[PSP] Guardian Sentai Roboman #3

[utsukushuu.dreamer]

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

---

GUARDIAN SENTAI ROBOMAN #3
"Attack on Blizzard Base Zero"
Component 01.3
February 27th, 2010
by Adrian J. Watts



Energy crackled around the colourfully-garbed Sato Kiko and Nagura
Ikku as, for just a moment, their bodies shifted into a world all
their own. The tiny flying warrior woman were nowhere to be seen;
Sei's energy barrier no longer protected them; and their bodies began
to undergo severe changes.

Kiko looked down at her body and discovered that for the briefest of
instants she could actually see through the form-fitting suit she
wore, through her skin, to the circuitry that had embedded itself in
her flesh. Yellow sparks darted along tiny wires, culminating at her
hands, feet and chest.

Where the sparks gathered hard, sharp, pieces of silver metal formed
which jutted out through her pores, through tiny openings in the
fabric of the suit, and fused together to form armour - thick but
malleable gloves, boots and a chestplate. An instant later the same
metal emerged from the collar of the suit to become a thin helmet; the
compound split in front of her eyes to form a two-way mirror.

The crackling energy surrounding her abruptly vanished and Kiko
realised that only a moment had passed since her transformation had
started. She glanced at Ikku and found that he had undergone an
identical transformation - but where her suit was yellow, his was red.

Amazed, she felt the armour, which was soft to the touch. It did not
feel like it would do much to protect her. In fact, she realised as
she ran her hand along the yellow fabric of the 'phase one' suit that
still covered the areas of her body not adorned by the silver armour,
it only felt as though a second layer of fabric had been laid over the
first.

"Henshin!" Ikku cheered. "Miss Sato, we henshined! This is phase two!"

Kiko smiled, then pointed at the miniature winged women still flapping
their wings, trying - sometimes successfully - to break through Sei's
energy barrier. "We don't have time to cheer! We need to beat those
things! What can these suits do?"

"Beats me!" Ikku replied as he squatted to pick up his dropped rifle.
"We never got to test phase two!"

Kiko looked across at Sei. The green energy was still radiating from
his hands and having some success at sealing the room, but the
creatures were still making their way inside. Ikku picked them off one-
by-one with his rifle, but it seemed only a matter of time before he
was overwhelmed.

She considered asking Sei for help. He seemed to know more about the
robosuits than anyone else, but he had also already told Kiko that he
was not prepared to 'assist her in the operation of the robosuit'. It
seemed absurd; they were under attack - a massive, planned assault -
and their mentor had been kidnapped. The robosuits seemed to be their
only way to victory, and Sei was keeping everything to himself.

"Sei - " she began.

"Excuse me," Sei interrupted. "Please be quiet. I am interfacing with
the computer systems of Science Island and discerning the identity and
weaknesses of our foes."

Interfacing with...? Kiko thought. Sei... is he...? No, he couldn't
possibly - !

"Very well," Sei said a moment later. He turned his head to look at
Kiko and Ikku. Kiko was staring at him, drawing her own conclusions
regarding his unusual behaviour and demeanour. Ikku stood behind her,
enthusiastically shooting at the winged creatures which, once hit,
exploded in a shower of blue mist. "You will listen to me now."

"Sei - "

"The creatures which have entered Blizzard Base Zero are called
pixies," Sei explained. "They are created by Sorceress Miko via an
unknown process. Sorceress Miko is currently incarcerated on Science
Island. Sorceress Miko is not controlling the pixies.

"Pixies are capable of disrupting energy fields and instantaneously
transporting objects long distances as long as they remain in constant
contact. Pixies are not living organisms. They are composed of an
unidentified energy compound. You should have no compunctions
regarding their destruction.

"Nagura Ian and Sato Kiko have been authorised to use robosuits red
and yellow. Please acknowledge your official codenames: Red Robo and
Yellow Robo. I am currently uploading suit operation information into
your robosuits now. Please prepare yourself as I briefly disengage the
force-field."

The waves of green energy suddenly stopped rippling away from Sei's
hands and the green force-field vanished. The 'pixies' rushed in at
full speed, but Kiko was no longer helpless. Commands flashed across
the two-way mirror directly in front of her eyes, and she realised
what her suit was capable of.

Sei quickly pushed his arms directly out to the side, then raised them
above his head and shouted: "Let's go, Robo!"

There was a blue flash, and when it faded an instant later Sei was
covered by armour identical to that worn by both Kiko and Ikku, only
blue where theirs was yellow or red. He ran in front of them, blocking
their view of the pixies temporarily. The pixies, for their part,
turned their attention to the new threat and swarmed toward him.

