Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 16: Old friends, new weapons and a flashback ( Chapter 17 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap. 16 - Old friends, new weapons and a flashback.

By: Piccard

Here I am, once again, bringing you another chapter in the collection, and this time, the title pretty much tells you almost the whole chapter. Time for the bit everyone hates.

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Whats it called? Oh yeah, Disclaimer: Repeat after me, 1 & 9, 1 & 9! I own those you don't know and an unhealthy obsession with Warcraft 3.

Eat mortar eat lead? Have a page of this fic scrunched up and rammed down your gob!

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Piccard was about to turn it off when he heard a voice, "Don't turn the bloody thing off yet!" "Jon?!?" Jon appeared from one side of the camera and Tom from the other, "You can hear us, but we can't hear you!" Jon said, Tom took over, "The time has come, SHODAN has enlisted allies against you from all through the Arrowsmith timeline, so why can't you enlist your own allies. Combine your powers with your dark side, and open a gateway to the spirit realm!"

This was all the incentive that Piccard needed as he grabbed his dark side and they started whispering. "Okay light, I'll do it!" "It may be crazy Dark, but it's the best option!" Both Piccard's stood apart from each other and charged energy balls. They bought their hands forward and the pulses hit each other. Both Piccard's yelled as Piccard's magic turned black and Dark's magic turned white, an explosion turned both pulses grey, and a small bubble appeared in the middle of the beam. "Dark Portal!" Dark yelled, "Spiritual summons!" Light yelled as both Piccard's channelled more power into the vortex, "Gateway to the spirit realm!" They both shouted as lightning came from the vortex, swirling and shimmering before it became a still white. At this point, two figures fell out, one in red armour and a box, the other in white armour with a sword, a shield and another box.

Piccard walked over to the figures who were slowly rising from the floor. "Tom, Jon, are you two alright?" Both looked up at him, "Never better." "That floor broke me arse!" Piccard chuckled at Jon's outburst and turned to the group. "People, this is Station Admiral Thomas Brown." He gestured to the one in red, who casually waved to them, and seemed to look the girls over with the corner of his eye. "And this is Weapons Technician Jonathan Andrews. I know ranks aren't used anymore, but I felt it was necessary." Piccard said as he gestured to Jon, who was also looking the girls over, but not as discreetly as Tom was. Tom and Jon were introduced to everyone in turn and after Jon had cleaned up the pools of drool he left whenever he spoke to one of the females, they began to answer questions that came at them thick and fast.

"First, do you need sleep?" "No, we're spirits. Though Piccard should soon be able to resurrect us in person, we are forced to remain as spirits. Which isn't all that bad, we can do all the things humans can, and more, so were basically living holograms." Piccard turned to Jon and narrowed his eyes, "You talk a surprising amount of bollocks don't you Andrews?" Jon merely sighed as he gave Piccard one of his death glances, "Careful what you say, I'm a weapons technician!" "So, They only gave you that position so you'd stop stealing torpedoes and sleeping with them." Jon went red as Tom gave him a surprised look. "So that time I came to your quarters and saw something in a dress, it wasn't the attractive, top heavy blonde you said it was, it was a TORPEDO?" "Yes." Jon mumbled as the entire room burst into laughter.

"Next question, Piccard is trained in magic and several types of weapons, what do you use?" Jon was about to speak when Tom interrupted. "I'll field this one, The weapons we're qualified to use depend on our ranks. As weapons technician, Jon is authorised to use any weapon in case of maintenance or an emergency." Jon grinned as Tom said this. Piccard merely sweatdropped before Tom continued. "And I had training in various grades of energy weapons." It was Tom's turn to grin as Jon gave him the raised eyebrow treatment. Piccard spoke up, "So what weapons do you have?" Both of them reached into the packs on their backs. Jon drew a rifle and a pistol "Bullet weapons always serve me well." Tom reached into his, and pulled out a gun similar to the rifle and a sword comprised of focused energy, "This is my E.M.P rifle." He said pointing to the gun. "Does bugger all to organic targets, but if I can aim right, then it can take out anything cybernetic in several hits." He picked up the sword, "And this is my laser rapier. Works just as well as any sword, but has the ability to cut through metal as well."

