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 fast, heavy and brutal. Raven`s theme
comes to mind. Trust me, you`ll be needing it.
"WHAT THE HE-" "WHE-" "IT`S ALREADY DOWNED THREE SQUADS?!" "I CAN`T SEE IT!!!"
Broadband was a jumble of terrified screams and pleas for information, even prayers to a God that obviously wasn`t bothering to listen to anyone on the battlefield. Conrad felt his chest tighten.
"IT GOT THE HERMANN! IT GOT THE HERMANN! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?!"
Another massive roar of fire and smoke, obscured by the darkness that had rolled over the battlefield when the smoke cloud expanded out on the sheer force of this... Thing`s voice, painting an image of a Hell that no human being was ever meant to see in a thousand lifetimes. Death practically dripped from the air as the Europlas turned towards where the scattering firing lines had once been, only to watch as a purple and black glow shot through the smoke, only barely visible as anything more than an outline.
It swept down into the battlefield, slamming hard into something and briefly revealing nothing but a pair of deathly crimson eyes, glowing like bloody full moons, and then both eyes turned away, a glow of flame erupted through the air from where this monstrosity`s legs probably would be, heralding a jump away at speeds that evenly matched those of a Lightning Saix with frightful ease, just as a Command Wolf exploded right in front of where the eyes had been, shifting the heavy atmosphere of smoke and death for a few moments.
Another explosion. Another. Another. Another and another after that, screams were cut off as they began, Zoids cried out in unbearably brief agony and died, it was a slaughter in every sense of the word.
"Sir, we`re dropping like flies!" One of the crew pointed out in a fearful yell.
Conrad only sighed. To him, everything seemed to calm down, settling into a slow motion waltz of unspeakable destruction as he spoke in reply, his own voice sounding resigned, accepting of a futility that was only now becoming fully apparent - though he had known it since the bombardment.
"Put out the order to retreat in any direction. I don`t think you need me to tell helm that it goes for us too."
"Y-yes, sir!" The comm officer said firmly, trembling so badly that he almost shut down his own console by accident.
A second went by. It was filled with more explosions.
Two seconds. More explosions still.
Three seconds and the officer whipped around, shouting something that Conrad was too deaf to hear anymore. His only sounds were his own thoughts.
"We never knew what we were getting ourselves into, did we?"
A slow shake of the head and an unearthly smirk. Had he lived any longer, he would`ve remembered Bit Cloud`s dire warning.
As it stood, the answer came as a silver glowing clawed hand swept across the command and control section of the Europlas from above, instantly killing everyone inside in a torrent of fire and evaporating blood. Two loud thumps echoed a second later, a thick, long tail crashed into the open wound and then raked it`s way back out, pulverizing the Zoid Core and just about everything else at the central section of the nigh indestructable command Zoid, which burst into flames a second later.
Another roar shattered through the pitched blackness as Jesse Marcai`s Command Wolf touched into a skid, dodging under the flying mass of a burning Shield Liger. In all of two minutes flat, the sense of superiority that had once permeated from him had been absolutely shattered. For the first time since being a gang member in the rougher side of New Helic City, Marcai was in utter terror.
His sense of security had also been shattered. It was a sense that he had been proud of once, because his Command Wolf was both fast enough and equally armed enough to stand head to head with the Shadow Fox on a roughly even playing field, it was a prototype model he`d been 'given' by Morgan to break in when he`d gotten out of jail. He and his Command Wolf had since wracked up dozens of kills against bandits and gang members, but this new creature was beyond anything he`d ever confronted before.
From the age of fifteen to twenty-five, almost all young men subconsciously feel that it is their duty to be the baddest, toughest, meanest mother fucker on the face of the planet. At age twenty-four, Mister Violence, Jesse Marcai, had found that the job had already been taken. For some inexplicable reason, that almost made him feel comfortable.
If he had lived to escape, he probably would`ve started questioning his own sanity for that thought.
The pair of lightning fast jaws lined with rows of razor sharp teeth ended his considerations before he could even process the instinctive urge to scream out a curse word or five, clamping shut around the top of the Command Wolf`s head and then ripping it right off, flinging it up into the air before a whisp of silver sliced straight through it`s crumpled form, leaving both pieces to explode seconds later.
