A/N: Right we're close to the end, so lets keep goin.
Discloser: I own nothin
Chapter 18: Doors
"Kian are the cannons set up?" Cliff asked through his comm. line.
"Yes they are all set-up, we will fire on your mark," Kian replied.
"Alright, I am leaving the rest of the troops under your command. Remember, try to draw as many of them out as possible."
"Gotcha Cliff-mesiter."
"Fayt, you ready?" Cliff asked.
"You bet."
"Alright guys strap in," Cliff said to everyone in the tank with him. They had clambered into a new tank. "Kian fire now!"
"Copy, artillery, began bombardment!" The heavy artillery had been positioned in front of the main gate of the Federal Square. The numerous bursts of blue light collided with the primary forcefield. But the second bombardment brought the shield down. Then the third round leveled the gate.
Suddenly a quick burst of blue was seen dashing into the complex, it was Fayt. His eyes were glowing furiously blue, he looked like the incarnation of the devil. He possessed a blue aura about him and he had his two swords burning blue. He dashed toward the bevy of tanks, cannons, and soldiers and began to tear them apart.
He slashed wildly around him, while remaining unscathed. He deflected bursts of energy by slapping them away with his blades. Soldiers couldn't even touch him because anything within 5 feet of him was instantly cut up or disintegrated.
Soon the rest of their forces joined up and it was the bloodiest land struggle the SD age had ever seen. Enemy tanks collided with the allied forces'. They savagely attempted to outmaneuver and outshoot each other.
Then soldiers on the battlefield were at each other's throats. Their clips didn't last long and soon reverted to clubbing each other with their guns. Stray blasts or missiles caught the groups of unsuspecting soldiers. The piles of dead soldiers on the battlefield began to pile up.
"Damn it, this fight is bloody!" Cliff yelled, as he tried to lose a tank on his trail.
"Cliff we have to find Fayt, he is still probably surrounded!" Nel yelled.
"I know, I know! But this battle is crazy. Wait there he is! Up ahead!"
"Alright, Cliff stay in here and support us, we're gonna get him out of there!" Nel yelled. Nel, Albel, Peppita, Ophelia, Adray, Kakashi's people, and the Expellians scrambled out and carefully ran over to Fayt.
Albel snarled like a demon and ran through the crowd of enemies viciously slashing from left to right. Nel joined him and they were soon back to back, spectacularly supporting each other.
Albel rushed forward taking out the soldiers. He jostled from left to right, constantly moving, if he stopped he would surely be shot. He dropped his left shoulder, and the enemy flinched long enough for Albel to stab him through the shoulder. He leapt at the next soldier in front of him and landed on top of his chest. Albel viciously tore through the soldier's chestplate with his claw.
Nel supported him by taking out the soldiers that tried to him in the back. She threw her daggers at a soldier to stop him from shooting. Then he jumped on his back, took out the daggers and snapped his neck. She jumped to the floor and began to sweep the next soldier. Adray soon joined the fray and tackled everything in sight
The Konoha ninjas had produced shadow clones and were keeping the enemies at bay. "Albel we gotta get to Fayt!" Nel yelled.
Just as she said that 5 soldiers in front of her were disintegrated by blue energy, she saw Fayt running towards them "Guys! Where is Cliff with the tank, we gotta move towards the objective!" he yelled.
Right on cue the huge golden tank came thundering from their left and ran over the soldiers in its way. The side door opened up and they clambered onto the tank quickly.
"Thanks Cliff," Fayt gasped as he lay on the floor, attempting to catch his breath.
"No sweat."
"Man this fight is crazy. The only real way to win is to end this once and for all, isn't it?" Fayt asked.
"Yeah, look don't worry too much, we know that you are up for it. Alright girls and boys we are 5 km from our objectives," Cliff said.
"Guys," Fayt said, standing up. "So I know that this is probably the worst time for an inspirational speech, as we are smack dab in the middle of fighting. But, I'm happy that we are all here together now. You guys are real friends that people rarely have an opportunity to find so yeah. Whatever happens we are in this one together."
"Aww shit," Cliff moaned.
"What's-," Fayt wasn't able to finish his sentence. Once again a stray blast had caught their tank.
