Chapter 9: Save Alice Kamijou, Articho! The Solo Battle Against Wendy Katsch Begins!
School District 10
"So you got a grudge." Articho guesses after the dark skinned girl's story concludes.
"The humiliation at Tokiwadai cost me all that I accomplished." Wendy replies with hatred in her tone. "After I was expelled, I went underground in an effort to exact my revenge on Shokuhou. So I decided to look for ways to break her. Besides, why kill her now when you can make her suffer first? I guess those mislabeled over-the-counters did come in handy with phase one of my plan."
The Time Patroller and Sicily perked up in shock when Wendy said that.
"So it was you." Sicily mutters, clenching her fist in anger. "You were the one who gave her those pills!"
"I did." She grins. "Shokuhou was blinded by her love towards that mysterious brother of yours that she dropped her guard so easily. So much for being the Fifth Ranked Level 5 in Academy City."
"If you wanted to deal with personal grudges, that's not my problem. But you shouldn't have involved these two or anyone else to begin with. That's gonna cost you." Articho grits his teeth in disgust. "Now hand over the baby."
"I'm afraid I can't do that." Wendy chuckles. "If she wants to see her daughter again, then she must see me face-to-face. Only then will I return Alice to her."
"This is your last chance." He warns her. "Surrender the kid now, or I'll take her back from you by force."
The ebony skinned girl grinned, shaking her head.
"Empty threats coming from my new slave." She says, pulling out a small device and aiming it at him. "Now, just like this girl here, you belong to me."
However, Articho instantly reappears close to her with a kick to the gut. This made her drop the baby out of her hands and sent the dark skinned girl crashing into an empty building through the glass window.
Articho was able to grab the child, before she fell to the ground. Alice started giggling in the hybrid Saiyan's arms.
"Don't worry. You're safe now." Articho says in a sweet voice. "She reminds me some much about Pan when she was a baby."
The infant girl reaches out to the boy with her hands, smiling brightly.
"Well, except for the fact Pan's my great grandmother."
"H-H-H-Hero."
"Huh?"
He was surprised.
"She said her second word." Sicily pointed out, standing up. However, the girl collapses back to the ground, grimacing in pain. "Dang it!"
"Sicily?" Articho walks up to her.
"It's not that bad at all." She assures him. "I've been through worse."
However, Articho wasn't convinced, so he took out a Senzu bean and offered it to her.
"Here, take it."
The blue haired girl was confused, but decided to take the bean from him and eats it. After eating it, all of her bruises and injuries started to instantly heal. The older Kamijou starting to slowly stand up, without any issues.
"I'm all better." She says, in shock and awe. "What in the world was that?"
"It's a Senzu bean." He answers. "You should be able to walk again. Now grab onto my shoulder."
"Why?" Sicily questions.
"Trust me."
Just then, Wendy reappears out of the building, all bruised with minor cuts on her skin.
"Bastard!" She growls in anger. "Now you've done it this time! And for that, I-!"
But the three of them vanished in thin air via Instant Transmission, baffling her.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" She exclaims in disbelief. "He just ignored me!"
However, she calms down a bit and smirks.
"Well, at least Shokuhou will come after me now." Then she takes out the fruit she was holding. "Maybe I'll hold off using this fruit for now."
Meanwhile at Tokiwadai Middle School...
The three reappear before Misaki, Arisa, Junko, Kuroko, and Mikoto.
"I'm back!" He announced, while everyone else who hasn't seen this were speechless.
"It's about time you-" Misaki was trying to say, before seeing who else was with him. "Sicily?"
"Hey, Misaki." The blue haired girl says, limping over to her friend as the two of them hugged.
"I'm so glad you're safe."
"Me too."
Alice looks at her mother and started making happy coos.
"Alice!" The Queen gasps in relief, taking her daughter out of Articho's hands. "You rescued my baby."
"You're welcome." The Time Patroller admits.
"So you must be Articho, am I right?" He heard someone speak up.
He looks to his left to see a girl with chestnut brown short hair wearing a matching uniform along with a pair of socks - resembling leg warmers - and matching loafers.
"That's right. Who's asking?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm sure you're familiar with my roommate Kuroko. I'm her roommate, Mikoto Misaka. I also so happened to be a Level Five like Shokuhou, Railgun." The girl now known as Mikoto answers.
