Science
Island
Senshi scrutinised
the data contained in the files displayed on Dr. Rose
Brachis' laptop screen. What he saw made very little
sense to him - terms such as 'Project: Roboman',
'Operation: Guardian' and 'Eternity Evolution'
appeared again and again, but the only text
accompanying the phrases that made any sense to him
were the words 'Top Secret'.
He did not know what
he was looking for; the urge to look through the
files that Dr. Brachis had left open on leaving her
office had been an impulsive one, a drive he
suspected was borne of a combination of curiosity
malice - he wanted to know what a security officer
was doing hunched over a laptop all day, and he
hoped he could find something that would allow him to
persuade his commander to let him investigate the
previous day's attack on Blizzard Base Zero
personally.
Senshi regularly
glanced at the door to the office to make sure Dr.
Brachis was not returning. He had no idea how long
she would be gone, and he had a lot of files to look
through; one-by-one he maximised them, scanned
through them, then carefully returned them to the
state they had been in before he interfered.
After fifteen
minutes of searching he decided to give up, knowing
that the files were beyond his ability to understand,
at least while concerned that the woman he was spying
on could return at any moment. But as he turned his
head away, the screen flashed and a new file opened
up:
| EDD:
SECURITY EQ AUTHORISATION LOG |
TERMINAL 14 |
 |
Request Made By:
Terminal X
[Blizzard Base Zero]Authorised By:
BRAC-R (Brachis, Dr. Rose)
Request
Logged:
28.02.2010
(- 3 minutes)
|
| LOG DATA? Y
| N
|
Senshi had no
idea what the 'Robo Defender' actually was, but the
rest of the file made complete sense to him. Someone
operating an Earth Defence/Leadership Directorate
systems terminal, noted as 'Terminal X' at Blizzard
Base Zero, had requested permission to activate a
piece of Science Island-controlled security
technology - the 'Robo Defender'.
Three minutes
earlier, Dr. Brachis had approved the request - and
had requested that the request data be logged, which
was presumably what had caused the file to open on
her own machine; and was more than likely a sign that
she would be returning to her office soon.
Seeing the file only
raised more questions for Senshi, who had gone to the
laptop looking for answers. He stepped away
from the terminal and made his way for the door, only
to be stopped by a member of his security team.
"Oh!" The
security officer had not expected to see him in the
office. "I was looking for Dr. Brachis."
"Dr. Brachis is
occupied at the moment. Whatever it is, you can tell
me. I will make sure she is informed."
The other man tapped
his chin thoughtfully. "I really should tell Dr.
Brachis directly."
Senshi scowled.
"As Deputy Head of Security on Science Island, I
am ordering you to tell me."
The man rolled his
eyes, but Senshi held his tongue.
"We have just
finished interrogating the surviving personnel of
Blizzard Base Zero," the man said.
An
interrogation? Senshi thought. Why wasn't I
told...?
"There have
been consistent reports of four staff unaccounted
for," the man continued. "Nagura Scott, the
base administrator; Nagura Ian, his son;
"Sei", surname unknown; and an
as-yet-unidentified woman who only arrived on the
base late yesterday."
"Is there
anyone inside Blizzard Base Zero now?"
Senshi asked.
"No, sir. We
have guards stationed around the perimeter, but the
complex has been completely sealed off pending a full
examination by the Incident Investigation Team, which
needs to be approved by Dr. Brachis."
If the base is
empty, who requested the Robo Defender? Who was
operating Terminal X?
"Is that
all?"
"Yes,
sir," the man responded.
"Good. Thank
you. I will make sure your information is passed on
to Dr. Brachis."
The man saluted,
turned and left the office.
Senshi paused to
think for a moment. Dr. Brachis had insisted that
he have no involvement in investigating the attack on
Blizzard Base Zero. He was her second-in-command, and
she withheld information about important questioning
taking place on the Island. The EDD requested Science
Island security support for an attack on New Orleans,
and she had held him back. Senshi knew he was not the
smartest person on Science Island, but he was also
not an idiot - Dr. Brachis was trying to keep
something from him.
His thoughts were
interrupted as Dr. Brachis walked briskly into her
office and passed him so quickly that he felt a
slight breeze. She sat at her desk and immediately
looked to her computer screen - the only time Senshi
saw her do anything else was when she was walking.
"Senshi?"
Dr. Brachis faced him directly. "You were
standing right there when I left. Don't you have work
to do?"
Senshi nodded
slowly, but did not move.
"Well? Was
there something you needed?"
It was a moment
before Senshi responded. "N-no. No."
He straightened his back and offered a crisp salute,
turned on his heel and marched out of the room.
