Et tu, kaiju!?
Fro ripped into the fabric of reality, or what passed for it down here, feeling the weird static and otherworldly heat belch from the portal. After an uneasy moment spent appraising the stability of the tear, and a quick peek at the swirl of data on the immediate inside, he turned to address his compatriots.
“OK,” said Fro, “so we are about to tunnel our way back to the Net. To start, we are going to be floating through a strange space that feels like swill, searching for currents and trying to avoid huge uglies in the deep. Eventually we’ll be able to crawl onto a desolate, blasted land that’s just a graveyard of disused nodes. Somewhere in that layer we’ll be able to enter the node system. It starts as a maze of primitive tunnels in these lower layers, but as we break through to nodes a couple of levels up it’ll start to feel more like a cyber-hellscape and become even more disorientating. It’s like those puzzle games where you have to rotate and connect the pipes to reach the exit, except, in this instance, the pipes constantly spin and randomly swap.”
“Maybe we’ll get a high score!” chuckled Fortis.
“Ahem…” Fro continued, “that encryption will last all the way up until the more civilized nodes. Proxy waves will grab us and bounce us around, back down the rabbit hole. Nasty bugs and other malicious things that slip through from here in the Dark Net lurk in the deeper layers, so don’t let them eat or… defile… you. But you won’t find them further up on account of… Oh! Did I mention the quite literal wall of fire!?”
He was met with three quite unphased stares.
“Not gonna miss all the extortion rings, weird slave markets, crypto pyramids, wanton violence and… really the worst thing about this place, ribbit… the constant smell of onions…” remarked Greentrap.
Fro just chuckled and mentally shrugged. They were ready; he was just reveling in their growth and camaraderie a bit longer. “Well then, all aboard!” He sent out three frizzy bangs of hair to wrap around his team’s waists. Filia released a little yelp as it pulled taught. “Remain attached to me at all costs,” Fro explained, “who knows where you might end up should you get separated. Remember the journey here? We don’t want a repeat of that.” After receiving three curt nods of affirmation, they all turned back to the portal. Fro took one last centering breath to prepare for the mind-bending journey ahead, then they all made an unwavering first step…
…
“Are we there yet? Ribbit.”
“Neon Gatling Combo GO!” The whirlwind of Legoc’s nine-section whip strummed Suuper’s bowstring, firing off a relentless barrage of shining yellow arrows into the kaiju that seemed to hit like rockets, billowing up smoke and dust. “Epic!” the Yellow raider chortled.
But the smoke cleared and still it stomped towards them, swinging its fists to swat down trees, upturn vehicles and cave in buildings. Maybe it had slowed a little… maybe…
“It appears that combining our attacks multiplies our force even further,” observed Op.
“Uh-huh,” NO1SY chimed in, “and does it force us to blurt out over-the-top move names too?” He couldn’t help himself.
The Blue Raider continued, unperturbed, “Bobby, Lego, if you would oblige?” Pink and Green nodded, then leapt high in the air, followed a moment later by Op. Legoc’s laser whip wrapped around Bobby’s ankles at her peak, her greatsword primed to strike, and he reached back to grab onto the end of Op’s staff. With a mighty swing, Op brought the staff down, and the string of Sentai and weapons crashed down into the beast with explosive force and a mini-rainbow of neon streaks. “Mega Raider Chain Sword GO!”
The trio flipped and cartwheeled themselves back to the rest of the squad.
“It would seem to be a prerequisite for the boost in power, yes,” Op finally replied, bluntly.
“Oh…” conceded NO1SY.
“Stop complaining, you’re up!” proclaimed Suuper, giving him an encouraging pat on the back. The Black Raider sighed and touched the side of his helmet.
“Two-forty BPM…”
“SupersonicRaiderDart GO!” Bobby yelled as she launched an up-tempo NO1SY spear-first at the monster with a BOOM. The Black Raider ripped across the huge beast’s side in a flash, feeling the rumble as his neon spear-tip raked across its hide as if it were steel on a grindstone. At the end of his flight, NO1SY sprung acrobatically off of a crumbling brick wall to leap back to his allies. “Hey! Thatonereallyrai…ril..rolledoffthetongue!” the Pink Raider exclaimed.
“Well… that was fun… let’s… never do it again!” gasped NO1SY as he skidded back to their position. He turned to Legoc, “We’re barely scratching it… don’t we have anything to even the odds a bit? Like… oh, I dunno… a giant mech robot?”
