Collab between Turkducken, Ran, and Atria
Seven Days After the Attack…
Higu was angry. Angry because he was weak. Angry because he was useless. Angry because all of his training and power amounted to nothing after these freaks from space showed up. But most of all he was angry at The Vision.
“Putting *my* name in the same breath as touting conspiracy theories?!” his thoughts boiling inside of himself. “I swear I’m going to get on tv and give them a piece of my mind!” his ruminating was cut short by his earpiece. “Captain we’ve reached the LZ, beginning our descent.” he took a second to shake his head back into reality. The deafening volume of the hovercraft and the crammed space within crystalizing his senses.
His company was being sent to protect South Capital. Disturbances had been reported in the area, and that could only mean increased Angel activity. The garrison on Earth was stretched thin. Any Earthly forces couldn’t hope to compete with the raw celestial power of the entities, and that left the whole planet essentially defenceless.
“Alright punks,” he said, standing from his wall chair, “we’re going to be fighting more of these light bastards today.” the dropship itself gave a worried grimace back to him, “We’re protecting South Capital. That’s the goal, no civilian casualties. In fact, we’re to keep the fighting as far away from the city as possible. So that means not even one of these things gets through.” the small sea of faces stared dejectedly back at him. “Now I don’t want any complaints on this mission. It sucks. We all know it sucks. So don’t bitch about it. Am I clear?” a despondent murmur of agreement echoed back to him, “And that goes for my other two ships as well!” he barked into his ear piece. Two meek, “Yes Captain.” broke the static back to him.
Higu could only sigh, “Good enough I guess.” he knew his men were exhausted. They’d been running all over the planet responding to these attacks. They were seemingly outnumbered by the invaders and definitely outgunned. Clever maneuvering and joint attacks only carried so far against horrifyingly twisted beings from another realm. For the first time he had an opponent that dwarfed him completely in power. “All of that training and pain. Just to be washed away as easy as sand on a beach.” He knew he should be excited at the possibility of greater strength, but these were cosmic beings that stepped on him like an ant. He solemnly closed his eyes, “It’s not even close.”
The three dropships finally initiated their landing sequence. The cancelling Gs to the front caused Higu’s stomach to lurch, and a hard knot settled in his abdomen. He tapped the ear piece again, “Alright Kuwabara Company, move out!” The dropships, in one fell motion, landed and deployed Higu’s forces. They dispersed to form a perimeter as their Captain got his bearings and issued orders.
“Alright so we’re about a mile out from the South Capital.” Higu silently observed as he glanced through the Scouting Scope towards the high rises of the city. “We don’t have an exact location these things will be appearing in, but we do know that it’ll be about here.” Just as he was about to start issuing commands to his men, a loud “Vroom!” burst over the hills coming towards them.
A news van, with big blue letters EBC, had shot over the hill past the perimeter his exhausted men just set up. It came to a screeching halt just a few feet from his position. A pretty blond woman jumped out of the driver’s side, holding a microphone in one hand. While a dark shaggy haired man wearing a baseball cap, and holding a camera, jumped from the passenger’s. She quickly rushed to Higu with a, “Earth Action News at 6. Captain Urameshi are we really safe from the angelic menace? Is Earth really prepared to join the Galactic Community? Does Shinra Electric and Power Company have you on their payroll?”
Higu was exasperated. This was the same reporter that had been hounding him for months. She had repeatedly asked for interviews and repeatedly been turned down. “Look Miss, I’ve already answered ‘No Comment’ several times. I’m not interested in being interviewed.” His previously suppressed feelings of bitterness and resentment to the hosts of ‘The Vision’, bubbled up inside, as he was forced to remember how they dirtied his name. The Reporter, undeterred, simply bombarded him with more questions. “What about your meteoric rise to fame as a hero to Earth? You were fast tracked through the PTO’s own military organization, is it fair to say you were given special treatment?” The flash of the cameraman’s lights informed him that he was, in fact, live.
Higu did his best to remain outwardly unannoyed, but he felt the lines forming on his face that would suggest otherwise. “Look lady. This is a classified military operation. We’re doing our best to keep all citizens safe from these freaks. I’m gonna need you and your crew to beat it.” The last part coming out more aggressive than he meant to. The Reporter, again, was unphased. “So you don’t have any comments on any Earth events occurring right now?”
Higu’s patience was now gone, pointing into the camera he began to vent his frustrations. “No. You know what? I’m tired of my men being exhausted. I’m tired of us busting our asses and getting no help. We’re out here in outdated armor, with outdated weapons, with outdated support! The PTO has failed to respond to our situation!” his outburst surprised himself, let alone the members of the news crew and his men, for that matter. “And I’ll tell you another thing! The hosts of ‘The Vision’ can kiss my ass, with their dragging my name through their lips while entertaining idiotic conspiracy theorists! Just shut up already! No one likes your show!” he felt himself growing red hot in the face with this outburst, but he couldn’t help himself, “And Another Thing!”
