L'Aprile Heaven Seven, located in an expensive hotel, was one of the more extravagant and sophisticated bars in the large network of hunter base locations.  Today, on leave given by his boss who had decided to dissappear on a solo-trip, the hunter Terrace was finally taking a break from doing various mercenary jobs both natural and super-natural.  At the moment, he was in a conversation with one of his female friends that he happened to meet within this city of New York.

"Hmm... well, that wasn't very thoughtful of him."  Terrace commented as the beautiful young brown-haired girl leaned against him.  "It might have been an accident, but that still didn't excuse him from standing you up like that, Celine.  I'm sorry to hear about your break-up."

Celine smiled and kneeled closer.  "Oh, don't worry about it, Terrace.  I'm sure found someone who's much better than that guy, anyway."

The young hunter was in-fact paying attention, and had three people, two of whom he recognized, not have walked into the elegant ball area at that moment, he would have put two and two together and figured out who Celine was talking about.  But as it was, he was too caught up in the shock of seeing his old friends for him to remember that Celine was even there.

"Oh my god...  Borrah!  Jettaron!"  Terrace quickly leapt off his seat and dashed over to the large man and the two thinner ones.  "I haven't seen you guys in ages ever since Avelle dissappeared last time!  How have you been?"

Celine, who was still leaning on his shoulder, ended up crashing to the floor.

"Terrace!!!  How ya doing?"  The husky bald man in the blue business suit grabbed Terrace in a tight bear hug in a fit of happiness.

"I'm... ack!  Doing great!"  Terrace forcefully replied under Borrah's tight grip.  Borrah let go of him and he brushed himself off, as the skinnier man in the Indiana Jones-esque outfit, Jettaron, slowly glanced around the bar.

"Hey, Terrace."  Despite not having seen his fellow hunter for a long time, it was hard to discern any emotion from Jettaron at the moment.  "Is Avelle around?"

"Avelle..."  Terrace shrugged.  "She's dissappeared again, like always.  But she'll be back.  She always does come back, after all."

"Oh, is that so?"  There was a slight hint of dissappointment in Jettaron's otherwise calm front.  "Too bad.  I wanted to see her.  About a job, that is.  Our friend Guy here was also looking for something to do."

If Jettaron was quickly correcting himself, it was hard to notice.

"Guy?  Well, hi there.  Nice to meet ya."  Terrace shook Guy's hand, though Guy didn't seem to care, then he put his hand to his chin.  "A job, huh?  Work's been pretty low for hunters these days.  The church has managed to stave off the vampires and demons of hell and just don't seem to need us these days.  But I think things will pick up soon, since I heard that a vampire lord has re-risen.  Would be suicide to take him on without Avelle and a plan, though.  But... there is someone..."

"Someone?"  Borrah perked up, but Jettaron didn't.  "What are you talking about?"

"There's this great new girl."  Terrace smiled.  "She's a bit new to hunting but she and Avelle are good friends, and she's almost just as capable as her.  In fact, I believe that she could be the next Avelle, if such a thing is possible.  You guys really should meet her.  Her name's Juni, and she was trained as a Shadaloo agent just like Avelle was."

"Hmph... it still wouldn't be the same..."  Jettaron muttered.

"Really?"  Borrah replied, ignoring his partner.  "Where is she?"

"She..."  Terrace paused for a moment.  "Er... I'm honestly not sure where she is right now.  Maybe we should go check."

A tap on Terrace's shoulder quickly distracted him.  He turned around to see Celine glaring angrily at him.

"Oh, Hey Celine.  What's..."

*SLAP!*

Celine stomped off as Terrace was left rubbing his cheek.

"Still having girl trouble?"  Jettaron snidely commented.

"Yea, well, you know me."  Terrace coolly replied after getting over the slap attack.  "I'm quite the lady's man."

Borrah laughed but Jettaron and Guy both didn't bother to comment.

"Anyway, let's get going.  She has to be around here somewhere."  Terrace continued.

Jettaron and Borrah nodded, though Guy didn't follow suit.  The four turned to exit the bar.

"That Guy isn't a very talkative fellow, is he?"  Terrace commented as they walked out of the hotel.

"Nah."   Borrah happily answered.

Jettaron simply shrugged.

"There she is!  Don't let her escape!"

A cliche phrase to start the chase anew once again.  The short blonde-haired teenage girl in the black full-body leotard sighed as she went running down the street away from the assorted thugs once again, until she crashed right into a young but grey-haired man wearing a red suit with golden linings.

She quickly flipped to her feet then leapt over the man and turned around to look at him.  "Gee, Fokken, Don't you think you're taking this a bit far?"

"I'm taking this too far?!?"  Fokken angrily got up and brushed himself off as two of the people that were previously chasing after the girl caught up and stopped by his side.  "I can't believe you!  Why... that... you... Juni... ARGH!  GET HER!"

The girl took off again with the thugs and Fokken hot on her heels.  Dashing down the street, the chase continuing on, until a police car stopped right in front of her.

"Crap!"

Instead of asking the police officer for help, Juni turned down an alley so the police car couldn't follow her.  The large bulky officer quickly stepped out of the car as Fokken ran up to him.  "Edi. E, where is she!?"

"She went over there."  The officer pointed to the alley.  Fokken motioned to him and he joined them in pursuit the girl.

Juni frantically glanced over a map of New York city as she ran.  "Where is it?  The airport's supposed to be around here!  Oh no..."

She stopped in front of another duo of thugs, this one consisting of a large black man with a mohawk wearing a punk jacket and jeans, and the man with the red tie, blue hat over his eyes, and white shirt.

"Finally!"  Fokken had caught up to her again, and this time there was no where to run.  He was rather exasperated.  "I don't understand you!  You wouldn't have to go through with this if you just went quietly!  You'll be back in Shadaloo soon enough anyway and you know it!!  Why do you do this?!"

"You can't force me!"  Juni shouted back.  "I'm not going to let you take me to Shadaloo!"

"Why won't you cooperate?"  Fokken demanded.  "We have permission to kill you if we can't take you to Shadaloo alive!  Don't force us to hurt you..."

The two new thugs behind Juni frowned.  The one with the blue hat finally spoke up.  "What if we WANT to hurt her?  I'm tired of letting her play these stupid games with us.  This has gone on too long.  When will we get some action?"

"Yea!"  The large black man next to him shouted.  "Cracker Jack is right.  This is really getting stupid!  Let's pound her skull and get on with this finally!"

"What?  Birdie!  Cracker Jack!  That's a last resort and..."  Before Fokken could continue his sentence, the large man, Birdie, had dashed forward and slammed into Juni with a headbutt, knocking her back.  Cracker Jack dashed forward and proceeded to unleash a series of punches while the other two random thugs approached from behind.  Juni quickly leaped over Jack and then kicked one of the two thugs and knocked the other back with an upwards kick cannonspike, then rebounded off of him and away.  Birdie, however, was still behind her, and he slammed Juni with an overhead punch, then proceeded to pound at her while the others were coming fast.

Juni saw the opponents coming at her from the corner of her eye, but was being mercilessly beaten by Birdie and didn't have any chance of retaliation.  One of the thugs grabbed her and Birdie then backed off and turned red from anger, ready to crush her with his bull charge.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to break out of the hold in time, the poor girl braced for impact as Birdie came flying forward.

