Chapter 11: Masane and Rihoko


Rihoko winced through pain as she drifted back to the real world. Then she had to shut her eyes as a bright light was shined into her eyes... Her head was screaming... Then she felt the light go away as she felt two hands on her forehead . She batted at them trying to get them away.

"Easy there..." the woman's voice spoke softly as the noise in her head started to shift some. It was like someone had the TV up way too high and it was hurting her ears... Then the volume was slowly turned down. The pressure on the sides of her head increased a little as she opened her eyes. A dark-skinned woman in dressed in white was standing in front of her... "The noise in your head should go down slowly now." She spoke as Rihoko felt the pain decrease. As Rihoko looked around to see Reiji she saw a person...

"Mom... " Rihoko said weakly as she reached out fearing the figure was a dream.. But feeling her mom's warm hand hold hers grounded her to reality.

"I'm here Princess Rihoko..." Her mom was crying... Rihoko tried to move forward but the dark-skinned woman held her down... "Mommy isn't going anywhere..."

"Easy there... Little one... your mind has been through a psychic assault..." the woman said as she forced her fingers into Rihoko's head. "Now... you will be with your mom in a second, I just need to..." A sharp pain hit the back of Rihoko's eyes for just a moment then... the noise was gone... "There..." the woman moved her hands away from Rihoko's head and stood up. Then Masane moved in and hugged her daughter tight fearing to lose her again.

"It's really you mom..." Rihoko didn't mind being squished by her mom's large frame... It felt nice... They just held each other for the longest time.


Sheppard was sitting at his desk in Japan's IOA Headquarters. The place was hopping, between word getting about Masane Amaha all of the governments that Douji Industries had a contract with and the surviving NWSF factions were all desperate to learn how many Clone Blades had sided with the Witchblade so far. Hell, they only knew of the one in Japan as he turned to see the file on the smart paper sheets on the table before him. Luna Noya'na was on her way to Japan. If these factions learned of her existence, then... He just rubbed his fingers into his forehead to ease the headache he was getting.

Then an alert formed on the screen of his smart terminal desk. He tapped the desk's surface and the list of known hostiles came onto the screen. Twelve of the Thirteen had surfaced. He hated the Thirteen... The Thirteen just had to be the ones to come onto the scene. A Cabal of Thirteen individuals who possessed mystical, alien or extra-dimensional items that granted them control of events or forces beyond human comprehension.

Ever since Darkness and Angelus had been kicked out of the Thirteen because of all their infighting. Three new figures had taken their place... Why oh why did a Youki Demon Lord, A Immortal Zombie Space Pilot, and a Sentient Deamon Computer Software being have to take their place? That was when he tapped the phone on his desk.

"This is Sheppard..." the Admiral spoke into the phone. "I want a virtual conference with all senior IOA Command offices stat..." He looked at the files flow onto his desk... "The shit has hit the fan..." He heard the Petty officer on the end of the line confirm what he said. Tokyo was going to be a mess after this. Why didn't he just retire and join NUMA and treasure hunt. He kept kicking himself for not signing the papers those years ago.


Deamon - Definition - a simple AI program whose purpose is to gather, process, and produce computer information. A simple biological emulation of cellular processes that when interlinked with other simple AI programs leads to vast and complex behavior being performed on par with a more complex intelligent organism.

Deamon moved from its flash server drives in its current nest located in a mobile home park in Seattle, Washington to the android body it had recently purchased and set up in a trailer set up by a telecom tower in rural Japanese village in Northern Japan. Male this time... Between the hundred or so android bodies it possessed around the world, this one was most applicable for its operations at this time. The eyes opened and it got up. Moving out of the charging bed it used to keep its bodies prepped, it walked over to the dresser and pulled out garments to clothe its naked form. Most of this function was automatic, but the black Grateful Dead t-shirt and blue jeans it pulled over the well worn purple briefs it had made the artificial creature look human. The messy greasy looking hair over the realistic rubber skin gave the appearance that this individual wasn't a threat. But underneath the surface the body consisted of a robotic frame that would make a military robotic engineer cringe in terror. For this form was based for heavy combat. Moving over to a gun locker, the android pulled out a HK-90 and a P-90 assault rifle with a number of armor piercing round along with 9mm Glock handgun. Checking the weapons with a fine optical scan and sensor diagnostic it placed the two assault rifles into a bag and stuffed the handgun into a holster before heading out of the Trailer and securing the door.

As each Deamon program moved throughout the motor control system of the android the objective formed across its visual display.

NEW OBJECTIVE FOUND-

WITCHBLADE - ACTIVE

ESTABISHING VOCAL PROTOCALS AND LINK

With that the Android moved over to a rusting old American Built H2 Hummer and got in. Hitting the phone dial button on the steering wheel it spoke a programmed number through its voice before the phone line established a connection with the person on the other end.

