"Nagi?"
Homura Nagi jolted on hearing that dark voice, and then he turned slowly around to gaze on the reborn Obsidian Lord. Both were standing in the library of the Fuuwa Academy. In the background, the large floor clock was frozen still. They were alone. "Yes, my lord? What ails you today?" he asked in his usual mocking voice.
The eyes of Kanzaki Reito narrowed as the creature within him seethed on noting the way his nominal subordinate was speaking to him. "How did this happen?"
"May I ask what you're talking about?"
"Tokiha Mai. How did she gain the power of Shazam?"
Nagi stopped, his eyes going wide as the name of the original Champion of the Gods echoed in his ears, that now being associated in the eyes of the Obsidian Lord with the most powerful of the HiMEs. "What?!" he cried out. "Since when?!"
"Since just now," Reito declared before he beckoned Nagi to follow him.
The two men walked out of the library and into the academic building that hosted the high school-level classes. Stepping upstairs to walk into the Academy Student Executive Committee's meeting room, they stopped at the doorway, looking in to see a considerable crowd standing there, all their eyes fixed on the television. Many of them were from Tokiha Mai's homeroom class, Nagi was quick to note. "Yukino, are you sure that Lady Marvel girl looks like Tokiha?!" Tate Yuuichi asked as he turned to gaze on Kikukawa Yukino. "I don't see the resemblance!"
"Neither do I," Suzushiro Haruka noted, she standing at the front of the crowd nearest to the television. "Granted, if she actually was Lady Marvel . . . "
"Maybe she could go out and find out what with the weird things that've been happening in this place," Yuuichi mused.
"That would be nice," another student noted.
Laughter filled the room. "Speaking of which, where is Mai-chan anyway?" Senou Aoi wondered as she looked around the room.
Harada Chie shrugged. "She's probably out looking for Mikoto-chan. You know how that cat girl tends to go wander about instead of staying in classes like she should."
The others hummed knowingly, several of them laughing. Everyone who knew Tokiha Mai all knew how much she always loved to dote over Minagi Mikoto, something that had been happening since the day the two women had met on the ferry to Fuuka-jima when they first transferred into the Academy. "Still, one must admit this day is a cause for celebration," Fujino Shizuru noted from her place at the head of the room, she enjoying a cup of tea. "That we now have people as blessed as Lady Marvel and her friends amongst us now, things in this country should start picking up again."
"Hey, that's true," one of the boys stated. "The first superheroes in America started appearing just after the Great Depression, just before they got involved in the Second World War. Maybe this is a good sign."
"Maybe not," Yuuichi, ever the pessimist, warned. "With superheroes come supervillains, remember? You think things are bad around these parts now? What happens if some evil character with the same power as Lady Marvel or any of those other heroes who showed up this morning decided to start making life hell for whomever struck their fancy?" A pause. "If things aren't bad enough now around this place, imagine what it could be like anytime in the future?"
"That is something to think about," Yukino mused. "But from what I've heard, many American superheroes take inspiration from that manga character of theirs, Spider-Man. How with great power comes greater responsibility." A shrug. "I'm sure Lady Marvel and her friends must feel the same way. And the Sailor Senshi over in Azabu-Juuban have always acted that way. What could be wrong with that?"
Everyone stared at the Executive Committee's secretary as they considered what had just been said, and then many people began to nod. "Hey, it's like Fujino-sempai just said! Things are gonna get pretty exciting around this place," Kurauchi Kazuya noted. "It sure beats hearing news about corporate failures and the leaders in North Korea acting like a bunch of total jerks, threatening us with nuclear weapons because they can't even feed their own people!"
"Yeah!" a girl laughed. "This oughta make 'em stay in line!"
