a time in 
China when Swordsman held exactly the same pose.

 

$Handy to remember.

Daredevil narrowly ducked out of the way as a bolt of electricity 
flashed from the tip of the cutlass, arcing past where the hero had been 
a second before.

�Trying to shoot someone with a sword that shoots electricity proves 
you�re a super-villain!� Daredevil shouted.

�No, it proves I�m sneaky and underhanded, just like a proper pirate 
should be.�

 

$Kidd would have loved him one of those.

Daredevil threw several billy clubs at Kraken, who batted them out of 
the way with his weapon, though with nowhere near the artful grace the 
Swordsman possessed. Several chains met the same fate. Daredevil closed 
the distance to his foe, feinting high with a blow, then coming in low 
as he tried to knock the peg leg out from under Commander Kraken. The 
kick hit, and Daredevil cried out in pain as his bone nearly broke from 
the impact.

The flat of the blade struck across Daredevil�s chest, a discharge of 
electricity shocking him into immobility as he fell to the ground, 
landing on his back.

�I can anchor me peg leg to just about anything, sort of turning a 
debilitating injury into an advantage, don�t you know,� Commander Kraken 
offered in explanation as he took a couple of steps forward, intent on 
disemboweling his foe.

 

$Heh, if disney hears about that, their next pirate franchise will 
feature a peg legged pirate with a swiss army leg.  It's the kind of 
cute that will appeal to a wide audience.

The pirate underestimated Daredevil�s recuperative powers as the blind 
man raised his arms up. From his sleeves spat out a huge white cloud, 
hitting Kraken in the face and driving him back.

�Gar, not the old fire extinguisher to the face trick!� The pirate tried 
looking through the white mist surrounding him, but could see nothing.
 

$That old shtick?  I didn't think anyone fell for that one anymore.

A solid metal object struck him in the wrist, making him cry out in pain 
as he released his hold on the cutlass. Several other blows rained in 
with a precision that should have been impossible in the white fog. 
Kraken found himself lying on his back as the mists cleared, Daredevil 
standing before him, the pirate�s cutlass in his hands.

Daredevil hovered menacingly over the prone pirate, the yellow lenses of 
his mask seeming to bore holes through the man. �I have a few questions 
to ask, but first, whoever is behind those crates, come out!�

Using his radar sense, Daredevil felt the man, who had chosen to remain 
hidden for the duration of the fight, come out from his cover. The 
stranger had a slightly elevated heartbeat, but a powerful one, 
indicating he was in good shape. Daredevil could tell from the way the 
man moved and the smell of brine that seemed to come from his skin that 
this was a sailor, one wearing a body suit, which could only mean trouble.

The man came out with his hands halfway up, near his face. �Easy there, 
lad. I�m unarmed, as you can tell.�

Actually Daredevil could tell, not only from the man�s silhouette, but 

>from the fact his heartbeat remained steady as he made his claim. �Who 

are you?�

�Captain Barracuda�s the name.� The man�s hand moved to his face, making 
Daredevil tense up. However he only scratched at his eye, the sound of 
something leathery making contact with the finger. So he was wearing an 
eye patch. All he needed was a parrot on his shoulder and his own pirate 
image would be complete.

 

$With this crew, the parrot would probably have a steel beak, a digital 
voice recorder, and swoop to the attack.

Daredevil�s radar sense tipped him off to Kraken�s heartbeat and 
adrenaline increasing, indicating he was about to attack. With a 
backhand swing, Daredevil cut off the peg leg that had just started to 
rise up off the ground. A laser flashed for a split second before the 
concealed weapon was rendered inoperable.

�You should be ashamed of yourself, attacking a disabled person like 
that.� Captain Barracuda scratched his eye again. Only this time he 
raised the patch up and a beam of energy shot forth from the socket, 
striking Daredevil solidly and knocking him to the ground. This time he 
did not rise to his feet.

 

$If looks could only cut.

�Took ye long enough,� Kraken complained. �Ye should have shot him 
before he lopped off me leg.�

�Damn� pathological liar,� Daredevil hissed out.

Barracuda kept his hand dangerously close to his patch. �As a matter of 
fact, I am. See if you can tell if I�m lying now. I�m going to kill you.�

�No, you�re not.�

�Correct.� Barracuda�s hand started to lift the patch when an arrow hit 
it, the tip exploding and dousing half of his face in it.

