Hello! Sorry for keeping you waiting so long. Trying to sort out all the little details can be a pain sometimes. The original chapter was much bigger, but I decided to split it in into two chapters. Why must these chars be so complicated? Oh yeah, I made them that way...

Disclaimer: I don't own King of Bandit Jing, enough said.

60th Shot: A Stray Expects No Help

Dalios couldn't stand all the noise. It was driving him crazy.

The white-haired boy had been hearing an odd static ever since these mind-trips began. It was barely noticeable in Falcon's world, but it had been considerably louder in Jing's world and impossible to ignore in the psycho color garden, and now…

Now it was starting to sound like words. Words deliriously strung together, but words.

LieTryCryBlueLaughWhiteSigh

It made his head hurt just hearing it, though the words were just a whisper.

FamilarPendantMakeAmendment

Where was it coming from? Was it coming from the world itself? From Razekar?

He obediently listened to the noise in the vacant room, trying to make sense of it all. Rolly sat in front of him and watched him curiously. The emerald-eyed child carefully traced his fingers across the lined pattern on the arm of his chair. Then he pressed his fingers down hard on the arm of the chair, the movement involuntary.

"False white descends, cleanse and amends," he heard himself speak.

Rolly looked up at him in alarm. Dalios returned the apprehensive look.

"What did I just…" he began, before feeling an icy liquid ooze between his fingertips.

Looking down to where his hand was, Dalios saw colors bleed out of the chair's arm. Droplets of rainbow rolled off the side of the plush seat, slipping onto the dull wood floor below.

Whoa.

Rolly whined.

Dalios let his fingers sink into the chair's arm. The area rippled as if it was slime. The white-haired boy was only mildly surprised by this strangeness. His calmness amazed and scared him more than the anomoly itself.

STALLIONFASTCLASPHALFAMAST

"Ow…" the youngster muttered, holding his free hand over his ear as if someone had just screamed into it.

SHYNOTSHYNOFEAROFTHEDRY

Letting his hand sink further into the arm-rest, more and more color running onto the floor, he found himself automatically closing his fingers around a thin string that was submerged somewhere inside.

COMECOMEFAMILARONE

Suddenly his mind was racing down that string, which was but one filament in an elaborate web of strings, all centered around, all leading to…

Suddenly from that center came a rush of electricity down the string, shocking Dalios and causing him to cry out. He let go of the string and pulled his hand out of the chair, and the opening in the chair sealed itself up and stopped oozing color, as if it had never been touched. The hues that had bled out of the chair were absorbed unceremoniously into the dull wooden floor, becoming a part of it. The color on the emerald-eyed boy's hand behaved in a similar manner, sinking into his skin and suit and disappearing altogether as he watched.

"You done with those wooden nickels yet?" barked a deep voice just beyond the door to the small dark room, snapping Dalios out of his stupor.

"Almost, Mr. Big Shot!"

"Well hurry up before I feed you to the currs!"

The boy in the slick blue suit grumbled under his breath as he returned to the makeshift printing press and shoved in more wood into its opening. A single press of a button, and the machine growled and groaned as it shook, spitting out the false money into a trap just below it.

The white-haired boy watched the contraption silently.

…Why, Raze?

III

"Really? You ran into a Torpedo, Adam?" an orange-haired girl of eleven years exclaimed, staring at the redhead boy in front of her. They were in one of the many alleyways.

"What's so amazing about that?" asked the boy called Adam, with a certain fair-haired fighter standing right behind him. "The Torpedoes are everywhere, you know."

Falcon cocked his head slightly.

Adam? You know, that sounds kinda familiar…

"Yeah, but you saw one and survived!" the scarlet-eyed child added excitedly. "That's like, completely awesome!"

"Whatever," answered the redhead, looking annoyed and cradling his egg. "Anyway, I met this guy along the way. His name's Falcon."

"Uh…hey," the cobalt-clad Chesirian greeted with a nervous smile. That grin grew more uneasy as the girl scrutinized him.

"Hey yourself," she replied with a cold edge. "Well I'm Bandit Queen Lilith, so if you're gonna join us, you're gonna hafta do what I say!"

"Bandit Queen…?"

Oh yeah, I remember these guys! They were at Pharos's tournament at Zaza. That redhead chick was scary…

"Well?" hissed the young Bandit Queen

"Oh, sure! No problem!" Falcon replied quickly as he snapped back to reality. "I'm kinda new around here, though. What's this place called?"

"Blackstone Merlot," replied Adam, as Lilith cautiously poked at the stolen egg. "Well, it used to be called just Merlot, but now it's known as Blackstone Merlot since the place got shot to hell."

"What happened?" asked the fair-haired fighter.

"Well, back when this place was just Merlot, it was a carefree place, hardly regulated by rules or anything," the blue-eyed thief began, sitting down on a nearby crate. "People partied and played all the time, and anyone who broke the few laws enforced were forced to do the jobs around the city. It seemed like a swell idea at the time; make the bad guys do the work so the good guys didn't have to do anything."

"Sounds pretty good to me too," stated Falcon.

"Well, it wasn't," the redhead boy growled, looking away. "Since the hoods did all the work, while everyone else goofed off all day, only the hoods knew how to do the jobs, so everyone had to depend on them. So in the end the only strong businessmen and economists around were hoods, and, well, you can see how things have gone from there…"

"Yeah…I kinda see what you mean…" answered the cobalt-clad Chesirian, looking up at the glassy yet grimy buildings all around them. "And being a Torpedo's a common job around here, huh?"

"Yep, since all the business bosses around here are just ritzy hoods who want to bump off their competition," replied Lilith, glaring at the tall structures. "Those stupid Torpedoes don't care if their attacks hit some common person, so almost no one leaves their apartments these days. They don't even talk to their friends or neighbors or anything. They're all too afraid that the person next to him is a Torpedo in disguise."

"But how can they survive in their apartments for so long?" asked Falcon. "I mean, don't they have to go outside to get food?"

