Guyver Fan Fiction ❯ Liberi Fatali ❯ Battle Angel ( Chapter 2 )

Author's Note: Ah geez, sorry that took so long, but I hope it's worth it.

Chapter Two: Battle Angel

It was a scene of sheer and total chaos. But hell, it was a battle. What else would it be?

Zoanoids flooded through the medal hallways, commanded by an invisible voice to find and destroy the enemy on sight. It was an unending cycle for the last ten or so years, but they obeyed their master's command without a questioning thought in their heads.

This was not just another raid by the United Freeworld Forces, but it was a full-out attack by Zeus' Thunderbolts. Those were always the worse, with the most casualties and the most damage done. What an attack by the Thunderbolts would do with sometimes five times the damage any of the UFF was capable of. And it was not bad enough that it was Gigantic Dark, Griselda and a whole army of UFF Zoanoids attacking…

What made it particularly bad was if she was with them.

Red lights flashing and sirens blaring, they continued to race down the hall, turning a corner…

There was someone already standing in the corner; one lone figure, small and petite, dressed from head to toe in black, giving it a very ninja-like image. Its back was towards them, but it was too small to be a Zoanoids, whether it be for Chronos, the UFF or Zeus' Thunderbolt…and it was not Griselda…which mean it could only be one other person.

The swarm of Zoanoids stopped dead, staring at disbelief at the small figure. No human in their right mind would be involved in a full battle who was not a Zoanoids, or even armed with any sort of heavy upgraded firearm…and there were no weapons seen on this person, except for a long steel chain looped around the belt of its waist. Cold fear flooded them as the figure turned, and they saw the eyes.

Beautiful, slanted eyes, the distinct eyes of one of Japanese lineage. Beautiful eyes that were the color of freshly spilt blood.

"Im…impossible!" The Zoanoids stammered, backing away in horror. To see a large group of monster backing away from such a little person was confusing, maybe amusing, but they had a reason to be afraid. The figure turned her body very slowly so she was facing them. A black cloth had been wrapped tightly around her head so only her eyes showed, and in her hands she held a curved blade attached to the long steel chain. "You…you can't be!" They had heard the stories, but this was real. She was not a myth.

The figure moved her arm so the arm holding the blade was drawn across her chest, a position that showed she was ready to attack. "You can't be…

"Seraphim!"

With a snap of her wrist, a wide arch of her arm, the girl let the blade fly towards to Zoanoids. It happened too fast for the human eye to catch. The blade cut down the first three files of Zoanoids cleanly, severing heads, torsos and arms perfectly away from each other. Then she twisted her wrist, drew her arm back and to the right, flexed her fingers…and the blade snapped around, cutting though the air so fast that it screamed, cutting through the remaining Zoanoids as fast as lightning. There had been perhaps sixty or more monsters in the hall. By the time she drew her arm back and the blade flew back into her hand, they were all dead.

Sarah took one more look at the bodies before taking off down the hall. Damn monsters…they had set her back almost a full thirty seconds. Although it did not seem like a long time, a matter of five seconds could be crucial to the outcome of a mission, and she knew this. Thirty seconds could be fatal. But she did not doubt that she could not do this. Although Griselda had protested against it, she did not think that Zeus would not assign her to something that she could not do, much less die trying. He had never lead her wrong before, and she did trust him.

{I'm telling you, Sarah, it would be so much easier if you let us go ahead…you wouldn't have to worry about all these bothers…} The voice within her mind was humored, almost laughing in amusement, but still keeping a cautious, ready edge.

I told you, I'm fine, Hellhoug. Sarah snapped back at the voice. You all well know that I am quite capable of taking care of myself.

What she hated most about these based was the unending maze setup. If she had not spent the majority of last night staying up memorizing the map of the British Columbia Chronos Base, she would have been completely and utterly lost right now. But, even so… she could not deny that the desire to defeat Final Fantasy 8 again last night sort of - just a bit - distracted her from her duties. Oh sure, she defeated it a hundred times before, but when it called to her… there was no resisting. By now she wished that had just a little bit of self-control. She was fortunate enough to have gotten as far as she was… but looking for the master control room was like looking for a needle in a haystack. She was just lucky enough that the UFF Zoanoids were doing their part in keeping Chronos' Zoanoids at bay, and ultimately keeping her path clear.

Oh, crap. Sarah cursed as she came to a fork in the road. Great, just her luck…and she forgot to memorize which was the right way. It figures too… Chronos isn't smart enough to realize that it's a bad idea to put the powerhouse of the base in one gathered place, but they know enough to know forks trip me up.

