-Project A-ko Gaidens- Fanfic #3 507 lines Haloween Battle Night by Warpzone Do my titles sound like Jenglish yet? Seriously, though, this issue could be one of my best. The one flaw is the basic concept; why would Japan be celebrating Haloween? Oh, well, be happy you get anything! There aren't many Project A-ko fanfics out there! Would you rather I just did a Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2 story like every other Otaku on the net!? Come to think of it, I'm sure many of you would rather I did. There are three main reasons I don't: 1. After all the Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon fanfics released, I'm not sure there's any unexplored territory left to write about. 2. There are almost NO Project A-ko stories. I intend to correct that. 3. I've never even seen the Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2 mangas or animes! What am I supposed ot write about!? UPDATE: Months later, I posted this file for the very first time. Right next to my first RANMA 1/2 fanfic! =Munch= =munch= Mmmmm... My words could use a little ketchup on them. Thankfully, I'm still not far enough gone to be a Sailor Moon fan. I haven't seen the show, nor do I plan to. There is no excuse for completely rewriting an anime's plot, theme, and character names just to americanize it. (The one exception being Samuri Pizza Cats.) ....................... -Haloween Battle Night- ....................... A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko were getting ready for the big Haloween party. It was going to be in Graviton High's gym, and all three were going in costume. It wasn't every day that A-ko and B-ko called a truce, but then again, it wasn't every day that Japan nationally celebrated an American holiday, either, so the two canceled each other out. Or at least, that was the plan. "How do I look?" C-ko asked. She was wearing a bunny suit. No, not that kind of bunny suit. The kind of bunny suit she wore was really just a pink one-piece swimsuit with bunny ears and a tail. That kind of bunny suit. "Well," A-ko said, "That's still better than what you were wearing in Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group." She looked in a mirror. She was dressed as a sorceress of some sort, with a red robe and red witch's hat, athough the illusion was spoiled somewhat by the red high-healed shoes. "You're sure you couldn't find any red boots, B-ko?" "Stop assuming I'm always trying to double-cross you!" B-ko glared at A-ko. "I already told you, Asa's borrowing my red boots," she lied. B-ko was wearing an elaborate fairy costume, but I wouldn't go so far as to say she was dressed in it. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a simple $400 swimsuit, but with silky transparent veils draped from her arms, and antena and wings added. The costume had gone to court ahead of time, and had disclaimed legal responsibility for all the nosebleeds it knew it was going to cause tonight. Or it would have if it weren't so inanimate. "Terrific," A-ko thought, "She modified that bikini herself, so it's probably loaded with secret weapons and armor!" A-ko knew how B-ko's mind worked, and she fully expected to be attacked before the night was through. She wanted to be a good host, though, to impress C-ko. So she was polite to B-ko, and resolved to remain so until B-ko made her move, which she knew would be some time soon. "I'll take C-ko to the party," B-ko said as A-ko applied her lipstick, "See you there." "Bye," A-ko said, pressing her lips together. She heard the door slam, then smudged her lipstick as she realized that she had just let B-ko go off with C-ko alone. ................... "WAAAAAIIIITTTTT!" she yelled, running out the front door. She got to the curb just in time to see B-ko zoom off with C-ko on a motorcycle. The motorcycle surprisingly did not turn into a robot, shoot lasers, or explode. Niether did B-ko's new costume. In fact, the bike was even going in the direction of the High School. A-ko wondered was starting to think that it might not be a trap for once, when she heard the noise. It was a deep, low, threatening noise, almost too quiet to be heard. We've all heard it before, and we all recognize it when we hear it, even though we know it couldn't possibly exist in real life. Sort of a deep WWEEEEEEOOOWWWW, like an electronic growl, or the sound a laser might make if it were set on an extremely