Chapter 1
Neo Neptune
The name of this planet certainly has a ring to it. It's home away from home for the Humans of Earth. After the Earth Preservation Act that was passed 5 Earth years ago, half the population of Earth chose to mass exodus to this planet. The name of the planet was a misnomer. Whereas Neptune in our solar system is blue, the entire planet of Neo Neptune gives off a blackish hue. This is attributed to the constant black skies from the various chemistry of the gases which inhabit the atmosphere. To add to it, the entire planetary landscape and rock consists of 90% carbon. It's a very tough soil to grow, but manufacturing of high tech equipment is the main export of this planet.
A planet mainly lit up by the soft neon lights of various district. It is cyberpunk to the core. The populace has adapted so, wearing clothing laced with LEDs and bioluminescent trims. The sign to an establishment in the Shouko District buzzes incessantly, they must have not replaced the fluorescents in a while.
The Gunk Eye
A man, hands in both of his jean pockets whipped his brown cape to his side before entering the establishment. He took his black-gloved right hand to adjust his brown cowboy hat, ruffling his short brown hair. He found the first seat he could in the establishment, this particularly empty establishment, save for maybe 3 people at the bar and a group of 5 at a table, and he began to listen to the news.
"In other news: Anti-Earth sentiment is on the rise these past months," the anchor announced as it showed flashes of riots, looting, and violence, "These are the sights from Neo Neptune as these organizations are steadily on the rise."
Neo Neptune, named because it was the 8th planet of its' respective solar system and one of the few to compose 80% of water surrounding the land masses. One of the many reasons humanity of Earth so easily got their hands on this planet. The main sovereignty of this solar system, which they called Kepler 616, was extremely grateful for humanity's achievement in ridding the universe of the oppression from the Anti-Spirals. A lot of Spiral Races were grateful. Earth was given gifts of planetary real estate, Neo Neptune was one of them.
But gratitude is easily taken advantage of, certain humans of Earth saw opportunity, cashing in the very planets owned by previous Spiral races. They began an excessive me-first mentality that irked the various Spiral races and over time this festered to become legitimate disdain. The news today just affirms that this is par for the course for humanity these years. These sentiments ran counter to someone who came on the news next to show a different side of humanity.
"President Rossiu," the television called out, "Is declaring a state of emergency to evacuate certain districts. He affirms that the miniature black hole hurricanes are in fact NOT caused by fluctuations in Spiral Nemesis energy, but they indeed are just isolated happenstances of Spiral energy getting out of control due to the unique science of the universe itself." President Rossiu showed himself on the TV. With body language reflecting a calm demeanor he basically acted out in front of his podium to allay the fears of the masses. "I assure you all, our best scientists are looking into this phenomena." "President!" a press member interjected, "Is this the Spiral Nemesis we've heard about? Is the Spiral energy crisis a big contributor to this?" Rossiu looked at the press member with a smile. "We don't know, all we know is that we need to prevent the loss of casualties and possibly prevent any further strain this is causing to the public." He took a deep breath. "To alleviate some fears we've begun an initiative which took place years ago, but is gaining full steam these past couple of months. If you notice, the usage of Spiral energy has dropped, reliance on electricity, solar power, and traditional energy means is at an all time high, and we can see this has lessened the occurrence of these mini black holes that have sucked up from what seems like isolated capsule spaces to entire homes."
"But President," another press member interjected, "We use Spiral energy for the Perception Teleportation Transit and military Grapearl squadron. Are you saying that you've limited the usage of these means as well?" The president nodded. "The Perception Teleportation Transit uses minimal Spiral energy and even if it did create a strain, I cannot deny the requirement to keep loved ones of all the races together and in constant communications." The president looked around at his audience, noticing worried press, family, and citizens.
"As you can see, peace is the name of the game these 25 years. We have many people who love us and hate us. By all means the humans of Earth are a very polarizing race. When we thought ourselves alone in the universe, we had no idea how hard it would be to reaffirm our stance that peace is what we wish." the lady to the right of Rossiu wiped his brow a bit. The hot lamps of the cameras shining on him, causing him great suffocation in the face of the lights. "The Grapearl squadron at this time is not needed for wars, we've reduced the Grapearls and have made local police to deal with any domestic matters on each one of our planetary installations." One last news reporter rose his hand, "But what about this so called Agency you have made that's above this local police, are you saying they don't use Spiral power at all for their enforcement?" Rossiu got serious for a second, but he regained his composure, "This rumored Agency you so speak of. If I were to have made one with this form of authority, you can be sure they would do everything in their power to abide by the laws which preserve as much life as possible."