The Green Raider shook his head, “The Sentai were designed to operate as a team. Even if 4Kids had not completely decimated the potential of MangaRaiders with their takeover, affecting the site’s pool of the Tan-power, the amount of power we can channel as individuals is but a trickle compared to what is possible with a full squad. Such things have been possible in the past, but we are at least one Raider short…”
“Yeah I’m starting to feel reeeeeaaaally short right about now…” NO1SY mumbled. He was craning his neck to take in the towering bulk of the monster before them. It stopped short and then rolled and flexed its giant arms in a menacing display, loosing a piercing howl into the sky that was half way between screech and roar. Then it broke out into… maniacal laughter?
“HeeeeEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHAAAAHAHAHAHA! PATHETIC!” The noise was akin to the whine of a thousand mosquitoes riding a chalkboard through an overworked woodchipper.
“So it speaks?” observed Op.
“I AM Xx-TROLLZOR-69, AND I WILL EXTERMINATE YOU FOR MY MISTRESS DRAGON! PREPARE TO GET DUNKED ON, LOSER RAIDERS!”
“Oh dear Haruhi it speaks…” confirmed Legoc.
“It’s a little on the nose…” NO1SY squirmed.
“I thought it’d sound more… menacing…” added Suuper.
“TASTE THE POWER OF MY HYPER-CONCENTRATED SPAM LASER! SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE DESTRUCTION!”
The mottled green spikes on its shoulders and back pulsed dimly with red and black energy. An unnatural electricity thrummed in the air as small sparks began to jump and jolt up the spines and coalesce into a ball between the kaiju’s horns, building and building with violent, dark red intensity. An uneasy feeling crawled through NO1SY’s entire body, but the lingering static-like tingle he attributed to the horrible energy building before them.
“Whatdowedo?Whatdowedo?” But Bobby was not alone in her panicked paralysis.
The laser beam tore a gash across the square, crackling with red lightning. Its wake plumed and erupted like napalm. The Raiders’ whole view was a wall of fire before the blast assaulted their suits and sent all five of them flying backwards in a protracted flip. They landed hard on the shattered paving slabs, their suits charred and sparking as they spasmed against the pain.
“HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! SEEEEE! SEE DRAGON MOMMY! THE DARK GIVES SPAM SO MUCH MORE POWER! I’LL TEAR THESE TWERPS LIMB FROM LIMB AND MAKE SOME NICE SNUFF MEMES OUTTA THEM. THEY’RE BASICALLY IN GIMP SUITS ALREADY!!!”
Half a district away, Oba-san ground her teeth. The troll would pay for its disrespect later. The thing could be heard across this entire side of the city. But, she could not deny its strength. For now she would continue to watch from on high in her new office. She leant back into her ornate, velvet cushioned chair, and raised her opera glasses to her eyes. She would continue to enjoy the carnage she had wrought on the Sentai Raiders from a safe distance.
“Not much further,” Fro shouted back to his crew, “a couple more Underlayers and we should make it back to indexed space.” He was working on tearing a hole through to another node, but the authorizations were proving to be quite tricky to override by his usual method: brute force. Not to mention he was still feeling the sting from being licked by the Fire Wall. His appendages of hair just couldn’t seem to find a hold. Filia was chucking up her guts in the corner, still literally and figuratively shaken by the topsy-turvy nature of the depths and some of the horrific things that had chased them through the M. C. Escher cyber-hellscape. Lucky for them, some Deep Pirates were flung by a Proxy into the path and subsequently kept the things… busy, while the Fighters fled.
A vibration buzzed through their current node, which had finally, blissfully, been a relatively regular collection of metal-paneled corridors, like the inside of a Sci-Fi space station.
“Erm… Coach. Not to be a bother,” Fortis prodded gingerly.
“Wave! Ribbit!” Shouted Greentrap, as the rumble grew.
“Nearly there!” Replied Fro, digging in his hands as well as extra strands of hair. He could see the red light of the Proxy reflecting off of the metallic walls, growing brighter as it swept closer. “Got it!” He tore open the portal and dragged the three others with him as he leapt through without a moment to spare - Filia was mid spew. The clear, red wave crashed past, an inch from her nose, flushing the mid-air vomit back down the corridors through which they had traveled previously, to the Proxy’s origin. They scrambled away to the furthest corners of the room as part of the proxy splashed through the tear, vacuuming away anything that it grabbed with its amorphous protrusion. Papers flew, glass windows rattled, and Fro held on to his teammates. Then the wave passed and everything went quiet.
