A/N: Welcome to chapter 2/3 today. Please go back one if you haven't read the first, or continue on an enjoy the second to final chapter.
*Shoots Finger Guns* Bet you guys can guess what comes next...
I do not own To Love-Ru, or any of the other works of Yabuki Kentaro and Co. Fairly graphic descriptions ahead. You has been warn-ed.
Solgam Mobile Headquarters
Redacted Location
Outside a well known black market world, a certain inter-galactic satellite and space station belonging to a certain crime family, drifted in synchronized orbit around this lawless cesspool, far outside the perusal of the Deviluke Empire and the Galactic Police. Inside the station, which once belonged to one of the various organizations and mafia family's that had broken away from the collective safety of the Eden organization after its own dissolution, the facility had fallen into the Boss of Solgam's clutches. He currently was sitting at the head of a massive throne, situated at the center of a massive orbital dome that peered into the space beyond, wherein he leisurely spent his days monitoring his subordinates actions and increasing his own revenue stream. While organizing actions against his many various enemies, both external and internal, he enjoyed being serviced by the many women he had bought or brought from worlds he had plundered, or where given to him as a tribute for his protection. He was partaking in one of his rare vices, when a sudden creaking and slamming of his chamber doors announced the arrival of one of his subordinates.
"Boss!" a gruff looking man in a Solgam uniform, the one who had replaced Keize after his fall from favor, shouted while he was enjoying his afternoon glass of Elixian blue, circa 800, "We've gotten a.. request, from Earth." The man is huffing, having obviously rushed from wherever he was in the base to personally deliver the news, and he hastily tried to make up for his interruption by profusely bowing for forgiveness.
"Earth? Ah..." the Boss states, as he drudges up the memories of his formerly favored scientist, "Keize... what news does he have of us regarding the situation on that mud ball?" The other man takes that as his cue to speak, and raises his head to due so.
"Keize has reported a decrease in the viable timetable for the seizure of Earth; reports from an inside source correlates that the Galactic Police have accelerated their own timetable regarding their own standing against the planet..." the man begins, as he looks towards his boss, "He reports that the plan is ready for phase two, but requests y-your personal presence, Boss, at the completion of the phase, so as to turn it over to you, personally." The man ends his words there, and yet the Boss can't help but feel there is more to be said by this man.
"You seem to have doubts, Zaikas," the Boss states, as he points a finger towards the man with a gesture that causes him to falter in shock, "Tell me, do you have reservations about Keize's loyalty to me?" The man stiffens in response, and the Boss smiles as he hits the nail on the head. He decides to take it easy on this newly appointed advisor, knowing he didn't have the sense or capabilities he had as boss of this organization. "I wouldn't worry about Keize, he has already failed this family once; he already knows the consequence's of failing to meet my expectations a second time," the Boss can confidently state, before bringing a hand to his chin, realizing the other man looks nervous still, "Or perhaps, is it the Doctor that you lack faith in?" The Boss smiles devilishly at that, finding it amusing to see his underling squirm beneath his cautious exterior.
"You would be right to question such a... prickly fellow; such as he is," the Boss states, setting his hands across his lap while staring at Zaikas, "But the Doctor is indebted to us, to our cause; if he were not my ally, I wouldn't have rescued him from Deviluke's secret brain trust, and he fully understands that his situation is left entirely up to us." He crosses his fingers, giving a devious smile as he does so. "Zaikas... if the Doctor were to betray us, in any way, it would have been well before this operation," he continues, "Investing time, manpower, infiltration into government agencies bribes, the technology alone he has exclusively provided us... Solgam shall come out on top once we conquer Earth." Getting up from his throne, he walks towards Zaikas with purpose and a smile. "If it wasn't for the Doctor's work, both in genetics and technology, we would still be decades away from promoting any change," the Boss states, as he gently brushes his hand against Zaikas' neck while reaching around his shoulder, directing his gaze upwards to the stars outside the open viewing port, "Thanks to him, the lost weapons of Eden have walked straight into my hands, and the various ways I can use them to conquer the Deviluke Empire, no, the universe..."
He lets go of Zaikas, as he falls to the floor, grasping his throat while foaming at the mouth. "Unfortunately Zaikas, you will not live to see these accomplishments," the Boss states, leaning over as the fear in his eyes grows, rolling back as he falls to his side on the floor, "You really shouldn't interrupt me when I'm enjoying my vices... now, get someone to throw this trash out the airlock." Directing it to one of the many girls that had been servicing him, they quickly move to get a couple of guards that had been stationed outside the door.
"Boss Rudman!" another man states upon entering the room, as two other men take the body away, "Eh, ahh...what are your orders, Torneo-sama?" The Boss, formerly known as a low level gangster named Torneo Rudman, smiled at his subordinates question, staring down at the weasel-like, beak-nosed man, named Morris Flitt, that was easily one of his most loyal yes-men.
"Have the boys in the engine room get the fold core up and ready within the hour," Torneo states, as he returns to his wine and women, "We'll be warping to an insignificant mud ball that is just ripe for conquering; have the men ready for anything... oh, and Flitt..." The man seized up at his Boss' suddenly calling him out, the sheer terror a delight for his eyes as he drew it out a bit longer than necessary. "Congratulations on your promotion to my personal advisor," Torneo states while taking a fresh glass of wine from one of his handmaidens, closing his eyes as he sips its alien contents, then licking his lips as he opens them to focus on the shivering form of his new right hand, "...tell the boys to take Zaikas' failure and incompetence to heart, you wouldn't want to catch me in a bad mood again, or else you too could suffer a fate far worse than those who failed before you..." Flitt gulped at that, then nodded, hunched over and trembling as he left a pleased looking Torneo behind.
"Hahaha...hahahahaha...hahaha...HAHAhaHAH!"
Earth
Secret Solgam Facility
"Good news," Keize reported to the Doctor, "The Boss is feeling 'generous'; he only low key threatened us of his imminent arrival..." Keize looks up from the data pad he was looking at, to se the Doctor lazily at work, finalizing some secret project no doubt, as he spoke. "Apparently Zaikas upset him and was... ahem, removed, and replaced by Morris Flitt, who in my humble opinion, is a bit too much of an entitled as-" he paused, as the Doctor suddenly got up from his chair, leaving his documents open while passing by Keize with out a word, "Doctor? Are you needing help to finish preperations fro phase three of your plan?" He remains mute, though Keize catches up with him as he enters the elevator, the aloof scientist remains unsociable as ever. "Sr, is everything alright?" Keize asks with trepidation, as the Doctor opens a secret compartment that led to the lowest level, Processing, where Nemesis and other highly confidential materials were stored for, well, processing, "If Nemesis is giving you trouble, I'm sure I can dedicate some time to helping you in anyway possible- and if it is the Boss, I can always cancel-" The elevator descended quickly, then opened to the lower level, where it was barely lit due to saving on energy cost and drawing any untoward suspicion of the locals, whom they were renting the facility from, having modified it over half a year earlier, in secret.
"No- no, you don't have to cancel anything, Keize," the Doctor states quickly, as he steps off of the elevator, his glasses refusing to show his emotion in such a shaded area, but Keize steps off on that floor as well, to follow him to his next project, "But- you are right, I do require your help with something, Keize..."
