July 4th, 2010
Kīlauea, Hawaii
It had been a quiet few days since the Gala on Giovanni's boat. Which surprised me. What, with Batman, Robin, Luthor, and Amanda Waller all showing up on the same day, I'd expected Joker and Darkseid to show up next.
Instead, things went right back to normal. Well, except for a couple things. On the morning of July 4th, I stood next to Mimikyu and Tyrunt in the kitchen of our base, watching as Mimikyu lifted a piece of cloth and wrapped it around his head. He looked up at me, waiting.
"...Yeah, it looks great."
"Tyyyyyy!" he wiggled happily, his new mask wrapped around his eyes. It was an inky-black, covering most of the area around his eyes, a pair of short 'tails' coming out of the back of it.
Ever since meeting and fighting alongside Robin, Tyrunt had gotten worried about one thing.
How was he going to hide his identity without a mask?
Yeah. I tried to talk to him about it. I explained, multiple times, that he didn't need to hide his identity. He was the only Tyrunt in all of Hawaii! No one was going to think 'oh wow, who was that masked Pokemon, a Snorlax?' He literally couldn't have a secret identity!
Well, as one could tell, I had not been successful in convincing him otherwise.
"Mimikyu?" my tiny fashionista asked.
"Ty," he rubbed his head against her in affectionate thanks, getting a hug in return.
"So you finally gave up?" Grace asked as she walked into the kitchen, wearing her lab equipment.
"I don't fight impossible battles without good reasons," I explained. "How goes the science?"
"Slowly," Grace said with a small smile. "Between my serum and my research into Pokemon, I'm having trouble deciding what I find more interesting. That said, I haven't found a way to reverse the effect my serum has on people."
"You'll get it. I know you will," I said with more confidence than I expected.
We shared a brief smile as she poured some coffee.
Sam Mokoa
In the FBI offices in Honolulu, Sam opened up a crate, looking inside of it. "...These are normal guns."
"Were you expecting laser guns?" Ishido asked, the Japanese man walking up to lift one of the military weapons out of the crate.
"I was expecting something effective. Most of that kids spirit monsters-"
"Pokemon," Ishido interrupted, the Japanese man grinning.
"Whatever. A lot of them are bulletproof. Or at least bullet-resistant. I need things that can capture or turn them away, block their abilities. Guns are just paper toys in comparison."
"I wouldn't say that," Ishido lifted up a gun for himself. "Like you said, bullet-resistant. Means enough might put them down, or wear down their invulnerability. At the least, physics means a bullet can push them aside if they're light enough. And in the end, they're an option."
"An option, but we need something more robust," Sam looked behind him. "David. You got anything?"
Behind them, David Fite sat in the center of a large pentagram. The outer edges of the pentagram had elegant script written with rock salt. Arabic, Latin, Chinese, Haitian, Runes. All circling each other in spirals until they ran up against a ring of iron surrounding it all.
The tall black man's eyes opened slowly. "Not just yet. But I'm new to this city. I need to build my information network, find out more about the politics of the situation, before I can really start digging."
Sam appreciated David for how he explained things. He avoided mumbo-jumbo talk, avoided trying to sound mystical. For such a spiritual man, he tended to take a very practical stance on the nature of magic.
"What about weapons?" Sam asked.
"What, you want blessed bullets?"
Sam was about to get angry, only to hesitate when he realized David hadn't sounded sarcastic. "I… can you do that?"
"Sure. Make them more effective on spirits and demons. I doubt we'd need those though," David shrugged. "Sorry Sam, but until I can interact with Pokemon personally, I can't promise anything."
Sam sighed, unable to argue with the logic.
"You should bless the weapons to be more effective on humans," Ishido noted.
David hesitated. "First, in that case I would be cursing them. Second, why?"
"The Silicon Dragons. We might end up fighting them, right?"
Sam shuffled uncomfortably. Magic-enhanced weapons against the Silicon Dragons… Fine.
"Keep it low-level if you can," Sam grumbled.
