"Knight in Glowing Armor"
by Beastbot
(Author's Note: Any dialogue in brackets in this fic is translated from Japanese.)
"I'm turn-ing Jap-a-nese, I think I'm turn-ing Jap-a-nese, I really think so—"
"Toad…"
"Dow now now NOW now now nowwww…"
"TOAD!"
"Sorry, sweetums. Can't get that song outta my head."
"It MIGHT have to do with the fact that that's the song you've got playing ad infinitum on your iPod," Noriko said from her seat next to Todd, pointing to the song playing on the iPod's tiny viewing screen before absorbing the electricity from the device, shutting it down.
"Hey!" Todd protested, grabbing his iPod back from Noriko's temporarily sparking gauntlets. "Awww man, now I'm gonna have ta wait 'till we land to recharge it. There ain't no charging stations mid-flight, yo! …Also, 'ad infinitum'? Really?"
"I've been reading up," Noriko smirked before going back to her book.
"Yeah, but us primarily English-speakin' people barely ever say that…"
"Makes sense, since 'ad infinitum' isn't English to begin with."
"Yeah, but it's one'a them phrases—"
"Will you PLEASE put a sock in it?" Wanda muttered from her seat a row behind Todd, covering her face with her pillow. "It's bright outside… and my watch, still on Bayville time, says it's two-thirty in the morning! Urgh, I HATE jet lag…"
"Seriously, Toad," Lance said from across the aisle. "You wanna get Wanda mad on an airplane? You thought we were in trouble when Pietro got Wanda mad on the SUBWAY, just wait…"
"That was an accident!" Wanda said angrily, tossing her pillow aside in a gesture of futility.
"Not helping, mate…" John whispered to Lance from his neighboring seat.
"Yeah, well, I'm not feeling too good myself," Lance retorted. "Ugh, my stomach…. I should've volunteered to stay behind and, uh… guard the base…"
"Hey, that's right, your powers are useless up here!" Todd laughed. "Hey Freddy, poke him in the back of the head, he can't do nuthin' about it!"
"I can still use my fists just fine, Toad," Lance growled. "And…. ugh… geez Blob, will you stop eating already? You're making me even more airsick than I already am…"
"Hey, I can't help it if they don't serve meals on this flight!" Fred protested, his voice muffled because of all the pretzels in his mouth. "And these bags are so tiny!"
"I'm sure Mystique is very sorry she couldn't replace a pilot who was on a more luxurious flight," Wanda groaned, shuffling around in her seat, trying to get in a comfortable position in which to take a nap.
"I'm just sayin'!" Fred said from his position across the aisle from Wanda, taking up the two seats on that side all by himself.
"Attention passengers, we are now approaching Osaka, our final destination. Please tuck your personal belongings under your seat and put your tray tables in their upright and locked position, as we will begin our descent shortly."
"So I guess I'm NOT going to get any sleep on this flight," Wanda sighed, reluctantly opening her eyes as the pilot repeated the message in Japanese.
"Now you know how I felt on the way to Bayville," Noriko said, tucking her book in the pocket in front of her.
"Listen to her, though," Fred said. "Man, Mystique's got the pilot lingo down an' everything. Is there anything she can't do?"
"Beat up Storm?" Todd suggested, which earned him a light-hearted smack from Noriko and a laugh from John.
"No, I'm serious! She, er, uh… 'gets rid of' the pilot for this flight without anyone else noticin', takes his place, flies the plane, pulls the strings to get us all first-class seats and let Noriko's gauntlets through security, AND apparently knows all the protocols about gettin' us through international airspace! Where does she find out about all this stuff?"
"Gee Freddy, why don't you talk a little louder?" Lance said sarcastically. "I don't think the passengers back in coach heard you clearly enough."
"He wasn't that loud… and she's done it before," Noriko said. "It's apparently how she got to and from Japan back when she recruited me….and now that we've gotten word that apparently my cousin is missing and possibly a Mutant too, well… c'mon. That's an opportunity we can't pass up. Especially with so many Mutants around the world disappearing 'under mysterious circumstances', we need to get to her before it's too late… or before she does something she regrets like what happened with, erm… me…"
"Hey, Pietro piloted a plane before," Todd replied. "Back when we flew down to Mexico last minute to help fight Magneto an' all that."
"Yeah, but that wasn't exactly an easy ride," Lance said, wincing as he recalled the experience. "Plus, we hardly left the airport unnoticed—and got lost, if you'll remember. Only the giant beam of light emitting from the pyramid helped us find our way to where we needed to land…. which was ALSO not something Pietro was that good at."
"Still, 's more than I could do," Todd shrugged.
"Magneto taught us all some basic… really basic… flight skills, mate," John grinned. "Though I have to admit, I forgot all 'a that months ago, heheheh."
"Speaking of Pietro, you sure it was a good idea to leave that traitor back at base without anyone else there?" Fred asked.
