-Advance Wars 2

--Lash Factor

---Chapter 4: Tactical Tank Action

I don't think I rested for two days after I broke out of Sami's HQ. I just kept moving. Sometimes I was moving, sometimes the systems of the suit were moving me for me. All I knew is that by using the suit's computer to view the map of the area, I needed to do a hell of a lot more walking to reach Flak's current position. He was going head on with Max, Orange Star's muscle, with a collection of planes, bombers and helicopters. A small air force.

But I remembered something from my orders when still a part of Black Hole. They didn't authorize Flak to use any air units because Orange Star's terrain didn't require any. The only explanation was Flak didn't give a damn and was doing everything his own way, so long as he didn't get caught.

Walking out in the middle of nowhere with all that silence eventually got me to open up a channel to current Black Hole operations against Max. I quickly learned that there wasn't much for Flak to smash with his air force, most of Max's troops were on the ground, with anti-air. Then I heard a vehicle approaching and quickly darted to the side of the road. Thank god! A vehicle.

I was even more excited when it pulled up. An APC! I leapt out of the tress as quickly as I had dove for them and managed to get up along side it trying to get a foothold and climbing up onto it. Suddenly the suit activated magnetic grips and I stuck right onto the side of it. That was... an odd moment. Until I got on top of the thing that is. It was a Black Hole APC, going toward the battle obviously which made my walking a little bit less extensive.

We began to drive alongside this huge lake while Flak's air units tried to dive bomb Max's ground positions. I could see them outlined on the map. Needless to say, Flak was going to die before he saw the end of this battle. I was going to make sure of it. Eventually the APC approached the compound and went through the security gate. As far as I knew, I was still a legitimate Black Hole soldier, so I figured I didn't have to act like I was infiltrating a base. Hell, we all looked the same.

I began to move quickly, trying to look busy. It didn't take long to locate Flak, who was trying to think of an escape plan. In other words, I had a lot of time to try to find out how to take him down without getting killed and letting Lash off the hook. He was marching around some Medium Tanks and yelling out at the soldiers around him.

"Move move, move!" Flak barked. "Come on let's go! Max will be here any minute! I gotta get out of here!"

"Sir! The cargo plane is loaded like you requested." One soldier saluted.

"Good, now take off!"

What? Without him on it? What was he trying to do? Be smart or something? I decided to creep around some parked APCs while trying to get closer. There were about four Medium Tanks lined up facing another gate, looking like they were ready to roll out.

"All right worms! Listen up! The cargo plane is going to take off soon, supposedly with me on it. Course' that's what Max will think, but I'm going to escape using these tanks here!"

He talked like forming a plan was so new and difficult. Like no one in the world could touch the kind of military planning he had. Which was none mind you. He had none. The only thing he knew how to do right, is smash things. That's it. That's Flak's big plan every single time. Flak leapt onto one of the tanks and opened up the hatch getting in. The soldiers standing around him began to get in and that's when I decided to move.

I darted up to the nearest tank driver and strangled him. At that moment, I thought shooting him might get Flak to pop his bulbous head from his tank and see the mess. Quickly I leapt up into the driverless tank and began to run down the controls memorizing where what was. This was it. I was going to take Flak out with his own tank. Oh, but I'm sorry. I was going to "smash" him with his own tank.

Using the monitor, I rotated the turret and locked on to the lead tank. Flak wasn't in it, but I decided that I needed some privacy to work here. With my heart racing, I pulled the lever down and the cannon went off slamming the tank in the side and nearly flipping it over. It was decimated anyway. Flak popped his head up and looked around confused.

"What the hell?" He muttered to himself.

I popped my domed helmet out of my tank and yelled out to him.

"Remember me Flak? You remember what your army did to me? I'm gonna kill you! You big dumb grunt!"

I could see him reel backwards almost like he didn't believe his ears and suddenly my tank shuttered. The rear Medium Tank behind me had rammed me and began to push me sideways as Flak ducked back into his and began to take off. Angrily I pushed my levers forward for each tread and began to take off trying to escape the tank behind me.

A thundering boom went off as the tank tried to hit me, but missed as I darted around an APC and began to burn through the HQ, Black Hole soldiers running for their lives. I activated the onboard computer to lock onto the tank in pursuit, but with my constant darting from side to side, it wasn't easy for it to lock on. Flak was getting away, so I spun the tank around and headed right back the way I came.

