Now alone with his wife in their apartment, Hanzo Ueda picked himself up from the floor, and then reached out a hand to help his wife Junko find her feet. The apartment was now open to the sky thanks to the sudden exit of Wonder Hero Crimson and they could feel the building swaying slightly, reacting to the earthquake and aftershocks.
“We should get out of here,” said Junko, “before this building collapses as well.”
Hanzo laughed.
“You’re laughing?”
“Yes, Junko, I am laughing,” said Hanzo, with true joy in his heart. “We’re death cultists, and we have just ushered in the death of the world. Now we are to run from a building that might collapse?”
Hanzo grabbed Junko’s hand and dragged her across the living room and towards the smashed out window. He stood dangerously close to the edge and the deadly twenty-seven-story drop. Junko felt a giddy vertigo.
Hanzo stood on his toes and raised a fist defiantly into the air. As he shouted, “Look at what we have wrought, Junko!” Flush with excitement the cult leader lost his balance and would surly have fallen out the window and to his death if Junko had not pulled him back.
As if in answer to Hanzo’s outburst there came an explosion from the site of the distant battle. Junko turned away from the carnage and stared at her husband. She had married him out of duty, and to spite her father, but until now, she suddenly realized, she had never truly loved him. In the next twenty-four hours, billions of humans, including she and Hanzo would die, the fruition of all her hopes and dreams. Yet Junko had never imagined finding love at the end of the world.
Junko joined in her husband’s laughter and joy. He whooped and hollered as the battle raged, and she found herself for the first time in her dour and passionless life swept up in a moment. With a suddenness that surprised them both the young couple noticed each other, and fell into a passionate kiss. The battle raged and the world teetered on the edge of oblivion, but gripped by passion, the lovers no longer noticed or cared.
The Wonder Giant took a step forward on uncertain legs, and then paused. The powerful multicolored robot, assembled from the various vehicles controlled by the Wonder Heroes, lifted its green left leg slowly, and rocked it at the knee experimentally. Diagnostic analytics were parsed and processed: the Wonder Giant was getting response readings of only twenty-three percent capacity from that limb. Delving further the Giant determined that one of the six humans nestled securely inside had somehow hacked the system, and was not an authorized pilot. The Wonder Giant moved to cut the intruder off from all functions. Doing this would put the five remaining authorized pilots at risk because all the vast computational functions had to now be processed through the brains of the five remaining pilots. Six minds were needed. Running the Wonder Giant on only five minds ran the risk of burning out the pilots like an overloaded circuit breaker, without the ability to reset.
To spare the pilots the Wonder Giant considered dissolving the union back into separate components, but its primary duty, to protect the Earth, would be compromised if it did. The Wonder Giant had no choice but to potentially sacrifice its pilots for the sake of the Earth. Just before its diagnostic was completed a sixth pilot came on line. The Wonder Giant was now running at an overall one hundred percent capacity. Further attempts to diagnose the problem would have to wait, however, because the Neboukichan were becoming ever more powerful, and if the Wonder Giant did not act quickly, the Earth would perish.
As the Wonder Giant paused the Neboukichan were working to determine its strengths and weaknesses, its offensive and defensive capabilities. Running probabilities, the Neboukichan did not like their odds. Their only chance of victory seemed to be in an all-out concentrated attack.
With no time to lose, the Wonder Giant ran forward into battle. Each step was a minor earthquake that rocked the firmament of the Earth. The Wonder Giant stormed forward, drawing on the martial arts skills of all the Wonder Heroes stored away within its massive body. The Neboukichan were just over half as tall as the Wonder Giant, but each was incredibly powerful and dangerous. The Wonder Giant needed to eliminate one of them quickly, thereby depriving them of nearly half of their geometric crystalline power.
The Neboukichan called Ice had initially determined a weakness in the Wonder Giant centered in the area of its left leg, but was now confused by the apparent, impossible repair that had suddenly taken effect. The Wonder Giant was running at full capacity, and presented a very clear danger to the alien monsters. Ice decided to treat the new information as possibly inaccurate, and follow through with its initial attack plan. The monster bent slightly at its knees and leaned backwards, allowing the Wonder Giant’s sword to cleave through the air harmlessly above its head, at the same time spinning and executing a powerful punch at the Wonder Giant’s green knee. Inside the Wonder Giant, the martial arts abilities of all the pilots was marshaled and drawn upon, and this attack was easily foreseen. As Ice launched its punch the Wonder Giant twisted, following the rotation of its sword, planting its golden right leg and executed a 360 spin, driving its right elbow into the back of Ice’s head.
