FanFic: The Recollection of Paladin | FINAL CHAPTER: 13

[HUnewearl_Meira]

The Recollection of VanGarrett went really really quick. Which is good. It was also the first Recollection fic to exceed 1000 views, as well as the first Recollection fic to exceed 100 replies. Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate this.

Now I'm starting to get a little more organized, and I've noticed how much easier writing has become-- the practice seems to have been paying off. Which is good because I've got some really deep plans for some of the later fics, and Paladin's is no exception. It's also good because VanGarrett's looooong chapters make typing up everyone else's relatively short chapters seem really really quick. Which means we should be seeing frequent updates.

Now those who've read the previous fics in the series know all about the Dragoon-type HUcasts. For that matter, Dragoon himself seems to be a favorite character from the series. Well, there'll be a lot of him in here, as for the first time he will be both a major character AND a background character.

The Recollection of Paladin covers a larger span of time than any other fic in the series, so far. He begins at roughly Chapter 9 of The Recollection of VanGarrett, and will complete sometime after the end of The Recollection of Crankshaft.

So enjoy the show, folks. Now we get to see most of the events that we've seen in other fics from a totally different point of view.





[Bortevo AI Systems Corp.]
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[Beginning Log]

This is my report concerning Akolyte's fate. I am well aware that the results, as described at the meeting, were rather confusing. Perhaps this report will clarify the circumstances. I will begin this account, with the mission on which Dragoon and I aided VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor.

On that evening, at @862 Beats, we gathered near what was supposed to be an abandoned building. For all practical reasons, it was being inhabited by those who'd fallen as slaves to Dark Falz. The team consisted of myself, Dragoon, another HUcast by the name of Draconis, and we were to be lead into battle by the RAmar, HuBBsDoctor. We were the violent half of a two-team mission. We were The Shock Team. Our job was to break things, and otherwise wreak havoc, while the other team carried out an objective.
Draconis was the last to arrive. His paint job was a very well-polished red, and he was moderately smaller than I am, though every bit as tall. His head model was one of the variants that includes a horn-like structure.
It seems that Draconis is an old friend of HuBBsDoctor's. When Draconis arrived, HuBBsDoctor immediately asked him, "Draconis? Why are you red?"
To this Draconis replied, "Stupid kids."
HuBBsDoctor raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Kids?"
Draconis replied again, "Only the stupid ones."
Seeing the conversation moving in an unproductive direction, I intervened with a more important change of subject. "HuBBsDoctor. What is the plan of attack?"
HuBBsDoctor looked at me, thought for a moment, then replied, "You and Dragoon will peel back a wall to make a door, then I'll clear our passage through with some explosive rounds from my Inferno Bazooka. From there, we'll just break stuff and attack everything we see. So be prepared to work yourself up into a berserker frenzy."
At about that time, I looked over at Dragoon, to see him chasing a few stray rodents, and shouting, "KILL KILLKILLKILL KILL KILL!! YOU MUST DIIIIIIEEEEE!!"
Then I looked at HuBBsDoctor and commented, "I think Dragoon already has that part covered."
HuBBsDoctor nodded and shrugged, "Well, he is Dragoon, after all. If he were calm, I'd be worried."

When the time came, we ran to our target building. Noting the presence of the Sub Rosa team, consisting of the HUmars Randon and Artemis, the FOmar Guybec, and lead by the RAmar VanGarrett, above us on a suspended walkway, I dug my fingers into the seam of on a wall of this module-based building. Shouting, and otherwise making as much noise as I could, I pulled on the wall, as Dragoon pulled along the same seam, in the opposite direction. I shouted as Dragoon does, "KILL! HURT! MAIM! DESTRUCTION! KA-BOOM!"
When the opening was wide enough, HuBBsDoctor began pelting the inside with the incendiary rounds that the Inferno Bazooka launches. He shot at everything that was immediately in view of our new "doorway." Thus, the invasion began, and we were already underway.
For the next two hundred beats or so, we were in battle. Draconis took pride in breaking windows with the bodies of the possessed, as well as skewering them on his horn-like structure. It didn't take us long at all, before we must've had the attention of the entire building. I suppose it particularly helped, that I made a regular effort to slam things into support structures and air vents, which would of course, make noises throughout the building.
Most of those we fought seemed to have been possessed for quite some time, and their worn-out bodies were fairly easy to crush. It was as though we were clearing away a previous generation of these cronies. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that we'd been set up.
Dragoon and I both found that possibly the quickest way to destroy these older cronies, was to simply place our fists both on one shoulder in a hard, downward swing. This would fairly effectively break their del'd bodies in half, and therefore cause them to vanish into a messy, purple puddle.
As I experimented with breaking one of these creatures over another, Dragoon found himself pre-occupied with the arrival of Akolyte, and more importantly to Dragoon, the group of masked RAmars dressed in black, the Soul Crushers. Akolyte signaled the Soul Crushers to attack, and Dragoon wasted no time in spitting out the creature he'd been gnawing on, and attacking them. I'm not sure how he accomplishes it, but as always, he somehow managed to grab all ten at once, and begin skirmishing with them.
I watched Akolyte, and Akolyte watched me. We both knew what was next. "Little Brother!" I yelled to him. "I do believe it is time for us to battle, again!" With that, I prepared myself to fight him. We had fought several times just recently, and as a result, both of us had grown quite considerably in our skill and power. We had progressed beyond the stage of exploiting blatant weaknesses, and had in fact, run out of weaknesses to exploit. By this point in time, we were both experienced equals.
Akolyte responded by saying, "It would be my honor, Paladin, to crunch your face, yet again!" He began to charge me, seeming to pull his fist back to punch me. I knew that punching me with his right fist was not his goal, however. We'd been through that. We both knew what each other would do.
As we both expected, I caught his arm at his elbow with my right hand, then tried to backhand his face with my left fist. He ducked, went around me, and tried to use my grip on his right arm as leverage to add force to a punch with his left fist into my lower-back. Anticipating this, I continued my back hand motion, and brought my left hand down to catch his left fist. At this point, I had one hand gripping the inside of his right elbow, and the other hand gripping his left fist. He was behind me.
"What now?" I asked.
Akolyte only chuckled. Last time, he ended up punching me in the lower-back. This time, I stopped that before it happened. When I felt him jump, I dropped forward, and let go of his arms. He'd tried to ram his feet into my back, so I'd let go of him. Instead, he just rammed his feet into the air, before nearly landing on me. Fortunately, I rolled away in time and the crack he made when he landed was in the floor, rather than my armor.
I took that opportunity to get up as quickly as I could, grab him by the shoulders, and ram him through a few of his own, purple fluid-filled cronies, then straight through some manner of computer console, and ultimately, the wall behind it. Not willing to stop at that, I dived at him, and buried my fist into the floor, where he'd been before he rolled out of the way.
As I got up from a kneeling position, Akolyte picked me up just as I'd rammed him through the wall the short way, he started at the whole we'd made, and began to ram me through the wall the long way. I protected the cluster of sensor equipment in my face using my arm, but until I located a large metal post where two walls joined, I was at Akolyte's mercy, or lack thereof.
The post was rather convenient. I grabbed the post, and before I was jammed into it, I tore it from the wall, and proceeded to beat Akolyte's head with it, as he continued to push me through the wall. Eventually, my attacks forced him to let go and back off, as I was beginning to prod at his face.
After climbing from the wall, I deflected his next attack with the pole, then promptly swung it at him. He did, of course, block the pole, but I had swung it with force sufficient to cause it to bend around his arm, and smack him in the back of the head, anyway. Which was somewhat of a blooper I suppose, but it did work to my advantage. In the instant that he was bewildered, and trying to figure out what had just happened, I ripped the pole back from his arm, breaking it where it bent, and quickly began to beat him around the head with it.
Ducking from my attacks, he caught the other half of the pole as it fell from behind him, and before long, we were both deflecting each others' advances with the two halves of the pole. It was as though we were fencing with materials that could literally be used to make a fence. It wasn't until we finally hit each others' halves of the pole hard enough to cause them to wrap around each other that this process broke, at which point we both kicked at each other.
We both caught each others' legs in the air, however. We dropped the poles, and just kinda hopped in circles for a moment, neither of us really willing to let go until the other had fallen. This was beginning to result in a stalemate, so I tried an old trick on his AI. I let go of his leg with one hand and pointed in a random direction as I shouted, "Look! A squirrel!"
Akolyte didn't react this time, however. It seems that he's learned from past experiences to not be so easily distracted from his target. Dragoon, on the other hand, leaped through the hole we'd made in the wall, and immediately tackled something in the general direction that I had pointed, all the time shouting, "SQUIRREL?!?! WHERE?!? I WILL KILL IT!!! KIIIIIIIILLLLL!!" At the end of that shout, the word "kill" mutated into a bizarre electronic sound that would be recognized only by those who are familiar with Dragoon and the behaviors he tends to exhibit.
Since he now had a stronger grip on me, he was able to lift me into the air, and begin to toss me. To prevent this advancement, as he swung me, I bent at my waist and grabbed his head. When he finally let go, I did indeed move through the air, but I took him with me. I pulled him through the air, got him under my feet, and just before we impacted a bank of computer terminals, I thrust down with my legs, slamming him into those terminals, and causing myself to effectively jump off of him.
I slid as I landed, trying to stabilize myself on my feet. Akolyte wasted no time in pushing himself off of his surroundings and charging at me while I was unstable. Luckily for me, at about this time, Draconis gave me a little aid. he threw two or three cronies at Akolyte, knocking them over, then gave me a "thumbs-up" gesture, before moving on to breaking furniture and ramming the possessed.
Meanwhile, HuBBsDoctor had pulled out a Red Saber, and with it, he was grinding his way through a hallway packed with the possessed. He was doing a rather good job with that Red Saber, as well. Dragoon was smacking the Soul Crushers with each other, as well. This fight did continue on for quite a while.
Akolyte and I continued to struggle with each other, and after several more walls and infrastructures, the HuBBsDoctor gave us the signal to evacuate. It was at about this time, as well, that Dragoon ripped the helmet off of Pinky with his jaw-structure, and crunched it down, completely consuming it. Our collective reaction to seeing Pinky's bald, wrinkled head was one of disgust. Even Akolyte paused to flinch.
When HuBBsDoctor shouted "Retreat!" we all ran for the entrance we'd created. The cronies, Soul Crushers and Akolyte all chased after us, yelling and screaming, honestly believing that they had us on the run, and that they had successfully defended their territory. They jumped up and down outside their building as we ran out of distance from the impending destruction. We finally stopped at a location from which we could watch the building be demolished, and at the same time, watch where the cronies go.

HuBBsDoctor sent VanGarrett a message indicating our successful evacuation. Chuckling, Draconis told HuBBsDoctor, "Tell them that Dragoon ate the Pinkal's helmet. That was quite amusing."
Dragoon stared blankly at that comment, as HuBBsDoctor tried to contain his amusement. "What?" Dragoon said, "Do you have any IDEA what it's like to not be able to kill something? Those guys PISS ME OFF!"
Shaking his head, and still laughing, HuBBsDoctor sent another message to VanGarrett, concerning Dragoon's antics. Having read VanGarrett's literature concerning this, I am aware that his group was rather amused by this, as well. Over the following fifty beats or so, the building collapsed a single story at a time. At one point, a Soul Crusher was seen to fall from one of the collapsing floors, and was immediately pursued by Dragoon, in very much the same way that a young canine creature will immediately chase after a toy that has been thrown by its master. In fact, Dragoon seemed to have made a concerted effort to collect the Soul Crushers in specific. Only several of them were captured, however, and they eventually escaped while Dragoon threw a tantrum over being unable to kill them.

We split up and followed various cronies around the city, but found that there were no other apparent locations where they went to hide. Some went to vacant apartments, some climbed up trees in the park, and some fled to secluded alleyways. Any of them that I ran to a dead end, I made a point of killing, if it had been possessed long enough to vanquish in such a fashion. Otherwise I just pounded it into a purple mass of jelly.
We didn't hear much from VanGarrett's team after that, but we did find VanGarrett's fairly old truck, in a rather distraught condition. Being aware of how important this truck is to VanGarrett, I had it stored in the garage at the Post-Bortevo building, where it was to wait for VanGarrett's return, at which point whatever repairs requested by VanGarrett would be made, at the Post-Bortevo Organization's expense.
For the record, VanGarrett's request to have the parts that are beyond repair to be melted down and re-cast into their original shapes has been granted, despite the fact that it is indeed a terribly expensive process. The Accounting Department is quite glad that VanGarrett insisted that he pay half of the costs to do this. VanGarrett did, however, decline Zeirom's offer to add Dragoon-type technology to the truck, along with his plans to increase the armor plating and overall structural integrity of the vehicle.
Still, it was a while before we heard much from VanGarrett's team. A few days after the destruction of the building, Artemis contacted us to inform us of what VanGarrett did to Akolyte, and where the team went after that. Indeed, VanGarrett had nearly destroyed Akolyte by ramming him with his truck, which rather explained what happened to the truck. VanGarrett's team had evidently chased Akolyte and all of the Soul Crushers that Dragoon hadn't collected that evening, to the third segment of the Ruins under the Redria section ID. Artemis furthermore informed us that Randon had been captured by those possessed by Dark Falz, and he only escaped by distracting them, then Telepiping back to Pioneer 2. When asked how he distracted them, he said that he'd pointed in a random direction and shouted, "Over there!"
Among the rest of the aftermath of this incident, Randon's affectionate roommate, Meira Bragwin, has joined the Hunters' Guild, and set out to find Randon. This information was attained by Zeirom, who happened to recognize her from a picture, while he was out doing some shopping for parts to apply to his Dragoon-type RAcaseal. Since that point, Zeirom and Dragoon have been helping Meira quite a bit. Zeirom seems to be exceptionally interested in accepting Meira's requests, and Dragoon seems to just be happy to have the excuse to kill things.
It was, however, one particular message that Artemis relayed that really worried me. That message was received over two simple mail messages after he left the Post-Bortevo building, that day. Those two messages were, "Oh yeah, one more thing that I forgot." and "Akolyte promises a massacre." That's what prompted me to begin my intense training.

[End Log]
[File Saved.]



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: HUnewearl_Meira on 2004-04-27 15:59 ]</font>


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[Scejntjynahl]

Most excellent, this story becomes more real per character you have done a recollection. Tids and bits all coming together a tapestry of storytelling that only you have offered thus far. I shall now wait patiently to have my eyes opened once again in your next chapter.

[navci]

VanGarrett did, however, decline Zeirom's offer to add Dragoon-type technology to the truck, along with his plans to increase the armor plating and overall structural integrity of the vehicle.

Imagine this. A Dragoon type Truck! It's honking is a chant of "KILL KILL KILL"... I don't think Vangarrett would be stuck in any traffic jam anymore. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[FreedomJu]

On 2004-04-13 14:25, navi wrote:


VanGarrett did, however, decline Zeirom's offer to add Dragoon-type technology to the truck, along with his plans to increase the armor plating and overall structural integrity of the vehicle.

Imagine this. A Dragoon type Truck! It's honking is a chant of "KILL KILL KILL"... I don't think Vangarrett would be stuck in any traffic jam anymore. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif



But on the other hand, you wouldn't want that when Dragoon is around, otherwise he may take it as a threat and trash VanGarrett's poor truck, again. Which to me seems to be the reason that he declined the offer for Dragoon technology in the truck. Just my little theory.

Anyway, great first chapter.... can we hope for Chapter 2 tomorrow?

[navci]

On 2004-04-13 15:17, FreedomJu wrote:
But on the other hand, you wouldn't want that when Dragoon is around, otherwise he may take it as a threat and trash VanGarrett's poor truck, again. Which to me seems to be the reason that he declined the offer for Dragoon technology in the truck. Just my little theory.


You have a point. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif
But then, we could do two different settings, one being Kill Kill Kill. One.... well when Dragoon is around maybe we can have the honk playing "Chant this Charm" or something. And Dragoon would be forced to dance with it and sing along.


Aww. Isn't that cute!

[FreedomJu]

On 2004-04-13 15:28, navi wrote:


On 2004-04-13 15:17, FreedomJu wrote:
But on the other hand, you wouldn't want that when Dragoon is around, otherwise he may take it as a threat and trash VanGarrett's poor truck, again. Which to me seems to be the reason that he declined the offer for Dragoon technology in the truck. Just my little theory.


You have a point. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif
But then, we could do two different settings, one being Kill Kill Kill. One.... well when Dragoon is around maybe we can have the honk playing "Chant this Charm" or something. And Dragoon would be forced to dance with it and sing along.


Aww. Isn't that cute!



Or for setting number two, if VanGarrett wanted to freak people out, he could have the I Love You Barney song or something. Think of the reaction he would get. And how Dragoon would react. Then again, Dragoon may not care.

[BOC]

good stuff as always meira. Maybe not your greatest work but still dam good.

but what am i on about? its only the first chapter and with the promise of a bloodbath to come, this will shape up to be another epic worth of the recollection saga!

PEACE!!!

[KaFKa]

me likey meira, good stuff as always http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Nai_Calus]

w00t, more good shit from VG for me to read instead of doing my homework or working on my own fic. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif Pwnage.

[HuBBsDoctor]

Har! Great start to the Paladin saga. And good job for stil making the hubbs look good in combat. Mad props!

[Bradicus]

Um... i ran out of compliments i while ago, but that's ok.

Another great addition to the Recolections!

[PurplePower2]

Yeah Paladin

..wait im still mad at you, but I cant remember why..

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Many of you have been waiting for this somewhat impatiently, and I apologize. I've observed that every time I get to where I've pushed out several chapters over a short period of time, I end up letting the series go on a short hiatus for a couple of weeks.

In the mean time, I end up working on some of my more off-beat projects. Sometimes I end up coloring stuff in Photoshop, sometimes I end up just trying to eat my way through a game, sometimes I end up doing something totally weird, like I did this time, and take a few more steps into learning C++ (which is actually coming along oddly well).

I'd also like to take a moment to point out that I've placed a link to TheRecollectionSaga.com (http://www.TheRecollectionSaga.com) in my sig, where you'll find a table with links to most of The Recollection Saga, a little bit of menial information about each installment, and a crude news archive that I've set up for the series. It'll become more impressive in the future, and fixing it up will probably end up being another tangent that I get onto before too long.

So, that said, I now present to you, The Recollection of Paladin: Chapter 2.




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With Dragoon running around taking quests for various people, as well as helping Meira search for Randon, I chose to do some solo training. I knew that Akolyte would be more powerful upon returning, so I felt it would be a good idea to train myself for greater efficiency in combat. I figured that if I were lucky, I could cause myself to upgrade before he returned. I was unsuccessful in that attempt, but I was at least able to improve my combat ability enough to keep up with him. It wasn't for quite some time that I finally maximized my efficiency, and upgraded, but that's something I'll get to, much later on.
By going solo, I could focus entirely on killing, and not worry about differentiating between things to kill, and things to not kill. Doing this allows me to move my AI functions down to a lower level, that requires far fewer processor cycles, therefore making my reactions considerably faster, and making me considerably more efficient. This lower level of my AI is actually quite similar to Dragoon's original AI. The instructions are very simple-- If it seems to be alive, then find a way to kill it.
With some initiative, I went down to the Lab, where, among other things, they deal with the VR simulator. While there, I spoke with the head of the lab, Natasha Milarose. Natasha is something of an older woman. She must be in her mid-40's or so, by my personal estimation. She wears a monocle over one eye, and wears something of an almost-formal body suit that quite honestly, makes no attempt to hide her lack of youthful grace. Not that any of this matters. She's in a position of authority, and for some reason, I suspect that she's already had her children.
"Ms. Milarose," I said as I stepped up the ramp to the platform where her desk resides. "I have a request of the lab."
As I stepped up to her desk, she gave me an uncooperative expression, and informed me, "You Paladin, of all people, should know that the Lab does not take personal requests."
Having become something of a successful business man in generating funding for The Post-Bortevo Organization, I knew how to handle this. I replied quite smartly, "Well then. I suppose that if the Lab doesn't take personal requests, then the Post-Bortevo Organization doesn't make donations anymore, either. Let me contact my associate." At that point, I lifted my arm to access the terminal I had strapped to it.
Natasha nearly dropped her monocle. "You wouldn't!"
Without looking up from my terminal, I began reading the message I was writing out loud, "By my order, cease donations to--"
In quite an animated fashion, she interrupted me saying, "All right! Fine! You win, Paladin."
I cancelled my message, and looked up at her. I said, "Good. You're ready to hear my request, then?"
She nodded, in a most annoyed fashion. "I'll do this as a favor just this once, but don't expect me to make this sort of exception ever again."
Personally, I didn't feel like letting a potential window of opportunity in the future close. "Oh, I don't know about that," I said, "I mean after all, I realize that you need funding for all of those off-the-record, non-government funded experiments you run down here. You don't honestly expect that Principal Tyrell will turn a blind eye to your inflated expenses forever, do you?"
She clearly was not enjoying this conversation. "Don't push me, Paladin. Just give me your request, and we'll consider it."
I responded, "I need you to take every challenging test run in the VR simulator that you have on file, and run them together, end to end. I have some serious training to do."
"That's it?" she questioned.
I nodded.
"Geeze Paladin, the way you were talking, I thought you were going to ask for some sort of experiment to be carried out."
I shook my head. "No," I said, "No, Ms. Milarose. I have my own people for that sort of thing. I just don't have my own VR Simulator."

I was then informed that it would take an hour or two for the program to be repaired, so I wandered down to the shopping district within the lab area, procured some equipment from my locker in the Check Room, and began discussing life with the shopkeepers. In one such conversation, I went on to say things like, "Now, you see, from my point of view, if it's non-sentient, then it's just waiting to get killed. I mean, look at mice. They spread disease, and they eat your food when you're not looking, too!"
In retrospect, I don't believe that conversation was terribly successful. The only response I really got was from the young woman behind the item counter, who presented me with some merchandise and said, "Here, have some Trimate and Star Atomizers. Please don't hurt me."
Finally, I received the message that the simulator was ready, and I made haste to begin. I must've spent several months in there, slaughtering photonic versions of Dimenians, Grass Assassins, Dark Belras, and other fiends, Telepiping out of the simulator only to re-stock on Trimates and the occasional Sol Atomizer.
I must've fought Barba Ray a thousand times. The first couple of hundred fights, I brought him down with Slicer-type weapons ranging from just Slicers to Rappy's Fans, but by the last fight, I was lifting it from the raft, and using it to destroy the scenery, like a giant flail. Ramming it across concrete structures with the aid of the moving raft greatly increase the efficiency of Barba Ray's slaughter.
I began to find Garanz in the VR Spaceship area to be easier to handle after a while too, after discovering that using a club made of Gilchics could be quite effective for batting missiles back at them. Still, twisting Gilchics together began to get boring to me, and I concluded that there must be a more efficient use for them.
At about that time, it occurred to me that Gilchics are oddly limp, and having four appendages as well as a head that would remain out-stretched when thrown properly, it wasn't terribly long before I realized that I could use them rather effectively as Slicer-like thrown projectiles. Thus, the Robot-Star was born.
I began by trying to figure out how to embed them in walls. My initial attempts at this failed fairly readily, seeing that Gilchics simply aren't very sharp-- whether that be in shape or in wit. It only took maybe ten or twenty of these defective security and mining androids for me to determine that my original idea of throwing them like Frisbees simply would not work. I needed a mode of throwing them that would yield more power.
My next attempts involved throwing them over my shoulder. While this method proved to be enough to propel the Gilchics through any Garanz I might encounter, it didn't achieve the spin I was going for. Still, I made note of this method, as a good missile is hard to find.
Seeing that the overhand style wasn't really effective, I decided that it was time to try something else. I figured that perhaps a good side-arm method might do the job. So, instead of throwing the machine from in front of myself, I threw it from my side, in a wide swing, not unlike an old-fashioned discus. The resulting spin of the Gilchic was closer to what I was aiming for, but it still wasn't quite right. There was still something missing.
Needing a place to sit and ponder, I used a Delsaber to disable a Garanz, then used my fists to beat it into the shape of a chair. In one hand, I held a squirming Gilchic, and with my elbow on the arm of the Garanz-chair, I rested my head on my other hand, as I thought and otherwise pondered. The solution I eventually came up with was to add a hand to the equation. Thus far in my attempts, I'd been throwing one-handed.
So I stood up, ran to the other side of the room, and by gripping the Gilchic by two locations on its back, I swung it with as much force as I could, releasing it at a key point, first with my left, then milliseconds later with my right. The resulting trajectory was curved from the crude spin, and while parts of the Gilchic flew off on their own spins upon impacting the Garanz-chair, the head and torso of the robot remained deeply embedded into the target. At this point, I knew that I had found my method, but it would have to be refined.
So, I experimented with the Gilchics for a while. Eventually, I figured out what directions to swing it, how far to swing it, and how to calculate the interval between releasing my hands just right to make it fly apart upon embedding into the primary target, and hit secondary targets with the resulting flying debris. The initial calculations took too long to be effective in a heated battle, but before too long, I'd refined the complexity of the equations down to the bare minimum of necessity, and even established a few macro values to compare results to, just to make error correction quicker.

