Jero vs. Raiden: The Grim Reaper against Jack the Ripper
By G.J.S./AdventDestiny 03/27/13 04/13/13
Country of Al'beckistan, 2:37 AM
Hidden base of operations of the Black Sigil terrorist organization
There was not much out in the Middle Eastern desert that early morning, just hills of sand, shrubs, and the occasional lizard. However, if one knew where to look, they would quickly discover a large compound, made up of a couple of two story structures, standing in front of a massive aircraft hangar, over fifty feet tall.
A simple mesh fence surrounded the perimeter, with several all terrain jeeps and a couple of tanks parked in the front courtyard. A single metal gate served as the only way in and out of the base, guarded by a pair of heavily clothed figures carrying large caliber assault rifles. The Middle Eastern clothing served as an excellent cover for the cybernetic armor incasing the terrorists.
They stood silently, one at each side of the entry gate. They had been on guard for several hours now, and the monotony finally got the better of one of the guards. He fumbled around in his cloak for a cigarette. He had just pulled out the pack of cigarettes when a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked to his right, just in time to see the other guard's body crumble, his head rolling across the ground.
The other guard dropped the cigarettes as he raised the rifle hanging from its clasp on his belt, but by the time he had done all of this, the other guard's killer had crossed the fifteen foot distance in less than a second. There was a flash of silver metal, coursing with blue lighting, followed by a burst of sparks and blood, as the High Frequency Blade sliced cleanly through the cyborg's armor, splitting the man diagonally in two. As the guard's lifeless body fell to the ground, his killer stood over him, electricity arching off of the sword held in the metallic hand of a cyborg warrior.
The man's body was completely incased in metal armor, the plates of armor and synthetic muscle mimicking organic human musculature. Every inch of his form was made of metal, except for his face, pale skinned and smooth. A wild mess of whitish hair rested on his head, and the handsome image was only slightly marred by the skeletal, metallic lower jaw. The man's eyes were blue, although for a moment they appeared to glow red.
Raiden, the ultra-lethal cyborg ninja currently in the employ of the PMC organization Maverick, turned to the metal bar gate, and with several lightning fast slashes, cut the gate apart. Stepping over the pieces of metal strewn across the ground, Raiden slowly strode into the courtyard, HF Blade at the ready. Something was wrong, there should have been more than two guards; intelligence from Maverick suggested that the terrorists had managed to acquire a customized Metal Gear mech, a GANDER to be precise. A weapon that powerful should be protected by a lot more than a couple of turbaned guards.
Raiden's suspicions were quickly confirmed when his cybernetically enhanced eyes spotted a laser sight aimed at him from a walkway on the side of a nearby building. Raiden leapt aside, just in time to avoid being struck by an incoming rocket. The patch of pavement where Raiden had been standing exploded. With the failure of the first strike, the other dozen cyborg soldiers lining the rails on the sides of the two-story buildings opened fire with machine guns.
Raiden charged forward, his feet a blur as he raced at high speeds across the courtyard, electricity arching from his metallic legs as he headed to the nearest occupied structure. The enemy soldiers concentrated fire on Raiden, to no avail, as Raiden deflected the bullets with unnerving ease. Raiden then leapt onto a large metal container, pressed against the side of the building. He raced up the wall, grasped the edge of a nearby window sill, and flipped over the rail onto the walkway.
The nearest soldier to Raiden was sliced in half before he could even aim his weapon. The soldier behind the first had more time, and opened fire. Raiden simply leapt over him, landing right between the line of enemy cyborgs. Now facing a crossfire situation, the soldiers had no choice but to discard their guns and unsheathe their own High Frequency blades, these ones shorter and machete-like. One soldier swung his blade, but Raiden simply roundhouse kicked him over the rail, slicing the soldier apart as he fell.
Raiden then stabbed back, impaling another cyborg behind him. The dying cyborg fell to the walkway, his HF blade clattering onto the metal grating. As the remaining soldiers charged, Raiden grabbed the fallen blade with his two part metal foot, and with one fluid motion, he flung the blade right through the masked face of the cyborg in front of him. Raiden then did a 180, and with two quick swipes, sliced apart the soldier behind him. This left only one more soldier, all sense of self preservation overwritten by fear suppressors. He lunged at Raiden, who's back was turned. Just as the enemy cyborg's blade was about to hit its intended target, Raiden simply blocked blade from behind his back. The blades sprayed sparks as the opposing high frequency vibrations cancelled each other out, forcing the weaker cyborg to stagger back. This brief second of time was more than enough of an opportunity to turn around and completely dismember the soldier.
