It was supposed to be a relaxing normal day. Leave the
babies with their friend Yoiko, go eat lunch and catch a movie in Galaxy
City, and maybe find some alone
time before Aiko had to pick up the kids, and Namoru Hayataki had to go save
the world from the Praetorian menace.
Namoru forgot Murphy makes sure his life is never normal.
It made sure that the only time Nam
and Aiko’s schedules allowed this just happened to be the same time several
Shivan filled meteors dropped on Galaxy
City, causing one of the worst
disasters to Paragon City
since the Rikti War.
* *
*
Namoru pushed the remains of a restaurant wall off of him
with a ki-enforced shove. One arm hung limply at his side. Broken, his subconscious thought, or badly dislocated. His conscious mind had more pressing concerns.
“AIKO!”
He hadn’t seen her since the impact blew the front of the
restaurant into the rear of it. He had thrown up a barrier in a hurry, and it
managed to block the worst of it before blowing them apart, and bringing the
walls down..
“AIKO!”
Namoru coughed as smoke and dust got sucked into his lungs.
He was filthy, covered head to toe in soot and ash, his shirt ripped half off.
“AIKO!”
He took a few steps, and managed to get out of the dust
cloud. One look and he wished he hadn’t.
It was total devastation. Everywhere he could see, buildings
were smashed – buildings he knew were occupied by civilians a few minutes ago. Only once had he seen anything approaching
this horror, and that was when his home town of Neo
City had been fired upon by the
orbital beam cannon of a Nekonian space battleship
“AIKO!”
It was then a cry reached his ear. No, not his missing wife.
Above, on the top floor of a half-destroyed building, two children held onto
each other in terror wailing as the structure
His wife was missing…wounded…possibly dying….and if that
building fell those children would most certainly die.
Torn between two goals. Namoru hesitated.
* * *
JAPAN
- NEO CITY
HIGH SCHOOL, CLASSROOM 2-F – FIVE
YEARS AGO
“Hayataki-kun!”
Namoru jerked awake. “Huzza? Forty-two! Carbon….The inside
of water?”
Mr. Fujima glared at the boy. “Hayataki-kun, there is no
sleeping in my class.”
Namoru sighed. “I’m sorry, sensei. I was up late last night
trying to keep a squirrel out of the city power reactor. If it had made it in,
there would have been an explosion to rival Hiroshima.”
Fujima blinked at the statement. Normally he’d send a kid to
the principal’s office for such an outlandish statement…but this was Namoru
Hayataki, whom chaos and insanity seemed to follow by the plague. Besides, he
could see Umaru Yoshi sliding down in seat trying not be seen after that
statement…which meant it was probably true…and his fault.
“Very well, Mr. Hayataki. I will remind you that this is a
place of learning, not a hotel. However, I will spare you this one time for
standing in the hall, but only because you’ll make such an interesting example
for today’s topic.”
“And that is, Sensei?”
“Morality and ethics.”
There was a collective groan from the classroom.
Fujima pressed on. “Mr. Hayataki, what’s your opinion on
good vs. evil?”
Namoru thought for a long moment. “Well sir, if I see
someone doing evil, I go and beat on them until they don’t want to do evil
anymore.”
Another groan escaped the class. In the desk next to him,
Namoru’s girlfriend Aiko Kitikami rolled her eyes.
“Or they run away and swear eternal vengeance” muttered a
voice darkly. This came from Yuuta, Namoru’s friend and often rival.
Fujima looked dispassionately at the boy. “You are very
simple sometimes, Hayataki-kun. What if the person doing evil had a good reason
for doing it, or was being forced to because they weren’t given a choice. Have
you ever encountered that before?
Namoru thought about his opponents the last two years. The
psychotic Reika, who had power armor and wanted to abduct Shinji, Aiko’s little
brother; of General Leon, Aiko’s uncle and usurper of the throne, who had
ordered Reika to do this; the virtual dragon Yoshi had made for a video game,
and had escaped into the internet, plotting to kill them as he had been
programmed to; and the demons from hell he had been fighting of late.
“No sir, not really.”
Fujima huffed in frustration. “But what if you had to deal
with something like that. Someone coerced into fighting. Say they had kidnapped
his family, or something.”
Namoru paused. “I don’t know, sensei.”
“What if you were forced into a choice yourself,
Hayataki-kun. What if someone you know was in jeopardy…possibly in mortal
danger, vs a lot of people in definite mortal peril?”
Namoru scrunched up his face trying hard to come up with an
answer….finally he just repeated “I don’t know, sensei.”
Fujima got ready to pounce on Namoru. But before he could
open his mouth, the clock chimed the end of the period.
Namoru took a relieving breath.
“Not so fast, Hayataki-kun. I’ll want a full essay from you
on this subject by Monday. Five pages.”
Namoru winced.
“And that goes for the rest of you, too!”
One final moan escaped the class as they prepared for lunch.
* * *
GALAXY
CITY
– THE PRESENT
“I’m sorry, sensei, I never got to turn that paper in. Guess
I get it now.” Nam
shook the memory from his head.
