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Chapter Twenty-One: 3rd Round: Closer to Destiny
Zach continued to move past the hoards of people that flooded the lounge to see the current standings for the tournament and the match ups for the 3rd round, also known as the section finals. Each section with in each group had one match left to determine who would represent that section in the group finals. The massive LCD screen in front displayed all of the remaining matches for the week. A-1 Zach Orion V. Heather Pertencia A-2 Chris Procella V. Solice B-1 Mario Liberalis V. Phantom B-2 Nex V. X C-1 Rebel358 V. Colin C-2 Vincent V. Jose D-1 Death V. Archangel D-2 Diabolos V. Envy E-1 Adam Novus V. Gabriel Calquez E-2 Gluttony V. Serenity
F-1 Clark V. Silhouette F-2 Diavolo V. Mike H-1 Nick V. Mal Tiempo H-2 Seina V. Destiny I-1 Stephen V. Alex I-2 Tony V. Seriph Zach chuckled under his breath; he had to face Heather in the section finals. He knew she was a skilled pilot but he wasn’t too concerned with the match. The crowd soon began to let up as they were aware that the matches would begin soon. Since there were only 16 matches left to take place in the entire 3rd round most knew it would go by quickly. The schedule had it for four matches in a day, within four days the section finals would be over and the group finals would take its place as the 4th overall round for the Azure Cup. Little were surprised at most of the pilots that managed to make it this far, especially with Rebel358. So far throughout the entire tournament he has finished his opponents in less than two minutes with his opponents unable to land a single blow. The trend of having more fear than respect when it came to Rebel358 became like popular culture, everyone felt it. “You better win the section finals!” Reine’s voice could be heard screaming from the back end of the crowd. Zach’s head quickly turned around trying to follow the sound of his friend’s voice. He didn’t know that Reine was given clearance to leave the infirmary but he was thrilled that he was out. It was odd for Zach, before he came to Prosperity to enter the tournament he was only driven by the purist desire to be the best, now he’s seen his emotions changed, the way he treats others. When he was strictly on the EAP’s Omega unit he was strictly concerned with his own well being and only fought to be victorious, but now, now he’s found a friend in whom he could confine in. “Reine! Where the hell are you?!” Zach screamed hoping to get the attention of his friend. Unexpectedly a hand pierced through the cluster of people grabbing onto Zach’s forearm and with a quick and powerful tug pulled him out. Zach stumbled out of the collected people. Reine stood in front of his position laughing vibrantly; it appeared as if he had made a full recovery, his long hair waving in the air from the movements of his body, Zach could tell that he was happy which in turn made him feel a lot better. “Quite a turn out huh?” Reine replied sarcastically. Zach glanced back at the pack of animals that most of the pilots and spectators turned out to be. It amazed him at how primal they had become just to find out the current match ups. “Yeah, and this is just for the match listings. God only knows how packed and crazy it’s going to be once the section finals begin.” “Yeah I know, it’s going to be insane. Can’t wait!” Reine replied energetically. “…” “What’s wrong man? You should be more excited than I am. You’re in the section finals!” “I know…but I feel bad that you didn’t get the chance to get this far. You’re a lot better than most of the pilots who lasted this long.” “You’re still all up tight about that? Let it go, I’m learning a lot from watching these matches. And don’t worry; I’ll make it to the end in the next one!” “Is there going to be another one?” “I don’t know haha. Trying to make you feel better pal. Now shouldn’t you be hurrying to the hanger?” “Oh crap! I keep forgetting I’m the first up. You better be routing for me!” Zach screamed. He sprinted out of the lounge pushing his legs as hard as he could. Reine just continued to laugh. “He’s going to make it to the end, I can tell.” “So we’re already into the section finals…I have to say this came around a lot quicker than I expected it to.” Rebel358’s voice echoed out of the shadows while Luscious sat staring at the flickering television screen. “Luscious…” “Isn’t it magnificient?” “Huh?” Rebel glanced over at the screen which displayed a raging battle. “War….humans still crave it even after they witness all the chaos it creates.” “Humans are ignorant and know nothing more than blood and death. Their time is drawing to an end.” “I agree…but I think we might not have to interfere. With Revelations and Prodigy doing our work in the wake of our tournament this war will continue to escalate to horrific proportions. And with any luck we’ll just have to disperse the clones to clean up the mess and we won’t have to deal with any massive resistance.” Luscious replied. The taste of the crimson wine soothed his throat as it slowly rolled out of the thin crystalline glass. “It seems that they’ve managed to gain the advantage of MFs once again. I mean with the production of the Shades and the Night-Wings.” Rebel replied. “*Sigh*, yeah. I was hoping that they would have been able to continue this war without the assistance of the MF. But I guess they’ve become too attached