EXT. APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS NOVEMBER 20, 2019 - 7:57 AM
The forest surrounding the headquarters are quiet, coming back to the serene landscape of the Appalachian Mountains. A herd of deers frolic around the grass, finiding food to provide for themselves and their young ones. This forest has been preserved by forest rangers and environmentalists who love to sustain nature to prevent climate change. The headquarters remain standing tall and wide, covered by advanced cloaking systems just make the forest less suspicious, like an old scary house in the middle of a peaceful neighborhood.
The mother deer, or doe in a scientific term, picks up the fresh red berries and gently gives it to her daughter, a fawn. Abruptly, their peace is interrupted by a pack of wolves. The young deer cower behind her mother, still carrying the berries with its mouth. The mother stands in front of the young deer in hopes of sacrificing herself to give the baby some time to run.
The wolves prowl in a straight horizontal line, cornering them with no way to run and ready to pounce. The alpha wolf, having black fur orders the charge altogether. Then came a blue bolt flies straight into the wolves then crashes on a nearby boulder, killing them in one-hit. The light dissipates, showing a knocked down Alo, getting up on his feet. He cracks his knuckles and summons his shock gloves, then sprints towards the unknown threat.
The mother deer and the baby deer look each other in confusion.
----------------------------------------
EXT. COURTYARD
Johan takes cover behind a perfectly created wall, under fire by Com-Bots. She takes an arrow and cuts an opening within the wall and start shooting the robots one by one with extreme accuracy on her arrows. Two turrets sneakily pop behind her, only to be ripped apart by Alo, grabbing their guns and walks up to Johan. "How many?"
"25.", she fires another arrow, landing a hit on one of the robot's explosive core, destroying other robots with it. "18. 6 on all fronts. We're surrounded.", she informs him before a shot lands on her forehead, knocking her out.
"Shit!", he peeks over at the side, the bots approaching the wall. Firing the turret guns on his hands but could not aim properly because of the alcohol already consumed his body, one of his weaknesses. The robots, however, destoryed it rendering the boxer gun-less.
"Let's see if they can adapt this.", he knocks over the wall, becoming a clear target for all the 18 bots, but generates the same barrier he did back at the airport unconsciously, but instead of kicking it towards the bots, he wraps himself around it, making a makeshift armor, although his body could only take so much electrocution as it harms him as well.
He charges forth and destroys the robots entirely, bits and pieces flying towards Tatiana, who's watching the fight, but plucked off mid-air by Johan's arrows. She turn to the archer, still recovering from the headshot blast.
"That wraps it up! Good job, you guys!", he raises for a high-five, but realizes he's still a hologram, so he quickly puts it down instead. "You, uhh, didn't see anything?",
Alo heavily pants, "What see?"
The hologram whistles casually away from them, going to the headquarters. "Nothing. Stop by the Central Command, it's time.", he ended before walking inside.
Alo and Johan exchanged looks and nod accordingly, with the latter going in first to prepare. The brawler gets his back straight and walks up to Tatiana, his little sister now as an amateur mechanic for the team. "Enjoying so far?", he asks.
Tatiana picks up the pieces around her, circuit boards, metal scraps, etcetera. "Yeah, it's been good. Too bad I can't stray to far though, Richard says I can't to talk to anybody, especially about this.", she lifts a Com-Bot's head, still twirling round and round, Tatiana goes back to cleaning up.
"Yeah, sorry. But I promise more people will show up. I'm currently going out. Again.", he replies with hesitation. Tatiana stops and glances at him.
"Where?", she asks. Alo scratches his head anxiously, fearing she might get angry for leaving her once more.
"Tokyo. There's a war out there, but I'm not going in alone. Johan and I will watch each other's backs.", there was a pause, he's waiting for her reply, but Tatiana lets out a long sigh and goes back again to collecting.
"Sure, just go. Besides, he'll help me reassemble these bots, considering this place has an unusued fabricator and a welding machine in the garage. Apparently, you didn't know that."
Alo chuckles, "I really didn't.", then leaves her, walking to the headquarters and travels to Central Command, where their next mission to Tokyo begins.