Finally, gunfire started to ring out, but it was futile in the extreme.
No one was going to be getting out of here alive.
Another roar shockwaved through the smoke cloud, thinning and spreading it considerably before that purple-black streak of energy became visible again, bolting through the air and slam dancing across the guts of every small aerial Zoid in sight, from Pteras to Storm Sworders to one of the Hammerheads, it spared nothing, leaving them all to crash down to the ground in flames. Anyone who ejected was simply slammed again, forming clouds of evaporating, super heated blood that seemed to paint up the already orange and crimson skyline of the late afternoon.
The streak whipped around with agility that defied known laws of physics, twisting around one of the smaller Whale Kings like a cyclone at right angles so quickly that it`s mere passage sucked a dozen armored panels off of the carrier-gunship`s surface, flinging them like bullets in all directions before stabbing straight through the Zoid`s rear thrusters and vanishing within.
An instant later, the entire Whale King vanished from the tip of the tail onward, consumed by a charged particle beam so powerful that it literally humiliated the Geno Saurer, and put the Breaker and the Fury both on notice. It was absolutely breathtaking, like a bolt of pure, raving madness that was never even meant to exist, blazing through the skies and into the night with such speed, heat and force that the sound it made only came after the first second of firing.
The bolt became visible again while the remaining chunk of the Whale King`s tail section started to fall, ripping through the air once again before diving back into the cloud, just as the remaining Whale Kings finally began to veer away, their captains realizing just how dire the retreat order had been.
More explosions lit through the smoke, hundreds of them. Gunshots were frantic, missiles randomly shot from the clouds, along with bolts of every kind of energy weapon used by the Republican army, these people had lost their cohesion and they`d done it for a damned good reason. They wanted to live, even if it meant throwing each other to the angel of death in the process.
Bit Cloud felt his resolve slowly starting to crack and waver, Zeke had broken down into absolutely terrified gibberish in the Organoid tongue and the Liger itself was showing signs of palpable fear, but he continued onward, watching the base of the smoke cloud bulge and distort with recurring frequency. Parts of dead Zoids flew through the air like they were being thrown by an irate toddler, and several fully intact Zoids soon joined them. None of them were aerial Zoids though, all had merely been flung through the air with such force that they were smacking into the sides of the Whale Kings, hundreds - if not a thousand or more - feet in the air, hitting with such force that it was believable that the things would`ve continued on for a half a mile or more.
Reluctantly, the Liger Zero slipped into the abyss of blackened chaos, and explosions shocked and tore at the senses like knives, screams so terrified and loud that he could hear them even without having his communications online. At least he thought they weren`t online.
"Come to die?" A smug voice asked as the massacre started to slow, as if Kale had actually begun to run out of targets. There had been three thousand or more of the Republic`s best remaining Zoids on the battlefield. Most had been annihilated by now.
It had been six minutes.
"I`m going to stop you..." Bit said flimsily, glancing around like a deer caught in headlights with a poacher on the other side of the road. "Even if it kills us both."
"Aren`t you just mister hero, huh?"
Another explosion, this time as a Gojulas appeared right in front of the Liger, so close that it was visible through the smoke. The towering, powerful Zoid was struggling in vain, a blade had been impaled through the center of it`s chest from behind, holding it in place and concealing whatever was carrying out this mass murder with such horrifying reverie.
"... You bastard."
WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, GOD DAMNIT!
Afraid o` me, Zeke?
Shut up. Just leave me alone!
... No.
With that, the blade lit up, glowing silver and drawing straight out of the Gojulas, leaving a thin hole through which to see.
When Bit hazarded to look, all he saw was a red optics unit staring back at him. If looks could kill, he would have died instantly.
A black silhouette, only barely visible against the already black background of the smoke lunged off to the side with unbelievable speed, not even using thrusters that it apparently had to make a flipping, twisting jump that seemed utterly impossible, landing and executing it again.
The blonde pilot of the Liger Zero was frozen in fear. For a second, he could do nothing. The Gojulas creaked and fell over, exploding violently an instant later, but by then, he and the Liger were long gone, heading right into the thick of things as another explosion sounded, this time from behind.
