Chapter 6: Brothers in Arms

Night had fallen upon the valley, two ACs slid across the dirt ground, heading for a facility at the end. The valley lit up in parts from the plumes of plasma from the backs of the ACs. The moon was only a crescent, so the eyes of the AC and chest mounted spotlights provided the only light in the dark.

"Tomiya, I can see the fortress, stop and approach slowly!" Ace told Tomiya, Ace knew how to avoid an ambush, be cautious.

Cold Dragon skidded to a stop, the dust kicking up and causing the beam of the light to become more defined. "Yeah, Yeah, whatever." Tomiya replied. "What were we doing here in the first place?" he asked.

"Remember, we were supposed to destroy the runaway AC." Ace told him.

"Oh, yeah...well, if he ran away, why won't he just come out and fight to defend his newfound territory?" Tomiya questioned, raising a brow.

Ace shrugged. "Because he's a coward?"

"Or he's got several booby traps planted in the fortress and we'll have to pull treasure hunter skills to avoid them...did you bring the bullhide whip?" Tomiya asked with a chuckle.

"No, Mokohara forgot it in her college dorm after we had fun." Ace told him, jokingly.

"Shut the fuck up and focus on the mission." Tomiya said sharply, narrowing his eyes.

Ace drew back a little. "It was only a joke, man."

Tomiya's voice was still sharp. "It wasn't a funny one."

"Sheesh..." Ace was heard over the radio and moved in onto the facility.

Tomiya muttered something incoherently and followed.

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The chaingun on Ace's AC flipped back and disengaged, it had run out of ammo. There had been massive waves of MTs attacking after they had entered the facility.

Tomiya stabbed his MOONLIGHT into the last one, it exploded in a glorious fireball, Cold Dragon's arm pulled back and the sky blue blade of the MOONLIGHT disengaged and shrunk into the attachment. "I don't believe it, an Ambush party all the way out here!"

"When I find that runaway Raven, I'll make sure he never sees the sun rise again!" Ace boosted off into the next room.

Tomiya muttered. "Whatever happened to stop and approach slowly?" before following Ace into the room.

"Ack! I'm under fire!" was the first thing Tomiya heard from Ace. Tomiya looked over at Ace's attacker, the attacker was a somewhat bulky AC-looking thing with boxy arms. The arms sprayed an odd, green substance that ate away at AC armor.

Ace shouted. "Watch out, that thing has some sort of acid shit!"

Tomiya tried to react to the attack aimed at him, he threw his arm up in reflex, the Acid melting away the MOONLIGHT and causing it to blow up. "Dammit!" Tomiya gritted his teeth and aimed his MG-1000 at the boxy arms, firing around 200 rounds at the entire thing, causing the boxy arms to explode, and spray acidic slime all over the Core unit of Ace's AC.

Ace shouted. "Dammit! I'm going to have to pull back! I'm heavily damaged!"

Tomiya shouted back. "Well stop pissing your pants over it and get the hell out of here!"

Tomiya stood in front of the what seemed to be defeated AC. The AC deployed Orbit Cannon Missile Launchers, that all floated in front of Ace's exit.

Ace panicked. "I can't get through!"

Tomiya shouted in a commandeering tone. "Christ, you big baby, just weave through his missiles!"

Ace escaped soon enough, and the AC deployed Machineguns from the bottoms of it's destroyed Acid guns. Tomiya stared at the AC for a moment. "Tell me who you work for..."

"The truth is, I'm not a runaway, I'm testing this new Kisaragi AC model...Sakata Industries asked me to test it on a worthy pilot." The pilot said, firing a storm of Machinegun bullets at a firing rate of 2.

Tomiya boosted to the side and dodged the shots, opening fire with his own MG-1000 to distract the Prototype AC. Tomiya let out a shout as he dashed towards the AC and sent Cold Dragon's fist slamming directly into the head of it, causing the head to fly off and the machine to stumble backwards. Tomiya slammed the barrel of his MG-1000 into the cockpit hatch and waited for a second.

"You'll be in hell before me." Tomiya said before opening fire, surely killing the pilot inside, the machine stumbling like as if it were in a drunken stupor before walking a few more steps, then falling "face" first.

Tomiya leaned back in his cockpit chair. "God, I'm glad THAT's over with." He told himself.

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The Crest Representative spoke in a monotone to Tomiya. "In addition to your credit reward, we've developed a new plan of payment as well."

Tomiya's brow furrowed with interest. "What might that be."

"Well...we at Crest have decided to attempt to salvage weaponry that may be of interest to the Raven, and we're putting two KWG MG-2500/FR2 weapons in your garage." The crest Representative told him.

"Oh, I see." Tomiya said, nodding and walking out.

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"Awwww man! You don't have it!?" Ace whined, trying to find a replacement model for his heavily damaged-beyond repair core part.

"Nope, we don't carry it anymore." The shopkeeper told him.

Ace looked him face to face. "Where can I get one?"

The shopkeeper typed in a few keys into his computer. "Far North."

Ace gave a look of defeat. "I see..." He walked out of the shop with a look of despair, going to Tomiya's to ask him for help.

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Ace knocked on Tomiya's door, and waited there with his hands behind his back. Tomiya answered the door. "Ace? What're you doing here?" He asked.

"Well...I"ll tell you the truth, the shop doesn't have the part we're looking for and we have to go far north for it, and...that means-" Ace was cut off by an estatic Darien.

"ROAD TRIP!!!" Darien shouted, carrying a suitcase of clothing with him, as if he had already known this would happen.

Mokohara grabbed Tomiya's hand. "We were planning on taking a trip too...all of us need to get out of the house and go somewhere..." she said to Tomiya and Ace.

Till packed his last bag and headed out to the Van. "If we're taking a road trip, let's not dick around and let's get going." He said.

Chiyo followed Darien out, almost with a blushy smile just by looking at him, but she quickly shook her head and put on her determined, independent "I am woman hear me roar" face.

Tomiya thought to himself for a moment. "Oh...HELL...no." "Well, since it's your part..." Tomiya started.

Ace looked at him with some interest. "Yeah? Yeah?"

Tomiya shoved the van keys into Ace's face so that they stuck a little. "YOU DRIVE!" He shouted with a grin and got shotgun, yes, Mokohara packed his stuff too.

Ace was confused, wearing his "owned" face for a moment before shouting. "HEY! That ain't fair!"

Tomiya shouted back as he got into the passenger seat. "Yeah it is, now shut up and drive!" He told Ace.

Ace muttered a line of curses as he climbed into the driver's seat, and started the Van up and headed off....TO THE NORTH.

Chapter 6 End...