Working with Ghosts

By Lennon (Geminiman) and Gauntlet (Shadowman)

Part One: Hopping Corpses and Demonic Spirits

“So let me get this straight, you’re saying there have been reports of… zombies attacking villagers on the outskirts of the city?”

It was fairly early in the morning at the police station, after getting woken up by a call from the commissioner, the Mechanical Maniac known as the Twin Terror was standing in front of his human superior, half asleep, wondering if he was hearing things correctly. Zombie attacks? While there has been the occasional robot, alien or even demon being the cause of trouble throughout Megalopolis, zombies were surprisingly few and far between.

“Yes, well, maybe not zombies. But some form of the undead.”

The police commissioner smiled at the robot master as he pushed a sheet of paper containing the details of the situation towards him. Geminiman picked up the report and skimmed through it but couldn’t help but notice the uneasiness of the man in front of him.

“And you want me to go in and find the cause of these attacks and stop it?”

There was a hint of frustration in his voice, for years Geminiman had fought alongside the rest of the Mechanical Maniacs to protect the world as some sort of band of heroes and yet, humans always seem to act so… distant towards him.

“Yes that is exactly what we want you to do.”

Seemingly more worried at the robot’s frustration, the commissioner’s usually calm composure began to slip. Upon seeing this, Geminiman just sighed and nodded.

“I’ll get right on to it. Am I the only officer assigned to the case?”

He already knew the answer to that question, ever since the Maniacs became a team of robot police; they’ve generally worked alone or together as the one team but never with anyone else, which became somewhat of an annoyance to Geminiman seeing as he was the only paranormal investigator and since he couldn’t always rely on the rest of the team to help out on his investigations, the job became long and tedious.

“You have one optional.”

****

“You want me to hunt zombies with you?”

Needlegal did not sound amused as Geminiman spoke to her via the communicator in their Transmetal 2 armor. He wasn’t too pleased either at the fact out of the entire team the only member who seemed best fitted to help out with this assignment was one of the members he didn’t get along well with.

It wasn’t news to anyone that Needlegal and Geminiman weren’t the best of friends; the two were both veterans of the team but have been at odds for most of their careers. Still, the fact they had fought alongside each other for so long forged a strong sense of respect and trust between the two.

“I know it sounds ridiculous and that I’m probably the last person you’d want to team up with for an assignment but if I’m going to fight zombies I know I won’t stand a chance without a heavy gunner such as yourself.”

“Are you afraid that the zombies might dirty your armor and tarnish your beautiful image?” Needle snickered “Why don’t you go ask your dear Classi out for this assignment? Spend a bit of alone time with her.”

“Yeah, because a woman loves going out to hunt zombies with her beloved,” the Twin Terror replied sarcastically, “I already asked her. She’s currently busy tending her mango tree."

"Is anyone else going to come help?"

"SD is a high pursuit specialist so I won't really be needing his help on this one, Hardman is at the bar, being around Raijin makes me... uneasy, whereas our fearless leader is missing as usual.”

“What about Magnetman?”

The mention of Magnetman made Lennon grit his teeth a bit. “Eigen’s helping Classi out with the mango tree.” Ever since the new Magnetman joined the team, Classi took him in as some sort of foster child drawing her attention away from the self-proclaimed knight in shining armor. and he was none too pleased at that.

“So it's just the two of us then?" A slight "Mmm" could be heard confirming Needlegal's question. "Ah, well since I have nothing better to do around here I may as well join you and ease your heart pains.”

“Why thank you, I’ll send you the coordinates and meet you there.”

The village was just outside the southeast area of Megalopolis, it was a surprisingly large community despite being located in a more remote area in comparison to other areas of the city. Lennon and Needlegal arrived at the scene in a brilliant flash of light and were greeted by some local officers.
“You need not worry anymore officers, I, the Twin Terror, Geminiman have arrived to assume control of the scene!” Always one to show off, Lennon wasted no time in announcing his arrival while his companion sighed and shook her head.

“If you’re going to act like that whenever we arrive at an assignment I swear I will puncture a nice hole in that face of yours.”

“Your words hurt Needle, there’s nothing wrong with displaying a bit of showmanship.”

