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: G Gundam - Intense Battle fits just about all of the
Leon-Bill fight. Pick your own for everything else :P
A burst of jet engines, a roar of metal on metal. An impact, another roar, but this one of a shared war cry. Two pilots lashed out, a hail of gunfire erupted, a dodge followed and a rain of plasma lit the ground ablaze for several seconds. An enormous burst of speed, something flew through the air and a thunderous impact followed suit, energies clashing in a furious gridlock between two awesome fighting machines, but only for a moment.
A swish of air, a crack of thunder, one slipped back, tilting sideways, the other lunged forward as if headbanging, and blades clashed fiercely. For a moment, they were locked in position, the Geno Breaker`s horn-blade inched back into a stalemate by one of the Red Liger`s blades, each weapon glowing tremendously. The Breaker growled, the Liger replied in kind and the pilots said nothing, but Bill raked clear of the blade a second later, the right pincer stabbing forward in a blur.
The Red Blade dodged though, booster swinging up out of it`s hiding place as Leon jumped to the left, then jumped forward and landed on his Zoid`s foreclaws, swinging around perfectly and then igniting the Liger`s booster in a blast of white and blue flame. The attack would`ve cut a trench into the right leg of the Geno Breaker, but Bill Chapman was more skilled than Leon had thought, powering on the boosters on his left side - leg and back alike - and swinging around, right in front of the Blade Liger.
The two clashed again, and the Zoids locked fangs with each other, the larger Geno Breaker swiftly flinging the Blade Liger straight up into the air and issuing out a roar, leg-jets igniting in reverse this time as the large blue Zoid went flying backwards into the air, firing off the guns on either leg in perfect timing. With a series of explosions, the Red Blade tumbled from the air and landed harshly on all fours, Leon`s skills barely making the save while Bill touched back down, already having switched the direction of his thrusters by the time he finished landing.
The Geno charged forward, Leon waited, calculating through his next move and then watching the other Zoid close in at full speed. He was ready to turn his shield back on by the time that Bill had gotten halfway within range, but the other had practically felt out the next move, drawing the pincers back and bursting to the side at full speed a second later, one leg reversing for added effect to the spin. Leon spat a curse and made good to swing his booster around in full reverse by the time that Bill had gotten close to finishing his own spin.
The Red Blade dodged the Blue Geno`s pincers by inches, and Leon hit the ground in a half-spin of his own, cutting off the booster and swinging it back into forward as he did so, one side coming to point at the Geno Breaker. By the time he pulled the trigger though, Bill had thrown up his shield.
Yellow slammed into orange-pink with minimal effect, and Leon realized
only now just what kind of up hill battle he was in for.
A hollow slap of a two inch thick metal door against a concrete frame, the lock sliding shut automatically. Conrad Robertson stared vacantly at the hardened looking young man standing before him with a distateful grimace as he lowered his hand down finally, tucking it into his pocket and staring towards an exit for several seconds.
"Kale said you have four days until the Geno Saurer`s evolution is complete. I don`t trust him though, it`s probably a lot shorter," Bit stated gravely, shifting his gaze to the Major after several seconds. "You should get everyone off the base as quickly as you can," he added, not waiting around for Conrad`s retort. The blonde was gone by the time that the Major could even finish processing the information, let alone how a freaking civilian could have cracked Kale Obscura like an egg in under five minutes, where Conrad and at least three other interrogators had failed miserably over the course of an hour or more.
Into an elevator, to the main lobby, out the front door and back on the base`s main grounds, Bit leered around uneasily, watching the build-up continue in utter futility. He had to doubt that Conrad would be able to stop such a deployment even if he wanted to, and he also had doubts about whether or not the Major had even a lick of common sense to want to be elsewhere. Military personnel weren`t exactly known for listening to Zoid Warriors after all, there was still a vague, one-sided enmity that was typically ingrained in the minds of most soldiers from day one of their careers to retirement, stemming from how the Zoid Battles were originally based around the old military tournaments held solely between Guylos and Helic soldiers to settle disputes.
Needless to say, now was not the time to be bitter about traditions that were becoming increasingly useless in a world where the proverbial shit was raining down in buckets and no one had an umbrella.
"I doubt he`ll take my word," Bit thought annoyedly, slowly taking the long way towards where he sensed the Liger to still be posted at. Along the way, he got the chance to see just how much of an effort the army was willing to waste trying to flex muscle that was desperately needed elsewhere. "Don`t they know they`d be better off trying to defend against things they can actually beat?" He asked.
