Act 1, Chapter 3 - Just Another Day at the Office (Part 3)
The Roman-esque soldiers with iron shields in the back, along with their bipedal animal enforcers up in the front, arrived near a large old bridge in which the old Japanese palace gates were on the other side of. Based on some of their reactions, these men have never seen buildings so technologically advanced other than the ones made of marble, stone, and wood individually. While on the other hand, they believe their unknown enemy isn't as tough and confident as they believe in. How wrong they are now, as a scope eyes on their numbers, where Articho is up on the rooftop of the main palace keep - crouching with his modified N7 Valiant sniper rifle aimed at them.
'The way their numbers are positioned, it closely resembles the tactics that the Roman Empire have used effectively in the past.' Articho analyzes his thoughts. 'However, no matter the slightest modifications to their numbers, their weapons, their armor, or their strategic positions, they've just made it easier for me to take out two of their commanding officers leading this invasion. Meaning, the forces that are attempting to lay siege on the Tokyo Imperial Palace will quickly fall in disarray.'
Articho pulls the trigger on his sniper, and a loud gunshot was heard as the bullet travelled fast towards one of the two commanding officers up front on horseback - who was now about to order their forces to flank the enemy and whatever citizens they have protecting within the palace grounds. The bullet went right through his helmet and his skull, and a trail of blood flows downward on his surprised and now lifeless face before his dead body falls off his horse, to which the animal itself neighs in panic at the loud gunshot simultaneously. The other commanding officer barely had time to react at what just happened and was instantly killed off by a second sniper bullet.
Soon after, their strike force is - as the former Time Patroller had predicted - thrown in disarray, leaderless. Rather than have small waves flank all sides of the palace walls, while the rest back them up with fire support from their archery skills behind their centurions' shields, all of them went in all at once. Sloppily, individually, and blindly. All without a plan. A plan that might've worked if they were in an ancient or medieval setting. But in the modern day of the 21st century? Pfft! Puhh-lease.
"Numbers aren't everything." Articho utters over on the comm channel via his Omni-tool, as Second Lieutenant Itami and the small group of cops - all of which in their assigned positions and armed with standard military assault rifles their ally had 'procured' from within Academy City - had a mix of awe and dumbstruck expressions, as he continues picking the invasion's strike force off one by one in rapid succession thanks to his modified Valiant's faster recoil each time he pulls on the trigger per bullet.
But this was no time to gawk at Articho's marksmanship. Itami orders the police officers, that he's been temporarily in command of, to return fire on the approaching hostiles that attempted to reach either with ladders they've brought to climb over the walls or a battering ram on the palace's front gates. Luckily, Kuroko has already planted landmines around the perimeter with her teleportation ability as a Level 4 Esper, in which the foot soldiers have unknowingly stepped on.
BOOM!
The screams of agonizing pain from the resulting explosions either injured or instantly killed them.
'Shutaura would definitely love this.' Kuroko smirked at her own work.
"We've been breached!" Itami warns everyone fighting the invaders. "Wyvern incoming!"
A Wyvern has managed to fly over the palace walls as it circles around the civilians and the cops assigned to defend. After landing inside the palace courtyard, its rider uses the reins, commanding the creature to unleash its fire breath onto them. As the officers have managed to move the people out of the way, a young woman with brownish orange hair - that she ties into a ponytail on the right side and sporting blue eyes - froze up in fear as the lesser dragon opened it's snout and breathes out fire onto her.
She screams, believing it was the end for her. But death never came to her, as she opened her eyes to see Touma in front of her with his right hand out towards the flames, blocking and shielding themselves from what appears to be a magical attack the Wyvern naturally can perform with its breath. Then all of a sudden, the sound of shattered glass echoed, briefly cancelling out the Wyvern's attack. In a state of confusion, the lesser dragon retreated back into the air and flies away from him after sensing the power within the 18 year old black spiky haired boy's right hand.
"Thank God!" The young woman drops to her knees in relief. "I thought I was going to die for sure!"
"Are you injured?" Touma asks the young, slim woman.
"I'm okay!" She giddly assures, having suddenly changed her attitude. "You saved me, so I thank you."
'Okay then.' The Imagine Breaker flinched by the sudden attitude change. 'That was unexpected.'
"Honoka!" A young woman with long grayish-brown hair - that she wears in a side ponytail with a small hair loop on the top of her head and hazel eyes - calls out, running towards her friend alongside another young woman who sports long dark blue hair that she splits into three bangs and hazel eyes.
"Kotori, Umi!" Honoka exclaims, hugging both of her two close friends and starts bawling her eyes out. "You wouldn't believe what just happened! It was so scary that I thought that dragon was going to barbecue me to a crisp!"
"Geez, Honoka!" The dark blue haired woman named Umi sighs frustratingly. "What the hell were you thinking?! You could've died!"
"I'm sorry, you guys." Honoka apologizes, feeling a bit guilty for scaring her friends to death.
"Well, you're still alive." Umi assures her with a smile. "That's all that matters."
"Thank you so much for saving our friend!" Kotori bows in respect towards Honoka's savior.
"It's no trouble at all, ladies." Touma smiles. "Just try not getting yourselves into anymore trouble."
"Yo, dumbass!" Articho calls out from the palace's roof as he reloads his Valiant sniper rifle with a full thermal clip before opening fire onto the armored hostiles beyond the palace walls. "If you're done playing hero down there, how about you cut the chit chat and make yourself useful? The Lieutenant and the cops may need some assistance in keeping the front gates barricaded, and I don't have a clear line of sight on the hostiles that are carrying a massive battering ram right about now!"
