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Outside Barinas in the state of Barinas, Venezuela (300 kilometres west of southwest from Caracas), a rainy Sunday afternoon in early summer...
"Rain, rain, go away! People's moods are already gloomy...!"
The beautiful yet tomboyish brown-haired Japanese teenager in the white-and-grey kimono displaying scenes of wolf-like animals in mountains sighed, ignoring the curious looks from passersby as she walked towards the hilltop cemetery overlooking the capital city of one of the Bolivarian Republic's larger states. While the weather was warm given how close Barinas was to the equator, the higher elevations and a nice breeze were keeping things relatively cool for someone who normally lived in sub-Arctic conditions on her adopted homeworld several hundred light-years away.
Escorting the current incarnation of the Trickster of the Show, Tuyuki ("Coyote"), to the cemetery was a man a few years older than she, blond and blue-eyed with many hints he was American, dressed in a formal black business suit with a silver three-branch Celtic knot insignia on his breast pocket over his heart. Both had umbrellas to shield their heads from the downpour drenching the Cordillera de Mérida and los Llanos this day. "Pity we can't be more open about our powers and skills," the twenty-something from New York City mused as he gazed in amusement at his companion. "I always agreed to that comment made in the Omaha comics about having good weather for a funeral."
"Pity Mother Nature tends to be a bitch about these sorts of things," Tariko Katabarbe noted as she gazed back at the current incarnation of the Wise Lone Sage, Raer'buo Erba ("Doctor Renaissance"). "Garcia's mood will be gloomy enough, losing his father in that sort of death scene." The two had checked out the place where a "terrorist attack" had killed a local politician three days ago before coming here to visit the surviving son of the patriarch of one of South America's greatest and long-lived clans. "I can't even GUESS what Rosarita's thinking now."
"Knowing her from what you told me about her when you helped her four years ago get to Don Diego so she could ditch her 'friends' in FARC, she's already sussed out as to what caused this," Isaac Thomas mused as he adjusted his glasses. He didn't need them to really see better as he had perfect eyesight, but as one of the top-flight polymath hyper-geniuses of Yiziba, he normally wore special goggles equipped with sensory filaments and wireless links to his equipment; such would always morph into normal glasses when he was in "civvies". "Any note from the White House about this? I doubt the President would have gone for this."
"No, he was just as shocked as everyone in the West Wing was about that whole mess," the Trickster of the Show said with a frown before her eyes locked on the girl about Garcia Lovelace's age in a maid uniform standing guard at the gates of the cemetery. "Oh! Looks like Rosarita got an apprentice now," she mused.
"Señora Katabarbe?"
Isaac and Tariko stopped as the young maid approached, she giving them a curtsy. "And you are, Señorita?" the former asked.
The younger girl blushed. "Fabiola Iglesias, Señor...?"
"He's the one who alerted me to what happened to Don Diego, Fabiola," Tariko explained before introducing her companion. Once that was done, the young maid waved them onto the cemetery grounds. "You're definitely a fighter," the reborn comedian-turned-reality warper then mused. "Some type of capoeira...?"
"Ah...s-sí!" Fabiola stammered out before she looked over, then stopped and curtseyed to the parish priest who officiated at Diego Lovelace's funeral.
Tariko and Isaac bowed to the man as he passed by — even if religion was pretty much a forgotten thing on Yiziba these days, both Terran-born metahumans still had their native sensibilities when it came to dealing with people of the cloth — then remained still as the other mourners streamed away from the freshly-dug grave in the Lovelace family plot. After the last had passed by, Fabiola waved the two visitors over to where a tall, raven-haired beauty in a maid uniform was now comforting a crying boy of about thirteen, dressed in a miniature business suit. Seeing Garcia Lovelace so unstrung made Tariko shake her head as she recalled the countless number of times she encountered girls who had just lost a parent in a very nasty way; such had been all too common in the Middle East even with the Angels of Darkness having risen in recent years to take down ISIL...
"Tariko...?"
Tariko perked as both Garcia and the woman born Rosarita Cisneros gazed her way while Fabiola curtseyed. "El Señorito, Señora, I present Señora Tariko Katabarbe and Señor Isaac Thomas, a friend. They've come to express condolences."
Hearing that made Garcia blink before he smiled. "Thank you...!"
The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Short Story: The Deadliest Woman Alive
by Fred Herriot
Based on The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei, created by Fred Herriot.
C&C by Rose Ash and Dr. Tempo. Some scenes written by Dr. Tempo.
Also including characters and situations from Canaan, created by Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi.
Note: This story occurs eight weeks after the events of the second Yatsura movie, Beautiful Dreamer; this is over four months or so before the start of the main story. In Black Lagoon chronology, this begins during the first part of the manga storyline El Baile de la Muerte (manga chapter #44). All writer's notes and translations of terms here are listed at the end of the text.
The Hacienda Lovelace overlooking Barinas, an hour later...
"The NSA was involved?!"
"Unfortunately so," Isaac stated as everyone relaxed in the sitting room enjoying some tea that Fabiola made for them. "This was NOT condoned by the White House, by the way. Yes, they wanted to see General Morales eliminated due to his past actions supporting President Chávez, but not via a damned BOMB of all things! Whoever planned that stupid assassination clearly wasn't thinking right!"
"Is President Bartlet going to have such animals removed from their positions?" Roberta de San Germán — as Rosarita Cisneros now called herself — then coldly demanded, she standing protectively close to Garcia.
"It'll happen, but Uncle Jed would prefer to avoid whatever scandal might erupt from this," Tariko replied. "He wants it done quietly."
"Which brings us here," Isaac added. "Much that we both appreciate your desire to finally retire from fighting after all the garbage you've lived through in FARC, Señora Cisneros, even you have to admit that whoever planned this has no care at all for how many they hurt just to pursue a simple assassination."
Garcia and Fabiola blinked before they gazed upon the raven-haired beauty who had earned the despised nickname "el Perro Caza de Florencia" during her near-decade of service to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia before all the bloodshed got too much for her to take and she fled to Venezuela with Tariko's help to seek shelter with her late father's best friend. The older woman was slightly quaking as she considered what was being offered now, recalling the similar offer Tariko herself made four years ago to be Gifted and become something more than an effectively orphaned revolutionary fighter with a rather ugly reputation as one of FARC's most deadly assassins. Silence fell as people let Roberta think things through, which lasted a few minutes.
Finally, she took a deep breath. "How much would I change?" she then asked.
"Emotionally, nothing at all," Isaac answered. "You're twenty-six years old, Señora. Your mind is developed enough and disciplined enough to take in the memories of the past lives of whatever Gift you ultimately choose. Be warned that there's no thirty-day refund in this case; once you make your choice, it's yours for the rest of your life. I strongly suspect you'll lean towards some sort of urban warfare fighter. Someone who might have been a soldier in the days before the Dawn of Power; regardless of nation of origin, they all fought to keep people safe when everything went crazy. Since American special forces were involved in the attack on General Morales, you'll need every edge you can get."
"And President Bartlet will allow this?" Garcia asked.
"There's no Executive Order from Uncle Jed which allows for that, Garcia," Tariko answered. "Executive Order 11905 issued by President Ford, Executive Order 12036 issued by President Carter and Executive Order 12333 issued by President Reagan are still seen as being in effect."
"They're breaking the law," Fabiola concluded.
"Exactly, Fabiola," Isaac answered. "After those executive orders were passed, Congress moved to tighten restrictions when it comes to political assassination. There's no loophole the idiots in Fort Meade could use to justify what just happened. After I washed through all the signals my station in orbit picked up from here the day your father was killed, Don Garcia, I could hear American voices, transmitted from radio units seen as standard in the Special Forces."
Roberta's fists clenched as a hiss escaped her. "Dirty curs...!"
With a snarl, she turned and stormed out of the room. "Roberta!" Garcia gasped.
"I'll look after her," Tariko said as she rose to follow...
Outside...
"I still haven't really thanked you enough for bringing me here four years ago."
"Ah, it was nothing," Tariko said as she sat down beside Roberta in the inner courtyard of the main mansion, gazing at the beautiful flowers around them. She had used her powers to change into her normal "civilian" clothing of a grey button blouse and blue jeans, slip-on shoes on her feet. "I saw in you what I've seen many times with girls in the Middle East and other war zones I've visited over the last mini-series. Someone who was used to the crap life forces on people, yet deeply wanting a way out. I wanted to give you a way out..." She then sighed. "But you said 'no', so I brought you here to see Garcia's dad. And you found a new life for yourself. Which is alright, but given that FARC, the cartels and Interpol still want your cute butt nailed to a wall for all you did...!"