Fortis stood and dusted himself off in the midst of tumbling sheets of paper. “Huh, looks like some office’s internal Net,” he said, looking around at the bland decor, toppled filing cabinets and the long boardroom table with ergonomic seats.
Fro let out a sigh of relief and peered through the slow closing tear he had brought them through. Not his finest work, but he hadn’t had time for finesse in the end. It would remain open for hours and probably cause lasting security damage to these offices. He hoped they didn’t do anything too important here. “Oh well,” he conceded, standing back up and scanning the room “anyways, we did it! No more crazy obstacles. I think we can make it back with just one more portal. This one’ll take a while to close, but let’s not wait around. I’m going to find the best point to tear through right into MR City.”
The Sentai Raiders were in a bad way. Yellow was digging out Blue, who had been punched through a wall so hard that the building collapsed in on him. Pink was desperately fending off blow upon blow that the monster hammered down on her greatsword. The neon pink lazer blades flickered as each fist drove her down to her knees and the tarmac cracked and cratered beneath her. But Legoc was currently most concerned about Black.
“NO1SY, snap out of it!” he pleaded, since commands had ceased to secure results with the human, who now writhed on the floor. He had suddenly collapsed, at a very inopportune moment, hence why Op had stepped in and taken a full force hit that sent him on a trip through a nearby cosplay gallery.
“You… you don’t fe-feel… this!?” The Black Raider was obviously gritting his teeth, even under the helmet. “It’s… it’s like my… insides a-are trying… to crawl out through… m-my skin!” Bobby’s sword gave out and the troll swatted her to the side. She landed awkwardly strewn over the lip of the fountain, worryingly still.
“Nope, just you.”
“Fan… freakin’...tastic… Ouch.” NO1SY pointed over Legoc’s shoulder, “watch… out…” The troll was looming over the two Raiders, charging another ball of sparking spam in between its horns, illuminating its malicious grin in a bloody red glow. Static buzzed in the air and grit and gravel vibrated and lifted around the beast. With the growing intensity, and the close proximity, Legoc could hear the spam swirling and cracking within, and already it stung his ears:
“YOU’VE WON! YOU’VE WON! YOU’VE WON! CRYPTO ISLAND PARADISE! BUY MY CRYPTO COIN! PLAY TO EARN! WHAT PYRAMID SCHEMES!? BUY NFT, OWN TIFA! C ROFL O ROFL C ROFL K LOLLOLLOLLOL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL”
Legoc sighed. What a horrible way to go. He could escape, sure; it wasn’t exactly the swiftest of attacks. But in surviving, he realized, he would now lose so much more. He stood and primed his whip, and turned to face the troll and its building onslaught.
Fro split open a new portal, and a familiar light flooded through into the dull office space, accompanied by the smell of smoke, destruction and a humid thunderstorm of decayed morals.
Legoc could not quite believe his eyes.
No sooner had he spun up his laser chain in futility, then a small rift tore open behind the troll, and who should leap out of it but the Fighters’ Division. Fro, Fortis, Greentrap and Filia all landed on the devastated concrete and stumbled back in surprise at the towering monstrosity before them and the destructive energy it was amassing. Then a new look of shock and horror struck their faces, as Legoc was exploded to the side. Something was erupting out of NO1SY, literally launching itself out from his torso as he bumped and writhed off the ground. It collided with the troll, knocking it backwards off balance so the blast of its ‘Spam Laser’ swung wide, tearing through several buildings and then off harmlessly into the sky. Well… aside from one now very phallic cloud…
“GYAAHHHHHH!?!” screeched the troll in what must have been surprise and frustration. Its new foe was a kaleidoscopic mass of tentacles, chitin, mandibles, and eyes, which kept growing and growing, until it matched the size of the troll and then some. A fuzzy energy spilled from its joints and maw, not dissimilar to the auras of code that they draw on for the Tan Power, yet at the same time it felt… opposite. Whatever the energy touched exploded and disintegrated into bursts of particles. The monster once again raced straight into a tangle with the troll, and finally extracted its entirety from NO1SY, who now lay limp and unconscious. It seemed to be trying to reach beyond the ugly giant; tentacles, and what could have been a neck that extended unnaturally far, all flailing over the troll’s shoulders and stretching longingly towards the portal in the air behind it that was slowly shrinking.