New Orleans
Ikku and Kiko
scrambled down a set of stairs they found leading
into the city's sewer system. They had decided to
flee from the Black Battalion and their commander,
Damien Sinclair, who they suspected were involved in
the kidnapping of Ikku's father, Scott.
The stone steps were
slick with slime and the pair had to keep hold of one
another to keep from falling over. They had
considered returning to the fully-equipped bunker
they had stayed in overnight, until Sei pointed out
that it was a Black Battalion safehouse and would
therefore be the first place they searched.
The sewers were a
less-than-ideal solution, but it was their greatest
hope that they would be there for no more than a few
hours. Even as they fled, Sei remained in the city,
watching from a distance as the Black Battalion
troops went about their business.
Kiko stopped running
as she felt Ikku's hand pull away from her arm. She
turned and saw that her friend was breathing heavily
and resting his hands on his knees. She looked more
closely and saw that his face was streaked with
tears; he had been crying, and she hadn't even
noticed.
"Ikku..."
she said softly.
"I'm
sorry," Ikku said. He tried to force a smile,
but managed only a slight curl of his lips that
looked more like a sneer. "It's just... those
Black Battalion bastards - !"
"I know,"
Kiko told him. "They attacked Blizzard Base
Zero. They kidnapped Dr. Nagura. We have to find out
what's going on - but Ikku, don't worry! We're a
team, and we'll do it together. It will all work
out!"
Ikku shook his head.
"It's not
that!" he cried. "I don't want to run! I
want to go back... and hurt them for what
they did!"
"You can't
think like that, Ikku!" Kiko stepped forward and
took Ikku's left hand in her right. She squeezed it
firmly, and he tilted his head up to look into her
eyes. "Whatever they've done, we will find out
why, and we will fix it - but you can never go
down to their level. You want revenge. I do, too. But
hurting them... that isn't what you want, not really,
and you can't let yourself get confused!"
Ikku tried to smile
again, and was successful. He nodded.
"Thank you,
Kiko!"
"Any
time!"
Kiko grinned,
nodded, and patted her friend on the head.
Sei, still in his
armoured robosuit, crouched in the shadow of a
roof-mounted air conditioner as he watched the Black
Battalion soldiers, and the crowd that watched them,
begin to move. Ten minutes had passed since time
itself had seemed to freeze around the armed men;
just enough time for Ikku and Kiko to make a safe
getaway.
As soon as he
realised what had happened, Damien Sinclair looked at
Shellshock's prostrate form. The creature's hands and
feet had been bound with thick, heavy chains and as
it, too, began to stir, Sinclair pulled a small
handheld radio free from the utility belt he wore
around his waist.
"Dr.
Brachis?" he spoke clearly. He looked around at
the confused crowd, then further down the street and,
finally at the rooftops while he waited for a
response.
"Captain
Sinclair?" Rose Brachis' voice came through
the walky-talky without any interference. "Is
the creature secured?"
"There was an
incident," Sinclair replied. "The three you
warned us about were here. They took out - "
"They
incapacitated the creature. I know. I asked if it was
secured?"
"Yes,"
Sinclair said tersely. "We will bring it back to
Science Island immediately. We will need one of the
larger cells ready."
"Understood.
Good work, Captain."
Damien Sinclair
heard a soft click as the connection between himself
and Dr. Brachis was terminated. His men all seemed to
have recovered their sensors and stood around
Shellshock, their weapons trained on him as he
struggled to break free of his bonds.
Sinclair smiled and
kicked Shellshock hard in the side, but it seemed to
make no difference to the giant tortoise; his shell
and hide were so thick that he hardly felt anything.
"Load him
up," Sinclair said. "We're moving
out."
Elsewhere
Jinsei stared
through Sorceress Miko's scrying mirror. His pale red
face darkened with every moment he examined the
mystical mirror's surface. He was not at all
impressed with the way the Black Battalion, or their
colourful allies, had treated his creation; in fact,
the thought of them causing Shellshock any sort
of pain filled him with rage.
"Miko!" he
shouted. "Did you see what they did to my
Curtis? I can't believe they - " He took a deep
breath. "I can't believe they defeated him! I
wish I could make him grow to be five hundred feet
tall... he could stomp all over their pathetic
city!"
"Why don't you,
then?" Miko asked. She was laying on her bed,
letting two of her tiny pixies stroke her hair as she
tried to get some sleep.
"From here? I
can't. I have to be in contact with the target
creature for my powers to work."
Miko rolled her eyes
and stood up. She crossed the room quickly and took
hold of Jinsei's wrist as she passed him. She dragged
him to stand only inches from the mirror before
releasing him, then placed her own palm against the
surface of the glass and waited a moment for it to
begin to glow blue.
