Fantasy Stellar ARMOR Satellizer (Ranix Aurus & Admiral19)

[Ranix Aurus]

"Ah... ah... K-Kanae...! Waah..."

Haru jumped into Kanae. Without realizing it, she was already flooding with tears as relief washed over her.

"Kanae, what are you- huh, that person... isn't that the intruder from before?"

Akira and Hotaru had taken some time to catch up to Kanae, and what awaited them was the sight of a girl hiding behind her, and Rui at the other end of the alleyway. Whitish hair... stalker... even if that wasn't the exact truth, they were already filling up the details in their own head. Wow, who would expect that someone like Rui could be a big perve-

However, the situation suddenly cranked way up when they finally took out their medallions.

"Oh, crap!" Akira rushed forward and held up his own wristband. "Suit up!"

 

[Admiral19]

In a lightning storm of dark purple, Rui's armor began to materialize. Bulkier areas of the armor, such as the shoulders and torso, broke off into smaller and smaller pieces as they moved down their body, giving the armor a fragmented, dissolved look. Sharp appendages jutted out from the top and bottom of both of their wrists, reminiscent of crab claws. Short, rounded white spines were studded all over the armor, further adding to the crablike appearance. A short white cape unfurled behind their back, and a trojan helmet made up their mask, the eyes glowing a sharp white.

"ARMOR ON. GUARD ALL WEAKNESSES."

A pair of sharp swords were unsheathed and swung at Kanae just as she put on her own ARMOR. Kanae caught the blades between her claws, straining to push Rui back.

"Whatever...you're trying to do with Nakamichi..." Kanae stepped forward as Rui took a cautionary step back. "I'm not gonna let you do it!"

Rui held their ground, even as it was quickly being lost. Shit...they weren't weak by any means, but... "That's not for you to decide, Leo!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

ARMOR ON. BLACK TWIN STAR.

"Whoa, that looks cool," enveloped in flashing light, Akira emerged in Gemini's jet-black ARMOR. Rui's ARMOR looked strong, but Kanae was holding herself up quite well by her own. "Alright, I'm joining in too!"

He rushed at Rui from the side, attempting to catch them off guard. He then threw a punch at their back... only for his fist to recoil back with a loud clang.

"Ouch, what the... his ARMOR is so hard!"

"...I think you're just weak..." Hotaru commented from the side.

"Oh, beat it. Satellizer... err, what was it, set up?"

Satellizer ready.

His right fist glow red-hot as energy poured into his arm. "Haaah!" With a loud roar, he launched his punch at Rui.

 

[Admiral19]

"Akira, hang on!" Kanae pushed Rui backwards, causing them to take the full force of Akira's Satellizer...

...only for Rui to catch the attack with their fist. "Satellizer, set up."

One of their swords shone with a dark purple light. They kicked Akira away and thrust the sword through a part of his shoulder armor and into the alley wall, pinning him where he was. "I thought you saw your friend over there take on Shouji before! You should know how weak that is! Why did you throw yourself at me thinking that would work?"

"Satellizer, set up!"

Before Rui could say anything more, Kanae sent a fist flying towards their face, a flash of red lighting up the alley and the impact making a sharp clang against their helmet. Rui staggered into a crouching stance and kicked Kanae's hand away when she went to reach for the sword pinning Akira to the wall.

"Enough!" With the sword they had left, Rui began making a series of furious slashes on Kanae's armor, some of which were blocked, others bouncing off her armor. "I was sent out here on orders! I'm not going back empty-handed again!"

"Must not be good orders if you can't even tell me what they are!"

"They're orders that I need to carry out! That's all I need to care about!"

"So you must fancy yourself a dog, then!"

Without so much as a prompt, Rui's other sword shone in the same dark purple light and slashed across Kanae's chest, blasting her back into the wall hard enough to leave a sizeable crater in it.

The moment the dust settled, Rui and the other Holders would hear a prompt.

5 seconds until forceful shutdown. 5—

Rui's brows furrowed. "Override."

Override confirmed. Dosing.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Gah!" Akira felt quite a sting on his chest just from getting kicked away. The sword had missed his shoulder just by a hair's breadth, although the blade had pierced through the shoulder armor and grazed his skin, drawing slight amount of blood.

