Another Age, Yet Again

Second Chapter

Same disclaimer applies to his chapter as well as my First Chapter, so don't say I didn't remind anyone.

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Unexpected Help

It was a cold Tuesday night. The air has a slight breeze, and the cold air could chill a person to the bone. I grabbed my long black coat from the sofa I left it on yesterday, and opened the door, feeling the cold breeze. I placed my keys and things into my pockets as I locked the door from the inside and walked out, closing the door behind me.

I walked toward the port, my head down and my hands in my pocket as I walked passed numerous people going the opposite way. I still had that little discussion from yesterday on my mind...my mission, and as I kept thinking about it, I started to become scared.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" I thought, bumping into someone as I walked, ignoring they're words of anger toward me. "I fought many opponents in this tournament...why is it that I feel like I might not come back from this mission?"

I reached the port, and looked around to make sure no one was following. Once I saw that it was clear, I walked behind the crates, toward the side of the port, and stopping at the pick up point. I met up with some of the other participants of the tournament that arrived early, awaiting the arrival of the sub to take us to the arena. As my luck would have it, I also met up with my opponent from yesterday, and he didn't look too happy.

"There you are, you bastard!" He rushed me, grabbing me by my coat collar and pushing me back, slamming me into the crates, knocking a few over, and probably attracting attention from the people on the other side.

I stared at him. "Do I know you...oh...now I remember. Your the guy I defeated yesterday." I said, mocking him a little. A grin grew on my face. "Sorry, I didn't notice you without seeing you that hunk of junk you call a AC.."

His eyes widen at my words. "What was that?!" He brought his fist up, getting ready to smack me one in the face. "I couldn't quite hear you, so could you repeat that, boy?"

I laughed a bit, looking him in the eyes. "I'm right in front of you, so either your getting old or you need a hearing aid, but I will gladly repeat it...if that's what you want to hear."

This angered him, he was probably real sore because a kid like myself took him down in the tournament. He was just about to strike me, when another person came over and grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Hey, cool down. You win and you lose. So don't be a sore loser."

He looked at me for a moment, before releasing my collar, and backing off. "Fine...I not going to waist my time with a kid like him anyway.." He growled as he walked back to his spot, crossing his arms in front of his chest and mumbling to himself.

I fixed my collar, thanking the guy that helped me out of that little situation. I felt I needed to, because after tonight, he may either be dead, or in the slammer. I turned back to the guy that almost decked me, thinking to myself...

"When I do take out the arena...he'll be the first to go..."

My thoughts of revenge were suddenly interrupted by the sound of water being splashed wildly. I walked over to the edge of the port, looking into the water to find that the sub had arrived, and everyone started to aboard. I did the same, and as I did, my fear came back to me.

Inside the sub, I listened to others talk about the upgrades they made to they're AC, thinking that they'll have an edge over others in they're matches tonight. Even though I was listening, I was also thinking, and shaking. My hands inside my coat pockets trembled as I continued to think about my upcoming mission.

"So many people here....have no idea what is going to happen tonight.." I thought to myself, not realizing that I was clutching my house keys, which raddled as my hands trembled, attracting the attention of a few people. A drop appeared on the side of my head as I calmed down, hoping that they would mind their own business.

The ride to the arena seemed to take less time that it usually did. To me, the nine hour trip seemed like 15 minutes. I was nervous, and sweating under my coat. Once we arrived, I climbed out and stood outside for a moment, not only to feel the cold air cool down my body from its perspiration, but to take a last long look at the arena. It would never look like this again...

I headed to the garage, looking around at the other AC's preparing for they're matches, and checking out the new upgrades I had heard so much about during the sub ride. Most weren't much of a improvement, but others would make a large difference in a battle. After a while, I finally reached my AC, the Thunder Omega. Walking over to it, I placed my hand on the side of the leg part, speaking softly.

"Things are going to get wild tonight...I hope you can handle it"

"I'm sure she can." I jumped at the other voice coming from behind me, and turned around, seeing the mechanic that was assigned to did the repairs on my AC. "She's all fixed up and I've received your payment. So your all set."