"Stick your
hand through, genius," she told Jinsei.
Jinsei reached
through the mirror with his left hand, and watched
with absolute pleasure as his the tips of his
fingers, then the rest of his hand, seemed to appear
out of nowehere in the middle of New Orleans and
reach down to lightly brush the edge of Shellshock's
shell. Red and green energy trickled from his
fingertip's and wased over Shellshock's body.
The appearance of
Jinsei's hand did not escape the notice of Sinclair's
men, who immediately began to fire on it. One small
bullet after another struck him and he quickly pulled
his bloody hand back through the mirror.
"Ouch!" he
shouted. He dangled his hand in front of Miko's face.
"Look what they did!"
"Yes,"
Miko said sarcastically. "I can see the pain is killing
you." She looked into the mirror. "How
long until something happens?"
"Just a
moment," Jinsei told her. He used the fingers on
his right hand to pick two bullets out of his palm.
He closed his eyes and focussed, and Miko watched,
through the mirror, as Shellshock's body rapidly
increased in size.
The chains binding
him together snapped apart violently. Within a
second, he had grown from six to ten feet tall; in
five seconds he was one hundred feet tall and shaking
off the best ammunition Sinclair's men had to offer;
in thirty seconds, he was five hundred feet tall, the
onlookers had scattered, and his weight caused the
road to crack apart with every step he took.
Shellshock swung his
right hand out to the side and hit the uppermost
floor of the building on which Sei hid. As the
structure collapsed beneath him, Sei jumped - he
landed safely on the next rooftop and quickly made
his way down to the street.
"You!"
Sinclair shouted as he saw Sei approach. "What
did you do? How did you do this?"
Sei shook his head.
"I did not cause this. I do not know who
did."
"What are you
going to do about it, then?" Sinclair
asked.
"No," Sei
responded. "The question to be asked is - what
are you going to do about it? You are the
Black Battalion. You are equipped to handle these
situations."
"We're not Black
Battalion!" Sinclair answered. "They're
holed up in hospital on Science Island - we're just
Alpha 7 security. The EDD sent us in their
place!"
Sei did not say
anything - he just turned from Sinclair to stare at
the back of Shellshock's feet. The massive tortoise
swung his arm again and a second building collapsed,
but at least he was not on a rampage. Yet.
Sei turned back to
Sinclair.
"Captain
Sinclair," he said. "I will recall my
teammates and deal with Shellshock, but first you
must take your men and leave. I want your assurance
that despite any orders you may receive, you will not
come back here."
Sinclair considered
his options. His men had all fired on Shellshock as
soon as he began to grow, but once the reptile
started to walk away they had lowered their weapons
and gathered close to their captain. He was
disappointed in them - the Black Battalion would have
immediately chased after Shellshock, whether ordered
to or not.
He knew, then, that
his team was not going to make much of a difference
in the inevitable battle. He nodded at Sei and
offered the blue-clad man his hand.
"You have my
word," he said. Sei took his hand and shook it.
Captain Sinclair
faced his men and instructed them to return to
Science Island. Sei watched them as they ran in the
opposite direction to the giant monster, and glanced
up at the news helicopter that had been there since
the moment Shellshock first attacked Ikku.
Sei smiled.
Kiko and Ikku felt
the ground shake as, above them, Shellshock continued
to march his way across the city. Ikku insisted on
going above ground to investigate, but Kiko was
equally insistent that Sei would come for them if he
needed their help. Ikku was about to protest when he
noticed a blue shimmer behind Kiko, and saw Sei's
body come into view.
"Perfect
timing!" Ikku poked his tongue at Kiko.
"What's going on up there?"
"Shellshock has
grown to five hundred feet tall," he said.
"I have persuaded the Black Battalion to leave.
Now we must destroy it before it destroys
the city."
"How do we do
that?"
"First, return
to your phase two henshin."
Ikku and Kiko
nodded. "Let's go, Robo!" Red and
yellow energy sparkled around their bodies and, a
moment later, they stood in their armoured robosuits.
"Now... it is
time for phase three. Use activation code five."
Ikku and Kiko
scanned through the list of command codes displayed
on the inside of their helmet's visors until they
spotted the one marked as number five. They
simultaneously crossed their arms in front of their
bodies and shouted "Go! Robo
Vehicles!"
The
metal components that formed the armoured gloves,
boots and chestplates of their robosuits separated
and hovered in the air around them. They watched as
the metal pieces were surrounded by the same blue
energy that preceded Sei's teleportation and started
to expand.
