It was…. Nothing!
Not the hospitable surface of a planet,
sheathed in gaseous atmosphere and suitable for harboring life.
Not the veritable desert of outer space,
filled with parsec’s of thin particulate dust, streaked by comets and
fragments of rock, filled with the endless fields of stars and their
captured planets…. Unsuitable for most life, yet still giving birth to
it.
Nor was it the storm of energy that was
hyperspace… a void filled with the light and noise of boundless power
and unrepentant energies. Deadly too most life, yet feeding those strong
enough to harness its gifts.
It was not in opposition to any of these
forces, or any of these realities…. It was not their counter… it very
simply, was nothingness itself.
Beneath the many layers that all these
realities created…. It was the calm upon which their force was overlaid…
it was the blank page upon which they were written…. And as such,
immutable, unchangeable… though the rest of creation might collapse in
on itself, this foundation would remain unchanged until a new reality
rose once again from it.
And here again… Life existed… in a place
where matter by its very nature could not exist, where Nothing was law…
Something existed.
The traveler seemed to be stationary,
but he could have been cart wheeling through the nothingness, there were
no other points of reference with which to gauge motion, no gravity with
which to feel movement either.
Had there been light, the traveler would
have been resplendent in armor of blue and silver, like some night of
old, his flowing crest rising in a flowing, branching arch above his
head, studded with gems and crystals who’s value could not be computed
by their physical makeup. A body lean and strong, a warrior… a warrior
with the signs of his last battle still evident upon his limp form.
His armor marred and blackened in many
places from the massive energy discharge that had brought him to this
place.
Under normal circumstances his armor
would long ago have healed itself, but this place was anything but
normal, in this blackness, even his living armor could not long protect
him, the glow of the orb at his forehead was faint, casting a mournful
violet light upon the nothingness…. The Intellect that coursed through
the armor kept its energies at low ebb, husbanding its strength,
struggling to fulfill its greatest compulsion, maintaining the well
being of the host.
<Unit> experiencing <Energy Drain> at
increasing rate, <Unit > will become >>Nonfunctional<< in {{00.98.53}}
[Cycles] <Host//K^len> will experience >>termination<< in {{00.98.54}}
[Cycles] <-> Conclusion: Unacceptable
The Intellect knew no name for itself,
it had never needed one, but it knew the name of its wearer… or at
least, his current one…. The latest of many, many iterations, of a life
that even measured in the term of millennia, was difficult to reckon.
<Unit> is (Unable) to locate
<Dimensional Singularity//Shift> through which to >>Escape<< phenomena
now designated <Null-Space>
It gazed out upon the void, and once
more considered trying to wake the wearer… its senses indicated that the
host still continued in a state of unconsciousness, once more it
counseled itself to exercise that discipline <patience> as other beings
called it…. Again it pulsed energy through its hyper sensors… and again
the units returned nothing… it waited.
Warning:
<Energy
Drain> intensifying <Unit//Host> Integrity in jeopardy, Computation of
new time span indicates, <Unit//host> >>Failure<< will occur in
{{00.23.81}} [Cycles]
A spasm from within rocked the form of
the traveler, the Intellect turned its gaze inwards, experiencing an
emotive pulse analogous to <concern>…. The host’s body was healthy,
undamaged…. Yet he still did not regain consciousness.
A new thought string emerged, siting the
unreality in which the unit found itself lodged as a possible cause for
the host’s intransigence. The theory was given priority within the mind
of the intellect, computations began to be created and either discarded
or refined… as it searched for a solution to it’s current dilemma.
Turning to the host’s memories, it once
more pieced together the data lodged in the host’s imperfect biological
memory core…. Trying to decipher the sometimes-nonsensical harmoniously
imbalanced recollections of the host.
He remembered…
From his birth the energy sang to him….
As it sang now… flowing through him, potent and deadly…. Power for him
to direct, his will controlling it. Now he gathered its might,
channeling its song into its deadliest tones.
He remembered… He faced a devil, a
demon… A being of blood… fire…. Pain… the agony as he felt himself
disintegrating in the massive energy blast. The portal his last chance,
tunneling into hyperspace…. His body gone….
He remembered… Opening his eyes once
more, the aftershock of the agony coursing through his bloodstream like
razor blades, to dissipate, leaving him whole once more… the hurried
conversation with those who called themselves the Kregen… the power
boost… incredible…. Energy, refined, controllable…. More energy then he
had ever contained before…. Pain, searing burning pain… And then… no
sense of strain, the energy flowing easily through him, as if finding a
chord deep within him, empowering him. It’s force contained…. Barely.
The slight disorientation of portal
transport… bodies… space has become a mortuary… rage, burning hatred…
and the enemy… The jolt of a quick portal… his enemy appearing before
him as he exits it…. Time slows…. The attack…. The demon a blur of
motion as he impacts the side of the ship… the ship…. The…. Accolade…
yes..
The counterattack, speed…speed…. All
that matters… dodge… The impact, knocking him back… The winged menace
closing in… dodge…. PAIN! The impact against the Accolade, his body
broken, battered…. But not beaten……. Never beaten… The course of energy
through him, his mind shaping it, forming it into the lightning bolt of
a god of old….. the flare of the electric blue sphere… how it sings
through his body... The demon… W’kar… No…. Greg…. No!…. Anubis! Yes…
Anubis..….
Contemptuous… haughty… the strike, he
feels the energy of the attack swell with the demons own unhealthy
power… the moment of penetration, the energy shield broken… his mind
directing the strike, a crisscross of strokes, each one fatal…. PAIN!…
the backlash….. power comes at a cost…… his body contracting under the
agony as his weaponry fails, strained to the breaking point…. But
victory… it’s over…. Over..
No! Impossible! The demon lives! The
plan….. the woman-child…. Zoalord… Albass! The ship… battle raging
behind…. Must concentrate…… the pain! No portal, no weapons….. must
hurry….. Gaining the ship, pain making it hard to think… the woman… the
ghost…. revenant… Cassandra…. The healing…. The pain gone… it must be
done, hurry…. Engine room…. The power…. PAIN! Not easy! Not… the same…..
it BURNS! Not as much….. not as powerful as before…… must be enough!
Must be Done!
The energy….. it sings….. it always
has…. From the moment of his birth, the energy has sang to him… and in
it’s song, he found strength… now it sings once more… a strident,
vengeful chord….. his control rigid…. His will iron as he once more
hammers a bolt from the power…. Eyeing the energy field of the Zoalord……
the release…. The surge of power!
The bolt shimmering as it pierces the
temporal field….. elongating, the beam’s power incredible…. Lancing
out…. A stab of incandescent brilliance… piercing the beast! The
counterattack.. PAIN! AGONY! The Backlash! The Price! NOT NOW! MUST
ESCAPE! Portal! Tunneling into hyperspace….. the attack! Too soon……..
JESSICA!
Nothing…, Once more…. Nothing.
The Intellect knew the story after this
point…. The attack, as powerful as it had been, had been blunted by the
portal energy… had been weakened enough that the massive damage it had
caused had been absorbed by the armor and host body, and it had remained
undamaged, allowing repairs to be made.