"Madam, three fighters on our tail," Dack's mechanical voice chimed inside the cockpit of Mirage's ship. Mirage was sweating beads, just attempting to evade the fighters, despite the very cool temperature on the inside of her ship.
"I know!!!" she yelled back furiously. She pulled into a barrel roll, dove left, right up, and down; but she just could not lose them. Marietta had pulled up behind her and cleared the fighters off her tail.
"Thanks Marietta, alright let's take that battleship down. Alright Steeg are you good?"
"Yes m'am."
"Alright increase speed. We're taking down the big one in the middle. Punch it!" At that moment they all rolled and begun their first attack run on the battleship's defense array.
"Madam, there are two cannon batteries located on either side of the battleship. If you destroy them, the fire from the auto-turrets will decrease significantly."
"Great. Steeg, Marietta, target the cannon on the one side, I'll take out the other one."
"Roger."
"Guys remember, don't get too close to the ship's surface cannons, they will tear you guys apart. If you have to, make a second pass."
"Copy Mirage, en-route to target now," Marietta replied. They broke formation and Mirage accelerated her ship's speed.
"Dack, increase speed so I may be able to avoid most of the blasts, while allocating for my reflexes to take the shot."
"Calibrating," the onboard computer automatically replied.
Mirage noticed a significant burst of speed, but it didn't hinder her ability to pilot the craft. She flew upwards, then once she had attained a particular height she turned the ship around. Her ship began to speed towards the cannon battery.
"Madam, my calculations indicate that if you use the steelhead missile at this velocity, it will be able to cause a great enough impact to destroy the battery in one pass."
"Alright Dack, I'll trust you, prepare the projectile."
"Ready at your desire," he replied.
"Right," she said. She inhaled and took in a deep breath. She steadied the controls of her ship and her eyes narrowed on the crosshairs of her ship and the objective. She armed the missile and fired it, exhaling as she did so.
"M'am, pull up, pull up!"
Mirage had become disoriented for a second, and then pulled up at the last second. She felt her ship lightly graze the side of the battleship.
"Damn, that's gonna leave a mark," Mirage said she looked over her shoulder quickly and watched the missile collide into the battery. There was an extremely loud 'boom' and a huge black hole of slag replaced the cannon battery.
"Steeg, Marietta, how are you guys doing there?"
"Objective completed, re-forming on your wing Mirage," Steeg tersely replied.
"Dack, quickly analyze the ship's structure, determine any underlying weaknesses in the overall structure of the ship."
"Yes, there is a structural weakness. In this general area, the infrastructure of the ship seems very weak. It may have been just lax manufacturing or there was a spillage of chemicals, but the fact is: a good bombardment of the area will cause a cave in, in that section of the ship."
"Gotcha. Hey Steeg, you ship is equipped with heavy bombs right?"
"Yes."
"Alright, I am going to send you the coordinates of an area which Dack has designated as a weak spot. I want you to bomb it."
"Wait madam, one cautionary piece of advice. The blast must come from a relatively low altitude, in respect to the battleship. This puts the flier in harm of being caught by the aftershock or subject to fire from the surface cannons."
"Alright, did you hear that Steeg? You're going to have to go in low but quick. We'll cover your ass, but you need to be careful. Are you still up for it?"
"No problem boss!" Steeg increased the speed he had been flying at and sped towards the vulnerable area. He expertly destroyed an approaching fighter. Then he deftly dodged an oncoming blast. "I've reached the point, releasing bombs now!" Steeg's ship unloaded all its proton bombs and they looked like eggs falling from a crate.
There was a huge blast and at first it seemed there was no effect. But as the blast cleared there was a big, satisfying hole smack dab in the middle of the ship's hull. The ship soon snapped into two as air was sucked out into the abyss of space and the ship could not hold its integrity.
However, the aftershock HAD caught Steeg's stabilizer. "Steeg are you ok? I think your ship's stabilizer was knocked out," Mirage said, concerned.
"No I'm fine."
"Steeg, return to the Diplo, that is an order."
"No, I'm fine! I'm not going to leave you guys now, you would be a man down in a three man squad."
