Darkness. An Improfanfic created by Insanity Productions head, Rick Spiff Now an Improfanfic Production for Improfanfic!!! Disclaimer: What, an original work?!! Shock! Horror! The characters introduced in this chapter have been tortu--er, created by Rick Spiff. ---------- It was a pleasant and sunny day at school, a day for frolicking and fun and yes - sadly - studying. The students attending this private school didn't mind that much, as they had plenty of time between classes and homework to go outside and enjoy it. And that was probably why he had to show up. Of course, this was not a school without it's minor problems; students getting harassed at gunpoint, the occasional fight that ended up in a twisted, broken and bloody body with limbs at unnatural angles. Being a school filled with rich and important kids, this wasn't uncommon. But the definition of the word 'fight' was about to be readjusted. At first, all that could be seen was the ship. A tiny, silent speck in the distance, like a mark upon the very sky. No one took notice of it at first, but as the minutes ticked by, it became rapidly apparent that this was no mere stain upon the heavens, but a ship. A ship bearing loud engines and a shiny transparent cockpit. A ship outfit with all types of odd gadgets and funny antennae. The sleek black hull was unmarred, having no markings to identify who owned or built it. Inside the cockpit, Trevor Henji examined his options. He'd had a long ride, and one not too comfortable, without the Acceleration Compensators on. But at least he was able to sleep on the way over, and was ready for action. Now. With the ship stopped, he could drop the landing gear, but smashing up the this neat open spot filled with luscious green didn't appeal to him. There was nowhere conveniently nearby he could make a full landing, and he didn't want to anyway, there was a quick launch to consider if things got ugly. Trevor sighed. Things _always_ got ugly; he had his father's luck. With little further thought, he inverted the craft and hit the 'hold' button, which would conserve fuel, make less noise, and hopefully not kill the grass. When the engines went from roaring to humming, he opened the cockpit and hit the harness release, somersaulting as he dropped to land on his feet. In a glace, he took in the campus from ground level. The place was huge - at least a full square mile in size, enormous for a Japanese school - and was basically one large park with dozens of separate, lightly colored buildings. Several large buidings surrounded an athletic field to the north. What fit for a science building was directly in front of him, flanking a large garden at the east part of the school. The cafeteria was south of his location, and a smattering of other buildings circled the western part of the estate; probably the dorms. "This could be bad, real bad." He said under his breath. The students milling around him all looked like Japanese school students (not surprising, considering he _was_ in Japan). Being half-Japanese himself, he supposed he could kinda blended in, to some extent, but he did stand a full head taller than the kids around him, and had long ago graduated high school. "I'm looking for... oh, never mind, he'd never use his real name here. I'll just look for him." "Um, who?" Asked a girl behind him. He turned to look at her over his shoulder. She was a tall for the grouping she was in, a little shorter than him. She had blond hair (blond! In Japan!), wide green eyes (green! What country was he in?!), and wore a school uniform with a short skirt, heavy emphasis on the 'short' part. "A very bad man." Trevor replied, still looking at her over his shoulder. "A man I need to stop and bring to justice. Think of me as a kind of police man." Maybe he should've said 'bounty hunter'. Too late now, in any case. "I'll just go look for him, thanks." He closed the cockpit with his remote and walked off in a random direction. He could feel his target on approach, but his arrival had been sensed (as usual) and now there was no signal to follow. Forunately, his target had to be within a few hundred meters and couldn't move very quickly without alerting his ki-sense. It would be a real pain if the bastard had chosen to hide inside one of the buildings. Trevor didn't like breaking in and it wasn't likely the officials would just let whoever without any I.D. whatsoever root through their school. Well, things could be worse, he mused. I could be dead. And then a steel I-beam, eight inches across and made of solid steel, slammed into his gut like a shot from a cannon. The force of the blow completely knocked the wind out of him, cracked several ribs, and flinging him into a concrete wall across the walkway. The stone-like wall of the