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nitewrighter · 6 years

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Dragonback (Pt. 1)

Kid Continuity. Taking place about a year and a half after “Breach”

After losing her dragon, Rei decides to give civilian life a try---with some strings pulled by D.Va, this has ended up with an internship-turned-stuntwork for HALfred Glitchbot on his reboot of the popular sentai show, “Midori Rider.” But is Overwatch that easy to leave behind?

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

---

“Foolish human! You think you can stand against me!?” the rubber antennae on Iron Kaijin’s helm wobbled a little as he threw his head back in a villainous laugh.

“I’ve come to put a stop to your evil!” declared Yoshimi, striking a pose before making a diagonal waving motion with her arms. “HENNNNNSHIN!”

“And cut,” Glitchbot motioned from the director’s chair, “Switch to camera two--Stunt, to your mark.”

Rei felt her own breath bouncing back onto her face from the interior of her helmet as the lead actress did an awkward half-jog out of the shot, gave Rei a small high-five as she ran out, and Rei hurried out to the mark surrounded by the Iron Kaijin’s henchmen and assumed that same diagonal arm position.

“Okay, kid, just like in rehearsal, remember the choreography. Take four in three, two, one--Action,” said Glitchbot.

“Midori Rider!?” Iron Kaijin staggered back in shock.

“That’s right!” Rei struck a pose, “Ready to surrender!?” Rei knew her voice would be edited out and replaced with Yoshimi’s in post-production--too rhotic, too clunky, Glitchbot had said, but they still needed to time the dialogue right.

“Never! All shall know of the crushing defeat of Midori Rider at the hands of me! Iron Kaijin! Attack!”

Rei felt Glitchbot’s eyes on her as the first henchman actor swung a halbred at her and she dodged into a series of backhand springs, more rubber halberds swinging at her just before and behind her springs. She spiraled on the last spring, going into a spinning handstand and praying the costume wouldn’t rip as she kicked two actors who threw themselves back at the contact of her feet.

Not too hard, she had to remind herself every time her foot or fist made contact with another actor, Not too hard. It had to look like a fight, but she had to think of it as a dance, moving from mark to mark, dodge this halberd, stumble back from that halberd, to your mark in three, two, one--- She sidestepped to a taped ‘x’ on the ground and crossed her arms in front of herself and shouted, “Lightning Staff!”

The actors leapt away from her and sparks flew out from the ground on either side of her as she made the signature diagonal arm movement, and Glitchbot said, “Good, end take on camera two, cut to camera one again,” as a bright blue and yellow staff was tossed to Rei from out of the shot. She broke two in rehearsal. She knew the props department kind of hated her. The fight went faster with the staff--she had to focus not only on not breaking her staff, but not breaking the halberds of any of the henchman actors---except that actor with the breakaway halberd, but choreography had him breaking it pretty much on his own with the lightest touch of her staff.

She wondered how much her uncle would scoff at the unnecessary flourishes and staff spins--he’d always chided her for using too much energy too fast in a fight... she wondered if watching her fight like this made him even more gray. She smiled a little under the mask as she ducked under a halberd and swiped the legs of an actor with her staff, making him throw himself onto his back.

“Impossible!” Iron Kaijin shouted, “No Rider before you could master the staff so quickly!”

“Camera two again--close up,” said Glitchbot.

“Ha!” Rei spun the staff for a flourish before planting it on the ground triumphantly in front of her, “Reconsidering that surrender?”

“Never!” shouted Iron Kaijin. He made his own flourishing gesture, “You will pay for your insolence!” He threw his arms out on either side of him “Iron Firestorm!”

“Yeeeaaaaagh!” Rei threw herself back and tumbled across the floor at... nothing.The dozens of flaming swords of light would be added in in post-production.

“Attack her now! She’s vulnerable!” Iron Kaijin ordered his henchmen and Rei was set on by half a dozen rubber halberds jabbing at her. Rei took the brief second she was on her back to try and focus. This was the part in rehearsal where she broke the staff--she couldn’t screw it up this time.

“Switch to camera three,” said Glitchbot, “Special effects in three, two,---”

“Lightniiiiing Tornadoooooo!” Rei shouted and sparks fired up from the floor as the actors threw themselves back from her. She was spinning the staff as she kicked up from her back to her feet.

“Fools! Imbeciles!” cried Iron Kaijin as Rei smacked one actor back with the staff while kicking another, “I have to do everything myself! Iron Inferno!”

“Tech on 2,” said Glitchbot as several plumes of flame shout out of the floor. Rei did several flips as they fired up not particularly close to her. The flaming swords, again, would be added in post-production, “Close up--big finish.”

“What?! No one has dodged my Iron Inferno!” said Iron Kaijin, staggering back.

“No one but Midori Rider!” Rei landed and spun the staff over her head in a similar diagonal movement to the one she was making with her arms earlier. “Midori Storm Kick!” She leapt into the air and collided hard with the actor. The rubber of his costume absorbed a lot of the impact but she could hear the hollow sucking sound of the wind being knocked out of her coworker. And she had been doing so well not hitting everyone else too hard. He fell back flat on his back and Glitchbot shouted “Cut! Great going, team! I think that’s the one!”

Iron Kaijin was groaning on the ground and Rei held a hand out to him. “Uh--hey, sorry. Got a little too into it at the end there.”

He took her hand and staggered to his feet, “It’s fine. Part of the job,” there was a chuckle in his voice, He looked over at the directer, “I was supposed to get that dramatic ‘Noooooo’ in there, though, should we re-shoot that last kick from camera 3 or--”

“Well no one can see your mouth in the mask--We can add it when we’re dubbing for Yoshimi,” said Glitchbot, “Speaking of which---Yoshimi, we’re going to need some re-shoots for the last classroom scene but Tech and Stunts--that’s a wrap for the season. Good job, people!” He clapped and a swell of cheering rose up from the group of henchmen actors. Rei clapped a little as well. Her stomach growled and she pulled off her Midori Rider helmet and shook out her hair from its wig cap. She wondered what craft services had today.

“Hey! Didn’t break the staff this time!” one of the hench actors clapped her on the shoulder.

“Ha-ha,” Rei said flatly, “And hey! Your staff broke at the right time!”

“Oh that’s cold--Hey, stunts and tech are having a little get-together tonight, you in?”

Rei laughed a little, “Yeah, that sounds--” something caught the corner of her eye in the dim lighting of the studio and she saw a narrow figure topped with red hair and her sentence dropped off.

“Rei?” the henchman said, and she blinked a couple of times and remembered she was still talking to someone.

“Sorry,” said Rei, “I uh--I’m just going to... uh...” Rei trailed off again as she walked off.

“Okay then?” the actor called after her as Rei pushed through the crowd of exiting actors and set staff to see Aedan. He was dressed in his usual skinny jeans, a blue-gray blazer and a white shirt that featured a crudely drawn frog-like creature with alien-like eyes on stalks captioned with the words, “Hi How Are You.” There was a small bouquet of peach-colored ranunculi in one of his hands. He had a ‘guest’ tag on. He needed a haircut.

“Hey!” he gave a small wave, “I caught the tail end of that! You were---”

She hugged him tightly and there was a second or two where the sudden physical contact of her left him stunned until he managed to get it together and return the embrace.

“How’d you get here?” Rei pulled back from him slightly, arms still wrapped around him, “When did you get here? You should have called, I would have--”

“It was all sort of short notice,” said Aedan, itching at the back of his head, he brought up the small bouquet, “I uh--Here. Figured it was appropriate, you being an actress and all.”

“Stunt,” said Rei with a smile, “And usually flowers are more of a theater actor thing.”

“Oh no, you’ve torn apart my primary excuse for bringing you flowers--however shall I cope?” said Aedan with a smile. Rei snickered and elbowed him. “You look good--I mean well. Sentai work suits you.”

Rei looked down at her costume and smiled before looking back up at him. “Really though,” she said, “What’s going on?”

“Do you have a minute?” said Aedan, “Or--a couple of days?”

Rei’s smile shrank a little, “Dad and Uncle sent you, didn’t they?” she said, pushing her hair back.

“Well--I also volunteered,” said Aedan.

“Please tell me this isn’t what I think this is about--” Rei started.

“They think they’ve got it this time,” said Aedan.

Rei pursed her lips before exhaling, “Look--I can’t talk like this--I--I gotta get out of this costume.”

“Of course,” said Aedan.

---

Aedan leaned against the wall next to the door of Rei’s dressing room.

“So... you don’t seem very excited by the idea of it,” said Aedan.

“It’s not that I don’t want it back, Aedan, I’m just---You have no idea how exhausting it is getting my hopes up and getting disappointed over and over again,” Rei stepped out of the dressing room in a loose olive swing dress and sneakers, shouldering her purse as she walked down the hall towards the exit of the studio, “I mean... we’ve tried everything.”

Aedan’s eyes fell on the gold-whiskered muzzle of a dragon tattoo peeking out from the back of her dress’s neckline as she walked. “I know,” he said, walking after her, “But it’s different this time--It’s not another biotic treatment, it’s not another intensive meditation with the Shambali, we’ll need to head to Japan again but---”

“Japan?! No, that’s insane--The Shimada clan’s still probably on high alert from when I was getting this,” she pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

“Which is why we need to go now---your uncle’s spy network says the remaining clan heads are at some kind of conference in Hong Kong. And where we’re going, there’s not going to be anyone.”

“You’re going too?” said Rei.

“Well,” Aedan shrugged, “Until we get that dragon back, you’re probably going to need a medic on the team, and your mum’s busy with Jack’s latest set of injuries so...”

“And you still feel responsible for it,” said Rei.

“I--” Aedan ran a hand through his hair, “I know I want to help you get it back.” Rei kept a steady look at him and he cleared his throat, “Plus it’s a softball mission, really. At the very least, if nothing happens, you get a few days camping out in Shirakami-Sanchi.”

“You hate camping,” said Rei, folding her arms and smiling.

“Hey! I can be outdoorsy!” said Aedan.

Rei burst out laughing and managed to catch herself, “Sorry... I--yeah, we’re wrapping up on the season. I can probably get a few days off from Glitchbot. So where’d Dad and Uncle park the Orca?”

“Somewhere embarrassing, obviously,” said Aedan.

---

“Beautiful, isn’t she?”

Andrea’s fist collided with the training drone as another drone was knocked back by a shot from her burst rifle. Training drone parts were strewn all about the floor around her. Two more crumbled to pieces from the forces of her attacks. Reaper watched her from the observation level as several more training bots and a Talon assassin rushed her. The Talon assassin leapt at her, wristblades streaking scarlet through the air, but Andrea brought up her rifle in a block, stopping the blades, before wrenching the rifle out from underneath the blades and smacking the assassin hard in the face with the butt of the rifle. He saw Jack in the blue of her eyes and the bridge of her nose, in the way her jaw tightened.

Beautiful, isn’t she?

You’re goddamn beautiful, Reyes, He remembered the Omnic Crisis, the air heavy and damp and Jack’s forehead against his own, coming away bloody from the newly carved gashes on his own face.

“Gabriel?” that clear voice cut through the memory and he was present again. Andrea still tossing training bots around like they were little more than toys.

“What?” said Reaper.

“I said, ‘Beautiful, isn’t she?’” said Moira, looking back out at Andrea.

“Mm,” Reaper gave a grunt of noncommittal agreement, “So... I take it the council’s not budging on their decision.”

“I questioned the decision,” said Moira, “Provided some alternatives, but they’re sticking with it. Faustine made her offer and he had his chance, I suppose.”

“I’m sorry,” said Reaper.

Moira bit the inside of her lip and looked down. “Her first mission without you as a controller,” she said, her voice somewhat strained, “You must be so proud.”

“I think the council is sending me a message with this mission,” said Reaper, “’Hey in case you were thinking of leaving, we have nanite-tracking tech now and a nanite-and-SEP-Serum enhanced weird...daughter clone of you.’”

“Which is ridiculous because you’re not thinking of leaving,” said Moira, “But thank you for, once again, making the loss of my son all about you.”

Reaper glanced off. What could he say? ‘There’s a chance he could live--he’s smart, Overwatch will protect him. Talon could fail,’ there was no comfort he could give her when any comfort hinged on a failure of Talon’s mission.

“The tech’s still only a prototype,” he said.

“It will work,” her voice was hollow.

Reaper glanced down. “I told you kids make everything messier,” he muttered.

#Reidan #follow for more gency kid facts #moiraspawn

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