Chapter 53: Intermission Three
Zephyr's Island, late evening
As many of the fighters rested after the long day of fighting, Some of the warriors were prepared to go on the mission to rescue Gill from captivity and have him assist them in bringing Zephyr down.
"Have we got all the supplies necessary to assist us on our mission?" inquired Vicki.
"Hold up, I'll double check and be certain, just give me a couple of minutes," answered Wagner as he walked towards his hotel room.
"Well make it fast, we cannot waste too much time if we are to save Gill," called out Vicki.
"Be back in a flash!" replied Wagner from afar.
As Wagner headed down the hall to his hotel, he saw some people in lab coats walk by, however they didn't notice Wagner. Curious as to what the two scientists we're up to, Wagner hid behind a wall and listened in on the scientists conversation with a tape recorder in his hand.
"I can't believe we have to do this to that poor girl," grumbled scientist number one.
"Well if we don't, Zephyr will kill us, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to die," replied scientist number two.
"Well, he'll most likely kill us anyways, I just don't feel right having to inject his mind control probe into that girl that collapsed earlier today," sighed scientist number one.
Upon hearing that, Wagner had to work hard to hold in his gasp as to not give away that he was eavesdropping on the conversation. He continued to listen onward to whatever else the lab rats may have had that could be useful news.
"Well, I know it sucks, but if we don't do it, he'll most likely just get another flunky to do it, or actually inject the probe himself, let's just get it over with," grumbled scientist number two.
As the two scientists begrudgingly walked towards the area where Kiyomi was, Wagner quickly shut off the recorder and came out from his hiding place.
"Holy shit, I can't let that happen to Kiyomi, I have to let everyone know," said Wagner to himself.
Wagner ran down the hall until he saw Vicki the blonde Secret Service agent whirled around and saw Wagner running toward her and looked on surprised.
"Wagner, what the hell is going on?" asked Vicki.
"Go get everyone, I just found out something huge, real bad news, we gotta get everyone here quickly!" shouted Wagner.
Vicki didn't even ask any questions, her and Wagner went off in different directions to go and wake all the other fighters. Within five minutes, Vicki and Wagner had gathered all the participants in the tournament and they all wondered what Vicki and Wagner wanted.
"I suppose you're all wondering why we all had you gather here, well I just found out something I think we need to stop right now," said Wagner.
"I might have guessed that, your voice did have a panicky tone to it," stated Alex.
"So what's the big deal?" asked Frederick.
Wagner pulled out the tape recorder and played the conversation he heard to the others, upon hearing what Wagner had heard earlier, numerous gasps of horror had arisen from the crowd.
"Oh my God, I can't believe they would do something like that to Kiyomi!" gasped Yin.
"What the hell are we doing sitting around here then, we have to go save her!" shouted Mel.
"Well, we will save her, but in case you forgot, we're also on a mission to save Gill as well. If we're to save them both, we'll have to split up into two groups. One group will go on the recon mission to save Gill, the other will save Kiyomi," stated Kolin who walked over to the gathering.
"Agent Kolin, glad you could join us, I'll lead the rescue team for Gill along with you," said Vicki.
"I'll lead the Kiyomi rescue team," stated Wagner.
"Then I'm going on Wagner's team," piped up Mel.
"Mel, Sean, Marcos, Brock, you four need to stay behind. With you guys still active in the tournament, we have to make sure that you guys are still in top shape for a fight with Zephyr," stated Wagner.
"What's the point of staying behind, I'm going to save my girlfriend, I can't sit idly by and wait for results!" shouted Mel.
"Mel, calm down, Wagner does have a point, the fate of the world does rest on one of us remaining four's shoulders," remarked Sean.
"If I can't save one person, then how I'm I gonna be able to save the entire world, I'm sure Kiyomi would do the same for either one of us if we were in her shoes, I'm going no matter what, my mind's made up!" retorted Mel.
"I have to agree with Mel, I wouldn't be too comfortable sitting here twiddling my thumbs hoping for the best, I'd rather be out there actually helping out," chimed Marcos.
"I'd like to help out in one of these rescues as well, I'm sure we'll all be ok," piped up Brock.
"Fine, count me in as well," said Sean.
"Very well, then let's organize the teams quickly, we cannot delay these missions any longer!" ordered Wagner.