The location of the powerhouse never changed; very bottom level of the base, in the exact center of the floor. Getting there was the challenge, and getting out again was even worse. This whole routine was familiar to Sarah; she could get in and out a lot faster than any number of UFF Zoanoids could, and do the damage swiftly and effectively. Besides, she was a lot hardly to detect if any Zoalords were paying an unexpected visit.

But forks…passages with multiple corridors branching off from them were like a kick in the ass for her.

{See? What did I tell you last night?} This time the voice was feminine, sounding extremely similar to her mother.

{Honestly, Sarah, I thought you would have learned by now…} The second voice was light, flitting, like a dancing light.

"Quiet, all of you!" Sarah said allowed, looking to anyone who might have been coming down the hall at that moment, as if she was talking to herself. No wonder why people think I'm crazy. "It's not like I don't know how to handle the situation. What say you, Aidan? Any suggestions?"

For once, the deep, powerful voice was silent, pondering. {I am torn between two sides. Best to check with Herald.}

Sighing, Sarah slowed her run to a halt, and fiddled with her headset, twisting the frequency dial until she got the wavelength she wanted. "Seraphim to Herald, Seraphim to Herald, do you copy?"

There was a hiss of static, then she heard a voice on the other line. "This is Herald, we copy you Seraphim."

"Which way from here guys?" Thank God for her homing devise.

"'nother fork, Sarah?" The man on the other line laughed. "What was it this time, Final Fantasy or Everquest?"

"Will you shut up and tell me which way to go?" She snapped irritably into the mouthpiece. "I'm kinda on a tight schedule."

"And the Emotions don't know?"

"They're the ones that suggested I call you. C'mon guys, time's running out…"

"Take the right passage." Came the reply. "It will take you straight to the powerhouse." Without a second thought Sarah broke out into a full run again, tearing down the passage at full speed.

"How does my tail look, Herald?"

There was a slight pause. "Clear, as fare as we can see. You'd think by now those bastards would learn to look out for you. But don't be surprised if you'll run into some Zoanoids on the other end; at least they're not dumb enough to not guard the target."

"And how does my time look?"

"By Zeus' schedule, you got two minutes."

"Oh, shit!" With that, Sarah cleared her mind, focused her powers, and levitated herself up off the ground, flying down to corridor faster than she could ever run on invisible wings.

"You're father wouldn't approve of that language, young lady." Herald mocked at her.

"But my father's not here. Seraphim out." She clicked off her headpiece and continued down the hall. Less than two minutes…she had never cut it so close. She made a mental note to hide all of her games when she got home.

Within her mind, another voice gasped, becoming fully aware of something that she was not as of yet. {Sarah! Before you! They're guarding the doors!}

Heart pounding, Seraphim finally reached the end of the hall, blocked by two huge airtight doors and two dozen Zoanoids. "Out of my way! I'm late!" She yelled at them. Still flying, she held out a hand before her and released a psychic blast so fast and so powerful it looked as if an invisible wrecking ball had been smashed into the lot of them, pulverizing the bodies and blowing the doors clean off their hinges. She never even had to slow down as she entered the huge, open chamber, touching down just inside the door.

The half-circle of a powerhouse set in the middle, the very heart of the Toronto BC Headquarters. Take out that, and you take out the whole base; computers crash, processing tanks completely malfunction, and thousands of would-be Zoanoids destroyed. There were very few bases with this sort of luxury; the TBCH was a very small branch compared to some of the other big-time headquarters, and therefore it sometimes felt as meaningful as killing a hundred ants as compared to the whole nest. But Sarah never complained aloud. It was what she did.

However, they were not going to let her get away with that so easily. A cruel smirk crossed her hidden lips as she saw fifty Zoanoids of the same type standing before her. They were newly engineered, she did not know their name, but that hardly mattered. For several seconds they only eyed each other, Sarah running her thumb over the curve of her Wing's blade, before pulling on the chain and letting it fly. It cut down a few of the front ones instantly, but it was slower and seemed to loose its effect fast. Frowning, Sarah pulled it back and saw the blade was hissed and appeared to be…almost rotting.

So…corrosive blood. No matter. That would have taken too long, anyway.

