"Buruseeeee-" the teenager said, patting down on her gi. "He keeps sending us back and tells us to be careful, but I'm not so stupidly sloppy to do my research, Lizy."
"Eh, if you say so-" Lissandra weakly accepted.
"I do, and let me remind you that our grand Prime Supreme was not a witness to everything. Nine years in prison up until he was broken out on the day of the Decimation, but most of everything should be in the web."
Lissandra watched Bethany conduct a search on the computer in their private quarters. "We're a few time missions in, shouldn't you have-?"
"I didn't bother, I thought we were going in scot-free without-" She pulled up news articles starting from the 30s, where the phenos first came to light. "Here, babe, come sit on my lap. It's time for History 101."
"Oh, how you persuade me, darling," Lissandra seductively let out, biting her bottom lip. She sat on her partner and leaned her body on Bethany's side, locking hands around her neck. "If I remember right, 'twas that Luna Loud who broke out all the phenos the former Prime Federation was doing with their Vial Corp buddies."
"Yeah, here it is-" Bethany found the first few articles detailing Luna's actions back then. "She started it here, and it turn, these guys paid it forward and raided the other compounds and freed others."
"Next!"
Bethany went forward in time. "The murders of Vial Corporation staff- that we know is Lincoln Loud being behind it. Moving on-"
Lissandra read the next headline out loud, "Pheno Skirmish Across Nation! Thousands-"
Bethany skipped. "We've seen enough footage on that. Still can't get that six-year-old's body out of my head, babe..." She was uneasy by the chaotic bloodbath before her- bad enough she lived through a piece of it in later history.
Lissandra pecked her lips upon Bethany's cheek. "Don't think about it, this was before us. Not even I can stand such an atrocity. Click?"
"We're into the next year."
Pheno Registration Moves Into Effect!
"Ah, the very thing that only made phenos try harder to live in secrecy or to flee the states. That's why Grimmtown had more members, idiots!"
"Yeah, yeah," Lissandra understood her pain, "that made it harder for us to pinpoint every threat today, but we still have that database's access and know who's alive and where we can hit them. Too bad Prime Supreme doesn't care about small fry not working with the Domicile. What else we've got?"
Ahead for years, nothing big had made the news for awhile. Not until-
Patriot Division Shut Down! Special Pheno Unit Relieved From Duty!
Bethany stared at a full image of some of the Loud members, suddenly scratching her chin. "What's this? They were forced to step down from the heroism?"
"Then, they've gone to live normal lives?"
Bethany eyed the date. "This is from 2036... So they were active until then-" She skimmed forward, finding nothing until-
"The year of the Decimation must have a ton of-"
Mechanized Mayhem In New York!
Mechanized Mayhem? No, I made a silly mistake assuming nothing happened prior to the Decimation. There was nothing sinister that had happened in between the nine years... But at last minute-
She checked the date; January 18th, 2039.
It happened before the Decimation, never mentioned by him at all. Yare yare... If I'm sent to a time era where I have to fight both PF enemies and other hostiles in some mix-up. But... If I access the pheno database, I may just learn about the phenos who were alive at the start of year up until the Decimation. That's not gonna be easy...
"The papers are gonna stop, right?" Lissandra pointed out. "The final publications ever, so we won't find anything else."
"Not here, no..." Bethany sighed as she went forward.
The Mecha Defeated! Former Patriot Unit Reinstated!
"LOOK AT THIS!" Her pointing finger met the screen, ignoring the static shock that came and went. "WHY HAVEN'T WE HEARD-?!" And once clearing her throat, using her inside voice again, she humbly apologized to her girlfriend for the outburst at ear shot. "See? This is it, this is what I'm talking about, babe! This right here-"
"I ain't known about this..." Lissandra motioned, eyes stuck on the article, of which the printed image depicted the Loud women on a podium, honored with a special award. "Some runt called the Mecha. Or... Maybe it's a machine?"
"No images on this being," Bethany said, still searching back and forth, scrolling down on the linked articles. "The Mecha-"
"Beast," came the voice with a thick Russian accent. "That is codename, Mechabeast."
"Mechabeast?" Bethany rotated her office chair away from the computer. "Don't tell me there's some connection to Luna Loud's Superbeast?"
"I certain of it-" Laika Letenko nodded, casually entering the couple's room. "The salvaged remains of this Mechabeast in our possession, but we not know who is operator. Zero dee-en-ey trace."
"Operator? It's not a machine?"
"Nyet, is a man-operated machine, but the person remains mystery. Federation lab analyzed, entire suit is made of Compound C. Them try to find metallic replacements to fix and perfect. Mechabeast offline, but schematic run shows it made to kill the Superbeast. We no know the genius behind it today but we thank them for the gift."
"A thing like that in our possession, leftover from some unknown who failed. Hey, isn't Compound C supposed to be the hardest metal out there? Even with this, the Mechabeast lost..." Bethany gently pushed Lissandra onto her feet so that she could stand. "So we've recovered it, but is there a report on the damage? We have the original files from the Division, right?"
"Da, the thing has own statement, details on damage but nothing on operator. Mystery, but is good idea to witness from the past. You and you, he sends to past, no? Get lucky, you watch and reveal who behind the helmet."
"Well... Uh, see, that's the thing..." With Lissandra still clinging to Bethany, pressure weighting on her to talk openly to the Primers' superior, she went on, "I'm grateful that our great Prime Supreme sends us on these special time-travel missions, but I figured we may have to face an extra foe or two down the line while going back. We're good but we aren't purely a stealth unit-"
"What this?" Letenko suddenly moved right up to Bethany, looking down on her with disgust. "Chang fears death, does she?"
