Man in Suit!

By

JM Shiloh

Dr Kodai Nomura received the unmistakable omen of a very bad day when his morning drive to work took him straight through the shadow of Robo Banzaizer, the silent sentinel of Radian City that now stood defeated on the blood-red horizon, a small plume of black smoke still rising from its smashed-in head. Nomura could feel the heaviness of that shadow, darkening his hope as well as a long, humanoid-shaped swatch of downtown. Things got even worse when the silver-haired old man unlocked the door to his laboratory to find his android assistant, Miki, crying. She was missing the entire lower half of her body, and what remained was sitting in a little red wagon that belonged to Mitsuru, Nomuras nine-year-old nephew. The everprecocious lad stood nearby, gently patting Miki's shoulder. Uncle! Mikis lost her legs!" said Mitsuru. Someone broke in and stole them last night when she was recharging. Blast! said Dr Nomura. They must have been after the gluteal fusion generator. Oh, Doctor! Miki said. Ive been made useless. How can I do anything stuck in this wagon? Miki bawled with such ferocity that synthetic tears shot out the sides of her eyes like tiny missiles. How could this happen? Dr Nomura said. I designed the security system myself. No one can get into this laboratory without No one, Dr Nomura? a new voice said. Not all your designs are foolproof. Nomura knew who was behind him before he turned around. Major Matsumoto was back. The Major has come to help us, Uncle, said Mitsuru. I let him in. He gave me a candy bar. Matsumoto was not alone, of course. His two bumbling cronies, Ringo and Tomo. stood nearby. They poked nosily around various devices on the lab tables while their boss, ever the cipher,

puffed on a cigarette and betrayed no interest in such wonders as the optican brain enlarger or the combination school bookbag/ personal rocketpack {the new horror of Radian City parents). Get away from those devices! Nomura yelled. Last time you people messed around with my inventions, one of your soldiers ended up with the head of a seahorse. And we were grateful for your help in saving our city from the madman he became, Matsumoto said. But we have other business to discuss. The break-in last night ...this is a serious matter worth government attention. Perhaps I can be of some assistance. Nomura knew Matsumotos tone, and it betrayed him. As Miki looked up at the doctor with wide, hopeful eyes, Nomura turned back to the Major with a grimace. I think I may have some idea who was responsible, Major, he said with disgust. Furthermore, I am guessing that in exchange for this so-called investigation, you will want something from me? Matsumoto laughed heartily, insincerely. "You know me too well, Doctor." I know your methods. And what youre capable of. Matsumoto became suddenly serious, his spine straightening. And you also know how dire our situation is. Now that he has defeated Robo Banzaizer, the monster Ragnaroka will surely return. His battle wounds will heal, and he will know that Radian City is no longer protected from his wrath. Does that not frighten you, doctor? It frightens me. Ringo (left-hand crony) leaned around the Majors shoulder and said, Believe me, its serious if the Major is scared. Tomo (right-hand crony) did the same. Cause hes not scared of anything! Dr Nomura turned and rubbed his chin in thought. He walked over to the front window that overlooked the city, saw in the distance the gleaming, still form of Banzaizer, and remembered that final battle. The monster Ragnaroka had employed every weapon in his arsenal, from the swinging wrecking ball that hung from his right arm to the black, fleshy salaryman briefcase that grew from his left like a rectangular tumor; now and then the cases gaping maw would snap open, releasing pterodactyl-sized paper bats to flutter about the head of Banzaizer in an attempt to blind him from the monsters next blow. An additional distraction came from the TV monitor encased within Ragnarokas torso, a hellish device that bombarded his enemies with enticing television commercials offering New and Improved products for the giant robot who has everything [Fist Finder A-Go-Go! New GPS locates a lost rocket punch anywhere on the globe!). Yes, the beast was wily, but Robo Banzaizer had fought on. Brilliant red laser beams were fired, sleek blue missiles were launched, spinning Blades of Doom were spun.

And then the unthinkable happened. As thousands watched on TV from emergency bunkers, Ragnaroka froze mid-strike, his wrecking ball dropping carelessly to his side. The beast stared into the face of his enemy, suddenly noticing, for the first time in all their battles, the small glassenclosed cockpit in the head of Robo Banzaizer, where sat the robots young pilot, Go Musashi. Ragnaroka hesitated for a moment, then casually smashed in Bftnzaizers head with one swift (and not even particularly forceful) blow from his left arm. And like that, a citys hope died. Dr Nomura wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and turned back to Major Matsumoto. "You know, Major, that I always help in any way I can. The damage to our city will be repaired by my nanobots. They will reconstruct our metropolis in exact detail, as they have countless times before. Miki said, In fact, Dr Nomura is working on an idea to replace the Pneumatic Escape Tubes with teleporters, if only we can get* "That's all very good, but something more is needed," Matsumoto said. A way to defeat Kagnaroka, to* No! Nomura said. I will never again use my scientific skills for military purposes. I created Banzalzer for you. and now it has cost the life of our citys hero. I will not let that happen again." Matsumoto just smiled and gave a sly wink to Miki, who blushed like a schoolgirl (not the first or last time Dr Nomura would regret installing the emotion drive). You didnt let me finish, doctor. I am not asking for weaponry, he said. It is clear Ragnaroka cannot be defeated by military means. The best we can hope for is to remove the monster. And in that we suspect you can help us." Dr Nomuras face paled with a sudden realization. What arc you implying, Major?* Matsumoto said, Despite your attempts at secrecy, we are aware of your recent experimentation with what you call ghost realities... unreal worlds existing as phantoms on the boundaries of spacetime. Like you, we see great possibilities in this work. Possibilities for rendering such worlds temporarily real. If you could open a fissure to one of these parallel worlds, we might be able to lead Ragnaroka into its path" Madness!" Dr Nomura yanked his thick glasses from his face. What you propose is madness!" But Uncle, said young Mitsuru. if it worked we could be rid of the monster forever." It's not that simple, Nomura said, wringing his hands. It's not like opening a door to another room. Its playing with the very fabric of reality. Far too dangerous a thing to try on such a large scale.

Matsumoto walked over to a still-sniffling Miki and handed her a handkerchief. Would you rather waste your time and scientific brilliance reconstructing poor Miki? He patted Mitsuru on the head as the youngster munched the last bites of his chocolate bar. Would you deny your nephew another opportunity to pull this glorious red wagon through the streets of Radian City? If Ragnaroka strikes again, there will be no more joy for the children. Dr Nomura looked at Miki, her huge eyes shimmering with tears, and although he knew they were only a saline solution of his own creation, somehow contained within those crystal droplets were the hopes and fears of every man, woman and child in Radian City. They were all helpless in the face of the monster. But he. Dr Nomura, was not. All right. You win again. Major, said Dr Nomura. I will help you. And may the Great Protector in the Stars forgive me if something goes wrong!" Mikis trusting smile beamed, almost making up for the self- satisfied grins crossing the faces of Matsumoto and his men. The next month was a busy one for Dr Nomura and his team; a month of Tesla coils and solar panels, soldiers in radiation suits and accidentally mutated dust bunnies, bubbling beakers and horrific controlled explosions of blue fire that could be seen from the moon. At the end of the fourth week. Dr Nomura handed his pocket tachyon generator back to Mild (who kept it safely protected in her sternum) and said. Its done. Now we must wait, and pray." The very next day, the call came through: soldiers guarding the beach had spotted a great boiling spot in the seathe tell-tale sign that Ragnaroka's hibernation/healing period had ended. A rampage was due, and this time he would rise unopposed. Or so he thought. As the alert sounded throughout the city, thousands took to their Pneumatic Escape Tubes, shooting themselves through Dr Nomura's nanobot-constructed underground labyrinth of escape tunnels. As usual, a few stayed behind, for reasons ranging from the brave (journalists) to the insane (Ragnaroka cultists eager for self-sacrifice). And amidst the fleeing, a military escort rushed into the city square. Troops created a perimeter around the bronze statue of Go Musashi the fifty-foot token of appreciation that had now become a memorial. At the base of the statue sat a boxy silver control panel, its console blinking, tentacle-like tubes emerging from all sides and trailing off to humming generators. Dr Nomura leaped from the Jeep as it pulled up to his invention and said, Quickly! Quickly! He will soon emerge from the seal As Nomura made final calibrations to the machine, Matsumoto. still in the Jeep, lit a cigarette and barked a command to his bumbling cronies. Ringo and Tomo unloaded the little red wagon from the back and. one on each side, clumsily lifted Miki from the Jeep and placed her in the wagon.

"When can I have my wagon back? asked little Mitsuru, his face smeared as usual with chocolate. As soon as your uncle saves the city, little friend. said the Major, well get Miki put back together and youll have your wagon. Youd better hope the Major never sees a military application for it, III tell you that, grumbled Nomura bitterly. He moved the great lever in the center of the console, and a deep throb like the citys heartbeat emanated from their surroundings. All power in Radian City was now being diverted to tear open a portal to a world once unreal. The power source is stabilized, Nomura said. Now we need only get the monster within the target area. They didnt have to wait long. Eight minutes later, Ragnaroka emerged from the dark womb of the sea, reborn and ready. His head, a fusion of flesh and metal, gleamed in the merciless sun like a five-pronged iron crown with blazing red eyes at the tips. His craggy purple body shot steam from its gills as he lumbered towards the shore, wrecking-ball arm swinging with his steps, salaryman briefcase at his side. Military trucks reported landfall and sped into the city ahead of the beast. The nauseating thud of the monsters footsteps shook the ground for what seemed like ages to those waiting in the city square. When the behemoth finally came into view on the horizon, Dr Nomura felt Miki clutching his leg in fear, the wagon axle squeaking from her trembling. Mitsuru stopped munching his candy bar. Behind them, Ringo and Tomo stood petrified, hands on their sidearms for comfort. Major Matsumoto remained silent and unreadableyet even his stoic countenance was betrayed by a single drop of sweat running down his temple. The first great crash hit their earsRagnaroka was getting down to business. He took out the TV station with one swing of his wrecking ball, and from his front eye loosed a winding plasma beam straight into the Ragnaroka Temple, cleansing fifty-six more loyal worshippers from the Earth with his Blessed Atomic Fire. He kicked his way through a few smaller structures on the way to the city square, where Dr Nomura slowly placed his palm upon the red ignition button. Ragnaroka, for all his faults, did possess one positive quality: he was witlessly predictable. He never missed a chance to obliterate his three favorite targetsthe Art and History Museum, the Science and Technology Center, and Kikyu-Nomo Toys, Inc. The bright colors and brilliant geometry of downtowns most famous structures were irresistible to his destructive lust, and each had been rebuilt a dozen times by Nomuras nanobots. This time, however, things would be different. Nomura hit the button. The facades of the museum, the tech center, and the toy company broke apart at the seams and began to crumble, falling away in unison all around the monster. Dr

Nomura had altered his nanobots programming; this time the buildings were only clever shells concealing three identical, chrome-ringed warp generators. Ragnaroka paused and stared as golden, spinning globes atop each generator sent noodles of electricity into the air. He looks confused, said little Mitsuru. Put your safety goggles on, everyone! said Dr Nomura, lifting the thick blue lenses to his own eyes. On cue, crackling ribbons of red lightning snaked from one generator to the next, trapping Ragnaroka within an electric maelstrom. The world around the monster flashed negative, light becoming dark, dark becoming light, with an ear-bursting kettledrum crash. Finally, a perfect half-globe of popsicle-red light grew up around the area, obscuring from view everything within the radius of the three warp generators. Within that dome of mystery-energy, the boundary between the myriad worlds had been breached. A quick yellow flash and a tooth-shaking boom capped it all off. As a quiet rumble faded into silence, plumes of smoke arose inside the target area. Dozens of eyesbelonging to soldiers, police, government agentswatched the scene. Dr Nomura slowly removed his safety goggles. Miki held her breath. The Majors cigarette had burned down to his fingertips. When the smoke cleared, they would all know their citys future. Would the target area be empty? A huge, triangular swath of the city snatched away into another world? Or would something else be there in its placea chunk of alien planet swapped with ours? Dr Nomuras old eyes were the last to decipher the murky shapes coming through the smoke. When he heard Miki gasp, he turned to see in her eyes a horror he had never before witnessed. Looking back, Dr Nomura saw: the buildings inside the target area were still there. A swath of destroyed real estate leading to the beach was still there. And the great beast Ragnaroka was still there, feet planted firmly in the cracked asphalt, apparently unaffected. Ragnaroka remained. I have...failed, said Dr Nomura, quietly. Ragnaroka broke the silence with a swing of his wrecking-ball arm, shattering generator number I into tinker-toy-like pieces that rained across the city. Back-up plan, activate! yelled Matsumoto into his walkie- talkie. Attack tanks, move in and lay down heavy fire! All other units retreat immediately! As the soldiers cleared out, dragging a dazed and tearful Dr Kodai Nomura with them, the Radian Attack Tank Brigade moved in. They opened fire on Ragnaroka with an arsenal that could easily obliterate a lesser foe.

