Gateway Future
The Gate Keepers
"I suppose I owe you a dept of gratitude for taking out all of those monsters." Red smiled, standing up again. "Optimus said he'd be down here in a few moments, so if you want to rest or put back on your kimono I promise I won't watch. Your kimono's in the top...drawer?"
When Red Alert had turned back to face the now awake Erin, he found himself speaking to an empty room. His hand instantly ran across the control panel he was standing at.
"Demolisher! Keep an eye out for Erin!" Red Alert's voice echoed across the com link.
"Uh, why? Is she not allowed out?" Demolisher blinked, holding his right hand up to his ear. A small green gemmed bracelet sparkled inconspicuously against his green armor in the waning moonlight.
"Something like that, yes! Just don't let her out of the city!"
"Too late for that. She just left a few minutes ago." Demolisher stated as if the event in question could have mattered less to him.
"What?!"
"Red Alert to Optimus!" Red Alert's voice streaked across the com line like a frantic bullet looking for a target to land in. Optimus pressed a button on the meeting table before him, opening his end of the com to those who were gathered in the main meeting hall; namely Jet Fire, Ironhide, and Kicker.
"What is it, Red Alert?" Optimus questioned.
"Erin's left the base and I don't know where she's going! Demolisher reports her leaving just a few moments ago. If we hurry, we can catch her before she gets too far outside tracking range!"
"Wasn't she asleep?" Ironhide blinked.
"Was being the operative phrase. I had my back to her for a moment and when I turned around I was talking to an empty room." Red sighed. Kicker was long gone before Prime could even begin formulating a plan to find the ware-word heroin of the hour.
The stranger in his strange ship was back in the docking port. His very presence spelled out his annoyance to Unicron and his henchmen.
"You never informed me that a Gate Keeper was stationed at Ocean City." the man growled, "This lack of information will cost our alliance dearly."
"I was unaware that Gate Keepers even had such enormous power, and the fact that one happened to be a resident of Ocean City was news my last inelegance reports neglected to mention." Unicron's black voice stated in a surprisingly calm tone.
"So you were unaware of the Gate Keeper before this alliance was made?"
"That is correct, Commander."
"If this is the truth, our alliance is merely strengthened by our defeat, not wounded."
"It is the truth,"
"Then conceder our resolve to complete the terms of our deal doubled," the Commander glared. Unicon could hardly suppress a smirk.
She had changed back into her kimono the moment Red Alert had turned his back to her and had bolted past him with a speed only her powerful Gates of Ying could have granted her. Erin knew she was alone now – she had no home, her friends only feared her and might even want to experiment on her, and the Invaders were beginning to reappear supposedly all over the world. From the multitude that had attacked Ocean City she could guess with little error that a whole city, possibly a handful of random country towns, had been transformed into Invader training camps recently. She'd have to find those towns and set things right.
Her eyes narrowed right as a purple gate appeared beneath her feet. Her white gate smothered it, launching her high into the air and out of harm's way. Erin twirled in the air with a gymnastic grace, landing on another white gate that brought her coasting gently to the ground. The patch of concrete she had occupied no more than a few moments ago was now nothing more than a smoking crater in the earth. A hand suddenly reached out behind her, grabbing her mouth and stopping her from screaming. With a mercenary's precision, her attacker bound her hands against her back and pulled them tight so that even the smallest movement would result in the greatest burnings of pain.
"Erin Topaz... It's about time I caught you." the attacker whispered. His voice was soft but cold like ice, and his black gloved hands matched his black suite and business hat with odd precision. Though he looked like an Invader, Erin knew that this man was nothing more than a human and like her, he controlled a powerful Gate. "You are under arrest for refusing to join the Gate Keepers and being an Invader flight risk. You are hereby sentenced to death."
"Hands off!" The man had just enough time to move his hands away from Erin before being punched back into the crater his Gate had created moments earlier. On his way down, he summoned another gate to counter the attack. Erin's rescuer put his arms up in a defensive move, queuing the silver-grey gem bracelet under his suite that formed the protective barrier that had saved his life from becoming Swiss cheese to make an encore performance. The Gate's power was reflected around him in the form of red hot fire and boiling gusts of wind. Erin's attacker stared at him blankly from behind his shades for a few short moments before he managed to regain his composure and get back to his feet.