Just then the air changed and became heavier. The hair on the back of his neck stood up in a chilling manner, and he whipped around to look into the distance. Portals had opened. Grotesque winged abominations clawed their way through. He felt fear wash over the company under his command. He turned back to the camera crew, “Go and take cover!” he shouted, shoving them back towards the hill they came from. “Kuwabara Company!” he called out to his men, “Take your positions and fight the enemy! Not a single one through!” Higu charged to the emerging front, followed closely behind by his brave screaming forces.
___
Arashi’s scouter actually picked up the spike in Higu’s power level before he was notified of the attack. A chirp in his ear, and he knew of an abnormality. Then, of course, came the flood of information, more signals that it was picking up, most hovering around the ten million range.
He was fortunate that he didn’t tire, ever. Otherwise his training that day would have left him far too exhausted to respond to the call. As it was, he leapt into the air above the quarry, now blackened in some spots from his ki blasts, and shot off towards the fray. It wasn’t long before he was witness to what looked like a last stand, with angels appearing and soldiers who were woefully unprepared to face them standing firm.
Well, he surveyed the battlefield, Perhaps firm isn’t the best choice of words.
His aura flared to life, azure fire whipping a veritable storm around his body as he charged in, singling out one of the angels that was bearing down on a large group of soldiers. He thought he could catch it off guard, but no such luck. The angel identified the incoming threat and met his charge, although at least it distracted it from the humans it had been ready to prey on.
“Dammit! What the hell were you thinking!?” Arashi slipped away from a blow in midair, using his superior speed to get an angle for a punch to the chin of his opponent. That dazed him, and he followed with a kick to the ribs to send the angel crashing into the dirt. He paused his attack just long enough to lock onto Higu. He vaguely recognized the fighter, but it helped that the scouter pointed out his high power level.
“Look kid, I appreciate the intent,” the angel began to stand, and Arashi could feel the gazes of its comrades drifting over to him, “But there’s a reason that weight classes were established, and you may as well have brought everyone here to their execution.” For his part, Arashi had tried to keep the PTO soldiers out of the way whenever possible. It probably wasn’t sustainable in the long run, but he justified it by ordering them to evacuate and protect civilians.
In a flash of movement that was probably too fast for any human present to see, Arashi fended off an attack from one angel before another joined in. He managed to hold his own for a moment, picking at them one by one so that he could isolate them, somewhat, with his speed, but eventually he took a heavy shot to the ribs and hit the ground, now clearly on the defensive. Regardless, he managed to get a word in edgewise.
“Look! Just stay back, and get everyone you can out of here! You’ll only get in the way!”
And I don’t have any room for error now.
Ovan’s ship entered the Sol system and dropped out of FTL. “Come on you stupid hunk of junk, we don’t have time, it’s been a whole week, don’t stop-” He was about to continue his rant when he spotted that they were inside his home solar system and the ETA displayed on his screen was merely a few minutes. “Okay. I take back some of what I said.”
As he approached Earth, he could sense the power levels of people defending the planet, and the many more dots of power that were attacking it. Most if not all of them seemed to be noticeably lower than him, but that only furthered his drive to get there and help. He sought out the two nearest power levels and dropped into orbit with his ship until it was safe for him to leave the ship without suffocating.
The instant it was safe, he shot out of the ship’s entrance, already in a Battle Trance, flying down, spotting one of the many winged monsters that was attacking and smashed into it with his feet, blasting it down to Earth in a small crater, watching as it cracked and… exploded? Dissolved? Something like that, into light. “So they’re not really organic? Weird...” He muttered before flying down to the highest powers he could sense. One looked to be a human martial artist, the other was… “Arashi? What’re you doing here? Also, what the hell is going on, you get twenty words for each.”
Before responding, Arashi took advantage of the remaining angel’s momentary lapse in attention, a piercing beam of ki burning straight through its throat. As it dissolved into whatever particles it was made of, he looked to Ovan. He was still trying to process the human’s arrival himself, and it took a moment before he was able to fully put together a response.
“Twenty words. Right then.” He nodded his head towards the other angels in the area, “I’m fighting those things, to limited success, obviously.” The Tohran’s ribs had been bruised when Ovan arrived, but the black mark was receding even as he spoke, “And those are angels. Or something. Nymphae said they’re magical in nature, they’ve been hounding us for about a week now.” He paused once again, counting words in his head, and cursed when he realized he’d exceeded his limit for the second topic.
“Alright, look, I tried. Long story short,” he pointed at the celestial creatures all around them, “Hit them really hard.”
“Good man. That I can do.” He nodded, but noticed another white haired man who was giving it his all against another winged monster. Charging at full speed, he slammed both of his feet into the creature assaulting the other martial artist. Despite his relatively low power level, he was at least putting up a fight. More than he could say for most.
“You alright there, buddy?” He asked. “Name’s Ovan. Ex-PTO. Here to help.”
Higu’s struggle against the angels had continued past the initial charge. His men being able to subdue and destroy several of the beings before starting to feel overwhelmed. Luckily one of those massive wells of power that he had met before showed up. The imposing General Arashi had arrived, whether or not to back him up or not he couldn’t tell, but he could tell by the tone of voice he used that he wasn’t happy about Higu’s defensive strategy and lectured him about ‘weight classes’. He almost said something sharp and sarcastic in retort, but barely as the man told him to evacuate did he begin his own struggle against an angelic being.