building gave way with a noise like great stones smashing into one another, the concrete shattering all about him and shrouding his form in a hail of stone flakes and concrete dust. He didn't have his eyes open yet, but he didn't need them to fight. Yet. A small ball of white-hot energy formed quickly in his hand, which he bent down and placed above the ground with his palm facing downward. Just before the I-beam pounded into the wall behind him like an eight hundred pound nail, he detonated the ball of energy. It let exploded like a small bomb, blasting him straight up like a rocket and away from the huge metal spike that he could've been impaled on. "You aren't playing fair, Daimon!" He shouted. A voice sprang from the direction of the first attack, still on the ground. "I don't have to play fair, brother dear, I'm a fighter, not a whiner!" "Coulda fooled me." Grunted Trevor as he hit the ground running. After a he had covered a few dozen meters (and run up against the wall of what looked like a gymnasium), Trevor turned around to face his opponent, taking up a loose ready stance. Daimon came walking out of the still-settling cloud of debris, slowly. "So, brother dear, we meet again." "As they say; another day, another dime." "You really should just join me, you know." "I have to admit, I've thought about it before, but you aren't fit to lead an anthill, Daimon." Trevor sneered. "I'd like to hear that rhetoric on the homeworld, brother. It didn't work to well against T'Lhik and his destroyers, now did it." Trevor's jaw clenched, his eyes blazing with fury. "No..." he ground out. "It most certainly did not. But that's in the past, and I'm dealing. Besides, this isn't T'Lhik's deal, Daimon. This is about you and I and our mission." "FUCK THE MISSION, brother. I think we can find a... different place. A better place. A place worthy of our presence." "Worthy? You fucking ingrate, you make me sick!" "HAVE AT THEE!" Daimon shrieked. Trevor made a leap, straight into sky, the very air about him shimmering like living fire. Daimon lept in similar fashion, hands extended like the claws of some great beast, fixing to rake his fingers across his opponent's face. Trevor held his body in a guarding position, prepared to launch any of a dozen viscous attacks against Daimon as the distance between closed like a bullet flying towards its target. They crossed in the air with a concussion of blows, like two sticks of dynamite exploding directly into one another. Light and heat poured off of each for the fraction of a second they held their place in the air. Then, the went flying in opposite directions, clearly favoring a few light wounds. Daimon fired a blast of purple energy back at Trevor, who ducked slightly, letting the blast miss his head by mere inches. They both landed easily on their feet, this time on the roofs of the two opposite buildings, staring back each other across open space, smoke clouding the air. Without a second thought, they lept again, to meet in the air with another resounding clash; the battle joined. ---------- When the first clash had resounded through the arts building, Sueko Munashi had thought a bomb went off nearby. Ridiculous! Countered her reasonable side. No such weapons would be used on school property. No one had any reason to... yet. Well, she had better go see what had happened anyway. Besides, she had a lunch date with Usagi planned and everything, and it wouldn't do to miss it. By the time she had made it outside, Sueko had identified the sound of several other booms similar to the first, but was totally unprepared for the sight that greated her. Two figures, whreathed in flames colored only as she had seen in fireworks, were fighting by leaping at least twenty meters into the air and slamming into each other in a blur. With every concussive strike, the seemed to move through an incredibe number of martial arts moves, though neither really looked to be gaining the upper hand. For a moment, she gazed in fascination at the two forms, who went about fighting, pretty much completely ignoring the large crowd gathered below. The sound of someone clearing their throat during a 'lull' in the combat caught Sueko's attention. Sueko turned around to see Usagi Hitasura standing behind her, watching only Sueko herself with those large red eyes. "Hello, Usagi. I know this sounds like a wierd question, but do you know why those two are fighting?" "I haven't a clue, Sueko. It seems one of them just arrived in that spaceship and they started fighting." Sueko's gaze followed Usagi's pointing finger to see the large grey object floating over the ground. She squinted, looking for landing gear or some other kind of support, but didn't see any. "Okay." Sueko commented. "Let's let them fight