Things are about to get a little more Lovecraftian today, but not just in the sense of weird tentacle monsters.
Expansion Scenario Chapter 2 – Whispers of Evil! A New Start In The Legend-Haunted City!
After being transported to the train station they had been heading to by the UFN military and rescue team, Tara, Porter and Janus managed to find a taxi that would take them to their final destination.
"It's a shame most of our stuff got ruined in the train crash," Janus sighed. "All we have left are the contents of our carry-on luggage."
"It's nothing money can't replace," Tara said. "I'm just glad that those cult killers won't be a threat anymore. Apparently the guy who tried to kill me revealed everything once he learned what happened. Police across the Principality are going to raid every single one of their hideouts and arrest them all."
"Huzzah to that, I say," Porter said. "I will certainly be resting easier tonight."
"And I'll sleep better knowing my wife's brother is gonna receive justice," the taxi driver said. "Those monsters killed him just because he led a protest against the Pax Britannia policies. I hope they make those bastards wish Britannia still had a death penalty!"
As they continued up the road, Janus spotted a huge manor house that was easily half again as large as the Zifell mansion in Japan, behind a wrought-iron fence with a lovely gate. The front was decorated with a garden that would have been filled with beautiful flowers in the spring, though the beauty of the surrounding autumn foliage certainly made up for it.
"Whoa, nice mansion," he said. "I wonder who it belongs to." To Janus' surprise, the car turned into the gate, then pulled up near a pair of double doors.
"Here we are, Your Grace," the taxi driver said as his passengers got out. "Thank you kindly for paying in advance." Tara nodded and waved to the driver as his car pulled away.
"This place is huge!" Janus exclaimed as he gazed up at the building. "This is really where we're staying?"
"Yep," Tara said. "Welcome to Zifell Manor!"
"The gardener has certainly done well in maintaining things," Porter said as he looked over the garden approvingly. "I hope the rest of the house is up to standards as well."
"We're not getting this whole place to ourselves, are we?" Janus said. "There's no way we'd use every room in a house this big!"
"Actually," Tara said frankly, "I thought I'd rent most of it out. I figured a lot of the unused rooms will make great student housing." As she said this, Porter noticed a small moving truck turning into the manor's front gate.
"Ah, here comes the first of your tenants, milady," the butler said. The trio watched as the truck pulled up. After a moment, the doors on the truck's main cab opened, and out came the driver and passenger...Kurou Daijuuji and Al Azif.
"Hi there!" Tara said. "Need a hand?"
"We'll be fine," Kurou said. "Are you moving in here too? Have you met the landlord yet?" Tara grinned and puffed out her chest a bit. Janus, meanwhile, suddenly got a feeling of deja vu when he heard Kurou's voice for the first time.
"You're looking at her," she said. Kurou and Al's eyebrows went up in surprise.
"Tara Zifell, Duchess of New Albany," she said, curtsying. "Charmed."
She's nobility? Kurou thought; Our landlord doesn't have the same bearing as Ruri Hadou. And her clothes definitely don't make her look like a noble.
"I'm Kurou Daijuuji," the pilot of Demonbane said; "We talked over the phone. This is..."
"Al Azif," Al said. "We're both starting at Miskatonic University." Tara's eyes widened, while Janus' feelings of deja vu strengthened.
"Really?" she exclaimed. "Me too! Guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other! C'mon, my boyfriend and I show you around. Porter, see if you can help my tenants with their luggage." The butler nodded as the trio stepped inside, entering a grand central area with high ceilings, decorated tastefully in an old style that Kurou and Al recognized as being from the 1800s in the Anno Domini calendar.
"This style – it's from centuries ago!" Al said, awestruck. "Yet it looks marvelous!"
"Why in the world are you renting out for so cheap?" Kurou asked. "Most people would pay a fortune to live in such a beautiful house!" Al, sensing Janus was staring at her, turned and looked back.
"Considering the fortune my grandpa left me," the duchess answered, "I figured I'd only charge tenants enough rent for paying the staff and keeping the place nice, tidy and up to code...no need to make a profit."
Kurou grinned as Tara started to regale him on all of the features that would be in their apartment. Meanwhile, Al turned to Janus.
"You do know it's rude to stare, right?" the girl said haughtily.
"I'm sorry," Janus replied as he averted his gaze for a moment. "But have I...met you and Kurou before?"
"Can't say we have," Al said after a moment of thought. "You must have mistaken us for someone else."
"You're probably right," Janus said awkwardly.
We did meet, Al thought, but Kurou and I agreed to wait until the time was right to tell you the truth about ourselves...
Even after only twenty-four hours in Kamina City, Joshua and Rim almost couldn't believe just how different this Earth was from the Earth they had come from, as little of it as they remembered. This society, where demons, humans and those in between were learning to live in harmony, was not nearly as nightmarish as they thought it would be. Everyone, even the most freaky-looking of demons, treated them with courtesy and respect.
Of course, there were some aspects that would take a great deal of getting used to.
"There," said a spherical blue Devilman with a single huge green eye, a massive mouth with an enormous slobbering black tongue, tiny limbs and a nurse's uniform; "You should be as good as new in about sixty seconds, Cliana. Once it's all dry, you can get dressed. I'll be back with your discharge papers." The Devilman had been licking Rim's body all over for the past ten minutes, but this was somehow causing her injuries to heal with almost unnatural speed – cuts healed, bruises faded and fractured bones knitted back together before her very eyes.
"Um...thank you," Rim said, trying her best not to sound disgusted. The Devilman smiled and shifted back to a human form – a lovely red-haired nurse who somehow managed to have her nurse's uniform still fit. She then started out the door, closed it behind her, and then seemed to be chatting with someone who was waiting just outside the door.
"Don't worry, Rim," Joshua said from the other side of the curtain separating their beds. "It dries pretty quickly."
"Good..." Strega's pilot replied. "I can't believe how well it's working, though." The door opened a few seconds later, and in stepped Leeron.
"Helloooo, you two!" the engineer called out. "I hope you're decent."
"I'll be dressed in a moment," Joshua said.
"Gimme a little time to dry off," Rim said, hiding behind the curtain that gave her privacy.
"So, how are you two feeling?" Leeron asked.
"Completely well!" Joshua said, stepping out into the light, dressed in the clothes he had been wearing while piloting Ganador; "The abilities of demons are quite something."
"Yes indeed," Leeron said with a chuckle, "In the past, the only thing demons valued was strength and fighting capability. Now that they've regained their humanity, even the weakest demons and Devilmen can find their place!"
Rim smiled awkwardly as she felt the last of the nurse Devilman's saliva evaporate.
"But that's not what I came here to tell you," Leeron then said. "I came to tell you that Ganador and Strega are just about as good as new!"
"You fixed them that fast?!" Strega's pilot exclaimed.
"Luckily, your power systems survived the crash," the engineer explained, "and they happened to store complete blueprints. With that and our Spiral Power-based technology, we were able to restore them in no time!"
"Spiral Power?" Josh asked.
"It's an energy based on human will," Leeron answered; "It's what powers this entire city, actually."
He suddenly got very close to Joshua, making him feel uncomfortable.
"And your machines have a power source that's very, VERY similar," he then said. "Shall we go see your machines?"
The next day, Tara and Janus sat in the back seat of a car as were being driven to Miskatonic University by Porter for their orientation. He had secured one that had been left on the manor grounds when the family migrated to Japan to be with Tara's now-deceased grandfather. The silver-blue sedan seemed like an ordinary vehicle at first glance, but it was fitted with subtly concealed armor plating and bulletproof, scratch-resistant windows.
Man, I really should get my driver's license, Tara thought with a sigh as she looked out the window. I'm twenty-three and can pilot a machine as complex as a Knightmare...no reason why I can't drive a car.