----------------------------------------
INT. CENTRAL COMMAND
Alo already sees Johan, typing some stuff on the supercomputer and Richard pacing around, thinking on what to do without the two, until the hologram spots him, "Ahh, there you are. I hope you two are ready, because this is a one-way trip - ".
Johan cuts it with a tiring groan, " - Ugh, I have a bad feeling that this will be longer than dealing with Keith. I've already read the news reports these past months and they still dish out the same bullshit, here's the summary; More dead bodies.",
Richard turns to Johan, concerned. "As much as I hate to go there, Tokyo needs our help, and the news on Keith has already sparked the law enforcement in Greece to act again and arrest all of Keith's acquaintances thanks to both of you. If we can do it in Greece, then we can do it right in that city.", he ended.
Despite Richard's valorous ramblings, he was right. They were able to defeat Keith and spread out his private information to the rest of the world, to show that people like him still exist and must be avoided and dealt with. After Keith's death, things went well for them; Alo became more docile and less of an alcoholic, but still lazy. Tatiana gets to redeem herself for a second time to live a simple life like their parents wished. And Johan finally becoming a valuable member of this weird team as their programmer, hacker and analyst.
Johan crosses her arms. "Fine. I'll activate the teleporter.", she heads for the control panel, while Alo stands ready on the platform. The machine glows brightly, powering up gradually. Johan leaves the control panel and hops with Alo. The two glance at Richard, saluting them with determination.
Alo fakes salutes back as the teleporter sends them to their destination. Richard exhales and rubs his hands. "Ookay. Now where did I put that box?", closing his eyes, trying to remember his old stuff back when Alo mentioned something about being resurrected by a strange nun.
----------------------------------------
INT. ALO'S ROOM - 4 MONTHS PRIOR - FLASHBACK - 11:00 PM
Alo sits on his bed, contemplating what he saw in the Scape with Julieza. In front of him, is Richard looking appalled and quite astonished by his tale he just finished.
"She said that, huh?", Richard lets out a nervous giggle, then bursts out laughing for a few seconds. This mildly creeped out Alo, but he eventually trusts him that it'll be nothing and more historical blabber. "Julieza. She's sweet. Kind. And, well, let's just say her along with the other two are pretty much family. But 'to give the keys to you'?", he scoffs.
"Out with it, Richard. What does she mean by that?", Alo demanded answers, and he wants it now. Richard didn't talk for a moment, arguing within himself before giving up, facing him solemnly.
"Underneath this headquarters, lies a ruin Ralph and his team left alone decades ago, I was gifted by it, but I don't know where, it's been too long. Just, the memories are in pieces, it'll take some time before I finally remember. For now, let's just focus to your training, and don't tell Johan or your sister about this."
----------------------------------------
INT. CENTRAL COMMAND
Richard opens his eyes, as the elevator doors open, seeing Tatiana grabs a toolbox and glass panels, to fix the broken window the Com-Bots caused. She looks around, seeing his brother and Johan are nowhere to be found except his flickering figure.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Are they gone?", she asks him. Richard replies with a nod, he looks up to her. "Tatiana. Are you claustrophobic?"
----------------------------------------
EXT. ALLEYWAY - TOKYO, JAPAN - 9:25 AM
The camera shows the desolated city of Japan's capital, the surroundings are messy and outright disorienting to the eye. The skies are cloudy, you can't tell if it's going to rain or not. On the walls are papers, posters, and knives stuck everywhere, along with rusty STOP signs and broken traffic lights. If a normal person would wake up in the middle of this city, he/she wouldn't last within five minutes.
But two shining lights appear in the darkness, Alo and Johan manifested themselves from the light, disappearing altogether. The boxer looks around, looking for anything that might spy on them, while scouting their current location. "Jesus, that news report never told us about the war being THIS bad. It's 4 months."
Johan raises an eyebrow, found something on the ground. "4 months is an adequate time. We just happen to be in a danger zone."
