A/N: HUZZAH! I have finally returned! Things with college and my eventual moving (I finally get to be on my own again) are finally beginning to get all set, so I can finally write again. Mind you I still have that stuff for my friend to do, but now I have a lot more time that and this. For waiting so long, I give you my longest chapter yet, complete with action. Enjoy!
Chapter 20: Mechanical Madness
How long has it been now… a couple of hours since I awoke? I'm not sure… it's an odd skill of mine to be able to tell how much time has passed, or at least be able to make very good guesses at it. But after my near-death experience which left both my body and mind in horrible disorder, that skill isn't working as well as I would like… my head aches horribly, and my whole body has a strange an unsettling buzzing feeling reverberating in it. Memories of the nightmares are still so vivid… my only comfort is being in Lyn's arms, feeling some degree of safety.
While I rested, I had asked Lyn about our current situation; last time I was awake, we were both entangled in one of Eggman Nega's machine traps. The electric shock seemed to have knocked her out as well, but she regained consciousness sooner than me. She found me laying on the ground in front of her… it seemed we were both still in the cathedral, in a room renovated to be a holding cell. The walls were reinforced with steel, and the door was a massive metal slab. I'm not sure if I could break out of here even if my headache weren't inhibiting my PSI… to make matters worse, our weapons and my backpack full of food were also taken away.
There was a bright side to being captured, however… we found Django and Sabata. They had been stuck in this room themselves, Django after being brought here by the sorcerer before, and Sabata after falling for the same trap that Lyn and I did. For some reason, just looking at them fills me with unease… I knew that Django and Sabata brothers, but I didn't know that they were twins.
The Solar Boy wears grey leather boots and a pair of short-pants that are beige in the front and grey at the back, and folded up at the bottom. He has a black belt – or at least it looks like a belt – holding a grey cloth around his waist, covering up the bottom part of his long-sleeved black shirt. Some of the top part of the shirt is covered by grey and beige leather armor that appears large on his shoulders. The most notable things he wears are an absurdly long red scarf, and a… headband? Visor? I can't tell what it is, it looks too soft to be a visor, yet its white eye-like spot outlined in red make it look like one. His blonde hair is done up like what I can best describe as a fireball zooming over the left of his head, he has hazel eyes, and a bandage over his left cheek. I have to admit that Django's outfit, while perhaps a little over the top, looks good on him. He doesn't look like he's much older than me, but he's not looking very heroic right now… I can see exhaustion and malnourishment on his features. Not too surprising since he's been here the longest out of us all.
The Dark Boy – as Sabata referred to himself – wasn't all that different from Django. All of his clothing is pretty much the same, except whatever was beige is purple and whatever was grey is black. His scarf is sky blue, his hair is purple and unkempt with a long bang drooping over either side of his face, and his eyes are a menacing dark crimson. He even has a scar on his left cheek, but no bandage to cover it. It's like looking at a more sinister mirror image of the Solar Boy, not at all unlike some of my recent nightmares…
It's eating me up inside as I learn about these brothers, listening to their stories. Their appearance is so similar yet their personalities are so different, as Sabata seems more blunt and antihero-ish than Django. According to them, they've even been forced to fight each other more than once because of dark forces manipulating the evil in the Dark Boy's body… it's just like with me and Claus. I've had to fight against my own twin brother numerous times because of Porky's control over him… but we were never able to truly make peace. There was no happy ending for me or Claus, and yet these two were able to overcome their feuds and live together peacefully. Django and Sabata have done what I destroyed my own world trying to do… to bring my family back together and my world into a state of peace. I'm not sure whether to be angry and jealous, or sympathetic and respectful.
For the past two hours, since none of us are able to break down the door and I can't try my PSI until my head clears up, the four of us had resigned ourselves to learning about each other and catching up on current events. I didn't go into any great detail about my past; in spite of how many people I've been forced to tell what made me who I am, it's still a subject I'm not comfortable with. I may have been able to fight through losing my mother way back when, but that never meant I actually got over it. The nightmares still haunt me…
So right now, the subject of discussion was how I became a half-vampire. "So who was the vampire that bit you?" Sabata asked. Django hadn't done much of the talking… he was clearly weak right now. "He must be pretty weak if he only partially transformed you."
The darker brother was about to learn just how wrong he was. Lyn was doing most of the speaking for me since I wasn't in such great shape. "His name is Shadow, but… I'm not sure if he is a vampire." she tells him. "Lucas said he called himself something else… what was it? An Eternal?"
"ETERNAL!" both Sabata and the malnourished Django bellowed at once. "Your enemy is an Eternal!?" the former asked.
"You know of the Eternals?" Lyn inquired, neither her nor I expecting their critical reaction.
"Unfortunately… one of the damn things enslaved my mind…" Sabata said, venom in his tone. Obviously it wasn't a fond memory. "And you're saying he's been bitten by one? He's lucky he's still breathing."
