IS Nine Ball
AN: I originally wrote that this transformation was a result of Human Plus but when I read this chapter again and saw a review involving it, I realized that it didn't make sense so I changed it to the Nine Overdrive System instead. This time it's just a big time boost to Nine Ball, almost like an incomplete Second Shift that Dominick installed but never got to test. I hope this rewrite makes more sense than what I used earlier.
Disclaimer: I do not own Armored Core or Infinite Stratos.
Chapter 7
The stadium was silenced as they saw what came out of the energy field that had surrounded Dominick and his Nine Ball during the finals of the team battles.
All they saw was Dominick in an IS that looked like a knight in crimson red armor, with spikes on the shoulder plates to add to the intimidation factor and his skin was onyx black with glowing green lines around flowing all over him. The rocket and grenade launchers were behind him but were somewhat bigger, the pulse rifle was still there and instead of one Moonlight saber there were two. An intimidating red helmet covered Dominick's face.
Charles tried to hold his ground but really he was scared of what he was looking at. It's as if he'd unleashed a monster that should have been left alone and now he was dead meat. Oh he had no idea how correct he was. Ichika was very scared for Charles and himself and Laura was worried for her fiance and also upset because she knew what had done.
'Why did he have to use that damned Human Nine Overdrive System?! He hasn't even tested it yet!'
The crowd was looking in awe, fear and shock at the match as they had a feeling that shit had officially hit the fans and things were about to get chaotic. Yami was very worried for her brother, wondering what he had done to himself. Maya was freaking out and Chifuyu was groaning in frustration as she could see another Nine Ball event about to take place and she decided to get the staff ready just in case.
Dominick looked at Charles with an insane grin as if it was his birthday already. He also felt the rush of power flowing through him and he loved every bit of it. Looks like there were no problems with Human Plus so far. He had made Human Plus for him to use with Nine Ball when he needed to push past his limits in battle and he hadn't gotten a chance to test it out because of UN chasing after him and dealing with those Phantom Task roaches. Now would be a time to test Human Plus now and if things go to hell he's given Seraph the go ahead to pull the plug.
"Hope you didn't wait too long Monsieur Dunois. Now the fun really begins."
"Uh oh!"
"Uh oh indeed! You're dead meat now!"
Charles suddenly put his riot shield up as Dominick began an unrelenting assault with his twin Moonlights. He was moving at an insane speed and attacking ferociously. The shield was barely holding back the insanely powerful and fast blows. Charles had no chance to counter as he saw none to begin with. The attacks increased in pace and Charles found it hard to keep his shield up until Dominick got tired of it and decided to end it.
"You're boring me already..."
Then in one swift motion Dominick viciously swung both swords and destroyed the riot shield. Luckily for Charles he barely avoided the attack too. Dominick had a feral grin as he saw Charles materialize twin SMGs.
"Still trying to delay the inevitable? Okay I'll play." Dominick said.
"The battle isn't over yet." Charles bravely fired back, "Don't expect this to be easy Monsieur Dominick."
"I'm not. I'm expecting this to be a MASSACRE!"
With that Charles fired his SMGs and moved quickly while Dominick just weaved through the hailstorm with ease at even more insane speeds while keeping his feral grin on and aiming his pulse rifle at him.
...
Laura and Ichika had basically stopped fighting as they were now watching Dominick and Charles fight and needless to say it didn't take much for the German girl to know who was going to win that fight especially with one of them now much powered up and insane. Laura saw that feral grin on his face and she knew that that man fighting Dunois was not her Dominick! That was a sadistic monster who was only playing with his food.
"Ichika." Laura turned to the younger Orimura, "We may have to postpone our fight."
"Uh why?" Ichika asked.
"In case you haven't noticed Charles is only delaying the inevitable!" Laura yelled at him, "In fact Dominick or whoever that is, is only toying with him right now!"
"What makes you think so? Charles had him on the ropes earlier and even now Dominick's just dodging right now." Ichika argued.
"That blood thirsty monster's only toying with him! Haven't you noticed that he's powered up now?! Charles is not only going to get defeated, he's going to be a bloody mess too! And after Charles who do you think he'll go after next?"
Ichika gulped, "Me?"
"Congratulations for actually getting that right." Laura deadpanned.
A pained scream got the two to end their competition as they saw Charles fly past them and imprinted on the wall. His IS was smoking and some armor parts were gone and he was bleeding. Immediately Chifuyu gave the order to get a medic for the French student and told security to stand by for action.
