There wasn't much for them to do to get ready, other than wait for Twoearle to finish her 'big laser pointer'. The warriors watched the footage and talked among themselves until the mad scientist emerged from her lab with a device the size of a rifle that had a trigger and a small hollow on the front, which she handed to Isabella.
"Just keep it pointed at the bomb, and I'll be able to grab them with the space jump catapult."
"Sounds easy." Isabella slung it over her shoulder.
"Here." Aika handed her the Ribbon Elemera Orb. "This is a good one, so I'll want it back."
"No problem." She inserted it into the slot that opened in her wrist. "Anything else?"
"No, that's it." Souji transformed into Tailred and turned to Erina. "Are you ready?"
For her answer, she simply transformed into Tailyellow.
"Alright." Tailred breathed out one last time, before walking into the catapult and disappearing. When she emerged, she found herself standing in a luxuriously decorated bedroom of all places. There was a large canopy bed, with thin lace curtains and red silk sheets. At the foot of the bed were two young women clad in very little. Both of them had their hands tied behind their backs. At the door were two armed guards, who pointed their rifles at Tailred and Tailyellow. For some reason, the white haired little girl was also in the room, laying on her back in bed as another beautiful woman offered her a bowl of chocolate coated strawberries.
"What the hell…" Tailred gaped.
"Tailred?" She sat up in her bed, suddenly, knocking the treats to the floor. Beaming brightly, she clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, wow!"
Used to this sort of reaction, Red wasn't caught off guard by it, though she did find herself pausing with disbelief when she noticed that one of the tied up girls was wearing a pink cravat. "Orchidmantisguildy?" She asked, disbelievingly.
"Who?" Tailwhite asked.
Orchidmantisguildy feigned surprise. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"
"What is this?" Red asked, looking around the room again.
"I'm such a huuuuge fan!" White squealed, jumping off the bed and running over to hug her hero. "You're so cooool!" She was much shorter than even Red, so her arms were wrapped around the hero's waist.
"W-wow! I'll just go get refreshments for our guest!" Orchidmantisguildy visibly swallowed, standing up and moving towards the door, only for the newly appeared Yellow to block her path.
"Just take his stupid cravat!" Pink's voice came through their communicators. "Reveal who he really is!"
"You mean an alien?" White asked, peeking around Red to see what was happening. "I already know that she's an Elemerian."
"You did?" Yellow, Red, and Orchidmantisguildy all asked at the same time.
"Yeah?" White smiled. "She introduced herself as Orchidguildy, which is the same as all the other guildy's from TV. How could I not know?"
Stunned silence filled the room, and even Orchidmantisguildy looked shocked.
"Then… why did you pretend to believe me?" The alien asked, slowly undoing the cravat around their neck.
"How else could I meet the Tailsuit Warriors?" White asked, then she turned to Red before falling to her knees and begging. "Please, you have to get me out of here! This country's terrible and there's no food!"
A scandalised gasp was heard from the doorway, as one of the armed guards stared at White in disapproval. "Supreme Leader, how could you?"
"Oh, shut up. You know it's true." White dismissed.
"Wait, what did he call you?" Red asked, backing away from the younger girl for a few steps.
She rolled her eyes. "Supreme Leader."
"Wait." Yellow piped up, eyeing the little girl with bafflement on her features. "So you're… Kim?"
"Yes." White admitted. "But look, I never wanted to be the leader of this shit hole."
"But didn't you have your entire family assassinated?" Yellow asked.
"They were trying to kill me, too!" White snapped, then added. "I didn't ask to be born into the Game of Thrones, you know?"
"Wait!" Red put a hand to her head. "So you're the Supreme Leader of North Korea?"
"Uh-huh."
"And you don't want to be the Supreme Leader anymore?"
"No, definitely not."
"And now you want us to take you with us when we leave?"
"Yes, please!"
Not sure what else to do, Red asked into his communicator. "...Thoughts, homebase?"