Its other effects had been more drastic,
and not as easily remedied…. The interaction between the Portal, the
Energy attack, and the fading temporal wave had torn through the fabric
of hyperspace… casting the traveler deep into the Void… where he now
resided.
The Intellect’s ponderings continued,
all the while conserving its energies, in the hopes of finding escape…
escape from the Nothingness…
<Author’s Note> KISMET:
The principle or determining cause or will by which things in general
are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do:
i.e. FATE or DESTINY
Guyver XT: KISMET Revisited
Somewhere in Southeast Asia……
Sai rested against the trunk of a huge
cedar, his feet planted firmly on a branch some 18 meters from the
forest floor, he smiled at that thought, as the tree itself spanned
almost 24 meters in height, far higher than most average humans would be
able to climb, without equipment, on their own… but then again, Sai was
not someone to be called average.
He checked his watch…. Another hour
until it was his time to move, he sighed, the plan was simple, attack a
suspected Chronos outpost, draw out the defenders, zap them, see if the
facility had anything of value…. And then level the place.
He grimaced, not exactly the most
peaceful plan he could wish for, but he understood the reasons Mei Lynn
had for presenting it, he sighed, like it or not, he and his sister
Keilynn were prime weapons in the war against Chronos… his thoughts were
inevitably pulled back to the quiet years with the monks…. The only
family he had ever known…. How he missed them all….
He closed his eyes as his thought
returned to that fateful day, when his life had turned upside down… his
peaceful home… the only world he had known up until that time, had been
invaded, and desecrated by Chronos…. His family… was gone… and on that
day, he and his sister gained the power to avenge that loss.
The power of the Nova.
Guyver units of incredible power and
sophistication. Bio-booster armor of a type never seen before,
incorporating fusion energy not seen in any other class of Guyver.
It had not been long before they had met
the others, the Warrior Guyvers, and their allies, before they had
learned of the ACTF, the only force so far who stood any chance against
the power of Chronos.
His musings were interrupted by the
harsh chirp of his watch alarm, a press of the button on the face
silenced it…. And a glance at the time told him all he needed to know……
time to go.
Three steps down the limb, and then a
powerful leap out and away from the tree, the feel of free fall as
gravity claimed him….. the wind about him, stealing the word from his
lips… " GUYVER!"
A flare of intense brilliance, and the
crackle of released energy were followed by the unarrested fall of a
much larger form. The being that landed effortlessly in a crouch, had
been given the name Nova Blaze, his armor gleamed purple and scarlet in
the afternoon sun as he took off at a run, his footfalls light, yet the
wind whistling about him with the speed of his sprint, the forest a blur
of motion about him as he closed on his objective.
Twenty miles away….
"GUYVER!" The feminine voice pierced the
silence, as the owner leapt from the rocky outcropping, clearing the
surface into open air just as a sphere of brilliant incandescence
engulfed the lithe body of the young Asian girl Keilynn, and it was
Starfire who dropped lightly to the ground, The crimson and white Guyver
snatched a canvas bag from the ground, and bounded away in incredible
leaps through the rocky terrain, nothing but a blur of motion.
She finally stood at the edge of the
cliff, beside the roar of the waterfall, her eyes scanning the valley
before her, picking out the unnatural formation of the fortress which
straddled the river, an octagon of steel and concrete, the outer walls
buttressed and reinforced… the gleaming barrels and turrets of long
range cannons affixed atop it, a place to withstand even an artillery
barrage and a siege or two.
She smirked a little to herself…. How
outdated were artillery and mortars, the foot soldiers and tanks….. war
had evolved beyond such things…… now power armor replaced the grunts,
and the tanks…. Melding them into one and the same… humanity’s sense of
warfare had evolved with the coming of Chronos and their hordes of
zoanoid killers…. Yes….a decade or two ago…. The place would have been
impregnable.. but now…. She chuckled, "Iron bars do not a prison make,
nor stone walls a barricade." She quoted it out loud, a second before
she executed a graceful back flip off the cliff face, sailing down into
the spray and froth of the river below.
In the Jungle…
A dark blur of motion flitted from
shadow to shadow, never stopping, a specter, a wraith… Black Nova
skipped her way through the forest, her speed limited only by the
indirect path she was taking, she smiled, realizing how much she missed
excursions like this…… black ops were her specialty.. her stock and
trade, and the Guyver took such tactics to a whole new level.
She abruptly slowed as she sensed a
presence up ahead….. she focused in on it, and it resolved into the
impression of four or five beings, a scouting party, she looked up and
got her bearings…… she was close enough to the base now, it was time to
start causing mischief… She crouched, homing in on her targets, slowly
she crept forward, working her way towards her goal.
They were cautious, she gave them that,
a five man squad, all wearing the blue jumpsuit and white armor of
Chronos shock troops, white helmeted heads, the eyepieces lit with the
green phosphorescent glow of low light optics. Well trained, they moved
two at a time, the odd man staying in the middle of the two man teams,
from his back rose the hard backpack and flexible antennae of a long
range communications array.
Black Nova crouched in the branches of a
low tree as the team passed underneath her, she smiled, raising her
right arm, the forearm blade extending to full length, a sudden blur of
motion…. And the screaming started.
Elsewhere…
The tree splintered beneath the
Gregore’s punch, but his target had already disappeared, a glowing line
seemed to bisect his arm at the shoulder, and in a gout of crimson
blood, the severed limb dropped twitching to the ground, the zoanoid has
just enough time to scream before a second trail of light slid across
his shoulders, and a second later, his head dropped wetly to the ground
as well, his body collapsing in on itself, already beginning to
decompose as it hit the ground.
Nova Blaze dropped lightly to his feet
behind the defeated zoanoid, his right vibrational blades extended, his
right leg snapping out into a roundhouse kick that caught the Broyze
that came up to support the downed Gregore, The force of the kick caved
in the creature’s rib cage with a meaty crunch, the zoanoid drowning in
his own blood as he dropped to the forest floor.
With a crash, the splintered tree
impacted the forest floor, in less then ten seconds two zoanoids had
been killed… the others lagged back, waiting for something….. Nova Blaze
detected movement above him and his reflexes, enhanced by his unit,
carried him backward at inhuman speed, just as the Danaplus landed where
he had just stood, his massively spiked arm driving into the ground
instead of impacting the Nova Guyver.
Nova Blaze fell backwards onto the
splayed fingers of his left hand, lashing out with his legs, sweeping
the hyper zoanoid’s feet out from under him, but Nova Blaze continued to
spin, still pivoting on his left hand until the last instant in which he
snapped his left foot against the ground and sprang back into a standing
position as he spin kicked the zoanoids mid section a mere second after
having first dodged the zoanoids attack. Sending the zoanoid hurtling
back into a group of trees that quickly snapped upon impact and
collapsed onto the zoanoid as it finally hit the ground, putting him
momentarily out of the fight. Which was good, because the two Vamores
opened up, Four intense beams of destructive light seared passed the
fallen Danaplus, but Nova Blaze was simply no longer there.
