Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction / Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Outlaw Star Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ The Reaper ❯ Ne'er the Two Shall Meet ( Chapter 23 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids

Here it is, chapter 23, I know, I know, where has it been? Well, the answer is simple: I update stories that get reviews, not those that sit there and aren't read. If people don't like to read them, bully for them, the least you could do is review. That is why I've spent more time on other stories. I told you the answer was simple. Anywhere, I don't think I'll be dropping any hints of this chapter, since I just started it the second of July. Well, this chapter will probably shorter than normal, like the last one, mainly because I'm running out of ideas to keep the story as down to Zi as it is at the moment. Chapters would be much longer if I could branch out, but, unfortunately, I can't. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon.

***** scene change

~*~*~ flashback

( ) author's notes

The Reaper

Chapter 23: Ne'er the Two Shall Meet

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nate vaulted into the Raptor's cockpit, landing in what he thought would be the usual seat, but now it was different. There were no more controls in front of him, there was only an empty console. The green, blue, blue/green, red, and yellow buttons he had once found so welcoming were gone, replaced by a simple black screen. He had no clue what the hell had happened to it, but the thought that it had changed to accommodate his increased strength. There was a slight growl from the Zoid that stirred him from his thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he said the Zoid in a soothing voice. "Sorry Ronak, but I don't know why this happened."

He returned to examining the blank console, asking himself questions to which there were no answers, and he was afraid there never would be any. It was strange to him that this would happen now, of all times, after the memory of his brother had surfaced. Surely the Zenebas would be able to tell him why this happened, but that was obvious. The Zenebas knew more about Zoids than even the Organoids themselves, which were always there to lend a hand, or claw.

"Sorry buddy, all Zoid battles have been cancelled," he patted the console. "But don't worry, we'll be able to battle again." Then he added in thought, a thought he didn't let Ronak see, `In fact, I'm sure of it.'

He reached out and placed his hand against the blank screen. Instantly the controls came to life, from right to left, lights came on, panels turned over, and screens flickered to prominence. Nate's eyes opened a little wider from their sleepy, half-lidded position. Everything was there, along with some new controls he had never seen. Three new buttons were extra bright in his vision.

"MAS is...online? But I deactivated it."

MAS, or Morphing Armor System, is a system that allows the Zoid to change armors without employing a bulky conversion system. The MAS, developed by yours truly, utilizes the transphasic energies produced as a byproduct of the Quantum Particle generator to manipulate the molecules of the armor, right down to the paint. It is a form of matter conversion far above what we know of today. When the system is activated, a vacuum is formed around the Zoid, because the very air around it is used when converting the paint. The more you know, the better you understand.

Upon pushing the blue button a schematic for the Beta armor popped onto the screen. It showed everything about it, even some things that he didn't know were part of it. The 3-D image began to rotate, and small squares outlined parts of it, enlarging them.

"Come on, let's go for a run," he said raising his head slightly.

The Zoid reared back and roared, shaking the entire Whale King, and it began to move forward. The mouth opened before him and he could see that they were actually somewhere in the lower atmosphere. Taking no time at all, they were out of the hangar and in the air, the wings spreading wide. He laughed and smiled wide like he had so many years ago, even though there were those waiting to kill him.

"Mans," he whispered softly while resting back in his seat, "where are you?"

`Closer than you think, Tyran,' a voice was in his head.

Nate sat bolt upright, looking around for any sign that another Zoid was in the area, but there was nothing. He had no idea Mans could telepathically send his thoughts directly to his brain. Though, it did make some sense, they were both cast from the same mold, so to speak, given heightened abilities of the mind and accelerated muscle growth, showing why he was so strong at such a young age.

"What do you want Mans?" Nate asked knowing his brother would hear him.

`Nothing really, just to send you a challenge,' the voice again, laced with what seemed to be mirth. `Meet me at the following coordinates, or the next shot of the cannon is going to destroy your transport vessel.'

"You wouldn't dare."

`Try me.'

A map appeared on Nate's screen, with a dot indicating where he was supposed to go. He adjusted course and speed to get there as fast as he could, no point in wasting time. He had been without a challenge for so long that he was practically tingling with anticipation. The smile on his face widened, but stayed semi-serious, he didn't want to seem too eager. It was a strange sensation, he knew his wife and daughter's lives depended on the outcome of this battle, as well as Eric and Kana's.

"Why are you doing this Mans?"

`Why? Because all my life I've heard about you, and everything you've done. I've trained ever since I could walk so I could beat you.'

"I see, well, I guess that we'll found out whose better, won't we?"

`Yes, we will.'

Within a few minutes Nate arrived at the battlefield, which was the Zarochi Flats. When he landed, there was a massive cloud of dust kicked up, and when it settled, he could see his brother's Zoid. It looked (and this is how Munsoor described it too me) like the Quantasaurus Rex from Power Rangers: Time Force, except with wings on its back instead of the cannons, and large claw shields on its arms, like those of the Berserk Fuhrer Storm Unit. Its head was small, and didn't seem to hold any weapons, or the cockpit for that matter. The tail wasn't too long at all, not like the Raptor's, which was about a length and a half its body; this tail was more like the Berserk Fuhrer, short and stocky.

