Armitage III Fan Fiction ❯ Goodbye ❯ Earthfall ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Armitage: After
Part Two

Scrapyard city was as a chaotic place as ever, with roving gangs of cyborgs wandering the streets fighting each other as needed to control their pieces of turf. The only law that they recognized was imposed by the Factories they relied on for survival or the powerful floating city of Tiphares, floating above the rubble.

Of course, that was about to change.

The Iron Monkey gang left the bar burning in flames, casually kicking aside a sleeping or possibly wounded drunk as they strode away from the destruction. Mohawk, their leader, looked around in contempt as the half steel, half flesh woman said, “Ain’t there no one left who can give us a good fight anymore?”

“Be careful saying that,” her lieutenant cautioned. Known as Bernie she was known for her cybernetic arms, powerful enough to bend steel. She scratched her chin nervously, “You don’t want to get Alita’s attention.”

“We ain’t breaking factory law,” Buzz scoffed, her half steel head shining in the reflected light, “the bounty hunter won’t care.”

“Would you look at that!” Vivian pointed as all four of them fixed their eyes on what was clearly fresh meat.

Even in the continuous shadows cast by the city floating high above them the newcomer shone with health and life, her short brown hair falling into a face both innocent and seemingly young. Her brown hair was styled in a short, boyish way, and she wore a high quality synthetic leather coat over skimpy but valuable clothes.

“Let’s follow her,” Mohawk ordered, her namesake hair nearly quivering with eagerness. If the woman was as human as she looked they could kill her and sell the parts off to the organ leggers for a tidy profit. And if it turned out she was a cyborg the girl’s nearly new chassis would ALSO sell, possibly even more than the biological bits.

“She’s heading into that alley,” .Bernie muttered as they hurried after, dodging and weaving through the bustling, crowded streets..

“You three take the entrance,” Mohawk grinned, “she’s mine!”

“Oh sure,” Buzz muttered under her breath as they headed into the even darker alley, “you always get the cute ones, boss.”

Mohawk ignored that comment, seeing the brown haired woman had stopped, turning back to look at them with a oddly serene look on her face. Smiling as she advanced on the girl Mohawk smiled a less than pleasant smile. “Just give up, girl,” she called, “we’ll male it as quick and painless as possible.”

“That’s my line,” the woman flashed a grin as she raced at them in a blur. She leapt up against the brick wall then threw herself at Mohawk, striking with devastating force the girl sent Mohawk staggering backwards, spitting blood and shaking her head as she tried to make her internal gyroscope

The three goons abandoned their posts and hurried to try to reach their leader’s side, “Boss! You okay?”

Deciding that had been given enough warning the woman eased on a pair of leather gloves, the knuckles crackling with restrained electricity. Dodging Bernie’s wild blow the smaller woman punched right through her chest, sparks flying and smoke billowing out as she collapsed, broken to the ground.

“Damn it,” Mohawk managed to groan, “there’s no factory bounty on us!”

Defeating the two other women with carefully planted strikes the brown haired woman turned, studying Mohawk though narrowed eyes before stalking over. She knelt, studying her a moment even as she was, then the woman drew a battered leather wallet and flipped it open to reveal the interior.

Mohawk studied the badge there in front oh as she coughed out, “A badge... you’re really a police officer?”

“That I am,” she agreed, “spread the word around.”

“A... about a cop being here?” Mohawk asked.

“That,” the woman called Naomi Armitage smiled down at her coldly, “and to let your allies know there’s a new sheriff in town.”

“Yes ma’am,” all four wounded foes agreed.

With a satisfied smile Naomi casually picked up her coat from where she had dropped it in the fight and strode away, her mind already dwelling on the other things that she had to do. Moving through the market place she used gold to buy the things they needed, then once her real errand for the day was complete Naomi carefully retraced her steps, soon returning to the repair lab she now called home base.

When Naomi had first arrived on Earth she was nearly as innocent as she seemed. The cruise ship had refused to actually land on Earth, dropping the Martian tourists at a older space station. From there they had taken a shuttle down, landing in one of the few civilized areas in North America, the floating city of Tiphares. Naomi didn’t stay long, her attitude quickly marking her as trouble.

Soon, Naomi was expelled from Tiphares, dropped to Scrapyard City and then might have come to a bad end without the help of two oddly noble warriors. Daisuke Ido was a cyber surgeon and a bounty hunter, the tall thin man using a rocket propelled mace as his primary weapon, while his adopted daughter Alita appeared almost as young as Naomi, but was quite possibly deadlier in battle.

“Welcome back,” Ido nodded as she entered their combination residence and repair bay. His short light brown hair fell into his eyes as he worked over a severed leg, the mini torch he was using throwing off bright colored sparks.

“I’m back,” Naomi agreed ritualistically as she set the groceries and supplies down.

“How did it go?” Ido wondered, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Ran into the Iron Monkey gang,” Naomi admitted as she dropped off her coat on a chair, “they were about as tough as expected.”

Ido carefully covered his work to protect it from dust as he asked, “Are you sure you want to do this? The Factories won’t be happy.”

“My heart bleeds,” Naomi said dryly. She smiled slightly as she leaned against a counter, “Right now, the Scrapyard is a kill or be killed anarchist paradise, as bad as the rest of the world. But at least here we have resources, and some opportunities for change.”

“And you think we can save ourselves from our own decadence?” Alita asked as she returned from the back yard, her black hair gently blowing in the breeze.

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Naomi smiled charmingly, “besides, do you have anything better to do?”

Both Alita and Ido stared at her, dumbfounded, them began to laugh. “Well.” Ido wiped at his eyes, “you may have a point.”

“But there’s no way we can do this alone,” Alita had to point out. “As powerful as you and I are, there’s just too many of them.”

“Oh,” Naomi smiled slightly, “I don’t think we’ll be going it all alone.”

To be continued...?

Notes on Alita/Naomi plots. It would be interesting to try to use Alita’s Mars origin from the manga and work it in, but it’d contradict a relatively peaceful Mars and a violent, chaotic Earth. Still, will keep that in mind. This ties in to my time line for ‘Eternal City Crystal Tokyo’ my future Sailor Moon epic, but if I do crossover, I’ll do my best to make it clear and mostly understandable. *lol*