A/N: Thanks to ChasexJinjaForever, TacticianLyra, Kathywood67, Darpsonic6, miss mysteri, Glowblade998, and monsuno power for the reviews! Apologies that THIS chapter was prolonged, as for some reason it was hard to write. MAybe it's just because of the layout. Oh well. Expect another update this week for your patience.
Also a little surprise at the end. Let's just say official introductions will be made within the next two chapters, so as to not give too much away.
Enjoy!
It was hard to move while hefting two people twice your size. Well, Kilo was still somewhat awake, thought he was hardly in the state to walk (although his bleeding had stopped long ago, always a good sign). And with the woman out cold, X-Ray was left to get the two upstairs on his own. He looked up from the bottom with a sigh, now standing at the intersection that he and Chase were at just a few minutes ago.
"Geez. Sometimes I wish I was like Bravo," he huffed, deciding to take a break and collapse towards the wall. He dropped the other two so that they were leaning against the wall while he sat on the floor in front of them.
"Don't... Worry," Kilo breathed out, clutching onto his chest wound, "We're almost there..."
"Save your strength! You've already lost a lot of blood," X-Ray snapped a bit. He knew that Kilo was probably feeling guilty for whatever happened to Suno's white haired friend (he was an honest guy like that), but even he should know that there was nothing the two of them could do. It was all up to Chase now.
Their job was to find the bomb.
X-Ray rose from his seat and walked towards the stairs. He tapped at the screen on his wrist, and quickly found himself confused. For some reason, there was all kinds of energy being picked up right now. He couldn't even pinpoint where it was coming from.
"Ugh! Stupid thing's busted," he grumbled, shaking his wrist a bit before tapping at the panel. Same readings. He let out a sigh looking around. There had to be a way of finding out where the bomb was, but how?
There was a sound of something falling, and the teen jumped. He turned around, looking in the shadows. A mouse scuttled across the ground. X-Ray let out a sigh of relief.
"Just a mouse..." he said. He took a step up the stairs when a flash flooded his vision. The teen stumbled as the flashes got faster, until finally they focused into a clear image.
A hallway past the staircase. Running. Running through the darkened halls. Torches along the walls that flickered brightly. Empty besides the tiled floors that trailed ahead.
Left. Right. Right. Left. Straight. Right. Darkness. A machine inside.
Silver latch. The flashing button. Red. Blue. Red. Green. A red ticking timer next the insignia of Eklipse. Wired below of different colors-
X-Ray tripped, falling back on his behind as his breath caught in his throat. He blinked dumbly, trying to figure out what he had just seen. He shook his head, unable to make any sense of it.
"This better not be that weird monsuno sight stuff," he grumbled. Tango had been talking about it ever since coming back form Mechanopolis, and he had some insight in what it was based on the scrolls that he had read. He hardly cared to find out about it, but considering all the crazy mystic stuff that had been going on, maybe now was the time to go with it.
A mouse squeaked against his foot, and he let out a yelp.
"Or maybe I'm just imagining it," he sighed, shaking his head. He turned back to the other two, promptly crawling over to check on Kilo who was out cold again. The teen was getting feverish, and there was a good chance his wounds were getting infected. X-Ray looked to the short haired woman, still seeing no sign of her waking soon. She let out a small moan when he nudged her.
"... Jack..." she murmured.
X-Ray let out a sigh, looking down at his communicator to see no messages from Alpha. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't navigate his way through the halls without getting lost, and he wasn't about to go running blindly into danger (that was what team Core Tech was for).
There was a hum, and he looked down to his belt to see Blockade's core vibrating. He took it into his palm. It was strange. It was almost like he could feel what it was feeling. Almost like it wanted him to follow his instincts of what he had seen.
He cautiously looked over towards the hallway past the staircase that he had seen in his vision. Casting one last glance down at his messed up map, he pocketed his core, went over to the other two, and hauled them back onto his shoulders.
"I guess we have nothing to lose," he panted, then started following the directions that he received in his vision. He didn't stop until he was in front of a pair of wooden doors. He jerked at the handles, doors not budging.
He stepped back with a frown. Was this the right way? These doors shouldn't have been here...
There was an audible 'click!' from the door. X-Ray blinked, and tried the doorknob again. This time it opened, revealing a darkened room. He grimaced. Why was everything here so creepy!
