New Orleans
// Six days ago
Kiko stepped
cautiously over the rubble that filled the interior
of the shopping centre in which she had worked for
several weeks and approached the front of the
clothing and haberdashery store that had employed
her. The door was open and she could see her employer
- the tall, young, brown-haired Amy Seaward -
cleaning up pieces of debris that had found its way
into the store during the battle two days earlier
between Kiko's friend and ally, Red Robo, and the
evil robot Ranma Robo.
Kiko delicately
knocked on the door even though she knew she was free
to enter - she was, after all, supposed to be
working. Still, she waited for Amy to respond, and it
was not a long wait; the store's owner looked up and
the sound, walked across the store and motioned for
Kiko to enter.
"So..."
Amy said. She wasn't sure what to say, and was hoping
that Kiko had something prepared.
"Yeah..."
Kiko responded. She had hoped Amy would immediately
launch into a rant and reveal everything she knew, to
make her task of explaining why one of her friends
was a superhero less difficult, but when Amy did not
respond, she knew she would have to be the one to
speak. "I've been told you saw Ikku... that is,
you know that he's..."
"Yep," Amy
nodded. "He's one of the Robomen." Amy
pointed at the bulky, high-tech Alert Bracer strapped
to Kiko's right wrist. "You are, too."
Kiko nodded slowly.
"I'm
sorry," she said.
Amy rolled her eyes.
"Why? Because
you've saved this city five or six times?" She
pointed at Kiko's right arm, which was hanging in a
thin white sling. "The only price you paid for
saving us all was breaking your arm? Gee, you better
beat yourself up some more!"
Kiko smiled.
"So go
home," Amy continued. "You're on paid leave
until that arm heals, and you'll be coming back to
work with the flexibility to leave whenever you need
to do robo stuff, because knowing a superhero is just
plain cool."
"Thank
you," Kiko said, "but there's something
else..."
"Yes?"
"Trick told me
that you know about eternity shards, and
that you left 'Hey, Pizza!' to try to get some,"
Kiko told Amy. "But in the end we were saved by
someone else. Can you tell me what happened?"
Amy smiled back at
Kiko.
"I'm rich,
remember?" she said. "Rich people have a
big, secret club full of people in high places who
share big secrets. One of the people I know was a
bigwig in the EDD and knew a little about eternity
shards, but not what they were being used for.
He even had some of the blue ones and I thought he
might be able to help, but he couldn't, and it was
too dangerous for me to get back to 'Hey, Pizza!' to
tell your friends that."
"Oh."
"How's
Ikku?" Amy asked quickly. "I kind of liked
him. He was sweet - but you made him sound like a
dork!"
Kiko scowled.
"We don't
know," she said. "He ran off straight after
we destroyed the giant robot, Katrina. We've tried to
contact him dozens of times, but he's ignoring
us."
Amy nodded.
"I don't want
to pry," she told Kiko, "but if you ever
want to talk..."
Kiko smiled again.
"Thanks,
Amy," she said. "I'll keep that in
mind."
Amy grinned.
"Good! Now get
out of here and rest that arm! I want my sole
employee back! Schnell! Schnell!"
New Orleans
// Today
Kiko and Kageki
stood on the roof of the building directly opposite
'Hey, Pizza!', staring down at Kiko's home and
Kageki's workplace, wearing only their yellow and
green robosuits. Their Alert Bracers and Kiko's Robo
Rifle sat in a neat pile a few feet behind them, and
they gave them little consideration as they watched
builders come and go from the busy pizzeria, the
renovations of which were almost complete.
Poor Trick! Kiko
thought. He's suffered so much for taking us in.
He must be getting sick of us now...
She stretched her
right arm - the sling was gone. Somehow, her broken
arm had healed in record time. Kiko and Cog had
started to investigate, speculating that a
combination of her robosuit and her control of jera
energy had helped speed up the healing process,
but they hadn't gotten very far.
"Why did
Sei-san want us to come here?" Kageki asked.
He shifted his
weight from one foot to the other and back again.
Kiko could tell he was nervous, but she had not spent
enough time around the sixteen-year-old boy to guess
why.
"I'm not
sure," Kiko replied, "but he usually knows
what he's doing."
"Usually."
Kageki and Kiko
turned quickly to identify the source of the voice
they heard behind them. It was Kiko's brother,
Senshi, clad in his own black robosuit. As they
watched, he carefully removed his Alert Bracer and
placed it near theirs.