"How the Hell fast is he?!"
Red eyes streaked by, just behind a silver blade that soon vanished into something just in front of the Liger, slitting back out and then vanishing again into an ethereal, deathly glow. The bolt of murder crackled through the air, leaving behind only another explosion. By the time Bit swung the Zero around on it`s foreclaws, another Whale King had been hit, plowed through like it had been nothing at all, and not just once - but so many times that the thing looked like swiss cheese by the time that Kale and Shadow had finished with it, crumpling on impact with the ground and throwing off a massive shockwave of dust, dirt and some flame.
The streak continued into the air, and as the Liger Zero emerged out of the cloud of smoke, Bit looked up in time to see it come to a blindingly instant halt, so high into the air that it looked like nothing more than a demonic black speck in the skies, falling down at an angle and vanishing above the top of the last Whale King, just out of sight.
"You were right," he finally admitted with a wince. "There`s nothing we can do..."
So let`s fucking LEAVE ALREADY!!!
"With ya there," Bit conceded finally, feeling a rising shame as he turned back from the sight of the Whale King being crumpled at a sickening angle, it`s back bending down hard as an enormous charged particle beam, punched straight through it like a hammer before actually curving through the air intelligently and targeting the Liger Zero, only to slam down with a thunderous impact right in front of the fleeing Zoid, tearing through the ground in a perfect circle around it before exploding in such a controlled fashion that Bit and Zeke were actually left utterly unscathed.
"No escape," Kale stated bluntly, the black speck now finally visible once again as it flew back into the cloud of smoke. Bit couldn`t even make out any details on it other than a near solid black color scheme.
"Fuck," he growled out to himself, wincing visibly and glaring at the perfect ring around his Zoid. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!!!" He screamed in repetition, finding it the only word that actually even came close to suiting his needs at the moment. "I DON`T WANNA DIE YET, DAMNIT!"
"Too bad."
One final explosion sounded, followed by absolute, bone breaking silence. Bit and Zeke were the only targets left on the battlefield.
It had been seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds.
The final two seconds saw a number of things happen. The first was the glow of solid white death from the very core of the cloud, the second was Bit Cloud`s eyes widening when he realized that he wasn`t the target this time, the third was another charged particle beam tearing through the air and the fourth was the beam curving over the Liger Zero so flawless that even the windsheer missed it.
The fifth and final thing to happen occurred exactly on the dot. Eight minutes and the entirety of Garnhelm Base went up in flames, hit directly by the charged particle beam with such force that the wind sheer alone tore the outer barrier walls off the ground like the peeling of a band-aid, while the beam itself hit the central command building so hard that a quasi-nuclear shockwave rang off from the impact point.
"Ohmygod," Bit shook out, staring at the blast through horrified, frightened eyes. If not for the light filtration system of the Zero`s cockpit, he`d`ve been permanently blinded instantly.
When he finally looked back from the explosion, to his right, he saw the cause of this unholy massacre for the first time, so clearly that it made his blood run cold, his eyes wanted to water and his mouth was as dry as the desert that this violence had taken place in.
Smoke curled around it`s black form, revealing clawed, thick hands that looked eerily reminiscent of a Strike Laser Claw combined with the claws of a Geno Saurer, with thick, clawed toes to match. A blade sat atop it`s head, colored silver like the claws and extending out the full length of the head and neck twice over, bladed on both sides and pointed sharply at the end, connected to the head by a thick 'hilt,' which swiped back to shift the appearance from a horn to a bladed crest, adding an air of style to the already lethal looking death machine.
It`s body was angled smoothly all over, the only smooth curved were the circles of what was visible of the stabilizer caps, and even those were rough. Sharp, foot-long teeth were stained with blood and oil, though most of it had vaporized off during the firing of the charged particle cannon, which itself looked well concealed at the back of the mouth, even more so than on a Geno Saurer, the Breaker, or the Fury. It`s back held two enormous booster engines, similar in style to those of the Berserk Fury, but a bit taller, longer and a bit thinner as well, clamped shut for the time being and leading down to a smooth back, which in turn lead to a long, serpent-like tail, smoothly panelled repeatedly with what looked like folded back spines on the top and bottom, coming in rows of two all the way from the base to the tip. The tail itself was probably a little longer than the full length of the thing`s main body and head, obviously intended for use as a weapon in close combat.
