Black: Okay! Now things get interesting!
Naomi: Oh my god! You people are still reading this fic?! What's the matter with you?1 Are you people insane! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!
Black: NAOMI!! STOP THAT CRAZY NONSENSE! (nervously) People…I'm not really that insane…
Nikita: Yeah you are! You're the crazy bastard who put me in this situation in the first place?!
Black: Sheese, fine. Well, if you really REALLY want to torture yourself, then go back to chapter 1 and read the disclaimer. I'm to damn lazy to go back and write it again! NOW ENJOY THE SHOW!!
Chapter 15-Returns of Old Friends
Leena shot awake with a start, cold sweat drenching her body. She had been having a nightmare.
She was still in the hospital, and it was now three o'clock in the afternoon.
Her panting echoed throughout the well-lit room, her chest rising and falling quickly, as her pulse began to slow down.
"That dream…" She sighed as she lay back into her bed with a slight jolt of pain. "It felt so real…"
A thought dawned on her: Nikita was in pain. Not just normal pain, his entire being, his soul even, seemed cry out in agony.
She slowly rose from her bed, finding that she had to limp on her legs to walk without too much pain. She limped over towards the windows, and pulled the curtains back for her to look.
She was currently on the sixth floor of the New Helic City Hospital. Even though Tidus City was closer to the base, Tidus City lacked proper health facilities.
It was sunny, and birds were singing, and people were walking down the streets laughing and joking with one another. Children were playing outside their apartment buildings with their friends, and their older siblings sat around discussing everything from politics to music to zoid battles.
I can't help him, he's got to take this thing on all on his own, whatever it is…besides, I'm no healer. I'm just a zoid warrior anyway. She thought, staring out of the window onto the street.
There was a knock on her door, causing her to turn around sharply. "Come in." She said quietly.
A blonde-haired nurse walked in.
"Um, Miss Toros?" The nurse asked timidly.
Leena turned around. "Yes?"
"Um…" The nurse clutched her clipboard biting the bottom of her lip in nervousness.
"What is it?"
"It's regarding your injuries…um, please, sit down…" She said, gesturing to the bedside.
Leena gave her a quizzical look, and sat down, her one uncovered eye showing concern.
The nurse bit her bottom lip again, and pulled up a chair in front of her. "Um…I assume the doctor visited you after you awoke…?"
Leena slowly shook her head. "Nope. I just woke up. What's going on?"
"Well, as you know, you were brought in in pretty bad shape. Broken arm, twisted ankle, gash over the eye, not to mention at least a dozen more in places all over your body…"
Leena nodded impatiently, and snorted slightly. "Yeah, I know all that already! Tell me something I don't know!!"
The nurse flinched. "Sorry." Leena sighed dutifully.
"Its okay." She said, smiling slightly. "Anyway, as I was saying…you are going to make a safe recovery…but there was nothing we could do about your eye…"
Leena almost fell out of her chair in surprise. "W-WHAA?!!!"
The nurse bit her lip again. "Sorry, this is my first time doing this…well, the doctor said that your right eye was heavily damaged, and the iris was cut beyond repair…" She shivered involuntarily. "…And he said we had no choice but to remove it…"
Leena gasped in surprise, and desperately tried to open her right eye…but to no avail…they had already stitched it shut from the inside.
She gasped again in fright, and jumped up, ignoring the pain shooting through her leg, and hobbled over towards a mirror.
What she saw there startled her. Her right eye was shut, with a large bandage over it.
"Its probably going to leave a scar…I'm very sorry, Miss Toros…"
Leena's hand slowly moved up towards the bandage, and softly rubbed over it in longing. "Can I at least remove this stupid bandage?" She finally said after a long silence, her voice seemingly out of her body and somewhere else in the room entirely.
The nurse slowly nodded. "Yes, it should be done healing now."
Leena's hands moved slowly and, almost as if they were on their own, started removing the bandage wrapped around her head, and took off the small wool pad covering it.
The nurse was indeed right; there was a large red gash over her eye. The bleeding had stopped, but it still burned with the familiarity of the wound. The freshness of it still reminded her of the reason of why she was here: Kayla…you're gonna pay for what you did to my eye…
"Oh! I almost forgot! You've got visitors too!" The nurse exclaimed, her tone almost lightening happily.
Leena turned around, and gave her a smile. "Send them right in." She said as she slowly hobbled back towards her bed to lay down.
The nurse opened the door, and said to someone outside the room, "You can go in now."
Bit, Leon, and Naomi all walked in, Bit holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand from Nikita.