"Any other questions?" No-one spoke up. "Well, if you want to know anything, just ask." They nodded and before anyone could leave the room, Piccard decided to speak, "If you don't mind be being so nosey, what's in the boxes?" Tom and Jon smiled at each other as they lowered the boxes onto the table and opened them. "After we discovered that you were against SHODAN, we contacted several spirits and you'll never guess who we came across." "Go on, surprise me." Tom's smile broadened, "We bumped into both your grandfather and your father." Piccard's face seemed to now bear a look of nostalgia as he spoke. "How are they?" "They're both doing very well, and they're wishing you luck with this quest." Piccard chuckled as he remembered something, "Well, we'll talk about that later, what's in the boxes?" "Well, after we managed to get some suppliers, we managed to get our hands on a collection of weapons. But not just any weapons, these are the same weapons that your grandfather used against SHODAN on the Von Braun." Piccard now bore an interesting look as he reached in. "He gave us this pad so that we could identify several weapons that might not be recognised."

The first weapon Piccard grabbed was taken from his hand by the Doctor, "This looks like a phaser." Tom checked the pad, "True, but that is the Apollo H-11 laser pistol. It has two charge settings, standard and over." The Doctor chuckled as he took it over to the table and started playing around with it. "Must think it's Christmas!" Piccard whispered to Tom, "True." He reached in, and his fingers gripped a familiar weapon. He smiled. "Tails, you like advanced technology don't you?" This had the fox on his feet, and he bounded over to the table before he could even say yes. Tom pulled out the weapon in question, it was large, had several panels and the barrel glowed green. "It might be too heavy, but you should be able to modify it. Fusion cannons aren't exactly the hardest weapons to modify." Tails rushed over to the table where the Doctor was, pulled a toolkit out of nowhere and began working.

Piccard reached in again, and he winced when he felt a sharp thing prick his finger. He pulled his hand out and nursed his `wound' as Tom put on gloves, "I see you found the crystal shard." Tom said as he pulled the sharp piece of crystal from the box. "They were used by some hybrids to help channel their psionics, but it's nowhere near powerful enough for that task now."

"We can store the rest in Piccard's room until you can decide what weapons you want, but there are two that we insist we store separate. Lets just say they stink!" Tom announced as he reached into the box and pulled out two really weird looking guns, both looked like they were made from various biological substances, the most obvious one being flesh. Many seemed put off before Piccard cast a quick spell to help neutralise the smell. "According to the pad, these are the Viral Proliferator and the Annelid Launcher, both are engineered to deal heavy damage to SHODAN's hybrids, but if used wrong, they can be formidable against humans." "Then store them down here, you guys don't sleep so you can keep a watch on them."

They both agreed to this, and Piccard took the boxes to his room, and carefully dumped them at the end of the bed, "It may be a mess, but at least it's a stacked mess." Piccard said to himself as he walked out, while thinking, `that's just bollocks!' When Piccard got back to the lounge, he saw Jon and Tom with their heads firmly fixed on the T.V. He was about to ask what was on, when he heard the familiar voice of the newsreader. "Our top story again. Former tyrant and dictator wannabe Doctor Julian Robotnik has reported to us that his lab has been destroyed. The assailants are unknown, but the doctor reports that the only thing of any value that's missing was his `Metal Sonic', the creation used to give the blue blur himself a run for his money." Piccard inwardly panicked, "I bet I know who took it." Dark turned to him "You're going to say SHODAN aren't you?" "Well, who else could it be? Julian better get used to not seeing that robot because the next time it turns up it'll try and kill us all!"