Dr Nomura watched from the fleeing military transport as the tank missiles drew blue streaks of twisting smoke through the air, exploding into the great beasts hide in orange blossoms of fire. Then he heard the monster cry out in pain. Owwww, crap! Ragnaroka said. Dr Nomura looked at Matsumoto. Miki looked at Mitsuru. Ringo and Tomo looked at each other. Hey, Tomo said, did he just say crap? I never heard him talk before, said Ringo. They turned back and kept watching. Ragnaroka was spinning around crazily, slapping himself with the briefcase to put out the tiny fires caused by the missiles. His other arm, the wrecking ball, swung wildly and hit the nearest building, a twenty-story structure that flew apart like balsa wood to reveal empty insides. Look at that building! Mitsuru said. Theres nothing inside! Tomo said, Dr Nomura, I thought your nanobots rebuilt the insides, too? Yes, Doctor, added Matsumoto, have you been cutting corners with the nanos this time? But he hadnt been. The nanobots had rebuilt the city as usual, with the exception of the three generator facades. Yet now, as Ragnaroka knocked down one building after another, all eyes could see that they were hollow. All fakes. And pretty shabby ones at that. They look like models! said Tomo. Owwwww! Dammit! Cut it out! Stop shooting! said Ragnaroka, his voice muffled but understandable. Ignore him, men! Keep firing! Matsumoto said into his walkie-talkie. Holy crap, that burns! Cut! Cut! Ragnaroka said. Then he reached up and grabbed his head and pulled it clean off. The collective gasp from the onlookers was such that it seemed the city itself did a double-take. I...cant believe it, said Dr Kodai Nomura, for once utterly incapable of scientific reasoning. Can someone please tell me whats going on here? Ragnaroka said, holding his monster head under one arm and running his other hand through the mass of sweat-matted hair that topped his real head, his human head. Miki stammered, Hes...hes...

Hes a man in a suit! said little Mitsuru. I told you something would go wrong! But did you listen to me? Does anyone ever listen to me? Dr Nomura was sprawled out in a chair with his hand on his forehead, Miki next to him in the wagon, softly holding his other hand. They were in Matsumotos swank offices, where a spotting of grim faces seemed to dampen the deco colors of the room. It had been a mere three days since the incident, but it already seemed like years ago. You didnt tell us this would happen, said Major Matsumoto, taking a drink from his robot waitress, which consisted suspiciously of a pair of legs and a pelvis topped by a serving tray. The people are blaming us now. They think Ragnaroka was a government hoax all along, that we used him to instill fear and keep the population under control. The Major held up that mornings newspaper, the headline screaming: MAN IN SUIT! Underneath was a fuzzy blackand-white picture of the man formerly regarded as the creature Ragnaroka, sitting cross- legged in his rubber suit, looking down at a smattering of military trucks and troops. If you looked really close you could make out a crane lifting a platform up to the giants head, a platform containing the tiny figure of Dr Kodai Nomura. Youre in this, too, doctor. Matsumoto continued. They think you built some sort of enlarging ray to grow a normal man into the fake monster." I cant help what people think, Nomura said. Theyre going to come up with some theory or other if you won't tell them the truth. "And how can we do that? How, without shattering the foundation of their individual little worlds? Nomura stood up and slowly walked over to the west window. Perhaps you are right, Major, he said. This man came from a world that was unreal to us until we opened that portal. A ghost universe. And yet in his world, there is no Radian City, and none of this is real. That in itself does not surprise me so much. It is easier to imagine a world in which I do not exist than a world in which I half-exist. But that is the case...in his world, I am present only as a fictional character. We are all characters in a film, an entertainment. There are no real monsters in his world, no robot champions like Robo Banzaizer. They are only stories, and we are the people in the stories." He said my name, in his world, is Yoshi Nakamura," Matsumoto said. "I am an actor. Or rather, there is an actor in his world who looks like me, who plays Major Matsumoto. The Majors face dropped. lie stared at the floor, took a quick drink. You are right, doctor. It is worse than not existing at all. And I suppose you arc right, Major, that we cannot let the realization of this reach the wider world, Nomura said. No one should be confronted with such truths." I)r Nomura looked out the window and saw the man who was Ragnaroka, a simple man who called himself Yasuo