As she thought this, the car turned off the highway, and they quickly approached a city – one that gleamed with skyscrapers.
"So, that's Arkham City," Janus said as he peered out at it through the windshield.
"It's grown quite rapidly over the past few decades," Porter said. "It used to be more...charming."
"How so?" the former pilot of Granlif asked. The butler was silent for a moment, as if he would rather not say what he meant.
"I told you, Porter," Tara said, rolling her eyes; "You can speak freely around me!"
Tara's servant sighed as he began to reply.
"Honestly," he said, "I loathe the appearance of modern cities, especially Tokyo. They're all so cold and artificial. Your family was of the same mind, which is why Zifell Manor was built in the countryside." Tara nodded – she could see where the old man was coming from.
"But Arkham City used to be filled with lovely old, wood and stone houses...terraces of green leading up to steeples and citadels of living antiquity...moss-grown gambrel roofs and rocky rolling meadows behind it..."
Before long, the old servant had began rattling off a description of Arkham as it was even just a few decades ago, and how it was lovelier than its current form. The young couple quickly found it grating on their nerves.
"Okay, we get it!" Janus finally cried, stopping the butler's diatribe. After a moment, Porter continued, but on a somewhat different topic.
"Of course," he said darkly as they turned into the city proper, with skyscrapers looming in every direction; "even a city as lovely as old Arkham has its dark side. There are legends of all sorts of nastiness – black magic, Witches' Sabbaths, and other sorts of supernatural nonsense. All legend and rumors from the lips of ancient grandams, of course."
Tara shuddered as she recalled Bokrug and Nyog'Sothep. Was Arkham City a haven for those who trafficked with the forces of Outside?
"Not that the city hasn't embraced that darker side from time to time," Porter continued; "For example, Miskatonic University is home to the Squidragons."
"...Squidragons?" Janus exclaimed.
"Supposedly the creatures that led some of those Witches' Sabbaths were monsters with humanoid bodies, octopus heads and the wings of dragons," the butler said with a chuckle. "Again, this is all just nonsense."
If only, Janus thought, if only.
"If you're into that sort of stuff," Porter continued as they turned down a street that was notably greener than the main part of town, "the university's head librarian is well-versed in the local legends. Fine fellow by the name of Dr. Henry Armitage. Been running the place since your father's college days, I'd wager."
"We'll see," Tara said.
"They also say he's got access to a certain book," the old butler said in a half-whisper as they turned into a parking lot in front of a large building with a single great dome; "a grimoire of the most wicked sort. It might be the source of all the evil legends this city is haunted by."
"What's it called?" Janus asked. Porter pursed his lips as he tried to recall the name.
"I believe it was called the 'Necronomicon'," he finally said as he pulled up to the sidewalk. "Well, here we are."
"Thanks for the lift, Porter," Janus said as he opened his door, stepped out and slung his backpack over his shoulder.
"I live to serve, Master Janus," the butler said. "But your thanks are always appreciated. Have a good day."
Misato sighed as she stepped into the cavernous chamber alongside Kozo Fuyutsuki and a pair of armed guards where a number of workers, both from Nerv and GGG, were slowly and carefully digging away at the exposed Antarctic rock. After Fourth Impact, even more of the Antarctic ice sheet had melted away, exposing what was perhaps the greatest discovery of ancient life in history – and that included the discovery of the fossilized giants in the Valley of Kadmon that had been exposed just a little over three years ago.
With Seele and Gendo Ikari gone, Misato was able to assume leadership of the organization with Kozo Fuyutsuki retaining his advisory role – and with the Angels no longer a threat, Nerv no longer needed the Evangelions or their battleship AAA Wunder. Instead, they were now purely a scientific group, devoted to the study of ancient life...the fossil giants in particular.
"So, Atwood, Caroll," Fuyutsuki asked two men that were carefully chipping away at the rock walls; "What have you found? We came all the way from Japan to see this 'amazing discovery' for ourselves."
"What have we found, Professor?" Atwood, a male scientist from England said; "A better question would be what haven't we found?! It's just been one incredible discovery after another, and it's not just the giants!"
"We've found early shells, bones of ganoids and placoderms," Caroll, a female scientist from Orb, said excitedly; "remnants of labyrinthodonts and thecodonts, mososaur skull fragments, dinosaur vertebrae and armor plates, pterodactyl teeth and wing-bones, archaeopteryx debris, Miocene sharks' teeth, primitive bird skulls, and even the bones of archaic mammals like paleotheres, xiphodons, dinocerases, eohippi, oreodons and titanotheres..."
"And what does that say to you?" Misato then asked impatiently, hoping to get to the point.
"The giants shared the world with life forms from just about every era in the entire fossil record," Atwood replied enthusiastically. "But the strangest part was that most of the specimens we found of them were from much, much earlier. We found some of the earliest examples of fish, mollusks and corals among them, many of which are entirely new to science!"
"Could it be possible," Nerv's director exclaimed after a moment of thought, "that the giants actually created life as we know it?"
No, Fuyutsuki thought, glancing over at Misato, not if all these creatures, aside from the giants, came from the Black Moon. Have you forgotten already?
"But Orrendorf, Lake and Watkins made the biggest discovery," Caroll said. "It must be why they called you here, right? You should go see them. Put on your respirators though, it stinks to high heaven in there!"
Misato nodded, and she put on her respirator before walking deeper into the cavern along with Fuyutsuki and her guards. Just as the scientist had warned, their nostrils were quickly assaulted by an acrid, pungent odor that none of them could quite place, even though the worst of it was filtered by their protective masks.
But the source soon became apparent – two men in surgical attire were standing around something on a metal table.
"Hello, boys," Misato said. "So, let's see the big discovery the written report talked about."
"Director Katsuragi!" Watkins, a Britannian scientist, exclaimed. "You actually came!" With that, he and the other two scientists stepped aside to allow Misato and Fuyutsuki to approach the thing they had been studying.
Whatever it had been, it was thoroughly dissected. The object – clearly a creature - was easily eight feet in length – or perhaps height. It lacked any distinguishable bone structure, but its leathery hide contained organs of varying kinds, some resembling structures in animals, others resembling structures more commonly found in plants.
Alien, Misato instantly thought. Whatever this thing was, it's definitely not from Earth. But what would an alien be doing with the fossil giants?
"Amazingk, isn't it?" Orrendorf, a German scientist said. "Und zis is just one of eight specimens ve've discovered, as ze report mentioned."
"We've already dissected six of the other seven," Watkins said. "They're in the cave just off to the side."
"That soon?" Fuyutsuki exclaimed. "What if these are the only ones you'll find? This creature doesn't look the least bit fossilized, so it will certainly decay before long."
"What's done is done," Misato said as she started to investigate the thing.
"It might be hard to tell now," the Britannian scientist said, "but its body had a pentametric symmetry – meaning its body is the same when divided into five sections. Five ridges on its body, five wings, five muscular tentacle-legs, and five arms with five of these tentacles, which in turn subdivides into five of these smaller tendrils or cilia."
"That's a lot of fives," Misato joked as she grabbed some surgical gloves. "Makes me think of a starfish." After putting them on, she started to gently tug at the specimen's skin, then more vigorously, noting its resistance to being torn.
"No wonder this thing didn't need any bones," she said, "this skin's probably strong enough to hold it up, like an exoskeleton."
"Indeed," Orrendorf said. "Ve had to resort to miniature particle beams to actually cut it open. Yet ze whole thing vas quite flexible from ze outset." Fuyutsuki whistled.
"It's just one puzzle after another with these things, it seems," he said.
"You can say zat again," Watkins said as he started to pick up one of the arms. "Now, look closely..."
"You don't need to spend all day describing it," Misato interrupted; "We already read it in your written report."