Overall, it was slimmer and much more smoother than a Geno Saurer, Breaker or the Fury, but at the same time, much more angled, with gray-ish panels on it`s shoulders as well, and perfectly sized, Geno Saurer-like eyes that glowed a fierce, tyrannical shade of reddish-orange. It`s footlocks were also bladed, apparently no longer useful for holding back the recoil of it`s main gun.
The scene itself was like a picture of Hell in it`s entirety. Mangled Zoid parts lay burning all around, blood and oil both stained the ground in every direction, much of it smoking or steaming, as with a number of bodyparts that were in equally horrific conditions to the dead Zoids, and at the center of it all stood this... This thing, this embodiment of destruction, personified in a tightly collected package, like a gift from the devil, piloted by his best general and enhanced by his greatest engineer.
It made Bit Cloud more terrified than anything in his life. Only now did he realize that, for all of the strain, stress and even anxiety they had caused him before, his battles with Leon Tauros, the Elephander, the previous Geno Saurer, Bill Chapman and even Vega Obscura had all been nothing but child`s play compared to what he was dealing with now.
"What in the Hell is that thing?" He asked vacantly, those being the only words he could even command himself to say. Kale only laughed.
"Geno Saurer, no more. Say hello to the Geno Maxis."
A pause, and only then did Bit realize that it took a single, all encompassing step forward, it`s foot landing on the ground with a thump so loud that it echoed in the quiet of what had once been an outright killing field.
"Say hello to your own death."
Indecisiveness reigned supreme atop the mesa that the Guardian and the First One stood upon, each watching the conflict below with a measure of restrained concern, Madison`s being less than Roc`s since it was borderline non-existent.
We may yet have to get involved...
"There are always Two and Five, and if the worst comes to being, One or even Four," she countered, pointing out that any one of the wildcards in this game for the fate of the planet were expendable. To an extent.
Five is... Unprepared, at the moment. Two is unstable, One is even worse than Five and Four...
"Speaks for himself. I agree," she blandly conceded, watching with keen eyes as the newly christened Geno Maxis howled out a ferocious cry of war against the cornered Liger Zero, which only barely tried roaring back in an attempt at intimidation. The scales were so imbalanced between the combatants that it was almost sickening to watch.
One shall stand, one shall fall.
"The question is whether or not one will get back up afterward."
Yes.
"Come and get me then, you rotten bastard..."
"Trying to act brave, huh?" Kale asked amusedly, his voice chipping away at what resolve the other was beginning to cobble together.
"No talk. Come. Get me."
"Awww... And I was hoping for the chance to verbally humiliate you some more."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND FIGHT, YOU BASTARD!" Bit screamed like an angry, wounded animal. In the process, he made the unusual movement of turning his fists to where his thumbs faced one another, lunging forward and pulling back. At the same time as this, the Geno Maxis` shoulders flipped open to reveal a number of some forty-odd micro-missile launchers on two panels each, with a pair of high powered pulse cannons extending into view just beneath them.
Wordlessly, Kale pulled the trigger, even while Bit charged ahead and shoved the arm rakers forward, unwittingly activating the one feature of the Liger Zero that he had never actually thought to try before, just as Kale`s assault hit home.
A series of explosions briefly hid the Liger from view, but when it emerged, a golden-colored energy shield had formed directly in front of it, similar in almost every way to the shields used by the Shield and Blade Ligers. With a flare of thrust from the back boosters, the Zero charged onward, closing the distance rapidly with the seemingly futile Maxis, only for Bit to realize all too late that his shield didn`t cover anything but where the Liger`s head was pointed to.
Kale took perfect advantage, just like he always did when presented an actual oppertunity, lunging the Geno forward and to the right, effortlessly swinging past the Liger in the process and - with a speed that was utterly insane - cracking the Maxis` tail across the side of the Liger Zero, effortlessly flinging it high into the air.
