Now that introductions are out of the way, let's begin the Expansion Scenarios for real!
Expansion Scenarios Chapter 1 - New Arrivals! Madness on the Miskatonic!
It had been difficult for Fudo and Miki to tend to the wounds of the two unconscious mech pilots – since their demon bodies had a far greater rate of regeneration than those of "normal" humans, they had little need for medical supplies, and they had no money to purchase any at the moment. So, they made do with what they could.
To Miki's relief, the pilot of the blue mech groaned as he opened his eyes.
"Oh, you're finally awake!" she said happily.
"Where...am I?" the young man groaned as he tried to sit up and get out of bed, only for Miki to stop him.
"Take it easy," she said, gently lowering him back into bed. "You just woke up, and your wounds still aren't fully healed." She then picked up a hot cup of some sort of liquid and carefully handed it to the young man.
"Here, have this," Miki then said. "It's a tea made of herbs that will help you feel better quicker."
"Thank you," the young man replied. He took a careful sip, but his mouth immediately began to pucker as the liquid assaulted his tongue.
Geez, this stuff is sour...and bitter, he thought. But if it will help my injuries, I'd better learn to bear it.
"To answer your question as to where we are," the girl continued, "we're in the foothills about eighteen miles outside of Kamina City. Does that ring any bells?"
The young man tried to think – but he was coming up with mostly blanks. It was as if someone had systematically ripped away a great deal of his memories.
"All that tells me is that I'm not where I'm supposed to be," the young man said. "I don't remember much of anything else before waking up here."
"How about your name?" Miki then asked, deciding to start with something easy.
"Joshua," the mech pilot said after a sip of the sour and bitter tea. "Joshua Radcliffe."
"That's a good start," Miki said. "So, we found you in the cockpit of a blue robot that had crashed a few miles away from us. Does that remind you of anything?"
Joshua thought some more, and was clearly straining to remember.
"Ganador," he said after a few moments, "and the yellow one is Strega...it was piloted by..."
He gasped as Fudo enter the room.
"...My sister!" he exclaimed. "Is my sister okay?!"
"Oh good, you're awake," he said. "I'm happy to report that your sister is alive, and only slightly less injured than you are. I suspect she'll come around any time now." As if on cue, a teenage girl's moan came from the room nearby.
"Speak of the devil, pardon the term," Fudo chuckled. Immediately, Joshua tried to get up again, only for a searing pain to hit him, causing him to drop to the floor. Miki gasped when she saw that a large gaping wound had opened up in his shoulder – one she had closed.
"No, your shoulder wound's opened up again!" she cried. She reached out and caused her hand to heat up as she grabbed Joshua's shoulder and squeezed it, using her powers to carefully cauterize and close the wound. Joshua gritted his teeth to keep himself from screaming.
"There," Miki said with a sigh. "Now, DON'T MOVE IT." But as the pain subsided, Joshua realized something.
That girl...she cauterized my wound with just her bare hand!
"We'll have to bring these two to the city so they can get proper medical treatment," Fudo said.
"Forgive me, but how the hell did you do that?!" Joshua demanded; "Are you really human? Is this Earth?"
Fudo and Miki looked at each other.
"Oh, I guess we should tell you," Fudo said; "this IS Earth, but might be very different from the one you came from. Let me go get your sister so you can both hear this." The Devilman stepped out of the chamber and into an adjacent one. A few moments later, he returned with the girl he had found inside Strega – now that she was awake, her emerald green eyes could be seen, and they lit up when they saw her brother.
"Rim!" Joshua exclaimed.
"Joshua!" Rim cried. The two had to move carefully, lest their wounds open again, though they did manage to embrace each other.
"I'm going to head into the city to get an ambulance to take you two to a hospital," Fudo said. "Miki, fill them in." With that, he changed into his Devilman form, startling the two mech pilots before stepping outside the cave. Joshua and Rim heard the beating of great wings slowly fading into the distance...
Tara had not been to the Britannian homeland since she had reunited with Tera back during the conflict with Atik Yomin, and she had certainly never been to the area she was now Duchess of, so this would be a whole new experience for her. As she stepped through the express security check with Janus and Porter, the two men prepared to split off. Porter was still dressed in his work uniform (much to Tara's chagrin), while the couple was dressed in more casual attire, with Tara wearing a pair of dark sunglasses to prevent anyone from recognizing her easily.
"I'll go find us a taxi to the train station," Janus said.
"And I shall go fetch our checked luggage from the baggage claim," Porter said. "Which one of us would you like to go with, Milady?"
"I'll stay here," Tara said. "If you're worried about my safety, don't be. I'm a Knight of the Round for a reason." Janus and Porter looked at each other nervously and then went their separate ways, leaving the purple-haired young woman alone. She found a small table to sit down at and did so.
"Man, what I wouldn't have given to just use Thresholds to travel here," Tara groaned as she took off her sunglasses. "Or a nice Boson Jump." However, she barely had a moment to set her eyewear down before she heard screaming – both of pain and panic - coming from nearby. She looked in the direction of the commotion and saw a cloaked and hooded figure forcing his way through the crowd of people, and past some downed security guards, carrying a very large and bloody knife. The figure looked up at her – she could see that his brown eyes were filled with a mad bloodlust.
"Die, half-breed whore!" the cloaked man cried as he charged at her with his knife held high. But Tara's combat training allowed her to easily avoid and subdue her attacker – she sidestepped his wild downward stab, grabbed him by his wrists, twisted them behind him and then threw him down, and pinned him to the ground with her knee, causing him to drop the knife.
"You've got guts, attacking a Knight of the Round with a frontal assault," Tara said to her would-be killer. "But you're going to pay for what you did those good men."
"You whore," her attacker snarled as he struggled to break Tara's hold. "because of you and your Eleven friends, my family lost everything!" At this point, another security guard rushed over to Tara.
"Are you all right, miss?" the guard asked.
"I'm fine," she said, almost annoyed at the guard's first concern being her own welfare rather than those of the injured; "Get some first aid for those security guards, and call the police and ambulance if you haven't already!" As the guard left, Janus came rushing back.
"Tara!" he cried. "Are you all right?! When I heard the commotion, I had a bad feeling that someone was targeting you again. This will be the fifth one this year."
"I'm perfectly fine. Like I said, I'm not a Knight of the Round for nothing," Tara replied as she removed the man's hood. "This amateur seriously thought he could get me with a frontal assault."
"Our livelihood!" the cloaked man cried. "This lousy half-breed destroyed my family's livelihood!" Janus looked down and saw that the man who had tried to kill Tara had strange tattoos all over his face. By this point, a number of police officers arrived on the scene.
"We'll take it from here, miss," one of the officers said. Tara allowed the policemen to cuff her attacker's arms and legs before getting off – that way he couldn't flee or attack her. They pulled him up.
"She needs to die!" the tattooed man ranted; "She and that filthy Queen! She and all who helped her must suffer the judgment of the mighty Bokrug the Water Lizard for destroying the Empire!"
"Bokrug the Water Lizard?" Janus exclaimed.
