Chapter 11: Pawns

07:47 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday June the 16th…

"Tomahawk Man Omicron has come! Who is gonna be beaten down by my overwhelming power next? Who's going to fight me? I've come to the Reverse Square to start a fight but there's no – one! Weird!"

"Not weird at all, kiddo. That's because they all run like chicken when they see me: Cincinnati's butcher!"

"C-Cincinnati's butcher, ya say!"

"Instead of being Uncle Sam I'm Uncle Omega!"

"What! You're THE Omega?"

"Even your master is afraid of me when I go into my butchering mode!"

"B-butchering mode…?"

"Yessir!"

The newcomer was about a meter and eighty tall.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the center of his helmet's forehead, which glowed and emitted a cross-shaped light.

His eyes' irises were blue.

Long blond hair reached all the way to the floor.

He had a red vest over his mainly black body.

His forearms and boots were red.

Two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots.

"Whatever! I won't be intimated! Hyper Mode: Activate! Hyper Grenade! Hyper Tomahawk Air Raid!"

"I'm not there anymore! Don't need reading glasses to fix your myopia?"

Tomahawk Man engaged his device and began to fight by throwing two grenades towards Omega and his tomahawk towards him.

Omega had only to step left of right each time to avoid being hit and Tomahawk Man's jaw hit the floor.

"H-how can he move so fast?"

"Ask Mr. Universe, Sioux!"

"Wha~t?" Tomahawk Man growled.

"If ain't sneaky Deathly Shadowy~! You sure did a number on me back when I cornered you in the Vietnam lab!"

"Hmpf. Guess I destroyed your personality and you had to rebuild it!"

"You never know. I might be the county cousin…"

"What is that supposed to be?"

"Ask Kumi and Kaya!"

"Who's Kumi!?"

"Who's Kaya!?"

"KURAYAMI!"

"KANAYA!"

"Hmpf. What is with that childish reaction?"

The accomplices growled over the radio, annoyed at the nicknames.

"Also! Death! Don't let appearances fool you! It's a pretense!"

"Pretense?"

"They're saving up their strength for the real battle!"

"Hmpf. I see. Naturally. That was in Blood Shadow's data. Which means that it was something taught by that fool over there…"

"I see that ya were busy hiding the Deathly Hallows…"

"Hyper Tomahawk Swing!"

"You'll have to do better than that, Padawan!"

Tomahawk Man aimed his tomahawk forward and formed a swirl of wind aimed for Omega, but he dodged it and then countered by delivering a four-hit-combo with his sword by slashing upwards, horizontally, downwards and diagonally.

He spun around using the left foot as support and delivered some kicks at the neck, jaw, unarmored section and to his waist.

Tomahawk Man groaned and tried to bring down the tomahawk only to find Omega wasn't there anymore and he'd already jumped into the air.

He drew a gun and loaded it up to shoot out a white energy spheroid, which headed for Tomahawk Man.

"Mighty Totem!"

A totem formed behind Tomahawk Man, and he began to glow with a green aura.

The spheroid hit him and melted part of his armor, so he gasped in shock but then saw how the totem had been vertically split in half.

Both halves hit the floor and another shot rang out which barely dodged but the mere grazing of it melted part of his right shoulder's armor, too.

"What the heck is that?" He gasped.

"Raw plasma. What happened to the earlier confidence, Sioux? Do you need the shaman to come guide ya?" Omega laughed.

"I can still fight!"

He stepped into a pool of "Omicron Factor" and formed the arm cannon gun which he loaded up and shot towards Omega, but he side-stepped and tossed something towards Tomahawk Man.

"Heat Grenade. Burn!"

"Devil! Shield!"

The Heat Grenade ignited the "Omicron Factor" on his feet and the flames spread to his body next, making him drop the shield.

He roared and tried to put them out by rolling across the dry ground but then, when he stood up, Omega fell from above and landed on his upper body while plunging the sword into the device.

The white began to form on his body, and he erratically moved around before collapsing face-up on the ground.

"… Too easy. Is this an attempt at reverse psychology?"

He kept his distance from Tomahawk Man as he turned serious.

He noticed something and jumped away as a tomahawk cut the air.

"I see. You copied Yamato Man's strategy… Use a decoy to distract me and then send the real one…"

"Hmpf. You are an eyesore I need to deal with appropriately…!"

"Omicron Drill!"

Tomahawk Man formed a blue drill on his left forearm and ran for Omega, but he merely gripped with his blade with both hands and aimed it so that the edges would be on the path of the drill.