low power setting, in slow-motion. It struck fear into A-ko's heart. Even though she knew it was made by some guy pressing one chord on an electronic keyboard, it meant something completely diffrent in her world. It was the sound of a robot's eyes lighting up. A-ko quickly spun around, and saw the thing rushing forward. She looked almost 30 feet up at the robot's face. It drove forward on tank treads, and had large, sleek wings attached to it's shoulders. A-ko supposed it would transform if she gave it a chance to. Suddenly, a hologram af B-ko's face appeared. "Hello, A-ko!" it sneered, "I'm sorry I couldn't be here in person, but I have a party to attend." "Don't appologize!" A-ko retorted, but the face continued talking. "That's right, B-ko! And my latest creation, the Protangun-Divide!" A-ko realized it was just a recording of B-ko, trying to predict what she would say. "No you won't," B-ko was saying, "because this robot features artificial intelegence! Not only that, but it will attack you without worrying for it's own safety, something I've always had trouble doing. You will never..." A voice interupted B-ko. "Telephone call for miss Daitokuji." "I SAID NO INTERUPTIONS!" B-ko yelled, and the hologram recording suddenly ended. The robot and A-ko now dashed toward each other, clanking together somewhat unrealistically in a flash of light as the battle began. A-ko jumped towards the robot. It punched at her, but she somehow twisted in midair to avoid the punch, and landed on the mecha's shoulder. She rapidly smashed each of the missle launchers she found there, and kicked at it's head with both legs. "Uh oh," she thought as she bounced off the sturdy armored head, "This isn't going to be so easy." She landed behind the tank part, and tried to look for a weak spot. Then she jumped again as the tank suddenly pulled back, trying to run over her. A-ko landed on the front of the tank body, and punched the robot's chest as hard as she could, damaging the armor plate a little, but not hitting anything important. A-ko glanced up to see that the mecha was aiming it's other shoulder at her. She waited until the last possible second, then jumped off, rolling to a stop in the street as the mech blasted itself with six missles where she had been standing. Then, as the smoke cleared, she was both shocked and dismayed to see that the heavily-armored tank had been unharmed by it's own brutal attack. There was a multiple click as the launchers reloaded, and A-ko suddenly began to run, a chain of explosions trailing at her heels. ................... At the party, B-ko was dancing with some guy she'd met, but he was drawn so realistically, she knew he could only be a supporting character at best, so she didn't expect it to lead to anything. C-ko was "helping" out in the kitchen, and after her third attempt to make gyoza spontaniously burst into flames, she gave up and went out to enjoy the party. That doesn't mean she succeded, however. No sooner had she stepped out of the kitchen than the roof was suddenly lifted off by a giant robot searching for A-ko. All the students paniced, and ran screaming in every direction. All except one. "Protangun Divide!" an enraged B-ko shouted, "How dare you attack your master!?" She ripped off her costume to reveal the Akigiyama-23 Mecha-suit. Everybody stopped running to look at her, and she smiled and posed in the robotic armor. A few people took pictures. Now she brought her arm up, and yelled "Akigiyama Missles!" but nothing happened. Horrified, she looked down to discover she *hadn't* been wearing the Akigiyama suit under the fairy costume. Now that she thought about it, it probably wouldn't even fit under the fairy costume. "Oh! I forgot I only wear that under my street clothes!" Horazontal lines appeared on her face as she blushed, and tried to cover herself with her hands. (Truth be told, she did a slightly better job than the costume had been doing in the first place.) Then she got over the embarrasment, and anger kicked in. She now occupied her hands beating the crap out of anyone who had taken a picture. She was very mad, and she no longer cared who saw what. And for that reason, they didn't look. (Of course, the three critically wounded members of the school newspapers, coupled with the fact that a giant, very powerful robot that was attacking the city, aided in this decision.) The robot didn't seem to notice