Chapter 3

 

Kidnapping

The passage back through the mountain range had been rather uneventful; with the deaths of the three harpies, many of the mountain’s resident scavengers left for more fruitful territory. The few Stone Goblins that remained scurried back into their burrows as the Ryu and Katt passed by. Ryu sometimes saw their alien, double-pupilled eyes glinting in the dark holes at the base of the pass.

Suddenly, a piece of the path near the edge where Katt was walking gave out, and she let out a surprised yell as she began to fall. Ryu heard her and was there a second later, laying on his chest by the edge, holding tightly onto the end of her tail he’d caught when she twisted as she fell.

“OW! WATCH THE TAIL!!” Katt shrieked, as Ryu pulled her up, using her tail as a rope. She sat against the cliff wall, massaging the bruised portion of her tail. “That friggin hurt! Couldn’t you have been a little more gentle?”

Ryu shrugged indifferently. “It was either suffer a few bruises on your precious tail, or break your precious body down there.” He pointed into the valley. Katt looked over the edge, imagining her mangled corpse laying broken in the river valley.

“Point taken. Let’s get out of here before anything else painful happens.” She stood up, and they resumed their walk.

***

The next morning, they reached the coastal town that Ryu had called home for so many years. Katt was enthusiastic about seeing the whole town, but Ryu insisted they locate the Magic School and the winged girl who was a student there.

As they neared the high, stone wall that surrounded the academy, a strange, whoomph noise came from inside the courtyard, followed by the heavy steel gates being blown clear off their hinges and into the street. Still connected at the lock, they bounced off another stone wall, the one across the street, and Ryu ducked one way while Katt leaped another. The renegade gates tore down the street, passing within inches of either of them.

“What the hell?!?” Both Katt and Ryu yelled, rushing to the gaping hole where the metal doors used to be. There appeared to be a commotion going on in the courtyard.

Inside the yard, three brutish-looking men in grungy, beatup clothes were surrounding a blonde girl. A girl with black wings.

“Hey!” One of the men yelled, clutching a singed arm and burnt cloth. “ You hurt me with that!”

The winged girl cast a tired look at him. She answered him in an equally tired voice.

“Terribly sorry, but you shouldn’t have tried to touch me.” Blue, mist-like energy began collecting around her open hands, hanging at her sides. “Come near me again, and you’ll get hurt worse.”

The brutes merely laughed at her. What could one, weak girl, despite the power she’d just shown them, do to three strong men? The stepped closer, trying to pen her in.

“C’mon Nina.” The man directly in front of her spoke. He was wearing a green shirt and a red bandana around his head. “The boss just wants to talk to you. . .”

“I warned you. . .” Suddenly, the wind picked up, swirling up and around Nina. Keeping her eyes on the thugs, she lifted her arms upward, then threw them straight out. The energy that had gathered in her hands became lightning bolts that leapt from her palms to strike out at everything in sight. The men shook and convulsed in agony, their forms lit up from within as the lightning found their marks. There was a crack of thunder, and the courtyard was still.

All was silent. Ryu thought about the magic the girl had used, how it was so similar to the lightning attack Rand had used. Maybe it was the same spell?

Slowly, each one of the men, clothing seared away in places, hair on end from the charge, stood up and limped slowly back out of the yard. Before the last one left, he turned and pointed at Nina.

“Don’t think this is the last you’ll see of us. We’ll be back, and you’ll pay for what you’ve done.” He turned and began to walk away, nearly pitching over, his left leg badly injured. He didn’t even notice Katt and Ryu standing at the gate.

Nina turned and walked calmly back into the school. Ryu called out to her but she didn’t her him, as he began to run towards the main door. Before he got there, he was almost yanked off his feet by Katt, who had grabbed his arm.

“Ryu, seeing’s as we’re going into a Magic School, can I pick up some magic spells?” She beamed an award-winning smile at him. He thought about it for a second, then shrugged.

“Sure, why not.”

Katt nearly jumped out of her toeless boots. “Kick-Ass! Let’s go!”

She leaped clear over him and was standing by the door before Ryu could even turn around. They entered the school.

***

The school was normal inside, with nothing unusual.

Well, almost.

When they were passing by a particular classroom, Ryu had to duck as a beachball-sized hunk of ice shot straight at his head, shattering on the wall across the hall. Strangely, the pieces of ice merely vanished after the landed. No puddles.

Looking into the classroom, Ryu listened in on the lesson. The instructor was speaking to a student, from whom the iceball was launched.

“That was very good Scott, but this time try to aim for the target next to the door?”

Katt shook her head and continued on as Ryu continued to watch the lesson. She came to a door, and found herself looking at spirit coming out of a bottle. The teacher was just beginning the new lecture.