Tanaka, sitting in the field behind the government complex. His expression was unreadable, his eyes murky as he stared into the setting sun, still unable to make sense of this new world. Below, a military truck was pulling up, its payload filled with fresh vegetables. Giant men must eat, after all. Someone else was riding in that truck, Nomura now saw. It was little Mitsuru. In the short time since the questioning of the giant man began. Nomura's fearless nephew had started to become friends with this towering visitor from another earth. A connection had been madeperhaps the two worlds were not so alien after all. Through Mitsuru, Dr Nomura had found that he, too, had empathy for the man in the suit, and the cogs in his mind began to turn. That news story, the hypothetical enlarging ray ...nothing more than a reversed shrinking ray, really. Now might be the time to dust off that old prototype in the lab. Perhaps he could give the man called Yasuo Tanaka something akin to a normal life in this strange new universe. And yet, he wondered, is this very act of benevolence a scripted scene in that other world? A prewritten destiny, conceived by human minds in a universe that is a ghost to him, enacted for real in a universe that is a ghost to them? Or is he the primary mover, does he unknowingly write the script for them, simply by living? As he stared out the window at the tiny figure of Mitsuru being lifted by crane, us he saw the giant man give a small smile of recognition. Dr Nomura took comfort in one fact: as unsettling as their current situation was, they were now rid of the monster Ragnaroka. The plan had, in an unexpected way, worked. The other world. Dr Nomura thought, wasn't so lucky. I'm Officer Nagal. What the hells going on here?* We don't know, said the studio security guard. When I got here people were running everywhere, screaming about a The guard was interrupted by the sound of an explosion blowing out the north wall of Studio 23B. He and Officer Nagai covered their faces as splinters of wood and shards of glass mined down on them. AH around people were fleeing the scene, the police cruisers and ambulances almost hitting several as they sped into the parking lot. A silver-haired old man wearing a white lab coat ran by, and Officer Nagai grabbed his arm. Hey! Were you in there?" he said. What's going on?" I don't know, it's crazy!" the old man said. We were filming and the guy went nuts!* What guy?"

The guy playing the monster. Something went wrong with the FX rig. an explosion. It was just supposed to spark but it turned into a huge red fireball. I can't believe anyone near it survived. Then the stuntman in the suit started tearing everything apart! Behind them, a beam of red, snake-like energy shot from the smoking hole in the studio wall, blasting one of the police cars to scrap metal. Officer Nagai, the security guard, and the old man ducked down behind Nagai's car as shrapnel clinked and clanked everywhere. What the hell is he armed with anyway?" Nagai yelled. "I don't know!" the old man said. I thought the monster's powers were all special effects added later." An unearthly roar silenced everyone, and all eyes and guns in the parking lot turned toward the smoke billowing from the hole in the wall. Slowly, the hulking shape of Ragnaroka. man-sized but still fear-inspiring, emerged through the gloom, steam shooting from his scaly body, his red eyes glowing with hideous energy. The TV monitor in his chest was playing a beer ad full of scantily clad women. He has a TV in his chest?" said Officer Nagai. It wasn't real!" said the old man. I swear it wasn't real before! They superimposed the images in post-production." Ragnarokas left arm jerked, and his salaryman briefcase flew open, paper bat3 flying out and up into a circle above his head, then dive-bombing the cops and EMS teams. We're going to need back up!" Nagai yelled. "Lets get out of here! As they fled, the old man stopped, looking around in a bewildered manner. Nagai asked him what was wrong. Jiro! Where is Jiro? Who? The kid who plays Mitsuru. I never saw him leave the building. Someone has to get in there and find him! As the old man pleaded with Officer Nagai, Ragnaroka flipped over another police car in the parking lot, fired another dazzling beam of energy from his red eye, and reveled in the glory of it all, in this new world put before him for destruction. And inside Studio 23B, among the shattered glass and melted cameras, the flaming backdrops and overturned floodlights, a little boy in short pants emerged from hiding under the catering table, his mouth still smudged with chocolate. He could hear the chaos outside, the explosions

and screams, the sirens and gunshots. He looked over to the abandoned set, where small flames licked the balsa wood model of Radian City, now half-destroyed. One of the warp generators had been knocked over, and the gold spray- painted garden globe that topped it had shattered into pieces like a Christmas ball. But something was different. The boy walked over to the set, some buildings not reaching his shoulders, others towering a foot or two over his head. He leaned down and stared at a model office building. The front facade had been sheared off, exposing its insides. The boy couldnt remember things being this way before. Had the buildings always been so meticulously constructed? Werent they just hollow balsa wood boxes? He reached in and touched tiny oak desks on which sat tinier nameplates. He saw tiny telephones and filing cabinets, tiny restroom facilities with streaming rolls of tiny toilet paper. The boy stared, astonished, at a diorama far more detailed and elaborate than any of the ones hed built in his bedroom at home. His gaze was distracted by a muffled cry, a small groaning sound coming from one of the offices. The boy lifted one of the tiny desks, and his eyes widened. A man was hiding under it a man no more than two inches tall. He was wearing a shirt and tie, and a miniscule camera hung from his neck. Slowly and gently, the little boy reached down and picked up the tiny, tiny figure. The mans screams of horror were barely audible over the commotion outside. He could crush the man in his palm, the boy knew. Would he do so? Would he pull the arms off the man like wings off a fly? He had no reason to, but he had the power. The boy turned and walked away from the set, stepping over a hastily discarded script, the final pages of which were slowly burning away. And in his grasp, the tiny man looked up in dread and awe, fearfully awaiting the next move of this new, short- pants-clad terrorthis young and curious daikaiju.