"Ah, so you're one of the cult killers," the officer who had Tara's attacker said; "I was afraid we'd never be able to track any of 'em down!"
"Cult killers?" Tara exclaimed.
"It's been all over the regional news lately," the officer said. "Have you been abroad for a while?"
"I'm Tara Zifell," the former pilot of Lifthrasir said, "Knight of Five and Duchess of New Albany, though I was born and raised in Japan."
"Oh!" another officer said, removing his hat in deference. "Well, we're honored to welcome you to your ancestral home!" At this point, Porter appeared with the luggage.
"Thank you," Tara said, "but as a Knight of the Round, I'm not only bound to protect Her Majesty, but the people of the Principality. I'd appreciate any information you can provide about these cult killers."
"We'll send you what we have through the official channels, Your Grace," a third officer said. "As well as anything this one can provide. Your assistance in ending these vicious brutes' reign of terror would be most welcome." With that, the officers led the tattooed man away.
"Another craven fool who cannot accept the new reality," Porter said as he watched them leave. "I am glad to see that you are once again unharmed, Your Grace."
"You took your sweet time getting back here," Janus said angrily to the butler. "What if she had been hurt?! Or killed?!"
"My lady knows the risks," Porter said. "Did you procure a taxi for us, Master Janus?"
"Yeah, I did," Janus replied. "What's your point?"
"Cut it out, you two!" Tara groaned; "Let's get out of here before they totally lock the place down."
It had been a lot for Joshua and his sister Rim to take in. Apparently they had fallen from wherever they had come from into a world where mankind was nearly wiped out by monsters called 'demons', but now they and those same demons, who were actually humans from another age, were learning to coexist. It was thanks to heroes from a group called DREAM that this was possible.
"Well, from everything you've told us, this is definitely not the reality we came from," Joshua said. "But that's all I can say for sure."
A few years ago, Miki would have been astonished to meet anyone from another universe. But since meeting everyone in DREAM and experiencing union with other versions of herself, the concept of infinite universes was hardly news anymore.
"I see," she said. "Well, until you regain your memories, even our best science can't send you back at all. But you're welcome to stay here in our world as long as you like."
"Thank you," Rim said. "But let me see if I have this straight...you two are Devilmen – that is, originally humans, but became demons with human hearts?"
The fiery cat Devilman sighed – these two were clearly having trouble making sense of how to distinguish demons, humans and Devilmen.
"Look, it doesn't matter," Miki finally said; "The important thing is that in this new world, one's humanity is linked to one's willingness and ability to value life. No matter what you look like on the outside, it's your heart and soul that matters most."
"I see," Joshua thought. "That's a nice philosophy."
"So," Rim then asked, "What will we do after we get out of the hospital? And what about Ganador and Strega?"
"We can find you a place to live in Kamina City while I work on repairing your machines," a new voice said. The newcomers gasped and turned to see someone new standing in the entrance to the chamber.
"That was fast," Miki said, a little surprised. "How did Akira find you, Leeron?"
"Actually, I was already on my way here when I saw your boy-toy," Leeron said. "The city government saw those two robots fall from the sky long before you did, and prepared a big response team in case anyone on the ground was hurt as a result of their impact. Thank goodness no else was hurt, and that you two are okay."
"You can fix our machines, Mister Leeron?" Rim said. "Even if they're not from the same universe?"
"I have plenty of experience working with things like that," the engineer replied, fluttering his eyelids a bit. "Besides, getting the opportunity to work on something completely new makes me all...oooooh..."
Janus, Tara and Porter's trip between the airport and the train station was thankfully uneventful – now they were sitting on a train that was taking them to their destination – the city of Arkham in the Miskatonic Valley that sat near the western edge of her family's ducal lands. Granted, she did not truly own those lands now – her title as Duchess was mostly ceremonial as of Euphemia's ascension to the throne. As the train peacefully clattered along the tracks, Tara reviewed some documents on her government-issue tablet while Janus and Porter sat opposite her.
"So, what did the cops tell you about the cult killers?" Janus asked.
"Well, there's been eight killings over the past four months," Tara said as she swiped her screen to view another document, "and they have a couple of things in common: one, their targets were people who sympathized or worked with DREAM during the war three years ago; two, they always occurred when the moon was gibbous that night..."
"Gibbous?" Janus asked.
"When the moon is mostly full, but not completely," Porter answered.
"Thank you, Porter," Tara said; "Anyway, the third thing was that the killers would write out words that always included the name 'Bokrug' either in the victim's blood or in the victim's own flesh. There was also the crude image of a lizard with a long coiling tail somewhere on or near the victim."
"What about the guy who tried to kill you?" Janus then asked.
"His name is Abijah Hoadley," Tara replied grimly. "His family was at the center of a human trafficking ring that DREAM broke up. They sold Numbers to other Britannian noble families to use for anything from housekeepers to sex slaves."
"I hope he gets the book thrown at him," the young man said, his face twisted in disgust at the Hoadleys' deeds. "But it sounds like this 'Bokrug' is the center of a murderous cult of people who want to go back to oppressing the people Queen Euphemia freed when she abolished the Pax Britannia."
"...And enacted her policy of inflicting greater punishment for criminal acts committed by people who hold or once held power than those who never had any," Porter added. "That alone makes her quite unpopular with the nobility, even though by that logic she stands to suffer the most."
Tara nodded.
"That's why I advocated for leniency for the other ones who tried to kill me," she said. "They were all family members of soldiers who had died or been maimed fighting for DREAM's enemies. They weren't nobles angry over being humbled...their actions were motivated by love, not hate."
"Even so, sometimes I think you are too softhearted, my lady," Porter sighed.
The Knight sighed and looked out the window after turning off her device. It was autumn, and the leaves on the trees were changing colors, turning the endless green into a beautiful tapestry of reds, yellows and oranges that made the forests seem ablaze, especially in the setting sun. This light, reflected on the waters of the Miskatonic River that the train was running parallel to, made the sight even more spectacular.
"I gotta say, the landscape here is beautiful," Tara said wistfully, "Especially in this light. One of these days I should try painting it."
"You are hardly the only one to admire the beauty of New Albany and the Miskatonic Valley," Porter said with a hint of pride. "People from the southern regions would come north just to take in this display. We called them 'leaf peepers' – quite similar to the Japanese practice of viewing the cherry blossoms in spr..."
All of a sudden, the entire train car heaved violently, and even went airborne for a moment before tipping onto its side as it continued to barrel forward. After several seconds, the car stopped.
"Porter! Jan! You all right?!" Tara called out as she picked herself up.
"Yeah," Janus grunted, secretly glad to be the child of an Outer God for once. "But this is definitely not our day."
"I am quite all right as well, Your Grace," Porter said. "A few nicks, scratches and bruises, but I can move."
"Good," the Knight said. "Let's check on the other passengers." But before they could do that, a hideous shriek from what must have been a gargantuan creature, pierced the night air.
"Good heavens!" Porter exclaimed. "What was that?!" However, the sound sent a wave of deeper dread through Janus and Tara, as it brought back memories of their fateful encounter with Janus' monstrous, mindless grandfather.