Makoto Rindou was walking away from the airport in New York, trying to ignore how large the task ahead of her was.  {I have to find someone or something that could be Succubus' downfall, somewhere in the United States of America, one of the biggest countries in the world. Where do I start?} she wondered, pondering the problem as she walked.

"...can't force me! I'm not going to let... ...return me to Shadoloo!"

Makoto's head snapped up as the voice drifted over the alleys to her. {Someone's in trouble from Shadoloo goons?} she thought, and dashed off toward the sound. {Whoever it is just might be able to tell me something useful,} she rationalized as she ran.

"..crack her skull!" sounded over the alleys, and Makoto grabbed a fire-escape post to take a turn. She came around the corner just in time to see a *very* familiar negro with a mohawk and an attitude back up out of the mouth of another alley connected to this one and cock his head for his Super attack. Makoto didn't waste any time.

"HAAH! HAYATE!!"

Her enhanced dashing punch ran right over Birdie, spilling him to the ground as she skidded to a halt past him, just before passing out of the alley mouth. Turning back, she favoured the negro with a contemptuous look. "You just don't learn, do you? First Blacksoul, now this," she finished, glancing at the blonde girl in the alley who was being held by a thug. {There's about ten of 'em, but only three look like fighters: Birdie, the guy with the cowboy hat, and the big guy in the police outfit.} It didn't even cross her mind that he might *be* a policeman: even if he was, he wouldn't keep his job long if he was helping Shadoloo. {Now how do I deal with those odds, since I don't even know if the other girl can fight..?} she wondered.

Back where she was being held by the Random Thug, Juni blinked and shook her head. "Wow. She ran right over him!" Turning her head and twisting a bit, she looked back at the thug. "Wasn't that cool?"

The thug glanced over at Birdie, who was just prying himself off the ground, and let out a "What the..."

He didn't get any further than that, as he'd let his grip slip and Juni decided she didn't like grabby thugs.

"Reverse Shaft Breaker!!"

Makoto, seeing this, sweatdropped and took back one of her mental questions. {A kick version of the Shinryuken! Well, that settles the question of whether she can fight...} she thought. {Now to-}

She was rudely interrupted.

"BULL HEAD!" Birdie cried as he plowed into her headfirst.

Crashing to the ground, Makoto resolved to keep her mind on business. As Birdie moved in on her, she spun to her feet, facing *away* from him. "Ow! Why you..." she growled. At literally the last second, her rear arm shot up in a reverse uppercut. "Fukiage!"

Birdie went flying, to land on a closed dumpster a few yards away. Crackerjack yelled "HEY!" in surprise and began to move in on Makoto, with Edi. E following him.

The big Mad Gear cop whipped out his nightstick and got ready to bash this girl in the head with it a few times. "Who do you think you are, little girl!?  You're aiding a felony!  OOF!"

Juni, having just kicked the bad man in the gut, went on. "You don't think I'm not going to take advantage of this?  Besides, you're the ones that are trying to force me back into an EVIL UNDERGROUND organization, remember?" she commented, then cannon drilled Crackerjack at point-blank range before he could stop blinking in surprise.

Getting up and grabbing his Stetson back onto his head, Crackerjack commented, "Damn, the girl's stronger than I thought.  And who's this other one in the gi?"

Makoto grinned at him insolently. "I have no name to give to scum like you!" As the various would-be kidnappers reacted indignantly, Makoto grinned wider and thought, {I always wanted to say that.}  She punctuated her statement by giving the 'bad cop' an Oroshi. He dropped, but Crackerjack stepped up to the plate, both literally and figuratively.

"BATTER UP!" he yelled, pulling out his bat and smashing Makoto with it hard enough that she caromed off a wall, leaving a dent in the concrete.

Unfortunately he stood back and gloated, which hurt Makoto's pride worse than the bat had hurt her body - and she'd never been slow to pay back wounded pride. "AHHH! Why *you...*" she seethed, then leapt at the large man, delaing out a vicious punch-kick-punch-elbow combo which she finished off with a savage knee to the groin. Glaring around, she snarled, "OK, who wants some of this!?"

Wincing at the final blow of the combo, the Random Thugs proved that yes, their smaller heads were in charge, as they all fled.

Birdie wasn't so wise. "Ah'm gonna kill you, karate boy!" he snarled as he rolled off the dumpster and moved in on Makoto. The scary red aura that sprang up around her made even *him* stop in fear.

Seething in anger, Makoto roared, "I! AM! NOT! A! BOY!" and followed up with, "*SEICHUSEN GODANZUKI!*"

Up into the air Birdie went again. Still conscious, he snarled, "Ah'll still kill you when I land," paused as he saw he was headed *right* for Juni, and groaned, "Aw, no..."

"This is payback for ganging up on me!" Juni cried out, catching Birdie out of midair with the Earth Direct. He went down with a ground-shaking *THOOM* and stayed there as Juni leaped on him and began to pummel the mean nasty villain!

Edi. E sidled over to Fokken as their quarry beat up Birdie, who wasn't in much shape to put up a fight, and Cracker Jack was rapidly getting hammered in his own right by the girl in the gi. "You never said we'd have to fight two of them!" the thug/cop complained.

"This isn't working.  It's disastrous, even.  Don't just stand there!  Go get back up!" Fokken ordered him.

"I'd better get a larger share for this," Edi. E complained. "This is a lot worse than using Mad Gear to capture and jail rival gangs.  The boys won't appreciate having to justify this."

"Who cares?!?" Fokken pointed out, with some justification. "Call them!  NOW!  Hurry!"

Edi. E pulled out his transciever and began to talk into it. "This is Sergeant Edi. E, calling about operation SummerHeat!  We need back-up, now!" he barked.

Just then, Birdie and Cracker Jack flew past Fokken and Edi. E. They didn't stop until they hit the wall behind them. Fokken noted with some trepidation that Jack had left a dent in the brick.

"Hmm... You handle this.  I'll go get the back-up!" Edi. E said, running out the other end of the alley.

"What?!?  You... ARGH!" Fokken cried out in frustration, then stared at the two irate females in front of him. "Hmm... this doesn't bode well.  Quite... horrid, even," he noted, sidling backwards.

Fortunately for his well-being, Makoto noticed Edi. E's absence. "Uh oh! The big cop's gone! Come on!" she cried, grabbing Juni's hand and running away.

Fokken stood there for a moment before crossing his legs to hide the dark spot appearing on his trousers. "Oh I say, what a relief...."

Some time later, in another alley entirely, Makoto came to a stop.

"Whew! I think we lost them. Who're you, and how come you've got thugs after you? That was a bit much for a random mugging..." she said, then stopped, blinking at the blonde. "You know, I had a dream where I saw a girl a lot like you once," she commented.

(Tourney reference!! [G])

Juni blinked back. "A... dream?  Now that I think about it, you do look a little familiar... that's wierd.  Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't say thank you yet.  Thanks.  Oh!  Agent Juni, here.  I don't know what's going on, myself!  Some guys at Shadaloo took it personally when I decided to join Avelle.  They have orders to bring me back to Shadaloo, or even eliminate me if they can't, but of course I don't want to go back!  Ack!  I'm sorry, this is all happening so quickly.  I didn't get your name yet," the blonde babbled.

