Legacy of the Ancients
Chapter Fourteen: (Thug's Mansion)
By: Sci-Fi-Raptor
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, nor do I advocate the use of frogs as paperweights…
And to deter confusion, all communication during any battles are done with the onboard the speaker's(s) Zoid(s)
"You want me? Come and get me!" she heard someone say. She looked at the voice's direction and saw a robed figure; then she saw it on fire.
"Oh my God!" she said, and put her hands to her mouth like she was really scared or sympathetic (the thing some girls do when they go "Oh my gosh!"). The burning bits of robe fell off and then she saw him; it was Bit! Suddenly, he jumped into the air and went to an impossible height. He went so high, he pierced through the Whale King and on his way down left two holes in its chassis, one going up and one going down; but he stopped and floated in mid-air. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she saw fireballs coming out of him, and exploding on the Whale King. Then he stopped and flew down, severing the tentacles holding Leena, which instantly melted; but they somehow collected into the Liger, slithering to it as if they were liquid snakes.
Bit caught Leena before she fell, and to her surprise, he wasn't any hotter than Justin Timberlake (if u get my drift). Leena expected the Liger to attack him, but the person in the Whale King stopped it.
"What the hell was that?" said the Whale King's voice. "Damn it, we have to retreat." The Whale King left as fast as its damaged engines could take it, and the Liger flew into one of its open cargo bays.
Bit gently landed on the ground and let Leena go; the fire surrounding him dissipated. Leena went forward to give him a passionate kiss, but to her surprise, he started walking away, letting Leena fall and eat dirt. She stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what just happened.
"Who was that?" Leena looked over and saw Agamemnon.
"My boyfriend…" she replied.
"Wow. If I had a boy friend like that… I mean… he's so cool. But why is he walking away?"
"I dunno"
"Hey, you forgot your girl!" Agamemnon yelled to him. He stopped for a second, but started walking again; smoke was trailing him for a few seconds. "Well… what are you sitting there for? Go after him!" he said.
"Right" she said, and gave him one more hug; then she bolted after him.
"Hey, you forgot your girl!" the guy yelled to me. My girlfriend? Sure. What girlfriend frolics with other guys while you search for her? flashback I had spent all my time searching for her, and was led to this town when word of a crazy girl got out; that's my Leena. I finally reached the town, and combed through every place she could have possibly been. When I finally found the house she had been in the whole time, she wasn't there, but I was told where she was headed, so I headed there. But when I finally found her, I saw her jump onto some guy, and kiss him on the lips. They talked shortly, but she was ON TOP OF HIM! I had seen enough, and I left. /flashback I continued walking on, and was ready to fly after the Whale King, when she ran up to me.
"Bit, what's up with you?" she said. What's up with me?!
"Nothing, I was just leaving you and your new boyfriend alone"
"What? Oh, you mean Agamemnon? He's not my boyfriend silly! He just saved me from the base when it blew up, and kept me her while I was looking for everyone"
"Sure… and what about that kiss you gave him?"
"What kiss?"
"The one where you fell on top of him?!" I said, raising my voice.
"…Oh, that. I was just really happy when I found out that our team found me, and I was just thanking him."
"THANKING HIM?" I yelled at her. I was ready to slap her, but realized she wasn't worth it. It was then that I decided that she was wasting my time. I had more important things to do; that Black Draft rat was influencing my only true friend, and he was getting away too fast for me. She was about to say something, but I didn't pay attention, and went to maximum burn, the flames making a ditch under me, and burning her a bit.
"Bit…" Leena's plea slipped through the wind.
It had been ten days since Leena had seen Bit, and most of our team was gone. Haru had slipped away after we got out of the base, and Brad and Naomi decided to join Leon's newly formed team (he talked Bit's sister into fighting). We never saw Bit, but the ZBC had reported to us that he had officially left our group and made his own team, but never listed its name. Pierce, Leena, and me are the only pilots in our team, but Leena just stays in her room and cries the whole time; she still hasn't gotten over Bit. Since Bit is on an official team, she can still send mail to him, but he has never sent them back. I once had to fix her computer, and I saw that she had sent over a hundred mails to him, each being at least 3 pages long (I could tell because of their sizes). That's all she really does, and she won't talk to anyone, not even Pierce. It's gone on so long that the Doc doesn't even play with his models anymore…
Times are rough, but Pierce and I have still been scoring victories; but we've heard the rumors, and they aren't pretty. We don't even get worthy challenges anymore, we get challenges from teams that are just desperate to increase their rank, and they aren't anywhere close to how good we are. Well, Pierce and I are also getting tired of it, and Pierce is talking about leaving; I'm thinking about sending the paperwork to the ZBC soon. But we are still part of this team, and we will still do our best on our battle tomorrow, against the Shadow team, a fairly new team with only one man.