"I don't like it any more than you do," Wanda said, "But Mystique said she needed all of us, in case things went south."
"But what if he gets out?" Fred insisted.
"Pietro ain't gonna get out," Todd said, waving the proposition away. "Dude's got his legs broken an' all messed up, so 'is super speed's useless. Plus, he's in one 'a them electronically locked cells. Not to mention Wanda messed 'im up pretty bad with all that hexing. He ain't going nowhere."
I'm gonna get out, Pietro thought to himself. I've GOT to get out.
He had been stuck in this reinforced glass cell, underground in the Brotherhood's secret base, for months. His ankle was broken on one leg, his knee on the other—Mystique and Wanda had made SURE that his super speed was immaterial.
He also felt absolutely awful, thanks to a combination of being fed barely enough to keep him alive and Wanda's near-daily hexing. THAT was going to have some long-term effect on his body, of that he was sure.
He had long ago given up hope of getting out of this infernal cell while the Brotherhood was present—every precaution had been taken to ensure that his cell was impregnable. And one time, when he had bashed it a bit too hard with his head, an alarm had gone off—which meant that if he had ever broken all the way out, it wouldn't have been long at all before any nearby Brotherhood members were there to beat him into submission yet again.
But now… now, even if the alarm went off, the Brotherhood members were on the other side of the world. Even if Mystique had some device that notified her of a break-out while she was way over in Japan, he'd be long gone before they could get back here.
Which meant it was time to use his secret weapon.
…Well, okay, "weapon" was being used generously here, he had to admit. It was actually more of a shard of hard plastic from a plate he had shattered 'in a temper tantrum' a few weeks ago. Toad had been quick to pick up the rest of the pieces of the plate, had licked the rest of the food mess from the floor while he was at it. It had also made Pietro's next day excruciating as punishment for his "outburst". However, it was certainly all worth it—Todd had gotten almost all the pieces, but Pietro had very quickly hidden one in a… fairly uncomfortable… place, for just this kind of occasion.
After all, his legs were broken… but that didn't mean other parts of his body weren't capable of superhuman speed.
Crawling on his hands to the edge of the cell, Pietro, gingerly at first, started to carve away at the reinforced glass. Normally a piece of hard plastic wouldn't have been able to do much—had it not been repeatedly slashed at the cell wall with superhuman velocity.
Just as he expected, he experienced a mild shock. As far as he was concerned, that was actually GOOD news, as any normal contact with the cell walls would have resulted in a near-excruciating zap. The mild shock meant that he was touching the cell wall so briefly it wasn't reacting fully to his presence before he pulled away.
Bracing himself, Pietro started to slice his hand carrying the shard of hard plastic at the cell wall again and again, so quickly the eye couldn't follow. The shocks were certainly annoying, but no more.
Pietro grinned as the outline of a hole big enough for his entire body to slide through started to show on the reinforced glass wall, and redoubled his efforts.
"Okay, this is just freaky."
"Never been on an artificial island before, I take it?" Noriko asked Lance, idly inspecting her gauntlets.
"There is practically NO elevation change between the sea and this airport. I mean, yeah there's a bit of a hill buffer, but… don't you people ever worry about flooding?"
"Eh. It's a fairly common thing in Japan with big cities," Noriko shrugged. "Besides, if it does flood, it's almost always due to a typhoon, so the airports have time to prepare for it beforehand. You've still got a clear artificial pathway to the mainland, after all. And no loud noises in the city from planes passing relatively low overhead."
"How long 'till Mystique shows up?" Fred asked.
"Well, she has to check out as the pilot she's impersonating, so… who knows," Wanda said.
"It is some view," Fred admitted, looking across the bay towards the skyscrapers of downtown Osaka in the distance. "Your homeland is awfully pretty, Noriko."
"Thank you," Noriko said, bowing in an exaggerated manner, "But I actually didn't live in Osaka. Tokyo was where I grew up."
"It sure looks big enough to be Tokyo," John said. "Criminy, this city is bloomin' huge, mate!"
"Nah, it's nothing compared to Tokyo. And New York City still has it beat in terms of size."
"Indeed," said a male voice from behind them. Turning around, the Brotherhood members came almost face-to-face with the male pilot who had flown their passenger jet all the way here. "But Osaka proper is not our destination. We're going to the outskirts- my contacts have detected a Mutant signature coming from Osaka Castle."
"Castle?" Fred asked, looking quizzically at Noriko.
"A relic from Japan's past," Noriko said, waving it away. "Pretty much just a tourist attraction these days."
"Hey Mystique, why you still in your disguise?" Toad asked.
"Don't call me that here, you idiot!" the pilot seethed, taking Toad by the collar and shoving him down roughly into the bench the others were sitting on or standing around. "Someone might hear you! I need to keep a low profile until we're out of sight of the general public. And turning into my blue-skinned self here would most definitely NOT be keeping a low profile."
