New Age Chapter 3, a Zoids fanfic by Sh33p

Hats off to this fic. It tops most fics I've read....including most of the ones I posted here. Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com

"That`s the last of them," Terry reported lowly, creeping around the corner as the other four former-prisoners followed slowly behind, all of them frightened pretty badly at the moment. "Good," Jamie`s alter ego replied from one of the shadows. There were several seconds of audible struggle, a grunt and then a hard crack.

A second later, an average sized figure toppled out of the shadows, a visible bulge in the middle of the neck, head tilted at a very wrong angle. His gun was drawn a few seconds later and tossed over to Terry, who handed it off to one of the other prisoners. "Going to have to keep quiet... Good thing for us they didn`t get the best lighting for the prison part of their base," the Wild Eagle mused, glancing over his shoulder and down the hallway. "Come on," he ordered, waving his hand back to the rest of the group.

Another minute passed before the lot found themselves standing in a better lit room, though it was still empty. The sounds of a bit of laughter could be heard coming through one of the other doors, and the Wild Eagle slowly crept towards it while the rest of the group stayed in place. Terry and the others seemed more intent on getting out alive than carrying out any promises of killing everyone.

A second or two later, the Wild Eagle reared back and lashed out with his right foot, kicking the knob right off of the door and then swinging it open with an elbow. Five gunshots and a groaning yell rang out before he dove out of sight of the door. Terry rose his gun sharply, not even taking very effective aim before squeezing off a shot. Another groaning yell. Jamie`s body swing around again and three more shots echoed through the ears of the former prisoners.

Seconds more passed, guns went flying through the air and the Wild Eagle stepped back into view, bearing not just a smug grin, but also a dangerous looking sub-machine gun. "From here on out we have three options," he stated. "Hide and wait, try to take them all out or escape. I don`t know about the lot of you but I`m going for number two," he explained grimly. Terry and the others exchanged worried glances and then looked back at the gun-toting youth before them with a mixture of fear an anxiety.

"I`ll buy you a distraction then. Do any of you remember the base lay-out?" The Wild Eagle asked. Only the lone woman of the group gave a nod. "Do you remember where the garage is then?" He asked. "Yes," she answered. "Good, I`m going to try and draw all of the attention and give you guys an escape route but it`s no gaurantee, you`ll mostly be on your own. Good luck," he explained before darting down another hallway, one he picked out on memory as being connected to the garage part of the base.

"Law of deductive reasoning Jamie, any gang good enough to have six or more people with the same uniform styling is a gang with at least a small base."

The Wild Eagle paused, holding his gun up and taking aim closely. The garage was one door away. The gang was either stupid or very basic to place the living quarters of it`s memories in as simplistic a lay-out as the one he`d seen so far, complete with leaving it near the prison part of the base.

"That can`t be a good sign," Marcus thought, watching the fading silhouette of a black-and-green Whale King moving up into the clouds. "I thought this was a gang but it looks like I`m in over my head... Either that or this is one big gang," he thought lowering his binoculars and shutting the cockpit of the Gustav again. He`d been smart to hide it in the shadows of a reasonably sized cave, the paint scheme he had picked out helped confirm that idea.

"No time to wait for back-up though," he said to himself, flipping a switch to disengage the two trailers from his Gustav. No need for excess weight right now, not with what he was about to try. "Hopefully this isn`t suicide..."

Pressing the accelerator once more, Mark drove the Gustav out of it`s hiding place and turned at something of an angle to the sprawling complex. It had to be close to a half a mile wide, at least, probably bigger to be able to hold a full sized Whale King on one landing strip. Mark refused to back down though, he was intent on seeing just what this was all about. Bringing the Gustav`s right gun to bear, Mark lightly began to press the trigger.

The Wild Eagle paused atop the catwalk as a series of explosions rang through the hangar. Someone was attacking already.

"Great timing," he commented as a stream of flashes streaked through the open hangar door and splashed across a dozen or more currently deactivated Gun Snipers. The hangar was filled with them, all had been modified with added sniper weaponry or rocket box-type munitions, the kind of stuff you`d see on military hardware. Dozens of base personnel were darting towards those Zoids that hadn`t been ripped apart by errant shots, and dozens more were darting towards those that had exploded in flames.

