F-Zero: Seppuku 3/3 - Lap 78

==Lap 78=

It was later that same afternoon that the team had dispersed. Chiya was spending time with her feline friends, while Earl got an early—and fruitful—start on the Red Dove. Despite such a chaotic final race, surprisingly, there was no work to be done on the Purring Kitten aside from a cockpit replacement. As far as fixing windows went, Earl had all the tools requires to remove and replace the shot out windows. The Purring Kitten was ready for her next race. The Red Dove, however, took immense damage both from Blood Falcon and the landmine collision—but mostly the landmine collision.
Seppuku was typically very focused on his upcoming big mission. Having the opportunity to go and assassinate Black Shadow in his own court was more than just an opportunity; it was their best shot. Seppuku, Jody, and even Chiya understood the risks that would follow him on the mission. One wrong move, and Seppuku could find himself trapped within the claws of Dark Million. For the time being, he was confident that he could turn Black Shadow into dust—even if it cost Seppuku his life.
Chiya was spinning around in the bedroom with her kittens, she had become a little girl again with such little felines now surrounding her. Naturally, Siberia disliked that Chiya was constantly touching them. However, it was as if Siberia knew that this would happen, therefore, she made no effort to try and stop the human.
She picked up the black and white kitten, then after hugging the young cat, she squealed, “Cookie! You're so cute!”
Mauser was still on and about with his regular everyday life, as if he didn't have children. Siberia had essentially annexed the bed, which meant Chiya and Earl had no plans of getting intimate anytime soon. The simple fact of it all was that both Chiya and Earl often practiced asexuality. Neither considered sex a very big concept, though, both did desire to get down to business at some point. Regardless of their strong relationship, both adults needed the right situation to become sexually active with one another. Having a litter of kittens in their bed was a massive negative modifier on their willingness to have sexual relations.
Chiya picked up another kitten and puckered her lips, she was now holding Cookie in one hand, and the kitten she named 'Excalibur' in the other.
“Let's go see Earl and Seppuku!”


Meanwhile, Earl and Seppuku were having a rare exchange of friendly conversations—a concept that died shortly after Chiya was brought into the organization. Seppuku, for once, was fully concentrated on the Korean. However, he did have some inappropriately sexual web pages up on his screen that Earl couldn't see.  
Earl had one knee over the back of a chair as he faced Seppuku with a grin, “Come on, man. Even you of all people gotta agree, Chiya's a rising legend. Samurai Goroh is the next meanest dude on the track, and he's not even that good anymore. I think Chiya's got next year in the bag.”
“Oh, I agree. But I think you should look into downgrading her combat module. It obviously possesses unique strength that no other racer possesses, and that just makes Chiya a cheater.”
“Good idea, I'll have to discuss this with Chiya.”
Seppuku kicked his boots up onto the desk and stretched his arms back, “Yep, it's gonna be smooth sailing from here on out. Flower had a good season. She sacrificed the billion so that future competitions wouldn't be a bunch of cheating crock.”
Earl nodded, “Wonderful woman I have. She never even cried...”
“She is strong, I picked a good ally.”
The two grinned at each other profoundly for several moments, but Earl's grin soon faded away as he lost himself in thought. Seppuku dropped his grin as well before raising an eyebrow at the distracted man. It was several moments later that Earl had finally looked into Seppuku's eyes intensely.
“What did Blood Falcon do with the prize money?”
“I don't know, but I'll tell ya. If I find Black Shadow's monetary storage, I'm gonna help myself to some loot.”
Earl gave him a nod, then bobbed his head up excitedly, “So, half of Project Neptune came in the mail today.”
“Really? What is it?”
The Korean stood up excitedly, “Let me show you!”


Chiya had been looking around for Earl, but ultimately failed to find him in the usual places. She concluded the search by reaching the office, her final guess as to where he may have gone. Now only holding the black and white Cookie, Chiya approached Seppuku's door and flexed her fingers for the doorknob. Just as she grasped the knob, the sound of Earl talking was sounded. She puckered her lips and bobbed her head up.
Earl and Seppuku are talking..?
