Omikami no Isan: Catastrophe

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The X-Men and Yakuza hole up to keep the bearers of the sacred treasure safe, but of course all good plans fail.


Wary though they all rightfully were of trusting Keniuchio Harada to help them, the X-Men had accepted his offer of a safehouse for Nanahara, Okui, and Takachiho, if for no other reason than because they could trust him enough to keep safe the son of his bodyguard. Akira Takachiho himself had demanded to accompany the X-Men to the house in Okutama so he could look after Hiro, and now it was simply a matter of passing the time until after National Foundation Day, when the power of The Hand's ritual to summon Kemono would be lost.

Shiro, unsurprisingly, had separated himself from his team now that he finally had the opportunity to process just what was going on. Not only were the imperial regalia real, but they sat literally just meters away. He could never have imagined being so privileged by his gods. It was like finding the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail. He almost wanted to thank The Hand for bringing them to him in the first place.

Scott, who'd been restless since they settled in for the night, strode over to the window, standing slightly to its left as he peered out. Gorgeous scenery, he had to admit; under other circumstances he'd have relaxed and enjoyed it. "Should've brought a telepath," he murmured under his breath. "The lack of mobility is making me nervous. I hate forting up."

Kyle wasn't any better than Scott, and he had taken to pacing, unable to sit still at all. "I still don't see why we can't just shove them in the 'Bird and fly home. Or have Clarice port someone somewhere." Admittedly, he may not have been paying full attention to the entire planning session, because Shiro had been talking, and therefore, Kyle had been ignoring him so as to prevent mouthing off or saying something that might result in being set on fire.

Jumping up slightly, Clarice thwacked Kyle on the back of his head, "Because of crazy Japanese voodoo. Shiro said that," she replied, the 'you moron' unvoiced but clearly there. Really, if she could be mature about this, then he could too. Or she'd have to get a bat and whack him with a Clue by Four.

Jennie massaged her temples. It was occurring to her that she was trapped in a small space with three people who were each other's exes. With the threat of a ninja attack. It was, as someone would say, 'awkward. "There's way too much red going on," Jennie muttered, "I'm hoping that it's because of Punch and Judy over there and not because of Hello! Ninjas."

Garrison stood with his arms folded, leaning back against the door. Having the super strong guy as a roadblock helped. If this had been in the US, he could have had a dozen agents stationed around the house, proper security specialists, as opposed to Yakuza flotsam who thought they knew how to use a gun. Scott was right; this was not a good setup. A decent insertion team could be inside in seconds, and they were banking on the edge their mutant powers gave to repel an attack.

Hardly a promising tactical plan, but they didn't have a lot of choice.

He looked up when Jennie spoke, and looked over at the windows. What he wouldn't give for Logan to be here right now. "Unless annoying sexual tension registers as danger, I doubt it." The Canadian unhooked his baton and snapped it open. So, where do ninjas attack from first?

Kyle had stopped in mid-pace when Jennie mentioned red, and was now standing off towards the back of the room, attention split between listening to his teammates and the intermingled scents of them and the people they were watching. Under the smell of leather and body armor, and the personal scents of his teammates, he could smell gun oil and tea, tobacco and rice paper. Besides his teammates, he could hear the Yakuza guards outside, and the wind, and a handful of birds nearby, and the footsteps of one of the trio of people they were watching, the girl, he thought, by the sound of it.

The click of Garrison's baton jarred Kyle out of his concentration, and he thought for a moment that the second click was an echo, until the smell of rotten eggs crept into the mix of smells. A third click confirmed his fear, but by then he was snapping out a warning and shoving Shiro to the floor as a loud flashbang went off.

Shiro fell to the floor but immediately rolled back to his feet, cutting off a curse as he realized that they were under attack. Snarling, he launched himself at the nearest target, but the darkly-clad ninja disappeared into the smoke and out of his reach, and he smashed through a shoji.

"Ninjas. Huh." Garrison said, as the mutant began to move. There was only so far training got you against someone with superfast reflexes, as Kane grabbed the first opponent he could find, and flung him through the nearest window. His baton caught a sword swipe, and the follow up block to his punch only achieved a shattered forearm for the attacker and another person making the trip through the same window. He ducked a couple of throwing stars, but was forced back when a flashbomb went off beside his hand, blinding him temporarily.

