[PSP] Guardian Sentai Roboman #9

[utsukushuu.dreamer]

>From PSP:
http://www.night-jaeger.net

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GUARDIAN SENTAI ROBOMAN #9
"Keeping Secrets"
Component 03.3
March 1st, 2010
by Adrian J. Watts


Elsewhere

Sei was confused. A moment ago, he had been standing in New Orleans,
confronting Sorceress Miko as she and two of her 'pixie' minions
attempted to rob a bank. He had hoped to corner and capture her and
make her lead him to his mentor, Doctor Nagura, who she held captive.

She managed to teleport away. Sei followed... and appeared on Science
Island. Miko was nowhere to be seen - in fact, the corridor in which
Sei materialised was completely deserted - but he saw no indication
that she made a second teleportation 'jump'. She was still on the
island; he was sure of it.

Why would Sorceress Miko have come here? he wondered. She is a well-
known criminal. She could not possibly be hoping to seek refuge!

He knew that there were two options: Miko appeared before he did and
quickly ran away, or the trajectory of his teleportation attempt did
not precisely match hers and she materialised somewhere else on the
island.

He crouched close to the ground and looked for any disturbance in the
dust and dirt that lined floor and walls of the hallway. He knew
exactly where he was on the island - an old, underground tunnel used
only to move from one part of the island to another for emergency
maintenance, which was very rarely required.

Sei could see no footprints or other markings in the grime covering
the floor, but he did not give up hope of finding Sorceress Miko.
Before confronting the villain at the bank, he had arranged to meet
someone on Science Island in order to recharge the source of his
teleportation powers; with any luck, he hoped, that person would be
able to help him find Miko... and Doctor Nagura!


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"Jinsei!"

Miko muttered loudly as she walked through the opaque wall, a shower
of red sparks jumping from her body as she pierced the stone surface.
She was more than a little annoyed - not only had one of her pixies
been killed (one of her few remaining pixies, she realised, after the
drawn-out assault on Blizzard Base Zero), but she had been
humiliated.

Just as bad, however, was the realisation that she was hiding; when
she had first fled from captivity on Science Island, she had moved to
a specific location described by Jinsei before they had even started
to enact their master's plan. She did not know exactly where they
were, but she had hoped it was a castle or keep openly displayed on
the side of a majestic mountain somewhere.

Upon her return from New Orleans, however, she realised where she and
Jinsei were hiding - they were on Science Island, in a dungeon-like
stone basement built deep beneath the main complexes. She had had to
walk through a half-illusory panel in a disused corridor to re-appear
in their base, and the fact that they were hiding - let alone hiding
within meters of their enemies' command centre - infuriated her.

"Jinsei!" she repeated. "I am back, and I am not happy!"

Jinsei did not reply. Miko opened her mouth to shout again, until she
became distracted by the red energy accompanying Jinsei's own arrival
in the hidden base. He had been smiling, but frowned when he saw the
look on Miko's face.

"They killed one of my pixies!" she said. "Those damn Robomen!"

Jinsei raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't they just teleport them into a
volcano or something?"

Miko scowled.

"It doesn't work like that! The pixies have a limited amount of
power... and they used most of it kidnapping Nagura! They can't
teleport anything large... only the new pixies that are growing from
my latest batch of pixie dust will be able to do that."

"It was just an idea..." Jinsei said.

"Well, I have another one!" Miko exclaimed. "Follow me!"

Miko led Jinsei to her ornate scrying mirror and placed her right hand
on its surface. Blue energy gushed from her palm into the smooth glass
surface and slowly, her hand sank into it.

"I left one of my pixies behind," she said. "We will make her grow,
like we did with Shellshock - and since she isn't a stupid reptile,
she will kill them!"

Jinsei approached the mirror and placed his left hand beside Miko's
right. Green and red energy formed around his hand as he looked
through the glass to find the lost pixie. He saw it, hovering in mid-
air above the steps leading into the bank. He also saw the police,
still aiming their weapons forward... at the two Robomen.

"Where's the blue one?" he asked.

"Who cares?" Miko replied. "Just do it!"

Jinsei reached forward and allowed his hand to pass right through the
mirror. He lightly brushed his fingers against the pixie, and allowed
the red and green energy to flow from his hand and into its delicate
skin. He pulled his hand away, unnoticed due to the police attention
being fixed on the Robomen, and waited for a moment as the pixie began
to grow.

Within seconds the six-inch tall pixie was more than fifty feet tall,
and she fell from the air, breaking through one of the bank's outer
walls. The police - and the Robomen - turned to look at her.


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New Orleans

Ikku and Kiko stared up at the giant pixie. Although they were both
initially grateful for the distraction - the police automatically
pointed their weapons at the larger target - they soon became
concerned; regular pixies could be a handful. What would a giant one
do?