His leap carried him high into the air
as he dodged the blast, suddenly the air about him was cooked with even
more energy, looking down, he caught sight of the two Zerebubuse hyper
zoanoids moving in, their forearm lasers blazing as they tried to catch
him in a cross fire, he rebounded off of the trunk of a massive cedar, a
second before the beams blasted through the trunk.
He dropped back to the ground, a quick
slash bisected one of the Zerebubuses from shoulder to groin, and he
leaped away as the remains were vaporized by the two Vamores. Sai
allowed himself one grin of pure enjoyment… the rush he had come to feel
in battles of this kind, the pure instinctive knowing of when to
dodge, when to attack, when to retreat…. No time for thought, or
introspection… the kill or be killed mentality that all warriors give
themselves over to in deadly combat.
He let out a yelp of surprise as he
realized he had let his inner thoughts distract him from his
awareness….. the Danaplus was back in the fight…. He realized this as
the hyper zoanoid punched him through a tree. His armor protected him
from any real damage, but it did hurt, in a small, annoying kind of way,
as if he’d hit his funny bone.
He had barely hit the ground before he
was rolling to his feet and sprinting into the forest, the zoanoids
howling in fury behind him as they gave chase.
In the Chronos facility control room….
"Sir! Our forces have been attacked both
to the east and the south…. Preliminary Intel confirms the presence of
Nova Blaze and Black Nova!"
Renkist looked up, his lips drawing back
into a smile, "Then be prepared for another attack to either the north
or west, most likely west, coming in from the mountains." The technician
blinked.. "Sir?" And quailed under the blood red gaze of his commanding
officer… "Y…yes sir!" He stammered as he hastened to strengthen the
north and west garrisons.
"Wherever Nova Blaze is, Starfire is
sure to be…… once she reveals herself, we’ll be able to concentrate our
forces…. Until such time, we will maintain the integrity of this base."
Renkist chuckled softly, watching the technician work, his fingers
flying over his keypad, as he mumbled urgently into his throat mike.
"You have a lot to learn…. And the first rule…. know your enemy." He
murmured almost to himself, as the Asian looked over to the cloaked
female figure leaning against the wall, her eyes hidden behind
sunglasses "Perhaps we’ll even get some exercise, Wife."
Semfla looked up and smiled at her
husband, removing her glasses, her own crimson gaze meeting his,
lingering on the intricate bar code tattooed above his left eye, knowing
that he studied the nearly identical one on her own tanned skin.. "Just
like old times, dear." She purred back to him, her eyes glinting with
malicious amusement.
In the Jungle to the south….
Black Nova crushed the throat of the
Ramotith with ease, tossing the sputtering creature back into its
comrades,
Her right arm snapped forward, releasing
a pressure cannon blast directly into the staggering zoanoid, the
powerful gravity ball blasting the zoanoid to bits before going on and
through three others that had stood behind it. She silently stepped
forward, leaving nothing but a path of carnage in her wake.
She slipped back into the forest for a
few hundred meters, bursting out of the foliage to surprise two Zencrebe
hyper zoanoids, the first roared as it raised its massive forearm and
let it fall like a tree trunk on the Guyver, yet as it neared her form,
his fist suddenly came in contact with something analogous to a brick
wall…. There was a bright blue flash as its attack was rebounded off of
her gravity shield.
It had all of a second to look surprised
before she blew it in half with a pressure cannon, the other hyper
zoanoid didn’t stay around to be slaughtered, but turned and ran…. Black
Nova smiled, it was a telling sign when zoanoids had enough of their own
will in control to do this…. A sign that no zoalord held control over
them…. Though she had surmised this base would be much too small for a
zoalord to bother with, it was comforting to have a verification of it.
The hyper zoanoid managed three more
steps, before she caved its head in with an overhead punch.
Outside the west wall of the Base…
Starfire touched down lightly on the
silt and rock-strewn bottom of the river, the current, strong as it was,
was of no consequence to her, as she used her gravity orb to remain
stationary.
Before her rose the wall of the complex
where it straddled the rivers course, set into the smooth concrete
surface was a three-inch thick steel grate. From the intelligence
reports on this place, water drawn in through this grate, was pumped
deep into the complex, and used for not only all processing of civilians
into zoaforms, but also as coolant for the fusion reactors of the base…
not that much of that meant anything to her… this after all, was just
her way in.
A moment later, the grate was no more
than a wrecked pile of twisted metal, tossed carelessly aside like a
lump of clay as Keilynn made her way into the base.
To the East of the base…
Nova Blaze rolled to the side, a power
blast scorching the earth where he had just stood, this was beginning to
get monotonous, his assailants had decided that physical attacks were
not effective enough against him, and had apparently started to favor
energy weapons, which he thought rather sucked.
Executing a near effortless back flip as
he skewered the Vamore with a precise head beam shot, entering through
the left eye socket and exiting through the back of it’s skull, he
landed lightly, having limited himself to only light energy attacks and
physical damage, he was not tiring himself out, though it did mean he
did a lot of dodging.
A Zerebubuse leaped out of the darkness
to his right, and he turned to meet the charge, his left vibration
blades extending, dodging the Zerebubuse’s laser blasts as he started to
charge the hyper zoanoid. Sensing too late the approach of another
zoanoid as he was unable to dodge the heavy impact against his back, he
got the blurred view of the Danaplus that had just decked him when he
felt, rather than saw another of the Zerebubuse’s laser blast coming his
way. He took the impact with the ground on his left shoulder, his
fingers digging into the soil as he executed a partial cartwheel back to
his feet, the ground smoldering where he had just lain.
He leapt into the air to avoid the
second laser volley and dropped down behind the Danaplus. He then
performed what looked to be a simple text book elbow smash, but it took
on a more deadly effect as his blades burst out of the hyper zoanoid’s
chest, a quick slash, and the dismembered zoanoid dropped to the ground,
steam and vapor rising from his bubbling remains.
He leapt out of the way of yet another
Vamore blast, but realized his mistake as the Zerebubuse whom he had all
but forgotten about, slammed his fist into his side, sending him
careening out of control into a tree, the huge cedar shuddered under the
impact, but did not fall…. Much to Nova Blaze’s dismay as he found
himself underneath an almost comical pile of zoanoids, like some
football player being brought down by the entire opposing team.
An orange flare stabbed out from beneath
the myriad bodies, and suddenly… they simply ceased to be, incinerated
by Nova Blaze’s fusion shield. He regained his feet, the shield glowing
about him, deflecting blast after blast from over two dozen bio-beam
equipped zoanoids.