"Jan...you don't think...?" Tara said uneasily.
"If you're thinking what I'm thinking," Janus said with a nod, "then I really, REALLY hope we're wrong..."
After the disappearance of the Gutsy Global Guard's core leadership at Jupiter, the burden of leading the non-governmental organization fell to GGG China's branch chief Yang Long Li, who had been central not just to the creation of FuRyu and RaiRyu, but to many of GGG's most important projects, including development of the Goldion Crusher. Upon being given the mantle, Yang wasted no time in beginning work on a means to bring the Brave Corps. back – Project Z.
But that didn't mean GGG didn't keep an eye on the Earth and any new threats that might emerge there.
"Someone get us a read on that thing!" a man with black hair and a thick mustache barked from Taiga's old place in New Orbit Base's Main Order Room. The room itself was not much different from the old one, but the people manning the many consoles were almost completely different – the only member of the original group was Kazuo Ushiyama. Also joining the group remotely was Kaguya Sumeragi, who had not grown much during the three years following the war.
"If it's one of BioNet's imitation Zonder Robos," Kaguya said, "then we should..."
"Negative, Councilwoman," an operator replied. "It has an energy signature similar to the monstrous entities that DREAM encountered in the war three years ago!"
Akamatsu leered.
"So, it's a creature from 'Outside'," he muttered. He had hoped to never encounter such a being – a hideous fiend that dwelt in realms beyond imagining, and had such a monstrous and incomprehensible form that the mere sight of it could drive men mad.
Almost like the thing that appeared out of Jupiter's atmosphere that fateful day and swallowed the Nadesico and the Brave Corps...
The thing Mamoru Amami and Kaidou Ikumi called "Overlord".
Thankfully this creature's appearance, though terrifying, was not so incomprehensible as to drive a viewer insane just by looking at it. It was a massive lizard-like being with an improbably long, toothed neck that stretched ten meters up from the surface of the river. Its head, the size of the train cars that had just overturned, was adorned with curved horns, while its gaping maw was lined with teeth the length of a human arm, and a great forked tongue like a serpent's protruded from it. Six beach ball-sized eyes, three on each side of its head, looked in every direction. As the monstrosity crawled onto the land with claws the size of sedans, its stony skin gleamed like highly polished granite, but moved with the suppleness of flesh and sinew. Its paddle-like tail was quite long, easily as long as the rest of its body, and its rear legs seemed unusually long and muscular.
"Could it be related to the incident from two-and-a-half years ago, then?" Kaguya asked.
"It's unlikely, Chairwoman," Kaidou suddenly said from his communicator. "Nevertheless, we should deal with it if it's going to be a threat to the Earth. Please, send us out." He sat in a cockpit similar to GaoGaiGar's old one, his hands on two large knobs that served as controls for the machine he was going to pilot. He wore a tight-fitting elastic suit with dark cuffs on the sleeves and legs, revealing the skin on his arms and legs.
"But we've already scrambled three Great Mazingers," Kaguya said; "and we're preparing to sortie Mimir Alatreox as well! They might be able to take care of it."
"I agree with Kaidou," Mamoru said as he sat in a similar cockpit and wearing the same sort of outfit as Kaidou. "Please, give the command to send us out with the GaoMachines!"
"Lieutenant Amami..." Akamatsu muttered.
"We don't know how powerful that thing is," the boy from the Green Planet said; As a member of the Brave Corps, I can't allow it to hurt innocent people...not when we have GaiGo and the GaoMachines!"
Looks like DREAM really rubbed off on you guys, the head of the UFN's council thought before gazing at the screen where Mamoru and Kaidou's images were showing. "Very well! Usage of GaiGo is approved!"
The two survivors of the Trinary Solar System nodded, then focused their energies as they changed into their winged forms as the hangar hatch opened. This machine, as it turned out, used them both as pilots.
"Kakuseijin GaiGo, launching!" Mamoru called out as their machine launched out of the hangar. It was somewhat different than its predecessors – at first, it didn't have the familiar humanoid head or hands – it had two pincer-like manipulators and a head that vaguely resembled the cockpit of an old jet plane. It also had built-in wings and engines that allowed for atmospheric and space flight.
"Let's go, Kaidou," the green winged boy said in an almost ritualistic manner; "You have control!"
"I have control!" the purple winged boy said, as if it were the response to a call. GaiGo's plane-head retracted into its body while simultaneously protruding a humanoid head, and its pincer manipulators folded back, revealing human-like hands.
"GAI...GOOOO!" Mamoru called out as the transformation completed.
"It's your turn, Chairwoman!" Akamatsu said. Kaguya sighed with nostalgia as she picked up the inked stamp that would approve the necessary operation.
"Final Fusion...approved!" she said as she slammed the stamp on her desk. Alarms went off in the Main Order Room indicating that the order had been received.
"Ayame!" Kazuo yelled to a young woman with her hair tied back in two buns, who was sitting in Mikoto's old seat. When she heard her name being called, Ayame Hatsuno grinned and clenched her fist in excitement.
"Time to follow in Miss Utsugi's footsteps!" she said with a grin as she raised her fist to slam on the glass; "Final Fusion...Program...DRIIIIIIVE!"
When Ayame slammed on the glass, it began. The GaoMachines meant to work with GaiGo – StealthGao II, LinerGao II and DrillGao II - flew out of different hangars to link up with it.
"FINAL...FUUUUUSIOOOON!" the two boys cried in unison. With that, the transformation began, working much like it did for the machines Guy Shishioh had piloted – LinerGao II formed into its shoulders and arms, DrillGao II into its feet, and StealthGao II into its wings.
At that moment, the two boys, born in the Trinary Solar System and raised on Earth, formed into a new protector, one made entirely in the Earth Sphere...a new King of Braves, powered by G and J...
GAOGAIGO!
As Janus and Tara climbed out of their overturned train car, they saw that their worst fears had come true – their train had come under attack by a monstrosity from Outside.
"What...is that thing?!" Tara muttered.
"Bokrug...the Water Lizard..." a voice came from atop one of the overturned train cars. "He...has risen!" The couple turned around to see a cloaked man strikingly similar to the one who had attacked Tara earlier that day. He was standing in front of some flames as he cackled madly.
"He has answered our prayers and accepted our sacrifices!" the man cackled. "Now vengeance shall be ours!"
"Another one of the cult killers?!" Janus exclaimed. "So then all of those murders..." He looked back at the rampaging lizard, which had started to turn its attention to the other cars.
"That's right, foolish one!" the cultist said as he reached into his cloak, "By the light of the gibbous moon did we perform our ceremonies! Now, Bokrug has come and shall feast upon the traitors of this land, just as He feasted upon the fools of Sarnath in ages past!" Tara got on her guard, expecting him to attack with a knife.
But instead, he whipped out a fancy-looking crossbow that already had a bolt readied.
"Now, for the final sacrifice to completely anchor Him to this realm!" he shouted as he fired the bolt, aiming it at Tara's heart. But as he did so, Janus suddenly appeared in front of him, his body blazing gold while numerous wings of bubbles made of light protruded from his shoulders, and a third eye with an iris like a luminous rainbow pool glared out from his forehead – and he had caught the bolt the instant it had been fired.
