The Mercenary

[doctorzero]

LAST TIME!
"And now evildoer, thou shall be smighted--by my FISTS of JUSTICE!"
"Not THIS time, Anime Batman! THIS time, I shall destroy YOU!!"
"Eat THIS!!!"
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Princess changed the channel. "Damn reruns."

---

Ugh...what the heck hit me?
Kaitlin opened her eyes. From the looks of things, she was on her side in some sort of storage room--
and it was filled with people.
What the heck?
"Max..." she muttered; her eyes widened. "Max!" She attempted to stand, only to see that her hands were tied behind her back. "Sonuva..." She struggled into a sitting position and looked around. Last thing I remember is leaving that station with Max, then--
"All right, you overly British PUNKASSES!" Yelled a booming voice. Kaitlin directed her gaze to the door, where three men with curly mustaches, green tuxedos, and assault rifles stood.
"You will DO what I say, BECAUSE I SAID SO. Any complaints?!"
Kaitlin spoke up before anyone could stop her. "What the heck is going on?! Where are we?! Where the heck is my friend?! If you idiots did anything to him or his Pokemon I swear I am going to--"
There was a loud smack, and Kaitlin was knocked to the floor. The goon that was talking grimaced. "The boss told us about you, girl. Your pal's fine...not that he will be in the next half hour."

---

Meanwhile, two floors down, Wilhelm Strahl sat down in the studio and sighed. "I am not getting payed enough."
He checked the clock on the wall. "That brat had better get here soon..."

---

"BREAKING NEWS--The Dimensional Television Broadcast Station has been taken over by a gang known as the "Green Lightbulbs!" I'm (Insert Reporter Name Here) outside the station bringing you this special report!"
(Yeah, THIS will end well. And for the record, I'm not entirely sure of the layout of the building, so please bear with me.)

[gantzgun74]

Meanwhile...

The gang made good time getting to the DTBS by means of Gantz's Teleportation spell. Though it looked like the destination was a tad off, as they found themselves down the street, the DTBS, a large broadcast tower like building, just down the street. As the group regained their bearings, Metal turned to the DTBS and took in the fact that a News Reporter, complete with a News Van, appeared to be doing a report on the building itself. "Hmmm... Weird..." As he said that, he turned to Gantz. "Wonder what's going on?"

Gantz rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, not sure. Let's go over and check it out."

"You do that," Misty lifted off the ground and looked crossly to the DTBS. "I'll go and check this place out."

The Climber was the last to get to his senses, and looked to Misty as she flew off. "O-Okay... Just be careful miss Misty!"

[doctorzero]

Blergh... Max opened his eyes groggily. "Ow...What the?!"
When Max had arrived on the island earlier that morning, he never expected to be knocked out as soon as he had left the ITS. And he NEVER expected to wake in the middle of an empty storage closet tied to a chair.
Aw, man, did we get kidnapped AGAIN? he thought miserably. Okay, first things first, gotta get out of here-- he looked down at his belt and nearly stopped breathing.
His Pokeballs were missing.
And oh, how I regret typing that.

---

Kaitlin struggled to get out of her bonds. "Lousy, son of a..."
Meanwhile, the captives around her were talking amongst themselves in panic.
"What're they gonna do to us?"
"I'm so young! I don't wanna die!"
"How dare they lock us up in here!"
"SHADDAP!" One of the guards outside looked into the room, looking ticked. "One more word out of ANY of you and it's time for asskicking!"
One of the captives stood up in protest. "What is the meaning of this?! You have no right to--"
SMACK!!!
Kaitlin worked on the rope harder.

---

Wilhelm looked out into the hallway. Al clear. He pulled out the pistol and headed right.

---

Yana already had a sense of forboding when he saw the newsvan (of course, him feeling ill from the teleport didn't help matters). When they had managed to get closer, they managed to hear what the reporter was saying.
"Two hours ago, a street gang calling themselves the Green Lightbulbs assaulted the DTBS and took everyone inside captive. Police reports indicate that the gang, which appeared to have been formed fairly recently, are brokering for ransom, and we expect a list of demands shortly. The leader of the gang, identified as "Princess", has hijacked all known networks at this time."
Yana's heart nearly stopped. "PRINCESS?!" Everyone on the street looked at him in surprise. He didn't care. Is...is this my fault?!

[gantzgun74]

Gantz and Rosaline looked equally panicked for a moment, looking between each other. "They've got hostages? Well that's just PERFECT..." Gantz groaned as he looked among the others. "It does complicate things quite a bit after all."

Metal nodded. "Yeah. The fact that this Princess girl you talked about is here doesn't make things much better..."

A shrug was the response. "Nah, we can handle Princess. We just need to get the hostages to safety. That should be our first concern." He pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number before putting the phone to his ear. "Hey Misty. How's it look?"