Nova Blaze found himself panting lightly
for breath… this fight was starting to tell on his strength, and using
his shielding was not helping much, but now that he was lit up like the
proverbial Christmas tree, there were way too many incoming beams to
dodge, he had to find a way out of this…
Suddenly a black shape dropped to the
ground in front of him, just outside the perimeter of his shield, a
Gregore leapt towards him… but his head all of a sudden seemed to
implode, then burst outward. The figure swept it’s head back and forth,
turning this way and that… and Nova Blaze wondered what it was doing,
until he started to realize that fewer and fewer laser blasts were
incoming…
Two Vamores dropped out of the trees to
his right, but even as he turned towards them, one suddenly bent over
nearly double, clutching its midriff, before falling forward, silent and
still. The other was able to get its shoulder pods open before it’s head
disappeared in the path of the pressure cannon that blew it backwards.
He turned back towards the black figure,
his energy shield deactivating as the form turned towards him, he winced
as he heard and felt the residual sonic wave emanating from the Guyver’s
advanced sonic busters " You’ve been doing good up till now, I just
thought you might want a little assistance."
Nova Blaze grinned, "Ninja, I knew you
were going to be tailing one of us, but I thought you were with
Starfire."
The Ninja guyver chuckled, "Afraid not,
Black Nova told me to make certain you were doing alright with your part
of the diversion…. She says she’s almost bored with what they’ve sent
after her."
The Nova guyver laughed, "I guess she
would be bored with this… but some of us are more godlike than others….
I’ve had quite a workout."
Ninja grinned, "So I see, well, take a
break for a minute, I’m gonna see if we have anymore company." With that
he leaped upwards into the foliage, and disappeared.
Sai chuckled for another moment, leaning
back against the tree and taking a short breather, knowing it wouldn’t
take much to get him back to full power… as long as he could stay still
for a moment…. He thought about seeing how his sister was doing, as a
Guyver, he could contact any other hosted human at will…. But he
remembered Black Nova’s warning, about not distracting any of the
others, communication was to be only in an emergency.
But he did wonder how she was faring
with her part of the plan…. And hoped that she was all right.
Underground treatment plant…
The technician fell to the ground, his
face a pulp of shattered bone and bloody meat. The other transmutated
into a Ramotith and leapt towards the threat, only to be thrown
backwards, his chest caved in as easily as the others head.
Firestorm stepped up out of the water as
it sheeted from her torso and legs, her eyes and senses scanning the
room for any further threat, nothing presented itself and she skipped
passed her fallen opponent’s decaying corpses.
She found herself in a room full of
water purification equipment, probably the main filtering station for
the whole base, as she slipped out, she plucked a small gray plastic
disc from her back, she had three of the tiny ‘Scorched Earth’ devices,
she had attached them with surgical glue to the armor at the back of her
waist before she had started the last leg of her journey… They were of
Korean design, smuggled in by a Chinese border running squad, each of
them was a Micro-demo Pac… the device had enough power to implode on
office building when the CF-7 hyper-plastique explosive was detonated.
Mei Lynn had given them to her, and instructed her to set them at points
for possible destruction to make the base, if not unusable… at least a
near total write off.
With a flick of her finger she activated
the device, feeling the half second silent vibration confirming this
before she tossed the hand sized device back into the room, where it
bounced around and rolled under a desk before coming to rest, a mournful
red LED winking balefully at the silent room.
The hallway was empty as she ghosted
down it, coming to the end junction, she looked both ways, and saw a
staircase to her right, slipping over to it, she carefully ascended to
the next level, harsh light greeted her, sunlight…. She gazed out into
the inner courtyard between the defensive walls and the building
proper…. It was deserted.
She sprinted across the distance to the
other side, leaping straight up, adding her powers of flight to continue
straight up the side of the massive structure, proceeding over the first
tier, and dropping onto the raised second level.
A high powered, tightly focused burst of
sonics, and a window of tempered, bulletproof glass, crumbled almost
soundlessly to dust, only the faint tinkle like sand rushing to the
floor told of her entrance into the building. Only the small blinking
light of the second det-pac remained in the room after her passing.
Elsewhere….
The screen showed a blur of red and
white across the courtyard, pressure sensors registered weight on the
outer tier balcony…. And then security had reported a change in air
pressure within the sealed areas of the building, specifically located
at that balcony….
Renkist chuckled softly, "They are
cleverer then I expected… She’s here."
Semfla come to stand next to him, "What
do you suppose their objective is?" She asked, her voice smooth as silk
against his senses as he smiled.
"Why…. Here, I should expect… the nerve
center…. Destroy this, and all operations will fall to pieces." He
slipped an arm around her shoulder, holding her to him for another
moment before he turned to the technician… the young man seemed to feel
the weight of his gaze, looking up from his assigned task, his glasses
reflecting the winking telltales on his screen.
"Go, assume your secondary post and
await further orders." Renkist ordered. A small smile tugging at the
corners of his mouth as the technician snapped to attention, and bowed
formally to his commanders. "Yes, Sir!" He swallowed and slowly raised
his eyes. "May the cadet wish his commander luck and victory in the
coming battle?"
Semfla let out a soft purring chuckle,
matching the tone of her husband’s deeper laugh; "The cadet may, and
has, and now should assume his post before he is guilty of dereliction
of duty." He watched the technician hasten to comply as ordered… a glint
of laughter in his eyes as he turned back to the main screen, watching
smoke rising from the jungle.
And so he missed the technician’s brief
pause as the door opened, the way his deep brown eyes gazed at the backs
of the two of them, or his whispered words. "Good Luck, Mother, Father."
Before he slipped from the room, into the express elevator, and down to
the deep bunker of the secondary command room.
In the jungle…
Nova Blaze feinted left, even as Ninja
slipped to the right, two horizontal slashes reduced the Neo-Zektole to
bisected kibble a second later.
>They’re bringing out the heavy
artillery now<
Nova Blaze grinned as the familiar
mental voice of Black Nova heralded her arrival. Their team leader
dropping from the trees in a crouch, lashing out with a kick to her
left, shattering the trunk of a tree, and the zoanoid behind it as well.
"Yeah, as if you have anything to worry
about." He retorted good-naturedly.
Black Nova chuckled softly and
pantomimed fanning her face with a hand, "Hey! Some of these guys might
give me a nasty heat rash with all the lasers they keep throwing
around." Her pantomime ended with her hand snapping out in an arc, her
forward vibration blade reaching full extension, just in time to
decapitate a zoanoid… she didn’t even bother to see what type this time.
A second later a laser spattered off her
gravity shield and she turned towards the source… "Ergh! This is so
BORING!" She spat as she flung a pressure cannon into the shadows,
rewarded by the scream and wet collapse of another zoanoid, plus the
crackling collapse of three of four trees that were innocent bystanders.
She turned back to Nova Blaze, "I should
have been the one going inside… at least then I would be doing
something."
Sai laughed, "How much longer?" He
asked, grinning as he added, "Oh fearless leader?"
MeiLynn made a rude noise and acted like
she was looking at a watch on her armored wrist…. "Oh, anytime now
really…. Just waiting for the signal." She stepped to the side, letting
a Gregore lunge pass her, grabbing his horn at the last minute and
flipping him completely over, slamming his massive bulk into the ground,
before with a one handed heave, she tossed him back into the forest.
"This one’s too small, I’m throwing him back."