The shockwave from the two ARMOR's Finishers smacked him in the face as he grabbed the sword with trembling hand. With great effort, he was able to dislodge it from the wall, but not before Rui had smashed Kanae away.

"You-! Ack," he fell to his knees, his stomach still churning from the impact.

Strain detected. ARMOR off.

The transformation came undone automatically. To make it worse, their opponent didn't seem to be exhausted after discharging two Finishers in rapid succession. What was that? Override? They could get even stronger??

"..."

"...What?" Akira flinched. Hotaru had came over to his side, her gaze laced with worry at Kanae.

"That thing... you need two people for it," she murmured in a low voice so that only Akira could hear her.

"...What?" He glanced at her for a moment before realizing that she was talking about the Gemini medallion. He looked down at the roundish metal in his palm. "You know about this thing? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"So you're going to do it with him?"

"...I'm sorry, I was wrong," Akira winced. Right, the only compatible person that they knew other than Akira was that guy... no way would he trust him with this.

"I'll help you," Hotaru leaned over toward him. Akira was speechless for a second. Various thoughts seemed to flash past him in that time, but in the end, he made up his mind and slowly got back to his feet.

"...How should I do it?"

"You only have to acknowledge me as your partner for the transformation. It should work... I think."

She placed her hand on his shoulder to establish physical contact. Time was running out. Their opponent wouldn't wait for whatever personal problems they were tackling in the middle of an actual fight, so it was do or die at this point. Akira clenched the Gemini medallion tightly in his palm.

"Fine, whatever happens, happens!"

He gripped the medallion with his fingers, and then slid it into the wristband.

ARMOR ON

Flashes of light pour out from the wristband, enveloping the two siblings as parts of ARMOR materialized in the space around them. The light converged, growing smaller, denser, until the two were combined into one. The pieces fell into places, enveloping them in a sleek set of armor, with its color split at the center, half black on the left, half white on the right. Unlike the previous Gemini, it has a thicker layer of protective plates, with an imposing, spiked shoulder guard on the left side, and an additional plate over its chest, like those of an archer's.

TWIN SHOOTING STARS. Error: excessive output detected. Error: excessive output detected-- alert overridden.

"Whoa... whoawhoawhoa, what is this?! This is creepy!" When Akira's voice came out, the left eyepiece lit up at the same time.

"...I could say the same," this time, the right eyepiece lit up alongside Hotaru's voice.

 

[Admiral19]

Just like before, fire rushed into Rui's veins as the Jotunn serum coursed through them. The moment that happened, however, a light shone behind them from where they had pinned the Gemini user. Both Rui and Kanae watched in awe as the armor came together, revealing a completely different appearance.

"Holy shit..." Kanae was probably the most astounded. How the hell did this happen?

Rui, on the other hand, growled in frustration. "God fucking dammit! It's always something new, isn't it?!" They charged towards the newly armored Gemini, bringing their swords down on the ARMOR's head.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

The white side's hand flew up instinctively, blocking the sword by catching the blade entirely within their grip. Red-hot energy gathered into the hand, creating a protective layer that prevented the blade from slicing through.

"You hurt Kanae... Unforgivable," Hotaru's voice appeared with what sounded like a grudge. She pushed the sword up before sending a kick at Rui's chest.

 

[Admiral19]

The voice caught Rui off guard enough that the kick sent them falling backwards onto the ground. By that time, Kanae had recovered, kicking away the swords that fell with them and putting a foot to Rui's chest.

"Right, let's try this again." Her voice was rightfully annoyed. "What are you trying to do with Nakamichi?"

Not like this. Rui couldn't fail like this. They couldn't come back without Haru. They could feel subtle, yet painful changes in their body, namely the feeling of something poking through their fingers. The Jotunn serum was affecting them, and they wouldn't have long before...

A shooting pain ran through Rui's body, and they shoved Kanae's foot off their chest. They got up and dashed towards Haru, picking her up and throwing her over their shoulder. Fuck diplomacy, fuck trying to seem like the good guy, they had to leave. Leo probably had more Satellizers to use, and who knows what the hell that Gemini was capable of. They jumped on the roof of the building next to them with the person of interest.

Before they left, they glared down at Leo and Gemini. "You asked me if I was a dog, Leo. Hear this: I'm whatever the Kaiserin needs me to be. This isn't over...for either of you."

With that, they ran off with Haru in tow.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"No... no!"

Haru was caught off guard when she was thrown over Rui's shoulder. She flailed weakly, to no avail. It was at this moment when the stress was reaching its peak that her body began to change. Her eyes began to change, her pupils turning into vertical slits, like those of reptiles. Soft, transparent tendrils shot out from her back, which then entangled themselves on Rui's body.

At the same time, Gemini wasn't done yet with them. He didn't give chase immediately, instead, Akira lifted his wristband, and then pressed on a button on the display.

"Charge up."

Satellizer Ready. Warning: exceeding output detected.

Energy coursed all over their body, culminating on their left arm. On his left palm, the energy spread out, materializing into a curved shape akin to a bow. On their right hand, a sharp, straight energy formed a searing arrow, which he strung on the bow, aimed upward at Rui's direction.

And then, he let go.

The release caused a tremendous shockwave as the arrow was catapulted at blinding speed, flying through the sky like a shooting star before curving its trajectory toward Rui's position.

 

[Admiral19]

Rui stopped as Haru suddenly started growing...tendrils? What was happening? In their confusion, they failed to notice the arrow heading towards them. The impact knocked them and Haru backwards, with Rui's body still tangled up in the tendrils.

Kanae pumped her fist in excitement. "Nice shot!"

Rui struggled to free themselves. "What's happening?" Alfred didn't tell them this. They knew that Haru was being experimented on. But they didn't think that the experiment worked. "Ah, Alfred, what the hell did you do?!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"Let's chase them," Akira exclaimed as he took control of the ARMOR and launched themselves up with a strong jump.

At that moment, Haru was already changing further. Her arms and legs were covered in reptillian scales, while she was growing aware of the tendrils on her back. She could even... control them. She covered her eyes in horror as realization began to dawn on her.

She was no longer a normal human.

"Noooo!" The tendrils discharged a strong electrical current in accordance to her distressed state.

 

[Admiral19]

Kanae followed them upwards just in time to catch Rui writhing in pain as electricity shocked them. It was clear why Alfred wanted Haru back at this point, in which case, they absolutely could not afford to lose her to these people.

But first, of course, they had to get out of this death web! Rui tried to drag the tendrils off of them to very little avail. "Let...go!"

"Nakamichi!" Kanae wanted to pull Rui out of the tangle of tentacles, but she didn't know how to without getting shocked herself. "Calm down! We know someone who could help you out!"

"As if!" Rui shouted at her through their pain. "We haven't perfected a countermeasure yet! What are you all gonna do—AAAAGH!" The more distressed Haru got, the more the electrical tangle hurt them. Somebody needed to do something, and relatively quickly.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Akira and Hotaru were shocked upon seeing Haru's current form. She wasn't like the other monsters that they had met before. She was retaining her humanoid shape, and... it seemed that she was sentient as well.

"What the hell... what did they do..." Akira murmured to himself.

"Kanae...? Is that you? No... don't look at me! No!"

Haru jumped away from them, trying to cover herself, although there was no place to hide in the rooftop. At least she had retracted her tentacles, but they were still buzzing with electric currents.

"You can't help me... you're our enemy...! No, what was I talking about...?" Haru clutched on her head. She felt like something was changing her from the inside, as if she was Nakamichi Haru, but also not at the same time.

 

[Admiral19]

Rui was practically on the verge of passing out once the tentacles let go of them...the trio could deal with them later. Right now, they needed to placate Haru.

"What do you mean, "enemy"?" What the hell happened, and who the hell did it to her?! It's like her head's been scrambled! "We're trying to calm you down! Wait..."

She wondered something. If she, Hotaru, and Akira were the enemy, then...

"Haru...if we're your enemy, then who's your friend, huh? What happened, who did this to you?"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"I... I..." Haru's eyes were opened wide. She didn't know what to think. Her mind seemed to be in a jumble, as if everything had been thrown into chaos. She unconsciously reached her trembling hand at Kanae, but at the same time, the tendrils reacted to her movement, causing them to jerk slightly as if they were about to lash out.

Akira and Hotaru stepped forward before they could even give it a thought, shielding Kanae from the apparent attack. Only then did they realize that it wasn't an attack at all.

"Ah..." For Haru, it seemed like they didn't trust her. As... expected...

At that moment,

A huge mass crashed right behind her, sending debris into the air. As the dust began to settle, it was revealed that the thing that had landed was the lizard-octopus monster from way back then. It only have two of its previous four tentacles, but it was undoubtedly the same creature from before. It had its humanoid arms around Haru, but instead of restraining her, it was more like he was protecting her.

"Have you realized it? There is no longer a place for you among humans."

A voice resounded in Haru's mind. It was from that man, that vile, accursed man... but somehow, that voice also brought a strange warmth into her. Like the taste... of home.

"Return back to me, my beloved Eldrian."

"...Yes..." Haru mumbled a response. She gave Kanae a sad smile before the monster leaped into the air, carrying her away in his arms.

 

[Admiral19]

Wait, hang on! "Guys! That's the lizard thing I fought before! Stop him!"

"Hey!" As best as they could, Rui staggered to their feet and shouted at the monster that landed. "Did Alfred work on you, too?! What are you all not telling me?!"

Before any of them could do something, however, the monster was already carrying Haru away, far off into the distance. And to make matters worse...

Rui bit their lip in frustration, feeling fangs prod into their flesh. They didn't have much time. With nothing but a pointed glare at Leo and Gemini, Rui jumped away from the roof in an effort to follow the monster back to base.

Kanae watched both of them go, utterly helpless.

---

"HEY!"

Rui tried in vain to shout at the monster running away with Haru. "Slow down! I'm trying to get back!"

"And it also seems like you're trying to lose your humanity."

Rui stopped. That was the Kaiserin. Oh god, oh god oh god oh god...

"What happened, dear Rui?" Her voice was serious, far more serious than it usually was. "I thought Alfred sent you to retrieve someone?"

"And she got retrieved! She's on the way back to the base right—"

There was a laugh over the line, as if the Kaiserin could not take herself seriously. "It's fine! It's fine. You're so rigid when it comes to missions, Rui! As long as what you were asked to do was done, it's fine. Although it would have been greatly preferred if you did it..."

"I tried, I really did." Rui's voice was calmer, but still a bit panicked. "But Leo got in my way, and so did Gemini!"

"Gemini?" The Kaiserin's voice became more confused. "That should have been no problem...hm. Tell me about it when you return. I'll arrange for a ride so you don't have to walk."

"...Yes, Kaiserin."

 

[Ranix Aurus]

They could only watch everyone getting away one after another... although there was little reason to give chase. Kanae's friend... didn't seem to be in the right state of mind. They might even be forced to fight her if things went wrong back there.

Armor off

Light enveloped the Gemini armor and, like magic, Akira and Hotaru was separated once again. Hotaru had a contemplative look in her face, while Akira was frowning. He clutched on his chest before falling over to his side.

Warning: excessive strain detected. Warning: excessive strain detected.

"Shut up...!" He slapped the wristband while gritting his teeth from the pain assaulting his entire body.

 

[Admiral19]

"Armor off!" Immediately, Kanae was at Akira's side. "Hey, what's happening?! Excessive strain from what?!"

Those were questions that the three of them couldn't answer. They had to get back to Uncle and the others.

"Hotaru, help me carry him!" She grabbed one of Akira's arms and draped it over her shoulder. "You think the two of you fusing overclocked the ARMOR? Ahh, that's a problem if it did...!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"No, I think... it's just because we're not familiar with it... ugh-!"

Akira winced as the two helped him stand up. At least the pain was mostly superficial. He could still move around as long as he could withstand it.

"It should get better the more we're accustomed to it," Hotaru chimed in. "Don't worry about it, Kanae. Big brother will be fine."

 

[Admiral19]

"If you say so..."

That's right, he's only really used the ARMOR three times, huh... She believes that Akira will be fine—he's a tough bastard—but still...

---

The trio returned to Mochizuki Industries with an amount of fanfare. "Uncle! Dad! Ms. Shiori! Holy shit, we have so much news!"

As she and Hotaru were making Akira comfortable, Aisuke looked up from his work. "Really? What happened?!"

With that, Kanae divulged the whole story, about the fight with Rui, and Gemini's activation, and Haru's transformation.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"You two... did what?" Seiichiro was aghast. "Combining? How? This doesn't make sense! I didn't design any of this! In the first place, it just doesn't make sense physically, or biologically, or... agh, I don't know anymore!"

It was an understandable reaction. Then again, the medallions' powers had always defied the laws of the world as they had known it. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that the medallions caused all these miracles to happen, while the ARMOR system was merely a vessel for them to take shape.

"And why is Tanaka in that condition?" Shiori glanced at Akira.

"Big brother is just tired. He'll recover soon enough," Hotaru replied nonchalantly. Akira on the other hand was glaring at her, as if it was her fault.

 

[Admiral19]

Aisuke stroked his chin in thought. "Maybe that's because the medallions themselves aren't of science...whatever it is, it certainly worked in our favor!"

"How did it feel, by the way? Being fused, I mean." There have been a couple shows she's seen where the heroes fused together to make one super-fighter, and every time she saw those, she wondered how it felt to be fused with someone. "Was one of you controlling the left arm and the other the right? Did your heights fuse together, too? I swear you got taller..."

All pointless questions, but it was Kanae-typical nonsense by this point. If nothing else, it was endearing.

 

[Ranix Aurus]

"The white side is proficient in close combat, while the black side... well, you've seen it in action yourself," Akira replied amidst his groans. As for how he had known about it... it seemed that, just as Kanae could readily utilize Leo's power immediately after transforming, the Holders were privy to information about the medallions as long as they were the owners.

"I think it based the shape on my body, as I'm the primary Holder. As for control... one person took control at a time, but for us we mainly just switch whenever it's needed. It's less by talking with each other and more by instinct. Telepathy, so to speak."

He wondered what would've happened if he ended up using Gemini with that bastard Shouji. Yeah... it might not go as smoothly. Hotaru preferred taking the backseat most of the time, so managing who took over when was not a big deal.

 

[Admiral19]

"Oh, that's so cool!" Kanae was also lucky that Akira didn't end up fusing with Shouji, and she's especially lucky that he wasn't even around to see Gemini properly activate. That would have been rough for him to see.

Aisuke cleared his throat. "As cool as it is, we have more prevalent problems. Haru transformed into a monster, correct? And you said her memories seemed fragmented? Something must have been done to her memory, which is truly despicable. We now have a greater need to figure out the secrets behind Aesir, and all the more reason to expedite our research. That begins with perfecting the antidote to the monster serum. Not to mention everything we learned about Gemini. Who was the one to figure it out?"

"Hotaru, actually!" Kanae's face lit up like a thousand stars. "Like, I had a few ideas about how Gemini might work, but Hotaru was the one to actually try it!"

 

[Ranix Aurus]

Hotaru shrunk back when everyone's attention were turned at her. "No, it was just a guess... Gemini is the sign of twins, two, and two... so I thought it would make sense if it worked similarly to its zodiac sign..."

She scooted closer to Akira, as if she wanted to hide behind him. The brother smirked at her. Oh, so you remember that I'm your brother only when you need me, huh?

"Putting Gemini aside, if Aesir can brainwash people, then we're in big trouble," Akira said. "This won't be the last. No, it might get even worse. Also..."

"Hmm? What is it, Tanaka?" Seiichiro raised an eyebrow at him.

"Overdrive..." Akira murmured. "That white-haired fellow used something peculiar back then. It's like he was able to tap into even greater power than before. If I remember correctly, the ARMOR system announced it as 'Overdrive System'."

If the name was self-explanatory, that means Aesir's ARMOR users were able to strengthen themselves at will, bypassing the limitation of the ARMOR. They were fortunate that they only faced Rui alone. What if that bull woman had been in the scene as well?