By Sh33p, CultofSh33p@aol.com
The great sequal of New Age. It'll knock your socks off. Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
Sh33p Disclaimer: I don`t own Zoids. Consider this disclaimer valid for the whole damn story :P
Foreword: Pick something foreboding for this one, and chaotic-to-high-hell for the end of the chapter, you`re gonna freaking need it...
"Sir!" The comm officer shouted, effectively snapping Conrad out of the light sleep he`d allowed himself to fall into. Awake for fifty-two hours straight, it was obviously wearing on him just as much as more than half of the others on the firing lines. He hadn`t eaten and he`d only been able to swipe a one hour long, utterly restless catnap, which had just been snapped in two by the shout that had woken him up. Unlike the ordinary person though, Conrad was wide awake from the get-go, sleep deprivation be damned.
"What?" He asked, lacking completely on any form of military etiquette for the time being. No one else seemed to mind one bit since at least five of the eight people on the Europlas were in the same condition or close to it.
"Orders from the General," the officer stated.
"Shoot," he said, again neglecting military etiquette and not really caring either way.
"Morgan said that firing is to resume the moment that the cocoon starts breaking."
"Breaking?"
"Apparently someone did a little research," the officer said with a tired shrug of his own. The air in the command room was essentially casual intensity, no one was really paying much attention to following protocol to the letter and no one really cared enough to bother with it in the first place. "When that thing starts breaking, it`ll be vulnerable."
"Any idea on when that`ll be?" Conrad asked tiredly, rubbing one of his temples again. It wasn`t much of a habit, or anything else, he just had a headache. Exhaustion tended to do that to you.
"Negative. Hauser only said that it`d be sometime tomorrow and that they can`t pinpoint anything else yet," the officer replied in kind, stopping short of a yawn.
"Put out the word to the troops then, any Zoid with a multiple-pilot crew can allow everyone but one guy to sleep while we wait, any Zoid with only one pilot will have to let the Zoid next to it play night watchman for a bit, but I want at least half the force ready to go at all times, understood?"
"Relaying those orders now."
A nod. Quiet.
Conrad almost fell asleep a few seconds later. Again.
"Yanno..."
No answer. Moonlight still lit up the sands of the desert, though it was somewhat outshined by the lighting of the base itself. It was like sitting at the edge of Wind Colony city limits all over over again, with Larry drunk off his wits nearby, smoking a cigarette and mumbling about wanting to spraypaint profanity all over the side of the local chapel. Bit`s ex-girlfriend would be curled up next to him mumbling sweet nothings into his ear, and he`d mumble back in similar fashion and Tanya would be passed out on the hood of her new car, not from alchohol or drugs - Larry had always been the only one to dabble in that sort of thing - but from exhaustion. She`d always been the most work addicted member of the Cloud siblings.
The differences were that there weren`t any windmills, the air was dry and bland, unmoving, rather different from the temperate, enjoyable climate around the Wind Colony. The other primary difference was that the Wind Colony hadn`t been a military establishment. The police were the typical small town variety trying to adapt to a recent boom of expansion, there were occasional members of the Guardian Force passing through for whatever reason, sometimes a few Zoid Warriors would pop by but that was all so different from what it was like now.
It seemed a lifetime ago. At most, it had been three or four years since the last time that Bit had sat around like that.
"I hate angst," he concluded, laying on his back and staring straight up into the cloudless sky. At least it was cloudless where he was looking, smoke was still billowing up from around the glassed over crater that had been formed earlier in the day. His hands tucked under the messily short blonde hair on the back of his head, his eyes wandering at random. There was at least one improvement he`d come to enjoy, somewhat, through his years of being a junk dealer and months as a Zoid Warrior with the Blitz Team. In the Wind Colony, the skies were always cloudy at night unless it was during the very hottest part of a summer drought. You couldn`t really gaze at the stars without seeing clouds in the Wind Colony.