If he only knew the hell I've been through over the past while… luck seems to be the only thing keeping me alive lately. "What are Eternals? Neither Lucas nor myself really know."
A low growl rumbled out of Sabata's lips before he answered her. "They're vile, terrible beasts without a soul. They don't think, they don't feel… they know only destruction. As far as we know they can't die, hence their name, but I've never actually seen what happens if you try to kill them…"
Well, most of that fits Shadow fairly well, other than the part about not thinking… from all the times I've confronted Shadow and spoken with him, he seemed quite capable of rational thought. "I've seen it…" I rasp out. Lyn looks down at me with worry. "He spawned a new body… tore his way out of his old one like a cocoon…"
"And Shadow can think." Lyn continued for me. "He and Lucas have spoken with each other many times."
"…Huh." Sabata scoffed. "Pretty weird… you sure he isn't a vampire?"
"No, I think they're right…" Django interrupted. "Vampires vanish and reappear somewhere else when they die normally… I've never heard of anything like this before…"
"Well, whatever this creature is…" Lyn says, "He's responsible for turning Lucas into a half-vampire. That's why we came here…" She looks back down at me, as if trying to ask me something, before finishing with, "To get this curse lifted."
I understand why she hesitated… she didn't want to mention my attack on Wolf. So far there's been no mention of my mental condition, so they don't know about my potentially-murderous tendencies, or that it took me biting into the canine Smasher's neck before I realized I needed help that the manor couldn't offer. That information was best kept a secret from all but Lyn and myself, I don't want to jeopardize any help we might receive.
"Well, I'm not sure how we can help." Sabata stated bluntly. "I tried to purify Django when he was bitten with vampire blood, and it didn't do squat." Oh no… is that true? "But… I'm not as good at it as Django. If he does it, you might have a better shot."
"But… Otenko…" Django said. "We need him… the Piledriver was destroyed, remember…?" Sabata groaned in reply.
"Piledriver? What is that?" Lyn asked.
"It's what we use to purify Immortals." Sabata answered. He told us earlier that "Immortal" is the term the people of this world use to classify beings such as vampires, werewolves, demons and so forth. Quite simply it means that they can't die through conventional means. "The sorcerer wrecked it in her fight with Django… and Master Otenko is the only one who can summon it again."
Suddenly, all was silent. Master Otenko… we've already told Django and Sabata of the danger he was in. If Eggman Nega gets away with turning him into energy, then… the Piledriver will be forever lost. That wouldn't only be a disaster for me, but for everyone else in this world; they need the Piledriver to truly destroy Immortals judging from what I've learned. Without it, San Miguel is doomed.
"How can Shadow… do this…?" I rasp.
"That inhuman monster!" Lyn shouted, enraged. "Dooming an entire world for the sole sake of keeping Lucas as a vampire!? It's beyond despicable! How many more lives must he destroy before he's satisfied!?"
Ba-dump.
A hoarse gasp escapes my throat, surprise and horror making my back arch and stay that way for a few seconds. Oh no… oh no oh no oh no… that familiar burning sensation is starting again, I can feel it even through the numbness in my body… damnit, how long has it been!? Is it 7:00 PM already!? "L-L… Lyn…!"
"Lucas!? What's wrong!?" she asks me with great concern.
I'm trying to tell Lyn to get away from me, but my throat has all of the sudden become so raspy that my plea comes out as coughs and gags. My body is twitching and writhing completely on its own, I haven't the strength to move myself. But the pain… it's still as intense as ever, it's horrible… ack, my throat…! So… dry…! M… my back! Something bursts out of my back – I can only assume it's my wings – and catapults me off of Lyn. I'm already too disoriented and anguished to even regard the pain from the resulting pratfall. I can hear everyone yelling things, but I'm too preoccupied with my own pain to discern what they're saying. It's out of luck more than will that my body wound up in fetal position, so that my screams wouldn't be so loud to the others. But I'm sure they still heard them…
Then, like before, the pain suddenly vanishes as quickly as it appeared. I'm left as a crumpled heap on the floor, panting heavily with sweat dripping from my face. This position is uncomfortable, but I still can't move… my body is still numb. And my throat… it burns the worst it has so far. I'm so thirsty…! Damnit… the supplies were taken away… I don't have Lita's tomato juice to fall back on. I need… blood…
I hear footsteps. My head, being the only thing I can move without incident, turns to see Lyn slowly walking towards me. "STAY BACK!" I shout at her, ignoring my windpipe's aching protest. She stops. "S-stay away from me…! I… I need blood…!"
That's all I can get out before my throat ultimately subsides to the pain. I can't speak… I can hardly even cough now… I think I'm suffocating… "Not good." Sabata says. "Lucas has been too long without real blood. If he doesn't drink soon, he'll die."
