Chapter 11:
DODGE THIS.

Inside one of the Earth-maintained "Luna Coffee" shops, among the soft murmur of people talking and glasses clinking, Stephanie had some papers laid out on the table, they were blueprints of prototype weapon ideas she had, Chris said he was interested in them, and she decided to show them to him.
"So...which one is the one you used when you were helping me?"

"Oh, it's this one right here." Stephanie showed him a picture of a very long sniper rifle, long enough to have to be held with two hands. "It uses an extremely long barrel so that the explosive force has more time to burn, therefore, has more power backing the round, which is a uranium dart, shot out of the barrel fast enough, can liquify armor on contact."

Chris just blinked, not understanding most of what she said. "Oh. Well, any others?"

Stephanie shuffled through some papers. "Well, after making my home with some new friends, I studied their weapon preferences and made weapons that match their style, but are more efficient than your Corporation weapons...such as..." She shuffled through some more papers. "For one who uses Machinegun weapons extensively, it's a forearm mounted Chaingun. Designed to be hidden at first, then activated and fired. I also had a Chest Mounted Vulcan gun, but I couldn't get it to fit in some of the Core Units, I could only get it to fit in Overboost and Standard cores."

"Why only those?" Chris asked.

"It was too hard to fit both chest mounted vulcans and the AMS systems in AMS cores, and EO cores already have internal weapons."

"Oh, well...Hey look over there." Chris pointed at a fire far off.

Stephanie looked. "Probably a battle, don't worry about it."

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There was a knock at the door of Tomiya's house, which had recently been modified to accomodate more people. He opened the door to a rather tall girl, sporting fire engine red hair pulled up into pigtails. Tomiya collected himself quickly. "Yes?"

The girl smiled slightly. "Hi. I'm looking for Till, is he here?"

Tomiya tensed up slightly. Could this be an assassin who's after Till's life?

"To be honest, he isn't here, but you're welcome to stay here until he gets back..uh..."

"Frau." the girl said. "My name is Frau."

"Nice to meet you, Frau." Tomiya replied, still not completely trusting her. Hey, Till's an A-OK crazy German guy, if she tried any funny stuff towards him, he could probably rip her apart or something...with his bare hands.

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A flash of blue ripped into the torso of an MT, leaving a nice crater of where the cockpit used to be. Till's AC overboosted past the defeated MT, the wind of his AC's movement knocking the lifeless machine over. The blade on his left arm primed as he made a curve around the barrel of an MT's Bazooka and brought his blade through the MT, making a complete turn and pointing his KARASAWA at another's head, firing, vaporizing the stubby head of the MT.

Suddenly, from a nearby building, a dual stream of fire burned away an old building. Walking out of the burning remains was the same Reddish orange AC that attacked during the road trip.

"Sonneschein..." Till muttered, stepping outside of the range of his flamethrowers.

"...You know, Till, it's sad that we had to end up like this..." Sonneschein pointed a flamethrower at Hell's Wings. "You and I...and Kaosu...could have become the best Ravens in the world."

"At the expense of the lives of other Ravens? Including Dennis's pick for the S-Type Hub control...Ellice?"

Sonneschein let out a chucke. "Oh yes...the fiancee of that pest...Tomiya."

Till's eyes widened. "...!"

"Oh yes...Ahahaha...AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA! How does it feel to learn that YOU were involved in killing your friend's fiancee for some twisted, inhumane expiriment?"

Till stammered a bit, trying to regain his senses. "Y-y...you...YOU FUCKING LIE! THIS IS JUST ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR BULLSHIT MIND GAMES TO TRY AND GET ME BACK IN THE ROTER TOD!" Till screamed, quickly pointing his KARASAWA at the cockpit of Die Sonne.

"Oh if only...I wish it were just a petty mind game, it'd be much more fun. But that is the truth." Sonneschein said. "Now, do you really want to go back to your friend bearing news that You were involved in killing his fiancee in the name of some twisted expiriment? Or will you be the first of his band of cockroaches to die first?"

"I'd rather live in shame than let someone like yourself kill me." Till retorted, starting to prime his boosters when he heard another AC, fast coming.

"COME AND GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT, MUTHAFUCKA!" the pilot shouted, crashing through a building, slamming a giant steel fist directly into the head of Die Sonne, smashing the head and sending the lighter AC flying backwards into a skyscraper.

"I never expected you, the mighty Till, to call for backup" Sonneschein said, attempting to dig himself and his AC out of the rubble.

"What? I didn't call for any backup!" Till turned his AC towards the newly appeared Heavyweight, it sported back mounted Pursuit Missile launchers and a Bazooka in it's left hand, the right hand weapon, a shotgun, had ran out of ammo earlier, and was discarded among a scrap heap of MTs further back.

"Name's Rico Velasquez." he said, sniffing hard.

