author's notes: "nii-chan" means older brother in Japanese, usually used by family members or close friends of younger years.
ESProt is the name of the group that the Chiaki family created. It is a mercenary group which accepts jobs that hunts down ESPers, test ESPers to see if they are good or evil as well as "recover" ESP relics.
Both the Geek gods Artemis and her twin Apollo are masters of the bow. Sapphire would know as she is a Greek mythology fan.
Sapphire took a seat on the 2nd storey balcony of a Japanese restaurant, overlooking the streets, looking through the information she had collected on the person who was looking specifically for their family. Today, she wore simply; a blue sleeveless Tee and a white vest for the top, a white short skirt with a purple belt for the bottom, the belt buckle in the shape of Felix the Cat. A pair of soft doeskin calf length boots imported from New Zealand completed her outfit. Her hair was left free.
“Tch, what a joke. J.Jay huh. Class A ESPer. All because nii-chan tested him out.” Sapphire gave a small laugh, and then whistled appreciatively, “Ooooh… One of Achilles’s boys. No wonder he’s getting information.”
“Well, if it’s this, I can’t be bothered to go meet him face to face. Tch, no hopes of a fight coming anytime soon.” She muttered disappointingly to herself, sipping her Sake slowly, letting the warmth slide down her throat.
Munching on a salmon sushi, Sapphire sent a message back to ESProt, “False Alarm. Mission Cleared.” Putting down her phone, she sensed someone spying on her. Being careful not to do anything that might give her away, she sent out a tendril of ESP energy probing the entire area.
To her surprise, she found 3 altogether. “Well well.” She smiled, a glint in her eyes.
Purposely taking a walk in the Botanical gardens since she was nearby in town, she gave her watchers a place where she could talk or fight without anyone the wiser. Well, at least that is what Sapphire planned in her head while taking her time eating.
Before she could finish eating, a man with straight black hair running down to shoulder length and rotten eyes, wearing a black tee that read “Bitches Sucks” on the front and a pair of jeans cut off at the knees, sat down opposite her.
“Allow me, Diethard Dalton.” He introduced himself. “I wonder if after you eat, we could meet and talk somewhere, private.”
“A Class B ESPer. Trash.” Sapphire concluded in an instant after a probe, to herself. To him, she gave a smile, baring her white teeth, “Sure, but you are paying for this lunch if you want that talk.”
“As you wish.” He sat back, crossing his legs and his arms, a smile playing by his lips.
An hour and a half later, both Sapphire and Diethard are at the Botanical Gardens, just like she planned. But with him came the 3 others that were spying on her earlier, all three are females.
“Well, what is it, spit it out.” She said, looking bored and likely more interested on the dragonflies that were buzzing around her.
“You killed my friend, remember Elierd Frene?” Diethard gave a laugh, madness rising in his eyes. “Now you shall die too. Prepare to meet your death! To her, Claws, Poisonous Hands, Flame!”
The 3 ESPers sprang forward, one growing nails long and sharp like claws, another’s hands turned purple and the last, her fist growing a fireball.
Sapphire snapped her attention back to him, her concentration absolute. “Activate Energy Rose.” Her eyes glowed blue, brilliantly. On the palm of her left hand a glowing mark of a rose appeared. She went into a fighting stance, left hand on top, palm facing heaven, right hand down to the left, palm facing hell.
The fireball blazed and flew.
Sapphire caught the fireball in her left hand, it sputtered and died, just as the 2 other females reached her. Claws screamed and swiped at her head, Poisonous Hands slide and tried to reach for her bare skin just above her calf-length boots. Fireball took a few steps and threw another, bigger fireball, not at all amused her fireball was so easily vanguished.
Sapphire did an aerial cartwheel on the spot, grabbing Claws’s arm while in mid air, effectively dodging both girls’ attacks while allowing her to execute her own. She released all the energy she got from the fireball before as well as adding her own to a stabbing jab with 2 fingers to the elbow of Claws while in midair, red flowing marks appearing briefly on her arms.