 

$In it what?  Glue, I assume, but you didn't say.

�What the hell is this?� Barracuda shouted as he found his hand and 
patch affixed solidly to his face.

�A glue arrow.� Hawkeye emerged from behind several crates. Towering 
above them came Giant Man, walking over them as though they were 
building blocks. Captain Japan followed by leaping from the top of one 
crate to the other.

Barracuda appeared as though he were about to run for it when he saw a 
tiny figure fly into his view. A beam of energy came from it, hitting 
him in the face and rendering him unconscious.

 

$Kasumi is kinda vicious these days, isn't she?

�That takes care of that. Another super-villain brought low by the 
combined might of half the Avengers,� Wasp said cheerfully.

�I give up, too,� Kraken added from his position on the ground.

Daredevil finally recovered enough to rise to his feet and turn his 
senses to his allies. �How did you know I was here?�

�We didn�t,� Hawkeye said. �I shook down a few snitches and they said 
that there was some kind of slave trade going down on the docks tonight 
with a Commander Kraken. I decided to call up some reinforcements to 
help out in case he proved a handful.�

�Which he did,� Captain Japan added. �You�ve really got to learn about 
this whole group of heroes thing. You cab get a lot more accomplished 
 

$You can get a lot

working as a team, like those two losers did when they two-on-one�d you.�

�Shut up!� Daredevil spat. �I didn�t need your help.�

�In what? Becoming a corpse?� Captain Japan shot back.

�This was personal. I need to talk to Kraken. He has some information I 
need.�

�That be Commander Kraken to you, landlubber.�

�Come here,� Daredevil grabbed Kraken by his shirt and dragged him 
behind a few crates, out of sight of his fellow Avengers. He brandished 
Kraken�s own cutlass before the pirate�s face.

Kraken sneered at the unspoken threat. �Don�t be stupid, you land bound 
twit. I know you super heroes don�t go around torturing people for, Agh!�

The flat of the blade met Kraken�s head, a discharge of electrity following.

Daredevil made a great production of regarding the hilt of the blade. �I 
see how it works. There�s a pressure sensor on the grip. But what does 
this button do?� He pointed the tip of the blade at Kraken�s face.

�I�ll talk, laddie. No need to be torturin� me further,� Kraken said. 
�Though you do do it well. Maybe you got a touch of pirate in ye after 
all.�

 

$Daredevil: I downloaded a crappy Evanescence song that struck a chord 
with me last week, I'm touched you noticed.  Now talk.

Daredevil brought his face close. �In the last ten years have you ever 
come across a Chinese girl with purple hair?�

�Naturally purple?�

�Yes.�

�No, can�t say I have. And I�d remember a distinctive thing like hat. An 
exotic color like that would triple her price.�

�Are you certain?�

�Aye, laddie. I personally inspect all my merchandise, if you know what 
I mean.� He winked at Daredevil.

 

$Hey, can't be too careful.  If someone was to sell Konatsu or Tsubasa 
to me as a slave, I'd be kinda pissed.

Matsuo Tsurayaba stared over the long table at his fellow lieutenants in 
the Hand. For the most part they dressed in traditional kimonos, though 
a few were contemporary, like Matsuo, and preferred Armani. Any casual 
observer would have no idea that among then ten of them, they had killed 
 

$among the ten

close to a thousand men.

It was most peculiar. The former leader of the Hand, known only as Hard 
Master, had been an assassin of unsurpassed skill and sound judgment. 
And while the Hand had not flourished as it had in times past, neither 
did it suffer. Matsuo had been making plans to have the old head 
eliminated in ten years time or so, when he was in proper position to 
take over the organization. Those plans came to an abrupt end three 
months ago when, instead of the Hard Master, a new being entered the room.

It was a beach ball shaped yellow thing with simple features that passed 
for a face, almost as though they were drawn on by a child with a magic 
marker. It came in flying on wings that flowed out of the substance of 
the ball, able to appear and disappear without sign of an actual 
aperture, much like the being�s hands. It floated onto a padded cushion 
placed on the table in front of where the Hard Master had formerly sat, 
said its name was Onsokumaru,

$Oh, god.  That's so out of the blue it's almost purple, if that makes 
any sense.  Heh, I'm looking forward to his ninja girls and what the 
Hand would make of them.

and announced it had become the new head 
of the Hand. Most of the other lieutenants, like Matsuo, assumed this 
was some sort of test, and placidly accepted the situation. However, 
this Onsokumaru thing ran things as though it were in charge, and there 
was no Hard Master to contradict its whimsical decisions.

