The ASHURA Project Episode 2

CHAPTER 2: ASHURA INTO THE WORLD written by John “Dragon Lord” Mercer (picture)

Waking up in an unusual surrounding, the young naked girl, now known as Ashura, was still weary from her birth in Hamaya Laboratories. She’s in a large bedroom wearing a hospital gown and sees all sorts of gadgets near her bedside.
“Where am I?” she whispered to herself. “What is this place? Who am I?”
Suddenly, a female doctor walked into Ashura’s bedroom with a clipboard and several medical tools. Ashura was looking very nervous about what will happen next.
“Good morning, Miss Ashura,” the doctor checked on her clipboard. “I’m Miyuki Nakagawa, and I’ll be your doctor today.”
“What am I doing here?” Ashura asked.
“Temporary loss of memory may have been some side effects from you being trapped in that blaze,” Dr. Nakagawa observed. “But it says in your medical tests that there isn’t anything wrong with you. It’s a miracle you’ve made it out alive.”
“I’m still confused,” Ashura cried gently. “Where should I go? What should I do?”
“That will be determined after a few random tests,” Dr. Nakagawa concluded. “But for now, get some rest and we’ll conduct the tests later in the afternoon.”
“OK, if you say so,” Ashura smiled weakly. As soon as Dr. Nakagawa left the room, Ashura began to rest. However, her dreams were filled with frightening images that appeared in bursts. In no time, these images consumed Ashura as she began to scream loudly, but with a dangerous glow of light coming out of her body. The incident caused small tremors around the hospital and put the staff and patients on edge.
Ashura also has a mix of emotions within her body. Her fear about what she might have caused had made her aware of her powers. She decided to try and sneak out of the hospital without alerting the medical staff or the security.

Meanwhile, outside a movie theater in Tokyo, the Saint Beasts were just walking out. Sanzo was holding all of Madoka’s things while Hikaru was walking out propping Ryuichi upright.
“I’ve never been so embarrassed in my entire life!” Madoka complained. “It just HAD to happen!”
“Sanzo thinks Dragon Man should get out more often,” joked the giant sumo.
“Hey, unlike most of the guys in there, I thought Ami looked hot!” Ryuichi said. “And Chibi-Usa was indeed a cutie!”
“Maybe next time, check your emotions at the door,” Hikaru warned.
“You mean EMISSIONS!” Madoka quirked. “One look at Chibi-Usa’s panties and he ‘goes’ all over the place! And let’s not think about when he saw Ami naked!”
“At least I thought they’re nice!” Ryuichi yelled. “Besides, I’ve seen some people in the theater who got hard for Rei and Minako! What makes me different from them?!”
Suddenly, Hikaru’s cell phone began to ring loudly ending the bickering among the Saint Beasts. Hikaru answered his cell phone just outside the ticket booth.
“Hamaya Research & Development, this is Hikaru Hiwatari,” he answered. “Who shall I say is calling?”
“You four idiots better have a good explanation for this!” a muffled yet familiar voice scolded snidely.

Hikaru’s eyes went up in a constant state of fear. “Oh, shit…” he silently said. “It’s him.”
“Phoenix Man?” Sanzo said with concern. “Is that who Sanzo think it is?”
“Yes, Tanaka,” Hikaru replied faintly. “It’s Mr. Hamaya.”
“Gimme that phone!” Madoka demanded as Hikaru had done so. “We can explain everything. Ryuichi was getting off on Sailor Mercury…”
“I DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT!” Yoshi yelled causing Madoka to plug her ear. “WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS THE WHEREABOUTS OF YOUR EXPERIMENT!”
Ryuichi grabbed the phone from Madoka and answered, “The experiment failed and we ran out of material to make another one.”
“Oh, really,” Yoshi said not looking too pleased. “Then tell me who that young girl was before she went into the hospital?”
“What young girl?” Ryuichi asked.
Mr. Hamaya replayed news footage on the cell phone of Ashura escaping from the laboratory fire unharmed.
“JESUS FUCK!” Ryuichi gasped. “Our experiment worked after all!”
“So that girl is Ashura?” Madoka observed. “Looks frail and scrawny to me.”
“Looks can be deceiving, Madoka,” Hikaru added. “Remember, this young woman has all the powers of the Hamaya Corporation including us as well as those of our mortal enemies.”
“So what we do with Ashura when we see her?” asked Sanzo.
“I don’t know, big guy,” Ryuichi thought. “Ashura might be unstable and might try to run or attack us if we try to move in on her.”
“That’s where the Saint Beasts come to play,” continued Yoshi. “You are to show her that our cause is right, just and good. She is a perfect asset to the team. I want no slipups. Make sure Ashura is on our side OR ELSE!”
“I don’t wanna know what ‘or else’ means!” Madoka said nervously. “We’ll find the waif and have her join the gang.”
Ryuichi hands the phone back to Hikaru and the handsome warrior replied, “We’ll do our best to find Ashura, Mr. Hamaya.”
“Good,” Yoshi replied. He left a final message when the Hamaya Corporation logo appeared that got all the Saint Beasts in an uproar: DON’T LET ME DOWN.
“Man, we’re lucky the big cheese didn’t kill us!” Ryuichi said with a relief.
“If we don’t find Ashura, our luck may run out,” Hikaru warned. “So let’s head for the hospital in Nerima before anything else goes wrong.”
At the same time in Costa Rica, Eva was doing routine maintenance on her boat while Blackie tried to make the best of making a Japanese feast with Central American ingredients with no avail. Mélodie was keeping watch for anybody suspicious and who knows Eva’s reputation as the most absolutely chaotic terrorist the world over.
“You guys are so fucking lucky I was here before things got out of hand,” Mélodie said.
“Why were you here, Mélodie?” Eva asked. “It’s not likely that you followed us without a reason.”
“Maybe she’s lonely and wants company,” Blackie added.
“Non, non, NON!” Mélodie growled at Eva and Blackie.
“Geez, it was only a joke,” Blackie whined.
“Anyway,” Mélodie continued, “I’ve heard from Canada’s intelligence experts that there’s a rebellion at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Naturally, the paper-pushers wanted the military on hand and recruited me to track down any and all insurgents and execute them on the spot.”
“Sounds like fun,” Eva said. “Maybe there’s someone I know there. Can we join?”
“NON! NON! ABSOLUTELY NON!” Mélodie yelled. “Who knows how this rebellion will go if YOU turn up there! I don’t want any more shit from you!”
“Well, that’s settled,” Blackie smiled. “How about a trip to Japan instead?”
“Are you kidding?” Eva said, getting an idea. “This is much more fun than a silly old reunion! Finally, some REAL action! Tomorrow, we’re setting sail to Cuba!”
“Thanks a lot, froggy!” Blackie said insulting Mélodie.
“Eat me, slut!” Mélodie retorted.
“Not if you paid me in Canadian Dollars,” Blackie snapped back at the same time Eva was singing the 70s classic “Cuba” by the Gibson Brothers as she was preparing her boat for tomorrow’s trip.

Back inside the hospital, Ashura was still in her hospital clothes trying to escape. It was night time at most of the doctors would be home, while some from the night shift take over.
As she was sneaking past several rooms and offices, Ashura kept on trying to think what she really is. Then she heard something. One of the rooms left their TV on.
“What is this?” she wondered. “I’ve seen it in my room somewhere before, but this one is different.”
She snuck into the room not to disturb the patient and began to see the show that the patient was watching. It was “America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back” on FOX with Japanese subtitles. Along with the other fugitives, America’s Most Wanted once again shown footage of Eva Sirkowski, Blackie Chin and Mélodie involved with past battles with the Hamaya Corporation and their partners in crime, the Saint Beasts.
“I’ve seen them before in my visions,” Ashura thought to herself, “those three girls on the screen, those members of that Corporation and those four somehow different people. But what does this all mean to me?”
Then, more thoughts began to clog Ashura’s head and she began to scream wildly. Ashura collapsed on the floor and was struggling to control herself. However, her screaming woke up a patient, an old man who broke his leg in an accident. He saw Ashura bent over as she was trying to regain her thoughts. One look at her young perfect body and he was ecstatic and ready to go despite his injury.
“This must be Heaven because I’m in love!” the old man cheered.
Ashura heard the voice coming and saw the old man fall on top of her trying to get into her body. “Stop it! Let me go!” Ashura yelled out to him, but the old man wouldn’t listen. Suddenly, a change began in Ashura’s eyes and her vicious temper was beginning to explode. “I SAID…” she said, in a threatening voice, “LET ME GO!”
Ashura gave a lucky punch to the old man and he went flying into the air and crashed onto the bed. He rubbed his mouth as it was nothing but he was scared when he saw large traces blood on his hands.
“AAUGH!! I’M BLEEDING!!” the old man shouted with fear. “WHO ARE YOU?!”
That question enraged Ashura and completely ravaged the old man by first grabbing his working leg and ripping it out of his socket and proceeded to beat him senseless with it.
“YOU PERVERTED SON OF A BITCH!” Ashura yelled out. “DON’T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!”
She then grabbed a hold of the old man’s jaw in a jujutsu style grip, but the ruckus alerted hospital security as they were heading down to Ashura’s location.
“There’s a disturbance in Old Man Matsuda’s room,” one of the guards reported.
“Probably him trying to hit on the nurses again,” the chief of security replied. “He’s one of the worst perverts in Japan.”
“But I think this incident is different,” the same guard said. “I’m going to check it out anyway.”
The security guard went over to Matsuda’s room and saw Ashura hunched over in madness staring down a beaten bloodied body with a missing jaw.
“JESUS FUCK!” the security guard yelled and turned on his radio. “Chief, we got a fucked-up situation! Matsuda’s ravaged to pieces and there’s a girl all fucking loony here!”
“We can’t take chances,” the chief ordered. “Shoot her down and report back to the office.”
The lone security guard took out his pistol and pointed it at Ashura’s head, just as she was turning around. The guard fired and it looked like it hit Ashura in the head. She fell to the ground hard as the guard put his gun away.
“Suspect disposed of, sir,” he reported. “I’m heading back now.”
However, he didn’t realize that Ashura only titled her head back having the bullet miss her by a mere 3 inches. She snuck up on the guard, put him in a sleeper hold until he fell unconscious and snapped his head. The guard fell dead on the floor afterwards. Suddenly, Ashura’s violent fits dissipated and she returned to her docile fragile self again.

“What happened to me?” Ashura thought to herself. “One minute I’m attacked by an old man and suddenly I wake up here.” Then she saw the smeared blood on her hands from when she killed Matsuda and the guard.
Fearing for what she had done, she took off the guard’s clothes and headed out of the hospital.
At the same time, the Saint Beasts are on their way to the same hospital to retrieve Ashura for Yoshi Hamaya, unsuspecting that Ashura has caused damage there.
“What we gonna do when we reach hospital?” Sanzo asked. “Ashura must be in ICU somewhere.”
“We’ll tell the receptionist that we’re friends of Ashura,” Madoka said. “I’m sure they’ll let us in her room.”
“There’s sure a lot of police cars out here tonight,” Ryuichi said as he saw a line of police cars heading towards the hospital. “It’s almost like fraternity or sorority night for new pledges.”
“Police cars?” Madoka jumped. “What are they doing here now?”
“It seems they’re heading for Nerima,” Hikaru concluded.
“NERIMA?!” Sanzo shouted in shock. “That where Ashura girl is!”
“And if the cops find her first,” Madoka added, “the Boss Man will have our asses!”
“Then let’s move, Saint Beasts!” Hikaru ordered. “The future of Hamaya Corporation, not to mention our lives, depends on returning Ashura safely.”
The Saint Beasts had no time to change into their signature outfits, so they went wearing their street clothes into Nerima District hoping to reach Ashura before the police do.
Armed military police swarmed into the Nerima Hospital and following behind them were the Saint Beasts. Some of the military police are on Hamaya’s payroll and Hikaru contacted them through Morse Code on their receivers. The orders were, “Find Ashura and bring her back to the Saint Beasts alive. You will be handsomely rewarded. If Ashura dies, you die.”
All the while the military police including corrupt ones bought by Hamaya and the Saint Beasts look for Ashura, a young woman was walking out of the hospital until one of the military police saw her.
“Excuse me,” he said. “Going somewhere?”
“Leave me alone!” she snapped. “I don’t want any trouble!”
“OK, I’m sorry!” he replied. “We’re just looking for a psychotic killer named Ashura that’s here. I know she was admitted to the hospital for observation, but she’s gone out of hand.”
“Oh,” she said with concern. “I didn’t know.”
“Anyway, do you have a place to stay?” he asked her.
“No, I don’t,” she replied softly.
“Well, I know of a lodging place in Kyoto that can help,” the officer said, handing her an address. The officer also handed her some money for her troubles.
“That’s ¥50,000 plus cab fare,” the officer added. “Plenty of money for food, clothes, rent and other stuff needed to make a living.”
“Thank you,” she said bowing to him.
“No problem,” he replied. “Now, you be careful out there. There are lots of crazy people out there.”
The young woman headed into a taxicab and was being taken to the place that the officer written down. As soon as she was dropped off and into an apartment building, she took off the policeman’s costume and revealed her hospital gown underneath. Ashura has escaped authorities and Hamaya’s agents for now.
“That was close,” Ashura thought. “I’d better lay low until this blows over.”
She relaxed in her hospital gown trying to piece together the puzzle in her mind together. Before the incidents at the hospital, she saw Eva, Blackie, Mélodie, Yoshi Hamaya, Yin & Yang, Ti-Vite, and the four Saint Beasts whom she saw go into the hospital after her rage exploded.
“There’s gotta be some way of knowing who I am,” Ashura said. “And the sooner I find out, the better it is for me.”
Ashura then decided to take a nap on the couch in her apartment, which is a temporary place of rest from the maddening world out there. The super soldier still had the body and mind of a young teenage girl, but is stronger than the Zero-One Circuit, New Japan PuroResu and All Japan PuroResu wrestlers combined. But all that Ashura cares now is getting some rest before finding out what to do tomorrow.

))”< To be continued…