Chapter 13 - Pyrone Reigns
The bar G's was still as hot as ever, if not more popular since that fight that broke out between the British soldiers and that Tre Young. A shadowy figure sat in a dark corner of the bar, sipping his drink. His twisted braids fell over this face a like thin curtains. He downed the last of his drink as a waiter came by.
"Would you like another, sir?" the waiter asked.
The figure fumbled in a pocket then produced a picture of Tre.
"Have you seen this person?" the smooth, accented voice asked.
"Are you one of those British guys?"
"I'll ask you for the last time, have you seen this person?"
The figure turned into the light. His face shone with intensity. It was Pyrone Reigns.
"Look, I told ya-" the waiter started.
Pyrone grabbed his shirt collar and yanked the waiter's face near his own. Brown eyes bored into the guys gray ones. Pyrone drew a gun and cocked the hammer, poking the muzzle into the guys neck.
"Hey!" Clyde shouted. "What are you doing to my waiter?"
Pyrone fired two rounds on either side of Clyde's head, two bottles shattering and spilling their contents onto the floor. Pyrone stood up and let the waiter go.
"I'm looking for Tre Young," he said. "Does anyone know where he is?"
"Last I hoid," a man spoke, "he wuz roundin' up what's his face? Chang Wufei."
"I see," Pyrone said. "That's on Earth."
Pyrone walked out of the bar and flung a twenty at Clyde.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, dad," Pyrone Reigns looked to his father.
"Yes, I'm here," was the reply. The aged man looked to his adult son.
They were on board a shuttle headed to their home colony. Pyrone was wearing black jeans that bunched near the tops of his black biker boots at about knee length. His shirt was a long sleeve black shirt topped by a trench coat (AN: WITH sleeves). He looked nothing short of a rock roadie with his twists which reached beyond his shoulders. Strangely enough, Pyrone had brought his most prized possession: an antique Ibanez 5-string bass guitar, 2001 make, autographed by the bass player of KoRN himself, Fieldy Snuts (AN: Get it? "Feel-deez-nuts"). Pyrone used that bass every time he had praticed with Tre and his brothers, and sounded just like the player who autographed the instrument many, many years ago.
"Where are we going in such a hurry? Surely can't be home."
"Well, why don't you just get surprised," Theodore said.
"But, there's nothing at home that would surprise me," Pyrone said.
"There is something there you haven't seen before."
"Maybe, however, I still think you're up to something."
"Well, what if I am?"
"Forget it, I won't ask then."
He slumped in his seat and crossed his arms. Then, he fell asleep.
-One hour later-
"Mr. Reigns?"
Pyrone awoke to the pilot telling his father that a large shuttle was just outside. He rubbed his tired eyes and looked out the window.
A large shuttle with long, bulky pods lining it was not ten yards from the small shuttle Pyrone was in. He whistled in amazement and the loudspeakers came on with a familiar voice.
"Shuttle Firefly, shuttle Nightshift. Slow your speed to 15000 knots and tell Pyrone Reigns he has a Gundam to fly."
"I don't believe it," Pyrone said. "It's Tre Young."
"Tre?" Theo asked. "I saw him and Nikki at the merger meeting for Wiiner Corp."
"Yes, dad," Pyrone said, exasperated. "You told me about a trillion times already."
"Oh, yes, I remember now."
"Pilot!" Pyrone shouted. "Tell Tre I'll be there in a sec."
Pyrone ran to the back and yanked on a spacesuit that matched Tre's suit. He placed the helmet on his head and closed the visor. He slung a duffel bag about his shoulder, then a slim bass case, and opened the cargo bay door. He glided to his Gundam, Backlash.
This Gundam stood at an even 130' tall and sported the characteristic hairstyle of its pilot, plus the dark goatee on the Gundam reached from a spot where a lower lip would be to beyond the chin. This machine looked as thought it were wearing a black flight suit like fighter pilots wear, with black boots covering the hems of the loose pant legs. This was all topped by a full trench coat armor that moves, shifts, and conforms to its wearer as if it were fabric as opposed to metal. In all, this Gundam looked more like a giant, new-age Wild West gunslinger with a large gray backpack fitted with twin rockets, angling slightly inwards on their respective sides on the bottom of the pack. On the waist was a holster belt holding a pair of machine guns like the Sandrock used during the Eve Wars of A.C. 195. Strapped to both thighs were shotgun-like beam weapons that could actually use enhancer shells to boost the beam's destructive power and pump like a shotgun. Lining the holster belts were the numerous shells to be used in the beam shotguns. Lastly, the beam scythe staff on its back could ignite three blades of bright green energy. And that was Gundam Zero-Seven, Backlash.
