Since the beginning of time, there has been the spiral. Universes rise and universes fall, but the spiral is eternal, ever spinning forward towards an endless tomorrow.
- Avatar of the Spiral
Chapter 1: Just This Once
"Uncle, you HAVE to let me be part of the honor guard!" Anne Littner whined.
Across the desk, a middle aged man sat there, arms folded in front of him, obscuring his mouth. Technically, this man was not her uncle as he had never married her aunt. In fact he had never even dated her aunt. But that didn't stop Anne, as far as she was concerned, the two of them had been a couple all her life, even if they never admitted it out loud.
"How many times to I have to say it? No means no. This is the most important mission conducted by the Dai-Gurren Brigade in the last twenty years. We can only afford to send the best pilots."
"But I am one of the best." Anne interjected.
This wasn't simple boasting. Anne had placed several times in the Gunmen Battles singles circuit, and was one of the only fighters to use a long range Gunmen for close range combat. It still amazed Rossiu that someone could use a support cannon as a reliable finishing move for a bare-handed beat down. Kinon had even told Rossiu that Dayakka and Kiyoh had been discussing letting her compete with a big league team. But fighting skill wasn't the issue here.
"No, you are one of the best fighters. This mission requires pilots capable of showing restraint and frankly, a schoolchild shows more restraint than you."
"But…"
"I said no, and that's final." the commander said, not raising his voice in the slightest.
Anne looked like she was about to say something but changed her mind.
"Fine, I'll be going then. Thanks for your time uncle." She said as she scurried out the door.
The commander sighed after the door closed, pressing the button for his intercom.
"Gimmy, this is Commander Rossiu…"
Anne Hurried down the corridor until she reached the hanger. Her copilot, Shiho, was waiting for her in his orange plug-suit.
"So did you manage to convince the commander to let us go?"
"Yup. It took a while, but eventually I was able to make him see things my way."
"Why do I get the feeling that's not what happened?"
"Does it really matter?" She responded, climbing into their Gurren Lagann, "Now are you coming or what?"
The heads-up display flickered to life as Anne settled into the cockpit. She really hated the Gurren Lagann model gunmen. In her mind it was just so boring to look at. Those huge sunglasses, the tiny jet packs and that big goofy grin just looked stupid to her. If she had a choice in the matter, she was have gone with her fathers Dayakkaiser that had seen her through many a Gunmen Battle. Of course, that would have been an impossibility even if the honor guard didn't fully consist of Gurren Lagann's as it was currently undergoing repairs after her last Gunmen Battle. But what she really wanted was a recreation of her uncle's King Kittan. Her uncle Kittan had died when she was just an infant but she had been told about him and what a great man he was. How he led the Dai-Gurren Brigade when Simon wasn't able to, how he saved her life when she was a baby armed with nothing but a shotgun, and how he sacrificed his life to save the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren from the Sea of Despair. It was her dream to die just like he did, going out with a blaze of glory. She even styled her hair to resemble the pictures she had of him. But she was soon knocked out of her daydreaming.
"Anne, are we going to go or not?" Shiho shouted from the lower cockpit.
"Sure, sorry about that. Gurren Lagann, LAUNCH!"
And with that, the Gunmen flew into the sky, trailing behind a spiral of smoke as it shot towards the stars.
"Understood Rossiu" Gimmy closed the com link and opened up the main channel to his squad.
"Alright men, it seems that Anne and Shiho are currently on there way here. So break in formation to accommodate them."
One of the pilots spoke up, "They better get here soon, the Ambassadors are going to arrive any minute now."
"Gaman, will you just relax. If they aren't here in two minutes, we'll get back in line ok?"
As if on cue, a Gurren Lagann flew into view from the earth below, the sunlight reflecting off of it's massive sunglasses.
"Good to see you two, now get in formation with the others."
The Gurren Lagann just floated there. If it had heard what Darry said, it showed no sign that it did.
"Anne, Shiho, get in line NOW!"
Still nothing. At this point, the rest of the squad was starting to feel uneasy.
"Why aren't they responding?"
"Maybe their com link is down?"
KABOOM! Where one of the squad members was previously, was now just a pile of scrap metal. The new Gurren Lagann crouched over the wreckage, like a beast surveying its kill. It looked downright menacing, its massive jaw giving off a creepy grin.
"AKAISHATSU, NO!"
"Don't worry, we're still getting vital signs. It seems they completely missed the cockpit."
Darry gave a sigh of relief. She hated it when people lost their lives for no reason. Akishatsu was still alive, but with only a cockpit, he'd only have a few minutes of air. After that, he'd be dead for sure, so they had to end this quickly.
"Alright men, I want them captured alive. We need to find out where they got a Gurren Lagann and what they're doing here."
"Ma'am!"
The Gurren Lagann Brigade flew into formation, surrounding their enemy, blasters unholstered. The enemy Gurren Lagann didn't miss a beat, flying off to meet this new opposition while taking on a fighting pose.
"Open Fire!"
A rain of blasts came from all directions, all dead set on taking down the impostor. But somehow, every shot seemed to completely miss it. Almost as if…
"Sir, it must be utilizing a probability fluctuation shield!"
"How could such a small Gunmen carry such advanced technology?"
"It doesn't matter, we have to stop it!"
"Fine then, we'll go with direct combat. Go for the limbs and take that Gunmen down!"
For honor guard situations, all Gurren Lagann models come equipped with a spiral lance, basically a giant drill in the shape of a sword. Three of the squad members rushed their opponent, one in front and two from behind. The impostor reached forward, grabbing the first blade, breaking it with its knee and slamming the broken half into its attacker. Then, it flipped over, ripping the lances from the other two Gunmen's hands and slashing them both in half in a single motion. Casually, it then tossed aside the two lances, which embedded themselves in two other Gunmen, leaving only Gimmy and Darry to fight this monstrosity as the remains of their squad mates floated around them, littering the battlefield.
"This is impossible, it took down the entire brigade in under a minute!"
"Gimmy, focus! We have to stop them."
"Right."
Gimmy and Darry drew their lance, and then reached behind them and took the lance from one of their fallen comrades.
"Sorry about this Gamen" Darry silently thought as they assumed a fighting pose.
Gimmy and Darry rushed their opponent, lances at the ready, launching a fury of attacks. After what had happened to the rest of the squad, they were determined not to let their opponent get in a single chance to counterattack. Every attack chipped away at the impostors armor. The twins were hard set on ending this as quickly as possible. For the sake of their comrades, and for all spiral beings, they would win this fight, and there would be peace!
For almost a full minute, their attacks continued, severing the enemy's arms and legs and shattering their sunglasses. Gimmy went in to deliver the final blow, stabbing the other Gunmen straight through the chest.
"That takes care of that" Gimmy said, letting off a weak smile. Now maybe they could see about getting their squad some medical attention.
"Gimmy Look!"
Looking at what Darry was pointing to, his smile quickly faded. Where there had been countless sword wounds from their onslaught were now just glowing green patches of light. In seconds, it was as if it had never been damaged in the first place.
"They can use Spiral Energy?"
Suddenly the enemy rushed forward, drills flanking its fist. Instinctively, Darry raised the lances to block the attack but they shattered from the punch as their mech was sent flying backwards. The after thrusters brought them to a stop as they tossed the useless remains of the lances aside.
Darry was speechless. Their every attempt to take this thing down had been thwarted. Plus, without spiral energy, there was no way they could ever defeat an enemy this powerful. She suddenly felt very small, the cold darkness of space reminding her of Adai Village. All she wanted to do was give up.
"Darry, snap out of it!" Gimmy screamed.
The sound of her twins yells brought her back to reality. She was dumbfounded by what had just happened. Giving up was something that never crossed her mind. The thought scared her, so she made herself a promise right there, she would never give up again, ever.
"Darry, we're gonna have to use that!"
Ok, screw not giving up, Gimmy was talking crazy.
"Gimmy, are you insane?" She yelled at him, "We're not Simon. Anyone else that's ever even tried that move has died!"
"And if we don't do anything, the entire squad will die!"
"… Fine, but if this gets us killed, so help me, I'll kill you."
"Never mind that, let's do it!"
Darry reached for their Gunmen's sunglasses, flinging them at the opponent.
"FINISHING MOVE!" They both screamed.
"GIGA… DRILL…"
CRASH! Without warning, two drill tendrils shot out of the enemy gunmen and shattering the shades and severed Gurren Lagann's arms, leaving them without any method of attacking. The two of them sat there with their hands gripping uselessly at their Gunmen's controls.
"What just happened?"
"I think the narration made it quite clear"
"We're doomed aren't we?"
"Yup."
"So what do we do now?" Gimmy asked
"Send out a distress beacon and hope that Viral and the rest of the army can get here before we get killed." Darry said dryly.
"Uh, slight problem with that." Gimmy said after a few seconds.
"What?"
"It seems that they're jamming long range communications."
"Great, just fucking great!" Darry slammed her feet against the bottom of the cockpit.
They were going to die, and it would take a miracle to get them out of this.
"Fear not comrades, help has arrived!"
Both Gimmy and Darry looked up in shock. In all the action, they had completely forgotten about Anne and Shiho. Their Gurren Lagann blasted upwards, the sun silhouetting them majestically. But now was not the time for theatrics.
"Guys, get out of here, your no match for this thing. They jammed our communications so we need you to get as far away as you can and deliver a message to the army that we're under attack." Darry shouted out as fast as she could.
Anne let off a confident laugh, "don't worry, I'll take care of this guy myself, even with this inferior model!"
Darry grumbled. This was exactly why she couldn't stand Anne. She had an air of confidence around her at all times, but not in a good way. Kamina and Kittan had given off the feeling that everything would work out alright, but Anne just made you want to slap her in the face. The confidence was just… too… self-centered. There was also her self sacrificing attitude. Darry hated it when people would throw their lives away for no reason.
That's when the enemy gunmen roared. Anne and the twins just sat there in disbelief. It was Shiho who broke the silence.
"Well, this is gonna suck."
The enemy gunmen rushed towards its new opponent, the drills on its hands resembling talons with the oil from its victims dripping like blood. Anne was quick to act.
"Shiho, ready the lance."
"But Anne, that won't work." he interjected.
"Just shut up and do it!"
"… Alright"
"Now then," Anne said, readying the lance, "Take This!"
With a pose not unlike that of a quarterback, Anne launched the lance like a javelin while screaming "SPIRAL IMPACT!" The impostor never had a chance to dodge. The lance impaled them, going straight through the chest and out the back. With that, the com link roared to life.
"Honor guard, this is Commander Rossiu. What's going on? Report!"
"And that's how you take care of an opponent" Anne said gleefully.
Now it was Gimmy's turn to be in disbelief. Sure Anne was a good fighter, but the idea that she could win where an entire squadron of skilled fighters failed was just silly. It couldn't have been that easy. But he soon wished that it was. The Gunmen reached down and ripped out the lance in a single motion, tightening its grip until the lance shattered. Three seconds later and spiral energy had made it as if nothing had ever happened.
"Told you this was going to suck."
"Shut up Shiho."
The enemy Gunmen let out another blood curdling scream that seemed to pierce Shiho's very soul as it resumed its assault. Now that they were disarmed, Anne and Shiho had been placed on the defensive. The impostor was like some kind of rabid beast, digging its drills into their armor, slowly ripping them apart. despite the ferocity of the attack, Shiho could tell that the opponent was holding back, like a cat playing with its food.
"Anne, we're getting our asses kicked here!"
"I can see that! Just give me a minute to think of something."
"Think faster, they're launching another atta…"
An explosion threw their gunmen around like a leaf in a windstorm. The force of the attack shook the mech. Shiho was badly rattled up, and Anne, she had been knocked unconscious after hitting her head on the top of her cockpit. Another hit like that and they'd be finished.
This was it, they were going to die. Shiho couldn't believe it. After everything that people had fought for and died for, it was all going to end here. The summit would fail, the spiral nemesis would destroy the universe and everything would end. At least Anne would get to go out in the blaze of glory she always wanted. That was probably one of the main reasons he was in love with her. But the only love she had interest in was with the idea of a heroic sacrifice. Everything else was locked out…
"Wait a minute!"
There was one last hope, the spiral lock. After the fall of the Anti-Spirals, multiple methods of regulating spiral energy were put into development. The spiral lock was the the pinnacle of this research. While activated, it prevented everything in its field from generating any spiral energy. Ever since their creation, excess spiral energy output had dropped by 84%, allowing the Gunman Games games to be put into effect. Normally, only on-duty military officers were able to turn their locks off and even then, the Gurren Lagann Brigade had theirs on as a sign of goodwill for the Spiral Conference, but the situation was dire.
"Commander, you have to let us deactivate our spiral lock." Shiho said.
"Absolutely not!" Rossiu responded "You're not on duty and we can't lose this chance for peace that our spiral brethren have given us. If you activate your spiral engine now, everything we've fought for for the past twenty-seven years will have been for nothing!"
"But we don't have any other choice!"
Rossiu rubbed his brow, considering his options. If they didn't do something soon, the entire conference could fall apart before it even began.
"Alright," he said, slowly, "Just this once."
"Thank you commander."
They had precious little time. Opening the heads-up display, Shiho cycled through the options until he reached the spiral lock system. All that was left now was to turn it off.
Shiho howled into the mike, "Spiral Lock: Disengage! Passcode… WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?"
The heads-up responded in kind, "Lock Deactivated" flashing on the screen along with the image of a lock shattering. The gunman roared to life, green energy burning out of every possible joint, healing their wounds and sending the impostor flying backwards from the shockwave. The tables had turned, and they were finally in control. Shiho prepared to give his boast, just as he had been taught at the academy.
"FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE SEAS, TO THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN PEAKS."
"OUR POWER ECHOS, READY TO FIGHT!"
"IF SOMEONE TRIES TO BLOCK THE PATH TO PEACE,"
"WE'LL DRILL STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM TOWARDS THE NEVER ENDING LIGHT!"
Confident in the speech he had given, Shiho moved in for the kill. He threw his gunmen's arms behind him as two massive drills were called into existence.
"Twin… Drill… STORM!"
The mech blasted forward, drill in each hand. All it took was a single touch, and with two explosions, the fake Gurren Lagann was no more.
"You know something Shiho?" Anne's whispered over the intercom. "These Gurren Lagann models aren't half bad." And with that, she passed out again.
Authors Notes:
There we are, the first chapter for my first ever fan fiction. It's a bit on the short side, but I think it gets the job done. I want to give special thanks to my little brother for proofreading the story for me.
Anne is meant to be my take on the whole idea of a pointless heroic sacrifice. When designing her character, the one thing I knew that was going to describe her would be "going out in a blaze of glory." Her desire for this and to emulate her uncle don't come from a desire for attention or fame, but rather a misunderstanding of the concept of sacrificing your life for others. It's something that I don't think is touched upon very often in fiction. You have characters that have a martyr complex, but rarely do you see one that wants to go out with a bang.
Both of the squad members names are meant to be gags, going by , Gaman (ironically) means patience and Akaishatsu means red shirt. This probably won't be the last you see of them, but for now they just exist to fill up space. Nakim (The student that Yoko rescued in episode 21) was also one of the pilots on the honor guard, but I just didn't see any way to bring that up during the course of the chapter.
When coming up with Shiho, I wanted someone that would be Anne's perfect match, so I gave him a more reserved snarky personality and even based his name off of the japanese word for star (Hoshi) reflecting her desire to have a King Kittan. His family name is Koachichi, the same as Attenborough, although the only similarity that Shiho has with him is a preference for ranged attacks, as will be seen when I get around to showing his personal gunmen (The fact that he has a ranged gunmen is yet another match up to Anne's Dayakkaiser, although he actually fights long range rather than close).
Comments & constructive criticism is appreciated.
One final thing: Action scenes are a pain to write