He had barely had time to get his bearings in the confusion of the battle, when his left arm shot through with red hot pain, so severe it brought him to a knee. Higu’s skull pounded from the pain and his jaw clenched so involuntarily hard that he thought his teeth would shatter. Weakly he reached up to his ear to signal a retreat. “All soldiers under my command prepare to-” but was cut off by a lone entity that rushed towards his kneeling form.
His body was uncooperative, barely registering movements to stand and try to block the blow. His left arm hung limply as he stiffed his body, trying to summon the strength to use his protective Tekkai. “It’s no use.” he thought to himself, “Not strong enough…” and he prepared to be blown away by the monstrous power, before a flying divekick caught the beast’s body from the side, sending it flying away with monstrous power and a ‘Whompf” of air. Another man, one who Higu hadn’t seen or heard of in years, stood in front of him. His orange hair stood up almost perfectly, his power surged briefly past Higu’s senses, and he offered an arm of assistance and a few words to pull Higu from the ground.
“Ovan? Ovan Fawkes?” Higu sputtered out, “Ex-PTO? Here? Why now?” his mind swirled with questions and disorientation. He took the other martial artist’s hand and lifted himself back to standing, his left arm dully throbbing at his side. “Captain Higashi Urameshi, world champion and Captain of Kuwabara Company.” he grabbed his left arm just above the elbow, and squeezed it. It was warm to his touch. He spoke as he again reached for his ear piece, “Thanks for the assist, I was just about to signal the retreat.” he lamely explained to his superior rescuer. “All troops under my command,” he bitterly began, “fall back to the secondary position.”
The hair on his neck stood up. Time began to dilate. Higu felt a strong sense of dread in the air as he blinked slowly. “Something’s happening.” echoed in his head. Hardly perceptible in the corner of his vision, he moved his head slightly. The angel that had been on the receiving end of the devastating flying kick from Ovan was gathering light and energy in one of its’ horrifying mouths. It looked right at him, through him even. He could sense malevolence unbound. “It’s going to fire at us. That beam will travel right through me and into the sky.” was his only thought.
He panicked, a million ideas flew through his head, none of them he could do in enough time to avoid this blast. Higu’s life and family flashed before his eyes. The light of the angel’s attack glistened in his eyes. He thought about his chance meeting of Ovan and the other Captain. About how they’ll survive this blow and life would continue without him. “Will there be anything left to bury?” he blinked again, the darkness comforting him. He watched the beam be fired, his mind swirled and a single thought coagulated. “I want to live.”
His left arm burst with that same red hot pain. His eyes bulged, and he screamed a horrible bloodcurdling scream. His left arm shot up involuntarily, palm facing the incoming heat and light. In an eruption of light and sound two explosions rung out over the battlefield. Higu’s men yelled out in agony and terror as they watched their commanding officer burst from the impact of the angel’s attack. Clouds of dust and smoke obscured the vision of the soldiers and others around. Coughs from several of Higu’s men continued as the dust dissipated.
For whatever reason, be it some kind of animalistic fear, or their unknowable reasons of attacking this world. The Angels were seen quickly scrambling back into the portals from whence they came. Vision began to return for the soldiers as a thick cloud of...something, hung over the presumed crater where their Captain had been. It hung thickly as it failed to clear in the same way as the previous dust. A particularly collected and courageous soldier walked towards the cloud and reached out towards it. Yelping in pain as his hand was scorched by the cloud. “It’s steam!” she called out, creating more confusion among the men and women present.
A breeze kicked up, coming over the hilly terrain, and finally pushed the thick cloud away. It revealed a massive skull. It's’ one eye flickering rapidly from corner to corner. Half finished muscles pulled its jaw open in an unnatural way. As more of the steam began to clear it revealed more unfinished bone and muscle. A severed spinal column sitting firmly on the grass and dirt. It’s one finished, and blasted, left arm was lifted rigidly in the direction of where the angel’s blast came from. A horrified chill washed over the viewers, as whatever this was had appeared from seemingly nowhere. Some looked away with fear, others lost their lunch at the sudden shock.
Kuwabara Company began to surround the mutilated corpse. Horrified at its physical and sudden appearance. In the unfinished nape of the neck, Higashi’s eyes opened. He was laying in hot tissue. Scarcely able to see much but the red flesh around him. He pulled away from his impromptu bed in disgust. Wispy strings of flesh following him. Mortified he pulled away harder, only to realize they ran all the way to his eyes and head, attached quite firmly to his skin. He ripped at them desperately, wincing at the slight pain, trying to escape from this suffocating prison. The last few strings broke and fell off, causing Higu to fall backwards.
He landed in the hard dirt underneath. Trying desperately to understand where he was and where he had been. He blinked a few times trying to clear the fog in them. Looking up he saw an unfinished pocket of gore, where a few stray strands he had pulled from his face waved in the breeze. He could barely comprehend what was happening or what had happened. The massive remains around him could hardly be processed. Higu screamed a horrified scream again. Unable to do anything else.