I looked up at my AC, thinking. I then turned to the mechanic, taking off my coat and handing it to him. "Listen, you should leave early today...I'll get my repairs done later"

He stared at me strangely, but he seemed to understand. I never really knew this guys name, but he seems like a nice guy, and anytime I would have a problem, I would never have to tell him, because he could see it in my eyes. Kind of like a father or something. I really didn't want this guy to get hurt.

"I'm not really sure what's going to happen, but I'll trust you." He said, turning around and suddenly stopping. "Oh...I almost forgot!" He turned to me again, handing me my schedule. "Your opponent is #12 of 25...he's a hard one, so watch your back."

I nodded, looking over the paper, then tearing it in half, tossing the pieces to the ground. I then climbed up the ladder to the core, and opened a small compartment that hid a button, opening up the cockpits entrance. I hopped in and closed the entrance, strapping myself in tightly and sitting back against the chairs cushion, awaiting my match.

I waited over 2 hours, when I was finally called to the arena, the crowd cheering as my opponent and I entered the large battle grounds of the arena. We stopped as the entrances of the garage area closed, trapping us inside the arena walls. The crowd watched as we set our AC's in combat mode and the protective walls around the arena finally closed, forcing the audience to watch from a very large T.V screen, which spans the entire inside part of the battle field. We awaited for the signal.

"This match will be a contest between to powerful opponents" The announcer spoke through the microphone. There was a silence for the moment, and then, without notice, he yelled "Begin!"

As soon as those words were heard, my opponent and I both activated our boosters and took flight, flying toward each other. My opponent saw me coming toward him, so he activated his L5-Moonlight (Compressed Energy Blade) and took a swing at my core. I saw this coming, and brought up my Karasawa-Mk2 (Large Energy Rifle) and fired partly at point blank range, nailing him in his core, but I could not get out of the way of his blade in time, as his blade struck my core, slashing a cut imprint into the front of it.

We both landed, our AC leg parts slamming into the ground, creating a small and quick tremor as we hit. "Damn...1200 AP points gone already?" I took a quick glance at my AP counter and back to my opponent. He had disappeared. This always happens. I would have my opponent in my sights, then I would turn away, and they would be gone in a instance.

"Crap!" I knew exactly where he was, right behind me. On instinct, I activated my extension, which where small but powerful boosters that, when activated, turned my AC around in a 360 degree circle, totally surprising my opponent.

"There you are!" I hollered. "You won't get away from me!" I strafed to the left, turning on my boosters at the same time, rocketing me in the direction I wanted, and brought up my Karasawa and fired 2 shots. My opponent then rocketed upward, my shots missing him, he then came down at me, and brought up his back units, locking on to my AC and firing 4 missiles, two from each side. At first, I decided to take the hit and counterattack, but suddenly, the missiles spilt, the each missile dividing into 2 other missiles, and now there were eight, all aimed at me.

"Whoa!" I turned on my boosters and tried to evade them the best I could, but there were too many. Two collided into the wall, while the other six slammed into the front of my AC, sending me into the wall. I could feel my AC's body slide down the wall and into a sitting position, then it hit me. "Since I'm in this position...I might as well.." I quickly opened a small cover on the side of my chairs arm rest, and flipped many switches into the ON position, and closed the cover. My computer screen beeped continually, activating my attack, The Omega Barrage.

I gripped the joystick that slid up, ready to fire. Looking through my monitor at my opponent advancing on me, I yelled out. "Omega Barrage!" I pressed the two buttons on the joystick, which suddenly activated both of my back units, my Ion Pulse Cannon and Chain Gun. Once they were in position, they then fired, unloading as much ammo as possible at my opponent, catching him by surprise.

It seemed my opponent panicked, and turned on his boosters, backing up, but my shots hit him dead on, slamming him into the wall on the opposite side of where I was. I saw my chance, as I fired a shot from my Karasawa, missing him on purpose. The shot hit the wall, exploding into a cloud of smoke, and I used it to my advantage, getting up quickly and pushing my overboost lever forward, blasting my AC straight over toward him. Activating my EL5-7880 (High Damaging Blade, short range), I brought it straight forward, in a stabbing motion, and it seems I hit. As the smoke cleared, I could see that my blade had traveled through my opponents core and into the wall behind him. I putted out my blade, and as soon as I did, the AC must have shorted out, becuase it suddenly exploded, knocking my AC back just a bit, and killing whoever was inside.

I watched the burning AC, knowing I had won. But I didn't feel very good about it. Then, my mission came back to me. This was it. It was now or never. The walls around the arena could not be destroyed by my Karasawa shots, but my blade was good enough to get the job done. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a transmission that came in from my onboard communicator.

"Espikes, this is Sans." I growled at the sound of his voice, and replied. "Go ahead."

"My units are waiting on the outside, you may commence your mission."

"Damn...I really don't want to do this...I better make this quick" I thought, as I brought up my blade, and before the announcer could announce my victory, I tore through the arena walls with my blade, making a nice clean cut down the side of the wall. As soon as the wall was breached, a alarm wailed, as a warning that something had gone wrong. Once the walls of where the audience watch rose, I turned my Karasawa toward them, hoping to give them an idea of what I was about to do and warn them to get out. It seems it worked, but it wasn't my rifle they were scared of....

"Good....now to..." I didn't get to finish my sentence, as I was shot in the back by a grenade blast, sending my AC stumbling forward. I recovered, and turned around, noticing that almost all the participants of the tournament where here, with they're weapons drawn, ready to fire.

"Don't move, traitor....you know the rules." This voice was strangely familiar, I then remembered. It was that guy, who tried to hit me before the sub came this evening.

"You broke the rule, and killed a pilot. Not only that, but is seems that your trying to destroy the arena. The officials have asked everyone in the arena to destroy you." His words angered me...and I wasn't going to listen to him any longer..

"This time, no one is...." He never finished, as he was hit by a shot from my Karasawa, taking out his head unit in one clean (and lucky) shot.

"Oops...I missed his cockpit..." I said, my voice sounding a little uneasy. "But, at least he's quiet."

The other participants weren't going to listen to anything I had to say. All 12 of them (Well, 11 now) begin firing at me with everything thing they had.

"Oh shit!" There were so many shots, and I was barely able to dodge a few of them. My AC was hit multiple times in every part, and I still kept moving, firing my own shots at them to retaliate. Even though my shots hit and knocked them back a bit, they continued to fire, as if they had an unlimited supply of ammunition. As I strafed to the right, I activated my EL5-7880 (Energy Blade) and dashed around in a circle, coming up right behind some of the AC's that had to be in a crouching position to fire at me. I swung my blade downward at one of them located in the middle, my blade slashing down from the head unit and straight down, going right through the core, taking out the AC easily.

"Damn it!" One of them yelled. "Take his ass down now!" Suddenly, every AC turned to me, and I was located in the middle of them all. I quickly swiped at one of the AC's to my left, able to take out an Arm unit before they all fired. I then turned on my boosters, backing up and dodging a large amount of the shots, and, instead of hitting the target (Me!), the shots hit they're teammates, doing the damage for me. To finish it, I fired my Karasawa shots toward them while they were in complete confusion, doing more damage.

At first, I though that I would make it out of here with no scratches at all....how wrong I was...

As I was backing up, my boosters suddenly stopped, and my Karasawa would no longer fire.

'The hell?" I took a glance at my ammunition gauge, noticing I still had about 32 shots left. "I still have shots left, so why...." A suddenly beeping sound caught my attention, and I looked over at my energy gauge, reading the flashing words.....

"Charging"

I blinked, completely forgetting all the energy I was using. I slowly looked up at my enemies, as they began firing again. I was a sitting duck, and I was helpless until my energy gauge was completely recharged.

"Damn....at least I went out swinging" I thought. "I hope where ever I'm going...they let me take my AC with me....Espikes...likes to make a good impression." Those where my last thoughts, as every grenade, energy blast, and solid round of ammunition hit my AC, hitting me hard and slamming me into the wall of the audience seating, and it didn't stop there. Once my AC hit the wall, they continued firing, not letting up for a second.

I was a goner. I had no help from anyone. The backup from Nerves Concord was busy with some of the other fighters on the outside, leaving me by myself. The blast my AC received were devastating, blasting off one of my arms and a back unit. It wasn't save in the cockpit either. Spark flew everywhere, and pairs from the inside were tossed around like nothing. I might have been hit with something, as I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, but I decided to disregard it. All my systems were shutting down, and my gauge still hadn't fully recharged. I closed my eyes, waiting for them to finish me off, when suddenly, there was a large explosion, but not coming from my AC or from my enemies AC's...but...it came from the roof.

I heard the destroyed pieces of the roof fall to the ground, and looked up, amazed that my monitors were still working, giving me a view of what was happening outside. I saw the enemy AC's up ahead, but they had ceased their fire.

"They stopped?! But why?"

I soon got my answer, as a different AC slowly dropped from the ground, landing softly using its boosters. I got a good glimpse of this AC from the back, and was surprised at what it was packing. This AC was carrying two interesting back units, a EWC-GN44-AC (Large Powerful Grenade Launcher), and ZWC-CN/500 (Lightweight Chain Gun), an exact replica of my own back unit. I also noticed that it carried a Karasawa-Mk2 like my own in its right hand, and a L5-Moonlight on its left hand unit. I could tell this AC was built for speed...

One of the enemy AC's turned to the newly arrived challenger. "Alright, that was a nice entrance, but you better get going. Mind your own business"

The AC just stood for a moment, staring them down. A young male voice then replied. "No...I think I'll stay." The AC turned to look at me, noticing that my AC was completely destroyed, and barely functioning. He then turned back to his enemies. "Besides...starting now, you guys are officially my problem." Without warning, he activated his boosters, flying straight toward them.

The enemies seem to once again unleash their barrage of ammunition, and strangely, the challenger AC was able to dodge them all, boosting to the left, right and above them. Course, this didn't keep me out of the crossfire either, as missed shots still hit my AC. Inside, I finally noticed that the beeping from my energy gauge had stopped, my gauge now fully recharged. I found that my arm unit holding my Karasawa was still operational, so I decided to give this new guy some unexpected help.

I patch a direct link to him. "Hey, I don't know who you are, but I'm able to provide cover fire!"

He seemed to snap at me in his reply. "Cover fire?! From that destroyed hunk of junk? Whatever. I don't need any help from a kid like you, so sit back and watch from a master." He seemed to prove this, dodging the shots coming toward him and boosting around a pillar, taking cover from enemy fire.

His AC was skinny enough to hide, but his reversed legs seem to stand out a little. The enemy AC's noticed this little opening and split up, moving slowly around the pillar, trying to trap him.

"I have you all right where I want you." He got into a kneeling position and waited. Once a AC was in his sights, he then boosted upward, just as missiles approached him, dodging them. He floated in the air, and it seemed he was still in a kneeling position, hovering above the ground.

"Gotcha..." He activated his EWC-GN44-AC (Large Powerful Grenade Launcher), the large cannon barrel lifting up and toward his targets. "Kiss your parts good bye!" Inside his cockpit, he gripped a handle just above his right shoulder, and pulled back as hard as he could, activating a mechanism in which outside, firing a grenade toward the two AC's he was aiming at. The grenade hit one AC dead on, scoring a shot in the core part, and on contact, exploded into a large ball of fire which spread quickly, engulfing the AC right next to it, seeming overheating this AC as it fell, smoke bellowing from the head, core and back part of the AC as it slammed into the ground.

"Yahoo!" The challenger yelled with excitement in his voice. "You ass is grass!" His victory was short lived, as he was hit in the back with three missiles, sending him back to the ground. Luckily, the AC landed on its feet.

"What the hell?" He turned to see that there were two other AC's left. "You'll pay for that.." He yelled, as he spun his AC around, firing about ten or eleven shots at them one of them. The enemy AC's split, dodging a few of the shots, but were hit by others. This wasn't enough to stop them, but as the enemy AC's recovered, both had lost sight of the challenger.

"Shit!" One screamed. "Where did he go?" They looked around frantically, trying to find their target, when suddenly, they got what they wanted.

"So long fuckers!" The challenger AC dropped from the air, and without giving them time to react, activated his L5-Moonlight (Compressed Energy Blade), and slashed downward onto one of the enemy AC's, going down from the head unit and straight down through it, slicing it in two, causing it to explode as his blade finished traveling into the AC.

"Holy Shi..." The other AC never finished his sentenced. The challenger AC swung its blade to the left, slicing right into the second enemy AC's core part, taking this AC out as well, a large amount of blood gushed out of the cores slashed opening, indicating that the fate of the pilot inside was sealed. The AC then stood, looking around, noticing that everyone around him had been defeated.

Inside my cockpit, I had witnessed it all. Everything this challenger did, from dropping in from the roof, to taking out about 8 or 9 AC's at one time, all by himself. I tried to get my AC up, but the Thunder Omega was missing a leg part, redeeming it incapable of moving at all.

The challenger then turned to me, and made its way over to my busted up AC. I was about to thank him for helping me out and all, until I looked into my monitors, seeing a barrel of a Karasawa pointing at my head unit.

"Now...tell me why I shouldn't blast your AC away like all the others?" He said, his AC's rifle still pointed toward me.

"Umm....uhhh..." I couldn't respond. I had no idea what he was going to do, and I didn't know how to answer. I probably would have blurted out a "Please don't shoot me! It was the credits!", if it wasn't for Sans sending me a communication link. I wasn't able to place it on a private link because of my console begin destroyed earlier by the shots, so it could be heard by not only me, but the challenger myself.

"Espikes, this is Sans. Everything is clear outside and the fire inside as seemed to cease. Are you alright in there?

The challenger laughed, and put down its rifle. "Heh, looks like this mission is over. See you later then..." He then turned and began to leave the same way he came in, if it wasn't for me...

"Hold on!" I yelled, slamming my fist on my arm rest, looking at his AC through the monitor. "Who the hell are you...and why'd you help me out?"

"Pfft, I didn't do this to help you, dumb ass. I came here because I felt like it. You just better be lucky that I didn't blow that piece of crap apart with you inside it." Activating his boosters, he slowly floated up into the air, toward the hole in the roof where he came.

"And for your info...my names Seer...and stay out of my way, or else Totalizer and I will tear you apart." He then lifted off into the hole in the roof and disappeared.

After a while, San and his men came in and apprehended the men that were still alive inside they're destroyed AC's and were able to pull my busted up AC out of the arena and outside to a boat. Opening my cockpit entrance, I crawled/stumbled/rolled/fell out of my cockpit onto the ground, where I was attended to by a few medics, finding a cut on the back of my head and patching it up. Sans soon came over to where I was.

I stared at him as the medics wrapped a large bandage around my head.

"There....I did it...are you happy?"

He grinned a bit, then looked at me. "You did well, and we were able to shut down the arena. We will implode the place later, but for right now.. are you alright?"

"Sure...I'm just peachy. My AC's basically destroyed, I've got a big cut on the back of my head, I've betrayed so many people and killed others. But what really ticks me off is that AC you guys sent in to help me. What was wrong? You didn't think I could handle it on my own?"

A puzzling look came on Robert Sans face, he tilted his head and narrowed his eyes toward me. "AC we sent in? You must be mistaken...because all our units were with me...out here."

My eyes widened. "You mean...that person wasn't one of your agents or men?" I asked.

Sans simply shook his head. "No....did he say what his name was? Maybe he's on file...

I thought about it, the picture of the mysterious AC dropping in, and taking out his opponents. I also remember the barrel of a rifle pointing down at me. After that, I was able to spit out his name.

"His name?" I replied, as if I had forgotten. "His name....was Seer..."

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There you go, Chapter 2. Sorry it took so long. I've been really busy and I didn't know how to make out the battle scene. I had to play Armored Core a while before I could make out a good battle scene and plan. This chapter was really long, hopefully the rest might not be as long. Chapter 3 will be up soon, but I might wait for a while. But still...bear with me! Laterz ^_^