The two began to bicker until the officers interrupted them.

“Excuse me, are you per chance the paranormal investigator sent from Megalopolis?” asked one of the officers seeming rather uneasy at the sight of the two robot masters.

“Why yes I am kind sir,” Lennon said while making a small fancy bow then gestured towards Needlegal, “And this lady here is my associate, she specializes in heavy weaponry should the situation require it.”

The mistress of prickly things sighed at her partner’s antics and then kindly greeted the officers.

“Well, we’re glad you’re here. There have been all sorts of happenings out near the cave over here. Reports of zombies, ghosts and all those kind of things, so what are you going to, charge into the cave and destroy everything inside to make it safe?” asked the other officer who looked quite excited.

“Actually, we’re going to just investigate inside the cave to find out what’s causing all these attacks and if possible fix it.” said the paranormal investigator.

“And by fix you mean destroy with lots of explosions?”

“No, I mean that I’m going to hopefully resolve the matter in an orderly fashion. Mindless destruction is rather… unsightly.” The excited officer seemed kinda let down by Lennon’s response and then led the two robot officers to the cave in question.

“Well then, we’ll just leave everything up to you two then. Good luck!” said the uneasy officer as he and the other officer left while Gemini and Needle entered the cave.

Needless to say, the caves were really dark. Fortunately, the chrome plates on Geminiman’s new armor were bright enough to illuminate the view ahead as the two traversed through the darkness.

It wasn’t long until a groaning sound could be heard along with the sound of slow heavy footsteps approaching. Quick to react to the sound, Geminiman adjusted his laser to harmlessly bounce off various walls of the cave so he could get a better look at where the zombie might be coming from and if he brought along a couple of friends. The bright light from the laser revealed the zombie inching towards them but not much else.

“Hmm, I’m somewhat disappointed, usually I would expect zombies to come in reasonably large packs but this one appears to be on its own. Also, nothing else appears to be out of the ordinary so let’s just move deeper into the caves.” And with that, Lennon morphed his hand into the arm cannon and shot the zombie in the head before moving on.

“You know, when you told me about the zombies I was expecting some… well bigger numbers.” Needlegal was beginning to get bored while they walked deeper into the darkness, suddenly the volume of groaning sounds became louder and Gemini quickly fired another laser to light up the room revealing a much larger number of zombies, some even brandishing weapons.

“Brilliant, you just HAD to say that didn’t you?” The Twin Terror sighed and shook his head at their current predicament.

“Hey at least we were prepared for something like this.” Said Needlegal as she proceeded to unleash a barrage of needles through a large group of zombies, only for more zombies to take their place and become more aggressive. “Well, we could use one of your master plans now, Gem.”

“Oh I got it all planned out Needle, we charge right through them.” Lennon sneered as the zombies approached even faster towards the two.

“We do what? But there’s no end to them! How are we supposed to get through all…? ” before she could finish her sentence a blinding light consumed the cave and then all of a sudden she felt like she was flying through the crowd of undead knocking over several of them, her eyes felt like they were on fire and she was getting very disorientated and then she just dropped to the ground.

“Blinding Light, the technique comes in handy for a nice quick and graceful getaway.” was the response as Lennon brushed some dust off his armor. making sure it was still all buffed and shiny while Needlegal picked herself back up. With a smug look on his face the narcissistic robot gestured towards her and simply said “Shall we?”

“You’re really pushing it, you know that?”

“Did you hear that sound?” Lennon asked as his prickly partner finally regained her bearings.

“What? You suddenly scared of what’s out there?” she jokingly asked.

“No, I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction of tarnishing my beautiful image by telling everyone I was scared by a mere ringing sound. However, doesn’t it sound somewhat out of place?”

“So you thinking that might be the cause of all these zombies, a ringing sound of all things? Doesn’t that sound kinda… stupid?”

“Still, it’s our only real lead and I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get out of this cave as soon as possible. So let’s try and find the source of that ringing.”

Walking deeper into caves the two found themselves stumbling upon something unexpected, there were old remains of a city, appearing to be from an eastern background, the ruins maintained a strong and beautiful look but upon further investigation, the structures were clearly on their last legs.

“I say, it’s quite impressive to see that there was a civilization located so deep within this cavern. I wonder how old it is.” While marvelling at the remnants of the city, a young man wearing an elegant oriental looking gown jumped from the shadows and took a swing at the Twin Terror, catching him completely off guard causing him to double back into a wall while his attacker made another swift assault.

Needlegal quickly pulled out her needle cannons and aimed them at the youth but he didn’t hesitate and jumped out of the line of fire causing the needles to go flying into Gemini’s pristine chrome armor. The narcissistic robot screamed as the needles pierced through his shiny armor. ruining his image and causing a considerable amount of pain. The boy then quickly leapt at Needlegal and promptly disarmed her and pinned her against a pillar.

“How dare you step onto our sacred land. You will rue the day you decided to harm us!” he yelled while the mistress of prickly things struggled to break free from his hold, she could use her cactus defense, but her opponent appeared human and such a defense could severely injure him or even kill him, fortunately he wasn’t all that strong and she threw him off her back and into the hard ground. He quickly bounced back up on his feet took a swing at Needlegal. More prepared for his counterattack, she stopped his fist in its path. The young man went to make another swift punch until his other arm was grabbed by an unhappy looking Geminiman pointing his Gemini Laser at the youth’s head.

“I must say, that was rather uncalled for. Not very civilised of you jumping out of nowhere and attacking us just like that,” he then turned to Needlegal whom still had the youth’s other arm seized, “And your shooting just ruined my armor.”

“Oh boohoo, you’ve shot me before, remember? Consider it payback.” She sneered back at him. The youth was still very active, but it was very clear that his only advantage over the two was his agility combined with the element of surprise.

“Vile scum, I will not let you villains lay a finger on milady!” he spat at the two robots looking quite confused over the situation.

“Reminds me a lot of you, young pretty boy with a crazy obsession over a certain someone that he refers to as ‘milady’ like she was some sort of royalty, hell, he even shares the same fashion sense.” Needlegal snickered while Lennon was not finding it the least bit funny. Instead he decided to shrug off the comment and confront their assailant.

“You’ve got the wrong idea. We’re not here to cause any trouble; we’re here to investigate a series of attacks against the people outside the cave.” He said while still trying to hold on to the boy struggling to break free.

“So you’re working for the surface dwellers then.” A voice came from behind one of the walls, a girl hopped out wearing a pink version of boy’s gown, she gave off a very prim and proper look and there was an air of nobility surrounding her, although there was one strange thing about her, there was a talisman attached to her hat, the same kind you would normally see used to seal up forbidden or haunted areas.

“You’re not a zombie, I would say you’re a ghost of some sort.” said Geminiman, with his eyes fixed on the talisman; he then noticed the boy also had one his hat, however it was torn off. “But clearly you’re hopping corpses or Jiang Shi considering the nature of your movement. According to western cultures you're considered asian vampires, but you lack any trait of western vampirism and that title was more of a combination between two cultures views on certain members of the undead.”

“It’s close enough. My name is Munak, and that man is my fiance Bongun. This palace you see before us was once ours, we were to be wed and become the heirs to the throne and our kingdom flourished with peace, prosperity and beauty. But as fate would have it, an incident occurred and our glorious kingdom fell into ruin and the two of us perished with it.” The princess stroked her hand against one of the cold palace walls and two robots couldn’t help but notice a sense of melancholy in her eyes. “Now our souls wander around what’s left of it, trying to find some rest. I apologize for my beloved’s behavior, but as of late there has been an increase of aggressive spirits within the area.”

“Yes, well that’s the reason we are here. I’m Geminiman, a paranormal investigator for the Megalopolis Police Force and a member of the Mechanical Maniacs, a team that is currently under the employment of the police force.” Once again, he made a fancy bow of greeting and then pointed towards his partner, “And this is my team-mate Needlegal; she’s a heavy gunner for police force.” Needlegal waved as Munak made a polite bow towards the two while Gemini carried on talking. “These aggressive spirits which you speak of seem to be coming to the surface and attacking villagers nearby. I was wondering if you knew anything about why they’ve all of a sudden become so aggressive.”