“. . .Now, out in the world, you must be careful. There are creatures out there, like this poltergeist monster, who are hard to kill physically. The best way to deal with creatures like these is. . .” He pointed at the malevolant, but apparently tamed creature. A gold bubble shot off his finger and touched the surface of the ghost. Almost instantly, the poltergeist was sucked into the bubble, like it was a vaccuum cleaner, then the bubble imploded with a small burst of light. “. . . is to use the Exorcism spell. It will rid you of any unwanted spirits, and works on undead creatures. Now turn to page four-hundred-and-fifty-. . .”

“Let’s go Katt.” Ryu put a hand on her shoulder and led her away.

The next place they entered was the left wing library. It was a massive, gymnasium-sized room, wall-to-wall bookshelves, each shelf containing some subject or aspect of magic. Katt wandered off into the Offensive Magic section, while Ryu struck up a conversation with one of the female students.

“So, this library holds everything ever written about magic?” He asked skeptically.

The black-haired girl, still sorting through the books, nodded absently. “Yeah, most everything. There’s a few spells that have been forgotten over time, so not quite everything is in here.”

Ryu looked away for a second, just to check where Katt was. She was apparently engrossed in a book of advanced magic. “Do you know of a girl, I think she goes by the name of Nina? I need to talk to her.”

That caught the girl’s attention. “Nina? The Windian? Yeah, she’s in Hoji’s class. No one really likes him ‘cause he gives so much homework. Nina’s his star student. She’s not really that approachable, but. . .” She looked him over.

“ . . .You might just have a chance with her.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I need to talk to her about. Thanks for the info.”

Ryu turned and had started to go fetch Katt, when the mage student called for him.

“Hey, you wanna know something really interesting?” Ryu nodded. “Well, Nina’s a Windian, right? The rest of her clan have whitish wings, but she has black ones. Weird, huh?”

Well, that should narrow the field a little. Ryu thought, smiling politely at the girl as she went back to her books. A girl with black wings. Then he remembered Katt.

Turning around, he walked into the stacks, and found her, a book open in one hand, and a dull red glow coming from the other. He could hear her mumbling the words of the spell as she read them from the book. With the end of the chant, she flicked her glowing wrist, and. . .

Nothing.

No spark, no frost, no electrical arc. Just the glow dissipating from her open hand.

“Dammit.” She cursed, tossing the book aside. It landed in a small pile other books, presumably ones she’d already gone through. Ryu tapped her on the shoulder before she pulled another book out.

“What was that supposed to be?” He asked politely, trying not to point out that the spell had obviously failed. “Spark?”

Katt frowned at the thought of her failure. “FireBall. Damn spell didn’t have enough power.”

Ryu picked up a book called Curative and Effect Magics and thumbed through it. He read and memorized the standard curative spell, and one other that summoned a decieving smoke. The others, he figured he wouldn’t be able to remember. “Maybe it’s you that doesn’t have enough power?”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?!?” Katt’s already angry mood soured more. The Dragon’s Tear flared orange.

“Nothing!” Ryu tried to defend himself. “It’s just that some people have weaker magical energies than others. Maybe you should learn a cure spell?”

“Cure? What would I ever need that for?”

Ryu shook his head, put the book away and they left the library.

On the upper floor, were two classrooms; one devoted to curative magic and regeneration, and the other devoted to deadly offensive. The pair chose the lesser of two evils, and snuck into the White magic room. They sat down next to a student that looked maybe ten years older than the rest of the students. She too, was thumbing through a magic book, and she mumbled to herself.

“Hmmph. . .They didn’t have magic like this when I was young. . .”

The teacher at the front of the room was a very attractive woman, in the process of teaching her class how to recover magic.

“There are many ways to recover magic.” She began. Reaching into a bowl, she plucked several small, red berries out and swallowed a few. “One way is to eat wild berries such as these. They can replenish your magic a little, but taste pretty bad. Another way is to meditate, or get a good night’s sleep.”She used a pointer to indicate a student sleeping in her class. “Such as Eric is doing right now.”

The class laughed, waking the student up. He smiled sheepishly and opened his book.

The teacher continued. “The third way, and by far most enjoyable by the people doing it, is the mouth-to-mouth approach. It recharges magic very quickly for both parties.”

A few students anxiously waved their hands over their heads. “Teacher! Please, demonstrate on me!”

While the lesson had seemed boring at first, Katt perked up on the third method. Mouth to mouth method?. . . She looked over at Ryu, who was looking at the book of the student he was sitting next to. Hmm . . .Katt thought, dirty little thoughts running through her head as she watched him. Finally, she tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to her expecting to talk to her, or perhaps answer a question, but was caught in a full kiss. Katt hooked her arms around his neck, and closed her eyes. All Ryu could do was return the kiss.

The class began to quiet down, and Katt heard an ahem from the front of the class. Breaking off from the kiss, she let Ryu drop onto the bench, while she touched up her hair as if no one was watching. In fact, the whole class was watching, and the teacher was giving her and the recovering Ryu a nasty look.

“Pardon me for asking,” The teacher asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “But, exactly what were you doing?”