He liked the stars. Made for a nice nightlight to sleep by when he was junk dealing, made for an even better distraction when he was on the road with the Blitz Team.
"I also hate how quiet you`re being," he grumbled out as an afterthought, not caring if anyone else heard him.
I don`t feel like talking, Bit. Deal with it.
"Oh gee, I guess it finally hit you too, huh?" He asked annoyedly, referencing an unpleasant event that neither wanted to speak about.
You didn`t know her like I did. Don`t think I haven`t been grieving her death since this whole mess started.
"Sure you have," Bit muttered, leaving it at that and shifting his gaze from the heavens to the desert, namely to the lines of Zoids that were still visible in the distance, Whale Kings, Hammerheads and other aircraft still hovering over them all. He wanted to spitefully call them all idiots, but he didn`t bother wasting the effort. They hadn`t listened to him before, he didn`t think they would again.
Unlike you, I didn`t vent my frustrations slaughtering people.
Silence.
Bit replied only with a harsh sideways glare, and the Liger took a step back, bowing it`s head in apology for the Organoid`s words. The two may have been one, but the Liger Zero didn`t always agree with what Zeke said, after all. And a few seconds after, the enormity of the mistake in his own words struck the same Organoid across the head like a shovel, instantly filling the somewhat distancing emotional Bond between himself and Bit with even more regret than there`d already been.
He would have apologized but...
"Don`t bother."
Too little, too late. Regret withdrew, the presence in his thoughts briefly 'tilted' away and then went completely silent. It was still there, but nowhere near as much as it had been before. Bit huffed with annoyance and looked back at the Republican Zoids, disgust evident on his face as he spoke out and closed his eyes.
"Like ducks in a row."
And with that, he willed himself to lose focus and eventually drifted
off to sleep.
"So, you`re leaving then?"
"Pretty much," Pierce stated with a slight shrug, standing with the Tauros siblings not far from where Naomi Fluegel was loading the Gustav, the Gunsniper and the Red Blade Liger all into the Empress Heart. "Nothing for me here and I`m worried half-to-death about Abbie and Mark. Mom may be able to hang low for a while but those two`re like sitting ducks in broad daylight most of the time," she added as an afterthought. Disowned or not, she still cared quite a bit about her younger sister.
"Tell Abbie and Beck, I said hi, then," Leon stated more than requested, watching his banged up Zoid getting dragged into the Whale King with a mixed look on his face. The teasing had stopped thankfully, Leena was just being quiet since good-byes didn`t interest her too much and she didn`t know Pierce too well at all. The old Leena Tauros would`ve butted into the conversation and joyously forced herself into it`s center, this one didn`t like attention too much anymore.
"One thing though..."
"Hmm?" Pierce voiced, looking half-ready to turn and walk away.
"What about your Storm Sworder?"
"Ciere Fuma used to live here on her time off from the Backdraft. She owned a Gustav, it`s still in her private garage and that wasn`t blown to Hell like most in the city, so I`ll use that."
Leon gave a nod. "So long then," he said.
A pause. Silence.
Leena vacantly scratched the inside of a wrist, listening to the distinct sound that happens whenever someone not used to much social contact gets caught completely off guard by something, in this case, the sound of lips meeting skin, and the sound of Leon`s spine going so rigid that she faintly registered a cracking sound.
"See ya, Leon," Pierce`s voice rang out with a hint of flirtatiousness in it, and Leena could almost swear she saw her brother turn six shades of red, pink and maybe a bit of orange on the side. By the time that the green haired woman had left, he still hadn`t blinked and his expression was frozen in a look that bordered on shock and awe at once.
"Well, that was special, huh?" She quipped, waving a half goodbye in Summers` general direction and then sparing another glance Leon`s way. "Might wanna get that lipstick smudge off your cheek before Naomi see`s it," she added with an utterly casual tone of voice.
"She`s gonna have a field day with this one," Leon finally mumbled out, reaching up and wiping away the lipstick from his cheek and trying to calm his way out of the blush that threatened to erupt into a nosebleed. At this, Leena quirked a brow up.