With another swift motion, Raiden snatched a blue, glowing organ-like mechanism from the quickly falling bits of body. As the cyborg's dismembered remains plopped out onto the walkway, Raiden crushed the Nano-Repair unit, recharging his own internal power supply by absorbing the energy through his arm.
Raiden leapt over the rail, avoiding another rocket as it blew away the walkway he was standing on a few moments earlier. Raiden hit the ground running, but had only made it halfway to his targets when the unexpected happened; the whole walkway, and a sizeable portion of the building it was attached to, exploded!
Raiden skidded to a halt, his sword held at the defensive. There was no way that the explosion could have been caused by a misfired rocket. That's when he saw it... a figure, emerging from the flaming hole in the building. The mystery figure then leapt through the hole. It landed on the pavement, rising from a crouched position, the figure was revealed to be a young man, wearing a red trench coat and knee length jeans. As unusual as his attire was, it was nothing compared to the stranger's own physiology. The left arm of the trench coat was torn off, revealing a scaly, charcoal grey arm, his fingers tipped in claws. Same story with his feet, although the lower part of his legs appeared darker and more reptilian.
The man's hair was short and wild, the right side bright red and the left side neon blue. Though his face was also grey, the left side was darker, his eye a fiery orange. The right eye was concealed by an eye patch. Jero Toyotomi, the Godzilla-hybrid, killer of over a million, stepped forward, unsheathing a long katana blade from his belt. Jero flourished the sword, holding it in his gloved right hand. The sword was striated with streaks of silver, black, and gold, and appeared almost crystalline in nature.
Several cyborgs had survived the explosion and ten foot fall, and quickly got up to engage this new threat. Jero's first victim swung his machete at Jero's head. Jero simply leaned back, the blade coming within millimeters of Jero's jaw. Then Jero swung back, slicing the cyborg in two.
Another soldier opened fire on Jero, but he cut the bullets out of the air with ease. Jero then gripped a gun grip attached to the top of his sword's sheathe. As the cyborg reloaded his rifle, Jero pointed the bottom of his sheathe at the soldier, and then pulled the trigger. The Sheathe Gun bucked, firing an armor penetrating scatter shot, which shreds the hapless cyborg. Another cyborg comes at Jero from his left, only to have his skull splattered by a well placed swipe of Jero's claw.
Jero raised his reddened claw, absorbing the blood into his skin. He then looked to Raiden, resting the back of his against his shoulder. "Before you judge me, look back to what you were doing just a couple moments earlier," Jero remarked as he strolled towards Raiden.
"People need to eat, you know Jack... or do you prefer Raiden?"
"So Mr. Toyotomi, you call that feeding; bathing in the blood of your victims like one of those B-movie vampires?!" Raiden retorted as he pointed his blade at Jero, who paused, smirking as he held his own sword at the defensive. "Touché. Never liked the taste of blood anyway, especially that nano-infused shit you tin men have running through your veins."
Raiden's left arm suddenly lashed out, a blur as he flung three shiruken knives at Jero. He deflected the first two knives with his own blade, one handed. These were just decoys, as the third knife was aimed apart from the others, too fast for even Jero to deflect. Jero still had a countermeasure, however. He raised his left arm, the knife burying itself into his arm mere milliseconds before it could strike him in the heart.
"Smart idea," Jero commented as he raised his arm to his mouth and pulled out the embedded blade with his teeth. "But sadly, somebody already beat you to it..."
"And who might that be?" Raiden asked. "That'd be yours truly!" Jero sneered, right before he pulled back his clawed fist, a sphere of blue plasma forming in his palm. He then struck, firing a stream of radioactive energy at Raiden.
Raiden dodged to the side, evading the energy stream, racing towards Jero from the side. Jero was doing the same, the two warriors circling each other in ever closing arcs before finally colliding, Raiden's High Frequency Blade clashing against Jero's Heavy Elemental Sword.
Jero's sword was made of several heavy elements, including steel, uranium, and cadmium. Combined with the infusion of nuclear energy generated by Jero's hybrid Godzilla physiology made the blade all but indestructible. Sparks flew as Jero shoved Raiden back. He then sheathed his HE Sword, flexing his fingers in a mocking manner, taunting Raiden into charging, which he did.
When Raiden was mere feet away from Jero, he pulled another trigger, this time pointing the hilt of his sword at Raiden. The HE Sword flew out its sheathe, the sharpened pommel aimed at Raiden's face like a spear. Raiden twisted his head to the side to avoid the soaring blade, still running at his adversary. Raiden slashed horizontally. his HF Blade cutting threw empty air, as Jero somersaulted over Raiden, catching his own sword in mid-air, then swinging at Raiden before hitting the ground. Raiden instantly turned, parrying Jero's swipe before flipping back to a safe distance... all this happened within the space of five seconds!
