RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 10] - Lock Up The Wolves

Luca was making his run back towards the group, pulling out his grenade launcher to bear alongside his shotgun, holding onto the larger weapon with his off hand. He idly wondered if Chisato could dodge both of these, and figured that there was only one way to find out. "I'm coming!" He announced as he ran back, the look on his face was beleagured and annoyed by Chisato's cheek, "Go, go, GO!" He couldn't spot Mr. Smith and wondered where he went.

And then Smith came back, with five metres of Origin Industries-brand deadliness. Luca couldn't help but grin, reminding himself why he let Mr. Smith onto the crew despite professional differences. In metric terms, the Crooked Demon was barely two metres tall standing straight, and was overshadowed by the Yami NekoNeko decorated LEAF.

Smith's opening volley was able to further unbalance the Crooked Demon as its dwindling shields were unable to absorb the hits. However, the position of the pilot at the very back of the armour meant that there was still a lot of armour between it and the LEAF. It retaliated by chasing after and closing the gap with the LEAF, attempting to claw it up in a melee whilst firing its shoulder mounted crude Aether weapon at it, "No!" Chisato yelled, "Its a trick! Get back here!"

-

Zeta was about to go against the demonic Power Armour, but Smith luckily showed up in time with his tiny mecha. A Tiny mecha which still towered above the Crooked Demon. That meant that Zeta had her hands free to go help Luca. She ejected the battery of her Fat-boy and put in a new one. She then noticed something interesting: A breach-loaded grenade launcher in the hands of men, whose had she caved in with her fist just few seconds ago. Zeta smiled, took it and loaded it with concussion on grenade on the man's belt.

"Hmf," Chisato sighed, looking over at the two giants fight it out, and realising that her contingency had been comprimised, "Really, you'd set a small robot to try and kill me?" She pondered aloud whilst swaggering towards the little droid and looking down at it with her Katana pointed towards it. "Or is it sending itself to its own death, fed up with living its artificial life under someone else's thumb?"

"Ernie is fulfilling its function. For honorable combat, Ernie suggests you prepare to meet your end." the robot replied.

"There is no such thing as honourable combat, robot," She replied coldly, rebuffing the small robot's brave charge and dishonouring it, "It is only a delusion of people like yourself, and things like you."

"Ernie sees you do not subscribe to Yamataian duelling codes. Very well, Ernie will allow others to assist." the robot said, it's single eye tracking back to Luca in a blur before refocusing on the neko.

"That's more like it!" Luca yelled aloud. Chisato gave Luca a glare as he approached with his grenade launcher at the forefront. She made a grunt and raised Yuki's katana, and Luca was able to interpret this as a tell, and grinned.

Time slowed down. Luca fired the grenade launcher with one hand as the woman slid towards him upon the forces of vengeance. The weapon recoiled upwards and Luca tossed it up into the air before twirling his shotgun to his hip and firing his shotgun at her. He could see each pellet connecting with her as she continued her inexoriable journey as an unstoppable force towards the Captain. Time resumed and Luca found himself face to face with the Nekovalkyrja - and she had a burning Katana in her hands. Unfortunately in his haste, the grenade he fired had sailed right past her and landed behind her, exploding.

"Sod off!" came shout from very close. Zeta stood there, grenade launcher in her right hand and fat-boy in her left. She fired from up close. Grenades tends to explode only after covering certain distance. When the distance is not enough it would just become a very big bullet with a lots and lots of force. And Zeta fired all that force on the Neko when she was not paying attention.

Hit him, or block. Hit him, or block. Hit him or dodge. She seemed to be in the zone for longer than Luca could muster at any one time. She followed through with her attack and found that it was knocked off course by Zeta's giant bullet from a fatal hit to a glancing blow, that cut into the breastplate off of Luca's WIND, leaving a perfect lateral cut across its surface, burnt with the plasma that seeped off of the blade.

While her Katana was to the side, Luca released his grip on the shotgun and tried to make a grab for the katana by grabbing her right arm which controlled the sword and kneeing her in the chest with the armour's assisted strength. His other hand tried to pin her left arm against her, but he was met with resistance, and he found himself in a tie-up as the blade was slowly starting to point back towards him. He could feel the heat of the crackling plasma through his armour.

Ernie was slow to catch up, but leapt into the fray. The wrapped its legs around the neko's waist, piggyback style, its small blade catching the neko's with the end and pulling back. The other hand with its pistol meanwhile pressed itself against the back of the neko's neck.

Ernie would find that his blade, after catching Yuki's Katana for a moment, would start to move through the other, slowly getting cut by the zesuaium. It did provide some resistance and his piggybacking gave Luca enough opening to wrestle it out of her hands. He threw it away. Chisato then put her arms up and grabbed Ernie, then swung him over her head and at Luca, who was knocked to the ground. Ernie fired the pistol as it was grabbed, but its aim was thrown off, the bullet grazed her neck and burned the skin from the muzzle flash instead.

"Do you think I only fight with that exclusively?" She asked the flattened Luca, who grunted in reply as he tried to get back on his feet with the robot on top of him.

"Do you think I care?" Came question from Zeta. The Grenade Launcher was lying on the ground by now and fat-boy was slung on the nepleslian womans back. In her hand was the fire-axe she nicked of the Big Bird. Without saying much more she moved forward, axe in her cybernetic hand raised abover her head, her left arm in front to block any incoming attack. She knew it was foolhardy letting the enemy know she was attacking, but for some reason she also thought that it would not be as exciting too.

Two steps forward and Zeta was at the neko, her axe swinging down at high speed. Zeta frowned as she put everything there was in her mechanical arm to kill the woman. To protect Luca.

"Maybe not." Chisato replied as she leant back to avoid the axe, and countered by attempting to backhand her in the face. Zeta could see minute spikes protruding from her knuckles. Luca was still getting up and groaning as he watched Zeta and Chisato duke it out.

"Ernie's chassis was not built for this function." the robot replied on top of Luca, its eye looking at him before turning back to Chisato. Suddenly it turned back to Luca, "Ernie believes unintended use of chassis may be advantagous, but risks voiding of warranty." Luca grunted and realised that the downwards force had damaged his Grapple Stunner on his right hand. Electricity arced off of it.

Zeta leaned to the site attempting to avoid the fist. She was able to slip the punch by leaning forwards and to the side. Zeta started raising the axe again, noticing new way for enemy to be deadly. So this neko was like Naoko. Zeta thought many time in past, how to kill Naoko if she would become too chaotic, too loose. In most of the cases, she figured she would need either power armour or a trap. Right now she had neither so there was nothing else to do then fight with all she got. GUTS! If you don't have the tech you need the guts. Luca taught that to Zeta long time ago. WIth that in mind Zeta shouted a battlecry and swung her axe again.

Chisato threw a right hook at the head of the axe, and parried the blow with her 'bare' hand, which was now looking decidedly bladelike as thorny protrusions poked through the synthetic skin. The force of the blow was enough to send a hairline crack down the shaft of the axe. As she pulled her hand back to go in for another strike, she would find that Ernie had pounced on her - again.

Luca, meanwhile, was checking his Grapple Stunner. It was obvious that the grappling hook's reeling mechanisms were damaged, but its conveyance of electricity was not. He watched the piton emit sparks of electricity and had an idea as he watched the melee, waiting for an opening.

