Entry 10- When Titans Fall
...
I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful - for all of it.
Kristin Armstrong 1973- Now
…
Tokyo was a big city. Lot's of things to be and people to do, and yes i just deliberately said that wrong. All that was really missing was a shot of Saki and a bowl of rice… sorry if that sounded a little racist. That was the city of Tokyo for you. Not really the city that Konata knew or the city that anyone really knew now. The Tokyo skyline was getting dark and things were not going to be fun when it was night fall. Konata lead her friends through some alleys behind some buildings. Everything was quiet for the most part.
Konata and the others were all salvaging for useful stuff, namely food and medicine and so far they are having no such luck anywhere. Miyuki and Patty were checking every single backpack and drug store within the range of area that they were going to stay in at the moment. Tsukasa and Kagami were busy looking for any food or water that may or may not be around and Misao… off being Misao somewhere not too far away. The rest were either taking a break, or napping.
Things would be very boring in the city if people weren't conversating. So to pass the time while they salvaged for anything useful that was left in the city. Konata decided to talk to Kagami. "Hey Kagami." She didn't respond. "Kagami… Kagami… Kagami!"
"What?!" She almost snapped at her.
Konata chuckled. "Hi." She said returning to her searches.
Kagami slowly got madder by the second, she just wasted some of her time to say hi… Kagami did have a problem controlling anger… okay, not Rage Quit level, but was at least easy to upset. She sighed then returned to her work. She was digging through a backpack she found in the dumpster, it had clothes, but that was about it.
"Hey Kagami." This time it was Tsukasa.
"Yeah Tsukasa?"
"How long do we have to be out here?" She asked innocently.
"I have no idea."
"I think we need to find some shelter for the night." Tsukasa suggested.
"And why are you telling ME this?" She asked her sister.
"So you can tell Konata." She said as if she were a five year old.
"Couldn't you just tell her yourself?" She asked. For a moment, the little sister stood in confusion and then had a realization, she could.
"Yeah." She said abandoning her and walking over to Konata. Kagami sighed. She just got stood up by her own sister. No matter, she'd be back anyway. Kagami returned to digging through the trash for valuables. Makes you feel kinda like a bum having to do this, but in situations like this, what can you do? She continued for a few more seconds when she found a bag filled with something squishy and smelly. She immediately dropped and pretend it never existed.
Tsukasa had come back from talking to Konata and came back over to help Kagami. She tapped on Kagami's shoulder. "Hey Kagami."
"What?" Kagami groaned.
"Konata said she needed you for something." She replied.
She groaned again, knowing Konata, it could only be something stupid. She reluctantly went along and went over to where Konata was waiting for her. Konata was leaning against a wall staring aimlessly into the cube when Kagami interrupted.
"Konata." Kagami said. "Konata." She still didn't notice anything. Finally Kagami kicked Konata to get her attention. Her foot made contact with Konata's leg and she snapped her attention to Kagami.
"Oh Kagami. I almost forgot you were there." She said casually.
"How? You're the one asked me over here." Kagami retorted. Konata chuckled.
"Yeah, how could i forget." Konata said to her. She put the cube back into her tactical vest pocket. She was concerned about something. "Kagami, i have something to ask you." She told her.
"And that is?" Kagami replied.
"It's getting dark." Konata told her. "Know of anywhere around here to crash for the night?" She asked her.
"My guess is as good as your's." She told her in response.
"You sure, there's got to be somewhere we can sleep, at least until morning light when it's not so dark out." Konata said.
"In Tokyo, now?" Kagami asked. "Might as well being trying to get a motel in Detroit." Kagami replied to her.
"Be that as it may… we still need a place to sleep." Konata told her.
"We could try an abandoned building. One of these places has to be empty." Kagami said.
"Sounds like a plan to me-" Konata's reply to Kagami was cut off by a beeping coming from her Vest Pocket. She pulled out the cube and opened it up and investigated. Kagami saw it and had to get a closer look. She got up close next to Konata to view it.
"Now what?" Kagami complained.
"I don't know yet." Konata responded. The screen showed a list of things, mostly numbers and coordinates. One thing remained clear through it all. Titan Tower. Konata didn't know what to think at first, she had only heard of Titan Tower as the command center for the Eastern Asian ODIN Satellite, but never really thought it would have been of much use to anyone now. Why it was coming up on the cube was anyones guess. "It seems like it has something to do with the Titan Tower." Konata said to herself. There were a lot of lights flashing on it, but she didn't know what to push, she was afraid if she pushed one, either her secret gets exposed or it explodes… either way, bad news.
She creeped her finger over the follow button. She pressed it and a voice came on to it, a voice none of them knew.
"Listen up, whoever is the carrier of the Prototype, give it to me, or else all of you fuckers are going to get it. Meet us at the top of the Titan, or else." After the 'cryptic' message played, everyone was looking right at Konata. They didn't know it, but the Major had sent a the message to the small team of ghosts. He was looking to get his hands on it. Konata slowly closed up the cube and began to look to the horizon where the Titan once was. She noticed it was still there.
Konata hatched an idea in her head. Kagami was quick to notice this. "Konata, what are you doing?" She asked.
"Just something that i would do." She replied. "Alright, well everyone." She said to the others, they just heard the message clear as. Unfortunately they all know what she's thinking. "I say we give this guy a visit."
"No." Kagami protested.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Tsukasa asked.
"Yeah, but we fought off a group of hispanic dudes in the middle of a heavily gang filled area. So what could these guys possibly do to us." Konata said to enthusiastically. The gang sighed, mostly Kagami. "Alright, get your stuff together, we're going out to dinner."
Major Jones and the rest of his crew were at various floors on the Titan Tower. They were busy setting up the Plan B. Bombs placed at strategic locations on the off chance that their current ambush strategy didn't work. Jones was busy assisting one of his men when he heard some things falling apart behind him. He glanced over to where he heard the sounds. He found nothing out of the ordinary other than assloads of rats, so he continued on with his bomb planting.