The nearly indestructible metal of the Wonder Giant, reinforced with energy shields and telekinetic buttresses, collided with the semi-organic granitoid material of the Neboukichan’s head hard enough to send a spider web of cracks down the robot’s spine. Ice’s own punch had not only failed to connect, but had left it vulnerable and now severely structurally compromised. The desperate Neboukichan searched its databanks for defense tactics, but it was far too late for defense. The Wonder Giant was continuing its spin, it’s right arm circling fast. The Wonder Giant leapt in the air as Ice stumbled and fell forward. The battle ended suddenly and with great ferocity as the Wonder Giant brought its great Crimson Sword down like a hammer.
There came a powerful explosion that rocked a world numb from sonic shocks, as Ice shattered into a million useless pieces and a cloud of crystalline dust that sparkled in the sunlight as it dispersed.
The five remaining Neboukichan stepped back in shock. The Wonder Giant lowered its head and shadows fell across its unfeeling face that gave the impression of a smile, the cruel smile of a chess player who knows that it has already won. Now there was just the matter of convincing the opponent of that fact. Signals passed invisibly between the five remaining Neboukichan as they prepared their obvious and futile counter attack.
The giant stone monsters now seemed small compared to the Wonder Giant. The Neboukichan stepped apart and leaned forward, emitting their terrible, low moans in unison. The droning seemed to cascade and reinforce itself, braiding and increasing in intensity and power. The air vibrated and waved, the tectonics in the Earth shifted in response. All the power of this sonorous droning was concentrated on the Wonder Giant, but before the effect could be truly damaging, the Ultra Shield was raised in defense.
There was an almost solid quality to the sound. The Wonder Giant was buffeted with vibrational energy. Had the Wonder Giant not leaned into the attack, allowing the Wonder Shield to take the brunt of the force, it would have fallen. Slowly the Wonder Giant pushed against the concussive sound and moved forward against the energy, taking step after impossible step. The Ultra Shield cracked and dimmed, but before it collapsed the Wonder Giant had closed the gap, having relentlessly slogged forward through the devastating sonic waves. With a roar of power and impossible speed the multicolored giant avenger brought the mighty Crimson Sword down, destroying the Neboukichan called Anger in one blow, cleaving it in half from head to crotch.
The sonic spell broken, the rest of the Neboukichan fell to physical attacks. As Health pounded uselessly on the reestablished Ultra Shield, black lightning was launched from the chest of the Wonder Giant’s torso, devastating Happiness as it leapt into the air in an attempt to strike at the Wonder Giant’s head. Reflex raised its arms to ward off the sword arcing through the air towards its neck, instantly losing both hands and head in the process.
A nudge from the Ultra Shield knocked Dream onto its back as the Wonder Giant turned towards Happiness and Health, who were attempting some sort of joint attack. It mattered little. Beams flashed from the Wonder Giants eyes, scouring the face and eyes of Happiness, blinding it. The Wonder Giant stepped forward with its sword held low and impaled Health straight through. Health gripped the Crimson Fist in an ultimately futile gesture as the Wonder Giant gave the Crimson Sword a quick twist, cracking the hapless Neboukichan into crumbling ruins.
The Wonder Giant dismissed the Crimson Sword and Ultra Shield as it strode forward towards the blinded and crippled Happiness. Placing its great right hand on the Neboukichan’s head, it drove a single punch through its stone-like body, shattering it completely with a nuclear powered hammer blow. Happiness destroyed, the Wonder Giant dropped its head as footsteps could be heard, charging from the rear. The last remaining Neboukichan, Dream, had regained its footing, and was charging the Wonder Giant from behind. The Wonder Giant waited, anticipating this attack.
At the last possible instant the Wonder Giant stepped to one side and grabbed the Neboukichan around the neck. The Wonder Giant lifted its legs in the air and fell into a sitting position, cracking the Neboukichan backwards Krav Maga style. Dream collapsed into crystalline rubble and dust, destroyed.
Now there was silence at Narita Airport, save for the distant sounds of sirens. The Wonder Giant climbed to its feet and listened. Not to the pleas for help from the injured and dying, but to the creeping, crackling sounds of the Neboukichan as even now they sought to repair themselves.
It was not over. Not yet. Something still held the Neboukichan together. Even now they were relentlessly rebuilding, planning to come back from rubble and dust to destroy the world. The Wonder Giant scanned for the threads of energy that united the Neboukichan and all their disparate pieces. It could envision this energy as golden webs of connection that streamed throughout the wreckage and rubble.