"Hi guys!" She said happily, smiling in an effort to hide the sadness she felt over having only one seeing eye.
Naomi stopped short, and Bit did the same thing. Leon jumped backward in surprise, and look as if he was about to faint.
"L-Leena?!!" Bit shouted in surprise. "What the hell happened to your eye?!!"
Naomi's face had turned ghostly pale, and she looked horrified. "Oh my god…"
Leon, on the other hand, had fainted.
Back at the Blitz Base…
Nikita had woken up from his nap, drenched in a sweat, his splitting headache still with him.
"DAMMIT ANUBIS!! STAY OUTTA MY HEAD!!!" he shouted, gripping his head in agony.
Suddenly, his vision turned red, and he seemingly lost control of his body for a second. Then, his vision returned to normal.
His breathing was slow and labored, and he was panting like he had run the marathon.
He rose slowly from his spot on the floor, his knees suddenly calm and steady, and changed into some workout clothes. He grabbed a combat knife from his dresser, and ran it across his long mane of brown hair, slicing each strand easily. His hair fell to the floor like brown rain, falling slowly to the earth as it descended peacefully like a group of feathers.
He ran the knife up the back of his hair to even it out, and ran his hand through the top to make it stand up in separate spikes.
He smirked at the mirrors reflection, and grabbed his Walkman, and opened the door to leave his room.
Brad and Jamie, who had come to hear what Nikita's shouting had been about, looked at him with surprised expressions.
"Nikita?!!!" Jamie shouted.
"What the hell'd ya do to yourself, kid?!" Exclaimed an equally surprised Brad.
Nikita's smirk grew. "I gave myself a haircut. That's all." He said, his tone somewhat different.
He walked out of the small room, leaving a very confused Brad and Jamie to look at each other in curiosity, and get a broom to clean up the hair all over the floor.
"Brad, is it just me, or did his eyes look different?" Jamie asked suddenly.
Brad stopped what he was doing…and began to think. "Yeah, they looked red. Did he get red contacts or something?"
Back at the hospital…
Now that Leon had woken up, and everyone else wasn't so surprised to see the large gash over Leena's eye, they began to ask how she was feeling.
"I'm okay, guys. Just slightly crippled." She said, putting a smile on her face. And only in possession of half my sense of sight… She thought spitefully. "Um…where's Nikita?"
"He's taking a nap. Doc got us a battle for later and he wants to rest up for now." Bit said.
"Oh…" She said in a disappointed sounding tone.
"But…" He added slyly. He held up the bouquet of flowers, and smiled. "He did send you these."
Leena's eye lit up in happiness and she grabbed the card in the flowers.
"Hey, hope you're feeling better. I hope that she didn't hurt you too bad! Maybe you could move in with me after you're better? How's that sound? Love, Nikita."
Leena's jaw dropped, and her eye almost welled up in happy tears. "YES! ALRIGHT!!"
Bit smiled in embarrassment. "Yeah, I guess that did the trick…" He muttered to Naomi and Leon.
Both members of the Flugal team smiled. "Well, when do you think they'll allow you out of here, sis?" Leon asked.
"I think the nurse said all my injuries were taken care of, so I can leave pretty soon actually."
"Great!"
Back at the base…
Biff. Bam. Biff. Bam. Biff.
Those were the only sounds emitting themselves from the weight room, besides the slow breathing, which seemed to escalate only when pushed to what seemed his limit.
Brad and Jamie were both standing at the entrance to the weight room, watching Nikita spar against the punching back, hitting it with such force that shouldn't have been possible from such a young man.
Nikita though, was off in his own little world, and had no clue they were there. He had his headphones on, and was currently blasting Korn's "Untouchables" CD at full blast, with the bass on full as well.
He hit it harder, ducking and bobbing out of the way of invisible punches thrown by an invisible opponent, counterattacking whenever the invisible opponent let his guard down.
He started adding kicks to the routine, now going for hurting the invisible fighter as much as possible, weakening his reserves even more.
He jumped, and gave it one final kick, hitting it with such force that the bag ripped off of its chain, and flew across the room, smacking into the wall ten feet away, and spilling sand everywhere.
Brad and Jamie's eyes opened wide in surprise, but both were too stunned to even say anything.
Nikita stared at his hands, and flexed them, the sound of cracking bone and cartilage echoing throughout the room.
"Well…at least I can keep my strength…even if it is for short periods of time…" he muttered to himself.
He suddenly dropped to his knees, gripping his head in agony. "STAY OUTTA MY HEAD YOU BASTARD!!!" He yelled in his normal tone.