Of course, Piccard was right. At that very moment, SHODAN had wired Metal Sonic up to her own computer matrix and was starting to download several files. Xerxes chose that moment to appear and interrupt. "Cloning at 53%, and if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?" "You're so pathetic Xerxes, this metal hedgehog is evil. I had my hybrids burn down the lab of the best human scientist on the planet and they found this machine. I am transferring several files into its matrix so that it can perform its new duties properly." Xerxes rolled his eyes. "And what duties are those?" "Soon we can destroy the Piccard's, but this is to keep his annoying allies off our backs, the hedgehogs, the fox, the echidna and the coyote in particular." Xerxes chuckled, "Oh didn't you know? D'sparil wasn't quick enough, Piccard's spirit friends managed to escape and are at this moment with Piccard in the mansion." SHODAN started to glare, and this intensity caused several nearby conduits to explode. Xerxes laughed to himself, as he loved it when SHODAN went insane, because she always made mistakes. But he had to be careful to keep his laughter to himself, or things might happen. "Anyway, I shall leave and carry on with the cloning, I will notify you if anything comes up." He said quickly as he left. Returning to the lab, he went past the cloning procedure and stopped himself at the access panel to another room, which only he was allowed into. "Activate door, pass code: Xerxes 5987B7ZXYQK!" The door silently opened and Xerxes was able to transfer himself onto a monitor in the room. In the middle of the room, sat what looked like the shell of an android. Xerxes performed some scans. "Excellent, the next time she has a maintenance check, I can put my plan to action." He said to himself as he left and resealed the door.

Meanwhile, Piccard and Antoine were in the holodeck, swords locked in battle. Piccard jumped back. "Nice block, but try to counter this." He said as he leapt forward, but twisted in midair so the sword was on a downward path towards Antoine. Antoine merely chuckled inwardly as he bought his sword up, and as Piccard was coming down, Antoine bought his sword full force into Piccard's blade, causing him to lose momentum and fall. "So ah countaired zat one eh?" "I was just showing off." Antoine extended a hand to help Piccard up, but Piccard managed to pull Antoine down and swung himself so that he was sitting on Antoine's waist, "Never extend your hand to help someone up if they're still armed!" "Okay, Okay, I get ze message, now get off!" Piccard laughed as he stood up and watched Antoine peel himself off the floor. "Zat was uncalled for." He complained as he stood up. Piccard was about to say something, but clapping from the doorway interrupted him. Both men turned and saw Amy and Bunnie making their way over. Piccard and Antoine sheathed their swords as the girls spoke, "Don't let us disturb you," "We came here to watch." Piccard and Antoine faced each other again, "I suppose we can carry on." Piccard said as he unsheathed his sword, "Ah might even beat you again." Antoine told him as he bought his sword and lunged. Piccard smiled and started tapping things into a pad on his left arm. Antoine's sword came down on Piccard's arm and seemed to bounce off something. Piccard smiled as he pressed more buttons and took the device off his wrist. "The energy shield, saves me carrying a conventional one. " Piccard threw it to the floor as the training continued.

Meanwhile, Anaetheron, Cybos, Dark Piccard and the Doctor were watching this training session on the T.V. "He's a good fighter." "Of course Doc, We were once one and the same, in terms of sword fighting, we're both identical." Anaetheron was keeping surprisingly quiet. Cybos noticed this. "Anaetheron, you seem to be keeping quiet." "I was just thinking." Dark turned to him, "What about?" "The old times during the war against Earth, When I found out about Piccard." Dark seemed confused, "Hang on, during the war, Piccard was only seven. How could you have known about him." "Before I tell you, Cybos, how old do I look?" "For a Hell Knight, about 26." "Would you believe I'm actually 132?" They seemed shocked as Anaetheron continued. "I'll tell you, just don't tell Piccard yet okay?" Anaetheron's eyes seemed to glaze as he started to reminisce.

/\/** Flashback, Anaetheron's POV /\/**

"I was sitting on top of a pile of rocks close to the boundaries of hell. I received a transmission that the human marine had breached our defences in Nirvana and was on his way to The Catacombs. The area between them was coincidentally where I was at that moment."