"Why isn't it as big as Shellshock?" Kiko wondered aloud. "Maybe
because it started out so much smaller...?"

"Who cares?" Ikku responded. "Sei can figure that stuff out later. We
have to stop it now! Go! Robo Vehicles!"

"Hey! Wait for me!" Kiko shouted. "Go! Robo Vehicles!"

The metal components that formed the armoured gloves, boots and
chestplates of their robosuits separated and hovered in the air around
them. The pieces of armour fused together and discharged a blue glow
moments before more than tripling in size. The metal bent, twisted and
changed colour until the large yellow Lightning Jet and red Flame Tank
occupied the street alongside the police cars and transports.

Kiko and Ikku climbed aboard their respective vehicles and turned them
around to confront the giant pixie. In the confined space, Kiko found
that she could not take off - a difficulty not experienced by the
pixie. It flapped its wings, creating wind strong enough to knock
several police officers off their feet, and took to the air.

["What do we do?"] Kiko asked. ["I can't follow it!"]

["Just shoot it!"] Ikku offered.

Kiko carefully aimed the Lightning Jet's weapons at the moving pixie
and fired. Long streams of yellow fire poured from the barrel of two
lasers near the jet's nose and surrounded the pixie, but the fire -
which had frozen Shellshock in his tracks and reduced him to his
normal size only hours earlier - had no effect on Kiko's foe.

["It isn't working!"] Kiko told Ikku. ["I think it's become immune
after - "]

["That doesn't matter,"] Ikku said. ["If we can't freeze it we can't
freeze it - but we have to get it out of the city, where it can't hurt
anyone!"]

He moved the Flame Tank forward, following the pixie as best he could
from the ground. There was no way the Flame Tank could keep up with
the pixie's speed - the giant creature had the advantage of flight -
but, to Ikku's surprise, the pixie kept turning back and prepared to
attack; but with each turn, Ikku fired a blast of red energy at it.
The shots were easily avoided, but they did keep the pixie moving
further and further from the city and the innocent people within.

["Miss Sato,"] Ikku said. ["If you can't freeze it and it's too fast
for me to hit... what do we do?"]

["I - "] It sounded as though Kiko had an idea. A good idea, but she
cut her sentence short. ["I don't know. I can't see any commands for
the Lightning Jet that don't involve slowing, stopping or turning back
time... and none of those seem to work on this one!"]

["Then I guess we'll just have to corner it,"] Ikku replied. ["When we
have some room to move, take to the air and try to trap it somewhere -
then we'll see what the Flame Tank can do!"]


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Science Island

Dr. Brachis jumped back, startled, as she entered her office. She
thought it would be completely empty - exactly as she had left it. The
lights were off, and even her laptop computer had been powered down.
The last thing she expected was to find a young man in a blue bodysuit
sitting at her desk, calmly waiting for her.

"Sei!" she said, and she quickly closed the door behind her. "You're
early - and this is not where we were to meet!"

Sei looked down at the surface of the desk. "I am sorry, but it was
difficult enough to make it here. Three of your guards will need to
rest tomorrow."

Dr. Brachis frowned. "Has something happened?"

Sei nodded. "After ending my communication with you, Sorceress Miko
appeared in New Orleans. We - that is, Sato Kiko, Nagura Ian and
myself - attempted to capture her. She teleported away, I followed
her, and appeared in one of the island's underground maintenance
tunnels."

"Are you suggesting - "

Dr. Brachis was interrupted by a knock at the door, and she remembered
why she had come to her office just after one o'clock in the morning.
She had arranged a meeting - one that she wanted to be kept a secret.
She bit her lower lip, an action that Sei did not fail to notice.

"I cannot teleport out of this room."

"I know," Dr. Brachis said quickly, "but maybe... stay where you are.
I think it's time you met my other guest."

Dr. Brachis opened the door and motioned for Senshi, still in his
guard's uniform despite having been off-duty for several hours, to
enter. He stopped when he saw Sei sitting at the doctor's desk, and he
looked slowly from the other man to Dr. Brachis and back again.

"Don't worry, Senshi," Dr. Brachis said. "This is Sei - and believe it
or not, the two of you have already met."

Senshi did not seem fazed by the comment, but Sei suspected that it
took a lot of effort to present such a nonchalant attitude.

"Sei, this is Senshi, my deputy here on Alpha 7," Dr. Brachis
explained. "Senshi, this is Sei - our contact on Blizzard Base Zero
and one of the three base operatives that were unaccounted for. I
have..." She tried to think of a way to say what was coming next
without making Senshi feel like she had betrayed him. "I have been in
contact with Sei ever since the attack."

"I recognised the name from Jenkins' report," Senshi said calmly, "and
I knew you were in contact with someone from Blizzard Base Zero,
someone who requested permission to use the 'Robo Defender'."

