There are secrets in the universe that may never be fully explained.
Where there are mysteries, there are always three kinds of people connected to them. One is the kind of people who want to seek the mysteries out to their fullest.
The other are the people who are out to destroy any secret they believe threatens their security or positions of power.
The third type are the defenders of mysteries.
This is the tale of several such defenders.
Outcast Legends: And Outlaw Star fanfic
Reign of the Dragon
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from the original Outlaw Star TV anime. I'll make a list of those characters and concepts I do own at the end of the fic.
Chapter 10: Slow Motion Apocalypse
The fate of the universe hung in the balance, as it had before. And as before, the galactic leyline was the epicenter. As before, an emissary of evil had entered the leyline, having taken Melfina captive. As before, a group of unlikely heroes were the only hope.
But unlike before, the very life of the galactic leyline was in danger as well. And unlike before, the leyline had no way to help them fight the evil. All this ran through Suzuka's mind as she and her brother Collin 'Dawn Sword' Jeran raced down the long barren paths of the leyline, accompanied by a physical manifestation of the maiden of the leyline. Beads of sweat clung to Suzuka's forehead as she and Dawn Sword rushed as fast as they could towards the glowing mountain-like peak where the dying light of the leyline's energy was now only barely visible.
The last time Suzuka had come here, it had been for revenge. A revenge that turned out to be unfulfilled. But now, her purpose was the mutual survival of all living things. The emotional weight of the situation weighed down heavy on her thoughts, and for the first time in a long time she could feel terror crawling out from the back of her mind.
But she knew she had to go on, even if only for the primitive reason of making the fear go away. Yet each step seemed to bring a renewed sense of nightmare that she couldn't shake off.
She could see it in her brother's eyes as well. They were both scared; not scared of dying, but scared of failing. Scared to know that their actions could drastically alter the future history of all existence eternally. But they both knew they had to go on, and fight for sheer survival.
They had no other choice.
Archon's primary weapon was the lethal, supernatural blue flames that enveloped and protected his human body at will. And he was making good use of it. As Reaper dodged wave after wave of fiery death, Archon's determination to destroy simply grew stronger.
Back flipping high into the air to avoid a massive blast of flames, slashed his scythe downwards while still in mid-air, sending out a razor-thin beam of hot-white energy. Archon was forced to dodge, and as soon as he landed Reaper took full advantage of the moment by unleashing his Cosmic Fury technique. As sparkles of light, like a million tiny stars, began to emanate from his fists, he gripped his scythe tightly and dashed straight at Archon. Archon, in response, hit him dead-on with a massive pillar of fire, but the energy of Cosmic Fury deflected the assault like a bullet through the attack of a flame thrower. By the time Archon realized this, though, Reaper had his glowing white scythe raised to strike. Archon dodged at the last second, Reaper managing to score a clean hit on the villain's left leg despite. A series of flips from Archon brought the two to a moment of standstill, each glaring at each other from across the battlefield.
"You ready to give up?" Reaper challenged.
"Me, give up now? Don't be ridiculous. We've barely gotten started." Archon said, suddenly turning up his flame. "Now let's really turn up the heat!"
With a single motion, Archon sent out a blast of flames so incredibly massive it could best be described as a tidal wave. Reaper had nowhere to dodge to, and was forced to wait out the blaze within the protection of the now-fading Cosmic Fury bubble. Suddenly emerging from amidst the searing flames, a flaming punch from Archon sent Reaper tumbling backwards, now utterly defenseless as the firestorm consumed him with it's unrelenting fury.
Archon, slowly hovering higher above the ground, looked down on the situation. And smirked.
"You lacked the fire, old friend. I'm almost sad to see it end like this. Then again, no I'm not. I told you you'd never beat me."
Swords met in a flash of lightning-fast strikes as Nightshade and Carnage dueled it out with survival intensity. It wasn't hard to see that both were extremely advanced warriors, but it also wasn't hard to tell that only one would walk away from this battle alive. Using the full strength of her Blade Storm attack, Nightshade was able to become a living blur of nearly unstoppable speed. Unstoppable to everyone except Carnage, apparently, who was matching her Blade Storm with his own. Their swords deadlocked for just a minute, the two struggling with all their strength to gain the upper edge and force the other onto their back.
"I see you've been practicing." Carnage stated, grunting and straining in his effort to keep up his side of the combat.
"As have you, I see." Nightshade responded, similarly struggling to hold her ground. Then she suddenly smirked. "But unlike you, I've been working on a few new secret techniques!"
Back flipping out of the deadlock, she tossed her sword into the ground so that it jutted up handle-first. While still in mid-air, she aimed both hands at Carnage as neon green energy pulsed through her body. Carnage wasn't even fully able to register what was going on before he suddenly found himself enveloped by a massive beam of energy so strong it instantly crushed his body to the ground. As the blast faded, Nightshade landed on the ground next to her sword and quickly drew it back out of the ground and into a battle position.
"I call it Supernova Storm. You like?" Nightshade said smugly as Carnage struggled to pick himself up off the ground.
"… Yes, I can see now that you have become far more powerful. I must give you credit on your skills." Carnage stated, then his sword suddenly flashed with energy as he slashed it at her. The energy continued to grow in size every nanosecond until it at last filled Nightshade's view.
This was a last-ditch strategy she'd been expecting. Pointing her sword straight at the energy only seconds before it would hit, she shouted the two words that spelled defeat for Carnage.
"Conversion Strike!!"
As her sword suddenly took on the appearance of a harnessed black hole, all the energy from Carnage's attack began to flow straight into it. Nightshade's body was quickly surrounded by a growing white glow that was telltale of her now-increasing strength. With the conversion strike completed and her sword returned to normal appearance, she took aim and dashed forward at Carnage, once again using Blade Storm to enhance her speed and power.
With a single clean swipe, Carnage instantly knew it was over. Almost at the exact moment Nightshade skidded to a stop, he dropped to his knees and then flopped onto his face, thoroughly dead.
Harry, making full use of his speed, dashed into the air and aimed a spinning jump kick at Mirage, only to find out a nanosecond too late that his target really was a mirage. As Mirage and her holograms, indistinguishable from one another, shuffled positions like some kind of roulette, Harry and Backtrack were left to stand there, gritting their teeth and unable to figure out which was the real thing.
"What's the matter, boys?" Mirage teased, speaking simultaneously with the holograms. "Aren't you enjoying my little game, hm?"
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a wide streak of blue energy slammed the real Mirage from the back, causing the holograms to disappear instantly. The energy slammed Mirage into the ground face-first, and the recoil hit causing a painful sounding gasp.
"You two need some help?" Vapor asked, appearing on the top of a nearby cliff edge. She had her gliave ready in one hand and the other held her Striker, still smoking slightly from the blast.
"Vapor! Oh man, am I ever glad to see you." Backtrack stated, wiping the sweat off his forehead. The battle so far had been long and drawn-out, but at last it looked like there was a happy ending in sight. Vapor front-flipped off of her vantage point and landed on the ground nearby, weapons ready. Mirage, picking herself up off the ground, spat in disgust.
"… You may have saved their puny lives for the moment, Vapor," Mirage stated, putting particular hateful emphasis on Vapor's name. "But let me assure you this is far from over. And now to make my getaway!"
Suddenly, a blinding flash lit the entire area. When it faded, Mirage was gone, or so it seemed. Vapor, using the wrist controls for her visor, already had a lock on Mirage's trajectory.
"Listen; I'll go after her. The two of you, head for the entrance to the inner leyline. Once I deal with Mirage, I'll join up with you. OK?"
"Just don't go getting yourself killed out there, Vapor." Backtrack advised. "Remember, you're not completely invincible."
"You worry too much, Backtrack." She laughed playfully. "Mirage is nothing but holograms and hot air. Her parlor tricks may have saved her this time, but she can't run forever."
"Just be careful, OK?" Backtrack emphasized.
Vapor nodded understandingly, then turned and dashed out of sight down a fork in the path.
Caster shells of all different types tore up the landscape as Ron and Jean tried without success to shoot down the evasive Trick. Ron cussed under his breath as Trick teleported, in the blink of an eye, out of the way of yet another plasma-yield shell, evading every single attack with such complete invincibility that it was seriously staring to get on Jean and Ron's nerves.
"Shoot all you want; you'll never catch me!" Trick taunted as he teleported behind Jean and smashed him with a two-fisted punch to the face. As soon as Jean was on the ground, however, Ron had a shell loaded and ready. The blast came and, for once, Trick didn't dodge. He did, however, somehow 'catch' the shot in an energy field he zapped into existence between his hands. Ron gasped in surprise as the clown-like Trick smirked at him evilly.
"I believe this belongs to you, correct? Here, you can have it back!" The freak-clown laughed as he hurtled the ball of energy, including the Caster shell, straight at Ron.
The blast tore a large hole straight through his chest, sending blood splattering as internal organs were literally melted by the energy. Trick, watching the dying expression on Ron's face as he stood there and then collapsed to the ground, could only let out another volley of impish laughs.
Suddenly, Trick realized his fatal mistake as he felt Jean's hand clamp around his leg and pull it out from under him. The freakish warrior hit the ground, then was vaporized as Jean shot him point-blank with a trans-phasic bullet, never even giving the hellish joker the chance to realize what had happened. Jean, sweating profusely, quickly turned to Ron, who now lay on the ground sprawled out in pain. Hesitating for just a second, Jean rushed over and squatted at Ron's side as the outlaw tried desperately just to breathe, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
"… I'm not gonna lie to you, McDougal. I don't think you're gonna pull through this one." Jean stated morbidly, examining the large gaping hole with his eyes.
Jean could visibly tell that Ron was fighting hard just to get the strength to reply. For long moments, he was unable to do anything. Then, with the last of his strength, he mouthed:
'Harry'
With that, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and the Caster fell from his hand.
Jean stood there for several long moments, thinking, considering. Before him lay the shattered body of what he had always thought was his greatest enemy, the man he assumed to have killed his father. Seeing him now, though, sent all thoughts of hatred straight out of his mind. Had he ever really wanted this? All those times he had sworn he would avenge his father; would this be what it would have been like if he had?
Standing to his feet, Jean looked down at the lifeless form, and promised himself to fulfill Ron McDougal's dying wish.
Taking Ron's Caster shells with him but otherwise leaving the body undisturbed, Jean Starwind walked slowly away, in search of Harry McDougal, leaving Ron's body and the only remains of Trick, his clothes, where they were.
'I guess that old saying has a point.' Jean thought to himself. ' "Let the dead bury the dead". Sorry, Ron, but I've got to get to the inner leyline and stop DragonMage.'
Siren seemed to be thoroughly enjoying beating the snot out of Firestorm. As punch after merciless punch found it's mark, Firestorm grunted in pain, her body pinned between Siren's attacks and the wall of the leyline path. Siren, on the other hand, seemed to be thrilled that she had Firestorm right where she wanted her, and continued to beat her senseless.
"This one's for the battle on Unich 5!"
Another punch found it's mark.
"This one's for our orbital base in sector 12!"
That blow knocked the wind straight out of Firestorm, but Siren wasn't done yet.
"And this one's just because I hate your guts!"
A blow to the face sent Firestorm to the ground, and it was followed by a swift kick to the stomach that sent Firestorm reeling in pain.
Suddenly, a figure materialized nearby. Siren turned to see her twin sister, Mirage, land gently on the ground several feet away. Siren quickly took notice that Mirage's face appeared to have been bruised somehow.
"What is it, Mirage? Can't you see I'm busy here?"
"Backtrack and that brat Harry have reinforcements. They're headed towards the leyline's core now, along with Vapor."
"Then I suppose I'd better finish you off." Siren stated, glaring down at Firestorm. A sphere of black energy began to grow in her hand. "It's time to say goodbye, Firestorm. I'm going to miss always defeating you, but then again by now it's gotten kinda dull anyway."
"FREEZE SCUM!"
Both sisters turned towards the voice just in time to suddenly have their entire bodies locked into a huge glacier of ice. Vapor, abandoning her hiding place behind a nearby crystal, rushed up to her fallen twin sister and quickly helped Firestorm to her feet.
"Are you OK?" Vapor asked as Firestorm caught her second wind.
"Yeah," She managed to say in-between forceful breaths. "Just a little beat up."
"C'mon, let's get outta here before they break free." Vapor said, and the two rushed as fast as they could away from the scene of battle. Once they were safely out of sight of Mirage and Siren, Vapor added "It's a good thing they didn't expect I'd pull the same trick twice, huh?"
"You mean you used a sneak attack on Mirage, too?" Firestorm asked, now able to speak much easier.
"Yeah, but it's a story that can wait for later. I'm just glad you're OK."
"That makes two of us, sis."