CAST
THE
ROBOMEN
THEIR ALLIES
OTHERS
| FIRE-PIXIE |
HEATWAVE |
SORCERESS
MIKO |
 |
 |
 |
-ACT III-
THE TIME:
April 7th, 2010
12pm
Serafina paced the
length of one of the charred, damp walls of the
temple in which, ten hours earlier, she had been
bombarded by fire and lightning. She did not look
much different to how she appeared during her dance;
she still wore her loose red bikini, and her skin and
hair seemed no worse for wear.
What was different
were the giant, butterfly-like orange and pink wings
on her back, her blue-glowing skin, and her shining
orange eyes and hair, which flickered as she walked,
casting off what looked like embers in her wake.
Light streamed in
through the opening she had made in the roof when she
first fled the temple, taking the fire, lightning and
anything else that might harm Sorceress Miko with
her, and on the opposite side of the room a man and a
boy kneeled, with their hands and feet bound behind
their backs.
"This is the
last time I will ask!" Serafina shouted.
"Where is he? Where is the one who threatened my
mistress?"
The man was covered
in black from head to toe. His straight black hair
was spiked on top, but slicked back at the sides. He
wore a black t-shirt, with a white patch on his right
shoulder. The lower half of his body was covered by
tight black trousers and black boots.
He seemed calm as
Serafina spoke to him, and he waited for several
moments before responding.
"I told you: we
don't know," he said. "Now come on - let
Kageki go. He's of no use to you!"
Serafina's head
turned and she stared at the boy. He wore a white
t-shirt and black vest over a green dress shirt, and
his kneeling legs were concealed by flared black
jeans and green shoes.
"No,
Trick-san!" Kageki cried. "I won't leave
you!"
Serafina smiled.
"Kageki? Trick?
Those are your names?" she inquired.
Kageki nodded.
"I think you're
wrong, 'Trick'. I have plenty of uses for
Kageki." She slowly made her way across the room
and stopped only inches in front of the boy.
Suddenly, she reached out and took a clump of her
hair in his fingers and pulled his face close to her
own. "You will answer my questions, won't you,
Kageki?"
Kageki tried to
shake his head, but it moved only slightly as
Serafina held it in place. Serafina looked at Trick.
"I think he will,"
she told him, "and if he doesn't, I can always
torture him so that you will answer
me."
She let go of
Kageki's hair and he dropped back onto the ground. He
quickly got back onto his knees and scooched next to
Trick.
"One. Last.
Time." Serafina said calmly. "Where is the
man I seek?"
"We. Don't.
Know." Trick told her again. "We don't know
him."
"I saw him
enter your store! I followed him there! He
did not come out, but you left! When I
burned down your store, he was not there!"
"He left
through a window!" Trick shouted.
"I don't
believe you! You are hiding him somewhere! Where were
you going when I captured you and brought you
here?"
"Let Kageki go
and I will - "
"Let him go and
you will tell me?" Serafina finished Trick's
sentence for him. "Really? Or will you then
struggle against me? Somehow, I think keeping the boy
here will make you much more
responsive."
Trick glanced at
Kageki, then turned back to Serafina.
"Fine," he
said. "We don't know the man, but one of our
friends does."
Kageki arrowed his
eyebrows and cocked his head to the side.
"We were hoping
they might know where he is, so we could find out
what was going on," Trick explained.
Serafina nodded
slowly.
"Good. You will
take me to this person."
"That's not
necessary, Serafina."
The man's voice came
from above the room, from the opening in the ceiling.
Trick, Kageki and Serafina tilted their heads back to
see Heatwave's red-and-yellow armoured form slowly
descending into the temple.
His feet touched the
ground and he gestured at the barely-visible door in
the wall. Bright orange sparks erupted beneath it and
it blew open, filling the room with even more bright
sunlight and three more figures - the armoured
Robomen hurried inside.
"Trick!
Kageki!" Ikku exclaimed.
"Ikku-sa -
!" Kageki began to shout excitedly, but stopped
as Trick began to shake his head vigorously.
