"Feeling nervous, Rai?"

"Please, I can read you like a book."

"Lucky for me you never read anything."

"Oh, so you've got jokes now. Put up or shut up."

"You're choice. Once, twice, shoot!"

Rai confidently threw out his hand, then felt his smugness drain away as he saw the solid rock that faced the pointed ends of his scissors.

"Ha!" Okamura's look of triumph was plastered on his face. "I'll have the usual beef bowl. I'm sure you've lost enough times by now to know the place."

"Yeah yeah…" Rai grumbled, starting toward the nearby crossroads. "Try not to starve to death before I get back. It'd make a pretty embarrassing headline. 'Robberies on the rise in Tokyo while officer collapses from hunger waiting for lunch'."

It was another crowded day in Ginza. The usual mobs of shoppers mixed with foreign tourists made for sidewalks that were difficult to navigate without accidentally bumping into someone. The locals were adept enough to make it through it all without too much difficulty, but visitors who weren't use to the rush were having a bit more difficulty, with foreigners having the most notable amount of trouble. Americans especially tended to stick above others. They usually either looked completely lost when it came to anything Japanese, or had somehow gotten the idea in their heads that all of Japanese culture was nothing but Otaku crap, and wore clothing based off this assumption in order to "blend in". It was made worse at the moment because there actually was an Otaku convention in town, many of the attendants walking the streets in full cosplay. These tended to range from impressive looking replicas of mecha suits, to what seemed to be stripper versions of the character they were supposedly portraying. A few gave him odd looks as they passed by, as if they were afraid he was going to arrest them for terrible design choices. Rai just ignored them for the most part, making no eye contact as he continued on his way. He didn't really understand the Otaku's, but so long as they kept to themselves and didn't cause any trouble, he didn't really have a problem with them either.

"Any available officers in the Ginza district, we have a possible situation developing downtown." The voice of a dispatch controller came from Rai's radio. "Citizens report bizarre activity on the intersection of Ninth and twenty second street."

Rai paused. If he remembered correctly, that was close to the Convention Center, where both he and Okamura had patrolled by earlier. Not too far away from where he was now.

"This is Officer Rai, I'm in route now." He said into the radio, picking up his pace as he changed direction. Okamura would just have to wait for his so desired beef bowl. "What's happening over there? Some drunks fighting?"

"The situation is unclear right now. We're receiving confusing reports from citizens, and we're hoping officers can get a solid idea of the details."

"Understood." Rai said. He sped up to just short of a run, a pace he could still move at without having to push people aside. After all, it didn't sound like an emergency. Likely some businessmen had one too many during lunch and things had gotten a bit rowdy, or some bizarre street performers were weirding out shoppers. Whatever it was, it probably wouldn't take awfully long to deal with.

He rounded the corner towards the intersection, taking in a breath for preparation to yell for people to stand aside, only for it to catch in his throat. Sitting in the middle of the street was a large stone structure, one that had definitely not been there earlier a few hours earlier. A pair of massive doors were at its front, and what looked like a glowing blue crystal sitting atop them. On the face of it, it looked like something out of a movie or anime, and Rai wondered if this was some elaborate PR stunt by an ambitious marketing team with way too much money. Maybe the other people in the street were thinking something similar, as a crowd had gathered around it, talking loudly and taking pictures with their phones. For a moment, Rai debated whether he should start telling people to back away from it, not sure if it was dangerous or just a novelty. He decided it would be better to be safe than sorry.

"Dispatch, this is Officer Rai." He said into his radio, starting forward again. "There seems to be a-"

He was cut off by a series of loud bangs that came from the mysterious structure. Some people took steps backwards, and silence fell over the street. Then the large pair of doors began to slowly swing open, the quiet becoming tense as everyone seemed to be holding their breath. It was shattered by a sudden blast of wind that Rai could feel even from the back of the crowd as several shadows shot out of the newly formed opening.