The cultist staggered backward in terror, as he tried to run away, only to fall from the train car, and face flat in the mud beside the tracks. Janus continued to follow him as he scrambled further backward.
"You..." the cultist cried; "You are like my Lord! Why do you..." But the angered child of Yog-Sothoth grabbed the cloaked man by the throat and lifted him up with one hand.
"I...am...NOTHING LIKE HIM!" he retorted through clenched teeth as he started to squeeze the man's throat. Tara gasped when she saw that other passengers were watching, and that her beloved clearly had every intention of killing this man – she could hear the man desperately trying to plead for his life, but no air could pass through his windpipe.
"Jan, stop!" Tara cried. The sound of his beloved's cry made Janus drop the man and return to his normal shape. He immediately looked at his hand, then at the man's throat.
"Is...he dead?" the young man said, fearful at the thought of what he had done.
"No," Tara said. "You almost killed him, though. At least he can answer for his crimes in court once he's in custody." Suddenly, the sound of roaring engines pierced the night air. Everyone, including the rampaging Bokrug, stopped and looked up.
"Look," one of the passengers cried, "Great Mazingers!" Indeed, ten mass-production Great Mazingers were soaring through the sky and closing in on Bokrug.
"They'll take care of this foul beast!" another said confidently.
If at least one of those was Mazin Emperor G or even the prototype Great Mazinger, I'd be more confident, Tara thought as the mass-produced Super Robots began their attack; But those mass production versions may not be able to do it. If only we had Lifthrasir or Granlif...
The Great Mazingers fired off some Atomic Punches at Bokrug, which glanced off its stony skin. The beast retorted by unleashing a wave of ice from its mouth, freezing an unlucky Great Mazinger and its pilot, causing it to plummet into the forest below. The other two, meanwhile, fired off some Breast Burns – and these seemed to have a more significant effect on the Water Lizard – though it regenerated the damage almost instantly. The monster retorted by opening its mouth and forming a huge ball of eldritch light in it, then firing it, incinerating the other two Super Robots easily.
The crowd, who had pinned their hopes on the Great Mazingers, quickly became dismayed and panicked at how easily the mass-produced Super Robots were dispatched. But a small boy looked up at the sky again, and spotted something else flying in.
"Look, daddy," the child said, tugging on his despairing father's sleeve; "There's another one! It's a big dragon!"
Indeed – it was a large dragon-like machine with great wings. It was mostly black, and covered in spikes, particularly on its chest. Two forward-facing, thick horns were atop its head, which was filled with teeth. It flipped and refolded, shifting into a humanoid form wielding twin rifles.
Janus and Tara immediately recognized the machine. However, their feelings on its appearance were quite different – the young man's was shock, the other was deep annoyance.
"Is that Mimir Alatreox?!" Janus exclaimed. "But I thought they had quit piloting!"
"Let's just get everyone we can to safety!" Tara said, grabbing her beloved's arm and pulling him toward one of the wrecked train cars, causing him to drop the crossbow bolt he had in his hand.
If those two survive this, she fumed, they are getting a SERIOUS talking-to!
But as they left the area, the cultist awoke. Seeing that no one else was present, the weary man seemed to realize that he had but one option left.
"Mighty Bokrug, accept me as a sacrifice instead!" he cried as he picked up the bolt and held it over his heart; "I shall be the one to anchor you to this reality and make you invincible!" With that, he jammed the projectile into his heart and twisted it around, then dropped to the ground as his life bled out...
Ruri Hoshino had never imagined that she'd be captaining a vessel of her own, nor did she wish it. She just wanted to live a quiet, peaceful life with Yurika and Akito on Mars. But now that the two had been swallowed by Jupiter, there was no one else the UFN space forces could find that could captain a Nadesico-class vessel.
So it went that Ruri, at the age of 14, became captain of the Nadesico B, and the youngest person to ever command a warship in the history of the Earth Sphere – a record that Yurika had once held as captain of the original ship.
What she wanted to do even less was to fight. But people's lives were on the line, and that meant she had to...and that also meant sending out her friends to fight as well.
"Lousy terrorists!" Ryoko shouted as she opened fire at a Strike Dagger with her custom Aestivalis' rifle. "We took on freaking GODS to save these jerkwads and THIS is the thanks we get?!" She and the Joule team were fighting a group of terrorists sympathetic to Blue Cosmos that seemed to want to repeat the Bloody Valentine incident – and were using a number of old Earth Alliance mobile suits to do it.
Meanwhile, the Joule team no longer had their old GAT-X machines, but the ZAKUs that had been made by Dr. Heaven as a countermeasure against Atik Yomin's invasion – Yzak had a blue Slash ZAKU Phantom, Dearka had a gray Gunner ZAKU Warrior and Shiho had a green Gunner ZAKU Warrior. Nicol was not present among them – he had chosen to be discharged from ZAFT and allowed the Harmony Gundam to be cannibalized for parts along with the now-obsolete Buster and Duel Gundams.
"We knew that building a peaceful Earth Sphere was not going to be easy, Ryoko," Ruri said from her captain's chair; "The fact that we have even a slim majority of the people fully on our side is a miracle in and of itself." Ruri now wore a uniform that almost exactly like her old captain's, and she now sported a twin-tail hairstyle.
"There are still too many people who believe in Blue Cosmos' anti-Coordinator agenda," Shiho said as she fired off a round from her ZAKU's beam cannon, blasting through a Duel Dagger. "As well as Patrick Zala's anti-Natural agenda, and even the Martian Successors' anti-Earthling plans."
"And certainly enough to cause trouble like this!" Yzak added as he took out another Strike Dagger with his machine's gatling cannons.
"It's a good thing they're not all coordinated," Dearka said as he sniped another Duel Dagger. "If they had someone of Zero's caliber on their side, we'd be in serious trouble!"
"Eat this, jerkwads!" Ryoko cried as she took down another Strike Dagger. All of a sudden, she saw that the remaining terrorists were starting to retreat.
"Yeah, that's right!" the Aestivalis pilot jeered. "Run! You know when you're beat!" Meanwhile, one of the operations crew of the Nadesico B, who was monitoring the situation, noticed a trio of Moebius flying toward the nearby PLANT.
"Captain, are those Moebius equipped with what I think they are?" he said. Ruri glanced at one of her monitors and zoomed in on the mobile armors.
"FLEIJAs confirmed," Ruri said – her voice was calm, but her heart was racing. "They appear to be kamikaze units."
"You mean they plan to crash into the colony?" the operator said. "So then the other mobile weapons were a diversion!"
"Indeed," the captain replied. "But we shall stop them here and now, Harry...rerouting all available power from the Distortion Field to the Gravity Blast."
"What?" Harry exclaimed. "But we'll still be wide open to attack if we do that! Can't we send one of our mobile units to stop them?"
