[ Contents | 12. Truth Hurts | 13. Monster Summoning I | 14. Surprise Encounters ]

Yamucha's Student

By Dragoness Eclectic

 

Chapter 13. Monster Summoning I

The waves slapped lazily at the concrete wharves of Dock Number Two, filling its cavernous interior with a continuous soft echo of slaps and splashes. Dock Number Two was an immense sea cave dug into the side of the rocky headland that protected the island's small harbor. Camouflage nets normally hung down across the entrance, concealing it; from the air, Dock Number Two was just another chunk of cliffside. Concrete wharves lined three sides and another extended down the center; there was space for two good-size ships--or monsters.

Soldiers lined the outer wharves; a pillbox covered the entrance on either side. The camouflage nets were drawn back, giving a clear view of the harbor and the lower headland across the bay. At the foot of the center wharf, Tao Pie Pie stood with his back to the wall, periodically looking in one direction or the other. On the center wharf, Colonel Dark stood with folded arms, watching as Doctor Soliere fiddled with the cables leading into a desk-sized cube of gleaming black and gold. A laptop computer rested on top of the strange machine.

"Well?" asked Colonel Jerome Sebastien Dark, one dark eyebrow raised.

"Gojira heard the recall signal; he should be in range in a few minutes, sir. Rodan is on his way, and Barugon--"

Water boiled and sloshed back and forth as a monstrous fin emerged from water in the left freighter slip, followed by a long back and an immense, vaguely iguanalike head. Toothy jaws yawned wide enough to swallow a small house and snapped shut; rainbow lights flickered about the huge sailfin cresting the monsters's back. Gold tendrils wrapped about the back of the monster's head glittered in the evening light.

"--is here," concluded Soliere.

"Good." Colonel Dark smiled and rubbed his hands together. "Get started, Mathieu".

"Yes, sir!" Mathieu Soliere grinned and started typing commands into the laptop. "I wish I could increase the range of the programming frequencies--then we wouldn't have to bring the monsters in so close."

"I don't think so," said Colonel Dark with a certain sardonic finality. "We don't really need some clever meddler re-programming the monsters remotely. It is enough of a risk to remotely control the pain and pleasure circuits."

"The monsters would be unmanageable without it," Soliere countered. "None of them are very bright, and they have poor attention spans. Another monster, loud human weapons, interesting sights--anything could distract them from their mission if I did not constantly monitor and correct them. Without this controller," Soliere patted the gleaming black and gold cube, "they would just rampage at random, attacking whatever caught their eye, or they might just lose interest and go home."

"Or come back and attack us," Colonel Dark observed.

"I don't think they would do that," Soliere said. "They've been conditioned not to."

"Of course."

A shadow crossed the sun and a sudden wind roared across the harbor, whipping up whitecaps and sending soldier's caps tumbling in its wake. Monstrous clawed feet touched down on the low headland across the bay; immense leathery wings folded against the equally immense body of a gigantic pterosaur. It opened its beak and let out an ear-shattering screech.

"Rodan has arrived." Colonel Dark smiled evilly.

*      *      *      *

Another clang, and loud shouts; a bright light played across the catwalk Yamucha and Saisei had just left.

"They're up there!" Someone yelled from the ground; a soldier ran forward and started to climb the ladder.

"Yamucha-san, can you fight yet?" Saisei and Yamucha lay atop a watertank, looking down at the search party. "I do not think we can keep evading them."

Yamucha rolled over on his back, his breath coming in harsh gasps. Hauling himself up the water pipes to the top of the tank had taken most of his recently regained strength.

More soldiers swarmed up the ladder to the catwalk just below and spread out in either direction. A lithe figure in black and green bounded up the ladder; a sword hung in a sheath across her back.

"Yamucha?" Saisei asked again.

"Maybe in a little while," the former desert bandit finally admitted.

Saisei looked his mentor over. "I will get you that little while," he said. He reached up, grabbed a water pipe, and hauled himself up.

The water pipes crossed over the catwalk a short distance away; Saisei silently crawled along the top of them until he was just above an unsuspecting soldier.

The man never knew what hit him. The soldier was still falling as Saisei spun and kicked his nearest companion, who didn't have time to reach for his gun. Neither did the soldier on his opposite side. Saisei dashed toward a small knot of three soldiers; they had time to raise their weapons, but no time to use them before Saisei was among them.

One, two, three, they went down; the last man spasmodically jerked the trigger as he fell, sending a short stream of bullets into the ceiling. Saisei kicked the gun away, and glanced back. The gunfire had attracted attention; the girl in black and green and two other soldiers came back around the bend in the catwalk. Saisei dove over the side as they raised their submachineguns and fired.

The two soldiers dashed to the spot where Saisei had disappeared and looked over; there was no one below.

