DARKSTALKERS: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Chapter Three: Phobos of the Apocalypse
Fanfiction by Louis the Rogue
(Based on original story by Capcom Inc.)
Dust stirred as the shadows of the long-forgotten sanctuary were interrupted by the glow of Donovan's form, enveloped in a white halo, treading silently down the halls like a ghost.
As he entered a large, circular room with the stone statue of an enormous man in plate armor, shield and spear in hand, serving as its' central column, the monk closed his eyes and began to make another series of gestures. Moving into the room as his hands moved in wild, seemingly incomprehensible patterns, he finished the ritual by laying his palms on the foot of the statue and uttering a phrase that Anita did not understand.
She did, however, note that just then a huge ki flowed forth from Donovan, stealing the glow from his own body and placing it into the statue. As the titanic stone warrior radiated, it spread the glow along triangle-patterned faults to the rest of the room, causing the whole of it to emit a low, humming frequency. Finally, the statue's eyes began to glow like stars with the same mystic power.
"Who seeks the Power of the God of War?", the statue bellowed.
Donovan kneeled, hands now in a protective gesture over himself, "I am but a simple monk. I seek not power, but wisdom. I seek knowledge of the God of War."
Talbain, the wolf, dived through the smoke, his body assuming that comet-like aura as he rammed into one of the mechanical monsters with a howl. Springing from the thing in a backflip, he landed in a crouch. "Whoever the hell you are, you picked the wrong place to level", he growled.
The statuesque machine he had thrashed was badly dented, but as its' plated body began to fold in and out on itself, wires and sparks enshrouding the transformation, it was as new in a matter of seconds. "Class B+ warrior detected. Begin termination immediately", the mechanized juggernaut spoke flatly as it unflinchingly advanced toward the werewolf.
Leaping from behind, Felicia caught the creature off guard and planted her razor sharp claws into the back of its neck, springing forward off her hind legs and taking its' head. As the robot stumbled behind her, sparks erupting from its' neck, she landed on her feet in front of Talbain and winked down at him, "It isn't how much you put into the hit that counts; it's where you place it."
As Talbain stood, Felicia's eyes suddenly widened, her body riveted by an intense electrical shock. Falling unconscious, she landed in Talbain's arms, and he could see one of the assailants down the way; another of the automatons.
"Felicia!", he called out vainly, hoping to bring her around, but she was out cold. Though he couldn't sense any life energy from these creatures, he had heard another land behind him and knew he was surrounded. Clutching the limp body of the woman who so captivated him close, he narrowed his eyes and prepared an escape plan.
Aulbath and Quatos slammed back hard into the side of the mountain, their bodies making a sizeable indent. They had barely taken out half a dozen of these things, and more kept on coming.
"Any bright ideas?", Quatos mused as he looked to his friend with tired eyes.
Aulbath nodded slowly, still catching his breath, "It is time to take the fight inside."
Quatos nodded with a large grin, "I hoped you'd say that." Gathering his strength, he turned and thrust his fist into the mountainside, making a door where there wasn't one, and jumped into the darkness, followed hesitantly by his emerald-scaled ally.
As explosions from the outside sealed the door behind them in seconds, the pair of fighters ran deeper into the caverns, springing from rock to rock into the darkness below.
"We can't keep this up forever, Scales!", Quatos roared above the sounds of boulders falling all around them.
"We do not have to, Furry One", the merman mused, "Eventually they will realize that attacking from above is futile and come after us. Then we have the advantage."
Quatos furrowed his brows with a thoughtful look, "A passive aggressive attack? That's so like you…"
As the mechanical soldiers gathered above the heap of rocks that had been the mountaintop, they spoke as one, "Target has successfully evaded overt attacks. Change of tactics proves necessary. Entering seek-and-destroy program." The gears in their legs switching into the shape of drills, they began to tunnel underground in unison.