"Uh, no, that's not what I-"
The redhead Russian laid her hands on Bethany, slapping her fiercely. "You worry of death, da?! No think death is greatest honor for the Prime Federation?! It be! It is! Glory! You disrespect our Prime Supreme Mister Blood..."
"No, I'd- I'd never!" Both of the Asian girl's lips wiggled about, acting away due to her feeling guilt and shame from mindlessly suggesting that she was afraid of having an obstacle not meant for her that would prove to be her demise. "I would never speak against him! There are two people who saved me from meeting a nasty end, and he's the only one alive out of the pair-"
"If Carly Evans-Nguyen alive, you be on their side, da?" Letenko wasn't having Bethany's implications she saw as insubordination in loyalty, so she took it upon herself to raise her knee right into Bethany's stomach hard and brought her down. Bethany reacted with a groan, falling hard on her knees. But the beating had begun. "More discipline you need!"
"C-Commander-" Lissandra only watched in horror as her lover got her face kicked in mercilessly. Drops of blood fell on the floor, and once Bethany had a broken nose, bruised eyes and a lip due to swell later on, Letenko wrapped up. "Oh, God! Why duh-?"
"Keep to yourself, go to med bay to fix you..." Letenko turned her back on them, walking out until stopping at the doorway. "Should have known about the Mechabeast for some time now, considering headgear is mine now."
H-her helmet... Is the Mechabeast's head?! Bethany stayed on the floor, and Lissandra was too terrified of Letenko to move until her footsteps faded from the wing. "Ach..." Again, Bethany wheezed out blood. "H-help me-"
"She's crazy!" Lissandra badmouthed Letenko, lifting her partner over her shoulder. "Come on, let's-"
Bethany felt a wave of lightheadedness take hold of her head, seconds right before fainting. "Lisssss..." she slurred almost drunkenly, passing out on Lissandra.
"BED!"
Little Bethany Chang wandered as she was, a lost girl now made an orphan with grisly images of her blood relatives being crushed alive by falling debris in Hong Kong, where she had just been spared of it by the young woman whose gi would eventually become hers. Traumatized still, she came into a park void of life, walking to the bathroom to hide and properly process and evaluate her next actions.
She entered and locked herself in a stall, sitting on the toilet. Unbeknownst to her, a group of older boys, mere perverted punks who had gotten together to partake in the obvious chaos that would unfold while the Silverheads attacked directly on the city, had taken notice of her and had the nasty idea to approach her so that they could have their nefarious ways with her. Why, a sweet little girl all messed up- she might as well have had a bowtie on her head.
They burst in through the stall by force, allowing themselves in to pull the wee girl out. What came next was even uglier, a true crime all on its own; they had stripped most of her clothes off, and with already hard erections, these imperfections that were sex-driven perverts took turns with her, sliding in and using her as if she were nothing but some disposable object. They doused her in their own leavings to mark her as their own collective trophy and were evidently satisfied, but Bethany had been only yelling and crying severely, telling them to leave her alone. And when it was clear that she was a Japanese girl in populated China, the one older boy who had brought a rusting machete had raised it up and cut her face open diagonally, a mark of red left for her to die from when it would eventually get infected. And they cared so little that they walked hurriedly out, cursing her status as a 'displaced girl from probably Tokyo'.
They left, she was dying, but just where was that woman she had seen before? As she bled away, involuntarily spilling her own blood that came not only from the slashed cut, but from her vagina as well; those pieces of garbage had popped her cherry and hurt her way in there, barely a miracle that nothing was messed up, all was intact. She called out for her mother, then her father, begging for them even though they were dead already. No one would save her this time. No one knew she was here, and just maybe those beings floating around out there would lay waste to this place.
But someone did show up. Someone not her mother, or father, but a complete stranger- American- in a trench coat and dark pants, the same type that screamed school shooter, yet the look on his face was not that of a sinister expression. "Hey- Holy shit..."
It was the first time Bethany Kira Chang had met Dylan Blood, felt his arms take hold of her to carry her away and house her and nurse her back to health. He was far from an angelic being who made it his job to guide her, but he took her under his wing, and she'd never be wandering about out there lost and confused. She'd never be raped again, not with the skills, the hard training she put herself through. She'd never-
No, she thought she'd never be on that side again where she'd ultimately lose and be beaten to the point she found herself back in that bathroom, reliving that senseless horror. And Laika Letenko had known about this and roughed her up anyway.
Bethany cleaned the blood from her face and went for the icepack to put on her face, having to switch between eyes. "Agh..."
"B-babe-"
"It just hurts, th-that's all..." She meant as she said but she let her words out slowly; she was still back in that cursed bathroom, seeing those boys mount on her, causing her to tremble visibly, and her heartbeat's spike to be noticed by Lissandra's hearing. "I'm okay."
And I had a simple thought that turned all I've perceived... Differently. What if...
She pictured her superior Letenko in battle in one of their many past missions. Letenko, wearing the Mechabeast headgear, not meant to be a trophy, she figured.
All our enemies... Did they have it too? Are they... Not as perfect as us? Is there inner turmoil between them? All of it, secrets concealed in the past... Are we doomed to repeat their mistakes, if there were mistakes made by them? If so...
Bethany forged a half-smile.
I don't want to die from ignorance.
And back in their room, Bethany had missed the bigger revelation of the past history displayed on the screen;
Freights Massacred On Live Television! Junior Patriot Responsible For Bloodbath! (See page six for full story)
Memories of the Past, Chapter X