Laughing and continuing the benign
banter, even in the midst of ever continuing carnage, they continued
slowly moving closer to the base, giving each squad of enemy troopers
full marks for bravery, for brains? No…. for Skill? Not hardly! But they
weren’t cowards…. Well not all of them.
Inside the Base…
Starfire had found the control room at
last…. As planned, it seemed all troops had been sortied to the battle
outside; she had met no one on her way here…. She slowly moved to the
door, pressing the open stud, wincing at the loud hiss the door made as
it slid open and she passed through.
Finding the room dark except for the
blazing operations screens, filled with scenes of smoking jungle and
collapsing trees… she grimaced, part of her knowing that she was missing
all the fun, but the better half of her knowing that what she was doing
was more important…
Reaching behind her back she snagged the
ballistic case that contained an array of golden data discs… popping it
open with delicate fingers, she smiled, she was getting used to
manipulating small objects with her Guyver enhanced strength… without
crushing or similarly mangling them.
Stepping over to the control console,
she slid the first disc into the slot and pressed the PROGRAM key….
Watching as it began to hum to life…
The screens suddenly dimmed noticeably….
She looked up, expecting to see a larger explosion of smoke and airborne
debris, after all, they were trying to create a diversion for her…. She
felt herself rooted in place as she found herself looking back at
herself from a dozen screens… at least another dozen showing her from
almost every angle… the room must have been loaded with security cameras
to get that many views of her… But that musing was submerged beneath the
sudden chill that arched up her spine…. This place suddenly seemed
exceptionally creepy.
The disc slot beeped, and spat out the
disc, she slipped it back into the case and inserted the second… just as
a low rumbling laugh came from across the room… and her Guyver hadn’t
warned her!
She flashed around into a combat crouch,
arms crossed in front of her as her vibrational swords extended to
either side…. And found herself facing a speaker phone.
"A little jumpy aren’t we?" The voice
echoed hollowly in the room, and another chuckle followed it.
Keilynn glared at the box, but felt a
surge of relief, as she stood and hurriedly snatched the second disc as
it popped out… slamming the third and final one in.
"Oh! By all means…. Finish downloading
our files, please… take all you like…. There’s the silver in the dining
room, and fine China in the cupboard… take whatever you want… because
you’re not leaving this building ALIVE!" The voice screamed at her just
as she reached for the last disc….
And the far wall exploded inwards,
showering her with debris as she stuffed the last disc into the case,
gripping it tightly in her left hand as she clawed the third det-pac
from her back with her right….
Turning toward the opposite wall… " Oh
gods!" She managed to gasp, her finger twitching, activating the device,
and she tossed it as if it were a shuriken.
To bounce harmlessly off her opponents
chest…. It didn’t even give it a glance as its energy crystals began to
glow as it built the charge for a lethal blast.
Her hand slipped behind her back….
Closing on the last thing she had placed there…. Tugging it loose as her
fingers wrapped around the smooth plastic cylinder, bringing it around
in front of her… time seeming to draw out, each second seeming an hour…
and then her thumb depressed the button on the detonator.
The Jungle….
Nova Blaze slashed through the latest
attacker just as the ground shook violently, he looked up and felt his
heart congeal into a lump of ice in his chest…. The base was burning….
Three separate fireballs bloomed from its superstructure, much of the
building caving in on itself.
He spun towards Black Nova and pointed…
"That a good enough signal?" He managed, his voice tight with sudden
worry as he took a running leap into the air, not even waiting for a
response as he went in support of his sister in case something had gone
wrong… Black Nova and Ninja following right on his heels.
The Void…
Light… light in the void…. An
impossibility… yet it existed…. It bathed the traveler in a deep blue
radiance, his armor’s reflective surfaces shimmering in the glow.
The Intellect detected the light… yet
it’s sensors told it that nothing was there…. It checked itself for
damage…. Found none… checked its sensor… found none…. It’s decision
made… it headed for the light. The pinprick of intense radiance burning
like a star in the night… it’s speed slowly increasing….
The Intellect had no concept of relative
distance… it only knew that an unforeseen event such as this, might
offer a means of solving its problems…
And so… it went.
Back in the Material plane…
Starfire felt a giant’s fist snatch her
up and propel her backwards through the screen and corresponding wall as
the device went off, the concussion wave blasting her out of the
building, into open air. Shards of glass and stone filling the air
around her.
She allowed gravity to claim her,
pulling her free of the smoke of the explosion, before she began to slow
her descent, she shook her head, still a little dazed by what had just
happened…. She had reacted without any forethought… no planning.
Suddenly her hyper senses went
absolutely nuts, and once again she reacted to it’s warning immediately,
letting gravity pull her down once more, barely avoiding the energy
blast that flared through the spot she had just occupied.
She sensed the ground approaching behind
her and swivelled, planting her feet on a half toppled pillar, and
executing a backwards flip to land on her feet, knees giving to take the
impact of landing at speed, as the pillar crashed to the ground fully.
Starfire looked up just in time to see
her adversary drop below the level of the smoke… She got to her feet,
knowing she was in rather over her head, as the Bio-titan settled to the
shattered pavement and rubble.
The explosion had not been damaging to
either of them, but it had provided some benefit, it had essentially
moved the battlefield outside, the base was in ruins, she must admit,
she had a little more respect for those little explosives… they packed
quite a punch.
Much of the squat symmetrical central
structure had collapsed in on itself, leaving only a small section of
the building still standing, the different levels clearly seen, right
down to the piles of blasted and shattered rubble at it’s base.
The outer walls were essentially
untouched, save for one section near the river, where the earth had
cratered into a massive sinkhole, taking a long section of the barrier
with it. The results of the explosive she had left in the subterranean
water treatment plant.
These thoughts passed through her mind
in a brief second, before her attention was again focused on her
opponent… a Bio-titan, this one was oddly different from the others she
had seen, it’s armor was a deep, almost maroon color, giving it a
particularly evil look.
Bio-titan; Heavy duty energy shielding,
energy powers that rivaled a zoalords, an accelerated healing ability
that made complete destruction the only way to beat them.
She allowed herself a small tight smile,
the commander of this base being a Bio-titan was a wicked surprise, but
at least there was only one of them. Her hyper senses gave her just
enough warning to dodge as another energy blast tagged the ground where
she had just stood, raising a fountain of dust and debris, she rolled,
taking the impact across her back, using her arms to push off from the
ground to come to a landing on her feet, she had just enough time to
utter a short string of curses, as the second Bio-titan rose out of the
billowing smoke…. Things had just heated up a bit.
A moment later, she had given herself
completely over to her combat instincts, dodging energy blasts,
returning them, looking for openings for attack, which were difficult to
find…. And chances for escape… which were nonexistent.
A Bio-titan had the speed and firepower
to seriously damage her if she tried to run… and two of them would have
no problems killing her if she fled… so she concentrated on being more
mobile then they could be… trying to outlast them, until the help she
knew was on its way arrived.
