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Alex Reij Part Three
Suspicions and Explosions
By Jod
Original story by: Deiru

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The plot thickens, the writers get worse and we generally start enjoying
ourselves!
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"Wha? Wha 're you?" Speech was still being quite hard for me, my tongue had
swollen, next to the fact that my muscles seemed to be having a nice
barbecue of their own, not to mention that my lungs still weren't getting
much better. But at least I could move a bit, as I tried out.

"Please, I don't think you should move." The woman said, scrutinising me
with those eyes of her. I noticed they were bright yellow. Cybernetics or
lenses? Gotta remember that sometime later. Who was she? I remembered
seeing her once. She wasn't exactly pretty, lacking a lot in the make up
and clean department. If she'd just give me one small little hint who she
was! I would know if I could trust her or splatter her brains over the
pavement.

"So, how are you feeling? I'm Yoshida Rika, I live in the cabin beneath
you." She said with a little smile. All right, so sometimes I do get
answers for my questions. I still think the universe is against me
sometimes. Yup, now that she said so, I'd seen her sometimes on ground
level. But being a cop in this crime-ridden city, I've got to keep flexible
working hours next to a flexible life expectancy.

I slowly tried to stand up, ignoring her cries of protest. My muscles
screamed their protest at me, but after a long and painful struggle I
managed to stand. Rika looked at me quite indignantly, but helped me stand
when I almost lost my balance. She looked at me rather offended. "I am a
doctor you know, so when I say you shouldn't move you should listen to me
you know." She went on like that while we slowly made our way to our
collective 'rack'.

"So, if ya a doctor, wha'cha doing in a cabin rack like this ey?" I said
when we had reached my cabin. It wasn't much, but it was home. Crap, it was
practically nothing. A bed that took up most of the space, an
ultrawave/washing machine/shower combination (Don't ask. It's one of those
space-saving inventions. Sometimes you get a fresh clean and soaked
microwave dinner but at least I've managed not to get toasted while
showering.) and a few shelves with personal possessions. 
She blushed at my question and murmured something me regaining my wits too
fast, then replied: "Well, ermmmm, I kinda got fired. Sort of." She quickly
glossed over that little fact. "Now you lie down and get some rest. You
seriously need some." Taking advantage of my weakened state, she pushed me
down on my bed, ignoring my protests. "Hey, I ain't no piece of meat you
can throw where you want it you know!" It came out much more like a whine
then like a serious protest, and all she did was giving me an arch little
smile proving the contrary. "You just lie down - * WHUMP * "take of your
shoes" * two soft swishes as my shoes came loose * "and just relax a bit."
I didn't exactly enjoy being treated like a puppet - not that kind of type
- but there wasn't much that I could do about it. As I laid there listening
to her talking to me, I felt sleep taking over, bit by bit. My last
thoughts were about the BLAST in my hand, and why I didn't feel any of it now.

"You know, you're busted up pretty good pal. Especially that hand of yours.
Really eery kinda blue too, like it doesn't contain any warmth anymore.
You're not on any sort of drugs or something, are-" Rika was interrupted by
a loud snore coming from her 'patient'. Well at least he was getting some
of that much needed rest. Might have stayed awake to answer her question
though. She sighed. She sure hoped that this guy wasn't a drug addict.
'Would be typical for you girl, finally meeting this cute guy who turns out
to be some kinda cop on a prototype combat drugs. Typical."

Yoshi groaned slightly as he tested out his arm. It still ached a lot, as
if he'd done nothing but use it all day. New-age science really did a nice
job on patching people up but the government was too greedy to pay for the
full operation, instead paying only the main operation, and leaving the
finishing off to the officers own devising. Ah well, could be worse. He'd
heard that in Korea the officers get no medical help _ whatsoever _. He
shuddered at the thought and wondered what kind of state he'd be in every
time he got busted up on another mission with Alex.
Alex. He kept thinking about how he had acted. Now that the crimson clouds
of pain no longer clouded his mind, he could re-assemble the whole
scenario. And Alex most definitely acted weird. He had got a glance at his
partner's hand too. He didn't notice it then, but later... it stood out. He
always remembered details from missions crystal clear. Sometimes they were
pointless, sometimes not. That blue hand coupled with his strange behaviour
surely wasn't pointless. 'Better go get some info from a doc. Discreetly,
he's my partner 'course'.