Dropping his calm demeanor for now, as well as the sneaky aspect of what he was doing, the Wild Eagle stood up and raised his gun again, taking aim and starting to pick off pilots as the made for the cockpits of their Zoids during a slow walk towards the door on the opposite side of the catwalk.

The catwalk shuddered and the Wild Eagle snapped around to watch a newly weakened, splitting support cable fracture further under it`s own weight. "Crap," he mumbled, instinctively grabbing the railing of the opposite side and anchoring himself in place, even as a few stray rounds bolted by and zinged off of the catwalk and the ceiling. Using his other hand, the Wild Eagle raised the gun again, somehow stably taking aim and squeezing the trigger. His would-be attacker let out a scream and toppled over, clutching his side desperately.

"I made a promise and I`m going to keep it!" He affirmed to himself, squeezing off another shot and successfully taking a little off of the side of his target`s head. Along with a nice portion of his face. The catwalk shuddered again and the weakned cable snapped, followed by a second cable a few yards ahead, causing the entire thing to topple over almost sideways. If it had been Jamie, he`d`ve fallen down to a good many injuries.

The Wild Eagle wasn`t Jamie. Same body, yes, but the same person? A resounding no was the only answer to that question. One of the damaged Gun Snipers rested just ten feet below, a drop offset by the way the catwalk was still swinging. Jamie cringed from his vantage point, just waiting for things to end, but the Wild Eagle simply allowed himself to drop, somehow managing to balance on the opposite rail and fall back, only to reach up again and hold himself in place as if standing on a swing.

"The other supports aren`t gonna hold long..." Jamie commented a bit nervously. "I know that, twit," the Wild Eagle replied, gingerly leaning back with his feet at an angle to support himself and keep from falling. Reaching down and locking his free hand tightly around the rail he was standing on, the Wild Eagle tilted himself forward and flipped down, swinging back with the catwalk itself, twisting to avoid more than a few bullets on the return swing before hurtling his body free of the catwalk entirely, allowing the section to tear loose entirely and collapse onto one of the open Gunsniper cockpits, shattering machinery and causing more than a few small explosions to rip through it before it toppled over forward and detonated.

The Wild Eagle was only saved from being turned into the Fried Eagle by his own calculations. The swing had set him on the right course to crash into a number of apparently empty crates. Sure, he`d likely have a few splinters but it certainly beat being burned alive like a good many unfortunate base personnel.

Leaning back up to stand, the Wild Eagle raised the gun again and pressed the trigger - hard. There was single shot and one of the pilots toppled over in a heap, followed by nothing but clicking.

"Grand," the Wild Eagle grimaced, tossing the gun aside and darting towards a parked jeep, bullets zinging off of the steel plated flooring all the way.

"For a group that obviously has the cash to finance a Whale King and a base of this size, these guys really suck," Marcus commented as he put another Gunsniper straight down. "Here I was expecting some gloriously epic, utterly one sided battle to the death..."

Another Gunsniper detonated as Mark put a few dozen rounds straight into the cockpit and tagged the huge sensor disc on the back. "And all I get is a turkey shoot. Sheesh," he grumbled, swerving the Gustav around and going on a straight path. Several explosions clashed with the background noise as a few rounds lanced into the armor of the Gustav with minimal effect. "I mean... Really," he continued, idly swerving to avoid hitting a downed Zoid and inadvertently plowing straight into another Gunsniper, this one having been cloaked until the moment of impact.

"Is a good fight that freaking hard to come by?" He demanded, pausing the Gustav`s movements and hitting the reverse button, shoving the already downed Gunsniper under the Gustav and crushing it brutally before rolling away. The other Zoid detonated a few seconds later. "No friggin` wonder that Bit guy got into Class S, if all Zoid pilots suck this bad then it`s easier than Hell," he quipped, pulling both triggers on the steering wheel and randomly giving several more Zoids a few drive-by-styled slugs through the legs. Another Gunsniper and no less than two Rev Raptors, followed by an unlucky Molga all went down in blazes, topped off by a Command Wolf struck squarely in the cockpit.

