As he walked slowly back to the dorm after taking the chance to get his homework done, Tokiha Takumi could only frown, his brow creased with worry. He hadn't seen his sister since very early this morning, when the news about Gojira and the kidnapping of Minira from Daikaijuu-jima was broadcast over the television. Like almost everyone else in his class, he had watched the news on a friend's mobile phone as it was broadcast by the strange woman known as Windtalker. And while he hadn't seen the person said by Windtalker to have been associated with the other monster who had come to Niigata to confront the King of Monsters, he had seen the other monster.
A monster Windtalker called "Kagutsuchi."
A monster Windtalker said actually came from Fuuwa-jima.
A monster Takumi personally believed he recognised from the weird dream he had the night he had passed out in the forest after he and Mai came to the Academy. Where he saw Mai gain magical powers of some sort, not to mention control of a great beast of fire and metal, using that to destroy some weird monster from another dimension.
A great beast she called "Kagutsuchi."
And then . . .
Takumi winced as he felt a jolt of pain rip through his chest. Cursing himself -- he just hated suffering from the problems stemming from the accident that had claimed his mother's life -- he reached into his pocket to draw out his pillbox. Dumping his evening dosage into his hand, he swallowed them, and then slipped the box back into his pocket before he moved on ahead.
Where are you, Onee-chan . . .?
Suddenly, a chill warped past Takumi, making him freeze in place as a curious hissing noise tickled his ears. He stopped, his heart firing into his throat as the feeling of thousands of pinpricks of ice danced all over his back. Gulping, he slowly turned to look down the trail he had just passed through from the library building at the other end of the school campus from the dorms. "Wh-who's there?" he sputtered out as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
And then he screamed as a wall of flame-tinged solid black seemed to surge right out of the ground not even a metre away!
"TAKUMI!"
Before he could react, arms clad in red and gold snared him by the waist, and then he found himself literally flying through the air. His breath nearly exploded from his lungs before his vision cleared to see a beautiful woman with hair and eyes the same colour as his sister's, she dressed in a red costume with a gold-trimmed white demicape -- and a gold lightning bolt on her chest.
"Lady Marvel!" he gasped on recognizing the uniform -- and then his eyes went wide as the girl's looks suddenly became all too clear to him. "ONEE-CHAN?!" he shrieked out.
Before the World's Mightiest Princess could respond, gunfire echoed from the woods to either side of the Orphan that had just attacked Tokiha Takumi. Lady Marvel gasped as several of those bullets whizzed very close to her, and then she headed straight up, hoping to get enough altitude away from the shooters on ground level to keep her brother safe. "What's going on here?!" she demanded.
"I don't know!" Takumi called back. "I just coming back from the library worried about you! What happened to you, Onee-chan?! How'd you become . . .?!"
A whooshing sound then was heard, making the siblings spin around to see several bright lights surging out from the forest right at them. "Missiles?!" Lady Marvel screamed out before she turned around to get clear of them.
The missiles quickly swung around as they closed the range between their warheads and the World's Mightiest Princess. "Onee-chan, they gotta be heat-seakers!" Takumi screamed as his transformed sister tried to jinx her way clear.
Lady Marvel's eyes widened. Heat-seekers, huh?! she mused to herself, and then she smirked. "Let's try this, then! KAGUTSUCHI!"
A point in air then exploded in a rolling firestorm. From the heart of that sea of flame, Tokiha Mai's Child flew forth. Lady Marvel dodged around her companion as the missiles slammed into Kagutsuchi's breast plates, exploding harmlessly into a shower of shrapnel which soon burned up being so close to the phoenix-dragon's blazing hot wings. "Sorry about that, Kagutsuchi!" Lady Marvel called out.
The whistle of jets then echoed in her ears. "What's going on down there?!" Natsuki demanded as Duran swung around to hover close to Kagutsuchi. "If those idiots are from First Division, they sure aren't acting like them!"
"They are and they aren't," Batman explained. "They're traitors to the Division, actually working for the Searrs Foundation."
Takumi stared wide-eyed at the Dark Knight Detective, stunned to see that the night guardian of America's infamous Gotham City was actually here in Japan. He then looked at his sister's friend riding a creature that seemed to have a lot in common with Kagutsuchi, and then he turned to gaze at Lady Marvel's costume for a moment before he stared pleadingly at his sister. "Um, Onee-chan, could you please tell me what's going on here?!" he hesitantly asked. "I mean, this isn't . . .!"
