The X Team: Book One

Ch. 8

Kai and his friends quickly left the scene, so as to not get caught again. They walked from street to street, looking for Kiki. They passed the police station, the post office, Club Coffee, and even the Goldspring National Bank. However, no one had spotted Kiki.
  It wasn't until they reached the hospital that Kai stopped someone atop the roof. Kai felt those same eyes on him from earlier when they escaped the factory.
  Then, a booming voice came from the roof of the hospital.
  "So, you're Kiki's little buddy huh?"
  Kai swiftly turned around and looked up. Suddenly, the hospital seemed to explode from the inside. The figure on top of the roof casually fell from the roof, as if they wanted to fall. Despite this, Kai immediately rushed over to catch the falling person.
  He caught them in his arms, and fell to his knees. The person looked up.
  "Hiya...Kai." Kai dropped the person, as he looked shocked.
  "You're not Kiki..." he said.
  "Well duh!" the six-tailed vixen replied.
  "I know you did something with her, where is she?!"
  "Why, she's right here!" the vixen pointed to her head. Kai's dull expression didn't change. 
  "Oh great, I'm going to have to explain everything, aren't I?"
  "You better..." Marph said.
  "Fine!" the vixen angrily huffed.
  "I'm Raven, Kiki's best friend! Well, until about a couple four hundred years ago...You guys do know that kitsune can live for hundreds of years right?" no one responded.
  "I'll take that as a yes! Anyway, I had some vixens who constantly bullied me...Holy Inari it was so annoying! So when I saw them bullying Kiki, I decided to take action...by attempting to murder them of course!" Raven said nonchalantly. The whole team looked disgusted, confused, and shocked. How could she just tell them this story like she did nothing wrong?
  "Anyway, I was banished from entering Inari's kingdom, and if I did, I would be killed. I mean, how unfair is that?! I was just trying to protect my best friend!" Raven whined. "Later on, I met a new friend, and we created a plan to ruin Kiki!"
  "Basically, I possessed her, but it went wrong. However, now that I'm in control of her body, I can do whatever I want!" Kai and the others stared at Raven, heart broken, not for her, but for Kiki.
  "How...how do we g-get  Kiki b-back?" Adam asked.
  "Only Queen Inari's presence will drive Raven away! She's a Nogitsune, and they hate her. She'll flee, but I don't know if Raven will be gone completely..." Nova said. The others hadn't noticed that Raven was leaning into their group huddle. Nova jumped back as soon as she saw Raven.
"Oops! Was I not supposed to hear that? Well, too bad for you guys! Cause I hear Inari still rambling on at that grand meeting she holds every six months. So then, who wants to burn first?" Raven let fire flow from her tails and it caught onto Delta's wings. Delta screamed as her wings began to burn.
  "We have a winner!" Raven shouted.
  Kai quickly diminished the fire by controlling it.
  "Boo! You're no fun Kai!" Raven teased.
  "And you're sick!" he snapped back.
  "Oh boo-hoo! Did you really think that'd make me cry or somethin?"
  Kai pulled out one of his swords and swung it at Raven, but she quickly leaped out of the way, now in her kitsune form.
  "You know I was really hoping we wouldn't have to get violent, but you asked for it!" she snarled out. She kept at Kai, who teleported away.
  "You really thought that's work?" Raven looked up as she was now on the ground.
  "No, but this next trick is going to work!" Kai immediately spun around to be faced with a second Raven. She electrified him, and as he crumbled, the first Raven looked behind her back, flicking her orange tails.
  "Who's next?" she asked.
   Nova swung her scepter at the vixen, who flew in the air.
  "You guys do know kitsune can also fly right?" 
  "Well I can too!" Nova said. She flipped a switch on her boots that allowed to float in the air. Then, she flew after the first Raven, but Nova was overpowered by her. As soon as Nova made contact with the original Raven, she became invisible.
The second Raven attacked Delta, Marph and Adam by firing balls of fire out her tails. Marph controlled the balls of fire, and threw them back at Raven number 2. She quickly dodged, and multiplied into two more Ravens, so that each of the five friends had to fight off their own Raven.
  "Isn't this great?!" one of the Ravens said.
  "I get to practice using my new power of making physical illusions on you guys!" all three Ravens said to the trio.
  As Kai and Nova fought off their Ravens, so did Delta, Marph and Adam.
  Adam was getting beat up badly. He knew that I'd he used his power, he may end up killing Kiki accidentally.
  The group lost track of who the real Raven was, and Kai had to slash at each of the five Ravens to figure out which was the real one.
  It was difficult trying to attack a yoki, so Kai used his ice powers to trap each Raven into a block of ice. Eventually, four of the Ravens vanished and the remaining one melted the ice trapping her. She panted and wheezed.
  "Getting tired already?" Kai asked tauntingly. Raven's head shot up as she shapeshifted into her human form.
  "You really thought a divine being like me gets tired that easily? Ha! You're a fool..."
  Kai teleported and pinned down Raven.
  "We can't just wait for Inari! One of us has to go to her!" Kai instructed.
  "That's not happening!" Raven said as she multiplied again. The other Ravens attacked their targets, and the original attacked Kai.
  "How are we supposed to defeat her if she keeps making physical illusions of herself?!" Delta shouted.
  "YOU CAN'T DEFEAT ME! THAT'S THE THING!" Every Raven screeched. "YOU GUYS ARE WASTING MY TIME, I'M GOING TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" The Raven attacking Kai turned into her kitsune form and raised her claws, aiming for Kai's throat.
  "I WOULDN'T BE SO SURE ABOUT THAT IF I WERE YOU!"
  Suddenly a vixen appeared out of nowhere, her voice booming. Each Raven froze as they heard those words.
  "Q...QUEEN INARI?!" Raven immediately took back her illusions, and leap off Kai, backing away.
  "H-how...n-n-nice to s-s-see you you..." Raven squeaked. Inari screamed at Raven.
  "YOU LEAVE MY DAUGHTER AND HER FRIENDS ALONE THIS INSTANT! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU VERMIN! LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW."
  Raven started violently shaking her head and screaming. She twisted and flailed. Her orange fur turned a light golden color, and her yellow eyes turned blue.
  Kiki screamed and cried out as if she were in pain. Queen Inari laid herself next to her daughter and wrapped all ten tails around her.
  "Shhh...she is gone, my darling...be quiet now..."
  "I-I-I didn't...w-want to do it! I-I'm so sorry! Sh-she burned ev-everything!" Kiki kept weeping as her friends surrounded her. She turned into her human form and put her arms around Kai. Kai froze, but gently put his arms around Kiki too. The others gathered around them, forming a group hug.
  "I will deal with everything, don't worry. Kiki, go back to the palace and everyone else go back to your homes. Adam, I will escort you back to your home," Inari said.
  "But...how'd you-"
  "Don't question how I know, just follow my instructions."
  Adam nodded, then Queen Inari transformed into her human form, her ears and tails weren't showing.
  "And don't worry about your identities being exposed, I placed an illusion over your team Kiki." Kiki nodded in response, and she was teleported away by her mother back to the palace. Then, the rest of the team went back to their homes, unsure if they would ever recover from this experience.

~