"Just one last thing I want to add," Watkins said; "There's an old grimoire locked in Miskatonic University's vaults that describes creatures that seem vaguely similar to the ones we've just discovered. Supposedly, they made all life on Earth as a joke or by mistake."
Old grimoire, Fuyutsuki thought, his eyes widening; He's not talking about...
"Wilmarth, Dyer and Pabodie have read that book," Watkins continued, "so they decided to tentatively call them 'Elder Things'. In all likelihood it was probably some morbidly imaginative interpretation of fossils of ancient tropical radi..."
Suddenly a high-pitched, almost frantic whistling came from nearby, followed by a great clattering and panicked screaming.
"Zat came from further in!" the German scientist exclaimed. Misato motioned to her two guards to get their weapons ready and to follow her.
As Misato, Fuyutsuki, Orrendorf and Watkins rushed deeper into the cave, she saw what she had dared not hoped to see...one of the specimens – the Elder Things - was standing up to its height of eight feet, and holding a pair of scientists by their throats, holding each with one of its five muscular arms. A third scientist was up against the wall, curled up in a ball and muttering something.
"Lake! Pabodie!" Orrendorf cried as the Elder Thing crushed the scientists' spines and dropped them to the ground.
Misato and Fuyutsuki looked over at the large metal carts in the chamber – each of them had a dissected Elder Thing on it...except the one furthest to the right, which was now standing on one of its short sides. If she hadn't read the written report, she would dismissed the realization that came to her as she looked over the room:
The Elder Things were not dead when they were first discovered – they had been hibernating! The report had stated that - based their physiology - they could potentially enter such states, even in airless environments. What was more, she recalled that these creatures had highly developed five-lobed brains.
In other words, this was an intelligent being, and the scientists had, in dissecting its companions, inadvertently killed them in their sleep!
"Lower your weapons!" Misato ordered. The guards hesitantly complied, but the creature did not move. Gambling on the possibility that the Elder Thing had no more intention of killing, Misato carefully approached it.
"Vat are you doing?!" Orrendorf exclaimed. "Zat thing killed Lake and Pabodie!"
"Hello," she said. "We sorry...about friends...not know that..." But she was cut off by a response from the creature, but not in the manner she expected – in her own mind.
I can understand your words perfectly well, you stupid ape, it said.
Miskatonic University's library was the largest Tara had ever seen save for Dr. Heaven's. Its shelves were filled with all sorts of books, some were modern, though many were from centuries ago. But their attention was quickly drawn to an old but vigorous man standing at the front desk, leering at a computer. He had a well-trimmed white beard and mustache, and was dressed in a white dress shirt, tweed vest and dark slacks while a pair of round spectacles was perched on his nose.
"Mmm...blasted computers," the old man muttered. "Won't do what I want them to do."
"Hello there," Tara said as she and Janus approached the desk. The old man looked up from his work, allowing the two to see his name tag.
"Ah, new faces," he said. "You must be freshmen! Are you done with your orientation tour?" Tara nodded in reply, causing the old man to smile warmly.
"As my name tag says," he said a chuckle; "I am Dr. Henry Armitage, head of this library. May I have the pleasure of your names?"
"Janus Olendra," Janus said. Tara, hoping to make a strong impression, puffed out her chest a bit with pride.
"Tara Zifell, Duchess of New Albany and Britannia's Knight of Five," she said. At the mention of the name 'Zifell', Armitage's eyes widened.
"Zifell...could you be Gilbert Zifell's child?" he exclaimed. "And you're a Knight of the Round?"
"Yep," the Knight said. Unexpectedly, the old man's expression darkened.
"I see," he said with a hint of disdain. "So then those rumors were true." Tara was confused for a moment as to the old librarian's sudden reversal of attitude, then remembered.
That's right, she thought; The school probably resents the fact that they have to allow former Numbers in. Maybe he knows that my dad married a Japanese woman.
She lifted her nose up.
Well, whatever, Tara thought. I'm proud to be part-Japanese, and I don't care what anyone else at this school thinks!
Thankfully, Armitage decided to change the subject, perhaps out of respect for Tara's station, even if it was purely ceremonial now.
"So, have you been following the news about that terrible train wreck?" he said.
"Saw it? We lived it!" Janus exclaimed.
"It was a miracle there weren't a lot of deaths," Tara said, half-surprised that the old librarian would somehow come up with a subject that would hit so close to home.
"Then you must surely know that the official report of it involving 'swamp gas' and 'mass hallucination' is sheer nonsense," Armitage said darkly. This immediately put Tara on guard – was this man aware of the existence of the Outer Gods and the forces of Outside?
"Then what do you think it was?" Tara asked.
"Frankly, I don't know," the librarian replied. Tara leered at him.
"You do know," the Knight said. "Care to share?"
"I have no reason to say anything!" Armitage said, raising himself to his full height. "Now, go away! I am a very busy man!" With that, he turned back to his computer, looking very determined to ignore the two new students...
Joshua and Rim entered the hangar where their machines were being repaired and restored – and they were delighted to find that to be the case.
Ganador stood 25 meters tall from its feet to the top of the crest protruding from its head. Its body was colored a mix of cobalt-blue and white with various topaz-yellow accents. It had a flight pack with a small pair of wings and two small shield-like guards on its arms.
Strega was only a meter shorter than Ganador, but was a bit bulkier. Its heavy body was mostly topaz-yellow and black with some white, dark-blue and sea-green accents. It also had a winged flight pack, but the wings were folded down at this point, and a pair of curved protrusions with holes stuck out from each of its wrists. The cockpit hatch in Strega's chest was open, and a bit of smoke could be seen coming out.
"I hope that's not from Strega," Rim murmured.
"Attenborough! Leyte!" Leeron called up. A woman with glasses, frizzled blonde hair and a lab coat stepped out, and Rim was relieved to see that she was holding a cigarette. Attenborough came out a moment later, hacking and coughing.
"Heya, Leeron," Leyte said. "We're just finishing up repairs on Strega here. Are these two the pilots of these machines?"
"They are," Leeron said. Joshua and Rim stepped forward.
"I'm Joshua," the blue-haired young man said; "and this is my sister Rim. I pilot Ganador, and she pilots Strega." Rim waved up to the pair as they climbed down the ladder that let them reach Strega's cockpit.
"Nice to meet ya!" Attenborough said, grinning at the sight of a cute girl. "By the way, you'd better fire up the ventilation system on Strega, unless you like the smell of tobacco!" Leyte rolled her eyes while Joshua and Rim looked at each other awkwardly
"Well, what two are you waiting for?" Leeron said. "Get in, and make sure they're working properly." But before they could move to do so, alarms started going off.
"Ah, criminy," Leyte groaned. "Looks like we've got more troublemakers." The two siblings looked at each other. The three engineers looked over at the pair as they turned toward their machines.
"I know what you two are thinking," the woman said, putting herself in between the mechs and their pilots; "You don't need to involve yourselves in our world's affairs."
"You took us in despite knowing nothing about us," Joshua said. "Let us show our gratitude." Leeron looked at Leyte and shrugged – he understood full well that these two wouldn't be stopped. The woman grumbled and let the two go by...
Eight Grapearls, twelve demons and six Devilmen were doing their best to contain the threat that had appeared in one of Kamina City's parks: twenty other demons the size of buses and of wildly different shapes, all of them lying on the ground dead. One of these demons was Dorango, who was living in Kamina City to be near Akira Fudo.
In the middle of the circle of dead demons were two humans – one was a muscular man with short, messy hair, long sideburns, thick eyebrows and wild eyes; the other had a strong body but an extremely feminine face - if not for a distinct lack of breasts, one could be forgiven in mistaking this one for a woman.