Wh… what!? If I don't drink blood… I'll… die? B-but… no! I can't drink now! The only sources of blood are the twins and… Lyn! I can't drink from them! They could be seriously hurt! I don't even know what became of Wolf after my fangs tore into his neck! Ugh… my… my stomach… no, my whole body… burning up inside…! A groan escapes my frayed throat, and I shut my eyes tightly… it hurts!
"Lucas…" Lyn's voice is very close, right by my ear. I can feel her lifting my body up, her hand on the back of my head… my eyes shoot open when I smell the scent of her flesh. I'm staring right at her exposed arm. "You need the blood. Please… take mine."
My eyes shift to Lyn's face which has moisture forming at the eyelids. I look at her as if she were mad. "NO!" I cry out, hurting my throat even more in the process. Damnit… why is this happening to me!? I don't want to hurt Lyn! I can't… I won't! I can't hurt her just to help myself! And this is blood we're dealing with! The mere sight of it has driven me into a murderous rage before, what if I lose my mind again!? Around them!? Around her!?
"Lucas, you have to!" Lyn urges me. "I don't care what you have to do… just… try not to get carried away…"
B-but… ahh, Lyn! She's fully aware that I could go crazy from this, and she doesn't even know what could happen to her if I bite her… I don't want her to take such a risk… ugh, but… my body… I… I need blood… every bit of rational thought left in my mind was screaming at me not to do this, but my body was crying out in protest at my refusal. I… I don't think I have a choice… all I can do is pray that… it doesn't turn out like what happened with Wolf… my gaze falls back to her arm… I can't resist the urge anymore… I must do this… the best I can do is be careful not to inflict too much pain. I'm only doing this to draw blood and nothing else…
Slowly and cautiously, I dig my fangs into her arm. I hear her grunt and seethe; damnit, I've hurt her…! I'd apologize if I could, but the blood is already beginning to flow… already hitting my tongue. My mind is attacked by memories of past bloodshed, when the drop from one of Princia's servants hit my mouth, when I drank Wolf's blood straight from his neck… when I spilt it fro—NO! I will not lose my mind now! I will not hurt Lyn!
I focus so hard on trying to maintain my fragile sanity that I lose track of time; how long was I sucking her blood!? I quickly pull my head away… that's when I realize that not only had the burning in my body and throat completely disappeared, but that my body wasn't numb anymore. Did drinking that blood… revitalize me? But my head… my vision is foggy, and I can hardly think straight. My urges for blood – to drink or simply to spill, I can't tell – are going full-blast, fighting with my desire not to hurt Lyn or the brothers. I grasp my head in an attempt to focus myself…
"He didn't inject vampire blood into you…" I regain my senses just in time to notice that Sabata has rushed to our side, inspecting the wound on Lyn's arm. "You'll live, but damn, you're crazy! You could've died if Lucas didn't pull away!" he scolded her, ripping off a piece of the cloth around his waist and wrapping it around the bite mark on her arm as a bandage.
No… I… I've hurt her… "I… I… I'm so sorry!" I wail, burying my head into her chest.
"Lucas… are you okay?" Lyn sounds weak, but still more concerned about me than herself…
God, what have I done!? I nearly killed my best friend… and for what!? For a little blood, just to save my own skin!? Why… why did this have to happen!? I didn't want to hurt her! Damn Shadow, damn Eggman Nega for making me hurt her! "AAAAAAAAGH!" I cry out in rage and agony, feeling my mind rip in two. I can no longer able to contain the urge to destroy something… I can only prevent myself from hurting Lyn and the twins while my thoughts rapidly turn to the ones responsible. Shadow, the unknown sorcerer, Eggman Nega… he's the one who locked us up. He's the one who forced me to hurt my friend! I rush for the oversized metal door and thrash my vampire claws on it, wanting to get out and take revenge on this sadistic mockery of a living being. "NEEEGAAA!"
My mind suddenly does a double-take, to find that I'm not staring at the metal door anymore… or any kind of metal for that matter. I'm looking at a very big room with a stand holding huge, lit candles in the center. What the... what happened to the door? I look around, eventually downward… there it is, laying flat on the ground… with a bunch of very sizeable dents in it…
"Uhh… I think he's fine, Lyn." I hear Sabata say. "Way to channel your anger, kid."
I slowly turn around to find everyone staring at me wide-eyed, Django also with his jaw hanging open. I look at the door on the ground, and then back at them. I'm too flabbergasted to simply ask them verbally if I did that, I can only point at myself. Lyn and Django nod in unison. "Ho… holy…" Well, maybe "holy" isn't the right word, but still! I just knocked a foot-thick steel slab off of its foundation, off of its hinges and dented it in nine places with my bare hands!
"Is that… normal for a vampire?" Lyn asked, clutching the wound on her arm as she tries to stand up.