Katt blinked in surprise, as Ryu pulled himself up, a stupid grin on his face. “Hmm? Oh, my magic was weak, and Ryu offered to help me recharge it. Isn’t that right Ryu?” She gave him a punch in the arm, out of sight of the teacher. He winced.

“Ouch! Uh, yeah, I guess so. . .” He managed, still obviously rocked by the kiss. He blushed deeply. The teacher raised an eyebrow, making Ryu shrink slightly in his seat. Katt looked away, but nudged Ryu and motioned for the door. Both of them quickly left the room.

“What was that for?” Ryu asked, stopping in the hallway. They were across the hall and standing near the last classroom. Katt kept walking.

“It was an experiment.” She replied matter-of-factly.

“Some experiment. . .” Ryu said, scratching the back of his head. “You know, you have one knock-out of a kiss.”

Katt stopped and winked at him. “You’re not so bad yourself, blue boy.”

That’s when they heard someone in the classroom talking. A quick look inside told them the room was empty, save for two people. Seeing the black wings, Katt whispered to Ryu from on one side of the door to where he was on the opposite side. “It’s her! Nina!”

They decided to listen in: Nina’s head hung dejectedly, and she nervously clutched and unclutched her hands in front of her. She was talking to the teacher, an old, white-haired man in thick glasses.

“I’m sorry, Master Hoji.” Nina was apologizing. “I have misused my magic.”

The old man shifted back in his chair. “Mmm. Tell me the reason.”

“Well,” Nina rubbed her arm uncomfortably. “This gang of hoodlums calling themselves the Joker Gang have been bothering me lately. I don’t know how, but they got word of the power of my magic, and they want me to use my powers for them. I don’t want to, but they are so insistant. They never stop. . .”

“Maybe we could help!” A voice piped up behind her. It was Katt, coming into the room dragging Ryu in by his arm. “If you can teach me some magic, we’ll get the bad guys for you!”

“You would do that?” Nina asked, unsure of the two strangers.

“Of course, we’re always ready to help those in trouble. Ryu here is a Ranger, from the Guild.” Katt pointed at him. He offered Nina a shy wave and a smile. Nina gave him a slow look over and smiled inside. Ryu . . . She would remember that name.

“Yup.” Ryu agreed. His mood darkened. “I’ve heard of this Joker Gang before. They steal, murder, and kidnap for money. And they’re all family. Tough crowd.”

Hoji stepped out from behind his desk. “So, in exchange for magic training, you’ll help Nina? That’s very kind of you, but learning magic takes time and practice, and I don’t think you have time for either of them. Look.”

He pointed to the door, where they all saw one of the Gang. He was leaning on the frame, smoking a cigarette. When he saw he had their attention, he straightened up. Flicking out his fag, he grinned cruely. “Nina, honey, I’m a messenger from our Leader. He says you are so very beautiful, but so is your dear little sister Mina. . .”

Ryu’s eyes narrowed, and he reached for his sword. Katt snarled and drew her staff, while Nina merely scowled and crossed her arms. “What have you done to my little sister!”

The man raised his hands in defense. “Hey, hey! Don’t give me that dirty look. We haven’t done anything to her yet. . .Yet. Come with me if you ever want to see Mina again.” He gazed up with a look of lust on his face, thinking dirty thoughts. “Dear, sweet, succulent Mina. . .”

“Enough!” Nina shouted, stepping between the already advancing Ryu and Katt. Her head lowered slightly. “I’ll go with you, if you promise Mina will be let go.”

“Nina! No!” Katt tried to stop her, but was waved off.

The thief placed one hand on his chest and made a mock scout sign with his other hand. “On my honour. Let’s go.”

With that, the thief took Nina by the arm and began to lead her out of the room. On the way out Nina looked back forelornly and mouthed ‘Help me, please’ to Ryu.

“We gotta help her, Ryu!” Katt growled. Hoji stepped up behind them.

“Yes. Please help Nina. She’s my best student, and one of the most powerful mages I’ve ever taught. If they coerced her into using her powers for evil. . .” He paused for a second, letting the dark thoughts emerge. “I’ve heard the Joker Gang has its base somewhere in the abandoned mines of Mt. Rocko. I suggest you trail them and find out where they are going. May the grace of God protect you and lead you true.”

Ryu and Katt quickly left the school and trailed the thief and the Windian.

Staying a discreet distance from the two people, Ryu and Katt followed them east of town, then south, around the edge of Mt. Rocko Lake. Instead of crossing the tollbridge, they ended up slogging through the swamp that connected the lake to the ocean, following the messenger nd his prisoner.

Still following the edge of Mt. Rocko Lake, Ryu and Katt lost sight of them when they began to near Mt. Rocko. Perhaps they had taken the wrong path at the last fork, but they couldn’t find Nina and her captor. They searched the Mt. Rocko area all afternoon, but couldn’t find the right path.

Needless to say, when they stopped for a rest near a cool mountain stream, Katt wandered off on her own to find fruit to eat. A few hundred meters from their rest stop, she found a fruit-bearing tree, and was loading up on nature’s candy when she heard a noise beyond the trees, in the direction of the mountain. Chewing on a bite of fruit, she watched as a thief and Nina passed barely ten meters in front of her. When they had passed, she stood, still casually chewing, before turning and walking back to the break site.

***

Ryu was polishing his sword when Katt walked into the river-side clearing and tossed an apple at him, saying “Catch.” He barely had time to toss the blade down and get his hands up before it dropped in his lap.

“Jeez. Give me a little more warning next time.” He whined as she set the apples down beside him and sat down.

“Boy, someone is cranky.” Katt commented, taking another bite of the apple. “Maybe you should take a dip in the stream and get cleaned. I promise I won’t look, just tell me how cold the water is.”

“Fine, I will.” He countered, removing his gauntlets and standing up as she wheeled herself around. He headed down to the stream, and wade in till he was waist deep.

Katt could hear him in the water, splashing water in his face, and she couldn’t help but peek. Using her tail, she pulled his highly polished sword over and angled it just right, just in time to see him take the band out of his ponytail and let his hair loose, then remove his shirt and toss it in the water. He followed the shirt in by submerging himself completely for a few seconds, then came up in a rush. He flipped his hair foreward and washed it in the clear mountain water, and that’s when Katt realized she was holding her breath.

Ringing his shirt out, he came out of the water, slid the still wet shirt on, and tied back his ponytail. “Okay, you can stop peeking, you deprived little girl.” He mocked. As she spun around, she saw his shirt and hair suddenly and quickly dry, just as it had at the Coursair. “The water is okay.”

Katt thrust her chin out as she stood up. “I was NOT peeking!” A dreamy look came over her as she reflected on what she saw in that brief time he was bathing.“. .Though now I think I need to cool off. . .”

Tossing her belt off, she ran out into the water, but stopped when she was only knee-deep. From his position on shore, Ryu could swear he could see the chill work its way up her legs, and then down her tail until it hit the tip, where the fur puffed out like a frayed rope. He blinked, and suddenly she was not in the water anymore, but bundled in a blanket behind him on shore.

“Y-You l-lied!” Katt managed through chattering teeth and blue lips. “It w-was a gl-glacial str-stream. . .”

Ryu had to laugh at that, though in the back of his mind, it bothered him a little. To him, the water was tepid, or lukewarm on the cool side. He wondered how cold it was for her. “Sorry. I guess I’m a little enured to the cold. Come here, and maybe I can help get you warmed up.”

He pulled a blanket over himself, and then settled in beside her and wrapped his arms around her shivering form. “Poor little Katt. You must be so cold. . .”

Katt curled into the fetal position, and leaned into his warmth. It felt good, but strange. She hadn’t ever been this close to someone unless it was in battle. She pressed her head to his chest and closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeat. Looking down at her small body, Ryu felt nothing but affection for the tough little Woren. He lowered his head and kissed her on the top of her head.

They sat like that for a long time, neither one saying anything. Then Katt remembered what she had come back to tell him. Pushing off of him, she stood up. “I found the Joker Gang’s hideout!”

Ryu was on his feet in an instant, blanket flung aside. “Where?!”

“In a cave just a little bit down the trail!” Katt replied drying her fur off and tossing the blanket away. She put her belt back on and picked up her staff. Reaching back, she attached the improvised leather holster stitched into her tunic’s back. “Ready to go?”

With a touch of drama, Ryu shoved his open hand through the fingers in his gauntlet and clenched it into a fist. “Let’s pay them a visit they won’t forget.”

A few seconds later, the warrior and the dancer dashed off into the bush.

***

When they got to the spot Katt was foraging in before, they got onto the path she’d seen the thief and Nina on and a few minutes later arrived near the entrance to a mine. Unlike the other open mineshafts all over the mountain side, all long abandoned after they had yielded their last ore, this one was apparently occupied. A sentry paced back and forth in front of the opening, keeping watch and forcing Ryu to abandon his earlier plan of sneaking in without anyone seeing. Instead, he shifted to Plan B.

The day had been pretty boring for the guard. It was a quiet, sunny day, and the only thing even remotely interesting that had happened was when the messenger had brought Nina back with him. If Nina could be turned over to their side, they could probably mug twice the people along the Coursair-Rhalpa trails than they were now! The only thing that confused him, and much of the rest of the Joker Gang’s family had been the actions of their leader and father figure, Joker. Lately, he’d been acting strange; talking to himself, and acting a little out of character. Oh, well. It didn’t really matter, because the business they did was normal, and business was business.

Suddenly, the bushes down the path began rustling, as someone was forcing their way through. The sudden noise made the guard very wary, unsheathing both of his underarm daggers should there prove to be a fight. Out of the bushes stumbled a Woren girl, short, red-headed, and young, with a very long, ornate walking stick. She looked up from the path she had just blazed. Spotting him, she let out a loud sigh of relief.

