If things weren't lightning fast before, they certainly would be now. The camera faded to Seiji and Professor Hashiba, the latter was lecturing the former.
"And then you connect the clock memory allocation device to the explosion generation unit. When the memory allocation reaches the null value, the explosion generator will ignite a cascade of implosions along the inner sphere, creating the unstable sub molecular structure of the bronzium to destabilize and thereby generate--"
"Rowan," Seiji said, still rubbing the sore spot from landing on the floor so often in the previous scene. "I get it. Timer reaches zero, we all go to hell in a hand basket."
"Well, you wanted to know how to duplicate this," Rowan answered. He paused. "Why do you want to know how to duplicate this, anyway?"
Seiji arched a golden eyebrow but said nothing. Had Rajura bruised a rib? Seiji resolved to have a long talk with the one eyed spider when the movie was over.
"So," said megalomaniac began as he entered the circular room. "Can you duplicate this?"
Seiji nodded. "I have Rowan's plans and notes, and his recorded explanation," he added, stopping the dictograph and pulling the tube out. "It won't be a problem."
"Then the good Professor is now obsolete," Rajura said expansively.
"What?" Rowan demanded. "Wait a minute, you can't just --" The Professor's objection was halted as Rajura threw him a dark one eyed glare. Rowan's eyes deadened and his face became blank.
"Go to your room," Rajura intone, speaking at though he was scolding a child. Professor Hashiba walked off without a word. He turned to Seiji. "We leave in one hour." At that moment, on cue, the timer of the spherical bomb displayed 2:00:00, and began to count down. 1:59:59, 1:59:58, 1:59:57. . .
Cye kept writing things down in the invisible ink he was supposed to be using and stamping the letters with the sign of the Shadow. This seemed like a pointless exercise to him, but he merely did what he was told under the circumstances. Being as this was his last scene in the movie, he knew enough not to question what he was supposed to do. Once everything was written, signed and sealed, he put on a raincoat and grabbed an umbrella, heading out into the pouring rain. Shuu walked by and Cye gave him the letters to hand out. Job completed, Cye left the movie set, glad to be finished.
At the Hotel Monolith, it was pouring just as it was everywhere else. Two tin can Mongol warriors stood guard, rather pointlessly, at the front door. They knew that Rajura had hypnotized the entire city, everyone saw the building as an empty lot, so they personally thought standing guard was rather stupid. Especially in the rain. Rust, you understand.
So when they saw foot prints splash their way up to them, with no man to go with it, they were rather surprised. They were even more surprised when an invisible first punched their head off. Not what they were expecting at all.
The Shadow entered the empty hall of the hotel, awing for a moment at the sheer opulence. It was obvious where the twins had spent most of their bigger budget, even excluding the special effects. It was beautiful, even for a man from feudal Japan.
He made his way up the stairs, his shadow splashed at intervals along the walls when lightning struck outside, shining light though the arched windows of the hotel. He climbed the stairs two at a time, not that the audience could see this, and paused for a drama shot for the camera, his black cloak and trench coat flapping in an unseen wind and his silk scarf the deep color of blood. His winter blue eyes shined, and he gave a slight chuckle.
The chuckle was all that was needed, Rajura straightened from his musings. "Anubisu."
Seiji looked up. "The Shadow is here?" He frowned. "I thought I killed him."
"Then you may have the honor of killing him again," Rajura said placidly, tossing the blond a tommy gun. "Be sure to do it right, this time."
Seiji didn't say anything until he was outside, then he impressed even Image with his downright artistic and creative ability to curse. It was all under his breath, of course; one didn't want that megalomaniac to hear him and then try to do something to him. Mind control can be scary in that sense.
After going down a few flights of stairs, he heard the chuckle that Rajura had heard. The chill went right down is spine, but he dared no show it, and grabbed a flashlight from a flunky before continuing on. The laugh seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, permeating everything and saturating Seiji's hearing. Seiji followed the voice until he entered an empty dining hall. The tables were pushed to the side, the chairs on top the pristine white tablecloths. The laugh seemed loudest in this room; he entered wearily.
"Ah, the stupid young whelp of a cub tries his hand again."
"I will admit to being curious as to how you survived," Seiji called out. He put on his full armor, his no datchi shining light everywhere. The shadow of the Shadow appeared, and he threw a Rai Ko Zan in that direction. The plated ceiling cracked and crumbed, and the Shadow merely laughed.
"You truly know nothing, Korin no Date Seiji."