Also of note were Onsokumaru�s two bodyguards that stood at his side 
during any public appearances. The first was a sixteen-year old girl 
dressed in a pink and black kunoichi outfit. It was extremely small, 
hugging her chest tightly and showing a huge bust hidden underneath, and 
the lower edge barely made it past her bottom.

$I loved the rampant fanservice they had.

It was a good 
psychological edge against any male that allowed his hormones to 
distract them.

$True, I'd have been distracted, but just wait until she runs into a 
necrophiliac.  Suddenly, that cuteness is a liablity.  You know, that'd 
be kinda cute in a fic, in a nasty morbid pervert kinda way.

The only odd thing about the uniform was the white 
headband with the smiley face on it. But even that was appropriate since 
the girl called Shinobu seemed perpetually happy. Curiously, Matsuo 
could sense no danger about her. Even the way she moved implied she only 
knew the basics of the art. Hardly the sort that should be a bodyguard 
to anyone.

The other bodyguard was the exact opposite in nearly every way. He was 
about the same age, had black hair as well, and that was where the 
similarities ended. He wore non-traditional garb. Brown pants and a blue 
jacket with a red and white ball shaped symbol on the back. He wore a 
metal forehead protector with an odd arrow symbol on it. Where Shinobu 
was perpetually happy, the taciturn Sasuke was dour and radiated a 
healthy amount of anger, which in turn was dwarfed by his barely 
retrained sense of power.

For this meeting Matsuo had decided to test one of the bodyguards of his 
new �master�. This Shinobu was an enigma, and it was time to see if 
solving her would lead to information about the others. Matsuo scratched 
his chin, a signal to the assassin hidden above one of the ceiling tiles 
directly above the meeting table. The already slightly misadjusted panel 
moved upward just a tiny bit, no more than a crack. Just enough to fire 
an arrow at the girl.

Matsuo could feel the assassin take aim when Shinobu suddenly sneezed. 
He swore he sensed something small cut through the air at the edge of 
his perception.

�Bless you,� Onsokumaru said.

Shinobu rubbed her nose. �Sorry, I think I sneezed one of my throat 
spikes out. Was anyone hit?�

 

$Heheh.  Figures.

A body fell through the tile and landed on the middle of the table.

�Oh, there it is.� Shinobu removed the poisoned throat dart from body 
 

$from the body

even as it began to smolder, giving off a greenish mist as it 
disintegrated. Within seconds all that remained was the empty outfit of 
the ninja, his soul traveling to one of the capture spheres hidden about 
the world. Once caught, it would eventually be consumed in a powerful 
spell. No one was allowed to leave the Hand, even in death.

There was the answer to that question, Matsuo noted silently to himself. 
Shinobu was so dangerous that even one of his abilities hadn�t sensed 
the attack coming. She was probably more dangerous than Sasuke, and 
Onsokumaru more powerful than either of them if they had sworn fealty to 
him.

Onsokumaru said, �Now that the obligatory assassination attempt is over, 
 

$It really is obligatory.

let�s get down to business. How many new attractive babes have joined 
the Hand?�

 

$I liked the way his mind worked.

One of the lieutenants shifted uncomfortably. �Female recruitment is 
only up ten percent, and most of them aren�t� babes.�

Onsokumaru slammed a hand (which appeared from his round surface) on to 
the table. �Didn�t I order babe recruitment up two hundred percent?�

�It seems most babes want to be models, not assassins,� the man explained.

�Damn bias against ninjas,� Onsokumaru mumbled. �Hopefully our Ninja 
World Amusement Park will change all the public perception about us.�

 

$Heheh.  I forsee problems at ninja world.  Something about a nine 
foot...  blue...  arachnid?  Nah, I must be mistaken.  That could never 
happen.

The lieutenants looked at one another. Matsuo said, �I thought you were 
joking about that.�

�Why? It�s a great idea. It�ll do wonders for the image of ninjas 
everywhere.�

 

$The ninja plushies are cute.

�We�re assassins. We kill people, not entertain them.�

�I don�t see why we can�t do both at the same time.�

�We can�t afford to build an amusement park,� one of the others said.