“Finally, I can stop and ask directions!” She said, and began to walk towards him.

The guard took a few steps out of the mouth of the cave and tensed up, battle ready. “That’s far enough, young lady.”

Katt stopped and looked around in mock confusion, and asked. “Do you know which way to Coursair? I took a shortcut across the lake and I lost my bearings.” She gave him a winning smile. “I would be very grateful. . .”

The man holstered his daggers and stood up straight, a little relieved that it was just some lost traveller and not someone from the Ranger Guild or the Royal Guard. And the way the girl had said ‘grateful’ had filled his mind with dirty little thoughts and sent his imagination swimming. He pointed back down the path. “Just go that way, and take a hard left at the fork. That should get you to Coursair.”

As an afterthought, he added. “You know, a pretty girl like you shouldn’t really travel alone. You should have someone to protect you.”

Katt put her hands behind her back and leaned foreward as if to whisper to him. “Oh, I’m not alone.” She pointed lightly with one finger over his shoulder.

“Whu-?” The guard managed, turning around. The last thing he saw before the darkness was Ryu’s gauntleted fist racing at him. He never understood what happened.

Katt looked down at the unconscious man with the slowly darkening bruise on his cheek with a bemused smile. “Nice shot.” She commented to Ryu, who was busy rubbing his knuckles.

“Let’s just get inside before this guy’s relief comes.”

***

About half a dozen meters down the mine, they came to a T-intersection. Stalactites and staligmites poked up from the floor and hung from the ceiling all around them. They were about to head straight through the intersection into an attaching tunnel when the sound of voice echoed in from tunnel to their left. Ducking back into the darkness behind a set of spikes, Ryu and Katt watched as a pair of thieves wandered into the intersection on their way to their destination.

“. . .Yeah, Joker’s been acting pretty strange lately.” One was saying. The other thief gave him a confused expression.

“How so?”

The first thief stopped to remove his boot. Shaking a stone out of it, he explained. “Well, he’s been pretty quiet lately, and doesn’t really smile anymore. Remember when he used to smile when we mugged someone? He’d say something like ‘I wish I coulda been there’. He used to really want to get his hands dirty.”

The second thief nodded, arms crossed. “Yeah, I remember. And now the only person he talks to is that nephew of his, Pain. I heard he won’t even let his own brother into the armoury. Is that true?”

Replacing his boot, the first thief nodded. “Yeah. He doesn’t seem to trust any of us. He recently sent Pain to get that Windian, Nina. There’s supposed to be a meeting downstairs in a bit. Maybe Joker’ll get Nina to work for us?”

“Who knows. Anyway, let’s go. He’ll be pissed if we don’t get there on time.”

The two bandits wandered off the tunnel to the left of the one Ryu had been planning to take. They’re headed to Joker, Ryu thought, stepping out of the shadows. And to Nina. He pointed down the tunnel the bandits had gone down. “Let’s follow them.”

Katt needed no convincing. Keeping stealthily to the shadows in the tunnel’s walls, they made their way into a kind of antechamber with a metal gate at the other end. Sitting in a chair throwing knives at a target, a Bandit wearing an improvised security medal didn’t even turn around to say, “It’s okay, you can come out of the dark.”

It stunned Ryu a bit that they had been spotted, but he causally stepped out of the darkness. “How’d you know we were there?”

The man in the chair leaned it back far enough to see them, albeit upside down. He gave them a wry grin. “Didn’t think you’d get by the best cat burglar in the entire region didja? Not much gets by me. I guess you are some more recruits, eh?”

Katt stepped out. “Uh, yeah. We are.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” The man stood up and turned around to face them. He gave them a quick once over, lingering a little longer on Katt. “The Family is getting small, what with the Rangers taking out one after another. We’re having to hire thugs like you now. Oh well.”

He stepped over to a switch near the metal grill gate. “I suppose you wanna go inside, right? Make your reports to Joker?”

“Yeah.”

“Even if you are one of us, I still have to ask everyone the skill-testing question. For security, you understand.”

“Naturally.”

“Okay, here it is.” The man took a deep breath, and with an incredibly stern poker face, asked. “What is the name of Joker’s nephew?”

Ryu thought for a moment. “Which one?”

“The one he confides in now.” The guard was watching their body language, looking for a shift, a fidget, that would betray them.

Katt answered before Ryu could. “Pain!”

The bandit relaxed and pulled the switch down. The metal grill sank into a wide groove into the floor, revealling another in the room just beyond. “Correct. Pain is the only person he talks to now. You ARE one of us after all. You may go through.”

As they passed through the gate, Katt smiled at the guard and thanked him. The guard smiled, and then sat back down in his knife-throwing chair.

They had almost reached the second gate when they heard the rasping of the first one behind them. Spinning around, they found it had resumed its previous position, locking them in the small enclosure. Turning back to the second gate, they found another guard on the other side.

He eyed them suspisciously. “You seem rather surprised by the gate closing. Any member of the gang knows the gate closes to stop imposters from escaping.”

“We’re just a little on edge.” Ryu fibbed. “What with the Rangers and all. Will you let us through now?”

“Not just yet. How is it that you are associated with the gang?”

“We were hired as thugs by Joker. You should have known about that.” Katt told him, giving him a suspiscous glare.

The man frowned. “Well, as a test for anyone in the gang, you must be able to unlock the gate from your side. There is a switch on my side, but I won’t use it except with people I know. And I don’t know you.”

“Where’s the switch on this side?” Ryu sneered. “We’re just newbies, so we don’t know everything yet.”

The man yawned. “Alright, I’ll give you a hint. It’s to your right, in that little chamber.”

Ryu cautiously walked into the small chamber. There was a small, hand sized opening in the rock face of the wall. Next to it was a long spike that looked very sharp. Looking at both of them, Ryu’s hand hovered between them. The painful-looking spike, or the hole? Gotta place my bets and take my chances. He thought soberly. Then, after a moment of indecision, he pushed the spike in with one hand, while pushing the other into the hole. He heard the gate behind him open up, but also felt something shift beneath the hand in the hole. It felt fuzzy and soft, and there was a hiss and sudden movement right before a sharp pain stabbed into his hand.

He screamed and pulled his hand out of the hole, to which clung an ugly gray/maroon spider with huge eyes. With a quick movement, he slammed the palm of that hand to the wall. Beneath his hand, the soft, carapace-less insect squealled as it splattered messily on the stone. Green bug ooze spurted in a directions even as Ryu heard an alarmed yell from behind him, through the gate.

“Anyone who was really of the gang woulda known there was a poisonous spider in the hole! You two are--URRKK!!” The yell was quickly cut off by a fleshy thump and a death rattle. Ryu limped back around the corner and through the gate, cradling his injured and quickly swelling hand. The guard was being held against the wall, two feet in the air, throat impaled on the end of Katt’s staff. With a quick movement, she yanked the staff out, the body dropping like a marionnette with its strings cut. A puddle of blood began to form beneath the body’s ruined neck.

“Katt, I need some help.” Ryu rasped. The edges of his vision were beginning to go dark and move inward. He only had a few minutes. “Help me.”

Even as he collapsed, Katt was already there, taking the antidote that had been meant for her in the colosseum, the one that was still in Ryu’s boot cuff, and popping the lid off. Ryu felt the cool pearl-coloured liquid pour down his throat, even though he still felt detached from it. He passed out, but came to shortly. That antidote really had a kick.

“I guess I owe you.” He said sheepishly, looking up at Katt. She had his head in her lap.

“Nonsense. It makes us even.” Her eyes grew glazed for a second, and then she added. “No, wait. You saved my life twice. Once at the arena, and then once again on the mountain. I still owe YOU one. . .”

Ryu could feel the antidote spreading through his system. Already his hand had stopped throbbing. He sat up. “Well, we should go find Nina now. No telling wha they intend to do to her.”

Katt stood up and dusted the dirt off her bare knees. “I thought they wanted her for her magical powers.”

“That could only be one reason these lowlifes abducted her.” He replied grimly, dark, sick and twisted thoughts of what they might do to Nina if she was subverted filled him with rage and a need for vengeance. He stormed off down the stairwell at the end of the room.

The stairwell lead the duo down to a lower level of the mine. After a few twists and turns and dead ends, Ryu finally found the way down to where theJoker Gang was keeping Nina. From their view on an outcropping in the darkness, they could see that the Gang had refurbished an old miner’s cafeteria to be their meeting room. It was fairly spacious; tables and chairs took up the first dozen yards, and the rest was open space.

Almost.

The area towards the back was fairly occupied; The hoods, a few of them recovering from Nina’s earlier assault, were gathered around her, boxing her in and herding her towards a fat man in a vest and pants, both of them burgundy. The man had chins galore, a long, thin beard trailing from the cleft in his chin, and his hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. He looked like a Sumo wrestler.

Scanning the room, Ryu spotted a guard on his lonesome on the level just below him. Nudging Katt, he pointed at the man, who was distracted by the events at the other end of the room. He never knew what hit him when Katt planted a two legged drop kick in the small of his back. Without a sound, he dropped, and Katt dragged the body into the shadows.

After Ryu had hopped down, they both hunkered down behind a barrel, within earshot of the struggle. “Let me go!” Nina was crying out indignantly. She pulled herself away from the thug on her arm, only to smack in the chest of another. In his stone throne, the fat man, Joker, as Ryu now recognized him, shifted and chuckled.

“I suppose you know why you are here.” Joker said, taking Nina in. She just glared at him.

“You have Mina. Where is she?”

Joker sat forward, one chubby hand beneath his fat cheek. “Now, now Nina. First promise to use your powers in my service. Then you may see your sister.”