Rai had to close his eyes against the gust for a moment, only to question the validity of his sight after reopening them. A stream of what looked like horse mounted Cavalry wielding spears and wearing armor that looked like it belonged in an ancient history museum were pouring from the now open doors. For a few heartbeats, he felt something like relief. So, this was a PR stunt, probably to go along with the convention in town. Why else would anyone wear such stupid outfits?

Then he saw the blood.

At first, he didn't understand what his eyes were telling him. The horse mounted crazies were charging into the gathering of people and stabbing out with their weapons without care or caution. Several people were fully impaled, then the entire scene broke down into utter chaos. The city goers, who had gathered around the gate in fascination just a few moments earlier, had transformed into a terrified and screaming horde that pushed and trampled anyone or anything that got between them and safety. Rai reached for his gun, but both of his arms became pinned to his sides as panicked people continued to push their way past him. More and more figures emerged from the gate, foot soldiers wearing armor like their Calvary comrades and monstrous looking creatures that charged into the slaughter with murderous glee.

Now shoving people out of the way with his shoulders, Rai managed to get himself clear enough of the madness to draw his pistol with one hand and grabbing his radio with the other.

"Dispatch! We have an emergency situation on the intersection of Ninth and Twenty Second streets!" He yelled to be heard over the background commotion. "We are under attack by an unknown group of assailants! Multiple civilian casualties! Armed response requ-"

A stabbing pain exploded in his side, making Rai yowl and fall on his back. The tail end of an arrow was sticking out from his torso, blood soaking from the wound into his uniform.

"What...the hell…" He gasped. Rai forced himself to sit back up, seeing several of the mounted attackers charging in his direction. Still feeling the comforting weight of the pistol in his hands, Rai raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Then again. And again. The sound of the shooting was deafened by the blood thundering in his ears as Rai focused on trying to keep his hands as steady as possible.

Several of the riders fell of their mounts, one horse collapsed on its own and sent the soldier on its back flying. Had he hit them? Or had help arrived already?

He suddenly realized that he could no longer feel the recoil pressure on his arms, and he looked down to see the slider on his pistol locked in the back position. Empty. He reached for another magazine on his belt, his hands shaking violently with every movement. His eyes drifted to the scene around him, a sick feeling settling over him. The panicked mob was gone, replaced by bodies they littered the street. The living that remained were in little better condition, being dragged back towards the gaping maw of the gate while screaming for someone to help them and sobbing uncontrollably. Rai had to stop this, he had to do something.

A shadow passed over him from above, and he looked up to see what looked like a small dragon circling over him like a vulture. He fumbled to put the new magazine in his pistol, then the scaled beast suddenly dived down towards him at blinding speed. A rider was now visible on its back, armed with a Lance that was pointed right at Rai's chest. The last thing he felt was the cold bite of steel on flesh.

~oOo~

Hurry up and wait.

Verb. The act of rushing to get somewhere as fast as you could; only to be told to sit down, shit up, and twiddle your thumbs while you stuck around until being told to do something.

Sergeant Justin "Joker" Salter had been forced through it so many times during his career that he was now an old pro at the art of wasting time. After all, half the job of being a Scout Sniper was knowing how to wait for just the right moment, and usually in places far less pleasant. Overall, waiting around didn't really bother him much anymore save for rare exceptions. This was one of those cases.

Both he and the other Marines in his company had been eager enough to leave Korea and head back for the states, and had made no arguments when they had all been rushed to board the C-17 like they were basic trainees being pushed through a chow hall. They had been less enthusiastic when the Globemaster had suffered mechanical trouble and been forced to land at Yokota Air Force Base in Tokyo, and then subsequently had been shoved into an empty hangar. They'd been told to wait until new transportation had been arranged, which would be soon. Probably.

There had been loud grumblings and more than a little complaining for the first couple hours, and again in the fourth hour. But now that they were halfway into the fifth hour, things had mostly quieted down. Joker had decided to take advantage of the rare opportunity to try to get a quick nap in. Placing his helmet over his eyes and propping up his rucksack as a makeshift pillow, he was comfortable enough to feel his annoyance at the current situation beginning to slowly drain away.

"Hey, Joker."

But it was now threatening to bubble right back up again.

He ignored the voice and the accompanying kick to his leg, hoping his attacker would choose another victim to torment. But it was to no avail.

"Joker! Hey!" The voice was louder, and the kick harder. "You asleep or something?"

Joker made a noise in the back of his throat, lifting his helmet to glare at whoever had disturbed his precious sleep.

"Can I fuckin help you?" He demanded.

Corporal Diego "Reaper" Martinez gave him a mock hurt look at his words.

"I was just gonna ask if you had heard from Captain Mitchell yet." He said.

"Oh sure, I was just talking with him now actually." Joker said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Using my magic powers, I discerned that you're going to be court martialed for being a dumbass when we get back home."

"...So, is that a no?"

Joker had to push down the urge to roundhouse kick his spotter in the groin, though the totally fake innocent look on his face wasn't making it easy.

"Why don't you go play in a mound of fire ants? I'm sure the Japanese versions have some kind of deadly venom or something."

"You're not that lucky." Reaper said, setting in next to Joker. "So, when's the next plane getting here."

"How in the hell am I supposed to know?" Joker said, not bothering to hide the annoyance from his voice. "It'll get here when it gets here."

"But I'm bored."

"Sounds like a personal problem." Joker grunted. "I would have figured Scout school would have crushed that problem anyway."

"Why just sniper school?" Reaper snorted. "My whole damn time in the Corps has taught me to wait around for absolutely no fucking reason."

"Then why are you complaining?"

"Because it gives me something to do."

Joker closed his eyes again, letting out a long groan.

"You know, grunts like you are the reason why they put us in empty hangers without air conditioning." He said. "Anything left in here, you'd break just to keep yourself occupied."

"That's rich coming from you." Reaper said. "Considering you pass your time by hitting on everything that moves."

"At least that doesn't result in destruction of government property."

"Yeah, just a bunch of sexual harassment lawsuits."

"Fuck you." Joker scoffed, shoving his partner lightly on the shoulder.

He looked around him, seeing that most of the other Marines were either following Joker's lead by trying to get some extra sleep in, or were playing on their phones. He decided that it wasn't so bad. Even if they were waiting around, they at least they weren't doing constant exercises like they had been in Korea. For now, they could relax, just a little bit.

It was right in the middle of this thought that Joker heard the speaker attached to the top of the hangar abruptly came to life. A siren tone blasted loudly from it, making all the jarheads sit up in confusion.

"ALARM YELLOW, MOPP LEVEL TWO. ALARM YELLOW, MOPP LEVEL TWO. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ALL PERSONNEL STANDBY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."

The Marines all sprung to their feet, tearing into their rucks to grab at their gear as they rushed from their interrupted relaxation to battle ready postures.

"What in the hell?!" Reaper demanded. "I thought we just left the party, is it following us?"

"Maybe you're just following you Reaper," Joker said, checking his M4 with a quick visual inspection. "The Koreans just can't get enough."

"This isn't a joke man; you heard the thing, right?!" Reaper demanded.

"Yeah, I'm not deaf thanks." Joker shot back as he shed all his non-combat essential equipment.

The sound of squealing tires outside drew his attention, and Joker saw a Humvee power slide to a stop just inside of the hanger. The driver side door opening to reveal Captain Mitchell.

"Ready up Marines!" He shouted. "We're moving out!"

"Yeah thanks for telling us to do exactly what we're already doing sir…" Reaper grunted as he pulled on his flak vest, not loud enough for Mitchell to hear him obviously. Joker ignored him, running up toward his commanding officer.

"What's happening sir?"

"We're not sure." Mitchell said, glancing around as he got a headcount. "An attacking force is moving through Tokyo, at least an army corps is size. We've been asked to do whatever we can to help the JSDF repel them."

