INT. MAIN OBSERVATORY AREA - 2:31 PM
Johan and the speedster arrive in the top of Tokyo Tower, well, the safest top since the slippery clean floor she steps on is the Main Observatory Area. A large circular corrider, occupied by old-timey decorations and paintings from the classical Japanese period.
"Don't make yourself feel at home.", the man warned her, taking off his long overcoat. Johan ganders around her, seeing the cloudy Tokyo in a larger scale.
"Pssh, not at all. King.", she spoke the name with a sly tone, figuring out the man's identity already. The man stood there, no shock expressions and frantic movements. "How did you know?", he asks.
Johan raises an eyebrow, not believing this guy could tell his own distinction between his men and himself. "Red. A dead giveaway. The name's Johan, and the hulking guy you saved was my partner, Alo. We're here to help you win this war and clean Tokyo up.", she summarized the first bit with accuracy and bluntness, to show she's serious about the matter.
The speedster takes off his helmet, showing his blonde, fade-cut hair and his sharp chin with black pupils along with his fair skin tone. He rather looks down grumpy rather than a typical king, which is boisterous and lively. "What's the catch?".
Johan leans against on a nearby glass wall, not afraid of heights. "Our boss wants you to be part of an another team. It's small but, it might catch your interest.". King is confused while de-holstering his dual shotguns and places it on a shelf along with his bandolier.
He chuckles a bit, "Miss, I appreciate the offer, but let me ask you something,", then walks to the spot where he sees the dark and lonely city, before it was bustling and full of chatter, now its dead and more worse than Gotham City. "What do you see?"
Johan watches from the window. "A broken city?"
"Not just any city. It's my home. I guess I could call it kingdom, but I'm not fond of puns. You can imagine the bright little dots piling together on the streets, roaming before this shitshow.", he lamented. The speedster had good and memorable moments with his clan, beating the crap out of bullies, smoking cigarettes out on the streets and riding at midnight without a care in the world.
Her objective is to help King, that means helping him cope with the loss of his home, which pretty hard if you're in his shoes; a man desperately trying to defend his home from lunatics that barged in uninvited and do whatever they think is pleasurable. Johan tries to comfort him, "I mean, we have the military blockade the - "
" - The military and the entire government ABANDONED us once they bombed Tokyo! The borders are now defenseless! You saw the bridge! No ordinary gang can pull that off.", he pauses for a moment, letting himself calm down. "No one's coming here. But I'll let you off the hook for now.", he heads to another section of the observation area, staring at a large corkboard with maps, details about the three gangs and keeping tabs on his clan's status. "You want to help me, right? Here you go."
Johan connects the marked pins, piece by piece. "What's the mission?". King sits on a furnished table, taking out a cigarette, and huffs a burst of smoke. "An evacuation plan. I want Doctor Tanaka along with the rest of the refugees to be out as safe as possible.", he picks up a dart and throws it at a spot on the large map at the corkboard's center. Johan didn't flinch back from the projectile because she sensed it before he could throw it. "The nearest spot is in Tokyo Harbor couple of miles away from here. The good thing about that place is the breathing room for our bikes, so my guys can outrun them.", he spoke with confidence.
He stands up, walks beside Johan and double-checks the corkboard, "Once we move out of there, we can retake Tokyo Tower, and move on to my next phase; which is attacking all of them by their hideouts.", Johan is confused, seeing holes around King's plan. "Retake?", she asks.
The leader lets out a sigh of defeat. "If all of us move out of here, all clans are heading not to our location, but here. This tower is Tokyo's major source of global communications.", that statement alone made Johan scream 'Say What?!?!' in her head,
"Ever since the JSDF blew up everything, Tokyo Tower's the last bastion between these mental dipshits and the entire country. If the Pinkies, the Mashers, or worse, the Servants ever get their hands on some high-tech jammer, then they could power down all communications. Japan will be deaf forever.", he ends with a grim note.
"So the summary is escort the civies to the harbor, defend them against all odds, and then come back here?". Johan tries to clarify.
King nods, "Yeah, it's a suicide mission, right? But something tells me you're more than just a girl who can survive a tough environment like this.", King slowly starts to pace around, "During your rough welcome, Kenji told me you two defeated an Apostle, with your friend surviving their lethal poison that can kill you in five seconds. - ", Johan raises her hand casually, interrupting his moment. " - Hmm? - "
She lowers her hand, " - What's an Apostle?"
