Avenging Side Story 5

Deathlok in the Shell

Author's notes:

In honor of the upcoming Ghost in the Shell LA movie (and in the hopes it's not another Speed Racer LA, or even Live Action LA Blue girl… why yes, they did make one) let us take a look on this story's equivalent of Major Kusanagi.

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It was the dead of night in the back alley of one of Tokyo's more desolate areas. Refuse lined the alley like a fungal colony given free reign. Only rats and roaches nibbled away at the edible parts as a counter to the increasing amounts of garbage that littered the unofficial dumping ground created by having so many people living in so small an area. Much more and it would ooze out into the street itself, like pus from an infection, driving even more people further away. Urban decay wasn't all that different from natural, when one compared them. And people fled from it all the same.

That was why no one saw the globe of light that literally appeared out of nowhere. It simply blinked into existence, brightening the concrete canyon in a way the sun never did. But any hope the light brought faded as it disappeared as simply as it came, removing all the matter it had touched. It left in its place a naked woman, crouched down in almost a ball, knees and fists on the ground. As she unfolded from the position one would have noted she was beautiful but gave off a sort of coldness most noticeable in her gaze. She was unmindful of her nudity, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

The cyborg, Makoto Kusanagi, code-named Deathlok the Demolisher, took in her surroundings. First she had to ascertain she was in the correct year, then the correct city. There was no guarantee of either. Time travel was so imprecise she could conceivably have ended up in a Precambrian volcano. Aramaki warned her that it was as erratic as its creator, Rintaro Okabe was. But the chance had to be taken.

Assuming the first two were correct, she needed to prevent the assassination of Prime Minister Ariyoshi at the hands of the Cis-hood of Victimized Alices. An incredibly stupid name for a bunch of radical fanatics. The assassination would trigger a war between Alices and their allies: human and otherwise, and the rest of humanity. While humanity would win, they would be so weakened they would become easy prey for the Martian Successors. What those tentacle aliens were doing to humanity made even one of Deathlok's hardened nature shudder. Analysists didn't think the MS were being intentionally cruel: their value system was simply that alien compared to humanity's.

She would save the Earth from that fate, no matter how many she had to kill in the process.

"Temporal anomalies. You're such a pain."

Deathlok whirled at the sound of the voice. At the end of the alley was a man in green and purple armor. She had never heard him approach, a near impossible feat with her cybernetic hearing. It was like he had appeared out of nowhere, but without all the light and displacement of an equivalent amount of matter across time and space. More importantly, he had mentioned temporal anomaly. That knowledge shouldn't exist in this era.

Deathlok had a mission to perform. She saw no obvious weapons, and detected no other beings in the area, but then she hadn't detected his approach either. Armor implied a technology based foe, rather than one with natural powers. He was supremely confident. Either he had good reason, which meant she would have to deal with it, or he was an overconfident fool, and easy to deal with. Best to assume the former.

He looked at a display in his gauntlet. "You're not even from this timeline. You're from an alternate universe. You appear to be the determined type. Believe me when I say I understand where you're coming from. But whatever you came back to prevent probably isn't even going to happen, and even if it does, there is nothing you can do here that would change what happened where you came from." he looked at the read out again. "These readings are ridiculous. What sent you back? Someone with a transistor radio duct taped to a Yamaha that got hit by a random bolt of lightning? I loathe amateurs in danger of fouling up my plans."

Now that sounded like a threat. Deathlok needed an improvised weapon to kill or distract him until she could close the distance and deal with him personally. He might not know she was a cyborg, and that could be to her advantage. The most likely thing was a trash can lid. In her hands it could be thrown with deadly accuracy and velocity. Conceivably he'd never know what hit him when it crushed his windpipe.

Just as she moved Kang touched a button on his gauntlet and she disappeared, this time fading even as her hand brushed against the lid.

And that was that.

Kang released a sigh. Whoever had sent her was a true idiot. She was filled with so much ambient temporal energy he doubted she could have remained in this timeline for even a year. It had been simple to release a tiny surge of it which hurled her from this one and into another. He didn't care where she ended up, as long as it wasn't here.

There were far too many distraction at this increasingly critical juncture. The Avengers were proving damnably persistent, and his windows of opportunity for removing them without changing the future, save for the moment of 'The Incident', were shrinking. Although he might have discovered a loophole in the Limbo the Citadel of Time resided in. He needed to examine it more in that timeless place. Though not too long. While time was irrelevant to him, he continued to physically age moment by moment. And soon he might be 'too old' for things to turn out as they must. Time was not absolute, but neither was he.

He would save his love from that fate, no matter how many he had to kill in the process.

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End Side story. I actually have about 60% of the next chapter written out, but there will be a… delay. Bought a PS4, first console since maybe a Sega Saturn system I owned. Purchased it so my nephew had something to do for the week he visited since he doesn't have video games at home. Now I'm the one hooked on Plants vs. Zombies, Garden Warfare 2. I'm sure once I have the majority of stickers, everything will be fine again….