"She do something more than kiss you?" She asked.
"Eh... Heh... Anyway..."
"I`ll take that as a yes. Who knew Mister Potential could be so inept with girls?"
"I blame the media," Leon muttered sardonically, slowly trying to shift
his way back to normal.
"Sounds like we`re about to land," Brad stated with an unerring apathy, his resolve undetectable yet utterly unbroken by hours of being locked in the dark with Jamie and Leyla, each of whom sat up from where they were laying with one another and hazarded to glance in the door`s general direction - at least, Jamie thought he was glancing in the door`s direction. He was actually staring at the wall of Brad`s bed, but Leyla had done better.
"Someone`s coming," she stated, eyes shifting to track the movements of six minds, coming down to their level through an elevator. "Six of them. Their intentions aren`t good, either," she said, not knowing how she knew these things but still making use of them regardless. "Four are armed," she added as an afterthought.
"Must be the welcome party, come to make sure we`re presentable," Brad commented. Jamie was eerily silent.
"If we shift, you might be able to take them out."
No reply.
"I know you`re there, Will."
"I`m just a tragic figment of you`re overactive imagination, Jamie. It`s not time for me to put on a show. Yet."
"Eh?"
He was roused out of his mind`s civil war by a poke to the elbow, causing him to glance blindly in Leyla`s direction. "What?" He asked in a whisper.
"Stop doing that, will you?" She asked, her voice hushed and cautious.
"Doing what?" He asked back.
"Mumbling to yourself..."
"He has two personalities. Himself, and me."
"... Oh," Leyla said before Jamie could even react, sighing and then leaning against him tiredly. Brad`s voice rang out once again a few seconds later.
"Any idea how long it`ll be before they get to us?" He asked thoughtfully, as stoic and apathetic as he had been during the entire time.
"A few more minutes. Probably ten, if they go slowly," she answered without any real emotion behind it. Brad wasn`t someone she`d warmed up to, and for what it was worth, he didn`t like her very much either for that matter. Jamie was literally the only reason that both were present in the first place. It was awkward as the silence from before settled over the room again, the only sound being that of the wait for what was probably going to be the end.
Eight minutes later, light filled the room and six armed guards burst
in...
Morning? No. The sun was too high for it to be morning, how long had he been asleep?
It`s 1:30 in the afternoon.
It was a bit chilly too. That was odd, and he wasn`t lying on the top of that wall anymore. How had he even known that the sun was too high for it to be morning when it was actually shaded wherever he was laying?
Gold barriers pressed together on either side, and to his front, and it was a bit cramped - he couldn`t sit up, but he could stretch in almost any direction but up or down. The 'floor' was hard, a bit cool around him but warm and somewhat sticky where his skin had been pressed to it, as if he`d been laying there a while. Oddly enough, his head wasn`t in pain from laying on it for however long it had been.
"Where am I?" He asked patiently, suddenly feeling the 'floor' slant, and watching the barriers crack apart until completely splitting away from each other, looking very oddly like teeth...
"... Eeee..."
Don`t worry. I won`t grind you into flesh chunks.
It was then that an utterly freaked out Bit Cloud came sliding out of the Liger Zero`s mouth, narrowly avoiding the sharpened sides of several teeth before falling to the hard concrete, miraculously landing on his feet with a small stagger forward, smacking his head into the barrier wall as a result.
"Ow."
That first step is always a doozy...
"You`re mocking me again," he growled out at the Organoid, watching the Liger rumble something of it`s own at the general conversation and leer from side to side, almost nervous with anticipation. For a moment, he was dumbfounded. Zeke didn`t answer, the Liger didn`t greet him in any sort of formal way - it usually at least growled the equivelent of a 'Hi, good morning!' to him - and only the sun beat down on him from the skies above, making him almost long to be back in the shade for a few seconds.
