Hansei Gaiden: True Origins
Part 1 - First Meetings
Nascita Cafe, May 2017
"Tired," mumbled Misora as she slumped forwards out of the Purification Chamber, asleep before she fell into Soichi's arms.
Sento sighed and grabbed the Kaizoku from the modified microwave set into the Chamber, "Another organic FullBottle."
Placing it on his workstation, next to the Rabbit, Tank and Lion FullBottles, Sento sat down, his head level with them.
Carefully laying Misora on the bed, Soichi joined Sento, leaning down next to his head, "Aren't you going to give it a try?"
"I'll do it later," sighed Sento, before brightening up, "But I do have something to show you."
Standing, Sento walked over to a strangely shaped object covered in a thick cloth. Gripping it, Sento yanked his arm back, to reveal a purple motorcycle.
"I call it the Machine Reflector," spoke Sento, hopping on and twisting the handles.
"Why is it purple?" questioned Soichi, frowning.
"Red and blue mixed, like RabbitTank," replied Sento, leaning on the handlebars, "It needs an inorganic FullBottle to power it, I'd have to entirely rebuild it to adapt it to run on an organic FullBottle."
A beeping sounded, both Sento and Soichi rushing over to its source, a laptop resting on a workstation.
"What is it?" questioned Sento, as Soichi sat down and started typing away.
"I'm not quite sure," murmured Soichi, looking puzzled.
"A Smash?" offered Sento.
"Perhaps, the readings are all over the place," answered Soichi, before turning the screen to face Sento, "These are its coordinates."
"Got it," replied Sento grabbing his FullBottles and his coat and racing up the stairs.
Feet pounding the concrete, Sento raced down the street, rounding the the corner and entered the warehouse the coordinates led to.
"I really need to finish that bike," huffed Sento, resting on his knees as he caught his breath.
A sudden noise grabbed Sento's attention, looking up as a swirling blue portal opened in front of him.
"Fascinating," grinned Sento, starting to step forward in order to examine the portal when a figure in yellow armour was spat out of it, skidding to a halt in a shower of sparks on his back, a plastic case landing next to him.
Sento watched warily as the portal snapped shut, the man in the yellow armour dragging himself to his feet, a Transteam Gun one hand.
"That gun," uttered Sento, flashes of when he was experimented on surging through his mind, "That's the same one the bat man had."
"H-Help," grunted the man, reaching forwards, "Sento."
Resolving himself, Sento drew his Rabbit and Tank FullBottles, shaking them, preparing to fight. Continuing to limp towards Sento, the man in the yellow suit gave a grunt and collapsed forwards, his suit vanishing.
Lowering his FullBottles, Sento groaned, "Talk about unsatisfying."
Walking over to the man, Sento crouched down, lifting the Transteam Gun from his grip, examining the FullBottle inserted into it.
"Really, another organic?" moaned Sento, going to pocket the FullBottle.
"Please put me back, Sento," spoke the FullBottle, flashing in time with the words.
Sento yelled and fell back, dropping the FullBottle, "What are you?"
"So we haven't met yet?" mused the FullBottle, "I'm ARI, an AI created by Foundation X to aid an X-Rider, luckily we don't really take to being told what to do, we escaped."
"We?" questioned Sento, leaning forwards.
"Yamato and I," answered ARI, as Sento picked her up again.
"Who's Foundation X?" added Sento, walking over to the briefcase that had come out of the portal as well.
"An organisation dedicated to amassing power, no matter who they hurt or kill," explained ARI, "Yamato's father is a member, he was the one to ordered for Yamato to be converted into an X-Rider."
"Woah," gasped Sento as he opened the case, revealing eighteen FullBottles, two empty slots in the center, "What are they?"
"These are Yamato's FullBottles, at least the time-displaced versions from before we even got them originally, well, some of them are" explained ARI, "We took them from a Foundation X Rider about four weeks ago."