{Let me handle them…} Aidan finally became fully at tentative to the battle, sparked by Sarah's building adrenaline for her diminishing time. {I can take them and the powerhouse out in one shot…}

No. Sarah voiced back. Not this time. If that generator blows prematurely, than none of us will get out. This has to be done properly. Just stand down unless things get too hectic. Aidan did not respond, but Sarah could feel him comply, and sink back lower into the recesses of her own mind with the others, crouched, waiting…

The Zoanoids began to advance on her, charging, willing to rip her to shreds where she stood… But Sarah hardly panicked. Smiling again, she sheathed her Wing back into her belt and crossed her arms over her chest, eyes closed, breathing deep and controlled. The air around her rippled, and before the Zoanoids' eyes it appeared to solidify, shimmering… A very powerful presence descended upon them, extremely heavy and making it impossible for them to move much faster than they already were. It felt like…when the Zoalords used their mind-control powers on them, but this was so much stronger, and it made their heads ache from the inside…

In the time that it took lighting to strike, Sarah opened her eyes and they blazed red instantly before her head snapped back, and that awesome power was released upon them. It hit with the force of a hundred speeding bullet trains, hitting each Zoanoids square in the center of its being and exploding their heads like rotten melons. Fifty corpses fell motionless to Sarah's feet.

This is getting really pathetic. She thought. You'd think by now they would have found a better way to stop me. Oh well, time to get this over with. Sarah lifted herself up again, levitating a few feet from the ground, and rushed at the powerhouse as fast as she could go. She changed positions of her body in mid-air, straightening herself out, arms stretched before her. It looked at if she was about to swan dive into solid steel…but she did not. In fact, she passed straight through the medal as if it were made of mist.

The huge, dome-shaped generator sat as if always had after Sarah had disappeared into it, then smoke began to rise from one of the further ends. Lights began to flicker, the smell of burning rubber filled the air, and then the side furthest from where Sarah disappeared in exploded, sending up plumes of smoke and fire, choking the room, making the lights shut off and the emergency lights click on, sirens blaring. And from the steel of the burning powerhouse, two black-clad hands appeared, passing through like a ghost, taking hold of the medal, and a second later Sarah pulled herself out with barely a scratch. She took one look at the damage and immediately turned the small dial of her headgear, tuning into the correct channel.

"Mission complete!" She shouted into the microphone. "Clear the center, I'm coming up!" Turning off her radio, she placed her hands together, focusing her mind and power, to create a super-condensed ball of psychic energy that glowed white-hot. Once it had reached its peak without turning unstable, Sarah lifted the ball over her head and slammed it down onto the ground with all her might, boosting it with her telekinetic powers to turn it into a speeding rocket. It rebounded off the concrete floor with a roar like a thunderclap, speeding upwards and punching clean through the ceiling, as well as every single ceiling above it, giving her a clear path all the way up. Picking herself off of the ground she flew upwards, faster than she ever had before, trying her hardest to get as far away as she could from the powerhouse before it exploded.

The rooms blurred together as Sarah shot past them, but her sharp vision caught sight of the increased destruction the higher she ascended, seeing glimpses of fire and the smelling the stink of fast-decaying corpses. There were, however, fewer battles than she had expected; this was a good thing, because that meant when the generator blew, there would be very few UFF or Zeus' Thunderbolts caught in the blast.

Sarah emerged from the gaping hole that she had created and into the huge front entrance of the British Columbia Base, hovering a good twenty feet in the air. She looked around her to see the last remaining UFF Zoanoids retreating from the battle scene, fighting off the last of the enemy monsters. "Oy!" She yelled down to them. "Where are…"

"Already in the chopper, Seraphim!" One of the UFF soldiers called back up to her. "Waiting for you! They're all ready to go! Oh yeah, and watch your back!" Apparently Chronos had been waiting for her when she emerged, and from behind, about half a dozen Vamores were positioned behind her, releasing a blast from their biolazers at her seemingly unguarded back. To think that Sarah was stupid enough to leave her back wide open in such a fashion was just plain foolish

{Don't worry.} A small, almost child-like voice reassured her. {I got this.}

The blast of the Valmores seemed to have hit true, but only for the space of a second before rebounding off a seemingly invisible was and rebounded off that barrier and hit them before they even had a chance to escape.

"You were saying?" Sarah asked the soldier, and flew forward at break-neck speed, shooting past the remaining fighters and out to where the helicopters were waiting. They were already all ready to go, propellers whirling and roaring, tossing the branches of the surrounding trees violently. One of the higher-ranking soldiers was at the door, ready to shut it as soon as she was inside.

"Come on, Sarah!" He yelled to her, but he had to move out of the way rather quickly when the girl shot past him, hitting the other side of the helicopter so hard it made the aircraft rock on its wheels. The door was slammed shut and locked behind her, the pilot signaled to go, and the rebellion's fleet rose into the air and away from the attack scene, back to the UFF secret base.

