10th September 2355
"Please don't hurt me!" The CEO begs when we knock out the last of his guards. So much influence and this is the best he can do? Breaking into a new station was easy, I even let Misty go in first to have some fun. No
alarms went off, no one saw us, a perfect day so far. But that's to be expected isn't it? I'm at the top for a reason. "I'll give you whatever you want! Just please don't hurt me!" He's so loud. Why do people have to be so annoying about things like this?
"I'm taking everything. You giving me something is redundant." I tell him coolly before pointing a finger at his chest. A red
needle flies out and into his chest faster than he can perceive. Going through his mind is a simple matter, it's all just data to be processed and consumed. Security codes, bank details, hobbies. These will be nice bonuses. But he's under my control now. I'll have him forget about this but keep the needle deep inside him. I'll take control of him later when we move on to the next phase.
"Done?" Misty asks while sitting on the man's desk. I sit on her shoulder as we open the window to the skyscraper to leave. She leaps out and I take the moment to think on important things. What will I have for
dinner? Can I get out of watching code
creatures with her? Should I assassinate the blue gold ranger? So many decisions.
"I think we should push back our plans by a few months." I tell her when we stop on a building.
"Why? Everything's been going smoothly.".
"Exactly. We've been moving in on targets that won't be noticed too quickly. But the government has surely noticed that something is up by now. But that's fine, we've established some key pieces and that means they have to be careful. Let's continue to chip away at them.".
"Are you just procrastinating?".
"If I wanted it this city would be mine within the hour, everyone finally free from the shackles of incompetent leaders. Or a crater if I felt like it. But I'm doing things differently this time, and that comes with patience. With all the data I've gathered so far there isn't much to be gained by pressing our advantages so soon. We need to 'let them sweat' as they say." I give her a coy grin. "Besides, it can't hurt to keep up our normal lives for now." Fighting monsters, being famous, going to see films with the girls,
trying to flirt with dense boys who wouldn't understand that a girl likes him if it literally hit him on his cute little head. You know, normal things.
"Fair enough then. I'll trust you. By the way, good job with that Kaiju this morning. Finished before the announcement is pretty memorable I'll admit." Oh right, that was brilliant, not to toot my own horn of course.
"Well of course! I have to keep it interesting somehow. Perfection has it's advantages you know." I fly in front of her face to do a pose. She simply gives me an eye roll. She's my best friend but sometimes I really do want to kill her sometimes.
"Shame that weird guy is what everyone's talking about." Huh?
"What are you talking about?" I tilt my head to the side with annoyance clear in my voice.
"Have you seriously not seen the videos? Wait a second and I'll show you." She pulls her phone out of her pocket and shows it to me after a few taps on the screen. It's a news report about a kaiju attack on the west wall, nothing out of the ordinary. But what stops it is. A man in pink and white riding a Kaiju, sending out some variant of the Naga from what appears to be a wand. Why is he in cosplay? It's like some original character made by a fan of mariner satellite. And what's that it's made of? Kaiju matter? It's difficult to tell with this resolution. But still, how is he doing that? To create Kaiju from such a small object would take an incredibly efficient
system, along with a massive amount of energy. I'm the only person in this city who should be able to tap into that power. Even ignoring that, creating new Kaiju that follow your commands has some incredible implications no matter how you look at it. They're viscous as well, but he isn't. The smile and the poses, he's got an innocence you don't see too often. But it's a part he's playing. And the person who's playing it is making me super mad.
"What's he doing?!" I yell into the sky in rage. What's Haruo doing there?! Why does he look like that?! Where did he get this power?!
He's the weakest Kaiju child in the rankings and it isn't even close! How could he put himself in danger like that?!
"I'm right here! You know how sensitive my hearing is." Her ears and tails twitch. I calm down for a second with deep breaths. That was no way for a noble lady to behave.
"My apologies. I was simply taken aback by the video. Quite a frightening fellow isn't he?" I put on a polite voice so she doesn't ask too
many questions. I trust Misty with my life but I need some time to figure out what's going on here. The really annoying bit is that I can't just read his mind to find out what he's up to. I made a promise and I intend to keep it. Even if he is being a massive dummy.