The Wonder Giant walked slowly through the newly created Neboukichan gravel field, taking care to stomp larger pieces into smaller bits, all the while knowing that the inevitable return of these dangerous, ancient opponents was merely being delayed. There was one strand of energy that was not confined to the wreckage and rubble of the battlefield. The Wonder Giant saw that this golden strand flowed like a single thread towards the city. The Wonder Giant somehow knew that whatever was at the other end of this thread of energy was the unifying power that allowed the Neboukichan to reassemble and be reborn.
The Wonder Giant engaged its mighty boot jets and flew, making a lazy arc through the sky, following the slim strand of energy wherever it may lead. Deep inside the Wonder Giant the five Wonder Heroes were silent as corpses, but Walter Watanabe screamed, and gasped for air, fighting for his life.
Exhausted from lovemaking, Hanzo Ueda rolled on to his back and listened to the distant sounds of battle. Catching his breath, he glanced at the clock on the cable box near the large television, and wondered why the battle was taking so long. Surely the Wonder Heroes had been vanquished by now. At any moment he expected to be struck dead in the coming Neboukichan apocalypse.
“Turn on the television,” said Junko, obviously as curious as her husband.
Hanzo grabbed the remote from the floor and the television blared to life with pictures shot live by way of helicopter from Narita Airport. Hanzo Ueda was stunned by turn of the battle. The Wonder Giant was trouncing the Neboukichan into rubble with seemingly minimal effort. He watched as the Wonder Giant thrust a sword through the chest of Anger, and then with a twist of its wrist tear Anger apart as if it had been constructed of chalk rather than alien granitoid.
“We have to leave,” said Hanzo, suddenly panicked.
“This is impossible,” said Junko, watching the television in shock and confusion, “How can this be?”
“Obviously,” said Hanzo, grabbing his pants and shoes from the floor, “the prophecy never accounted for the presence of Cassiopeian technology.” He tossed Junko a shirt. “Get dressed!”
“Why?” said Junko, looking at her husband, “Do you really think we can run from the Wonder Heroes? Escape?”
Hanzo looked at the woman he loved, so alive when the world was ending, but suddenly so dead to a world that was to survive. “We can assemble the cult members,” said Hanzo, “go underground, rebuild…”
Junko snorted at this. “You don’t get it, do you Hanzo?” Junko pointed out the broken window, towards the battle in the distance. “Today was to be the day the world ended.”
Junko walked towards the window. Hanzo’s heart leapt in his chest as he realized what Junko intended to do. “No!” he cried.
Junko turned and regarded Hanzo with great sadness that was overshadowed only by the disappointment he saw in her eyes. Hanzo had somehow failed her. Her faith was shattered.
Hanzo ran after his wife, but his legs were too slow and she was already gone, falling backwards out the window and twenty-seven stories to her death.
Hanzo fell to his knees and heaving sobs welled up from his chest.
Hanzo stood before the window frozen in place and in shock. Junko was gone, disappearing from his life as suddenly as she had appeared. He felt hollowed out and more alone than an entire life of loneliness could have prepared him for. In the distance, the Wonder Giant was destroying the last of the Neboukichan, and the sounds of battle helped Hanzo to regain some of his senses. With no idea where he was going or what he was going to do when he got there, Hanzo ran.
The cult leader grabbed a shirt from the floor, ran from the apartment and took the elevator to the parking garage. He got into his new car, a bright red Audi, and exited onto the street. To his right Hanzo saw a crowd of people, and knew that they were gathered around the body of Junko. He was grateful that they blocked his view; he did not think he could stand to see the body of the only woman who had ever loved him.
He drove through the streets like a madman, ignoring lights and the rules of the road. No police came after him; they were mostly dealing with the disaster of the collapsed building downtown and the chaos at Narita Airport. Hanzo flipped on the radio. The reporter seemed overjoyed. The Neboukichan were all defeated, reduced to rubble and dust. The Wonder Giant, now victorious, had launched itself on powerful thrusters into the air and was heading towards downtown Tokyo. The reporter speculated that it was going to help those who might be trapped within collapsed buildings.
Hanzo allowed himself to hope that with the Wonder Heroes so distracted he might go underground and into hiding, slowly rebuilding the Kaiju Cult and perhaps accessing other ancient technologies that would allow him another chance to destroy the world and the world’s defenders.
Then all of Hanzo’s thoughts and dreams came crashing down. Literally.
Hanzo stomped on the brakes, screeching to a halt as the Wonder Giant landed in the street ahead of him. The giant robot cratered the pavement with its feet as it landed, and the shockwave shattered windows. Hanzo peered through the windshield of his Audi at the six story tall robot, and met the intelligent gaze of the Wonder Giant. Hanzo did not run. He turned off the car and stepped from the vehicle, tossing the keys over his shoulder. Calmly he walked towards the Wonder Giant, tears clouding his vision. All of Hanzo’s thoughts of nihilism and death faded away. All he wanted now was life: Life for Junko, and life for himself that they might be together again.
