Chapter 4: First Shot
"Gatekeeper…how goes your part of the mission so far?" asked a wolf dressed mostly in black asked, a peacock in a what could only be described as a 'pirate shirt', khakis, and formal sandals said in a calm emotionless voice, "The other end of this portal has been sealed off to me somehow…I think the Crest knows about our plan. Are we sending any of our troops?"
The wolf chuckled and said, "No need…Tau Factions' already sent a portion of their troops to Neo-Earth, but we have three of our group down there to make sure nothing goes awry. Oh…and the Generals are getting restless, they're wonder when you'll be done with all this."
Gatekeeper remained in his trance and said, "With this barrier in place it'll take longer than first estimated…tell them several weeks."
"Several weeks, they're not going to be happy with that." The wolf replied, "Well tell them if they have a problem with that estimate then they can come down here and see me themselves." said Gatekeeper.
Roland awoke that morning to a red sunrise, "Red sails at morning, sailor take warning." He thought to himself, as he changed into a fresh set of clothes he noticed something out of the corner of his eye he saw something moving, he looked and saw the hole in the wall he'd made last night, then he realized that was Vixy's room. She was getting dressed, Roland looked away and tried his hardest trying not to look again. Suddenly he heard a her ask, "You weren't trying to peek at me, were you?"
"I did at first…but right now I'm trying not to." Roland answered, he heard Vixy mumble something that sounded like 'pervert'. Suddenly it hit him, "They're here." he muttered under his breath.
"They're back," Roland told the group in the meeting room, "By the looks of it we have three detachments of ground troops, a detachment of air craft, a few assault vehicles, and three attachments of sea vessels."
"Sounds like the Empire all right, and you were right Roland…something does feel different about them." said Pulsar.
"Well I'll take care of the sea vessels…waters where I work best." chirped Xenica helpfully.
"Aircraft." said Sem, as he made his way for the roof.
"Me and Bangala will handle the ground troops." said Kate.
"I'll get rid of the assault vehicles." Roland told them, "And be careful…remember that the Psychics could be watching your every move."
As soon as they left the building three dark clothed figures appeared before them, "Welly, well, well…looks like the party's about to leave, didn't expect the crashers to show up this late." said one of the figures, a wolf carrying a short sword with a hilt the size of a basketball, behind him was a heavily armored fox with a giant chain, the third was a hawk, a long bow with plenty of arrows at his disposal.
The wolf looked at Minos and Kayin and said, "You two seem to amuse my mind, and my tact," He then removed a manhole cover and fell into the sewer, "Let's take this where your friends won't see." Minos and Kayin jumped down after him.
"Carmesi, Feather…think you can take care of the other two?" Asked Ambar, both nodded slowly and walked over to there opponent, Carmesi chose the fox with the chain. While Feather and the hawk with the arrows set off skyward.
Meanwhile, Roland took off in his flying contraption, he looked down and saw three heavily armored vehicles heading for Prism. "I do believe that's my target." Roland thought to himself, he quickly set the autopilot again and jumped out.
"There's the target men, head straight for it…once we've taken the city then this planet's destruction is assured." The sergeant said over the Comm. System, soon he heard one of the soldiers say, "Uh Sarge, we got an unexpected guest."
"Well then what are you waiting for? Blow him away!" The sergeant ordered.
Roland watched as the armored vehicles positioned their weapons on him, Roland quickly took out one of his gun and shot a bullet at the vehicle to his right, and watched the top of it burst into flames. The other two opened fire on him, the Sergeant smiled fiendishly as he thought that he'd annihilated Roland, but when the smoke cleared he saw a suit of silver and maroon colored armor standing where Roland had been, suddenly the suit pointed it's gun at the vehicle to it's left, but instead of the top just blowing up…the entire vehicle became a flame heap of shrapnel. The armored figure pointed the weapon at the vehicle in the center, "I love you Sarge." said the soldier in a weak voice. The armored figure opened fire and blew up the last remaining vehicle, when that was over the armored figure became incased in a sliver radiance and became Roland again, he looked at the burning vehicles in front of him and said, "Can't blame them for trying."