"But ain't you got contacts that're picking us up?" Toad said meekly.
"Indeed," Mystique/the pilot smiled as a limo pulled up right behind him. "And they're right on time, too."
"HOLY-!" Toad practically shrieked, making everyone in the limo jump slightly in their seats as he spat out bits of Japanese food onto the inside of the limosuine's window. "LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT PIKACHU!"
"Yeah, Japan really tends to get larger-than-life with some of our pop culture stuff," Noriko replied, sucking down some noodles from her own dinner on-the-go. "That big statue is just a bit of an eye-catcher for the Pokemon Store behind it."
"A Pokemon store? As in, an entire store dedicated to JUST Pokemon?"
"Yep."
"Why are you spazzing out about it so much?" Lance said, raising an eyebrow at Todd. "You don't actually like that kiddie crud, do you?"
"Uh… who, me? Nah, nah… 'a course not…" Toad said, waving his hands defensively in front of his face. "It's just uh… wow. That's a big Pokemon store."
"Uh-HUH," Lance said, obviously not convinced.
"…But if we come across a Dragon Quest store… oh man, Mystique, we gotta stop. Just for a few minutes!"
"We stopped to get us something to eat, and that is IT, Toad," Mystique said from her position in the passenger's seat, now in her true form, comfortable that no one outside would see her due to the heavily tinted windows. "We're not here for a tour of Osaka, and we're certainly not here for you to freak out about whatever inconsequential video games you play. We're here to recruit a new member to our cause, with the help of Noriko."
"Who is this new person, anyway?" Fred asked in between bites of his food.
"Hisako Ichiki, one of my cousins," Noriko said. "I haven't seen her in quite a while. She's fairly young for her Mutant powers to be manifesting- I think she's thirteen? Fourteen? One of those two…"
"How do you know that she's a Mutant? And in Osaka Castle?" Wanda asked.
"That would be through the efforts of my contact Shiro, here," Mystique said, gesturing to the limo driver.
"I have been coordinating with Mystique for some time now," Shiro said. "She has far more people on her side than you know, Wanda Maximoff. It is just that most of us keep ourselves hidden as Mutants, away from prying eyes. We dare not expose our abilities for fear of attention being drawn to us. I keep in regular contact with some of the other Brotherhood agents across the world, in China, Russia, England, India, Argentina… Mystique is still the head of our operations, however."
"Wait, this is all news to me," Fred said, slurping down the last of his food. "Mystique, how come you never told us any 'a this?"
"Because I don't trust most of you to keep secrets," Mystique said bluntly. "And it's immaterial, anyway. Your primary concern is fighting the X-Men and the Acolytes, not Mutant recruitment."
"Regardless, the mass 'disappearance' of Mutants over the past month has been of some concern to all of us," Shiro continued. "Despite our best efforts and cooperation, none of us have been able to determine the cause or where they have been going. Whoever or whatever is responsible, they seem to be actively avoiding anyone with ties to Mystique or the X-Men. Most of the Mutants that have come to our attention recently have… vanished… before we could arrange for Mystique to meet them.
"This, however, is a different situation. Since Hisako is related to Noriko and thus is tied indirectly to the Brotherhood, it would appear that she is being ignored, at least at present. She was reported missing in the local police logs roughly a week ago, and a few days later many strange reports starting to come in from Osaka Castle. The reports vary—some say there is a demon there, others a small dragon, others a samurai knight. All of the reports do agree on one thing, however—that the 'monster' is glowing, transparent, and 'carrying a girl'. Cross-referencing the reports with Hisako's description, I am extremely confident that this 'monster' is somehow related to her powers. Why she is at Osaka Castle and what exactly she is doing, I am unsure. The castle park has been closed for the past few days because of the incidents."
"No one's been able to confirm or get any footage of Hisako," Mystique said. "Apparently this 'monster'—likely some misinterpretation of whatever her Mutant powers are—has been powerful enough to keep any such video or audio from getting out to the mass public. So we're going there to help calm her down and convince her to join our cause."
"I have to say, I know I haven't seen her in a few years, but Hisako was never one to be anything but calm," Noriko said. "She was always a very quiet, shy person. For her to be actively attacking people is… I don't know. I honestly have my doubts this is her, it's so incredibly out-of-character."
"Well, we'll find out soon enough, 'Riko," John said, pointing up ahead as the limo pulled to a slow stop in front of several police cars and barricades. "Looks like we're at the castle."
"I will be back in a minute," Shiro said, reaching into the limo's glove compartment, pulling out a large wallet, and then opening the driver's door, flipping to one of the badges in the wallet and flashing it to the police as he stepped out onto the street.
"So what's Shiro's power?" Todd leaned forward and whispered to Mystique as she morphed into a Japanese-looking woman, a few of the police starting to walk up to the car. "He some kinda mind-reader? Computer manipulator? Influences others with th' power of persuasion and all that?"
