(Meanwhile)
With the sun starting to set over the horizon, signaling the end of yet another long and tiring day, the population living on this side of the planet began the long and weary track home. Men and women alike signed off from work and left their respective places of business, looking forward to a relaxing afternoon. They'd earned their keep for the day and many of them had big plans for this last quarter of the day. The same could be said for the chief of Talos Industries who, as he stood in front of his office window looking out across the downtown metropolis of Satan City, was currently wrapping things up with one of his most trusted employees.
Inside the organized and high-tech office of the billionaire entrepreneur, Kaiser was rhythmically tapping his fingers against his knuckles, as he had both his hands placed behind his back. After giving the city in front of him his usual thousand-yard stare, he then breathed out a long, tired sigh and glanced behind him. Looking past his secretary Violet, who he spotted standing beside his desk, he set his sights squarely on the fresh out of battle Hasky positioned in the middle of the room.
From his place by the window, he proceeded to inspect the assassin's condition.
Needless to say, the woman had seen better days. Not only was her spandex armor a complete wreck, riddled with burn marks, fried circuits and tears all over, she was also missing her right arm, had dried-up blood running down her forehead, and a massive gash carved across her chest, which she had her arm tightly pressed over. All of these markings told the story of a battle that started off great, but then ended badly for the golden haired thief. The evidence was all on the expression she was currently wearing, which reflected nothing but disappointment and anxiousness. The former was from her failure in the mission and the latter was in regards to the person standing in front of her.
Even Violet sensed the blonde's distress and unease, but she hid her concerns beneath a veil of calm and seriousness.
After several seconds of tense silence, the air was broken by the stern, level voice of Kaiser. "Did you have fun out there… Hasky?" the man asked, in a tone that was almost akin to that of a father scolding his daughter for coming home after ten. "Remodeling Capsule Corp's front yard? Creating new skylines and office spaces across the entire industrial side of West City? Showing off the fantastic super powers of the suit I designed for you out of the goodness of my heart?"
Swallowing nervously, the blonde meekly lowered her head, "Sir… I… I can expl-"
"Because after seeing your little spat against the Z-fighters, I believe I'm right in saying that you may have gotten a little bit carried away out there," the man interrupted, turning to face the woman fully. He then started a slow approach of post, bringing his hands around to hold out at either side. "Look at you. You're a mess… and you're missing an arm. By the Kais… if I hadn't intervened when I did, I doubt you would've been able to get out of that city as quickly as you did without those pesky Z-fighters running you down and finishing you off." Kaiser then stopped directly in front of her and, with the same pace he'd set, wrapped his arms around the woman in a warm hug. Closing his eyes, the man took a deep breath and rubbed her back comfortingly. "I hope they didn't hurt you too badly."
Finding the hug incredibly discomforting due to the abnormal manner her boss had approached her, Hasky looked at the back of the mogul's head from her position against his shoulder for a few, tense moments. Then, with a great deal of hesitation, she replied. "N-No. They didn't… sir."
"Are you sure?" Kaiser whispered, inadvertently or advertently breathing on her ear, causing the blonde to shiver with uneasiness. "Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes. I'm positive."
"Good. Good," the man sighed, finally releasing Hasky from his hold to take a step back. Smiling down at her in a very sagely way, the raven haired man with the goatee took a few seconds to place both hands on the thief's shoulders, dust her down, and inspect her state up close and personal. Really personal. "You are a head strong and intelligent woman Hasky… one who possesses a grace and spirit very few others can match. Losing you in such an insignificant scuffle would be equivalent to losing one of the world's most priceless treasures to a gang of delinquent children. Not even I could stomach the thought of such an event taking place." He then removed his hands and stepped away, beaming all the while as he and Hasky remained in the center of the carpet. "But here you are… safe and sound."
Hearing her boss's words loud and clear, the blonde haired thief rubbed her side anxiously and nodded, "Th-Thank you, sir."
"Your performance against the Z-fighters was, shall I say… exemplary. It's all thanks to your spectacular efforts and unshakeable loyalty to our cause that we were able to retrieve an enormous amount of useful data on the group's strongest fighters," Kaiser informed, placing his hands behind him again as he turned and strolled back over to his desk, only to stop short of it. "My theory on their increasing power was correct. Now it's time to move on to the next phase of our plan."
