"Strange to see you here waiting for me."
"I'm not waiting for you personally, Jim," the Batman confessed as he gazed heavenward from the roof of Gotham City police headquarters.
James Gordon blinked confusedly as his costumed ally's words washed over him, and then he sighed, pulling out his pipe and tobacco pouch. Loading the former with some of the contents of the latter, he then moved to light it.
"Commissioner?"
Gordon jolted on hearing that voice, and then he turned left to see a hand holding a pipe lighter, it aflame. The hand was attached to an arm dressed in Arctic-pattern camouflage. Looking back, Gordon saw himself looking at a soldier with reduced-visibility Canadian national flags on his upper arms, the two chevrons-and-maple leaf of a master corporal on his rank slip-on and the letters SWR of C on the unit flash under his rank. His eyes went wide as his previous life's work for one of America's blacker agencies told him the story of his helpful visitor, and then he nodded as he took the lighter to get his pipe going. "Thank you, son."
"The General's compliments, sir," the master corporal then said with a smart salute, a trace of Québécois French in his voice. "You are missed on the Trail."
Hearing that, Gordon laughed, and then he perked as his ears locked in on that curious sound, a mix of jet turbine and desert wind, echoing from somewhere overhead. A Defence Research Canada CY-199 Borealis space-capable research and logistics support aircraft, the flying mainstay of the Specialised Warfare Regiment. So, Batman had some sort of relationship with them, too. Not surprising, the commissioner of Gotham's police mused as he handed the lighter back to the visiting soldier.
During the nightmare of Gotham's "No Man's Land" period, that sound had been quite welcome to those trapped in the island city on New Jersey's Atlantic coast. Despite the quarantine the government in Washington had put on the wrecked metropolis, certain agencies -- to say anything of the governments of America's key allies, including her northern neighbour -- decided that simply abandoning the people of Gotham to the madness of Batman's rogues gallery would not be allowed. And since a CY-199 was the only model of plane capable of spoofing even the most advanced sensory suite available to the American armed forces, it didn't surprise Gordon that Canada's elite asymmetrical combat unit had been asked to perform "mercy drops" of food, medicines and other essentials to people like Doctor Leslie Thompkins in Crime Alley, thus ensuring that when the time came when Lex Luthor forced the end of No Man's Land, there would be many more people in Gotham there to benefit from it.
"M'sieur?"
"Merci, Lieutenant," Batman called out in French as he took a small packet in hand from the other soldier who had just stepped out of the shadows.
Gordon winced on seeing the other visitor from the Great White North. Getting old, Jim, he mused to himself as the lieutenant moved to leave. "SPECWARDEFRON FIVE?" he then asked, a knowing smile crossing his face.
The officer, a troop commander in Cinquième Escadron de la Défense de Guerre Spécialisée, stopped, and then he smiled, responding in heavily accented English. "Yes, sir." A salute, and then he called out, "Caporal-chef!"
"Oui!"
The two soldiers disappeared into the darkness, leaving the commissioner of Gotham's police and the Dark Knight Detective alone. "You know them?" Batman asked.
"Knew of them. Never worked with them personally during my more young and foolish years," Gordon admitted. "After what happened earlier today, the people in this town are going to realise what that noise is." He pointed up in emphasis, where the CY-199 who had brought the two soldiers to Gotham was no doubt hiding in a cloudbank. "Especially if they watched CNN and saw what happened in that oddball part of Tokyo with those aliens."
"I know."
"Ed Mills doesn't strike me as a man to break out of the shadows like that."
"Unfortunately for the colonel, Grigori Wysynski changed all the rules."
Gordon jolted, and then his eyes went wide. "You mean that Destructo guy . . .?" he began before his jaw dropped in shock. "My God! You mean . . . "
"He used to be part of them. Was one of the senior-most civilians working for the old Unit after it was reorganized by Dean Raeburn after her little discovery." Here, Batman didn't say more; he knew Gordon would understand what he meant. "He retired twenty-two years ago, then totally disappeared. And then he appeared again last night, possessing perhaps one of the single greatest powers in the known Universe." He gazed knowingly at his ally. "And he was a witness to the Holocaust. A witness to its darkest episode, one that has never seen the light of day in history books. And with what he learned under Raeburn after the war, his motivations now make sense."
