Ready for Action!
Previously, on the Tenku Knights Christmas Special: A Bat for Shiba (unreleased in the United States), our heroes made their way into the industrial nightmare-kingdom of Zardoz. There, Shiba Batsu’s beloved Louisville Slugger was shattered in battle with the Super Steam Badgers. He was bereft, until a young child named Hito, orphaned by the Necromaster, showed Shiba that his real power came from within. Then, armed only with the glowing white light of pure baseball spirit that lived within his soul, Shiba lead our heroes through the night to the gates of Castle Cognitus! And now...
Harvey scrambled over the castle wall and disappeared as his friends watched silently from below.
“That was a big risk you had Harvey take,” Golf whispered to Shiba. “He almost didn’t make it.”
“You heard him,” Shiba said. “‘My hang-time is unstoppable in this universe.’ I knew he‘d do it.”
A sound like a pan hitting the floor echoed out from inside the Steam Fortress.
“That’s not the point. We might have found a safer way inside. Now Harvey’s all alone in there.”
A muffled voice sounded from the other side of the wall. Sakura thought it said “Who goes there?”
“Harvey can handle himself in a fight, maybe better than any of us. Haven’t you been watching him in action these last few weeks? Or have you been too busy coming up with ingenious plans?”
More voices now, raised in fear and alarm. Something that sounded suspiciously like a sword being drawn made its way to Sakura’s keen ears.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Golf snapped, his voice rising.
At last, a sound at the gate. The doors shook a bit as the bolt was removed on the other side.
“It means,” Shiba said, shouting now, “that there’s a time for thinking and a time for acting. And you don’t know which is which!”
The gates swung open. A beleaguered-looking Harvey ran out, a phalanx of steam-powered soldiers at his heels. A white cloud of steam gathered over the courtyard behind as reinforcements gathered.
“Oh, so you think you could do a better job leading us?”
“Boys?” Sakura said. “Boys? I think we have zee problem...” But Golf and Shiba weren’t listening. They argued forehead-to-forehead now, oblivious to everything. “In point of fact, I think I WOULD do a better job!” Shiba shouted.
Tank moved calmly between Harvey and the Steam Guards, assuming a linebacker’s crouch. He launched himself at the approaching soldiers with a shout, knocking over their front line with one mighty push and advancing into the courtyard. Sakura and Harvey sprang into action behind him. Harvey ran patterns around the courtyard, delivering jabs and uppercuts to a series of foes, leaving them weaving until he came back to finish them off. Sakura leapt about, launching spike after spike and neatly removing Steam Guards from the fray. By this time, Tank had grabbed a wagon and was taking out five Steam Guards at a time.
Outside, Shiba and Golf continued to argue. Over Golf’s shoulder, just inside Shiba’s line of sight, a lone Steam Guard knelt by the gates. He wore black, and had some sort of sighting apparatus over one eye. He held something to his shoulder, and it seemed to be pointing at Golf, who was going on about how many ways there are to approach a problem. The Steam Guard seemed to be ready to do whatever it was he was going to do. Shiba saw his fingers tightening...
“Golf, look out!” Shiba snatched a club from Golf’s bag just as the Steam Sniper pulled the trigger on his musket. Shiba’s vision flashed white, and everything seemed to move into slow motion. He could see the musket ball’s trajectory perfectly: it would hit just behind Golf’s left ear. He lifted the club and swung. With an echoing metallic clang, the ball struck the club. At the moment of impact, the club seemed to become a bat, and Shiba knocked the ball away.
Time resumed its normal flow. Harvey raced up and cold-cocked the Steam Sniper with a vicious left cross. “Take that, sucker!”
Shiba looked down. The club was a club again, and Golf looked up, stunned, from where Shiba had knocked him to the ground. “Shiba. You... You saved my life.”
“I guess I did.”
Tank and Sakura came to the gates. “Uh, guys?” Tank said. “If you’re through with your argument now, we’ve taken care of the Steam Guards. I think we can get to the castle without much trouble.”
Shiba looked up and grinned. He tossed the club back to Golf. He wouldn’t be needing it. “Yeah, Tank. That sounds like a good idea. Let’s get into that throne room.”
