Chrono Trigger: Twins of Destiny Chapter 13
Black Wings Arise Again
By Mox Jet
Above the Facility…
The air rushed into the dropship from the opened back hatch. It would have been whipping in the faces of the four people inside if their heads hadn’t been completely covered by the helmets of their Armours. Below them, the small image of the facility which they were to knock out lay (it was actually a few miles off to the right because of the allocation for wind drift). The four mercenaries sat in metal seats, two on a side, with a metal harness that locked them into place.
Tyrion admitted that he was surprised by what an Armour felt like. He had originally envisioned in being large, clumsy and hard to control. Quite to the contrary, it felt almost like nothing more than an additional piece of clothing that functionally moved along with him. The plating of the metal fit directly over the tight jumpsuit which they had made him wear (inwardly, he missed his leather jacket), and the helmet fit his head like a glove, the images of what was going on outside clearly reproduced on a small screen that sat in front of each of his eyes.
On these screens, everything that he could have ever needed to know was spelled out in the form of heads up displays. He found he could read them without being all that distracted from the normal camera views. These displays gave information regarding procedure for the mission, current systems that were active, systems that the machine thought he should activate, and numerous other interesting tidbits of information. This mission, it would seem, would really be as simple as following the instructions that his machine read out to him.
Only 30 seconds to drop, now. The bars that held the soldiers into their seats lifted up. The dropship began to reduce its altitude slightly as Tyrion heard something fired from the left side of the ship’s hull. Lina had told him this was a radar scrambler that would allow their entry to go relatively unnoticed.
A few moments later, the other male soldier in their group spoke up. “Here we go, all,” he said, their voice echoing into Tyrion’s ear through the communications unit. The person who said it then stood up from their seat and walked up to the edge of the gap. In unison, the other three, Tyrion included, climbed up and formed a line toward the hatch. Tyrion, naturally as it seemed, was at the end of the line.
“Red Team, you are go for drop,” the voice of the pilot said over the com system. A battle cry quickly ensued.
“Let’s go, go go!” screamed the first man in line (Tyrion had found out that he was called Brian) as he catapulted himself out of the ship, diving into the air with precision.
“Go!” another voice said, as the next in line, the female soldier named Shannil, jumped.
“Go!” Lina’s voice yelled as her machine leaped out of the ship. Tyrion, not really knowing what to do, followed Lina, as he had become accustomed to doing. He was a bit hesitant, but simply managed to lean over the edge and fall down, following the others as best he could. Once again, he placed his life in Lina’s hands, hoping to God that she would explain what to do in order to not kill himself on impact.
Again, he thought he imagined the air rushing past his face, event though he knew that it couldn’t be possible. The only tangible indication that he was falling was the sound that the air made as it whistled over the smooth joints and plates of his metal casing. He saw the others ahead of him falling faster, using a technique that allows for a quicker free fall. He tried to duplicate it, but found it hard to control himself and tumbled out of it.
The facility was a 2000 foot fall from the drop point, and they figured that they would be carried about 700 feet to the north as they fell. The image of the building, large enough now for individual windows and doors to be noticeable, was growing. According to the HUD readouts, they would land in about another 45 seconds.
When the readout made it to about 20 seconds, Tyrion saw the Armours in front of him slow up as the activation of retro burners on the back of the Armours lit the air.
How do I do that?? Tyrion thought to himself.
<Just think about firing the jets> Lina’s voice said in his head. <The Armour will do the rest!>
Tyrion did as instructed, and, to his surprise, the rockets actually ignited. However, to his dismay, he found himself being fired downward rather than upward.
<Turn around, you idiot!> Lina screamed. <Unless you want to kill youself!>
I don’t, I don’t! Tyrion thought. With all the bodily momentum he could muster, he tried to kick his legs over his head and straighten out. His vertical momentum towards the ground, however, was definitely increasing.
He contorted as best he could, but the rockets were speeding him up in all the wrong directions. He went into a downward, spiral decent as he struggled to regain his position as it was supposed to be: feet on bottom and head on top. It didn’t seem that he would manage to do it, though, as he careened towards the ground. A moment later, he passed the other three soldiers, their descents being slowed by the jets that were activated the right way.
<Ah, shit!> Lina’s voice screamed in his head.
“What the hell?” Brian’s voice questioned over the intercom.
<I’m gonna have to save him> Lina said, swinging herself downward and speeding up towards the falling form of Tyrion.
Tyrion had managed to turn the jets off in hopes of spinning around without the added thrust, but he couldn’t stabilize himself. Part of it was out of shear panic that he was losing control. After all, how often do you smack into the ground falling it over 100 meters per second?
Tyrion’s timer gave him 10 second to impact. Lina was coming down from above, but she would be too slow. The other two were still unsure of what was going on, not having been privy to the brief telepathic conversation. Tyrion was sure as dead. The ground was rushing up to meet him. His speed was still increasing and he was about ready to die. The only thing left for him to was for instinct to kick in…
Tyrion let loose a scream as massive amounts of energy seemed to instantaneously form around his area. A swirling vortex of black energy shot out in a sphere that engulfed the boy just as he would have otherwise hit the ground. As the energy itself collided with the ground, all the dust in the area was kicked up by the immense winds. As the other three landed around where the energy had collided, their vision was clouded by the dust.
They were all standing in a small clearing amongst some soft hills that surrounded the compound. There were a few grass patches scattered across ground that was otherwise simply dirt. About 100 yards away was the compound, a large building capped off with a series of radar dishes that extended skyward.
When the dust cleared, they expected to find a limp Armour sitting in the center of a small crater. The Armour itself would probably be intact simply due to the strength of the material it was made from. The body inside, however, would be crushed to death against the inner wall of the Armour. But, as the dust began to clear, they were surprised to see the form of Cyoren standing upright, apparently no worse for the wear. In fact, Tyrion was in control of it. The others saw the image of the black mecha standing tall, its wearer staring down at his hands, wondering what had just happened.
“What the…” Shannil’s voice murmured as the three walked up to him.
“Are you…okay?” Brian asked. Tyrion looked up from his hands and slowly nodded his head.
“Yeah,” he said, still in a certain state of shock. “I’m not sure what happened, though. It was just like…well…I’m not really sure.”
“Like a fucking energy storm just rescued you from certain doom?” Shannil asked.
<That wasn’t an energy storm>, Lina said in his head, looking over to him. He couldn’t see that she was making somewhat of a scowl behind her mask, but he certainly could guess.
Then what was it? Tyrion asked, honestly not knowing the answer.
<If you survive today, maybe I’ll explain. I think I figured something out, though> she said. She looked at the others.
“Let’s get going with the plan,” Lina said. “We don’t have all that much time.”
“We’ll split up into groups of two,” Brian said. “Two to drop the virus and two to—” he would have finished his sentence, but was cut dramatically short by the rocketing form of a missile that came screaming his way, detonating as it collided with his head, possibly even taking if off in the process.
“Fuck!” Lina screamed, turning to look where the missile had come from. “Find cover!” A few hundred yards over the shallow hills that led to the compound, three platoons of soldiers came marching up, heavy weapons platforms at the ready. The M-1 group scrambled to their right, using Armour jets to speed up their travel. Possibly through shear luck, Tyrion managed to do it right, this time.
Fire began to hail through the sky, mostly in the form of bullets that probably couldn’t puncture their Armour. It wasn’t the bullets they were worried about. It was the heavy weapons. It was the missile launchers and the probability of laser weaponry. That stuff could eat through most Armour plating pretty quickly. It wasn’t very common in Denegrad, but it was become clear to the troop that something wrong had happened here.
“This should have been a lightly guarded facility!” Shannil shouted as they ran towards a larger rock outcropping. “What the hell happened?!” As she said this, something came streaking through the air towards her. An instant later there was a four foot spike protruding from her midsection.
“Railguns!” Lina screamed. “Fuck!” Shannil screamed in torment as her body was thrown back five feet from the force of the impact. Lina looked quickly to Shannil and waved her hand upward. Shannil’s limp Armour rose into the air and Lina led it with her and Tyrion into the cover. They quickly settled there as Tyrion and Lina tried to prop Shannil up against the rock wall.
