DANGEROUS GAMES

Part III: Enter the Silver Samurai

By Dino Pollard

The Yashida compound. Current home of Shingen Yashida, the man who heads the Clan Yashida, a criminal organization that was big in Japan and now has their sights set on America. He’s ruthless, deadly, and has a complete lack of any human emotion—and those are his good qualities.

This is Logan. He’s an agent of SHIELD and leads a SHIELD mutant strike force known as the X-Men under the codename of Wolverine. He’s a mutant who possesses heightened senses, a healing factor, adamantium bones and claws, as well as a checkered past which includes time spent as an assassin for the Yakuza in Japan. He has been assigned to bring down Clan Yashida from the inside. With minimal effort, Logan was able to sneak inside the compound undetected and disarmed most of Shingen’s security guards.

His last challenge is to face this man, Kenuchio Harada. Or, as Shingen referred to him, the Silver Samurai. The Samurai had long hair which landed just below his shoulders and his height and build matched that of Logan’s. He was dressed in traditional samurai garb of a gi covered with armor in various spots. The gi was black, but the armor was silver, just as his name implied. He drew the katana blade from the scabbord held at his side. He tossed the scabbord aside and brought the blade up in a battle stance.

One of Shingen’s men handed Logan a katana in the scabbord. Logan drew it from the scabbord and dropped the scabbord on the ground. He tested the sword a bit by swinging it around his body, trying to discover what weaknesses, if any, the blade possessed. It seemed fine to him, and he came into a stance similar to Harada’s.

Shingen sat off to the side in a chair. His men surrounded his chair and faced the battle. Their faces were stone-cold with no emotion whatsoever apparent on them.

<“Make this quick, Kenuchio,”> said Shingen. <“We have business to attend to.”>

The Samurai nodded in response and pulled further into his stance, as if he were prepared to attack, yet still waiting for Logan to make the first move.

<“What are you waiting for, bub?”> asked Logan. <“Let’s get this overwith.”>

The Silver Samurai sprung forward and brought his sword down. Logan crouched down and brought up his blade to defend. Logan pulled away, and thrusted towards Kenuchio’s chest, but the Samurai’s blade was there to deflect the blow. The Samurai swung low in an attempt to slash Logan’s leg, but Logan used his sword to block. The Samurai brought his sword away quickly and swung it around, cutting into Logan’s side.

The X-Man didn’t even seem to notice the the wound as he came down near Kenuchio’s head. Kenuchio dodged the attack, and delivered a kick to Wolverine’s chest before following it up with a slash on the arm.

Shingen watched as Logan continued to fight on, despite his wounds. In fact, Shingen was surprised to see that the wound on Logan’s arm was already beginning to knit itself together, and if not for Logan’s bloodstained shirt, Shingen wouldn’t be able to tell where the wound on his side was.

Logan rushed the Samurai, thrusting in several different areas with his blade. Kenuchio was too fast, and was there to deflect each one as he moved further. Logan continued to advance as Kenuchio retreated however. Kenuchio deflected Logan’s blade and twirled it around so that his came down on top and trapped Logan’s beneath it. He then pulled his sword back and jammed it into Logan’s abdomen. He drew the sword from the wound and turned to face Shingen. He approached his master and bowed down before him.

<“Very good, Kenuchio,”> said Shingen. He turned to one of his men. <“Have janitorial clean that up.”>

Shingen stood from his seat and patted Kenuchio on the back before walking towards the exit. Kenuchio and Shingen’s men followed him. Once they reached the door however, they heard something unexpected.

<“Where you think you’re goin’, bub?”>

The men all turned to see Logan in a crouched position. The wound in his abdomen was almost completely healed, and he tossed the katana to the ground. He clenched his fists and three adamantium claws sprang between the knuckles of each hand.

<“The party’s just gettin’ started, Harada,”> he said.

He is Remy LeBeau, known the world over as Gambit, one of the finest thieves in the business. He’s also a mutant with the ability to charge objects with kinetic energy. Aside from that, nothing else is really known about the man.

