Mystery Fanstuff Theater 3000/Spirit/10

Danny looped around the small park that was a couple parks from his house. A few willow trees were scattered throughout the park. There was a small slide, monkey bars, and a pair of swings on a woodchip lot. Danny worked his way up the hill to an oak at the top. His Oak.

Danny grabbed a branch and latched his legs around it, then turned so he was laying belly-down on the branch. He kept climbing until he reached the top branch. That was the best thing about his tree. Even though he got older and heavier, the branches at the top could still hold him.

"Nice view, huh?" Danny spun around quickly, almost forgetting that he was twenty feet in the air. Kuro grinned back at him and did a half wave. "Nice to see you too."

"What are you doing here?" Danny glared back her.

"Just enjoying the view. I haven't been able to be out in the open for centuries." Danny relaxed a bit, noting that she wasn't carrying her sword. "Just because I'm a demon doesn't mean that I don't appreciate scenery."

"Shouldn't you be plotting against us or something?"

"Shouldn't you be planning on ways to kill us?"

Danny remained silent. This was very weird. His enemy, the person, or rather demon that was trying to kill him was making friendly conversation with him, without a threat or anything. Chris would never believe this.

"Have you ever thought that maybe your teammates aren't as keen on fighting us as you?" Kuro leaned back against the trunk a branch down from him and closed her eyes.

"What does that mean?" Danny put his guard back up and glanced warily at her.

"It means what it sounds like. You're friends might ditch you."

"Yeah right." Danny was wondering why she would say something. That alone was enough to make him cautious.

"It's just that not everyone is what they seem to be. You'd best check where their loyalties lie." Kuro glanced up at him and closed her eyes after a second.

"We know what we have to do. If we don't go through with this, we all die. That's how it is."

"Not necessarily."

"You know what-"Danny was cut off.

"This is a load of shit because everything always works out for the 'good guy', right?" Kuro finished his sentence and laughed to herself.

Andy pulled Meg and Jamie down before the scythe caught them, but the shattered glass was inevitable. Jamie whimpered as a shard cut his hand. The scythe was whipped back through the window after breaking the small fluorescent light. Naari jumped through the broken window and across the room. The only exit was blocked.

"Well, it seems as though I might get to have some fun after all." Naari held both scythes up and threw them both, each coming at the trio from a different side.

"Meg, find somewhere to hide so I can try and fight him."

Meg nodded and coaxed Jamie and Kristine over behind a dresser. Andy glared at Naari who had retrieved his scythes and was throwing them in another attack.

"Don't you have any real attacks?" Andy concentrated his hands in front of him and created a shield of electricity. The electricity traveled down the metal chains, giving Naari a good shock.

Andy drew back the shield into his hands while Naari glared at him. The energy contained in Andy's hands crackled as Naari disappeared and reappeared directly behind him. Andy swung around, and Naari tried to stab him with a short blade sword. He grabbed the blade with one hand, electrocuting Naari and cutting his hand open at the same time. While Naari withdrew the bloody blade Andy punched him in the stomach. Naari doubled over as soon as he retreated out of Andy's reach.

Andy looked his hand over while Naari recovered from the onslaught. A couple cuts were deeper than he would've liked, but nothing serious.

Naari recovered quickly and threw his scythe so that it curved and came from behind Andy. Andy dodged to the side and dodged again quickly as he realized he'd almost back into the short blade already covered in his blood.

Naari growled in frustration. Andy was being much more of a problem that Danny had been, even though Andy did have his stone.

"Andy! It's coming back!" Meg yelled, unintentionally reversing Naari's attention to her. Andy dodged again as the scythe came back around. He focused again and held the lightning in his hands.

Naari threw the short blade at Meg and one scythe at Andy. Meg ducked, pushing the heads of the twins down. Andy barely managed to dodge before Naari decided he was taking too long. With the blunt of a scythe, Naari knocked Andy down.

"Stupid humans. Always seem to be the most bothersome when they're outmatched." Naari watched Andy warily for a moment to make sure he was down for the count before heading over to Meg and the twins.

Andy's vision moved in between complete darkness and misty silhouettes. His ears seemed to almost tune out, as if a pillow were covering his ears. Someone said something; called him. Darkness won the battle and he blacked out.

"Is there a reason I should believe you?" Danny looked down at Kuro, who was still leaning casually against the trunk.

"No. Dying at your friend's hands is your choice, not mine." Kuro shrugged nonchalantly.

Danny jumped down to her branch and glared at her. "Just explain it flat out. This is taking too long."

"Okay, fine. You humans are so incompetent." Kuro rolled her eyes but sat up and crossed her arms nonetheless. "Here's the deal. Naari was sent out earlier to retrieve one of your friends. The one that doesn't have a stone, Megan or whatever," Kuro waved her hand as though it were a side thought, "the point of that is to get another battle going, where one of your friends is going to turn against you, because Saku enjoys messing with people's heads. Get it now?"