As
they grew, the metal bent, curved and changed colour
until, only seconds after they had uttered the
activation code, Kiko and Ikku saw the large sewer
tunnel they occupied fill by a large yellow jet - its
wings folded back against its body - and a wide red
tank.
"Wow
wow wow!" Kiko could hardly contain her
excitement and beside her, Ikku's jaw dropped.
"That's... amazing!"
Sei
nodded. "Those are the Flame Tank and the Lightning Jet. You can
command them via a remote control device built into
your helmets, once you have been trained and
authorised to do so. For now, you should pilot them
manually. You will find their controls quite
intuitive."
"What
about you?" Kiko asked as Ikku rushed to climb
inside the tank.
"My
robo vehicle is a boat. I do not see that being much
help against Shellshock."
["Hey!"]
Ikku's voice boomed loudly from the turret of the
tank. ["This is so cool!"] The tank lurched
forward and knocked a hole through the stone wall of
the tunnel. ["Oops."]
"Wait,"
Sei told him. He waited until Kiko had climbed inside
the jet, then stretched his arms wide to place one
hand on the rear of the tank and the other on the
jet's nose. He concentrated, and the familiar blue
energy surrounded the two vehicles and they soon
faded from sight.
Once
the robo vehicles were gone, Sei felt along the right
leg of his robosuit until he located a small slit cut
into the material. He pushed his fingers inside and
ran the tips along the circuitry that extended from
the inside of the robosuit to reach underneath his
skin. Eventually, he found a small clasp, which he
pushed aside, and retrieved a small, smooth object
from within.
He
lifted the object in front of his face and examined
it closely. It looked like a smooth piece of glass,
with one edge coloured the same shade of blue as the
energy he had used against the robo vehicles a moment
earlier.
"Almost
empty, as I expected," he said to himself to
himself as his armour faded away. He returned the
glass-like object to the slit in his robosuit and
stood with his back straight against the wall.
"This will have to be the only giant monster we
ever face."
The
two robo vehicles appeared so close to Shellshock's
madly-thrashing body that Kiko, whose Lightning Jet
had appeared in mid-air, had to pull hard on her
control stick to avoid a collision. Sei had been
right - the controls were intuitive, almost
as if the vehicles themselves were giving
instructions to Kiko and Ikku on how to control them.
["So,
any ideas on what we do now?"] Kiko asked. She
peered through her cockpit window and saw that
Shellshock had left the main area of the city. She
could see the city to the north, but in every other
direction she saw only the bare earth and, in the
west, a swampy marsh.
["Um...
fire?"] Ikku suggested. As he spoke, a long
burst of flame emerged from the turret of his tank
and scorched Shellshock's legs. The giant tortoise
stared down at the tank, then raised his foot to step
on it. ["Uh-oh!"]
Ikku
tried to reverse, but he couldn't move quickly
enough. He braced for the coming blow, but after
several moments without any form of crushing he
looked out at the battle and saw the Lightning Jet
circling around Shellshock, firing short blasts of
yellow energy that seemed to slow Shellshock's
movements more with each hit.
"Please...!"
Shellshock groaned as he slowly raised a hand to swat
at the jet. "I... don't want to... do this! I am
not... a beast!"
["What?"]
Ikku asked.
"Please!"
Shellshock said again. "I was made to attack
you... but this... is too much!"
The
Lightning Jet came passed for another attack.
["Miss
Sato, wait! Don't fire!"]
["Why
not?"] Kiko asked. She turned the jet away from
Shellshock while she waited for an explanation.
["Didn't
you hear him? He said he doesn't want to
fight!"]
["So?
We still have to stop him, somehow."]
Ikku
bit his lower lip. ["Your guns, or whatever
you're using to shoot that yellow stuff... does it
have other options?"]
["Yes."]
["I
think I know what the Lightning Jet does,"] Ikku
said, ["and the Electro Blaster. You heard Sei
when we used the Robo Defender and everything
stopped, right? About the Electro Blaster?"]
["Yes."]
["I
think the Electro Blaster... I think anything that
uses that yellow energy... I think it somehow affects
time."]
Kiko
did not reply for a moment.
["I
think you might be right,"] she said finally.
["You've
been slowing Shellshock down,"] Ikku told her.
["Is there anything you think might turn back
time for him? Shrink him back down to size?"]
Kiko
circled Shellshock several times in the Lightning Jet
before she spoke again.
["A-ha!"]
she exclaimed. ["I think I've got it!"]
She
passed Shellshock one last time and let loose a
volley of yellow fire. Dozens of individual sparks
hit his thick shell and armoured flesh, and he
rapidly became smaller and smaller. So small, in
fact, that neither Ikku or Kiko could see him.