"You don't know what you're getting into, boy." the attacker growled.
"Kicker, get out of here! He'll kill you without even blinking!" Erin snapped. Kicker lowered his arms, smirking at the attacker.
"Oh, I know what I'm getting into. You were about to kill my friend, and that's something I can't allow." Kicker smirked, a daredevil look in his eyes.
"You think you can handle a Shinobi Gate Keeper?! Even with that Invader-proof shield, you can't win! It's not meant to take the power of the Gate of Inferno!" the attacker shouted. Kicker had just enough time to raise his arms to a defensive move again before another fireball exploded out at him. This time the shield failed and he was sent flying back past the collapsed Erin. Her eyes went wide when she heard him bounce three or four times before rolling over and barfing out what sounded like blood. Erin's eyes became shadowed glistening marks on her face when she heard him pass out from pain.
The Shinobi Gate Keeper let out a maniac's laugh. He shouted at Kicker with insults that Erin was glad the boy was unconscious for. She slowly got to her feet, bringing the assassin's attention back to her. The black Gate and white Gate formed before her open palms as she crossed her arms, making the Shinobi stifle his laughter.
"He was simply...trying to protect me..." Erin's tearful glare appeared, echoing out the gates in the center of her eyes. The Shinobi moved back a step.
"The Gate of Ying-Yang... The perfect balance of creation and destruction..."
"You didn't have to try and kill him! You didn't have to hurt him!!" Erin screamed.
She brought both Gates before her, overlapping them in a Ying-Yang shape. The assassin was sent flying. However, Erin wasn't done. She lifted the white gate skyward, summoning one behind the assassin. A giant hand of fire snapped out of the gate, grabbing the assassin its blistering grip. The assassin screamed bloody murdered. Erin released a sigh of self anger and the hand dropped the now smoldering assassin. Water suddenly flooded out of the gate, dousing his wounds. A third white Gate appeared over him, healing the major burns all over his body. However, by the time he was being healed, the assassin was so far unconscious he didn't even register his own name.
Erin closed her eyes, canceling the black Gate and opening a person sized white Gate above her head. Before she completely lost consciousness again, she whispered out a single name. "Red Alert..."
He counted himself lucky that he wasn't carrying anything when the soft pain-filled voice of Erin echoed through his mind. Looking down at the lightly glowing light blue bracelet of stone he had returned to his wrist, he somehow knew where the child was and that Kicker was in mortal danger.
Demolisher was nearly sent sprawling back into the ocean when a silver blur blasted past his legs. By time he managed to get a good look at it, the blur had passed far over the horizon.
"Was that Red Alert...?" Jet Fire whispered, looking down over the balcony. He looked down at his own fire red bracelet, noticed its soft glow, and instantly knew what was going on. Like a burning red rocket, Jet Fire was blasting off through the air at top speed.
"Erin!" Kicker jumped. A finger on his rib cadge forced him to fall back down onto the table he had been sleeping on. Looking up, he saw that it was Ironhide that had forced him to lie back down. "Ironhide, where's Erin? She's not...?"
"Nah, she's fine; been up for hours. But that assassin got away before Red Alert and Jet Fire could get to your location." Ironhide paused for a moment so that he could look towards the door before adding at a whisper, "You're lucky they got there in time, Kicker. You were almost DOA."
"...That guy...was not human..." Kicker whispered.
"He was the same kind of creature as Erin, and she's human." Ironhide countered.
"What?!" Kicker again tried to get out of bed, only to have Ironhide push him back down again. "I've got to see Erin! I've got to know what's going on!"
"You will only when your strength's been recovered, understand Kicker?" Optimus' voice cut through Kicker like a hot knife through butter. Like a spooled child, he fell limp against the table and pouted.
"All right, Optimus..." Though he wished he could have stayed awake, Kicker was soon sleeping away the remainder of the day.
This time Red Alert had locked the entrance so that it was one way – going in – and had asked Jet Fire to keep an eye on the surveillance cameras just in case there was going to be an encore performance. Erin slowly rolled over in her sleep, her eyes fluttering open to find Red Alert's annoyed foot near her face.
