Chapter. 10
Hard times fell on Lastation, with the loss of so many shares monsters started to appear more frequently in the nation. Noire spent her days fighting this monsters, trying to regain the faith of her people.
Ever since Noire learned that Uni was buying games from In-D she had been distant with her little sister. Uni spent her time hiding in her room whenever Noire was out. When she was home Noire was usually too tired to talk or to anything with her sister.
Uni sat on her bed and looked out her window to the night sky. "Just disappointed." Noire's words hung in Uni's head, repeating over and over. "Stupid In-D. If not for them..." Uni hugged her legs as she felt defeated. "If they..." An idea formed in Uni's head. "If In-D didn't exist, our shares would come back. The Noire wouldn't hate me anymore."
Uni jumped off her bed and got on her laptop. After a quick search she found the location of In-D along with information on its CPUs. Satisfied this what she found Uni pulled the blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her arm as she left her room and crept to Noire's office, opening the door Uni found her sister asleep at her desk.
The sight was becoming normal for Uni, know how hard Noire was pushing herself to keep Lastation above water. Uni draped her blanket over Noire, seeing how tired she was just added more guilt to what Uni felt already. "I'll fix this, I promise."
Uni quietly left and closed the door behind her. "It's all In-D's fault." Uni kept telling herself that as she went back to her room, inside Uni picked her rifle and checked to see it was in working order. Grabbing her bag Uni filled it with items then threw it over her shoulder. Uni opened her window then jumped out, as she fell Uni changed into her HDD form and flew to In-D.
...
The following morning the silver brothers were outside working on a computer tower. Tech-u worked on putting the tower together as Quincy sat at a patio table, a laptop laid in front of him with cords connected to the computer.
Tech-u placed a panel on the tower and screwed into place. "Okay Quincy, start it up."
"On it." Quincy put down his phone and typed on the laptop. The computer started up but a warning sign flashed on the laptop's screen.
"Turn it off, turn it off!" Quincy as so and the computer shut down. "What was wrong with it?"
"Says the cooling fan didn't start."
"What!? I just fixed that!" Tech-u unscrewed the panel to take it off.
"You mean you 'made' it. You can't fix what never existed."
Tech-u pulled out a large wrench from his hoodie and waved it at Quincy. "I'm gonna hit you with this." The brothers laughed as they got back to work.
Quincy's phone rang, the owner checked to ID then answered. "Hey Duck, what do you need? Really!? Okay I'll be right there!" Quincy stood up and hung up.
"Something good?"
"Histoire did it. A Planeptune guild rep came by to talk about opening a guild hall in In-D!"
"That's great bro!"
"Yeah..." Quincy began to fidget with his hands. "Maybe I should let Duck handle it."
"Quincy."
"Okay, I'll do it. Just scared I'll mess it up."
Tech-u put down his tools and rubbed his forehead. "You got Planeptune and Leanbox on our side, this should be simple."
"You're right." Quincy placed his phone in his coat and straightened it. "You want to come?"
Tech-u pulled the fan unit out of the computer tower. "I think I got enough here to keep me busy."
"Alright, I'll be back in a bit. An hour at most." Quincy walked to the elevator and rode it down to the basilicom's main floor. As the lift carried Quincy down the CPU fidgeted his hands again. Doubt welled up in Quincy as he thought about how to deal with this.
"If I mess this up I won't get the guild, no guild means no time to explore to caverns, no exploring means I can't keep my promise to Neptune." The chain of thought only enforced Quincy's doubts of his meeting going well. "This is why I hate making promises." The elevator door opened to let Quincy out. "No turning back now."
At the front of the basilicom Hat was quacking at a girl in a oversized jacket and long light brown hair. Duck spotted Quincy then pointed to him with his wing.
The girl turned to see Quincy walking towards her. "Hello miss, welcome to In-D. I'm CPU Sliver heart." Quincy held out his hand to her. "But please, call me Quincy."
The girl took Quincy's hand and shook it. "Hello Quincy. I'm IF, I'm with the Planeptune guild."
"Good to meet you. I look forward to having your support in helping In-D." Hat quacked at Quincy. "Right, it'd be better if I showed you the problem we have, another crystal beast is trying to get to the surface. May I ask for your help in this IF?"
"Sure. Can't say no when someone's in trouble."
"Thank you. Hat, tell Tech-u I'll be back a bit later." The duck quacked at Quincy this time a little louder. "Fine." Quincy took a cracker out of his coat and tossed it to Hat. The oracle jumped off the desk and went to a smaller elevator to go up the tree.
