Chapter 6

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

“Justice means the same in the east as it does in the

west.”

(1966, Minutes of a Los Angeles City Council Meeting)

Statement by Rocket Lady of the Soviet Offbeat Team

October Warriors made to TV Station President Herman Edge during a friendly

visit. President Edge was later revealed to be the leader of a sex trafficking

ring by a team-up between Rocket Lady and the LA Defender Crescent.

Kirara could easily do what had been beyond her for the past

two days. She shattered the steel chains binding her arms and legs.

In that moment, she became Flare once more.

She used her arms to protect Shizuko’s head and back as she

flew sideways from the bed, easily broke through the alloy wall with a

headbutt, and escaped that rape room.

“Eclipse! Capture Kirara!”

When the Doctor noticed, he shouted at Eclipse, but Flare had already landed

above the underground computer room on Shizuko’s instructions.

The computer room was installed behind a special alloy

barrier to avoid external interference, but that was meaningless against Flare.

She kicked a hole in the ceiling and descended in front of

the computer while Shizuko attempted to contact the complex program from within

Flare’s arms. Shizuko could manage it from that distance even with the

interference device in her brain. She did not need a keyboard, mouse, or voice

input. Her nanomodules converted her thoughts into EM waves that allowed her to

directly enter the electronic world.

She announced her success in less than a second.

She sent two instructions to the computer.

“Bgrbggwgyaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!”

An inhuman scream escaped Waxwork’s half-melted wax throat

and mouth.

The wax man had been blown away by a high-voltage attack

emitted from within Rei’s…no, from within Star Thunder’s ass and from the

exterior of the rest of her.

Wormhole writhed in agony.

Something like a black carpet emerged from the leopard print

covering Ocelot’s body and it attacked those extraterrestrial worms.

“Meowww! Time to fight worms with bugs, you son of a bitch!”

The black carpet was a swarm of carnivorous marabunta army

ants, the strongest creature in the Amazon jungle, that Ocelot had summoned.

Those ants did not create a colony. They would surround their queen as they

moved around the jungle and devour every animal that got in their way, no

matter how large.

The pale young man must have shared the otherworldly worms’

pain as they were attacked by the carnivorous ants’ sharp mandibles because he

writhed on the floor like he really was dying.

The worms thrashed at the ants while vanishing into the many

dark holes opened in Wormhole’s naked body.

“Ahhhh, wait, no, please don’t leave me here! Don’t leave me

all alone!”

No one on earth could say for sure what happened next. While

Wormhole begged the worms, his body turned inside out. His brain, organs, and

bones emerged to the surface. And while inside out, he bent and twisted around

before vanishing without a trace. All that remained was a pile of metal tape on

the floor.

No one has ever seen Wormhole since.

Waxwork stepped on the vanished young man’s abandoned

belongings while he created blades of hardened wax from all over his body.

“You…you piece of shit! I’ll show you the true horrors I

can- erk.”

After transforming his full body into weapons, the wax man

lost consciousness and fell over.

Meanwhile, Joy Division held her head and writhed in pain.

The djinn vanished in a poof of smoke.

At the same time, Brain Dead, Animalism, Gravity King, and

the many other Ogasawara escapees hanging out at the Doctor’s secret base all

lost consciousness.

Flare reemerged from the hole in the floor. She was now

accompanied by Rose Device who was all armored up.

“How about that, Disorder? I knew someone as distrusting as

you would have installed the same devices in the other Offbeats’ brains so they

couldn’t rebel against you. We just instructed those devices to knock them all

out.” Flare smiled. “Well, Rose Device did, not me.”

The Doctor’s mechanical face twitched.

“Kill them, Eclipse! Slaughter the Thunderclaps!” wailed the

mad scientist just before he vanished from the room.

A moment later, Rose Device’s mechanical voice spoke up.

“Pattern B teleportation detected. He used a personal

teleportation device.”

After confirming her father had escaped, Eclipse put on a

gruesome smile and kicked off the floor to take flight.

“I have father’s permission now.

I wanted to tear you

limb from limb from the very beginning!”

Flare took flight as well.

“Everyone, leave Flare to me. I will defeat her!”

“You wish!”

The two of them clashed in the center of the room. The steel room shook from a

roar that seemed far too loud to have come from two human bodies colliding.

Rose Device quickly created a spatial statis field around herself, Star

Thunder, and Ocelot to protect them. The bed Flare had been bound to crashed

into the wall and shattered.

Eclipse’s fist crashed into Flare’s solar plexus. The

white-costumed figure was slammed into the metal floor, broke through, and

vanished to the floor below. Eclipse dove into the hole after her. The sisters

were out of sight, but powerful sounds of destruction and an earthquake-like

shaking still reached the other three.

“I’ve never seen Flare look so impressive in the 2 years

since I met her,” said Star Thunder.

