Author's note: I don't own DP.
If you've ever played those Metroid games, try and imagine the "equipment" in this chapter looking something along the
lines of Samus's power suit.
I'd like to thank the following for their reviews:
darkflame1516- I pride myself on my spicy comments, and since the sleep warrior is probably going to read this too, she'll find out about your spinny chair. Honestly, the partner idea has been in my head for a while, but it took me a fair time to figure out how I would get it to work. Yes, Eunagi Yurei is supposed to be like the Box Ghost. Thanks for noticing! And the bit way back with Dynastina, I came up with that idea with the ogre guy, how he sort of went inside the ogre's head to understand what he was saying. Personally, I thought that that was painfully obvious too. And how else would I give him ghost powers, without some dramatic twist of fate.
nooneluvsme- Yeah. We could form some some sort of spinny chair legion of doom. All we need is a diabolical plot. By the way, what the heck is a baka?
the sleep warrior- thanks for the back-up, though I now have 24 reviews and a maximum of four per chapter. It's not fair that my older brother has only four chapters for his fic, and he's got 20 reviews, and a maximum of six per chapter.
This chapter, for various reasons, isn't entirely narrated by Tirrell, as the others have been. Instead, this episode in my fic
is narrated by Ronnie, or it is done in the third person.
Also, try and imagine the main villain in this chapter with the voice of Keith David (Goliath from Gargoyles, Atlas from Teen
Titans, Tublat from Tarzan: TAS, and Despero from Justice League).
Read on!
Chapter 11 (Machines of War)
"Colonel Suzuki, sir," a young man with short fair hair, dark eyes and a heavy-set frame saluted an older man with grey hair and a square face.
The colonel wasn't as young as he had once been, but his dark eyes still shone with life, and under his uniform thick cords and strong
muscles still lined his frame.
"At ease, Captain Solwind," the colonel answered his underling, "Now where's the fire?"
"The tech boys down in the lab wanted to show you the prototypes, sir. You know how they get about their work."
"Yes, those tech dweebs take a lot of pride in their efforts," the colonel replied with a smile just touching the corners of his mouth. "And they have a darn right to be. If those prototypes work as well as their creators say they will, then at least we won't
have to worry about one old threat."
"Well," Suzuki groaned as he raised himself from his chair, "We'd best go and check out what they've been working on for the past
year."
Several elevators, three corridors and a staircase later, they came to an enormous door, coated in what looked like green glow-in-the-dark paint.
After a bi-retinal scan, a gel handpad, a weight verification and two separate vocal and binary code phrases, plus an ecto-filter, the door opened.
A huge lab the size of four football fields extended before the two men. Men in lab coats were everywhere, with clipboards, laptops and
cell phones galore.
Computerized images and schematics for numerous pieces of equipment and parts lined the walls, with numerous debate tables and conferences going on all over the place.
Battle simulations and what looked like flight simulators lined most of one wall, with numerous people practising and fighting in them.
Walking up to the front desk Suzuki ordered, "Get Major Hanlin down here now."
A few minutes later a young man in a white coat with a major's rank insignia arrived at the front desk. He wasn't a very large man, far from it, but he carried himself with the confidence his work would imply. At least until the colonel deflated him.
"You're late, Hanlin," he said sharply, nearly making the other man jump.
"Sorry sir, but we were just running some last-minute diagnostics on the last of the prototypes, just to make absolutely sure that
there aren't any bugs in their systems," Hanlin explained nervously.
Suzuki was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "Calm down, son. I know how hard you tech boys have been working on these things, so I also know that you're very nervous about finally giving them a field test."
Hanlin nodded, and his CO continued, "Let's just get this review over and done with. You've walked me through this stuff so slowly that a dead duck could understand it, and so far I've liked what I've heard. But if you want someone else to walk me through the review, then by all means take a break. Lord knows you've earned it."
"Oh no, sir, I couldn't do that," Hanlin gasped. The colonel raised his eyebrows, and Hanlin continued, "I've been working on this for so long and so hard that my head aches when I go home at night. I just couldn't let someone else show you how hard we've all worked after all that."
Suzuki's smile deepened as he clapped Hanlin on the shoulder and beamed, "That's what I like to hear, son. Now let's go administer the final exam."
OOOOO
They stopped at the far end of the complex, which had yet another locked door.
"This, colonel, is the examination room, where every part of these prototypes has been tested intensely. As well, our four graduatedpilots will each be piloting one of these XCGFs, or Xisiphas-Class Ghost Fighters. Rest assured sir, this will be a good show."
The door opened, and the three men stepped into a dark room. "Solwind, shed some light on this dark situation."
The lights flicked on, not in the tiny room that the three men were in, but the light cast by the lights that were coming on on the
other side of the window proved to be ample.
The lights that were coming on showed a stadium, about the size of a football field.
Just as the colonel sat down, Hanlin stepped forward and said, "You needn't bother sitting sir. As soon as the exam gets underway
you're face will be pressed against the window anyway."
"Bull horns," Suzuki said disbelievingly, "I've seen men blown apart not ten feet away! I can handle a little examination like this without getting excited."
"Suit yourself, sir," Hanlin sighed. He pressed a button, then said into a speaker that extended down from the ceiling, "Maintenance team, send in test subject one."
A moment later a door on one side of the stadium opened. And then the colonel's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Almost a half a ton of anti-gravitized PR (Phase Resist) alloy stepped out into the stadium. It was vaguely humanoid, with various smooth metallic plates and tubes across its surface.
It entered the stadium as a dark grey, but within seconds bright red and yellow covered its enormous form. Eyes, gold in colour, flashed briefly as the machine took a few steps forward. It appeared hulking and slow, but none the less impressive.