"He suffered for my sins...AAAH!"
Tariko sighed as she pulled her hand away from slapping the older woman in the back of the head. "Don't be a blind idiot!" she snapped, earning her a glare from Roberta that the reality warper simply ignored. "Stop letting your guilt over what you did for FARC cloud your judgment! These crunchy norms are at the top of their game and they're being fed and fuelled by one of the most powerful government agencies on this planet. What do YOU have, huh?!"
That made the former assassin jolt as her eyes went wide, then she shuddered as her razor-sharp mind began to analyze the tactical data she had been given over the last hour concerning what she would be fighting now. And YES, she would fight these monsters. That they wanted to dispose of someone like Pedro Morales was one thing. It was understandable; that man, despite his genteel demeanour in public, had been a greedy and bloodthirsty pig who had preyed on many on the right to help Hugo Chávez get into power thirteen years before. That the Americans wanted such a man gone was understandable; Chávez himself wasn't in the best of health thanks to his dealing with colon cancer and probably wouldn't last a year at the most. Ensuring such a monster wouldn't succeed him as president of a nation which exported a small but considerable amount of oil to the United States was...
Brutally logical.
But still...!
"The bombing makes sense in a way," Roberta quietly mused as her eyes teared. "It makes it look local. A sniper bullet from far away just sings out that the Americans were involved. I'll strongly wager that some locals will claim responsibility for the general's murder to throw off suspicion." She then shook her head. "Still, given what President Bartlet wants to have happen..."
"Yeah," Tariko said before clicking her tongue. "Nothing gets the fight scene going better than a revenge quest. And since Uncle Jed wants this to happen as well, you've got a tonne of support along the way. He'll deny it to his dying breath in case someone links you to him...but given that you've 'gone to ground' and effectively avoided FARC and the cartels next door for four years..."
"Not exactly."
"Huh?"
Roberta sadly smiled. "There was an incident about three months ago..."
The Hacienda Lovelace, the next morning after breakfast...
"This is what we have so far about who might have done this, Don Garcia."
Garcia blushed on hearing the noble title applied to him, then he took a deep breath before gazing at the pictures Major Juan Toussaintt brought to him. The major himself was an African-Venezuelan, descent of migrants from Haiti who had fled their poor homeland for a better life before the start of the previous century. He currently served in the 421st Parachute Infantry Battalion "José Leonardo Chirinos", an element of the Fourth Armoured Division based out of Maracay. "So all these people resigned from the DGIM before the attack?"
"Sí, Don Garcia," Toussaintt answered, a scowl crossing his face. Like a lot of his fellow troopers, he had supported Pedro Morales in his rise to power. "These six resigned from the DGIM six months ago. They were there at the attack that killed the general and your father, acting as security for the rally."
"So it was planned," Isaac mused from his chair nearby. Both he and Tariko were in their battle suits. The Wise Lone Sage wore a white-silver jumpsuit with buff gold belt (lined with pouches all over to carry his equipment) and boots, protective goggles over his eyes and a multi-coloured three-winged Celtic knot on his upper chest. Tariko was pleased that the New Yorker hadn't worn the flowing hooded buff gold cape he often donned with his uniform shortly after his Gifting, when he acted like Batman himself in Roanapur of all places five years ago; doing that had nearly driven the leaders of the various gangs there up the wall dealing with what was clearly a good case of Post-Gifting Shock. Such DID help teach the people in Roanapur a lot about the natives of the third world of Kaeyu...which was further augmented by the fact that the maternal niece of the leader of Hotel Moskvá, Captain (retired) Sofíja "Balalájka" Pávlova, was none other than Tat'jána Chapáeva, the current incarnation of the Passionate Historian of the Circle of Thought, Kikhodato (the "Philosopher").
"Sí, Señor Thomas," the airborne infantry officer answered. "We haven't found any sort of American involvement in the general's murder yet."
"It can be found, Juan," Tariko advised. "Uncle Jed himself got wind of what happened and really threw a snit over this. Regardless of his issues with your own president, he would NEVER approve of something like THAT!"
"That is good, Señora Katabarbe," Toussaintt mused before he gazed on Roberta. Thinking about it for a moment, he straightened himself, saluting her. "Major Cisneros," he greeted her with her old paramilitary rank.
Roberta blinked, then she snapped properly to attention, returning the honour given to her. "Major Toussaintt," she greeted back.
"A simple request from us."
"Being?"
"Please don't make it too loud. We don't want to create our own scandals."
Hearing that, the Bloodhound of Florencia smiled. "Done."
"If you must use special interrogation methods, please don't leave evidence."
"That's also doable," Tariko spoke up.
"Indeed," Isaac confirmed.
Garcia blinked. "How so, Isaac?"
The New Yorker winked at the new leader of the Lovelace clan. "Being what I am, I have the knowledge base and the experience to make pretty accurate guesses about what may soon happen once the Señora takes that last step, Don Garcia. There is ONE particular Gift that's well-known throughout the local cluster which has NOT been reborn in this generation...and which will fit Roberta's own experiences like a hand in a glove." As Tariko nodded in agreement, he grinned. "Once you become this particular person, Señora, you will even make the COSMIC metas quake."
Roberta blinked. "How can you be so sure, Señor?"
"What would it be?" Fabiola asked, looking clearly worried for her senior's fate.
The Wise Lone Sage winked again. "Spoilers."
Everyone blinked, then Garcia laughed, catching the Doctor Who reference...
Lunchtime...
"Ooh, this cake is so delicious!"
"Señora Katabarbe, can I have your recipe?"
Hearing the other maids chatter like crazy as they enjoyed the black forest cake Tariko had prepared for them in her country cabin — WITHOUT the necessary mesonium that would allow them to be Gifted as well, of course — the Trickster of the Show smiled as she passed over a folded note to the head cook, Isabel Méndez. As the middle-aged farmer's daughter nodded her thanks, Garcia sighed. "Ladies, would you please leave us be?" he quietly asked. "I have business to discuss with Señora Katabarbe and Señor Thomas. Roberta, please stay here."
"¡Sí, El Señorito!" the three maids and the cook — as well as Fabiola — declared as they rose from their seats, taking the slices of black forest cake that Tariko had made for them with them as they left their employer's main office.
Once the door had been closed behind Isabel, Tariko concentrated, erecting a "notice-me-not" barrier around the office to ensure Garcia's staff wouldn't try to eavesdrop. While she and Isaac had dressed down back to "civvies" again after their meeting with Juan Toussaintt — the staff had been busy in various parts of the estate that morning — there was no need to do anything that could rile up suspicions. Loose lips did sink ships after all. Even if the airborne forces of Venezuela had been very good in keeping FARC and the various cartels from Colombia out of the country as a way of shielding the woman born Rosarita Cisneros from any assassination attempt, there had to be spies from both groups active all over the Bolivarian Republic, seeking the Bloodhound out thanks to her nasty move to rescue Garcia from the Manisalera Cartel three months before. As far as Garcia's other staff knew, Tariko Katabarbe and Isaac Thomas were representatives of the Inshin Group, the small Japanese keiretsu owned by the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu who were the effective secret bankers for the outsized major businesses of that nation.
One had been Asahi Industries, the company that formerly employed Okajima Rokuro — now "Rock" of the Black Lagoon — which suffered a nasty blow to the pocketbooks when Tariko's chief assistant Yumoa Reigi got word from Balalájka concerning Asahi's plans to help develop nuclear weapons for North Korea of all places!
Last thing Tariko heard about that lot, the man who had been willing to sacrifice Rock to keep that project secret, Kageyama Jōji, barely escaped the VERY nasty scandal that had broken out in the papers after said news got to Tomobiki.
Too bad...
"These aren't Terran cherries, are they?"
Eyes locked on Roberta, who had plucked out one of the dark red fruits from the black forest cake that Tariko had made for her as a "condolence gift" in respect to her suffering because of the death of Diego Lovelace. "It's the Yizibajohei equivalent, Señora: A yuoguo," Isaac answered as she ate the beautiful fruit. "It's sweeter than Earth cherries as you'll note, but the mesonium content in the fruit is quite large. That's from the 'background' mesonium in the atmosphere and the soil, not anything directly touched by the Great Crystal as what Tariko can get from her scrying pool next to her cabin on Butodutogasuto."
"'Butodutogasuto'?" Garcia asked.
"The northern polar continent on Yiziba," the New Yorker provided.
"She came from there..."
Everyone perked, then they gazed upon Roberta...
...before the two adopted Yizibajohei gaped on seeing reddish energy billow around Roberta's exposed hands. As Garcia looked himself, he then recoiled slightly before turning back to Tariko. "Um...is th-that normal...?"
