Star Force DxD
By Tailsmo4ever
Intermission: Aftershock
He was running like his life depended on it. Running as far as his stubby little legs could carry him as his pursuers chased after him with taunts and jeers. His eyes clenched as his teeth began to grit. He could hear them getting closer, the yelling getting louder. He had to get faster, he had to move his feet faster. Alas, he felt his collar getting grabbed and he saw pulled to the ground. The next thing he knew he was kicked and stomped on. He shielded his face with his forearms, but even that left his ribs open and the eagerly took advantage of it.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Get away from him!"
The bullies saw an older boy chasing after them and quickly scrambled, but not before throwing one last jab at their recent victim. "Looks like your knight in shining armor's here to save you, baby!" "Have fun with your boyfriend!" Another pulled down their eyelid and stuck out their tongue before running off laughing. The older boy stopped in front him before picking up a pebble and throwing it at them.
"Stupid jerks! Picking on a preschooler, you got some nerve!" he shouted after them. Straightening himself up, he turned around to the younger boy that they were kicking on the ground. The kid looked to be around six, had black shorts with a green Kamen Rider Zangetsu shirt and had chestnut brown hair with violet eyes.
"Here, Net-kun. I'll help you up," the boy said, holding out his hand. The black-haired, red-eyed boy sniffed slightly before taking his hands.
The two young boys walked along the river side of the park. Netto rubbed the bruises on his arms, flinching slightly since they still stung. "Don't tell my mommy and daddy, Aniki," he begged.
"How can we cover something like that up?" his Aniki asked, pointing at his bruises. "Why were they even beating you up?"
"Because they were picking on another kid! It wasn't right!" Netto exclaimed.
"Ah. So that's what happened," his Aniki sighed with a slight smile on his face, "It's always good to stand up for other people. But you know, you have to get bigger first. You can't go after people doing something bad just because you can."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one thing, you have to know how to fight back," his Aniki replied, sounding like a true older sibling, "If you can't fight for yourself, how can you fight for everyone else? That's fundamentals, Net-kun."
"Funda... medals?" the pre-schooler blinked curiously.
"...Whoops, that was a big word," his Aniki snickered, rubbing his head sheepishly. "Well... let's put it this way. It's like... something that everyone has to know, see? That's what it is. Fundamentals."
"Oh." Netto blinked before his mouth grew to a smile, "You're really cool, Aniki! When I grow up, I wanna be big and strong like you!"
Seeing his "younger brother" stare up at him in pure admiration, the elder boy couldn't help but give a small smirk. Gently, he held up his fist and brushed it against Netto's forehead. "Sure, pipsqueak," his Aniki laughed with a silly grin, "I can really see that happening someday."
Netto's eyes slowly fluttered open, his vision slowly focusing as the fuzziness vanished from his eyes. "Huh?" he muttered, "I'm in my room?" He tried to sit up, but his body felt stiff. It was as if he hadn't moved in several days. He hissed lightly as he felt his joints began to pop. He looked out the window, seeing that the sun was already setting. Looking down at himself, he was surprised to find that he was in an undershirt with boxers and socks. "Last time I checked it was dawn. How long was I out?"
"Three days," was the answer that came out from his Transer. "You were really out cold. After what happened back there, I don't blame you."
"Omega-Xis?" he reached his hand to the table and grabbed his Transer, flipping it open. To his great relief, he found his alien partner still inside. "Omega-Xis, you're still here!"
"You're looking pretty good yourself kid," Omega-Xis answered back, folding his arms with an amused smile, "Not too shabby for someone who just kicked the butt of a doomsday device. Though it's not exactly something that a lot of folks can claim."
Netto gave an exhausted sigh as his shoulders relaxed, "You know, a few months ago, if someone told me I was gonna destroy a doomsday weapon to stop it from blowing up Earth, I'd probably think they needed to grow out of their chunibyo phase. But now that it's happened," he gave a wondering look as his eyes turned upward, "Huh. I wonder who'd play me in the movie?"
"Cracking jokes already, you're obviously OK," Omega-Xis scoffed playfully.
"Anywho, the world's been saved," Netto stated. "Good, that's good. Score one for the human race."
"Yeah, the world's been saved, but it's not the same world anymore," Omega-Xis reminded him, "From now on, people are gonna look at things much more differently." Netto gave a small nodded. He fully understood. Omega-Xis didn't need to go into detail. He simply flipped through the internet icon on his Transer to find out what he missed.
3 days ago, the world changed forever.
When Andromeda emerged and the EM virus outbreak went worldwide, many people reacted in different ways. Alien conspiracy theories felt vindicated and started posting on forums like crazy, with photographic and video evidence to show that "we are not alone". They appeared with such frequency that shutting them down was impossible and more believers were born that day.
Covering up something so large was impossible.
The news was still reporting the aftermath of what had taken place. While there were skeptics who claimed it was some kind of hoax, they were the minority who wanted to rationalize it all to maintain their safe normalcy.
Many worldviews were shattered 3 days ago.
DJ Mikogami, of course, was still going at it and persecuting Mega Man, claiming he was behind the Andromeda. But it seemed to be the norm for him so not a lot of people were paying attention. Oh, they were aware that Mega Man was involved, but he also had a hand in stopping Andromeda. Other news outlets were reporting the aftermath in other parts of the world. There were deaths and injuries reported, that was inevitable. There were other talks from famous scientists and astrophysics about the recent discovery of other life beyond the stars. Now that humanity wasn't the only intelligent life on Earth, what did this mean for everyone? Would there be other hostile aliens with an ax to grind?
He was surprised to learn that Utagai was cited as the person responsible for the ultimate mass deletion the viruses around the world with an expansive version of the virus eradication program that the Battle Cards used. He was declared a hero. Netto couldn't help but crack a smile. The guy was untrusting around everyone after a professor he looked up to stole his ideas for his own. Now that he was recognized for something great, it could help out his confidence a great deal. That treacherous professor must be dumping bricks at the news right now.
"Everything changed in a matter of a few days," Netto said, closing the browser. "Honestly, I'm pretty excited. Everyone knows that aliens are real now. Think of what that means. Soon we'll be building spaceships to other planets and interact with other races. We could even have space colonies and even discover unexplored worlds. Everything that I've read in books, watched in movies and played in video games are all about to become reality! I can hardly wait!" he finished with an excited squeal.
"An optimist, ain't ya?" Omega-Xis remarked, "Well, it's gonna be a while before that happens. Aliens nearly destroyed this world in case you forgot."