No. Soldiers aren`t perfect unless they follow orders down to the letter, regardless of how insane those orders are, Zeke answered dryly.
"You left out the whole 'dying for your country is preferable to surrendering like someone who actually has a brain outside of their crotch,'" Bit replied in kind, stopping to leer uneasily at the the six or seven Gojulas bristling with heavy, all-range weaponry, all of them moving slowly into one of the numerous hangars on the base.
And you forgot that the true objective of war is not to die fighting for your country, it`s to make the other bastard die for his.
"Touché..."
A pause.
"And another thing..." He began, mumbling to himself while continuing on towards the hospital.
Hm?
"Papayas as an aphrodisiac?"
... Not you too...
Thrust to the right, cut left, jump, shield on, fire blasters, fire dual shot cann-shit, out of ammo, reverse, jump again, corkscrew, dodge, doge, attack...
The orders went from his brain to his fingers and feet and into the Liger`s controls as if reflexive, almost as though the Red Blade Liger was his body, urging him to battle onward and try for a victory. Dodge to the left, pincers hit the ground in an explosion of a dust and dirt - how in the Hell was it possible for something as big and bulky as the Geno Breaker to be that damned agile?!
Again and again, Leon was thrown into the defensive role, dodging through attacks of every kind. A horned thrust, he dodged straight back, both pincers rushing forward to ensnare him, he jumped straight up, the Breaker bursting forward, twisting around and firing on him with it`s leg guns and he threw his shield up, it was insane. He`d known from the start that none of the other defenders would`ve stood even a blazing chance in Hell against the Geno Breaker, but this was bordering on being just as hopeless as it would`ve been even with their help.
Bill issued a loud yell over the broadband, Leon dodged to the right on sheer instinct, calculating his next move in the middle of the effort and then lunging right back to his left, but the other fighter was just too much like Bit, he had come to anticipate on emotion alone, feeling out Leon`s next move so well that by the time he`d made it, the Geno Breaker was already parrying it with a claw arm, twisting in the process and crashing the full weight of it`s tail down across the head of the Blade Liger, just above and behind the cockpit.
The smaller Zoid skidded back, clawing out deep, gouging trenches with it`s claws before coming to a stop, blades swinging forward and blasters opening up for the umpteenth time in under four minutes. This time, Bill was finally caught off his guard, and the Breaker rocked as plasma rained in a machine gun hail of attacks along it`s right hip, blocked an instant later by the shield of it`s right pincer.
"Damn it... It`s like fighting an angry Bit with better reflexes and a meaner Zoid," Leon reflected dryly. He`d known, at the very moment that Bit Cloud had doged one of his attacks and caused minor damage to the right blade, that he would probably never be able to truly defeat the blonde, but this pilot was fighting with almost mirror skills, more intense emotions and a far more powerful Zoid than the Liger had been during any of their battles, making the battle that much harder to win.
"If I don`t figure out a way to get past his defenses, I`m screwed..."
With a moment`s delay, the Geno Breaker turned to face the Blade Liger, and for a second, Leon froze. He didn`t know it, but Bill froze as well, each trying to size the other up. Bill was less calculating about it, but Leon was like a precision medical scanner in how he glared at the other Zoid, staring so hard that one could swear he was trying to look through it, right into the eyes of it`s pilot.
Geno crouched, Liger sank low in a ready position, each growled and a pause fell over the battlefield, the Liger stalking forward, the Breaker shifting into an uneasy series of sideways steps, as if circling an incoming predator in the sands of the desert. Slow and calculated for Leon, but Bill was judging on the flow of adrenaline alone. It didn`t matter that he was fighting on the wrong side here, it did matter that he was just fighting though. He needed to vent, needed to cause some carnage, take it out on someone, but he was also fighting with something in reserve.
If not for that reserve, there would`ve been sweeping charged particle beam and the entire city would cease to exist. Probably the Liger as well.
Emotion against logic, and the population of Romeo City was caught right in the middle of it. Leon took a deep breath, the Red Blade shifted it`s weapons for side swipes.
"Here..."
Seconds slipped by, Bill narrowed his eyes and listened intently to everything he could gather from the broadband, if only because a sound could prove the only tip of his foe`s next action.
"We..."