"Nah, they just order their 'bots to go get any supplies they need," the scarlet-eyed girl answered, watching as a dog-like robot happily carried several groceries on its back. "Heck, most people trust their 'bots more than they do their parents or their kids. Not that they're many kids around anymore besides us. Did you know that if you destroy a 'bot, you can be put to death for murder?"

"….Uh, no actually…"

"And you only get imprisonment for life if you kill a human and get pinched. Kinda sad, huh?" asked Adam, stroking his egg. "When's this thing gonna hatch, anyway?"

"Hey! You guys! Hey!" called out another young voice.

The group turned to the ten-year-old blonde girl walking over to them. Falcon gaped.

The girl had long blonde hair, a faded blue baseball cap, a black-and-blue jacket that was somewhat baggy, and stern blue eyes. A familiar bat rested on her shoulders. Her face was scarless.

Is it…yeah, it's Cassis! But this is a younger Cassis than I know. Is she stuck in the past too? But wait, I thought this was Raze's world…

"Uh…" the fair-haired fighter began.

"Have you guys seen a guy about my age, with crazy black hair and a bright orange coat?" the little blonde asked. "His name's Jing."

"Whacha asking us for?" Lilith growled. "Can't you keep track of your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" the young Cassis snapped immediately. "He's just this stupid kid I have to keep an eye on all the time."

"If he's just a stupid kid, why are you looking for him?" asked Adam.

"Cause he's my friend!" the scarless blonde replied. "He might be stupid, but I don't want him to get hurt or anything trying to be the Bandit King or whatever."

"Bandit King, huh?" asked Adam, smirking.

Cassis looked like she was about to challenge that remark when she spotted the egg in his lap.

"Hey, what kind of egg is that?" she asked, leaning close to it. "It kinda reminds me of-"

"Aaaaah! Don't touch me!" screeched the egg, causing Cassis to jump back.

Adam stared at the egg that just talked, which was now bouncing in his lap.

"Who are you?" the egg asked the blue-eyed girl, its voice high-pitched and hissy. "You're bad, aren't you? Go away!"

The bat-wielder eyed the egg with annoyance.

"Well you're real friendly, Mister Egg."

"I'm a girl! A girl!"

The blonde looked surprised.

"You've decided already?"

"Yep!"

"How do you know?" Adam asked the proclaimed female egg, carefully tapping it at the top with one finger.

"Huh? Well…I just do!"

Falcon mutely watched the fiasco with a blank expression.

…Does it even know what female means?

"Are you spacing out again, birdie boy?" growled the young Lilith, getting right up in his face.

"Huh? N-No!"

The orange-haired girl didn't look convinced.

Just then a certain silver-haired girl ran into the alley, pausing to catch her breath. The young Cassis noticed her immediately.

"Oh it's you again," she spoke, bat resting on her shoulders. "Stop stalking me!"

"I'm not stalking you…" Stir panted.

"Yes you are! Now go away!" the scarless blonde barked, running out of the alley. "Jing! Jing, where are you? This weird lady's following me!"

"Wait!" Stir called out, but the young girl either couldn't hear her or ignored her. The dark-clad warrior let out a frustrated groan.

"Uh…hey there, princess," Falcon greeted. "You haven't seen anyone else around here, have you?"

"Princess?" Lilith balked, before bursting into obnoxious laughter. "Aww, lil' Falcy's got a giiiiiirlfriend."

"N-NO! It's nothing like that!" the fair-haired fighter exclaimed, waving his hands in front of him while his face turned bright red.

"Oh, I'm sure," the orange-haired brat continued, smiling smugly. "Were you having romantic daydreams earlier? So sorry to have interrupted them."

"…What is she talking about?" asked Stir, eyebrow raised.

"N-Nothing…"

Stir didn't look any more convinced than Lilith did.

"Hey, what should we name her? The egg, I mean," Adam asked, watching the female egg bounce about.

"How about Princess?" the scarlet-eyed girl suggested with a smirk. "I dunno, we don't even know what kind of animal she is yet…Oh yeah! Adam, you need to put that stuff on your arm now so it'll be ready when that egg finally hatches."

"Put what on?" asked the egg.

"The seal stuff," the blue-eyed boy moaned, as he pulled out a large bottle with a pale opaque liquid inside of it. He eyed the contained substance uneasily.

"…Do I have to?" he whined.

"Of course you have to! Otherwise your arm will get roasted when you try to use that Burdensome Gun," the scarlet-eyed girl growled, scrounging around and finally finding a rusty bucket. "So you've got to give that seal stuff time to set."

"I know," grumbled the redhead, begrudgingly pulling off the top of the bottle and pouring its contents into the bucket. "But it doesn't mean I hafta like it."

"What are you guys doing?" asked Falcon, as he and Stir drew closer.

"Preparing to put a seal on my right arm," answered Adam, rolling up his right sleeve as he cast the empty bottle aside. "Otherwise I won't be able to control all the energy that'll go into my right arm when I fire an attack."

"Ooo, what kind of attack?" asked the egg, hopping over eagerly.

"The kind you're gonna help me with once you hatch," replied the blue-eyed boy, looking down at the milky substance. "Well, here goes."

He kneeled down before the bucket and stuck his right arm deep into the liquid, all the way up to his shoulder. He shuddered.

"Man, this stuff's cold," he gasped. "Lilith, can you get me that sling so I can put my arm into it once the seal sets and all."

"Gotcha!" responded the girl with scarlet eyes, dashing off.

"…Why do you need to put you arm in a sling?" asked Stir, noticing Adam wincing slightly.

"What's a sling?" asked the egg.

"Well, I'm not going to be able to use my arm for awhile 'cause this stuff will make it all hard and stiff," Adam explained. "So I'll need to put it in a sling to keep it out of the way when it's like that."

"But how are you gonna use a Burdensome Gun when you can't use your arm?" questioned the fair-haired fighter. "I mean, isn't that kinda pointless?"

"My arm will start working again once the egg is getting ready to hatch."