When she landed, it was amidst a painful scream and a crack. One of Claws’s elbows is broken, the skin torn, white bones showing with all the blood spurting. Claws kneeled down holding her ruined elbow with the other hand, tears running down her face, teeth gritted against the pain. Poisonous Hands did a flip over Claws’s kneeling form, did a roll and slashed with her hands upwards one after another towards Sapphire’s face.
Sapphire did a back flip to get out of range of the poisonous hands, certain that no cure could be found. As she landed, out of the corner of her eyes an enormous fireball blasted. It flew towards her at a frightening speed. Sapphire turned to face it directly, taking a step forward and holding out both palms, as if pushing away the fireball.
The blast of heat as it connected with Sapphire engulfed her form for a moment, so hot was it that Poisonous Hands took a step back, shielding her face with her hands. Before the heat even cleared, a pair of fiery hands took hold of her. Before she could even utter a scream, she saw a pair of brilliant blue eyes staring at her. Now she burns.
Burn. Burnt.
All that was left was a pile of ashes and a lot of poisonous fumes.
Sapphire came running out of the thick smoke, her eyes blazing blue, clothes singed at the edges, in her hand pure ESP energy so concentrated it could be seen by naked eyes. She dashed past Flame who barely had time to form another attack, sure that her Ultimate Fire Blast had killed Sapphire, and stop right in front of Diethard, grinning. The pure ESP energy in her hands disappeared right after she passed Flame, one can only guess what she had done with it.
Flame’s only managed a small gasp she suddenly imploded, raining blood all over the place.
Diethard looked shocked as he took two steps back before trying to turn and run away.
“Xue Xin Ling!” A sword materialized in Sapphire’s right hand, a sword that looked like one of the swords that appeared in the Celestial Zone comic series, her favorite. Sapphire turned abruptly, the sword slashing an X. Claws, who was trying to sneak behind Sapphire, was caught by the sword, her good arm raised to slash downwards, her face in a mask of pain and hatred. Claws collapse, blood spurting furiously from 2 wounds, one running from the right shoulder all the way down to the left hip, the other running from the heart to the crotch.
She turned back towards Diethard, he was still running away. The sword disappeared, in its place, a bow that few would recognize, "Mystical Weapon - Artemis's Hunting Bow!". It is the bow used by Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt. She drew the bow, a golden arrow appearing in her right hand, sighting down on Diethard. “Coward! Try as you might, Diethard. You can’t run away from my arrow.”
She released.
The figure of Diethard tumbled and fall as the arrow caught him full in the back, then suddenly sizzled and disappeared.
Clapping sounded from behind a tree, Diethard stepped into view, grinning maliciously. “Very good. Very good indeed, Weapons Mistress. Allow me my title, I am the Clone Master. Shall we begin?”
The sword, Xue Xin Ling, replaced the bow, as Sapphire turned to face him. The battle shall commence.
author's notes: "Hai" means yes in Japanese. "Wakata" means "understood" in Japanese. "Nee-chan" means elder sister.
“A fellow is looking for us, sis.” Reported Topaz, looking bored. “He’s been asking around, and getting answers. Pretty well-connected, I’d say.” She added. Topaz swished her mid-back length dyed midnight blue hair back in an attempt to rid the hairs flying into her eyes while she dealt with the computer.
Standing at 1.65m, at a sweet age of 19, and with a well toned figure, she could have been voted most popular girl had not her stubborn, straight-forward and tenacious nature.
Getting no answers, she turned around to fix her twin sister with an esperated look. “Can you at least be more concerned?” She demanded.
Sapphire, lying on the living room couch, replied without opening her eyes. “Hai hai. Wakata. I’m concerned…about when will I be sent out on my next mission. Staying at home is boring, there’s nothing to do except to slack. I’m pretty sick of training too, before you say that again.”