Rather than entering, she got on her knees and put her ear up to the cat door, Cookie was being softly pet as she listened in on their conversation. Her eyes moved left and right, waiting for the next sentence to come out of either mouth.
“Whoa!” Seppuku shouted.
Chiya's eyes widened upon hearing Seppuku's rare moment of shocked response, she lowered her eyebrows and placed her ear closer to the door.
“Yeah, it was one expensive investment alright. And it's only Part One of the investment.”
“God damn, that is fancy. That is royally fancy.”
Earl chuckled, “I don't mean to brag, but I think I might be the best boyfriend ever or something.”
Chiya's eyes gradually widened upon hearing this. “Flower's gonna throw you onto the bed and slam your crotch when she sees this.”
Surprisingly, Earl found this quite humorous, and thus laughed. “Hopefully. I can't wait for her to see this.”
“That's quite a present. An excellent demonstration of slave and slave master.”
“H- hey! Chiya is not my slave.”
“Obviously not. She's the slave master.”
“Dude, screw you.”
Chiya bounced up onto her feet with an intense smile, then proceeded to bounce and shake her clenched fists.
“Earl's gotta present for me!?”
The young woman ran down the hallway excitedly with Cookie, already imagining what gift Earl may have acquired for her. Even Seppuku was praising it as a great gift, so she knew that it was something truly amazing and expensive.
She slammed herself into the wall randomly while continuing to bounce, “Oh boy! What could he have gotten me?” She tapped her lip and beamed. Maybe another cat, or a super back massager..!
Upon considering this, she beamed more and moved her finger down from her lip to her chin. Speaking of which, I could use a back massage after such a race...
Her excitement continued to grow rapidly, and just as she hoped, Earl had soon exited the office. He had a very proud grin on his face even after exiting, then widened his eyes at the sight of Chiya—who was smiling at him.
“Hello, Earl!”
“Oh, hello.”
Earl proceeded to walk forward and momentarily found Chiya stalking him from the side. She rubbed her right cheek against the fur of the kitten while staring at Earl. They were walking toward the kitchen together.
“How's your day?” she asked.
“Very good, very good. I should have the Red Dove fixed in no time.”
“I see...”
They entered the kitchen, but Chiya didn't take another step after entering. She stood at the door while Earl walked over to a toaster. Unknowingly to her, Earl had been preparing toast while talking to Seppuku. She twirled her foot around in small circles and gave him a cute smile.
“So-----o, I was thinking I'd buy you a present, you know, for helping me with F-Zero and what not...”
He grabbed a plate and without looking said, “Oh, a present? You certainly don't have to do that.”
“Oh, but I'm sure you'd give me a present if it were switched around...” she twirled her golden hair excitedly and rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling, “I know you love giving me gifts whenever money permits.”
Earl chuckled and slapped two slightly burnt slabs of toast onto his plate, then reached over for the jelly. “Won't argue with you there. I love seeing you happy.”
Chiya smiled at him, then lowered her eyebrows, “Yeah, sharing presents is-” She shook her head and cleared her throat, “Yeah, I know you would never be able to keep a present a secret from me. You'd break and give it to me early. I'm surprised you haven't done so for Christmas yet.”
He chuckled again, “Yeah, it would be hard keeping a present away from you. Your charms are very persuasive.”
The woman widened her eyes briefly, then raised an eyebrow. It seemed that Earl wasn't prepared to speak about the present he had gotten for her, which left her very confused. She was being very interrogative about the present in a careful way, yet, Earl wasn't breaking. She was prepared to uncork a more risky sentence.
“You just seem really cheerful right now...”
Earl turned with the same proud smile and raised an eyebrow, “Really?”
“Yeah, uh, are you keeping something a secret from me?”
He shook negatively, “No.”
Bloody bastard, yes you are..! She closed her eyes and smiled intensely, “You just have that optimistic look on your face, as if you have something for me.”
At that moment, Earl snapped his fingers loudly and frantically nodded, “Oh, I do have something for you!”
She temporarily set the kitten down and reached her hands out excitedly, “Okay, lemme have it.”
Earl walked up to her with the toast in one hand, but he didn't give her anything she was expecting. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, then pat her head as he walked out of the kitchen. Chiya remained standing with her hands out. The kiss was good, but she couldn't help but feel pestered now. She narrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head in confusion.