The man was ill-equipped for his normal lab activity, forgoing his lab coat for the khaki's and sweater he wore underneath it. Keize followed him cautiously to the holding bay, where the multiple secret projects they were running beyond the scope of human eyes, were held. Among the many stored treasures they had begn to store were as followed: A fold generator for quick travel anywhere across the world, a seemingly nondescript black sword they found in an abandoned coastal village, once embedded in a bog, it had since been stored in a static field and hooked up to various monitoring systems that were designed to create a sensory feedback loop. Nemesis was currently chained down to a table, with cuffs that sent a static charge through her every so often, to destabilize her TRANS abilities, and keep her pumped full of heavy sedatives to keep her in a dreamless state until she could be made of use. The last, and very first project that Keize had begun work on, after the Doctor had informed him of his design and its purpose, was a simply pair of glowing vats connected to a much larger machine that was pumping various fluids, minerals, vitamins, protein chains, and other progressive materials into one of the vats, which held a suspended form within that would be ready within a few hours of accelerated growth, to meet the parameters he had been told.
"Is it... finally-" Keize asked the Doctor, swallowing saliva as his mouth suddenly became dry at the prospect that lay ahead for them now, "-is it time, Kousuke-sama?" With a smile, the Doctor turned to Keize with a twinkle in his eye, a first sign of unbridled emotion that he had personally seen on his master's face since he had rescued him from that prison over a year ago. "Sir, I can't say how-" the remaining words couldn't be found from Keize's mouth.
"I want to thank you, Keize, you were a loyal pawn to the end," the Doctor states, withdrawing the black sword from the man's stomach, before gently setting him down onto the floor, as blood began to stain the floor, "Your loyalty to Kanzaki Kousuke was unwavering, perhaps the greatest example of a blind faith I had ever seen in all my years, but your usefulness, as is Solgam, finally at its end." Letting the sword fall from his hand, he turns his attention to the computers overhead, which suddenly switched to satellite views, having been hacked and positioned from a host of abandoned pieces that had secretly been upgraded with superior stealth technology, from among a variety of space junk. On the channel it showed a Devilukean warship that Lala had brought with her, as he just smiled on watching, as Keize bled out onto the floor.
"My new Eve has been preparred for the great experiment, soon her new vessel shall be readied for use, and the conclusion of all of this will begin to fall into the predicted variance," the 'Doctor' states, as he smiles, "Unfortunately the loss of Rito Yuuki as a battery was unfortunate, thankfully we have Nemesis as a sufficient, albeit inferior, substitute; no matter, as soon as that rube Torneo enters this system at the coordinates you provided him, my decades long masquerade will finally payoff all my hard work and sacrifice." He turns to Keize for one final time, as the last gasps of the man begins to be snuffed out. "My mole informs me that the remaining preparations have already been completed on their side, and the encapsulation of the Earth will proceed as planned, regardless of Deviluke's interference," the man boasts, as the light in Keize's eyes begin to dim, making it harder for him to focus on the sights and his words, "Soon, this world will fall to Darkness, as all the others have... and then Hades will swallow this entire world, and finally the grand experiment will conclude!"
"Kekeke..."
Yuuki Household
Meanwhile
The mood was somber, as Lala wiped the steam from her bathroom mirror to take a good look at herself. Her eyes were puffy, red, and swollen, from the past few sleepless nights spent crying over her own failures, while staying holed up in her old workshop inside Rito's room. She had expected Mikan to cry, to scream, to yell insults towards her, yet the girl had been silent, her apathetic response all the more heartbreaking as if she was ignoring the fact that her brother had...
Rito wasn't coming home.
Reduced to a whimpering mess, yet again, Lala dropped to her knees on the floor, as fresh tears flowed from her lithe and dehydrated body. She had even kept Peke from comforting her, instead making sure that the little robot was keeping a watchful eye on a sullen Mikan, and entertaining Celine when she could. The devilukean princess had finally decided to move on, instead, focusing on figuring out where the man who had set off this chain of events was located. Lala hadn't spent the entire time a useless waste of space; some of the time, between waves of guilt and sorrow that dragged her down, she had spent countless hours lost in a maze of electronics and wires building such a device as one that could find the answer to her many questions.
'He's hiding somewhere on this very world,' Lala thought to herself, as the racing clock towards the judgment of Earth ticked on inside the background of her mind, now down to less than twenty four hours, 'I have so very little time to find him, but when I do, I can make it so that Rito's sacr- it-it wasn't made in vain...' She bites her tongue and cheek, as more tears threaten to spill out, and forces herself to finish getting ready, and face her greatest challenge.
Stepping out from her room, down from the teleport and descending the steps into the living room, she walks into the kitchen and takes a seat at the table. Food had already been set at the ready for her to eat, as well as her favorite dark matter condiment, which she began to devour greedily. Looking to Mikan, who was busy preparing lunches in the kitchen for everyone, Lala felt a twinge of loneliness, as she then glanced sideways to the empty plate that sat in front of the unused chair.
"How is she...?" Lala begins to ask in a hushed whisper, as she turns to her sisters and Peke, who was helping feed Celine, "The empty plate..." Momo shook her head, and Nana merely grumbled under her breath, until the clattering of a dish, shattering against the kitchen floor, could be heard.
"No...no..nononoNO!" Mikan suddenly began shouting, as she leaned over and began to pick up shards with her bare hands, cuts and blood beginning to form as she did so, which alarmed everyone at her sudden irrational behavior.
"Mikan!" Nana suddenly shouted out, as she rushed over to grab her by the wrist and keep her from pick up more of the shards and gathering them into her apron, "That's dangerous, it's just a drinking glass, we can always get another one!" The orange tinted glass was unusual, it stood out from among the rest of the many cups, and Lala immediately recognized it, and realized why Mikan was trying to pick it up in vain.
"Mikan..." Lala states, getting close to her and gently grabbing her open hands, turning them over to check for shards embedded in them, "Rito- Rito is gone, you know that right?" She says it more harshly than she wanted to, surprised at her own lack of tact, but the shock and betrayal in Mikan's eyes cut deeper than any shard of glass.
"You- I thought you of all people would have understood-" Mikan states, breaking free of Nana's grip, and pushing both of the princesses away, while stepping back, "-he isn't gone... not really, you should realize it too; or don't you love him?" Her words are biting, but erratic, they hurt yet Lala can't tell what the girl is trying to get across to her. "Can't you feel it, Lala, like a tug, a gentle pull amidst that sea of heartache?" Mikan asks, as her eyes meet Lala's, and the air between the two feels electric, "The world is crazy, yet my brother was a rock amongst waves of chaos, a beachhead of calmness in a pool of lust you all threatened to drown him in..." Mikan got into Lala's face, and though Nana was going to stop her, Momo pulled her back just as quickly, hoping to let the girl vent.
"You think he is gone, but he's still here, in that room, where I tried to go and wake him up, only to find an empty bed and remember that my brother is gone, that my last words to him weren't serious, that the chair he sat in will always be empty, that the women he chased after will never see him again," she rants, and raves, spitting and clenching her teeth as her crazed eyes haunt and sear themselves into Lala's memories, "That the daughter.. that Celine, who doesn't understand anything of what is going on, is going to be left wondering what happened; that my parents, absent as they are, aren't going to understand how their baby boy could die like that, sucked into a black hole, while his fiance is left to pick up the pieces of her own shattered love story!" The thumping in her heart is like a drumbeat, and those last words were a crescendo, a wave of truth that rose high above her head and threatened to come crashing down upon her own fragile barriers. A whistling of air, a slap, anticipating the stinging of flesh on her cheek, as tears came yet again, unbidden and uncontrolled, from her eyes.