Raising an eyebrow at her boss's back, the incredibly wounded and exhausted thief looked down for a few moments. After stewing over her collection of jumbled thoughts, the infamous Hasky then took a cautionary step forward. "Forgive me, sir, but… what… exactly is our plan?" the blonde asked, incredibly terrified at how her employer would respond. Her fear only increased when she saw the man's finger stop tapping and heard an uncomfortable silence fall over the room. "You've… spent all this time having your best agents scouring the globe, gathering up information, breaking into factories… and stealing weapons and artifacts of all shapes and sizes." She then spared a furtive glance to Violet, who remained completely still and unshaken. Upon which she then looked back at her leader. "While all that is fun and all, you never really explained to me what that stuff is for."
It was the one question that'd been hanging over her head for a while now. What were her boss's plans? What were his intentions? What could he possibly want that would involve butting heads with the strongest warriors on the planet?
What was his ultimate goal?
Her curiosity drew the man's gaze back around to her. Peering over his shoulder, Kaiser narrowed his hard, unfeeling gaze carefully on the blonde's battered form.
Upon strongly considering her words and drinking in her apprehensive state, the bearded man smirked and exhaled sharply. "Why not? I don't see any harm in divulging a little bit of top secret information to one of my most trusted lieutenants. After all, you've done so much for the company over the last several years. I'd hate to keep you out of the loop now that we're closing in on the most important stages of our operations." Immediately after saying this, Kaiser turned to face his agent, pulled a remote out of his pocket, and jabbed it towards the wall to his left. The second he pressed the button, a hologram of a large map suddenly jumped up a few feet away from him and projected a clear picture of a very familiar location. He then placed his hands behind him once again. "What do you see there, Hasky?"
Attention drawn towards the energy screen, the blonde analyzed it carefully before speaking in a slow voice. "I see… a map of the world… with all the countries and capital cities written on it." That's exactly what she noticed first. The hologram was projecting a fully unwrapped image of the planet earth.
The purpose of it being pulled up in the middle of the room soon revealed itself when Kaiser responded to her answer. He nodded towards the image astutely, "I see… enormous collections of rich, fertile land being blocked off from one another by borders and fences. I see dozens of countries and nations glaring each other down… distanced from one another by governments, religions and extremists of various opposing factions." His smile broadened when his eyes landed on his intently listening audience. "What the map is showing us, is a picture of a broken world locked in perpetual conflict with itself… fractured… separated… divided." When he saw confusion spread over the woman's face, Kaiser then held his arms out in excitement. "It's depressing, isn't it? How life has become so ugly and inconvenient. Here… let me "enhance it" for you." He then clicked the remote at the screen a second time.
All of a sudden, every single country and city on the map was erased and, in a shimmer of code and light, Hasky saw all the lands of the earth change to the same color, with a single capital city in the heart of the largest continent. Unlike a war map, which showed how many nations the axis powers had under their control by a shade of red, every single continent and nation on this one was entirely red.
The banner and flag that all the former countries were now flying belonged to that of Kaiser Talos's company.
A comfortable grin settled across the boss's lips. "For thousands of years, I've watched empires and kingdoms crumble all around me like sandcastles on a beach. I've seen nations and countries across seven different continents ravaged by sickness and despair, as men and women left and right dropped to the ground like flies. And I stood on the sidelines and looked on as the planet was ripped apart by hatred and grief, spearheaded by ideals forged in the minds of mad men and monsters. Sometimes they were one in the same." Raising his head ever so slightly, Kaiser instilled a sense of awe in his agent. "I've lived hundreds of lifetimes and sat in the shadows of countless figures. I was a priest to Ramesses the Second, a personal scribe to Hammurabi of Babylon, a general in Julius Caesar's army, caretaker to Peter the First of Russia, a counselor to warlord Genghis Khan, adjutant to Napoleon Bonaparte, advisor to Adolf Hitler, and a friend and ally to Alexander the Great." Kaiser then smiled and looked over his shoulder towards his battered audience of one. "I helped many of these great leaders in their quests to conquer the world… and only a handful of them ever succeeded. But now… I intend to take their dreams a step further."
Hasky, regarding the man's map a second time, then looked back at her boss nervously. "How exactly do you plan to do that, sir?"
Confidence brimming, the company owner turned to face the woman fully. "I'm glad you asked that, Hasky. You see, when Alexander the Great conquered the world during the Argead Dynasty, he was unable to lead his campaign any further than Ancient India due to a significant lack of resources, manpower and technology. Swords, shields, horses, and alchemy could only take him so far across the globe, and there were severe limitations to what we could actually accomplish with the army at his disposal. Even I was only able to govern the world for a limited amount of time during the prehistoric era, before greed and duplicity amongst my ranks caused a massive breakdown in my kingdom's structure. However, now that we've reached an age where space travel and matter manipulation is now possible, I'll be able to carry out my plan to establish a new, one-thousand year world order; the greatest civilization to ever be conceived in human history." The man once again pointed at the hologram next to them. "That dream, which was once an impossibility, can now become a reality. It's all political physics, after all. Two super powers cannot possibly occupy the same space at the same time. One of them is bound to roll over for the other… or face inevitable destruction at the hands of the superior force."