Ducking and weaving beneath stomping feet and sweeping proboscises, Fro barked at his crew, “Everyone scatter, stay on mission and rendezvous at Dojo Charlie!”
“Wait - Ribbit - isn’t that just my house!?” They all zipped off in different directions to find what Legoc hoped was safety. He turned his attention back to the tussling kaijus.
“WH-WHAT ARE ONE OF YOU DOING HERE!?” wailed the troll, “IT’S NOT THAT SERIOUS BRO!” but if it understood the asinine ravings it did not seem to relent. A tendril of the creature’s energy brushed against the trolls shoulder, which plumed and exploded, leaving a gaping, sludgy hole. “REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the troll screamed. “J K, J K!” It whined, while winding up, “JUST KIDDING! IT WAS JUST… A… PRANK BRO!” It punched the monster in a chitinous front plate so that it fell back just enough to retract its neck into the path of a following uppercut. The noise it released was a combination of gurgle, hiss and rattle that felt utterly alien, before it reached out once more with tentacles to wrap around the limbs of the troll. It swung the troll sideways into a tall building, which cracked and cratered with the force.
Legoc raced back towards the listless Black Raider as slabs of architecture rained down everywhere, scooping him up and dragging him down an alley that would hopefully be too small for the gigantified boxing match to spill into. He had already watched Suuper, who had still been diligently digging for Op, get swept aside by a flailing tentacle and blast of debris. The thought of his fellow Sentai Raiders being buried made him wince. Where was their Red Raider? Then they may have stood a chance in this clash of titans. That thought was punctuated as the alley was cast into darkness with a sudden and resounding CRASH!. The eldritch creature had slammed the troll down atop the buildings. The troll’s back spines lanced down into the ground as both buildings buckled, narrowly missing both Sentai Raiders with no small effort in maneuvering by Legoc. He kept pulling as the buildings shook either side and dust and bricks and troll slime rained down from above, even when the monsters extricated themselves to resume their demolition, until he heard the metallic clang of his boot on a manhole cover.
Legoc sighed. Back into the damned sewers it is then…
The collapsing cityscape perfectly framed the raging battle as Legoc worked on ripping open the cover. As the familiar, pungent tang of airbourne organic compounds, mixed with oil from industrious military waste, belched up into his visor, the troll slammed the ground with sickening strength, rupturing the earth itself and sending a wave of sharp concrete and stone hurtling towards the tentacle monster. The undulating mass seemed unphased by the upheaval, flowing unsettlingly with the shaking and the rocky protrusions in a way that made it look like its body wasn’t all connected together. But then the true extent of the troll’s attack materialized, as the surrounding buildings all collapsed in upon its foe, burying it under a mountain of rubble. The dust had not even cleared before said mountain erupted away from the disintegrating energy of the uncanny being, but the troll had already charged forward and launched itself into a flying, two-footed kick, which connected squarely with a chitinous plate and sent the creature tumbling away in a writhing pile.
Both monsters stood, or slithered, back up. Staring each other down. Oppressive, stomach-turning power thrummed in the dusty air. Dark sparks flitted over spines, then all over the body, and opposite, fuzzy energy coalesced into something resembling fire that licked from cracks and gaps and along fleshy proboscises. Clacking and hissing clamored together into an unnerving, grinding roar that pierced the mind. It was countered by a frustrated grunting yell. Then they leapt at one another for one last monster mash. A fat, fleshy hand managed to grab a handful of tentacles, but a giant, lobster-like claw equally clamped onto a wrist. Enormous bodies twisted and turned this way and that to find an advantage, freedom, or opening, but when none were found, heads battered together in a clash of twisted horns against ghastly mandibles. Locked in the destructive stalemate, the troll continued to build spam energy throughout and across its entire body, starting to glow a violent red that fizzled with black sparks. Likewise, the eldritch monster began to blaze with the weird digital fire, with it practically pouring from its joints like fiery waterfalls. The troll wrestled all of its power to its mouth, and the eldritch being answered by leaking the not-flame from its maw. Then they both let loose.
