The Book of the Phoenix
A Zoids fanfic
*huggles R-chan* Thankyou! For all you readers out there, this chapter was written by R-chan. Mainly because if I wrote it, I would more than just screw up her character- it would be beyond recognition… ^^; so anyway, here's Chapter 6, fresh from R-chan's computer! ^.^
~*~RC~*~
Rhu was pacing through the hangar, thoughts running a rampage through her mind. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to make sense of the information she now knew. She had explained, as briefly as possible, to Matt and Sean what had happened, then immediately resumed to pacing. Sean and Matt watched her, the two of them seated.
"I can't believe they asked me to join them," Rhu said heatedly. "I can't believe it! Why did they pick me?"
"…Because you're a good warrior?" Sean piped in cheerfully.
Rhu glowered at him, grumbling, "It was a rhetorical question. Besides, why didn't they pick 'ye or Matt? You're both good too." And that was the most they could get out of her as she went back to pacing.
"You think she's mad?" Matt muttered in question.
"Defiantly."
~*~
A figure, not taller then six feet and no smaller then five walked down a long corridor, a cool, confident gaze in steel gray eyes. Dark blue hair fell a little past her chin, framing a well-defined, determined-set face with cold, ruthless eyes. Her attire included a black jacket with a gray lining around it, which was left open, wearing a sleeveless gray shirt beneath it accompanied with black pants. Her boots made little noise as she continued on, complementing the deadly silence around her.
Reaching a door she let herself in without knocking-she had been called and was expected. Inside the room there was little light-just how the owner of this room liked it-and she didn't mind a bit either.
She bowed down on one knee, her fist over her heart, to a person who she could not see but knew was there. "Sir."
"Ah, Ravi," the man said. "So good of you to come."
The figure stood, nodding her head in acknowledgment. "I heard you have a job for me-is that correct, Sir?" she asked, standing tall and clasping her hands behind her back.
"Your ears do not fail you, Ravi. Indeed I do have a job for you-one that should prove a bit more challenging to you."
Ravi snorted at the likeliness of it. "I'm sure it's a real thriller," she said sarcastically. "Just like the other assignments you've sent me on."
"Spider failed his mission to destroy Rhuidea Catstone."
"What?" Ravi asked, rocking back on her heels in shock. Everyone knew about this assignment, and Spider had been sure to accomplish it easily-but, obviously, he hadn't. "But that would mean-"
The Count cut her off. "You are to take his place. You are to destroy the Flight Team in whatever means possible-just get the job done."
Ravi bowed her head. "You can count on me, Sir."
The Count grinned. "I know I can, Ravi. I expect nothing but the best from you.
"Now go make some last minute adjustments to your zoid-the Flight Team has a sanctioned Zoid battle in two days. Any information you need is in your office in a folder on your desk."
Ravi bowed to her knee again. "As you wish it, Sir."
"I have no doubt in you that you will accomplish this mission, Ravi. Do not disappoint me."
A light smirk traveled across Ravi's face. "Don't worry-I won't." And with that, she was out the door and into the hallway once more.
We shall see how challenging you are, Catstone, she thought to herself with a smirk. We shall see.
~*~
Rhu was excited about the battle today-it would be the first battle she would be in since the whole 'incident' with the Back Draft group.
She sighed, thinking back to it. Sean and Matt wouldn't let her go out of the hangar alone now unless one of them was with her, and they overly worried about her. They didn't even want her in today's battle because of her arm, but she told them that she was going and that was final.
Getting to the battlefield, she searched around for the other team, Matt in his customized Storm Sworder on her right, and Sean in his heavily modified Pteras on her left. They were the Eclipse Team, made up of three Command Wolves. Rhu had heard that they had been doing well for themselves, and was eager to test her skills against them. When she didn't see the, she figured they must have been hiding out in the battlefield.
Rhu watched the judge land and go through his usual speech about the rules and such. She toned him out, as usual-she knew the words by heart and didn't need them repeated to her again and again.
However, the judge was instantly interrupted by what looked like a large black comet, which slammed right into the judge capsule. When it landed, Rhu's blood went cold.
"Back Draft," Sean announced grimly.
A black light shot out of the sphere, creating a force-field like barrier around the entire battlefield. Rhu noted with some relief that it was surely high enough to fly in-whoever had designed it had known there would be aerial zoids around. At first, the barrier was a very visible jet black, but after a few moments it turned transparent, and would every so often crackle, electricity racing through it.
"We can't escape now," Sean muttered to his teammates.
"Who said we wanted to?" Matt grumbled. "We're taking them down."
"Much, much easier said then done, my friend," a voice said, crackling over their transmissions. The Flight Team could see no one on their screens, but they could certainly hear them-and somehow, the Back Draft could hear their conversations as well.
"Who's there?" Rhu demanded.
"Who wants to know?" the voice replied coolly.
"Me. The Phoenix," Rhu said coldly-she did not like people messing with her or her teammates, Back Draft or not.
"You can call me Snow Leopard," the voice answered, and suddenly Rhu realized that a Storm Sworder was closing in on her from above-and it wasn't Matt's. The color was slightly different from the normal Storm Sworder's-but she had no time to worry about its color at the moment.
She fired up the Firebird's boosters and shot out of the way, barely in time. She had a growing, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The Firebird was fast-
-but the Storm Sworder was too.
Sean, however, beat her to saying it. "It's fast," he murmured.
"Yeah…" was all Rhu could say-there would be only one-way to win this battle-by skill. She could not rely on her speed as heavily as she used to. The only hope she had was that the Firebird was more agile.
Rhu took to the high altitudes, checking out the area and what they were up against, sending the data back to Matt and Sean. "We've got two enemy Storm Sworders and three Zabiths," Rhu informed them. "And… Still no sign of the Eclipse Team."
A cold chuckle made Rhu's blood run cold. "You won't be seeing them for a long while," the Snow Leopard answered her, and Rhu saw the Storm Sworder advancing on her right. "If ever."
Rhu gritted her teeth angrily and continued straight up into the sky. She quickly banked a right turn, cutting off the Snow Leopard, and continued on.
"Impressive," the voice muttered, amused, and stubbornly continued to follow.
~*~
Sean and Matt watched Rhu take to the sky and were all for following her-that is, until they were attacked by the Zabiths and the other Storm Sworder. "I've got the Storm Sworder, you take care of the Zabiths," Sean said, and pealed away from Matt.
Matt smirked slightly and readied his weaponry, and in mere moments the sky was alive with missiles-though they were not shot blindly. He watched one spiral to the ground and he thought, One down, two more to go.
~*~
Sean speeded up his Pteras, calculations running through his head quickly. Matt will be find with the Zabiths-he may not be speedy, but he sure has a hell of a lot of ammo on that Zoid… Rhu should be able to manage on her own with the other until I'm finished here. That 'Snow Leopard' modified her zoid into one hell of a high-speed zoid, and if I'm correct about that zoid, Rhu's going to need all of the help she can get…
~*~
Rhu continued dodging the Snow Leopard assaults, being missed by only a hair-and she knew couldn't keep this up for long-she needed a different strategy. Rhu spun the Firebird around in a quick 180˚ and shot at the Storm Sworder. She knew that either one of two things would happen-the Storm Sworder would be hit and would go down-or the Storm Sworder would barrel straight into her and would take the both of them down.
~*~
Ravi's eyes widened as she saw the Raynos turn and face her and fire a volley of shots in her direction. Having no time to think, Ravi threw the zoid into the highest gear it could possibly go and turned straight up. Ravi got away with only a few dents in her zoid's armor, though was otherwise fine. She continued, however, to fly straight up without a second glance to Catstone.
The girl was infuriating. Every attack she had made, the Phoenix had dodged, even if by only a hair. Catstone's zoid matched her own in speed, and now the only real advantage she had was the Storm Sworder's larger size and more firepower-though most of it had been taken off to accommodate it's speed.
The Phoenix is good, no doubt about it, Ravi thought to herself. But hopefully, not good enough.
~*~
Sean made quick work of the Storm Sworder that had pursued him, and was off to help Rhu. "Rhu," he said to her. "Go help Matt-they dispatched more Zabiths on him, and you have more firepower then I do," he told her, and flying past her at full speed, he continued on his way to find the 'Snow Leopard.'
He spotted the Storm Sworder not to far ahead, and in no time he zoomed past it, surprising the pilot. "You've got a new birdie to play with," Sean muttered to her, "But this birdie's fast-and angry."
The Storm Sworder turned and rushed past him, the wind unsettling Sean's WindShot in the air. "Race ya," came the voice, almost breathy at the thought of a race.
How could he resisit? Sean turned the Windshot down towards the ground, following closely behind the Snow Leopard.
Suddenly the Storm Sworder in front of him disappeared, and Sean instinctively flicked on his heat sensors. He noticed that, even with the heat sensors on, she was harder to make out then a usual cloaked zoid. He squinted slightly, making out the figure of her Storm Sworder as she turned up, now flying parallel to the ground. He did likewise, staying close on her tail.
Why did she cloak herself? Sean thought to himself. She knows we're good, and that we would have heat sensors… He squinted again-for a second he though he had lost her.
The Storm Sworder suddenly turned and shot nose-first into the sky, and too late did Sean see the crackling intensity of the barrier, and it was too late when he decided to pull up.
~*~
When Rhu heard Sean say that he would take care of the Snow Leopard she was about to protest but then realized that Matt needed her help more then Sean did at the moment. Reluctantly she turned and headed back to Matt, picking off an unsuspecting Zabith.
"Thanks," was Matt's reply as he shot through the air, picking off Zabiths as he did. Rhu looked around, trying to take a count of the Zabiths, but there were just too many.
Rhu looked at a small group of them, no more then four, and checked to make sure Matt was out of harms way. Doing that, she fired the Firebird's boosters and shot forward, breaching the sound barrier. The sonic boom followed behind her, and it took out all four of the Zabiths as she blew by them.
"How's Sean doing?" Rhu asked Matt as she turned towards him. "Can you see him?"
"Yeah… The Snow Leopard cloaked herself, for some reason…" Matt answered, seeming puzzled at her actions.
Rhu was as well-
That was, she had been, until she saw Sean slam into the electric barrier and go careening to the ground. "SEAN!" Rhu cried, watching on in horror, helpless to stop his fall. "Sean!" Rhu's sudden shock of worry and grief quickly transformed into cold fury-raw, unsuppressed, anger, unbridled and needing a target.
The Snow Leopard would pay.
Rhu clutched the controls in her hands tightly and she blasted towards the Storm Sworder, rage dancing in her gray-green eyes. "Snow Leopard," she growled over the radio, "You're mine."
"You know, I was just about to say the same," the Snow Leopard said in a cocky voice as she turned her cloaking device off, now becoming visible.
"At least we agree on something."
The Snow Leopard chuckled and shot into the sky, Rhu right behind her. Rhu's gunfire fired closely, some hitting, but most not.
Suddenly something in the sky caught her eye-a large cloaked object… a Warshark?! So that's how they were able to get all those Zabiths here! Rhu turned her guns toward it-anything that would hurt the Back Draft would, eventually, hurt the Snow Leopard. She shot rapidly, trying to cause maximum damage.
~*~
It didn't take long for Ravi to figure out what Rhu was doing. Growling angrily, she spun the Storm Sworder towards the Raynos, firing her own weaponry at her. As soon as the Phoenix knew she was being shot at, she spun. "You're through!" she snarled and shot straight towards Ravi. Ravi, shocked, wondered what in the world she was doing-her Storm Sworder was bigger then the Raynos, and it had blades on it's wings. If she wants to get herself killed, that's fine with me, Ravi thought with a smirk and shot forwards to meet her.
The next movement on the Phoenix's behalf went by so quickly, Ravi didn't really know what happened until after. The Firebird's wings suddenly tucked in, and the zoid dropped. Once below Ravi, the wings reopened, stopping Catstone's descend. The gun turned and pointed up-straight at Ravi-and fired.
Ravi was hit and went spiraling down to the ground, gritting her teeth angrily and she fought with the controls. When she finally could control her zoid, she was closer to the ground then she would have liked.
"Retreat, Snow Leopard," A voice ordered over Ravi's speaker.
"What? Why? I can still fight," Ravi growled, ignoring the fact that the Phoenix had hit her gas tank and was loosing fuel rapidly, not to mention the fact that her wings were literally smoking.
"This is a order, 'Leopard, and you will obey it. They have taken out more then half of the Zabiths force, and your zoid is in no condition to fight. Retreat."
Ravi grumbled, her eyes narrowed to slits. "I'll get you back, Phoenix," she hissed. "No one gets the better of me."
~*~
Matt had watched his best friend crash, then watched his other go off to avenge him-and he could only pray that they were both all right. He would have wanted to help Rhu and Sean take down the Snow Leopard, but his zoid would never be able to keep up with theirs. Growling in frustration, he slammed his fist on the controls. He could listen to what was happening, but not see it.
"I'll get you back Phoenix. No one gets the better of me." When Matt heard that, his blood ran cold-that was a threat, certainly-and Rhu already had enough Back Draft-related problems.
~*~
Rhu dropped down to Matt's altitude, suddenly very weary. "She left," she muttered, watching the remaining Zabiths turn and high-tail it out of there.
"You sure?" Matt asked her, and she answered that she was. "Let's go see Sean…"
The two landed near the ruined zoid, fearing the worst. Rhu and Matt hopped out of their cockpits and cautiously climbed over the zoid towards the cockpit. "I see him!" Rhu cried. "I see him!"
Sean had crawled out of the cockpit, or at least tried to, but had then passed out. He had a large bruise forming over his left eye from banging into something and one of his shoulders hung limp-but, from what they could see, he was still alive and kicking.
They all were. But if Ravi had anything to do with it, it would only be temporarily.
There ye go folks- it took a while to get typed and what not, but the end result is wonderful. *looks happy* Once again, THANKYOU R-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!! *taps hat* Couldn't've done it without ye! ^.^
~*~RC~*~