"But you shouldn't do mean things like that to yourself," stated the egg, hopping up and down next to the redhead. "I don't get what you mean about arms and stuff, but it sounds like a bad thing to lose."

"Trust me, if I didn't have to do it, I wouldn't," stated Adam, shivering. "But you see, when you do a fancy energy attack, a whole bunch of your energy is being drawn to your arm and getting turned into the fuel for the attack and stuff. If the seal wasn't there to keep it in, it'd just shoot everywhere out of your arm and go everywhere whenever you tried to do an attack. You might not even have an arm anymore if it gets bad enough."

"Oh…I kinda see your point," Falcon stated. "That would really suck."

Stir stayed silent.

"Yeah," Adam agreed, as Lilith arrived with the sling. "Only a hatched Burdensome Gun can modify the seal enough so that you can use your arm again and pull the energy out safely. But the stuff needs to set some first…hey Lilith, I think I've got enough on now. My arm feels all stiff and numb and stuff."

"'Kay," the scarlet-eyed girl chirped, helping him to his feet as his right arm came out of the bucket.

Adam's arm looked unusually pale, with a slimy film over the skin. It hung limply from his side, motionless except for the occasional twitch.

Lilith carefully put the sling on the blue-eyed boy and helped him put his frozen arm into it. Afterward she hastily wiped the sticky substance off her hands and onto her worn pants.

"Eeeew, why's this stuff gotta be so nasty?"

"What are you complaining about?" growled Adam. "You're not the one who has it all soaked up in your arm."

"How long does the seal have to set?" asked Stir, looking at the redhead's disabled limb.

"Only about fifteen minutes, though it'll probably take longer for the egg here to hatch."

"I can hatch faster if you want!" the egg chirped eagerly.

"How far beforehand can you set the seal?" asked the silver-eyed princess. "Months? Years?"

"Well…I guess you could set it years beforehand," Adam replied, looking up. "I dunno why anyone would do that though, 'cause it would really suck. I'm starting to miss my arm already."

Stir paused for a moment.

"What would cause an attack to backfire?" she asked.

"Backfire?" questioned Adam. "…Well, the only thing I can think of is that someone straps on a Burdensome Gun that isn't theirs and tries to attack with it. Either that or the seal's weak or wasn't set properly."

"Hmm…"

As the young thieves tried to keep the egg, who was now bouncing all over the place, under control, Falcon turned to Stir.

"So who's world is this, princess?" he asked quietly. "I know Cassis isn't acting right, but Raze's acting weird too."

"So is Dalios," the dark-clad warrior added. "And I'm not so sure about Jing either. You're the only person I've met who still acts sane."

"Really?"

"Yeah…" she replied. "But I know this is supposed to be Razekar's world. The armor took him out earlier and made the garden world break."

"The armor?"

"Yeah, that's what took out Jing earlier too," the silver-eyed girl explained. "What took you out at the beginning?"

"Uh, it looked like a giant blue fireball," the cobalt-clad Chesirian answered. "And there was this golden wand thing spinning around it. I got hit with it, and then…I dunno, everything got weird."

"A fireball? Strange…I haven't seen anything like that."

"But wait, you said this was Raze's world, right?" the fair-haired fighter suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah."

Falcon looked to the side.

"Then that means…"

A loud boom was heard overhead, following by flashes of white and green in the gray-purple smog above.

"Huh? What was that?" Falcon asked, his gaze shooting upward.

"Sounds like a Torpedo fight," stated Lilith, her scarlet eyes narrowed. "C'mon we better get outta here."

A bolt of electricity struck a nearby trash can, incinerating it.

"Now!" Lilith yelled, as she grabbed the yappity egg and began to run, with the others trailing close behind.

Dashing out of the ally, white and green flashes dancing among the rooftops just behind them, the group found themselves in front of an imposing metallic church. It was not tightly tucked away between its neighboring buildings, but set apart with a mile of space on all sides, the center of a gray circle. Scrawny rose bushes clung to its sides desperately. Its steeple could barely be seen for all the purplish smoke. From its colossal walls thick wires diverged, burrowing into the ground below it like black worms.

"Wow, look at that," spoke Falcon, taking a step forward. A robotic newspaper machine suddenly whizzed by, throwing the newest edition of the paper right into Falcon's face. Adam and Lilith laughed as he groaned and rubbed his nose.

"What is this place?" asked Stir, as Falcon bent down to pick up the hazardous bundle of printed words.

"This is Saint Shiraz," the scarlet-eyed girl answered quietly, sobering up. "It's the sole source of power for the people of Blackstone Merlot."

"Huh? So it's a power plant as well as a church?" asked Falcon, eyeing the newspaper briefly before tossing it aside.

"Well, yeah," replied Lilith. "It powers the entire city. That's what those big cables are for. It's also the only thing the people aren't afraid of."

"Why is that?" asked Stir.

"It's the one place that no one would attack, for one," stated Adam. "That, and that place is where people can be brought back to life."

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Falcon. "You guys can bring people back from the dead?"

"That's what I just-"

A beam of green light crashed behind them.

"What was that?" Falcon shouted.

"That…" Stir stated dryly. "…would be Jing."

A winged figure swooped across the foggy sky, glowing bright green. It flew up into the smog to avoid blue-white lightning bolts coming from the top of a nearby building.

"You've got skill, I'll give you that," spoke the lanky man dressed in a black suit, his hands alight with electricity. "Most fellas would've been bumped off a while ago."

He fired a couple of thunderbolts into the smog.

"It's that Torpedo I saw earlier!" exclaimed Adam, gripping his currently-useless arm with his free hand. "I guess that other guy must be a Torpedo too."

"I don't get it. Why's Jing fighting with Raze?" asked Falcon, turning to Stir.

"I have no idea," the silver-eyed princess admitted. "I can tell you right now that neither one of them cares about where their missed attacks are going to land. Get the kids into the church. They should be safe there."

"But what about you, princess?"

"I've got to keep an eye on Jing to make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

"But-"

"GO!"

"NO!" Falcon snapped back. "Whenever we split up something bad happens. I'm not real smart like Dal is, but I've figured out that much."