He switched the tomahawk for a cannon and shot a needle at the chest, but a Mettool dropped from above and used its hard hat to deflect it, shattering it.

The Mettool hit the ground and produced a shockwave that stunned him, a chance that Omega used to pull back the saber and cut up the left wrist.

The left hand dropped into the ground and reverted to its default state.

Gel began to seep out from the opening and formed a new, huge hand with fingers as sharp as blades and a blue lidless eye on the palm.

"Hmpf. Trying to appeal to fans of grotesque freaks? You should've been a monster designer for a horror video game…" Omega taunted.

The palm eye shot a thin blue beam at Omega, but he drew a Met Shield to block it and added a support to keep it on place as he put distance and moved SE of it.

The blue hand with the knife-fingers quickly tore the shield into pieces but then one of them got caught in a ring at the end of a string, pulling it and detonating a fragmentation grenade.

Shrapnel filled the hand and Tomahawk Man howled again as a mass of octopus tentacles burst out of his upper chest and they flew forward.

A geyser of magma erupted from the ground and burnt the tentacles, however new ones formed and circled around the obstacle.

"Relentless, aren't we? Try out some Vaapad!"

He put his right foot forward and took up a stance while yielding the blade with both hands to then begin to swing it around in quick and precise hits, only by slightly changing his footwork or body angles.

He noticed something and used jets on his soils to fly upwards because another mass of tentacles came out of a "portal" and met with the others.

Candles formed beneath the string and burned them.

Omega dashed forward while leaving crimson "afterimages" on his wake and landed behind Tomahawk Man to plunge his sword from behind.

Shrieks rang out as the gel turned into acid and the victim collapsed.

"This time it's the real one, I did scan the data…"

"Let's warn Blood and Sigma. They might use this trick again…"

"Roger, Boss… Hmpf. They cut the transmission… Whatever…"

"They must want to prevent a backtracking. Distribution of the antibody program is going smoothly at least. But let's not be overconfident…"

"They could find a way to circumvent it, for all we know!"

"Warn the MoS to come retrieve this Navi and let's resume the hunt…"

"Affirmative. I'm sure they've got more surprises in store for us!"

"Sheesh. That jerk is creepier than anything else I've seen before…"

"Must agree with that, Boss… I'll cut them to pieces myself!"

10:04 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Hmmm? What's this fuss outside?"

Keitai (wearing a black wig and reading glasses) looked up from his laptop as he worked on some files.

He was using a table in a cafeteria looking out to a street somewhere.

A SWAT van and patrol cars had parked in front of an adjacent building.

Other customers were also looking out, surprised.

"Ladies and gentlemen. We're investigating an empty office space that could possibly be the hideout of petty thieves… We suspect they might try to barricade themselves, so that's why SWAT was called…"

Two officers came into the store and began to explain.

Meanwhile, the SWAT team entered the building.

"Good work! Show them that we won't overlook their thefts!"

"Excellent response. They need a lesson on what happens to thieves!"

Keitai frowned and rubbed his chin.

I've been to this Tokyo district often, but this story is a first timer…

An explosion rang out from a higher height, and they jumped off the seats.

"An explosion!?"

"A gas leakage?"

"Anarchists?"

"Fireworks?"

"Did someone buy a chemist's set and they were toying with it?"

"My! That policewoman turned pale…"

"Maybe she's afraid the SWAT Team died?"

"Devil! Wasn't it mere thieves?"

Everyone became nervous and exchange comments.

Keitai glanced out at the street and saw Nishi, stunned.

"My hunch was right! It was a trap!" She yelled.

"Devil! Some petty criminals who wanted payback, I guess!"

Another policewoman next to her was gasping, too.

"I did think that the whole tale was odd!"

"You did well on telling the station chief, Nishi!"

"This is the SWAT Captain! Since we expected a bomb, none have entered the abandoned office and we used sticks and canes to push the door!"

"This is Station Chief Wada! As we suspected, the door was rigged!"

"Wasn't it about thieves!?"

"T-that's what I'd been told, sir…"

"Why didn't they evacuate us!?"

"T-that wasn't in our orders, ma'am…"

Some customers ran off and headed for the officer in charge.

"We demand explanations, sir!"

"T-that's… We received a letter telling us to come here because there was a stack of drugs… But since we were skeptical, we suspected a trap, and…"

"If you suspected a trap from the start, why not evacuate us?"