Out in the desert night, a lone shiny point could be seen through the swirling gusts of sand saturated wind. From a distance, the colloidal sand filter seemed to make the light glimmer, as if it was the reflection of the moon on a quasi-turbulent body of water. As we get closer, we can see two people conversing. One is a woman with a black jumpsuit with a strange symbol on her breast. The other is a person in a desert colored/camouflaged robe.
"So, are you going to do it?" said the woman in the skin tight overall.
"Yes" replied the robed man coldly.
"It will put them all in danger"
"And what is your point? He was going to attack them tomorrow anyway."
"It just strikes me how much you have changed in the last few days"
"Well, I have become enlightened…" he said, holding up a golden necklace hanging a thin strip of silver with and engraved crest. He held up the crest in front of him, and let it dangle in the air, taking in the brilliant colors that reflected off of the campfire.
"Come on Leena, if you don't go out, you'll die in there." I heard Pierce say through Lena's door.
"I want to die…" she said in a depressed voice. She had been like that for some time, and Pierce just didn't like seeing this happen to her.
"Dammit Leena!" she said in frustration. I could hear a body dropping, then it being dragged on the floor, and all of a sudden the door opened, and my head fell on Pierce's chest.
"Not now Jamie! I need help with her" I looked down, and saw her dragging Leena across the floor.
"Sorry" I said, flushing.
"Woe is me!" Leena moaned. We forced he into her newly bought, but dusty Gun Sniper and forced her out. Then we boarded our Zoids, which we had also replaced and headed out. The battle was set up near our base, so it was easy for us to get to the site.
"Where is this guy?" Pierce said impatiently. As if on cue, the Judge capsule landed, and started the event, even though we couldn't see anyone. But when he said go, something uncloaked in front of us; it was a black Liger with red armor. I didn't have time to react, since it fired a charged shot at me, and I went down.
"Woo hoo! We haven't had a fight like this for ages!" I said. At the last second, I pulled up, and headed towards the Liger. Pierce was swooping down at it, and trying to shoot it, but it dodged too quickly for her, while Leena just stood there, as if she was somewhere else.
I approached it, and when I was sure I was heading directly at it, I accelerated to my maximum, and left an air current sweep it off its feet. Unfortunately for me, when I passed over him, he shot my back and there was no way for me to get out of it so I had to eject.
Pierce had also decided to do the same thing and was also shot down, and ejected near me. Then the Liger went after Leena, at full speed, but Leena didn't even move. When it looked like they were about to collide, the Liger's tail suddenly shot back and served as an anchor, stopping it just inches from the Gun Sniper; still Leena didn't move. The Liger was set up to slice the Gun Sniper in two, but became hesitant just as it was about to destroy Leena. Then it just stopped in front of Leena. It stood there, hugging the ground, looking at Leena's Gun Sniper as if it were about to aim for its neck (like when Bit get the Berserk Fury). They just stood there for some time, and then the Liger's cockpit opened, and a fireball came out that was heading towards Leena's. To my surprise, she opened her cockpit and let it in.
"So do you understand?"
"… ya, just like that time when you thought I was cheating on you…"
"All I care is that you still love me, because I know I still do" I said, and started crying.
"Open your cockpit, we have some catching up to do"
"Okay" in a few seconds he landed on my lap facing me, and gave me a long, long awaited kiss. I had been waiting for this moment for so long, and we were getting so into it, clothes started falling off… He started kissing me on my neck, and my tears were replaced by laughter; laughter or relief, laughter of love, laughter of satisfaction. I then felt him wrapping something around my neck, and thought he was about to murder me, but he got up and showed it to me; it was another necklace, or seemed to be. Somehow, the necklace started synthesizing with my older one, and where the two hearts were, a beautiful crest covered it, making a sort of locket. Words couldn't express my joy, so I just physically expressed it to him. Then we felt something shake. At first I thought I was just me (or us), but when he noticed, we looked outside and saw a black Whale King approach.
"Dammit… why him again" I said; Bit turned to leave.
"No, don't leave me again." I said alarmed.
"I'll be back, baby" he said, and gave me a short, but equally passionate kiss goodbye, and flew into the Liger's cockpit. At that moment, the blue Liger dropped from the Whale King, and the Whale King flew far away.
"So we finally meet again Bit Cloud" said the pilot of the black and blue Liger.
"So it seems Ryker" Bit said from his black and red Liger.
"Bit, where did you get that Zoid?" asked Leena.
"Its not a Zoid, its Haru"
"What? That makes no sense…"
"I'll explain later"
While still pointing at Bit, Ryker's Liger headed off to the west, and Bit followed, side stepping as he did. As they gained speed, they straightened out, and looked at the direction they were going. As they increased their speeds further yet, they started bashing into one another, in the hopes that they might knock the other out; Leena scrambled to keep up, but was loosing fast.
"I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to my base" said Ryker.
"And I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to my friend!" said Bit, and crashed into him. That time, Bit Held onto Ryker's Liger so that they became enmeshed with each other and rolled in a ball of Zoids until their momentum was gone. Then Ryker shot his short-range weapon and the blasted off of each other. Bit slowly got back up, but found Ryker about to jump on him. Luckily, he had the power of fire, and blasted a jet of heat at him, obstructing his path.
"Ahh! Hot! Hot! Hot!"
"If you can't take the heat…"
"Cool down" he finished for him.
"That's not how it goes" whined Bit
"I know" he said coldly, and frosted himself to normal temperature. "You may have the power of fire, but I have the power of ice" said Ryker. He shot at Bit with his ice ray thingy, and froze him to the ground.
Uh oh… Bit let fire course throughout his Liger's body, melting the ice that held him down.
"Too late!" said Ryker, hurled into him, causing Bit to hurl far away.
Damn it! he said, and got up before any other surprises approached him. When he found him, Ryker was just standing in front of him, daring him to attack.
"You're so pathetic. I dare you to attack me. I wont even move this time" he said in a cocky fashion.
We'll see about that. Bit thought to himself. He started charging him, setting up to do a strike laser claw. He increased his speed, and was going so fast, it seemed as if he was in his Jager mode. When he was two seconds away, it seemed liked the Liger exploded, but what really happened was Bit was doing his real attack. "Brimstone Fireball!" he said. The Liger went faster yet, and looked like a shooting comet going at an impossible speed.
"What is…" Ryker started, but never finished. A moment later his Zoid fell to its side; it was missing its entire left side.
"Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks?" Bit started walking away from him, ready to finish what he had started with Leena.
"Bit, we're not finished yet" said Haru.
"What do you mean?"
"I wasn't sure at first, but now I know for certain. That Zoid you saw there was not a Zoid, it was Hiro.
"What?!" Bit said, and turned to look back. What he saw made his bones chill; the left side of the Liger was growing back.
"You thought you were done with me, didn't you?" said Ryker. By now, the Liger was fully… full again, and was ready for more. But Ryker didn't wait, he did the same thing Bit did.
"What the hell?! How did you do that?"
"It was simple, I copied everything you did, but used my ice power instead of your fire power" he replied. Bit looked over his damaged Zoid, and saw that he wasn't lying. Whatever was near the damaged areas were frozen solid.
"Haru, how long until you can fix that?" said Bit privately.
"Normally I could have had it done by now, but since all of my bots are frozen, it'll take time for them to turn on again."
"I don't understand any of those big words, but how long will it take?"
"… (-_-') Two minutes at most"
"We don't have two minutes!"
"I'm sorry, but heating it with the Liger's fire wont help because the bots still take time to reactivate."
"Damn it!"
"Damn straight!" interrupted Ryker. He was some distance away, and he had his Liger's mouth open, with a large blue-green ball of energy charging in it. "NOW YOU DIE!" he said, and fired the energy ball. For some reason, the energy ball didn't move very fast, but that didn't matter, its target was immobile.
Shit Bit stood there, unable to move, not even able to escape. Haru told him to leave and save his own life, but he didn't hear it. He was staring death in the eye. And then a black angel stood in its way. Out of his trance, Bit realized what it was. Even though he couldn't directly see it, due to the enormous amount of light being emitted by the energy ball, he could see its silhouette; it was Leena's Gun Sniper.
"Leena, what the hell are you doing!"
"What you would have done for me"
"Damn it Leena, get out of the way!"
"No Bit. I love you too much to let you die in vain. At least I will buy you the time you will need"
"…Leena" Bit finally said when he realized she was too stubborn to change.
"I'll see you later" she said. Then the shockwave flipped the Liger over a few times, ironically landing it on its newly formed feet. "… Ryker…" Bit said.
"What was that?"
"RYKER!" Bit said in blind rage. He charged at him, setting his Liger on fire and moving like a comet; everything surrounding him melted.
"I won't fall for that again" said Ryker, and did something similar, freezing everything that he touched. They charged at each other, colliding in a dazzling display of ice, flame light and energy. Both Ligers landed, and both fell; they had run out of energy. Bit opened his cockpit and staggered to Ryker's; he would finally get his revenge. He tore open his cockpit, only to by met by a jet of freezing air.