"This sir, is the X-13 Praetor, operated by Lieutenant Sane Yashimi. Unlike the other ghost suits you'll be seeing this evening, though they each have their own unique weapon, this is the only one that can actually shift parts of its form into ghost weapons."
As Hanlin spoke the suit leaped higher into the air than its size and appearance would imply. Immediately, numerous guns and turrets emerged from the walls, all aimed at the mechanoid before them.
For a split second the Praetor floated in midair, then the thrusters on its back leapt into action. It rocketed across the room with tremendous speed, flickering and dodging every beam, bullet and lazer that targeted it.
"As you can see, the Praetor is a hundred times faster than its size implies."
The Praetor pulled a gun about the length of a bull's head from itship and fired it, blowing huge impact craters across the walls of the chamber.
"It is equipped with a pair of delta-class plasma rifles, which fire an ecto-neutralization beam at a high rate of fire."
Missiles and beams fell from the suit like rain, blowing up numerous more turrets that were still shooting at and missing it.
"Also it is equipped with an ectosnet multi-missile launcher on its right arm."
One of the Praetor's hands flicked to its waist, and a second later it was equipped with a vicious beam sword. Flying faster than a sonic boom it rocketed around the chamber, slashing and thrusting the sword through and into numerous more guns.
"An anti-ghost beam sword is sheathed on its left hip, and extends to its full length as the weapon is drawn from its holster."
The shooting had stopped, because every gun in the room, aside fromthose equipped to the Praetor, was destroyed.
Again Hanlin spoke into the microphone, "Begin phase two."
A huge white drone extended from the ceiling, equipped with numerous guns and beam weapons. It targeted the Praetor and fired.
"But the most effective and surprising of the Praetor's weapons..."
The Praetor dodged the shot easily, then its right arm glowed a bright red and transformed into what looked like a cannon.
"Is it's ability to shift its arms between their multi-purpose form and their seige form."
A huge blast of blue and red energy shot from the centre of the Praetor's cright arm, and penetrated the drone with ease. It shifted back into its normal form and started walking towards the exit of the room as the drone fell to the ground and exploded behind it.
"In its seige mode, the Praetor's attacks are slower and leave it a bit more vulnerable, no doubt. But the cannon configuration allows it to blast an enormous omni-beam at its opponents, allowing it to strike and puncture its opponents directly. Thank you, Lt. Yashimi. You may leave now."
Just as the exit door closed the entrance door opened. A large green suit with light blue arms, legs and glowing blue eyes emerged from the doorway. If anything, this one seemed clumsier than itspredecessor.
Short spines jutted from the large backpack it carried, giving the impression that it was slightly bigger than it really was.
"This suit, colonel, is the X-12 Judicator, operated by Master Sergeant Artemis Mallen."
In phase one of the test, the Judicator proved to be only a bit slower than the Praetor, and only slightly less manueverable.
Its dual GGG, or Ghost Gatling Gun, ranged weapons proved to beextremely effective and quick in wiping out the numerous turrets
across the chamber, as well as its shield & beam sword combination.
When phase two of the examination hit, the colonel was shocked to find the spines on the back of the Judicator come into action.
"The Judicator is capable of releasing up to twelve of these manual selection auto-targeting drones, which effectively draw off the
enemy's fire..."
In its vain attempts to destroy the drones, the mechanoid in the centre of the room failed to focus its fire on the Judicator, whichfinished it off with a vicious thrust to its central OS.
As the Judicator left the room yet another suit entered the chamber. It was black and orange, mostly, with white on its arms and legs, and gold eyes. On its back was what looked like a large jetpack.
It took off viciously, screaming around the chamber, blasting every gun in sight. It was equipped with ectosnet missiles on its right
arm, and it wielded dual beam swords with ruthless efficiency.
"This is the X-33 Executor, piloted by Corporal Tyne Snow."
The Executor was extremely agile and fast, with a firing speed that rivalled the Judicator's GGG weapons.
"Major, why does this suit have some sort of jetpack? It's not even using it," the colonel questioned his underling.
"That is true sir, but I was hoping to show you the function of the suit's backpack in phase two."
When phase two rolled around, Suzuki was watching intently, lest he miss the deploying of the Executor's unique weapon.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. But just as the Executor manuevered around one of the drone's energy beams the backpack
snapped to life.
It latched into the back of the Executor, then two huge arms extended from it, wielding enormous beam swords.
Numerous guns, lazers and missile launchers extended from the backpack, then fired simultaneously at the enormous drone before it as the two enormous swords took the drone through its centre.
Alone, each weapon probably wouldn't have been enough to destroy the drone, but with all of them combined, the drone was ripped
apart and exploded almost instantly.
"Amazing!" Suzuki exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like this in all my life. With or without those plans and lessons you gave me son I was definitely not prepared for this!"
"Thank you sir," Hanlin nodded, "Now, if I could just get into the more general schematics for these ghost suits-"
Hanlin was cut off as an enormous explosion rocked the chamber. All three men were knocked over as the power was momentarily cut off.
"Hanlin, what the hell happened!" Suzuki roared.
"I don't know sir, but we'd best find out."
Just as the men were leaving the room a second explosion came from the entrance door to the arena below. They rushed back to the
window as a black shape whipped into the air and blasted through the chamber's walls, then flickered out through the hole it had created and was gone.
"I think I know what that was now, sir," Hanlin whispered.
"What was it?" Suzuki asked in a voice that surprisingly matched Hanlin's in volume.
"I think someone has stolen the fourth suit sir. They've stolen the X-15 Arbiter!"
OOOOO
"So, how'd it go?" Tir asked as we walked home from the MAC. He had performed his black-belt testing the previous day, and he had done well. I had just completed my own testing, though it was for my second black-belt in judo.