As Ernie flew through the air it slashed its damaged sword at Chisato's raised arm, cutting into it, but she seemed undaunted by the weapon, and again Ernie grappled onto her. "I thought I got rid of you," She mumbled as she tried to pry the errant robot off of her, then had an idea. She leapt up into the air and kept her grip on the robot, trying to weaponise it again. When she reached the plateau of her jump, she suspended herself in the air for a moment and made a sudden swerve towards Luca.

Several meters away mechanical fingers wrapped around the hilt of katana laying on the ground. They carressed it for a while before the katana was lifted.

However, the downwards force she'd put on herself had made Ernie's dagger cut through her wrist, and shook off Ernie, leaving him beholden to the planet's gravity, and not to her's. He hung in the air for an uncomfortable moment before time slowed down again. Luca looked up and found Chisato flying towards her as he was trying to get his Grapple Stunner figured out. Then it all fell into place what he could do with the broken grappler.

Lightning was the ultimate interplay of the four classical elements: The Wind moves the clouds and droplets of Water. Fire streaks through the sky as it tries to find the shortest route to Earth. "Phoenix..." He grunted as he crouched down and his facial features grew tense. He then leapt into the air as his right arm became what looked light a bolt of lightning in an uppercut. "PUUUUUUNCH!!"

Chisato's stump of a wrist was in the process of growing into a shard of metal as Luca made his sudden ascent. She hadn't expected him to counter like this, and counted on him merely dodging her on the ground. Luca's blazing fist connected with her midsection. Her back could be seen visibly deforming from Ernie's viewpoint from the force of the punch alone. An almighty crack could be heard as she flew upwards sheathed in electricity. She hit the ceiling and stayed there for a moment as Luca started to come back down, attempting to catch Ernie on the way down.

He was ignoring how his right arm was now on fire, and burning him, "Ernie! I got you!" He yelled as he held his arms open for the falling robot. The robot remained silent as it was saved from a nasty set of dents by its ankles. Luca landed on the ground and then looked back up: "THIS is the power of the ISC Phoenix!" He proclaimed, "Still think you're hard enough?"

Chisato remained on the ceiling. She kept her gaze focused on Luca purely as she could be heard giggling. Luca blinked as her giggling started devolving into a hysterical laughing fit. Her two arms had now turned into blades of something, and her midsection wobbled as it repaired itself from Luca's huge attack. Clearly something had been knocked out of her and it wasn't coming back.

Luca gulped, "Well, that's not freaky." He sarcastically stated as he watched Chisato shift and roil, resolving herself into some kind of dew on the ceiling and completely lost her marbles. Luca could see drips of blood fall down and stood back from them, concerned that they were acidic or something.

"Hey Boss," Zeta asked walking towards Luca, looking at the thing at the ceiling. "Why don't we ever meet someone nice and everyone has a tea together." She asked and snickered. The blade of the Zesauium katana was drawn along the surface of the concrete, leaving nasty streaks along the surface.

"If it's not too much trouble..." Ernie enquired as it was held upside down by the ankles by Luca, its arms crossed patiently to be released on the ground. Luca obliged by lowering him down slowly and lying him down on the floor without taking his eyes off of the thing on the ceiling. The robot bent at the waist and picked it self up as it dusted off like little had happened. "Ernie suspects the enemy is not the only one with abnormal cognitive functions at this time." it said, eyeing the stolen katana.

"Shit, shit, shit! I only drove one of these during the employee training!" Smith swore inside the mini-mecha.

*****

Wheels continued to screech as the LEAF continued to accelerate backwards, motors revving hard to keep the Crooked Demon out of reach as much as possible. As the smaller enemy closed the distance and lashed out with wickedly bladed fingers, the LEAFs left hand, armed with the lesser autoloader fitted revolver, swept out.

The hand slapped at the slashing paw, brushing it aside as a knife fighter would parry a knife's swipe with their off hand - metal briefly screeched as blades met armor, only to be deflected by this countering blow from the purple mech. This series of parrying slaps continued as the LEAF continued to fire its Plasma Rifle and Electro-Laser at point blank range, sacrificing its less useful hand and forearm in the process.

((OOC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1fZxIX0psU - This is your Combat Music.))

The roiling mass on the ceiling still had one fixed feature amongst its ever shifting visage: A face. A face of uncanny hate and rage for the defiant man standing underneath it. "Do you like what it's done to me?" She asked, her voice sounding like several. She moaned with a tremor in her voice before continuing, "The limitations of my body have been overcome."

"Yeah but you fell out of the ugly tree and bought the whole thing with you," Luca was quick to retort from below, giving her a pointer finger, "What -are- you doing anyway? Are you content to stay up there in a puddle of..." He looked down paused for a moment to think of a word: "Yourself?"

"It's simple!" Chisato was happy to reply from elsewhere, perhaps even truthfully, "I'm a distraction!" Luca looked up and found that she was no longer there. He suddenly felt the air rend around him and a cut came across his cheek, sending a streak of scarlet into the air. Was this a warning shot from the viscous, vicious woman; or did Luca's subconscious moving mind turn a lethal gash into a small cut?

Either way, he couldn't see her, and that already meant that he was at a disadvantage unless... he... focussed.

Sebastian moved beside him, and Joe shimmered into view beside Luca, causing the Pavone men to have their backs to each other and watching each other's flanks for the now solid-liquid lady.

"So, brother," Joe asked, his voice seemed to have regained some clip, and he'd stopped bleeding. In place of his oversized sword, he'd taken something smaller and more practical: An Aether Sabre at full juice. "Any ideas?"

"You're supposed to be the one with information on this mole, did you expect her to pull this out of her arse?" Luca retorted while scanning the area, feeling the blood roll down his cheek.

"Pack it in you two!" The father said to his sons, making his mechanical arm's joints and muscles whirr in anticipation, "Joe. Scroll through all the scanners you can think of to get a handle on this woman. Luca, get another... Phoenix Punch ready."

"Yes, father."

"Gotcha, pops!"

As Luca wondered exactly what he was dealing with, some memories started to come back to the Captain...

Stormin' the Castle said:

The explosion was a powerful one, and this was with the help of physics. When an explosion happens in an atmosphere, the initial shockwave made dissipates fairly quickly. However, in a liquid, like Fusion, the shockwave stays constant as it ripples through the beast.

This blew a large section of the gelatinous monster away, not only into the sky, but also across the room - but the blob thrown a way from the monster was harmless by itself. Some of it got splashed on Luca, who was somewhat miffed off that his jacket had gotten dirty, again. He grumbled at this.
...
Two HEX beams crossed into the firmament, piercing the monster absolutely and unerringly. They continued on an arc, vaporising the beast slowly but steadily, bit by bit.

By luck, one of the beams crossed into the floating purple figure inside the goo, and tore it in two.

The blob gave a sudden quiver - froze for a moment and gave one last screech...

SCRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

Click to expand...

This trip down memory lane was starting to go somewhere...