"It's a long story, Takumi," Natsuki answered, and then she gasped on seeing the Orphan surge up from the ground, it taking the form of a creature looking like some warped mix between a wolverine, bat and elk. "Gods!" she cried out before her long experience with these things quickly kicked in. "Duran! Load silver cartridge!"
Batman watched as the magazines on Duran's hips opened up, allowing two shells to be rammed into the firing beds of the artillery pieces on the warhound's flanks. Before he could say anything, Natsuki screamed out, "FIRE!"
The weapons roared, sending both shells racing at the Orphan. Midway to target, the cartridges exploded into twin storms of ice shrapnel, they growing in size until they made impact on the Orphan's chest. That staggered the creature, it then being flung back down towards ground level, though it still managed to stay airborne.
Before Natsuki could order a reload, several more missiles erupted from the forest, zooming right at the flying warriors and their Childs. Staring at them, Lady Marvel then gasped as the Wisdom chimed in a dreaded warning. "Natsuki, get clear! Those are anti-Child missiles! If they hit Duran, he'll be killed!"
Natsuki gasped as Mai's warning hit home, and then she screamed out, "Duran, up!"
The warhound howled as he zoomed for altitude. The missiles streaking for them broke in half, with one group racing at Kagutsuchi, the other for Duran. "Oh, no, you don't!" Lady Marvel screamed out as she moved to intercept them.
"Mind if I help out?!"
She gasped as a familiar figure in red-and-blue appeared beside her. "Superman!"
"What are you doing here?" Batman demanded.
"I followed you, believe it or not!" the Man of Steel said before his eyes lit up.
Bolts of heat vision seared down to impact the missile warheads coming their way. As they exploded still some distance from their targets, Superman turned to hold out his hands for Takumi. "Here, son! I think the Lady needs her hands free!"
"You can't fly him up to the Borealis in orbit, unless it can dive down to join us," Batman warned. "It's the only safe place for him right now."
"WHAT?!" Lady Marvel shrieked out. "What are you saying?!"
"This whole action has been rigged to target your brother, Mai," the Dark Knight of Gotham replied. "The Foundation knows your identity as Lady Marvel. By taking Takumi hostage, they hope to force you to do their bidding."
"What?!" Takumi cried out. "What Foundation?! What's going on . . .?!"
"Wait a minute!" Superman cut in, he peering at the forest where the First Division attackers currently lurked. "Batman, who are all those troops in the forest?"
"Friends of mine," Batman replied as he drew out his communicator. "Dark Knight to Castle Nine. Are you in position?"
"We got the drop on the gomers, Knight," Chris Lightholler's voice called back. "But we need a little distraction if we're gonna take them alive and breathing. Can you get your friend with the wolf to send some flare shots our way?"
"Easy as pie!" Natsuki declared with a laugh. "DURAN! LOAD FLARE CARTRIDGE!"
Seconds later, a bright light exploded over the forest, blinding the men on the ground. That was more than enough to allow the sixty Canadian soldiers lurking nearby to leap out of the bushes and physically take them down with butt strokes from their rifles and some well-aimed punches from the men who preferred to settle problems that way. At the same time, Lady Marvel screamed out to Kagutsuchi to sweep in after the hapless Orphan, it also blinded by Duran's attack.
One blast of the great phoenix-dragon's flame breath later, it was all over.
In her bedroom, Alyssa Searrs cried out in pain as the psychic backlash from the Orphan's destruction ripped through her body. Watching her from the doorway of the room she shared with Miyu Greer, the two First Division officers could only grimace. "What do you suppose is going on?" one of them asked.
"I would like to ask that same question," a woman's voice then announced from the shadows near the window. "Why are you disturbing Ojou-sama's rest?"
Both men spun around to see a woman step out of the darkness, her left arm morphed into a combat sword, her eyes narrow with barely controlled fury. At the same time, other shadows moved as well. Before the two Japanese agents could react, a half-dozen weapons were leveled on their chests, targeting laser pinpoints marking where the shells would fall. "You have a simple choice, gentlemen," Danitra Jones said as she walked over to stand beside Miyu Greer. "You can answer for your treason against your Emperor and nation. Or you can go back to your true employers in New York City and explain to Mister Searrs how you lost your true target and his child at the same time." A mirthless smile crossed her face. "What's it going to be?"
Both men jolted, and then their shoulders slumped. As the others in the sniper team moved up to take them into custody, Danitra sighed as she turned to leave. "Thank you for sparing her life, Master Warrant Officer," Miyu then said.