"Can't tell." She replied over the phone. "I'm in an office on the 3rd floor now, but I don't see anything."

He sighed a bit. "Well keep your eyes open and look around. We just got word that there are hostages inside the building. Our first priority should be to get them to safety. Think you can look around for em without getting shot at?"

Gantz could almost feel Misty's evil grin. "Don't worry, even if they DID start shooting at me, their not going to do any damage. My powers will make sure of that."

---------------------------------------------------

"Well... Be careful regardless. Okay?"

Misty let out a groan as she flew in through an office window. "Fine I will. See ya later." With that said, she hung up the phone and, pulling a black hood over her head, she went into ninja mode.

Carefully, she opened the door to the office, and closed it behind her as she walked out. Immediately she took notice of security cameras nearby. "Piece of cake."

Her entire body suddenly transformed into a purple mist before she hovered over the cameras range of sight, and proceeded down the hallways unnoticed.

[doctorzero]

Kaitlin could feel the knot becoming undone. Almost got it... Meanwhile, the hostages were becoming more rowdy.
"I need to go to the bathroom!"
"I'm hungry!"
"SHADDAP!!!" one of the guards snarled. "I am gonna put my FOOT up your ASSES if you don't shut your traps--"
Got it! Kaitlin stood up, the rope at her feet. "Okay, THAT'S IT! I demand to speak with your IDIOT leader RIGHT NOW!"

---

The door to the room opened, nearly blinding Max.
"'Sup, b*tch."
Max blinked. "Oh, great Arceus, anyone but you."
"Awww, did the little b*tch miss me?" Princess mocked. Max narrowed his eyes.
"Princess, I don't know why you're doing this, and I don't care. Where. Are. My. Friends?"
Princess paused, as if she was thinking about something unpleasant. "Hmm...oh, the b*tch! Right. Well, can't have you two *ssholes in the same room, now can't I? And~--" she pulled out three red and white balls from her dress and waved them in front of Max's face.
This nearly sent him into a rage. He struggled to get out of the ropes, yelling, "YOU LET THEM GO!!! SO HELP ME, I'LL--"
SMACK! Princess sighed. "Booooooring." She threw the balls at the henchman at the door. "Toss 'em into the incinerator."
"WHAT?! NO! YOU CAN'T--"
The next strike knocked him out of the chair. "Yeah, well, sucks to be you, ain't it?" Princess growled. She turned and left, leaving him there.

---

The guard didn't go five paces past the corner before being ambushed. Five minutes later, Wilhelm Strahl walked out, fully decked in brainless goon apparel. He wasn't sure what to do with the balls, though, having no idea what they were for, so he kept them in the pocket.
His phone rang. "Strahl."
"What's your status?"
"Got myself a disguise. The place is crawling with those morons. Where the hell do she even get them?"
"You'd be surprised by what she can do when she puts her mind to it. Where are you now?"
"Third floor. I--the hell?" He ducked into a doorway and peeked out. "What is that?"
"Describe what you see, please."
"Looks like some freaky purple smoke cloud. It's moving down the hallway. The heck is it?"
"It's a sign that Yana has arrived, of course."
"What? You serious?"
"Follow the cloud. It--or rather, she--should lead you straight to him."
"I don't even know what that thing is, and you want me to--"
"She doesn't know you work for me. If she did, she would annihilate you on the spot. Just follow her, you'll be fine."

---

Yana looked from Gantz to Rosaline. "Are you SURE she'll be fine?" he asked, sounding worried.

[gantzgun74]

Gantz shrugged. "Yana, you need to know something about Misty... In my professional oppinion, Misty's probably the toughest member of our gang. She has super strength, she can morph into mist, she can fly, and she has advanced ninja training; but the the thing that really sets her apart is, because of all of that, she's the one person, out of all of us, that is the absolute hardest to kill."

A nod was the response to that. "Many people worse then a group of gangsters have tried to kill her before," Metal intoned, "And all of them failed to even scratch her."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

As Misty floated along the cieling of the hallway, avoiding the cameras, she had this strangest feeling she was being followed. Growing suspicious, the part of the mist that was her head turned and looked, but found no-one there...

Raising an eyebrow, she decided to ignore the feeling; she had more important things to do-

At that moment, she heard a small struggle going on in a nearby broom closet. Growing curious, she morphed from her mist form into her humanoid form and approached the door (Likely surprising Strahl). Taking careful precautions, she tested the doorknob. Okay, it wasn't locked.

A second later, she opened the door. "Anyone in here?"

[doctorzero]

Strahl blinked. Oh, that's what he meant.

---

Max had just managed to undo the rope when the door opened. He tensed, thinking it might be Princess again.
When it turned out to be anyone but, he sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Arceus! I didn't think anyone--" He became totally silent upon seeing who it was.
The two of them stared at each other in total surprise, then--
"YOU?!" The two of them exclaimed simultaniously.
"What're YOU doing here?!" Max asked, stunned.