"Black seven to black leader we're on course and set to hit Prism in T-minus 7 minutes." the communicator crackled across the airwaves. Imperial
fighters soared low over the ocean, screaming towards the main city of Neo Earth.
Suddenly an orb of black energy hit one of the Imperial craft, it's energy spread out to 6 other aircrafts all of them exploding one after the other in a chain, "What in Sam Hill!?!" one of the pilots shouted over the communicator, "Men we have enemy fire, find target and fire on sight!" The ships broke off in separate directions, just then another seven exploded. "Where are these shots coming from?" one of the pilots asked himself, just then he thought he caught a glimpse of something, he quickly changed course before another orb of energy was thrown from the figure destroying the remaining aircraft.
Sem saw the last of the jet fighters coming for him and pulled out Kissei (one of his two swords) and ran it through (blade facing the cockpit) the ship and the pilot, destroying the ship and killing the pilot. "Humph…not even worth my time." Sem growled to himself, sheathing his sword and flying back for Ambar Tower.
Meanwhile Kayin and Minos followed the wolf through the sewer, the wolf's pace being dead even…he was in no rush what so ever, soon they were all in a chamber leading down three separate passages of the sewer. The wolf turned back to them, "Well seeing as I'm being a good sport…I'll let you two attack first, you can even use your powers if you want, though there's no guarantee they'll do any good."
"We'll see about that," said Kayin…pulling out his swords and setting to strike the assassin down, but the assassin quickly countered both blades. Minos then tried to sneak in with his hammer. But the assassin dodged that as well.
"Come on, where is it?" The assassin thought to himself, suddenly Kayin started powering up for an attack, "There it is."
Some symbols' then lit up with some runes on the blade, the blade then disconnected from the hilt, though it was connected to a chain. The blade struck Kayin's energy attack head on and resulted in an explosion throwing both Kayin and Minos into a wall. The assassin made an upward motion with the hilt reconnecting the blade and causing the runes to vanish.
"What the heck was that?!" Minos asked Kayin, Kayin shrugged. The assassin looked at their confusion and smiled, "I see you're trying to figure out what just happened, well allow me to enlighten you. You see this blade was made by Dark Angel, leader of the Psychics…normally my faction doesn't trust them but D.A. has given my other associates and I certain things that'll ensure the Crests' downfall, what my sword does is it reverses any magic you might possess back on you."
"So how do we fight something like that?" Minos asked, Kayin looked sharply at him and said, "Don't you think I've been trying to figure that out!"
Suddenly they heard a small popping sound and a mist formed around them, sleep was the next thing to overtake them, the assassin watched this not only amazed, but realizing he wasn't alone.
He turned around and there was his answer, he saw a wolf in a flannel jacket, white tank top, and faded blue jeans standing behind him. The figure had a black satin pouch around his neck, which he closed with the cord that was weaved into the top of it.
"Oh Wyatt…didn't expect you to be here, but I had things covered…you didn't have to intervene." The assassin told him, Wyatt looked at him and said, "You already blew it so what's the point."
"What are you talking about? I didn't blow anything." The assassin argued, Wyatt continued, still gazing upon the assassin, "You revealed Dark Angel to them, revealed who gave you your power…I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for the sword back."
The assassin brandished it in front of Wyatt and said, "You want it, come and claim it." Wyatt loosened the pouch around his neck and took out some small metal balls about the size of marbles, the assassin lunged at Wyatt, but before the sword could meet its mark Wyatt held the arm holding the balls straight out and with his free hand flicked them off, suddenly the assassins' grip on the blade loosened as he fell flat on his back. Finally letting the sword fly freely in the air until Wyatt caught it, the assassin twitched a few times before finally dying. Wyatt put the sword over his shoulders and looked back at where Kayin and Minos laid, "Their time will come." He thought to himself, and then he just left.