The laughter continued, grating on Seiji's raw nerves and, to his shock, the light he was creating dimmed. The shadows grew and covered the room, engulfing Seiji in blackness. The light of his sword continued to dim, until it was merely a faint gray glow in the darkness. Then it winked out completely.
"Cale," Seiji called out, unable to hide the fear in his voice. "How are you doing this? Cale? Cale!"
"I'm right here," the Shadow whispered into Seiji's ear.
Korin swung his sword wildly, connecting with nothing.
"Where are you swinging? I'm over here."
Seiji swung again and missed again.
"Damn it Cale!" Seiji shouted. Sweat was rolling down is face. "This is supposed to be a comedy, a spoof! This isn't funny!"
The Shadow only laughed louder. "Oh, I don't know, Date. I think it's a riot! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
That did it. Seiji could stand down entire armies when he wanted to, but he wasn't about to do it for a fanfic. Not even for Image. He ran to where he had entered, slamming into the wall dumbly and tumbling back. The Shadows laughter seemed to fill his entire mind, he couldn't think of anything else. Finally finding a door, he burst out of it, still in darkness, and ran forward. His vision cleared a second too late, and he saw the glass only seconds before he crashed through it, falling down three stories to the entry hall.
"IMAGE I'M REALLY GOING TO KILL YOUUUUUUUUU!"
The Shadow had thoroughly enjoyed that. It kept a smile on his face as he climbed up the stairs to a random floor, knowing it was the right one because that was the floor the script had mentioned. He found himself in a circular hall, an intricate display of Asian painting and architecture. Rajura sat on what could only be called a thrown, a large silver ball hanging near him. It had an odd timer looking thing on it, counting down.
The object of the movie directly in front of him, the Shadow advanced.
Then Rajura pulled a rope and the room started to spin. Literally. The circular floor dipped and spun, sending the Shadow backward, his arms pin wheeling in a vain attempt to keep his balance. He hit the floor gracelessly and failed to get enough balance to get up. He couldn't even get his feet under him, making for a very comic scene.
Rajura found it all very amusing; and even mimicked the Shadow's laughter.
"For such a prize student of Kaosu, you really are a complete incompetent." Rajura stood and stepped down from the dais. He paused, pondering the joke, but pushed forward. He was really getting into the role. "You have spent too much time in this Western concrete prison. These weak minds and soft wills have softened you to my vastly superior powers. You cannot even control yourself."
Rajura called forth the pulba, the tiger hilted knife, and drove it towards the Shadow. It ripped off the hat and scarf, revealing Cale as he continued to struggle onto his feet. The knife flew again, grazing his arm.
"I'm getting awfully sick of bleeding," he spat. "I'm getting awfully sick of this movie!" His feet under him at last, he ran toward Rajura, but was stopped by the knife as the tiger hilt knocked him in the back of the head and send in sprawled onto the floor again. The golden knife moved to slit poor Cale's throat, but he grabbed the hilt at the last moment.
Cale gritted his teeth, sick to death of everything. He just wished it was all over with. Subconsciously, he reached out, finding a happy place where he knew all his lines, could nail them whenever he wanted. That place reached back, touching his mind and letting him know, yes, it existed, it was right here. Cale opened his eyes and suddenly, it was true. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do.
The knife had calmed in his grip. He looked at the tiger, Black Blaze, and the tiger nuzzled his hand.
"What are you doing?" Rajura's voice entered into his circle, and he was still on the scene, that he still had the movie to finish. And he knew how to finish it too.
Cale stood up, wowing everyone in the audience, cheering him for finally finding his character. He let go of the knife, threw his gaze to Rajura, and the knife followed. It buried itself deep into Rajura's abdomen and, completely shocked, Rajura was finally at a loss for words. The glass windows behind him broke, and his spell on the city wore off, and Touma woke up, and his plans began to come crashing down around him.
To think that Cale was just getting started.
Lacking options, Rajura ran to his escape route, and Cale calmly followed. He was slightly miffed that he had to enter the austere sarcophagus in order to follow, but he did so without comment. He ignored that fact that he should really use a stunt double for the laundry shoot ride down to the basement, and even nimbly landed on his feet. He was in the zone, and nothing was going to stop him. The audience cheered.
Outside, Kayura and Sekky, who had been standing in the pouring rain, looked on in awe as the Hotel Monolith slipped out of its fog, being displayed for the entire city to see.
"Wow," Sekky murmured appreciatively. "You gotta hand it to Mr. Sasaki. He certainly knows how to do a finale."
Kayura nodded dumbly, before regaining her composure. "Like hell. He was never this good in the radio dramas," she replied.
