shogoex

SHOGO EX - Part Two - Eight Fighters to Change the World


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Though a large majority of the Knighthood has either been destroyed, and many of the surviving members have high-tailed it out of the business to save their asses, Chihiro and I still continue to participate in whatever missions and assignments we can be given. Those of us who are left call ourselves the Final Hunters, there are only six of us remaining. I don’t know who the other four members are, but Chihiro tells me that if they’ve chosen to stay with us, then it means we’ve got a strong enough team as is.
It’s been reported that there’s been a few small disturbances in the central highway of what’s left of Neko City. I have been dispatched to investigate what is wrong and report it back to Hunter base. As a safety precaution, my arm cannon and all other equipment has been downgraded to their original default power levels to avoid any unnecessary casualties.


Blue Chapter 3 - The New Beginning


When I finally arrived to where I was supposed to begin my search, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. The streets, of course, looked like hell. But it’s to be expected after a flood of missiles almost destroyed every single thing in the city. Because of the radiation, the sky has changed to a dark orange, and the clouds are almost blackened with the smokes and fumes. I was transported to search under the upper-streets for a small construction team that’s repairing the streets. Underneath it all, everything seemed even darker than usual, the sky’s dark orange-ness was even more eerie, and the air is weaker. I could taste the dust as it flew around me.

The construction team mostly consisted of robots who have been programmed to replace or pack in cement into the large cracks on the road. There were a few humans, but they were mostly just supervising in case something went wrong. So far, I don’t see anything that could be hinting a disturbance. When they noticed I was watching them, all of the staff greeted me warmly, and showed me some of the status reports for their work, being handed a small clipboard with graphs and small percentages bustling around on an automatic-updating screen.

Giving the area a closer inspection, I finally noticed that was wrong with this area. Scanning behind one of the cement trucks, I could see the old Knighthood insignia planted on a support beam that kept a portion of the upper streets from falling over. Jogging a little bit to get a better look, my suspicions were correct when I could faintly hear a quiet beeping noise, and the small timer placed underneath the insignia. Someone has planted a bomb, and is planning to kill not only the construction staff, but the people above, too!


Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. If I just tell the staff to run and escape from the area, it will likely take too long to save the people above. I could try disarming the bomb myself, but I have no experience! The timer currently reads at “00 : 01 : 14,” meaning I don’t have much time to get… whatever I have to do!

Instinct took over, I sprinted to the support beam, and activated my arm cannon. Aiming at the bomb which wasn’t too high above my head, I was ready to open fire at it. I’m not sure if this will be the right thing to do, but I don’t have any other ideas.

Before I could shoot, someone called out to me, “Stop! Don’t shoot, it will only make the explosive go off earlier!” I turned around to see it was one of the human staff, running towards me and already almost out of breath. He was somewhat out of shape from what his appearance showed, and was wearing all white clothing, but with a red apron on top.

“Well, what do you expect me to do?!”

The man was about to say something, but he stopped his words with a look of horror. I looked behind me quickly to see that the timer was already reaching it’s final twenty seconds. Without a second guess, I ran as fast as I could away from the bomb and threw myself to the ground for cover, using my hands to shield my ears. A moment later, all of the ground vibrated at an extremely high level. The screams of the people and robots were all around me, and I could feel the heat of the explosion make the air even hotter than it once was. I remained on the ground for a long time, cowering and covering myself from harm, until I felt a presence coming towards me.

Taking my hands off of my ears and head, I tilted myself up to see who was coming. I couldn’t see the face, but the figure was wearing Knighthood armor in a purple color scheme. There was only one person I know who wore this! Rising to my feet, the identity was confirmed.

It was Shouta, he’s come here for some reason. Wearing a large smirk on his face, he was equipped with new weaponry. A much stronger shoulder cannon, two vulcan machine guns attached to his wrists that wrapped around like bracelets, and a strange looking grey sword attached to the back of his armor.

“Shouta! I should’ve known you’d be involved in Riko’s rebellion!” I shouted at him as soon as he came close, and pointed my arm cannon at him.