Standing atop a rock jutting out of the water, Xeanica stood, watching out over the sea for the enemy ships to come. Clutching the Neptune's Hand in her fist, she waited quietly for her fight to begin. The ocean sprayed her thin body with a supple mist, barely coating her skin with moisture. She sighed once as the ships appeared just at the edge of her vision, wishing she did not have to harm the water to stop them. "But," she said to herself, "I have to, so I best do it now." She raised her trident into the air, and plunged it down into the water. Closing her eyes, she began to glow with a light aqua color as her power flowed from her body into the ocean. Soon, a small gap began to form in the water, which rapidly grew larger and more powerful. Quickly, the surge she was making in the ocean swelled to enormous size, and she slowly raised her trident out of the water. Snapping it forward to point at the ships, Xeanica watched as the surge shot towards the ships. But then, for a brief second, the surge took a reddish hue before shriveling down to nothing. Xeanica looked dumbfounded, "What in the name of the Argo?"
She then realized someone was behind her, she turned around to the beach behind her and who should she see. But the guy in the clear rain poncho again, she swam over towards him to get a better look, she finally got a closer view of him. He was a human boy probably about Nearie's age if not older, he had a blue baseball cap on which covered the hay blond hair underneath, and his blue eyes seemed to reflect the ocean itself. Underneath the poncho Xeanica could see the makings of a long sleeve T-shirt and black sweat pants, he also had loafers on.
"Did you like my little trick?" The stranger asked, Xeanica didn't break her gave but pointed to the ships, "Why are you trying to help them!?" she asked sternly. The stranger shook his head and said, "Why…you ask? Well the answer is simple, because they're the force that'll purge this planet—no, the universe, of all its evil."
"But the Empire is evil," Xeanica told him, "listen I have friends in Prism who could tell you of the Empires' misdeeds. I mean they've destroyed worlds—."
"You mean they purified them, ridded them of their unlawful business men, their 'whores of Babylon', of their…bullies!" the stranger said, "When I was growing up here, on this world I was always made fun of by other people whether it be Anthro or my own kind…the Empire made me see the evil on this world and the Psychics told me how they were going to purge the universe of it."
"Whoa, wait…you think that just because you were picked on by a few people the whole universe deserves to suffer!?" Xeanica asked, the stranger nodded and said, "It's the only way I can receive justice." Xeanica gave a sarcastic chuckle and said, "I'm sorry buddy…but that's not justice, its vengeance, and vengeance never works out."
The stranger looked at her sharply and said, "I don't need to explain myself to you, and it's not like you can beat me anyway." Xeanica pointed her trident at him and said, "I can try." An aqua color beam shot into the water creating a giant water spout that headed straight for them, the stranger looked at it and smiled saying, "A water spout…impressive, that would work," suddenly the stranger to a pin to his index finger and watched as a drop of his blood hit the water, suddenly the water spout turned a reddish hue (same as the tidal surge had) and disappeared back into the water. The stranger turned around and said, "or should I say would've worked…seven months ago, before I had any control over my powers, but let me ask you one question before I depart…oh mighty Wather Crest, can your little trident do this?" the stranger pricked his finger again and let another drop of blood hit the water, both watched as the water started to boil, shoot upward, and take the shape of a giant hand.
Xeanica looked at the giant appendage and said, "No…how did you?" the stranger turned around and said, "That's for me to know and you to never find out, but if you survive this, tell your friends that Taylor Monaghan did this to you." Suddenly the giant water hand swung back and slapped Xeanica across the beach as if she was no more than a large mosquito on a persons' arm, she hit the ground hard and lost saw Taylor take dive into the water before she lost conciseness.
Upon the rooftops of Prism, Carmesi leapt from building to building, avoiding the massive chain of the Imperial warrior. The warrior's thick armor made it almost impossible to hurt him with any direct attack. Carmesi decided she had to outrun him in order to live. Diving from building to building, Carmesi smiled to herself, sure she had completely outmaneuvered her opponent. However, when she looked behind to see where he was, Carmesi gasped to see the warrior pursuing her along parallel buildings. Despite the massive armor, the fox moved with equal speed and Carmesi could find no way to shake him off. The two fighters sprinted alongside one another, with a gap between them. As they ran, Carmesi felt the fiery energy building inside of her, transferring to her swords. Yelling loudly, the assassin threw the chain across the space between the two buildings, lodging in the side of Carmesi's building, mere inches from her head. Spotting the opening, Carmesi kicked off the wall, landing on top of the warrior's chain. With long, graceful strides, she covered the gap between the two fighters. Her swords glowed brightly as her energy poured into them. Shouting a battle cry, Carmesi leapt at her attacker, the attack then let go of the chain and put his arms out to his sides, "What is he doing," Carmesi thought to herself, "he looks as if he's embracing my attack!?" suddenly Carmesi noticed a bunch of glowing runes were starting to appear on the surface of the armor, the moment her blades hit she felt something inside the armor push them and her away with deadly force. She rolled across the ground, spinning out of control upon it, catching herself just before going over the edge. The Imperial soldier laughed and said, "Come on Carmesi…is that the best you can do?"
Carmesi got up and looked at the warrior, something about his voice was familiar…but what. "How do you know my name?" she asked, tightly gripping the handles of her swords. The heavy armored fox cocked his head, "The same way I know that your friend Howl killed me, or tried to I should say."
"Howls' killed a lot of Imperial soldiers, you'll have to be more specific." Carmesi pointed out, the assassin gave a sigh and said, "It was back when you were still one of us, back when we were still friends…maybe more, ever since the accident I only have bits and pieces of my life before that. Try a factory…I had lured Howl there to finish him off and claim his Crest for my own, but the intensity of the battle was so great that the factory started catching fire. I was gravely hurt, Howl as well…finally with his Crest powers he blew me into some flaming debris. You arrived there just when I needed you the most, I kept asking you to help put me out since you had been endowed with the Fire Crest." Suddenly Carmesi could hear someone's voice inside her head screaming "CARMESI HELP, PUT ME OUT! CARMESI PUT ME OUT, I'M BURNING CARMESI…HELP!!!"
The warrior continued, "But instead of doing what I had asked of you, you left with Howl and left me to die! There does that story sound familiar to you?"
Carmesi looked at him, then it came back…of course, they may not have seen him escape, but it didn't mean he wasn't still alive. "Carge? (Author's Note: pronounced like this-karj)" she asked, "Is it really you?"
The warrior took off his helmet to reveal the face beneath, he was a fox with deep blue hair…his face though told a more painful looking story, a few tuffs of his orange-red fur were actually discolored to gray, a huge purple scar went down the right side of his face, going over his eye. His eyes color was as odd as his face, one was a yellow, perfectly normal eye, but the one where the scar showed was like a white marble.
Carmesi stepped back in disbelief; he looked like death warmed over. "Yes it's me…I still carry the scars from my battle with Howl, I was actually hoping to fight him but you'll make a fine substitute." Carge then swung the chain at Carmesi, she leapt into the air to dodge it, but then Carge flicked his wrist making it snap upward and wrap itself around the hilt of one of her swords, from there he gave the chain a tug and brought the blade over to his hand.
He looked at it, handled it a bit, then looked at the chain in disgust and said, "Don't need this anymore." Throwing the chain aside he quickly leapt into the air and came at Carmesi with her own blade, the blade took a crimson glow as he headed down towards her. Carmesi did a cartwheel, dodging a direct hit. But the A/C module that was behind them split in two/ melted. Carmesi looked at Carge, "I've developed my own control over fire since the last time you saw me." He said with a smile.
Meanwhile Feather and the hawk assassin soared over the city dodging each others attacks, Feather was dodging the most because of how quickly the assassin could reload his bow. Feather then took out a short sword she'd made and filled it with her Crest energy, the hawk warrior saw a rune light up on the head of the arrow and whispered, "Now let's see what you can do." He fired it off, Feather moved out of the way and cut the arrow in two pieces, just then she saw the front half of the arrow grow a new back half and vise versa with the end half. She then watched as both arrows dived, circled back around and head straight for her. She dodged them again and they came back around, "I'd stop trying to avoid those…they're locked on to your Crest energy, they'll keep chasing you for days before losing their potency."