Topaz made a growling noise in her throat, much like a dog, turned back to the computer and did some rapid typing, wheels spinning in her head. Just then Amethyst, their “baby” sister, the youngest in their family, flounced into the living room, settled into the sofa and announced in a bright chirpy voice, “I’ve just completed Battle Rings Mark 4 Mod 22, Sapphie. They allow you to utilize up to 80% of your powers without any side effects other then the usual ESP exhaustion."
"You wanna try them out?” She added again after a wink and a finger pointing to the computer screen from Topaz, rolling her eyes.
Sapphire came up all in a bounce, her shoulder-length bleached hair doing a little bounce while her waist-length (hair )tail did a little flip. Two shiny black eyes sparkled with delight. “Oh really! Awesome! Haha! Thanks!” She proceed to try to give Ame a hug, only to be held at bay with a barrier that came up out of nowhere without any visible notice.
“I’m not a kid anymore, Sapphie. I’m 18 already.” Amethyst said irritably, visibly drained, both mentally and physically.
“You don’t look like one.” Sapphire replied back over her shoulder, already heading over to Amethyst’s workshop, striding tall at 1.68m. I’ll check over this guy who’s been asking all over for us, nee-chan.” She added.
Amethyst gave a shrug and muttered, “Yea yea.” Though at the age of 18, she still looked 14, standing at only 1.58m tall, her face a little chubby with baby fats and wide big doll-like eyes..
“It’s the pair of black gold with emerald twine rings, Sapphie!” Amethyst called out, then slumped into her seat, and promptly went to slumber land.
Topaz grinned at herself, “I knew it, I know you too well, Sapphie.” The screen read “Weapons Mistress has accepted the mission. Please forward mission details to her.” She hit the enter button and watch the mail being sent out.
The words at the top of the screen read, “ESProt”.
author's notes: The strange marks appearing around jay are symbols of constellations, however, since Ruby doesn't understand these and cant be bothered, so he doesn't recognise those symbols.
"Akaiikugan" means red eyes. This is the name of Ruby's special skill. When ESP power is concentrated into the eyes, he is able to see ESP power trails anywhere, even in the human body. When ESP powers hit any part of his body and is directed to his eyes, he is able to read into the person's actual personality.
Ruby grinned widely, as he saw the target getting real pissed. Flicking out a finger, hr discharged a mildly annoying ESP Sting, comparable to a stab with a very sharp toothpick.
The target gave a little jump as the Sting hit, then turn about to face Ruby, brushing off the girl.
Ruby shouted, “Can you catch me? Slowie!” Ruby took off towards the designated area setup for a fight, sure that the damages would be minimal. Looking back, he was pleased the target did not fall back, but was gaining on him; Ruby gave a excited little shiver.
“Here’s someone who’s finally gonna put on a good fight.” Ruby chuckled.
The area reached, Ruby turned around, posing a Sir Stamford Raffles Pose with a little smile on his lips. The area is nothing more than an empty space behind two warehouses on the riverside, an adequate place. The target reached just a moment later, not at all looking breathless, which was good; Ruby hated to be made to wait for the fight.
“Good, you’re looking good. Name’s Ruby, what’s yours?” Ruby asked, annoyingly polite.
The target did not reply, merely made flapping motions with a single hand, a look of concentration on his angry face. Ice crystals the size of snow flakes began to form in the air, the temperature around the area pummeled to the depths. The target punched out with his hand, a blast of icy cold wind started howling, blinding everything and pushing everything towards Ruby.
“Diamond Dust!!” he shouted, a glowing strange marking appearing in the air in front of him, then settling down to his body.
When the winds settled, Ruby was encased in an ice block, much like an ice coffin. “Spirits of Fire – Heat Skin!” Ruby said quietly amidst the howling winds. The diamond dust did not last even 5 seconds before exploding outwards. Ruby stood shaking his hands, as if shaking out water, his whole body glowing cheery red. Steam was rising from all over Ruby’s person. Ruby looked up with a smile, “You like it?”