it out. I'm hungry." An electric buzz sounded in the air, tweeking the hairs on the back of her neck, followed by the sound of the equipment shed collapsing into a pile of dust. "Ah... and if there's any school left when we're done eating, we can ask around." "Sounds like a plan." Usagi said, no indication she cared in the least about what Sueko had been saying. ---------- Trevor was slowly gaining the upper hand, as he slammed a flaming knee into Daimon's stomach. His brother went flying back a few meters from the force of the blow, but Trevor didn't persue. Catching himself on his feet, Daimon snarled something incoherint and flung a white-hot energy blast at Trevor with a mild flick of his wrist. Trevor dodged easily, then charged up a massive amount of golden ki in one hand, delicately staying out of range as Daimon took a moment to recover. He was breathing hard, air hissing in and out between his loosely clenched teeth. His arms were tired but not yet slowing him down, and his right eye was starting to give out from a nasty blow to his temple Daimon had sneaked through his defense. Daimon was clutching his right arm, which was virtually useless now, and when he landed on the ground, was clearly favoring his right knee. Trevor had taken the time to kick it out in a particularly vicious manner. Just as Daimon seemed to pause, Trevor felt the temperature in the air rise sharply. He narrowed his eyes as Daimon jumped straight at him, parallel to the ground. Trevor blocked with both arms, bouncing his brother back, then launched a blind kick, trying for Daimon's stomach. His foot met open air. Daimon was above him, his right fist pulled back in preparation to fire a blast into Trevor's face at point blank range. Trevor took a split-second to smirk before unleashing the ki in his hand right in front of Daimon's nose. Just before the explosion flung his sibling away, Trevor could clearly see the look of surprise on Daimon's face as the ball of energy exploded like a minature supernova right in front of him. He waited until the dust finished settling, then saw Daimon's still body on the ground. A quick inspection showed the trouble-maker was still breathing, which was good, and no ki meant he was probably unconscious, which was great, but Trevor didn't feel like celebrating. Ever since Daimon had slaughtered their parents like pigs and started his trip around the world as a mass-murderer, Trevor had spent all his waking hours focusing on only one thought: Capture or kill his brother. Now, they hadn't fought much as childen, he supposed that they argued no more than normal siblings, and apart from their downright frightening martial arts skills, they were pretty ordinary. In an ordinary world, he'd be out on his own and Daimon would be rotting in some jail cell awaiting trial. But no, thanks to fate - to his father's luck, primarily - Daimon was able to easily escape the clutches of local law enforcement, which left his capture up to Trevor and basically no one else. Spending all his time concentrating on killing his own brother was taxing. It was like playing a four person game of scrabble with only one person, for years on end. Sooner or later, he had honestly felt that he would crack. The defeat of his brother had been the turning point in this chase. It would be his moment of glory and justice, that moment he could finally let go completely and began to heal; began to stop hating and being so judgmental and paranoid. He had to stop trying to beat the perfect killer his brother had become before he finally wallked down the same path. As Trevor realized that he had finally won, finally knocked his brother unconscious, with the means to hold him indefinitely well within range, the feeling he got was not the elation or resolution that he had expected, but the long sigh of the exhausted, of a man at the end of his rope, just looking up from a task he had bent his entire life to. As a man waking from a deam, just to learn what he has wasted his life on. ---------- "Hey, looks like that little scuffle is over, Usagi." Sueko commented, munching away at her lunch. "I heard it involved Kunou-sempai." "That mean bastard? I'm not surprised. But what's with the threatrics?" "No one has ever seem or heard of him, but he does look a lot like Kunou-sempai, so he might be his brother." "Kunou's brother shows up and both of them start hurlting balls of lightning around. This has 'interesting' written all over it in big glowing kanji!" Sueko said, a gleam in her eye. With her average looks, the youngest child of the Munashi clan had taken up a hobby of finding out what was going on around the school. This new business wasn't upsetting, but it did present a challenge. As far as she knew, Senkai didn't even