A/N: *cracks knuckles* *Stretches body* Oh right! The Persona series Restoration 101 project is back again. This time… I am adopting a mecha AU called 'The War of the Future' by CJoverlord. With his permission granted for me to bring this back from the grave, I am also allow to change bits and pieces to what I think would be best for these unique idea.
This entire fanfiction would be HEAVILY inspired by Pacific Rim, so please don't mind the countless references! XD
I may not be a very frequent writer… but I will do my best.
Enjoy!
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The War of the Future:
~Opening Prologue~
'Shadows' (影, kage, Japanese)
Definition: a dark area or shape produced by a body coming between rays of light and a surface.
Our Definition: extra-terrestrial creatures made of negative energy
'Personas' (ペルソナ, peru-sona, Japanese)
Definition: Images, character, the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.
Our Definition: Giant man-piloted robots Reversed Engineered from extra-terrestrial creatures made of positive energy.
When I was a young, curious child back in my days, whenever I felt small and lonely, I would look up to the stars. As I looked deep into the shining bright stars in the void of darkness, I thought to myself: What if there is life out there? What kind of aliens would they be in outer space?
Heh…
Turns out I was looking at the wrong direction.
The rocky, sturdy earth suddenly shook violently, creating cracks and fractures in the ground. The gaps between the two sides of the ground grew larger and larger… until large black tentacles made of dark energy spurt out of the fractures and reached out to the nearest object it could hold on.
They wrapped around any object they could hold on; high rise buildings, tall trees, mountains, volcanoes… even living creatures. It was almost as if the foreign matter wanted to connect itself onto Earth's surface from another dimension.
When alien life entered our world, it was from deep within the solid crust of the Earth. There were secretly hidden locked portals buried inside the earth for millions of years, waiting the right opportunity to strike.
Now, these portals from another dimension were finally breached, swinging wide open for anyone… anything to come into our world. Our once 'Safe' and 'Secured' world does not exist anymore.
…I was fifteen when the first 'Shadow' arrived in San Francisco.
It was a full moon on that night. One of the invading tentacles that could not be removed by any means had a dark, pulsing aura around it. It began to let out blood red glow that became brighter and brighter with every second that passed.
Out of the sudden, the tentacle exploded into a million pieces. As soon as the dark bits and pieces touched the ground, it hovered and flew back to its original position. It was as if it was sent back in time. However, the parts formed a completely different entity. They piled up one by one into an inky black humanoid shape with glowing red eyes that was the size of a mountain.
The, the unknown creature solidifies and finalize into its final form. It wore a giant shiny black coat wrapped around by what seemed to be alien greyish metal chains. It had a hard purple armoured piece on its 'face' and a pair of soul-piecing red eyes stared through them. The creature also unnaturally razor sharp claws from its own 'hands' and numerous spikes poking out from its entire body.
It looked like this extra-terrestrial being was made to destroy and kill anything it sees.
And it did…
Soon, the gigantic alien rampaged through the streets and cities of San Francisco. It made use of its claws and spikes to crush and crumble buildings effortless like they were made of paper. It left behind a trail of dark matter, disintegrating and corrupting any form of matter that is not made of the creature… like a white blood cell destroying foreign particles in our body.
The 'shadow' let out a loud roar of victory as it succeed in completing his sole existence.
The USA military were immediately alerted to the destruction. They sent every single weapon and firepower they could throw at it...from tanks to fighter jets.
But none of them stand a chance…
They were soon consumed by the large creature from the void of darkness. Almost none of the vast amount of bullets and explosives could harm that alien.
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By the time jets, missiles and tanks took it down a week after its arrival, another major city was destroyed and invaded by yet another giant alien that was 35 miles away from San Francisco.
And another attack happened…
…Another,
…And another,
…until the point when tens of thousands of lives were lost. Food and water resources diminished rapidly. Livestock and reservoirs were radiated and corrupted.
They could control the elements, creating unnatural weather hazards in the most 'safest' places that we once knew.
The more the dead, the more we realised the attack would just keep on happening.
That was where we learned that this was never going to stop.
…This was just the beginning…
We needed hope. We needed a solution. We needed an answer. We needed… a weapon.
This was where they came in.
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A small young girl roamed around the empty, haunted roads of Tokyo. She was crying, looking, calling out for her parents. Little did she knew that they were long gone, buried among the rubble of the fallen buildings. The familiar shops and eateries were no longer recognizable. Small patches of fire engulfed the ruined land of the once prosperous modern city.
"Mama… Papa…!" She cried.
At that moment, she was alone.
Suddenly, a flock of F1 fighter jets zoomed across the sky above the young girl. The pilots of the flying war machine had not known of the little child's presence as they were focused on a single target in front of them. The sound of the rapid gunfire roared in the air, along with the loud ignitions of the explosive rockets.
Dark inky smoke and sounds of ricocheting bullets could be seen and heard not far from the young girl. As she turned around slowly, her face formed a look of sheer horror. A large shadow stomped out into a clearing from the smoke. It had a familiar shape of a tall human. However, it had four legs instead of two and horrifying dark green eyes. Its back was filled impaled with long metal-like objects at random areas.
The terrifying giant soon spotted the young girl in front of her. It took long and enormous steps towards its prey, while shrugging off incoming bullets and rockets. It was not long before the shadow destroyed the fighter jets that were pestering it.