There were some situations where having one eye was more of an issue than others; this was one of them. Scott stumbled backwards, away from the flashbang, and went down as he ran into something, a piece of furniture, maybe. Disabled vision meant disabled powers for him; he couldn't fire blindly.

Jennie was knocked aside with a sharp blow to the head, and her vision went grey as she stumbled to the floor.

"I hate fucking ninjas," Clarice muttered, blinking herself around the room like a ping pong ball, not really hitting anyone, but not getting hit either. It was a minor victory in these things. Grabbing pennies from her pouch she shot them at any moving figure she so much as thought she saw. Hopefully, she wasn't hitting her friends.

Kyle had gotten lucky, rolling to his feet and had tackled one of the ninjas, driving his knee into the black-clad man's gut before something small and hard popped him in the temple and he lost his grip in the momentary dizziness. Before he recovered, 'his' ninja had gotten away, but not before kicking Kyle in the ribs hard. He dropped to a knee, holding his side and swore explosively.

This was ridiculous. How had The Hand found them? Shiro could barely see, though he didn't know if it was because he was so angry or the smoke that was filling the room. His vision shifted to infrared and he quickly discerned the familiar red blobs from the unfamiliar ones, and launched himself at one of the latter. The ninja was prepared, though, and had Shiro been able to see properly, he'd have noticed his opponent drawing an intricate symbol with his fingers, and a section of the room collapsed on him.

Between the room full of smoke, the stars in his vision from the flashbombs, and the disorganized shouts, it was impossible to see either the people they were protecting, or the ninjas attacking them. Kane shook his head, trying to clear his vision when the portion of the room caved in, blocking him off from the rest of the team.

A groan escaped from the rubble and Shiro pulled himself out from underneath. His uniform and fire form had protected him from the worst possible injuries, but he wasn't scrape-free. "Where are they?" he croaked. "I cannot see anything."

"Fucked if I know." Kyle growled out, as he tried and mostly failed to get to his feet. "Too much shit in the air, I can't smell or see crap." He finally got to his feet, still holding his side, and picked his way through the rubble to the one thing he could smell clearly, and squatted next to Jennie. "She's out. Breathing, but out. Somebody help me make sure nothing's broken so we can move her?" His ribs could wait, the unconscious teammate was more important.

Still blinded, Scott tried to concentrate on what his ears were telling him. He heard Shiro and Kyle, and a reference to an unconscious 'she'. "Everyone else, check in - I still can't see," he said roughly, reaching and finding something - the wall? to pull himself to his feet. Well, this went well...

"I'm here," Clarice reported, panting and out of breath. There were only the two girls on the team which answered the question of which 'she' was down. "You okay?" she asked, finding him and moving to check to make sure he didn't have a concussion or something. He was closer to her, she'd check Jennie in a second.

"Garrison?" Scott called, blinking rapidly and willing his vision to clear. "You with us?"

"Yeah," An entire section of fallen wall was tossed aside, as the Canadian cleared a path through the rubble. "Which is more than I can say for the people we were trying to protect. Looks like the mystic teleporting ninjas got them." Kane said sourly. There just wasn't anything you could do to guard against a teleporter effectively, and now they had nothing.

"Then we need to find them." Obviously. Shiro kicked a wood beam. He was angry that they'd lost the three, angry that The Hand had found them, angry that he had failed what he saw as a sacred duty. "And we do not have much time. They have to complete the ritual before midnight."

"Yeah, first we need to get Roulette up and moving, and get my ribs taped so they don't heal wrong, and then we worry about ninjas. We're gonna get jack and shit done with half the team busted up." Kyle glanced over his shoulder at Cyclops and mentally subtracted him from his mental list of the injured. "And maybe somebody outta go out and check on those yakuza guys because I smell blood, and it's not any of ours."

"Ow, fuck, ow," Jennie muttered, coming around and sitting up, rubbing the back of her head. She shook it to clear away the stars and shrugged off the hands closest to her. "I'm fine, no seriously."

His vision was clearing finally. "Okay," Scott said, moving away from the wall. "Let's secure where we are, then figure out where we need to be." Time to call Charles, and to get Shiro to call Harada.