"They could be caught in the collapse effect at this range," Ruri explained. "Omoikane had calculated that we can safely contain the FLEIJA's collapse effect using a full-power Gravity Blast. It's the most effective way to protect the colony and minimize our own casualties at this moment."
"Yes miss," he sighed. With that, the ship's Distortion Field lowered, and the Gravity Blast began to charge while the ship slowly turned to take aim.
"All units, we are about to fire a full-power Gravity Blast," the Nadesico B's captain announced to the mechs under her command; "Please clear the line of fire." Ryoko and the Joule team did so, giving the warshipa clear shot.
"Fire on my command," the captain ordered. As the Moebius drew closer, Ruri tensely waited. If she fired before or after the precise moment, the blast would either tear through the PLANT, soaking her hands with the blood of thousands of innocents, or miss at least one of the terrorists, ensuring those innocents would still die when the survivors rammed into the colony with their FLEIJAs.
"Gravity Blast, fire!" she called out. The ship's cannon surged as it shot a massive blast of crackling gravitational energy. The blast managed to tear through the three Moebius, crushing them. But as the FLEIJAs inside automatically detonated, the gravitational force squeezed the collapse effects, causing them to harmless dissipate after several seconds.
To everyone's joy, the PLANT that the terrorists were targeting was still completely intact. The Nadesico B's bridge soon filled with cheers and hollers of excitement.
"Nice shooting, Captain Hoshino!" Shiho said happily. "I didn't think it was possible to precisely target with something like a Gravity Blast!"
"That's our Ruri!" Ryoko said. "You're as good a captain as Yurika!" Ruri sighed and looked away a bit.
Akito...Yurika...
Paul and Alia Zifell were understandably nervous about the enemy they were facing – up until today their only sorties since the war were against amateur terrorists who thought they could get their way by attacking innocent people in whatever mecha they could get their hands on, and they believed that was what they were going to be facing when they went into battle.
But now they were facing a creature from Outside, and a powerful one at that.
Though they wore the same standard-issue UFN piloting uniform, it was much easier to tell them apart now. Alia now had streaks of pink in her hair and a star-shaped hair-clip not unlike Lacus Clyne's. Meanwhile, Paul had chosen to slick back his hair and dye black streaks into it, and now sported rectangular sunglasses with orange-tinted lenses that he kept perched on his head.
"So, what's the plan, cousin?" Paul asked as Alatreox landed. "This thing's already trashed our wingmen." Bokrug turned toward the newcomer and roared, sending chills down the cousins' spines.
"F-first, we need to lure it away from the people," Alia said, trying to shake off her fear. Mimir took aim with its rifles and fired off several beam shots at the monster's eyes. Bokrug shrieked as two of its six eyes were incinerated by the beam energy. It then charged at the black robot, which quickly took the air.
"That wasn't too hard!" Paul said as Mimir flew up and away from the train with Bokrug slavering at it below. "And we can probably just snipe it from up here! There's no way it can..."
As he was saying that, the Water Lizard had started to coil its tail like a spring in mid-run. It then stopped, pressed the tip of its tail into the ground, and bent its legs. A moment later, Bokrug jumped into the air like a frog as it lashed out with its forked tongue. To the cousins' astonishment, it had managed to gain enough air for its tongue to wrap the XEM-06's leg.
"What the hell?!" Paul exclaimed as Bokrug used gravity to pull its victim to the ground and slam it into the dirt, causing the cockpit to jolt wildly and for it to drop its rifles. Mimir managed to raise its upper body up for a moment before Bokrug forced it back down, badly damaging the mech's arms and legs with its own weight. The two cousins got a good look inside the Water Lizard's mouth, which seemed to be filled with tentacles, bulging eyeballs and lamprey-like mouths.
"Get off of us, you freak!" Alia cried, focusing her will. Alatreox began to glow, emanating an aura of heat as hot as magma that surged even through the mech's damaged arms. This was enough to make Bokrug shriek again and stagger off of them.
However, all it had done was make the already enraged Water Lizard even angrier. It opened its mouth and charged up as a blizzard formed in its mouth. Paul and Alia tried to make Mimir get up, but the mech's limbs were too damaged.
"Well, we're screwed," Paul sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "It was a good run, though." Alia, however, had not given up hope yet – for she saw something descending from the sky just behind Bokrug.
"Is that...GaoGaiGar?!" she exclaimed as she zoomed in on the descending object. Paul looked at the screen as well – it was a familiar-looking robot wielding a familiar-looking tool-shaped weapon – the Gatling Driver.
"It can't be," he gasped, almost unable to believe his eyes. "Guy Shishioh and the Brave Corps. disappeared along with the Nadesico almost three years ago now!" As he said this, Bokrug turned around and stared in confusion at the incoming machine.
It was not GaoGaiGar, or even GaoFighGar...but GaoGaiGo that was wielding the Gatling Driver. The tool struck Bokrug dead on and smashed him into the ground, creating a deep crater that was surrounded by a Dividing Field, isolating the two mechs and their monstrous foe while wounding the Water Lizard and stopping its blizzard attack.
"Are you okay in there?!" a voice called to the two over their communicators as GaoGaiGo
"No way...Mamoru Amami's in there?!" Alia exclaimed.
"Looks like GGG's been doing more than just digging holes and messing around with Jupiter," Paul said before answering. "Hello again, Mamoru Amami. I'm bruised and scratched up, but I'm okay."
Mamoru gasped. He had not recognized Mimir Alatreox at first, but having heard the voice of Tara's cousin – who was also his classmate – he realized what the fallen mech was.
"It really is you, Paul!" the boy from the Green Planet said, also relieved to hear that. "Is Alia with you?"
"Hi, Mamoru," Alia said. "Looks like you've got a new King of Braves." Bokrug groaned as it lay on its back, trying to regenerate the wound the Gatling Driver had inflicted.
"Yes," Kaidou said. "This is GaoGaiGo, composed of the Neuro-Mechanoid GaiGo and three GaoMachines."
"I thought you guys weren't gonna pilot anymore?" his co-pilot asked the two cousins.
"We didn't want Tara to worry about us, so we told a little white lie," Paul said. As he said this, Bokrug let out a shriek. When GaoGaiGo turned around, they saw that it was back on its feet.
"It regenerated that quickly?!" Mamoru exclaimed.
"We should have expected as much," Kaidou said. "If this is a creature is anything like Nyog'Sothep, we have to be prepared for anything." His co-pilot sighed and steeled himself.
Big bro Guy...everyone, he thought, lend us your strength!
Many miles away from the fight, a large red circle covered in mystical arcane symbols appeared a hundred meters above the forest. A moment later, a massive robot slowly descended from it, barely missing an old abandoned house that was easily centuries old, yet had somehow survived the ravages of time.
This robot, standing well over fifty meters tall, was primarily silvery-white with a dark gray face and hands along with some red and blue accents; it had a single great horn on its head that had a green energy flame protruding from it like a noble crest and flanked by two vent-like structures; while it had almost impractically long knee pad-like structures on its legs; finally, numerous feather-like structures protruded from its back, giving the impression of great wings. Within moments of touching down, two people appeared in front of it – a young man and a girl.
