"A New King Will Arise"

Haraguchi received the brain-flash about Zipper’s capture later that night. Taking Raven Hair and a few other followers with him, they departed for Ju-Ichi-Pyramid, taking the vactrain over in no time. With such a vast area under construction, they were blindspots in the routes of the patrol-bots, enabling moonlight meetings in isolated spots across the pyramid. The Polymermen were to meet in an area on the 662nd, so unfinished that it merely consisted of A-Polymer floor, columns, and scaffolding. The autumn air flowed freely, a light snow on the breeze. Night had fallen.

Haraguchi and his comrades took a drone over to the pyramid, slipped by patrol-bots unseen, took an elevator up close to the 662nd, then arrived at the top of a barebones staircase. One of his squadrons waited there for him, puffing cigarettes, leaning against columns, guarding a captured woman, bag tied tight around her head. They smiled in greeting; something about it made Haraguchi uneasy. Wordlessly, he knelt down and removed the bag.

Azuki, mouth space-taped shut, looked up at him with those sad doe eyes. Haraguchi stumbled back, mouth dry, but then the squadron moved fast. They trained pie-guns on Haraguchi and his comrades, with one putting an arm around Raven Hair’s neck. The leader of the squadron tapped his pie-gun on Haraguchi’s chest.

Haraguchi’s face was grim. “What’s the meaning of this?”

The leader smirked. “Don’t remember us?” He nodded at the rest of his team. “You should’ve vetted those joining your little movement of yours. We’re all Tigers, dig?”

As they laughed, the lead Tiger struck Haraguchi in the stomach.

“You didn’t think we forgot about our loss at Nihonbashi, did we?”

Another strike.

“Ever since that loss, something about me felt off,” the Tiger continued, punctuating each sentence with a punch to the stomach, chest, face. “And you helped me realize it, chum. I was so pissed about losing. I just didn’t know how to put it into words. But after realizing we should be about ACTION, not WORDS, then the whole picture became much clearer. Easy revenge!”

Haraguchi keeled over. The Tiger elbowed him in the small of the back, sending him sprawling across the ground. Haraguchi’s followers, all except a shell-shocked Raven Hair, squirmed and tried to help their leader. Several pie-guns went off. Only half-conscious, through blinking eyes, Haraguchi saw the bodies of his followers fall. Only Raven Hair still stood, looking quite scared. In the confusion, Azuki tried to squirm away, but the lead Tiger put a boot on her. Two other Tigers pinned Haraguchi to the ground.

The boot forced Azuki onto her back. The lead Tiger aimed his pie-gun at her sorrowful face, finger on the trigger.

“This is loaded with butter chicken pie and spicy curry, dig? You're gonna be feeling this one, though I dunno if you'll be yelling oishii at the end. Now, order up!”

Haraguchi roared, Azuki cried, and the Tiger pulled the trigger-

“Wait a minute!”

Everybody in the area turned. Up the stairs came none other than Zipper. She shambled over to them, went to say something, then put her hands on her knees.

“Sweet Jesus…the elevator stopped two floors down…t-time-out, okay, let me catch my breath-”

The Tiger swiveled his gun toward Zipper. But then Sue and Nat arrived, and Nat whistled. A sharp squawk rang out as Altamont the pigeon swooped in and flew into the face of the Tiger, sending him stumbling away. Charles the monkey-butler then emerged from above through scaffolding and punched out another Tiger.

“Gee whiz, Nat, you got some swell friends,” Sue ‘sposed. For her part, she played some upbeat electro-Japanimation music to provide moral support.

With the Tigers distracted, Haraguchi sprang to life, out-muscling the two Tigers holding him down. A big fist knocked one out cold; he then scooped up the other and destroyed him with a classic tiger suplex.

The victorious Haraguchi and Dime Boys all scooped up pie-guns and eyed the last opponent - the lead Tiger. He sweated as he back-pedaled, finger on the trigger of his pie gun. “Don’t move! I’m armed-”

“You’re not armed. I’m armed.”

Raven Hair had freed himself, smoke rising from the blast wound on the Tiger laying behind him. He pointed his raygun at the lead Tiger and fired without hesitation. Even set to stun, the raygun packed enough punch to blast the Tiger away into a metal beam. He slipped to the ground, unconscious.

Despite the victory, the mood now turned uneasy. Real weapons were taboo. None of the Polymermen were supposed to have them.

Zipper removed the duct-tape and untied Azuki. “You okay, chum?”

But then the second betrayal came. Two of Haraguchi's followers, seemingly knocked out, revealed their true colors. They rose from the ground, one jamming his pie-gun beneath Haraguchi’s jaw and firing, the other shooting Altamont out of the sky. Nobody else could move, not with a raygun in play.

Raven Hair, raygun raised, approached the now-standing Azuki. He removed her medical mask and shook out his hair, revealing himself to be-

“Grace?” realized Zipper.