"Midou Tatsuma and Mondo Saotome!" one of the Grapearl pilots called out. "Stay right where you are!"
"You're outnumbered and outgunned," Dorango said. "Surrender peacefully or you will share the same fate as your subordinates! Know that we take no pleasure in killing..."
"Surrender? Us?" the man with thick eyebrows laughed as he turned to his companion. "They're joking, aren't they, Midou?"
"They've forgotten just how terrifying we demons can really be, Mondo," Midou said. "Let's show 'em!" With that, the bodies of the two young men began to grow, twist and warp as they protruded fleshy tentacles that pulled and dragged in their dead subordinates. This allowed them to grow large enough to tower over the Grapearls and their allies.
When their transformations were complete, Midou had changed into a white, furry thing with six limbs that all ended in wicked curved claws, and with a face that resembled a monstrous parody of a human skull, out of which grew two long, ridged horns vaguely resembling those of a bighorn sheep. Mondo, meanwhile, had transformed into a massive, surprisingly humanoid creature with goat-like hooves, a toothy maw that opened vertically instead of horizontally, and two arms that each split into a pair of forearms that ended with fingers bearing sickle-like claws.
"You idiots!" Midou roared as he swiped at one of the demons working with the Grapearls; "Don't you realize that you're being used?!"
"We children of the Silver Moon are the rightful rulers of this planet!" Mondo shrieked as he grabbed a Grapearl and smashed it into the ground. "We don't need to share it with the weakling humans of the Gold Moon!"
"Don't listen to a word they say," Dorango cried. "Stop them, even if it means using lethal force!" He, the Grapearls and Devilmen went on the attack with a storm of bullets, acid, fire and cold, but the other demons that were born of the Silver Moon seemed to hesitate for a moment before doing so.
"The King of Ruin has reminded us of what we really are!" Midou said as he charged toward them, the Grapearls' bullets bouncing off his hide, as did Dorango's cold wave. He leaped up and managed to snatch two of the Devilmen before smashing them into the pavement, killing them on impact.
"You guys have gone soft over the past two years!" Mondo cackled as he managed to grab a Grapearl with one of his four hands and smash it with the other three; "No way you can defeat us!" As he said this, his ears picked up the sound of whirring drills coming toward them from all directions. Before they could pick a direction to dodge, they were all struck by a barrage of drill missiles, creating a dense cloud of smoke.
The surviving defenders turned and looked up to see Gurren Lagann hovering above them. But Simon and Viral were not piloting it...but a different pair.
"Good thing we made it in time," Gimmy said, speaking through the combined Gunmen's speakers. He was sitting in the cockpit of Lagann.
"Yeah," Darry said from the cockpit of Gurren. "You made the right call, driving them to an open area, Dorango." But before the defenders could celebrate, the cloud revealed that the two gigantic demons were still alive.
"So, that's Gurren Lagann!" Mondo said. "But I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be the one piloting it, twerp."
"Yeah, where's that Simon guy?" Midou asked. Gimmy fumed at being treated with such disdain.
"He entrusted Gurren Lagann to me and my partner Darry!" the young man shouted.
"Considering the harm you've caused already and your intention to cause more," Darry said with authority, "you've left us no choice but to take you out for good!" As if those words were a command, the surviving defenders lined up beside Gurren Lagann.
"Come on, then!" Mondo roared; "We'll tear the lot of you to shreds!"
The day after orientation was the first day of classes for Janus and Tara. Having picked up his textbooks after leaving the library, the former pilot of Granlif now worked his way through the winding halls of Miskatonic's newest building. Tara had opted to take a large number of art classes, so they were on separate parts of campus entirely.
Man, I hope this class isn't as boring as the ones I had at Ashford, he thought as he looked back and forth at the doors. He stopped as he spotted the room he was looking for – Lab 2C. He opened the door, expecting to find a typical classroom like the ones at Ashford.
But it wasn't – instead, it resembled a classroom more suitable to the shop classes he had occasionally attended at Ashford – it had numerous tables with cans filled with tools for tinkering with what he guessed to be electronics, with tall stools instead of chairs. However, his attention was soon caught by something else:
Sitting in the very back corner of the room, next to a window, was a young man with short, mussy silver hair. Janus knew he would have remembered such a distinctive fellow from orientation, but had no memory of seeing him until now. Indeed, he found this fellow to have an oddly ethereal air to him, almost as if he didn't fully belong in this reality.
Then again, Janus wasn't native to this world either.
"Morning," he said, greeting the lone student in a friendly manner. "Mind if I sit next to you?"
"Be my guest," the silver-haired student replied, gesturing to the empty stool next to him. "What's your name?"
"Janus," the former pilot of Granlif said as he sat down. "Janus Olendra."
"Interesting name," the other student replied; "I'm Cobray Gordon." More students began to flow into the room and sit down at different spots.
"So, do you know anything about this teacher?" Janus asked Cobray quietly.
"I hear he's got a screw or two loose," Cobray answered, "but his classes are really fun." A few moments after the last of the students had sat down, two more people stepped in.
The first was a man with beady brown eyes, neon-green hair tipped with white and one lock standing on end. He wore a white lab coat with a lining that bore a red and white checkerboard pattern, under which was a dark bodysuit with zippers on the thighs and chest.
The other was a young, slim woman with a larger-than-typical bosom, long elf-like ears, pine-green hair that grew down to her buttocks, and sky-blue eyes. She wore a dark outfit with some white on it, along with a large black beret with an unknown symbol on it. Janus couldn't help but notice that this woman had skin that was almost too flawless. She did not seem to be breathing either, and seemed to be staring blankly into space.
"Whoa, nice hairdo," Cobray chuckled quietly as he leaned over to Janus; "And who's the pointy-eared girl with him?"
That girl, Janus thought; She reminds me of Xengar and Xemmey somehow. Could it be that she's...
"Gooooood morning, students!" the man in the lab coat said in a flamboyant way. "As you must have surmised, I am Doctor Herbert West Jr, but you can just call me Doctor West. Before we begin, allow me to tell you a bit about myself."
With that, Doctor West launched into a full-on autobiography. Among other things, the teacher explained that he had graduated near the top of his class at Miskatonic a few years ago, and had been working on all sorts of scientific wonders when he had been asked to teach at his alma mater.
"Man...this guy just does not stop talking," Janus muttered.
"And finally," Doctor West concluded after talking for a good twenty minutes, gesturing to the girl who had been standing perfectly still, "let me present to you my greatest achievement to date – my android Elsa!"
"Good morning, robo," Elsa said.
I was right, Janus thought. But I guess the long ears should have made it obvious.
"She is the most cutting-edge android ever developed," Doctor West said, "My father, Doctor Herbert West Sr. was responsible for creating the first artificial intelligence capable of thinking, learning and making independent decisions using an artificial neural array, and was completed in 175 CC..."
Janus was surprised – Tara's mother had developed it! His hand shot up just as the teacher had reached that point in his thought.
"Yeeeees?" Doctor West asked, turning to Janus.
"Pardon me for contradicting you, Doctor," Janus said, "but that's not what I heard. I heard that Dr. Haruhi Zifell and Dr. Naoko Akagi were the first to prove the utility of the artificial neural array as a computation device in 178 CC."
Doctor West glared at him.
"Who told you that?!" he barked; "What's your name?!"
"My name is Janus Olendra," the former pilot of Granlif answered, "and my girlfriend, Tara Zifell, told me. She's actually Dr. Haruhi Zifell's daughter, and actually happened to start this school." Suddenly, Elsa closed her eyes as if in thought.
"Mere hearsay!" the green-haired scientist said as Elsa opened her eyes again.
"Master," the android said in a stoic, almost deadpan manner, "I just looked it up, robo. I found 7821 results from newspapers, scientific journals and newscasts related to the field of electronics and the development of artificial intelligence. All of them corroborate Mister Olendra's statement, robo."