I ran down the gates of the HQ and took off down the road Flak had gestured to in his big escape plan. Taking a look in the rear view camera, I could see the pursuit tank was still on my ass. Nothing I could do about that now but try to avoid the guy. The automated systems didn't work as fast as a gunner team. My tank ramped fallen trees and crushed just about anything else in its path.

Suddenly rockets began to land around me. Damn! Orange Star had closed in a lot faster than I anticipated. Even though Max's troops had bad training when it concerned rockets and artillery, they could still fire and that meant they were pretty damn close. The Medium Tank was a pretty big target too. If I was lucky, the tank behind me would get snagged by a rocket or two.

Finally I could spot Flak's Medium Tank a couple miles ahead and I knew I could catch up if I pushed my tank's systems hard enough. But as I got closer, I could see Flak was turning his turret around, he was going to try and blast me!

"Crap, crap, crap. Uh... err... geez..." I was trying to find something in the tanks systems to fix this situation.

My turret was all ready on it's way targeting the tank behind me. So I soon did the only thing I could possibly do at that moment. I swerved my tank off the road to the left and just in time too. The cameras showed Flak's blast clearly nailed the other tank and took it out. Ha ha. Yeah, that's the kind of thing Flak would do. But with my off road incursion, I was no longer trailing Flak and soon came out onto a road.

It still went in the direction he was heading though so I punched it, while popping the hatch and looking to my right to see if I could spot him. But then I heard more motors and a more company showed up. Orange Star tanks. Oh dammit. I didn't want to fire on them, but I knew what they were going to do. Mistaking me for the enemy. I fired off a round and the shot went right between them almost flipping them into the air.

The road began to move right and suddenly Flak's tank tore onto the road behind me. I couldn't believe it. I had actually passed the guy. Bad news for me though, cause Flak had taken the time to spin his turret facing the way he was going and all he had to do was push a switch to make me disappear. Frantically I got out of my tank and stood on the main turret and then leapt onto Flak's as he fired off a round. The explosion doubled my jump and I nearly overshot his tank.

Landing on the back, I could hear him as he opened up his turret to inspect the destruction he had caused. While he was gloating over his damage, I got up and grabbed his throat trying to suffocate him. That was a pretty bad move. I had forgotten how bulked up this guy was so he easily ripped my hands away and spun around punching my helmet and sending me sprawling backwards.

It got even more crazy as a pair of Orange Star recon vehicles pulled up on both sides of Flak's tank and began to open fire on him and me! Didn't they see I tried to kill the guy? The gunners were pretty close to shooting me into Swiss cheese as Flak spun his turret and blew one of the Recon vehicles into kingdom come. With that taken care of, he swerved the tank and ran the other off the road. That's when he hit a humongous bump and I fell off.

Rolling to the ground, I quickly jumped back up and considered running after him like a fool. Since he had a nice mounted gun at his side, I figured that wasn't a good idea. So I spun around towards the damaged recon vehicle. The soldiers had piled out of the jeep a little bit dazed from their crash and I took that moment to hijack it. They shouted out some angry words and almost went as far as to try to shoot me as I took off toward Flak again.

Now this is a chase vehicle. This sucker was fast and I instantly caught up with the rampaging Medium Tank and wondered how long it would be until Max deployed some Medium Tanks of his own. The forest suddenly subsided and we were in a clearing. I took a box of ammo to the machine gun and dropped it on the gas pedal. Since the windshield of the recon vehicle was shattered, it made it easy for me to climb onto the hood and jump back onto Flak's tank.

Eventually the road curved and the recon vehicle went speeding off into the high grass never to be seen again. My next big problem was getting back into the tank, since Flak had closed the hatch, but the sound of rotors filled my ears. A Black Hole transport copter had come onto the scene obviously trying to save him because of his dumb plan he cooked up.

He popped out facing away from me and I bashed him over the head with my machine gun. I should have known he didn't have a brain to feel that and he quickly spun around and hit my feet nearly knocking me off of the tank again. I grabbed onto his jacket and kept myself from falling off as it sped through the field in no particular direction. He looked up quickly to see the side door to the Transport Copter open up, and a soldier threw down a rope to him.

"Well well, well. The little Orange Star worm wants to get revenge? You should have thought twice before messing with me."

Flak lost his cocky smile when I raised my hand with the machine gun on it and pointed it at him.

"Flak! Die!" I yelled at him.

