SHONEN ALLIANCE
RE:BIRTH
OPENING THEME: HOLOGRAM (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Planeptune was a ruin. In a moment, what had been a thriving city only a short while before was a smoldering pile of rubble.
Nothing seemed to have been left alive. Nothing stirred or moved. The only evidence that a battle had been raging between the city's defenders and an invading force less then an hour before were the occasional piles of ash, left behind after an absurdly powerful being who had had no place in their dimension had unleashed her wrath on the city and its heroes.
The silence and stillness were broken when the rubble of a fallen building shifted slightly, then blew away. A figure leapt from the crater and landed atop another pile of rubble. The road warrior, Kenshiro, quickly scanned the hellscape around him. His shirt and shoulder pads were gone and he was covered in bloody scratches, but he was alive.
He remained stoic as he looked over the carnage. It was impossible to be certain how many people had lost their lives in this senseless act of brutality, but any concern or emotion over that would have to wait until Kenshiro could be sure they were safe.
They were. The entity that had obliterated the city was gone. It either thought they were all dead or, possibly worse, no longer viewed them as worth the effort to finish off. Either way, for now at least, the danger had passed.
Histoire was already floating out of the hastily carved, makeshift bomb shelter Kenshiro had created in the ground, her gentle face wrought with emotion as she looked over the graveyard her city had been turned into.
"No… how could they…?" she cried as tears began to flow freely.
"I can't stop the bleeding!" Compa's cry drew Kenshiro's attention back down into the crater that had saved them. Compa was still wrapping bandages over Isara's severed arm, but the bandages were being bled through as fast as she could apply them. IF was holding Isara's head up off the ground, but the Darcsen engineer's eyes were already beginning to turn cloudy and her expression made it clear she was still in shock.
In a single, powerful leap, Kenshiro was by her side and placed his hand over the right side of Isara's collar, above the lost limb. The pressure he applied to the point was near imperceptible, but it was enough. The bleeding stopped.
"That worked," Compa sighed, relief apparent in her tone.
"Get her out of the armor and let her rest," Kenshiro instructed the two young women, "she'll be alright."
He returned his attention to the city. "Stay here. I'm going to look for survivors." His instructions were hardly necessary. Isara was to severely injured and the other three too shocked by what had happened to do anything else. Kenshiro set out without another word.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Kenshiro doubted his search had any hope of baring fruit. The city was a ruin. The buildings had all collapsed or been blown away by the surge of energy, and even the bodies of the dead had been reduced to dust, leaving Planeptune feeling like a long abandoned ghost town. A setting the road warrior from a post-apocalyptic world found far to familiar.
Just as he was beginning to give up hope, however, something caught his eye as he climbed onto the rubble of a toppled skyscraper. As he cast his eyes around the destruction, they came to rest on two figures lying in the rubble.
Ruby Rose and Izuku Midoriya lay side by side among the rubble. Even from a distance, the state of Midoriya's arm was apparent, but otherwise, both seemed okay. That wasn't the biggest surprise, however. A man stood atop some rubble, his back turned to both the two and Kenshiro, only allowing him to see the man's long, black coat and hat, though he was clearly almost as powerfully built as Kenshiro was. Kenshiro could sense something odd about this man.
The man seemed to sense Kenshiro's presence as he slid down the rubble pile towards his downed comrades.
"Kenshiro," the man called down, "sorry. Seems I got here late." He declared, jumping down from his perch to face Ken.
"Jotaro," Kenshiro recognized the man. Jotaro Kujo was one of XYZ Dimension's few remaining heroes. Histoire had approached him about joining their team, but with XYZ Dimension still under attack, Jotaro had, understandably, been needed in his own dimension. His arrival here was a reminder of XYZ Dimension's fall.
Unfortunately, he had arrived just in time for Fusion Dimension's.
"If you'd been here, you wouldn't have fared any better then the rest of us," Ken admitted, "against power like that, we stood no chance."