“Recently, something emerged at the deepest depths of this cave and with it came this ringing sound. It disturbs our rest and has caused many of us to go insane.” spoke Bongun, still being held by Needle and Gemini whom eventually let go of the prince.

“So I was right.” said the twin terror with a sense of satisfaction. “In that case, would you help us find the source of this ringing so we may put a stop to all of this; you’ll be able to rest in peace and it will put the people on the surface at ease.”

“Very well, I shall lend you our servant; she goes by the name of Sohee.” A small cute maiden with long flowing black hair poked her head out from behind a pillar and then slowly hovered out and politely bowed to the two robot masters. She was wearing a very beautiful and extravagant robe that flowed gracefully with her movements and had a look that would make any man turn their heads 180 degrees.

“Ah… Umm, Greetings, my name is Sohee, it is a pleasure to meet you.” She said in a soft voice causing Needlegal to make a small squeal of adoration and Geminiman to cough a bit and blush in embarrassment. The prince and the princess gave the two robots an odd look and the two quickly regained their composure and put on a good professional look.

“Don’t say a word about this to the rest of the team, understand that Lennon?”

“I won’t say anything if you don’t Needle.”

“Um, is there anything wrong?” Sohee said causing the two robot masters to lose their senses again but they quickly recovered and shook their heads.

“No, everything is fine. Now, if you could lead us to bottom of the cavern it would be much appreciated.” said Lennon in a very gentlemanly manner.

The journey down to the end of the cave wasn’t all the path was beginning to fade making it more difficult for the two Maniacs to see where they were going, fortunately for them the ringing sound was getting louder and louder indicating that they were getting close and Sohee seemed to know the caves like the back of her hand and they reached the ends of the cave in a short amount of time.

“This is it! The source of this annoying ring is just around the corner.”

The Maniacs turned around the cavern wall to find… a foxlike creature closely resembling a very young girl playing around with a bell normally found on a cat’s collar, although abnormally large attached to long metal rod.

Sohee started gazing upon it in awe and was about to say “Ooh” until she was silenced by Needlegal whom was beginning to get fed up with the overall cuteness of the things they were recently encountering.

“What is this? The cavern of ridiculously cute things?” exclaimed Needlegal as she examined at the harmless looking creature.

“Um, there were zombies back at the entrance and top half of the caves, a lot of them actually. I can’t say that there was any cuteness in that.” Geminiman retorted as he approached the fox girl. “Now we just need to get this bell away from it and everything will hopefully calm down and we can get back home and file a report at the station.”

As he reached over to the bell, the fox girl suddenly hissed at the narcissistic robot and smacked him across the face with the rod, much to his surprise.

“Ow! That wasn’t beautiful! That wasn’t beautiful at all! How dare she strike at my beautiful face! That really, really hurt!”

The fox girl then continued to smack Geminiman across the face and then jumped on his face and leapt off into the distance back up the cave leaving the twin terror lying face up on the ground in disbelief.

“Nice move there, slick.” said Needlegal as she laughed at her team-mate’s condition. Geminiman leapt back up on the ground looking very much pissed.

“That shameless harlot! No one, touches the face and gets away with it! I mean I have an image to maintain!” he yelled

"Not a very gentleman thing to say about girl." sneered Needlegal

'Well you saw her, she wasn't wearing any pants, or form of underwear for that matter." Lennon as he marched towards the direction the fox girl headed off in.

“Um, Mister Geminiman…” Sohee began to say in her cute tone of voice.

“Not now, Sohee, not now.”

“Oh stop it Lennon, you’re scaring the poor thing.” Needle said, still laughing at him for getting beaten up by a little fox girl of all things.

“Are you going to help me or what?” said the narcissist in an angry tone.

“Of course, but I still get to laugh at you.” snickered the Mistress of Prickly Things.

The two Maniacs and Sohee gave pursuit to the fox girl whom was now ringing the bell at a faster and louder rate which seemed to draw in the attention of a large group of zombies as they drew closer to the palace ruins.

“What happened?” asked Munak as she saw the three arrive at the scene.