"Lord Migrua..." the android spoke "This is Deamon... Witchblade had resurfaced. In route to get information of current host's psychological profile. Will communicate with my report in Thirty-Six hours from present time." The voice responded.

"Understood." The call ended as another routine surfaced and the android positioned its body so it could drive. The remote engine start was sent and the vehicle was sent on it's way towards the destination the various Deamon programs had searched out for.

Tokyo, Japan.


Asagi's head was pounding as she opened her eyes. She looked around to see that she was in some sort of medical bay. She tried to lean forward but her head swam as she pushed herself sideways so that she could see more of where she was at. Then she saw Aoi sleeping. The young Neo-Gene rolled over onto her side and moaned a little. Aoi leaned forward again. And the swimming feeling came back. What had hit her and Aoi? Asagi decided that if she couldn't move in her human form, going Witchblade might help. As the armor formed up around her body her head swam again. Hopefully commanding her Clone blade to move her body might help her find out more of where she was at, the Masane walked in.

"Hey..." Masane said seeing Asagi was awake in a cheery voice. "I see that you are awake." Masane moved over to Asagi's bed.

"Where are we Masane? My Head is pounding... What did you do to us?" Asagi gritted through a mix of pain and anger. Masane reached over softly and took Asagi's hand. She grinned as tears came to her eyes.

"You, Aoi, and my daughter were all affected by whatever... Something..." Masane wiped a tear a from her eye. Masane was showing true concern... She was more freaked out by this... Then there was a yell from the hallway.

"Mom..." A soft small voice called out. Asagi saw the conflict as she looked towards the door. It was like a force was pulling on her... True concern... She swallowed hard as Masane leaned toward the door but it was Asagi's hand that kept Masane from moving. It took incredable effort for Masane to turn back to look at her. Asagi realized that she was personally affected by this, she cared about someone... She was looking on those who...

Masane was doing her best at being a leader... She was looking in on all those she had brought into this mess. She was responsible... Then Asagi decided to see who else was effected by whatever had hurt her and Aoi.

"Masane.. Help me up..." Asagi grabbed the side of the bed and started to kick sideways to force her legs off of the bed. Masane pulled back as she watched Asagi kick like a turned over toy robot.

"Asagi..." Masane pleaded as she attempted to stop Asagi from getting up. But it was too late as Asagi had gotten her legs over the edge and Asagi's center of gravity shifted towards her crotch and she was sitting up.

"I want to see the other who else was affected by what affected me and Aoi." Asagi stabbed two spears into the bed to keep upright. Then Asagi felt, rather than seeing it. It felt familiar... Asagi and Masane turned to see two figures standing by the door.

"Mom..." Rihoko said looking at her and Asagi. "Why does that woman have the same powers as you?" Asagi noticed that the feeling she felt wasn't of the Witchblade, but a sister...

"Masane..." Asagi said as the dizziness returned. "... Catch me..." With that Asagi hit the floor and woke Aoi up with a start.


Lucy was watching her child play. Being one of Darkness's creations, well technically one a creation of one of The Darkness's previous hosts was strange. She had been created as a fully formed adult female. But as she watched her daughter play with one of the Hell Hounds, she grinned. The four legged creatures like to jump and pounce on things, but Jason had become family to her and her daughter. The sheer pleasure of just running around free brought happiness to her offspring as she played with the Hell Hound the Darkness had created so long ago. Lucy watched as her daughter threw an old bone for the Hell Hound to bring back to her. Lucy had been taught pleasure... Well to technically how to bring pleasure to others through feelings, touch, and fortification. This was different... It was pleasurable for her to see her daughter play, this brought about a completely different set of sensations to her. The Biomass blade she and her daughter wore as clothing, well they all wore as clothing kept her warm. A little too warm for her taste... a little split formed down by her neckline formed to cool her off leaving bear flesh as she sat by the Biomass Tree that had been created when they had come to his plane of existence.

"Lucy..." A voice spoke from behind her as one of the "Trees" moved to allow the person coming to walk by unimpeded.

"Yes..." Lucy turned to see the current bearer of Darkness. Tobias.

"...How's your daughter doing?" Lucy ran her hands through her hair so she looked decent as she presented herself to Tobias.

"Well... She is doing well."

"That's good..." Tobias nodded as he watched the tree return to where it had been originally. "So... Have you heard about the other children of the Witchblade?" Lucy nodded.

"I have Tobias..." She averted her eyes.

"Lucy... I am not your master... I'm your friend. I got stuck here too when the Thirteen banished us to this realm." Lucy nodded before looking at him.

"I know that Sire..." Tobias looked sad when she said this. That was when he moved over and rubbed her chin.

