New Orleans
"... as United
States military personnel prepare to move the last of
the high-tech artifacts from the Earth
Defence/Leadership Directorate's formerly secret
London research laboratories. The Japanese government
has advised strongly against the United States'
decision to unilaterally handle the transport of the
precious cargo, arguing that even their most
highly-trained experts are no comparison to the
security that would have been provided by the
disbanded Black Battalion."
Ikku, Sei, Kiko, and
Trick crowded around the television screen in the
dark back room of 'Hey, Pizza!', watching a live
newscast from London. The information it contained
came as a complete surprise to everyone - not just
the Roboman team and their allies, but the entire
world.
The day before, news
agencies worldwide announced the revelation by the
EDD of a secret research facility in the centre of
London, where it was speculated testing of new Black
Battalion hardware and other EDD science projects
were taking place. It was also revealed that for
almost two weeks the United States had been
single-handedly organising the transport of the
discoveries to various former EDD member states,
including sending the last of the facility's
treasures to the EDD's most prominent supporter,
Japan.
And the Japanese
government was not happy.
"What do they
think they're doing?" Ikku asked. "They
must know none of that stuff is safe. We know Miko's
still out there."
Trick shook his
head.
"You know
Miko's back, because you've had to fight
her," he suggested. "Maybe the government
thought, like you did for two weeks, that Miko was
gone."
"What should we
do?" Kiko asked. "The Japanese are right.
The United States military can't protect against an
attack by Miko and her pixies."
"It is not our
responsibility," Sei replied. "If they
wished for our help they could have contacted us. The
Earth Defence/Leadership Directorate knows we are
here. Doctor Brachis knows we are here."
Ikku shrugged.
"I don't
know," he said. "It seems to me that
whether they want us there or not, it would be a good
idea to make sure Miko doesn't get her hands on
whatever they're moving."
"I agree,"
Kiko offered. "If it's a weapon, or something
that can block our powers..."
"Then it's
settled!" Ikku exclaimed. "We're going to
London."
Sei frowned.
"Are we? I am
not convinced - "
"But I'm the
leader and I said we're going!" Ikku grinned.
"We do not have
enough raido shards to travel such a
distance."
"Oh."
Bip-bip-bip.
Bip-bip-bip.
Kiko looked down at
the Alert Bracer strapped to her left wrist. The
large red circle on its right flashed brightly as the
speaker beneath it beeped loudly. She could clearly
see the time on its display - 4:30 PM.
I set that alarm
for a reason, Kiko thought. What did I need
to -
"I'm late for
work!" she cried. "I've got to go! But I
think we should go to London!"
She ran through the
flapping plastic doors which led from the back room
into the store's kitchen, leaving Sei, Ikku and Trick
alone. Ikku glanced again at the television which
continued to show images of a nondescript building
surrounded by British police officers, on a street
heavily-barricaded at both ends as American military
personnel loaded trucks with everything from plastic
chairs to bizarre metal pods, their contents unknown.
"If we can't go
we can't go," Ikku said. He shrugged. "I
just hope Miko keeps her nose out..." He raised
his eyebrows. "Hey! Is there any way we can get more
raido shards?"
"No," Sei
replied. "Doctor Brachis and Doctor Nagura are
the only sources I have. Until they contact us -
"
"I get it, I
get it," Ikku pouted. "I'm gonna go for a
walk."
The Amazon
Hot, humid and full
of mosquitoes. Generally unpleasant for all but the
most dedicated explorers and masochistic animals, the
Amazon Rainforest was not somewhere anyone would
want to visit for fun - and that was exactly why
Jinsei loved it.
He strolled naked
through the dense green foliage, taking delight in
the sensation of his bare red toes sinking into the
soft earth. Torrents of sweat trickled over his skin
and while that did not concern him, it was
less-than-pleasant for the pixie bound tightly to his
left forearm by a thick green vine. Its hands were
given special attention; the pixie's hands were tied,
palms down, against his skin.
The pixie tried to
squirm free of its bonds but they were far too tight;
Jinsei noticed its frantic movement and smirked.
"I told you I
will set you free once you supply me with raido
shards," he said. The pixie shook its head
vigorously. "Feel free to try teleporting. Bound
as you are, you will simply take me with you."
The pixie stopped
moving. Jinsei kept walking, moving closer to a small
green pool. He sat at the water's edge and slowly
dipped his right leg into the water. Something hard
and scaly brushed against his foot but he did not
care - he feared nothing that lived.
"I hope you
don't mind getting wet," he told the pixie. He
stared at the creature's sweat-damp hair and laughed.
"Wetter than you already are, I mean. But I need
a bath - I just can't seem to shake the scent of that
foul building your master considers a 'home'."
He scowled. "What could be more homely than
this, the natural landscape in which we were all
spawned? Miko, Miko, Miko..."
Jinsei slid forward
and dropped into the water. For a moment he was
completely submerged in the warm water and he took
the chance to stare at the many small creatures that
called the green depths home before he kicked his way
back up the surface.
As he felt the humid
air against his face again he felt something pulling
on his left arm. He tried to raise it but whatever
had latched on was too strong for him and he found
himself pulled under the surface again. He closed his
eyes and red and green energy surrounded his body;
six narrow slits opened on his neck, three on each
side, and suddenly, like the creatures around him, he
could breathe underwater.
"What have we
here?" he asked.
He stared down at
his arm and saw a small crocodile with its teeth
latched onto the pixie's strong bonds. He kicked out
with his left foot and nudged the crocodile's
sensitive underside; it opened its mouth and swam
away.
Jinsei made his way
back to the surface and pulled his body out of the
pool. He ran his right hand through his short black
hair and laughed loudly before he checked on the
state of the pixie. It took a moment for him to
realise that the pixie was missing one arm and,
worse, was not moving at all.
"Oh well,"
he shrugged.
He unwrapped the
vine and lifted the pixie into the air. Small, blue,
mist-like droplets dripped from the pixie's open
wound. He caught some in his free hand and tested it
with the tip of his tongue; it tasted bitter and he
spat it out. The mist sprayed forward and settled on
the surface of the warm pool... and turned solid. Two
translucent blue, glass-like objects floated on the
water's surface and Jinsei knew immediately what they
were.
Raido shards!
He grinned
enthusiastically as he approached the pool and took
one of the pixie's legs in each hand. He valued life
in all its forms; to him, life and its many
potentialities were more important than anything
else. While he would gladly cause suffering and pain
to others if the mood took him, he found himself
reluctant to take the life of less evolved creatures
or benefit from their deaths. He did not eat meat. He
did not wear leather.
But he had
not killed the pixie, the crocodile had, and while he
took no pride in what he was considering, he
knew it was the only way to achieve his goal. He
tensed the muscles in his arms. He tightly gripped
the pixie's legs.
He tore the pixie in
half.
Blue blood - what
Jinsei suspected was actually a liquid form of raido
energy - splashed in all directions. Some washed
over his face and dripped down his arms and chest,
but most fell into the pool's green water and
instantly turned into solid blue raido shards.
He dropped what was
left of the pixie by the edge of the pool and
kneeled. He smiled and with one hand he scooped up
the six raido shards he had created.
Now I only need
to figure out how to use them, he thought. If
I had another pixie, I could -
On the far side of
the pool a swarm of mosquitoes had gathered drawn,
Jinsei suspected, by the strong and unique scent of
his own body. Their rapidly-moving wings caught his
attention and he moved his eyes back and forth from
the frantic, energetic mosquitoes to the lifeless
pixie.
An idea was forming.
New Orleans
"You're lying
to them. Still."
Trick stood between
Sei and the doors leading out of the back room of
'Hey, Pizza!'. He was not angry, but was making no
effort to hide his disappointment in the Roboman.
"You know you
could get to London and back. You have enough raido
shards to transport this whole city to
London and back."
Sei stared directly
into Trick's eyes. Neither man's expression changed;
Trick frowned and did not blink while Sei remained
seemingly emotionless. He gave no indication that
Trick's judgement bothered him in the least.
"I do not need
to justify my decisions to you," Sei said
simply.
"No... but you
do need to justify your decisions to yourself... and
your teammates."
Sei scowled.
"Neither Ian
nor Miss Sato even recall the large number of raido
shards that arrived with the Alert Bracers and
Robo Rifles," Sei reminded Trick. "They may
be able to defend this city when it is attacked by a
single monster, but they lack the dedication,
knowledge and perception to participate in an
operation as complex as safeguarding the transfer of
cargo in another country."
"Maybe if you
kept less secrets they might be more effective,"
Trick suggested.
"Perhaps."
There was a long
silence as the two men continued to stare at one
another. Neither man moved, neither man blinked, but
at the same time neither man was in any way
aggressive. There was simply a difference of opinion;
not an argument, not a debate.
"I need to get
back to work," Trick said. "The dinner rush
will begin soon."
He turned and made
his way through the plastic doors into the kitchen
area of the store just in time to see Ikku and Kageki
enter the store side-by-side. Kageki smiled and waved
as he came behind the counter and tied his white
apron around his green t-shirt and black pants, but
Ikku just stared at the floor as he walked past.
Trick sighed.
"Ikku, come
here for a second."
Ikku stood beside
him.
"The best way
to prove a point," Trick whispered, "is to
have all the facts."
Ikku looked up.
"What do you
mean?" he asked.
"Just... look
under the couch," Trick told him.
"And," he added more loudly, "clean
under there once in a while. I pay Kageki to
cook pizzas, not to do your housework!"
Ikku grinned and ran
through the plastic doors. Sei was nowhere to be
seen.
"Sei?" he
called out. "Cog?"
There was no
response.
Under the couch,
he thought. Weird advice... but here goes...
Ikku dropped onto
his stomach and turned his head sideways to peer in
the dark space beneath the couch. Even in the
darkness he could make out flat, narrow shapes. He
reached in with one hand and picked up a handful of
the small items and brought them into the light.
Eternity shards!
And most of them are raido shards, he realised. Sei
lied to us!
"You found
them."
He dropped the
shards when he heard Sei's voice behind him. He
rolled onto his back and looked up - the Blue Roboman
stood directly over him, with the tiny Cog perched
delicately on his shoulder.
"You lied to
us, Sei!"
"Yes," Sei
replied. "I am sorry."
Ikku blinked.
"W-what?"
"I believed
that you were not ready for so difficult a mission.
Trick disagreed, but raised no issues of value,"
Sei explained. "Cog, however, has pointed out
the ease with which Miss Sato and yourself have begun
to master your abilities and that it would be unfair
of me not to allow you to at least attempt the
mission you have taken it upon yourself to
complete."
Ikku blinked again.
"What are you
saying?"
"Miss Sato will
be returning soon. We will go to London and watch
over the transfer of the last Earth
Defence/Leadership Directorate technology," Sei
glanced at Cog. "You will lead the
mission, Ian."
Ikku blinked a third
time.
"Thanks?"
"Do not
fail."
Sei sat at the
computer and began to type in a series of commands;
Ikku did not know what he was doing, and he didn't
care - he was more concerned with Sei's behaviour. He
could never figure out what his teammate's true
agenda was: one moment he would insist on sticking to
the rules as much as possible, the next he would
seem... normal, like everyone else. What Sei
said - what Sei did - didn't really bother
him; what worried him were the drastic, extreme and
sudden changes... and the lies.
Antarctica
Doctor Brachis
blinked. Then she blinked again. Her back was cold.
She could see nothing but blackness in all
directions. She could not move her arms. Her legs
were held fast. She could not speak.
Where am I? she
wondered. What's going on?
"Rose?"
The voice was
familiar. Someone she had seen recently, but also an
old friend.
Doctor Nagura.
"I am glad you
are awake."
Suddenly, Rose
Brachis could see again. Her arms moved freely and so
did her legs. She was in a massive room with grey
walls, bright lights and no furniture except for a
long metal bench on which she had been laying naked.
Beside her stood
Doctor Nagura Scott but he looked nothing like how
she remembered him. Her Doctor Nagura had
been older - older than herself - and struggled to
speak. The new Nagura seemed completely different; he
seemed visibly younger, more like someone in his late
thirties than late fifties. He spoke clearly. His
body appeared well-defined beneath the black and red
skin-tight bodysuit he wore.
However, none of
this disturbed Brachis as much as the changes to her
friend's face and hands. Thick, raised black lines
covered every exposed piece of skin and a long scar
stretched from his right temple to his chin. She
recalled seeing a similar transformation in him once
before - after he had been tortured by Jinsei.
Her immediate
response was to examine her own body for any similar
changes, but she saw nothing. Nothing at all. Not
even the slightest blemish. Birthmarks, pimples, even
acne had all disappeared from her body.
"Where are we?
What have you done to yourself? What have you done to
me?" she asked.
Doctor Nagura
smiled.
"We are inside
Blizzard Base Zero," Nagura replied.
"That's not
possible!" Brachis cried. "I remember...
Blizzard Base Zero was destroyed... and the wreckage
fell on - "
Nagura shook his
head.
"Your friend
Sinclair saved us."
"Damien...?
What? How?"
"When the
enlarged Buki Robo appeared inside the base he
appeared and teleported us both into the sealed off
sections beneath the ice," Nagura explained.
"Sealed...
off...?"
"Of course. You
did not believe Blizzard Base Zero consisted of only
a head, did you? We are inside the body of a
giant robot, one which I have never been able to
activate. I sealed off most of the body so that I
could focus on the technology located within the head
module, which seemed more than sufficient for the
goals of Project: Roboman.
"We have been
down here for three weeks. You were injured when Buki
Robo exploded and I could save you only by inducing a
coma. I was concerned that you would not wake
up."
Brachis nodded.
"What did you
do during all that time?" she asked. "Did
you contact the outside world? Did you call for
help?"
Nagura shook his
head.
"I developed these."
He reached under the
bench and retrieved two folded pieces of fabric,
green and black, which he handed to Doctor Brachis,
then gestured at his own black and red uniform.
"Three
robosuits," he explained. "One for each of
us, plus this new design I am testing now.
Unfortunately I had to wait for you to recover before
I could fully develop them."
"What happened
to you?" she asked. "Your face... your
hands?"
Nagura smiled.
"I am as Jinsei
made me. A healthier, younger, stronger Nagura
Scott." He tapped the scar on the right side of
his face. "A Nagura Scott that is going to
destroy Sorceress Miko... destroy the Robomen... and
then destroy the world."