to that luxury to give it up.” “It can’t be helped I guess…you know you never did tell me the true reason for this tournament. It couldn’t have been simply to take the MFs away from both the TA and the EAP….” The red wine glass touched the table in front of Luscious’ crossed legs as the man himself leaned forward smirking at Rebel358. Rebel’s crimson hued eyes thinned for a second but as he began to think he soon came to his own conclusion. “…you’re preparing the clones for battle aren’t you? You’re preparing to reveal Utopia a lot earlier than you originally said.” “I told you we think alike.” Luscious replied. “I see…so what happens to the pilots after the tournament? You can’t possibly need them after you’ve acquired all the data….are you just going to kill them all and replace them with the batch of clones created in the Alpha system?” “I’m not completely sure. What happens to the pilots after the conclusion of the Azure Cup doesn’t matter to me. I already collected the information I needed during the first round. Every analytical data on every pilot has already been brought back to Earth with Severen. The artificially created humans will be trained according to the data on the disc….unfortunately it’s going to take a good amount of time.” “How much time?” “About 3 years before they can be considered stable enough to enter battle.” “3 YEARS!? That’s too long of time Luscious! The revelation needs to happen now! While humanity is struggling, it will be quicker for us to wipe out every sinner on both Earth and Mars while they’re engaging with one another!” Rebel screamed out. He ran towards Luscious grabbing onto his silver ironed shirt and tie. As Rebel’s quivering hands pulled onto the shirt bringing Luscious’ face closer to his own he felt as if he was staring into a mirror or a pond. His eyes widened as a sharp sensation shot through his brain causing him to stumble backwards crashing into the table that was behind him. “Something the matter?” Luscious calmly asked as he leaned over to look at his fallen comrade. Rebel’s hands scraped against the shattered pieces of glass that lined the floor. With each movement of his arms even more shards of glass would embed themselves into this cold skin. “I….I….we need to finish this quickly Luscious!” “I don’t recall ever asking for your assistance, hell I don’t recall asking for your creation. You are a mistake, something that should have never come to fruition.” Luscious said mockingly as he took another sip of his chilled wine. “….you…” Rebel muttered as he stared into the beast that stood before him, Luscious had shared the same dream he had, to recreate humanity in a purified image void of sin. However it became obvious that they differed in how they would create this reality. Rebel managed to regain his composure, his right hand placed itself onto a shelf behind his stumbling body and he quickly pulled himself back onto his feet. “What are you….” Rebel mumbled under his breath. “Easier said than done…” Heather mumbled. “Will you just chill out already? Damn, you’re better than you think. Now just go out there and do your best!” Adam screamed from the top of the hanger. He leaned over the gray guard rail that loomed over the garage of MFs. Stephen sighed smacking his head while Sharon’s right hand skid across the top of Adam’s skull. “OW?!! What the hell was that for?!” Adam instinctively screamed back. “Leave her alone. She’s stressing out and doesn’t need your wise ass remarks.” Sharon said while sticking her tongue out at Adam. “You’ll do fine Heather! We’ll be cheering for you!” Sharon yelled. Heather sighed as she stared out into space where Hades was already waiting. “Come on you’ll do fine.” Stephen replied. “Thanks…” Some how she didn’t seem convinced like she had already accepted her defeat at the hands of Zach and his MF. “Zach is definitely a close range opponent so keep that in mind and try to keep the distance between you and Hades.” Stephen replied. “Good luck Heather! No matter what happens we’re still taking you out to dinner after the match!” Ashley’s vibrant voice echoed from Heather’s ear piece. Her friends had proven their support; she became determined to at the very least try her best. “Alright….I’ll do my best. Thanks guys.” Heather replied. Stephen smirked as he pushed himself away from Blue Angel’s cockpit floating towards the guard rail above. The mechanical gears rotated as the bright doors slid shut sealing Heather in the cockpit of Blue Angel. The inner lights began to flicker eventually fully igniting lighting up the room and saving her from the shadows of her fears. As the display screen turned on and all systems were confirmed to be green she lightly tapped onto the accelerators causing the thrusters to ignite. “Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to welcome you to the 3rd round of the Azure Cup tournament! We are coming close to the end with this being the sectional finals! Each winner will face the other winner in their grouping, so the winner of this match will go on to face the winner of A-2 and the winner in that match will go on to represent group A in the group tournament all leading up to the semi- finals of the Azure Cup!” The feminine announcer bellowed out of the loud speaker as the lounge and dome were filled to maximum capacity with MF pilots and civilians alike all on the edge of their seats waiting for the start of