"Fine, but if you become a burden to the squad, I'm going to order you to get back to the ship and then punish you with bathroom duty."
"Oh snap, bathroom duty!" he laughed over the line.
"Mirage! This is Captain Gordon! My ship's engine's have just been clipped by the Planetary Defense Gun!"
"Oh my god, alright Gordon evacuate your ship, you can't do anymore good. Also all fighter squadrons converge on Captain Gordon's ship to cover the fleeing escape pods."
"Dack, get me an open line with ground troop command."
"What do you want Mirage?" Kian yelled. The noise in the background was terrifying. There were massive explosions, blaster bolts, and men's screams and shouting.
"Where the heck is Fayt and his attack team? Tell them to take down that damn Planetary Defense Gun, it's tearing us apart here."
"Look we aren't having fun down here either! And I just saw Fayt's tank get attacked by a blast from one of them 10 Wise Men, we are trying to make contact with them ASAP, I'll call you back. Oh shit! I want suppressive fire on that god damn-," the line was soon cut ad Mirage focused back on the task at hand.
The Wise Man was slashing around like a wild man, he had a double sided spear that caused a heck of a lot of damage. He twirled it all around him like an over-sized baton. His style was crazy! He jumped from spot to spot, just stampeding through the enemies.
"Suppressive fire, Suppressive fire!" Kian yelled as he shot at the demonic foe , in vain.
The Wise Man leapt at Kian but the spear was stopped by something. Kian opened his eyes and saw Fayt in front of him, sword brandished, and stopping him from killing him.
"You okay Kian?" Fayt asked.
"Yeah, thanks pal," he replied whimpering. Fayt was able to overpower his enemy and pushed him off. He was about to pull out his other sword but Kakashi put a hand to the hilt of his sword.
"We'll take care of this, we haven't been able to assist you yet. And we were sent by the Hokage to help," Kakashi said coolly.
"Are, are you sure?" Fayt asked.
"Yes, go!" Fayt nodded and he gestured for them all to get going.
"You must think that you are pretty tough, if you think you can handle me," the Wise Man chuckled.
"We'll see. You must think you are tough as well, to question my strength in such an aggressive manner."
"We will see indeed, may I get your name my friend, I think it is necessary to get the name of the person I will be killing today."
"Why is that?"
"So then I will be able to carve your gravestone," he replied sweetly.
"Ah well my name is Kakashi, what is yours, if you do not mind."
"Decus. Well Kakashi, I'm going to have fun killing you and your friends." A huge ball and chain materialized in his arms and rushed toward them and began to swing it around, flailing it wildly. Decus had very little difficulty in wielding the ball and chain.
Kakashi had to dodge quickly. He quickly produced a shadow clone and used it as a dummy for him to be able to dig into the ground. Decus struck Kakashi's clone and had a triumphant look on his face, but it slowly disappeared when the clone popped in a cloud of smoke.
Soon Risa and Yamato had begun their attack. They were striking him with their swords, but Decus had thick armor on his arms and the swords just glanced off the armor.
Risa produced multiple shadow clones and they began to hack away at him. She needed to buy time for Yamato to prepare his attack. Yamato jumped back to prepare his attack, he quickly focused his chakra and produced the hand seals. He fired wooden spikes at Decus, the needles grew increasingly thicker and sharper. The wood shower distracted him for a second.
Then he conjured a massive wave, he told Risa to get cover, so she wouldn't get hit by the tidal wave. He hurled the huge wave at Decus and it rushed toward him. At that moment Kakashi burst from the ground and was riding the wave. His headband was raised and his Sharingan eye was burning red and black.
"Chidori!" he yelled as he produced the hand signs. His right hand was soon a crackling palm of chirping electric energy. Kakashi then produced a Rasengan in his opposite hand. In his left he had a swirling ball of chakra. Finally he focused his chakra and submerged both palms of energy in the wave.
As he pulled them out, the water was swirling in multiple rings around both of his palms. He jumped off the wave and let it hit Decus. "Take this!" Kakashi yelled as he slammed the Rasengan straight into Decus's chest. The impact sent Decus spiraling through the air, backwards.