Deep within the mountain, Aulbath and Quatos waited over an underground stream. As the tremors began to get closer, Aulbath smiled confidently, "Be ready, my friend."
Quatos narrowed his eyes and followed suit on the grin, "You know it!"
As the near-ten of the things drilled their way out from above, chest-plates opening as they descended, Aulbath flicked his wrist at an angel, bringing his arm around to the side. In unison with this motion, a wave ascended from the stream, taking the majority of its' water, and battered the machines where they hovered.
No sooner than the robots had been saturated, Quatos inhaled a deep breath and released, freezing the water that had already invaded their gears into penetrating crystals of ice.
"Unable to continue program", the machines chanted as the light within their torsos began to swell at the expense of the larger body, "Requesting backup units. Sending target location in 3… 2…" With that, the lot of them went up in an electric lightshow.
"I think we got 'em", Quatos noted casually.
Aulbath nodded, but didn't seem as relaxed, "But for how long…?"
Lei-Lei rose slowly from the rubble, brushing herself off. "Well", she blinked, "That was uncalled for…"
Hovering above where the stadium had been, the three machines from before began to open their chest-plates, a bluish light glowing within, as their opponent emerged.
Noting the hum of their lasers, the ghostly hunter pulled a gong from her back and stood her ground, "You want to cook me? You'll have to catch me first!"
As the laser rays fired down at her, Lei-Lei struck the gong hard, the sounding echo sending a shock wave through the air that, amazingly, deflected the blasts back at their owner.
Moving to dodge, the machines hummed from within and fired again. Again, she repeated her tactic, but this time one of them moved behind her. As the things prepared to fire once more, she was barely in a position to reflect two of them.
Without warning, the rear-flanking robot fell to the ground in a heap, a buzz saw embedded in the back of its' head.
As one of the creatures moved to engage Lei-Lei in hand-to-hand combat, the other dashed toward the intruder, who himself was happy to oblige. Springing off his bony heels, Zabel met the creature halfway in a flying grapple, taking it with him to the ground in a crunching thud and cackling all the way.
"C'mon Hercules! Himme with yer best shot!", Zabel stood and taunted, then oof'ed as the mechanical monster took his bluff to heart and sucker-punched him in the gut hard enough to make a reverse dent out his backside.
"What a jerk; he has no tact whatsoever…", Lei-Lei muttered to herself as she deftly dodged a silver-gauntlet blow to her face.
Tunneling underground at random, Zabel sprang up from behind his assailant with lightning speed, elbow pointed downward. With the sudden extension of a blade from said elbow that jousted the length of his enemy from the head down, the machine fell.
Meanwhile, Lei-Lei had successfully cleared enough space between herself and her opponent to afford a crouch. Moving her hands in repeated hand gestures and chanting in a foreign language, she initiated her chi spell. Rising from the ground, a series of ascending spikes caught the mechanized nuisance offguard, slicing it in two.
As the machine fell, and the spikes vanished in an echo of light, the girl turned to face her original target. Their eyes locked as the pair resumed a fighting stance, but for some reason, neither of them moved an inch.
After a brief standoff, Lei-Lei was the first to speak, "Tell me, Zabel Zarock, or "Lord Raptor" as you now prefer, why is it that you assisted me?"
Zabel blushed, taken aback, "Yer cute; what didja expect, a sonnet?"
To this, she rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I obviously have bigger fish to fry, so I'll deal with you later…"
As she walked off into the sunset, Zabel shrugged to nobody, "Women…" With nothing better to do, he began following her after a moment's pause.
His arms still crossed over his face as he knelt there, Donovan looked up to the statue.
"The God of War", it spoke, "Is, in reality, the God of Fortresses. His is the fire that no man can evade, and His is the rock no man can penetrate. A falling star shall be His coming, proceeded by Phobos; the gray sons of Mars. Ultimate and invincible, it is He who will conquer the world."
"The star… The gray sons… Then the signs are true", Donovan murmured, "The God of War is to conquer our world here and now."