Chapter 15; Hunter's Rebirth
Watching Legion attack his friend, Erin felt his whole body lock up. However, the second the blade was out of her body he was up and in motion. "Maylin!" he cried, bringing his rifle up and firing. His near shots drove Legion back and on the defensive, something his friends were more than willing to take advantage of. "You bitch; you're going to die for that!" Karen and Ludzik yelled, bringing their swords up and attacking as one. Since she still only had one blade formed, Legion could only block Karen's attack while Ludzik's blade severed her right leg. Soaring up and away, Legion just sent a command to it and caused it to disintegrate before reforming where it belonged. While the others fought back, Erin landed next to Maylin and propped her up.
"Maylin, can you hear me?" he asked, trying to wake her up, "Hey, answer me! Maylin, stay awake, damnit!" But despite his efforts, she was still out cold and bleeding badly. Bringing up his coms, he tried to call for a medic when he was bombarded with the chatter from the other base personnel. It was a mess of voices and explosions, and while he couldn't follow any one voice in particular the cries for help were evident. This is it he thought as he looked around, feeling fear worse than when the Academy had been attacked. This is how we die.
Drifting in a dark sea, Maylin felt a dull pain in her stomach. Looking down, she saw that her suit was stained red and suddenly remembered being stabbed. So, this is what it's like to die she thought, feeling strangely detached about it. It was almost like it had happened to a different person. After the initial pain, she just felt an incredible numbness where the blade had entered her. Looking around, she realized this was the same place she had been when 134 had taken control of her.
That's right, this is the same place he said, sounding sad for some reason, but maybe it would be better to have a proper setting.
Suddenly, she was lying down on the ground somewhere, staring up at a blue sky dotted with purple tinted clouds. Turning her head, she saw that the sun was setting in this area, and that it was a breathtaking combination of reds, oranges and yellows. She also saw the floor was like a big mirror, reflecting the sky perfectly and giving it a surreal appearance. When she felt a shadow fall across her, she looked up and saw 134 standing over her and looking annoyed. "Are you really this weak?" he asked, kneeling down and scrutinizing her.
"This isn't a scratch," she replied, clutching her stomach, "This… I'm going to die, 134. I don't… I don't want to…" She couldn't keep speaking after that, her fear and sadness overwhelming her. Sighing, he reached down and flicked her forehead, hard. "If you think I'm going to let my operator die from something like this," he said, looking determined, "Then you don't know me." Reaching his hand out, he asked, "Now, are you finally ready to fight?" Looking at his hand, she saw that it was glowing faintly, and she could sense power radiating from it. "Is this…my test?" she asked, looking up at him. "Yes," he replied, his gaze softening, "You possess everything you need already, except for the resolve to fight. Now, are you going to just lay there and die? Or are you going to stand up and fight?"
For a moment, she considered just giving up. She was growing tired, and it would be so much easier to just go to sleep and let all of these problems go away. But then she remembered her friends; they wouldn't have just stood by while she was harmed, they would be fighting with everything they have. She remembered her pseudo sister, Madoka, and Anna. Her parents, all of the people she held dear. I can't just leave them she thought, her look turning from despair to determination, I won't leave them. Reaching up, she clasped his hand, causing light to wash over them both. "With this, the transformation will be complete," 134 said, smiling slightly, "I hope you're prepared."
The second she made contact and gave consent, 134 dialed the suit's transmitter up to its maximum strength before sending out a burst signal, targeting the IISA communications tower. Coupling that signal with the Grand Hunter's Command Link, he sent out the link request to all IS on base before accessing the tower. Normally, he would have followed protocol and requested permission to send a transmission. But Maylin didn't have that kind of time; her rate of blood loss would result in death within minutes. And while that was an incredibly long time for an AI, it still didn't feel like enough for 134. He crashed through the firewalls around the communication systems, bombarding them with the programming equivalent of high explosives as he tore through their protocols. After seizing control, he boosted his signal and bounced it off every relay he could find in the area, searching for the one place he needed to connect with. Please, please be there he thought as he watched Maylin's vitals dropping.
