Dra Gan the Dradonadian King-Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it! I'll try to keep up the work.
Disclaimer: Heres Chapter 10 and I do not own AC, just the characters, enjoy!
Chapter 10: Shifting Phases
A ruin of an AC sat at the side of the gigantic circular room. What was left of it lay there, smoking but still twitching, struggling to make a stand. A faint red paint could be seen on its ashened armor. Its right arm, head and left leg had been torn off. Across from the room, an ominous white mech stood there as if it conquered all. It took a step with its right leg to the front slightly, with humane movement, it smoothly brought up its linear rifle. The skeletal structure of its core made it look all the more fierce with its head still in the shadow, and erie blue glow emanating from its head. The pilot inside the ruined AC was battered and beaten. The computer of the machine started to warn the pilot, "DANGER! ESTIMATION OF AP AT LESS THAN 10," The white machine pointed the tip of the linear rifle at its defenseless prey, glaring down at its opponent.
"Why...how could you?..." the girl inside the cockpit attempted to lift herself from the control panel, "I...trusted you...how could you?"
"We're all Ravens...its our job to carry out the mission given to us...right, Sara?" a male with an average timbre in his voice said on the link. The rifle started to glow a brilliant orange and white, deathly to the eyes. The whiteness blinded Sara's vision.
"Ugh!..." Sara jolted upright in her bed, wearing her white tank top and covered down to her waist in a white bedsheet. Perspiration could be seen on her forehead, dripping down onto her clothes, "That dream...how horrible..." she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, still panting from the terrible dream she had, "But...it all seemed so real...too real...what does it mean?" she sat there, on her bed, contemplating on what was reality and what was just a dream, "No...I can't think about this right now...Wind said he would be meeting me in the garage...ah damnit...I promised him I'd meet him there at ten o'clock...its ten thirty, I'd better hurry," Sara got out of her bed, putting on the her clothes and preparing for another day of a Raven.
Windbreaker, a man with brown hair, a cross-shaped scar, and a bandaged right arm, was sitting on a bench in the garage next to his AC, Omen. He rubbed his cheek, it let off a stinging feeling when he touched it. Ouch! That really hurt...she didn't have to slap me so hard. After all, it was her who decided to sleep with me...He replayed the motions of how he got out of bed over in his mind. He had woken up to find Sara sleeping on top of him. He nearly jumped out of the bed had it not been the bedsheet that impeded his ability to get off. In the end, he miserably failed the escape and recieved a crash head first with the wall. Soon after, Sara had woken up. Unfortunately for him, she didn't remember anything and it seemed that a cracked head was not enough for one day. Lesson of a lifetime...never make women angry...he rubbed his cheek a little more, she was really strong too...some PLUS strength or something...man...ouch! He decided to stop rubbing the place as it would have most likely created a bulge of some sort.
"Hey! Wind!" Windbreaker looked over to his right at the hallway to see Sara running towards him. She stopped in front of him smiling brightly at him.
"...your late..." he said, crossing his arms.
"Sorry, I slept in...just think of it as...regaining some energy for our next mission!" She said only getting closer with her smile.
He merely looked through the corner of his eye and said, "Whatever..." and shrugged.
"Oh yeah...sorry about slapping you on the cheek today. But I was kinda surprised that you were in bed with me an kinda did what came to mind..." she grabbed his hand and pulled it towards her, "Please, will you forgive me?"
"Okay, okay...just let go of my hand!" He retracted his hand as soon as Sara had released her grip of it.
"So? What's the mission today? Before you left, you said Jack-O had assigned you a mission." she said, with an anxious look on her face.
"Ahhh...oh yeah...that mission. Jack-O wants us to investigate a monument of some sort that Crest and Mirage dug up near Fenris Dome. He said he wanted you to come as well," he said.
"Me! He wants me to go! Jack-O wanted me to go on a mission! I can't believe it!" she seemed excited and jumped up with glee.
I don't see whats the big deal...its just another mission...Windbreaker was less enthusiastic of all missions. He got quite fed up with a normal routine mission. He got up and started head towards his ACs cockpit.
Sara realized that Windbreaker was gone and looked around for him. She turned around to see he was on the deck heading for his AC, "Hey! Where do you think your going?" she yelled.
He turned his head and looked down at her, "Getting my AC...we need them to do our missions eh?" he turned around and opened the cockpit to proceed inside.
"Oh right! What are we waiting for?" She hurried to her AC, preparing it for the mission ahead.
Inside the transport that was transporting ACs Omen and Crimson Tear to the destination. Sara and Windbreaker sat beside eachother on the benches that lay before the hangars. Only the hovering sound of the plane's boosters could be heard. The silence was broken by Sara, "Wind...today, after you left...I dozed off again and had an awful dream..."
Although it was not of any interest to Windbreaker, he decided to ask of the dream for reasons he could not understand, "Dream? What was it about?" his mind seemed to think differently though, What! I'm not interested in her dream! Why the hell did I even ask about it then!
"Well...I don't know what happened before...but...there was a white mech in front of me...and my AC had been badly beaten by it. It was really strange too, the mech wasn't anything I had ever seen, it seemed unbeatable," she looked up at the ceiling, trying to find words to describe her dream. "It was strange...the mech had a pilot...he spoke to me...his voice was so familar...ugh...can't really put my finger on it...who was it?" her gaze landed on Windbreaker, "The AC...it was a really wierd pure white too...and the light it emitted from its head was a really wierd blue too...and its core...it looked like some white demon...ugh...it was so faint but it all seemed so real."
The words Sara had just said caught Windbreaker's attention this time, "A...white demonic mech?"
"Yeah...that's what I could remember..." she suddenly looked up at him with her usual bright smile, "But hey, its just a dream, its nothing...but I never expected you to care about anything...especially about something as ethereal as a dream," she said with curiosity.
"Meh...I didn't care...I was just curious though as to what dream you were having..." he said, sitting there with his back laying against the metallic walls of the plane.
"Well...whatever...I really think you've changed since I first met you Wind!"
"Whatever..." she kissed him on the cheek on layed her head on his shoulder. He didn't seem to be phased, he just looked at her while she closed her eyes and layed on his shoulder with her arms wrapped around his arm.
A white mech...hmmmm...I wonder...could she be referring to...that?He pondered on this thought until they had reached their destination.
"Ravens, We've reached our destination. I'm going to be dropping you off now." the pilot of the transport turned his head and said to the two. Windbreaker nodded and quickly made haste for his AC, so did Sara.
"Ravens, be careful! A sandstorm is iminent there. Jack-O is expecting some heavy resistance from the group that just made an uprising known as Revelation, so you'll be working with two other Ravens on this mission." Karens voice rang out on the communication link in both ACs as they fell to the metal ground surrounding a large perfectly square and smooth building. Two other ACs could be seen on the ground as well. One of them was dark blue with a grey outlining, the other a blood red AC with bright orange outlining. Crimson Tear's computer registered the two ACs as friendly units, ones they were supposed to work with.
"ALLIED ACs IDENTIFIED AS FORESIGHT AND PYROBIRD."
"Hey! You guys ready to have some fun?" a tenor voice coming from the pilot of the red AC, known as Pyrobird, said.
"Huh? Aren't you Carom? Your one of the top ten rankers in the arena aren't you?" Sara said noticing the AC beside Carom's was Vanguard's AC, Foresight, "I'm going to work with Vanguard? Oh god! I'm so lucky!" she was trying to supress the urge to dance around in her cockpit.
Vanguard opened up a private link to Windbreaker's AC, "So...Jack-O finally decided to cooperate with me after all these years?"
"Yeah, I guess so, he knows your Evangel already...I never did figure out why he kicked you out of the Ark in the first place. The news said you were to be expelled because you made a direct contract with Crest but that didn't seem like you..."
"Well, being the older sibling, he thought that I was too young to be in the Ark and decided to expel me. Although, I do not blame him, he is my older brother after all," Vanguard said plainly.
"I'll never understand sibling relationships...nor women for that matter..." Windbreaker said running his hand through his hair.
Vanguard laughed at this, "Indeed you won't...well...in any case...Jack-O's plans are underway so theres no turning back now. Do you think you can handle it...I mean...your part of the mission isn't exactly easy...especially with Revelation on your tail."
"...I'll somehow manage..."
Foresight turned around to face the sandstorm that seemed to engulf all of the ACs, "The prophecy that Enigma told us of...it might come true...however..." Foresight turned its head towards Crimson Tear, "She may be the key to all this..."
"..." Windbreaker was silent for the moment.
"Hey, Wind?" Sara's voice interrupted him.
"Yeah?" he said closing his eyes trying to sleep inside his cockpit.
"Tell me about that group called Revelation, the one you said you used to be in," she asked.
Windbreaker leaned his head against the padding of the chair and started to talk, "Revelation is a mysterious organization. They say that they're true purpose is to make sure order is maintained throughout civilization..." he hesitated, gathering the words to comprehend the organization's purpose, "but in fact, their tru purpose is to destroy all of humanity through the use of the ancient technology they have gained. They think that the Ravens stand in their way and are probably view us as a rival organization."
"Wow, Wind...that sounds pretty bad...but I know we can pull through. Right? We're Ravens! We can take anything on!" her voice seemed to waver a little but still had its usual energy.
Heh...thats what you think...Windbreaker folded his arms behind his head and layed it on the cockpit seat for a while.
"WARNING! ENEMY TARGETS DETECTED!"
"Wha-!" Windbreaker had no time to react as AC Omen was struck down, hitting the ground hard.
"Ohhh...great...and in a sandstorm like this too...they couldn't have picked a better time for this..." Carom grumbled.
Omen recovered from the fall it had. The AC was still undamaged and seemed to work perfectly. Barely visible, a dark figure seemed to approach them. Its head still hidden in the shadows gave an erie blue glow. It held a SHADE rifle and a MOONLIGHT blade. Stopping in its tracks, it stood in front of the four Ravens, its figure unphased by the sandstorm. Windbreaker immediately recognized the AC.
