Part 6: Mission 1 - The Youth Drawn to Iron - Part 2
Over by Sawatari, Yamashita gets parried so only Miu gets any damage done. We’re not killing him this turn, so Ichitaka takes out the last Arma mook.
With that, it’s only a matter of taking one miniboss out per turn.
: I don’t pull my punches even against rookies! Why don’t ya go and imagine the miserable death you’re gonna get?!
: No way, no how! If I’m gonna be imagining anything, it’ll be my teary reunion with the professor and my bro!
Alice: “S-Something just lit up!”
Ichitaka: “That can be good or bad! What color is it?!”
Ichitaka: “Alright, the book says getting closer makes it easier to hit stuff!”
Alice: “U-Um, some gauge is rising!”
Ichitaka: “Let’s try out this ‘Lightning Fist’!”
Ichitaka: “Hey, it worked?! In that case!”
: I'm justice incarnate! Anyone who fights me is evil!
: Fine. If you’d paint justice as your own, then show me what you’ve got!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YeTIHCN2U
: I reckon this is good enough. Next time, though, you’re dead!: Katou Hisataka… You say all of this is in the name of true justice, hm?
: That’s right.: Very well. I’ll trust your vision one more time. : …: (I have to figure out what, exactly, the world needs right now…)
Damn it!
: A righteous man needs to be strong. Do you understand what that means?: I don’t and I’ve no time to think about it! I’ve already got my hands full here!: Then it’s up to me to educate you. But this lesson’ll come at the tip of Nataku’s fangs!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkS4QdFxm3g
And here’s Ichitaka’s strongest attack.
: A Champion of Justice, huh…? Then, I’ll…!
That’s all of the Katou enemies down, so the battle might be over but there’s still the matter of Kouichi. He’s a bit woozy, so Ichitaka, Aoi, Yamashita and Miu move in to try and pin him down.
It doesn’t work and Kouichi starts flying away but not before busting out a speech: “I’ll give you folks some time to think things over! Power isn’t just, alright? Justice is power! And if you guys decide to accept my justice, then we’re good! But if you don’t… then, next time, I’ll be playing for keeps! (Nailed it...!)”
And off he goes, immediately vanishing from Miu’s sensors; seems to her the thing shifted inside a warp field. Ishigami phones in right then and tells them to come back – and to bring the mystery robot along for the ride.
Ichitaka’s a bit surprised but Yamashita asks that he follow them to JUDA as they’ve some questions to ask. Wait, isn’t JUDA supposed to be this company that makes medical equipment and the sort? Why do they have combat Armas?
Alice, ever informative, argues that even the civilian-owned Photon Lab has the Mazinger Z, so she sees no problems at all with JUDA having some Armas tucked away. Ichitaka sees plenty of problems but, regardless, Miu and Yamashita say their group’ll want to know about his bot and what happened here.
Ichitaka concedes and tells them to lead the way. He tells Alice that, with the Rushbird being unable to fly, they’re gonna have a real hard time catching up to the Straybird; and if they ran into Darius monsters or Haniwas along the way, that’d be it.
With that said, Ichitaka’s happy to be working with Alice and hopes she’s keep helping – he’s nowhere good enough to fly this thing without her as his subpilot. She’s rather startled by his suggestion: “No, no, no, no! I’m just a basic helper model! I haven’t any of the knowledge or thought processes required for combat!”
Sure but didn’t he show her to what to do to HELP him pilot? She just needs to keep that in mind. Alice isn’t sure she can pull that off but, if he insists, she’ll give it a try.
As for the Dancouga, they’ve another mission waiting so they gotta bolt. Aoi hopes the kids’ll have grown stronger the next time we meet. Ichitaka’s a bit sad that he couldn’t thank them or shake their hands but Yamashita’s sure they’ll run into each other again.
Before that, though, they’re off to JUDA.
And here are all the convos we didn’t get. Most are with Kouichi since I didn’t waste time and resources going after him:
: Stop, Kouichi! What’re you even doing inside that Arma?!: I dunno who you think you are but you’re light years away from being able to tangle with this Super Robot of Justice!: I’m a Champion of Justice and I’ll protect peace in this town!: It’s me! Ichitaka!: Yeah, right! You’re gonna have to think of a better lie than that, dude!: Crap, he’s not leaving me any choice here!--
: You’re going a bit too crazy here, pal!: You wanna take me on? Then the Dancouga really isn’t a robot of JUSTICE!