"How did you know that?" Dr. Brachis asked. "Actually, no, I don't
want to know. That doesn't matter now. What does matter is that you
have both been caught up in a plan that neither of you knows much
about - and it's time I filled you in. Senshi, Sei - can you both keep
a secret?"

Sei and Senshi looked at each other, then back at Dr. Brachis, who
took a deep breath.

"Senshi, as you know, when we caught Sorceress Miko in New Orleans she
offered information about a traitor to the EDD at Blizzard Base Zero,"
she explained. "This information was confirmed by Sei, but he was
unable to tell us who the traitor was. As a result, the EDD ordered a
full assault by the Black Battalion, to shut down the base, and secure
Dr. Nagura Scott - who, at the time, they considered the most likely
suspect.

"We have since learned through Sei that the traitor was, in fact, Dr.
John Smith. What we also did not know at the time was that Miko had
infected the Black Battalion with pixie dust, so that when they
arrived at the base she could activate the pixies and kidnap Dr.
Nagura for her own reasons.

"While investigating that incident and finding Dr. Nagura has been one
of our major priorities, I had another need for you, Senshi. You have
clearly resented me for keeping you out-of-the-loop regarding Nagura's
kidnapping, but I have been trying to attach you to a more serious
mission."

"Director Satoshi," Senshi said simply.

"Yes," Dr. Brachis nodded. "For months, I have suspected Director
Satoshi of being less dedicated to EDD ideals than he may have seemed.
Specifically, I have had concerns regarding Operation: Guardian - what
little I have been able to learn about the operation seems to put it
in direct opposition to Nagura's Project: Roboman. I could not get
myself on the operation staff - "

"So that's why a highly-educated scientist is head of security,"
Senshi mused.

"Exactly. I had hoped that I could gain easier access to Satoshi and
his operations from this post, but that was not the case. I decided
instead to nominate you, as our most highly-capable security officer,
to be a candidate for the Operation: Guardian, so that you could
observe Satoshi and report back - a trusted pair of eyes and ears in
the one place on the island I could not go.

"Director Satoshi saw through this, and selected Damien Sinclair as
his candidate. Now, Sei has reported that Miko may be hiding on the
island - and I think there may be a connection between her, the
assault on Blizzard Base Zero, Dr. Nagura's kidnapping and Operation:
Guardian."

"That would make sense," Sei said. "Considering our involvement, I do
not think you would have ordered Captain Sinclair to come to New
Orleans armed with weapons designed to counter the robosuits, Dr.
Brachis."

"Robosuits?" Senshi asked.

Dr. Brachis nodded. "Sei and his two companions are the product of
Project: Roboman. They were responsible for defeating the giant
monster in New Orleans yesterday."

Senshi frowned. He was not happy that Dr. Brachis had kept such
important information from him, but he finally understood why she had
refused to allow him to participate in the Blizzard Base Zero
investigation.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

Dr. Brachis turned to Sei. She reached into her pocket and withdrew
one long, flat, smooth piece of what looked like glass, only with a
pale blue colouration. She handed it to Sei, who slipped it inside a
slit cut into his tight-fitting suit.

"Sei, I could only recover one raido shard," Dr. Brachis told him.
"You will need to make it last. The Incident Investigation Team should
be bringing some back from Blizzard Base Zero, and I will make sure
those get to you. I need you to return to New Orleans - I need to make
sure there is someone out of Satoshi's reach."

Sei nodded, and Dr. Brachis turned to face Senshi.

"Senshi," she said. "If I am right about Director Satoshi, then I
can't order a full-scale search of the island for Dr. Nagura. I need
you to go hunting; if he's here - "

"Intruders detected," Dr. Brachis, Senshi and Sei all clearly heard
the loud voice come across the island's public address system. "All
security and Black Battalion personnel report to security complex
immediately."

"They know Sei's here," Dr. Brachis suggested. "Sei - !"

Sei nodded and closed his eyes. As he concentrated, pale blue energy
sparkled around his hands for a moment before spreading to cover the
rest of his body, and he began to fade away.

No, Senshi thought. There's something about this situation. It doesn't
feel right! He looked from Sei's quickly-disappearing form to Dr.
Brachis and back again. I can't believe I'm doing this!

Senshi ran forward, jumped over Dr. Brachis desk and landed in the
center of the falling blue mist in just enough time to wrap his hand
around Senshi's wrist. The blue energy spread to his body as well, and
a moment later, there was not a trace of either man left in the
office.

"Senshi!" Dr. Brachis snapped - but she had no time to remain angry
as, with a loud thump, the door to her office was smashed into pieces
and black-uniformed members of her security team stormed the small
room.


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NEXT: Science Island is revolting!