The Trickster of the Show blinked, then glanced at the black forest cake she had specially made for the Bloodhound of Florencia. It was half-eaten; under normal circumstances, someone who was striving to be Gifted had to consume the whole cake — Tariko normally served a quarter slice for the average person — to commence the whole process. Gazing telepathically into the former paramilitary fighter's mind, the reality warper then gaped on seeing a powerful storm of memories flood Roberta's soul at a speed that made Niagara Falls look like a mere trickle. Only the Colombian twenty-something's iron-hard discipline and her long experiences dealing with things normal people never had to live with on a regular basis for so long a time was saving her core spirit from such an onslaught.
"Jesus Christ...!" Isaac breathed out as he keyed his glasses into their goggles format to scan the woman before her. "She must have lived close to a mesonium deposit back in Colombia. The levels in her blood are already sky-high...!"
"Acting like a magnet for the Great Crystal to lock in on," Tariko added.
Roberta croaked out as new torrents of memories flooded her mind, this time from her experiences in FARC. As the ghosts of those she had killed in the past seemed to scream at her for running away from her guilt and self-punishment, the memories pouring into her from the Great Crystal of Power drowned them out...as if the proto-soul of the one the woman born María Elena Rosarita Cisneros y de San Germán was now transforming into simply cast aside that dark age as a useless flashback scene that didn't add anything to the Script of Life she was now writing.
She...!
All her past-selves had been women...
All twenty-eight of them...
The first had been a skilled warrior of the Republic of Nesetimtuto — freest of all the nations of Yiziba before that dark age, birthplace of the future Circle of Thought — who became a survival expert in a sea of chaos against the multitude of metahumans breaking free of normal control and tearing it all down, which destroyed the last bastion of democracy before the Starvation Times came...
A woman who gained experience fighting every type of foe that confronted her, from the super-strong to the psychics, from the magicals to the cosmic metas, from would-be dictators trying to restore hated order on a society shattering all the shackles holding it down to animal maniacs who wanted to see all burn...
A woman who fought to keep refugees free of the various beings who thrived in the madness of the Dawn of Power and the agonies of the Starvation Times, forcing them into the countrysides away from the cities where the worst of the battles had broken out, helping them become the first generation of the Nameless...
...whose descendant two sagas later had adopted a lonely boy from Earth, transforming him into a girl and opening new possibilities...
...the boy-turned-girl who had become Rosarita Cisneros' first true friend...
...the friend who had helped her transform into...
"Roberta...!"
The assassin-turned-maid gasped on hearing the fear-filled voice of the ONE being who had the undisputed right to command her heart and soul, guilt ripping up her spine and freezing her heart as she realized that her beloved young master was worried about her. Slowly pushing herself away from the table — by now, her whole body was glowing akin to what happened to the Doctor in recent seasons of Doctor Who whenever the time for regeneration came — Roberta stood up, shuddering as her maid's uniform began to smoke and burn. Seeing that, Garcia gasped before he averted his eyes — as did Isaac — as that torrent of memories now pouring into the former revolutionary fighter's mind became an unstoppable tsunami...
Tene lomher'buo, María Elena Rosarita Cisneros y de San Germán...
Hearing the booming voice of the being who supervised all Giftings on Yiziba, Roberta smiled as she allowed herself to fall over the edge...
"¡Juro en el Sagrado Nombre de Santa María..."
...and let an incredible history and life become hers.
"...golpear a los injustos con mi Martillo de Hierro!"
The whole room was soon inundated with blinding light...
Nesu...KIKROHERBE!
...then the light faded, allowing Garcia to blink before he turned to look.
"El Señorito...you didn't PEEK, did you?"
Hearing the smoky yet ice-cold voice of the Deadliest Woman Alive, Kikroherbe ("Caltrop"), as her eyes fixed on the man she was loyal to even now, the current patriarch of the Lovelace clan awked before rapidly shaking his head.
Seeing that, Tariko blinked before she laughed...
In geosynchronous orbit over Earth at the meridian of New York City (directly over a point twenty kilometres east of Muriba in the Caquetá Department in Columbia), an hour later (local time: Ninety minutes after lunch)...
"¡Bendita María! You actually BUILT this place, Señor Thomas?!"
"Indeed I did, Señora Cisneros," Isaac stated Thomas as he walked Roberta — who was now starting to feel comfortable about seeing herself again as "Rosarita Cisneros" — out of the teleportation room they had been transported to after beaming up from the Hacienda Lovelace to Station Robert, home-away-from-Yiziba of the Wise Lone Sage. "As you'll remember from your past-selves' memories, the Circle of Thought developed mesonium-powered nanotechnology as part of their move to heal Yiziba while they strove to end the Starvation Times. My first-self developed a different type of nanotech in that same time frame. When I was Gifted five years ago, I used all the space junk floating around the planet to start up the core of this station, then mined areas of the asteroid belt to finish it."
"And who is this 'Robert' you named this place after?" Rosarita asked.
He blushed. "The name of a fictional university in a video game series I'm a fan of. I'm quite the nerd...or 'otaku' to borrow a term Tariko is familiar with. Video games of all stripes, comics, anime, manga, science fiction movies and television shows all inspire me in my research. It's a good thing that whoever left my Gift crystal lying around for me to find deliberately...what?"
She had a shocked look on her face while she tried to avoid shaking her head in bewilderment. "Your past-self's body wasn't returned to Yiziba?!" she demanded. "I'm surprised that Doctor Muerte didn't throw a fit over such a thing!"
"No, Miss Black didn't find out who did it." After Rosarita had been Gifted, Tariko summoned The Book of Pretty Girls from her cabin on Yiziba so she could complete the entry she made for the former revolutionary fighter. In doing so, Rosarita got a chance to know the names of all the main players. "I have an idea who did it, but I'd like to keep it to myself for the time being."
She considered that for a moment before her eyes narrowed. "Batae Erba...?"
"Most likely."
"¡Santa María nos preserva!"
"Hello!"
Rosarita jolted on hearing that bright voice, then she snarled as she drew out a rather BIG combat knife from the holster on the back of her pouch-lined brown belt, spinning around and throwing her weight into the younger woman with shoulder-cropped wavy strawberry blonde hair and bright green eyes, they now wide with fright as what appeared (to her) to be a Grimm made human! Such was enhanced even further by the growl escaping the former revolutionary fighter's throat as she bared her teeth, revealing her rather sharp canines, which turned the younger girl's already pale skin to a ghostly white as she realized how close she was to being decapitated. "PLEASEPLEASEDONTHURTME!" the girl screamed out as she slammed her back against the wall of the hallway to avoid the blade's serrated edge.
Isaac sighed. "Penelope...?"
The young girl awked before she glared at the back of the man who saved her from final shutdown, ignoring the blade not a centimetre from her own throat. "Doctor! How many times must I inform you of this?! DON'T CALL ME 'PENELOPE'!"
"And how many times must I inform you to NEVER SNEAK UP ON PEOPLE like that, Miss Polendina?" he coolly countered. "Don't you realize WHO is threatening you now?"
Blinking, the former gynoid of a planet named Remnant turned to take in the full measure of the taller, older and bustier raven-haired woman looming over her with a hungry smile that DID remind her of a very nasty Grimm. Taking a moment to absorb the urban camouflage jumpsuit composed of patterned white, many tones of grey and black, she then fixed her eyes on the insignia on the woman's chest: A tetrahedron-patterned sigil similar to a magical foot trap device used to disable Grimms, allowing huntsmen of her native world to put down the soulless beasts. Taking that in as she scanned her past-selves' memories, the current incarnation of the Mind-Moulder of Armour, Imramr'be ("Operator"), then gulped as it hit her:
The Terror of Fight-Scenes...
The Tigress in the Shadows...
The Archangel of the Habitations...
The Deadliest Woman Alive...
Penny Polendina gulped again before an embarrassed smile crossed her face. "I'm really, really, really sorry for scaring you, Miss Caltrop! I'm really, really, REALLY sorry for scaring you, Miss Caltrop! Please don't hurt...!"
"Roberta!"
The newly-gifted Rosarita jolted before she looked right...
...then she winced on seeing the young man standing there, guarded by her own junior battle maid, an amused Tariko leaning against the bulkhead nearby, her arms crossed as she waited for this confrontation scene to end. "El Señorito...?"
Garcia moaned, then he gazed at Penny. "Señora, are you hurt?!"
