Kiss Players issue 2
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 Yes, Marissa is naked. But so is Optimus. Bet you didn't think of that, hmm? | |||||||||||||
| Published in | Dengeki Daioh | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 21, 2006 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | October 2006 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Yuki Ohshima | ||||||||||||
| Art | Yuki Ohshima | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
Shaoshao's life looks like it might be at an end, just as Marissa Faireborn gives Optimus Prime a new lease on his!
Synopsis
On a beach, Marissa Faireborn and Shaoshao Li are leaning in towards one another, apparently about to kiss... when suddenly, Marissa is retreating into the distance, on Optimus Prime's shoulder, waving goodbye to Shaoshao as the other girl calls after her in despair...
Shaoshao suddenly jolts awake, coming out of her nightmare, only to find herself in a much worse situation. Naked and bound, Shaoshao is trapped in a transparent tube, with the decapitated head of a Legion looming above her. And she is not the only one: other tubes line the walls of the darkened room she finds herself in, containing the gory remains of other E.D.C. Kiss Players who have met the same fate that now awaits her: consumption by the Legion.
Meanwhile, at Narita International Airport, the forces of the E.D.C. gather around the corpse of Optimus Prime, which is to be brought to their headquarters. Prime, however, has become something of a rallying point for anti-governmental activists, and so the E.D.C. are required to protect his body from any attempts at stealing it while it is in transit. And they are quite right to be concerned: From a distance, a cat-suited Marissa Faireborn and her all-female resistance group watch as the convoy carrying Prime's body gets underway. Acting quickly and without mercy, Marissa's team detonates a bomb on the bridge that the convoy is currently crossing, bringing the vehicles to a screeching halt, and then swarms the stopped vehicles, gunning down any E.D.C. officers who stand in their way. Unfortunately, they have walking straight into the E.D.C.'s trap: "Optimus Prime"'s chest suddenly bursts open, and Ringo and her Autorooper emerge from within, killing all the commandos with gleeful abandon. The horrified Marissa realizes that the Optimus Prime they targeted was a decoy, but then spots a familiar trailer in the convoy that she suspects may be her true target. Immobilizing the E.D.C. troops that try to stop her by slashing their clothes off, Marissa has almost reached the trailer when Kayu and her Autorooper immobilize her with a Kremzeek bullet. Struggling against the paralytic effect, Marissa unsheathes her largest knife and hurls it at the trailer, slicing it open and revealing the true body of Optimus Prime within!
At the sight of the real Optimus Prime, Kayu's Autorooper suddenly goes berserk, violently ejecting Kayu and lunging onto Prime's prone form. In a hideous mass of tentacles and biomechanics, the Autorooper begins to fuse with Prime, but despite this monstrous sight, Marissa tearfully announces that she refuses to give up on the being she used to think of a father-figure and a little bit else. Marissa kisses the fused Prime-Legion creature... and in one mighty burst of light, discovers that she is a Kiss Player too! Through the power of Marissa's kiss and the cells of the Legion, Prime is restored to life, reborn in a new body and fused with Marissa!
Elsewhere, back with Shaoshao, the Legion head above her vomits tentacles from its mouth, intending to drag her in. Shaoshao does not intend to go without a fight, struggling and biting the tentacles, but several of them wad themselves together and strike her in the abdomen, knocking the fight out of her. Left able only to scream, Shaoshao does so, at which point a streaking ball of fire comes crashing through the ceiling of her prison. As the dust from its impact clears, Shaoshao peers out of her tube to see that Hot Rod has arrived!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- This issue of the Kiss Players manga take place after the events of the twenty-seventh radio drama episode. Because the chronological story order of the dramas does is not the same as their broadcast order, though, it also comes before the first drama!
- While the decoy Optimus Prime body is represented by his 20th Anniversary toy, the real McCoy is represented by a toy-accurate rendering of his original Generation 1 form. Hot Rod is likewise drawn to the specifications of his Generation 1 figure.