---

Yana sighed. "Okay, fine, if you say so...but..." He looked toward the building. "We can't just leave her in there by herself! That's it, I'm going in!" He ran toward the entrance before anyone could stop him.

---

"The gang that has taken over the station has supplied a list of demands, including but not limited to: hot pockets, a microwave to heat said hot pockets, fie pounds of chili, an--album of Brittany Spears' Greatest Hits? Who WROTE this?"
A Pause. "This just in, an unidentified individual has been seen approaching the building! Who would be so foolhardy to place himself in danger?!"
(I don't think that reporter is doing her job well.)

[gantzgun74]

"I could ask you the same thing, kid!!!" Misty was shocked to see that it was Max that was inside the closet. She hadn't seen the kid since the Subspace Incident. "How the hell are you here?! How did you get here?!?!"

-----------------------------------------------

Back outside with the others, Gantz quickly chased after Yana as he ran inside. "W-Wait!! Yana come back!!!" He yelled urgently.

"Oh man, this won't end well, I can tell..." Rosaline muttered as she and the others followed behind the two.

[doctorzero]

"What am I doing here?! What does it look like?!" Max demanded. "Look, I can explain later, you've gotta get me out of this before my Pokemon get roasted! Princess's goons are going to kill them!"

---

Those two know each other? Wilhelm raised an eyebrow. "Raleigh, you getting this?"
"We're receiving audio. Can you identify the ones speaking?"
"One's that purple ghost girl, the other's some kid in a red hat and pants."
"Ah, Misty and Maxwell Chadi. Hm. That makes things more difficult."
"Mind if I ask why?"
"Suffice it to say that Maxwell is not to go anywhere near Yana. I'm not going to make things easier for him just yet."

---

Meanwhile, Kaitlin was being led down a hallway one floor below.

---

In retrospect, Yana figured that running into the situation blindly was NOT a good idea.
He got in trouble as soon as he entered the lobby. Several guards turned toward him with surprise, having been caught completely off guard, and the nearest one acted without thinking, swinging his gun at him like a baseball bat.
"GAH!" Yana blocked the attack. "Hey, hey, hey! I don't want to--"
"GET HIM!"
"Oh, man..."
(Yana will, of course, quit being the pacifist and will lay the smackdown next post. He needs more action.)

[gantzgun74]

What Max had said easily caught Misty's attention. "What? Man that doesn't sound good..." She remembered Max's pokemon pretty well. "Roast? That could mean their heading for the basement. It only seems likely that this building has an incinerator down there." Backing out of the closet, she looked around and noticed some stairs nearby...

She turned back to Max. "Maybe you should stay here, normally pokemon trainers don't do well in battles without their pokemon... I can get your pokemon back, all you have to do is stay safe until I get back."

---------------------------------------------------------------

"BARRIER!!!!"

Before the bullets could get sent flying everywhere, a barrier covered Yana, the bullets ricocheting off the magical energy. A few of them found their owners again in various places around their bodies, while others embedded themselves into the wall.

When Yana looked, he saw Gantz had strained to stop the bullets. He was used to blocking magical attacks with that move, never bullets. As this happened, the group rushed in, Metal whipping out his machine gun. "Hang on there kid! We got your back!!" He shouted as he readied the weapon.

[doctorzero]

Max looked offended. "Stay here? Why should I?! I'm going with you! I can handle myself just fine without help, thank you!" He crossed his arms. "Why do you think I hang out with Kaitlin and Ja--KAITLIN!" He grabbed Misty by the shoulders. "Have you seen her anywhere?! Where is she?!"

---

Funny, right when they were talking about Kaitlin, she was having a situation of her own.
"Sup, b*tch."
"Do you call EVERYONE that?" she asked, exasperated.
Princess belched. Kaitlin had been led into the surveillance room, where Princess was sitting, looking through the cameras of the station, lord and master of all she surveyed (she had, of course, missed the purple cloud of smoke on the third floor.). As soon as Kaitlin had been brought in, she made the guards leave. Bad idea on her part.
"Strippers said you wanted to see me." Princess popped open another bottle. "Sonuvab*tch. You (CENSORED) are all comin' out of the woodwork today, eh? Saw ol' Gatling Gun this mornin', him and his wh*re, too."
Kaitlin's eyes narrowed. "Gatling Gun? I don't know who that is."
"You know, the--the kid with the, you know, the key thing..." She was drunk. Wonderful.
"Key thing? What, like a Keyblade or--" Kaitlin stopped. Put two and two together, and-- "Gantz Gun is here?!"
"Give the wench a prize! Hic!"