Where's my present..?



Later in the afternoon, Seppuku stood alongside Jody in their secret Red Canyon gorge. Both were overseeing the construction of the exploration system into Chiya's ship. Already, many workers had begun to tear apart the engines. The installation of parts was the next step.
Jody turned her head and shot Seppuku a serious look, “Lieutenant.”
“What?” he demanded.
Jody looked deep into his visor, then hummed slowly. She looked back toward the ship and took casual steps forward, “Follow me.”
The two proceeded to take a simple stroll around the gorge with no specific destination. Jody walked much like an office—arms behind her back. Seppuku moved with both fists clenched like a warrior. There was no attention being paid to the two, they were simply taking a walk.
About 30 seconds into walking, Jody raised her chin and breathed in, “Lieutenant, what do we do if you don't return from the mission?”
Seppuku remained silent for several seconds, then returned a casual face and said, “I was under the presumption that you had that bit figured out.”
“Kill or capture you, no matter what, we know Black Shadow could do much with you. After all, he was able to create that little dark nut out of Chiya a while back, if I recall.”
“Yes he did, and she was arguably worse than Chiya when it came to drama.”
Jody looked up at the sun and blinked, then back at Seppuku, “You realize, that we'd have to assume the worst if you-”
“You'll just have to find a way to destroy his ship. I recommend creating new weapons of mass destruction in order to defeat him, since we can't use our regular nuclear arsenal.”
“It's not that simple, unfortunately. We already have Megan threatening us with civil war, telling everyone that we're upping our game in nuclear weaponry would only empower Megan.”
Seppuku came to a stop and shrugged, “Then don't send me.”
“We must. We're running out of time.”
“Look, you're worrying over nothing. I mean, what am I going to be put up against, anyhow? Some of his robots and Blood Falcon. We killed that one Blood Falcon duplicate while trying to save you, so we're definitely in a good position. Heck, I might even consider using the Decimator on Blood Falcon since I know how to kill Black Shadow.”
“I'm not so sure I agree with that plan...”
Seppuku chuckled and faced the ship, “My point is, there's no immediate threat. If I don't return, it probably just means that I killed myself along with Black Shadow. Keep in mind, we still haven't tested this weapon. It might just erase the entire ship.”
She lowered her eyelids and looked downward, “Don't remind me...”
The man smirked at her, then wiggled his eyebrows around briefly. Very roughly he slapped her back, “If I didn't know any better, I'd think that your concerned about my well being for another reason...”
“Wh- wha-” she shook negatively at him and planted her feet down firmly, “What are you going on about!?”
“Oh, come come off it. You don't honestly believe that my failure would result in the destruction of the universe.”
Jody slightly glared, “Of course I don't. I simply view you as an incredibly valued asset to our success and progress toward-”
He cut her off with a loud laugh and shook negatively again, “No, no, no. You just can't bear the thought of being alone in this world of idiots. I'm the only person you can properly relate to, and you're scared that you'll lose the only person you envision yourself married to-”
Immediately, Jody widened her eyes and took a step back, “Whoa! What? Are we talking about relationships now?”
“Dunno, what are we talking about?”
Jody narrowed her eyes, then punched his arm. Seppuku smirked as Jody angrily walked off toward the construction crew. He rubbed his chin while staring at Jody, then scrolled his eyes downward.
“Damn, that ass...”



Earl moaned very enjoyably as he found himself laying flat on his stomach above their bed. He was shirtless and had his head tilted to the left as Chiya stroked her fingers back and forth around his back. Chiya was pushing his skin in circles with the assistance of skin gel, which created a very relaxing sensation for the Korean. Ironically, Chiya found some kind of pleasure from rubbing his back.
“Oh, Chiya. This is very nice...”
“Of course, it's my present to you.”
“Very good...”
Both her knees were situated behind Earl's legs as she massaged his back. Of course, caressing his back was a ploy to acquire the gift he was keeping from her. Even now, he didn't drop any hints of possessing something for her. The longer he remained silent, the more Chiya wanted to simply drop the question flat out. But she didn't want to admit to spying on him.