"Wh-who are
you?" Serafina asked.
"Ugh!"
Kiko muttered. "There's that feeling again...
what...?"
"Courage
is victory!" Ikku intoned. "The
compassion to care for those I protect! Red
Robo!"
"Knowledge
is power!" Sei shouted. "Cool
logic is my greatest weapon! Blue Robo!"
"Understanding
is unity!" Kiko cried.
"Empathy can bring together even the most hated
enemies! Yellow Robo!"
"Courage!
Knowledge!
Understanding!
The
power to succeed through
unity! Guardian Sentai Roboman!"
The
three Robomen stared at Heatwave as, slowly, he made
a fist with his right hand and punched the air in
front of his body.
"Fire
is my weapon; it is also my foe. There is no
emergency too great to overcome!" Heatwave
hollered. "The Burning Hero! Heatwave!"
Heatwave
looked down at his armoured body as it was bathed in
an orange glow that closely resembled a flickering
flame.
"Okay
- where did that come from?" he asked.
"We
don't know," Kiko said. "It's only the
second time it's happened..."
Ikku
tilted his head to the side and stared at Serafina.
"But
it's the first time that's happened!"
he cried.
Serafina's
body was changing. The bright orange glow from her
eyes and hair was growing steadily brighter, while
the blue light around her body dimmed. She fell down
to her hands and knees and began to grope along the
floor for something that she could hold onto.
"I
can't see!" she screamed. "The fire - it's
so bright!"
"Hold
on!" Kiko called to her. "We'll help
you!" The yellow Roboman took a step forward but
stopped as flames burst from the floor around
Serafina, trapping the winged woman in a fiery ring.
"Sei... Blue Robo! Could our robosuits survive
that?"
"I
do not know," Sei replied.
"Well,
I'm going to - "
"Wait,"
Heatwave interrupted. "I can calm flames,
remember? Just give me a sec!"
Heatwave
reached out and placed his palms above the fire. He
concentrated, and the flames flickered beneath his
hands, but they did not disappear like the ones
inside the kitchen of 'Hey, Pizza!'.
"NOOOOOOO!"
Serafina screamed.
"It
isn't working," Heatwave said. He pulled his
hands away from the fire. "I'll - "
"You'll
nothing."
The
Robomen turned to look out through the door leading
into the street, and stepped aside as Sorceress Miko
entered. She stared at the burning flames, the bound
prisoners, her three armoured foes and the unknown
man in armour.
"The
flames will not respond to your powers because they
are magickal," Miko explained. "Eternity
energy only affects magick to a certain
degree."
"So
what are you saying?!" Ikku asked angrily.
"We can't save her? She's having some kind of meltdown!"
"That's
exactly what I'm saying," Miko replied.
She pointed at Trick and Kageki. "You can save
those two, but Serafina can only save herself."
Ikku
hurried over to Trick and Kageki and quickly untied
them.
"Get
out of here," he told them. "Go - "
"No,
Ikku-sama!" Kageki cried. "I want to -
"
"You
need to leave!" Ikku said forcefully.
"Trick, take him - "
"I
know," Trick nodded. He wrapped his fingers
around Kageki's wrist and pulled the boy free of the
burning temple and out into the street.
Heatwave
peered through the doorway.
"Don't
you have a fire department in New
Orleans?" he asked.
"The
fire is invisible to anyone outside the temple,"
Miko said, "and even if they could see
it, their water would do no good. Only Serafina can
quell this fire. Focus, Serafina!"
Suddenly,
the fire was gone, disappearing as quickly as it
appeared. In the centre of the black ring it left in
its wake, Serafina had returned to her feet. The blue
glow was brighter than ever before, and the orange
was so bright that Heatwave and the Robomen had to
shield their eyes with their hands.
Miko
stepped forward.
"You
have done well, Serafina," Miko told her,
"but it is time to end this."
Serafina
nodded. She turned, slowly, to face Heatwave. Gently,
she extended her hands before her body, like a person
preparing to be handcuffed. Heatwave stepped
forward... and Serafina lunged, punching the
unarmoured sides of his stomach.
"ARGH!"
Heatwave staggered back and glanced down at his body.
The points where Serafina had punched him where
bathed in the same orange glow as her eyes and hair.
"Robo
Rifle!" the Robomen shouted in unison.
They quickly reached for the handgun-sized weapons
holstered at their sides and levelled them at
Sorceress Miko.
"Tell
her to back off, Miko!" Kiko demanded. "We will
shoot!"
"Yeah!
And without any of your Pixies, you can't teleport to
safety!" Ikku added.
Miko
smirked.
"You're
as ignorant as the other one," she said.
"My name is Sorceress Miko! I don't
need to rely on my Pixies, or the raido energy they
contain!" She raised her right hand above her
head suddenly, and the Robomen took a quick step
backwards. "Hah! Even just a hint of my
magick makes you flee!"
Behind
Miko, Serafina struck Heatwave again and again, and
with each blow his armour began to glow more and more
brightly, suffused with the same orange light that
had consumed Serafina moments earlier; and as it
reflected off the metal, it appeared very much like
flickering flames.
"I
can't fight her in here!" Heatwave shouted.
"Maybe - no!"
Serafina
lunged at Heatwave's barely-protected neck and
gripped it tightly. Orange sparks burst from the
sides of his helmet. Heatwave reached up and pressed
his armoured hands against his head and finally, with
one solid tug, he tore off his helmet.
"ARGH!"
he shouted again.
The
sparks stopped, but Serafina did not let go.
"Call
her off!" Sei told Miko. He levelled his Robo
Rifle at Miko's chest and wrapped his finger around
the trigger. "We have warned you once
already."
"Shoot,
then!" Miko closed her eyes and laughed.
"My magick will - "
There
was loud thump! and Miko whirled around to
see Serafina's body slumped against the ground. She
turned quickly back to Sei and saw that he had moved
his arm - he was no longer aiming his Robo Rifle at
her. He had fired its invisible energy past her,
and hit Serafina.
Miko
took a deep breath.
"You
will pay for this," she said calmly. "All
of you. Serafina did not deserve to be harmed. She
was only fulfilling her destiny."
"You
told her to fight us!" Ikku reminded
her.
"No."
Miko shook her head. "I told her to 'end it'. To
end her dedication to the master... the dedication
that was consuming her!"
"The
master? You mean Director Satoshi. He is - " Sei
began.
"Satoshi?
Hah!" Miko laughed. "That old fool? He served
the master, just like all of us."
"We
do not serve any master," Sei responded.
"I
know I don't..." Heatwave muttered. He
kneeled next to Serafina and placed his fingers
against her throat. "There's no pulse. She isn't
breathing."
"She's...
dead?" Miko took another long breath and nodded
gravely. "You will all pay for
this." She stood beside the store and stared at
Heatwave and Serafina for a moment, then pointed at
the armoured man. "You do serve the
master, more than any of us, and it's
hilarious that you do not realise it - it will make
your destruction all the more fun!"
"Come
on, Miko!" Ikku said. "Give it up! We're
taking you - "
"Into
custody?" Miko suggested. "Unlikely."
She
clapped her hands together, and was surrounded by a
bright flash of blue light. The flash was so bright
that the Robomen, and Heatwave, were momentarily
stunned; and when the light faded, Miko was gone.
"She
can really teleport on her own?" Kiko
asked. "That could be a problem!"
"No,"
Sei replied. "That was not raido energy. It
was a mechanical flash of some kind, and she escaped
while we recovered from its brightness." He took
a step forward and crouched beside Serafina.
"She is dead."
Ikku
hurried forward. "Can my kenez energy help?"
"What
about jera energy? I could try to turn back
time or - " Kiko offered.
"No."
Heatwave shook his head. "Miko is right - there
are some things eternity energy just can't
change. And besides... she's not dead.
Look."
The
blue energy that surrounded Serafina's body started
to glow even more brightly, and to spread, to cover
all but her orange eyes and hair. Sei reached
forward, and the blue light seemed to be solid as his
hand would not pass through it.