Bit recovered though, perfectly and reflexively, swinging the Liger upright and landing flawlessly on all fours as his shield died down, leaving him dumbfounded as to how he had activated it in the first place. He didn`t have time to muse on it though, a fraction of a second`s distraction was far too much of an opening to give to his opponent, who used it ruthlessly and charged forward on the Geno`s feet alone. The new Zoid seemed possessed of a raptor`s grace in a tyrannosaur`s body, with the speed of a hawk to add to the already deadly combination.
Perfectly balanced, it landed on one foot, directly to the Liger`s right, so close that Bit almost screamed in indignant shock, reacting just nanoseconds too late to dodge his Zoid out of the way of the murderous sidekick that slammed into it by the time he had even realized what had just happened.
The Liger flew through the air again, crashing onto it`s left side and rebounding up on Zeke`s willpower alone, righting itself with a corkscrew motion as the Maxis turned to face it, eyes lighting up even brighter than before. The Zero was wounded, and like the predator it was, the Maxis smelled blood all over it.
It was at about this time that Bit realized something else: Kale hadn`t even used his boosters or the ability to 'bolt' around during his previous attack.
"Shit."
"Finally realizing how screwed you are, huh?"
"I should`ve killed you when I had the chance," Bit muttered, glaring daggers at the Geno Maxis and this time, not seeing himself, but seeing the incarnation of the apocalypse.
"Oh boo-fucking-hoo, you blew it, wise guy, now ya get an all-expenses paid trip to the afterlife! Isn`t karma grand?"
"Fuck you."
"Fuck me? Nahhh, you`re getting gun-fucked enough for both of us," Kale stated, swinging the Geno`s shoulders shut and then allowing the Zoid to slow down for once, taking his sweet time in the approach. Bit was unamused, to say the least.
"Pick a way to die. You have six seconds."
No response. Bit glanced around and checked his ammo, giving off an utterly mirthless smirk before looking back up. He didn`t bother aiming - even an inch of movement would tip Kale off, or Shadow for that matter - but he still pulled the trigger anyway, watching the Maxis shake only partially from the pair of impacts that would`ve rocked the Berserk Fury off balance completely. It was all the opening he could get though, and he used it to the best of his abilities, springing forward like a predator in his own right and seeking to rake the Liger`s claws across the Maxis` throat.
A clash of metal against metal, then a slam of the Liger to the ground on it`s backside, and he realized that his shots had caused even less damage than he`d thought. He also realized that this Geno`s arms could also extend - but they did so on actual extender pieces, not cables which left no real control in direction. They were strong too, holding the Zero down on it`s back by nothing but it`s foreclaws, even while Kale flipped the headblade forward and smirked audibly.
"Impaled while upside down. What a shitty way to die."
"I don`t intend on dying anytime soon!"
With that, Bit jammed his foot into the accelerator so hard that he almost felt as though he heard the mechanism pop several times from the pressure he put on it, causing the backboosters to flip back out and churn to life at full power, an action which resulted in the Liger Zero scraping along on the ground for a few seconds and then shooting up like a rocket, dragging the Maxis along for several paces and then trying in futility to pull it from it`s feet.
Two clamps, Bit realized that Kale had just locked himself into place, he had one more open shot and he took it instinctively, pulling the trigger and firing the dual impact cannon right into the Maxis` face three times in a row. The claws released each other, the Liger faltered backwards onto it`s hind legs, then twisted itself onto all fours before it could finish falling, mule kicking the Geno right in the chest twice in a row, using the second attack to spring away into a full run.
Kale only laughed, unlocking the Maxis from it`s resting place and tilting it forward, out of the smoke of the six small explosions to reveal that none of them had done anything at all, while the mule kicks only resulted in chancing impact damage at best.
"Yanno, Cloud... You`re really amusing when you`re scared shitless. Need a diaper change yet?" He asked mockingly, watching the Liger scramble off in the distance at full speed, making an utterly frantic attempt at escape.
It was useless. Absolutely useless.
"I guess it`s not too much of a hassle to show you one last treat before you die..."
With that, the Maxis became engulfed in an Organoid-like aura, vanishing instantly into a sphere of purple and blackish energies that lined a solid white core, only to shoot forward like a bullet. Straight and narrow, the attack would`ve completely crushed the Liger from behind, crumpling it into a tin can-sized piece of black-and-white garbage.