Gordon considered that for a moment, and then he stared once more at Batman. "I remember hearing a rumour about an operation plan Raeburn came up with when she commanded the War Hawks. If it had been executed . . . "
"World War Two -- both the European and Pacific sides of the war -- would've ended nearly three years earlier," Batman finished for his friend. "And Wysynski knows that." His mouth narrowed into a grim slash. "Right now, those organisations out there who might be contemplating walking down the path Hitler and his allies took sixty years ago could potentially face a revised version of Phoenix Thunder. One of them just came to my attention tonight. I'll be gone for a while dealing with it. Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin will deal with problems in town while I'm gone."
He drew out his grappling line, fired it out onto a nearby building, and then he swung out into the evening. Gordon watched him go, and then he nodded. "Be careful, Bruce," he whispered. "If it's something the Regiment's also interested in . . . "
Fuuka-jima . . .
Yuuki Nao walked down the path towards the beautiful flower garden set out some distance from the main cluster of buildings owned by the Fuuka Academy. A scowl is on the man-hunter's face as she considered what she had found slipped under the door when she had got back from afternoon classes, preparing for another night on the town. An envelope with her name on it, a note folded inside.
When she had read it, it nearly floored her:
Nao-chan,
If you want to learn the truth of why you're a HiME and how you gained possession of Julia -- the truth that has been kept secret from you all this time -- meet me and the other HiMEs at . . .
The letter hadn't been signed.
At first, Nao thought it had been that creepy Homura Nagi, the middle school-aged boy who had first told her the truth of her powers and her Child when they had awakened shortly after she started attending the Academy in the wake of her mother's rape and hospitalisation. But then, the phrase the truth that has been kept secret from you all this time came to her. While she hadn't been fighting those weird Orphans like some of the other HiMEs had probably been doing, she did know why the HiMEs had been gathered on Fuuka; the Headmistress had told her that personally.
Stepping out of the forest into the clear area close to the small pavilion in the middle of the garden, she then stopped on seeing eleven other people standing under the pavilion's dome. Instantly recognising most of them there, she walked over, she moving to draw out her Elements in case things got nasty.
"It's alright, Nao-san," Himeno Fumi then spoke up as the others glanced her way. "We're not here to start a fight. Mashiro-sama wouldn't like that to happen."
Nao stopped as she took in all the other women present. She knew of Tokiha Mai and Minagi Mikoto; the two were dorm neighbours and friends of her roommate, Senou Aoi. She knew Kuga Natsuki; the girl had something of a rep among her schoolmates for being a lone wolf. But to add onto that people like Himeno Fumi, Fujino Shizuru, Kikukawa Yukino, Higurashi Akane, that naïve nun Sanada Yukariko and . . .?
Hey, wait a minute!
Wasn't Okuzaki Akira supposed to be a boy?
"The last one's here," Mai then announced. "Great. We can get started."
"Why ask us all together, Tokiha-san?" Akira then asked. "Some of us rather appreciate the anonymity we've had to cloak our lives with."
Mai nodded. "I'm sorry about that, Okuzaki-san. And believe me, if the situation wasn't so serious, so dire, I would've held back and respected your desire to maintain your privacy." She then took a deep breath. "But given the story I have to tell you now, well . . . " She paused. "I only want to tell this once."
"It's that bad?" Shizuru asked.
"It's that bad, Shizuru," Natsuki answered; Mai had told her what she had learned on their trip back from Tokyo. "It's that bad."
"What did you find out, Mai-chan?" Sugiura Midori then wondered.
Mai sighed. "Before we begin, though . . . " She stepped out from under the shadow of the pavilion, she then turning around to face her fellow HiMEs. A deep breath, and then . . .
"SHAZAM!"
The others screamed out as lightning ripped down from the heavens to -- as the few who actually watched it happen -- incinerate Mai. Then, as the flash faded, revealing Lady Marvel, gasps of shocked disbelief burst from the lips of those who had not had the chance to watch the news earlier in the day. "Sorry about that," the World's Mightiest Princess apologised as she walked back under the pavilion roof. "Didn't want to say the word and blow a hole through the roof." She pointed up in emphasis.
