Legacy of the Ancients
Chapter Thirteen: Gangsta' Love
By: Sci-Fi-Raptor
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, nor do I advocate the use of ducklings as skipping stones…
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…" she said as she covered her face with her hands.
"Shit! How the hell did those small explosions destroy the whole base?"
"Its… its your fault! I should have never listened to you. My friends would be alive if it weren't for you!" said Leena, ready to strangle him.
"Yo… yo! Calm down. Listen, if you didn't bail, you would have been long dead by now. And remember the hangar?" she nodded, and her tears stopped flowing. "There was a missing car, and it probably could have comfortably seated all your friends. Now calm down, we're almost there, and if my friends think there is something wrong with you, I'm not responsible for their actions."
"Is that a threat?!" she said, ready to strangle him again.
"PIPE DOWN!"
"Oh no you didn't…"
By head ached… I think I had a migraine. My whole body felt really bad, as if my body was having a migraine. And then it was all gone, no pain; as if I was instantly healed. My eyes were closed the whole time, but I realized that a bright light was shining on my face. I lifted my head, and opened my eyes, hoping that I would see who was my captor. It can't be… just leave me alone! It was him again, and he was looking at me in contempt. Or was it just the light? They look so similar. But I could make out some silhouettes of the people in the room. At least ten people; no way to escape without Shadow.
"Eh boss, he's awake"
"Should we mess him up?"
"No… all of you leave. I wanna talk to him myself"
"Whatever you say boss" The silhouettes went to my right. One by one, they all left until there was only one left. He adjusted the light so that it pointed down, and I could see his face. He approached me slowly, and slowly I could make out the details of his face as my eyes adjusted.
"You have some nerve kid… no one in their right mind would think about assaulting the leader of the Mafia. So, were you drunk or something? Cause if you chose to attack me consciously, that would have been the last conscious choice you would have made." He waited eagerly for my answer, but I gave him none.
"What, you a mute? No… you can't be. I remember your voice"
"Yes, I did consciously assault you"
"What the f**k was going on in your head kid?" he said, point at my brain.
"You were an old guy, and I wanted to mess someone up"
"…WHAT?" he said in disbelief. He obviously thought that he was a very important person, and was stunned that I had no idea who or what he was. "Do you know who I am?"
"No, and I don't care" I said nonchalantly. His face grew red with fry, but then something unsettling happened to him; he became calm, even amused.
"We could use someone like you" he said, and was about to continue, but was cut short by one of his men.
"Eh boss, someone wants to see ya"
"Tell 'em I'm busy"
"You won't believe who it is boss"
"Dammit!" he thought aloud, and politely excused himself. One of his men was about to come inside and guard me, but he dismissed him saying I was "cool." I was alone in the room now, and I tried getting out of the restraints.
"So, who's this guy that wants to see me so bad" said Emilio.
"Is that how you welcome an old friend?"
"Agamemnon… is that you?"
"In the flesh" I said, and we both hugged each other.
"Its been a long time since I've seen you bro'"
"I know, and I'm sorry I didn't visit as often as I would have liked, but you know how the Back Draft is"
"Ya… wait, aren't you supposed to be doing your clean job?"
"I was, until I got in trouble for helping someone who was injured."
"Well, that's gotta suck"
"You can say that again"
"Well, that's gotta…" he cut himself off, when he noticed Leena "Who's the chick?"
"She's my… my girlfriend" I instantly replied. Leena gave me a death stare, and I responded with an expression saying I would explain later.
"Oh, so she's not available" said Emilio, and a bunch of guys sighed in disappointment. At that point Leena did not need any explanation for my response. "Well, I better get you two a room. Actually, I have a room that was specially designed for people like you"
"Oh? Oh… I get your drift. So, where's Henry?" I asked when he was referring to his deceased wife Olivia. Unfortunately for her, she died during labor, and it caused Emilio a lot of grief; they really loved each other.
"Here I am uncle Agamemnon" said a young man that looked like the Emilio I used to know.
"Henry!" I said, and we embraced. "You've grown so much since I last saw you!" Like I said, Henry looked just like his father did, but he had his mother's eyes.
"He just keeps on growing" said one of the men. It was obvious that Henry had just recently joined the "family business", and he was finally being trained. We let go and held hands for a few seconds, and that's when I noticed it.
"Henry, what happened to your hands?"
"Well, basically, some screw ball came up to dad and tried to kill him, but I taught him his lesson" he said with a lopsided grin, and the men laughed in approval.
"He just went up and attacked Emilio? I gotta see this guy…" I said.