She moved her fingers up his back and leaned in over him, then with puckered lips, silently spoke, “I would hope that you'd give me a present every now and then, because I love giving these to you.”
“Yeah, of course.”
She applied more force and glared at the back of his head. She pushed onto his back with great strength before grinding her teeth somewhat in frustration. Earl continued to smile, unaware of the growing tension coming from behind.
“Presents like this should be shared quite often by lovers...”
Finally, Earl turned his head with a raised brow, “You sure seem focused on presents today...”
“Presents? Me?” She looked away from him quickly and bit down on her lip, “Didn't notice.”
The massage continued for many more moments before Earl sat up straight. He turned to her and smirked, “Well, how about I compensate you for the present?”
The woman gasped excitedly and scratched her head, “What? You have a present for me?”
Earl nodded and reached for his jacket, then pulled out the back massager. He faced Chiya with the vibrating toy and waved it around. “Here, lay down and I'll work your back.”
The Mysterian took a few moments to weigh her options, still searching for an opportunity to tear the gift out of him. But ultimately, she smiled and brought herself down onto the bed. Earl looked down at her, then after planting his knees down firmly, brought the vibrating toy down to her back. Just before the toy could touch her, a knocking was at the door.
Both reacted frantically to the knocking and sat up straight. Chiya grit her teeth and covered her mouth nervously. “Seppuku? Knocking?”
“Yeah, something's wrong...”
Chiya had gotten up and proceeded over to the door, Earl had already jumped onto his weapon. He slid a clip of explosive bullets into the handgun, then took aim at the door in preparation for an attack. Chiya took small steps to the door, grabbed the doorknob, then hid herself after abruptly swinging it open.
Earl's aim remained solid, but both adults were sent into a shocked status after seeing who was at the door. Earl lowered his gun just as Chiya faced the guest. It was Bart Lemming.
“Bart?”
Bart gave Chiya a swift salute, “Ms. Flower, good afternoon.”
Earl suddenly popped up out of nowhere behind Chiya and raised his chin over her shoulder, “Why didn't you knock at the entrance?”
“I was, but clearly that's too far away from your bedroom.” His eyes slowly moved to Chiya's left, then widened upon meeting Mauser's gaze. He gulped, then looked back into Earl's eyes, “You really should install a doorbell.”
Chiya brushed her hair back and smirked, “Oh, so, what is it that you want?”
The wealthy cafe owner tilt his head and smirked, “I wanted to take you out for a meal.”
The Mysterian's interest had been immediately enlisted as a beam struck her face, “A meal?”
“At the Cuisine Emporium one of Mute City's finest-”
“Oh! I went there once to onsen with Jody-” She backed up and swallowed before grabbing Earl's hand, “W- we are going for a meal, right?”
“I have matters I wish to discuss with you.”
“Oh boy, I can only imagine what this'll be about, but...” she snapped her fingers, “That food...”
Bart threw his keys up into the air and smirked, “Great, it'll be a good bonding experience. We'll get the important matter out of the way, then simply talk about other things.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!”
He pointed his finger straight, “Fifty credit spending limit.”
Earl shoved Chiya away, nearly throwing her down onto the floor in the process. He pointed straight up at Bart and growled, “You cheapskate! Fifty credits is probably as costly to you as pissing on a tulip!”
Bart raised an eyebrow while retaining the same smirk, “I have never heard of this analogy before.”
Chiya brought herself up next to Earl and shrugged, “Okay, so let's go.”
“Right.”
Earl sighed and smirked as Chiya walked out the door, then waved, “Alright, have a good time.”
Chiya waved back, then closed the door behind her. Bart almost immediately broke into a light chuckle whilst shaking his head negatively, “Earl seems a little jumpy today.”
“He doesn't like the idea of guys taking me places. It's kinda strange.”
He looked down at her forehead, “Would you condone girls taking him places?”
“Heck, no!”
“Well, there you go.”
The two moved forward, but was then stopped by the dark toned shout coming from the lobby door.
“You!”
Both Chiya and Bart grunted. Seppuku, having just returned from his trip to Red Canyon, stood in front of the door with both fists clenched and teeth shut. Chiya's eyes gradually became bigger as she looked into Seppuku's angry eyes.
“What are you doing here!?”
Bart beat his fist against his waist and lowered his eyebrows, “I'm not getting much respect around here...”
“You don't deserve any damn respect...” Seppuku stomped one foot down and swung his finger forth, “What are you doing with Flower?”
“We were about to go out for dinner at the Cuisine Emporium,” he answered.
“Wha- did Bendek permit this?”
Chiya glared, “I can have a meal if I want.”
“You can't trust this guy, Flower. He's a weasel who'll bang just about any chick he can find!”
Bart glared, “What!?”
“Yeah, okay, that's not true...” Seppuku kicked his foot down constantly, “But I know he's going to try and corrupt your mind!”
She rolled her eyes and continued forward with Bart, “Oh, rubbish. We're just going to discuss some matters.”
Chiya walked into the lobby, but without turning his head, Seppuku had grabbed Bart by the shoulder. Neither of the two turned their bodies. With high suspicion, Seppuku moved his eyes toward his tall adversary.
“What kind of matters?”
Bart lowered his eyebrows, then caught Chiya's curious glance. He moved his eyes away from her and forced a smirk, “Just some post-season discussion...”
“Post-season discussion?” Seppuku repeated aloud.
Bart's gaze had become strong on Chiya again, then without a word, he nodded.


It was mere minutes later that Bart and Chiya rode together down the streets of the Upper City. The vehicle Bart drove was of great quality, clearly a one of a kind. It was a hovercraft like all others, though, it beared great similarities to a 1949 Buick Skylark convertible. The metal paint was yellow—just like Earl's old vehicle. This made it clear to Chiya that Bart and Earl had some kind of connection when it came to vehicles.
Bart was driving very calmly and expressed much more emotion than Jody did. This made Chiya feel fairly relaxed, but regardless, there was still a dead silence between the two. Unlike with Jody, though, Chiya had an initial conversation opener to use.
“This is a nice car. A lot of cool gadgets and the interior smells like...” She sniffed the air for a few moments, then lowered both eyelids. “...coffee...”
“It was actually a top of the line convertible at one point. Earl and I refit the convertible with a new chassis and put some extra gadgets inside.”
The young woman, curiously, bent over and pressed a button with puckered lips, “What does this button do?”
Bart quickly turned it off, “That's just a police scanner.”
“You can scan the area for police?”
“Uh, no...”
“Oh...” She rolled her eyes up to the roof of the vehicle and puckered her lips again, “And what does this button do?”
She raised her hand up to press the button, but she was intercepted by Bart's hand. “Please stop touching things.”
“Sorry...” She rested her chin over her hand and exhaled excitedly, “I'm so excited for Earl to give me this present.”
“What present?”
She shook her fists like a little girl, doing so with a heavy smile, “I overheard a conversation between Earl and Seppuku. Earl has a present for me that's apparently gonna make me slam his crotch!”
Bart's lips dropped upon hearing this, he cleared his throat and tugged on the collar of his shirt, “Uh, please, Ms. Flower. This is a vehicular family establishment...”
“The problem is, though, he won't acknowledge that this present exists!”
“Hm?”
“Yeah, he's not dropping any hints to me about it, but I know it exists...”
He smirked at her, “Isn't that the point of a present? To surprise an individual?”
“I don't want a surprise, I want my present from Earl!”
Bart nodded slightly and shrugged, “Maybe he's keeping it a secret for a reason.”
“Yeah, but how long will I have to wait? A day, a week, all the way til Christmas!?”
“Trust him. Earl's a good man with a plan, clearly.”
Chiya smiled excitedly at Bart, then exhaled excitedly once more, “But I wonder what he got me. What could he have gotten for me that would make me wanna ride him?”
“M- Ms. Flower..!”
“It must be something huge.”
Bart shrugged once more, “You'll just have to be patient with him. If he hasn't given you this present yet, he's probably not going to today.”
“Aw, man...” she groaned back.
“Don't worry, you'll have your present soon.”



Later that afternoon, very close to the evening, Chiya and Earl had situated themselves at a table near the massive windows of the cantina. Chiya had already received an appetizer, but was all eaten before the two could have their first conversation. Now the two were eating from a rich and qualitative assortment of foods. Much of the food was protein, but this was the sort of protein Chiya preferred. Eggs, ham, bacon, turkey, chicken; much of the less messy foods.
Bart was eating with a knife and fork, but Chiya simply picked up the pieces she wanted with her fingers. Her friend took no offense to this less professional way of eating.
With a grin, he raised his hand out and said, “You've got a good thing going for you, Chiya. I didn't have a fan base of such size until my fourth or fifth Grand Prix.”
Chiya ripped through a chicken leg and gave him a curious look, “You raced for five seasons?”
“Out of six.”
“Wow, was F-Zero really cool back then?”
“There were less rules, less of a prize, and less racers. I raced, for the most part, alongside Federation Major Megan Valhalla.”
“I see, so the bad F-Zero...”
“The sport was too hard for me with the new boost power system, so I quit before I could get myself hurt.”
“Very interesting. Was it an amazing feeling when you won your first competition?”
Bart closed his eyes and smirked, “You know the feeling. You have the whole universe cheering for you, a whole new generation of fans, and a lot of money. Boy, if you're smart with your money, you can make it last forever.”
“How did you expand your wealth?”
“Stock market. Once you're as rich as me, you have a lot of chances to succeed there. And once you start succeeding, you don't stop. You just gotta be smart. The problem with winners today is that they just blow all of the prize money on things within that same year.”
“I suppose I'm no exception. I would've been spending Hella crazy.”
Bart stirred up his glass of water, which he had put a sugary flavoring substance into. “There's two ways you can go about your wealth. You can be charitable or conservative. I've taken the conservative approach and amass my wealth.”
Chiya sucked on the bone of the chicken leg and nodded. After slipping the bone out, she raised an eyebrow, “What's this matter you were speaking of?”
Bart's smirk slowly began to fade upon receiving the question. His face had suddenly turned dull, then after taking a drink from his water, he looked her deeply in the eyes. Chiya gulped at him, then set down her chicken bone in preparation for a serious conversation. Well, either way, he's already given me food. So he's already doing better than Jody...
The man scanned the room very attentively, then leaned in towards Chiya with narrowed eyes.
“You say, you bear the blood of Black Shadow?” he asked silently.
Everything had suddenly become clear to Chiya. It didn't take her a single second to feel foolish, it should have been almost too obvious as to what Bart would have wanted to discuss. To answer the simple question, Chiya nodded.
“The blood of Dark Million, yes.”
“And again, how did you contract it?”
“My blood sister, Rose. She always requested that I drink her blood, then when she died, I did so.”
“I see...” Bart rubbed his chin softly and leaned forward, “Do you, by chance...” He closed his left eye and gave her a strong single stare, “Have encounters, with Rose?”
She gasped, then very loudly responded with, “Yes!”
“Ss-----sh!”
“Sorry..!” Chiya dipped her head down and gnawed on the chicken bone some more, then raised both brows, “How did you know?”
Bart's look was very intense, “Earl doesn't know this, but Captain Falcon has the same problem.”
“He does!?”
“Ms. Flower..!” he lectured silently.
Chiya fell into her seat in shame, “Uh, Captain Falcon dreams about Rose, too?”
“Black Shadow doesn't know it, but his little invention has a drastic flaw. If the DNA of another human being enters the bloodstream of someone with this special blood, those two grow a special kind of connection with one another.”
“Captain Falcon drank Rose's blood?”
“No, no, no. Douglas' father-”
“Who's Douglas?”
Bart blinked a few times, then slowly narrowed his eyes, “His, name...”
“Juicy information!”
Bart rolled his eyes for a moment, then held his hand out, “Douglas' father was the very first person to contract the blood of Dark Million. Actually, he's the one who started it all. By injecting himself with Black Shadow's special chemical unit, he poisoned his own blood. Even Black Shadow had no idea what had happened for the longest of time.”
Chiya tapped her chin and nodded, “Yeah?”
“But, here's the thing. Douglas was created by his father's sperm and his mother's egg. That means, from the very beginning of Captain Falcon's birth, he already had the DNA of his parents within him.”