"Ugh, right," Netto realized as he palmed his head. "What happened to everyone else?"
"Everybody's resting too. That Koneko-girl's sister bailed for some reason though. They've all been coming and going but they've mostly been sticking around at your house for the most part. Probably safer," Omega-Xis summarized.
"Seriously, everyone's here?" Netto asked, pushing himself to move out of his bed.
And then he felt a familiar sensation of something, warm, soft, and round in the palm of his hand.
Netto stiffened. He was very familiar with this by now. Slowly, he turned to face the other occupant in his bed. Was it Rias? Was it Asia? Lala? To his utter surprise, it wasn't either of them. Instead, he saw Mari sleeping soundly beside him, dressed in nothing but an unbuttoned shirt and underwear.
"Wha-wha-wha-WHAT!?" Netto shouted, jumping from his bed. "Wha... Why? How?!"
"You seem to have some sort of hidden power to have the opposite sex sneak in your bed, Netto," Omega-Xis snickered. "That's the fourth one since I've met you."
Netto could say anything else. He could only stare and stammer at the sight of his classmate sleeping in his bed. The girl slowly stirred and rubbed her eyes, sitting up as her big, beautiful blue eyes cracked opened and looked at him lazily... wait, had always noticed her eyes to be so gorgeous? Why was he thinking that now? Mari blinked a few times, and her mind started to become lucid again when her eyes widened. After a quick screech, she scrambled off the bed and fished around the bed desk, covering her face from him. She picked up her glasses and fumbled them against her eyes before turning to look at him again. "Um... g-good morning," she stuttered, clumsily buttoning her shirt.
"It's... evening right now," Netto replied, trying not to stare at her chest. "Um... why are you in my bed?"
"I, uh... well..." she stammered slightly, "You were still unconscious and everyone was worried. Asia-senpai healed you the best she could, and I and the rest of the Bishops and Queens even chipped in. Buchou and your mother were quite frantic. So I decided to... help you rest more easily."
"What does that mean?" Netto blinked.
Mari breathed slightly to calm her nerves. "I'm actually a succubus, a sub-race of all female devils that that can enter and manipulate dreams. So, I thought that you could heal faster if you were having a pleasant dream. But I could only do that if I were in physical contact with you, and with as much skin as possible..."
"Oh... so, that was what you were doing?" Netto asked shyly. Mari replied with a shy nod of her own. "Really..." both stared at each as an uncomfortable silence swept between them. Mari, as he could tell, didn't seem to have all that much experience with a boy, which was odd since from some of the fantasy stories he read succubi were supposed to the ultimate temptresses of men. He opened his mouth to say something else, but the sound of several footsteps running to his room and the door swinging open interrupted him.
"Netto!" Lala squealed happily, clad in her "alien princess" dress, instantly leaping from the doorway and on top of the boy. Netto gave a loud grunt once Lala's weight forced him down on his bed. Mari gave a shout of surprise at the pink-haired extraterrestrial girl's display of affection. "Netto, you're awake! I'm so happy~!" Lala beamed as she nuzzled her face against his.
Netto couldn't respond. Mostly due to the fact that he could feel his ribs starting to snap. His lungs had the air forced out of him thanks to her infamous bear hug. "Lala! Air! Need air!" he choked out.
"Ah!" Lala gasped after releasing what she was doing. She loosened her grip around him, giving Netto back his ability to breath. "Oops, I forgot about my strength again," she said sheepishly, closing an eye and sticking a tongue out, "Teehee!"
"Arg! Lala-san, you can't just rush into his room like that!" Asia shouted, running through the door. As soon as her eyes landed on Mari, they bulged. "M-M-Mari-san?! What are you doing in Netto's room?! Why are you indecent?!" Mari quickly panicked before she fumbled around to find the rest of her clothing.
Netto sat up from his bed as he rubbed his bruised ribs. Lala was still on him, sitting on his lap with her arms around his neck, "Asia, how goes everything? Is everyone doing ok?"
"Just a few of us are resting in the living room," she said, looking her eyes darting back and forth shyly. "And school was suspended after the incident so we've mostly been here, waiting for you..." she trembled slightly on the spot before she threw herself at Netto, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, "I'm just glad you're safe," she whispered.
Netto gave a small smile as he rubbed his hand over her head, "Yeah, so don't worry. I'm cool now." Asia rose her head up to gaze at him, giving him an adorable smile. "Now, I should get on something decent myself. I better find some clothing." Realizing that Lala was still hanging on to him, he looked over at her with an embarrassed smile, "Hey, Lala? Could you let go of me now?"
"Oh, do I have too~?" Lala pouted playfully.
"We should give him some space to change," Asia said while she tugged the back of Lala's dress, her face turning to a slight red tint at the thought of Netto changing. She looked over at Mari, who had put her uniform back on while they were talking, "Come one, Mari-san. Let's go wait outside."
"Y-yeah, sure," Mari nodded timidly.
A brief moment later, Netto was dressed in simple jeans and a blue and yellow shirt. He joined the trio outside his room and both went down the stairs. He found that a majority of the Occult Research Club was there, along with Tomoe from the Student Council, Rei, Reika, and Mami, all of them watching the TV. Even Sheryl Nome was there. He mentally kicked himself. Of course, the pop idol was there too. How could forget? For some reason, he couldn't see Rias or Akeno anywhere. Deciding to ask about them later, he made himself known.
"Hey guys!" he greeted upon walking into the living room, bringing everyone's attention to him.
"Netto-kun!" Tomoe gasped as she jumped from her seat, "You're up!"
"Oh me, oh my! Look who's here!" Sheryl smiled, running up to him as everyone else followed.
"Yeah, just got up," Netto answered, rubbing his shoulder.
"You're a sight for sore eyes," Koneko remarked, a small smile on her face.
"I'll say. You took quite the beating, my friend," Yuuto remarked. "Glad to see you're in one piece after all of that."
"How are you feeling?" Rei asked.
"Remember that Gaming Marathon we had last year and what we were like when it was over?" Netto asked rhetorically. Rei and Reika glanced at each other and instantly understood. They remembered how they each pretty much fell into a coma to recover from the longest gaming session of their lives. "But I'm all good now."
"I don't blame you. After all, you did save the world," Rei remarked.
"We saved the world. We all did," Netto corrected, beating his fist against his chest. "Couldn't have done without you guys."
"Too bad it's an accomplishment we can't brag about. Would look really good on my CV," said Reika, shrugging in downcast.
"Yeah, that really does suck. So hey," Rei said, getting a look of wonderment on his face as he turned to Netto. "Devils are really, right?"
