Chapter Seventeen: Lingering Shadows

Adam and Sharon floated through the dismal corridors, his hands resting on the latch attached to the wall. The latch was a movement device that pulled whoever held onto it through the hallways. It was a quick and lazy mode of travel; it was designed for the MF pilots to use for when they were injured. As they hovered over the floor Sharon’s hair fluttered gracefully through the small winds that were created from moving at the light speeds. Her arm wrapped around Adam’s while she rested her head onto his shoulder. She was happy that he was spending more time with now instead of watching the matches or spending most of his time in the hanger working on Blue Dragon. Adam was a master at hiding things, although Sharon could tell. She could tell that he was concerned about something and that he was trying to keep it from her. She wanted to ask him, and give him the support that a girlfriend would give, but he would just brush things off that nothing wrong; it was for the best. Everyday that past her mind wandered, she would think about her father and how he died trying to protect both her and Adam. It tore her apart inside; she missed him, his voice, his calm demeanor and positive outlook. She was an orphan now with no parents, she had relatives outside of New York but none close enough to take her in; Adam was all she had now.

“Are you ok?” Adam mumbled as he continued to look forward. They were nearing the lounge where most pilots could just sit and eat while watching the matches. Adam decided to watch a few of the matches with Sharon alone; it was their first official date in a long time.

Sharon just nodded, she glanced back at Adam, her eyes were glazed with remorse, her lips were a pale pink as she gave a half cocked smile. She was trying to be happy, but her emotions, her dreams were catching up with her.

“I’m fine…” She forced those words out, she wanted to be fine, she wanted him to believe that she was fine; but deep down she knew he didn’t believe her.
Adam chuckled letting go off the latch, the metallic latch continued onward through the corridor while Adam and Sharon just floated eloquently through the air. Her deep brown eyes gazed into his, she had such an innocence face, but it was twisted by pain and hurtful memories. Adam’s hands grabbed onto Sharon’s and he just smiled back at her.

“I know you’re lying…”

“I….no, I’m fine…” Sharon tried to believe her own words even though she couldn’t. Her head tilted to the side, if she continued to look at Adam she knew she would break down. As his hair flowed to the side he moved his body so he could get in Sharon’s direct line of vision. ‘

“It’s ok you know…”

Sharon smiled chuckling, her smooth fist rose in front of lips as she continued to smile while tears began to build in her eyes. Adam sighed and quickly embraced her. As the two rotated in the air Sharon began to cry, all of emotions just flowed out in a single instance. Adam placed his right hand onto her head and began to brush down the back of her head in a repeated motion while holding her close. Her tears began to escalate out from her eyelids and hover gently into the air as the two lovers remained embraced.

“I’m sorry Sharon…I swear to you that I’ll find out why your father was murdered and I’ll put an end to all of this.” Adam said softly.
She quickly pushed him away at arms length. The tears still flowing steadily into the air.

“Don’t you get it?! *sniff*”

“Sharon?”

“I’ve already lost my father! Do you think I want to lose you as well?! *sniff*”

“Is that what all this is about? You think you’re  going to lose me?”

“If you keep this up, if you keep trying to dig into Genesis’ affairs then who knows what can happen. You saw what they did to my dad! To your friends! They’re not asking you to keep looking, they’re trying to warn you to stay away! Why can’t you just let your past go and live for the future?” Sharon yelled back at him taking him completely by surprised. Adam just stared blankly at her; he didn’t know what to say. Maybe he was trying to make up for his past, he didn’t know.

“Sharon, I can’t just let everything they’ve done go…if I do then they’ll continue to do what they’ve been doing.”

“And what have they been doing?”

“I…I don’t know. The Chimera, the murder of my friends, the clones….and this tournament, it all points to something. I haven’t figured that out yet…but I will.”

“Can’t you just let it go? Leave the military, and live a normal life.”

“A normal life? What do you consider a normal life?”

“Not fighting every day of your life….not struggling with your nightmares! Just living to enjoy life, that’s a normal life!”

“Heh…you know I can’t do that. Not now, maybe after all of this pointless conflict is over. Sharon…I’m fighting to protect you and everyone else on Earth so they don’t have to fight. If we don’t fight, then we will all be consumed by our greed and thirst for power and eventually be destroyed by it.” Adam mumbled as he floated to the window across from his position. The Earth continued to rotate at a constant speed, the aura of its beauty was inspiring. Sharon then floated up behind him with her arm wrapping around his torso, she apologized and tilted her head onto his shoulder.

“I’m sorry….I’ll stay with you no matter what path you take.” She mumbled as they just stared at the scenery. The Earth look trivial when you could see a much broader picture, the sun flaring off in the distance providing light for every planet in the galaxy, and the stars flickering in the distance lighting up the darkened canvas. They both turned to each other; time seemed to slow down around them while their faces moved closer. Their lips caressed as their heads tilted at an angle. As they kissed the second tournament boomed forth in the distance. Their eyes remained shut but as each thunderous sound grew louder they knew the battle was taking place. Hades suddenly sped past the wind blocking out the sun leaving the silhouette of Adam and Sharon in a position of embraced engulfed in shadows.

            Zach was breathing heavily in his cockpit, his opponent Leo Ombra was a bigger challenge than he originally anticipated. Forsaken was a well built MF, the crimson and grey MF soared towards Hades while firing its laser rifle. Hades flew around each round of energy barely escaping a few collisions. Zach quickly turned to his right and was shocked to see Forsaken already hovering besides him. The MF’s speed was incredible; Zach cringed as he quickly swung the energy scythe. The crimson energy seared towards Forsaken but at the last second the MF strafed to the side avoiding the devastating blow. Zach’s eyes shot open in shock, as Hades’ lunged forward due to the velocity for the blow Forsaken seized its opportunity. Leo smiled as he ignited his energy saber and slashed through the back armor of Hades. The attack shattered the top layer of the armor as well as slicing the rail cannon in two. A fiery explosion forced Hades to stumble forward as Zach lost control. Forsaken didn’t waste any time and burst back into the offensive. Inside Hades’c cockpit Zach became infuriated at the turn of events, Forsaken had been dominating the entire match, out maneuvering Hades every time. Leo was a skilled pilot, one that Zach felt he wasn’t prepared for.

“Damn it….Reine, I’m sorry your loss was for nothing. I don’t think I can beat this guy.” Zach mumbled under his breath. Forsaken zoomed from left to right avoiding every plasma round fired. The thick beams of energy only caused Forsaken’s armor to glisten radiantly in space nothing else. His fingers slowly began to let go of the throttle as he felt it would be best if he gave up. Once again Forsaken slashed the outer armor with its energy saber, the fizzling beam of energy sent more orange colored singed debris flinging into the area. The crowd watched in awe as Leo continued to pound relentlessly onto Hades.
Reine sighed as he sat up in his bed; he hated to watch his friend like this.

“Damn it Zach! You can do better than this! Try harder!” Reine screamed. The abrupt sound of his abrasive voice startled the surrounding nurses on duty. Suddenly the room was filled with women in ivory clothing all staring at Reine awkwardly. Reine smiled wide as he scratched the back of his head.

“Hehe…sorry.”

            The way things were turning it out it seemed as if Hades was going to lose. Just then Forsaken swung the energy saber once again. As the incandescent energy beam descended towards Hades at an angle something quickly snapped inside the mind of Zach. His pupils slowly changed to a crimson gradient, he tightened his grip on the throttles and stepped forcefully onto the accelerator. Hades’ boosters burst sending the orange MF into Forsaken. As Hades’ head unit crashed into the core of Forsaken knocking it off balance the energy scythe quickly swung upwards piercing through the armor on the right arm. The crimson beam protruded out the other end of the arm, Hades began to move its left arm so it could tear Forsaken’s limb off but Leo countered. Forsaken’s right leg suddenly cracked onto the side of Hades forcing it to be pushed away. As Hades was tossed its hands let go of the energy scythe leaving it dangling off the right arm of Forsaken.
Leo smirked as he glanced over at Hades.

“Heh, got some fight left in you I take it.” Leo mumbled. “Well then, let’s see you handle this.”

Forsaken sliced through the steam of the energy scythe, the lower half of the scythe fell out of the wound leaving the energy beam half still lunged in Forsaken’s limb. With the energy still focused and lit Forsaken dashed towards Hade with two energy sabers now ignited at the side of the MF. Hades quickly flipped over recovering and dashed towards Forsaken while firing the plasma rifle. The plasma beams were more accurate this time around and it was harder for Leo to avoid them. A few beams managed to collide into the MF while others were sliced in half by the energy sabers. Forsaken sped past Hades as it slashed the right handed energy saber. In the middle of the attack Hades’ left arm shot up, its metallic fingers managed to grasp around the wrist of Forsaken’s attacking arm. Leo was in shock no one had ever caught one of his attacks before. But he wasn’t about to let this deter him from his victory and advancement to the 3rd round. As the right arm struggled to move forward Hades suddenly became outlined by a bright pulsating energy aura. Leo’s eyes widened as he watched Hade’s left wrist bend downwards crushing Forsaken’s right hand. As the metal bent and burst into pieces the energy saber flung outwards and began to float in space. The upper half of Forsaken’s right arm remained, and with the energy scythe still lingering in the armor Leo forced his MF forward causing the energy being emanated from the scythe to slash through Hades’ right arm. Zach ignored his fallen arm and quickly grabbed onto the floating energy saber a few feet away. The boosters turned to a 45 degree angle and ignited, Hades quickly turned around in time to catch Forsaken’s exposed back. As Zach screamed loudly Hades’ left arm punched the back of Forsaken with the energy saber ignited. The beam of energy pierced through the torso of Forsaken singing the wires connected to the generator.

“Shit…” Leo mumbled as he saw the flashing warning signal on his screen. The generator was damaged and about to explode. With quick reflexes Leo unfastened his restraints, Forsaken’s cockpit quickly opened to see Hades’ left hand opened. Without second guessing Leo jumped out from the cockpit landing safely into Hade’s hand. Zach smirked and turned Hades around. As the orange MF flew away Forsaken exploded violently. The shockwave of the explosion caused some turbulence on Hades but nothing to severe.

The crowd erupted in applause, Forsaken was destroyed its singed armor and limbs lingered through space while Leo just stared into the abyss while resting on the frigid surface of Hade’s hand.

“Well that was quite the entertaining match.” Mario muttered.

“It was; heh Zach made it to the 3rd round. I actually expected Leo to take the match.” Michelle replied.

“Nah, I knew Zach would win. Shouldn’t you be getting ready right now? I mean your match is next isn’t it?” Mario replied.

“Yeah, I’m gonna head over to the hanger now. Wish me luck.” Michelle mentioned as she kissed Mario and then headed out.

            Luscious leaned back in his obsidian leather chair, his wine glass have full of mahogany merlot. Both Caleb and Severen sat on the luxurious couch on the side of the room. They were watching the live feed of the 2nd round. Severen began to laugh utterly as Leo lost the match.

“Well I’m just happy that he lost.” Severen exclaimed.

“Ha, doesn’t make much of a difference. He still outlasted you brother.” Caleb replied after smacking Severen across the back of his head.

“What the hell? I’m not an MF pilot, and don’t you have a match coming up? Shouldn’t you be preparing?”

“Nah, I’m not too concerned. I’ll win without much of an effort.”

“Will you two be quiet for a minute?” Luscious interrupted. His eyes focusing on a small display screen on his desk.

            A middle age man wearing an ivory trench coat stood in front of an LCD screen with a zoomed in image of Luscious’ intimidating face. The man was quivering as he held onto a clip board with dozens of forms along with graphical statistics.

“As you were saying Dr. Klein…” Luscious mumbled softly as he took a sip of his wine.

“..Umm….yes of course…Well as you are aware the Beta group of artificially composed humans are defective. Their organs generate too much heat and in turn causing the

H2O in their system to evaporate causing a massive heat stroke. I’d like to say that these versions of our clones will probably only last about another 3 years, 4 at the most.”

“Yes I am aware of that. And the Alphas?”

“Well Luscious, the Alphas are all testing to be in perfect condition. It seems that we got it right this time around; their organs function extremely well and do not seem to generate any excessive heat. I’d like to say that they should be ready for programming within a couple of weeks.” Klein reported. He hoped that this was the news that Luscious wanted to hear, he saw what Luscious did to the other researchers who didn’t provide results, no one like to die.

“Excellent…I am also fully aware of the 357 failed clones that were produced without my knowledge. Have they been disposed of?” Luscious asked as he put down his wine glass; his fingers wove together as he stared fiercely at the Dr. on the other line.

“I’m sorry Luscious but I was not aware of those....” The Dr. began to fear for his life and began to race through the papers he had in front of him. His hands became engulfed in perspiration that caused some of the papers to stick together or rip from the clip bored.

“I see…well if you do come across any reports having to do with the illegal productions of those clones by all means contact me. I want those files on my desk.” Luscious replied.

“Yes….yes sir…”

Luscious shut off the communications relay and sighed. He picked up a folder that rested on his desk.

“The Zenith of Artificially Composed Humans huh…did either of you two know of this project?” Luscious asked. Both Severen and Caleb shrugged their shoulders. It was the first time either of them had ever heard of such a project.

“I see…well it appears that it was started 16 years ago and created what they called the “perfect embryo” 15 years ago. It seems that your parents left some of their garbage around for me to clean up.” Luscious said just before he took another sip of his wine.

“I’m sorry Luscious but I have no clue what that project is. This is the first time I’ve even heard of it.” Caleb mumbled.

“That’s fine; this isn’t much of my concern at the moment right now. It just says that the project will reach its potential during its 18th life cycle, whatever that means. Anyway we have more important business to attend to, Caleb you have a match, go get ready for it.  Severen since you’re out of the tournament I want you to head back to Earth and assist the research team with the programming of the Alphas. Everything you need to know about every pilot in the tournament has been gathered onto this one data disk. Don’t lose it.” Luscious replied as he handed the disk to Severen.

“So it’s really starting then?” Caleb joked.

“Yes it is…the future of humanity rests in our extremely capable hands.” Luscious mumbled taking a final sip of his wine.

            Heather took a final breath before her cockpit encased her inside Blue Angel. She was content with making it to the second round, she had no real desire to make it any further but she wouldn’t mind if she did. The cockpit began to rumble as the boosters slowly ignited. As the restraints lifted off Blue Angel she sighed and her MF launched into space. As her MF flew gracefully through the vacuum of space she began to daze off. Her opponent in the second round had become her friend over the past week, Michelle Dolce and her Red Dawn. Both weren’t really equipped for high active close range combat, so she knew right away that it was going to be an endurance match. Her fingers wrapped around the throttles and her feet tilted onto the accelerator. Red Dawn was already in space hovering waiting for the match to start. Michelle too was a little hesitant about fighting her new found friend, but she didn’t want to lose at the same time.

It wasn’t long before the announcer declared the match a go. Michelle could hardly contain her excitement and Red Dawn erupted from its stationary position. Heather knew that Red Dawn was better equipped for close range combat than Blue Angel. She had to keep the distance like in her first match against Miguel. Ironically enough both of her opponents were from Lieutenant Procella’s unit. The sniper scope lowered in front of Heather’s accurate eyes and the rail cannon did the same. As the cannon began to gather energy Michelle began to laugh.

“That won’t work against me!” Michell screamed. Red Dawn increased its speed and strafed to the left. Heather cursed under her breath as Red Dawn moved out of her line of sight. The radar continued to alert Heather of Michelle’s quickening approach. Michelle was approaching from the Blue Angel’s left so Heather quickly raised the solid shield just in time to block the pulse rounds that were fired. The rounds of energy bounced off the shield and dispersed into space. Heather jerked the throttles around to cause Blue Angel to turn to the side. As the MF began to turn the rail cannon fired creating a fluent stream of energy that sliced through the area. Michelle’s eyes widened and quickly reacted. Just as Red Dawn lowered its torso the beam tore past missing Red Dawn. Heather sighed and quickly retracted the rail cannon and began to fire with the sniper rounds while causing Blue Angel to boost backwards to create some distance. The solid shells collided onto Red Dawn’s core preventing it from fully advancing. With each attack Red Dawn was thrown off balance. Michelle began to laugh; she was truly enjoying the match. The gears in the chain gun began to turn; the onslaught of rapid firing shells took Heather by surprise and began to bombard Blue Angel. The shells were hitting Blue Angel at such a rapid pace leaving Heather no time to dodge or maneuver away. She was left with no choice but to raise the shield once again.

“That shield is pretty handy but it won’t protect you the entire match!” Michelle screamed as Red Dawn continued its advancement towards Blue Angel. Heather sneered and began to fire the sniper rifle once again but the torrent of shells being sent off by Red Dawn’s chain gun hindered Heather’s accuracy. Red Dawn swerved from side to side avoiding the high damage inducing shells being launched by Blue Angel. With each miss Red Dawn closed the gap, then suddenly the chain gun stopped turning as the ammo was completely expended. Michelle’s eyes widened as Heather smirked.

The rail cannon flipped upside down and fired quickly. Heather had been charging the rail cannon the entire time waiting for Michelle to run out of ammo. The thin focused green beam of energy zoomed leaving Michelle with little reaction time. The beam punctured Red Dawn’s right arm tearing it off completely due to the velocity of the attack. Michelle punched her control panel, with no ammo left in the chain gun and the pulse rifle flinging through space she was left utterly defenseless against Heather’s attacks.

“It’s over Michelle you can’t fight back!” Heather screamed.

Michelle refused to give in, in the corner of her eye sparkled a floating energy saber left over from the match between Forsaken and Hades. She thanked God that the maintenance team over looked the saber. Red Dawn quickly changed her course of action and sped towards the floating energy saber. Heather too caught notice of the energy saber and pressed hard on the accelerators. Blue Angel quickly sped towards the weapon in a parallel route to Red Dawn. She couldn’t let Michelle get hold of the weapon, Blue Angel’s right arm jolted back from each shell that launched out of the sniper rifle. With the missing limb Red Dawn was lighter and had increased agility. The left hand extended and managed to grasp the energy saber. Michelle smirked and Red Dawn quickly turned around and dashed straight towards Blue Angel. Heather began to get nervous, her nerves caused her accuracy to slip a bit, a lot of her attacks missed and Red Dawn continued to approach with the energy saber fully ignited.

Red Dawn quickly slashed through the raised solid shield of Blue Angel. The searing beam cleaning cut through the left arm. As Red Dawn’s attack continued Blue Angel moved to the side allowing Michelle to pass by revealing the side of her MF. The rail cannon continued to gather energy and fired as it lifted up once again. Michelle tried to avoid but she was too close to Blue Angel, the attack wasn’t avoidable. The beam of energy tore through the lower torso of Red Dawn, the sheer intensity of the attack caused the energy saber to fling out of the left hand leaving Michelle unable to launch an attack. Michelle began to breathe heavily, sweat rolling down her skin out from her pores. Heather was no different; the intensity of the match was much higher than her previous match against Miguel.

“Hehe…nice job.” Michelle was the first to break the silence.

Heather smiled. “Good job…” The match ended. Mario shrugged his shoulders as Michelle had just been eliminated from the tournament. Stephen patted his friend’s back saying that it was alright.

            Adam nodded towards the television screen that was attached in the corner of the restaurant he and Sharon were at. A zoomed in image of Blue Angel filled the screen with text flowing underneath saying “Heather Pertencia advancing to the 3rd round.”

“Heather advanced! Good for her!” Sharon said.

“Yeah, she’s gotten a lot better at handling her weapons. Unfortunately it looks like her opponent for the 3rd round is going to be Zach.” Adam said softly while he took a bite into his grilled cheese sandwich.

“Unfortunately? What, you don’t think she can win against him?” Sharon looked at his with her eyebrows arched.

“To be honest, no. Zach’s got an edge, whenever he gets pushed into a corner he manages to over come it and win with a ferocity not shown before hand.” Adam replied.

“I see…”

“Hey don’t worry about it. She’s done extremely well for herself so far.”

“Adam….”

“Yeah?”

Adam glanced back at Sharon who placed down her sandwich glancing to the side.

“Thanks for today….I’m having a lot of fun.”

“Of course, you did come up here, the least I could do is show you a good time. Now come on, we’re pretty much finished here. Let’s meet up with everyone else.” Adam replied.

“Umm…Adam…”

“Yeah? You ok?”

“I’m fine….but…” Her cheeks slowly began to turn a hint of red. She was embarrassed. “I love you.” Adam chuckled, he knew she loved him, and he also knew that she knew he knew.

“I love you too.”

“So..umm…I’ve been thinking…” Her pupils slowly began to look around the room, she was extremely embarrassed. Adam then moved his head closer to hers. Her lips then began to move closer to his ears and she began to whisper. His eyes suddenly widened. He then sat back down and placed the money on the table for the bill.

“I guess we can meet up with everyone else later then.” Adam mentioned as he took hold of Sharon’s hand as they left the restaurant.

            Rebel358 stood in the corner of the lounge surrounded by the shadows of the objects decorating the room. His arms folded across his chest as he smirked.

“This has been an interesting tournament so far….the H-3 is progressing nicely, a lot quicker than originally expected. I do hope he manages to survive long enough for me to properly assess his talents…As for you…Adam Novus. We’ll meet again soon enough.”