Disclaimer: You know the drill

Chap. 5

Cain entered the hanger to find Koemai's Conferd missing. So he's using Conferd. I bet everything will be in flames by the time he's done.

____

Indeed, in the location, Conferd was flying at high speed, using its flamethrower to burn everything in front of him.

"Raven, forget about them. Locate and destroy the AC."

Conferd complied and flew past the MT's, occasionally burning a few in his way. He reached a corridor and turned into it. A floating MT guarded the area and began shooting energy beams. Its answer was a swarm of bullets from the machine gun.

"Are you serious? You can't stop me."

Conferd finally entered a room. There waiting for him was the AC, Chain Impact

"Finally, a worthy opponent!"

Man, he sounds like Cain. His thoughts were interrupted when Chain Impact began firing at him. He was armed with dual machine guns and he was using them to the fullest extent. He continually fired at Conferd, but Conferd was able to avoid the fire and fly close to him.

"Bye, bye."

Conferd raised both arms and unleashed a fury of bullets and flame. The combination of the two weapons completed overwhelmed Chain Impact. Chain Impact flew away from the destruction, but its systems were overheated. And if that wasn't enough, Conferd chased after him and cornered him against the wall. In no time at all, Chain Impact exploded in flames. As if that wasn't enough, Conferd began shooting the area as a mark, in the end the entire area was in flames

"Toasty."

The dark AC disappeared in the flames.

______

Meanwhile, Cain was busy looking over the repairs of his Glaive. The AC was still being worked on, but it was almost completed.

"Hey there."

Cain turned to see Diana coming in the hanger.

"Hello."

"Is Koemai around?"

"No. He went out on a mission."

She gave a semi-sultry smile, "Oh. Well, how about I just talk with you?"

He did appear to notice, "Talk away."

"Koemai has told me a bit about you. You are a strange person and an even stranger Raven. You fight with a certain style and you always try not to kill your opponent. That is why you mainly use the blade, isn't it?"

He shrugged, "Partly. But I use it because I believe that a true warrior would do so. It makes the battle personal when you are in close range to your opponent. With long-range weapons, you can just shoot and shoot until it's over and not care. Also, it takes true skill to be able to fight with a blade."

"Wow. A real samurai."

"No. Just a code of honor. Besides, I use a grenade launcher as well. Just because I follow a code doesn't mean others will."

They stayed quiet for a bit and then she spoke up, "Hmm. You know, I think this is the longest time I've ever spoken to you."

"Sorry. Not much of a speaker."

"May I ask you something? Are you...attracted to women?"

His face registered no changes, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, in the little time I've seen you, you've never been around a woman. You're not gay; Koemai told me that. So what's the deal?"

"I'm just not interested now."

The smile returned, "Oh? And what would happen if an attractive woman found you interesting?"

He answered shortly, "Doubtful. I'm not the interesting type."

"You give yourself too little credit. Okay, what if I said that I was attracted to you?"

He looked at her briefly before turning away again, "Unlikely. Aside from what I mentioned earlier, there is also the fact that you are with Koemai. I wouldn't do that to my friend."

"Are you sure?"

She put her hands on his shoulders and faced him. He looked at her nervously as she began to inch her face forward. Cain didn't move as she came to an inch away from his face, practically breathing on him.

"Don't you find me attractive?" she whispered as she inched a little closer. But he made no move or blink. Suddenly, she backed away.

"Wow. Any other man would have had their way with me right now. You really are different. And your loyalty is admirable, but don't worry. I wouldn't do that to Koemai. I really do care about him."

"That's good to know. Now could you move your hands, please?" he said, still a little nervous.

She quickly backed away, "Oh, sorry."

At that moment, Conferd was injected into its hanger and Koemai came out cheering. "Hey, Cain. You should have seen it. The guy didn't stand a chance. It was a work of art."

"I know. The second I saw Conferd gone, I knew that the place must look like hell right now."

He slid down the ladder and approached them, "You said it. Hey, Diana. Were you waiting for me?"

"Yes, my little destroyer. Actually, I was talking to your friend here to pass the time."

"Get lost. You mean you actually got him talking?" I wonder what about.

"Yeah. It wasn't hard." A beep came up and she looked at her beeper. "It's my brother. A mission has come up. Well, I'll see you later." She kisses Cain on the cheek, which surprises both him and Koemai. She then turned to Koemai and wraps her arms around his neck, "And I'll see you tonight." She kisses him passionately on the lips and then walks away. Koemai is stuck in a state of shock and Cain smirks.

"Unpredictable and nearly unstable. Yeah, she's a definite match for you."

Beep, beep

That came from the e-mail. Cain climbed the ladder and checked the mail.

"Cain, what is it?"

"EX arena. We have a match. We are to face team Saber Strike."

"Really? It's about time."

Saber Strike was a team that consisted of the AC's Gauntlet and Ripshade. They used the same fighting style as they did, with one using long-range weapons and the other using close-range techniques. For awhile, it was considered that both teams were merely copies of each other. Now was the time to see with was the true deal.

"So do we accept?" Even though he knew the answer.

"Oh, hell yeah!"

Cain began typing, "Battle accepted. We face them in the wastelands tomorrow afternoon. Glaive will be ready by them."

The next day...

 Glaive and Darkhand entered the wastelands separately. The battle was initiated. Glaive waited for his opponent. Sure enough, an AC was flying toward him. However, it was the AC Gauntlet. It was a heavily armored blue and yellow machine loaded with a bazooka and rear multi-missiles. The machine began firing its bazooka and Glaive dashed around the fire. He was expecting to fight Ripshade but was stuck fighting Gauntlet. No sense in complaining about it. Glaive found and opening and fired. The good news is that it hit him directly; the bad news is that it wasn't affected. The heavy armor works well. Suddenly, two extensions popped out of the rear of the core and began firing energy beams. At the same time, it was firing the bazooka at the same time, leaving Glaive dodging various forms of fire.

This could take longer than I thought.

Meanwhile, Darkhand was busy fending off Ripshade. Ripshade was also blue and yellow, but lightly armored and equipped with a right arm blade, shield and triple rockets on its back. But the problem was its extensions. Stealth extensions; they allow the AC to avoid lock on. Without it, Darkhand couldn't get a lock and therefore was fighting blind. Worse yet, Ripshade was dashing toward him constantly and using the MARS parry blade, the most powerful one. Darkhand found himself retreating from his quick opponent.

This is ridiculous. Why am I fighting him to begin with?