Netto shrugged, seeing as how they were in this, "Yeah."
"And you're one."
"Got turned into one about the same time I met Omega-Xis." Netto cocked an eyebrow, "You know, you're taking this a whole lot better than I thought."
"Oh, no," Rei shook his head while waving his hand, "I'm freaking out on the inside. Aliens I get! Aliens! But devils, man that's something else. What, are there also angels? Sexy elves? Dwarfs? What about liches? Next thing you're gonna tell me is that there are gods too."
"You are aware that you have a magical girlfriend?" Netto reminded him.
"I can handle magic. That's as far as my weirdness meter can go!"
"Um, whatever you say," Netto answered, looking at his middle school friend weirdly. Looking around, he noticed that there was one other person missing, "Speaking of which, where's Yokoshima? I thought he'd be here," Netto asked.
"Ach. He's snoozing someplace else. Whatever he did left him pretty exhausted. He's going to be starving when he wakes up," Rei answered. "And you know how he's like when he's in an atmosphere like this." Netto cringed and nodded.
"I still want to examine him, though," Lala added, an eager twinkle in her eyes. "That human friend of yours bonded with the Variant Armor of the Reach. It's something you don't see every day."
"That's not a good idea," Netto said. Yokoshima would freak out if Lala came anywhere near him, with or without her tools. He also needed to remember to ask Lala what she knew about this Variant Armor that had bonded to Yokoshima and wanted to know if his friend was in danger of being infected by an alien parasite. "So, what's been going on? Where's everyone else?"
"Buchou, Kaichou, and Luciana-senpai went down to the Underworld to report to the Maous," Yuuto explained, "Several of the others went along with them while the rest of us stayed behind to look after you."
"Oh, sure. So you volunteered too, Tomoe-sempai?" Netto asked her.
"Of course!" Tomoe replied with a cheeky grin, leaning over to Netto coyly with her arms behind her back, "You don't mind, do ya?"
"Hehe, no," Netto chuckled nervously, his face heating up at how close she was, "Make yourself at home."
"As for Jason, he said something about the Grauzauberer having a field day over everything that happened. Orie-san and her group left earlier today to make their report in private. Needless to say, the past few days were very busy," Mami popped in.
"What about you?" Netto asked her.
"I already made my report two days ago," she replied. "I can't go too much into detail but I'm going to be staying here for a little while longer." When she said that, she hugged her arms around Rei's bicep, making the male twin grin in response.
Reika rolled her eyes, "Lemme tell you, it's like those two are on a never-ending honeymoon. They're not even married yet!"
"The point is, the entire world is freaking out," Sheryl said, "Everyone knows that aliens are real now. It's the hottest, #1 trending topic right now." She pointed the TV's remote and raised the volume. There was a news feed on the screen with footage of several astronomers, cosmologists, astrophysicists, and astrobiologists debating with the caption "ALIENS ARE AMONG US" underneath. There were even some hashtags like '#WeAreNotAlone' & '#TheTruthisOutThere'.
"It's kind of scary though," Mari said, "People don't normally think of aliens when thinking about an event that would change the course of history."
"There've always been people who believe that there's life out there in space. This is just the first time it's been proven to the entire planet. Anyone who doesn't believe it is in denial," Netto replied. "It was Carl Sagan who once said 'It's pure hubris to assume our tiny blue marble could contain the only intelligent life in the galaxy'."
"It's human nature to think they're the centre of the universe," Koneko said, looking at the news uncomfortably. "Nobody likes to think how small they really are in the grand scheme of things. There are a lot of people who like to believe that Earth was made to be the only planet with life even though there are a lot of other planets out there that might have life."
"So now what do we do?" Tomoe asked, putting her hands over her hips.
"I think right now the only thing we can do is wait and see what happens," Yuuto said reluctantly. "We've already done our part by stopping Andromeda. Now we just need to see how the rest of the world will take the news and see what they will do."
"What will the church do about all this?" Netto asked. "Asia, do you know?"
The sister looked down with a look of resignation, "I think... they wouldn't like the news at all. The church has always believed that God made the Earth to be the only planet with life. With the existence of aliens becoming confirmed all across the world, they may find their teachings to be contradictory to what's happening right now. They might find that they may even lose followers."
"Assholes like them deserve to lose followers," Omega-Xis huffed. He really wasn't fond of the church after all the things he's heard about them.
"There's no need to be rude, Omega-Xis," Lyra snipped from Sheryl's guitar. "I doubt all of these church people are bad."
"Asia's worries aren't unfounded, though," Yuuto continued, "It isn't just the church we should be worried about right now. It's all of the supernatural realm as a whole, not to mention the various pantheons. How they will react to the news, we can't say from here."
Once the attack had come to a stop, the Pope had called in all the high-ranked members of the Church to a meeting to discuss a matter of high importance. As secluded as they were, the Church had agents in the outside world to report happenings of the supernatural. They sent Exorcists to deal with devils and fallen angels and the churches set up within many towns and cities had their own priests and ministers to report the local goings-on.
The subject was of the recent events that happened across the world, not to mention the heavy outbreak that ravaged Vatican City. Talks of 'aliens' were spread around and they made members of the Church question their place in the universe. God created Earth and humans, and that was a fact. None entertained the idea of life forms that existed on other worlds. But now there was tangible proof that they weren't alone and it was causing a stir as some found their faith shaken.
Two of the Vatican's Exorcists, both of them wrapped in white cloaks, were walking up the steps of the cathedral as they too discussed what had recently happened. There were already repairs happening around, workers undoing the damage that was done to the place. Their clokes hid their frames well but their faces were clearly youthful and feminine. These just happened to be the same Exorcists who were defending Italy during the attack.
"Can you believe it? Aliens! Real aliens! We're not alone in the universe!" the brown-haired Exorcist beamed with enlightened optimism.
"Calm down. You sound blasphemous. They say it's only a trick of the devils," the blue-haired one replied with grim skepticism.
"Maybe, but haven't you ever imagined of having a first encounter and making contact with real extraterrestrials?"
"You watch too much of that science fiction nonsense."
"Well, it's not that bad. Science fiction is just another term for fantasy, right? Besides, it's not the first time we've been proven wrong about something. Long ago people thought the world was flat and that got disproven. Even way back then people used to think the Earth was the center of the universe but we know better now. Maybe God's been making a whole slew of different worlds and we just didn't know it."
"Be serious. The situation is dire. Faith in our religion is already being shaken up by modern technology and ideas. And now, thanks to this incident, the entire world is affected."