"This way" said Emilio, and we went to the interrogation room. I didn't forget Leena, and I let her go before me, so I was the last one to get in. When I did, I saw a boy, no older than Henry tied to a chair. But I had a bad feeling about this kid. He must have been sleeping, because when I closed the door (which I accidentally slammed) he raised his head.
"What could have possibly have possessed you to attack Emilio?" I asked him.
"…I was bored" was all he said.
"You were bored? Do you know who you attacked?"
"Like I said before, I don't know, and I don't care…"
"Are you aware that in an instant, he could have you killed?"
"Yeah, what's your point?"
"…I like this kid" I finally said. Either this kid was really smart, or really stupid.
"That's what I was sayin'!" exclaimed Emilio.
Over the next few weeks, Leena and I got settled in, and we tried to contact the rest of her team. I tired my best, but nothing really happened. After the first two weeks, I gave up, and decided that I would oversee the training of the new recruit; he was remarkable. The initiation that people took before they could join usually took two weeks, but he managed in a mere five days. Soon, he was actively robbing banks and stealing Zoids from the Back Draft, since Emilio had a problem with them, and made new records in stealing at a given duration of time (he stole faster than anyone else had ever done). Leena never gave up her search, but she stopped telling me about how far she had gotten. Then, one day while I was taking a walk, she came running up to me, jumped up to me and kissed me, knocking me to the ground.
"Nice to see you too…" I said.
"You won't believe what happened!" she said as she was on top of me. "Thanks to you, Harry found me, and he told me that everyone on my team, except Bit is safely at his place" she said excitedly.
"That's great…" I lied "when are you going?" I said less passionately. In truth, I wanted her to stay. I had gotten to know Leena well, and I think I started to like her, but not that superficial kind of like, that intimate kind of like, almost like love…
"Tomorrow. Harry is gonna send a Petras to pick me up in the afternoon."
"That's great, I feel so happy for you" I said, sitting up and giving her a hug.
"Agamemnon, you were a great friend, and I can't ever begin to repay you for all you've done for me" she said, sounding like she was crying.
"All I want is a thanks" I said. Neither of us noticed the robed figure sneaking away into an alley.
"Raven, wake up, Leena is gonna leave in an hour" said Agamemnon. I slowly got up and got changed. I stayed up with Leena to pack what she had accrued during her stay here. Merely four weeks, and she had enough stuff to fit into eight whole suitcases! I still had no idea where she got her money, but I did help her shop (well, I basically carried all the stuff she bought). And now she's leaving. It's not like we'll never see each other again, because she gave me her address, and we can still keep in touch. But it wont be the same without her. I guess I've actually become the person I once was. Shadow was really upset that she had to leave. At some points, it seemed that he thought Leena was his master (which did not get me overtly upset, cause I couldn't blame him)
"Raven, you look like you got hit by a truck" said one of the guys.
"Eight trucks, eight trucks full of clothing"
"Wow…"
"I know" I went to Leena's room, and helped her take her suitcases to the dust-off site. When we finally got her ten suitcases there (she found some other things to pack…), we sat down on the ground and waited. Agamemnon, Emilio, and some of the other guys came to see her off. In a few minutes, we could see the Petras approaching, and Leena started saying goodbye to the guys, and they left since they were supposed to be doing things anyway. When the Petras landed, all of us, including the pilot, loaded her suitcases. At first the pilot just stared at them wide eyed with his mouth gaping, but he accepted that that was what he had to transport. The pilot started the Petras, and we said our final farewells.
"See ya later kid" Leena said, and messed up my hair. Shadow growled, thinking he was forgotten. "I didn't forget you Shadow" said Leena, and petted him. Then she went up to Agamemnon and gave him a long hug, and I could see tears coming out of their eyes. At that point I started remembering all the memories that we had.
flashback1 Raven walks down the hall and hears someone crying. He follows the sound and sees Leena. He goes up to her and tries to comfort her, and they talk for a long time
flashback2 Raven and Leena race on bicycles all over the park, and end up colliding into a wall
flashback3 Raven and Leena attend a fancy party, and end up having a food war.
And the flashbacks continued until I heard the Petras initiate its thrusters. I got out of my trance, and saw Leena and Agamemnon breaking their embrace. I started saying goodbye to Leena when the unexpected happened…
I was saying goodbye to Raven one last time until I saw something fall on and crush the Petras. My first reaction was: "My clothes!", but when I saw what dropped on the Petras, I thought I recognized it. It took me a few seconds, but I realized what it was, it was the Liger, but there was something different about it. Instead of having white armor it was black, and it had blue armor on, and its eyes were a dark blue.