"Why reveal yourself to us, then?" Shizuru then asked. "Granted, I -- and I think I'm speaking for Natsuki and Yukino-san as well -- did see you as this while you were in Tokyo, so we knew the connection. But why reveal it to us all?"
"Because we need to demonstrate something that, for some of us, may be very hard to express, Fujino-san," Lady Marvel replied. "Trust."
"Mai . . .!"
Heads turned to see Mikoto ducking behind a hedgerow of flowers some metres away, a panicked look on the younger girl's face. "Mikoto!" Lady Marvel breathed out. "Don't tell me I shocked you when I said the Wizard's name?!"
Mikoto moaned. "That lightning's scary!"
"Mikoto," Lady Marvel then teased. "If you don't get back over here to join us, I won't cook any more of my ramen for you."
"ACK!"
Some of the other HiMEs laughed as Mikoto zipped back over to rejoin them. "You've got a great way of keeping the wildcat tamed, Tokiha," Natsuki noted.
More laughter as Mikoto slipped into the pavilion, and then silence fell as the others stared curiously at their transformed host. "Each of us has the ability to tap into that little red star we see close to the Moon and make use of 'elements' for whatever purpose might happen to suit us," she began. "Along the way, shortly after we came to Fuuka-jima, we gained the ability to control a being called a 'Child' by the man who always came along to inform us of our 'destiny' as HiMEs." Lady Marvel pointed at herself. "Kagutsuchi." Then to Natsuki. "Duran." Mikoto. "Miroku." Nao. "Julia." Akane. "Harry." Akira. "Gennai." Shiho. "Yatagarasu." Yukino. "Diana." Shizuru. "Kiyohime." Yukariko. "Saint Vlas." Midori. "Gakuentou." Fumi. "Suishou." She then pointed up to the pavilion's roof, an eyebrow arching knowingly. "We know whom that is, don't we?"
"Nagi-san," Yukino said. "Mai-san, are you saying . . .?"
"You weren't told the price you have to pay for being a HiME," Lady Marvel finished for her friend. "Or rather, the price the person you love or care for the most will be made to pay should your Child be killed by whatever means. Including combat with another HiME's Child. Which is what Nagi, in his own way, is preparing us for."
Stunned silence.
"Mai-san, could you please explain that," Shizuru beckoned.
Lady Marvel closed her eyes, and then she began.
It took an hour. At the end of it, the other HiMEs save Natsuki looked shell-shocked. "Mai-chan," Midori began, she being the first to regain her voice. "If that's a joke, it's not funny."
A weak smile crossed Lady Marvel's face as she gazed on her teacher. "Did you expect this when you started to do your doctoral thesis, Midori-chan?"
A shake of the head. "Nope."
"So what do we do now?" Shiho wondered, her eyes filling with tears. "I don't want to see Onii-chan killed because of me . . .!"
Sobs escaped her, her knees starting to go. Yukariko and Midori shift over to help her stay up, the nun then moving to comfort the weeping Shiho. "So what do we do?" Akane asked, her own eyes tearing as the implications of what her transformed classmate/co-worker just dropped on their heads began to sank in. "I don't want to fight any of you! I've got nothing against you . . .!"
"Prepare yourselves."
Everyone jolted, they then spinning around to see a familiar figure standing nearby. "Nagi!" Natsuki snarled as her Elements appeared in her hands. Beside her, Shizuru, Akane and Nao also got ready to deliver some punishment of their own. "You've got a lot of explaining to do, buster . . .!"
"And would my words ultimately change anything?" Nagi asked in return as he gave her a look. "Would it bring your mother back, Kuga Natsuki? Would it alter the fact that even if I didn't help each of you bond with your Childs, something might have happened which would have condemned your Keys -- the one each of you loves the most -- into the HiME curse?" He shrugged. "I've witnessed all the HiME Festivals since the first one thousands of years ago. There's no escaping what will happen."
"How can you be so sure?" Nao snarled.
Nagi breathed out. "You've all seen the HiME Star, haven't you?" At their surprised looks, he then laughed. "Of course you have; I pointed it out to each and every one of you when your powers manifested themselves. Do you know that in a short while, that star will start to grow? And when it grows . . . "
"The island here will be pulled into another dimension," Lady Marvel finished, she then looking at Midori. "That's the mystical land of Fuuka you've been investigating all along, where the Orphans -- and our Childs -- ultimately come from. Atop that, that's where the Obsidian Lord lives now. And he wants to come here."
