Scion – Mad Machine (Rada Campaign Crossover) – Part 1
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Oct 2nd 2008
You know, when thirteen scions get together to deal with a problem, that problem gets dealt with pretty handily. Or at least it should. But when the opposition is Hiraku Daitokuji, a powerful servant of the titans and a son of Mikaboshi, the problem can still be challenging.
I was pretty angry in my last entry, and maybe not all that coherent, but basically, having been hit by strikes from Daitokuji’s robots, my friends and allies gathered at my second house on Red Mountain, the one the shikome live in (I sent the shikome with my rokurokubi to my followers’ townhouse in Boston for the night, though). It’s a big place, and Red Mountain is sort of a nexus for my group anyway, so it was really the perfect meeting place. Within a day after the strikes, Ray, Adam, Elisa, Pierre, T-Bone, Storm, Carina, Jacob, Helena, Cesar, and Sam had arrived, along with a few groups of followers. It was wonderful to see everyone again, even if the circumstances were rather grim. And I also enjoyed seeing old friends become reacquainted: Pierre and Ray and with Cesar, for instance, or Elisa with the rest of Storm’s crew.
Speaking of Elisa, she’s starting to show, just like Echo is. It’s amazing how time flies! It won’t be long before our children are born. That’s…pretty scary, but also pretty exciting. ^_^ And speaking of happy couples, Adam said he and Anna had become engaged! I’m so happy for them. A little jealous, sure, but then again, I’ve got Echo. ^_^
It took everyone awhile to settle in, but we were only staying long enough to rest up and make some plans before we headed out to Japan to take the fight to Daitokuji. Even so, some interesting little vignettes occurred as people were arriving. Jacob and Mad Dawg had what can only be described as a cook off in my kitchen (I’m proud to mention that Jacob was quite impressed with how awesome my kitchen is—I don’t skimp on style when it comes to my house ^_^). Helena was worried sick over Cesar, and spent most of her time cleaning. At first I was a little offended…until I realized that it was just her way to cope. And Carina was showing off her newfound beauty and charisma, much to Sam’s appreciation. ^_^ And Ray’s posse…well, they were packing some firepower. I’ve never seen that many guns loaded into a vehicle before.
The only person who didn’t show was Anna. We were all worried, but Adam assured us she was fine. He’d spoken with her, and whatever she was up to, he felt confident she was okay. I was still worried about her, but I had no choice but to trust Adam, and that, at least, I can do. ^_^
Once everyone had arrived, we compared notes and made plans. To put it succinctly, we figured out that we needed to hit two major locations, the corporate headquarters in Tokyo, and Daitokuji’s main offices and factory complexes in Hiroshima. Helena pulled up some satellite recon on both, and we discovered that Hiroshima was covered in thick, choking clouds of pollution and darkness. We knew Daitokuji was still trying to open a gateway between the dark realm and earth so that Mikaboshi’s darkness can flood the world, and it looks like Hiroshima is the site of his latest attempt. He’s given up on subtlety, that’s for sure. Given the city’s history over the last century, Hiroshima would be the perfect place… >_<
There were two Daitokuji facilities in Hiroshima that needed to be dealt with, but thanks to Adam’s ability to read the currents of fate, we knew that Hiraku Daitokuji himself was in the Tokyo offices. Because of that, and because we knew we’d also need info on the Hiroshima facilities that we’d probably only find in the Tokyo offices, we decided to hit the corporate HQ first and then move on to Hiroshima. I think we all expect Daitokuji to flee to Hiroshima anyway. After all, that’s usually how fate works out in the epics, right?
We took the jet Ray and I bought. It fit all of use pretty comfortably. Cesar left his guys behind with Echo, the shikome, Keiko, and Sera. Ray brought his posse and I brought Tabby (of course) and my rokurokubi. The flight over was full of anxiety and anticipation. Even so, I enjoyed spending time with my friends. I was amazed at how familial we all were. I mean, yeah, groups of us are actually related by blood in some way or another (I almost envy that), but that’s not what I’m talking about. Maybe it was the way Cesar greeted everyone warmly (if a little insanely ^_^), even the people he didn’t know. Or maybe it was the way Adam treated everyone like they were old friends, or Storm and Ray’s easy confidence. But somehow it felt like family. I mean, I never had much of one aside from my father, and he and I never really got along well, so my perspective might be a little skewed. But all of us together like that felt comfortable, like it was supposed to be.
When the new year rolls around, I’m totally having a huge New Year’s bash and inviting everyone to Red Mountain again. ^___^
Anyway, I was a little distressed to notice that Adam kept obsessing over the details of our plan and our enemy’s capabilities during the flight. He couldn’t relax, like his mind was in overdrive, considering every option and variable. It really worried me, so I decided to do what I could to relax him. I might not have done it if Anna had been around, but I told him to be quiet, stop worrying so much, and succumb to one of my incredible scalp and shoulder massages. That did the trick. ^_^ Of course, it couldn’t stop there, because other people wanted massages too. Before long several of us were handing out relaxing massages (Pierre’s good at giving massages too). Tabby even tried to give one to Storm, but it actually looked more painful than anything else…good thing Storm’s tough. He’s such a sweetie, though. He pretended like it was the best massage he’d ever had. ^_^
It was during this relaxing interlude that I saw a chance to break down Helena’s defenses and bring her and Cesar closer together. Poor Ceasr was being left out, so I offered to give him a massage…and of course Helena angrily intercepted me. So I confronted her with the obvious facts. Cesar needed a massage, and if she wasn’t going to give him one, then she shouldn’t begrudge him getting one from someone else. I think she almost broke. But in the end, she sort of sheepishly said that she’d take care of it, and Cesar really seemed to enjoy the ensuing massage. Mission accomplished. ^_^
We landed in Narita airport, rented some cars (I don’t know how Ray’s people found that many Escalades in the rental place…I didn’t know there were that many in Japan…the place isn’t known for its big American SUVs). Sam also managed to hook us up with government issue bullet-proof vests and guns, so we were well-armed. Dahlia, Quinn, and Kimiyo look pretty sexy posing with assault rifles, by the way. I got a great picture! ^_^
I took the time to bolster everyone against injury, aside from a few people who said they didn’t need it and that I should save my strength. Adam was still flagging a bit from his mental efforts on our behalf (reading prophecies and such is pretty draining for him), so when I bolstered him, I restored his will with a deep kiss. I probably shouldn’t have…but I couldn’t help it. Not with Anna gone. Ray got a kiss too, of course. ♥ ^_^
We didn’t waste any time heading to Daitokuji’s Tokyo HQ and knocking on the doors. Ray left his people with the vehicles, and I left my rokurokubi to back them up. The rest of us, Tabby included, headed in, but only after we took out an assortment of security cameras. Helena analyzed them first and said they could scan us on more than just a visual level. I think she said they could determine things like our combat potential and divine power level. Pretty impressive…but nothing a few well-placed gunshots couldn’t take care of.
Getting through the rest of the security was trivial. Ray and I chatted (as usual) while the true security experts like Carina, Helena, Sam, and T-Bone took care of things and scouted ahead. By the way, T-Bone learned a new trick at some point. He can totally destroy machines with the power of his mind. I think it has to do with his mastery of chaos, but whatever it is, it’s definitely what we need when dealing with the technological monstrosities Daitokuji’s throwing at us.
Our first real opposition came as we ascended the stairs toward the upper floors and Daitokuji’s office (Helena found us floor plans! ^_^). Five HDRs, several shinobi, and several shitidama all jumped us at the same time. The battle was intense. Ray proved that he’s just as dangerous when taken by surprise as at any other time…he eviscerated a few shinobi and shitidama by reflex when they tried to ambush him. O_O We all fought well as a unit. I shot a few shinobi but otherwise felt a little useless, but then again, combat’s not my forte, especially not combat against robots. I should have used Mother’s Touch so that I could fight the shitidama, manifested or no. They are f**king annoying, and one of them actually hurt me. Good thing I can regenerate. But the point is, I’m mostly a cheerleader on this mission. And I’m cheering for the most awesome team ever. ^_^
I need some black and pink pompoms. ^_^
The battle was mostly a blur, but the others did well in the fight, except for Tabby. She was ambushed by a shinobi and almost killed in a single blow. She didn’t slow down, though, and Carina and I cooperated to heal her. I felt terrible about it, though. The only reason she’s been hurt so badly was because I’d neglected to bolster her before the fight. She was just so confident and self-assured…I guess because Storm was there and she wanted to impress him. Anyway, I remedied that immediately after the fight, and apologized to her.
And then we headed on to the upper floors…