King is shooketh once Johan cluelessly asked it, "Huh, okay? Apostles are the Servant's highest rank; the elite of the elite. Only them can equip the poison-tipped blades. Normally, they'd be four of them per group, accompanied by the Initiates but luckily today's a slow day.", he gazes at Johan with suspicion. "Now tell me, how did you do it? To prove Kenji hasn't been sleeping on the job. And I can trust both of you on my mission."
Johan breathes in and out, deep breaths for she is about to unravel her secret to a man who she just saw on TV, who is also a leader of a ruthless gang much like Keith's. Johan stretches her arms, "Just remember this though, don't tell ANYONE about this. Our boss says to keep our identities a secret. Or our powers."
"Wait a second? Powers? Like, magic powers?", King tries to contain his laughter. Johan cups her chin, thinking what's the crystal really made of. Is it magic? Or it's another supremely advanced technological artifact? "I dunno, I guess you can call it that.", she replies. However, clenches his stomach, something is about to burst.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH THAT'S A GOOD ONE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OH GOD!", King's crazy laughter left Johan uncomfortable.
"HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA - Aha - Hahaha - Heh. You serious?", King's face is similar to JJJ (JK Simmons) from Spider-Man 2.
Answering the questions, Johan summons her bow though no arrows in her quiver. No words needed.
King becomes comically perplexed watching her equipment appear out of thin air, with glitching effects. His eyes didn't blink for several seconds and his mouth left agape, then brushes it off to snap back. "Oh...my God, this is the weirdest day of my life.", Johan adjusts her eyeglasses. "You can say that again. So ~ , かっこいい？(are we cool?)", she asks him one last time before she decides to check on her partner at the aquarium gallery.
King wraps his head around what's going on and glances at her, his body facing towards an opposite direction, "Yeah, and don't speak anymore Japanese. I can tell if someone's "educated" by using Google Translate.", King walks off, while a pouting Johan enters the rickety elevator, heading down to the first floor.
King walks to a small shelf right next to a dirty dark red couch, he picks up a picture showing a younger version of King and two unknown individuals, smiling victoriously, holding their enemies' heads as proof. "私は何をすべきか？兄(What should I do, brother?), he massages his forehead, while keeping the picture in his motorcycle suit.
----------------------------------------
INT. AQUARIUM GALLERY - 3:00 PM
Alo had his jacket and his shoes taken off by the nurses to administer more antidotes to cure the poison, only with his simple shirt and jeans. At first, Alo felt threatened but when he encountered the doctor, he informed him of Johan's arrival and her safety, which made him calm and let himself get injected by the cures. Physically, he feels woozy from the poison; his skin looks normal, he doesn't have any side-effects beside the slowing down of the fever. Mentally, though, he was rather perplexed by the situation he's currently in. His mind was full of "what-ifs" thinking there's going to be another resurrection and have another talk with that nun, Julieza. Honestly, he'd be happy if given a chance, but learning how to get to her? No thanks, he'd rather talk peacefully to God or lashing out at Satan for being a huge dick, like that posion. He sits at his cot, looking stagnantly at the fishes swimming above him with the ocean blue gleaming down on his face.
"Hey.", Alo turns to Johan, standing behind a curtain halfway, "...Just checkin' up on you. You alright?". Alo, appreciated the simple yet sincere concern, lets out a faint smile. "Terrible? I guess. Doc says I can't run or do something that'll put me into adrenaline or whatever he's saying."
Johan chuckles at his reply, "Ahh, that means "don't do anything stupid or you'll die."" The brawler slowly squinches his eyes at the archer with little coy, "Was that sarcasm?" She shrugs her shoulders, her smile immediately turns to a deadpanned expression. "Nope. Not at all. - ",
"No, I can definitely tell it's sarcasm - "
" - ANYWAAAA ~ Y!", she cuts him off changing to another topic, "I talked to King." she continues while she sits beside him on the hospital bed, swinging her legs alternatively."Looks like we'll be staying here for a while. We have a little mission - "
" - It's a big mission.", it's Alo's turn to cut her off, but he expects to fight back. However, Johan completely slumps over her head facing the floor. "- Yeah, it's a big mission. An evacuation plan, to be exact.", Hmm, didn't expect for her to give up that easy, maybe she just wants to get out of here like he does, but with no way of transporting besides the airport at the nearby provinces, they really have no way out.