Dawning Concerns said:

Malice never saw the microwave coming, or the impressive display of initiative from Mr. Smith.
...
"Clear the area!" He ordered as Vitriol was pushed into a wall. He then proceeded to whip the loaded HHG and fire it as though it was a single-action revolver, eight times in rapid succession. Each exploding shot was spreading Vitriol's now very bruised body apart further and further. Every inch further away he was from the rest of himself was more time for reinforcements to show up.
...
The fire extinguisher's icy cold CO2 billowed about Vitriol until the device could no longer bring the contents into a gas-state, spraying out liquefied gas instead. By the time Smith tossed the Extinguisher into the trash can, Vitriol was frozen solid.
...
Without warning, four heavy backpacked men came bursting into the room via the wall. They were wearing overalls and wielding a liquid projector, and a vacuum gun each. They immediately took a look at the frozen Vitriol and Malice. They decided they weren't frozen enough.

"Freeze!" One of them said to the pair as he blasted a stream of liquid nitrogen at them. He then got the vacuum/projector gun and smashed them into a more manageable size as though he was wielding a club. After that, they proceeded to clean up what was left with the vacuums.

Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they left.

"They ain't 'fraid of no goo, are they?" Luca inquired to Mr. Smith as the sounds of car doors rapidly opening and closing could be heard, followed by a car driving off somewhere.

Click to expand...

Luca's Brain said:

Eureka!

Click to expand...

"I know exactly what we're dealing with." Luca smiled. Sebastian looked at him, blinking. "Lightning will suffice, but freezing will be grand. Explosions work too, but fire won't work. It'll only make it angry."

"The only snag in this plan is..." Joe wondered aloud as he flicked from X-Ray scanning to Infrared scanning, and coming up empty, "It'd be easier to kill if we could see it."

-

Meanwhile, the screaming had stopped outside, for there was nobody left. The only figure walking amongst the chaos almost seemed nonchallant about the whole affair, what with her being the cause of it. Many by many she'd snuffed their lives out as though she were blowing away candles on a cake.

An ear flicked as she heard the sounds of combat inside, before they stopped. Thought so. She contemplated as she looked at the warehouse where the fighting was. Then something puzzled her. There was no happy declaration of victory or one-liner from Luca. The fight was not over.

Far from it.

Chisato was just getting warmed up. Naoko could see the corpses of the cloned men she'd murdered systematically disappearing. Their blood was everywhere, but it was slowly disappearing too. Naoko's handiwork was being usurped before her eyes. Her first retort against this new-found predator was to go for the one recognisable thing on her in hopes of finding the brain and tearing it off. She flew by and came out fruitless as Chisato's form shifted about her to avoid Naoko's attack.

Chisato retorted by solidifying into a humanoid, but no less unpleasant figure and striking at Naoko with long, bony arms that seemed to sharpen themselves the faster she swung them. Naoko rolled to deftly avoid them. However, Chisato's form kept elongating to cut and strike at her. Naoko wasn't about to let this go as it was though. She fought without scruple and without honour, trying to tear Chisato apart as best as she could with a limited supply of blood to work with.

The fighting came to a sudden stop after Naoko was staggering back from a backhand crushing strike - she found that she'd been bisected by a parrying cut diagonally across the chest. She was at peace when she finally processed what was going on - there was something that was a match for her in this universe after all. It was what predators understood: Strength and capacity for violence. Her torso fell to the ground as her legs fell with her. Her life was ended with her skull being crushed into a red mess.

Instead of simply disposing of the body her own way, Chisato had come to respect Naoko as some work of art, a dying breed in a softening universe. She couldn't bring herself to get rid of Naoko's fighting body. She may even come back for seconds. She thought before shimmering out of view and running back towards the warehouse. I wonder if Luca Pavone will prove as such?

-

Mr. Smith's defensive stance against the Demon had proven effective as he deftly parried each strike with the backs of the LEAF's hands as though he was in a karate duel. The Crooked Demon's broken shields were unable to block the electrolasers and plasma as they continued destroying the inner workings of the Demon.

He found that the Crooked Demon had stopped moving purely out of mechanical failure. Simply too much of its hull had been destroyed, and its servos were now useless for combat.

However, Mr. Smith couldn't savour his victory for long as his AI's scanners picked up something large heading towards the compound, but it wasn't another Mecha or a battalion of armour. Sensors identified it as... organic.

-

"There she is!" Joe spun around and pointed towards a figure in the horizon running towards the warehouse. Joe made a misjudgement: As she got closer, it became clear that Shimada Chisato was no longer constrained by humanoid limits. She seemed to be about ten feet tall, and she seemed unnaturally rubbery and lithe in spite of her size. Joe bought his Aether Sabre up in a combat stance, "Has she grown?!"

Luca put a hand to his ear and went onto the comms, "Naoko, can you see her? She's got her back to you!" There was no reply, "Naoko? Do you copy?" He asked again, and he was met with radio silence. A gut feeling formed in his stomach as Chisato got closer and closer. Sebastian raised his revolver at the woman and started firing.

"Naoko, come in! Please!" For once, Captain Luca Pavone was at a loss as it all came together and hit him like a wrecking ball to his feelings. Naoko Aihara wasn't just a tactical asset to Luca, she was also a counsel for his behaviour and a figure as close to a therapist as he'd allow. It was only a week ago that he'd expressed his carnal gratitude towards her.

He was about to crumple, but he wondered: Would Naoko approve of such behaviour, crumpling when everything was on the line? He then considered: Would the rest of the crew approve of such behaviour?

And finally: Would he be able to live with himself if he did? After everything he'd done, he didn't want all of his efforts previous to come to nothing. Especially not to the hands of someone so far in his past, that he nearly forgot about her. After five long years of fighting for himself in this universe and developing contacts, crew and alliances along the way all on his own terms, was it all going to come full circle and back to this?

Back to nothing? Not now.

Sebastian's revolver was proving ineffective against Chisato's toughened skin, while Joe bought his Katana up into a defensive position and tried to parry the first strike. Luca still had no contributions at this point, still trying to come to grips with the first major loss the Phoenix had sustained.

He decided to express his feelings by breaking formation with his family and rushing ahead with his right arm blazing. He didn't yell the catchphrase as his arm turned into a thunderbolt for a split second as it connected with Chisato. The half Nekovalkyrja, half Bioweapon woman paused for a moment and looked down on him, apparently unfased by the punch.

"I can adapt." Was all she said before bending down and attempting to grab Luca, "You never fought the virus when it was with an ideal, truer, stronger host." Luca managed to evade her grasp by rolling between her legs. His right arm still crackled with electricity as he pulled his HHG out and pointed it at her, "Your killing machine had no last words. I wonder if you will?"

Joe tried to move in with his Aether Sabre, but found that he was parried by an offhand strike from Chisato. Joe was quickly able to adapt and turned his blade to cut off Chisato's hand. It grew back before him as the severed hand fell to the ground and melted into blood.

"Humour me and my audience: Is this what happens when the Virus gets a Nekovalkyrja?" Luca inquired as he fired a RED shot and missed, instead tearing a hole in some factory machinery.
"Humour me and die, whelp." She tried to swing at him, she missed as he rolled out of the way.
"Oh, tough crowd. Let me narrow it down:" He got some distance on the woman, "Is this about you, me, the Goban, or Nekovalkyrja supremacy?" He wondered aloud as he fired two more shots. One of them hit her in the chest and exploded, sending a spray of blood on the ground. Luca needed to get something that froze quickly.

