Now the creature stood immobile. Since erupting from the ground the creature had done nothing but stand up, but the Circle K convenience store, which minutes before had been doing a booming business due to the unexpected arrival of the robed cultists, had been reduced to mere rubble, and the unfortunate clerks buried alive.
Mr. Mabuki stood next to Hanzo, more amazed than anyone at the appearance of the Neboukichan. “Unbelievable,” he said allowed to no one in particular.
“It is so beautiful,” said Hanzo, staring up at the creature, imagining its power.
“Modesty,” said Mr. Mabuki, recalling the Kaiju Cult tales he had learned as a boy. “Its name is Modesty, the first of the Neboukichan.”
For the last ten years, since his grandfather became sick and Hanzo left school to support him, Hanzo had felt small, anxious, and weak, but that was all changed now. As he and the rest of the Kaiju Cult stood in the shadow of Modesty, Hanzo felt truly calm for the first time in his life. He stared into the face of the monster, passive yet stern, like the heads of Easter Island, and reached deep inside himself for the right command.
Of course there was really only one command. After a life of sadness and disappointment, Hanzo now possessed the power to balance the scales. One word and one word only came to mind as Hanzo smiled and raised his hands.
“Destroy!”
His followers cheered, and Hanzo felt emboldened, their excitement became his power. “Destroy it all!” screamed Hanzo, feeding off the Kaiju Cult, feeding off his followers.
Modesty responded by dropping open its enormous mouth and letting out a low moan, so deep it shook the ground and so loud Hanzo had to cover his ears. Car alarms blared and windows shattered. The Kaiju Cultists scattered as the monster took a gigantic step, destroying what little was left of the Circle K. Modesty then continued to take step after step, on a direct course for central Tokyo. Smiling, Hanzo clambered to the top of the rubble left in the monster’s wake, and watched it saunter forward on a path of death and destruction.
“Our next stop is fifteen miles away!" announced Hanzo loudly, addressing his followers, who were both frightened and mesmerized by the miracle. Most had never truly believed this was possible, but still his followers cheered.
“We have only awakened Modesty,” continued Hanzo, “There are seven more keys to the passing of this world! Seven more Neboukichan to activate!”
As his followers cheered, Mr. Mabuki led Hanzo to a small red car. The older man pulled keys from his pocket and flashed a smile. “I’ll drive.”
The Japanese National Guard was still mobilizing as Modesty climbed a small embankment and stepped onto a major thoroughfare, leaving it up to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force to mount an uncoordinated and completely ineffectual resistance. SWAT teams found their special weapons and tactics useless in the face of such an enemy. The creature ignored the bullets and people, seemingly content to cause property damage. Modesty kicked abandoned vehicles out of the way and tore down signs and towers as it walked, step by inexorable step towards downtown Tokyo.
Modesty did pause to consider a vehicle flying towards it at twice the speed of sound. The vehicle was bright violet in color, with a metallic finish, and shaped flat and round as if it were all wings and no fuselage. Silently it approached, the roar of its powerful engines left far behind in its supersonic wake. The vehicle was known in Japan and throughout the world as the Violet Wing, a powerful weapon in the arsenal of Walter Watanabe.
The gigantic granitoid creature opened its mouth, and began to emit its low, sonorous hum, when the flying wing suddenly fired two missiles that soared forward on plumes of white hot smoke and slammed into the creatures maw, exploding with sky rending force, causing Modesty to stagger backwards and fall clumsily.
Flat on its back, the creature watched as the Violet Wing soared past and then the sky filled with the sound of multiple sonic booms that caused the craft’s billowing exhaust smoke to dance and curl in response. Something fell from the wing, a small human figure, violet in color and violent in action. The figure landed on Modesty’s chest and brought down a fist with a shout of “Hai!” so loud that it was hard to tell if it was the punch or the yell that cracked the granite-like exterior of the monster.
On the chest of the fallen monster Modesty, Walter Watanabe smiled and stood tall. Smoke still rose from the creature’s mouth where the missiles had destroyed its vocal weaponry. His punch had cracked the creature’s armor. He bent his legs and jumped, his boot jets activated and he soared high into the air, then he brought his targeting computers on-line and redirected himself, pounding his fist into the chest of the creature. This time the granite exterior began to chip away, and Walter could see more of the glowing blue-white quartz-like material beneath.