"... Come on! Impress me! Give me something worth blowing up for cryin` out loud!" Mark yelled, more to himself than anyone else. It was like some crazy video game...

"If we die, I`m going to be very mad at you," Jamie informed cynically. "... Oh shut up you whiny twit," the Wild Eagle replied, nonchalantly ducking his way under the fist of a pilot and reaching him. Both hands locked down across the man`s arm a second later, after that he was airborn, but the Wild Eagle was faster even than gravity it seemed, letting go with one of his arms and using it to wrap around the fellow`s neck in mid-air before twisting violently.

One snap and a thud later, the Wild Eagle calmly stepped forward, gingerly beginning to climb a ladder to what looked like a modified Pteras, loaded down with enough armament to lambaste a small platoon. "You really need to learn to have more faith in me," he grumbled at himself. "Well maybe if you weren`t insane, I would," Jamie griped in reply.

"... The mere fact that I exist dispels any arguement that I`m the only psycho here. You`re just more orderly about it," he replied to himself, swinging his admittedly light frame up into the cockpit and roughly kicking the co-pilot right out in the process. "And if we`re on the subject of pointing out each other`s flaws, you really need to hit the gym sometime," he complained, pressing the activation key and allowing the cockpit to shut.

"Damn it Jamie, I can`t properly hand out lots of ass and endure mach three suicide dives without at least having a tougher body... Besides, we`d look cooler," he replied to himself. "... You are such a dolt..."

That said, the Pteras` wings began to glow a dull shade of gold, while an unrestrained wind promptly echoed throughout the immediate area of the currently-grounded-but-not-for-long Pteras. Seconds passed as the Zoid eased up before coming to a stop, small arms fire raining in on the main body. "Oh, please don`t..." Jamie begged. "Not my fault they won`t stop shooting," the Wild Eagle replied, reorienting the head of the Pteras to face downward.

A few seconds of gattling fire later, the men had stopped shooting. They`d also, coincidentally enough, stopped breathing. "Sheesh, you`d think these idiots would get a better idea of what they`re up against here," the Wild eagle muttered. "... Not their fault a fifteen year old schizophrenic ace pilot lunatic doesn`t exactly stand out in a crowd," Jamie replied defensively. "... Good point, but still."

All griping and arguing aside, the Pteras slowly tilted itself to a proper angle for flight, now at full power on hover as the Wild Eagle checked out it`s arsenal. "We`ve got four missiles, two heavy gattlings and a back-mounted mortar launcher. Any ideas?" He asked, accepting a rare consultation from his other side. "Mortar the ceiling?" Jamie suggested. "But it`d be more stylish to blast straight out..." The Wild Eagle replied. "Do both?" Jamie asked. "... There`s hope for you yet," the other sighed. "You do know that a lot of people are about to die, right?"

"Well, that could`ve gone better," Mark mumbled to himself as the Gustav opened fire again. There was a fairly blatant, fist sized dent right in the side of it now, not to mention more than a few scorch marks lining it`s frame. The Kong pounded it`s chest again and charged forward, rocking wildly on it`s forearms while the shoulder mounted plasma cannon lowered into firing position. Mark glanced to his opposite side with disdain, spotting that he was sandwhiched between a moving bolder and a hard place, the hard place namely being the hangar`s wall. Behind him, a corner, in front of him, open space.

"Come and get me, beef cake!" Marcus shot off, suddenly pressing the accelerator once again and causing the Gustav to burst forward - about as fast as a Gustav could burst that is. The Iron Kong fell for it though, Marcus had caught the pilot in between strides at full speed and with all that weight, it wasn`t stopping any time soon.

At least not easily. The Iron Kong smacked face first into the wall of the hangar, leaving a 75+ foot high, gorilla shaped dent in the wall, which promptly collapsed after the Zoid stumbled back out on it`s haunches. That was where the full effect of Mark`s plan came into play, and the Zoid trucker roughly slammed the breaks before shifting into reverse and accelerating an instant later, sending the Gustav`s surprisingly heavy bulk crashing right into the small, vulnerable rear legs of the Iron Kong, toppling the huge Zoid over and ripping the Gustav`s antenna right off.