For the first time,
Kiko noticed something different about her brother -
and it literally was the first time. His
entire life, he had never changed; his views seemed
firmly entrenched, and no logic or reason could ever
make him change his mind. He dressed the same way
since his early teenaged years, in dark, plain,
inconspicuous clothes. He kept his hair short and
neat.
Now... things were
different. His hair had grown out and while it wasn't
long, it was messy; as though he had just rolled out
of bed and made no effort to groom himself. And, she
noticed, he was pale - he had never had dark skin, at
least in the time she had been around him, but in the
last week in particular his skin tone had lightened
considerably.
"Senshi!"
Kageki said.
He bowed slightly,
but the lack of an honorific attached to the older
man's name did not go unnoticed by either Senshi or
Kiko. It was the closest, Kiko guessed, that
Kageki got to insulting someone - and that made her
smile.
She didn't know
Kageki well - of the three original Robomen, only
Ikku really had anything to do with him, thanks to
their shared love of bizarre pizza toppings; but one
thing Kiko had noticed about her young ally
was that he had always remained the same, both in his
appearance and behaviour.
He had long,
straight back hair which reached down to his chin,
and pale brown eyes - and he was skinny, scrawny,
even for someone his age, who was still experiencing
the changes that came with puberty. With the
bodyhugging green robosuit wrapped around him he
seemed even tinier and more fragile than usual,
exposing a body usually hidden behind loose, baggy
clothes.
Kiko turned back to
her brother and stared at him for several long
moments as he scanned the rooftops and streets around
them. It had been a week since the last giant robot
attack on the city and people were finally beginning
to fill the streets again - but, he'd noticed, after
every attack fewer people seemed to return; but that
made sense.
"Senshi,"
Kiko almost spat his name. "Did Sei call you,
too?"
Senshi nodded,
closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened his
eyes again.
"Look,
imouto-chan..." Senshi began. "We're both
Robomen now. We're need to find a way - "
"No," Kiko
said. "Don't even finish that sentence. Don't
finish that thought. It's never going to
happen!"
"I don't think
we should fight in front of our little friend,"
Senshi said, "and besides, here comes our
host."
Blue light sparkled
near the centre of the rooftop and a large,
human-shaped form appeared in the middle of the
strange glow. Everyone present recognised the
crackling blue energy as raido energy, the
form of eternity energy used to teleport
people and objects.
As the form in the
middle of the glow became more clear, Kiko, Kageki
and Senshi could all see the two-inch tall robot Cog
perched on the man's arm.
"Sei-san!"
Kageki cheered excitedly. "You're just in
time!"
Sei shook his head.
"No," he
said. "I am close to three seconds late."
Senshi snorted as he
tried to conceal contemptuous laughter. He glared at
the new arrival in the blue robosuit but, nearby,
Kiko allowed her eyes to look over the man's
near-perfect form.
Everything about Sei
was symmetrical, and clean, and smooth and perfect.
Just like when she stared at Senshi - But not
Ikku, she remembered suddenly - she could make
out clear, defined muscles beneath the tight fabric
of the robosuit. Both her brother and her friend had
bodies that showed signs of great care being taken to
ensure health and fitness.
Where they differed
was in their looks. Senshi was not ugly, but he
wasn't pretty, either. Kiko thought he
looked fairly average - something he could improve on
if he did not always carry a grim countenance. Sei,
on the other hand, did not have a hair or pore or
tooth that was not perfectly placed, proportioned and
symmetrical.
Sei was everything,
Kiko suddenly realised, that Senshi had tried for so
long to be.
"I have called
you here for a reason," Sei started to explain,
"that I have already shared with Black Robo.
Today, Cog and I will begin to train you in the use
of your robosuits' functions and how to most
effectively employ the eternity energy they
allow you to wield."
"And,"
Senshi added, "since we don't always have access
to eternity shards, I'm going to teach you
how to fight - both hand-to-hand and with Robo Rifles
and Alert Beams."
Kiko frowned.
"We don't need
Senshi," she said. "We have eternity
shards and - "
"We have
frequently spent our supplies of eternity shards,
Yellow Robo, and the nauthiz and zuvaal
shards used by Green Robo and Black Robo are
more difficult than others to obtain," Sei
interrupted. "We must be prepared to defend
ourselves without the use of eternity energy."