Alo lets out a labored sigh, "I knew this was going to happen, you knew it too. I miss the headquarters already.", Johan follows suit. "Yeah, I miss my computer, I still haven't updated my - uhm - projects, lately. ", the brawler scoffs. "By you mean projects, you mean your fanfics of you and your One Direction harem - ", gets slapped in the cheek by Johan by surprise.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She stands up from the cot, grabs Alo by the collar then slaps him, "Don't. Mock. MY. HUSBANDS!" with every pause. Alo's cheeks are now bright red, crawling backwards hastily in his small cot. "JAYSUS CHRIST, WOMAN! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!"
"Fanfics are a blessing, but there is some lines you CANNOT CROSS! EVER! The least you and I could do is appreciate the way it should be! SO SHUT UP!", she bellows, attracting the patients and mildly annoying them in their sleep. Alo feels sorry for the poor people who had to endured that small rambling from an intellectual but really unhinged writer.
Alo weakly raises his hands, "Okay, okay! Fine! You win!", there was a brief halt, Johan slowly turning her head away, before Alo murmurs a single word. "Hypocrite."
Johan snaps her head back at him, hearing a small snap of her bones, creeping Alo out. "What did you say? - "
Alo looks away from her death stare " - Nothing.", after a rough entrance, he needed a laugh, that considers pissing someone off to the nearest peak level.
A pair of nurses push a cot, bringing an injured biker on his patrol. His wounds are boiled and some parts are minor burns, yet if that was him, he would've felt the pain. Another nurse popped out on one of the wards and helps the other two, bringing to the doctors as fast as possible. Ignoring that, Alo breaks the silence between him and Johan, "So you carried me...all the way here?"
"Not exactly. Kenji, one of King's men, helped bring you here. But yeah, you really are heavy. Maybe because of your gauntlets increasing your weight or your constant alcohol consumption, but, what do I know? I always see you fight like a raging bull.", she spoke in a rational tone. Thank God, she's back to normal.
Alo mentally halts his brain and tries to analyze what she just said. "Wait, so that time you got shot in the head unconscious, did you watch me fight?" , he theorizes.
Johan perks up in her sitting position covering her flustered face, "W-W-W-W-WHAT?!? NO! OF COURSE NOT!", she adjusts her eyeglasses with her shivering hand. "I watched because you got...that...new technique, the - uhm - Voltage Armor, which is a name I made up just now. Like why would I focus my precious line of sight on you, feeler. Hmph." She crosses her arms. With what she said, and her actions seconds from the past 4 months they spent together; Alo concludes that Johan is a "tsundere" type of girl. How he knows about that remains a secret, but here's a tip; he's a former Youtuber and his last video was "Francis of the Filth".
Speaking about spending time, she always acted rather uncanny and sometimes aggressive; that one time back at the headquarters, she was singing and dancing around the room full of server chassis blocks with her favorite songs from One Direction. He tried to calmly simmer down the noise, but what he received was a punch in the eye and several arrows at the back, maybe she took advantage by potshotting him like a coward presumably from feeling embarrased. And then another time, he asks about her novels and what she likes while eating together, she replies with harsh words and instantly leaves him, mostly during lunch and dinner because she always wake up late from Richard's 6 AM routine.
But then there are other times when she is not hyper and considerate, like how she checks him after he got poisoned, or after he crashed Keith's jet and lifts him up out of the rubble. Maybe she's scared of something, but Alo doesn't know what.
He tries to reach out to Johan, when a voice calls them. " - There you guys are!"
Johan flinched at his entrance, "King!"
King bows a little as he approach them. Then looks at the recovering brawler, "And you must be Alo.", extends his hands. Alo smirks and eagerly shakes his hands, "Thanks for the save, man - I mean, sir. I would've died there."
King blows a raspberry to show casualness and no being a disdainful person. "No, don't sweat it. Nobody calls me sir. Besides, you should be thanking your girlfriend here instead. She carried you AND told me everything I needed to hear for now.", Johan and Alo looks each other for a split second and chuckle in anxiety in front of him.