"Wait, did you say Railgun?!" Sicily, Articho, and Arisa gasped at the same time.
"Why do you have to react like that?" Railgun asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well realistically, you're the third of the seven Level Fives in the City we met." The popstar answers.
"Second one for me." Sicily says.
"And to be honest, I'm not sure how you're the third strongest Esper." Articho curiously wonders. "Your energy is nothing like Sogiita's. I know! Maybe the whole ranking system is being the most intelligent Esper."
"I completely understand." She told him. "And I'm surprised you know about that."
"Sogiita told me." He shrugs. "I'm just confused as to why he's ranked number seven. But the truth is that I only got a glimpse at his power, so I'm not entirely convinced yet till I fight him in the near future."
"So, is Katsch back?" The Queen asked, looking at the savior of her daughter.
"Yeah. Turns out she's been busy." He confirms. "Her power's crazy. Not the first time I recognize this energy signature."
"On top of that, she's the one who gave the mislabel pills to you, giving birth to Alice." The blue haired girl added, causing the young mother to gasped.
"You mean this kid?" Mikoto questions, looking at the baby who smiled at her. The infant gave a little wave.
The chestnut brown haired girl gave a surprised smile.
"Ya know, Shokuhou, your daughter is kinda adorable." Mikoto pointed out, allowing the little baby to hold her finger.
"Thank you." The blonde girl told her. "You don't have to trust me, but Katsch has been an issue before we were students here."
The two roommates nod to each other.
"The two of us don't have to be friends, but I can help my fellow student redeem her reputation and protect the school. So allow all of us to help you."
"You really mean it?" She asked.
"Yeah." The Railgun nods before sighing. "If we're able to take her down, then maybe we can start over. But don't expect me to agree with all of your methods."
"Fair enough." Misaki giggles. "Then let's save our school."
"Sorry to break it to you ladies, but you won't get the chance to fight her." The Time Patroller interrupts. "Wendy's mine and mine alone."
"What?!"
"She's not just some run of the mill telepath anymore." He explains. "Like I said, she's been busy. And I wanna know how she got this power I've been sensing. If it's who I think it is, then this is a matter I need to look into myself."
"Hold on, sensing?" Sicily was confused. "How were you sensing her power?"
"Sorry, but I don't have time to explain that." He says, putting his two fingers onto his forehead. "Just make sure Misaki and Alice find a safer place to lay low till it's over."
"You're just gonna leave all of us behind, so you can take on Katsch yourself?!" Kuroko exclaims in disbelief.
"Uh, yeah. That's the idea." Articho answers with a raised eyebrow.
In the end, Articho instantly teleports back to School District 10, leaving everyone but Arisa and Junko became frustrated.
Back at District 10...
"So you finally decided to show up." Wendy was amused. "I'd thought you'd turn tail, but it looks like you came back. And I don't see Shokuhou with you. She must be back at Tokiwadai."
"Not anymore. Shokuhou and her daughter are already laying low, so good luck in tracking her down." Articho explains. "And if you want to get to her, you're gonna have to go through me first. Unfortunately for a ruthless bitch like yourself, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"I can tell from the way that you kicked me in the gut." She deduced. "Perhap I need to stop playing nice."
"Then tell me this: how are you able to exert this much strength?" He asks with a serious expression.
"What?! I never told you that!" She exclaims in shock. "How the hell do you know?"
"That's none of your business." He replies. "Just tell me where you obtain this power."
"Ha! Like I'll tell, you nobody." The evil girl told him. "If you want to know, then fight me."
Taking out a fruit from her pocket, Wendy grins once more.
"Wait, is that-?"
Before he can ask further, she takes a huge bite out of the fruit.
"Raaahhh!" She roars, crushing the rest of the fruit within her right hand as a blackish red aura has emitted around her body. "I can finally feel it! The power's coursing through my veins!"
"So that's how." Articho concludes in his thoughts. "Someone gave her a fruit from the Tree of Might. But that's impossible. Towa and Mira are dead. Then that means he most likely followed me in my battle against Black back in Universe 7."
Articho then emits a white aura as he gets into a fighting stance.
"So you have a similar power to mine." The pink haired woman figured out. "Interesting."
Articho, however, chuckles at her statement.