But the Liger`s blades had been shifted to the sides, that meant there were only a few quick options for an attack, all of which involved melee, where the Geno Breaker`s uncanny agility and superior arsenal would win though with ease...
"GO!!!"
Leon screamed, lunging forward. Bill met him half-way, lunging as well but kicking his jumpjets on at the last second, the Geno Breaker soaring up over the Blade Liger, and right into Leon`s next attack. The Blade Liger`s booster swiveled around almost frantically, setting precisely towards the front-left, just as Leon kicked on his rear-right thrusters, swerving around with a cloud of dust and a sudden stop as the booster finished rotating to the right and the rear thrusters stopped. Almost without aiming, Leon pulled one of the triggers and sent a volley of pulsed plasma shots from his left blaster at the Breaker`s apparent landing zone, tagging the larger Zoid across the back of it`s right leg with several grazing hits before the Breaker burst back up into the air and flipped into a corkscrew, landing and facing the Blade Liger.
Gunshots rang out. Leon dodged forward, breaking into a sprint towards the city only to stop and skid sideways, turning around and leading the Breaker`s attacks towards the hill rather than facing potential allied losses. The ground exploded behind him as the Geno`s leg cannons let loose in full, both barrels on each firing off all manner of havoc in the Liger`s wake.
Again, Leon swiftly turned sideways and slid to a graceful stop, blades swinging up and over the Liger`s shoulders before opening up with a volley of their own. The Breaker dodged though, leaning out of the way and stabbing a claw-arm into the dirt for balance, only to straighten up and tear out an enormous chunk of earth, relentlessly throwing it at the Liger. Plasma rang out, Leon blew the stone out of existence and realized only then that it had been a ruse, a temporary shield while the Geno closed in fully, hover-skating along at hundreds of miles per hour with it`s pincers held forward cutting thrust at the last moment and skidding along the rest of the way as the shield activated.
It was last second at best, but Leon threw his own shield up and blocked, the Liger slipping back from the Geno Breaker`s immense weight as he did so, but holding firm despite the onslaught. Shields clashed violently between the two, and again, they were seperated only by the energies between them, looking almost like a clash of magics for a brief second before each shield temporarily died off from the overload, shocking the two apart for all of an instant.
Leon was quicker to recover, lunging forward and almost punching the Breaker across the chin with one of the Liger`s paws, blades swinging down and into stabbing mode as he completed the stride, only to have his entire Zoid halted by an extending punch from one of the Geno`s hands, a pincer arm doing the rest of the work and grappling across the Red Blade`s body before ruthlessly slinging it through the air like nothing.
It was a last second reflex that Leon pulled the booster in, and the Liger slammed down across it`s back, skidding along in the dirt and dust for several seconds before slowly rolling onto it`s stomach and standing up again uneasily. Red and Blue stood across from each other, the battle was fierce.
"I won`t let you through," Leon sneered.
"Doesn`t matter to me, punk," Bill replied, his voice bearing an eerie
resemblance to Bit`s.
What hit me?
Judging by the damage to your old shell, I`d say something very bad. Probably a charged particle cannon, a few hundred feet of falling, several dozen pulse lasers, blaster-fire, oh - and tearing out of your own chest and ramming into some undying twit can`t be too good either.
... How long have I been out?
Hell if I know. Probably a little more than three or four hours, tops.
Where am I?
In my teeth.
No wonder. You need to learn to use a breath mint...
Says the she-bitch who blew apart a Judge satellite because she hasn`t brushed in two hundred years.
The Liger Zero opened it`s mouth soundlessly, dropping a dazed, thinly built blue Organoid down to the ground with a dull thud.
Ow.
Pansy.
I liked you better when you had Van`s voice.
And I liked you better with Riese`s voice, but do you see me bitching and whining because I lost the source of all of my pronographic thoughts and desires?
... Remind me to stab you with an especially dull spoon if you ever leave that thing.
"I come at a bad time?" Bit asked, staring vacantly at the blue Organoid currently glaring up at the Liger Zero, which was staring down as if involved in a quarrel between a husband and wife.
In unison, Specular and Zeke both turned towards Bit, the shorter of the two giving a huff, the taller of the two rumbling in response. Jibberish followed between them and the blonde took the hint for what it was.
"Riiiight... I`ll be leaving now," he said, turning away and wandering off towards the nearest building with a mess hall.
... Nice kid.
Could use a bit of work on the sanity, though.
True.
