Lightning Strikes
Chapter 7: Shadow Of The Wolf
Hello there my fellow fanfictioners!
I know that I really annoyed some of you when I decided to delay this chapter for so long… that was really horrible of me to do that to you guys and I'm sorry.
Although in my defence I am currently very busy in life with my studies as well as still playing games, watching tv and movies as well as reading fanfiction and writing chapters for all of my other stories which I have sorely neglected (Gundam fans will have something forward to look forward to soon).
This chapter was especially difficult to write as there were a lot of variables to consider when writing the fight scene.
Fortunately I have consulted with numerous of my fellow Naruto fanboys and fangirls as well as one or two fans of Metal Gear Solid and I think I finally have enough knowledge to properly determine the outcome of this skirmish.
Now then enough of my senseless prattle! We're not reading this authors note because you want to read about me right? Nah, we want to read about the killer robot wolf fighting against ninjas!
So let's do this!
DISCLAIMER: I do not in any way or form own or claim ownership of Metal Gear Solid/Rising and/or Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. They belong to the geniuses Kojima and Kishimoto respectively.
Now then!
In the words of the classic Mortal Kombat games:
FIGHT!
Time was not on his side.
While Raiden had chosen to remain behind to hold off their pursuers he wasn't able to stop three of them from slipping by.
And so Wolf ran with both of his charges clinging tightly to his back, bounding through the grass at a speed that most would have perceived as a blur.
Their pursuers were fast, two out of the three were rapidly closing the distance between them. It was unfortunate that he could not travel at full speed for fear of harming his passengers.
There was still a significant gap between them, but it was only a matter of time before running would become pointless.
Up ahead his optics took in the sight of several armed and armoured men and women, travelling along a simple dirt road. Whether they were friends or foes was a risk… a calculated risk but a necessary one if they were to escape.
Unfortunately they were too far away, barely visible to the naked eye and their pursuers would catch up to them before they could reach them. It took Wolf less than a half second to weigh his options, consider the variables and constants and finally come to a decision.
With an impressive trail of dust kicking up behind him, he screeched to a halt.
"Wolf… why did you stop?" Rose asked him, her tone growing nervous with just a tinge of fear showing through.
"Get off." He ordered her.
Frowning, Rose proceeded to dismount, clinging Little John to her chest tightly.
Wolf turned to face her.
20 seconds.
"Head that way as quickly as you can, there are soldiers on the road who may be of assistance to us." He explained to her
"How do you know if they will help us?"
"I don't but there are no other options available to us. Either we risk their help or we are assured failure."
A silence permeated the air between them for but a brief moment, but a moment that seemed to stretch onwards for an eternity.
Rose knelt downwards so that she could look directly into Wolf's optics.
"You stay alive you hear me?! I won't forgive you if you get killed on our behalf!" She said to him, her tone fierce, brooking no argument from the mech.
Wolf merely cocked his head sideways.
After a brief moment he leant forward, gently pressing his head to her forehead.
"I will not allow them to hurt you or John."
His audio receptors flared, detecting the sound of running footsteps approaching them quickly.
"Run… Run now!" He told her, turning around and heading back into the grass fields.
The things I do for organics.
And with a bound of his powerful legs he proceeded to launch himself at his closest target.
Rose ran.
She ran faster than she ever had before in her life, the wind whipping at her skin and the constant irritation of the slapping blades of grass assaulting her body with every step.
She couldn't stop, if she did then they would catch her and John.
Her eyes narrowed determinedly.
I won't let them take us again, I'd rather die!
Her breathing became laboured even as she felt the scorching burn building up inside of her lungs.
God she was so unfit!
The running and the jumping and the fighting were always Jack's areas of expertise, she just handled the science and the technology.
And the seduction.
She viciously crushed that thought before it could fully form in her mind.
The things she did whilst in the employ of the Patriots weren't important right now… besides her Jack had already forgiven her.
Time seemed to pass slowly as she made her way across the plains, searching desperately for the people Wolf spoke of, the sun blinding her.
In the distance she could hear Bladewolf's howl pierce the air before it was cut off abruptly.
She couldn't stop… not while her son was in danger.
The burning sensation increased to the point where she was breathing in deep gulps of air, black spots were beginning to form in front of her eyes.
How far were these people?
And then she saw them.
There were twelve of them, dressed head to toe in identical silver armour.
They noticed her when she began screaming for help.
Bladewolf was an AI.
The most superior, most intelligent of all the other known cybernetic organisms. The addition of a physical body only added to his already considerable lethality.
He was the thing that mankind both feared and secretly aspired to be.
So it was fair to say that in his own logical way of thinking…
That it was insulting that his first combatant was a giant talking dog with an eyepatch.
He felt an odd sense of shame that his processors took a full half second to accept the possibility of the talking animal in front of him. A full half second that an intelligent enemy might have been able to exploit.
It was clear then, he decided, that the odds were already in his favour. He had broken three of the giant dogs' ribs when they had collided with each other at such a high speed.
Flesh will always lose to steel.
The hound now lay on the ground, cursing him violently whilst wheezing desperately for air with every breath.
Odd that the first talking animal I encounter is already swearing at me in a… colourful fashion.
The gigantic hound began leaking blood from its mouth, its visible eye closing.
Wolf padded closer to the beast, head tilted curiously.
Statistically improbable... The force of the impact would not have resulted in internal injury of this kind.
The hound's eye snapped open, a feral gleam shining within its depths before enveloping the robot in a cloud of smoke.
His proximity alarm began emitting its high pitched shrill as two targets closed in on his position faster than what should have been organically possible.
His sensors detected something that vaguely resembled some sort of grey missile headed towards him. It was moving too fast for him to accurately identify.
May be a heatseeker.
Activating his internal evasive manoeuvres he launched several flares even as he leapt into the air, escaping the confines of the smoke cloud.
The missile continued to follow him, altering its trajectory effortlessly.
Only word seemed to cross his processors before the missile collided with him.
IMPROBABLE!
"Fang over Fang!"
The impact jarred his internal parts… but failed to do much more than to slightly dent his chestplate.
The missile dissolved into two parts, revealing the dog and some sort of feral female human crossbreed… thing.
I can classify its corpse soon enough, for now though… we're in the air and I have the advantage.
The pair were dazed from their assault, their heads probably still ringing from their botched surprise attack. Though they were snapping out of it quickly it gave Wolf the precious second he needed to make his counterattack.
With the tendrils located in his tail he withdrew a trio of superheated kunai from their sheathes located on his sides and threw them at the woman.
He aimed his body at the dog and proceeded to divebomb into him with the intent of turning him into paste on the ground.
The woman recovered just as the kunai reached her. With a widening of her eyes and a loud curse she twisted her body in the air in an attempt to avoid the lethal blades, withdrawing her own kunai in the process.
Amazingly she managed to contort her body out of the way of the first two blades but the third one…
She raised the kunai to block it in time perfectly, an action which probably saved her from missing a limb as the superheated blade cut through her own before sinking into her kneecap, the tip protruding from the other side, glowing hotly.
Wolf ignored the subsequent screams of agony in favour of maintaining his attention on his other opponent.
The dog was tough, the fall would have turned a normal mutt into mush but this one seemed unhurt, save for a cracked rib or two.
His one-eyed opponent managed to roll out from underneath him, angering Wolf greatly.
Three large tears manifested themselves on Wolf's left shoulder plates during their tussle.
He took note of the strange blue glow engulfing the hounds' claws and made sure to actively avoid them.
"Insolent Half-breed mongrel!" Wolf spat.
His opponent merely snarled in reply.
"So the rustbucket can speak."
Wolf's processors went blank for a split-second.
Did he just… compare me to a...?!
White hot rage flooded his core programming and with a mighty roar he leapt into the fray.
The grassy plains they battled in turned into a tornado of shredded leaves, kicked-up dust and a blur of flesh and steel clashing against one another.
In reality their showdown only lasted about a minute and a half.
In the process the woman had succumbed to the pain and the shock and had fallen into an unconscious state.
But to them it seemed to last an eternity.
But in the end Wolf won through means of sheer power and endurance.
Whenever the dog managed to match his speed and strength then Wolf merely upped his power usage levels. In the end the Dog collapsed to the ground unconscious and a bleeding mess, gaping wounds present all over his body.
Warning! Power Level Critical!
Not now! There's still one left!
"You see, this is what happens when you rush on ahead without a plan… you lose, what a drag." A man's voice called out to him from behind.
Wolf whipped around, his tail headed for a kunai ready to dispatch this latest threat.
He couldn't move, his entire body was frozen solid.
The man walked towards him, his stride reflected his demeanour.
Relaxed… but dangerous.
Wolf tried desperately to move his head just enough so that he could stare at the man in the eyes, to identify him.
But his body refused to respond to his commands.
And all he saw were legs walking towards him.
The man came to a stop in front of him.
"Incredible, simply incredible."
This was it…he'd failed to keep his promise to Raiden.
He was going to be offlined.
He was going to die.
"Too bad I have to kill you, you're too dangerous."
Wolf's optics took in the sight of several tendrils of his own shadow rising up with a sort of vague disbelief.
The tendrils coiled to strike, aiming at the weak points in his armour.
Wolf turned his optics off.
He didn't even realize he had been howling until the man spoke once more.
"Shadow Spike Justu."
He felt the shadows enter into his body like blades made of plasma, tearing up his insides.
Warning! Power Lev-
Raiden… I'm-
I know I'm really mean to end it there but what would a good story be without cliffhangers.
I need to leave you guys looking forward to something.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed it.
I must admit it is really hard to write a robotic point of view well.
I spent a lot of time on transformers fics just to get a feel of it. It didn't help that every second fic was about a fangirl being magically teleported to the movieverse.
I know it wasn't my best work but it was really late when I wrote this and it felt like such a challenge as I really wasn't in the mood for writing.
Remember that I do look at all suggestions for the plot from my readers! Whether I use them is another matter entirely but I think it's safe to say that most of you can guess who the warriors are. After all some of you wanted it to happen.
I must apologise as my writing on this chapter was really subpar. I will make sure to do better in the future but I was just so determined to get this one out there for you guys! I'll probably improve the writing and repost this chapter but for now I thought I'd post this.
Until next time!
Chapter 8: Allies or Enemies?