"Hard to believe they had something capable of something like this," Jotaro lamented, grabbing the brim of his hat and pulling it down low, "we never stood a chance."
Kenshiro turned his attention to Ruby and Midoriya. Izuku had clearly fought hard. His right arm and most of the fingers on both hands had been shattered over the course of the fight. He'd undoubtedly fought through excruciating pain, and healing wouldn't be any more pleasant, but he was alive, which wasn't something to be treated lightly.
On the surface, meanwhile, Ruby seemed largely unharmed at first glance. Closer inspection worried Kenshiro far more. She'd apparently taken a devastating blow to her stomach and back that should almost certainly have killed her. She was another one who was lucky to be alive.
"Where're Yang, Tashigi, and Nepgear?" he wondered.
"I don't know," Jotaro admitted, shrugging his shoulders, "I got here just in time to save these two, and I barely managed to do that.
"What was that thing?" Kenshiro asked, well aware that Jotaro wouldn't be able to answer that question.
"Whatever it was, it's terrifying to think that Duel Academy did as much damage to XYZ Dimension as they did without it, only to find out they had something like that waiting the entire time. They really were just toying with us."
"We should take Ruby and Izuku back to Histoire. We need to start treating their injuries," Kenshiro declared, "there's nothing else we can do here." Jotaro nodded, a grim expression on his face.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The Basilicom had been destroyed in the attack, but Histoire and IF had managed to find a stable enough shelter and were waiting patiently as Compa continued to tend the now conscious Isara when Kenshiro and Jotaro returned, with the still unconscious Izuku and Ruby in tow.
"Jotaro!" Histoire exclaimed, happy to see the XYZ Dimension hero.
"Sorry I'm late," Jotaro apologized as he lay Midoriya in the makeshift shelter.
"Oh gosh," Isara gasped, "his arm, is he going to be alright?"
"Save some worry for your own arm," Compa suggested, securing bandages over the severed stub of Is' right shoulder.
"I don't know," Kenshiro admitted inspecting the arm, "but I'll do what I can."
He ran his hand over Midoriya's arm as gently as possible before applying pressure to several points. The sound of the bones snapping back into were sickening, and Midoriya shuddered with each snap as Kenshiro worked on the arm, then reset each finger just as carefully. It took a while, but finally Kenshiro was satisfied with his work.
He then proceeded to gently strike several pressure points on the arm with his fingertips. Rising to his feet, he released a deep sigh. "We'll have to wait until he wakes." He nodded to Compa who turned her bandaging attention to Midoriya as Kenshiro moved on to Ruby.
Fortunately, Ruby's injuries were far more minor and Kenshiro was finished quickly. "Now we wait," he sighed as he walked away, sitting with his back braced against the wall of the shelter.
"What about other survivors?" IF asked, receiving her answer when Jotaro shook his head, glancing down at the ground. IF dropped to her seat, finally drained by the ordeal.
Using her remaining arm, Isara grabbed and slipped her armor's helmet back on, rising to her feet.
"V1-N3, are you still with me?"
"Current operational capacity at 5%," came the synthetic reply. Less then ideal, but it still worked. Fixing it would require a lot of work, however. A lot of work that Isara wasn't sure was worth it anymore, assuming she could even make it work with one arm. Jotaro, Kenshiro, and Histoire were discussing something, but Isara barely listened. The despair inducing truth had taken root in all of them, whether they wanted to admit it or not.
The war was lost.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Six months later, as Isara sat in her office at Capsule Corporation, her opinion hadn't changed. Izuku and Ruby had told them when they'd awakened what had become of Tashigi and Yang, more Midoriya then Ruby. Her sister's fate seemed to have swept away all the fight left in the red hooded huntress. Not that anyone else was much better off. Isara hadn't heard from any of them in the six months since they had separated.
Isara had had a brief resurgence of hope in the days following her arrival at Capsule Corporation. Bulma had relayed to her the tale of two androids who had been comparable in power to the being the heroes of Fusion Dimension had been crushed by. Two artificial fighters created by human hands.
