The Whisperer

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Disclaimer:"…"

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-Chapter 49-

"Get out of the water!" He ran forward running towards a particular group. Unfortunately no one had started running back yet. He tried again and at least they faced him this time. He was already out to them by the time they moved.

"Sousuke what's wrong."

"I am unsure but you all must leave this spot immediately."

"It's that bad?"

"Affirmative. Now please go back." Just as he said this a strong wave forced them back a bit causing some people to fall over.

"Quickly go now!" He took Kaname's hand and began pulling her along back towards the beach. "Tokiwa, Shinji, all of you come!" Sousuke led as they ran back to the shore. Sousuke went to their bags and pulled out some stronger weapons. He turned to find Kaname give him a slight look for bringing them but she didn't seem too angry, but a bit relieved. He pulled out the small device he used to keep in contact with Al and placed the headset on. After a brief transaction he found that Al was already searching around.

Sousuke turned back to his group of friends. "Please go to safety I will take care of this."

He received some protests but they quickly resigned to his orders. He didn't watch them as they left he was sure they would be able to take care of themselves. The waves were becoming stronger and the source of the disturbance was fast approaching. He stared out as it approached. "I believe it's over…"

He could finally see it. If it could cause this much disturbance by just approaching he doubted he would beat it without an AS. Finally it was here. He fired at it with Tyrant-M29 as it came up on him and flew by. He was hoping to at least catch its attention with the shots. He was successful. It turned on him. Seeing his opponent the AS released a deep voice laugh. Sousuke looked out towards the ocean again to find that more enemies were approaching. They would most likely attack the city. He aimed his gun but scolded himself on the inside. He should have already been ready to fight having his AS with him. Instead he came out to have fun, what a fool. He let things get destroyed once, and by the looks of it he would let it happen again, only worse. Of course Tokyo was a large city.

The silver-green arm-slave in front of him aimed its fire-arm at him. Sousuke fired again into the barrel of the gun disabling it. The AS released the gun just before it blew up in its hand. It turned angrily on the young man. It stuck out its hand. An iridescent light shot forth throwing sand everywhere as it crashed. The pilot was surprised when it cleared to find the young man still standing. In his distraction a flash grenade went off blinding him. When it cleared he looked around but could not find anyone. His AI said something he could not catch as his cock-pit was opened. He had little time to look as a bullet entered his skull. Luckily it was with a basic pistol or the whole cock-pit would have been damaged. Pulling out the body Sousuke jumped into the pilot's seat. The set-up was somewhat unknown to him but he strapped in anyways. It was uncomfortable sitting in nothing but a pair of swim-shorts and a hooded beach jacket. The cock-pit was not built to accommodate such attire.

"Give the location of all ally units." Sousuke spoke to the arm-slaves AI.

"You are not the registered pilot. I cannot follow that order. Self-destruct sequence prepared to activate."

"Negative. Negate activation. Accept as Sergeant Sagara Sousuke, I.D. B-3128."

"Code not recognized."

"Register it."

"…One moment."

Sousuke sighed. He had one advantage like this. He looked back at the screen when it beeped.

"New I.D. recognized. Would you like the information transferred to other computers."

"Negative."

"Order accepted. Welcome."

Sousuke moved making sure the machine was following his movements. First he would have to take care of the ones that had already passed him and headed towards the city. He found a number of them attacking police station and other locations of self-defense.

"Activate EIS. Explain to me the mission."

"Yes sir."

The silver-green AS evaporated and disappeared. He pulled the A-AS knife from its sheath throwing it towards one of the 'enemy' machines. It stabbed right into the spinal area piercing through the cock-pit. The AS went down with an explosive crash. As another turned to look it was destroyed before it turned ninety degrees.

"The goal is to distract and hold off all defensive measures of the city so we can set up a large transmitter system so it can be used in the project later."

"What is the project?"

"That information is unknown."

Sousuke silently cursed and approached another opponent. By now the enemies were looking around wondering what was going on. Luckily he was listening to orders going about on the radio system. Moving accordingly he would be able to take out large amounts of enemies at once. So far they had not identified him as the attacker. After they took out the defenses they would most likely have fun with the city. Some were already starting. He cringed as buildings lost parts and were damaged. Landscape was thrashed and torn apart. He took the weapon of a downed enemy and aimed at his fake allies. Though they were initiating lambda driver none seemed to be using it as a complete defense and were preparing it for an attack. A mistake as he shot through two enemies; metal, smoke, hydraulic fluid, and bullets went about as he fired until they were surely useless.

"Friendly fire from the east."

Sousuke dodged moving to the right as gun fire followed him. He returned the shots destroying his attacker. Unfortunately more had caught on and began attacking him.