the match. Ready?! GO! Zach stared deeply at Blue Angel; he knew it would be an interesting match. An uphill one if he allowed her to keep the rail cannon on her MF. That was the key to her previous victories; Heather knew how to use the cannon and was extremely accurate when firing it. Hades shot to the left speeding out of Heather’s line of sight. Heather quickly turned her MF to the side, but she still was unable to locate her agile opponent. “Where did you go….come on…come on….I can find you…” Heather started to speak out of frustration. She hated it when she couldn’t determine the location of her opponent. She had no way of properly measuring the distance she had from her opponent. Realizing that at her current rate she wouldn’t be able to keep an upper hand she quickly forced Blue Angel to dash to the left, she hoped that by moving she would force Zach to fire and in turn reveal his location. As Blue Angel flew away from her position Zach’s eyes began to focus on the slowly moving MF. Hades’ right arm raised and then abruptly jerked from the intensity of the rounds that fired from the plasma rifle. Suddenly Blue Angel’s radar began to sound off loudly alerting her of the impending danger. “Shit he’s behind!” Blue Angel quickly turned around while lifting the solid shield just in time. Each plasma round burst onto the shield one after another. The force from the collision turned out to be too much for the MF’s left arm to handle, the joints began to crack and burn from the constant jerking motion that was occurring. Zach didn’t let up and continued to fire plasma rounds constantly leaving Heather no choice but to remain in a defensive position. She knew that being stuck in the defensive position with her face looking forward that it would be much more difficult to try and create distance. Knowing she didn’t have much of a choice due to Zach’s furious assaults the sniper scope descended from the ceiling of the cockpit. “Heh…thanks. I was hoping you’d do this.” Zach mumbled to himself while continued to close in on Blue Angel. The rail cannon quickly flipped over the metallic shoulder as it gathered energy around the pulsating barrel. To Heather’s amazement the green lock on box slowly changed to a crimson tint as the box solidified around the nimble Hades. Just then the immense green beam fired out from the barrel jerking Blue Angel’s torso back at an angle. As the MF jerked from the recoil the left arm flung to the side creating a small opening in her defensives. Zach smirked and continued to fire the plasma rifle. Heather’s eyes widened as the plasma round exploded on the torso of her MF knocking Blue Angel into an uncontrollable free fall. As the MF spun in a twisting motion Hades’ thrusters slightly moved 45 degrees to the right forcing the orange MF to sway to the side narrowly avoiding the attack. “She’s doing pretty well against that kid. He’s quite the pilot.” A soothing masculine voice suddenly emanated from behind Adam, Sharon and Stephen. Adam snickered as he turned around just as Gabriel approached. His blonde hair flowing in a state of eloquence that no other man was capable of displaying. “What do you want?” Adam asked piercing the room with bitterness. He never liked Gabriel, it possibly had something to do with the fact that he was hitting on Sharon a few days prior. “I apologize but both the lounge and the dome was packed I couldn’t get in. So I figured that the MF hanger would have a good view of the match and wouldn’t as crowded.” Gabriel replied as he quickly glanced at Sharon. Sharon blushed, and quickly turned around to watch the match. “I see, don’t get too comfortable. You are my next opponent after all.” Adam replied. “That I am….I am looking forward to our match.” Gabriel replied with an eerie sense of a harmonious tone to his tongue. A blinding crimson explosion flickered in the void of space quickly grabbing everyone’s attention. Blue Angel fluttered out from the caliginous skies of smoke as did Hades both trailing with furious spheres of sparking electricity. Blue Angel’s left arm was singed completely up until the elbow joint and from there on was nothing more than flinging wires. Heather began to panic to some extent as she knew there was no possible way for her to create a big enough distance between her and Hades, at this rate she would have to fight at close range something that Zach would have no problem doing. Hades sped towards Blue Angel with its metallic finger pulling the trigger to the plasma rifle, after each click of the trigger only an empty sound echoed through space. He cringed; through out the entire match he was trying to bombard Heather without paying attention to his ammunition reserves. Just as the plasma rifle was dropped from Hade’s hand the orange MF was engulfed in a massive display of power. The force of the beam that managed to tear through the right arm sent Hades spiraling in the opposite direction. Heather smirked as smoke began to emanate slowly out of the rail cannons’ barrel, this was her chance to create as much room as possible. Blue Angel turned around and began to back boost away from Hades, during the movement the right arm locked onto the fallen MF with the sniper rifle and began to fire. Each solid shell bounced off the orange armor while causing the radiator to work at an intense rate. “Damn I wasn’t expecting her to be this much trouble!” Zach screamed. Suddenly he felt sick, his hands let go of the throttle and he quickly grabbed onto his stomach. The swirling motion that his MF was moving at didn’t help as the nausea continued to pound his organs. Sweat dripped down his body as his pilot suit became moist from all the sweat. Once again he found himself fading from consciousness, his emotions giving into his desire for victory. As his eyelids quivered his pupils began to fade to an eerie gradient of gray. Hades then quickly regained its stability and exploded out heading towards Blue Angel. The sudden shock of Hades’ movement frightened Heather; her body seemed to freeze in position, her fingers trembling along the edges of the throttles. “Ah…the H-3 emerges once again…” The words mumbled out of Gabriel’s mouth. Neither Adam, Stephen or Sharon heard Gabriel speak they were too wrapped up in the match itself. Adam found himself leaning over the edge of the guard rail screaming for Heather to move out of the way, but it was too late. Hades suddenly zoomed past Blue Angel and at the last second swung its energy scythe. The searing beam of crimson energy sliced through the right arm. Heather was instantly thrown to the left side of the cockpit from the violent explosion that took her MF’s remaining arm. The attack didn’t end as Hades quickly turned around in order to slice the rail cannon into pieces. As the scythe tore through the elongated cannon Blue Angel dashed away to avoid the explosion to shattered the massive cannon. As the thick layers of smoke began to float indiscriminately Hades appeared deep within the torrents of smoke with a surrealistic crimson aura palpitating vibrantly around the MF. “I lost….but; I tried my best guys….” Heather mumbled. “Well that sucked…” Adam mumbled as he stood up from the guard rail. “Did you honestly expect her to win?” Stephen asked glancing back at his brother. “No, but I was hoping for an upset. She had me going for a bit, for a minute I actually thought she could have pulled this off.” Adam replied. “She did a great job though!” Sharon cheerfully interrupted. “I know…” Adam replied. “That Zach is a great competitor.” Gabriel mentioned. Adam just glanced back at him for a second, his body language did the talking for him. Adam then wrapped his arm around Sharon’s shoulder and smiled. “So what do you say? Lunch? Cause I’m starving!” Adam said loudly. Sharon quietly nodded as they began to head out of the hanger. Gabriel just smiled and quickly made eye contact with Sharon. “Dreams are key to understanding our existence…don’t forget that.” Gabriel said firmly. Sharon paused for a second while Adam ignored any words that seemed to fall out of Gabriel’s mouth. “(Dreams….my existence….)” Sharon began to think to herself as she left the room. Back on Mars the war continued to linger causing even more deaths that would pierce the heart of humanity. Revelations and their Eastern counter part Prodigy has caused the war to advance to a new level with their MF lines created specifically for the TA and the EAP. Battles were more chaotic causing even more destruction to the surrounding camps on Mars. The TA with their Shades and the EAP with their Night-Wings continued to engage one another in battle creating mass panic on Earth. With the advancing war rumors began to spread through out the public. Most began to fear that the war would soon spread to Earth and engulf the azure planet in a spiral of endless chaos and possibly bring about the end of the world. Red Fury managed to survive the growing dangerous battles as they continued to stick together. The South Western Territory has become a distant memory in the minds of humanity; now with the pressuring ideals of Vincent Avidus it has become nothing more than a war to dominate the other faction. And yet the Azure Cup remains a main factor in easing the minds of billions of people, it has become the Olympics of its time. No one wanted it to end; they wanted to remain in the blissful state of ignorance that the tournament seemed to emanate. As the matches for the day continued to progress group ‘A’ had its final match as did group ‘B’, the results for the matches remained displayed on the massive LCD screen located in the center of the lounge. Group ‘B’ Finals The excitement never seemed to cease, while the pilots and spectators celebrated Rebel stood in a secluded room with 4 other pilots who all sat quietly. “You 4 have been chosen out of a group of over a 100 pilots to aide in the tribulation that humanity is preparing to face come the conclusion of the Azure Cup.” Rebel mentioned softly as he took a sip of his glass of Merlot. Each pilot remained quiet as they stared up at Rebel as he paced around the room. “You see even though 3 out of the 4 of you have been eliminated from the tournament you still have proven yourselves worthy. During the remainder of the tournament you shall be training with your new MFs that have been specifically designed to your style of combat. War, Pestilence, Famine and Death, you will have the opportunity to usher in a new age of sinless behavior for humanity…take heed, the fate of the world is resting in your hands…” Rebel finished speaking taking a final sip of his wine. As he placed the crystalline glass down on the finely polished wooden table before him he began to chuckle. “I….I have accepted my dreams…my destiny….”
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