"You're not half bad, for a cyborg. Not many people around who can keep up with me. What brings you up to this old dust bowl?" Jero asked, as he idly flipped his sword in his hand. "I was about to ask the same question." Raiden replied. "Heard some lame-ass terrorists were holed up in this abandoned military outpost. Figured I'd have some fun while on business." Raiden partially relaxed as Jero turned to the side, strolling slowly forward as he gave his explanation. Although, Raiden subconsciously wondered who in their right mind would employ someone as crazy as Jero?
"So... you're turn," Jero stated, turning back to Raiden, pointing a clawed finger at the cyborg. "I'm actually on business. Intelligence I received suggests that these terrorists managed to purchase a prototype Metal Gear. You wouldn't have happened to have seen a six story, heavily armed robot lying around?"
"Now that you mention it, I do remember spotting a big grey robot sitting in the middle of that aircraft hangar," Jero remarked as he pointed his sword towards the largest structure at the back of the base...
KA-BOOOM!
As though on cue, the hangar suddenly burst into flames, the hangar's doors flying apart. From the flames emerged a massive grey machine. Once free of the crumbling building, the Metal Gear rose to its full height, standing on two pillar like legs. The head was conclave and triangular shaped, set directly in front of its torso, and where a human's arms would be were a pair of massive Electro-Magnetic Gauss Cannons, which looked like a pair of blades positioned like pinchers. A pair of Gatling guns mounted on circular pivots rested alongside the head.
The visor like visual receptors flashed a brilliant white, right before the Metal Gear crouched, a pair of metal spikes attached to its legs burying themselves into the pavement. The two gauss cannons began to hum, electricity arching across the magnetic acceleration blades as they aimed at its two small targets.
Jero tensed, ready to sprint out of the way, but Raiden raised his hand, warning Jero. "Are you nuts?!" Jero yelled. "You're one to talk. Wait for it..." Jero looked back at the Metal Gear, as he realized what Raiden was talking about. The gauss cannons were still warming up.
The electricity arching across the magnetic accelerators finally reached the tips of the blades, when Raiden shouted "Now!". He and Jero leapt to the side; once the gauss cannons began to charge up, they locked into position, leaving a very small window between the targeting sequence and the actual launch of the ultra-sonic 200 caliber solid steel round. There came a massive, thunderous crack as the gauss cannons fired, shattering the sound barrier as the projectiles buried themselves over a dozen feet into the ground.
Steam gushed from the Metal Gear's overheated cannons as it pulled its leg anchors out of the ground. Jero and Raiden sped to either side of the Metal Gear, which opened fire with its two Gatling guns, the turrets pivoting as they attempted to keep up with the two super ninjas.
Raiden struck first, a flying kick to the mech's leg staggering it. The Metal Gear retaliated by trying to stomp him into the ground. Raiden dodged, then leapt up into the air, slashing apart the armor around the knee joint, then with a single mighty blow smashed the leg off at the knee.
The Metal Gear slumped, just as Jero closed in. The Metal Gear's left turret locked onto Jero, spraying a stream of bullets at the kaiju hybrid, who deflected the projectiles. He then jumped, blasting apart the Gatling gun with a stream of plasma as he soared over thirty feet into the air, landing on the wide, flat top of the Metal Gear. Jero the leveled his Sheathe Gun at the top of the Metal Gear's head, blasting it several times before gripping his HE Sword in both hands and burying it into the machine's command unit.
The Metal Gear's visor dimmed as its systems shut down. Still, Raiden wasn't taking any chances, as he crouched, massive amounts of energy building in his artificial muscles as he drew back his HF Blade. Jero jumped off of his perch, just as Raiden leapt up, flying up till he was level with the Metal Gear's head. Then, with one mighty swing, Raiden cleaved he giant mech clean in half, right down the middle. The edges of the two halves glowed red hot as the now most definitely destroyed Metal Gear crashed to the ground.
Raiden landed on the pavement, straitening from a crouched position as he swiped his blade through the air before inserting the sword into the sheathe attached to his back. Raiden then looked around, searching for Jero. Then he spotted him, standing atop the only undamaged building remaining. "See you later, tin man!" Jero shouted with a mock salute, before he seemed to tug at thin air just in front of his clavicle. And then, he simply vanished; some sort of stealth cloak.
Raiden gave a snort of mirth, muttering "Jerk." as he turned to the open gateway, slowly making his way back the way he came, leaving a ruined base littered with rumble, spent bullets, and body parts...
END.