"Charles!" Ichika shouted.
"You moron! Don't get distracted!" Laura yelled at him.
"You should listen to her advice Ichika or else you'd end up in worse pain than him." said a very sadistic Dominick whose weapons were smoking after that barrage that defeated Charles. "Such a shame that he's still alive, oh the agony of defeat! But there's a silver lining to it, I can still play with him another time!"
"Dominick! That was uncalled for!" Ichika yelled pointing Yukihara at Dominick.
"You seem to forget that this is a battle, and one that I intend to win. Now to put an end to it!" Dominick said before turning to Laura, "You did well holding your ground against him, Lieutenant. I'll be taking over from here now."
"No." Laura responded.
"Excuse me?"
"I said no Major! That's one order I cannot follow. Besides you're not my superior, you're a monster!"
"I'll be with you in a moment Ichika." Dominick said before he turned to Laura, "Lieutenant Laura Bodewig...Are you disobeying an order from your superior officer?"
"You're no superior officer! You're just an impostor pretending to be him! The Dominick I know wouldn't go this far and has much more restraint!"
"You obviously aren't paying attention to what's going on." Dominick said dryly. "I don't care if Ichika here ends up a bloody mess, I don't care if Charles over there dies because of his injuries. This is a fight. I know it, you know it and our opponents know it and you know I intend to win it!"
Balking for a second, Laura quickly got over her shock. "That may be so but this is just a school tournament not a mission. And I know that you know the difference between such cases."
Dominick shook his head in annoyance. She was just stalling him and he was getting tired of it.
"Laura..." he said in a neutral tone with a hint of warning in it. "You're either with me or against me. Think carefully about your answer."
"Well I'm not going to let you cause needless death here. You're much better than that!" Laura shouted in reply.
There was a brief silence before Dominick faced Laura completely which scared the her and Ichika as they felt the murderous intent coming off from him.
"Is that your final answer?" "Yes it is Major!" "Good. Then here's my response."
Before anyone could react Dominick aimed his pulse rifle at Laura's head, but as he was about to shoot Dominick's body suddenly jerked and he howled in pain as he held his forehead with his free hand.
"AAAARRRGGHH! What the hell?!"
'That's enough partner! I'm pulling the plug now before you do something you'd regret!' Seraph yelled at his mind.
"Not yet! It's not over yet! Once I take down Ichika this match will be over and we'll be victorious!" Dominick said out loud.
'Maybe so but not at the risk of outright butchering someone! Enough's enough partner!'
"Damn you Seraph!"
Dominick screamed in agony as sparks erupted around his body and he stepped back. He looked at Laura as the helmet over his face opened up. Laura gasped as she saw the pained look in his eyes and saw the silent message.
'Help me!'
Then some kind of red energy began to engulf Nine Ball but before it completely covered him Dominick threw his pulse rifle at Laura which she caught. She wondered why he did and saw that the ID recognition had her on it to indicate that she could use it but why?
Then the energy dispersed as it left a red figure that took the shape of a demonic knight in full armor in its place.
"Emergency! All matches are suspended! Situation's at level D. Teachers are to deploy to suppress the enemy! All guests and students, please evacuate! I repeat!" The voice of Chifuyu thundered all over the area through the speakers as barriers immediately shielded the dome, trapping Ichika and Laura within the arena with the red monster. It was also then that the red monster took them by surprise and attacked very quickly with its grenade launcher sending Ichika flying towards the wall, taking out his shields and getting knocked out and the same for Laura except she slid along the ground before stopping on her back in pain.
The red figure simply looked at Laura before it walked towards an unconscious Ichika whose IS had now entered standby mode. A pulse rifle like the one it had earlier materialized in its arm as it got closer. Before it could raise its weapon, laser and gunfire rained down on it forcing it to evade as a woman in a platinum IS came down. It looked like the Blue Tears IS except it had a dragon emblem on its chest and dragon shoulder armor. The pilot was wielding a laser rifle in one hand and a machine gun in the other. The pilot was none other than Yami Kusanagi herself.
"That's enough Shin! Your rampage ends here!" Yami shouted at the figure that was her brother.
The red figure simply stared at her while within the mind of Dominick he remembered the conversation his parents had with each other before his explosive exit.
"So we're going to marry that failure of a son off to the Sarashiki heiress?" Kirche asked her husband. A 12 year old Shin Kusanagi was inside the ventilation shaft above the study were his 'parents' were talking.