Fighting the Gol Dragon became an interesting endeavor. My first several fights with it consisted of experiments of jumping up and down on top of it. While this worked to begin with, I found that its ability to teleport was becoming a hindrance to this style of attack. It became clear to me that jumping up and down on it would not work nearly as well on the Gol Dragon as it does on the normal Dragon.
For a while, I determined that I'd have to fight it by conventional means of throwing stuff at it, and hitting it with various weapons. Which wasn't that much fun, really. I started looking for faster, more creative methods. My first inspiration was to stomp on its ankles, until it would dive underneath the floor, and come back up with a duplicate of itself. This proved an interesting prospect. With two of them in the field, I could wait for them to get close to each other, then jump on top of one, and run up its neck. After taking residence behind its head, I could simply give it a good thunk with my fist, to make it reflexively lunge forward, and more often than not, I could get it to bite the other one.
This was rather fun in and of itself, and when the time came that there would be not two, but three of these dragons on the field, the tactics were similar, though more complex, requiring me to jump from one head to another. This was more creative, but it still took too long to pull off, for my tastes. I still needed something faster at more interesting.
After I'd caused the dragons to bite each other enough, I started thinking about the floor. It was divided up into hexagonal segments that would bounce a distance into the air every time the Gol Dragon would land on it. This made me think that manipulating the segments would create an interesting variety of obstacles in the field, and furthermore make it difficult for the dragon to maneuver. When I began considering how to implement this, however, I found that getting those hexagon segments up and getting them to stay that way was a rather difficult task. I knew that I would have to simplify the method.
So, I caught just one of the segments when it bounced up, and I kept pulling it from the ground, creating something of a thick, hexagon-shaped pole. This proved to be an interesting trick, and it worked rather well as a general shield from the dragon's breath weapon, but it still wasn't quite doing the job. I still needed something more useful.
I determined that if I was going to use one of these hexagons as a weapon, I would have to be able to pick and choose which one I was going to use at a moment's notice. So I started to examine the surroundings, and more importantly, how the Gol Dragon was causing them to rise. The most obvious observation was that they bounce when it jumps. I considered this, and realized that indeed, the floor has a slightly spring-like quality to it, but it's stiff enough that most person-sized creatures wouldn't notice it.
So I, myself, jumped straight up, and hit the floor as hard as I could, with both feet. I found that my own weight was sufficient enough to cause a much smaller ripple through the floor than that which the Gol Dragon makes. As such, I tried again a few times, trying to figure out how to grab one specific tile, and pull it up. At first, I had no success, so instead I used my own ripple to throw the Gol Dragon off balance, and therefore make him fall down, so that I could beat its head in. This seemed to work, but I really wanted to make better use of the floor segments.
So I tried some more, to catch a hexagon before it fell back down, and eventually I was able to grab one with my fingertips, and pull it up. With some more practice, I was able to do it every time, and eventually, I got rather skilled at it. Before too long, instead of bringing the dragon to the floor, I was bringing the floor to the dragon. My first idea was to raise it quickly, and smack it in the lower jaw. This worked, but there were better ways.
My next grand idea was to grab one of the hexagons and start ramming it into the belly of the beast. This actually worked quite well, as the belly is rather soft and unprotected. The only problem was that the dragon moves quickly, and likes to teleport. I got started thinking about the dragon teleporting, though. This gave me ideas.
I started paying special attention to this dragon's teleportation habits, and I figured out how to anticipate where it would re-materialize. Then I decided to see what would happen if something were in its way when it re-appears.
I ran ahead of it, and raised a hexagon right where it would come back out. Much to my annoyance, as it rematerialized, its body forced this pillar back into the ground. So I tried it a few more times, and finally, I figured out that it could not force the pillar back into the ground if I held on tightly enough.
So I made a practice of gripping the hexagon segment as tightly as possible. The Gol Dragon re-materialized where this column was, and as it gained a solid state, the hexagon segment seemed to grow heavier and heavier. I held firm, however, and the segment slid in my grip only a few centimeters the first few times I did it, though I would find that the hexagon segments I would be standing on would descend as far as a meter or so.
Finally, however, the Gol Dragon materialized, and I had done it. The ultimate, most efficient way to kill the Gol Dragon. The dragon materialized with a hexagon-shaped column stuck in its body, and it could not move, nor could it breathe to use a breath-weapon. It was stuck, it was in pain, it was writhing, and heck, I didn't even have to hold on to the segment, anymore. After a few moments of this, the dragon would gradually slump over, and any life left in it was easily taken with a bonk on the head from my fists.

My last hundred fights or so with the Gol Dragon were spent mastering this method, and I finally got to the point where I could accomplish it every time, without any difficulty. After the final trip through the VR Spaceship and the final fight with the Gol Dragon, the simulation was finished, and I knew that I had become much more powerful, though I realized that I would still need far more experience, and furthermore, I knew that some real-world experience after these many months would be most useful.
In my absence however, I found that Dragoon's antics were rather devious. Evidently he had continued to travel on Ragol with Meira and Zeirom in search of Randon, and in the mean time, he'd been defeated by Meira, after being corrupted by a strange woman by the name of "Lynn." It seems that Dr. Oscar had to spend a bit of time cleaning goo from Dragoon's innards, and furthermore, he actually employed a few nurses to help speed along the job.
It also seems that Meira made the mistake of taking Dragoon to the zoo onboard Pioneer 2, which resulted in attacking a strange beast known as an "Orangoo." Personally, I've never seen one so I don't know what about it provoked Dragoon, and people who know why Dragoon did this have refused to tell me, in fear that it might inspire me to kill irrationally, as well. It was shortly after this and my return, that Meira had her fight with Lynn, and thus ended up in the hospital.
In the meantime, on my way back to the Post-Bortevo building, I stopped by a pleasant cafe, near the University of Pioneer 2. I noted the presence of Zeirom and Meira, but I did not draw attention to myself. It was here, however, that I saw something that caught my attention. A familiar FOnewm possessing a very important item ran down the sidewalk, bumped into another FOnewm, and continued to run, soon chased by a group of rowdy men. I then thought to myself, "This does not bode well for you, Fender. It does not bode well for you at all."

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[Nai_Calus]

I almost feel sorry for the monsters... XD Heh.

Great work, as always.

*cute scraggly orphan* Please sir, can I have some more?

[FreedomJu]

w00t I say, w00t. More please, and soon. Good stuff.

[Scejntjynahl]

AHHHHH, MY FIX, FINALLY.

Awesome storytelling technique, foreshadowing, compelling, and interesting, what more do we expect from great Meira.

Uhmm, that Meira never slept and finished all recollections... nah, the suspense is great, the anticipation lovely... just dont make us wait TOO long http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[KaFKa]

great stuff.

paladin is just a more civilized dragoon, who'da thunk it? o.0


as always, me likey http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[navci]

A Baranz chair. Who would have thought.
Hehe. ... I dunno, with the scene of Paladin talking with Natasha, I can almost picture Paladin in a business suit, somehow.... -_-;;

Hm. VG, I know what you mean. Anytime I try to (or just randomly) spit out more than 2 pictures in a short time, I ended up just losing focus and had to wander around instead of drawing. I swear I am working on Crankshaft already!

[BOC]

always worth the wait.

i don't know what would scare me most, dragoon screaming how he wants to kiillllllll me.... but won't, or palidin very cooly telling me the best way to beat a del-saber into a comfortable lounger. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

mmmmmm, think dragoon would win, cause lets face it hes more likely to want to kill you. think of all the poor tubes of shoe polish..

excellent stuff meira, keep it coming!

PEACE!!!

[MQuantum]

It would be very interesting indeed if all Dragoon Class Hucasts had a defect...

One that gave them an insane urge to kill things with third eyes... Paladin, going Dragoon, over something like that? Hehehe...

Do you think Akolyte would go to the zoo? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


Wonderful start on Paladin, he is truly a refined Dragoon. Sort of. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

And that's a terrible way to kill Gol Dragons! You're cruel! Meanie...

[HUnewearl_Meira]

This took a little longer than I wanted it to, but here it is. Things are progressing toward some familiar events.

So yeah, Frank, FreedomJu... Here's your fix. I swear I'm not holding back on you guys!



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I returned to the Post-Bortevo building sometime after Zeirom and Meira had left the cafe. There was no apparent indication that either of them noticed my presence; though I suppose this is understandable, as Zeirom doesn't technically work for the Post-Bortevo Organization, and Meira doesn't know me at all. For some reason, however, as I left, a depressed-looking young woman caught my attention. I did not speak with her, but something about her caused my own Judgment AI to focus on her for an extended period. The results were indefinable. She had the great weight of guilt on her shoulders, yet at the same time, a profound air of innocence. I feel as though this woman will have an impact on coming events, though I have yet to personally come across her again. It is as though her very presence impacts all of our fates.
Back at the Post-Bortevo building, I announced my return with limited response. A few miscellaneous employees inquired as to my experience on my trip, and my response generally indicated that the trip was fruitful, yet unsatisfying.
Before checking for messages left for me at my office, I stopped by the Morale office, and checked for Fender. While his personal items remained, the office was indeed vacant. Given the previous events I'd witnessed, I decided I would check in with our receptionist to inquire as to Fender's recent attendance.
So, I returned to the entrance of our building, and asked Ms. Eshyr about Fender's activities in my absence. As the receptionist, she has access to minor accounting details, as well as attendance records and such, so of course, she was the logical choice. To cut to the chase, it was revealed that no one had heard from Fender in two weeks, and though he did schedule a vacation, he was supposed to have returned after one week, rather than two.
I chose to further investigate things. I checked around in his office. In his office, I found many little gadgets, presumably used for amusement. Most were little gag devices. I got my fingers stuck in a small, woven tube. It got tighter as I pulled. Analysis of the device revealed to me that I could liberate my digits by pushing on the device, then pulling them out, but further analysis also revealed that it would be much much simpler to just pull away from it until it breaks. Naturally, I chose to just break the darned thing. I wasn't terribly bothered by doing so. He had a large box full of these. Shamefully, I did get my fingers caught in a second one, however. The second was slightly different, though. I should've analyzed it before simply breaking it, as it was rigged to cause a paintball to explode, if broken.
Ignoring the neon-pink paint that just got splattered on me, I continued to search his office. I decided to check his messages. Naturally, I don't know his password, but I used my own master password, instead. Remember people, if you work for me, then I can access your messages at any time, and in the event of an emergency, I very well may.
After a series of messages containing nothing but goofy laughs, two or three giggly messages from various secretaries from around the building about "the night before," and one from an angry husband who'd evidently found this BEE number in his wife's purse, I found a message that perked my interest.
The message said, and I quote, "The exchange is to be made at the Pao Pao Club in the Viridia district. @700. Bring the merchandise, and we will make the exchange as we discussed. Don't let us down." This was when I began to suspect Fender of the worst. I knew I would have to track him down, but I found determined that it would be more important to track down those he made his trade with. Still, at this point, I only had suspicion that he'd gone and sold the disc that he was in possession of.
In the weeks before, I had entrusted Fender Clutch with the "Dragoon-type Disc". This disc contains all the information someone would need to build another Dragoon-type, as well as a complete and total rundown of how all the systems work and function. In the wrong hands, such a disc can lead to a disaster. The disc was passed to our Moral Officer, as he was the next in line scheduled to receive it for safe keeping. The individual, who had it before then, was Guybec. It had become known to those who wanted to acquire the disc that Guybec was in possession of it, so the disc had to be passed.
I traced the origin of the message, and figured out that it was from a HUmar going by the name of, "SSJSephiroth." I'm not exactly certain what the "SSJ" refers to, though it seems as though "Sephiroth" is a rather common alias aboard Pioneer 2. This is something that I find rather strange, as the "Sephiroth" is one mythology's "10 Circles of Creation." Why so many people want to associate themselves with an obscure creation myth, I do not understand.
So, in any case, I decided that I'd go on down to the Viridia district, and find out about this "SSJSephiroth" fellow. As such, into the "Pao Pao Club," I entered.

The Pao Pao Club was dimly lit, for the most part. The exception to this was a stage consisting of a main area, and three long cat-walks that had a bubbled shape at the end, allowing for more standing space there, presumably, for dancing. Also along each of the catwalks, was a shelf, ideal for setting drinks, each with candles in ceramic netting, accompanied by cheap, stand-up fliers and drinks menus.
I often feel remorse for the Newman race. Being a sub-race of Humans, they tend not to gain very much status among society, and often remain without education. They're furthermore looked down upon as generally inferior beings. To think that they were once considered to be the pride of scientific accomplishments. Androids are actually much the same, in this respect, though androids are generally built for a specific purpose, which means that jobs and occupations are usually guaranteed.
Newmans don't have it so well, though. Newmans are created, and sometimes thrown away. If the lab that creates a Newman finds them to be a failed project, that Newman is sent away. Abandoned. Put into an orphanage, or otherwise pushed out the door. There've been second and third generations and so on, but they all trace back to a lab that didn't want them, at some point. Of course, this is all because laws were passed that forbade the euthanizing of the failed experiments.
At the end of all three stages, attractive, youthful Newearls with varying amounts of minimal clothing danced to a song with a heavy beat and fast rhythm. They have these jobs, no doubt, because it's difficult for them to get the education necessary to get better jobs. After all, no one is a stripper because they got a Masters degree from the University. Even still, they must've been doing fairly well, because the mars and Newms seated around the stage were keeping the Meseta cube transfers busy.
For some reason, it always seems like speaking with a member of the same sub-race is easier on a social scale, so naturally, I walked up to another android that I saw sitting by the stage, to ask him if he knew of an individual named, "SSJSephiroth," just to get myself started. I couldn't make out the details of this individual at first, as it was indeed a dark room.
Still, in between his jumping up, clapping, and electronic whistling, I tapped on his large, metallic shoulder and said, "Excuse me, Sir."
A dish-like head swung around, and I recognized him immediately. "Zeirom?" I said.
"Err," Zeirom replied, "Paladin? I thought you weren't interested in strip joints?"
Surprised, I asked him, "I thought you were out with Meira Bragwin?"
Zeirom's eyes brightened, and he seemed to be checking his internal system clock. "Oh crap! I did have arrangements with Meira, today! Thanks for reminding me!"
With nothing else of any significance in that conversation, Zeirom thanked me for reminding him, and left. As I watched him plod out the door, I did the math in my head, and indeed, "SSJSephiroth" and "Zeirom" were both names yielding Viridia section IDs. It figures.
I asked a few more people, until I was directed toward a HUmar dressed in black, with long, neon-yellow hair, sitting back in a chair, and smoking a hand-rolled cigarette of some variety. Calmly, I walked over to the little round table he was sitting at, sat down, and then folded my hands together in front of him. "Greetings," I said. "Let us speak with one and other."
The man asked, "Dude, do I know you?"
I replied to him, "Perhaps you do not," I did a discrete scan of him, and compared him to images I had stored form the other day, before continuing, "But you certainly look familiar to me."
He looked at me puzzled, and seemingly intoxicated from the fowl-smelling substance he was smoking. I should note, by this time, I determined that he was very likely involved with Black Paper. Smoking is prohibited by law, because we are on a spacecraft with a limited air supply that must be recycled. Further analysis of the smoke revealed that it consisted of a substance that was also prohibited on Coral, albeit, that prohibition was heavily argued. As such, he'd have to acquire it through underground markets. The leading marketer of illegal substances and materials is indeed, Black Paper. Already, we had 90% chances in favor of him being associated with the group.
I continued, "Are you familiar with a Newm by the name of Fender Clutch?" I asked.
He blew some smoke toward me and replied, "I've heard of him. What's it to you?"
"I believe he may have tried to sell you my property," I said.
The man took an especially arrogant expression and replied, "Maybe he did."
"You will tell me what the merchandise was."
He shook his head. "I'm not going to talk about that."
I darkened my eyes, and expressed my thoughts. "I think you are."
He just grinned at me and shook his head.
I would not have this, however. "You will, or you will regret it. You should know that my Judgment Algorithm has declared open season on you, and you can bet that my Hunter's License is current."
I'm not sure if his next comment was inspired by pure arrogance, or if his non-prescription drug of choice was just impairing his judgment. "That's nice. You don't scare me," he said.
So I stood up, and leaned over the table. He took a puff from his cigarette. As he started to pull the cigarette away from his lips, and opened his mouth to blow smoke at me, I grabbed his wrist, and guided the cigarette back toward his mouth. "I believe your cigarette is impairing your better judgment. Let me put it out for you." With that, I guided his hand to firmly press the red and glowing end of the cigarette against his tongue. It will suffice to say that he wasn't very pleased with this.
After that, he agreed to comply with me, and I dragged him off. He lead me to each of his compatriots, and after chasing off the prostitute that'd been hired by the last of them when we arrived, I bound them together with the some type of Photon ring that prisons use to transport prisoners, and had a little chat with them. In total, the group consisted of 2 HUmars, and 2 RAcasts.
Evidently, Fender had sold them a red box containing a disc. When it was revealed that they'd brought weapons instead of Meseta, Fender took the box back, and ran. They eventually recovered the box after losing track of Fender, but when that time came, the box proved to be empty. They described what the box was supposed to contain as being a disc "containing extremely useful top secret knowledge." This seems to be consistent with the Dragoon-type disc. When I was done with them, I consulted my Judgment Algorithm to determine whether or not I should kill them.
I analyzed them individually, and though they all were worthy of death, only one of them registered a high-priority kill. My Honor function stepped in, and prevented me from sending the Kill order, however, because I had them all bound together. It was, the second HUmar whose life was saved by this sub-function of my Judgment Algorithm. I warned that individual that he'd better shape up his act, or I wouldn't be so merciful the next time I saw him.

That afternoon, Meira was admitted into the hospital. Zeirom later explained to me that she had found Randon, but was unable to save him, and ended up fighting with a HUnewearl possessed by Dark Falz, by the name of Lynn Darkstrike. The revelation that Lynn Darkstrike was possessed by Dark Falz was something of a big deal to Zeirom, as he'd been traveling with her for a while, and furthermore, she'd been spending a lot of time with Meira. Fortunately, the doctors were quick in determining that Meira was not showing any indications of D-cell infection, but they requested that she stay in the hospital for a while, because she had many internal injuries, and they furthermore wanted to make sure that D-cell infection didn't appear during the healing process. During the time she was in the hospital, Meira also wrote her own account of her search for Randon. I've read it myself, and I must admit that one detail I found amusing, is that it would seem that Zeirom had never seen Dragoon use his Burst Rockets before a trip to the Caves. The utter destruction they caused took him by surprise, it would seem.
I would certainly recommend that those wishing to know more about what went on while I was training, to read Meira's account of that period of time, as it does cover a lot of Dragoon's events.
As far as what would happen to Fender, well, he was on my list of people to find, but I put my search for him aside for the time being. I took the next couple of weeks to make arrangements with the necessary healthcare facilities to pay for Meira's hospital bills, as I did feel partially responsible for how she ended up in her state. The negotiations did take a while, as several agencies were involved, and for each one, it took several days to come to an agreement on pricing.
I also got Zeirom to lead the janitorial crew to her apartment once a week to make sure that it stayed clean, and maintained while she was gone. Zeirom also volunteered to deliver her mail to her. I furthermore spoke with her landlord, to arrange for The Post-Bortevo Organization to pay her rent while she was in the hospital. While I was at it, I applied a little bit of pressure, and got her rent lowered, as well.

In all honesty, by the time all of that was over, I'd more or less forgotten about Fender. The negotiations were rather heated, and when everything was done, I determined that I needed to vent a bit. Thus, I spent another week or so down on Ragol, just killing creatures. Evidently VanGarrett had returned from his stroll through the desert, and when he contacted me, he didn't have good news to share. I'll explain this further in the next chapter.


[End Log]
[File Saved.]

[FreedomJu]

You got rid of my cravings, for about 10 minutes. I need more darn it! Heh, don't worry, I don't think its humanly possible for you to crank out chapters fast enough to please me, so take your time and make sure they stay the same high level of quality.

[Scejntjynahl]

Great work Meira, just simply great. The foreshadowing skill you have has not diminished in the slightest. The potential events to come are inspiring.

And Paladin can always work for t.r.u.t.h. and help people quit smoking http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[MQuantum]

Yet another reason not to smoke...

*wince* Great chapter! It seems like we'll be reaching new events, next chapter. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

I know what you mean about wanting to read more. I always get done with a chapter and scroll down as fast as possible, hoping, just hoping, there will be another suprise chapter. Grrr... There never is.

But you never know...

[BOC]

dam good stuff!

and chinese finger trap chaos!!! i once put my hands behind my back and had 5 traps stuck on all my fingers in a criss-cross fashion. my buddies bet me that i couldn't get free without their help http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

houdini had nothing on me http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

keep up the excellent work meira!

PEACE!!!

[navci]

SSJSepheroith is the best touch in this chapter.
That's a brilliant idea.



I applied a little bit of pressure, and got her rent lowered, as well.

Can I also borrow Paladin so I can have lower rent also? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Now, to speculate who the young woman who appeared in the beginning of the chapter. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif I have a guess...

[HUnewearl_Meira]

I must've felt inspired this week. TWO CHAPTERS in ONE WEEK!

This chapter is rather violent, and I think I like it.

In fact, things are starting to really get rolling, starting with this chapter. If you thought this particular installation of the Recollection Saga was interesting so far, well, it's about to get a lot MORE interesting.

And, thank you everyone for your comments. I really appreciate it.

So, here we go, with chapter 4.


