I really want Miyazaki to make a whole movie out of this! I watched it on Youtube (I don’t know where else to watch it unless you live in Japan, which I don’t). And it started out with a lot of shooting and killing people and I didn’t really like it. But then it got better! And now I like it! Obviously, or I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of writing a fanfic for it, huh? Well, I hope I did a good job. Any comments or suggestions would be great. And you should try watching “On Your Mark” if you haven’t yet! Especially if you’re a Miyazaki fan like me! It was kind of confusing at first, but I wanted to hear more. So, since there’ wasn’t any more out there that I found, I decided to write it myself!

On Your Mark

Part 1: The Raid

The roar of the plane engines filled the ears of the policemen. The fleet of police helicopters swarmed through the underground city, buzzing through one of the dark tunnels that linked sections of the enclosed city. Immense black towers reached into the air like fingers of some strange mechanical hand.

The building was in view now. A large neon banner bearing the sign “God Is Watching You” stared harshly at the fleet of approaching planes. Large electronic eyes blinked up at them from their positions around the top story of the skyscraper. The building belonged to the religious cult that was holding the angel.

The fleet of police helicopters aimed for the huge ominous eyes. But they did not slow down or serve out of the way of the tower. Instead, like huge flying battering rams, they smashed through the walls of the cult building.

The religious fanatics saw the approaching planes and scattered as the planes smashed through the windows and walls of the highest story. Armed policemen poured from the helicopters and began blasting away at the men in white robes and red hoods that had large eyes painted on the front.

Almost twenty helicopters emptied their policemen into the skyscraper. The policemen continued firing into the panicked crowds of robed figures. Several of them fell, but others pulled out their own weapons and started firing on the policemen.

Chage and Aska, who were wearing the blue jackets, helmets, and gas masks like the rest of their colleagues, stepped from the helicopter as someone ahead of them threw a grenade farther into the incense-filled building.

The cops advanced, using bullets and bombs to clear the path. Furniture and walls, painted with that symbolic eye, shattered and joined the growing carpet of bodies on the ground.

Chage and Aska ran passed the rest of the police, heading deeper into the building. They ducked into a hallway, pausing to shoot through a doorway to their right. One of them tossed a grenade in to clear the room completely.

At the end of the hallway they stopped again, blazing away with their guns. Two other policemen joined them until the floor was covered in white-cloaked bodies.

Chage and Aska walked across the room and through the doorway at the opposite side.

This room was different. It was basically a hollow cement block full of garbage. Crushed coke cans and cardboard boxes littered the floor. Something white was lying on the ground against the back wall. A pair of legs was sticking out from under it. It almost looked like a body covered in a white blanket.

Aska walked straight into the room. Chage entered a little more carefully, holding his machine gun out in front of him in case any more of the “priests” were waiting to shoot at them.

Aska knelt in front of the white thing and gently lifted it. It was not a blanket. It was a wing. And it was growing out of the shoulders of a young girl, who was lying face-down on the cement, unconscious. She was wearing a plain white dress and there was almost a silvery sheen to her short brown hair.

Chage turned and saw the girl out of the corner of his eye. He forgot about checking for danger and came up behind Aska to look at the winged girl. Both of them pulled off their gas masks to get a better look at her.

“Do you think she’s alive?” Chage asked.

“Barely,” Aska replied.

“You don’t think these freaks here made her do you? Genetically modified her DNA to make her have wings? Or graphed them onto her shoulders?”

“Well,” Aska replied slowly,” if they didn’t, they must have taken her from someone who did.”

“Well, I mean, you don’t suppose that she’s like that naturally? A real angel? Or maybe mutated from all the toxic waste outside these city walls.” This part of the city was completely shut to the outside world, hidden many meters beneath the surface. Many years ago, a nuclear power plant had exploded, sending its toxic waste all over the country. The city had had to shut out all the hazardous toxins, so many people living there had never seen trees, or even the sky. There were a few parts of the city that were at least open to the sky, but this wasn’t one of them.

“I don’t think these people here created her,” Aska said, lowering the wing back to the girl’s side. She still didn’t stir. “Either they found her, and she’s a real angel, or they stole her from somewhere else. But this group doesn’t seem like they’re skilled enoght to have… made her themselves.”

Chage suddenly had an image of he and Aska driving down the road outside the city, with the bright blue sky stretching endlessly over them and green fields swaying in a breeze. Aska is driving, and Chage is in the passenger seat. The angel girl was sits between them, smiling. Chage lifts her out of the seat, holding her hand as the girls beautiful snowy wings spread wide to catch the wind. She’s so happy to be out where she can see the sky and feel the wind. Chage gently lifts his hand, sending her into the open air.

“What are you doing?” Chage demanded, coming to his senses.

Aska had just rolled the girl over on her back and was carefully lifting her in his arms.

“She could be radioactive!”

“Give it a rest, Chage,” Aska said. “She’s dehydrated. See?” He carefully took a pinch of the angel’s forearm skin between his fingers. It didn’t spring back to place when he let go, but slowly sank down. A sure sign of dehydration.

“There’s got to be something to drink around here,” Chage said, looking around as though he expected a fountain to spring out of the floor. He saw the cans scattered around the ground. “It looks like they’ve just been throwing soda cans in here for her. Those aren’t good for quenching thirst.”

“No,” Aska agreed. “Let’s go.”

He handed his gun to Chage his gun on the ground so he could carry the girl. Chage took it and followed him out of the room.

The police had taken complete control of the building by now, so the met no resistance as the two of them ran down the hallways, taking the angel girl to the bar. All the religious freaks had been killed, or were under control.

“This one’s not opened,” Chage said, handing Aska a bottle with a straw attached to the top. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

Aska fgently placed the straw into the angel’s mouth and squeezed gently to get the liquid to come out. Chage knelt to see if the angel was reacting to it at all. For a moment, she was still, and then she began to swallow hungrily.

“Hey!” Chage said, grinning. “She’s drinking it!”

“At least we know she’s alive,” Aska agreed.

Slowly her eyes opened. She looked at them, only half awake. And then she shut her eyes again and fell unconscious.

“She looks pretty weak,” Chage commented.

One of their fellow cops walked up to them.

“Oh, you found it! Stop feeding it and take it to the roof. The scientists are here to take her.”

Chage and Aska exchanged glances.

“Well, let’s get going,” Chage said. “Can’t go against orders. We came here to get the angel, and now the scientists have to find out what the hell she is.”

Aska hesitated, but stood up and the two of them climbed the stairs to the roof, carrying the angel with them.

Chage leaned forward and saw the look on Aska’s face. He groaned.

“Oh come on. I know that gleam in your eye. So, you like the angel, huh? Well, give it up. Orders are orders. Go get your own angel.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Aska replied as they arrived on the roof.

Another plane had pulled up against the side of the building. It had a toxic hazard sign painted on the back. And once the plane had come to a halt, more men poured out. All of them were in full-body suits to protect them from the radiation the angel girl might contain.

They closed around Chage and Aska, not waiting for a reply but taking the angel from Aska’s arms. They whipped out a stretcher and laid out a bag on it. The angel was set inside, zipped up, and then put into a radioactive-proof casing. As if she was no more than a lifeless body.

The scientists rolled the stretcher back into the plane, and without a backwards glance, they shut the doors and flew away from the religious cult’s headquarters until they were nothing more than a red speck against the black city.

Chage and Aska watched them go. Aska turned and started walking away.

“Hey, take your gun,” Chage demanded, handing it back to Aska. He took it without even realizing what it was and headed towards the stairs.

“Let’s get something to eat,” Chage sighed, stretching back. “I’m starving.”

“Mm,” Aska replied flatly.

Chage rolled his eyes and headed down the stairs after Aska.

Part 2: Planning

“Come on, Aska. You should at least drink something, even if you’re not that hungry,” Chage urged.

They’d both been pretty silent since they arrived back at the police station. At least Chage had eaten some food. Aska had been sitting there, staring off into space.

“We’ve had a long day. You should drink some water.”

Aska picked up his glass, took a sip, and then slammed it back down on the table. He couldn’t stop thinking about the girl.

Chage sighed and took another bite of his meal. It was hard to forget the sight of the angel’s eyes opening at last. And when she saw them, there was almost a hint of a smile on her pretty face. Even if she was too tired to even speak.

He tried to forget it. There wasn’t anything they could do about it. And moping wasn’t doing them any good.

Aska drained his glass and set it down again. Suddenly he sat up. “Let’s go get her back. Help her escape.”

Chage stared at him as though he’d just grown a second head.