“Stopping the ringing proved to be slightly more… difficult than expected.” replied the paranormal investigator.

“Ha, shows what happens when you place faith in these outsiders.” Bongun spoke in an arrogant tone causing Munak to hush him with a cold look.

“Does he really remind you of me?” Gemini asked Needle looking kinda pissed off at the prince’s behavior

“Oh yeah, remember you were the first one to jump down my throat during that whole fiasco with Mesmerman and Junocron, Face it Gem, you can be one hell of a jerk.”

“In any case, we’re being surrounded by some angry looking zombies and have a really fast fox girl controlling their rage with that stupid bell. May I suggest you deal with the zombies and I’ll try stopping the fox girl?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Needlegal pulled up her needle cannons and opened fire against the mob of approaching zombies. “Just try not to get beat up again.”

“Very funny. Don’t worry I’ll be ready for her this time!” Geminiman continued his pursuit for the fox girl as Needle continued hailing needles around the palace destroying everything in her path while Bongun, Munak and Sohee took cover. Rubble and zombie parts started flying around the palace making a big mess. While just outside the palace, Geminiman started firing off his Gemini Laser constantly retracing a path for the beams to control the agile movements of the fox girl. But she was very swift and could move a lot faster than the twin terror could predict.

“This is getting ridiculous.” He said, and then the fox girl leapt him and swung her rod at the Maniac’s face once again, earning his indignation. “That’s it! You’re not going to get away from me!”

The twin terror quickly switched on his invisibility mode and split into six in order to surround the fox girl. Just as she was getting away, Gemini made one of his clones visible in front of her to block her path causing her to quickly turn around in another direction, only to run into another clone which suddenly popped up in front of her. She tried to take another swing at the clone but it vanished and appeared behind her. The fox girl was getting more and more confused and disoriented, no matter where she seemed to run, Geminiman would appear right next to her as if he was everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. She decided to leap high into the air where she thought he couldn’t reach her but all of a sudden she saw Geminiman diving down towards her only to see him vanish once again.

She landed on the ground, nothing was there, she appeared to be all alone but then a voice came echoing through the cavern walls.

“What’s the matter? Having trouble seeing me? I’m right here.” He said mockingly as he finally revealed all six of clones surrounding her, slowly pacing around her as if they were ready to pounce on her. This was Geminiman’s Celestial Dance of Gemini. A technique he designed to use the full potential of his abilities as a robot master. He had disorientated the fox girl and has now surrounded her, putting her in a position where her instincts could leave an opening for attack from any one of Geminiman’s clones.

He was smirking at her, feeling rather accomplished at finally being able to corner her. However he didn’t dare to make any sudden movements either. While the Celestial Dance of Gemini was indeed a very cunning move, it suffered one flaw in which if Geminiman made the move to attack he could leave an opening for escape from his formation or due to his distance from the target they could dodge his attack and send it in the direction of one of his clones, so whatever happened, he had to make sure that his target made the first move and he would have enough time to respond to it.

They were at a stalemate; whoever moved first would most likely lose. He had to force her hand; she appeared to be more animal than human just based on her instinctive behavior and movement so it shouldn’t be difficult for him. The clones began to circle around the fox girl at a faster pace, her eyes followed them as they appeared to be closing her in more and more as they got faster and then in one swift movement summoned a pair of Kyuubi then she tried to swing her rod at one of the clones.

Geminiman quickly merged back into one and pulled out one of his burning kali sticks and parried the attack causing the bell to go flying deep into the cave and the fox girl finally collapsed after being so disorientated.

“Charming.” he said, as he morphed his hand into the arm cannon and fired a few shots to cause a small cave in to seal off the bell from the reach of anyone or anything. Now he had a pair of angry Kyuubi to deal with. The demonic foxes were fast and dashed towards the twin terror whom managed to dodge them narrowly, finding himself surrounded by the two just as he had surrounded their master just earlier.

"Well this is somewhat unexpected." glancing around at his surroundings, he quickly planned a line of fire for his Gemini Laser but just as he could pinpoint a decent trajectory one of the Kyuubi would jump at him and try to gnaw at his limbs. In pain, the narcissistic robot threw the fox against a wall only to have it bounce back on to its feet and leap at him again. Lennon made a quick dodge and then promptly attempted to go invisible again but when his cloaking device began to activate, the other Kyuubi attacked and shorted out his invisibility.