"Shiro's powers have nothing to do with any of that," Mystique smirked. "He's just very good at his job."
Most of the police and the Brotherhood members eyed each other suspiciously, but whatever faked clearance Shiro had shown the authorities, they had fallen for it.
"Shiro, good work," Mystique smiled.
Shiro bowed slightly. "I will be parked a few blocks away if you need anything," he said, keeping mind of the police all around. "It has a pleasure to serve you, Miss."
"Huh," Todd said a few moments later as the group walked closer to the castle. "I kinda figured it would be more… castle-y."
"What? It's got the stone walls!" Fred said.
"Yeah, but it's got that big tall white Japanese building in the center. Not very castle-y."
"You mean not very European castle-y," Noriko objected. "Pretty typical of a castle here in Japan."
"Eh… I like the European castles better. Much more foreboding."
"Alright, silence, all of you," Mystique said to the others, confident that they were now close enough to the castle to be out of ear range of any of the police. "Once we get into the castle and out of sight of all the authorities, we'll split up into three groups and search the castle. Surge, you take Toad and Pyro with you. Blob, you partner up with Avalanche. Scarlet Witch, you're with me."
Digging into her pack, Mystique took out two comlinks and tossed one each to Surge and Avalanche. "Here. Now, from what Surge has told me, Hisako doesn't speak a lot of English. That won't be much of a problem if she runs into Noriko or myself, but Avalanche, if either of you run into her, be sure to contact us immediately. Do either you or Blob know ANY Japanese?"
Lance and Fred both looked at each other and then back at Mystique. Both of them shook their heads.
"Perfect," Mystique moaned. "I suppose this is what I get for keeping a bunch of drop-outs. Anyways, you get the point. Now, let's get inside and suit up."
"Alright!" Todd said happily. "You heard her, Wanda, change into your uniform!"
"With males and females in different rooms, just like it's always been, Toad," Mystique said through gritted teeth as Wanda back-handed Toad.
"This is so freaking stupid," Avalanche said, kicking a stray pebble on the ground as they walked slowly down a hallway near one corner of the main castle building. "And boring. I don't care about the history of some country on the other side of the world, I don't care about finding some dumb demon dragon knight or whatever the heck Noriko's cousin Hisaki has turned into, and I definitely don't care about wandering around forever. I can't believe we've gone all this way just because of a hunch from one of Mystique's mindless lackeys. We've been at this for… geez, half an hour now, and nothing."
Blob muttered something unintelligible.
"What?" Avalanche said, turning back towards his teammate. "I don't have super hearing, Freddy."
"I was just sayin', I find all this Osaka Castle stuff kinda interestin'. And we gotta help Noriko's cousin if she's in trouble, Lance. Oh, and her name's Hisako."
Avalanche just stared at Blob walking towards him for a few seconds, his eyebrow raised, until Blob stopped and looked at Avalanche quizzically.
"…What?"
"You've got a thing for 'Riko, don't you?"
"Wh-what?" Blob said, suddenly looking skittish. "Uh, I don't, uh… I think you're looking at stuff in the wrong—"
` "Oh, come ON," Avalanche said. "We all know you're an awful liar, Freddy. I catch you glancing at her all the time, I've NEVER heard you say a negative thing about her, you're suddenly interested in history when you've definitely never given a care about it before… You've got a crush on her."
Blob stared at Avalanche, his face starting to flush red, before his gaze finally lowered to the floor as he slouched a bit.
"Well, I mean… yeah, I guess…. But I mean, c'mon. I'm the Blob, y'know? Good at smashin' stuff and eatin'…. Not really good at anything like, uh… love. And Noriko, she's really, uh…. pretty…."
Avalanche stared at Blob for a second before turning around and continuing to walk down the hall. "Yeah, you've got a point there."
Now it was Blob's turn to stare at Avalanche, mouth agape slightly.
Avalanche turned around again. "What, you want a pep talk? You're right, Freddy. You're absolutely right. You never have been and never will be good at that stuff. She's a pretty Japanese girl and you're a bit fat load. Practically no way it'll ever happen…
"But you know what?" Avalanche continued, "You've still got a heck of a better chance at it than Toad does with Wanda. And that's never stopped—"
"Shut up!" Blob interrupted suddenly as he looked at the ceiling above them.
"I'm just telling ya—"
"No, I mean be quiet!" Blob said, pointing towards where he was looking. "Ya hear that? A couple 'a creaks. In the floor above. Sound kinda like… footsteps."
Avalanche stopped and looked above, where Blob was gesturing. A moment later, another creak. And then another, louder one.
"This castle is pretty well-reinforced," Avalanche said, slowly backing away from where the noise was coming from. "For something to make sounds like that through the floor, it'd have to be pretty—"
Avalanche was interrupted by a near-deafening crash as the ceiling caved in right in front of them, a huge, partially transparent, glowing reddish-pink samurai warrior falling to the floor.