Makoto's eyes widened as a fragment of the dream came back to her - She'd invited the blonde Shadoloo girl in her dream to... "They're trying to kidnap you back?? That's horrible!!" she said. "I guess if we can get you out of the country you could stay at my family dojo for a while," she finished, completing the action she remembered from her dream. "Oh! I'm Makoto Rindou. Yoroshiku - I mean, pleased to meet you," she finished, sticking out her hand for a handshake.

Juni happily shook the offered hand. "Oh!  Good day, Miss Rindou.  Once again, thanks for the help back there.  But your offer... Leave the country?  I'm not sure if there's time, but... oh no!" she cried, noticing something at one end of the alley.

"So that's the ex-Shadaloo agent? Damn, she's detected us!" said a cop, who was standing beside the big Edi. E.

"You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest!" the big cop yelled.

Juni blinked, looked back at Makoto, and said "On second thought, that's a great idea! We should get going right now!" Not wasting a second, she grabbed Makoto's wrist and ran.

The Random Cop complained, "What the hell is the point of having laws against resisting arrest if we can't arrest them when they resist, anyway?!"

"Does it matter?" Edi. E snarled back. "They can't run forever! We have men stationed in every chokepoint within the city!"

Just then, Juni and Makoto ran back into the alley with the growing noise of a mob behind them. As Crackerjack turned the corner in the lead of a large pack of Random Cops And Thugs (RCAT pack for short,) Makoto yanked her wrist out of Juni's hand, dashed ahead of her, and executed a quick EX Hayate, bowling Ed over the same way she did Birdie earlier. She ran on, not noticing Juni literally run on top of the oversize cop, followed by C. Jack and the entire RCAT pack.

*THUMP!*

"What the hell? God damn speed bumps!" Cracker Jack complained, still chasing the fleetfooted ladies.

The four hunters walked out of the hotel, with Terrace still happily chatting away to Borrah, Jettaron, and Guy.  "Yea, she's really great.  I can't wait for you guys to see her."

*BANG!*

A gunshot sounded in the distance.  The four stared and blinked until Terrace slowly commented, "Erm... in fact, there she is right now.... being chased by the cops for some wierd reason."

A couple more laps around the hotel, and Juni and that other boy with her finally got enough of a distance ahead of their police pursuers for Terrace to stop them.

"Hey Juni, what's going on?"  He asked.  "You get into some legal trouble or something?  And... I really have to say that you have an interesting taste in boyfriends.  I could almost swear that this one that you're with was a lady."

"Oh!  Terrace!  First of all, this is Makoto and she's not a guy.  And where the heck were you?"  Juni exasperatedly snapped, as an equally poofed Makoto slowly began to angrily realize what Terrace just said.  "Did you just decide to let me handle an entire Shadaloo hit squad all by myself?!?"

"Huh?  Shadaloo hit squad?"  Terrace confusedly replied.  "You told me that you could handle them yourself, before running off just like Avelle did."

"When did I tell you that?!"  The young blonde couldn't enquire further because she noticed that Edi E's wonderful entourage had just begun to catch up to her.  "Ack!  Forget it!  Just help me out here."

Terrace turned to his three cohorts.  "Well Borrah, Jettaron, I guess you heard her.  This would be a good time for Guy to show us how good he is, too."

Makoto, meanwhile, was seething with anger. {Is *everyone* in America going to think I'm a boy!?!} she wondered as her red aura began to show again. She glanced balefully at Terrace but restrained herself, thinking {He's a friend of Juni's... I can't beat up the friends of friends..}

Just then the first thug arrived, and in either an overabundance of bravery or a total lack of good sense, he grabbed Makoto by the shoulder.

She never even looked at him.

When his limp body went flying back into his compatriots a moment later with an *obviously* broken arm, the front rank were bowled over and the rest paused.

Makoto stretched as if she was just completing a workout. "Ahh. That felt good!"

All others present, including Cracker Jack, sweat-dropped.

"Ha, looks like it's time to break out my big-ass sword (TM) again!" Terrace announced with a broad grin. He un-sheathed a blade of such abnormal proportions, it seemed impossible that he could even be holding it.

Several of the RCAT pack burst into tears and wet their pants at the sight of Terrace's sword.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a big-ass sword (TM) before?" Terrace yelled as he charged towards the weeping RCAT pack. With one, foul swoop of his blade, he quickly removed the heads of the men. The crying stopped.

"FIRE!!" Edi E. shouted as three of his cops unleashed a shower of bullets towards Borrah and Jettaron. Borrah took a flying leap over the array of bullets and landed directly on-top of the chubby Edi E. A few muffled screams came from beneath Borrah's massive body. The surrounding cops stared, wide-eyed at their captain. Borrah didn't move.

Suddenly, the cops began to fall one by one as a bullet landed directly in-between each of their eyes. Jettaron blew on his gun and placed it firmly back in it's holster.

We interrupt this fight scene for a word from one of our sponsors, Professor Irvine.

Irvine cleared his throat.

"They wet zee pants at the sight of zee sword!!!  Their fear is because they know that zee mate likes zee big sword and their proportional size of their own cannot match up to Terrace's!  Freud is proven right yet again!"

We now return you to our regularly scheduled fight scene, already in progress.

Cracker Jack leapt into the air at an amazing velocity. He began to come down upon Guy, foot extended. Little did he know, Guy saw it coming.

"Bushin Hassou Ken!!" the sound erupted from Guy's voice as he leapt into the air, meeting Cracker Jack head on. In mid-air, Guy punched C. Jack about eight times before heavily kicking him to the ground below.

Guy landed back on his feet like a feather, without a sound.

It was at this point that Fokken had caught up along with a rather large amount of reinforcements.  However, instead of ordering them to join the fray, he paused as he suddenly caught sight of Jettaron and Borrah happily sitting on Edi. E.

He was rather wide-eyed.  "Borrah?!  Jettaron?!"

Borrah stood up, equally surprised.  "Psycho squirt?!"

"Fokken?"  Terrace asked.  "What the hell are you doing?"

Fokken's gaze then shifted to the bloody casualties lying around as Edi. E quickly used the opportunity to get up and out from under Borrah.  Fokken was so shocked that he didn't notice Birdie's request that they use their now larger numbers to overrun their prey.

"RETREAT!"  The pretty boy butler frantically shouted.  "Quickly!"

All of the other thugs stared at him surprised.  "But..."

"Hurry!  We need to regroup!  We can't fight in these circumstances!"  Fokken snapped.

The others shrugged and on his command, ran off, leaving Terrace's new group and a tired Makoto and Juni behind.

"The great hunter Avelle in such a short time became famous among other mercenaries for her efficiency and skill.  It was rather well-known that she was once a Shadaloo agent, but broke off to seek fame and fortune on her own."  Juni commented.  "I'm not sure what took me so long to become a fan of her's, but when I left to try to follow Avelle's dream, myself, I guess certain people at Shadaloo didn't like the idea.  Avelle is currently handling the Shadaloo goons in her own way, since she's probably on their hit list too."