Pyrone threw the duffel bag and bass case behind his cockpit seat and sat down in the seat. He brought the padded straps about him and snapped them in the buckle. He pressed the controls to close the door and activate the Gundam. The viewscreens glowed in the small cockpit, giving Pyrone the view of the cargo bay. He saw on his front panel that life support within the Gundam was operational, justifying his choice to open the visor on his helmet. He snapped the comm system on and hailed the cockpit on the Firefly.
"This is Pyrone," Pyrone said. "Open cargo bay doors so I can get this bucket of bolts out of here."
"Roger," was all the pilot said.
Pyrone saw on his front viewscreen that the large doors were opening, the shuttle Nightshift just below. Pyrone merely smiled and guided the Backlash out. Backlash fired its rockets in an attempt to match speeds with the other ships. Finally, it had enough thrust to at least make a hop and grab to the other shuttle. All the sudden, the doors on the first pod from the top on the left side of the shuttle opened. Backlash fired its rockets full blast and released the Firefly to grab on the top pods of Nightshift. Pyrone shut the rockets down and stood the Gundam up. Slowly, the Gundam rose to a standing, but leaning posture against a wind that wasn't there. Backlash slowly walked toward its new hold. But something happened before the Gundam could make it there.
From behind came a shot, that narrowly missed the Gundam. Backlash turned its head and saw a whole battalion of British mobile suits: manned and dolls. Pyrone cursed out loud, then snapped the comm to hail the Nightshift.
"Tre," Pyrone called.
"Yeah," Tre replied.
"Listen, I'm going to get these bums off us, but you need to keep this shuttle steady as long as possible."
"Right."
Just then, Backlash did a front flip and extended its left hand to keep it on the shuttle. Then, it swung its legs around and landed in a kneeling stance, right knee on the pod's surface along with the left boot. Backlash pulled its machine guns out, aimed around the tailfin of the shuttle and fired. The spray of bullets rocketed toward the oncoming suits, damaging some, destroying others. The manned suits were the majority of the damaged or destroyed suits, with a few dolls being destroyed as well. Backlash continued the barrage until the guns were empty. Backlash folded its arms at its sides and looked at the guns as if to say, "That's all?", and holstered them. Backlash produced one of the shotguns, took a shell out of its belt with the free hand, shoved the shell into the gun, and pumped the weapon. Backlash took careful aim, then squeezed the trigger. A wide aqua-colored beam shot from the weapon, almost searing the tailfin of the shuttle. Ten suits were caught in the beam and were easily vaporized. Backlash pointed the gun vertical and pumped. It took careful aim again and let loose. This beam was golden and just as wide. Three suits avoided this blast, leaving seven more to get destroyed. Backlash held the gun across its chest and pumped, this time an empty shell was expelled. Backlash took aim at the three suits and fired. This time a wide scarlet beam caught two suits dead-on, clipping the last suit. The damaged suit was a one armed Serpent, painted white.
"Oh shit," Pyrone said aloud.
"What's up dawg?" Tre said.
"You'll never guess who decided to join this party," Pyrone said nervously.
"Shit," Tre muttered. "Heero, can you fly this thing?"
"Yeah," Heero said.
"Trowa, help him," Tre said as he unbuckled.
Tre leapt toward the aft cabin, closing his visor in the process. He reached the door in the heptagonal cabin that read 06. Tre opened it and flew in. He sat in his Gundam's cockpit. He strapped himself in and closed the cockpit door. He activated DreadScythe, the large doors opened, allowing DreadScythe to crawl out. DreadScythe rose to a sitting position and Tre called to Pyrone.
"Hey, Pyrone," Tre said.
"What?" Pyrone growled.
"Reach out Backlash's left hand so I can grasp onto it with DreadScythe's."
"Here."
The Gundam on the top of the shuttle extended its left arm so DreadScythe could grab on and haul itself up. DreadScythe reached out and grabbed the other Gundam's hand. Then DreadScythe fired its wings to get out without pulling the Backlash off. Backlash pulled the other Gundam up alongside. DreadScythe clambered to a kneeling postion like its partner, the bay doors closing. Then, it drew the beam rifle on its right leg. It fired a spray of rounds at the Serpent, only to have the enemy dodge them, but barely. DreadScythe let its weapon charge, then took aim and fired. The wide beam caught the suit's other arm, blowing the appendage off entirely. The suit then stopped where it was, getting smaller all the while as the shuttle sped away.
"Why'd he stop?" Tre asked.
"That's why," Pyrone said.
Backlash was tapping the DreadScythe on the arm while the former was looking in the direction the shuttle was flying. DreadScythe wheeled around and saw what Backlash was looking at. The Earth was growing larger, and there was a bright red glow around the shuttle's nose. Backlash and DreadScythe looked at each other as to say, "Oh shit!"