More laughter echoed across the room. Watching this, Reito blinked as he fought down the urge to scowl. This was not the situation the Obsidian Lord wanted to face when it came time to seize control of the upcoming HiME Festival and finally gain the prize he had sought for over the centuries. Like the HiMEs in the room -- Fujino Shizuru and Kikukawa Yukino, he knew of -- he could see the truth behind the woman standing currently in old Edo calling herself "Lady Marvel." And since she had possession of the Child who had defeated the Obsidian Lord three centuries before -- that tacked onto the awesome gift that meddling old wizard Shazam had just bequeathed her . . .!
Yes, things were not going as he had hoped.
"This is a potential disaster, Mister Chairman."
Joseph Searrs' eyes narrowed as he took in that statement, and then he gazed on the Foundation's other senior executives in their private meeting room. "Has Greer's android found out the identity of this woman?" he demanded.
"Yes, sir. It was just confirmed by agent Miyu," a radio operator -- a soldier of the Searrs Foundation's private army -- called out from his station. "Lady Marvel is definitely Mai Tokiha. Ninety-nine-point-eight percent visual confirmation."
"I see," the chairman mused, his eyes closing as he took in that news. "What is our intelligence on this woman?" he then demanded.
The executive in charge of the Foundation's secret intelligence wing stood up to make his report. He had briefed himself on all the HiMEs of Fuuwa whose existence the Foundation had confirmed through their agents planted inside Japan's First Division. "She was brought to the Academy on a scholarship arranged by the Crystal Princess herself. She lost her mother when she was a child, pretty much like Natsuki Kuga. And it turns out that she has a younger brother, Takumi Tokiha. He's a junior high student at the Academy now. He also suffers from various heart problems; they're being treated at the Fuuwa Hospital, with arrangements being made to see him eventually transferred stateside for further treatment. All of it paid for through the Kazahana Scholarship fund." He paused before he added, "A perfect hostage."
"We will keep that in mind," Searrs noted . . .
"Stupid old man," a sergeant, one of the watch commanders of the Specialised Warfare Observation Unit (New York City), based at the Canadian consulate in the heart of Manhattan, muttered as he took in the audio-visual feed being drawn into their computers from spy units posted inside the Searrs Foundation Tower. "Once this news gets upstairs, you and your whole organisation are gonna be hanged out to dry."
The others in the room stared at their watch leader, and then they nodded before they turned their attention back to their own equipment. Ever since the Specialised Warfare Regiment had learned of the Searrs Foundation's existence back in the mid-1950s, the latter organisation had always rode high in the ranks of non-governmental groups which were perceived as potential active threats to the "peace, order and good government" promised in the founding document of the Dominion of Canada to all of her citizens. After all, it was the very rare organisation which could call on its own battle fleet (equipped with an aircraft carrier of all things!) and a fair-sized light armoured, amphibiously deployed brigade group to press its own ends.
Thanks to the Regiment's very high standards for potential new recruits -- a full telepathic/empathic scan done by senior psionics in Intelligence, plus a magical scan by a master wizard (and all that atop the more "normal" security procedures done by Security Squadron) -- attempts by the Foundation (and other organisations) to learn any of the juicy secrets buried under the mountains of Ellesmere Island had always died before they could get off the ground. Potential recruits who were being used as "Trojan horse" infiltrators to get inside the Regiment were caught ahead of time, then mind-wiped of whatever they did know and sent on their way into the regular military. Atop that, special intelligence (inside Canada) and observation (outside Canada) teams were deployed to begin a thorough investigation on what such organisations ultimately might want with whatever the Regiment had under its control.
The Foundation's true nature had been discovered shortly after the first such "Trojan horse" spy had been exposed to the Regiment.
The sergeant shook his head. That secret societies of people dedicated to one specific cause or another existed in the shadows of society, beyond the gaze of most normal people, had been a fact of life for humanity since the dawn of history. While such groups often attracted potential enemies, it was a stupid thing to make it seem as if all of them were by nature evil. The Regiment had, over the past few decades, made strategic secret alliances with some of these groups; les Soldats of Western Europe being one such prominent organization. It was that approach which also allowed Canada's primary asymmetrical warfare defence/combat unit to forge quiet alliances with almost all of the world's main intelligence agencies, usually through the auspices of the Vatican's own intelligence agencies and their allies worldwide.
The only stipulation on such agreements, the Regiment had always insisted on since day one, was that the unique technology buried inside the frozen soil of Ellesmere Island would not be transferred out until such time as the recipient's host society could actually take their introduction without facing any major destabilizing effects.
Most of the Regiment's friends worldwide long understood that.
The Searrs Foundation had not been up to that challenge, though. Its goal was plain for anyone with eyes to see: eventual world conquest -- the ushering in of their "Golden Millennium" project -- and total control of humanity through subverting governments in key areas, resorting to business terrorism and even armed intervention whenever things could be easily tipped into their favour and such acts were seen as "warranted" by their own weird standards. And with the rise of metahumans throughout various parts of the world -- especially in the United States and Japan -- it didn't take a rocket scientist to realise what the Foundation's goals towards them might be: control them if possible, destroy them if they couldn't.
The young HiMEs of Fuuwa were just ripe for the Foundation to grab.
Won't happen, the sergeant mused to himself before he looked over his shoulder. "Send to Regiment for the Colonel's attention, copy to S.W.O.U. Tokyo and S.W.L.O. Washington, top secret, special code-word 'Magic,'" he then ordered. "'Searrs now aware of the identity of Lady Marvel. Now moving to take Takumi Tokiha hostage to make Lady Marvel do their bidding and influence the upcoming HiME Festival on Fuuwa. Recommend all interested agencies be informed for appropriate action.'"
"Roger that, Sarge," the corporal manning the communications gear replied before he turned to type out the message and send it off.
"You think it might go all the way to a black flag op, Sergeant?" the master corporal who was the second-in-command of this detail then asked.
"Sure bet, Scott," the sergeant replied. "Waller's gonna hit the roof and go through it when we give her the lowdown on these snakes. And I know DEFRON NINE's on call for any sort of operation in the Pacific area."
The master corporal jerked. Ninth Specialised Warfare Defence Squadron -- SPECWARDEFRON NINE in military shorthand -- were the people tasked normally to protect British Columbia, Alberta and the Yukon from threats of a paranormal or metahuman nature. They were, as everyone else in the Regiment knew, quite passionate when it came to doing their jobs. "Hope those idiots in the Searrs' army have their wills written out," he then muttered before turning back to his machine.
"Got that right," the sergeant mused, and then he remembered something. "Oh, Corporal?"
"Yeah, Sarge?"
"Get a copy of that message to our friend in Gotham, will you?"
A wink. "Already ahead of you, Sarge."
"Good man."
Minutes later, a ding! was heard in the writing room of a stately manor to the north of Gotham City. Stepping into the room, a certain English butler walked over to the fax machine, he gazing on the message written on the screen over the keypad. The code number "229766" was flashing there. That, if one looked on your normal typewriter or computer keyboard, would correspond to the letters S-W-O-U-N-Y. Alfred Pennyworth knew what that particular set of letters meant.
Though Alfred had not personally worked with members of the Specialised Warfare Regiment's pre-1968 Unification incarnation, the Canadian Joint Service Specialised Warfare Unit, during his time in Her Majesty's secret service, the former MI6 agent did know of the Regiment and its reputation among the world's various paranormal agencies. He had not revealed it to Master Bruce, though -- until Master Bruce himself had discovered the Canadian formation's existence in his first year as Batman. Once that had happened and the Regiment's leaders felt it only right and proper to bring the Dark Knight Detective into the "fold," Alfred told his current employer everything he knew.
Even tales of the Regiment's legendary founder and the small band of warriors she had created during the Second World War, the War Hawks.
The fax machine clicked on, it printing out one page. Alfred waited until it printed out, and then he moved to scan the message there. His eyebrow then arched before he frowned. Oh, dear!
Master Bruce would not be pleased to learn of this.
So now we . . .
(Posted Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:24)
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