After a few more moments of absolute silence, Jones heard another group of noises, this time they weren't small, they were the sounds of a group of people coming for them. "Free. Hold it." He told his subordinate. He looked over to the shadows where he heard the noise and just observed. Not taking ANY chances he pulled out a flashbang, pulled the pin and tossed it across the room landing in the vicinity of where the noises were coming from. The next thing anyone knew, there was a blinding flash of light and then sounds of people cowering in fear and pain.
Jones walked over to where the people were cowering and observed them. He saw they all were clearly of some gang affiliation and took no chances. He took out his sidearm and executed every single one of them. The sounds of all 8 rounds from his weapon echoed through the empty building.
"Jesus piss, what was that?" The man Jones left planting bombs cried out loud.
"Nevermind Gavin… Just finish your job so we can get the hell out of here." He told them. "There are bound to be more of them." He said putting his sidearm back into it's holster.
Konata and the others just traveled about a quarter mile through the no-mans-land part of Tokyo and made it the base of the Titan Tower, asides from hearing a few gunshots, it was surprisingly quiet in the city. The team were at the front door to the building. Normally it would be filled with guards and military personnel of all sorts, but considering the condition of the world, they have been forced to downgrade their security to minimal… by that i mean there's no one there. So Konata just walked on through the front door like there was nothing there at all.
She and the others stepped over some crap lying around on the floor and entered the building main lobby. Everyone stopped to marvel at the beautifully created lobby that was once so great, now turned to a pile of shit… almost literally. But what complimented the beauty of what once was military craftsmanship at it's finest was the decor of bodies and crap of various sorts. Misao, being the crazy, borderline schizophrenic, person she was decided to kick some of the bodies. Miyuki inspected on of them and immediately was shocked. Ayano noticed this first.
"What's got you so bugged?" She asked her.
At first Miyuki didn't respond. After a moment though, she turned to her. "This man was eaten."
Everyone in immediate earshot of her, namely Hiyori, Patty, Ayano and Kagami, heard her.
"You mean like, by the rats right, or by wolves?" Ayano tried asking.
Miyuki slowly shakes her head. "No, the teeth marks on his throat aren't from any animal, only a human could have done this." She told them pointing her finger at it's throat.
"Bloods fresh too." Patty noted about the body not too far away from where she was standing. Everyone else was still basking in the glory of the lobby. Miyuki got up away from the body. She had seen enough creepy shit for one day.
"Konata i think we should get moving." She told Konata.
Konata turned around at Miyuki. "Alright. Where to then."
"Wherever it is we're supposed to be in this building." She told her.
Konata thought for a moment and then gathered everyone together. "Okay, i think we need to split up into a few teams to get there. I need one team shadowing us up the building on the south side, another on the ground in case something goes down on the floor here in the lobby, and another to follow me up the building through the staircase in the center of the building." As Konata finished her plan, everyone looked at each other. They had no idea how to split up until finally, Minami spoke up.
"I'll be apart of the team that shadows you up." She said. Almost immediately as she finished that sentence. Yutaka called.
"I'll help Minami too." She said. Patty spoke up too.
"I'll help." She said.
"Okay, good." Konata said to herself. "Who's going with me?" She asked. Before anyone had a chance to volunteer. "Kagami, you're with me." She voluntold Kagami to go with her.
"Why?" Kagami asked in the most tsundere of manners.
"Because you're the yandere's tamer." She said referencing to Tsukasa.
"I'm not taking Tsukasa up there." She told Konata. Some of the other agreed with her. They all nodded their heads with the exception of Tsukasa, who has no idea what's going on.
Konata sighed. "Fine, but who else will go with me?" She asked. Misao raised her hands like a crazy child. After a few moments of her just doing that like an idiot, Konata finally caved. "Alright, fine, Misao you can come with us."
"Alright!" She said to herself.
"Alright, that just leaves Tsukasa, Hiyori, Ayano and Miyuki down on the ground." She said, you guys just wait for it go down."
Ayano yawned. "Then back to taking a nap it is." She said with a smile on her face.
"Alright let's go." Konata said to them. They all put their masks on then, everyone split into their appropriate groups and to their designated locations.
…
Konata Izumi.
Konata, Kagami and Misao made their way up the step of the Titan. For a old and demolished building, it sure had a lot of steps to walk up. The staircase was made of concrete, so it didn't age very much, but it had a lot of holes and missing stairs on it, likely from the war. They had to watch all their steps, one wrong move and they could break their legs or worse, die from a long fall.
They had already made it up a few floors and Konata was doing nothing more than following the beeping of the cube. She was paying so much attention to the cube, she didn't even notice a missing stair piece and fell right through. As she fell Kagami grabbed her by back of the shirt and saved her falling and breaking her legs.
Konata astonished at how fast Kagami reacted to that thanked her.
"Yeah yeah, just don't get us killed." Kagami replied. Misao was still following them as calmly as she could, it was Misao, so calm isn't something that comes easy, at least, not now anyway. Finally, Misao was bored enough to ask Konata.
"How many more stairs are there?" She asked.
"My guess is, 1000." Kagami replied. Misao groaned.
"We're only 22 stories up and i'm already tired." She said bumping into Konata. She looked at where the steps were. An entire few floors of staircase was just leveled.
"I think we may need to find a new way up the building." Konata said.
…
Minami Iwazaki.
The south side of the building, was, for the most part empty. Aside for some crap lying around, like bullet casings, candy wrappers and human bones, it was rather empty. Minami and Yutaka have both seen their fair shares of messed up, but this is so far taking the cake. More and more bodies all over the place. It was beginning to make even Minami a little squeamish.
Minami was taking the lead and was scouting throughout the building looking for stuff that might make things hard for everyone on the team. They were about 19 or so floors up when they heard someone in the shadows. Yutaka and Patty Panicked pointing their weapons into the darkness. Minami kept her calm… sorta, and held her composure. Yutaka, nearly cowering in fear asked Minami. "Is it to late to go back yet?" She asked her.
Minami didn't answer. The sounds of people, swiftly moving through the darkness in the room, scared the shit out of the others. The three stood petrified in terror, they didn't know if one of them was going to pop out at any giving time or if they were just going to keep toying with them. Patty kept her rifle pointed at the darkness, so long as nothing appeared, they wouldn't have to do anything… right?