"What the-?" Avalanche started, falling to the ground from the force of the impact and quickly backing up on all fours as the roughly nine-foot-tall armored figure turned towards them, pointing its pink lance at them.
[INTRUDERS, JUST AS I SURMISED! I MUST PROTECT THE EMPEROR!] the huge transparent warrior thundered, slashing at Blob, who caught the lance and, grunting, started to turn it back on the strange samurai.
"What the heck's it saying?" Blob gritted through his teeth.
"I thought we already established that neither of us understand Japanese, you idiot!" Avalanche shot back. "I'm pretty sure we found that weird monster-samurai thing, though… but I'm not sure where-"
"… Hisako!" Blob said.
"What?"
"LOOK AT IT!" Blob yelled, yanking the lance away from the giant warrior and pointing with his free hand at its main body.
Sure enough, inside the body of the transparent, uniformly pink warrior was a young Japanese teenager. She was short even by Japanese standards, had long hair, and was apparently clothed in pajamas.
"It looks like she's unconscious!" Avalanche said, noticing that her eyes were closed.
"So what is this… thing that's holding her inside it?" Blob said, sweat starting to pour down his face. "It sure… is strong, whatever it is!"
Seeing the lance Blob had deposited on the ground beside him start to evaporate into thin air, Avalanche simply shook his head and mumbled, "I have no idea…"
Getting up onto his own two feet, Avalanche quickly turned on his comlink, "Mystique, everyone—we're under attack by that pink samurai thing people had been spotting around here! And it's got who we think is Hisako! Fourth floor of the main tower, now!"
[YOU ARE STRONG, BUT I AM STRONGER! I AM THE EMPEROR'S CHOSEN!] the samurai boomed, suddenly growing about two feet in height.
"Hey! What the—" Blob started, just before the glowing warrior lifted him off of the ground and threw him right through the outside wall of the tower hallway, sending him plummeting three stories to the ground below.
Avalanche backed up as the samurai— the stone floor now starting to crack under its weight- turned towards him, slowly advancing.
"Oh man, I really can't use my powers up this high…" Avalanche said to himself. "I might cause the whole structure to collapse on top of me!"
"Holdthatthought," said Surge as she suddenly zoomed onto the scene, leaving a brief trail of bright blue electricity in her wake as she skidded to a stop.
"Zap it!" Avalanche shouted to Surge urgently.
"It has got Hisako… inside it?" Surge said, squinting in disbelief.
"Yes, it doesn't make sense, we know! Who cares, ZAP IT NOW!" Avalanche yelled, the cracks from the samurai's incredibly heavy footsteps spreading, threatening to cave the floor out from under them.
"Can't hurt Hisako… let's aim for the legs!" Surge said, firing off a bolt of blue lightning at the glowing giant—who continued to advance as if nothing had happened.
[FOOLISH INTRUDER! MY ARMOR PROTECTS ME FROM ALL BUT THE MIGHTEST ATTACKS…]
"What is it saying?" Avalanche asked Surge as the samurai continued to talk.
"Cliché warrior dialogue," Surge said dismissively, looking carefully at Hisako inside the transparent giant, "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but…. wait- look at her!"
Avalanche squinted, and indeed, Hisako was mouthing—just barely—the words that were booming out of the giant samurai's mouth, her eyes rapidly moving back and forth behind her eyelids.
"Wait, so she's controlling the thing? Then why is she—"
Avalanche was interrupted as the floor finally made one final crumple and began to give way. Before he could process what was happening, Surge zoomed towards him and yanked him along with her, down a few flights of stairs and outside.
As she let go of a bewildered Avalanche, Surge looked up towards the now-dark sky with concern as the giant samurai bellowed in a mixture of anger and fear. A moment later the whole side of the tower came crumbling down, mostly burying Hisako in rubble, though a few pink glowing bits still shone through.
"What the heck's going on?"
Surge turned around to see Toad hopping towards them, with the rest of the Brotherhood members from the other teams not far behind.
"Would you believe we're not sure?" Surge said.
"Like I said over the comlink, me and Blob found that pink samurai energy-ghost thing that closed down the castle park," Avalanche said, pointing to the pile of freshly collapsed rubble, "Only thing is, Hisako's in it! At first we thought it had captured her somehow, but just before Surge got me outta there we saw Hisako was mouthing the same words that the ghost-thing was saying, so… maybe that's her power?"
"Ugh… and that thing's strong, too," said Blob, drawing the group's attention as he lumbered up, picking bits of dirt and grass out of his clothes. Far behind him, near the edge of the castle, was a Blob-shaped imprint on the ground. "It threw me like twenty feet out the third-story window! ME!"
[EMPEROR, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!] came a sudden muffled boom from beneath the rubble. [I HAVE FAILED TO VANQUISH YOUR ENEMIES!]
"What did it—er, she- just say?" Pyro asked.