"What makes you say that?", he retorts. But the archer pulls out a muddy sign, luckily her gloves made her comfortable in gripping it. On the sign it says;
"危険区域。
次の避難場所に向かってください。埼玉県、神奈川県、千葉県、山梨県。ありがとう、安心してください。"
(Hazardous area. Go to the next evacuation site. Saitama Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Yamanashi Prefecture. Thank you, please rest assured.)
And he finds a small sentence below, with a flag of what appears to be the Japanese military.
"この通知は、自衛隊によって発行されました。"
(This notice was issued by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.)
She puts down the sign, "Basically, I got us in a tight spot. But seeing we're the only ones here. It's quiet. Too quiet.", she looks at the end of the alleyway and sees a source of light. "Over there, follow me.", she and Alo dash to the exit and out to the streets of Tokyo.
----------------------------------------
EXT. STREETS
Upon exiting the narrow alleyway, they are greeted by a bone-chilling sight. The entire city is empty, no scream, no gunfire, nothing. They see cars all lined-up but there's nobody inside, even there weren't any dead bodies, a normal human corpse take eight to twelve years without something to protect like say, a coffin, meaning the people knew the war was getting out of hand and eventually evacuated out of here with the help of the Japanese government, hence the sign made by the JSDF earlier.
Suddenly, a newspaper lands on Alo's face by a strong gust of wind. He takes it out and reads the headlines, which was written in Japanese. He couldn't read anything that's related to Japan and gives to her instead. As Johan reads the page, her face became morbidly horrified.
"What does it say, Jo?", he questions her. Johan threw the paper away, looking down in despair.
"This city has been like this for 2 months. 2 months of silence. My god.", Alo curses too, and notices an abandoned humvee. He inspects it carefully, opening the driver seat. Inside there are empty gun cases, unused supplies and spent bullet casings, both 7.62mm and 5.56mm alike.
"Looks like the military tried their best. No wonder they let everybody out fast.", he concluded.
----------------------------------------
"Greetings, children. Are you lost?", a hoary, deep voice. Alo and Johan sees an old man, wearing a dark grey robe with vertical dark green stripes down to the bottom edge, on his both sides are hooded men, wearing the same robes albeit more simpler, these men are just wearing black robes. "Perhaps we could assist you in directions."
Johan feels a bad sensation coming from them, her perception senses are tingling, much like a spider. But as a patient, critical student, she'll reserve judgement for now. Alo steps up to him. "Yeah. Do you know which way is the Roaring Dragons clan?",
The old man squints his eyes in suspicion, "Why do you seek them?".
"Uh, because I want to, aaand what happened to the whole "assist you in directions" thing? We just want to know where.", he tries to keep them in track and not answer any personal, and rather unnerving questions.
The geezer click his tongue, not liking his previous reply. ''Ahh well, you see. The Roaring Dragons are nothing but raiders, their sole mission; to loot, kill and take what is not rightfully theirs. Speaking of which, we are currently searching for their location. It would be an honor, if you assist us."
Johan was literally mashing the 'X' button to "Doubt" in her head, she had seen to many anime series filled with cliches, watched too many mystery films and may or may not have played L.A Noire multiple times on the supercomputer whenever Alo, Tatiana and Richard are doing something else.
Then she feels something on her right corner of her eye; there's movement inside buildings and cars, mostly cars because they are in the middle of the street. She couldn't sense what it is, but her ability, given by Richard, is constantly keeping track of it.
"Sure! We'll - ", Alo is cut off by a grip on his elbow.
"- NO THANKS!", Johan immediately yells happily, smiling in force. The group and Alo glare at her.
" - What?", he is literally confuzzled by her sudden change of approach.
Johan smiles widely at Alo, trying to act like nothing happened. But her eyes are pointing on another direction. "We can handle this ourselves, right?! RIGHT?!"
Alo looks to see something move in the shadows, and like her, shifts to her idea. " - OH, RIGHT! YEAH!", glances at back at the old man. "Listen, I know you're all trying to help, but we're cool on our own - "
" - Is that an insult I hear?", the old man feels offended by their refusal. Hinting of his strict and authoritative personality.
"No! I literally just said to leave us alone!", the brawler pushes his civil side even further.
