Maybe I'm pushing it a little, but here it is, another story, written by me of course. An Advance Wars DoR one-shot.
A world shattered
"Huff… Huff… Huff" A young man raced through a hallway, his short spiky brown hair and the jacket of his uniform flew in the air as he ran, eager to arrive at the dining room. "Darn it, I over slept too much!" He though as he dashed forward.
"Lieutenant, what the hell is this thing doing here?" Suddenly, a man yelled angrily, startling the young woman, just as she turned around, her eyes met those of her superior and her throat just clenched even further.
"Sorry!" The woman yelped helplessly, at the cold gaze of the general, a tear of fear welled up in her eyes. The object in fact was just a notebook, which she had forgotten just the day before at the briefing room.
"Lieutenant Blackmore, may I ask what's going on?" Another voice drew the woman's attention and she rolled her eyes cautiously, to her relief, the face she saw was that a middle aged man, with a more or less white hair, he stared at the first lieutenant fiercely and he quickly gave a step back.
"Captain Brenner, what an unpleasant surprise, I knew you would be close to you lap dog as always" The man said coldly.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing… sir" The man muttered angrily, he never liked the guy in the first place, and for him to be his superior only made his blood boil even further.
"So lieutenant, why are you here?" Brenner asked coldly again.
"The second lieutenant here was careless enough to forget her ridiculous notebook at the briefing room, spacing out as always the little…"
"Finish that and you'll be sorry" Brenner abruptly interrupted him, the lieutenant looked at him with hatred, but Brenner calmly snatched the notebook from his hand. Blackmore just walked away in a rage.
"There, here you are" Brenner said in a softer voice to the woman there, who just smiled gladly at him.
"Lyn, you shouldn't be so scared all the time, you'll give a bad impression to the soldiers if you act all shy and fearful" He said again, handing over the notebook to the flustered girl.
"Sir" The girl said in a weak voice.
"Hmm, what is it Lyn?"
"Here's what you need to say at the speech" Lyn replied shyly and gave Brenner some papers; he just smiled and walked out.
"…" Lyn looked at the map that lied on the table, she just groaned, she spaced out again, luckily she was alone.
"That's all in the past" Lyn kept telling herself from time to time, trying to bury her "past" self and… that.
"I won't be the same weak girl I once was" She muttered as if talking to herself as she walked across the war room.
A fiery, young, auburn haired woman took aim with a sharp gaze at the practice target, a dummy with a ragged jacked, maybe from a prisoner, and with the insignia of the Armed forces of Rubinelle, she wet her lips, at the idea that she'd soon kill some soldiers, right at her side, well, maybe not so close, a pale skinned man stood, holding a classic sniper weapon, the target range: 3 miles. The blue haired man took his shot and hit easily the target in the head, the feisty, auburn beauty, however, filled with rage and started pulling the trigger madly. All the shots hit the target.
"Tasha, a cool head is needed for an improved performance" The man said without moving an inch. He moved slightly and shot again.
"Soon…" Tasha muttered, ignoring Gage who shot down another target and readied to fire again.
"I will have my revenge on those rubes!!"
"Oh father!" A girl suddenly exclaimed, wearing a smarmy smile. Alongside her was a small girl, she refrained from talking but she wore a big smile in her face.
"Yes, what is it?" An old man in coat said as he walked from his lab, he was a bit angry but he instead gave a smile at the teenager.
"When are you going to let us play with the people out there, I'm just too excited I can't wait any longer!" The girl said again impatiently
"Soon enough Tabitha, for now we should move to the nest and lie in wait for the next experiment, and if you behave yourself, you'll get to play first" He said with a wicked smile, the teenager eyes lit. "Oh thank you father, and I promise I'll be ever so good!" She said.
"Father, this is so wrong…" Another teenager, a bit younger than Tabitha though as he saw them. He only regretted he couldn't tell the others about the upcoming disaster.
The young cadet entered the room like hell, breathing heavily after such frantic race, looking at the spot where he usually hangs out, at the corner of the place, he saw some familiar faces, laughing and cheering.
"Guys!" Will's eyes lit up, he finally recognized everyone. "Hey Will, what's up?" One of them said with a big smile.
"Ashton! Hikari! What are you doing here?" Will exclaimed with enthusiasm, as his old friends waved at him.
"What do you think, we got transferred back here!" Hikari said. He and Ashton wore a different jacket from Will's.
"That's great guys!" Will said, taking a sit across the table, with a bright look in his eyes. "So, what's up, how did you do there?" Ashton frowned at Will's naive words, both of them became silent for some seconds.
"Well, not so bad I guess…" Hikari said.
"Wh… what do you mean?" Will stuttered in surprise, he suddenly felt awkward, at his friend's glare.
"There's a new campaign against Lazuria…"
"Cheesy man, look! It's starting!" Penny said cheerfully as a shooting star travelled across the star, intoxicated maybe with the thoughts that she could be of any use to her father again, she looked in amazement at the sky as another shooting star travelled.
"Penny, please stay away from the window, we're going to close everything now" A man in a grey uniform said as he approached at the girl from behind, he grabbed her and took her inside of the complex, Penny's personal guard maybe. "But Mr. bear told me everything would go boom! I want to see the boom, I want to see the boom!!" Penny kept saying that as the soldier sighed in frustration.
"That was some good shooting, I feel good now" Tasha sighed, with a smile in her face, Gage followed, and kept silent. "You are too fickle" He muttered
Suddenly, the ground shook ever so slightly, however, it was enough to strip Tasha from her footing, she landed flat on her butt, Gage just stopped walking and waited for the earthquake to end.