He flung his head back as I opened fire and I hit the copter's cockpit dead on. You should have saw the pitiful face Flak made when his escape chopper soon began to spin in the air before crashing to the ground in a fiery pulp. The next thing I knew, Flak had ripped the gun from my hand and was gritting his teeth like he wanted to kill the world.

"Worm!" He shouted out flushed with anger. "Time to get smashed!"

He picked me up and let out a ferocious yell before slamming my helmet into the tank. The glass visor shattered instantly and soon I was undoing the clasps before Flak decided to slam me into the tank again. This time it really would be my face. Right as he went back to gain momentum for another smash, I finally undid the helmet and escaped from his grip. Now all he held was the empty broken helmet and looked around confused.

"How's that for a plan! You stupid muscle head!" I began to kick him in the face.

Flak was letting out painful grunts as I went to work on him. But my position on top didn't hold long as the uneven ground shook me from my delicate position. Now I had fallen and was staying off the ground by holding onto the main gun of the Medium Tank. Holy hell, this was getting crazy!

"Arrrrrrrggggggg!!!!!! I'm outta control!" Flak bellowed.

Ok... Now things got a little bit trickier. Flak decided to use one of his CO Abilities. Nothing short of a magic trick on epic proportions. Who knows what could happen when it's focused on one person?

"You're going to die worm! You're going to die right now!" He vowed.

That's when the tank came to a screeching stop and I went flying from the main gun tumbling across the ground. Flak had jumped down from the tank and was running toward me with his fists up, ready to beat the crap out of someone. That someone was me. Foolishly I decided to take him on. That was probably the dumbest decision of my entire life as a soldier in war. When the first punch hit me, I was reminded of that first time he nailed me.

Instant suffering. With no helmet, I had forgotten how vulnerable my face was and I went down hard. But Flak was not content with this and picked me up roaring out like a mad man. I think it would have taken a platoon of Orange Star's best to take him down now. I was doomed if something didn't happen real fast. I was kicking and punching him with the most force I could possibly conger up. But I didn't do a thing and soon found myself kissing the ground.

When I regained my vision I saw his boot come up and I grabbed it as it came down and shoved it aside. It was Flak's turn to fall down as he lost balance and hit the ground hard. I leapt back up onto my feet and began to kick him in the stomach as he was getting back up on all fours. But much like I did to him, he caught it and stood back up sending me airborne. When Flak launched me, I did a flip in mid air before surrendering to gravity.

The next time he came down, he came down hard with a pile driver to my chest. I think if I wasn't wearing that suit, he probably would have broken my sternum. It certainly knocked the air out of me. Now Flak was on his knees and all I could make out was his fists flying up and down beating me into submission. If only I had a gun... Then, right before he was going to knock me unconscious, he paused and we both looked up to hear more rotors in the air.

Another Black Hole Transport Copter had come and this time Lash was yelling out angrily for Flak to get his ass inside the chopper. I could tell through his goggles that he was torn between two things. Either kill me... Or live to fight another day before Orange Star caught him... If I was as persistent as I thought I was, I decided that was a pretty tough choice.

"You lucky little worm..." Flak was mumbling to me as he stood up. "I'm gonna crush your country, then I'll crush you."

"Flak! Get in here now!" Lash demanded. "We have to take out Sami now! Western Coast! Is anything making sense to you!"

He ran and got into the chopper and they both took off. I could only gasp for air and slowly sat up feeling the pain shoot up and down my body. The chopper took off as I crawled towards the tank and sat up against it watching them disappear into a small dot. This was but a temporary setback... I was going to get them both eventually...

I had to thank Lash for not noticing me on the ground. Western Coast... I knew that facility. That was an Orange Star staging point for our navy... This Medium Tank could get me there in good time. Slowly I began to work my way back into the tank. My body groaned with pain. Rule number one folks. No matter how dumb Flak looks, he can beat the crap out of you when ever he wants. Just shoot him before he gets riled up.

Once I was moving, I had a chance to rest for a moment. The Black Hole Medium Tank was pretty advanced when I took the moment to look over it. I would probably call it a nice piece of work... If it wasn't from Black Hole. Whoever got these guys going knows a whole lot about advanced technology. But enough about them, soon as I knocked off Lash and Flak, I could finally be happy... And I could get them back for what they did to me... For what their army did to my life...

-To be continued

--Concluded in Chapter 5: Train Reaction