"But… won't the rest of the world try to fight back?" Hasky asked, a little bit confused by her employer's explanations. "It's not like the people are just going to sit idly by and let you take over everything. They'll…"
"They'll…" Kaiser shrugged, "What?" When the blonde didn't say anything and simply looked back at her boss nervously, the company owner smiled and began counting on his fingers all of his recent accomplishments. "I have… advanced alien technology, thousands of years beyond what any person… what any nation, can throw at me, and all the science Doctor Gero used to create bio-mechanical abominations capable of conquering entire planets." The man then grinned and clenched his fists in a gung-ho pose. "BRING IT ON!" After seeing Hasky jumped at his sudden shout, the boss beamed, relaxed, and nodded towards his friend. "The world can try and fight me. But one way or another, the people will fold… and the day that they do…" He then pointed his remote at the hologram, "the world will change for the better."
He then flicked the program to its next slide. Hasky then proceeded to watch from her place in the center of the room as the projection of the map zoomed in on the capital city of Kaiser's future empire. When she saw the massive parliament building that was to become his primary base of operations zoom into view, one that was easily reminiscent of Hitler's architectural vision for Nazi Berlin, she then saw it zoom in on the people scattered across the rally grounds. There, she saw all the men and women there were dressed in high-tech body armor, all of which were hybrid designs of both hers and Vulcan's suits. They were sleek, crammed with cutting edge weaponry and computer systems, and made the wearers appear more threatening than they normally would when wearing conventional tactical gear.
Not only did they all appear ready for battle, but they all bore the markings of Talos Industries' logos. It was a sight that not only prompted the blonde assassin to stare in awe, but also put smiles of excitement on both Kaiser's and Violet's faces.
While the wounded woman attempted to process all the information being thrown her way, Kaiser casually wandered over to his desk and, after typing a few keys into the touch screen on the corner, caused a special compartment built into the workspace to rise up next to him. When the steam settled after the hatch opened, he then reached into the box and pulled out a black, shiny brick of an unknown substance, which he then turned and showed to his servant.
Noticing the object in Kaiser's hand, the thief frowned. "What is that?"
The businessman chuckled. "Mind over muscle, Agent Hasky. Mind over muscle." He then raised the brick even higher and brandished it against the light. "This remarkable block of matter is a substance identified in the data banks of Cooler's Spaceship as katchin… a rare element that, if the bonds holding this brick together are anything to go by, makes this the strongest material in the known universe." He then lowered it and set it on the desk beside him with a light 'clink'. "In its raw, untainted form, it is brittle and easy to mold. But once it's been melted down and cooled, it becomes unbreakable. This extraordinary mineral will serve as the primary ingredient to helping me construct the ultimate weapon, which will allow me to seize power and control in a single night."
And he wasn't going to stop there. He was going to construct his entire elite force out of katchin. With a garrison of his most trusted men and women adorned in unbreakable, super-powered armor made out of the strongest metal, his military would become unstoppable.
Though this information had Hasky's spirit lift somewhat, the blonde then became aware of an important fact that'd been overlooked. When her mind eventually worked it out, she addressed her concerns with her boss promptly and clearly. "What about the Z-fighters? Obviously they're not just going to stand around and let you do whatever you want. Shouldn't you be trying to… kill them?"
Chuckling at the woman's inquiry, the corporation owner gazed across at the woman with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Trust me, Agent Hasky. The Z-fighters will eventually die… but only when I say so." He then slipped his hands behind his back and approached the woman slowly. "Keeping tabs on their progress from a distance will allow me to upgrade the combat algorithms of my armors to match their strengths accordingly. They'll also be able to mop up any more unseen problems that happen to drop by the earth unexpectedly… most notably world shattering disasters and monsters." Stopping just a few feet in front of the woman, Kaiser shrugged coyly. "Why should I waste valuable time and resources fighting alien invaders, petty criminals and demons when I can simply let their group do it for me?"
Hasky, cracking a weak smile, nodded in agreement. "That's… a really good strategy, sir."
"You think so?" the man asked while giving her a genuine smile.
"Yes. Letting them do all the heavy lifting while you potter around under their noses. That's… brilliant."