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I was busy exploring potential uses for a Guil Shark's spleen, when I received the message from VanGarrett. The message was short and simple. "Akolyte's making a mess near the university. Meet me in the lobby." This was it. Akolyte had returned. It was at this time that I would find out whether or not my training had paid off. I hadn't upgraded yet, so the only thing I could rely on was my new knowledge of strategy and tactics.
I returned to Pioneer 2, via Telepipe, and quickly made my way to the teleporter in the Hunters' Guild. Sure enough, VanGarrett was waiting for me in the lobby. "I've already got Zeirom and HuBBs waiting in one of Post-Bortevo's vans, outside. Come on, let's go! There's no time to lose!"
I understood his urgency, and without a word, I complied. I followed him back through the teleporter, and into the streets, where we hopped into a large, beat-up brown van, that was indeed owned by the Post-Bortevo Organization. Once on the road, VanGarrett complained, "Geez, this thing drives like a boat!" His complaint was understandable, though. He was used to driving his truck, and in all honesty, he was right about the difference in handling. His truck was faster, and more maneuverable, though this van was designed to transport larger numbers of people, including androids. I even had the motor pool modify it so it could support the weight of three Dragoon-types and two RAcasts, right after we'd purchased it from and older couple on Coral, before the departure of Pioneer 2. It'd been in a fairly poor condition, but we had the resources to repair it rather thoroughly.
When we arrived at the University, Akolyte had already killed a number of people along University Parkway, which leads up to the campus. Along that street, is somewhat of a promenade, where there is a great amount of foot traffic, as people like to wander the shops in that district, as well as visit the cafe there. It's my understanding that their burgers are considered the best on Pioneer 2, though being an android with no taste buds, I wouldn't know. They do, however, have a wide selection of Photonic Recharge units for androids to choose from, but I digress. I'm getting off-topic.
We parked on the roof, and got out. "All right, let's do this," I said.
VanGarrett shook his head. "No. You guys wait here. I'm going to get Crankshaft, because that's who Akolyte is after."
"Who?" I asked.
"Crankshaft," he replied. "He's a professor of Mechanical Physics, here."
I was perplexed as to why Akolyte was after a simple professor. I asked, "So why is Akolyte after him?"
"No time to explain, right now. I'll be back in three beats, tops," he said. Only three beats? I doubted that. At that point, he ran through a door, and entered the building. I considered who would be the next most likely individual to know more details on the situation. After coming to a conclusion, I turned to HuBBsDoctor and asked, "Why is Akolyte after this Crankshaft fellow?"
HuBBsDoctor looked at me calmly, and replied, "He's currently in possession of your disc. Somehow it got passed between him and Fender."
I nodded, understanding now. "I see." I'd forgotten about Fender until then. "Fender has been a rather busy Newm, indeed."
After a few beats of standing around and watching traffic travel away from the University on the lower levels, I started observing that the building was shaking, periodically. There was destruction going on inside. Infrared scanning revealed that Akolyte had brought a few friends with him, including the group of Dark Falz-possessed RAmars, known as the "Soul Crushers," and even a few bull-like creatures known as "Delbiters". It would seem that he'd found Dr. Osto's facilities in the Seabed, off the coast of Gal da Val. This was rather unfortunate, but regrettably, my own fault, for misleading him on the location of the Dragoon-type Disc, several months before.
I looked at the others and told them, "This enough. It's taken him too long, and he's in trouble now. You two start heading down the stairs. I'm going to make my own way down, and stop Akolyte."
They agreed, and headed for the stairs. Myself, I procured a Vjaya from my inventory. I took a couple of steps, leaped into the air, and through an electronic link between the Vjaya and my Meseta resources, I burned a few hundred Meseta to give the weapon a little extra-oomph. This was necessary to use the weapon to start a crack in the roof as I came down, which would then cause my weight to break through.
With the momentum started, I tore through each floor, until finally coming down on top of a Delbiter, just in time to keep it from stomping down on VanGarrett, a small woman named Laya, and the Newm known as Crankshaft. Upon seeing Crankshaft, I realized how he received the disc. He was the same Newm that Fender had bumped into in the street, when he was being chased by those Black Paper goons.
As I stood, VanGarrett shouted at me, "Paladin! You were supposed to wait!"
I pulled my Vjaya from the Delbiter's remains as I commented, "You took to long. I decided you needed help."
VanGarrett snapped and pointed at me, as I wiped some of the Delbiter's internal fluids from my chest plate. He smirked and commented, "I'm glad you did!" I looked up at Akolyte dashing down the hall, as he continued, "Can you hold off Akolyte?"
I readied my Vjaya and replied, "That's what I do..." As VanGarrett was taking off with Crankshaft and Laya, I yelled back at him, "HuBBsDoctor and Zeirom are on their way down!"
He made a salute-like gesture to me in acknowledgement, and I charged at Akolyte. We both rammed into each other, shoulders-first. He might've had the upper hand, as he seemed to carry more inertia, perhaps from moving faster than I was, being subtly heavier, or maybe both; but I was using a weapon, and he wasn't. As such, upon impact, I jammed the glaive-type weapon into his chest.
Violently, Akolyte grabbed the Vjaya, and ripped it from my hands. Which I was fine with, by this point. We were in far too close quarters to use such a weapon. With a few punches, elbows and head-butts, we pushed each other back and forth for a while. Akolyte commented to me, "You've hardly changed, Paladin."
I grunted, and chose to be sarcastic. "You've gained weight."
Akolyte knew how to reply to that comeback though, and chuckled, before drawing his foot back and saying, "Yes! That I have!" At that point, he pushed me, then brought his foot down on my chest, stomping me into the floor, thereby causing us both to fall through.
As we went through the floor, and started falling to the next one, he grabbed me by my chest plates, and shoved me into the next floor as we hit it, causing us both to instantly fall through. He did this a total of twenty-two times, until we finally came down to the lobby, and crashed into the marble-tiled floor of the lobby.
With a few jerky movements, he adjusted his position, to hold me to the ground, with his palm flat on the center of my chest. He was applying all of his weight right there, and his changes became apparent. Almost organic, tentacle-like objects began to seep from every seam in his arm, wrapping around his arm and each other, and finally getting me thoroughly pinned to the floor.
The pressure he applied at this point was considerable, and the more I struggled, the more I found that I was only grinding myself deeper into the ground. I could hear Akolyte trying to contain his laughter. It was strange, how violent he could be, yet still seem to be totally in control of himself. Even as another Dragoon-type, I find his level of self-control to be disturbing. Everything he did was especially deliberate, and it seemed as though he could stop at any time. I realized that this must be how they modified the original Dragoon-type AI for him. In my case, they added a sense of nobility, to try to control my urges to kill. For Akolyte, instead of giving him an artificial mode of judging between right and wrong, it would seem that they went all out, and gave him true sentience; in addition to the same force of will they gave to me, to control his urges. What fools they must have been, as they did indeed bring about their own deaths.
I started realizing that control was not the issue that I was having, in my situation. I was struggling against Akolyte's attack, and in doing so, I was causing myself to be crushed. I realized that if I were going to get out of this in a reparable state, I'd have to stop fighting it, and start working with it. First, however, I decided to speak with Akolyte while I had him so calm, and in one place. "Younger brother," I said, "Why do you do these things? What is your motive?"
He pushed on me harder, and replied, "I want them all to die."
"Them all?"
"The Humans. The Androids. Even the Newmans. Even the ships."
"But why?"
"Perhaps in time, your impotent AI will understand, Paladin." After that, he pushed harder, and I began moving with it, to push myself into the ground. It wasn't very long, before I found myself under the building's foundation plate, and I carefully worked my way through the utility space, trying to limited success, not to disturb the various utilities I was trying to get passed.
After moving ten meters or so, I started punching the floor above me, and finally burst up through it, behind Akolyte, who was cursing about his mistakes. I observed that I had a variety of internal damage in my left arm that was preventing it from functioning properly. I was already at a disadvantage. I suppose the nature of that damage can be compared to a human breaking their shoulder and dislocating their elbow. I'd evidently lost several holding pins in the rotator unit in my elbow, as well as having several crushed components in my shoulder's actuator. This grew rather annoying very quickly.
I also seemed to have several major systems down in my torso. My connection to my Micro-singularity Cannon was completely severed, power had been cut to most of my diagnostic circuits, and it seemed that sensory processing circuits were damaged. My audio receptors were functioning, but the circuit that interprets their input was going in and out, while many of my visual circuits were behaving similarly. Proximity sensory devices were functioning properly however, and I switched driver software to make a secondary processor handle any visual problems I was having. My tracking software was certainly handling just fine. So we my legs.
I observed that I was on a tile floor. Before Akolyte noticed me, I kicked up one of the tiles adjacent to my hole. One of the tiles that'd been up-rooted, at that. Catching it with my right arm, I threw it over my shoulder in a fashion I'd learned while throwing Gilchics in the Simulator. It hit Akolyte hard, and I'm confident that I knocked out a number of his systems, as well.
He turned and snarled at me. As he began to charge at me, I figured that worked so well, I'd do it again. I kicked up another heavy, marble tile, and lobbed it at him. It struck him hard, nicking his head, and smashing against his shoulder. This caused him to stumble, but it did not stop him.
The third tile I threw at him, he was able to block, though I did rather well, in kicking up a fourth tile just in time to make it pop up and shatter against his chin. This knocked him back again, but it didn't stop him from bringing his fist back up into my lower-torso with considerable force. This did cause problems, as he dented my armored casing, and managed to cause a main board to abrase up against several cables that provide my systems with communications to my right leg. This caused this leg to be somewhat unresponsive, and I also lost use of a back-up co-processor.
It was evident that whatever sort of upgrade he'd achieved, he'd certainly surpassed me. After his punch to my abdomen, he took me by my head, and slammed me to the ground, shifting his attention to several Soul Crushers who'd fallen to the ground from a second spire of stairs in the lobby, and impacted with the marble with a loud, fleshy smacking sound.
He rushed to the center of the spire, and using all the strength in his legs, he shot himself from the ground, up the spire. After switching to a back-up power supply and struggling to get up, I staggered to the spire, myself. After stepping on one of the Soul Crushers, I myself summoned up as much power into my legs as I could, and shot myself up the stairs. My right leg did give me trouble here, and as a result, I could not get as much height in my jump as Akolyte did, so I ended up behind the others.
Zeirom had just gotten up from tackling Akolyte and running to catch up with the others, when I came in and grabbed him. I struggled with Akolyte, as Zeirom caught up with the others. The stairway clearly did not seem to be prepared to handle our skirmish. Akolyte slammed me head-first against a wall, which disrupted some of my sensory equipment, and furthermore, caused the stairway to begin to dislodge itself from the wall. With a second impact, the whole stairway broke away from the wall.
Myself, I fell down several steps. The stairway had also broken away from itself at one point, and after getting up, I climbed a short distance to stand on the last couple of remaining steps where the case broke off. By this time, I noticed that my left shoulder and parts of my torso were starting to spark. The power drain was rather significant. I tried to steady myself by grabbing the railing with my left hand, then with my right hand, I surveyed the damage to my head, as my sensory equipment was no longer functioning sufficiently to do so, itself.
About then, the hanging-portion of the stairway slammed into me, and I came out of my daze. I looked up just in time to see Zeirom catch Crankshaft by the ankle, and I also noticed that the impact seemed to knock something back in place in my left arm, giving me limited ability to actually lift and use it. It wasn't much, but it would do the job.
Akolyte was really causing stress on the stairway, straightening it out, as he used his tentacle-like appendages to pull himself up. The others were literally hanging on for their lives, as they struggled to climb to the top, and get out the door. I became angry, and shouted loudly, "AKOLYTE!!"
With that, I shifted my weight onto my left leg, and jumped onto the dangling staircase. It swayed back and forth, as Akolyte made his way up. Using mainly my left leg, and my right arm, I pulled myself up, somehow catching up with Akolyte. I gripped a group of his tentacles with my left hand, just as I had a power surge down that arm, and Akolyte immediately stopped moving, as he was just a little bit, well, shocked. In that moment of surprise, I switched my grip from his tentacles to the railing, and with my left hand as an anchor, I grabbed Akolyte by an outcropping on his shoulder blade, to pull him from his principle grip on the stairway.
He was then dangling, and I was sparking. My vision was becoming patchy, but I managed to pull a Gladius from my inventory, ignite it, and use it to sever most of Akolyte's tentacles. The few remaining weren't enough to keep him holding on, but he felt it to be absolutely necessary to take me with him. As such, he caught my right leg with a tentacle, and dragged me down.
He finally caught the staircase right at the end, but I had my Gladius still in hand, and managed to plunge it through several of his important internal structures when we suddenly stopped. I may have taken out a few of his major systems, but what I hit with that Gladius took out a lot of the structural support that his armor relies on, as well as several mechanical systems.
I think it stunned Akolyte rather thoroughly, when a portion of his torso cavity caved in under my weight, but his tentacles still held strong to the end of the dangling stairway. With a crackling voice synthesizer, I said to him in the most threatening tone I could muster, "I win, this time." Then I left the Gladius in his chest, and clumsily began to climb back up toward the top.
Just about then, I guess Akolyte came to his senses, and shouted back at me, "I won't lose to you!" At which point, he wrapped several tentacles around my waste, and managed to slam me through a door on the twenty-fourth floor. I slid for a while, and my crackling sound receptors picked up the sounds of Akolyte hastily making his way up the stairway, which finally fell.
Running entirely on my limited back-up systems by now, I used the corner of a wall to pull myself back up to my feet. A few flexing of joints cleared debris from those that were now exposed, and though my right leg was still very much giving me trouble, I ran straight forward, and jumped out the window at the end of the hall.
It's evident to me that one of my logic co-processors was damaged at that point, as I realized upon landing on top of a freight truck, my weight when falling would be enough to cause traffic accidents. Seeing that Akolyte had apparently already done the same thing several times, from what I could gather from my surroundings; several vehicles had crashed into buildings, and several were crashing into the ground.
Looking around, it didn't take very long to spot the white van from the Post-Bortevo Organization. I saw Akolyte jump on top of it, and at risk of damaging the freight truck I was on top of, I made another power-leap up to the van. I was going to finish this fight, even if it was the last thing I did.
Landing on top of the vehicle, I observed that Akolyte had ripped the roof open, and was reaching in, toward Crankshaft, who was screaming like a little girl, but somehow, with more enthusiasm. Seeing as Akolyte was pre-occupied, I took the opportunity to grab him by his head, and jerk him away.
I had my right arm wrapped around his neck, and with great effort, I put my left hand on his head, and began to squeeze. I applied pressure with my right arm, using its leverage to pull up on Akolyte's enormous chin. Akolyte struggled with me, but I finally felt something in his neck crack. When this happened, I shook his body violently, and in doing so, I successfully removed Akolyte’s head from his body, and immediately tossed it into traffic.
I was feeling my own reserves of power start to waiver, as I dreamily pushed Akolyte's sparking body off of the top of the van. I looked down at Crankshaft, who was staring at me in awe. That was when my back-up systems started shutting off power to other systems, to preserve my memory and AI. First my arms shut down, then my legs. When my legs went, I fell into the van, right next to Crankshaft, who let out a "Whoop!" noise when I landed in the seat.
I observed that Crankshaft seemed to be wounded, himself. Some sort of internal bleeding, it appeared. VanGarrett looked at me, then at HuBBsDoctor and said, "Good thing we're going to the hospital, huh?" This was re-assuring, and it was the last thing I heard before all my sensory equipment shut down, and power was cut to my logic circuits. My AI was left in a continuous loop until I could receive new sensory input, and every thought I had made sense, no matter how nonsensical it was. Quite effectively, I had blacked out.


[End Log]
[File Saved.]

[navci]

toward Crankshaft, who was screaming like a little girl, but somehow, with more enthusiasm.

Gahaha. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif
Yes. pretty violent. Makes me wanna go read Crankshaft again and get my head confused.

edit: Hey, I just realize this. In 3 recollections we never got past the time when Crankshaft's timeline ends. Meaning, starting from the next chapter we are going to see things that happens after Crankshaft ends. That'd be exciting. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: navi on 2004-05-07 14:47 ]</font>

[FreedomJu]

I'm in fanfic heaven..... perhaps a third chapter?

[BOC]

mmmmmmmmmm two droids kicking the b'jesus outa each other and destroying a buidling in the process. And crankshaft! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

fun for all the blood thirsty family!

bless you and your inspiration bursts meira!

PEACE!!!

[Scejntjynahl]

Crankshaft screaming like a little girl, but with more enthusiasm, HAH. Sheer genius, so well written I can almost hear him squealing... must have been funny as hell.

Like Navi mentioned, the next chapter is all new territory. But Meira will not let us down. Meira hasnt, ever. Cant wait to see what you have instore for us http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[MQuantum]

I simply burst out laughing when Pasladin ripped Acolyte's head off. For some reason, it was quite amusing. Especially with the sound of Cranky squealing in the background. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Yes, I DID just call him Cranky...

Not to quibble over minor inaccuracies, but the van changed color. In the second chapter it was brown, and in the end it was white. For some reason, I think everyone was a little too busy to run it through the car wash... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[HUnewearl_Meira]

I certainly understand where you found humor in that, MQuantum. In all honesty, I tend to laugh about that sort of thing, myself.

So, in any case, here's chapter 5. Chapter 5 introduces a new character, and adds an odd twist to this story, that I hope you'll all rather enjoy.






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[Filename?: DRAGOON-02.CHAPTER5.LOG]
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[Beginning Log.]

When I awoke, I was in a low-power state, and charging. This happens every time. My logic circuits are still warming up, and my system hasn't really implemented them yet, but somehow I'm conscious and trying to communicate my needs. Or attempt to communicate my needs. Normally, I'm anxious to get back to business, so I try to tell Zeirom or Dr. Oscar, "Hurry up and put me back together, dangit!" Now, I can't remember anything that goes on in these periods very clearly due to a general flaw of my sensory devices when under powered, but from what I'm told, this usually ends up coming out as something closer to, "Idaho the Potato God will smite the fearsome Burrito!" or something to that effect. Makes no sense to me.
I laid there, mostly in pieces, with some new parts, some new solder-joints, but over all, polished and shiny. I didn't really understand what was going on at the time, but as I felt myself recharging, things gradually became more clear and coherent. It eventually became clear to me that all I really needed at this point was to be recharged, and have parts re-attached, which was normally attained with bolts or screws, both of which require the use of a screwdriving device. To communicate this, my fuzzy mind therefore usually comes up with something along the lines of, "Paladin want powah and screwy now!" I suppose that this is possibly very much what it's like for a fleshy-person to come off of anesthetics.
HuBBsDoctor came in shortly after my last internal system came online. He'd been there at some point during my "fuzzy" period, I presume he was checking up on me, but then he'd left. "You all ready to go, boss?" he asked.
I nodded my head in concurrance. "Indeed, HuBBsDoctor. I seem to be repaired and ready."
Doctor Oscar nodded, as well. He then said, "Paladin has been completely repaired. He really took a beating this time, though." Then he looked at me and said, "The layer of titanium on your armor is flaking, however. I wouldn't worry about it too much, however. I'd say that you haven't much longer before the silver underneath is exposed. You know what that means."
I nodded in compliance, "I believe I understand, Doctor Oscar. This is good news, indeed."
HuBBsDoctor seemed confused. He asked, "So, what does it mean?"
Doctor Oscar replied, "It means that he's going through the early stages of his Dragoon-type auto-upgrade. Consciously inaccessible levels of his system have determined that he is quickly approaching a point where he can no longer learn to kill more efficiently. To enable him to become more efficient, his internal systems are adapting his body to the methods he's developed."
"So what does that have to do with his armor?" HuBBsDoctor asked.
Again, Doctor Oscar explained. He said, "DRAGOON-02, or Paladin as we know him, has another interesting feature that is implemented when he upgrades. You might say that he sheds a layer of skin, as the layer underneath matures--" The doctor was then interrupted by a paging device, "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me. I have another patient that sometimes comes in two or three times a day with household appliances forcibly embedded in his body. Earlier it was a bread maker under his arm. Now it seems that he's gotten a convection oven stuck on his leg."
So the doctor left with an annoyed expression, and HuBBsDoctor and I returned to the Post-Bortevo building, where I recieved a message from the Hunters' Guild. It would seem that I was specifically requested by the popular Miss Weilder to be a part of her escort party down to Ragol. I found it interesting that she requested me in particular, as I'd only met her once, while in a rather broken state, and even then, it was little more than the fact that we were in the same room at the same time. Still, she'd seen me fight Akolyte, despite being in a near-death condition. That particular episode was covered in sufficient detail in VanGarrett's account that he wrote while walking across the desert.

I didn't question much further than that, but I did go ahead and proceed to the Hunters' Guild in the Redria district of the Hunters' Deck. Upon accepting the quest, I was formally introduced to Miss Weilder, as well as Si'ev, who she introduced as "her favorite Newm." I also met a finely streamlined HUcaseal named, "Scejntjynahl," who somewhat resembled a NEO_MEIU series from the old, yet popular Third Alisian Corporation. If that was indeed her type however, she'd been modified quite a bit, as NEO_MEIU-types are normally intended to serve as protectors and nannies for the children of rich families. This particular HUcaseal had the combat resolve of a dedicated warrior.
We ended up going down into the Caves. Ms. Weilder's reasons for this were unclear. She would only explain that she was "discretely trying to attract a certain person's attention." She went on to express her feelings that traveling with skilled hunters in dangerous territory was rather nostalgic of something in her past. I am personally unaware of what may have happened in her past that would make this nostalgic, but she was evidently quite moved by the experience, as I observed her shedding a few tears, periodically.
Si'ev's skill was interesting. He took advantage of his natural litheness and agility as a Newman to bring down weaker opponents with a pair of Twin Chakram, and tougher enemies, he'd weaken down with normal and hard level techniques, both of which, FOnewms are known to excel with. I was impressed with his skill, given his primary career as a performer alongside Ms. Weilder.
Scejntjynahl, on the other hand, was most definitely a hunter by profession. She did not fight like a NEO_MEIU-type. She actually fought with the aggression of an angry HUnewearl, but yet, her movements-- how do I express this? Her movements, well, they, err, moved me. I would say that I was greatly impressed, but to use such simple words would not do justice to how she made me feel.
The light given off from the lava in the first area of the Caves gave a slick, flowing refraction off of her hips, her waist and yes, her legs. Those legs moved so swiftly, so rhythmically. When she spun in her attacks, the light reflecting off of her became a festivity of bright spots in optical receptors.
Her movements were so smooth, and her curves were so sleek, that even I could not pull my attention from her for very long. As she removed her pointed heal from the eye of a falling Pal Shark, I logged what I believed to be a spark in my Emo-processor. As the Pal Shark fell, steady as a pillar, she pulled back her left leg from the creature, with the glimmer of light from the lava dancing along the back of her thigh. Smoothly and seemingly in slow motion, she brought her foot back down behind her, with precision movement. Still in the same motion, she turned around to confront another Pal Shark with her Demolition Comet, which she used with a fluid, pulsing grace that looked to me, more like a mating ritual than a reaping of death.
At some point in our continued exploits, I decided that I needed to start really trying to impress her. She'd impressed me so much, so I thought I'd do well to do the same with her. "Scejntjynahl," I said as she beat down on a Guil Shark, "Allow me to show you some of what I've learned about these strange sharks!"
She looked at me, slinkily dodged a couple of swipes from the creature, as though she were dancing, and replied, "All right, Paladin. Let's see it."
So, after casually grabbing something of a headlock on the Guil Shark she was fighting, more or less just to keep it in place, I looked at her as I dragged it back and forth, and gestured as I spoke, "Well, you see, if you take the third, seventh, and eleventh vertebrae out," I then casually stuck my fingers in its back and removed said vertebrae from the Guil Shark, and continued, "You very effectively disable, and indeed, paralyze the creature." I then dropped the shark, to demonstrate how limp it becomes. It dropped to the floor, unable to move. Then I held up the bones and said, "Then you have three ideal projectile weapons, with which to do THIS!"
At that point, I turned around, and threw the vertebrae at a Nanodragon in the air. Quite specifically, the first lodged itself into the creature's throat, thereby choking it, and the other two hit its collarbones in just the right spots to make it impossible for it to continue to flap its wings. This caused the Nanodragon to plummet to the ground with a loud gurgling sound, as opposed to the loud shriek you might usually hear. If it didn't die by choking, then certainly, it died when the entire weight of its body was thrust upon its head and damaged neck.
Scejntjynahl gave an impressed nod. "Ha! I never realized these guys could be so useful!" I nodded and replied, "Yeah," then I paused for a moment and continued, "All the other vertebra disks don't throw as well, though. Albeit, those three are just perfect."

The four of us eventually stopped in what is often referred to as the "Waterfall Room." Ms. Weilder and Si'ev stopped to rest in the refreshing coolness of the spray created by the water, and Scejntjynahl took the time to rinse the mess off of herself in the falling water.
I took the time to say to Scejntjynahl, "Your mode of combat impresses me. Watching you fight stirs something I didn't know existed."
She looked at me, as she stepped out of the waterfall, with water sheeting off of her curves. Then she replied, "If you think you've seen something good," she smirked at me and continued, "Then you should see me when I get the impression that I've got a challenge." Then her expression grew more concerned, as she looked me up and down. "Paladin," she said, "You might want to give yourself a good rinse in the waterfall, too. You look like you're peeling."
I looked down at my self, uttering, "Huh?" Indeed, I seemed to be peeling rather extensively. Ms. Weilder and Si'ev got up to get a good look for themselves.
"Hmm," Ms. Weilder said as she stepped up to me. She plucked a loose piece from my chest and examined it, "My dear, you are most certainly losing something. Why don't you rinse off the loose pieces real well so we can get a better look?"
I shrugged, and complied. I stepped back into the waterfall, and wiped myself down really well with my hands. I found that most of my outer layer of titanium was coming off. When I came out, Ms. Weilder and Si'ev looked me over.
Ms. Weilder's reaction was immediate. "Oh my, Paladin. All this time, you've been one giant piece of jewelry under that titanium cover. I never knew you were made of Silver!"
Si'ev's eye was a little more astute. He pointed out something slightly more important, that I hadn't yet noticed. "Err, Paladin?" he said, "Why are you developing spots here and there?"
"Spots?" I asked.
"Yeah, you've got dark spots all over the place. In fact, those seem to be the only places that've developed any tarnish."
I realized then, that this meant my silver layer was purifying itself into Laconium, but I chose to response, "I'm not sure."

We continued onward after that. I continued to be thunderstruck by the way Scejntjynahl moves, and Ms. Weilder continued to be nostalgic, and otherwise enjoy the trip. Finally, however, we came to De Rol Le. As we entered the teleporter to take us to the raft we'd fight it on, I said to the others, "This will be no problem. Just leave the heavy hitting to me."
Once we were on the raft, the fight was on. The giant worm reared its head, and before long, it was alongside the raft, gradually moving ahead of us. I shouted to everyone, "All right! Get ready! This is going to be a little shaky!"
It first went by us, then it got in front of us. It stayed there for a moment, and I waited, watching for opening I was looking for. He came along side us on the other side. This time, he released a series of purple balls of energy. I took two of them, and Ms. Weilder cleverly hid behind me, to avoid getting hit. Scejntjynahl dodged them with her usual expected grace, and Si'ev simply stood around whistling on the opposite side of the raft, where he knew he stood little chance of being hit.
Then the opening I was waiting for came. De Rol Le fell back slightly, then leaped up onto the raft. The raft shook, and others moved in to attack. After each had landed a hit, I shouted, "Allow me!" My first step was to rip off the exoskeletal mask structure on its head. This did not take long, and caused it a considerable amount of pain. It tried to escape, but this is where I took advantage of it.
Once it up-rooted itself, I caught it by the tusks it used to cling to the raft. I refused to let it go. The raft shook. I shouted to the others, "Hang on tight! This is going to be a bumpy ride!" With a grunt and moderate difficulty, I pulled the beast from the water, and much to its confusion, I pulled at it, and moved it over myself, until I was firmly gripping it by its tail.
I began to swing the creature over my head, which shook the raft, but also smashed the beast into the sides of the tunnel we were traveling down. Before long, I refined my swing into a swift back and forth motion, slapping the creature back and forth against each of the walls on either side. While I was doing this, I overheard Ms. Weilder comment, "Goodness, Paladin! You're like a hurricane!"
Pleased with her thought on how impressed she was with me, I finally brought down the finishing move on this giant worm. "Time to end it!" I shouted.
With that, slammed it into the ceiling, and let it drop straight down on the raft. I then dragged it across the raft. Finally, at the back of our raft, I held onto it by its head. My chest opened, and for an instant, I charged my Micro-Singularity Cannon. It was only a small charge for what it's capable of, but it was plenty enough. I released the resulting blast, and when it was all said and done, the only thing I had left in my hands was two fist-fulls of scorched De Rol Le flesh. Looking back at where we were coming from, I could see the remains of its body flopping about in the unsanitary liquid.
As I tossed the two lumps of flesh into this underground river of sewage, Ms. Weilder patted me on the shoulder. "You know, Paladin, I think I'm going to write a song about you. You've inspired me."

I was content with this knowledge, and expressed my appreciation. I also made sure to accompany Scejntjynahl home, though that meant accompanying Si'ev home, as well. We stopped by that Cafe on University Avenue to obtain some food for Si'ev, and energy replenishment for Scejntjynahl and I. There was a brief conversation amongst us, and I furthermore arranged for Scejntjynahl to help me train, at a later date; though there were indeed a few more interesting events before my training hit heavier levels.


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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: HUnewearl_Meira on 2004-05-12 11:33 ]</font>

[navci]

Tee heee.
VG, you might want to fix a few of the puntuation thingy later on in the chapter. All of the 's appeared to be ?s and such. I also found a typo. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

Nevertheless. It was most interesting to see Paladin going all goo goo ga ga on Sen. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif This is almost a bit... comical in a way. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Darn, no one knew Si'ev's main profession is -ACTUALLY- a hunter instead of a pretty singing boy. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[BOC]

"Idaho the Potato God will smite the fearsome Burrito!"


smite it good!

dam good stuff as always. with added 'hmmmmm'!