Chiya tilted her head in puzzlement, but soon put everything together. Her eyes became wide, then all at once, she gasped and dropped her jaw.
“F- Falcon still communicates with his parents, just like I do with Rose...”
“Bingo.”
“M- my goodness, d- does that mean, that maybe, I have a chance-”
“I know exactly what you're about to ask me. Unfortunately, you were not brought into this world with the blood. So you are ruled out from contacting your father through this method.”
Chiya lowered her eyelids and frowned, “Oh...”
Bart closed his eyes and nodded, “But worry not, you'll meet him again, eventually.”
The Mysterian remained crushed, but soon shook off the sad feeling and gave Bart another surprised look. “I can't believe this...”
“Believe it or not, this is how Captain Falcon became strong. Black Shadow underestimated his own invention. It wasn't the blood that gives the user their powers, it unlocks it, but doesn't teach it.” Bart smirked and snapped his fingers, “The thing was, Douglas' father was the creator of the Falcon Punch—a genetic mutation that the blood permitted him and his child to use. Through these dreams, his father taught Captain Falcon everything he knew. And before Black Shadow knew it, there was a new more powerful rival.”
“...it all makes perfect sense now...”
Bart reached his hand out, “Give me your hand, child.”
Chiya dropped her jaw slightly, wiped her hand over her napkin, then did as asked. Bart grasped onto the soft hand and slowly flipped it over. He studied her hand very carefully, then pressed his finger down roughly. Upon releasing his thumb, the spot he had touched remained lighter—but still fairly red.
“Ah yes, you can tell that your body is overflowed with your own blood. Any wound you take will almost certainly be healed at a quick and efficient rate.”
“Because I have more blood than most people?”
“Because you have super blood cells. These blood cells make regular human blood cells look like disabled peasants when it comes to work. Any illness will be destroyed within a day or two, and any flesh wound will start to repair itself at an abnormal rate.”
“Blimey, that's incredible...”
“It's a gift, but also a curse. If you accept the DNA of an unwanted guest, you could be stuck with a lifetime of nighttime suffering.”
“Yes, Rose ran down the drawbacks with me quite well...”
Bart widened his eyes, then closed his eyes and smirked, “Well good, I just wanted to make sure you understood to be careful with open flesh wounds and such. Don't let someone like Seppuku lay a finger on an open wound, or you might be stuck with him for-”
“O- oh God, I like Seppuku, but he needs to stay out of my dreams!”
Bart chuckled and finally resumed eating. Chiya joined in with the chuckling, but when the chuckling ended, she finally dropped a strong question.
“So, how did you get your Dark Million blood?”
The fork Bart was holding came to an abrupt stop near his teeth, but then resumed within half a second. He lowered his eyebrows while chewing his food. Chiya anxiously awaited an answer, but Bart's confused face said it all. She knew that a very unusual conversation was coming her way.
“Beg pardon?”
“You, how did you get the blood of Dark Million?”
Bart faintly grinned at her, his stare was intense and solid, “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Chiya let out three chuckles, “Come on, we all saw what you did to Blaskovitz that night at The Krush. There are people who can jump pretty high, but I somehow doubt you were able to jump that high through exercising.”
Again, Bart silently chewed on his food, this time with closed eyes. His grin disappeared and a shrug was all he gave her.
“You're mistaking me for someone else, clearly.”
Chiya's jaw dropped intensely, just as her eyes went moon size. “You're kidding me, right? I know what I saw...”
Bart brushed his hair back, “It's a common hairstyle.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Then how do you explain your absence at the cafe for so long?”
Bart's eyes opened up into slits, “Not sure what you're talking about. The cafe's been open every day of the year. Excluding holidays.”
“Well, that's obviously a bunch of rubbish. Not only did we turn the lights off and lock the doors, but we saw that the cafe was closed many of those days!”
“Chiya...” Bart leaned forth and crossed his fingers intensely, “None of that ever happened.”
“Wh- wh-”
“You obviously were just confused. The cafe has always been open, it was you two who didn't stop by.”