"Not bad. I really felt into it. I'm just wondering if it will be enough." I said a tad nervously.
"Of course it'll be enough," Tir exclaimed, "You sis, are the fastest thing on two feet, not to mention the most spirited."
"I'm not the one who sprained his wrist during his testing and stayed to finish up," I grinned wryly, casting a glance at Tir's slinged forearm.
"Good point," he said, running a hand over his injury, "I wonder where Tai was this evening. There's no class, but I should think he would have attended your testing."
"Maybe he just had something else to do. You and I both know that unexpected things can get in the way of one's plans," I said,reminiscing on the many times in the past couple months that we'd been inconvenienced by our "hobby".
Tir stopped walking for a moment. "Speaking of our hobby..."
I had run behind the dumpster and suited up in seconds, then I almost flew off before I realized that Tir hadn't joined me.
"Are you coming or aren't you?" I asked.
"I really don't want to stress my arm, sis, so could you handle them for the next few days?"
I rolled my eyes and sighed, then said, "Sure. I can handle them for the next few days." I flew off without another word.
OOOOO
Missiles flew everywhere, lashing across the beast's thick blue skin. Typhonus, an enormous sea serpent that Tir and I had encountered before, was once again rampaging along the shore.
He had dark red compound eyes, and huge mandibles. Perhaps his most lethal asset: he could spit acid.
Missiles and nets rained down on him, shocking him and sapping his ghost energies.
The enormous beast howled with rage, then spat a huge jet of acid at me. I evaded the jet, then zig-zagged close and blasted my railguns into Typhonus's main weak point, his mouth.
Just as he was dropping back into the water, scorched and unconscious, I fired my ghost sniper. He was back in the Ghost Zone, and I was on my way home.
OOOOO
Just as I was walking down the street to my house, a large shadow flickered overhead.
The ghost detector in my GGW went off, and I groaned, "A ghost-fighter's work is never done."
Once again I flew off. Although this time things were a bit more interesting.
A large black form was flying ahead of me. Fast. I directed all the thrusters in my suit so that they pointed forward.
In all the times that Tir and I had hunted ghosts, this was the first one that was able to outfly me. And I couldn't see how, since it didn't appear to have wings or thrusters of any sort.
"Eat this, ghost boy!" I yelled as I deployed my railguns, blasting it in one shoulder.
"Ectosnet fire!" and missiles crashed into the strange ghost. It howled, then started to descend.
At the last second it turned itself upwards and landed lightly on its hands and feet.
I landed behind it, then asked, "Who are you, and why have you come here?"
As it turned, I saw it fully for the first time. It was quite large, about seven feet tall, and very broad.
It was black, with red cracks all across its body. It had red eyes and a slightly square black head with red cracks down its forehead and brow. It bore no nose or ears, or even a mouth.
Muscles bulged from beneath its black hide, and it gave off this feeling of total dominance.
"Child," it said in a deep, grating voice, "Let me be, for I am hunted. I wish only to live freely of my own will."
The ghost's voice surprised me. Most of them seem to have a sort of warped, dramatic quality to them. Not this guy.
"Then take it about forty miles north of here," I replied, "No offense but people get freaked out over types that look like you."
"I can't do that, child," the ghost grated, "If I go north, than I shall never know freedom."
"Then you shall go no further," I warned, my ghost sniper already in my hands.
"HUHUHUHAHAHAHAAAAH! You think you can stop me? No one can defeat Black Fist!"
"Then I'll be the first," I retorted, firing off my ghost sniper with lightning quickness.
In a blur of motion Black Fist easily evaded my attack and returned it from one of his hands. I narrowly evaded it.
"I am equipped with the most advanced of this world's devices, child. What hope do you have against me!"
"About three months pay and some of the most advanced ghost-fighting technology on the planet," I shot back as I fired off my ectosnet missiles.
Black Fist simply formed a shield from his left hand, which easily withstood my barrage. "Your technology is outdated, child. My weapons and skill are far your superior."
"There are two things in this world that I really hate: history class, and anyone with a huge superiority complex!" I yelled as Iunsheathed my sword.
"Two can play that game, little girl," Black Fist grinned as he formed eight red claws, four on each hand, on the back of each palm. "Mine are stronger than yours."
"Bring it," was all I said before his claws ricocheted off my blade. My sword was a blur as it struck again and again against his claws, but he blocked every blow.
For a moment our weapons locked. We stared at each other for a second before I shouted, "Railguns fire!"
Black Fist was thrown back several feet with two gaping craters in his chest.
"Care for round two, ghostie? Or should I just send you back now?" I taunted.
"That was well played, little girl," Black Fist groaned, "But I am still far from begging you for anything."
As I watched the flesh on Black Fist's chest started to twitch and squirm as it shifted position, until it resembled perfectly what it had originally looked like.
"Anything else to say before I destroy you, girl?" Black Fist taunted as he took a step forwards.
"Yeah. Sic 'em!" Umbrus, moving with lightning speed, slammed into Black Fist's back, ripping and tearing at him with teeth and claws.
By the time Umbrus was finally thrown off Black Fist's back he had done a fair bit of damage. A huge chunk of Black Fist's back was
missing, and as for Black Fist himself, he did not look happy.
"Now you shall both die," he grated as his back regenerated and he took another step towards us.
To our great surprise, a huge barrage of missile, lasers and gunfire suddenly rained down viciously on Black Fist. The resulting explosion blew us back several hundred feet.
Then three strange-looking robots, about six and a half feet tall, landed around Black Fist's now heavily damaged remains. They looked
like something out of a Sci-Fi flick, with plates of rounded metal covering them like armor.
As I got closer I heard one of the bots say in a woman's voice, "Neutralize the ghost before it wakes up, or Suzuki'll grill our
hides."