The trio walked through even more darkness until they encountered a few bodies just lying on the floor. Minami bent down to inspect them and found all of the were shot in the head. [A/N looks like Jones was here.] Minami backed away from the bodies and kept her shotgun raised high. Patty, trembling with fear, pointed her rifle at a figure in the dark. Her sudden moves alerted Minami and Yutaka, who did the same. The man's figure in the distance held only a few things, a handgun and a machete. The trio of girls kept their weapons pointed at the figure, not knowing if it was friendly or not.
pointed it's weapon at them. Without thinking, Yutaka fired off a round at the figure, it dodged but then charged at them. Minami and Patty both panicked and shot their weapons, but the figure was not going after them. Minami stopped shooting for just a moment to realize he had something in his hand, and within seconds, a cry of pain from a person he just killed. Then a group of people sprung on them. Yutaka fired rounds blindly at the people jumping them, not knowing if she was actually hitting anything. Patty on the other hand was simply unloading her mag into whatever she saw that wasn't friendly. Minami was busy trying to keep her hyde from being cooked thoroughly.
After a brief moment of silence from the gunshots, a blade noise came out of the darkness. Minami flinched in the direction of the sounds and saw the figure from before pulling his machete out of one of the people that just jumped them. He kicked the body off the blade and it fell to the ground. He looked at Minami and the others. They all kept their weapons pointed at the person. Where he was currently standing had sufficient light to be able to tell what he looked like, sorta. Black spec ops camo uniform, no helmet, and short brown hair.
He looked to them and the group panicked. They didn't know what he was going to do now. For a moment he stood silent and motionless. Then he spoke up "Who are you? " he asked.
Minami was resisting the urge so much to say 'who the hell are you? ' but she realized that may not have been a good idea. Especially since she doesn't know if he's friendly or not. Just as she was about to say something in response. Yutaka spoke up, "We aren't looking for any trouble. " she said almost wetting herself where she stood.
Minami was mostly expecting him to say something like, 'well you found it' or 'put your hands up' bit to her suprise though, instead he told them. "Then turn around and leave. Go home and pray to God you don't get eaten alive." He warned them. The reading alive part made Minami panic just a little bit.
By the time Minami was about to respond to him, Patty and Yutaka were already about to leave with their tails tucked between their legs, Minami replied to the strange man. "Why do we need to leave?" She asked in her usual monotone voice.
"It isn't your fight." He told them as more sounds of shadow people team by.
Minami panicked, "I don't think it's yours either." She said attempting to talk a little sense into him. Even though she doesn't even know who this guy is, she still isn't going to let some guys in no man's land Tokyo eat him.
Just as Minami was about to say something else to him, the shadows from behind some walls came running out and attacked the man that stood before them. Like lightning, he turned around instantly with his machete and sliced the first ones throat.
Yutaka was the first to turn and run towards where they came, followed quickly by Patty. They could always find another way up. Minami saw these two turn and run and decided now was the time for the flight portion of the flight or fight theory to take effect. She pivoted around as quickly and ran back with Yutaka and Patty. As she made it to the door though, she turned around to see the man she just left behind and saw him fighting for his life. Minami decided she didn't want to let him die like that.
She turned and went to go help him. She first started by shooting one of the guys attacking him. The first guy dropped like a Bad habit. The next guy she shot was hit and spun around on to the ground. The man looked back to Minami. She was helping him. He grit his teeth, "I told you to stay out of this!" He told her slicing another guy with his machete.
"I can't just leave someone to die no matter what the reason." She replied to the man. Just as she began her banter with the mystery man, Yutaka and Patty were peaking around the corner of the stairs they just started running down to watch the fight. "Please let us help you." Minami attempting to convince him that they were here to help, just like him.
He stabbed a few more guys with his machete. For the moment, they all seemed to stop, possibly the last of them for now. He turned to Minami and swung his machete at her face. She ducked. "Fast huh." He said to her. "I told you to go home kid." He told her when he swung his blade at her shotgun sending it flying. Minami, now disarmed, started to go at him hands on. She started by swinging her fists at his face, he was quick though and dodged her attack. He then replied by pulling out his pistol again and attempting to shoot her with it, though when it was fully drawn out, she grabbed it, twisted his wrist and disarmed him of the handgun.
Yutaka and Patty were just sitting in the doorway watching the whole thing go down. "Wow." Yutaka said to herself. She couldn't believe it. She knew Minami was capable of defending herself in a fight, Black Belt in Karate, but this was taking it to a whole new level.
He pulled away from her arms and jabbed at her throat, but she dodged in time to catch his hand and twist. He kicked at her abdomen and she fell over in pain, she looked up in time to see he was about to decapitate her with the machete so she rolled over quickly to dodge. His machete struck the ground with such force, it got stuck on the ground. He attempted to remove it from the ground but found it would not budge.
Meanwhile Minami already started to charge him like a crazy bull and tackled him to the ground. She pinned him to the floor and went for the first thing she could find to attempt to stop this guy. Normally, with the way she had him pinned, there was not a whole lot he could do. But he was much, much stronger than anything Minami could fight back against. He flipped her up and sent her flying back a few feet. He then rolled back up onto his get and then went to grab his machete.
MinamI getting up noticed this and dove for it before him. She made our first and managed to grab the handle. With added force of him tackling it, Minami was about to pry it from the ground as he stumbled over and rolled a few feet off of where the blade was one stuck.
Minami rolled over and stood up with the machete in hand and saw the man get up. She was ready to finish this fight, but then again she didn't want to kill him. Although as he got up, she notched that something was wrong with where he was standing. It started to make cracking noises and then, as if the universe had other plans for this guy, the ground collapsed, dropping him to the nearest floor down below and burying him rubble.
At first, she didn't know what to expect from here. Minami then looked back over to the two spectators in the doorway. She then slid the machete into the back part of her tactical vest. Yutaka started talking first. "Oh my god, Minami, that was amazing." She told her.
"Uh thanks." She replied.
"That was just so awesome." Yutaka said. Patty was just standing there dumbfounded. She was still trying to process that. "Minami, do you think you could teach me that?" She asked her.
"Uh, I don't..." Minami was cut off by the sounds of more things coming from the shadows. "I think standing around isn't such a good idea." Minami thought out loud.
She then led them back on the track they were supposed to be going on anyway.
...
Hiyori Tamara
Tokyo was supposed to be a beautiful city. Key words there is, supposed to be. Hiyori and the others spent the last half hour or so sitting around on the ground floor waiting for something to go down. [A/N Oh the irony] she along with the other members of the ghost squad were simply chilling on the street watching dogs eat rats. Or maybe they were giant rats eating dogs... hard to tell, these things were the size of Cocker Spaniels. Maybe they were dogs or maybe rats.
Moving right along, aside from Tsukasa sleeping on the nearest car hood, not a whole lot of noteworthy across occurred down here at Ground Zero, No Man's Land.
Hiyori, finally bored of sitting around doing nothing for the past 30 minutes, broke the silence.
"Guys. Those dogs over there are huge." She said sarcastically because she was one of the girls assuming they were rats and not dogs.
"Those ate rats." Miyuki explained. "Their long hairless tails and over sized front teeth suggest they are rats and not a breed of dogs out wolf." She explained like it came out of a textbook.
Hiyori sighed. "You know, you just took the fun out of the rats eating that thing."
"What is that thing eating?" Ayano asked out loud. She could barely see what it was through her eye patch.
Miyuki looked closer at the carcass on the floor in front of them. "Maybe a dog?" She said out loud.
Hiyori asked the Million dollar question. "What kind of dog?"
She looked closer at it. "I can't tell through their body's."
"Maybe we should go kill them and find out for ourselves." Ayano joked. Hiyori honestly thought through that she was being serious and woke up Tsukasa. She jolted her arm stood until she woke up and fell off the car hood.
She got slowly. "What the hell?" She asked upon falling on the ground.
"That thing over there stole my favorite doujinshi drawing pencil. I need you to go get it back." Hiyori told her.
Tsukasa looked at the pile of bodies eating the carcass. "You mean the dogs over there took it?"
"Actually they're rats." Miyuki explained.
She looked at her with absolute disappointment. Tsukasa shook her head and laid back down on the cars hood. Hiyori was a little afraid of what might happen if she tried to wake her up now. She didn't want to know that bad what kinda dog the rats were eating. She was glad they were paying no Mind to them.
She leaned back against the wall. Hiyori finally got around to trying to get some backstory from Miyuki. She was thinking of trying to get some from Tsukasa, but she was a dangerous weapon that should not be messed with and she already basically knew everything about Ayano considering she spent the last 2 or so years locked in the same room as her.
"So Miyuki." She started. "What was your past 2 years like?" She asked.
At first, she was a little hesitant to respond to that. She was trying to carefully think of a way to word this sentence. "Well uhh." She didn't know how to describe it other than hell and more hell with a side dish of Hades and a helpful serving of GB Packers sucking the life out of life... well that's my personal hell anyway.
"You don't have to answer." Hiyori finally let out realizing she wasn't going to much of an answer anytime soon.
"No it's okay." Miyuki replied. "I guess it was okay, all things considered. It could have been worst." She says to Hiyori. "Much worse."
At first Hiyori was silent, not really wanting to accidentally stir any unwanted memories, hell she had some that didn't want to come out, more particularly, her getting stabbed one Christmas morning, then again on the following Valentine's day then again on her birthday the same year, the several times unintentionally to herself trying to do some simple household tasks... for some reason, the universe likes to stab Hiyori with sharp objects. Maybe bad karma?
"I guess what I miss most is..." Miyuki started. "Is..." Hiyori kinda wanted to know now that she started. "Yuki." She said.
"Uh, what?" Hiyori said out loud.
"He's... He's my 2 year old son." Miyuki told her. "He's the real reason I kinda don't want to be out here, I mean it sure is scary but, I want to go home to see him again."
Hiyori at first was kinda moved by the pink haired encyclopedia. She didn't know personally what it was like to have a kid to love and raise, hell, Hiyori is the youngest of her siblings, so it's not like she had any younger brothers and/or sisters to change and feed. The most experience she had in that department was some less than safe for work doujinshi about Minami and Yutaka. "That sounds like... Uh." Hiyori was busy trying to think if something to come back with.
"A life I want to return to." Miyuki said zoning out into her own little world. I guess even girls like her need their own time alone. "My life recently has been nothing but a bunch of twists and turns that I wish I didn't have to go through. But he makes it all worth it." She giggled for a moment. "I remember one day on my birthday he gave up told my mom that I needed a new blanket, so he gave me his..." Miyuki again getting lost in memory lane. For a moment she began to cry.
"Uh Miyuki?"
"It's nothing." Miyuki told her.
Ayano decided join the conversation again. "Sounds like you really love that kid huh?"
"Yes." Miyuki said smiling.
"Then I guess you have a reason to survive." Ayano said fixing her eye patch.
Hiyori stood there, awestruck by her story. "Uh. Miyuki?" She said to her.
"What?" Miyuki asked.
"Can, can I make your life into a manga." She asked with much hope in her eyes. At first Miyuki only laughed a little. It was good to get some relief from all the tension by just talking and laughing.
For another minute or so, Hiyori finally sighed. "I wish something interesting would happen already." She said out loud. She wanted so bad to go back home where she could draw Yuri Doujin without anyone interrupting her. But at least out here, no one could hear you scream.
Speaking of not being able to hear someone scream, there was an explosion so loud that if you tried to scream, all that you could hear is the sounds of your ears ringing. Hiyori looked up to see rubble falling from the sky. "Shit, run." Hiyori yelled running towards the safe area just beyond the cars. The rats scattered from the thing they were eating and ran to the other cars near by to hide. Ayano pointed at an open door to a near by building where they could take cover from the collapsing building. They all made it to the safe area. Tsukasa glanced out the window and saw the building pieces hit the ground.
"What the hell was that?" She asked.
...
5 minutes earlier.
Konata Izumi
Konata and Kagami were trying to stay as quiet as possible while Misao was just walking as leisurely as she possibly could, seemingly totally unaware of the situation. Konata kept the cube in front of her at all times, just in case something went wrong.
"Hey Kagami." Konata finally broke the silence.
"What?" She replied.
"Where do you think that beeping will lead us?" She asked.
"Anyone's guess." Kagami replied. "Maybe someone friendly. Maybe someone with a huge grudge against Otakus." Kagami joked.
"Yeah, keep joking. I think we should still be ready for anything." Konata replied. Just then Misao gave reason for the two of them to fear.
"You know we're in a place full of idiots who are willing to kill us for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich right?" Misao said initially as a joke, but knowing this world, she might as well have been right on track with that prediction.
Konata sighed with a light chuckle in her voice. "Well so long as this thing keeps beeping, we'll find it."
Just as she said that, almost as if the universe were playing a huge joke on her. It stopped.
Konata looked at the screen. "Maybe it ran out of battery."
"Maybe." Kagami replied. Just then it again lit up blue. Konata held it out in front of herself and it started to grow brighter, she held it out in front of the door in the room. "Misao." Kagami said pointing at the door. She held out a grenade in response. Kagami shook her head and simply waved 'get over here'
She came walking over. "What's going on?" She asked.
"We're going in there." Kagami told her.
"Why?" She asked.
Konata gave her the answer. "Whatever this is, it wants is in there." She said pointing to door.
Misao looked as serious as she was going to get. "Alright." She said sliding her own mask back on.
One by one, they stacked against the door. Misao and Kagami on one side of the door and Konata on the other, each with their rifles out ready for anything. Konata signaled to Kagami she was about to kick open the door. She got up off the wall and drove her foot into the center of the door and out fell right off the hinges landing on the ground.
She quickly jumped through the door with her M4 pointed at the darkness. Kagami and Misao came in right afterwords with their guns pointed out. They all piled into the room ready to shoot something only to find the room was empty.
Konata wondered why the hell the room was full of nothingness. "What?" She said to herself. For a moment silence, then from the ceiling, quite literally, several people jumped down and tackled the small girls and restrained then to the ground.
Konata looked up at the people who ambushed them. All she could see I this darkness was small red lights coming from where their eyes must have been. They were wearing night vision goggles. A luxury she wished she had just moments ago.
In a flash, literally, the room lit up with several bright lights. "You were way too easy to catch." She heard a voice coming from the dust that illuminated the room.
"Who's there?!" She called out. Two size 10 combat boots stepped in front of her. She looked up to see it was definitely an officer in the Revolution.
"I'll be taking that." He said yanking the cube from her.
"Who the hell are you?" Kagami yelled from next to Konata.
He walked over and kicked her in the face. Konata yelled at him but he simply kicked her as well. "You know who I am?" He asked a rhetorical question.
"An idiot." Misao said said. Konata sighed. Not the time Misao. She thought to herself. The officer turned to see Misao's face with a giant smile on it as if she doesn't how much shit they just wound up in. He walked over to her and commanded the soldier standing on her to get off, he then slowly picked her up by the front of her vest.
He chucked. "Now this bitch I like." He said to her. "What's your name." He said ripping the tan girls mask off.
She looked at him and smiled. "My name is Misao Kusakabe." She told him. Konata's head quickly hit the floor out of her own accord.
She's going to get us killed. She thought to herself.
The officer chucked to himself again. "Major Michael Jones." He said to her throwing her across the the room. Misao slowly got up. Her rifle was across the room guarded by two dudes with even bigger guns and probably 2 pounds of C4 on them. "Do you know why I'm here?" He asked her. Jones must have been confusing her for the leader, but why?
"I Don't know." Misao said back. He grinned back at her
"To get my hands on this." He said holding out the cube. "The ICCD 343 Prototype."
Makes sense I got my hands on a super secret bomb, or whatever. Konata thought to herself again. She noticed the guy who was standing on her was slowly leaning to right way too much. She'd wait until the right moment to take advantage of that. At least until the major finished yelling her his plan.
"Me and my men were sent here to get this, but someone beat us too it and got a hold of it before we showed up." He explained. "Now I have it, and there's no reason to keep you three alive." He said. He signaled his men to kill them.
Now out never. She thought right then and there. Just as she saw the soldiers rifle get pointed at her head, she took advantage of his off center balance. She rolled over causing him to fall down onto the ground. She then grabbed his rifle from in his hand and started to unload a few rounds into the next guy over.
Kagami managed to get out from under the soldier holding her down and made a dive for her weapon and Misao's. She grabbed hers and tossed Misao's FAMAS at her where she could grab it and got behind some cover.
Konata ducked underneath a piece of concrete sticking out from the ground while Kagami was busy diving to reach a piece of cover made I'd wood, likely a old broken desk. Konata glanced out from her cover and saw the major getting out a weapon that was too big to fit on his back. He pulled out a RPG from the crate in the room. "Oh shit run!" Konata yelled as she saw the RPG come out. She tried to make it to the door before she was blown to bits, but then something happened, the door exploded open and she fell back down.
...
Minami Iwazaki. 2 or so minutes ago.
The trio of Minami, Yutaka and Patty were on their way up the building following Konata's orders when they were attacked by a pack of savage people, then saved by a random dude who they still don't know, then got into a fight with, then stole his machete and then they were climbing the building as fast as they could... figuratively climbing anyway, they weren't literally scaling the building they were talking the stairs.
They were coming upon a atrium with nothing more than some crap lying around on the floor, primarily either bodies or used ammunition and weapons that were beyond repair. They climbed some stairs leading to the next floor of the atrium. Minami was the only one still holding their weapon up high at anything that may just come out of the shadows and try to eat then. Yutaka and Patty on the other hand were just casually quietly walking.
Yutaka tripped on one of the bodies on the floor. "Ow." She said as she got up off the floor. She looked around the atrium. Clearly the room was in the middle of something when if all went down... literally and figuratively went down. Yutaka started to follow Minami closer. "What do you think the room was used for last?" She asked.
Minami lowered her weapon, realising nothing major was probably going to happen, she looked around the room intently. She observed some of the bodies lying around and saw what most were wearing, formal uniforms and suits. "Maybe a party or a celebration of some sort." Minami said.
While Yutaka and Minami were busy contemplating what had happened inside this atrium, Patty saw something she had not expected to see at all under any circumstances. She saw some lights coming from one of the rooms. She
She interrupted their conversation by saying. "What's the deal with lights over there?" She asked pointing to the only room that seemed to be properly lit. They all started in wonder at it. Patty led them over to the room and when they got there, Minami pressed her ears against the locked door. She heard voices, she didn't recognize any of them, but she knew they weren't friendly. "If I could just-"
"Here." Patty interrupted her by handing her a large piece of really shiny metal, chrome. "Signs." She said to her. Minami nor Yutaka caught the reference. "M. Night Shyamalan." She said to them. Getting desperate. "Scary Movie 3 with Charlie Sheen and Anna Farris." Still not getting any of the American movie references. "Stick the metal thing under the door and see who's in there." Minami and Yutaka both had a simultaneous epiphany.
"Ah. Why didn't you just say so." Minami asked. Patty shrugged. Minami was quick to shove the metal under the door and tried to look around the room. At first she didn't have the angle right, but then she did and she looked around the room at first she saw a few guys wearing Revolution camo uniforms and a few people on the floor. She looked closely at one of the bodies they were standing on. Konata. "Oh crap." She said to herself.
"What? What is it? Lex Luthor, Brainiac?" Patty again with the references, this time, Minami did get the reference to Superman but ignored it.
"Yutaka, Patty. Konata and the others are in there and are in trouble." She revealed to them. "We need to get in there right now." She explained. They all nodded in agreement.
"How are we going to do that?" Yutaka asked. Patty pulled out a grenade.
"Uh. What's that for?" Minami asked.
"A makeshift breaching charge." Patty explained. Minami and Yutaka again gave a confused look. She sighed. "When my dad was in the army, he told me about explosives they use to break into rooms." She said putting the grenade into the door handle. "Simply place explosive and..." She started pulling the pin. "Dip." She said diving away from the bomb on the door.
Minami and Yutaka knew instantly to run away from the weapon. The two jumped behind a desk and like that, a loud explosion filled the room. Minami instantly knew what to do next. She jumped up over the desk and barreled right into the room. She entered the room like a bull in a China shop, shotgun in one hand, basically dragging Yutaka in, intentionally, in the other. When Minami got through the door frame, she shot at some targets that were obviously not Konata or the others and they dropped like flies, next came a guy in the back with an RPG. Minami emptied a few rounds into him, but he dodged and got behind conner dropping his RPG at the same time.
Konata Izumi
Meanwhile, on the floor, Konata was busy getting back to her feet, she had dropped the cube, or prototype as it apparently was called. She got up and basically ran into Minami. "What the! Where did you come from?" She asked.
"Nevermind that. Are you okay?" Minami asked her.
"Yeah, that guy over there has the cube." She quickly explained. Minami nodded.
"Got it." She replied. Minami pointed to the Major. Yutaka and Patty didn't really know what that meant, all they knew was to shoot at anything that wasn't them. Konata didn't know what was going to happen next, all the she knows now is that the Major has the prototype and that's bad, very bad. Her first goal now was to get it back. She grabbed her M4 and ran across the room to try and catch him, she didn't care that the whole room was lighting up with gunfire, all she cared about was that the secrets that thing carried not get out.
She hopped over a desk and charged at the Major, he saw what was happening and made a run got it. Konata followed him out of the room. He ran through the atrium that Minami and the others just came from and jumped over the railing that led to downstairs, Konata did the same following him. Konata might have been naturally athletic, but this guy had the best training a guy could be offered, there was no way she could keep up.
He ran towards an open door and slammed it shut, not going to stop me. Konata thought. She rammed the door full speed and it didn't budge, she simply wasn't big enough to put a dent in that door no matter how fast she ran. She grabbed the nearest object she could find and started to pry open the door, at first it started to crack and break open, then it stopped, no luck for Konata. She rammed the door full speed and it still didn't break yet. She was so busy trying to get the door open, she didn't realize Kagami was here.
She grabbed her shoulder and Konata freaked out. "What the-"
"Push as hard as you can." Kagami commanded her. Konata nodded. The two pushed as hard as they could and then the door broke right open. The two fell into the long hallway that the Major just entered.
To her surprise, he was still in here. Apparently luck was on their side and every door was bolted shut out broken shut because he was still standing in the hallway looking for a way out. "Got you." Konata yelled at the Major. For a moment he panicked, he knew he was screwed. Then he started to laugh and clap his hands.
"You seriously think that don't you." Major Jones told then. He pulled out a detonator and showed it to them. Konata freaked and pointed her rifle at him as did Kagami. He chuckled more. "Ha ha, fuck you." He said detonating the charges. The floor shook and the building rocked then it started to collapse. Konata dropped her rifle when the building dropped about 3 floors in a second. All three fell down and into the floor. Konata grabbed her rifle and tried to shoot him but the next thing she knew the building was falling towards her.
The whole building was collapsing. Konata and Kagami started to roll back the way she came as did the Major. Every time Konata tried to get a good shot at him she lost more balance until finally she sliding down the floor like six flags. She grabbed Kagami and tried not to let go. The Major, just within trac reach now, kicked at Kagami and the two went flying back down. The floor was now at a 70 degree angle and they were falling fast. Konata's last chance to stop the Major from getting away as the fall extremely fast. She shoot at his general direction and managed to get a hit. He dropped the prototype as the floor reached a 90 degree angle. Konata and Kagami fell right into the wall and crashed through it landing straight onto some object and Konata was out cold.
Tokyo, Japan. 2 years ago.
Drops of rain fall outside of the now collapsed office building. Konata thought that hell had literally risen from the ground and just unleashed it's unholy fury on the world, or maybe the planet just hit another planet. That is how big of an explosion there was, and Konata just barely survived it. She crawled out of the rubble she was laying in. She had no idea of what just happened and she has a feeling it isn't going to be good.
