Kaname was finding it hard to hold on to her preconceptions in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Terrorists
Whispered.
Musk.
Specialists.
Flying men shooting fireballs.
Her world had just turned upside down around her, and one thing was certainly bothering her.
Why hadn't Sousuke mentioned any of this?
Why hadn't he told her?
Her mind wandered back a few days to a roof-top discussion.
"I'm under orders to tighten security...you are in danger of being abducted by a certain organization...Mithril has dispatched one of its soldiers."
Kaname smacked a hand to her face.
He had told her, it had just seemed too fantastic to believe.
Of course that hadn't explained the Satomis. She looked off to the side and watched as Deimosu and Naiki kept pace with a frigging AS unit leaping from tree to tree.
And that with the blonde young man carrying Eija.
The girl looked more than a little out of sorts. She remembered the sensation she felt in the hangar as Eija healed her sister. That same world gone negative sensation accompanied by whispers that weren't as inaudible as they used to be.
She wanted to keep saying she wasn't a psychic or anything like that, but she had thoughts running around in her head that felt like knowledge even though she had no idea where she knew it from.
In any case, they were just caught up in the same thing she was.
They weren't really the main part of her problem.
Sousuke was.
And it was a problem she couldn't as easily work into focus as psychic powers.
Kaname was just starting to come to grips with the fact that the world wasn't anything like what she thought when she saw a swirling object heading in towards them just moments before it exploded under fire from Sousuke's robot.
****
"Musk?" Tessa asked.
"A third party," Kalinin said. "Our guest identified them as a primitive tribe with a tradition of snatching women of power to enhance their bloodlines. She marks them as very dangerous."
"How did they know the girls would be here?" Tessa asked.
"That is unknown," Kalinin said. "The hostages are secured and the bomb is detonated. Unfortunately, we have not recovered Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori or the Satomi children. Reports indicate that Sergeant Sagara and Eija Satomi may have secured the escape on their own when the Musk interfered."
"Keep searching, but our primary task has to be the safety of the collected hostages," Tessa said. "We've reports on enemy reinforcements coming in so we don't have long to stay."
Quietly to herself, she prayed for everyone to come back safely.
****
Kaname found herself flying through the air as the savage was rocked backward by the explosion. Naiki Satomi caught her before she could have a hard landing, behind her she could almost hear Sousuke calling out her name, even through the robot's cockpit.
She actually knew it somehow.
Even as Naiki brought her safely to the ground, Sousuke's AS was riddled with fire and Kaname watched in horror as the savage fell back and its body and cockpit were torn open by the cannon fire.
She heard herself calling out his name now, as if watching it on TV or hearing it on an intercom.
Deimosu said something to her and handed off Eija as he moved forward with his sister and the two of them tried use their funky superpowers on the attacking robot only to have some sort of field spring up around the thing, rendering their attacks useless.
"You have interesting friends, Kashim," a voice said.
It was the same voice that had been speaking over the airline intercom earlier. The same man that she had briefly seen before being taken to that lab.
"Why the hell are you still alive?" Sousuke asked from his exposed place in the cockpit.
"Well, it seems I have titanium plate in my skull from a previous injury," the manic voice said, pointing to his skull.
Besides her Eija started to sit up and form up her hands to do something.
Instinctively, Kaname reached out to grab the girl's hands.
"Stop it, without a link you need more time to recover from high end magic," Kaname ordered, wondering just what the hell she meant by that.
"But, I need to do something," Eija said insistently.
Above them the AS's lunatic pilot was gloating over his knowledge of the Whispereds and Sousuke's lack of understanding.
"I would have liked to see more of what you two were capable of as well," Gauron was saying. "But it appears that I'll have to be satisfied with just your sister."
The cannon raised and was subsequently destroyed by an attack from above.
"Yahoo!" shouted the speakers of the incoming M-9 AS. "Urzu-6 on the ground. I've located Urzu-7, Angel and friends, engaging hostile mech. Sousuke, can you get out?"
"I'm good to go," Sousuke said, climbing out of the cockpit and moving toward Kaname.
"Okay, you five minutes to get to the air-field!" Kurz said. "Go!"