"Bit, is that you?!" I said in outrage. Instead of getting a reply, I got shot at! "Bit you crazy son-of-a-Liger!" I swore hysterically. Agamemnon grabbed me and took me to the nearest shelter, while the Liger continued to shoot both of us. That's when another crazy thing happened.
I was stunned by the cold-blooded attack. Then I realized that I used to be like this, and I had to act. "SHADOW!" I bellowed. In an instant, I saw a streak of light go to where I had stashed the Geno Breaker. In a few seconds the Geno Breaker arrived and I got in.
"He's a Zoid pilot? All this time he was a Zoid pilot?" Leena said in utter amazement.
"That's why I recognized him. He's exactly like this historic figure called Raven, but he can't be Raven… he died a long time ago."
I didn't want anyone to get hurt, so I shot at the Zoid once to get it to follow me, and I flew to a clearing. When I got there, I turned around and gave it everything that I had. That got it by surprise, but it quickly recovered and fired a volley of rockets at me. When the smoke cleared, and I could see again, I saw it running back to the town. I chased after it, and I tried to grab it by shooting my hands at it; it wouldn't stop. I tried to bury my feet into the ground, but it did nothing, since it activated its thrusters and ripped my arms off. I shot at it repeatedly as a chased it, but it either ignored or dodged my fire. I then decided that I should try a technique I had once thought of while I was in hell, concentrating a CPC emission in such a way, that when it impacted the target, instead of a massive explosion, all the energy would go to the Zoid. I clamped down, and charged; when I was ready, I fired. Everything went perfectly as planned, except for one thing; instead of being damaged by the mass of white energy, it absorbed it. I was going to try again, but I realized that it was getting too close to the town, and I bolted after it yet again.
When we got to town, it turned to face me in one spinning leap and charged, boosters blazing. I had no idea where it came from, but all of a sudden it had a pair of glowing scythes (glowing like the Strike Laser Claw and scythes like the ones on a Rev Raptor) came out of it, and sliced my Zoid in two. I expected it to ignore me at this point, as it previously had, but instead, it shot out two metallic tentacles at my dismembered Zoid, and held the pieces up in the air. Then the most bizarre thing happened… my Zoid melted and the tentacles sucked the liquid in, rapidly consuming my Zoid.
Shit! I thought to myself, and waited for Shadow to take me out. When I realized he wasn't coming, I tried to get out of the Zoid myself, but I had one slight difficulty; the cockpit wouldn't open… I yelled, kicked, and screamed, but it was to no avail; that cockpit could withstand a blow from a CPC emission. But that's when he came again.
"No… not you again. LEAVE ME ALONE DAMMIT!"
"Raven, it's your time…"
"… but, I never got to…" I said in acceptance.
"You have proved yourself Raven… your trail is over."
"Trail, what trail?"
"The trail that you wished for so many times while you were in the abyss"
"You mean?" he never heard my question; he was already gone. I patched into my comm-link to say my last farewell. "Hey Leena, hey Agamemnon."
"Raven, how can you be so calm at a time like this?" Leena blurted out.
"It's OK, my time is done; I have passed my trail… farewell my friends" I could tell Leena was about to say something, because I could see her lips about to move, but I ended it there; I could bear it no more.
"Raven…" Leena said, but never finished saying.
"Maybe he really was Raven"
"I don't care who he was, he was my friend!" said Leena, and cried on Agamemnon's shoulder, and he tried to comfort her. It was then, that the Black Liger had finished sucking in the shape-shifting colony, and put its sights on Leena. It shot out its tentacles at her, and suspended her in the air.
"Bit Cloud, you let me go this instant!" she yelled. When he didn't respond, she asked Agamemnon for help. "Agamemnon, help me!" Leena said. Agememnon took out his gun and shot at it; he also called in the gang. The Liger took one of its tentacles off Leena, and tried to whip Agamemnon with it. He managed to dodge at first, but he was eventually hit; but to Leena's fortune, that was when the gang arrived. They had a wide assortment of heavy weaponry, and gave it everything they had. Unfortunately for them, the Liger had raised it shields at that time, and was then firing back at them; they ran away as fast as I run away from English class.
"Leena Tauros…" someone said from above. Leena looked up and saw a black Whale King descending above her. "It took me a long time to find you, but I finally did."
"What do you want from me?"
"You're the only person that I know of that Bit Cloud would try and rescue"
"What? Bit is right there! Isn't he?" she found out her answer when the Liger's cockpit opened; there was no one there.
"You want me? Come and get me!" she heard someone say.
What will happen to Leena and the gang? Find out in chapter fourteen: "Dark Intentions"