And here is the second chapter I do not like leaving thins with only one chapter so here you go I hope you enjoy :)
"If there is a path he must take, I will light the way for him. If rocks block his path, I will turn them to dust. I will be a shield for him. He... is all I need!" -Scheris about Ryuho
Chifuyu Orimura stared in frustration at the screen. Less than an hour ago someone or something had broken into their computer system and erased all the recordings of the incident with these 'Alters' as the blue and white haired one called them. Now on every screen was a video of a Brownish orange haired man who had a similar appearance to the person who called himself Straight Cougar Junior wagging his finger at them and asking them. "Do you think you can out race me young lady?" He seemed to be resting his ands on a car wheel in a stationary car or at least that is what they amused.
This was set on repeat and after five minutes everyone decided to turn the entire system off. "He sure looks a lot like the one we saw, even their mannerisms are similar" one of the IS pilots commented.
"The one we saw introduced himself as Straight Cougar Junior" Chifuyu said remembering the encounter.
"Could this be Straight Cougar Senior then?" another IS pilot asked.
"That is entirely possible given his looks but if he was to erase this data why would he replace it with a video of himself?" The first one asked.
"The answer to that is obvious, they are obviously mocking us or challenging us" Chifuyu stated. The other Is pilots nodded in agreement. There could be no other explanation.
"I'm not so sure" the odd one out spoke.
"Can you give us your reasoning Yamato?" Chifuyu asked.
The named Is pilot nodded. "From our encounter and the limited data we were able to get on Alter Primus self named Straight Cougar Junior he is more of I believe the term prankster" She explained. "When taking this into account he might have had a hand in it and may have thought it to be 'funny' to place an irritating video in replacement. Also I do not believe that they would show anyone any faces that we have not already seen, meaning that this person is not with them or is otherwise occupied elsewhere."
Chifuyu nodded in thanks. "Thank you Yamato as always you are able to bring a different perspective to it." Said Is pilot nodded in silent thanks. "However we must be on high alert for these three unknowns so far we only have a very limited estimate as to what Alter Primus can do. So if you do sight him proceed with a\caution more so if you sight Alter Secundus or Tertius proceed with even more caution they may or not have the same equipment but it is best to treat them as if they are more dangerous." Chifuyu finished her briefing. "Is there anything else?" she asked.
"Um Orimura-Sama?" One of the Pilots asked.
"Speak" Chifuyu ordered.
"We were wondering but what were your thoughts on alter Primus's offer?" the unfortunate IS pilot asked.
Chifyu leveled the unfortunate IS pilot a glare that if looks could kill would have killed her and everyone in the immediate vicinity several times over. "Is that really a necessary question?" Chifuyu asked.
"Well" The IS pilot began "you have told us that you have never been confessed to so we were wondering what it was like for you."
Chifuyu sighed. "Seriously I have no idea why you are asking this, if you want an answer I will say that I am confused at him but his explanation was somewhat solid." at this the other IS pilots started to murmur, whispering to each other. "Enough" Chifuyu's cold voice cut across the room. "We have job to do Alter Primus has been sited near the town south west of Kyoto." she explained. "It is our job to take him into custody."
"Yes mam" the IS pilots responded before they began to head out.
Once she was alone Chifuyu sighed. "Ichika" she said she hadn't seen her brother in seven years. Then she asked the question that she asked herself everyday since the Mondo Grosso "Where are you?" having made peace with said demons and doubts for at least the day Chifuyu left to head out. In the Last seven years she had all but given up hope, for some reason some part deep within the Brunhilde refused to accept that he had died. "You're out there" Chifuyu stated. "And I don't care how long it takes. I will find you and bring you home."
Straight Cougar Junior or just Junior was sitting down on a field of grass near a lakeside. "Ah nature, its wonderful isn't it?" he asked nobody in particular. "Ah such is life mysteries" he said to himself. Putting his hands behind his head he lay down. It was few minutes later that he noticed that ha child a girl of the age of six or seven was looming over where he resting he head. She was trying to inspect him. Junior understood that his sunglasses were reflective making it impossible to see his eyes, that was one of the functions they performed. So he knew that girl was trying to see if he was asleep or not. "Why hello there little Missy can I help you?" he asked suddenly smiling. The girl for her part stumbled back and fell over. Chuckling to himself Junior got up and checked to see if she was okay. "You okay there?" he asked.
"Uh I'm fine" she responded. A little shocked and frightened.
"Hey relax kid I'm not the type of guy who hurts kids." Junior said calming her down.
"How old are you?" she asked.
"How old am I why do you ask?" Junior replied.
"Well your hair seems to be going white like my dads is" the girl replied in all sincerity. "But his is from close to his head re yours going grey from the opposite end?" she asked
Junior couldn't help chuckle. "That's a very good explanation, I don't know all of it myself." he answered In truth he suspected that it was the side effect of his Alter ability but he wasn't going to turn a kid's world upside down. Well at least not yet.
"Well?" The little girl asked patiently "how old are you?"
"Well lets just say I don't have an accurate answer to that but lets also just say that I am in my early teens I think?"
"How can you not know how old you are?" the girl asked innocently.
"Well how do you know how old you are?" Junior challenged.
"well the Girl began Mom and Dad told me so" the girl began but then a sudden realisation dawned upon her. "Wait you didn't have a Mom or Dad? She asked.
"Bingo" Junior replied. For a kid her age she was pretty sharp.
"But how did you live without parents or siblings?" the Girl asked.
"Well I don't remember that either my first memory is when my older brother found me" Junior explained.
"Who was he?" the Girl asked.
"He was a good guy a he had a few screws loose but he was mainly a good guy." Junior answered. "Though like me he could never get anyone's name right" he added. "As a matter of fact neither can I" he said very quirely.
"Where is he?" the Girl asked. "Your brother I mean why is he not with you?"
Juniors smile faltered and became false for a moment. "He" Junior searched for the right words. "He is no longer around." he explained.
"Did he go away?" the Girl asked sadly though she did not fully understand what it means to die.
"Yes far away" Junior said rather sadly. "I miss him very much" he admitted.
"Why did he leave" she asked innocently.
"Sometimes people have no choice" Junior said. "When their time has come their time has come and they must leave."
"It sounds rather sad" the girl stated apparently she was a very empathetic person.
"It is indeed." Junior admitted. "But I guess he wouldn't want me to be moping about it" he said brightening up."
"On another note where are your parents?" he asked in all seriousness. "A girl like you should not be out here all alone it might be dangerous."
"Uh, well" the girl replied sheepishly. "I kind of sneak here when I am upset or when one of my brothers or sisters are fighting." she explained.
"Do they know that you are missing." Junior asked. While it was not his problem he still didn't like anything to potentially happen to kids.
"Uh, well not really." The girl admitted.
"Now we can't have that can we what if something happened to you and they couldn't find you?" Junior asked.
"Um, uh well you are here" the girl said rather meekly.
"Yeah but this was a one off I needed some fresh air and some space so I came here." Junior explained. "And besides you have parents they are something you should cherish" He stated. "Also what if I was not a nice person?" he asked. The girl had no answer. "Well I'll take you home" Junior said. "Is it far?" he asked.
"Uh no" the girl directed him to a small town where he dropped her off. When the girl turned around to thank him he was gone.
"Uh where did mister blue go?" she asked. Confused wondering where he could have disappeared to in such a short timeframe.
About ten minutes later her parents got a knock on the door. Opening it up they came face to face with three IS pilots. "Excuse me mam" the IS pilot said deliberately not addressing the father have you seen a person here with slick backed blue hair that has been bleached at the tips?" she asked.
"I'm sorry we have not seen anyone like that today. The girls mother answered..
Fortunately or unfortunately their little girl had heard them. "Are you talking about mister blue?" she asked.
"Is that what he called himself?" one of the IS pilots asked seriously.
The Child was intimidated by the glare "Uh well he" she began when her father butted in.
"Hey who do you think you are trying to scare my daughter like that?" he asked angered.
"No daddy its fine" the girl said. "He didn't tell me his name he only told me that I should be happy about having parents at least that's what I think he meant." she said. He also walked me home saying it was dangerous for children to be out alone" The girl added. "He also seemed to be a very sad person." Turning to her mother and father she asked. "What is it like for a child to grow up without any parents?"
"Is there anything else?" the IS pilot asked. Turning the girls attention back onto her.
"Yes when I asked him about his family he said he had a brother who was 'No longer with him'" the girl answered. "What does that mean?" She asked. "Why would a person leave like that if their family is the one being left behind."
Fortunately for IS pilots they received a distress signal from another group of them. "calling all sortied IS pilots we have engaged Alter Secundus and Alter Tertrius, requesting back up immediately."
"Thank you for your time mam" The lead IS pilot said before they left and took off to aid their fellow IS pilots. Leaving the Girls unfortunate parents to explain to her what happened when a person died.
"Well look what we have here" Kazuma stated. "A bunch of mainlanders think they can take us on." the Alter user smiled wickedly. "Well I'm happy to oblige" he said. Kazuma then lifted his right hand in the air and clenched it into a fist. His body became outlined with a rainbow coloured energy, his hair became a dark red as well as spiked and to the IS pilots horror his arm 'disintegrated' They were even more horrified as it started to be replaced by a larger orange metallic arm on its wrist was some sort of small circular brace. He had some sort of metallic circle on his right Shoulder that they could not comprehend and the right side of his face had three orange fins coming off it. "Now shall we begin?" Kazuma asked.
Asuka sighed as he called out his Eternity eight rings though now since they had gone through the other side all of them had experienced some sort of evolution he now had sixteen green orbs to work with. "Really Kazuma" he began "Your Bipolar nature is too much." Asuka stated as he formed his eternity eight Sword using Eight of his orbs. Asuka then formed a Ring platform for himself so that he could levitated on it. "I guess we are going to have to fight." Asuka sighed. "I'll just hang back here and take care of anything that tries to get the drop on you" he said.
"You do that" Kazuma snarled as he charged at the IS pilots. Closing the distance between himself and the closest one of them he shouted. "Let's see how you handle my shocking first bullet" he shouted as he used said attack on her.
The Is pilot didn't stand a chance. Her IS went into absolute defence mod the moment he struck her and she was sent flying. Her IS shield was almost completely drained by the attack and she was thrown back the impact on which she landed draining the last of her energy though it wasn't enough to cushion the impact as she felt several of her bone crack as she past out.
The other IS pilots to their credit didn't sit around they reacted immediately trying to make some distance between themselves and the Alter user. One of them even had the sense to call for backup. They had taken to the air and were circling Kazuma when one of them tried to take a shot off at him. Before she could take the shot she suddenly felt something behind her and quickly moved out of the way though he IS's rifle cot sliced in two. "Did you forget about me?" Asuka asked levitating on his ring platform. Before she could react he embedded one of his four unused rings into her forehead knocking her out. Now using her body as his mind slave Asuka had her attack her fellow who seemed to be caught off guard by this sudden development.
Using this to his advantage Kazuma used his ultimate shell bullet to launch himself into the air and strike the remaining IS pilot down. He landed softly due to his propeller on his back. "Hardly worth the effort." he stated.
"That it was" Junior stated appearing up beside him.
"How did you get here?" Asuka asked. While junior was fast locating them would have been particularly difficult.
"Well I followed the loud noises and destruction that usually accompanies a battle with an Alter battle" Junior answered. "But more are coming I hear" he stated pointing out at the IS pilots that were in the distance.
"Good because I'm in the mood to trash someone" Kazuma grunted.
"Are you?" Junior asked giving a wide grin. "That's a coincidence I too feel like running someone through the miller" he stated.
"Don't overdo it" Kazuma replied grinning madly while he clenched and unclenched his fist in anticipation.
"I wouldn't count on it" Junior stated. "But lets also just say right back at yah."
"Oh not again" Asuka sighed. "Seriously these two he began."
"Ah I cant wait the suspense is killing me" Junior said as he used his alter ability and leapt high into the air in the direction of the oncoming IS pilots. The poor IS pilots did not know what was happening one moment the three were heading at top speed to confront the Alters the next minute. Junior was among them in the are. "Lets see how you handle y version of the shocking first bullet" he asked as he leapt over her and kicked her in the chest. Fortunately the IS was already in absolute defence mode so she didn't get hurt but like the one who was struck be Kazuma she was sent crashing into the ground. Using his momentum Junior had propelled himself towards the other IS pilot. "Now why don't you try out my Cougar Claw?" He asked delivering a kick that broke the sound barrier and slammed into the side of the other IS pilot. To her credit the IS pilot had brought her arm up to guard but it made little difference as she was swatted out of the sky and crashed into the river below. Before she had even hit the water Junior was already upon her fellow. "Now lets try my Cougar Speed" he stated. Before delivering a flying kick to the remaining IS pilot. Sending her the rocketing away and crashing into the distance.
Junior fell down and landed gracefully. Though his hair was messed up and fell messily over his head. Junior turned and saw three more IS pilots facing him. Also recognised their lead as the one who he had spoken to before. "So I take it you've got an answer for me young lady?" he asked.
The IS pilot just stared at him as if she was seeing a ghost. "Impossible" she said.
"Impossible?" Junior asked. "Now that's just nonsense. It must be something wrong with me I guess, was I too late or slow?" he asked bending over and holding the back of his head. "I know I'm handsome enough so why? Is it because I am some sort of cultural nerd?" Then Junior straightened up as if a light bulb had been lit in his head. "I know everyone keeps telling me to wear my sunglasses because my eyes are unnerving." he stated. "That must be it!" Lifting up his sunglasses he revealed his glowing yellow eyes. "So what do you say?" Junior asked giving them his best winning smile.
For Chifuyu her mind was reeling. This person who she just met bar the eye colour looked exactly like her missing brother. "Impossible" She said again unsure whether she had finally started to see delusions or not. If he was Ichika then why hadn't he tried to contact her in the last seven years more importantly how had he become like this. "Ichika?" she asked her voice barely a whisper.
For his part the youth named Junior designated as Alter Primus looked confused. "Ikicha who?" he asked. Before he facepalmed himself. "Dear Lord I did it again, I can never get anyone's name right other than Cougar's" he complained. "Why does this happen to me?" he asked. "Maybe its because Cougar raised me even Kazuya mixes up names every once in a while." Shaking his head he continued. "No that's not it, it must be because I am always thinking to fast that I usually have to slow down my speech, I'm not doing it right now people are having trouble understanding me. If we have miscommunication that could lead to catastrophic results in fact I don't want to be responsible for another disaster again." Suddenly he caught himself and stopped. "Oh dear I did it again didn't I?" he asked no one in particular.
"No point in asking really" a voice replied. The owner of the voice was a dark red spiky haired youth who looked slightly similar to the one designated 'Alter Secundus' his right arm was looked mechanical and was mainly orange. He had a propeller on his back his face also had metallic protrusions coming off it all of these were also orange. "You got too excited and went ahead of everyone, again, man you've got less self control than I do" he stated.
"That is an achievement isn't it Kazuya?" Junior asked raising an eyebrow. He still hadn't put his sunglasses back down over his eyes yet.
The other Alter user got angry at this. It must have meant that Junior had messed up his name. "That Kazuma, you ass hole" he snarled.
"Come on guys lets just get this over with." the third one with Purple hair stated as he walked up. The one designated Alter Tertrius had seven orbs floating around him, in his hand he held a sword that was made up out of eight of them. Behind him came an IS pilot who seemed as if she had one of those embedded into her forehead.
"Fine Asuka" the one named Kazuma grunted. "Lets get this over with. Already these mainlanders don't put up much of a fight."
"Did any regular mainlander ever put up a fight?" Junior asked. Though it was mainly rhetorical. Everyone knew that no regular human mainlander had ever defeated an Alter. The only ones who stood a chance were those born in Lost Ground.
Kazuma sneered. "Nah no regular one did, if I recall correctly they all ended up getting themselves killed." he replied winding back his arm like spring. "Just to let you know your hair is messed up." he informed Junior much to the latter shock.
"Oh" Junior replied a little shocked. Before he slicked back his hair with his hands. "So embarrassing to have it like that and not realise, really unacceptable if I must say so myself" he mumbled to himself Chifuyu and the other IS pilots were unsure if this person was the same guy who just before took out three seasoned IS pilots with weirdly named kicks while he was in mid air. "So?" Junior asked. "Shall we dance?" with this he slid his sunglasses down to cover his eyes again. "By the way" he added. "Let me know you're answer later." After that he turned to Kazuma "Ah my dear friend Kazuma would you do the honours?"he asked.
"Don't tell me what to do" Kazuma snaped at him. "But it'll be a pleasure." with saying this done the Alter lifted his metallic arm up and slammed it into the ground causing a massive shock wave and creating a fissure in the earth and sending chunks of it flying everywhere. After that everything for the IS pilots everything went to hell.
Chifuyu opened her eyes to reveal that she was in a medical bay. Much to the legendary Brunhilde's relief the eight IS pilots who had sortied with her in that area were also there though some of them were she noted on life support and others were in a terrible condition. "How long have I been out?" she wondered aloud.
"To be precise you have been unconscious for about three days, four hours and twenty two minutes." A male voice answered her question. "You all took quite a beating luckily for you the unknowns seemed to gather your bodies and line them up for us to find. Though as to why they did so remains unknown." the owner of the voice admitted.
Turing her head Chifuyu saw the head of the JSDF regarding her. He was in uniform. She noted. "What did you mean they lined us up?" she asked.
"Its just that" all three of them after they beat all of you IS pilots went around and gathered your contentious bodies and left them in a line for us to collect."
"Were you able to track them?" she asked.
The head of the JSDF stared at her in an 'are you serious' fashion' "If you could not hope to keep up with them how could we?" he responded.
"You have a good point" Chifuyu agreed. If IS pilots could not stand against these Alters as they called themselves what chance did the regular military.
"There is also something else I must inform you off" The JSDF commander stated. "They also seem to posses the ability to erase data simultaneously from all sources, say like phones, laptops, and even camera's"
This disturbing revelation seemed to shock Chifuyu. "Impossible" she stated. "What are they?"
"You have better information and insight into that than I do" the JSDF commander said. "But for now your orders are to rest and recuperate but I suggest watching that one" he said with a sideways glance. The IS pilot he looked at was the one who had turned on them. "It seems that serious mental damage has been inflicted on her and she may never fully recover though she is the only one not physically wounded. She is also in the process of having to relearn how to move her body." With this said the JSDF commander got up and performed a polite salute before leaving. As he left he had one final thing to say. "I believe they are more of them. Having only just three makes it far too difficult to move around individually. Also Just to inform you because you have the right to know they took several of you IS's though as of yet we don't know why."
Chifuyu watched him go and turned to look at her monitor placed above her. "Given the current standard of medical technology I say it will take a week before I recover" she reasoned. "However the others I'm not so sure of" The last three of them had come of the best while the second group had suffered the most. "I am going to have to contact Shinonono" Chifuyu thought. "That is unless she contacts me first."
"So Elian" Junior began "have you had any luck yet?" he asked.
"Yes from what I have seen for us it should be easy to reverse engineer this IS as I have discovered their called" Elian answered. "If we can gather the necessary materials we will be able to build them even mass produce them" the Alter user stated.
"That is progress" Ryuho agreed. "Though why would we want to build these things?" he asked.
"For fun" Junior said. "But also think of it this way. From what Elian has discovered these suits, IS as they are called are worth a small fortune. More importantly they are what these mainlanders use in their military. There is one drawback though, that is while these IS's are great they are only capable of being piloted by those of the female gender. Their inventor Tabane Shinonono is missing but we have located her as she is currently some sort of satellite orbiting the planet where no one would look for her." Junior paused and then looked questioningly at Ryuho "did I go too fast?" he asked.
"Well yes but I got the idea" Ryuho answered. "Please continue."
"Yes well you see Elian our little Genius here along with myself have figured a way we can allow the male population to use them" Junior stated with a smile.
"Yes a work of genius indeed." Elian agreed. "according to the date I have gotten from the first one with the modifications that I had Junior do it can be piloted by males now." he explained.
"How do you know this?" Ryuho asked.
"We had Asuka test it" Elian answered. "Now we only need to take this one apart to get the standard template on it so that we can modify the others accordingly."
"That is great but how do we sell something like this?" Ryuho asked. Before he realised it the answer.
"Thats right" Junior stated. "The black market of course, there are hundred of people selling things illegally and we need to build up a reputation before we start. So best to start there and then expand. Once we do that we will be rolling in the dough and won't have to steal." he explained. "Also Elian has discovered something that might interest you" without waiting for Ryuho to confirm anything Junior continued. "He has just recently found a shadowy organisation that has been constantly involved in illegal enterprises. They capture IS's by killing the pilot and giving it to one of their own. Now they have amassed quite a few and are getting rid of people who hinder their goals." Junior took in a breathe of air. "What are their goals you might ask that is simple they wish to be the ones pulling the strings of every government making them dance to their tune. In short their goal is world domination and isn't that great?" Junior asked and began laughing.
"Yees though they did not account for one factor" Kazuma said walking into their base.
"And what is that?" Junior asked.
"Us" Ryuho answered stepping forward. "Phantom task is pure evil and I cannot abide it's continued existence."
"That's more like it" Kazuma stated. "So its agreed then?" he asked. Asuak, Junior, Elian, Ryuho even Kanami and Mimori all nodded. "All right time to bring these mainlanders down for good" Kazuma yelled raising his fist.
"Yeah" the Alters echoed his cry and raised their fists all except for Kanami who just nodded. Phantom task would never know what hit them.
So did you enjoy it. Just to let you know Junior is a motor mouth but not as much as Cougar is but as shown in the chapter above he is concious of it and tries to regulate it. Let me know what you think or if you have any input to give review or PM me. Until next time.