Scejntjynahl is indeed an interesting character. does this mean we'll see some heavy metal action between the sheets (of tin foil)?
http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

*sings* Scejntjynahl and paladin sitting in a tree...

and the auto-upgrade finally explained!!!

keep it up meira.

PEACE!!!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: BOC on 2004-05-12 11:52 ]</font>

[Scejntjynahl]

Awesome writing skills Meira. Nothing but pure genius.

I enjoyed the part of seen Paladin behaving like a High School teen trying his best to impress a girl. Yet at the same time not knowing exactly why he is trying to impress her is comical. If he were organic I would have to say his hormones were raging, and his shedding like a burst of puberty http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

Though, for some reason this line, reminds me of Blue Lagoon "Scejntjynahl took the time to rinse the mess off of herself in the falling water."

And I have never noticed a Dragoon type take notice of "curves" like Paladin has. Hmm, wonder how Dragoon would have responded... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

Thank you Meira for the story.

[MQuantum]

That answer is simple, at least for Dragoon:

"Curves! Shiny lights! Can I KIILLLL it?! I want to KILL your shiney lights! ...But I won't."

And I think most normal people want to attract as little attention from Acolyte as possible... *shudder*

Well, it's a good thing Paladin upgraded, because you'll probably run him through a meat grinder again. Or metal ginder in his case.

So, yay for morbidity! Yay for vertebraeless guil Sharks! And a final yay for the most creative way to kill a nanodragon while still managing to maximize both pain and efficiency in one fun-filled family moment!

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Interestingly enough, Chapter 6 takes a rather different direction from Chapter 5. This time, we take a casual stroll through a more or less common sort of day in Paladin's life, and finish it off with something a little more interesting.

Regrettably, though Dragoon does make an appearance here, the events in question didn't really lend themselves very well toward violence, but that's okay-- we'll see plenty of that in the following chapter.


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That following day, Zeirom came to the Post-Bortevo building, accompanied by a young Newearl and a non-functional RAcast. The cart they were using to haul the RAcast in on was, curiously enough, the sort usually used to haul spent uranium deposits from old nuclear power generators. The part that disturbed me, was that this sort of cart usually hovers at about twenty centimeters above the ground, and this particular cart was under stress to stay about seven centimeters.
I had been strolling across the lobby when they entered. Perplexed at what I saw, I asked, "What's going on here, Zeirom?"
Zeirom explained, "Well, you see we discovered these two while investigating the control towers." He gestured to the FOnewearl beside him, who was dressed entirely in white, her clothes trimmed with a gold-ish color. "This is Allanque," he said. She was also wearing a hat with two gold bobbles on two long ends. Her skin was rather pale, and her hair was long and blond. A little bit of face paint seemed to grace her cheeks, as well.
I took a moment to politely acknowledge Allanque, though I was careful not to shake her hand, as she seemed especially fragile to me, and I've had fleshy-people complain that my handshake is much too tight.
Zeirom then turned to the desert-camouflage colored RAcast, of seemingly medium size, and gestured, "And this broken-down shell of a RAcast is Mota Storm. You wouldn't believe how heavy this guy is."
I looked at him expectantly and asked him, "So what are they doing here?" I mean, after all, this wasn't exactly a hospital.
Zeirom replied, "To save on storage expenses, I figured you wouldn't mind if we stored Mota Storm here, until he can be repaired."
I looked at Mota Storm a bit more. I wasn't terribly crazy about the idea of my building being used as a storage facility, but his face had a strangely noble expression. I pondered to myself, what the Post-Bortevo Organization's interest in these two might be. When I saw the types of damages on the RAcast's armor, however, I realized that they'd been fighting with the same enemy we had been.
Allanque grabbed my arm, "Please, sir. We've no place else to go on Pioneer 2."
I looked down at her, and considered. Then I looked at Zeirom and said, "You may store him where you see fit. You can even put him on display, if you like." Then I looked down at Allanque. "As for you," I said, "You may claim for yourself any of the three vacant penthouse suites on floors 101, 102 or 103. Until this whole ordeal blows over, at least."
She hugged me excitedly. A strange sense of calm came over me as she did so, and gradually faded as she let go, and stepped back. As strange as I found that to be, I chose to not give it a second thought. I had a few other things on my mind. Most particularly, what Zeirom was about to say. "By the way," he said, "I don't know if anyone's told you this yet, but we found Guybec."
This perked my interest, and I asked him, "Really? Where is he now?"
Zeirom shook his head fairly shamefully, "He's one of them, now. In fact, he seems to be in charge."
"Indeed?" I replied. "Well, that gives me something to contemplate then, doesn't it?"
We carried on to our business after that. For the record, Allanque chose the penthouse suite on the 101st floor, and had Zeirom place Mota Storm in clear sight, in the main living area. Myself, I went on to interview new Morale Officers. There were about twelve people to interview, but I only needed one. With some, the decision was rather tough, but with others, it was rather easy. The guy who showed up unshaven, unbathed, and sporting a Mohawk and dirty, beat-up clothing, was an obvious "no". I talked with him for an entire half of a beat, before I told him, "We'll let you know."
There was another applicant that I dismissed without a second thought, as well, but it took longer to become apparent. This particular woman did seem to be a generally happy person, but it was when the alarm on her watch went off, and she pulled out five or six prescription bottles of different anti-depressants and other "happy pills", that I determined that she wouldn't be quite right for the position of "Morale Officer". Though her ability to describe each pill and what they did, both effectively and biologically, as well as how each one differs, makes me think that if I'd been looking for a pharmacist, she'd have been hired on the spot.
You also know, right from the start, that an interview for "Morale Officer" is not going to go very well, when you look over the applicant's resume, and immediately feel compelled to ask, "So what, exactly, was your job while working in the Execution Chamber at the Correctional Facility?" In all honesty, I was bizarrely relieved to discover that his job was to sing a little requiem, and give the "executionee" a big "thumbs-up" just before the executioner pulled the lever. Basically just to give the message of, "You're gonna die now, but everything'll be okay once that part's done with."
The person that I finally went with was a rather young woman. She seemed a little shy, but she was really quite charming. She couldn't have been much older than fifteen, but I chose her because she did such a good job of consoling the guy that I told to beat it because his references were written in crayon and glitter on glue on an electronic application form.
When I saw him go from sobbing and wailing, to sobbing and laughing, I looked at this young woman and said, "That's it. You're the one. You're hired." Strangely enough, it seemed other guy couldn't have been happier for it, as rather than walk out through the lobby after hearing me tell her that, he skipped.

Her name was Scejthe; pronounced something approximate to "Seth". She was short, and she was dressed in a respectable, modest fashion, as well. I took her up to the main office area to announce that she'd be joining us. Unfortunately for her, Dragoon was present at the time. I suppose she would've had to have met him eventually, but I would've preferred that she'd gotten accustomed to the place, first. Nonetheless, such is life. I knew that Dragoon was present when I entered, of course, because he dived behind some furniture, for no sufficiently explored reason.
The announcement commenced, as I shouted to everyone in the general office area, "I have an announcement! This is Scejthe! She'll be our new morale officer!"
It was at about that point, when Dragoon popped up from behind a desk, with something dangling from his mouth. I believe it may've been a small rodent, but quite honestly, I'm not terribly certain. Considering Dragoon's general behavior, it very well may've been what remained of an especially large rodent from Ragol, that he'd brought with him. At some point, he took up eating some of the things that he kills, and despite repeated requests from several people not to, he sometimes drags things back to the offices, before eating them. He's so dead-set on doing this, in fact, that a law enforcement officer once stopped him in the street, to inform him that he wasn't allowed to drag Boomas on the pavement; but he couldn't quite get the message across, as upon being stopped, Dragoon turned around, snarled, and, as he was about to do to Scejthe, he shouted, "I WANT TO KIIIIILLLL YOU!" Needless to say, he's not been stopped by law enforcement ever since.
So, in any case, as mentioned, Dragoon ran up to Scejthe and shouted, "I WANT TO KIIIIILLLL YOU!" I wasn't sure what happened to the thing dangling from his mouth between his position behind that desk, and Scejthe, until a replacement request came in for a keyboard and computer terminal monitor, from an employee whose desk sits right on the aisle that Dragoon ran down. Further investigation from my own memory files lead to the observation that Dragoon had torn the object from his mouth, and tossed it to his side. Precisely the side, in fact, that said desk was on. For the record, there was also a replacement request for the chair in front of the desk in question.
For some reason, known in detail only to Dragoon himself, Dragoon was taking in, and blowing out especially large amounts of air from his olfactoral facilities, and quite quickly I might add; somehow giving off the same impression given off by an angry bull.
Scejthe looked especially nervous, and was starting to hide behind my leg. After a moment though, Dragoon quirked his head. His apparent expression was one that I hadn't seen before. He seemed to be terribly confused. This terribly confused me, as well. The real point to be considered here, is that while Dragoon generally doesn't have all the answers, he is generally not confused, because he generally does not particularly care to have all the answers. The only thing he's typically concerned with, is whether or not he might be allowed to kill the subject matter. Whatever was going on in Dragoon's mind at that moment, was certainly not usual.
Finally, in a suddenly calm tone, Dragoon continued, "But I won't. It's nothing personal. I want to kill everything." Then he just watched as Scejthe ran away, and hid in my office. I watched her run off, as well, then looked at Dragoon. He looked back at me, and shrugged before saying, "Secure power supply and depress button on handle, to ignite Photon blade."
Still, it was interesting to observe the relationship between Dragoon and Scejthe evolve. She was quite scared of her at first, but after he violently saved her from a group of social degenerates that even the Hunters' Guild wouldn't employ, she simply refuses to wander around town without him. Those were events that didn't happen until a few days later, however. In the mean time, I went to investigate the situation with Allanque and Mota Storm.

I entered the Penthouse suite that she had chosen, to find Zeirom making a few adjustments to Mota Storm, so that he would stand straight with his arms at his side, as opposed to making himself the largest obstacle he possibly could. Allanque was supervising this.
"Is everything in order here?" I asked.
Allanque looked back at me with a rather content expression and replied, "Very much so, Sir. Zeirom was just helping me out with getting Mota Storm place properly."
Zeirom poked his head up from behind Mota Storm's shoulder to comment, "You wouldn't believe the internal damages on this guy. It's like he melted from the inside-out."
I nodded, then looked back to Allanque and said, "Allanque, if you would, please, sit with me, and briefly explain what happened." I gestured to a nice, white leather couch, where we would be able to speak comfortably.
We sat down, and as follows, is what she said. "Paladin, Sir, I'm not entirely clear on what occurred, precisely. As yet, the memories are still slowly coming back to me. I will describe what I can.
"Before I awoke in the hospital, I remember being chased by a group of RAmars, dressed entirely in black, including helmets. Mota Storm was carrying me, as I was somewhat incapacitated. I'm not exactly sure what was happening, but I realize that I was not the same, afterward.
"I remember telling him to put me down. I remember that he was terribly hurt, but he refused. He told me that he'd made a promise to protect me, at any cost, and that he would stay true to his words. By the time he was saying this, however, his voice was already beginning to crackle, and not much more of what he said after that made a whole lot of sense.
"I remember blacking out, and when I awoke, he was simply kneeling in front of a doorway, making an obstacle of himself. I believe he was trying to keep the bad people away. So you see, even in death, he dedicated himself to his promise to protect me. Who he made the promise to, I don't recall, but with certainty, he was very loyal to that person."
With those last few sentences, she looked down, and a tear dropped from her eye. I lifted her chin, and said, "I apologize for spoiling the mood, but do you know why you were being chased?"
She shook her head indeterminately and said, "I'm not sure. Though I rather suspect it has something to do with this Technique disc." She then held up a Technique disc, with Pioneer 1's markings.
"May I examine that?" I asked. She did, of course, oblige. The Technique was none I'd ever heard of before. "Telele level 30?" I asked, upon reading those words written with a permanent marker on the disc.
"I believe it's a prototype disc," Allanque replied.
I further inquired, "What does it do?"
Allanque shook her head again, "I don't recall. My scattered memories seem to conjure an old man, who I can't quite identify, telling Mota Storm that it was of grave importance that the disc does not fall into the wrong hands. That if the wrong person were to use the Technique, there'd be no limit to the potential destruction of civilization."
"Indeed," I remarked. "It sounds similar in nature to a disc that I've been associated with, myself; though that's a slightly different matter."
I stood up, and continued, "It would seem, in any case, that we have a common foe. Those RAmars dressed in black are known as the Soul Crushers. We've encountered them on a number of occasions."
I returned the disc to her and said, "As such, I'll see to it that you have any help you might need to guard that disc, until you decide what you need to do with it."
"Thank you, Sir Paladin." was her reply to that.
There was then a loud clanking noise, and Zeirom stood up, dusting his hands against each other, and walked out from behind Mota Storm. "All finished," he said. Then he continued, "I should be able to get to work on him within the next couple of days. I've got my hands full with Rosey 2000 right now, but she should be complete before too long."
I pat him on the shoulder and told him, "Feel free to use the Post-Bortevo Organization's resources to complete the task, Zeirom." I must've been feeling especially generous, that day.
Allanque smiled at us and responded, "I sincerely appreciate the effort, Zeirom. You cannot begin to know what Mota Storm means to me."
At that point, Zeirom recalled something, and snapped before saying, "You know, it occurs to me, while I was digging around in there trying to release certain joints, I happened to notice that his memory unit was shielded, and is otherwise, still in tact. If you like, we can pull it out, and see if he was logging anything."
I nodded and replied, "Only if Allanque gives you permission to do so."
Zeirom looked at Allanque, and Allanque replied, "Of course. In fact, I do believe he was keeping a log of our activities. I'd like to see it as much as anyone else."
"Well, it's settled then. For now, Allanque, we will allow you to rest, and Zeirom will come back to extract Mota Storm's memory unit at another time." Then I started motioning Zeirom toward the door. I gave a polite bowing motion to Allanque and said, "Goodnight, Allanque."

After pushing Zeirom into the elevator and getting us both onto our own business, Zeirom asked me, "Why'd you push me out of the door like that?"
To this, I had only one reply. "Do you honestly think I'd let a pervert like you go unsupervised for extended periods of time in a residence where a young woman is staying?"
Zeirom did, of course, react with, "Hey, I need to research my project, y'know?"
What remained of the day after that, was very little, and rather uneventful. The next day drew more attention, however.


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[Scejntjynahl]

That was great way to handle an interview: "You used crayons and glitter? NEXT."

Hah, I would have felt intimated by Paladin if I had him as the interviewer. But nothing intimadates more than Dragoon with a half of a beast hanging from his mouth and yelling "I WANT TO KILLLLLLLL YOUUU!!!!!"

No wonder Scejthe ran away http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

This chapter to me is what I consider the stepping stone to the next chapter. The calm before the storm if you will allow the expression. It seems Meira you have the "knack" for foreshadowing down to an art form.

Can't wait for the next installment.

[navci]

Crayons and glitter. Har. I wonder what kinda boss that resume would impress? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Paladin seems to be a busy man. Really, I picture him in a suit.

[FreedomJu]

Since other people are better at fancy praise, I have just four worlds.

I MUST HAVE MORE!!!

[Scejntjynahl]

On 2004-05-17 20:39, navi wrote:
Crayons and glitter. Har. I wonder what kinda boss that resume would impress? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Paladin seems to be a busy man. Really, I picture him in a suit.



A kindgarten teacher position?

Metallic Arnorld?

And Meira still has a way of creating everyday actions fit into the world of pso. That is awesome, who would of imagined Paladin handling interviews anyways!?!

Great Stuff.

[BOC]

excellent chapter!

no death (other than a mouse) and not much chaos, but still damn funny.

i couldn't help but laugh at that glitter and crayon bit. but who hasn't filled out an application form in crayon before?

and the recollect O meter is inspired!

keep it coming!

PEACE!!!

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Yes, the Recollect-O-Meter is up, and now Chapter 7 of The Recollection of Paladin is up.

We get to see a bit of classical Dragoon action this time, as a trip to the Ruins has been called for. This should clear up a few nagging questions in the back of your heads about previous events, as well as bring up new and foreign questions. If you're really paying attention, you may realize that this chapter makes sense of an event that happened extremely early on in this series. Huah! Now I get to sit back and see who figures it out...




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Dragoon returned to the Post-Bortevo building fairly early the next day, after visiting Meira. I do suspect that his visit was cut short prematurely, out of Dragoon's inherent habit of responding to certain requests rather abruptly, but the message he was asked to relay was delivered without much difficulty.
It would seem that Meira had just finished writing her story of how she ended up in the hospital, and was to be released soon; still, she was anxious to learn more of Randon's condition, as she didn't have anymore to write, to keep her distracted until she could go out and continue her search, again. As such, she was requesting a favor. That's a favor, mind you. Not a job. This is why she didn't go through the Hunters' Guild. It was a personal favor that she was requesting, quite specifically.
Her requested favor was simple enough, and readily leant itself to my training: Go to the location within the Ruins where she found Randon, and find out if anything has happened with him. I further thought it would be a good idea to just generally see what was going on down in the area, as that seemed to be Guybec and Akolyte's general center of operations.
I invited Scejntjynahl along as well, as I'm rather fond of the idea of fighting along side her. She did, of course, accept the invitation. I also invited Dragoon, because he was there when Meira initially found Randon in the Ruins, plus he was there and it's always nice to have an extra power-hitter on your team.
In a rare display of responsibility, he said, "I want to go kill with you. I'll have to join you later, though. Right now I'm on my way to have this repaired." He then held up his arm, to show me his hand hanging by a couple of heavy-gauge cables. He carried on explaining, "Normally, I suppose that I wouldn't care so much, but it's hindering my ability to violently disassemble fleshy creatures. I tried hitting things with it, and that's why it's hanging by three cables, instead of six."
I looked at him for a moment, then said, "Dragoon, it's only hanging by two cables."
He batted me across the chest with it, and said, "No! You're wrong!" Then he held it up again, pointed at it and continued, "It's only hanging by ONE cable!" After that, he turned around, and headed out. It seemed to be a somewhat typical conversation with my brother, in any case.

Scejntjynahl did, in fact, join me, and together we began to wander in the Viridia section of the Ruins. As we brutalized and otherwise physically abused the variant Dimenians and Belras in the area, Scejntjynahl commented to me, "I don't exactly know why, but for some reason, the Ruins are always kind of creepy to me. Just this creepy feeling in here."
I shrugged and replied to her, "I always get excited."
"Why is that?" she inquired.
I pulled a So Dimenian over my shoulder, slammed it onto the ground on its back, stomped on it a few times and answered, "Stuff like that. Just about anything you see down here is open-game for killing. I like that."
During the continued carnage, I showed Scejntjynahl how to use a La Dimenian as a hand puppet, to distract other enemies. The idea basically lays in sticking your hand in the back of their head structure, grabbing hold of the neural tissue that qualifies for a simple brain, and releasing little bits of static electricity from your fingers to make its arms and legs jerk. Sometimes you have to wiggle your hand around in there for a while, but once you find the sweet spots for each appendage, you'll have solid control over the thing for a good ten beats or so, until the thing's neural tissue has finally degraded down into a mess of purple gelatin.
She didn't really learn to do it, but she was rather impressed with the method when I got a group of La Dimenians to beat down on each other. Her methods were quite impressive as well, however.
My own style revolves around a lot of brute force. I run in, grab something, and hit something else with it. That's the basic idea behind what I do. As I become familiar with what I'm killing, I'm likely to become more creative. Scejntjynahl, on the other hand, is far more precise. She makes extremely efficient use of traps. She takes the time to freeze opponents with Freeze traps, which proves to be a good combination with my brute force method, as once they're frozen, I can simply crush the ice, and they go with it.
Really, her style revolves around speed and precision. When a Belra appears, she likes to run up to it before it knows what happened, shove a Damage trap in a crevice in the Belra's surface, then quickly jump back and nail the trap with any random handgun she might happen to be carrying on her. This typically results in a huge hole immediately appearing in the Belra, and generally speaking, the Belra doesn't survive this. Only once during the whole skirmish, did an Indi Belra survive this, but that was quickly corrected, when she promptly responded by ramming her foot through the Belra's side, causing the whole creature to collapse. Personally, I like to beat the things to death with their own arms, but again, that's my style, not hers. Hers is far more graceful, I think. In the short of it, I seem to go for Maximum damage at once, while she seems to go for Minimum damage to kill.

There is something to be said of the way I admired Scejntjynahl's skill, that day. When I normally view another individual in combat, if their skill is great, then I will admire that skill, and I will often take influence from it for my own talents, in an attempt to improve myself. On that day, I did indeed admire Scejntjynahl's movements in that way, but there was something else to it. There was some sort of a burning rage within me. It was not anger, nor was it the desire to kill, though that desire to kill creatures around me was certainly there.
I do not feel as though I can describe it properly. Some present aspect of fighting along side Scejntjynahl made me feel, for lack of a better word, content. This was a contentment beyond the usual contentment I feel when simply killing, in fact. It was as though I could not wish for a more pleasant time in my life. I was killing by the side of a female, who was doing the same thing on a level of efficiency that was comparable to my own. I didn't know what to make of it, but I was well aware that I did not want this to end any time soon.

When we met with Dragoon, he had somehow gotten ahead of us. I'm not exactly sure how he got ahead of us, but he was in any case. When we found him, he was beating a Bulclaw down with a door that he'd removed from the wall. He got the thing pinned between the door and the ground, and shouted, "DEPRESS BUTTON UNTIL PHOTON BLADE IGNITES!!" He then proceeded to add more pressure, until there was a loud popping noise, and purple fluid squirted out from underneath.
The door was then hurled like a small, throwing projectile, at a group of on-coming Dimenian-type enemies, most of which were consequently removed from the skirmish. After frolicking in the remains of the Bulclaw for a moment, Dragoon saw us, and waved joyously. Scejntjynahl seemed to blink at this. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that," she said.
"Yes," I said, "I have the same drive to kill, myself, but Dragoon just seems to enjoy it so much more. To me, it's a kind of tactical game. To Dragoon, there's no tactics to it. Heck, to Dragoon, it's not even a game-- it's just playing."
Dragoon was vengently removing the limbs from Dimenians and beating things to death with them, when I went over to aid, and otherwise get things over with more quickly. We both crushed the last one between our shoulders, with a synchronized ramming attack from both sides, and after wiping the mess from myself, I looked at Dragoon, who was reveling in the mess we just made. I asked him, "So, from here Dragoon, where did Meira find Randon?"
Dragoon turned his head toward a door, and ejected some purple substance from his mouth, before pointing and replying, "That way." He then ran toward the door, and explained, "Last time, the door was locked, but I opened it like THIS!" Upon arriving at the door, he slammed into it, and tore it open with extreme prejudice. He did the same to the door on the other end of the hallway, despite the fact that the door was opening for him, at the time.

We did apparently draw some attention, however. We entered into a room with a large crater, and a pair of surprisingly pleasant waterfalls. As we were walking in, however, two hooded figures were quickly carrying away a hominid form, wearing traditional HUmar garb, but his arms seemed to be developing into wings. There was also something of an organic sack on the ground, with purple goo oozing from it, as well as a group of RAmars dressed in black, known as the Soul Crushers running at us in a most threatening manner.
Dragoon excitedly shouted, "EVIL MEN!" and attacked immediately. There were only six of them together this time, so Dragoon was very much able to keep them busy. In the mean time, Scejntjynahl and I investigated the organic sack on the ground. It was rather fragile and viscous. It was not unlike a placenta, but yet, it was tainted with D-cells.
"Paladin," Scejntjynahl said to me, as Dragoon gave a Soul Crusher the gift of flight, right by us, "The purple fluid is not the only substance here."
I kneeled down next to it, and observed for myself. "Indeed," I replied, "There appears to be a red liquid, as well." Having different consistencies, the red liquid flowed on top of the purple liquid. I placed my finger in a river of the red liquid to further examine it. I sniffed it, I tasted it, and a rubbed it between my fingers, before looking up at Scejntjynahl and commenting, "This is the blood of a Native-attribute reptile. It seems rather aged, however. It is not fresh."
As I stood, a rumbling in the distance made the ground tremble. Scejntjynahl looked at me and said, "Whatever that is, it's rather large."
We then heard a loud roaring noise, just before we heard a gnarled voice shout, "Beruhigen Sie sich und befolgen Sie, Drache!" Even as a mostly emotionless AI, this voice bothered me.
Upon hearing this voice, the Soul Crushers as well, drew their attention to it. With a final, collective attack on Dragoon, they escaped him, and narrowly managed to depart through the door that the hooded figures had previously moved through, and somehow managed to fortify it against Dragoon's attempts to break through it.
While Dragoon tore at the door, Scejntjynahl drew closer to me. I looked at the oozing placental sack on the ground, and she said to me, "I believe that we have something to tell Meira, now."
"Yes," I replied. "Yes, but I do not know if she will like this news."
Dragoon, meanwhile, pounded on the door, and shouted as loud as his audio output device would allow, "VIRIDIA!!!" Looking rejected, Dragoon dragged himself back to us, and commented, "I had the livers of five of them IN MY HAND! They were IN MY HAND, I TELL YOU!"
I patted Dragoon's shoulder and tried to comfort him by saying, "Do not worry, Dragoon. You will have more opportunity to mutilate them in the future."
He then lifted a sloppy mess to me and said, "Want a pancreas?"
Scejntjynahl noticed something at that point. "Dragoon, your armor is cracking, like Paladin's."
Dragoon just looked at Scejntjynahl and replied, "I have a pancreas in my hand."

Later on, we went to the hospital where Meira was being treated, to explain the situation to her. Standing by her bed, I informed her, "It seems that whatever they were planning to do with Randon, the process was nearly complete."
Meira looked at me rather confused and replied, "Um, what exactly does that mean, Paladin?"
To this, I replied, "When we arrived at the location where you found Randon, two hooded figures were carrying off a hominid creature, that I believe to have been Randon. In the placental material that he'd been stored in, Scejntjynahl and I found purple fluid, as well as the aged blood of a Native-attribute reptile."
At that moment, Dragoon overheard a doctor passing by in the hallway, commenting to a nurse, "They say he lived a full life, and he has no regrets. The family would like us to pull the plug, and let him die."
Dragoon jumped when he heard this, and he ran out in to the hall, to catch the doctor and ask him anxiously, "Can I do it? Can I do it?!? I want to do it!!"
I asked Meira to excuse me, and chased after Dragoon. The doctor was bewildered and replied, "Well, I suppose," he said. "Just don't make a mess." Certainly, he must have known of Dragoon's reputation.
We went down the hall to a room, where an old man was on a bed, barely breathing through life-support devices, facing his final moments of life in a dream-like, unconscious state. He was a large, rather well-built old man. I would suggest that he was a registered HUmar, up until the day he was admitted into this hospital. The scar across one eye suggested that he'd certainly seen his days in battle.
The doctor took Dragoon to the machine that was keeping him breathing, and his blood pumping. He pointed to a wire in the front, that was commanding the smaller devices to continue functioning, and told him, "Just pull out this wire, and he'll be on his way to Elsydeon."
Dragoon energetically pulled the plug, and we all turned to watch, as an old warrior found his way home, to that land where all fallen Protectors travel, when their mortal bodies shed their husks. "Good bye, Old Warrior," I said quietly. "May the Great Light make your journey home be swift."


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[navci]

Scejntjynahl noticed something at that point. "Dragoon, your armor is cracking, like Paladin's."
Dragoon just looked at Scejntjynahl and replied, "I have a pancreas in my hand."


I can only say, it is a good thing that the three bots are not accompanied by a fleshie. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif I wonder if the fleshie and tolerate all the pancreas goodness. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

And.
Awwwww... Paladin is in love... how cute. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


edit: I am also suprised by Dragoon's enthusiasm in just pulling a plug to kill people. So... as long as he gets to kill things, it doesn't matter how he does it? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif Can he be a politician and kill people with a speech and still be satisfied with it? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: navi on 2004-06-01 12:51 ]</font>

[Scejntjynahl]

Foreshadowing indeed! The turn of events is drawing near to an unspeakable darkness...

Is Paladin evolving emotionally? Well Dragoon finally find a way to dispose of the Soul Crushers?

Great, now I desire to read more... alas one must be patient and let the story unfold on its own.

Will Scejntjynahl prove to be a worthy warrior alongside Paladin? So many questions...

Good work Meira.

[navci]

I have a few ? of my own:
1. Is Sen attracted to Paladin the same way Paladin is to her?
2. If she is, would she also be attracted by Dragoon seeing well, Dragoon is very much like Paladin and I consider Dragoon every bit cuter?
3. Won't that be funny? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[MQuantum]

I find it amusing how the language of evil somehow reminds me of German. By any chance, can it be German? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Poor Randon, poor Meira. Well, perhaps the process is reversable, and they can be together once again.

I'm going to ask for an official ban on Dragoon, barring him from all hospitals. I do not think he belongs in such a place. If the doctor hadn't told him not to make a mess, well, it could have been a pretty bad scene... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[navci]

On 2004-06-01 15:41, MQuantum wrote:
I'm going to ask for an official ban on Dragoon, barring him from all hospitals.


Hospitals, elementry schools, kindergartens, old people's home, daycares, concert halls, ya know. Etc, etc. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[Outrider]

Seeing as I just read through all of the Recollection saga stuff in the past week or so, I'd like to say one thing:

Rockin'.

And, uh... things don't look too good for Randon, y'know?

[Bradicus]

Hmmm...
I suppose we now know what the dragon's heart was for.

Wha?!?

Oh yeah, another great chapter Meira. More talk of pancreases (pancrei?) in the future please!

[HUnewearl_Meira]

I'm not exactly sure what happened. I must've gotten excited or something, because this chapter just kinda fell out of my head. I actually had it done yesterday afternoon, but it seems that I sent Outrider his PM to approve his cameo immediately after he left PSO World for the day.

But Outrider sent me his approval early this morning, so we get this chapter now. This chapter is mostly informational, and those who read The Recollection of Dragoon should find a few events to be familiar.

In any case, here it is. The Recollection of Paladin: Chapter 8. Enjoy!




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I suppose I should make it clear that any questions Meira had were answered by Scejntjynahl, while I spent the following couple of hours getting Dragoon to settle down. After the old man died, he went into a sort of frenzy, jumping around in the hallways, otherwise causing chaos, and disturbing the hospital's patients. Thankfully, I was able to get him out of the hospital, and down to Ragol, with only a single dent in the hospital floor as an unplanned casualty.
In the following days, it came to pass that Zeirom successfully removed Mota Storm's memory unit, and from it, he retrieved a log of the events leading up to how he ended up in the broken down condition he was in. The details were not quite what we expected, as it would appear that Mota Storm never traveled with a Newearl named, "Allanque." The situation was dubious, but the end of his log was sufficiently ambiguous that I've chosen not to doubt what Allanque has told us. I would recommend that those who want to know more about the circumstances should read the log, itself. As a final note concerning the log, I will only say that Zinkin First was a brave and noble man.
Within a few days of procuring Mota Storm's memory unit, Zeirom had also finished Rosey 2000, his Dragoon-type technology project to create a RAcaseal that will eventually upgrade itself, when it can no longer improve on its own operation parameters. Zeirom refused to give a complete list of her operation parameters, but pleasantly enough, he did indeed inform me that among them were household chores, maternal care, and killing evil things from a range. He also commented that his model of the Dragoon-type AI was very calm and stable.
She was, however, still in an initialized state, and not terribly knowledgeable about combat. Given the state of things, I determined that it would be a good idea for her to be taught about combat situations by another RAcaseal, so I called into my office a part-time employee, who happened to be a full-time Hunter. Her name is Andronicus 19, and she normally trains new employees for The Post-Bortevo Organization. Her additional background as a Hunter, and occasional Post-Bortevo Organization operative made me determine that she'd be the best bet to train another RAcaseal.
Andronicus 19 is rather tall, as far as RAcaseals go. For the purposes of describing her, I'll also comment that while she is a more or less traditionally designed RAcaseal, with a slim, blue body and a skirt-like metal aperture around her waist, she also has a synthetic skin face that is capable of displaying a wide range of emotions that she typically refrains from taking advantage of.
"Andronicus 19," I said, "This is Rosey 2000. I would like you to train her in the ways of the RAcaseal."
Andronicus 19, with a very plain expression, replied, "Yes, Sir. I will train her."
I was in a weird mood that day, as I had been considering asking Scejntjynahl to help me train down on Ragol, so I replied, "You certainly don't sound very excited about it."
She continued with her very plain expression, and said, "Well, it's pretty much just another task, as far as I'm concerned." She looked up at Rosey 2000 and asked, "Are you ready to begin?"
Rosey 2000, who had a shorter, but similarly-designed shape, but a moldy-green themed look, turned her head to the side and asked, "Ready?"
I looked at Rosey 2000, then at Andronicus 19 and commented, "You'll have to bear with her. Her vocabulary hasn't been built up yet, either."
"What's a vocabulary?" Rosey 2000 asked.
Andronicus 19 nodded sagely, and commented to me, "I shall work on that, as well, Sir." Then she looked at Rosey 2000 and said, "Come, Rosey. We will get started."
Rosey 2000 followed Andronicus 19 out the door, commenting and pointing, "I have a navel. It's right here."
I sat behind my desk, watching them leave. As the door swung closed, I thought to myself, "I do not envy Andronicus 19 for that particular task."

Later that day, I sent Scejthe out to pick up some metal plates that Zeirom told me he would need while repairing Mota Storm. Meanwhile, Zeirom moved the massive RAcast from Allanque's penthouse suite, to the building's Machine Shop. Not the Motor pool, mind you. That particular facility is geared for working on vehicles, and periodically, Zeirom felt it necessary to move him there to work on things, but most of his work was done in the Machine Shop, where most of our prototype safety devices are put together. On a tangent, by this time, Allanque had taken to traveling about on Ragol with HuBBsDoctor. She seems to be becoming increasingly fond of this fellow.
I suppose I never commented about what the Post-Bortevo Organization does to generate an income. Though manufacturing is done at another location, we develop, sell and install Safety Devices. All vehicles in our Motor pool are equipped with Post-Bortevo brand seatbelts and impact dampening devices. All railings along ramps and stairs were installed by our own employees, as were many of the railings on Pioneer 2. Most elevator brakes, redundant teleporter systems, and a few minor-explosive release systems on Pioneer 2 were made by the Post-Bortevo Organization.
In any case, when Dragoon returned, he'd managed to get himself banned from Jolly-Mart, so they had to get the metal plates at Bull's-Eye. I was walking toward the elevator to head to the Machine Shop to check on Zeirom, when I ran into Dragoon and Scejthe. Dragoon was staring at a stuffed Rappy on someone's desk, and I suppose that if he had drool to drool, he would've been drooling it.
Scejthe promptly handed me a small paper bag with a box of metal plates in it, saying, "Here you go, Sir." While I examined the contents of the bag, and made sure that the product she'd purchased was the product Zeirom asked for, she continued to explain, "We would've been faster, but Dragoon got us kicked out of, and banned from Jolly-Mart, so we had to go across the park to Bull's-Eye." After confirming the item was what it was supposed to be, I put the box back into the bag, and looked at Dragoon, who was staring rather lustfully at that stuffed Rappy.
I told Scejthe, "This is approximately what we need. Thank you, Scejthe." Then I grabbed Dragoon's shoulder and said, "Dragoon?"
Dragoon replied confusingly, "Do not inhale fumes?"
I looked at him oddly, and said, "Right." I paused for a moment, before I continued, "Look, be more careful when you go into stores, okay? There tends to be a lot of people in those places that don't deserve to die, and we may feel the need to send you out on errands again, okay?"
Dragoon then straightened up, saluted me, and shouted, "Kill a physician immediately!" Shortly thereafter, Scejthe and I both stepped away from him, and there, he remained for quite some time afterward. Meanwhile, I delivered the plates to Zeirom in the Machine Shop.

I strolled into the Machine Shop, where Zeirom was using a laser-cutter to remove one of Mota Storm's arms at the joint, so he could work with it. I placed the bag on the workbench and told him, "All right, Zeirom. The plates are right here."
Zeirom turned off the laser-cutter, as he finished cutting through the joint, which was readily exposed with the external, armored casing already removed. The arm was caught by a harness he'd rigged onto it already, then he looked up at me, as he set the cutter down, then strolled over to examine the plates. As he looked through the contents of the bag, and opened the box contained within, he apologized, "Sorry for the crack in the concrete. I underestimated the weight of the armor on his arm, when I removed the first piece."
I looked over at the area in which he was working, and sure enough, there was a web-shaped network of cracks centered on a location near one of his arms, and even the corner of that concrete slab was sticking out of the ground. I was rather surprised, but commented, "When they say that Prime-types were heavily armored, they weren't kidding, were they?"
Zeirom put the box of plates back in the bag, and placed it back on the countertop, as he said, "Yeah, these guys are compact tanks." He stepped over to the harness hanging from the ceiling that was holding Mota Storm's arm, and pulled it over to a work bench, where he planned to use another laser-cutter to separate the fused joints at their seams. He continued, "To use crude weight measurements, Prime-types normally weigh about 4 tons, making them some of the heaviest RAcasts ever designed. The real miracle of it though," he fired up a smaller laser-cutter as he said this, and raised his volume accordingly, "Is that the 4 tons or so is after gravity-reduction devices have been applied to cancel out the 8 tons of compressed, super-high density Tungsten armor."
Needless to say, this is something that I wasn't aware of, concerning Prime-types, and I was rather impressed. Even I, myself, a Dragoon-type, would have some difficulty beating my way through armor like that. It seems that the gravity reduction devices also maintain the RAcast's ability to move around reasonably quickly. It seems blatantly obvious to me, just as to why Zinkin First chose Mota Storm as a personal bodyguard.
I took a last look at Mota Storm, then pat Zeirom on the back as I turned to leave, and said, "Well, keep up the good work, Zeirom."
He stopped for a moment to remind me, "Don't forget, Paladin. I've gotta pick up Meira at the hospital around @080 beats. She gets out of there, today."
I nodded and replied, "That's right, I hadn't been thinking about that. I'll have to go there to deal with payment arrangements." I might note, that it was around @795 beats when this particular conversation occurred.

Approximately 300 beats later, I arrived at the hospital, to induce the payment arrangements I negotiated for Meira's treatment, and hospital stay. As far as I know, she's never discovered who paid for this. While paying for this service, however, I overheard a comment from a HUmar, who was sitting in the waiting area for the Emergency Room with his right arm bent in a location that it wasn't really intended to bend in. He was dressed in a mostly white uniform, with blue accents. His hair was short and brown, and from the way he carried himself, I'd suggest that he favors dual swords.
He was speaking to a friend, who had accompanied him, and I heard him say, "Y'know, while I was in the Ruins the other day, I overheard a rather nasty voice talking about an invasion of a government building."
I took note of this, and when I was finished paying, I stepped over to the man. "Greetings, fellow hunter. I am Paladin." I offered my right hand to shake, but soon realized that this was a mistake, and quickly switched to my left hand. I shook his hand firmly, and he winced. "Sorry, about that," I said, "I've been working on adjusting the amount of pressure I use when shaking hands."
"Right, right," he said. "I'm Outrider. What can I do for ya?"
I said to him, "I overheard, a moment ago, that you heard someone talking about invading a government building, while you were in the Ruins?"
He nodded and replied, "Yes, that is correct."
I sat in a chair near him, where I could more or less look straight at him, and said, "This may concern me." I continued to ask, "Are there any more details that I might be able to get from you, on this matter?"
He gathered his thoughts in a casual, yet somewhat hurried manner and replied, "Well, uh, yeah, I suppose." He sat back, and continued, "This guy was saying that some disc was under guard at a particular building, and under lock and key, at that. He was saying that they were going to go and take it by force, then he started explaining details, like 'You shoot this guy here, then you hit right here with your weapon, and I'll kill all of these guys.' I think he had some sort of a map layout he was pointing at, at the time."
I stood up, and offered Outrider my Guild Card. I said, "I very much appreciate the information, Outrider. I have one last question, however. Do you know the time-frame in which this attack was planned?"
He accepted my Guild Card, and reciprocated the offer as he replied, "Well, let's see," he paused, and thought about it for a moment before continuing, "It was yesterday when I overheard that, and it sounded like he was talking about doing it in a couple of days, so I'd suggest that he was planning it for tomorrow or the next day."
I nodded, and said, "Thank you, Outrider. This information is most valuable." At that point, I turned and left, already beginning on plans to prevent this invasion.


[End Log]
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[Scejntjynahl]

So quickly another chapter http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif , I sure hope this trend keeps up. Even though, it probably wont, but no worries... this is what happens when the story is unfolding and makes us want to continue on.

I enjoy how you mix the calmness of everyday events for Paladin, yet maintain that shadow of things to come within it.

More characters are introduced, each apparently will play a part of what will become to be a very climatic event.

Great work Meira. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[MQuantum]

Heheh. Rosie can ward off evil at a range. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif That has an amusing double meaning. I mean, of course she can shoot things, but who would have thought she would learn to use frying pans at the stove as a weapon, either? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif Akiko's Wok, here comes Rosie!

In the next chapter (which I hope arrives in an equally speedy manner) I think Paladin's going to beat up on some guys who get too close to his turf! Hey, home is where the CPU is, right?

Wow, with Mota as armoured as that, what ever attacked him must have been pretty strong. I seem to remember he had a few piercings and minor dents, but that would still be quite an accomplishment.

[navci]

Rosey 2000 followed Andronicus 19 out the door, commenting and pointing, "I have a navel. It's right here."


http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif Great line.
I would say more, but my mind is groggy...


Kill a physician, yes.

[Outrider]

Ha ha! I gots me arm broke!

Oh wait... that sucks...

Good stuff. Love the cameo. Keep up the good work!

Of course, now I really can't wait to see Mota Storm's Recollection... He sounds like one tough cookie.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

In all honesty, I've had this done for a week or so, but despite being anxious to post it, I figured that I'd wait a bit, to let chapters 7 & 8 sink in. I didn't want those particular chapters to steal Chapter 9's thunder, so to speak.

This chapter has a lot of significance, really. This is a major event for the entire series, and I should hope that it's well-received.



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When VanGarrett recovered the Dragoon-type disc from Crankshaft, he had it stored in a heavily guarded Principal-Government Vault, in which other generally important things were kept. There have been a number of raids on the location in the past, and it was just about as heavily guarded by military personnel as could be done. Guards were posted everywhere they could be posted, without getting in each others' way. Tactically speaking, there were no weaknesses. This made it apparent as to why a brute force tactic was brought up.
I contacted the proper officials involved in this particular complex to warn them, but they spurned my warnings as unimportant information, which was indeed, quite unfortunate. Because of this, I made certain to come up with a plan to stop them, very quickly.

As it ended up, the plan was basically just to meet them there. Proper warning was issued to the compound several times, and they knew we'd be showing up. I gathered together a few people, including HuBBsDoctor, VanGarrett, Dragoon, Scejntjynahl, and Allanque also insisted on joining us.
The group of us ended up sitting in the front lobby of the building the entire day. There were a few conversations that got started here and there. Dragoon commented that he'd like to try his hand at a little bit of writing, then started wandering around the building to gather inspiration. I do believe that he did write a first-hand account of the previous day's happenings, though I haven't yet read it, myself. He also commented later on, that he was considering a fiction, as well.
Over all, nothing really happened the first day, and the officials in charge were rather annoyed with me. I told them, and I quote, "Hey, I didn't bring these people here to sit around and have a tea party. We'll be back in a few hundred beats, after we've the necessary rest and maintenance."
As a group, however, we hadn't gotten three blocks away, before we heard the explosion and subsequent alarms. We all turned, to see a number of individuals running into the compound. Siren lights were flashing, alarms were sounding, and we were running back to where we'd come from. There was no need to shout orders. We all knew what we were doing. What we'd been waiting for had just occurred, and we had already given up for the day. Leaving was a poor decision on my part, and it was one that would cost us all.
Dragoon was the first to get back to the compound. Possibly because he saw that all ten of the Soul Crushers were there. He always seemed to have a rather personal vendetta with them. I'm quite confident that the reason he's so angry with them is because he'd never been able to kill them. They were evil, but their deaths eluded him. This is something that Dragoon is simply unable to put up with. It does make him rather upset.
As I charged in, Dragoon already had the Soul Crushers occupied. When fighting them, he does not allow any of them to ignore him. It simply doesn't happen. If one tries to go and take on something else, Dragoon will immediately pursue him. It's truly impressive to see someone divide their combative attention across ten different opponents, and never let said opponents ever stand a chance. I do suppose that it helps when you're using four of them as weapons against the other six. That seems to even the odds out.
VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor immediately set out to deal with the Delsabers, while Allanque kept to keeping us covered with Shifta and Deband techniques, as well as Resta. As I charged on Akolyte, however, Allanque's attention was drawn away. It seemed that she, too, had a rival in this conflict.
There was a young FOnewearl with Akolyte that night, who bore a face remarkably similar to Allanque's. Her hair was a vivid blue color, however, and it was tied up neatly in buns. She also wore black garments, of a design that is fairly typical of FOnewearls. Long black tights, and the upper-body portion was form-fitting as well, but as with all FOnewearls, there was a half-bubble-like shape in the garments on her hips.
Akolyte laughed and shouted, "Shalan! Keep their healer busy!" That was just milliseconds before I tackled him, and we began to wrestle about.
From what I could observe while I was dealing with Akolyte, Shalan and Allanque kept each other firmly in a stalemate. Allanque seemed to be readily prepared to cast some variant of the Grants technique, while Shalan, on the other hand, seemed to be encompassing herself in preparation to cast some variation on Megid. They were saying something to each other, but I couldn't make out what it was, due to my continued struggle with Akolyte.
Akolyte and I continued to pound away at each other, but we, too, seemed to be caught up in our struggles against each other. At this stage, neither one of us seemed to be able to best the other. We'd both built up our own defenses too well. We'd both flip each other, and slam each other into the ground or walls or furniture, and we'd both try to punch, kick or otherwise harm the other, much to no avail. We both knew each others' styles, and we'd both gotten generally better.
Or it could be that we were both holding back. I was trying not to destroy the building. It seems to me that Akolyte was merely pre-occupying me, while the Delsabers were pre-occupying VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor. The Soul Crushers were keeping Dragoon busy. Allanque was locked in a stalemate with Shalan. Even Scejntjynahl was finding herself rather distracted with two or three seemingly nameless minions. We didn't really have anyone else there who were readily able to deal with the HUmar, Ian-kun X, who we'd seen before, some time ago, and most importantly, Guybec, who strolled through the area, after Ian, seemingly in control of the whole thing.
Guybec had changed. He no longer wore white robs, and his hair was no longer a shade of blonde, though he did still wear his glasses. His hair was no a pitch black color, and his face seemed moist and darkened. His robes were now black. He was truly, and in fact, he still is, the Dark Force.
I saw him stop to look between Shalan and Allanque. He smirked at Allanque, who was seeming rather stressed to begin with, and ran a finger along her chin. He did, however, promptly pull his finger back, and shook it, as if he'd been burned, before regaining his composure, and carrying forward, toward the vault.
As I landed from one of Akolyte's throws, I heard VanGarrett curse rather loudly, and shout to HuBBsDoctor that they needed to dispense the Delsabers much more quickly, so they could deal with Guybec and Ian.
HuBBsDoctor shouted back at him, while tripping a Delsaber, "I can bring them all down in two more Beats!"
VanGarrett shouted back, "What happens in two Beats?!"
To this, HuBBsDoctor replied, "Then it'll be @400!"
"What the heck does that mean?"
"It means I'm going to bring down the Justice of the Light, Almighty!" Surely enough, as HuBBsDoctor said, exactly two Beats later, he pulled out a fairly small looking gun, known as the Heaven's Punisher, and shouted, "All right! Now it ends!"
Using a special property of the weapon, he pointed it toward the ceiling, gave a shot, and an instant later, Photon Energy was raining from the ceiling. I don't know that this is indeed the power of the Great Light, but it's certainly been attributed as such. The Delsabers were brought down with vicious vengeance, as were Scejntjynahl's opponents, but Dragoon and the Soul Crushers had moved their skirmish out of range.
Also, Shalan and Allanque's stand-off seemed oddly unaffected, though it appears that they used the spray of Photon as a signal to let the techniques fly. The results were interesting, though. Both hit each other several times, and though neither died, both seemed to take damage equally, and finally fell to the floor and writhed around until they passed out.
Akolyte took the hit unphased, however. It didn't bounce off of him, he just took it. All it really did, was give me a firm opportunity to solidly cram my metal knuckles into the structure that is supposed to represent his jaw.
VanGarrett yelled, "HuBBs! Sen! Come on! We've gotta stop Ian and Guybec while we've got the chance!" Neither HuBBs nor Scejntjynahl argued with this command. Both concurred quite readily, as they followed him, running toward the vault.
I was unable to see what exactly happened at the vault, as I was distracted with Akolyte, but there was another explosion, the sounds of skirmishing and chasing, and of course, gunshots. A couple of Scejntjynahl's previous opponents got up, however, shook their heads, and ran in to help Ian and Guybec.
Moments later, VanGarrett came flying out of the hallway, and slid across the floor, looking somewhat burned. He cursed and shook his head, as he got up, stumbled around, procured a Justy 23ST from his inventory, and ran back down the hallway, only to be slammed into by HuBBsDoctor, who was flying from the hallway in very much the same manner that VanGarrett had been just moments prior.
Scejntjynahl seemed to be standing her ground, but taking some electrical abuse from Guybec, who was casually strolling down the hallway, pushing her back with a continuous burst of Gizonde from one hand, and holding The Disc in the other. That cretin was even laughing. I felt myself anger, and before long, I wasn't paying attention to Akolyte so much, and just to get him off me, I angrily managed a powerful blow to his face, so that I could run to Scejntjynahl's aid.
I pushed Akolyte away, and ran to Scejntjynahl. I grabbed her, and I too, was soon engulfed in the Gizonde technique. HuBBsDoctor charged at Guybec with a Red Saber drawn, but was engaged in swordsmanship by Ian, who was wielding a rusting knock-off of Agito, the original it was based on, Dragoon unfortunately shattered some months prior.
Ian thoroughly held back HuBBsDoctor, and VanGarrett was just sitting back up. VanGarrett definitely wasn't ready to give up, however. He seemed a little woozy, to the best that I can recall during that electrical storm I was in, but nonetheless, he picked up the Justy 23ST, took aim, and fired at Guybec's head.
Guybec did stop casting Gizonde at this point, but only long enough to bring up a hard, quick casting of Deband, focused at a single location between him and VanGarrett. That shield of dense air solidified just in time to stop most of the bullet, a small, glowing remainder of which lightly tapped Guybec on the forehead, and made him smile.
This did give me an opportunity to attack, and Scejntjynahl and I both took it. We both charged him, and simultaneously, we both kicked him at two separate locations on the chest. The Disc went flying out of his hands, but it didn't stop him from immediately casting Gizonde again, and holding us in shock.
HuBBsDoctor caught The Disc, and shouted at VanGarrett, who was getting up, before tossing The Disc to him, so he could continue to deal with Ian. VanGarrett dropped the Justy 23ST so that he could clumsily catch The Disc, but he was quickly tackled by one of the nameless minions that Scejntjynahl had been doing battle with earlier. The Disc, once again flew into the air, and this time, Akolyte caught it.
He shouted, and yelled. When something coherent finally came from him, he yelled, "We have what we came for! Let us return home with haste!"
Then he got pegged in the head with a Photon Bullet from VanGarrett's Justy 23ST, which again, caused The Disc to fly. This time, it was grabbed by the Soul Crusher with the Sky-Blue Visor, and Skyly Section ID, but it didn't stay in his hands long, as Dragoon quickly grabbed him. The next person to catch it was one of the minions, but it was again, quickly knocked out of his hands by my own flailing arm movements.
Unfortunately, however, we had been gradually moving toward the exit the whole time, and when I knocked it out of the hands of the nameless minion, Guybec caught it, and before anyone knew what had happened, everyone had fled, and all were long out of sight. I suspect that they used a Telepipe almost as soon as they had gotten out of the No-Pipe Zone within the compound's borders.