"We ain't going either!" yelled Lilith. "Especially not into that church!"

Stir let out a groan.

Just then a green blast of light shot down from the clouds, forcing Razekar to abandon his perch on the rooftop. He landed on the ground, only a few feet away from Stir.

"I wonder what will happen…" echoed Jing's voice from the purple-grey clouds above. "…if I destroy something that wasn't meant to be destroyed."

A green light flickered from within the clouds and then blasted down. The Torpedo with golden-orange hair swiftly jumped out of the way of the beam.

Only the attack wasn't meant for him. Instead, the descending pillar of light burned off the left of the church's metal spires, leaving a melted mess in its wake.

Razekar and the others stared up at the wounded building.

"What does Jing think he's doing?" the silver-haired girl muttered to herself.

The assassin with mismatched eyes glared back up into the clouds, electricity skittering down his frame.

"Bastard!" he barked, throwing himself up to the polluted heavens.

Another green light was flickering in the fog.

"Not this time!" Razekar shouted, sending out strikes of lightning to counter the blast. The thunderbolts reached their target, and the green light was extinguished. But instead of a human cry of pain, there was a great, lifeless roaring.

Water rained down like a hurricane, drenching the streets and the buildings. But most importantly, it drenched lightning-charged Razekar.

The assassin with golden-orange hair screamed as his electricity was turned against him, falling back onto the slick ground.

"Raze!" Falcon exclaimed.

"Huh? You know him?" asked Lilith.

"Uh…well, kinda…"

Jing descended from the smoggy heavens, landing on the ground a few feet away from Razekar. He pointed Kir at the slowly recovering Torpedo.

"Too bad that second light you saw was just one of those neon-signs that happen to glow the same color that Kir Royale does," the Bandit King stated, energy beginning to gather in Kir's open maw. "All I had to do was move it in front of a water-tank. Too bad for you."

"Jing, stop it!" Stir shouted.

"And why should I?" he asked. "If I take out the fake Razekar, then this world will probably become unstable and it'll be easier to find the real Razekar, right?"

"Fake?" questioned the wounded assassin.

"Or it might make the real Razekar think he's dead, and he'll die," the silver-eyed princess countered. "Or maybe the whole place will collapse on us and we'll all be swallowed up. We can't count on anything here, Jing."

"Uh, what are they talking about?" asked Lilith, turning to Falcon.

"Yeah, I don't get it either," echoed Adam, also turning to the fair-haired fighter for answers.

"I don't like all these angry people…" chimed in the egg. "Why are they so angry?"

"It's…kinda a long story…" Falcon began

The cat-faced thief was silent, though still in his attack pose.

"…That is true," he finally admitted. "I suppose I can only go so far."

The blast of green light was still fired, but it only grazed the false Razekar's left shoulder. The man with golden-orange hair cried out.

It wasn't the bloody mess Stir expected it to be. It wasn't even an overflow of rainbow colors that bled from the Torpedo's burned arm.

It was oil. Black, black oil. And beneath all that dark liquid wasn't muscle, but bolts and wires.

Stir and Falcon stared.

"He's a robot," Falcon breathed.

"Only partly," stated the Bandit King, who had suddenly appeared behind him.

Falcon and Stir swirled around to face the orange-cloaked thief.

"His left side is mostly mechanical, while his right side is mostly organic," Jing continued, unconsciously rubbing one of the feathers of Kir's wings. The black albatross was currently attached to his back in flight mode, which Falcon assumed was how he got behind him so fast. He wondered when he had the time to switch forms.

"How did-" he began.

"How did I know?" the obsidian-haired boy answered for him, smirking. "It was easy enough to tell by the sound of his steps that each side was made of a different substance. The fact he would take more damage from one side than he would the other was also a dead giveaway."

He bent his right hand downward and summoned his arm blade, looking straight at the injured cyborg.

"Care to back down? Or should I take care of you now?"

The black-dressed Razekar snarled and leapt onto the nearest building, hopping from higher to higher rooftops until he vanished into the smog-choked heights.

Stir turned to see Jing's expression, but it was concealed by that demonic mask.

"Jing, why - my god, your arm!"

The masked boy's right jacket sleeve was drenched with scarlet that caused the cloth to stick to his skin. Just under the orange fabric was a faint green glow in the pattern of his earlier burns.

"Oh man, that looks bad," Falcon stated. "Is that from your fight with Raze?"

"Nothing I can't handle," replied the Bandit King.

The silver-haired princess's eyes narrowed.

…"But you see, when you do a fancy energy attack, a whole bunch of your energy is being drawn to your arm and getting turned into the fuel for the attack and stuff. If the seal wasn't there to keep it in, it'd just shoot everywhere out of your arm and go everywhere whenever you tried to do an attack. You might not even have an arm anymore if it gets bad enough."

"…Jing, the seal on your arm's damaged, isn't it?" Stir spoke, as she tried to touch his arm but he moved away. "The Kir Royale has been so strong because nothing's holding back the power, but that means that you're losing a lot more energy. I don't know if the seal was damaged by what happened back in the garden area or if the attack you tried to launch backfired because the seal was already weakened, but we've got to fix it before your arm gets any worse."

"I don't suppose you have some spare bandages?" asked the dark-haired thief.

"I do, but it's going to take a lot more than bandages to mend it and you know it," answered Stir, as she fished out some white wrappings out of one of the pouches on her belt. "We'll need to set the seal again."

By the time she turned back around, the Bandit King was already flying off.

"Jing, dammit, come back here!"

"Princess, hold on!" Falcon called after her, also joining the chase.

"Hey, don't forget about us!" yelled Lilith, as she and the others trailed behind.

Stir dashed after the great winged robber, his massive wingspan overshadowing her. His bright green glow silhouetted him against the smoggy sky, but she could still see the blood on his right sleeve.

I told him not to be so reckless with his arm. Does he think he's invincible?

"Jing! As the princess and future heir of Zaza, I demand that you come here this instant!" the silver-eyed girl barked, wondering why she thought that would actually work.