The soldier sighed in relief, and looked back to Sarah, and a wide smile broke out on his attractive face. Ryan Braket was whom Sarah called "Herald", had been with the Thunderbolts for only a few years but because of his outstanding performance he advanced quickly, making Lieutenant in only three years, and was now part of the team that would assist Sarah during her missions. He was who Sarah called 'Herald", named after the Herald Angels of heaven that announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Although his job was nowhere similar to that, their radio communication was extremely important when Sarah got into a bit of trouble. And, needless to say, Sarah did feel a bit taken with him, although her was almost seven years her senior. But the slender build, wavy dark hair, rich chocolate eyes…and that smile…who could resist? "Are you alright?"

"Just dandy." Sarah grumbled. It could have been a tad more comfortable; her legs and lower back were plastered against the back of the padded seat, her upped body and head hanging over the cushion, and one arm was hopelessly tangled in the shawl that was wrapped around her head.

Beyond the thick, small windows of the chopper, Sarah heard the familiar muffled roar of the generator finally exploding in what was sure to be an impressive display of fire, smoke, and bodies, but she had seen it too often to make an effort to watch it now. With a grunt, Sarah sat herself upright on the seat and tugged the black shawl off her head. A long flowing mane of black hair cascaded down her back, slightly out of order from the ordeal, and her snowy white bangs spilt across her forehead and eyes before she shook them out of the way. At first glance, most people would see Sarah as a teenager no older than sixteen merely giving into the fad of unorthodox hair color. On closer inspection, the white pigment of her bangs was too perfect, the snowy color even and perfectly restricted to the hair that was parted neatly on either side of her face, and the roots not showing even a hint of darkness, like the rest of her hair.

But her hair was not nearly as strange as the markings on her face and hands; two curved triangular marks on her jawbone and up to her mid-cheek, a crescent-shaped mark on her forehead, and two wavy strips wrapping around the wrist on each hand. Even in the world they lived in, most people would be abashed that a girl her age would have such tattoos, on her face at that, but once again on closer inspection, they really were not tattoos at all. Like her hair, the colors and consistency was too perfect, something not even a professional could handle. Strangely enough, Sarah was born with these features, and though there was no explanation for it, they did not seem to hurt her in anyway, so no one worried about them.

"Problems?" Came a sudden voice from behind, and Sarah and Ryan and Sarah looked over to see Agito Makishima, Guyver III, the leader of Zeus' Thunderbolts himself approach them, followed closely by Shizu Makishima, Agito's wife, who was back in her human form.

"For now, nothing I can't handle, but I don't know how long that will last. Look." She reached behind her and took her bladed Wing from her belt, handing it to Agito. "There were Zoanoids guarding the generator, and they had corrosive blood. Somehow they found out that it's biological." Agito examined the blade; it definitely looked as if acid had eaten through it, the edge of the blade pitted and burnt away. He then handed it to Ryan, who asked to see it.

"I'm sure it's nothing we can't fix." He said. "A few hours in a tank, and it should be good as new. But really, Sarah…" He weighed the iron chain that it hung from. The thing was fifteen feet long and had to weigh twenty pounds. "We can make a lighter chain. It probably would be a lot less strain to carry…"

"That one's fine, thanks." She said, snatching the Wing back from him and setting it on the floor. When she straightened, she was frowning, looking to be deep in thought… then shock her head once, clearing her mind physically.

"What was that about?"

"The Emotions." Sarah said bluntly. "They're cranky because I wouldn't let them out today. They still don't think that I can take care of myself. Kinda like you two." She shot Agito and Shizu hooded looks that were more amused than serious in a teasing sort of way.

"Well, what do you expect? Most parents won't even consider the fact of letting their only daughter fight in anything that falls into the category of a battle." Shizu mused, sitting next to the girl on the padded helicopter seat, only to have Sarah immediately fall over onto her lap. "You mean you're actually tired?" Shizu teased her.

"Hey, a cat-nap for ten minutes before the mission doesn't count as sleep." Actually, for Sarah, it kind of did; she had catnapped today before they landed, but was as refreshed as if she had a full night's sleep the night before. But she had used so much energy today…it was only natural. Besides, the time just after a battle, when her energy was at last low and the mental shield in place between her and her chattering Emotions, it was the one true time when she could get anything that was considered to be a decent amount of sleep.

"Well, you can fully rest for a while after this. I don't think the UFF has anything planned for a while, unless Chronos moves first." For those who only knew Agito Makishima as the ruthless Zeus in his army, the soft tone in his voice would have shocked them to say the less.

Sarah opened an eye and smiled. She definitely had her mother's smile. "Thanks, Dad." She was soon snoozing as her mother gently ran her fingers through the battle angel's hair.

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To Be Continued….

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