The squadron sergeant major of DEFRON NINE paused for a moment, and then she stared knowingly at the android. "There are some of us who wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet into her skull -- or slam a missile into her pet up in orbit -- to ensure she won't pose a threat in the future. You get one chance, Miss Greer. Remember that."
Miyu nodded in understanding.
Later . . .
"What's going on here?!"
"What was all that noise?!"
"I heard gunshots! I'm sure of that!"
Small crowds of students began to mill about, they trying to track down the area where the battle -- or whatever it was that had caused the commotion in the forest near the dorms -- might have happened. Leading the charge was none other than Suzushiro Haruka and the members of the Academy's Executive Committee. "I can't believe this!" Haruka shrilled out as her eyes took in the singed trees and shattered pathway stones that marked the Orphan's path before Kagutsuchi had destroyed it. "If I get my hands on whoever did this . . .!"
"Haruka-chan, please! Calm down," Kikukawa Yukino pleaded.
Watching from their hiding place nearby, Tokiha Mai and Kuga Natsuki could only smirk at Haruka's antics. They then blinked on seeing Yukino stare in their general direction, she giving them a knowing wink and a smile before she headed off to follow Haruka. "She watched us using her own Child," Natsuki whispered.
"Probably," Mai whispered back. "As least some of the people at this place will understand what happened and why."
"Shall we?"
"Hai!"
And with that, both girls stood up and moved to walk into the open. "Is it safe to come out now?!" Mai called out, making everyone look her way.
"Eh?!" Haruka gasped as she spun around, and then she growled on recognising the two other women. "Kuga?! Tokiha?! What are you two doing out here?!"
Fujino Shizuru took that moment to make her own presence known. "Ah, Natsuki! Mai-san! Are you two alright?!" the President of the Student Council asked.
"A little shaken up, but alright, Shizuru," Natsuki replied.
"So what happened anyway?!" Tate Yuuichi wondered as he walked up to join them, he accompanied by Munakata Shiho. "Did you see what was going on?!"
"Would you believe we saw Lady Marvel tonight?!" Natsuki replied.
"The Batman was with her, too!" Mai added.
Silence.
"EH?!" everyone else screamed out.
Wise thinking, Mai-san, Miyu Greer mused to herself as she watched events from nearby, a light smile crossing her face.
And with that, she turned to head back to the dorm to look in on Alyssa.
South-east of Fuuka-jima, heading towards Tokyo . . .
"Onee-chan! I didn't want her to . . . "
The Batman's hand gently squeezed Takumi's shoulder. "She felt she had no choice, son," the Dark Knight of Gotham explained as one of the field medics assigned to Ninth Defence Squadron finished up with her scan of his body.
"When she learned the full truth about what her bonding to Kagutsuchi could ultimately mean, especially to you, she realised she had no choice but to accept Shazam's offer and become Lady Marvel," Superman added; the Man of Steel and his friend had just spent the last half-hour explaining to Mai's brother about what forced her to become the World's Mightiest Princess. "She loves you very much, Takumi. You're pretty lucky to have a sister like her."
Takumi blinked, and then he breathed out, "I never wanted to be a burden on her."
"You're not," Batman said.
He considered that, and then he nodded. "How soon can I go back to school?"
"That might be a while, though," Batman explained. "Mai and Natsuki will put out the story that you suffered a seizure when the Orphan attacked. When she noticed it, Lady Marvel rushed you off to a hospital to have you looked at. And by the time people might decide to try to trace you down . . . "
"This Foundation that you told me about won't be a threat anymore," Takumi finished, and then he sighed. "It's so much to take."
"It always is," Batman noted.
The Watchtower, sometime later . . .
"So where did you come from?" Mister Terrific ask as Batman and Superman stepped down from the teleport pad. "I still couldn't detect whatever it was you were on."
"You'll be told one day," the Dark Knight Detective said as he led the Man of Steel into their private meeting room. As soon as the door closed behind him, he then added, "Next time I have a Watchtower built, I'm installing in my own teleporter."
Superman stared at him, and then he breathed out, "What's this all about, Bruce?"
Batman returned his look, and then he walked over to stand at the window, he gazing down on the eastern coast of the United States, it now aglow with the dawn of a new day. "That, Clark, is a story that began sixty years ago . . . "
And now that's done with, we shift to a new day . . .
(Posted Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:22)
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