"What will the Pope do?"
"I don't know. Only God knows."
A man with long black hair with pale skin, red eyes and long ears wearing a decorative robe watched the news via a magic holographic screen of the aftermath of what his people were now calling "the Andromeda Crisis".
The world was in an uproar. Despite how the Earth was recovering, people were shown the abnormally of aliens. This would without a doubt cause hysteria across many people, especially the Heaven Faction. Many followers left because they were shown existence beyond God's creation and felt they were lied to were one of the reasons. Others lost hope in the Church after the damage caused to many religious relics and landmarks and the rest many people questioned if God truly is the creator of the universe.
God. The man scoffed at his so-called Father. If the humans knew the truth about what truly happened to him during the Great War, humans would truly lose faith in the Church leaving the angels no power or dominion to humanity. He himself had no such concerns though. He did not disregard the news of aliens as nonsense, especially when they had such an amazing weapon.
He heard it was called Andromeda, and it could be used to end an entire world. How ironic that such a destructive weapon shared the same name as the sacrificial princess from Greek legend. Surely such a weapon would be best suited in his hands. Still, the invasion became the golden opportunity. While the Church was distracted during the invasion he sent his agents to the Catholic, Orthodox, and Roman Churches to steal important artifacts that he would contain to move his plans into motion. Though clearly nowhere near as powerful as Andromeda, they were still powerful enough to cause the chaos he so desired.
The door opened behind him. A middle-aged man wearing priest clothes walked inside and bowed. "Lord Kokabiel, I have a report to make regarding the Excalibur pieces."
"Well? Have we recovered them?" the pale-skinned man asked, not even looking behind him.
The priest showed a sincere smile, but there was something very sinister behind it. "Yes, we managed to get three pieces. It'll be more than enough to create the perfect weapon."
"Excellent, tell Freed to go to Kodama City and have him wait for further instructions," Kokabiel ordered.
The priest's eyes widened at the sound of the town's name. "Kodama? But isn't that place..." his face paled as Kokabiel stood to turned his head and glared at him with piercing red eyes.
"Are you questioning my command?" Kokabiel glared.
The priest quickly bowed. "Right away, my lord." He turned and left, not willing to say another word.
Kokabiel turned back to face the screen, seeing Mega Man's image on it. Though he looked young, there was no denying that the boy lit the fuse that shook the world to its foundation. The humans, along with every other supernatural being on the planet, now knew the truth. They were not the only intelligent life in the universe after all. And if he guessed correctly, the aliens from other worlds would be aware of them very soon. The chaos would be absolute.
He grinned viciously at the prospect. Though Andromeda was gone, he had a feeling it would not be the last time the world saw it.
Upon returning to the police station, the police were almost immediately swamped with work. Phones were ringing non-stop while others were filing reports and locking down evidence found in the battleground. Goyoda himself was speed marching through the office halls, barking at any officer he passed by. "Hurry, hurry, hurry! What is this, a gay construction worker bar? My mother works faster than this and she's dead!" He gave a deep sigh to himself, "Why isn't my retirement coming sooner?"
After the recent incident of the attack by the FMians, the Satella Police were scrambling to get their systems back online. They eventually managed to do so and when they did they quickly got to work. With Goyoda, he managed to take holographic photos of the battle site for investigation.
If he was told that aliens existed and was going to attack Earth weeks ago, he would've laughed it off. But now he found himself a believer. Then again, just about everyone is. It was impossible not to believe. It was the talk of the town, the talk of the world. With several of the police officers patrolling the city, they were able to find several people already chatting it up about hostel invaders. It was like a movie and Goyoda had walked into the set.
He reached a security door and placed his thumb on the biometric scanner next to it. The scanner's lights flashed as it read his fingerprint, and once it gave a happy chime the door hissed before it slid open. Behind the door was what could be considered a briefing room of sorts. Several police officers stood around a blank white space and Roslyn was standing in the center. She noticed Goyoda walking down the steps and joining the group. He gave her a short nod, signaling her to start.
Roslyn cleared her throat as the white space in the middle glowed and a projection of the city took its place. "We now know that the machine that attacked the city 72+ hours ago was indeed of extraterrestrial origin," she began as the hologram zoomed down to several street corners. Several dotted lines appeared to mark the path that Andromeda took. "However, since the weapon was completely obliterated by the final attack, we were unable to gather any evidence to reverse engineer it. We did however managed to contain a sample of an unknown substance from where the weapon was destroyed." Another hologram appeared before her, showing a piece of asphalt that was stained in purple. "The crime lab is unable to identify it since it might not be of this planet. It could be a new element altogether. We suspect that it's connected somehow."
A lot of whispers and murmurs could be heard among the Satella Police. "So you're staying that whatever was left there was somehow controlling it remotely?" one of the policemen asked.
"That's right," Roslyn nodded.
"But their weapon is destroyed now, so there shouldn't be any possibility for them to use it again," another one said, "Even so, should we expect another attack from these aliens?"
"The possibility of another attack is extremely high, and so to that end, the higher-ups have begun to organize a new unit of Satella Police made to handle not just EM virus, but other possible alien threats," Goyoda cut in. "That is why each of you was brought here today. Now that the existence of aliens is now known to the public there is a good chance that we may end up attracting more unwanted attention. And most importantly," he added with an annoyed grunt, "We would be used as a front for the jerks at UNIT."
It was no secret that Goyoda had a loathing for the organization, and especially one of the members. Taki's holier than thou attitude rubbed him the wrong way. The pompous jerk tried to make him drop his investigation simply because there were aliens involved. He had never dropped a case once in his career, not once. The worst he did was put cases on hiatus, but he would always return to them once he was ready. He was very serious about his work, and he really didn't like it when anyone told him to back off. He wouldn't be in his position today if he blindly followed orders.
Speaking of one such case, his mind wandered to one person of interest. Netto Kusanagi, the son of a scientific couple who he seemed to run into whenever there were virus outbreaks happening. He went on a small stakeout near his school to see if he could learn anything but was interrupted when a car alarm suddenly went haywire, distracting him enough to lose track of the boy and getting caught by the staff. Lucky he just had to flash his badge and be on his way. He still needed to find out how the boy was connected, if he was connected anyway. It seemed too much of a coincidence for him to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Each of you has exceptional athletic and intelligence skills in your fields. And to get ready for what's to come, we need the best we can get," Goyoda added. "So with that out of the way, let me introduce you to your new commanding officer."