"You're wrong." He says. "I'm much stronger than you. Even stronger than the fruit's properties you just consumed. With the way things are now, I can take you without breaking a sweat."
"Then show me what you got." She taunts him.
The Time Patroller then throws a punch, creating a shockwave that landed a blow on her, which in turn send her crashing through the wrecked buildings.
Wendy comes out of the rubble, dusting herself off, as her outfit is ripped in most places.
"Damn it! And this was my favorite outfit too!" Katsch complained, taking off her ruined jacket.
Articho reappears in front of her, crossing his arms.
"You should be more worried about yourself than your fashion sense." He points out. "Listen, I'm not interested in drawing this fight out any further. So learn when to quit and turn yourself in."
She grits her teeth in anger, as she clinches her fist.
"Shit." Wendy curses. "Let me give you an answer."
The dark skinned girl turned it towards him, and gave him the middle finger.
"Up yours."
"Tch." He grits his teeth, annoyed. "So you still want to get your ass handed to you? Fine then. Now get up."
She did what he asked her to do.
"How very noble of you." She told him, giving a small curtsy. "If things were different, you would have been a wonderful boyfriend."
"Like hell I'd date you." He eye rolls. "You brainwashed the school faculty and their students just so you can stay in control."
"As it should be." She smirks. "And I've done far worse than that."
"What else have you done?" He questions. "I got most of it from everyone else."
"But you don't know what else I did, and how I did it."
"Go on." He says, getting curious.
"You know how I was able to get most of my members to join me, and how I was able to get those rumors to spread quickly?" She asked him.
"How?"
"Well, most of them didn't join me or listen to me at the beginning. So I had to... Almost out of this persuade them into helping me. Ranging from I slept with their boyfriends, getting their friends violated from Skill-Out, or other blackmail material."
Articho clenched his fists in anger, but Wendy wasn't done yet.
"And the best part? I had to make them disappear should they outlive their usefulness."
"Make them disappear? You mean kill them, don't you?" He questions as his anger continues to boil up. "Why? They had no quarrels with you!"
"I was just making sure no one ever betrays me. And for your other question, I didn't kill them. I actually had them sold off to Brothels or as pleasure slaves to the highest bidder."
"And yet, they couldn't defend themselves." He spats, disgusted. "How could you be so heartless?"
"It's how I view the world." Wendy explains. "Humans are nothing but trash. They rather continue making pointless decisions than work together."
"So you believe that turning people into your mindless puppets will make them work together?" The Time Patroller growls. "Damn you. You stole their free will!"
"Well, at least they served a better purpose. And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for her. Well at least I had fun while I was at it. Especially seeing the look on the blue haired girls face when I had her used by some of my henchmen over and over, thanks to my powers. I even temporarily altered her memories so she can enjoy it like the slut she is."
"I've had enough of this! I'm taking you down!" He exclaims as he then charges toward her. "And I'm not going to show any mercy."
"I wasn't asking you to." The evil telepath told him.
She then charges in as well, clashing with him as the concrete ground leaves behind a huge crater.
"Raaaaaa!" He yells as they traded each punch and kick, countering with each block.
The hybrid Saiyan then flies upward and fires a yellow ki blast at her. The attack directly hits her.
However, she didn't flinch as the ex student then grabs him by the leg.
She then throws him, sending him flying towards a park overlooking a huge lake.
He eventually crashed into the trees. His clothes were slightly ripped up from head to toe. His orange gi top, however, was taken damage the most, leaving the blue undershirt intact with only one small tear.
"You caught me off guard." He admits, getting back up before pulling off his torn orange top and throws it aside. "Guess I better take things up a notch."
He then starts to yell as steam begins to emit off his body. His muscles begin to bulk up a bit.
Wendy eventually arrives on the scene where she curiously sees him powering up.
"Kaioken..." He chants as the ground begins to crack and shake. "TIMES...TEN!"
He then flies toward her as the red aura became darker than regular Kaioken.
The telepath was caught off guard by this. But this was nothing to her as she evades his counterattack, and reappears from behind.
"What the hell?!" Articho exclaims.
He turns around with a kick, but she was moving too fast as she reappears in different directions, toying with the Saiyan.
"Hey jackass!" Wendy's voice calls out from behind. "I'm over here!"
Articho turns around and throws a punch at her, only for his fist to go through her.