The young man appeared to be in his mid-twenties, had mussy brown hair and purple eyes, and wore a white coat, a black ascot with white trim held together with a brass button, a dark vest of the same color scheme, dark jeans and black sneakers with a large red dot on the toe. The girl, meanwhile, appeared to be in her mid-teens with pale purple hair, sea-green eyes, an incredibly lacy white skirt that just barely concealed his panties and red ribbons tied in her hair and on her wrists.
"Well, we made it, Al," the young man said to the girl.
"But we're clearly off-target, Kurou," the girl said, looking around. "We were supposed to appear in Arkham City."
"These are definitely the spatial coordinates," Kurou said, waving his hand and conjuring a small hologram of the planet as if to examine it. "Either we're off on the time axis, or Arkham City is located elsewhere."
"This is why you do RESEARCH, Kurou Daijuuji," the girl grumbled as her companion studied the map. "You don't just dive into a reality without looking first."
"Ah, here it is," the young man said, showing her the map and pointing to the city. "We weren't THAT far off...see?" Just then, an explosion rocked the forest, sending birds and animals scattering in fear. The pair looked around, then suddenly locked on to the source of the sound – and when they did, a feeling they were all too familiar with filled them.
"Not even two minutes here and we've already got trouble," Al sighed. "It's definitely a creature from Outside."
"Guess we'd better deal with it," her companion said. "I just hope we can get used to fighting in this kind of world again. It's been a while since we've fought in realities with only four dimensions."
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Al said confidently; "Or my name isn't Al Azif!"
Things weren't going much better for GaoGaiGo than they had for Mimir Alatreox – they watched as half of Bokrug's head pulled itself together after getting smashed with a Broken Phantom. What was worse, the new King of Braves hadn't gotten a chance to test its other special aside from that and the Gatling Driver. And without the support of any other machines, it was more or less on its own.
As GaoGaiGo tried to attack in close quarters again, the Water Lizard turned and smashed the new King of Braves with its long tail, sending it reeling.
"If this keeps up, we'll end up like Paul and Alia!" Mamoru said as GaoGaiGo righted itself. "If only we had something like the Goldion Hammer."
"We can still try Hell & Heaven," Kaidou suggested as Bokrug charged again. "I recall that Nyog'Sothep had at least one 'anchor' that kept him completely in our reality." Kaidou made GaoGaiGo take to the air for a moment to avoid the Water Lizard's leaping pounce.
"So, if we can remove that anchor," Mamoru exclaimed as their machine landed, "then he might not be able to regenerate so quickly...just like with the Zonder Robos! Let's do it, Kaidou!"
"You have left control!" Kaidou called out, in the same semi-ritualistic manner as he did back when they initially formed GaiGo.
"I have left control!" Mamoru replied. Just as its predecessors did, GaoGaiGo spread its arms wide. But instead of yellow and pink, the left hand glowed green, and the other shone red.
"HELL...AND...HEAVEN!" the two young heroes cried in unison. Bokrug shrieked as it looked up, and then started to twist its tail and bend its limbs to spring at the King of Braves.
"Gemu-giru-gan-go-gufo..." the two grunted, the energies of G and J beginning to crackle as both hands attempted to repel each other like magnets of the same polarity. The machine did manage to clasp them together, sending a wave of G-Stone and J-Jewel energy at the Water Lizard. It managed to stun it momentarily and disrupt its leap. This was the moment the two survivors of the Trinary Solar System had been waiting for – with a loud heroic cry, GaoGaiGo charged forward, fists clasped...
"VIIIIIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAAAAAAS!"
The attack struck Bokrug's chest, burying the hands into its body. After a moment, Kaidou gasped hopefully as he somehow felt a lump of something that was distinctly different from the rest of the monster.
"We've got it!" he said. "Pull, Mamoru!" The two young heroes did so, ripping out a mass of flesh that looked eerily like a heart, which immediately moldered and rotted into a foul black sludge that slipped through GaoGaiGo's fingers. The sludge also emitted a putrid stench that seemed to be partly that of opened graves and partly of rotting swamp plants.
But that desperate attack was not enough to kill Bokrug like it did a Zonder, even if it did cause the Water Lizard to shriek in agony. It retaliated by biting down on GaoGaiGo's torso, its massive teeth easily puncturing the King of Braves' armor. But the boys didn't give up, but made the King of Braves pound on the Water Lizard's mouth with its fists.
Oddly, it took only a few hits to make Bokrug let go...or rather, its attention suddenly turned to something else after a few hits. Its six eyes were locked on a large red circle covered in mystical arcane symbols that had appeared in the air nearby.
And out of said circle stepped the mecha that had appeared miles away, unbeknownst to anyone.
"Another robot..." Kaidou grunted.
"Is it...here to help?" Mamoru wondered out loud. As in answer, a heroic creed sounded from its speakers:
"From the hate-scorched sky..."
"With righteous anger in our hearts..."
"We draw forth the sword that smites evil!"
"Thou art the innocent blade...DEMONBAAAAAANE!"
Kurou Daijuuji and Al Azif looked out at their opponent from their cockpits intently. It was incredibly similar to Neo Granlif's in many ways – Kurou, who now had long white hair, chalk-white skin, mismatched red and purple eyes, hard chiseled muscles, sporting black pants and gloves, manned a cockpit that detected his motions and made his machine perform them. His co-pilot sat in a more conventional cockpit, although her monitors displayed gauges that only she could understand. The girl was also sporting a strange helmet on her head.
"So, Al," Kurou said, flexing his neck and cracking his knuckles, "who's our opponent this time? Looks like an actual Great Old One."
Al quickly ran a scan on the lizard they were staring down.
"It's Bokrug, the Water Lizard," Al replied. "It seems that doom came to Sarnath in this world as well. And now some murderous cult is trying to bring the same doom upon this land as well. Luckily, it seems to have just lost its anchor."
"Anchor?" Kurou said with some surprise.
"This multiverse is one where Great Old Ones and Outer Gods cannot manifest with their full powers without absorbing the soul of a being born within it."
"Well, as long as Demonbane is here," Kurou said as he entered a fighting stance, "it won't be getting another anchor!"
"Just remember that we can't use the Lemuria Impact because of the nearby civilians," his copilot reminded him, "and the Shining Trapezohedron is right out!"
"It's fine," Kurou said. "Demonbane has plenty of other weapons. Let's go, Al!" Al grinned and braced herself against the controls as Demonbane charged at Bokrug, opening fire with some heavy vulcans on its head. The bullets struck the Water Lizard's head, forcing it to close its eyes. This allowed the machine to close in and smash it with a mighty punch, sending it reeling – the first real damage it had suffered since it appeared.
But that was hardly Demonbane's only trick.
"Ia! Cthuuga! Ia! Ithaqua!" Al yelled as if chanting a spell. The backs of Kurou's hands each glowed with a red and blue circle as a heavy-looking pistol appeared in each of Demonbane's hands – one black as basalt and the other white like glacial ice. He then fired the two guns, and each produced a bolt of magical energy – heat from the black gun and cold from the white. The bolts rushed at Bokrug, hammering the massive lizard over and over.