have a brother. And she'd distinctly heard that new guy calling him 'Daimon', which was an English name, if she remembered right. Then again, Senkai _did_ look at least partly English.... Interesting. "Hey, Usagi." "Hmm?" "Do you catch the name of our new arrival?" "Kunou-sempai called him 'Trevor.' Why?" Ah-ha! "Definitely English. So, they're brothers are they?" "They do look alike." "Viddy interesting." Sueko said, complete with proper accent and a mile-wide smile. The effect was... disturbing. ---------- After dragging Daimon back to his holding cell on the ship, Trevor unzipped the top to his (now ruined) flight suit, and grabbed lunch from the cockpit. Since no school officials had come around to bug him yet, and Daimon was safely on ice, he figured he would have time for a snack before he started explaining all this and found a way to pay for the damages. However, following the history of his family, what happened next was anything but what he expected. "Hello!" Trevor looked up from lunch - an MRE his father had assured him would at least be edible though not palatable, though he was beginning to doubt those words - and into a pair of sharp brown eyes that reminded him of the accusing gaze of a cat for some reason. The eyes were part of an average-looking girl, maybe fifteen years of age, with light brown hair done up in a pair of pigtails. She looked small but determined, a strange sight with her friend towering over her from behind. The second girl was considerably taller than the first, with big red eyes and dark hair with an almost imperceptible green tint to it. He blinked once. "Me?" "Of course." Said the girl. "What's your name?" "Umm, Trevor. Trevor Henji. What's yours?" "Well, while we're at this, I'm Sueko Munashi, and this is Usagi Hitasura, my best friend. What are you doing here anyway?" Trevor looked blankly at them both for a minute, lost in thought. Finally, he started snickering. "What's so funny?" Pressed Sueko. "Sorry, I - he he - learned Japanese - he, aheh - in an unusual way. I was just thinking of what your names mean." Usagi scowled the scowl of the Righteous One who has been Wronged, but somehow it didn't reach her face entirely. "That _isn't_ funny." Sueko said hotly. "Gomen. No, really. I'm not trying to make offense, it's just... ah, never mind. What was your question again?" He asked Sueko. "What are you doing here?" Trevor looked around the open field. Maybe he could weasel his way out of this smoothly. "Eating lunch?" From her frown, that smart-ass response was not the proper way to answer Miss Munashi's questions. "Just picking up my brother," "So, he is your brother." Sueko turned to Usagi. "Senkai never said he had a brother." "Senkai?" Trevor interrupted. "Hai. The student you just beat up and sent to the nurses office is Senkai Kunou, of the Kunou family. He never said he had a-" "He didn't. Senkai Kunou and most of the Kunou family is dead. That boy's real name is Daimon Henji. He's my brother." "Care explaining?" Asked a confused Sueko. "Not entirely, but I can give you the short version later." Sueko and Usagi turned their Double Glare Attack on him. Usagi's was mildly annoying, but Sueko's was like salt in a open wound. Trevor visible bent back under their assault. "Or right now, if that suits you." "Sure," The girls sat down, thankful for the pleasant shade Trevor's ship offered. Sueko made a mental note to ask him about that thing later. "Daimon and I are faternal twins. He's the older one, by an hour. We're both Canadian nationals, but we're half Japanese, one quarter Quebecois, and one quarter Italian. When we were about six, an alien came down to earth, persued by a band of mercenaries or bounty hunters of some kind. He beat them all up, but it took a while, and he accidently wandered into Dad's store looking for supplies to fix his spaceship. Our parent's let him stay with us for a while. It took him ten years to fix his ship. As payment, he left this bad boy." Trevor pointed at the craft humming above. "Actually, he left two of them." "Excuse me," Sueko said, interrupting. "Yes?" "You're parents let an alien stay _in_ your _house_ for ten YEARS?!" "Dad has always had this really bad luck. It led to a lot of adventures, but it also caused a lot of problems. Mom married him because she wanted the adventure part. Aliens boarding in our house was just par for the course for him, I guess. Anyway, the guy was very human-looking, and a bit secretive. As I was saying, he left two ships behind and a pile of really advanced stuff for my mother and father. During his stay, he trained my brother and I to be some real kick-ass fighters, even gave us the two ships - when we were old enough, that is." "So this alien guy is who taught you two how to throw