Vicki and Wagner started to pick candidates for their teams. Ultimately the teams were divided up as follows. The Gill rescue team consisted of Vicki, Kolin, Sean, Ibuki, Makoto, Brock, Oblique, Q, Datta, Amy, Mitsukake, Hans, Frederick, Wilfred, Quock, and Pietro. The Kiyomi rescue team consisted of Wagner, Mel, Marcos, Tomoko, Godo, Xavier, Isabella, Alex, Skye, Unoka, Sano, Chela, Yun, Yang, Yin, and Ryu.
"All right, we all set, let's get down to business fast!" suggested Isabella.
"I agree, I shall teleport my team to where Gill is being held, everyone join hands now," ordered Datta to his teammates.
Without a moment's hesitance, the Gill rescue tam all jointed hands and as Datta concentrated his thoughts on where he wanted to go, the entire team vanished teleporting away to where Gill was being held.
"We better get going ourselves before Kiyomi becomes one of Zephyr's puppets," suggested Xavier.
"Correct, I'll get us all to where Kiyomi is, do like the other team just did," ordered Isabella.
Mimicking the Gill rescue team, the Kiyomi rescue team all joined hands as Isabella concentrated her thoughts on Kiyomi. They eventually teleported away as well to wherever Kiyomi was.
Illuminati dungeon, late evening.
As the Gill rescue team reached their destination, they saw a barricaded door with a scanner right in the middle of the door.
"Ok, how are we gonna get that door open?" asked Quock.
"That's a retinal scanner, only certified Illuminati personnel will be able to open this door, luckily, I happen to be one of them," answered Kolin.
Kolin walked forward and put her eye to the retinal scanner, a blue beam shot out of the scanner and diagnosed the retina that was in front of it.
"Retinal scan approved, opening doors now," beeped a computer.
The door to the dungeon made a mechanical whir and flew open, showing a rather dimly lit area, only the staircase leading downstairs was visible.
"Careful, this area is most likely heavily guarded, so be on guard yourselves," warned Kolin.
The others nodded in acknowledgement and all proceeded down the stairs to the dungeon. Upon entering, a machine gun turret descended from a ceiling panel, everyone jumped back to avoid the gunfire.
"Sonic Boom!" screamed Amy.
Amy fired forth her projectile attack which completely destroyed the gun turret. The rescue continued their trek down to the dungeon afterwards.
"Wait! There's another security system here, we don't want to trip it," called out Kolin.
Immediately, a series of lasers emitted from the walls covering most of the area between them.
"Leave this to me," said Datta as he teleported to the other side of the lasers and deactivated the security console on the other side of the laser wall.
"Boy are we lucky we brought him on our team," stated Wilfred.
After the lasers were deactivated, the team pressed forward and soon found themselves at the end of the staircase, and looking at numerous cells. One cell in particular was glowing a strage purple color.
"That's where Gill is being held, that aura around his cell issomehow negating his powers to where he cannot get out, we have to destroy the force field in order to free him," stated Kolin.
"Well then, let's get to it and save him, and any other prisoners that may be down here!" said Ibuki.
As the rescue team rounded the corner, a legion of guards ran out each brandishing a different type of weapon. The rescue team got into battle positions and charged at the guards full force.
"Don't stand in our way!" yelled Makoto as she punched a guard square in the face and sent him flying into the one behind him.
A guard swung a giant club at Wilfred, who quickly leapt back to dodge the swing and then rushed in with a Oxford Red, but cancelled his attack into a Super Art.
"Manchester Gold!" shouted Wilfred.
As Wilfred incapacitated that guard, another buard with a mace ran at Brock, and the guard was quite skilled with his weapon, Brock retrated back knowing he couldn't get close with the guard swinging his mace like a maniac.
"Crap, this is gonna be tough, I can't get too roughed up otherwise I'm screwed in tomorrow's fights," grumbled Brock.
"Mega Hadou Burst!" shouted Sean, unleashing a Super Art right into that guard knocking him out and saving Brock's hide.
"Hey, thanks mate!" said Brock.
"We need to get to that cell, we can't be wasting time with all these guards!" shouted Mitsukake as he kocked away a guard carrying a whip.
"Don't worry, me and Oblique will handle it, you guys just clear our path!" ordered Q.
"Sure thing, Yoga Inferno!" shouted Datta as he fired forth his Super Art in order to keep some of the guards at bay as Q and Oblique started to charage through the guard's barrier.
"Y-Y-You go on ahead... Q, I'll deal w-w-with whoever m-m-may come our... way," gapsed Oblique as his body glowed red, showing that he was ready to use his Hyper Art.
"Advanced Mutation!" hollered Oblique.