And that’s the way he likes it.

Currently, he is waiting for some word—any word—on the status of his protegé. She is a young woman named Ororo Munroe, or Storm as she has been called by her superiors in SHIELD. During a battle with the Brotherhood, her powers were absorbed by the mutant called Rogue. The effect left her in a coma. And Remy took her to the one person on Earth who he was sure could help her.

Doctor Stephen Strange. The former Sorcerer Supreme and currently the Patriarch of a mystical organization known only as the Guild. In the past, they helped Remy. He owes them a debt. That debt still hasn’t been fully paid, and by asking Strange to help Ororo, Remy knows that the debt just grows larger.

Right now, he paces across the room, a Marlboro-brand cigarette frantically held between his fingers. He lit this cigarette so that he could try and soothe his nerves, but, in reality, it’s only succeeded in heightening them. He looked back to the closed door and took another drag on the ciagarette. Behind that door, Strange was doing God knows what to Storm. And it was extremely annoying that he had no idea what was going on.

“Sit down, Remy.”

“Fuck off, Gris Gris.”

“You too tense, Remy,” says Gris Gris. He sits in a chair not far from Remy. He was of African descent and he wore his long, black hair in dreadlocks. He simply smiles at Remy’s frantic behavior.

“Never trusted Strange…” mutters Remy. “Dunno why I’m even here.”

“Because you need our help,” says Gris Gris. “An’ you know we de only ones who can help de chile.”

Remy frowns at the comment. Gris Gris is right, Strange is the only one he knows of who can help Storm. And Remy knows this just as well as Gris Gris does, he just chooses not to admit it. The fact is that he’s more concerned of what effect this will have on Storm in the long run.

“That Arcade guy,” said Scott. “Yeah, the hacker. I just met someone who knows who he is. He’s after her right now. She’s safe for now, she’s with me. But I need to get her someplace safe, I think she’d be better off back at the campus.”

He listened to the person on the other end of his cell phone for a few moments. Maggie Evans and Kitty Pryde sat on a nearby bench in the middle of Empire State University’s campus. Scott stood in front of them the cell phone pressed to his ear. Maggie Evans is Scott’s girlfriend. As for Kitty, she’s a student at ESU, like Maggie, who just had an encounter with a hacker by the name of Arcade. He tried to kill her for some reason.

“Okay, okay, we’ll stay…” said Scott. “Yeah, bye.”

He turned off the cell phone and slipped it back into the pocket of his jeans. He walked over to the bench and sat down on it. Maggie put her hand on his shoulder, and Kitty simply looked at him with worried eyes.

“They’re on their way,” said Scott. “They’ll be here soon.”

“Who’s on their way?” asked Kitty. “What is all this?”

“It’s a long story,” replied Maggie.

Before them, a bright flash of light appeared out of nowhere surrounded by a golden cloud of smoke. It all became instantly absorbed into the form of a young man with jet-black skin, pointed ears, a tail, and glowing, yellow eyes.

“Scott,” he said. “Come on, we have to hurry before we’re seen.”

“Nightcrawler?” asked Scott. “Where’s everyone else?”

“We don’t have time, Scott,” said Nightcrawler. “There are things happening right now. Come, we have to get back to the campus. Fury isn’t happy.”

Kurt looked at Kitty, and then at Maggie. Both of them flinched at his appearence. It wasn’t every day that you saw a demonic teenage boy standing before you. His eyes then drifted back to Scott.

“You didn’t say there were two of them.”

“Shit…” muttered Scott. He suddenly realized that Fury wouldn’t be happy about the fact that he compromised his identity by telling Maggie everything about the X-Men. It was something he would have to deal with. He didn’t want to leave her here, but Arcade had no clue that Kitty had found him, and even if he did, there’s no way Arcade could know who he really was, or how he was connected to Maggie. He turned to Maggie and pulled her aside briefly.

“Look… can you do me a favor and stay here?”