Jettaron sighed as he began to grow a little impatient.  "You know, this is all fine and dandy that we're having this wonderful bonding moment, but we still have an army of thugs out there and we can't stay holed up in this hotel forever."

"Ha!  That's no problem."  Terrace snapped his fingers and grinned.  "Juni probably already has a plan that is foolproof!"

The blonde agent blinked in surprise then stared at him.  "I do?"

"Sure you do!"  Terrace replied happily, before realizing what Juni just asked then slowly adding, "Erm, you do have a plan, don't you?"

"Why would I have a plan?"  She had an extremely puzzled look on her face.

"Well, you always have a plan... I thought?  I mean, you said you were always with Avelle and she taught you a lot and so far you've always.... hmm."  Terrace put his hand to his chin in thought.  "Well gee, this..."

"This sucks."  Jettaron finished Terrace's sentence.  He continued with a slightly depressed tone of voice.  "I think you overestimated this girl, Terrace.  It's probably not her fault, but no one can ever come close to Avelle."

"But... she was..."  Terrace blinked, then shook his head.  "Well, whatever.  Okay, I'm sure we're all resourceful fellows so... anyone have any ideas?"

Makoto nodded. "Actually, I think I do," she said. All heads turned to her, and she took a few steps to one side, pulling a short blonde wig off of a display mannequin. Pulling it over her head, she said, "Now picture me in a bodysuit like Juni-san's."

"Hey, she *would* look a lot like her..." Terrace commented.

Makoto smiled at him, deciding to forgive him for his earlier insult to her femininity. "Now if we put a brown wig on Juni and dress her in a gi, we have a decoy and a disguise. Then all of us but Juni go out and run north in a big circle back to the hotel. While we've got the thugs after us, Juni waits until the thugs are gone and heads out north to the airport. With any luck, the thugs'll never know where she went. Meanwhile, the rest of us get back into the hotel, I take off the disguise, and voila! Juni has disappeared! After that we just say we don't know where Juni went and either fight our way through whatever thugs are left or if we're lucky they'll leave us alone."

Everyone stared at Makoto in surprise, then looked at each other.  The silence was finally broken when Terrace shrugged and made a comment.

"Hey, it works for me."

Back in a run-down police building, a stick rapped against the blackboard, quietting down the crowd.  Fokken smacked the stick against the board again just for good measure before beginning the briefing.

"Good day, gentlemen.  As you can see, there have been some several devastating factors which have significantly made this task more difficult than first forecasted."

"Well DUH!"  A random voice snapped from the crowd.  "We still could have beaten them all back then if you didn't make us retreat like the wuss you are!"

"YEA!  And you don't do anything!"  Another random thug cried out.  "Why should you get a share of the pay?!"

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP or I'll personally open up a can of whoopass on your sorry butt!!"  Cracker Jack yelled.  "I'm getting tired of this and I haven't pummeled something in a long time, and all of you are just as good a punching bag as anyone else.  Now shut your god damn hole so we can get this stupid little talk over with."

"Erm... Thank you, Sir Cracker Jack, I think."  Fokken muttered.  "Ahem.  The reason I called off the attack is because I know what we're up against for the most part.  Most of you don't.  If we don't approach this situation correctly, we'll fail the job, none of us will get paid, a lot of us might even get killed, and worse, Shadaloo might even have us blacklisted for such a failure."

"Oh please."  Edi. E spit some gum onto the floor.  "We outnumber them ten to one.  This can't be that hard."

"Do none of you know anything about the great hunter Avelle?"  An annoyed Fokken asked.  "Ten to one odds for her group weren't a challenge at all.  Child's play, even.  I should know, I was a part of it.  There's a reason that she went to hunting the supernatural god-like vampires and demons that are rumoured to exist in this world.  It's because fighting against other human beings no matter what the odds were became just TOO DAMN EASY.  Do any of you idiots remember how much of you got killed in that short amount of carnage?"

Fokken didn't normally curse, but he did so this time to emphasize the point.  And he was not in a good mood.

A poster rolled down on the board.  It was a group of four people.  In the center was a short red-haired girl in a black Shadaloo full-body leotard.  Standing behind her was the large bald man in the suit, the thin Indiana Jones-esque man, and the brown-haired guy with the red jacket, though it was much more rustic than Fokken's.

"Avelle's original group.  The one that propelled her to stardom.  The large and the thin man are Borrah and Jettaron.  They were Avelle's demolition squad, dubbed so because of their ability to overcome extreme odds in open combat.  Stories of over fifty men wiped out by the two in one battle are not uncommon, and in fact are much less exaggerated then you'd think."

The stick pointed to the picture of Jettaron.

"Want to know how skilled Jettaron is with a gun?"  Fokken continued.  "Let's just say that he came very close to Avelle's marksmanship.  Could have given her a run for her money, even.  That alone, if you haven't been living in a cave for the past five years, should be enough to tell you that this is not a man to be taken lightly.  The same would go for Borrah, though I suppose you'll find that out yourself if you ever live through being punched through a wall by him."

A poor could-have-been-headless thug asked for clarification.  "Um, what about that big ass sword guy?"

Fokken blinked, then realized who he was talking about.  "Oh, Terrace?  His choice of weaponry is most certainly intimidating, but he can be easily handled if you don't just sit there cowering in fear.  Despite being Avelle's right-hand man, all he was really good for was being a succubi decoy.  It's the others which you'll have to take extreme caution with."

Edi. E swallowed another donut.  "Okay, wise guy, if these guys are so powerful, which I doubt, then how the hell do you propose we beat them?"

"We don't.  That's not our mission."  Fokken replied.  "Our job is only to retrieve or kill the renegade Shadaloo agent, Juni.  However, seeing as to how she's one of Shadaloo's elite, you probably know that this isn't as easy as it sounds.  But you won't be needing to worry about that, either.  I will be handling our wonderful Miss Avelle wannabe, myself.  All I need you all to do is take care of Avelle's group, that karate boy, and that sneaker wearing ninja.  Which brings us to the next part of this briefing."

The paper rolled up and another one rolled down with a picture of a stick figure wearing sneakers.  Fokken stared at it for a while in surprise before slowly continueing.

"Erm.... this guy is the red ninja we saw back at the Hotel Heaven Seven.  I think.  This is an... artist's rendition of him.  I think."

Birdie smiled and gave a thumbs up.  "Hey, ah drew that!  Isn't it a great picture?"

"Anyway,"  Fokken coughed.  "He uses a style of fighting that I haven't heard about in a very long time.  Bushin style, I believe.  I could have sworn it was extinct.  Since it motivates you all, I'll tell you that I imagine we could recieve a bonus in our paycheck for taking this guy out, as Shadaloo is very wary of this style for... certain reasons.  But... does anyone know who the heck this guy is?"

Edi. E was in a bubble gum bubble contest with a leather-wearing female gangmember sitting next to him before he stopped at Fokken's question.  "Eh?  That guy?  He's Guy."

Fokken frowned.  "I know he's a guy!  What, did you think we thought he was an extremely masculine girl, even more so than that karate cabin boy girl we're against?"