that fire?" "It's unstable, concentrated 'electroplasm.' A physical manefestation of electrical energy focused by our nervous system. Its our Ki, our spirit, but only the physical half. Most humans have an nominal amount of electricity in their system, although most only use about one millionth of what they can safely draw. Special training can teach a person to use more. Daimon and I are about a billion times as powerful as a normal person." Sueko nodded, taking in the information. "You can do a lot of crazy stuff with that." "Heh. Yeah, throwing blasts is just the beginning. It can be used to melt things, burn out electronics, form shields, find animals, detect heartbeats, even flying, if you're up to it. But the more advanced stuff takes years of training to even grasp the basics. Anyway, where was I?" "The alien and blowing stuff up." "Okay. Marcus - the name the alien had chosen for himself - left when we were sixteen, which was about five years ago. Right before he left, he took each of us aside, one at a time. I'll probably never know what he told Daimon, but he told me..." Trevor paused, looking up to the sky. "He told me a lot. Mostly he told me to be careful. Told me to remember to be honest to myself and do what I felt was right." He sighed. "Daimon just flipped nine months ago. He killed Mom and Dad, almost killed me, stole both ships and went on a rampage. He caused an earthquake in California, the US, that killed over a million people. Hell, it wasn't even an earthquake at that, he just fired one massive ki blast that leveled the city." "So you followed him?" "Dad made an excellent living making high quality furniture. I had enough money to give chase. He's been getting sloppy, careless. I've gotten better. Stronger. Faster. More skilled. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I intended to either turn him over to someone who can really help him, or kill him outright. He's done too much, and he's already too powerful to just fork over to the police. Heck, they've already arrested him four times and he just heals up, kills a few prisoners and cops, then blasts his way out." A long tableu of silence followed as Trevor finished his lunch, tears threatening his eyes. Behind him, Sueko's hand creeped into her bookbag, fingering the 9mm pistol resident there. After finishing his meal, Trevor looked at his lunch 'companions' once more before packing his gear back into his ship. About midway through, Sueko tapped him on the arm. "Yes?" "Where do you think you're going?" Trevor started. There was a clear and dangerous edge to her voice he was sure wasn't there before. Carefully forcing his mind to relax and remain as lucid as possible, he turned to face the girl, wiping his face of all emotion. "Elsewhere. Why do you ask?" "Why not stay here?" "Strange question. As you can see, I'm probably not well wanted." "I want you to stay." Trevor raised a single eyebrow. "Usagi and I think you should at least get a good night's sleep." The smile that bloomed on Sueko's face was beautiful, but something made him wary. On second thought, what did he have to loose? "Sure. Haven't been to the homeland yet anyway. Maybe I can play tourist for a few days after this is taken care of." "See, we even have a spare room - a ways away from ours of course - you can stay in. It's settled!" It was a credit to the big Canadian's willpower that he didn't scream when he saw the look on her face to change to something distinctly unpleasant, then vanish like a snowflake under a blowtorch. Something was up.... ---------- "No, I insist." "I've already decided to stay, and I _need_ my _rest_, you said to yourself!" "Trevor Henji, this is a big night at our school, and I won't have you ruining it for Usagi and I and our friends, okay?! Just enjoy it!!" They were preparing to attend a small school party; something dangerously familiar to a dance, but sounding more like a small socialite meeting. Trevor had ground out little information during his time being shuffled from one room on campus to the next while Sueko talked down to the officials like she owned the place. With a few key answers, Trevor had gathered that this whole school was a private institution for the rich kids in Japan. Apparently there were also several running rivalries between families that sometimes spilled over into the general school population, but he was reasssured by Usagi that 'usually no one gets killed'. In a sarcastic word, GREAT. So now they were on their way to this mystery meeting through the heavily shadded paths that criss-crossed the school grounds, towards a building that looked to be built around the eighteen hundreds. Trees covered the passage they walked upon, spread over with slowly decaying leaves that crunched