"The kaiju are. Not too sure about him though. There's something about the way he moves. There's something inexperienced for sure, but also determined. Let's just hope he doesn't cause any trouble. I'd rather not get called in to deal with a cosplayer." She's not wrong there. At least the outfit is pretty cute. Nice hair dye as well.
24th September 2355
As we board the aircraft I look over at Haruo boarding his. Does he know that I know? He gave a false alarm about a kaiju then went back to acting like everything is normal. What is he planning? Is being a superhero the
only thing he intends to do? Then why use that power? The brief glimpses I've taken of his mind don't reveal anything too sinister. But it's not his thoughts that annoy me. My seat in there has gotten more crowded. He's definitely been talking to others in his mental space. Never thought I'd be jealous over
something like that. Then again this is a fairly unique situation. I push those thoughts to the side and sit on Mistys shoulder. Of course they haven't made a custom seat for me. You'd almost think they didn't like me. The trip into the west is fairly peaceful. I win at rock paper scissors 47 times in a row against
Misty. It's rather easy when you know what she's thinking. But every time I win she calls for another round. I don't think she will give up on getting me to watch code creatures season 2. Yippee... I go through the soldiers minds with my dust but it looks like they've attempted precautions against me. Chunks of time that I presume would show what the actual objective of this is have been wiped
away. I push further to reconstruct the memory. If you look at both ends of it, when time disappears and reappears, you can understand what your looking for. From there things get a little more metaphorical on my end. Obviously memory's aren't a jigsaw that gets smashed when they're erased but that's how I'm presenting it for the process. I reconstruct it in less than a second. But it seems that they had a backup plan. The 'cracks' in the memory spread to the rest and
the entire mind falls apart. For a moment every soldier here is effectively brain dead, with no memories or personalities to speak of. So not much really changed. But alas, being number 1 comes with certain responsibilities. So with a snap of my fingers I put it all back where I found it. The soldiers won't even realise anything happened. Even without me erasing those memories. I of
course do the same to everyone except Misty. Annabelle's bunny ears twitch in response to the dust but that doesn't matter. I'll admit to feeling a little bad about this but nothing too major. Eventually we land to set up camp. Well, that and deal with the kaiju that have been following us. The pilots seemed to
panic when a C rank started spitting acid at us and we nearly crash. As we all evacuate I look out to see what appears to be an S rank. This could be good.
"What's the plan then?" Rory, A ferret Kaiju child asks the soldiers. Makes sense, his father is a scientist for the anti sky cannon and quite supportive of the organisation. Of course someone he raised would be quick to ask for orders. Well ask you you shall receive. "An S rank?! We're all going to die!" Everyone's started to run all over in panic.
"Group A provide long ranged support." I order the kaiju children capable of long term ranged attacks along with the soldiers. "Group B will protect group A." I order the rest, Annabelle included among them. They
all efficiently get into position, A in 2 lines and B surrounding those lines. Being me has it's advantages. "Most importantly." Misty and I stare each other down for the important showdown.
"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!" I throw scissors and she throws paper. "Damn it!" Misty yells.
"Haha! Yes!" I cheer and give a peace sign. "I call dibs on the S class!" I point at the colossal bipedal reptile. It's exactly 1345 feet
tall and likely posses a nuclear reactor of sorts in its body in contrast to it's A class relatives and their flames. I'll make this quick then, even I can't keep these guys from getting radiation poisoning. Well, probably not. At least Misty can take care of the rest. 25 C class Kaiju and 4 B class. All of them the previously mentioned relatives. I fly up to the enemy and its senses instantly let it spot me despite my speed and size. Its power activates as its body glows green. In 5 seconds it will release a blast of energy comparable to the first nuclear bomb. After that each blast will double in power until the
entire mountain range has melted. Of course that's only if my scans of its biology are accurate but let's not kid, they are. Should I crush it in my hands? No, that's too indulgent and reckless of me. I will just use the abilities they know I have. I use my dust on it to numb its senses and 2 seconds before release, I release some reinforced threads from my fingers. A few twitches slices and dices the kaiju into hundreds of cubes. All thats left is to dispose of it. I can't image nuclear reactors are meant to be cut up. I send out 3 drones to consume the parts of the reactor while a virus I realise dispose of the rest of it. It all fades into dust while I collect a sample for later. I look over to see how Misty is doing. There's a pile of corpses laying around but I don't see her. I get worried for just a moment before I see movement in one of their chests. A comparatively tiny arm bursts out, covered in purple blood. A second later it explodes outwards, bones and such flying everywhere. Misty steps out with a kaiju heart that's half her height in her mouth. She's absolutely drenched in blood and guts. I want to tease her about it but this might not be the best time.
