Chapter Thirteen: The Wings of Space

Adam sat in his cockpit already strapped behind the restraints. He knew his match was the first of Section ‘E’ but he could careless. He was just happy that he was finally getting the chance to go out there and fight. He had been heading out into space for the past few days going on test runs with Blue Dragon. He was comfortable with the OS and how it handled, he knew he was ready, but was still lacking full confidence when it came to Rebel358. After Rebel’s match he knew it would be hard to make an impact on the tournament in the eyes of the pilots and other spectators. Even though he wasn’t fighting against Rebel he knew he had to give the people a show, possibly even give them a glimpse at what he felt would be the key at defeating Rebel; that would only be a reality if he could master it in time.
Stephen and Mario were already at the dome waiting for the start of the match, the girls preferred to stay in their room and watch it together, they didn’t like heading out to the dome to stand alongside a group of sweaty men that they didn’t know.

“So what do you know about Adam’s opponent?” Mario asked.

“Not much. I know his MF is called Fury; it’s completely reliant on its right arm rocket launcher. The shells from the launcher cause a high amount of damage if they connect, but he also is equipped with energy boomerangs as well for back up and a few missile packs.” Stephen replied.

“Hmm, I see. Anything you think Adam might have trouble with?” Mario asked.

“Normally I would say no. But this Rebel guy really has him worked up, so I’m not sure where his head is right now.” Stephen replied.

Suddenly the massive LCD lit up as the two opposing MFs entered their arena.         

“Well here we go. This should be interesting.” Stephen mumbled to himself.

“Hi, and once again I’m Stephanie Star bringing you full coverage of the first round. And once again we have what should make out to be one exciting match. Adam Novus, otherwise known as the Azure Knight has finally made his appearance in the tournament, and with the entire buzz for Rebel358 it should be interesting to see how he responds in his opening match against the mysterious pilot, Wrath.”
Rebel358 stood behind the mass of people grinning as he lit his cigarette. As the brooding smoke lingered in the air from his stick he began to smile even more.

“Well then, let’s see what you can do.”

            Adam stared at the MF floating before him; he wasn’t too concerned he knew what he had to do. If he was going to make a name for himself in the tournament then he needed to go hard. As the seconds continued to pass by his fingers only tightened even more around the throttles.

READY GO!!!

Wrath wasted little time, Fury dashed towards Blue Dragon launching an onslaught of heavily armored rockets. The silver rockets pierced through minuet rocks causing them to burst apart in several directions. Adam’s eyes calmly opened as he lightly tapped the accelerators, the cerulean flames of energy flared out from the 2 sets of boosters. The azure wings lifted up at an angle as they prepared to launch. Wrath’s eyes widened as he watched Blue Dragon zoom past the rockets, and as the blue MF soared the rockets exploded into pieces by the sheer velocity of the MF. Wrath almost became completely paralyzed in his cockpit but managed to wake from his trance. Fury quickly grabbed onto the two energy boomerangs and with little haste threw the two weapons. As the weapons moved along a curved trajectory Blue Dragon docked its laser rifles taking hold of its energy sabers. Just as the boomerangs descended towards the blue MF Adam sliced the weapons in two with ease. Fury flew through the clusters of smoke that was created from the destruction of its weapons, at point blank ranged Wrath fired the rockets only to miss. Blue Dragon’s thrusters ignited sending it even higher above Fury. Then it happened, what everyone waited to see, the 8 azure wings abruptly extended outwards while a crisp cerulean glow outlined each wing as they promptly separated into space. The orbital wings instantly locked onto Fury’s position and began to pound heavily onto the MF. Dozens of cerulean beams bombarded Fury, there was no place to run it was only a matter of time before the MF fell. The beams pierced the metallic armor severing the joints that held the limbs together. 

Stephen and Mario smiled as they walked out of the dome. They already knew who the victor of the match was.

“Told you.” Mario mumbled.

“I guess he just needed to get in the cockpit.” Stephen replied.

As they walked out Rebel358 chuckled under his breath while clapping his hands together.

“That’s what I was hoping to see…now the game has truly begun.”

            The orbital wings quickly reattached to the wing set as Blue Dragon eloquently descended over the mutilated Fury. Wrath was frozen in his cockpit, his hands trembling over the throttles; he did not expect this outcome for his match. Adam sighed as the Angel system disengaged. The match was over and he advanced to the second round. His head reclined backwards as he closed his eyes while he was showered with the radiant beams that emanated from the sun in the distance. His soul felt at peace once again, as his MF floated peacefully in space with the wings outstretched in the distance he felt Sharon’s soothing hands caressing his face while muttering the words “I’m proud of you.”

“Yeah, I’m going to be alright.” He mumbled out loud.

            While Blue Dragon slowly moved back towards the hanger the next two MF dashed out to begin their match. Adam couldn’t help but smile as he realized for the first time since being on Prosperity that here every pilot respected one another, there were no ties or allegiances to their military factions. He liked the feeling, it was like a Utopia. Sharon waved extravagantly as Blue Dragon docked into position. Even as the massive MF was still in motion she jumped to be taken by the gravitation-less environment, she couldn’t wait for Adam to get out of the cockpit. She wanted to be the first to greet him; she was going to make those reporters wait. Adam once he saw Sharon immediately opened the cockpit and extended his arms. His body leaned out from the cockpit taking hold of her body, the two hugged floated out in the middle of the room spinning in the air. Her chin rested against his shoulder while she fought against the tears that were trying to make their way out.

