Chapter 17 Adrenaline Is Born

Just two hours after Xero woke up he emerged from his hospital room to the cheers of the staff; this was something Xero definitely wasn't used to. Xero tried to move as quickly through the crowd as he could, his left leg hadn't quite woken up yet and he was forced to use crutches. He leaned over to Morrow and motioned for Morrow to lower his head so he could hear Xero. "Morrow, make them stop, please. They shouldn't be cheering for someone who was beaten so badly."

He gave a hearty chuckle "make them stop! Are you mad?" his chuckle turned into a full laugh, "they look at you and see salvation, Xero, you are a hero even if you haven't done anything yet or even if you were beaten. It doesn't matter to them if you got your ass kicked; what matters is that you're not dead." Morrow stood straight again and began clapping himself.

Minutes later Xero, Blaze and Morrow had waded through the hospital staff and emerged from the front doors into the street. There the cheering ended, at the hospital doors. The only ones who recognized him were the hospital staff and the few people that passed, who were smart enough to see the leader of the ravens walking beside a gimping man, who could put two and two together. There was little more adoration than those few people would stop and nod their head in a respectful way or perform some other sort of friendly gesture.

Morrow helped Xero down the steps in front of the hospital as Blaze ran down and opened the car door for them.

In the car; "so Morrow, where are we going?" Xero asked as he messaged his left leg, he could feel it coming back to life.

Morrow looked up into the rear view mirror so he could look at Xero, "where else? We are on our way to see Matt."

"But I don't have an AC." Xero replied with a kind'ove 'duh' attitude.

"we were told to take you to him as soon as you woke up, so I'm not too worried about getting an AC for you yet."

Xero opened his mouth to say something but closed it quickly and sat the rest of the car ride in silence.

Three hours later they were at the front gates of Matt's house. The gates opened automatically upon pulling up to them and Morrow proceeded inside. He didn't stop at the front of the house; instead he pulled all the way around to the garage in the back. Upon looking at the garage, Xero felt a strong surge pulling his mind toward it. They're in there, I can feel it.

Morrow stopped the car and got out with Blaze exiting at the same time from the opposite side. Morrow immediately turned around to open the door for Xero but he was already out of the car and on his way toward the garage. Morrow watched him walk away and looked into the backseat of the car to see the crutches left behind.

Xero opened the door to the garage, the same one he had before. It was pitch black as always until he took that first step inside; triggering the lights inside to flood the garage.

Xero's eyes opened wider somehow and his jaw dropped. In front of him, stood an AC like he had never seen before; every part had a completely new design to it, "is this-?"

"-a completely custom AC." Matt said from the shoulder of the AC. "Adrenaline here is the fastest most maneuverable AC in existence. And the armour is a special composite engineered by myself." He stepped from the shoulder onto the scaffold platform about ten feet below. "Every sleek curve is specially crafted to provide the least amount of joint resistance and the optimum amount of joint movement, speed, and flexibility." He continued to explain its structure as he walked along the platform towards the lift. "it has no boosters or onboard computer, the wings take care of all that. They have been grafted into the chassis and are an integral part of the design."

He reached the lift and lowered down to the ground level. After which he turned back to Adrenaline, looked over it for a second, then turned back and walked over to Xero. "its good to see you still alive Xero, it has been far too long."

He extended his right hand and Xero took it firmly.

"well, you haven't said anything except 'is this' since you walked in here." Xero turned to look back at Matt, who smiled.

"what can I say, I mean… wow… thank you?"

Matt laughed for a few seconds before looking back at Xero, "I know what you want, go ahead, take her for a ride."

Xero looked at him again, "what? Now?"

"well you don't want to wait for Cataclysma to show up do you?" he turned back toward Adrenaline, "she is the closest thing to Redemption that I could make here."

Xero's look shot straight back to Matt. "how did you know about….?" He blinked a few times, not believing it.

Matt just looked at him, smiled and nodded. "The Katanas are in the weapons rack behind you."

Xero looked behind him to the katanas and then back to Adrenaline, the white and gold colors were pristine and reflected just about everything in the garage. He then turned back to Matt, who was standing there just beaming.

Matt put his hands onto Xero's shoulders, "It's okay, just take her… you have a planet to save."

Xero looked at him one last time and smiled before bolting to the lift.

Blaze leaned over and whispered into Morrow's ear, "I guess his leg is better."

They both laughed as Xero made it to the cockpit hatch, opened it, and jumped in.

Xero jumped down and felt himself become very light.

Welcome back Xero.

"Kirel?"

that's right. Were all glad to see you are okay, even though your decision making skills could use some work.

"I'm sorry you guys, but I had to see what was up with Dash and then I-"

do not dwell in the past, Kirel said, now, lets see if we can get this AC moving.

Xero watched as the entire cockpit lit up bright white before fading down and mirroring the outside world.

Well Xero, how would you like to try out the control system that Redemption used?

"what-?"

the cockpit seemed to fill with a soft but powerful wind that swirled around Xero and began lifting him off of his feet. Eventually the wind stopped but Xero was still in the air, "no-way…"

Xero moved his right arm up in front of his face and saw on the screen in front of him; Adrenaline's arm move to match.

"yes-way…" Xero stepped forward and reached forward to grab the katanas, he got a few meters from the hilts and the blades flew out of the clips right into his hands. In the cockpit Xero could feel the hilts in his hands.

Xero stood there admiring it all when light flooded in from his right. He looked over to see the garage doors opening. He turned in the direction and walked from the garage, seeing the familiar training grounds in the distance.

He stepped into the light and the sun gleamed off Adrenaline's surface, the wings spread themselves and charged up. Seconds later there was a soft hum as the wings flapped once and launched Adrenaline into the sky.