“What, are you crazy? We don’t know where they took her or what kind of security they have or anything! And we’re cops. We’re not supposed to go stealing things.”

“Are you saying that because you’re afraid we’ll get caught, or because you don’t care?”

“It’s not that I don’t care. It’s hard to forget about someone like that. But how do you think we’re supposed to get her back? And what do we do with her if we get her?”

“If?” Aska repeated.

“Yes, if,” Chage replied. “Even with a great plan, a thousand things could go wrong. She’s probably surrounded by security.”

“We’re police officers. We can get through at least part of it. I’ll go with or without your help.”

Chage sighed. “Fine, I’ll go. If only to stop you from getting yourself killed. Besides, you’ll probably need me to do some fancy electronic stuff. You can’t work with mechanics for your life. And she’ll probably be in a radioactive-decontamination room. You’ll need something to shut it down. I can do it wirelessly.”

Aska smiled. “Thanks, Chage. If you get to work on that, I’ll start trying to find her. It should be somewhere on our databases. And I should be able to get access to them considering we were on the search in the first place.

Aska stood and walked to the computer. Chage leaned back, rubbing his head.

“I don’t know how we’re gonna pull this off.”

Aska started typing on his computer, puffing on a cigarette. He clicked on a music file to have some entertainment. The song “On Your Mark” began to play in the background.

Chage sat down at his own desk and pulled out all his tools, along with a tricky wireless connector box. He’d need to program it to read anything that the lab might have. And he’d also need to rig it to deal with the scientists. That wouldn’t be hard due to the full-body, partly mechanical suits they all wore to deal with possible radiation. He just had to build it.

They both had a lot of work ahead of them.

Finally Chage stood up and stretched. He picked up his completed electronic box and walked over to show it to Aska.

“I’m done,” he said, smiling.

Aska was still trying to sort out the information on the computer. Suddenly he leaned forward, grinning.

“I found it! She’s being held here! Great. I know where this building is. And our IDs should grant us clearance.”

“Well, as long as we can get passed the scientists,” Chage sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Part 3: Flying Free

Getting in was easy. All they had to do was flash their IDs. But they knew that it would not remain this easy for long.

They walked down a long hallway in the lab. Huge toxic hazard symbols were painted all over the walls. They dodged into a storage room and each of them pulled on the full-body suits that the scientists were required to wear while they dealt with radioactivity. And with these strange, puffy suits and gas masks with built-in goggles, it was impossible for any of the scientists to recognize them as outsiders.

Chage’s hands were in his pockets as they continued down the hall, one of them clutched tight on the machine that would help them rescue the angel. His strange, bow-legged gait completely disguised by the heavily padded suits. Aska walked along beside his friend in a very determined fashion.

They walked through a doorway and came face to face with another man in one of the suits. Chage whipped out his machine and stuck the tube at the end into the mouthpiece of the suit. Instantly, the mechanical suit filled with air, making it impossible for the occupant to move until the included sleeping drug took effect. By the time the inflated suit had drifted to the ground, the scientist was out cold.

They were in a room full of computers and other suited scientists who were engrossed in their work and hadn’t noticed anything strange going on. Which was exactly what Chage needed as he darted around, immobilizing the rest of the scientists. Aska headed straight for the door at the other end of the room, fiddling with the electronic lock. The door slid open just as the last of the suited figures dropped to the ground.

And this room was full of glowing, beeping technology with a strange elevated platform in the middle. It was emitting strange rays of light, and lying on top of the machine, contained in a large upright glass cylinder, was the angel.

Chage punched buttons on his small electronic device and the beeping devices in the room all went blank and stopped blinking. Without hesitating, Aska climbed up to the top of the pillar-like platform as Chage used his tool to lift the glass cylinder out of the way. Aska scooped up the angel and turned to climb back down. But the moment her unconscious body left the machine, an alarm started blaring.

“Damn!” Chage growled under his breath. Aska climbed down with the girl and wrapped her in a a blanket so that it wasn’t immediately obvious what he was carrying.

And the two of them turned and sprinted down the hall with the winged girl. The siren alarm followed them all the way down the hall. Chage ripped off the hood part of the suit, sprinting alongside Aska. And as they ran, they kicked off the rest of the mechanical outfits.

They finally reached the garage. “Wait! What are you doing!” Aska demanded as Chage headed for a large yellow tank.

“Trying to get a car! What do you think?” Chage snarled.