Marcus grimaced. "There goes some of the money I was going to use to get a new paintjob for the Fox," he growled. "BASTARD!" With that said, Marcus slammed on the accelerator again after shifting back into forward, smashing the Gustav into the de-legged Iron Kong and keelhauling it along on the ground, straight into a Command Wolf and after that, right into a stream of firepower from a modified Dark Horn, which itself promptly exploded in a manner eerily similar to most of the Zoids still inside the hangar.

"What the...?" Mark asked, looking up to see a Pteras wildly corkscrewing in avoidance of a salvo of rockets. The Zoid seemed to have taken on a level of speed and manueverability it shouldn`t have had, slowing just before it could smack into the ground only to vertically dart right back up, causing the Gunsniper aiming for it to meet a brutal end as a Gojulas opened fire with it`s two heavy cannons.

"I take it you`re here to help?" A voice asked over the comm. "... Uh... Yeah," Mark replied, swerving to avoid yet another downed Zoid. "Then cover the jeep that`s going to be leaving in five... Four... Three..."

"I can finish a countdown on my own. What about you?" Mark asked, swerving up to a position of covering the jeep that had emerged exactly as the voice had said. "I`ll be fine... I just have some... Unfinished business to take care of here," it replied. "I`m Mark, by the way," Marcus offered. "Wild Eagle, Jamie`s alternate personality," the Wild Eagle exclaimed dryly as the Pteras streaked overhead, followed by a crashing Sinker.

"Just go, I`ll keep these guys off your back," the Wild Eagle ordered, the Pteras arcing up with alarming grace to turn around, launching all four of it`s missiles right into the secondary control tower of the base. The building crumpled like tin foil and toppled over in a burning wreck, crushing a dozen or more Zoids in the process.

"... Okay, I take back what I said earlier," Marcus mused. "I guess being a Zoid pilot does take skill..."

"Weird guy," the Wild Eagle commented. "Taking a Gustav up against a base like this?" He asked. "Must have a death wish," Jamie replied. "Wouldn`t surprise me."

The Pteras gingerly circled the base once again before swerving upward, arcing gracefully into the air and then spraying down with it`s gattlings, coating the main control tower in bullets the size of the average man`s upper body. Under such an assault, the building didn`t last long, caving in and collapsing inward with everyone inside while the Wild Eagle corkscrewed again, bringing the Pteras up at the last second before opening the cockpit.

"This is where we get off!" He shouted enthusiastically. "... Don`t. Haven`t you killed enough for one day?" Jamie asked. "I don`t enjoy killing, but I made a promise and I intend to keep it!"

With that, the Wild Eagle dove out of the cockpit, somehow managing to land softly and on his feet inside the moving back seat of a jeep, just as the Pteras slammed violently into the largest building of the facility, plowing through one wall after another until hitting the armory and detonating like one big bomb. With that said, he leaned up with a grin and backhanded the passenger before slamming his head straight into the dash and swiftly grabbing the gun from the driver.

"Well what do we have here?" He asked, planting the gun into the side of the man who had the audacity to laugh at his earlier warning. Del only cringed and set the jeep to a stop, even as the base exploded in the distance in a firestorm visible from a mile away.

"I told you I`d kill every last one of you. And now, I intend to finish it. Bye!"

Two gunshots later, the Wild Eagle nonchalantly kicked both bodies out of the jeep and tossed the gun over his shoulder before swiping the driver`s seat.

"... You... Killed everyone," he muttered. It`d seemed so distant during the time when he was letting the Wild Eagle have control. It seemed like a bad dream, not real, like he was just watching a weird movie and all of the Wild Eagle`s victims were actually just knocked out. Like the base hadn`t been blown up.

The Wild Eagle complied without another word, leaving Jamie to sit in stark silence in contrast to the burning wreckage strewn about for almost a half a mile behind him.

The sound of a teenaged youth crying wasn`t long to follow as the jeep sped off erratically.

If anyone thinks I should up the rating to R, just give the word. Don`t want to offend anyone severely here so...

Anywho, hope you enjoyed this one, figured it was about time someone portrayed the Wild Eagle as something other than helpful. Leave a review and as always, Sh33p out. See ya.

New Age by Sh33p

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New Age

Chapter 3

Promises kept, wills broken