Sam Mokoa
"-Kahu Kiai has my support! Despite being a vigilante, he has been dealing with the criminal element on our great islands efficiently and aggressively, protecting the downtrodden, the poor, and those who society has forgotten!"
Sam scowled at the screen in front of him. On a large tv set up in his conference room, a pudgy white man with thinning blonde hair and a wide grin was waving his hands about. "On my platform, heroes like Kahu Kowai," the man stumbled over the name a bit but continued speaking quickly. "Will become the norm! After all, why shouldn't we have our own little Justice League, right here in Hawaii!?"
Sam could think of a thousand reasons why. And he hated the man on the screen, for a thousand reasons as well. But mostly for what he represented. Kahu Kiaʻi was becoming a political issue. The people in power were noticing him. And because they noticed Kahu, they also noticed the FBI agent trying to hunt him down.
Some people were on Sam's side. Some weren't. And on both sides of that sat people Sam hated. You'd think he would have liked the ones who supported him, but more than a few had… 'suggestions'. A few military types had started snooping around, trying to convince Sam that when he captured Kahu that maybe he should think about letting them… borrow his Pokemon. Let them run tests, all for the public of course.
Bastards. Kahu's Pokemon were dangerous, but they didn't deserve to get thrown onto a table and sliced apart so that someone could make biological weapons out of them.
Sam pulled himself out of his funk when someone knocked on the door. For the first time in a long time, he felt real happiness fill him. They had arrived. Sam walked over to the door and opened it. Two men were waiting for him. Sam held back a smile, instead stepping back. "Come on in. It's good to see you, Ishido, David."
"You too, Sam," David, a tall black man entered first, wearing a tailored white suit that fit closely over his muscular form. While the top of his head was shaved bald, he had a well groomed salt and pepper beard, his eyes an eerie, almost golden, shade of brown.
"I don't know about that,"Ishido, the other man, said snarkily. He was Asian, wearing an entirely black suit, with short cropped dark black hair and was clean shaven, shorter than the other men, but just as muscular, with calloused fingers. He smirked up at Sam. "Anytime you call us, things get crazy. Also, the lady at the front desk didn't want to let us in. Told us we didn't exist."
Sam sighed, shaking his head. "Damn. Sorry."
"We're used to it," David said with a hint of sorrow in his voice.
David Fite and Ishido Maad, of the DEO. The Department of Extranormal Operations.
A joke organization, in many eyes. Formed in the wake of World War II, they had always been underfunded, overworked, and unappreciated. They were technically under the auspices of the FBI, but they were never treated as such.
The history behind the lack of respect the organization had was complicated. When they were created, it was with one goal. To fight off the 'not normal'. Superhumans, aliens, strange technology, the works.
It was just that something always kept them out of the loop. Sometimes it was superheroes taking down a threat before they could step it. Sometimes the FBI, Interpol, or some other group would step in. As the years passed, and they kept getting upstaged, the organization had become less and less respected. They'd even been replaced by a few other organizations that had the exact same mandate to fight the extranormal. Like a sick joke.
And yet, Sam had enormous respect for David and Ishido. He'd never have called them in otherwise.
"Wow… you really upped the crazy, didn't you?" Ishido asked, walking over to Sam's boards.
"Yes, I did," Sam said without missing a beat. "What do you think?"
"That you really stepped in it," Ishido sighed, looking over the boards as David and Sam joined him. "Okay… you got the Dragons and Kahu, huh? And the problem is that we aren't sure what their full capabilities are… David. You ever hear about anything like this? A kid followed by a bunch of nature spirits."
"All the time," David said. "But nothing exactly like this. In magic, summoning things to help you out is old hat. Even using a summoning token or tablet, like these things," he tapped a photo of one of the red-white orbs Kahu had been seen summoning his monsters from. A couple others were different in color, but the red white design was most common. "I've even seen some images exactly like this from planeswalkers that have gone to other realms. But it's rare. More rumor than anything."
"Magic has rumors?" Sam asked skeptically.
"Gandalf is a gossipy bastard," David said with a hint of humor. Then he became more serious. "I'll need to see him in the field. This might be magic, might be mundane. I need to get a feel for it first though."
"Fair enough," Sam said, grumbling a little. Magic's rules were such strange things to him. But then, the same could be true of science in so many ways. "Then we'll need to keep an eye out. Kahu seems to frequent certain areas on his patrols. We won't be able to arrest him of course, not without finding counters to things like that… teleportation ability he appeared to display."
"Well, we've got your back there," Ishido said. "We may not get much respect, but we do have the massive amounts of government funding that the taxpayers provide."
"See, when you describe that way I don't like it," David said uncomfortably. "We don't waste funds."
"Except on private jets."