Doctor Disorder’s teleportation took him deep into the

mountains, far from any humanmade objects. A clear blue sky sat above the dense

forest around him. The only building around was a Japanese-style house that had

fallen from the sky and crashed into the ground. That was Rei’s house and the

Thunderclaps’ base.

No one knew that the mad scientist’s secret lab had been

constructed underground here a few years back. He had disguised it to the point

that it could not be detected even by military satellites and the people who

had worked on constructing it had since died in ways that looked like

natural causes. Eclipse had been created by the computer here while the

Doctor was imprisoned in Ogasawara.

“Damn, now I’ll have to leave Japan. Maybe I should head to

Europe for a while and work with the Secret Cabal. The Magistrate owes me one

after that power up I gave to the Dark Champions of their French HQ.”

He extended a manipulator from his right shoulder and inserted

it into a tree trunk. The optical camouflage vanished and a small stealth jet

appeared.

The onboard AI rejoiced at finally being used after so many

long years of waiting, so it opened the cockpit and lowered the boarding

ladder.

The Doctor started to climb aboard until he heard thunder

rumbling in the blue sky. There was truly not a cloud in the sky, but lightning

crashed down directly into the cockpit. The Doctor was knocked away from the

jet which burst into flames before his eyes.

His hip slammed into the ground and his mechanical eye

widened as he heard a mechanical voice from behind him.

“Teleporting away does not guarantee an escape. My brain can

track teleportation at this range.”

He looked back to see Rose Device, Star Thunder, and Ocelot

standing there.

“I-impossible. Where is Eclipse? Killing all of you should

have been like taking candy from a baby for her.”

Star Thunder gave him a pitying look.

“Eclipse is otherwise occupied. With fighting Flare.”

The ground shook, several large trees fell over, and the

bedrock exploded upwards.

Dirt and stone erupted into the air while white and a black

shooting stars flew out.

The white costume and the black bondage suit flew in

constantly-intersecting arcs at supersonic speeds. With each intersection, a

shockwave reached the ground. Eclipse was punched away so hard her back tore

through a mountain peak and Flare was punched down so hard her head tore a

crater in the ground.

The younger sister spoke down toward the older sister as she

tried to stand back up.

“You are no more than my prototype, so you can never defeat

me. You lack this power father gave only me: Omega Vision!”

Beams launched from Eclipse’s eyes. The explosive current of

deep crimson energy ionized the air as it raced toward the ground.

Flare’s costume instantly vaporized and the rock around her

grew red before melting in the excess energy.

“She’s burning!” screamed Rose Device whose mechanical

vision could look straight at those blindingly bright beams. “Kirara-san’s body

is burning. I can’t believe it!”

But Flare remained standing. The scorching energy washed

over her and her skin carbonized, but she still stood tall.

“That’s not going to worrrrrk!!”

She took flight. She flew straight into the Omega Vision to climb toward

Eclipse.

The Doctor shook his head in annoyance at the sight.

“Truly unbelievable. I did not design Kirara to endure the

Omega Vision. My calculations say Eclipse should be superior to her in every

way.”

Star Thunder’s hand held the Doctor’s head and turned him

toward his two fighting daughters.

“While you were in Ogasawara and the machines were creating

Eclipse, Flare was protecting people and fighting evil as a superhero. She

might be an artificial superhuman, but she has still found her life at risk on

a few occasions. She grew stronger by overcoming those things.”

“You claim Flare grew beyond my calculations? Preposterous.”

A black-scorched hand finally struck Eclipse’s cheek. The

blow cut off the Omega Vision and a pair of fists continued raining blows down

on her.

Pushed on by the sounds of impact, the Doctor’s mechanically

amplified voice rang angrily through the sky.

“Preposterous I say! Eclipse, final phase!”

Eclipse’s chest burst from within. The ribs connected down

the center of her chest separated to the left and right, grabbed at Flare’s

torso, and fused back together behind her sister’s back.

Eclipse turned to her creator for help concerning this

transformation to her body.

“Father, what is this!? Did you build this function into

me?”

“In 10 seconds, the Omega Vision emitter in your body will go haywire. Heat

rivaling the center of the sun will fill the area within a few meters of you.

Rejoice, my daughter. You will be offering up your body to vaporize Flare.”

Star Thunder and Ocelot failed to accurately perceive what

happened over the next 10 seconds. Rose Device only figured it out by replaying

the footage in her brain after the fact.

During the 1st second, Eclipse broke her own ribs with her

arms and kicked Flare away.

During the 2nd second, Eclipse turned her back on her sister

and rocketed down toward the surface. She grabbed Doctor Disorder like a hawk

snatching up its prey and she ascended into the azure sky once more.

During the 3rd second, the sight of the younger sister’s

ascent brought a past memory back to Flare.

“Stop! Don’t shoot my daughter!”

My mom’s scream was drowned out by the gunshot echoing through the cave.

She took the bullet for me. Even though she knew a mere

handgun couldn’t hurt me.

“That is

my daughter, your rotten thief,” arrogantly

declared Doctor Disorder.

Then the explosive inside my mom’s hip activated. Her lower

body was blown to pieces before my eyes.

It was I who screamed that.

“I’ll kill you!”

I couldn’t stop the torrent of rage within me. Just as I ran forward to tear my

own creator to pieces with my bare hands, my mom’s remaining upper body grabbed

at my leg from the ground.

“Charles said…Super Offbeat said he was not given his great

power to take lives. He said it was to protect lives…no matter whose. So

please, protect his life.”

I screamed as I picked up my dying mother in my arms and

flew deeper into the cave. Because I was not at all confident I could keep

myself from killing Doctor Disorder if I stayed there.

“Wait!” roared my creator, but his voice was drowned out by

the sound of my fist shattering the bedrock.

I broke through the mountain and flew toward a human city

for the first time. I met Rei a few days after burying my mom.

During the 4th second, Flare took flight. During the 5th and

6th seconds, she forced her burned body to give her even more speed than her

sister as she flew, flew, and flew some more.

“Faster. Faster! Faster for mom!!”

During the 7th second, Flare arrived behind Eclipse and

matched her ascent speed. The sisters were motionless relative to each other.

(If my sister can do it, then so can I.)

During the 8th second, her blackened right hand touched

Eclipse’s back. The sisters’ bodies fused together. Flare’s fingers contacted

the tingling energy within.

Hearing Eclipse’s groan, Flare pulled her hand back out. She

now held a strange, crimson-glowing organ in her hand.

During the 9th second, Flare kicked Eclipse down toward the

ground. At the same time, she threw the melting Omega Vision emitter upwards.

Her arm could throw a JSDF tank with ease, so the artificial organ flew well

above the clouds.

During the 10th second, the white clouds were dyed red and

annihilated. The heat instantly vaporized the water droplets forming them. The

explosive expansion of the air whipped up a powerful wind and the forest on the

surface creaked as it blew through.

Flare rode that wind down to the surface. The burns covering

her body were already falling away with new skin appeared below. Her healing

power was incredible.

On the ground, Eclipse was waiting for her sister while

restraining her father with her great strength. The wound on her chest was

already healing too.

The naked and half-naked sisters stood on either side of

their father. Two looks containing complicated feelings crashed together,

producing sparks. The Doctor stared blankly, feeling left behind by the

superhuman speed at which things had played out.

“Wh-what? But how did…and why did…? Eclipse, what are you

doing?”

Eclipse responded coldly to her father.

“Why did you abandon me?”

“Why? Because you are my daughter. Of course you should

sacrifice yourself for me.”

“But I love you. I served you because I love you. I made

myself a mere tool for you. But you threw me out like all those Ogasawara

prisoners. I will never forgive you for that. Never.”

The father could not understand what his daughter was

talking about, so Flare cut in with her voice low.

“Disorder has never felt love, so he wouldn’t understand how

easily a betrayed love or a lost love can turn to hatred. You have no idea how

many times I tried to kill you after losing my mom.”

“If you hate him that much, sister, then why did you save

the two of us?”

“Because I promised my mom I would become a superhero. And a

hero never takes a life. A hero never gives up on a life.”

Flare held her still-healing right arm out toward her

sister.

“Please, Eclipse. Do not kill him. Give him to me instead.

I’ll make sure he goes back to eating nasty prison food. That will humiliate

the arrogant man more than death ever could.”

“Fair point. Killing him now would feel good, but then it’s

over. But if he’s rotting in a cell, I can go see him suffering as many times

as I like. But there is one thing I must do now.”

Eclipse’s right hand moved just like high-speed precision

machinery. By the time the Doctor noticed his daughter’s action, her index and

middle fingers were already stabbed deep into his mechanical head.

“Wh-what are you doing!?”

Before Flare could move in, Eclipse had pulled her fingers

from his head. She held a few chips between them now.

“I know his body inside and out because I studied his

medical program so I could heal him if he were injured. These here are his

memory chips.”

Her mighty grip crushed the chips into metal powder before

the Doctor’s eyes.

“Now his collected scientific knowledge and his memory of

the Thunderclaps’ identities is gone. He might still carry the name of Doctor

Disorder, but he can no longer even solve a linear equation.”

“No. That can’t be true. I still have my memories.”

The Doctor spoke his real name, his parents’ names, his

birthdate, and his life story. But he could not bring to mind any of the

scientific and mathematical knowledge that had been such a large part of his

long life. He tried to recall the numbers of the elements on the periodic

table, but he could not recall a single one. In fact, he could not even

remember the names of the most basic elements. Even though he was the man who

had discovered a new quark two years ago that none of the world’s scientists

had even predicted existed. But now he was not even sure what a quark was.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The man feared as the world’s most evil mad scientist

collapsed to the ground in tears.

Perhaps a superhero should have felt some sympathy at the

sight, but Flare could not help herself.

“So even heroes take cheap shots. That’s a relief,

honestly.”

Eclipse’s feet floated up from the ground. Her destroyed

chest was almost entirely back to normal, but her bondage outfit had not

regenerated, leaving her alluring breasts exposed.

“Wait, Eclipse!” shouted Flare who was entirely nude. “Why

don’t you come with me? We’re the only two of our kind, so there must be

something we can gain from each other. I’m sure Star Thunder and the others

would accept you.”

“You expect me to become a superhero? No, thanks. The next

time we meet, I will fuck every last hole in your body with my penis and fill

you to bursting with my cum. Look forward to it!”

“Wait!” called Star Thunder as she came running over, but

the black figure turned her back, rocketed off at supersonic speed, and

vanished into the blue sky.

“Oh, what a shame. I was really hoping I could convince

her,” said Star Thunder.

“Rei, you just wanted Eclipse to do you in the ass,” said

Ocelot.

“N-no, don’t be silly. W-wait, look!”

Star Thunder blushed, but then she pointed at the crying

Doctor. Joy Division was seated atop his half-mechanical head.

“My, my, my. Isn’t this an amusing fate for the old Doc.”

“I thought the machine in your brain knocked you out!” said

Flare.

“I’m a djinn, so why would you even think that scientific

device would work on me? I mean, look.”

She spread her right ear hole like something from a gag

anime and stuck her right hand in up to the wrist. She easily grabbed the small

device and pulled her right hand back out.

“See? Do you really think this silly thing can control me?

Kya ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

The Thunderclaps were all offended as living beings when

they saw that djinn stepping on the weeping mad scientist’s head.

“Hold on. Whose side are you on?”

Joy hopped down from the Doctor and boldly pushed her chest

out.

“I’m on whichever side’s more fun. If it’s fun, I’m there.”

“That attitude only makes the world worse, meow!”

Ocelot extended her claws and leaped high into the sky, but

the djinn snapped her fingers to transform the jaguar woman into a cute Persian

cat. The Persian cat landed back on the ground and began running around in

confusion.

“What have you done?”

Star Thunder’s hands glowed a bluish-white and lightning raced out toward Joy.

The djinn raised her index finger.

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”

When the Arabian beauty pointed her finger down on the

“moe”, the lightning dropped down right in front of her face and vanished into

the earth.

Rose Device’s words announced that the space around Joy had been

solidified. Not a single electron should have been able to leave.

But the djinn knocked on the statis field without a hint of

panic or concern. A wooden door appeared along the invisible field, so she

turned the shiny brass knob and leisurely strolled outside the field. Shizuko’s

jaw dropped within her emerald green mask.

“Humans like you are powerless against me.”

A white cloth appeared below Joy’s feet. It had “Flying

Carpet” written on it in Japanese for the Thunderclaps’ benefit and it floated

up with her on it.

“Nowww then, I think it’s time I performed a strip show on

Nara’s Great Buddha. See you later.”

“There will be no later, mischievous child.”

A deep voice, like that of an old man, rang out.

A black starry sky suddenly appeared behind Joy where she

stood in the blue sky.

The starry sky was the bottom of a large trench coat. A man

had appeared in the air wearing a subdued brown suit and a coat patterned like

the starry sky.

Below a felt hat the same color as his suit, he wore a

golden mask with only two eyeholes. The sparkling surface of the mask had a

large blue question mark drawn on it.

“I placed you in Ogasawara in deference to the Japanese

police, but it seems I must keep a closer eye on you, Joy baby.”

“Oh, yes. Please capture me, Enigma darling.”

The bottom of the trench coat flipped up and wrapped around

the djinn. Joy nestled herself up against the gold(?) masked man’s chest.

“Ladies, I do apologize for the trouble.” The masked man

bowed, but there was an obvious smile in his voice. “And I must say, you are a

nice sight for sore eyes. Yes, very…enticing. Goodbye.”

The man and Joy Division disappeared as suddenly as either

one of them had appeared.

Ocelot had returned to her normal form and she opened her

mouth to show off her fangs.

“I can see why even the spirit elders in South America view

him as their superior. Master Enigma is incredible.”

“So that was the legendary Master Enigma, was it?”

“That magician is said to have moved the moon.”

“Ah!” Flare cried out in despair while looking up into the

sky with her teammates. “A legendary hero saw my penis!! He’ll think I’m

trans!!”