"What was that? There are no earthquakes around here" Tasha said, getting up from the floor while whipping the dust from her bums, Gage stared blankly at the floor, as if expecting another shock, it was clear he was a bit surprised himself.
"Captain, did you feel that too?" Lyn asked, her expression remained unchanged.
"Uh-huh, what was it? An earthquake?"
"I believe so, should we order the units to pull back?"
"Yes, please do it"
"Whoa!" Ashton exclaimed as the floor rumbled furiously, making everything, from glasses to plates to fall on the floor, everyone jumped under the tables and waited as the shake slowly ceased, everybody started murmuring to each other, it was completely strange, an earthquake? There?
"We better be careful, there might be more!" Someone exclaimed as Will crawled from under the table, he took a look around him, the floor was a mess, but everyone seemed ok.
"Is everyone ok?" Someone shouted, slowly, every person slowly got up, they started talking again.
"Well, that was weird, are we under attack?" Hikari said as he got up.
"Don't think so, the alarms didn't go off" Ashton replied a bit doubtfully.
"You guy alright?" Will asked, helping himself to his feet with one hand and rubbing the dust of his clothes with the other.
"Yeah, how about you fella?" Ashton replied.
"Could be better, anyways, what the heck did just happened?"
"It looks like nobody knows; I keep thinking we got hit by something…"
"There is it again, Tasha, quickly, get away from the windows" Gage gritted his teeth, he was taken by surprise again, the violent shock was way more strong than the last one, something was going on.
"What the…?! This is getting too weird" Tasha grabbed from whatever she could reach trying not to fall again. Suddenly, the windows blew off, sending shatters everywhere, a small piece just scratching Tasha's cheek, Gage and Tasha grimaced, though, as they looked out of the window, a giant rock suddenly flashed through their line of sight, and disappeared in the horizon, just before their eyes, another sun raised from the horizon right bellow the original sun, Tasha and Gage where completely astonished, however, Gage immediately got back to himself and took Tasha from her arm, Tasha just gasped in surprise. The world started trembling with pain, as Gage rushed to get to a safe place, they wouldn't make it to a bunker…
"All units, move into Valkerstone region A.S.A.P." Lyn shouted through the radio, another burning rock hit a tank sitting just a few feet from her, making a dull sound, Lyn whirled around, the smoking rock had crushed the tank without blowing it, she grimaced however, another volley was coming right at them, like if some kind of unnatural attack.
"Lyn, we need to go now!" A young sergeant yelled from the top of his lungs, Lyn looked at him and nodded; Lyn took her jacket and ran toward a vehicle, she rolled her eyes to a side, the man wasn't there, she peered a bit behind her, the man's body lied on the ground, a rock a bit bigger than a bowling ball had crushed his skull, she quickly turned around, and looked with shock as the APC started moving, leaving her behind, she clenched her fists and ran with all her might. Suddenly, the sound of treads draw her attention, a red tank was hurriedly rushing at her.
"Quickly! Grab my hand!" Brenner said as he stretched his hand at Lyn, the intense heat around them made both their hands slippery with sweat, yet, Lyn managed to grab tightly of Brenner's hand and she hopped on the tank. The sky above them had turned from a peaceful light blue to a hellish red.
Will tried to get a grasp of a column as the ground started shattering, he tried to maintain calm, still, under such circumstances it was almost impossible, just a few yards from him, across the hall, sat a rocky wall, Will couldn't stop thinking about it. "Hikari!" He called out helplessly, everything around him was just a hectic madness, running around frantically, there were no exits anymore, all of them were caged, parts of the ceiling started to collapse, Will just watched with horror as his companions were mashed up by the heavy piece of rock, the temperature inside the room raised alarmingly, Will lungs started to ache badly.
"Wh-what the hell… is going on?!" He yelled with despair as the whole building was flattened by another meteor strike.
Tasha breathed heavily, she was almost at her limit, the intense heat and the ashes were irritating her lungs, Gage was too struggling to breathe, they managed to get out of the shooting range before a comet crushed it. Gage managed to find a spot, just a 'bag of air' it made from a collapsed building, a red drop dripped from Gage's nose unnoticed, he had almost passed out just from the intense heat.
"What… the hell… is going on?" Tasha muttered painfully and coughed, she felt like if her lungs were burning. Gage looked around, everything was a blur, but still, he could see a rock big enough to close the hole they entered by, Gage struggled to his feet and walked. "I just… need to push this thing and…" Gage though as he moved the heavy boulder. The cave became pitch dark the instant the rock sealed the entrance. He let himself fall on the floor, and closed his eyes with exhaustion…
"Father, why did you…" Cyrus asked, still he couldn't help but to shudder inwardly as he met his 'father's' eyes.
"Yes, I wanted to see the next experiment, after all, that clone was defective so it was expendable" Caulder just smiled wickedly as he observed, somehow he observed as the whole world sank in utter chaos and was delighted about it, after all, "It's interesting"
"How the hell could you…?" Cyrus muttered.
"Captain, the motor is overheating, we're not going any farther!" The rubinelle driver shouted as steam poured inside the cock-pit. Lyn had a bewildered look in her eyes, it was getting hard to see, both for Brenner and her.
"Get out of the tank now!" Brenner shouted, he and Lyn leaped from the tank and rolled a few yards as the tank got hit, a meteor destroyed the lightly armored tank, at the desperate look of both officers. "What the hell is going on?!" Brenner shouted, and reached for Lyn, he tried looked through the dust, the fire and the aches, to find a shelter from the unbearable conditions. "Don't lose hope yet, there's still life!" Brenner said valiantly as he moved forward, in the distance, a small spot, a door leading into a shelter came into view…