"Uh, excuse me," I said to them, "But what exactly are you guys doing here?"
"Ghost! Fire!" one of them, a different female voice barked as a black and orange bot fired a large gun at Umbrus's feet. He yelped and narrowly avoided being shot by it, crouching behind my legs.
"Step away from the ghost, miss," this time a man's voice warned from a large green and blue bot, pointing a big strange-looking rifle at me, "And you won't be hurt."
"Is that a threat?" a familiar voice came from behind the bot in front of me. I looked behind it and saw Tir in ghost form, sword
strapped to his hip.
"Another ghost?" the red bot, the first that had spoken, gasped as she pointed her own gun at him.
"Put up your weapons," Tir said sharply, "Those wouldn't help you in a fight against me. Besides, I'm not just any ghost. I am the most famous ghost in Japan."
"You don't mean-" green boy stammered. Tir nodded, and green boy almost laughed, "This is the infamous Yurei Ninja? Ha! I would've
thought you'd be at least a grown man, not some young pup."
Tir hesitated a moment before he shot forward like a bullet and rammed the butt of his sword into the head of the bot, which was immediately followed by three consecutive kicks to the bot's chest, knocking it over.
Before he could regain his feet Tir was on his chest, energized sword pointed at his chest.
The other two bots, seeing this, raised their weapons immediately, before Tir hissed, "Try anything and he gets his clock cleaned. Understand? Now I am going to ask you guys two questions: Why are you here, and who sent you?"
Suddenly, Black Fist's dark form disappeared. If the three bots could have been glaring at us, they would have.
"He'll be back," Tir assured them, "Now answer my questions."
"If you'll get off my chest," green boy said irately from his lying position, "I'll take you to our C.O."
Tir considered this for a moment, then said, "Fine. Take us to your C.O, and we'll see what we can come up with."
OOOOO
Within the hour we arrived at what looked like an abandoned mineshaft, about twenty-five miles north of our former location.
"I thought you said you were taking us to your C.O," Tir wondered aloud.
"We are, shorty," Green bot replied impatiently, "Our base starts just under this shaft. You two ladies mind punching in your codes
already?"
"Yes, Sarge," they said in unison as first one, and then the other punched in a set of codes.
For a second, nothing happened. Then four holes appeared in the ground.
"We'll take these three shafts, while you three I'm sure can handle the remaining one," He told us.
We nodded, then jumped into the shaft. At first it seemed like we were falling, until we righted ourselves and started flying down the shaft.
We emerged into a dark room with poor lighting. At the snap of a light switch, however, the lights flicked on in what appeared to be some kind of hangar. And our jaws dropped.
There was row after row and column after column of the same bots as the three we had just encountered.
"Whoa," Tir said, clearly amazed, though he still managed a little sarcasm as he said, "You guys certainly don't produce in bulk."
"That is exactly what we do, young man," we turned to a fairly muscular man, dressed in a green and white jumpsuit as he walked
towards us.
"Welcome to the Japanese Military Base Yurei 1," A woman that looked to be in her late thirties, wearing a red and white jumpsuit
welcomed us.
"And we are the world's greatest ghost hunters," a much younger woman, looking to just barely be out of college and wearing an
orange, black and white jumpsuit smiled.
"Congrats, you three," an older man in military uniform said harshly, "Why not give them our most closely-guarded secrets?"
He then turned to us and barked, "Now what the hell are twowet-behind-the-ears kids and their dog doing in my base?"
"Um, sir," the older woman piped up, "The girl is human, but the other two are ghosts, the one in white being Yurei Ninja, sir."
"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING HERE!" he roared, nearly popping at least one vein in his forehead.
"Sir, these two," the man said, indicating myself and Umbrus, "were fighting the rogue suit when we overtook them. If they hadn't
distracted us we would have apprehended the culprit and retaken the Arbiter by now."
The older man seemed to have calmed down somewhat. He turned to Tir and asked, "What about you, son? Where were you during this event?"
"By the time I got to the point of contact, these three had apprehended said culprit and were threatening my partner and companion. They might not be here right now but for my timing and your officer's," he cast a warning glance at the man in green, "Impatience and illogical course of action."
"Impatience!" green boy blustered, "If you three hadn't been there then-"
"Then you'd still be trying to chase down the Arbiter, which you are anyway," a young man, rather thin with dark hair, spoke up,
"That technology is faster than your three suits put together, and it's much more advanced. There would have been little hope anyway of you being able to apprehend the Arbiter."
"ENOUGH!" the older man yelled. "All of you, shut your mouths this instant or I'll eat you for breakfast with my eggs and bacon!"
That shut us all up. He turned to us, specifically Tir and said, "Now son, I hate to inconvenience you, but you'll have to come with us, ghost or no. We've been keeping tabs on you three, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed."
"Now let's talk..."
OOOOO
"Where are we going?" I asked the young woman who was helping escort us.
"Conference room D," she replied. She gave me what could be interpreted as a smile before she said, "I don't believe we were properly introduced. I'm Corporal Tyne Snow, operator of the Executor, the orange, black and white unit that was pointing the gun at your dog. Sorry about that."
"As for Mast. Sgnt. Artemis "Arty" Mallen. He's a bit stuck up, andhe's hated ghosts ever since his parents were killed by one on holiday in the Bahamas. He operates the Judicator, the blue andgreen suit you guys saw earlier."
"So don't judge him too harshly," the other woman, standing behind us warned, "By the way, I'm Lt. Sane Yashimi, operator of the Praetor, the red suit you saw earlier. And sorry about these guns, but it is standard procedure."
"I've never seen that kind of technology before," Tir spoke up fromin front of me, "Not even in the Ghosthunter's Exclusive."
