Fan Fiction ❯ The Blackhawk Chronicles 00: Origins ❯ Chapter 3

The Blackhawk Chronicles: Chapter 3
By Archangel Bloodraven

"Why should we follow you anywhere?" Adair demanded icily.

"For the same reason you came here to begin with. For answers." Isis said as the door, cleverly camouflaged as part of the wall slid aside revealing a long tunnel in a mixture of blinding white light and cold stainless steel. Suddenly the door slammed and locked shut as Isis gave a little wave.

"It's a trap!" Deana cried lunging to tackle Isis, but instead falling through her as the image faded away.

"It's a high res, Dee." Falcon said helping her to her feet as she pushed her short denim jacket away from her.

"So if this is a trap, let's get on with it." Robyn snarled looking around impatiently. Her slender hands rubbed her sides absently before a quick motion produced a handgun.

"Good to know I'm not the only paranoid one." Adair said drawing a gun of his own.

***

"They're never gonna forgive us for this." Olivia said.

"Or trust us." Max said.

"I know," Isis said, biting her lip. "I don't want to do it this way, but it's the only way we can see their progress."

"I just hope we can earn their trust back." Nemesis said. "We need them as much as they need us. Computer." She hung her head in resignation. "Attack." Forgive me, my heirs.

***

"Terminate." A voice droned as large laser cannons descended from the ceiling to hover in the middle of the floor.

"No way we're giving up that easy!" Steve said as the weapons fired and the group scattered.

Robyn rolled into a crouch and came up firing, scoring a direct hit on the cannon's targeting array as the others began to produce various degrees of small firearms and followed her lead. Deanna dove back as she slid under one of the cannons and fired straight up, rupturing the casing around the anti gravitational unit, or AGU, causing the cannon to wobble from side to side erratically as the bottom spat out a massive shower of sparks

"That's the way to do it!" Steve said as he whipped into a high spin kick slamming the damaged cannon back into three of it's counterparts destroying them in a brilliant explosion.

"Vatch it, love." 'Nique said rebounding between two of the still functioning cannons. "Ve are not fireproof you know."

"Sorry Nique." He said contritely as he took out another cannon's AGU sending it spinning merrily into a wall with another explosion. Thankfully the sprinkler system came on dousing the fires and the oppressive heat they caused. Martinique waved offhandedly as the cannons established a target lock. As they fired she dropped into a split, causing the blasts which would have ripped through her chest and back to merely singe her hair. A moment later Trevalian slammed into her throwing them both across the room as the hovering cannons reduced themselves to so much molten scrap metal. As Meliana emptied her clip into the last cannon's power core she was rewarded by an explosion that threw her back into the others.

"Mel!" Xavier cradled her inert form.

"No fair." She coughed weakly. "I should have had three more seconds."

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Robyn exploded.

"Like I said," Meliana said as she slowly recovered her footing and her breath. "I should have had three more seconds to get clear."

"Then I think someone blew that cannon." Trev said frowning "What do we have for ammo?"

"I went through my first clip already." Mel said pulling out her clip. Inside, the matter energy conversion matrix reduced the shell casings within the clip to energy bolts. "I'll be fully charged in forty five seconds."

"I don't think we have that much time." Drake said "Look."

Pouring from the walls were swarms of small robotic spiders armed with miniature tazers.

"To state ze obvious, ve are soaking wet and I zink our friends vant to give us a shocking experience."

"I've got one round left and then the minute it takes for matter energy conversion. Think you guys can keep the creepy crawlies off us for that long?" Steve asked.

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the group as he first targeted the center of the mass then swung his sight over to the nearest portal and fired a round there. As he had hoped the mecharachnids were unshielded and highly volatile. He was rewarded with a massive explosion. "Gum up the portals."

The teens took their time firing one after another waiting until the subsequent explosion died before firing again. Some focused on closing the portals that spewed forth a seemingly endless tide of machines, while others chose to stem the tide itself, focusing their fire on the approaching front lines. In a matter of minutes the floor was littered with ankle deep shrapnel and the air reeked of hot ozone.

"Very impressive." A mechanical voice said. "Now I shall fight one of you. If I am victorious, I shall destroy you."

"And what if our representative wins?" Xavier said changing clips.

"In that case," A large android rose out the floor. It was human shaped with six arms and a variety of swords. "You shall have the answers you seek. Who shall be your champion?"

"I'll do it." Xavier said holstering his gun. "You're what, a Shiva XK97?"