The Wonder Giant strode majestically down the street, matching Hanzo step for step. Hanzo could not see what the Wonder Giant saw, a strand of psychic energy that linked the Kaiju Cult leader to the distant Neboukichan. Hanzo stopped a few feet away, staring up and into the face Wonder Giant. Tears streaked down Hanzo’s cheeks and blurred his vision. Small groups of Japanese citizens watched as Hanzo confronted the massively powerful alien presence of the Wonder Giant.
Hanzo raised a defiant fist and screamed with rage and fury, “I’m right here you monster!” In his mind’s eye Hanzo could see Junko, calmly falling from the window of their apartment and into oblivion.
The Wonder Giant lifted its large golden boot and Hanzo wanted to laugh.
“DO IT!” screamed Hanzo, and the Wonder Giant complied, stomping the cult leader into pulp.
Now the Wonder Giant stood in the wide, silent Tokyo street and stared into the sky, as if in contemplation. In the distance could still be heard the sound of sirens, responding to the scores of emergencies spawned in the wake of the giant robot’s big brawl. Hanzo Ueda was little more than a stain on the metal behemoth’s boot. The golden strand of energy that linked Hanzo’s life force to the granitoid Neboukichan faded away to nothingness before the Wonder Giant’s eyes. The threat was now eliminated.
The Earth safe and its task complete, the Wonder Giant dissolved the union of the six minds within. The eyes of the Wonder Giant dimmed and the intelligence there faded, leaving behind only mechanism. The ghost had left the machine.
The Crimson and Ultra Fists roared to life, and detached from the Onyx Torso as the Skull popped like a cork from its perch at the Wonder Giant’s neck. As the Fists landed in the street the Onyx Torso slowly lifted off from the Kicks. The Kicks seemed to fold back into their original shape as the Onyx Torso and Skull landed nearby. When all six Wonder Vehicles were safely detached, all the engines grew silent.
On board the Crimson Kick, Susan Daystrom awoke, as if from a dream. She did not feel rested, but tired and sore. Her armor was already pumping her full of painkillers and stimulants, but it took time for the powerful effects of the Wonder Armor’s drugs to ease the transition from the group mind. The weariness Susan felt was almost spiritual in nature, and the drugs did not seem up to the task of remedying that particular woe. Susan looked around. She was back in the cockpit. The last thing she had remembered before unconsciousness was her seat falling back and her body being moved into a secure, coffin-like environment designed to protect her during the Wonder Giant’s battle.
Now the Crimson Kick was parked on the streets of Tokyo, not too far from the restaurant she and Walter had intended to visit only an hour ago. To her left Susan could see the Ultra Fist, and through the cockpit window she could see Matt moving slightly. Susan waved her hand weakly.
“Hey, Matt,” she said, “Does this get any easier after you’ve done it a few times?”
“No,” said Matt simply, “not really. Summoning the Wonder Giant always sucks.”
“Good to know.”
From the Onyx Torso Jay cut in. “That’s it then? Threat’s over, we won?”
“Looks like it,” said Kalomo from the Skull, “according to news reports all the Neboukichan are destroyed.”
“I feel like crap,” said Jay, “Can we get out of here?”
“Guys, we’ve got a problem,” said Theodore from the Golden Kick, “I’m not getting any readings from the Kick-Blade. No power, no life signs, no nothing.”
Susan checked her sensors, and with a sharp intake of breath confirmed Theodore’s readings. Without another word she popped the top of her cockpit open and leapt to the street. She ran towards the Kick-Blade, catching up to Theodore who was already on his way.
“Walter!” said Susan through the communicators, “If you can here me, respond!”
There was no answer from Walter as Susan got to the door of the Kick-Blade. It did not open for her. In frustration Susan banged on the door with both fists.
“Hang on,” said Theodore, “Walter opened the door in the hanger with his armor. I recorded what he did, and can mirror the frequencies he used with my gauntlet.” Theodore held up his hands and concentrated. Nothing happened.
Matt, Kalomo and Jay arrived. Susan activated the jump in her Wonder Boots and leapt to the top of the Kick-Blade. She looked into the cockpit and said, “I can see him. He’s not moving.” Susan drew back her right hand and screamed, “Hai!” as she brought her palm down on a transparent aluminum cockpit window. The window shattered even as below, on the ground, Theodore was successful in opening the door to the Kick-Blade with the help of Matt and the energies of his ultramarine Wonder Gauntlet.
