War's Song
Chapter 1: Back in Black
It was a quiet, cool night in Japan, the stars twinkling overhead like Earth's eternal guardians. A common occurrence.
His name was Chino. He was 12. He was a medafighter. Also common in this Japan we know of.
He was in the bad part of town. That wasn't so common. It fact, Chino had never wanted to visit this part of Tokyo (or wherever Medabots happens). Bad luck had caused him to make the first wrong turn, and pure stubbornness is what kept him on it. Now he was hopelessly lost.
That hadn't bothered him too much. If worse came to worst, he could always call his parents to pick him up. The fact that they would yell at him was what had kept him from doing it. However, considering the situation he had found himself in, he would have preferred to be yelled at.
His back was to the wall, literally, as the four figures closed in. They ranged from tiny to massive. They all wore sunglasses and the same bizarre rubber outfits with twin antenna sticking out of the hood that covered their heads. And they were all giggling.
Besides that, the similarities ended. The smallest had a shock of blonde hair that stood up like a horn, and appeared to have a pacifier in his mouth. The second was a woman, which was obvious due to the very strong lipstick she was wearing. The third was the biggest, a brute with thick lips, a scar over his right eye, and a rather dull expression on his face. The last appeared to be the leader (I guess Seaslug took over after Meda-Evil's defeat again), with a long bang of brown hair above his shades. It was him whom Chico had first seen, before the others had surrounded him.
Chico was, quite frankly, terrified. And that was exactly what Seaslug and his gang had counted on.
"Hee hee hee! Didn't you read the sign kid? This is Rubberrobo territory!" Seaslug said in his best tax voice (Yeah, tax. As in taxing, the crime of intimidating people into giving you things?)
Squidguts looked confused. "Uh boss, when did we put up a sign?"
His companions facevaulted.
"WHEN YOU WEREN'T LOOKING! Now kid, this is our turf. If you wanna pass through, you gotta pay the tax."
"Tax? What tax?" Chico whimpered.
"Oh…how about your metal? And all your Meta-parts as a bonus?" Seaslug said. This was easy! Dumb kids…
"N-no! My mom gave it to me…!"
"Then she can give you another! Give it!" Seaslug growled, leaning in. As if on cue, his three companions did the same. Chico tried to find a hole to hide in, but none surfaced. What would these bizarre people do to him if he kept refusing?
And then, slowly, music floated to his ears. It was strange enough to suddenly hear music at this time of night in this area of town, but this music was so…lovely. It clashed with the ugliness that confronted him.
The Rubberrobos were too busy mugging for Chico to notice the music at first, but eventually everyone did. Everyone except Seaslug, who was still trying to frighten Chico into giving up his Meda-parts.
The long cloak flapped gently in the slight breeze as the figure stepped out of the alleyway. He was a tall lean figure, totally wrapped on his cloak, as deep as the folds of night. His jeans and boots, only seen when the wind blew the cloak in the right direction, were also black. His face was lost under a hood, the features consumed in darkness from which a small flute poked. He looked like someone had decided to cross an artistic rendering of the Grim Reaper with one of Pan the goat god.
The music stopped as the figure removed the flute, and then his hand reached down to the ground and seized a small stone. He reared back and whipped it at Seaslug.
The rock careened off the lead RR's head, the thick covering protecting him somewhat but not keeping him from feeling pain. He reared back and screamed, and Chino took that as his opportunity to leave, as he darted into the new opening and broke from the group. Seaslug barely noticed, as he turned angry eyes on the cloaked figure. The figure's head was watching the kid flee: when he was gone, he turned back to the Rubberrobos.
"Music may sooth the savage beast, but it appears a rock is needed to get its attention." The figure said. It had a smooth, cool voice, like fine wine. A male, from the tone.
"Who the heck are you? Do you know who you are messing with?"
"I'm not sure. It kind of looks like a bunch of rejects from a "My Favorite Martian" convention. What are you wearing, the clothing version of a lightning rod?" the figure said, crossing his arms. His shirt was black too, and he wore black fingerless gloves. His face remained hidden in the shadows of his hood. If clothes made the man, this man was a wraith.
Seaslug steamed. Not only had this stranger robbed him of a medal and medaparts, he was insulting him as well!
"I'll tell you! We are the Rubberrobo gang, an invincible force! We are evil through and through!" Seaslug yelled.