"No!  I mean his name is Guy!"  Edi. E remarked.  "That little punk helped the mayor of Metro City take down the infamous Mad Gear gang and costed me my promotion by taking away my primary source of information on other gang activity!  Thanks to his stopping Mad Gear's reign of terror, other gangs are able to have reigns of terror and it's all his and his friends' faults!"

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Edi. E's twisted sense of justice.

Edi. E stared back at them.  "What?  It's true!  Well, anyway, yea, he's good.  That Guy managed to beat one of Mad Gear's top fighters in the ring."

"Curses..."  Fokken muttered.  "Then not only does he know Bushin style, he also knows how to use it..."

"I know how he fights now.  I'll be able to deal with him."  Edi. E answered.  "I brought more back-up, and they've seen and can thus anticipate his fighting style, too.  At least long enough to hold him off, assuming you don't take a decade to do your own job."

"Hmm... well, that's adequate then.  Wonderful, even."  The ex-Avellian commented.  "Still, that still leaves us with cabin boy girl.  Anyone know about her?"

"Ah do!!!"  Birdie yelled.  "That boy is some sort of brat that wants to be a supah hero!  I still need revenge on him for humiliating me while ah was on a job!"

"Er.... very well then.  I suppose that settles about everything."  The poster on the blackboard got rolled back up.  "All of you handle the guards while I go after Juni.  They'll most likely try to create a diversion to protect her.  All I need is for you all to hold off the diversion because they won't suspect that I will be able to take care of Juni, myself.

"Won't Avelle want to look after her old friends?"

Fokken's eyes narrowed as he gave his reply.  "She won't be interrupting us.  I'm sure of it."

Fokken stared intently at the hotel as Edi. E babbled some generic talk out of a loudspeaker megaphone to the people inside the hotel about how their group was surrounded.

"What are you doing?"

Juni glanced outside the window, noting that the hotel was surrounded by the extremely odd mixed combination of robbers, thugs, policemen, and police cars.  Closer to the entrance of the hotel were her new allies, ready for the signal and the chance.  But her attention had shifted to the person who had just addressed her.

"A... Avelle?  What are you doing here?  I'm heading to the airport, of course."

What were they planning?  Fokken frowned.  They weren't going to give up that easily.  Still, they didn't have much of a chance.  Perhaps that renegade Shadaloo agent would find a way to slip through them all, but that didn't matter because that was actually part of the plan.

"I'm here to rescue you.  Your plan won't work.  They'll catch you then."

Inside the hotel, tensions were building.  But it looked like the RCAT pack didn't think to block out the northern exit at all.  Which was great.  Once the baddies noticed Juni was gone and there was nothing they could do and they would have no reason to continue fighting.

"But..."

Of course, even Jettaron wasn't stupid enough to come out with guns blazing when the main exit was being targetted by so many people.  But while they were held up here, the agent herself would most likely take the unblocked northern backdoor route outside.  Then the 'badguys' would have to scatter to persue her.  Which was okay.  Because that was part of the plan too.  While everyone met their respective targets to occupy them, Fokken would circle around and meet her at the airport and take her out, himself.

"You need to listen to me."

Makoto was ready to give Juni the signal.  Guy was prepped for battle.  Fokken smiled.  Everything was going according to plan.  Everything was perfect.

"Run.  Run NOW!"

Until Juni ran the wrong way.

It rather surprised Makoto, to see her new alter-ego with the brown wig in the gi dash right past her and out the entrance.  It didn't surprise her nearly as much as it did the men waiting outside when they saw someone who was apparently the cabin boy girl bursting right past them.  They were so confused that they didn't know whether to attack or not.  Birdie ran after her as per his vow to get revenge on the boy, and several others followed in order to fulfill their orders to attack everyone besides the main target, Juni.

"Juni!  What the hell?  We have to rescue her!"  Terrace shouted out to his two partners.

"Wait!"  Makoto cried out.  "We're supposed to ignore Juni!"

Unfortunately, Terrace and Jettaron didn't hear her.

Chaos increased when Jettaron DID come out with guns blazing and things went really downhill from there.  As the air filled with bullets and yells and shouts, it had gotten to the point where Fokken couldn't figure out what the hell was going on besides the fact that the situation just hit rock bottom.

He was wrong.  Rock bottom wasn't even close to being reached, yet.  As was shown when a brown wig flew off the cabin boy girl's head revealing that she was in fact NOT the cabin boy girl just as she was running past him.

Makoto and Fokken simultaneously both sighed and said the same thing to their comrades left on standby.  "Oh forget it!  ATTACK!"

At this point half of the men pursuing her including Birdie cut off the pursuit when they realized they were chasing the wrong person.  The other half continued after her, not sure who Fokken wanted them to attack, now.  And at that moment, Terrace and Jettaron arrived, having made their way past the other foes out front during the confusion, who now had to deal with Makoto and Guy, whom had just exitted the hotel and ambushed a few of them.

Juni didn't even bother to thank anyone as she once again dashed right through the thugs and past them, turning down an alley and basically leaving everyone else to deal with the mass confusion that she caused.  Only one person by now had managed to keep up with where she was going.

As Fokken ran down the alley in a frantic attempt to salvage the plan, he stopped as the voice of a certain female hunter leader called to him.

"Fokken darling, are you still trying?  You're never going to catch Agent Juni.  You're never going to catch me."

He paused and quickly looked around the alley, but the source of the voice was gone.

"Dammit!"  Fokken cursed out loud, before saying a few words to himself.  "So, oh wonderful Miss Avelle, you think you've won.  But I know where she's going, and I've realized your plan.  I'll be done with her soon enough.  Be prepared. oh wonderful Miss Avelle. You're next..."

Makoto burst out the door just ahead of Borrah and Guy.  As she cried out for the attack, she heard another voice  echoing hers from the far side of the RCAT Pack.  Looking quickly, she saw the English-sounding man who'd  been in charge of the alley ambush turn to follow Juni. {If I can take him out, I can both free up Juni and get rid of the Shadoloo leader,} she thought.  Concentrating briefly, the girl performed a trick she'd learned from her grandmother, tearing away the bodysuit she was disguised in to reveal her *gi* beneath, in defiance of the fact that her *gi* was the far bulkier garment.

As the RCAT's blinked at this physical impossibility, Makoto dashed forward. "Hayate!"

Thugs tumbled to either side as the steamroller girl plowed through them. Several more closed ranks in front of her as her momentum ran out, though, blocking her off from the Englishman. Scowling, she squatted briefly, channeled *chi* to her legs, and jumped.

No ordinary jump this was, or even the fighters' leap that carried Ryu and Chun Li twenty feet into the air.  Makoto soared high and far, clearing the forty-foot building flanking the alley with ease and dropping down into the narrow street toward the english Shadoloo leader.

(note: This is an SF3 Superjump.)

Fokken's first warning of trouble was a brief flapping in the wind, as if a flag - or *gi* - were blowing in the air.

His second warning was rather more obvious.  "Tsurugi!"

His eyes widening at the obvious attack cry, Fokken dove to one side as Makoto's flying ax-kick cratered the alley floor where he *had* been standing. "Hold it right there, you Shadoloo creep!" she cried as he moved as if to run away. "I'm not letting you chase her anymore!!"

