Imperial War Fantasy
"What makes him think they are trying to kidnap you?"
"My father has great instincts to events that are occurring. These monsters have been at our city more than normal, and they have been aiming for this castle."
"What makes you think that it is the Analogue family doing this?"
"The Analogue family has always loathed us, they envy our way of life. We always feared that they would start a war with us and this may be the Coming of the Storm. All we need is proof to all that they are trying to murder my family. That's he hired you to ensure my safety as well as my staff. I am Princess Di Gi Charat."
"I am General Milo Antu."
"And I am General Jin Junnagou, Entirely at your service now Princess Charat."
"Where is your father now Miss Charat?" asked Milo
"He has fled himself, and his location and destination is classified." said Charat. "He however left this for you…" Charat handed Milo a scroll tied with a red ribbon. "all I know is that we are to leave this castle soon, in casual clothes. You two can make yourself at home in this hall while I gather my staff."
Charat exited the hallway. Milo opened the scroll and started to read it carefully. Jin walked to the stone cut window and gazed upon the city skyline and sunset.
"I have a bad feeling about this Milo…" said Jin still looking out the window. Milo turned his attention to Jin and approached him from behind.
"Feelings do us well Jin; but still don't lose focus."
"So what is the plan Milo?"
"We need to get the Charat Family and their staff on board a refugee train located here…" Milo pointed to the location written on the scroll.
"Do you think that this family would want to travel in this 3rd class transport?"
Milo paused for a second, then continued, "Princess Di Gi Charat is young, naïve, and cowardly; I see no difficulty getting her and her family to travel in that train. Still be prepared for the unexpected.
A young purple haired girl wearing silken robes and glasses walked in with a silver tray caring a silver tea pot and cups.
"I am Hinagiku of the Charat service staff, at your service gentlemen."
Milo and Jin took a tea cup as soon as Hinagiku approached them.
"Where is Princess Di Gi Charat and the rest of her staff?" asked Jin.
"I was told that Princess Charat has been delayed and will be back shortly."
"Told by whom?"
"Agent Chuckles of the Charat Secret Service, or the CSS."
"Chuckles?" asked Milo, "Sorta makes me want to chuckle."
Milo and Jin giggled and hit their cups together. Jin's smile turned upside down when he looked over Hinagiku and noticed some mysterious clouds coming from the floor vents next to the double wooden door.
"What is that gas coming out of the floor?" he asked alarmingly.
"Chuckles told me that the maintenance crew was going to work on the troublesome ventilation systems, so I it must be some sort of excess steam." said Hinagiku.
"Well can you open the door?" asked Milo.
"Sure." Hinagiku laid the tray on a table and went back to the large hardwood double door she came in through and tried to push it open, but to her it seemed like she was pushing against a solid wall.
"That's funny? It opened easily just a second ago." Hinagiku started to cough softly but continuously as she pushed harder on the big door.
"That's just what I thought!" said Milo then ran to the door and tried to open it, but it still wouldn't budge. "Jin! It's poison gas! And the door is locked!" shouted Milo. Hinagiku collapsed and coughed harder. Jin covered his mouth and nose with his white assassin's scarf attached to his shirt.
"We got to get the hell out of here!" shouted Jin
"The fucking door won't budge!" said Milo now trying to kick open the door.
"Step aside! My turn!" said Jin loading his M82 .50 sniper rifle. Milo picked up Hinagiku and cleared the doorway. Jin fired his rifle at the center where the two doors where the lock beams would seal the doors. The shot blasted a wide hole in the center of the double door, and then kicked the doors open. Behind the doors were men armed with MP5 submachine guns, wearing ninja like outfits. The men opened fire at the first sight of Jin. Jin took cover behind the side wall; Milo carried Hinagiku and took cover on the other side. As soon as there was a pause in the fire, Milo and Jin leaped high from both sides. Milo wielded a red beamed short Ki sword, and Jin wielded a long yellow katana like Ki sword. The two fronts flipped into the terrorist group and hacked them up. They both did their best to kill a terrorist before he could open fire again, but those who were able to open fire were only able to hit their own members. A third swordsman came into the fight taking down three escaping terrorists as they began to flee Milo and Jin. The swordsman wore a white assassin's shirt similar to Jin's and a blue over coat, and had light green hair as opposed to Princess Charat's dark green hair.