"Shit," Danny cursed under his breath and thought for a moment. 'Okay, Andy will be fighting Naari now then, but that's okay, because he'll have the advantage, so there's nothing to worry about. Well, unless he loses the fight or Naari isn't weakened by light like Chris said, or- wait! This is Kuro I'm talking to...' Danny held a small mental battle while Kuro enjoyed a soft breeze.

"Just keep your team or whatever together until I can fight you. Anything goes, got that?" Kuro didn't wait for an answer. She jumped off, leaving a few thin red lines in the air marking her afterimage.

Naari disappeared through an invisible portal with his victim, quite satisfied. He had gotten to fight one of the overlords to amuse him and still gotten the girl. For whatever reason she was wanted, he could really care less. He just wanted to slaughter some humans. And, not getting locked away in hell with the other demons, of course.

"You were delayed, Naari. I hope that fight was worth your time."

"I don't know what use she could be to you, but this is the girl you wanted." Naari dropped an unconscious Meg to the ground. "The one with lightning is a bit more resourceful that I'd thought. Not many demons can retract a shield straight into an attack. A tiny human shouldn't be able to have that much control over an element." Naari's raspy, low voice echoed through the dark chamber.

A few candles were placed high in the corners and along the walls, allowing the mediocre light to illuminate the clammy stone walls and corridors. There was a staff lying against a chair that resembled that of an odd throne used in days of old, although this one wasn't velvet or had animal furs, but instead ancient inscriptions in gold and demon horns.

"If he were faster he could have beaten you. Tell the others that they are to send a message to the girl; I believe she would like to know where her dear little sister is." Saku lifted Meg up carefully, one hand under her legs and one behind her back. "Once we get them angry, they will get sloppy and careless. Disorganization has always the human's weakness, if not greed." He grinned and headed down one of the many corridors of the palace.

Naari grinned and left to gather the others. All that was heard was the quiet displacement of air as he disappeared. She would never dare to lie to Saku and she would sooner give up Her secrets than admit She didn't know what to expect. True to Her thoughts, She had no idea how disastrous She would make the battles to come.

Kali pulled her hair back into a quick pigtail and left her house. It had only been a few hours since Andy said he would walk Meg home, but she didn't think on it. Meg probably had to help Andy make an eatable dinner for the twins.

'Okay, I left a note for Meg when she comes home. Casey is asleep. I guess I got everything.' Kali finished her mental checklist and made her way towards Danny's house. If she was going to fight demons, it'd help if she knew exactly -how- to use her powers and whatnot.

"Kali!" Danny jogged up behind her. This was going to be fun. How was he going to explain his little conversation with Kuro? 'Hey, Meg's going to be abducted by a shadow demon and brought to the enemy, but that's okay because he's probably going to use her as blackmail -before- killing her.' She'd murder him if he'd said that.

"Geeze, you're out of breath. In, out. In, out. That's it," Kali half teased, half encouraged him. "So, what's got you so worked up?"

Danny regained about half his breath before he lifted Kali onto his shoulders and sped off towards Andy's house. "I met Kuro at the park. She was saying something about how one of you guys is going to go against the rest of us. She had said 'she', so it's one of you girls-"

"You actually believe her?!" Kali practically shouted in his ear.

"Let me finish! She also said that Naari was going to try and kidnap Meg." Danny turned the corner and ran into Andy's house. No need to ring the doorbell when no one can answer.

"Oh shit..." Kali swore and went towards the kitchen. 'No one answered...'

"I think I hear the twerps crying. They're in Andy's room." Danny grabbed Kali's hand and pulled her along with little effort.

"Oh shit..." Kali swore again. Jamie was poking Andy in a futile attempt to wake him and Kristine was bawling next to him. "Krissy, sweetie, what happened?"

"I'll go get the first aid kit." Danny backed out of the room slowly, then turned and ran down the hall.

"Kali? He won't wake up! The monster hurt him!" Jamie wailed and tugged on Kali's sleeve. "Wake him up!"

"Danny's going to get the first aid kit. Andy will be fine, don't worry." Kali looked around the room. Andy definitely had some remodeling to do after this ordeal was over. Chairs were knocked over (although Kali thought that might be normal from having to share a room with twins) and blood was on the floor. One dresser was on its side as if acting as a shield to some invisible victim.

"Okay, I'll get his cuts cleaned up; you try and find out everything that happened, okay?" Danny went to work quickly, pulling out gauze and disinfectant.

"R-right. Jamie, Krissy, let's go in the kitchen. I'll get you some water, but you need to tell me what happened and where Meg is, okay?" Kali herded the toddlers to the kitchen like a couple of sheep sparing one last glance at Andy's unconscious features.