A whole army corps, and all they had was two platoons of infantry with no armor support or heavy weapons. Just great.

"Who's attacking? China? Russia?" He pressed. "How the hell did they get this far without someone noticing?"

"I don't know Joker." The Captain looked at him. "The whole situation is clear as mud, and no one seems to have any idea what's exactly going on. When I learn more, so will you. Understood?"

"Yes sir." He nodded. "What are our orders?"

"The Air Force has some Ospreys here that are already fueled up for some exercises, but we'll be using them to ride into the city and slow down the enemy as best as we can." Mitchell explained. "I'm gonna need you with us on this one. Sergeant Brown still hasn't recovered from his broken leg yet, so I'm putting you in charge of Archer One Two. Can you do that?"

"I still remember some of NCOA." Joker nodded. "What about ammo?"

"Chair force is gonna have mags and grenades ready for us when we go to board the choppers." A voice came from inside the Humvee, the radio too quiet to be understood at this distance. "Can you brief the others? I'm gonna see if I can get anything else before we head out."

"Count on me." Joker hustled back to the others, raising his voice to be heard loud and clear. "Listen up! Coffee break's over, we're back on the clock boys and girls!"

~oOo~

The battle alert had come, quite unfairly, when Captain Morgan "Talisman" Wu had been in the middle of some ice cream. And not the cheap kind either.

Mourning internally over her loss, she'd been forced to leave the desert orphaned on the table as she and the rest of the combat chopper pilots in Ichigaya had scrambled to get into the air as quickly as possible. They hadn't been given orders so much as a direction, as they headed for Tokyo.

Most of them, including Talisman herself, assumed it was all some elaborate drill to simulate an invasion or something. She'd started to have her doubts when she saw her Apache had been loaded with live ordnance rather than the usual dummy rounds. Now that she could see the smoke plumes rising in the distance, all hopes of this not being the real thing evaporated.

"Oh my god," The voice of her co-pilot, 2nd Lieutenant Egawa Isao, sounded in her ear. "This is really happening, we're really under attack…"

"Keep it together Razor." Talisman said, forcing her voice to sound steadier then she felt. "We've trained for this, we're ready."

Is was easy to make such a claim when you were in a heavily armed attack helicopter accompanied by nearly a dozen other heavily armed attack helicopters. But something wasn't right, a glaring fact that was nagging at her.

"Who would attack Tokyo without hitting Ichigaya first? Or at least at the same time?" She asked. "They'd have to know we'd respond. Why give us time to get into the air?"

"Maybe they aren't too bright." The voice of another helicopter, Predator Two, replied. "It doesn't sound like they hit the American Air Base yet either."

"Maybe just a terrorist attack then?" Another voice Talisman didn't recognize chimed in. "Aimed at the city rather than the bases?"

"This would be one hell of a terrorist attack if that's the case…"

"Attention all JSDF helicopters approaching Tokyo air space." The voice of a controller cut in. "The situation in the city is still unclear at this time. A hostile force appears to be occupying both Ginza and the Government district, and civilians are currently scattered everywhere. You are prohibited from using rocket or missile attacks on any buildings without permission."

"In Tokyo, that's basically going to mean only the main gun." Talisman said. "Hopefully they didn't bring any tanks with them, whoever they are."

"Tally ho, I have visual on enemy fliers above the city."

Talisman frowned, squinting as she tried to see. There did seem to be some dark blobs flying near the skyscrapers, but it wasn't using any flight pattern she'd ever seen, ducking up, then down, then back up and circling.

"That looks like a bird in flight." Razor said, sounding as confused at Talisman felt. "Not any kind of helicopters or fighters."

As they drew closer, the dark blobs began to form into shapes, and Talisman began to think her co-pilot had been right on the money. Whatever they were, they had outstretched wings and we're flapping around, with something on their backs.

"Holy fucking shit, are those DRAGONS?!" Predator Two demanded.