CRASH!
"Hey!" the bar owner screamed across to the table of 5 rough looking individuals, "YOU OWE THIS BAR A NEW TV!" "Eh put it on my tab," a male boar with a nose-ring said, "What a load of crock that pres is." "Yeah" a slithery voice interjected, "Spiral energy conservation? Just another way for humans to say, 'you can't use it, but we can.'" "What about this agency?" a stuttering yak voiced, "Do you really think they exist?" "If they existed," a female educated them, "they wouldn't be powerful enough to get the drop on what's gonna hit em." "So our guns came in?" a hairy cross between a man and ape asked. "Yes," the woman replied, "Plasma energy assault, the best to bore holes through Earthling scum."
A pile of weapons: handguns, uzis, things that looked like flares. They all poured onto the table from a burlap sack the boar poured out onto the table. Each member at the table examined their weapon of choices carefully. "Yeah" the lady with a slithering voice said, "I can see it now, Earthling scum running as I bust one in their teeth." The half-ape half-man felt a bump from behind him.
"What's yer problem!?" "Sorry, I heard there's some arms dealings here and I thought I'd love to know who's supplying you guys." The man spoke with an inflected Southern accent. The ape-man looked at his face, he saw the black facepaint around his eyes, they trailed down his cheeks, almost to represent a crying face of black tears. "A Solerian eh!?" the yak asked, "You ain't human, but we sure don't like the ones who just bend over for them either."
"I'm not bending over for the humans, I just want information, who's arming you guys to the teeth?" The enemy was being cooperative, a little too cooperative. "As you know Solerian, there's a new game in town, we arming our anti-human brothas to the teeth. Private military corporations are making a killing, literally by ridding entire towns of humans." "And the best part is," the woman said, "The humans have no idea who hit them and what they're facing, it's an all out war they can't win."
"So who the hell did you say you work for?" the boar asked. "GLA," the cowboy proudly said. "Who?" "G-L-A" he spelled it slower. Quick to draw, all five hostile individuals took up arms and aimed it at the cowboy. "Never heard of ya! And we never will."
Just when the five individuals were about to fire, the cowboy whipped his cape off towards the table of five, obscuring their view, but bringing into his view two shiny revolvers. He unholstered them both in less than a split second, spun them around on their triggers, and begun twirling them before he unleashed a flurry of rounds right towards the table. He backed up, flipping over the table he was previously sitting on and then tipping it over to provide himself some cover.
The enemies were wise to do the same to avoid gunfire to the cowboy who got the first draw. "Well idiots!" the ape-man commanded, "we outnumber that stinking human sympathizer. JUST SHOOT HIM!" All five hostiles began to fire at the table which the cowboy had been hiding behind. Back resting on the bottom of the table, the cowboy looks at the hailstorm of bullets which missed the table and ended up on the wall. He let out a smile. "Bad shots," he thought. "Yo, little help here Steel Samurai."
A whoosh of air flew directly across the room, the enemies who all had their arms extended while hiding behind the table felt a cool breeze pass in front of them.
SCWING!
That's all they heard. Their guns suddenly not being able to fire any longer, they kept pulling the trigger, but the audible click they heard with each strike hitting the chamber echoed the room. Nothing was coming out. It was then that all of them noticed, whatever had passed by them just cleaved their firearms in halves. The shocked gangsters took a look at what was left with their eyes gaping open and they're mindsets going into an "Oh shit!" state of shock.
"You have no honor," a noble voiced announced his arrival. The samurai sheathed his sword back. His white and baby blue uniform showed he was at least the cowboy's senior, or maybe he just liked to dress in uniform much more than him. He stared at the cowboy with his small black beady shaped eyes. "Are you okay, Space Cowboy?" The space cowboy peeked his head from behind his cover, making sure the coast was clear. The bar was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, Space Cowboy broke the silence, "WHAT THE HELL NODA, YOU WERE SITTING RIGHT THERE AT THE BAR AND YOU DIDN'T COME TO HELP UNTIL NOW!?"