The target looked startled, as if finding it hard to believe his skills did not work on Ruby. He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes, as if newly accessing the abilities of Ruby. The markings disappeared.
Ruby grinned, “Watch now!” and proceed to deactivate Heat Skin. Ruby’s eyes glowed as he activate his Akaiikugan, then clenched his fist and sprint forward, “Akaiikugan, kai! Spirits of Wind – Cyclone Limbs!”
Ruby’s four limbs glowed green for a moment, then formed into green scales forming nicely into a set of gauntlets for the hands and greaves for the legs.
The target’s eyes widen as he lost sight of Ruby for a moment, before suddenly flicking his arms out, “Great Horn!!” as he caught sight of Ruby’s widely grinning face at arm’s length. His arms glowed with another strange marking for an instant.
A psychic shockwave in the form of a giant bull blasted out at Ruby, but was shattered after an instant of clashing with a bright green light from Ruby’s gauntlets. The target’s eyes widen in surprise, as the great Horn was broken. However, there was no power difference, as the gauntlets shattered upon contact with the target’s arms, causing no damages whatsoever.
Ruby’s eyes glowed stabbing red for a painful moment when he came into contact with the Great Horn. When the gauntlets shattered, Ruby looked surprised for a split second before doing 3 consecutives back flips to get out of range of a sudden snap kick from the target.
“Starlight Extinction!!” The target pointed at Ruby, another strange marking appearing in midair, spinning rapidly. Ruby became surrounded by a pillar of starlight. As Ruby began to fade away, so did a shout, “Spirits of Fire - Fiery Reversal!”
The starlight burned up into nothingness, yet all it contained was a fiery image of Ruby.
“We are evenly matched, Jay. Yes I know your name. You passed! Don’t worry, I’m not your enemy. Should you want to find out more about me, ask around for Chiaki.” Echoed Ruby’s voice, laughingly, dauntingly, mockingly.
author's notes: this chapter has a surprise fan character from another similar fanfic thrown in. Its getting into the main happenings, so enjoy.
Year 2008, at a certain pub in Singapore.
“Get away from my girl, punk ass.” A guy with yellow-streaked hair and a ponytail hollered and stared at him. Ruby looked up, in the midst of playing a guessing game with a pretty brunette. Grinning amiably and lifting up his hands in a surrendering gesture, “Hey man, be nice. You were out on the dance floor, dude. I’m just entertaining a lonely girl, that’s all. No harm done.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to play with my girl, punk. Wise up, or you’ll get hurt.” growled the man in reply, his face a thunder cloud.
Smiling and hiding his true thoughts while backing away, Ruby scrutinized the guy. He appeared to be about the same age range, strikingly handsome. Moreover, he detected a small leak of ESP energy from the guy, and was most interested.
If it comes to fighting, both physical and ESP wise, Ruby was confident he wouldn’t lose easily. A 6th Dan black belt in Judo, 4th Dan black belt in Ju-jitsu and an off-the-scale ESP user to boot, he knew there were not many who can defeat him. However, his ESP powers were limited, because of a ring on each of his index fingers. For his own life’s sake, he had his powers limited to that of a Class A ESPer, the amount of which is barely 50% of his full power.
He went back to his circle of friends who came with him, and had dared him to lay hands on the guy’s girl. Hoots and cheers greeted him, smiling, Ruby accepted them all. He downed his drink all in a gulp, then excused himself to the loo. Peering at his own image while washing his hands, he smiled. No lady would refused a young man with broad shoulders, stands at 1.77m tall, crowned with thick wavy natural jet black hair carefully mused and top everything off with a boyishly handsome face.
Touching his gold earring, he spoke quietly, “Elementals reporting in. Target spotted. Hermes is closing in,”
“Test him out, if he’s evil, get rid of him. Else, let him go on his own pace.” The speaker hissed
“Gotcha. Mission starts.”