Kaiser then raised his arms and held them out in a conceited manner. "It's what I do. After all… I'm a high-functioning sociopath." He then turned side-on to the woman and, slipping his hands behind him once again, gazed upwards with intent burning in his eyes. "Once I finally establish my company as the greatest super power on earth and have the entire population in the palm of my hand, I will use the technology I managed to replicate from the remains of Lord Slug's spaceship to transform this planet into a mobile fortress. With it and the entire population clothed in my super-powered battle armors, I will begin a ten year campaign to take over, not just this galaxy, but the entire quadrant, establishing the first Intergalactic Human Empire." The leader then glanced across at the blonde and leered. "And with you, Violet, and the others standing by my side, nothing… not even the Gods, will be able to stop me."
Invigorated by his speech, the completely taken Hasky took a step forward and, still clutching the place where her arm used to be, spoke up in support of her boss. "If that is your dream, sir, then… I will do everything in my power to help you realize it."
Ears perking at the woman's declaration, the mogul turned to face the woman more completely and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
The thief nodded her head vigorously, "Whatever you want, sir. I'll do anything."
Staring back at the injured woman seriously for a moment, Kaiser used that time to consider her words and analyze her condition. After several seconds of careful thinking, the man with the beard smiled and, giving his subordinate an affirmative nod, stared back at her with warmth and esteem flickering in his eyes. It was a sight that had Hasky blink in surprise, as she'd never seen such an emotion permeate from her employer before.
"I'm so glad to hear you say that. Thank you, Hasky."
Before the blonde could say anything more, a loud 'squelch' sound rang loudly throughout the office and a numbing pain shot through her body. Her muscles freezing in shock, Hasky's eyes widened in horror before her mouth choked up blood, which poured from her lips and dribbled down onto the carpet. The reason for this sudden occurrence quickly revealed itself to be a long blade sticking out of the part of her chest where her heart was. After remaining in place for several moments, the weapon was suddenly yanked out and the thief's body crumpled to the floor with a thud.
Hasky was dead.
The source of the weapon soon revealed itself from behind the woman. Appearing from the shadows, dressed in a Chinese martial arts outfit, was a young, teenage girl around eighteen years old, with an ox horns hairstyle and sharp blue eyes. Possessing a fair complexion and smooth skin, the girl had a very curvaceous figure that was notably muscular, giving her a very tomboyish appearance. Her overall appearance was strikingly similar to Chun Li's, except the qipao she was wearing was red instead of blue, and she had brown boots instead of white. However, unlike a traditional martial artist, on top of her outfit she also had on metal platings protecting her upper arms, shoulders, neck and back, which provided her a form of defensive armor, yet allowed for optimal movement of the limbs and joints.
The blade she was holding was attached to her gauntlet, but was quickly retracted into the arm with a snap. She then lowered her limb and glared down at the blonde assassin.
Despite her sudden appearance in the office, neither Kaiser nor Violet was surprised. Hell, they didn't even flinch when they saw Hasky crash to the ground face first and begin forming a bloody red pool around her corpse. The woman's lifeless eyes and stunned face were more than enough to show that death had occurred almost instantaneously.
Funny how fragile the human body actually was when all its defenses were bypassed.
Viewing the newcomer curiously, the purple haired secretary looked between her boss and the assailant, before then nodding towards the stranger. "One of your other assets, I presume? Which one is this?"
"Oh. Sorry. Where are my manners?" Glancing back at his assistant, the billionaire mogul smirked and gestured towards their visitor courteously. "This fetching young lady you see standing before you is Chico. She's one of six young orphans that were brought in by the authorities several months before the arrival of the Saiyans Vegeta and Nappa over a decade ago. Based on the information I was able to obtain from the officers who rounded up her little group, I found out that Son Gohan had ended up in their company for a brief period of time after washing up on a nearby beach." He lowered his hand and continued his story. "I… 'adopted' the children and took all of them to my branch in South City to partake in one of my earlier training programs to create the perfect super soldier." He then looked up at the brown haired girl proudly to see the fighter in question glare at him. "I had my best men spend the next twelve years working on their gang, breaking them down mentally and rebuilding them from the ground up, until they were strong enough to be put through the conversion process." He then shrugged at the girl and smirked darkly. "Once they were old enough, I injected them with an experimental, self-replicating, nano-machine serum that was designed to convert the human skeletal system and internal organs into metal. Five of the six test subjects failed, as the nano mites ripped their bodies apart and destroyed their brains." A gesture towards the girl in front of him shortly followed. "The sixth one however… was a huge success."