He glanced back at the restaurant. Aiko was strong. She’d
live. Those kids won’t be so lucky.
Namoru tensed himself. Then, he sprang into life, climbing
the building by bouncing up the side of the building from exposed rebar to
rebar and leaping again before it gave way. Finally, he landed, albeit a bit
awkwardly due to the non functioning arm throwing off his balance, in the
remains of the apartment next to the children.
“Hurry kids! Climb on my back.”
The children hesitated, then one of them scrambled to him.
With one arm Nam
helped him into a “piggy back” position. The other was too terrified to move. Nam
quickly scooped the child under his good arm.
A rumbling made the kids whimper, and Nam
dived down the side of the building, literally running down the building side,
an jumping at the last second as the building collapsed right behind them. He
landed and dropped to his knees. The children scrambled off, one of them giving
a cute “Thank you.” Nam
nodded tersely, panting in a combination of pain and exhaustion.
This was the point that things looking like rock covered
Shivans started to rise out of the meteor fragments. And at around the same
time, Arachnos decided to make their grand appearance.
Namoru took a breath. This wasn’t his day. He meditated a
moment, and checked his ki-reserves. They were pathetically low from all the
healing, the moving heavy objects, the ki enhanced jumps, leaps, and dodges.
He was at his limit.
* * *
JAPAN
– NEAR MT. FUJI
– FOUR YEARS AGO
Namoru came out of the kata, firing his ki blast at a rock
which exploded into shards.
His sensei, Fujsawa-sensei, the school’s librarian and in
reality a warrior-priest of an ancient order, clapped his hands to get Namoru’s
attention.
“That is enough. You have been practicing and training all
day.”
“But Sensei. They have her. They’ve taken my fiancee. I need
to be at the top of my form. I need to be the best to get her back.
“Namoru…the human body is like any machine. Overuse will
cause wear and tear and will hurt you more than help. Rest now, you will be of
no help to your mate worn and ragged.”
“But….”
“No buts! Rest.”
“Hai, Sensei.” Namoru went and lay down on the bedroll he
had taken out to the campsite. On the other side of the campfire, his sensei did
the same.
Namoru waited, listened, until he could hear his sensei’s
deep, regular breathing. Then, he quietly got up and started all over again.
* *
*
GALAXY
CITY
– PRESENT DAY
“I’m sorry, sensei, but I never did learn the definition of ‘limits’ all that well.”
Namoru gathered his flagging reserves and crouched to spring into action.
babies with their friend Yoiko, go eat lunch and catch a movie in Galaxy
City, and maybe find some alone
time before Aiko had to pick up the kids, and Namoru Hayataki had to go save
the world from the Praetorian menace.
Namoru forgot Murphy makes sure his life is never normal.
It made sure that the only time Nam
and Aiko’s schedules allowed this just happened to be the same time several
Shivan filled meteors dropped on Galaxy
City, causing one of the worst
disasters to Paragon City
since the Rikti War.
* *
*
Namoru pushed the remains of a restaurant wall off of him
with a ki-enforced shove. One arm hung limply at his side. Broken, his subconscious thought, or badly dislocated. His conscious mind had more pressing concerns.
“AIKO!”
He hadn’t seen her since the impact blew the front of the
restaurant into the rear of it. He had thrown up a barrier in a hurry, and it
managed to block the worst of it before blowing them apart, and bringing the
walls down..
“AIKO!”
Namoru coughed as smoke and dust got sucked into his lungs.
He was filthy, covered head to toe in soot and ash, his shirt ripped half off.
“AIKO!”
He took a few steps, and managed to get out of the dust
cloud. One look and he wished he hadn’t.
It was total devastation. Everywhere he could see, buildings
were smashed – buildings he knew were occupied by civilians a few minutes ago. Only once had he seen anything approaching
this horror, and that was when his home town of Neo
City had been fired upon by the
orbital beam cannon of a Nekonian space battleship
“AIKO!”
It was then a cry reached his ear. No, not his missing wife.
Above, on the top floor of a half-destroyed building, two children held onto
each other in terror wailing as the structure
His wife was missing…wounded…possibly dying….and if that
building fell those children would most certainly die.
Torn between two goals. Namoru hesitated.
* * *
JAPAN
- NEO CITY
HIGH SCHOOL, CLASSROOM 2-F – FIVE
YEARS AGO
“Hayataki-kun!”
Namoru jerked awake. “Huzza? Forty-two! Carbon….The inside
of water?”
Mr. Fujima glared at the boy. “Hayataki-kun, there is no
sleeping in my class.”
Namoru sighed. “I’m sorry, sensei. I was up late last night
trying to keep a squirrel out of the city power reactor. If it had made it in,
there would have been an explosion to rival Hiroshima.”
Fujima blinked at the statement. Normally he’d send a kid to
the principal’s office for such an outlandish statement…but this was Namoru
Hayataki, whom chaos and insanity seemed to follow by the plague. Besides, he
could see Umaru Yoshi sliding down in seat trying not be seen after that
statement…which meant it was probably true…and his fault.