B-ko's mistake, which just goes to show the primary diffrence between natural and artificial intelegence. It was more concerned about finding it's target. It had knocked over at least twelve buildings so far, trying to find A-ko, and it soon decided it couldn't search all of Graviton City like this. It needed a faster way. So, the Protangun Divide began to transform. The wings on it's back moved first, pulling up parts of the tank, then merging with them to form a sleek, fast-looking fighter ship. It fired it's jets downward for a moment, rising a few hundred feet, and then aligned them horizontally and rocketed off across the cityscape. Next, the robot part of the huge mecha stood up, out of the tank. It unfolded legs and formed it's right arm into a very large gun. Then it stomped off through the city, wrecking buildings with at least a little more discersion than it had a minute ago as it continued to search for A-ko. Finally, the tank frame shifted it's remaining parts around a bit, and began to look more like a complete tank. Soon it was driving off in a third direction, also hunting for A-ko. It scanned as it moved, not wasting attacks on the buildings, in order to conserve ammo. Meanwhile, B-ko had covered herself with an orange and black banner, and now watched as her creation(s) began rapidy wrecking the city. This wasn't good. Sure, they might eventually trap A-ko, but it would just be another fight. A-ko might win and she might loose. The problem was all the damage they would do to the city before they found her. B-ko shook her head sadly. She had no choice but to try to destroy her own creation. "At least they're programed to attack only A-ko," she thought, "As long as they're searching for her, they should be distracted enough for me to sneak up on them..." She stepped out the door, determined to hunt them down and win. Just then, B-ko heard C-ko squeel, and turned around to see A-ko coming in through the window. A-ko stomped over to B-ko (cracking the gym's foundation more than once) and grabbed her by the part of the bannar that would have been a collar. B-ko looked into A-ko's fierce eyes, unafraid. "You've got to help me destroy the robot!" they both said. C-ko giggled. "Jinx!" she yelled, and punched them both lightly on the shoulder, which was the only way she was capable punching "Okay," A-ko said, taking charge, "This calls for teamwork." she turned to C-ko. "C-ko, you destroy the tank." C-ko's face went deadpan, causing her mouth to momentarilly dissaper. All her years of begging to be a major character had blown up in her face. "Beg pardon?" she stammered, but A-ko wasn't paying attention to her anymore. "B-ko, I take it there's no easy way to shut them down automatically?" B-ko shook her head. "Okay, then, since you can fly, you get the plane." "It's a spaceship." "Whatever!" A-ko paused. "So I guess I get the robot." She darted off in the direction it had gone, and B-ko ran off to get her Akigiyama suit. Only C-ko remained, trying to think of a way to destroy the tank that involved crying. Upon failing that, she eventually thought up a real plan. Of course, this is C-ko we're talking about, so the plan wasn't very complicated, but C-ko figured it was better than crying for no reason, without a plan. And so it began. ................... B-ko finally got to her room. She pulled open her closet door to find her Akigiyama-23 neatly hung on coat hangers. She equiped the suit, gauntlets, and helmet, but was unable to find her boots. Instead, she discovered a green post-it note stuck to the wall. "DEAR B-KO. BORROWED THOSE COOL BLACK BOOTS YOU'RE ALWAYS WEARING. LEFT YOU THE BUNNY SLIPPERS YOU WANTED TO BORROW. WE CAN TRADE BACK AT SCHOOL ON MONDAY, NE? -ASA." B-ko sighed. The bunny slippers were considerably less armored and areodynamic than her metal boots, but what choice did she have? ................... The Protangun Tank rolled forward, crushing metal and glass while scanning for A-ko. It didn't detect the cars parked before it, because they weren't A-ko, and so it had a hard time avoiding them. Especially since it was driving through a parking garage. "Excuse me, Mr. Protangun Divide?" The tank looked down in front of it. It would not normaly have noticed the not A-ko creature in front of it, except that this one had addressed it by name. "WHAT D0 Y0U WANT?" it asked. "I'm sorry, but I've been sent by B-ko to destroy you!" She said it the way she might have said "Mom says it's my turn to play Famicom." The tank scoffed at her confidence, and scanned her again. She appeared to be unarmmed. "0H YEAH?" the tank laughed, "W|TH WHAT!?" C-ko put her hands behind her back and grinned a cute SD grin, little plusses appearing between her teeth. "Guess!" ................... Meanwhile, A-ko was doing just about as well with the Protangun Mecha, which is to say, she had found it. It fired a few blasts at A-ko, and she dodged, realizing that the only real difference from before was that it was a lot more agile on foot. While it was reloading, she dashed forward and punched it in the face. It's head bounced a little bit, but was undammaged. "Y0U ALREADY TR|ED THAT," it politely reminded her, before smacking her with its half-loaded gun. She sailed three whole city blocks before she finally hit a building. She groaned as the entire seven-story office building crumbled. This wasn't going well. ................... B-ko flew over Graviton City, searching for the Protangun Jet. Her bare legs were starting to sting from the wind friction, but it wasn't too bad, because without the thrusters in her boots, she couldn't reach top speed anyway. She heard a noise, and looked back just in time to see the dark ship closing in, and, after laughing at the bunny slippers, firing lasers at her. "Ha!" she shouted, crossing her arms and blocking with the metal plates on them, "Mere lasers can't penetrate the strength of my invincible Akigiyama-23 Battle Armor!" "MAYBE," the ship admitted, "BUT Y0U LEFT EN0UGH WEAK SP0TS!" It rapidly blasted her in the stomach, then in the legs. "Ouch! OWW!" B-ko dropped out of the line of fire, then flew up behind the ship. "Well excuse me!" she cried, "But metal this strong is expensive!" She blasted it with a few missles, trying to remember where to hit the engines. Then, the ship flew off, and B-ko pursued, starting a fearsome dogfight over the city. ................... "BUZZSAWS?" "Nope." "FLAMETHR0WES?" "Nope." "MACES?" "No!" C-ko sighed. the two of them had been at it for more than half an hour now, and C-ko was getting bored. "Think very carefully about it," she said. "WELL, LET'S SEE," it said, "|T W0ULD HAVE T0 BE VERY P0WERFUL T0 STAND A CHANCE AGA|NST ME..." The tank looked at C-ko again, still not detecting any weapons. "AND |T W0ULD HAVE T0 BE SIMPLE TO USE, AND CL0AKED SOMEHOW..." "Yes...?" C-ko prompted. "0H, | KN0W!" the tank seemed to jump up and down a bit. "| BET |T'S 0NE 0F TH0SE EXPER|MENTAL NEW SUBSPACE-|MPL0S|0N B0MBS!" C-ko grinned. "Aren't they neat!?" "THAT'S WHAT Y0U'VE G0T!?" The tank peeled back in reverse, trying to get away from C-ko, and crashed into a wall. There was a rumbling overhead as the building's structure weakened. C-ko blinked. "No... I just think they're neat. The answer is much simpler than that..." The tank rolled forward again, angry at C-ko and at itself. "LASERS?" it asked. ................... A-ko grabbed the mecha's gun-arm and tried to point it up before it could fire. Protangun Mecha resisted, however, and began forcing its arm down. The two seemed evenly matched for a moment, then the mecha began to win. A-ko was slowly forced to the ground under the pressure... -CRUNCH!- The gun suddenly snapped in half and splintered apart at the elbow. "Ha!" A-ko leaped onto the "disarmed" robot to deliver the killing blow, when she remembered how heavily armored it was. She brutally whacked the head, the body, the neck, and some wires on the robot's back, but all were protected. So she just hit it as hard as she could, and it flew up into the sky. A-ko looked up at the rapidly-shrinking silvery dot. If it didn't make it all the way into space, well, the impact back on earth would probably kill it. A-ko wondered how the others were doing. ................... B-ko and Protangun-Jet raced toward each other at top speed, fiercely launching missles and lasers at each other. Both dodged and rolled to avoid getting hit, but neither broke off the attack. They began trading hits as they raced closer together, both locked in a deadly game of chicken... The two colided. The last thing B-ko remembered was the ship's cockpit rushing toward her before being knocked out. ................... "MAG|C P0WERS?" "Not quite." "HMM... S0ME MART|AL-ARTS TECHN|QUE?" "You're trying too hard. Think about B-ko and what she would arm me with... Got anything yet?" "N0TH|NG." C-ko pouted and stamped the ground with her foot. "Darn, you guessed it!" The tank was silent for a long time. "Y0U MEAN, THAT'S THE ANSWER? N0TH|NG?" C-ko brought her hands out from behind her back, empty. "Yeah. I thought you'd NEVER figure it out." The tank was shocked. As the shock turned to anger, several gun pods popped open on it's back, like clenching fists. "Y0U MEAN SHE SENT A SWEET L|TTLE TH|NG L|KE Y0U |NT0 BATTLE AGA|NST *ME* UNARMED!?" "Yeah." She looked up at the tank. "Isn't that just like her?" "GRRRRRR... | CAN'T BEL|EVE EVEN B-K0 C0ULD BE S0 HEARTLESS! | W|SH SHE WAS HERE R|GHT NOW... |'D K|LL HER!" In it's anger, the tank suddenly blasted a nearby wall. The building shook again, and began to colapse. C-ko ran as fast as she could, doing that thing SD characters do when they panic, dashing and flapping her arms in blurry lines until she reached the street. C-ko looked back, and saw the entire building drop one story as the parking level collapsed. It teetered back and forth for a moment, before comming to rest like a giant building block. "Gee," C-ko said, "That was easy." ................... B-ko awoke to find that she was in the Protangun Divide's cockpit. The ship was rapidly speeding up, trying to kill her with the G-forces. However, B-ko knew this ship, and she soon used the cocpit controls to force it to slow down. Then she fastened her seatbelt, just in case it should try to flip over and dump her out the shattered windshield. She began pressing more buttons. "THAT W0N'T W0RK, B-K0. | HAVE DISABLED MY SELF-DESTRUCT." "You've been busy." she said, refering to all the rewiring it had done. "I guess I'll just have to ram you into something. Let's see... Those buildings look empty..." "C0NS|DER THE C0NSEQUENCES 0F Y0UR ACT|ONS. | AM Y0UR M0ST P0WERFUL CREAT|0N YET... | CAN HELP Y0U DESTR0Y Y0UR NEMES|S, A-K0." B-ko shook her head. "It was a mistake to give you artificial inteligence," she said. "No matter how powerful my robots are, I won't let one become my master!" She and Protangun Divide struggled over the control, when suddenly, they both spotted A-ko on the streets below. "THERE |S Y0UR ENEMY. | CAN DESTR0Y HER N0W! L0CK|NG CHA|NGUN 0NT0 GR0UND TARGET..." B-ko looked down at the control panel, then onto the street below. She gasped. C-ko was standing right in fron to A-ko! "NOOOOOOO!" Her hands flew over the controls, disarming every weapon on board in record time. Here is the record: -T0DAY'S BEST T|MES- #1 BKO 00.05.3 #2 AKO 02.56.7 #3 C-- 74.33.1 #4 --- 00.00.0 #5 --- 00.00.0 Even though B-ko had disarmed it in less than six seconds, Protangun didn't give up. It went into a dive, homing in on A-ko, saying "| W|LL N0T D|E W|TH0UT FUFF|LL|NG MY M|SS|0N!" "Don't!" B-ko screamed, "You'll hit C-ko..." ................... A-ko looked up suddenly, and saw a giant spaceship about to come crashing down on them, so she did what any girl in her situation would do. She caught it. Then she flipped it over and smashed it with a mighty back- drop, taking out almost an entire city block. Then she heard a groan from under the wreakage, and was surprised to see B-ko step out from under the rubble. She flashed A-ko a thumbs up, then her eyes became black dots and she fell over, unconscious. ................... B-ko awoke in a hospital, as she had a couple of times before after an encounter with A-ko. She groaned, and tried to move. She felt very weak. "Stay quiet," a nurse warned her, "and don't try to move. You're still very weak." Asa opened the door and peeked in. "Is it okay to visit her yet?" The nurse nodded. "For a few minutes. She wasn't hurt as badly this time, and she should be out in a couple of days." When the nurse was gone, Asa held up a pair of shredded cotton slippers. "I hope you have a good explanation for this." B-ko sighed. "Sorry. Keep the boots. I'll make new ones later..." Asa smiled. "Thanks! These are so cool!" She struck a pose in the leather and metal boots, accidently clicking the heels together. The red panels near the tops of the boots flashed. WHIRRRRRRRRR... "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Asa screamed as the boots suddenly fired retro thrusters, blasting her through the ceiling and up into the sky. B-ko sighed, and tried to clear her head. As she drifted off to sleep, she began designing a robotic snake in her mind. "Next time, A-ko..." THE END