"You should have stayed away from the West Coast, Shuriken..."

That wasn't exactly the kind of thing Steve Jason wanted to hear at one in the morning. But then again, running at full-speed along the Santa Monica Pier wasn't really one of the activities that he was planning on doing either.

This was supposed to have been a simple late-night visit to the pier. Steve had a very busy week up ahead of him, with a handicap match just around the corner and with a Tag Team Championship match looming very soon after that, and as a result he needed to unwind. An hour of fresh air and a walk along a deserted Santa Monica seemed like the perfect way to do that- and truth be told, for the first fifteen minutes there, it had seemed tranquil, with the Pacific Wheel casting a myriad of beautiful lights over the ocean. Then the assassins showed up.

Or at least that's what Steve had to assume they were. As he ran along the pier in a black jacket, white undershirt and jeans, he was being tailed by three men shrouded in black except for their eyes. Ninja. Steve was no stranger to the legendary Japanese assassins- in fact, he knew more about them than most people in the world- and he had his suspicions about just who had sent them after him. A sudden twang could be heard behind him, and a thin dart whizzed just by his ear. Darts. That suggested the Setsujoku-Kai, and they were most definitely still at odds with Steve.

"Don't let him go off the pier!" he heard a voice behind him as he ran, "The second he hits that water, we've lost him!"

Evidently, they knew about Steve's skill in the water; and that likely meant that there were men at the end of the pier. Sure enough, he could see two shadows at the very edge of the pier, which could have made this more than a little difficult. It looked like there was only going to be one option- and that option was spinning to his right in a myriad of bright blue lights.

The Pacific Wheel. The huge Ferris Wheel towered a good 130 feet up in the air, and so Steve knew he wasn't going to be able to make any kind of escape from off the top of it. But the cars were moving still, and if he moved quick enough, he'd be in a wheel car long before the operatives knew what he was doing. He quickly altered his pace, disappearing into the shadows and darting crouched-down towards the wheel. Suddenly his feet were on steel, and he was running straight up to the wheel itself. One car was rotating around the ground area, and Steve didn't even wait- he barrelled up the ramp and literally hurled himself into the wheel car.

He didn't even poke his head up as the car began its progression up the wheel. He intended to take every second of losing his captors for all he could. He could hear startled shouts, and the scrabbling of men down below.

"Find him! If he gets off that pier, Ekachi is going to have our asses!"

Ekachi. Well, that was a name at least. Whether they were Setsujoku-Kai or not remained to be seen, but the evidence was pointing to yes. Steve lay flat for several more seconds, then slowly popped his head above the car. The wheel was at its apex now, giving him a birds-eye view of not only the pier, but a large chunk of the Los Angeles area. Sure enough, he could make out the three cowled figures looking for him, plus the two on the edge of the pier. It seemed that was all he had to face off against- but even that was too risky. He rose up onto his feet as the wheel car slowly began to descend. He'd only get one shot at this- odds were they'd figure out what he was doing, and he did not want to be on that car when it hit the ground floor again. He slid his feet onto the car railings, gripping the edges with his hands...

"Look! He's on the wheel! Get to the base! Really, the great Avenger should have known better than to corner himself..."

That was it. Time to move. The wheel was at a three o'clock position now- not the best position, but it was the only one Steve had to work with. He looked off to his side and sure enough, it looked like escape would be just within reach. He took one look down at the rays of light dancing on the water below, gritted his teeth, then suddenly took a springing leap off the wheel out over the ocean. Wind began to whip around him as his jacket furled up behind him, and he dropped his arms to his sides and pointed his feet downwards to minimise the damage as much as he could.

Then the sound of splashing water hit his ears, and he disappeared without a trace into the pitch black of the Pacific Ocean.

[FLASH FORWARD]

DATE/TIME: 2:30 AM, Tuesday, February 17, 2009
LOCATION: O'Brien Residence, Los Angeles, California

[CAST]

"Do you douchehammers have any idea what time it is?!?" Dougy McNamara boomed, crashing through the door into Chloe O'Brien's living room.

An hour and a half had passed since Steve's plunge off the Pacific Wheel. The rest of the night had, predictably, been without incident. As soon as Steve hit the dark water, any hopes the assassins had of finding him went out the window. It was too dark to see anything out there in the water, and furthermore, Steve was skilled enough in the water that he could have easily evaded any kind of pursuit. They wouldn't even have been able to follow him or see where he went in the darkness. He was effectively invisible, and that allowed him to escape to shore and leg it straight for Chloe's place.

He'd now managed to get out of his saturated street gear and into a plain gray t-shirt and beige cargo pants, sitting by the electric heater Chloe had set up in the far side of her living room. Now, she was a lawyer, so she was hardly the poor type, her living room having a distinctly modern feel to it, tiled with a black and white color scheme, with expensive-looking leather finery taking up one side of the room in front of a large and expensive-looking LCD TV. Chloe herself sat on that couch not far away from Steve, her brown hair hanging loose and her body concealed in a white baby-doll t-shirt and denim shorts. Standing not far away, his arms crossed, was the stoic figure of Sergei Volkov, clad all in black. Dougy, on the other hand, had come dressed rather ridiculously, in a pale yellow pair of what appeared to be pajamas, with a 'D.M' monogram on the chest, a pair of fuzzy slippers and even a nightcap covering his blond hair.

"Did you come here straight out of bed, Dougy?" Chloe asked mildly.

"Well, I bloody well had to since you rang up fifteen minutes ago going OMG DOUGY WE NEED YOU HERE NOWNOWNOW!"

"Oh, please. You think that's bad? You didn't have Steve jump through your bathroom window- while you were in the shower!"

"Nice." was Sergei's one word contribution to the conversation.