: Welp, so much for that heroic streak we’ve been having…
: I’m kind of bummed out now…
: Save that for later, Kurara! We’re busy!--
: That total rookie went and got a whole lot stronger like it ain’t no thing!: I tell ya, Factors are a royal pain-in-the-ass!: Damn straight, I got stronger – this here’s the power of justice! Take a look!--
: I’m not that guy who could only cry! I’m not worthless anymore!: From this glorious day onwards, I’m a CHAMPION OF JUSTICE! And I’m not letting anyone get the better of me – not today, not ever!
: …--
: Kouichi Hayase! Quit wasting our time and do as we ask!: Zip it! You think I’m gonna listen to anyone who calls people stupid?!: I called you stupid because you’re being stupid as hell, stupid!: Alright, that does it! You’re going down!--
: Stop attacking, Kouichi, and come with us to JUDA!: Don’t tell me what to do! I won’t go easy on you just ‘cause you’re a girl, you hear?!
By JUDA, Ichitaka’s just told Ishigami about the Rushbird and Alice (she’s not a robot but it’s simpler to just leave it at that). And Ishigami confirms that, like Ichitaka said, JUDA is known as a medical equipment company but that’s just a front – in truth, they can actually be dubbed a group of champions of justice. Really.
Well, Ichitaka thinks Ishigami’s trustworthy enough to tell the story of what happened. Fast forward a nondescript time later and he’s done; despite Yuu telling him to keep off, Ichitaka’s still determined to go and save Grife.
Ishigami’s a bit amazed that the mysterious assailants managed to hit the lab right under JUDA’s nose. Alice’s got a bunch of pictures of the guys stored in her memory banks and, with Ishigami’s permission, finds a terminal and starts uploading them. She’s quite handy but, then again, it’s her purpose to make everyone’s life easier.
As the finishes, Yui runs a check and comes up empty – whatever group those guys work for, JUDA has nothing on them. Ishigami ponders that they might be connected to the Katou Organization and Yui explains to Ichitaka that they’re one of the foes JUDA fights against.
In that case, Ichitaka asks if he and Alice could join JUDA. If they go on waltzing about in the Rushbird, folks might mistake them for criminals and try to arrest them; and he can’t ditch the bot as, then, he’d have no way of pursuing the professor and Yuu.
Alice asks the same but, unfortunately, Ishigami says no. What’re they supposed to do, then? Well, here’s a thought: do they feel like being CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE?! See, Ishigami can’t get them into JUDA but there’s this new team, LOTUS, that’ll be put together soon.
Join that and Ichitaka and Alice’ll be covered in all their basic, maintenance and intel gathering necessities. Plus, JUDA will also be helping those guys. Something about this gives Ichitaka a bad feeling but it’s not like they’ve got any choice.
Both him and Alice agree to it – not problems at all! A call comes in right then, Yui IDing it as Lady Une from the Preventers. Ishigami has her put through, telling Ichitaka that he’s free to listen in.
Une’s glad to see Ishigami well, and he’s always happy to see her ever beautiful face (Yui tells him to stop before he gets a harassment suit). Une’s in a hurry, so she ignores him and goes straight to the point: she’s heard JUDA failed to secure the Linebarrel.
Unfortunately, yes; and things were going swimmingly until the Katou Organization messed everything up. The Preventers have also gotten intel on the Rushbird and the unknown attackers but, unfortunately, they weren’t quick enough on the take to track their escape. Sounds like some mighty folks, indeed, to evade both them and JUDA.
As for the Linebarrel, Ishigami says they’re having folks keep an eye out for the Factor (the pilot) but JUDA’s rather understaffed. Much as it shames him to ask, could Une send some Preventer agents to help? Sure, especially since Quatre and Sally are relatively close – she’ll set things up quick.
Ishigami’s very thankful that she’s lending one of their Gundam pilots but she doesn’t see why not, since they’ll all be working on the same team soon. She means LOTUS, yes, an elite squadron answering directly to the UN secretariat – the UN itself has just given the green light for its creation.
