Chapter 57: Tag team action

"GOD DAMN IT JAX!" Sato swore, still rubbing his splinter offended posterior. "What did you do that for?" Finishing the sentence almost as a sob.

Gazing about the small clearing, Sato's gaze periodically swung back in the general direction of the shrine.

"Got the cocksucker off us didn't it?" Jax said with rage masking an icy calm, staring right into Sato's eyes.

"Y-you, you," Izo stammered, still slightly dazed from his run in with a water dipper. "You shot, him!" he finally managed, carefully nursing the lump to his forehead.

A sense of surreal quiet settled on to the little group, broken only by persistent moans coming from Luks.

Currently leaning against a convenient tree. His frantic last scramble over the 'rug bundle' had resulted in a sound racking of his balls. The insane sprint which had followed certainly hadn't helped as the now fading rush of adrenaline attested. He was utterly grateful of the current lull. Content to mutter miserably and tenderly 'cuddling' his much-abused bag.

"This isn't right!" Hito blurted suddenly. lightly winded from their mad dash into the woods as well. Surveying the situation in a kind of daze. "You didn't have to do that!" He gaped at Jax.

"Why don't all of you just, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" Jax yelled, banishing the gun for effect. "You! two motherfuckers!" He rasped indicating Hito and Izo using the thirty-eight as a rather lethal pointer.

"Shut your bleeding holes! And fuck face!" He added, pointing at Sato. "Figure a way back to the train station!"

"Since when?" Sato began hotly. He had just enough presence mind, a part of him objecting. Sensing his authority within the group suddenly slipping.

"SINCE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!" Jax seethed, surging over to grab Sato violently by the collar. The latter shrinking away, Soto's inside turning to absolute jelly as the gun suddenly loomed in his face.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT ASSHOLE!" Jax continued, raving as Sato felt icy fingers caressing his heart. "You dragged us all the way out here!" He lethally punctuated, actually pulling back the hammer. "AND WE DIDN'T GET SHIT!!" He concluded.

"Ok! Ok!" Sato stammered, mouth dry and his spine had gone numb. Plus, he knew none of the little group would raise a finger to keep Jax from blowing his head off.

"L-Look Jax my man!" He attempted, pleading more to the gun's muzzle than 'the insane' individual holding it. "We've been buds for a long time." The gun didn't waver.

"Don't man!" Sato murmured. He'd have done anything at that point to remove that barrel from his view! As it happened he didn't have to. Because right at that moment the largest tree in the clearing's center exploded.

Curious as that was in itself, stranger still the tree's immolation really hadn't been that loud. One second a healthily Oak, next a shower of splinters with only a loud 'WOOF!' rather than a deafening 'bang' one might almost expect. As what was left of the tree fell in the woods, no one really heard it. They were all staring at a figure standing in the road thirty yards away.

"ALL YOU BASTARDS FREEZE!" Kiyone yelled. Almost wishing somehow they wouldn't listen. Her mind kept returning to Tenchi's father, laying in a bloody heap. She so desperately wanted to just blast these maggots! It would be so easy! Who could blame her? Doing so however would mean crossing a line she'd drawn, so many, many years ago. One that separated her, from scum, like them. Anyway, she couldn't fire! Not for any high philosophical reason, Her light pulse pistol was in her room in pieces having blown its emission crystal.

What Kiyone was aiming at these thugs was A Space Navy issue Mark VII Heavy Blaster. The shot she'd squeezed off sending that poor tree to the great woodpile in the sky, was the lowest setting it had! She wanted to catch these snakes! Not burn down the countryside!

"That's right sweethearts!" She continued in a lower tone of voice. "Just pretend you're made of stone!" Kiyone started forward slowly taking a head count that came up five. That was the number of preps she seen running from the lower stairs. What it didn't tell her was if there were any more of them. Knowing she might be walking into an ambush didn't help matters. But back up was a good ten minutes away.

"Let's see those hands!" She snapped. Standard procedure dictated she hold them, till back up arrived. Trouble was the only one with a G.P.S transponder was Mihoshi. So for the moment all she had was her wits, and the largest standard issue hand held energy mortar ever made.

"Any of you fucks so much as breath at me funny," She warned. "I will blow the lot of you to hell!"