"That's because our stuff isn't available to independent ghost-hunters. The suit your teammate is wearing, for instance, is about two years old," Yashimi explained, "This stuff won't be available to the public for about another five years yet, give or take a month."
"Pipe down back there," Mallen barked from the front of the group, "We're approaching the conference room right now."
We stepped into a room with grey walls, a grey floor, and a white ceiling with fluorescent lights. The older gentlemen from earlier was sitting at the head of the conference table.
"I just got through to H.Q. They're not all that pleased with recent developments, but they're willing to conference with you, see what you three can offer. Since I'm the C.O. of this base, and of this operation as a whole, they've given the main commanddecisions to me, since I know perhaps the most of both sides."
"Now let's get down to talking," he said, "Pull up a seat, all of you, including the pooch."
"For those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Colonel Richard Suzuki, the old head on the young shoulders of this establishment.I already know who all of you are, so let's get started. I want to be told, honestly, what happened topside. Snow, you first."
"Yes sir," she said emotionlessly, standing to attention, whilst the rest of us sat.
"Tell me what the situation was when you three arived on the scene," Suzuki said attentively.
"Sir, when we first caught up with the stolen tech, we found that it was enduring a hostile encounter with the girl you see before you," she said, indicating me, "She was using some obselete military technology to attempt to fight the culprit behind the theft."
"Juat as the stolen equipment was about to attack her, and possibly terminate her, I decided to intervene, and fired on the stolen tech. That was when the other two caught up to me."
"That's far enough, Corporal," Suzuki said as he waved a hand for her to sit down. He then turned to Yashimi and said, "Lieutenant, can you verify what Snow said was true?"
"A good deal of it, sir," she replied, taking a standing position as her sudordinate sat, "I saw only a few seconds of the girlfighting it before the Corporal opened fire."
"Do you support her actions?" Suzuki questioned her.
"Yes sir," she answered.
"Good, then please continue where the Corporal left off," he ordered.
"After Corporal Snow opened fire, which was when Mast. Sgnt. Mallen caught up with us, we descended to ground level and attempted to enclose the stolen tech in the device recommended to us by Major Hanlin," she indicated the young, thin man near the end of the table.
"Were you able to use this device?" Suzuki asked.
"No sir. We were surprised by the girl and the ghost she had with her and we failed to do so. Corp. Snow fired a single shot at the canine entity seated at this table in her surprise."
"Were any other shots fired?" the colonel asked.
"No sir, but at one point I had my gun pointed at the humanoid, and Sgnt. Mallen had pointed his own weapon at the girl."
"So no blows were dealt to these three?" he asked.
"Not to them, sir," she said with the slightest flicker of a smile on her face. Past history or no she obviously didn't like Mallen any more than Tir or I did.
"Explain your last statement, Lieutenant," Suzuki ordered sternly.
"Yes sir," Yashimi answered, "After Mallen dealt a few insulting words with the humanoid ghost, the boy saw fit to disable him. After about a second the boy had the Sergeant on the ground."
"Still in his suit?" Suzuki asked, giving Mallen a questioning glance, "He never told me about that."
"I thought it an unnecessary fact, sir," Mallen stood up, "And I wouldn't quite call the few words I spoke with the boy insults, sir. I just found it a bit hard to believe that the boy was who he'd claimed he was."
"Sit down, Yashimi," He told the Lieutenant. He turned back to the Sergeant and asked, "So you doubted that the boy was who he claimed he was?"
"Yes sir," Mallen replied.
"Even though he looked like who he claimed to be," Suzuki stated, more so than asked.
"In everything I've seen, sir, the entity who this boy claims to be was a good deal larger than him."
"And you're telling me you don't know that the media tends to exaggerate things?" Suzuki asked mockingly.
"Not at all sir," Mallen replied, though a bit more hesitantly than before, "I simply did not believe him."
"After he thwarted you, Sergeant, did you still not believe him?" Suzuki punched his question home.
"No sir," Mallen almost hissed.
"After you had thwarted Sgnt. Mallen over here, what happened?" this time he turned to Tir, much to everyone's surprise. Mallen seemed to have a slight grin on his face, anticipating a lie
"The other two officers pointed their own guns at me, sir," he answered with only slight hesitation.
"Did you at all threaten them when they did this?" Suzuki asked.
"Yes sir," Tir answered. Mallen seemed surprised that Tir had told the truth, instead of some sort of falsehood.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"In summary I threatened the Sgnt's life if they didn't lower theirweapons," he replied.
"A risky business," Suzuki said thoughtfully, "What would you have done if they had called your bluff?"
"I would have most likely gone intangible and phased through their attacks, sir," Tir replied.
"Would you have actually attempted to take the Sgnt's life?"
"Only if my partners' lives were in grave danger if I did not do sosir," Tir replied. Mallen scoffed at this.
"A loyal teammate to the end, eh?" Suzuki asked, ignoring Mallen.
"They have both saved my life several times in the past, sir," Tir answered, looking the old man in the eye, "I would be far more than
willing to do the same for them."
"That's the kind of attitude I like to hear from my subordinates," Suzuki grinned, exteending a hand to Tir's, "I'm just a little surprised I'm hearing it from you."
"Thank you, Suzuki-san," Tir answered, taking the colonel's hand and bowing.
"Okay, we've got the basic introductions over and done with," Suzuki-san said to the assembly, "And I'm not happy with what anyone here did as a course of action. But we'll just have to work with what we've got.
"What we have to work on is the present situation. Major, what's the deal on the stolen tech?"
"Well sir," Hanlin began, "the X-15 Arbiter, the stolen XCGF, is composed of a neurological hypo-duranium regenerative semi-solid
substance with poly-angular gravitational detraction technology."