Don`t you feel it? Zeke asked, hesitant and even slightly taken with something that the blonde hadn`t noticed yet. At the edge of your mind, do you feel it? Like a heartbeat, almost...
"What the heck are you blabbing about?" Came the reply with obvious indignance, every single last ounce of it being intended from start to finish. Bit obviously wasn`t in the mood for the mystic act right now.
Calm down. Close your eyes. Open your thoughts, the Organoid advised with an almost placidly drunk sort of tone, the words sounding as though he wanted them to be slurred for added effect. Bit shrugged and did as asked, almost instantly feeling that constantly angered part of his personality shifting into a near intoxicated euphoria of promised bloodshed and violence. Revenge against everything that lived, breathed and could die...
["STOP RIGHT THERE!!!"]
"Gah!" He yelped at the sound of his many-times-great grandmother yelling at him, snapping out of his haze, pupils that had nearly been on the verge of fading from sight and eyes that had threatened to turn glassy suddenly returning to normal in an instant as he jumped forward, landing bent over and glancing around frantically.
So... Zeke trailed off, almost seeming high off of whatever had just about caught Bit and dragged him down to some blissful Hell.
Stop,
There was when Zeke also snapped out of his fervor, and again, the Liger glanced around in much the same way as it`s pilot, though the cause of Zeke`s return to sanity had been different. For Bit, it was a subconcious reaction, something planted there long ago by... Something else, perhaps just a natural defense, perhaps a bit of foresight on behalf of Fiona, no one would quite be able to tell either way. For Zeke? Well, that was another story for another day entirely.
Suffice to say, both of them had been rattled back from the brink of something else entirely, and at the edge of both their minds, through their own Bond, a third voice growled out with annoyance, a fourth presence seeming to overwhelm it from their thoughts before both of the extra weights vanished as mysteriously as they`d first been felt and heard.
"What-" - the Hell? Bit and Zeke said as one, each now feeling
more than a little paranoid.
They`ve escaped. At least two of them made it into the ventillation system, the other, I`m not too sure about.
A mirthless laugh filled the dimly lit room.
I fail to see the humor in this situation.
"Calm down," Vilhelm ordered, almost sounding amused yet at the same time, sounding dangerously serious. "They may have escaped their cell but they`re still on the Fatalistic Renegade, correct?" He asked, already knowing the answer for the most part.
Yes.
"Then the solution is easy," the human of two said without a care about it, flipping a switch on a small panel that sat at the right side of his desk, then speaking into a receiver that extended up and curved towards his face afterward. "Captain," he began smoothly. "Alert Captain Turpscavey that her prisoners have gotten loose. Advise that she heighten security at all exits, and make sure to keep an extra guard on the command and control, hangar and Core areas of her Whale King. If she is unable, due to having to meet me, take charge for her."
"Yes sir. Any other orders?"
"Yes, actually..."
"What?"
"If they find our wayward 'guests,' be sure to avoid disciplining them. I want them locked up, together if possible."
"... Understood."
"That is all, Captain," Rommel said, flipping off the comm without so much as a good-bye, then glancing over at Spectacle`s disapproving glare. The Organoid was obviously not as patient and scheming as it`s Bound, but it was willing to listen to Vilhelm`s explanation, at least.
"It`s all relatively simple, my dear friend."
How so?
"We use the two males as bartering chips into Tsun`s soul," he began. "We kill the unimportant one and her resolve starts to break, as does the resolve of her apparent boyfriend, thus driving them together for mutual support. We allow this to continue for a while, effectively driving them to rely so completely on each other that they can barely think otherwise, and then..."
You cut the last strings and break her will to live by killing him. Malicious, cruel and heartbreaking. I like it.
"Exactly. We`ll also have to arrange the deaths of her adoptive family, but that`s another story."
The last time I bothered checking up on them was when I was dragging Chapman back.
"Where are they?"
Heading for Farentown, the long way so as to avoid bandits.
"Which puts them right in the line of fire for the Hellwalker."
