Alpha and Beta

Superiors. I'd never thought I'd see the day where me and Akira would reach this rank. Do we even still need to consider our rankings? Evidently enough, ranking doesn't matter out here. Akira and I walked back to our cabins, and talked about how much that caught him off guard. I was too busy contemplating, do I really deserve to be called a "Superior"? "Kibo? Hello? You there, buddy?" Akira snapped me back in to reality. I must have dozed off for a second. "You seem tense, man? Don't you think this whole "Saving the world" thing is getting too out of hand for you?" He came to my aid at the time. I wasn't getting any proper sleep lately. With what's been happening lately, I don't think I'll be able to sleep properly in a very long time. "I'm fine, really. Thank you, Akira." I assured him that I was fine, but he persisted. "I know a tired fella when I see one, Kibo." He chuckled and he walked me back to my cabin. As we got to our doorstep, he patted my back and said "Get some rest, Captain. We need you back at full strength as soon as possible." He smiled at me, and walked away. I chuckled, and I entered my cabin. As I entered, I was greeted by me team, as concerned about me like Akira was. "Sir, we know you have been protecting this camp with your life really hard." Hanzo said in his most sincere voice. "We suggest you get as much rest as you can, Sir. We can train with each other for today." Kang told me as he sat me down by my bedside. They proceeded to walk out of the cabin, and bid me a speedy recovery. Han held the door open, and smiled at me. "I'll make sure they don't hurt themselves, Sir." We chuckle, as the door shut behind him. I laid there on my bed, stating at the ceiling. I thought to myself, looked back on my life and all that. It was quite. Nothing but the chants of the soldiers outside our doorstep, training to protect our country, and put order back in to the world. It was relaxing, it was nice to listen to. "Getting rest I see. Smart." Takeuchi again caught me off guard as he appeared by my bedside. I sighed in disappointment. "What do you want, Taki?" I rolled over to try and ignore him as much as I could.

"I can't hold him back any longer, Kibo." He told me, Now that caught my attention.

I stood up from my bed, and stared Takeuchi dead in his eyes. "What do you mean, you can't hold him back any longer? You're a God aren't you?" I asked him, a bit frustrated and confused of what I just heard. "I'm the God of Death, not the Cosmos, Toishi. My powers have certain limits." He proceeded to explain. He confirmed to me that here is indeed more than one God. Currently, every single one of them are trying their best to keep this one entity from destroying the entire multiverse. "Wait, are you saying-" "Yes, there IS a multiverse, Kibo. And in one of them, we wouldn't be having this conversation." He exclaimed. He stood from his sitting position and looked outside the window. "In this camp site, there is the leader of our first line of defense once we give out." He explained that someone in this base is a leader of a multi dimensional protection force. "I call them the Devine Protectors. And the person you should be looking for, is the birth of the second line of those Gods." "So you have someone who actually knows what's going on?" I stood up from my bed, frustrated on what I just heard. "So all this time, my entire camp could have known of what is about come of this world? After my team did all of their dirty Work?!" I lashed out in frustration at Takeuchi, angered by the fact I wasn't the only one who knew. "Because I CAN'T TRUST ANYONE ELSE IN YOUR CAMP, KIBO! NEITHER CAN YOU!" He yelled out, and started to walk towards me. "And why is that?! Is it because we're all just Humans?! Your Play things?!" I got up in his face, trying to achieve dominance. "Exactly." He replied to me, with a dead serious look in his eyes. "Humans will always betray other Humans. And I am not taking the risk of having that in my team." I pulled him by his coat, and punched him in his nose as hard as I could. He didn't even flinch, he didn't even bleed. "THEN WHY TRUST ME?!" I yelled at him so loud, my ear drums vibrated in my ears. "Because you have the purest heart out of all of these people I see." I was shook. I let go of him, and he stood up. He dusted himself off, and took his staff. "You just need to see that as well." He tapped his staff against the floor, and he Vanished. As if no trace of him was there. "The purest Heart out of all of us?" I thought to myself. There is absolutely no way, I didn't know what it meant. No human can be that pure. Not even me. As I was contemplating on what Takeuchi said to me, I heard a knock on my door. I got up and answered it. It was Haru, o was surprised to actually see him come by the cabin. He had a concerned look on his face. "What's going on, Haru?" I Asked him with my full curiosity and confusion. "It's Alpha and The Beta team, Captain. They made it back in one piece."