"Give it to me in english, Hanlin," Suzuki said patiently.
"The stolen suit responds to thought and feeds off the Alpha waves released from the brain. It is highly durable, being fireproof,
pressure resistant, and so on. It can regenerate lost fragments of its substance, and it can manipulate its semi-solid form into various forms, such as simple or complex weapons, barriers, and so on.
"As well, it can fly without the use or extra weight of thrusters, and with that ability it can also "change" which way gravity is pulling on it and move in the opposite direction as that, although that option can be deactivated."
"Would these six have any chance against this thing in open combat?" Suzuki-san asked.
"It would seem unlikely sir," Hanlin said despairingly.
"Wait a minute," Tir spoke up. Turning to the Major he asked, "Would the culprit have any reason to come back here?"
"Not here," Hanlin answered, "But there are some other technologies in this field that work along the same lines. Most of them are
located at JMBY 2, located on the southern tip of the Shikoku island."
"Excellent," Tir murmured. He then turned to the colonel and stated, "Colonel, I noticed that you have an ample supply of ghost suits in your hangar."
"You have an idea, son?" Suzuki-san asked curiously.
"I do, but it'll require skill, surprise, a bit of luck, and especially," he looked at the Sgnt. as he finished, "co-operation. Major, do you have some sort of tracking device on that tech?"
"Of course," he replied, "The only thing we hadn't installed was a fail-safe device, which I think would have eliminated this entire problem in the first place."
"Well, we'll just have to hope that ghost-boy will take the bait," Tir said.
"How do you know the culprit's a ghost?" Mallen asked suspiciously.
"Because, my comrade in arms, no one knows a ghost better than a ghost, eh?"
"So, who's in?" Tir asked. Almost everyone raised their hands. We waited for a second before the Sgnt. reluctantly raised his own.
"Well, I'm game," Suzuki-san said gratefully, "So let's hear this plan."
"With pleasure sir, but first I'm going to need the blueprints for that base..."
OOOOO
A dark form hovered overtop a broad, gradually sloping set of twin hills. "This is it. All I need is the technology here, and I will be invincible."
The dark form floated down through the rooms of the base until it came to a room that repelled it.
"Very well," it said patiently, "We can fix this in a hurry."
A minute later the ground shook throughout the base as a hundred tiny missiles slammed into the door of the room.
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" the dark form asked.
"Wrong," three voices said a split second before the dark form was blasted backwards by a boatload of weapon's fire.
OOOOO
"Shiro to Yurei, commencing phase one," I whispered into my headset as I watched events unroll from the entrance to the hangar.
"Roger," Tir replied, "We're preparing for phase three down here. Try and hold him for at least another ten minutes."
"Done," I replied. Things were so far going according to plan. Snow, Yashimi and Mallen were to hold back Black Fist for the next few minutes whilst final phase was being prepared.
All they had to do was last for the next few minutes and everything would be good to go for phase two.
By that point they'd knocked Black Fist out into the base's training stadium, which was at least twice as big as JMBY 1's. Missiles, lasers and beam swords were everywhere.
Mallen was putting his suit's auto-drones to excellent use, using them as damaging distractions whilst he flickered by and struck Black Fist hit-and-run style.
Yashimi was putting the Praetor through its rounds. She wasconstantly shifting between suit mode, which allowed her more manueverability and speed, plus a greater selection of weapons, and her seige mode, which was more damaging, bombarding Black Fist with enormous blasts of energy, and the occasional flyby barrage of missiles and the suit's four-vicious beam sword.
But perhaps the most visually impressive of the three of them was Snow, and her expert handling of the Executor. She was a blur, and
anything Black Fist aimed at her missed. Whatever residue didn't miss never even scratched her suit's armor.
The number she was doing on Black Fist with her missile/dual beam-sword combination was impressive, and she hadn't even drawn on
the vast power of her suit's backpack yet.
But no matter how hard or how many times they struck Black Fist still wasn't very badly damaged. During a pause that lasted no more
than a split second Black Fist regenerated entirely, then he was being throttled again by their weapons. Although he was moving faster than before.
More and more of their attacks were missing their target as he seemed to approach a frenzied speed. His own attacks, missiles, lasers and the like grew more accurate.
The Judicator, with a huge chunk removed from its side by Black Fist's huge red claws exposing the suit's inner lining, and a blow to the machine's head, the weapon was disabled. It was a fair drop to the ground below.
"Shiro to Yurei, we're implementing Phase Two: sub-phase one, over," I hissed over my headset.
"You're making good time. We've just completed preparation for phase three, and we're moving on to phase four now. Hold him for
another few minutes longer," was the reply I was given.
Turning to Umbrus I said, "Okay boy, this is your moment to shine. Sic 'em!"
Without a backward glance Umbrus leapt into the air. Just as he was about to hit the floor below his paws ignited in green flames and he flew off with tremendous speed.
He whipped in behind Black Fist like a lighning bolt, tearing off a chunk of the back of his leg.
Black Fist howled with rage and fired numerous missiles at this new, furry threat.
Narrowly evading and phasing through the projectiles being thrown at him, Umbrus put his ghost power into action.
Opening his jaws wide he formed a huge set of glowing, shimmering metal jaws around Black Fist and bit down.
The "jaws of life" split Black Fist in half, and Umbrus kept on dealing damage to Black Fist in this way for a while, until Black Fist fired a laser blast at him from a severed hand, which Umbrus had to dodge.
Black Fist regenerated again and fired a random blast across the stadium. Unfortunately, Yashimi's machine, the Praetor, was caught by the blast and had several holes punched through its upper torso. It landed with a bit more control than the Judicator had, but it was still not very helpful after that.
