Return of the Shadowdragon

[Russdogg]

Just something I started writing today. A completely original project, not based on anything in particular.

___________________________________________________________________________


"Unit 269 to Unit 316! Suspect is armed and extremely dangerous! Back off and regroup!" the police radio blared, "I repeat, back off, Slade! This is no time for heroics! He's already run several civilian vehicles and two other Units off the road!"

The officer behind the wheel of Unit 316 snatched the radio up, "Negative, we back off now and we'll lose him!" "Back off 316! That's an order!" came the response. Officer Slade threw down the radio in disgust and gunned his police cruiser's engine, thrusting it faster down the highway.

"Um, wasn't that a direct order, sir?" asked the other occupant of the cruiser, Slade's rookie partner, Julia Kusanagi. She nervously brushed a few strands of her brown hair out of her green eyes, eyes whose shape clearly indicated the Japanese side of her heritage.

"These idiots wanna pull back and let this cop killing f*cker get away!"
"I know but-"
"Trust me, they'll be thanking us instead we when nail his snugglebum to the wall!"
"Isn't that being a bit of a glory hound?"
"Listen rookie, you have to take chances like this and go for the glory if you wanna get anywhere in this organizati-"!

Suddenly the center of the windshield exploded inward from the blast of a gun. "Son of Paris Hilton! He's shooting at us!" Slade yelped as he hit the brakes and swerved the car to avoid the suspect's gunfire. Julia grunted in pain as the sudden shift of force and high speed threw her head first against the dashboard. "Maybe now you'll back off?!" she angrily yelled as she sat back up. But then she gasped in horror as she saw her partner slumped over the wheel, dead, his brains splattered all over the seat behind him.  And then terror seized her as she realized the crusier was now out of control.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god!" she cried in panic as she frantically started to shove her partner's body out of the way to grab the wheel, while desperately trying to reach the brakes with her left foot. Suddenly a loud, blaring horn sounded from ahead and she looked up just in time to be blinded from the headlights of an oncoming semi-truck.

"Nooooo!" Julia's scream shattered the silence of her darkened bedroom as she sat bolt up in bed. She grabbed her chest, while panting heavily, and could feel her heart beating what seemed like a thousand times a second. "Just a dream..." she sighed in relief. But dread overcame her as she remembered that awful day from her dream. A day that happened 6 years earlier. She closed her eyes tightly in an effort to shut the memory out. She could still hear, and feel, the collision with the semi. She opened them a minute or two later, sighed at failing to shut away the memory, and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. She opened them a minute or two later, sighed at failing to do so, and glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It read 4:24 am. She wasn't due to report in for duty at the San Angeles Police Department until 7. Julia sighed once more and slipped out of bed. After a dream like that, there would be no more sleep to be had.

[Russdogg]

In a secluded mansion estate, nestled by the ocean, sunlight suddenly filled the master bedroom as the huge, jet black tinted bedroom windows suddenly shifted to perfectly clear. "Wakey, wakey! Eggs and bacy!" came an accompanying and somewhat excited feminine voice. The lone figure in bed grunted and pulled a pillow over his head. "Come on now. It's 7:30 and this is your wake up call, as you requested of me" came the voice again. The bed's occupant flopped over onto his back, but kept his eyes shut, vainly trying to sleep some more, "Let me sleep awhile longer, Sally."

"No can do, Randy. You left me explicit instructions to make sure you got up and to the office on time today...for once. And not to take 'No' for an answer."
"Tomorrow..."
"You have a board meeting at 9."
"They can wait..."
"Then there's your inspection of the R&D department at 10."
"I'm sure they're doing fine..."
"Buisness lunch with Mr. Hirosawa at noon..."
"He can reschedule..."
"Don't make me turn on the fire sprinklers in here."

Finally, the man's eyes popped open and he sat up in bed. At the same time, a mesh of bright pink light suddenly appeared and began to congeal into shape next to his bed. Until finally it settled into a basic, holographic form of a woman with long, free flowing hair, floating a few feet above the floor. "You know I'll do it" Sally said with a smirk as she crossed her arms. "You would" Randall shot back through a yawn. Noting his reluctance to move, the holographic projection shifted her gaze towards the ceiling. "Allright, I'm up, I'm up!" he yelped in response. "Jeez, you're worse than my mother was..." Randall mumbled under his breath as he climbed out of bed.

"I heard that. And considering my relation to her, I'll take that as compliment, thank you very much" Sally snapped back. Randall flinched from the mild tongue lashing and began trudging away to the master bathroom. "Okay, okay, you got me" he paused and glanced back at her, "Where'd you get that 'wakey wakey" thing from anyway?" Sally smiled in response, "Oh just something I picked up off the 'Net." Randall shook his head in response. "You know, too much of that can rot your brain. Even one as sophisticated as yours" he chuckled. "I very highly doubt that" the hologram replied matter-of-factly.

"Well, do me favor and start some coffee please?" Randall replied as he neared the door. "Of course. Regular, Columbian, or French Roast?" she answered. "Surprise me" Randall called back as he entered the bathroom. Sally smiled to herself. Maybe she wouldn't really have turned the sprinklers on him. Maybe. The hologram extended her arms outward, spun in one fast revolution, and disappeared.

[Russdogg]

"I think that went well" Randall noted aloud as he weaved through traffic in his red, ultra expensive, luxury sports car, after having just departed from the fancy restaurant and his meeting with Hirosawa. "Indeed, this new joint venture with Hirosawa Corp should net Knight Industries quite the profit" Sally responded as she materialized as a 6 inch version of herself on a small holo-emiter mounted in the car's dashboard.

At 28 years of age, young, blonde, blue eyed Randall Knight was one of the youngest CEO/Owner's in San Angeles, let alone the country, with Knight Industries being one of the most successful corporations in recent years. "Somehow I doubt my company is hurting for the money, Sal" he replied as he slowed up and came to a stop at a red light.

"You don't seem very excited" Sally said in response. "Nothing to be excited about, sweetheart. Just another buisness deal to me, that's all" he replied without much enthusiasm. "Whatever you say...honeybunch" the hologram replied with a giggle. "What did you-" Randall started in shock, but then a realization dawned on him. "I did it again didn't I? I'm sorry, Sally. Sometimes I forget you're just a hologram" he apologized. "It's okay. I don't mind. Actually, it...kinda makes me feel special whenever you slip up like that" Sally replied, a bit bashfully. "Hey, you don't need me to imply that. You are special...you're the most technologically advanced AI ever created" he assured the hologram. Sally looked up at him and smiled...just as another car came flying through the air towards them.

***

The sound of the crash repeated itself in the mind of 27 year old Julia Kusanagi as she sat in her patrol car on the corner of 37th and Park Street. Her dream was still bugging her. Without thinking about it, she found herself rubbing her left knee to ease a sensation that wasn't really there. "Yo, Earth to Julia! Come in, Julia!" suddenly snapped her out of it. "Huh? What?" she sputtered as she turned to the other person in the car. In the passenger seat sat her partner for the day, a younger girl by the name of Mika Tasoto. Like Julia, she too was Asian in descent. But unlike Julia, both of her parents were Japanese. Both were decked out in their black uniforms, badges brightly displayed above the left breast.

"Boy, you were really out of it for a moment there!" Mika giggled as she twirled one of her bright red dyed pigtails with a finger. Juila grunted gruffly and crossed her arms. and returned her gaze to the traffic passing back and forth.

"What were ya thinking about?"
"Nothing"
"Oh come on, it had to be something good!"
"I said it was nothing"
"Awww..."

At that, Julia abuptly whipped her head around, her brown ponytail swaying across her back. "Aren't you supposed to be running the speed gun?" she snapped. "I am, I am!" Mika quickly replied as she trained the gun on the traffic again. "Just nobody's speeding or anything. So boring..." the girl noted, followed by blowing a small bubble with the gum she was chewing. Just then a sudden beeping noise sounded from the girl's pocket. Mika hastily snatched the source of it from her pocket, her cell phone. She quickly sent a brief text message and shut it off. "Sorry. I've told her not to call while I'm on duty" she said. "Who?" Julia asked. "Uh, my um...sister. Yeah, my sister. She's such a ditz" Mika quickly, and quite nervously it seemed to Juila, explained.

"Are you gonna take this seriously or not? This is your field evaluation you know" Julia finally asked, "You're the one that wanted get out from behind that dispatcher's desk and into the field afterall." Mika scanned another car with the speed gun. "I am Julia, I swear!" she answered. The traffic died down and she dropped the speed gun into her lap, "It's just that, I thought it'd be more exciting than just sitting here waiting and hoping for someone to go over the speed limit! What I wouldn't give for some action!" She accentuated that by balling her left gloved hand into a fist and slamming it into her right palm.

Upon saying that, it was like dropping a match into a powder keg. "Hey! Nobody likes a damned glory hog. They're reckless! They're stupid! And they can get themselves and others killed! That's not what being a cop is all about!" Julia exploded with a finger in the girl's face. She flinched from the sudden outburst. "I didn't say that..." she meekly replied. Julia caught the girl's reaction, and realizing she'd gone a little overboard on a fellow officer, and more importantly, a friend, took a deep breath and regained her composure.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell" she sighed, "I think I'm just having one of those days..." Mika reached over and patted her on the leg. "Hey, it's okay. No harm done" she assured her. Though, secretly, she couldn't help but wonder why Julia had reacted the way she did. She'd known her for over a year and had never seen her blow up like that before.

"Mika, this is all part of the job. Sucks, I know, but we have to do it" Julia continued, albeit much softer than before, "It's not all bullets flying and chasing down perps and stuff." Mika sat back, and picked up the speed gun again. "I know. And I'm really trying my best" she said with renewed determination as she began scanning the traffic again. Just then the radio suddenly blared to life, "All units, all units in the vicinity of Vine and Troupe, be advised we are receiving reports of a disturbance in the area." "Hey, that's just a couple blocks from here!" Mika noted. Juila grabbed the mic and answered the dispatcher's call, "Dispatch this is Unit 22, we're on it, over." She quickly started the car, threw it into gear, and roared out into the street, lights and siren blaring.

Moments later, Officer Kusanagi whipped the car around the corner of Vine and Redmont. "Look out!" her partner screamed and she slammed the car to a stop before they crashed into a mangled wreck of a car blocking the road. Then they both stared in shock at the road ahead. More mangled cars littered the road, store fronts and buildings lay wasted, and there at the center of the commotion was the source of it. A giant of a man in a crude suit of green and gun metal gray armor holding a truck above his head. He spun around at hearing the car's siren, laughed once, and with a grunt flung the truck at them.

"Oh god" Julia gasped as her and Mika's eyes widened in horror.

[Russdogg]

Chapter 2

"Move!" Julia yelled as she hastily released her seat belt. Panic striken, Mika did the same. Then they both threw their doors open and dove out of the patrol car mere seconds before the truck crashed down on top of it. Both women bounced across the asphalt as shattered glass sprayed out all around. Mika grunted in pain as she landed against a nearby car with a thud, the back of her head bouncing off of the driver side door. Julia however, having a background in martial arts, expertly rolled to a stop on one knee.

The source of the thrown truck was a beast of man, at least 8 feet tall. His green and gun metal gray armor was crude to look at. Every piece - large green gauntlets, boots, and chest plate area, looked almost as if they had been riveted into place. His helmet, green in the back and gray in the front, looked like a crude, medievel iron mask. His eyes and mouth openings were little more than dark recesses.

"Holy poopypants..." Julia muttered to herself as she stared at the wrecked patrol car in disbelief. The reality of the situation set in as yet another vehicle, this time a sports car, crashed through a nearby lingerie shop's front window. Another victim of the armored giant's destructive spree. Julia jumped to her feet and looked past the wrecked patrol car and saw Mika struggling to get to her own feet. "Mika!" she gasped as she darted around the wreck.

"Ungh..." Mika groaned as she slumped against the side of the car. Her head was swimming in dizzyness and her vision had blurred. "Come on, girl, we gotta move!" Julia frantically ordered as she arrived at her side. "Who the hell is that freak?" Mika groggily asked as Julia slung her arm over her shoulders and took her weight. "Hell if I know!" Julia replied. She quickly looked around for somewhere to flee to, and only saw a nearby alley as a possibility. "Shouldn't we call for back up?" Mika asked. In response, Julia glanced back at the ruined patrol car as they neared the alleyway, "Yeah, that's not exactly gonna be possible."

The giant armored man roared in delight as he watched the two cops run away. Then he flattened another car with both fists, and then picked it up, intending to throw it at the fleeing cops. The suit, and the power that came with it was a godsend as far as he was concerned. He'd never had so much fun just destroying things. But the fun ended when a shrill screech suddenly filled his ear, "Rampage, you oaf! Quit fooling around and do what you were ordered to!" The man grunted in response and dropped the car behind himself. "Just having a little fun first, Masq-" he started. "I. don't. care. Kill him, now!" the voice harshly cut him off. Rampage grunted in disdain, who pissed in her cornflakes? At that he turned and set his sights on a fancy red sports car, and his target within, CEO and owner, Randall Knight.

[Russdogg]

"-up!" yelled a voice from the dark, murky distance. "You have...get..." it came again. Louder that time, but broken and distorted. "Sal-ly?" Randall muttered in the darkness. Then the darkness began to recede.

"Randy! You have...to wake up...now!" Randall Knight's eyes popped open as he regained consciousness. The last thing he remembered was the car flying through the air at his own and then...nothing. Quickly glancing around he saw that his car was totalled, the other car firmly impacted on top of it. Then he saw Sally, her holo-projector cutting in and out, causing her words to be garbled at best. "Get...of there!" she yelled one last time as the projector finally gave out. "Gah!" Randall yelped as he shielded his face as it exploded in a small shower of sparks. It was then that he heard the slow, but loud footsteps of something large approaching the car.

"What's he doing now?" Mika asked as she continued to cradle her head with one hand while sitting against the wall of the alley. "I don't know. He seems focused on that red car now" Julia replied from the corner she was peering around from. "Let me try getting a better look..." she added before going silent. A second later, and unsurprisingly, Mika heard a barely audible whir and click sound come from the direction of Julia's head. "Dammit! There's a man in that car, and he seems to be fixated on him" Julia cursed as she pulled away from the corner. And again Mika heard the same whir and click sound from before.

"We can't radio for back up, but they'll get here soon anyway right?" Mika suggested. "He'll be dead before then" Julia answered. "No, somebody's gotta do something, now" she added, "And I guess that's gonna have to be me." Mika's eyes widened in shock. "Julia! No way! You'll get yourself killed!" she exclaimed. "I can't just sit back and do nothing while he kills that guy!" Julia snapped back. She turned and stared at the walls above herself, while simultaneously unzipping and stripping off her uniform top down to her white tanktop. Her course plotted in her mind, she backed up in preparation for a leap. "Just be careful okay?" her friend said. Mika watched intently, because she knew was about to see something that she'd only heard rumored around the station. And amazingly, Julia ran and launched herself straight up in a perfect leap, latching on to a fire escape a good 10-15 feet above them. She then executed a backflip off it and landed on another higher fire escape on the opposite building, and finally, she leapt that from that escape, latching on the edge if the first building and with one final grunt pushed off it while still holding on, backflipping to the roof. "My god..." Mika mumbled in amazement.

Julia landed in a crouch on the roof with a thud, and remained that way for a moment as she caught her breath. She could only imagine Mika's reaction to the apparent superhuman feat she'd just seen. But there'd be time for explanations later...if there was a later. The woman shook the foul thought from her mind and started into a sprint. When she came to the edge of the roof, she leapt and easily cleared it, and easily landed on the next building without breaking stride. She did this three more times, finally coming to a stop on the building adjacent to the green giant and the red sports car. She crouched down at the edge of the building and watched for a moment, again to catch her breath. She watched as the giant ripped the roof off of the car, announced his intention, snatched the man up, and raised his fist for the killing move. If she didn't do something in the next instant, the man was going to die before her eyes.

[Russdogg]

Randall watched in shock as the giant armored man easily tore off the roof of his car. "What the hell do you want?!" Randall yelled. "Somebody you pissed off wants your head, and I'm here to collect!" the giant man bellowed in response. "W-what?" Randall sputtered. But the armored giant simply reached into the car and snatched him up by his suit. "Time to die, chump!" the armored man chuckled. Randall struggled in the giant's grasp and could only look on in fear as he raised his huge armored fist. And just as he figured he was as good as dead, the armored giant suddenly lurched forward as something struck him hard in the back. And amazingly he saw what appeared to be a halfdressed policewoman hanging on to his back. In a flash she climbed up onto his shoulders, locked her legs around his helmet, and blocked his eye slots with her hands. Instinctively, the green giant dropped his victim and began to blindly swat his hands at the woman to dislodge her. Randall landed on his rear, but rather than running away, he could only stare at the woman in awe. Despite her face being locked in a grimace of strain and determination to hang on, she was still amazingly beautiful.

"Don't just sit there! Run!!!" Julia yelled at the man after seeing he was just sitting there with a look of shock or something on his face. "R-right!" the man sputtered as he shook off his dazed look and jumped to his feet. And much to Julia's own shock, rather than running away, the man actually ran back to his destroyed car instead! "Hey! Are you stupid or something?! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Julia yelled at the man. She ducked another of the giant's blind swings and when she looked back up she saw the man was pulling a silver briefcase out of the backseat of the car. "Your briefcase?! You went back for your gddamned briefcase?!!" she screamed in absolute anger and disbelief. "Sorry, it's kinda important!" the man yelled back as he turned to run, "I'll go get help!" And that he took off into a sprint and darted down the nearest alley. "A moron. He's a freaking moron!" Julia damned him. But now she was stuck on the armored man's head, with no way of escaping. The man bobbled and weaved, shaking Julia all around as she dodged more of his swings at her.

Just then a flash of light in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It seemed to have come from the direction of the alley the man disappeared into, but she couldn't be sure. But that was all the distraction the big, green armored man needed, as a swing of his huge left hand finally connected. Julia grunted in pain as a huge hand locked onto her back with a hard thump. "Got you!" he snarled as he peeled the woman off of his helmet. He brought her down infront of himself, flipped her into his right hand and right-side up, locking his right armored hand around her waist. "You got guts woman, I'll give ya that" he started as he began to squeeze. Julia's face contorted into a look of pain and agony and she finally let out a cry. "Nah, too easy" the giant said and he relented his squeezing. Julia slumped in his grasp. "Let's see if the old saying is true. Let's see if a pig can fly!" he chuckled. Julia's eyes widened in terror as the giant turned, reared back, and aimed for the city's horizon. "No, no!" she cried out. And with a grunt the giant threw the woman into the sky with all he had.

[Russdogg]

Chapter 3

Instantly, Julia's breath was sucked out of her as she hurtled through the air back first, like a missile. The big armored man had thrown her so hard that she couldn't move her arms or legs. She couldn't even scream. Finally she was able to draw a single breath as her "flight" reached it's arc and she began to descend. Oh god, this is it she thought, I'm gonna die. Julia closed her eyes and images of her family flashed in her mind. She prayed that the end would come quickly and painlessly. And that was when a miracle happened.

"Got you!" a mechanically distorted voice suddenly rang out as Julia felt herself land into two outstretched arms. The woman's eyes flashed open and she gazed up at her rescuer. She instantly recognized the man clad in high tech silver and dark blue armor from all of the news coverage. It was him, the Silver Sentinel, apparent self appointed protector of San Angeles. "You allright?" he asked as his helmet briefly glanced down at her. But she couldn't see his face through the slightly glowing, pale blue irredescent face plate. "Y-yeah..." she stuttered. "Good. I'm not about to let an officer of the law be splattered on the side a building" he replied, "Okay, hang on." Julia wrapped her left arm around his shoulder and held on as he turned mid-air, boot jets slightly whirring from the change of direction. Then they whined loudly as he powered back down in the direction she had come from.

As they got nearer to the street the Silver Sentinel slowed up and landed on a nearby rooftop. "You should be able to get down from here" he said as he let the woman down to her feet. As she regained herself, it was the first full look she got of him. He was clad in silver gauntlets and boots, silver helmet and chestplate, and dark blue arms and thighs. And in the middle of the chest was a triangular device that glowed with the same pale blue as his faceplate. The armored man turned toward the street, targetting the big armor clad man down the street, and prepared to take off again. "W-wait!" Julia suddenly called out. The Sentinel turned back to her, expecting a grateful look and possible gratitude from her. But instead she was wearing a look of anger. "The police's special task force is surely on the way by now. Let them handle this.They don't need some damn vigilante getting in the way!" she spat out. The man stared at her for a moment, before finally simplying saying "Sorry" and taking off in pursuit of the big armored man.

"You idiot! You let him get away!" came the shrill screech in his ear again, this time even louder and shriller. The boss was super pissed. "It wasn't my fault! I swear! That Paris Hilton cop-!" the big man started. "Hey, big, green, and stupid!" suddenly cut him off, "Heads up!" The big man turned, just in time to see a silver armored fist coming at him. Metal clanged against metal, and the big man grunted in pain as the force of the flight powered punch drove him backwards down the street, his feet cutting two grooves in the asphalt, until he finally crashed back first in to a car. The Silver Sentinel landed and took a battle ready stance as the big man, still on his feet, actually took a step forward out of the wreckage. No way he thought, I hit him with everything I had! Just when it seemed like the big man was about to attack, he suddenly pitched forward, landing face first on the street, out cold.