Feather landed on the ground and looked for someplace to hide, behind her she could hear the faint whipping sound of the arrows coming for her. She finally hid behind a mail box just as she heard the arrows sink in the mail box exploded, sending her flying into the front window of a parked car. She rolled off the hood and landed on all fours, dazed and breathing heavily. The hawk assassin landed right next to her and reloaded his bow saying, "Oh, did I forget to mention the gun-powder in the arrow head? Well you won't live long enough to tell anybody about it." He pulled back on the bow ready for the kill shot, Feather looked at the arrow head and felt like a deer caught in the oncoming headlights of a semi-truck. Suddenly the hawk warriors head, right arm, and a good chunk of his upper-right side exploded in a geyser of blood and feathers. He was dead long before hitting the ground, but Feather was covered in the blood bath and looked to see what had happened. The armored Roland stood behind them, one of his guns pointed straight at where the assassin had been standing.
Roland then transformed back to his normal self and re-holstered the gun, "Thank you Roland." Said Feather. Kate and Bengala were the next to return, followed by Sem.
"Where are the others they should've been back by now?" Asked Roland. Suddenly the whole group heard a bunch of explosions coming from Ambar Tower, they headed over to see the Imperial battleships blasting the heck out of it, "I thought Xeanica said she'd take care of those." Kate pointed out.
Roland's flying contraption suddenly whizzed by them the gun turrets on the wings blazing, they watched as one by one the battleships went up in flames. Suddenly they heard a similar sort of explosions coming from the rooftops of the city, "It's Carmesi."
Carmesi had done a good job of parrying Carge's attacks, but she had to end this soon. But Carge showed no sign of letting up, she felt more of her Crest energy following into the blade of the sword she still held. Finally stopping in front of her friends Carmesi turned around and attacked Carge again, and again the attack repelled her somehow and threw her across the street. Carge swung his sword and managed to cut her cheek before she got to far away, Carmesi staggered back to her feet while Carge used the sword to support a bit of his weight, both of them were breathing heavily. Carge then looked at the other Crest warriors standing next to him and tossed Carmesi back her sword, he then pulled out a glass orb and smashed it on the ground, the orb released a mist veiling Carge's body. Carge's last words before it started clearing were: "You haven't seen the last of me Carmesi, and either has Howl…I will get my vengeance!" and with that he was gone, soon after Kayin and Minos came lumbering out of the sewers, Xeanica showed up a few minutes later, explaining how the ships got past her. "I knew it," Roland blurted out, "see what I'm talking about now? The Psychics are watching us…we have to be careful."
Back at the tower Carmesi told Howl about her ill-fated run-in with Carge, "Carge…Lt. Carge, you're sure it was him?" Howl asked, Carmesi nodded. Howl let out a low whistle, he left the room and stepped onto the roof of the tower.
Meanwhile Nearie was reading a book when she heard a knock on the door, she opened and there stood Roland with a sheet of paper in his hand, "Hey I just finished this put earlier today, it's the schedule I set up for the training I'm going to give you and the others." He handed her the sheet and she scanned it, "Looks like you have all this down, time, diet…hello totalitarianism. But if it'll help us face these Psychics…I'm ready."
"Good, Lionhawk also agreed with the schedule, Hope and Shin were the average response I was expecting." Roland told her, "What about Vixy, how'd she handle it?" Nearie asked. Roland then looked nervously around and said, "Uh, if you see her…lie and tell her you haven't seen me."
"THERE YOU ARE!" Came a voice from down the hall, Roland looked to his left and gave a startled yelp before running the other way, Vixy came charging down the hall after him yelling, "You JERK, this is definitely going to wreck my social life you little PRICK!"
Meanwhile back at the Psychics lair Dark Angel again confronted Gatekeeper, "I told them what you told me, they weren't happy…don't be surprised if they send somebody down here to hurry you by force." said Dark Angel, "I'll have my way with them…as always." Gatekeeper replied, "I also have some news for you…I've found a way to get past the barrier."
"Well then let it out already." Dark Angel ordered, Gatekeeper continued, "Draconic energy…dragon energy in other words, and there's a ripe source of this energy on Neo-Earth in Prism…I must have it."