Chiya's eyes were moving around the place quickly, completely baffled by this logic. She shook negatively and grit her teeth. “B- but- it was you, you must have suffered from amnesia, o- or something..!”
“I read the papers, I read about Blaskovitz's demise the following morning. I assure you when I say, you're dearly mistaken...”
Chiya let out an immense silent gasp of awe, completely shellshocked by what she was hearing. Bart acknowledged that he knew Chiya and Earl now, but to her disbelief, he still denied these events. Even when faced with facts that ruled out debate, Bart denied the accusations.
The coffeeman smirked at her and waved his hand, “Well, anyways, let's continue on with a less thought provoking conversation, eh?”
Chiya's jaw remained dropped, and her gaze remained drone-like. But regardless of the odd situation, she nodded and looked down at her food.
“...yeah...”



“He was so weird!” Chiya shouted.
Seppuku slammed his fist down beside his plate of food, “See? See!? What did I tell you? The guy's a damn creep! So, the real question now is, how do we afford a lawyer so we can sue the bastard!?”
Chiya lowered her eyebrows and grunted, “Uh, I mean... What's going on now?”
Earl rolled his eyes, “Seppuku's just being mindless.”
“Oh really, I bet that damn frog had a lot to say about me!”
“Actually, not really.”
Earl forced his eating utensil down and groaned, “Okay, why was he weird, Chiya?”
“H- he was denying that he has Dark Million blood-”
“He does,” Seppuku answered.
Chiya glanced over at Seppuku and raised her eyebrows in surprise, but ultimately found this unsurprising. “He was still denying that he had anything to do with Blaskovitz's death. That whole Berserker thing never happened, nor did he ever disappear. He just kept trying to convince me that I'm crazy or something...”
Earl groaned again, “This is ridiculous. We both know he wasn't anywhere to be seen, I still don't know how he survived that collision with Blaskovitz, but what I do know is that he was gone.”
“A clone?” Chiya proposed to Seppuku.
“No way, I'd know if Jody cloned him, and I know Dark Million had nothing to do with his reappearance. This is nothing short of unusual.”
Earl grit his teeth, “I don't view it as unusual, I view it as outrageous. How dare he call Chiya crazy...”
“He would not listen to me.”
Seppuku dug into his food and nodded, “I think he's got some kind of big secret...”
“Of course he has some kind of big secret. A man doesn't just survive-”
“Don't get snippy with me, boy. Lemming's an ass wipe who's clearly up to no good.”
Chiya grunted and lowered her eyebrows, “Well, hold on. I don't think he's up to something bad, I just don't understand what's going on right now...”
Earl crossed his arms, “Something fishy, but I doubt he'll let us know anytime soon.”
“Bendek, I'd keep your eye on him if I were you.”
“Man, he's back to normal. I had no idea that he was still denying the Blaskovitz incident, though.”
Chiya lowered her eyelids while continuing on with her meal, “I just don't like this. It feels creepy. I mean, how could he act like some computer missing files one moment, then the regular old Bart afterwards. We laughed and all that after the awkward conversation, but how?”
Team Seppuku remained silent for many moments as they questioned themselves about this. Ultimately, no one was able to pull out a clear answer. Seppuku shrugged and sat more comfortably in the seat.
“I guess we just close the book on that matter, for now.”
Chiya leaned forth while shaking negatively, “He must have suffered from amnesia or something...”
“Just drop it, Flower. There's obviously no answer, at least not one in clear sight.”
The Mysterian blinked aimlessly, trying desperately to find an answer. But Seppuku was right. There was no answer, nor were there likable theories; there were only conspiracies that could be made. The fact of the matter was that Bart had returned and resumed regular life—but he had his own version of what happened during the post-Throwdown competition.
Just as Seppuku had recommended, Chiya threw the towel. There was no answer. Whether Bart Lemming was lying or truly had some mental malfunction on the matter, neither of the three would ever know for sure. But aside from this issue, Chiya had learned some much valued information. Captain Falcon shared similar dreams, and she learned how he had obtained his powers. This made Chiya comfortable knowing that she wasn't in danger of becoming supernatural in strength. As far as she knew, she was but a woman with tainted blood.

To be continued...