"STUPID KID!" he yelled again, this time in a different tone. A darker one. "STOP RESISTING! ITS ALREADY TOO PAINFUL FOR YOU!"
"NO! NOT AS LONG AS THEY'RES BREATH IN MY BODY!" He screamed again in his normal tone.
"FINE! YOU WANT ME TO ERASE YOUR ENTIRE MIND?!!" The darker tone yelled again, this time with more of a desperate plea to his shout.
Brad and Jamie already decided that whatever the hell was going on with him, they had better try and help. Both quickly ran over to him, and started shaking his shoulders slowly, trying to get him out of his hysteria.
"Kid! Kid! Stop shouting! Its Brad and Jamie! We're here to help you!" Brad shouted, desperately shaking Nikita's shoulders.
Jamie tried too, but both back away a few steps quickly when Nikita started growling and snarling like an animal, emitting tortured cries like a wounded wolf.
"Damn, this isn't working." Jamie muttered.
Brad smirked. "I know a way."
He stalked over to Nikita's form, which was now quivering on the floor, and picked him up by the collar of his shirt, and socked him once in the face. "SNAP OUT OF IT KID!!" he shouted in his face.
Nikita stopped screaming, and his eyes seemingly changed back to brown. He was panting and sweating like he had run a race, but his entire body was cold like death.
"T-thanks, Brad. I think he's gone now…" He stammered fearfully.
"Who's 'he?'" Jamie asked curiously.
Nikita sighed. "I can't tell you. You wouldn't understand."
"Of course we would, kid." Brad said, slowly putting Nikita back down on his feet. "Just tell us…"
"…No. I'm not sure I want to. I really don't even know what's going on myself." He sighed, dusting himself off. "Thanks for snapping me out of it, Brad."
"No problem kid."
Suddenly, the base began shaking from what felt like shells landing on the armored walls.
"Shit! Not again!" Nikita shouted. "Hasn't she done enough already?!!"
"Team, I need you guys out there right now!" Doc's voice shouted over the comm unit. "Nikita, its not Kayla. Someone else's here, and they're in a Genosaurer!"
"HOLY SHIT!!" he shouted, suddenly running towards his zoid to see who it was.
Brad and Jamie both belted after him in an attempt to get into their zoids too.
Nikita quickly jumped into the cockpit once they reached the hanger.
"Kid, I'm sorry to tell ya this, but you're rifles are outta commission right now." Brad said as they all secured themselves in their cockpits.
Nikita's eyes widened in fear. "SHIT!! NO RIFLES?!!!"
"Yeah, we were just about to fix them before you shouted and we came running." Jamie interjected. "Sorry."
"Ah, its okay. I understand." Okay, no rifles, which means basically no long range combat…I'll have to stick with the blades…
They all ran their zoids outside, Nikita finding that the boosters were also off-line.
There on the sand stood a lone Genosaurer, its black paint glistening in the sun. It had the Backdraft group marking on its side.
"What the hell??!!" Brad shouted in surprise. "How the hell can you guys be here?!!!"
The pilot cackled evilly, and his face appeared on the view screen. He was older, with goggles covering his eyes (A/N: Like those guys who piloted the Genosaurers in the episode where they try and kill the Berserk Fury with them), and had short black hair. "You dirty Blitz Team bastards!!" he shouted angrily. "I'm going to kill every last one of you, even if you kill me too!"
"Wait a second! How can there even be a Backdraft group anymore? I thought they disbanded!" Jamie shouted in surprise.
Normally, this wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but since their Zoids had been damaged and barely repaired since their battle with Kayla that morning, this would be a tricky battle to win, especially against a Genosaurer.
The pilot only responded by firing at Jamie's Zoid, knocking out of the sky quickly enough for a system freeze on Jamie's Raynos.
The pilot sneered again. "Okay, who's next?"
The Shadow Fox roared, and charged the enemy head on, firing wildly with its AZ 30mm Vulcan gun, hitting nothing but sand as the pilot jerked his Genosaurer out of the way.
Brad shouted, and fired again, catching the Genosaurer in its leg, but failing to do any significant damage.
The Genosaurer fired its cannons, hitting Brad's Zoid full on, and giving it too a system freeze.
Shit, I'm the only one left… Nikita thought grimly.
The pilot began to laugh again, and shot a few times at the Black Jackal, making Nikita jumped and dodge his Zoid out of the path of the shots.
He deployed the blades, and started to charge his opponent, the blades charging with green energy. "FINE! YOU WANNA DIE THAT BAD?!!" he shouted.
The pilot smirked…he had seen this coming…
"TWIN BLADE ATTACK!" he bellowed, running his Zoid next to the Genosaurer in an effort to cut off its leg.