King bursts into laughter for three sceonds, then stops "I was just kidding! C'mon, we'll head to the ramen store right in the middle of the shantytown. My treat."
Alo looks at the injection connected to the Ivy Bag Stand, "Will I be alright if I'm like this?"
King glances at Alo's condition and rearranges his thoughts, "Oh crap. We gotta chat with the doc' first, I'm sure he won't mind."
----------------------------------------
EXT. RAMEN STAND - SHANTYTOWN - 3:15 PM
Alo, Johan and King take up a seat with the biker orders 3 bowls of ramen. For the drinks, Johan orders a mug of tea while the two boys have root beer, since they can't plan drunk especially being targeted by the military and the opposing clans 24/7.
The storekeeper-chef arrives and places them in an orderly fashion. "注文して！(Order up)!"
King also does the same except its Yen, the country form of currency. "食べ物をありがとう(Thank you for the food!)", he clasps his hands, praying for a little bit, then starts eating freshly cooked ramen. "いつものようにおいし(Delicious, as always.)", the storekeeper-chef merely laugh heartily, "王のために何でも。(Anything for the king.)"
King casually eats his dish, Johan is admiring the food, but Alos is having a hard time with the chopsticks. "Mmmm! ~ Haven't had a good ramen since my exchange student program!"
Alo, glances at her in disbelief, "You were part of that?"
Johan nods at him, "Mh-hm. Being a highly regarded student, I did participate some activities most of it is...by force. Harvard's pretty weird.", she goes back to eating noodles, halfway done. However, King takes out three pictures and display right in front of the two.
"What're those?", her voice is muffled by the noodles, for a "highly regarded" student, she doesn't have knowledge of proper eating manners/etiquette.
King rests his elbow on the eating table, while eating ramen, "The three gangs. You two got, uhh, quite the quirks, but does it stop them?", his voice was clearly heard.
Meanwhile Alo, tired of using the chopsticks how it should be used, grabs the entire bowl and slurps the warm soup and uses the chopsticks as one-pronged forks to eat the noodles. "I dunno. Those're just ordinary people to me."
Johan can't help but rolls her eyes, "Says the guy who got poisoned.", this made the king laugh again, but quickly reverts back.
"Right, you really need to be careful.", he clears his throat. He taps his finger on the first photograph, a group of Russian ladies laying down on the couch, smoking weed with trippy looking weed pipes and bongs; a common instrument for abusing drugs (can be used for medicines?), "First off, we have Pink Lemonade or Pinkies for short, are the best drug and sex addicts Mother Russia can give to the Rising Sun. These all girls group use different chemicals mostly the Piranha Solution to melt their enemies with combustible tanks and fire hoses, dunno how did they manage that. But they're unpredictable, since the water at the harbor might be contaminated already. The gang's led by Josepha Petrovich, also known as "Mother", she's some sort of drag queen so she's not that hard to spot."
Johan winces at the nickname of the leader. "Oof, definitely not a Fallout reference there.", she sips from her tea,
"What do you mean?", the leader raises an eyebrow.
Johan puts down her chopsticks on top of the bowl, "The name 'Mother' is split into three elements of the periodic table; Mo for Molybdenium, Th for Thorium and Er for Erbium. Though I doubt teenagers are high beyond measure can understand that. Or those said elements even relate to nuclear science. I got that from a video game."
"Really? Our theory is her daughters are the ones being sent out here, which is fucked up. ", he taps to another photo which is a medium sized wooden figurine praised at the center by large muscular men wearing loincloths and sashes, but their arm and kneeguards are made of thick metal. By the perspective of the how the picture was taken, plus the resolution, it was obvious this was a stolen capture."Up next we have the Road Mashers, savages from Africa and the Amazons, damn brutes only want their victims as bodyshields and preserve them for cannibalism if they run out on food. But here's a tip; don't get hit by their swings. The whole group is led by Rhaka Muhod. Greedy and easy to piss off, which is why he's my favorite to fight with all the time.", he ends with a silly chuckle.
Alo gradually turns his head to King, skeptical. "Am I hearing rascism right now?"