One of the officers stepped forward between Goyoda and Roslyn. He was dressed differently from the rest of the officers there. He was a young male around late teens to early adulthood with a slightly dark skin tone. He was tall, at about 6 feet, though he was somewhat thin. He had dark-blue hair that went down to his neck and brown eyes. His ensemble featured a simple black jumpsuit similar to one of a pilot, with an attached metal belt circling the waist. Over this, he donned a white jacket bearing the Satella Police emblem on the right sleeve and back, with a metallic enforcement plate acting as a collar. He also wore white boots of the same materials. He wore two gray gloves with yellow steel lines running over the back of the gloves. A red visor was also stuck into the collar of his suit.
"State your name and introduce yourself," Goyoda ordered.
The young man saluted with a challenging smile, "Commander Shido Akatsuki, sir. Welcome to the Satella Commandos, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you'll survive the experience!"
Takuya Taki had a strict policy when it came to aliens and supernatural beings. If they proved hostile, they were to be captured or neutralized. And when there were possible reports of alien sightings, it was UNIT's job to provide a cover story so that the public would be left in the dark to prevent a panic.
Unfortunately, those days were over. This was too big of an event to simply cover up and even if UNIT had a lot of advanced tech, some which had been reverse-engineered from procured alien tech, they could not make what had happened as it had never happened.
Although, he did consider hijacking the EM-wave signals and broadcasting some kind of mindwipe frequency. Unfortunately, there were too many risks of accidentally erasing everyone's minds and wiping them clean. While dealing with the aftermath of the alien siege, he had been summoned by General Evangeline Kamiyami. He knew instantly that his day was about to get worse.
He put his ID card against the security sensor then put his eye up against the retinal scan before he whispered the security phrase. The door opened and he was let inside. Once there, he saw speaking on the phone with an open folder in front of her.
"Yes, yes, I know. I'll see what I can do. You have my word, thank you." Evangeline hung up the phone and turned her gaze at the awaiting Taki.
"You wanted to see me, ma'am?" Taki asked her astutely.
"Commander, do you know who I had on the phone just now?" she asked, folding her hands into a tent over her mouth.
"No, ma'am."
"It was the Prime Minister," she answered, "He's not happy with us right now."
"I'm sure I can understand," Taki replied. He knew this would be the case. He mentally prepared himself for this.
"He wished to maintain normalcy in this country and while Mega Man has been making waves, at least his actions were isolated and contained save for a few videos online," Evangeline continued, "But now that's not the case anymore. The world nearly ended and the Prime Minister wants us to deal with the aftermath. What do you plan to do about this, hm?"
"We..." Taki started, not believing what he was about to say, "We may need to adapt and accept the change." He meant to say 'chaos' but he was attempting to be diplomatic.
"That's odd, coming from a by-the-book guy such as yourself."
"To be fair, nothing in the books said anything about what to do after a revelation of this magnitude, ma'am," Taki replied reluctantly. "At this point, a cover story would be impossible. At the very least we can try to minimize the damage done to the best of our abilities."
"Really now?" Evangeline asked, her nails tapping along her desk. "It seems we don't have much of an option then. We would have to contact all the other branches for an impromptu mass meeting on how we can handle with this change. I'm sure the other Generals would all like to know what to do next moving forward from this incident. In the meanwhile, I suggest you try to figure out how we fix the mess we are in."
"Right away," Taki bowed and quickly left the room. Once the door was closed behind him, Evangeline turned to the folder before her and took them in her hands. She flipped through the folder and slipped out two of the files from inside. Her expression unchanging, she scanned over the information listed on two individuals.
"As if we didn't have enough problems already. The siege just had to awaken their genes," she muttered, her eyes slowly turning red.
Back at the Kusanagi Household, Netto, Lala, Asia, Yuuto and Koneko were all informing everyone about their short visit on the Satellite Pegasus. The audience listened with intrigue and a bit of envy over the fact the Occult Research Club managed to see outer space, not to mention the planet Earth itself, with their very eyes. Only trained astronauts had that kind of privilege, and it would take months of hellish training to prepare for a trip to space. Yet the ORC managed to take a trip in a single night. While on the topic of the Satellite Administrators, Netto mentioned something that threw Omega-Xis through a loop.
"I'm... an AMian?" the ghost-like dog blinked, looking stunned.
"That's what they said," Netto replied.
Omega-Xis frowned slightly, looking undoubtedly confused, "But that doesn't make any sense. I've lived on FM for as long as I could remember. How am I supposed to be an AMian?"
"Oh, Omega-Xis," Lyra murmured worriedly. She had never seen him look that way before. She could understand though. She never knew that he was an AMian either, and it shocked her just as much.
"So according to these admins, the AMian race supposedly died out when Andromeda annihilated their planet, leaving them as the only survivors," Sheryl said, assessing the information, "Only now it looks like there's another survivor that we weren't aware of until now."
"Hn," Omega-Xis grunted, "So if I managed to survive AM's destruction, then that possibly means that there are others out there who survived too."
"That's true," Lala answered, "Either they're hiding on other planets... or maybe they're hiding on Earth right now."
At this, both Hikari twins flinched, "H-hiding on Earth?" Reika stammered slightly.
"It makes sense, though, right?" Netto replied. "It'd be the next logical thing. Maybe there are some other aliens hiding on Earth. A whole other species even." He blinked when he saw the twin's reaction, "What is it? Something we said?"
"Um... it's nothing. Just remembered something we... saw. We don't think that big of a deal and it just reminded us of something else," Rei answered, mentally kicking himself for lying through his teeth.
"...Right," Netto was still unsure why the reacted that way, but he figured he'd let it go for now. "So if there are other aliens hiding amongst everyone, they might not want to be found out. It still makes me wonder if-"
A flash of light broke the conversation, signaled by a pink magic circle that emerged from the other end of the living room. And as it stayed, the remaining members of the newspaper club walked out of the mandala. "Hi, gang! We're back~!" Luciana waved cheerfully.
"Luciana-sempai! Welcome back," Mari greeted as she stood up. "How was the Underworld?"
"Oh, it's like you won't believe," Luciana said as the Student Council stepped out of their magic circle. "Everybody there was totally freaking out over the fact that the world nearly got blown up, and a lot more were panicking over how aliens are real. Some of them were wearing 'the end is near' signs too. You don't normally see that in the Underworld."
"It does say a lot about the magnitude of the incident, doesn't it?" Sona continued. "The devils have now realized that they are nowhere near as special compared to humans or anyone else. A majority of them think themselves as the center of the universe, but that's not the case anymore. Ironic, no?" Looking among the group, she noticed to her surprise that Netto was among them, "Oh, Kusagani-kun. You're up."
