Count Egobossler stood with his hands behind his back in a stance noted to powerful military leaders in history, watching the activity in the front circular driveway bellow.
His pale grey eyes taking in intently everything that was happening down there from the library window of the ancient ocean cliff side Castle he had recently acquired for Galactor in a relatively small Kingdom not far from his own.
Victories is what the new leader Z required of him in his conquest of Earth and victories is what will make Count Egobossler's dream's become reality.
He would be soon the world leader, all of the Earth bowing down before him.
He took a glance into mirror that was on the wall on the far side of the room, and observed his profile and smiled smugly as he imagined the victory celebration in his honour, that would happen very soon, and the perceptions that history would write of him.
Thoughts began to run through his mind of how they would write about the new leader of Earth. Some would say that he was a mad man but he differed from that notion, what was sanity anyway? Something some physiologist came up with to justify one's actions and take away responsibility.
Some would say that witnessing the brutal death of his beloved mother and his revenge that followed would be the triggers for his later actions, but he would only smile at that analysis.
He had studied great leaders, and the ones he admired most were considered insane to one degree or another. Stalin, Hitler, just no one appreciated their brilliance.
Their only real flaw was that they failed.
He had studied the characters of his predecessors to Galactor; Katse, too careless with his men, in the end they had no loyalty to him and there was Gel Sadra, a mere child really prone to emotional tantrums with no discipline, not cunning enough and failed too.
He would not.
Some shied away in fright when they saw him, and others tried to hide it.
He scolded as the images of their faces flashed in his mind. He knew what they were thinking and it served his purpose.
He looked again at the mirror and though of some of the comments people made of him, his shock of shoulder length white hair, blue skin and light grey eyes. The whites of them making his eyes look even paler would make you think he was a walking corpse.
A cross between Dracula and a zombie, or both in the one man, one person had dared to call him before the man fell under his sword. His high collared red cape and dark coloured formal clothing and long boots only added to the illusion.
His radical move, as some would call it to change his appearance was his commitment to his goals to become a world leader and create distance from his past, his ambition held no boundaries.
There were people who stood in his way, they are known as the white shadows, five that became one, Gatchaman. But he would take care of them. He had spent years learning about martial arts from Japanese Sensei's, and the arts of the Samari warriors of Japan.
Count Egobossler found his strength in the sword. Those that refused to teach him more in this area often met their death when he returned to challenge them. One thing he learned of the ancient Samari culture. Never leave an enemy at your back. Eliminate any potential threat from the family left behind. There were some that called had him a brilliant strategist, and that's how he come to be apart of Galactor after observing them for so many years.
There was one enemy from the first war that he had encountered briefly, and the encounter had almost ended his life.
The Red Impulse Squadron.
He had decided he would kill them himself, as soon as he could hunt them down, this was a personal vendetta for Ego.
But they has died before he could do the job himself and even though it was Galactor that had been the cause of their death he still felt dissatisfied with the denial of running a sword through them himself.
Their kin would pay the price for them and he had vowed to hunt down any survivors. Leave no enemy at your back to come later for revenge.
His cold, cold grey eyes were now following a vehicle that was pulling up at the stairs and a small smirk appeared on his face just showing the white of his teeth as he watched his men drag out the semi conscious prisoner from the car and try to make her walk up the stairs.
He didn't always like to kill his enemy straight away; there would be plenty of time for that soon. He had plans for her….
He walked over and picked up his brandy glass and swirled the aged Hermitage Cabernet sauvignon red wine and closed his eyes to listen to the Opera that was now reaching its climax in the background.
He would have his revenge.
His anger began to boil again as he thought about that day fourteen years ago. He took another long drawn mouthful of his wine, the strong taste warming his throat as he felt the liquid make its way down his insides, and then in a sudden angry infuriated swing he threw the glass into the mirror that showed his refection shattering the glass and cracking the mirror distorting his image as he looked back on the pain they caused him all those years ago.
He was known as Erun then…
He ran inside the building, the village had been abandoned a few months before due to unexplained disturbances in the area. But he was not afraid, having heard the stories he instead became curious about what people had said.
He saw the three red planes land and wondered if they were the ones the villages had talked about. The green clad men and some strange masked man in purple, maybe they were with him, these three pilots.
The village was only tiny consisting of five dwellings and the inn that he had entered and, barns on the outskirts. Erun as he known then looked around again from the rear door entrance and seeing no one made his way around to the front of the building. He stood at the corner and looked out onto the street for a sign of them…
Then he saw him, he was dressed in red just like the colour of his fighter plane.
The pilot was cautiously making his way up the street a gun in his hand. Erun looked at his own gun and a small cruel smile came onto his face. He could take this man, he was an easy target.
He leveled the rifle at him and took his shot.
He missed, and the man saw him. Erun dived into the building but the man was a better shot than him and hit him in the side causing him to stumble and cry out in pain inside the doorway. He dragged himself to his feet and made his way behind a door on the far side of the room and collapsed on the ground, gun in his hand he waited for him.
If he was going to die than this man was going to die too.