She grabbed a hold of the first thing that she could find and used it to hoist herself up of the ground. At first she tried to stand up but found that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. She had just broken both legs when the rods struck and one of her arms felt dislocated. She crawled over to her commanding officer, to see if at least she was still with the living. "Ms. Kuroi." She said shaking her body. "Ms. Kuroi." She wasn't responding. "Damnit." She said in anger.
She turned and started crawling further towards an opening to the street level. When she got there, she saw that there were hundreds of troops walking in front of her. She backed off in an attempt to remain unnoticed. She then made her way somewhere that didn't have a thousand enemy troops walking two feet in front of her. She crawled through the rubble and made her way towards where the top of the building used to be. Walls began to fall down in front of her and glass shattered all over the place, some landing on her.
She managed to crawl all the way back to where the roof of the building was once at. The helicopter that took them here was gone now but there still was people, key word there being was, here and she took one of the bodies radio and started to push random buttons. She wasn't all too familiar with operating a military radio, they must have skipped that during basic training. She tapped and twisted a few knobs until it finally made a noise of static, she held down the talk button and sent a radio transmission.
Meanwhile
Base 8 bravo india tango was never a place that was considered a nice place to visit, and rarely was it ever quiet enough to speak to one another in the same room, but right now the whole base was filled with people yelling over one another trying to get through. Sojiro was having a hell of a time trying to navigate through radio transmissions to see if Konata survived that. He honestly didn't doubt that she did, he as afraid of what might happen now that she did. For all he knew, every bone in her body was shattered. Little did he know, that's actually pretty close to what happened.
He switched through frequencies to find the right one. Konata had to be on at least one of them. He cycled through endless sounds of people calling in and asking for backup, but he was on a quest to get Konata, he didn't know when he'd find the right frequency, all he knows is that once he find it, he WILL get Konata, he was not about to lose the only real family he had left... there was Yui, Yutaka, his own dad and siblings, but Konata was the only one he cared about... well... only one he didn't want to die... Konata is his daughter, I Don't have any better reasoning.
He frantically went through then till he finds her. All he wants is just a sign that she made it. That was it. He didn't care how many others did or how she wound up afterwards, all he cared was that she was still alive. After a few minutes of sorting out random calls for help and a few idiots who radio in for Pizza Hut, he finally heard something. He listened closely. He could hear a weak faint voice calling for help.
"Help... me... I... I Don't know what just happened... but...but I think that *cough* I think I might die *cough cough* please... send help..."
Afterwards all there was was static. "Konata." Sojiro said to himself. "She's still alive." He said to himself. He was going to get her. He got up out of his seat and began to walk quickly to the vehicle loading bay. On his way there another guy stopped him from entering the bay.
"Hey where do you think you're going?" The soldier asked him.
"To save my daughter." He replied shoving him out of the way.
He came back trying to stop him. "Halt, I said halt." He told him pulling out his gun.
Sojiro turned to him as he got onto the driver side door of the HUMVEE. "Stop me if you want, but I'm still going after her." He said flying open the door. There was no stopping him now. The soldier just did there with his gun out not doing anything as Sojiro started up the HUMVEE and dove off. Who was he to tell him it was a suicide mission. Let him find out on his own. The nameless soldier watched as Sojiro dove off the lot and into the active battlefield.
Must be really desperate. He thought to himself as he closed the large gate door.
Present
Konata awoke from falling. She found that she was laying on what used to be the wall, now turned into the floor. She turned to Kagami who was also by her side at the moment, she was laying on a glass window. "What the..." Konata said to herself trying to figure out what the fuck just happened. "Kagami. What was that?"
"I Don't know." She told her. "I think the building exploded." She said getting up. The glass under her shattered and she started to fall. Konata caught her and saved her from a 100 yard or so for fall. [A/N that's the length of a professional football field by the way.] Kagami dangled off the edge as Konata held her from falling.
"Don't look down." She told her. Of course anyone with a brain would do the next best thing to saying 'don't look down' she looked down.
"Holy shit!" She panicked. "Pull me up! Pull me up!" She frantically said. Konata managed to yank Kagami up the window and back onto the building. At first all she could do was hyperventilate. She looked at Konata. "Thanks." She said out of breath. She stood up, this time on solid ground, well, 'ground.'
"No problem." Konata replied. Konata looked over at the what she now knows is the prototype. It was just laying on the ground... well, 'ground', meaning window. Konata went to grab it but just as she bent down to pick it up, a certain Major kicked her across the face and she went flying back onto the glass.
Kagami freaked and went for her gun but found it was no longer on her. "Aww, seems like you're outgunned." The Major patronized them. He held out the prototype. "Looks like I win again."
Konata looked at him dead in the eye. She wanted so bad to just kill him right now but couldn't because she too lacked a weapon... accept her trusty old M9, the only problem is the Major wasn't going to just let her pull it out. She would need a distraction to do it.
The Major equipped his sidearm. "Just a shame that you failed again." He told her. Just as he pulled the hammer back on his handgun, Minami came crashing through the 'ceiling', a door that was on the ceiling, and landed on the Major. The two spun around and landed on the glass below nearly shattering.
Konata took this as her chance to draw her holstered M9 from her vest. MinamI didn't know what happened as much as anyone else, but even she knew to restrain him. She grabbed his vest and shoved him against the wall. By the time the Major was able to get a grip on what just happened, Konata had already gotten out her own sidearm and kept it pointed at him.
Kagami trying to break the tension. "Wow, you just kinda dropped in unexpectedly." Kagami remarked getting her rifle up from behind her.
Minami sighed. "That was terrible." Yutaka then appeared in the door frame Minami just came from and hung upside down on it like a jungle gym.
"Just, hanging around Yutaka?" Kagami remarked.
Even Konata was groaning at the terrible puns. "Just stop Kagami, quit while you're ahead."
"You imply she was ahead to begin with." Minami commented. Yutaka came down and found her spot on the wall, or window, or, whatever. Patty and Misao followed her down as well.