"I feel kind of sorry for him." Came back Twoearle's voice. "But I don't think we can trust him."
"If he's anything like the Kim from my world, than no." Isabella voiced her thoughts. "His transformation is also suuuuuper creepy."
Red considered their arguments before nodding in agreement, and looking back down towards the childified dictator. How to reject her without starting a fight…? "Um, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's going to work for us."
White's face fell. "Really?" At that moment she looked like nothing but a small, lonely little child.
Despite the rising feeling of guilt in Tailred, she reminded herself that this little girl was actually an adult man and a mass murderer. "I'm sorry."
"That's a shame… I guess it's plan B, then." White sighed before looking towards Orchidmantisguildy. "Do you need help conquering the world?"
"...Sure." The alien agreed, confused but eager to turn the odds in his favor with a new ally. "Can we start by defeating these two?"
"Way ahead of you." White sighed, before digging an old mobile phone out of her night stand, and beginning to text.
"What are you doing?" Red frowned.
"Sending the codes to arm the nukes." White answered back. "And... sent!"
"Pink, are you on standby?" Red demanded into her communicator.
"Yeah, as soon as Twoearle detects a missile I can be there!"
"Who's Pink?" White asked, curiously.
"New girl." Red explained. "Hasn't had a public outing here on Earth yet, though."
"So you're accepting new members, but you won't accept me?!" White was indignant.
"We can intercept any missiles you send." Red announced. "So just surrender peacefully!"
"Hmm… No." White shook her head. "How about you surrender peacefully?"
"We would never do that!" Red declared firmly, drawing her sword.
"I think you will." White smirked, looking up at her 'hero' again. "Because if you don't, millions of people will die."
"From the missiles?" Red gave a triumphant grin. "We already prepared for that. Pink is ready to intercept them at any moment!"
"Hmm…" White frowned. "Guess that program was a big waste of money then, but who said anything about missiles?"
"Y-you did?" Red glanced towards Yellow for reassurance, who shrugged. "Right?"
"No, see, this country is crap and broke, right?" White explained. "So I've got like, one functioning missile, but there's no way I can blow it here. What I do have is a few bombs, though."
"What does that matter if you can't even use them outside your own country?" Yellowed pointed.
"It means if you don't surrender to me I'll kill the three million people who live in Pyongyang."
The blood drained from Red's face, and a pit opened up in her stomach. She stared at White in shock.
White held up her phone threateningly, finger held over the send button. "If you don't untransform and give me those tailsuits right now, I'm going to detonate a bomb beneath Pyongyang and kill everyone in it."
"You'd never do that to your own city!" Yellow cried out, and White scoffed.
"Please, I hate this shit hole country. I grew up in a private school in Finland, not knowing who my father was until I was like, fourteen. Ever since I was dragged back to this rotten place all I've wanted was to survive and escape." White shrugged. "That meant killing my whole family and taking over, but then suddenly my face was everywhere internationally, and if I try to betray the country, the party members and generals will kill me and replace me with some other Kim they've squirreled away somewhere.
"I was trapped, my future hopelessly bound to the fate of a miserable third world economy that was convinced I was a god." A small smile tugged at the corner of White's lips. "And then the tailsuit warriors appeared! You were so beautiful, and brave." She looked down at her own body appreciatively, and her voice turned to a soft purr. "And empowered. If I could be like that, I could do whatever I wanted and no one could stop me.
She looked back up at the Red and Yellow. "So it's really simple. I hate those people, the three millions worthless mouths living in that awful city. I want them to die, I really do. I'm glad they're starving, and I love seeing them forced into labor camps. See, I didn't have that bomb set up under the city so I could use them as a hostage or anything like that, I just really really liked the idea of killing every last one of them. I put that bomb there because I just wanted the power."
Horrified silence followed her announcement, and she looked over to the door where the two guards were staring in disbelief at their supreme leader after his confession.
"Oops." White sighed, before looking at Orchidmantisguildy. "Can you deal with those two?"