"I do hope you're not planning on sneaking out when I turn my back again, Erin." Red Alert growled. Erin slowly sat up, looking at him with wide eyes. "And the wide eyed puppy-dog plea for a break won't work either. I'd like to know exactly what this is," he tossed the bracelet down to her level, "And how it and the man that nearly killed Kicker are connected to you."
Erin diverted her gaze from his piercing stair, her eyes wide in a combination of fear and worry. Would they hate her? Would they all call her a freak when the found out who she really was? Would they even let her live once they knew the truth? Memories from the past from all the people that had known who she was and her arguments with the people who had sent the Shinobi after her flashed across her mind's eyes in a tornado whiplash that made her shut her eyes and shake her head in an effort to dispel the painful memories. When she opened her eyes again, she found Red Alert's finger resting gently against her shoulder and a light smile on his lips.
"I won't hurt you, Erin, you should know that by now. I just want to know what's going on with that bracelet and the assassin." Red Alert smiled. Erin stared at him for a few more moments, small droplets coming to her eyes. She jumped off the table and pushed herself into his hand in a futile effort to hug the giant. Deep in her heart, she knew, she believed she could trust both Red Alert and the others with all her dark secrets. Well perhaps not all, but simply the ones that threatened to destroy her at the present moment.
Erin sat like a queen in a dull metallic throne facing her subjects. Prime was seated at the opposite end of the table, with Jet Fire to his left, Red Alert to his right, and Kicker and Ironhide sitting on Jet Fire's side of the table. It was only those four that confronted her now – the others would know from Prime in a secondary announcement if what she disclosed to them merited such a herald. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again.
"The beings that attacked Ocean City two days ago are known as Invaders. They are the most pressing threat to humanity due to the fact that they are immune all modern technology and if a human's heart is black with corruption, greed, or tainted desire, that human can be turned into an Invader." Erin began.
"Yah mean they could turn anybody into an alien?" Kicker jumped.
"If that person is not a Gate Keeper or if that person is not being protected by an Anti-Invader device such as that bracelet you've got on your wrists, then yes, your best friend could become an Invader with only one goal in mind – your blood spattered all over their hands." Optimus cleared his throat in an effort to take the topic to a better, less shocking development.
"Which brings us to the questions of what is a Gate Keeper and what are these bracelets?" Erin took a deep breath before explaining.
"Those bracelets are condensed Gate energy. By wearing those, Invader attacks, which are powerless against Gates to begin with, are rendered null and void. However, just because you're wearing one doesn't mean you'll be able to fight back. It's a one way system centered on defense." Erin paused here, letting this information sink in, before turning her eyes to the ground and whispering, "...And I'm a Gate Keeper, as was the man that attacked me..."
"So Gate Keepers are humans, correct?" Red Alert smiled while trying to keep his face from frowning.
"Yes; it was discovered when the Invaders were first attempting to take over the earth nearly three decades ago that certain young people around my age, about 12 to 18 year olds, were showing unique psychic powers that allowed them to open small holes or Gates to other dimensions. By barrowing the power of these separate dimensions, the first of the multiple Invader waves were destroyed by the very first Gate Keepers, or children who could control the Gates, with little to no civilian casualties." She paused again as if to consider something before continuing on.
"Every Gate Keeper controls a different Gate. The Shinobi Gate Keeper controlled the Gate of Inferno, where as I control a Gate known simply as the Gate of Ying-Yang."
"Ying-Yang?" Jet Fire blinked in confusion.
"Yes." The two Gates suddenly opened on either side of her, startling the group. "The white Gate is the Gate of Creation or more commonly known as the Gate of Ying. The black Gate is the Gate of Destruction, also known as the Gate of Yang. The two Gates keep each other in balance and unlike other stronger Gates such as the Gate of Void and Gate of Ice they pose no health risk when used." The two Gates closed as suddenly as they had opened.
"I suppose this brings us to your attacker then." Optimus sighed.
"Yeah. If you're both Gate Keepers, then why'd he attack you?" Ironhide demanded. Erin looked at him, her eyes echoing out her sadness.
"The group that runs the Gate Keepers has come under...new management..."
"New management?" Jet Fire blinked.
"Yes...Lethal new management..."