"Depends on what kind it is." Sabata tells her. "Different Immortals have different powers, and those powers get transferred to whatever they bite with their own blood… if the victim survives, that is." He looks at me. "And you were bitten by an Eternal, a creature that even Immortals fear, and lived! Enhanced speed and strength are probably the tip of the iceberg."
I look down at my claws, first the palms, then the wrists. They don't even hurt at all despite that I punched solid steel, and there's no sign of injury. And this was just the beginning? "Th… that's kinda scary…" I mutter, knowing full well that it's a huge understatement. When I lose my mind in my normal, human body, my PSI takes a huge increase in power. What if that happened in this form? Even now my mind hasn't quite recovered from drinking Lyn's blood… thinking of the destruction I could cause both excites and terrifies me.
"Lucas, look out!" Lyn shrieks, bringing me out of my thoughts. I hear heavy footsteps from behind me and spin around, and all of the sudden I'm staring down the barrel of a gun. More from instinct than willpower my right claw flies up to point that cannon somewhere else, and not second later it fires a green laser blast that impacts on the ceiling. I can see what I'm fighting now; one of Eggman Nega's robot guards. Remembering what my fist did to the door, I plant it into the optics of the robot. Shards of glass and dislodged metal from its "face" falling to the ground, it careens backward through the air, and into another guard robot that I hadn't seen in the doorway beyond this room; a very far distance, mind you. It was a good thing Lyn warned me!
"Man, he packs a wallop." Sabata commented, running over to his brother, taking his arm over his shoulder and lifting him up. "Think you can keep doing that until we get our weapons back?"
…It was only then that I fully grasped that we were no longer trapped in this room. I feel stupid for not realizing it before… I was too wrapped up in how I knocked down a block of solid steel. Lyn, Sabata and Django were virtually unarmed right now… but a cursory glance around the next room showed that I might not need to protect them. Just to the left of the fallen steel door was a table holding my spear, the Mani Katti, and two very strangely-shaped guns. The first looked like a clunky, heavy pistol, but with some kind of lens on it that was coloured a bright yellow. The gun itself was silver. The other gun was also a pistol of the same size, but with a sleeker design and was coloured blue and red. Its lens was red, and it had some kind of attachment to the bottom of the barrel.
"I won't have to!" I call back to Sabata. "All our weapons are right here!" Clearly Eggman Nega hadn't planned on us getting out… though with solid steel plating trapping us in a room, I wouldn't have counted on it either.
For the next few moments, chaos reigned. The four of us – with the Dark Boy carrying the Solar Boy around – made our way around the cathedral, and according to the Solar Boy we were in the basement. Eggman Nega's robots were coming at us in a seemingly endless swarm, and one by one we reduced them to scrap. Django and Sabata were firing rounds made of sunlight and darkness respectively – I'm not sure why, but somehow I just knew what they were – at every enemy in sight, and Lyn's swordplay was elegant as ever despite her injured arm. She had the foresight to lend me her left arm instead of her dominant right… I still feel terrible for having to suck her blood, but fortunately she doesn't seem too disoriented from it; I guess I didn't drink too much after all.
As for myself, whether with my spear, fist or boot, I was sending robots flying. Most of them never got a chance to fire their beam cannons, and those that did missed entirely. Despite their numbers, they actually seem quite… weak compared to the four of us. Which is hardly a bad thing. It did serve as a chance for me to get accustomed to fighting as a vampire, however… I had to get used to the fact that I had claws instead of normal hands now, as well as super-speed and super-strength. More than once I flung myself into a wall by accident, which was… embarrassing. At least it made Sabata chuckle. Honestly, it was too bland a fight to go into any great detail about. A small part of my mind is wishing that these hunks of junk would lose blood instead of oil – or whatever it was that pumped through their artificial veins – but I assume it's just the vampire in me and ignore it. Little by little, my head is recovering from that horrific experience.
Eventually we fought our way up the stairs and into the cathedral's entrance hall, which was devoid of all but a couple of guard robots. I expected this big room to have more security, but surmise that the majority of the enemy forces must have rushed down the stairs to cut us off… and failed miserably. Django and Sabata dealt with the remaining two easily. "Well, we're out of the basement… where do we go now?" Lyn asked.
"The roof…" Django tells us. "Master Otenko… he's on the roof…"
The… roof…? As bizarre as it sounds, something tells me that Django is right… it's as if I can feel a hot energy from high above me. But that's as specific as I can be. It's weird… am I sensing Master Otenko? But that can't be… my PSI doesn't work in this form, and I was never told that Otenko was psychic… it's very strange, so I keep quiet about it since I don't know what it is.