Dreadful and horrifically destructive beams crashed into one another in a collision of otherworldly fire and lightning. The shockwave nearly toppled Legoc down the hole he was lowering NO1SY into. Come on, move your tail, you aren’t a cat with nine lives… he prodded himself. He decided to just let the Black Raider drop so he could get into cover himself. Surely the Sentai suit would protect against a broken neck? It turned out to be the right choice. Legoc caught a few final glimpses of the battle as he lowered the manhole cover above him: A triplet of tongue-like projections slithering from the widening maw around the torrent of flame. The vexed look in the troll’s eyes as its jaw was wrenched from its skull and it was forced to swallow its own hyper-concentrated laser of spam. The bodily glow shifting from red to white before it began to bubble and plume from the inside out. The first moments of a catastrophic detonation and the last twist of a tentacle squeezing through the too tiny, closing crack in reality. Then darkness as the rumble of the explosion shook him from the ladder and cast him once more into the depths of the sewer.
Suuper tried to push himself up, but he could barely move a finger for all the pain. Not only had the blast sent him flying so hard and fast that even his Sentai suit could not prevent his body from breaking, it had also left him feeling stained to his core. It seemed things could get worse, however, as a new pain flared in the Yellow Raider’s left hand. He struggled to roll his head over, and, through the cracks in his helmet visor, his eyes came to rest on a well-polished, tall military boot crushing his hand into the dirt. A vicious looking man with slicked back, jet black hair, thin lips, and a calculating look in his dark rimmed eyes knelt over him, but their attention was focused solely on Suuper’s Sentai bracelet.
“Finally!” The voice was dripping with gleeful malevolence and hunger. Then he sighed, almost euphorically, and stood, sending a new bout of pain shooting through Suuper’s trapped hand. But the man seemed not to notice, or care. He nodded towards one of the three hefty units of Lost Chorus soldiers he had at his beck and call, all dressed in urban gray camo, kevlar and visored military helmets. “Transport it to the lab with the other two. The condition of the current wearers are critical, so they shall pose no threat. No need to treat them too roughly and risk the devices. Get them strapped down and await my return.” He made a rounding up motion with a raised finger, “the rest of you on me. We have one last stop to make before I can conclude the most major advancement to our power that The Lost Chorus has ever seen.”
Suuper couldn’t help but cry out as the wretched man turned abruptly, grinding his heel in before striding away towards a small convoy of armored cars, followed by the drumroll of other boots. But he could do nothing as a trio of Lost Chorus goons roughly grabbed him and dragged him onto the hard metal floor of a chopper.
This was distinctly, categorically, absolutely, undeniably, unquestionably, not awesome.
Oba-san’s heart was racing. To have witnessed a showdown between such marvelous monsters, and the beautiful destruction that they wrought, had been truly exhilarating. The carnage was so much more visceral and overt than The Clan’s usual MO of disorder and misdirection. Perhaps she was in the wrong business? Surely there was a market for kaiju cage matches? It all climaxed in a mushroom cloud of spam anyways, so they could still phish - it was just with a different kind of hook and much juicier, bloodier bait. She made a mental note to strong-arm the concept through at the next meeting of the Clan Heads. The Crane and The Fox would complain in their usual way about ‘overextending’ and ‘exposing themselves’, although The Bull would almost certainly be on board. She would need to send crews into the Dark Net as soon as possible to acquire new specimens. The Sentai Raiders were now but an afterthought, although seeing them struggle had been encouraging.
Construction of her tower had been finished during the spectacle in the city. She now sat in a plush chair in her new penthouse office, feeling uncharacteristically ecstatic as the final decorative tapestries were hung on the walls by her underlings to complete the space. But her smile scurried away with her mood, when the ancient cedar wood double doors were hurriedly slid open by her servants wearing panicked looks and a small platoon of Lost Chorus soldiers marched in, barging past the protests of her agents. A familiar figure strode through the formation, wearing a smirk as naturally as he wore his military coat. Her ineffectual men prostrated themselves before her, muttering apologies, as he strolled up beside her but gazed out the glass paneling at nothing in particular.
“I’ll give The Clan one thing,” Major Narcissus started with an absent-minded tone, “you sure are industrious…” Oba-san stoically masked her seething at the disrespect he showed by shirking a formal greeting. He finally tore himself from the view and sat himself in a chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Well, I suppose your little monster was quite entertaining. Watching it beat on the Sentai insects was decent popcorn fodder. Foul mouth though.”
“It died a glorious death, and the data it provided was enlightening,” she replied, trying not to grit her teeth.
“Yes, quite.” Another apathetic answer.