"More FullBottles? How is this possible?" pondered Sento, "Misora is the only one capable of creating FullBottles."
"These were made in the future, 2023 to be exact," replied ARI, "Foundation X forced Misora to make them I assume, using artifically-reproduced Nebula Gas."
"2023, six years?" wondered Sento, "So Foundation X made these?"
"And they would like them back," drawled a voice, causing Sento to wheel around, finding a man in a black suit with a red scorpion on the chest, "So hand them over!"
"You're Foundation X, then I won't let you have them," called Sento, placing ARI down, drawing and shaking his FullBottles, "Science should not be perverted by mad men!"
[RABBIT!] [TANK!] [BEST MATCH!]
Inserting the FullBottles into the Build Driver and turning the crank, Sento crossed his arms over his chest.
"HENSHIN!"
[ARE YOU READY?!] [RABBITTANK!] [HAGANE NO MOONSAULT!] [YEAH!]
Transforming into RabbitTank Form, Build summoned his Drill Crusher and charged at BurnSting. Swinging his weapon, Build stumbled backwards as BurnSting blocked the blow.
"You'll have to try harder than that!" groused BurnSting, kicking Build in the chest.
Stumbling back, Build's foot nudged the case of FullBottles, some of them falling out.
"Let's try one of these out," spoke Build, grabbing a purple FullBottle, before drawing Kaizoku from his holder.
[KAIZOKU!] [CRYSTAL!]
"Shame," sighed Build, before turning the crank.
[ARE YOU READY?!]
Transforming in a flash of light, Build examined his suit, his right side light blue with the bow of a ship as the pauldron, a black and blue cape hanging from it.
The left side of his suit was purple and almost featureless by comparison. The left eye of the suit was light blue and themed after a skull and crossbones. Meanwhile, the other was simple purple lense, before it morphed into the same shape as the other eye.
"Fascinating," mused Build, before suddenly diving to one side as BurnSting launched a fireball at him.
"Idiot," grunted BurnSting, launching another fireball after gathering it in his palm.
"This is amazing," awed Build at all data flashing through his right lense, analysing BurnSting's every move.
Glancing down at his left hand, Build watched as a fireball gathered in his palm, exactly as BurnSting had done. Looking up, Build pulled his arm back, launching the fireball at BurnSting, surprising him.
Shifting as much as he could, BurnSting was caught in the shoulder and pushed backwards, his feet digging into his ground.
"Not bad," snorted BurnSting, diving forwards and rolling, stopping next to the open case of the FullBottles, "I'll be taking these, as well as this."
Grabbing the case and the FullBottle containing ARI, BurnSting tossed another fireball as Build went to rush at him.
"Let go of me!" demanded ARI.
"Tell your new friend to bring the Blood FullBottle to where his greatest shame lives," sneered BurnSting, holdin up, "That's if he wants to see his other half again, tomorrow morning."
Standing, BurnSting turned around, vanishing in a cloud of black smoke.
"This is not how I was expecting today to go," sighed Build, pulling the FullBottles from his belt, looking down at the Crystal FullBottle.
Stepping out from behind a pillar, BloodStalk watched as Sento walked over to Yamato's unconscious form.
Yamato looked up at the room around him, watching as smoke filled the portal room, both Hase and Hina yelling for him to move, he could barely hear them over the ringing in his ears.
Snapping out of his haze, Yamato studied his surroundings, the building was collapsing, a section of the ceiling had come down, blocking off their exit.
"The portal!" called Hina over the roaring sound of the fire as Kohei helped Yamato to his feet.
"We'll be lost in time and space all over again!" argued Hase, the case Onyx had been carrying in his grip.
"Better that than dead," replied Hina.
Hase sighed, "I'm in."
"Me too," added Kohei, "Yamato?"
"Anything that gets me closer to destroying Foundation X," spoke Yamato soullessly.
"If we holding onto each other we should be fine," explained ARI, through Yamato's mouth.