"One time, and that was to get to the Moth Man before the prophecies were fulfilled," David said in the tone of a man fighting an ancient fight.
"You still enjoyed the caviar-" Ishido's comment was interrupted when the door opened. The three men turned around to face it. Ishido's face went from a snarky and almost playful smile, to a far softer and more gentle one. "Hey, Miss America. What are you doing here?"
A young woman stood there. For a moment, just a moment, Sam pictured her as she once was. A tiny and happy young girl, dark skin glistening in sunlight, her hair pulled back into braids as she held up a small frog she'd 'saved' for him to inspect, knees scraped from when she'd gone digging for it through the brush.
That image faded immediately. The once tiny girl was now taller than Ishido, almost as tall as her giant of a father. She wore a cheetah print crop top that displayed her muscled abdomen just above a pair of black jeans. Her hair was still black, pulled into a tall braid atop her head, but now also had red tones running through it. Her eyes were the same golden color as David's, her smile the same wise crinkle.
"Just wanted to see Uncle Sam," the young woman said, striding in.
"Anita," Sam said, hiding his fondness under a tough glare. "This may not be a secure conference room, but it certainly isn't public. How did you get here?"
"I told the lady at the front that I was an agent," she said without a hint of shame.
"And she believed you?" Sam asked skeptically.
"I'm very persuasive when I want to be," the teenager said without a hint of shame. "Oh, and I stole someone's badge."
David sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Anita Fite grinned while pulling out a badge and waving it about, an absolutely shameless and proud grin.
Somehow, as David began to 'discipline' his daughter, who reacted to it by jokingly tossing him the stolen badge, Sam got the feeling things had gotten more complicated. Cop instincts at work, maybe.
Kahu Kia'i
In the streets of Makawao Town, the island of Maui, I ran for my life, a sensation I had become more than a bit used to. Same with screaming my throat raw. "YAAAAAH!"
The town we were in had a weird modern cowboy kinda vibe. All low buildings with that saloon shape I recognized from John Wayne movies. Except for the asphalt of the street and the modern cars.
Oh, and Tyrunt running after me. "Tyrunt, Ty!"
And the robot replicas of Tyrunt chasing after me. One bit at my ass and got a chunk of my sleeve instead. I swung my arm around towards Tyrunt, who headbutted it off of me.
They were a bit bigger than him, shaped like miniature t-rexes the way he was. Except they were made entirely of metal, shining a bright silver in the light of the Hawaian sun. They were also missing their arms, their only weapons being the massive clanging jaws that they were trying to rip chunks of my flesh off with.
Granted, I wasn't the only one getting attacked. My other Pokemon were running around town, taking down these things. Also, these guys kept giving me nostalgia for some reason, on top of the general fear and anger I was feeling. Call me crazy, but dozens of tiny biting robots were insanely worrying.
A trio of them busted through the walls of a house to join the hoard following. One of them leapt towards me. I ducked under it, sliding along the ground on my knee pads while spinning around to face the horde, pulling out my handgun. I fired quickly as I slid, hitting some of the robots as best as I could. Tyrunt jumped off my shoulder and smashed into one bot, swinging a tail of stone into the next. My bullets bounced off the armored shell of another before a lucky shot pierced it's red eyes. When my handgun was empty, I quickly reloaded, accidently jamming my skin on the magazine before I adjusted. "Tyrunt, Bulldoze them!"
"Ty!" he smashed his claws into the ground, the asphalt cracking apart as the earth beneath rose up and smashed into the bots-MOUSERS! They looked like those little robots from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! That's why I'd been feeling nostalgic.
The low wave of dirt crushed the bots, tearing apart steel and damaging the circuits and servos beneath. I reached out mentally along our mental link. "This is Kahu, we've got the main bulk of the horde on us. Anyone got their main controller in their sights?"
A little delay was followed by Alakazam's voice in my mind. "Deadshot has found the man controlling them. Should he take the shot?"
"Non-lethally if possible," I said with a bit of hesitation. Not because I was eager to kill people, but because I wasn't sure if Deadshot would listen.
He wasn't supposed to be on missions with us. Best for him to maintain his distance, to keep Giovanni and me as separate entities. But today was an exception. Giovanni had been sending a big shipment of Super Potion to hospitals in Maui, and had asked us to keep an eye on it. Which made perfect sense, considering his recent challenge to them. He'd been proven right when the shipment was attacked.
I'd been proven right when I told him they'd do something weird.
A small army of metal robots rushing the truck to try and rip it apart was pretty weird if you ask me.
After a moment of silence over the mental link. While I waited, Tyrunt ran forward to confront his robotic clones. One snapped at him as Tyrunt approached. He ducked under the biting metal jaws and snapped his own teeth up into the robot's false throat, stone crushing metal before ripping through wires. Another slammed into him from the side, stone scored by steel, before Tyrunt twisted around to hit the thing with his tail, crushing it.