Sebastian stayed back and pulled the GP-12b off of his shoulder and double checked the magazine. It was full. He hadn't fired this one yet and he relished the fact that energy weapons were a tadge more effective. He fired the weapon with one arm in short bursts at Chisato as his sons fought her close up. Where is Yuki? He wondered, She can't be late.

Other crew members would notice fire extinguishers in the corners of the room.

Cold.

It felt...so cold.

The feeling in his chest was almost as if his heart was skipping beats, perhaps even given pause and stopping for what felt the longest of times. And the weight on him - it never did change. It suffocated and crushed the same as it did then. Smith simply sat within the LEAF as the color drained from his face. That scene in his mind...it was so different and yet so similar to what he was seeing right now. What he just saw.

Was it surprise? Resignation? Acceptance? The now was just like then.

He'd never know.

*****

A dark shadow in the bright light, the LEAF opened fire from the doorway with its arsenal of weapons; lasers leaped out to mop up whatever smallest bits tried to flee while cannons took chunks out of the outer mass, working its way in like a child taking bites out of a massive cookie. Meanwhile, heavy feet slowly stomped closer and closer, a flat tire dragging as it neared just enough, but not too close.

With a foe like this, the little frame, charred black from the fight, did everything it could to simply contain this abomination for as long as possible - this stony faced LEAF knew it couldn't do much else. He didn't have the heart to anymore. Not right now. So he started shooting and just kept on shooting, weapons beginning to glow from the excess heat.

Ernie felt something die in its mind.

It had been there, the droid had even grown used to it, but now it was gone.

The was a whirr as the droid had to think by itself again, and it ran off outside to the scene of carnage where Naoko had fought. It found the smear that was most likely her. It stared at the scene with its mono-eye, the little lens shuffling more frantically than usual before it turned to see Chisato.

It ran off again. Plucking one of the fire extinguishers from the wall as it did so, and carrying it above its head with both arms. The droid ran up behind Chisato.

"Catch." it said simply, its voice amplified as much as it could.

It threw the extinguisher.

Zeta and Naoko were not always at the best terms, but that did not mean she would wish her death. No one should be killed by monster like this. Zeta was more than sure that the beast had to surprise the neko, because she saw Naoko fight, and in fair one on one combat this beast would loose. But Naoko was wounded and probably lacked enough hemosynth. That thing just went to dispose of her.

Zeta would not forgive that. Member of the Phoenix Crew was killed. That was something unthinkable. Unbearable. Chisato won't be forgiven. She must die. It seemed that Zeta was not only one to think that way as Ernie rolled back in the warehouse, shouting and throwing the extinguisher at the beast. Zeta just lifted corner of her mouth in grinny smile.

"Sod off!" She said, the flaming katana in her left hand she quick-drew her man-cannon lining a shot at the flying Extinguisher. As it flew and neared Chisato's face, the revolvers iron-sights locked on it and Zeta pushed the trigger. The cock of the weapon flew forward hitting the cartridge. Payload in the casing exploded and send the massive bullet flying as it got rotation while moving through the barrel. It left the weapon soaring through the cold air on its way. To hit the extinguisher, de-pressurize it and make it explode in the monsters face, spraying it with its cold content.

In reality, fire extinguisher chemicals were pressurised carbon dioxide and flame retardant powders. It is possible to chill a few bottles of beer using it, but it's way too costly. Similarly, it is possible to suffocate someone on the chemicals and powders, depending on what's inside - since fire extinguishers could contain water, powder, carbon dioxide or any mix of the above and more. Good for fighting fires, not monstrous abominations.

But, this is not reality. Far from it! This is a ripping good yarn. The fire extinguisher burst open as it dispersed its freezing contents. As fires got hotter and harder to extinguish in the future, so did the retardant materials - the liquid nitrogen derived chemicals splashed all over Chisato's roiling form and froze her face almost instantly.

The power of team work and very quick thinking was at play here, with assistance from Mr. Smith's lasers and gauss weapons slamming into her. They were merely being absorbed and assimilated where it was not frozen, but where it was, chips and chunks were flaking off of Chisato and resolving themselves into a black dew - now useless.

A good few kilos of materiel from Chisato were removed, but the brain was yet to be harmed. The rest of her body took a hold of the crystallised ice and launched it like a giant, solid projectile at Mr. Smith's LEAF, then whipping a tendril at Joe, who was slammed against the back wall of the warehouse by the force of the impact.

Time slowed down once more for Luca, and his vision sharpened. Somewhere in that translucent mess that was Chisato, he could see something illuminated by the hot Delsaurian sun. Something like a core: a brain. The face on her was just that: A face. A distraction.

How would he get it out? It was obviously the most vulnerable part of her, in the very middle of her.

Why, to reach out and grab it, of course!

Luca looked at his right arm, and the Grapple Stunner on it. There was a slight problem though: The Grappling Hook's mechanisms were buggered, and he needed to fix and replace them, perhaps sacrificing his ability to perform that insane punch of his.

"Someone cover me, I need to fix this!" He yelled to the others and crouching down to find the replacement parts, "I've got an idea!"

Sebastian stood over him with a fire extinguisher that he'd fetched instead of watching the spectacle. Chisato overheard Luca's order and tried to focus on him, sliding towards him and extending tendrils to grab him. Sebastian had none of that and started spraying the contents of the fire extinguisher above his son's head.

When the Tendrils reached the apex of their swing, the broke off where they were frozen, now turning into projectiles. Sebastian ducked under them, and grabbed his son by the collar to avoid Chisato's swinging whilst using his cybernetic right arm to hold onto the extinguisher and disperse the contents.

"C'mon..." Luca fiddled with getting the broken cable out and replacing it with a fresh one, and re-aligning the servo motors that drove the mechanisms. Electricity danced across his armoured fingers as he made the replacements.

"Don't stop, Vinny, Baby, keep going!" A prostitute had begged theatrically in YE 26.

"Don't die on me, Vince! We have to get out of here!" A Nepleslian soldier had begged the ailing conman who knew the override codes for a botched job in YE 27.

"Don't kill me, Bortelli! I'll tell you where the money is-- I'll give you my money! Just spare my life, please!" Some wannabe mob boss screamed for his life in YE 29.

"Get the fuck up. You've got work to do." Enzo heard the voice clearly in his head, as his vision flashed in and out on the cold pavement. He'd made a few bad decisions over the course of the fighting. Leaving his airbike behind, looking desperately for Naoko, looting corpses whilst the others struggled. All of his bad decisions came down on him when he discovered Naoko's corpse.

Enzo had tripped over the corpse and fallen, not to a bullet or energy blast, but of his own encumbrance onto his face and into a deep slumber. As he drifted in and out, the flashbacks were a coping mechanism. Naoko was the only thing he'd ever cared for selflessly-- something that gave him the chance to make others think he was an actual human being with all the real emotions they had buried underneath the 'tough-guy' front. Now?

He was a half-conscious grifter dragging himself off the bloody concrete on Delsauria. A tiny, insignificant little unarmored man in a fight between power armors and legendary mercenaries and wicked virii capable of rendering their hosts invulnerable.

He sure that he was way more mad than they were, though.

This was Enzo's though when, without knowing that Luca needed cover, the conman dragged himself to the other side of the warehouse with a fire extinguisher scraping the ground beneath him and lifted it high over his head. He stood when he was close enough to reach out and touch the creature that he was now labeling as 'Ruiner of Things' and shoved the fire extinguished into it, while squeezing the trigger and unleashing the ice of vengeance.

He knew then, as his vision began to solidify, that he was definitely way more mad than everyone else.

With Enzo's sudden entrance and Sebastian's fire-fighting technique, Zeta got some time to check the surroundings. Luca was fidgeting with his grappler and Ernie seemed to be preparing to jump in. There was one man who was out of the fight and that was troublesome. Zeta looked around for Joe and soon was him lodged in the wall, his head resting on his chest as he was knocked unconscious.

Zeta decided that all three men of Pavone family should be in this. She holstered her mancannon and with swift jump, powered by her Wind-suit she landed in front of Joe, grazing the ground as she slowed from the jump. She raised her right hand, freezing for a mere seconds. Luckily Joe had helmet, so using her normal hand would not do anything anyway. Zeta's power-arm moved forward, propelling her hand and her palm. It his Joe on the helmet roughly where it covered his cheek.

"HEY SLEEP TIME'S OVER!" Zeta shouted at him from up close. "WAKE UP YOU LAZY WANKER! I BROUGHT YOU A SWORD. ARE YOU GOING TO LET YOUR BABY BROTHER DO ALL THE WORK YOU SLEEPY SOD?"

The right wheel on the LEAF locked as the left foot's squealed into reverse, just as the massive hunk of frozen ice and virulence impacted - the frame careened to the side, falling to a knee as the massive strike was turned into a powerful glance. Inside, the harness held Smith in place, but he was thrown against the belts, head tossing about. Vision blurred and tongue bleeding, he focused back on the screen.

Whatever this Chisato was, she wasn't easy to kill.

But he couldn't stop here! Holstering the plasma rifle, the small frame grasped a heavy metal container and flung it at the mess the Nekovalkyrja. In a gambit to unbalance the thing, it sailed through the air at the head, the mechanical hands moving quickly to draw the rifle out again with a single hand and fire at its body, every other weapon following suit as Smith put forward everything he could.

"If we can't kill it this way, I can likely grapple and set the frame to Self Destruct," the Company Representative's voice explained calmly over their comms.

Joe was able to get his marbles back into place when Zeta had given them a temporary scattering that somehow drew them back together. He extricated himself from the indent he'd made in the wall, and grabbed his prized, plasma-spewing Katana on the way out. Zeta would notice that he was bleeding, between the plates of his armour - and yet he was still moving.

Enzo's assistance of Sebastian was able to keep the senior Pavone pulling the Junior away from harm. A pseudopod from Chisato found its way around Luca's leg and drag him out of Sebastian's grip, but Enzo was able to freeze it and enable Luca to smash it escape through the cloud of freezing flame-retardants. He came out the other side caked in the white materials and temporarily blinded, but his Grapple Stunner was fixed. He wiped his face before continuing:

"Smith, if it comes to that, I'll let you know!" He watched the huge container sail through the air and implant itself into Chisato's form. Her face twisted with visible annoyance, before Joseph sprinted and made a wide gash along her side to open her up. Sebastian and Enzo's fire extinguishers dispersed the last of their contents into this new found hole, freezing it, "I have another idea!"

Time slowed down as Luca inspected the depth of the freezing that Enzo and Sebastian were responsible for, coupled with Smith's container distraction. It was just deep enough to work and he could see what he was after.

Flicking his HHG out in a smooth motion and pulling back the hammer with his thumb, he fired and watched the RED bullet fly into the chunk of ice and detonate, sending icy shrapnel, steam and tainted water towards Luca. He felt chunks of ice melt against his face as he raised his right arm and clenched his fist, firing the Grapple Stunner's grappling hook into the now seriously disturbed part of Chisato and at her nucleus.

All in the span of about what he felt was twelve seconds, when to outside observers, it was at least two or three seconds. The nucleus was in the grip of of the Grapple stunner's pitons, but something wasn't quite right. Luca underestimated the sort of force he'd need to pull it out, and found himself being drawn towards Chisato by his own device as he tried to send shocks down it to injure Chisato. Each shock disturbed her more and more, but Luca was getting closer and closer.

In Chisato's flailing, she made a swipe for Joe and stabbed him through the chest, hurled a rock at Sebastian and hit him in the head, and a swipe for Zeta, across the room as her face screamed blue murder with each shock Luca was sending down it, amplified by the metal container Smith had thrown at it.

"C'mon!" He yelled as he kept on sending streams of electricity into what used to be her brain, sitting on his backside as he came closer, "What do you want from me!? What is your goddamned beef with me? Why have you tried to target the people I love? I don't know, maybe I don't want an answer." He was positively furious with Chisato's non-motivations, her mysteriousness and contextlessness were irritating him since the fight started, sending more and more shocks down it - enough to have killed someone three times over by now.

"But for all the shit you've given me - you've gotten something in return! Isn't this what you wanted? Is this how you envisioned your stupid 'Grand Plan'? I think not! Your plan was doomed from the beginning because of one. Simple. Fact." He dropped his HHG and pulled out his M'Cel.

"You have to deal with ME!"

He pulled the trigger and closed his eyes.

The explosion was brilliant.

Minimum safe distance be damned.

Luca Pavone found himself flying through the air in a moment of liberation, unable to hear the din of violence for a brief moment. Free of all the troubles of the world as the force of the concussive blast propelled his trip through the air, like a falling star.

He landed ten metres away, his trip having come to an abrupt stop. His sight only returned a few seconds later, and he was breathing heavily as his vision blurred.

He could hear something in his radio.

"Luca we have a fucking Cruiser incoming. I'm getting us out of here. What's your status?" It was John. He waited for a reply before trying to push him for another answer, "Luca! Are you there?"

Luca made a hacking cough and tried to stand back up, clearly unsteady on his feet. "Y-yes, what is it?" He answered, his voice clearly strained by what he'd done to himself. He looked about for any sign of Chisato. She was in many places at once, and finally gone. He clutched his chest and fell to one knee as he tried to ride out the worst of the concussive effects on his body, having quaked his internal organs. Without the WIND Armour on, he would've been killed.

"There's an NMX Cruiser coming in hot in ten minutes. I'm getting us out of here. Any sign of Yuki?" John asked over the sounds of warning sirens in his cockpit.

Luca shook his head, then realised that radios don't do gestures, "No. Can't find her anywhere, but I've found wor-" He found Joseph on the ground, face down with the Katana by his side - and he saw his father on his back, bleeding from his head, "Oh. NO."

The youngest son started staggering towards them, jaw agape and with tears in his eyes: "m-m-MEDIC! MEDIC!" He yowled as he looked to the others for some sort of consolation - unconcerned with his own injuries and his eyes wide with vulnerability, "SOMEONE! HELP!"

Allison, Echelon and Melissa had been watching the fight from afar, and came back out of the woodwork. Allison knelt down over Joe, and her body language wasn't giving Luca any reason to smile. Melissa's reaction to Sebastian seemed to be much brighter - but it was still of no comfort.

Luca came to his knees beside his brother and looked into his eyes through the helmet. "Brother..." Joe groaned as he reached up and grabbed Luca by the collar, pulling the younger brother closer as he tried to hold back his tears, "Do not... cry for me. I have... a backup. I promise... We... will meet... again..." Luca put his arm around his brother, mouthing expletives as he watched his brother's vitality fade, "Our t-time together... was... s-sweet..."