Netto stood up from his seat as he gave his greetings, "Yeah, I'm well rested, Kaichou. Are Buchou and Akeno-senpai with you?" Sona didn't answer but instead gestured at the red magic circle that appeared next to her, and both Rias and Akeno stepped out of it. As soon as Rias caught sight of Netto, she seemed to shiver on the spot. Netto himself couldn't help but swallow. He still remembered how she stood ready to blow Andromeda away, how her unkempt fiery crimson locks fluttered about in the midst of her aura.
And in a split moment, she bolted towards him wrapping her arms tightly around him, burying her face into the crock of his neck. Netto had just barely kept his balance in check after his master practically tackled him. Netto opened his mouth to say something, but his words ended up caught in his throat. So instead, he simply hugged her back.
"You're OK," Rias whispered.
"Yeah, I just got up," Netto explained.
"I was so worried," she said, pulling herself back with her hands still on his shoulders, "I thought you might be in a coma."
"I wasn't. I was just resting. Finishing off Andromeda just took a lot out of me."
"Us," Omega-Xis corrected. "Remember, it was both of us, Netto."
"Right, thanks for reminding me, Omega-Xis," Netto sighed.
"If it was just you, there would be no you right now."
"I get that, Omega-Xis. No need to keep reminding me."
"I mean, you were running on fumes before you passed out."
"Are you done?"
Rias released her grip on Netto and smiled. She was just so relieved after seeing him unconscious for the past three days. "I'm just really glad you are well," Rias said.
"I'm glad you're safe, too. But I need to ask if my friends are going to be on any radars now?" Netto asked, referring to the ROF.
Rias looked over at Rei and Reika with a curious look, "They don't have any Sacred Gears so the chance of any devil going after them seems low. Still, the things they were able to do isn't normal. I don't even sense magic from them."
The twins looked at each other, wondering if they should tell Netto and everyone about what Nackle had "revealed" to them. The twins were skeptical of his claim that they had alien ancestry, but it was also true that what they had done was not normal.
"And what about your other friend?" Sona said. "That armor he was wearing could be confused for a Sacred Gear, but it was clearly advanced tech."
"According to Lala, it's from some race called 'the Reach'," Netto explained.
"They're a race of cybernetic insectoids that can use machines as weapons and bodies," Lala replied helpfully, "They used to be world invaders like the FMians, but my daddy defeated them and forced them into a ceasefire."
"But now a piece of their tech is stuck to Yokoshima," Netto argued. "How did it get here and why?"
That was the minute Netto's stomach suddenly chose that moment to growl loudly. Netto instantly blushed as he covered his stomach.
"It looks like you're too hungry to think it over right now," Akeno smiled in amusement, "Should we have ourselves a dinner party then? I think it's well earned." When she said that, a majority of the girls seemed to look very interested, especially Tsubaki. Saji on his part seemed to look rather reluctant over the idea, though.
"Yeah, you're right," Netto agreed. "I'm starving."
"Alright then," Rias smiled with a fist rose into the air, "We can worry about everything else later. Tonight, we celebrate our successful global defense and dine like kings!"
"BANZAI!" everyone cheered unison as they pumped their fists into the air.
Just mere moments later Shuko returned home, giving a tired sigh as she walked to the steps of her front door with her shoulder slumping. She was tired and exhausted as was normally the case when she returned from work, but the recent events had a bit of a more profound impact on her today. After the mass deletion of the viruses worldwide, tabloid reporters came swarming to the AMAKEN Labs where the source of it was detected. Since it was Utagai's idea, the credit went to him. Shuko felt it was fitting as the man had his ideas and credit stolen before. And the publicity would give him recognition for a project he was working on. She reached her door and pulled her hand to rest on the biometric lock, but blinked when she heard the noses of teenagers inside. Not to mention the smell of food coming from the door itself.
"What's this?" she wondered to herself before resting her hand on the biometric lock. The lock slowly flashed and the door opened, introducing Shuko to the party going on.
The kitchen was filled with numerous girls using whatever they could find for cooking material. Already the house was being filled with the aroma of food being cooked. It was somewhat tight so just a handful of them could work at a time as she could see. The rest of them were mingling with each other, and a lot more getting autographs from... Sheryl Nome? And is that a ghost-dog and a harp with a face among the group? And in front of the TV, Reika had an old Super NES set up to the TV and played some Street Fighter 2 with a few other the girls around her. She looked pretty happy to finally have some female friends for once.
"H-hello?" Shuko said in confusion, her eyes widening like saucer plates.
"Huh?" Netto looked up from talking with Saji and Yuuto. "Mom?!"
"You're having a house party, Netto?" Shuko asked, stepping into the house as she closed the door behind her.
"Hehe, that's the idea," Netto confessed. "You know, just having a victory celebration."
"I can definitely see that," Shuko said, looking around the crowd of teenagers, "But to have people you know from your school and then some all packed in a tight place like this. You know if this keeps up, I'll need to find a bigger house."
"This won't be happening so often, Mom. Just this once," Netto said, trying to pacify her. "The world nearly ended three days ago. It's a really big thing, so..."
"I know. And you saved it. You saved all of us," Shuko stated. "You know, when I first held you in my arms, I never once imagined that you'd be saving the world before you were 20. But then again, I shouldn't be surprised. I made you in my image. I made your heart and gave you eyes. I gave you power and a sense of justice beyond any compare. I gave you hands, a child's face...heh...and my hair." Shuko snickered, ruffling his hair. She paused with a thoughtful expression. "But this burden, this burning fire in your heart, I did not put there. That was all you."
"Mom..." Netto muttered in a hushed voice.
Shuko enveloped her son into a hug. As she was nearly head taller than he was, she nuzzled her face over his head. Netto was slightly taken aback, but relaxed in his mother embrace. "You got a good head on your shoulders and a good heart. Most of all, you've got good friends. I'm proud of you and your dad, wherever he is, he's proud of you too."
Netto smiled in content, "I'm sure he is."
She broke from her hug, and caressed her son's cheek, "Don't forget though, you're still in high school so you need to live your youth while you have the chance." Her smile widened, "And with so many nice looking girls here, you have a number of colorful options."
"Mom?! Geez!" Netto whined, his face turning red. "Not here!"
"Now sweetie, as your parent I reserve the right to tease," Shuko simply giggled at her son's expression. "So, who's to your liking more? Does Asia-chan's huggable nature entice you? Or does Rias-chan's more passionate appeal draw you in? Or that other girl... Akeno-chan, was it? She seems to have a liking for you, too. And Lala-chan also really seems to be attracted to you."
