The Maxims Of Nagasaki

Issue 15. Ardjet and Mistral now team up and watch over Nagasaki together, but a new opponent is approaching.

Weeks after Kasumi took the Ardjet serum, she has discovered she can make actual copies of herself to do multiple tasks, disappear and turn into wind, read minds, has exceptional speed faster than Reiko's, increased strength, exceptional stealth abilities and the ability to disable a persons motor system. With the combined might of Reiko and Kasumi, they form a group called The Maxims Of Nagasaki. With this new group they agree to keep damage to the city as low as possible and to adapt to situations where lethal force must be applied. Together they stop bank robberies and other sorts of crimes. Kasumi and Reiko then decide to expand their efforts to Tokyo. Tokyo having already known Reiko's identity welcome her with open arms. Though they stay wary of Kasumi. Kasumi has a tendency to actually enjoy prolonged fights because she likes to test her attrition. Reiko so far has been able to keep Kasumi in check but her efforts are slowly failing. Kasumi is starting to become a maverick of sorts, going off on her own and going against the rules her and Reiko set.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, another woman working at one of Jinkara's rival corporations Crimson Advancements, named Charlene Sayuki, is working on her own serum to give herself powers just like Reiko and Kasumi. Charlene is half Japanese and half African American. She stands 5'9 and is 135 pounds and she is 23 years old. She has light brown neck length hair, caramel color skin and dark brown eyes. Charlene is creating a serum of her own called Karambit. While creating the serum she has ran into many mishaps and missteps in creating it. Finally she creates a successful version of her project and prepares to inject it into her system. Before she does, she says to herself "This better work." She then injects herself with the Karambit serum. She waits several minutes and feels nothing happening to her body. She then waits several hours and still nothing happens. Charlene then assumes the serum is another failure and packs up to go home.

Back in Nagasaki, Reiko and Kasumi are suiting up to stop a bank robbery in progress. Since Reiko's battle with Epsilon Itachi has given her a new suit but without the tiny monitors to watch her vitals this time. His reasoning to take out the monitoring devices was to not have the same reaction again if they fall out again. So since the monitors are no longer in the suit, Reiko feels extra pressure in certain parts of her body actually increasing her performance. Her suit remains white, red and with pink accents. Kasumi over the past few weeks has changed the colors of her outfit to black and blue with a dark red floral design. They finish suiting up and head to Nagasaki's bank in the middle of the city. The bank robbers are actually very skilled and have set up choke points for where Reiko and Kasumi might show up. They both unknowingly show up at a choke point and the robbers start firing upon them. Reiko and Kasumi duck behind cover on a building. "Reiko, cant you take a few hits from bullets?" "S**t I forgot all about that. Thanks for reminding me." Reiko then gets out of cover and takes a few bullets before hitting one of the robbers. Reiko then notices that her suit is much stronger than it was before because none of the bullets managed to make a hole through the suit. Kasumi then turns into wind and makes her way into the bank. A robber sees her turn back into her human form and starts to fire at her. She ducks behind cover and starts to disrupt the robbers motor system by sticking her hand out of cover. It works and the robber drops his gun and his body stiffens up. She then kicks his gun away and throws him beside the banks safe. Reiko still handling the robbers outside is taking heavy fire and is stuck behind cover. Kasumi sees this and helps Reiko. She turns into the wind starts knocking out the robbers simultaneously by making multiple copies of herself. Kasumi then tells Reiko it's ok to come out of cover and Reiko gives her thanks. The police then come out of hiding and thank Reiko and Kasumi. The police then asks Kasumi her name. She responds Ardjet and then they ask are they a team. They respond by saying "We are The Maxims of Nagasaki. And we are are hear to protect the city and Japan if need be." The police then take note of the name and thank Mistral and Ardjet.

Back in Tokyo, Charlene has reached her house and saw news reports about Mistrals and Ardjet's involvement in stopping the bank robbery. Charlene then nods her head in amusement and begins to clutch her chest. She falls over on the floor of her house and begins groaning in pain. She starts to crawl over to her bathroom but starts to throw up. She then starts to yell in great pain. During her yelling, she teleports herself back to Crimson Advancements and is still yelling in pain. Charlene's co-worker Naomi sees Charlene suddenly appear on the floor and goes to help her. "Charlene whats wrong?!" Charlene doesn't respond but instead begins to lose consciousness. She faints from the pain and Naomi takes her to the infirmary in the building and sets her down on a cot. A doctor asks Naomi whats wrong and Naomi says she doesn't know. She then tells the doctor that she suddenly appeared on the floor and was yelling out of pain. The doctor looks at her like shes crazy and begins to hook Charlene up to medical equipment. He does then leaves Charlene's side for a second to get medical supplies from a table. Naomi turns to talk to the doctor and then she turns back to the cot to find Charlene gone.