“We’re in…” began Theodore, before being cut off by the sound of shattering metallic glass.
Susan ripped into the cockpit and dragged Walter’s unmoving body out. Holding him in her arms she leapt to the street and laid him down gently. Her sensors showed no life signs. Walter Watanabe was dead.
“No,” said Susan out loud as she easily ripped the faceplate off Walter’s Domaru Armor. She switched to her gauntlet’s first aid mode and a series of microtubes popped out of her clenched right fist. She gently stabbed the microtubes into Walter’s exposed neck, injecting nanobots into his blood stream even as she conducted a shock of electricity into him, in an attempt to restart his heart.
Matt was kneeling beside her. “Readings show he suffocated, Susan. He’s brain dead.”
“No,” said Susan, overriding the safeties in her Wonder Gauntlet and injecting more nanobots and more electricity. For her efforts Walter’s heart gave up a few feeble beats, but then stopped.
“No,” said Susan a third time, and then she started to cry. Matt moved closer and took her in his arms. Around the Wonder Heroes gathered a small crowd.
Slowly it dawned on people that Walter Watanabe, Japan’s greatest hero, was dead.
It was the middle of the night when Theodore, Jay and Kalomo returned to Wonder Base. As they stepped off the teleporter pad the three friends regarded each other in silence. The death of Walter Watanabe had shocked the team. Matt had stayed in Japan with Susan, where General Rumpole had arrived to help sort through the inevitable tangle of issues that would come up in the wake of so much battle and death.
Kalomo dismissed his armor and grabbed a white robe from the peg on the wall. He looked at Theodore and said, “Theodore, I just want you to know. No hard feelings, okay?”
Theodore looked confused for a second, and then realized that Kalomo was talking about the nightclub in New York. His first impulse was to laugh, but he betrayed none of this to Kalomo as he said, “Yeah. No. No hard feelings man. I’m sorry.”
This seemed to satisfy Kalomo. “I’ve got to get to my room. Linnea’s really upset.”
Kalomo left, and Jay followed silently.
Alone in the teleporter room, Theodore smiled broadly.
Theodore did not return to his quarters. He had not been there in weeks, preferring to spend most of his time in his New York apartment. Instead Theodore visited the fifth floor, walking barefoot through the darkened empty corridors in his yellow tee shirt and briefs.
“No,” answered Theodore aloud, “I won’t let you.”
He was all alone.
“Please,” said Theodore, smiling cruelly, “like you have a choice.”
Theodore grabbed his left pinky finger with his right hand, said, “Please, don’t…” in a weak voice and then wrenched his finger out and back with an audible crack of bone.
“Arrgh!” said Theodore, doubling over in pain and leaning on a wall to avoid falling over.
Slowly, Theodore stood up and continued walking. “I’ve explained this before, Theodore,” said Theodore, “I get the pleasure, you get the pain.”
“What about the plan?” asked Theodore, trying to get his mind off the pain, “You’re still months away…”
“The plan has to move faster,” Theodore said simply, “Matt’s stupid, but he’s going to figure it out soon. Summoning the Wonder Giant gave me away.”
Theodore was quiet at this, until he suddenly noticed where he was. “What are you going?” he asked, his voice betraying his fear.
Theodore walked up to a doorway that opened silently as he approached. “I haven’t visited mom in months,” he said, “Thought I’d pay the old lady a visit.”
Theodore walked inside the room, and the door closed silently behind him. “It’s the middle of the night,” said Theodore, whispering now, “She’ll be asleep.”
In the dark, thanks to the Wonder Gauntlet, Theodore could see perfectly well. The apartment was neat and orderly, and filled with plants. His mother’s cat watched him from its perch on the couch. Theodore used to be allergic to cats, but the Wonder Gauntlet had cured him of that when it corrected his eyesight. The cat’s eyes glowed in Theodore’s night vision.
Theodore walked into his mother’s bedroom, and saw her sleeping in her bed on her back, mouth open, covers pulled up to her neck. Theodore was afraid to speak, he did not want to disturb her or wake her up and frighten her.
“Why don’t you ever visit her anymore?” asked Theodore, too loudly.
“You know why,” whispered Theodore in response.
Theodore nodded and smiled. He raised his hand and aimed the golden Wonder Gauntlet at his sleeping mother. “One shot,” he said, “that’s all it would take.”
A tear fell from Theodore’s eye, crawled down his face, and landed on Theodore’s tongue.
“What’s it going to be, Theodore?”
Theodore was quiet, and it was only when he felt the energy for a death shot building in the gauntlet that he finally acquiesced and nodded. “All right!” said Theodore, “You win, Harlan.”