"I'll be right there!" Touma acknowledges before turning his attention towards the three women. "I gotta go. Remain here with the other civilians, and let the professionals handle this."
As Touma left and was out of earshot, Honoka screams in realization.
"What's wrong, Honoka?" Kotori asks with a worried expression.
"I just realized something!" Honoka begins to explain. "That boy up on the palace roof and the other boy with spiky hair! That was Articho and Touma Kamijou!"
"Huh?!" Her friends exclaimed.
"Wait, that was them just now?!" Kotori questions in disbelief. "From the Smash Tournament back in the day?!"
"No way!" Umi exclaims, sharing the same feeling as her grayish-brown haired BFF. "They've been living amongst our universe this entire time?!"
Articho continues mowing down more enemies as a sniper, he notices the Wyvern that flew over the walls earlier and aims his weapon at the lesser dragon's possible weak points. The first being its rider, so he's been dealt with immediately. The second being its wings, causing the Wyvern to roar in pain and flies uncontrollably. Seeing this as an opportunity to end things quickly, Articho holsters his sniper rifle, which magnetized on the right side of his back, and jumps onto one of the Wyvern's legs as he hangs on with the use of one arm before performing an acrobatic flip over the lesser dragon and land on its back. He then takes over the reins and starts steering the Wyvern upwards until one of its wings could no longer move from the severe injuries it sustained. The Wyvern then free falls, gliding beyond the palace walls. The former Time Patroller then backflips off the creature before it crashes onto the street, taking out a large number of centurions in the process.
He lands on the pavement road and looks up to see several more soldiers charging towards him, as well as the ones trying to breach through the palace gates, now seemingly abandoning the battering ram they've been carrying around the entire time. And to think that they got him cornered. Pitiful.
With a cocky smirk, Articho pulls out his modified Paladin heavy pistol and his Omni-tool on his left arm forms a blade. He shoots several soldiers, instantly killing them. The ones behind him attempted to ram their swords through his back, only for them to miss as he backflipped over them and rapidly slit their vital organs or throats up with his Omni-blade and simultaneously shooting through their armor plating, killing three more with a single bullet.
Another wave approaches him, so he decides to change it up a little. Switching to cryo ammo, he fires multiple shots with his modified Paladin at an armored Orc, completely freezing him in place as an icy statue. He deactivates his Omni-blade and pulls out a sticky grenade before sprinting towards the soldiers and throws the explosive onto the frozen Orc. He then slides under the enemy forces, getting behind their exposed backs and fires a concussive shot at the frozen Orc, resulting in a large cryo explosion that completely froze them before immediately cracking and shattering into tiny icy pieces of what's left of any flesh they had.
"I am so proud... of myself right now." Articho triumphantly says before shooting a round at an injured foot soldier who attempted to surprise attack him with a knife from behind - all without even looking at the enemy as he's now dead.
Realizing that they're outmatched, the remaining troops turned tail in fear, deciding to retreat back to the gateway they came out of in the first place.
"They're pulling back!" One of the Tokyo police officers says after witnessing the boy who singlehandedly turned the tide of the enemy invasion.
The rest of them raised their assault rifles up in the air, and started cheering victoriously along with the civilians who survived the whole ordeal. While the rest decided to mourn the loss of their friends and loved ones. Just then, several attack choppers flew over the palace and towards the city district of Ginza, as the reinforcements Itami requested from his superiors within the JSDF have finally arrived.
"Well, I'll be damned." 2nd Lieutenant Itami whistles, highly impressed as the Articho walks through the palace gates and meets up with him in the courtyard. "You did it."
"You're the real hero, Lieutenant." Articho pointed out. "If it wasn't for your quick thinking, I wouldn't have ever gotten close enough to use that Wyvern as a projectile to thin their ranks enough for them to retreat. So what happens now?"
"Well, as you just saw, my superiors have just sent in air support as the reinforcements I've been promised." He explains. "From here on out, they'll be mopping up any remaining stragglers that their comrades have left behind. Of course, should they surrender, I'm sure they have the intel we need to understand who they are and where exactly they came from."
"More importantly, how and why they've come to our world." The former Time Patroller adds. "My instincts tell me that this is only the beginning."
"Agreed." He nods before realizing something. "Ah, shit! Now I'll never get the chance to buy those new limited edition manga that's exclusive at this year's convention!"
Articho raises an eyebrow, but is completely ignored as the older man continues to rant about the annual convention that even he himself is supposed to go with his wife Ruiko and the kids alongside Shutaura, Touma, and their own kids as well.
'Guess there's always next year, huh?' He rhetorically questions.
"Was all that showing off really necessary?" Kuroko questions her husband. "Again?"
"I'm with Kuroko on this one." Touma agrees with her. "Arisa will have many questions about what happened here today."
"I'm sure she'll be happy to know that we prevented an invasion from another world." Articho casually assures. "As usual."
"But will she still be happy with your tactics?" The Imagine Breaker questions, crossing his arms.
"I've no problem explaining myself." The former Time Patroller rolls his eyes. "Now let's go home. I'd rather not linger here any longer by the time more of the military shows up to question us."
Itami returned his attention towards Articho and his friends after a rather lengthy rant at himself, only to notice that they had disappeared without a trace.
"Strange." Itami scratches the back of his head, confused. "I wonder where they'd run off to. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter right now. The skills they pulled off today, they would've made fine members of the JSDF. Not that I'm complaining, though."