[PSP] Guardian Sentai Roboman #11

[utsukushuu.dreamer]

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

---

GUARDIAN SENTAI ROBOMAN #11
"Science Island Revolt"
Component 04.2
March 1st, 2010
by Adrian J. Watts



Blizzard Base Zero, Antarctica

Dr. Brachis shuddered as she materialised inside the main entrance
hall to Blizzard Base Zero alongside Damien Sinclair, Satoshi Kakeru
and two 'Gears' - very basic, humanoid robots designed solely to do
Satoshi's bidding. She shuddered not just from the realisation that
she had lost her long struggle against the former director of
operations on Science Island or the realisation that he had more than
likely already destroyed the island and the Earth Defence/Leadership
Directorate headquarters in Japan - she had too much practice bluffing
to allow that sort of thing to overtly bother her. She shuddered
mainly because of the effects of teleportation using raido energy; her
internal organs shifted and fused together, then separated, leaving
her feeling decidedly unwell.

"Satoshi... Remind me to fire my travel agent," she said.

"Cute," Satoshi replied. He turned to Sinclair. "Put her in with
Nagura. I will deal with them later." He walked away, and Sinclair
took hold of Brachis' arm. Rose Brachis shook her head in
disappointment. She had had some faith in Damien Sinclair; she was not
the man she trusted most, or thought most capable in the duties of a
member of the Science Island guard - but she never expected him to
turn traitor so quickly.

Sinclair led Brachis along a winding, downward-sloping hallway,
through heavily-fortified walls and into a small, glass-encapsulated
viewing area. Through a large glass window Brachis saw a cube-shaped
pit, with enough light to make its sole occupant visible.

Nagura... she thought.

Sinclair opened a door and pushed her through it, then pulled it
closed behind her. Brachis was alone, but she could not turn back; her
only option was to follow a dark corridor which led into the pit. She
did, and several minutes passed before she found herself standing
beside Dr. Nagura.

He sat on the floor, but was not restrained in any way. He seemed calm
- too calm, Brachis thought, for a prisoner - and when she looked at
him more closely she saw dark veins throbbing beneath the skin on his
face and arms. He blinked slowly, and she could see the same veins on
his eyelids.

"Scott...?" she said softly.

"Rose," Nagura replied. "They got you? Then... Science Island must...
be destroyed."

Brachis nodded.

"And the... EDD?"

Brachis nodded again. "I think so. I'm not certain."

Nagura's dropped his head forward, and his chin touched his chest.

"You understand... I had no... choice?" he asked.

"What?"

"I had to... help them."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Nagura shook his head. "They are... in my head. A bug... I cannot
fight them. And..." his voice trailed off.

"And what?"

"Jinsei... he promised to restore... my son... to life."

Dr. Brachis stepped back in surprise. "W-what...? Scott, Ian is alive.
He's hiding in New Orleans, with Sei and - "

"Not... Ian," Nagura said. "My other son. My... real... son."

Dr. Brachis could not believe what she was hearing. She had known
Nagura Scott for a long time, and that was the first she had heard of
a son. She knew, like most of Nagura's other colleagues, that Ian was
adopted, and why he was adopted. The revelation of a biological child
was almost more than she could accept.

"Scott... you need to snap out of this, whatever it is," Brachis told
him. "We need to get up and find a way out of here. You know this
place better than anyone. Is there any - "

"Don't be a fool," a man's voice interrupted. The voice came through
speakers set into the walls, and Brachis immediately looked up at the
small viewing area she had passed moments earlier. A man stood there,
a man with red skin, clad only in body-hugging black shorts.

"We haven't been introduced," the man continued. "I am Jinsei. And
Doctor Nagura will be staying here."

"I'm Rose," Brachis replied.

"A sweet name. I bet you smell nice, and if you don't... I can change
that."

"I also have thorns," Brachis said.

"Ouch. You're a clever one," Jinsei said, "but you see, Doctor Nagura
has come along to our way of thinking. He has joined us willingly...
and even if he did not, the electronic bug we have placed in his skull
would make him our slave. As you will be, soon enough."