There are so many groups out there who were forced to act by their lonesome and, with LOTUS, they’ll now be capable of consolidating those into an united, independent fighting force. Ishigami promises that while JUDA’s forces aren’t too vast, they’ll all work their hardest to assist. And, with that, Une excuses herself.
Well, looks like the elite team’s ready to get to work and Ishigami is hyped – JUDA’ll answer this call-to-arms in defense of world peace with their absolute best! Miu and Yamashita are ready to go, too, eager to give Reiji the news as he was looking forward to the start of LOTUS.
Ishigami, all giddy, quickly turns to Ichitaka and congratulates him on his perfect timing with cozying up with JUDA: “You, too, are now a CHAMPION OF JUSTICE – a defender of the world!”
That’s cool, sure, but what will that actually entail? Simply put: fight anything that’s a threat to peace and mankind. That means evil terrorist groups like the Katou Organization and assorted baddies like the Haniwa Phantoms and monsters from the Darius Army.
Alice and Ichitaka find this a bit odd: we’ve always had folks around to fight those enemies and they’ve never shunned from cooperating with each other (like in the War of the Giants). Why’d they feel the need to bring them all into a single group now?
Blame politics for that as, from what Ishigami heard, some of those righteous bots ran the risk of falling into the hands of some rather evil politicians if left unchecked. So Une, from her position inside the UN, worked to create the new group as a way to keep those bots free and safe.
Ichitaka understands now and is happy to be aboard, working with Ishigami’s team to help the world. In return, he just asks for help in searching for Grife.
Cut to Shangri-La, the commander’s room, and Sawatari wants to know why Katou had them back off like that. Katou asks him to calm down and as to why he did it… “You’re gonna tell me to ‘imagine it’, aren’t ya? Fine, fine. I’ll understand eventually, is what you’re getting at,” Sawatari groans.
In exchange for all this, though, he wants permission to deploy the next time they go after the Linebarrel. Dmitri makes the same request and, in that case, Katou tells them to bring Wufei along for the ride.
Katou asks Masaki if they’ve the troops available for another attack and the guy says it should be fine, considering they couldn’t get a bead on the Daiku Maryu or the Gaiking.
Sawatari isn’t too keen on working with “forehead” again and Dmitri somewhat agrees. All of them have sworn loyalty to Katou and his ideals, but they don’t think Wufei’s on the same page as them. Plus, the guy joined way too suddenly.
Katou, however is certain that Wufei’s the same as them and won’t turn. If he says so…
Speaking of, he’s now wandering Shangri-La deep in thought: “The endless waltz… must we all dance this dance of lies?”
Some time later, Quatre’s already made it to Japan and informs Sally that he’s investigating the Linebarrel’s crash site. Mind, he’s feeling a bit uneasy for this new assignment: how is he supposed to pass as a middle schooler?
Sally figures his boyish good looks will work well enough, though he’s sure Heero or Duo would’ve been the better picks – they’re old hands at this sort of thing. Too late for that now, though, so Sally sends him a picture of his target: the Linebarrel’s Factor.
Kouichi strikes him as quite the commonplace teenager but, regardless, his orders are to look into him, check whether or not he’s the makings of a proper Factor and how he’s reacting after his run-in with the Linebarrel.
And if he needs help with anything, Sally wants him to call JUDA’s Ishigami right away. They’ll need the Linebarrel’s power in LOTUS, so this must succeed. Quatre’s hoping things with Kouichi can go without any unpleasantries… and why is there some smooshed curry break lying around here?
: You are already dead.: What…?: I’m sorry. The Linebarrel and I… we landed on you.: Wait, hold on there! But I’m alive! I’m breathing just fine, my heart’s beating and—: That’s because the Linebarrel’s D-S.O.I.L. restored you…: The Linebarrel…? That Arma restored me?: It’s not an Arma. The Linebarrel’s a Machina. : A Machina? OK, so it’s different from an Arma. And you say it restored me?: I asked the Linebarrel to save you… and, so, you were reborn – as Factor, sharing your life with it.: …: So, the reason why I could control it and those superpowers I got…: Yes. While you stay with the Linebarrel, you’ll have inhuman strength and any wounds you take will heal pretty much instantly… : You now function as the Factor, the element needed to engage the Linebarrel. : “Inhuman strength”, eh…? Hey, that sounds good to me if it got me stronger!: …