“Get in one with the jet launchers in case something goes wrong.” He had a sudden image of them all falling down off one of the very high bridges that wove around the top of this part of the city. At least this part was open to the sky, though.

Chage obeyed and threw open the door of the tank-like vehicle. One with jet launchers. Aska handed the angel up to him. As Chage took her, the blanket fell halfway off. Chage held the girl beside him as Aska jammed his foot down on the accelerator and sent them into the tunnel, away from the laboratory. At last they emerged from the tunnel and onto one of the bridges that wove across the top of the city. Below them was a tremendous pit, which led to the rest of the enclosed underground city. It would be a long fall if anything went wrong.

And, as if on cue, as they sped along the narrow bridge across the air, police helicopters descended from the sky. One of them lowered itself down, almost directly on to of Chage and Aska’s car, trying to force them to a halt. It inched lower, threatening to smash them into the pavement of the bridge. Aska pressed harder on the accelerator, trying to get passed the plane. Chage winced and hugged the Angel girl as the car jounced dangerously. The angel’s eyes slowly opened, but she hadn’t registered what was going on. She was too dazed. And as the plane pressed down on them, the bridge began to shatter under the wheels of the combined weight of plane and car. And then the plane exploded from the pressure. But the armored car remained unharmed. Except that the explosion of the helicopter had just destroyed the bridge beneath them. And they plummeted downward.

Aska scooped up the angel and climbed out the door to stand on the edge of the car. The shock of the air rushing passed as they dropped farther and farther down into the city pit brought the girl to her senses.

Aska held the girl above him, and tried to let go so that she could fly to safety. She gasped and held onto his wrists. They had saved her and she didn’t want them to fall to their deaths!

But she wasn’t strong enough to carry Aska! And as he fell with the armored car, she was dragged with them.

Chage climbed out after them and started shouting “Fly! Fly! Fly!” He waved his arms for emphasis, but he lost his footing on the car and slid a few feet away, falling alongside them.

But the angel wouldn’t fly. She didn’t want to leave them.

Chage swam closer to the car and grabbed onto the doorframe.

“Use the jets, Aska!” He shouted.

He slid in, and Aska pulled the Angel in after him, handing her back to Chage. He reached for the jet button as they dropped farther and farther into the dark pit.

And then he remembered he and Chage stepping their way through the bodies of the religious cult members and seeing the angel for the first time. He imagined her flying free, and he remembered them running out of the lab with the angel. And how he’d insisted that they get a car with jet launchers just in case. And how right he had been. They would be crushed without the jets.

He punched the launcher. And instantly, the rockets shot out of the bottom of the car. They wouldn’t last for very long. And they were hard to steer. But the tank shot forwards and upwards until it slammed into the side of the city.

They leapt out of the wreckage of the car and through the door in front of them. Aska threw a piece of rubble from his head as a wheel rolled after them. Chage kicked the wheel out of the way, holding the shivering angel. She sat still, knowing that movement would make it harder for them to get away.

They quickly found another yellow car. A convertible this time. And they jumped in. Aska started the car and they again made their way through the tunnels.

And this time, they exited out into a vast field and zoomed away from the underground city.

“Yahoo!” Chage shouted as they fled the danger. He pointed to the sky and looked down at the angel. “See! There ya go! Now you can fly free!”

They passed an “extreme danger” sign that warned of the radiation ahead. But they paid it no mind. Abandoned houses, deserted due to the nuclear meltdown, flashed passed.

“Come on,” Chage encouraged, taking the hand of the girl sitting next to him.

She slowly stood up, feeling the wind in her hair and feathers. She looked uncertain. She’d been captive for so long…

Chage and Aska smiled. They’d made it.

Chage pushed the girl’s arms above his head and she spread her gorgeous wings, floating above them. She held onto Chage’s hand with one of her own as she flapped her wings, feeling the breeze. She stared ahead of her, hardly daring to believe that she was actually flying. Then she looked down at the two men who had risked everything to set her free. She smiled, putting everything into that smile that she could never express in words. And she didn’t need words. They understood.

Aska winked at her and gave a little wave. Chage gently kissed the palm of her hand, and then let go. She soared out above them, joy in her face as her wings pumped the free air around her. Chage waved to her from the ground, and Aska pulled over to the side of the road to watch her fly away.

She glided above the clouds, feeling the welcoming sky envelop her as she flew away. Free at last.