The Water Lizard got to its feet after the barrage and opened its mouth, forming another huge ball of eldritch light.
"Oh, no you don't!" Kurou yelled; "Atlach-Nacha!"
Demonbane suddenly cast forth a net made of energy that wrapped itself around Bokrug's mouth, causing the ball of light to prematurely detonate inside the monster's mouth.
"Time to finish this!" Al said. "Let's make sure we do it away from these people!"
Many of Demonbane's parts began to glow gold as the horn on its head folded down. It spread its legs out, allowing the gigantic knee-pads to flip behind it.
"Now, fly!" the girl cried. The massive robot sprang into the air with a swiftness that should have been impossible for something of its bulk. It did a flip and then performed a dive kick while surrounding itself with green eldritch energy. As Demonbane descended, Kurou called out the name of this mighty attack:
"ATLANTIS...STRIIIIIIIIIIKE!"
The blow struck true, nailing Bokrug in the head with its toes and piercing into its skull as both it and Demonbane skidded for several thousand yards through the forest and away from the train. As the mighty mecha pulled its foot out and jumped away, the monstrous lizard's head began to twinkle as eldritch power tore through its body. It then erupted in a gargantuan fireball that consumed everything in a one mile radius while Demonbane landed near the edge of the river.
But when the fireball dissipated, they saw that Bokrug was still around. However, its six eyes had rolled back into its head, and its forked tongue lolled out. After a few moments, the Great Old One's body began to molder and rot into the same foul black sludge its heart had when GaoGaiGo had ripped it out. It also started to emit the same putrid smell as before.
"I think we got it," Kurou said. "We won, right?"
"Have you forgotten already, Kurou?" Al said in a scolding tone; "The Great Old Ones can't really be destroyed unless you attack them on a spiritual and conceptual level. But its spiritual presence is fading fast."
"I'd call that a victory in this circumstance," Kurou said with a grin. Demonbane turned around and saw the crowd of people who had survived the train crash cheering wildly – save the now-dead cultist, of course. Al quickly scanned the crowd, and happened to spot Janus among them.
"Hey, Kurou, it's him!" she said. Kurou looked at his screen.
"Well, so it is," her co-pilot said. "Talk about a coincidence." Meanwhile, GaoGaiGo approached Demonbane.
"Th-thank for defeating that creature for us," Mamoru said awkwardly. "I wish we could have done more."
"Don't be so down on yourselves," Kurou said. "You kept Bokrug from hurting any more innocent people. If that was your objective, you certainly achieved that." Mamoru couldn't help but hear Guy's voice in Kurou's words, as if he were being congratulated from wherever he was.
"Plus, you removed its anchor," Al said sweetly, "so that made our job a lot easier. Thanks again, little heroes."
"Um...you're welcome," Kaidou said awkwardly. "May I trouble you for your..." But before he could finish his sentence, Demonbane had leaped into the air and disappeared into another arcane circle...
"Man, this is gonna be one hell of a report," Tara muttered as she breathed into a small respirator that a rescue team had provided her. The foul stench from Bokrug's corpse was starting to spread through the area, so the rescue teams from nearby areas, as well as from GGG, were prepared to assume that the stench was a toxic gas. She, along with Janus, was working to help the rescue teams get the civilians to the nearest medical facilities.
"That mech was amazing!" Janus said eagerly. "It took out Bokrug like it was nothing! I'll bet it's as powerful as Neo Granlif was!"
"There was no mech or Water Lizard," Tara said rather dryly. "This was all caused by explosions created by the freak ignition of swamp gases, which also caused mass hallucinations." This statement made Janus do a double take.
"I'm sorry, what?" he exclaimed.
"That's what's going on the report," the Knight said in a harsh whisper. "The governments we worked with to bring about this new era of peace all agreed that the world at large can't know about the existence of the monsters from Outside." Janus was about to complain, but then he remembered why.
If people knew that the gods are not only real, but nightmarish abominations that dream us into existence, our world would go mad.
"Then why not just call it one of BioNet's imitation Zonder Robos?" he then suggested. "Considering the world we live in, it would be believable enough."
"Like I said, I didn't make up these rules," Tara answered, more annoyed with the rule than with Janus, as she folded up the paper and slipped it into her pocket, "but I have to follow them."
"Tara! Janus!" a voice called out to them suddenly. Tara looked up with surprise to see Mamoru and Kaidou approaching them, both carrying cartons full of respirators.
"Mamoru! Kaidou!" she exclaimed.
"It's been a while!" Mamoru said.
"Three years," Tara said, looking back and forth between GaoGaiGo's two pilots. "You guys are already starting to look like real heroes. I'm sure Guy and J would be proud to have you as their successors."
"Thanks," the boy from the Green Planet said humbly; "but if that new robot didn't appear, I'm not sure we could have beaten it."
"Didn't you hear the guy in that machine?" Paul said as he and Alia came up behind them. "You guys managed to..." But they stopped when they saw their cousin, who was glaring at them angrily.
"Heya, cousin," he said. "L-long time no see."
"We just saw you two days ago," Tara said quietly, trying her hardest not to explode at them. Paul and Alia looked at each other as if trying to come up with a good excuse. But they quickly judged that the truth was the only way out of this.
"We didn't want you worrying about us," Alia said, "so we lied when we said we weren't going to fight." The Knight gritted her teeth, and then started to tear up.
"Damn it," she said through clenched teeth before suddenly screaming at them; "I wanted you guys to grow up in a somewhat normal way! I didn't ask you to keep being soldiers! You should be staying in school, and..."
"This is our choice, cousin," Paul replied, puffing up his chest a bit to show his resolve. "We're going to keep fighting to protect people until the world becomes a place where it becomes unnecessary!" Tara shook her head.
"Then, as head of the Zifell family," she said with cold authority, "I forbid you to fight anymore - you're going to go to your commander and ask to be discharged. And if you refuse..."
Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone else in the conversation, Mamoru suddenly spoke up.
"...Stop ordering them around!" he said. "If this is what they really want to do, you have no right to interfere them! My parents understand that with me and piloting GaoGaiGo!" Tara found herself struggling to respond to this. Only when Janus put a hand on her shoulder, and silently shook his head did she understand.
"I'm sorry, you two," the Knight said, defeated. "Mamoru's right. I shouldn't be trying to interfere with what you really want to do...I should be more supportive." With that, she slowly walked away, head bowed. Janus turned back to his beloved's cousins.
"While I am on your side," he said, "I just want to remind you that she's only angry about it because she loves you. You're like the little siblings she never had."
"We're aware of that," Paul said. "But our decision remains the same." Janus nodded, and walked away to comfort his beloved...
"So, that was him," Al said as she and Kurou relaxed in the main room of the old, abandoned house; "The son of Yog-Sothoth that not only stood against Nyog'Sothep, but shattered him."
"He's nothing like Master Therion," Kurou said as he put his feet up on an old table. "It's almost hard to believe that he's related to an Outer God."