underfoot. There were trees on both sides, keeping him from running away, as well, but leaving too many places that could conceal an attacker. Relax, Trevor! His mind shouted back. No one to hunt down anymore. Just let go before you have a heart attack! True, that was the voice of reason, but his instincts were still chanting virtues of caution. He opted to walk between his two self- appointed escorts, that way he would have a better chance of... protecting them, yeah. He sighed wistfully. Life had suddenly gotten a lot more complex. This was supposed to be easy, damnit! "Trevor? Hello? Are you in there?" "Huh? Yeah, I'm okay. No one's trying to kill us, right?" The first sound was rubber-soled shoes hitting concrete softly, the second was a gun being cocked. The trio froze, hearing an unwanted visitor immediately in front of them, their eyes straining to pick out the form in the deeper darkness near the trees. A cultured voice came from somewhere in the void, hollow and menacing. "Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford no better turn than this. Thou art a villain!" Bullets started flying. Trevor went one way, Sueko went another, Usagi seemed to simply disappear as hot lead cut apart the vegetation that was just behind them a minute ago. The shots were following Sueko like a tracking device, ripping up pavement on her feet, shredding bark in front of her face. She pulled a compact Berreta from her purse and returned fire rapidly, most of her shots going wide, finding no flesh in the shadows. Trevor pulled to a stop crouched behind some low bushes, pushing his senses to the limit. Shots were coming from withing the dark area - which couldn't see worth a damn. Someone was shooting back, and moving quickly. Usagi was nowhere to be seen - big surprise, she was a slight presence when she was visible and you could hide a tractor-trailer rig out here - but it was... no... yes, it was Sueko who was firing back. Trevor's eyebrows made for the vertical again. So... she carried a gun. This realization didn't have much of an impact on him. He tried again. She CARRIES a GUN. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary. He decided to wait and let her take care of the situation. It sounded like she knew what she was doing, and he couldn't stop bullets. Meanwhile, Usagi had taken to the trees. Rendered nearly invisible, she had been trying to quietly locate the shooter by hearing, but the little prick was moving around too much for her to get a lock on him. Trevor had also disappeared from her sight, simply stepping into the shadows. She had a suspicion he might be involved with whoever was shooting at them, but he looked just as afraid of the bullets as the rest of them did. Something didn't add up here. Sueko continued firing back, careful to conserve her ammo, as she moved around bush after bush trying to get a lock on her opponent. Being in the shade of the trees made him impossible to see, but it also limited the area he could move around in. Obviously he was new at this, she could even hit him by pure luck and he'd be just as dead, so what was he doing standing up and waltzing around in the middle of a gunfight. The low light may have made him unnoticable to the eye, but that protection wouldn't stop her bullets. She fired another volley around the side of the bush, spraying from left to right rapidly. Then she rolled out from behind her cover, keeping at low to the ground as possible. She heard a curse from in the shadows, and raised her pistol. Then everything happened at once. Over the noise of Sueko trying to cut back the vegetation with that damned automatic of hers, Usagi heard someone stumble. Right after her friend let up, a curse followed, right at the same spot. Without a second thought, she dropped out of the tree, her stilleto already palmed and ready for action. Then Trevor came barging out of the bushes and messed everything up. He'd had bad days before. This was not, by any means, the worst in his list of disasterous occasions, but he wasn't in a good mood at the moment, and the thought of some psychopath trying to gun down his new friends just made something snap inside of him. He felt the gunman stumble, feeling the vibrations in the ground, then the man said something outloud he didn't catch. He didn't follow it because he was bolting from his cover, the wind whistling in his ears, to tackle the man, who was lying on the ground?! Usagi was jumping down on to him, and by the time Trevor realized this, it was too late. He slammed into Usagi, sailing completely over his surprised target, just a clean shot from Sueko's gun blasted the man's gun hand into a spray of red. Usagi and Trevor tumbled into the opposite side of their mysterious assassin's little hiding