Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Armored Core series. That belongs to Agetec and From Software. I only own the original characters. Thank you.
In TALON's Grasp
by: T.R. Fanatic
Chapter 8: Past
Kaze landed. He didn't know how, but he did it...
"Kaze, you okay?" he heard Pyro ask.
He opened his eyes and the sight of concrete welcomed him from the monitor. "Pyro..." he called back. "Did I just make a total fool out of myself and fall, face first, on the ground?"
"Heck, no!" Pyro quickly replied. "You just made a nice two-point landing then knelt down to stop yourself from skidding."
It explained why Mecha was looking at the ground as though it was showing gratitiude to an invisible presence.
"And, you forgot to scream!" Pyro added.
"Sorry." Kaze said as Mecha stood up and scanned the one of the crossroads of the desolate northeastern Isaac City. "I was bound by shock from the catapult that I totally forgot about it."
"Don't worry about it, Kaze." the voice of Rebel called as her sand colored AC, Dust Devil, came flying into view. "The first time on the catapult is always the worst!"
The four-legged AC landed, farther than Mecha and Firestorm, with a smooth glide along the uneasy road.
"Hail, hail! The team's all here!" Pyro cheered. "You guys ready?"
"I'm ready." Kaze called back. "But, exactly how far do we have to go?"
"We're in the middle of area B-4 right now." Rebel informed. With the sniper rifle, Dust Devil aimed the barrel at the black hole to the west. "Lazy-Eye resides within the B-2 section."
"So, it's really a hop, skip and a boost away!" Pyro said, making Firestorm jump in the air and adding a boost while in mid-air.
"But, be on your guard." Rebel added. "We're also going through the H-1 area."
"You mean H-1 Crater!" the shocked Pyro asked as Firestorm landed. "We have go through that death-trap this time?"
H-1 Crater. Kaze had heard of that place before. To be exact, he witnessed the once-called B-3 area become a hellish battlefield on that one unfaithful day. It was in that place that drove him to become a Raven in the first place.
He tried to drive the painful thoughts from his mind: the rubble, the dead bodies scattered everywhere, the pilot dying in his arms, the younger version of himself screaming and that wretched AC pointing the gun at him...
"Kaze!" Pyro called to Mecha's pilot a third time.
He snapped out of his shock and quickly returned to the present time.
"You okay, man?" Pyro asked.
Kaze took as few deep breaths in, attempting to relax his grip on the controls. "I'm fine." he replied. "Just the name H-1..."
"What about it?" Rebel asked.
Kaze shook his head. "It's nothing... Let's go." Casting away the memories for now, he put his foot on the left pedal and began leading the way towards Lazy-Eye's position.
...Oblivious to the fact that the three traveling AC's were being watched by a pair of eyes inside one of the many, long-since, evacuated buildings.
"Boss," the recon agent said into his hands-free comm-system. "ya got some company comin'."
"How many are there this time?" a voice asked from within the earpiece.
"Three, as before. But it looks like that catapillar AC isn't with the heavy bi-pedal and the four-legged one."
"Who is it now?"
"A mid-bi-pedal. I haven't seen this one before. Looks kinda new..."
The "boss" grinned at the last sentence. "All units, prepare for an ambush in B-3! Keep 'em hostage 'til I get there! I wanna see this new AC for myself!"
"Roger." a chorus of voices replied.
To be continued...