The bar G's was still as hot as ever, if not more popular since that fight that broke out between the British soldiers and that Tre Young. A shadowy figure sat in a dark corner of the bar, sipping his drink. His twisted braids fell over this face a like thin curtains. He downed the last of his drink as a waiter came by.
"Would you like another, sir?" the waiter asked.
The figure fumbled in a pocket then produced a picture of Tre.
"Have you seen this person?" the smooth, accented voice asked.
"Are you one of those British guys?"
"I'll ask you for the last time, have you seen this person?"
The figure turned into the light. His face shone with intensity. It was Pyrone Reigns.
"Look, I told ya-" the waiter started.
Pyrone grabbed his shirt collar and yanked the waiter's face near his own. Brown eyes bored into the guys gray ones. Pyrone drew a gun and cocked the hammer, poking the muzzle into the guys neck.
"Hey!" Clyde shouted. "What are you doing to my waiter?"
Pyrone fired two rounds on either side of Clyde's head, two bottles shattering and spilling their contents onto the floor. Pyrone stood up and let the waiter go.
"I'm looking for Tre Young," he said. "Does anyone know where he is?"
"Last I hoid," a man spoke, "he wuz roundin' up what's his face? Chang Wufei."
"I see," Pyrone said. "That's on Earth."
Pyrone walked out of the bar and flung a twenty at Clyde.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, dad," Pyrone Reigns looked to his father.
"Yes, I'm here," was the reply. The aged man looked to his adult son.
They were on board a shuttle headed to their home colony. Pyrone was wearing black jeans that bunched near the tops of his black biker boots at about knee length. His shirt was a long sleeve black shirt topped by a trench coat (AN: WITH sleeves). He looked nothing short of a rock roadie with his twists which reached beyond his shoulders. Strangely enough, Pyrone had brought his most prized possession: an antique Ibanez 5-string bass guitar, 2001 make, autographed by the bass player of KoRN himself, Fieldy Snuts (AN: Get it? "Feel-deez-nuts"). Pyrone used that bass every time he had praticed with Tre and his brothers, and sounded just like the player who autographed the instrument many, many years ago.
"Where are we going in such a hurry? Surely can't be home."
"Well, why don't you just get surprised," Theodore said.
"But, there's nothing at home that would surprise me," Pyrone said.
"There is something there you haven't seen before."
"Maybe, however, I still think you're up to something."
"Well, what if I am?"
"Forget it, I won't ask then."
He slumped in his seat and crossed his arms. Then, he fell asleep.
-One hour later-
"Mr. Reigns?"
Pyrone awoke to the pilot telling his father that a large shuttle was just outside. He rubbed his tired eyes and looked out the window.
A large shuttle with long, bulky pods lining it was not ten yards from the small shuttle Pyrone was in. He whistled in amazement and the loudspeakers came on with a familiar voice.
"Shuttle Firefly, shuttle Nightshift. Slow your speed to 15000 knots and tell Pyrone Reigns he has a Gundam to fly."
"I don't believe it," Pyrone said. "It's Tre Young."
"Tre?" Theo asked. "I saw him and Nikki at the merger meeting for Wiiner Corp."
"Yes, dad," Pyrone said, exasperated. "You told me about a trillion times already."
"Oh, yes, I remember now."
"Pilot!" Pyrone shouted. "Tell Tre I'll be there in a sec."
Pyrone ran to the back and yanked on a spacesuit that matched Tre's suit. He placed the helmet on his head and closed the visor. He slung a duffel bag about his shoulder, then a slim bass case, and opened the cargo bay door. He glided to his Gundam, Backlash.
This Gundam stood at an even 130' tall and sported the characteristic hairstyle of its pilot, plus the dark goatee on the Gundam reached from a spot where a lower lip would be to beyond the chin. This machine looked as thought it were wearing a black flight suit like fighter pilots wear, with black boots covering the hems of the loose pant legs. This was all topped by a full trench coat armor that moves, shifts, and conforms to its wearer as if it were fabric as opposed to metal. In all, this Gundam looked more like a giant, new-age Wild West gunslinger with a large gray backpack fitted with twin rockets, angling slightly inwards on their respective sides on the bottom of the pack. On the waist was a holster belt holding a pair of machine guns like the Sandrock used during the Eve Wars of A.C. 195. Strapped to both thighs were shotgun-like beam weapons that could actually use enhancer shells to boost the beam's destructive power and pump like a shotgun. Lining the holster belts were the numerous shells to be used in the beam shotguns. Lastly, the beam scythe staff on its back could ignite three blades of bright green energy. And that was Gundam Zero-Seven, Backlash.