I heard footsteps and saw a figure in a suit of green armour running my way. He had a helmet on that obscured his face and a chaingun that was pointing straight at me. He must have seen the look I had in my eyes because he lowed the chaingun and, to my surprise, sat on the rock next to me. "I'm not exactly what you'd call a fighter." I heard the marine chuckle, "I guessed as you didn't roar as soon as you saw me like the others. If only the rest of em were like you, we wouldn't have to through this whole mess."

It my turn to chuckle as I extended a claw. "I'm Anaetheron, Anaetheron Jil'Ardeen." He extended his own hand. "I'm Arrowsmith, Dave Arrowsmith. Nice to meet you." He said as he shook my claw. "So you don't like to fight?" "No, I don't know why we have to though, we should have a choice, what about yourself?" "I don't mind, I do it to protect my boy." He pulled out a gold amulet and opened it, showing a small seven year old boy holding a sword in one hand and a staff in the other. "That's my son, his names Piccard. He prefers melee weapons but he can wield a gun in a pinch. It's actually impressive as to how good he is with a sword considering his age and his disdain for violence."

We spoke about various things that I can't remember for around 15 minutes. The only one I can remember is Dave saying, "We Arrowsmiths have a history of preventing evil from rising, and I feel that my son will have the biggest challenge of them all. So I want you to promise me. If you ever meet my son, then join him in the struggle." I agreed to this as he stood up again. "I have to get going now, as the only survivor it's up to me." We shook hands and claws again, and he started to walk off, but I called and he turned, "How will I recognise Piccard?" "When this is over, I'm giving him this armoured vest." He said, patting the armour, "Just remember the vest and you will find him." We exchanged goodbyes and I wished him luck as he walked off towards the catacombs, and I never saw him again.

/\/** End Flashback, Readers POV /\/**

"So that's how you knew about Piccard, you met his father." "Mm hmm!" The four turned back to the T.V. to find that the holodeck had been deactivated.

"Where are they?" "Well, Cybos, I can sense that Piccard is in his room, and Amy must be with him. As for Bunnie and Antoine, I have no idea." They then noticed how dark it was outside, and the Doctor checked the clock, "No wonder, it's 11.45!" "That flashback took longer than I thought." Tom and Jon walked in. "I know what we can do." "What? And what's in the box?" Jon sniggered, "In the spirit realm, we had a screen that allowed us to watch anyone at anytime. We also had a record feature on it, so these are videos that will definitely pass the time." Jon took one out, and the Doctor immediately noticed that Jon had started to drool. "Let me guess, it has Rogue on it?" "Several do, but there's even some in here with Piccard and Amy, and what about that night you barred him from that fight Doc? You want to see what they did?" Being curious, they all decided on that one. Jon pulled it out, but deliberately hid the label that said `Strip poker match' on it to keep them in confusion.

In Piccard's room however, Amy was asleep and Piccard was looking at the clock, "3, 2, 1, Midnight! Happy 18th birthday." Piccard muttered to himself as he let sleep overtake him. Amy however, was not having a very pleasant one.

She was dreaming about being with Piccard (Same as usual) on a nice stroll somewhere. As Piccard opened his mouth to say something, a large hole opened up underneath him and several cables came out and impaled themselves in Piccard's arms and legs and dragged him in. As she ran over, the hole closed up, and the sky went black. She heard a voice, "Hello Insect. Piccard will no longer be a problem!" Amy turned and found herself face to face with SHODAN.

Amy screamed as she bolted upright in bed, waking Piccard who checked the clock, "2:30? Whats wrong?" She ran over to Piccard's bed and dived under the covers. "It was horrible!" "Tell me all about it." She explained everything to him, and he smiled lightly. "Don't worry, SHODAN gave me nightmares when I found a picture of her in my grandfathers closet." He put his arms around her, "As long as you're with me, you're safe." He said as he fell asleep. Amy smiled, she did feel safe in his arms, and she fell into the best sleep she had in ages.

Wow, How unique can this fic get? I'm surprised that no one left a review telling me that's it's too weird! Anyway, how was it? Good, Bad, pointless as casting a lightning spell at the bottom of the Atlantic? Please review.

Piccard, getting out of here! /\/**