place, finding themselves in a pile of limbs, almost blind in the darkness. "Damnit, damnit damnit." Quoted Trevor. He was not prepared for the response. "He gay in triumph, and Mercutio slain! Away to Heav'n respective lenity, And fire-ey'd Fury be my conduct now! Now Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again That late thou gav'st me, for Mercutio's soul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company. Either thou or I or both must go with him." He looked at Sueko, her cold eyes like two shining pieces of ice, her face set with a tight, sadistic smile, and the massive handgun she held, pointed right at the man's face. Trevor couldn't quite make out the man's face, and didn't bother to look at it closely as Sueko pulled the trigger for the final time, rendering the poor miscreant's brain matter a new form of fertilizer. "Okay..." He said, standing up. "That was... totally fucked up. Anyone care to explain? Anyone?!" "Hiroshi Tatsura. A member of the student council." Trevor yelped as he heard Usagi's voice at his arm. Sueko checked the clip on her gun and brushed some grass from the shoulder of her uniform. "An annoying little shit with a vendetta. I honestly didn't know that was his goldfish, but he used it as an excuse to scoop up the price on my head, apparently." "So, what does that have to do with anything.... And where does Shakespeare figure in here?!!" "I just like Shakespeare. Not Romeo and Juliet in particular, but..." "And Mr. Hiroshi is trying to kill you, why?" "I accidently killed his goldfish." "And he's on the student council? And you pack a gun IN SCHOOL?!" "Are you feeling stressed out, Trevor?" "Don't 'Trevor' me! Are you some kind of assassin?" "Well, not a shallow one. Usagi, take him back to his room. I have... things to 'discuss' with the council." "Hey, if I'm staying here, I very well need to hear about this." "It doesn't concern you at all." "And what about the gun?" "I am an assassin. Most of the council is as well. Oh, and don't expect us all to carry guns." With that she walked off. "I don't beleive this." "Why not?" Trevor only gasped slightly at the disturbing sound of someone catching him completely off-guard. The last time someone caught him like that, he was eight years old. "Never mind, I need to get my beauty rest." "Okay." And with that, Usagi and Trevor started walking back the way they came, both paying more attention to the utter blackness of the shadows surrounding their path. Not that it would have done much good, as the lighting had only deteriorated into something approximating absolute night since their little gunfight. After a bit, Usagi actually asked a question. "Trevor-san, do you have anything against Shakespeare?" "Well, not specifically, but I don't know a lot of his material well. I thought about reading it, but... well, with recent events, I haven't even had the chance to, really. I figure I will one day, but I don't want thoughts of manical childhood assassins to be intimately associated with his works when I do." "Assassination and Shakespeare do not usually clash." "Hmm, I guess you do have a point there, but Romeo and Juliet?" "What of the play reminds you of violence now? Several people get killed during the course of the story." "Yeah, yeah, I know. It is a tragedy, but why with all of this killing? There's no greater purpose to high school students slaughtering one another over pets and petty fueds!" "They might say differently. And family honor plays a large role in many of the disputes." "Yeah, honor.... Well, I suppose Shakespeare did have a better grasp for the indefinable thoughts in people's minds." "Why do you say that?" "Well, after all that's happened, it just feels like par for the course." He sighed. "I do remember one quote that... well, applies perfeclty here. Shamefully, it's also from the same play." "Which quote?" "Affliction is enamor'd in thy parts, And thou art wedded to Calamity." "That is a good one." "A year ago I would have said the same thing, but now it just strikes too close to home." "Do you remember the next line?" Trevor's face hardened for a second as he focused. The worlds came with mysterious ease. "Father, what news? what is the Prince's doom? What Sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand that I yet know not?" "Too familiar is my dear son with such sour company. I bring thee tidings of the Prince's doom." Usagi said, continuing the lines. "What less than doomsday is the Price's doom?" "A gentler judgement vaish'd from his lips, Not body's death but body's banishment." "Ha! banishment! Be merciful, say 'death,' For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more, than death. Do not say 'banishment.'" "Here from Verona art thou banished. Be patient, for