"Let's go!" exclaimed Hina as they all set of form the portal, dodging a section of collapsed ceiling.
"What's this?" questioned Hase, stopping and setting the case down, before picking up a Build Driver sat in front of the portal, obviously having come out of it.
"Sento's," uttered Yamato, "He must have tossed it through with the FullBottles."
"There's more," added Hase, grabbing a letter and a bundle of cloth, "It's for you."
A suddenly pulse of red light shot out of the portal, hitting Hase in the back, knocking him to the ground, the Driver, cloth and letter falling from his hands.
The portal rippled as a figure stepped through, a woman with dark hair, a laser blaster in one hand.
"Who the hell are you?" demanded Hina.
"Elena, Dr Tachibana's assistant," answered the woman, her eyes burning like fire, turning to Yamato, "You killed him! I watched you slaughter him in cold blood on my monitor, unable to stop you."
"He was a monster," growled Yamato, not even trying to rein his temper in, "He killed my sister, he deserved far worse than what I did to him."
"I will avenge him," spat Elena, grabbing the Build Driver and slamming it on her waist, "I will destroy you, Yamato Takahashi."
Cafe Nascita
Yamato bolted awake, eyes wide, calming once he saw his surroundings looked safe, a strange empty feeling inside of him puzzling him.
Searching around him, Yamato could see he was in some sort of laboratory, circuit boards and sheets of paper littering almost every surface.
Nearby, Sento was hunched over a strange panel set into the wall, sliding FullBottles in and out of it, swapping them with the one in his Driver, cheering every time he identified a Best Match, purely by trial and error.
Going to move, Yamato found he couldn't.
"What," murmured Yamato, glancing down to see himself sat against a metal leg of a table, his arms chained behind it.
"I couldn't just let you roam free down here," spoke Sento as he stopped what he was doing, dropping a chair in front of Yamato, back towards him.
"You can trust me, I'm an ally," replied Yamato, as Sento slumped into the chair, sitting the wrong way.
"I'll decide that for myself," stated Sento, before smiling for a few seconds, "So, how did you get that gun?"
Turning his head, Yamato could see his Transteam Gun resting on a table, "You gave it to me."
"No I didn't."
"Not yet, you will, in the future," quantified Yamato, "2023, to be exact."
"So that AI was telling the truth," murmured Sento, "Fascinating, six years, the implications."
"ARI? You there?" questioned Yamato as Sento rattled on, talking to himself, "ARI?"
"That Foundation X guy took her," explained Sento, looking up from his ramblings, "Said you had to bring the Blood FullBottle to 'the place of your greatest shame' or something like that."
"What?"
"Yeah, the scorpion guy gave you until tomorrow morning," replied Sento, pausing, "Although you have been unconscious all night."
"BurnSting, I need to go," growled Yamato, pulling at the handcuffs with all his might.
"Don't bother, I reinforced them," drawled Sento with a grin, "I saw your cybernetics, couldn't risk you attacking me."
"Let me go," stated Yamato.
"Answer my questions and I'll consider it," answered Sento, "What's your name?"
Yamato sighed, "It's Yamato Takahashi."
"Looking it up," spoke a voice.
Twisting his head, Yamato watched a desk with a laptop on it, Soichi sat behind it, typing away.
"Born April 3rd 1971, that would make you 46," commented Soichi.
"Let me guess," uttered Sento, "Time travel."
"Yeah," grunted Yamato, "I'm 22."
"It also says you were killed in a traffic incident in 1977," added Soichi.
"I'm from another world, one where I survived," answered Yamato.
"Your arm and leg?" queried Sento.
"The accident," replied Yamato, "Foundation X, the people BurnSting works for, they kidnapped me and modified me, fixed me, all led by my father."
"So a family reunion is out of the question?" asked Sento.
"Definitely."
"So, this," spoke Sento, holding up a somewhat charred letter.
"A letter from your future self, to me," informed Yamato, "I opened it a while ago, couldn't even read it."