When she hesistated, the thug behind her shoved Nina foreward, ordering her, “Answer him!”

Nina recovered from the push and spun on him, eyes flashing with rage and eerie energy.“Don’t TOUCH ME!”

She pointed her hand at him and a fireball the size of a basketball shot for his face. He cried out and raised an arm to shield his face, then began to scream louder and in more pain than surprise as the fireball enveloped his arm and coated it in fire like napalm. Shaking it rapidly in the hopes of putting the blaze out, all he did was make it worse, and ended up running screaming from the room as the flames lapped up his arm and onto his torso. He didn’t even see the two spies crouched behind the barrels as he rushed from the room.

Nina watched the man run away, composed herself with a deep breath, and then turned back to Joker. “Where is my sister.”

Joker looked her in the eye for a moment, then, without breaking contact, motioned for someone. From the darkness to one side came Mina, wrists tied, and the guard she was being held by.

“Nina!” Mina cried, her eyes brinmming with tears. She tried to run to her older sister, but the guard pulled her back. “Nina, don’t do it! Not for me!”

“Enough!” Joker silenced her with a wave of his flabby hand. The man guarding Mina put the gag back on her and pulled her farther from her sister. Joker turned back to Nina, is chubby face suddenly stern and unfeeling. “I tire of waiting for your decision, Nina.” To his men, he ordered them, “Bring her to her knees in front of me, and force her choice!”

The thieves began to move slowly in on Nina, blocking off any escape route. . .

***

From the darkness at the other end of the hall, Katt punched Ryu in the shoulder and rasped at him. “C’mon! We can’t do nothing!”

Already, he’d formulated a plan. “Katt, can you get that guard away from Mina? Can you get around there without them seeing you?”

Katt surveyed the course she would take, and nodded. “Yeah, why? What are you gonna do?”

Ryu unsheathed his sword, ready to fight. “I’ll take out the guys around Nina. Just make sure Mina gets away safely. Give me a sign your done.”

“Gotcha!” And the cat-girl shot off around a group of stalagmites. Behind his cover Ryu prepared his attack.

***

Katt ended up on the far side of the guard and his hostage, but she was ready. The man was watching his buddies push Nina towards their leader with a smirk, and was totally distracted. Mina was struggling uselessly against her bonds and her captor, face streaked with tears. Katt snuck up to within a few feet of the guard and slid into the shadow of a thick stalagmite.

“Hey Asshole!” She called to him. The man spun around just in time to be skewered through the chest. Dark blood spurted from the deep rent in his chest as she lifted him into the air, the plasm nearly dirtying Mina’s satin gown. A death rattle bubbled through the man’s lips, and he quickly expired. Katt threw the body aside, off an incline and into the surrounding darkness.

All of it happened in the time it took for Mina to first hear Katt shout and then spin to see the guard dead on the end of a bloody staff. She gasped at the sight, but after the body was thrown away, she waited. Running would be of no use. She was surprised when Katt undid her bonds and told her to run to a point farther along in the cave. Without question she did.

When she was sure Mina was safe, Katt shouted at the top of her lungs. “Nina! Don’t do it! Mina is safe!”

Then all hell broke loose.

Nina was in the process of being forcebly pushed toward Joker when an unfamiliar woman’s voice called out to her. “Nina! Don’t do it! Mina is safe!”

She was beginning to smile and prepare to teach the thieves a lesson when a battlecry broke through the catcalls. Suddenly, the man on her left went down in a gout of blood and a flash of silver and blue. The blue and silver bolt shot over her and took out the man to her right before finally settling behind her and finishing off the last man, the one behind her. Nina saw now that the blue and silver bolt was actually the hair and the sword of a young man about her age, crouched in front of her, blade glistening as light ran off its sharp edge.

The man stood up and faced her; he was quite handsome, with a roguish half-smirk, and the strangest green eyes she had ever seen. From out of the darkness nearby a short, athletic cat girl emerged, carrying a staff with the end coated in blood. It was about then Nina realized she had been standing slack-jawed, and she regained her composure. With a fiery aura surrounding her, she turned and glared at Joker, who had backed away when the scuffle began. He stood between two raised sections of cave floor, looking repentant.

“N-Nina,” Joker stuttered, eyes darting for an escape route. He raised his hands in self-defense. “Please. W-we can work this out, I swear!”

Nina raised one hand and pointed her finger at him. “You threaten me,” A small point of light appeared on her fingertip. “You kidnap my sister and try to blackmail me into joining your organization. . .” The point grew into a ball of fire that seemed tied to her entire outstretched arm by flaming tails that lapped up to her elbow. “And now you beg for forgiveness?! How DARE YOU!?!”

The fireball had grown to the size of a watermelon, and was eager to be let loose. Nina finally let it go, but even in her anger and rage, she still felt compassion for the pitiful man before her, and so aimed above his head at the wall behind him. The fireball exploded and bringing much of the wall down on the crime boss. Joker bleated in fear, just before he was buried by multi-ton debris.