"Commander why are you attacking us?" One of the pilot's spoke to the AS Sousuke was piloting thinking the original pilot still inside. If they still thought it was him some may be soft in their attack giving him a greater chance to kill them. A rocket was fired at him but he easily blocked it. The following explosion gave him some cover. He fired at selected opponents destroying a few more. Now his EIS was deactivated. He dodged as one tried to stab him. Grabbing the wrist he forced the knife from it throwing it into another opponent's visual sensors he fired into his current victim cock-pit. Dropping the gun he went to the blinded enemy and pulled the knife bringing it around into the cock-pit killing the pilot. He pulled the knife but as he did the AS hand was blown off. He turned to see another enemy aiming at him. Firing the bullet crashed against a barrier then was sent back. This enemy was no slacker as he dodged it and fired again; this time an iridescent wave following. It destroyed the rest of his right arm. Now he noticed this enemy was different from the others. By the looks it was a high ranked pilot inside because the paint-scheme was different. At this rate he would lose. The enemy's weapon was powerful as well. He dodged as another shot was fired.

"Enemy approaching." The AI that had been saying he was destroying allies finally located an enemy.

"Find the frequency."

"10 seconds please."

Sousuke continued his dance with his current opponent. So far he was on the defensive.

"Got cold feet huh?"

The pilot of the other AS was probably talking as if the man Sousuke had killed was in here.

"Connected."

"Al." Sousuke called quickly.

"Yes sir?"

"Attack the silver-green AS missing the right arm."

"Why?"

"I am in there. Make it look good then I will transfer over to you."

"Yes sir."

The silver-green AS grabbed a street post and flung it at the enemy. It was blown apart by his weapon easily. The silver-green AS slammed into its opponent. He forced the left arm through the right shoulder of the machine letting it get stuck. The enemy pulled a knife and aimed at the cock-pit but the silver-green AS was thrown off him before he could reach him. The enemy watched as the silver-green AS was destroyed by some machine he could not identify. He aimed his gun as the machine turned slowly. He fired at Anon's slightest movements but the shot's were easily destroyed. He fired again but the enemy disappeared in a flash. He had no time to react as the arm tore through its back right through the heart of the enemy AS.

"Sir all enemies here destroyed. An unknown amount is approaching from the East. They are also carrying an unidentified object." Al gave Sousuke the information he had gathered.

"That must be what they wanted the distraction for."

"Sir?"

"This attack is a distraction to bring that. Right now our priority is to destroy it. We will have to post-pone that if any civilians are in danger. But not if it endangers our priority to an extreme extent."

"Sir those orders are complicated."

"Shut up!"

Sousuke moved forward. This AS was also a bit uncomfortable to pilot in his attire as well. Anon moved forward to meet the approaching enemies. Hopefully he could stop them before they reached the shore. What ever it was it was big. They had quite a large unit bringing it.

"Sir, similar events are occurring in other parts of the world."

"…"

"Sousuke?"

"Yes?"

"This is a problem."

"Affirmative."

He could see some of the enemies separating from the group and rushing ahead. He went to meet them. The first one attacked him carrying a spear. Iridescent light clashed as it crashed against his hand. The weapon was vaporized as his hand tore past his enemies force and right into it blowing the machine up. Next two enemies attacked at once. Sousuke descended letting them crash into each other. He pulled his weapon and fired into one enemy blowing it apart. The next enemy pulled a sword and rushed down.

"Sir we should test a new function I located."

"What is it?"

Without an answer a blade flipped out of the right arm. Understanding Sousuke blocked the enemy's sword with his arm blade. He pushed the sword up and slashed the enemy in half cutting right through his opponent's sword as well.

"Six enemies approaching at once."

"Roger."

He rushed towards one of the enemies. Catching him off guard he cut the machine down the middle. The following five would not be so easily destroyed. Iridescent light flashed as an enemy fired a high-powered cannon at him. Another enemy lunged from the side with a pike. From the top an enemy came down pointing its weapon. He maneuvered carefully taking the enemy's from his side pike and moving it upwards it pierced the body of the down coming AS from the bottom up, in an unpleasant way. When the two were removed the other three fired at him rapidly. One with a canon, the other two with two-high powered machineguns each. He held off the attacks with his lambda driver, but they soon began powering their weapons making it harder. Their target disappeared in an instant zipping behind the one of the machine-gunners. He stabbed through it, and aimed its guns toward the canon user blowing it apart. He moved away as the other gunner fired destroying his ally AS. Pulling its gun it fired at the enemy but he blocked it, and fired back. An iridescent wave shot forth from Anon. The enemy AS slowly tore apart as it was forced back then eventually blew up. The large ship carrying the device he had to keep from reaching Japan was getting close. He fired at it. He was surprised when a ripple of light appeared for a moment before fading.

"Sir they have a barrier. This will be more difficult than previously assumed."

"Affirmative. At least we are thinking equally."

Suddenly enemy units began pouring out of the ship.

"This seems endless."

"We can do it."

"Optimism is useful right now."

"Negative Al. It is confidence that we can defeat the enemy despite the odds."

"You are that confident."

"Are you?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's try something then. Lock onto as many targets as possible I will concentrate."

"Roger."

Every enemy on screen was being marked with a lock-on marker. The amount was over-whelming it over-lapped an incredible amount. They all came out and were already firing at him. Bullets crashed against an iridescent force as Anon looked upon its opponents.

Sousuke closed his eyes. In the darkness he could see his targets. Mentally locking on as well. The enemies moved in strange motions as they approached. He opened his eyes and iridescent light shot forth like an octopus. Hundreds of streams of light flew towards an opponent it was meant for. Any on-lookers including Sousuke watched as a couple hundred explosions erupted through the sky in the distance. More and more appeared and faded. Sousuke took a deep breath, that taking a bit more than he thought. Once it cleared he could see the remaining enemies had halted. It was perhaps in fear or surprise but they did not seem to be moving.

"Sir that was extraordinary. This machine as well as the skills we have gained are almost impossible to believe."

"Affirmative. To tell the truth I was not sure if that would work or not. I assumed more of them could block the attack with their own lambda drivers but less than I thought survived."

"On that note there is no sign of over-heating or straining on the arm-slave. Like the attack did not exist."

"Like you said this machine has incredible capabilities."

"Yes sir. I believe we worked well."

"Roger but it is not over."

In annoying coincidence the back of the large ship opened. The remaining AS stayed by the large aircraft. He could see something exiting the back. Sousuke had Al zoom in so they could watch the appearing item. It was an AS. It has a strange shape. Upon a body slightly large than normal arm-slaves it had larger shoulders and strange feet. He saw strange things plunge from the AS into the ship it was standing on. Anchors he assumed. He could see large tubes and wires going into its back. The arm's opened into strange connective joints. Out of the rear also came 6 AS carrying large objects. A large part was fastened to the back then on each arm. They connected the three. Suddenly energy seemed to be flowing into the large item. Finally they recognized it as a weapon. That equipment that almost full enveloped the AS, and made it immobile was a weapon. The wired and tubes must be for energy. The rest was probably a generator and the attack.

"Sir large amounts of energy are collecting in that weapon. " Al said worriedly.

"…"

"If we dodge it, it would most likely damage the city."

"I know."

"What do we do?"

"Any new functions I don't have knowledge of?"

"None that are useful."

Sousuke watched worriedly as the weapon began vibrating slightly.

"Sir they are almost ready to attack."

Sousuke just stared at the enemy wondering what to do. Before he had any ideas the weapon released its load. An energy blast of incredible proportion was shot. He stared in disbelief as it brightened the sky. It crashed against an iridescent force from Anon; however it quick and easily broke through throwing Anon in another direction, luckily for Sousuke. He turned and watched as the blast shot into the city tearing apart building and scraping others before fading. No matter what he knew people were dead and it was his fault…again. He turned back on his opponent who was charging again. This time the other arm-slaves came after him. He stared half angrily-half bored. The first one who attacked was instantly destroyed, but no one saw anything. The next one did not catch as Sousuke's AS appeared behind him. With a flick of the finger the body was torn apart. The next opponent fired at him but the bullets were stopped then sent back destroying his enemy it fell into the ocean. The next one gave up and tried to run away. It stopped when Anon appeared in front of it as if teleporting. He stuck it hand out and then suddenly pulled it back. The enemy AS bent backwards then crumpled into a ball of metal. He flung his arm around and the invisible force shot it towards the ship like a canon. He raced after it the enemy preparing to fire again.

"Sit this is not a good idea."

"Al."

There was a silence between the two.

"Yes sir."

Sousuke's eyes began turning a reddish grey color. The outside of his AS glowed slightly. Finally the enemy released its next attack. The giant laser destroyed the crumpled metal easily. When it crashed into Anon it passed over it body but faded. It could not see but Sousuke's AS was ramming right through the middle of the giant blast. Pieces of the AS skin began peeling off Anon. The harder body stayed intact. He slowly moved forward straining himself against the attack. He pushed forward but was not without rebellion. The power of the blast was definitely formidable as it pushed him back slightly at points. It felt as if the enemy would never stop shooting as he pushed forward.