Think you could take over on Vega now? I need a breather since it`s been up to me to keep your shell from turning into a fine statue, your partner from becoming a corpse and you from needing to swallow some magnite... Mainly since you do enough swallowing as is.
Don`t make me come in there, you smartass.
If the Liger Zero had a tongue, it would`ve stuck it out and blown a
rhaspberry at the Organoid standing before it.
A dodge to the right, enormous claws stabbed into the side of a bar, and the dodge became a break neck sprint back towards the hill. The building`s upper level was turned into catapult-fodder a second later, fling backwards through the air like an oversized stone and breaking up in mid-air during it`s chaotic descent. Leon was only barely fast enough to avoid getting caught by the attack, and with several sturdy paces and and to the right, the Geno Breaker turned around, horn swung forward still, claws and talons alike shimmering in the mid-morning sun.
The Blue Geno slowly began to step towards the hill, it was apparent that Chapman was taking his time with this one, allowing Leon to slow to a stop of his own and turn around, facing the left side of the Breaker without a word.
"Funny thing about Ligers," that same, Bit-like voice echoed through Tauros` thoughts. "They can move fast and they can dodge pretty good, but is your`s fast enough to block me leveling the city with a charged particle beam?" Bill asked rashly, turning the Breaker to face the Red Blade and waiting for an answer.
"I`ll nail you to a wall before you finish charging," Leon replied coldly, slowly beginning to position himself. Bill only chuckled, almost reading the other by the emotions in his voice.
"Who said a full powered shot? I could do plenty of damage with one sweeping hit, even if I don`t charge up for it."
"You wouldn`t..."
"Right about now, I`d do anything to let the world have a piece of how fucking bad this past week or two`s been for me," Bill replied coldly, every ounce of that yearning for freedom that he shared with a certain blonde Royal Cup champion having been replaced by a malicious cunning that was more similar to Kale Obscura. "Now which is faster; your Blade Liger or my trigger finger?" He asked. Leon grimaced.
"If I remember it right, Geno Breakers don`t need to be locked down to fire their main guns, but to rotate like that, he`d need about... Half a second or so," he thought, swiftly calculating a way through it. "He`s probably... A fifth of a kilometer or so from me, at most. My Blade Liger does 305 kilometers an hour, that`d take two seconds... Damn."
"I`m waaaaaiiiitiiiiing," Bill said with a smirk, playing around with his opponent`s mind in a way that Kale would`ve been a bit envious of, while Bit, in his present state, would`ve been scared out of his wits at the thought of doing such a thing, if only because he was still unable to deal with what had happened the previous night.
"Factor in the human problem... He`d need at least an eighth of a second to pull the trigger, plus having to divide his thoughts and move the Geno around... Half a second turns into one second, if I can get any shots in on him in the process, I could knock his aim off and..."
A laugh jolted Chapman out of his feeling of superiority.
"I know the answer now," Leon announced methodically, using the oppertunity to scoot just a step closer. His next action was to swing his blades up and forward, just over the Blade Liger`s shoulders, from there, Leon took a deep breath and waited. Chapman grimaced, he knew that his opponent had somehow found a way through the attack, so it was time for something else. He smirked again though, knowing exactly what to do to counter the other.
"Come and give me your answer then," he ordered, already having reached a compromise. The Liger roared, the Breaker opened it`s mouth and a faint glow appeared, tail going rigid, jaws opened wide. A burst of speed, the distance was closed to nothing in exactly two seconds, but the Geno had taken off in reverse half-way through it, Leon`s attack passing through the air and hitting nothing. Blindly, he charged straight under the Blue Geno Breaker, only to hear a sudden blast from the larger Zoid`s back mounted jet engines, forcing it into a flip forward, where another burst from one of the leg jets rolled it over, upright.
A blaze of charged particles later, the Red Blade vanished from sight and a beam of white hot death cut across the ground like a knife through soft flesh, halting after all of a split second of continued attack, just as the engines cut out and the Blue Breaker tumbled down to the ground, landing firmly on both feet, but already in the midst of lunging forward.
Leon had dodged it. Impossible as such an act was, he had dodged it in the least likely sort of way, jumping up and then corkscrewing to the left, his actions obscured for a time by the beam in the process. As a result, he was already coming in at full speed, blades swinging back down and to either side instantly. Screams were exchanged, blades clashed in an onslaught of attacks and parries, claws flashing about somewhere in between.
From the onset, it was clear that the Blade Liger was just too outgunned, and step by step, the Geno Breaker battled it back, finally slipping through Leon`s blocks and point blank dodges and locking it`s claw arms around the Red Blade`s shoulders, though the distance between the Geno`s blades at their tightest was just barely enough to avoid actually damaging the smaller Zoid. Roughly, the Liger was heaved from it`s standing point, instead coming to hold awkward in front of the Geno Breaker`s face.
It was then that the other Zoid`s horn sparked lightly with electricity, glowing somewhat with heat, as well. Bill took his time though, methodically lining up until the weapon was perfectly lined up with the Blade Liger`s cockpit.
"How do you want to die? Slowly, or quickly?"
"At the age of 95, senile, in a wheelchair, with a wife, three kids, six grandkids and a dog named Ted, how about you?" Leon replied, smugly pulling the controls into just the right configuration to activate the Liger`s shield. There was an insane crackle of energy and the Geno Breaker went flying back, it`s pincers releasing the Liger in an instant. Bill screamed out several curses indignantly, his Zoid slamming back into a roll that didn`t look at all comfortable, let alone damage-free.
The Red Blade sprang back up instantly, shield dropping and the Zoid itself tilting forward and down as Leon pulled the triggers again, sending another blistering hail of plasma at the larger Zoid. The Breaker rocked hard from the assault, already making it back up to it`s feet. Blue armor glowed a hot orange in several areas, smoke filled the cockpit briefly and it`s own shield was deployed as a result, plasma ringing off like rain drops against a wind shield.
"What, didn`t like my answer?" Leon quipped with an exceptionally rare bit of mid-battle humor peppering his voice.
"Funny man, huh?" Bill asked in reply, suddenly dropping his shield as every thruster on the Breaker kicked in at full power, sending it flying forward in a barrel roll. "LET`S SEE YOU LAUGH AT THIS!!!"
A loud crash of metal against metal, the Liger shrieked in pain and the full weight of the Geno Breaker slammed into it at it`s maximum speed, sending both Zoids crashing into the ground in a sickening roll, ending with the Geno Breaker heaving itself back up to it`s feet and the Liger just laying on it side, blades somehow having survived the impact by folding up and back at the last second.
True to Bill`s threat, Leon wasn`t laughing.
"Crap," Tauros groaned out. The Breaker rumbled threateningly, and the
Blade Liger slowly got back to it`s feet, growling out in sheer defiance.
"Impressive."
"Told ya it`d fit," Leyon commented with a shrug.
"Surprised you don`t have more Zoids in this thing," Steve added to the conversation as an after thought.
"I would but I`ve been busy elsewhere so I only managed to stockpile a few of my own creations and something I ripped off of the black market. Funny thing too, it was a one-of-five type, modular and stolen from the Helic military," Leyon answered, motioning towards the five or six shadowed figures several yards to the group`s right, though his eyes were still on the HoverCargo. It`d taken a bit of work to cram the thing in, but with some doing from the Empress Heart`s stomach-section - originally intended to hold a few dozen to a hundred Zabats - along with the opening of the tail`s top section like a sun roof, the smaller carrier had gone in without too much trouble. Left an ugly blue-and-white lump on the back of the Whale King, and contrasted with the black-and-red paintscheme that Leyon preferred, but it worked out.
Steven and Sarah both nodded, and Leena - bored out of her mind, as she was - took a glance in the direction of the Zoids that Leyon had mentioned. Only one particularly stood out, the others were all a bit too shadowed to really get much of a peek at, but the one she could actually see also looked like a warped Gunsniper of some kind, the Republican logo still printed onto it`s wrists.
It was almost unarmed for the most part, but there were at least three unused weapon mounts - one on the chest, the other two on either arm, and it had talons that looked like they could gut an ordinary Zoid with relative ease, as well as a gun of some sort on the nose like a Geno Saurer. Since it was hunched forward so much, Leena could also get a reasonable view of the pod on the Zoid`s back, she couldn`t tell what it was, but still.
"What`s that one called?" She asked, jabbing Leyon none-too-gently in the small of the back. The older man glanced over at the Zoid and promptly facefaulted.
"Uh... Well... Em..."
"Well?" Leena asked, leering up at him through her glasses, the scarring on her face standing out in the light the group was standing in. Steven and Sarah both almost instantly distanced themselves for whatever reason, but Leyon was pretty much trapped at ground zero.