"Yes we are but he's also going to serve another purpose." Saito said with a grin, "He'll be our little pawn in getting rid of them too. Too long they have been a bane to our allies Phantom Task. It also helps that the Sarashikis are good friends of us."
"At least he'll be useful for something." Kirche sighed, "Why did the failure turn out to be a boy and not a girl? At least Yami's making us proud while that failure is just dragging our names through the mud."
"Bastards. It's Yami this and Yami that! But I can't believe that these two are allied with that terrorist group!" Shin muttered to himself.
"Though how is he going to get rid of the Sarashikis?" Kirche asked.
"Simple. With this control chip." Saito said as he showed his wife a small chip, "Before they get married we'll implant this chip in that failure's skull and program him with his mission. He'll then put the same chip in Tatenashi to put her under our control and then after her family is gone we'll get her to transfer all their wealth to us."
"That is a diabolical scheme you have here...And I love it!"
"And so does our friends at Phantom task. Well then let's go check up on Yami and then we'll break the news about the arranged marriage with that failure."
The two parents left the study. Shin was still in the vent and he was enraged at what he heard.
'So those two bastards think they can use me for their greedy and vile goals. Worse they want to destroy our friends the Sarashikis. Well no way in hell is that going to happen. I'll make sure of that.'
When he snuck back to his room, someone knocked on the door, he answered it to see the glorified bitch herself Yami who was smiling at him. A smile he wanted no part of as all he saw was a spoilt and naive bitch. He slammed the door on her and locked it while telling her to fuck off!
The red figure dashed at Yami and swung its sword at her which she dodged and she responded with a barrage from her projectile weapons which the figure easily dodged around and he returned the favor with burst fire from its pulse rifle. This dance kept going on for a short while as the figure sliced Yami's guns in two and she had to use her twin laser blades to block its sword and ending up in a deadlock. Yami gritted her teeth as she struggled to hold off the red figure.
"S-Shin-chan! Snap out of it!" Yami tried to talk him down. The figure tilted its head to the side before it applied even more pressure.
Laura struggled to get up as she watched the small battle between her fiance's sister and whatever her fiance became. Fortunately the cavalry came as teachers in their IS suits flew in and surrounded them as the red figure broke off from the deadlock and looked at them in disinterest.
Charles was stabilized and carried out of the arena. Ichika had just woken up and had a concussion while Laura was winded from the last attack. She walked past the medic with Dominick's pulse rifle, ignoring the medic as she approached Yami.
"Yami Kusanagi." Laura called out to her, getting the woman's attention.
"Laura-san? Why are you still here? You shouldn't be here. We have the situation under control." Yami scolded.
"That's my fiance there and he needs my help. You people are only going to get slaughtered, especially you Yami."
"And what makes you think so?"
"I don't have to explain myself to you. Especially a woman who did nothing when her brother was being abused and ostracized by his family while enjoying the praises rained on her."
Yami fell silent as Laura walked past the shocked woman towards the red figure.
"Laura! Are you trying to get killed?" Yami asked.
"No. I can still pull off a partial deployment. I'm going to help Dominick, my superior officer and my fiance, my liebe." Laura stated.
"How?"
"Watch me!"
Laura partially deployed the right arm of her IS which held the pulse rifle and she got into a good distance before calling out to the red figure. "Hey you! Give me back my Dominick you dumpkoff!"
The figure turned and looked at Laura, then it shook its head and was about to ignore her but the German would have none of that.
"Don't you dare turn your back on me you dumpkoff!" Laura yelled. "You and me! Right now!"
The figure turned around and stared at Laura and this time paid attention to her. It nodded at her and she smirked at it. She then removed her eye patch revealing her glowing eye. She lowered the pulse rifle to her side which the figure did too.
'That's right! A quick draw contest! Let's do this you cheap fälschung!'
A few seconds past as the two stood across from each other while everyone else looked on in tense anticipation. Suddenly Laura narrowed her eyes and focused on her opponent.
"Ziehen!"
Laura raised her weapon at her foe before it did and fired a burst at it. The pulse bursts ripped into the figure leaving holes in it. And then, the red figure started to ripple and dissipate, revealing an unconscious Dominick in his IS suit. He would have fallen onto the ground if Laura hadn't caught him.
"Willkommen zurück Dominick." Laura whispered to him.
Chapter 7 End.
That's the end of that chapter. That was crazy too. Did you like the conclusion of that? Leave your reviews and constructive criticism. No flames will be considered. Just ignored and deleted.