Kakashi increased his speed for the Chidori. As he dashed towards him he was about to strike Decus's chest, but he decided to go for his right leg instead. Kakashi's hand penetrated through the armor, and his hand was a bloody mess protruding through the other side of his thigh. His hand was still crackling and he quickly pulled out his hand and released the energy.
Decus landed in a crippled mess about 30 yards away from Kakashi. Kakashi was panting hard and Risa and Yamato ran over to him, to support the Copy Ninja.
`"Damn, that took a lot of chakra."
"Senpai, why didn't you go for his chest with the Chirdori, like you did with the Rasengan? You could've taken out his heart."
"Because I knew I couldn't. I have taken into account the battles Fayt and his friends have gone through with these beings. I had a feeling, he would still be able to live even if I had punctured his heart. Then I would have been in a perfect position for him to kill me. My Sharingan eyes show me that he does have a heart that pumps his blood, but even if it stopped working, he would be able to sustain life for a significant amount of time. So instead, I crippled him. He will be a lot slower and easier for us to hit."
"Good thinking," Risa said. But at that moment they heard Decus laughing on his back and he soon got up.
"Hehe, you haven't won yet!" he yelled. He grabbed something from a leather pouch on his leg. He pulled out a small bright red sphere. "See this? This is Ferenine, it is a new drug that has been produced. It is supposed to be unsafe, but of course it is unsafe for humans. I am not human, and therefore have no need to fear these side effects."
"It must be some kind of soldier pill," Yamato muttered under his breath. Decus continued to laugh maniacally and finally popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. At first there was no effect and there was an eerie calm, but Decus's arms doubled in size, and caused his armor to pop off. His entire body was pumped up and there was a certain aura of energy radiating from him.
"Holy…his energy levels have tripled," Kakashi said. Risa clenched her teeth and Yamato looked on with an apprehensive look on his face. "Oh no…his energy levels are still rising. Yamato contain him!!!" he yelled at him.
Yamato nodded and clenched his palms together to produce his Wooden Style Jutsu. Huge pillars of wood burst out of the ground around Decus and then converged together to form an enclosed dome around him. Just as they thought it was under control, the wooden dome exploded, fire erupting from inside of it.
"Holy Shit, this guy is drugged up!" Kakashi yelled. Something suddenly shot towards them like a rocket from the explosion. It was Decus. He flew straight into Kakashi and crashed him into a building. He began to unleash everything he had on Kakashi. He punched, kicked, slashed, and did everything to him. He madly punched Kakshi's face, stomach, everything! Kakashi was unconscious after about 2 minutes of the pummeling.
Risa ran towards Decus and gave him a good kick which sent him flying into the wall. Risa took a quick look at Kakashi. His face was a bloody mess, he numerous cuts and bruises. He was also bleeding through his shirt and was down and out. "BAD MOVE!" Decus roared. He exploded from the wall he was thrown against and ran at Risa, full sprint.
Risa conjured a couple of hand signs, "Fire Style, Fire Dragon!" a thick column of fire was thrown at Decus, in the form of a dragon. The fire momentarily stopped him and burned him a bit. He took a big breath of air then he blew out the fire, and then he continued his rampage. He conjured a huge sword out of nowhere and ran at Risa again.
He was running so fast that Risa did not have time to dodge, so she raised her sword out in front of her in vain. Decus smacked the sword out of the way, with the flat of his blade, and then he ran it through Risa's chest. She grabbed Decus's arm but didn't have the strength to push him back. Risa coughed out blood and fell limp to the floor. Decus pulled out his sword, laughing maniacally.
"Risa! NO!!!" Yamato yelled. Huge roots, as thick and long as jumbo jets rose from the ground struck at Decus. Decus was smacked around by the huge branches until he released a large burst of energy from his body. The blasts singed the huge roots and they were burned to a crisp.
Decus flew at Yamato, and released a flurry of blows. Yamato quickly blocked him using the terrain to his advantage. He bended both earth and wood to act as barriers to block Decus's strikes. Yamato conjured a thick block of wood to block the hit and Decus got his sword stuck in the block as he struck it.
Yamato quickly produced wooden roots at Decus's feet to entangle him. The roots pulled him off his feet and he landed with a large 'thud' on the ground. Then he re-shaped the wooden block into a huge wooden stake and thrust it straight into Decus's chest.