Yet the one who was slapped was not Lala, and the surprise on Mikan's face was evident, as the hand of Ringo Yuuki retracted itself from her only daughter's red, burning cheek. Lala stumbled,and fell to the ground, unaware the elder Yuuki woman had even come into the room, let alone come home from wherever she had been in the world, just to slap her raging daughter. "Mommy?" Mikan meekly answered, after the shock had passed, as she was pulled into Ringo's embrace, "What are you doing...home?"
"A man named Rochefort told me what happened," the elder Yuuki stated, "Your father is to close to a deadline, so I haven't told him anything, yet, but I came rushing home on a red-eye just to comfort you...both of you; my daughters." Dragging Lala into the hug, she feels the shaking of Mikan, as the youngest daughter breaks out into tears, finally letting the wall break, as Lala felt the need arise as well, she too cried with her former sister-in-law and mother-in-law.
Ringo finished tucking an exhausted Mikan back into bed, her flushed face covered with a cooling rag and a petite Celine sleeping next to her as well. "She has a fever, nothing serious, but rest will do her good," Ringo states with a small smile, as she close the door to her daughters room, and turns to face Nana, Momo, and Lala, "She's probably overworked herself with worry, ever since she heard her brother was lost; she probably kept it all in, not believing it was true... but..." Ringo licks her dry lips, digging her hands into her shirt, she looks to Lala with as straight a face as she can make. "If... if you need me, I'll be here," she simply states, then heads to her own room, leaving the three sisters alone in the hallway.
This wasn't how she was expecting everyone to react, and the oddness of it all was causing Lala's brain to hurt. Expecting something more, Lala turns to go into Rito's room, when she was stopped by her two sisters.
"What do you think you are doing?" Nana asks, as Momo tightly squeezes the palm of her hand, "You just got out of there, don't think we're just going to let you..." With a simple twist of her arm and quick grasp of both her sisters exposed tails, Lala mercilessly holds on tightly to both of them, whole wrapping her own safely out of their reach.
"I'm close to finding him," she simply replies, the headache growing worse with every moment they stop her and keep her distracted, "I've almost finished the device, so let me go, and I promise you we can find him and stop all of this, before the G.P.D. decide to overstep while trying and be heroes." Momo gently lets go of her sister's hand, as does a concerned looking Nana, as she in turn lets go of their tails. Closing the door to Rito's room behind her, she turns to look into the mirror, and the ache in her head gets worse.
"Damn it!" she curses under her breath, putting one hand to her head to will the pain away, while raising another in a fist and striking it against the glass of the mirror, "Why... why is this happening now..." Looking up and into her own reflection, she feels her heart skip a beat, startled as she stares into her familiar, with unfamiliar, maroon eyes.
Blinking, her eyes are the right color again, and she takes it as a sign that whatever hallucination she had has passed. "Well," she said to herself, looking at her reflection, "That is new..."
Galactic Police Headquarters
Milky Way Division
REDACTED STAR SYSTEM
The Galactic Police Headquarters was a well hidden location among the many so-called uncharted expanses between arms of the Milky Way. Stars were few and far between, but the isolation from traffic and other worlds made security in the system infinitely more manageable with high grade security satellites and scanners set to detect over a hundred thousand lethal forms of contraband, from over a million planets. It was here that the Galactic Union, a police protectorate that spanned the five known galaxies and beyond, stationed there presence to enforce laws across the entire milky way, free of Gid Lucieon Deviluke's interference. Fortunately on this day the self-proclaimed King had been granted rights, as he was due, to assemble the Union Council, and discover their plans for the Earth.
Large wooden doors opened into the council's chambers, and in walked Gid Lucieon Deviluke, flanked both by his right hand, Zastin, and his wife, the Diplomat Sephie Michela Deviluke. Zastin had recovered more fully since his injuries, and the wife of the King of Deviluke had been personally requested by her own husband, to ensure the council's own safety, in case his temperament got the better of him during his inquiry. Clad in regal garb of a regent of Deviluke, gleaming armor shone beneath his fearsome black cape, as he stared down the three hundred seventy five various local delegates,then into the cameras, were thousands more watched the proceedings from the safety of their own home star systems. The King made his way to the center of the court, where the prospective inquirers would have the floor, be allowed to voice their concerns, and in turn allow answers and questions from the various delegates of the room surrounding the floor.
"Hear this... now hear this," the main prosecutor, a man not to unlike a human, save his pointed ears, stood at attention, announcing his presence as the Speaker, "This emergency meeting of the Galactic Union Council, has been declared in response to the request of the his grand majesty, the first supreme, emperor-warlord coveting five galaxies... Gid Lucieon Deviluke." With a flourish of his hand, the Speaker directed attention to the Devilukean man and his Charmian bride.
The king took his time to stand, his regal presence imposing and frightening more than a few, as he let his power speak for itself, before reigning it back in as the room fell into a hush at his stance. "I have come before this assembled audience, in behalf of my daughter, the future queen of Deviluke Lala Satalin Deviluke, and her human husband, Rito Yuuki," the king begins to speak, calmly, "I have heard of this councils threats, its bluffs, its blustering, and have noticed the rise in crime across the universe, in direct defiance of your own Galactic Police Departments best efforts..." His golden eyes stare into many eyes, as they rove across the room. "I have come today to inform you that the situation on Earth, no, across the universe, has grown beyond your expectations, and my own," the king calmly announces, closing his eyes for half a moment, letting the room stir up in a flurry of whispers and hushed tones, before his stare once again quiets the entirety of the storm of questions, "Be at ease, for my daughter is at work at this very moment tracking down the elusive backer of the criminal organization, Solgam, as it becomes ever clearer tat the rise of organized crime has come about as the result of new growth attempting to blossom from the rotted out tree stump I had left behind..." The flurry of sound that followed was a surprise, but it was cut off by the words that next came from Gid's lovely wife.
"Be at ease, my friends, my colleagues..." Sephie's calming words dripped out of her mouth like sweet honey, calming the growing roar, as all eyes are bewitched by her siren spell, making her the focus of the floor, "Our daughters, her friends, have learned of a conspiracy that started at the very heart of our oldest, most trusted institution; the Devil's Heart has been compromised, it and all within has withdrawn from our Union, after revealing itself to have sided with those that would seek to bring harm to us all..." The words of the most beautiful woman in the galaxy was thick, and hard to swallow, but her worried tone and the frown that marred her beautiful features was in itself, a sinful admission to that truth. "Our daughter, and her husband, were attacked and left to escape from the Devil's Heart, after attempting to only claim what will rightfully be theirs by marriage; the fortune of Deviluke, the wealth of this galaxy, was denied them by those who deemed a single human child, a threat to this universe," the words Sephie spoke seemed to shock them out of their daze, as the many members of the council began to converse between each other, as she continued on, "Unfortunately, the location of my future son-in-law is as of yet undetermined, but his last act was to ensure the safe return of our daughter, along with the simple request that his planet, the planet Earth, be spared the savage fate this council has set out to inflict upon a primitive, uneducated world that has barely taken its first steps into the stars..."
"What are the lives of a few billion on a...as you so call it, primitive planet, in comparison to the lives of the vast trillions of your subjects, spread across a million worlds?" the Speaker asks the Charmian Queen, shaking his head derisively as if her words had no effect, "If it means removing a madman who could create a weapon capable of cleaving worlds, anything is worth the cost; so, I am sorry if we have given you the impression that you had a say in this decision, my liege." The man spoke without a trace of emotion showing on his face, yet the belittlement and sarcasm in his tone of voice directed at Sephie's calming words, were enough to cause Gid's anger to boil over.