"Ah," Violet replied while nodding in understanding. Inspecting the teen in the martial arts dress and armor plating, she then looked towards her boss curiously. "I knew you had some interesting assets hiding out there. But you never really briefed me on this one."
"Well, I guess now you can consider yourself informed," the boss exclaimed, before then looking at the newcomer with a proud smile. When he saw the teen brush her fringe with the back of her hand, he continued to speak. "Chico here represents the culmination of a lifetime of hard work, self-sacrifice and scientific discovery. She is the embodiment of all of mankind's hopes and dreams for the future; a successful fusion between human and machine. It's a winning combination."
The brown haired teen in front of the duo smiled and bowed respectfully to the company founder. "In this world, only the strong and powerful are destined to survive, as it is the natural order of things. If you're unable to fight or fend for yourself, then you're as good as dead." Her eyes sparkled as she gazed admirably at her maker, whom she could see was gazing right back at her. Despite his recounting of her struggle, her expression continued to reflect nothing but blind devotion, loyalty, and fondness towards the maniacal genius. "You're the one who taught me that, master."
While the secretary raised an eyebrow at the way the teen said those words, Kaiser simply looked at his assistant and explained. "I called her in as part of my support crew to replace the members who've recently been lost. I'm going to need her to run a few errands for me while Hasky is being put through the cybernetic enhancement cycle." Glancing down at the blonde lying across the floor, the man then frowned at both her battered state and the blood pooling on the carpet. "Her Babylon armor, though cutting edge and robust, has too many faults and glitches in its design to be of any further use to me. The amount of energy she took in during her battle, even with the buffers in place, still managed to irradiate her cells and pollute the atmosphere. I'm going to have to can the old motor, remodel the photon pores, upgrade the processing units, and start the whole thing from scratch."
The inventor and billionaire planned on making her better than ever. Too bad Hasky was out of it to hear any of this.
After watching Chico back away to give her boss some room, as well as to stay out of reach of the pool of blood, Violet glanced across at Kaiser with an inquisitive look on her face. "What are you going to do about Son Gohan and his friends?"
The head of the company had his response ready and waiting for her, and answered with a smug grin. "Let the Z-fighters continue running around, playing heroes. With some luck, the next worldwide calamity that happens upon us might knock one or two of them down a peg… or maybe even take them out of the game for good. Given their current track record though, I seriously doubt that will happen." He then raised his hand and clenched it into a tight fist. Upon which, he began lifting one finger at a time in turn, "Constructing the ultimate weapon, destroying the Z-fighters, and assuming total dominion over the nations of the world. Instead of going through the long, costly process of attempting to achieve each of these goals one at a time over a spread of a few months, I intend to accomplish all of them in a single stroke."
Violet nodded to the man in approval. "Understood."
With one last glance at Hasky's body, the boss reached into his pocket, pulled out a cell phone, dialed into it, and held it up to his ear. Listening to it buzz for a moment, his head perked up when the receiver on the other end picked up. "Hello, security? Yes… could you send Doctor Kimura and a couple of his boys up to my office with a cryo freezer? I've got another volunteer for the android program to pick up. Uh-huh." After hearing the officer on the end respond, Kaiser then looked over the floor around the blonde and spoke again. "Oh yes. And send some boys up here to mop up the blood and change the carpets. I feel like… maroon today. Thanks." Closing up his phone, Kaiser pocketed it and nodded towards his deceased agent. "I'll perform the operation on Hasky myself… make sure she gets the best hardware and software possible."
"Very good," the purple haired woman exclaimed, holding up her note pad and quickly typing into the screen, "I'll cancel your meetings for this evening and tomorrow."
Turning his back on the body, Kaiser then wandered back over to his window and, with his hands behind his back, continued to speak. "I'll also scrub Hasky's memories and modify them. Her time spent in prison twisted her view on the world and warped her personality… and her battle with the Z-fighters only made it worse. I'll give the woman some peace and forge some happy memories in place of the old ones." A warm smile spread across his lips when he sensed Violet move over to his desk and Chico move around to stand on his left hand side. With the teen gazing through the window just as he was, the boss was now content with waiting out the rest of the afternoon until his next appointment.
A minute later, the doors to his office opened and a group of doctors and workers came rushing in, dragging a large, human-sized freezer with them. While they hoisted Hasky's body into the compartment and began cleaning up the mess left behind in the brief scuffle, Kaiser continued to stare out the window, his mind plotting out the next stages of his plan.
Conquering the world took a lot of patience and planning. Taking it from a group of humans and aliens capable of laying waste to entire planets took a little bit more. Nevertheless, the idea of a challenge brought an excited glow to Kaiser's eyes.
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