"Yurei to Shiro, we're implementing phase two: sub-phase two. I'd say you've got about ten, fifteen minutes left tops," I hissed as I prepared my equipment for battle, leaving behind my ghost sniper, since I wouldn't be needing it.
"Roger, we're just finishing with final phase now, and we'll be in position in about ten minutes," Tir answered, "Hold him as long as you can, Shiro."
Breaking connection with Tir I switched frequencies and commanded, "All weapon systems target possessed ghost suit X-15 Arbiter, also known as Black Fist. Fire preliminary shot at three seconds after take off, then fire at any opportunity."
I readied myself for take-off, a hand on my sword hilt. I threw myself over the edge of the hangar entrance, and about a second after take-off I felt guidance systems and propulsion activate, as I shot towards my target.
Just as I came within twenty feet of Black Fist my ectosnet system went off, firing missiles and ghost nets at him with tremendous speed. He was bound tight within a split second, which was when my railguns went off.
Huge searing trenches cut deep into the suit's flesh as my missiles bombarded it. Then I whipped out my sword and struck Black Fist
across the back like a cobra.
In a split second I checked my visor and scanned Black Fist for any weakpoints. Finding one, I aimed for the base of Black Fist's right
arm and thrust my sword into it.
Black Fist howled in pain, then tailed me as I retreated with a small set of missiles.
Switching on my headset I switched frequencies until I whispered and fought Black Fist simultaneously, "Corporal Snow, I'm sending you these coordinates on the Arbiter's and Black Fist's exterior and interior weakpoints now. Try and aim for them when you attack."
There was a brief pause before a tense, "Roger that," echoed back across the wave length.
Before I could relay the information to Umbrus, however, Black Fist caught him a vicious blow with a three-way missile attack. The faithful canine fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Shiro to Yurei, implementing phase two: sub-phase three," which was in short saying that there were only two of us still able to fight.
"What think we raise the stakes, sister?" I howled as we charged Black Fist.
"YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!" Snow roared over the headset, yelling loud enough to deafen a jumbo jet.
The backpack her suit wielded burst to life. I came in hard and fast on Black Fist, slashing him across the abdomen, whilst Snow roared close behind me, ripping Black Fist to pieces with the enormous swords her backpack deployed.
"I'll hold him down for a minute while you get down there for next phase, kiddo," she roared over her headset, "Yyyyyyyyeeeeeeehhhhhhaaaaaa! Bring it on, Black Boy!"
If it weren't for the tense situation I would have deeply admiredthat woman at that moment. She was a queen of battle, a warriorprincess, a berserker in the extreme. Somehow I knew that she'd hold out until the bitter end if she had to.
I returned to the hangar entrance and waited for Black Fist to overwhelm her.
For the longest time she held him back, blasting him with everything her suit could dish out. Missiles, lasers, enormous plasma beams and hundreds of thousands of bullets raged from her machine in a tempest, pumping Black Fist full of their energy and wrath.
After a time the bullets, and later still the missiles ran out, and she was left with laser fire.
Black Fist, though he was still hit and thrown back many times, worked his way closer, until he was close enough to zip by and take a chunk out of the backpack. Since he struck what was mostly a missile-laucher section, it fell away without reducing the Executor's firing speed any further.
However, he did manage to momentarily weaken the backpack, and he took another, more lethal swipe at it. This time he took out two of the backpack's nine laser points.
He was blasted again, then he took out another three lasers, then another two. He was knocked back once more before he took out the
last of the lasers.
"Bring it on, you slimy pile of mud!" I could hear snow bellowing from inside her suit. I certainly didn't need a headset to tell me what she was saying.
She just totally flipped out on Black Fist. Since they were gripped by her suit's hands, Snow could actually use the twin giant
beam-swords like katars, as both ideal thrusting and slashing weapons.
Unfortunately, After a few hits Black Fist was able to remove those as well.
Then she resorted to her hip-sheathed beam swords, and she really took over.
Black Fist blocked one sword with both hands, while the other thrust through his abdomen and the Executor's left foot came swiftly around and nailed Black Fist in the head.
Boy, if I had thought she was fast before, Snow was little more than a blip in my eyes as she flew at Black Fist, hurtling at him like a rocket, slashing, thrusting, punching, kicking and beating him around like an old shoe. But, as was expected, just as I was beginning to suspect that we may not even need the next three or four phases, she made a tiny, yet crucial mistake.
As she retreated from one of her split-second attacks, Black Fist was somehow able to grab on to her machine by the ankle. With two
quick slashes both sides and a chunk of the head of the Executor were gone.
She managed one more slash with her beam sword before her suit collapsed to the ground.
Almost without thinking I slammed my hand against the button on the side of the doorway. Guns galore folded out from the walls and fired on their target. Though these weren't at all like their counterparts back at the other base. These had not only been turned to their maximum damage, but these babies were juiced up by no fewer than three nuclear fission/fusion reactors deep within the bedrock. Either way, Black Fist was getting pummeled.
Unfortunately, even those guns couldn't hold him for anymore than a few minutes. As he wiped out the last of the guns I flew as fast as I could for the door down on the south side of the stadium.
I wasn't sure whether Tir was in position or not, I just ran. Soon as I hit the ground where Black Fist had first been knocked into the stadium I sprinted for the door.
Maybe one, two hundred feet away was his target. So was mine. As I approached the door I whipped around. Sure as is possible he was following.
"You have given me a good fight, human," he taunted, "Now let me pass."
"No," I answered flatly, setting off my weapon systems. Whether they hit him or not Black Fist was still gaining ground.
I drew my sword as he advanced on me. Three huge slashes across his chest was all I could do before he back-handed me into a wall.
He stepped into the room as I lost consciousness.
OOOOO
The Arbiter stepped into the FWR, or Fusion Weapons Room. There, sitting on an angled body table, was the technology he had been
seeking.