"Like it, it's my own design," Mans' voice said over the com, not bothering with telepathy anymore. "My Dark Fury will destroy your pitiful Raptor."

`This isn't good, if he has an Organoid augmenting the power, this could get ugly,' Nate thought while looking up and down his brother's Zoid. `I might actually have to use the weapon, but it's still in the testing phase.'

"What, no witty comeback, I bet your scared stiff," Mans laughed.

"Actually, I was just thinking of how best to rip the Zoid core out," Nate retorted with a slight chuckle. Everyone he faced knew that when he chuckled, it meant that he wasn't going to hold back.

Nate quickly went into his stance, the claws digging into the ground. The mouth of the Raptor opened and he fired off a quick blast, and jumped to the side. He would circle around his brother and get him while he was distracted.

"Nice try, but so futile," Mans laughed again.

The Raptor stopped and looked up, seeing the Dark Fury drop down from the sky. With reflexes that could beat lightening, Nate moved out of the way. Mans saw that coming a mile away and punched his engines, shooting after him. The blonde man knew his brother would do that, so many others had. He swung his Zoid's tail around and struck the Dark Fury with a massive blow to the right claw shield. The Zoid dropped to the ground and tried to move, but it couldn't; the Raptor's tail blade had gone right through the claw shield and was embedded in the arm.

"Fuck!" Mans cursed as Nate chuckled again.

"You've got some nice moves Mans, but you're seriously lacking in battlefield experience," Nate started humming a small tune as he lifted the black Zoid off the ground and whipped the tail out. When it reached the end of its length, the blade dislodged and the Dark Fury was thrown against a cliff. "Barely any of the Zenebas at that base have any battle experience, since all the best warriors were killed by the Deathsaurer."

"I don't care!" Mans yelled as he dropped into a rage-induced haze. "I will beat you, then people will talk about how great you *were* and how great I *am*!"

The undamaged claw shield opened and out came a twin-barreled cannon. It looked somewhat like a shotgun, with one barrel atop the other, not side-by-side. With a quick charging of particles, the top barrel fired a small ball, instead of a beam.

"A particle shot cannon," Nate realized while quickly dodging the blast, and another, and another.

"Ha, you can't dodge forever!"

"Maybe not, but I don't have to."

When the Raptor landed from its next jump, a whole line of Raptors extended from its sides. All of them took off running in a different direction.

"They didn't tell me about this," Mans looked at each one, trying to figure out which was real.

Normally with holograms there's no shadow, but each of these was casting its own upon the ground. They formed a circle around the Dark fury and opened their mouths. All of them seemed to be powering up for a blast of the QPC.

"This isn't good."

"Just remember Mans, lasers are made of light too," Nate laughed as all eleven Zoids fired at the Dark Fury all at once.

Wide wings opened on the Dark Fury's back and it took off, flying high above the other Zoids. He had figured that when firing the QPC, the Zoid would have to stay still, but he was wrong. All of the Raptors below him turned their heads upward, just in time to not be hit by their own attacks. All ten lasers hit him at once, as well a QPC. The Dark Fury was rocketed upward, the wings and engines taking immense damage. The beams cut off and Mans fell to the ground, falling a whole hundred meters before landing with a sickening crunch.

*****

Sigren sighed as he watched his sons do battle, he had really expected more of Mans. It was true what Nate said, he had heard it, that almost none of the Zenebas at the base had any battlefield experience. All they knew was what the simulator taught them, and that wasn't much.

"Mans, what are you doing? Get up!" Sigren yelled into the comm.

"I can't, the legs have been damaged too much. Shadow can't heal it fast enough," Mans voice, sounding a little shaken, replied.

"Well, then your sacrifice will have been a noble one," Sigren said with a heavy sigh and a smile (he's insane, remember?). "Ready the satellite to obliterate the Zarochi Flats."

"But, Sire, Mans is there," one of the operators, a woman, said.

"Its obvious he's not going to win, so get the cannon ready. Tyran is there, if we can get him with a direct blast from the cannon, it will get rid of him forever. Who cares if Mans is there, he's expendable, just like all of you," Sigren said in a deadly calm voice. "Now, ready the satellite."

"Y-yes Sire," she said and went back to work.

*****

"No, I won't let it end this way!" Mans yelled as he tried to make his Zoid stand again. `How can he say I'm expendable, I'm the best, I will WIN!'

"Mans, what is it, what's wrong?" Nate asked out of actual concern for his brother. "Mans!?"

"Shut up, just shut up, I want to LIVE!" he continued to yell as the Dark Fury stood up, extra power seeming to come from the air itself. "I'll kill you and go home a hero!"

Securing struts slammed into the ground as the Dark Fury readied to fire all its weapons at once. The particle shot cannon was whipped out, missile launchers opened up, the mouth opened to reveal a CPC, with a charged particle converter on its back. The spike on its forehead flipped forward, and another ball began to gather there.