"This thing moving to possess Reito-san?" Shizuru asked.
"Right," the newest heir of Shazam replied. "It's his hope in the long term to find the best of all the HiMEs to become his mate. Hence, the HiME Festival." A pause, and then she breathed out, "Now, I don't know about the rest of you guys, but the idea of actually becoming the wife of some other-dimensional overlord bent on ultimately conquering Earth doesn't really interest me at this time. Nor would it ever interest me. I've got other things to worry about."
"I believe we can all say that, Mai-san," Yukino mused.
"Agreed," Akira spat out. "So what do we do now?"
"The answer's simple," Nao replied. "Kill Kanzaki. If this Obsidian Lord Tokiha just told us about is possessing him, denying him the body . . . "
"Nao-chan, there's one big problem with that plan," Lady Marvel cut in, and then she stared on her roommate. "Reito-san's Mikoto's brother."
Silence.
Mikoto blinked, and then she gazed wide-eyed at her friend. "Ani-ue . . .?"
"Hai, Mikoto-chan. He's your brother." The World's Mightiest Princess then smiled as she reached up to gently take hold of the black orb pendant Mikoto wore around her neck. "Would you mind if I held onto this for a while, Mikoto? I promise I'll give it back to you as soon as we deal with what's possessing your brother."
Mikoto jolted. "But that's something Aniue gave me . . . "
"I won't cook for you anymore."
"URK!"
Several of the HiMEs giggled as Mikoto rapidly nodded her agreement, and then Lady Marvel moved to slip the pendant over her roommate's head. "Even if you do try to guard against that, Mai-chan, will it help in the end?" Nagi asked as he moved to leave. "Even if you do try to use the gifts Shazam gave you, will it stop the Obsidian Lord? Personally, I don't think so. Others have tried in the past. Ask your patron -- ask Fumi-chan here -- how far they've gotten in the long term."
"Interesting revelation you just heard, isn't it, Miyu?"
Miyu Greer, she hidden in the forest close to the pavilion, gasped as she spun around to see a cloaked figure in shadow standing nearby. Instantly, her combat programming kicked in as her left arm morphed into its sword form. Before she could lunge at the person who had just appeared, a telekinetic fist grabbed her and froze her in place. Deep inside the central processors that formed the core of her mind, Miyu felt switches click over, that making her arm and hand morph back to normal. A shocked gasp escaped her as she felt herself let go, and then she dropped to her knees. "How . . .?" she demanded, she staring wide-eyed at the being before her.
"'How,' you ask?" the Doctor wondered as he stepped out the shadows, he gazing knowingly at the android. "I highly suggest you ask your creator where he and the Searrs Foundation obtained the technology to create you first. But before you do that, Miyu, may I also advise you to consider what might happen should you decide to follow your leaders' directives and make war against the HiMEs. After all, they don't have to retaliate against you directly to defeat you and the Foundation."
Miyu's eyes narrowed. "The Foundation will not be stopped. The Golden Millennium will come forth."
The Doctor's smile grew a little wider. "Pity Alyssa will not see it happen."
Miyu's breath caught in her throat as a thunderstruck look crossed her face. "Ojou-sama . . . "
"Exactly," the Doctor replied as he moved to shift back into the shadows. "Why waste the time and energy attacking you or any other part of the Foundation? Going forth and destroying Artemis will condemn Alyssa's father to the same fate any of the HiMEs' Keys might face should their Childs be destroyed. And when that happens, I assure you that this time, there will be no future chances to create your 'Golden Millennium.' Other parties across the world have awoken to the Foundation's true purpose and now are moving to ensure that it faces the fate all things made of Man face in the end."
A pause and then the Doctor all but vanished, his glowing eyes remaining.
"All things made of Man are mortal, Miyu Greer. They die."
The eyes then vanished.
"Choose wisely from this point on, Miyu," the Doctor bade her as his voice started to fade. "Where will your loyalties truly lie when the time comes to face that reality? With your machine programming? Or your human heart?"
Silence fell over the scene as Miyu stared wide-eyed at the place where the Doctor had been . . .
At this point, it's time to . . .
(Posted Sun, 01 Oct 2006 03:05)
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