Disclaimer: See chapter one

Chap. 6

Clan Animalz- The Beast, Raptor, Chewie, Berserker, Razor-Claw, Tyrannus, Croc

One of the newer clans, this group is composed mostly of high armored and heavily armed AC which can decimate an entire landscape in a matter of seconds. Though they are low in rank, they possess a fierce rage that is not to be underestimated.

Motto- "Nobody can stop...The ANIMALZ!!!!!"

---------------------------------

The Nightwatch members had regrouped in one of the hanger building within the city. As they came together, they discussed the battle that was to come. Everyone, with the exception of Charles, was there.

"City terrain." Cain muttered. "Buildings can provide good cover."

Baron looked over the terrain map as well, "These buildings aren't that well structured. A good blast will cause them to collapse."

Koemai nodded, "Still, it can be useful. If they are destroyed, they can be used for surprise attacks."

Ellie examined the map as well, "Don't you think the terrain is a little limited?  For fourteen Ravens, this is too small to fight in."

She was right. According to the designated area, the battlefield was too small for a descent battle. They would wind up shooting each other without any chance of evasion.

"That's why only six will be fighting."

Everyone turned to see Charles walk in the room. The sturdy man strode in the midst of the group and folded his arms as he looked at the battle map.

"Charles? What do you mean?"

"Well, we can't all fight at once. Too many variables." The man adjusted his glasses slightly, "I spoke with the Animalz and they've agreed that it will be a three on three battle. The winners get the reward for all of us."

Diana nodded, "A triple-tag match? Well this should be good." She then asked, "Who will be fighting?"

"On their side, The Beast, Berserker, and Tyrannus."

"And us?" Ellie asked.

Charles closed his eyes and gave a slight grin, "Who else? The Hands of God."

Baron frowned slightly, "Why them?"

Charles turned to look at the three Ravens, "Before we joined together, they were already a team. Since we still need work in battling together, it would be more efficient if they fought in this."

Elijah grinned and cracked his knuckles, "Alright. Finally, to test out my mad skills."

"I bet." Diana smirked.

This earned a blush from him and a rapid snarl from Koemai. However, Ellie decided to step in before they began arguing.

"Don't even start, you two."

Cain folded his arms, "The Beast, Berserker, and Tyrannus. Their more heavily armored types." He suddenly began heading for the exit, "I better get to work."

Koemai's jaw dropped, "More work? You've got to be kidding me"

Cain didn't stop walking, "We have to find out their strengths and weaknesses. Once that's done, we can stand a better chance against them."

"Come on. These guys are cakewalk." Koemai shot back, "We can handle them easily."

Cain stopped briefly, "Well, you think that. I'm going to prepare." He then turned his head to look at his apprentice. "Elijah, I want you in the practice room."

Elijah blinked, "Huh?"

"That's right. You'll train for two hours in order to get ready."

The young Raven gasped, "Two hours?! Aw, that's grimy."

Cain went back to walking out, "No complaining. I'll check on you in ten minutes."

Elijah's shoulders slumped at the thought of two hours of straight training. Koemai decided to act on his friend's behalf.

"Aren't you taking this a little too seriously?"

Cain stopped once again, his voice becoming low, but firm as he turned fully and looked at Elijah in the eye. "When a person loses fear of something, they're more likely to get hurt by it."

Cain finally walked out and Koemai simply shrugged, "Well, when he's right, he's right."

As those two talked, Ellie stared after the dark Raven. He seemed so serious...about everything. Why was that? Perhaps I'll find out.

************

"Cain."

Ellie walked into Cain's quarters. Once again, he was on his computer terminal working. The screen showed the profiles and the statistics of the three Ravens they would be battling. He was studying both the ACs and the Ravens.

"Yes?"

She moved toward the table and then seated herself on the table, "Don't you think you're working your student a little hard?"

Cain's eyes didn't waver from the screen, "Yes. But the world is a hard place. He has to be ready for it."

Ellie sharp eyes studied him thoroughly. He gave off no reactions and no hints she could use to talk to him about. Her eyes then focused on his neck. A thin band was encircled around it and fell down beneath his shirt. Reaching out, she curved her finger around it. Cain instantly stopped typing and reached to grab her hand, but she reached it and pulled it out, revealing the other end. On it were two golden rings, each one engraved with a single-winged black bird.

"Nice."

Cain grabbed the rings and quietly stuffed them back in his shirt. Ellie smiled inwardly, glad that she was finally able to get a reaction out of him.

"So who was she?"

Cain stopped briefly, "No offense, but it's none of your concern."

Ellie nodded, realizing that she had hit a sore spot. "My apologizes. I just wanted to know...why you are the way you are."

Cain looked up at her, gazes meeting. "Well, now you know. Now if you'll excuse me..." He looked back at the screen, "I have work to finish."

"Sure." Ellie plopped off the table and began to walk out. However, just before she closed the door, she asked a question.

"What was her name?"

"Alia."

***********

The three Ravens assembled before the city battlefield. It was a small area in the middle of a desert. Buildings were damaged due to previous Raven battles and some were in ruins. The three ACs stalked into the deserted area, waiting for their opponents to show.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Elijah asked within his Havoc AC

"We annihilate them." Koemai answered. "Plain and simple."

Cain focused his eyes on the terrain with Glaive as he answered Elijah's question, "Elijah, you handle Tyrannus. He has less speed, but don't get drawn in close to him. I'll deal with Berserker. Koemai, you have the leader."

Koemai grinned, "The Beast? Alright. Just the way I like it."

Cain continued, "Use the buildings often. They have powerful weaponry, but it's very limited, so we want to drain them as fast as possible. Also, watch your backs. They like teaming up on single Ravens often."

"Like a pack of dogs." Elijah muttered.

Cain nodded, "If we can separate them and fight them in one on one combat, we have a good chance of winning this."

Koemai looked over at Glaive with a smirk, "You really did your homework on these guys, huh?"

Cain didn't respond to the joke, but he did say, "Oh, and Koemai. Under no circumstances are you to play that song, okay?"

Koemai frowned once again, "Aw, come on. Where's the fun in that?" When Cain didn't respond, he conceded, "Alright, alright. But you owe me a favor for this."

Suddenly, their FCS radars lit up, indicating the enemy's approach.

"Here they come!" Elijah yelled.

The three enemy ACs moved toward them with oppressive power. All three ACs were heavyweights, loaded with powerful ammunition and EO cores. Berserker had normal heavy legs and was equipped with a bazooka and a machine gun in its hands, a pulse cannon and a linear cannon on the back. Tyrannus had reverse-joint legs and was equipped with rocket weapon arms, a chain gun and a grenade launcher on the back. The Beast was a  tank-legged type, equipped with grenade launcher arms, and a dual chain gun on the back. All of them were colored in dark camouflage colors and patterns. Each AC fired a blast, causing the Hand of God to scatter.

"We need a new plan." Elijah called as he piloted Havoc behind one of the buildings to aviod fire.

Bloodhand flew behind a building as well, "I have an idea. We better get airborne. We can definitely out-fly these guys."

The idea came too late as the buildings exploded behind their backs, revealing their locations. The three ACs tried to take flight, but the level of fire at them was too heavy and they were grounded.

"They're not going to let us up."

"Oh yes they will." Cain said from Glaive.

The other two looked at Glaive powered up its OB.

"Are you nuts?" Elijah shouted.

"Just get ready to fly." he responded.

Glaive suddenly shot right at them at full speed. The three Ravens fired on the lone Raven, but then Glaive raised its arm and fired a grenade round, hitting the ground in front of the three and created an explosion that blinded then momentarily. While that happened, Glaive suddenly lifted off the ground and flew over them. Cutting off the OB, Glaive instantly activated the turning booster extension and fire again, hitting the back of Berseker.

"You son of a..."

Berserker launched away and began to chase after Glaive. The other two looked at their mad comrade before returning their attention to the other two...who were gone.

"Hey, where the hell are the others?" Darren yelled from The Beast.

His question was soon answered when weapons fire emerged from the skies. Above the two, Bloodhand and Havoc were diving on the two. Havoc was shredding Tyrannus with his machine guns, damaging it severely. Despite being heavily armored, reverse-joint ACs still tend to take damage easily. Bloodhand on the other hand, was having trouble bringing down The Beast.