"I don't know," Al said as she tried to lie down and get comfortable on an old sofa, "When he almost choked that cultist he certainly looked like one." Al tossed and turned a bit, then sat up with a pout on her face.
"It's no good," the girl sighed. "I just can't get comfortable!" She then made an obscure gesture in her hand, causing a glowing circle covered with arcane symbols to appear in mid-air. She reached into the circle and her arm seemed to disappear into thin air. A moment later she extracted what looked like a small carrier for an animal, which she then placed it down on the floor. Within seconds, a yellow, gelatinous substance seeped through the holes in the carrier and reformed on the floor before proceeding to form a single eye. The blob's eye looked around before turning to its apparent master.
"Tekeli-liiiiiiiii!" the blob said cheerfully.
"No, this is not where we plan to be staying, Dunsany," Al said with a sad tone. The blob seemed to sulk while its master gingerly sat down on it. Upon feeling its master's body, Dunsany immediately shifted its mass to perfectly accommodate every curve of the girl's back. Once she was comfortable, Al gazed up towards the ceiling.
"You know, it's kind of a shame that it was Bokrug we fought," she mused, "he was always a little different from the other Great Old Ones and Outer Gods."
"Why?" Kurou asked.
"Bokrug just wanted to be left alone and live in peace with the race that adored him," the girl said. "He had no ambitions of conquest like Cthulhu, or a desire to spread madness like the one we're pursuing."
"I never thought I'd hear you say that, Al," her partner said with a smirk.
"Still, the fact that Bokrug even appeared is a sure sign that IT has begun sowing chaos," the girl said darkly; "We'll have to be ready for anything."
"Good thing I already found us a place to live," Kurou said with an even wider smirk. Al sat up and looked at him in shock.
"You...actually did RESEARCH into this world?!" she exclaimed. "I'm impressed, Kurou! Do tell!" Al's partner grinned, conjured up a smartphone that was already opened to the information he was about to tell.
"Apparently a young noble is renting out rooms in their old family manor for use by local students," the young man explained, showing a picture of a splendid-looking mansion and some photographs of the rooms; "I managed to snag us a room by posing as a student that was going to attend this world's version of Miskatonic University."
"Wow...that looks nice," Al said, scanning the picture. "It doesn't look quite as nice as the Hadou place, but it's almost infinitely better than your old place...or this dump."
"Tekeli-li," Dunsany whistled in agreement.
The Kingdom of Zilkhstan – the Land of Warriors. It was an invincible kingdom that never fell to invaders. Its soldiers were unmatched in skill, and sought after as mercenaries from all of the world powers in the Earth Sphere. And as a land where two-thirds of its land was a desert so barren that the Arabs called it Rub'al Khali, or "Empty Space", it had little to export save for its own fighting men and women. DREAM, as a result of creating a world without large-scale wars, had sent the Land of Warriors into an economic death spiral. After all, without war, there was little need for mercenaries, no matter how skilled.
For its rulers, the siblings Queen Shamna and King Shalio, desperate times called for desperate measures, and there were no more desperate times than this.
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, sister?" Shalio asked uneasily as they walked through a hallway dimly lit with torches. He was a young man with deathly pale skin, platinum-blonde hair and pale blue eyes that lacked pupils. He sat in a fancy wheelchair, and - thanks to his atrophied legs – was permanently bound to it.
"For the sake of our nation," Shamna replied, "we have no choice." She was a relatively tall woman with long, golden-blonde hair and vivid blue eyes – a contrast to her sickly brother. She had a fairly average yet curvy body, concealed by white robes. She carried a sharp knife in one hand.
Shalio was about to protest further, but remained silent as he and his sister arrived at a small square chamber. At the back of the room was an overlarge, intricately carved onyx throne mounted upon a dais. If the room were better lit, one might notice that its geometry was utterly alien in nature, as if it had originated in a realm not bound to three dimensions of space and one of time. In front of the dais, inscribed in dried blood of incredible old age, was a circle with a symbol that vaguely resembled a highly stylized drawing compass with two pincer-like claws sticking out of its sides and part of a ship's anchor hovering just above it.
Shalio shuddered as he recognized the sigil on the floor, and spoke up again.
"Sister, please reconsider!" he pleaded; "We cannot call IT! It will destroy not just our nation, but the entire world!"
"My prophecies have shown me otherwise," Shamna said confidently and kindly. "And I have never given you reason to doubt them, have I?" Her brother looked at the symbol, then back at his sister.
Sensing that her brother had truly relented this time, Shamna stepped toward the circle and began to chant in a language that she clearly did not understand the full meaning of as she slashed open one of her wrists. But her intentions were clear, and her words were having an effect – the droning of hideous flutes and the beating of wicked drums could suddenly be heard, while the blood from her self-inflicted wound began to trickle out on its own, flow through the air and gradually trace a narrower version of the symbol on the floor.
As soon as the symbol was complete, a hole in spacetime formed in the floor – one with ragged edges that almost looked like they were rotting away. And from this portal arose something – a tall, musclebound humanoid figure with a jet-black body and three pairs of arms. Other than two long, upward-curving horns, its head and face seemed to be featureless. As it finished rising out, all three pairs of arms did something different, even though they all kept their fists clenched - its bottom set of arms hung down, its middle pair pressed its knuckles together in front of its chest, and its top set pressed its knuckles together while raising them overhead. Then, the being opened up three red eyes. The sight of this being caused Shalio to gasp in silent awe while Shamna dropped down to her knees and bowed her head against the ground.
The entity then slightly turned its head down toward Shamna, who felt the hairs of her neck stand up on end. It then began to laugh in the voice of an old man, albeit heavily distorted as it lowered its arms.
"How deliciously ironic that I would be summoned here by a descendant of the Sons of Sirius," the entity said as it touched down onto solid ground. Shamna opened her mouth to speak, but the entity continued.
"Lift your head, but say nothing," it said. "I know who you are and why you called Me here." Shamna looked up, surprised to hear this.
"And you will help us?" Shalio exclaimed. "You will save our nation, and bring ruin to the ones who have destroyed its livelihood?"
"I shall, for our interests coincide perfectly," the entity said as it floated backward and seated itself on the throne, its arms layering themselves over one another. "You see, I also wish the destruction of the ones who call themselves DREAM. They have committed a heinous crime against Me and the ones I represent, and they MUST be punished. As for your nation's livelihood, a world filled with war is one that would please Me and my lords very much."
Shamna bowed deeply again.
"Oh, mighty Keisar Ephes," she said ecstatically, "no words can sufficiently convey how thankful we are for Your assistance..."
Next time...
-Janus and Tara arrive at their destination – Zifell Manor, the ancestral home of Tara's Britannian ancestors, where they meet their tenants! Then it's on Arkham City, home to Miskatonic University, where they soon find themselves running into some faces that Kurou and Al seem to know. Meanwhile, trouble begins brewing again in the Universal Century as demons start singing the praises of a "King of Ruin" as they attempt to throw the world into chaos again! How will this all pan out? Find out next time in Expansion Scenario Chapter 2 – Whispers of Evil! New Start In The Legend-Haunted City! Until next time, mecha fans!