The Void…
The Intellect finally detected its
objective. The object, still many light seconds distant, read as a small
nearly spherical object of unknown origin or capability, its energy
emissions defied the Intellects scans…
The Intellect experienced a pulse of
<Concern//Curiosity> at an inanimate object that it could not quantify,
it contemplated the wisdom of approaching such an object, but at its
current rate of power drain… it had no alternative, perhaps it’s energy
could be adapted to prolong existence until a solution could be
discerned.
Suddenly a reaction from the object was
detected, an immense shockwave rippled through the void, sending the
traveler into an out of control spin, The intellect managed to regain
control, but became aware of an intense attractive force being exerted
upon itself, it’s speed towards the object increasing at an incredible
rate…
And in its weakened state… it could not
halt the progression, it began to gather its resources for whatever was
to come.
The Battlefield…
Nova Blaze sped towards the base, his
hands clenching into fists as he saw the flares and flashes of energy
fire… the evidence of battle taking place…. He realized he was clenching
his jaw and forced himself to relax… he would be no good to his sister
if he showed up without a plan, but.. the thought of her down there in
that firestorm drove an icy wedge deep into his heart.
<Keilynn… Sister, can you hear me? >
His call went unanswered, but he felt a
burst of anxiety and intense concentration that mirrored his own, she
was in trouble…. She needed him. His speed increased, the air whistling
around him as he approached the speed of sound.
Ninja followed closely behind his
friend, keeping pace with the Nova Guyver, his own worries kept under
firm control, the thought of Starfire being in there alone ate at his
calm like searing acid… his attention was so focused on the still
distant battle that he almost missed the energy surge from the forest
below. Even then, he barely had time to slam his shoulder into Sai’s,
sending the Nova Guyver careening to the side before the world was
engulfed by searing energy.
"Ninja!" Screamed Nova Blaze as he
watched his friend caught in an incredibly powerful energy blast…. As
the beam faded, he watched in horror as the blackened and burnt body of
the Ninja Guyver dropped silently towards the forest. "No!" He shrieked,
diving towards his fallen comrade as the forest below erupted with the
airborne forms of Chronos Bio-titans.
One of them blocked off his path to the
severely injured Ninja, but he didn’t care, he drove into it like a
linebacker, knocking the neo-hyper zoanoid backwards, he fired three
Fusion enhanced pressure cannon blasts into the Bio-titan, the first
slamming into its armored shoulder, nearly blowing off its right arm,
the other two spattered off its powerful shields as the zoanoid
activated them.
The Bio-titan began to gather the energy
for his counter attack just as he was consumed in the fiery blast of a
mega-smasher. His shields resisting the awesome power of the blast for a
second, before failing, his body incinerated in the beam of tremendous
energy.
Black Nova closed her chest plate, and
dodged the slashing blades of another of the creatures, falling
backwards and bringing her right knee up to slam into the monsters face,
before she spun around laterally and spin kicked him into another
Bio-titan. Giving her enough time to mind send to Nova Blaze, <Sai, You
can’t help Ninja… if he’s alive, I’ll find him, as soon as I take care
of these things…. If he isn’t… he’s beyond help…… you have to help
Keilynn… think about it…. If they’ve fielded enough of these things to
set this big a trap, how many is she up against? >
She watched Nova Blaze’s head turn down
to look at her, yet still he didn’t move…. She summoned all the command
she could into her next mental shout.
< GO! >
She gave a soft sigh of relief as the
Nova Guyver overcame his hesitation and executed a midair flip, blasting
off towards the base, a Bio-titan right on his tail…
Black Nova disappeared into a wormhole,
reappearing an instant later just behind Nova Blaze, allowing the
Bio-titan to run directly into her fist, she felt exoskeleton crack from
the force of the blow, the zoanoid’s forward motion arrested
immediately, he fell back from her in shock, as she opened her hand, and
blew his head off with a pressure cannon.
Two down….. She mega-smashed the falling
corpse to make sure it stayed down, looking up at her opponents… Seven
to go. Her eyes flared brightly, as did her shoulder crystals. "Time to
get busy." She growled to herself as she flung herself towards the first
zoanoid, vibrational swords extended as a harsh battle cry rose in her
throat.
Nova Blaze sped towards the base, barely
two minutes had gone by since the explosions had rocked the ground, and
in that time, Ninja had been taken out, maybe even killed, while saving
his life…he fought to contain his growing rage, this had seemed almost a
game… until now… now it was very, very, real.
Ahead of him that battle raged, behind
him the battle raged… this was war, and anything could happen in war,
there were not always happy endings...
The Base…
Starfire dropped down behind the pile of
rubble, her left leg giving out, dropping her to one knee as she panted
desperately from breath, her arms scorched in many places from close
calls with energy blasts, her wounds were healing, the vicious leg
injury she had sustained a few moment before was almost closed.
"Guyver… You cannot win, you’re
outclassed, outgunned.. Admit it… you’ve lost…. Surrender and I will
spare your life, Chronos would rather have a living Guyver, than a
smouldering corpse… deactivate the unit, and give yourself up."
It was the same voice she had heard over
the speaker phone, now warped by the zoanoids transformation, but still
recognizable. She knew the other lurked somewhere near.. and she knew
this was a trap, if she stepped out now, they would most certainly kill
her… of that she had no doubt… all they wanted was a clue as to her
location.
Her breathing had slowed, though she was
beginning to feel the strain of this fight, her wounds were healed, but
she knew that so were theirs… one Bio-titan she stood a decent chance
against…. But two of them were simply too much for her like this.
Slowly she got to her feet, ignoring the
fatigue building like a knot in her belly, right next to her growing
fear that maybe she wasn’t going to make it out of this… she had seen
the flares of the battle raging elsewhere… and it meant only one thing,
the others were fighting for their lives as well… this base, so
inviting, so perfect for a black ops training mission, had been a trap,
a trap so perfect, that it had worked flawlessly… and here she was, left
without any backup, faced with a pair of the most skillful Zoanoids she
had ever met, her unit gave her an edge in mobility and durability, but
their martial skills matched her own, they had trained a long time to
get them.
A pair of plasma balls streaked out of
the dust laden air, and she rolled to the side as they impacted the pile
of rubble, showering her with stone dust and chips of shattered rock.
"She’s over here!" She heard a hideously
warped feminine voice shout… the other Bio-titan coming into view, it
was less stocky, more lithe than was normal for a Bio-titan, and it knew
it, using it’s increased mobility to it’s advantage, whereas the others
carapace was a deep dark red, this one’s shaded more into the crimson
and scarlet, just as sinister looking as the first.
Starfire charged the Bio-titan, her
vibrational swords flashing out into the hazy air as she swiped her
blade forward, only to hear the scream of sonic protest as it met the
zoanoids only blade, and it was all slashes, cuts, blocks and parries.
Both combatants seeming a spinning, churning whirlwind as they moved
across the devastated foundation of the base.