Talisman's eyes widened, now not being able to unsee the connection. Dragons, above Tokyo. This sounded like the start to a bad Kaiju movie. And bad Kaiju movies never ended well for Helicopter pilots.

The dragons, or whatever they really were, had apparently spotted them as well, as they started racing towards the JSDF responders.

"Here they come!" Razor sounded, his voice on the urge of panic.

"All callsigns, you are cleared to engage!"

The King Cobra in the lead pitched itself forward, as if it were going to ram the oncoming dragon head on.

"Striker Three, Guns guns guns!"

The Cobra's minigun spun up, spitting out hot led as the bullets tore into the dragon. The slugs shredded the creature, and it fell towards the earth in several different pieces.

"Holy shit, that actually worked?"

"Uh, Talisman?" Razor said. "We've got incoming!"

She tore her gaze from the falling creature to look ahead of her own aircraft, seeing another coming straight towards them. They weren't yet in range of their main gun, but she had a different idea.

"Heat seekers should be able to track a target like that right?" She asked out loud.

"Uh, in theory yes." Razor replied.

"Then let's put theory into practice." She hit some switches on her console. "Arming Stinger missiles now. Switching controls to you."

"Got it." Razor, who sounded much calmer now, hit the acknowledgement.

"Here we go…" Talisman pushed forward on her throttle, increasing her speed as she brought the Apache's altitude higher.

"Got a lock!"

"Take!"

"Predator One, Fox Two!"

The helicopter rumbled slightly as the missile launched from its rack. As hoped, it tracked right towards the overgrown lizard and detonated right in its face. In also fell away towards the ground, a smoking a charred ruin.

"...I think we just earned ourselves free drinks for life with this story." Talisman said, whistling softly.

"Predator One this is Predator Two."

"Go ahead two."

"I think I see something on the road towards the Government district, might be some kind of APC. Can you cover me while we take a look?"

Talisman glanced out her cockpit, seeing the other Apache at her four o'clock.

"Copy, let me pull around."

She gently coaxed the stick to pull the chopper in the desired direction, dropping altitude as she fell in behind Predator Two. The pair dropped down towards the streets below. It was eerily empty, no foot traffic at all. Either everyone had already gotten out of dodge or were taking shelter in the buildings and praying the trouble didn't follow them inside. What cars there were sat motionless, either parked on the side of the road or completely abandoned for one reason or another. Now that she had come around though, she could see the street that Predator Two had indicated wasn't entirely empty. There was definitely something big moving down there, but it wasn't an APC.

"Two, try to keep a safe distance. I can't make out what that is." She ordered. Either the other Apache pilot didn't hear her or was so focused on the task that he couldn't.

"It kind of looks like a big person, but that can't be ri- oh shit!"

Predator Two suddenly and violently pulled backwards, as what looked like a giant ball of stone went flying towards it, barely evading in time. Talisman's eyes flickered back towards where it had come from, now being low enough to see a huge blue skinned thing shaking its fist at the sky. It had to be at least ten feet tall, with muscles that bulged out in almost cartoony ways. It ripped the door off a nearby car and reared back in preparation to throw that as well. But Talisman was faster.

"Predator One, Guns guns guns!" She squeezed the trigger on her control stick, the chain gun under her feet rumbling as the entire street below was ripped apart by high explosive rounds. The creature let out a howl of pain so loud that even Talisman could hear it as the monster was reduced to a bloody mess. "You alright Two?"

"We're all fine over here." The other pilot answered. "Did you see that thing? It was a monster."

"It looked like some kind of troll or ogre." Razor said. "Like something straight out of a manga."

"What the hell, did Mordor declare war on us or something?"

"Attention all callsigns in the Tokyo airspace." The controller's voice returned. "You have new orders. All Striker Group members, you are to head south to contain any further enemy action and support a civilian evacuation. Predator group, the First Division is going to be rolling into the city soon and we need you to clear a path for them."

"Predator One, acknowledged." Talisman said, raising their altitude once more. "Get ready to do some shooting Razor."

"I-yeah! We'll get it done!"