Zuvaal? Senshi
thought. Where have I heard that word before?
"We should wait
for Ikku-sama!" Kageki said, stirring Senshi
from his private thoughts. "He should learn this
too!"
"We have tried
to contact Red Robo several times during the past
week," Sei reminded the boy. "He has
refused to respond to our attempts. We have waited
longer than we should have already."
Cog scrambled up
Sei's arm and stood on his shoulder, so that the
Robomen could all see and hear her clearly.
"We are going
to start by learning about the different types of eternity
energy!" Cog told them. "There are six
different types: kenez, raido, jera, nauthiz,
ansuz and zuvaal! As you all know, some
people can use eternity energy naturally."
"Like Sorceress
Miko, and Jinsei?" Kiko asked.
Cog nodded.
"Exactly! The
robosuits were designed so that everyone else could
use eternity energy to perform all sorts of
different tasks to benefit the world!" She
paused to let her words sink in. "Each robosuit
can use any type of energy, but they are each
specialised to work with one specific type,
represented by their colour - but they can also use a
second type of energy as well!"
"There are only
five of us," Senshi pointed out. "You said
there were six types of energy."
Cog nodded again.
"Doctor Nagura
decided there was one type of eternity energy that
we should always avoid using! I'll explain that in a
minute!
"The different
types of eternity energy do different
things! Kenez energy is red and affects
reality - with it, you can make a sword blade
stronger, or make a copy of something, or change its
shape or colour! This is what Director Satoshi's
robots use to make themselves bigger!
"Raido
energy is blue and affects space! With raido
energy you can teleport yourself or others
anywhere you like, as long as you have enough of it,
but you have to be touching whatever you want to
teleport! Sorceress Miko and her Pixies use this
energy all the time!
"Jera
energy is yellow and affects time! It can be
used to slow time down or speed it up, or stop it
altogether! Nauthiz energy is green and is
different to the other types of energy!
"Doctor Nagura
found very few nauthiz shards when he
searched for them but found that nauthiz energy is
more powerful than kenez, jera or raido
energy, because while he couldn't get it to do
anything by itself, he found hat it can be added to
the other energy to make it stronger - and how much
stronger depends only on the strength of will of the
person using it!
"That's why I
thought Kageki should be Green Robo! He is so keen
and eager to help that no-one could use nauthiz
energy better than him!"
Kageki blushed.
"Hey!"
Kageki interrupted. "Sei used nauthiz energy
at Blizzard Base Zero, to make his force field
bigger and stronger when Sorceress Miko's Pixies
attacked us!"
"Zuvaal
energy is black and even rarer than nauthiz
energy," Cog continued, "and it does
the exact opposite. Zuvaal energy can stop
or nullify any other type of eternity energy easily!"
"I think Doctor
Nagura used that against us last week," Kiko
said. "I fired jera energy at him, and
a black flash scattered it away."
Cog nodded.
"That's zuvaal
energy, alright!"
"You said there
was another type of energy... answers?"
"Ansuz,"
Cog corrected. "Ansuz energy is purple,
and Kageki and Senshi and Trick have already seen it!
Ansuz energy affects the way people perceive
reality - it can make you see, hear or think anything!
It made them think 'Hey, Pizza!' had been destroyed
and they were burning to death! They could even feel
the pain!"
Kiko looked at
Kageki, who nodded back at her.
"Doctor Nagura
thought no-one should ever use ansuz energy on
anyone else," Sei told them. "He saw the
potential for its abuse as too great a temptation to
risk. He never searched for ansuz shards, and
told me that the ones he found by accident seemed
rarer even than nauthiz or zuvaal shards."
Cog waited for any
questions before she continued speaking.
"The way you
use the energy is up to you! Doctor Nagura never
tried to study how people concentrate the
energy and use it, except through the weapons - the
Chaos Sword, Vertex Shield and Electro Blaster...
only the effects it had on the body, and how the
robosuit and its circuitry changes that!
"Most people
simply can't use the energy! Even the four
of you can't use the energy without your robosuits!
When you use it now, it is really the circuitry
beneath your skin intercepting the messages being
sent from your brain to your body!"
"What about our
armour?" Senshi asked. "How does that
work?"
"Doctor Nagura
designed the armour to protect people using eternity
energy in rescue work," Sei explained.