"Yeah!" the other three all said and once. "Why don't you go take a long walk off a short pier, creep?" Shrimplips added.
"Why don't you take a short jump off a long cliff, shorty?" the figure said. "I know what you are. Pure evil, yet you're trying to get medaparts from a kid? Pure evil, my foot. You're just a bunch of bullies. I HATE BULLIES."
"Oh yeah? Well since you scared the kid off, I think we should take your parts instead!" Seaslug said.
"My parts? Look Mork…"
"MY NAME IS SEASLUG!"
"Even dumber. If you Rubberdodos…"
"RUBBERROBOS!"
"More fitting is Rubberdodos. You're about to become extinct. I came here looking for a challenge. But you will have to do. You want my parts, you'll have to Robattle me for them. Your dumb scare tactics won't work on me."
"Gladly." Seaslug said, grinning evilly as he brought up his Medawatch. "TRANSPORT WHITESWORD!"
(He used it in X-treme Measures)
A beam of orange light shot out of the medawatch and materialized into a medabot with white armour and a sword. "C'mon guys, let's teach this guy a lesson!"
"TRANSPORT GOKUDO!" Shrimplips yelled. His medawatch transported a red medabot with gold trim and hydraulic arms.
"C'mon Spidar!" Gillgirl added. (Meet your Meta-Maker, and since Shrimplips has Gokudo…) Hers was a green and yellow Medabot that, unlike its bipedal companions, had six multi-jointed legs and a flat-multi-eyed head.
Seaslug looked over to his only female companion. "SPIDAR! WHAT HAPPENED TO SEAGURU?"
"I don't know. With our old boss betraying us and the mess with Giganko and those police I lost her." Gillgirl answered, looking depressed.
"Oh. Sorry. I just thought Squidguts was the only one dumb enough to…" Seaslug blurted out before he realized what he was saying. Gillgirl looked even more depressed, but she sucked it up quickly. She had a job to do, no matter the Medabot.
Squidguts stood scratching his head.
"What was the name of my replacement again?" he asked. His companions facevaulted again.
"IT WAS LANDMOTOR, MORON!" Seaslug "helpfully" said.
"Oh yeah! Transport Landmotor! (Ban All Medabots). I miss Gobanko, I always remembered his name…" Squidguts muttered. A small car with a robot head materialized, and a moment later it transformed (More then meets the eye!) into a white and blue car medabot.
"Heh heh heh! This is the gang you have dared to defy! We're going to make you rue the day you messed with the Rubberrobo gang!" Seaslug said, as he and his companions lined up. Their medabots did likewise.
The figure shook his head.
"Poor fools…let me tell you something, Seaslug. You are not powerful. Picking on others does not make you powerful. You pick on the young, you're pathetic. You pick on the weak, you're even weaker. And now you're trying to pick on me…"
The figure raised his right arm and yanked down his shirt sleeve to reveal a VERY fancy medawatch, which looked about three times as advanced as the ones the Rubberrobos wore.
"YOU'RE HISTORY!" The figure yelled as he pushed a button. "TRANSPORT…STARKILLER!"
A white beam shot of out the figure's medawatch, and in a flash of light, a new medabot appeared.
It was a black and blue medabot, with black armour marked with jagged blue markings. It had armor on its legs, forearms, and chest, and pointed edges of extra armour on the knees, elbows, shoulders, and head, angled back away from the face. The medabot appeared to be wearing shades of jagged black armor as well. It had a pair of hands, but the bulk on the forearm armour suggested the weapons it hid in there. It was all jagged edges. Surprisingly, the body-type suggested it was female.
Shrimplips blinked behind his shades. What kind of
medabot is THAT?
(The medal swings across the screen)
STARKILLER
Type: Unique
Specialty: Adaptability, Nova Attacks
"Ohhhhhh, fancy!" Seaslug mocked.
"How do you want it?" The figure said, ignoring the insult. "One on one? Two-score? Or all four at once?"
"All four…MWA HAH HA! You think you can beat all four of us at once?"
"You scared to find out?" the figure retorted. Seaslug growled.
"Ok then. GET HIM!"
The four medabots charged forward, Gokudo and Landmotor (which had converted itself back into a car) taking the lead. The figure brought his watch close to his face.
"Let's take their measure. Maybe it won't be such a disappointment. Starkiller, SPEED MODE!"
"Right!" Starkiller said, and the armour on her body suddenly began to vanish, being drawn in and stored away. Within a second she had about a fifth of the protection she had had before. Then roller blades suddenly rose out of the bottom of the her feet even as rockets emerged and fired, and Starkiller shot down the street at high speed, leaving a trail of scorched ground.
"Gokudo, hammer her!" Shrimplips ordered. The medabot shot out its arms, but Starkiller leapt up at amazing speed and landed on the arms, using them as rails. Gokudo's mechanical eyes widened as Starkiller rocketed up his arms before she kicked him in the face. Gokudo flew back even as she leapt off and bounced off Spidar's head, as good as Mario could have done it. Leaping off, she spun and rocketed around Whitesword, spinning at high speed and dodging his slashes with ease. Landmotor charged as her, and she blasted away from Whitesword as it gave chase.
"Ha ha! My medabot's faster then yours!" Squidguts taunted as it began to gain ground on the rocket-powered Starkiller.
"Yeah, but mine can jump!" The figure said, and Starkiller did just that. Gokudo's eyes followed her up just before Landmotor crashed into him.
"ARGH! Squidguts, you damaged my medabot!"
"Duh, sorry. Mine got hurt too. See?"
"It's about to hurt a lot worse!" the figure said, as Starkiller twisted.
And ran right onto the web that Spidar had laid on the ground. The sticky substance was yanked up into the wheels and clogged them, bringing Starkiller to a dead stop and nearly pitching her onto her face.
"Argh! My feet are stuck!" Starkiller said.
"SHE'S TRAPPED! GET HER! GET HER!" Seaslug bellowed, jumping up and down and waving his arms. The three other medabots converged on the trapped female, readying their weapons.
"Starkiller! Switch to armour mode!" the figure ordered. Starkiller withdrew the rollerblades and rockets as Landmotor fired surface to air missiles and Whitesword and Gokudo got in range to slash and pound.
The vanished armour reappeared, and then doubled and tripled, sealing all of Starkiller's body behind a wall of blue metal. Her forearm armour clumps expanded even more, forming huge shields that she brought up and around her.
The missiles connected, exploding in a plume of fire and smoke. A few seconds later Whitesword ran in and began slashing rapidly at the shields while Gokudo pounded on them.
The figure wasn't looking at that spectacle. He was watching the meters on his medawatch as they slowly began to go down. Whitesword and Gokudo continued to hammer on the shields, which began to be chipped and dented.
"Oh no! My shields are being destroyed!" the figure said.
"They are?" Whitesword said, stopping his onslaught to take a look, even as Gokudo drew back his arms for another strike and Landmotor prepared another missile.
"NO YOU IDIOT! NOW!" The figure yelled, and Starkiller suddenly swung her shield out and around, smashing into Whitesword and sending him flying into Gokudo. Seaslug yelled in anger as the two crashed together and his meters went down.
"Just as I expected. BORING! Starkiller, let's wrap this up! WARRIOR MODE!"
"Oh yeah!" Starkiller said, as the excess armour was pulled back into her. In a few seconds she looked like she did when she had first appeared. A section of her back opened and shot something out, and Starkiller whirled and caught it in mid-air. It kind of looked like a shower handle, before she turned and twin beams of white-energy shot out of it and formed into a twin-bladed laser sword, like a deadly tuning fork.
"The bug first! NOVA SWORD!"
"AH! Spidar, defend yourself!" Gillgirl said. Spidar rasied his/her arm, but that was all she got to do as Starkiller leapt at the medabot and slashed out. The dual blade went through the arm and then through Spidar. Gillgirl shrieked as her medabot exploded, the faint clang of the medal being ejected out lost in the din.
Starkiller flipped and landed.
"The car next! NOVA LANCE!"
Starkiller tossed her blade up as Landmotor turned around, and then she slammed her fists and forearms together as the blade was caught between them. Parts shot out of the arms and into the blade, and it doubled into length even as the rollerblades and rockets re-emerged. Landmotor tried to convert itself back into a car, but Starkiller was quicker as she blasted at Landmotor, impaling him on the laser blade and ramming him into a wall. Starkiller yanked the blade up even as she flipped up and away and Landmotor exploded too, her arms snapping open and the blade flying free. She landed and caught it, even as Landmotor's scorched medal landed beside her.