He had only known him for half an hour after so long and so far apart.

It felt like a treasured eternity.

Luca Pavone, Proud Captain of the ISC Phoenix, the Universe's Ultimate Hero, Protector of Freedom, Destroyer of Evil and King of the Impossible broke down. Despite all of those achievements, he was still a man who breathed, bled and felt.

While Luca bled and felt, Enzo was nearby practicing a similar coping tactic. Although he'd been bleeding for some time and this was nothing new, Enzo didn't typically feel. Settling on the more familiar of the emotions he'd been through, Enzo decided on anger.

His bloodlust over Naoko was the purest, cause for killing sprees that would've made the Neko proud if she'd known he were capable of them. Unfortunately for Vincienzo, there wasn't really anything left to kill except for the NMX bearing down from beyond the horizon and those spelled a defeat so certain that only a fool would brave them.

While everyone was crowding around the wounded, the smuggler-thief was crowding over the corpse of one of the fallen soldiers from the very beginning of the battle. Shaking bone-white fingers pried off the helmet and the silvery glint of a thin stiletto switchblade worked the face into a haunting Chelsea Grin. Clenched fists poured over the crown and nose, crushing into the jaw, all while Enzo shouted down at the corpse as if it would dare to resist or beg for mercy. His thumbs pressed into the eyes, his arms shook the skull against the floor; all the while the ravings of a wild beast escaped from chapped lips. Finally, covered with blackened, stagnant blood, Enzo stood and surveyed his work with a hollow stare while he lit a cigarette.

"The Lady Of The Night is closer. I'll signal her to close in and pick us up, so we don't have to move the wounded too far." Enzo said, his voice raspy from screaming death at his imaginary foe, "We can climb on board and meet the Kestrel in orbit."

With his typical colorful accent gone, it was less odd to see the least considerate of the crew offering to help; though perhaps only because of how unusual it was to hear him speak without it. Enzo ignored whatever philosophical implications were to be had by this revelation and crossed to Sebastian with his communicator beeping away in one hand.

With the whine of The Lady's engines peaking over the ridge, Enzo knelt to Sebastian and cradled his arm under the elder Pavone's head to whisper, just loud enough for him, "You can't die here yet, you old shit, you still have to tell Old Enzo who he's gonna kill for taking Naoko away."

A dull red sun burned, its surface turning into a furious orange.

Smith took a drag off a cigarette, the smoke billowing out of his nostrils as he exhaled. The Origin Representative, The Agent, The Hitman, The Suit - above all, Matthew - sat there upon the shoulder of the beaten mecha, watching Naoko headlessly lay there. It was like he was watching a downed predator, a creature that had fluttered about gleefully tormenting him like a trickster. As though still expecting a last laugh or final word from her, he sat there, weary, wary and solemn, watching, despite knowing that was not the case.

The small mecha cooled down from the fight under him.

What little moisture in the air condensed onto it's frigid hull, faint droplets pitter-pattering upon the floor as a wispy thin stream trickled down from its glowing eyes. It stood with him on its shoulder, much like a weeping statue. Was it doing what he didn't feel? Or what he didn't show? Perhaps what he simply couldn't show? In a way, he practically answered that on his own. "I never did work up the nerve to give Naoko back the dress I hemmed for her," he quietly remarked, voice darkened by the smoke.

A final drag, and the small sun hissed into oblivion upon hitting the floor, drowning in the mech's tears.

Matt turned to look at them all, waiting for the next move to be made.

Zeta stood there, watching the man she loved lost someone very dear to him. His own brother, he just been reunited with. The scene burned itself into her eyes and she knew it won't be forgotten. Never. With a deep breath, Zeta started walking to Luca. Slowly. Quietly. Not even sound could be heard in the rubble-ridden warehouse.

Reaching the fearless Captain Pavone, Zeta squated down just next to him. Her living arm moved and went around his shoulders, as her metal one slowly and carefully grabbed his shoulder. The woman embraced Luca in this way, trying to show him that he is not alone. Like this she held him, without a word.

Sebastian was unconscious, but breathing. Closer inspection by Melissa revealed that he was hit by something like shrapnel glancing across his skull, in addition to some other injuries. In spite of all of his experience and power, he was still a Nepleslian in his mid-sixties, and there were some barriers that his old age gave him.

"E's breathin'," Mel relayed to Enzo before lifting the unconscious man over his shoulder, barely able to shoulder the load, "C'mon 'n help me ya ratbag." She barked at Enzo.

Echelon looked at Luca, her singular, red Cyclopean eye staring into him. Most people assume that a robot can't learn about emotions, only giving them lip service through mimicry. She glanced to Zeta, then to Luca, and then extended a robot hand and let it rest on his head.

Luca then stood up and shook Zeta off of him, still staring into the corpse of his brother, he looked to the others, breathing hard and heaving as the tears rolled down his face. He looked down by his side and saw Yuki's monster of a weapon, lying down. He bent over to pick it up with his right hand, straining somewhat under the weight of the zesuaium, but managing to hang onto it.

He then made a cursory check of his weapons, rested his GP-1 on his left shoulder and started walking away from the warehouse, in the opposite direction as to where the Lady of the Night was coming from.

"H-hey!" Allison rushed towards him, "Where are you going, boss? Evac is-"

Luca pushed her away with his right hand and kept on walking grimly and silently towards where he imagined the Cruiser would land. All he could see before him was a vast swathe of desert beyond the industrial area, and her corpse.

Her corpse. Luca knelt down beside it and couldn't muster any more tears as he contemplated the former crew mate and muse. All he could offer her was a sigh before standing up and continuing his march.

"Come back!" Allison yelled, "Boss, we need you!"

Luca stopped and turned around, "Can't you see? I'm going to buy you guys time!" His voice had changed, it was hoarse with emotion and rage, "And I won't stop until I kill EVERY. LAST. ONE. OF THOSE ALIEN MOTHERFUCKERS." Or die trying. He didn't want to say that last addendum to his team. He had two very dear things taken away from him that day, and for what? It seemed to be all for nothing. There was no clear goal from the beginning, and no reward in the end.

Melissa then piped in, turning around with Sebastian in her grip, "You can't do all that by yourself!" Luca replied with a steel silence and a stare at his battered crew. Even from a distance, the rage could still be felt as though a sun was burning nearby. Allison backed off, and Echelon hid behind her. Melissa raised her hands defensively. "...o-okay, maybe you can - but I still reckon it's a stupid idea."

"What else can they throw at me, an Army?" Luca dared, shaking his rifle.

-

"Commander Meir'tel, we're approaching the planet. Once again, e-excellent plan on evading the Nepleslian sensor networks."
"The resistance should be light, mostly planetary defence forces. We should be able to make our message clear and run before the rest of the Navy shows up." Commander Meir'tel replied to her schmoozing subordinate, "Though, I do wonder why we were sent out to dispatch just one man, after he has been a pain in our sides for so long."

"Well commander, he gave the Drift colony an early warning and evacuation, he temporarily disrupted operations on Tami, and has smashed some of our financed front companies."

"Reason enough. But how can one person do all this? Why send an entire ship when a single assassin will do?"

"He just killed our best mole, and with it, our means of turning the war around."