"It's
like the raido energy is forming a coccoon
around her body, but somehow the orange energy is
keeping it from closing," Ikku said.
"The
orange energy is not any form of eternity energy I
know," Sei remarked. "Heatwave?"
Heatwave
shook his head.
"It's
almost like fire, but... not," he
responded. "But look - it is getting dimmer. I
couldn't affect the fire ring, but maybe I can get
rid of this energy and help the coccoon
close?"
He
placed his palms flat over Serafina's face and
concentrated. The orange energy, already fading,
began to dim even more rapidly. In seconds, all that
was left was a tiny spark in her eyes, the only part
of her body not contained by raido energy.
"This
energy's inside her..." Heatwave said.
"I don't want to remove the last of it. I don't
know what it might do to her."
"What
do we do with her?" Kiko asked.
"We need to get her to a lab where we can study
whatever's happening to her, and we don't have access
to anything like that."
"I
do," Heatwave told them. "I can fly her
there."
"We
will follow you," Sei said.
"You
can't get there on foot, mate." Heatwave pointed
up through the roof.
"Give
me the co-ordinates and I will teleport us
there."
"I
can't do that, either. Sorry."
"In
that case, you cannot take Serafina."
"What?"
Ikku interjected. "Sei, if he can look after
her - he seems to know a lot more about this
than we do - shouldn't we just let him go?"
"Perhaps
Cog can - "
"Blue
Robo," Kiko interrupted.
"Go,
Heatwave," Ikku said. "But come back as
soon as you can. I think we've got a lot to talk
about!"
Heatwave
nodded and picked up Serafina. He cradled the
blue-shrouded body in his arms and returned to his
feet, then slowly began to rise from the ground. It
took only a few moments for him to pass through the
hole in the ceiling and out of sight.
Sei
looked at Ikku.
"It
appears I do serve a master." Sei
turned away from Ikku and approached Heatwave's
helmet, still resting in the corner of the room. He
touched it lightly, but quickly pulled his hand away.
"It is too hot to touch, even with our
gloves."
"Leave
it for Heatwave, then," Ikku said. "He'll
pick it up himself."
The
Robomen took another look around the room as Trick
and Kageki quietly made their way back inside.
"It's
over, then?" Trick asked. "We were going to
call for help, but the fire was invisible from the
street."
"Yeah!
Where did Heatwave go?" Kageki asked. "He
was so cool!"
"You...
did not see him leave through the ceiling?" Sei
asked.
Kageki
shook his head.
"It
appears there is more to Heatwave than meets the
eye..."
COG'S
SPECIAL REPORT!
 |
Hi! I'm Cog! The Robomen use a lot
of complicated technology, and sometimes it
can
be a bit hard to get your head around it all
- especially when you can't
actually see what's going on! (Hey,
if you can accept that a two-inch tall
robot is talking to you, you better be
able to accept that than they can
break the fourth-wall and acknowledge they're
a character in a work of
fiction!)
|
To help you out, I'm going to pop in
from time to time to let you know what I know
about the technology - and that isn't as much as you
might think. Doctor Nagura told me a lot, but he's a
world-famous bioroboticist... and while I might have
been one at one stage, I'm not 100% sure!
Today,
we're going to look at Heatwave's armour
and the Roboman armour:
| HEATWAVE |
ROBO RED |
 |
 |
As you can see, the gloves, chestplate
and helmet are the same, except for the colours, but
Heatwave has a lot of extra armour covering
his stomach and legs, as well as super high-tech
boots! Boots that can fly!
I wish
the Robomen could fly...
Where
did Heatwave come from? How did he know about eternity
shards? Where did he take Serafina? Why wouldn't
he let the Robomen come? Will the Robomen ever see
him again? My special report is supposed to be about
answers, not just raising more questions!
I don't
know any more than you do - at least I don't think
I do. I can't access all of my memory yet! Maybe
Doctor Nagura created Heatwave? Maybe Doctor Nagura
is 'the master'? No! I'm a robot! Speculation is bad!
Go
away!
...
See you
next time! ^_^