Onsokumaru huffed. �Do I have to think of everything? There�s a European 
assassin called Arcade that uses murderous amusement rides. Kill him and 
we�ll rebuild all of his �Murderworlds� into �Ninja Worlds�.�

Matsuo jerked in his seat. Actually, that would work. The whole Ninja 
World thing was stupid, of course, but it was an economical way of doing 
it, as well as eliminating a rival assassin. Maybe they could even make 
the Ninja World�s financially viable. Perhaps it was something to 
seriously consider.

 

$There's a large fat man waiting in the wings in a hawaiian shirt.  He'd 
be the perfect manager.

Onsokumaru moved things along. �How about our success and mortality rates?�

Another lieutenant stood up, �One hundred and two successful 
assassinations, fifty-eight.� He looked at the empty uniform on the 
table. �Fifty-nine deaths among our membership.�

�Why so many fatalities this month?� Onsokumaru asked.

 

$Does seem kinda excessive.

Matsuo answered, �It�s Elektra, Sir. She�s killing the men we keep 
sending to kill her.�

Onsokumaru started weeping, �It�s so unfair. She was a major babe. Why 
did she turn on us?�

�It hardly matters, Sir.� But inside, Matsuo seethed in rage. She was to 
be his Assassin Prime and key enforcer in controlling the Hand, and now 
it was all for nothing. He knew when Shan Pu had taken the Elektra name 
something had gone wrong with her training. He had failed to eradicate 
every aspect of her former mentality. But he had been convinced he had 
obtained her at an early enough age to train her without resorting to 
drugs for brainwashing. Now her open betrayal meant death, and a setback 
to Matsuo�s long term plans.

Onsokumaru said, �I want her captured, not killed. Then I can 
interrogate her myself.� The eyes of the Hand�s leader took on a distant 
gaze and drool slipped from his mouth.

That display disturbed even Matsuo, who had once eviscerated a 
half-dozen children to test himself and ensure he had developed no

$hadn't developed any

ridiculous feelings of sentimentality. He hadn�t.

$What he wouldn't admit, even to himself, was that he'd deliberately 
picked his targets out of the crowd at a Barney fan club autograph 
signing event.

�She killed the 
Yamamoto Twins.�

�WHAT?� Onsokumaru roared. �They were two of the hottest babes in the 
Hand! And twins! Do you know how hard it is to recruit hot twins? That 
is unacceptable. The needs of the many babes outweigh the needs of the 
one. Elektra will have to be dispatched.�

Shinobu raised her hand and gleefully shouted, �I can kill her, 
Onsokumaru-sama!�

 

$Maybe. 

Onsokumaru considered that. �I wonder if we could lure her into a nude 
oil wrestling death trap.�
�Hey, guys, we�re back, and we brought this!� the blond Youji, declared, 
throwing a skeleton of a man on top the table. It made a clunking noise, 
the weight of the skeleton chipping some of the table surface. �We 
couldn�t remove the head. Did you know his entire skeleton is made of 
adamantium? Stuff�s fused together, too.�

 

$Cute.

�The claws could be made to slide out, though.� Ken, the youth with the 
brown jacket pulled out a glove with three long blades attached to the 
back of the palm.

The youngest, Omi, added, �That Yukio girl that was with him is dead, 
too. I found out she was my third cousin, twice removed. Another member 
of my family is dead. Soon there won�t be any of them left.� He sighed.

�She was definitely a hot lay,� Youji said.

Omi turned on him in anger. �You slept with her? She was my cousin!�

�She was dead.�

�So you think defiling her corpse makes me feel better?�

 

$Youji: It did me.

�You�re the one that killed her.�

�It was fated that she die, like all of my family! It�s a tragedy that I 
have to bear.� Omi radiated a healthy doze of angst.

Aya finally entered the conversation, talking to Youji. �Maybe you 
should try sleeping with, you know, a girl that�s alive.�

Youji scoffed. �Nah, I tried it. They start whining and bitching about 
size, tempo, and want to be held afterwards, like it�s all about them. 
When I sleep with a girl, it�s all about me and my pleasure, not them. 
Doing it when they�re dead makes it easier for both of us.

 

$Heh, speaking of necrophiliacs.  I had no idea there was actually going 
to be one in this story.  He and Shinobu should fight.  And that's one 
of the reasons I enjoy C&Cing your fics so much.  Usually, anything off 
the wall I think of, you already have.