"Yeah, that voice don't exactly sound like it belongs to a chick," Toad gulped. "At least no chick I wanna meet."
"A plea for forgiveness from the Emperor," Mystique responded before Surge could. "Hrrm…. I think we may be looking at psychic projection powers here. Like how Jean Grey can create psychic force barriers at will—but this is different. From what you three have been saying, it sounds more like this psychic projection is a physical manifestation of…. something. Clearly Hisako is not in control of it."
"Then what is?" the Scarlet Witch asked.
"Some kinda ghost thing that haunts the castle and possessed her?" Toad suggested nervously.
"Don't be an imbecile- and quit watching so many horror movies," Mystique berated. "If there was some sort of 'ghost', it would have been detected here long ago."
[FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE HAS FALLEN], the glowing pink being boomed in a monotonous tone. As it was talking, it continued to morph into something different—something much larger and smoother in design. [ACTIVATING BACKUP DEFENSES. ROBOTIC GUARDIAN ONLINE.]
Toad, Avalanche, and Pyro all cursed nearly simultaneously as the glowing samurai broke free from the rubble, changing into a nearly three-story-tall glowing robot.
"Samurai and now robots?" Blob exclaimed. "What IS this? Now this makes even less sense!"
"But this 'robot' is still referencing the samurai having fallen…" Mystique said, puzzled.
"Wait a minute!" Surge said. "It doesn't have to make sense, that's the point! She's in her pajamas, eyes are closed… Hisako's dreaming!"
"Of course!" Mystique replied. "This unconsciousness of hers is dreaming about something involving Osaka Castle—that's why she came here. Whatever barely-sensical dream she's having, it likely involves whomever she is in the dream protecting an imaginary 'emperor' that lives here. And we're the invaders."
[ACTIVATING LONG-RANGE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS,] the "robot" intoned, transparent armor pods on its glowing shoulders flipping around to reveal glowing pink missiles.
"I didn't need to understand that!" Toad yelped. "Let's get outta here!"
"No, wait," Mystique said, motioning for her subordinates to halt.
"You crazy?" Toad yelled as the robot fired a couple dozen transparent pink missiles at all of them. "It's gonna—"
Toad stopped mid-sentence as the pink missiles evaporated into thin air about a fourth of the way to them.
"-Huh?"
"Her psychic projection powers don't work without her being in close proximity to them," Mystique said. "After all, if she was able to create literally anything with her mind, we'd probably be dealing with multiple projections. No, she has to be directly in control of her sole projection—it's her avatar, if you will."
"Wait, this still doesn't make any sense," Avalanche said. "If she's dreaming, how come she's been missing for a week? Nobody stays asleep that long! And how come she notices us, here in the real world?"
"I've been studying those stolen archived Cerebro files for some time now," Mystique said as the giant robot fired another ineffectual missile volley at them. "He theorized that with a few minor alterations to the X-genes of known psychic Mutants, their dreams could partially cross over to the real world. I believe we've now come across one such Mutant. This avatar of hers, even though she created it, it is now controlling her. And, scared and confused as she must be right now, it senses and recognizes us as enemies—though just partially, as you can see it doesn't even have the awareness that it can't hurt us long range. With the way things are… she's probably never going to wake up without some outside intervention."
"So what do we do?" Blob asked.
"We intervene," Mystique said, narrowing her eyes. "Scarlet Witch, hex her. See if that stops her."
"Wait!" Surge said, putting out a hand before Wanda could do anything. "Don't hurt Hisako! We're never sure what that hexing of Wanda's can do, right?"
"Surge, we don't have a choice," Mystique replied. "We could really use someone as powerful as your cousin… but with this kind of damage it's causing, it's not going to be long before the police show up. We have to quiet her down and get her out of here before that happens."
Surge glanced uncertainly at Mystique, but reluctantly lowered her hand.
Wanda immediately unleashed a wave of hex energy at Hisako, enveloping the giant pink robot. It visibly struggled a bit, the glowing energy blinking out a few times—each no longer than a millisecond or two—before coming back on.
[LONG-RANGE ATTACKS NOT EFFECTIVE,] the "robot" bellowed. [SWITCHING TO MELEE.]
Wanda sank to her knees, continuing to surround the creature with a hex field as it started to stagger towards them on its huge feet.
"All we did was make it mad!" Toad exclaimed.
Avalanche squinted briefly as a bright—but distant- light beam hit his left eye. Looking back towards the entrance of the castle, he saw several similar light beams hovering a few feet above the ground—and quickly coming towards the main tower they were clustered around.
"Oh, great, and just because things weren't bad enough—now we've got the cops coming in with flashlights to investigate all the noise!" Lance groaned.