Fokken's mouth let out a noise that was half sigh, half snarl as he turned around... and his hand shot forth a blast of Psycho Power.

Makoto 'Eeped' and blocked, but felt the pain as the *chi* technique singed her. {Not good,} she noted.  {If I can just parry that blast at the wrist-}

She tried, stepping in and swinging her arm up in a classic Rindoukan parry, but the move was wasted as Fokken simply took one step back and blasted again, sending the wide-open Makoto back into the alley wall. "I have no time for this!" the man snapped. "I *will* capture Juni!"

"Make time," Makoto snarled, jumping upward and clearing Fokken's reflexive Psycho Shot. A flying kick shot out, clouting Fokken on the side of the head and setting him up for the Karakusa that Makoto used to follow up. With a savage grin, she twisted her hands, dropped him back down, and set her feet for the Seichusen Godanzuki-

-only to nearly disappear into a bearhug the size of a small van as Andore, prompted by Poison, his everpresent ally, was ordered to the rescue of the pair's paymaster.

"Ah - thank you," Fokken said, pulling his lapels straight. "I'll see that the two of you get a bonus," he finished, calling the last word out over his shoulder as he ran off down the alley after Juni.

Several more bullets flew by as Terrace ducked behind the police car, although he didn't have to because the bullets were quite off in their accuracy.  "Hey Jettaron, why are these guys still shooting us?  Shouldn't they be all dead by now?  No offense, but normally you're not this rusty."

"Terrace, shut up!"  Jettaron snapped back as he returned fire.  "For some reason, I can't get a bead on these guys!  They're not allowing any openings because they aren't even peeping out from behind their cover!"

Several more bullets flew by, missing by a mile.

"Why would they be playing defensively?  We're the ones trying to defend someone here!"  Terrace remarked.  "I'm pretty sure I saw Juni get away, and that Makoto gal can probably handle the two or three guys that managed to chase after her."

Guy, who had remained somewhat quiet the entire time, finally slowly made a comment to no one in particular.  "None of the guys we're fighting here are turning to give chase after her.  Something's wrong."

Terrace looked up as several bullets flew high into the air.  "These guys are terrible shots, I'll give you that much."

"The leader's missing."  Guy noted.

This blunt response resulted in him getting the attention of the three other men besides him.

Borrah, despite being under heavy fire like the rest of them, albeit heavy fire that couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, laughed.  "Psycho squirt?  Oh please, he couldn't hurt a flea."

"Fokken's puny psycho blasts never were very effective."  Jettaron added.  "I hardly think he'd be a threat to a trained Shadaloo agent, even if she isn't as good as Avelle."

"Hell yea!"  Terrace commented.  "The only one of Avelle's group that he could ever come close to beating in practice matches was Avelle herself."

Guy glared at the three.  "I thought Avelle was the most powerful out of all of you."

The three returned the glare with confused stares of their own as more bullets flew by until Terrace finally spoke up again.  "Well, yea, but you see, for some reason, whenever his psycho shots hit Avelle, they caused this... really... wierd... reaction... which... oooooooooh shiiiiiyeet!!!!!"

"Shiyet?"  Guy raised an eyebrow at Terrace, Borrah, and Jettaron, noting the look of shock on their faces.

"Dammit!"  Terrace frantically glanced at the alleyway beyond the wave of angry thugs shooting at them.  "We've been had!  He must know that it will work against Juni, too!  But how will we get past these guys?  Ah ha!  Ninja boy!  You're supposed to be fast and stealthy and all that junk, right?  We need you to intercept Fokken while we cover you!"

Guy slowly raised the other eyebrow as Terrace and Jettaron ran out from behind the car and towards their enemies.  "Huh?"

"You heard him!"  Borrah snapped as he shoved Guy out from behind the car.  "Save her!  SAVE HER!!!"

Terrace deflected any bullets which were a threat (which weren't many.  Most of the thugs and cops were too busy being surprised or not realizing that now was a good time to act offensively again) as Jettaron provided back-up cover.  While they distracted the RCAT pack, Borrah and Guy both leapt over them all and reached the alley, only to stop as Cracker Jack, Edi. E, and Birdie stepped in front of them.

Birdie pounded his two knuckles together.  "Ah couldn't find dat boy, but ah'm still going to pound some skulls today!"

Cracker Jack smiled as he patted his baseball bat.  "Bring it on!"

Makoto struggled in the grip of the huge man as the gang-girl cheered the giant on from the side. Finally getting some leverage, she kicked down, smashing her heel into Andore's knee and getting the man to drop her. Glancing to the left where Fokken was disappearing down the alley, she determined to end this quickly. A high kick and a chest-punch battered aside Andore's arms, opening him up for the Karakusa. Grinning, Makoto reached for him...

...and was smacked out of her motion by Poison rushing in and literally slapping her. Makoto glared at the punker, then ducked a punch from Andore and turned her attention back to the big man. Dropping to her knees, she shot her foot out into his ankles - {What Yun would call a 'footsie game,'} she thought - and when he stumbled, she popped up, staggered him with an Oroshi chop, and went for the Karakusa...

...only to get slapped out of it *again.* Now well and truly angry, Makoto determined to teach the run-in girl a lesson. Slamming Andore's chest with three hard punches, Makoto reached for him again - but in a slightly different way...

Poison, seeing Makoto grab at Andore again, moved in - and froze in shock as the girl hoisted the giant over her in a textbook shoulder-throw. She twitched and froze again, whimpering, as she noted the direction Andore was currently flying.

Makoto had the satisfaction of hearing the leather-queen whimper in fear before the 500 pounds of Andore landed on her.

"Hmph! Honestly," she dismissed them as she ran after Fokken and Juni.

Birdie had one free shot, since Borrah was paying more attention to getting by him than actually fighting. He made the most of it, too.

"Murderer Chain!!"

Borrah, a bit surprised that the negro was able to swing him at all, hi the ground hard once, and then again. Birdie turned to where C.Jack was just starting his fight with Guy and taunted his fellow merc.

"Haw haw haw, that's how you end a fight, bat-boy! Not like you an'your prissy punches," Birdie gloated.

"Aw, shut up, runt," came Borrah's voice from behind him. Birdie spun around, but not fast enough, and the last thing he heard before passing out was, "BORRAH BORRAH BORRAH BORRAH BORRAH BORRAH BORRAH!!!"

Guy was still nimbly dodging Cracker Jack's constant flurry of punches while Edi. E tried to get a clear shot at him when the Borrah shouts arrived.  Cracker Jack glanced over momentarily to see Birdie getting pounded by repeated fast heavy punches from the other large man, right before getting grabbed by Guy and falling into one of the coolest looking super moves in da world.

"BUSHIN MUSOURENKA!!!!"

The alley turned pitch black and all Edi. E could see was Guy's and Cracker Jack's shadows as Guy hit Cracker Jack with a devastating ten hit combo, finally launching Cracker Jack into the air.  As the darkness dissipitated and Cracker Jack hit the ground hard, Guy slowly turned to Edi. E, with a look that asked whether he wanted some of that, too.

Edi. E, oddly enough, wasn't impressed at all.  "Hmph!  You call that a super move?  THIS is a super move!  PATROL CRASH!"