Decus cried out with pain as it penetrated his armor then his skin, but had been able to stop the stake from going all the way through. Yamato continued to attempt to push the stake through Decus's chest. But Decus's strength was too great and Yamato was being pushed back.
Decus was able to break free of the roots constraining him and then kicked Yamato in the groin. Yamato let out a short grunt and then was on the ground writhing in pain, from the initial strike and the…'aftershock'.
Decus rose his sword high over his head and was about to kill Yamato when he suddenly fell to the ground, clutching his heart. Yamato looked over to Risa who was propped up against the wall also gripping her heart and smiling at Decus.
"Yeah that's right. I connected our hearts with a chakra thread when you came in for that final blow." Yamato remembered that she had grabbed his wrist at the last second. "The wire runs through you arm's blood vessels into your aorta, your major blood vessel, which then leads to your heart. I can kill you as I speak by allowing my chakra to flow into your body, it would disrupt you blood flow, blood pressure, and heart rate. It would be instant death."
"You're, you're bluffing!" Decus cried, as he cried in further pain, clutching his heart.
"No. I'm not, but sadly I'll pass into the abyss as well. That's the price you pay with this jutsu. Yamato, take care of Kakashi for me," she said with a tragic smile. She suddenly hardened her face and took a deep breath. She took one last wave goodbye at Yamato. Decus was yelling in the background, he was attempting to get up, but could not. She took her sword and then thrust it into her heart. She had a devilish smile on her face as she lay there, dead.
Decus's yelling soon stopped and Yamato walked over to Kakashi and picked him up. Kakashi lay in a bloody mess, but he had a steady pulse. He turned and looked at Risa, with a long sword protruding from her chest. She still had the happy smile on her face as her eyes stared blankly into the distance.
He sadly trotted over to his companion. He got down on one knee and said a short prayer then closed her eyelids. He looked at her for a second, then remembered that a fierce battle was still raging behind him.
"Cliff! We have to take out that turret!" Fayt yelled. He was hiding in a Guard House leading to the Federal Square.
"I know! I know!!" he yelled back. Let's see, distance to turret…about 100 yards, I can clear that distance in two minutes. I'm just gonna need them to keep those guys off my back. "Fayt! Wait for the next reload! When he does I need you all to cover my ass, I can get to that turret in two minutes."
"You sure? It's a long run!"
"Just trust me, alright, he should be reloading soon, ready? 1,2, 3, go, go, go!"
Cliff quickly darted from his hiding place and ran quick as lightning across the battlefield. Three soldiers barred his way and were preparing to shoot, but they were smitten by two lightning bolts thrown by Fayt. Cliff quickened his pace and was halfway there. The others were doing enough to draw attention away from him.
When he was about 10 yards away, the turret was done reloading. It fired a few rounds at Cliff. Cliff rose his hands, poured chakra into his gauntlets, and was able to deflect the blasts. He felt the fatigue on his body as the energy required to deflect the blasts was used.
He stumbled a bit as he started to jump, due to his fatigue but was able to jump high enough to avoid the next blasts from the turret. He landed on top of the turret and unclipped a few bombs from his belt and latched them onto the gun.
He jumped off and landed catlike on the ground as he heard a satisfying 'boom', signifying the destruction of the turret. It allowed the rest of them catch up to Cliff, at the entrance to the Federal Square. The path branched off into three directions, the individual paths led them separate ways to the Federal Tower, Prison Cube, and the Planetary Defense Building.
"Alright, we've cleared most of the resistance in the area, the rest of our troops are on the way to occupy the area. All that's left…is the hard part," Fayt summarized.
"Hey kid, don't worry," Cliff said enthusiastically. "Alright. Fayt; Albel and I will accompany you to the Federal Tower, we'll also take a few of the Expellians. Nel and Adray will take a group into the Defense Building. Peppita and Ophelia will take the Prison Cube."
They were all quiet for a second until Fayt broke the silence again. "Look guys, we don't need another inspiring speech. We all know that we have a job to do, so let's do it. It is as simple as that. The fate of the universe rests in our hands and its up to us to follow through. And if we fail, we'll take as many as we can with us."