"No problem." The alien shrugged.
"Wait!" Red held up her hands, a horrible feeling of helplessness washing over her. "Wait, stop! Don't kill them."
"Sure." White smirked. "They can be hostages too. Surender, and you get to live."
"Red…" Twoearle's voice came over the communicator. "You can't."
"We have to!" Red swallowed, mind racing. "We can't just let all those people die."
"Imagine what White will do if she gets her hands on the tailsuits, though?" Yellow argued back.
"But we can't just let three million people die." Red protested, trying to think of something but unable to come up with anything. All it would take would be a twitch of White's finger for the order to be sent. Glancing to her right, she saw Yellow readying a small hand blaster behind her back, no doubt preparing to shoot the phone out of White's hand.
"None of that!" Orchidmantisguildy summoned her scythe, and used it to hook Yellow's arm, pulling the weapon up so it was visible to the room.
"Yeah, the longer this drags out the more chances you have to do something clever and heroic." White sighed. "Alright, five."
"N-no-!"
"Four." White ignored her protests.
"Twoearle can you find the bomb?" Red demanded.
"Three."
"I don't have access to his network, I'd need time to-"
"Two."
"Alright!" Red shouted, dropping her sword to the ground with a clatter. "We surrender."
"Great!" White grinned brightly. "And I mean all of you: Red, Blue, Yellow and whoever this Pink is."
At that moment a glimmer of an idea occurred to Red, and she glanced at Orchidmantisguildy. "I'm sorry, but… Blue's dead."
White looked shocked. "What?"
"It's true." Orchidmantisguildy smirked. "We arranged for that."
"How?" White truly sounded disappointed.
Red answered. "She was caught in a nuclear explosion on another world."
"Really?" White looked to the alien for confirmation.
"That's exactly what happened." The alien boasted. "The result of a brilliant plan of mine."
It wasn't hard for Red to pretend glare at him resentfully, because she wasn't pretending at all. This monster really had almost killed Aika, and for a whole day Souji had been convinced she was dead.
"Aww…" White pouted. "Now I won't have the complete set…"
"The what?"
"We can get to that later. Right now I want you and Yellow to undo your transformations."
"Red, our identities." Yellow murmured.
There's no telling what this psycho might do if White learns my true identity. Red thought. She might send assassins are agents to try and abduct Souji's family. Right then she needed to be Sora when she untransformed. With that thought in mind, she begged her own mind, her own Elemera. Please. Protect my family! Right now I need to be Sora!
When the light of the transformation faded, Sora found herself standing there as a beautiful, well developed, sixteen year old. Thank you. She thanked her lucky twintails.
On the other hand, Erina wasn't as lucky. When she dropped her transformation she found herself standing there fully as her normal self.
"Huh." White examined them in their untransformed state for a moment, looking up and down. "Not quite what I was expecting, but still somehow fitting." She smiled brightly. "Now for your other friends. That white haired woman who appears with you sometimes, and this new girl. Pink."
"Wait, but-" Sora started to protest.
"But what?" White interrupted with a smirk, holding up the phone again. "I know you guys can teleport wherever you please, I've seen it on the news and with my own eyes. Bring them here, right now."
Souji hesitated, before raising the device to his lips. As long as Aika'a free, she can break us out of here at any moment. Even without her tailsuit, she can definitely take on some armed guards. "Twoearle? Could you and Pink come here."
As the sound of Sora's request from the communicator faded, an enormous weight settled over Aika's shoulders.
"Senpai?" Pink looked horrified and confused at that exact moment, just like Twoearle, though the scientist's face was a little harder for Aika to read.
"...Twoearle, how long until the Blue suit will be repaired?"
"Days." She answered in a small voice.
"...That's okay." Aika folded her arms. "Pink, Twoearle, go and surrender."
"But…" Pink looked scared.
"It's okay." Aika put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, I've got this."
The younger girl stared up at Aika for a long moment, chewing her lip fearfully before asking, "Do you promise?"