The poor, timid girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her, while she screamed and cried out for help. There were times where she nearly tripped but was able to regain her ground. However, this gave up precious time as the huge corrupted creature stumbled lazily towards its prey, almost as if it knows she would not escape.
The young child soon realised that the shadow was getting closer and closer. She looked around for another path to escape to. Unfortunately, in attempts of doing so, she did not pay attention to the small peddle in front of her and tripped over it.
The small girl injured her small frail body as she fell onto the solid ground. She was helpless as the large unstoppable creature closed the remaining distance between it and her. The shadow was about to crush her with its foot when…
*Flash* *Boom*
"Arghhhh!" The dark monster whined in agony as, out of the sudden, a large pillar of flame emerged out of the ground and burned off its arms.
A large unknown entity stepped out of the blue. It hovered over the small child protectively like a mother would do and its body unleashed a bright yellowish red aura, making it look like it was preparing another attack.
The unknown creature stood as tall as the shadow. It had a body shape of a female human and it wore what seemed to be a pinkish-red blouse with patches of amour on its chest, shoulders and legs. It had a large red wing attached to its arms and back shaped like a sakura flower, and wore a pink helmet with holes to show off its glaring yellow eyes.
The beautiful and god-like entity unleashed a furry of fire explosions on various parts of the Shadow, burning it to crisp. The shadow tried to retaliate by charging up and releasing lightning from within its body. However, it was immediately interrupted as the protector of the small child rushed in and gave a sharp kick to its abdomen.
The once unstoppable monster fell onto the ground with a loud thud, creating fractures on the road. The god-like creature danced elegantly and closed its wings to charge up one final attack, releasing a vast amount of flames onto the shadow. It burst into flames and soon it disintegrated into non-existence.
The young girl looked up to her saviour and stared at it in disbelief. At the same time, she was also thankful that it saved her life. The giant entity took one last look at the tiny human below her, before disappearing out of thin air.
That was the last and only time the girl saw her hero in her entire life.
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These creatures of positive energy… 'Personas' as we called them, were like gifts from the heavens, a blessing given by the gods.
They saved us. They helped us regain the ground we had lost. They were our hope.
However, they were also just like miracles. They come out one day and then vanish in another, never to seen happen again. It got to the point we would never see another persona in the rest of human's existence.
Fortunately, these creatures left behind their last gift to humanity as we found pieces and bits of some of the fallen personas. The entire nation come together to form a research and development team to study these pieces and reverse engineer them to fulfil our needs.
People had learnt one important lesson: In order to fight these giant and horrific monsters, we had to build big and giant monsters of our own.
We soon became victorious, winning almost every single encounter of the shadows.
However, the more we win these skirmishes, the smarter the shadows the creatures became. This was the reason why we had to keep developing and advancing our technology. If we don't, we would be put back where we do not belong - buried in the ground.
We had to continue to fight this constant war between territories and property. It seemed that it could just never end.
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~WWSR (World-wide Shadow Resistance) headquarters, Unit #000, 02 00AM~
"*Beep Beep* *Beep Beep*…"
The constant ringing sound of the alarm clock woke a young silver-haired mecha pilot from his realm of dreams. He slowly rose up from the bed and slammed the button to stop the alarm beside him. The half-naked man yawned loudly after being interrupted in his sleep. He had thoughts to go back to sleep when a voice message in a form of a hologram popped in front of him.
"Wake-y wake-y, Yu-senpai!" A cheerful and playful feminine voice could be heard calling out to the half-asleep man. "A mission had been assigned to you and must be accessed immediately."
Name: Yu Narukami. 鳴上 悠 (Translated as you going towards god)
Code Name: The Fool
Age: 21
Position/Status: Veteran in eliminating 'Shadows'. …Had successfully killed 8 in his 5 years as the Resistance.
Persona: Izanagi イザナギ
Yu walked away from his bed and towards his personal wardrobe. He opened it and tiredly picked out his clothes to wear over his bare body. The young pilot sighed heavily before asking the owner of the voice, "What's so urgent that I need to wake up so early in the morning, Rise?"
Rise Kujikawa is the support and communications manager of the WSSR. She works alongside with her assistant manager, Fuuka to assign missions and orders from the higher up and to also provide backup in encounters with the Shadows.
"The ever first Category B shadow, dubbed named 'Wild Drive' has appeared in the shores of Japan. Your mission is to protect the inhabitants of Okina City and fend off the target." Rise replied helpfully as she listed down the context and objectives of the mission.
Yu closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to contain the mixed feelings of excitement and worry. As he opened his eyes, he stared into a small photo of his family pasted on the wall of beside the wardrobe. The silver-haired man focused on a peculiar figure on the far right of the photo.
I'll make you proud, Father. Please wait for me. He thought silently.
"Sergeant Dojima is ordering you to be at the meeting area in 5 minutes, Yu-senpai. Don't be late!" Rise reminded him as the voice call ended.
A devious smirk appeared on Yu's face as he shook his head in amusement. "How ironic…. To be reminded by the girl who is always late to the important meetings."
He then took one last look at the photo before walking to the bathroom to freshen up for the upcoming mission ahead.
Yu knew… he had to end his career soon one way or the other.
~End of Prologue~
So… how was it? Do review to share your thoughts on it!