"Well said Fayt, let's kick some ass!" Cliff yelled. Everyone agreed and they broke off, and took their respective paths.
"Admiral Mirage! We've lost 50% of our heavy battleships!" someone from the Diplo's bridge exclaimed.
"God…how the heck are we being pushed around by just a handful of those Nedian craft? Alright, this is the last move we have. All ships engage the main body of the Nedian fleet."
"Admiral, all ships?" a captain of one of the battleships rang in.
"Yes, yes, all gunships, flagships, battleships, light cruisers, fighters, everyone. I'll lead the attack on their last flagship, personally."
"Admiral Koas, that's a bold move, are you sure?" Wifra asked.
"I have a feeling Fayt's team will follow through for us, I trust them."
"They haven't succeeded yet, who's to say they'll follow through anytime soon?"
"We have to trust them, they are our only hope! If we can't trust our comrades we are all dead! The moment we lose faith in each other we doom ourselves to failure! Just believe in each other and we cannot lose, alright all wings attack!!"
Mirage increased the speed of her ship again and was at the head of the attack, with the rest of the fleet behind her. The second the Nedians realized that they had chosen to attack them head on, Mirage was soon greeted by numerous fighters.
Mirage was an expert pilot with an onboard AI to guide her, the Nedian pilots were no match for her. Two Nedian fighters had locked onto her and she literally began to fly circles around them. She drastically reduced her speed to drop back right behind them. She unleashed her blaster fire on the unfortunate fools and she flew straight through the resulting explosions. Steeg and Marietta re-formed on her wing once she had disposed of the fighters and they were approaching the last major Nedian flagship. They had already destroyed the 'mothership' and this was the last one.
They had to enter the ship's surface superstructure to avoid the majority of the gunfire. "Dack, home in on the greatest power source, it should be the command deck of this thing. Once you locate it, send the coordinates to the other pilots."
"Copy."
"Alright guys watch out and be careful, we're gonna run out of space real quick." The superstructure of the ship was a large framework of unfinished wire structures, it was meant to increase the shielding capability and integrity of the ship.
"Madam Koas, 5 fighters have locked on to our position," Dack said.
"Alright, we're so close to the command bridge…" Mirage whispered. "Alright guys increase speed, we won't let them get to us."
"Mirage we can't increase our speed anymore, it will be unsafe to pilot through this superstructure!" Steeg yelled.
"If you can't handle it then get outta here, we have to take risks in this situation!" Mirage yelled.
"I-You are right I'm sorry, increasing speed m'am." Mirage felt sorry for raising her voice, but it was the truth. They sped through the superstructure, staying ahead of the ships trailing them, they soon saw the command bridge in view, but the fighters had also caught up to them. "Guys keep them off my tail! I'm going for the bridge!"
Steeg and Marietta had doubts and didn't think they could pull it off, the odds were stacked against them. But they knew they had to do it, there was no other option. So the two engaged the fighters as Mirage sped towards the bridge.
Mirage's ship was soon rocked by fire from the auto-turrets on the ship. Brilliant green laser fire pulsated towards her ship, some blasts grazed the ship while others made hard impacts.
"Madam, shields are at 20%," Dack said. Mirage gritted her teeth and was soon in firing range of the bridge. She could almost taste victory as she tightly gripped the controls of the ship and was about squeeze the trigger when her ship was rocked again by turret fire and she was thrown off course.
"Damn, I have to make a second pass!" Mirage cursed. She suddenly heard a scream over the line when she watched in horror as Marietta's ship blew up in a burst of flame.
"Marietta! NO!" Mirage and Steeg yelled over the line. Steeg was still engaging the fighters, but had lost concentration for a second, his engine was clipped by a laser blast and he had lost control of his ship.
"Steeg, NO!" Mirage screamed.
"Mirage, stick to the mission! Say good bye to everyone for me," he said sadly, he was able to gain control of his ship for a second and steered it towards the command bridge of the ship. Mirage watched as her friend crashed into the bridge kamikaze style, ending his life while destroying the Nedian craft in the process.