The obsidian-haired thief turned his masked face to the platinum-haired princess as he continued to glide.

"The Bandit King doesn't need anyone!" the Bandit King replied in an almost playful tone.

If Jing hadn't already had a wounded arm, Stir would have thrown her sword at him. At the very least she would've tossed some of her moon discs at him, but they were broken now thanks to Cassis.

Without another word, or even a glance back, the winged bandit glided into a nearby alley.

"Jing!" Stir called again, dashing into the alley the cat-faced robber had flown into.

She nearly tripped over a boy half her size, a boy who looked a little too familiar.

Not again…

This version of Jing was ten years old, carrying a bag of most-likely-stolen goods in his free right hand and eyeing her with a wary curiosity. Hovering over his shoulder was Kir, barely more than a fledging and without the usual red bandana over his neck. As soon as the black bird noticed Stir looking at him he hid behind Jing's shoulder, peeking at her with wide eyes.

"Uh, why is Jing a little kid all of a sudden?" Falcon asked, giving Stir a confused stare.

"If I knew that, then I'd know why Cassis turned into a kid earlier too," Stir grumbled.

"Wow, people actually live in this city," the young Jing mused, smiling a little. "Or are you just ghosts?"

Stir smirked.

"We're not dead yet. Just strangers passing through."

"I thought so," replied the young black-haired boy, pulling out a violet cat mask with swirly eyes and putting it on his face. "No one seems to consider this place their home."

"Hey you!" Lilith shouted, causing the masked boy to startle. "You better not be a thief too! There ain't enough room here for all of us!"

"Oh?" asked the young Jing, sounding unconcerned. "The world's a bigger place than you would think."

"Is that a challenge, boy?" snapped Lilith, Adam also looking angry.

"Uh, don't they remember that he was someone else just a minute ago?" Falcon whispered to Stir.

"Well, they're illusions just like everything else in this world," the silver-eyed princess began, crossing her arms. "I guess they wouldn't know a difference in this place because they're just part of the environment. They don't really think."

"Oh…" the fair-haired fighter replied, watching the ever-calm Bandit King child continuing to annoy the young thieving trio. "They sure seem like real people though."

"Yeah, they do…" Stir agreed. "The wannabe Bandit Queen girl's getting on my nerves already…"

"There you are!" barked a familiar female voice, causing Jing to jump and the oversized mask to fall off his face. He and Kir jerked around to see a young Cassis running toward them.

"Uh…Hey Cassu," the gray-eyed child greeted nervously, carefully picking up the fallen mask while keeping his eye on the angry blonde. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," the scarless girl growled, putting one of her hands on her hips. "I told you to stop coming here! It's dangerous!"

"So are forest fairies," responded the young Jing.

"Forest fairies?" the robber trio asked. "What are those?"

"T-That's different," replied the young Cassis, growing a bit pale before noticing Stir nearby. "You again? Why do you keep following me? You aren't some forest fairy in disguise, are you?"

"…What?" Stir answered, raising an eyebrow.

"C'mon Cassu, does she look like a forest fairy?" Besides, why would a forest fairy be in a stinky city like this anyway?" reasoned the boy in the blazing coat, a dully annoyed expression on his face as he folded his arms. "You think everything's a forest fairy these days."

"Aaah, it's a stump! It could be a forest fairy!" Kir parroted in a high-pitched voice, flying above Jing's shoulder once more. "Aaah, it's a rope! It could be a forest fairy! Aaah, it's the mailman! He could be a forest fairy!"

"Well his skin is all brown and wrinkly," Cassis defended.

"But Cassu isn't Cassu if she's scared of everything," the gray-eyed boy commented, swinging his bag of loot around carelessly.

"I'm not scared! I'm just being more careful so I don't get kidnapped by the forest fairies again!" the young blonde snapped back.

"And everyone here thinks the other person's out to get them too, so they lock themselves up so they don't get hurt," Jing countered, looking up at some of the weakly lit windows. "But that just hurts them more, doesn't it? If you don't trust anything of flesh and blood, then there's no one to save you from yourself, is there?"

"Well…I guess not," replied young Cassis quietly.

"But if you want to protect yourself from others more than from yourself, then I suppose a prison would be paradise, huh?"

"But I don't want to hide from everyone else! I want to see the world and explore and stuff," Cassis spoke, almost whined, before reverting to her more fiery self. "And I don't want you to go to jail either! So go return the stuff you stole!"

"I will once I sell it and steal it back," he assured with an innocent smile.

"Jing!"

"What? It's still go back to its original owner in the end. I'm just letting it take a little vacation from home, that's all. It must be boring to sit on a shelf all day."

Heavy mechanical steps shook the alley.

"The owner of those stolen goods wouldn't happen to be the Big Shot, would they?" asked a sleazy metallic voice.

The trio spun around to see a huge robot rat slinking toward them, with three gorilla robots calmly riding on its back. Its dark blue paint made it appear black in the shadows of the alley. Waiting just outside the alley was a huge gray vehicle with the red words JAIL stamped on its side.

"Oh crap," squeaked Adam and Lilith. Falcon took a defensive pose.

"What? What is it? What is it?" asked the egg, bouncing up and down. "It's got a weird voice, whatever it is."

"Who's property have you stolen?" repeated the rat, the gorillas resting on his massive back growing more restless.

"I dunno," responded Jing almost casually. "I didn't pay attention to the owner's name."

The rat's eyes glowed orange, and then faded back to yellow. It let out a slicing hiss.

"You have stolen the property of the Big Shot," it droned, its speech growing more robotic. "The culprits will be captured and then dealt with according to his wishes."

The artificial apes descended from the rat, their pitiless eyes locked onto their targets.

Jing plucked Kir out of the air, causing the baby avian to shapeshift into gun mode. Cassis whipped out her bat and held it out in front of her. Stir drew her sword.

IIIIII

As far as Dalios was concerned, the Razekar he knew wasn't being any friendlier than the dream one.