The former gynoid blink before she looked back at Rosarita, then once more at her current employer, her mind trying to figure out how it was even remotely possible for a lone-hunter like Caltrop of all people to be subservient to ANYONE?! Noting this, Isaac chuckled at Penny's reaction. "I suppose seeing Caltrop act like that surprised you," he then noted, making the former gynoid gaze at him.
As Rosarita sheathed her combat knife, Penny slowly nodded. "I'm sorry about that, Doctor. I was just..." She then flushed deeply.
As she tried to figure out what to say, Isaac just smiled. "Don't worry about it, Penny. It's alright." He then gazed on the newcomers. "Pardon me, Don Garcia, Señora Cisneros, Señorita Iglesias! Where on Earth are my manners?!" As the visitors either smiled or chuckled, he waved to the former gynoid. "I have the pleasure of presenting Miss Penny Polendina of the planet Remnant. She is one of my newer students, just like how the Camelot Wondercolts were two years ago."
Everyone blinked before they gazed in curiosity at Penny...
Station Robert, an hour later...
"Ah! Thanks for the ride, Nassur! I appreciate it!"
"That's one of many I owe you, Kamen-cha! When are you going to finally build your own starship, for heaven's sake? It's within your skill-set."
The Fukunomaki-form Avalonian teenager with the dark blue-grey jumpsuit with the deep crimson pouch-lined belt and boots — plus the ceremonial sash chain, hair chain and earrings of the Clan Shigaten — shrugged. They had just travelled to Earth from the planet Okusei. "I'm trying to build one now, but every damned step I take, that idiot Ōsaka instantly shows up and nags me about not building another World-Breaker!" the current incarnation of the Master At Arms, Hutelem (the "Weaponeer"), complained with a shrug. "I know she means well, but..."
The famous Vosian expat bounty hunter who had helped start the current civil war against the Mikado decades before laughed. "Ayumu-cha has her reasons for doing that, Kamen-cha," Nassur warned as he winked at the clone replica of his former student's best friend. "Even if she is still quite out there..."
Shigaten Kamen sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know! Oi! Isaac! You here?!"
"Right here, Kamen. Hello, Nassur! How goes the hunt?"
"As eternal as always," the handsome dark-haired man with the bright blue eyes and the elegantly tapered ears said as he warmly shook Isaac's hand. After Kamen embraced the Wise Lone Sage, Nassur then added, "Actually got a chance to visit this Remnant planet that caught your interest some years ago. Those Grimm are even worse than you described them! How soon could you get these huntsmen fully Gifted so they can move to keep these things corralled?"
The New Yorker grinned. "It's a work in progress, my friend. Much that I can see how much good Gifted people could do on that planet, I am bucking a lot of traditions in that place, never mind my 'bringing people back from the dead' like I've done with Penny and Pyrrha. Given how much your own teacher might disapprove of things — never mind what Margo might say about it — I have to be VERY cautious. Not only that, I have to make sure there's no clash between our Gifts and their Semblances. I've been lucky; the Dust they use for their technology is somewhat easy to replicate. Augmenting it with mesonium will allow them to properly replenish their stores and keep the Grimm at bay."
The native of Lecashuto and second son of the two senior leaders of the rebellion against the Mikado nodded; he had learned same thanks to Kasuga Ayumu and Suzumiya Haruhi, who took pity on him one day four years ago, after they saved Nassur's father Admiral Ninsur at the Battle of Colony Forty. "So how's this new Caltrop anyway?" he asked. "I was there when the last one perished on Reiner's Five saving the capital city ten years ago; I had to transport her body back to the Cave of the Future so the next one could come along. Given Kamen-cha reported this one had been a socialist resistance fighter and top-grade assassin...!"
Isaac smiled as he squeezed the older man's shoulder in reassurance, waving them down the hallway from the docking port where Nassur's command ship, ISS Renegade, was now secured to. "She's still that, but she wants to repent for all the blood she's shed. Like an Executioner from Yehisril who's grown tired of taking heads; you've probably met some over the years." As Nassur nodded, his host added, "She's a spiritual and religious woman. She deeply loves her current employer; his late father — who was a friend of her own father — gladly gave her sanctuary when she decided she'd had enough of FARC's hypocrisy and wanted out of the fight. Now that Don Diego is dead, she wants revenge...but she's just one person up against a very well-equipped and well-trained force, supported by an agency of the most powerful government on Earth and she has enemies back in her homeland who want her very dead and wouldn't care how many innocents got in the way."
"Well, she's now got a mountain's worth of upgrades in her equipment once I got it out of my locker," Kamen helpfully reported, her smoky grey eyes glittering in anticipation while she shifted the dufflebag slung over her shoulder to make it more comfortable. As Nassur grinned — the clone twin of Shigaten Benten had become a fanatic weapons nut like nothing he had EVER seen on becoming the Master At Arms three years ago; if Benten herself wouldn't be scared to death of "They Who Must Never Be Named", she would be totally green with envy at what Kamen could easily create — she added, "Lucky thing Darling got this girl's combat knife from you, Nassur. She wouldn't feel safe without any sort of weapon."
"Given her past-selves' experiences, I wouldn't blame her," Nassur noted.
"Ah! Miss Kamen! Commander Nassur!"
Nassur's eyes glittered a beautiful gold as his telepathic tracking powers locked on the approaching former gynoid, who had a delighted grin on her face. "Penny-cha!" he called out as Penny raced up to hug him, harbouring her strength — even if she was a technokinetic, the Mind-Moulder of Armour had a battle doll body — as he playfully kissed her forehead. "How are you adjusting these days?"
"I'm quite fine!" the native of Atlas on Remnant said as she warmly wrapped an arm around the Vosian's. "Did any of your students come here today?"
"No, they're still too scared of the 'you know whos' to even think of visiting Earth with so many of you here," Nassur explained as they walked into the main meeting room. "I've had to stop a couple of them from trying to call Lum-cha and warn her about the truth of her 'husband'. There IS a temporal paradox issue involved!" He winked. "I don't want to get Haruhi-cha angry at me!"
"Hopefully very soon, Señor Comandante de Cazadores," the young maid standing before the handsome young man with the very aged eyes brown declared said as she gave him a curtsey. Seeing her, Nassur was instantly reminded of many of his fifty part-Ipraedies charges who had been rescued by Noukiios' greatest warrior, Lady Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech of Ait'uch Nehech, some years ago from the planet Barsoom. "A great honour to meet you. May I present to you the twelfth patriarch of la Familia Lovelace de Apure, one of las Trece Grandes Familias de Sudamérica, Señor Don Garcia Fernando Lovelace y Cabrera."
Much to Nassur's amusement — thanks to the omniversal translator field Isaac had set up in Station Robert, he understood all the young maid/bodyguard said — Garcia seemed very embarrassed by that flowery introduction. "An honour, Señor Comandante," he declared as he stood, holding out his hand.
The Vosian warmly shook it. "An honour, Master Garcia. May I express my deepest condolences at the loss of your father." He then winked. "Still, given that you have Caltrop on your side, I'm sure his killers will soon pay for their actions."
The younger man painfully smiled as people took their seats, with Fabiola moving to guard him. "I honestly wish it wasn't necessary, Señor Comandante, but given that the maniacs who launched this had no sanction from the executive branch of their government — and given such was totally outlawed by their legislative branch many years ago — Roberta will, with God's grace, succeed."
"'Roberta'?" Kamen asked. "I thought her name was Rosarita."
"'Rosarita Cisneros' is her birth name," Isaac provided. "When she went to ground to live with Don Garcia's father, she switched to 'Roberta de San Germán' to throw off the hunters from her old group and the drug cartels in her homeland."
"They still out there, Isaac?"
"Oh, yes!"
A smirk crossed the bioroid's face. "I'll want to look at your home to harden it up against someone who might want to do you harm," she told Garcia.
The younger man blinked. "I doubt I could afford...!"
The Master At Arms laughed. "Oh, relax, kiddo!" As Fabiola huffed at such a term being used by her beloved employer, Kamen waved him down. "Money doesn't exist on Yiziba!" She winked. "It's the intellectual challenge that excites me!"
As the natives of Venezuela blinked, Nassur chuckled. "The absolutely worst thing in the known Universe, Master Garcia, is a bored Yizibajohei!"
Garcia blinked. "Oh...!"
Laughter filled the room...
The simulator chambers of Station Robert, minutes later...
"Excellent...!"
