The scene at the airport was hectic, confused. Japanese police forces were already on their way, and the man Emerald had first partially cooked... and then slammed to the ground.. was moaning in pain on the tarmac. Emerald leaned in close, glaring down at him. "What the hell!? Were you aiming for me? My man? The Minister?"
The man grimaced.. and glanced at the car. "The Minister? What minister? I might miss. But one of my fellows will not, child of the dragon! Your people will burn until you return what has been stolen!"
Emerald rubbed her forehead with exasperation, planting a clawed foot on the man's chest. "...Who the hell are you, and why did you shoot at me?"
Eyeball stepped forward, looking down at the man, frowning... and gripped the burning sleeve, tearing it away to reveal a beautiful, intricate series of tattoos. "He's Yakuza. And apparently they've decided to start a war with the Family. I'll let Nicky know. This... will get bloody. Let the cops have this one. Nicky will know where the bosses are, we'll clean them up after we finish the Empress."
"..Family... what..." The man blinked, clearly confused... then his eyes focused on Eyeball's chrome helmet. "Wait. Family? Titanslayer?"
He turned back and forth between the two metas. "Wait! If you are not with the Empress, we are not targeting you. Our people in the ministry intercepted some of the messages you sent. We have made a mistake."
Eyeball glanced at Emerald for a moment; it was pretty clear she could be mistaken as an operative of a Dragon Empress easily enough; then behind him, where the police cars were just becoming visible as they circled the airport. "We have business with the Japanese government, then we will be moving on the Empress. They tried to abduct one of our own, and we aim to ensure it doesn't happen again. When your lawyer shows up, have him inform your bosses."
The man seemed inclined to respond, and started to speak.. but Emerald pressed down harder with her claw, and the man grimaced, taking the hint to stop talking.
He turned back to the Minister, and gave a short bow. "Okay then, sir. We'll let the police have this gentleman. Now. Honestly, we just wanted to make sure that we didn't step on any toes, cause any problems, when we went to deal with this. While its a family affair, most of those involved are citizens of La Famiglia."
The Minister sighed. "There should not be, no. We do not generally intervene in internal Imperial family affairs, though the Emperor would wish to be informed. Would you be averse to waiting, say, half an hour, so that I may contact His Majesty?"
Eyeball nodded. "This is going to be a fairly significant affair. It will take a time more to get everyone ready; the Dragon Empress is a very dangerous woman, and we have no intention of becoming casualties. In fact.." They were probably going to launch the attack in four or five hours. "Lets say another day. We'll likely end up striking with the next sunset."
The man smiled. "Well! Thank you for saving my life. If you'd like, we can arrange a meeting with the ambassador we will be assigning to La Famiglia while you are here."
"Perhaps after the incident northward is handled. Until its dealt with, the prospect of having to fight my future mother-in-law to keep my fiance safe will be hanging over me."
***
The wait at the airport started off as a bit tense. After the police hauled off the Yakuza member, the minister offered to have them wait in a nearby restaurant; which Eyeball quietly rebuffed, not wanting to get too far from the jet. This led to an awkward stand-off as the sun went down; until one of the Minister's bodyguards stepped forward, to whisper something quietly to him.
Eyeball glanced at the subtext. His helmet had picked up the audio; and the rough translation appeared to be 'wants to meet her'. He grimaced, glancing at her. Speaking to him would be fine. But it would take god knew how long to actually go visit the man, time during which thousands of people would witness his arrival in Japan; and the Dragon Empress could bolster her defenses. Make things more complicated for his own arrival.
When the Minister stepped forward, they'd been waiting over half an hour already, and Eyeball raised one hand. "I'm sorry, but I've received word from my people preparing to move out. I have issues I need to handle. If your Emperor wishes to meet myself and his cousin, we will gladly do so after things have been handled."
The Minister frowned.. but bowed. "Of course. His Highness will be disappointed."
Suddenly, there was a streak of light hurtling through the air.. perfectly silent, golden, glowing, heading down from the south.. Emerald rose from where she'd been seated on the steps of the jet, frowning as she looked at the sky. "Gabriel...Daddy?"
Before suddenly, there was a crack of stone as the tarmac cratered beneath his feet... and a tall man, pale-skinned, with long white hair and a pair of vividly glowing feathered wings... in fact, his entire body gave off a faint golden aura, all-too visible in the growing darkness, and the man seemed dressed to emphasize his otherworldly appearance, wearing what appeared to be simple cloth white pants, with bare feet. He looked at Emerald, tilting his head. "My word, Emma. You've grown so much!" He started to walk towards her... as Emerald drew to her feet, wings spreading, tail lashing out, smashing the steps behind her as she advanced a step to meet him.
Eyeball drew his 40mm handgun, certain he'd need something armor-piercing to take out the apparent angel before him... only to see... his gun would start to disassemble itself in midair. He frowned, putting the weapon away.. only to feel... weightless. He was floating in midair, his arms and legs abruptly stretched out in every direction... Ahh, hell. Telekinetic. He had a counter-measure built-in that would free him for just enough time to kill whoever it was... he just needed to wait for the right moment. He could hear the weapons of the bodyguards falling apart as well... and spot the Minister's cell-phone doing the same when it emerged.
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And watch the weapon start to break itself apart in front of him; screws rotating and popping free, the entire assembly turning into a pile of disparate parts that fell to the tarmac. It was a strange feeling. He could see every event before it happened, predict it with absolute certainty... but unless he gave the voice command and triggered the field generator, absolutely nothing he tried to do would have an impact.
"Daughter. Your mother asked me to come collect you. She felt I would be a more friendly face."