He nudged the door open even more. The room was still darkened, with green canisters of energy on the floor. X-Ray jumped when he heard a groan, but quickly realized it was just Kilo.
"... Where..." he breathed out. X-Ray ignored him and glanced around, unable to see anything else.
"Hey. You think you can get the light in my belt?"
Kilo let out a sigh, and X-Ray could feel his hand shifting around his belt. His cheeks got warm as the other's hand fumbled around. Finally, he managed to get the flashlight clipped off and flicked it on.
They could see a large metal ball in the center of the room, metal pieces sticking into the ground for stability. There was a digital timer on the large cylindrical piece in the middle, and both of their eyes widened at seeing how little time they had left.
X-Ray set the other two down again before hurrying over to the main panel, Kilo still pointing the light towards it for him. All the buttons and knobs were flashing and buzzing, making it hard to figure out what any of them could do. X-Ray hesitated. There was a good chance that any one of the buttons could help disarm the bomb, but at the same time none of it was clear, not even the keyboard. Obviously this was meant to be understood by the original owner.
He let out a frustrated noise, fluffing his hair with his hands. He was supposed to be the smart one of Strike Squad. But there was no way he was going to half-hazardly push all the buttons. That was something that Bren would do.
X-Ray paused a moment. Should he start pushing buttons? Things tended to work out for Chase's group, so why couldn't they do the same? He looked down at the intimidating keyboard again, confidence suddenly lost.
"Yeah I'm not doing that," he muttered to himself. Just as he turned to the other two, he saw some of the buttons flashing in a familiar pattern. Or rather, he remembered pressing a few of them in the earlier vision.
He folded his arms together with a huff. On one hand, he managed to get down here thanks to those visions. On the other hand, this was way too easy.
He looked up at the ceiling in thought. They didn't have the luxury of waiting for an answer, especially with the others out fighting.
"Here goes nothing," X-Ray breathed, hovering his hands over the keyboard.
Suddenly, his legs were yanked from below and he fell to the ground. Before he could react, the teen was pulled towards the shadows of the room and away from the machine with a yelp by a black cord. As soon as he stopped, laughter erupted into the room. A tall man with black hair sticking up stepped out, the cord wound in his hand.
"Oh don't think that Klipse would leave this unguarded for the mouseys to meddle with!" the man said with glee, "And what a surprise! Mouseys other then Suno and his friends! Lucky me!"
X-Ray quickly scrambled out of the bonds around his legs and rolled backwards. He jumped back up and grabbed a core. Surprisingly, the crazy man - who he recognized from a report of Eklipse mercenaries as Dom Pyro - didn't have a core.
"Go ahead little mousey!" he challenged, "I don't even need my pretty pretty to take on such a timid thing like you!"
X-Ray hesitated for a second, then shook his head. He wasn't about to let this guy get to him. Just as he pulled his arms back to spin out, the vision from before flashed before his eyes.
He let out a gasp, putting one hand to his head as his grip on Blockade's core loosened. Dom Pyro let out a laugh.
"Oh what's wrong? Too much for the mousey?" he cackled, "Don't worry! We have plenty or time to play before my pretty pretty chew you to bits!"
He started to spin the cord in his hands a few times before throwing it at the teen again. X-Ray saw just in time to dive out of the way and behind one of the columns in the room near the other two. The crazed man let out a chuckle that started to rise.
"C'mon out! I'll go ahead and give you the chance to do it yourself," he said, "But then again, I can't wait to drag you out!"
As much as X-Ray wanted to attack, he knew he couldn't. He was only a few feet away from the bomb that had a dozen gallons of monsuno energy probably pumping inside. And setting off a core this close would no doubt blow them all to bits. That thought made X-Ray shake.
'I'm not afraid! I'm not afraid!' he thought to himself. It would be hard to battle in the room with the monsuno essence so close, but what choice did he have? That crazy man wasn't going to let them disarm it otherwise!
As his grip tightened on the core, someone's hand moved on top. He flinched, looking to see that it was Kilo.
"It's not going to work," he whispered, "Monsuno cores... They don't work down here for some reason."
X-Ray's face fell, "What?!"
"C'mon out little mousey! Don't keep me waiting!"