"Alright, so obviously we all need to know what's going on..." Steve addressed the group, stretching out in front of the fire, "I nearly got jumped at 1AM. I was at Santa Monica, and basically five ninja came after me. They didn't explain themselves, they didn't say who they were working for, they just swamped me. Fortunately, I was able to get away from them long enough to hit the water, but I think you get the general idea that this was pretty heavy."

"I hate the way you just shrug off a bunch of masked guys trying to attack you as 'pretty heavy', Steve..." Chloe commented in an uneasy fashion, a concerned look sinking in on her face, "This could be bad."

"I know. I guess I've just been through this crap so many times now that I don't get excitable about it as much as some would..." Steve shrugged, "I guess the first question is- has anybody seem people like this? Stalking your places, talking to you, confronting you, the like? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Not me..." Chloe shook her head.

"I can't say I have."

"I saw a bunch of chicks who were in love with a fictional sparkling homosexual vampire named Edward Cullen..." Dougy informed them, "But other than that, no, nothing too freaky."

Steve nodded. Then he eyed around the group. There were two people from the inner circle missing- but then again, it was early in the morning, so it may not have been too much to worry about. Nevertheless, he raised the question.

"Anyone seen John and Rhiannon? They aren't here."

"Probably getting it on..." Dougy guessed casually.

"Eww. That's my cousin." Steve and Chloe both said in unison.

"No news." Sergei was still on the matter at hand, "Could be they've slept through it, or their phones are dead. Or they might be out of town."

"No point worrying about it, I guess..." Steve shrugged, "Alright then, third and final question. The name 'Ekachi' mean anything to anybody?"

"I don't watch anime."

"Thanks for that, smartarse." Steve told him flatly. He looked around at Sergei and Chloe, who could only shake their heads glumly.

"You don't suppose it might be one of those douchebags trying to bump you off again, do you SJ?" Dougy guessed, "I mean, a lot of people want you out of the way. Famine's got a bee in his bonnet about you, and Chad might finally be getting tired of being tenth-fiddle. Don't suppose it could be an XWF thing?"

"Nah." Steve replied, "I can smell those attacks miles away. This thing stinks of something quite bigger. I'm suspecting that it might be the Setsujoku-Kai. They got smashed by the Richards Conglomerate in that turf war a couple of years back, but they're still out there. That Grand Master of theirs is still calling the shots, which means they're still corrupt and on the wrong side. I'm thinking we might want to talk to our friends in the Kaihou and the White Sages on this one."

"You sure we want to deal with those wackos again?" Dougy raised an eyebrow, "They meddle around too much. Too many strings attached."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"We can handle it on our own, can't we? Between the six of us- if you count Rhiannon and John- we've got a pretty good skill pool on our own. You, John and Sergei are all good operatives in your own right, Chloe's a great brain behind the scene, Rhiannon I'm sure could be of some help, and let's face it, I win at public relations."

"Public relations. You."

"Yeah, mate! I mean, who doesn't like me?"

"He kind of has a point..." Sergei observed ruefully, "The man's an idiot and a drunk, but for some reason people like him."

"Yeah! See! That's exactly what I... hey, fuck you, Stalin!"

"I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here," Chloe interrupted the brewing argument between Dougy and Sergei, "But they have a point, Steve. We really need to sort this one out on our own. No more secret societies. That's how you got into this mess with those ninjas."

"Fair enough." Steve turned to regard the group, "That's what we'll do, then. Now that we know what's going on, you can all head home, but I want to meet up in the next few days to see what we can do to get to the bottom of this. This is all falling into place a little too conveniently for my liking. I come back to wrestling, then I suddenly have to deal with the Kai resurging again. Something's up, and I want to get to the bottom of it."

"Will do. Now, all of you, I'm going to take my leave." Dougy tapped his forehead, "I've got about an hour before a hangover kicks in. I want to be long asleep by then."

"Somebody had better drive your intoxicated ass home, I guess..." Sergei heaved a long-suffering sigh, complete with rolling of the eyes, "Let's get going, then. Steve, Chloe, I'll talk to you later about our problem."

With that having been said, both men made their way towards the door of Chloe's living room, disappearing out towards the main hallway and what would eventually be the outside of the house, leaving Steve and Chloe alone together.

"God, last thing I needed now was this headache..." Steve muttered, sinking into his seat.

"Tell me about it..." Chloe slumped a little before a quiet laugh escaped her, "Not quite the de-stressing you were thinking about, huh?"

"Not really. But I guess it could have been worse. That said, I really need you to get a hold of your cousin as soon as possible."

"Why's that?" Concern suddenly flashed in Chloe's hazel eyes, "You're not concerned she might be involved, are you?"

"Oh, no, no, no, of course not." Steve shook his head at that, "But I was talking with that friend of hers, Ariella, and she was being a bit vague with me. I'm hoping nobody's come around trying to intimidate her. John can probably protect her, but I just want to be sure she's OK. Kind of my duty as a trainer and all."

There was a long silence at that as Steve heaved a pensive sigh, leaning back on the couch. Chloe eyed him thoughtfully, then rose up to her feet.

"You need rest, Steve. You've been through a lot tonight, and the last thing you need is to wear yourself out before this match of yours. You can crash on the couch here if you want."

"Sure about that?" Steve raised an eyebrow slightly, "I mean, this is your place. I can go back to mine, and I don't want to intrude on your privacy..."

"You've already seen me in the shower. I doubt this'd be any worse."

"True." Steve smirked at that, and more than a few comebacks popped into his head- but he decided prudently not to pursue them, "Alright then. G'night, Chloe."

"Good night, Steve."

Then suddenly she disappeared through the door and, with an abrupt click, Steve was alone in the dark.

[CLICK TO CONTINUE]