"Damn you stupid animal, get off me!" Gemini grabbed the biting fox demon and concentrated some of his laser energy into his hand making it howl in pain and then promptly threw it at the other Kyuubi before unleashing all the concentrated energy into one massive punch directed at the two.

As the dust cleared from his shooting star technique he saw both Kyuubi still standing now surrounded in a fiery aura. Apparently, all Lennon had done was simply anger them and make them even stronger and what made matters worse was his armor was very sensitive to heat. Bracing himself for the oncoming attack pulled out his two burning kali sticks and waited for the demon foxes to come to him, then all of a sudden a rain of needles came showering in and the blood of the demon foxes splattered against the walls as Geminiman turned to see Needlegal looking rather accomplished with her recent zombie slaughter.

"Looks like you need some help." she said with a cheerful smile.

"Your timing is impeccable, although I must admit it ended the fight in a rather anti-climatic tone." the narcissistic robot replied, dusting off his armor.

"Always with the showmanship, you know a little thank you would be much appreciated." sighed the Mistress of Prickly Things

“Look at what you have done!” Bongun yelled angrily at the two robot masters. “Your destructive gunfire has ruined our palace! It is nothing but a pile of rubble now!”

“It was already ruins in the first place, although there is no beauty in such mindless destruction.” Lennon commented while examining what was left of the palace ruins.

“Yeah well, you try taking on a mob of zombies without creating some mindless destruction.” said Needle in a very defensive tone of voice.

“Um… What do we do now? If the palace is gone where will we rest?” asked Sohee as she seemed to float around the rubble.

“Tell you what, how about I find you all a place to stay. Since I’m pretty much responsible for all that has occurred here.”

“What’s the deal Gem?” asked a suspicious Needlegal. “You’re not getting any ideas now, are you?”

“You know me Needle, I like being the knight in shining armor. and as a matter of fact, I do have a plan.” With that, Geminiman took Bongun, Munak and Sohee and teleported back to the police station while Needlegal followed suit.

“Welcome to your new home!” Geminiman proudly said as he opened the door to the basement of the police station while Bongun, Munak and Sohee just looked on in utter disbelief.

“What is this madness?” Bongun exclaimed, “You expect us to live in such filth among you surface dwellers?”

“Hey, it’s as deep and dark a place I could find. Besides, if you live here it means you won’t need to wake up so early to get to work.” The Twin Terror replied.

“Work?” the prince said in an inquisitive manner.

“Well as of today, you three are now going to be part of my staff as paranormal investigators. I’m terribly understaffed and I thought who better to help investigate the paranormal than the paranormal? Bongun and Munak will be my assistant investigators that help out on all the paperwork and occasionally help out on the field while Sohee can be my secretary and organise all my assignments.” This news did not go well received as Bongun predictable started hurling insults at the paranormal investigator.

“How dare you! No! I refuse to be your lackey! I am a member of royalty for crying out loud!”

“Calm down Bongun, Mister Geminiman did help us out in the cave, although he did ruin our home in the process, I’m sure he means well. It would not be proper if we do not repay the favour.” Said the princess trying to calm down her fiance, although it was clear she wasn’t too happy at these turn of events either.

“Um, should I go get you some tea then, Mister Geminiman?” asked Sohee in her usual cute manner.

“That would be lovely, thank you, Sohee. Good to see that you’re willing to adapt to the situation... You’re not going to poison it are you?”

“Oh, I would never do such a thing!” she said in a nervous and suspicious tone as she slowly floated towards the kitchen.

“This probably wasn't a good idea, considering their past life I guess this was to be expected. But at least I have some staff now.” thought the Twin Terror as he looked on at his new employees, "whether they actually like it or not."

Meanwhile, back at the caves a mysterious figure digs through the rubble searching for something. Smiling, he reaches for the item and grabs a hold of it making it create a ringing sound followed by the groans of the undead approaching him from behind.

“This will do well.” He said before laughing maniacally.

Part One – End