NOCTURNE

Chapter VIII (08): Airship Assault

"…No. We won't do it. Not now. Wait a while longer, then we shall strike."

"Sirrrrrrr, PLEEEEEEASE! I want to kill the brat NOW!"

"I said SHUT-UP! We won't attack now, and if you backtalk me again, you're the one who will be killed! At least wait until my conversation with Kaiser is over."

"Y-y-yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. I'm just so impatient with these type of things!"

"Then teach yourself patience… Ah, we have received news from them. It's about fucking time. Inyu, leave the room."

"Yes sir…"

There is the whisper of a door in a closed, dark room opening and closing. The man who ordered the one named "Inyu" to go pushes a button on one of the walls, causing a large screen to slide down from the ceiling. The screen turns on.

"Greetings there. I'm sorry for the delay."

"Just get on with it. You said you would report days ago. What the hell happened! I've had enough of your excuses!"

"Well, excuse me, but we all run into trouble from time to time. Things never turn out right, especially for us."

"I'm well aware of that, Kaiser X, but please… Tell me. What was the delay?"

"We… Well, our monster, Monster X, was attacked by a young man named 'Akira.'"

"Eh? Akira?"

"Yes. And then Godzilla woke up and almost destroyed Monster X! I thought you said the tranquilizer would keep him asleep for several years!"

"I thought so, too."

"Bah, forget that plan, then. We have found almost all the monsters we need… but one."

"Oh? I wonder which one THAT is."

"Don't play with me; we've been searching for that monster for years."

"Well, it's out there, trust me on that."

"How would you know? You're just a human."

The man talking to Kaiser X becomes very angry.

"Now listen, you! I could take you down so quick that you wouldn't even have enough time to BLINK before you noticed I had cut you to bits! Got me! Don't underestimate my powers of foresight!"

"Yes, of course, yes of course…"

The conversation ends and the large screen turns off immediately.

"I hate those… things… Rrrrrrr…"

The man turns on a light in the large room. The man has charcoal-black hair and blood-red eyes. He has a large scar under his right eye that stretches horizontally, touching from his ear almost to his nose, which is rather short and rounded. The man is wearing a long black trench coat, making him look like one of the guys from the movie "The Matrix." The man stands exactly six feet high, making him slightly taller than Akira, who is 5'10''. The man stares blankly into space when the door in the large, black-walled room opens. Standing at the doorway is a man with a large red shirt and large red pants. The man also has long, white hair that reaches almost down to his waist and he also has two white fox-like ears. The man has a very large sword, which is tied on his back by a rope. The man's face is covered in shadow (and not by his hair), making his evil red eyes seem to glow. He has long fingernails and wears no shoes. He also has a white fox-like tail. Inyu. Inyu stares at the charcoal-haired man intently.

"So? What did he say?"

"…Nothing of importance, Inyu. Now go. I need time to think…"

"You're always thinking! Shit! When would be a good time to--"

"Now."

"W-w-what? N-now?"

"Yes. Take the Airship and find him. Make sure not to kill either of them."

"Them? There are two? I thought you said he traveled alone."

"I thought so as well. It seems that he is turning soft. Something he will regret."

"When I do get them, do you want me to bring them to you?"

"Most. Definitely."

"Okay, sir. I won't let you down."

"And one more thing, Inyu: Don't shift shape. DO NOT."

"Yes, of course, Keiji, I will do as you say. Farewell…"

Inyu bows respectively and leaves the room in a flash. The man named "Keiji" looks at the wall blankly.

"So… We will finally meet, after so long… And one of us will perish in the process…"


Weeks have past since Akira and Dark left the island filled with monsters. Nothing unusual has happened just yet, and at the minute Akira is lying on one of the boards relaxing, letting the sun's rays rejuvenate him. Dark sleeps under the board, however, to keep himself from being burnt to a crisp by the brutal sun.

Akira sits up. He feels that someone has been watching him for the past several days, just waiting to strike. Still uneasy, Akira stretches and yawns obnoxiously. He stands up on the small boat and walks over to a small compartment located right next to the mast. He opens the large compartment and takes out some of the strange, but very tasty, fruit and eats it quickly, for the food spoils fast, which he learned the hard way days earlier. There is still much fruit left, even after all the weeks that have past.

"Thank you, Mithril…"

The scent of the salty sea with the fruit smells terrible, but at least Akira's stomach is content and stops grumbling. Akira opens the compartment again and quickly pulls out one of many bottles of warm water, which he drinks very quickly to ease his burning throat. Satisfied, Akira goes back to his bench to rest when he hears the sound of gunfire up above. There is nothing in the sky, and that really confuses Akira as he looks all around him.

"Maybe I was hearing things…?"

Clouds start to form and cover the bright blue sky as well as the sun. The ocean looks very cold now instead of having the life it had when it gleamed in the sunlight. The sound of gunfire rings again, and this time it is closer.

"What…"

There is more gunfire, and this time, bullets jet through the air, just barely missing Akira's small ship. Small holes are seen on the sail, caused by the bullets that shot out of nowhere. Akira stands up swiftly and yells out into the open sea.

"HEY! STOP THAT WHOEVER IS OUT THERE!"

As if to respond, there is more of an assault, and this time hundreds of bullets pour down from some invisible craft like rain. The bullets hit the water, sending water shooting up. The bullets seem to circle Akira's ship like sharks, gradually moving closer and closer. Fortunately, the bullets stop moments later, not leaving a mark on the ship, or any holes (except for the ones on the sail). Akira darts his head around, trying to find the source of the gunfire, but doesn't see anything in sight.

"What the hell is going on here? Do the clouds here pour bullets instead of rain? How stupid!"

Akira sits back down, grumbling to himself.

"At least the ship isn't damaged."

Akira can't help but feel that the gunfire was made on purpose to catch his attention…

Later in the day, when the sun has set and the moon is covered by thunderclouds that rumble with great force, Akira wakes from his sleep, still having the feeling that he is being watched. Rather pissed, he decides to shake it from his mind and get some more rest when lightning strikes the ocean and rain pours down. Luckily, Akira is able to protect the boat with a "shield" he can conjure up with his mind, so both Akira and Dark stay dry, all the while wind continues to flow through into the shield.

"Ahhh, what a lovely power of mine. I'm glad I learned that one from that old freak back in Neo Tokyo… Too bad he died by that drive by. Eh, oh well. Now for some rest…"

The rain pours down harder as the night progresses. Thunder now literally cracks like an explosion, constantly waking Dark who, normally, stays up at night. Right before Akira can get some shuteye, he hears in the pitch-dark clouds the sound of a machine gun again. Bullets from the clouds hit the shield and bounce off, falling into the ocean. Akira sits up and looks above him and is shocked. Right above him, high in the thunderstorming sky, is a giant wooden aircraft. It looks like a ship, but it floats in the air somehow. There is a large anchor on its side that blows in the direction of the strong wind. Half of the large airship is covered in clouds and the other half is just barely visible in the night sky, which lights up from time to time by lightning. Akira, now filled with curiosity and excitement, decides to jump onto the anchor and enter the airship unseen. He quickly nabs Dark from under his sleeping place (who wakes with a sudden start), lets off his shield, and is drenched almost as quickly as he let it dissipate. Not really worried about the rain, Akira concentrates hard and jumps with all his might from his small boat, making it rock violently. After several agonizing seconds of flying upward into the clouds and through the icy rain, Akira latches on firmly to the anchor, which was just being withdrawn.

"Hehehe… Time for a little payback to these pack of bastards for trying to at me... They won't get away with this! I'll make sure of it!"

Climbing cautiously up the large anchor's chain, Akira makes it on deck. There is no one in sight.

"Odd. But I don't blame 'em, they'd be getting drenched about now."

Akira drops Dark on the deck so he can climb up on top as well. Akira looks around on the deck and notices at the far right of the airship a pair of small, wooden double doors. Dark starts to sneeze as both he and Akira run on the slippery deck to the pair of double wooden doors. There is no mast, no wheel, or anything else on the deck but the doors on the floor. Akira opens the door quickly and notices the floor is just a few meters down. 'A nice, steady jump outta do it,' Akira says to himself. Although the raining slows him down some, Akira manages to jump through the doors and onto the floor below. Dark follows and just makes it through as the doors shut by themselves. Both Akira and Dark now find themselves in a small hallway, lit by torches that are held by metallic hands that are screwed firmly into wooden walls. The floor is pure concrete, however, and is covered by a comfortable layer of red carpet, which leads all the way down the hall. Even with the torches, the hall is still quite dark and it is very hard to see far ahead.

"Looks more like a dungeon than a ship…"

Akira creeps quietly through the ship, listening for voices or footsteps of anyone or anything else that could be on the ship. When Akira reaches the end of the hall (which divides left and right) and looks both ways, checking if the coast is clear, Dark sneezes again.

"Shhh! Quiet!"

Dark looks unhappily up at Akira, as if he fell and hurt himself.

"Don't look at me like that. It's not my fault you can't protect yourself from colds."

Dark sneezes once more.

"Ugh… What am I going to do with you?"

Sighing, Akira takes off his black shirt, picks up Dark, and wraps him in it. Although it is totally soaked, Dark easily warms it up with his body heat instantly (a special technique that dragons can do) and has Akira's shirt dry in no time. Fortunately for Akira, he was also wearing another black shirt under his current one, although it is thinner and not as comfortable. Akira carries Dark in his arms as if carrying a football.

"So? Which way do you think we should go?"

Dark looks curiously at Akira, not understanding the question.

"Bah, never mind. I don't know why I asked you anyways."

Akira closes his eyes and focuses his senses. He feels the presence of many beings on his left, and to his right only one standing alone. Akira shakes himself back to reality and ponders a bit, wondering which way to go.

"Let's see, if I go left, there will be many guys to fight and that would be fun, but more might come out and that would probably be too much to handle. If I went right, however, I could easily kill the person in there and take control of this ship… Then again, what if I don't kill him quick enough and he calls in reinforcements? Hmm, what to do, what to do…"

Akira sits on his bum on the carpeted floor, thinking to himself some more. Dark sneezes one last time before he drifts to sleep. Finally, after much thought, Akira decides to take a look at both halls and check the security first before jumping to conclusions.

Akira decides to go left first. When he reaches the end of the long hallway, he hears partying located past the two very large chestnut-colored doors. He opens one of the doors very, very quietly and peers inside. In the room there are many different creatures, ranging from large green-shelled turtles to small, brown, armless mushrooms. They all seem to be… "partying," listening to one turtle that looks more like a DJ than anything. The tortoise is even wearing black headphones! Rather shocked, Akira shuts the door and goes down the right hall this time. When he reaches the end, there are two large metal doors. He hears nothing inside but the whirring of a large engine. Akira opens the door very slightly and peeks inside. There, at the end of the room, is something controlling the ship that Akira cannot believe is actually there!

NOCTURNE

"Looks can be deceiving." --Anonymous