3rd October 2355
"Is he going to come over?" Misty asks as we both look at Haruo standing in the middle of the cafeteria like a deer in headlights. Ever
since he fought that S class turtle he's been slightly different. He had a little more confidence during the competition, enough that he even emotionally manipulated me. He's also been more distant. Well, relatively speaking. He was never the most outgoing person but now it's like he's in his own little world, talking to someone we can't see. The girls and I just look at him while he fidgets in
place, I'm about to go and ask what's wrong when he turns around and speed walks away. We all just look at each other in confusion.
"I'll go check on him." I start to fly after him before Misty places her hand in front of me. I almost take control of her mind before I remember that I shouldn't with her. I've got to have standards after all. I look at her in confusion.
"It's fairly clear he changed his mind on talking to us. At least give him some space first." She makes a good point. Although I really want to go and see what's going on, he's not always the most eloquent when he
gets flustered.
"Besides, you still need to help me with my report." Annabelle adds while holding up the documents she had to fill out. And by she
had to, I of course mean that I had to fill it all out. Annabelle of course added her name at the top but when someone like me is at your disposal it would be strange not to make use of such an amazing resource. I give a resigned nod and get back to telling her all the details of the previous 3 Kaiju attacks. The
details of each fight, property damage costs, evacuation plans used etc etc . After that of course it's time to make sure everyone else has filed the correct reports. Rory is the next to hand his over, his is actually half way finished so that's nice. I fill it out then alter his memories to make him think that he's the 1 who did it. That should be a nice treat for him and his father. The high rankers are the most resistant for my help. They've always held a certain resentment for me, especially Shen. That's how it goes for me it seems, I'm either an obstacle to overcome or a convenient tool. To be fair, someone with my talents really should help others, I just wish I could have some people who just see me as a person. But that's the catch, when there are people like that who don't ask for my help constantly, like Haruo and Misty, I just want them to
ask so I can help! Why are relationships so weird?!
"Are you going to help them?" Misty asks as I realise that I've just been staring at the high rankers for a full minute. They look back at
me with pensive looks. After I erase everyone else's memories of that I answer her.
"I'll send the information to their brains later. Does Haruo have a report to submit?" I ask.
"I don't even think he knows there is a report." That makes sense. Assuming I'm the only person who knows about his hobbies, everyone else would still see him as the healer. The lowest rank Kaiju child with zero
aptitude for combat or tactics.
"That checks out." I love him, but I even I can tell that he's pretty dense. But that's ok isn't it? He still tries his best, enough to even get cosplay powers. Plus he's nice to me.
"Wanna go to the sports centre?" Misty asks. I look at her in surprise, we've never gone there before. Could be fun, although I feel as
though anything we compete in will quickly turn unfair. Oh well.
"Yeah that sounds good." I smile up to her.
"What about my report?" A snake man asks.
"And mine!" A lady with armoured arms shouts. Why can't anyone do it themselves?
"I'll do them later." I try to give a polite smile.
"But I have training! I don't have time to do mine." A man with a visor says.
"Give the lady a break." A large fellow in a leather jacket says from across the room.
"Stay out of this Logan!" The armoured lady yells.
"Come at me!" He yells back.
"Yeah! Fight!" Boba shouts as his sister eagerly joins him in egging everyone on.
"Please list-".
"I'll kill you!" The snake man yells as everyone moves into a brawl.
"Stop it!" I scream as my dust spreads across the room. Everyone but myself and Misty instantly stop and stay in place.
"Woah! They'll be ok right?" She asks concerned as I sit on her shoulder and pull my knees up.
"Yeah. They'll be back to normal in a minute. I just needed some quiet." I say soberly.
"It's fine. Let's just try not to make it a habit. Anyways, why don't we head off? You clearly need to clear your head." She's probably
right. For some reason I'm reminded of that pink outfit that Haruo wears and I'm given an amazing idea. I give Misty what I will admit is a wicked smile.