The class started to mumble and murmur in amazement both at Elsa's response time and how she had made her own creator look like an idiot.
"A-as you can see," Doctor West stammered, "m-my Elsa is a masterwork of robotics! However, I shall say this, class – do not believe everything you read in the media." With that, he turned to the chalkboard in the back of the room.
"Now, open your textbooks to page 5," he said as he began the lesson.
"One or two screws loose?" Janus chuckled under his breath; "More like ten." However, no one in the class saw that their teacher now had a rather wicked smirk on his face.
Haruhi Zifell's daughter is attending Miskatonic...how splendid, he thought. Now I know who my next target is...but I won't let her go for any amount of money! I shall avenge my father's dignity!
Lelouch and his self-appointed guardian C.C. were in a very, very bad spot. An unlucky run-in with desert bandits and a desperate escape from them had left them stranded in the desert near a border between the former Area 18 and the Kingdom of Zilkhstan with no food or water...and that desert was the infamous 'Empty Space'.
But it was here in this near-lifeless wasteland that C.C. believed she would find the key to restoring Lelouch to his old self.
Being immortal, the witch could not die even from heatstroke, dehydration or starvation, but Lelouch certainly would. And though she could not die, C.C. was still ravaged by the pain that came from hunger and thirst...and she could succumb to exhaustion. The only thing keeping her going was her desire to see the young man she had called 'accomplice' restored to his true self.
"Got to...find...a place to...rest..." she panted as she helped a weakened Lelouch up a dune as the desert sun beat down upon their heads. Even with clothing suited for travel through the wastes, the heat was oppressive, making them both sweat profusely.
As they reached the crest of the dune, C.C. spotted something – a pair of huge boulders leaning up against each other, creating a spot of permanent shade.
"There..." the witch gasped as a weight seemed to lift from her shoulders. "We're saved, Lelouch!" She turned to her companion only to find that a weight had indeed been removed from her shoulders – Lelouch had slumped to the ground and was lying face-down in the sand. This had happened more than once, so C.C. did what she had down before – hoisted him up on her shoulders and carry him.
But as light as he was, Lelouch's weight was just a hair more than she could bear in her exhausted state, so the witch almost immediately fell forward, causing both of them started to tumble down the dune toward the rocks, sending wisps of sand flying in every direction.
The two stopped just short of the rocks, but C.C. found that she couldn't move anymore. Her body was completely out of energy.
No, she thought as she found herself looking up into the empty desert sky, despair filling her. This can't be...how it ends for him...for us.
As her vision started to get hazy, a silhouette appeared in her vision, one that she couldn't quite make out, yet seemed oddly familiar.
"Ina...nna?" she muttered before completely blacking out...
Tara was off to meet Janus for lunch after her first few classes. She felt odd doing ordinary things again after years of fighting, both as a member of DREAM and as one of Queen Euphemia's Rounds. But as she walked through campus, she saw people looking at her and whispering, with a mixture of contempt and fear in their eyes...not that she cared. As she had intended, Tara was proudly displaying her Japanese heritage in her own ways, and the students were reacting as she expected. But she believed they would learn.
As she passed by the sidewalk near the parking lot, Tara was suddenly surrounded by a number of tall, athletically-built male students, all glaring at her with contempt. The girl sighed as she realized what this meant.
It really begins, she thought.
"Word's gotten out on campus is that you're a filthy Eleven," the largest of them said. She figured this guy was the leader of this gang.
"First off, it's 'Japanese'," Tara replied contemptuously; "Second, I'm half-Britannian, half-Japanese. Third, what's it to you?"
"We Squiddogs don't take kindly to Numbers dirtying up our campus with their presence," a smaller student said, "especially when they don't even try to fit in. Our man Rutger here is gonna teach you what we do to people like you."
"Even though," Tara replied, "the Queen decreed, and the Senate voted that all Britannian universities are to accept anyone who meets the academic qualifications for entry, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion?"
"Screw the Queen and her foreigner-loving ass!" Rutger shouted. Tara's expression suddenly darkened.
"What was that?" she said.
"Yeah!" the gang leader laughed; "Ain't her Knight of One an Eleven too? She probably did it because she wants his tiny..."
But before he could finish his sentence, Tara slapped him hard across the cheek.
"What was that for?!" Rutger exclaimed as he staggered backward. "Ain't it also the law that we can say whatever we want about the government, including the royal family?"
"I'm challenging you to a duel, you dolt," Tara said angrily; "You have insulted my queen and her Knight, and I won't let it stand unchallenged. It's not against campus rules to duel, is it?" It was one of those things that Euphemia and the Senate had yet to outlaw.
"No...I guess it ain't," the brute said. "Just until one of us yields or goes unconscious."
Tara smirked as the fighting instincts in her reawakened.
"Good," she said as she entered a fighting stance. "Shall we settle this with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs? Right here? Right now? No holds barred?" The leader of the gang grinned and cracked his knuckles as his subordinates stepped back.
"Sounds good," the brute said. "Go ahead and name your terms, half-breed."
"If I win," she said, "You and your goons can't bully me and any other former Numbers attending the school. Now, what are your terms?" The leader of the gang looked Tara up and down.
"Y'know, you're kinda hot for an Eleven," he said. "If I win, you gotta let me and my boys have some fun with ya, if you know what I mean."
Such a threat would have cowed almost any other woman into backing down. But not Tara.
"Fine. I accept your terms," she said confidently. "If you beat me, I'm yours to do with as you please. But since I've accepted your terms, you have to honor mine if you want to save face here." The brute's cronies looked shocked, but their leader smile grinned wider and more wickedly. At this point, the two were starting to attract a crowd.
"Sure, whatever," he said. "I'll have you know that I'm the star of Miskatonic's wrestling AND boxing teams. You're making a big mistake, Eleven."
"We'll see about that," the girl replied, beckoning her aggressor to attack. The brute foolishly took the bait, rushing in with a powerful right hook that was meant to knock her out in one blow. Tara easily avoided the strike by simply tilting her head to the side. She countered with a single uppercut to his jaw, sending her opponent reeling.
But she was quick on the follow-up, grabbing him by his collar, throwing him down and putting him in a submission hold like the one she had used on her assassin from the airport. She also began to bend one of his arms further than it would normally. Everyone else in the crowd gazed in awe and horror at how easily the best fighter in the student body had been subdued.
"You little wench," the brute growled, "I oughta..." But Tara pulled on his arm, causing him to yowl in pain.
"Say it," she said. "Don't make me dislocate your shoulder."
"No!" the boxing and wrestling star cried. Tara pulled a little more.
"Say it," Tara repeated. "I will seriously send you to the hospital if you don't." She pulled harder still, and she could feel her opponent's tendon start to tear.
"I yield," he wailed. "I yield, I yield!" Tara sighed, both from relief and from exhaustion, as she stopped pulling on the brute's limb and got off of him.
"Smart choice," she said before turning to his flunkies. "I suggest you guys get him some medical treatment." The now-frightened goons hurried over to their leader and helped him up. As they started to carry him away, someone in the crowd approached her.
"That was amazing!" the student said; "Nobody's ever done that to Rutger before! Just what are you?"
"I am one of Her Majesty's Knights of the Round," Tara replied with no concealment of her pride. The crowd gasped.
"Just to clarify that earlier statement," she continued, seeing that she had their full attention, "the law says that the government cannot pass laws that limit or punish your free speech. It does NOT free you from facing other consequences for your words." With that, the crowd nodded and began to disperse. But she soon noticed that two people weren't leaving – Doctor West and Elsa, neither of whom she had met.
"Are you Tara Zifell?" Doctor West asked once the crowd had completely gone away.