"That's because it was in code," replied Sento, smiling, "One I developed, just in case something like this ever happened, the letter was actually to me, told me all about you, the Transteam Gun, your FullBottles."
"You designed a code for the possibility of a letter from your future self?" questioned Yamato, in disbelief.
"I like to be prepared," replied Sento.
"He got a letter he couldn't understand a few months ago, he was convinced it was a message from the future, so he created that encryption," spoke Misora from an armchair behind Yamato as she filed her nails, "Turned out to be really badly translated from English, it was an advertisement for male pen-"
"Wait, you knew all about me and you still locked me up and interrogated me?" exclaimed Yamato suddenly.
"Ah, w-well," stuttered Sento, his cheeks flushed from Misora's comment, "I trust my future self, he's had seven years longer to think about this than me, but you, I had to see if you told the same story, to see if I could trust you."
"Will you let me go then now?" queried Yamato.
Sento nodded, standing and moving behind Yamato, within a few seconds he felt his hands come free.
Pushing himself to his feet, Yamato picked up the Transteam Gun, looking down at it for a few seconds before stowing it in his jacket.
"I can only use the Ankylo FullBottle in the Gun, I tried using Crystal a while back, just to try, didn't work," spoke Yamato, "Hurt, though."
"I've prepared the Alpha Driver for you, the version before you get it," spoke Sento, guiding Yamato over to a workbench, he could see a half-built Driver as well as his own destroyed Driver.
"Can mine be fixed?" questioned Yamato, taking the Alpha Driver from Sento as he offered it to him, the Crystal and Python FullBottles already loaded into it.
"You did a number on it, maybe, I'm not really sure," answered Sento, "Although, it was outdated tech, my first attempt, the only reason I didn't break it down for parts like the others was sentimentality."
"I see," uttered Yamato, before striding over the panel on the wall, pulling his other six FullBottles from it, just Onyx and Ankylo missing.
"Those I took from your jacket, the other four fell out the case before that BurnSting guy took them," explained Sento as Yamato, examined them, he never really bothered looking in the case, "It's strange though, they wouldn't work with the panel but they would in my Driver."
One was gold with a lightning bolt on it, other sky blue with the picture of a wing imprinted onto it. The other two were the younger versions of Turbo and Shell.
"ARI said that my FullBottles were created using artificial Nebula Gas," replied Yamato.
"Huh, so that's why they're not compatible with the panel, oh, by the way, I got bored waiting for you to wake up, so I built a weapon for the first Best Match I found, Thunder and Eagle," informed Sento, picking up a spear from a workbench.
It had a long blue handle with a gold guard shaped like an eagle, doubling as an axe blade. On top was a silver lightning bolt as a blade, a simple spear blade on the other end.
"I call it, the Eagle Bolter," announced Sento, giving it a few experimental swings.
"It's pretty sweet," admitted Yamato, "But we need to focus, I need to save ARI."
"About that, I couldn't find any Blood FullBottle on you," spoke Sento, "Where are you hiding it?"
"I don't have it," answered Yamato, taking the remaining FullBottles from the panel, tossing the other versions of Shell and Turbo to Sento, "You can use these."
"I can test them out with this," grinned Sento, holding up the other Crystal FullBottle he'd taken from the case, "Wait, what do you mean you don't have the Blood FullBottle?"
"Exactly that," sighed Yamato, "It's was erased out of existence by Onyx, he made sure to take it with him when the timeline erased him, a final bit of revenge on Foundation X."
"But they still think you have it?" questioned Sento.
"They think I'm lying and I'm hiding it from them," explained Yamato, "BurnSting has been chasing me for the last three weeks."
"How are we going to get him off your back?"
"The only way, Masato understands," spoke Yamato, "Beating the crap out of him."
"Easier said than done," replied Sento, "I could barely scratch the guy."
"He want to taunt me with the Anklyo FullBottle, since it contains ARI, something is blocking our link," explained Yamato, "If we get her back I can use my Peerless form, that'll turn the tide."
