Chapter 3: Ich bin verrückt!

Tomiya got up out of his bed and stretched a bit. It was only 12:00, he went to sleep after breakfast and an after breakfast "treat". He looked around a bit and listened to some birds chirping outside, and walked over to the windowsill. Looking over the hill at some of the buildings of the main city, he sighed a bit.

"I wonder what kind of assignments they'll have in store for me today." He said to himself, sighing a bit. "Got a feeling I might be meeting someone new today."

He walked over into the kitchen and pulled the refridgerator door open. He pulled out a jug of egg nog and shook it up, then opened it. He sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed the newspaper, pulling it open and pouring himself a glass. His eyes scanned the inside of the paper until he hit the Urgent news section.

-Several unknown ACs spotted around industrial sectors according to several Ravens-
Starting 3 days ago, reports of unknown Armored Cores have been appearing during missions according to various Ravens. We are currently investigating the unknown ACs' origins. We are making a hypothesis that they are prototype AI ACs, but we cannot be sure if that is the cause.

"Hm...odd." Tomiya said to himself, taking a sip of his drink. "My attacker spoke to me though. Oh well, I suppose I'll keep watch for updates about the situation...Maybe I should offer to investigate..." He thought for a moment. "Nah, I'll let the companies ask me to do so."

At that moment, his computer let out a ring, the same annoying ring.

He looked up quickly, almost hurting his neck, and looked up at the computer. "Speak of the devil." Tomiya said to himself, getting up to go over to the computer. He sat down and jiggled the mouse a bit to get the computer out of standby mode. Since the computer had a caller ID, he looked up at the corner of the screen.

"Kisaragi, eh?" He said to himself, clicking on the ACCEPT button.

Video feed of a young woman in a busniess suit appeared in the corner. The woman adjusted her glasses and looked at Tomiya.

"Hello. Mr. Ryuko, I take it?" The woman asked, brushing some misplaced bangs out of her face.

Tomiya sighed a little, he really disliked the self consious businesswomen. Then again, he was a member of the male race, a heterosexual male at that, and didn't really care about his appearance to others. "Yeah, that's me." He replied.

"I wanted to call to tell you that Kisaragi has an assignment for you." She said. "Kisaragi wants you to investigate one of Crest's laboratories. Be warned, Crest knows that Kisaragi's interest in that laboratory has risen over a few weeks, and have increased their security measures." The representative said, giving him a serious look.

"...I understand." He said, giving her one of his best "is that it?" looks.

"I wish you luck." She said, cutting the video and audio.

"...All I hope is that the mission pays good." Tomiya said to himself, slumping in his chair and drinking from his glass.

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Cold Dragon's feet dug into the soil beneath it as it landed in the dropzone. Tomiya glanced around at his HUD, and at the circular radar representation. There seemed to be not that many of these "Security measures" that the representative spoke about. He dashed into some trees and used them for cover. What he saw were 3, gigantic, hulking MTs decked out with more heavy weaponry than the heaviest AC could carry.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Was all that Tomiya could say as he saw the 3 monstrosities of metal and wire. "They expect me to stand up to THOSE!? They're batshit insane!" He shouted to himself.

Grumbling, he dashed out into the open and made a blind rush towards one of the monstrosities, activating his MOONLIGHT, he slashed at the machine, slicing off one of it's legs and causing it to tumble to the ground, incapacitated. Cold Dragon took to the skies on plumes of plasma as a barrage of grenades and laser shots hit where he was standing, making a huge crater.

"They better be paying me EXTRA for fighting these." He said, firing several rounds from his MG-1000 at one of them, rupturing it's Ammunition stores and making the giant machine go down in a glorious fireball. He sailed downards towards the last one, and his MOONLIGHT hummed to life, blue energy collecting at the tapered points and making the blade, slicing the giant through the middle, causing an explosion that send Cold Dragon sprawling backwards onto the ground. Part of that impact was from a KARASAWA laser rifle.

Tomiya, while coming out of his daze, looked over to his AP meter. "Huh...? 7540? That explosion wasn't THAT powerful, was it?" He then found himself gazing down the barrel of a KARASAWA laser rifle. A voice dripping with lack of control blared over Tomiya's com. "Zeit... Feind zu sterben..."

"...What the FUCK?!" Tomiya shouted, sending his foot into the core of the AC that had tried to destroy him, knocking it back and away from him

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AC Layout

AC Name: Hell's Wings

Pilot: Till Sonne

Description: A Middleweight AC that looks frail. Wields a KARASAWA to cause maximum damage.

AP: 8170

Head: CHD-01-ATE

Core: MCL-SS-RAY

Arms: CAL-44-EAS

Legs: CLB-33-NMU

Booster: CBT-FLEET

FCS: AOX-ANA

Generator: MGP-VE905

Radiator: RMR-ICICLE

Inside: N/A

Ext.: N/A

Back Unit: KWM-AD-60

Arm Unit R/L: MWG-KARASAWA/MLB-HALBERD

Optional: OP-INTENSIFY

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Hell's Wings flew back and stumbled back a bit. Unable to regain his bearings in time, Tomiya boosted foward and swung his MOONLIGHT foward. Till was unlucky, and the MOONLIGHT swing sliced right through his KARASAWA, causing the weapon to explode. Till, knowing that he couldn't outlast the Cold Dragon with just his HALBERD, attempted to escape, activating his HALBERD, and ripping the weapon from his arm and chucking the laser blade at Tomiya. The HALBERD throwing knife hit Cold Dragon square in the foot, causing it's AP to drop to 7002.

"Hey, goddamn douchebag!" Tomiya shouted in pure anger, boosting to Hell's Wings and shoulder ramming it. Knocking it to the ground before unloading with his Machinegun, raking the AC up and down the entire machine. Ruining it completely, but not killing the pilot.

Tomiya then carried on with his investigation of the laboratory...it was completely deserted for some reason, he did, however, find a few AC parts, and some computer data.

"Mission Objective Achieved." The gruff male voice of his computer said. Tomiya slumped back in his chair, at least it wasn't an unidentified AC he had to fight this time.

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Tomiya went to the office of his direct client, slouched in one of the chairs.

"I want to thank you for the data you recieved there." His client said.

"...Don't mention it." Tomiya said.

"I'm transferring 15,000,000 credits to your account." The client murmured, looking at Tomiya over the rim of his sunglasses.

Tomiya's jaw dropped so fast that it broke a law of gravity.

"Yes, you heard me. 15,000,000. We didn't expect you to fight those monsters, but you did, therefore we pay extra."

"Uh...thanks...!" Tomiya said, snapping back into reality. Then getting up from his seat and walking out of the office.

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Tomiya pushed the door open to his house, and immediately heard a familiar voice, in english this time. "...Oh HELL no." He muttered to himself as he went into the kitchen. He laid eyes on the pilot he had just defeated earlier, with some bandages on him from his encounter, talking with Mokohara over a glass of egg nog.

Tomiya's eyebrow twitched a bit. "What the hell is going on here?"

Till, the injured pilot, looked up at Tomiya. His eyes went a little wider and he pointed at Tomiya. "Sie bemuttern Bumser!" Till shouted, getting up to deck Tomiya a good one.

Mokohara grabbed Till by the arm. "I take it you two know each other?" She asked, looking between the two.

Tomiya gave an angry glare and pointed at Till. "That crazy kraut tried to kill me!"

Mokohara sighed. "To-kun...He doesn't have a place to stay...Can't you become friends with him?" She asked, giving him that puppy dog eyed look.

Tomiya's angry face faltered a bit, and he sighed. "...I...suppose..." He held out his hand to Till. "Tomiya Ryuko."

Till gave him an uneasy glance, then gripped Tomiya's hand firmly. "Till Sonne, well met." He replied. He seemed to be like a reasonable man...outside of an AC that is.

Tomiya sighed, flopping into a chair. "Great...It's bad enough I had to be almost killed by him, now I have to LIVE with him...oh well, what could be worse?" He though to himself, reaching over for some pain pills.

CHAPTER 3 END...