“What?” asked Maggie. “But I wanna go.”

“You can’t,” replied Scott. “Look, it’s not a good idea if you come with us. The guy who’s in charge of this whole operation… he’s not too happy about the current situation with Arcade.”

“You can’t just tell me all this stuff and then just exclude me,” said Maggie. “I want to know what this place is like, I mean, really like.”

“Look, if this guy finds out that you know, we’re both gonna be in deep shit,” said Scott. “I could probably be thrown in jail or something. C’mon look… I’ll call you once things calm down, I promise.”

Maggie sighed at this, and looked down. She folded her arms across her chest.

“C’mon, don’t be like that…” said Scott. To his surprise, Maggie started giggling a bit and pecked him on the cheek suddenly.

“You’re an ass, you know that?” she said. “You better keep your promise, this time.”

Scott grinned and walked back over to Nightcrawler and Kitty. Kurt stood stiff at attention, with arms folded over his chest. Kitty still sat on the bench, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. She found it was almost impossible to look at Kurt without feeling intimidated.

“Are we ready yet?” asked Kurt.

“Yeah,” replied Scott.

“Good,” said Kurt and extended his hand to Scott. Scott took the hand in his own, and Kurt then extended his free hand towards Kitty. She slowly looked up at the three-fingered hand and seemed even more nervous now.

“I don’t bite,” said Kurt. “We’re running out of time, so let’s just drop this shit.”

Kitty slowly reached out with her own hand and allowed Kurt to take it in his own. Light exploded from his body and encompased both Scott and Kitty. Maggie watched as the light was then sucked in suddenly and it vanished just as quickly as it had came, with the three mutants gone with it.

<“What’s this?”> asked the Silver Samurai.

<“I didn’t become one of the most feared assassins in Japan by being a pushover,”> replied Logan.

The Samurai turned to Shingen. Shingen kept his eyes fixed on Wolverine, however, yet he was fully aware that the Samurai was watching him. Without moving, he said, <“What are you waiting for, Kenuchio?”>

The Silver Samurai drew his sword and stepped towards Wolverine. Before he had a chance to get into a stance, Logan pounced. His claws made short work of the Samurai’s armor, and tore into the skin. The Samurai pulled away, and looked down at the wound. Luckily, Logan hadn’t cut too deep.

<“You’re a mutant, I see,”> said the Samurai. Logan made no reply, simply kept in his stance. <“Then, in an instance such as this, the best course seems to be to fight fire…”>

The Samurai pulled his sword back, and Logan watched as the blade began to glow brightly. Although his face remained expressionless, in truth, Logan was extremely surprised by this turn of events. He hadn’t counted on the fact that Shingen’s best assassin may be, in fact, a mutant as well.

<“With fire!”> as the Samurai spoke, he lifted his blade up, which was now glowing brightly with energy, and slashed forward. Beams of energy shot forth from the blade, beams which caught Logan by surprise and connected with his body. The beams were strong, but his healing factor was already combatting the effects they had on him. He stood up with his claws bared and leapt for the Samurai once more. This time, his claws connected with the blade—and sliced through it. The sword was ruined, and Logan went for another attack, driving his foot into the wound he had inflicted on the Samurai earlier. Harada’s nerves exploded with pain at this, and Logan followed it up by leaping over Harada’s shoulders and slamming his claws into the warrior’s back. He pulled his claws out and kicked the freshly-made wound, causing the Samurai even more pain. The Samurai spun to face Logan, just in time to see Logan’s claws coming right for his throat. The center claw suddenly retracted and the two outer claws barely grazed his neck as they pinned him to the wall. Harada watched carefully, and he could see a wound beginning to form between Logan’s third and forth knuckles, and the glint of adamantium as the center claw slowly began to poke out.

<“I think that will be quite enough,”> said Shingen. <“Release him.”>

Logan retracted his claws and kneed Harada in the groin. The Samurai keeled over in pain and fell to the ground. Logan approached Shingen and bowed before him. Shingen stood, his arms folded and a stern expression on his face.