“What….happened?” Shannil murmured, the sound of her voice and breathing indicating her left lung had been torn to shreds by the spike. “This was…supposed to be…easy.”
“I know what happened…” Lina said bitterly, closing her eyes and realizing a very bitter truth. She turned to Tyrion. “They’re…testing you. This whole thing really is a test. I’m amazed they got the clearance to send a rookie on a mission like this, but they want battle data.”
“They….want to see me fight?”
“Yes,” Lina answered. Tyrion pondered this for a moment.
“Wouldn’t they have seen it anyway?” he said at length.
“Maybe they thought it would be inconclusive. Someone wanted more complete data.”
“So Brian was killed?”
“Yes.”
And so Shannil will die? He thought.
<Yes> Lina answered.
“They’d sacrifice their own to see what I can do?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And what kind of family did you say this was?” Tyrion asked Lina, who ignored the question. Tyrion took a deep breath.
“They want to see what I can do?” he asked himself. “They want to see what a fucking Nisai Ryu can do?” He stood up, and the energy claws on his forearms sprung to life, blue energy pulsating with occasional streaks of lightening.
“Then fuck them. I’ll show them what I can do. They want a show?” He turned to Lina.
“Cover me,” he said coldly.
.
Tristan flew through the air as fast as he could. He had been caught off guard by Tyrion’s dropship leaving the base; it had left 15 minutes early. Now he was flying very openly, showing a lot of high level energy that would certainly be picked up, all because they changed the time of the mission. Had he been played? It didn’t matter now. He probably couldn’t catch up with the airship entirely. He should be able to find the group before they got too far into the compound.
“Why weren’t you watching it more closely?” Jack said to him over the communications unit.
“I was taking a fucking cigarette break, Jack!” Tristan cursed. “It had been hours since I had one, and it was the first chance I had to get somewhere that the smoke would be taking into the ventilation system quickly.”
“You and your damn habits,” Jack said. “I certainly hope he isn’t killed while you’re getting there.”
“He’ll be fine. I’ve seen him fight. He’ll instinctively tap the Wings if it comes to that anyway. Could anyone stand against your wings, even before you knew how to use them?”
“…Point taken,” Jack said, realizing that he would have to admit weakness if he were to continue his lecture.
“You need to chill out,” Tristan said, picking up speed as he entered an area where Wind flow was more prevalent, giving him more energy to work with. The cold, dry air would have stung his face if the energy created by Rei Wing didn’t form a barrier to protect against it.
“Chill out?” Jack asked, taken aback. “Tristan, don’t let Sarah be right about sending you. I can’t have you letting me down now.” Jack cut off communications, leaving Tristan to flying about his own business.
“You got it, boss,” he said to himself, half mockingly. “I’ll be there in a few…”
.
Tyrion didn’t wait for the cover fire. He would take them all on himself. Running towards the extreme right flank in a burst of energy, anyone with knowledge of Lifestream would be able to see the incredible powers of the planet that he was gathering into himself. He would take them out down the line, through the flank, drawing the least fire possible at a time.
The three platoons of soldiers shot at the black Armour as it jetted across the landscape, but it was too fast to hit. The heavy weapons, powerful as they were, had lost their edge when they lost the value of surprise. Tyrion was moving far to quickly to allow them to lock on. The only they saw a blur of meshed blue, black and green energies.
Tyrion didn’t use Lifestream energy that often. He normally preferred fighting using his own abilities. Now seemed a time, though, that he needed the help that he could get. He wasn’t sure at this very moment if he was suicidal or not. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure what made him rush into this extremely large fray, save it was on an impulse.
Too much death he thought. There’s been enough death. THESE people killed Rachel. It was THEM. They killed Brian and Shannil, but they KILLED Rachel. No…there is not enough death. Not yet. There will be soon. It will be after I am done…
He had almost circled around the flank now, and was pleased to see that some of the rapid-fire weapons that had been trailing him were now ripping up their own ranks by accident as he flanked the force. The swirling green energies of the Lifestream had clouded their vision.
