Chapter 1
The grinding and squeaks of the rusty chains as it was swung back and forth in the dark was driving him mad. Looking at the swing in the children's park from his perch atop a light post he could see the entire playground was pretty rusty and in need of maintenance. He was about to descend upon the little park and wipe its rusty squeaky nuisance off the face of the earth when he heard the sound of footsteps. He pinpointed the sound and watched as a beautiful young woman made her way towards the park.
If he had still had lips the creature atop the lamppost would have grinned. An evening with a beautiful woman, then a bit of property damage, just like old times. He thought.
Once the woman had entered the park the creature jumped from the lamppost, descending upon his unknowing prey.
Miyuki knew it was late and that going through the park at night could be dangerous, but like most people who take stupid risks she never thought this time her luck might run out. She was walking past the swings when she had the feeling she was being watched. Looking around quickly she could not see anything that stood out, the Street lights illuminated the park well enough for her to once she started to walk again she noticed that the squeaking sound made by the swings had stopped. Turning to look at them she saw that all six links of chain were lying on the floor.
She noticed movement on the frame and looked up, gasping at what she saw. Crouched on top of it was a dark figure in a tattered long coat, its face hidden by what appeared to be a large feathered bird mask with a pointed beak. Its sleeves ended in feathers and in its gloved hands it held large curved blades. The blades seemed to hum in the night air, replacing the sound of the squeaky chains, and Miyuki thought they almost seemed to be vibrating in their wielders hands.
Caught off guard Miyuki lost her footing and fell on her rear end, her eyes still fixed on the hooded figure.
"Hello Sexy-chan, what say you stay there while I do my thing, kay?" The voice was male, though it sounded off, almost like it was done over the phone rather than by the actual person.
Miyuki reached into her handbag and pulled out the pepper spray she always carried but had never had to use. She took the cap off and aimed it at the man still perched on top of the swings, who just continued to watch her.
"Stay back, I'll scream! I mean it!" said Miyuki as she started moving backwards, trying to get back onto her feet but without taking her eyes off her attacker.
The hooded man jus chuckled, straightening up slowly to reveal that he was incredibly tall. He flicked both wrists and jumped down from the swing frame, the whole structure collapsing a second after his feet touched the floor.
Miyuki panicked; she stood up and started running, not daring to look behind her as the gate of the park drew closer and closer. But when she was within a meters length of reaching it the hooded figure dropped down in front of her, only now she saw that it was not a mask at all.
The creature, for now Miyuki could see up close that it was not human, had a head that almost resembled a mechanical bird but with organic eyes and dark black skinned cheeks. It had four eyes; two large ones either side of its head and another two above its mechanical beak. The eyes were that of a bird of prey and blinked as they watched Miyuki take in what she was really up against. To scare her even more it opened its beak and revealed that concealed within it was a row of sharp teeth and tiny buzz saw blades that began whirring and gnashing as soon as it took a step closer towards her.
Miyuki tried to take a step back but the creatures arms were around her in a flash and pulling her towards its chest, making sure that the inside of its mouth was still visible to her. Miyuki tried to scream but the suddenness of it all had caught her off guard and no sound would come out of her.
The creature laughed, Miyuki was unsure how he was able to talk given that where his mouth should have been was replaced with spinning blades, but his distorted laughter did not make him any less terrifying. She shuddered, realizing as she did so that she was still holding the pepper spray.
It might not do much, but nows as good a time as any to find out. she thought, and with that sprayed him once in his large right eye. This turned out to be a good move as he instantly let go of her and clutched at his eye, cursing her whilst she manoeuvred around him and out into the street.
However she only made it to the end of the lane before he dropped out of the sky in front of her again. His blades hummed frantically in his hands and he drew one above his head.
"For that I think I'll go straight to killing you! Goodbye Sexy-chan!" and with that he started to bring his weapon down on her.
What happened next was so quick Miyuki would be running it over in her head again and again for days trying to piece it all together in the right order.
First a blur of red and black came between her and the monster as its weapon was about to cut her in two. The blur grabbed hold of the creatures arm and kicked it in the stomach, propelling it ten meters down the road before it connected with the ground and tumbled another ten meters end over end. The blur did not give it time to get back onto its feet; it rushed towards the creature and delivered another strong kick to its ribs sending it flying up into the air. This time however the creature did not fall, instead it hovered in the air, its black tattered coat opening out into a pair of wings.
The blur stood still and waited for the creature to make its move, giving Miyuki a chance to take in its appearance.
The person, or at least she hoped it was a person, appeared to be wearing body armour and an unusual shaped helmet. On its legs it wore red coloured greaves with a silver trim around the ankles and a gold trim near the knees with a white kite shape over the knees themselves. From the knees upwards the figure wore a black material up to its belt.
