Rebirth of the Guardians – the long awaited sequel to chapter – 11
Chapter 12 – one man can change the course of history
-Begin-
Tom glanced over the 82 Zoids that he had been forced to rip to shreds. Tom sighed, now he was alone nowhere near full power and possibly with half of the Zenebas invasion force after his head. Things were not good.
First off he was alone; true he was nearly immortal between his regeneration and offensive power but near immortals was not immortal by any means. Second off he had just set up a massive beacon for anyone to find with ease. Well technically he had set up beacons really when had produced the rocket launchers and begun aiming for missile pods but there were obvious signs of conflict and conflict with a skilled opponent or group of opponents. That would draw attention to him, perhaps not directly him yet but it would drift his way and he would attract it further. And for that matter more of it. This would, or rather could, bring something that he couldn't face. What that could be was beyond him. But if it came there was very little the whole of the planet could do to defeat it. Well maybe not that much but whatever it was that could beat him would be a tough sonofabitch.
If it worked for Zenebas everyone was screwed. If it worked for the guardian force Tom had a better opinion, but everyone had the legitimate possibility of being screwed. If it worked for those other guys that no-one really cared about to the east, well in that case they had the best chance of all cause as of now the sucked. But in the end odds are everyone would be screwed. Unless Tom could get stronger, he was the world's strongest person. Not in terms of brute force necessarily, though he probably was.
Either that or he was the world's most arrogant person. Actually he could be both, even acknowledging that fact made him feel more arrogant. But he still could be stronger no matter what. And additional strength would make him more arrogant so he definitely could take the title of most arrogant.
Are you drunk? Kokuhso asked. Since when the hell were you arrogant? You may not be the most humble person I know now or ever by any means but most arrogant? I think the Zenebas overlord or whatever he calls himself has you beat.
"Really now?"
As far as I can guess yes.
"Then I better beat him less arrogant than me."
That was arrogance, if you truly want the world title you're on your way. Kokuhso said with a laugh. Tom grinned to, even though he was alone and his team was too things would be fine, he was a miracle worker like it or not.
"Come on they'll need my help."
Who?
"Everyone I can help."
I see. Well make some wings and get flying.
The red wings returned, they drew much less attention and offered much more control. "Roger that." Then with a good run and two jumps he was in the air off to find his squad.
Meanwhile the team was all looking at the door they had found. Large made of metal and apart from the shots delivered in fear that it was an enemy it seemed in amazing condition. "So where do you think the door leads?" Reddy asked as he tapped it and rapped it trying to figure out something.
"Hell if I know." Fred muttered as he leant against the wall. "All I do know is there's one way to find out and that's to go inside."
"How do we do that?" Several people asked.
"With what we have right now? I would guess blow the door up."
"Ah the thing is probably six feet thick or something and you say blow it up." Reddy muttered.
"What do you think we do, just sit here and wait for them to open up? When and if the door opens up we'll be lucky not to have an army at our back front or both!" Fred had been leaning towards reddy and shouting but when he was done he leant back. "The way I see it we could hack it if Tom or Relena were here but with just us men it would be several times easier to blow it up."
"But what about the enemy?" John muttered from the command wolf leg. "What if they hear the gunshots or something and come to investigate?"
"Well I figure with what Relena did yesterday and those other explosions we heard too the enemy won't really care about us cause their dead." Fred began to walk to the command wolf.
"Hey why you heading this way?" John said getting in Fred's way.
"Because storm sworders are ill suited for ground combat, including barrages. You have no idea how much of a bitch it was to land here. So I'm gonna use the command wolf to blow a hole in the door."
"Hell no, back off bub we haven't decided yet."
"What is there left to decide?"
"We can just leave."
"LEAVE!! All this time here and you want to leave!"
" 'All this time here'? You mean this past hour, you have no sense of time and we don't have the forces to deal with what's on the other side of the door in all probability. You're saying when the door opens for us we'll be crushed by the enemy force. If we blow it up the same will be true. Hell we would have a better chance if we waited in ambush!"
"Now listen hear young lad!"
"No you listen; you're crazy if you think you'll pilot this command wolf! You're crazy if you think we want to fight anymore until we're more certain of what's on the other side! And most importantly you're crazy if you think what's on the other side of that door is worth what risks we are taking simply by being here!" John had made himself a barrier between Fred and the command wolf.
Fred pulled out his gun, "Look I am the better soldier here and I get to decide what we're doing!"
Then a light came from above the command wolf it blinded everyone but john. "What did you say." Came a very deep and scary voice.
"Who, who the hell are you!?" Fred said ready to point the gun at the new arrival. Then the gun was shot out of his hand and impaled on a grand looking sword on the wall behind Fred.