“Very well, Mr. Hayataki. I will remind you that this is a
place of learning, not a hotel. However, I will spare you this one time for
standing in the hall, but only because you’ll make such an interesting example
for today’s topic.”
“And that is, Sensei?”
“Morality and ethics.”
There was a collective groan from the classroom.
Fujima pressed on. “Mr. Hayataki, what’s your opinion on
good vs. evil?”
Namoru thought for a long moment. “Well sir, if I see
someone doing evil, I go and beat on them until they don’t want to do evil
anymore.”
Another groan escaped the class. In the desk next to him,
Namoru’s girlfriend Aiko Kitikami rolled her eyes.
“Or they run away and swear eternal vengeance” muttered a
voice darkly. This came from Yuuta, Namoru’s friend and often rival.
Fujima looked dispassionately at the boy. “You are very
simple sometimes, Hayataki-kun. What if the person doing evil had a good reason
for doing it, or was being forced to because they weren’t given a choice. Have
you ever encountered that before?
Namoru thought about his opponents the last two years. The
psychotic Reika, who had power armor and wanted to abduct Shinji, Aiko’s little
brother; of General Leon, Aiko’s uncle and usurper of the throne, who had
ordered Reika to do this; the virtual dragon Yoshi had made for a video game,
and had escaped into the internet, plotting to kill them as he had been
programmed to; and the demons from hell he had been fighting of late.
“No sir, not really.”
Fujima huffed in frustration. “But what if you had to deal
with something like that. Someone coerced into fighting. Say they had kidnapped
his family, or something.”
Namoru paused. “I don’t know, sensei.”
“What if you were forced into a choice yourself,
Hayataki-kun. What if someone you know was in jeopardy…possibly in mortal
danger, vs a lot of people in definite mortal peril?”
Namoru scrunched up his face trying hard to come up with an
answer….finally he just repeated “I don’t know, sensei.”
Fujima got ready to pounce on Namoru. But before he could
open his mouth, the clock chimed the end of the period.
Namoru took a relieving breath.
“Not so fast, Hayataki-kun. I’ll want a full essay from you
on this subject by Monday. Five pages.”
Namoru winced.
“And that goes for the rest of you, too!”
One final moan escaped the class as they prepared for lunch.
* * *
GALAXY
CITY
– THE PRESENT
“I’m sorry, sensei, I never got to turn that paper in. Guess
I get it now.” Nam
shook the memory from his head.
He glanced back at the restaurant. Aiko was strong. She’d
live. Those kids won’t be so lucky.
Namoru tensed himself. Then, he sprang into life, climbing
the building by bouncing up the side of the building from exposed rebar to
rebar and leaping again before it gave way. Finally, he landed, albeit a bit
awkwardly due to the non functioning arm throwing off his balance, in the
remains of the apartment next to the children.
“Hurry kids! Climb on my back.”
The children hesitated, then one of them scrambled to him.
With one arm Nam
helped him into a “piggy back” position. The other was too terrified to move. Nam
quickly scooped the child under his good arm.
A rumbling made the kids whimper, and Nam
dived down the side of the building, literally running down the building side,
an jumping at the last second as the building collapsed right behind them. He
landed and dropped to his knees. The children scrambled off, one of them giving
a cute “Thank you.” Nam
nodded tersely, panting in a combination of pain and exhaustion.
This was the point that things looking like rock covered
Shivans started to rise out of the meteor fragments. And at around the same
time, Arachnos decided to make their grand appearance.
Namoru took a breath. This wasn’t his day. He meditated a
moment, and checked his ki-reserves. They were pathetically low from all the
healing, the moving heavy objects, the ki enhanced jumps, leaps, and dodges.
He was at his limit.
* * *
JAPAN
– NEAR MT. FUJI
– FOUR YEARS AGO
Namoru came out of the kata, firing his ki blast at a rock
which exploded into shards.
His sensei, Fujsawa-sensei, the school’s librarian and in
reality a warrior-priest of an ancient order, clapped his hands to get Namoru’s
attention.
“That is enough. You have been practicing and training all
day.”
“But Sensei. They have her. They’ve taken my fiancee. I need
to be at the top of my form. I need to be the best to get her back.
“Namoru…the human body is like any machine. Overuse will
cause wear and tear and will hurt you more than help. Rest now, you will be of
no help to your mate worn and ragged.”
“But….”
“No buts! Rest.”
“Hai, Sensei.” Namoru went and lay down on the bedroll he
had taken out to the campsite. On the other side of the campfire, his sensei did
the same.
Namoru waited, listened, until he could hear his sensei’s
deep, regular breathing. Then, he quietly got up and started all over again.
* *
*
GALAXY
CITY
– PRESENT DAY
“I’m sorry, sensei, but I never did learn the definition of ‘limits’ all that well.”
Namoru gathered his flagging reserves and crouched to spring into action.