Tyrion screeched to a halt as he finalized his flanking maneuver. He didn’t pause long though as more fire was opened upon him. His energies momentarily flared as he flew towards the nearest soldier with his right fist drawn back. As he smashed forward into the group, he found that his weapon neatly burned through any surface it came into contact with, armor and skin alike. His fist imbedded itself into the screaming face of man closest, the claws gashing through the skin and bone. He was probably dead instantly as the high energy weapon dug through his skull and into his brain, coming cleanly out the other side as a fountain of blood spewed out of the dead man’s faceless head.
This might not be so hard, after all, Tyrion thought. All things considered, the only thing that the overlooking soldiers saw was a blur, accompanied by the blood flowing from the open wound. His movements were too quick to be detected.
He spun left, swinging through the nearest man. The men that were under attack were unable to bring themselves to level their weapons. The shock was still too great.
The man fell, Tyrion continued, dashing forward 30 feet and lashing out at anything that got in his way. He tore through the abdomens of ten more men before spinning back around and decapitating the nearest thing to his right. About two seconds had passed since he started his original attack, but he still pressed strong, launching into a flurry of attacks that only ended in more blood being spewed upward and outward as he gutted his victims so quickly that it was hard to discern the order in which they had been killed
The bullets were coming now, but his Armour was remarkable in indicating where the fire was coming from. He was already moving at roughly the speed of the fire, so altering his movements to let bullets fly by wasn’t difficult. As an added bonus, they normally found home in whatever soldier was behind. The closer he came to the center of the first platoon, the few enemies he had to kill on his own. Misdirection and use of enemy fire to assist: classic Nisai Ryu.
He realized there were way too many to actually take down with his fists. Some sort of auxiliary method would be needed, and Lina apparently still hadn’t begun to lay down cover fire.
Spinning around, he cracked open someone’s head with the back of his forearm, continuing to spin with an elaborate arm sequence that served well to cut down all those within reach. He picked up speed as he continued to spin, duck, and slash his way further into the enemy ranks. From the outside, his motions were just flashes of blue light that was being exuded from his claws, accompanied by occasional streams of blood from his disemboweled opponents.
As the Denegrad soldiers gained some sense and began to widen the space around him, Tyrion soon found himself with no one in direct arm reach. His Armour momentarily beeped to signify new location of his targets, and he extended his arms in a preparation to release some pent up energy. Lifestream energy swirled around him as a vortex of wind began to form. Throwing his arms down, the built up energy blasted outward, throwing back everything in a 50 foot radius. He brought his arms back up and turned to his left. More energy gathered to his fist as he slammed it into the ground. The earth before him cracked open in a line, the soldiers along its path loosing their footing
He sprinted further into the fight, his Armour continuing to signal oncoming attacks and almost seeming to give him just the right amount of energy required to dodge the attacks. Reaching outward, he grabbed the nearest man by the neck, crushed his larynx and spun around in a circle, using him to knock down some of the surrounding attackers. He released the body and it went flying.
Finally, though, he began to tire and could feel the energies running thin. The ground forces began to close in faster (or maybe he was just slowing down) and he realized it was time for a last ditch attack to finish off the remains of the troops. He began to gather most of the remaining energy in the area to his whim, green tendrils of power circling around him.
“Nova!” he screamed as loud as he could, mostly just to aid his focus of energy. The green swirling powers that had gathered around him suddenly froze in position for a moment. Then, the wisps of energy extended to become a bright green wall and the air began to whistle. Cackles of lightning shot off from Cyoren as the mecha glowed a dark blue beneath the flow of Lifestream energy. Red warning lights within the HUDs began to show up.
Tyrion ignored them. He spread his hands out, touching the green wall of energy that had been formed. The troops surrounding him had ceased their attack, mostly just interested and confused by the barricade of power. Tyrion focused hard. The energy suddenly came out of a static being and shot outward.