And also puts them into a cluster with Harabec Davids, his nephew, Kyle Mazemia and a few dozen other well known Zoid pilots.
Another chuckle, this one much more amused than the one preceeding it.
"Don`t you just love it when they try to band together for survival, only to paint a bigger target on their backs in the process?"
Indeed.
With as much turmoil as there was consuming Bit Cloud, and as much sadistic madness as there was dripping off of Kale Obscura, it was relatively easy to overlook the mute figure currently sitting alone in pitched blackness, not even granted the luxury of the minimal lighting that someone like Leyla Tsun could see through. He was angry, depressed, felt the urge to scream but at the same time realized that no one would actually hear him doing so, so what was the point in bothering?
He felt unkempt to the extreme. About the only bathing he`d been given was a pressure hose wash during the third day of his captivity, nothing since. It felt like grease had become filmed over his skin, his clothing stank and he`d only been able to relieve himself three times a day if he was lucky, mainly since he couldn`t even see the toilet they`d stuck in the room as an afterthought. He felt hungry constantly, his hair had begun to grow out over the past week or two and his eyes were on the verge of looking bloodshot.
Black bangs hung out a bit oddly over his forehead, brown eyes that once echoed freedom now only echoed something faint and almost lifeless. The hair on the back of his head had grown out as well, not as much as his bangs, but he would`ve liked to cut it at some point, back to normal. His jacket felt heavy, a bit moist from sweat that came from the lack of air conditioning, and his shirt felt like it was slowly becoming a second skin. The same applied to his jeans and his shoes and socks, though his gloves had been nonchalantly crammed into his jacket pockets.
Even through this though, even with his body coming somewhat close to it`s breaking point, even with his mind on the verge of crumbling into despair and even with his emotions consumed by grief over the loss of his friends - the only family he`d even had anymore - he still had the will to hold his head up, even if it only meant staring at the faint crack under the cell door that let a bit of grayish light trickle in, nowhere near enough to break the grip of the darkness in the room, but still.
His intentions to kill Vilhelm Rommel and the Organoid, Borealis, had been forgotten. His only intention now was freedom. Defiant as a lion, but weary enough to avoid showing it openly, Bill Chapman hadn`t been broken yet.
His only objective, the only thing he could think of, sat tauntingly on the other side of the door, but he waited. Like a predator stalking prey, he waited, because that was all he could do.
The collar bit at his skin, he ignored it, focusing on that objective with everything he had.
"I`ll get out of here. I`ll get this damn collar off. I`ll be free again..." He kept repeating to himself, seething every now and then but only waiting.
Brown, bloodshot eyes narrowed. He would get out of here alright. It
probably would kill him, but he would escape.
And with as much turmoil as there was consuming the Organoids known as Zeke and Shadow, it was equally easy to forget the Organoid that was intricately linked to Bill Chapman.
Borealis had been sitting silent for hours now, standing in the middle of a road near Wind City, completely alone and utterly unmoving. It hadn`t even dimmed it`s optics, it hadn`t thought, it hadn`t budged and it hadn`t even had any emotions during this time. Behind it lay a small body-imprint of a crater, shaped eerily similar to the Organoid that had been occupying it all of fifteen or sixteen hours before - maybe longer. Borealis wasn`t too good at keeping time, and even if he was, it wouldn`t have mattered now since he hadn`t even done anything during that time, effectively having gone static.
Still covered in dust and dirt, he almost looked like a statue of some kind.
... Well, that was sure FUCKED UP, wasn`t it?
A clinically insane statue, but a statue none the less.
So Billy-boy`s gone and gotten KIDNAPPED by the NUTLESS GREEN WONDER, the apocalypse has come and been a letdown since demons haven`t eaten my soul for being a sinful little TRANSCOLORED PARASITE on the ASS of SOCIETY, and I don`t have SIXTY-HOT-DAMN pounds of BURNING LEAD lodged in my nonexistent sphincter.
A pause.
