**** Time for an update, and this one is a bit more exciting, just for a change. I'm estimating something like 14 chapters, give or take, to wrap us up, and an Epilogue if you ask nicely. I've got something extra planned for the end, but it's the equivalent of a deleted scene for a movie. It's not pivotal, so I'd like to know if you'd even want to read it. We'll see how you feel in 4 chapters. :)
No illustration. Maybe next time, if I can somehow motivate myself. Also, sorry for any typos or mix-ups you may have seen as I posted this the first two times. A simple issue of saving incorrectly, but I'm sure I've fixed it now. That's all, so enjoy and I'll see ya soon! ****
Chapter Ten
The Devil Came
With Lagann's powerful mechanical arms, and Gurren's fanatical drilling, wrenching The Battering Ram free of the snow took only a few minutes. Kamina was, once again, tremendously excited as Linus and Yoko brushed the snow off the flight deck, and he actually crawled out of his gunmen to have a look at the new machine himself.
"Does it really fly?" he asked.
Linus shrugged. "It used to. It's been sitting here since the crash, buried in snow, so I'm not sure how well it works anymore."
"Nothing for it then, but to give it a try!" Kamina crouched down to examine the long, rectangular shape of the gunmen, as if searching the many buttons and knobs at its head for an "on" switch.
"You have to stand on the deck to turn it on," Linus told him. Instantly Kamina jumped up on the top of the machine, now standing a few feet taller than everyone else, and looked around expectantly. Nothing happened.
"Now what?"
"Well. . ." Linus frowned, slightly self-conscious. "When Saburo used it, all he had to do was stand on the deck and it would turn on. He only let me ride with him, so I have no idea how to drive it."
Simon knelt by the mecha and picked a chunk of ice from the metal seam. "Maybe he was the only one who could drive it."
"Maybe," Yoko agreed. "Linus, why don't you try?"
Reluctantly, Kamina stepped down, an eager light in his eyes. Linus glanced uncomfortably at him, but the man only grinned back. "Go on," he said, "I want to see this damn thing fly already!"
Cowed into obedience, Linus moved onto the flight deck and positioned his feet the way he had seen Saburo do the last time they had been together. It was striking how small Linus was, how disproportionate he seemed on top of the large mecha. At least when Saburo had stood there, he had looked like he belonged. The gunmen had been the perfect size for Saburo, but to Linus it looked as if he was standing on the back of a giant three times his size.
"A-alright…" he stammered. "I remember . . .S-Saburo would put his heel. . .somewhere right. . .here. . ."
It was an odd reach, but Linus managed to press his heel into an area on the far right side of the deck. At the touch a small white light sparked under his feet, a fractured streak that zipped from one pointed end of the frame to the other.
"That's something!" Simon said encouragingly. "What'd he do next?"
Without answering, Linus slid his heel backwards. Several satisfying clicking sounds followed the movement, and by the time his foot had returned to its original stance, a low hum had started somewhere inside the machine.
Linus laughed, his heart thrumming strongly in his chest. Slowly, he shifted his weight back and forth, up and down, and in response the entire gunmen shook itself side to side. The hum grew louder, until it became a continuous, harmonious note that cut the icy air and challenged the din of the winds.
"I thought you said you didn't know how to drive this thing," Kamina said, not unkindly. He was grinning just as much as Linus.
The flight deck flashed obscure numbers and patterns, apparently assessing its new rider's mass and anatomy. Its responses became progressively more synchronized to Linus' movements, its calculations running like a river across the glowing surface of the deck.
"Unlocking Power Invintory. . ." Simon read off the deck, the glow painting his face an odd blue color. "38%. What's that mean?"
Linus shrugged. He glanced at the dozens of flashing lights under his feet, displaying symbols in red or green that meant nothing to him. He suspected that Saburo knew what all the pictures indicated, but such knowledge was lost to Linus completely. He was grateful that the mecha even turned on.
Even with deficient understanding eventually Linus had divined how to lift The Battering Ram off the ground, and it hovered several inches from the snow, much to his companion's delight.
"Awesome!" Simon cheered. "It does still work! Try flying it around some!"
Leaning his weight forward, Linus was able to encourage the gunmen onward. He only had to move a fraction to increase the speed, and with only a small amount of pressure on his leading foot the mecha was speeding over the snow at a surprisingly fast pace.