With that, he turned tail and fled.

Guy stared at where Edi. E used to be, shrugged, then continued after Juni with Borrah following him.

The blonde girl in the *gi* glanced around the airfield, but it was surprisingly empty.  Edi. E had already long ago pulled the right strings and had the place shut down temporarily.  Of course, that didn't stop her from kicking down the door and getting in.  Besides, Avelle's plane was a private jet.  Juni smiled, and walked in front of the jet at the secret private landing dock that Avelle had established there.  Just then, however, a blast of blue energy flew past her and slammed into the plane's wing, leaving some burn marks on it.

She turned around, shocked.  "How did you...?!"

Fokken, beat and exhausted from the run, was breathing rather heavily and harboring a look of pure hate in his eyes.  "You want... to die.  To suffer a horrible death.  Just like the one Avelle had, don't you?"

"Die?"  Juni leaned back and put her hand on her hip.  "The great Avelle will never die to even Shadaloo.  That's how great she is.  You know, Fokken, you look like you're about to burst a vein there.  Maybe you should count to ten.  The stress of this ordeal is probably going to make you do things which you'll regret later."

"WHAT?!?  This is YOUR fault!"  Another blast shot from his hand, which Juni narrowly avoided as it blasted into the wall of a nearby building and left some burn marks there.  "Why must you continue to live this lie!?  Living this falsehood which you know should never have happened.  Pretending to everyone that you are friends with Avelle.  Avelle does not exist anymore!  You are a fool!"

"Avelle exists, no matter what you say."  Juni calmly replied.  "I've seen her and talked to her.  Everyone has, now.  But I guess you don't care, do you?  You only care about your paycheck.  Well then, to quote a certain fellow agent, come on!"

Juni threw the *gi* off at Fokken to reveal her black bodysuit Shadaloo agent uniform underneath.  Fokken reflexively countered as he shot another blast, which slammed into the gi and deflected it.

The blonde Shadaloo girl blinked.  "Your blast couldn't even penetrate through a *gi*?  Wow, you're definately not the most powerful psychic in the world, are you?"

"Then experience one for yourself!"  Fokken shouted as he sent another one flying at Juni.  She put up her arms to block it, not even bothering to dodge this time.  Unfortunately, much to her surprise, the minute the blast hit her there was a huge flash and an immense pain went searing throughout Juni's entire body.  It surprised her so much that she didn't even scream in pain as she was sent flying backwards right into Avelle's jet plane.

Juni stumbled to her feet.  "H... huh...?"

Another blast slammed into her causing her to almost black out from all the pain and knocking her back down again.  Fokken slowly walked up to her and picked her up by the collar.  His hand began to glow, and Juni began to scream as he tightened his grip.

"She told me not to let anyone else make the same mistake she did!"  Fokken angrily shouted as he pressed Juni against the jet plane.  "But I was unable to prevent that.  Suffer and pay the same price that she did!"

Juni's head felt like it was going to explode.  She cringed but was unable to break out of Fokken's grip.  All she was able to do was see the madness in his eyes that came about from not counting to ten, for lack of a better reason.

She was thus delighted to hear another voice, which caused Fokken to loosen his grip. "That's it. You are *so* dead!"

Makoto came crashing in with a flying kick to follow up her declaration, and for a few seconds Fokken had a good insight
as to what a volleyball felt like as Makoto repeatedly juggled him with her Fukiage reverse uppercut.

Finally landing after the fourth blow, Fokken drew back his hand and prepared another Psycho Shot. Makoto snorted and got ready to jump over it as she had before-

-only to freeze as Juni, behind her, almost whimpered "Don't let it hit me!"

With no option, Makoto blocked, feeling the sting of the *chi* again - and a thought struck her. {Hey, what if I concentrated *chi* around my hand like I do for the Fukiage and parried it?} she thought as Fokken wound up again.

The look of shock on Fokken's face when Makoto batted his Psycho Shot into nothingness with a backhand parry was priceless.

"Kage Sukui!"

He still had that priceless look when he turned around just in time to see a dashing Guy punch him in the face.

Cringing back in pain, Fokken quickly made a psychic aura irradiate around him, but both Makoto and Guy were able to leap out of it's radius.  With both of them out of the way for just that split moment, however, he had one last open shot at Juni and he was going to make sure to take her with him.

Fokken channelled all of his energy for his own psychic super move blast and sent a huge beam of power flying directly at Juni.  Niether Guy nor Makoto had an opening or the time to knock him out of the move.

Just then, a police car being driven by Edi. E screaming "PATROL CRASH!" came bursting out of nowhere and slammed right into Guy with a resounding THOMP!!

(His super from Final Fight Revenge! [G])

The enraged psychic looked in surprise as a screaming Guy flew *right at him* and an enraged Makoto used the oppurtunity of the distraction.  "HAYATE!!!"

As Guy slammed directly into Fokken's face, Makoto pummelled him from the other side, resulting in a psychic sandwitch.  Guy fell to the floor shortly before Fokken did, though unlike the poor beat up butler, Guy was still conscious, albeit hurting rather badly in the back.  He slowly got up as Terrace, Borrah, and Jettaron caught up to the group.

"Damn..."  Terrace glanced at the extremely dizzy and beat Juni.  "Those guys are right behind us!  We couldn't hold them off after abandoning our cover back there.  And... what are you guys staring at?"

Guy sighed, still cringing from the back pain from being hit by a car.  "When you say right behind you, you aren't kidding."

Terrace slowly turned around to see the huge army of pissed-off thugs and ticked-off officers (POTATOOs!  The digivolved form of the RCAT pack!  [G]) glaring at them all.

"Sucks this does..."  Terrace muttered.

"Aaaaah!  We're going to be fighting these guys forever!!!"  Juni cried.

At that moment, another Shadaloo jet plane came out of the sky and onto the runway.  Which wasn't very clear with all those POTATOOs standing around but they dashed out of the way soon enough to avoid getting run over by it.  After the jet plane came to a stop, the side door opened and a young dark-haired man in a white lab coat stepped out of the plane.  He glanced around at all of the POTATOOs then looked at Juni, smiled, and walked up to her.

"Ah, Agent Juni.  I wasn't aware that Avelle had such a large following."

"Dr. Yamoto!!!!"  Juni cried as she hugged him.  "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to bring you back to Shadaloo."  Yamoto answered.  "It's time to go home."

Juni let go of him and frowned.  "You too, huh?  Oh come on!  I still have a good two days left before my vacation hours are used up.  Why are all of you so impatient?  Shadaloo can't wait two more days?  Is it no wonder why Sir Bison's always dissappointed at all of you?"

"Hmm."  Yamoto looked away and smugly gave his reply.  "Well, you COULD stay around and have your fun for two more days.  Or you could come back and catch Sir Bison's next agent evaluation appointment."

Juni was shocked.  "Omigosh!  Sir Bison's having another evaluation already?  Well, what are we waiting for, then?"

Makoto's face had gone from puzzled to perplexed, with a bit of exasperation in the mix. "Hey, wait, hold on, just a second here.  Juni, you mean we've been fighting so you can stay on *Vacation* for  *Two More Days?* You *are* kidding, right?" she asked, her eyebrow twitching.