Walter contacted the Violet Wing, his remote controlled combat plane, and instructed it to lock two more missiles on the creature. With Modesty’s exterior damaged, Walter was confident that his missiles would now be able to penetrate inside and kill the monster.
Suddenly five flashes of multicolored light surrounded Walter, and he frowned. The Wonder Heroes had arrived from America, too late to be of any use in this battle, but just in time to take credit.
“Back away, Wonder Heroes!” screamed Walter, diving off the monster. “Missiles incoming!”
Walter activated his boot jets and took to the sky, and the recently arrived Wonder Heroes cart wheeled and jumped clear as the missiles struck the creature in the chest with teeth rattling force.
Walter landed in the center of the street some distance away from the smoking remains of the creature. Two satellites, privately owned by the Watanabe Corporation were scanning the area, confirming what his armor’s sensors were already telling him: the creature was finished. Behind Walter the Wonder Heroes were grouping together, so he turned to face them.
“I appreciate your efforts, Wonder Heroes,” said Walter, “but it looks like the threat has already been eliminated.”
Matt was receiving updates from the Wonder Base Computer, confirming that the creature was indeed destroyed. He stepped forward and shook Walter’s hand. “Nice work.”
Walter could see Matt’s face through the Wonder Helmet’s faceplate, something everyone thought could only be done by another Wonder Hero, but Walter had long ago figured out how that particular trick was done, and had incorporated the ability into his sensor systems. As a result, Walter judged from Matt’s expression that his words were a bit insincere. Walter said, “It’s the duty of every Japanese citizen to protect his country.”
Matt nodded. Walter had chosen his words well. The United Nations mandate that allowed the Wonder Heroes to combat extraterrestrial threats anywhere they might happen on the Earth also allowed each country a measure of sovereignty in dealing with the attack. The exact amount of sovereignty was open to debate and often decided long after the threat had been dealt with.
Theodore stepped forward and shook Walter’s hand. Wonder Hero Gold had retracted his Wonder Helmet, and wore a big goofy grin. “Mr. Watanabe? I’m Theodore Studebaker. It’s an honor to meet you sir. I’m a really big fan.”
Walter smiled at Theodore’s sincerity. “The honor is all mine,” he replied, “I’ve read a lot about you.”
Theodore nodded. “All good, I hope.”
Walter nodded noncommittally and shook hands with Kalomo and Jay. To Jay he said, “I know your father, James Parker. He’s one of my biggest competitors in the emerging technology fields.”
Jay laughed. “He’d be glad to hear that you consider his company competition, given how easily you undercut him on the European EDS contracts.”
Walter nodded and greeted Susan Daystrom. He had not counted on meeting her so soon, but during combat with the creature he understood that this was a possibility, so he quickly recalled all he had read in her file. He started by lifting the faceplate of his armor, so that she could see his face.
“Susan Daystrom. It’s an honor
to meet you.” Walter took her hand, shook it, and held onto it for maybe a second too long.
Susan pulled her hand away, but was charmed nonetheless. Even with the goofy purple armor, she had to admit that Walter Watanabe was very cute. “Mr. Watanabe.”
“Call me Walter, please.” As Susan nodded, Walter said, “I read your paper ‘Dynamic Balance in Bipedal Robotics.’ Some of your ideas were very helpful when I redesigned my armor.”
This caught Susan off guard. “Really? I wrote that paper with three other people…”
“Then maybe I should be thanking them, instead…”
“Oh no, you can thank me,” said Susan.
With his visor up, Walter could no longer see the human faces behind the Wonder Helmets, but he knew that Susan was smiling. “Then I will. Thank you.”
Kalomo pointed towards another plume of brown smoke rising into the clean blue Tokyo sky. “Uh-oh. I think we have another one.”
As they watched, a second alien creature rose from the ground.
“Okay everybody, let’s go handle this thing.” Matt turned as Walter slapped his visor back in place. “Walter, if you want to join us, fine, but you my follow orders, got it?”
“Agreed,” said Walter, though he truly felt the Wonder Heroes superfluous, he wanted to stay on Susan’s good side.
Together the six heroes shot across the Tokyo sky towards the second Neboukichan.
Hanzo was very disappointed. He and his followers had performed the ritual, said the prayers, planted the gems and activated the second Neboukichan, called Innocence, only to watch through a pair of stolen binoculars as Walter Watanabe, wearing the armor the press called Domaru, easily destroyed Modesty.
The ground shook as the second Neboukichan dug its way upwards towards light and freedom above ground. Mr. Mabuki stood by Hanzo’s side. “We should hurry, and activate the rest of the Neboukichan. He cannot destroy them all.”
As Hanzo watched, the Wonder Heroes appeared, and were engaging Watanabe in conversation. Hanzo shook his head. “No. It would be a waste. The Wonder Heroes have arrived. Our Neboukichan don’t stand a chance if we raise each one alone.”
Hanzo regarded the older man, who scowled at Hanzo’s hesitation. “The power of the Neboukichan is geometric,” explained Hanzo, “One is one, but two is four, and three are twelve.”
“Our duty is to raise the Neboukichan...” said Mr. Mabuki.
“And we will,” said Hanzo, thinking fast, “but we must raise them all together, gather them in one place…”
Mr. Mabuki was becoming angry. “Impossible. If we move fast we may be able to activate two more before the authorities stop us.” Mr. Mabuki took out his car keys. He raised his voice to the assembled members of the Kaiju Cult. “We must move on to the next location!”
Hanzo smiled. He handed the binoculars off to one of the cult members, a cute Goth girl with tattoos running up her arms who had been staying close by Hanzo for a while now. Hanzo suspected that she wished him to notice her, and had decided to play it cool.
“All my life,” said Hanzo aloud, grabbing the attention of the assembled cult members, “All my life I have wondered what my purpose was. I was a loser. No good at sports, no good in school, I was bullied by my classmates, my teachers, even my parents, before they died. I work at a crappy job catering to people who look down on me, people who make in one day what I make in two weeks.”
Hanzo tried to ignore the girl with his stolen binoculars staring at him as he continued, “I will suffer this no more. We have a chance, now, to overturn the world, to unleash the forces of chaos and destruction. To serve and honor the entropic principles upon which our religion is based, to strike with Time’s Arrow at the heart of all creation!”
Hanzo paused, and smiled. The Kaiju Cult was hanging on his every word, enraptured by his command of their principles and writings. “To accomplish this, we must do two things. We must all be patient,” Hanzo looked at the crowd, and saw them nodding in agreement, “and you must all follow me.” Hanzo turned to Mr. Mabuki and reached out his hand. “Give me your car keys.”
“What? Why?” Mr. Mabuki protested even as he placed the keys into Hanzo’s outstretched hand. Behind Hanzo the gigantic monster, Innocence, broke through the ground and crawled from the Earth. The dark granite monster stood tall, towering ten stories over their heads. Like Modesty, the monster bore alien markings and designs, but markings that glowed with a soft orange rather than blue-white light. It was awaiting a command.
Hanzo handed Mr. Mabuki the map. “When the Wonder Heroes arrive, allow yourself to be captured. Confess to everything, but tell them nothing, and never mention the Kaiju Cult. Tell them you work alone. Let them interpret the map and gather the Neboukichan in one place for us. Then, when the time is right, I will gather the followers, and we shall call forth the remaining six.”
Hanzo turned to the girl with the tattooed arms. “What is your name?”
“Junko Mabuki.”
Hanzo turned to Mr. Mabuki, and stated, rather than asked, “She’s your daughter?”
“Yes,” said the older man quietly.
Hanzo smiled. “Junko, come with me.” Hanzo walked towards the small red car, and he knew that Junko followed without having to look back. Some of the Kaiju Cult members were unsure of how to react. They looked back and forth between Mr. Mabuki and Hanzo. Hanzo smiled, opened the door to his new car, pointed to the giant monster Innocence, and said, “Kill the Wonder Heroes!”