"I wouldn't count on it," Brachis said.

Jinsei shrugged. "If you want to feel you have a chance, I won't stop
you." He walked away.

"Oh, Scott..." Brachis groaned. "What can we do...?"

She looked at Nagura again and saw that he had changed. The dark veins
had faded, especially those on his face, and he was sweating
excessively. His right hand fumbled inside one of his pockets, and he
finally pulled out two small items, which he handed to Brachis.

The larger of the two items was a small, black-and-silver metal robot,
approximately two-inches tall, with a screw driven through the centre
of its body. She turned it over and saw, on its back, five thin,
horizontal slots.

The other item was something with which Brachis was very familiar - a
translucent blue raido shard.

"They did not... search me... when I was captured," Nagura said.
"Miko... and Jinsei... are not very smart." He tried to smile, but
failed. "I do not... serve them willingly. Jinsei has... changed me.
>From the inside... I am more... submissive, more evil."

"You're fighting them now!" Brachis exclaimed. "Keep fighting!
Whatever Jinsei's done, you can - "

"No," Nagura said simply. "The electronic implant... is blocking
Jinsei's... power. But it is... failing. Soon... I will be what... he
has made me. A sadistic... monster."

"Scott - !"

"Listen," Nagura said. "That robot... it was here when... I found the
base... two years ago. It was... the basis of... Project: Roboman."

"What...? You never declared this to the EDD!"

"They would have... confiscated it. Her," Nagura explained. "She is...
aware. Intelligent."

"She looks like a toy. What do I - "

"The screw in... her chest. It is... connected to... a central
processor. I had to... deactivate her... to avoid detection. Tighten
it... to reactivate... her..."

Doctor Nagura's head slumped forward, and his skin began to tighten
and change. The dark veins reappeared, more darkly than usual, and
Brachis watched closely as the bug beside his right temple was pressed
hard against the skin. She could see that as the veins became more
prominent, the bug would be crushed.

"Nagura!" Brachis looked up in time to see Jinsei walking into the
room. She quickly closed her hand around the robot and the raido
shard, as Jinsei took Doctor Nagura's hand and helped him to his feet.
"Director Satoshi needs you now."

Jinsei pulled Nagura forward, and the doctor followed automatically...
like a zombie. Brachis knew there was nothing she could do to help
him; not imprisoned within Blizzard Base Zero, so she simply glared at
Jinsei as he walked away and, once she was sure he had left, she
opened her hand.

Tighten the screw. Activate the robot. And then...?

Brachis pressed her index finger against the screw in the tiny robot's
chest. There was nothing remarkable about it; the head of the screw
contained a thin slit into which she easily inserted her fingernail,
and turned her finger clockwise. The screw tightened without
resistance and after a moment or two dim blue lights appeared where
the robot's eyes should be.

"Who are you?" the robot asked. Its voice was surprisingly loud and
clear for something so small. "Where is Doctor Nagura?"

"Scott's been captured and - you can speak? English?" Dr. Brachis was
surprised.

"Of course!" the robot answered cheerfully. "I've been watching humans
for two hundred years!"

Two hundred years...? Brachis thought. No. I don't have time for this.

"My name is Rose Brachis. I am a friend of Doctor Nagura. We have both
been captured and - "

The robot stood up in the centre of Brachis' palm and pointed at the
raido shard. "Duh. Why don't you just teleport out of here?"

"I can't! Please, just listen to me!" The robot crossed her legs and
sat down. "Doctor Nagura is under the control of someone who has taken
over this base. We can't fight him - he has an army at his disposal.
But we have someone who can help us, too."

"Where's Sei?" the robot asked. "He can tele - "

"You know Sei?" Dr. Brachis interrupted.

"Of course I know Sei! I helped cr - wait. You don't seem to know
much, Miss Rose. Are you sure you're Doctor Nagura's friend?"