"You're not the only one who discovered the secrets of these 'colonies'. I, too, have my own powers."
"It's the last time you'll get to use them though" Bit said, them gave him a flaming punch.
Haru slowly collected herself. When she had enough focus, she morphed into her normal form, the Haru that the Blitz team had grown to know. She slowly approached Hiro, and tried to communicate.
"Hiro…" when he didn't respond, she assumed that he was temporarily shutdown, and it would be much easier to communicate by merging with him. She stepped into him, and let her bots dissipate in his sea of bots. Her core carrying bots interfaced with his core carrying bots, and she searched for the Hiro that she had known and loved.
"Hiro, where are you!" yelled Haru in the virtual world of vast space.
"Help!" she heard a voice from far away. She went to it, and saw Hiro locked in some kind of prison.
"Haru, I thought I'd never see you again!" said Hiro
"How do I open this thing?" she asked him.
"It's impervious from in here, but this program was made so that if it was fired at from the outside, it would break down"
"Okay" she said and backed off. Then she fired a volley of virtual weapons fire, and the cell slowly deteriorated. She joyously went up to him and gave him a big hug.
"It feels so good to be with you again, just like that time in the hot springs"
"Yes it does" he replied. "You know, the guy is supposed to save the girl…"
"Very funny" she replied. Then she had an odd feeling. Something's not right Haru thought. She released him and almost crashed from seeing what she saw. She wasn't hugging Hiro; it was Ryker! "Where's Hiro?!" she demanded.
"Did you think I would really keep him somewhere as easy to access as this?" he said. Before she knew what hit her, she was in a prison exactly like what she had released him from. She realized that he had moved her, and was now where the real Hiro was, accompanied by a black haired boy.
"Haru!" Hiro said in utter disbelief. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Hiro! You're still somewhere in here at least. Who's the boy?"
"My name is Raven"
"Well Raven… I think we're gonna know each other for awhile."
"You two may, but I will be gone soon"
"It will all end now, Ryker" I said. I started unleashing all the energy that I had stored up (like a power up in DBZ); Ryker did the same. Unknowns to us, we emitted sub-space energy that was completely inverse of the other, and when they made contact, they annihilated each other and released a vast amount of energy. In the real plane, it seemed that there was some kind of invisible wall between us.
I didn't charge up as fast as Ryker, so Ryker made the first move. He quickly went behind me and started strangling me. I finished powering up, and sucker punched Ryker in the nose. He let go momentarily, trying to stop the bleeding, but that left an opening that I took advantage of. I made some good distance between us, and rammed into him, micro explosions from our subspace energy neutralizing each other rocking the air. Ryker wasn't as badly shaken as me, and started punching me. I blocked all his punches, and started kicking him. We both switched from punching, kicking and blocking, and did it so fast, it seemed that we had lost our limbs. Not too far away, the clouds made a hole above us, the energy being generated from both of us making wind speeds similar to a twister's. We kept on fighting, and it got so intense, our punches and kicks broke the sound barrier and made sonic booms (like in DBZ when you see those circles when they hit).
"Dammit!" I screamed in frustration.
"Getting tired?" asked Ryker. In truth, I was. My emotions were not as effective at this state, and I had used a lot of energy.
"That's it, no more playing around!" I yelled, and flew half a mile away in an instant. Then I started concentrating what little energy I had left into a packet of burning red energy. From where he was, Ryker could tell what I was doing, and did the same. Unfortunately for him, he had just about the same amount of energy I had, and concentrated all his energy too quickly, making him revert to his normal mode. I was also done at that point, and just as quickly went back to where he was.
"This ends NOW!" I said, and shot my energy ball at him, moving me at least 50 feet backwards.
"Only one of us is coming out alive!" replied Ryker, and fired his own. The two balls collided, and the complementary energy types completely neutralized each other in sub-space, releasing a massive surge of energy in the real plain. So much energy was released at that point that a sub-space tear was formed, and all matter within reach was being sucked into the newly formed white hole; Zi was dying.
"Oh no… what did we do" I thought, but was interrupted by a momentous punch in the face. I quickly regained my composure, and preemptively attacked Ryker before he assaulted me again. Running low on energy, we could only grapple hands, energy burning and freezing off of us, and neutralizing the other's. We stood there, with the white hole looming behind steadily, steadily growing and consuming everything it came in contact with. The white hole finally reached us, but we didn't stop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming out. It was a cute little white cottontail coming out of its white hole…
Find out the dramatic conclusion in chapter 15: "Final Farewell"