"Lucy..." Lucy followed her inset programming and kissed him. Tobias knew that he had to let her run through the programming in her mind before she would return to normal. If his father wasn't her creator, he would have killed the bastard himself. Then Lucy returned to normal and pulled back hard and afraid. Tobias moved over and hugged her and let her cry. "...It's okay..." Lucy felt safe as she looked back at her daughter. "If the other Darkness spawn were not trapped here, you would have been set free long ago." Lucy nodded.

"The Children of the Witchblade... Do you think they will be able to free us?" Tobias breathed in her red hair and held her close.

"I don't know... but we can always hope." Tobias said as he heard a scream.

"Jessica..." Lucy forced out with fear as her maternal instincts kicked in with full force. Tobias and Lucy ran to where they head the scream. What they say stopped them cold. It was a body of a female human who was in the middle of dissolving into a puddle of organic residue. Then they heard crying, only to see a child bearing a Witchblade of white armor.

"We need to tell the elders about this." Tobias said as he looked down to see that the body of the human woman wasn't dissolving, it was forming.

"Ri.. na..." the woman spoke as her organs formed in the gaping hole in her chest as the massive breasts she had dripped milk as she forced herself to stay conscious. Lucy bent down and caressed the woman's cheek to let her know, she was with someone who cared.


Asagi felt better after the Dark Skinned woman, Lenora did something to her head as the Rock Concert from Hell stopped banging in her head. The young girl poked at her armor as the young girl sat on the bed next to her.

"Mom... her boobs are sagging." Masane blushed at this as she cleared her throat. "Riko..." Asagi looked down at the girl. Concerned she saw Aoi being worked on.

"This is your offspring?" Asagi felt uncomfortable.

"No..." Riko said sadly. "Mom..." She pointed at Masane. "...raised me after the great quake..." Masane looked uncomfortable at this. "My Bio... Logic… Mommy. Ms. Rena..." Asagi moved to her side as she crossed her leg over her knee to give Rihoko some room. "She got custody of her for a little while, but she gave me back to mommy after she safe me from the scary lady with multi colored hair. Mom... Fought her and monsters off with her powers."

"So... Masane is not your Mom, but she adopted you?" Rihoko was a little uneasy with this as she nodded. Aoi winced through the last of the pain as she discovered that Rihoko looked familiar to her, just that she couldn't place the face.

"How did you get your powers? Like Mom did or..." Asagi decided to change back. Rihoko studied her. She seemed a bit out of place, these weren't her clothes. The cheesy black t-shirt and the super fluffy yellow skirt she was wearing gave her little mobility to function in combat with. Rihoko just reached up to Asagi and cupped a boob in her small hand. Asagi pulled back unsure what this small underdeveloped creature wanted. "Mom... This is going to happen to your boobs if you don't start wearing a bra." The girl glared her mom down as Rihoko heaved one of Asagi's breasts up and down to emphasize her point. Masane was embarrassed by this as she moved over to her daughter. Asagi raised her hand to stop Masane in her tracks.

"Rihoko..." Asagi spoke slowly to the girl as she studied the child. The bracelet on the girls' arm was a faux version of the Witchblade. "May I study your blade?" Masane suddenly realized what the bracelet on Rihoko's wrist was. Asagi grinned as she took the girl's wrist and matched it against her own. Rihoko noticed that she had the same type of jewelry on her wrist as her mom, it looked different, but the general form was there. Then Asagi flexed her wrist and claws emerged from her hand. Then Back, then claws. Rihoko looked happy at this.

"Asagi..." Aoi was now standing, the Red Jumpsuit she was wearing made her look just out of place. "I don't think we should anger the little one..." Rihoko looked at the silver haired girl and Aoi gulped.

"Why are you scared of me?" Rihoko said concerned as Aoi ducked behind Masane. Asagi realized that Aoi had another secret and it was about to blow.

"You are Amaha Masane's daughter..." Aoi hid more. That was when Masane decided to fish some more details out of Aoi.

"Soho Reina, Neo-Gene." Masane got a gulp from behind her. "Maria." Gulp again. Masane was on the right path. "Death..." Moan... "Murder..." Loud gulp... Manane exhaled. "You involved."

"no...." the words were just above a whisper. Masane turned around and hugged the girl.

"It's okay... you can tell me a little later..." Masane grinned and let Aoi start to cry.

"Mom, what is up?" Rihoko said as she watched the scene unfold. Masane exhaled and looked back towards her daughter.

"Just that one of Mommy's new friends has seen some things that make her scared." Rihoko looked worried.

"Like monsters?" Aoi got scared.

"Yes, Rihoko... Monsters." Masane watched as Rihoko got off of the bed and walked over to Aoi and hugged her.

"Don't worry, My Mom fights monsters all the time, they won't harm you." Aoi just cried.


TBC


More on Aoi, Reiji, and Shiori next chapter.