Nassur blinked, the concern on his face quite apparent to all around him as he watched Rosarita make use of a hand-held multi-barrel rotary projectile cannon — a shrunk-down version of the famous General Electric M134 Minigun — while she totally wrecked the targets Isaac had set up for her. The Wise Lone Sage himself was standing next to the Deadliest Woman Alive, using his enhanced goggles to analyze where the sewing needle-sized titanium flechettes landed on the simulated human target a hundred metres away, his mind making the calculations necessary to estimate damage to a living person by such well-aimed shots. Garcia and Fabiola stood off to the other side, using special glasses that allowed them to see how good the head maid of the Lovelace family could still shoot. Kamen and Penny were at the room's control console, the latter helping the former keep watch over the performance of the weapons the Master At Arms created for her new "customer".
For the expat from Lecashuto, it was hard to equate the woman now before him with her immediate predecessor as Caltrop, Nisamea Tyawekam. The latter had been a native of the old territory of Nesetimtuto on the northern polar continent; most incarnations of the Deadliest Woman Alive over the last two millennia normally came from the first's ancient homeland. Nisamea was the daughter of a Nameless couple who wanted to find a way to protect her village from the roving metahumans who didn't care for the descendants of normal people from before the Dawn of Power "not playing their rôles in the Show". Once Gifted, the tradesman's daughter did a lot to keep the forces of Yizibajohei conservatism at bay. Once she partnered up with Tami Ugadese (Kasuga Ayumu's predecessor as Infinity), the country girl got the chance to actually engage in battle on other planets.
That's how she later met Nassur and his wife Cinba of Colony Seventy-one...
Unlike most races closer to Yiziba itself, the natives of Vos looked upon the metahumans of the third world of Kaeyu with a sort of wary awe, similar to the concept of "never tickling a sleeping dragon" that a certain Earth school of wand sorcery had as its motto. During the Dawn of Power, the Imperial Houses of the Seifukusu Dominion — who had managed over the previous two centuries to subjugate Vos as a semi-independent dependency — came to fear that if Yiziba unified and unleashed its metahuman warriors against the Seifukusu, it would cut off all trade between Vos and the Dominion and drive the Imperial Houses right back to Fukunokami beyond Elle (which had held out against the Dominion thanks primarily to the efforts of that planet's only Rose Emperor, Adam de Rosenbach). Naturally, they did as they had done on Vos itself: Send war parties to the few surviving nation-states of Yiziba and offer help in putting the rebellion metahumans down.
That earned them the wrath of Yiziba's greatest general, the Dark Warlord of the Centre, Tae R'buodom ("General Tonfā")...who, as Isaac briefed Nassur and his wife a year ago, lived today as a girl from Beppu on Kyūshū named Higurashi Akane, now a freshman high schooler at the Fūka Academy off the coast of Shikoku.
With his loyal metahuman corps at his side, the former dictator of one of the most powerful nations of Ko'oritesuto — today, the site of the central regions of Yiziba's famous Battlezone — pressed a vicious war that pushed the Seifukusu temporarily back to Dominos itself, unleashing the first effective Mother of All Fight Scenes on the capital world of the Seifukusu which lasted a year.
It had been enough for rebels under Lecasur to overthrow the Seifukusu invaders and liberate Vos from alien occupation, then found the modern Confederation.
It had also been enough for the first generation of the Circle of Thought to finish their work in ending the Starvation Times, begin the long healing of Yiziba itself and laying the foundations of the Great Show of Life.
Ever since that time, the Vosian Confederation had always adopted a stance of not doing anything to provoke the Yizibajohei in any way, shape or form. That didn't mean that there was no contact whatsoever between Vos and Yiziba, though. The many stealth warriors of Nassur's home culture, the legendary Silent Ones from whose ranks the Mikado and Nassur's old teacher Osur had risen, often viewed the urban areas of Yiziba as the best real-life training ground for their skills that could be located. Xenosociological experts viewed the third world of Kaeyu as the best case study ever to understand how a society which had plunged into total anarchy had endured for so long. Their reports were disseminated all throughout the local cluster, which added much gristle to the constantly running rumour mill when it came to the Yizibajohei, feeding the near-paranoia citizens of other races like the Urusians and the Ipraedies often felt concerning the metahumans of the third world of Kaeyu. Even the best psionic trackers and bounty hunters like Nassur himself sometimes had reason to visit Yiziba on missions; this was how the native of Lecashuto had met Nisamea Tyawekam in the first place...
"You have concerns, Señor?"
Nassur was shaken out of his introspection by Rosarita's cool question as she moved to reload the multi-barrel projectile weapon she had been test-firing. "You're nowhere close to what Nisamea-cha was," he noted.
A smirk crossed the Colombian woman's face. "Naturally. She had a rather decent upbringing at her farm before she became Gifted. Even if social structures and cultural thought which would be normal on Earth or Vos really don't exist on Yiziba, she believed in the 'better angels of human nature', to quote the Rail-Splitter." Rosarita then smiled as she considered what she had learned through Isaac concerning the semi-immortal sixteenth president of the United States; the "alternate history novel" Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter had a lot of truth hidden in its pages even if it left out all the magical involvement in the Americans' tragic civil war during the 1860s. "I, on the other hand, was indoctrinated to FARC's worldview long before I became an active soldier for the group. For nearly twenty years, serving FARC consumed my whole life. I knew little of a 'normal' life until I was taken to the Hacienda by Tariko." Her blue-grey eyes softened slightly before she placed the weapon on the shooter's table before her. "It didn't mean that I wasn't ignorant of the 'normal' world. Over time as I gained more exposure to the outside world, I began to see the many things the propaganda FARC forced on people like myself got wrong. And I began to dream of a chance to get away from it. That's what brought Tariko to me."
"Her scrying pool outside her cabin," Isaac added.
Rosarita nodded. "I am not Nisamea, Nassur. Don't make that mistake with me, please. I know you and your wife both formed your psychic version of a blood-brotherhood bond with her, but I am not her. Please don't hurt yourselves like that. I already have the blood and gore of HUNDREDS on my hands when I was FARC's loyal hunter. I won't have another innocent person's blood on my hands. That was my promise to Don Diego when he took me in, even after el Señorito had been kidnapped by the Manisalera three months ago. I will not break that oath."
"What about these Americans who helped in the assassination?" Nassur asked.
"They will get the chance to explain themselves to me when I meet up with them finally. Both the ones who came from America and the ones who were in country when it happened. If they were lied to about el Señor, I will let them live. If they have the blood of innocents on their hands..."
Rosarita snap-aimed her weapon, then fired. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, all ten targets before her were no more; the Deadliest Woman Alive had moved like lightning. As Kamen smirked in anticipation on seeing all the new toys she made for the former revolutionary fighter get a good workout and Penny clapped her hands in delight, Garcia bowed his head. "Come back to us, Roberta..."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
To Nassur's total surprise, the just-Gifted woman turned to give her employer an angelic smile. In the flash of an eye, Major Rosarita Cisneros of FARC was no more, replaced by Señora Roberta de San Germán, head maid of la Familia Lovelace de Apure. "El Señorito..." she gently breathed out. "I will never leave you."
Garcia nodded, his eyes misting, while the others in the room smiled, including Isaac. "That shows that, despite what happened to you, Rosarita, you are NOT just a heartless killer." As the Deadliest Woman Alive blinked on hearing that observation, the Wise Lone Sage added, "You're human, with all that entails."
As the former revolutionary fighter gave him a grateful smile, the New Yorker felt his cheeks heat as he got yet another reminder of how stunningly beautiful she was. Does she have a boyfriend? a part of him wondered before he coughed...though he was sure that his friend from Vos would have picked up on that reaction; even if Isaac and Nassur weren't pe'cha, they were pretty good friends. Taking a deep breath, he then gazed at his first student from Remnant. "Penny's friends from her home planet should be back here sometime soon; they went down to Manhattan to do some shopping. I'm sure Yáng's already cooking up plans for a tamdyuo isae loi to celebrate the return of Caltrop to the Show right now."
"'Tamdyuo isae loi', Señor Thomas?" Fabiola asked.
"'Welcome back party', Fabiola," Rosarita translated.
"Which normally provokes fight scenes, Miss Iglesias," Nassur warned, winking at her. "Especially when someone as dangerous as Caltrop comes back." He sighed. "Still, given who and what Penny's friends became after Isaac rescued them, I'm sure Miss Cisneros will have all the backup she'll need. As she'll remember from her previous incarnation, even someone as skilled as she can be overwhelmed."
The others in the room grimly nodded...
Fifteen minutes later...
"We're back! Isaac?! Penny?! Hey! Is anyone here?!"
Stepping out of the teleportation room on Station Robert, four beautiful teenage girls paused to scan around, none of them hearing a response from either the Wise Lone Sage or the Mind-Moulder of Armour. A quick glance out a porthole at the surrounding space revealed the aft end of a dark blue winged spacecraft secured to near one of the docking ports Isaac had built on his station for visiting starships. "Hey, guys! Look! There's Commander Nassur's ship," the pale-skinned girl with the long, wavy raven hair partially tied down by a headband put in a bow tie, feline-like amber eyes peeking out of a very pretty face, called out.