The idea hadn't gone anywhere. For a start, the two's inventor was dead, and his work lost with him. Even if they could have reverse engineered what this Dr. Gero had accomplished, the risk of simply creating a new threat was to great to ignore.
Still, the android idea hadn't been a complete bust. In fact, as a black portal opened in her office, Isara spun her chair to see the fruits of her labor step out of it. V1-N3, now housed in the body of an artificial human, faced her.
"Well?" Isara said, never entirely sure if V1-N3's reports would bring good or ill news.
"Duel Academy is closing in on what they seek," V1-N3's report made Isara's blood run cold, "the maiden of Fusion Dimension was already in their grasp, and they were successful in stealing away XYZ Dimension's during their initial invasion. Now, Synchro Dimension's has fallen into their grasp."
"That only leaves the one from Standard Dimension," Isara cursed, "I don't know what Duel Academy wants with these four girls, but… we have to act."
"Can you contact Lady Histoire?" V1-N3 suggested.
"No," Isara lamented, "we could definitely use her help now, but I don't know of any way to contact her. We're on our own."
"Then command me, Dr. Gunther," V1-N3 begged.
Isara hesitated a moment, but then, firmed her resolve and looked at her faithful, mechanical companion. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a capsule that she handed over.
"Use it if you need more firepower," she ordered, "take her somewhere safe."
V1-N3 responded with a simple nod before slipping through another portal, leaving Isara alone.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Ichigo and Yugi had listened to V1-N3's account of the Fusion Dimension alliance's fate with gritted teeth. The team's fate sounded all to familiar to the heroes who had only escaped the same fate at Devour's hands thanks to Goku's timely arrival.
"You don't think…" Ichigo asked Yugi.
"If it isn't a Dark Saiyan, it's just as strong as one," Yugi replied, "either way, we can't ignore it."
"I do not know what Duel Academy seeks to accomplish, but this I do know. To achieve their aims, they require one maiden from the Standard, Fusion, Synchro, and XYZ Dimensions. They have three of them."
"And Zuzu is the fourth," Edward pieced together, looking at the distraught young woman who had stumbled through the portal into his world. If V1-N3 was right, this girl was the reason Obelisk Force was attacking Amestris to begin with.
"This is all my fault," she lamented, dropping to her knees.
"Though you had no way of knowing where you'd be sent," V1-N3 admitted, "nothing I have discovered indicates that Duel Academy was aware of Hyperdimension's existence prior to tracking you to it." Even if it was true, Zuzu's despairing expression made Ed despise the AI for saying it.
"…but… if I leave this dimension…" Zuzu began to ask, some semblance of hope returning to her eyes.
"It wouldn't matter," Ed spoke up, "people like these Duel Academy guys, they won't be satisfied without conquering everything they can."
"I fear you may be right," V1-N3 admitted, "even if I were to return Zuzu Boyle to Fusion Dimension, Duel Academy likely already views this dimension as a new one they can conquer. They may already be scheming their full invasion."
"Full invasion?" Edward repeated. He remembered the skirmishes Amestrian troops had had with Obelisk Force all over Amestris and shuddered. The idea that a worse fight lay ahead was a terrifying one.
"So what do you plan to do?" Yugi asked the artificial being who had brought with him an abundance of bad news.
"My only ambition is to carry out Dr. Gunther's desires. That means I seek to guard Fusion Dimension and end Duel Academy's reign of terror," V1-N3 admitted, "to allow Zuzu Boyle to fall into their clutches would be to fail that mission."
"To leave her here would risk that your dimension may seek to use her as a bargaining chip. Dooming 4 dimensions in hopes of saving your own. This risk is unacceptable."
"That's an outcome we won't accept either," Yugi declared, "V1, I know you have no reason right now to trust us, but we can help you."
"Hell, if you're up against what we think you're up against, you're probably going to need it," Ichigo admitted.
"You know something of the entity we fought against?" V1-N3 questioned, even in the synthetic voice of the A.I., a hint of curiosity could be detected.