"I have an idea." Oh he's going to look so cute! I have a brilliant time with Haruo and Misty, I even get invited to his place! But
things get awkward and bridges are burnt. But that's fine. I left Haruo sleeping in his bed. I'm not sure if telling him this much was a good idea but hopefully he will stay out of this. I give Misty a call.
"Do you have any idea how late it is?" She asks groggily.
"23:27." I answer immediately. It feels like she could have just checked the time herself but that's fine. "Its time. We're starting tonight." I let her know as I fly over the city.
"What? Right now? Why so sudden?" I can hear her tumble out of bed and rustle around for some clothes.
"Because it's the best time." I lie. This was a spontaneous decision, there isn't a strategic benefit for this time. But I decided to tell
Haruo, so now I've got to commit. It's fine, we've been preparing for this for months.
"What happened to enjoying a normal life?".
"I was wrong." I've just got to commit. "If you don't want to come then go back to sleep." I say more aggressively than I meant to. There's an awkward silence for a moment and I get a bit worried that she'll get really angry.
"Ok, I'll trust you on this." That's a relief. I really don't want to do this alone. I tell her to meet me at the mansion in 20 minutes. I get a groan in response but she still agrees. I knew I could count on her. After that I fly there to meet up with her. I notice a drone trying to
follow me, likely meant to keep tabs on my movements. If I destroy it then the ranger force has probable cause to come after me, if I don't it will follow me to the mansion. The solution is simple of course. I just speed up until the drone has no hope of following me. This will still cause the ranger force to
mobilise, but they won't know where I am and can't begin with the big guns. They'll still detect me if I fly too fast though so I create a drone of my own, one from a sample I didn't plan on using, to fly in a different direction to
throw them off my trail. I did this trick all the time when my mother was on my case, very convenient. Once I've made it to the mansion I see Misty waiting on a nearby roof. I make my way up and see that she's wearing a very concealing hoody. I almost laugh because I'm not wearing anything to hide my identity. Also
the fact that she has 9 fox tails makes her pretty conspicuous. But I'll let her have this. "It's the best I could come up with ok?" She says defensively. It seems I can't hide my feelings as well as I thought.
"I didn't say anything." I respond with a grin and my hands behind my back.
"You were thinking it." wow, she's dead on.
"Yeah." No use lying it seems. "Anyways. It's time to take over the government!" I cheer like this is some sort of celebration. I need to
keep positive. The prospect by nature is exciting. The broken system will finally be fixed. Everything will be ok and everyone will be happy.
"So which target is first?" Misty suddenly shows a deadly focus in her eyes that I can appreciate.
"Your going to go and collect some of our 'donations'." I make sure to add quotation marks. Money is always a useful resource and we've been very happy to acquire it from the undeserving businesses. I'm given a nod
before she leaps away. She didn't ask what I was going to do. This feels empty if I don't have anyone to brag to. "Oh well." I shrug before flying to my target. It feels appropriate that my first target is the 1 that convinced me to do this again. An off the books submarine base built in zone Y. It's used for various purposes but mainly as a point of contact with the technically non existent dark zone. If the ranger force consider themselves heroes even when they experiment on inconvenient Kaiju children, then I'm fine with being the villain. I'd discovered that it exists during a normal day of looking into people's memories. Normal stuff. Almost no one actually knows anything about it, everyone who goes there and returns has the same mental kill switch as the soldiers so it's been a pain to get information on its workings or location. But for now I'll just head over to the docking bay and trash the place. Couldn't
hurt. Once I've flown to zone Y I make my way to the entrance disguised as a hill. I feel like doing this subtly would be the best move but at this point I just don't care. Out of my back I manifest sharp, armoured insect limbs and dig into the thick metal door. I quickly tear it open and float inside the dark corridors. I'm sure a silent alarm has gone off so I should probably get this over with quick. I pick up the pace and start moving through the various
corridors, from an outside perspective it might look like I'm teleporting. I soon find some soldiers and decide to follow them. They are probably moving to protect an important position since they are moving away from the entrance. This way I'll be able to deal with more people at once. Because of my small size none of them notice me in their hurry. I've grown a bit fond of this size but I don't like how sometimes people won't notice how good I look. Especially that dummy. Wait a minute Lilith. You can't be thinking about him now, you burnt that bridge.