"Yeah," the Knight replied. "If it's about what happened just now, we followed..."
But Tara didn't get to finish her sentence before Elsa walloped her with a single punch, knocking her out cold. Doctor West grinned as Elsa picked the unconscious Knight up and began to cradle her in her arms.
"Elsa," the wicked teacher said, "You know what to do with her."
"Understood, robo," the android said before walking away...
Janus wished he could hang out with Cobray more, but the silver-haired student had already left for the day. Instead, he was waiting in the parking lot for Porter to pick him up, but bore a look of deep worry on his face.
Tara never takes this long to answer me when I text or call her, he thought. I hope nothing bad happened.
"Something wrong, Janus?" a friendly voice said. He turned and saw who had came up to him.
"Kurou! Al!" he exclaimed, recognizing Tara's tenants. "Tara was supposed to meet up with me for lunch, but she didn't show."
"Maybe she got caught up in something," Kurou said.
"It's not just that," Janus said, his voice starting to tremble. "I can't get in touch with her at all! If something's happened to her, I...I..."
Kurou and Al suddenly felt a disturbingly familiar sensation coming from Janus as he clutched his head and seemed to lose control of his emotions...it was the sensation of being in the presence of something that was of Outside.
This is bad, Kurou said to his partner telepathically. If his Outside part slips out here, who knows what could happen?!
If we're to save Tara quickly, Al replied, we'll have to resort to magic.
"We'll help you find her," he said. "In fact, we'll locate her right now." Janus stopped and gazed at them.
"R-really?" he said. Rather than answering him, the two got to work – Al closed her eyes while Kurou stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. To Janus's amazement, an arcane circle of red light several dozen yards in diameter then appeared on the ground at their feet. Al opened her eyes as white pages covered in indecipherable writing fluttered about the two pilots of Demonbane.
In Kurou and Al's minds, they were seeing images of everything that had ever happened in the area of the circle. They quickly blazed past events in the Earth's distant past, finally stopping to watch events that happened that day. They saw Tara's confrontation with Rutger and his gang, and how she had easily bested him.
Then, they saw Doctor West and Elsa confront Tara, and for the android to knock the Knight out in one punch, then scoop her up and carry her away.
So, Al said to her partner telepathically, they exist here too. And it seems they're up to no good. Kurou nodded in reply as the arcane circle disappeared. They turned and saw Janus' jaw was hanging open. Even knowing that monsters like the Outer Gods existed, and there were forces that man couldn't hope to understand, he still couldn't believe what he had just seen – he even momentarily forgot about his beloved being missing.
"You guys...are magicians?" he exclaimed. "Like sorcerers or wizards?!"
"We'll explain on the way," Kurou said. "Right now, Tara's life could be in danger." Janus gasped, but nodded as he followed Demonbane's pilots as they followed Elsa's invisible trail...
Tara groaned as she finally came around. The room she was in was dimly lit, cool and smelled faintly of ozone.
"Huh?" she muttered. "Wha..."
She tried to move, but realized that her arms were chained to the stone wall. She also noticed that she was behind bars – some sort of extremely old prison. She looked to her left and right, and saw a number of young men and women were also chained to the wall in separate cells. It looked like they had been there far, far longer than she – their clothes were rumpled and dirty, and they all looked to be deeply despondent. The men were all growing facial hair, and the women's legs looked to be in dire need of shaving as well.
"Hey!" she cried. "You guys okay?"
"Oh, you're finally awake," one of the other prisoners said with a depressed sigh. "Welcome to Doctor West's laboratory of mad science."
"We've been here since the end of last year," he said. "Ever since he and that android kidnapped us."
"Android?" Tara exclaimed. "You mean that girl with the long ears? She's a robot?"
"Indeed," a voice came from the hallway outside; "One with the most advanced artificial intelligence ever made!" She turned and saw Doctor West and Elsa coming down the hall, only to stop at her cell. He unlocked the door with an old iron key on a ring with several similar keys, allowing him and his creation to step inside. Tara noticed what seemed to be an electric guitar hanging from a strap on the scientist's back, and that the android was carrying an old speaker.
"You must be Doctor West," Tara said angrily. "Why did you kidnap me and these students?"
"In order to ransom them back to their families," the scientist answered frankly. "My paycheck isn't nearly good enough for the wonders I wish to create."
"And what about me?" the Knight then said, tugging at her bonds to test their strength. "I'm the head of the Zifell family, so..."
Doctor West started cackling wildly.
"I don't want any of YOUR money, girl," he said. "I want your life! Only your blood will restore my father's honor!"
Tara swallowed nervously as she realized the grimness of her situation. Her bonds were too strong for her to break, so she needed to talk her way out of this. The best way to do this, she figured, was to understand her kidnapper's motivations and use them to her advantage.
"What have I done to wrong you and your father?" she asked.
"You did nothing," the scientist replied, "It was your parents who destroyed his honor!"
This was news to Tara – her family had never mentioned anything about anyone named Doctor West.
"My father was Dr. Herbert West Sr.," he said; "and your family stole what was rightfully his!"
"Oh no, here he goes again," one of the prisoners groaned.
"My father was the greatest genius this university ever produced," the scientist said; "but he was never recognized for it. Why?"
He got right in Tara's face.
"Because YOUR blasted parents stole all of my father's achievements and claimed them as their own!" he shouted, spitting all over her face. He stepped back, and gestured toward Elsa.
"Take, for example, my beautiful Elsa," he said. "She is a machine with the capability to learn, think and make her own decisions – all programs first developed by the great Herbert West Sr.! But who gets the credit for creating the most advanced artificial intelligence of all? Not him, but Dr. Haruhi Zifell! My father went insane when he found out that he never received any credit! The accolades from the media and the scientific authorities were supposed to be his!"
"My mom would never steal anyone's work!" Tara exclaimed. "Besides, why take it out on me?"
"Because she and her husband went and got killed before I could do the deed myself!" Doctor West ranted; "You are her only child, so I'll be happy to take you out instead!" With that, he put down the key ring and took the guitar off his back, which she noticed had a circular saw blade peeking out of a slot on the body.
Think, Tara, think, the Knight thought frantically; There's gotta be SOME way to get on this guy's good side before he reduces me to a bloody pulp!
"But first," the scientist then said as he strummed the instrument; "A song!" The other prisoners cried and moaned in what seemed to be abject horror as Elsa dutifully put down the speaker and plugged the scientist's electric guitar into it.
Tara's ears were immediately assailed by the second-worst singing she had ever heard – only Izumi Maki's was worse. Her only consolation was that the mad scientist's guitar playing was actually decent. However, through the butchered lyrics and completely out-of-tune voice, she realized something:
He's playing...a Fire Bomber song? He actually likes my favorite band too?
A light bulb went on in Tara's head.
"Hey! I'm a Fire Bomber fan too!" she said. Doctor West stopped playing.
"Ah, you're a woman of culture after all," the scientist said. "They may be Elevens, but their music is out of this world! Hearing Basara Nekki sing brightens my day as nothing else can!"
"Actually, I'm on a first-name basis with Basara Nekki himself," Tara said with a confident smile. "I have his phone number and everything."
Doctor West raised an eyebrow, then glanced over at Elsa.
"Her vital signs show no indication that she is lying to us," the android replied.
"I'll call him up right now," Tara said hopefully, "if you'll give me my cell phone."
"Hmmmm," the scientist thought; "how about...no."
Her expression sank, and Doctor West's smirk turned to a wicked grin.
"I'm afraid that even if you were his friend," Doctor West said with a chuckle; "you couldn't call him. We're far enough underground that not even the strongest emergency cell phone signal can penetrate through. You'd have to be a wizard or something to find us here!"
Suddenly, Elsa turned toward the hallway.