"Alright, here's what we'll do," Mystique grimaced, pinching her sinuses as Wanda stopped her hexing, the latter nearly collapsing to the ground in exhaustion before Pyro managed to support her with one arm. "Everyone go to your right, away from the incoming cops, help to steer Hisako away from them—do whatever you have to get her attention. Avalanche, you send out shockwaves towards the police—it'll have the dual purpose of both slowing them down and giving a bogus explanation as to why there's damage to the castle."
"I'll blaze a trail for all of ya, mates," Pyro laughed, shooting flames out of his free hand's nozzle right at the robot, then sending the fire leaping ahead of the pink mech, right in the direction Mystique had asked.
Surge flung a few lightning bolts at the robot's knees at it continued to run towards the fleeing group. "I don't see how this will keep her occupied for long."
"And this won't keep the cops occupied for long, either!" Avalanche said, continuing to send waves of force through the earth behind them as they retreated. "They had to have seen her—and our attacks—by now."
"Yeah, a giant Hello Kitty robot don't exactly blend in well here at nighttime," Toad agreed. "Though if we were downtown, maybe…"
"A few police might have seen something, but not enough," Mystique said, pulling out a cell phone and auto-dialing a number on it. "If all the physical evidence points to an earthquake having caused the damage, they'll chalk up the couple of sightings to a few overactive imaginations….. There. Shiro, meet us near the back end of the castle, as close as you can get. Be ready within two minutes."
"Two minutes? You really think we can take it down that fast?" Blob asked incredulously.
"I don't think so, I know so," Mystique said, turning off the phone without waiting for a response.
[PRIMARY ATTACKS ALL COMING FROM INITIAL GROUP,] the robot intoned as bolts of electricity and blasts of fire continued to inundate it. [PURSUING.]
"Soooo… robots, samurai… she gonna turn into Godzilla next?" Toad asked Surge. "Maybe a Pokemon? Kinda seems like a pattern to me."
"From what I remember, she watched a lot of Anime," Surge shrugged. "Makes sense her dreams would be influenced by it."
"Alright, dead end here!" Pyro said, having run out of a trail for the flame to continue down as the team reached the rear wall of the castle. "Now what, boss?"
"Blob, make an exit," Mystique commanded.
"You got it!" Blob said, reaching back with a yell and pounding his fist into the wall, sending large cracks emanating from the impact zone. A few more like it and they'd be through.
"That'll cover our escape," Mystique continued, "Now to take down Hisako. Wanda, are you feeling steady enough to hex her again?"
"I… I think so," Wanda said, rubbing her head.
"Good. On three, I want you to hex Hisako, while Surge and Pyro simultaneously attack her."
"Waitwaitwait!" Surge protested. "The last time Wanda hexed Hisako, her projection disappeared for a few moments… we might hit her! Her her!"
"That's why you're going to keep the blasts short and non-lethal," Mystique said. "Enough to hurt her, jolt her out of her dream. That's it."
"But—"
"Surge, do not argue with me," Mystique warned. "We don't have the time to wait this out."
Surge sighed resignedly and charged up her gauntlets as the robot neared them. Another step or two and it'd be upon them.
"Alright, on my mark," Mystique began. "One….two….THREE!"
For the first few seconds even after the hex field enveloped Hisako, Surge and Pyro's attacks simply bounced off the robot, but just like last time, for the briefest split-second, the projection disappeared again—and this time, a small lighting discharge from Surge managed to impact Hisako right in the stomach. Crying out in pain in her own voice, her eyes opening again briefly, Hisako plummeted to the ground as they closed again, the robot reappearing for the briefest instance one last time before evaporating away into the night air.
Surge zoomed over to right under Hisako, catching her cousin before the shorter teenager impacted the ground.
"Oh, god… I hope I didn't hurt her too much…" Surge said, panic rising in her voice.
"Alright, everyone out, now!" Mystique yelled, motioning the Brotherhood through the hole in the castle wall Blob had finished making. "Shiro is waiting with the limo about a block away."
[What….what happened….?] Hisako mumbled, her eyes barely opening as Surge carried her outside the castle.
[It's a…long story,] Surge replied. [Right now you just take it easy, Hisako.]
[N…Noriko?] Hisako said in disbelief, her eyes widening slightly. [What are you doing here? Last I had heard of you, you had joined a rebel Mutant group… in the United States…]
[Long story short, saving you,] Surge said. [It wouldn't have taken much longer for the police to figure out what was happening, and then you would have been held in custody, quarantined from everyone else… or worse.]
[Wait, I was… oh… oh, no,] Hisako said, tears starting to form near the corners of her eyes. [I had just had a dream where you and some other… Mutants?... attacked me… I attacked you back and…. Was that real? That couldn't have been… real…]
Surge looked up to see the limo up just ahead. [Don't worry Hisako, everything will make sense….soon…]
Surge stopped as she looked down to see Hisako had lapsed into unconsciousness again. Whether it was because of shock or injury, she wasn't sure. She honestly hoped it was the former.