"No, I am sorry, that I ever gave you all the choice to continue on with this farce of a police force," Gid states in sharp retort, eyes practically brimming with disdain, focused onto the man before him, "I have stayed out of your way after I conquered your worlds, and let you govern a unified security agency that clearly isn't doing its job." The ball is rolling now, and Gid stares across the faces of the hundreds of diplomats, whose lives he had spared across countless worlds, either indirectly or personally. "I was not harsh, nor cruel in my subjection; I never asked for more than I would have expected from my own people, and I have done nothing more than bring the worst of the chaos spread across these galaxies to heel." If there was one thing he felt, more so than any other emotion like anger, betrayal, or his overbearing pride, it was a simmering disappointment that had been stewing every since he had enacted the grandiose work of uniting the known universe. "A single man has you running from the fight, a simple world has you desperate enough to sweep everything I had ever worked towards, under the figurative rug," he hung his head, for the briefest of moments, which stunned the assembled crowd more so than any words could have. Unfortunately the words fell on deaf ears, as the Speaker simply slammed his own fists in anger on his own table.
"A simple world... one man?" the Speaker scoffs, his voice rising with heated passion, an anger that Gid recognized with all-too-familiarity, "The Doctor was the chief agent, no the mastermind, behind Eden, behind the massacre of the moons of Zeted, the shallow, mass graves of the genocide at Sincorine, not to mention horrifying genetic experimentation in the waning days of the war; monster men that took our forms and blew up in suicidal attacks, before the creation of the TRANS weapon, Golden Darkness, and all that spawned from Her!" His words incite murmurs in the crowd, and even Gid looks over to a surprised Sephie, who had worked with many of the speakers and diplomats before; never had she encountered the fervor of this man before. "That world, Earth, is no better than He is!" the Speaker states, looking up to Gid, then to the assembled crowd, "A world where the splitting of an atom was accomplished before the option of worldwide peace was discussed; should this world advanced further, as it already has in the shortest amount of time, it could one day usurp any other world among this assembled union, even Deviluke itself." The murmurs grow, and Gid even feels the passion has begun to froth and foam over into the territory of zealous rage. "By sealing this world away, we will prevent such a dangerous world from growing to become the next Deviluke; keep its needless chaos and threat of violence from ever reaching the stars, snuff it out and smother its will, and let them all die!" the words hit home for most, and it is here that the slap of an insult actually begins to cause Gid another twitch of his brow, "This world has been given its chance, this Union will not alter their decision..."
A screeching halt, a figure stands sharply from their seat and walks swiftly and with purpose, slapping the fervent man across his cheek before turning to the whole assembly. "Gaama stands with Deviluke, with Earth," the female diplomat, the youngest sister of Lacospo, whom had since apologized for his actions and began to repent for them, "This is not proper cause, this is not all fact; this is injustice..." The Gaama born amphibian replaces her water filter to her mouth, taking a breath of the vital liquid water, before continuing to address the union council. "Earth is home to many, runaways, refugees, alien, and human alike; kinship we should feel, a world at war, and all its consequences, is not foreign to us all, is it?" the woman states, as murmurs grow, and the Speaker looks shocked, "A civilization so young deserves its chance to stand among us all; this one man, does he speak for this assembly?"
In the history of this Union no one had ever heard or made such a passionate speech, nor had it ever been recorded since, that on that day the belief in one small world could overturn Union ideals so strongly.
"Memorze stands with Deviluke, with Gaama, with Earth!" the representative of Memorze speaks up, as the King and Queen both stand to join the young amphibian, "Our children have told us stories of that verdant, green planet, and the wonders it has brought them." Murmurs rise yet again, as others begin to stand and join them.
"The human male, had he not proven his worth in honorable combat?"
"Yes, wasn't he the one that stopped that broke the mythical Bladix into pieces, and that he controls one of the Taoist Pearls?"
"Taoist? Doesn't that mean he is descended from one of the revered masters, or that they at least recognize his worth as heir?"
Rumors grow, boasts as tall as mountains, but the flood of feeling has swept across the room, as the amazement grows, much to the surprise of the elf-eared man that was forced to stay stunned on the floor, as the world around him flipped on its head. "The Talhain Shadow Chapter offers its support to one who is heir of the power Tao," another voice states, as the Speaker spins, craning his neck to listen to the new arrivals. Out of the darkness and the shadows that those whom were among the more light-sensitive races took their places, a single androgynous person with a reflective helmet that obscures them in their entirety, states. "Hail Gid Lucieon Deviluke, Queen Sephie, Princess Lala Satalin Deviluke," the voice states, as it kneels, before slowly taking off its helmet, to reveal bandaged frame, that is gently unraveled to reveal maroon eyes and deeply tanned skin beneath it, "The Triumvirate pledges its full support; the Voice has been cut off at the behest of orders that were required to cleanse our body of its corrupting, but the Eyes still see and the Ears hear all... so reveal yourself, deceiver!" The boy points to the speaker, whom is wide eyed and stressed, eyes bulging with red veins as the overwhelming force of the eyes of all the room come crashing down onto him.
"Kekekeke-kuh..."
"-even if the Princess' of Deviluke could find and stop him; the process has already begun, no one can stop the ancient sphere from completing its task now," the Speaker suddenly states with mad glee, as he looks up to the group, centering on Gid, "I had been authorized to carry out its implementation, with the ok of the one who sits as the highest authority upon the Earth, the last, the true, Taoist... Rochefort-sama!" His eyes smile, as the dawning of his meaning hit Gid like a punch to the gut.
"The Silverfish?"the King of Deviluke states, as he calls for his personal guards to take the man into custody, and get this all sorted out, "That means that that organization works for..." King Gid stands amidst the growing chaos, drawing the attention to himself as he shouts his next words. "Silence!" the King commands, as all eyes draw to him, "Ready what ships you can, head for Earth; Solgam is merely a pawn, they're true goal is-" He suddenly seizes, putting a hand to the base of his neck, as if something sharp had just cut into him.
/Now, now, no need to go and ruin the surprise/
/Just relax, my King, and let it all play out.../
Biting his tongue, the last conscious thought Gid had, was meeting eyes with the Talhain Seer, Shiki, and burning his smug, smiling face into his memory.
/My master isn't finished with his work...not just yet/
Meanwhile,
Earth
Lala is bleary eyed as she finishes her work on the device she had been working on for the past two days, ever since returning to Earth. She had a little under six hours to hunt down the man who was currently the most wanted person in the universe, before the G.P.D. brought down what was essentially a galactic prison down upon the earth, trapping all of humanity in what could be an eternal darkness. The Dyson Sphere was essentially a conceptual device meant to surround a sun and maximize energy processing by utilizing all energy expelled from the star, such as light and heat, and allow it to be processed and collected for use by the civilization that developed it. Except a Dyson Sphere worked best in uninhabited star systems, where local life was preferably nonexistent, so as not to upset a delicate balance and smother potential civilizations before they could reach for the stars. And the Galactic Police had decided to misuse this device for their own purposes and gain, all because they could not contain the threat of one man in the midst of a single planet; preferring to let a civilization die in the dark, then ever reach their full potential.
From what her father had informed her of before he was scheduled to go before the Union Council, after unsuccessfully trying to appeal to the head of the organization privately within the past six months of given time, the decision had gone out of their hands the moment the orders had been inputted into the machine. She understood that due to the fact that the ancient star coffin's original creators had died off long before even the first great galactic war, not much was understood about the machine beyond what it was supposed to do. The machines inputs were simple enough, she inferred from that the device was only meant to be used once, but as its creators had died out because of the very energy crisis that had necessitated such construction of this machine, a way to stop it or divert it was impossible without a deeper understanding of which no living being had.
Lala knew that their unabashed regard towards the device went deeper than what they said. Despite staying out of the galactic politics of it all, knowing that this planet was unaffiliated, yet contained a variety of rogue alien refugees, agents, and secrets, the loss of the planet was minimal to what was gained. The planet Earth would be sealed eternally in a device that could have swallowed their sun easily; the starlight would last the longest on its night side, as the sunlight would quickly disperse after a mere eight minutes, but only barely, as the final sunrise and sunset occurred across the planet simultaneously, the Earth would be forever be trapped. Fortunately, the planet's warmth would last longer than the sunlight would, the device would still warmed by the unseen star, and the radiation it would still be bathing it would allow heat to filter through, so as to not let its people freeze to death; a fate far worse than just being plunged into the dark, but one less true concern to worry about.
"Done..." she stated to herself, standing up to wipe the sweat from her brow and to step back and admire her newest invention, "A tracking device, capable of hunting you down from a galaxy away..." A sleek, silver tablet-like device was sitting on the table she had once worked on many a device before, hidden in Rito's closet still. "All I have to do is get a genetic sample, and test it out," she mutters to herself, as her tired eyes cause her to wobble from exhaustion, having stayed up half the night. Her eyes wander around the room and land on a long forgotten box of stuff she kept here when she moved to her new room, eyeing a certain item with in it. Walking over to the box of stuff, she picks up the plush rabbit, bringing it up to her face, she breathes in the smell of him from that day. "Just once..." she states, taking the plush with her, and to set it over the scanner she had put into it. Her heart isn't ready, and she falters, sliding the plush behind the tablet, and gripping the table, hard. "I- I can't, not until I test it on... something I'm sure of..." she states to herself, tears threatening to overwhelm her in her tired state. She rummages through a variety of items she had grabbed from the kitchen, when Mikan wasn't looking, and grabbed a fork she knew was an item one of her sisters had used to eat breakfast.
Placing it on the scanner, she brought up the scanner interface and let the device isolate the latent genetic material on it.
Scanning...
It flashed its actions across the screen, as a grid pattern isolated the specific dna strands of a Charmian hybrid, and began identify it, with Lala physically inputting a classification to give it Momo's name.
Locating_Subject:Momo...
Searching...
Searching...
Subject:found
At those words, the grid became a map, which then began to focus into a spot around the Yuuki house, until it showcased a red dot signifying Momo, near the front of the house, most likely in the living room. "A success!" Lala states, smiling a bit as her tiredness starts to catch up with her, but necessity driving her to continue on, "...but I need another test, to ensure it works..." Pulling out a sealed container with a biohazard symbol on it, sent to her from her father's secret prison complex, containing the single remaining sample taken from the Doctor during his incarceration. Opening the container, a burst of cold air from the stasis lock as the seal breaks, Lala removes a tuft of blood encrusted hair and puts it on a sterile, glass slide that she then places that onto the scanner and lets it do its work.
Scanning...
Not as quick as when it found Momo, the device seemed to have difficulties trying to distinguish some difficult strands, but when it was finally finished, it seemed two separate, unidentifiable genetic patterns emerged from the resulting dissection of the sample. Choosing the first one, the most recent, it seemed, Lala waited for it to locate the source.
Scanning...
Scanning...
Subject:found
The information that scrolled across her screen was a location on Earth, than another, and then yet another one. She scowled as it bounced around a few times, from Australia to Spain, like it was set in a randomized pattern. "He blocked my scans..." Lala mutters to herself, as she tinkers a bit with the device, trying to strengthen it by connecting it to a more powerful transceiver, "Let's try..." Grabbing one of her other inventions, she adds its parts to the small machine, and manages to get a better grip on the location as the range was shortened to a smaller frame of reference.
This time, bouncing between three spots, the signal could get a better reading of the genetic scan.
Subject 01, 57.69% match/57.69% match/57.69% match
Location:Azores/Bermuda/Canary Islands, 33.33% certainty
Creasing her brow at that, she was a bit more confused than she had right to be, but sighed in resignation anyway knowing that whatever he was using to cover his tracks was definitely alien in origin. Deciding to give up, choosing instead to send the locations to U.L.T.R.A. for processing as potential leads, she turns her attention to the strange, second profile she had gotten back. Returning to the genetic profiles, she chose the second profile, and let the machine do its job and track the owner of said material down.
Scanning...
Scanning...
Error...
Recalculating...
Subject:found
Matches Found:2
Raising her eyebrow at that, she isolated the information and brought its contents to the forefront. Both matches were titled Subect with a corresponding number, as they appeared to be identical, though upon closer inspection, it appeared that one seemed to be closer to the genetic profile extracted than the other.
Subject 02, Deceased; Match: 99.57%
Subject 03, Alive; Match: 94.22%
Location:Earth/Talha Galaxy
Another error flashed across her screen, and she swore as she realized too late that she should have isolated both profiles immediately. With a crackle and hiss, the resulting smoke that began to be emitted from the hastily made amplifier only served to reminder her that this hastily made item wasn't her best work, and cursed as the screen cracked from a sudden surge from feedback.
Conflicting information found...
Terminating search...
Input new parameters_
She sighed, as the first set of information was purged from her device, as the machine flashed off, then back on, signaling a reboot and the loss of the second set of data. Not really wanting to stress her machine out anymore than it was, and not wanting to catch her precious memories on fire, she quickly unplugged the amplifier, knocking the rabbit forward onto the broken screen as she does so, and takes the item away for safe disposal, before it blew up in her lab and caused anymore danger. A spark of electricity, crackling red jolts that peaked from melted wiring casing, and the rebooted machine bugged out, and began to scan the fallen toy.
New parameters inputted...
Searching...
Subject:found
99.07% positive match
Location:E-erro%$#^&*# _
With a final puff of smoke, the red spark sputters and dies out, as the last, unfinished results go unrecorded.
ULTRA HQ
Sainan Division
"Thanks to Lala's suggestions, we've found out that UNESCO has recently become affiliated with an eco-friendly scientific organization based out of the Canary Islands, one of three suspiciously identical facilities we're investigating; we figure that they are shell corporations that have popped up, along with similar ones in both the Azores, and the island of Bermuda," the silver suited young woman, Otome Tsuzuki, states, as she regards the assembled group of aliens and humans in front of her, looking towards Lala, "Each take names inspired from the Spanish language, and each essentially mean the same thing: scorched earth, and clean, or clear, waters." Three separate facilities are shown on the screen. " Instalação de pesquisa ambiental de águas claras," she states, before swapping to the next, " Facilidade de pesquisa ambiental das águas ardentes, and finally Casamento do Sol ardente e da Água Limpa." Lala, Nana, Momo, Mikado, and Rochefort all sit around the table, as the part time patisserie owner continues to explain the gathered information to the assembled group.