"Watch that AS! He's got some sort of..." Sousuke was uncertain how to describe it. "...force field."
"Think who're talking to," Kurz said. "I got him once, I'll get him again."
"Is that the blonde guy from the other day?" Kaname demanded as Souske came to her side, holding a hand to his waist for some reason.
Kaname moved to his side to help support him as Deimosu started to pick up Eija again.
"Let's go," Sousuke said.
They were yards away before they noticed that Naiki wasn't with them.
****
Kurz watched as the strange AS dodged his fire and vanish into the bush around him. His opponent had an ECS camouflage system and good evasion capabilities, but he was also down to his melee back-up, so Kurz had the advantage.
As long as he paid attention
He prepared his weapon and waited for the attack.
"There!" he shouted aiming towards the flash of movement heading his way.
To his surprise the ground below him started shaking momentarily setting off his aim as a crack spread outward from between his legs straight for the approaching enemy AS, widening until it was big enough for the attacker's foot to jam inside and hold, stopping the charge.
"The hell?" Kurz muttered. "Convenient time for an earthquake."
In any case, turkey shoot time, he thought as he smirked and took aim at his opponent struggling against the grip of the Earth around him.
The round launched outward and impacted hard against a spherical flash of light that stopped it dead and dug a channel several meters ahead of it.
"Damn," Kurz said. "Any closer and my M-9 was trash. Time to get out of here. This is Urzu-6, enemy AS unknown type with unknown defensive system immobilized at my position. Fire ineffective, am heading toward pick-up. Urzu-7 and guests should be on the way to you already."
He started to turn about to leave when he heard something over the intercom.
"Mind if I hitch a ride?" a girl's voice asked from nearby.
Twisting the external cameras he found the green-haired Satomi daughter catching her breath on his unit's shoulder.
"Sure, pretty lady," he said, not asking how she got up there. "Hold on."
The M-9 sped away from the site leaving the venom behind, foot stuck in the ground for several minutes before it managed to rip it free.
The unit limped away, a frown on its pilot's face as he stared at the overheat warnings flashing in front of him. A few more minutes of operation and he'd be able to catch up with and destroy that M-9.
The only thing he got out of this was footage of the Satomi girl somehow initiating the cracked earth that trapped him just too long.
****
"We have to go back!" Deimosu said. "She's going to try to help in that fight."
"We don't have time," Sousuke said. "The transport leaves too soon."
"You're just going to leave her back there?" Deimosu said, growling as he came up to Sousuke's face.
"No, you are taking your sister and Miss Chidori to the air-field," he said. "I'll go back to see that she's safe."
"Sousuke, you're unarmed and...wounded," Kaname said. "You can't be expected to be res..."
"I am expected to be responsible," Sousuke said. "The rest of you are civilians. And only one of you can be expected to fight currently. And I'm not unarmed."
He drew a pistol and started to turn around with a resigned look at Kaname.
"Look out!" Eija called out.
Sousuke caught the incoming attack out of the corner of his eye and barely dodged out of the way as a large meaty fist swung in at him.
A flash of movement came in from the other direction which Deimosu just barely moved to intercept.
"Go! Go!" Souske shouted at the girls as he rolled aside again and Thyme's large fist crated the ground under where he'd been standing.
Reluctantly, Kaname started to pull Eija aside to run for the base but stopped cold as the flying freak from earlier came floating down in their path.
"Okay! Not this way," Kaname said, running at a bee-line away from the dangerous fighter.
"I didn't come out to these barbarous lands to be denied," Basil shouted, ignoring the pain of his injuries from that battle with that red-headed woman earlier.
Sousuke fired his pistol at the base of Thyme's skull as the giant missed him again, marveling as that managed to do little more than stun the big man.
Still it was all he needed.
Rolling aside he moved himself between the girls and Basil, his gun flashing out forward.
The dragon prince's eyes widened as he tried to force his battered skeleton and muscles to move at customary speeds and dodge aside of the bullets.
Even so, he felt impacts in his shoulder and body as he swept up into the air.
Rage burning in his eyes, the dragon unleashed a long burst of chi downward, igniting the dry grasses into a catching flame. As he did so, the battered and injured dragon prince lowered himself to the ground to catch his breath.
"Prince Basil!" Bay shouted as he zipped around Deimosu to help his master.
"Subdue the warrior!" Basil snapped angrily, standing up and holding his shoulder.
Sousuke grimaced as he and the two girls were forced back away from the flames, further away from the base. There wasn't much chance of them reaching the base in time now.
Eija looked towards her brother as Kaname held her hand and, despite the warning earlier, she quietly intoned a quiet prayer of protection and blessing.
Kaname felt it happening almost instantly, but couldn't do much more than catch Eija as she passed out.
Sousuke was quickly with Kaname and taking Eija before grabbing Kaname's hand and running from the growing flames as quickly as possible.
Behind them, Deimosu and the Musk were similarly pushed back from the flames scattering the lot of the fighters in several directions.
The blonde Satomi could have leaped over the flames if it wasn't for the Musk in his way, attacking him and pushing him away from the flames.
He recognized the nimbus of darkness that appeared to shroud his form whenever they attacked him, Eija had cast it on him or Naiki in the past.
However, given the amount of magic she'd been casting all day, including healing Naiki, she had to be tired. And he couldn't be with her to protect her. She was with that soldier who, skilled as he was, was running out of ammo and equipment.
That worry turned to angry as he watched Basil simply moving off and watching as his henchmen did the fighting. The man couldn't even be bothered to try and get in the fight? He was just going to watch?
It was several minutes of backing away from fight and flame before the Musk scattered at the approach of an M-9. As the Musk scattered, his other sister's form dropped down to his side and looked around.
"Where's everybody else?" she asked, flinching at Deimosu's angry glare.
"Hey," Kurz called out. "No time for reunions, I need to at least get you two safe."
****
"Urzu-6 has returned with two of the Satomi children on the transport helicopter," Kalinin said. "Apparently Sergeant Sagara, Kaname Chidori and the third Satomi were driven off by the flames west of the base when these Musk attacked."
"How about their mother?" Tessa asked.
"Returning with one of the tactical teams," Kalinin said.
Tessa was silent for a long time.
"Unfortunately, we can't stay any longer, armored patrol ships are on their way," Tessa said. "However, we'll have a second opportunity, what might we be able to do if we surfaced here for a few minutes at dawn?"
****
The fighting ended and the pursuit not yet begun, Sousuke found himself moving a bit slower. Especially as he was carrying Eija Satomi at the moment.
"Is it okay?" Kaname asked hesitantly.
"We're still not safe here, but staying there was impossible," Sousuke answered.
"No, I mean your injury," the blue-haired girl asked, she was still wearing the jacket Sousuke had given her when they came out of the trailer. "Doesn't it hurt?"
"Yeah, hold on just a second," the mercenary said moving to a tree and gently laying Eija down. "Miss Chidori, hand me the little packet...in the jacket pocket."
"You mean this first-aid kit looking thing?" Kaname asked. "Hold on, let me do it."
Her resolve faded as she saw the size of the piece of shrapnel stuck in Sousuke's stomach.
"I'm lucky," he said. "It doesn't look too serious."
"But," Kaname said.
"I know."
There was an emphasis to that statement that showed an intensity of purpose that Kaname hadn't seen in anyone before.
Except perhaps the spiky haired lunatic that she had seen before.
"We have to move on."
He rose up in front of her like a bloody specter and held his hand out toward her.
"Hand me the smelling salts."
Perhaps because of the fact that she hadn't really taken in the inhuman abilities of the other people she'd encountered.
Perhaps because despite those abilities they seemed, for all she could tell, basically normal kids.
Perhaps because Sousuke had been keeping up with, even directing those super-powered kids without any special ability of his own that she could see.
Perhaps because looking at him now reminded her most of that man, Gauron that had been running the kidnapping.
But at the moment Sousuke was the scariest thing she could think of.
"Don't! Don't come near me!" she snapped and immediately wished she could take it back.
In the instant she said it, Sousuke had looked so devoid of hope.
"I guess I understand," the other teen said. "People like you have a hard time trusting people like me. But be patient for now. All I care about right now is getting you and Miss Satomi back to Japan safely. You'll never see me after that, so...for now...just trust me."
The intensity didn't fade, but it seemed redirected. As if he was afraid of hurting her by thinking too hard. A sort of gentleness that he wasn't aware of, perhaps wasn't able to express physically, and was all the more poignant because he was standing and bleeding while trying to keep from hurting her.
And the pain wasn't just physical, she could see it in the eyes that turned down and looked like they wanted to tear up but didn't know how.
She'd hurt him with her comment.
She thought back to all the times he'd acted in ways that had seemed quirky or even down right insane.
And she realized.
This is what he'd meant by protecting her. Taking all the pain intended for her onto himself.
"How could I tell him not to come near me?" she thought to herself.
Almost mechanically, she reached into the packet and handed over the smelling salts and bent to check Eija's vitals before holding the smelling salts under her nose.
Eija blinked awake and looked around.
"Where are we?" she asked wearily.
"We've come about three miles away from the base," Sousuke said. "You've been out for about an hour."
"That's about twenty minutes a mile. I slowed you down," Eija commented starting to get to her feet, getting help from Kaname and Sousuke as she did so. "I'm sorry."
"No need," Sousuke said. "But we aren't safe here, are you okay to travel on your own."
"I should be," Eija said.
"Good, but you are a non-combatant from this point," Sousuke insisted. "Your abilities have worn you out too thoroughly."
"Hai," the dark-haired woman said. "I...suppose I should stop suppressing my sight as well."
"If it tires you, yes," Sousuke said.
"We...we'll be fine," Kaname assured Eija quietly.
Eija took the tone to be gentleness as the blue-haired girl let her lean on her shoulder. Most people couldn't bare to touch her when the red of her eyes flooded into the white like she was letting them do now.
"Your abilities seem to come with a heavy price," Sousuke said.
"Not all of them. Just the magic," Eija explained wearily. "My brother and sister rarely use it for that reason. Naiki knows a few elemental spells, mostly water and earth. Deimosu knows parlor tricks, really."
"Weren't they casting spells or something back there?" Kaname asked.
"No, Naiki was using the Kijin Raiju Dan," Eija said. "And Deimosu was using the Moko Takabisha. Both are advanced martial art techniques requiring chi manipulation in different ways. My brother is also electrokinetic, which is a psionic affinity. All tiring, yes, like heavy exercise, but not like magic."
"Is there a reason for it?" Sousuke asked.
"One of our teachers told us we're cursed," the girl explained quietly. "It's like someone hid us from the universe and we have to shout with all our might to get it to hear us. Okaasan is the same way, but I think she...disliked magic before she knew that."
Eija continued to think about chi and magic while Kaname was thinking about anti-virus programming for some reason she wasn't sure of.
She supposed it was easy for the layfolk to mix up things like feng shui and chi blasts for true magic. Both dealt mostly with chi. Magic was different somehow, like having your hand on the codes to reality itself.
It could do things chi couldn't...
...and she had to admit it was addicting.
"If you're so cut off from it," Kaname said. "Why learn it?"
"I asked her once," Eija said. "She just said we had to be prepared. I...think, sometimes, it might be about our father."
There was a vast uncomfortable silence behind that statement and it seemed obvious to Kaname that the girl didn't particularly like to think about it.
Eija frowned for a moment as she felt herself fading again when she thought back to earlier when she had been considering tools.
Sousuke looked down at Eija, now being carried again between him and Kaname, and realized that her feet were moving almost on automation. He was just deciding to let her sit and rest again as they broke out of the trees to the edge of wide plain leading off toward the horizon.
"Wow," Kaname said.
"It looks like we can't go any further on foot," Sousuke said. "Let's sit down for now."
They laid Eija down first and then Kaname sat down herself.
Sousuke remained quiet as Kaname looked over Eija and rested herself before he finally spoke up.
"Miss Chidori," he said.
"What?" Kaname asked.
She noticed his eyes were closed and there was a quietness about him that seemed worrying.
"We're not in a good situation," Sousuke said. "It's impossible to cross the field with me wounded and Miss Satomi so exhausted. My comm unit has a limited range and the enemy will be closing in on this position as we speak. If we stay here, they'll eventually catch us. Or the fire will move this way and catch us, either way is no good."
"So, I'll stay here as a bait," he said. "And I want you to carry Miss Satomi west and take the comm device with you."
"What?!" Kaname snapped.
"You should be able to contact my comrades by the beach if they're in that area," he continued.
"So, what you're saying is that you are..."
"Don't worry about us," he instructed emphatically. "We're here to protect you. This is the only way you can survive. Now go!"
"...no," Kaname said.
"What?" Sousuke said, uncomprehending of the response.
"I'm not going to leave you here," she said.
"Miss Chidori!" Sousuke responded. "I'm the specialist here. I've considered the situation and this is the only way."
"'The only way!?'" the high school student quoted. "Is that really what you think?"
Sousuke stared at her eyes wide as she took a deep breath and then unloaded.
"Don't tell me you're a specialist! You are just a weapons freak. It's clear as day!! So you're ready to die for me? Spare me the ego trip! How do you think I'd 'survive' knowing the 'only way' you could save me was to sacrifice your own life?! Is your life worth so little? You have to live...you have to want to live. We'll find a way! I'm not going to give up so easily! All three of us are going home alive, okay!!"
"Miss Chidori," Sousuke said, trying to reason with her. "I understand that, but your will isn't enough to change the current situation. So at least you..."
"I said no!!"
The next thing Kaname knew there was a gun pointed at her.
"So, you're gonna shoot me if I don't go?"
"That's correct."
They stared at each other, eyes and faces seeming calm across the small gap until Kanama reached out and moved forward into Sousuke's body.
"I'm not scared," she said. "Because...I believe in you now."
The look on Sousuke's face was shell-shocked as his gun dropped from his hand.
"I was so scared of you a minute ago...because you were acting like a stranger to me, but...when you told me to trust you, I felt I had to pull together and help you as much as I could. I can't lose sight of that now. So we're going to keep fighting...as long as we're still alive!! We're going home together!!"
The shocked expression in Sousuke's face seemed to fade a little, being replaced by one of realization and consideration.
"I really hate to interrupt this shoujo moment," Eija said, sending a surprised shiver through Kaname and Sousuke who turned slowly around to look at each other. "I mean, I can tell you two are in your own world right now, considering I think you forgot to include me in statements a couple of times..."
"This is not what you think it is!" Kaname sputtered. "I was just..."
"Kaname you want to stop there," Eija said quickly, glancing toward Sousuke's confused face. "But...I might have an idea."
She reached in her pocket and pulled out her scroll.
"We've already established that you can't cast anything in your current state," Sousuke said.
"True," Eija said. "But I think should remember using this on the plane."
"Your brother prepared the message," Sousuke said. "All I did was visualize Sergeant Major Mao and blow on the paper."
In truth, he hadn't even been sure that the message had worked until he'd contacted mithril later and heard that the Sergeant Major had gotten the information in fact.
"It's a tool," Eija said. "We prepare these ahead of time, the magic is already in them."
"If that is true can't you send the message?" Kaname asked.
"But I don't know if Okaasan or my brother and sister are with Sousuke's comrades and I don't think either of us knows many of his companions very well," Eija said. "The only one of us who can strongly visualize someone that would be for sure able to help us is Sousuke."
The mercenary frowned and looked up at the stars briefly now that the clouds were parting.
"Okay, if you'll prepare it, I'll send it," Sousuke said.
****
Commander Andrei Kalinin had no doubt that Sousuke Sagara was alive. He'd worked with the young man for years. He'd been on the spetsnaz team that found the boy in the wreckage of a crashed airliner in Russia thirteen years ago in an unofficial and unauthorized rescue operation in the Bering Straits.
He'd later met Sousuke again, as an enemy captive using the name Kashim, in Helmajistan, acting as the adoptive son of a renowned guerilla fighter. Apparently the orphan he'd rescued had been put into a KGB program for training child assassins
That reunion had led to Kalinin's desertion from the Soviet Army, in the middle of the second invasion of the middle east.
He was the one that had given Sousuke his spetsnaz training, on top of the KGB assassination school and the Islamic guerilla fighters' training in survival and guerilla warfare.
And then he'd recruited Sousuke into Mithril and away from the life as a roving soldier of fortune.
The boy hadn't quite grown up yet, he was still a bit too dependent on receiving and obeying orders, but he was developing a personality beyond just the war machine that Kalinin's home country and forged the boy into.
As cold as Kalinin behaved in front of his subordinates and others, he would still be damned if he was going to give up on Sagara without a fight.
He was similar to his commanding officer in that regard. Captain Testarossa would keep her cool in front of the troops, but she was just as determined to get back all three of the lost ones. She was an idealist of the most dangerous type, one that recognized the practical concerns that others would use as reasons not to attempt something, but found ways to work around them.
The problem was that knowing Sagara was alive and knowing where he was were two different things.
Until then a workable rescue operation was mostly theoretical, and they had very little time before they had to make it practical.
He was considering the problem when he noticed the butterfly fluttering into his tactical room in idle spirals towards him. He remembered Sergeant Major Mao's report on the message she'd received in Tokyo and, as the butterfly landed and unfolded into a message with coordinates and sit-rep, he was now witnessing it.
Assuming the information was accurate, he now had what he needed to make his theoretical plan practical.
He wasted no time in finding the bridge and Tessa, handing over the message to the white-haired teen prodigy.
"I'm authorizing the use of the Arbalest," Tessa said without hesitation. "Prepare for launch."
****
"The repairs to the Chodarl are complete, sir," a technician told Gauron. "It is ready to go at any time."
"Good," the man said as he spotted a man in a black suit approaching him. "Any word?"
"The wild fire has shifted North and West," the man reported indicating an electronic map showing the affected areas. "Driven by the wind and it has started to spread faster since the rain stopped. No sign yet of the targets."
"He's in this area," Gauron said, pointing to a spot due west of the base. "The quickest route to the sea and south of the fire. Send your men there. I'll be going out soon."
"What, in the Chodarl?" the intelligence agent demanded.
"Of course," Gauron said. "You know what we're dealing with."
****
Basil growled as he looked down towards the AS and soldier infested forests. He couldn't continue the fight in this shape. Bay had come out pretty much unscathed save for some shock damage from that blonde outsider's electrical attacks and even Thyme was more than a little battered and bruised.
Still, he wasn't done.
Not by a longshot.
He was destined to bring the Musk back to their days of glory.
****
"Do you ever get tired of being reckless?" Deimosu demanded loudly as he yelled down at Naiki's face. "Because of you, we got split up!"
"I stayed to help out that other guy!" Naiki snapped back. "Not like you who kept saying 'let's get out of here' every few minutes!"
"You were useless on the plane," Deimosu snapped. "You got yourself captured as soon as we landed. You almost got yourself killed! Because of that you got me captured and Eija is probably still too tired to fight or be of much use out there. And then you stayed behind!"
"Aren't you a martial artist too?!" Naiki demanded.
"This isn't a challenge!" Deimosu snapped. "This was a battle. You always do this. You always treat the real battles like some rival's match or challenge! And you either get yourself or one of us beat up in the process!"
Naiki started to answer but her brother snapped again.
"There's a difference between life and death battles and battles for pride," he shouted.
It looked like he was about to say more when he was interrupted, by the sudden appearance of their mother moving in to wrap her arms around his chest quietly and then pull his head down to kiss his forehead and moved on toward Naiki to hug her again as well.
Then she pulled back.
"We'll talk about mistakes later," Ranma said. "And we'll do it without fighting."
"'Kaasan," Naiki said. "What about Eija?"
"They've got some plan running," Ranma said. "We're not part of it."
****
"Helicopters," Sousuke said pointing and listening to the sound. "They'll be dropping troops and then moving to scout for us. But they haven't pinpointed us yet."
"I see them," Eija confirmed.
"Anything we can do?" Kaname asked.
"No," Sousuke said.
"Pray and hope," Eija said. "What's that?"
Sousuke looked up toward the flash the Satomi had noted and watched as it came into closer view as an AS that landed at their position with a resounding crash.
"Okay, they probably know where we are now," Kaname noted.
Sousuke said nothing just moved quickly for the AS that had dropped in on their position.
He was quickly in the cockpit.
"It's unmanned," he said. "It looks like the system has been activated."
"Voice Identification activated," the computer said. "State your name, rank and serial number."
"Sgt Sousuke Sagara, B-3128."
"Verification completed, Sergeant Sagara confirmed," the computer responded. "Please state command."
****
Sousuke had hoped to be able to get Kaname and Eija away from the area before enemy units showed up, but the approach of five savages had nixed that plan.
It took a brief moment to eliminate all five savages, but then He had shown up, and now he was trading shots with Gauron in his silver AS.
Kaname and Eija watched from a distance.
"Who's winning?" Kaname asked.
"It looks even," Eija responded. "But I'm thinking from a martial artist's perspective, I don't know much about AS suits."
As Eija said that, Kaname started to waver by her side.
The blue-haired girl felt the world around her melt away into a swirling mass of letters and symbols. And within it all a swirl of whispers started to stream into her head.
Sousuke grimaced as his attack was stop cold by the same force field that had blocked the Satomi's attacks earlier. Only now that force was redirected back at him, sending his new mech flying backwards through the terrain.
The force on his body was intense enough to force a fraction of a second blackout, but, as he snapped out of it and waited for the report of his mecha's crippled state, he was shocked as the readouts implied little to no damage.
"Why isn't working!?" Gauron demanded. "Damn it! This is why I hate prototypes!"
Overlooking the scene, Eija was staring at Kaname as she started muttering strange terms that seemed arcane to her, trained in occult matters from early childhood.
Kaname's breath was starting to come heavy and strained, and there was a far away look in her eyes that spoke of a fierce attempt to remain in present place and time.
"I...know what's happening," Kaname said. "He...he doesn't realize yet...he has his hands full...just trying to fend off the attacks...he isn't making the switch."
Eija started to stand up, a prickling feeling working over her as she approached Kaname.
"I...I'll do it...this time," Kaname said, letting herself fall back into the sea of strange symbols and words, sure that the answer she needed was in there.
And then the world vanished entirely.
She was naked in a wash of knowledge and light streaming in from somewhere.
But the knowledge wasn't alone.
I know, I know everything. So come closer.
"Who is this?" Kaname asked. "Who's speaking? No...This isn't me!"
If you want to save him, you have to dive in and touch me.
"Stop it!" Kaname said. "Stop pulling me!"
Give it up. Just give this body to me. That's all you need to...
The whispering voice was interrupted as Kaname heard Eija's voice state loudly.
"Dead one! Leave her alone!"
Suddenly, Kaname wasn't alone in the field. The smaller form of Eija stood in front of her protectively. She was nude as Kaname was, but instead of her real ivory skin color, her form was as black as night with only the eyes shining red.
One of Eija's hands was reaching behind the Satomi's figure, holding Kaname protectively against her back, while the other was stretched outward, shaking slightly.
The oppressive, clawing whispers, shocked, retreated back and left Kaname and Eija alone in the flow of knowledge and words.
The blue-haired girl let shock cause her to hesitate only a fraction of a section before she returned to the task she had let herself fall into this place for. It seemed an age before she snatched the knowledge she wanted, Eija's black form keeping watch for her and shaking more visibly.
Eija was bluffing to keep that...whisper away so Kaname had free pick of the knowledge left behind, she couldn't waste time.
Then she thrust herself out and came back into the world to find Eija leaning into her chest, arms wrapped tight around her. Then, a moment later, Eija's eyes cracked open too.
"Did you get what you need?" the girl asked weakly. "Don't worry that wasn't magic, it was..."
"Necrosensitivity, I know...somehow," Kaname said not even mentioning the rather suggestive position she was in with the other girl. "Where'd the radio go?"
Eija pointed to it as she pulled herself off of Kaname and leaned heavily against a tree.
Kaname hurried to snatch the radio up and talk into the the radio.
The mercenary meanwhile stared out of his monitors at his enemy.
"My armor is still okay, but I don't know how much longer I can take this," Sousuke reasoned.
"Sousuke can you hear me?" his radio blared.
"Miss Chidori?" he asked.
"Listen very carefully!" Kaname said. "The enemy is equipped with a lambda driver! That's a driver that can channel the pilot's thoughts into physical energy!"
Eija perked up as she heard that, looking out toward the battlefield as if a machine doing something she considered the province of living beings was something she hadn't considered before.
Then her eyes widened.
"And your AS is equipped with the exact same thing!" Kaname said. "That's the reason you're still okay, Got it?! Weren't you trying to protect yourself just then? The driver transformed the image in your head into physical energy!"
"The image in my head," Sousuke responded. "But how would that..."
"Messages," Eija said. "Like the messages."
Kaname looked at her and nodded.
"It's like Eija's scroll!" Kaname said. "The same exact thing!"
They were interrupted as another wave of force came outward from the silver AS rippling out toward Sousuke.
**
"You're kidding me," Sousuke said to the two Satomis. "You want me to do what?"
"You want to hold the message in your hand cupped like this so that no light can get in," Eija said, moving very close to Sousuke to show him. "Then you bring it up and hold it here, to your mouth. You have to imagine the message becoming a butterfly and flying away, then blow your breath into your hand and fix the image of the person you wish to send the message to."
After her instruction, the girl did as she instructed and, sheer enough, as her hands pulled apart, the paper was gone. And Sousuke saw no evidence of sleight of hand.
Deimosu handed over the prepared message to Sousuke and the mercenary copied the black-haired girl's actions for a moment. Eija held close to him, whispering in a soothing voice.
"Imagine the butterfly flying free," she whispered inches away from him. "Picture it, picture it. And as you breath out picture your friend. The butterfly and your friend....the butterfly and your friend. Try it now."
He breathed out, visualizing the action as he did, and surprisingly he felt a tiny pull on his mind. For a moment, he didn't just picture Sergeant Major Mao, he actually saw her in his apartment staring down at a butterfly strangely.
Then the vision was gone.
**
The image Sousuke held this time was a bit more forceful.
A wedge driving apart the wave of force heading toward him. Cutting deeply into the chodarl's attack so that it passed harmlessly on either side of him.
"Like this," Sousuke said.
"There you go! Keep on doing what you just did! You have nothing to be afraid of!" Kaname yelled over the radio. "Come on, specialist! It's show time!"
Sousuke dived forward and grabbed the hand-gun shaped cannon he'd dropped earlier and pointed at his enemy.
"That was impressive, Kashim," Gauron shouted over his speakers. "But was it just luck? And that cannon? Don't you know your bullets and shells won't touch me?"
Sousuke firmed up, secure in his own defense with the last exchange, but uncertain yet how that would apply to countering the enemy's own lambda driver. After all, Gauron's mecha should have been equally invulnerable.
And here, a draw was the same as a loss.
"Listen Sousuke," Kaname said. "You have to have focused concentration on a goal. Now imagine this. If they capture Eija and me, they're going to poke at us, torture us and reduce us to machines and experiments. And when they're done they'll kill us. You hate that, right?"
"Yeah," Sousuke said quietly.
"You won't let that happen, will you?"
"No," Sousuke added.
"So kick his butt!"
The silver AS started charging forward, knife outward.
"Yeah!"
"Now take that image you just saw," Kaname instructed. "And turn it into fire power!"
"Now!" Sousuke and Gauron thought for a moment.
The chodarl was almost on top of Sousuke when he fired his gun.
Gauron's knife slammed forward into the invisible wall of Sousuke's lambda driver as each of the cannon pellets fired from the Arbalest's side arm took precise independent trajectories, more like guided missiles than a spray of shot pellets.
Each slashed through Gauron's own lambda field, as Gauron was mostly focused on his attack, and instantly every vital system Sousuke had identified was struck viciously.
All that was left behind was a raw mess of wreckage which Sousuke turned away from to run back towards the girls and pick them up.
They were long gone by the time they saw Gauron crawling out of the wreckage of his AS, eyes wide.
Had Kashim independently formed fields around each of the sidearm cannon's pellets? Was that even possible?
**
And far away, trapped in crystal within the ruined facility of Yamsk 11, a certain mind plumbed the extent of its future knowledge.
Next time that hybrid interferred, she'd be ready.