Oblique's form grew taller and more muscular, his claws and teeth grew longer. But despite his added mass, he also gained speed as he rushed down hte guards, neither of them had chance to react before Oblique struck them down. Q ran onwards to Gill and Urien's cell and looked at a control console on the cell door.
"Damn, I don't have time to try and decode this, so here I go, Total Destruction!" shouted Q activating his Super Art.
Q's entire body glowed orange and he grabbed the control console on the cell and a huge explosion emitted from Q's body. The force of the explosion destroyed the console that was powering the force field, causing the barrier to dissipate, however Q had been blown back by his own attack, and much to the shock of the others, his mask had fallen off. As the barrier completely disappeared, Gill burst out of the cell and Urien quickly followed suit. The guards all ran in terror as they saw that Gill had escaped. Brock and Hans began looking the other cells, and saw a few familiar faces. A skinny man with shaggy brown hair clad in a red tank top and shorts and a man that looked like a longer haired version of Hans.
"Paul!" shouted Brock.
"Gunter!" shouted Hans.
"Whoa, brother, you came to save us?" asked Gunter.
"Sure did, we're here to set you free!" answered Hans.
Brock looked in the corner and saw a middle aged looking Mexican woman clothed in a green dress.
"I'm guessing that woman is Marcos's mother, Rosalinda," said Brock.
"Que? Marcos is here, where is my mijo?" asked Rosalinda.
"He's off saving another one of his friends, we came here to get you out of here, you'll see Marcos again soon, let's get them to the hotel that our loved ones are at," suggested Frederick.
"I shall take them there, and then we must begin work on stopping my father," said Gill.
"How do you propose we do that?" asked Pietro.
"That barrier had a weird power to it, it nullified mine and Urien's powers, if we could harness that somehow, maybe we could give my father a taste of his own medicine," answered Gill.
"So are you saying that we have to work together brother?" asked Urien.
"For the time being yes, I'll take these people to the hotel, you infiltrate the laboratories and I will meet you there, get going," ordered Gill.
"I'll go with you Gill, I'm not letting you out of my sight anymore," said Kolin.
Urien sped off towards where the Illuminati laboratories were as Gill, along with Kolin, teleported Paul, Rosalinda, and Gunter to where the fighters family and friends were staying, as Gill teleported away, they saw a now maskless Q stand up and walk over to the tothers. What they all saw was a dark skinned man, most likely African American with a long face, he had dark brown eyes and short yet neat black hair, he also sported a neatly trimmed mustache and beard.
"Q, it's you, who are you exactly?" asked Amy.
"I shall tell you another time, right now we should back to the island before more guards come our way," answered Q.
"Well, ok, but can you at least tell us your real name?" asked Sean.
"My real name, is Quentin if you must know, now let's go!" barked Quentin as he picked up his mask off of the ground.
Without any more delay, the Gill rescue team joined hands and teleported back to their hotel on the island.
Illuminati Laboratory, late evening.
In the meantime, the Kiyomi rescue team had their hands full with a number guards trying to keep the fighters away from the operating room where the procedure to inject the mind control probe into Kiyomi's brain was going to take place.
"Get out of our faces!" yelled Unoka as he kicked a guard away, but then saw another one come towards him with a stun gun.
"Brave Dance!" shouted Unoka as he leapt towards the guard with a Super Art that his sister Elena had taught him, which resulted in the guared getting riddled with numerous kicks before being sent flying by a powerful roundhouse into another guard.
"Suck on this maricons!" shouted Chela as she fired forth her Maximum Max Out Super Art knocking away another legion of Illuminati guards, but she didn't see one run at her with a sabre in his hand.
"Chela look out!" screamed Tomoko as she whipped her chain out knocking the sword out of the guards hand, and then Tomoko unleashed her own Super Art to knock out that guard.
"Overdrive!" yelled Tomoko.
"Damn, how many of these guys does Zephyr have under his employment?" grumbled Sano.
"Too many, does that answer your question," answered Alex as he sent a guard crashing to the ground with a Power Bomb.
"But yet, something doesn't feel right, why would Zephyr have this many followers if they know he's bad news?" asked Skye.
"I sense that they all have mind control probes inside of them, I shall attempt to neutralize them, but they'll need to be knocked out first," answered Isabella.
"That's all fine and dandy, but we can't be spending all our time doing that, Kiyomi still needs our help!" shouted Mel as he threw out a Shoryuken sending a guard flying out a window.
"Mel you go ahead, we'll clear the path for you!" shouted Yun.
"Are you sure about this? You guys don't need me?" asked Mel.
"Hey we're more than capable of handling ourselves, we aint weak you know," replied Yang.