<“Very impressive, my friend,”> he said. <“I think you’ve more than proven your worth to me. Congratulations Logan, you’re hired.”>

Light exploded and suddenly sucked inward, forming three silhouettes. The majority of the light was absorbed into the jet-black skin of Kurt Darkholme, with Kitty Pryde and Scott Summers linked to him by hands. He released their hands the instant the light vanished, and Scott instantly recognized the scent of cigar smoke. At first, he assumed it belonged to Logan, but then he saw the head of Project: X-MEN sitting in a chair before him, with a cigar perched between his lips. He was a black man, bald headed, with a goatee, and an eyepatch over his left eye. His name was Colonel Nick Fury, the Director of SHIELD. Standing around him, in full uniform, were Scott’s teammates in the X-Men. Kurt walked over and stood by his sister, Rogue’s, side.

“Okay Cyclops,” he said. “Xavier’s comatose, Storm’s missing, Wolverine’s off on assignment, half my troops are scouring the world for Al-Quaeda cells, and if that wasn’t enough, now I’ve got some hacker calling himself Arcade screwing around with the already fucked up stock market. As you can no doubt tell, I’m not very pleased.”

Scott sighed before speaking.

“Colonel Fury, meet Kitty Pryde,” he said. “She can explain Arcade.”

Fury looked at Kitty with his good eye, but no expression came over his face. He took another drag on the cigar before removing it from his mouth and blowing smoke out his nose. He held the cigar between two fingers before finally speaking.

“You’ve got ten minutes, girl,” said Fury. “Make ’em good.”

“Okay…” said Kitty. “You see… this Arcade guy… the thing is, he’s a hacker. And he’s really good. And now, he’s messing around with the stock market because… I dunno, because he wants money, I guess. Or maybe he’s just doing it for kicks. But in order to do something like that, it means he would have to create a bunch of different viruses to cause such a wide collapse. And I know who he is. Well… sort of, I know what he looks like, and I used to talk to him online.”

“Do you know his real name?” asked Fury.

“Well… no…” replied Kitty.

“Do you know where he lives?”

“Not exactly…”

“So, what you’re telling me is that you know what this guy looks like, and you’re his online buddy?”

“Basically.”

“Tell me this, then,” said Fury. “Without any positive ID, how the hell is that supposed to help us?”

“Well…”

“You’ve just wasted my time, Pryde,” said Fury. “Time that could’ve been better spent on divising a way to stop this whack-job. Get her out of my sight, Nightcrawler.”

Kurt began to step towards Kitty before she spoke up once more, “I’m not finished!”

“I beg your pardon?” asked Fury.

“I said I’m not finished,” replied Kitty. Fury stood from his chair and stepped forward, taking another drag on his cigar and looking right down at her. Her once stern expression began to quickly soften.

“Wow… didn’t realize how big you were…”

“If you’re not finished, then you better damn-well finish,” said Fury. “And you better make it damn quick.”

“I know how to stop him.”

“How’s that?” asked Fury. “You think I’m gonna be able to track down a guy based on appearence alone?”

“No,” said Kitty. “If you caught him, it wouldn’t undo the damage that’s been done. I know how to stop his viruses.”

“And how do you figure that?” asked Fury.

“Because…” she replied. “Because I just do.”

“How do you know how to stop his viruses?”

Kitty turned away from him and folded her arms across her chest. She looked down for a few moments, and strands of brown hair fell over her face. She slowly looked over her shoulder at Fury.

“You need to promise me that nothing’ll happen to me,” she said. “That no one will touch me.”

“Done,” said Fury.

“And when I say no one, I mean no one,” she continued. “Not even your people.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Fury.

“Just promise me,” she replied.

Fury considered this for a moment, and then thought of how much more damage Arcade may have done since this conversation began. He realized that it wasn’t worth it to play any games.

“Fine, I promise,” he said. “Now, how do you know about these viruses?”

“Because I created them.”