"Oww," Kim muttered as she pushed herself to a sitting position, one head rising to hold her throbbing head. "You OK Ron?" She called. After a moments silence, she looked around while calling out "Ron?" once again, only a little louder. She blinked as she glanced down at the sharply sloping floor, one look confirming that it was indeed the roof of a building. Pushing herself to her feet, she looked around the rooftops, and down into the alleyway three stories below.
"No Ron, no Shego, no Drakken. . ." She looked at the crowds of people in the main street. "And wherever I am, it's definitely a long way from Club Banana."
"Where is everybody?"
"SHEGO!!" Drakken called to the forest once again. "Blast, what a time to be separated." He muttered to himself.
"Looking for someone Pops?" a rough voice called from behind him.
Drakken turned around. There stood a muscular bald man with a patch over one eye. The shirtless look combined with the scimitar at his belt all added to the image that screamed "Thug" to anyone with any fashion sense.
"You see," Mr Eyepatch continued, "Me and the boys are pretty good at finding people in these woods, assuming you offered a decent finders fee."
"Eh, very kind offer but no need." Drakken responded, turning toward back the way he had been going. Then he blinked at the sight of a three more crudely dressed and armed figures stepping out of the woods on the other side of the trail.
"Of course, that still leaves the question of the toll you own for the use of this road." Mr. Eyepatch continued, stepping next to Drakken, with his scimitar now drawn.
"Ah, how much is the toll?" Drakken stammered, looking nervously at the sword.
"How much ya got?"
Drakken looked around him at the armed men surrounding him. 'Where is Shego?'
Shego sat at the table, a large grin on her face. Her fork rose, and she popped the last bite of her steak into her mouth. "Mmm!" She murmured as she chewed it. A moment later she picked up her wineglass and took a deep swallow, nearly emptying it.
"Well, will you be having anything else?" the waitress asked in a pleasant voice.
"No no, that was excellent." Shego responded, pausing to blot her lips with her napkin.
"Well, then you'll want to settle up." She commented, pulling out a small pad.
"Ring it up for me please?" Shego asked, one hand absently extending one of her platinum credit cards.
The waitress paused, one would think she might have blinked if her eyes weren't hidden by her shoulder length purple hair. "Hmm, and what pray tell is this supposed to be?" She asked while looking over the card.
Shego paused, looking at the waitress for a moment. "Oh." She put away her credit card. "One of those backwaters where no one takes credit cards?" Standing she shrugged and started walking toward the door with the comment, "Well I gave it a try."
Shego stopped as the waitress was suddenly standing in front of her, arms folded. She was still smiling, but her smile had subtly shifted, becoming less friendly and far more menacing. "I'm sorry, but we don't take kindly to dine and dashers her."
Shego felt a cold shiver of fear down her spine as her every instinct screamed 'Danger!' Then she scowled as her mind called forth images of other supervillains ridiculing her for backing down from a waitress. Igniting her hands she proclaimed, "Just get out of my way and no one gets hurt."
At the bar, two patrons turned in their seats to look at the confrontation. "Some outsider's thinking to fight Luna." One commented.
"Yeah." The other briefly rooted in his purse. "I have five silver says Luna takes her down in less than a minute."
"I say less than half a minute."
"Your on!"
Lina stared hungrily at the conveyer belts full of Mexican food surrounding her. Shaking her head angrily she turned to the large muscular man in the odd orange shirt. "Look, I just want some food, I've got money to pay for it, so why are you hassling me!"
The store manager scratched the back of his head. "Look, I'd like to help you, but we're really not prepared to handle payment in precious metals. We don't have any way of confirming that it's real. . ."
"Are you calling me a crook?"
"No, I'm personally convinced of your trustworthiness, citizen, but I'm also honor bound to follow the Bueno Nacho rules and regulations. But I'm pretty sure I know a jewelry store nearby that should be able to exchange at least some of those antique coins of yours."
"Where is it."
"Well. . ."
A loud crash cut off his explanation. Turning toward the source of the noise, Lina stared at the gaping hole in the walls of the store. Just outside stood a large fat guy wearing an overly tight brown bodysuit. There was an odd blue mask over the top half of his face, and a rainbow colored W on his chest.
"Wo-Wo-Wo!" The fat guy proclaimed while pumping his arms over his head. "The Walrus returns to cause mass destruction! And no one is a better, um, mass-destructioner than The Walrus! Wo-Wo-Wo!"
Lina's eye twitched, then with a sigh she closed her eyes and turned back to the manager. "Food before idiots, and I'll need money to get food." She opened her eyes. "So where. . ." Her question trailed off as she saw the restaurant manager had vanished.
Xellos floated in the air, a distinctly unwell expression on his face. 'This has to be another staff!' he had quickly realized. For all the similarities on the physical side, to an astral entity like Xellos the differences were instantly apparent. What's more, the alien astral side his main body now inhabited was slowly disrupting that main body, like he were swimming in an ocean of weak acid. 'I'm strong enough to last a while, but unless I can somehow. . .' His thoughts trailed off as his desperately searching gaze settled on a junkyard far below. Somewhere in there, he could feel something. . .
Floating down, Xellos released the material presence of his physical shell so he could float through the piles of trash to where what he had senses had been. 'A shell. . . I don't know why or how it was made, but it's an empty shell strongly infused with Mazoku power. It's not perfect, but. . .' Releasing his physical body, Xellos instead directed his astral body into the shell. The fit was tight, but he could only relax as the corrosive effects of the alien astral side came to an end.
'Ok, I've got protection, but now I'll need to find my way back.' Xellos willed the shell to rise. He concentrated, and pushed, and felt at the existing mazoku energy's infusing the shell. Finally after several minutes, the shells arms moved, pushing at the trash covering it. The legs dug into the trash underneath, and finally with a rumble, the trash gave way and the way out of the pile was clear.
From the newly made hole in the trash, a Li'l Diablo in toy mode marched forth into the world. Then as the garbage beneath it gave way, it fell down the mound, tumbling a dozen times before landing on it's face. A few moment later it pulled itself to it's little feet, and began marching toward the dump yard's exit.
See other episodes by Black & White
(Posted Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:30)
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