"How could anyone know about this place?" A soldier asked.
"Man, we don't even know where this place is." That's interesting but not exactly surprising. An automatic door opens to an open space based on the sudden wind. I take my chance and zoom in, and like always I'm proven correct. A massive black submarine floating In water that leads out to the ocean through a huge opening. Lots of people are running around, dragging tubes to fuel the submarine but honestly it doesn't matter. I discharge my dust at high speed in all directions, the force tearing through the metal
railings and wall, the pathway I'm hovering over getting bent out of shape. After that I have a little fun, using my string to cut up support beams and let them fall, shooting webs to stick people to the ceiling, making them fight each other with my dust and even sending out a drone with fire abilities to raise
the temperature. That's all, no actual fire, I just want to make everyone mildly uncomfortable. Soon I've made it look like a tornado passed through here. I love being me sometimes. I've already torn up the rotors, now to hit the rest of it. I stop however when I hear a whistling sound and sense something large breaking the sound barrier nearby.
"Oh of course." I roll my eyes and move out of the way of the arrow so it hits the wall instead. The tip of the arrow holds a large capsule that breaks on contact and spews out a pink gas. "Gold grade weaponry." Each of the gold rangers get exclusive access to 1, plus a dilation drive, personal ship and mech. I can certainly understand the privilege of being at
the top, I just wish I didn't have to deal with theirs. I move out into the open ocean to not deal with the gas. Even if I can survive it, who wants to breath in poison gas? Idiots, that's who. Still, I find myself getting strangely excited. Facing a gold ranger in a genuine fight isn't something you get to do everyday. I look up to see her ship hovering in front of the full moon, which looks unnaturally big, probably because of the poison fumes.
"Hi hi! How are we doing today?!" Her gold and black cape flutters with the wind while her helmet displays cutesy faces. I swear the pink
on her uniform has sparkles on them. Her jet is covering in massive stickers of cute animals. Honestly I like the aesthetic, although I imagine it's a headache for the pencil pushers. The thought alone gets a giggle out of me.
"Good thanks! Just doing some redecorating!" I yell back with a smile.
"Oh I love that! Unfortunately, this place is like, super restricted. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you in dead or alive. I'm
like, totes sorry!" She pulls the 3 strings back on the bow that's bigger than she is. The large case of arrows hanging from her hips makes a strange sound before she pulls 3 out and shoots them into the sky. I think we had an unspoken agreement to go easy at the start, that's why I waited for her to go first. Plus, it means more bragging rights for me later. The arrows arc and fall back down to earth, I shoot some needles at a super high speed to knock them off course. Unfortunately it seems she'd planned for that as all 3 explode with a beep, raining down droplets of green liquid. That's the strength of this weapon, the intel I've gathered of it, along with what I've seen in person makes it clear that it's the most versatile gold grade weapon. The weapon is linked to her helmet, letting her input commands as the system creates the arrows and chemicals in real time. A medic won't help you when another medic is doing
everything they can to ruin your body. I enlarge my wings and flap them to send a strong gust of wind that blows the poison away. The next volley of 3 comes down and this time I move to the side at high speed. They explode on the water and even more multi coloured gas starts spreading. I move back before realising that the first arrows gas is making its way out here as well and rising into the air.
"I see." I mutter to myself. She plans to limit my area of movement and then hit me with some sort of finisher. I like that. She knows I'm here for a reason and probably won't retreat and I know that I really want to win and won't leave.
"For what it's worth this isn't personal!" She shoots her final 4 arrows up before picking up a new case from her jet.
"I get it. To be honest I'm actually a big fan of yours." Well, fan might be a strong word but she's certainly the most tolerable of the 5.