But did he know the real Razekar, really? After all, Dalios only found out about his friend's cyborg nature when he came crashing through the window, an angry oily mess. That threw him for a loop. Daisy sighed and helped him to a nearby repair room, like such occurrences were as normal as a knee scrap. The white-haired boy had to admire her unflappability, and he couldn't help but wonder how Razekar ended up like that in the first place.

Sadly, it didn't help him with his current situation. The emerald-eyed youth had managed to grasp more "strings" of this world, and the least thing he could tell is that they held the world together and they all met at a center point. At that vital spot was the real Razekar. Dalios could use the strings to trace a path to the lightning master and find out where he was trapped.

If…he…would…just…cooperate!

But every time Dalios would start getting somewhere, Razekar would send a jolt down the line to zap him. The youngster's concentration would be broken, and he would be back at square one. It just didn't make any sense. Didn't Razekar want to be rescued?

After another rebuked attempt, Rolly whining at his feet, Dalios decided to go see if the avatar Razekar was fully repaired and recovered. What he stumbled upon was a kissing scene. Well, more than a kissing scene, really.

With a panicked yelp the emerald-eyed boy shut the door. Rolly looked up at his startled master inquisitively, cocking its foxy head.

"Get an eyeful, did you?" Daisy's voice rumbled through the door. "There's a reason why cronies like you should keep your noses out of our rooms."

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

"Oh well, we need to get going anyway," the female voice added.

"Where are we going?" asked Razekar.

"We're going off to rub out that Bandit King, of course."

"We? But he's my hit!"

"Who you obviously can't handle by yourself. Otherwise you wouldn't have been such a mess when you came back."

Dalios regained his senses.

So he's been fighting Jing? Jing did that to him? Why? I mean, I know this isn't the real Raze, but what would he gain from beating up the fake one?

"Don't worry, you'll still get to deliver the final blow," Daisy's voice continued on the other side of the door, her clopping footsteps growing nearer.

"But-"

"And we'll be bringing along that peeping tom cowering outside the door too," she added. "He'll be a good distraction if we need one."

The russet-eyed woman pushed the door open, causing Dalios and Rolly to scurry out of the way.

"You're helping us with a little job tonight," she spoke, not looking at the short youngster. "Get ready."

The black-haired female passed by without another word.

Quietly Dalios walked through the open door and into the room, Rolly cheerfully following. Razekar sat on a bench inside, flexing his hand.

"All ready to go here. Make sure you've got all your stuff, kid," the assassin with golden-orange hair spoke, not laying either a blue or orange eye on the white-haired youth. "Make sure to knock next time, or she might not be so forgiving about any interruptions. You don't want to know what happened to the last fella."

Dalios didn't move.

"…You do know she's using you, right?"

The hand stopped moving, as the cyborg with mismatched eyes looked up at him with a calm smile.

"Of course I do. Do you take me for a sap?"

"Then why are you serving her?"

The lanky one leaned back with an irritated sigh.

"Ever notice how everyone hides here, kid?"

"Kinda hard not to notice it."

"I used to be one of them, a coward afraid to be hurt," Razekar began, gazing up at the greasy ceiling. "Before I became a Torpedo, I was a detective. Or so I claimed. Really I was just a fella who spent most of his time hiding in the speakeasies, trying to look cool for the ladies. But even if I did get myself a good chick, she didn't mean anything to me. I'd never open my heart to her, and she didn't open my heart to me. I would lie to myself and tell myself it was real, or it would become real, but of course that never happened. It's simply how fellas treat each other around here. Most fellas."

"Miss Wheel doesn't exactly strike me as a real friendly person either," Dalios pointed out, as Rolly chewed on one of his pant legs.

"No need to be so formal around someone like me, kid," the man with golden-orange hair responded, as he rolled his eyes over to Dalios and smirked. "Anyway, so there I was, gathering girls like butterflies in one of the local bars, as if that would solve my problems. Then all of a sudden BAM! Place gets hit with a stray Torpedo attack and I'm one of those fellas who takes the brunt of it. Happened so fast I couldn't even tell what kind of attack it was."

Dalios said nothing, as he pretended to pay more attention to Rolly.

"First thing the girls do is run screaming. Those that still can anyway," the assassin continued, looking almost amused at the recollection. "Guess I can't blame them. I was a real bloody mess. Couldn't even get up to see how bad it was. But it hurt and there was a lot of blood that was probably mine, so I knew it was bad. I'd been in the security of a building and I still got hit. Go figure. Guess some things you can't avoid no matter how much you run."

"…Guess so."

"It was pretty funny, really. While everyone else was running out, she walked right in like nothing happened," he went on. "She looked around at the carnage for a bit, not in a scared or sad way, but like she was window shopping or something. Then she walked over and gazed down at me, the bloody mess. Then she started talking, saying that I could live something other than a lie, unlike everyone else. I passed out sometime after that. Dunno if I agreed to a second chance or not, but maybe I did, because here I am telling you about it. Then again, I've seen her choose others without any permission. But I guess it doesn't really matter. Either way I was taken to the church and reborn."

"Reborn? You mean turned into a cyborg, right?" asked Dalios, bending down and picking up Rolly to keep him from gnawing on his pants. The orange mutt began licking his sleeves instead.

"Isn't it the same thing, really?"

"Hmm…so this rebirthing, is it done a lot?"

"Used to be done all the time. Guess you're a bit young to remember it," Razekar explained, standing up and stretching. "No one needed to worry about death since all you had to do was have somebody take your body to the church. All the defective parts get replaced with new and improved ones, and you'd be up and running in no time better than ever. Some people even hurried the natural process so their incarnation to a superior form would come sooner. But a rebirth's a rebirth, no matter how you do it. Your soul changes to fit the new body and adapt to the new parts. Get reborn too many times, and you won't be yourself anymore. Now this is only my…second rebirth, I think…so I'm still myself, just with some more metal and experience thrown in."

"So when people stopped being themselves after their…rebirths, people stopped doing it?"

"Well, kinda."

"Kinda?"

"Well, after a while the church got so good at reincarnating people that people rarely need rebirths as much, for one," replied Razekar, as he paced slowly back and forth. "But in order to be reborn you need someone to drag your dead body over to the church, right? You're certainly not going to walk there yourself. Back then fellas would rebirth strangers, just so they could have another friend to play with. A little reward fee for bringing bodies in helped too. But nowadays people don't think they need anyone else, that other people will only hurt them and make them vulnerable. So the less people they have to deal with, the better. That requires going outside to find dead bodies to revive too, and no one wants to do that. Too much trouble. Besides it might be a Torpedo playing dead. A lot of those crazier Torpedoes are fellas who have been reborn too many times. They don't think like humans anymore."

Dalios was silent, as Rolly squirmed in his grasp.

"But Daisy's different than that. She still helps fellas get reborn, even strays like me. She's one of the church's most devout members. She even helps with the reincarnation process sometimes."

"Isn't she just getting more Torpedoes for the Big Shot?" questioned Dalios.

"Oh don't get me wrong, I know my place. The only reason she picked me was because I was there. She didn't do it for nothing, either. She gets paid plenty by the Big Shot for finding good people, as well as the usual reward from the church. But she still saved me, even if it was only business," Razekar stated, sitting back down and coolly smirking. "I may not be the best or even her favorite, but it's still something. And something means a lot out here when most fellas are afraid to walk outside their doorstep. At least I can be useful. It's better to be useful than left forgotten."

"Are you and the kid ready?" they heard Daisy call from afar. Rolly yipped.

"Got your stuff?" asked Razekar, standing up.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

IIIIII

The metal apes came charging. The rat stayed behind, lying down to watch its minions fight.

The first robot primate leapt at the young Jing. The ten-year-old rolled under the ape's jump, avoiding the pavement-cracking landing. The child pointed the transformed Kir at the puzzled machine as it lumbered back around.

"Give me a Kir Royale!"

The green energy attack was much smaller than what Stir was used to seeing, more of a basketball-sized sphere of light than an outright blast. The glowing assault was still effective nonetheless, as the robotic gorilla was slammed into the dead end of the alley. Greasy red barrels fell on top of the metallic ape, which buzzed loudly and didn't move.

The remaining two artificial primates were heading for Stir and the young Cassis. The scarless blonde began rushing toward her metallic foes, but the dark-clad warrior was far faster than the child. Within a few agile moments she dashed ahead of Cassis, avoided the robotic creatures' mighty blows, and cut off their thoughtless heads. Their thick metal skulls hit the pavement with a heavy clang.

"Wow," spoke the young Cassis, her eyes wide. "That was amazing. Are you sure you're not a forest fairy?"

Stir smirked as she whipped her sword to throw off the oil on her blade.

"I'm sure. I'm just as human as you and Jing."

Cassis stared a moment more.

"Well, let me have fight some next time! You can't have all the fun!" she shouted, waving her bat around.

"Yeah, I didn't get to fight either!" whined Falcon, the young thieves behind him also looking disappointed.

The silver-eyed princess smiled.

There was a loud creaking and bleeping behind them, as the first metal ape tried to get up. Sparks shot out of its damaged abdomen. The greasy, black-stained barrels rolled to the side.

Jing dashed in front of the girls and aimed Kir at the stubborn robot. A sphere of green power began to form in Kir's mouth.

At first Cassis simply watched, but then her blue eyes grew wide.

"Jing, don't! Those barrels-"

"What?" asked Jing.

The green blast fired.

"GET DOWN!" Cassis yelled, as she pushed Jing out of the way.

The explosion was enough to throw Stir and the others halfway through the alley. As they sat up, she saw the young Jing lying on the ground just short of the flames. Soon he too got up, looking dazed.

"…What happened?" Falcon murmured, unsteadily getting to his feet.

"Ow…why did it…" he muttered to himself, rubbing his head. "…oil barrels?…that must be what Cassis…"

His eyes grew large, and he started whipping his head around.

"Cassis? Cassis, where are you?" he yelled, suddenly standing up. "Cassu! Cassu!"

"Oh man…" hissed Adam, as Lilith helped him up. "This is bad. This is bad…"

"Cassis! Cassis!" Falcon called out. "Call you hear me? Cassis!"

The young Jing turned to Stir, dust-hued eyes burning with terror.

"Kanaka isa Cassu? Kanaka isa ala? Ulebah Jing!"

Suddenly Jing was snatched away by the long tail of the metal rat, who had come closer since the explosion.

"Aww, the poor little kitten lost his playmate?" teased the giant robot rodent, sneering.

The young Bandit King snarled and pointed Kir at the mechanical menace.

"Give a Kir Ro-"

"I don't think so," hissed the rat, slamming the black-haired child into a wall and knocking him and Kir unconscious.

"Jing!" called out Stir and Falcon, rushing forward.

The metal rodent spat a black ball into the alley, which exploded into gray smoke that filled the alleyway. By the time they got out of the smoke-choked alley, their eyes stinging, the oversized mechanical beast was throwing the unconscious child and bird into the back of the metal van. The back doors slammed shut, and the van began to drive off.

"Stop!" yelled Stir, she and Falcon running after the van only to be stopped by the metal rat.

"And where do you think you're going?" it hissed.

Stir and Falcon poised to strike, watching the metal van driving off.

But the van never got very far.

A huge beam of light erupted though the roof of the vehicle, ripping open the top of the van. The capturing automobile wildly swerved and crashed into a lightless lamppost. For a moment, all was silent except for the incessant blaring of the mortally wounded vehicle.

Then, from the screaming carcass of the van, emerged Jing. Not the child that was seen flung into the van, but the real Jing, the one she knew. Or was this Jing after all? His face was still guarded by the grinning cat mask, as mocking as ever. He was still glowing bright green even after the last Kir Royale attack, the brightest light come from the eye pinpoints of the violet false face. Kir had moved from his arm to his back, giving the boy obsidian wings and the backbone tail once more. His arm was still a bloody mess.