"-What- are you doing here?" Till asked, annoyed.

"I overheard your little convo with your brother here...or whatever he is." Rico pointed at the AC digging out of rubble. "Now I know what those Roter Tod fucks did with my friends, they killed 'em off and used their brains for some weird S-Type shit, isn't that right, Sunshine?"

Sonneschien's beheaded AC managed to stand upright "My name is 'Sonneschein', pronounce it right."

"I don't give a flyin' rats ass about how it's pronounced, Sunshit."

Sonneschein twitched inside of his AC. "Anyways, you are correct, you overgrown ape. The Roter Tod abducted Ravens, including your friends, and used their brains to make AI systems."

"So THAT'S what the S-type thing is..." Rico turned his head towards Till's AC. "Did you know anything about this crap?"

Till sighed. "Yes, after we had made our first kill...the Fiancee of a friend of mine, who I didn't know at the time... I found out what it was, and I left the Roter Tod. It was too unethical for me."

Rico was silent for a moment, then he turned back towards Die Sonne. "Tell me, who's your leader, and where is he?"

"I'm afraid I will not tell you that." Sonneschein said. "You may have defeated me now, but we'll meet again, you can get the information then, if you can beat me."

"Anytime, worthless punk." Rico said, narrowing his eyes.

Till still has his KARASAWA raised as Sonneschein opened his cockpit to see where he was going for an escape. "Now, go run back to your master, or do you want me to tear your cockpit apart like I did to your Sakata lackeys?"

Sonneschein's blonde hair waved in wisps with the wind, his large "sunglasses", covering his eyes, he took them off for a moment, revealing bright, blank red eyes, he glared directly into the eye of Till's AC before boosting away.

Till stood still for a moment, then abruptly turned his AC away and overboosted away.

Rico stood there, alone, watching Hell's Wings fade into the smoke. "Poor guy...Hardly know him and feel sorry for him." He shrugged inside his cockpit. "Whatever, I'm gonna go get my money and get the hell off of this rock, Next Stop. Mars."

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Chiyo sighed, taking a sip of tea. Darien was sitting on the couch a cushion away, watching the "Monday Night Arena" fights.

"Argh, this sucks. All the damn fighters in the arena are newbs tonight." Darien complained, flipping through the channels.

Chiyo set down her tea and put a hand on Darien's, setting the controller down for him. "I have an idea."

"Yeah? What?"

"Why don't we...um..go do something...like...ah..."

"Watch the Arena fights in person?"

"No! I meant..ah, nevermind, just follow me." she replied, showing him to Darien's ATV-style Jeep. "I'll give you directions."

"Uh...Okay." Darien said, shrugging. I don't know about this change in her attitude all of a sudden...it's weird...but I kinda like it. He thought as he got into the driver's seat, turning the key and revving the engine up, he backed out of the yard and onto a road.

Chiyo occasionally glanced over to Darien, her dark red braid being pulled at by the wind.

Darien looked up at the night sky, the large spikes of hair on his head bending to the will of the wind, his long ponytail waving like a flag. "So, Miss Navigator, where are we going?

Chiyo looked down at a map. "Turn left...here. Then when you get up to the speed limit sign, there will be a fork in the road about 30 miles ahead of that, take the road on the right, go over the bridge and go up the mountain."

"Ok." He said, pressing the gas pedal a little harder.

Darien was a fast driver, so they were at the base of the mountain in about a half an hour. He looked up at the mountain as he kicked the 4x4 in and started going up the rough trail up the mountain. Darien glanced over at Chiyo, then back at the trail. This is still odd...usually, she wouldn't want anything to do with me...but she's been acting a little strange lately.

Chiyo pointed at a cliff. "Park here."

Darien pulled up to the cliff, so that they had a view of all of the city, which was still under construction in some places, much like Neo Tokyo in several novels sold in the stores. Darien hit a button and put the top over the Jeep, and slouched in his seat slightly.

Chiyo slid across the seat next to Darien.

Darien shifted slightly uncomfortably, looking over at Chiyo. "...?"

Chiyo looked up at Darien, since she was shorter than him.
What...what does she want me to do, kiss her? That'd be a cold day in hell if she let me though...But...what the hell, my dad told me to always go with your gut feeling...

Darien leaned over slightly, closed his eyes, and put his lips gently to Chiyo's.

Chiyo blushed heavily, shocked at first, but she soon closed her eyes and seemed to melt in his arms.

Darien pulled away, looking into her eyes with his, which showed a sharp, deep feeling. "Chiyo..."

Chiyo kept looking up at him. "Shut up and kiss me."

Darien pulled her into a deep kiss, while rolling up the windows with his free hand. Darien brought his other hand to her back, as he lowered the both of them both to the large seat of his jeep...

Chapter 11 End...