King keeps eating his ramen, "In my defense, I can be rascist if the person deserves it. By the way, they're numbers are actually dwindling like ours, because I heard reports that his last "shipment" didn't reach here in Tokyo. Some guy from Greece went on a rampage and killed all of his men, then the courier and CRASH LANDS the plane a few meters away from the airport all by himself. Can you believe that?"
Alo does a little giggle, "Yeah.", but his partner has a different feedback. Her left eye twitches, mildly insulted because she was there too, "Gee, he seems quite a hero.", she elbows Alo's waist, enough to groan in pain cutting his flattered giggle.
"And lastly, - ", he looks as the photo with a lingering threat, the photo was a formal group photo taken way back. There are numerous group of hooded men, the same hooded men that attacked Johan and Alo, all arranged orderly, with a shrouded lady being the center of them like a higher-up. Behind them is a big black flag, with dark-green outlines at the edges but what catches their attention is the flaming skull burning bright green (again, copper or boric acid) with daggers stabbing the skull from above.
" - the Servants of Izanami, those are the guys you fought earlier. Unlike the other two, they follow a proper hierarchy; Initiates, Zealots, and Apostles. Again, the Apostles "the best", and despite being a cult of the goddess of death, they sure love being sneaky with their blades. Basically, ninja cultists. The Servants are led by Hikari Izanami, yeah, I can see many possibilites on why she's the leader.", Johan and Alo didn't speak a word, yet they froze in motion. Suddenly, they both shudder, King wondering what was their own theories of Hikari. "Oh God.", Johan utters.
"That's about it. Don't take what I said just for granted though, these guys are as dangerous as any military, granted if they don't kill each other first; Territory has always been their number one priority, but I have a feeling there's gonna be a change of plans, so be ready.". He drinks his root beer, and recoils from the taste. Johan finishes her soup and turns to King. "But how are the refugees going to leave if there's no boat?", Alo hears this and decides to stop eating for a moment, facing King.
The leader hesitated to speak, yet he moves closer to them secretly. "I don't know if this is going to work, but apparently Kenji and his squad found a dormant cargo ship at the harbor enough to fit all of the refugees. We have people that worked from the harbor here, so running the ship won't be problem.".
Johan nods with concur, "That's plausible. The only plan we haven't thought of is coming back here. Although I would leave it because the tower's only purpose is for sight-seeing and only signals television broadcasts, but sure let's turn a meaningless real-life tower into something important, that'll get the series running.", she sarcastically breaks the fourth wall. King laughs it out, "Trust me, the last thing you'll ever need is a capital city ruled by whores, fanatics and cannibals.", Alo and King continues to laugh, while Johan groans in displeasure.
Way back from the ramen stand, a Zealot disguises as a refugee, eavesdropped on the entire conversation between the three, then heads inside the FootTown buidling, following the shrouded lady's orders.
----------------------------------------
EXT. FOREST - 6:30 PM - WEST VIRIGINIA, USA
Tatiana is now dressed like an industrious coal miner; complete with overalls, carabiners, hooks, ropes and a large pickaxe. She limbers up in front of a rather small crawl space, following Colombus' rules, a fictional character from Zombieland, which he states before a person go adventuring into the unknown, he/she must adjusts her body or limber up to gain flexibility and mobility when dangers comes knocking. Just remember that it was Richard that put her through this, if she dies, she's gonna go full hologram and haunt his annoying face.
Two ComBots approach Tatiana from behind, scaring the living crap out of her, "THE FUCK, MAN? Scared the shit out of me.", she goes back to stretching her legs. One of the bots blinked, "My bad. Just testing out it's stealth capabilities.", Richard's voice utters through the robot's microphone. RichieBot spots the entrance of the cave, confused. "That's the entrance? It's rather small."
"Yeah, no shit. You got an idea?", she asks the thing, stretching her arms left and right. The RichieBot aims his blaster on the entrance smugly, "Yep.", then fires a heavy shot, blowing mounds of dirt away, with the remaining landing on a pissed off Tatiana. The robot chuckles, "Um, my ba - ", Tatiana shoves the sharp end of the pickaxe down to the robot's head, instantly shutting it down.
She wipes the sweat from her forehead, then turns the headlamp, "Much better.", completing her small warm-up, she and the other ComBot head down the paved entrance to find something for her older brother.