Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own AC, only the characters.
XDarkmasterX: I came up with the AC from looking at a blend between Jehuty from ZOE and Eva01 from Evangelion. If you read Scars from the Past, I did describe it as a demonic machine.
Everyone who has read: Thank you for reviewing my past and present work. I will continue my work to my best and I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Chapter 3: The First Phantasm
Wearing his standard uniform, a navy long sleeved jacket that was painted white on the inside half. It suited well with the man's medium pure white hair. Scion walked down the hallway with his hands in his jacket pockets. He was followed by the blonde Beatrice, who wore an unbuttoned blue checker dress shirt and a green shirt on the inside. She was constantly hooking the right side of her hair behind her ear. Scion was strolling down the hallway slowly. Obviously, Beatrice wasn't too pleased at the pace they were walking at. "Can't you walk any faster you slow poke!" It was quite clear from the frustrated tone in her voice that she knew there would be no backlash from her remark.
"Relax," he raised his right hand from his pocket, gently into the air without so much as turning to look at his follower. "Theres no need to hurry. We've got all day!"
"WE don't have all day! We were sent here by HQ to assist in the assault forces! Remember!" She fumed, poking furiously at the small black watch on her right arm. Scion only chuckled at her reaction.
"We need to report to Vega first though..." He swiveled around and turned to Beatrice, "Alright, why don't you go get something to eat or drink? We'll meet tomorrow at the main lobby. I've got some private stuff to report to Vega."
"Tomorrow! Why not now!" She snapped.
"I'm a bit tired. I'm sure you are as well. Let's get some good rest, then we'll see what we can do tomorrow okay?" The superior smiled gently. Beatrice was not quite happy with his response, but had no choice but to oblige. First, he was her superior and tutor, second, he shoved her in the opposite direction. After seeing Beatrice's figure vanish through the long corridors, Scion turned around, proceeding down the hall as he had before. Now...for the matter at hand.
Jayden jumped down from the mech's cockpit, the machine was in a kneeling position. It's white armor glimmered through the sunlight that struck through the opened garage doors. The demonic form seemed asleep, the erie blue light no longer pulsating on its armor or in it's eyes. Beside it, knelt another figure, one of light purple color and a thin-slender build. Jen made her way towards Jayden, who was standing in front of the white entity now. Her brown hair, which flowed down towards the back of her waist and her thin bangs had a messy style to them. It made her all the more beautiful though. "Jayden! I've called the administrator! She'll be here any moment!" Jen yelled with glee, a tinge of excitement and the same glint in her eye before they had left for the mission.
"Y-you called the administrator! Why!" Jayden yelled, fortunately, the garge was empty at the moment. Most of the Ravens had left today at the request of Sphere for a large assault. Nothing of the sort had been ever requested by Sphere at all. It was to be the ultimate assault on the Delphi Dock that would crush Zeal once and for all. Delphi Dock was the main storage base for Zeal's ammunition and supplies for their military, if it was destroyed, then Zeal would have been badly crippled to a state of no return. It would request a majority of Ravens for the assault, surely the dock would be heavily fortified, a main reason why Jayden didn't take it.
"Why? What's wrong? The administrator was the one who requested this mission so she should be informed as-," Jen was cut off from Jayden's fuming. He was a bit enraged, and afraid at the same time.
"You don't what she'll do if she finds out! She'll absolutely-!" Jayden was also cut off, ironically, by the one voice he didn't want to hear.
"Jayden Cypher! What in gods name are you doing here!" A women wearing a long sleeved black coat approached them. Her black hair and black coat waved through the air as she walked. Her long white skirt would flow with the movement of her legs as she took each step closer. Her pale skin and light blue eyes would match her clothes and hair. Usually, she would wear a kind and gentle face. However, at the moment, her face was nothing of the sort. It was more like the face of someone angry enough to slap someone. "You were supposed to be at the-!" The woman's eyes widened as she layed her eyes on the large object that knelt right next to Jayden. She covered her mouth with her hands, her face went even more pale, if that was possible. It was as if her fury had suddenly vanished, replaced by eyes that seemed like they were about to burst into tears. Jayden took notice of the distress of the newcomer, immediately showing his concern with a simple question.
"What's wrong? D-did I do something wrong?" He was a bit worried, and afraid by the woman's reaction.
"This machine...where did you get it, Jayden!" She was still covering her mouth, her eyes glistening in the sunlight.
"I got it at a Zeal base near-" He was cut off as the woman pushed him aside, making her way towards the machine's opened cockpit. Inside, the cockpit, the woman punched a couple buttons, as if knowing where everything was.
Could it be! Please! Please! Let it be! The hopeful words ran in her mind as words came flashing across the display screens.
"IDENTIFICATION: #5. NAME IDENTIFICATION: NEO OMEN. PRODUCTION DATE: RECENTLY DEVELOPED IN 0017 AC(After Crisis). PRODUCTION TYPE: EXPERIMENTAL COPY OF ORIGINAL."
Oh...it's not...but...if this is the copy...then where is the original? Someone must have dug up the original Omen and extracted data from it...or...could it be something else? The woman's face was dark, the shadows were only emphisized by the lights coming from the display screens.
"Hahaha! Zeal doesn't know when to quite do they?" A pilot of a heavyweight AC with its dual machineguns blazing the warehouses surrounding it, shouted through the communications.
"Their persistent...I'll give em that..." Another pilot replied, pulling out its ELF3 blade from a dead mechanical corpse. The field was laydon with mechanical corpses...like a cyber cemetary. Many MTs, with their laser barrel gun arms were taking slow steps backwards while firing stray shots at anything that moved.
"W-we can't hold them off any longer! They're crushing us!" One of the MT pilots screamed.