"Damn. I guess you don't have the advantage over Naari, and if you did then we're all doomed." Danny mumbled under his breath. He continued to clean Andy's cuts.

"Kali?"

"Yeah?" Kali's voice trailed down the hallway. She had cleaned Jamie's cut, but Kristine had been too busy crying to get any perceptible words out.

"Give me a hand, would ya? I want to get him on his bed." Danny finished wrapping the last cut and pushed his supplies to the side. Back in the kitchen, Kali handed the twins their plastic cups of water and popped into Andy's room.

"How bad are his cuts?" Kali asked. 'Don't freak out, don't freak out,' she kept telling herself. This Naari demon was in for a real ass- kicking once she caught up with him. That much was inevitable.

"Not too bad. I think we'll be able to get some help from Chris."

"What about Kuro. She told the truth about Naari. What if one of our teammates is going to go against us? We're already outmatched by what, a few billion years or so? We don't need another enemy." Kali mentally kicked herself for her harsh tone at the end. 'Breathe in, breathe out, now take a chill pill and pay attention!'

"As far as that goes, it'd either be Chris or Madison, since there's no way you'd allow him to hurt your own sister. Chris hates the demons enough as it is, and Madison, well, she has her own reasons for not trusting people. It's a long story that I shouldn't tell, all that personal stuff you girls get all weird about." Danny almost laughed at the small smack he got before Kali moved to help lift Andy.

"One, two...three," Kali was surprised at how little he weighed, but shrugged it off as a minor detail.

"What did the twins say about what happened?"

"Pretty much, Jamie saw something out the window and then a 'big shiny thing' came flying through the window. To sum it up, Andy fought the 'mean black thingy' and lost, obviously, and took Meg with him when he left." Kali sat on the edge of the bed and gripped the side tightly. That demon was dead meat.

While Kali ran different scenarios of how to kill the shadow demon, Danny brought the twins back into the bedroom, plastic cups in hands and eyes locked to the floor, pouting.

"Where exactly were you going, anyways?" Danny asked. He put the twins beds back in place and put them to bed, much to their disliking. "I don't recall you ever having a chance to tell me."

"I wanted you to teach me how to control plants and whatever I'm supposed to do with my 'powers'." Kali made sure to whisper. 'I wish I could fall asleep as quick as those twerps...'

"That I can do. We'll use Sean as a test dummy. I say we give everyone a call to meet early tomorrow so that we can get this figured out. Obviously they have something planned out that we need to prepare for." Danny reached for the phone and began dialing.

"Do we tell them about Kuro's advice?" Kali watched Danny pause for a moment, then press the last few numbers.

The phone rang once. Twice. Three-

"Hey, Madison? It's Danny. Yes, I know we just saw each other a few hours ago." He paused listening. "No, you don't need to leave now, just come by early tomorrow. We've got a problem we need to discuss." Danny flushed red. "No! That is not even close!" He paused again while his face flushed even more. "Madison!"

"What is she talking about?" Kali heard Madison laugh, though not curtly, on the other end and agree to see them tomorrow.

"What was so funny?" Kali watched in hidden amusement as Danny glared at the phone before moving to dial Chris' number.

"Nothing." He mumbled. At least his face didn't resemble a tomato anymore. Danny mumbled into the phone most of the time so Kali couldn't catch wind of what they were talking about. The conversation ended after only a few brief comments, followed by a sigh from Danny.

"You wanted to practice controlling your powers, right?" Danny set the phone back in the cradle.

"We can't leave the twins all alone. What if they wake up and no one's here?" Kali glanced at the twins, who were sleeping like rocks in their beds. Maybe the reason Sean didn't like them that much was because they were too much like him.

"I can carry Andy on my back to my house and the twins love staying at our house. They like being around Sean and vice versa, though you'll never get him to admit it."

"Well, I guess I'll take care of the twins for a bit." Kali sighed.

"Just chill. They won't hurt her," yet, he added mentally, "so just focus on what needs to be done now. Saku can control people's minds, right? Well, the person that might go against us might not know they're gonna do it until Saku decides that it works best for him."

"Why would Kuro tell us though?"

"We couldn't stop anything from happening, obviously, and now we're stuck being paranoid about everyone." Danny rolled his eyes. "Some team we are; can't even protect ourselves. We might as well wear neon signs saying, 'We'll give you three free shots!' Seriously, though; this is stupid. We need to fight them all at once so we can watch each other's backs and get it over with."

"It is a bit odd that they'd wait so long. I think Saku is a bit cocky..." Kali murmured. This is getting us nowhere! Think, think! Where could they be hiding? Danny sighed and stretched before moving to lift Andy.

"This may not feel great for him, but we can't just sit here and talk all night." Danny looked at Kali and grinned. "We've got a water sprite to torture."

Kali shook her head at him and went to get the twins. This was going to be a -long- night.