He chuckled a bit, and the smirk became wider, “Rebellion? He he he he… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Extracting the sword from his pack, he pointed it at me, “I’m just here to cause trouble for you, I hate you!!”

Almost immediately, he dashed at me and made a very large swing with his sword, directed at my chest. I flinched from the surprise, and tried to block it, but the impact and size of his weapon was too great for me, smashing into my arms and pushing me back. I flew off my feet at least two meters from where I was once standing, and fell on my back. Still coming at me, Shouta tried a very strong downwards slash at my downed body. I quickly rolled out of the way and kicked myself back up, firing six rounds at him with my cannon. With almost no effort, he shot his vulcan machine guns at the exact points where I fired at him, deflecting my attacks into nothing.

Impossible!

With more rage in his eyes, he began to charge energy into the large grey sword he was holding. It began to glow with a deep, shining yellow light, and the blade erupted with gold energy. Shouta ran at me once more, swinging wildly at me, shouting the same time. His attacks were enormously powerful, with both the impact of the sword, and the energy that it contained, I could feel volts of electricity being punctured into my body. He hit me with three horizontal strikes to the chest, and finally a very strong downwards slash that slammed me to the ground, leaving a small crater into it. The attacks were so powerful, my armor deactivated itself, now only wearing my regular clothes.

“The ultimate technique of electricity, Thunderbolt Blade, you had no chance,” Shouta said with delight in his tone. Slowly, he began to step towards me, ready to finish me off.

I’m defenseless, there’s nothing I can do now… What can a blue T-shirt and jeans do to protect myself from these attacks? Feeling myself being grasped, I was flung onto my feet. Shouta was grabbing my neck, ready to snap it.

“You underestimated me… I hate that about you! Why would you come to this fight with such weak power!?” He withdrew his sword and punched me in the stomach very hard. I felt my organs beginning to churn. “I’ll defeat you, and Riko, then…. I’ll change the world!” Another blow to the gut, more pain inside of me. Is this the end?

Out of nowhere, his grip on my neck let loose, and I felt my body be thrown back a bit. Shouta was hit by another person. Turning around, he shouted out in anger to meet his new opponent. A red figure with long brown hair came to meet us, it was Chihiro!

“Ramon, are you alright!?” She said this with a small amount of urgency in her voice.

Shouta spat at the ground, and was ready to fight, “Huh… Chihiro… Why would someone as powerful as you align yourself with Ramon? He’s just a C-Class Hunter, nothing more!”

“Shouta… you’re nothing but an InOrganic now. Come quietly, I don’t want anymore bloodshed,” Chihiro spoke calmly, charging a large energy blast in her cannon and pointing it at Shouta.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the mood anymore to fight, “Sorry, but I’m gonna be the one to change the world…. Not you!” Throwing a small ball of electric energy that looked like a grenade, he used it to distract Chihiro and make his escape. Before it could cause any damage to her, she fired her cannon at the shocking ball, destroying it. Chihiro fired a few more rounds towards Shouta as he ran off into the distance, but none of them hit the fleeing enemy.

“Damn! He got away!”

I didn’t know what was going on, “Chihiro! What happened to Shouta?”

She took a while to respond, still angry for letting him get away, “Grrr… All I know is that he’s our enemy now. Ramon, I’m gonna keep on his and Riko’s trail. You go on back to Hunter base and take it easy, alright?!”

I’m not the kind of person who would disobey her orders, especially since in the past it’s proven that she’s always told me the right things to do, “Roger, let’s hook up again later.”

Chihiro was about to start running off for Shouta, when I stopped her. She looked a bit annoyed, but listened.