---

MEANWHILE!!!
Yana was through standing around. His friends--the people who, despite being total strangers to him, were in danger because of him.
Quite frankly, it made him mad.
The first goon to turn his gun toward Metal found himself with two boots to the face--Yana had launched himself and double-kicked the guy, knocking him into three guards that had been running in to join the brawl. As soon as Yana landed, he grabbed the gun the guy had dropped and threw it--like a boomerang, despite the fact that guns DON'T WORK THAT WAY--at a guard that had snuck up on the Climber and had spat in his face. The idiot fell to the dirt.
Yana ran up to the Climber, who was wiping the saliva off his face. "You okay, Cl--"
As it turned out, the spit had actually partially wiped off the mud forming Climber's right eye.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!"

---

Wilhelm frowned. Incinerator...wait. That's downstairs. So's Yana. If those two...
He reloaded his shotgun. Time to kick ass.

[gantzgun74]

Misty was shaken around a bit by Max before she finally shoved him off. "Get off me!!!" She momentarily took in what Max said. "So Kait's here too? JEEEEEZE this just keeps getting better and better..."

She heard the Shotgun getting loaded...

...........................

"Max... Get back in the closet." Max started to react, but Misty glared at him. "GET IN THE F@CKING CLOSET NOW..."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Climber was momentarily surprised that he suddenly, partially, lost sight in his right eye. "Man, I hate it when this happens!" Then Yana's response came about. "Sorrysorrysorrysorry!!"

"Climber, chill!" Gantz walked up and handed the Climber a marker. "Just draw it back on, maybe it was about time we switched to Permanent Marker for your facial expressions anyways." He wiped off the rest of Climber's eye, allowing the doll to draw the eye back on.

Climber tested the new eye and blinked, the eye blinking easily. "Thanks Gantz." He looked to the young man, "Soooo, when should I paint in my new eye and mouth?"

Quickly shaking his head, Gantz responded, "Nah, wait till we get back to the base, then we can get to that."

There was the sound of a few shots fired. Turning, the group found a gang member hitting the floor. Metal was revealed to be the instigator of the shooting. "How about we have this conversation AFTER we get what we came for and get outta here?"

"Good idea." Rose turned to Gantz and looked to him seriously. "We still need to find those hostages too..."

[doctorzero]

Max knew from prior experience that from the way Misty spoke like that, you either listen to her now or suffer severe consequences. He did not, however, like the idea of her facing some shotgun wielding maniac alone.
So he decided to grab her and jump back into the closet.

---

Wilhelm fired as soon as the two of them fell out of sight. "Dammit!"

---

Kaitlin wasn't sure what to think.
Two years...it's been TWO YEARS since the three of us have seen that guy. What's he even doing here?
And then--
If he's here, then he might know where HE is too...
First things first, Kaitlin had to deal with Princess. She looked her in the eye. "I--"
She stopped. Her attention had been drawn toward the surveillance screens behind the horrible woman, the one showing the lobby, specifically.
Alex is here?! And then she saw who was with him.
"JA--"

---

Yana sneezed. At the same time, the last thug standing was walloped by Metal and Rose. Once he went down, Gantz's phone rang.
(Poor guy's probably wondering how Raleigh even HAS his number at this point.)

[gantzgun74]

"The hell are you doing?!?!" Misty pulled back from the pokemon trainer. "Your going to get us BOTH killed!! I'm trained for this sort of thing. So you just back the hell off, and let me handle this!!!" She turned into a purple mist to phase out of Max's grip. "The moron can keep his gun, not like he can hurt me!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Gantz looked to his phone curiously... that couldn't have been Tarosuke... He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, and answered it, calling everyone to attention. "Hello? Who is this?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

As Misty slipped through the top of the door, she took notice of Wilhelm, aiming at her as he took notice of her. "Go ahead and try."

She floated before Wilhelm, the mist form hiding an evil grin. "See if you can hit me."

[Misty is, after all, invulnerable to physical damage in her mist form.]

[doctorzero]

(Of course.)
Wilhelm, having gone through many bizarre things in his life, figured that shooting at a purple THING made of mist would do nothing.
So he improvised. Mainly by pulling out a stun grenade.
"Maybe another time, babe."
BANG!!!
He didn't notice that he dropped one of the red and white balls in the confusion.

---

Max scrambled to his feet. "Misty, wait!" Once he entered the hallway, he saw Wilhelm running down the hallway. "Hey, who--"
His attention was distracted by the Pokeball on the ground.

---

The reply was swift.
"This is Superior Jihl Nabaat of Crystal Room LMT. I am calling on the behalf of my employer, Mr. Raleigh. I have called to inform you of the rules of the first game. Please put me on speakerphone, so I may speak with all of you, Mr. Yana included."
(Can Misty be affected by flash grenades in her mist form? I'm assuming she at least has EYES in that form.)