"Yeah, I do. I promise I can get everyone home safe."
"How?" Twoearle demanded.
"Easy." Aika promised. "I'll just need this." She took the laser pointer from Isabella's shoulders. Then she put her hand over Tailpink's wrist. "And this."
Pink's face soon matched her hair.
"I think she means your Tailsuit." Twoearle pointed out.
Still blushing furiously, Pink transformed back into Isabella and handed her bracer over. "Right."
"Hurry." Aika said to the two of them, indicating the space jump catapult.
"...Do you really have a plan?" Twoearle asked.
"Yeah, I'll just find the nuke and get rid of it." Aika said, holding up the laser pointer. "Now hurry, before he starts to get suspicious."
They both turned and walked to the catapult, but Isabella hesitated just in front of the device.
"It's okay, trust me."
She bit her lip and nodded, before stepping into the machine and disappearing in a flash of light.
Now alone, Aika slipped into the chair in front of the console and began furiously typing on the keyboard. She sighed. "Now to just figure out how to use Twoearle's operating system…"
"Is that a real cat girl?!" White shouted with excitement the moment she set eyes on Isabella, and a shiver ran down her spine.
"Princess…" Orchidmantisguildy breathed out as he saw her. "Oh, I'm so relieved to see you're okay."
"Bite me." She snapped back at him.
"Oooh, she's sassy." White grinned, before facing Twoearle. "And you are?"
"Just a passerby?"
"Her name is Twoearle, she was the Tailblue of a world we defeated, but she escaped before we could harvest her attributes." Orchidmantisguildy sneered. "But I'm glad you're here."
"It's such a shame that Blue's gone." White cursed, looking over the group. "Without her it's not a complete set."
"What do you mean by a 'set'?" Sora asked.
"Hm?" White looked back to her. "Oh, I've been an enormous collector of Twintail Warrior materials for a long time now." Her grin grew lascivious. "Speaking of which..."
After Orchidmantisguildy took away their tailsuits and patted them down for any concealed weapons or devices, the group was led deeper into Kim's palace. The group wasn't especially surprised to realise they weren't actually in Pyongyang, but the family's luxurious private residence deep in the countryside. Of course the vicious dictator wouldn't be willing to blow himself up.
They soon found themselves in what looked like a museum of sorts, filled with all kinds of strange displays. In glass cases all around the room was rubble from some of their battles, just small piles of concrete, fractured stones, and piles of gravel. That was weird, but not as disturbing as the collections of finger nails and hair.
"Those can't be real." Sora uttered in disbelief.
"They are!" White assured them. "I have a reliable source in Japan, who sells them to me on Ebay."
"Those are my panties!" Erina yelled with wide eyed horror, pointing at one display. "Who could have gotten those from my family's mansion?!"
"I don't know." White admitted. "I only know them via their online name."
"It will forever remain a mystery." Twoearle intoned gravely.
They were soon led to a display that looked like three seperate, giant terrariums, the floors around which were painted red, rellow, and blue. Each of them looked like a small one room apartment, complete with couches, beds, and televisions. There was a bathroom in one corner, though there was no shower curtain or cubicle door, or privacy of any kind.
White clucked her tongue with disappointment, before turning to Isabella and Twoearle. "You two will just have to share Blue's for now."
They were separated into their glass cages, and soon discovered camera's in all four corners of their rooms.
"Don't worry, Princess." Orchidmantisguildy reassured as the door was shut behind Isabella and Twoearle, and locked from the outside. "I'll soon negotiate your release, and you can accompany me when I leave here and return to Noplace."
"Drop dead, creep." She sneered at him.
They weren't left alone after that. White and Orchidmantisguildy walked away together to discuss their plans, but the display room was patrolled by a dozen armed guards. Quiet settled over the room, except for the sound of soldiers boots on the hardwood floor. All the tailsuit warriors could do was wait quietly for rescue.
"Come on, Aika." Sora murmured to herself quietly. "I know you'll think of something…"