-

"I'd like to see them try and stop a man over the edge!" Luca made one last retort before he trudged forward onto his self-imposed doom, ignoring the pleas of his other crewmembers.

Ernie had run to Joe's body after being called, the little robots beat up chassis and its now slightly fritzy mono-eye darted over the man's body as it tried desperately to revive him.

It applied its shock paddles, its tube and pumped his chest. It kept going until its little battery beeped in warning and it could do it no more. Ernie sat still for a second and then sat up, withdrawing its equipment. Looking at the mans face intently as it took note of the time of departure.

Ernie turned to look at Luca walking away. It was torn between two missions, Naoko with her dead-drop message, and Luca Pavone, now its master. It turned to look at Echelon and began send her all its data, with instructions to place it into a new unit if she could.

Then it trotted away to get to Luca's side. It looked up at him, its little eye shifting as it always did, fizzing out occasionally as some damaged wire sparked somewhere.

Zeta looked at Luca as he shook her arms off and got up. She saw the determined angry expression in the face. Then he wiped the tears off and Zeta new that they had a problem. It did not have to be problem of the others though. That said she should have expected this.

Standing on her feet she walked and picked up breech load grenade launcher, opening it and loading it with HE shot from one of the clones. "Matt," she turned to the Origin representative. "You get everyone to our ship. John won't have much time. I will go with Luca and make sure he survives. Don't argue with me, just do it." She said.

She then stood beside Luca and reloaded all her guns. In her pocket were few more grenades and she held the GL in one hands. Looking at Ernie she smiled a little. The three against an NMX ship. Those Squids stood no chance.

Enzo, who had started the hike towards his ship with Sebastien's legs drooped over his shoulder, was getting a little annoyed at everyone's insistence on staying with Luca on a suicidal killing spree. Part of it was his absolute disgust with kindness and compassion between these people. The other part of it was a deep suspicion that Luca Pavone would die and Luca Pavone knew he'd die, and if everyone else flocked to Luca Pavone, they would share in Luca Pavone's death. So, there was going to be all this, 'Leave me, I'll be fine!' and, 'I'll never leave your side! You saved my life!' or 'But I love you!'

"Bleh-bleh-bleh." He muttered. "It's all da biggest loads of bullshit. Man can't even plans 'is own deaf in this galaxy anymore."

The Lady Of The Night twisted around to sit in front of them, opening its maw to reveal an almost empty cargo hold. Enzo looked with remorse at the empty spot where his airbike had been parked towards the back and led Melissa towards the spot to slump Sebastian onto the empty rack before jogging back to the front of the cargo hold and slinging cargo straps out of a compartment on the wall for the borrowed LEAF. He looked back at Melissa and asked, with as much politeness as he could muster,

"Would yous kindly go up to the bridge and hop in the fire-control chair? I wanna zap that cruiser a couple o' times whiles we're zippin' past it."

It was such a small, insubstantial thing.

No bigger than his thumb, it could do so many different things. It could drape a table, act as a picnic cloth, or perhaps that thing that barbers always put on you to keep cut hair getting on your clothes. It was just a plastic sheet, neatly compressed and stored within a little wrapper. So many uses.

This time, it was Naoko's shroud.

Matt gently wrapped it around her body, covering her in the opaque white - it quickly became speckled with red as he picked her up in his arms. He wasn't leaving Naoko for the rats. Or whoever else was coming by. The...complicated relationship between them or not, he had his standards after all. As Matt stepped onto and up the mech's outstretched hand to come up upon the mech, the white shroud billowed in the faint wind, red specks dropping, coloring his suit. He did the same for Joe as well, shrouding the man, and then placing the body upon the broad shoulders of his steed.

As he rode on top of the LEAF to safety, he looked back at his sorrowful, enraged employer.

Up, and into the star-bound ship the man rode, he himself a carrier of the dead.

Luca looked down at Ernie and gave it a stern warning as the road ahead started to become swallowed by the desert, "Don't follow me. Death awaits. Follow John and the others." He'd give the robot a moment to chew on that statement before adding: "You're free. Go."

Free? From what, responsibility? That was nothing good to be free of. When you were to be free of something, you'd want to be free from things like debts, secrets, conspiracies; not duties. Duties and their hardships were what defined the people on the ISC Phoenix, but Luca's hardships were entirely different. He wasn't wrestling with a Mishhuvurthyar, he was wrestling with his emotions - and he had lost the battle. He was cursed with carrying death where ever he strode.

Ernie had no choice but to follow Luca's orders. He then looked over to Zeta. His eyes were red with tears, and twitching with unbridled rage, "Please. Go. Now. I'm begging you to stay away." He put a hand up to her and kept his distance from her. He loved her, but now was not the time - she was just too precious to see come to harm.

Zeta's lips stiffened and she frowned slightly. Her eyes looked into Luca's. "No," she said. She made a few steps closer. "I can't just let you go get yourself killed! I am your bodyguard! Remember? Just let me go with you!" Her voice was full of stress, brough by all that happened today. She did not want him to go and get himself killed. Luca was way too dear to her.

Luca stayed still for a moment to consider what she said. She was so enamoured with him that she was willing to follow him into certain death. Was it loyalty, love or something else? He wondered bitterly before turning around to her and saying: "I love you too - but I can't lose anyone else!" His voice was still hoarse with sorrow and anger, "Today I lost two people very close to me, and I don't want anyone else to die. Not even you." He then continued moving and looked up at the sky, "Go. I don't want to dig your grave too."

There were twinkling glimmers in the sky. Luca remembered what time it was. The Volcanic Rain was coming. It'd be another hour away.

Zeta moved to him, grabbing his shoulder by her left hand. "So you are going to dig your own grave?" Zeta asked and shook him slightly. "I don't want to loose you too you bloody fool! I love you and what will be there if you go get yourself killed? You are a bloody hero, but that is a bloody Cruiser we are talking about. Let me come with you!" She insisted, hoping for him to see the reason behind her thinking.

"ITS MY FIGHT!"

He roared loud enough for the entire planet to hear it. He truly was intent on exacting justice on what'd wronged him. No matter how big it was, no matter how dangerous it was, his emotions were severely clouding his judgement - but the scariest thing to consider was that Luca Pavone was, pound for pound and gun for gun, one of the most dangerous Civilians in the entire Kikyo Sector. Approaching him for a fight was tantamount to suicide, and most Intelligence agencies had him flagged as extremely dangerous - and untouchable legally in light of his past actions.

Every last ounce of strain in his voice was genuine - this was his fight, and he wasn't doing it for the excitement, or the reward. He was here for vengeance, and he wouldn't leave or allow himself the release of death until he got just that. Every last one. Dead.

Zeta was startled a little by his shout. She stayed quiet for several seconds. Her head than moved forward, she pressed her forehead against his, feeling him and his warmth. Oh, how dear he was to her and he could now disappear from her life. "I love you," she said, her eyes linking with his. "Please, please don't die. I-I-I... don't know what would I do without you." Tears started to appear in her eyes, running down her cheeks.

What would Zeta do without Luca? What would the Universe do without Luca?

There he was after his humble beginnings after the YSS Goban: No longer just a person of flesh and blood, but an idea in the hearts and minds of adoring Nepleslians and Yamataians. The idea that the Impossible was merely a challenge, and that any challenge can be overcome with enough ingenuity, firepower or boldness. Luca made one last gratification for Zeta, a parting gift. He kissed her on the lips and held her.