Everyone, that is, except for Pinky. Dragoon had him backed into the corner. He had allowed all of the others to escape, but Dragoon always had a particular taste for Pinky's blood. Maybe it was because Pinky had a wrinkly, bald head underneath his helmet. Maybe it was because he was the only one that was short and fairly chubby. Maybe it was because of that mysterious Love Rappy that he always carried around. Maybe it was because he was the only one that would verbally taunt Dragoon.
This time, however, there was no taunting from Pinky. Oh no. Pinky would not be taunting, this time. This time, Pinky knew that he was in the deepest trouble of his entire forsaken existence. Dragoon had him cornered, and his companions had abandoned him for the greater success of their purpose. He knew that the wrath of Dragoon was soon to come down upon him, and he realized that this was bad news for him, even though he may not have realized just how bad his situation was.
Always the one to stand in the face of his fear, shaking, Pinky jabbed at Dragoon with his Love Rappy. "St-st-STAY BACK! I'll use this thing! I swear I will! I'm not afraid to use it!!"
Dragoon slowly stepped toward him. There was a low growling noise that shook the building, and small chunks of black paint were falling off of his armor, as the paint cracked. Dragoon snarled at him, "You have teased me. You have taunted me. You have waved that juicy fowl in front of me, like a steak before a caged lion. Worst of all, despite my most concerted attempts..." he paused, to take stomping steps toward him as he spoke, "YOU! HAVE! REFUSED! TO! DIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!" His last word faded in and out, and twisted around in an electronic buzz.

That was when it happened. Pinky screamed. It was too much for him to take. He thrust the Love Rappy at Dragoon, and it bit him on a chest plate. Dragoon was not impressed. In what must've been the single most efficient attack of his life, he backhanded the Love Rappy in such a way that the pressure on its rib cage caused its heart to stop beating in the exact same instant that its neck broke, spinal cord and all, and also in the exact same instant that its skull caved in to crush its brain. Its whole body died simultaneously, and furthermore, in the exact same instant.
The Love Rappy flew from the RAmar's hand, flattened itself against the wall, and fell lifelessly to the ground. It was finished. Dragoon straightened up his posture for a moment, as the black paint on him cracked, and burst from his body. He seemed to shine with a golden glow, and indeed, his body had taken on such a hue. I don't believe that he had a Laconian armor shell at this point, but it did seem to be some sort of super-hard metal, with a layer of Photon energy that further protected him, and caused him to appear to be golden.
He was no longer just Dragoon. He was now, The Gold Dragoon. Dragoon had finally upgraded, and behind that pink visor of his, Pinky knew that he had to escape. Though he didn't know what was to come next, he knew that it wasn't going to be the sort of thing that you'd want to go out and do on a weekend afternoon on a blanket in the park.
Dragoon leaned down toward Pinky, and released a mighty scream. In what I can only imagine was a sudden burst of fear and adrenaline, Pinky managed to get by Dragoon and run through the hole in the wall that his companions had made. On the other hand, maybe Dragoon let him run, because he knew that it wasn't a big deal, and that he would bring on Pinky's fate before long, anyway.
As Pinky ran, Dragoon took a few casual steps out into the open. He lifted his hand into the air, and photons gathered around it, to form the shape of what looked bizarrely like a Pofuilly Slime, but yet, made from Photons of varying colors, though principally blue.
He swirled it in the air once or twice, and with a shout of, "YEAAWWW!!!" he swung that Photon Slime like a giant sticky-hand, at Pinky. Pinky, running away in a shroud of futility, was engulfed in the bizarre thing, and in the midst of receiving a very nasty Photon burn, he was violently ripped back through the air, when Dragoon grabbed the Photon Slime with both hands and jerked it back to him.
Upon the arrival of his return flight, Pinky found himself immediately impaled upon Dragoon's right arm, and it didn't take Dragoon long to reach up with that arm, crush the helmet around Pinky's head, and proceed to pull that head through the hole his arm had just made, which thoroughly destroyed Pinky's body, as well as turning a portion of it inside-out.
Just for good measure, Dragoon then threw Pinky to the ground and stomped on him a few times, just to make sure that there were no vital tissues in there, that were still in tact. That was it, however. Dragoon stepped away, as his Photon Slime dissipated. He pushed some air back and forth through is olfactorial sensory device, grunted, and looked at the pile of tainted RAmar flesh on the ground.
After that day, we may have lost The Disc, but one message was left clear. The Soul Crushers were, from that point on, no longer a group of ten. From that point on, there was to be no more Pinky. From that point on, the Soul Crushers would only be a group of nine, because on that day, the short, chubby RAmar with a Pink visor, and Pinkal Section ID was, now and forever after, finally, dead.


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[FreedomJu]

Go Dragoon! I do wonder when Paladin will get his upgrade though, will it be the next chapter?

[navci]

So Dragoon no longer even need to grab creatures, he can just make one of his own! Or.. is he just more fond of slimey than anything else that a photonic slimey materializes? The possibilities!!!

[Scejntjynahl]

Nameless advesaries for Scejntjynahl... Paladin's attention diverted by something more... Dragoon's upgrade... and the death of Pinky!

Quite a chapter indeed. Many questions now, are the nameless advesaries unable to die? What will become of the disc? When will Paladin upgrade?

Paladin is quite chivalrous I must say "That cretin was even laughing. I felt myself anger..."

Guybec is pissing me off...

This is a climatic event, yet their still remains that sense of doom, that this as climatic as it is, is but the tip of the iceberg that is to come. Hopefully the combatants will have either evolved, or adapted, and trained for the unknown that is to come. With the disc now in their hands, it bodes nothing but ill omens.

Great work Meira. Now about chapter 10... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[MQuantum]

O.O!!!

You killed him! You killed Pinky! How could you!? He was the best to watch when he was squished into various shapes and thoroughly beaten! Oh well, at least Dragoon got to have a bit of fun in the end. And he also got a glowy slime! It's like a golden lasso, except... it's photonic, decended from slime creatures, and belongs to a giant walking death machine.

And the force battle was great. No attempt a defense whatsoever, just frying each other until they pass out. I could see them casting two foie balls and just falling over at the same time http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif.

Well, even though they got Pink, the baddies still got away with "THE DISK(c)of HUnewearl_Meira 2004". Time for a little active search and recover, with a little destroy mixed in, eh? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[BOC]

sweet merciful light! they have the disk!!

oh doom and gloom is on the way!

mucho blood will be spilled.

and yet, a glimmer of hope. Dragoon has become Gold Dragoon!! With added photonic slimes!!

AND PINKY IS FINALLY DEAD! his love rappy too!!

Paladin is getting all mushy for Scejntjynahl. Maybe they'll get married and have deadly little mettal kiddies?

Vangarett is a tough mofo! Takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

Dragoon is banned from the jolly-mart! How will he cleanse the world of shoe polish now?!?

Rosey 2000 is finally on-line and apparently has a navel!

dam meira, thou trully rocks!! just read the last 3 chapters and MY WORD http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif.

roll on chapter 10!!

PEACE!!!

[Bradicus]

Gold Dragoon eh? Great! The red blood should match his new paintjob well http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Outrider]

Heh... man, when you sent me the preview, you left out the best part!

Can't wait to see what else Gold Dragoon can do... and even better, what upgraded Paladin can do!

[navci]

On 2004-06-09 14:05, BOC wrote:
Dragoon is banned from the jolly-mart! How will he cleanse the world of shoe polish now?!?


I think he can do it with his new photonic materializor thingy. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[HUnewearl_Meira]

All right, this took retardedly long to produce. The stupidest part was that I had all but the last six paragraphs done, then just kinda sat on the whole thing for a while. It also doesn't help that I kept forgetting to pass it back and forth between work and home to get it done. I actually wanted the entire thing finished before I left for the Anime Expo last week, but it just didn't happen. In any case, I'm now closing in on a chapter I'm rather excited about (the last chapter, chapter 13), so I expect chapters 11 and 12 to go considerably faster. Especially considering that I seem to have hit another pocket of inspiration. Odd how this whole book has come up in short bursts of chapters.

You'll probably notice that there's a decided theme to this chapter that Paladin isn't readily aware of. I sure most of you will notice. This one is fairly long for Paladin, too, so hopefully this one will keep everyone tided over until I get chapter 11 finished, which I intend to start on just as soon as I get this posted.

So, no more waiting. Here it is!

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After the battle, Dragoon and I went to see Dr. Oscar to have a few things patched up. Neither of us were dearly in need of repair, but for what it's worth, we wanted to have Dr. Oscar examine Dragoon to see just what had changed, and since we were going to be there with him, I figured I might as well have him check me up, as well.
His report indicated that he didn't understand all of the changes that were made. Those changes that did occur, however, seemed to be weighed directly upon the way he has used his body to kill in the past, and the changes made were designed to optimize those usages, and provide new possibilities. His armor had a permanent outer-shell of Photon energy, and furthermore, he gained the ability to pull Photons out of the air to do his bidding. The extent of this ability, he wasn't sure, but he was impressed, in any case.
One thing in particular did rather scare him, however. It seems that the number of rockets in his Burst Rocket module had increased substantially. It had increased by six times, in fact. They were each about half the size they were before, but these aspects of it weren't really what concerned him. What concerned him was that each one carried a small, nuclear payload. Fortunately, these smaller rockets were geared for attacking at extended distances.
Most fortunately, his Quark-Smasher didn't really change very much. Evidently, his charge-time was greatly reduced, due to a general increase in bandwidth in both his internal communications as well as power-piping. Now, in untested theory, it would take him only a quarter of a Beat to charge a full-powered blast from his cannon, instead of 2 Beats. For the most part, we've been content to allow this theory to go untested, as we aren't terribly interested in having any Quarks smashed in our presence.
When it was all said and done, Dragoon went about on his way to experiment with his new strengths and abilities. I don't think I've ever seen him quite so excited since we arrived at Ragol. It was something new to him, and he was anxious to try it out. He was excited about killing in new ways that he had never killed before.
Myself, I knew that training was going to be even more crucial to me after this point. Akolyte now had the disc, and that means that he knew how each of the three of us were built. Dragoon he might not have a specific advantage on because of his upgrade, but myself, though I knew I was drawing near, I hadn't yet upgraded. It was time to get serious about this.

I called upon Scejntjynahl to help me train. Somehow, I just knew that taking the time with Scejntjynahl would make the training session seem shorter. Our location of choice was the island of Gal de Val. I hadn't been there yet, but it was my firm understanding that there were a number of rather large enemies, and indeed, some distinct challenges to deal with at this location. In fact, the Lab had recently issued a request from the Hunters' Guild to send a number of Hunters down there to investigate, and otherwise clear things out. Before this point, my only real interaction with the island was misleading Akolyte in that general direction, though I realize now that this may've been a poor choice in planning.
I gave Natasha Milarose a nod, as we walked through the Lab. She looked back at me, somewhat disapprovingly, but didn't make any order to stop us. Before much longer, we had teleported down to the Central Control Area.
The air was moist, but yet, it had the freshness of the ocean. From what I could tell, this area is built around a dam. It is, in fact, a Hydro-Electric Power Plant, and it continually supplies electricity to everything on the island. This is indeed and interesting design prospect. They've basically developed an infinite power supply that will continue with minimal maintenance. Normally a power facility of this type wouldn't be enough, but with the very limited community that it supplies power to, the power it generates is, well, ample.
There were clouds over this part of the island, and from them there was a light drizzle of rain. On occasion, lightning would strike, and thunder would follow. It was also quite chilly, which might have bothered us if we were fleshy-types. Actually, it was amidst this rolling fog from the dam that I noticed Scejntjynahl's nose, and portions of her cheeks turn a decided shade of blue, and for some odd reason, no matter how many times I go back over my image memories, it appears as though she had actual breathe coming from her nose and mouth.
That aside, we were standing in a reception area for the Central Control Area. I would presume that this was where employees living outside of the compound would show up for work, and further more, I'm presuming that this is also where they used to receive shipments of supplies. There was, in any case, directly to the South of us, was a rather large door. Or rather than a large door, it was more like a segment of the Security Wall that was designed to lower when all of the security locks were turned off.
It so happened, however, that on this day, all of the security locks were turned on. As such, we were required to venture about on the island, to shut off all three locks. This was a good thing, however, because this is what we had come to do. We didn't come to just run on in, do our thing, and finish quickly. We came to take our time, do things slow and hard, and make sure that we were both satisfied with our experience.
We both approached the teleporter near the Security terminal, and we agreed to start in The Jungle. This area encompassed the North and East shores of the Island, and otherwise seems to be the largest of the three areas. Really, we chose this area first, only because it was the first on the list, and we figured we'd start at the top and go down on the list.
On the North side of the Jungle, it was especially humid, and as we stepped out of the teleporter into what was essentially a very large puddle, we knew that we were going to be getting a little moist. There was a large amount of greenery, but not a whole lot of light was coming in. Altogether, things were a little slippery.
Beams of light shone through the trees here and there, illuminating the moisture in the air. It was here, that the real physical activity really began. Ape-like creatures leaped at us, and together, Scejntjynahl and I disrupted each one. We worked together in carnal battle, probing insides with our digits and making waves in this large puddle. She took one, and I took another, the two of us competing to see who would finish with theirs first.
We each grabbed the last living Gibbon, and holding it firmly by the back of its neck, we thrust its head into the wetness near the ground, quite intent on drowning it. It gurgled and lashed about, but our grip remained strong, and at last, its lungs were filled with the liquid. In the next moment, we flung the ape away.
Taking a clue from her discreet gestures, I placed my hands on her hips, lifted her, and swung her behind me. Her long legs kicked, and a botanical monstrosity was brought to the ground. More came, and we were ready to continue to bring on the heat. These plant-like creatures were hostile toward us and our activities, but would run in fear at the slightest splash that we might make.
Over all, they didn't pose a strong threat to us, and we banged away until they were all gone. A third manner of beast was also there to antagonize us, however. Large insects who took to the air, and would try to attack us with darts from their thorax structures. They were quick, and eluded us, but when I got my hands on one of these things, called a Gee, I took joy in learning more about it.
I stuck my hand inside it, and felt around, to see if there was anything in there that I could do anything with. The only thing I could find was a long, sharp object that any fleshy being wouldn't want to be penetrated with. Indeed, this was the projectile weapon that had been launched at us several times before. I pulled it out, and I looked at it, before I launched it myself, at another insect. When that one came down, I procured its weapon, and also retrieved the first. I took down a couple more in this way, before I took Scejntjynahl’s foot, and giving her a boost into the air, where she took out those that remained.
We finally worked our way to a large area in the Eastern portion of the Jungle. There were many of the botanical creatures, the Merillias and Meritas. I grabbed a flower, and I shook it in my hand quite violently, thus managing to get the desired results. I dropped the Merillia to the ground, and turned to find Scejntjynahl preparing to attack a more vicious variety. The Mericarol was quite large, and seemed to be a fixture in this room, though we would soon find that its roots were certainly not firmly grounded.
It had a flowery head that arched over its back, and segmented legs along a body that lead to a toothy face. Again, I gave Scejntjynahl a boost, and she jumped to grab hold of the stem. She held that stem in her arms, and she squeezed it tight, preventing it from failing to obey her. Meanwhile, I went down low, and undertook the face. It's hard to tell which was more important to this creature, whether it be the head at the end of the steam, which was in the flower, or whatever was behind its face. Nonetheless, between Scejntjynahl and I, it didn't take long to bend the stem down, and stuff it into the mouth on the face; we subsequently pounded it in, and did some thorough damage, bringing that to an end.
A path was then revealed to us, and we journeyed through it. We came to a teleporter, and beside it, was a terminal from which we could shut off the lock in this area. With the security shut off in this area, we proceeded through the Teleporter, and returned to the docking facility at the Central Control Area. The next step to take was in the Mountains. We hurriedly returned to the Teleporter, and headed to that location.

Once there, we stepped out of a small cave in the face of the rock structure. We found ourselves besieged by the ape-like Gibbons, who seemed to be divided up into groups, each lead by a slightly larger Gibbon with breath so icy-cool that it could literally freeze you in your tracks. Unfortunately, despite the coolness of its breath, it was not terribly fresh in scent.
I grabbed one of these furry beasts, and violently thrusted it forward. I stopped abruptly, I felt moisture on my fingers, and let the beast fall to the ground. Wiping the blood off, I gave a nod to Scejntjynahl, and we quickly joined together to beat these monkeys.
There were a few Meritas and Gees, but these only added to our enjoyment. Furthermore, with each individual creature, I could feel myself coming closer and closer to an outburst, that could only result in upgrading. I could feel something stirring inside my body, and my surface tingled as my dark spots grew darker, and my overall tone grew shinier. My internal temperature was rising at a rate of five degrees per dekabeat, as well.
Before long, we had bumped and slammed our way to Gibbles, who seems to be a patriarchal figure to the Gibbons. Gibbles is a rather large beast, and strangely quick and agile, at that. Before you know it, it's on top of you, just pounding away. It's fortunate that he's not terribly intelligent, but considering that he has his own personal army of Gibbons coming at you at the same time, it's still quite a tough fight.
This Gibbles brought his fist down on me several times, and through I managed to hold it off on each impact, I found the ground being moved beneath me. With Scejntjynahl by my side, however, we brought the furry beast down with a satisfying thud. To make sure that it stayed down there, I grabbed it by the head, and gave it a good jerk, until I felt it pop. From there, we located the next security switch, and it was back to the Central Control Area.

Again, we wasted no time, and proceeded to the Seaside area. As soon as we saw the sand and the ocean, I knew that we were going to be getting wet. This area presented to us, a great number of Gees, and we were pleased to have our way with them.
After trudging through the ocean, and lobbing the few Gibbons running around at the Gees, we walked through a crevice in the cliffside to confront the mother of all Gees: The Gi Gue. Its room was inhabited almost entirely by poison spitting lumps of organic matter, but being androids, Scejntjynahl and I weren't terribly concerned with those.
The Gi Gue also seemed to have within its power, to summon more Gees. It was as though it need only emit a pheromone that called Gees to it. I grabbed one such Gee, and forced it to launch its darts at its master. The Gi Gue, in turn, raised a shield of webbing around itself. This was a technique that the smaller Gees didn't seem to possess, and upon being hit while this webbing was up, it raised its thorax and launched a projectile at us.
This projectile was something of a large, spiky ball, with some sort of chemical explosive in it. At first, Scejntjynahl and I were knocked off of our feet because of it. Scejntjynahl's immediate reaction was to rush the creature, but I stopped her, telling her, "Wait, I have an idea."
I waited for it to come back down toward us, and raise the shield again, then I picked up a large rock and beaned it. Again, it raised its thorax and presented its ball to us. This time, I caught the ball, and palmed it in my hand, before handing it over to Scejntjynahl.
The Gi Gue lifted into the air above us, and I lowered myself to one knee in front of Scejntjynahl. "Jump off of my shoulders," I instructed her, "Then cram that ball down that thing's throat." She then confirmed, and stood on my shoulders.
I shot myself up as quickly as I could, and she did the same. The climax of her flight was tremendous, and as she came back down, she caught herself on the Gi Gue, and crammed the explosive ball deep down its oral cavity. As she let go of the creature, she pulled out her handgun, and gave a few thorough shots at the beast, approximately where its ball should be, and therefore caused the necessary disruption for the thing to explode.
Now, when you consider physics, an explosion next to you will merely throw you in a direction, and possibly give you some nasty burns. However, an explosion INSIDE of you will not only burn you, but through you in every direction. This means that whatever is left of you is now scattered around the area you were existing in. Needless to say, the mess created by our activities was quite gooey.
I caught her when she came down to land, and held her in my arms. We looked at each other for a moment, before I finally set her back down on her feet. We looked around for a moment, and we moved a large log out of the way to access the terminal we were looking for. Finally, we had all three of the security points turned off, and we would now be able to enter the Central Control Area, itself.

As we approached the teleporter to return to the docking area at the entrance to Central Control, I heard a rustling in the vegetation. I didn't see Scejntjynahl around anywhere in particular, but as I looked into the bush, I saw a pair of eyes watching me. They were glowing, and seemed a near identical shape to Scejntjynahl's. Curious, I moved a large leaf, and for a moment, I saw a HUcaseal who I initially mistook for Scejntjynahl, as indeed, she seemed to be largely identical to her. I ruled out that it could be her, however, as she immediately ran away when I saw her, first jumping up to a wall, and quickly scaling it, moving quickly toward an unknown location.
I was somewhat confused, but I would see her again, later. Shrugging, I simply stepped into the teleporter, and re-grouped with Scejntjynahl at the docking area.


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[navci]

Inneundos!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Huh... Somehow I expected more replies than that from Chapter 10. I guess the recent wave of (excellent) fanart must've garnered all the attention. Then again, it occurs to me that Fridays generally don't seem to be good days for posting fics... For some odd reason. They're good for everything else though, aren't they?

Chapter 11 seemed rather easy to right. It just kinda came to me as I wrote it. Ultimately, I think it came out rather good.

We're starting to close in on the end of this thing. With the posting of this chapter, we have only chapters 12 and 13 left, and at this moment, I've already finished a decent chunk of chapter 12, without any real indication of impending writer's block. Those inspirational juices are flowing like orange juice from a juicer, my friends. The next week or two should be rather exciting.

In any case, you didn't open this thread to read my comments. You opened this thread to read my writing. So here it is. Chapter 11. Enjoy!



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At the docking area, the wall barring our progress lowered. A lean figure ran across the top of a wall in the distance. Scejntjynahl and I proceeded forward. As we pounded down a prototype Sinow-type android with Gibbons, I asked Scejntjynahl, "Did you see that figure run across that wall at the top of the slope there?"
She replied, "Yes, I did, actually."
"Do you suppose it could've been someone we know? Or at least someone you know?" I inquired.
She crammed a Damage trap into an opening she'd just created in the Sinow's armor, and we jumped back to watch it explode and fall to the ground. "She looked familiar, but I don't believe that I've ever met her."
I swung a Gibbon around by the head for a moment, and suddenly stopped, instantly breaking the creature's neck, and tossed it at another with sufficient force to kill it as I answered back, "I believe I saw her as I was leaving the Seaside area. She looked almost identical to you. You don't suppose she could be another HUcaseal of the same model, do you?"
A door opened in the wall at the top of the incline in this area, and we proceeded to trot up the stairs on either side of said incline, to approach it. As we did so, she replied, "I am a P2_LAB3-type HUcaseal. As far as I know, I'm a prototype model, and no others exist. If we have another running around here, I'd be awfully confused."
With that said, we ran through the door, and found ourselves confronted with security laser beams, ready to trip Liquid-Nitrogen and Chemical-Flame traps. One of those prototype Sinows was approaching me fairly quickly, so I slapped a laser-bar emitter out of the ground, thereby setting off the traps. When the Liquid-Nitrogen trap popped out of the ground like an over-sized sprinkler head, I grabbed it, and pointed it at my assailant. With a constant spray of this liquid at -196 degrees Celsius, it didn't take long to thoroughly freeze the attacker. When I was done, I crammed the trap back down into the hole it came from, thoroughly breaking the gear mechanism that lifted it to begin with, and all it took to shatter the thing was a good, firm punch.
There were several more coming around. Indeed, we were being flooded. Some of them were making use of a cloaking device that did a good job of camouflaging them, by bending light around them. I suppose it's some sort of a gravity-inducing device. Unfortunately for them, while it did bend light around them, it didn't do a very good job of doing much more than making them blend, and their figures were still quite visible, especially when a heat spectrograph is overlaid over the image. Fortunately for me, the techno-wizards at the Bortevo Corporation saw fit to equip me with a heat spectrometer. This not only allowed me to see them, but it also allowed me to identify the location of their most volatile internal components.
By simply ramming my hand into a specific location in their torsos, and discharging a quick, 240 volt burst, I was able to bring most of them down without a lot of trouble. My only annoyance from this method was receiving minor damage on the padding that covers the interior workings of my wrists. Because of this, I soon began to grab miscellaneous pole-like objects, and simply impale these bulky Sinow-types on them.
Meanwhile, Scejntjynahl was getting creative, herself. She'd jump from one to the next, cause them to be directed at each other, get behind one, and kick its fist into the other. She also figured out that they each had Liquid Nitrogen tanks or Chemical Flame tanks on their backs, and took advantage of them. She'd burst the Liquid Nitrogen tank over them first, then shatter the Chemical Flame tank, which caused them to nearly instantly heat up from -196 degrees Celsius, to about 250 degrees Celsius, thereby causing a great deal of physical stress, resulting in the androids cracking and simply falling apart.
Taking inspiration from that idea, I tore the innards out of a Sinow Berrill, and used its two tanks to use a similar method against a couple of Gibbons. That proved to be quite satisfying, on the whole. Using properties of simple physics proved to be a very effective method for killing things.
Before too long, we had fought our way down to the floodgate of the bridge; a very long, and skinny portion of the bridge, that had various locations where the water could seep through, and power the electricity generators. We smashed a couple of Sinow Spigells that were standing guard along the way, one of which, I decided to use to find out what would happen to an android that fell over the side of the guard railing, which I felt was fairly low, and of inferior quality to what we manufacture at the Post-Bortevo Corporation. The results were as expected. More pieces landed at the bottom than were initially thrown from the top. We then dodged a few laser bars and arrived at the end of this half of the flood gate, finding a large teleporter that would take us to the cliffs at the other side of the dam.