One agonizing minute later, he had contact with the receivers back home. He tore through their lines, not caring that he was cutting off people's calls and internet connections. After finally making his way into the hotel system, he isolated the line down to Tabane's temporary lab. Projecting himself on one of the screens, he took control of a nearby webcam to see. He also felt incredible relief to see that Tabane was in fact at the lab. "Tabane, I need your help, and you need to do it right now," he said, startling her and Anna. She had brought the girl up to show her the progress on the new arm, but was surprised to see 134 contacting her. "134, how did you do that?" she asked, tilting her head, "You didn't hack their systems, did you?" "Damnit, woman, there's no time for that!" he snapped, causing them both to flinch, "I have two minutes, at best, before my operator bleeds out. Now, hook that new contraption of yours into the damned system."
Understanding immediately what he was asking, Tabane got up and quickly plugged her regenerator into the computers. It lit up almost instantly as 134 accessed it and began to scan its systems. "What do you mean?" Anna asked, walking up to the screen and looking on the verge of panic, "What happened? Where's Maylin?" "I don't have the time," 134 replied as he looked over the data quickly, "This is what I need to start, but now I need power." "There's a power plant on the city's outskirts," Tabane offered. "Not good enough. Stand by," he replied before shutting the screen off.
It was at this point that he boosted the Command Link, relaying the signal through the equipment and lines he had hijacked. He blanketed the entire city with the signal, hoping against all odds that there would still be enough IS for this plan to work. All the while, Maylin continued to slip further and further towards oblivion. I won't lose her he thought as he fed more power into the transmitters, I won't. Looking at her ring on the nearby table, Anna noticed that it was starting to shine. Picking it up, she slipped it on before noticing it was a Command Link request. She accepted it without a second thought, praying that Maylin was okay.
Elsewhere in the city, Houki and Ichika were sitting with their daughter and talking idly when their respective stand-by forms lit up. Even Madoka's bracelet on the table next to her bed began to glow with the same request. A few rooms down, Simon's watch began to glow, along with Cecilia's earring. Looking at them in confusion, he watched as Cecilia's AI projected herself over the sleeping woman, her expression asking for permission. They all accepted the request, confused as to what it meant, but all of them sensing it was important. And it wasn't just them. Almost a dozen IS users still in the city received the same request, most of them students. They were all confused as to why their IS were glowing, but they all got the feeling that it was somehow important.
Back on the IISA base, 134 watched as the energy came pouring in. Rather than creating a shared pool, he had modified the system to collect it all for this unit specifically. He now had the blueprints for a device that could save Maylin's life, but he needed to trigger a form shift in order to build it into the suit. The reserves had been climbing steadily ever since he had sent out the request, but once Simon, Cecilia and Houki's IS linked into the system he watched as the power jumped up incredibly fast. Bringing his attention back to his inner space, he looked down at Maylin as her eyes began to close. Reaching out, he shook her shoulder to bring her back. "Hey, no sleeping yet," he said, his voice softening, "We have work to do."
Putting more shots into Legion from range, Erin tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. They had all accepted the link request, but there was no shared pool like last time. In fact, it looked like Maylin's AI was using their IS as extra processors. There was a small screen on his display that was streaming code incredibly fast, so much so that he only caught bits and pieces. Meanwhile he, Joshka, Ludzik and Karen continued to struggle against Legion. But they had little success in doing any real damage, and their efforts had earned them some spectacular damage. Karen was missing an entire wing, effectively grounding her with the handful of missiles she still possessed. Ludzik had lost the left arm of his IS, just above where his own real hand sat in the gauntlet, which was now just clenched out in the open air. Joshka had gone through several different rifles and SMGs, depleting their ammo before tossing them aside to summon new ones, his sword long since destroyed. Erin had lost the tip of both his wings to near misses, and had lost his left foot to another shot.