“Thanks…. You… you saved me again.” My heart was beating fast when I said this to her, I could feel my temperature rising up, my head and chest were feeling extremely hot. She looked at me for a moment, nodded, and finally ran off in full pursuit.


~~~



I arrived at Final Hunters HQ as fast as I could. The whole way through, I still remembered that my Knighthood Armor was still deactivated. I had to be much more careful, making sure I didn't run into anymore trouble. Luckily, I made it back in no problem at all.

As soon as I walked in, the Navigator asked me to reactivate my armor. She had a very urgent look to her, and wanted me to get ready as fast as possible.

"We're picking up the energy readings of eight ex-InOrganic Hunters around the country," She was saying this as a map of Messetsu appeared with eight red lights blinking in different areas.

Activating my armor, it shined and reappeared, "Oh no! They must work for Riko!"

The Navigator pointed and tapped a few of the lights, four to be exact, and then pointed at me, "These are the same Hunters who left the Knighthood. The rebellion has officially begun, Ramon. Chihiro has already been assigned to the other four, so these are the ones assigned to you."

"Alright, seems we gotta take care of them before we go after Riko, right?"

"Precisely. Also, your Knighthood Armor cannot be restored to it's original functions from before. We must reinstall your abilities to our new Armor Defense system, the Final Hunter Armor." The Navigator said this as she pointed to a strange blue capsule station next to her.



Blue Chapter 4 - The Final Hunter Armor!

I stepped towards the capsule where the new Final Hunter is supposedly inside. It was large, cylinder-shaped, but had a glass casing in the middle. Upon closer inspection, I could see some unknown pulsing energy inside. It made a soft humming noise, and illuminated the small surrounding area. On the right of the capsule, a small red button was present. I pressed it gently, and the glass casing disappeared. Before I could step into the capsule, a hologram of a woman appeared. I was surprised to see that the woman was my mother! She was wearing a long laboratory coat, colored white. The coat was buttoned up, but I noticed that a tight dark T-shirt was underneath as well. My mother had very long hair that extended past her shoulders, bright and lively eyes that were slightly covered by small glasses. As bad as it is to say this, she was a one-hundred percent, Grade A MILF.

Slowly, she began to speak to me, "My name is Kiari Kojima, but it is quite likely that you already know this, Ramon. This capsule contains the data for a large-scale upgrade to your current armor and weaponry. To be in tune with the recent events, this data has been dubbed, Final Hunter Armor. It contains two new weapons systems that you have likely never seen before or knew they existed," Two smaller holograms appeared with diagrams and data information on the armor's abilities, "The first is the Weapon Mimic system. With this ability, you can copy the special powers or weaponry of the adversaries that you defeat. I say defeat, because it is up to you whether you choose to kill them or not. Official Final Hunter jurisdiction just wants them to be unable to commit anymore InOrganic crimes." My mother's had a smirk on her face as she started talking about killing the eight ex-Hunters.

"The second ability, is probably the one that will be the most difficult to completely master. It has been in development and study for almost eight years, but has existed for well over twenty. Records show that you were able to channel a large amount of energy into your armor when you were at a very dangerous moment when you fought against Commander Riko Sakazaki."

I instantly remembered that moment. I was almost at Death's door, I felt that everything in my life was finally coming to an end at that day. It was almost like a stroke of Heaven's light, shining into my body and lighting up my soul to keep fighting. I remember seeing my armor blaze in a bright green glow, and my hands even brighter. That day, I even scraped two large scars on Riko's eyes.

"This new ability, is known as Sychro Energy. It is based off the old power module that your father and I used, the Sychro Watch. With this power, it channels your inner potential, allowing you to use special techniques that were once thought to only be possible with the supernatural or in fiction. How this power is achieved is not yet fully known. The original Sychro Watch was able to be activated by saying a specific phrase, 'lend me power of the innocent.'"

Lend me power of the innocent? Sounds like a badly translated video game catch phrase...

"One thing to note, the eight ex-InOrganic Hunters also possess Sychro Energy. Whether these Hunters have unlocked the power or not, is not known to us. It is one of the reasons why you have the Weapon Mimic system, as a special defense, in case they have powers too great for you to conquer with your own abilities."