X-Ray glanced back quickly, then turned to Kilo. What were they supposed to do now? If they couldn't rely on monsuno there was no way they could fight off that guy. Sure the smaller teen could put up a fight, but that guy had at least three more feet on him, and time by the look of the clock ticking away on the bomb. He needed to get that guy away somehow-
Another hand moved onto his shoulder, and he had to stifle his cry of surprise. He turned to see the woman finally awake, her eyes fluttering open. She glanced around as if she had just woken from a long sleep, eyes landing on the two.
"Who are-"
"There you are!"
They all turned to see Dom Pyro standing in front of them a few feet away. His smirk was growing by the second. X-Ray grabbed a core. It didn't matter if they didn't work down here, or if the bomb was nearby. He had to do something to stop him!
X-Ray stood in front of the two, feeling his legs trembling. The crazy man laughed, taking a few disks from his belt.
"I suppose we can save the fun for later. After all, it would be a shame to get caught up in the fireworks show!" he said with a toothy grin, "See you later little mousey!"
There was a rumble, and a few rocks fell from the ceiling. Dom Pyro stopped, looking up for a second as a few fell on him. He shook his head, now eyeing X-Ray. As soon as he drew his arm back to throw, the ceiling above him gave away. He looked up briefly to see the rocks tumble down. They all stared wide eyed, unsure of what to think.
The woman let out a gasp as some of the dust cleared away. Dom Pyro had managed to jump out of the way, but someone else was standing there.
"Pozzo!" Bekka exclaimed. The two teens could see a large man standing there, a red monsuno behind him. They stayed on alert, even as Dom Pyro's expression turned sour.
"Oh great. More annoying mouseys," he muttered, "And I can't use my pretty pretty..."
The monsuno charged towards the assassin, who let out a yelp. He did a cartwheel as the monsuno whirled by.
"Bekka, are you okay?" the large man said, running up to her, "When we didn't hear anything from you, Jack assumed the worst."
She gave the other a nod, her expression grave. But there was something in her eyes that was more relaxed now that this other man appeared (although X-Ray was a bit intimidated by his size, and the hammer he was toteting).
He felt a tap on his shoulder, and saw Kilo giving him a look.
"Now's our chance. We gotta disarm the bomb!"
X-Ray nodded, running back over to the piece of metal. He could see that the timer was now at fifteen minutes. Enough time to figure out how to hack it, but that wasn't something they could depend on. Not with everyone else fighting outside.
"Stingapede, Fear Flash!" Pozzo ordered. Kilo let out a gasp, then stumbled up to his feet.
"No! Wait!"
The monsuno ceased its actions immediately despite it's controller's orders. Pozzo and Bekka turned to the teen with confused looks. Kilo huffed as he stood, trying to keep his balance without getting woozy.
"You can't fight in here. Not with the bomb so close."
Dom Pyro let out a laugh, "Oh yes that's right! Wouldn't want to blow us all sky high right?"
He jumped backwards, now under the hole that Pozzo had appeared in just a minute ago. He pulled something from his belt, aiming up towards the sky. He pushed a button, a hook shooting up.
"But now that there's only a little time left, I think it's time I take my leave. See you later, little mouseys!" Dom Pyro cackled, dragging himself out through the hole with a push of a button. X-Ray didn't bother to watch his theatrics, focusing on the buttons. As he cautiously pressed them in the right order from his vision, he could feel the rest of their eyes come back to him. Now the pressure was on.
He ignored them, until he came to the last button. The clock ticked away diligently. He held his breath a little as he pressed down. Nothing happened. And at first X-Ray thought he had succeeded.
But then a piece of metal popped open, and the timer sped up, now doubling its speed.
"Uh oh!" he said, quickly opening it up more to see an array of wires poking out.
"What? What's wrong?" Kilo asked.
"That wasn't the override," X-Ray said, starting to move the wires around to get a closer look, "I think the override's in here, but that also set off the timer."
"What does that mean?" Bekka asked.
"It means I only have seven minutes to figure out which wire cuts the power before it goes off in an inferno!" X-Ray panicked, his hands starting to shake. There was no indicators that showed where the power started or where the monsuno energy input was or where the ignition was- he had no clue where to start!
When he was being trained for this type of work in S.T.O.R.M. with Charlemagne, she had always emphasized the importance of working under pressure. A single second can be the difference. Which was why he had to be the one to do the research before any of their missions.
Of course this was different. He didn't have time to look up the way that wild core bombs worked- and he could only tell that much about it by the five cores embedded into the back panel of the inside. Was it even possible? There was no way he could do this! It-
A hand landed on his shoulder that made him yelp. He saw Kilo giving him a grin (though he seemed pained to give it).