Pyrone threw the duffel bag and bass case behind his cockpit seat and sat down in the seat. He brought the padded straps about him and snapped them in the buckle. He pressed the controls to close the door and activate the Gundam. The viewscreens glowed in the small cockpit, giving Pyrone the view of the cargo bay. He saw on his front panel that life support within the Gundam was operational, justifying his choice to open the visor on his helmet. He snapped the comm system on and hailed the cockpit on the Firefly.
"This is Pyrone," Pyrone said. "Open cargo bay doors so I can get this bucket of bolts out of here."
"Roger," was all the pilot said.
Pyrone saw on his front viewscreen that the large doors were opening, the shuttle Nightshift just below. Pyrone merely smiled and guided the Backlash out. Backlash fired its rockets in an attempt to match speeds with the other ships. Finally, it had enough thrust to at least make a hop and grab to the other shuttle. All the sudden, the doors on the first pod from the top on the left side of the shuttle opened. Backlash fired its rockets full blast and released the Firefly to grab on the top pods of Nightshift. Pyrone shut the rockets down and stood the Gundam up. Slowly, the Gundam rose to a standing, but leaning posture against a wind that wasn't there. Backlash slowly walked toward its new hold. But something happened before the Gundam could make it there.
From behind came a shot, that narrowly missed the Gundam. Backlash turned its head and saw a whole battalion of British mobile suits: manned and dolls. Pyrone cursed out loud, then snapped the comm to hail the Nightshift.
"Tre," Pyrone called.
"Yeah," Tre replied.
"Listen, I'm going to get these bums off us, but you need to keep this shuttle steady as long as possible."
"Right."
Just then, Backlash did a front flip and extended its left hand to keep it on the shuttle. Then, it swung its legs around and landed in a kneeling stance, right knee on the pod's surface along with the left boot. Backlash pulled its machine guns out, aimed around the tailfin of the shuttle and fired. The spray of bullets rocketed toward the oncoming suits, damaging some, destroying others. The manned suits were the majority of the damaged or destroyed suits, with a few dolls being destroyed as well. Backlash continued the barrage until the guns were empty. Backlash folded its arms at its sides and looked at the guns as if to say, "That's all?", and holstered them. Backlash produced one of the shotguns, took a shell out of its belt with the free hand, shoved the shell into the gun, and pumped the weapon. Backlash took careful aim, then squeezed the trigger. A wide aqua-colored beam shot from the weapon, almost searing the tailfin of the shuttle. Ten suits were caught in the beam and were easily vaporized. Backlash pointed the gun vertical and pumped. It took careful aim again and let loose. This beam was golden and just as wide. Three suits avoided this blast, leaving seven more to get destroyed. Backlash held the gun across its chest and pumped, this time an empty shell was expelled. Backlash took aim at the three suits and fired. This time a wide scarlet beam caught two suits dead-on, clipping the last suit. The damaged suit was a one armed Serpent, painted white.
"Oh shit," Pyrone said aloud.
"What's up dawg?" Tre said.
"You'll never guess who decided to join this party," Pyrone said nervously.
"Shit," Tre muttered. "Heero, can you fly this thing?"
"Yeah," Heero said.
"Trowa, help him," Tre said as he unbuckled.
Tre leapt toward the aft cabin, closing his visor in the process. He reached the door in the heptagonal cabin that read 06. Tre opened it and flew in. He sat in his Gundam's cockpit. He strapped himself in and closed the cockpit door. He activated DreadScythe, the large doors opened, allowing DreadScythe to crawl out. DreadScythe rose to a sitting position and Tre called to Pyrone.
"Hey, Pyrone," Tre said.
"What?" Pyrone growled.
"Reach out Backlash's left hand so I can grasp onto it with DreadScythe's."
"Here."
The Gundam on the top of the shuttle extended its left arm so DreadScythe could grab on and haul itself up. DreadScythe reached out and grabbed the other Gundam's hand. Then DreadScythe fired its wings to get out without pulling the Backlash off. Backlash pulled the other Gundam up alongside. DreadScythe clambered to a kneeling postion like its partner, the bay doors closing. Then, it drew the beam rifle on its right leg. It fired a spray of rounds at the Serpent, only to have the enemy dodge them, but barely. DreadScythe let its weapon charge, then took aim and fired. The wide beam caught the suit's other arm, blowing the appendage off entirely. The suit then stopped where it was, getting smaller all the while as the shuttle sped away.
"Why'd he stop?" Tre asked.
"That's why," Pyrone said.
Backlash was tapping the DreadScythe on the arm while the former was looking in the direction the shuttle was flying. DreadScythe wheeled around and saw what Backlash was looking at. The Earth was growing larger, and there was a bright red glow around the shuttle's nose. Backlash and DreadScythe looked at each other as to say, "Oh shit!"