Ikku
climbed out of the tank and began to search for their
foe, and after bringing the Lightning Jet down in a
smooth landing, Kiko climbed from the cockpit and
joined him. Without any effort on their part, their
helmets and robo vehicles faded away and, back in
their plain, coloured jumpsuits, they examined the
brown landscape for any sign of Shellshock.
Elsewhere
"Miko..."
Jinsei said through gritted teeth. "Were you
watching?"
"Of
course," Miko called to him from the other side
of the room. She sat cross-legged on the floor with
her eyes closed as a pink-clad pixie sat on her
shoulder and whispered into her ear.
"How
could they do that to a poor, defenceless pet?"
Miko
shrugged, and the pixie fell from her shoulder and
onto the ground. It stood, dusted itself off, stormed
out of the room.
"We
will have to make the next one more powerful."
Miko
opened one eye. "The next one?"
Jinsei
grinned. "Oh, yes. The master feels these three
are threats - minor threats - to his plan.
He wants them eliminated before they have the chance
to interfere with the work of that imbecile,
Nagura."
Miko
opened the other eye. "What is the
master's plan, Jinsei?"
"Who
knows? But we'll all find out soon enough..."
Ikku
and Kiko returned to the sewer tunnel in which they
had left Sei just before midnight and found him
waiting in the exact same spot he had been in when
they left. A small cardboard box rested near his
feet, and as they approached he lifted it and passed
it to Ikku.
"What
did you do with Shellshock?" Sei asked.
Ikku
looked inside the box. It contained clothing - three
pairs of black trousers, a red jacket, and yellow
sweater and a blue coat. "Where did you get
these?"
"We
managed to turn him into a regular tortoise - "
"Turtle,"
Ikku interrupted.
"We
managed to turn him into a regular tortoise,"
Kiko continued. She shot a look at Ikku and caught
sight of a sheepish grin. "Ikku released him
into a nearby swamp."
Sei
nodded.
"Where
did you get the clothes?" Ikku asked again. He
placed the box back on the ground and pulled out one
pair of trousers and a jacket. He slipped them on
over his red robosuit and motioned for Kiko to do the
same while he waited for Sei to answer.
"I...
found them in the wreckage," Sei eventually
answered. "I thought you both might be hungry,
but decided against bringing food into a sewer. The
pizza store where we confronted Shellshock is
relatively undamaged and has remained open."
"I
don't get you, Sei," Ikku said. Kiko was dressed
and Sei finally took the remaining clothes from the
box. "You were such a jerk at Blizzard Base and
the bunker, but when the Black Battalion showed up
you really came through. What was that all
about?"
Sei
walked past Ikku and Kiko and led them out of the
sewer system. It wasn't until they were within a few
meters of the pizza shop that he answered Ikku's
question. "It is important that we follow
orders. I will not disobey Dr. Nagura or the
officials of Science Island. But I have never been
instructed to take orders from the Black
Battalion."
Ikku
grinned and threw his arm around Sei's shoulders.
"Looks like you've got a heart after all!"
They
walked into the pizza shop and sat at the counter.
There was no-one waiting to serve them, but in one
corner they saw a boy, who couldn't have been more
than fifteen or sixteen, eating a large pizza alone.
Sei stared at him while they waited. He was wearing a
loose green t-shirt and baggy, dark-blue jeans. He
was clearly Asian, and had long black hair that fell
over his face. He ate the pizza quickly, and didn't
look up until the box was empty.
"Welcome
to Hey, Pizza!" Sei turned back to the counter
and saw another man. He looked four or five years
older than Ikku or Kiko, and had long, spikey black
hair. His skin was pale and he wore a black dress
shirt with rolled-up sleeves under a white apron. Sei
could also see a pair of single silver dogtag hanging
on a chain around the man's neck, but the side facing
him did not show any engraving.
"I'm
Trick," the man continued, "and I will -
oh, it's you." He rolled his eyes at Ikku.
"What
did I do?" Ikku asked. Kiko stared at
Ikku, and Ikku looked back at her. "What, now
you, too?"
"You
can speak English," Kiko said.
"Well...
yeah," Ikku said.
Kiko
smiled. "I knew Sei could speak English after
hearing him talking to Captain Sinclair, but you...
you're American, aren't you? I knew it!"
"O-kay,"
Ikku said. "Now we've established that...
what's your problem, 'Trick'?"
"Oh,
nothing," Trick replied. He glanced at the boy
on the other side of the store, then leaned across
the counter to whisper to his three customers.
"I'm just wondering how big an appetite you work
up fighting five hundred foot tortoises."
NEXT: Questions!