"He never revealed where the armour which
emerges during henshin comes from, before it
pierces the user's skin and robosuit to form the
Roboman armour."
Senshi nodded.
"Did he not know
where it came from, or did he just never explain
it to you?" he asked.
"I am
uncertain," Sei replied. "I suspect, as he
designed the robosuits, that he knew precisely where
the armour came from and where it goes when we drop
our henshins."
"You suspect.
You don't know."
"No," Sei
admitted. "I do not know."
Kiko shot Senshi a
glare, then looked at Cog.
"You said the
way we use the energy is up to us," she reminded
the small robot. "What did you mean?"
"Doctor Nagura
never considered the ways eternity energy could
be applied!" Cog clarified. "You've already
use jera energy to run at super-speed - he
never mentioned that possibility to me! All he really
studied was how to get the energy to do whatever it
was its wielder wanted it to do, but he
wanted to leave that up to whoever wore the
robosuits!"
There was a long
silence, which was finally broken by Sei.
"Are there any
further questions?"
Kageki and Kiko
shook their heads.
"No,"
Senshi replied.
"Then perhaps
now would be an opportune time for Senshi to begin -
"
"No!" Kiko
interrupted. "I am not spending any time with him.
He's - "
"Your brother.
A fact you concealed from Ikku and myself."
Kageki's mouth
opened wide with surprise, but he closed it quickly.
"I am concerned
about Senshi's presence among us," Sei admitted
openly, "but we cannot doubt his abilities as a
hand-to-hand combatant and weapons master. We would
all benefit from his help in - "
"I said no,
Sei!" Kiko repeated. "If you want his
help, fine! But I'm not staying
around!"
Kiko turned her back
to Sei and walked across the rooftop to collect her
Alert Bracer and Robo Rifle. She did not notice Cog
dropping from Sei's shoulder and hurrying along to
follow her, even as the tiny robot's footsteps echoed
off the metal stairs which led from the roof through
the deserted building and to the street below.
What she did notice
was the flash of raido energy on the rooftop
and the appearance of a bizarre-looking robot. Its
body was a thick black rectangle, with
copper-coloured, coiled wires appearing to replace
its arms and legs. She could not clearly see its
face, but its head looked like a pointed metal tower.
Next to the robot,
with his arm rested on solid-black back, was a man
covered from head-to-toe in black clothing, including
a thick black balaclava. Almost as quickly as they
appeared, the man began to vanish again amid a shower
of sparkling blue energy.
"Oh, no -
!" she gasped.
As she watched, the
robot emitted a flash of purple light which drove
into her eyes. She felt a physical pressure against
the surface of her eyes, like someone pressing down
on them with their thumbs, but it did not hurt. After
a moment, the purple light faded and Kiko hurried
back up the stairs, to the rooftop where she was
surrounded by her teammates.
None of them seemed
to notice her. To her left, Kageki walked past her
without acknowledging her presence and began to make
his way down the stairs she had just climbed. Sei
slouched his back, shook his head and followed Kageki
down the metal stairs, and Senshi just stared at her.
After a moment he
blushed and looked away. She stared back at him for a
few seconds before he finally turned back to her,
rushed forward and threw his arms around her.
"I love you,
imouto-chan!" he shouted. He kissed her forehead
passionately and squeezed her tightly. "Thank
you!"
Kiko pushed Senshi
away and scanned the empty rooftop. The robot was
gone; she could not know that as she climbed the
stairs the robot had leapt to the top of another
building, and then another, hiding itself several
blocks away.
What she did know
was that her brother was still staring at her, her
eyes wide like those of a puppy dog, and he was
firmly squeezing her hand.
"Come on,
imouto-chan!" he said excitedly. "We have
so much to catch up on!"
"What are you -
?" she began to ask, but Senshi pulled her
forward and encouraged her to follow him down the
stairs and back into the street. They did not cross
the road and enter 'Hey, Pizza!' - instead, he led
her down a narrow side street.
Kiko struggled to
free her hand from Senshi's grip, but he was far
stronger than she was and, at the same time, a
thought lingered at the back of her mind, telling her
that she wanted to follow him.
Okay, she
said. I don't know what's going on, but
something's definitely happened to Senshi and the
guys. I'll go along with it, for now. There's no harm
in going somewhere with my brother, is there? Not the
brother I love more than anyone else in the world...