I began to step towards the capsule again. I was feeling irritated, and wanted to just get on with the upgrading process. However, I was stopped by the hologram, repeatedly telling me to wait for her to finish.

"Ramon, this is important. You used to be such a good and patient boy. What happened to make you now want to ignore your own mother?"

When I heard this, I flinched and lowered my head in shame. Really, what was I thinking...?

"The last thing I need to let you know is this," She began to take a deep breathe, probably being exhausted for talking so long in one shot, "Though you and Chihiro are assigned to different ex-InOrganic Hunters to defeat, you are welcome to assist her and vice versa. However, considering the nature of Chihiro, she will likely refuse to be helped by you, but will vigorously run at top speed to assist you instead. Kind of a strange irony, but well, nobody's perfect." Mother stood straight as though ready to salute, waiting for a moment, and finally did so, "Good luck, Final Hunter Ramon. You are the world's one true hope."

The hologram disappeared, and so did the two little data windows next to it. I was glad that the briefing was finally over, because I really wanted to know how this Final Hunter Armor was going to work. I stepped into the capsule and noticed it slam shut the moment I was fully inside. Everything became pitch dark except for the small ball of blue energy in the middle. Extending my right hand, I lightly touched it and didn't see anything occur. With more courage emerging, I gripped the energy and felt it course into my body at an alarming rate. My eyes closed themselves shut and opened back up, back and forth. All my surroundings were extremely bright, and I could feel a large amount of power being downloaded into not only my armor, but my physical body, too! All my limbs felt limp, and I couldn't move at all, but it didn't feel painful in any sense. It was like floating, just feeling the power surge into me. The sensation was quite orgasmic, to put it to an extreme sense. All of a sudden, my eyes closed once more, and I could see and hear a message for some reason.

The message said, "Finalized Hunter Armor Level Complete - Final Hunter '[C]Kojima, Ramon' has been registered successfully."

Moments later, I could finally open my eyes again. It took a few moments to readjust my eyesight to the bright lighting of the Final Hunter HQ, seeing how the capsule was open once more. Slowly stepping out, I seen the Navigator right outside. I was alarmed to see her, because her hair was no longer pink anymore, and the length was much shorter, too. The Navigator now had short blonde hair that barely went past her head. For some reason, I actually preferred the pink hair.

"Ma'am, what happened to you? Why is your hair so different?" I asked her this in a confused tone, but I tried to act cool about it.

She looked at me, then touched her shoulder as she spoke in a quiet voice, "I'm sick of being something I'm not. I am also surprised, and also insulted, that you don't remember me at all!" Her voice was now a lot more negative, borderline angry, "Don't you remember me at all? Sure, it's been six years since we've properly spoken, but come on!"

I tried to play it cool once again and lied, "Of course I remember! You're... you're..." Damn, so much for playing it cool...

"Karei! Karei Kojima! We're cousins, you dolt! Don't you remember your uncle Sasuke and aunt Natsuko?!" When she said this, I instantly remembered who she was, but I still felt terrible for forgetting. I kept my head down in shame, also in fear because I had the feeling she was going to hit me.

"I'm one of the six Final Hunters, just like you. However, I'm not authorized to fight with you and Chihiro on this mission. Honestly, it's fucking stupid. Riko's threatening the Kojima family, which means my family, too!" Karei started pouting and pacing herself as she was having her fit, "Ugh! Whatever, if they wanna play it that way, then fuck'em. I'll let you two have all the fun for now. But, I am not going to just stand by and do absolutely nothing! I will be feeding you information as I stay here for now, but when the eight ex-Hunters are all defeated, I'm definitely gonna take part in the assault against Riko!"

I had a smirk on my face, noticing that she was really angry when Karei mentioned Commander Riko, "You never liked Commander Riko much, did you?"

"Fuck no! She was a bitch, always poking fun at me because I had a specialty for Melee weaponry and Hand to Hand combat over anything else! Honestly, who the fuck does she think she is!? Ramon, you better hope you get to her before I do!!"


Karei kept going on and on with her rantings about the mission and how she won't be taking a major part in it. This went on for at least an hour. I would go into details about what was being said, but in all honesty... Do you really care?


Nope, didn't think so.