Notes
I'll go ahead and spoil this chapter a little by saying it's much lighter than the last. (You could probably tell by the title anyway.) I'm not sure it's my best work, but that's okay; that's not really what this story is for.
Hold on, Athena! Your knight in shining armor is coming...!
Chapter 3 - Escape
Sie Kensou didn't sleep a wink that night.
The kidnappers had made a fatal mistake, letting two people talk to him. The first one just told him to bring the ransom to an old storage building, the abandoned Kyocera Dome facility deep in Osaka's underbelly. But the second one, the frazzled one, told him to bring the ransom "here". Unless he was just crazy, that meant Athena was already at the facility...and that meant Sie could go there now, and save his beloved.
Unfortunately, Sie also made a fatal mistake: he told Master Chin about it first.
The Master was a grim, calm counterpart to Kensou's panicked storm. Don't do anything rash, he said. Get the police's advice, he said. But that was the one thing Sie didn't want to do. Every kidnapper he'd seen in movies or television told whoever they called "don't contact the police". Granted, the only ones he'd ever talked to hadn't...but they probably just expected him to know it on his own. And for all Sie knew, they had his and Chin's phones tapped.
So he wanted to go down there. Bring Chin, bring Kyo...bring every fighter he could find. But Chin insisted that, until the kidnappers had what they wanted, any kind of contact was sure to get Athena killed. He spent the rest of the night trying to talk some sense into him; he kept him from racing to the rescue, but couldn't get him to call the cops. (Chin nearly did it himself, until Sie promised never to speak to him again if he did.)
Finally, near the crack of dawn, Chin couldn't stay awake anymore. He made Kensou promise to stay home, promised never to speak to him again if he didn't - but that meant nothing to him. Chin loved his pupils equally; Kensou loved Athena more than anything. She was the one thing he couldn't bear to lose...and he'd spent the last few hours figuring out the best way to prevent that.
So the minute he could, Kensou slipped out of the apartment, did what he had to do, and raced to the rescue...
Athena Asamiya didn't get a wink of sleep, either.
But her night was very, very different.
She didn't have anyone to talk to. She couldn't get up and pace around; she couldn't grab a drink or some food. (They didn't give her any, either. Probably didn't want to risk it.) She had nothing to do, nothing for hours and hours, but think. So she did. And she came to some important conclusions.
She had regressed last night, she knew. The shock, the situation, that man...they'd disarmed her in more ways than one. They hadn't just taken her powers, but her confidence, her spirit. They'd made her feel like a little girl again; they'd made her feel powerless.
She wasn't. She wasn't either of those things. She was a warrior; she was a superstar. She'd defeated countless foes, both in tournaments and out of them. She'd sold out concert halls, entire tours, all over the world. She'd won the respect of artists, both music and martial, with ten times her experience. She had grown so much since she'd met that man...and she would not let him take it away.
Dazzler? Hardly. A psychic? Who cared? She was Athena Asamiya, damnit. And they couldn't make her a little girl again.
...and they couldn't make her powerless, either.
Oh, sure, they'd stopped her from using her best moves. The strongest ones, the most obvious. But they hadn't stripped away her powers - they'd just stripped them down. She still had that hidden strength inside her, just begging to be used. And she could use it, too.
She just had to get creative.
She made her first play a few hours in, when she tried a Shining Crystal Bit. It wouldn't reach the guard, of course - but it would destroy the ropes and handcuffs, and she could handle her warden by throwing the Bits through the window. But she couldn't use it fast enough; the man had time to see her aura flaring. He gave her a quick jolt to stop her, and promised to make it a long one next time.
It deterred her for about an hour, most of which she spent thinking up new tactics. The next thing she tried was breaking her handcuffs, pulling on them with her hands and her mind. But even with both, she wasn't strong enough to separate them. Later, she tried unlocking her cuffs with her mind...but the guard was observant. He heard the cuffs shifting slightly, noticed her eyes had stayed shut for a while. That got her a jolt and a new rule: eyes forward and open at all times. (At least he told her she could blink.)
The restriction cut her options even further...but she refused to give up. When a new guard appeared for a shift change, she watched carefully, waiting for an opening. When none came, she tried "speaking" with the new man; his aura was darker, but weaker, so she used a threat instead of a plea. He responded with another tasing, stopping her struggles entirely for a while.
When she recovered, she realized time was running short. She had no idea how many hours had passed - but she knew she could've "rested up" by now. Sweat forming on her brow, she tried desperately to think of something she could use...and came up empty. She just hadn't learned anything fast or stealthy enough for a situation like this.
And then she realized: she could always learn.
Athena sat up and faced the guard, focusing her eyes just below him. She stuck her handcuffs down her slacks, muffling the noise they could make. She then tried to do something she never had before: use her telekinesis without moving or closing her eyes.
It was...irritating. Her fingers kept twitching, trying to help guide her movements; her vision kept shifting, blurring between the room and the waves. Stone-faced, stone-bodied, she used every last shred of her concentration, searching, straining, hoping, pleading...
Until the lock clicked.
Thankfully, the guard didn't hear it. Thankfully she managed to keep her sigh of relief to herself. Slowly she eased her hands upwards, through the cuffs and out of her pants. She then began prepping her fastest energy blast, gritting her teeth as she charged it as much as she could behind her back...
...and then, with a quick prayer, she let it fly.
"Psycho Shoot‼"
The cry was useless, really. For one thing, it came out as "Phhchm Phuu‼", thanks to her gag; for another, she managed to release it before she even finished announcing it. The projectile screamed from her hands as she clapped them together, crossing the room in the blink of an eye. It then plowed through the window, slammed into the guard, and popped him up into the ceiling, knocking him out before he even knew what hit him.
"MMMPH‼" Athena cheered, pumping her fist. She ripped the gag from her mouth, tossed the handcuffs out of her slacks. She started untying the leg ropes, but quickly realized it was futile...so she sliced through them instead, using an arm-only Psycho Sword to create a cutting swath of energy. The shock collar, sadly, was much more firmly secured; she would have to deal with it later.
By then the room was filling with gas, just as her enemy had promised. Grimacing, she Teleported to the door and started trying to break through. She enhanced her strength and pulled, but she couldn't break the lock; she had more luck picking it mentally, but she couldn't do it fast. Soon her doom had almost reached her - so she threw up a Reflector, keeping it at bay for just a little while longer. She strained herself terribly, using both powers at once...she started getting a headache, felt the beginnings of an aneurysm...
Oh, screw it.
With that she unleashed the Shining Crystal Bit, "wasting" energy but blasting the door into kindling. She cancelled it quick as she could, then sprinted down the hall, easily outpacing the slow-moving gas. Once she reached the end, she took a moment to catch her breath...then leaned against the wall and laughed, letting a night's worth of tension (and a splitting headache) drain out of her.
Hard part's over, Athena thought, wiping a tear from her eye. Now for the even harder part...
She'd only broken out of her room, after all. She still had to break out of the building.
She quickly but cautiously rounded the corner, her head darting about as she scanned for movement. She found a long hallway with strings of doors on each side, part of the office portion of the facility. As she ran through it - not Teleported, she didn't want to stumble into trouble - she got jittery again, imagining enemy forces behind every door. She had only her sense of evil to rely on for warning; she hadn't felt any nearby yet, but she knew that meant little.
Then, at the end of the hall, Athena did feel something. Someones, actually, racing towards her from around the next corner. She heard footsteps seconds later anyway, but the precious extra time let her prepare a greeting: the slow-but-powerful Psycho Ball Revolution. The souped-up fireball passed the corner just as the men rounded it, knocking two of them to the floor and startling the hell out of the third.
He recovered quickly and rushed in on her, brandishing a stun gun. Despite her recent ordeal, she had no fear of it at all; how much more dangerous was this than fighting Benimaru Nikaido? She bobbed and weaved smoothly, slipping through his clumsy strikes and frantic lunges like water. When she found an opening (it didn't take long), she hopped up and punished him with a Phoenix Fang Arrow, battering him with energy Arrows before taking him down with a real one.
By that time, the other two gangsters had gotten to their feet. They ran towards their target, screaming for vengeance - but they were five yards away, way too far for Athena Asamiya. She finished one with a regular Psycho Ball, then pounced on the other with the New Psycho Reflector, a crackling energy orb centered on her outthrust hands. The defensive move worked just as well on offense, knocking him out for the count.
Grinning in triumph, she rounded the corner - and gasped. She had emerged in the building's lobby, another hallway across from her...and an exit to her left.
Her heart racing, she Teleported to it, praying it had been left open. But it was locked, of course - and this barrier was much stronger than the last, a pair of heavy double doors made of stubborn-looking steel. The Shining Crystal Bit might not be quite enough for this one...but when it came to destruction, Athena had plenty of options.
Her choice this time was the Guardian Crystal, a rarely-used technique that wreathed her hands in psychic energy for a moment. Her fists both strengthened and protected, she punched the door as hard as she could - but it didn't break it, barely even made a dent. Scowling, she assaulted it over and over; eventually she went into the Psycho Medley, certain that the combination's finishing move would end all this...
And then she realized: she'd stopped paying attention to her 'radar'.
She realized it when a hail of gunfire erupted, filling the air around her with bullets. It was by sheer dumb luck that she only got hit once, in the arm, before she could react. Howling in pain, she leaped into the air, looking around frantically for her assailants. She found them bunched in front of the opposite hallway, four dark-suited men carrying semi-automatic weapons. Apparently they were playing for keeps, now...just as her enemy had promised.
Still in midair, she curled into a Phoenix Arrow and fell away from them, landing behind a thick old desk. Of course, even the thickest desk isn't bulletproof - and the gangsters seemed to know it, shooting right at it instead of stopping to circle around. Bullets riddled the front of the thing, a few of them getting all the way through...but Athena couldn't have moved if she wanted to.
GEEZ, this hurts, she thought cleverly, wincing at her wounded arm. The wound was bleeding profusely, and painful enough to hurt her focus...but the bullet had stuck inside her, lodged just beneath the surface. Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she slowly extracted it with her mind, then summoned up her healing energy, sealing the wound.
Sighing in relief, she scooted to the edge of the desk and quickly planned out her counterstrike. She didn't have much time before her cover collapsed...but she needed even less. Just before it did, she rolled aside and blurred into a Teleport; several bullets hit her, but they went right through. Then she was out of their path, and out of the shooters' field of vision. They quickly stopped and tried to find her - but she was zipping everywhere, blinking away the instant they saw her (if not before).
Then, suddenly, she was right next to them...and she unleashed the Phoenix Infinity.
The aura of the phoenix poured out from her, bathing her assailants in pink flames. Then she rose gracefully from the floor - and the phoenix dragged them with her, popping them high into the air. They went about half as high as she did before falling away...and then she came screaming down at them, the massive aura still surrounding her. It caught all four of the men and drove them hard into the floor; they did not get up.
She didn't either, for a moment. That move took a lot out of her, and she'd used a lot already. Slowly, she rose from the ground and jogged towards the door, not at all sure how she would break it. She didn't have it in her to do another Crystal/Medley combo; in fact she only had the strength left for one big move, meaning she'd have to choose it carefully.
And then she remembered her latest, and knew that it was her best hope.
She stood in front of the door for a second, taking deep, calming breaths. Then she leaped into the air, drew back her arm, and started charging. She gathered all the energy she could, every scrap that she had left. This would be an all-or-nothing shot...and she wanted it all.
She kept charging...charging...charging...and then, finally...
"Iiikeee...!"
She sent forth the biggest Athena Explosion she'd conjured in her life. The gigantic purple fireball hit the door and, well, exploded, detonating against it with the force of a small bomb. Athena felt the backdraft as she landed, had to shield her eyes from the flash. When it was over, she lowered her arm...and found an eight-by-eight-foot hole in the wall, scrap metal scattered all around it.
...okay, that MAY have been overkill, she thought sheepishly.
But she didn't care. She had done it. Beyond the wreckage she could see the sun, shining on a run-down part of Osaka that had never looked so good. She could see a pay phone, even, less than two blocks away. She had no strength left to Teleport, so she just grinned and ran, passing through the exit and into sweet, sweet freedom -
"Hold it, princess."
The voice sent a shock of fear to her heart, a stab of anger to her brain. For a second, she ignored it; then, against her better judgment, she scowled and turned around. ...and then the world fell out from under her.
Her enemy was there, standing at the back of the lobby...
...and holding a knife to Sie Kensou's throat.
End Notes
See? I told you I still liked Athena. ;)
That is all of them, by the way. Every single psychic power she's ever used in any game, or at least any fighting game. It was a personal challenge :) I didn't include every variant, of course; there's a ton of different versions of the Psycho Medley, and the Healing Athena and Super Psychic Throw are just big bursts of stuff she already has here. If you find one I outright missed, though, don't hesitate to send it in! I want to get this one right.
Here I am making Kensou look bad again, huh. :/ Sorry, folks - but this is her story, not his. (You want one of his stories, go read Botan.)
So, there you go. Lighter fare, just as promised.
...but the last chapter's gonna be the darkest one of all.
See you soon...