"I didn't expect a bomb! I expected thugs with sticks and such!"

"Sir! The Prefectural Police HQ General Manager demands explanations!"

"Naturally… SWAT Team. Is there anything salvageable?"

"Negative, sir… The space was devoid of any furniture! And any other traces have been eliminated by the bomb…"

"Alright. Any risk of secondary explosions?"

"No, sir. We've scouted it using a drone but there's no other explosives or booby traps in place…"

"Do another inspection just in case before we send the forensics…"

"Understood, sir…"

"I'll leave command my delegate while I report to the GM…"

"Roger and out, sir…"

The chief sighed and climbed into a patrol car to begin a call.

Other SWAT members were keeping the angered folk at bay.

"What about the other floors? The bomb was on the 4th floor, right?"

"Correct, sir. As for the other floors, the door locks had been picked and there were traces of having taken away stocked up junk…"

"They must want the copper and other materials, too…"

"Simply amazing…"

Keitai was looking from inside the store, baffled at the scene.

"Let's go over this again, Ms. Nishi…"

"Yes, Mr. Sanada…"

"You received a call from a man claiming to be a lawyer of a law office located in the space that has just been blown up…"

"Yes, sir. It was about the Will of a late acquaintance…"

"But when you tried to contact the office phone, no-one would answer…"

"Yes, sir. I tried several times over the span of 2-3 days…"

"What was your next step?"

"I tried to find a website or an email address to contact them…"

"Yet there was no such information, right?"

"Yes, sir. Yesterday I came to that cafeteria and asked them…"

"And the answer was that there'd never been such an agency?"

"Correct, sir… I began to feel anxious. I felt like something was wrong…"

"Anyone would do!"

"And yesterday evening, I talked about that to the Chief, sir…"

"I see. And that's why he decided to come check it out…"

"I argued that it felt too contrived for a mere prank call. I feared that they'd try to abduct me or kill me as an example of what criminals will do to hinder the work of the police… Even though I'm but a traffic officer and all I do is issue fines for violations of traffic rules, sir…"

"They probably wanted to choose someone who had little experience…"

"Possibly, sir…"

"Understood. And your suspicions were true, given the bomb…"

"Had I been more single-minded, I'd probably be dead by now…!"

"Excuse me, sir. But she's probably shocked. Can she rest in the car?"

"Go ahead. Anyone would be shocked if they went through such this…"

That's some sick creep out there! While I don't like the cops, I'd prefer to stay out of the way than start a fight! Blowing up a cop to taunt them all is something only a fool would do! Mad types like DTV, so full of themselves and that think they can get away with anything!

His smartphone vibrated and he drew it out.

"Mr. Furukawa? Guess it's all over the TV by now…"

"Indeed. As if the fuss with the "Death Club" wasn't enough…"

"I've got the hunch something big is going there given how information about what they're doing is so heavily classified…"

"Agreed. By the way, I hear a lot of exchanges there…"

"No wonder. I just happened to be right next to the site…"

"That's some ill coincidence! Of all places in Tokyo, it had to be there!"

"You needn't tell me! They wanted to take out a policewoman to annoy the rest of them and start a huge brawl…"

"What fools! By the way. About the reports that I requested…"

"I was working on them when the fuss happened. I don't think I'll be able to focus more while being here so guess I'll go to another store…"

"Alright. No, it's not like it's urgent. I got carried off. My apologies…"

"No big deal! It happens the whole time…"

"Understood. Unless something else happens, I'll call on Friday…"

"Deal. See you, Mr. Client…"

The call ended and he pocketed the smartphone as he sighed.

He lowered the laptop's cover and stored it in the case before placing the strap over the right shoulder.

"Thank you for your visit, sir. We apologize for any inconvenience, sir…"

"Don't mind it, Mr. Clerk… It's not like anyone could've predicted it!"

"You're right, sir. We'll be waiting for your next visit, sir…"

"Naturally. Goodbye…"

After a brief exchange with the clerk, he walked out and headed away from the outer perimeter where the onlookers had gathered.

It wouldn't surprise if that DTV jerk IS the culprit behind this mess, because the smug jerk loved to boast about being able to make the best traps!

He glanced at the onlookers for a moment but shook his head.

It's pointless to try to find a straw in a haystack… And they're probably watching this over the TV while eating snacks, anyway!

He grumbled under his breath as he adjusted the glasses.

I'd love to settle the score with that rascal one day, I really do!