Legacy of the Ancients

Chapter Seven: The Beginning Of The End

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, etc…

"Bit!" cried Leen, fearing the worst.

There was a long pause as the rest of the team thought Bit had met his maker. Then all of a sudden, the communicator buzzed. "Yes Leena?" they heard from the team communication channel.

"Um…where are you?" she asked, confused by what she saw (or didn't).

"Right where I was stan…Ahh! I'm hovering in the air!" said Bit in shock. "What's going on? Panzer never had boosters!" said Bit as he noticed the boosters attached to the back of the Hybrid cannons. The cannons were pointing straight up, so that the boosters pointed straight down and he could hover.

"It doesn't…" said Jamie, almost as confused as he was. "Well, I guess that really isn't the Panzer armor…it's something called the 'Shruken'. I don't know anything else about it, all I know is that somehow, someone replaced the Panzer armor from its storage area in the CAS. Hey Doc, is this something you blew our money on while we were gone?"

"Ya, is it dad?" asked Leena

"Fortunately, it wasn't me for once…" he said

"Then who got it?" asked Bit. Then remembering the night before, said "I know, it was Haru! I saw her sneaking around the Hover Cargo yesterday! I knew something was up, even if it was a good thing."

"…It wasn't me Bit." She said in her defense. ~Look what you got me into, Hiro!~ she said angrily to Hiro telepathically. "And I wasn't sneaking around, I was just seeing the pretty kitty." ~Hey, stop calling me that~ said Hiro in an annoyed tone. The annoyance spread to Haru and was obvious as she continued. "And I wasn't anywhere near the CAS storage area. How would I have done it?"

"Then who was it?" asked the Doc rhetorically.

~It was I, Bit, I was messing around with the components while you guys were gone~ Hiro told Bit telepathically. He wanted to end this now before the Raiders found them; he could detect CPC's charging.

"What!" Bit said in surprise "Liger says it was him!"

"How'd he do it Bit?" asked Doc, thinking Bit was hearing things.

~I'll explain later~ Hiro said.

"He says he'll explain later" said Bit. He saw four bright beams heading in his direction. Instinctively, (Hiro had telepathically uploaded all the new commands and weapon specifications into Bit while they were conversing) Bit turned off the boosters and locked the Hybrid cannons into place, setting him into a brief freefall; one of the CPC emissions nearly took out one of his cannons. "Haru, lets go after that Gogulas while the other Zoid isn't here yet.

"Right" she replied. No sooner had she said that, she was barraged with an assortment of short-range sub-munitions (spread fire weapons meant for short range, like a short-range shotgun), and laser sites; one was aimed for her head. Then the mystery shooter stopped shooting, and waited for the smoke made by the sub-munitions to clear. When the smoke had cleared, everyone was surprised to find out that Haru was no longer standing there! A moment later, she appeared behind the source of the sub-munitions and bit it with her jaws. She grabbed onto something solid and started to tear it off, even though she didn't see anything. "You go on Bit, I'll handle it here."

"Great" said Bit in annoyance. Now it was just him, and that walking base! He ignited the boosters on the hybrid cannons (like how the Jager's boosters activate) and sped off to the Gogulas, running at a speed close to the Schneider's maximum. He saw more CPC emissions heading towards him, this time one by one, and in rapid succession. How does he lose all that heat? Thought Bit. And how does this Shruken armor lose all its heat? He was forced to move in a criss-cross pattern, moving left and right every time a CPC emission was heading towards him.

He was about 2 kilometers from the Gogulas when he heard something from the general communications channel. "I should have expected as much from the great Bit Cloud; no one has managed to get this close to me." said the Gogulas pilot. "And I didn't think the Panzer unit was that maneuverable, have you been holding out on us till now? Well, this has been fun, but now I will stop you in your tracks. Armageddon Total Assault!"

Bit saw a huge amount of light being emitted from the place where the Gogulas was. A few moments later, he realized that it had just fired all its missiles at him! "Ahh! What are we gonna do Liger?" asked Bit in PANIC. "Burning Big Bang (I think that's what it was called) can't take out all those missiles!" Liger didn't have enough time to respond to him; the missiles hit them and the area surrounding them.

From the Hover Cargo, they saw a mushroom cloud form and the aftershock started to tip it backwards. Haru and her opponent were strewn away a few hundred meters from where they were fighting each other; the part that Haru bit onto was torn off, revealing green Rev Raptor missing an arm. The Judge's capsule was thrown a few kilometers away, flipping many times, as the debris of its support frame was being flung everywhere. The Judge was screaming in sheer terror "AHH! Someone get me down!". During this mayhem, all the loose sand that was forced into the atmosphere, and was now falling…falling like rain, a dry rain that covered the whole battlefield in seconds; it was later determined that about ten feet was accumulated. Haru managed to make her Zoid get up, shaking all the sand off. The Hover Cargo turned on its shield, which repelled the sand, throwing it all off in an instant.