"Vertex Shield!" Sei cried. Another blue flash and then, strapped to
Sei's right arm, a translucent blue and green shield materialised. It
was perfectly round with a radius about the length of Sei's forearm.

Sei swung the shield forward to defend himself and several pixies flew
irectly into it. They vanished, but reappeared on the opposite side of
the room, next to the wall, which they hit hard.

"Awesome!" Ikku jumped up and down excitedly. "Chaos Sword!"

There was a third blue flash, this time delivering a sword into Ikku's
right hand. Its hilt was black and silver and its blade was red and
translucent. Ikku dropped his rifle and started swinging the sword at
the approaching pixies. Kiko tried to watch him, but found the sword
constantly slipping in and out-of-focus. At times, it also appeared as
though there was more than one Ikku, using multiple swords to strike
at the same point from different locations at the same time.

"Yellow Robo," Sei said. "Your participation in our battle would prove
beneficial at this time."

Kiko nodded and quickly read through the list of commands displayed on
her visor. Most of them seemed too vague, but one caught her
attention: "Electro Blaster!"

A fourth flash of blue light; Kiko felt something heavy forming near
the palm of her right hand and she instinctively reached for it. An
instant later she was carrying a small blaster, roughly the size of a
regular handgun. She aimed it at the pixies, one at a time, and pulled
the trigger. Yellow, lightning-like energy passed from one side of
their bodies to the other, then they froze. A second passed and each
of the pixies struck by a blast exploded into blue dust, something
Kiko was getting used to seeing.

"Yay!" Kiko shouted happily. "Go Electro Blaster!"

Kiko readied herself to fire again, but realised the last of the
pixies was gone. Ikku raised the Chaos Sword high above his head and
cheered loudly. He lowered his hand and the sword faded away, along
with the silver armour and helmet he wore, revealing a massive grin.

Kiko formed two of her fingers into a 'v' shape - 'v' for 'victory' -
and her armour, too, faded away. She had not consciously thought about
reversing her henshin - it seemed that the armour knew when it was no
longer necessary and integrated itself back into the robosuit.

Sei turned his head too check for any remaining pixies, and the Vertex
Shield faded - but his armour remained intact. Kiko frowned.

"If 'Sorceress Miko' is in custody on Science Island, who sent these
pixies?" she asked.

"I saw where they came from," Ikku said. "Outside - the initial
attack... it was the Black Battalion. They collapsed, and the pixies
left their bodies." He glanced around. "Hey..." His voice trailed off.

"Ikku?"

"Dr. Nagura's still gone." Ikku bowed his head and stared at the
ground. "I had a feeling... that if we destroyed all the pixies... he
would come back."

"We will find him," Kiko said. "We will go to Science Island and make
sure they know what happened here. I'm sure they will - "

Sei shook his head.

"We have been ordered to evacuate Blizzard Base Zero and wait at a
specified Black Battalion safehouse for debriefing," he said. "We will
go now."

"Wait a minute - " Kiko began. She did not get to finish, as Sei
reached out with both hands and took hold of his teammate's wrists. A
moment later, their bodies were showered in blue mist and the chamber,
the heart of Blizzard Base Zero and test site of Project: Roboman, was
empty.


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Elsewhere

Dr. Nagura woke to find himself in a dark room. All the knowledge he
had of his location came solely from the sense of touch. The ground
was cold and hard beneath his feet. He was sitting on a wooden chair,
with his wrists tightly-bound behind his back. He tried to stand, but
found his ankles were tied to the chair's legs; and as he lifted his
head a throbbing pain struck his right temple and he had to sit down
once more.

The last thing Dr. Nagura remembered was an attack on Blizzard Base
Zero. He remembered having Sei erect a force-field around 'the
chamber', the heavily-defended heart of the base... and he remembered
Dr. Smith pulling a gun on him and revealing that their attackers knew
the field's frequency and would penetrate it.

He did not remember how he came to leave Blizzard Base Zero, or the
blow that caused his temple to throb so agonisingly.

Smith, he thought to himself. Smith betrayed me. But why?

"You're awake. Good."

Dr. Nagura looked up and saw Dr. Smith emerging from the darkness. The
older scientist was smiling broadly which was disturbing in and of
itself. What disturbed Dr. Nagura even more was that as he walked,
Smith began to change. His aging features tightened; his hair
shortened and darkened, and his clothing seemed to be absorbed into
his skin.

By the time Smith was standing beside Dr. Nagura, his form was
completely different. His young-looking body and features were
symmetrical, as if a line had been ruled down the centre of his body
and a mirror inserted. His short black hairs were all of equal length;
the pores of his pale red skin all the same size. His body was
athletic with long, lean muscles, and he was naked except for a pair
of skin-tight black shorts which covered from his waist to an inch-or-
so above his knees.