"Enigma..."
"Heh...I see you've brought friends Windbreaker...no matter, I can deal with all of you. But what a day, to have to take out two NBPs..."
Sara had a dumbfounded look on her face, she didn't know what was going on and she didn't know why Enigma was here, "Why is Enigma here? And whats an NBP?" her question was not answered as the black AC known as Nova, boosted into Carom's AC, slamming it into the ground. The black AC disapeared into the mist of sand. Omen and Foresight followed the black ACs trail, disapearing behind the sandstorm as well. Crimson Tear stood still, its pilot was being aware of the surroundings. A laser was suddenly fired towards Crimson Tear, the AC boosted away in time to dodge the beam of light. A black AC flew in at a high speed, drawing its MOONLIGHT blade and slashing at Crimson Tear. The blade merely scratched the E2 core of Crimson Tear as it boosted upwards. A cluster of missiles hit Nova before it had time to react. Pyrobird joined the frey and started firing its R3 rifle, a new series that was meant as a rapid fire type rifle. Nova attempted to back away but failed as Carom unleashed his EO weapon attack from his GAIA core. The energy shells took out one of Nova's missile packs as it boosted to the left. The black AC boosted forwards while firing its SHADE rifle at Pyrobird. It stopped in front of Pyrobird for a moment and unleashed its energy blade, Carom was ready and countered with his LB4, the new blade developed by Crest thanks to the jointing of Mirage and Crest. Both light blue blades clashed against one another, the stalemate ended when Nova started charging up its over boosters. The black AC dropped its SHADE rifle and knocked the LB4 blade away followed by grappling onto Pyrobird's core with its right hand. Nova's overboosters kicked in, the thrust was more than enough to knock Pyrobird off its stability and push it into the ground. Eventually, the reverse joint legs of Pyrobird collapsed, the AC layed on the ground, unable to stand up. Nova stood in front of the crippled AC, with its MOONLIGHT blade extended and its arm pulled back, poised to pierce the cockpit of the AC. A grenade shell came from the mist of the sands, knocking the MOONLIGHT out of the ACs left arm.
"Urghhh!" The black AC stumbled back, its legs on the verge of breaking.
The computer of Nova interrupted Enigma in his cockpit, "WARNING! ESTIMATION OF AP AT 50! LEG UNITS ARE AT 30 EFFICIENCY!"
"Damn!" He slammed his control panel, "We'll finish this some other time..." The black AC turned around and overboosted into the sandstorm, disappearing from the field of view.
"Enigma...I wonder...what was he doing here?" Sara stared off into the sandstorm which was dying, "Hey! Wheres Wind? And Vanguard? They didn't get lost did they?" she said, checking all her display screens for signs of activity.
"Ravens! Theres been a change of plans! We've detected a large Kisaragi squadron headed your way. Recover the Pyrobird and leave the area immediately!" Karen said.
"But Wind and Vanguard! We can't find them!" Sara said, still checking everywhere for signs.
"Don't worry...I'm sure they just spotted the squadron ahead of time and decided to leave..." Carom interrupted, his AC was struggling to get up.
"Then how come they didn't tell us about anything?" she snapped at him.
Carom could tell by the tone of her voice that she was worried. He decided to calm her down as much as he could, "Listen, the sandstorm can cause many interference with ECM equipment, they probably couldn't get in contact with us. Relax! They're probably back at the Ark..."
"...I hope your right...I just really hope..." she said biting her lower lip, But how come...I get the feeling that...theres more to this than just meets the eye? Sara decided to go with it as it was the better choice to leave rather than fight in their condition. A transport had located them through the storm, which now had gotten smoother. They retrieved the ACs and pilots and took flight, flying towards the Ark.
The Ark was large, and finding two people in the Ark was as hard as it could get. Sara finally gave up and went to her room, not expecting what news awaited her in the room. "Ugh! I'm so tired...maybe I can look around for Wind tomorrow..." she extended both arms up in the air and yawned. Walking towards her bed, she noticed her red mail light was on at her informations system control panel. "Huh? Mail? At this hour?...maybe its from Wind!" Sara ran to the control panel and pressed the flashing red button. The mail happened to be an announcement from the Ark to the Ravens. "An announcement only?...well...I guess it wouldn't hurt to see..." She clicked on the mail icon in her desktop and a letter stated to all Ravens popped up along with two familiar AC pictures. Sara was shocked at what was in the letter, she retracted in disbelief.
This is an announcement from the Ark to all Ravens.
The Ravens, Windbreaker and Vanguard have been charged with high treason for traitorous acts. Investigation and monitering of these two Ravens have proven that they have been working as covet spies for the group known as Revelation. Normally we would not go to such an extent as to putting a bounty on a Raven for just simply switching sides, however, Revelation is not a corporation and has also been found using forbidden technology for their own purposes. We are willing to offer fifty million credits for bringing back these pilots dead or alive. The two are highly skilled and professional at AC, caution is advised!