"Eh? What's all the racket?" hissed the metallic rat, turning to the now freed Bandit King. "So you escaped, huh? Those dips can never do anything right. I guess I've have you take care of you myself. What a bother."

The first moment the boy with the false face was gazing at the rat with his shining pinpoint eyes. The next moment he was standing right in front of the metal vermin, his right arm raised, his black wings outspread.

"What? When did you-"

In one quick motion he summoned his arm-blade like a cat's claw.

Before the rodent had realized it, its left ear was cut off. As it started to cry out, the masked thief slashed the left forepaw, then most of its long tail, and then the rear right leg. As the metallic vermin fell to the ground, the obsidian-winged one slit both of the rat's sides.

The Bandit King paused before his prey. The robot rat shook and whimpered.

The metal rat's head was cut off, but not by the obsidian-haired thief's work.

The masked robber calmly turned to Stir, whose blade was saturated with the oil of the rat.

"…And what was that for?" he asked.

"Jing, we don't have time for this!" the dark-clad warrior snapped, flinging the oil off her blade and glaring at the boy in the blazing coat. "We need to find the real Razekar and get out of this world."

The boy's green glow faded as Kir detached from his back and reverted to his usual form.

"She's right Jing," added the black albatross, hovering over the obsidian-haired thief's shoulder. "There's no point in doing all this weird stuff. C'mon, let's just get outta here."

The Bandit King chuckled.

"What's wrong with having a little fun along the way?"

Stir glared at the cat-faced boy.

"A little fun? What's so fun about lacerating something?" the silver-haired girl asked, pointing at the remains of the rat with her sword. "Not only was that pointless, it was just cruel."

"But it was just a robot, and not a very nice one at that," replied the robber in the blazing coat. "If I'm going to have fun with something, it might as well be something that nobody likes. Why do you care?"

Stir rested her sword on one shoulder as she walked away from Falcon and toward the masked boy.

"Look, I'm fed up with this attitude of yours," she growled. "So you've realized that your mother is dead. Well, I lost my father and my brother, and I will always miss them even if I never knew them that well. But I've moved on. They're not coming back. Stop being such a baby about it, going around destroying or torturing things in your little temper tantrums."

"Huh? You've both lost family?" questioned Falcon. "Man, I wish my mind hadn't gone kaput in Jing's world…"

The thief said nothing.

"Uh, S-Stir…" Kir began, a nervous smile on his face. "You really shouldn't talk about his mom…"

"And why not? She seems to be the root of the problem," the silver-haired warrior snapped back, before setting her gaze back onto the Bandit King. "I always thought you were mature for your age, but you haven't grown up a bit since that day, have you? It's pathetic, really, how even now you're playacting as a person who is nothing more than-"

The Bandit King swiped at Stir with his blade, leaving a fresh cut under her right cheek.

"J-J-J-Jing!" Kir squeaked.

"Bastard!" Falcon yelled, charging toward the obsidian-haired thief with his fist raised.

The Bandit King remained unmoved at the fair-haired fighter's furious roar. Calmly he watched the cobalt-clad Chesirian charge his way, the masked one making neither movement nor sound.

Without warning half-transparent tentacles of living color erupted around the boy in the blazing coat, swaying and curving in the air like demented serpents. Kir let out a squawk and hastily rose away. Stir backed up and drew her sword.

"What the hell?" she hissed. "Falcon, get back!"

Two of the tendrils lashed out at the fair-haired fighter.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the way of the first tentacle. The second struck him across the chest, knocking him onto his back.

"Ungh…"

"Falcon!" Stir called out, before turning back to the masked boy. "Jing, stop this right now!"

"Or what?" challenged the Bandit King, pointing his arm-blade toward the silver-haired princess.

"What? Is that supposed to scare me?" challenged the dark-clad warrior, smirking as she rubbed some of the blood off her cheek with her hand. "You really are nothing but a child."

She came a step closer.

"Do you remember, back in Zaza? You told my mother to stop hiding behind masks. Isn't it time for you to do the same?"

She made a quick stroke with her own blade, and the grinning violet facade fell off the boy's face in two pieces, cut perfectly down the middle. They clattered onto the pavement unceremoniously.

It took the gray-eyed boy a moment to realize that his mask was gone. Emitting a surprised gasp, he quickly bent down to recover the two halves of the false face. Stir stabbed one half with her sword and stepped on the other half with her foot. It cracked under the pressure of her heel.

His deed thwarted, The Bandit King got back up from his kneeling position. He leered at the silver-haired princess, his gray eyes hardening into steel.

Stir glared back in return.

"It's not like you to be so angry, so full of hate, Jing," she stated, looking directly into those cold steel eyes. "You seem so familiar and yet so different. Is that really you, Jing?"

The obsidian-haired boy closed his eyes and smirked.

"Who's to say? Everyone has their own point of view, and ours seem to be very different," he replied. "Let's go, Kir."

Without opening his eyes he snatched the dark albatross out of the air with his right hand.

"Hey, Jing, whaddaya-"

The captured avian instantly transformed into his larger, blacker gun mode, feathers bearing a purple-and-green gloss. The boy in the blazing coat opened his eyes, now glowing bright green with pupils slitted like a cat's. With a coy smile The Bandit King leapt onto the roof of one of the higher buildings, and soon swiftly ascended to higher perches. Stir could hear Kir's hoarse protests as the thieving duo rose to the smog-stuffed heavens and out of sight. Falcon sat up, touched his chest and winced.

She took the skewered mask half off her blade to study it closer. She had stabbed it right through the swirled eye. She glared at violet-and-green facade. It still smiled, of course.

…No, that wasn't Jing.

IIIIIII

I know things are still confusing, but explanations will be coming up shortly.

NEXT CHAPTER: Everyone's hurrying to find Razekar, but does Razekar want to be found? Maybe Dalios can figure out the reason, or Falcon. Or maybe Jing needs to be found more than Razekar does. Sometimes taking all of the burden on yourself is a bad idea...

Cya!