Another one leapt for my throat. I fired my handgun at it, missing a couple of shots, before swinging the gun at the airborne bot, smacking it out of the sky.
But there were more. Dozens more. In the distance, the sound of ice, fire, and the crunch of steel, as well as the waves of robots ripping through concrete, metal, and wood to attack me and mine was louder than I could believe. Then… it stopped.
A robot hit me in the chest, but fell to the ground in a limp heap. The rest of the bots acted like puppets losing their strings, crashing to the asphalt.
"Tyrunt!" as I looked around at the bodies, Tyrunt let out another cry, and began smashing the dead robots with glee, destroying them. The little guy was wounded. Had some deep scratches, some cracked sections across his stone scales, but otherwise looked as happy as he'd ever been. A whole army of robot clones wasn't something he got to fight everyday.
I turned around to focus on Alakazam's voice, the sound of Tyrunt gleefully massacring robots in the background. "I hope that means our guy is down."
Deadshot's voice in mind link was always so strange. It was so normal. Not accented with mental pollution like others were. Like my own was. There was a hint of something though. Something underlying his mental presence.
There was something wrong with that man.
"He is. Unfortunately, I had to shoot him in an awkward way. He was a little bit out of my line of sight."
"Awkward way?"
"I had to shoot him in the ass. Through one buttcheek and out the other."
"..."
"But he is alive, so there is that. I've got him knocked out now, and his tech is in front of me. Want me to do anything with it?"
I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or sigh at how Deadshot hit a man through both cheeks and went right back to his professional attitude. Poor bastard wasn't going to be able to sit down for a LONG time.
"You got anything nice and explosive?"
"Plenty. So we're going to destroy it?"
"I'd suggest against it," Alakazam said, cutting in. "We may need to counter the Dragons if they send more of these creatures out to us. Having some idea of the code would help us find a counter."
"Sure, but none of us are tech guys. Even you said you have trouble with hacking."
"I… might have a solution to that," Deadshot said. "It'll take a bit to get it together, but I know some people."
Likely criminals, mercs, or worse. But hey, if they could do the job and weren't monsters, I was down.
"Gurdurr, let's meet up with Deadshot and bring the tech somewhere far away from any other tech."
"Any other tech?"
"For all I know, the stuff is carrying a virus that can enter computers and make them turn to slag. Or take them over."
"I'm fairly certain that's not how that works,"Deadshot said with some amusement.
"And I'm fairly certain that humans don't fly, lift trucks over their heads, or ignore bullets, but that's the world we live in," I turned to look over at Tyrunt, who was chewing on a robot head as he joined me. "Lets grab that tech and then help the trucker go on his way. Tell Giovanni his shipment will get there. Late, but it's on his way."
"I'm sure he'll be happy to hear that."
A happy Giovanni. I felt a bit of distaste at that, but put it down to me still being real sour towards him for his latest big idea. That was a problem for later.
"Come on, bud," I told Tyrunt as he swallowed the chunk of robot. "Let's get this night over with."
Gurdurr
Once they got home, everyone went to sleep.
Except Gurdurr and Tyrunt. He'd catch up later, but he was too obsessed with his latest project to want to leave it alone. Tyrunt was… helping. Sort of.
He'd been working on the base for weeks. Preparing it on every level, making it perfect. He'd dug out room after room, making them as structurally sound as possible.
Gurdurr knew he was… odd. For a Gurdurr. For most Gurdurr's, when they evolved from Timburr's, they lost the love of construction, instead excelling at demolition.
And Gurdurr still knew a lot about demolition. But for some reason, when he evolved, he never lost his love of building. Of starting with an empty lot and slowly creating something magnificent there. Putting together the ingredients and watching them come together to make a home, an office, or anything else.
So building a base was a dream come true in some ways.
If only his partner would cooperate.
"Gurdurr!" the fighting type shouted.
Wearing a hard hat and holding a blueprint, he was pointing at Tyrunt, then at the blueprint in his hand. Scowling, the dinosaur spun around and began digging. The pair was deep in their work, designing a barracks level, currently digging out the bathrooms. Which meant creating places to put pipes. Which meant Tyrunt was being lazy.
The dinosaur was a hard worker. But in his mind, some things took priority over others. And if a hole in the ground was fine for him, then it should be fine for others.
Gurdurr scowled, staring down at the blueprints. They weren't close to being done with the base. He'd had to spend a lot of time fighting crime alongside the others. But hours of work, digging, putting up supports, smoothing out issues, putting in electricity, plumbing, and other necessities, had led to real progress.
Master had told Gurdurr about the bases of other superheroes. Batman's cave, the Justice Leagues satellite, the Avengers Tower.