Just as the blade came close to the Genosaurer, the enemy pilot secured his foot-bindings, and used his boosters to slowly turn the Zoid around and out of harms way, also grazing the Jackal with one of his Zoids claws.
His Zoid snapped off of its legs, and flew fifty feet away only to land on its side with a system freeze.
"Well, now that was easy, wasn't it? You Blitz Team bastards must be going soft…" The pilot laughed evilly.
Nikita was struggling with the controls, trying to reawaken his Zoid. "C'mon, Jackal, wake up! Wake up!"
Sorry… it whimpered softly. I can't move…
The Genosaurer slowly walked over, leering in pride over the wounded Jackal Zoid. "Well, since you were so gracious in offering yourself up, you'll die first, kid…"
He aimed his rifles down towards Nikita's cockpit, and smirked again. "See you in hell bastard…"
Just as the pilots fingers tightened on the triggers, a red blur suddenly moved by his Zoid and the Genosaurer faster than the speed of light itself, and landed about sixty feet away.
The Genosaurer's arm slid off of its body, circuitry and wires splitting and flailing.
Nikita looked up, wondering who this new savior was, much less why they were saving him.
In the distance, with its back turned, was a red Blade Liger, with its blades deployed, looking backward at the Genosaurer, who now had turned to face its new assailant.
"Who the hell are you?!" The Genosaurer pilot bellowed loudly.
The pilot of the Blade Liger didn't dignify him with an answer.
"Fine then, take this, hotshot!" The Backdraft warrior shouted.
The Genosaurer's mouth opened, and Nikita knew what was coming next.
The pilot of the Blade Liger must have too, for they had started charging the Genosaurer at full steam, the boosters deploying and firing.
The energy of the blast gathered in the rifles barrel.
"DIE!!!" The Genosaurer's pilot bellowed, firing the Charged Particle Gun.
The Blade Liger, which had almost made it to point-blank range of the Genosaurer, back flipped over the energy of the blast, and twisted itself around as it slashed its back with its claws, like a cat clawing down a curtain. And it made a skidding landing right behind it.
The Genosaurer stumbled forward a few feet, and collapsed with a system freeze.
Nikita opened up his cockpit, and so did the other warriors.
"Hey, is that Leon?" Jamie asked Brad.
Brad shook his head. "No, I don't think so…"
Nikita got up, and staggered over towards the red Blade Liger, which was bending downwards so its cockpit was low to the ground.
"Hey, who are you?!" He shouted into the cockpit.
The cockpit opened with a hiss, and out jumped a figure.
The figure was a young woman about Nikita's age with long dark blonde hair, slightly tanned skin, and black sunglasses covering her eyes. She was dressed in a blue dress with green sleeves, and white boots. Attached to her back was the scabbard of a broadsword with and intricate hilt design of a bright yellow head of a phoenix and a ruby in its mouth.
"Hey! You guys are the Blitz Team, right?!" She shouted, jumping down from her Blade Liger.
"See, I toldja it wasn't Leon…" Brad muttered.
Jamie was totally awestruck. "Wow…"
"Yeah, why?!" Nikita asked, slowly walking over towards the stranger.
She didn't respond, and her jaw dropped. "No fucking way…" She muttered.
She removed the sunglasses from her eyes, revealing vivid blue eyes that shined the glint of the sun. "N-n-no fucking way!"
Nikita's jaw also dropped. "No freaking way…"
Both stood still for seemingly hours, and then ran towards each other in a happy and wide embrace, laughing hysterically.
"Nikita?! Is this really you?!" She shouted happily.
"Dammit, this is too crazy! Erin, what the hell are you doing here?!"
"I had to find the Blitz Team for an errand, but I didn't expect finding you here!" She said as they both jumped away from each other.
(A/N: Ok, right now, I'm gonna clear things up. This character ain't mine and never will be. She's owned by Red Phoenix, a fellow author. Also, they aren't former boyfriend or girlfriend, and never will be. This is not a potential pairing. They're just good friends.)
"Really? What kinda errand?" He asked inquisitively.
"Oh, I had to deliver Doctor Toros something from the library." She said in a very matter of fact tone.
"The one in New Helic City?!"
"Hey, kid, are ya gonna introduce us to your friend here, or are we gonna stand here at talk all day?" Brad grunted.
"Oh sorry!" He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Guys, this is my friend, Erin Prazan. She's a Zoid warrior and an expert on ancient Zoidian history, and she works at the New Helic City Public Library."
Brad and Jamie looked deeply confused. "Whatever." Brad said finally.