I walked out of the Cabin, and sure enough, there they were. Alpha with his hair tied, and his two katanas by his hips. The Beta squad seemed less. Has it gotten this bad already? Alpha looked bruised, and exhausted as well. It looked like someone actually gave him a challenge. The troops that were captured were never retrieved, I didn't even see any of them get pass the gates. I approached Alpha concerned on what had happened. "What happened?" I asked him. "The Americans have gotten stronger than before. They're using.... Monsters, experiments to fend us off." he scoffed and ticked in disappointment. "Damn Americans can't win in a fair fight." He wiped the blood off his face, and proceeded to the center. The Beta squad had a lot of catching up to do. Especially with only half of them returning home. Their faces could tell the stories. They've seen things that only I could believe. I looked towards Akira, as he did to me. We nodded and met up further away from the Beta Squad. We both knew what was going on, and we both knew what we needed to do. "We need to talk to Alpha, Asap Akira." "He just got back from probably the exact same battle we just went through. We can't talk to him unless he's fully recovered." Akira and I baffled on our current situation. "You don't understand, Akira." I did my best to explain what was going on. "I think Alpha is a part of something much bigger than this war. He could be the key to something bigger." "Kibo, let the man rest. For now, you and me need some catching up to do." Akira pulled me aside to where no one could listen in on us. I told him everything that I've been told for the past days. He sat down to take it all in. "Now that I've told you everything, there's something you haven't told me." I crossed my arms and sat down beside him. "What happened to Victoria?" Victoria was his daughter. He had her back when he graduated college. His wife died giving birth to her, and he raised her by himself. "I was on leave for the academy. I left her with Mom and Dad while I was gone. But I promised her I'd be back for her. The day we graduated, I rushed home. Only to find yellow tape around my parents house. Dad's body was found over Mom and Victoria's." He started to get emotional. He couldn't bare the traumatic memory that he had to go through. "At least I kept my promise." He wiped away his tears, and tried to recover with a smile. I embraced my friend, and assured him that everything will be alright. "We'll make sure that she will be avenged properly, Akira. You have my word." I assured Akira. Because I know what it's like to loose someone close to you. "We talk to Alpha at 0600 tomorrow." He told me as he got up from his place, and we walked back to the open fields. I viewed Akira as a far different man now. After loosing his daughter, he still found a way to cope with such a huge loss. And on that day, I vowed to get him the satisfaction he needed to sooth his grief.

By dawn, we met at the Center, and proceeded to head towards the clinic to talk to Alpha, as planned. We entered, only to be greeted by the Beta team surrounding Alpha's containment chamber. Here, soldiers are treated with extreme care. They're put in a machine that will repair any critical damage to your body. We only use them when one of us is close to death. And surprisingly, Alpha was at that point. We approached the chamber, and the Beta team warned us. "They got the best of us, Fellas. What can we do without our greatest asset?" One of them said. Alpha was the best of us. He was the one thing that could help us end all of this. He could slice down a Titan without even moving his feet. But if the "Americans" got him this bad, how much more if Neon wasn't there to help us fight? "He'll make it. The chamber is keeping his hear beating, and is repairing his broken bones." Another soldier from the Beta team explained. "He saved our lives. Without him, we wouldn't be here." They paid their respects to the samurai, in Debt for what he did for them. "Thank you fellas, but we need to have a word with him alone." Akira told the Beta squad, and they agreed. They left the room, and it was just the two of us, alone with the Strongest soldier in Camp. "Alpha, are you conscious?" I asked the body inside of the healing chamber. He slowly opened his eyes. They looked different. Instead of the light brown eyes we usually see, his left eye was pitch black, and his pupil was Purple. "Akira... Kibo. You can't let them heal me...." Hel told both of us. We were shocked on what we were seeing. His left side was turning pale, his hair started to change. "Alpha, we need you to tell us what you saw out there." Akira asked him to tell us as much information as he physically could. "They were Demons. They were no longer the soldiers they claimed to be." He let out a loud roar, it looked agonizing. This thing was morphing his body after than any virus I've ever seen. "They.... Did something to me.." He looked at us with a look of mercy. "Alpha, focus. What else did you see?" Akira begged him to give us as much information as he could. "They're coming, Akira. You need to be prepared." He yelled out in agony. His metamorphosis was almost complete. "-478. 52. 163!" He yelled as a bright light started to erupt from his chest. "AKIRA! GET DOWN!" I tackle Akira to the floor, and covered him. Alpha's healing chamber started to vibrate violently, and it eventually gave way to a strong explosion. It destroyed half of the clinic along with it. The medics were fine, aswell as Zando who was making a sandwich while all of this went down. I got up, wobbly. My back took too much damage from that explosion. I fell to my knees, almost passed out. "Kibo!" Akira caught me before my body could hit the ground. "Stay with me, Kibo. Stay with me!" I could barely make out the rest of what he said, as I passed out. I had a vision that day, something was on fire. I could hear screams, coming from the fire. Men and women in pain, in suffering. I couldn't move, it was like I was paralyzed. Frozen in place. Standing in the fire was Yoru. He looked, different. "I told you, it wasn't over." He stabbed something deep in my chest. It felt horrible. I woke up gasping for air, trying to comprehend what I just saw. "I don't understand..." I thought to my self, as the wind blew in to my cabin. There was a bandage around me, Zando probably patched me up after the explosion. "I thought he would be the one Taki was talking about." I stood up, and looked out. To my surprise, it was in chaos. The camp was surrounding Akira and the Squadron. "Oh no." I put on my jacket, and walked out of my cabin.

"Murderers!" One soldier yelled out. "Sabotage!" another yelled out. "You don't even know what went down in that damn clinic!" Jake yelled out to the crowd. "Stand down, Jake." Akira tried to stop him from causing any more chaos. "We were there to check on Alpha. We didn't expect anything to happen." Haru backed Akira up to try and explain what went down. "You doomed us all!" The Beta team started to yell at us as well. The Beta team, out of all the people. I stepped down from my cabin, I was going to try and calm things down, until Lt. Hasashi butted in. "SOLDIER!" He yelled out to the sea of red. Then silence. "We are Soldiers! Not children!" Colonel. Nemu followed up. "How dare you all accuse a Superior of such a horrible thing?!" Lt. Hasashi was furious. I approached the team, and Hanzo and Lang caught me up. "You and Captain Akira are being accused of sabotage by the entire camp." Hanzo told me in a concerned voice. "They're trying to get both of you executed. Thank God the Superiors got here on time." Kang followed up with what was going on. Han was guarding Neon, stood in front of her while the chaos broke out. The sermon from Lt. Hasashi was serious, Not a soul said anything. "Hey, anyone else going to address that bright star up there?" Zando asked as he pointed to a bright ball of fire in the sky. "That's no star..." Han exclaimed as a bright light covered my line of sight. I woke up on the ground, temporarily deaf, and bleeding. The camp was on fire, and under attack. No army, no soldiers, just one man in the center of all the Chaos. One Soldier after another fell by the hands of Yoru. He was far from the person he was when we first encountered him. He was pale, with crimson red hair. He glared at me, as he walked to the hellfire surrounding him. "You... You'll pay for all of this..." I said, stumbling up to my fighting stance. "Sure I will," He flicked me away, like I was nothing. I hit hard on a wall. My back hasn't fully recovered. "And I'll be here. Doing my absolute best to make your life a living hell." He stood over me, as I got back to my feet. "How could you let those things take you over?! You betrayed your country!" I threw a punch with the reserved strength that I had left, But it wasn't enough. He didn't even try to block it. "You see, I didn't betray my country..." He took my arm, and pulled it away from his face. He got up in my face, and with a serious look on his face.

"I betrayed the entire world for this power."

He punched me so hard in my gut, I felt my stomach curl. "Now where was I? Oh yeah!" He walked to my right, towards my team. Hanzo could barely stand, Kang lost lost an eye, and Han was the only one standing in between Yoru, and Neon. "You'll have to get pass me first!" Akira yelled out as he swung his sword at Yoru. Like he was nothing, he was knocked unconscious with a back hand. Han tried to fend him off, but it was no use. Yoru grabbed Han by the Head, and picked him up. "Should I start with this one, Kibo?" He asked me as Han screamed out in pain. "This one's a fighter. He'll take longer to morph." He chuckled as Han tried to fight the infection. I couldn't just stand by and let this happen. I was filled, With anger. "YOU WILL NOT HARM MY PEOPLE!" For a split second, I could feel my body change as I rushed forward in the blink of an eye, and punched Yoru off of Han. It faded, but it was enough for me to get back to full strength. "S-sir... How did you?" "I don't know Han, but it worked." I picked up Akira, and put him on my shoulders. "Help Hanzo up, and guide Kang. Follow me." I instructed Han, and he nodded his head. He helped Hanzo up, and grabbed Kang by his arm and we ran. We saw the gate. We ran as fast as we could, but we were stopped by the silhouete of Yoru blocking the gate. "Where do you think you-" He got cut off by two blades through his torso. He was sliced in half my Lt. Hasashi. Right behind him was Konny, with some kind of rifle. "Run, Toishi! That will not keep him down for long!" Hasashi yelled out to us, and we all ran to God knew where. "There's the entrance to the Base! Hurry!" Konny yelled out as she ran ahead. "Base? You're not saying-" As I was a bout to ask Lt.Hasashi, a loud explosion was heard from the camp. Yoru Hovered over the camp. Neon had a grey accent to her. She was afraid. Lt.Hasashi stopped running, and took his stance. "Lieutenant Hasashi!" I yelled back at Hasashi as he drew his blades, as he erupted in Hellish flames. He wasn't in pain, it looked like he controlled the fire that engulfed him. "Go, Toishi! You and your team are the last hope of our world!" He gripped his blades, as they both roared a strong flame. "The faith of our planet rests in your hands now..." He looked back at us, then charged towards Yoru in fury. The entrance to the Base opened with Haru, and Zando waiting for us. I looked behind us, to see lieutenant Hasashi erupt in such a magnitude, he lit up the entire camp. He shined a bright light, as we jumped in to the entrance. Jake slammed the the entrance doors, and we all took a deep breath. We felt the small room shake, as the shockwave from the explosion reached just at the right moment. I stood up, and looked around. "Are we.... All that's left?..." I looked and Konny, hoping for some reinforcement. She wiped off some dust from a case on the wall. She opened it, and pushed the button it had inside. I need you to see this, Kibo." The floor beneath our feed started to descend to a lower level. I sat down, trying to process everything. The entire camp, the soldiers, lieutenant Hasashi... All gone, just like that. "How did it all come to this..."

Dead silence.

The platform stopped. Infront of us were blast doors. They opened, and revealed a base, that was as large as the eye could see. Armored warriors, all over. They were not of this world, I could sense all of their auras, and not all of them were humans. I carried Akira on my shoulders, Han took care of Hanzo and Kang, and we walked on to the floors of this base that we have never seen."Follow me." Konny said as she dusted herself off, and walked through the base. We followed right behind her. "This is the first line of defense?" I asked with Akira, resting carefully on my shoulders. "Yes. We've been operating all of this beneath the camp in case something like this would happen again." She explained to all of us. "This has happened before?" Zando asked, both out of fear and curiosity. "On numerous occasions, yes." She explained to us, as she entered the Clinic of the base. "Lay the injured down here. The medical team can take care of them." The clinic was much larger than ours. What do you expect from a medical center made by the Gods themselves. I laid Akira down on the white platform that seemed to be hovering. Han set Hanzo and Kang down as well, we wished them the best. "I should tend to them as well." Zando rushed over and checked on Akira and the others. Jake, Haru and Han stuck with me as Konny walked towards what's seemed to be a barracks. Inside were 3 other people. "Ah welcome back, Konny!" one of them cheered out "The goddess of Matter has returned!" Another one yelled out. I stopped in my tracks, as Han stopped the other two. "I think we disperse in to the base, boys." Han said as all three of them walked off in to the base. "What? Goddess of Matter?" I looked at Konny, confused on what's going on. "It's about time I spilled the beans." Konny turned to me, as she waved her hand, and a suit of armor wrapped around her body. I looked at her with complete shock.

"My name is Hinode Konny Hana. The Alterran Goddess of all Matter. Leader of the first line of defense. I am the Alpha, and the Omega."