"I'm Kayin, Family Guard of Prince Di Gi Charat and leader of the CSS" he said.
"Were hires from your king to protect his family." said Jin.
"Who are these people?" asked Milo.
"I believe these are ninjas send by the Analogue family as his royal majesty anticipated would come." replied Kayin.
"Well if they have guns, their no ninjas."
"Where is Princess Charat?" asked Jin.
"Follow me." said Kayin.
"Get your weapons ready Milo!"
" I need to get Miss Hinagiku!" said Milo.
Milo picked up and carried the unconscious Hinagiku and followed Jin and Kayin. Kayin led the two to a stone stair case which lead to a normal door. The three continued through the door down a wide hall way with stained windows on both sides. At the end of the hallway was single hardwood door with a CSS agent standing outside of it. The agent had black hair with some white on both sides, and was wearing a black suit with sunglasses. Milo and Jin couldn't tell for sure if the agent was looking directly at them, but by the look of the rest of his face, it didn't look like he was happy to see them.
"Agent Chuckles, we are being attacked!" said Kayin, "Let us in, we must evacuate the Princess!"
"What have these two done with Hinagiku?" said Chuckles in a stingy voice.
"Hey pal," said Jin "you sent her to comfort us. She got hurt in the terrorist attack."
"I didn't send her to do shit with you two."
"Chuckles, I gave you an order!" said Kayin sternly, "Open the door immediately!"
Chuckles opened the door without looking at Kayin, but kept his ugly look to Milo and Jin. The door opened to Charat and her staff who appeared to be waiting for something. Among the staff members was a young brown haired child holding Charat's hand, and a cyan haired girl about Charat's age in a small CSS uniform with what appeared to be a sub machine gun in the shape of a blade stuck to her belt; she was standing next to Charat, several handmaidens with uniforms similar to Hinagiku's, and a pair of male CSS guards with similar suits to Chuckles armed with AK-47s.
"Princess, another attack is starting!" said Kayin.
"Chuckles told me, and suggested us to stay in here." said Charat back.
"Princess, if we are to leave this place, it must be now!" said Milo.
"Wait! Where the hell are you taking her?" asked Chuckles demandingly.
"These orders are 'eyes-only'," said Milo, "they are special orders handed to us personaly from King Charat!"
"Princess," said Chuckles still stingily staring at Milo and Jin, "With all due respect, it is unwise to abide by the requests of people we don't know and trust."
"These two were specially chosen by my father Chuckles." said Charat, "He also told me himself that we are to leave this place to seek refuge to his special location. Besides, at this point, anywhere is better than here."
Chuckles grumbled at Milo then finally took his hidden eyesight off of him and walked from his post.
"This way!" he said.
Charat and her staff began to follow along with Kayin, Milo, and Jin.
"Princess!" said Jin still carrying Hinagiku. "Miss Hinagiku here needs some attention."
"Right. Kayin, we're going to need Carrera to come along."
"Right this way Mister…"
"Junnagou." Jin said to Kayin. "You can just call me Jin."
"Okay, well just follow me Mr. Jin and we'll get Hinagiku to our alchemist."
As soon as the group reached the end of the hallway, they split up. Kayin and Jin carrying Hinagiku, took another flight of stairs to a higher level, while Chuckles took the rest of the group to the bottom floor. Jin and Kayin took two more flights of stairs till they came to a floor of office doors, each with a small plaque with a Doctor's name on it. Kayin led Jin to a door labeled "CARRERA". Kayin knocked on the door. A five second moment of silence passed, and Kayin knocked again. After a ten second moment of no answer, Kayin cracked the door open and peaked in. Slowly he opened the door fully and entered with Jin following.
"Carrera?" Kayin called out, but there was still silence in the room. The stone walls of the room were very worn out, and lined up with tables and cabinets containing racks of beakers, test tubes, and flasks, some with liquids of different colors and patterns. In the center of the room was a large table with lab equipment, and chemistry sets on top of it.