Er... What day is it? The Organoid asked, leering around and finally realizing that he was still alone. Another pause followed, then that lengthy, Specularesque head-and-neck curled down low enough for a clawed foot to reach up and smack the dust off. After that, he straightened up and glanced over at a tree, expecting an answer.
... Come on, YOU would know, right?
The tree didn`t say anything.
... Damnit, aren`t you fuckers supposed to be all ancient and shit?
Still no answer.
Oh, the silent treatment. Boo-hoo, you don`t WUB me!
Nope. No answer.
Flagh. Guess I`ll have to raid the city or something... Wonder if they still have that special on fluffy egg-muffins?
Another pause. Revelation.
... Shit. I haven`t got a stomach...
Another pause, again. Denial.
Ah what the Hell do I care? They taste so goo... Wait...
Yet another pause. Another revelation as well.
Well fuck me in the toes and call me Smegma Mole Bob, I ain`t got taste buds!
Acceptance. And then the unusually twitch-happy Organoid started wobbling
drunkenly towards the city, happily humming out the tune to an old nursery
rhyme and occasionally stopping to do what vaguely resembled breakdancing.
Just before sun began to set. It was about time, Kale figured, the sound of the rhythmic heartbeats that only he could truly seem to feel suddenly beginning to pick up like never before. A dull smile slowly etched it`s way onto his face, accompanied moments later by the sound of the hall door sliding open and then shut again.
"Like clockwork," he thought with barely concealed amusement, listening in on the one-sided conversation to follow.
"Are you here to replace us?"
"Where`s your partner? You know there`s supposed to be two-on-watch at all times with this one..."
"Gwooooonnng," Kale stated, drawing the attention of both guards as he looked up from the floor. "You fucking lose."
Two loud yells joined by two equally loud cracks of steel toed boots against the bone of skulls followed, soon accompanied by the sounds of two unconscious soldiers falling to the floor. Rayth landed out of both kicks from the same jump, with a certain unintended, natural grace, like a predatory bird diving on a fish, his balance utterly flawless in every way.
"I see you still have that gift of gab," Rayth pointed out blandly, drawing the keys from his pocket as Kale stood up and approached the door of his own cell with a shrug.
"You don`t ever speak, someone has to make up the difference."
Silence followed between them, and without a word, Rayth slipped the right key into the lock and turned, sliding the door out of place and allowing his longtime comrade out, speaking only as it was needed while offering his other arm up, which held a pilot`s jumpsuit that eerily resembled the one that Kale had been wearing before.
"I found it in a future disposal room. I needed something to occupy my time."
"I never figured you to be much of a sewer," Kale pointed out, taking his favored outfit back and changing clothes right then and there, heedless of anything even remotely resembling modesty. It got to be a moot point when one was about to callously murder every single human being within ten miles and get away with it. Rayth had done a good job on the clothing repairs though, even washing out the blood and dirt, sewing the holes shut and going so far as to retrieve the gloves and boots as well.
When he was finished, Kale nonchalantly dropped his prison uniform onto the floor and cracked his knuckles.
"Good job on the threads," he commented, stepping over to the two downed guards and then casually snapping their necks, one after the other.
"Was that really called for?" Rayth asked, chucking the keys off somewhere and then leaning sideways onto the bars of Kale`s former cell. The other shrugged, placing one of his own hands onto his former uniform and standing up straight. There was something silvery in his hand now...
"Not really."
Click.
Rayth blinked, glancing down at his wrist and then to the bar that it was cuffed too, all too late realizing just why Kale had walked forward and hid his hands behind the guards in their last encounter, and why he had just killed the two on duty. Each was out of his reach by mere inches, he was completely trapped in hostile territory.
"What are you doing, Kale?" He asked bluntly, showing no emotion for the time being. Not yet, anyway. The other only smiled, stepping away and getting a good view of his handiwork as if to burn it into his memory.