"WELL IF YOU DIDN'T DRINK MY SAKE AT THE BASE, REZA, I WOULDN'T NEED TO ENJOY EVERY LAST SIP OF THIS DELICIOUS RICE WINE!" The two glared at each other, the tension ready to be cut by the sword of the samurai they called Noda until they heard a cock of a shotgun. "HEY YOU TWO!" the bartender aimed his gun at both of them, "YOU HAVE HELL TO PAY FOR MY BAR YOU LITTLE-" "BUTT OUT BARKEEP!" they both yelled in unison as Noda sliced his shotguns' barrel off and Reza shot two warning shots at his ears which shattered two bottles of...something on the wall. They were professional friends after all, what seemed like a genuine fight between the two ended up being the impetus for banter which lead to the next adventure in this bar. A good old fashioned bar fight.
Two men came rushing at Reza and he cooly flipped over one to feed him to Noda who met the assailant with a foot to the face. Reza took care of his guy by tossing him over his shoulder and promptly sitting down on one of the bar stools, signalling for a drink from a shocked barkeep. "Are you both done messing around?" a voice sounded in both of their earpieces. "Overseer," Reza opened up, "You just darn missed the best darn bar fight ever if I do say so myself." "Well great," Overseer said over the communication line.
Overseer laid back in her seat, getting a glance of the three large giant sized screen monitors on her left, right, and middle. She brushed her long pink strands of hair to the side as they fell over her glasses that she needed to wear in order to see the monitors, and what the hell, she wanted to look smart too. As she looked at the middle monitor, she saw camera feeds of the back alleys of the bar where Reza and Noda started their commotion. "While you guys were busy putzing around, you let Big Time and her boys make a break for it."
Both Reza and Noda looked at each other, slightly annoyed at the other for forgetting the mission, they both then changed their expressions from annoyance, to panic. "SHIT!" they both yelled in unison realizing how much trouble they were going to get in from the Chief. "Sylveria's gonna hog all the action!" "Don't worry," Overseer confirmed, "Like you said, they're on a beeline towards Stealth Ninja, she'll take care of everything."
Blocked corridors, debris, and plenty of neon signs lined the back corridors of the bar. The five gang members ran through with stride through these back alleys. This was their turf after all. But turf or no turf, they've never dealt with her before, they never dealt with a ninja. From behind, two gang members were hit with shurikens to the backs of their thighs, the snake woman and the yak. They could no longer walk. Whoever threw them was an expert at hitting the right arteries to incapacitate them. The three gang members decided to stop and look back at their fallen comrades. They all looked around with the same thought dancing in their head, "Just who the hell did that." Before they could finish their thoughts, she came for them.
Soft, nimble, a prehensile tail, the ninja first went for the two big guys. "A punch to gorilla man's face. Balance self on tail. Kick with hind legs under boar man's chin. Flip yourself, tail rain down on your head little piggy." the swift agile movements of the reptilian looking ninja took center stage to this one sided fight. Even outnumbered two to one, she handled them with ease. That's not to say they didn't fight back, the boar tried to outbox her, delivering as many right hooks as he could, aiming for her bulbous, scaly, skull. The ninja precedes her reputation however, dodging most punches and meeting some head on in order to deliver some strikes to the boar's neck.
The gorilla came next, he tried to smash the ground which she stood, but she simply whisked away. She smacked him with her powerful tail, hard! The gorilla didn't appreciate this move, he was much tougher than a direct tail to the face. She landed swiftly on her feet and proceeded to aim for performing various rapid punches to his chest, trying to find a weak point. The repeated pounding of the gorilla's body made a rhythmic beat to her heartbeat, getting faster as she was desperately searching for a kill switch on the muscular ape who would not go down so easily. He decided he had enough, with both arms he grappled the ninja, squeezing her as hard as possible.
Sylveria was being crushed, but her skin started releasing moisture enough for her clawed hands and arms to slip out of his hold. She struck the gorilla's two temples, dazing him. She felt the screaming and charging of another right behind her. Then her instincts kicked in. She kicked off her tail from the floor to launch herself up. Grabbing the boar by his nose ring, she completely flipped him by pulling up on his nose. She wanted to tear that nose ring off. But the boar went down to the floor first, pansy. With self awareness, she saw the gorilla slowly shake off his daze, she reacted quickly and launched herself to squarely kick him in the face. And now, they were both down. "One got away," Sylveria thought, "Chief's not going to like this."