Ruby grinned, he loved his job. With his speciality power, he could discern an ESPer’s true personality just by feeling out their powers. His ruby eyes can see ESP energy and can peer right into a person’s body, and he can manipulate a person’s ESP channels within the body to seal it up temporally.
When he got out, he spotted the target. He was arguing about something with his girl. “Hey! I changed my mind. Let me have the girl. After all, you suck, big time.” He called out gleefully, excited that a fight is coming his way. It was only because of his love of fighting that he took on this job, there were plenty of opportunities for fights to go around.
author's notes: "anata" is usually mean "you" in the japanese language. However, it is also used as an endearment much like "dear".
And for your information, there are such breed of dogs as Mongolian Wolfhound, though it is commonly referred to as Buryat-Mongolian wolfhound (BMW). Visit this webpage for more info as well as pictures: http://novogolutvin.ru/en/obedience/animals/f_1voe4r/
1988 October 10, Singapore. Chiaki Residence, Adam’s Field Cottage.
“Anata! Come help me with Gon! He won’t stop running around!”
Chiaki rolled his eyes, there goes his afternoon leisure time with his daughters, Sap and Top. “That what I get for marrying a non-ESPer. Sigh~” He sighed heavily, smiled his apologies to his twin daughters and got up to help his wife with bathing their Mongolian Wolfhound, Gon.
Chiaki and Jianne, having survived the great onslaught 8 years ago had banded together since, forming a new team that consisted only of the two of them. Chiaki had tried to win over Jianne’s heart for years before she finally relented, consented and married him, giving him 3 children and a 4th on the way; two daughters and a rascally son.
The son, Ruby, named for his unusual red-colored iris, a permanent reaction to his father’s ESPer powers, now 3 years of age is sleeping peacefully in his little clot. Blissfully unaware of the upcoming storm.
Sap and Top were not the girls’ real names; it is just short for Sapphire and Topaz. The girls, though twins, exhibit different reaction to their father’s ESP abilities. Chiaki, on a whimsical urge, had touched all 3 of his children’s mind with his ESPer powers just right after their birth to see if they are ESPers too. To his surprise, the unformed baby’s mind responded to his ESP pulse probe. Sapphire’s baby eyes turned from black to blue and blazed white for a moment before turning back to their usual midnight black. Topaz’s had the same reaction; just that her eyes blazed a golden hue before changing back, it did not exhibit the white blaze seen from her sister.
In seniority, Ruby, the eldest came first, born in 1985, December 22. Next came Sapphire and Topaz, Topaz being the elder sister of just 8 minutes, born 1988 January 11.
Topaz, being of a more passive nature, sat quietly flipping an art book, or rather trying to, being all of 9 months old. Sapphire, however, being very curious and a bit hungry, was alternating playing with daddy’s old pendant and biting to see if it could be eaten. However, having no teeth, the sapphire roses cut deeply into her gums. Screaming her pain, her innate powers suddenly surfaced. The roses on the pendant all shattered, Sapphire lost consciousness, falling backwards. The shattered roses suddenly glow a bright blue and all of them stabbed down into the body of Sapphire.
Chiaki and Jianne heard the scream, rushed back into the living room using Chiaki’s sonic speed and stopped dead.
Uncounted blue light shinned from Sapphire’s body which is floating in mid air. The air around her glow white periodically, sending heat waves back and forth through the air. The wind howled as it heats up and burned and create space for more air to rush into it. The storm has started.
Topaz sat quietly calm, staring at space, her eyes ablaze with a yellow brilliance, much like the sun. Chiaki stood stock still, his eyes riveted at the scene unfolding before him. Its magnitude was so great, so much so that even the usually quick thinking and even faster action Chiaki did nothing more then to stand gawking like a kid before a porn flick. Jianne collapse straight, unable to withstand such magnitude of ESP that was probably off the scale.
Suddenly, a sparkling cheery red beam shot from the nursery and hit the mixture of white, blue and yellow brilliance in the living room. Ruby has joined the fight, it seemed. Suddenly the whole room imploded and engulfed the whole residence in flames.
The fires were put out 44 minutes later; fire fighters rescued a family of five who survived their residence’s explosion unharmed. A miracle, or not. Sapphire’s both palms bore 12 new scars, white little rose-like shapes, 6 on each palm. They glowed, every now and then.
Amidst all the rubble and debris, a certain pendant lay cracked into a dozen pieces, each with a single hole bored nicely into them, 5mm in diameter.
author's notes: When a girl is asked to wash a man's clothes, it is akin to a marriage proposal.
Jianne shifted her weight a bit, conscious of a rock poking her uncomfortably. She thought, “Gosh… am I saved or am I captured? Anyways, I gotta go out of this first. But he fights well, damn!”
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she slowly began to survey her surroundings. They appeared to be in some sort of cavern, Trench Coat slouched near the exit while she was against a wall further back. Trying not to move too obviously, Jianne tried to shift into position so that she can deal with anything should it comes.
So intense was her concentration on not moving obviously, she did not noticed that the sobs and curses had died down, silence reigned. A snort of laughter followed by, “You don’t have to move so slow, I know you are awake, lady.” broke into her concentration, it caused her to blush and stop moving entirely. Jianne gave up, she moved into a crouching position and stare at Trench Coat warily.
“Where are we? Who are you? What do you want with me?” She shot, after a moment of staring at a set of alert eyes full of mysterious promises.
“We are in Japan, of course. In a cave, as you can see. I am Chiaki Hirotama, AKA. Fast Hands, Japanese, of the late Ichiken Team. I could ask you the same question. And I want nothing from you.” Came the reply, lazy with a touch of arrogance and amusement.
Holding up a pendant with a dozen roses, Hiro said with a touch of self-reprisal, “I came for this. I sacrificed my team for this. I killed for this, yet now I do not think it is worth the price I paid.”
“Before you ask more, I am an ESPer. I have unique abilities and powers normal people do not have. This cave is proof of it. This is made by me. It took me an hour. This is Chiisagatagun, I don’t think it’s that easy to find a cave.” Hiro continued, staring intensely at her.
Jianne looked startled, “Jianne Makov, Russian.” She narrowed her eyes, “If I believed u made this cave in an hour, I’ll be a fool. If I believe you have special powers, more fool I am.”
“That’s fine. If we survived another attack, I’ll show you. Wanna bet, if you lose, you gotta wash my clothes.” Hiro chuckled. He stood up and tossed her a dagger, identical to the one that appeared in his right hand in a reversed grip.
Jianne gave a feral smile, “If we survived…” Hiro looked back, a fierce twinkle in his eyes, a tight smile on his lips,”Prepare to wash my PJs.”
The wind started howling, that night, the sky promised death.
author's notes: This chapter is remarkably full of actions and not much dialogs, future ones will hold much more interactions between characters as the story progress into its main rail.
Fast Hands snapped back into reality at the words of his lookout, Jiro, his long time friend, back when they were both students studying in junior high. Hissing in annoyance, Fast Hands activated his sonic speed ability fully and disappeared into the caravan, so fast that he left a phantom image in his place.
Jianne gave a start as the rugged, darkly handsome figure start to glow a little and slowly became more and more translucent. Instinct told her something dangerous was about to happen; backing away towards the caravan, her eyes fixed warily on the disappearing strange man, she was not aware of the danger behind her until the very last second.
Suddenly, the caravan behind her exploded. Debris flew in every direction. Uncannily, Jianne knew exactly which direction to dodge was the safest, and did exactly that; she drove to the ground and fluidly change her movements to a forward roll that would bring her back up to her feet. She paused for a moment to look back and was relieved to see that her instincts did not fail her; a large splinter of glass a foot long had pierced the ground where she had been.
She may have dodged a deadly spike, but a relatively non-lethal debris hit her. Or would have hit her had not a hand holding a dagger appeared from behind and proceed to sliced what had previously been a part of the caravan door into harmless pieces that fell to the hard ground with a thud.
Jianne turned back with a jerk to see the stranger standing behind her, his left hand clutching something tightly. She snarled and would have gone into a fury of blows to attack the stranger had not a corpse slammed into her from the side. Struggling from underneath the dead weight, she witnessed an amazing fight, one that held her entranced so completely that she froze; only her eyes darted about.
The clearing suddenly exploded into action as six strangers all in dark ninja-like clothing and wearing a mask arrived, each displaying strange skills aimed at the manly figure in trench coat. Once again, the figure of the man glowed and did the slow-fading act, but now, a series of amazing actions began to take place.
Two of the ninja suddenly collapsed to the ground, their throat cleanly slit, spurting fountains of blood. One disappeared from sight, but suddenly fell from the sky with a thud, a large gaping hole where the heart was. Another two screamed as their arms suddenly detached from their bodies, separated into a few portions. The grounds near the last man imploded several times, large furrows appearing after the dust settled. A sudden flash of light and a fountain of blood a moment later confirmed the death of the last man.
The corpse was suddenly lifted from her. Jianne gave a yelp as the strange Trench Coat seemed to suddenly appear before her very eyes, looming stark against the moonlight. He offered a helping hand, one that Jianne was wary to accept. He suddenly gave a curse, leaned down, grabbed her arm suddenly, Jianne felt her world spin and tilted, then all is no more.
She woke to sounds of quiet sobs, amidst fierce and violent curses.
“Darnnit!! Damn that Knives! Bloody traitor! Oh Jiro….WHY!!! WHY!! …. I should have listened to you from the beginning, Jiro. You were always right….”
author's notes: ESPers are splited into classes according to their strength of powers. Class As are the most powerful, followed by the middle Class Bs, the rookie Class Cs and the unconscious Class Ds who are not aware of their powers. There is also the legendary Class S ESPers whose powers are off the scale and stand above even Class A. Class S are very rare though.
Fast Hands knew the instant Flair died. He had been running towards the direction of the scream, the outline of the caravan faintly visible through the slight fog. A sudden jolt ran through his body, followed by a sense of a familiar presence disappearing.
Putting this and the feminine scream heard the moment before, he concluded with just a touch of regret that Flair had left his team. “Well, there’s goes another nice set of long legs” Fast Hands sighed, then gave a jerk and stopped running abruptly. Instincts moved his body to leap backwards, finished with a beautiful back flip.
Split seconds later, a loud flash of orange and a loud crash signaled the usage of Bomber’s powers. Hot, burning bits of whatnots and what’s left of a wagon flew through where Fast Hands had been. The fog lifted slightly, Fast Hands could make out Bomber and another man of roughly the same size fighting together.
Bomber is a very big man. He stands at 7 feet 8 tall, has biceps the size of an average man’s head, in short a very huge man with muscles of steel. He had been a former bodybuilder champion 3 times over. Bomber’s opponent, though shorter then him by about feet, had the same body structure as Bomber. It is clear that both are very strong men.
Fast Hands shouted, “Hey Bomber, look where you’re shooting your stuffs!” annoyed that Bomber could be enjoying himself with fighting with an opponent of equal footings.
Fast Hands sense a sudden stirring of powers and ducked down, just as Bomber’s fist hit the ground and sent bit and pieces of pebbles and sand flying his way.
“Shit you Bomber! Finish him up quickly, we don’t wanna dally here!” Fast Hands called sharply, got a spray of pebbles and a grunt for his effort. Shaking his head, Fast Hands jogged briskly towards the distant caravan.
He arrived upon a scene that was beautiful in its uniqueness. Silvery moonlight pooled on a spot, illuminating the lone figure of a woman with flaming red hair and piercing green eyes in red leather jacket who looked about 6 feet 2, gripping a knife with feral intensity.
He arrived just as Jianne looked up. Time seemed to stop as he took in the ethereal beauty. Standing against the wind, his hat flew away, freeing his mane of golden blond hair that resembled a lion’s mane and revealed his shocking blue eyes. His trench coat flapped violently, yet he paid it no heed, enchanted by the scene before his eyes.
“Hey.” Fast Hands said softly.
She replied in a similar manner, staring intently into his eyes, “Hey.”
Just then, things happened all at once. A hoarse scream full of pain shattered the silent magic, closely followed by a loud cracking sound, a muffled boom that reverberated through the fog, and a message that hissed in Fast Hands’s ears.
“Leader, we have company. Pack of seven… no, eight; Class C and B ESPers coming your way from south. Code Blue and Red arriving from on east. Civilian lorry just passed by me towards you, distance about 200 meters. 3 minutes before first contact.”
author's notes: Jianne Makov parents are unique. Her paternal grandfather is Japanese, with a French wife who ran off with their child not long after marriage. Jianne's father became a Russian PR when he married Nibela Marivostankov. He changed his surname to Makov just before Jianne was born. He went back to France when his mother died, and 3 days later, Jianne was born.
author's notes: “Jyaa ne, uwakionna-san” that Flair last heard mean "Bye now, miss slut". Jianne was speaking in Japanese. For your information, Jianne could speak 7 different language: Russian, French, English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Malay.
At the point of time when Fast Hands arrived, Flair was about on her mission, killing off survivors as she searched for the Pendant of Sapphire Roses. By rights there should have been no one who would have been able to resist her at all. However, as fate would have it, there happened to have a Russian ex-Special Operation member who specialized in assassination traveling with the caravan.
Her name is Jianne Makov, a French born Russian whose grandfather was a Japanese yakuza triad boss. She had been traveling with the caravan working as a guard while on her way to see her grandfather. Possessing of remarkable skills with unarmed combat, close combat with lethality and is a master marksman, it was Flair’s bad luck to have met her. Flair had only her powers as well as a blue belt in Judo in her arsenal
Flair kicked opened the caravan door, the inside was pitch-black. By the silvery moon light she was able to peer inside and see to a certain extent. An outline of a pregnant woman lying on the floor came into view. Flair shook her head, manipulated the moon light into a light ball with her powers and sent it into the caravan. As the light ball went in, something huge flew out. The light ball extinguished.
It hit Flair hard in her midriff, and flipped over her as she doubled over. Recovering quickly, Flair turned around and tried to shoot her powers into her assailant, but before she could release her powers, a cloth was draped over her head, effectively blinding her.
Her powers came out then, bright shards of light, but they stabbed harmlessly into the plans. Flair felt a person hugged her the next moment. An arm went around her tight, another gripped at a certain spot on her lower spine.
Fear hit Flair in a rush; she knew suddenly that her enemy is a fearsome person, able to kill with precision silently. Flair struggled madly but the grip was tight. The hand at her lower spine stabbed in, bright extreme pain followed. Flair screamed in pain, then gave a soft moan as she tried to control the pain. In her struggle, the cloth that was blinding her fell off, Flair could see again. Her blindfold turned out to be a blanket from the caravan, and her assailant a female. Anger flared from Flair as she realized she had lost control of her body, judging from where her injury is, she had been hurt in her nerve centre.
Looking up at her assailant, Flair screamed, “Bitch!” then tried to shoot shards of light at her, but she couldn’t concentrate enough with the pain searing through her whole body, feeling as if a red hot fire is burning all her nerves.
Looking up, Flair could make out the name of the guard’s tag pinned to the collar of her assailant. “Darn bitch! Jianne Makov!” Flair bit out. Pulling out a Swiss Army knife from her jacket, Jianne gave a cold smile as she flipped out the blade. Flair’ last words heard were…
“Jyaa ne, uwakionna-san”