A second door in the back of the room then slowly opened. Behind it was a purple haired, red eyed woman, wearing a monocle on the left eye, just like Milo; she had a red and gold cotton hat, and was wearing a red silken top just enough to cover her breasts, half a toga tied around her waist, and a lab overcoat.
"Hey there, Kayin! Bout time you came to see me again." she said.
"Carrera?" whispered Jin to Kayin. Kayin nodded his head.
Carrera approached Jin with a foxy smile.
"Hello! What have we here? A new patient Mr. Kayin has brought me?" Carrera rapped her arms around Jin's neck and twirled her fingers around his shoulder length black hair.
Jin, refusing to be the least bit amused, pushed Carrera with Hinagiku.
"Yes. She is right here." said Jin sarcastically.
"Oh my, what happened to dear Hinagiku?" asked Carrera.
"Poison gas."
"Doc." interrupted Kayin, "The attack that King Charat anticipated has started. There are some of the Analogue family's henchmen lurking about this place. We are evacuating my family and we need you to come along."
"I'd be happy to for our dear princess, but first…" Carrera grabbed a flask that was over a low burning torch on the center table filled with a bloodlike liquid.
"…Miss Hinagiku." she said.
Carrera, tilted Hinagiku's head back while Jin was still holding her, opened her mouth with her fingers and poured the liquid down her throat. Almost immediately, Hinagiku's eyes popped open and then she leaped from Jin's arms and started coughing vigorously and screaming with her tongue out. Carrera backed away from Hinagiku as she was in despair. Once Hinagiku's coughed wavered, Carrera asked…
"Too hot?"
Chuckles led the group down through several hallways of the first floor. The castle little activity going about, but there were still several civilians within and too much to notice if they were terrorists in disguise. He did his best to isolate the big group into groups of four so they won't attract too much attention. Chuckles lead all of them to an emergency exit hall deep within the castle where no one else but the group was.
"Right here!" said Chuckles, "This is VIP emergency exit. This door leads to an underground garage where several limos are parked."
The door was made of iron and had an electronic lock on it which was wired to a control panel.
"Miss Rinna,"
The cyan haired young agent moved up from Charat's handmaidens towards Chuckles.
"You know the emergency code to get all the emergency locks open right." asked Chuckles.
"Yes I do." said the Cyan haired agent. She walked up the panel next to the door and punched in some numbers. She spent a few seconds tampering with the panel until she whispered…
"Oh my God!"
"What is it?" asked Milo
"The security code has been changed!"
"What do you mean?" asked Chuckles, "Only you can authorize access to the emergency system."
"Which probably means someone in the CSS changed it." said the Cyan haired agent.
"Well isn't it good to know we now have someone with in your secret service working for the Analogue family?" asked Milo sarcastically. "Is there another way out?"
"There is the main entrance, and that's about It." said the young agent.
"I got the keys for a bus parked in the storage yard." said Chuckles, "If you all can hold out somewhere in the front I can bring it there quickly."
"Well we can all make it if we hurry."
Milo put his hand on the girl's shoulder telling her to wait.
"What is your name again madam?" he asked.
"Rinna, speaker of the CSS Staff." she said.
"I'm sorry to say that we can't do this."
"Why not."
"Think about it…the emergency code changed, the only way out is the entrance…we are being hunted."
Milo quickly turned and rushed through the staff to the rear. He slammed a clip into his M16 rifle, and fired upon two terrorists who have been sneaking up from behind the group.
Charat's handmaidens were all shaking, and Princess Charat herself was holding her frightened brown haired child closely.
"You see? It's okay, it's not all over yet. We just need to be a little hidden within the crowd."
"But what crowd? We are the only crowd back here in this part of the castle." said Hikaru.
"Not if we have a little chaos. You see these shots will only attract civilians to wonder what is going on. But if we have these people know what is going on, then we will stir up a stampede to the front entrance, then all we have to do is run along with this stampede to that bus."
"What about your friend and Carrera?" asked Chuckles.
"Describe this bus to me."