Emerald gave a low hiss... her mouth visibly smoking. "Fuck you. You taught me to fly, and worked with mother and grandmother to try to raise me as some obedient little brood mare. Well, its not going to happen."
She turned to the side, noticing the grey-skinned figure in a white Kimono with a dark grey armored vest strapped over the chest simply floating forward, one hand pointed at Eyeball, the other at the ground before he settled on the tarmac. "No choices here, little dragoness. The Empress commands."
Eyeball studied the situation. The positions of the combatants. If he triggered the field, he'd have less than a second to kill the telekinetic. Dairesh? Dairesh. "Countermeasure, set auto-activate if helmet disconnected from network." He heard a soft affirmative beep. "Voice amplification fifty percent, volume on." He took a deep breath.
"Want me to kill him, love?"
The grey-scaled mutant, who'd been absently keeping Eyeball floating helplessly in the air while staring at Emerald, suddenly turned to him. "As if you could. Your accomplishments are impressive, but you are still a mortal interfering in matters of dragons." The man casually removed the tenner from his other holster, as Emerald turned to Eyeball.
"Can you do it?"
Eyeball studied his prospects. If he activated the field, he could grab the knife, throw it, and leave the man, at best, badly injured. It would've been easier if he hadn't let the man take the pistol. Shouldn't have asked, just done, even if this was one of her uncles. "Even if not, he certainly won't like the experience."
She turned to face her father, and took a deep breath. "Do it." Her father looked down at her, then at the helpless Eyeball, confused.
"Countermeasure, activate." There was an audible series of pops. A series of eight capacitors suddenly triggered; each creating a momentary EM field, disrupting Dairesh's grasp on Eyeball; and leaving him falling to the ground, reaching down with both hands, hurling forward... a knife, with precise aim, and a fragmentation grenade with decidedly less precision.
He could see the panic on the man's face as he reached up a hand, trying to stop the knife in midair, only to see it sail right through... and embed itself in his throat. The grenade, instead, rolled between his legs, stopping behind him. He turned, one hand clutching his throat as blood started pooling down his flesh, staining his kimono a vivid red; and raised one hand. This time, it worked; as the grenade went off, the man took hold of the object; sending most of the debris scattering off away from him into the night as it detonated. His control seemed imperfect, possibly due to the knife wound; a few fragments got away, one neatly slicing his right leg.
He held his hand up to his own throat, focusing on himself. The bloodflow stopped. The injury was still obvious; the man was clearly greviously wounded; but... he was holding the blood inside his own body, redirecting its flow with his power. He turned to Eyeball, who had taken advantage of his reprieve to grab his handgun... only to suddenly be bodily hurtled away.
As he flew through the air, Eyeball grimaced. Fuck. He could've sworn stabbing the bastard in the throat would do the job. He couldn't be sure to throw a knife with enough force to pass through a skull, but if he'd known the man would be able to do this bullshit he would have at least aimed for the eye... then he slammed into the wall of the airport hard enough to crack his helmet, and send him, unconscious, to the ground, landing in a limp pile beside the window.
Emerald turned to watch him go flying off... and screamed, leaping forward at Dairesh. When her father lunged forward to try to stop him, she casually backhanded him, sending him skidding away across the ground, before the telekinetic turned to face her... and grimaced as he kept one hand focused on his throat, the other on her. She was suddenly frozen in midair.
She'd never been pinned by the telekinetic before. But she could feel it; like a rigid, invisible blanket perfectly matching her body, preventing her from moving anything more than a miimeter or so. But... it was faltering. The man's control was imperfect. He was too badly wounded to keep this up for long. She grinned at him. The moment he faltered, he was a dead man. She struggled; knowing that it would take him effort to pin her down, just as if he were holding her down with his own arms. The pain and effort visibly strained the man, who was clearly barely holding it together.
Suddenly, Emerald felt a sharp pain in her side. She tried to look at it's source... but her vision was restricted to whatever was directly in front of her. Everything started to go black. Her last thought before unconsciousness claimed her was one of joy; as the telekinetic finally collapsed, a sudden gush of blood fleeing his body as he fell; seemingly having struggled to stay conscious long enough to hold her down.
Gabriel looked down at Dairesh. The most dangerous tool in the Empress's armory, a telekinetic who'd slain dozens of her majesty's enemies, metahuman and non. Very clearly dead. The combat knife embedded in his flesh would've been fatal virtually immediately to anyone else. The best even this man's gifts could do was hold death at bay just a few moments longer.
He sighed, discarding the syringe in his hand as he leaned down to collect his daughter; she seemed so heavy compared to the last time he'd given her flying lessons. A grown woman. Not as big as her mother; perhaps she hadn't quite reached her full adult size, despite being in her twenties, or perhaps she was simply smaller thanks to her body needing to stay light enough to fly.
Light enough to be carried. As Gabriel started to lift off into the sky, he glanced down at the unmoving form of his daughter's fiance, and considered how hard she'd struck him, moments before. His ribs were bruised. If she'd been trying, she likely could have killed him with those claws.
If he left her here, then she'd inevitably awaken, and come after them with Eyeball and all of his allies; likely a veritable army. If he took her with him, she would likely challenge the Empress. The Empress would probably try to show off and prove herself still the master of her Empire, greater than any of her children, and that Emerald was just a stepping stone to a greater future; perhaps claiming Emerald's own children would be the future of the clan.
The Empress was not long for this world. The only question was whether she'd die at his daughter's hands, or at the hands of Eyeball. He could kill Eyeball now, while he was unconscious.. but then he'd miss the wedding. Gabriel shook his head, and turned north, hurtling through the night amidst a halo of golden light.