the world is broad and wide." "There is no world without Verona walls, But Pergatory, torture, Hell itself. Hence banished is banish'd from the world, And world's exile is death. Then 'banished' Is death misterm'd. Calling death 'banished' Thou cut'st my head off with a golden ax And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me." "O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince, taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law And turn'd that black word 'death' to 'banishment.' this is dear mercy and thou see'st it not." "'Tis torture and not mercy. Heav'n is here Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in Heaven and my look on her, But Romeo may not. More validity, More honorable state, more courtship lives In carrion flies than Romeo--they may seize On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand And steal immortal blessing from her lips, Who e'en in pure and vestal modesty Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin, But Romeo may not, he is bansihed. Flies may do this but I from this must fly, They are free men but I am banished. And say'st thou yet that exile is not death? Hadst thou no poison mis'd, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean, but 'banished' to kill me? 'Banished!' O Friar, the damned use that word in Hell, Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, A sin-absolver and my friend profess'd, To mangle me with that word 'banished'?" Trevor blinked. Where had that come from. He had an photographic memory, but this was borderline insane. "Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak." "O thou wilt speak again of banishment." "I'll give thee armor to keep off that word, Adversity's sweet milk, Philosophy, To comfort thee though thou art banished." "Yet 'banished'? Hang up philosophy! Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more." He fairly shouted. "O then I see that mad men have no ears." Usagi said, condemning. "How should they? when that wise men have no eyes?" "Let me dispute with thee of thy estate." "Estate?" "You do remember the rest, right?" "Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, And hour but marry'd, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me and like me banished, Then mightst thou speak--then mightst thou tear thy hair And fall upon the ground as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave." "Wow, I've never done that before with a total stranger." Trevor raised an eyebrow. Usagi seemed to be showing more life than before, he was sure of it. "Me neither. Very... interesting experience. So, what about dinner?" They wandered far across the campus to the dorm without incident, Usagi relating to him her plans for a five-star feast to celebrate - a kind of housewarming party. The possibility that he might stay beyond tomorrow didn't fully impact on Trevor's waking mind until long after the next morning.... TbC? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author's notes/Hey, get back here! The author is nuts. Wow! Damn, that was one hard starter. It's cool though, certainly the wierdest thing I've yet to write, but thankfully not the worst. Well, here's hoping this tale of Shakespeare-quoting, gun-toting maniacal high school assassins and insane super-powered martial artists does indeed go somewhere. I have a dozen ideas, but not one seems more likable than the others. Well, it ain't my problem now! If you haven't read anything by Shakespeare (in its entirety), then you are missing a grand literary genius at work. All the quotes in this chapter are from 'Romeo and Juliet', so pretty much everybody that reads this should be familiar with the play, but you really have to read it about six times to completely understand it. Okay, stats time. We have two (2) DBZ-esque martial artist ready to pound each other into oblivion. They are brothers; one good, one evil. We have two (2) girls, high school students and excellent killers. One with a minor bi-polar personality disorder she takes medication for, the other of such slight prescence she often slips under even Trevor's guard. Oh yeah, and that ship too, but I was gonna blow it up if I had more time to devote to this fic. Well, I'm off to bash my brains out working on my two (2) opuses of violence, death, insanity, and good clean fun, so keep up with the writing! After all, you wouldn't want me writing any more impros, would you? ---------- The Insanity Productions Homepage (it's somewhere around there...): http://www.geocities.com/rick_spiff ---------- p.s. What those names mean in English (near as I can tell, anyway): Sueko Munashi - youngest one, void (empty, vain, lost) [The Lost Child] Usagi Hitasura - rabbit, nothing but (earnestly) [Most Definitely the Rabbit]