Ken spat at the skeleton lying on the table. �And this asshole called me 
a queer. Fucking gaijin mutie.�

�You sleep with guys,� Aya pointed out.

�That doesn�t make me gay!� Ken shouted.

�It doesn�t?� Aya asked.
 

$Ken: No, my sucking dick is what makes me gay.

�No! It just means I like sleeping with guys! I don�t even like fags.�

Matsuo noted that not only were they expert killers, but they were also 
completely insane. Well, maybe not Aya. It was hard to say, since he was 
so quiet and hung out with the other trio, who were loud and crazy.

Onsokumaru stared at the skeleton on the table. �You actually managed to 
kill Logan?�

�Yes,� Aya said.

Youji turned once again to the people lining the table. �I think 
congratulations are in order.�

�Not really,� Onsokumaru said. �We assumed you�d die like the two 
hundred and thirty-five other members of the Hand he�s killed before 
you. We only sent you on that mission in the hopes that you�d meet the 
same fate as the others. You are insane, after all.�

 

$Pot calling the kettle black.  Though, at least he's honest.

Matsuo felt his heart miss a beat. Actually what Onsokumaru said was 
true. It had been decided that the Snakeroot was too unstable to keep 
around. No matter how nicely you treated a rabid dog it would try to 
bite you. But to tell them that to their faces? Matsuo prepared for a 
fight. He had a squad of his most dangerous subordinates only a floor 
away on standby alert. If he could hold off the Snakeroot long enough, 
he could use his men�s lives to buy time for him to escape.

�How did you kill him?� Onsokumaru asked, temporarily defusing the 
situation.

�It was easy,� Ken said. �He was highly overrated.�

Aya said, �He had just fought and killed two men, one called Creed and 
the other called Cyber. He was so weakened from the fight that not even 
his healing factor could overcome our attacks.�

 

$Heh.  Because, of course, Logan wouldn't go down easily.

�Like I said, overrated,� Ken said.

Onsokumaru stared at the skeleton for a few moments longer, then looked 
at the men. �I have another mission for you. We need you to kill Elektra.�

The Snakeroot looked warily at one another. Youji said, �I�m not sure I 
want to go on any more missions if you�re just sending us to die.�

�I said we were hoping you would die, not that actually dying is part of 
the mission. If you don�t want to die, then don�t.�

 

$Man, er, head, has a point.

The Snakeroot silently stared at one another. It was at that moment 
Shinobu sneezed again. Ken�s headband fell to the floor a moment later. 
All eyes turned to look at the throat needle that was embedded in the 
wall next to Ken�s head.

Shinobu laughed embarrassedly.

Aya shrugged. �Why not?�

�She is seriously hot. If I could get her while she was still warm�.� 
Now it was Youji�s turn for his eyes to take on a distant glaze.

�I�m not so sure,� Omi said.

�I�ll get you the name of a third cousin of yours,� Onsokumaru offered.

�Done.�

Ken continued staring at the dart embedded in the wall.

 

$He didn't see it coming, did he?

�It�s settled, then. You go kill Elektra and have some fun,� Onsokumaru 
said.

The four turned and left. Matsuo couldn�t decide if it had been deft 
maneuvering on Onsokumaru�s part or just plain luck. What he did know 
was that in any case, he�d bide his time and wait a bit longer for an 
opening to take control of the Hand.

 

$Probably best.  He's most likely to die in some embarassing situation 
of his own devising, anyway.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Atsushi Morikawa sat at the bar, working on his third vodka martini, 
looking at his watch every five minutes. Soon that hottie, Hikari Kine 
would show up, and they could have a few drinks before heading back to 
his place for some hot sex. And he wouldn�t have to pay her afterwards, 
like he did most of the other girls he slept with. Life was finally 
taking an upswing for the information broker.

 

$J random oneshot character?  Nah.  I doubt it.

Atsushi had gone halfway through his drink when he felt a pair of arms 
wrap themselves around his neck and a set of impressive breasts mash 
themselves against his back. A light caress of breath touched his ear, 
turning him on. His date was even friskier than he could have hoped.

Then Atsushi felt the small blade press against his jugular.

 

$Not a good sign at the start of a date, but an optimistic man isn't 
always wrong.

�How�s it going, Atsushi?� a woman�s voice whispered in his ear.