He could see the shadow in the door way and he knew he had left a trail of blood, and then he heard another voice.
"There's no one here, the rumours may just be that. Galactor maybe setting up a base else where lets go." A deep voice came from a little further away. He heard the slight movement of feet crunching dirt and knew the red clad man was still outside." Captain I was just shot at by a sniper, he maybe Galactor, he's still inside this inn-"
The voice was soft and he had to strain to hear them." The local military is on its way and will be here in moments to investigate the rumours. As much as I want information, if he is Galactor we will find out soon enough what we want to know Masaki. Oniishi is already to go he's back with our planes" He heard movement.
"Yes Captain" and they were gone.
He later found out, when the local army found him barley alive that they were Red Impulse from conversations around him while he was barley conscious. Red Impulse, Galactor's enemy. He vowed he would find out more about this Galactor and he would kill all three of these men.
Masaki would die slowly for the pain he had caused him.
But they would have to wait for now, he had other things to take care of first. His father and half brother need to die, and claiming his inheritance, but then maybe death was too good for his brother. Their time would come soon.
So much had changed in that time including his title….. He was lost again in his thoughts when a knock at the door bought him back to the present.
" Come in" He said as he got another brandy glass and poured more wine.
"Would you like to see the prisoner My Lord" The goon said as he picked up his new brandy glass of aged Hermitage Cabernet sauvignon red wine. "Yes……. why not." He smiled and held up the glass to see the dark blood red colour in the light then made a toast to no one in particular. "To Victory over the ISO, and its puppets Gatchaman and the Science Ninja Team"
Madeline was still trying to get her wits about her, what ever drug they gave her knocked her out for the most of the way to wherever she was and then they gave her more in some bland food they made her eat.
She was only becoming conscious again when they pulled up at this massive Castle. She thought she heard sounds of the ocean but could not be sure.
The two goons virtually dragged her upstairs and dropped her to the polished wooded floor of a room she heard an evil sounding laugh. "Welcome to my temporary home Madeline, Of course my own Estate Castle is much more beautiful; I do hope you enjoy your stay here." She looked up into a face that was hard to forget. The blue man was standing there offering his hand. His light grey eyes mocked her.
She just stared at it"Ohh don't be shy….I really don't bite" He taunted her with his out stretched hand.
She put her hands under herself and pushed up to a seated position, dizziness made her stop for a moment and then she felt a hand under her arm and was being pulled to her feet.
It was him the blue man from the night of her performance. What did he want with her? She looked at him in a confused foggy state.
She stood trying to regain her balance for a moment. He was still standing close as if the study her." I'm glad to see they didn't do any damage. I would have been very upset if they did."
She felt those icy unpleasant chills go through her body again and realized what they were. He scared her; this man had an underlying ruthless nature about him.
He still hadn't removed his hand from her arm and was still studying her.
She had finally managed to regain some of her wits by now and made a move to pull away from him." Don't' touch me" She said as she attempted to pull away from his tight grasp on her arm.
He only gave a small sinister laugh." You really are fascinating Jacintha Masaki. I didn't expect him to have such a beautiful and talented daughter. It would have been easier to kill you if you did not play the flute so well, and I am a man who appreciates classical music and classically beautiful women."
Madeline move backwards as he moved closer to her.
"What do you mean by him?" Confusion took over her face and the name he just called her, she thought silently to herself.
"Why your father Masaki of course, didn't he tell you about me? Then maybe he couldn't, since he's dead. He did well in hiding you; at first I nearly didn't bother looking further when I saw the death certificate for you as a baby. He made an error by keeping photos of you. They were found hidden at his old base."
Madeline's face filled with disbelief. Her father was dead; this man had to be lying.
He was trying to bate her somehow, so she couldn't trust him.
"Who are you?" She asked, not being able to take her eyes of him but the same time wanting to run." What did my father do to you, I haven't done anything to you, and who are you?" She had gained some control in this situation as her questions came tumbling out at once. He reached out to run a finger down her face and she backed away from him as if his touch was poison.
A snarl crossed his features. "Why I'm Count Egobossler, Your father tried to kill me once a long time ago. No one does that and lives. I didn't get to kill him personally…that was unfortunate; Galactor did that at Cross Karakoram… You will just have to do."
She swallowed hard, she had to go carefully, and he was a dangerous man." So you're going to kill me then?" Dreading the answer but she had to know all the same.
"Noooo not yet my dear. I have something else in mind for you-"he was interrupted by a goon at the door.
"Sorry to disturb you sir, but there have been some…….. Disturbances"
The Count gave him an annoyed look at being interrupted. "Very well then"
Then he looked back at Madeline and addressed her." We will finish this again over dinner. You have had along journey here. Take her to the guest quarters." He glanced at his soldier and smiled back at her." Get yourself cleaned up. I have fresh clothes there for you."
He looked her with hard lustful eyes" Don't disobey me. We will meet again for dinner. Don't even try to escape, the windows are bared and if you are caught I will hand you over to the men for entertainment."
With that he dismissed her and two guards bound her hands and escorted her from the room.
Count Egobossler went to find out what the disturbances were.