"Obviously, we don't know which of the three facilities Solgam is actually operating from, the Doctor could be at any one of these facilities..." the Director states, as the younger agent gives the floor to him, "Due to the highly dangerous nature of these facilities, and what they may contain, I'm planning on sending each of the three Deviluke princess' to separate teams." The three nod, as Rochefort brings up a list of names he had divided as easily as he could. "Nana, you will take a strike force against the Clear Water's Environmental Research Facility, Momo will take point leading a team against the Burning Waters Research Facility," the Director commands, before turning to Lala, "I will escort Lala, and we both will assault the joint research facility off the Azores; maybe if we strike all three, we can figure out the Doctor's devious plans for the Earth!"
"But how are we planning on getting there?" Nana asked, her facial expression radiating confusion and disbelief, "I think if we used Lala Nee's teleport system in orbit, wouldn't that set off their warning bells?" The others murmured, until the Director spoke up.
"We have a shielded facility in Bermuda we can safely transport too, then it's just a matter of borrowing a stealth submersible that can get you there in plenty of time," he states, "As the Canary Isles and the Azores are close enough to our London branch, we can take a pair of speedboats to them, as well." With that matter settled, the three teams broke off to begin their preparations-
"And then you went, found which facility he was in, and then you beat him, right; so were is uncle Rito during all this?" Uwe states, crossing her arms underneath her chin to prop up her head, "Momma told me that the real exciting stuff was actually happening in space, on the moon!" Ichigo's head popped up from under her covers at the mention of the lunar body, as Lala sighed at her daughter's will to listen to her story.
"Alright, alright, yes, stuff was happening in space that we weren't aware of, at the time, but eventually we figured it out," Lala states, "Let me explain what happened with the islands, then I'll tell you about the moon..." The older teen nodded, as did her daughter, who smiled brightly as she let her mother continue on with her story. "As I was saying..."
Bermuda
Clear Water Environmental Research Facility
2 Hours Later
"I can't say there is anything interesting in here," Nana reports, putting up a hand to an earpiece, "I've taken the tour and searched everywhere, but this place is pretty much open to the public, and is fairly transparent here..." She smiles as tourists go around her, pretending to be looking at the public displays while holding her D-Dial as an excuse, until she turns a blind corner and takes a deep breath. "I think Bermuda is a bust," Nana reaffirms, "How are things going for you, Momo?"
Azores
Burning Waters Environmental Research
"Not too much to report as well," Momo replies, also acting like she was talking into her D-Dial, "Not much of the Burning Waters facility is public, but the work they do is pretty well known around these parts; mainly dealing with ways of breaking down the North Atlantic Garbage patch, and measuring the Sargasso Sea's marine ecology." She activates a scanner on her D-Dial, and waits for the results. "Pretty much your usual classified research facility, maybe a few off the books projects, an embezzlement or two I'm pretty sure, but the layout is pretty basic, beyond a single submersible port for drones and submarines they use on the sea floor," Momo continues, "Quite interesting if you ask me, but- hold on, I'm picking up something attached to the weather satellite on the roof..." Looking up, she can barely make the device out from her location, but scans it just to be sure, with her D-Dial. "Hmm- If I am reading this right, it appears their satellite has an unregulated addition on it's base..." sighing, Momo's voice steadies, "False alarm, it appears to be a simple radio transmitter- though from the signal it seems to be outputting, I wouldn't doubt that it is what was blocking Onee-Sama's tracer." Putting her D-Dial into her pocket, along with her hands, Momo makes for the exit.
"It seems the Azores are a bust as well," Momo states, as she leaves through the public entrance, "Have you managed to get a hold of Nee-Sama?" There was static on the other end as she tried to establish a connection with her D-Dial. "Nana, something's wrong... we need to meet up with Onee-sama," she said to her older sister, as her mind wandered to the loss of Rito, and the brash actions she may just take, given the option, 'Please be safe...'
Canary Islands
Burning Sun and Clean Waters
"Momo...Nana?" Lala tried calling out through her ULTRA issue-earpiece, holding her D-Dial in her hand, to make it seem like it was bluetooth, "Mister Rochefort, I think something is wrong-"
Intruder Alert
Intruder Alert
Alien presence detected
Intruder Alert
Intruder Alert
Initiating lock down procedure
The power suddenly cut out, and in response the facilities emergency systems suddenly shuttered the windows, dragging heavy metal doors downwards before anyone could stop them. Steel or titanium, they were probably hurricane grade defense shielding, that blocked out the light with a pneumatic hiss, as red emergency lighting lit up the suddenly dark room.
"Well, that's a bit disconcerting," Lala stated, looking back to see the people inside of the room all suddenly turn towards herself and the Director, "Sir... I think these aren't-" Her eyes go wide, as she turns back to the Director, to see him slumped in his spot, standing there despite the fact everyone was slowly walking forward towards them. Their whispers and murmurs began to increase, both in loudness and intensity, until it sounded like the buzzing of a thousand insects, causing her to shrink into herself, as she tried to drown out the painful sound with her hands, forced to her knees. The director, meanwhile, makes no move, and even the not-people walk around him. When his eyes finally turn up to meet hers, she watches in fascination as an inner eyelid covers his striking maroon irises, turning them a milky white that almost seemed inhuman. With a rise of his hands, he sweeps an arm to the side, and it was then that Lala realized that the Director hadn't joined her by chance.
"Our Master seeks to keep her alive," the Director states to the others, who stop and quiet their buzzing to a lower volume in response to his voice, "Your Creator has yet to return, so our Master's commands are absolute...He decrees that you take her to the Shadow Vault." He directs a few to grab her, stopping in front of her as their strong grips incapacitate her movement and keep her from struggling. "I'm truly sorry, my dear," the director states, his inner eyelid retracting to reveal the slightest bit of emotion in them, "I wished to have spared you the inevitable pain..." With that, he turns to the others and leads them to an elevator door that went down.
Dragged out of the elevator, following the lead of Rochefort, the alien princess finds herself taken through sterile, cold, and dark metal halls lit only by the emergency lighting that signified the facility was still cut off from the power grid. Or at least she thought that, until the doors he opened were shining light from beyond them. Lala blinked, eyes adjusting to the sudden change in lighting, as she realized the place around her was something that shouldn't be possible. A green, grassy knoll, with a strange clearing at the center of it all, full of towering crystals that seemed to be buried into the ground.
"Do you like it?" Rochefort states, noting her awe at the hilltop scene before her, as he stops in front of a black obelisk that stands alone at the middle of the cluster of crystals, "A holographic recreation of my Master's home; we've managed to recreate it, piece by piece, in order to complete the Grand Plan..." As the man stepped away from the black obelisk, he tapped a certain stone, and the stone liquefied and took a new shape, one more similar to an open coffin. "Place her in the chamber, then secure it; the Master wants her hooked up to the tesseract as soon as possible," he commands. The humanoid insects shove her into the machine, restraining her hands and feet with belts and straps that feel like cold metal, as she struggles to break free. "Don't worry, it will be over soon," he promises, as he taps another facet of the obsidian coffin, and it begins to slide, uncomfortably, over her body, until it leaves only her face exposed in a simple round window, "Too tight?"
"Aehem-"
Without another glance, he steps to the side, as another body walks into view. She recognized without much difficulty, his pallor skin, dark hair, and stark white doctor's coat, framing that obnoxiously all-important, insufferable, black turtleneck and khakis. Kirisaki Kanzaki frowns as he looks over Lala, then gently shifts to a smile as he turns to the director.
"Good work, Belze; you managed to do more for me than that insipid, fool Kranz Marduke, or his lackeys, simpering Number III and bull-headed Number VIII," the 'Doctor' states, as he turns back to Lala, "I am glad that you had survived my trap, princess, though it appears your human lover wasn't fortunate enough... was he?" Lala struggles to break free, as he simply laughs off her vain attempts. "I wouldn't bother, my dear, down here those adamantium bonds are stronger than steel; it was fortunate most of Earth's rarer metals were still buried in the crust where I left them, otherwise the cosmic radiation would have broken them down faster," he states, as if he was making any sense to the girl, "Oh, right, you wouldn't know, since I hadn't programmed that in..." Grumbling and muttering to himself for a half a second, a new wicked smile crossed his face, as he turned to the man, Belze, and the two non-human look-a-likes . "Belze, if you would be so kind as to kill one of those clones for me," he states, as Belze takes out his weapon, the spear she had seen him use to impale the infiltrator with, and impale one of the clones, who didn't resist, "Good, good...now, watch." Pulling something from one of his pockets, he had Belze set the carcass on the grass and placed a slip of dark metal into the wound.
Lala watched in horror as the body began to bulge and boil, veins turning black as something spread and crawled its way underneath the skin, until the dermis began to break apart like bursting volcanoes of blood and pus. From the open wounds, jagged shards of red, gleaming metal poked out of the carcass, but the worse was yet to come. As if it wasn't disturbing enough, a hissing was heard, and Lala realized that the metal began to steam, leaking out a familiar black substance that seemed to boil away in the open air. Just enough of it coagulated together, enough that made her want to puke as she watched it form, a ghoulish imitation of a distorted human face, the hissing sounding more like screaming as a mouth and void-like gaps in the substance, gave the illusion of life leaving the body. As twisted as the Doctor was, she had never seen such a wicked substance in all her life, and the fact that it appeared to naturally leak dark matter was disconcerting.
"I'm sure you've heard of adamantinum, correct? Well, this is it's purest form-" the Doctor states, as he looks over his creation with fascination, pushing gently against the tallest spire, until the jagged metal seems to crumble at his touch into metallic, black sand, "Unfortunately it loses cohesion with most forms of radiation higher than ultraviolet, but enough energy remains inside it to form it into the metal you call orichalcum; an imperfect alloy formed from a decayed metal." Shaking his head, the Doctor looks up into his artificial sky, as if noting something for the first time. "It seems like I will have to explain my reasoning for your imprisonment another time, my dear," he states suddenly, as he turns to leave, "I would have loved to have gotten the other aberration instead of yourself, but understanding your deviation will allow me to better control the outcome; prepare her for the cloning tank, her genetic material will help stabilize the base pair deviations..."
With that he was gone, and Lala was left wondering what was going to happen next. Before she could do anything, Belze Rochefort was staring down at her. "Don't worry," he states simply, "You won't have to think anymore..." Before she can object, he has closed off the hole with the push of another button, plunging her into the infinite dark that quickly deprived her of all senses.
Lunar Orbit
Edge of the far side of the Moon
Lala's flagship.
"Smutts, what are you doing here?" a Devilukean officer asked, as one of the personal guards for the Princess' strolled onto the bridge of the ship, "I was informed that you would be staying planet side with the Princesses." The well dressed officer nodded, before taking his place next to the Captain.
"I had trouble getting in contact with the King and Zastin on Deviluke; Lala graciously let me come aboard to get it all sorted out, since we can tie into the subspace buoy comm system," the doctor answered, smiling as she then turned to go back out of the door, "I wanted to personally let you know what I was going to do, so you didn't have me shot me on sight, or anything like that!" A chuckle from the Devilukean officer, and then Smutts was at the communications station, allowing the captain to return his attention to the peaceful view of the planet below them. That was then shattered by the red blaring lights and sounds of klaxons going off, as the ships perimeter detection field sensed something approaching the ships coordinates.
"Helm, security station, what's happening out there?" the officer asked, "Mikado's shuttle should have long cleared our perimeter field by now, and there shouldn't be any stellar debris large enough out here to trigger the alert, so what's causing that blasted racket?"
"Sir, a massive warp-fold signature has been detected entering into lunar orbit," the helmsman stated, "the gravity shift at the gateway's end point, it tripped our subspatial buoy system."
"Well then, can we tell what kind of ship it is?" the Captain asked in a fury, "Nothing should be setting off our sensors like this, unless that thing is a small moon-" Illuminating the pitch-black void, a gateway wrote itself across the sky like a piece of art, until it began to unfold from the warp gate and gains back its third dimension.
"That's no moon..."
The item emerging from the yawning light was something that could have been mistaken for a very small moon, if it was jury rigged with a warp-fold gate; technology which was normally illegal in five different galaxies, if put onto anything but a space ship. As it gained more shape, the form of some magnificent building was just sitting there in the void, suspended upon gleaming metal spires that comprised the engine that had no doubt split the fabric of space and time to bring it there.. The castle in the void then turned on it's axis, righting itself over surface of the moon, before settling to a standstill and not moving.
"Morris, will you tell me what that-" referring to the ship that had appeared inside their viewing screen, suspended on the far side of the stark-white moon of the planet they were invading, "-thing is, and what it is doing in orbit of this insignificant planet?" The Boss chewed at his thumbnail at the addition of this new, unknown factor. As far as he was aware, this planet had little contact with anything larger than a few smugglers ships and people fleeing Deviluke's campaign of conquest. The sniveling form of his new right hand then bows, having found the information he sought on the vessel.
"Our sensors indicate it to be a Lum-Class battleship, apparently of ancient Devilukean design, though it appears to have possibly been upgraded with a Dyno-class' engine, which is the same type of craft as used by the Devilukean King's personal flagship," he reports, as he brings up the schematics of the ship, handing them off to his Boss with an uncharacteristically smug smile, "This particular class was originally a trench warfare battleship, but scans reveal most of its more powerful weapons have been disarmed, however much of its leftover defensive weaponry is primitive compared to current standards; per the signing of the Galactic Peace Accords and its Treatise regarding restrictions on many of the Devilukean Navy's military power, this ship is vastly outgunned by our own firepower."
The Boss strokes his chin, taking the information in, before folding his hands together in front of his face, to hide the wolfish smile he was showing behind it.
"Very well, Doctor, thinking you could get me to tip my hand and scare me off," he states, chuckling as he then looks to his second in command, "Position the ships firing arc towards the most critical systems on that ancient piece of garbage, then get in contact with the Doctor on Earth; we'll show him that we were not ill-prepared for his little games..." Torneo Rudman sat back, lounging in his throne while awaiting for a response from the surface.
It came all too soon, as the mousy face of the Doctor appeared shortly thereafter on his screen.
"Ah, Torneo, I was wondering when you would be contacting me," the Doctor states, smiling as he hands something off to one of his lackeys in the lab, having moved to a more comfortable area to converse with his Boss, "I just learned that princess Lala Satalin Deviluke had returned with a minor skirmish force in tow, and was just about to alert you of its presence... before you arived, of course." Smiling up at the cross face of the mob boss, the displeased gangster instead decided to not believe one word of this smooth devil's lies.
"I call bull, Kanzaki, you promised me the earth would be ready for conquest, but you have delivered jack-" the muffled curses went unheard, as the Doctor signaled slightly for them to mute his rage-filled tantrum, before resuming it in mid-froth, "-pompous, over arrogant prick!" The Doctor sighed at that, before taking off his glasses and rubbing his brow in annoyance, before the mobster begins attacking him again.. "And you dare claim that that- ship, is harmless?" Torneo exclaims with heavy sarcasm, as the ship splits the screen to be shown opposite to the Boss of Solgam, "Well, here's what I think of your little trick, Kousuke- fire at will!" Eyes going wide at that phrasing, he half expected the senile, old man to attack his facility, despite how deep underground it was.