"Master, there are intruders headed this way, robo. Three of them."
"Whaaaaat?!" the scientist shrieked. "Impossible!" He turned to Tara with a hateful scowl.
"You get to live a little longer, girl," he said. "Once we've dealt with these intruders, I shall return, and then you will meet your end!" With that, he turned and left with Elsa. But as the android turned to follow her master, she subtly brushed her foot against the fallen key ring.
Almost as if she were intentionally pointing them out without her master realizing it.
Tara looked at the key ring, and saw that if she stretched her leg out as much as she could, she could just barely reach it with her toes...
Gimmy panted heavily as he gripped Lagann's controls, watching as the two crazed demons closed in on Gurren Lagann again while the echoes of a powerful sonic blast were fading out. The park was now in shambles – even the city's iconic statue of Kamina had tipped over again. Meanwhile, the rest of the Grapearls were nothing more than wrecks on the ground, while the demons and Devilmen were either dead or heavily wounded – even Dorango's body was broken in many places.
"Geez, these guys are tougher than I thought," the young pilot said as he caught his breath; "I wish our Spiral Power was stronger so we could use a Giga Drill Break or something."
"Well, we can't," Darry said, "so we have to make do with what we've got!"
"Give in to despair!" Mido cackled as he charged, using all six of his limbs to propel himself forward; "We're way stronger than those other demons, so you can't beat us by yourselves!"
"Then we'll even the odds!" a woman's voice came from above. Mido only had a moment to look up to see a yellow mech diving toward him – Strega. The next moment, the yellow machine smashed him into the ground with a fist of crackling plasma. It then wreathed its other fist with the same green energy and launched the demon into the air with a powerful uppercut.
As Mido flew, Ganador came rushing in, its body ablaze with heat energy. It rammed into the six-limbed demon over and over like a streaking meteor, raising it higher and higher before slamming it vertically, smashing it into the ground below, just a few yards from Mondo, who approached the body after it landed.
"Hey, those are the machines that fell from the sky the other day," Darry exclaimed as Ganador and Strega landed next to Gurren Lagann. "They're incredible!"
"Leeron and the others sure fixed 'em up fast," Gimmy said before turning to the two newcomers. "Thanks for the help." But as the noise from the attack died down, they all heard the sounds of tearing flesh, crunching bone and frantic chewing.
"He's...EATING his partner?!" Rim exclaimed in disgust. But as Mondo finished the last piece of Mido's corpse, his body began to grow and distort even more. After a few seconds, he finished his transformation, and loomed over the surviving defenders. The massive demon now had white fur and three sets of split arms rather than one.
"They fused?!" Josh exclaimed.
"This is how we demons got stronger in the ancient past," Mondo bellowed; "By devouring one another! This is the true nature of the world! This is what the King of Ruin has come to remind us!"
The title of the two demons' master stirred something within the pilots of Ganador and Strega.
"King...of Ruin," Joshua muttered as he had momentary flashes of two grinning faces atop long, snake-like necks.
"That's not how it works now," Darry shouted. "We can grow stronger individually by working together, not by stealing from one another!"
"By combining our strengths even while remaining our own selves," Gimmy added as Gurren Lagann pointed skyward in a dramatic manner, "we can achieve more than we can separately! That's how a REAL combination works!" The combined Gunman then pulled its arms back and let out a cry as the Spiral gauge in his cockpit began to rise suddenly.
Meanwhile, Gimmy's words stirred more memories in Joshua's mind.
"Rim, I just remembered something," he said to his sister with a smirk.
"What, Josh?" she asked. "Is a 'King of Ruin' familiar to you too?"
"Yeah," he replied. "But also that Ganador and Strega...they can combine into an even more powerful machine!"
"I...I think I remember that too," Rim said as the memory came back to her; "Into Forte Gigas!"
With that, the siblings made their two machines rocket skyward and arc around each other before quickly folding into a new configuration – a mostly blue titan with a mixture of features of its two component mechs, including pale red, yellow, white and sea-green accents.
Mondo had foolishly watched the whole transformation, giving Gurren Lagann a major opening.
"FINISHING MOVE!" Gimmy and Darry yelled simultaneously as Gurren Lagann yanked the sunglasses off its chest and threw them at Mondo, sending him upward and then pinning him to thin air. The combined Gunman then raised its right arm skyward, sprouted numerous drills from its body, and then pulled them back in to form a single huge drill on its hand.
"GIGA..."
The drill began to spin.
"DRILL..."
Gurren Lagann rocketed skyward.
"BREEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!"
The Gunman burrowed straight through Mondo's body, causing numerous explosions. However, that was not the end of it. Meanwhile, Forte Gigas readied its own final attack as two large sword hilts popped out from its body.
"Let's make sure it stays dead, sis!" Josh cried as their combined machine grabbed the two handles and snapped them together in one fluid motion, instantly forming a long beam of yellow energy.
"Right, bro!" Rim said. Forte Gigas then charged at the still-reeling Mondo, the blade trailing behind it. As it came within striking distance, it then raised the blade overhead before bringing it down on the hapless demon's head while Joshua let out a loud, almost ferocious cry:
"RIOT...BUSTEEEEEEEEER!"
The blade cleaved straight through the massive demon, causing it to explode a second time...
Just as they had hoped, Kurou and Al were able to track Tara's kidnappers to this dark underground area. However, they had chosen to keep their identity hidden from Janus...more for the kidnappers' sake than his own.
"Who would have thought a place like this existed underneath the school?" Al said quietly, so as not to alert anyone who might be patrolling the area. "It must be a secret, centuries-old prison."
"The high school Tara went to was connected to a sewer," Janus replied. "Must be a Britannian thing."
But as they started to round the next corner, Kurou suddenly jumped back, narrowly evading a hail of machine gun fire – courtesy of Elsa, who had a pair of such weapons built into her arms.
"I've been waiting for you, you rats!" Doctor West said as he and his android rounded the corner, the two guns pointed straight at them.
"Doctor West?!" Janus exclaimed. The scientist also recognized his student.
"You!" he screeched; "You're that smarty-pants from my Introduction to Electronics class today!"
He TEACHES here?! Kurou thought, astonished to hear such words coming out of the scientist's mouth. Didn't see THAT coming.
At the same time, Doctor West was momentarily taken aback when he looked at Kurou and Al.
That man...that girl, he thought; I could swear I've seen them before. But where?!
"Where's Tara Zifell?!" Al said, pointing accusingly at her. "We know you kidnapped her!"
"You have no proof that she's here," the scientist replied as he returned his attention to the intruders who had barged into his lair.
"The fact that you're trying to kill people who are looking for her is all the proof we need," Kurou retorted, his arms folded.
"I suppose you've got me there," Doctor West said after a moment, only to suddenly do a double-take.
"Oh, what am I saying?!" he cried before pointing angrily at the intruders. "Elsa, fire at full auto! Turn them into bloody chunks!"
"Kurou!" Al shouted.
"Don't need to tell me!" her partner replied. In a flash of light, Kurou changed to the form he assumed while piloting Demonbane, and entered a fighting stance.
Al had changed too, but in a very different way – she had shrunk drastically, to the point of looking "super-deformed" in the manner Janus had seen in some of Tara's manga. Her outfit was almost all black, and she had little cat paws for gloves, while a pair of oddly geometric wings graced her head, though she clearly didn't need them to stay afloat as she hovered by Kurou's shoulder.
"So you got a fancy new look," Doctor West said as he brandished his buzzsaw guitar, "it won't save..."
But as he said this, the scientist was overcome by fear – not an all-consuming terror, but an primal, ancient fear that popped up in the back of his mind, as if his deep-seated instincts were telling him that running away was the only option.