"An afterimage?!" He questions in shock, before getting kicked in the face out of nowhere.
His Kaioken aura vanishes as he crashes into the deep lake.
"Not as clever as I thought." The telepath smirks, looking down at the lake. "But he should be out there any second now."
However, he didn't come out of the water, which made Wendy suspicious.
"Huh. Did I really take him out that easily?" She questions before shaking her head. "No, it would take a lot more than that to win."
Five more minutes went by, and Articho still hasn't exit the water.
"It's too quiet." She mutters. "If he's dead, I would've seen a body. Guess I'll find out by blasting the lake into pieces."
She then aims her hand at the lake from above and charges up a red ki blast.
Suddenly, a huge beam fires out of the water, directly heading towards her. Wendy quickly moves to the side as the beam then vanishes. Then a second beam of energy fired from the water and the dark skinned girl evades that one as well. This completely annoyed her.
"Using surprise attacks on me?!" She rants at the lake. "Come out of there, and fight like a man!"
Her guard was down from behind as Articho reappears via Instant Transmission and he then fires a ki blast from his right hand that sent her flying down towards the empty park grounds. Wendy tries to push it off her but just as she hits the grass the yellow ball of energy explodes, tearing down the trees around the area Wendy crashed landed in.
"Gotcha!" He smirked. "Just like how I planned."
Just then, the rubble of dirt exploded.
"Hmm?" Articho questions. "Guess she's not done yet."
When the dust settled, the ebony skin girl's clothes are nothing but rags now.
"You cowardly bastard." She snarls, pissed off once again. "I should've known you wouldn't fight me directly."
"It's called being smart." He correct her. "You should've checked me in the water. But I see now. You can't sense a person's energy."
"I'm not sure what you're getting at." The girl says, picking up a cloak to wrap around her nude form. "But I'm strong enough as it is."
"Wrong again." He says with a frown. "Just because you're at the peak of your power doesn't mean you can stop training. Pathetic."
"Stop looking down at me!" She furiously yells.
"Look whose talking." He retorts. "You don't get any respect from me. Not after the atrocities you committed."
A dark aura started emanating from Wendy again.
"Admit it. I've already made my point." The young Time Patroller told her. "You're a monster."
"Shut up." She growls at him. "SHUT UP!!!"
All of the energy she was building up finally bursted.
"What the-?! Her power level has already risen." Articho says in shock. "That fruit she ate did more than just boost her power."
Back down at the ground, Katsch's hair became spiky and was standing up straight. She has transform into Dark Form. She then flies upward towards Articho, who flinched at her newfound speed.
Quickly, he puts both hands over his forehead and closes his eyes.
"Solar Flare!" He exclaims.
A blinding white light flashes Katsch's eyes and she covers her them in agony as the light temporary blinded her.
"Kaioken times twenty!" Articho yells as his red aura became even darker, giving his skin a more tinted color from the said aura. He then flies away quickly, leaving the park and School District 21 to plan out his next move before she recovers and tracks him down.
"Ahhh!!! My eyes!" She cries out in pain. "My eyes!"
Later in School District 7...
Articho lands on top of a certain windowless building as he looks in the distance where Wendy is beginning to recover from her temporary blindness.
"The only thing to take her down is with a Spirit Bomb." He says to himself aloud. "I just need to make one powerful enough to incapacitate her."
The Time Patroller then raises both of his hands as high as he can, gathering ki from all over the city's plant life.
A white, glowing outline of energy forms around his body as he continues to gather more of it.
"That's it. Just a little more ki. Please, please let this work." He continues talking to himself.
Back in School District 21, Wendy has finally got her full sight back as it was no longer blurry. Pulling her hands off of her eyes, she looks around for Articho, but was no longer here. This angered her yet again.
"Coward!" Wendy exclaims. "Where the hell are you?! Don't even try to sneak away from me! If you do, I'll go look for Shokuhou! Even if it means upping the body count by a few hundred to find her! When I get my hands on you-! Huh?"
She looks up to see energy moving in one direction.
The dark skinned girl decided to follow it, flying to wherever it leads to.
A few seconds later, she has reached the source of it all.
"The Windowless Building?" Wendy questions. "But where exactly is all this white glowing stuff going to?"
Her question was answered when she notices Articho on the rooftop as she looks from above.
"There you are." She grins sinisterly. "You're mine now!"