"Sounds like a plan, ready to go?" questioned Sento.
"I'm always ready to turn BurnSting into a bloody pulp," retorted Yamato, "One step closer to destroying Foundation X."
Foundation X Headquarters
"Dr. Tachibana," announced Osamu as he entered the doctor's lab, "It's time to prep the candidates for Project Hansei."
Tachibana nodded, "I can have Elena and Masato prepped for Nebula Gas exposure within the hour."
"I've decided to add a third candidate," continued Osamu, "I'm sending a team to retrieve him."
"Who is the this third candidate?" questioned Tachibana.
"My son, a team is pulling him from the remnant of the other dimension the Pandora Box ripped apart, two weeks before he commits suicide, perhaps he can finally be of use to me," informed Osamu, "I'll be going with them."
"Are you sure that is wise," questioned Tachibana, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't question me, he will just be a vessel for Foundation X's desires," snapped Osamu, turning around and leaving the room.
As soon as the door shut, Tachibana suddenly cried out, clutching his head as he dropped to his knees. Rocking backwards and forwards as blood leaked from his ears, his mouth opening to release a cloud of Nebula Gas.
Going limp, Tachibana's eyes snapped open, his eyes turning gold.
"This is going to be fun," uttered Tachibana as he climbed to his feet, "I really will enjoy this."
1993, Yamato's World
Osamu paused outside the door, two soldiers dressed as orderlies behind him.
If he did this, he would be erasing the one thing Yamato did to make his proud, putting himself out of everyone's misery. Taking a deep breath, Osamu pushed the door open.
"Still as pathetic as ever," sneered Osamu, Yamato was asleep in his wheelchair.
"Morning, Father," replied Yamato, slowly waking up.
"It's two in the afternoon, Yamato," spoke Osamu, his voice cold.
"How's mother? And Touka?" questioned Yamato.
"Your sister is doing well, as for your mother, she hasn't improved still the last time you asked," retorted Osamu, he hated this pathetic waste of a human, "Probably the shame of having a disgrace of a son like you."
"If you've just come here to insult me, don't come," snapped Yamato.
"I wouldn't talk to me like that," taunted Osamu, walking around Yamato, "I'm the one who pays for you to live his this place, sleeping the day away."
"You shoved me in here when you couldn't hide away at home anymore," hissed Yamato, "You were so ashamed of having a child who was disabled and so afraid that it would hurt your career that you imprisoned me here."
"And you'll never escape," spoke Osamu, "That is your fate."
"I will get out, I will protect Touka from you," stated Yamato, his face contorting as he managed to raise his damaged left arm, then his prosthetic arm, "I will change my fate with these hands."
"I'd hoped I wouldn't have to play my hand so soon, but you've become too much of a risk, your spirit didn't break how I'd hoped it to," lied Osamu, what he was about to do was what he'd come here to do.
Stepping forward, Osamu knocked twice on the door, moving back again as the two soldiers dressed as orderlies entered Yamato's room.
"It looks like you will be getting your wish to get out of here, just not how you were expecting," informed Osamu in a smug tone, pulling off his glasses and beginning to polish them.
"You bastard," spat Yamato as the orderlies lifted him out his chair, his Walkman falling to the floor, the plastic cover on the front cracking.
"Take comfort that your sacrifice will help science," replied Osamu, "After all, progress demands sacrifice."
Lashing out with his good leg, Yamato struggled to get free, his prosthetic right arm coming loose, joining his Walkman on the floor.
"Sayonara, Yamato," murmured Osamu, watching as his son was dragged away, "This is just the start of your journey."
"Sir, should we deactivate the device?" questioned one of the soldiers.
"After we leave, yes," replied Osamu, straightening his collar, "Without Dr. Tachibana's creation, this last pocket of this world will be consumed, once and for all."
Turning to face the door, Osamu allowed a small smile to tug at the corners of his mouth, "Good riddance."