"I'll go with him, someone needs to watch his back," announced Marcos.
"Good luck you two, may the warriors spirit be with you," called out Ryu as he fired forth a Shinkuu Hadoken at a swarm of guards that were running at him.
Mel and Marcos ran past the guards, any that tried to attack them we're immediately put down by their allies that had accompanied them. As they ran down the corridors, more guards came at them head on, Mel leapt over the guards heads and Marcos plowed through them with a Toro Charge, knocking them all down like bowling pins. After a while of running, the two warriors eventually came across a door that said in big bold letters OPERATING ROOM.
"This is the place, let's save Kiyomi fast," said Marcos.
"Couldn't agree with you more," replied Mel as the two burst through the door to the room where they saw Kiyomi lying on a hospital bed sleeping, and then they saw two doctors approach her, one of them had a needle in his hand, it was the needle with the probe inside of it, Marcos and Mel rushed forward, freaking out the two doctors.
"Get away from her with that needle!" shouted Mel.
The doctors ran out of the lab screaming and dropping the needle in the process, Mel and Marcos looked at the sleeping Kiyomi and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Whew, we got here just in time amigo, we kept her from being some mindless muñeca," remarked Marcos.
"Yeah, don't worry Kiyomi, you're gonna be ok now, we're here for you," said Mel as he leaned in and lightly kissed his girlfriend's forehead.
Just then, Isabella ran in and saw that Mel and Marcos had successfully prevented Kiyomi's brainwashing. The Italian female then walked up to the sleeping Chinese girl and placed her hand on Kiyomi's heart. Once again, a surge of Soul Power shot from Isabella's hands and into Kiyomi's body.
"She'll be just fine, but let's take her back to the hotel pronto!" suggested Isabella.
"I agree, let's get back post haste," added Marcos.
"Uh...Mel," gasped Kiyomi weakly.
"Kiyomi, what is it?" inquired Mel.
"Thank...you," said Kiyomi.
"You are welcome, we are glad to help, now rest, you shall have your strength back soon," said Isabella.
Within minutes, the Kiyomi resuce team all gathered together and joined hands, and were soon teleported back to the island.
Zephyr's Island, late evening
As the Kiyomi rescue team teleported back to the hotel, the Gill rescue all ran over to see that Kiyomi had been saved and were relieved to know that the scientists had failed to inject Zephyr's mind control probe into her.
"Good, all of us were successful in our missions, Kiyomi is safe, and Gill and all of Zephyr's other prisoners have been freed as well," stated Vicki.
"Really, my mother is free?" asked Marcos.
"Yeah, she's at the hotel where the others that came with us are staying," answered Brock.
"So where is Gill now?" inquired Wagner.
"He is away at Illuminati laboratories devising a way to strip Zephyr of his powers in order to help us in bringing him down," answered Quentin.
"Who is this guy, and why is he dressed like Q?" asked Alex.
"It is Q, I can feel his ki and it's the exact same as Q's I guess his mask was removed during the brawl," said Ryu.
"Correct, but right now, let us retire to our rooms, I'll tell you more on who I am tomorrow," suggested Quentin.
The others all nodded in approval and all went back to their hotel rooms to rest up for the following day.
Zephyr's office, late evening.
"Master Zephyr, I have bad news!" cried out a battered guard as he ran up to Zephyr.
"Why am I not surprised, well speak you worm," snapped Zephyr.
"Well, the fighters found out about our plan to control Kiyomi's mind and thwarted our efforts to do so, and not only that, but they freed all of our prisoners from the dungeons," cried the guard.
"You fools, you are worthless sheep that deserve to be led off a cliff, get out of my sight at once!" shouted Zephyr.
As the guard ran off in terror, Zephyr looked out his window at the islandm and started to snicker maniacally.
"Those fighters must learn a lesson on not to toy with a deity, they will all feel my rage as I wash over all of them like a great flood that will drown the whole planet. And this time, there will be no ark for them to call a safehaven, these fighters will pay for defying a god, they will pay for trying to sabotage my glorious project." spoke Zephyr as he stormed off to go plan another way to tamper with the warriors of the tournament.
Author's Note: Well, another chapter down, and we got to see what Q looks like without a mask on. After the two semifinal matches I'll elaborate more on Q's background, as well as reveal Zephyr's master plan for mass genocide. But the next chapter is the first match of the semifinal round, Sean Matsuda versus Mel Masters. Who will be victorious in the battle between the heirs of Ansatsuken? You'll find out next chapter, but until then, please read and review.