Noting where she was pointing, the other three girls set down the shopping bags they had brought up from downtown Manhattan before walking over to join their comrade. "Why's the Hunter Commander here?" the equally pale silver-haired woman with the silver-blue eyes that sparkled with a lot of rebelliousness even if they were set on a very aristocratic face asked. "Last I heard from Miss Chisame was that the Hunter Commander and his wife were helping Lady K'ekhech train some of those part-Ipraedies child hunters the Noukiites found on the Ghost World."
"Unless Commander Nassur brought Miss Kamen here for some reason," the buxom blonde with a face possessing a hint of Oriental ancestry, pierced with eyes of blooming lilacs, said. She had been the one who had brought the majority of the shopping bags when they beamed up from New York City; the brunette brought up a bag full of books, the silver-haired one had two bags of clothing — never mind the white peplum blouse and matching knee-length skirt she now wore, that topping very fashionable dark high-heels — and the slightly older and taller girl with the waist-length crimson hair in a high ponytail and piercing green eyes brought groceries. "She's been trying to build her own starship...even if Miss Ōsaka bothers her all the time to make sure she doesn't make another World-Breaker."
They shuddered as they recalled their past-selves' memories of the city-sized, planet-shattering, hyperwarp-capable flying superweapon the incarnation of the Master At Arms alive at the time made during the series when the encounter with the Urusians went down. "Miss Kamen did tell Miss Chisame she wanted the chance to take a look at what weapons we brought from Remnant," the blonde added.
The other now-metahuman huntsmen from that world hummed as they considered that, then the redhead shrugged. "I better get to the kitchen to put the foot into the fridge. I don't want it to go bad." With that, she headed down a side hallway.
The other girls watched her head off, then they picked up their bags and walked to where their guest rooms were. After a moment, the blonde giggled as she recalled the sheer, unbelievable FUN she had at Macy's Herald Square. "Who would have thought that this planet had so many stores?!" she nearly squealed.
The brunette tried not to roll her eyes at her friend's excited tone. "Why am I simply NOT surprised that you got so many clothes?" she asked as she stared askance at her friend. "You'd think you were buying for everyone at Beacon the way you were going through that place, Yáng! Much that we have money...!"
"Alright! Alright, already!" Yáng Xiǎo Lóng moaned as she rolled her eyes before she gave her friend a curious look. "I should ask you the same thing about the books you bought, Blake. We nearly had to drag you out of the Strand!"
Blake Belladonna rolled her eyes; she had been glancing through an American history text she purchased. "You know me, Yáng. All the books in that place simply intrigued me." She then smirked. "'Eighteen miles of books'," she quoted the catch phrase of one of New York City's largest bookstores. "I could have easily spent a week there on the normal side and a week on the magical side."
Both Yáng and her sister huntsman from Team RWBY, the Dust trade magnate's daughter from Atlas, Weiss Schnee, smirked. The Strand's main store at the corner of Broadway and East 12th near Union Square had a magical section that linked to New Amsterdam Way, the dimensionally-displaced main magical shopping district for the Tri-State area. Ever since she became the current incarnation of the Night Moulder, R'bemyakor'bim ("Midnight Heart"), the Faunus shadow-manipulator had visited many magical establishments in the Tri-State area. Since American magical laws restricting part-human therianthropes had drastically changed in recent years from the very dark days of Rappaport's Law — and given the fact that as a metahuman, Blake was shielded by Magical Executive Order 9002 passed in 1942 that forbade ANY attempt at interfering in the lives of people like her by either the Department of Magic or the Magical Congress of the United States — she could take off the headband keeping her feline ears disguised and walk around like she did on Remnant. While many boys who got hooked on images of "nekomimi" characters in Japanese animation and visual stories always flocked around Blake to get selfies with her, she had gained a reputation in the last couple of weeks helping the aurors of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement deal with rogue magical creatures who escaped from reservations. While the conservatives in the Magical Congress were loath to think of awarding a "demi-human" a magical award for her actions, she had already being nominated for the Magical Star of the United States, the second-highest ranking civic award which could be given by the Secretary of Magic.
"I can understand that, Blake," Weiss mused as she gazed on the clothes she now wore. She had been able to restrain herself from going crazy at Macy's like Yáng had done. Barely. "Earth is so much different from home. More populated..."
Yáng gazed at the current incarnation of the Mistress of the Eternal Ice Fires, R'bera ("Shiver"). "At least here, you don't have to worry about your family legacy," the adopted daughter of the late Summer Rose mused. "Even if you do have the same fashion sense you had in Atlas and in Vale, though..."
Weiss rolled her eyes at the comment made by the current incarnation of the Raging Berserker, Duobyato ("Fortitude"). "Indeed."
"At least among Earthlings, Pyrrha doesn't have to worry about people seeing her as the 'Invincible Girl'," Blake mused aloud, an ironic smile crossing her face...
The galley...
"AH-CHOO!"
"You okay, Pyrrha?"
Moaning, Pyrrha Nikos rubbed her nose before she gazed gratefully at the brown-haired middle school senior seated at one of the tables in the small cafeteria beyond the station's on-board galley. "Not sure where that came from, Rinrin."
Hatoyama Rinrin — the native of Ōsaka who was the granddaughter of one of Japan's leading experts in artificial intelligences — smirked before she moved one of the chess pieces before her on the board separating her from the silver-haired Arab twenty year-old who was also relaxing in the small lounge beyond the galley. Both were dressed in normal civilian clothing even if they were Gifted. Rinrin was the Technological Sorceress of the East, Kamluo ("Schmiede"), a master technokinetic who had turned her own dawning interest in AIs into something that had benefited both her and Isaac Thomas for the last three years. The older girl, officially named in Syrian records as Fiḍḍiyya bint-Nūḥ ash-Shāmy and often nicknamed "Canaan", was the All-Hunter of the Centre, Holer'be ("Predator"), a ki mistress similar to Alexander Harris in abilities who had been born with the gift of synesthesia, the ability to use all her senses at the very same time. That, mixed with years of unconventional warfare training she had received from her late adopted father Nūḥ bin-Hārūn ash-Shāmy, made Canaan one of the most popular independent mercenaries in eastern Asia; she had been the one who helped resolve a recent incident in Shànghǎi that almost saw Josiah Bartlet assassinated.
"Someone's talking about you then," the technokinetic hummed as Canaan shifted her knight to launch a counterattack. "Hear about the new one?"
Pyrrha blinked. "What new one?"
"Isaac and Tariko just helped someone get Gifted," Canaan answered.
"Rinrin! Canaan! Pyrrha!"
All three turned as Isaac peeked into the room, escorting a young blond man at the cusp of puberty in semi-formal dress, he escorted by a woman his age in some sort of maid uniform. "Hey, Isaac!" Rinrin called out with a wave, then she focused on the young man the Wise Lone Sage was escorting. "Who's this?"
As Isaac did introductions, Canaan focused on both Garcia Lovelace and Fabiola Iglesias, her grey eyes glowing the gold-fringed red they assumed when she moved to use her synesthesia to do a deep scan of them. A second later, the maid's own eyes locked on her before they went wide with surprise, then she dropped into a combat stance, her hand snapping to behind her neck while the other one moved to shove her principal safely behind her. "¡DIABLO! ¡DETRÁS DE MÍ, EL SEÑORITO!"
"¡FABIOLA! ¡DETENER!"
People blinked, then they turned to gaze at the doorway Isaac and his guests had just walked through as the tall raven-haired woman there stepped in...
"Rosarita."
Heads snapped over to Canaan, who calmly rose from her chair to stare at the newcomer. As Pyrrha looked herself, she then audibly gulped on seeing that the older woman was dressed in the uniform of the Deadliest Woman Alive, the ONE metahuman on Yiziba who was said to be skilled enough to take down even the most powerful of the cosmic metas with ease. Compared to THAT, not even the current incarnation of the Warper of Metal, Dutor'buo ("Polarity"), wanted to try her luck...especially with the Grimm-like aura this woman now projected.
"Fiḍḍiyya."
Hearing Rosarita Cisneros say that, Isaac turned to gaze upon her. "You two...?" he began before looking at the All-Hunter. "...know each other?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
To Garcia's delight, laughter escaped the two former terrorists as they ran up and embraced each other, exchanging warm kisses before they began chatting a mile a minute. While Fabiola relaxed herself, delighted that the head maid just reunited with a friend, Rinrin sighed before she gazed at Pyrrha...
...who was STILL quaking in her boots at the sight of the current incarnations of two of the most deadly warriors ever to rise on Yiziba during the last two millennia treating each other like long-lost family...
Aboard the Free Planetary State of Yiziba Starship Normandy, now in geosynchronous orbit at the 102nd Meridian east of Greenwich (directly over Riau Province on Sumatra in Indonesia), two hours before supper (local time: An hour before dawn)...
"Man! Are they STILL partying down there?!"
Isaac laughed before he gazed over at Rinrin, who was now peering at the readout from one of the sensor stations in the command pilotage of the Wise Lone Sage's ten-to-one replica of the second SSV Normandy from the Mass Effect video game series. Manning the other stations while Isaac's other guests (save Nassur, who happily elected to remain behind on Station Robert to watch over things while everyone else would enjoy Rosarita Cisneros' "coming home party" in a certain pirate city in Thailand) were several of his own remarkable synthetic creations, which he termed "replicants" in honour of the characters from Blade Runner.
"The town kind of sleeps during the day and parties all night long at times, Rinrin," Isaac quietly reported as one of his bridge crew — modelled after the female form of Mass Effect's main character; Isaac named her "Mimir Shepard" in tribute to a nice crossover fanfic story he read once — helpfully guided both Garcia Lovelace and Fabiola Iglesias into learning how to pilot the vessel. He then gazed in appreciation at the Technological Sorceress of the East. "By the way: Thank you," he said before leaning over to kiss her cheek.
The native of Ōsaka blushed. "Aw! It's nothing, Isaac-kun!" she replied in Japanese — as what happened on all Yizibajohei starships, there was an omniversal translation field that allowed everyone to speak their native languages and be understood by all — before she sighed. "I wasn't too busy and summer vacation's coming soon. When I was in classes, I had Mecha-Rinrin-chan keep an eye on things." As Isaac smirked on hearing of Rinrin's own gynoid replica she had created based on the Shōzoki tech her maternal grandfather Hatoyama Jinji found on one of the Izu Islands decades ago, she asked, "How are things on Remnant?"
"As you saw, I've been busy," he admitted with a shrug.
Rinrin laughed, which made Rosarita and Canaan look over. "What's so funny, Rinrin?" the latter asked as they walked over to join the two hyper-geniuses.
"Isaac was about to tell me about his time on Remnant, Canaan," Rinrin answered. "Pity you missed the Mother of All Fight Scenes we had on the Niphentaxians, Rosarita-san. It was just AWESOME! You should have seen it when Karen-chan teleported into the 'Great Lum Church'..." — the deck dripped with the scorn the Ōsaka native felt on mentioning that structure in the centre of the capital city of the Union of Phentax Two — "...and took that umale Ōgi over to Lecashuto so he could be tried for what went down six years ago."
"The bio-bombing, you mean?" Rosarita asked; her past-self had been alive when that horrid tragedy struck the capital city of the Vosian Confederation.
"Hai!" Rinrin then blinked before she sighed.
Isaac perked. "You okay?"
The younger genius blinked a couple of times before she quietly stated, "She's my half-sister." As his eyebrow arched, Rinrin added, "Karen-chan. And Marie-chan, too." Hearing that, Isaac's eyes went wide as Canaan shook her head in pity. "Marie-chan says she's found out about others like me across Japan and even in Europe, too. Girls with the same birth father, but different mothers."
"¡Bendita María! Who would DO such a thing?!" Rosarita hissed out, keeping her voice down so she didn't alarm Garcia.
"I don't know," Rinrin answered. "Whoever did it, though..."
"Would have quite considerable connections," Isaac concluded.
"Yeah..."
Canaan gazed on Isaac. "So what did keep you away, Isaac? Is it that bad?"
Grateful to the All-Hunter for changing the subject from something that was really tearing the younger hyper-genius' heart apart, the Wise Lone Sage breathed out. "Well, as I just told Rinrin, I've been very busy there. There's still so much to do." He then smirked as he gazed out a portal towards Japan. "It's just like what Tariko and Ataru decided to do when Haruhi made that 'oopsie' when she moved that antimatter bomb out of Tomobiki to wipe out the 'Army of Lum' on D-Day. Certain events HAVE to play out on Remnant before I can act and hope for the best chances of success. If I call it right, this Salem woman won't be any more a threat to the people on that planet. Even more so, if I play it right..."
"The Grimm will be tamed finally."
Everyone turned as Penny Polendina came up to join them. "Everything working fine in engineering, Penny?" Isaac asked.
"All clear!" the former gynoid said with a hand raised in confirmation.
Rinrin looked at her, then she smirked. "Like revealing to Yáng's kid sister that Penny-chan and Pyrrha-san are still alive, you mean."
"Yeah!" her host affirmed with a nod. "You got the telemetry from what happened last month in the replicant research facility I created?"
"Yeah, I did," Rinrin affirmed. "Still washing it through my own computers to get a clear idea of how badly this Omega creep really mucked things up."
"What is this all about, Isaac?" Rosarita asked.
An embarrassed blush crossed the American's face. "Replicants are one of my greatest creations, Rosarita," he explained. "I created AI based on fictional characters to give me a much more expanded work base so I can continue my research, moulding their artificial bodies on said characters. Mimir, for example." He waved to the Normandy's chief officer in emphasis. "Believe me, they've helped inspire me and press on my own work immensely."
"So what happened to the research facility?" Canaan wondered.
He groaned. "The Sidlines are to blame for the incident," he began, making the others scowl as they recalled the many previous encounters with that annoying race of umale. "They tried to sabotage the facility with a computer virus. Seeing how much they hate us, I should have foreseen something like this happening. Unfortunately, the virus evolved, causing all the replicants in that facility to go crazy. It became its own sentient being, naming itself 'Omega'." A wry smile crossed his face. "Of course, its goal now is to wipe out all organic life."
The others shook their heads. "Shades of the Borg," Canaan mused as she pulled out one of the candy sticks she loved to nibble on, then bit into it.
"Oh, it gets even better, Canaan," Isaac warned. "Omega even managed to insert AIs I created based on infamous fictional villains and created replicant bodies for them." Noting Rosarita's warning look, he confessed, "I created the AIs to fully understand what would motivate such people, Rosarita. I would NEVER let them live as replicants; it's way too dangerous."
"On top of that, this Omega creep began making combat robots to form an army," Rinrin added before she waved to Penny. "Penny-chan here used the Variable X armour Isaac-kun made for her to stop the fight scene that was boiling there. She even got herself upgrades for her armour as she was smacking them down. Not to mention loads of weapon designs Omega's allies created; I passed those on to Kamen-chan so she could make counters to them all."
"Even then, it was really close," Penny added. "Fortunately, Pyrrha got to the faculty just in time before I put Omega down."
"Even after that creep made this giant mecha to fight Penny-chan with!" Rinrin added.
Rinrin and Isaac wryly chuckled as they recalled what happened. "This diablo is gone for good, I pray," Rosarita then hissed.
"I hope so," he answered. "I am preparing just in case that thing somehow escaped the facility being wrecked by Penny and Pyrrha." The Wise Lone Sage shook his head. "I managed to effect repairs; things ARE back to normal, thank God! It's a good thing I had backup data that I copied a few days prior to that virus being pumped in." He shrugged. "It was a setback. A minor one, but still..."
A hand squeezed his shoulder. "Oi, Isaac! You know what they always say!" Pyrrha Nikos said. She and the others who had been on Station Robert had come over to join them, all now in their battle costumes and ready to brawl. "You win fight scenes, you lose fight scenes! If there was no death scene..."
"Dust off the battle suit and cape, then go at it again!" Yáng Xiǎo Lóng finished that often-spoken lament popular among all Yizibajohei.
"Speaking of which, last call at the Yellowflag is in a couple hours," Tariko then warned as she pointed in the general direction of southeast Thailand.
The others stared at the Trickster of the Show, then everyone laughed...
Roanapur in Thailand (twelve kilometres southwest of Trat), the Yellowflag Bar on the waterfront, a half-hour later...
"Damn! It's too quiet tonight..."
A yawn answered Rebecca Lee from her shipmate aboard the Black Lagoon. "Let it be quiet, Revy," Okajima Rokuro said as he slowly sipped his shot glass of Bacardi rum. "Mister Bao deserves a chance to keep his building intact."
A snort escaped the owner of the Yellowflag, who was cleaning his glassware behind the bar. "Remember what I warned you, Revy! You break it, you pay for it!" the former South Vietnamese Army ranger sergeant named Bao Văn Kiếm snarled as he gave the infamous gunslinger of the Lagoon a warning look.