Back with our Time Patroller, Articho notices his opponent coming towards him.
"Uh oh. Times up." He says before the last amount of energy has been absorbed, making him smirk. "I've done it. I've gathered every bit of energy from all over Academy City."
He then lowers his hands and gets into a fighting stance as the white outline of energy forms around into his hand, forming a bluish orb of ki that's the size of a disco ball.
"Now!" He exclaims, ready to throw it at her.
However, his opponent has other plans as she then stops flying toward him and fires a huge, dark red beam from her right hand.
"Take this!" Wendy yells at him.
"Eh?!" The hybrid Saiyan says in disbelief, completely caught off guard.
The large blast landed a huge blow on him, sending the boy flying off of the Windowless Building, and came crashing down into the middle of a busy street.
In the crater full of pavement debris, Articho emerges from it. His blue undershirt is still intact, minus the dirt and all, but two more tears on his orange gi pants are shown, including how his blue wristbands are a bit worn from the blast.
The young hybrid Saiyan pants from exhaustion, having used all of his remaining ki for nothing.
"Damn." He curse frustratingly. "I can't believe I put all of that for nothing. I'm in big trouble now."
The people in the area are looking at him in confusion.
The telepath in Dark Form levitated towards him, as everyone is surprised to see her.
"What are all of you doing?!" He looks at them, very concerned. "It's not safe here! You need to leave! Now!"
Wendy formed flames out of her hands, scaring all of the passersby. Everyone got the message, and started running to safety.
"Again, how very noble of you." The dark skinned girl smirks before her expression became dark. "But play time's over. For you, that is."
In the blink of an eye, she punches him in the gut so hard. Articho blacked out, as he falls to the ground.
Over in the distance, Arisa and Junko have just witnessed their friend getting knocked unconscious after they followed those white glowing lights in the sky.
"No!" The popstar says, as tears fall out of her eyes. "We have to do something!"
"Stay here!" Junko says.
But as she runs toward them, Wendy spots her and Arisa and fires a blast by her feet.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Hokaze." Wendy coldly warns. "That was a warning shot. Come any closer, and he gets a quick merciless death."
This stopped the girls in their tracks.
"Damn you." The ringlet girl curses at her.
Wendy then laughs crazily.
"Tell me where your Queen is, and I'll spare your boyfriend's life." The insane woman told her.
The lavender haired girl hesitates, looking away.
"I can't. I will never betray my Queen like that."
This causes the former student to sigh.
"I guess I was expecting too much from you."
Suddenly, she was shot in her right eye. This caused her to scream in agony.
The one responsible is none other than Articho, who is unable to move he lays on his back in the wrecked street.
His hand then drops to the pavement and he chuckles weakly.
"Consider that as a parting gift from me." He informs with a smug expression. "I can't do much to fight back, so...whatever you're gonna do, do your worst, you crazy bitch."
She grits her teeth in anger.
Suddenly, a orange beam of light narrowly misses Wendy.
"What in the-" She tries to say, before she was struck by lightning.
The pink haired telepath is still standing there, almost burnt to a crisp.
"I would reconsider what you're planning to do next." Everyone heard someone say.
The girls turned to see a familiar teenager, with chestnut brown hair and matching eyes, walking up to the street.
"Misaka!" Arisa and Junko were both surprised to see her.
"Don't interfere!" Wendy yells at her, throwing a punch at her that sent her with a shockwave.
When the shockwave was done, she blinked in surprised. Because she couldn't see her anymore.
"Right behind you!"
Turning around was Kuroko, who just teleported her best friend out of there.
However, the dark skinned girl predicted this.
"You just fell right into my trap, Teleporter." She smirks.
"Huh?" Kuroko and Mikoto looked down to see something glowing beneath them, having to have step on a mine made of ki.
The mine then explodes beneath their feet, sending them flying back. The duo then landed in front of Arisa and Junko's feet.
"I figured you would do that. So I set up a little trap for you two." She explains before grabbing Articho by the neck, holding up in the air as she squeezes the life out of him.
He begins to struggle and tries to fight back, but it was no use. The girls watched as they are powerless to save him.
"I believe it's time we're through with this charade." Wendy grins, believing to have won.
Is this the end of the strongest Time Patroller? The battle continues, next time on Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Articho's New Mission!