The Nova Guyver felt her blade bite, a
missed block had allowed her to score a blow to the creatures chest, a
gout of blood and a deep rent in that tough armored hide the result,
whirled to her right, she forced the wounded zoanoid to duck beneath the
swipe of her blade, even as she brought the opposite vibration sword
down towards it, only the zoanoid wasn’t there anymore, Starfire felt
her feet suddenly knocked out from under her as the Bio-Titan swept her
legs almost gracefully from beneath her.
She absorbed the impact with the ground
already rolling, regaining her feet in a combat crouch as she prepared
to leap once more at her enemy.
But the zoanoid had enough close combat
and returned to its original strategy as it leveled a withering energy
beam at her, making her leap behind another collection of stacked rocks
to escape it, or almost, she felt her left arm clipped in the attack,
suppressing the white hot spike of pain as the armor withered and
blackened, she cursed, she had yet to engage that zoanoid without taking
more damage then she gave.
She barely had time to roll back to a
crouching position behind the rocks before she sensed the Bio-Titans
combining their energies for a power attack upon her. Unable to move
away in time, she quickly raised her shield and focused all her
remaining power forward, just as the Bio-Titans energies lashed out at
her. . . The Blast was blinding bright and only lasted a second but was
long enough to blast a small crater into the ground before her and knock
down her shield as the force of the blast slammed her backwards through
the air.
And then suddenly she sensed the rapid
approach of the other Bio-Titan an instant before she felt a heavy blow
like a pile driver against her back, forcing her down into another pile
of rocks, quickly followed by a massive hand that closed about her right
forearm, and with a powerful heave, she found herself arcing through the
air, her arm nearly wrenched from the socket before she impacted the
ground hard enough to imprint a crater into the concrete… her vision
swam for a moment.. and when it cleared, she found herself looking up at
the first Bio-titan.
Instinctively she tried to slash at it
with her right arm, only to find her one good arm pinned beneath his
foot, her left still smoking and useless.
"You’ve put up a good fight Guyver." The
zoanoid spat, "But it ends now." His arm snapping up, bio energy
crackling off the blade as he prepared to deliver the final blow,
Starfire desperately fired at him with her Laser orb, but the blast of
the weapon was useless against his armor, inducing only singes that
healed nearly as quick as they appeared.
Once more time seemed to slow down, the
Bio-titans blade arcing down towards her, bathed in destructive energy,
whistling down in a lethal arc towards her… and there was nothing she
could think to do, wounded and exhausted as she was, to stop it.
"I’m sorry." She heard herself
whispering… not knowing who she was speaking to as her vision was filled
with the approaching means of her death.
"NO!"
The scream cut through the air, the cry
drowned out by the sonic boom that shook the ground a second later.
A dark blur, and an audible snarl of
extreme fury, presaged the arrival of Nova Blaze.
The blur tackled the Bio-titan even as
he brought his sword down to finish off the injured Starfire, the force
of Nova Blaze’s charge hurled them both against the side of the
building…. His snarl of rage echoing in his ears as his only thought was
to tear this monster apart with his bare hands. His body crouching on
top of the zoanoid, pinning the much larger creature to the ground as he
began punching, using all his strength to destroy this creature who had
hurt his sister.
Starfire struggled into a sitting
position, shocked beyond words as she watched her brother pummel the
zoanoid unceasingly, no skill, no training… just brute force as he
proceeded to literally beat the Bio-titan into the ground, the blows
coming hard and fast, and with seeming endless energy fueled by his
fury, the concrete splitting and cracking beneath the Bio-titan as it
was slowly driven deeper and deeper into the crater by the assault.
Suddenly her hyper sense tugged her to
the right and she caught sight of the female zoanoid rushing to assist
its fallen and disoriented comrade.
Starfire rushed to meet it, she gritted
her teeth as she raised her left arm…. Yes it was usable now… though it
still hurt like crazy.
With a harsh cry of her own, battle was
joined once more.
In the Skies…
Black Nova growled harshly as another
volley of plasma balls spattered off of her shield… from the ground, the
battle would have to look like a buzzing cloud of wasps, she fired a
pressure cannon at the offending Bio-titan, only to watch him nimbly
avoid the gravity ball…. She gave chase, only to be attacked from a
different angle by a second zoanoid, energy crackling against her sturdy
shielding as she turned, only to watch the zoanoid swerve away from her
before she could retaliate.
Her hyper senses detected something
above her and she had just enough time to look up before a Bio-titan,
drawing energy from two nearby allies, leveled a withering energy blast
at her.
With no time to think, she brought her
shield to full power as she flung herself to the side, The beam creased
her shield as she dodged, some of the energy getting through, enough to
singe the outer surface of her armor, she flipped a somersault, cursing
a long flowing string of invective spanning three languages as she
leveled a pressure cannon volley straight at the attacker, smiling in
satisfaction as he failed to move fast enough to dodge.
She watched as the first slammed into
his shield, the second caused it to collapse, and the third and fourth
tore into the zoanoid, blowing through his chest and vaporizing his arm
up to the shoulder. She reached for her chest plate to mega smash the
injured Bio-titan, only to growl in frustration as two more zoanoids
fired enhanced energy blasts at her, forcing her to dodge, and watch in
frustration, as the bio-titan, defended by it’s consorts, healed the
damage to itself, the chest wound closing quickly, the arm slowly
regrowing.
" Shit." She spat, this was getting very
irritating…. Since her first two kills, the others had thwarted every
attempt she had made to raise the death toll… and she still had Ninja to
try and find, if he was even still alive after getting ambushed so.
She dodged another energy burst and
drove grimly forward at the zoanoid who fired it, reaching out with her
hyper senses and pinpointing the source of the next attack, she pivoted
without checking her forward motion, launching a volley of pressure
cannon shots at the Bio-titan as it gathered the energy for it’s attack,
forcing it to shield itself and dodge out of the way, as she turned back
towards the first one, her vibration blade extending as she slashed
forward, hearing the screech as her blade met the zoanoids, she executed
a spin kick, her leg battering against the side of his head a moment
before she drove her opposite elbow blade through its skull with a meaty
crunch.
Quickly she disengaged her blades and
tore open the left side of her chest plate, mega smashing the falling
remains before dodging the renewed counter attack, more energy
splattering off her shielding, She was starting to get very annoyed
now….. Her quantum singularity extended her stamina to almost infinite,
but at this rate, she’d be here for eternity.
The counter attack grew fiercer, and
suddenly she found herself caught in a crossfire from multiple
directions… the Bio-titans circling on all sides, above and below,
hemming her in as they hammered away at her shields, each one gaining
strength from those around it. Soon her shielding was glowing so
brightly from deflected energy, that nothing could be seen through it.
She had to think of something… and Fast!
The Void…
The traveler hurled through the
emptiness, the Intellect no longer attempted to halt the forward
momentum, deeming such activity a waist of precious energy, instead it
concentrated most of it’s remaining power on erecting a protective
energy screen around itself and the host.
A variation of it’s normal shielding, it
attempted to adjust the harmonic vector of its screen to match the
energy signature of the rapidly approaching object, ascertaining that if
the vector could be tuned properly, it might negate the attraction
effect now being felt… unfortunately the frequency of the object
appeared to be in a constant state of flux. Making it impossible to hold
the proper tuning for more then a few seconds at a time.