For her and the universe, he did make one promise. One simple but solemn promise. His voice changed for a moment - to a voice he put on for an advertisement for a television deal, an aftereffect of his legend: "Luca Pavone will return," He snorted to get the tears out of his face, "R-right after these commercials..." He then chuckled, "Hah, goodness. That's so corny. Who wrote that..."

"You idiot," said Zeta, but she smiled a little, between sniffles. She then kissed him again, before letting him go. "We will be waiting for you, for when you get back." Her words were now stronger as she wiped the tears and looked straight at Luca. She then handed him her grenade launcher. "Here have this, it will help." She said, because by any proper nepleslian logic, two grenade launchers were better then one.

He didn't have any more parting words, but all he was able to give her was one more wolfish grin before he disappeared into the desert slowly with that extra-large grenade launcher over his other shoulder. A parting smile was the one last personable thing Luca could give as the weapons-loaded man went forward to face his responsibilities.

-

The ISC Big Bird touched down next to the Lady of the Night, and it was clear that there were scratches on the paint, and parts of the hull had been chipped and smashed by missiles. And yet, it was staying together in bloody defiance of what was happening all around. "C'mon everyone in quick, one or the other we need to get the fuck outta here!" John's voice could be heard over the loudspeakers as the loading ramp to the Big Bird came down, able to easily accomodate the LEAF that was pushed out of it half an hour ago, "That cruiser is armed to the tits, I didn't have enough room to fire the Positron Cannon without hitting the planet!"

John remained at the pilot's seat and couldn't move, if he had to move, he had to make sure he was ready to go when the word was said.

Allison and Echelon made a beeline for the Lady of the Night and hopped aboard with Melissa, who'd taken her place at the fire controls for the Lady of the Night. She had placed Sebastian down in one of the spare rooms on the ship. "Enzo, tell me: 'ow're you gonna dent the thing if a fuckken' Positron Cannon is all that could be useful against it?"

A roll call was done by John, "Let's see. Allison, Echelon, Melissa, Sebastian, Zeta, Enzo, Uriel, the corpses of Naoko and Joe..." Then John asked a question as he started to realise someone was missing: "Wait, where's Luca?"

Up to this point Zeta was silent. She simply ran and jumped on board of Big Bird. Moving inside she heard John over the communication, but did not reply right away, running into the cockpit. When reached it she walked in and looked at John. This will hurt him a lot, Zeta knew that. She put her hand on his shoulder caringly.

"Zeta, what's up?" John asked, his brow furrowing.

"Luca is..." she said loosing her words at first. "He is getting his own transport. You... know what he is like. He wants us to make a beeline." She said slowly, not able to keep her voice strong. Not in situation like this.

"Wait, he never said anything about-" John pondered before clacking his teeth and looking at her intently and grabbing her by the collar, "What. Happened. To my. Friend." John and Luca had a long history as college buddies.

Zeta sat on the co-pilot chair and looked at John. "His brother died," Zeta said simply and frowned looking at Luca's best friend. "Luca wants to finish this. For good." She tried to explain, but she knew John won't listen to her anyway. Bringers of bad news. What an ungrateful duty.

"But... what am I going to do? What are the others going to do?" He looked to the others and swept his arm across, "For most of the people here, this is all they've got. Echelon can't go anywhere since the Yamataians will want her detained, Allison has no other job - she's technically a deserter since Tami and the authorities will be after her. And I ... I've known nothing else." He pleaded with Zeta, showing his feelings for the captain so openly after keeping a very close relationship with the man and showing it with his infallible service, "This can't be!"

"I KNOW!" Zeta said loudly, looking at him. It is not like she was not in this with them. "I bloody know this all. He bloody knows it all too. But he's got goddamn good enough reason to think that it is important for him to do this. He wants to make sure we are alive first. Do you understand that? Fly us out of here first and then we can worry what to do until Luca gets back."

John blinked before taking a deep breath, and he nodded, "Right - let's get the hell out of here - for him." After Mr. Smith's LEAF frame entered the Big Bird and the hatch closed, and a final head count was made, save for the one thing they had all rallied around.

Two ships exited the atmosphere with their cargos safely.

And a large one entered. It was an Cruiser ship for the NMX, and the vanguard for an attempted takedown of Delsauria. Luca could see it coming towards the atmosphere and slowly descending as Planetary Defence Forces scrambled to fire everything they could at it as a swarm of powered armour and battlepods began to pour fourth from it. Some were being shot down and intercepted mid flight by the PDF turrets, but the Ship remained mostly intact, shrugging off and shielding most of the damage.

All Luca could do when he saw this overwhelming opposition was grin. The odds were stacked so high and far against him that to win against this with the help of the planetary militia would be... unprecedented.

"HEY YOU!" He yelled in the Cruiser's general direction, and it was sailing towards him slowly, displacing the wind and kicking up sand, threatening to displace entire dunes, "YEAH, YOU!" A single battlepod could be seen flying towards Luca, and all he did was raise the grenade launcher Zeta had given him and fired. The snap shot managed to connect with the missile pod of the pod, and cooked the missiles, tearing the pod apart in a white explosion.

"IS -THAT- ALL YOU'VE GOT?!" Another battlepod started making a beeline for him, firing a missile towards him. Time started to slow down once again once the enemy began to return fire. He raised his right arm and fired the Grapple Stunner's piton at it, and it attached to the battlepod and he flew towards it, flying right past the missile and missing it by inches, before landing on top of the pod and smashing it open with a follow-up Phoenix Punch.

He flew through the air gracefully upon the backwards force of the Phoenix Punch and retracted the Grapple Stunner before finding a Mindy flying towards him with Aether Sabre. There were others trying to fire Aether weapons at the flying, half-armoured man and finding no purchase as a Zesuaium and plasma-edged Katana carved through each of them one by one as Luca grappled from point to point, and eventually found himself in the hangar of the Cruiser, covered in blood, smelling like hell, and never stopping his relentless pursuit.

Where seconds passed for the NMX, it felt as though minutes were passing for Luca as Navy Nekovalkyrja tried to fire their Impaler rifles at him. They were being greeted with buckshot, grenades and a lightning bolt or two. Luca even had the audacity to take and throw a few Nekovalkyrja shields around. A plasma grenade flew towards him and he caught it, throwing it back to the sender.

It was at this point the Nekovalkyrja scattered, not wishing to face the wrath of this one, touched individual, this one incensed individual who was bellowing and barking like a madman and completely unstoppable even though he was outnumbered twenty to one - seemingly immune to pain and completely fearless - and not even a Nekovalkyrja or ID-SOL wearing Power Armour - just a Yamataian man with a Nepleslian mind who was over the edge - and that was probably what scared them the most. He was not just a man, but a monster scarier than anything that they could inflict.

"C'MON! C'MON! DO YOU WANT A FUCKING WAR?! DO YOU WANT A FUCKING WAR?! SAY IT WITH ME! LADIES, YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT! IT'S WHAT YOU ASKED FOR! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!"

From day one the NMX and SMX had wanted to swallow the world. It never thought to encounter a stomach ache like this.

MISSION 10 - COMPLETE!!