He might never be able to make it as advanced as those ones. But he could make it almost as spacious.
With a little smile, Gurdurr looked up at Tyrunt. Then his eye started twitching.
Tyrunt was asleep.
"GURDURR!"
Slugma
While Gurdurr was screaming at his 'partner', Slugma was also awake. She was diving through magma, swimming along the waves of melted earth. Soon she found herself back at her friends home. Slugma swam to where she was waiting, and found her sat upon a throne of iron, the metal melting and solidifying underneath her friend.
"Ah… little one," she smiled at Slugma kindly. "How was your day?"
Slugma smiled back and began to explain. She spoke about their day, about training at Giovanni's building, eating lunch together, Grace studying them, and finally the last part of the day.
Fighting dozens of robot copies of one of her friends.
"...If I did not know you, little one, I would believe that was some sort of joke," Slugma wouldn't have blamed her for that. Her friend leaned forward, a thoughtful look on her face. "And has our training been to your benefit?"
Slugma nodded. Her friend seemed happy about that. Then she was thoughtful again.
"I wanted to give you something. A boon. Something to aid you… It is not something I do often. But it would be in my power to do so."
Slugma thought about that. A gift from her friend! That was so nice of her!
When she shared that sentiment with her friend, she seemed taken aback. Then she smiled slowly.
"Yes… I suppose it is a gift. A way to allow you to carry a portion of my power wherever you go. Here," she took her right hand and brushed it through her hair. Some strands of it came off, floating in the magma flowing around them. She took her other hand and pressed it to her eye. A single tear came forth. Somehow, despite the immense heat around them, the tear managed to float unimpeded, solidifying into a black glowing stone. She wrapped the stone in her hair, creating a necklace and rising from her seat, stepping forward to join Slugma. "Here, little one. My tear. My hair. Gifts that will form into protection, into power, for you."
As Slugma felt joy swell in her until she felt like she was going to burst, her friend gave her a hug. "May the power of Pele protect you until your dying day."
"Slugma!"
June 28, 2010
Kahu Kiaʻi
Having finally gotten some sort of routine in my life has been good for my mental attitude. While things had been busy, they'd also been regular. Fight bad guys, train, take care of my family, and take some time to take care of other things. Overall, I was a lot less stressed out as June was coming to an end.
I had been doing bicep curls when Giovanni gave me a call. I put down the barbell and walked over to my phone, passing by Gurdurr as he curled an engine block for some light reps. I picked up my phone and answered it.
"Giovanni, what's up?"
"And a hello to you as well," Giovanni said with some amusement. "I was checking to make sure you were still coming over for the gala tomorrow."
I felt some annoyance. "I promised I would, didn't I?"
"You did. But something tells me you're reluctant, to say the least."
"To go to a party where I get to watch you schmooze with your fellow rich guys and awkwardly stand around in full costume as people stare? No, I'm super excited for that," I said with all the sarcasm my cold heart could summon.
"I'm happy to hear that," Giovanni said, still sounding amused. "Really though. I do appreciate you taking a night off to watch me 'schmooze' as you said. This promotion will be a huge boon to my company."
I grabbed a towel and took a sip of water before speaking. "And the fact the Silicon Dragons might show up in some way if they find out about it."
"An unintentional side effect at best," he said. "I am hopeful we can have an actual gala without any interruptions. But if we're forced to contend with more we will deal with it. That aside, I also wanted to let you know the tech expert I reached out to has accepted my offer. He'll meet you once we have him transported to Hawaii."
That was good news. Ever since the mouser attacked us, we'd been preparing for the next tech innovation to come rushing at us as a horde. While we had Grace working on the biological side of things, having someone who could interfere with the Silicon Dragons tech would be awesome.
"Great. In that case, I'll see you soon," I hung up, sighing to myself. A gala. Could be fun. More likely was going to have some unexpected surprises.
Mudkip struggled past me, pushing around five hundred pounds as I mused to myself. He gave me a look. "Kip?"
"Nah. Just… I'm getting the feeling our current routine is gonna get an upset soon."
He gave me a glance, then shrugged.
Yeah, Mudkip had the right idea. Routine was nice. But it was never going to last. Best to roll with the punches.
Time for a party.
Author's Note: Giovanni and parties aren't going to be a constant thing, but it ain't a comic book thing if a superhero doesn't show up at a fancy rich person party. It's like tradition at this point for it to happen. Usually while they're undercover, but it can happen in costume too.
Place your bets on who shows up!
I'll post the next chapter asap, but next should be Dial, my Ben 10 story, all of which will be on my Pa tre o n. For the next chapter of this story, we'll have some more DC characters proper show up, and the start to the July 4th incidents, so that should be FUN.