"Don't worry," he huffed, obviously fatigued, "You got this. I know it."
X-Ray gulped, and nodded. He couldn't doubt himself. Not now. He wouldn't fall to the pressure. His hands went for the wires, sorting through them. He could see the where they lead, making note of every input and output so as not to disturb the timer. Slowly, he pulled a pair of clippers from his belt.
Sweat was building on his face, but he didn't wipe it away. He was slowly coming down to the last few wires, knowing that he was coming down to the moment of truth where cutting one single line would be the deciding factor of whether they succeeded or failed. The clock continued to tick on until there was only a few left.
"X-Ray!"
"I know! I know! Don't rush me!" he snapped. The other three were peeking over his shoulder, practically breathing on him.
Two more wires. There were just two other wires. X-Ray tried to clear his mind, if only to get a hint. His nerves were getting the better of him, and relying on his training only made things worse. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed a vision. And he needed it now!
...
...
...
Instinct.
The clippers in his hands were shaking, he clenched his eyes shut. He felt both wires in his hand, letting one slip away as he took a firmer grip on the other.
"A minute left!"
He took a breath. It was now or never!
There was a 'snip!', and they all held their breath.
X-Ray kept his eyes shut, feeling sweat drip down his brow. As nothing happened, he peeked through. The red numbers of the timer were frozen, blinking every few seconds. And they were all still alive.
They all sighed in relief.
"Thank god," X-Ray sighed, looking as the levels of the energy stared to become stable, "As long as no more energy feeds into this thing it'll be fine."
Kilo sighed, leaning back on his hands, "Good. Can we go now? I'm starting to feel woozy again."
X-Ray nodded, feeling exhausted now that his panic was slowly draining away. When he stood, a flash of blue on the machine caught his eye. On closer inspection he saw that it was Team Core Tech's monsuno.
"I guess that tall weirdo left these behind," he said, taking them. It was then that he noticed the other two still with them. The woman was looking around, seeming to be extremely lost now that the commotion was over. She let out a small gasp.
"Chase Suno!" she said, standing up, "He's in trouble! Those people are planning on-"
She swayed, nearly falling over if it weren't for the large man nearby. She tried to shake him away, now looking to the other two.
"Where is Chase Suno? Is he here?" she asked. X-Ray and Kilo exchanged looks, unsure of what to say.
HLP
It had taken them a few minutes, but the three of them had finally gotten down to the main entrance of the temple. Alpha let out a sigh of relief in seeing the large wooden doors. He was anxious to get back to his teammates, especially after the call with Bravo cut out. All he could get from it was that something had happened to Trey and Tango. At least that meant that reinforcements had arrived.
After their encounter with that grey haired guy, Alpha felt more than a little drained. He was still leaning on Jinja and Bren even after they had taken a long route of getting to the main entrance. But he couldn't worry about that right now. He needed to get it together enough to help in the battle.
His communicator went off. Both Jinja and Bren jumped a bit at the noise. Alpha let out a sigh, picking it up again.
"Alpha here."
"It's X-Ray! We managed to disarm the bomb that was using all the monsuno essence! We also found Jinja and Dax's cores."
Alpha nodded, letting out a small 'yeah.'
"What should we do now?" X-Ray asked, "I've got Kilo and these-uh. Civilians with me. Kilo's still hurt. Should we regroup with you?"
The red-haired teen thought for a moment. It would be worth it to wait for them since then they could get Jinja's monsuno back, but they couldn't just sit around with Bravo and the other's still outside battling. The least they could do is go help within that time.
"Regroup with us outside," Alpha said, "S.T.O.R.M. showed up so there should be a medical team out there for Kilo. Once you get outside try and help whoever you can."
X-Ray gave a 'roger' and there was a click. Alpha lowered his arm, already feeling drained. It only took him a second to realize a small detail that made him curse.
"What? What's wrong?" Jinja asked.
"I forgot to ask him where Chase was," he replied, "He didn't say anything, so I think we can assume that Chase ran off on his own."
"That's a safe assumption," Bren shrugged. Jinja put a hand to her chin in thought.
"Should we go try to find him then? I know he's probably trying to run after Klipse or the Hand of Destiny, so maybe we should give him back up-"
The temple shook again, the three of them nearly falling over. There was a roar outside, followed by a scream. Both Bren and Alpha let out gasps.
"Tango!"
The two both ran for the door. Alpha stumbled the second he took one step forward, Jinja catching him before he could fall. Bren didn't bother to wait for them, running out the doors as snow whipped into the entrance. Alpha hurried as fast as he could with Jinja, gripping onto Tripwire's core in anticipation.
The outside courtyard was barely recognizable, half of the walls still standing. Flames from metal wreckage sprouted out of the ground like blossoms of red and orange, making the battlefield of monsuno and S.T.O.R.M. visible even in the blizzard. The few soldiers still standing were either attending to the fallen or trying to face off against the purple monsuno that were now cornering them all- far too many for them to take on alone. Alpha searched all around for a sign of Bravo or Tango.
"Bren!" Jinja shouted, dragging Alpha with her as she ran towards the other teen. He was standing there at the bottom of the steps, staring out towards the sky. As the other two approached, they could see flashes of green and white in the fog.
"Look out!" Jinja shouted, letting go of Alpha and throwing herself onto Bren as a purple blast of energy barely missed them. Alpha stumbled for a brief second, balance thrown off. Everything spun too fast, and he quickly fell to his knees.
'Breathe. Breathe,' he thought, trying to steady himself. He glanced up again, and let out a gasp. He could see Bravo crouched next to someone, and immediately Alpha was back on his feet. He pushed the ache in his body away in favor of getting to his teammate.
"Bravo!" he shouted. The blonde saw him, taking a defensive stance before recognizing his leader. He let out a sigh of relief, but had a worried look in his eyes.
"Status," Alpha huffed. Bravo let out a sneeze.
"We have... Many injured. It's hard to say if there are any casualties," he said in a dissociated voice, "Some reinforcements showed up, but they were taken down. I can't tell how much we have left..."
He trailed off, then turned to the fallen figure. Alpha recognized it as the Commandant.
"And Jon- Commandant Marshall Ace is injured. He's been going through some sort of weird transformation. I can't say for sure what's happening," the tall blonde, looked further into the distance towards a group of soldiers, "And Commander Trey..."
Alpha saw the expression on the teen's face. A hollow feeling in his stomach rose up at the grave voice that the other spoke in, "Don't tell me-"
"I lost sight of him a while ago. But I know there's some soldiers looking after him," Bravo said emotionlessly, shivering as a gust rose up, "But I don't think-"
"There's... One more team."
The two jumped, and turned to see Jon slowly trying to sit up. Jinja and Bren had stumbled over, both shaking hard at the cold. The commandant had a pained expression as he gripped his chest, and coughed into his hand. Alpha winced at seeing the dark splotches that stained his palm.
"I ordered the medical team to stay back just in case. They... Should be heading here. Along with Trey's reinforcements-"
"Hold on! You should rest," Jinja said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Jon batted it away, slowly getting to his feet.
"I can't afford to rest... Not with S.T.O.R.M. in shambles right now..."
The commandant was resolute on fighting, but he wasn't in the right state at all to continued. Especially since those other monsuno didn't look like they were about to stop.
"No offense, commandant. But we can take them on!" Alpha said.
"I'm not so sure about that one," Bravo muttered, glancing around the area. Admittedly, there looked like way too many for them to try and fight, considering how Jinja didn't even have hers at the moment. And going back inside wasn't an option right now. Not with half the troops lost somewhere in the snow. Alpha looked to Tripwire's core, feeling it's energy inside giving a jolt. His eyes looked to the ground to see a strike launch laying uselessly, a core inside and one just a few feet away.
His monsuno gave another nudge. He nodded, knowing what it was trying to say.
"I'll just have to take control of all of the ones we have!" Alpha said, taking the strike launcher into his hands. He took the core from the ground, see that it Blackbullet's. The light was starting to fade, but grew as he held it.
"Hold on Alpha!" Jinja said, placing a hand on the launcher, "You can barely stand as is. Do you really think it's a smart idea to try and command any monsuno?"
Alpha frowned, looking up towards the battlefield, hearing the panicked shouts of the soldiers. He clenched his fists tightly, "It doesn't matter whether it's smart or not. I have to! If we can't stop them here, then they'll reek havoc on the world!"
"But will you be able to keep them all under control?" Bravo asked, taking his eyes away from Tango's battle, "No offense, but no one's ever tried to command more then two at once. And we'd need a lot to even try and take on those purple ones!"
Alpha hesitated. Altogether, he had five: Tripwire, Skysite, Blackbullet, and Riccoshot-that was in the Strike Launcher. Keeping track of so many would be difficult. But he needed to do it! He needed to avenge his commander! He needed to be strong!
He needed to be like him.
"Then I'll just have to be the first!" Alpha said, taking a hold of the cores. Bravo gave him a look, but nodded. Jon saw their expressions, and let out a sigh. He held out a core to Bravo, who saw that it was Bayonet. Jinja looked at them before hearing someone clear their throat. She turned to see Bren there, holding onto two of his own cores. She recognized them as Shellshot and Longfang.
"Here," he said, placing them in her hands and turning back towards the light flashes in the clouds, "Use those until you get your own."
She raised a brow, "What're you-"
"Neo-Quickforce, Launch!"
The monsuno appeared, letting out a short cry. Bren didn't waste anytime running and jumping on.
"C'mon buddy! Let's go find Tango!" He said, getting a nod from the beast. It took off in a flash, quickly disappearing into the fog, three purple monsuno flying after. Alpha watched with the other two, trusting that the brown-haired teen would find their other teammate.
"Let's go! Bravo! Jinja!"
The three of them ran forward. As soon as they got near the purple monsuno, something changed. They suddenly turned vicious, as if they could sense the monsuno in their cores. Sure enough, Alpha could feel the cores in his hands rattle away in anticipation.
"Deadfall! Bayonet!"
"Longfang! Shellshot!"
"Tripwire! Blackbullet! Skysite! Riccoshot!"
"LAUNCH!"
The monsuno cores bounced against each other, a funnel of blue and yellow flashing as the monsuno appeared.
"Bravo! Take the monsuno to the right. Jinja, the one's to the left!"
The two nodded, though Jinja waited a moment before running off.
"You know. Don't think this means you can order me around," she said with a smirk, dashing off. Alpha couldn't help but grin, a bit of confidence now stemming through. He shook his head, focusing on the six purple monsuno in front of him.
HLP
The three of them walked into the darkened cave, no longer lined with uniform tiles or stone and was now resembling a normal cave. Crystals started to appear on the walls, giving off a faint blue glow the further they went. The sound of the wind howling was faint, but could be felt with every chilling breeze that would go through. Exi shivered, rubbing his hands up his arms. These bottom corridors were freezing. It was cold before, but now it was getting frigid. Normally, something like this shouldn't have bothered him, but he wasn't exactly himself at the moment.
"Just ahead is the seal," Ehna said, not noticing the other's actions, "We'll only have a few minutes to prepare everything, so let's work fast!"
"What about the monsuno guarding it?" Exi asked, looking ahead. There was a faint light in the distance, but clearly it would take them a few minutes to get to. It immediately reminded him of their first mission in the desert and how much of a failure it was. The older teen looked down at him with a raised brow.
"Don't you remember anything? Triah had already taken care of the monsuno months ago! We wouldn't have been able to get this far if that were the case," he snapped. Duo watching the two for a moment, eyes narrowed. The raven-haired boy looked at her for a brief moment, letting out a shudder as he remembered her actions just a few minutes ago.
He glanced backwards, unable to see the entrance to this part of the temple. They had left the monk boy back there, seeing that there was no point in dragging him along. But it still felt wrong to leave him in that room where...
Exi shook his head, pushing the thoughts away. Since when did he start feeling sorry for anything? (especially for someone as creepy as that bookman) He shouldn't have to feel sorry for what they had done up to that point. It was necessary after all. It had always been, according to Petros.
"By the way," Duo said, "How are we going to get rid of the lynchpin? No doubt that will be a problem."
"Already figured it out. Just needed to get a hold of this," Ehna said, holding up the metal gauntlet, "Had to sneak it away from the clone. And admittedly, I couldn't help but meddle a bit."
"Meddle?"
"Let's just say Klipse is in for a nice surprise with his clone," the teen replied, then walked a bit faster, "Anyway. Once inside we'll be able to release the shadow effect, and then the monsuno will finally be ours."
Exi stared ahead again. This plan with the shadow effect was something that still baffled him. He knew that the seal would be able to make all the monsuno go wild (if only because he had seen it in the desert with the original monsuno), but being able to take control of so many would be hard. Especially without being able to use any energy-
He stopped, the familiar dizzying feeling coming back.
'No! Not here!' he thought frantically, trying to steady himself as the world started to spin and his breath caught in his throat. The unknown feelings of that monsuno Driftblade were already starting to sink in. He quickly looked over to the other two to see that they hadn't noticed. Exi took a steadying breath, knowing that he needed to force it away.
That guy- Dax - had mentioned that Driftblade was something to be feared. And for good reason! That monsuno had nothing but fear and anger distorted together into pure bloodlust for battle. Of course it wasn't like he had similar feelings in the past. But if anything, the idea of battling was more of a game to him. A game with useless humans that were lesser then any of them.
Exi took another breath, straightening himself up and catching up with the other two. Ehna immediately noticed him running up.
"Don't tell me you're having a hard time keeping up," he said. The boy just shrugged, trying hard to keep that dull ache away from his mind. The older stopped, the woman following suit. He looked down at the boy, folding his arms together.
"... What?"
"Don't 'what' me," Ehna said, leering down, "There's something... Off about you. Did you take that vial of energy that I gave you?"
Exi looked away, "O-Of course I did. Why wouldn't I? Don't be stupid."
Before any of them could say something, there were footsteps echoing far behind. They all looked, unable to see into the darkness.
"Sounds like someone just got to the bottom floor," Duo said, "We still have a few minutes before they catch up."
Ehna nodded to her, and glanced down at the metal arm piece. He had a serious expression as he held it, stroking the red back place with the Eklipse insignia on it. He shook his head.
"Then we'll have to hurry and get the last three pieces for the shadow effect," he said, then turned to the smaller. He held out a hand, "Give me one of your meteor fragment."
Exi took a step back in surprised, and quickly looked between the two, "... What?"
"Give me a meteor fragment," Ehna repeated, "We need five sources of the original monsuno energy in order to set off the seal. And according to Klipse it has to be from that monsuno infused meteor that hit millions of years ago."
He took a step towards the boy, who took another back. The older frowned, but then blinked in realization. He leaned in closer with a questioning look in his eyes.
"There is something wrong with you. I can see it in your eyes-"
"N-No there isn't!" Exi said, quickly looking away, "A-Anyway. You're the one who wants me to take one of the shards from my hand-you know what will happen if I do!"
Ehna rolled his eyes, "I don't need both. You can keep one. Just. Give me the other one before I take it."
Exi gripped his hands together, holding them close as he rapidly shook his head. The other teen frowned, then turned to the tall woman, "You. Go take it from him."
Her eyes trailed slowly towards the boy, who froze at her cold gaze. He had seen the power she had, and knew that there was no way he could take her on alone. But there was hesitance in her stance, and eventually she turned away.
"... No."
"No?"
She shrugged, "No. I don't want to. I'm sure you can handle it on your own."
Ehna growled at her, eyes narrowed. The ceiling shook, most likely the fighting still going on. No doubt they only had a little bit of time left. The teen let out a huff, taking a blade from his pocket.
"... Fine. But, this isn't over."
He threw the dagger straight at the boy. Exi stumbled back with a yelp, narrowly dodging. The older teen surged forward, fist drawn back. He swung, the smaller easily diving away.
Exi didn't bother with retaliating, retreating away. He looked around, trying to find something to use to defend himself. With how fast those visions of Driftblade came, there was no way he could rely on his monsuno powers.
His eyes landed on a large crystal sticking out of the ground. After casting a weary glance at the teen charging towards him, the raven-haired boy gripped in with both hands. He hefted it out within a split second. He threw it with all his might.
Ehna stopped, and braced himself as it hit full on. The sheer force threw him back into the wall. The boy blinked, an unsteady laugh coming out.
"Ha... Ha ha! I'm still stronger then you!" Exi boasted. The older teen growled under his breath before throwing another dagger. The boy yelped, ducking away. He moved too fast, a vision of that monsuno going through him again. Nausea immediately made him want to throw up.
"Not now!" he huffed, the familiar pain splitting between his ears. He tried to take a step forward, dizziness making the whole room swirl. Before he knew it, he was shoved to the ground hard.
He pushed whoever was on top and struggled to get back to his feet. But without the energy that he usually had, Ehna was easily much faster now.
Before the raven-haired boy could stand up properly, the older pounced onto his back, forcing him back down. Without hesitating, Ehna drew out two blades, and stabbed them straight through Exi hands and into the ground. The boy clenched his teeth in pain, eyes growing wide as he let out a strangled sound of pain.
"Oh ho ho. Looks like you aren't as strong as you thought," Ehna chuckled into his ear, the other gasping in short breaths. The blades had gone straight through the monsuno shards in his palms, making him especially weak as he tried to move. He jerked his hands up, and found nothing but searing pain traveling up through his arms.
Ehna looked to the boy's right hand, gripping his wrist and slowly dragging out the blade.
"No! No! No! Please stop!" Exi pleaded, finding the feeling to his hand fade. The older teen smirked as the blade came out of the ground and his palm. He flipped the boy's hand over, taking the glove off so that he could see where the green stone was embedded into his flesh.
"Good thing I didn't get this one too bad," he said over the boy's cries, "Would've been a shame to cut through the bigger piece right?"
Exi let out a whimper, trying to fight off the pain as his arms trembled. The knife dug back into his hand, now with the intention of carving out the meteor fragment. He let out another scream as a hand slapped across his mouth to silence him. He tried fighting against whatever force was holding him down at every cut, tear, snap - Oh God!
He continued to cry out as he saw the blade painfully dip into his flesh and come back out, until it finally made a full way around the stone. Ehna wedged it out, cutting away the last bits of flesh that were attached.
The teen admired the green stone, which was dulled down. There was a faint glow to it, like all meteor fragments infused with monsuno essence.
"... See? Was that so bad?" Ehna said, pocketing it. Exi's eyes became unfocused, barely registering the twitching and shaking that went through his right hand every so often. The woman took her hand away from his mouth, a melancholy look in her eyes. The older teen's eyes landed on his other hand, which was still punctured to the ground.
"Considering how little energy you've had, I guess it's better to take both and play it safe. It's not like you'd even be able to fight anyone by this point," he said, bringing his knife up again.
A whistle of something flying in the air pierced the silence. Ehna saw it glisten and threw his dagger, watching as the two metals clashed and fell to the ground. He let out a scoff.
"Oh great. It's you."
Exi let out a pained sound, trying to steady his breath as his vision blurred. He saw the teen on top of him looking off to the side. He followed his gaze, trying to blink through the spots dancing in his vision. Who was it? ... The monk boy? The clone?... Suno?
As the figure stepped out of the shadows, the three were all surprised to see a woman, blade pointed towards them as her blonde hair curtained one side of her face. Her cold yellow eyes fixed into a deadly, calculated stare.
"Why hello zere," she said, a grin stretching across her lips, "It's about time I caught up to you."
HLP
The cloud hopper had been especially bumpy when going up to the mountains. A blizzard hit that was unlike anything anyone had seen. The two soldiers controlling the flying machine were having a hard time keeping it airborne. And from the look of the other ships, they were having similar troubles.
"Do you think we'll be able to get there in time?" One soldier asked, "By the looks of the fog, I don't think we'll be able to get anywhere near the coordinates that Trey sent us."
"Seems that way. But what choice do we have? The last message that went through said that reinforcements were a must. And I doubt Trey would be making up something like that," the other soldier said. He glanced towards the back where the lights were dimmed. Their passengers were quiet, sitting patiently in the dark. The soldier sighed a bit.
"I don't get what the commander was thinking. Letting more kids come on this mission," he said, "I mean. I get it with the Strike Squad and all that, but that was something started by Charlemagne. And to be frank, she was demanding."
"Maybe so, but you gotta admit, she sure was something," the other half joked, "Between her anger and command, not to mention her-"
As the two continued to exchange words, the five passengers all exchanged looks. They nodded, carefully undoing their safety belts and headed for the door. One of them made quick work of the safety panel, setting off the emergency alarm as the metal fell away to reveal the snow storm.
"-What's going on?!" one of the soldiers exclaimed over the loud beeping. The other turned back with a gasp. He jumped out of his seat, taking some cautious steps as the ship made a sudden drop.
"What're you all doing? You all need to stay in the ship!" He shouted.
The one standing in the doorway glanced back, orange hair whipping in the wind and snow.
"Don't worry soldier," he said with a smile, emerald eyes gleaming, "We can handle this! It's what we were trained for!"
He turned to the exit of the ship, taking a yellow core in hand.
"Spritelight, launch!"
A/N: Review Review Review!