Juni *blinkblinked.* "Huh?  Well... when you put it that way, I guess it does seem sort of silly.  I always thought of it as fighting so we could keep some evil people from ruining a holiday," she explained.

Guy, still cringing from the back pain, asked plaintively, "... I still get paid, right?" with a glare at Edi. E.

The oversize cop just scowled back at him. "Hey, don't blame me if you didn't buy health insurance, pal."

Makoto sighed. "...Okay, sure, whatever -" with a sudden twist, she grabbed the recovering Fokken by the neck. "-Then *WHY* were you trying to kidnap her if she was coming back in *TWO DAYS???*"

Fokken replied, rather weakly, "She lies!  She wasn't going to come back in two days!  None of you understand how this girl's mind works!"

Juni frowned at him. "Well gee, what did you think I was going to do?!  Run off like Avelle did?  Who do you think I am?"

"What!?  You?  You're..." Fokken began, then trailed off.

Dr. Yamoto, who had been looking progressively more puzzled as the words flew, asked, "I'm sorry, am I missing something here?  Fight?  Kidnap?"

Juni blinked and looked back to the doctor. "Oh, oops!  I guess I should introduce you guys.  Makoto, Guy, this is Dr. Yamoto, a friend of mine at Shadaloo.  Dr. Yamoto, this is Makoto and Guy, two new friends of mine that decided to help me out from these overenthusiastic jerks."

Yamoto nodded. "Really?  I was worried about that when I heard that Dr. Janet had hired some rather violent people to go after you." To Makoto and Guy, he asked, "How can I repay you for your help?"

"Payment was part of the deal..." grumped Guy.

Makoto, meanwhile, had been shaking Fokken (and working out some leftover agression.) "Go on. She's...?" she asked, before Dr. Yamoto's question registered. {Well, Shadoloo deals in all sorts of wierd stuff,} she thought, then asked, "Umm... I don't suppose you have anything that would be good to use against a succubus? Two friends of mine are kind of having trouble with one..."

Juni spared a brief glare for Fokken as she complained, "He's just going to rant about how I'm silly for linking up with Avelle's group in the first place."

Fokken managed a "What!?" before he was interrupted by his former compatriots.

"Hmph.  Sheesh, Fokken, you always did carry things too far," Terrace grouched.

Borrah chimed in, "Let's go drag him back to L'Aprile Five Jive and tar and feather him.  That's always fun!"

"Sounds good to me," answered Jettaron.

Fokken quietly whimpered as Borrah dragged him into Avelle's plane.

Yamoto glanced over at the vanishing Fokken, then back to Makoto. "Oh!  A succubus?  That's... an odd request.  Well, let's see... ah ha!  Maybe this will do.  Carignai cocaine adromedeus mark IV.  The latest designer drug in Shadaloo's cocaine series.  Just give that succubus some of this and she'll be too busy trailing off in her own hallucenogenic world to put up a fight... or have any common sense.  Whichever you prefer to exploit."

Makoto looked at the orange ampoule the doctor had dragged out of his lab coat with a badly concealed expression of distaste. {Ew, drugs,} she thought, then turned her most persuasive puppy-dog eyes on the young man. "You wouldn't have anything more like a defensive agent, would you? She may already have one of these boys, you see... and I could need to snap him out of it." With a brief smile, she finished, "I mean, I appreciate it, but..."

"Well... let me see what I have here," the doctor mumbled, fishing in the pockets of his lab coat again. "Hmm, well, I have an
anti-aphrodisiac.  Would that do?" he asked.

"YES!!" Makoto exclaimed, nabbing the new blue vial so fast that the doctor was lucky to keep his hand. "Great! Thanks! I really appreciate it." With a look back at her Bushin Ninja ally, she finished, "I think you'd have to pay Guy money, though."

Crackerjack finally regained enough of his wits (what few he had) to interrupt. "Speaking of money, you realize that our boss just ran out on us without paying us and I'm still in a skull-pounding mood, right?"

Yamoto shrugged. "Oh, that?  So you're the ones that Janet hired?  Well, I'll see to it that she deposits the money in your account then."

Crackerjack replied, "Oh.  Really?  That's good enough for me."

"Yea, me too." and "Cool." replied some of the Random Thugs, who all wandered off back to wherever Random Thugs go when kooky authors aren't using them as plot devices.

"......well, that was pointless," Juni noted.

Yamoto frowned. "Hmm. Guy... you don't have an account with Shadaloo, do you?  Well, here's a Shadaloo check for one hundred thousand dollars.  Just deposit it at your local evil underground ATM machine when you get the chance," he instructed the ninja, who seemed a bit surprised.

"???" He managed to... almost say. I guess.

Juni mumbled, "Dammit, how often do I have to keep reiterating that Shadaloo is NOT evil?  It's just misunderstood.  Poor Sir Bison..."

Makoto smiled, if a bit lopsidedly. "Um, whatever," she said, taking Juni's arm in a firm handshake. "It was nice meeting you. I hope we never have to fight each other," she said aloud before pulling the blonde airhead closer and whispering, "Remember what I said. If you ever need to leave for real, come th the Rindoukan Dojo in Tokyo." Pulling away, she waved cheerily. "Ja ne!"

"Oh, thanks a lot, Miss Rindou.  I really appreciate all you did for me.  If the negative thirty-four percent chance that I leave Shadaloo ever occurs, I'll remember to look you up," Juni replied.

Before Makoto could facefault at Juni for saying that out loud, Birdie ran in. "Yea!  Ah'm here!  Huh?  Where did everyone go?" he said, then started wheezing for breath.

Yamoto blinked at the late arrival. "They left with my promise to give them their pay via their Shadaloo accounts," he answered.

Birdie blinked. "Eh?  Aw drat.  The pay is good, but ah still want to get revenge on that karate boy!  We have unfinished business!"

Makoto's Big Scary Aura (tm, pat. pending) flared again. "BOY!?!?!!?!?!!!!! ANYTIME, YOU-" she cried, before being interrupted.

With a **WHAM** and a *thud* of a large negro hitting the concrete, a young blue-haired girl wielding weapons Makoto recognized as Amazon *bonbori* - large wooden spheres on handles - leaped in the hangar door and knocked Birdie unconscious. "No time for that, Xian Pu! Rin-rin so glad she find you! We have big trouble! You come now!" the girl cried in broken English, hauling Makoto to the door as she spoke.

"[[Rin-rin, what in the WORLD-]]" Makoto got out in Mandarin before being pulled out of the hangar.

Yamoto and Juni went *blink blink* in eerie unison.

Juni asked, "What was that all about?" while Yamoto muttered, "Xian-pu?  I thought you said her name was Makoto.  And why does Shampoo sound familiar?"

Juni shrugged, getting into the plane with Yamoto. "Beats me," she replied, closing the hatch behind her and leaving Guy alone in the hangar.

Somewhere out there, a cricket began chirping.

"What do I do now?  Start looking for an evil underground ATM?  Can this get any worse?" Guy asked.

Of course, that's just tempting fate.

"Sure it can," Edi. E answered as he handcuffed Guy. "You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer and not being smart enough to get the hell out of dodge like everyone else did."