Both started on their way back into the base, only to be stopped by the sound of a gun clicking behind them.
Everyone whirled around to the see the pilot of the incapacitated Genosaurer, aiming a pistol at Erin with a shaky grip.
"You bastards!" He shouted, switching the safety off on the gun. "Now I accomplish what I set out to do, and because you tried to stop me, you get to die first girly!"
"Hey, watch out, kid!" Brad shouted.
He pulled the trigger, and fired the gun without care.
Erin calmly stood her ground, and waited for the bullet to come to her, and slowly reached for the sword in the sheath on her back.
And then, the sheath fell lifelessly to the ground, for it had changed from the large broadsword it had been into a Japanese katana, a sakabato, or reverse-blade sword, to be exact.
She brought the katana down, and deflected the bullet with relative ease, and in a split second, was almost directly in front of the now trembling assailant.
She slashed three times on his chest, and hit him once more in the shoulder to knock him out, making his eyes roll back into his head as he slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Brad and Jamie, meanwhile, were looking on with stunned and totally surprised faces.
Nikita's expression had changed to a smirk as Erin started walking back towards them, carrying her sheath and the unconscious attacker in her arms.
"Jeez, Erin, you're getting rusty." He said, folding his arms across his chest. "What, are you gettin' old or somethin'?"
Erin suppressed a laugh, and re-sheathed her sword, which had turned back into a broadsword. "No, I'm out of practice, I guess." She sighed, a smile on her face.
Both walked back into the base, leaving a stunned and almost scared Brad and Jamie behind them.
Finally, after taking all of the zoids back into the hanger, they all started to make their way towards the command center where Doc was.
Doc looked totally surprised that this was the warrior that had single-handedly saved his team, much less by the fact that she knew Nikita better than he did.
"You're Doctor Steven Toros, right?" She asked, pointing at him.
Doc nodded. "Yes. Are you the courier the library sent?" He asked, looking at her sword fearfully.
Erin nodded. "Yeah. I've got the stuff you asked for. "A collectors Guide to Zoid model kits Edition V", right?"
Doc nodded. "Yes, that's what I asked for."
Erin reached into a pouch on her dress, and took out the book, and handed it to him. "Its due back in a month. Don't lose it, please."
Doc meanwhile, was too busy hugging the book happily, crying out, "Yay! I finally can track down an Ultrasaurus model kit!"
He flipped through it for a few minutes, gave an excited cry, and wrote some stuff down on a nearby piece of paper. Then, he handed the book back to Erin. "Okay! I'm finished!"
Everyone (even Erin) face-faulted, landing on the floor with a thud.
"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU CALLED ME HERE ALL THIS WAY JUST TO HAVE YOU HAND ME THE BOOK BACK TO ME?!!!!!!!!! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!!!!!!" Erin screeched, looking like she was ready to tear off Doc's head.
Doc whimpered slightly. "But New Helic City is so far away! Besides, you got to fight in a zoid battle, didn't you?!!!"
"That's not the point!!" She shouted.
She took a few deep breaths in order to calm herself. "Okay, thanks for your business, Mr. Toros!"
"Hey, since you're here, why don't you join our team for a few days?" He asked, rubbing his chin in inspiration. "We need the manpower anyway…"
"Um…I don't know…" She said, shifting uncomfortably on her feet.
"I'll pay you!"
"DONE!!!" She exclaimed happily. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" She shouted, jumping up and down in her place excitedly.
"Okay! Well, now that that's taken care of, why don't we get to work fixing the zoids, shall we?" Nikita asked, now fully energized again.
"Alright!" Everyone shouted, as they began to make their way into the hanger.
But before Erin and Nikita made their way into the hanger, he stopped her.
"Erin? I have a tiny question…about ancient Zoidian history…" he asked timidly.
"Sure…what do you want to know?"
"I want to know about Anubis and the possessions of the Afterlife." He said finally, after a small silence.
Erin's face went ghostly white. "Why that?!"
Nikita shifted uncomfortably on his feet, and looked around to make sure that no one was there besides to two of them. "I'm being possessed by Anubis."
Black: Ahh! Possible plot twist! Possible plot twist!
Nikita: BLACK! Stop giving away the plot!
Black: Whoops! Sorry! ^.^;
Naomi: Please, Black, refrain from speaking, or you'll only prove yourself more of an idiot…
Black: Well, screw you too Naomi…oh! And thank you to my two number 1 fans, Red Phoenix and Zoidhawk7! And thank you to Red Phoenix for gracious character donation! And no more characters will be accepted! Thanks for your time everybody!