First it gathered in a disc about six inches wide around Tyrion’s waist. In another faction of a second, the blasted outward with the force of Lifestream, powerful winds going along with it. The disc spread at an amazing rate, the leading edge of it getting wider. In a blink of an eye, it had encompassed the entirety of the force that had been sent to meet him.
The first ones that were hit were simply torn in half at the midsection by the cutting edge of the growing disc. The ones that were hit later were completely engulfed as the disc had increased in size. The intense kinetic energy of the blast had vaporized everything that was farther than a few meters away from him, the ground beneath being scorched by the heat and marked by concentric blast circles.
In the distance, the blast contacted the facility, digging completely through the first floor before it extended to dissipate in the distance. Without a first floor to support it, the facility came down and the weight of the giant dish crushed whatever was beneath it.
The dust that had been kicked up in the air dissipated and the remains (or lack thereof) of the attack were seen. At the center of the dead bodies and blast marks, Tyrion was still stood with his arms out, clearly breathing heavily. In the distance, Lina slowly let down the psychic shield that she had assembled for herself, the dull blue hum reducing to nothing.
“What was…that?” she asked herself aloud. Tyrion didn’t respond. In the middle of the circle of death, his form crumbled to its knees, arms limp at the side. Something moved in the distance…
“I was right?” she asked herself again, pulling off her helmet to see if her visual sensors were just playing tricks on her. “Was I…right?” Her muscles ached a little, the force of the spell having passed through the shield in its pressure, anyway. Her arms and shoulders felt like they were going to fall off, and her head was strained. The effect of the spell had been so powerful that she had used up far too much mental energy to protect against it.
She closed her eyes for a second, not seeing the three men cloaked in black sweep from behind and knock her out, a mere three seconds after she had removed her helmet.. They then collected an unconscious Tyrion a few moments later, taking the two lifeless bodies away.
.
By the time Tristan arrived, it was too late. The facility had been felled and the ground was completely littered with dead bodies. There was no sign of either Tyrion or Lina, which means there was no sign of the Armour which Tyrion was supposed to extract the battle data from.
“Ah, shit…” Tristan said. “Jack’s gonna have my ass.”
He surveyed the damage. He couldn’t even begin to count the number of dead bodies. The magical residue of Lifestream still hung in the air, making it damp.
“Tyrion did all this…on his own?” Tristan wondered. He whipped out a small sensory device and held it up to the area. The screen blipped signifying a definite Chaos signature throughout the battlefield. This had been Tyrion’s handiwork, certainly. Easily over 200 men were dead. He created a link up to the Weatherlight.
“What’s the report, Tristan?” Jack said over the communications link.
“By Iluvitar’s name, this is intense,” Tristan said. “He must already rival the power of many Adeptus. That, and this shows signs of much growth since we fought in his home. His power is probably already starting to increase exponentially, just as yours did after you first manifested the Wings. Plus, the Chaos readings are off the charts. He was probably using the Wings here, too.”
“No sign of him?” Jack asked.
“None. I can’t believe he cleared them out this quickly.”
“You realize it’s your fault that we lost him?” Tristan grumbled.
“Yes.”
“Just fix it, okay?” Jack said, surprisingly contained in anger.
“After this much energy use, he might have passed out. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else was monitoring him and took him.”
“Any leads?”
“It’d be someone that was watching the actions of M-1. If I had to bet, I’d say those that are called the Saidiar are probably after him, and they’re the only ones that haven’t reared their heads that I know of.”
“Can you track them?”
“Of course.”
“Then do it,” Jack said. “Report to me in two hours with your progress. In the mean time, I may have some negotiations to attend to…”
“Right. I’ll speak with you then,” Tristan said. “This is Tenser, over and out.” He shut down the communications link and began to glance around. “Now, all I need is a lead.” He sighed, then began to fly slowly over the field. “Come on, Tristan Tenser the Great, you can do this…”
.
“I knew Tristan would blow it at some point. True, he made up for his mistakes in the end, but it’s funny that stupid things such as a cigarette break can potentially throw off a search that had taken two year up until that point. Then again, if we had worked that long, a little longer wouldn’t have hurt, anyway” –Sarah Inverse McKlane, when asked about Tristan Tenser