"Everyone in, now!" Shiro said, motioning the Brotherhood members into his vehicle, which was currently dark—every headlight, taillight, and internal light was out. "We cannot be seen here—we need to leave, quickly!"
Everyone else got in first, with Surge tenderly handing her cousin over for Mystique and Wanda to hold flat between them as she got in and closed the door.
As the limo began to drive off towards the nearest public street, only turning its lights on when it turned onto the road, Surge breathed out a sigh and looked over to her leader. "We've got to get her some medical attention, ASAP. She's hurt—I see some pretty bad electrical burns on her- and… and she's confused."
"As expected," Mystique said. "Don't worry, Noriko. Shiro has a safe house not far from here, with ample first aid supplies. We'll wait out the inevitable commotion this will cause and I'll get a flight back to Bayville in a few weeks, after we've had time for Hisako to recover and fill her in on the details. Everything will be fine—with a Mutant with this much power on our side, we'll have quite the advantage in the inevitable registration conflict."
Surge nodded slowly, though concern was still evident on her face as she turned to look out the limo's side window.
She didn't say one word the rest of the ride to the safe house, lost deep in thought.
It was a good thing Pietro's Mutant powers removed his body's need to sleep. Otherwise he would've constantly been nodding off, having been lying in front of the Brotherhood base's main computer for as long as he had.
Mystique's room was now a mess, but he didn't care. Having crawled there on his hands and knees after he got out of his cell, he had managed to unbolt a few of the bed boards and rip off some of the sheets to create a makeshift split for one of his legs, using the remainder of one of the boards as a crutch. Still, it had been far too difficult to keep himself upright, and so he had pulled Mystique's desk computer onto the floor. It was far more advanced than a traditional desktop computer, however, possessing extremely advanced encryption techniques and data processing.
The former had been important, as for the past several hours Pietro had been sending highly encrypted transmissions to Genosha every five minutes, telling his father his exact location and asking for help.
It had been much, much longer than he had expected—given that he knew the Acolytes now had a teleporter capable of reaching anywhere on the globe, he had been anticipating rescue within the first hour after he sent the first message.
But still, noth—
"You idiot," Pietro suddenly heard a female voice say right after a flash of light lit up the room for a split second. He craned his head around just in time to see a purple fist slam into it.
"Ow!" Pietro cried out, holding his hand up to his nose—yep, it was bleeding. "What the heck was that for?"
"Gee, maybe for exposing our location and encryption code to our enemy!" Blink sneered, putting her hands on her hips. "You think Mystique's computer doesn't have some kind of auto-log for this kind of stuff?"
"But I need you guys to get me out of here!" Pietro protested. "How the heck else am I supposed to contact you? My legs have both been broken in case you haven't noticed, so I can't exactly run there!"
"Newsflash, genius-boy- we've known for months you were here. We have our own Cerebro. We have five psychics constantly using it to scan the world for Mutants."
"Wait… what?" Pietro said, his expression immediately becoming both confused and fearful. "But then… why didn't you rescue me earlier?"
"Because you're a failure, Pietro," Blink said, leaning down so that she was almost eye-to-eye with the speedster. "Granted, you may not be as much of a bungler as most of the other Brotherhood members, but in Magneto's new utopia we're building, we don't exactly have room for losers. Especially at this critical stage.
"From what your father has told me, you've failed again and again at battles. The only times you've 'won' have either been with the help of others or through dumb luck. And so he sends you to do one thing—one thing—gather up a nice sum of money for building supplies for Genosha by running an underground racing ring. He set you up at the top, gave you all the necessary equipment. All you had to do was keep the X-Men and the Brotherhood from sticking their noses in it, and you couldn't even do that, even with all your flaunted super-speed. So after your latest spectacular failure, your father has decided he doesn't need you anymore. We don't have room on Genosha for losers."
"But…but…" Pietro stammered, his utter surprise keeping him from forming a coherent response.
"So now, of course, there remains the problem of what to do with you. I wanted so badly to kill you, but with you being his son and all, I guess Magneto didn't quite have the guts to let me do that. So I'll tell you what—I'll leave you to a fate worse than death. I'll keep you here. I'm teleporting Mystique's computer and storage backups back to Genosha with me. But I'm sure this place has security cameras, and I know for a fact it's locked down. So you're stuck here until the Brotherhood gets back—and oh, how I wish I could be here when they do.
"Oh, we're pretty sure you'll sell us out. But see, given your incompetence, we aren't scared of you in the least, or the Brotherhood. The X-Men can't even stop us now, much less those bunch of nitwits. So go ahead, tell them everything you know. Because Magneto, in his wisdom, only let you in on a very, very small part of our plan."
Pietro sat there, his mind struggling to process this sudden and unexpected betrayal as Blink walked over to the computer and laid her hands on both Mystique's computer and an external back-up drive.
"Have fun, speedy," Blink said with a smirk and a wink before, in a flash of light, both her and Mystique's computer logs were gone.
The End