“I assume that you found what you were looking for?” She inquired, seeking to steer the conversation towards a suitable level of decorum. The Major’s giddy delight bubbled up beneath the thin veneer of disinterest, betraying the answer at the corners of his mouth and eyes. Even green-nosed Clan Agents would have had the social engineering skills to make that read.
“Mmm-hmm, well, three out of five accounted for, but it’s only a matter of time until the rest are rounded up.” He was like a child, trying to pout, but unable to hold back when asked about their favorite toy. These military types were all the same; straightforward and easily led. Of course, The Clan had been attempting to infiltrate MangaRaiders since time immemorial, and, in the end, all it had taken her was growing and advertising a small army in the right places to attract the attention of the new owners, and simply be invited in. It was the same as always: if a man finds loose nails, he’ll go looking for a hammer. And having faced off against the Sentai Raiders for many years now, she had known it was only a matter of time before The Lost Chorus were finding their loose nails everywhere. Truly, it hadn’t even mattered to her if her army won the battle or not. She was in. She had won the war. Now she could sit back and maneuver amongst these warmongering fools with practiced ease, and enjoy her long awaited spoils. Her heart fluttered thinking about all of the untapped data available for the taking in MangaRaiders, but she was deliberate to not let it show. The Major continued, “however, honestly, I only needed one, so the mission was a success. As requested, your Spam Ninjas drew them in like the receding tides, then crashed upon them like a big, ugly, spiny tsunami. I must admit, the Dark Net entity was… unexpected, but all’s well that ends well.” He finally leveled and made eye contact with her, enough respect to continue a conversation about business. She raised an eyebrow a fraction, expectantly.
“Ah yes, of course, for services rendered, this building shall remain in the City, and The Lost Chorus shall deliver citizen data here on top of not policing whatever your local agents can obtain from the fallout of this event.”
Oba-san put on her best smile and leaned forward as the Major did to meet his handshake. “Then I am happy to conclude this business and I have a franchising proposal that might intere-” She was suddenly short of breath. Time seemed to slow as an unsettling warmth spread throughout her chest. Her dumbfounded retainers’ gasps and cries were muted to her ears, as if underwater, but then they were cut short. A cascade of gunfire rattled throughout the whole building, but even in her office, where the heads of her aides and guards exploded streaks of crimson over the freshly hung tapestries, they sounded distant. She looked down at Narcissus’ forearm, dripping in red from her pierced heart.
Her head felt heavy as she looked back up into his eyes, which flashed fleetingly with a wicked green. She tried to ask “why?”, but she could not find her voice past the gurgle of fluid in the lungs and throat. The Major took notice of her struggle, leaned in close with a faux concern, then seemed to understand.
“Remarkable that people are always so surprised to find themselves betrayed. Do I truly come across as so forthright!?” he scoffed. “Perhaps. Or maybe I just understand that people like us use each other to get what we want. It’s actually a trait I admire above all others, a willingness to exploit others in the pursuit of ambition. So I let you play with me. But you were playing the long game, whereas I don’t just play games. I win or I flip the table. I’ll cut any chord I need to, no matter how beneficial, all for the cause.” A sinister grin stretched wide across his face, and twisted loyalty danced in his dark eyes. Yes, now she could see. No deal was too good to renege, no person too useful to kill, no idea too revolutionary to be snuffed out. She could see just how much of the world this man was willing to burn to come out on top, even if The Lost Chorus were left sitting atop a pile of ashes.
He continued, “so no, I have no interest in further proposals. Did you truly believe that The Lost Chorus would tolerate you having free reign in our territory, eating into our profits when they could be going towards our righteous war effort? And I had originally just wished to acquire your capacity for growing armies, however, you brought with you an even more delectable treat, your monster technology, which I shall now commandeer.” He looked around the office nonchalantly, “don’t worry though, our current deal still stands. Let it not be said that I am not a man of my word, after all. The building shall remain and become a Lost Chorus logistics center. Jolly nice of you to have built it for us in such a short time. Citizen data shall be delivered here and sold to our funding partners. And the mess of Quadrant A is fair game as far as I’m concerned. So, as you can see, completely within the bounds of our arrangement.” Major Narcissus withdrew his bloodsoaked arm, and inspected the crimson dripping down his hand for but a brief moment. He seemed… unsatisfied by it, “so bland on the inside…” he said, before, “adieu, Oba-san. It has been a pleasure.” And with that he turned and strode dispassionately out through the butchery of the office.
The Dragon’s eyes blurred, and she died with a single thought:
That man is a monster.