The Red Tiger

Year 35 of the Age of the Dragon

“The strength of a tiger is like a locomotive. Its flesh is as armor plates, its sinews are steel springs. Truly, this is power to be respected.”

Joshua grunted angrily and pushed the creeper out from its position under the mobile suit to see who was calling him. He despised being called ‘Josh’, and it usually only took people one or two mistakes to learn.

He was alighted since regaining his legs. He’d felt so depressed during the years he’d been confined to the wheelchair, but now he could walk once more.

And so could the Tora. Recxc, the Arkinoid, had healed them both. Joshua was free, and had a new friend and companion to accompany him on his adventures.

It was Hunter calling for him. His grandfather had a nasty habit of calling him Josh, but almost invariably it happened when he was excited over something. Joshua waved a grease stained hand to Hunter as he reached for a rag and began pushing the creeper clear of the mecha.

Hunter was already running towards him across the expansive hanger by the time he had rolled over and stood up.

“Just got off the line with Cloud,” Hunter explained breathlessly. Joshua was even more confused by this because he had never seen Hunter out of breath from a short run. The man seemed to have cavernous lungs and an infinite supply of stamina. The only time he ever became winded was when he was excited about something.

“He’s got something,” Hunter continued. “Something big. He didn’t say what.”

Joshua nodded, his own excitement growing.

“When Cloud says he has something big, he doesn’t fool around,” Joshua replied. “I bet its something really major.”

“He wants us to come down right away,” Hunter grinned with the sort of awe one usually sees in children; not battle tested fire hardened warriors.

“He’s given us permission to GATE directly into the compound.”

* * *

Joshua and Hunter ran at full speed through the halls of The Dragon’s Lair. The ability to run in itself was almost incomprehensible. Earlier Hunter would have had to wait while Joshua slowly made his way in the wheelchair, but now he could run almost as fast.

Joshua’s compact frame had difficulty keeping up with Hunter, but if Cloud was letting them GATE inside the huge facility of his corporation, rather than the usual landing outside and walking in, it had to be very important indeed.

As they rounded another corner they came on Hunter’s daughter, Emily, Joshua’s mother. She was walking down the hall in the opposite direction, with her younger sister Naomi in tow.

“What's the rush speed demons?” she called out as they ran past.

“Cloud’s got something!” Hunter called back. “Wanna come?”

“Why not?” Emily shrugged as she pulled Naomi onto her back and raced to catch up with them. “Theirs nothing to do around here anyway!”

They arrived at the transit chamber out of breath (except for Hunter, who had miraculously regained his wind) and Hunter punched in the GATE coordinates. They were washed in a wave of golden light and found themselves an instant later on the cool green lawns of Fluffy Cloud Enterprises, Inc.

Cloud was waiting to meet them, and he didn’t even take the time for an appropriate greeting. He was just standing with the door open and waved them in as soon as they landed.

They followed him through a dizzying maze of corridors at a run until they reached a large freight elevator, and rode it down into the subterranean depths of the complex. This was where the corporation kept and developed its highly classified, ultra powerful mechs, and where Cloud kept some of the rarer peaces of his collection.

Cloud had possibly the most valuable collection of mobile suits in the entire Multi-Verse. He collected every kind of suit, from exo-frames to the massive Galaxy Class Gunjins. He only had one of those though, which stood to reason since there were a grand total of twelve in the entire Multi-Verse.

Parts of his collection were on public display in the facility, but he kept the more spectacular peaces out of the publics eye most of the time. This was his collection, not the worlds; plus letting people know he had extremely rare suits was simply inviting theft. Collecting mobile suits was a bit like collecting stamps, except the miss prints were usually worth far less.

They followed him into a dark side hanger, and waited for their eyes to adjust to the dim light. As they watched a giant red cat like shape emerged. It was lying on its side and looked to be breathing, but its boxy appearance led to the notion that it was metal. Joshua was the first to recognize it.

“That’s a Tora, isn’t it?” he said.

Cloud nodded vigorously.

Joshua stepped a bit forward to examine the mech closer and then leaned back, baffled.

“I don’t get it, it’s just a Red Tora, probably a Blade unit. What was so important?”

“Look at it again,” Cloud pressed. “Take a close look.”

“The blades are gone,” Joshua surmised. He could only see one side and it was torn wide open. Any sign of the blade mounting had been erased. But there was something odd about the top of the suit, and the whole shape…

“Wait—” said Hunter. “That’s—”

“A Red Base Tora,” Joshua finished for him automatically.

“I thought those were only a legend,” said Emily, who had stood silently considering the suit. Emily was a pilot as well, but she wasn’t nearly as good as her father or her son. She didn’t have the same knack for building them either, so she had never really found her niche.

“Sort of,” replied Joshua. “One of the ex-executives of the Red Storm Company that built the Tora’s supposedly said something about red base Tora’s before he died. All the records of the company were lost, and he was the last guy alive when people really started getting curious about the suits. I can’t remember—but most people believed they existed. Never even heard of one though.”

“I’d heard a few rumors,” Cloud said. “Unsubstantiated as hell, but whispers. I even tracked down a blue base Tora a few months ago. I was sure I was on the trail of a red one when I got a call.”

“I take it the trail got really hot all of a sudden?” Joshua asked.

Cloud nodded.