Brachis nodded. "Yes. Now, no-one knows you are here. Can you escape?
Go to Sei, he's in a city called New Orleans, with two others using
some of Doctor Nagura's equipment. They can fight!"

"I can track any of Doctor Nagura's technology!" the robot said. "It's
all based on us!"

Us? No, I'll have to ask later. When I'm not a prisoner.

"I'm Cog, by the way!"

Brachis smiled. "Nice to meet you. So what do we need to do to get you
out of here?"

Cog pointed at the raido shard again and turned around. "Slide it into
one of those slots, and I can 'port out."

Brachis picked up the shard with her free hand but paused a few
centimetres away from Cog's back. "Cog," she said. "When you see Sei,
I need you to do something for me."

"Sure!"

"Don't tell him I am here. Or Doctor Nagura. Just... tell him Director
Satoshi has taken over the base, and that it's time he told the others
what's going on. Tell him we are safe and that I will contact him
myself as soon as I can."

"But... Miss Brachis, that doesn't seem like a good idea. If Sei
doesn't know you're here - "

"Scott and I will be fine, Cog. Please... just do as I've asked."

"... okay, Miss Brachis."

Dr. Brachis gently slid the raido shard into the topmost slot on Cog's
back, and the tiny robot faded away amid a shower of blue energy.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in Blizzard Base Zero, Jinsei led Doctor Nagura away from
the Chamber, where Doctor Brachis remained a prisoner. They hurried up
the spiralling hallway, and Jinsei remembered how much he hated his
earlier time spent in the base disguised as 'Doctor Smith'. At least
now, Satoshi allowed him to modify one small area of the base to his
own liking, but it was still an almost wholly artificial environment -
and Jinsei was determined to leave the place forever once his master's
plan was finalised.

Satoshi met them at the end of the hall and walked with them into the
centre of the base. What Doctor Nagura recognised as the former data
analysis hub of his laboratories - a large, circular pit filled with
rows of computers and desks and hard-working scientists - had been
completely changed, to accomodate row after perfectly-straight row of
skeletal robotic warriors.

"These are my Gears, Doctor Nagura," Satoshi explained. "Not quite as
impressive as your designs, I know. No artificial intelligence in
these ones... but then again, you are the only one to have created a
wholly intelligent robot..."

Jinsei scowled, while Nagura remained silent and still.

"They serve their purpose well enough," Satoshi continued. "If they
were intelligent, I am not sure I could have forced them to sacrifice
themselves on Science Island and in Tokyo." He tapped the right side
of Nagura's head. "Not without implants like yours, at least."

"What do you... want from me?" Nagura finally asked.

Satoshi began to walk and motioned for Jinsei and Nagura to follow.
The walked along the edge of the round pit. They moved down a narrow
corridor into a small room which had been stripped of all furniture
and decoration, leaving only a large robot in the centre of the room.

The robot was taller than any of the three men, none of whom were
short. It was also wider, and not skeletal like the generic Gears. Its
body was formed by thick metal tubes and pipes, all connected through
a central humanoid frame - it looked to Nagura almost like a cross
between a human and an octopus, and it did not take a robotics genius
to determine that the tubes were weapons; he looked closely and saw
bombs and energy weapons concealed within.

"This is Buki Robo," Satoshi said. "I have tried to give him
intelligence." He lifted a small box that had been concealed on the
ground behind the robot. Inside were several small, identical
microchips which Nagura immediately recognised as his own design.
"Jinsei tells me you used these in your robot. I cannot make them
work. You will give Buki Robo intelligence, Doctor Nagura, or I will
kill you. Do you understand?"

Doctor Nagura nodded. He did understand, and he was going to help; his
transformation at Jinsei's hands, as well as the villain's offer, were
enough to guarantee that - but even so, the implant in his head,
despite getting weaker with each passing moment, would have ensured
his compliance.

Satoshi handed his captive the box of microchips, gestured to Jinsei
and left the room.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEXT: Gear vs Gears!