"Shall we enter," Sekky retorted, already breaking the chain fence and entering the previously empty lot.
"Hey!" Kayura roared. "Wait for me!"
"No time to wait," Sekky spat back. "If Mr. Sasaki needs any help, I'm going to be there."
Kayura blinked, not expecting such loyalty. The Warlords always bickered bitterly, and to see such devotion was rather surprising.
"You coming or not?" Sekky hissed.
Kayura grumbled something and rushed in after him. Soon, they were up in the room with the rotating floor with the giant silver ball that they were supposed to deactivate.
"Where the hell is Rowan?" Sekky shouted. "He's supposed to be on set now!"
"You try finding your way in this monster hotel," a voice shouted behind him. Kayura and Sekky whirled around to see Rowan, completely out of breath, enter the room.
"Dad?"
"Like I know my way around here," Rowan mumbled. "Give me a break."
"Strata," Sekky hissed, "the bomb?"
"I know, I know!" Rowan put on his armor and used the winds to bring the silver ball down. An armored hand ripped away the control panel and pulled out the red wire.
The clock stopped with plenty of time to spare.
"So much for the drama of this scene," Kayura murmured.
"I'll say," Rowan retorted. "I'm done with my stuff. Let's get out of here."
Sekky glared at Rowan. "Where's the Shadow?"
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the laundry shoot, the Shadow carefully stepped forward, guns in hands, observing the mass of discarded mirrors ahead. He noted absently in the back of his mind that Mirror had a rather interesting habit of showing up rather frequently in this fic. The organ music dramatically blasted the audience
Sliding into the mirror corridors, the Shadow observed that the mirrors didn't reflect things accurately, in reality displaying Photoshop based images. Apparently both Mirror and Image wanted a piece of this finale.
His winter blue eyes hardened, and a cloak of darkness enveloped him, submerging him within his element. Guns were unnecessary. The mirrors that surrounded him started to rattle and vibrate.
"What are you doing?" Rajura demanded, his eyes wild. Cale never had this much power before.
Rajura's response was the chilling laughter. Mirror--s shattered, exploding all around the Shadow, never actually harming the winter blue eyes that shined brightly, the scar that encased them glowing prominently.
One shard of mirror rose elegantly and shot forward to Rajura's head. Rajura fans went into an uproar, only to be silenced as the floor opened up and swallowed them temporarily until the next scene.
"Thank you, Mirror," the Shadow whispered.
"Boss!" The Shadow turned, seeing Sekky running into the room. "Boss, are you alright?"
The Shadow laughed.
Finally, late as the Calvary was expected to be, Commissioner Doji finally arrived. He took a long, hard, look at the beautifully crafted Hotel Monolith and pulled out a flask to take a long, hard swig.
"Where the hell did that come from?"
This was going to take a while.
Rajura woke up slowly, his senses foggy. His brain couldn't quite keep up with his optical senses, leaving everything slightly out of synch. He recognized that he was in a white room, but beyond that he could not tell.
A man in a white lab coat came in, his face hidden by an operation hat and mask. All Rajura could see were shining blue eyes.
"Come here," he ordered. The man tripped on his way over, but finally managed to come over. "Look into my eyes," he commanded. If the doctor did or not, the audience couldn't tell. Rajura leaned forward, his white hair wisping in front of his eyes. Many fans drooled, but many more complained that they couldn't see his face. The twins were wondering about that as well. Image continued to type the scene while Mirror hunted down who was in the editing room. This had to stop
"Yes," Rajura continued. "Now, release me at once."
The doctor, Saber-stryke, shook his head, any smile he had hidden behind his mask. Then he slipped off the bed and fell to the floor. Why are we seeing the take where everyone kept falling?
Saber-stryke got up, pushing on. "I am sorry, Dais."
"I'm Rajura this episode."
"Oh. I am sorry, Rajura."
"You're supposed to be polite."
"Oh. I am sorry, Mr. Rajura, but that will not be happening any time soon. Now, let us have a look at those stitches."
Rajura blinked; his one eye wide. "Stitches?"
The camera panned around, bumping as it traversed over its own wires, and the resolution jumping at it rammed into poor Saber-stryke's head, sending him toppling back onto the floor. Once it finally cleared, it revealed a healthy portion of Rajura's beautiful snowy hair had been shaved off, replaces with an ugly C shape of stitches. Rajura had had a lobotomy.