He clenched his teeth as he felt himself losing. This was always what happened. He would always fail when it was important. He could never do anything right as first without help. At least anything with black technology. Ever since he got the lambda driver things didn't feel right and he kept failing, at least when it was important. Now he feared he would do it again. Tears began to form in his eyes. Of course they weren't normal tears he would never cry over such a stupid thing. His eyes stung as the crimson liquid began to slowly flow out the bottom. The liquid made a type of river down his cheeks as he pushed. He felt it he would hold on for a few more seconds before it was over.

Suddenly a large explosion erupted through the ship starting from the top. Sousuke could feel the weight of his enemies attack lightening. When it cleared he could see the ship going down. Large explosions erupted through out and blew parts off or apart. The bulk was going down quickly. When it did large waves of the ocean raced and slammed into the beach and even up to the streets and building. But those were weaker and quickly faded. He wondered what caused it to happen. By the looks of it the canon over-heated and exploded and since it was connected to the ship it caused it all to go down but he doubted that was the cause.

"Yo buddy!" A voice called that Sousuke recognized. He looked around and located an AS near by. He could see two pieces of metal falling into the ocean. It figures right after getting out he could pull off such a shot. He was surprised to find the AS flying like his.

"Kurz!"

"I had to sit in that damn missile for about threes hours before I got here."

"How can you…"

"Fly…you're the one that left the damn message it just took some getting used to. Sis and Lilliane are having fun with it half-way across the world. Captain sentimental was sent elsewhere like me but he's being all proper. I came because we heard about the large force over here, and thought you might want help. Oh yeah and you owe me one for saving the day. Like I said the hero is always late and I saved your ass."

For once Sousuke was grateful to hear his friend's comments and jokes.

"Well let's go make sure everything is okay in the city by the looks of it, it took a lot of damage." He said seriously.

Sousuke turned back to look at it. It was not as bad as it could have been but it was definitely bad. That first blast had caused a lot of damage. He was lucky it dissipated rather than continued or it could have been worse. They both headed back towards the city. Broken parts of buildings and AS were spread at the points attacked. Some buildings were missing half or all of the tops. Streets were damaged severely. He could see the people staring at the arm-slaves the horrible memories in their eyes. It did not matter as least they were alive…or most of them were. He doubted a lot of people had died most of them probably running away the second it started. They moved around seeing if there was anybody that needed to be saved from under debris or somewhere high.

"This is worse than anywhere else." Kurz said as they moved separately. Sousuke knew it was because he was here. They had probably sent a stronger force here to stop him. The rest of the attacks would be easier but not every part of the world had a Mithril. AS were probably deployed but failed, of course some had the help of SRT members. The Tuatha de Danaan probably used it weaponry to help as well. They searched for a couple hours before they were sure everything was safe. He knew what would be on the news.

"Well let's go rest. We need to put these bad boys somewhere because the TDD-1 won't be here for awhile. Mithril might send a copter from the island base but I doubt it. Did you see those giant things they were lugging around? Some of them were planted but only about one per continent I'm not sure if there's more but they are putting them at the most active places. We stopped a few but I doubt that's it. But no other place had a large ship and that many AS come at 'im."

"Acknowledged. I have somewhere we can put these if it was not destroyed. Can you activate EIS?"

"Yeah finally since you never told us about it before."

"The ARX is a developing system."

"Idiot."

They both disappeared into the sky. They were able to track each other as Sousuke lead him to a hiding place for the AS. They hid them in an abandoned area that was nearby his apartment. The walk back to his place would be ten minutes though. Once out Sousuke called Kaname. They hadn't gone back to the apartment. The distance was of course too much. He would have to go back and meet them.

"So how you doing buddy?" Kurz stared at him a moment. "Why are your eyes…?" He was interrupted before he could finish.

"Be careful we cannot have anyone seeing you in that suit."

Kurz looked down at his AS suit. Looking around he found a clothes store with a broken window. Looking out for anybody he ran inside and took some clothes. He didn't change in there in case anyone was inside. Having Sousuke keep watch he changed in an alley. Sousuke wiped off his face while he was there.

"Jeez this sucks. We kept it from getting far but this place is still kind of messy." Kurz stuff his suit into a bag."

"Yes. I failed to protect the city again."

Kurz slapped him on the back. "Jeez don't kill the mood. We saved a lot of people and if you hadn't jumped into the laser it could have been worse. Be happy."

"If you hadn't come I'm not sure I would have succeeded."

Kurz sighed as they walked. "How does Kaname put up with you so much? If it wasn't for her temper she would really have to be an angel to take care of you, or at least be a saint."

