|
|
Post by deadguydrew on Dec 22, 2009 2:40:47 GMT -5
“This system, private Grace... This system will make you a newtype.”
Alain's mind blanked for a moment as he abruptly plummeted from the clouds, and back into himself as he drove the jeep. He spared a glance from the road ahead of him and looked at Chlust Morses, the twisted old man still babbling incessantly.
“I'm already a newtype, I don't need a machine to make me what I already am.”
Chlust simply harrumphed, and then continued his babbling. In the periphery of his vision Alain saw the snake, that was really a dragon, trying to wrap his jaws around the fire orb in the sky. He shook his head, trying to shake off the vision of blood flowing from the sun where the dragon's fangs had punctured it.
As they reached the proving grounds, Alain immediately noticed the differences made to the Efreet, the powder blue mobile suit a much darker hue of blue, with blood red highlights. The effect gave the mobile suit a quiet sense of menace, but it was more than the coloration, or the new missile pods studding the mobile suit. He simply stared at the mobile suit, the massive robot an anchor in the LSD warped reality around him.
Kill me.
He blinked his eyes, and saw a blue haired woman staring into him. His mind convulsed for a moment as he felt Marion's anger. It lasted less than a moment, but it the brief contact had left Grace shaken.
Standing up in the driver's seat of the parked jeep, he turned to Morses.
“What did you say this system was called again?”
“We call it the EXAM System, and as I said before, it will make you a newtype.”
|
|
|
|
Post by deadguydrew on Dec 29, 2009 4:39:48 GMT -5
Two Days Later.
Alain didn't hesitate as he climbed up his mobile suit, toward the Efreet's cockpit. Despite everything Morses had told him about EXAM, he felt no apprehension. After all, newtypes didn't feel fear, they were beyond that.
He hadn't taken anymore LSD since he had first seen the Efreet, wanting a relatively clear head for the Efreet's first trial run; but it didn't stop him from hitting the opium pipe before chasing the proverbial dragon. Strapping himself into his seat, he took one last look at the orangey late-afternoon sky, and then sealed the cockpit.
The controls hadn't been drastically altered, outside of a few new switches for the Efreet's new armament, Alain feeling comfortable with the mostly identical settings. Activation went as normal, the once familiar purr of the Efreet powering up had noticeably changed to a mechanical growl.
Despite Grace's protests, Morses had insisted on no live ammo being loaded into the Efreet, and the heat swords had been deactivated, and would not charge. A pair of Zaku IIs, waited patiently for the Efreet to mobilize for their brief sparring session. The 120mm Zaku machineguns had been filled with paintball markers, but the heat hawks, and missile pods, were standard issue with live munitions at Chlust's insistence.
The crimson and blue mobile suit began moving, Grace noticing that the controls were more sensitive to his movements as the Efreet Custom took its tentative first steps. It took him a few minutes to get the hang of basic movements again, a momentary flashback to his first time in a mobile suit running through his head. He pushed the unwelcome thought away, suppressing it in his psyche.
“Whenever you're ready, sir.”
Despite Morses' paranoia Alain felt nothing out of the norm, Grace smiling for a moment as performed a hesitant booster jump. Landing easily, Alain had the mobile suit reach for the marker loaded shotgun, a carry over from the Efreet's previous iteration. With another grin, Alain activated his comm, responding to the waiting Zakus.
“Roger that. Beginning test run alpha.”
The two Zaku's immediately began spraying paint balls at the Efreet, Alain narrowly avoiding all of the shots as the Efreet shot into the air with a full power booster jump. His own shotgun blasts went wide as he descended, the two ground type Zakus moving in separate directions. Singling out the closer of the two mobile suits, Alain adjusted his landing so that he was able to spray the mobile suit briefly with the 40mm machine cannons built into the Efreet's chest. Still midair, most of the rounds continued to go wide, but a splatter of blue paint appeared as a marker erupted against the green mobile suit's left arm.
Kill me.
The voice was almost imperceptibly quiet, Alain ignoring it as he landed to the left of the Zaku, placing it between him, and the other Zaku II. Leveling his shotgun at the Zaku directly ahead of him, he let loose a burst from his gun, a flower of blue blossoming from the Zaku's chest. The shot was obviously a kill shot, had the markers been real munitions, and the pilot “stepped down” as he lowered his gun, leaving Alain with only one opponent. Jumping past the “disabled” Zaku, Alain expected to see another of the musha-type mobile suits, but instead he saw a blue Gundam.
“What the hell? The blue devil is here?!”
The mobile suit leveled its gun at him, Alain cursing as he flung the Efreet out of the gundam's line of fire. How the hell had it gotten onto California's proving grounds? He sprayed the mobile suit with everything in his armament, emptying the shotgun in a succession of rapid pumps. It took Grace another fraction of a moment to realize why the mobile suit continued without any indication of being hit, Alain profaning Morses' decision not to give him real weapons.
Kill me.
He heard the voice, but with the blue mobile suit advancing on him, Alain pushed it aside, focusing on self preservation. Dropping the shotgun, he pulled out the two uncharged heat swords, and with a roar, he launched himself at the Blue Destiny. He was a newtype, he refused to give up, even if he had no weapons. He would prove his worth to everyone by taking the blue devil's head!
The Efreet shuttered as he rammed its exaggerated red shoulder spikes into the Blue Destiny, quickly pushing off the mobile suit. Spinning to produce the maximum amount of force possible, he slammed it in the chest with both unheated blades. The gundam type staggered from the impact of the blunted swords, Alain not giving it a chance to recover as he followed up with another booster assisted shoulder slam to the mobile suit's chest.
Kill me.
The combination of impacts were enough to send the mobile suit sprawling onto its back. Straddling the fallen mobile suit, Alain grinned as he pointed both of his swords downward, even the uncharged blades able to penetrate the cockpit armor if enough force was applied.
KILL ME!
As he prepared to deliver the coup de grace, Alain didn't see the first Zaku come up behind him, the mobile suit's heat hawk glowing orange. In a deft movement, the axe severed the unsuspecting Efreet's head at the neck, as Morses had instructed him. At the same moment Alain thrust both blades into the other Zaku's chest. The Zeonic guard panted he looked at his less lucky comrade, two swords pinning it to the ground through its cockpit like a giant green beetle.
Inside of the blackened cockpit of the Efreet, Alain gasped for air. He was victorious, he had destroyed the blue devil! Nobody would deny that he was a true newtype. Opening the Efreet's cockpit, he gawked for a moment at the green mobile suit lying immobile beneath him. How had the gundam changed into a Zaku? Slipping out of his seat's restraints, he carefully dropped down onto the Zaku below him. How had this happened?
He never recalled blacking out atop of the fallen Zaku, only waking up to Chlust's assurances that he was a true newtype.
|
|