"It's a white and blue bus with the number…" Chuckles pulled out a chain of keys from his pocket, an examined a particular one and read… "2009162, its on the side of the bus and on the roof of it."
"That's all I need to know." Milo took out his Sat phone and dialed Jin's number. "Miss Rinna? Can you think of a way to stir up a little chaos?"
"I'm on it."
Milo contacted Jin and Rinna returned to the door panel and punched in a few more numbers. A mini microphone popped out from the panel. Rinna grabbed it, waited for Milo to get off the phone and then spoke into it which projected onto loud speakers through the whole castle.
"Attention! Attention! This is CSS Staff Speaker Rinna! The Analogue Family Black Gema Gang has infiltrated the castle, I advise everyone to leave immediately before more Black Gema Gema troops arrive!"
Rinna replaced the microphone. "Okay Mr. Antu that should get their attention." she said.
"Okay everybody let's go!" said Milo, then lead the group out and back to the main hallway. Rinna's message worked. All civilian and personnel within the castle were rushing down the stairs and stampeding to the main entrance.
"Okay, I need everyone to hold someone's hand." shouted Milo through the noise around him, "Chuckles, run ahead and get that bus."
"I'm on it!" Chuckles said, then ran off into the stampede.
"Okay people let's do this." shouted Milo. The group formed a chain holding each other's hands and like jumping into a fast river, they ran with the stampede to the main entrance. Milo kept his head to the series of stairs trying his best to spot Jin in the mad dash. The only thing that he spotted was another terrorist who he made eye-to-eye contact with. The terrorist then looked at the chain of hands that Milo was holding and managed to spot Princess Charat. Milo looked back to the staff and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Scatter!!!"
The terrorist fired into the crowd as if they were nothing killing some of the civilians among the staff members. The sounds of the shots caused screaming and panic within the stampede, and made the mad dash even more intense. Milo lost contact with the rest of the staff, but managed to find the princess and grab her by the hand. The two rushed out of the entrance, keeping their heads down. As soon as they were well away from the entrance, Milo looked out for Chuckle's bus. He saw it parked onto a side walk across the street from the castle, and recognized the numbers 2009162. Milo fought his way through the frightened crowd to reach the bus. As soon as he got to the bus door, they swung open with Chuckles at the driver seat. Milo helped Charat into the bus and got in himself. Some of Charat's handmaidens were already onboard. Following Milo, came Rinna with another hand maiden and the child that Charat was with. Chuckles closed the door.
"Rinna, who are we missing?" asked Milo.
"There is still one more handmaiden, and…"
There were some knocks at the door. Chuckles opened it and the two guards with the other handmaiden entered. Rinna counted the staff again.
"That's everyone."
"Wait! What about Kayin and Carrera?" asked Charat.
"Oh yeah!" Milo took out his phone and called Jin again. "Jin where are you…" "What? Your still in the castle?" "Oh okay." "You remember the number right?" "We'll meet you at the station."
Milo hung up and went to Chuckles.
"Okay Chuckles let's go!"
"What about Kayin?" shouted Charat.
"He's coming, their taking a separate vehicle. Chuckles go!"
Chuckles set the bus into gear and started driving.
"Will you tell me now? Where are we taking the princess?" asked Chuckles in his demanding voice again.
Without answering, Milo took out his orders on the scroll and gave them to Chuckles. Chuckles took the scroll and read the location.
"Okay then…" he said.
Chuckles picked up speed driving through the fleeing traffic in the dark. Milo walked down the bus aisle and looked left and right to all the staff onboard. He came across Speaker Rinna and asked:
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." she said and looked to all of the handmaidens asking the same question. Most of them nodded, some were a little traumatized. Milo continued down the aisle and met Charat in the middle seat holding on to the little brown haired girl.
"How 'bout you Miss Charat, are you okay." asked Milo
"I'll be fine; I'm just a little worried about Kayin and all this that we are going through. This is the first time I have actually been shot at."
"How does it feel?"