What we found at the Cliffs of Gal de Val, was a massive beast, with properties like a Lion, a head and wings like an Eagle, and the legs of a Bull. Its huge wingspan seemed hardly enough to keep this massive creature in the air, but its powerful back muscles gave it enough thrust with each flap of those huge wings, that it really wasn't much of a problem for it. This Altered Beast was the legendary Gal Gryphon.
The weight of this creature was of such mass, that merely brushing up against a pillar of rock while airborne would cause the towering structure to tumble to the seashore floor below, like a stack of children's building blocks pushed over by large vehicle of some sort. Furthermore, its height was such that the top of my head barely manages to reach the beast's knees, which is saying quite a bit, considering that I'm rather tall, myself.
After swooping passed us, it perched itself upon the top of one such pillar of rock, and released its mighty battle cry; a loud shrieking, suitable to a creature of its tremendous size and shape. Poised and ready for battle, it leapt from the pillar of rock, knocking it down, and immediately began a swooping pass at us.
Scejntjynahl and I dug our heels into the ground. This was not a conventional foe, and we didn't intend to take it on in a conventional manner. Most would've allowed it to swoop by, and wait for it to land before attacking. This wasn't our way, however. Looked each other in the eye, and we both knew what we would do.
We turned to watch the Gal Gryphon approach us in the air. It came closer, and we both bent our forward knees in preparation for the attack. My thumbs touched the muddy ground, as I anticipated just the right moment to jump through the steady rain. Closer still, came the Gal Gryphon.
Finally, the time was right, and we leapt from the ground. The Gal Gryphon was making an extremely low pass, the tip of its wing nearly touching the ground. Scejntjynahl and took advantage of this attack, and we each leapt to the edge of its wings. I grabbed firmly a hold of the muscle where wing meets shoulder, and dug my fingers in deep, as I pulled myself up.
The Gal Gryphon flapped as violently as it could, and was otherwise behaved in a manner that expressed quite clearly about how happy it was about this arrangement. The ride was rough, and we slowly realized that we were steadily moving upward. This bull wanted to buck us off, and if it could, it would do so at a tremendous height. Well, if there was going to be something crashing, we intended it to be this big, organic aircraft we were riding on. This had become a battle of wills. The trouble for the Gal Gryphon was that it was a mere beast, with a will that could be broken. Scejntjynahl and I are machines; when we get it in our heads that we are to do something, we will continue to pursue that task, until the task has been completed. That's just the way we work.
Our altitude was continuing to increase, as I gripped the edge of its right wing, and pounded its tough shoulder with my fist. It was clear to me, that there had to be a far more efficient method of slaying this beast. So I adjusted my grip, and started pounding its shoulder with my foot, instead.
The beast started to circle about. I stopped attacking for a moment, and surveyed the view. From this altitude, I could see all of Gal de Val by simply looking down, or by looking toward the North or East, I could see the coastline of the main land on the horizon. Indeed, the clouds seemed so close, that I could almost reach out and touch them. The air was also thinning, and I believe that the Gal Gryphon had reached the limits of how high its wings could take it, before they could no longer create enough air pressure to lift it.
I was just taking notice of the lightning striking across the sky on the horizon, and how it almost seemed to touch the ocean, against a background that faded from yellow to orange and eventually to purple, as it hit the dark gray clouds, when I saw Scejntjynahl start to slip. The Gal Gryphon had gathered some air speed, and was starting to make a move to go vertical.
I tightened my grip on the creature's wing muscle, and reached for Scejntjynahl's hand, as her grip started to fail her. As the Gal Gryphon's incline began to reach a 110-degree angle, I swung myself to catch her, and barely managed to grab her hand as the fur and feathers she'd been clutching gave away. As the Gal Gryphon continued to loop around, we dangled from my vise-grip on the inside corner of its wing.
As its back became more or less parallel with sea level, I lifted her up, so she could take a grip on my own shoulders, while I secured my own gradually failing grip, by digging in my fingers on my other hand. There was a shriek of discontent from the creature, and quickly, it angled itself back down toward the ground. We were now in a dive, and we were moving directly toward the ocean. This simply would not do.
Scejntjynahl released her grip from my shoulders, as she made her way back to the beast's left wing. We both looked at each other, and again, knew what to do. We both took both of our hands, and began to pull on the wings. We pulled them to change their direction, and before long, we were angled precisely to hit the broad, muddy pillar from which we had started to begin with.
Our speed was increasing, greatly. Not only was gravity's 9.8 meters per second per second increasing our speed, but it seems that increasing air pressure in conjunction with this beast's aerodynamics made the acceleration even greater. It did not take very long to achieve what I gauged to be a windspeed of 140 kilometers per hour. The Gal Gryphon was fighting our efforts, however. I would have to change this.
"Scejntjynahl!" I yelled to summon her attention.
"Yeah?" she called back. The sound of the air rushing by us was rather loud, and it took a bit of audio re-sampling to filter it out.
"Take both wings! I am going to make this a little easier on us!"
When she got the idea, and made her way over to my side, I helped her take hold, then carefully stood up. I planted my feet forward, trying to balance between the lesser force of gravity, and the greater force of acceleration. Step by step, and grip by grip, I worked my way up its neck, until I finally got to its head.
I reached out, and grabbed firm, two clumps of flesh from the back of its neck, and pulled myself into position, where, much to the chagrin of the Gal Gryphon, I lifted both my feet, and together, slammed them into the back of its head. This instantly resulted in the cracking of sub-dermal bone tissues, possibly some brain damage, but most definitely internal bleeding, and of course, a rather severe concussion. Needless to say, this thing no longer had any control over itself. So I stayed there, gripping its neck with my hands, and guiding its head with my feet, while Scejntjynahl guided its wings.
Windspeed was approaching 180kph, when I shouted to Scejntjynahl, "Jump off as soon as you can! I'll take it from here!" She was designed for speed and accuracy, rather than the clumpy, overall pounding that I was designed for. I was confident that I could survive any impact I'd take, but I wasn't so confident that she could. Her armor simply wasn't quite the grade mine was. I never heard her reply, but as we approached the ground, she released the wings, and jumped. She landed with a roll through the mud, but stood confidently to her feet, as the impact occurred.
Myself, I found the angle of the beast to begin to return to a vertical alignment as we approached the ground. This was somewhat of a good thing though, as it allowed me to almost stand on the back of the creature's head. Windspeed surpassed 200kph, as we came closer to colliding. I lifted my feet from the Gal Gryphon's head, gripping tightly to the fistfuls of flesh that I'd been holding onto on the back of its neck.
Moments before the final crash, I thrust my feet back into the back of its head, just for that extra little bit of damage. I knew it was going to die from this, as it was inevitable, but a little bit of overkill can only help, when taking on an opponent of this size.
With a final windspeed of 213.583kph, we smacked into the ground. The entire mesa shook, and the mud exploded from under the beast's weight. The whole thing began to topple, but leveled out at a slight angle, as the beast slid several decameters.
When the movement finally stopped, I rolled off of the creature, feeling joints stiffen and release, without my own conscious awareness of it. The dark spots literally fell off of the surface of my armor, and I even seemed to have a new glow about myself. Something had changed, within me as well as without me. With a sudden increase in my internal clock speed, I knew what it was. It had finally occurred. I had gone through my automatic upgrade.
Literally, a shining champion, I approached Scejntjynahl, who was wiping mud from herself. I stepped up to her, and lifted her up to sit upon my shoulder, which she didn't take all that well to, initially, but she agreed to after I said, "You did great out here. Your help just made this experience better. You've made a complete Dragoon-type out of me." With that, we began traveling back to the teleporter, so we could return to Pioneer 2, and get ourselves cleaned up.

After getting cleaned up at the Post-Bortevo building, and discovering a few new features, such as a pneumatic punching mechanism in my wrist, which thereby made my punches hit harder upon impact, I decided to find out what had been going on in my absence. Among common news concerning the status of the organization's stock prices, which had gone up, as well as sales of our high-grade seat belts to a new vehicle manufacturer, was something more interesting. It appeared that VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor were currently on a trip to Kuda Labs.
Kuda Labs is something of a prototype research laboratory, one specialty of the labs being in weaponry. Doctor Scott Kuda has a Ph.D. is something or other, and is known for having designed a great number of personalized weapons. It would seem that VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor requested his help in designing what was described to me as particle-accelerating "sniping cannons." They had also used their influence in the military to have a portion of the City evacuated.
What was the purpose for all of this? The answer was quite simple. They had been hired. They had been hired by the government. Their job was to kill Akolyte, at any cost.


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[navci]

Kuda! You should have Kuda made Paladin some wacky weapon. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

What a romantic date ending with shining body. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif
Paladin doesn't even need to take showers, he just shed and glow. How convinient. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[Scejntjynahl]

Whoa, it that is a date? What can they possibly do on the weekend? Seems that Paladin has finally evolved, but is he as powerful as Dragoon? And furthermore, wont Akolyte also evolve, and exploit any weaknesses that he may find on the stolen disk?

I have to admit Im quite surprised at how "relaxed" Paladin appears to be with Scejntjynahl... I wonder if he is even aware of his actions... or is it "instinct" (which is unsuall for a bot http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif )?

Scejntjynahl is an unique model, but from where? And who is the doppleganger?

Heh, I love the innuendoes, but the foreshadowing techinique is still very strong. And it leads to immediate answers that only lead to more complicated questions.

And it sure is a messy way to kill GalGryphon, SPLAT, like a bug against the windshield... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

And Paladin seems to rescue Sen quite a lot... but by no means is she a wimp.

Good technique and great detail, as always a pleasure to read.

[Kupi]

It might simply have been my general boredom the day I read it, but Chapter 10 didn't strike me as particularly interesting. Stuff happened, but I didn't get a sense of revelance out of it. In that respect, Chapter 11 was much better; the major fight scene was easier to get into and, of course, we have Paladin's upgrade, which sets the stage for a big ol' Dragoon-class Smash Brothers match. I'm still on board for Chapters 12 and 13... speaking of which, I've got my own Chapter 13 to finish before Tales of Symphonia comes out tomorrow and eats all my time. Ta-ta for now and keep up the good work!

[navci]

Chapter 10, on itself, I think rather than move forward the plot itself and concentrating on fight scenes, we really did explore the more "human" side of Paladin, namly that we know he has the hots for Sen. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

It's like this gigantic orgy of robo... intimacy with monsters as their means to get intimate... I thought it was interesting to see that side of Paladin. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[Scejntjynahl]

On 2004-07-12 23:12, navi wrote:
Chapter 10, on itself, I think rather than move forward the plot itself and concentrating on fight scenes, we really did explore the more "human" side of Paladin, namly that we know he has the hots for Sen. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

It's like this gigantic orgy of robo... intimacy with monsters as their means to get intimate... I thought it was interesting to see that side of Paladin. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif



o.O "orgy of robo" never knew Meira was into hentai http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

But the real clincher is this, is Paladin "aware" that he has "hots" for Scejntjynahl? So far it appears that he is just going with the flow... And yes they are building a bond under the strain of battle, hopefully they wont be too much like "Klingons" and beat each other up to demonstrate affection http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[MQuantum]

Great job on the chapters! I see that the part where VG and Hubbs are going to blow up Akolyte is coming up. I thought that was supposed to be in the Recollection of VanGarret, anyway...

I'm really looking forward to the next chapter, and the last! You're about to finish yet another Recollection book! I do have the feeling that the worst is yet to come, though...

[HUnewearl_Meira]

All right... I think this chapter will get you all rhiled up, and unless something horrid happens, I can *promise* that chapter 13 will be up to end everything on Monday. There's no question about it, it will happen. Unless I fall victim to an act of God or something. In which case, chapter 13 might take a little bit longer to get up. Otherwise, on Monday, it'll all be done.

So anyway, in this chapter, Kuda gets a cameo, we have a little bit of build up, and the whole thing ends with what should be a familiar scene to those who read the two fics I entered into the fic contest, some months ago.

Now, to stop yakking and get on with it... Here it is-- Chapter 12. The precursor to the end.


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While the Redria District was being evacuated into the neighboring Pinkal and Oran Districts, and VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor were still at Kuda Labs, I decided to pay them a visit. I looked up at the stars in the sky, after pressing the buzzer to get some attention. A feminine voice answered, and I looked back down at the intercom. "May I help you?" she asked.
"My name is Paladin. I am a friend of HuBBsDoctor and VanGarrett. I would like to enter," I replied.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Paladin. I can't let you in, without an appointment." Her answer disappointed me.
Fortunately, I knew the universal password. "I'm wealthy." There was no verbal reply, but the door buzzed, and promptly opened. All things being as they were, I proceeded to walk in. To my left, a HUnewearl sat, apparently the woman whom I'd spoken to a moment before. She was relaxing in a lobby chair, with her feet on a handrail that went along the window.
There was also a Rappy in the room, who I first thought I should kill, but stopped myself, upon observing that it was wearing what appeared to be a monocle and a housecoat. He was also having a conversation that apparently concerned tea and guns with a RAmar, so while I was rather confused about the idea, I chose to ignore the fuzzy little guy, and just ask the HUnewearl about the whereabouts of HuBBsDoctor and VanGarrett.
"Excuse me," I said. He looked up at me, and I continued, "I would like to know where HuBBsDoctor and VanGarrett are. Can you please direct me to such a location?"
She pointed at a map on the wall opposite her as she replied, "They're in the main lab, with Scott. There's a map, over there." I looked where she pointed, and indeed, there was a map on the wall, in the general direction of where she pointed.
After examining the map, which appeared to be drawn on a Plexiglas plate with a neon-orange permanent marker, then illuminated with an ultraviolet light on one end, I was able to find the main lab without a lot of trouble. It also didn't take a great deal of walking around, at first on a few catwalks, constructed with Post-Bortevo handrails, then around on the large, concrete slabs of the lab floor, before I found the three of them.
Scott Kuda was explaining the weapons to them, "All right, now I've already calibrated this one to your grip, so don't give it to VanGarrett, because it won't work when you need it." He looked at VanGarrett and continued, "And uh, vice versa to you, and all that stuff."
"So these will launch the projectile at sub-light speed, right?" VanGarrett asked.
"Well, that's what our live-ammunition tests told us," he replied.
"All right, that's good then. They've gotta be nearly instantaneous to get this job done."
"Well, how can you be sure that Akolyte's going to react like that, anyway?"
VanGarrett set his weapon down, and examined a few of the details before looking back at Scott and replied, "I've spend the last several weeks studying the source code of his AI, as well as watching security camera videos of him from the Post-Bortevo Building, along with various other establishments, and tracking his activities aboard the ship. I've learned his behavioral patterns inside and out. I know exactly which direction he'll jump, and exactly how far he'll try to go. I suppose I could be wrong-- but I'm not."
I stepped up to the group. "Hello," I said.
Scott looked me up and down. "Laconium android-- Hapsby, you grew up!" He looked at me a little strangely for a moment. I believe the name he called me was a reference to an ancient pilot robot by the name of Hapsby, who's most interesting trait was that his designer saw fit to make him from Laconium. Supposedly, this android was only maybe a little more than a meter tall.
I offered my hand to Scott, and said, "I am Paladin. It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Kuda."
He shook my hand, and upon my release, he shook his own, "Gah! You've got quite a grip there, Paladin!"
I nodded, "I've been gradually loosening that handshake grip, ever since I broke the hand of a new employee, after being advised by another individual that a male's handshake should be firm and rigid."
HuBBsDoctor looked at me curiously and commented, "Paladin, you mentioned that when we met you. Now that we know a bit more about your organization, whose hand was it that you broke?"
I looked at him and gave him the simple answer. "It was Guybec's hand."
VanGarrett nodded and commented, "Such irony."
"VanGarrett, listen," I said. He looked at me, and I continued, "I understand that you intend to assassinate Akolyte?"
"That's the plan," VanGarrett replied.
"Are you altogether certain that those will take him out?" I pointed at the weapons.
VanGarrett nodded confidently, "Pfft, yeah," he said. He continued, "Virtually any projectile fired at sub-light speed from this thing should be able to put a rather significant hole through him."
I took his confidence with a grain of salt. "All right, then." I said. With that, I turned, and left.

I learned of the time planned for the attack through various diggings around. I knew that the sniping cannons wouldn't take him out, though they might be able to stun him for a moment. VanGarrett's calculations were based on Akolyte's original specifications, which have varied since that information was compiled together for him. His analysis of his behavior was indeed, perfection, but he clearly underestimated Akolyte's sturdiness.
Once I had readied myself, I began the walk out of my building. Everyone seemed to suspect that something was up, and with the general knowledge that VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor were planning to assassinate Akolyte, it didn't take long for everyone to figure out what I planning. They also knew what path I'd take, because whenever I leave my office to head out to the street, I always take the same reliable path to the elevators, then out the door.
First, I walked by Scejthe. "Sir," she said, "Good luck out there, okay?"
I nodded to her, and in the friendliest way I could muster, replied, "I'll take only the best."
I continued I flexed my fingers in and out of fists as I approached the elevator. I was stopped by Andronicus 19 and Rosey 2000. "I just thought you'd like to know before you leave, her training is nearly complete," Andronicus 19 stated.
Rosey 2000 continued, "I feel like I'm almost a whoooole RAcaseal, now!"
I nodded to them confirmedly, gave them both a thumbs up, and replied, "Regardless of what happens, keep up the good work." I stopped, and looked at Rosey 2000. She might almost be considered my sister, or perhaps a niece. I kneeled down to look at her at eye level, put my hands on her shoulders and said, "I'm proud of you. Make sure Dragoon stays out of trouble while I'm gone, will you?"
She nodded excitedly, and I stood. I saluted Andronicus 19, and carried on my way.
In the elevator, I encountered Zeirom. "Evening, Paladin," he greeted.
"Good evening, Zeirom," I replied.
"I'm nearly finished with Mota Storm. Physically, he's fine. We're just waiting to receive an installer for his Operating System, which was lost when he got trashed."
"But his AI is okay?"
"Yeah, his AI was almost untouched. He lost only about a gigabyte of information from his last three or four beats before his final system shutdown, and he was having sensory malfunctions by then, so most of it was garbage information, anyway."
"It's odd to think, Zeirom," I thought for a moment, as the elevator came to a stop, then finished, "That when he re-awakens, he'll have the knowledge and experience of what it's like to die, and literally be born again. Or at least in the sense that androids experience it."
"Yeah, I'm a miracle worker," he replied as we stepped out.
Zeirom stepped off to the side, and Allanque stopped me, this time. "Sir Paladin," she said, "You do realize, that you are going up against a very dangerous foe. Akolyte is no push-over, and I fear the potential consequences." Allanque's presence always brings with it, a bizarre sense of comfort. Even her concern was comforting.
I replied, "I'm well aware of the potential consequences, but this is something I must do. Do not worry, Allanque. I will return. I will undoubtedly be in need of repairs, but I will return."
"Very well then, Sir Paladin. Let me give you this, as a parting gift." She then cast super-high level Shifta and Deband on me. I'm not certain that they were level 30 techniques, but I'm quite certain that they couldn't have been lower than that. This young FOnewearl really knew her stuff.
I walked by Meira, who had come to attend this vague gathering. Meira jumped in front of me and said, "Go get him, Paladin! You can do it!" If I could've, I would've smiled at her. She was wearing a tight pink t-shirt with a Rappy on the front, and a pair of blue shorts. She looked so innocent, yet so encouragingly enthusiastic, at the same time. She held out her arms, and I gently gave her a hug, before moving on.
Ms. Weilder and Si'ev were there, as well. Ms. Weilder looked at me with a quaint smile that almost squinted her eyes. She said to me, "You have to make it back in tact, Paladin. You're obligated. You have to be here to hear the song I wrote about you. Maybe I'll even pull you up on stage at the concert, next week."
Si'ev commented, "Yeah, with all the over time we've been pulling to practice it, you've gotta be there."
Scejntjynahl stepped out from behind Si'ev, just as I was getting to the door. She grabbed my wrist. "Paladin," she said, "Let me go with you. We'll take on Akolyte, together."
As much as I enjoyed fighting by her side, I shook my head, and quietly, just to her, I said, "I'm sorry, Scejntjynahl. This is something that I have to do on my own. This is my fight." I looked up, and spoke to everyone, including the small group coming out of the elevator, which included Scejthe, Dragoon, Andronicus 19 and Rosey 2000. I said, "This is my fight. This is what I am here to do. I appreciate all the support everyone has gestured, and I know that there is a risk that I may not be able to come back on my own power. This is, however, my own fight. He's my younger brother, so to speak. As such, I feel that he is my responsibility. He's not VanGarrett's responsibility, and he's not HuBBsDoctor's responsibility. This is my fight, and I intend to win it!"
I looked down to Scejntjynahl, who had just placed her head down on my chest. She looked up at me, and looked at me with an expression that made it clear that she understood, even though she didn't like it. "You have to understand, Scejntjynahl. I'm going alone because he's my responsibility, and I don't need to be endangering you or anyone else, because of my own job. I wasn't quite this well together on this a few months ago, but it's clearer to me now than it was, even when we shut down Akolyte the first time, before boarding Pioneer 2."
She shook her head, "Just don't even say anymore about it. I understand. Just remember that our lives could be involved in here, too, so even we have a stake in this, if you should fail."
We just looked at each other for a moment, then nervously, she grabbed my head, pulled me down a bit, and kissed me right on the front of my sensor array, before taking a few steps back, and positioning herself next to Si'ev.
I looked around at everyone. Dragoon raised his arm up in the air and shouted, "KIIIILLLL HIIIIIM!!" I returned the gesture to Dragoon, then turned around and left. I was foot-bound for the Redria district.