"Very astute." The android said. "Though I have had certain modifications."

"That will make this all the more interesting." Falcon said as he slowly drew a long sword from his cane.

***

"Where did that come from?" Nemesis exclaimed.

"Ah my boy is full of surprises." Olivia laughed in her rich accent.

"You had something to do with that."

"No." She chuckled. "I had everything to do with it."

"Watch yourself Isis." Nemesis said flicking her eyes to the control tank where her sister stood suspended in a pale blue fluid as she controlled the android outside. "He's got more up his sleeves than just his arms."

***

"Isn't the sword in the cane bit a little played out?" Isis/Shiva asked.

"Perhaps, but classics never go out of style." He said taking a defensive position with both sword and sheath. "Shall we dance?"

Shiva lunged pulling a sword and moving to decapitate Falcon who seemingly disappeared as the blade imbedded itself into the metal floor. "What?!"

"Up here." He laughed. Shiva and the others stared in amazement as Xavier hung from the ceiling by his sword.

"Imp-" Shiva was cut off as Falcon shifted his sword and dropped like a stone, his weapon slicing through one of the lower arms as he rolled away, dodging another blade, even as a third cut into his arm.

"You rotten blighter." He mumbled whipping off his jacket as he flipped his swords into the air. Isis took the imitative and lunged forward as Xavier stepped in narrowly twisting his head past the sword, before striking Shiva with all the strength he muster into an open palm thrust which threw the android back with sufficient force to disrupt her balance and dent her chest plate. "That's not bitrillium." He said as he caught his sword and sheath.

"No, it's not." She laughed raising a hand to produce a gataling gun.

"Drop and cover!" Xavier shouted, deflecting the bullets with his sword as the other's dropped to the floor reducing their profiles to a minimum giving Shiva a smaller target. "Playtime's over." He snarled as the gataling whirled and spat it's final round before the internal conversion matrix began it's work. He shifted his grip slightly as his sword glowed an intense electric blue.

***

"What now?" Nemesis exclaimed.

"We're reading a massive electrical surge coming from that sword." One of the technicians exclaimed.

"Well well. I never expected him to use that." Olivia chuckled.

"What is it?" Nemesis asked wheeling on the other woman.

"See for yourself." She replied nodding toward the monitor.

***

Xavier spun in a furious arc slicing through three of Shiva's remaining arms like a shark through the water. "You know why they discontinued the XK series? They made the neural control interface too good. The pilot feels what happens to the mech. Now I don't know if they fixed that little problem when they upgraded you, but I think I can probably take this sword clean through your torso, no matter what new metal you've got."

"You wouldn't!" Shiva exclaimed, instinctive bringing her swords to block her body.

"Wouldn't I? I've had a really stressful night. We all have and you're not making it any easier."

"You can't! The old NCI was too slow, so we updated it. If you destroy the mech, you'll kill me."

"Do you yield?" He asked shifting the sword slightly.

"No! One of us must be destroyed."

With a blinding spin, Xavier slashed through the swords leaving a shallow gash in the mech's armor.

***

"Her vitals are fluctuating rapidly!" A medic shouted. "She's going into shock."

"Disconnect now Isis, or I'll shut it down."

"No." Isis' voice drifted from the console. "I can take him."

"You've got no weapons and you're going into shock. Walk away. That's an order!"

***

"I'm not a violent person by nature."

"You know nothing of your nature, Son of Prospero."

"Ah, Isis. I suspected you might be in there. Now are you a real person or an AI, because if you're an AI, all that will happen if I unzip this mech's spine is I'll scramble a few files. However if you're alive... You can still yield and walk away from this."

"I... yield." Isis/Shiva said.

"Very wise, Isis. Power down and get some medical attention." He replied as the eyes went dark and a door at the far end of the corridor opened.

"Very impressive Mr. Falcon." A new voice said.

"You have me at a double disadvantage." He said shifting his grip again causing the blue glow to fade. "I can neither see you, nor do I know your name."

"Her name is Nemesis." Robyn snarled. "Is this how you killed my father? Making him run your twisted little gauntlet?"

"Your father died doing something he believed would make a difference. Come through the door, all of you and I will give you the answers you desperately seek."

"Well," Falcon said laying the back of his hand against the flat of his sword before resheathing it in his cane. "In for a penny in for a pound, it seems."

"I have to know what happened." Robyn said storming towards the door.

"Robyn." Deana said softly as she caught the older girl by the shoulder. "We all need answers, so let's go find them together."