Sousuke said nothing as they continued walking. Kurz was annoyed but decided not to say anything while he thought up an idea to cheer up his friend.

"Oh yeah speaking of which what happened to all the enemies reported appearing from the ship."

"I don't know."

"Really?"

"Affirmative."

"But you were right there."

Sousuke remained silent a few more moments.

"They all exploded suddenly." That was subtle, and truthful without detail.

"You don't know why?"

"Negative."

"Fine. Let's go hit a bar while we're here."

"Negative. I want to check on Chidori."

"That's the spirit. But you don't want to be mopy when you see her do you."

Sousuke remained silent. Kurz grabbed his head and tried to noogie him but by reflex Sousuke flipped him onto the floor.

"I apologize."

"At least those work still." Kurz smiled up at him as he held out his hand. Sousuke grinned slightly as he took his hand and helped him up. Kurz put his arm around Sousuke's neck and began walking in an annoyingly cheerful fashion.

"Let's have a party."

"Negative."

"Kill-joy."

Sousuke looked forward annoyed. Kurz heard a gun click somewhere. He began laughing out loud as he almost strangled Sousuke while hanging around him.

"Same old Sousuke."

"Same old Kurz."

"Yeah."

They came across the incredibly destroyed street where people were being helped.

"Should we help?" Kurz asked.

"Probably but they seem to have the situation under control. We will help if we run across a worsened area. We took care of anything we could in the arm-slaves the rest is medic work."

"I guess your right."

The melancholic mood loomed over them as they walked back to his apartment. The damage was limited to certain areas but the failure still felt great. He wouldn't be the one rebuilding or taking care of the injured. He wouldn't be here much longer anyway.

"We can borrow a car over there." Kurz pointed towards a car rental store. Luckily it was in an area undamaged. Despite what happened they were able to borrow a van. Getting into the vehicle Kurz took the drivers seat.

"So where are they? He asked as they began driving around.

"They went to a protective area not too far from the beach. Chidori said it didn't take much damage."

"I assume she picked the spot."

"Affirmative."

"I guess her being around you has paid off."

"…"

Kurz laughed at his silence. The truth was with Sousuke gone he had to get at Melissa, Clouzot, and even Tessa to get some fun these days.

It was not long before they found the hiding group. They had looked around and helped who they could so it took a bit longer to locate them. When they found them Kurz stopped the van. Sousuke stepped out. Running up to him Kaname checked if he was alright.

"What's this?" Kaname touched his face with her hand. He grimaced when he saw the blood stains on her hand. He hadn't done a good job of removing the blood and more smeared it slightly.

"Nothing."

"This is blood. Are you okay?"

"Affirmative."

"Did you get hurt?"

"Negative."

She could see the dried blood at the bottom of his eyes.

"Oh my god."

"It is nothing. We should go."

He was surprised when the harisen slapped across his head. "It's not nothing baka! You should get checked out. At least let me look at it."

"Once we return to the apartment."

"Well when you can we need to go home. Our parents saw the news and want to see if we're ok. They were glad we answered our phones but are worried and you know how parents are." Shinji said suddenly. Sousuke nodded. Soon everyone was finally ready to load into the van. Sousuke went to step into the passenger seat but was pulled back.

"You're sitting back here mister!" Kaname stared daggers at him. Sousuke turned to Kurz who shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry buddy."

Sousuke followed Kaname into the back seats. Kyouko sat next to her. The rest loaded into the middle Shinji taking the front next to Kurz. After being lead and having to take a lot of other roads all their friends were dropped off. The only ones left in the vehicle were the two mercenaries and the blue haired girl. Kurz turned on the radio to fill the silence.

-

"So what now?" Kaname said as they entered Sousuke's apartment. Walking in Kurz dropped the bag containing his suit in a corner.
"Well Mithril will most likely contact us but I'll use Sousuke's radio to contact them and report what happened." Kurz said as he walked into the kitchen. Sousuke went into his room to change to his clothes. In a few moments he came out.
"What about you buddy?" Kurz said from the kitchen. When Sousuke walked in he found his friend bruised and beaten.

"Uh. What happened to you?" He asked looking at his friend who was turned away making something in his kitchen.

Kaname walked up to him sliding her hand over his chest.

"He was trying to look at something that belonged to someone else." She whispered in his ear then pecked his cheek before walking off. He looked at Kaname as she walked away. She was still in nothing but a bathing suit and her jacket. He turned back to his injured friend not understanding. Taking in Kurz habits he blushed realizing what she meant.

"So what are you going to do?" Kurz said in a completely serious voice. Sousuke stared at him with his emotionless expression.

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