"OMG that's so nice of you to say! I love your wings! They're so pretty!" My strings slice through the arrows and red and yellow gas
occupies the air. This is going to look so cool if I get it right. The flattery certainly doesn't hurt. So I'm being boxed in above and below, the perfect opportunity to show off my trick shot ski-. "Sparkle strike!" Her body glows
and moves at a much faster speed, letting her load the bow much faster. 5 arrow come straight at me at an even greater speed, basically becoming blurs. I dodge the first 3 expertly but get hit by the 4th. I'm knocked down by it and the gas and then the 5th comes and repeats it. Blue gas enters my body and smothers it and I fall into the rainbow of war crimes beneath me. My lungs burn, my nerves are tricked into sending pain signals to the rest of me, I can't breath, my skin begins to melt and I start to feel drowsy. It's obviously a strange experience, my eyes forced to see the sleeping people in the base as I'm about to join them. It's genuinely strange to hear how upbeat and friendly she is while experiencing all of this. The worst part though is the embarrassment. I was wasting time to set up a curved shot with a needle to
catch her off guard and take control. It was going to look so cool! But that's my only mistake tonight. Time to get serious, I'll end this before she can even deploy the mech.
"A-ah." I weakly gasp as everything gets blurry. Her bow is a chemical weapon that's designed to eliminate and subjugate S class Kaiju. Obviously the stuff in my system is made to fight through and neutralise regenerative properties. So I'll have to use some unique moves. "Oberon." I mutter just
before all strength leaves me. Antibodies flood throughout my body to fight off any viruses or the like. Meanwhile my body rebuilds itself, cells fading off into gold dust to be replaced by more suitable ones. I reorient myself in the air and take a deep breath. My insides are metaphorically shredded again but I just replace them. It's more work than regular regeneration but I'll admit to enjoying this. I hardly use Oberon because I want to keep it as my hidden trump card. The only issue is that I feel a little guilty, because this is a horrible matchup if I can just become immune to her main move. I wanted to give
her a better chance but that was stupid. I break down the toxin within my body and have the dust swirl around me like a tornado. Soon I'm surrounded by a multi coloured tornado of toxins and poisons. I make sure to rise slowly to look as cool as possible. I can tell that this has thrown her off, that's good.
I learnt a long time ago that my ability is a lot more broad than just copying insect traits. Treating cells like a swarm to be controlled isn't as far removed from my talents as the ranger force assumed. With the same method of contact as my mind control, I could turn someone into a frog, rearrange their organs or literally just make them explode. But that's not as fun. I decide to mess with her and show off a bit more, so I grow to 6 feet tall. With the distance between us it will take her a second to realise what's happening, but
that's all I need. I just waited for her to see the wink I give her before sending the storm of multi coloured war crimes right back at her. The condensed gas explodes right in her face and sends her ship spiralling. The gas starts to dissipate and I look back at the base. Everything is at least some level of damaged and that's good enough for me. I look back
when I hear the massive splash of the jets hitting the water. That almost certainly didn't kill her. Should I go and finish the job? Nah she's tolerable. I'll keep her around when I'm in charge. What about the people inside? It
wouldn't take much to finish them but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. I shrug while shrinking down to my 'official' size, that's probably going to bother her for a while. Especially since no one will believe her. I'm so funny, it's a wonder Misty barely laughs at my jokes. Some people have no taste. "Sorry
everyone. Shouldn't have worked here." I'm about to kill everyone when I get a call. I take out my custom made phone and see that it's from Misty.
"I got it. What's next?" Wow that was quick.
"Just put it in the vault downstairs. I'll be right over." I hang up and fly back to the mansion. It seems these people got lucky that I have more important things to do. With the wind in my face I look down at the city below. It's so strange, people going about their lives like everything isn't a mess. They keep fighting
to stay alive while they destroy themselves. They have no idea how much better things are going to get. I've got a whole new system ready, it's going to be amazing. What's this weird feeling in my stomach though? I'm doing the right thing aren't I? Yes it's dangerous but isn't what I do already dangerous? It's not like it would matter if I got hurt anyway. Most people don't know how much better things would be with me in charge so the loss is minimal. Any relationship that might be damaged is an acceptable casualty. So why do I like them? Why do I bother getting attached to people if that's how I feel? Why can't things just be simple?! I can't just solve things without feeling like those pompous nut-jobs across the ocean! I might as well call down lord star
fall himself according to them! I have half a mind to think they'd come over here themselves if they knew what I was doing! But who are they to judge me?! "Damn it!!!!" I scream into the night sky. "Calm down Lilith. Your ok." After a few more breaths I regain my focus and continue on. I really don't know why I'm worrying so much. This is going to go super smoothly. There will be no problems coming up