�Elektra,� he whispered. �Come on, don�t do this. If the Hand catches me 
telling you anything, they�re going to kill me.�

�But they can only kill you later, while I can kill you now.�

Atsushi detested how casual she sounded when saying things like that. 
�There hasn�t been any word out of them in the last five days. I mean 
nothing. It�s weird, like they�ve given up on you or something. I�m 
being honest. I�m not holding out on you.� But she wasn�t going to 
believe him. She�d cut his throat and be out of the bar before anyone 
saw the blood pooling around him because she was that good. He went 
ahead and wet himself just to get it over with.

 

$Well, if it's obligatory, you might as well.

Instead of slitting his throat, Elektra said, �Damn. I was afraid of 
that. I�m going to need help. You did well.� Her arms disappeared from 
his throat and the breasts removed themselves from his back. For the 
first few seconds he thought she was just lulling him into a false sense 
of relief so that the blade to the back was all the more surprising. But 
nothing happened.

And then a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his waist and a set of 
impressive breasts mashed themselves against his jacket. �How�s it 
going, Atsushi?�

 

$And he wets himself again.  Nice parallel, though.

Hikari had finally shown up. He laughed softly.

Her hand went down to his groin, grasping it.

$Hey, she is pretty frisky.

Then the grasping stopped 
and the breasts weren�t pressed against him so tightly. Atsushi�s eyes 
nearly rolled into the back of his head. It was over.

�Ohh, you are well informed. How did you know I have a fetish for 
urine?� She grasped his groin even tighter.

Atsushi laughed. It appeared it was going to be a good night after all.

 

$Ehhhhh....  I suppose.  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.  
Personally, I prefer a girl I'm willing to kiss after sex.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The �Halfway Scraper� was a slang term for a partially completed 
skyscraper that stood in a low scale area of Tokyo. Plans had called for 
it to be the centerpiece of a new financial district that would restore 
the area, but funding for the building fell through when it was revealed 
they were being backed by an outfit called the Secret Empire, and that 
the building was intended to be a forward attack base capable of 
leveling Tokyo.

$Plus, everyone knew that the Secret Empire had incredibly lousy credit, 
and all the loans were foreclosed.

So it stood alone, a framework with some flooring and 
almost no walls slowly falling into ruin. A scarecrow of concrete and 
steel in a field of urban decay.

Upon arriving, Daredevil discovered the security guard for the grounds 
unconscious in his guardhouse. That meant Elektra had already arrived. 
He used his billy club to snare a girder and hoisted himself up to the 
fourth floor, one with much of the flooring complete. He walked through 
the building, his radar sense telling him all he needed to know about 
the structure in a way mere eyes never could. Except for what color it 
was, of course.

 

$Color is overrated.

�Because you can avoid their attacks and you need me alive to give you 
the information you crave.� She moved away from him more quietly than a 
mouse.

$Having had more than a few mice, and lived in houses with mice, I'd 
just like to note that they're actually pretty noisy.  But I get your point.

The lack of resistance threw him off balance for the briefest of 
seconds. That was enough time for Elektra to spin and throw a sai 
upward. Her aim was true as the sai buried itself to the hilt in Youji�s 
chest, in the heart just like Omi�s had been. A look of disbelief passed 
behind his sunglasses before he fell from the girder he was on, dead on 
impact with the floor.

At the same moment the wire snapped, a pool cue arced through the air 
like a missile toward Aya�s back. Gracefully he pivoted on one foot, 
slashing through the cue and slashing it aside. He felt a coolness pass 
over him as he felt the blade contact the wood and the improvised weapon 
went flying to the side. Or more correctly, half of it, as he saw, to 
his horror, that someone had unscrewed the cue, making it two missiles. 
Having thrown them so closely together and perfectly in line, Aya had 
mistaken it for only one.

 

$Kinda reminds me of how Electra's dad died in the daredevil movie, 
though not exactly.

That passed through his mind a split second before the other shaft 
struck his throat, crushing his windpipe. The katana slipped from his 
fingers as he fell to his knees, clutching at his throat as he gasped 
for air that would never reach his lungs.

That was the opening Daredevil had been waiting for. He grabbed Ken by 
the wrist in a grip of iron and kicked out. Despite his grip, kicking 
Ken shifted the blades slightly, loosening the wrist enough to slip out 
of the glove with the blade attached to it. Ken went flying backward to 
land on his bottom, trying to gather his wind after the kick.

�For Shampoo,� Daredevil thought to himself as he pulled out the blades, 
biting on his lip fiercely enough to draw blood, but refusing to cry out 
in pain.

�Those are mine!� Ken shouted, pointing at the blades Daredevil now held 
in his hand. He pulled out another glove, this one for his left hand, 
and put it on.

Daredevil threw a bag of powder at Ken, who evaded it rather than trying 
to slash it aside, which was what the hero had hoped he�d do, since it 
would have blinded him.

Ken began slashing madly, taking no heed of what he was cutting. 
Daredevil backpedaled, going completely evasive as the blades came 
closer to him by the second. On one near miss, Daredevil ducked a slash 
that opened up a cut on his cheek. Sparks flew as Ken managed to cut 
through a support with the adamantium sharp blades. In a completed 
structure it would have meant nothing, but in the Halfway Scraper it was 
the sole means of support for that area of the floor. Daredevil heard 
the groan of weight from above and recognized it as the sound for a 
mortal blow to the ceiling. He barely had enough time to leap out of the 
way as several tons of building fell directly on top of Ken. Gravity 
took over as the weight also caused the floor to collapse, taking the 
debris with a few more tons with it. Daredevil heard the echo through 
the building as the pile fell through two more floors before coming to a 
stop.

 

$He'll be alright.

�Of course it is. Let me guess. You feel guilt over her capture after 
arriving in Japan when you were seven.�

Daredevil stared at her in disbelief. Stick was the only person whom he 
had told. �You know about that?�

Elektra smirked. �There is nothing I didn�t know about her. We might as 
well have been one with how close we were.

$Daredevil: Oh, I see.  You are Shampoo.  Heh heh, you had me going for 
a while there.  So...  How have you been?
Shampoo:  ....    ....   ....shit, I made it too obvious.

Tell me something. Do you 
feel personal guilt when an earthquake hits, or a ship sinks, or how 
people due from starving in Bangladesh?�

�Of course not.�

�Because there is nothing you can do about them. Likewise there was 
nothing you could have done about her capture. You were seven. You were 
lucky to have survived your village being bombed. Even making it as far 
as Japan, for that matter. Her capture was as inevitable as the surf 
pounding on the shore, and there was nothing you could have done about it.�

�I don�t care about your stupid opinion!� Daredevil shouted. �Just tell 
me where she is.�

Elektra shrugged. �Very well. I was trying to dissuade you, but I see 
it�s pointless. She�s gone. She passed away quietly and didn�t suffer, 
which is the best one can hope for living in this ambivalent world.�

�You�re lying!�

Elektra sneered. �Oh, of course I must be. After all, it is so 
advantageous to me to lie to you about this. Remind me again of why I 
would bother. The reasoning escapes me.�

With his hyper-senses, Daredevil could sense a person�s heartbeat far 
more accurately than a lie detector. There was no tension whatsoever in 
Elektra as she spoke. Actually, she had become noticeably irritated at 
his contention that she was lying. And she made sense. She had no reason 
to lie. Not about this. Not to him. And he had a feeling that under 
these conditions, she�d keep her word.

 

$That, or she's a pathological liar, like the last guy he believed.

Daredevil went from panic to fear to hopelessness. In the quietest 
moments of the eternal night he lay in, his mind had tortured him with 
the idea that Shampoo might be dead. That he had failed her and she had 
suffered because of his failure. It was his fault. All his fault. He 
didn�t know how he could have saved her, found her before she died. But 
there had to have been a way. There had to have been.


Elektra nodded. The crone was good, and the assassin had the terrible 
feeling that under these conditions, she was outclassed even more badly 
than she had been against th4e Snakeroot. �Yes. Shampoo knew of a method 
 

$Errant 4.  Heh, sounds like some sort of sentai troupe.

Well, this was fun.  Kinda sad, and I'm willing to be that Shamps will 
show up again in the fairly near future.  You're going for a mostly 
Ranma cast, and she's a fairly major member of that cast.  Plus, I know 
you like her character.  It shows.  You give her good screen time.  Very 
clean, the few errors I saw I'm sure have already been pointed out by 
others, but here's my thoughts, and snarky half-wittisisms, anyway.

And remember, all replies go to nugarthebarbarian@yahoo.com  , since I'm 
unsubbing from the FFML with this account. 

Until next time.

Ragun

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