"Well?"
"... Originally... Uhm... ItwasnamedtheUglenabutIdecidedt-" "THE WHAT?! UGLENA?! WHAT THE HELL KINDA NAME IS THAT?!"
A dull thud as Leyon Martin toppled over sideways, fidgeting in shock. Leena`s voice had been loud enough to blow the pressure out of his ears and knock him off balance completely.
Steve and Sarah merely exchanged sideways glanced and spoke in relatively quiet mumblings to each other as this happened...
"Reminds me of myself when I was that age," Sarah commented.
"Just don`t let her hear you," Steven replied.
"Why not?" Sarah asked. "If the worst she can do is scream..."
It was at about that time that the sound of metal tearing from the floor echoed in the hangar, and Sarah promptly winced as said-sheet of steel was promptly wrapped around Leyon`s head to a background noise of incessant, unbearably loud bitching that was often considered Leena Tauros` trademark.
"NOW CHANGE THE NAME!!!"
"... Weee..."
Thud. Leyon was unconscious with swirly eyes and an enormous pink bump swelling into view on his scalp. Sarah stared blankly, Steven just shrugged as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"That`s why," he answered finally.
"I... See..."
Charge, stop, reverse, dodge, claw, jump, land, dodge, bite. The cycle was endless, the banged up, dust covered Red Liger battling against the mildly damaged Blue Geno Breaker, each Zoid fighting with no restraints. In a sense, it was almost beautiful, the way they moved. One would jump, the other would spring into an attack, or one would attack and the other would twist into a parry, every strike, block, dodge and anything in between leading to the next move made, like water rushing through a pipeline at a hundred miles an hour.
Of course, every pipeline had a finishing point. This one was both violent and brutal though, as Leon lunged through the air and smashed the Liger`s claws across the side of the Breaker`s head, booster swinging to the right and going to full power. Gold raked across blue, the Blade Liger corkscrewed through the air and landed on all fours, booster swinging back into it`s normal state instantly beforevanishing into neutral, blades extending to either side.
A loud shriek of metal followed though, the claws of the leftt pincer arm locking shut around the Liger`s body, just behind the reach of those lethal blades. Leon screamed angrily and pulled the trigger, plasma bursts streaked out of the right blaster for all of a second, slagging shallow trails across the insider of the claw-shield before the Liger was heaved through the air, jagged death wringing through aerodynamic armor in disturbing show of strength.
The Red Blade roared with pain, Leon echoed it`s cries with a scream of his own, and then the Zoid was ruthlessly driven into the ground, slammed once, then twice, and then pile driven a third time. The damage was tremendous, armor cracked, sparks flew from every part of the body, the cockpit glass had cracked in several places and more than a few panels threatened to explode in Leon`s face, and then the claws of the Breaker slipped back into their unuseful position on either pincer arm.
Seconds passed by.
And then the Geno Breaker howled victoriously, the jets in it`s legs igniting for a backwards jump that carried it all the way to the edge of the hill, landing with a skid to a halt. Footlocks needlessly clamped down, tail went rigid, the particle fan on it`s back suddenly glowed with a dangerous power, a power reflected as the jaw flapped open and the barrel of it`s charged particle cannon extended out.
"Shit," Leon muttered to himself in repetition, shielding his face with one arm as the console on his left exploded in a shower of sparks, the bits of plastic-like material flying about for several seconds, thankfully not jabbing into him or anything of the like. "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!"
The controls wouldn`t even begin to respond. The Liger gave one last rumble and ceased movement, power failing on just about every system.
It was then, that Bill Chapman spoke again.
"It was a nice fight, not as good as Bit Cloud, but still nice. Nothing personal, really but... Now I`m gonna have to kill you, and the rest of this city, too."
A pause. Leon looked dumbfounded at the sight of the Geno Breaker.
"Have a nice day!"
The Breaker primed to fire and -
"Not happening!"
- had it`s aim jolted horridly at the last second as several missiles nailed the ground beside it, diverting all of it`s considerable power into a wide angled, deadly beam into the skies, which would have easy annihilated at least half of the city in under a second, running wild before cutting an equally deadly swath down through the top of a nearby mountain, reducing it to charred, burning ash instantly before cutting out, a sonic boom swooping down and literally ripping the Breaker from the ground completely, lead by a silver blur of movement that was the Storm Sworder.
"Get back!" Leon yelled, having determined that only his comm system was working anymore. Smoke was drifting up through cracks in the glass of the cockpit, the monitor system had gone temporarily blank before showing a slate gray view of the surrounding world, just in time to watch the Sworder come round for another pass, blades lit up in an intense, radiant orange glow.
"I hate people who nose into my fights," Bill muttered out, swinging the Geno Saurer`s horn back into crest-mode, instead landing with one leg moving forward of the other, the gun tilting up and letting loose. Pierce yelling out in surprise as the Storm Sworder`s central engine took in a number of rounds, forcing an explosion out through it`s exhaust port and leaving the Zoid`s other two engines to shoulder the burden, and each of those was dealt with in similar fashion.
All power cut in an uncannily methodical, Kale-like fashion, the Sworder glided down to the ground and slipped roughly along the desert terrain, right into a solid kick into one shoulder, which threw it to land right next to the downed Blade Liger, blades losing their glow after a few seconds.
"I tried," Pierce sighed in the same tone she`d had on the day she had lost her only official Zoid match. Apparently, she wasn`t exactly afraid of death like some people were.
"We both did, nothing wrong with that aside from a few million people dying," Leon chastised himself more than Pierce, half-ready to punch his way out of the cockpit and fight the Breaker with his fists at this point. For Leon Tauros, failure in such a battle as this one, was not an option.
Again, the Geno Breaker made ready to fire, preparing to re-extend it`s barrel and gut the entire city with a quarter-powered, prolonged firing shot that would be swept across everything and everyone in the area. There was hesitation though, palpable and true as Bill paused the firing, seeming to feign trouble with aiming and instead shifting from side to side, uncertain of which direction start the massacre from...
And then came a triad of shots through the air, though only one impact actually appeared. The cockpit shook, Bill glared in the direction of the shot, watching the smallest monitor in the cockpit - which extended down near the main forward console - flip to a frontal wireframe view of the Geno Breaker, the left pincer shield glaring a hot red that indicated severe damage, while the rest of the Zoid ranged from green to yellow - which was none to moderate.
"What the Hell?"
"Who knew I`d be saving your ass one of these days?" A silky smooth, laid back voice asked with false amusement as another shot embedded itself into the left pincer shield, almost right on top of the first.
"Naomi?!" Leon yelped in a mixture of surprise, pride and something bordering between relieved awe and wanting to jump out of the Liger and dance around like a fool. Pierce was decidedly more strategic - if only for a moment.
"Keep moving, don`t let him get a lock on you!"
"No point in that, he doesn`t even know where I am," the red haired sniper replied, pinging another shot into the Breaker`s left claw shield and watching it suffer from a small explosion as internal gears and the like were finally hit, the damage being only moderately severe but the effect on Chapman`s morale hitting like an atomic bomb.
"Maybe he doesn`t know your exact location but he can just sweep the entire area you`re hiding behind with a charged particle beam, get moving!" Leon yelled, trying in futility to coax the Blade Liger to get up and fight some more. He didn`t even get a reply from it, only another panel or two dimming until the only light in the cockpit was filtered sunlight.
"... Oh," Naomi muttered with a grimace, rotating her seat around and breaking into a quick sprint towards the enormous blip on her scanners, only to come to a halt when she spotted the huge, green Whale King lying before her.
"Damn," she bit out, just as the entire hill side was blown to kingdom come in a sweeping, prolonged firing of the Geno Breaker`s charged particle cannon. Naomi bit her bottom lip and waited, watching as yard after square yard of terrain vanished against the onslaught, turning the Gunsniper broadside to the Whale King and biding her time, one foot on the base of the hill.
Closer...
"That`s it..."
Closer still.
"Come to momma..."
Just close enough.
Without a word, Naomi activated the Gunsniper`s back mounted thrusters in a roar of orange flame, sprinting up the hillside and making a high jump, right over the beam. The small crimson Zoid touched down with perfect balance on one foot, both thrusters cutting out while she spun around on the one foot`s big toe, stopping and promptly switching back to sniper mode. Sniper-locks clamped, the tail extended, but Bill was oblivious continuing the beam -
"Hasn`t stopped me yet..."
- until a massive shock rang through his system, forcing him to let go of the trigger while his rotation continued on, his fingers releasing the trigger just seconds before the charged particle beam could slice into the Emerald Nightmare. The Breaker spun out as a result, skidding to a halt and throwing it`s head back in an automatic response to the agony of the pilot.
"Don`t ever try to pull a stunt like that again," Vilhelm`s voice spoke over the private channel he had to the Breaker, though Bill was unable to hear it. He was too busy screaming as the shock finished running through his system, setting off every other pain recepting nerve in his body and leaving him to fall face forward into the forward console.
He didn`t know it, but he had left the cockpit exposed, right in front of one of the best snipers on the planet. With a cold, apathetic expression to the audible screams ringing over the broadband, Naomi pulled the trigger and sent a round flying like thunder towards the Geno Breaker`s cockpit. The world held it`s breath and then everything stopped.
A flash of blue and red, blinding, a black glow appearing on the Geno Breaker, which promptly vanished in a streak of light. The bullet that could have ended Bill Chapman`s life streaked on with a sonic crack, passing through the main street of Romeo City and continuing on, so perfectly aimed that it had missed everything behind where her intended target had been.
If you`ll excuse us, we need some CRASH THERAPY!!!
The Breaker briefly reappeared, dropping with an uneasy stagger sideways to it`s feet as a blue-red-and-black Organoid appeared, flying around it like an irate hornet before driving into the Zoid`s throat and vanishing again, the Breaker again becoming nothing but a streak of mixed red and blue, outlining a core of black light.
HOPE YA DON`T MIND!
And then it was gone.
"Damn," Vilhelm bit out to himself, quickly flipping a switch on the waist-high table that sat beside him, standing in his private quarters for the time being, watching the battle through a wall-sized observation window.
"Your orders?" The ship`s formal captain asked automatically.
"Get us the Hell out of here, now!"
"Yes sir!"
The Emerald Nightmare`s engines flared to life, and an armored plate extended down over the window, obscuring it from view completely while Vilhelm bit his cheek. He would need a more dependable lackey if Chapman was going to be as errant as he was, even accounting for Borealis` in-and-out raid. He`d find a better servant soon, but for now, there was a more pressing matter...
"Spectacle."
A green glow lit the floor behind him, and from it jumped the familiar, emerald toned Organoid, optics dulled a bit in concentration.
Bring back the wayward Bill, I`m assuming?
"Yes. If you can, eliminate his former Organoid while you`re at it."
With pleasure.
There was another green glow and Spectacle was gone, phasing through the floors and eventually passing his way into a temporary freefall out of the belly of the Whale King, briefly visible to those gathered on the battlefield before turning into a green comet and vanishing in the same direction as Borealis.
Vilhelm merely snorted in silence, thoughtfully regarding how mixed the night`s events had been, and at the same time, giving immense consideration to how the day`s own events would carry on as a result. The world wasn`t burning yet, but it would be soon. All the pieces were already falling into place, it was just a matter of matching them up and throwing away anything that didn`t fit.
A cold smile as the room`s mixed lighting kicked in automatically, shadowing
his face maliciously, but not hiding the villainy that burned in those
evil green eyes.
Author`s Note: *Phew.* Looks like the opening shots have been fired and proven to be indecisive for any side... Maybe next chapter, I`ll finally be able to slow things down a bit... *Greh.* x_X All this fighting is startin` to get to even ME...
EndlessAdventure: I`ll give you a hint... If you think what Raven did with the original Geno Breaker was a slaughter when he first got a hold of it, you`re going to probably shit yourself. Nuff said.
Illidan: Whether or not Bit goes bad or good is entirely up to him at this point. There`s only so long someone is writing a story before the characters start making their own choices, after all.
DJ Wolfwood: I don`t usually read the Sailor Moon fics(I`ve read all of... *Counts.* TWO! And I only actually understood one of them :P), but I`ll give it a read sometime. Also glad you don`t mind how I`ve used Jesse.
Thunderstorm: I doubt the Liger Zero`ll ever get a CPC on it, Ligers just don`t seem to be Zoids that pack weapons like that :P Oh, and next time ya review: Hit the 'submit' button once, please. Just a piece of advice >_>;
Well, expect the next chapter to be less devoted to wanton violence(for once!) and more towards furthering the plot, that`s about all this ol` Sh33p is sayin` for now :P Hope everyone enjoyed the Leon/Bill/Pierce/Naomi battle/interaction/ass-saving/etc, by the way, and also hope everyone liked Zeke and Specular`s banter... It`s almost like writing Piccolo and Zangya again! >_>;;
As always, enjoy, leave a review, Sh33p out and see ya next time!
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