However, to no avail, the old man merely nods, "I see. But the damage has been done.", the men beside around him take out several sharp ceremonial daggers, mixed with daggers, kunais, sais, and many more melee weapons both Alo and Johan couldn't recognize.
He raises his hand, "Followers, if you will."
Several shurikens are tossed from the darkness. Just as the projectiles fly with such speed, they were no match for Johan's perception and enhanced senses.
"Alo, look out!", she pushes him out, both dodging the enemy throwables, hitting a stray car instead.
They instantly look at the impending hooded people charging at them from their lefts to their rights, similiar to their practice with the ComBots. They get up and ready their battle stances.
Alo summons his gauntlets, "Back me up, Jo!", charges at the hooded people, grabbing two broken car doors, with tough windshields for added protection. Johan draws an arrow and shoots the incoming men coming from the side, multiple headshots in just one minute, she keeps firing more arrows to hold them off, and keeping her partner alive.
Meanwhile the brawler bashes the men's brains out of their skull with brtue force, sending them flying back. Alo spots more kunais being thrown at him but blocks it with the glass window, the tips nearly touched his face.
"Yeesh.", he throws it to an electric post at a mildly inconceivable power, cutting it in half, and throws the other one at a follower, breaking his face. The post falls down a giant tree, smashing a couple more of the threat. The old man lets out an angry grunt, and signals his batch to move out, disposing these unfaithful youths.
From one zealot to another, Alo delivers them in one hit, kicking their asses back to their false shrines. The brawler, gazing at the old man ready to kill him, takes a step back charges his fists with blue lightning, and smashes the ground. The lightning spread in a large cone, affecting the moist ground and metal debris laying around like garbage, much to Alo's advantage.
His ability left the hooded people thunderstruck, couldn't believe what they were seeing, before being electrocuted by it in just a few seconds. Their helpless bodies rattle like little maracas, frying them inside out like the fat lard. Good thing their black robes cover their charred remains, nobody can stand a sight of a deep fried human being, let alone, overcooked.
After frying them dead, Johan, on the other hand, draws 4 arrows from her self-supplying quiver, and shoots it out like a burst, finishing off the rest of the attackers. A hand grabs her foot, but the follower, thinking she's vulnerable in close combat, is brutally stabbed by the edge of the nock, slicing through his brain.
She exhales in relief and meets up with the brawler, holstering her bow. "You got 'em all?".
Alo twists his left arm nochalantly, "Damn, they almost - GAH!", a knife has struck Alo in the back, not too far from his spine. " - FUCK!".
Johan takes out her bow again and searches for the last attacker, which was the old man, standing shakily amongst his dead followers, he survived the massive surge that should've killed most people with less resistance to electricity, unless these strange men has some tolerance to pain, or more logically, pieces of equipment that help insulates the attack, thus decreasing the amount of pain inflicted.
The old man huffs deeply, slowly dying from too much shock absorbed in his frail body, he looks straight at them in the eye, "She is here...", he starts to laugh deliriously.
Not taking enough bullshit, Johan draws her bow and dispatches the geezer. His face show a mix of happiness, while also a menacing bliss that made the young archer on edge.
She turns to Alo quickly, really worried about his injury. "You alright? That looked like it hit your spine!".
Alo removes the tiny blade and threw it off, "Agh, that's nothin'. Let's get outta here before - ", but the sound of a loud bell ring echoes miles away, consecutively banging over and over again.
Johan sticks beside Alo, "That's a Bonsho bell. Those're only used for sacred ceremonies!". She doesn't understand, why is a bell, sacredly used for blessings and a symbol for world peace, is being used as a threat against people. What happened to this city?
Alo points at the roof, "Looks like they're using it for reinforcements now.". They look up, watching the roofs and upper floors' windows are occupied by the same hooded men, albeit much angrier and less diplomatic than the ones they killed. Well to be fair, they were creepy and untrustworthy.
The bell rings louder and louder, together with several beating of the Taiko drums, another instrument used in rituals and other holistic activities, which goes faster gradually.
"Oookay, let's go!", Alo grabs Johan, leaving the streets, seeking somewhere they could hide and find the Roaring Dragons.