"What the--" one of them exclaimed, only to be cut off as Saisei reached from beneath the catwalk and yanked the man's ankles out from under him. He sent his companion stumbling against the rail as he fell; Saisei flipped himself up and over the rail and on to the catwalk.

The girl in black and green stood back and drew her sword. Saisei caught the stumbling man under the chin with his elbow; the soldier slumped bonelessly to the catwalk atop his companion. A well-placed kick stilled the other man's struggles, and Saisei faced the girl with the sword.

Black hair drawn back and tied in a ponytail fully revealed the delicate lines of a hauntingly familiar face. Green almond-shaped eyes narrowed as Mist stared at him.

"My master wants you alive, for the moment, so you may surrender now," she said cooly, raising her sword.

Saisei just stared at her. He knew her; how could he not know the face he'd seen in his nightmares every night for nine years?

"Ayomara? How?"

The girl's eyes widened. "Don't call me that! I am Mist!"

Saisei blinked. "Mara-chan! Don't you know me? It's me, your little brother Habotan!"

Mist drew back, lowering the tip of her sword into guard position. "That's impossible! My brother is dead--I saw him die!"

She lunged suddenly. Saisei dodged, and dodged again as her blade swung back in a return strike. Mist's sword flashed as she feinted and thrust; Saisei dodged every blow.

"I know your name: Ayomara; our father was Takashi, and mother was Osako and our village was Irie Gyoson and I was born Chou Habotan," he said, still dodging her furious blows, "and you have a birthmark in the shape of a fish--" Instead of dodging, Saisei deflected her thrust and slashed his hand down, across her chest, tearing her blouse apart, "--here!"

Mist leaped back, momentarily revealing a wine-colored mark in the shape of a carp marring her left breast. She clutched at her blouse, holding it together. "Tan-kun? But I saw them shoot you--you are a ghost! Why have you come back?" Her gaze momentarily traveled to the shattered golden fragments of the control harness still clinging to Saisei's head. "No, you cannot be a ghost, you are real! But how?"

"Haze and his friends did not do such a good job; I got away in father's little boat," Saisei said. "A fisherman found me drifting." His eyes narrowed in anger as he started at Mist. "I thought you were dead long ago; instead you have joined these beasts!" Saisei spat on the grillwork between them. "Why do you serve our father's killers?"

Mist blanched. "No! Habotan, you don't understand--I had no choice! The women were..." Mist backed away.

Saisei let his breath out in a long sigh. "You are right; I do not understand--but that is for later. For now--leave these beasts! Come with me, help me pay these bastards back for everything they did to us and to our village!"

Mist shook her head sadly. "You are too late; I swore obedience to my master and I cannot defy him. He is too strong. Habotan, forget you met me! Your sister Ayomara is long dead; remember her fondly." A swirl of dark hair, and Mist was gone, vanished down among the pipes and tanks.

"Ayomara!" Saisei shouted. He looked down, up, and in all directions. No one and nothing moved.

"Your 'master' dies," Saisei vowed. "I will see you free."

*      *      *      *

Lunch stared at the dead and unconscious soldiers sprawled about the Level F guardpost. She glanced about warily, and drew the bolt on her submachinegun back, cocking it.

"What the hell happened?" She asked no one in particular. "Did the prisoners escape?"

Lunch picked up a battered logbook from a collapsed desk. "Uh-huh. Haze signed in with 'Subject #12', for the brig." She let the book fall. "Who's 'Subject #12'? Yamucha, or the cute young fellow?"

The blonde grinned fiercely. "I think I'll just go and find out."

A few minutes later she nudged the cellblock door; it swung open. The green-eyed vixen raised one eyebrow and looked warily in either direction. Nothing moved; the cellblock guards were also unconscious or dead.

*      *      *      *

"AAA-CHOO!" Puar's sneeze echoed hollowly in the air duct. She sneezed again. "We've been all over this place and I can't find them anywhere!" Tears brimmed up in her eyes and ran down her face, mingling with the dirt and dust covering the bedraggled blue and grey cat--now mostly grey and grey.

"Not everywhere," pointed out the equally bedraggled twin kami. "We haven't been to the bottom floor," they chorused.

Puar gulped. "That's dangerous; we might follow the ducts all the way into the furnace if we took a wrong turn!"

The tiny girls shrugged in unison. "Then your friends are gone where we cannot find them. We are sorry, but we cannot think of any place else to look."

Puar sat down and tried to wash some of the grime off. "Let's go back to the cells downstairs," Puar finally said. "Maybe we can find some clue."

*      *      *      *

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 14. Surprise Encounters


[ Contents | 12. Truth Hurts | 13. Monster Summoning I | 14. Surprise Encounters ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic