(Part Five: The Gauntlet)
The Liger strides down the canyon, missing the narrow walls on either side by mere feet. Van constantly watches the plateaus above him in fear of an ambush. "Wait! I can do this much faster!" Van turns the liger just enough to run up on the right side of the canyon. He throws the throttle forward to activate the boosters. Then Van runs back down the wall of the canyon at a steep angle; he then runs the Liger up the other wall, flying up over its edge, and landing on the plateau. "Ha Ha! That was fun!"
Poor Zeke has been left to follow Van from down in the canyon. "Hey, Zeke. whatchya' doin' down there buddy? Put those little rockets of yours to use and get your tail up here!" Van yells down at Zeke. Zeke obediently activates his rockets and flies up to follow van on the plateau.
"Ok! Let's go get Fiona!"
"Roar!" Zeke begins to run after the Liger as Van gets it moving full tilt towards the ruins.
Van stops at the edge of the caldera. He looks out over the battlefield to be; scanning it for any sign of activity or hostility.
[Beep, Beep, Beep.] "Huh? Hmm. an aerial unit on radar." Van says to himself. "No prob." Van turns the Liger around to face the incoming blip on the radar. [dlee dlee dlee dlee dlee, dilete] "Locked on!" Van has the incoming aircraft locked up and is about ready to fire when he recognizes the Zoid. "Hmm. Guess Thomas has to make an entrance again!"
A Whale King is heading towards him, Van immediately recognizes it as an imperial carrier; and thus decides that it must be Thomas and the others. Van watches as the Whale King flies overhead and lands on the opposite side of the plateau as him. Van then heads over towards it to see if he was going to now be assisted by his friends. He directs the Liger towards the canyon; leaping over it and landing on the other side. Zeke is once again left behind, and he must then again use his booster packs to follow Van.
The mouth/ramp of the Whale King opens up just as Van gets there. Thomas's new Di Bison comes down the ramp. "So, decided to come along?" Van asks.
*Sarcastically* "No, I came to watch you go rescue the girl I love." Thomas says back to Van.
"Well. I have absolutely no problem with that. except I could use a hand here. I don't know what I might run into."
"I know that you retard! I was being sarcastic!"
"I know that you retard! I was being sarcastic!" Van mocks back at Thomas.
"Will you two stop acting like you were just born?"
"Hey, this doesn't involve you Irvine. This is between me and Thomas!"
"Hey, you three knock it off!" Moon Bay shouts from the control room. "We need to go out there and rescue Fiona!"
"We? Do I have fleas?" Van hollers back.
"SHUT UP AND GET OUT THERE!" Moon Bay says being a 'little' annoyed.
"AHH! OKAY OKAY.. Yeesh!" Van, Irvine and Thomas begin to head towards the ruins.
"Hey, wait for me!" Rudolph is 'stumbling' down the ramp in the Royal Zaber Fang after them. "Don't forget; I am part of the Guardian Force too."
Meanwhile, above them on the opposite side of the caldera, Raven and Reese are sitting in the Geno Breaker watching all of the others arrive. "Well, our efforts to keep Fiona out of Prozen's hands have failed. I don't know if there is any hope for the planet now."
"Calm down a little Reese. If there is hope. you are looking at it on the HUD."
"Those clowns?"
"Well. I said that they were the hope. I didn't say how much."
"Oh my God were gonna' die!"
Back at the Whale King, Rosso and Viola are now walking their Storm Sworders out onto the ground. They all stop and stare out over the caldera. "Let's move onward." Thomas begins to charge forward in the Di Bison.
"Thomas! You fool. wait!" Van runs the Liger out in front of Thomas, stopping it at a perpendicular angle to the Di Bison. The Liger swings its head around to face Thomas and roars. "You didn't look very well did you?"
"Huh? There is nothing out there. Now move out of my way!"
"No, look down at the ground."
Thomas looks down at the ground; "I don't see anything." Then, the wind kicks up a little bit of dust about 600 meters away from them. The dust seems to blow around an object that couldn't be seen. "Woa. thanks. but what are they? Hell Cats?"
Van strains his eyes to see if he can see anything else to make out what they are. "Well. I'm not sure. The Hell Cat is the only zoid that I know of that can be cloaked. But nothing says that others can't. WAIT. they can't be seen in that position. if they move, they can then be seen. It is a stationary cloaking device. I remembered it from when I fought those guys a couple years ago. The one guy had a Gun Sniper. he could hide it by using that little cloaking device. but it only works within a certain area. So if we could get them to move."
"Beak, Megalo Max!" The Di Bison charges up for the Megalo Max.
"Wait. Thomas NO!" Van tries to tell Thomas not to shoot. but it is to late and the Di Bison releases the yellowish beam into the spot of the only known cloaked unit. [beep beep beep] The targeting computer beeps and brings up three digital enhanced pictures on the HUD that show the energy formations that occur when a Charged Particle Canon initiates. "I'm picking up three energy spikes! Evasive maneuvers NOW!" The Megalo Max hits the cloaked unit. It goes flying backwards out of the cloaked area. "Geno Saurs. and when I woke up today, I thought it was going to be a slow day!"
Everyone scatters to opposite directions. "Rosso, Viola, attack objective Gamma. Thomas, Rudolph, hit objective Beta. Irvine. You and me have got Alpha!" Van and Irvine come in from opposite angles to converge on the first Geno Saur. "AAAUUGGHH!" Van deploys the blades just as the CPC's fire. He swings the right blade forward just in time to block the blast from the first Geno Saur. Irvine deploys the shield on the Lightning Sykes just in time to block the CPC from the second Geno Saur.
Rosso and Viola release their missiles just before third Geno Saur fires its CPC, which was aimed at the Whale King. Luckily, the missiles hit just as the CPC is fired; throwing its trajectory off causing it to graze the tail of the Whale King. "Great shot by Aerobologna and the Barron of Wings!" Rosso calls out.
"Would you quit it with the bologna sandwich crap and just fight please?" Moon Bay hollers out of the control room. "We all know who you are; you were up here chatting with us just a few minutes ago. If you would have been a bit quicker I wouldn't have spilled my coffee!"
"We are out here getting ready to get vaporized. and you're worried about spilling your COFFEE!?" Irvine scolds at Moon Bay.
"Hey, I have seen what happens. I know that there is no need to worry. you guys will come out on top as always." Moon Bay relaxes back into her chair.
"Moon Bay, we don't know what we're up against. anything can happen. Prozen is evil. and will stop at nothing to destroy everything we know and care for. So don't get too comfortable!" Van scolds Moon Bay as he slices through the first Geno Saur.
Raven decides that he isn't going to let Van and the others have all of the fun and flies down off of the plateau. "Hey, I've got number three! If you guys want to live to see another day, you had better let us do some of the fighting."
"Raven!? What the hell is he doing here?" Van looks at the Geno Breaker with curiosity.
"I am here to help you guys save Zi thank you!" Raven hovers over and picks up the Geno Saur and throws it at the other; destroying both of them.
"Raven? Fighting on our side? What the hell is going on here!?" Van is now stopped in the middle of the caldera. "Did I just here you right Raven? Did you just say you were going to help us? And why did you shoot Fiona. and where is Fiona. and why do you want to help us. and."
"Silence! I will explain everything as best I can." Reese exclaims from the back of the Geno Breaker. "I will try to explain everything. if we have time."
"Wow. Raven! You got a girlfriend. and Reese no doubt! Raven's got a girlfriend Raven's got a girlfriend. Raven and Reese, sittin' in a tree; K- I-S-S-I-N-G!" Van chants at Raven, "First comes Love, then comes."
"Shut up and fry little man!" Raven starts to charge up the Geno Breakers CPC while blushing. Reese thumps him on the head. *Thwack*
"Raven! NO!" Reese scolds.
"Sit Boy. Roll over Boy! She has got you eating out of the palm of her hand there buddy!" Van taunts Raven. trying to tick him off.
"Never mind. go ahead and fry him Raven!"
"No, you were right. I don't need to go on a killing spree yet. until the planet is safe I can't. then we're going to have a little fun destroying anything we want ourselves."
"Darn! Why did I have to open my big mouth?" Reese wonders aloud.
"Uh Oh. He needs some more training Reese! Few more weeks ought to do it!" Moon Bay taunts from the control room.
"I guess you get that from trying to train Irvine?" Reese comes back at Moon Bay.
"So, when is the wedding Raven?" Van taunts some more. "And how many kids are you going to have? Do you wuv her wraven?" Van says in a "child's talk" manner.
"Give it a rest Van. do you know how I could tease you about Fiona?" Irvine says in an attempt to keep the peace as to not tick Raven off any more than necessary. "We all know that you love her. and she loves the heck out of you."
"Yeah. I DO love Fiona. I'm not afraid to admit it either. in fact; we WERE engaged until she pulled this little stunt. apparently there are still a few bugs to work out."
"Jesus Van. you proposed to Fiona. and didn't tell us!? And WHEN did you do this? We were with you and Fiona the entire time until she disappeared." Irvine scolds Van.
"He proposed right before I shot her in those ruins back there. I knew that it was coming. but I was almost ashamed to shoot her at such a romantic moment. but the security of Zi was at steak." Raven explains to Irvine.
"Why did you shoot her anyway Raven? I was sitting right there. you always seem to want to kill me, not Fiona."
"Ask Reese why she wanted me to kill her. I didn't know that Hiltz was already there and had done half of the work for me. That was a bonus at that time, although I felt sorry for her and her pain."
"Well what about when you shot her? That hurts too you know! So it is okay if you do it? But not if someone else does it? What kind of bizarre philosophy is that?" Van scolds at Raven.
"No, it is just that I thought I would put her out of her misery."
"What misery? She could have lived, and healed a lot faster if you hadn't shot her! If you felt sorry for us then why did you want to kill Fiona?"
"The misery that Reese thought was going to."
"Raven I will explain from here." Reese cuts Raven off; "Fiona probably told you herself that she felt that something evil was coming. I could feel that too; because I as well am an Ancient Zoidian. I knew that Prozen would go after the only Zoidian he knew. Fiona. I knew that he would use her for some evil plot that would destroy the planet. I thought that if I could only get Fiona out of the way. Prozen would fail. and the planet would be safe."
"Why didn't you just tell us? We could have all handled it. and most of this wouldn't have happened. And yes; Fiona did get extremely freaked out when we visited this place a few days ago. that is how I knew where to go to find her. and by the warm welcome we got; I guess my hunch was right."
"We didn't think that you would believe us Van because of our past conflicts. We thought of everything else and exhausted all possibilities except to kill Fiona."
"When the matter happens to involve something like that you can always tell us. plus if you don't come in with your guns blazing like you usually do then we might actually believe you. If you don't shoot at us we usually won't shoot at you."
Van, Raven, and Reese argue back and forth for a while when they are interrupted by an open radio broadcast; "Attention all units. Van and the others have been spotted in the caldera. Dispatch them immediately. They must not interfere with our plans to rule the universe."
"That sounded like Prozen! And what did he mean by 'dispatch us'?"
"Duh Einstein, that is the military term for dispose of, annihilate, kill, ya' know that sort of thing." Raven flashes Van one of those 'you are stupid' faces, and turns towards the ruins.
"Well then I guess we are at the right place to find Fiona then. But where are these so called units that are supposed to come annihilate us?" Van looks hard out into the caldera. "I don't see a thing. Do you think that they got scared because of Prozen mentioning our names?" Van turns around to see if anything is behind him. He stares long and hard, but he can still see nothing that appears hostile. "Do you think he is bluffing?"
"Raven. Do you feel that?"
"Feel what Reese?"
"That feeling that something evil is upon us."
"How many times have I told you? NO, I can't sense these things like you! Er. but whatever it is sure can't be anything good to make you feel like that."
"Raven. just admit that you like her and then we can all be happy."
"Van shut up! Besides, now isn't the time for such foolishness."
"Do you Raven?"
"Huh?"
"Do you love me?"
Raven looks into Reese's eyes that are big and shining. He feels a weird feeling coming over him. "Uhhh. well. umm."
"Oh, Raven" Reese stretches her arm up over the back of Raven's seat and puts her hand on his shoulder. Raven sighs and relaxes just a little in his seat.
"What happened to you Raven? You used to be so angry with everyone so much that you couldn't love anyone. And Reese, I thought that you liked me those many years ago. Oh well, now that you have joined up with my worst enemy; Raven I will have to destroy you two as well."
"What the. I thought we destroyed you a couple years ago! You and the Death Stinger. so what are you doing back?" Van looks angrily at Hiltz approaching in the Death Stinger. "And why did you try to kill Fiona?"
"The same reason I am going to kill you."
"Van, lets scatter, he can wipe us all out with that charged particle cannon!" Irvine jumps out of the way of a few shells that were fired at him. Van jumps to the left as a few shells land by him as well. Thomas, who is too slow to avoid the shells, gets nailed.
"AHHH!" Thomas's Di Bison falls to the ground and its combat system freezes.
"Thomas, are you okay?" Van jumps out of the way of a few shells again.
"UGH! My combat system is frozen. I am out of commission. I'll head back to the Whale King where it is safer." Thomas hops out of his Di Bison and starts running back to the Whale King.
"Hah! That is one of you down. Who is next?" Hiltz laughs as he pummels the group with shell after shell. Rudolph jumps to the side and unleashes an Alpha Strike on Hiltz; emptying every round of ammo he has, as well as every salvo of missiles.
The Death Stinger shakes as it gets hit with an incredible amount of force. "You insubordinate little brat!" Hiltz charges up the CPC, aiming it at the Royal Zaber Fang.
The sparkly blue beam shoots toward Rudolph, who looks toward it with a stunned expression. He closes his eyes just as it is about to hit and cringes. "Huh?" Rudolph looks up to see Van blocking the Charged Particle Cannon.
"Rudolph! Get the heck out of there!" Van yells as he is struggling to block the enormous force of the cannon. Rudolph quickly jettisons some of his weapons, which are no longer of use to him, and jumps out of the way just as the Blade Liger gives way and jumps out of the beam.
Raven charges the Death Stinger and flies up and over it to get a good shot in. "Hiltz, I will kill you for all of the sorrow and misery we have endured because of you!' Raven starts to charge up the Particle Cannon. "Now DIE!"
"Please. come up with something a little more original." Hiltz calmly deploys the shield on the Death Stinger just as Raven fires the Charged Particle Cannon. The beam sparks and crackles as it goes up against the power of the shield.
"RAAAHHHH!" Raven is putting everything he has against the power of the shield. but eventually he has to power down in fear of overloading the Geno Breaker's power system.
"Hah! That was it? You have a long way to go before you can take me on in an all out power battle Raven. But you wont live long enough to learn how to bring out your zoid's full potential. You would have really been a force to be reckoned with." Hiltz turns the tail upward so that he can pump off a couple of shots at Raven, but Raven is already on the retreat back to a safer location.
"So, he has become more powerful than last time. How are we supposed to kill him? All he has to do is deploy that darn shield and then he can sit there and drink a cup of coffee or something."
"Van! Don't give him any ideas you idiot!" Raven scolds Van.
Hiltz begins to charge up the cannon again. Van deploys the shield and blade to neutralize the blast again; "Hiltz, talk about the need to be original."
"Who said it was you that I was aiming at?"
Van looks at the tail of the Death Stinger and notices that it is off to his right just a bit to be shooting at him. He looks over to his right to see Fiona running towards him.
"Hahahahaha! Van, I thought I would let you two see each other die, so I let her go, she has served her purpose." Prozen laughs as Fiona runs full tilt towards Van.
"Van!" Fiona exclaims when she is about 100 meters from him.
"Fiona! RUN! . ER. NO THE OTHER WAY!" Hiltz now fires the CPC at Fiona. "FIONA!"
Fiona looks up at Van with big teary eyes as the beam of particles engulfs her. Van can only watch in horror as she disappears within the blue beam of terror. "Fiona."
The beam subsides leaving behind a large simmering ditch in the ground in the place of Fiona. "No. Fiona." Van looks on stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Hiltz is laughing a high shrill laugh because of his elimination of Fiona; thinking it great fun to destroy everything others lived for.
"Hiltz! You will pay dearly for that!!" "Fiona, I am sorry; I guess I wasn't able to protect you this time." Van mumbles to himself as tears begin to roll down his face.
(End Part 5)
(Writers Comments)
Nice cliffhanger huh? I will see if this gets me any responses; and then I will continue. I have already got the whole thing planned out into the next 'book'. but I don't have a title. I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the ending. to the series (sorry). that is if you support Van&Fiona, and Bit&Leena as couples (no one ever said you had to agree with me though.). But it will be a wild ride to the finish, and I am improving in skill (I think), so there should be less errors, and better techniques; but don't expect to get a Steven King novel out of me.
The Liger strides down the canyon, missing the narrow walls on either side by mere feet. Van constantly watches the plateaus above him in fear of an ambush. "Wait! I can do this much faster!" Van turns the liger just enough to run up on the right side of the canyon. He throws the throttle forward to activate the boosters. Then Van runs back down the wall of the canyon at a steep angle; he then runs the Liger up the other wall, flying up over its edge, and landing on the plateau. "Ha Ha! That was fun!"
Poor Zeke has been left to follow Van from down in the canyon. "Hey, Zeke. whatchya' doin' down there buddy? Put those little rockets of yours to use and get your tail up here!" Van yells down at Zeke. Zeke obediently activates his rockets and flies up to follow van on the plateau.
"Ok! Let's go get Fiona!"
"Roar!" Zeke begins to run after the Liger as Van gets it moving full tilt towards the ruins.
Van stops at the edge of the caldera. He looks out over the battlefield to be; scanning it for any sign of activity or hostility.
[Beep, Beep, Beep.] "Huh? Hmm. an aerial unit on radar." Van says to himself. "No prob." Van turns the Liger around to face the incoming blip on the radar. [dlee dlee dlee dlee dlee, dilete] "Locked on!" Van has the incoming aircraft locked up and is about ready to fire when he recognizes the Zoid. "Hmm. Guess Thomas has to make an entrance again!"
A Whale King is heading towards him, Van immediately recognizes it as an imperial carrier; and thus decides that it must be Thomas and the others. Van watches as the Whale King flies overhead and lands on the opposite side of the plateau as him. Van then heads over towards it to see if he was going to now be assisted by his friends. He directs the Liger towards the canyon; leaping over it and landing on the other side. Zeke is once again left behind, and he must then again use his booster packs to follow Van.
The mouth/ramp of the Whale King opens up just as Van gets there. Thomas's new Di Bison comes down the ramp. "So, decided to come along?" Van asks.
*Sarcastically* "No, I came to watch you go rescue the girl I love." Thomas says back to Van.
"Well. I have absolutely no problem with that. except I could use a hand here. I don't know what I might run into."
"I know that you retard! I was being sarcastic!"
"I know that you retard! I was being sarcastic!" Van mocks back at Thomas.
"Will you two stop acting like you were just born?"
"Hey, this doesn't involve you Irvine. This is between me and Thomas!"
"Hey, you three knock it off!" Moon Bay shouts from the control room. "We need to go out there and rescue Fiona!"
"We? Do I have fleas?" Van hollers back.
"SHUT UP AND GET OUT THERE!" Moon Bay says being a 'little' annoyed.
"AHH! OKAY OKAY.. Yeesh!" Van, Irvine and Thomas begin to head towards the ruins.
"Hey, wait for me!" Rudolph is 'stumbling' down the ramp in the Royal Zaber Fang after them. "Don't forget; I am part of the Guardian Force too."
Meanwhile, above them on the opposite side of the caldera, Raven and Reese are sitting in the Geno Breaker watching all of the others arrive. "Well, our efforts to keep Fiona out of Prozen's hands have failed. I don't know if there is any hope for the planet now."
"Calm down a little Reese. If there is hope. you are looking at it on the HUD."
"Those clowns?"
"Well. I said that they were the hope. I didn't say how much."
"Oh my God were gonna' die!"
Back at the Whale King, Rosso and Viola are now walking their Storm Sworders out onto the ground. They all stop and stare out over the caldera. "Let's move onward." Thomas begins to charge forward in the Di Bison.
"Thomas! You fool. wait!" Van runs the Liger out in front of Thomas, stopping it at a perpendicular angle to the Di Bison. The Liger swings its head around to face Thomas and roars. "You didn't look very well did you?"
"Huh? There is nothing out there. Now move out of my way!"
"No, look down at the ground."
Thomas looks down at the ground; "I don't see anything." Then, the wind kicks up a little bit of dust about 600 meters away from them. The dust seems to blow around an object that couldn't be seen. "Woa. thanks. but what are they? Hell Cats?"
Van strains his eyes to see if he can see anything else to make out what they are. "Well. I'm not sure. The Hell Cat is the only zoid that I know of that can be cloaked. But nothing says that others can't. WAIT. they can't be seen in that position. if they move, they can then be seen. It is a stationary cloaking device. I remembered it from when I fought those guys a couple years ago. The one guy had a Gun Sniper. he could hide it by using that little cloaking device. but it only works within a certain area. So if we could get them to move."
"Beak, Megalo Max!" The Di Bison charges up for the Megalo Max.
"Wait. Thomas NO!" Van tries to tell Thomas not to shoot. but it is to late and the Di Bison releases the yellowish beam into the spot of the only known cloaked unit. [beep beep beep] The targeting computer beeps and brings up three digital enhanced pictures on the HUD that show the energy formations that occur when a Charged Particle Canon initiates. "I'm picking up three energy spikes! Evasive maneuvers NOW!" The Megalo Max hits the cloaked unit. It goes flying backwards out of the cloaked area. "Geno Saurs. and when I woke up today, I thought it was going to be a slow day!"
Everyone scatters to opposite directions. "Rosso, Viola, attack objective Gamma. Thomas, Rudolph, hit objective Beta. Irvine. You and me have got Alpha!" Van and Irvine come in from opposite angles to converge on the first Geno Saur. "AAAUUGGHH!" Van deploys the blades just as the CPC's fire. He swings the right blade forward just in time to block the blast from the first Geno Saur. Irvine deploys the shield on the Lightning Sykes just in time to block the CPC from the second Geno Saur.
Rosso and Viola release their missiles just before third Geno Saur fires its CPC, which was aimed at the Whale King. Luckily, the missiles hit just as the CPC is fired; throwing its trajectory off causing it to graze the tail of the Whale King. "Great shot by Aerobologna and the Barron of Wings!" Rosso calls out.
"Would you quit it with the bologna sandwich crap and just fight please?" Moon Bay hollers out of the control room. "We all know who you are; you were up here chatting with us just a few minutes ago. If you would have been a bit quicker I wouldn't have spilled my coffee!"
"We are out here getting ready to get vaporized. and you're worried about spilling your COFFEE!?" Irvine scolds at Moon Bay.
"Hey, I have seen what happens. I know that there is no need to worry. you guys will come out on top as always." Moon Bay relaxes back into her chair.
"Moon Bay, we don't know what we're up against. anything can happen. Prozen is evil. and will stop at nothing to destroy everything we know and care for. So don't get too comfortable!" Van scolds Moon Bay as he slices through the first Geno Saur.
Raven decides that he isn't going to let Van and the others have all of the fun and flies down off of the plateau. "Hey, I've got number three! If you guys want to live to see another day, you had better let us do some of the fighting."
"Raven!? What the hell is he doing here?" Van looks at the Geno Breaker with curiosity.
"I am here to help you guys save Zi thank you!" Raven hovers over and picks up the Geno Saur and throws it at the other; destroying both of them.
"Raven? Fighting on our side? What the hell is going on here!?" Van is now stopped in the middle of the caldera. "Did I just here you right Raven? Did you just say you were going to help us? And why did you shoot Fiona. and where is Fiona. and why do you want to help us. and."
"Silence! I will explain everything as best I can." Reese exclaims from the back of the Geno Breaker. "I will try to explain everything. if we have time."
"Wow. Raven! You got a girlfriend. and Reese no doubt! Raven's got a girlfriend Raven's got a girlfriend. Raven and Reese, sittin' in a tree; K- I-S-S-I-N-G!" Van chants at Raven, "First comes Love, then comes."
"Shut up and fry little man!" Raven starts to charge up the Geno Breakers CPC while blushing. Reese thumps him on the head. *Thwack*
"Raven! NO!" Reese scolds.
"Sit Boy. Roll over Boy! She has got you eating out of the palm of her hand there buddy!" Van taunts Raven. trying to tick him off.
"Never mind. go ahead and fry him Raven!"
"No, you were right. I don't need to go on a killing spree yet. until the planet is safe I can't. then we're going to have a little fun destroying anything we want ourselves."
"Darn! Why did I have to open my big mouth?" Reese wonders aloud.
"Uh Oh. He needs some more training Reese! Few more weeks ought to do it!" Moon Bay taunts from the control room.
"I guess you get that from trying to train Irvine?" Reese comes back at Moon Bay.
"So, when is the wedding Raven?" Van taunts some more. "And how many kids are you going to have? Do you wuv her wraven?" Van says in a "child's talk" manner.
"Give it a rest Van. do you know how I could tease you about Fiona?" Irvine says in an attempt to keep the peace as to not tick Raven off any more than necessary. "We all know that you love her. and she loves the heck out of you."
"Yeah. I DO love Fiona. I'm not afraid to admit it either. in fact; we WERE engaged until she pulled this little stunt. apparently there are still a few bugs to work out."
"Jesus Van. you proposed to Fiona. and didn't tell us!? And WHEN did you do this? We were with you and Fiona the entire time until she disappeared." Irvine scolds Van.
"He proposed right before I shot her in those ruins back there. I knew that it was coming. but I was almost ashamed to shoot her at such a romantic moment. but the security of Zi was at steak." Raven explains to Irvine.
"Why did you shoot her anyway Raven? I was sitting right there. you always seem to want to kill me, not Fiona."
"Ask Reese why she wanted me to kill her. I didn't know that Hiltz was already there and had done half of the work for me. That was a bonus at that time, although I felt sorry for her and her pain."
"Well what about when you shot her? That hurts too you know! So it is okay if you do it? But not if someone else does it? What kind of bizarre philosophy is that?" Van scolds at Raven.
"No, it is just that I thought I would put her out of her misery."
"What misery? She could have lived, and healed a lot faster if you hadn't shot her! If you felt sorry for us then why did you want to kill Fiona?"
"The misery that Reese thought was going to."
"Raven I will explain from here." Reese cuts Raven off; "Fiona probably told you herself that she felt that something evil was coming. I could feel that too; because I as well am an Ancient Zoidian. I knew that Prozen would go after the only Zoidian he knew. Fiona. I knew that he would use her for some evil plot that would destroy the planet. I thought that if I could only get Fiona out of the way. Prozen would fail. and the planet would be safe."
"Why didn't you just tell us? We could have all handled it. and most of this wouldn't have happened. And yes; Fiona did get extremely freaked out when we visited this place a few days ago. that is how I knew where to go to find her. and by the warm welcome we got; I guess my hunch was right."
"We didn't think that you would believe us Van because of our past conflicts. We thought of everything else and exhausted all possibilities except to kill Fiona."
"When the matter happens to involve something like that you can always tell us. plus if you don't come in with your guns blazing like you usually do then we might actually believe you. If you don't shoot at us we usually won't shoot at you."
Van, Raven, and Reese argue back and forth for a while when they are interrupted by an open radio broadcast; "Attention all units. Van and the others have been spotted in the caldera. Dispatch them immediately. They must not interfere with our plans to rule the universe."
"That sounded like Prozen! And what did he mean by 'dispatch us'?"
"Duh Einstein, that is the military term for dispose of, annihilate, kill, ya' know that sort of thing." Raven flashes Van one of those 'you are stupid' faces, and turns towards the ruins.
"Well then I guess we are at the right place to find Fiona then. But where are these so called units that are supposed to come annihilate us?" Van looks hard out into the caldera. "I don't see a thing. Do you think that they got scared because of Prozen mentioning our names?" Van turns around to see if anything is behind him. He stares long and hard, but he can still see nothing that appears hostile. "Do you think he is bluffing?"
"Raven. Do you feel that?"
"Feel what Reese?"
"That feeling that something evil is upon us."
"How many times have I told you? NO, I can't sense these things like you! Er. but whatever it is sure can't be anything good to make you feel like that."
"Raven. just admit that you like her and then we can all be happy."
"Van shut up! Besides, now isn't the time for such foolishness."
"Do you Raven?"
"Huh?"
"Do you love me?"
Raven looks into Reese's eyes that are big and shining. He feels a weird feeling coming over him. "Uhhh. well. umm."
"Oh, Raven" Reese stretches her arm up over the back of Raven's seat and puts her hand on his shoulder. Raven sighs and relaxes just a little in his seat.
"What happened to you Raven? You used to be so angry with everyone so much that you couldn't love anyone. And Reese, I thought that you liked me those many years ago. Oh well, now that you have joined up with my worst enemy; Raven I will have to destroy you two as well."
"What the. I thought we destroyed you a couple years ago! You and the Death Stinger. so what are you doing back?" Van looks angrily at Hiltz approaching in the Death Stinger. "And why did you try to kill Fiona?"
"The same reason I am going to kill you."
"Van, lets scatter, he can wipe us all out with that charged particle cannon!" Irvine jumps out of the way of a few shells that were fired at him. Van jumps to the left as a few shells land by him as well. Thomas, who is too slow to avoid the shells, gets nailed.
"AHHH!" Thomas's Di Bison falls to the ground and its combat system freezes.
"Thomas, are you okay?" Van jumps out of the way of a few shells again.
"UGH! My combat system is frozen. I am out of commission. I'll head back to the Whale King where it is safer." Thomas hops out of his Di Bison and starts running back to the Whale King.
"Hah! That is one of you down. Who is next?" Hiltz laughs as he pummels the group with shell after shell. Rudolph jumps to the side and unleashes an Alpha Strike on Hiltz; emptying every round of ammo he has, as well as every salvo of missiles.
The Death Stinger shakes as it gets hit with an incredible amount of force. "You insubordinate little brat!" Hiltz charges up the CPC, aiming it at the Royal Zaber Fang.
The sparkly blue beam shoots toward Rudolph, who looks toward it with a stunned expression. He closes his eyes just as it is about to hit and cringes. "Huh?" Rudolph looks up to see Van blocking the Charged Particle Cannon.
"Rudolph! Get the heck out of there!" Van yells as he is struggling to block the enormous force of the cannon. Rudolph quickly jettisons some of his weapons, which are no longer of use to him, and jumps out of the way just as the Blade Liger gives way and jumps out of the beam.
Raven charges the Death Stinger and flies up and over it to get a good shot in. "Hiltz, I will kill you for all of the sorrow and misery we have endured because of you!' Raven starts to charge up the Particle Cannon. "Now DIE!"
"Please. come up with something a little more original." Hiltz calmly deploys the shield on the Death Stinger just as Raven fires the Charged Particle Cannon. The beam sparks and crackles as it goes up against the power of the shield.
"RAAAHHHH!" Raven is putting everything he has against the power of the shield. but eventually he has to power down in fear of overloading the Geno Breaker's power system.
"Hah! That was it? You have a long way to go before you can take me on in an all out power battle Raven. But you wont live long enough to learn how to bring out your zoid's full potential. You would have really been a force to be reckoned with." Hiltz turns the tail upward so that he can pump off a couple of shots at Raven, but Raven is already on the retreat back to a safer location.
"So, he has become more powerful than last time. How are we supposed to kill him? All he has to do is deploy that darn shield and then he can sit there and drink a cup of coffee or something."
"Van! Don't give him any ideas you idiot!" Raven scolds Van.
Hiltz begins to charge up the cannon again. Van deploys the shield and blade to neutralize the blast again; "Hiltz, talk about the need to be original."
"Who said it was you that I was aiming at?"
Van looks at the tail of the Death Stinger and notices that it is off to his right just a bit to be shooting at him. He looks over to his right to see Fiona running towards him.
"Hahahahaha! Van, I thought I would let you two see each other die, so I let her go, she has served her purpose." Prozen laughs as Fiona runs full tilt towards Van.
"Van!" Fiona exclaims when she is about 100 meters from him.
"Fiona! RUN! . ER. NO THE OTHER WAY!" Hiltz now fires the CPC at Fiona. "FIONA!"
Fiona looks up at Van with big teary eyes as the beam of particles engulfs her. Van can only watch in horror as she disappears within the blue beam of terror. "Fiona."
The beam subsides leaving behind a large simmering ditch in the ground in the place of Fiona. "No. Fiona." Van looks on stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Hiltz is laughing a high shrill laugh because of his elimination of Fiona; thinking it great fun to destroy everything others lived for.
"Hiltz! You will pay dearly for that!!" "Fiona, I am sorry; I guess I wasn't able to protect you this time." Van mumbles to himself as tears begin to roll down his face.
(End Part 5)
(Writers Comments)
Nice cliffhanger huh? I will see if this gets me any responses; and then I will continue. I have already got the whole thing planned out into the next 'book'. but I don't have a title. I can guarantee you that you will enjoy the ending. to the series (sorry). that is if you support Van&Fiona, and Bit&Leena as couples (no one ever said you had to agree with me though.). But it will be a wild ride to the finish, and I am improving in skill (I think), so there should be less errors, and better techniques; but don't expect to get a Steven King novel out of me.