"Heh, I'll give you something to hold off!" With its ELF3, the lighter-weight AC prepared to slice one of the MTs in half.
"Gaaaaahhhh!" The MT pilot yelled, covering his head with his arms, expecting a deathly explosion. It never came, all he could hear was clanking of metal. Looking up to see what had happened, the pilot could see a horrid image before him. An entity unlike any he had ever seen before, stood before him with it's back turned to him. It held two objects in its clawed hands. In its right hand was the head unit of the AC that was about to attack him, wires still stuck out of the head like entrails coming out of ordinary human flesh. In it's left hand, it held the headless mechanical body of the AC by the collar. The black machine that saved his life, was pitch black and had glaring red eyes, making it seem as though it were a shadow itself. Crevices that were engraved perfectly into the armor emitted the same red energy. "R-reinforcements!" The MT pilot was a bit shaken up, not knowing whether to be thankful his life was saved, or afraid of something that resembled so much of the demon itself.
"Get out of here...I'll handle these impudent punks..." An icy, malicious voice ordered. The message had been sent to all MTs, as they retreated to a safe distance. Alert of it's fallen comrade, the heavyweight machinegunner turned towards the new machine.
"Damn you! You'll pay for that!" Raising both its machineguns, the AC let off a full volley of raining hell. The black demon stepped to the side, smoothly and in a humane manner. It suddenly boosted forward, the flickering white light pushing it forwards. The heavyweight saw this and immediately adjusted its aim to counter the machine's movement. Unfortunately, the black mech boost strafed to the right with high speed. It lunged forth with it's right hand in a claw-like position and grabbed the startled AC by its neck, lifting it off of the ground with ease.
"I shall show you what the darkness truly is!" A malcious voice said, a slight joy was in the voice. The AC pilot on the otherhand, was filled with fear as he looked at the demonic machine in front him, that immobilized his AC with such ease. Without so much as an ounce of mercy, the machine plunged its right hand into the core of the AC. The hand punctured a hole straight through the AC and protruded from the back of the AC. It suddenly ripped out its left hand from the core of its prey, letting the dead corpse engulf itself in brilliant flames as it fell to the ground. The triumphant machine was suddenly alerted by a stomping approaching nearby. It turned its demonic head to the sound. A midweight AC, equipped with the Python railgun and the LB4 stood behind the demon-like monster. Its yellow laser eye staring down the monstrosity.
"That's not very nice to be picking on weak Ravens. Why don't you pick on someone with you're own skill level instead?" A calm voice spoke through the communications.
"And who might you be?" The pilot of the black machine asked curiously.
"Heh, the names Black Jack. But everybody calls me BJ." The pilot with his short black hair and bangs that ran down to his hazel eyes smirked.
"Well, a courageous one are we? And I sense something different about you than the others...perhaps this will be worth my while after all..." The black AC took one step to turn around to it's new opponent, "I am known as Scion to all. Come, you can be my new toy for the moment." Scion grinned inside his cockpit. His emerald eyes were glowing even more strange than they were. Excitement was filling him of this new opponent. The AC suddenly extended its long LB4 blade through the air. A smooth motion from its hand and the black entity's elbow blade had switched forth. The ghostly blue blade emitted a strange blue glow. Both giants parried eachother's blades with one another. After letting off from crossing blades, the black machine lunged forth with its blade pointed towards the grey AC. "Now die! Let the chaos engulf you in it's tight grip!" The machine jabbed its right arm forward while the grey AC flew upwards, charging it's Python rail gun and fly backwards. A large blue beam was suddenly speeding forward from the tip of the gun. With ease, the black demon stepped to the left and boosted towards the grey AC with it's blade in a jabbing stance. The black machine tried once again to plunge it's blade into the grey AC's core but failed as the AC swiftly boosted downwards while letting forth a cluster of missiles from it's HYDRA back unit. Tactics like those could only be commenced by some of the most elite of Ravens, it was clear to Scion that this was no ordinary low-life Raven. He immediately put his machine's thrusters into reverse and dodged the incoming missiles in midair, letting the missiles fly upwards just in front of his machine. Streaks criss-crossing eachother could be seen afterwards. As the demonic machine fell downwards it brought it's right hand upwards with it's palm facing the ground. BJ had just recovered from the drop and had not noticed the black machine falling above him. The machine fell down, surprising even BJ, and took the head of the grey ACs head unit into its claw armored hands, crushing the head slowly with its hand. Grabbing hold of the ACs core unit with its remaining hand, it threw the AC into the air and sent it flying backwards. The grey AC crashed into the ground, already littered with metal scraps and all. BJ attempted to stand his AC up but the fall to the ground had severly damaged the leg joints. The black machine that slowly walked towards the fallen AC, was halted in its tracks by another AC, a hover AC wielding a silky blue MOONLIGHT blade. "BJ! Get going now! Get outta here! Tell the administrator that Zeal has sent the Phantasms! Now!"
Hesitating for a moment, BJ realized there was no other way. "Alright! Hold out until I get back!" With that, the grey AC was lifted off of the ground with its brilliant boosters and sped in the opposite direction. The hovering AC had been distracted and let it's guard down as the black demon quickly snatched the AC by its neck. Following the grab, it immediately jabbed the ACs neck with its left hand and jabbed it again with its right hand. The demonic machine quickly threw the helpless AC to the side and placed its foot on the core of the AC lightly while pointing its blade downward at the AC.
"Let darkness take you and consume you in its deepest pits of hell!" The machine born of darkness slashed its blade in the air above the hover type AC. However, the blade was clearly nowhere near the ACs core or hull, and yet, the AC itself had exploded. A hellish blast engulfed both forms.