"I have never felt so shaken in my life. It's just… I don't know how to describe it…"
"You'll get use to it. Every time it happens… it just starts getting annoying in your mind, because every part of your body knows that it is liable to get hurt or possibly die. In my case… I have to fight my own body in order to complete my missions."
"I think my friend here is taking it the hardest…"
Milo looked at the little girl who was clinging to Charat.
"What's her name?"
"Yeah. Her name is Puchiko, you can call me Dejiko if you get tired of saying 'Princess Charat'. I really don't mind. Puchiko has been with me since she was three, I rescued her from being stuck in a hole. She is five now."
"Many people have told me their names, but… I have had so many clients, and many of them are very demanding, I just try to forget their names. But I think it would be hard for me to forget 'The Great and Mighty Di Gi Charat' don't you think ?" asked Milo tickling Dejiko's cheek with his finger.
Dejiko giggled and blushed, but Milo's good hearing picked up a soft yet vicious growl coming from someone within the bus. Without turning his head he looked with his eyes to try and find out where the growl was coming from. The two guards sitting in front and behind Dejiko didn't seem to be making it, and Milo knows for sure it couldn't be Speaker Rinna or any of her handmaidens. But then he thought about Chuckles… Peaking with the corner of his eye, he could see Chuckles face in the rear view mirror, but couldn't tell if he was looking at him directly because of his blackened sunglasses. But Milo was certain that it was Chuckles. It occurred to Milo that the first sight of him and Jin that Chuckles didn't only trust him and Jin, but didn't even personally like them either, much less liked either of them around his princess. Took his desert hat off and gave it to Dejiko.
"Here hold that and scoot over." he whispered.
Dejiko took the hat and moved close to the bus window. Milo kept his attention to Chuckles knowing he had to look away sooner or later. Chuckles then got to a two-way stop sign and had to look both ways. When he did, Milo quickly sat down next to Dejiko.
"Hey Dejiko, what is up with that CSS agent who is driving? He seems to be rather…parsimonious."
"Para… what?" Dejiko asked back.
Milo took his finger and wrote imaginarily on the back of the seat in front of them: A-SS-HO-LE
"Oh you mean Chuckles…" said Dejiko giggling. "I really don't know he is like that around my father too. One time I just went to ask my father for something while he was at his desk and Chuckles, standing next to him told me that he was busy and to... uhh… 'F-off', and he always has that grouchy voice as if he works for the Mob or something. I'm wondering if he wants to take my Kayin's place, because he takes his work pretty seriously. In fact…overly seriously…"
"Well all I can say is, if he lays a finger on me or Jin, chances are it may come off."
"Well don't look at me, Chuckles scares me too."
Dejiko examined Milo's white hat which had a white silky cloth attached to the back, just like an Arabic hat, as well as a plastic tongue and a symbol of a fish and hook on the front of it.
"Where did you get this hat from?" asked Dejiko.
"My mother made It." answered Milo
"Is your family Arabic."
"My mother was, at least according to my father."
"You don't know your own mother."
"She was killed when I was very young. I don't even remember what she looked like…"
"Oh my God I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Since I can't remember much about her, I wear this hat in her honor. Almost everywhere I go, even in firefights."
"I can't imagine what it would be like growing up without a mother…"
"I just see it as making me a stronger person."
"Yeah but… me being a girl…I think it would be different."
Milo giggled, "You have no idea how many girls have said that to me…"
The bus slowed down and stopped, everyone slowly rose.
"It looks like we're here." said Milo, "You better go before me. I think its best that Mr. D-bag over there doesn't see us together."
"Thanks Milo" Dejiko and Puchiko squeezed passed Milo and walked out between the two guards.
Chuckles stood outside by the bus door as everyone unloaded and went for the entrance of the train station. Milo walked out last, and Chuckles followed. As soon as it was all but Milo and Chuckles outside, Chuckles grabbed Milo from his back shirt, turned him around, shoved against a light post, pulled out a 9mm from his coat and shoved the barrel to his chin.
"Listen, you!" said Chuckles in his usual stingy voice. "If I ever see you touch the princess again, there will be one more hole in your head! Are we clear?"
Milo smiled at Chuckles with an evil grin, and replied:
"That makes two of us."