"Master, please escape," Elsa said suddenly, as if sensing what her master was thinking. "This foe is beyond your power to defeat, robo." The scientist nodded and took several steps back, pressing one of the stones in the wall. The wall opened up just enough for Doctor West to slip through.
"Curses, he got away," Al said.
"Janus, we'll hold off this android," Kurou said. "You go see if you can find Tara!" But before he could do so, Elsa retracted her machine guns and lowered her arms.
"There is no need, robo," she said. "Tara Zifell should have freed herself from her bindings exactly 235 seconds ago, and is working to free the other hostages, robo. They may already be on their way here."
"What?!" Janus exclaimed. "How do you know?"
"Because," the android said, smiling just a little, "I nudged the keys to the cells in this hallway exactly 2.1582 centimeters closer to her, robo. Her legs should be of sufficient length for her to use her feet to move the keys into arm's reach, robo."
"Janus?! Kurou?! Al?!" Tara's voice called from the hallway just then; "Is that you?!" The former pilot of Granlif gasped and rushed down the hallway to greet his beloved.
"Why did you help her?" Kurou asked, turning back to the android. "Doctor West is your master, isn't he?"
Elsa's eyes closed a bit, almost as if she was giving him a seductive look.
"I am not obligated to answer that, robo," she said as she stepped back and pressed the same stone her master had pressed. "Farewell." With that, she stepped through the gap before Kurou could follow...
Back at Zifell Manor, Tara, Janus, Kurou and Al convened in one of the mansion's side rooms, meant to serve as a sort of rec room. Porter was serving them tea, which all of them needed after their stressful days.
"So, Doctor West was holding students for ransom," Kurou said as he put down his teacup; "And had a grudge against your parents."
"I knew he had a few screws loose, but I never imagined he'd actually go that far," Janus said. "But now that everyone knows what he really is, I suspect he'll be out of a job."
"What I'm more interested in knowing is who you two really are. Janus told me that you told him, but I want to hear it from you." But before the two could begin, the sound of a doorbell being rung echoed through the house.
"Huh? Who's at the door?" Kurou exclaimed. "We aren't having company, are we?"
"It must be my new tenant," Tara said. "He's a little early, but that's okay. Let him in and bring him up here, Porter." Her butler immediately bowed and left the room.
I wonder if he's anything like Winfield, Kurou thought; He's certainly got the same loyalty. Meanwhile, Al began to reveal her and Kurou's origin.
"Well, for starters," she began, "Kurou and I are not from this universe. Indeed, we're not even from this multiverse." Tara nodded, but she didn't seem terribly shocked. Having come face-to-face with an Outer God had made it difficult for any sort of revelation like this to truly surprise her.
"In our original reality, I was a private investigator," Kurou said. "Until the day I met Al. She taught me how to use magic, and not just the spell we used to locate you."
"It took a while, but Kurou is now a fully-fledged sorcerer. Of course, as the greatest and most powerful grimoire ever written, I..."
That revelation was enough to surprise Tara.
"Wait a second," she said; "You're...a book?"
"Not just any book," Al said proudly; "I am the greatest, most powerful grimoire ever written...the Necronomicon!" Tara gasped – that was the name of the book Porter said was stored in a vault at the university library!
"At least she's the Necronomicon of the universe we first existed in," Kurou added. "I guess you could say that Al is really a spirit made of information. Anyway, now the two of us travel from reality to reality in order to stop creatures of Outside from breaking into four-dimensional realities such as this, or repel them if they do break through, using..."
"Demonbane!" Janus exclaimed, standing up; "You're the pilots of that robot Demonbane, aren't you? The one who destroyed that monster Bokrug when it attacked our train? I thought your voices sounded familiar!"
"That's us," the grimoire spirit said. "Of course, we..."
Before she could finish her thought, there was a knock on the door.
"We can continue this conversation another time," Tara said. She got up and went over to the door as it opened, revealing Porter and the new tenant...someone that Janus recognized.
"Hi there," Tara said, extending her hand to greet him, "you must be..."
"Cobray Gordon?!" Janus exclaimed as he recognized the silver-haired young man.
"Janus Olendra!" Cobray said, "you're living here too? That means we can hang out more!"
"Where's the rest of your stuff?" Tara said, noticing that her new tenant only had a backpack.
"It got lost during my flight," Cobray said. "It'll be here tomorrow." Kurou approached the young man.
"Hey, Cobray," the Demonbane pilot said. "You decided to live here too?"
"Yeah," he replied with an awkward smile. "Small world, huh?"
"You two know each other?" Janus said, looking back and forth between them.
"We met during one of our classes," Kurou said, turning to the former pilot of Granlif. "I'm surprised you met him already, though." The former pilot of Granlif nodded and smiled.
"You won't believe what happened to us today," he then said. "It turns out that Doctor West is..."
In the dim light of eldritch flames, two demons nervously approached a twisted throne made of weirdly iridescent metal mixed with onyx and basalt. Sitting upon it was a humanoid figure that was wearing a strange black and red bodysuit with golden, bejeweled metal clasps running up and down the edges of the outfit, though a few also were attached directly to the figure's face. He seemed to be resting his chin on his clasped hands. Standing on either side of the throne were two other figures – a handsome, pale-skinned man with a white coat, wild purple-silver hair; the other was a beautiful woman with glacier-blue hair styled with a lovely white hair tie and a white kimono tied together with a green ribbon. All three of them had golden-yellow eyes that radiated menace, though their faces were hidden in shadow.
"Great King of Ruin," one of the demons said nervously; "We have j-just received word that Mondo Saotome and Midou Tatsuma have been destroyed!"
"You speak of things I already know, fool," the figure said contemptuously.
"O-of course!" the other demon exclaimed as he slithered back a bit; "Forgive..."
But the King of Ruin's eyes flashed, and a ragged hole in spacetime opened behind the two demons, and a blob of protoplasmic matter with numerous eyes and maws lunged out, grabbed the demon and pulled it screaming into the hole before it closed. The two figures beside the throne didn't even flinch.
"It's not the same as it is with you, my Melior Esse," the seated figure sighed as he sat back. "You understand what I am capable of, and do not tell me the obvious."
"Indeed – you surely have surmised who destroyed them as well." the woman said.
"It was that abhorrent Forte Gigas, wasn't it?" the other man said. The seated figure smiled.
"Indeed," he said as he walked toward the light. "It seems those two are starting to regain their memories quicker than I thought. Such a shame that when they finally understand just who they're up against, it will be too late for them or this world."
As the King of Ruin crossed into the light, one could make out his features completely – he was a handsome man with long brown hair, although it was now streaked with white.
"After all," he said as he slowly stepped away from the throne; "I am chaos...I am destruction...all things shall descend into madness and be erased...I am that which which drives this infinitely expanding cosmos back towards the perpetual darkness of its origin..."
He whirled back to his two guards and gazed at them with a tilted head, twisted grin and eyes that suddenly turned blazed red.
"I AM PERFECTIO, KING OF RUIN...AND I SHALL CONSUME ALL!"
But those who knew his face would recognize it as someone else: Peleus Zifell.
And with that, we can start moving the plot for the Expansion Scenarios forward more. Next time...
-On the far side of the galaxy, the DREAMers who traveled to the Fleed System have slowly been making headway against a rebellion started by those who wish to retain the positions of power given to them by the late Emperor Vega...Zu Zambajil of Boazan, Empress Janera of Campbell and General Gandal of Vega! Though victory seems be within reach for Duke and friends, this diabolical trio has one last trick up its sleeve! Meanwhile, Tara and Janus, as well as the rest of DREAM, must face still more forces from Outside – but this time they seem to be serving an earthly master! Find out how these battles play out next time in Expansion Scenario Chapter 3 – The Gun of Dis! Great Struggle On The Galaxy's Far Side! Until next time, mecha fans!