-Project A-ko Gaidens-
Fanfic #2 
264 lines

C-ko's Kite Duel
by Warpzone

  Hi! Welcome to my second Project A-ko Fanfic. This one is a bit more 
original than the first, with A-ko and B-ko's competition to be C-ko's friend
taking center stage. Also, my stories never start with A-ko simply going to 
school and being attacked because I wanted to add variety to the stories. 
(I admit, this one contains the cliche ending... but it won't happen again... 
I hope...)

This story takes place during summer vacation, which in Japan is only a 
couple of weeks. Continuity-wise, it takes place sometime after video #1.  
The battle segment was partially inspired by the opening theme of the Robot 
Carnival anime.

...................  
-C-ko's Kite Duel-
...................  

  A-ko and C-ko skipped down the street. It was a windy day for summer, and
slightly overcast. A few leaves blew around, and it seemed that fall was 
going to come early this year.

  "Wheeeee!" C-ko yelled, running around with her arms out like an airplane.
"I love windy days!" she giggled and jumped in the air. "I feel like I'm
FLYING!"

  "I know!" A-ko said, skipping faster to keep up. "Who wouldn't love a windy
day like this!?"

...................  
  
  Meanwhile, B-ko's possy was coming out of the mall. Suddenly, the wind 
blew all their skirts up simutaniously. Ume then heard a creaking noise, 
and looked up at the alien spacecraft that had been delicately balanced 
atop the largest spire in Graviton city. It was whipping back and forth 
in the wind, scattering a screaming, pink-suited painting crew into the 
wind. Asa sighed as they all dodged the falling paint cans. "I hate windy 
days!"

...................  
  
  A-ko began running in the wind, holding up C-ko's new red boxkite. The
string pulled tight, and C-ko let some unravel. Soon the kite was flying high.
The two were having so much fun, they didn't notice B-ko sneaking around in 
the bushes nearby. Paticuarly, they didn't notice that, although she was 
dressed in her regular brown uniform, she was wearing her Akigiyama-23
mecha-suit under it, but without the helmet and boots. They didn't hear 
her say "Akigiyama Missles!", because she didn't. She just silently pulled 
the trigger on the missle palm.

  Suddenly, the kite burst into flames and began to fall back to earth. 

  "Oh," C-ko said, "It's falling." She looked up at it as the string began 
pooling at her feet. "I guess the wind must have died down up there."

  "Are you sure?" A-ko asked, "It looked more like it exploded to me."

  "I don't know," C-ko replied. "I guess it's down, either way. Would you go
get it for me?"

  A-ko sighed, and began walking in the direction of the kite. It was comming
down in a forest, about half a mile away. She noticed it caught a few trees on
fire as it came down. "I'll be back soon," she said, begining to run.

  B-ko happened to walk by just as A-ko dissapeared from sight. "Oh! Why, 
hello there, C-ko!" she said, totally surprised. "What are you doing here!?"

  C-ko grinned happily. "Me and A-ko were flying a kite, but it came down 
in those trees. A-ko went to go get it." She frownned a little. "It might 
be caught on a tree, so she could be gone a while..."

  B-ko reached behind her back and pulled out a flat, black metal V-shape,
like the wings of her Akigiyama suit removed. She also held up a small black
remote control, shaped like a kite reel.

  "For me?" C-ko asked. B-ko nodded as C-ko took the remote. "It's a mecha-
kite," B-ko explained. "Twist the handles on the reel to start it up."

  C-ko did so, and the kite shot up into the sky. "Cool!" she said, as it 
locked onto some far away destination. B-ko smiled as she saw it was heading 
right towards A-ko...

...................  

  Meanwhile, A-ko had reached a small clearing near the smoldering trees the
kite had come down in. She looked around, trying to find the what was left of 
C-ko's kite.

  Suddenly, she heard an odd buzzing noise, and turned to see a large metal 
boomerang spinning toward her from out of the sky. It stopped about 30 feet 
overhead, and hovered without spinning. A panel opened up with an audible
click, and A-ko dodged just in time as a wide green laser blasted the spot 
where she had just been standing. It fired two more times before A-ko stopped 
dodging and started running. This had to be B-ko's doing!

...................  

  "Did I do that!?" C-ko asked. B-ko nodded, pointing to the button C-ko had
pressed three times. A label on it said "Green Death Laser," but it had been
crossed out and replaced with "Harmless Colored Light." 

  "Cool!" C-ko cried, and held down the button while pulling the joystick 
to the right.

...................  

  A-ko kept running as the kite started spinning after her like a boomerang
again, this time with the laser firing continuously. It left a spiral pattern 
burnt into the forest floor as it followed her, and A-ko soon found her path 
blocked by more trees.

  She turned back around and charged toward the swirling kite, then stopped 
at just the right spot and ducked down. The swirling laser cut a circle around
her, barely missing her on all sides. She looked back as the spinning blade
continued past her, then turned around and began another pass, firing the  
laser rapidly this time. A-ko darted off into the less dense part of the 
woods, so she'd be able to move faster.

  As C-ko explored new buttons, the Kite began using new weapons. It suddenly
began flying straight, looking like a miniature Stealth Bomber. Two missle
pods on the arms popped open, and began firing "Akigiyama Fireworks." A-ko
winced as more than a hundred tiny buzzing homing missles swarmed after her,
and crashed through some dense foilage to loose them. Most of them exploded 
on impact with the trees, but a few of them got through and continued their
beeline toward A-ko.

...................  

  C-ko gasped in delight as about 80 fireworks suddenly went off in the 
forest. A brief pause, then a few more went off, way on the other side.
Then at least 30 more exploded in the center of the forest. As the smoke
cleared, C-ko noticed that the kite had stopped releasing fireworks. She
looked down to see a little guage on empty.

  "Darn," she said, then brightened. "Hey, what's this little screen?" she 
asked. "It looks like the kite's tracking something..."
  
  "Uh, no..." B-ko stammered, "That's... um... a built in videogame! Try to
hit the red dot." She silently congradulated herself on the quick excuse.
Meanwhile, C-ko began pressing new buttons, trying to master the controls
of the video game.

...................  

  After finally loosing the last cloud of fireworks, A-ko heard a hissing 
sound. Looking up, she saw the dark blade emitting red, yellow, and blue
gasses. She held her breath and tried to run as fast as she could. Eventually,
however, her face turned the lovliest shade of cyan, and she had to breathe.

  Immediately, she regretted it. The red gas made her choke, the yellow gas 
was tear gas, and the blue gas made her sleepy. Of course, she wasn't in any 
position to appreciate the difference, she just knew she was being gassed. 
She desperately pressed some leaves over her nose (Trees produce air, right?) 
and began running again as she saw the boomerang ignite the gas.

...................  

  C-ko clapped eagerly as she saw all the pretty smoke trails burst into   
colored flame. Of course, she probably would have been less enthusiastic if
she'd known she had just blasted A-ko. There weren't many trees left after
this last big explosion, and when the kite moved away from the forest, C-ko
assumed it was to preserve the last few trees. B-ko was so nice to design
her machines that way!

...................  

  Actually, the kite was following A-ko. She sailed through the air and 
eventually came crashing down into a military antiques shop. "That's it!"
she shouted, "I'M MAD NOW!"

  She grabbed a large, diamond-shaped, midevil archery shield, and ran out of 
the store. She ran and jumped off a cliff, gliding on the metal shield. She
pulled back, and began to gain altitude, flying straight at the dark kite.

...................  

  C-ko suddenly saw a yellow diomand with a red cross on it flying up toward
B-ko's kite. "Look!" she said, "Another kite! One of those square ones!" 
Funny, but she didn't see any bows trailing behind it...

  B-ko gasped. She had slightly better eyesight than C-ko, and could see 
it was A-ko riding the kite like a hang-glider. "Mind your game!" she said, 
and C-ko looked down and realized that the red blip was almost upon her. 
Frowning, she rapidly began hitting buttons, unloading everything she had 
on the stubborn red dot.

...................  

  As A-ko drew closer to the Mecha-kite, it suddenly opened all it's hatches, 
and the black armor crumbled away, revealing that it was entirely made of 
weapons. 

  "Uh-oh."

  A-ko gritted her teeth, and blocked with the shield. She blocked lasers, 
and bombs, and missles, and poison darts, and machine gun fire, and fireballs, 
and electricity, and some type of freeze ray, and some little metal balls that
bounced off without doing anything, but were probably supposed to explode or
something, but didn't work for some reason. When the kite finally ran out of
ammo, (or at least paused to reload) she slashed down on the kite with her
shield, cutting the mecha half.

  Then, as she was gloating over her victory, the shield handle came off in 
her hand.

  "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" A-ko fell toward the remains of the wrecked forest.

  C-ko recognized the scream, having heard it many times before. "A-ko!" she
yelled, and began running toward the forest ruins. B-ko looked at her watch 
and decided to go with her.

  When they got there, they found A-ko at the top of the only tree untouched
by the battle, the front of her skirt caught rather embarassingly on a branch.

  "A-ko! What are you doing up there!? Did you find my kite?" Then it occured
to her to add, "Are you all right?"

  "I'll be fine, as long as my skirt doesn't rip!" she called down. Satisfied,
C-ko went off to get a ladder, while B-ko calculated the odds of an anime
character's skirt ripping. The result was not in A-ko's favor.

  Eventually, C-ko returned with a useless four foot ladder, and A-ko's skirt 
ripped.

  "A-KO!" C-ko dove forward to catch her friend.

  "C-KO! I'M OVER HERE!" Her friend hit the ground behind her, leaving a
surprisingly detailed crater where she landed.

  "I'm sorry!" C-ko said, running over to the crater. A-ko was lying in the 
middle of the impact zone, looking rather banged-up. "Are you okay?" she 
asked.

  "I think so..." A-ko looked around at the crater. Whoever drew the 
backrounds seemed to be exagerating the force of her fall. "It just hurts 
when I... OW!" 

  A-ko passed out.

...................  

  RIIIIIIIIIIIING!

  A-ko yawned and sat up in bed. She then bounded down the stairs in her 
school uniform. Of course, she did a lot of things between these two, but 
it's not important to the story. She opened the door to see C-ko standing 
there. C-ko reached out and rang the doorbell.

  "C-ko, I'm already here!" A-ko calmed down and tried to be nicer. "Did you
bring your kite again today?" she asked.

  "Yeah. After I brought you home, B-ko found it for me." She reached behind 
her and held up a charred box frame.

  The two of them looked at each other and giggled with their eyes shut tight.

THE END