After the belt a small piece of the black material went up to meet a red breastplate with a silver trim around the points where the arms, head and lower torso would poke through. Upon its chest was a golden symbol of a star made from 5 kite shapes, the top point of which was red with the golden outline differentiating it from the rest of the armour.
Its arms wore the same black material from the shoulders down to the red gauntlets that were over its forearms. Curiously at the elbows Red bandages were tied around them with a few strands dangling down. The gauntlets themselves had a golden trim near the elbows and a silver one on at the wrists which again had a white kite, this time on the back of the wrist. The rest of the hands were covered in white bandages instead of red like the elbows.
Lastly Miyuki looked at the helmet that her rescuer was wearing. Its neck was covered by the black material and lead under the helmet itself. The helmet was a mixture of red, silver, black and white. The back and top of the helmet was red up to where the person's cheeks would be; that part was silver. This went around to where the person's mouth would be which was covered by red rectangular visor. The eyes were huge oval compound eyes in a shade of green. Above its eyes was a symbol of a white Kite. On either side of the symbol a small black spike protruded, making the figure look like it had antennas. Also coming from either side of the symbol was a white bandage which travelled from the front of the helmet to the back, tying into a knot and leaving some length for the two ends to dangle down the figures back.
A flash from the belt's buckle caught Miyuki's attention. The belt was a metallic grey whilst the buckle was a mixture of colours. It was rectangular in shape, the outer lining of it black whilst the centre of it depicted a star made from five kite shapes, each one a different colour. From the top going right they were red, blue purple, green and yellow. On the right side of the buckle the end of a wheel protruded, the rest of it submerged within the buckle. The other side of the buckle had a small screen that was glowing red with a tiny picture of black hands crossed over each other, almost looking like butterfly wings.
The two figures looked at each other, the birdlike man hovering in the air whilst her red coloured saviour slowly circled around so that it would no longer be facing Miyuki. Finally the red armoured figure spoke; "Bit late for chickens to be out at this time of night isn't it? Shouldn't you be laying an egg somewhere?"
It was defiantly a man's voice, a young man too by the sound of it, and his voice didn't sound distorted like the other one.
The birdman didn't seem to like being taunted, swearing repeatedly before saying "You really think you're so tough? Let's see you kick this!" and opened his beak wide. The buzz saws within began to spin again and flew from its mouth towards the red armoured man.
He in turn jumped into the air just in time, leaving the blades embedded in the pavement where he had been standing.
His jump propelled him into the air and towards the birdman, whose wide opened beak obscured his view of the approaching danger. The man in red armour's jump was so high he flew over the birdman and grabbed onto one of his wings.
The sudden weight caught the birdman off guard. Frantically flapping his other wing in an attempt to keep himself aloft he never the less crashed to the floor, the red armoured man making sure that the birdman landed first to take the worst of the fall. Having successfully brought him down, the red armoured man then jumped away from the birdman and landed a good ten meters away.
Using his left hand he touched the red glowing button on his belt buckle which made the sound of a bell similar to the ones used in fighting tournaments at the beginning & end of a round. This was followed by a mechanical voice shouting "Brawler: Rough Kick!"
After this his eyes flashed a bright emerald and seemed to cause a wave of rippling energy to travel from his head and down the rest of his body until it reached his feet, at which point he crouched down before leaping once more into the air. This time his jump took him nearly twice as high as the birdman had flown to stay out of his reach.
As the armoured figure reached the peak of his jump at 40 meters in the air he raised his arms behind his head, hands splayed open, before thrusting them back down and pointing at the birdman. Instantly the bandages at his elbows extended and flew at the creature, wrapping around him and constricting his movements to prevent him from flying away again. That done the armoured figure wrapped his hands around the bandages at his end and gave an almighty pull. The force of this not only pulled him at shocking speed towards the now helpless birdman but also yanked the birdman off the ground and rushing up to meet him. On his collision course towards the birdman the armoured figure pulled his feet in underneath him before thrusting them out again, his heels now emitting a red glow as they were milliseconds from making impact with their target.
When the two collided, with the birdman receiving a double footed kick to the chest, the belt had enough time to shout "K.O.!" before an explosion erupted with such force that Misuki was blown off her feet and heading headfirst into a building. However another figure jumped out of nowhere and caught her inches before her head would have smashed into the buildings brick wall. Dazed by it all she turned to look up at her second saviour of the night and was relieved to see an actual human face, and a handsome one at that. This new man had dark hair styled to hang the odd strand across his face whilst his eyes were a shade of sparkling blue that to Misuki seemed to glow in the night sky.
As she started to pass out and everything went black it was those blue eyes that were the last thing to turn dark.