Regardless, he's up there, so that's where we're going. Django gives us directions as we continue on, pointing us towards the fastest way up the floors of the cathedral. More robots were waiting for us, and they fell just as quickly as the ones that preceded them. Security was definitely thinner up here… then again I can understand why Eggman Nega wouldn't expect anyone to get this far, having so many guards on the ground and a solid-steel prison, not to mention the people of San Miguel probably don't have flight technology yet. We just kept looking for sets of stairs that lead upwards, eventually coming to one that was made of metal scaffolding instead of the oak and stone staircases we had become used to seeing in here. It was probably of Eggman Nega's creation, and a good indication of where to go. We climbed it, and were greeted with a cloud-covered, night sky.
Two robots guards tried to get potshots at us as we emerged from the stairs, but they were ducked. Django and Sabata took them down quickly. The roof of the cathedral was fairly big, reinforced with metal plating in many places… again, it had to be Eggman Nega's work. Said scientist was also here on the roof with us, standing all the way at the other end. The mere sight of this man just… makes my tainted blood boil. At his side was a person wearing robes blacker than the sky… I couldn't make anything out from here. Behind him was a huge machine… it looked like the hologram that Lyn and I saw in the mass hall, but with a big difference; on top of the machine was another of its cylinders, larger and wider, and holding something in it.
"Master Otenko!" Django cried out. So that's Otenko…? I can't see him clearly from here, but he looks kind of… small.
"That's the sorcerer that attacked us!" Sabata yelled, probably referring to the person standing beside Eggman Nega.
At last, the enemy was in sight. The four of us rush up to confront them. "Persistent pests… you're more resourceful than I'd supposed. How did you get out of the holding cell?" Eggman Nega asks. Despite that we demolished the vast majority of his robotic army and were right in front of him with nothing to protect him, he seemed… calm. I can't tell for sure since I can't use my PSI right now, but it was unnerving to seeing him so composed right now.
Before I can answer him, the sorcerer takes the words out of my mouth. "He used his physical strength. A steel slab is not much of an obstacle to a vampire. Yet another critical oversight, Doctor." Being closer now, I can see some of the sorcerer's complexion… and it makes me shiver in fear. Her skin is blue, and I can see red glowing underneath the shade of her hood. That meant one of two things: either this is a vampire, or a victim of Giygas' mind control. Again, not having access to my PSI, I can't tell for certain. But perhaps more unnerving is her voice… I swear I've heard it before, but I can't place it.
Eggman Nega looked at the sorcerer. "Are you just going to stand there chastising me, or will you do something about these intruders?" he asked. That was enough to put me on my guard, readying my spear. I can hear the others preparing their own weapons behind me.
Not even moving, not even blinking, the sorcerer replied, "I choose to do neither."
This had incited a surprised reaction not only from us, but even from Eggman Nega. "I beg your pardon!?" Suddenly he wasn't so calm anymore.
"I was sent here for two objectives, the first to capture the Solar Boy and the Solar Messenger, the second to oversee the completion your own mission." the sorcerer stated, finally looking at him in the eyes. "Your mission was to use them as bait to lure Lucas and then eliminate both of them using whatever means you saw fit. You have your reasons for leaving Otenko alive, however there is no excuse for Django to be here right now."
"There was no reason to destroy Django!" Eggman Nega argues. "Without Otenko, he can't purify--"
"There is more than one Piledriver in this world." the sorcerer interrupts, perhaps unwittingly giving me a helpful bit of information. There is more than one? A small glimmer of hope rises up in my heart. "Otenko had placed them in numerous areas during his travels with the Solar Boy. But he cannot use them. Django can. You were told all of this from the beginning. You should have known to kill him before he became a threat. Or…" The sorcerer paused. "Could it be that you simply could not bring yourself to kill him? Is there a heart capable of displaying sympathy under that cold façade?"
Clearly these two didn't get along very well… this would normally be when someone sneaks around to do something about the machine, but there was nowhere to move where we couldn't be seen, so that wasn't an option. "You dare to question my integrity!?" Eggman Nega snaps back at the sorcerer.
"Perhaps Shadow thought too highly of you…" the sorcerer says, blatantly ignoring Eggman Nega's question. "Remember the consequences of failure as you try to redeem yourself by eliminating these intruders."
Just as she finished that sentence, a shimmering, blue and purple light appeared beneath her. It formed some kind of arcane symbol, which then quickly rose up around her. The parts of her body it crossed vanished completely, until she had completely disappeared. The light followed suit shortly after. She was gone, leaving Eggman Nega all on his own.
Sabata chuckled menacingly. "This tub of lard is going to stop us? Yeah, right…" he said.
The Dark Boy had a point. There were no more guards on the roof, and the only machine here was the energy-drainer. There was nothing between us and Eggman Nega. That knowledge gave way to some of the bloodlust I had tried to ignore… my claws are shaking, eager to rip apart this heartless tub of lard for what he's done. But the mad doctor, in spite of the odds against him, grinned. "How quickly we forget, Dark Boy. You haven't destroyed all of my machines just yet..." Wait, what does he mean by that?