Realizing what was happening; he tried to get up, to fight his way out. But he was in a straight jacket, too. With the Rajura fans still somewhere below the theatre, the resistance to the change was only token. This only outraged Rajura even further. He fought against the straight jacket, pulling and twisting his arms, which only caused HIM to fall to the floor.
Finally, Mirror burst into the den. "I found him!" she cried out. In her hands was Yuli. "The little brat found his way into the editing room and thought he'd make some changes to make the movie funnier."
"Little gakki freak of nature," Image muttered. She pulled out an all powerful eraser and made the blue eyed kid disappear.
With the editing problem fixed, Rajura, now back on the bed, gave an animalistic growl, trying to get out of his bonds.
"It was quite a close call," Saber-stryke continued. "We saved you, but we had to take away a piece of your frontal lobe. You need not worry, we have yet to evolve to a point were we use it, unless of course you believe in telepathy."
Saber-stryke got up and exited the room, locking it behind him. Rajura finally managed to get up, looking out the tiny square of the glass window.
"I am Rajura Won Khan! The last descendant of Genghis Khan! Release me at once!"
"I'm Talpa!"
"I'm the Ancient!"
"I'm the executive producer of Sunrise!"
Saber-stryke made no expression as he signed off for Rajura.
Kayura and Cale stared at each other. Both were in evening wear, standing in front of the Cobalt Club bar. They tried to glare each other down, but neither was willing to back away. Kayura had her wealth of determination to make her character strong, and Cale had FINALLY found his spring of acting ability and wasn't about to give it up.
They continued to stare at each other, until finally they shook hands.
"We'll just agree to disagree."
"Agree to hate each other."
"Yes," they said simultaneously.
The two turned around and walked away.
Post Show:
Everyone hunkered around the buffet table. Fuan and Mouri were already digging in, but many wondered at the merit of eating any food that the twins had laid out. Kujuurou in particular remembered how the movie had started and wasn't about to wake up in another fanfic.
The twins, still in their old armor, walked almost gracefully up to the table.
"We would like to thank for the movie. We promise this is the very last time we'll ever use you for the Shadow."
"I've heard that before," Date said, staring at Image icily.
"Aw, come on," Mirror said glibly, "You all had fun, didn't you?"
The replies varied greatly.
The doors to the room were suddenly opened and Yuli entered into the room.
"Hey!" he cried out. "Why didn't you like my editing? It made things funnier! People always like seeing outtakes, don't they?"
"They like seeing outtakes where somebody gives a funny line," Mirror retorted, "not because people trip over each other." She turned to her sister, "I thought you erased him."
Image nodded. "Don't ask me."
"Food!" Yuli joined the others at the buffet table, filling his plate until it was rivaling Fuan. "Hey," he asked. "Can I edit your next comedy fic?"
Jiro, who had suffered the most under Yuli's editing, replied, "No, absolutely not! I'm a good actor, damn it, and I won't have you screwing my scenes around!"
"You call yourself an actor," Date replied. "All you did was laugh maniacally. You had no meat to your character."
"Like you did either," Jiro spat back. "All you did was grovel before my brilliant acting."
"Like hell I did," Date fumed.
"Yes, you did."
"I did not!"
"You did!"
"Did not!"
"Did!"
"Did not!"
"Did!"
Kayura pulled out her shakujo and whacked both of them. Sugar fell briefly as Image admired her lovely Date.
"At least we're out of this fic," Fuan commented, gulping down a large piece of something unidentifiable.
"We bloody well better be," Mouri agreed, sipping his drink. "I've had enough of cameos."
"At least you didn't have a steady part," Kayura mumbled. "The Warlords and I were stuck with tons of lines to memorize. I think Naotoki is the only one who actually knew what was going on."
"Yeah," Ryo commented, "how come he's the only one who knew how to act and all the scenes?"
Naotoki grinned snakishly. "I'll never tell."
"At least it's over," Hashiba stated gratefully. "If they're actually writing a post-show, I don't think we'll ever have to worry about this again."
"True," Image replied. "But that doesn't mean we won't ever try to do a comedy fic again."
Many groans ensued.
"By the way," Luna asked. "You guys did a good job of incorporating a lot of the lines from the radio, like the intro about the 'wealthy young man about town' and such, but how come you didn't use 'The weed of crime bears bitter fruit; crime does not pay'?"
Mirror looked over to Luna and blinked. "Can you honestly picture Kujuurou using that line and pulling it off? We were barely able to get 'Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?' in there."
Kujuurou turned to the people surrounding them, his eyes a cold winter blue, his scar glowing slightly, and his voice an icy wind. "The Shadow knows."
The Shadow laughed.