"You can't touch me." Darren mocked.

The monster AC opened two panels on its arms, activating the dual function in the grenades. Now locked onto Bloodhand, both arms fired simultaneously. Bloodhand narrowly dodged the deadly fire and it flew by and completely annihilated a building. Bloodhand let loose a round of bullets from the chain gun, but they didn't seem to affect the AC much. 'Guess he pushed me to it.' Koemai growled inwardly as he unfolded his own grenade launcher.

The Beast launched another dual fire grenade at Bloodhand. At the same time, Bloodhand fired his own grenade shot. The two blasts collided with one another, exploding tremendously and causing some nearby buildings to crumble. When the blast cleared, The Beast looked for it target, only to find it seconds away from it, it's short energy blade ignited.

"Oh, sh..."

Too late, as Bloodhand slashed the thick blade right into the upper core section of the AC. The armored AC tried backing away, activating its EOs as it began its retreat. But the tank AC was too slow to escape and Bloodhand stayed on him like a hound, staying close so that the grenades would be ineffective, ignoring the energy beams pelting him from the EO and either slashing with its blade or damaging it further with the chain gun. Finally, The Beast was backed into a building, trapped and badly damaged as Bloodhand moved in for the final attack. Koemai laughed insanely inside as his AC suddenly dropped the machine gun and reached out for The Beast's head.

"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! Time to say goodbye!"

Bloodhand's red hand smashed into The Beast head and crushed it in, defeating it.

"I've always what to say that."

*****

Meanwhile, Tyrannus was on retreat from the attacking Havoc. It had taken far too much damage from Havoc's combined machine gun attack and was trying to buy time to recover.

"There you are!"

Havoc suddenly flew out from one of the buildings and fired on Tyrannus. Tyrannus dashed away and the bullets shredded the building, destroying it. Enraged at being pursued like this, Tyrannus turned a fired back, hurling several rockets at once at Havoc. Havoc backed away from the fire, but one of the rockets hit the right arm, blasting it right off. Havoc stopped in his assault and Tyrannus saw what he had done.

"My, how the tables have turned."

Tyrannus suddenly attacked, firing rounds from his chain gun. Havoc was now the one forced the retreat as Tyrannus began his assault. Havoc tried to turn and fire, but the enemy AC was always on him. He had to think of something and fast.

"Use the buildings often."

Elijah quickly remembered that and began to form a plan. He continued to fly away, heading toward one of the buildings. Tyrannus continued pursuit, thinking that he had Havoc cornered.

'This had better work.'

Havoc raised its remaining arm and fired at the building before him. As it crumbled down, he went straight into it. Tyrannus followed him through the falling debris, but when he came out on the other side, Havoc was gone.

"What the...? Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!"

Tyrannus was soon riddled with bullets and fell to its knees. Behind it, Havoc, who was still in the debris, stood with his weapon smoking. He had used the falling debris as cover and then stopped, allowing Tyrannus to pass by him in the rubble. It was a long shot, and the debris could have messed him up more, but it worked.

"Alright. One down."

"Make that two." At that point, Bloodhand had walked out from the side of one of the building. Its metal hand still had pieces of the ACs head in it.

"Alright, two down." Elijah then looked around. "Wait. Where's Glaive?"

Koemai searched around as well, "I don't know. I haven't heard from him since he overboosted."

"Do you think he's...?"

"No."

That response came from Glaive, who was current stalking toward the rest of his comrades. The armor was singed slightly, but other than that, it wasn't seriously damaged.

"Hey, what happened?" Elijah question abruptly.

Cain simply closed his eyes, "He came. We fought. I won. The end."

Elijah shrugged and then suddenly grinned, "You know what this means? We won! Alright!"

Koemai nodded, a grin on his face as well, "And with the money they now owe us, we are going to par-tay tonight!"

Cain just sighed and piloted his AC along with the other back to the garage, leaving behind three defeated ACs. One with a crushed head, one teeming with bullet holes, and the last...slashed apart at the joints.