"I can't answer that! Especially not here!" Netto retorted in embarrassment.
"Oh, mother. You're here," Rias said, walking up to them with a red plastic cup in her hand. "Welcome home. I hope you don't mind but we had some company come over."
"It's good to be home, Rias-chan," Shuko replied with a pleasant smile. "Especially after a long day I had before. It's become very exhausting since my Daigo-kun's theory of other life existing on other planets technically came true."
"Hm, well that is true," Rias nodded before putting on a slightly serious expression, "Anyway, speaking of other life..."
"Oh yes, yes. Don't worry about it," Shuko reassured her, "I won't tell anyone else that you and your group are also aliens."
At that, Rias looked surprised, "Bu-wha? What gave you that idea? How am I an alien?"
"To be perfectly honest, I don't entirely buy into 'magic' aspect," Shuko clarified. "Perhaps it's just the scientist in me. If there are aliens that live on other planets, and there must be aliens that live in different planes of existence. With enough observation, your abilities can be rationalized logically. As the science fiction writer and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke once said, 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'."
Rias pursed. So that explained Netto's habit of quoting famous science figures. "I don't... really have a response for that."
The doorbell rang, and Netto quickly went over to the door to get it. At the door front of the door, Netto saw Jason at the doorway. "Yo, Kusanagi. You're having fun," he greeted.
"You're back," Netto blinked.
"Don't be too surprised. I just needed to make one last cheek up before I figured out everything was OK," he said stepping into the house. He pushed the door behind him to close it, but there was a hand grabbing it from the side and pushed it back open. "It's you..." he said, trying to keep himself from frowning.
"Not exactly a way to greet a lady, is it?" Orie replied, giving Jason a curt nod. The monster hunter was followed by her three companions. "Netto, it's good to see you're up again," Orie replied with a smile.
"Good to be up," Netto said as he returned the smile, "Care to the join the party?"
"Actually, that's why we're here," Orie said, her face turning downcast, "We've been ordered to return back by Licht Kreis so we can't stay long. The siege caused a great deal of damage all over the world so all agents have been called back for damage control. I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
"Oh, you're leaving?" Netto frowned sadly, "That's too bad."
"Still, it was nice getting to know you despite the rocky start we had," Orie said, suddenly moving closer to him, "And I really do hope to see you again very soon."
"Yeah, it was really great to meet you too," Netto nodded. A trio of snickers whispered behind Orie's back. Both of them turned and saw Mika, Kaguya, and Lex giving them both suggestive smiles. Both of them looked between themselves were their eyes were looking. Orie seemed to have unknowingly grabbed Netto's hands into hers.
Blushing, Orie quickly pulled her hands away. "A-anyway, I should probably find Asia and tell her my goodbyes," she stuttered.
"You-you do that," Netto stuttered back. "And if you can, stay for some food before you go."
"I will, thank you," Orie bowed quickly before turning to enter the house with her friends in tow.
"Hold on just a minute," Jason interrupted her, frowning, "Orie, was it? I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting. You just said that you came from Licht Kreis, right?"
Orie turned around to face Jason. "That I did. Is something that you need from me?"
"You wouldn't happen to know someone in your organization who goes by 'Crimson Knight', would you?"
Orie's eyes twitched slightly, recognizing the moniker, "You must mean Erika Wagner. She's one our most... troublesome members. Do you have some sort of business with her?"
Jason began to speak... then shook his head, "It's nothing, forget I said anything." Giving a small nod, she turned to join her friends.
"Has anyone ever told you that you have a habit of rubbing people the wrong way?" Netto retorted.
Jason gave an uncomfortable shrug, "I'm not... used to working with other people. Even with the organization that I work under, I'm used to doing things myself. But now that I'm on the topic, our little stunt really caught the eye of many magician groups."
"Magician groups?" Netto asked.
"Hey, Netto!" he heard Rei call from upstairs. "We have a bit of a problem! How about some help please?"
Netto looked upstairs and gapped in surprise. Behind him, Yokoshima was sitting on the stairs, a dazed look in his eyes. "What happened?"
"You know the usual. Yokoshima just woke up, but as soon as he came downstairs and saw all the girls here and, you know..." Rei didn't even finish his sentence since Netto already knew what had happened.
"Oh, Jesus..." Netto sighed fighting off a headache. "Sorry, sempai. We're gonna have continue this later," he apologized to Jason. Netto went Yokoshima and pulled him up with Rei at his side. "C'mon buddy, we gotta get you upstairs."
"Girls... beautiful girls... there are tons of them in your house..." he stammered nervously. Netto sighed.
"Look, I'll bring you some food later so far now just stay in your room," Netto said.
"Yeah. I gotcha. Hey man, did that invasion really happen?" Yokoshima asked, slightly calming down once he was out of the radius of the girls. "I'm still winded that alien actually tried to destroy the Earth."
"Yeah, it's true," Rei answered. "It all happened."
Yokoshima chuckled. "Geez, and here I thought those things only exist in our sci-fi video games. Looks like the theorists were right." The trio went to the guest room and Yokoshima sat down on the bed. "So level with me. How did we get here?"
Netto sighed and sat down next to him. "Let's start at the beginning."
Netto explained everything to him. Omega-Xis, The FMian invaders, Andromeda, the meeting of the AM Wise Men he even told Yokoshima about him being a devil showing his bat-like wings, he explained the fantasy side of Earth and how they were targeting both him and Omega-Xis due to the arrival of Mega Man. Netto even explained UNIT.
"Hah, knew those government stooges had a dark side," he smirked.
Netto sighed, "Yeah, they didn't have the best hospitality."
"Of course they don't, they think anyone associated with aliens are criminals. But are you seriously engaged to an alien princess just because you groped her chest?" Yokoshima asked.
"Hey, it was an alien culture shock to me. I didn't expect that." Netto blushed.
"Still, dude, who woulda thought you would end up having a harem of hot babes," he teased. "You got no idea how lucky you are."
Netto gave him a sympathetic look. "Still haven't gotten over what she did to you, huh?"
Yokoshima said nothing as looked down at the floor.
Not wanting to bring up bad memories, Netto changed the subject. "I'll get some food up for you, cool? While you eat, you can tell me how you got that armor of yours."
"Sounds good to me," Yokoshima agreed.