If he noticed Sam's reluctance, David didn't show it. He only nodded slowly. "Anti-Human. Well, I have some fur from Primate Mur- no, that's a bit too much. Maybe some uranium, a bit of cyanide. Bit of mercury for the mental component. I can figure something out. Oh, and human blood."
"Human blood?" Ishido asked.
"Nothing on Earth or the universe, nothing in all the planes of reality, is as good at killing humans as other humans."
Giovanni Giovanni
Giovanni took a sip of his water, listening to his lead scientist speak.
"We've been pouring over the data for days. These samples you've given us are pretty incredible-"
"Can you do anything with them?" Giovanni said, cutting the scientist off.
The man hesitated. "Maybe. There are thousands of papers on DNA of alien origin. And your notes are pretty useful. But it might still be years before we could do anything with them."
"That's fine," Giovanni leaned back in his chair. "Just keep at it. I'm a patient man, as long as work is being done."
Giovanni waved his hand. The lead scientist nodded quickly, leaving the room, dodging around Lawton and Roxy as they came in. Giovanni looked up at them, sipping his water, only to freeze when he saw the looks on their faces.
"What is it?"
"Somebody is making a move," Lawton said seriously. "A big one."
Roxy held out a tablet. "This is current as of five minutes ago."
Giovanni took a hold of the tablet. Then he rose to his feet, pulling out his phone and calling someone. The phone rang for a moment before the other end answered.
"Kahu."
"Giovanni," the man on the other side said. "I'm on my way there."
"Good. Do you require assistance?"
"Not from you. You need to stick to the shadows. We'll do our best. Just be ready in case this becomes an Avengers level threat."
Kahu hung up. Giovanni didn't mind. He simply looked over at Lawton.
"Choppers ready," Deadshot said instantly.
"Good. Let's move," Giovanni started walking, two questions on his mind. First, what the hell was going on? Second, what was an Avenger?
Sam Mokoa
Sam, David, and Ishido ran through a garage, carrying guns and wearing bulletproof armor, Sam growling as he ran.
"Have they ever done something like this?" Ishido asked, opening a car door and entering quickly.
"It's her," Sam growled. "Or fucking Kahu. Or just some outside fucking agent. Whatever it is, we need to go!"
"Well, you're driving, put the pedal to the meda-AAAAH!"
As Ishido screamed, and Sam peeled out of the garage, he looked over his shoulder at David. "You better get to blessing those guns for Anti-Human."
"I told you," David lifted an assault rifle and quickly bit his thumb, blood spilling before he began to inscribe something. "This is a curse."
Kahu Kiaʻi
So much for getting back to normal.
I grabbed a large riot shield designed for me off the weapons rack by the door, putting it on my back with the straps, then grabbing a flat metal club of sorts, strapping that to my waist.
"What is even going on?" Kalini asked, watching as Orca came up wearing a bulletproof vest and military pants sized for her. The large man looked befuddled. "Someone explain?"
"There's been an attack," I grabbed the remote to the tv and turned the flatscreen on.
"-our ongoing report on the attack on Pearl Harbor," a news reporter said, looking panicked. "Killer Frost has frozen over the harbor and is currently joined by a small army of Silicon Dragons, who have taken over the area. Military forces are fighting back, but we have no word on-"
"An attack on Pearl Harbor…" Kalini whispered, horrified.
"We're ready!" Alakazam barked in our minds. My Pokemon were there.
Orca and I ran over. "Pokeballs, now, everyone but Al."
"Al?"
"Not the time," I told the affronted Pokemon.
Gurdurr swung his I-Beam onto his shoulder, Mudkip chuckling just a bit. Mimikyu gave me a hug before moving to help Tyrunt wrap his new mask around his eyes. Slugma, a teardrop-shaped rock hanging on her neck, wiggled slightly in place, waiting patiently as I pointed my Pokeballs at all of them.
My Pokemon turned to flashes of light, flickering and entering their Pokeballs. Once done, Alakazam placed his hands on Orca and my shoulders. In a flash of light, we were in Honolulu.
"We're about 5 miles from the battle," Alakazam said as we looked around. We stood in a large garage, with cars and motorbikes of all shapes and sizes, a few without license plates. "This was the closest place Giovanni had to Pearl Harbor. A garage he allowed me to create a teleport point in. It should have vehicles to accommodate all our needs."
"It's fine. Head out there, see what you can do to help and get the lay of the land."
"I will. Drive safely."
"What are we riding?" Orca asked as Alakazam flew out of the room.
"That," I ran over to a beast of a motorcycle in the corner. "You ever ride one of these?"
"No," she looked nervous as I straddled the motorcycle.
It was huge. Made to carry say, a Conkledurr or a giant metahuman woman, with a human piloting. Giovanni wasn't a man to avoid planning ahead.
"Then get on the back."
To her credit, she only hesitated for an instant before sitting on the back. She pressed against the metal slab on my back, wrapping her arms as best as she could around me. I revved the motorcycle, and we drove out of the garage doors Alakazam had helpfully opened up for us.
"What's the plan!?" Orca yelled in my ear as I revved the cycle, driving around cars and rising to 80 miles per hour.
"We need to find out the basic layout of the fight!" I yelled back, moving around a Chevy truck that had broken down while a man with a Boston accent made fun of the driver. "But Killer Frost is the priority!"
Killer Frost. Damnit, what did I know about her? A frost villain who fought Batman, maybe? Well, no, she was more of a… what, Firestorm villain? Or were they dating as a Bat/Cat thing? Didn't matter.
What did matter was that she was powerful. More dangerous than Firefly? Maybe, depending on the version.
"What about the Silicon Dragons?" Orca asked.
"They're the same problem as always. Adapt to whatever they're bringing to the field, take it down, move to the next pro-JESUS!"
I twisted aside from the SUV that suddenly went spinning out of an alleyway. For a moment, just a moment, I thought it was an attack. I pulled up next to it.
And Sam Mokoa was sitting in the drivers seat. We stared at each other, the look of shock on his face likely matched by mine. For a moment, I could see the calculation on his face. Me, on a bike, no Pokemon. He'd never get a better chance.
Then he turned his head with a grimace, focusing on the road. I did the same.
"Kahu-!" Orca shouted, pointing at him.
"Leave it, we need to focus!"
Sam Mokoa
"Sam-" Ishido said, pointing at Kahu.
"Leave it. We need to focus," Sam grumbled. A part of him wanted to scream. He was right there!
But the attack took precedence. Sam pressed on the accelerator.
The heroes and the officers of the law charged for the harbor.
Crystal Frost/Killer Frost
Killer Frost stood atop a boat, watching with a smirk as ice covered the bay entirely. Pearl Harbor was under siege. The entirety of Battleship Row was stuck solid. From the USS Nevada memorial, the shipyard, and out to the East Loch, a massive portion of Ford Island behind her covered as well. The ship she stood on was a military vessel sitting next to the USS Arizona memorial, which she'd already turned into a giant icicle. "I love Hawaii. Nice and warm."
"I'm sure you do," the voice drew Killer Frost's eye behind her.
A woman in dark green clothes stood behind her, the outfit wrapped around her like the robes of an ancient assassin. She wore a simple bandana on her head and was smiling just a bit. "Strange. My grandfather spoke of the attack on Pearl Harbor when he was a boy. I never thought I would be repeating such a thing myself."
"Having second thoughts?" Killer Frost asked. She tried to be confident.
She wasn't.
She could usually sense people. Like small points of light around her. Sources of delicious heat.
But from this woman? Nothing. And something about her was… unnerving. This woman was dangerous.
"Not at all. I'm simply acknowledging it," she looked out across the river. There, the sounds of gunfire could be heard, along with more esoteric noises. "My target should be here soon enough."
"The guy with the stuffed animals?"
"..."
"S-Sorry," Killer Frost flinched as she heard the woman walk away. But she couldn't feel any heat from her.
Author's Note: So there are the pieces coming together, baby. A simple fight between AquaDuo and Killer Frost that she loses on purpose is now going to turn into a whole lot more than that, to say the least. Hopefully, I make it fun, rather than dumb. Or dumb fun, right?
Next chapter will be posted Sunday on my pa tre on, then be up here four days later. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. I'm pretty excited to be back at this story.