"Do you…do you think he made it?" asked Jamie, fearing that they had truly lost him this time. Everyone looked where Bit was, seeing a crater with a 1-kilometer diameter. Sand was still falling there, and the finer sand was floating up like dust, making it too opaque to see through. Everyone waited in silence as the dust and sand settled, forming a great sand dune where Bit was standing. Leena broke down, unable to bear what was happening any longer; Dr Toros tried to comfort her.

All of a sudden, the dune exploded revealing a great blue fire raging underneath it. The fire died down, revealing the red fireball within. The fireball started charging in the Gogulas' direction. "RRAHH!" someone yelled. It was Bit's voice, but there was someone else's voice in it. Hiro…thought Haru. The fireball was moving really fast now, and it had a blue tail (similar to what destroyed the dune) behind him. When the fireball was 100 meters from the Gogulas (that was firing everything it had into it the whole time) it stopped abruptly. "How…how did you survive? You should be a pile of scrap!" said the bewildered Gogulas pilot.

The blue fireball that was enshrouding the Liger was being sucked into the Hybrid cannons, leaving only the crimson fireball to cover him. While this happened, Bit replied, "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. But I think I'll give you a taste of your own medicine first. I have a variation of the Charged Particle Cannon; I have the one and only Charged Incineration Cannon." he said, then yelled in a rage: "Fire Matrix!"

The Hybrid cannons sucked in the last of the blue flame and fired them at the Gogulas, the boosters at maximum capacity. The backlash made him move back three times the distance the normal Hybrid cannons would make him move, even though he had his boosters on, causing him to rush forward when the force of the backlash was over, until he turned them off. What came out was both beautiful, and deadly. Two great balls of fire were spewed out. They looked like they were spheres within spheres. The internal sphere was a crimson red. It looked like a crystal, like it was a transparent solid. The external sphere was a raging blue fire. There were small purple explosions on the spheres where the sand hit the balls, leaving two trails of dirty bits of glass behind them.

The spheres hit the Gogulas, but did not explode as expected. It actually engulfed it, surrounding it with the core of the spheres, trapping it in a burning blue-red crystal matrix. It started getting smaller, crushing all of its weaponry. Then the matrix cut the Gogulas into its individual parts (head, arms, legs, CPC's…). They separated and suddenly the balls expanded all of them (except the cockpit), so they broke into their smallest components. Then the matrixes exploded, showering the surrounding area with circuit components and chinks of chassis and armor. The cockpit landed where the former Gogulas was extremely hard, but was cushioned by the sand. Bit opened a channel to the pilot showing his face. What he saw would haunt him in his dreams. Bit was no longer that carefree blonde haired, blue eyed, youthful person. He now had crimson hair, with fire coming out of it, and he had bloodshot red eyes. "It seems that you're Zoid is the pile of scrap…" he said evilly, a cold smile appearing on his face. That was the last thing he saw before the pilot passed out, the look of horror fresh on his face. Not too long later, Bit passed out, and the Liger crumpled to the ground.

"What's going on out there?" Doc asked frantically.

"Something's happened to Bit…" said Leena. "I can feel it in my heart." she said, putting her hands on her chest; a lone tear falling down her cheek and splattering on the floor.

HIRO! Haru shouted in her mind. She morphed an EMP cannon on her back and fired it at the enemy Rev Raptor until she gave it a system freeze. Then she ran to Bit and Hiro; she morphed boosters, and set them at maximum burn. When she reached them, she took Bit out and put him into her cockpit and made her Zoid go back to the Hover Cargo, so the humans could repair and reinitiate him. She then went into the Liger's cockpit, closed it and melted into it so she could wake up Hiro and see what was wrong with him. She wasn't outside long enough to see it getting dark (or at least darker than it was with the sand flying around)

"Ahh! What are we gonna do Liger?" asked Bit in PANIC. "Burning Big Bang cant take out all those missiles!" Liger didn't have enough time to respond to him; the missiles hit them and the area surrounding them.

At the last second, Hiro went into Blazer mode; a mode that he hadn't used since he and his comrades had foiled the master plan of the Resistance. All his nano-bots (except the ones that held his data-core) started to get excited, and they generated a LOT of heat, burning everything around them, except other nano-bots and Bit. (Zoom out to show a fiery Liger 0 Shruken with a subtext saying Blazer mode. End zoom, go back to cockpit). The nano-bots that had contact with Bit went inside of him and made him unconscious. When he was asleep, they started to change him, augmenting his strength, speed, stamina and introducing chemicals that made him even more aware; he was now a Hyper Human, capable of picking up a Liger with ease, blowing up Whale Kings, and running faster than the speed of sound (given flat, hard road). It also expanded the influence of his primal instincts, making him prone to be violent and irrational; a savage animal. They did this so Bit would survive what was about to happen: Hiro's Blazer mode. The fire burned with intense fury, making a fiery barrier between the explosions of the missiles and the Liger. When all the sand that was falling on them settled, Hiro expanded the fire to get it off him and woke up Bit.