In response Innocence opened its mouth and roared a tone so low and tremorous that the humans in the area felt their teeth rattle in their jaws. Hanzo’s command of the creature convinced even those with the deepest doubts: Hanzo Ueda was the Hakaisha, the prophesied leader of the Kaiju Cult who would destroy the world.
As the Wonder Heroes arrived alongside Walter Watanabe, the Kaiju Cult members scattered, divesting themselves of their ceremonial robes and dispersing back into their lives and the world. In seconds there was no way to tell the cultists from any other civilian fleeing for safety in the wake of multiple giant monster attacks. Only Mr. Mabuki stayed behind, holding the ceremonial staff, its cymbals ringing in the breeze, his black robe still in place. He waited to be noticed, and arrested.
Though Innocence was powerful, the combined efforts of the Wonder Heroes and Walter Watanabe brought the monster down in seconds. Hanzo smiled. When next these heroes met the Neboukichan, things would go very differently.
Hanzo turned to Junko and said, “I’m starving. What do you want to eat?”
“That,” said Junko, touching Hanzo’s hand and sending an electrifying thrill through his body, “is for the Hakaisha to decide.”
Instantly, Hanzo was in love.
Wonder Heroes 4.17
New York City was freezing cold in the weeks before Thanksgiving, and the wind sweeping between the buildings caused a nearly unbearable wind chill. A light snow was falling as Susan, Theodore, Kalomo and Kalomo’s fiancé Linnea appeared in a flash of multicolored light in an empty alleyway. Of the four, only Linnea was dressed for the weather, wrapped like a Nordic aristocrat in a white faux fur parka and matching hat and Uggs. Te Wonder Heroes, due to the presence of the gauntlets they wore on their arms under their specially tailored jacket, were able to dismiss the cold.
Linnea locked arms with Kalomo and hurried the group along as she searched for somewhere warm to duck into.
“So you’re getting the full Rolling Stone treatment,” said Theodore, walking beside Susan and behind Linnea and Kalomo, “interview, cover, everything, and I’m stuck with that Forces of Geek profile titled ‘A Hero for the Rest of Us.’”
Susan blushed, or maybe it was just the slight chill her Wonder Gauntlet allowed her to feel when a blast of arctic cold wind hit her. “At least you weren’t offered a nude shoot in Playboy,” she countered, as Linnea led the group into an Autocrat Coffee Shop.
Inside the humid and aromatic warmth of the coffee sh
op, Kalomo laughed, “Jay’s seriously thinking about posing nude for Vogue.”
“He’s doing Vogue?” Theodore raised his hands in defeat. “I can’t get comic book companies to return my calls. I tell you it’s the curse of Wonder Hero Gold.”
Kalomo nodded, “May be, man,” and turned to his fiancé as they got into line, “Linnea’s got some big news.”
Linnea removed her fur hat and shook snow from her long blond hair as she almost exploded with pent up glee. “I’m doing Maxim!”
As Theodore palm slapped his face Susan covered her surprise with a smile. “That’s… great!”
“I know,” said Linnea, with only a trace of her Swedish accent coming through in her excitement. “Since Kal became a Wonder Hero my modeling career has really taken off. People wants to pay for our entire wedding in exchange for exclusive coverage.” Linnea took Susan by the hand and sidled up close to her, “I can put in a good word for you with the Maxim people…”
“Oh, that’s fine…” Susan did not want to mention that she had already turned down Maxim, FHM and Stuff. “I’ll leave the modeling to the models.”
Linnea seemed happy with Susan’s answer.
They paid for their drinks and sat down in one of the booths, letting the hot liquids warm their insides. The Wonder Gauntlets prevented adverse effects from the cold, but still allowed for the pleasures of warmth. Some of the patrons in the shop recognized the celebrities in their midst and cast glances their way, but otherwise respected their privacy.
“So what are you guys doing while I’m at the photographer’s?” asked Susan.
“Shopping,” said Kalomo, “Linnea wants to hit up some boutiques.” He looked at Theodore, who quickly realized that Kalomo wanted him to bow out.
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