Before Revy could snap back at the old warrior, the front doors then opened.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
It was SO silent, you could hear a proverbial pin drop.
Then...
"¡Buenos días, damas y caballeros!"
Eyes locked on the tall raven-haired woman in the urban camouflage jumpsuit of a pattern everyone in Roanapur was quick to recognize...especially with the presence of the equally-tall American in the white-silver jumpsuit with cape to the former FARC assassin's right rear and the shorter Japanese woman with a smile promising a lot of enjoyment for her in the off-white jumpsuit with a black coyote's head insignia on the chest to Rosarita Cisneros' left rear. People were then quick to see the small crowd of girls standing behind the newcomers, all in Yizibajohei-pattern jumpsuits as well.
"Oh, no...!" Bao groaned out as the woman known to everyone in Roanapur as the "terminator maid" (among less savoury nicknames) walked in, showing off her chest insignia and the twin pair of very alien-looking machine pistols at her waist.
The others from the Black Lagoon who were seated with Revy and Rock could only shake their heads. "Damn it, Tariko! We HAVE to have a talk...!" the Lagoon's captain Richard "Dutch" Redman could only hiss out as he shook his head.
"You can't ask Tariko to defy what she vowed she would do ten years ago, Dutch," Rock quietly mused as he gazed on the former Marine.
Dutch blinked behind his glasses, then he sighed. "Yeah..."
"Señor Sargento Bao?"
Bao perked as he sensed Rosarita's grey eyes lock on him. "Y-yes...?"
A light smile full of honest admiration then crossed her face. "You were a part of los Rangers del Ejército in los Vietnam del Sur, correct?"
That made him perk before he smiled, nodding in turn. "Yes, Major, I was."
Rosarita then reached into one of the pouches on her belt, then tossed over a small silk bag, letting it land on the bar. "For the trouble I caused you last time. Soldier to soldier," she calmly stated, making people blink.
Bao opened the bag, then gasped before he pulled out a plain gold coin. Rock then leaned over to touch it before he drew out a small device from his trouser pocket; such had been created for him by Hatoyama Rinrin...who was now in the crowd behind the Lovelace Clan's transformed senior maid. Passing it over the coin, then gazing on the readout there, he nodded. "Solid twenty-four carat gold. No mesonium impurity whatsoever. No doubt from Yiziba itself."
As the crowd gasped at such a show of largess, Rosarita then reached into another pouch to pull out a folded letter. "Is anyone from Hotel Moscú here?"
"Here, Comrade Major!"
People turned as Captain Sofíja "Balalájka" Pávlova's old and current second-in-command, Sergeant Borís Kagarlítskij, came up to her. The letter was handed over. "For Capitán Pávlova's personal attention, with my sincerest compliments, Señor Sargento," Rosarita said before she looked around. "Señora Shénhuà?" she then called out as Borís nodded his thanks, stepping back from her.
"What does Super-Maid want?" a young woman's voice said in her normal accented English as a very pretty raven-haired girl in a modified qípáo came over.
Another letter was handed over. "For Señor Inspector Zhāng's personal attention, with my sincerest compliments, Señora," the Deadliest Woman Alive said before drawing another silk bag from her belt to hand over to the woman born Chén Shénhuà. "Payment for your troubles as well, Señora."
That made the Taiwan-born assassin and personal hit-girl for the leader of the local branch of the Xīnyì'ān Triad perk before she winked at the former FARC assassin. "You know how to do good business, Señora Cisneros," she said in more clear English than she normally used before she nodded over to the still-stunned Revy, who was gaping wide-eyed at the fact that the woman she often called "that glasses bitch" was now Gifted into becoming a METAHUMAN of all things. Shénhuà then thumbed her rival. "You going to fight Twinkie there like you did last time for Little Master?"
Rosarita's eyes locked on Revy for a moment before she smirked. "Don't be an idiot, Señora Lee," she then warned. "If you go off half-cocked like you always do, you'll be DEAD, making Señor Okajima WEEP over your GRAVE!" As Revy gasped and Rock blinked, the Bloodhound of Florencia sighed. "I have done that many times and lost friends and loved ones because of it, Rebecca. Don't follow my..."
"¡PERRA MONSTRUOSA! ¡ES HORA DE QUE MUERAS!"
As dozens of men — all members of the various Colombian cartels who were based in Roanapur, people immediately recognized — leapt out of their chairs, drawing guns along the way as they moved to shoot down the hated Bloodhound of Florencia, a pair of fingers then snapped, followed by the cartel gunmen all vanishing! Everyone gaped at such a sight before the splashing sounds of many bodies hitting the waters of Roanapur Harbour echoed from outside, that accompanied by a virtual chorus of angry screams. "Take it outside, umale!" Tariko snarled before she walked over to sit down at the bar beside Rock, with Rinrin walking over to join her. "Don't disrespect a drinking hole!"
Others inside the Yellowflag stared comically at the Trickster of the Show, then they broke down and laughed...save for Revy, who was still in a state of shock. Rosarita smiled, then she politely curtseyed to them. "Damas y caballeros, do have a good time this morning," she bade before spinning around to walk outside. She stopped at the doorway before a hungry grin crossed her face.
"¡QUE EMPIECE EL ESPECTÁCULO!"
With a wolfish howl, the Deadliest Woman Alive charged towards her foes, she instantly accompanied by all the young huntsmen from Remnant who had come down for the "welcome back party" they wanted to throw for her, with Isaac heading out to make sure things didn't get too out of hand. As Bao handed Tariko a shot of her favourite peach brandy, she then toasted the crew of the Black Lagoon. "She's getting it damned good, I think!" she said before swallowing the shot.
The others in the room gaped at her, then they broke down and laughed...!
The Beginning...!
WRITER'S NOTES
As this story is much longer than the omake that Regina Magia, Dr. Tempo and I write, this short story was loaded as a separate entry at this website instead of being include in the omake files. It is to be considered an addition to the main story narrative, set (as noted above) five months or so before the start of Chapter 1 of The End of the Circus. Please refer to the writer's notes for the main story to better understand some of the concepts that are spoken of here.
Of course, major thanks to Dr. Tempo himself for creating the person of Doctor Renaissance (Isaac Thomas). In upcoming omake and short stories, Isaac's story will be further explained. Dr. Tempo is also the person who created the Gifts for the RWBY characters that appear here; in the continuity of that series, this is set in the time period of Volume Four.
As I've done with her before in stories like Lonely Souls, I created the family name for Hatoyama Rinrin. The real or full names of the Black Lagoon characters noted here, not to mention Canaan herself, are also my creation.
The reference to the famous underground adult comic "Omaha" The Cat Dancer (created by Reed Walker and the late Kate Worley) harks to the funeral of Senator Calvin Bonner as was depicted in issue #15. There, the man who had Bonner killed, Hector Elandos (maternal grandfather of the series' main male character, Chuck Tabey), made comment about how that since people in mourning were already gloomy, why should the weather be the same.
The story of Nassur of Vos and Shigaten Kamen is better explained in The Senior Year and other stories.
Now the big translation list: Cordillera de Mérida — Mérida Range; Los Llanos — The Plains; El Señorito — Literally "Little Master", also translated as "Young Master"; El Perro Caza de Florencia — The Bloodhound of Florencia; Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia — Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (short-form FARC); DGIM — Short for Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar ("Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence"), Venezuela's military counterintelligence agency; Tene lomher'buo — You are ready; Juro en el Sagrado Nombre de Santa María golpear a los injustos con mi Martillo de Hierro! — I swear in the Holy Name of Saint Mary to beat down the unrighteous with my Iron Hammer! (Rosarita Cisneros' personal combat oath); Nesu — Behold; Bendita María — Blessed (Virgin) Mary; Doctor Muerte — Doctor Death; Batae Erba — Literally "Healer of Destruction", but more commonly translated as Doctor Destructo; Santa María nos preserva — Saint Mary protect us; ISS — Independent Starship; Comandante de Cazadores — Hunter Commander; La Familia Lovelace de Apure — The Lovelace Family of Apure; Las Trece Grandes Familias de Sudamérica — The Thirteen Great Families of South America; Pe'cha — Psychic blood brotherhood; Diablo — Devil; Detrás de mí — Get behind me; Detener — Stop; Buenos días, damas y caballeros — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen; Rangers del Ejército — Army Rangers; Vietnam del Sur — South Vietnam; Perra monstruosa — Monstrous bitch; Es hora de que mueras — It's time for you to die; Que empiece el Espectáculo — Let the Show begin.