"I don't understand it sir, but that satellite, it must still be messing with our systems," a young officer at the helm of the ship stated, "That thing is here, but the gravitational shift isn't something that could be putting out-"
"Sir, the unknown target has moved it's position, it seems to be prepping to attack us!" someone stated on the bridge, directed towards the Captain, "What should we do, sir?"
The Captain regarded the ship and his crew, an older vessel the King had stored away for a rainy day, having sacrificed its weapons in exchange for peace at the time, now left defenseless in face of an enemy whom had only moved forward in their path. "All hands, abandon ship, I repeat, all hands abandon ship," the Captain orders, before turning to Smutts, whom had remained on the bridge as all of this unfolded, "That means you too, sir, the Princess still needs her loyal guardsmen..." Smutts smiled back behind his glasses, as he took the seat of the young helmsmen from him.
"No, a kid like him, he doesn't get to die out here with all of us tough, old birds," Smutts states in return, as he begins moving the navigational console around, as the helmsman remains nearby watching all the while, "If they plan on taking us out, I sure as heck won't give them an easy target!" Having been exposed to the station as it had suddenly appeared, the Captain realized what the veteran warrior was doing, as he altered the ships course, turning towards the station, just enough so as to make it harder for any attack to hit critical systems. The Captain smiled, as did Smutts, while they prepared with baited breath for the oncoming assault to hit them, hoping they would miss all the while.
The satellite in position, having its gleaming, metal fangs pointed at the enemy ship after having been repositioned to focus on Lala's ship, the order was given. In a burst of power, drawn from its weapons batteries, and a lance of white-hot energy was shot from the myriad of converging points, that hit the broadside of the ship and pierced clean across the hull like it was old tissue paper. Its entire right side had an elongated scar, from its bow to its stern, a trench of exposed systems and defensive plating sheered clean off by the force of the blast. As the ship had drifted out of the beams path just enough not to get shot clean through, the damage was done and systems were failing fast, making every moment afterwards critical. Until an errant plasma fuel injector crossed a sparking conduit, and the ship bloomed with green fire, starting from its engine, until a successive chain of explosions had wracked the entire ship in a painstakingly slow detonation.
As Torneo watched savagely smiling all the while, he turned to the form of the Doctor on the screen,ready to revel in the sheer awe and terror he was no doubt expressing. 'Wha-' he thought, as the unmoved expression of the man was simply that of boredom,and not the awe or terror he wanted provoked in his underling. Gritting his teeth, the man smugly turned to ask his subordinate why he seemed so calm. "Doctor, should you not be trembling at the devastating power just one blast of my mighty weaponry caused," he leaned in, smugly, to taunt him, "Why is it you seem so confident in your security, you pitiful fool?"
From his own personal seat that he had installed in this area, he couldn't help but smile at Torneo's childish bragging, and his grave error in assuming the might and power of his weapon. "Oh, no, I am quite grateful to you Torneo, for taking care of one more problem for me in the long run; it would have been harder to stop them without you, though, I shall make that gratitude clear," the Doctor states, smiling coyly, as he revels in Torneo's confusion, "But... you forget, whom it was that suggested, who approved, and dare I say it, installed that pretty little weapon you have in your arsenal?" The confusion grew deeper on his face, until it morphed into understanding, and then etched dread and fear across his leathery hide, much to the Doctor's gleeful pleasure. With a simple snap of his fingers, he watched as the lights behind Torneo went out, as the macro-codes he had sent some minutes before were finally read by the computer interface on Torneo's side."I must say, you played your part well, just as Keize had his uses, I will remember that you had a part to lay in my rise to power in this universe, Torneo, just as your work has helped us out before," the 'Doctor' stated, before dropping the facade, and losing the glasses and mannerisms completely, "I believe you've earned yourself the right to see me, for whom I really am, before your grand end, my dear friend."
Taking it out from his jacket pocket, something he had retrieved from his locked room after Nemesis' infiltration, kept close and out of the view of curious minds, he held it up for Torneo to see clearly. "The Monkey's Paw, so to speak," the 'Doctor' stated, as the Boss of Solgam waited patiently for an explanation, "Cut from the hand of a simian friend of mine, who had the most garish ability to mimic the body and mind of your target, near perfectly, if you didn't notice his savage mannerisms." Holding the shriveled up paw to his face, the most bizarre and gross thing happened next. The shriveled hands slowly un-flexed, open by their users will, to reveal a small, red orb at the center of the once orange paw. With a glow of harsh red light, the form and figure of the man that pretended to be the Doctor, Kanzaki Kousuke, morphed into an older, mature, short of stature man, whose elongated, gray whiskers and plume of hair atop his head, were stark contrasts to the scientist that had once held those features.
"Ah, so good to be myself again, after all this time," the newly changed man states, rubbing his throat just a little, while gleefully enjoying the panic now showing on Rudman's face, "Unfortunately, this will be the last thing you see... besides the moon, of course." With another smile, as he tucked the now closed Monkey's Paw back into his loosely fitting clothes, he turned to the others and ignored the man still on screen. "Will someone for goodness sake get me something my size, preferably a robe and some pants," he shouts at his nearest lackey, before turning to get one last glimpse at Torneo, he says, "Mind the drop..."
Torneo Rudman is seeing red, as he recognizes the face of the man, and the name he had used all those years ago, when he first rejected him. "Chronos Number Eleven- no, Number Zero!" he spit and raged, as his men worked hard to get the power back on, as the communications channel was suddenly cut off after his final, cryptic taunt, "I'll get you, and my revenge, this I swe-" Lurching out form under him, Torneo suddenly felt something like gravity punching down on him, as his ship suddenly shifted from pointing its weapons and sitting idle in the resulting carnage, to having its engine rev to life and begin to move. It was then made all to clear what he meant, as he realized that the ship was not, in fact, realigning itself, but plunging straight towards the moon, one as dead as he would be shortly, with the force his ship was exerting. "Damn you, damn you to-"
Upon impact, no one could hear him scream.
"Lovely, absolutely lovely," Mason stated, turning to his men, who were all Gireo replanoids that he had made sure were created for this very day, "Inform Rochefort I would like to speak with him in the Shadow Vault, and make sure to alert me when the Hades reaches orbit." With that, the old man quickly walked down to the elevator corridor, with a new spring in his step, whistling all the while.
Hades
Eve blinked awake, having fallen asleep among the field of flowers, after expending so much energy to cross the bridge she had made. They had appeared just outside of the Sol system, and had spent their remaining time since, waiting for the orders of what came next. Adam stood watch over her, blonde hair impeccable and not a speck out of place, pink eyes emotionless as ever, with the slightest hint of disdain shown in his posture as he looked down on her as she laid there. It was to be expected, of course, with her being an imperfect creature whose sole purpose was to follow the directions of her ever loving guardian, and of those given to him from their Master on Earth.
He didn't even notice the slightest of imperceptible flaws, as her eyes turned from purple back to maroon. Nor did he notice the lack of red chain around her neck.
How could he?
After all, he wasn't perfect.
A/N: What happened there at the end with Eve? Read the next chapter to see what happened!