Zeke had other ideas.
Incoming, dodge!
Bit reflexively followed the order before his mind even finished processing it, slinging the Liger into a corkscrewing jump out of the way and allowing the Geno Maxis to blur by. The smaller Zoid landed in a skid on all fours, coming to a stop after several dozen feet, the other came to the same kind of halt so precisely that it was literally on a dime, turning around on a hard right angle and striking at the Liger again.
Bit dodged, the Geno rebounded off of the ground like a basketball, bouncing along with explosions of dust and dirt from every contact with the ground, almost as if Kale was playing with him. Effortlessly, the terror of a Zoid whipped around, bouncing through narrow motions along the ground and quickly coming to encircle the Liger Zero completely. Obscura was laughing like a mad man, the Geno Maxis was effectively 'dribbling' around the Liger so closely that even one inch more would have resulted in massive damage, blinding everything from view with a constant explosion of dust, dirt and a bit of energy here and there, until finally stopping as the Maxis itself fully materialized straight up in the air, legs and arms curled in towards the body, tail whipping in a number of directions at once, mouth open in a roar of superiority and headblade switched back into a crust.
Barely dodged out of the way, jumping his Zoid back by precious feet and watching the Maxis plunge down. He expected it to hit the ground on it`s head, but like so many times today, he was proven wrong, watching as the tail whipped downward and forced the attacking Zoid upright on momentum alone, crashing down across the Liger`s back and forcing it to it`s stomach while the Maxis touched down on both feet perfectly.
A brutal haze of thruster-fire erupted in the Liger`s face a second later, launching the Maxis up into the air, where it`s back boosters went to work and switched open, revealing a pair of powerful thrusters that had been concealed within, both of which blazed to life in a roar of orange, carrying the Geno aloft for several hundreds of feet, into a looping turnaround and right back at the still-downed Liger Zero.
Bit was ready for him this time, firing off another salvo from his dual impact cannon and then making Zeke do the rest.
"Put the shield up!"
Two small explosions, the Maxis continued unabated and smashed into the Liger at what seemed like full speed, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and dirt only to come flying straight back out in reverse, skidding along on it`s toes and clawed fingers to a stop, thrusters cutting out after a few seconds and golden-purple sparks clashing at several small points on it`s armored hull.
Majestically and defiantly, the Liger Zero wobbled out of the cloud, it`s golden shield fading out instantly to reveal no new damage from the Geno`s last assault, though it too was sparking off bits of energies clashing against each other across it`s hull.
"Relying on Zeke won`t save you forever," Kale mocked.
"Maybe, but relying on Shadow won`t keep you alive forever either," Bit retorted, feeling on a level playing field for a matter of seconds. It likely wouldn`t last long, but at least he`d found a way to temporarily survive Kale`s endless onslaught.
"Who said I was relying on him?"
Bit did. Unfortunately, Bit`s inherited Van`s intelligence, Shadow cut in with an exceedingly rare burst of sarcasm.
"Can it, you fucking rust bucket," Bit growled out.
Don`t bother with him. He`s too insane to listen to us.
Insane, determined, vengeful genius... Is there really a difference?
"Not really," Kale answered, Shadow`s current Voice a mirror of his own. "But then again people never realize the truth unless it`s in hindsight, do they?" He asked casually, straightening the Maxis up and then grinning like a lunatic.
Apparently not.
"Oh well," Kale shrugged, even while the Maxis lunged forward again, catching Bit and Zeke so off guard that neither could do more than yell out various curses in surprise, but Kale didn`t attack, instead showing off a bit by jumping sideways over the Liger, to it`s injured right side, then jumping again, cutting off Bit`s attempt at escape by planting both feet straight into the Liger Zero`s path, crouching down and then smacking it upside the cheek with a sideways headbutt, carrying through afterward with a lash from the tail, echoing a whip-like crack over the small of the other Zoid`s back.
Again, the Liger crumpled to it`s stomach in a heap, and again, Kale refused to finish it, instead planting one of the Geno`s feet right between the other Zoid`s shoulderblades and clamping his footlocks down in both places, pinning the Liger to the ground with ease.
"Are you scared yet?"
"YOU`RE GONNA DIE!" Bit screamed out irately in response, gnashing his teeth together and glaring up at the black form of the Geno Maxis with nothing but raw, unadulterated hatred.
"Do you know what, Bit Cloud?" Kale asked, suddenly sadistically calm and utterly unamused. He sounded dead, for all intents and purposes. It was enough of a mood change that it snapped Bit out of his kill-happy frenzy long enough to ask back.
"What?"
"Do you know... How I`m going to kill you?"
No answer.
"First... I`m going to teach you fear. The kind of fear that you can`t escape from. Then, I`m going to finish teaching you pain. The kind that you can`t think through. Then, I`m going to slowly kill everyone you hold dear. And then, finally, I`m going to kill you."
"I fucking dare you, you son of a bitch."
"I never turn down a challenge," Kale shot back, the footlocks suddenly releasing and the Liger letting out a pained roar. Slowly, the Maxis stepped off, then crept away without a sound.
Bit grit his teeth, realizing all too late that Kale hadn`t been playing with him.
"See you again. Pal."
A flash of purple, black and white, the Maxis was gone, blazing off into low orbit and heading for parts unknown.
In the cockpit of the Liger Zero, the lone survivor of one of the most violent massacres in history began to go into convulsions. His pulse was racing, his right eyelids were twitching rapidly and his teeth were beared in an expression so tight that it made his lower jaw go numb. Only one word escape the young, blonde haired pilot`s mouth, and that word was screamed out with a fanatical, raving hatred that could only scarcely be comprehended, if such a thing were even possible.
"KALE!!!"
No reply came...
"I get the feeling that tomorrow is going to be a very... Long day," Madison commented, putting a rare emphasis into her words. Roc only gave a small nod as his companion leapt down from his scalp, wordlessly landing and turning around, heading beneath the centerline of the gigantic Organoid`s chest, which split open, magnetics coming into play as usual to carry her within by the steel that made up her club.
Perhaps. But I get the sense that it will be worth it.
"You`d say that about anything," she pointed out with a shrug, plopping down in the Death Stingeresque control chair and nonchalantly leaning back. Roc could take it from here, her piloting talents were rarely ever needed.
An ethereal silver-lined white glow lit around the colossal Organoid`s
form, soon obscuring it from view all together before it took off in a
wide arc, heading straight for the Liger Zero at full speed...
Author`s Note: A! H! B! L! A! H! B! L! Say it with me now! >_> *cackles and twitches about randomly.* I love screwing over the good guys... What`d everyone think of the uber Maxis? Or Bit managing to tweak the Liger into activating it`s shield on a fluke? O_o?
The Big Fisch: So much for keeping things lighthearted, huh? >_>;;;;
EndlessAdventure: Rayth is just someone who had this annoying tendency of not dying when you threw him from high altitudes. Or shot him. Or stabbed him. Or hung him. But he`s pretty much d34d0r now, so, bye-bye, Rayth Takahori! As for Leon... Like I said before, I have an odd theory to point out when it comes to him, but that can wait until I get the chance to chuck it in here somewhere. And yes. Naomi has lots of cannon fodder against him, assuming Leena or Pierce says something... Heh. Heh. Heh. As for Borealis meeting Mark and Kyle... I`m not sure if that`d happen, but it`d still be funny since they probably wouldn`t be able to actually talk to each other... *Now has a warped mental image of Kyle and Mark trying to use sign language to talk to him while Borealis carves out 3rd grader hand writing with horrible spelling...* ... Hmmm...
Illidan: So far the bodycount from this chapter alone rests at over four thousand. Named characters include Conrad, Rayth and Jesse, though I almost wanted to fling more cannon fodder into the line of fire just to expand the bloodshed but... Nahhh.
DJ Wolfwood: Hope ya don`t mind your OC gettin` whacked, I needed something to add to Kale`s evilness/general badassness, Jesse fit the bill so... *Offers Cookie of Apology, if need-be.*
And on a final note: Expect me to stop being so focused on cramped days and hours. It tends to drag on after a while and you can only cram so much into a few days, after all...
That`s it for now, enjoy, leave a review, Sh33p out, and as always -
see ya next time!
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