Mirage sobbed for a second but quickly realized she had to get clear of the exploding ship. She had exited the superstructure of the ship and saw the Diplo and other ships taking out another ship. She looked down at the Earth and closed her eyes; she had seen another green blast streaking towards their fleet.
All that's left is the battle down there. We have done all we can up here, we're counting on you guys. She opened her eyes and watched in horror as the Diplo was hit by the Planetary Defense Gun. A tear fell from her eyes and everything seemed hopeless as she sat in the cool and crisp cockpit of her ship.
"Nel! No!" Adray yelled as Nel faced line of troopers and she was thrown backwards by the multiple hits she received from their rifle fire. Adray used Symbology to produce a barrier and allowed him to pull Nel back to where their troops were positioned. He cast a healing spell over her and she soon regained consciousness.
"There has to be another way around! We can't get to the control room through this passage!"
"Hold on pull up the map Captain Pickard," Nel said to the commanding Expellian officer. "Hmm according to this map there is a ventilation system I can slip through, to get into the control room, it ends in a supply room, then I'll have to go down a security hallway to get into it, it goes around instead of taking this straight forward route."
"Sounds like a plan lil' miss. We'll stay here and draw their attention while you slip behind their defenses," Adray said.
"Right, it's all we've got. Now if we can just find that ventilation system," Nel said. Her eyes darted across the wall above her to her left. There was a vented panel which looked just right for her size. "Adray give me a boost."
Adray nodded and lifted Nel on his shoulders. She blasted the vent open and crawled inside. She crawled through the tight ventilation shaft and referred to the map when she could. The vent ended at a tight broom closet. She jumped out and landed quietly on the floor, stealth was going to be key.
She slowly opened the door a crack and peered out into the hallway. A guard passed right by the door as she had opened it. Luckily he had not heard nor seen the door open. She opened it, scrambled out and tiptoed right behind the guard. She slowly rose her hands to his neck and quickly snapped it. She caught him before he fell to the ground and stuffed him in the closet. According to the map she was supposed to go right. So she slowly went down the hall until she stumbled upon a powerbox on one side of the wall.
It was a fusebox for the level. She considered it for a second then blew the box and suddenly all the lights on the level blacked out. Nel was standing in a pitch black corridor, excellent conditions for someone like her. She quickly focused her chakra in her feet and climbed the walls.
She paused for a second, as if waiting for someone, and right on cue two men appeared down the hall with flashlights on. They were most likely engineers to check out the power failure. The two men searched the area, perhaps trying to find the culprit.
One of the men searched the ceiling and saw a shadow, which was Nel, real quick. He dismissed it and thought it was a figment of his imagination. But when he turned around his partner was on the ground, with his face smashed inwards. He frantically panicked trying to find the culprit, he turned around real quick. Then when he turned back to the fusebox he was face-to-face with Nel.
"Boo," she said, the man began to cry and whimper until Nel quickly ended his misery and slit his throat. Nel continued her quiet walk down the hall. She came to the door that the men had come through and put her hand on the knob. She knew there was either a trap or more troops on the other side of the door.
She climbed the wall again and hung on the ceiling. She focused her chakra and tried something she had never done before. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" She produced a clone, perfect in likeness to her. Her pseudo-self turned the knob and entered.
"That's one hell of a long set of stairs," Cliff said. After they had battled through 5 levels of enemies, it amounted to a long and spiraling set of stairs that led to the higher levels. A tall statue of some wicked looking man had been erected in the center of the spiraling stairs. It was obvious that it had not been completely finished yet.
The face was missing canvas to cover the wire structure inside. And the man had only one horn, and there was a second uncompleted stub, where the second horn was supposed to be.
They would have used the elevator but Albel had destroyed the elevator mechanics room in one of his mad rages.
"Albel HAD to break the elevator…" Fayt said gloomily.
"Yeah, by the time we get up to those Wise Men, we won't have any more energy to even fight!" Cliff said sarcastically. Albel said nothing, and so began their long and 'heroic' walk to the final 'showdown'.
About halfway up the stairs they noticed something was walking down the stairs, a dark figure another 20 yards up the staircase. They stopped where they were and waited for the man to get closer, to get a better look at him. They soon saw he wore golden robes and seemed like he was in a high position of some sorts.
Fayt thought it might have been Indalecio, but he knew Indalecio had red hair. This man looked quite young and didn't have the commanding, intimidating, and mysterious presence that the Wise Men each had.
Something definitely seemed off when he had come very close and they could see his face. His face was completely emotionless, and his eyes stared very blankly. He didn't blink at all, which was very pecuiliar. He approached them and didn't so much as sneer or even give them an arrogant look.
He took another 10 steps towards them and was 10 feet away from them. His mouth opened and the voice seemed very much not his. "Hello, I've been expecting you. You are no doubt Mr. Fayt Leingod, the man my favorite prisoner has been calling out for. She said that he would rescue her or something to that effect."
"Maria! What have you done to her you monster! I swear I'm gonna chop off your balls, then shove them up your ass!" Fayt roared.
"Ahem-cute. Unfortunately this man is nearly my vessel. He is my recently deposed king. So, if you wish to what was that-shove my balls up my ass-then you will have to try and get past him first. Oh and watch out for the stairs, tootles!"
The man in front of them remained unemotional, and the three attempted to decipher the weird message they had been given. Suddenly there was a loud explosion on the stairs and it immediately began to shake and rumble. The three had lost their footing and had fallen off the high staircase; they were falling to the ground.
The man, King Nede had sprouted white wings and was gracefully dodging the falling debris. Fayt gritted his teeth and looked angrily at King Nede and focused his ethereal chakra in his hands and feet and was able to suspend himself in air. He quickly flew over to catch Albel and Cliff.
He landed on the ground and they all looked up at him. Cliff put a hand on Fayt's shoulder. "Look pal, I know this might look like one of those stereotypical storylines where the hero has to end up fighting the bad guy alone..but. You need to get up there and save Maria pronto. Let Albel and I take this guy, it'll be no sweat. But we have to end this fight quick. I have a feeling out buds in space aren't faring to well and our troops outside can't hold out forever. So we have to cut the head of the enemy to take 'em down, once and for all."
"But-," Fayt protested.
"Look the maggot is right," Albel said, he had an arrogant smirk on his face. "This joker will be no match for us, so get outta here."
"Th-Thanks guys." Fayt's eyes shined bright blue and blue ethereal wings sprouted from his back. His eyes were burning with determination and shot upwards, he was a blue rocket speeding towards the top level.
King Nede looked like he was about to stop him, but Fayt just tackled into him and caused him to fall to the ground. Fayt smiled quickly and reached the top level. He looked at the brown colored door. He took a deep breath and entered the door.
Downstairs, Albel and Cliff looked at King Nede mischievously. "Hehe, looks like Fayt broke someone's wings," Cliff said with a smile as he cracked his knuckles. King Nede got up and hissed at them.
The two broke out laughing hysterically. Albel began to mock him, "Look at me, I'm the big bad King Nede, I will hiss you to death!!!!!!!!!!!!" he teased. Cliff couldn't take it and was dying of laughter on the floor. He was holding his gut, but they both stopped laughing when King Nede suddenly roared a breath of fire.
"Aw shiit," the two said in unison.
"Good work Peppita," Ophelia said. They had successfully liberated the Prison Cube. As they were looking at the list of inmates her eyes crossed over 'Sophia Esteed'.
"Oh my gosh! Ophelia, my friend is being held captive here!"
"Oh which cell is it?"
"A…A6!"
"Alright, get the key card and let's open it!"
"Right, Let's go!" They dashed down the corridor they passed block D,C, B, then they finally reached block A. They reached the block and Sophia was inside the block.
"Sophia!!" Peppita yelled. She was jubilant to see her friend who was asleep. Ophelia opened the door with the keycard then they entered the cell. Peppita moved to wake her up but her hand slid through her. It was a projection. The projection disappeared and there was a ticking bomb instead.
There was a clock counting down, 5…4…3. "It's a trap let's go!" Ophelia yelled. Peppita cried out as the bomb's timer stopped. As they were running out the cell the bomb exploded and the blast hurled them 20 yards away. Their soldiers began to yell and ran over to them trying to wake them up.
To be Continued...