Alex woke up in a what could be best described as
"Just-have-had-terrible-nightmare"-scenario. He was sweating all over, his
mouth was dry and it took at least half a minute before he realised where
he was and how he had come here. He punched a button next to his bed and
the lights flashed on. Too bright, as usual. 'Damn. Hoped it was just a bad
dream.' Alex looked at his hand, which was still the eery kind of blue. It
felt very cold tool but otherwise okay. He could still do everything with
it. Slowly putting on several bits of his uniform, he wondered on how he'd
conceal his hand from his colleagues at the office. After some serious
thinking, he thought about the leather gloves of his father and started of
searching for them. That was when he noticed that everything in his room
was moved. It was... ordered. Cleaned. Groaning, he started his prolonged
search for his gloves. 'Damn that woman! Did I _ ask _ her to clean up my
room? Looks better though' Finally finding my gloves I put them on. Perfect
fit. Real leather too, almost priceless in this day and age. 'Dad? Why did
you have to leave me with an image I can never live up to? I can't follow
your footsteps, they're too damn big!' Repressing a growing headache, I
stepped out of the door towards my work. I could already feel the need for
BLAST starting to grow in me. How was I going to get some more? Maybe ask
the chief to be set on cases like the one me and Yoshi last had? That would
be something my father would do?
As I walked towards the subway I was shocked that the thought of repressing
the urge to get BLAST never even entered my head. What the hell did I got
myself into this time?


Two men were walking among one of the worse neighbourhoods of -Tokyo-. They
were both of average length. One was rather fat and carrying an old attaché
case, the other normal in all sizes and shapes. No other things could be
said about them, as they were just wearing street clothing. One nodded to
the other as they approached the strangely absurd wreck of an AV who had
landed nose-down in a car. As they walked towards it, they could hear the
high-pitched voices of little children playing cops and robbers in it. The
fat man smiled slightly at the sight of such innocence in a debaucherous
city such as this. Then one kid fell of the left wing of the AV, hitting
the ground with a soft thud. They glanced at each other and gave a curt nod.
"Say, little boy, where did this AV came from?" The little boy, ten years
old, glanced at the fat man standing before him with a friendly smile. He
licked at little scratch on his hand while he stood up. "It came down
crashing from the ground mister. Some psycho had this reaaaaaaaly big gun
and shot it. Then it got down and these two good cops came down and started
shooting with them, and he died." His friends were gathering around him and
stared at the two men listening intently. The normal of the pair addressed
him, as the fat man was inspecting the crash and opened his case, taking
out a black small device. "What did the cops look like?" he said with a
smile, handing out small sweets, which the kids greedily took. While they
were busily ranting to him in hope of more candy, his partner placed the
device on the bottom of the AV and pressed a button. He then walked to his
partner and nodded once more. "Time to go. Alright kids, be good now and
have fun." The normal man said while throwing some candy near the crash.
As they went around a corner the fat man started counting softly under his
breath. "Five, four, three..  " Two seconds of silence, followed with a
thunderous explosion that filled the street in a red glow. "Mission
accomplished. Now let's find this Mr Reij and get some information out of
him."

WHAT WILL BECOME OF ALEX?
WHAT ARE THE TWO MYSTERIOUS MEN DOING?
HAS THE LITTLE BOY SURVIVED THE EXPLOSION ONLY TO DIE OF TETANUS?
WHO _ IS _ WRITING THE NEXT CHAPTER ANYWAY?
FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER.