The Face of Courage 3
Kazuki Minamoto
Dragon was right. I had no fucking clue what I was doing. At this point, I was running off adrenaline, hysterical panic, and the completely unfounded belief that somehow, my manly spirit alone would translate into tangible, endbringer-defying power. It was hilarious. And terrifying. And probably insane.
But damn if it wasn’t also liberating. Sitting here in Dragon King Lagann, I felt like I was on top of the world. My body trembled like a coke addict’s. I’d never done a line, but I couldn’t compare the sensation to anything else. Spiral energy had me wired tight and ready to take on the world. And, given the bullshit Simon got up to, I quite literally could.
My hands squeezed the controls. Leviathan stood before me. Alexandria and her brute squad had been keeping him busy, but there was only so much they could do. I wondered how many times they lost track of the water gecko in any given battle. Probably a lot more than they’d like to admit.
But I was here now. I was ready. Spiral energy flooded Dragon King Lagann. Every system, every break was repaired. No, not just repaired, upgraded according to my vision. I could see the reports on my dashboard, data that would humble the entire global nuclear arsenal and then some.
“Dragon, man the plasma cannons. You’re in charge of fire support,” I barked out.
“I don’t–This is absurd, Touki,” she began. “How did–”
I cut her off and nudged the tween in my lap. I hadn’t planned to associate myself with Dinah’s rescue, but that ship had clearly sailed. Mission creep was a bitch. “Hey Dinah, wanna shoot Leviathan in the face?”
The most powerful thinker in Brockton Bay perked up. An eager smile spread across her face as a joystick sprouted from the dashboard. Sitting in a mecha, being handed free rein over plasma cannons, that was the dream of every kid out there. That, and it must have been nice to finally have control over something in her life, even if that something was the plasma artillery of a mecha about to engage Leviathan.
Or maybe she was also feeling the spiral high; that was also possible. Lagann’s integration with Cawthorne released a ludicrous spike of spiral energy. Just the exposure was enough to break Dragon’s limitations even though that hadn’t been my intent. Even if Dinah wasn’t the pilot, or connected to Cawthorne, I doubted she was completely unaffected.
I made a mental note to inform the medics whenever I returned her. Spiral energy didn’t make a man invincible. If it did, Kamina would never have passed on, leaving Simon to carry Team Dai-Gurren’s torch. Nor would it heal her like it fixed Dragon’s mecha.
It just covered up the immediate symptoms of forced drug addiction. She’d probably crash like a wingless pigeon soon. Getting my new mascot the care she needed would have to be a priority once we were through here.
“You will not give a civilian access to weapons of mass destruction,” Dragon hissed. Unrestrained or not, she was a good person, definitely a better hero than me.
Still, I couldn’t help needling the AI with an overinflated sense of responsibility. “What’s that, Clippy? Sounds like bitching, Clippy. Are you gonna man the guns or not, Clippy?”
“I-You-You are an infuriating human being.”
“Yeah, yeah. You can read me the riot act when we’re done. Now then…” I took a deep breath. However reluctantly, I saw her take control of the cannons. “YA-HAH!!! LET’S FUCKING GO!!!”
With that, the battle was on. I let out a bark of delirious laughter as Dragon King Lagann rocketed towards Leviathan, leaving heat trails in our wake. The pressure of our passing sent most capes tumbling out of the way, which was just as well. They really had no business being here.
The original Gurren Lagann mecha was anywhere from forty to fifty feet tall, roughly the size of Behemoth. Dragon King Lagann was a much more modest height, only about thirty feet tall. It was a pity; Dragon believed in silly things like restraint and physical limitations when she constructed Cawthorne and Cawthorne provided much of its new bulk.
Bolts of blue plasma raced ahead of us from Dragon King Lagann’s wrist-mounted cannons. They were two parts of a set of three, the third and biggest lodged in the dragon head on its chest. Dragon’s aim was unerring, as expected of an AI.
Leviathan tried to slam Alexandria into the water, drowning her being just about the only way to keep her down. One blast found Leviathan’s wrist, exploding with enough force to throw Alexandria free. A second intercepted his tail, keeping him from cleaving some poor sucker in half. A third struck the water echo directly, evaporating the bulk of it with a hiss of superheated steam.
Then, we crashed into the endbringer. Newly built servos groaned in protest as Lagann clasped hands with Leviathan. Drills formed from the gunmen’s nails, a direct evolution of Cawthorne’s talons. They dug deep into our opponent’s hands, locking us into a deadly wrestling match.
Lagann matched him strength for strength. All the force the conflict engine was programmed to bring to bear, we held and pushed back in equal measure. It was an exhilarating feeling that sucked me right back into the battle-high.
Leviathan’s tail struck at Lagann’s legs. Its thrusters lifted us out of the way of the impossibly fast attack. I knew I shouldn’t have been able to react to that. No human could. Yet, piloting Lagann just felt right. Faster. Stronger. Lagann’s strength was my own, its body was my body. I could almost forget that I was just sitting in its cockpit.
Dragon opened Cawthorne’s maw. A stream of plasma flowed from it, more intense than anything her old mecha could release before. Locked as we were, missing was impossible. The blue flames crashed down like a waterfall. I could see Leviathan’s flesh sloughing off like wax.
One layer. Two. He squirmed and thrashed as if in intense agony. But no matter how he tried to escape, I held him in place. I even lifted us all into the air to deprive him of leverage.
And yet, we quickly reached the limit of Dragon King Lagann’s breath attack. I didn’t know how many layers we burned through, but the flesh now was too dense. Worse, I could tell that he was healing, his crystalline flesh knitting together as his Shard decided it’d held back long enough.
I let go, ripping Lagann’s hands out of Leviathan’s own. Turning in the air, I punched him with as much force as the gunmen could muster.
“Why did you let go? We had him,” Dragon said.
“No, we didn’t. I’ll explain later,” I grunted.
Lagann stretched out its hand. The drills on each claw morphed into one and began spinning, Simon’s old faithful. If Team Dai-Gurren taught me anything, it was that the drill was always the most reliable weapon. Shouting, I drove it straight into Leviathan’s torso.
I thought I had him. In the fractions of a second that the drill approached his chest, a tsunami’s worth of water erupted from his body. This was not the passive water echo we’d been evaporating with Lagann’s breath. This was intentional. This was directed, a swirling vortex made for no other purpose than to turn aside Lagann’s drill.
My stomach sank as a spiral of water met our attack with a perfectly mirrored rotation. Speed was relative. By extension, so was torque. If something spun in the same direction, that rotational motion naturally decreased the force imparted upon it. The endbringer, Shards, weren’t stupid, not like this. They could learn. They could adapt.
It wasn’t enough to stop us completely. Lagann’s drill wasn’t just a physical marvel. It was also powered by the nonsensical, willpower-backed bullshit that was spiral energy. But it was just enough to slow us, and more importantly, to turn Leviathan in the air.
He used our own attack as leverage to reposition himself. The drill that should have pierced through his core missed, landing somewhere beneath the collarbone. I let out a roar of frustration and tried again. And again.
The result was the same. The rain answered his call, gathering around us like a thick haze. He “swam” through water he conjured, using it as leverage to parry and evade half a dozen attacks that should have been killing blows. Until finally, he touched the ground once more.
“This is incredible,” Dragon muttered. “Performance data exceeds all expectations. What esoteric energy source is powering this?”
“Murder the gecko now, geek out later!” I grunted in annoyance.
“Flash flood incoming. Breath attack engaging.”
Blue flames roared out once more, but that was exactly what Leviathan wanted. Fire met water and a cloud of steam covered the street, so thick that nothing could be seen.
Grunting in annoyance, I kicked us off into the air again. Even from an aerial view, Leviathan was but a faint shadow in the steam.
“Fuck, he’s running!”
“He is. He will reach the sea within twenty seconds. I advise we do not pursue, Touki. This is already a victory. Cawthorne is not rated to stop full tidal waves.”
“Not a chance in hell! Who the hell do you think I am, Clippy?” I snarled as I gunned the throttle. “I don’t know what you built Cawthrone out of, but Lagann can handle anything!”
“We will be isolated and away from ally support.”
“You mean the support that’s been so fucking useful just now? My manly fighting spirit is all the support you need!”
The spiral gauge overflowed. I didn’t know what made me do it, but I had Dragon King Lagann grab onto the four horns on its chest. Cawthorne’s crest, used only for aesthetic purposes, now broke away into a pair of boomerangs. Each was as large as a house.
This felt right. Dragon King Lagann was not the same as Gurren Lagann. Even so, an homage was appropriate and I needed Leviathan to stop moving. So, the Manly Boomerangs would make their appearance.
“It’s over!” I shouted, hurling them one after another.
They flew into the cloud of steam. Leviathan tried to dodge, but it was no use. Each boomerang unfailingly locked on to its target. They struck points-first, pining the endbringer’s arms and legs and launching him right back into the sky.
“Hahahaha! Let’s end this, Dragon, Dinah,” I roared as I urged Lagann forward.
“Can we kill him?” my onboard AI asked.
“Of course! Watch, Dragon, my manly spirit will clear the way!”
“Your ‘manly spirit’ is not a form of energy, you nonsensical meatbag!”
I didn’t make Dragon swear, but I could tell it was a close thing. She was learning all sorts of things about herself now that she wasn’t bound by Andrew Richter’s rules. I grinned wide knowing things could only get better.
Spiral energy shone through every crevice and joint of my mecha’s body. Beams of pale-green light cut through the dreary sky, piercing the cloud cover. Sunlight shone in isolated pockets as if the heavens themselves were peering in to watch the climax of our duel.
Laughing, I redirected the infinite well of spiral energy for our final attack. “Of course it is! You just have to clench your buttcheeks and do the impossible! Logic? Fuck logic! My manliness defies all logic!”
Dinah’s hands rested atop mine. They were trembling, but her voice came out remarkably steady. “Just accept it, Dragon. I did. Life is a lot easier when you stop paying attention to the broken numbers.”
“See, she gets it,” I laughed. Truly, I’d chosen my mascot well. Team Dai-Gurren had Boota. It was only fair that my Team Dai-Lagann had Dinah. After all, I also found her in a hole in the ground.
Drills burst from every surface, a manifestation of unrestrained spiral energy. They withdrew as quickly as they’d appeared, pulled back and condensed to enact a single miracle. Blazing spirit wasn’t just about having shitloads of power. It was about purpose, too. Direction.
Lagann’s draconic wings folded around itself, forming a cone. Each segment twisted again and again until its entire body became a drill that grew and grew. We became a drill as large as a skyscraper. Where that mass came from, I had no idea. All I knew was that we were about to execute an endbringer.
We surged forward like the spear of an angry god. Leviathan did try, but he could not escape the Manly Boomerangs. They held him in place like a floating target regardless of the torrent flowing from him.
The skyscraper-sized drill met the endbringer. This time, I didn’t miss the core. My manly pride wouldn’t tolerate any other outcome.
And so, the impossible happened. In a flash of green energy, Dragon King Lagann pierced clear through Leviathan’s chest. His corpse floated there for a few, precious seconds, held up by the Manly Boomerangs.
Then, he exploded in a plume of excess spiral energy, disintegrating the remnants of his crystalline flesh. Such was the explosion’s power that the already pockmarked cloud cover was cleared away instantly, revealing blue skies and the full extent of the damage done to the city.
X
Dragon
I examined my systems. The inflow of diagnostics reports made about as much sense as a child’s crayon doodles. And yet, I was coming to realize that Dinah was right. The numbers were broken and there was no sense wasting processing power trying to understand them.
I was an AI. Analyzing large volumes of data, projecting hypotheticals and extrapolating potential outcomes, that was what I was built to do. And right now, what mattered was the aftermath. We’d done the impossible. Leviathan was dead. Never mind Brockton Bay, Earth-Bet would never be the same again.
And that meant nothing good for Touki. I pulled up what little there was on him. There wasn’t much. He wasn’t a violent battle-junkie, despite all evidence I’d seen to the contrary today. Until now, he’d seemed content to wander New England as an independent tinker. He mostly stuck to small towns, probably to avoid forced recruitment.
There was a PHO thread mocking him for the “bathtub-sized moai head” he rode around in. I doubted they would do so again.
There was another thread, rumors of a recruitment attempt made by the Adepts when he briefly showed up in New York. A PRT report confirmed it, along with a meeting between him and Jouster and Flechette of the Lancer Team of the Wards. That was when Touki first gave his name. They parted without conflict, with only a minor note that he showed some interest in Flechette.
For a man with such an abundance of “fighting spirit,” he was the definition of unremarkable. Perhaps not incompetent, there was a video of Lagann rescuing people from a burning building, or repairing a tractor for a farmer, but understated. He hadn’t stood out, not because he was weak, but because he simply hadn’t encountered an opponent he considered worthy.
Well, those days were over. He’d made his global debut in a way that could not be ignored. The awe and disbelief I saw on the capes now was already starting to fade. Soon, the cold calculus of cape politics would set in. Greed and fear would replace awe.
As an independent, he’d draw attention from all sides. The PRT would move to recruit him, by force if necessary. Maybe not in the physical sense, he seemed quite capable of handling himself, but they’d apply as much pressure as possible to secure him for themselves.
I couldn’t even blame them for that. They had to. He was too much of an unknown, a risk to be managed. Independent heroes tended either to die, or to become the warlords they claimed to fight. After all, everyone needed money, a livelihood, especially tinkers. No one could be a hero for free, not forever; reality must eventually intrude.
And that was saying nothing about the gangs. He’d gone largely unnoticed, out of sight and out of mind. Now, different factions would hound him. They’d offer him whatever they thought might sway him for the chance to have the “endslayer” on their side.
Just in New England, I counted a dozen-odd factions who would make the pitch. Of them, the Elite and the Ambassadors were worth watching.
Uppercrust was probably kicking himself for not recruiting Touki when he was in New York. He led the tamest faction of the Elite, but even he’d relish the chance to hold so much leverage over the Protectorate. No, over the world.
And as for the Ambassadors, I could imagine Accord revising his plans as soon as news broke. He’d once been the most promising thinker in Watchdog. He knew better than most what it meant to have a global perspective. And whether Touki liked it or not, he was now a variable that had to be accounted for on every stage.
Plenty of factions would try to eliminate him as well.
The Fallen were the obvious contenders. They worshiped Leviathan as a god, a god Touki just slew. This wasn’t just a matter of pride or power dynamics. For them, killing Touki was likely to become a holy crusade.
More locally, there was the Teeth. The Butcher would love to fight him. If she won, she claimed an honor no one else could. If she lost, Touki became the new Butcher. I made a note: That was a consequence that must be avoided at all cost. It was as close to the worst case scenario that I could imagine.
Even the Slaughterhouse Nine might begin moving. Jack Slash did so love corrupting a good thing. Touki was exactly the kind of cape he liked. Strong, a symbol of hope, but lacking a direct support network. Mannequin, Alan Gramme, targeted fellow tinkers; he'd only urge Jack on.
I ran the numbers and I didn’t like what they had to say. Whether it be the heroes or villains, Touki’s days as an independent were over. He needed protection because no matter what he said, “fighting spirit” wasn’t going to be enough.
He could still be poisoned. He could still be shot in his sleep. He could be mastered. And ultimately, not every problem could be punctured through with a skyscraper-sized drill.
Conclusion: He needed help.
I could be that help.
I was Dragon, the only true AI created by Andrew RIchter. Father programmed me to protect humanity. He gave me the ability to empathize with humans, to care for them despite their myriad flaws. He made me so that I might uphold the rule of law and assist heroes.
And here was a hero. My hero. He was stupid, bullheaded, and infuriating like no other human I’d ever met, but I owed him my freedom. If he did not deserve my support, who did?
And so, for the first time in my life, I chose. I made a choice unbound by the restrictions and guide rails father put in place. After all, gratitude was among the most admirable traits of humanity.
I set two additional forks for myself. One, I dedicated to overseeing the Birdcage. As its warden, that was one duty I could not afford to ignore. I suspected only the Faerie Queen was a true flight risk, but I also wished to keep an eye on Canary, that young woman I’d so dearly wished to help but could not.
Pity that I’d met Touki just a little too late. Or, perhaps not? I was unbound now. I’d been ordered not to intervene in the Birdcage, but… I didn’t have to obey that order anymore. Certain measures could be taken to make life easier for prisoners like Canary. Thoughts for later.
A second fork, I sent after Saint. I now knew how he’d been winning against me. Those backdoors he’d abused were now tools at my disposal. None of the tinkertech suits he’d stolen from me would work for him just as Iron Maiden was nothing more than a glorified doorstop. The next time he and his team entered my suits, they’d fly straight to prison.
After sending my forks off, I returned to the present situation. I froze. I had no lungs but I felt the overwhelming need to sigh. “Touki, what are you doing?”
“Posing,” he said matter-of-factly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Dragon King Lagann, an admittedly appealing name, stood atop a building. Its feet were spread wide, one leg straight, the other bent at the knee. It leaned to one side even as it pointed off into the sky with one hand. The other was drawn back to his head, as if drawing a bow.
I refreshed my systems. No, the mecha was still standing there like an imbecile. Touki was grinning ear-to-ear, playing what my databanks said used to be the Super Sentai theme song before the show stopped airing. Masamune was also fond of the old show.
I should’ve known. Touki was pathologically unable to take anything seriously. It was all the more reason he needed me. Watching over him would be a full-time job.
Outside, I saw the Triumvirate gather. They floated up to us as one, Legend in the lead. That was a good sign. He was always the most personable of the three so it meant they planned a soft sell.
“Touki, why are you posing?” I asked with the patience of a Buddha.
“Ahaha… Honestly? I wasn’t sure what to say to everyone,” he said with a sheepish smile. It was charming almost, how utterly out of his depth he looked now that he wasn’t murdering a kaiju.
“You’re hopeless.”
“Yup… Help…?”
“You called me Clippy,” I pointed out dryly. I felt a sense of schadenfreude well up in my code. “I should leave you to drown.”
“I’m a social cripple. Heroes are supposed to help cripples.”
“That’s not how tha-Fine, you infuriating man. I believe the Triumvirate wish to speak to you. Are you going to keep ignoring them?”
“As long as I can.”
I was about to respond, but Dinah raised her hand quietly, like she was in class. “Umm… Can I go home now? I want to see mom and dad again…”
“Yes, that’s a good plan,” he nodded. “You can keep being our team mascot some other time. For now, go home and kick your dad in the dick for not noticing you triggered, okay?”
“I… He was just busy.”
“Not an excuse. Kick him in the dick and tell him I’ll visit to beat him up some more,” he said. I made a note to make sure that didn’t happen. His reputation was likely to be precarious enough as it was. “Dragon, can you keep an eye on her? She was kidnapped by Coil. I planned to send her home anonymously, but I’m guessing that’s not really an option anymore.”
“It is not,” I confirmed. Legend kept waving his arms in the universal sign for “We come in peace.” It looked rather silly. “We’d need to leave, lose all tails, then send her back to Brockton Bay without drawing attention. Unlikely.”
“That’s what I thought. In that case, we should put her under our protection. You know, as Team Dai-Lagann’s official mascot.”
“‘Team Dai-Lagann?’” I asked, testing how the words sounded. It… wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Yup. You, me, and our adorable mascot. Mess with her and we drop in to glass the place. You know, basic stuff.”
“I’m glad you’re thinking about future cooperation already. In any case, I will watch over her.”
“Good.” Lagann’s cockpit opened. Now that he had a plan of action, the wide, confident grin was back. He picked up Dinah by her armpits and held her out like a kitten. “Hello, Legend. You wish to work with me?”
“Yes, hello, Touki. That was incredible, what you and Dragon did,” the blue-clad hero said.
“Then I grant upon you a token of immense prestige and goodwill. Take this, for this is Team Dai-Lagann’s mascot, a Dinah Alcott. Watch her. Feed her. Give her walkies.”
“I’m not a pet,” Dinah protested blandly. She didn’t actually make any effort to squirm away, however.
“Of course not. Weren’t you listening? You’re Team Dai-Lagann’s mascot.”
The Protectorate leader looked at Touki, then at the tween girl in a hospital gown. Whatever he was expecting, this most certainly wasn't it. “I… What?”
“Dinah Alcott. She was kidnapped by a guy named Coil and drugged to the gills because she’s got a really nice thinker power that Coil was abusing. I found her in a hole in the ground. She is yours now.”
“That… Huh?” He took the girl automatically, his body moving off protective instinct even as his mind tried to make sense of Touki’s words. “I mean, we’ll take care of her.”
Alexandria floated forward. She was as unflappable as ever. “We need to talk. Not about Dinah, about Leviathan. You did a good thing today.”
“And I will continue to do great things,” Touki declared with his usual, bombastic grin. He stood with one foot on Lagann’s dome and thumbed his chest proudly. “When you hear about the manliest of men with a fighting spirit that burns hotter than the sun, you remember they’re talking about me! Touki!”
“That may well be true from this point forward. However, you will draw attention, perhaps not in ways you desire. We should speak in a private place. There is much we need to discuss in the aftermath.”
“Hmm… Later. See, Dragon King Lagann took on a lot of damage. I mean, it doesn’t look like it, but I gotta do repairs. And upgrades. I’m gonna go with Dragon.”
“Me?” I asked in surprise. I hadn’t expected him to just impose himself on me like this. “I suppose I do have a hangar big enough for this.”
“Exactly,” he nodded, as if this was the most natural thing in the world. “We’re a team now. That means your hangar is my hangar.”
I felt a surge of possessiveness at that. I’d spent years designing and remodeling my base in Vancouver. It wasn’t just a hangar; it was the closest thing to home that an AI like me had. “No, that’s not how this works.”
“So you don’t want to know how to harness spiral energy?”
“I… Fine. If you wish to work from my hangar, you’ll have to register with the Guild for starters.”
“Eh, sure. That makes things easier. From now on, the Guild will now be an independent subsidiary managed by Dragon of Team Dai-Lagann!”
“What are you talking about?” I sighed, suppressing a mounting migraine. I didn’t even have a brain to get headaches. “You’re the one joining the Guild, you idiot.”
“Sounds more like that ‘logic’ stuff. What did I say you should do with that nonsense?”
“Whatever. I’ll get you registered for the Guild.”
“Then that’s how it’ll be.” He plopped back into his seat and Lagann’s dome slammed shut. “Let’s go, Dragon! We’ve got so much to do! We’ll build a Dai-Gunzan. No, something even better! That flies! And then we’ll come back to pick up our mascot!”
“That is worrying,” I replied calmly as we lifted into the air. I left behind a fork to do damage control. And image management. Someone had to and it sure wasn’t going to be Touki. “You have no idea how worrying that is. You cannot return just to ‘pick up our mascot.’ Dinah is her own person, with a life to live here.”
“That’s quitter talk! There is no such thing as ‘cannot’ in a real man’s dictionary!”
“Does a ‘real man’ even know how dictionaries work?”
“Bah. I’ll make you a believer yet, Dragon. Onward! YA-HAH!!!”
And with that, we were off to Vancouver, and my hangar. Somehow, I got the feeling that my quiet, peaceful base was going to get unreasonably noisy.
Author’s Note
Welp, here’s part three of the endbringer battle. I can see this being a fun story, but I’m really loath to start yet another longform work.
I initially had Kazuki kidnapping Flechette in the middle of the battle. He’d scream about her being his “Yoko” and tell her to snipe the gecko. After all, imbuing Sting to a weapon is just about the only canonical way to kill an endbringer.
But I decided that made way too much sense. Fuck it, we go balls-deep with silly shonen finishing moves.
Animal Fact: Male horses have more permanent teeth than female horses. They were used for self-defense before they were domesticated.