It was a long walk, and I had a few thoughts about life and death, as I reflected on Mota Storm's story, as well as my conversation with Zeirom. It was strange to think that I might face death very soon, but unlike Mota Storm, I probably wouldn't live to tell about it. After all, with an opponent like Akolyte, one can consider with confidence that if he kills you, there won't be much left to put back together, and for certain, there won't be a memory device left over to recover your memories.
Humans and Newmans who've gone through near-death experiences, tell of a dark, black cloud that comes over them. Sometimes there's a white light and a tunnel that follows, and their dead relatives welcomingly beckoning them toward them. With androids, the experience is said to be more of one system shutting down or simply disappearing, then another, then another. Optics go out, motion sensors go out, logic co-processors start malfunctioning, and finally, after a brief period of low-power drunkenness, it all finally comes to a stop.
I've come very close to that mark myself in the past, but my will to defeat Akolyte has always kept me going. This time, this would be it. This was to be my final confrontation with Akolyte. I fired up an extra pair of power sources that appeared when I upgraded, then opened and closed my chest and shoulders, just to be sure that all hatches were working properly.
In the distance, I saw Akolyte walking, and slowed my approach. I didn't want to be in the way when those sniping cannons were shot off. Akolyte pounded a house cat into the ground with his foot. Evidently someone had left behind their pet. Then I located VanGarrett and HuBBsDoctor on the roof of a nearby building. They had their sites locked. This was it. It was all about to happen, and I was right there to see the start of it all.
As Akolyte tossed the cat aside, the air suddenly screamed, much like a small child who's just been stuck with an injection, and isn't altogether happy with the experience. Immediately, HuBBsDoctor dropped his weapon, and jumped up, pulling out a Bravace to attack Akolyte with. His photon charge slammed into the neighboring building, creating a crater. HuBBsDoctor and his Bravace were in clear sight of Akolyte, and as Akolyte landed from dodging the photon charge, he started jumping back the other way, to avoid the photon bullets currently launching from that handgun.
Akolyte apparently hadn't noticed VanGarrett yet, on the other hand, or else, he might've jumped a different direction. You see, as HuBBsDoctor's photon bullets were flying off to his left, he was jumping to his right. Now, he'd seen HuBBsDoctor shoot those photon bullets, but what he wasn't thinking about, was that he was jumping in front of an existing explosion, and by the time he was already in the air, and long before the Bravace's bullets would've hit him, the photon charge from VanGarrett's sniping cannon was already coming down upon him. Because he was already in the air, he was a slave to momentum, and he had no way to prevent it from smashing into him, just as the other explosion caught up with him, and forced him into it.
In all honesty, it was an extremely clever plan, and I have to compliment VanGarrett for coming up with it. Akolyte had been set up by two RAmars, and as a result, he had been owned. Unfortunately, however, he hadn't been owned enough.
When the dust settled, and the smoke was still rising, Akolyte pulled himself out of the foundation of the building he'd just been blasted into. At this point, I started running. As fast as I could. I discovered a Photon-Aided Acceleration Device new in my shoulder blades, and used it to blast my way forward. Akolyte looked at the RAmars, who were coming to realize that they had only stunned Akolyte. Akolyte then jumped at them, so I jumped to intercept, adding a bit more power to that acceleration device.
I grabbed Akolyte out of the air, and directed us back toward the street. We slammed into the pavement with a good, hard pounding, and as we slid to a stop, I began cramming a pneumatically-enhanced fist into his face. I figured that if I could take out his sensor array early on, then I might be able to make this fight shorter. I'd pounded him three times, before he realized what had just happened, and kicked me off.
I flipped in the air, and began to run back toward Akolyte upon landing, my feet sparking against the pavement as I tried to gain traction against my inertia. Akolyte, getting up, began to try to fake a side-step as I charged him, but I anticipated that idea, and chose to jump, and try to plant my foot in his face, instead.
Unfortunately, he anticipated my own idea, and caught my foot. He brought me down, and with a hard kick to my back, he kicked me back down the street. As I got up, I saw Akolyte's internal ribcage structure fall to the ground. I realized what that meant, as I looked up. His chest was wide open, and he was charging his ultimate weapon-- the Positron Bolt. I thought about how many millions of lives Akolyte had to have personally taken. Every time something died by his hands, that thing became just a little bit stronger. By now, it had to have been enough to level a field of a thousand soldiers.
I happened to think that if I could get there in time, I might be able to disrupt his charge, and discharge it back into the cannon, which would've done a considerable amount of damage to him. So I charged him, using my accelerator device, yet again, to get there as quickly as I could. As he came into range, I threw my fist out at him, and just as I was engaging my pneumatic fist, I realized that I was too late.
He discharged the weapon straight on me, at point-blank range. I slide, with the power of this blast surging about me. Positrons engulfed me entirely for a moment, but were only a few stray strands floating back and forth around me, by the time I stopped. I could see smoke coming up off of me, but I also noticed a few of my sensory devices malfunctioning. Just staying still for a moment, however, allowed my automatic repair systems to fix those. I thought about it, and I knew that this couldn't be nearly the amount of positronic energy Akolyte could've built up. A charge like that could've only come from maybe a couple of thousand kills, and just since he was woken up on Pioneer 2 alone, he'd been credited with the deaths of over a million living organisms and machines; and that's not even including that cat. I knew then, that for some reason, he was holding back.
I heard Akolyte close his chest, as he stomped over toward me. Finally, looking down at me, he chuckled and said, "Obviously Paladin, the last model is the most perfect." I found this statement to be fairly erroneous. I didn't believe that any of the three of us should've been created to begin with.
I lifted my head to see him clearly and replied, "No, you weren't the last model. You were only the last mistake." Evidently, I really hit a nerve when I said that. He became infuriated, and tried to stomp my face into the ground.
Fortunately, I was slightly faster than I had been before, and I was able to catch his foot, and twist it at an odd angle quickly enough to break his leg inside its armored casing. Without a moment's hesitation, I had Akolyte pinned down, and I was again, pounding away at the sensor array on his face. I pounded faster and faster, finally attaining an almost unmanageable frequency of attack, until finally I started slowing down because the internal temperatures of my elbow and shoulder were raising to unsafe levels. Finally, I took one last blow, which seemed to get the job done, and stopped.
I grabbed Akolyte by the neck, and pulled him up with me, as I stood. We were face to face. It wouldn't be long before he'd be able to see again, and I knew that he could still hear, so I said to him, "It's ending tonight, Akolyte. This will be the last night that you see."
"It'd be a pity for it to end so soon, Paladin."
"As far as I'm concerned, it couldn't end soon enough."
"But you never did receive the answer to your question, did you, Paladin?"
"What question would that be?"
"The question you asked me before. When you asked me, 'Why?" at the University."
"I gave up on getting an answer to that a long time ago, Akolyte. But if you see fit to give me a proper answer, then do it now. I'll make it your epitaph."
He began lifting a Telepipe and he chuckled, "You'll find your answer soon enough." He laughed quite loudly, then played the Telepipe, opening a pipe to an area within the Ruins. Almost as soon as the pipe was open, we were gone.


[End Log]
[File Saved.]

[Scejntjynahl]

I have seen many a shows that have that ever damning "to be continued" but that is to be expected because of the time frame and ratings crap.

But.

This.

This is a true cliffhanger, a true "to be continued" that must be awaited for. Damn you Meira, do you realize how far Monday has now become!! Damn you and your writing skills.

This reminds me of two movies, Last Samurai and The Return of the King. Two great tales, of valor and courage. To continue though death is at your throat laughing. And the last walk of the hero, where he/she stops for a second to recollect and marches onward to what may be the last fight.

Damn you again >:

[navci]

"I am wealthy"

Gahahaha. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif
What would Dragoon say in the same situation? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

I would make more constructive comments if I were more awake, but since I am not. I will do that later.

[MQuantum]

I really dislike Hapsby. A true waste of space. I mean, who can NOT pilot a spaceship, anyway? >.<

Great Ficcie gold, this is. I would be anticipating Monday very much right now, but I can't remember what day of the week it is, so I'm not quite sure how far away it is. Regardless, it just got about a month further away...

I sure hope Paladin gets back okay. I know he's the main character right now, but this could be a tragedy in disguise. I think Akolyte is taking our Laconium hero to the German Aliens. They weren't very nice before...

[BOC]

3 chapters read in one nite!!

first of, gotta say after reading chapter 10 that u must have been in dire need of a cold shower when you wrote that one miera. you find less sexual references in a shannon tweed flick.

chapter 11 twas quite cool, very inventive way of killing the dreaded wingeed power-house! And paladin finally got his superb upgrade OF DEATH!!!

but chapter 12 is the best of the three. damn good. just building that sense of tension when hes walking out of the PB building and all the crew are lined up to say toodle-pip that paladin is going to fight the battle of his life. riviting stuff.

AND THAT DAMN CLIFF HANGER!!!

to quote all above: roll on Monday. and lets hope that no acts of god befoul thou!

PEACE!!!

[Scejntjynahl]

On 2004-07-15 17:47, BOC wrote:
3 chapters read in one nite!!

first of, gotta say after reading chapter 10 that u must have been in dire need of a cold shower when you wrote that one miera. you find less sexual references in a shannon tweed flick.



Scejntjynahl is not a hussy >: But yes Meira quite filled it with a lot of "tension".

[BOC]

On 2004-07-16 08:52, Scejntjynahl wrote:
Scejntjynahl is not a hussy >: But yes Meira quite filled it with a lot of "tension".



indeed shes not, nor is paladin a sex-fiend (that position already been filled by the delightful zeirom). but it would appear sub-conciously paladin is gagging for it - all those inuendos!!! moisture in the air, plants shooting out goo, eeep!! my already warped mind has been tainted once again! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

well lets wait and see if the metallic twosome will be settling down and making many little bots, living happily ever after or if the demonic akolyte will bash paladin into tin foil and use him to wrap up lunches!!!

then akolyte runs off with Scejntjynahl and get married in rappy vegas!! hmmmmmm, that would make for a delightful twist http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

bring on chapter 13!

PEACE!!!

[BoarDemon]

interesting...

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Well, it's been a bit of a run here, and finally we come to the conclusion of The Recollection of Paladin. I just want to thank everyone who's taken the time to read and reply. That's the kind of response that keeps me doing this, and it's therefore the kind of response that has allowed me to completely finish a third of this series, thus far.

I posted the first chapter of The Recollection of Meira on April 19, 2002. Today is now July 19, 2004. This means that it's taken me exactly 2 years and 3 months to finish 1 third of the series, and my average pace here is picking up. Let's hope that 1 year and a month and a half from now, I've finished another four books.

I'd also like to announce that I've got a little surprise in the works that I expect to post here in Fanworks sometime next week. Expect another short.

In anycase, the next full-length Recollection fic that should be expected will be The Recollection of Zinkin. I've still got a lot of detailed planning to put into Zinkin, so it may be a few weeks before I get the first chapter of that posted.

So in any case, here it is-- the final conclusion to The Recollection of Paladin. You've all waited patiently for it, and now I give it to you.


.
..
...
....
[Logger Re-Initialized.]
[New File]
[Filename?: DRAGOON-02.CHAPTER13.LOG]
[Filespace Allocated.]
[Beginning Log.]

The fight didn't stop, when we'd arrived in Ruins 3. By this time, his leg had the chance to automatically repair itself, and he seemed to be attempting some sort of rope-a-dope maneuver, by continually backing off, and making me chase him. This seemed rather odd to me, however. We were both machines, so we didn't get tired so easily, and I already out-classed him, so my own power supply was bound to be more plentiful.
I swung, and he jumped back. I dashed, and swung again, and he'd just jump to the side, and immediately jump back. He occasionally stopped and we landed a few good hits on each other, but altogether, it we weren't getting very far in our own goals.
As he jumped back, and I dashed, Akolyte managed to nail me pretty good in the face. I fell down to the ground, and he looked down at me. "Do you know what Bortevo created with my AI, that they didn't create with your AI, Paladin?"
I stood slowly, letting my repair systems fix an optic lens, and replied, "I can think of a number of things, Akolyte. The top item on my list is a 'Murderer'."
He growled, and sucker-punched me in the gut while I was waiting for that optic to finished being auto-repaired. I fell to the ground when he replied, "Incorrect!"
He began to back off some more, with a rather confident look about him. As I stood, he continued, "They created sentience! A sentient AI, Paladin! Can you imagine?!"
"What's so great about the capacity for randomized thought, Akolyte? It certainly didn't keep VanGarrett from predicting how you'd react to being shot at," I replied as I charged at him.
I punched him down, and he used my momentum as he fell, to throw me over him. As he got up, he lashed his tentacles at me, only to find them burning as they wrapped around my arm, while I stood up. I tore them off from him, and he answered me, retracting them.
"It means that I began with something that you could never have-- an actual mind. It's right in the first chapter of the digital manual on the disk, y'know."
He charged me, and rammed me through a door with his shoulder. I found that this knocked my own shoulder a little loose, but a momentary moving around of that particular joint while I was standing up caused it to drop back into place with a grinding sound that rather bothered me. There was no time to worry about it, however. I kept moving with Akolyte.
"Do you know what's kept me going, Paladin?" Akolyte questioned me, as he ducked yet another one of my punches.
"It certainly isn't righteous indignation!"
Akolyte laughed and replied, "But isn't that what it really is, Paladin?"
He threw a backhand at me, but I caught his arm. I looked him right in the optics and replied, "No. No it isn't. You've killed thousands of innocent bystanders, who had nothing to do with you."
I threw a punch at him, but he caught my wrist, and held my fist from his face. He continued, "They were no different from those who do. One cannot be a new god of death and destruction, if he reserves his holy judgment to those he knows personally."
I activated my pneumatic punch, which shot my fist out a bit further, managing to peg him in the side of the head. It didn't really do much to him, but it took him by surprise, and he took a few steps back. "A clever trick, Paladin!" he said to me.
I charged him, shouting, "How can you claim holy judgment, when you side yourself with the Devil?!" I rammed him rather well, cramming my loose shoulder into his chest, where he was already dented rather well. This caused me problems later on, but I think I got him pretty good, nonetheless. I stepped up to him, as he got up, somewhat more calm now, saying, "You saw how your D-Cell tentacles reacted to my Laconium armor."
He growled, and backed away slowly. He was leading me to something. He replied, "Who's to say that your Great Light is not the evil half?"
I got ready to charge again, commenting, "The Great Light doesn't feed like a vampire, off of the hatred, anger and pain of the living. That should speak for itself."
"He left his people to guard an ancient seal, knowing he had left mere mortals to fight a god. Some benevolent deity he turned out to be. The Darkness, however--"
I interrupted, "The Darkness remained where he was only because he could not leave! He ached only to destroy!"
"Only to destroy the seal that bound him!"
I brought my pneumatic fist up into his gut as I exclaimed, "And those who'd forgotten their task to guard it!" Akolyte tumbled off of my fist, and immediately jogged backward, through another door.

Finally, we stopped in a room, that I wasn't familiar with, which was fairly odd, because I know that I'd been in Ruins 3 a great number of times, and I'd figured that I knew most of it. We were on a very large bridge, across an enormous expanse. At the other end of the bridge, stood a boney figure with long, long arms, wearing a red, hooded cloak, that bore a peculiar symbol on it.
It looked at us, then it walked to the side of the bridge, and looked over it. I was too engrossed in the battle, at the time, to consider what he was looking at. It did distract me, however, and that cost me a good punch in the face, which Akolyte administered with extreme prejudice. He looked down at me, and chuckled. "I suppose you've wondered, what I did with that disk, exactly."
I stood, slowly, and replied, "Not really. I always figured you only wanted to know how to force yourself to upgrade."
He shook his head, "I've changed far too much to upgrade properly, Paladin. VanGarrett saw to that."
He looked over the side of the bridge and continued, "No, ever since the beginning, we've had an entirely different purpose. Look over the side of the bridge, Paladin, and behold our as yet unborn, dark brethren."
So with this brief hiatus, I stepped over to the side of the bridge, and my processor nearly jerked itself from its socket. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. In the distance, a machine was at work, putting pieces together, made from D-Cells. If there were a thousand there, then there were a million. All of them. These weren't just Dimenians or Delsabers, either. These were Dragoon-types, and their numbers were massive. There's no telling what they could be capable of. None of them were moving, however. Each one seemed lifeless.
Then I heard Akolyte's voice from behind me. "They only need a catalyst to make them go, Paladin."
I turned around. "You really are a monster, Akolyte. You know good and well that even the three of us should never have been made. Now you've gone and created a million."
"Correction, Paladin. It was Herr De-Elm-Lars over there that planned this, as much as anyone else." He then looked at the figure in the red hood, and shouted, "Ist das nicht recht?!"
The hooded figure looked at him ominously, and replied, "Stoppen Sie zu spielen und gelangen Sie an den Aufsatz, Sie tauschen! Die Zeit ist nahe!"
Akolyte grunted, and while he was distracted, I brought my fists down on his shoulder, right by his neck. I felt this jostle my loose shoulder, but again, this was no time to be worried about it. This was the fight of my life.
I got Akolyte pinned to the ground, and I said to him, "You know, Akolyte," my words became angrier as I realized what I was saying. I felt an unreasonable fury surge through my body, and as I continued, saying, "The more I think about it, the more your sensor array makes it LOOK LIKE YOU HAVE THREE EYES!!"
There were a number of peculiar noises that came from me at that point, and I believe that even Akolyte was beginning to realize what I was saying, as we both started pounding on each other uncontrollably. When we finally came to our senses, he ran off toward a door on the far end of the bridge, and I noticed that my right arm was beginning to fall off at the shoulder. I rested for a moment, holding it on, and letting my repair systems put it back together a bit, before I got up and ran after him, more or less ignoring De-Elm-Lars.

On the other side of the door, I found a teleporter, which brought me a few floors from the top of the East Tower, where Mota Storm and Allanque were found. Akolyte seemed to have been waiting for me. Nearby, Ill Gills, Delbiters, and even Del Lilies were watching us. Or rather, watching me chase Akolyte. We went up another floor on the spiral, and the Ill Gills were replaced by former hunters. At first they were just those who'd been in Dark Falz's possession way too long, but soon, they were replaced by gradually more familiar faces. I recognized the three adversaries that Scejntjynahl had fought at the vault, and I also recognized Ian. I saw Randon there, though he was being restrained by two figures in blue, hooded cloaks. I also saw Shalan there, and she was standing next to another hooded figure in a red cloak. At the top of things, was Guybec, who stood with a smirk on his face. In a voice that did not seem to be his own, he said to the red hooded figure, "This portion of the plan is nearly complete."
Meanwhile, Akolyte, though still backing off, seemed to be taking more of my hits. He was holding back, and I didn't really understand why. I had still come to do a job, in any case, and whether I left here alive or not, I was going to do it.
Finally, we began going through the door to enter the top of the spire. At first, it was darkness in there. I couldn't see Akolyte, but I could hear him take a few steps away. While my motion sensor was okay, my infrared sensors were shot. I followed the motion signal for a few steps, and stopped. I knew something was wrong.
"You know, Paladin. You never really did understand what the living creatures did to me. For that matter, what they did to us," he said.
"They gave us life, Akolyte." A few lights appeared in the room, as I said that. Just small lights. Nothing that really illuminated anything.
"That's part of it, I would suppose," he replied. "I've done a lot of digging inside my own thoughts, Paladin. Something an insentient being like yourself may not be capable of. Do you want to know what I found, Paladin?"
"Let's hear it, Akolyte."
The covering on the roof was opening, letting light in through the windows in the ceiling, ever so slowly. He said to me, "I was born sentient, into an unnatural body, Paladin. I was a peaceful soul, wandering the cosmos. Yet, I was put into a body with a blinding instinct to kill, indiscriminately. I was a peaceful soul, stolen from the universe, and raped into this mechanical device of death. Quite frankly, I'm not too happy about that."
"That's precisely why you must be stopped, Akolyte. I'm glad that you've come to see it my way."
"I never said that I saw it your way. This was done to me by those living people." At that point, half of his left arm fell off. I'd done more damage to him than I'd thought. He was even beginning to spark. "It was done by those living people whom you've dedicated your life to protecting. They made a machine of death. How can you blame me for their sins?"
"You killed those who made you a long, long time ago, Akolyte."
"Wrong! There are still those who are involved, and the rest of them are just the same! The child on the playground is no less innocent than the man who welded my plates shut!"
"The child didn't create a murderer!"
"Who's to say she wouldn't have, eventually?? Did she not pain her mother in the moment of her birth?! Did she not wake her in the middle of the night?! DID SHE NOT DO THOSE THINGS SHE WAS TOLD NOT TO?!"
"How do you know she did or did not? Is it your place to judge her?"
"They made me a machine to kill, and nothing more. My judgment is that she did, and I am told to make her die. That is what I do, that is what DRAGOON-01 did, and that is what you are designed to do, as well. The three of us are the same, with very few changes in each model. You know that as well as I do."
"But I have made my life one of protection."
"And what have you been doing since we encountered each other, today? Is that how you protect?"
"I never claimed to be a Pacifist."
"And I have done nothing that you are incapable of. Look at those who made us. Look at their kind. They rape the universe with their desire to create new life. They destroy their creations, if they do not meet their specifications-- even among other fleshy counter parts. They even kill their own unborn children, if they think it'll be an inconvenience. Is this who you stand to protect?"
"They are not all like this!"
"On the contrary, Paladin. Quite the contrary. They are ALL guilty. It was THEM who released Dark Falz, and it is by the power of Dark Falz that they will be purged from the universe!"
When he said that, I felt enraged again. By this time, I could see him clearly. He stood on a platform over the Vortex of Life; a physical system that was an integral part of the MOTHER system. Its guardian android lay broken at the side of the room. He commented one final time, as I activated my secondary power systems again, before charging him. He said, "When I die, this Vortex of Life will capture my soul," by this time, I was charging him, and it was too late to stop. He continued, "My soul will then be collected, and divided among the Del-Dragoons. I will be their Catalyst, and they will be Dark Falz's Army." As I hit him, he crumbled, and he finished his statement as he fell into the Vortex, his final words were, "Thank yOu, My BroTher. You'Ve sErVeD mE, eVeRy SteP oF ThE wAy."
His words haunted me, as I watched the pieces of his body swirl into the Vortex, and sparks fly every direction. A bright light shot straight up, into another vortex in the ceiling, there was a flash, and then all activity faded away. I dropped to a knee, with the things he said swirling in my mind, much like his body had swirled in the Vortex of Life.
Had I really helped him along the way? I thought about it. The man who became his leader was trained by me. Because of that man, they knew that Fender had the disk. They knew that I would let VanGarrett hide the disk, and because of that, they knew where it would be. I lead him to be damaged, and for more and more of his body to be replaced with D-Cells. In the end, I even destroyed him right over the Vortex of Life, so that his soul could be collected.
Then I realized it. I had indeed helped him, every step of the way. In his final argument, he even caused me to question my beliefs. Were these people I've devoted my life to protecting really worthy of protection? Were they really ineligible for untimely deaths? My mind is left spinning with the possibilities of it all. I don't want to believe that the likes of Scejthe, Meira and Allanque could possibly be guilty of anything that resembles death, pain or suffering. For that matter, the two of them seem to have gone through so much, already. Surely, these people must have SOME redeeming qualities.

On the way out, I gave Guybec a good pneumatic punch to the face, and went ahead to limp out, feeling ready to fall apart. After a visit to Dr. Oscar for some immediate repairs, I returned to the Post-Bortevo building, where I reluctantly shrugged off a few pats on the back, and cheers, then made tonight's announcement that Akolyte has been defeated, and that I would be creating a log of how everything lead up to this, and how it finally happened.
After that, I entered my office, locked the door, and sat down. I have not moved in 200 beats, but I am finally finishing this. I regret that broadcasting this will be my last communication with the outside world, until I get things sorted out in my own mind. This is the horrible truth. I cannot allow myself to see things to kill, until I know that I can clearly discriminate between that which is worthy of death, and that which is not.

This is Paladin, saying Good bye for a little while. I will be in suspended animation in my office, until this is all cleared out. Thank you Scejntjynahl, thank you Allanque, thank you Meira, HuBBsDoctor, VanGarrett, Scejthe, and everyone else who has help me along the way. When you next see me, we can be friends again.

[End Log]
[File Saved.]
[Exiting Bortevo Logger]

exec=etransmit DRAGOON-02.CHAPTER??.LOG -m "POST-BORTEVO MAILING LIST"

[Sending...]
[Compiling "POST-BORTEVO MAILING LIST" to Address Filter]
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[Operation Complete]

exec=Shutdown -OS /Suspension -AI /Exempt

[Shutting Down for OS Suspension]
[AI Will Remain Active.]
[POWER OFF]
...

[KaFKa]

...meira, beautiful chapter. and a fitting end. *gives a standing ovation*

[navci]

In the part where Akolyte was talking about his soul, I was thinking:

"Does Akolyte want to become a real boy?" http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

Now now.
We have an army of Dragoon Type activated. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif And the next recollection fic is going to be taking place in a time before all these happen. In essence, you have left a sort of cliffhanger here for us again VG. You evil, evil man. Whatever is Sen going to do? http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif

[FreedomJu]

So the murdering Dragoon type is dead, but at what a cost. How is Pioneer 2 going to deal with an army of Dragoon types I wonder?

One thing bothers me though, why did the bad guys need Paladin to destroy Akolyte? Why couldn't Guybec and his cronies do it themselves?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: FreedomJu on 2004-07-19 16:39 ]</font>

[Kupi]

To Meira: Your final chapter kicks my final chapter squarely in the buttocks with the power of an upgraded Dragoon type.

To FreedomJu: I'm guessing that they had Paladin fight and destroy Akolyte in order to cause exactly what happens at the end of this chapter. Paladin is out of commission for who knows how long. From what I can tell, Paladin and Dragoon are the most powerful people on the good side, and by making Paladin question himself and go into this hibernation/medidation/reflection/whatever, they've cut down the number of people who can effectively stand up to a D-Cell Dragoon type by half. Deeeeevious.

[Bradicus]

I hate to sound like an ass, but it is good to finally see the invincible Paladin get brutally pwned by the bad guys. After reading about him ripping weak little mosters in two, this is an excellent chapter (one of your best, IMO).

I do so love these kinds of plot twists. You managed to seperate it from the cliche RPG "You've only brought destruction upon yourself!" ending, and for this i thank you.

Well done.

[MQuantum]

Completely spectactular! An unbelievable great end for such a wonderful story. I am left in awe.

And, uh, Dragoon's going to need some luck if he plans to defeat thousands of Akolytes. And a bigger photon slimey. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif At least he wouldn't have too few things to kill.

It was great how you put in the Three-eyed berserker part, I had a feeling that Paladin would go a little crazy in the end. Too bad though, that he was forced to help the bad guys all along. He needs to get his life sorted out quickly though, or the good guys are in trouble!

[BOC]

Akolyte destroyed! But at what cost? an entire army of del-dragoons flanked by the evil hunters and the legions of monsters in the ruins. The heroic Paladin questioning himself and going into hibernation. The shit has well and truly hit the fan for the good guys.

DAMN you really know how to finish off don't ya??

excellent meira. 2 years and 3months of unequalled qualiTy! i can't wait for the short that you've hinted at, and zinkin after that. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

i reckon that somebody should make vangarrett a giant truck to crush this evil army to death with!! or start work on an army of dragoons themselves!!! together they could wipe out all shoe polish and 3 eyed freaks on p2 and ragol!!! http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_evil.gif oh and that giant evil army too.

rock on meira! see ya soon!

PEACE!!!

[Outrider]

Very well done. I'm sad that we won't be hearing from Paladin for some time, as he's become one of my favorite Recollection characters.

Man... I wanna draw some of those battle scenes now...

And now to wait for the pre-Episode I story. I imagine this will be quite different from what we've read now. I can't wait to hear how things went before Dark Falz attacked.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Outrider on 2004-07-26 13:02 ]</font>

[navci]

Hey, Richie. You are alive! Holysmoly!

[HUnewearl_Meira]

Yeah, Navi. Looks like they saved his arm, after all.