Quincy straighten his coat and turned to IF. "Shall we?" The two stepped into a normal sized lift and rode it down.
...
After a long flight Uni landed outside of In-D. The candidate changed back to her human form and let out a yawn. "So this is In-D, looks cool in a weird way." Uni shook her to get rid of her thought. "This isn't that cool, Lastation is way better."
Uni walked through the streets as she looked for the basilicom, she saw several people who went missing for her nation just going about their lives like nothing was wrong. She found a machine with a map of the city and used it to find what she was looking for.
With directions in hand Uni ran for the tallest tree in In-D, stopping in front of its main doors Uni drew her rifle and kicked the doors down. Walking inside Uni didn't see anyone around. "Anyone there!" Only her echo greeted her. Uni went to the back of the hall and pressed a call lift button.
An elevator opened and Uni stepped into it, being carried to the top.
Atop the basilicom Tech-u put down his tools and laid back to look up at the sky. "Why won't this thing work?" The candidate watched the clouds, trying to think of anything but his work.
Hat came up to the top of the tree, the duck looked around and saw Tech-u. Hat quacked at him as it ran to the candidate. Tech-u sat up to greet Hat. "Hey, what's up?" Hat quacked again. "You know only Quincy can understand you, right?"
Another elevator arrived at the top, the doors opened and Uni stepped out. Tech-u saw the girl and stood up. "Can I help you?" Tech-u noticed the gun in her hands and kept a safe distance.
Uni spotted Tech-u and approached him. "I'm looking for the CPU, where is he?"
"Why are you looking for him?"
Uni pointed her gun in Tech-u's general direction. "I'm Uni, candidate of Lastation."
"Tech-u, candidate for In-D."
"It's your fault, it's all your fault!" Uni was shaking as she shouted, Tech-u took a step towards her when Uni pointed here gun directly at him. "It's your fault that Lastation is falling!"
"What are you-" Uni fired her weapon, the bullet flew past Tech-u.
"I'm gonna kill you, and save Lastation. Then, then Noire will love me again..." Uni aimed her rifle for Tech-u's head and fired.
Tech-u conjured his chakrams and blocked Uni's bullet. Tech-u wanted to talk to her, to understand why she wanted to fight but for now he had to defend himself.
Uni fired again at Tech-u, who dove out of the bullet's path as he hurled a chakram at Uni. The weapon struke Uni's gun, almost knocking it out of her hands.
Tech-u caught his weapon then dispelled them, he dashed to Uni and grabbed her arm and gun. "Just stop! This is pointless!"
"Shut up!" Uni head-butted Tech-u then swung her rifle to knock him down. She pointed her gun at him and fired.
Tech-u rolled out of the way and got back on his feet as he re-summoned his chakrams.
A pillar of light rose up from under Uni as she changed into her HDD form. Uni took flight into the air and fired on Tech-u.
Tech-u held up his chakrams to block the bullet but the impact's force caused Tech-u to stagger back. "Shock shield!" Electricity sparked out of Tech-u's chakrams, the lightning spiraled around the CPU and formed a barrier.
Uni fired at Tech-u but none of her bullets could get through the barrier. "Multi-cut!" Tech-u's weapons vanished and hundreds of smaller chakrams appeared, surrounding Uni. The chakrams flew around the candidate to create a sphere of blades. Uni moved to fly out of the sphere and was cut by several chakrams before she moved back into the center.
Tech-u had to be careful not hurt Uni with his attack but she held up her gun as a shield and charged through, coming out with several cuts along her body.
Uni felt her body burn from the cut, she glared down at Tech-u and charged an SP skill. "Brave cannon!" Uni flew higher into the air and fired a dark beam at Tech-u. The barrier absorbed of the beam, displacing the force of the attack around the shield. Uni's attack didn't stop until it shattered Tech-u's shield.
Tech-u was thrown back as his shield broke, Tech-u pushed himself up and Uni shoot him in the arm. Tech-u cried out in pain, he rose himself back on his feet and Uni shot him in the leg, forcing him back down.
"Stay down!" Uni fired again, hitting Tech-u in the abdomen.
Tech-u covered his wound as he laid on the ground. He looked up to see Uni descending with her large rifle trained on his head.
"Quincy..." Tech-u moved his hand into his hoodie, he closed his hand into a fist and pulled it out. "No! I can't rely on him forever."
Uni landed in front of Tech-u and pressed her guns barrel against his forehead.
A pillar of light rose up from under Tech-u, the blinding light caused Uni to cover her eyes and move back. The light faded to reveal Tech-u and his HDD form.
Tech-u's upper body was covered in sliver armor with a blue chest plate and shoulder pads that jetted out like spikes. Large white gauntlets protected Tech-u's arm up to his elbows and had black clawed fingers. Large bulky white armor covered Tech-u's legs up to his knees, leaving tight fitting grey leggings to cover the rest of his legs. Black metal boot five times larger than normal footwear gave Tech-u the image of crushing the ground with a single step. Behind Tech-u were two chakrams as big as he was, spinning with lightning crackling off of them. His eyes changed to a darker grey. His hair was now a pure white with black metal pads on the sides of his head. A grey metal guard covered the lower half of Tech-u's face.
"You really are a CPU..." Uni was more shocked then in awe at the fight of a male CPU.
"Scanning." Two metal rods grow out of Tech-u's head pads and connected to one another, between them a gold visor appeared with a circle over Tech-u's right eye and symbols all over the rest of it. "CPU candidate. HDD form. Threat level moderate." Tech-u spoke in a cold lifeless tone. "Objective... Subdue with minimal injuries. Eighty present output sure be sufficient."
Uni had heard enough and fired at Tech-u. Tech-u drifted back and forth to evade her shots, he waved his hand and one of his chakram wings swung at Uni to strike her gun.
Uni drifted away as she kept trying to aim her gun on Tech-u.
Tech-u didn't let up as he kept a close distance to her. Close enough that he keep using his chakram wings to knock away gun from shoot him but far enough that she couldn't hit him with it.
Uni knew she couldn't win like this, she stopped backing away and used her gun as a club. The attack surprised Tech-u and he was struke in the head, as he staggered back Uni flew up into the sky.
Tech-u shook off the pain and looked up to see Uni in the air and chased after her. Uni fired at Tech-u but his visor gave him the prediction of where the bullets would go. Tech-u evaded each of Uni's shots as he flew towards her.
Uni started to panic and flew away to keep her distance. As she soured through the air she turned back to Tech-u and fired again but he dodged all of her shots. "Brave cannon!"
"Shock shield." Tech-u held out his hand and a lightning barrier formed around him. Uni's beam attack connected with Tech-u's shield but only served to slow him down.
Uni didn't let up her attack even as Tech-u was almost upon her. Tech-u grabbed Uni's gun with one hand and her neck with the other. The barrier disappeared as Tech-u shoved the gun away and grabbed her arm then Tech-u began to fly back to the treetop.
Uni swung her gun to hit Tech-u but his chakram wing would knock her gun back. She tried to punch him to let her go but Tech-u angled his head so she would only his metal head pad.
Tech-u slammed Uni into the treetop, breaking the pavement in their crash. Uni felt Tech-u still holding onto her arm and neck then she felt a weight on her chest.
Uni opened her eyes to see Tech-u hovering over her with his knee on her chest, enough to keep her down but not enough to hurt her. Uni struggled to get her arm free but failed, she clinched her other hand into a fist and Tech-u's chakram stabbed into the ground, pinning her arm between the spikes.
Uni bared her teeth as she glared at Tech-u who just looked back at her behind his visor. "Well? Do it already!"
The visor disappeared and the rods retracted back into Tech-u head pads. "The battle is over. You are at twenty two present efficiently. Continuing would only result in an injury."
Uni struggled some more but couldn't get free. Tech-u's visor reappeared as he looked over her body. Uni noticed this and struggled even harder. "Let go of me you pervert!"
"Signs of fatigue. Low nutrition. Overall combat potential... Forty three at best upon first encounter." Tech-u looked back at Uni and waited for her to stop struggling. "Logic flawed. Why fight with such low capacity?"
Uni stopped struggling and changed back to her human form. She looked away from Tech-u as tears welled up in her eyes.
Tech-u let go of Uni and picked up her rifle, he got off of her and changed back to his human form as well. "Why are you crying?"
"I'm not!" Uni sat up and rubbed her eyes but couldn't stop her tears. "I, I..."
Tech-u leaned closer and held his hand out to her.
! #$%^&*()_+}"?:{
Please reveiw, it keeps us writers going. Also be sure to show some love to my partner for this story Fear Ripper. Till next time CG out. PEACE!