“I’m so proud of you…” She mumbled.

“I know…I couldn’t have made it without you. Because of you I know what I’m fighting for. This Rebel…he won’t get in my way.” He replied.

“I’m glad…” The two remained embraced for another five minutes just floating in the air while the dozens of reporters just watched in awe.

Stephen smirked and patted Mario on the shoulder.

“We’ll talk with him later.” Stephen mentioned.

“Yeah…guess we should give him his space for a while then. You two coming?” Mario asked as he looked over to Ashley and Heather.

“Yeah, I guess we can meet up with him later.” Ashley replied.

            Luscious smiled as he read the results from Section ‘E’’s first round.

“I told you he’d advance.” Luscious mumbled softly.

“Good, I’m happy he did. I want my shot.”

“Caleb settle down. You know you have a lot of other pilots to go through before you can get your shot at Adam.”

“I know….but still.”

“Deal with him later, has the computer finished analyzing the pilot data collected from the pilots that have fought yet?” Luscious asked.

Caleb began to smirk. “Yeah they have. And they’ve already been sent back to HQ. We’re way ahead of schedule Luscious.”

“Good….”

“About the failure Luscious.” Caleb said.

Luscious then placed his glass of wine on the small coffee table in front of his legs.

“What about him?”

“I’m not sure…but I think he’s developing a purpose of his own…I think it’d be best to cut our loses now before he gets out of control.”

“I see…is that it Caleb?”

“Umm…yeah…but Luscious.”

“Don’t worry about him; I’ll take care of him.”

            “Hi again, this is Stephanie Star reporting after what has been an exciting day of matches. The first round for Section ‘E’ has come to an end and tomorrow continues the Azure Cup Tournament! Tune in tomorrow for even more enthralling matches!”

‘E-1’

Adam
            Adam
Wrath

Lust
            Anwar
Anwar

Vindictive
            Dante
Dante

Gabriel
            Gabriel
Micheal

‘E-2’

Jessica
            Sarah
Sarah

Montel
            Gluttony
Gluttony

John
            John
Cesare

Rob
            Serenity
Serenity

            Adam stood staring at Mars from the tunnel in Prosperity. It was hard to imagine that the war was still going on down there while they were up here fighting what he felt was a pointless tournament. His hands pressed upon the glass while he sighed, thinking about everything that has happened in his life up til now. The truth was that he still missed Amy and thought about her everyday. Even though she was gone he still swore he felt her presence floating beside him protecting him like she promise. He promised to protect her and he failed, he promised to be there for his friends and he failed, he knew he couldn’t fail again…he needed to protect Sharon and get to the bottom of all the deception. His fist began to quiver; tears began to flow out from in between his tightly shut eye lids. His body fell to the ground of the tunnel as he was overrun by his emotions, he cried, crying was one of the ways of cleansing the soul of sin.

“You ok? Stephen told me I’d find you here.” Ashley said quietly.

Adam quickly wiped his face nearly clean of the evidence of crying. He then stood back up and smiled.

“I’m fine; I just needed some time to think that’s all.”

“Stephen told me everything you know. About Amy Caecus and your friends, for what its worth I’m sorry.”

“Its fine…it was two years ago not like anything can be done now.”

“Well…I just wanted you to know that we’re your friends, Heather, Stephen, Mario, me…don’t try and run away drowning yourself in your pain.” Ashley replied.

“Ashley, I’m sorry but nows not a good time for a lecture.”

“It’s not a lecture damn it! I’m just trying to tell you that we’re here for you!”

Adam’s eyes widened.

“Ashley…”

“You need to hear this Adam. I know you’re running away, you always used to run away at school. You shelter yourself and it only consumes you, and what consumes you can hurt you. And now, you run into the cockpit of an MF to escape from everything. I saw your match today. You could have beaten him without resorting to the extremes that you did.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You took out your rage, your frustration on your opponent. It was merciless Adam and I know that isn’t you. I’m afraid that if you continue to hide your pain and keep it to yourself that you’ll become dangerous, and uncontrollable in your MF.”

“Hehe, you’re deluded. I have much more control than that.”

“Really? If so then why didn’t you just disable your opponent and left it at that?”

“I did disable him.”

“You savagely mutilated his MF leaving nothing more than a singed and butchered cockpit Adam. You over did it!”

“…I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE! If I didn’t show what I could do then I wouldn’t have made an impact! An impact on these people and an impact on Rebel! He noticed what I can do….I need to get him to question facing me!”

“Adam…you’re such a fool.” Ashley replied.

“You don’t understand.”

“No I think I do understand. You want to be the best, you saw the admiration that Rebel was getting and you got scared. If you let someone influence your actions…then I don’t think you know what self-control is. If you stay on this path Adam…you’ll become no better than those you consider the bad guys. We’ll be in the lounge if you wish to join us.” Ashley said. As Adam prepared to respond she turned her back and left the tunnel leaving Adam there in a state of shock. He shook his head, he was sure that she had no clue what she was saying. He then glanced at Mars on one side and then at Earth on the other.

“I….I have no choice…this is the path I have chosen….