"Leaving you, the same way you left me. Alone, in hostile territory, with your only companion being your own screams," the other answered, still smiling the smile of the damned. Rayth didn`t get the chance to speak though, as Kale reached down and drew the keys to the handcuffs from each of the two dead guards, calmly tossing them out of sight down the hallway and then turning to leave.
"You have eight minutes," he stated, coldly beginning to walk away.
"Kale..."
No response. Just iced footsteps ringing off of the cement like the steady strumming of a violin playing out the song of the Grim Reaper.
"Kale, damn it! Get back here!" Rayth yelled, fear finally beginning to take hold as the other made it to the door.
"Kale!"
The door slipped open...
"KALE!!!"
And was promptly slammed shut with a terrifying finality, only a mad
man`s laugh audible on the other side.
"Sir!"
Conrad snapped awake out of his half-asleep stupor, glancing over at the tactical officer with full alertness. Drowsiness wasn`t something military personnel could typically afford, most were rigorously trained to withstand a few weeks of near-sleep deprivation with relative ease, commanding officers were no different. "Report," he ordered, just short of a yell.
"Starting to pick up activity in the cocoon, power readings are going even further off the scale," came the reply, fast and tense.
"Alright, ready to fire on my mark!" Conrad shouted needlessly, the need to adjust to so little sleep in the past days finally showing a sign or two. He needed to get his third or fourth wind going, but at the rate things were moving, he highly doubted he`d get the chance.
"All units report readiness..."
"Fire at will! Hose the bastard!"
Here we go again...
Bit would`ve taken a moment to question what Zeke had meant, but he was rendered temporarily deaf by the time he finished processing the information. The ground rattled, glass cracked and buildings shook, the sheer firepower being thrown out by the assault force measuring in at even more than it had been during the previous bombardment. They weren`t holding anything back this time, every shot was pouring in with a minimal reload time and they weren`t pausing to wait for slower firing guns anymore - everything was being thrown at the cocoon.
"----`-- --- ------- ----!" Bit shouted, only to realize he was completely mute from the sheer roar of the explosions that were wracking the entire area around what had once been the Geno Saurer. He could barely even hear himself think, and he could only scarcely hear what Zeke was trying to say.
We have to get out of here!
"----?!" Bit screamed back, glaring up at the Liger. The two had the fortune of having been near the hospital and the cafeteria, both of which were - along with the central barracks - near the rear of the base, which unfortunately kept them away from the only current exit, which was located near the front to allow for rapid deployment.
Another loud shockwave tumbled through Bit`s ears, blowing out air pressure and leaving him with a headache and massive dizziness, even as a bolt of black lightning shot out of the billowing, obsidian smoke cloud that was funneling up from where the Republicans were effectively bombing the daylights out of the Geno cocoon, followed by a second bolt and then a third, each randomly blazing off into the late afternoon skies.
Get in!
He didn`t have to be told twice as the Liger bowed it`s head down, the cockpit flipping open mutely. Bit was inside by the end of the following seconds, already pulling the harness down while the roof slipped shut, internal soundproofing doing the rest to cut down on the insane amount of noise that had blasted through the air every few seconds. Finally, he could speak and actually register the sound of his own voice, glaring from side to side before grabbing the controls almost frantically.
"What the Hell is going on?!"
Shadow`s finishing his task. We have to get out of here or kill Obscura, pick a choice and let`s do it! Zeke ordered, genuinely on the edge of his seat with something that could only register as fear. If he`d had the chance, Bit would`ve asked what was so terrifying to put fear into a creature that had all but laughed in the face of the Berserk Fury during the Royal Cup.
"You already know what I pick," the blonde stated, keeping the Liger Zero moving at a slow, lingering pace towards the command building of the base, a glint in his eyes saying all of his intentions without a word needing to be spoken.
It was only when the two arrived at the front of the main building did they actually notice the figure who appeared upon it`s roof, staring down at them with murder in his eyes.
"Out already, huh?" Bit asked. "Must be trying to make it ea-"
He never finished the sentence.
The Liger, Zeke, Bit, everyone on the firing lines of the Republican army froze instantly. Ammunition detonated in mid-air, lasers and plasma beams, pulse cannon bolts and missiles all vaporized or exploded from the sheer force of one final sound tearing out of the blackness at the center of the blast zone, a roar so terrible and thunderous that it sewed nothing but terror in the hearts of everyone for miles around.
Solid crimson eyes lit up in the midst of the blackness, the roar of a demonic tyrant shredding through smoke, blowing local air support back and forcing the smoke cloud to expand in all directions as shards of the former cocoon rained down like death on the field, forming a perfect circle at the very edge of the blast zone.
With the sun at his back, Kale finally lifted his head from staring down at Bit and the Liger, leering off into the distance with a psychotic grin as he spoke words that hadn`t been uttered in generations, paraphrasing someone who hadn`t lived for over two hundred years.
"Welcome to the gateway, Bit Cloud..." He began.
The roar quieted down, everything stopped in a single, terrifying instant, and Kale threw his arms out to either side like a fallen messiah.
"THE GATEWAY TO HELL!!!"
Another roar shattered the silence after his words like glass against a tank round, rippling through the ears, hearts and minds of everyone for miles in all directions, blowing the smoke back by hundreds of feet with every second that trickled by in a torturously slow anthem of doom, obscuring the entire potential battlefield, but for a single streak of purple, black and white that rippled into sight. Screams lit through the broadband, Bit turned briefly to glance behind himself in fear, fear that was echoed by both his Zoid and it`s Organoid.
He knew what he had to do.
The claws of the Liger lit an unearthly gold, and the Zoid reared back briefly, but it was already too late.
In slow motion, Kale spoke again, even while he made the jump from atop the building, almost floating into the air.
"SHADOW!!!"
The roar sounded again, the streak tore from the cloud and the destructive nature that had been Raven was born anew, an unnaturally dark bolt of energy ripping through the air above the Liger and crashing through the top of the main building with such speed that it was like a bullet gutting through soft flesh, whipping into the air with an impossible agility before sweeping back towards the black cloud, shattering a Whale King in the process.
Kale was gone by the time that Bit finished blinking.
"Oh God..." He muttered to himself, instinctively turning the Liger around and taking off at full speed for the battlefield, a symphony of screams and explosions echoing in his mind, hundreds of lives ending with every passing minute. "Gotta stop him..."
We have to get out of here, is more like it!
"I won`t let that bastard kill anyone else!"
This is past us now! We have to get out of here!
"FUCK RUNNING!" Bit screamed, just as the Zero leapt over the outer wall in a full sprint for where the slaughter was taking place.
This is insane! Zeke pleaded, his words falling on completely deaf ears. Twin clipping sounds from the Liger`s back, followed by the blaze of dual thrusters burning at their full power. Trembling with a fright that would reduce any sane being into a puddle of terrified slop, Bit Cloud prepared to dive straight into Hell all over again.
"IT`S SHOWTIME, ZEKE!!!"
History repeated itself once more...
Author`s Note: *Cue Raven`s Theme.* AHBLATS next chapter... If you think Kale and Shadow were bad before, wait`ll ya see what they`re capable of now >D
EndlessAdventure: Agreed about Leon. I`ve actually got a point to make about him, but it can wait for when I actually have the chance for it... As for Leena, I`m not through with her yet. Mark, Kyle, Beck, Abbie, etc, are just characters I haven`t been able to cram in very much just yet. I`ll be able to fit them in sooner or later though, especially since they`re sitting on one of the two major target zones for some of Rommel`s 'super weapon' experiments...
Illidan: The bodycount starts going up next chapter, and from the way things are looking about now, Rayth is going to be one of the first major characters to get chucked onto the pile, along with Conrad, and hell - maybe even Bit and Zeke...
That`s all for now folks. Enjoy the cliffhanger evilness and leave a
review, see ya next time! Sh33p out.
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