Seaslug clenched his fists in anger as the figure cocked his head.
"You think you've won? WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!" Seaslug bellowed. "You with me Shrimplips?"
"You bet!" Shrimplips said, as Gokudo and Whitesword stood side by side and got ready to attack again.
"Finish it. NOVA CANNON!" the figure yelled. Starkiller leapt into the air and thrust out her hand, flipping the sword back and against her forearm armour. The sword was assimilated into the armour even as it shifted and warped, forming into the barrel of a cannon that glowed a bright white.
"AH! Gokudo, you have thicker armour! Take that!" Shrimplips ordered. Gokudo sweatdropped (or did the medabot equivalent of a sweatdrop) but he listened, putting himself in front of Whitesword.
"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya." Starkiller said as she aimed, and then a giant bolt of white energy blasted from her cannon, throwing her backwards.
The blast struck Gokudo and blew him backwards, right into Whitesword. As all the Rubberrobos shrieked in surprise, the blast continued, carrying them both back into a wall. With a shuddering explosion, the two were blown up by the massive power of the blast.
Starkiller landed, the sword flipping out of her arm and re-igniting, as the last two medals clattered on the ground.
The whole fight had taken less then a minute.
The Rubberrobos gaped at the figure, as Starkiller leapt over to his side.
"Nicely done m'lady." The figure said.
"How…what…YOU CHEATED! YOU CHEATED!" Seaslug yelled, jumping up and down.
"I didn't. That's another thing about bullies: they never know when they've lost. Now get out of here, or my medabot will show you just how much of a bully SHE can be."
"Uhhh…huh…uh…" Seaslug gulped. Starkiller did a fancy twirl and aimed her dual blade at the Rubberrobos. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF US!"
Starkiller picked up a brick and in a blur of motion, sliced it into four pieces.
"………..You've seen the last of us! BYE! RUN AWAY!" Seaslug said, and he and his companions took off and vanished. The figure chuckled.
"Not much of a challenge, but I needed the exercise. That armour you devised is magnificent master." Starkiller said, as she put her sword away.
"Why thank you. I'm glad you like it, because you'll probably be using it a lot. But that's what I devised it for." The figure said, as he walked over to the corner the kid had run around.
Just as he thought. The kid was still there, having watched the entire thing. Children. Too curious for their own good.
"Wow! Thanks mister!" Chico said.
"Not a problem. Just try to avoid those idiots in the future."
"Ok! Wow, what a medabot! Where did you buy her?" Chico said, looking Starkiller over.
"I didn't. I built her from scratch."
"You did? Wow, that must have taken…weeks!"
"Longer. Now kid, I assume you don't live around her, so here…" the figure said, as he passed the kid some bills. "Call a cab."
"Thanks mister! Hey, what's your name?"
The figure cocked his head, and then withdrew the small instrument he had slipped up his sleeve.
"Call me…Flute."
"Ok! Thanks Flute!" Chico said as he ran off. He couldn't wait to tell his friends. The figure, who had dubbed himself Flute, smiled under his cloak and turned.
"Shall we go Starkiller? We have a lot of work to do. I hope you're up to it."
"I'm up to anything." Starkiller said as she fell into step beside her owner.
The two strolled down the street, alone in the night.
"Master?"
"Yes?"
"Why Flute? Why not your name?"
"Because until I am done, that is not my name. It hasn't been for years." Flute said, thinking. Eight years. Eight years of testing, watching, observing, all that sweat and blood and tears. But it is done. I have created a masterpiece out of my failure. No more.
"I built you to be the ultimate medabot Starkiller. It's time to find out. Japan is full of challengers, worthy ones, strong ones. Did you get the list before I called you?"
"Yes sir."
"Good."
Flute slipped into an alleyway and climbed up a nearby ladder. Starkiller followed him up and stood by him as he observed the city of Tokyo spread out and rising above him.
"Get ready, fellow medafighters. Flute and Starkiller have arrived. Prepare for war!"
A whirl of black cloak later, and Flute and Starkiller were gone.
All that was left was a faint and soft melody that played through the night.
Who is Flute? And how quick will it be before he butts heads with our heroes? Fine out next time on "Deeper Shadows!" More Medabots, More Power!