Suddenly a flare of intense light
exploded from the object, quickly the Intellect brought it’s shielding
to full power, a moment before the gravitational shockwave slammed into
it, the shields caved in violently, the normal perfect sphere shape now
being forced inwards on the side facing the object.
The Intellect was now totally out of
it’s ken…. Never had it felt a force powerful enough to affect an energy
field in such a way… it curled the Traveler into a ball, arms crossed
over the head, legs drawn up in front of the torso, letting the
extremities provide an extra layer of armor between the unbelievable
energies coursing about it, and the more important core of the host’s
body, not to mention the control medal where the Intellect itself
resided.
It felt it’s shielding collapse, the
energy beginning to nibble away at the outer layers of armor, and it
activated a long dormant system, it’s energy collectors coming online,
the power battering against it’s outer armor began to drain through, the
Intellect attempting to increase it’s power reserves by draining a
portion of the harmful energy into the host’s inner energy stores…. It
had a moment to process < Relief/approval> that the host was not
conscious for the process, for transmuting such damaging energy was
extremely painful for the host, The Intellect, knowing little of pain
itself, other then using it to sense injury, nonetheless knew that the
host found the sensation… undesirable in the extreme.
For a few seconds the process worked,
the energy stream flowed around and through the armored form of the host
with an intense blue glow, and it felt its energy resources swelling
with new energy… then a surge of incredible power lanced through the
host’s body, and then exploded into the Intellect’s systems as well….
And then there was an occurrence it had never before experienced… it
blinked…. For a moment… it actually lost consciousness as the energy
wave shattered it’s incredibly tough defenses and triggered a full
shutdown…
It regained itself almost immediately,
to find that the energy wave had dissipated, running a quick check on
itself, it determined the damage to be negligible, it immediately
deactivated the energy collectors, deciding that the risk of a second,
possibly more powerful jolt was not to be allowed. Hurriedly it assessed
the host’s condition….. and found the entire nervous system including
the cerebral cortex had been fused.
It was not concerned, such biological
damage could be repaired without any negative effects… If no more such
violent occurrences presented themselves…
It turned its attention back to the
object before it… and it felt the manifestations of < Shock>… before its
brief loss of processing ability, it had been at least 158 kilometers
from the object…. The object that now waited barely 2 meters away…. It
checked itself again….. the downtime had lasted for only <2.3> seconds…
it rechecked and confirmed it…. It had a reasonable idea as to its speed
at the time of the attack… and it should have taken at least another
minute to reach the object.
The object now showed itself to be a
black sphere composed of some unknown material, its surface made up of
many facets, and indeed, when it scanned the object, the facets showed
themselves to be perfectly formed, to an extent which it’s logic systems
deduced to be impossible of a natural formation, the gem, for so the
Intellect designated it due to shape and construction, seemed to radiate
a sedate blue light, illuminating itself and the Traveler.
The Intellect made no move to touch the
gem, nor any action that might adversely affect the situation…. In other
words…. It kept very still. The attractive force has dissipated upon
it’s approach to the gem, and as it tried to move now…. It realized it
couldn’t, the damage to the hosts nervous system had also completely
destroyed all motor nervature… though it had complete control of the
armor, without having the host body mobile, it’s options were severely
limited.
Suddenly the gem’s light began to pulse,
a constant, rhythmic strengthening of the glow about it, each time the
light pulsed, it grew a little brighter…. The Intellect surmised it was
once again building energy in some abnormal fashion….. the purpose of
the buildup… unknown… but more then anything… the Intellect wanted to
move away from here, this artifact was too powerful for casual
observance.
It did the only thing it could, it
waited, regenerating the hosts nervous system becoming it’s top
priority, all outside stimuli being ignored as it concentrated all of
it’s faculties on it’s healing abilities.
The Ruined Base…
After the Battle, Keilynn could not have
told you the sequence of events… everything blurred together in her
mind, she dimly could recount the fight with the female Bio-titan… a
blur of slashes and blows, each of them fighting to aid their comrades.
She could here her brother bellowing in
rage behind her, then she heard the crackle of energy, and that bellow
dissolved into a choke gasp of surprised pain as the Bio-titan finally
gathered itself enough to fight back, throwing the enraged guyver
backwards with a pointblank energy blast, regaining it’s feet, battered,
but not seriously damaged.
Starfire realized her attention had
wandered as she took a heavy blow to the chest, making her stumble
backwards, she had a fleeting glimpse of her brother, his armor
scorched, facing off against the other Bio-Titan, as she herself
prepared for a second round with her adversary….. but then the world
dissolved into even greater chaos as a voice rang out in her ears, and
in her mind.
"I HAVE HAD,"
In the Skies….
"ENOUGH!!!!"
Black Nova screamed, and the shockwave
that followed her words made it seem as if they were a tangible thing.
The blast of gravitational force
exploded outward in all directions, blasting the attacking bio-titan
backwards, interrupting their assault, as the glow of weapons fire
around Black Nova faded, it revealed a sight that stopped even the
bio-titan attackers short in shock.
The Guyver hovered in the center of a
growing swirl of absolute darkness, at first it looked almost the same
as a black hole attack, but that possibility was quickly dispelled as it
grew many times faster, and many times larger then any zoalord’s attack.
Black Nova raises her arm, her hand
twisting at the wrist, starting the forces about her swirling, the
chaotic forces at her disposal flowing outwards from her body in an ever
increasing vortex.
"THIS ENDS NOW!" She snarled… hoping she
sounded confident… because she had no idea in hell what she was doing,
trusting only in her own instincts, and though not conscious of it, the
instincts of her armor… the power was flowing through her body,
crackling along the outside of her armor, so strong, almost seductive in
it’s strength, and she felt it building… building… until it suddenly
reached a plateau… and she released it.
The dark energy exploded outwards in an
ever expanding sphere, the Bio-titans, in their shock… admittedly did
the best they could… firing blast after blast of high energy into the
sphere, which simply soaked it up as easily as it seemed to drain the
light from the air…. One by one they turned to retreat, only to find
that the powerful gravitational field was too powerful for them, and one
by one they sank into the chaotic, lightless vortex, to be torn apart…
torn into pieces even smaller then their kind could regenerate from…
dispersed at the atomic level.
From the ground Black Nova and Starfire
stared in stunned immobility as they watched the sphere of incredible
gravitational force growing in the sky, blotting out the sun… an equally
stunned pair of Chronos Bio-titans watched in horror as their forces
were vaporized before their eyes.
The Novas remembered themselves before
the zoanoids did…. Turning back to the fight at hand, their spirits
revived by the display of friendly power.
<You ready, Sis?> Sai signaled his
sister mentally.
<Let’s go…. We can do this!> Came her
reply.
They both lunged for their enemies…… yet
were stopped in their tracks by a sudden shriek of agony… their hearts
turning to ice in their chests as they turned towards the source of the
screams. . . The screams of Black Nova!
To be continued...
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