World's Finest in Ghost City

CHP 1: Evil Beings

A woman opened her eyes with blurred vision. She lied out on her back completely drained. She had little idea where or even what went on. For a few moments tried to recollect her thoughts, attempting to move. It was then became aware she was bounded by her legs and wrists to a bed. A piece of cloth was tightly tied around her mouth. She struggled to break free, but lacked the strength to do so. She presumed might even be drugged due to drowsiness and fatigue. When attempting to sit up her vision improved. In moments she realized how bad the circumstance was! Tears formed in her eyes spotting her husband tied up in a chair a few feet away! He looked to her, tears in his eyes and unable to move.

"Good to see sleeping beauty has finally woken. Now we can proceed."

She looked to her left spotting a man dressed in all black, a trench coat and wearing a ski mask over his face. He carried something resembling a baseball bat. He lifted the item swinging it twice at the head of her husband! His neck snapped on the second swing. The masked man glanced down at his own arms, impressed with the strength of his newly acquired prosthetic body! Turning to female victim Liz Totsukoe, licked his lips. Blood spilled from the head, mouth and nose of her husband.

"Sorry about that sweetie! I don't think he would've wanted to see what's going to happen next. I'll remove the cloth from that pretty mouth of yours, but you have to promise not to scream. Sound fair?"

Additional tears ran down her cheeks overwhelmed by the situation. Liz nodded, and in that instant he removed the cloth.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked in a whimper.

She never imagined something like that could happen to her. He didn't answer and instead reached into the side of his jacket pulling out a pocket knife. He removed his jacket throwing it to the ground. He placed a gloved finger to her lips.

"Ssshhhh." With the knife in his other hand started cutting at her shirt down the middle revealing her bra. He quickly confirmed she was 100% human/non prosthetic.

"I love live victims. It's hard to get the same rush with prosthetics. But I'm not complaining, I go both ways…it really depends on the mood." He said reaching down and rubbing a hand over the side of her face.

"What are you going to do to me?" She asked in terror.

He removed his hand from the side of her face, ripping open her shirt! She cried struggling to free herself! She had an idea what might happen next!

Outside a mall miles away an armed individual walked. The person fired off at civilians transforming his right arm into a machine gun!

"Hahahaha…yes! The Doc said I'd love this new body and its upgrades but this is fantastic! Now to test the strength of this thing," He thought aloud.

Various civilians laid in a bloody pool, shot down by the unknown. He stood at 6'9" wearing black shades, with a green cap turned backwards, light brown hair and dark green tank top and blue jeans. His muscular frame was most noticeable. He transferred his arm back to normal, walking in the direction of an SUV. He figured it would give him an idea how much strength the prosthetic body truly possessed.

"Oh goodness, has anyone contacted the police?!" Someone yelled.

There were at least eight dead and another twenty injured. The Muscular brute walked in front of the vehicle, bending down and placing his arms beneath it. He lifted the vehicle over his head, feeling its weight travel throughout his veins. He smirked broadly and used all his strength to throw the vehicle into a nearby pickup truck!

"This body is amazing! The Doc was right when he told me I'd have super soldier like strength!"

He had no idea it'd be of such proportions, and thrilled that it was.

He placed his right arm in front of him transforming it into a missile launcher. With precise aim shot one missile into a nearby parking lot. Everything went up in flames in a single explosion. Police vehicles quickly surrounded the area. He clinched his fists taking a brief look at the moon, knowing his biggest challenge was upon him.

"Put your hands in the air Atsushi Grivez, we know it's you!" One police officers demanded aiming his weapon at the fugitive.

Atsushi scratched at the side of his head, wondering how they knew his name. When transferring from his previous body had changed his appearance quite a bit. None of that mattered, and was certain they lacked the weapons necessary to bring him down.

"We aren't going to ask again! Put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees!" The commander of the unit called out over a megaphone.

Atsushi thought it over and came up with an idea, deciding to play along with their orders. He took a knee, placing both hands behind his head, giving himself up. In seeing this, the commander signaled for several of his men to move in and make the arrest. As they got in close a smirk formed on his face. He jumped from his position knocking them all over and snapping their necks in the process.

"Son of a bitch! Take the target down, and try your best to not hit any of our own!" The commander ordered.

The group commenced with firing off at the target that showed great quickness and flexibility. He effortlessly dodged their bullets. A few were successful getting shots off on him, but the bullets did nothing. Atsushi glanced down marveling his immense potency. Coming up with another idea, surprised himself again. He easily ripped a door off the car he hid behind. He threw the door out toward the police like it was a boomerang knocking over a couple of them.

"Damn this guy is really good, but he's beatable." One of the rookies' said moving in alone with a bit of cockiness.

The commander demanded he stand his ground! Atsushi converted his arm back into a machine gun. He then shot the rookie. Atsushi ran at another officer who shot at him. Even in close range the bullets only pierced the skin and nothing more. He Grabbed hold of the policeman by the neck, smashing the officer's head into the side of a windshield KO'ing him on impact.

"Really…is this the best you've all got? If so, than think I'll be leaving but you need not worry, you will all be seeing a lot more of me in the near future!"

He looked to his right, jogging in that direction and lifting a police vehicle tossing it in the vicinity of the commander. The backside of his abdomen opened ripping through his tank top with a booster pack forming.

"See yah later losers!" Atsushi blasted off like a jet.

It wasn't known to the police a specific structure fabricated inside of him wouldn't allow them to track him. The commander stood from his slouched position. He shook his head in dismay. He cringed at the view of so many of his men injured and others worse. The clutters of sirens closed in on them from all directions. He knew this would be one defeat that would hurt for a while.

"It's alright sergeant Masaaki, we can't win them all." One of his men emphasized, patting him over the back.

The question he wanted answered was who created the prosthetic body? None of them had seen anything like it in their line of work. Whatever the case, felt it had to cost a couple million just to construct. In the thick of time the ambulances arrived, collecting all who needed medical attention.

Miles Away

Over an hour passed, the time a little past one A.M in the morning. Someone slept deeply unaffected by the loud vehicles passing by down in the city. A ring in her subconscious awoke her, obviously someone attempting to communicate through cyber link. She awoke almost immediately sitting up and catching a glimpse of herself in a mirror positioned over a dresser. Completely nude, she unlocked her main network answering the call.

"Hello Major, I'm just calling to inform you to come in an hour early tomorrow or actually today…however you want to think of it."

"Is there a problem Chief?"

"I will update the whole group on the situation when you all arrive."

Having nothing else to say, apologized for disturbing her at such a late hour. She cut off the link from her end afterward. Yawning aloud, Motoko Kusanagi lied back resting her head over a pillow wondering if there was an issue. Closing her eyes, she tried not to think much of it. That was something she could worry about later. Sleeping fully through the remainder of the night, awoke to the sun ascending over the mountain side in the distance. Checking and seeing it was a little after six in the morning jumped out of bed and entered the bathroom taking a shower.

Elsewhere at the police station, Lieutenant Ryan Sho was handed an envelope.

"May I kindly ask what's inside?"

"I'm not really sure sir; the guys downstairs didn't give very many details. All they told me was this case now belongs to your unit. I have nothing else for you, but if anything else comes up I'll let you know."

Once the officer exited out of his office, Ryan opened the envelope trembling at the face staring back at him. He recognized the person as Aoi Sanhall! In the past two month's killed over sixteen people. All of which had been couples. According to what he heard gained the trust of innocents, and then killed them at opportune times. What he found most disturbing was recently the convict sexually assaulted the women killing them afterward. What scared him most was the convicts past championships! He had been one of Japan's top material artists, and also a top secret agent spy for a couple years.

"Hey Lieutenant, the guys need you in the conference room. The meeting will start in ten minutes."

Giving him the thumbs up, Ryan closed the envelope with all Aoi Sanhall's information. He placed it inside his desk and stood with a sigh. He shook his head realizing his unit would go after the type of monster he dreaded since taking the job.

Out on the highway Togusa was the first of team to arrive. He parked his vehicle entering into Section 9's headquarters. He leaned forward for an eye scan.

"Hhhmm, I could really use an energy bar or something."

Traveling up a few flights of stairs, Togusa stopped in front of a vending machine getting himself something to snack on along with a drink. He continued down the hall walking into the boardroom. He was a bit surprised to see someone beat him to the punch.

"Chief Aramaki! I mean…I didn't expect to see you here this early."

"You can take a seat wherever, I'd rather not get into anything until everyone else is present."

"That's fine." He took a sip of the orange juice peeling the wrapper off the candy bar. Waiting for over another ten minutes Batou was the next to arrive and the major shortly after. The entire group was in attendance before the next hour came around.

"Now that everyone is here I'd like to jump right into things. I don't know if you're aware of what happened last night with a single individual. He took on and got the better of the police force. Rumor has it fired several rounds at him, but their attempts inflicted no damage."

"So what you're saying is the police were dealing with some tough guy, equipped with a high end prosthetic body? Doesn't sound like anything we can't handle." Batou emphasized.

"You could say that, but you will find it to be one of the top stories on the news. His body has exceptional durability, and showed strength out of the ordinary. He was able to lift police vehicles in their entirety with ease."

Leaning back in his chair, Togusa's mouth opened. That was something he believed might only be doable in the future! Togusa thought further into what the chief said and got a few ideas. He strongly believed there was a new more advanced prosthetic body on the market. It baffled him their unit or the police wouldn't have caught on sooner, if that was the case. Saito crossed his arms rubbing a finger over his chin putting thought of his own into it.

"Before any of you ask…yes the police do have a name, he goes by Atsushi Grivez. He was born here in Japan, but has done a lot of traveling spending time in Canada and even Berlin. Atsushi has since returned home over a month ago. It is unknown where he currently stays."

"Why are you telling us this, sounds to me like it's the police's problem?" Motoko declared.

Pacing back and forth, the chief informed the Police wanted the assistance of Section 9. Ishikawa had a good feeling the individual could be testing the waters with a prototype. It could have simply been a test run far as he was concerned. Ishikawa also believed lots of people and money were involved.

"Now that we've got the small briefing out of the way, I'll let you all get to work. Try and get as much research on this man as we can. The easiest way to have success is to understand who we're dealing with." The chief notified.

Fully understanding what was asked of them the entire group headed for the lab. Paz was the first to exit. Motoko didn't follow right away. She instead sat in place with an expression of emptiness.

"Is everything ok major." Batou asked, just before he left the room.

She moved over looking into his eyes.

"I'll be right behind you." Taking her word for it, he smiled skipping off and following the others.

Motoko wouldn't say a word of it, but had her mind on Hideo Kuze and the events surrounding his death. That was close to over a year ago, but the thoughts crept up on her now and then.

To Be Continue