`What could be troubling you Mans, what could have gotten you so shaken?' Nate racked his brain for the better half of a minute trying to think of an answer. "What is he thinking, he can't do that!"

He had figured it out, Sigren was going to fire it at them, and while it would destroy Mans, it would also rid him of the nuisance of his eldest son. It boggled the mind how someone could do that to their own flesh and blood. Given that he had been a thorn in his father's side since even before he had known of his heritage; that did not give Sigren the right to kill his loyal son just to destroy his other.

"Mans, stop, listen to me, there's a way out!"

"I told you to shut up!" Mans fired.

The Raptor Zero's wings spread and connected in front of him, creating a crude, but effective, barrier against all of the Dark Fury's weapons. Each one collided with it and simply dispersed due to the slight ion pulses running through both wings. There was really nothing else Mans could do but keep firing, hoping to break through before they were both killed.

"Only one of us has to die Tyran, it really should be you," Mans said calmly, but that calm carried the same knife as his father's voice.

*****

"FIRE NOW!" Sigren yelled as he shoved the ops officer out of the way and smashed his fist down on the button.

*****

A bright light flashed in the sky above the two combatants, which was the satellite firing. The beam streaked through space towards them, gathering more power when it drained energy from the atmosphere.

Nate saw it, and continued to try and bring Mans out from this rage he had fallen into. It did nothing for his aim, or his attitude, as he just shrugged off Nate's pleas. Finally, Nate took action, he reversed the polarity off the ion surges, which caused a feedback pulse through CPC, disabling the weapon. With that gone Mans was unable to see anything, since the head had been destroyed.

With that done he ran around beside the Dark Fury, and spread a wing over it. This was going to be the final test of something he had been designing for that past ten years. The beam was getting close so he didn't have much time. The tail blade stabbed the Dark Fury in the back, disabling it completely. Inside the cockpit Mans continued to hold the trigger, not even realizing that he wasn't firing anything.

A blue sphere surrounded the two Zoids, a complete sphere, all sides, top and bottom. This was no shield, merely a bubble that was supposed to suspend them outside the boundaries of space and time as we know it. So far it seemed to be working. Next he entered series after series of coordinates, spatial, temporal, and entered another set to calculate for the added mass of the Dark Fury. Jumping is what he liked to call it, the instantaneous movement from one place in space/time to another. Call it what you will, teleportation, instant transmission, even light speed, and you would be completely wrong. This may be based on the same basic principles as those, but is completely different.

He'd only gotten as far as jumping a small test container, a cylinder filled with organic material. But there was a small problem, the process created a wave that destroyed everything within ten feet of it. Given that the test container was only five inches tall and three inches in diameter. The size of the object being jumped determines the size of the distortion wave. Using it here would completely decimate the Zarochi Flats, leaving them outside of space/time forever. Anyone entering from one end would immediately step out on the other side.

"Well, no time like the present," he chuckled a little and hit the button.

The two Zoids disappeared from the bubble, which exploded outward, destroying everything in its path. The wave stopped when its diameter reached about twenty miles and pulled back into itself. When it did that, the explosion ensued, just as the beam from the satellite hit it. All this happened in a split second, so it had appeared that the explosion destroyed them.

*****

On another part of Zi, only a few seconds later, another bubble formed, containing the Raptor and Dark Fury. Both Zoids carried no other damage than that caused in the battle. When the bubble disappeared, the Dark Fury fell to the ground, combat system frozen, as well as the literal stab to the back. The Raptor's wings folded back into the pods on its back.

"Well, I guess that it worked," Nate and opened the cockpit.

He jumped down and ran around to the Dark Fury, which had a black Organoid lying at its feet. He recognized the creature as Shadow, his brother's partner. Walking over to it, he rolled Shadow onto his back, searching for the release button. After finding it, the entire front of the Organoid opened, and Mans rolled out, in a bundle of cables. Shadow's eyes opened and he roared at Nate, getting up to his feet and shielding Mans.

"What, you don't trust me? I just saved both your lives and this is how you thank me?" he grabbed Shadow's horns and held his head still. "I. Am. Not. Your. Enemy."

He could see that the Organoid's thoughts were racing, wondering how anyone could have tried to destroy someone so loyal. But he remembered, yes, he remembered that so many people in the past were ready to do exactly what Sigren had just done. He had committed himself to being the best, for Mans' sake, but apparently, he had failed. Shadow calmed considerably after making up his mind.

"Have you figured it out yet?" he asked to which the Organoid nodded. "Good. Get Mans, we'll take him somewhere to recover."

The front panels opened again and Shadow pulled Mans into him, keeping him safe. The Raptor lifted the Dark Fury's limp body up and onto its back. Shadow took no time in getting on top, and lying down.

TBC

There, I had to end it there, but no worries, this is not the last chapter. The final battle is coming up soon, so keep an eye out for it. Some old friends are going to be making an appearance, so keep reading.