"You are a... changed man... Dr. Smith," Dr. Nagura said.

"Funny," Smith replied, "but there never was a 'Dr. Smith'. I am
called Jinsei." He took a long, deep breath. "I am glad to be rid of
your vile laboratories. Everything was so artificial. You cannot begin
to understand how much that pained me."

"You... betrayed me," Dr. Nagura told him.

"I could not betray you if I was never truly loyal to you," Jinsei
told him. "Besides, I was not the one who revealed your secret plan to
the Black Battalion. There was a true traitor on your team."

"The... Black Battalion?" Dr. Nagura asked. "What do they..."

"Oh, right," Jinsei said. "You only saw the pixies. A pity - their
arrival at the base was a true masterpiece of fusion between my powers
and Miko's. We need to work together more often."

"Miko?" Dr. Nagura repeated. "Sorceress... Miko?"

"So you do know what I'm talking about!" Jinsei exclaimed happily.
"You see, our master knows all about your secret plan, and he wants
you to turn your considerable talents toward our cause. It hurt me to
need to remain in such an unnatural environment for so long, spying on
you, but we had to wait until we knew you had made the necessary
breakthroughs to be of true use to use before we set in motion the
plan to destroy your base."

Destroyed? Dr. Nagura thought. Sei! Ian!

"I tell you, Nagura," Jinsei continued. "Miko had no problem joining
us against you. She remembers what you did to her."

"I had no... choice," Dr. Nagura said.

"I don't... care," Jinsei mocked. "Whatever your history, you both
work for the master now."

"I will never... help you!" Dr. Nagura protested.

Jinsei smiled. "That pain in your head? You must feel it. That's a
little electronic bug we attached to your brain. You serve the master
whether you like it or not."

"No..."

"Come on, Nagura! Say it! Say 'I serve the master!'"

Dr. Nagura tried to fight the impulses in his head, but the more he
resisted the more pain he felt shoot across his brain, distracting
him, weakening his resolve. He could not fight it.

"I serve... the master," he said finally.


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Science Island

Rose Brachis was on a rampage. She marched through the long, sterile
halls of the security complex she maintained near the centre of the
island, her deputy chief of security, Senshi, hurrying to keep up with
her. He knew where they were going.

Sorceress Miko was their prisoner but she was also, as far as they
knew, the only person on Earth capable of creating the creatures she
called 'pixies'; the creatures which had somehow taken hold inside the
bodies of an entire squadron of elite Black Battalion soldiers and
turned their assault on Blizzard Base Zero - their attempt to capture
the traitorous Dr. Nagura - into a slaughter.

They needed to learn how she corrupted the guards. And they needed to
find out before she could do it again.

They arrived at her cell with such determination marking their steps
that the guards securing her knew to open the door without Dr. Brachis
saying a word. She and Senshi stormed into the cell without pausing
and confronted the woman in pink and white tights, who they found
laying on the small bunk that was the only piece of furniture, other
than a toilet, to be found in the cell.

Brachis took her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet, then
raised a hand and slapped her hard across the face.

"How did you do it, Miko?" she asked. She pointed to a small handgun
holstered at her hip. "Tell me, and don't think I won't use it."

"I will gladly tell you," Miko said. "Why would I be at all reluctant
to demonstrate the utter incompetence of the Black Battalion and the
genius staff of Science Island?"

Brachis put one hand on the butt of her gun. "Quickly."

Miko sighed. "It was quite simple. When your precious Battalion
cornered me in New Orleans, I feigned an escape attempt. I knocked out
a wall, coating your elite soldiers in what they thought was nothing
more than broken plaster."

"Pixie dust," Senshi said. "It was a trap."

"Someone's got their head screwed on around here! Congratulations!"
Miko continued. "Thousands of spores spread through their bodies,
capable of combining and growing into my pixie-spawn. Here in my cell,
I maintained my psychic connection with each of my pixies; I ordered
them to spread from host to host, infecting hundreds, before leading
the attack on your Antarctic base."

"Hundreds...?" Brachis repeated. "But the Battalion contains only a
few dozen - " Miko winked. "No! You can't possibly - "

"But I did," Miko interrupted. Out of the corner of her eye, Brachis
saw two pixies zoom through the open cell door beside which lay the
two unconscious guards. Each landed on one of Miko's shoulders and,
before either Brachis or Senshi could draw their weapons, the pixies
emitted a brief blue glow and disappeared along with their master in a
rain of light blue particles.

"Damn it!" Brachis yelled. "Senshi, I want this island locked down! No-
one enters, no-one leaves, until we know who has been infected by the
pixie dust. Go!"

Senshi saluted and ran from the room.


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NEXT: Heroes without a home!