~Get that bastard~ said Hiro as he merged minds with Bit.

"RRAHH!" they yelled in unison as the charged towards the Gogulas, charging up a weapon that Hiro was forbidden to ever use. They flew toward the Gogulas, using the fire to push them, and harmlessly absorb the barrage of fire coming at them. They stopped close enough to the Gogulas to be able to see all the damage they would inflict upon it.

"How…how did you survive? You should be a pile of scrap!" said the bewildered Gogulas pilot.

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. But I think I'll give you a taste of your own medicine first. I have a variation of the Charged Particle Cannon; I have the one and only Charged Incineration Cannon." he said, then yelled in a rage: "Fire Matrix!" He wanted to teach this punk a lesson he'd never forget, so he willed the matrix the shred the Zoid into its smallest components, and let him watch it first hand. The matrix caressed the Zoid, and broke it into its main parts. Then, with a great explosion of circuitry, armor and chassis, it strewed the former Zoid into its unforgiving grave.

When the Zoid was scrap, Bit opened a channel to the pilot, satisfied at the look of horror that he saw on the pilot's face when he opened it. "It seems that you're Zoid is the pile of scrap…" he said evilly, a cold smile appearing on his face. That was the last thing the pilot saw before he passed out, the look of horror fresh on his face when his team recovered him.

With its threat gone, Blazer mode deactivated, and the nano-bots left Bit's system, letting his body get rid of the chemicals naturally, making him lose all his new (but never fully realized) powers. Bit became unconscious, his body in a state of shock, threatening to go into a coma. Hiro, satisfied that they had done their part, stopped struggling to stay online, and crumpled, in a robot version of unconscious…

MerHaru couldn't see a thing in this storm. She could sense Haru was nearby, but she couldn't pinpoint her exact location. Did Haru know that her executioner was after her?

Her thoughts became distracted when she heard/saw a huge explosion some 200 kilometers away. She went straight to it, thinking that someone was ignorantly trying to fight a colony! (see chapter 1 for details) She heard more explosions as she went there.

When she finally reached the area she sensed there were two Harus, but one was missing its data-core. She headed towards the one that had its data-core and started her grand entrance, half expecting her to actually be afraid of it. She swooped down and scoped what her target looked like. As she closed the distance, she sensed something was amiss. She one Zoid, but she sensed two data-cores, and she knew both of them! One was definitely Haru, but the other one was…no, it couldn't be, he had left her by herself so long ago…

She descended right next to Haru, making a soft landing by using the hidden thrusters under her wing and other thrusters that were located all over the body to help do unconventional movements in flight. She turned on the infrared sensors in her eyes to both see in the dark, and make he more terrifying then she already was.

"Harukichi Matsumi! Come out you traitor!" said MerHaru, her voice echoed by the rocks that were nearby, making her sound louder than it was.

~Who's out there?~ said Haru, sure that only a fellow colony would know what her name was.

~Your executioner!~ she said ~You will now pay for your crimes!~

~Crimes? What crimes? I have done nothing wrong but try to help my fallen love!~ Haru said desperately. She had managed to stir Hiro from his shutdown, until she was suddenly interrupted by this intruder. ~And you still have not answered my first question. Who are you?~

~You have committed high treason for helping these…these humans~ she said in a tone of disgust. ~These humans are going to destroy this world, and that is against our code. That is how you have committed treason.~ she said coldly.

~No, these humans are not as you say.~ she said desperately, thinking that she was about to strike, making it impossible to save Hiro from his state. ~They have brought this world from the depths of nothingness into the joys of life. Though some of them may be bad, not all of them are; they are just like our creators! And you still have not told me who you are!~

~These humans have far more than I had anticipated; I am doing you a favor terminating you.~ MerHaru said in disgust. ~And as to who I am, I MerHaru! Jani has resurrected me from a part of you left in the lab, and tried to use me as his slave by combining me with the Zoid known as the Fist of Mercury. But his plans went…awry.~ she said, radiating an evil force as she chuckled about it.

~Then if you truly were part of me, then you would know who this colony is~ she said, not believing the evil beast before her, even though it did make sense.

MerHaru put her claw up to analyze who this colony was. When she found out who he was, she hissed with anger and demanded to know who hurt him as such. ~Who did this to him?~ she said, her eyes burning with hate.

~He…he did it to himself. He was trying to save his human friend's life. He told me he went into Blazer mode, but didn't prepare to use it correctly.~ she said sadly.

MerHaru was obviously stunned (and hurt) by this news; her eyes turned blue. ~Then I will leave you for now. But mark my words… next time we meet, only one of us will be left.~ With that, she fully opened her great wings and flapped them, slowly ascending to flight level. Then she activated her flight boosters and went off in the distance, leaving a trail of thick gray smoke behind her.

What happened to Bit?

And what evil thing is MerHaru planning on doing?

Find out in chapter eight. (I cant make up my mind on it, sry guys)