Nina let her breath out in a rush as the rage left her, and she turned to the two unfamiliar people that had helped her. “Who are you?”

“My name is Ryu Bateson, a Ranger from the local guild.” The blue-haired young man introduced himself, giving a slight bow.

The cat girl was next. She offered her gauntleted hand to Nina. “I’m Katt Chuan. Nice to meet you, Nina.”

“Is Mina alright?” Nina was quick to ask, hurriedly returning Katt’s handshake. “Where is she?”

Katt was about to answer when a familiar voice, twisted by hate and alien power sounded from the pile under which Joker had been buried alive.

“Heh heh heh. . . That hurt. . .”It said, and the pile of rubble shifted and then exploded outward in a blast of energy. Where the mangled and crushed body of Joker should have been stood something in the throes of a demonic transformation. It resembled Joker only in the way that the tatters that hung off it were what he had worn, and it still had the tight ponytail and mustache he had. Everything else was not human. Clothing scraps hung off a bloated body, from which relatively small arms and legs stuck out, like chubby doll limbs. This meta-Joker’s head had spread from shoulder to shoulder, no neck, and small horns were beginning to emerge from its forehead. The demonic crimelord chuckled again. “None of you are going to leave this cave alive. When my transformation is complete, you will feel pain like nothing you have ever felt before.”

Even as they watched, Ryu could see that Joker was right, and his expanded form was already beginning to adjust and reconform to his future form. They had to do somethig fast, or Joker would be too powerful to defeat.

“Katt! We gotta take him down now, before he’s ready!” He yelled launching himself at the demon that was Joker. Katt followed with a curse and a muttering of ‘another demon’, and leaped in to help Ryu.

Nina hung back in fear. She had never fought a real demon before. A human or a monster was one thing, but a demon was a delicate mix of the two, something she hadn’t been taught yet. She watched in morbid fascination as Ryu and Katt took up flanking positions and began shredding the monstrosity, careful to avoid its claws and noxious breath. They were doing well for a while; The back and chest of Joker was now criss-crossed by slash marks, but Joker was beginning to catch on. He feigned an attack at Katt and then rammed a surprised Ryu into a stalagmite hard enough to crack the stone. With a kick he sent Katt sprawling, then rejoined his assault on Ryu.

Suddenly, Nina snapped out of her trance. She knew what she had to do. Charging a lightning ball into her hand, she rushed Joker. He turned to lash out at her, but she was already airborne. As he followed her up, he unconsiously allowed his massive mouth to open. That was all she needed.

She rammed the fist carrying the lightning ball into his razor-toothed maw, elbow deep, and caught the look of surprise on his twisted face.

“This is for my sister.” She rasped, and let the power of the lightning out. The energy was so powerful, that as Joker convulsed, his grotesque body was alight with electrical fury, and bolts of lightning began to burn their way out of his chest and back. When the ball’s energy gave out, Nina backflipped away and alighted carefully on a stalagmite with the aid of her black wings.

Joker, holed through with cauterized wounds, obviously suffering from severe internal injuries, took a few starggering steps towards her, then fell flat on his flabby face. Almost as soon as he hit, a change began; the body began to melt, then burst into flames and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Still clutching his sore chest, Ryu stood up and made his way past the scorched spot on the cave floor to where Nina was. Katt levered herself up and came over too.

“Scratch one demon.” Ryu commented, immediately wishing he hadn’t said anything; the pain in his chest twanged a bit more than he expected. Nina floated down and looked at him curiously.

“That hit you took. You shouldn’t have been able to survive a charge like that. What are you?”

Ryu shrugged. “Just human. Maybe my training actually paid off, or maybe that rock wasn’t as hard as it looks. I’m only a little sore.” Still, he felt like he was lying. He was human, right? Then, why had he survived? It really bugged him.

“Maybe. . .” Nina seemed to accept his excuse. She looked around. “Where’s Mina?”

“Right here, Sis.” Mina answered, peeking out from behind a pillar of stone. “These two saved me.”

Nina hugged her sister close, then turned to the warriors. “Thank you, . . .Ryu, was it? And thank you, Katt. I would not have been able to save my sister were it not for your help.”

Katt brushed the thank you aside with a blithe wave of her hand. “It was nothing. We heard you were in trouble, so we decided to help. Nothing big.”

“Well, thank you anyway.” Again, Nina looked Ryu straight in the eyes. She mulled it over. “Ryu. . .What a strange name. . . I’ve heard it somewhere, I know it.”

“Probably.” Ryu shrugged. “It’s pretty unique. Maybe you knew another Ryu, or heard about another.”

“Maybe. . .” She shook her head. “Oh well. Let’s get out of this cave. It’s beginning to give me the creeps. Besides, Mina needs to go back to Windia.”

Ten minutes later, they were outside and headed towards Windia, more than three days travel away.

 

 

Chapter Four: Monkey Business