"We got you surrounded and out gunned. Give up." Konata told the Major.
"I haven't lost yet." He told her.
"Could have fooled me." Konata said back. "Give me that cube."
The Major just laughed at her. "Do you have any idea what kinda shit you got yourself into?" He taunted. "The prototype is something only a few select military personnel are allowed to even know it exists." Konata smacked him across the face.
"I said drop it." Konata commanded him. He dropped it. She picked it up. Didn't look like he had tampered it. "What else do you know? What else are you hiding?"
"You have no idea." He told her. "As long as we have numbers, we'll have everything we ever desired."
"What the hell-" Konata was about to smack him with the butt of her gun when the whole building rattled and shook. The Major took this as an opportunity to free himself. He punched Minami in the gut, stunning her, he then kicked and punched at Misao, who at the moment wasn't paying as much attention to him as she should have been. Just as he went to shoot Konata, the entire building started to stop again.
The building was falling, it was wedged between the building next to it and the side that wasn't attached to itself, and the weight of the top floors was causing it to fall. The group dropped about 40 feet in a second. They all flew up and hit the ceiling, or, wall, or, ah fuck it. When they came back down, Kagami fell through the glass again and so did Yutaka. Konata managed to quickly turn and to catch Kagami from falling to get death, but Yutaka had no-one but herself, or at least, that's what she thought. She did fall and great height, not enough to kill her. She landed on the floor of the building next to them.
Konata got coordination of herself and yanked Kagami back up over herself. The two stood up as fast as they could before, once again the building started to fall. They thought for sure that they were going to die this time. Konata and the others once again flew up into the ceiling/wall thing and dropped back down. Minami and Misao both fell through the glass and landed next to Yutaka. Konata panicked, just her, Patty, Kagami and the homicidal Major.
Almost in a second, the Major got up and charged at Konata. "Give Me that!" He yelled swinging his fist at her full speed. She dodged, but barely. Kagami reacted to his Attack on Konata and intervened. She jumped on to his back trying to put him in a full Nelson. Konata reacted and got her footing in time to watch the Major flip Kagami over his head and throw her at her. The two crashed landed into each other and wound up back on the floor again. He had lost his sidearm on the struggle, but he was still strong enough to kill them both with a thought.
Patty, on the meanwhile, was busy trying to avoid a fight with these people. She was trying to open a door on the ceiling and try to sneak away but found that there was no exit. She turned to see Konata and Kagami hopelessly about to be killed. She got together all the courage she could and tackled him as a distraction at least, but wound up just pissing him off.
He grabbed her by the neck in an attempt to get her off. Kagami had time to save her only American friend. She kicked him in the groin and he immediately let go of Patty and stumbled back into a shattered window and fell down to the street below. Konata got up from where she was a moment ago. "What the hell?" She yelled.
"Thank you." Patty yelled out hugging Kagami.
"Hiiragi, come on!" They heard Misao's voice call out to them. No time to really think about their next move. The trio jumped down and landed next to Misao and the others.
"Now what?" Kagami asked.
Konata and Minami wasted no time yelling out there response as the building once again started to fall down another few floors. "Fucking run!" The 6 girls ran as fast as their feet could carry them. Yutaka was basically being dragged by Minami because she wasn't necessarily the best runner in existence while Kagami on the other hand was busy trying to keep up the track runner and the otaku that seems to be more athletic than a enlisted fresh out of the Marines.
As the building behind them once again dropped about several floors, it had an effect on the building they were running to safety in. The floors here fell down as if it too was collapsing. Konata and the others fell down several feet onto the ground beneath them and found herself underneath Kagami. No time to really make a joke about it now, Konata rolled out from under her and ran for cover behind a desk. The others followed her lead and dove behind some cover of there own. Kagami took cover behind the desk Konata was behind, Yutaka and Minami shielded themselves from falling rubble next to a pillar, Patty fell down while running and just started covering her head, while Misao slid behind another desk that wasn't the one Konata was behind.
As the building they just came from dropped the final 30 or so floors and it settled down for a moment, Konata took a moment to inspect her friends, see if they had indeed made it.
Kagami seemed to be just scared. She had her head in Konata's arms trying not to be crushed by falling debris.
Minami and Yutaka both were taking cover next to a pillar, Yutaka breathing heavily trying to catch her breath, she had never had to run so much in her entire life. Minami was trying to calm her own breathing in the same way Yutaka was, except it was working for her.
Patty was shaking in a fetal position. She must have been more scared than anyone.
Misao was actually A Lot more calm than anyone should have been in this situation.
Konata, for a moment, thought to herself. Holy shit, we just survived that. She began to laugh. At first Kagami was a little concerned for her got her head out of Konata's arms. Although realizing she was in Konata's arms, she pulled away quickly blushing.
After a moment, Minami began to laugh too and without much problem, Misao began to laugh too. Soon all the girls were laughing together. Konata was the first to say something while laughing. "Holy shit. How are we not dead yet?" She asked rhetorically.
"Because we are just that badass." Kagami replied laughing. It was good they laughed, it meant one more good time they were having together, if your definition of having a good time is killing people, knocking down skyscrapers and just chilling in an old abandoned building, then yes. They were definitely having a good time. Kagami controlling her laughter. "You still have the thing?"
Konata dug into her pocket and pulled or the prototype. "Yup." The crew just sat back to take a breather. They went through a lot in the last few minutes. Although, one thought ran through Konata's head. How are Miyuki and others doing down on the ground?
A/N- not even going to try to come up with an excuse for not updating at all. All i can say is, sorry. Anyway, that's that, a long as fuck chapter. Because of a long trip to and from Iowa a few times, work related shit, watching anime, reading other people's fanfiction and generally not being inspired to write... I'm giving excuses, aren't i?
Never fucking mind.
Anyway, catch the easter eggs? Most were pretty subtle. I think the only one I have to explain is the 8bit reference. 8 bravo india tango. The rest you could probably figure out, like the chapter title is a reference to a Machinima song.
Next chapter- My Little Sister Can't be a Scary Ghost!