Overseer stood up as she slammed her palms on the dashboard console. "Team, I don't have visual of the remaining target. She's disappeared into the crowd." "I have visual," a voice responded. "Darry," another voice addressed the overseer, "Gurren Lagann is on standby if civilian casualties are at risk." "Roger that…" Darry reluctantly responded, "Rook, you're up!"
The three professionals caught up as they gave chase from the back alleys, to the busy crowd infested streets of LED and bioluminescent wearing pedestrians. They scanned the crowd while engaging in friendly banter as they chased a woman running through the crowd, throwing whatever unfortunate person in the way of her three chasers. "So Sylveria, it's not like you to let one slip through them slimy fingers o' yours." Sylveria was a woman of few words, looking like a gigantic lizard didn't help trying to socialize with majority of Spiral races who looked human. Her thoughts and actions communicated and conveyed what she needed to say. Slight grunts could be heard when she truly disagreed with something. "Reza's still mad Sylveria," Noda reassured her, "He's the idiot who let them escape in the first place." Reza began protesting loudly. "If it wadn't for Noda hoggin' all the drinks in that bar I'd be sipping that good ol fashioned whiskey." "But you shot it didn't you!?" Noda chided. "WHO ASKED YOU BUN HEAD!?" Reza was right, Noda wore a top bun on his head made up from his large locks of blonde hair. Sylveria let out a smirk that you could see form around the gossamer mask she used to hide her mouth.
The mission was clear however, and they both focused to continue running and catch the perp. The villain herself wasn't going to go down without a fight, she wicked and weave through the civilians and when she felt them get close behind her, she grabbed the first child civilian she could find as she knew she was being followed. There was an opening to her right, she took it, now being chased by four people, her chasers and the child's mother. The child began crying uncontrollably while her chasers backed her into the alley, it was a dead end. Just what they wanted.
"Ok you freaks!" the woman spoke, "Back off unless you want this kid's last sight to be the horrified face of his mother." The frantic mother begged and pleaded for the villainous lady to stop and the would-be heroes to try to save her boy, but all three soldiers just folded their arms, understanding that to win, you need to win as a team, and this particular team had one trump card up their sleeve. The three soldiers turned their backs to the villainess, walking away to clear a view to the terrorist. The mother looked at the soldiers in confusion, "Are you going to save my baby!?" the frantic mother thought.
Suddenly, 50 yards away on a very high building, blinded by a nearby neon sign, a glint of someone's rifle scope was seen by the hostage taker. "Oh no!" she thought. And that was the last thought she would have before getting a direct bullet right in between the eyes. The gunshot resounded in the district, crowds stared at the source of the noise, aviary animals native to Neo Neptune flew into the air. But most of all, the collision of the bullet to the woman's forehead knocked her out cold, not as fatal as it looked from a certain perspective.
The devastated young boy ran to his mother, both mother and son in a warm embrace as the mother looked at the team, mouthing words of gratitude. The team on the ground looked towards the source of the gunshot. "Well done Rook." Reza commented.
Rook read the lips of Reza from her scope, she smirked. She knew it was a good shot, but she was humble. "Venkatians, " an older man with wrinkles approached behind her as she lay prone on the floor, "they look like humans, but their anatomy dictates they have a thick skull, making them impossible to knock out by normal means." The red haired older man wore a military uniform and had a miniature drill around his neck. "But you remembered their anatomy, that's some mighty fine work being your first time in the field and all." The woman got out of the prone position. She quickly disassembled her rifle and packed it away. Her orange, blue, and white biker suit accentuated her curves. She made sure as she got up, to zip up her chest area of her suit so she could cover up her naturally gifted cleavage. She whipped her blonde hair to the side, revealing a set of cold, sharp, killer blue eyes. "Thanks Chief Gimmy." She saluted. "No," Gimmy firmly stated, "Thank you for the prompt execution. Mission accomplished." The Rook smiled in relief as her first mission ended up in success based on her final actions. "Anne Littner…" the man called her attention.
"Welcome to the Agency!"