As if cued by my thoughts, the cathedral begins to rumble. I hear several explosions and the sounds of shattered glass and crumbling bricks, and before long we see them again. Those massive, metal cables that had caught us before, rising up from every side of the cathedral… that's right, we hadn't seen them during our escape. All the cables were arching their impossibly long lengths to make a beeline for us. They don't look like they're going to grab us this time, they seem ready to slam into us instead. "Why did I have to jinx it!?" Sabata complains as we all jump out of the way. I look back in just in time to see the cables crash through the portion of roof we'd just been standing on. They quickly retract out of the hole, and I'm expecting them to come at us again… but they don't. They just wiggle in the air, clanking and menacing.
More rumbling, this time more intense than before, along with an ominous gurgling coming from the new hole in the cathedral roof. Wood and metal go flying as something bursts out, making us all jump back. I could only look in awe and terror at what had rose out… it was massive, with a triangular-shaped forehead that had a hole in it, and what resembled a face below it. It's two glowing, giant red optics were made up of hexagons, like a fly's eyes. A large cannon is where the mouth should be…
It's quite literally a giant, robotic squid.
It seemed that Eggman Nega wasn't at all unlike his counterpart. According to Sonic, the Dr. Eggman he was more familiar with built massive war machines out of whatever inspirations he got. He couldn't count how many he had destroyed, making it sound so simple… but finally staring down one of those mechanical monstrosities myself, I think all of that adrenaline that Sonic feels has rotted his brain somewhat. A normal man would either faint or wet his pants – maybe even both – at the mere sight of this thing, and I knew from my past experience with its tentacles that it was every bit as dangerous as it looked.
Eggman Nega's laugh resonates from above, and I look up to see him piloting some kind of vehicle… it's a circular, hovering thing, coloured black with a pair of thin, red wings and a thinner red antenna sticking out of the bottom. That's all I can see from down here. Lyn, Sabata and the carried-along Django regrouped at either side of me, readying their weapons. I quickly mimic the action. "It's really quite sad, how quickly Shadow writes me off for a single misstep." he says. "He'll change his opinion of me once I crush the lot of you and deliver his little vampire to him." His vehicle sank perfectly into the little nook atop the robotic squid's top portion, producing a "click" sound and a glass shield to encompass the impromptu cockpit. "Egg Kraken, GO!"
The enormous head of the robot shook and writhed in the hole in the roof as it let out the robotic equivalent of a roar… it's eerily similar to that of the Subspace robot I fought before, Galleom I think it was called. When the roar had ceased, its mouth was pointed directly at us. I could hear a hollow, gurgling echo coming out of it… like something was coming out. Was it going to squirt ink? Normally I wouldn't think that's such a bad thing, but with a mouth that big I wasn't going to take any chances. Everyone dashes to the sides – me and Lyn to the left, Sabata and his passenger Django to the right – as not ink, but a torrent of flame blasted out of the Egg Kraken's mouth-cannon. The mouth quickly moved to target Lyn and I however, and eventually we ran out of room to run on the left side of the roof and were forced to make a high jump over the flame. I knew Lyn would do it without a problem, but I'm still getting used to my new form's heightened skills and reflexes. I jumped too high, and without my PSI to restore my balance, I landed painfully on my left knee. It's not bad, but my lack of athleticism is enough to make me curse under my breath.
Lyn shoots me a dirty look… right, she's never heard me curse before. It's starting to become a bad habit of mine. But she knows this is not a good time to scold me, and instead turns her attention back to the enemy. She slashes at the Egg Kraken's "face" with her Mani Katti, but to the surprise of both her and myself, it just barely grazes it in a slight shower of sparks. Considering that Lyn's legendary katana is meant for cleaving armor, this mechanical beast's outer plating must be really ridiculously hard. Remembering how the steel jail cell door went down with my claws, I try them out on the Egg Kraken as well… but even though I shake the machine a bit, I have no more success than Lyn; I only make a couple of very small dents. A cursory glance over to Django and Sabata shows that they aren't doing much better, their blasts of sunlight and darkness just ricocheting off of the armor and into the cloudy night sky. Regardless of the minute effects of their attacks, the Egg Kraken sees fit to stop them anyway; four of its massive, metal tentacles reach into the sky in pairs, electricity arcing through the open air to each other. This electricity is fired off at us in the form of fast-moving yellow spheres, making us all hastily retreat from where we were standing. And for good reason it seems, as the electricity was powerful enough to blast holes with melted edges in the roof. I noted with great relief that they hadn't struck any of the metal reinforcement, but made sure to watch out for that in the near future. One misstep could electrocute us.
"That was too close." Lyn muttered, visibly shaken and probably making the same revelation that I just did. This Egg Kraken was just too dangerous for us to fight for very long… we have to destroy it quickly. But how can we get through such strong armor plating? I need to think… Sonic dealt with this all the time, how did he best destroy these machines?
"The cockpit!" I shout upon remembering. "Aim for the cockpit!" I tell everyone. Sonic never did figure out why – or at least he never told me the reason – but something about how Eggman links up his machines to his hoverchair causes them to go haywire when it takes too much damage. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that because Eggman and Eggman Nega are so similar, their designs aren't much different. But that posed another problem for me; Lyn was athletic enough to probably run up the side of the Egg Kraken, and Django and Sabata could just shoot the cockpit, how would I scale that enormous height to get a good shot?
Unfortunately I don't get much time to think about it, as an Egg Kraken tentacle not charging another electrical blast come sweeping along the rooftop at Lyn and I. She jumps, but I am punished for my brief lack of concentration and can't get out of the way. I can only brace myself and dig my shoes into the roof as it connects and pushes me right to the edge… but at the last few inches I manage to stop the momentum, now with my claws dug into the tentacle. This metal must be weaker than that of the main body. Taking note that I now have a firm grip on it, I use my enhanced strength to hurl the thing right up at Eggman Nega. The robot can't compensate for the appendage's changed trajectory, and it slams right into him. I hear the mad doctor scream in surprise and horror as his precious weapon careens backwards, shaking itself and its tentacles – along with the whole cathedral – and flashing its eyes. Definite damage has been done, but apparently not enough as the Egg Kraken quickly rights itself and repeats its terrifying roar, as if angered.
Seeing that the cockpit was indeed a viable weak point, Django and Sabata go as close to it as they can – on the left side of the mouth cannon – and point their weapons up at the cockpit… but they don't fire. But when I see balls of sunlight and darkness gradually expanding outside of their gun barrels, I realize that they're charging up an attack. A daring strategy since they can't protect themselves while doing this, but it seems Lyn has that covered; she takes a big vertical leap and runs right up the side of the Egg Kraken, just like I thought she would. Within seconds she's at the cockpit, surprising Eggman Nega and driving her sword straight in through the glass. I don't hear any bloodcurdling screams of pain from the doctor, but the Egg Kraken is throwing another fit, so I assume she stabbed whatever served as the control panel. But again, it recovers, and this time launches a counterattack with two of its tentacles attempting to crush Lyn in between them. She quickly jumps out of the way, and just in time; the loud "thud" impact from the tentacles that I could feel from here informs me that if she'd stayed put, she would've been flattened like a pancake.
Fortunately, Lyn's maneuver bought the twins enough time to finish charging their weapons; the bright yellow and dark crimson energies of their guns merged into a beautiful, bright purple ball that fired straight up. It exploded in a shower of light and sparks on the bottom of the cockpit, making the Egg Kraken roar in discontent. Another pair of tentacles came swinging down towards the brothers, but Sabata and Django flash that same bright purple before disappearing, just before the appendages came crashing into the roof, and the reappearing a split second later beside them. Sabata had used this move on the way up here; he called it "Zero Shift," a low-grade teleportation technique meant for getting out of harm's way, and also for covering large distances quickly with repeated uses.
An angered growl showed that Eggman Nega was getting angry. "Stop moving around so much!" he complained, moving the Egg Kraken's tentacles into their electricity-shooting position again. But instead of aiming for us, the shots instead impacted the metal scaffolding that reinforced the roof. Within moments I could feel a tingly heat coming from the nearest one, which was right by my foot; I quickly step away. He's trying to restrict our movement by electrifying those parts of the ground… we'd have to hop over them, and since Sabata is the only one able to change direction in mid-air – by using Zero Shift – I'd say Eggman Nega has succeeded. It doesn't fill me with great joy knowing that I'm now the one in the most danger, being on the edge of the roof with the least space to move. And unfortunately, he is aware of this and makes the four available tentacles weave into a large, mobile wall and sends them at me.
Panic sets in; I could barely stop the motion of one tentacle, and that was when I was halfway across from where I'm standing now! Four would probably send me flying, but I can't possibly jump over the huge things when they're set up like that! Wait… flying…
A solution enters my head as if it were rammed into a wall of bricks; I have wings! Throughout my whole experience as a vampire, I haven't once used these large bat wings for anything… surely they're useful for more than being dead weight. It's my only chance. Hoping to combine by enhanced athleticism with the ability to – hopefully – fly, I make as big of a leap as I can muster straight up into the air, trying frantically to move my wings. Seeing as they're sticking out of my back shoulder blades, I think of the best way to move them… and that would be to use the "butterfly" technique of swimming, extending my arms as far up as possible them bringing them down. I certain it looks ridiculous to make such motions outside of the water, but it works; I can feel my wings pressing against the air. It's not much, but it's just enough to get me over the tentacles.
Through my elatedness that I got that to work, I notice I'm staring directly at Eggman Nega, who is looking back at me with a flabbergasted expression… I can reach his height level? That means I can attack! Upon landing – not on any of the scaffolding, thank God – I bound my way over to the front of the Egg Kraken. It's about to breathe fire at me… but I'm not worried. I know I can jump before it fires, but for the sake of preparation, I take as much time as I can before leaping upwards. Again I have to make that embarrassing motion to get my wings moving – I'm sure there's a better way, but I'll figure it out later – but I add a twist to it… a literal twist as I begin my jump, spinning around in the air to build up momentum for my attack. Briefly I can see the expression on Eggman Nega's face, his teeth gritted in grim anticipation. He knows this is going to hurt.
I ball my claw into a fist and slam it as hard as I can into the cockpit, so hard I can feel the reverberation in my own body. Super strength didn't stop that one from making my hand ache… but the result was better than I could've hoped for; the impact and knocked the Egg Kraken out of the roof, sending chunks of wood and metal flying and dragging its tentacles along with it as it landed behind the building with a crash. I try to shake the pain out of my hand when I land back on the roof, just barely outside of the hole.
I can hear Sabata whistling in approval. "Wow… I never thought I'd say this to a vampire, but that was awesome!" Django cheered. I can't help but blush, rubbing the back of my head… did I really do that well?
"Is it over?" I hear Lyn ask as she walks up beside me. Her question makes me alert again; just because I knocked the Egg Kraken out of its hole doesn't mean that it's finished.
"Oh, it will be over very shortly…" echoes Eggman Nega's voice. The Egg Kraken suddenly rises over the side of the cathedral roof, and keeps going… I can now see the bottom of it; it's little more than a circular pedestal that has the eight tentacles sticking out of it… but with one big addition; the huge rocket on its underside. Quickly it flies up and over the cathedral, far out of our reach and I daresay out of Django and Sabata's range. "Now I understand why Shadow wants to get a hold of you so badly, Lucas. Your power is indeed formidable, regardless of your form…" Eggman Nega says. The Egg Kraken stops ascending, taking a very high position in the sky. "That is why he must not have you. I have decided that you are far too dangerous to be left alive…" His voice is suddenly calm and collected again… I'm quickly learning that whenever he talks like that, he's going to do something bad. "So I am going to use every available ounce of energy left in my Egg Kraken to destroy you."
Before anyone can ask just how he plans to do that, the Egg Kraken moves into an angled trajectory so that its rocket is pointing directly at me. The eight tentacles go point downward at me, and then they start spinning like a turntable. Fear strikes my heart when I can see a ball of electricity forming in the air that the tentacles are circling, and it's growing… fast. The normal balls of electricity from the Egg Kraken were strong enough to punch holes into this building… I shudder to think of what this will do. I'd say a good guess is that it will destroy the whole cathedral. Django and Sabata are firing at the Egg Kraken from where they are in an attempt to stop the thing from charging, but they don't change anything. This doesn't look good… Lyn takes a step back with a grim expression on her face. She knows we can't do anything about this…
"I do hate to ruin a perfectly good machine, but I can simply build another." Eggman Nega continues. The ball of electricity has quickly grown, now so large that it doesn't fit in the space provided by the tentacles. "Farewell, Lucas!"
I see a bright flash and hear a loud bang, and I shut my eyes in terror. Lyn grips my shoulders tightly. Is this… the end…?
But in spite of the flash that blinded me, I feel no pain… utterly confused, I open one eye to look up at the Egg Kraken… to see that its ball of electricity is dissipating. Much to my surprise, there is now a very large hole, as if something dug right through it. "Wh… what!?" I hear Eggman Nega cry out in shock, just before the Egg Kraken spontaneously explodes. "GUUUOOOOOHHH!" His resulting scream has jarred everyone out of their near-death positions, and we all looked at the smoldering, falling remains of the massive machine. What on earth just happened!? I look at a piece of the debris falling erratically… it's Eggman Nega's hoverchair, making a feeble attempt to right itself in the air as it flies past us…
And then runs into another airborne, metal object in the sky with a "clank." I… I don't believe it. This object is another massive airship, painted a dull-red with four bat-modeled wings that are each as wide as the ship is long. There is an enormous silver mask at its bow with a plain visor, the telltale sign of who it belongs to. It's… it's Meta Knight's battleship…
The Halberd.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I guess we came just in time?" rings out a deep, male voice.
"Snake!" I shout back happily, recognizing his voice immediately.
"Who?" Django and Sabata both ask at once… while they gawk at the massive, airborne battle cruiser.
"He's a… friend of ours." Lyn informs the twins. This was going to take some time to explain for sure…
But that's hardly a bad thing in this case. For a minute, I thought my time was up… it looks like my luck hasn't run out just yet.
A/N: A last-minute save by everyone's favorite secret agent man. But they have only defeated an apparent underling… Shadow is more cruel than they could've imagined. R&R!