Midnight had come and the party was slowing down slightly. Netto decided to take a breather back in his room. He opened the window and peaked outside with his Visualizer over his eyes. Up above him, he saw the yellow channels of light streaking over the sky - the Wave Road. He still remembered the day he first saw them. The day he first met Omega-Xis and Rias. That day seemed so long ago when he thought about it, and it was an adventure he soon wouldn't forget. Who would've guessed that his search to find his dad's whereabouts would lead him to saving the world from certain destruction?
He had just realized that he changed so much over the two months since he started high school. A socially awkward teen with just three close friends who went depressed when the space station Elysium exploded just two months before he graduated middle school. His mother feared the worst but realized she couldn't let the grief dictate her. Her job was far too demanding for that. He took a little longer. And being roped in pervy schemes and being accused as a pervert didn't help much. But then, he started to make a lot of friends. It was unconventional the way it happened, but he was pretty glad about it. Not many guys his age had that experience. How many 14-year-olds can say they were fighting off evil from Earth or space?
The door cracked open as more light escaped into the room. A feminine silhouette peered through the doorway.
"There you are," a voice said from the door.
Netto looked over his shoulder at the guest, "Buchou?"
Rias walked over to his bed and climbed up to the window next to him. She handed him one of the cups she had in her hands, "Here, try it," she offered.
He took the cup and took a quick sip. As soon as the drink went down his tongue, he licked his lips in astonishment, "It's good!"
"Isn't it? It's a virgin cocktail from the Underworld made from fruits that can only grow there," she said as she sat down next to him, "I brought it just for the two of us."
The pair sat quietly together as they sipped their drinks, looking towards the Kodama skyline. The colorful neon lights of the buildings illuminated through the night. The nanobots that repaired the buildings worked very quickly. "It's pretty hard to believe," Rias said, breaking the silence, "I know I told you that all myths were real, but I never thought it extended to myths outside our solar system. I know that all the pantheons have realized this by now, but what about all the other alien races out there? Do they know about us?"
"Omega-Xis and Lala said that Earth didn't have much attention towards it before," Netto replied. "If that cosmic enhanced Power of Destruction we used to finish off Andromeda didn't grab their attention, I don't know what will."
"Hm. That weapon was as tough as they said. It really used a lot of our power and fast planning to get it to stop." A wry smirk split her lips across her face as she glanced at him, "I did hear you screaming out my name, by the way. You must've been in quite the panic."
Netto blushed, nervously scratching his cheek, "You did? I thought that Andromeda's laser was gonna hit you and I didn't know that it was Luciana-senpai's illusion, and I just..."
"Oh, hush. You're so easy to fluster," Rias giggled.
Netto let out a nervous chuckle over his master teasing him again. Thinking back on that night, a thought came to him when he remembered something that happened. "Actually, I just remembered something. Back when Gemini Spark was trying to stop you, there was a really loud shout that I heard."
"What kind of shout?" Rias asked him.
"It was weird. First, someone screamed 'boost' or something and then a red burst of energy came from nowhere and zapped Gemini Spark and forced them to run," Netto explained.
At that Rias' face turned into recognition, "You must mean... oh my. Then... he appeared to help us."
"'He'?" Netto wondered out loud.
"The Red Dragon Emperor. This generation's wielder of the Boosted Gear, one of the thirteen Longinus weapons," Rias told him, fiddling with her cup. "Right now, he's considered to be the strongest Red Dragon Emperor of all time, stronger than all his predecessors before him. Many devils have tried to recruit him into their peerages... with little to no success. There are rumors that he's not too fond people and especially hates women. I also heard that he recently inherited Neo Arcadia."
"The world's biggest, most successful Megacorp?" Netto said, his voice dripping with surprise, "That Neo Arcadia?"
"That is certainly the same one," Rias replied.
Netto opened his Transer and flipped through his screens, typing over his keypad. After scrambling over the internet, he showed the screen over to her, "You don't mean... this guy?"
On the screen that showed a picture of several people walking down the steps of a building, the picture was focused on one person there. He was young and appeared short, older than Netto but younger than Rias. He looked around 16. He exhibited what was often seen as a very unnatural appearance in Japan. His hair was long, white, and unkempt, which contrasted sharply with his tanned skin. Further increasing his ominous presence were his red eyes. The eyes had a similar shade to Netto's, but looked very cold and sharp, almost like having the capability to suck the heat from his very surroundings. And there was a facial marking like a red bolt of lightning trailing down his cheek from his left eye. He was also sporting a pair of earrings evocative of ancient South American culture, maybe Mayan or Aztec. He was dressed in a black suit and didn't look like he was enjoying where ever he was.
"That fits the description, yes," Rias nodded.
"It says on the article that his name is Solo, and he inherited the organization after according to the will from the previous CEO," Netto said, closing his Transer. "I heard the guy was an even bigger shut-in than I was. I can't believe the new CEO of Neo Arcadia is the Red Dragon Emperor."
Rias gave a small nod, "Still, despite his... misgivings, the Welsh Dragon clearly wanted to defend this world as badly as we did. I expect that we'll be seeing much more of him very soon. After all, we managed to stop the FMians for now but I'm getting the feeling that they aren't finished with us yet. And even without the FMians to worry about, we still have plenty of enemies earthbound. We should not let our guard down for a moment. Can I trust you on that?"
"I'll be ready for anything," Netto promised her.
Rias gave a small smile, nuzzling her head against his, "And I know you will, my adorable Shooting Star," she said quietly, slipping her hand on top of his.
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke
To be continued...
Tailsmo4ever: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to Star Force DxD! It's been a few grueling years making this story thanks changes in my life and writer's block. But I'm glad I got through with this. I've seen other writers with just as much ambition give up and drop their stories altogether, but I really didn't wanna do that. Thanks to all of you who have been watching this story since the very first day. Before I start, I just wanna say a few things in regards to Andromeda.
As you might already guess, Andromeda the Planet Eater is named after Andromeda of Greek myth and is based the same constellation. I threw in some references to the Greek legend throughout the story. In chapter 8, Rias makes the first connection after learning about King Cepheus since the Cepheus from the myths is Andromeda's father. And even earlier then there was a mention in chapter 2 about how the story of Andromeda came to be. I even threw in a Clash of the Titans reference to chapter 24 when Sheryl says that they "need a bigger Kraken" once Andromeda is summoned. The arc symbol of the story are the chains. Andromeda uses chains as weapons while Jason used chains of his own to hold it in place. This is meant to reference the past Andromeda being chained to a cliff so she could be sacrificed.
But at the very least, I'm finally finished with this arc! I can move on again! With the next arc that's already in store, I can work faster for sure. I look forward to all your reviews.