"We've fought two beings with very similar powers," Yugi revealed, "but we were lucky enough to have a friend strong enough to beat them."
"Strong enough… to defeat entities like that creature?" the synthetic being seemed to be at a loss to process what he'd been told.
Several seconds passed in silence as V1-N3 seemed to be contemplating something. Finally, after glancing one last time at Zuzu Boyle, he seemed to reach a conclusion.
"If your friend commands as much power as you say he does, then… this may be the only place safe from that entity," he relented, "perhaps fate has finally shown its hand, sending the girl to this dimension. Though we have continued to struggle against it, the inevitable reality of our failure has stripped our dimension's remaining warriors of what little hope they still held to. They have nearly been crushed by the knowledge that at any time, that fearsome being could undo all they have fought for."
"Yet, you indicate the possibility that Duel Academy's ambitions may yet be thwarted. That is a possibility that cannot be ignored."
"What do you mean?" Zuzu finally broke her lengthy silence, drawing all eyes to the stranger who's arrival had set off a whole new threat for the heroes.
"Difficult battles yet lie ahead," V1-N3 admitted, "I'm certain that you will face many challenges yet, and your friends no doubt seek a way to find you even as we speak, assuming they yet live."
"'Assuming they…' oh Yuya…" Zuzu lamented. Clearly the thought that her dimension may have shared Fusion and XYZ's fate was only now finding root in her mind, and was already beginning to weigh heavily on her.
"Yuya?" Yugi repeated the name, wondering who that might be.
"I know this is difficult for you, but to save your home, to save all of the dimensions Duel Academy has set its sights on, you must endure," V1-N3 encouraged her before his gaze shifted in turn from Yugi to Jaden to Ichigo to Naruto to Luffy to Edward to Alphonse, "and if you are to be kept safe, then perhaps you arrived here for a reason."
"What are you planning?" Ichigo asked.
"I will return and report this outcome to Dr. Gunther. Perhaps there are steps we can take to draw Duel Academy's attention. If nothing else, there may yet be heroes in Standard Dimension whom we might yet rally," the android admitted.
"But… what about me?" Zuzu asked, "I don't even know what happened to my friends!"
"I understand your worry," the android admitted, "but you must endure. To return you to your dimension now would be to great a risk. If Duel Academy were to lay hands on you, your friends fates would all be sealed. For now, remain here, and remain safe."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
The train ride back to Central left Edward Elric with plenty of time to reflect, and there was plenty to reflect on.
The strangers had come and then gone so quickly that Edward might have thought he'd dreamed everything had Alphonse not confirmed that it had indeed happened.
Whatever was coming, one thing Edward knew for certain was that they would be back, and more of them. He was also certain that these strangers had something to do with the woman staying with Colonel Vine.
She seemed as good a place to start as any, and Vine would definitely be interested in what they had learned, so as soon as the Elrics disembarked from the train in Central, they made their way to Vine's home.
The home seemed quiet as they approached the modest home, however, before they even arrived to knock on the door, Vine opened the door and beckoned them to hurry inside.
"What happened!?" Ed asked as he ran into the house with Al close behind.
"We learned something," Hughes revealed. He sat at a coffee table with a half full mug of the steaming brown liquid.
"More accurately, someone showed up and told us what's going on. You should probably hear her out," Vine instructed as he closed the door.
"Her?"
Somehow, despite everything that had happened the last few days, Edward and Alphonse Elric were still able to be surprised, which they were now.
Alicia Melchiott, the Valkyria of Gallia, and Shantella, the amnesiac princess of Lunaria, entered the room as if on cue, having a friendly chat with what really surprised the Elrics. An incredibly tiny woman, no more then a few inches tall, sitting on a book that floated in the air between the women.
"Edward, Alphonse, meet the source of the information we've gathered," Hughes introduced the woman, who noticed the boys and politely bowed her head to them.
"You must be the Elric brothers Vine said we should wait for. It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Histoire."
CLOSING THEME: NEVER GIVE UP (Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters)