Fantasy Stellar ARMOR Satellizer (Ranix Aurus & Admiral19)

[Admiral19]

"It's perfectly fine," Kanae said, "I wouldn't mind her hanging on to me for a bit." If anything, it was adorable, seeing Hotaru hang onto her shoulder with such a sleepy look on her face—

"You have something I want. I would like to have it back."

Kanae froze. Uh oh. It couldn't be for that, could it? No, certainly, it wasn't for that. She nudged Hotaru's face a little harder. "Hey, Firefly...mind getting off my shoulder really quick—"

The door was all but knocked off its hinges, suddenly, abruptly, far too quickly. The man in the doorway fixed his eyes on Kanae, and fear shot down her spine. "Fuck." She took a hesitant half-step backwards, eyes already looking for any sort of exit. "Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

She took another half-step before she raised her voice. "Whatever the hell you want, we're not giving it to you!" There wasn't any use playing dumb by this point; no way everyone didn't know what exactly it was he wanted. The medallion itself was still in Hotaru's room...should she try to run off with it? But then she'd be leaving Hotaru and Akira behind...No, wait...!

Kanae bolted to Hotaru's bedroom, grabbed the medallion off her desk, and escaped through the next window she saw. With any luck, whoever this guy was would just chase after her...so long as Akira and Hotaru were left alone, that's all she needed!

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Everything happened in a blur. Hotaru frozen on the side, her eyes filled with surprise, confusion, and... fear. That man was bad news, it was obvious from the first glance. Time seemed to stop for that moment, until Kanae broke it and fled upstairs.

The man didn't miss it. He quickly gave chase.

"No, you don't!" Akira rushed over with a yell. He had no idea what was happening. The only thing he could tell was that this man wanted to do something bad to Kanae. Over his dead body!

The two were similar in height, so Akira managed to grab his entire body in one move. However, the man didn't seem to slow down. He kept his stride even as Akira pulled back as hard as he could.

"Impossible-!" He wasn't bad in terms of strength among his peers. How did this unassuming man-

"You're a nuisance!" The man lost his patience. He grabbed Akira by the collar, and then threw him over his shoulder so effortlessly, as if the young man had no weight at all. Akira crashed unceremoniously, taking down the coffee table and the couches with him.

"Big brother!"

The man ignored Hotaru's scream as he bolted upstairs. When he found that the girl had escaped through the window, he leapt out as well, dogging her trail.

"Come back!" He roared. The voice felt grating in the ears, as if an animal was trying to mimic human speech.

 

[Admiral19]

The harsh grating noise that could barely be called a voice called after Kanae, loud enough to be heard over her own ragged breath. Her lungs burned as she ran as fast as she could, dodging civilians, swerving past cars, ducking under anything that could possibly slow the man down...and yet when she looked back, he wasn't even staggering! What the hell was this thing?!

She was quick, but she couldn't run for too much farther...she had to find somewhere to hide—there! She ducked into a nearby convenience store, diving behind the store's counter. When she was questioned by the cashier, she just gave him a look. "Get everyone in this store out of here now! Please, trust me!"

Everyone departed swiftly, leaving just Kanae sitting there, huddled behind the counter, clutching the medallion to her chest. She didn't know what that man—that thing—wanted with it, but she wasn't going to give it to him. Not now, not in a million damn years!

She held her breath as thundering footsteps approached.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The cashier shepherded the other customers out of the store, thinking that Kanae was mentally unstable. Perhaps she thought that it would be best to call security and deal with the girl later. They were dragging their feet until the man in suit appeared, and without warning smashed a nearby cabinet, sending it flying to the side.

The ear-splitting noise of everything falling down and breaking was rivalled by the resulting screams as they ran out as fast as their legs could take them, leaving only Kanae and the man in there.

"The medallion! Now!" His voice was barely intelligible at this point. It was then than something strange happened: his body seemed to be bulging out under that suit. It swelled up beyond humanly possible, until the suit was ripped apart. And then the man...  changed.

It wasn't even a human anymore. Standing on two scaly legs, the... creature, looked like a cross between a lizard and an octopus. Dark green scales covered its entire body, while its head was a big bulge with tentacles for mouth. Aside from two arms, there were also four more thick, slimy tendrils jutting out from its back.

"Giiiive..." it tried to say something, perhaps, as it sent one of its tendrils at Kanae's direction. It made a whipping sound as it sliced through the air at breakneck speed.

 

[Admiral19]

"Oh god—" Kanae barely had time to behold the disgusting form of the monster before she ducked down to avoid the tendril shooting past, puncturing a hole through the counter she was hiding behind. Fuck, a second late and her head would have been taken clean off...! She didn't know where else she could run. If that thing managed to find her back here...

She held onto the medallion tighter. "Please," she thought, needing an out, a savior, anything, "I don't know what you do that this thing wants you for, but I'm gonna need it fast! Push this thing back, distract it, turn me into something to fight it, anything!!"

Gunfire rang out from behind the monster. Useless as it was, it did offer some relief; the police were here! No way it was enough of an out to stop the monster, but it was enough that Kanae had time to plan her next move.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The gunshot brought the monster's attention away from Kanae for a moment, but it was not the police; instead, it was a man in hospital gown, with bandages all over his body. The one wrapping his forehead was even stained in reddish color. His legs were shaking, but he glared at the monster with utter defiance. He pulled the trigger again. Thrice. Deafening noise echoed throughout the store as he emptied the magazine at the thing, to no effect. Bullets simply grazed off its fiendish scales.

A tendril whipped at the man's hand, slapping the handgun away. It slid on the floor until it disappeared under the rubbles. The man didn't look distressed. He already knew that firearms were useless against these creatures. At least at the level that a civilian like him could attain.

But it provided distraction. Just enough to give him the split second to rush over and placed himself between Kanae and that thing.

"Little lady, you have that medallion with you, right?!" He said hoarsely. The tracking device was pointing at this location, so that must be right. If it was simply lying here somewhere, the monster would have taken it instead of focusing on a random person. "Give it to me- no, it's useless. Hold it tight! If I failed to hold it back, run, don't you dare look back! Whatever you do, do NOT let it take the medallion!"

The man raised his left arm- a band made of lustrous metal, shaped like a watch, rested on his wrist.

"Suit, up!"

The voice command activated the wristband. A bluish holographic display popped up above it, briefly showing the logo of OLYMPUS before shining brightly. Hundreds of glimmering, transparent sheets the size of a playing card scattered away from it, enveloping the man in the blink of an eye. They flashed in brilliant white before finally settling down. What was left was a suit of futuristic armor, sleek, unblemished white, with a full-face helmet that covered his entire head. The pair of eye slits on it shone for a brief moment, indicating that the suit was ready for use.

"ARMOR ON," an artificial voice, feminine in tone, rung out from the armor.

The entire sequence had lasted shorter than the time to take a breath. Right after that, the man had disappeared- dashing forward as fast as the wind, he covered the distance in one go, launching a kick at the monster. This time, something took effect. The physical enhancement granted by the suit was enough to transcend human capabilities. Each kick and punch hit as hard as a truck, and he moved so fast it was barely registered as a blur in a normal person's eye. Against a human, it would be no contest.

Unfortunately, the monster wasn't a lightweight either.

While it wasn't as fast as the armored man, it was more durable. Even after taking hits, it still stood its ground, waiting patiently for an opening. And once the man had slowed down, it finally struck; two tendrils shot out from both directions, forcing him to twist his body to avoid them. Unfortunately, the maneuver left him open for the monster to punch him on the chest. There was definitely a sound of bones breaking there as the man was flung back toward the store counter, leaving a crater on the wall as he crashed and fell.

The armor let out a cracking sound as it suddenly glow once more. It dispersed into faint particles of light, leaving the man on his hospital gown once more. His body more broken than before. He spurted out blood on the floor, while the wristband he was wearing fell off, bouncing on the floor once before stopping.

 

[Admiral19]

"Holy shit..." Kanae watched in stunned amazement as the man transformed, armor snapping on in a matter of seconds. This had to be a dream, or some kind of hallucination, or...or...

But everything was in front of her; this monster, that armor...this was something straight out of those shows she and Akira watched all that time ago. The excitement didn't last long, however; the man was flung to the counter, and Kanae certainly heard something break(was it his armor or his bones...?).

Run.

Spatters of his blood stopped just short of Kanae's body, and the thundering of massive footsteps made their way towards her.

That thing's going to kill you. You need to run!

The monster stared down at her, claws threatening to wrap around her body and squeeze it hard.

Run! Run! You're going to die!

The wristband clattered to the floor. The next thing Kanae knew, she was reaching out for the band, gripping the medallion until her knuckles turned white.

"SUIT, UP!"

The wristband activated like it did before, the light shining as bright as it did before, bright enough to blind the monster. In place of the OLYMPUS logo, the symbol that was shown on the display was the astrological sign of Leo. A holographic lion colored a vivid red enveloped Kanae's body, fading away to reveal large, bulky armor of red and gold, complete with clawed gauntlets and a full-face helmet in the shape of a lion's head.

Kanae stared up at the monster as the slits of the helmet shone gold.

"ARMOR On."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The pressure was completely different; power seemed to be emanating out of the armor, gripping the monster with fear just at the sight of it. Its violent growl stopped in an instant. It stood in a cautious stance, unsure on how to proceed next. This was the energy signature it was ordered to find, but this... the most direct way to take it was by defeating whoever this armored person was, but its bestial instinct was telling it that victory was difficult to get.

Nevertheless, it was sent here for a purpose, and its programming triumphed over its senses. With an angry roar, it stopped pulling punches, whipping all of its tentacles straight toward Kanae, with even faster speed than before. Anything caught between them and their target was ripped to shred in an instant.

 

[Admiral19]

It took mere moments for Kanae to get used to the power that had suddenly surged into her, but she wasn't able to relax for too long.

Three of the four tentacles were deflected, batted away by Kanae's arms as she leapt up onto the store counter. The fourth barely missed her body, allowing her to grab the tendril, yank the monster forward, and smash into its skull with a headbutt. The beast staggered backward from the force, and while it recovered, Kanae took the time to very excitedly look all over her body, admiring her armor.

She didn't enjoy herself for long, however, launching herself off the counter and towards the beast's chest, claws digging into scale at a speed that far surpassed how fast she was running away from the beast not long ago. With a roar that felt like it came from a lion itself, Kanae sent more jabs towards the monster, finishing with a solid uppercut to its jaw.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The monster was thrown into a violent storm. It had tasted strength beyond human comprehension, and it was finally the time when it was humbled down. Kanae's strikes pierced through its hard scales, connecting with the living flesh underneath, and no matter how desensitized it was from pain, the damage dealt to its body was obvious to see.

Slash. Punch. Jab.

If it could puke out blood, it would had already done so since a while ago. Its tendrils weren't working anymore. Kanae was faster, and the relentless barrage of strikes were completely locking it down, not letting the sluggish monster from making another swing.

Even after all that, however, it still stood its ground. A praiseworthy tenacity.

"Use the finishing move...!" A weak voice called out from behind. It was the man from before. Even with battered body, he still barely held on to his life. "Activate it... the automated system will... guide you..." More blood spurted out of his mouth after overexerting himself.

 

[Admiral19]

Finishing move...Of course; what was the one thing every masked hero did as they wiped out the enemy? Lowering herself into a stance, Kanae stared deadlong into the monster's eyes. What was something she could say...?

Out on a limb, she said: "Satellizer, set up!"

Another bright red flash of power flared off of Kanae's body, and the armor called out again: "Satellizer now ready." That worked?!

Whatever; Kanae let the flash of power coalesce around her fist, feeling the energy thrum all the way down her arm. One step, two, three—on the fourth, she jumped high into the air...

"Nemean..."

pulled the burning fist back...

"STRIKE!"

and aimed straight down.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

She shone brilliantly like a shooting star.

The blazing inferno smashed directly at the monster, sending shockwave that swept over the entire store.

The wounded stranger rolled on the floor from the sheer impact, blasting him all the way to the wall. Items scattered around them were blown up, either thrown farther away or plainly deleted from existence in a split second.

It looked easy in those masked hero shows. The hero used their signature move. The enemy of the week got struck by the blinding visual effect. They let out a coreographed scream, and then they exploded, without leaving any trace behind. Simple and clean. The heroes rejoiced for another victory well earned.

It wasn't so much in real life.

Disgusting smell of burnt flesh wafted over the store interior. The blast had launched the monster away, sending it to the wall, making yet another crater. The left side if its body had a huge, gaping wound- scratch that, the entire left side from neck down was gone. Under the dark-green scale were fleshy bits, which was now ashen black, charred to crisp. Dark, viscous liquid dripped down places that the flame hadn't managed to cauterize, the equivalent of blood.

And yet, it lived.

The monster was barely able to stand up. Its instinct was fully taking over now. Screw the mission. It was absolutely sure that if it received that attack once more, it would die. Leaving what sounded like a weak hiss, the lizard-octopus hybrid lunged at the front window, crashing right through it as it escaped. Screams could be heard in the distance as it passed by random civilians.

"Amazing..." the stranger coughed. He had found it by pure chance. Someone who was compatible with Leo medallion. His body was hurting all over, but he already forgot about that.

They can do it. Humanity still has a chance!

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae wanted to go after the monster, wanted to chase it down and kill it before it caused any more damage. She righted herself, took a step forward...

and collapsed to her knees, watching the beast run.

"Strain detected. ARMOR off."

Within seconds, the armor around Kanae's body disappeared in a shock of red. She stared at the destruction around her, then at the man that tried to save her, then at the band on her wrist—and the medallion it was now bound to.

A masked hero. That's what she just became, and it felt exactly the same as she thought. It all happened just as she would have dreamed, just as she imagined with Akira all those years ago.

So why did she feel this...weight on her body, even as the armor completely dissipated?

It was useless, but she stumbled her way to the severely injured man. "Are you—" He wasn't okay, why should she ask? Instead, she nodded her head in gratitude. "Thank you. For trying to help me, I mean. I'm..." Sorry that I couldn't help you back.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"You... it's okay, I'm al-" right. Blood spurted out of his mouth as he violently coughed. It was already the many times this morning. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stand after this.

"Listen up... this is important," he mustered all his energy to tell her. "What you've seen just now, that was a monster. OLYMPUS made them. They're... evil..." He coughed again. There was so many things that he had to say. That he wanted to say. Nobody had listened to him before. He had finally found hope, and now... pitiful. So pitiful.

"You need to leave... your body is still not synchronized properly with the ARMOR system... you need... time... hurry up...!"

Sirens were blaring in the distance. It seemed that the police had finally arrived. Too little too late. The crowd outside was still distracted by the escaping monster. They were making videos with their phone, thinking that it was from a movie filming. Nobody was paying attention to the wrecked store.

"Kanae!"

His voice came without warning.

Akira had popped up at the entrance, his face completely red from overexertion. He was panting as if his life depended on it. Fitting, as he had run the entire way without taking a break, afraid that he would be too late. Thankfully, he wasn't.

Well, maybe he was, but for him as long as Kanae was alright, anything was okay.

"Thank God you're okay- you're okay, right?" He rushed over to her, wanting to give her a hug, but stopped midway and changed course to holding her shoulders instead to help her stand. Only then did he notice the dying man on the floor.

"Whoa! Sorry, I didn't notice- hmm? Your face looks familiar..." He had seen this man before. Where was it... in the television?

 

[Admiral19]

Monster...A monster made by OLYMPUS? How...? And what was this about synching with the ARMOR system—

The sound of Akira's voice stopped Kanae's rampant thoughts. "Oh, thank fucking god!" She was too tired to reach out and hug him, but it could not be any more clear how grateful she was to see him. "I'm fine"—Was she?—"but are you and Hotaru okay? That thing didn't..."

Wait, now that she looks at the man again...When she initially picked up the medallion, the man who had crashed through the window...was he—

"Hey! You're the guy that crashed through the cafe!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"I... yes," the man wanted to retort, but he just wasn't in the right condition to do so.

"The guy from the cafe... oh! I saw your photo in the morning news! You... blew up a hospital...?" Akira actually forgot the exact detail. Eh, whatever, it wasn't that important anyway. "We need to get you an ambulance. You look so messed up, man! Let me call them-"

"No! No ambulance!" The man frantically shouted, leading to more bloody cough. "They'll kill me if they found out!"

"..." Well, that's suspicious af. They? Who were they? The Illuminati? Heh.

"So he says... what do you want to do?" He turned to Kanae. She was involved in this... whatever mess that had caused this much damage to the convenience store. It looked like the aftermath of a terrible gas explosion. Whatever she decided to do, Akira would stand on her side.

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae didn't know how to heal this man, and she doubted that Akira or Hotaru did either, so they couldn't just bring him back to the house(especially since there are now eyes on them). They couldn't call an ambulance, and she didn't know anyone they could give him to that would keep his secrets. But he was the only one who knew anything about whatever happened to her...

"I think..." Kanae took another look around, her eyes finally settling on the man. "I think we should bring you back to Akira's place. This stuff is happening so fast, and I'm gonna need an explanation for all of it."

With that, Kanae got Akira to help carry the man back to the house, taking the same path that the monster carved out as it was chasing Kanae. As they were walking, Akira could swear he saw Kanae spit out blood.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The trek back home was surprisingly smooth. The police had been delayed. After all, three people slipping away from the crime scene was barely noticeable compared to a human-sized abomination darting at mach five across the city center. The police cars were having an intense chase sequence with the creature before it leapt up across the high-rise buildings, disappearing from sight after a few turns.

The cashier had mentioned about Kanae to the police, but everything happened so quickly that she couldn't reliably identify her appearance. The surveillance cameras... were no more. Blown to dust from the fight, just like the rest of the store.

Akira led them around the back to avoid getting mixed up with his neighbors. Thankfully, the suburb area where he lived had always been on the quiet side. They had managed to slip through the back door undetected by sheer luck.

"Kanae...!" Hotaru's cry greeted them the moment they entered the house. The girl had a heavy frown on her face when she noticed patches of red on Kanae's clothes. She trembled, not knowing what to do.

"Oi, you still alive?" Akira dropped the stranger on the re-flipped couch. The living room was still a disaster. The front door for instance laid in pieces; he had covered the entrance with a plank instead.

"...Don't worry about me... This is the price... that I have to pay... for humanity..." he coughed blood. Again. Somehow. He had done that this entire way home, to the point that Akira was astonished at the amount of raw blood this guy had in that lanky body.

He gave the man's shoulder a firm punch.

"It hurts-!" The man shouted.

"If you can feel pain then you'll be okay," Akira sighed. He himself wasn't okay. His bones were rattling all over after getting thrown by that intruder, not to mention the sprint session afterward. "Kanae, sit down," he finally turned to his childhood friend, his expression grave. "Don't hide it. I saw you spitting out blood on the way here. You need to rest. And," he leaned closer to her. "You have to tell me what happened back there. All of it."

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae put on a half-assed smile as Hotaru greeted them at the door(?). "Hey, Firefly! Uh...looks like I broke our promise." She took a seat on the couch, leaning back as far as she can. Holy shit, she needed that; just a moment to relax.

She couldn't relax for too long, though; Akira wanted to know what happened. "Both of you better sit down with me, then."

From her pocket, Kanae brought out the medallion. "Starting off, I'm gonna correct myself; I found this thing by the dude when he crashed through the cafe window yesterday. That guy that was looking for it probably wanted it off of him. I ended up getting chased to a convenience store, where Mr. Top Hat proceeded to turn into a monster and tear into everything he saw."

From there, she held out her wrist, revealing the watch-shaped wristband around it. "That guy"—Kanae nodded to the man beside her—"tried to help me by putting on this armor. He didn't last too long, but I managed to grab this when it fell off of him. The medallion activated, I transformed like he did, and I managed to fight the monster back...but it's still alive. I'm fine, for the most part, I'm just realllly out of it." She had felt powerful using that form, but man, was it taxing...

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Akira and Hotaru listened to her recollection of the event. The longer they listened, the deeper their frowns. Hotaru looked horrified, while Akira clenched his fists in apparent grief. He cast a brief glance at the dying (?) man on the side before walking up to Kanae and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Kanae, you...!" He almost choked on his words. "...Goddamnit. You've finally lost it. I know this would happen sooner or later...!"

Ah. They didn't believe her, it seemed...

"Kanae... you're confused because of the physical shock. It happens often for victims of heavy accidents. I heard it's called 'coping mechanism'..." Hotaru commented. Her voice was very gentle, like talking to a child.

"This is really well-made though. Is it from OLYMPUS?" Akira grabbed her wrist and lifted it up to get a better look. The wristband reflected the surrounding light. Even though the design was simple, it evoked a futuristic feel, simple but elegant. It was very pleasant to look at. "Wait, that doesn't seem right. So this thing, and that medallion from before, belonged to this dude?"

He gave the stranger a nasty eye.

"I'm not 'this dude'," the stranger coughed. At least blood didn't come out anymore. "My name is Seiichi-"

"Kanae, you're not hurt... are you?" Hotaru looked at her from top to bottom, checking if she had any visible wound.

"She must be hurt. That was a nasty explosion back there. The people I passed before said that there was a gas leakage, or was it car batteries that caused it?" Akira pondered. "Anyway, that's besides the point. Kanae, you should return the medallion and the wristband to this guy. You've just been holding it for a day and look at the mess we've been getting to. I'm pretty sure he's involved with the Yakuza or something!"

Seiichiro gave Kanae a wry smile, silently saying with his eyes, "see, nobody believed you, right? Feel my pain~"

 

[Admiral19]

"What do you mean "sooner or later"?!" Kanae probably should have expected this, but that didn't make it any better that her two closest friends believed she'd gone off the deep end. "And I didn't lose anything! I know what I saw over there, and it wasn't some gas leak! I know what I fought, and I wasn't in shock when I fought it!" Or...at least she hoped.

She pointed at the front door. "That door was mahogany. Whoever the hell showed up this morning knocked it to the ground in a matter of seconds. Do you think something like that is human?"

She got what Seiichiro was feeling. Even besides Akira and Hotaru, there were probably hundreds of people near that convenience store who would never believe her, no matter how much she insisted or how loud she screamed. But if no one else, she had hoped that Akira and Hotaru would at least try to hear her out...No, they immediately assume she's insane!

That was a good question, though...she held up her wrist and looked at Seiichiro. "Hey, uh, where did these things come from?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"OLYMPUS," Seiichiro replied promptly. "They're the ones who had manufactured these things. And the monster, too. After years of planning, they're finally starting their attempt to conquer the world."

Akira blinked. What the hell. He pulled at Kanae's hand, drawing her closer so he could speak to her in whispers.

"Listen to this guy! He's even worse than you! That's a conspiracy theory if I ever heard one. Megacorp trying to take over the world... dramatic much? Wait... I think they mentioned it in the news. He's an employee of OLYMPUS-"

Akira narrowed his eyes at him.

"I think I get the gist of it. He got laid off, probably 'cause of his delusions. Now he's smearing dirt at his former employer. I bet that guy from before was a Yakuza. He must've gotten involved somehow. Debts, I bet. Our door? That's drugs, I say. Drugs! The man's chocked full of dopings! We should get away from this mess, Kanae. This is madness."

"I can... hear you, you know," Seiichiro said wryly. At some point, Akira was so immersed in his reasoning that his voice had went back to normal level.

"It's good if you have self awareness," Akira growled. "You stay away from Kanae, you hear?"

"Look, I'll take that advice to heart, young man, but I'll need to be able to walk first," Seiichiro laughed. Which made his ribs hurt again, forcing him to cough violently. "How about you be a dear and get me some first aid, eh? I need to speak with the young lady for a bit."

Akira glared at him.

"What do you think I can do when I'm like this? Just give me this one. I promise I won't bother you again in the future."

"...Fine," Akira sighed. "Hotaru, help me bring the first aid."

"...Yes..."

The siblings went upstairs, with Hotaru giving the man one last look before disappearing from sight.

"Now, young lady, I guess I owed you an explanation?" Seiichiro grimaced. "Where would you like me to start?"

 

[Admiral19]

Conquer the world...that sounded outrageous, but with what Kanae's seen...she'd be half-willing to believe it. At the very least, she believed more than Akira did! If this whole thing was a conspiracy, then let it be said that Kanae was thoroughly duped, but whatever she saw wasn't a conspiracy, it was straight out of a nightmare!

"Oh yeah," Kanae hissed back, "and I bet he was doped up when he left that trail of destruction leading a good mile away from your house! I didn't run from a druggie, I ran from a monster that wanted to tear me lengthwise!"

There was no use trying to bite back, not while things were like this. If Akira didn't want to believe her, then fine. But she was gonna get her explanation from Seiichiro, even if she would be taking the knowledge to her grave.

"You're fucking right you owe me an explanation!" Kanae stared Seiichiro down. "I put in a year's worth of cardio in the space of a single morning trying to run from that monster! What was that thing, and what did I use to fight it? And while we're at it, who are you?!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Oh, we're starting from there, do we? Fine. My name is Seiic- cack-!"

The man coughed up blood.

"Hah... my name... is Sei- guh!" He coughed again. Damn these wounds! "...Just call me uncle. I'm the Head Researcher for OLYMPUS R&D Division. Well, used to... pretty sure they've fired me at this point."

He pointed weakly at the wristband. "That, my dear, is the latest product from OLYMPUS. The P. A. S. - Personal Assistance Suit. It's supposed to be an exoskeletal suit that provides additional supports for grueling physical tasks. At least that's what they're releasing to the public. This one, however, is equipped with the ARMOR system. It's not a civilian tool. It's a proper weapon. And this model is a prototype, with completely different parameter compared to the ones issued for their security personnels."

Seiichiro stopped for a moment to catch a breath before continuing. His voice was blatantly filled with excitement. For the first time, someone was listening to him seriously, unlike how Akira and Hotaru did just now.

"These prototypes were fine-tuned to interact with the medallion in your hand. Those mysterious metals... even I don't know where they came from. They weren't made by OLYMPUS. One of them was given to us by the higher-ups to experiment with. All attempts to activate it had failed. My speculation was that the medallion had to bond with certain type of person. We don't know how yet; was it the genes? The way they use it? The molecular reaction? We haven't found any compatible candidate in our two years of research, so my hypothesis remained unproven. Until now."

He looked at Kanae with a tinge of worship.

"You, you're compatible with the Leo Medallion. It has chosen you. And most importantly, you're not related to OLYMPUS! We, nay, humanity might still have a chance to fight back!"

 

[Admiral19]

"Uncle it is, then," Kanae said when Seiichiro was having a decidedly hard time speaking.

She held onto every word Uncle said, trying to connect everything she was being told...to be honest, if she hadn't went through it herself, she would have believed he was insane too. But she has seen it, she knows about the ARMOR, and now...now she knows how it works, and what kinds of things were after it. But what even made the world decide she was the one who should have this thing? Uncle said that it could have been anything...

She looked down at the medallion in her hand. It really was something straight out of those old shows...in that regard, she couldn't blame Akira or Hotaru for not believing her.

That was just fine. They could think she was crazy all they wanted, but as far as anyone knew, she was the only thing that could keep things like that monster at bay. She was the only thing that could protect...well, everyone, not just Akira and Hotaru.

She had...well, she had something of a purpose now. A reason to hold out.

"Are there other medallions?" There had to be, right? This was the Leo Medallion, so there had to be one for the other star signs, or something...