All maneuvers, he discovered fairly quickly, were instituted entirely by body position. The flight deck seemed able to read his movement precisely, and the slightest shift in weight caused the machine to react, either by turning, lifting or diving. Because of this astonishing accuracy, flying The Battering Ram became second nature in a matter of minutes. Almost as effortlessly as walking, Linus was intuitively able to steer around and over large snow drifts, soon performing dramatic twists and barrel rolls with fantastic ease.
He returned to the small huddle his friends and their gunmen had made, descending gracefully back onto the ground among lauding shouts and exalting praise from Simon and Yoko. Kamina stood by, smiling smugly, no less impressed.
"You want to go for a ride?" Linus offered to no one in particular. "There's plenty of room! Come on!"
Encouraged by this uncalled-for burst of exuberance in his friend, Simon was the first to agree. He had to lay flat on his stomach near the head of the mecha so that he wouldn't be in the way of Linus' feet, but from there he still had an excellent view, and the comfort of hand grips to prevent a fall.
As soon as Simon was ready, Linus lifted The Battering Ram and rocketed forward. Simon let out a cry of surprise, amazed by the speed of the flight, and had to quickly drag his goggles down his forehead to cover his eyes from the surge of cold wind.
The flight was smooth, comfortable even when Linus flipped the mecha into skyscraping loops and constricted corkscrew turns. Simon laughed as his stomach dropped again, his entire body lifting a few inches off the deck as The Battering Ram plummeted from a tall climb into a steep dive.
"Let's try going higher!" Linus shouted. Simon barely heard him as the air tore past his ears, but he nodded excitedly anyway.
Linus leaned the farthest foreword he had yet reached, pushing his gunmen to a thrilling speed. The snow below them rippled and surged as they flashed over it, silent as their dark shadow racing along the ground beneath. Still soaring straight, Linus abruptly jerked the Battering Ram upwards into a vertical climb, shooting towards the sun as if he aimed to bash the mecha's grinning face into the star's core.
The already freezing air cooled, becoming thin and dry. In a matter of seconds Linus and Simon were so high that the snowy ground below appeared as one giant white page, blank of smudges or marks. Above the rage of the snowstorms, the world was icy and quiet. The Battering Ram leveled flat, hovering in empty sky.
"It's incredible," Simon said. "Kamina would love this! You'll have to drive him next!"
Linus smiled lightly, his focus elsewhere. He gazed around, fixating on the pointed mountains that wrinkled the horizon, lit in orange sunlight. Along the icy waste he could spot ribbons of snow, dancing on flurries of wind and skipping across the ice like guests at some wintery ball. The ground was frozen hard, and even though only air and wind separated Linus from a mortal fall, he felt completely secure. Standing so high, a speck in the endless open heavens, he knew he was safe, more than he had been in his entire life.
If Simon hadn't been with him, Linus wondered if he would ever choose to touch ground again.
Simon too, had been scanning the plane. Silhouetted against the far snow drifts, he could see an odd, hour glass-shaped mountain.
"Is that Paradise?" he asked, pointing toward the peak.
Linus felt his rapture flicker, and turned to look. "Yes, that's it. Hasn't changed much really. I kind of thought it would look different."
"What's it like?" Simon rasped. The air had parched his throat and tongue, making speech difficult.
For a few moments Linus seemed to struggle with and explanation. At last he shrugged. "I'll just show you."
First, the Battering Ram dived a little, searching for warmer air, but Linus maintained a lofty height as he sped toward the mountain. Slowly it grew, as did the massive pillars of ice and snow that had collected around its base. Even as high as they flew, Simon was sure that some of the great mounds stood yet taller. He could only guess how they had formed, and suspected that with hundreds of years of tearing winds pushing and chilling the snow, the pillars must be rock hard.
Soon enough Paradise was no longer a misshapen mass in the distance, but a visible mountain, now within reach. Linus slowed into an easy drift, allowing time for a prolonged examination of every boulder and crevice. Thousands of jagged rocks pointed upwards to the great height of the mountain, providing an irregular pathway to the peak. He remembered following Saburo, clambering from one toothed rock to the next, camping under broad overhangs or inside caves. The accent had encompassed three entire days. The ice mounds and the taller stones at the base had sheltered the travelers from snowstorms, but the journey had been slow and strenuous even then. That was, even without the added burdens of discord and division in the party.
A bright flash shook all of Linus' memories away. He followed the spark, catching movement along the north face. His stomach dropped, even though The Battering Ram had not dipped down. He was sure the flash had come from sunlight snagging on metal, and he searched all around the near-by rocks for any other shifting or telling glints. Several times he thought he had spotted a creature crawling through the darker shadows, matted grey fur waving and scarred eyes locking on him.
"What is that?" Linus just barely heard Simon ask.
He looked, dread making his heart beat fast and fiercely. For a moment, it seemed his heartbeat actually froze, even as it hammered on even faster than before.
Perched like a demonic gargoyle on one of the larger rocks was a beast, one that still walked in his nightmares and occupied his more dreadful memories. Its massive head was puckered with dozens of horns, stuck out of its skull and face without order or purpose. Black hair rustled around its crooked and bulging legs, frozen hard by the cold. One of the monster's mangled limbs had been replaced with what seemed to be the arm of a gunmen, which, Linus knew, was exactly what it was.
Huge yellow eyes, spotted with grotesque black marks turned toward the stagnant Battering Ram. Linus was immobilized in shock, stunned by the stench, and the truly horrible distortion of the creature's body. The beast was just as he remembered: a powerful, wicked, fusion of one demon to the pilfered remains of gunmen, endowed with claws and fangs and vile, gruesome hunger.
"What is it?" Simon whispered again. "A beastmen? Is it even alive?"
"Yes," Linus choked. "We have to leave. There are dozens of these things along the mountain, most of them much larger than this one. They usually hide at the peak. I never thought one would be here, so low to the ground."
"It doesn't look like it's awake," Simon noticed. He stared at the monster, frightened at its horror-wracked form, but searching for a sign of life.
"They stare at the sun during the day," Linus told him. "They just sit there, completely still and stare all day long. But at night…and, if you happen to block their view—"
Suddenly an echoing roar erupted from just behind Linus' back. He whirled and saw another one of the beasts clinging to the side of a pillar, its foot-long claws sunken deep into the ice, and its jaw nearly popping loose with the force of its scream. The enormous creature lunged, its forearm alone several times larger than Linus, Simon and the Battering Ram combined.
With a rough jerk, Linus drove the gunmen away, leaning so far forward that his knee nearly touched Simon's back. Their haste was not enough, for the paw of the giant smacked the tail of the gunmen, sending it into a nosedive before Linus could recover. Immediately they shot straight again, dodging around the ice pillars, not knowing truly what direction they were headed.
The sounds of nails grating ice pursued them, as the beast hurtled from the side of one pillar to the next in chase. Even with the speed of The Battering Ram, the monster steadily followed their trail. Linus had no plan of direction, only the awareness to steer around the next obstacle, never slowing and constantly imagining the visage of the creature behind him.
The monster leapt again, launching off a pillar with such force that its massive claws left gaping rents behind in the ice. It managed to soar directly over its prey, crashing into the next pillar before Linus and Simon, and scrambled to turn itself around. The next moment it uncurled from a crouch like a spring, exploding away from the pillar toward The Battering Ram even as Linus threw his weight backwards to stop.
Bowing to his left side, Linus tilted the gunmen sideways and jetted forward to scrape past the monster's underbelly. A great black shadow rolled overhead as the monster flew above them, missing a collision by inches.
The beast slammed into a pillar lower down, once again thrashing around on the slick ice for a grip. It turned and roared at Linus and Simon, even as they flew away in the opposite direction.
As they fled, chunks of ice rained down around them, torn from the surrounding drifts by three more beasts that had joined the hunt. All three monsters attacked at once, and Linus barrel rolled to the side, dodging the falling mass of one of the dreadful creatures, but throwing himself closer to another. Again he switched direction, sweeping The Battering Ram around quickly to point the other way, feeling rancid, steaming breath waft over his back.
He raced on, and the beasts followed, storming through the forest of ice pillars, ripping showers of frozen snow and stone down in their wake.
A wall of snow appeared in their path, tall and blinding as the sun flashed over its vast, white face. Linus made to scale it by driving straight up its side, but just as he was about to crest the top, one of the beast's bodies flew in and crashed into the wall right above his head. Debris showered around him, and in desperation he attempted to swerve, but the distance was too small. The head of The Battering Ram crunched into the monster's shoulder, throwing both beast and mecha sideways.
The gunmen quickly seized control, even though its pilot was incapacitated with dizziness and fear. It twisted until it flew straight again, arching over the snow hill and soaring down the opposite side.
Linus glanced back. The beasts followed them even yet, and may have even been gaining ground.
"Does this thing have any weapons?" Simon shouted.
"Weapons? I- I have no idea!" He strove frantically to remember, and was able to reach memories of Saburo employing an odd arrangement of guns at various times, but he could not recall exactly where the firearms had come from, let alone how to use them. "Uhh, try…pressing the buttons on the deck! See what they do!"
It seemed that Linus' hunch had been correct, for the moment Simon pounded one of the large switches with his hand, the flight deck suddenly flashed brilliantly, once again humming loudly through the winds. Two curved poles flicked out of either of the gunmen's sides, folding up to an angle with Linus' shoulders, and stopping at just the right height for him to grasp the handles on their ends.
With his one hand Linus clasped the grip, wrapping his fingers around the wide trigger under his fingertips. Guided by instinct alone, he squeezed the metal tightly. In response, a clattering of hot red bullets blasted from the barrel under the base, tracing a scarlet line of dashes to the horizon. Linus instantly loosed his hold, frightened and surprised by the power of the bolts.
"You have to turn around and shoot!" Simon called. "Turn around!"
Linus felt fear descend like an icy wash from his head. "You want to fly at them? They'll tear us to shreds!"
"We can't outrun them! TURN AROUND AND FIGHT!" Simon rolled his weight sideways, and the flight deck's sensitivity picked up the shift. It turned in a long eastward arch, until Linus could see the multitude of enemies racing behind them. The Battering Ram drove in from the side, targeting one massive beast among the rest.
Too panicked to aim, Linus crushed the trigger in a fist, launching a streak of bullets directly in front of him as he flew. At first the shots passed their target without slowing the monster at all, but soon the searing pellets met with the creature's flesh, all but dismembering the monster in twelve shots. Its cauterized limbs fell to the snow just before its mountainous torso cracked into the ice, still steaming and reeking of burnt hair.
Three more beasts tasted the flaring breath of The Battering Ram and fell, ripped and practically minced into fragments before five minutes had passed. Eight now chased Linus and Simon, and for the time being the beasts held the advantage as their marks slipped back into the maze of ice pillars.
Simon glanced back as Linus blasted through yet another monster, collapsing the pillar it had clung to along with the hideous creature. Suddenly he could not see any more of the beast's following. He scanned the pillars, but found none.
"Where'd they-"
He was cut off as the face of the largest beast he or Linus had yet seen burst up from between two ice mounds. Its head alone was greater than the bodies of any of its fellow , and The Battering Ram mashed against its maw before Linus or Simon even registered what they were seeing.
Jolted, the gunmen tumbled down the ice, clipping a pillar as it fell. Linus screamed as his feet twisted off the flight deck, and he dropped toward the ground, arms waving as if to break off gravity and failing completely. His landing was hard, stealing the breath from his chest and knocking stars into his eyes. Pain like dynamite stormed through his body and he gasped.
Dazed, sipping on air, Linus listened as the shadows of a dozen beasts stripped the cold winter ground around him. There were no growls, no moans. No sounds at all. The monsters stared down from above, waiting.
They're wondering if we're dead, he thought. For all their viciousness, Linus knew that these demons never ate anything if its heart no longer pumped.
He sat up, cringing. The Battering Ram had crashed some distance away, and now lay on its side, while the lights on the flight deck still pulsed but were slowly dimming.
Linus could only turn his head a tiny bit, anymore hurt too much. Limited in this way, he could not find Simon anywhere near him. The glare of the snow threatened to scourge his vision, and he had to squint and search through his eyelashes.
Through the silence, a voice growled his name. Old terrors reemerged in his mind like bombs, and he wondered if he were living through hell all over again.
"Linus," the voice said, hissing the words. "Took you're thime, did you? Shame. You're going to whear out your whelcome."
Now blackness was crawling in from the edges of his eyes. He was going to pass out. He wanted to, he was so exhausted.
"You're the only one lheft," the hissing continued. "The lhast course."
Soon he couldn't remember who he was, nor where he lay or who was speaking. The blackness seeped in deeper.
"Thake the other boy. We'll let Linus rhest a while." A laugh sounded, though it was discordant, and far too base. "No harm, waiting a little longer."
Linus heard this, but couldn't hold it in his mind, as he closed his eyes and let his head fall onto the snow, yielding to unconsciousness.