"I may be your worst nightmare depending on if you keep that retarded super soldier attitude." The light disappeared as the body landed on top of the command wolf. Tom was revealed to be the speaker with a moment to let the blindness to wear off. "What the hell is going on here, I leave you alone for just one day and you're pointing guns at each other. Is mutiny something that simple to do over a god damn door!!" Tom was not happy. "If you want to see what's behind the door you should have waited for me." He mumbled as he took a kneeling pose raised his arms as if he was holding some sort of rocket launched like weapon and had one appear in white flash. The gun was several times larger than the standard one for the day and it had six massive barrels. After a moment of staring at the door Tom began to talk. "Looks like John was in the right. Behind the door is way, way too many bad guys for you to have handled. But with me here it's less than even."
"How tough are you?" John asked wondering if Tom was on drugs.
"I took out most of the force pursuing you guys earlier. That was about 82 Zoids."
"What!" No-one could believe it.
"Yeah being insane with a murderous rage can do that to ya."
After a moment john looked up to Tom, "You said 'ya' and acted happy? Do you know about Relena? Are you ok?"
Tom nodded, "All of it yes. I know that Relena is dead, hence the murderous rage thing." Tom sighed. "But I've realized just not living attached to anything is dumb. So how do you guys plan to go ahead with things in relation to the door and all?"
"But what about Relena!? You said you cared!" John shouted up at Tom.
"Becoming attached was a realization I made with her loss. And with every swing of my sword I cut all non-vital ties to the dead."
"You wha?"
"Don't worry I know what I'm saying. Just trust me about it. But again the door, me with a rapid fire multi shot rocket launcher. I think the choice is obvious."
"You got a plan?" Fred asked.
"I never was the best strategist, so I think overwhelming firepower will do. Get in your Zoids I can't deal with 80 Zoids with a strategy of overwhelming firepower on my own." And that was how the door was ripped from its very hinges by massive explosions.
Inside the various mix of well over 200 AI Zoids looked at the booms at the door, several marched over to it and began the opening sequence. The door then exploded. Quickly Reddy and Fred charged in ripping apart several on their own. Then Perrone in a blade liger and john in the command wolf charged into the mess. Then came the people without Zoids. (Thought I forgot about everyone else did you? Well to answer that question I did. But they're not dead) Devon, Oliver and Bekah were on the edge of the doorway shooting whenever an ally wouldn't get hit. Tom was in the midst of it all being the superhuman he was. With a gun in one hand shooting off silver orbs and a sword in another doing things that Zoids couldn't even do to each other. Like cutting them clean in half in a heartbeat. Whenever someone tried to shoot him he evaded with a giant leap in the air onto a zoid back. Sometimes the wings came out and he was flying either with small red wings or white energy ones.
After some time the last zoid was down. Breathing heavily Tom collapsed looking at an intricately carved wall that had a few of the great many scanning devices that had been on it when they had entered left. Tom lay on the ground his head leaning at a 90 degree angle to his neck hurting him a bit much. Straightening his neck out he got up. "Now you never had my help to the level you saw got it guys?" They all nodded. Then Tom began to observe the rest of the massive cavern they were in. It was as large as three or four whalekings lined up end to end, and just as wide as them placed side to side. At the end Tom was closest to and the door was too there was a purple glowing pool. "The hell is that." Tom muttered. As he got up and walked to it he could feel the pool pushing him away. "Crap zoidian thing correct?"
Both kokuhso and john, who had just come over to him, both answered Yes/"Yes."
"Joy." Tom mumbled as he forced himself away. "Well since varied circumstances keep me from getting anywhere near that thing I suggest someone else take a look at that massive pool or no-one does at all."
"Massive, Tom that's almost nothing as far as birthing pools go." Tom looked at it prepared to call John blind but then saw it was rather small. It seemed to stick out a relatively short distance as far as birthing pools were known to go. That was to say it was as wide as two Olympic sized swimming pools and as long as five but hey that was considered small. John went to the edge, "May be narrow but just as bottomless as they say. Too bad you can't get to close for I guess the spirit thing that said you would keep away from zoidian stuff forever more or less. Right?"
Tom nodded somewhat confused, "More or less." What he was confused about was that that, whatever it was had a conscious mind and, and well it had grabbed for his groin and the contract. The first one was rather odd. Actually extremely odd. It rather seemed like what Relena would have tried to have done in that situation honestly. That REALLY scared him shitless.
Tom looked around the base. "Wonder who set this all up?" He said as he looked at advanced ZI technology. "It's good for where they are." He tried hacking one on impulse. There was nothing to hack. "But it's all blank. Either the owners left or they have yet to show up." Not wasting time to ponder Tom got over to everyone else.
Three days later after exploring the entire underground facility a white glow appeared over the zoid birthing pool. Tom felt it when it began to show up. His energy detecting technology confirmed it, his gut attacked it. "Lisa. Shit." And then two blaster guns fired of silvery spheres of death.
-End-
Actually the base was supposed to serve another plot point, give Tom the shadow fox. But then I realized, 'this guy took out over 100 Zoids without one himself. Why the hell would he demean his ability now with something like the shadow fox?' so instead I had Tom's arch nemesis, Lisa, appear. Don't worry he will get the shadow fox at some point.
And about her last name, no I don't know where it came from.