Quickly he adjusted himself to the correct size for it, then slipped on a set of light blue gauntlets, greaves, a breastplateand a hoplite-style helmet.
"Ah, I can feel its power flowing through me," he murmured to himself, "The most advanced nano-ghost fusion technology in the world. This shall more than make up for the enormous drain on my energy during my battles so far."
"Indeed," I leveled the sniper, left in position by the girl, and fired it at the Arbiter.
The Arbiter howled in pain as sparks shot across its surface. After a few seconds the sparks died down. It turned to me and, with an almost enraged look in its eye it said, "Ah, the wee Major Hanlin finally grows a spine."
Then with one blow he knocked me into a wall. I lost consciousness a few seconds later, knowing that phase four had been completed.
OOOOO
"HUHUHUHUHAHAHAAAAH! I am invincible! No being can harm me!" Black Fist roared as he re-entered the stadium.
"WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" an enormous voice thundered through the stadium. Black Fist turned around just in time to take a severe
blow to the head.
When he rose, he beheld an awesome sight. An enormous warrior, perhaps half a foot taller than Black Fist, stood before the crazed post-artificial being.
He appeared as a great white knight, covered in smooth, flawless armor. What wasn't white was a bright gold, including joints, and parts of the mouth and torso. His face, which lacked a nose and mouth, was gold, as were his knuckles and elbows. His eyes burned like twin topaz stars as he struck down his foe.
"A new ghost suit?" Black Fist asked with moderate surprise, forming claws on his hands, "Yet another mortal for me to destroy?"
"Not quite," the wearer of the suit replied, "And rest assured, you will destroy neither myself nor this suit."
"Who are ye who lies within?" Black Fist murmured, "I am Black Fist, the ghost of the first conscious computer program, created no more than three months ago, and terminated not much later. I have sought power and peace, and only now have I found one of them. Soon the other shall follow, and I will rule this world."
"I am Yurei Ninja," the white knight hissed back, "And I am your worst nightmare. Within the T-07 Specter.. I am your equal."
"Hardly," Black Fist charged like a bull, his now stocky frame pumping with energy. He slammed a clawed fist into Yurei's chest, knocking him back several feet, but not damaging him.
"PR armor. Impressive, no?" Yurei replied before he knotted his fists together and slammed them into Black Fist's jaw.
"Yes, but I doubt it can withstand a strong blade," Black Fist replied as he put an effort into making a sword from his own matter, "And I see you carry no weapons. This shall be all too easy."
He flew at Yurei, ramming his sword home in Yurei's side. Yureiresponded to this attack with a roar and a swift punch to Black Fist's face, ramming him back into the ground.
"You want to play hard ball?" Yurei asked as he extended a hand before him. To Black Fist's great surprise, he formed a huge katana
from his own energy. "Let's dance, bozo."
To Black Fist's further surprise Yurei wielded a sheath in his other hand and charged. As Black Fist brought his sword up to meet the attack, Yurei's sheath flicked out and knocked the blade to one side. With a powerful downward stroke he struck Black Fist's left hand, parting it from him at the wrist. He then kicked out viciously, striking Black Fist in the chest, knocking him back a fair ways.
"How can this be?" Black Fist groaned as he held his stump. "Why can I not regenerate?"
"Did it not seem odd to you that the armor was heavier than you expected it to be?" Yurei asked, "That it sparked and sizzled and caused you pain when Hanlin nailed you with Shiro's ghost sniper, instead of a portal opening up and sending you back to the Ghost Zone?"
"What have you done to me?" Black Fist asked, forgetting all about his damaged limb. He picked up his sword in his remaining hand and
started swinging it ferociously.
"Our whole plan was to get you here," Yurei answered as he parried and blocked Black Fist's strokes, "Your greed for that technology
was your undoing. My teammates wore you down as much as they could and distracted you whilst Hanlin and I prepared that technology for you."
"You mean-?" Black Fist asked.
"Yes," Yurei answered, "We bugged it up perfectly. All we needed was something to trigger the viruses that we planted in that thing. A modified ghost sniper beam was perfect for the job. All we had to do was insert the last fragment of the virus's data into the beam."
"You've lost, Black Fist," Yurei said as he parried another blow, then thrust his sword through Black Fist's arm.
Black Fist punched Yurei with an armored fist, then released a huge blast of dark energy.
Yurei flicked out his sheath and plunged into the darkness, using the sheath to absorb the energy, whilst he increased the power output into his sword.
"Now let's take a page from your book," he murmured as his sword and sheath started glowing. Their shapes warped and twisted, until
his sword had fully transformed into a magnificent spear, and his sheath into a round shield.
He rushed forward, slashing and striking through the darkness, though it tore cracks and fissures in his suit.
Black Fist saw this and focused his attack into a beam of energy. Yurei still plowed forward, until his spear plunged forward into Black Fist's chest.
"Unbelieveable," Black Fist said as he fell backwards, impaled upon Yurei's spear.
Yurei stood there, spear still thrusting, as the others came over. He barely heard a word of it, however.
He phased out of the suit and tried to fly off without a word. However, he stumbled and teetered slightly as he flew, until Ronnie came and help him fly home after she had returned Black Fist to the Ghost Zone.
Colonel Suzuki, as well as his men, were too busy to notice that the two heroes were gone. They were busy repairing their facilities, amid analysing the almost infinite new data they had received from their most recent encounter with ghosts. They would learn from this experience. Oh, how very much they would learn.
XXXXX
And so ends chapter 11, my longest chapter yet. And you probably won't find out about the next chapter for a week. A WEEK!
HUHUHUHUHUHHAHAHAHAHAAAAH!
NOW REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! (slap!) I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I'll try and update soon.