And yet, in spite of all this effort, Legion still stood tall without so much as a scratch on its body. While it was impressive that these kids had lasted so long against her, Legion could tell that their strength was starting to run out. Not much longer she thought, and then the fun truly begins. She was going to enjoy their defeat, the look of despair on their faces as they realized their pitiful lives were coming to an end. But before she could start to enjoy her victory, she detected a power spike behind her. Turning around, she froze up at what she saw. In fact, they all did.
Maylin was picking herself back up, surrounded by a strange golden aura and the wound somehow closed. "H-how?" Erin asked, unable to really understand what he was seeing. This turned to concern when he saw the look in her eyes. It was as if they were burning with the same energy, her blue eyes suddenly turning into a brighter yellow. Bringing her right hand up, she clutched at her pendant while looking at Legion with cold furry. "You have crossed a line," she said, her voice somehow sounding stronger, "And now, you will pay for everything that you've done." At this, the aura suddenly became blinding and whipped up into a frenzy as Maylin's IS formed around her. And for a moment, it was the same Grand Hunter they had known, until it began to glow gold and change.
The legs lost most of their mass, becoming sleeker and more refined; the feet splitting down the middle to give it a three-pronged pad. The arms became slimmer, with her right hand forming a small sapphire on the back of its palm. The chest plate expanded, turning into more of a mesh as wires of metal crisscrossed around her torso before another sapphire formed, this one V-shaped and just below her throat. The clips she had in her hair also fused together, creating a ring around her head and forming a third gem, an emerald, just above the middle of her forehead. Even with all of this, it was her wings that underwent the most astounding shift. Expanding outward, they sprouted metallic feathers as they continued to grow, becoming like the wings of an angel.
As the change ended and she stood there in her new machine, Maylin felt the incredible power coursing through its systems. "This is not the Grand Hunter you so easily beat before," she said, bringing her left arm up, "This is the master of the hunt; Artemis the Grand. And it will be the end of you, machine." Clenching her hand into a fist, she loosed a wave of pure green energy that flowed out from the gaps in her fingers. It flowed out at right angles to her arm before forming together into a metal bow with an elaborate hand-guard, complete with an energy string connecting the two points. Taking flight, the same energy came streaming out of her wings and gave her an incredible speed boost. Maylin slammed into Legion before she could even react and carried them both through the nearby wall.
As they smashed through, she flipped up and over, letting the machine and the debris continue on out across the runway. Picking herself up, Legion tried to figure out just what the hell had happened. How is that the same girl she wondered, shifting its free hand into a gun as it stared at her. Before it could even try to shoot, Maylin brought her bow up and drew the string back. With a burst of energy from the crystal on her hand, she formed an arrow just like she had formed the bow. Taking a moment to aim her shot, Maylin let the arrow loose as she ducked to the side to avoid Legion's fire. She tried to shoot the arrow down, but as the bolt hit the arrow just passed through with no damage done before impacting her left shoulder. The explosion wasn't massive, but it was powerful enough to blow her arm off.
"Your people took an arm from one of my friends," Maylin said as she prepared another shot, "I would say consider us even, but we're not even close." "Don't get too full of yourself, little human!" Legion said as it worked to repair the damage, "You have no idea how much pain is coming your way now." As her arm reformed, she flapped her wings and sent out a flight of fang bits, confidant this would put the little upstart down. Taking a brief moment to examine them, Maylin kicked more power into her flight systems as she turned her bow on them. While the bits moved incredibly fast, Maylin just turned into a blur as she dodged them all. Her friends had flown up and out of the stadium by this point, and they just saw a green streak dodging a swarm of metal fangs. Her moves were quickly punctuated by explosions as she systematically shot the bits down. Drawing the bowstring back almost as fast as she was moving, Maylin kept up a constant stream of fire as she picked them off.
After the last one was dust she turned her attention back to Legion. Using her increased speed, she moved around the machine in various orbits as she opened fire. Legion was able to dodge some of the arrows, causing them to detonate on the pavement. Others, however, hit home and started to blow holes out of her. It didn't help that she was moving faster than Legion could track as she tried to return fire. The first three shots Legion was able to take, but after that Maylin's rate of attack started to outpace her regeneration. Finally coming to a stop in front of the machine, Maylin brought her bow up and charged up a special arrow. "Now, let's see how you handle this!" she cried out as she took aim.
Letting the arrow loose, it flew a good meter away from her before splitting into a dozen different shots. These separate shots spread out in a wide arc before converging on Legion, consuming her in a massive explosion and sending chips of concrete everywhere. "Are we sure that's still Maylin?" Karen asked, in awe of the power she demonstrated. "I saw the same thing you did," Erin replied, "And I'm still not entirely sure." "Who cares?" Ludzik asked, crossing his arms, "She's kicking that thing's ass. That's good enough for me."
"Stop hiding," Maylin said as she stared at the cloud, "I know that wasn't enough to destroy you." Sure enough, as the smoke cleared they saw a battered and damaged Legion. Her wings had been shredded and she was reduced to one arm. She also had multiple pits and dents across her torso and legs, but was still standing upright. "Are you ready to die now?" Maylin asked, bringing her bow back up. "You think you can destroy me?" Legion asked, sounding like it was on the edge of hysterics, "You don't even know what you're fighting against! I will kill you all!"
With a cry and a sudden burst of power, Legion shed a large layer of its Nano machines before sending them out in a shockwave. This served to rip up the pavement around her, as well as cause Maylin to hesitate since she hadn't expected this kind of attack. Recovering quickly, she prepared an arrow just as the wave impacted her, sending her flying back like she had just been hit by a bus. Taking advantage of this, Legion took flight and retreated with the rest of its Harpies moving to fly escort around her. Before the remaining defenders could try to intercept them, Legion deployed her cloak and disappeared from all scans.
Picking herself up, Maylin allowed her bow to destruct in a flash of light as she looked out at where Legion had gone. Somehow, she knew that it would be back. How can I be so sure of that she wondered as she finally took a look at her machine. "So, was this what you had in mind, 134?" she asked out loud as she marveled at it. A screen then popped up in front of her with the AI's image, and he looked pleased. "More or less," he replied, "Although I can't tell you how badly I didn't want it to be under those conditions. Still, my platform is now up to par with my core systems and you're still alive, so I'd call it a win. Welcome to a 4th generation IS, Maylin."
Pacing back and forth in their command center, Fairy was trying very hard to suppress her anger at the recent turn of events. She had just received a situation update from Legion, and it had destroyed her previously optimistic mood. So far, their plans had been running as smooth as industrial lubricant. But now they had a problem; an unforeseen transformation and the near destruction of one of their command units. The fact that Maylin Felix had advanced to a 4th gen pilot was disturbing, but the power she had demonstrated was more worrying.
As far as they were able to determine, her IS was unable to make such a shift. She knew this because they had accessed the Academy's computer system almost ten years prior to their attack. She had used that access to keep tabs on the development of most public IS technology, since it usually found its way to that place in one form or another. She had seen the schematics for her Grand Hunter, and while it was a remarkable piece of engineering it hadn't possessed much of a threat to merit special attention. Until now she amended as she thought it over again.
She should have seen the signs earlier. The fact that the girl had turned her battle with Weaver around so quickly was proof enough that she wasn't just some average pilot. In fact, the actions of her entire little group during that battle had left Fairy with a bad feeling. She had dismissed it, however, assuming that it had been the result of a small strike force battling against a close-knit group. This was something that Fairy had taken strides to counter in her planning; knowing full well how destructive such groups could be when properly motivated. It was the reason she had smashed the IS Academy in her opening gambit, why she had started targeting IISA facilities and personnel, and why she had placed all of Simon's friends under surveillance five years ago.
She had already dealt with Laura Bodewig, leaving her crippled and effectively out of the game for the next few weeks. Charlotte Dunios and Lingyin Huang, however, had proven to be more difficult targets. Charlotte had pretty much dropped out of the IS competition circuit completely, spending her time building up her company and making sure the next generations would have the best equipment possible. This had made her relatively had to isolate, and had also had the side-effect of leaving an imposing arsenal at her fingertips at all times of the day. While Lingyin, on the other hand, had retained her position as China's Representative, she had grown into a very skilled pilot over the past few years. She had even collected a small group of followers who also happened to be IS pilots.
Both women would require dedicated strike teams, as well as two or three of their command units to put them down effectively. And while Fairy would have loved to deal with them now, she couldn't spare those kinds of resources at the moment. As for the last of her targets, she had hoped that they would have been dealt with during the Academy attack; two birds with one stone. She had been irritated to learn that their only success had been with Cecilia, and even then the infernal bitch was still alive, albeit on life support.
While this had taken one of the few 4th gen IS out of play, it was only to be replaced with one that was arguably more dangerous. Somehow, whenever that girl is involved in a fight her comrades get better Fairy thought, trying to organize her data on Maylin, she must be using some kind of advanced support system. But how did that result in a shift? It remained a sore point with her that even with almost 20 years of private research and compartmentalized contracts with companies, she was still no closer to discovering how to achieve a shift into a 4th generation model. She had overseen the creation of some of the most powerful platforms that had ever been seen, a fact that had been proven when they laid waste to the IS Academy. But, they were still limited to 3rd generation frames, and this limitation was going to become a serious issue in the future.
"Fairy, what should we do?" Saber asked as she watched her leader pacing. She could imagine the frustration she felt over Legion's defeat. She had planned and obsessed over this for so long, only to have her plans threatened. And by the child of the woman that had nearly destroyed her; that had to be infuriating in its own right. Turning to Saber, Fairy weighed her options. To be honest, they had few choices at the moment. They could either focus their attention on these individuals and eliminate them now at the risk of showing their hand to the entire world, or they could proceed as planned. With any luck they would eliminate those same individuals in the process, but it wasn't a guarantee.
"We continue as planned," she said, deciding to stay the course, "Alert Wraith and Reaver to take the train to the station and prepare their forces." "As you command," Saber replied as she accessed their long-range communications. While she left the particulars to Saber, Fairy found herself replaying an old conversation between them. They had all been a little apprehensive about the proposed change to Legion's frame. Allowing her to be converted into one large mass of Nano machines with an IS core in the middle had been something of a gamble in the beginning. They had no way of knowing if their minds could cope with that state of being, and yet Legion had adapted to it well and had been able to move and interact like the others within a few days.
The problems had emerged when she had begun modifying her self-repair programs. She had discovered that she was able to assimilate nearby material to make herself denser and harder to damage, and this had led to several experiments with various materials. After a while, she had attempted to assimilate one of their Harpy units, including its imitation core. This had resulted in irreparable damage to it, as well as a forced partial-shutdown of her systems. Fairy had been very concerned with what this could mean if Legion could assimilate fake cores and had ordered safe guards be put in place around those programs to prevent such use in the future.
Saber, however, had been less than pleased with this decision. "She represents an incredible opportunity," she had argued, "Legion has the potential to become the strongest weapon in our arsenal, and you want to tie her hands?" "I have no problems with her increasing her power," Fairy had replied, "I do have a problem with her using our own units to do so." "Those machines are just expendable hardware," Saber retorted, snorting, "What's a few of them compared to the kind of power it could give us in the long run?" "She's free to devour our enemy's machines till her heart's content," Fairy had said, "But I will not allow her to feed off us, and that's final." She had left at that point, ending the debate there. Her decision had been made, and her command units knew not to challenge her.
A new IS is born, and with it Maylin takes her first step into unfamiliar terrain. What kinds of plans does Fairy have in store for her and her friends? What about the fate of Simon's other friends around the world? Till the next chapter.
Well, I hope this made up for what happened previously. Decided to go old-school with her weapon since we see so many big guns and swords in this kind of universe already. Look forward to Artemis' other capabilities, because I promise you haven't seen anything yet.
