Chapter Seven:

The concept of fighting out in an environment where gravity wasn’t a factor was new to Adam. He wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, the throttles felt lighter even the accelerators felt light; just a slight tap from the feet would ignite a burst of energy from the boosters. Regardless of the inexperience he was amazed at the sheer beauty that surrounded his position. The Earth glowed vibrantly as it slowly spun on its axis; the blue ball of life invoked an emotion that Adam had yet to feel in a long time; tranquility. It was hard to detach himself from the scenery, he was in fact out in space for a training match. Adam knew little about Rebel358 aside from what he had hear. The MF known as Shadow made its way out of Prosperity, dim flickering lights of energy emanating from the back of the core pushing the frame through space. Stars flickered brightly lighting up the darkness in an attempt to scare away the surreal shadow like environment that loomed. Adam smirked, by a first glimpse he wasn’t too impressed with the Shadows but even taking that into consideration he was well aware that appearances were deceiving. His brown eyes slowly lingered from corner to corner, the standard MF that he was using was much different than the one he used to take the military exam in. The armament of weapons was different, a basic missile pack firmly attached to the broad square like shoulders. Adam was used to energy based weaponry, this time he would have to fight using solid weapons; he had no quarrel with an assault rifle but what he wasn’t sure about was a solid metal sword that hung around the MF’s chest. Because it was entirely made of metal it meant that it would be much heavier than a normal energy saber, and even though every object is essentially weightless in space the sword would have a much slower response time. Attached to the left arm was a dual howitzer launcher, the rockets that burst out from the barrels were powerful, strong enough to tear through the armor of a BXT, but they were slow and had a dreary reload rate. Before the battle even began he knew the stacks were against him, much higher than usual. The one thing he felt confident in was the idea that the MF was equipped with a heavy armor shroud, its defensive statistics against solid shell weapons were very high, but energy beams were its weakness, a few attacks from an energy round caused the shroud to discharge a dangerous amount of heat. And the radiator that was installed wasn’t capable of handling such a high level of heat stress, and to make matters worse Adam realized that Shadow was heavily based on an energy offense.

“Already this battle isn’t looking to be in my favor…hehe…” Adam mumbled, his fingers quickly continued to graze against the pallid key tabs on the control panel. The OS had been configured for space combat but the FCS wasn’t on par with Adam’s response time. From what he had seen the FCS had a .98 second delay before carrying out an action which was fine for most rookie pilots who needed extra time to verify a lock on, but Adam was used to performing with a .25 second delay. The screen was bright, emanating a light cerulean glow into the cockpit, the darkened shadows all ran from the light retreating to the corners and crevices of the cockpit.

“If I do this I might be able to get some good hits in, hehe, wow I didn’t even notice the generator was an X-series. With this I won’t be able to expand as much energy as I usually do, I’ll have to keep a heavy eye on that too. Damn, there are too many variables when using this suite…” Adam continued to stare down the MF’s specs, his eyes were already beginning to lose focus, the computer screen was incredibly bright making it difficult to stare for a long period of time. Adam sighed brushing his fingers through his hair, his body leaning back into the seat. Soft toned chuckles floated out from his lips, he then leaned forward placing his hands on top of the throttles.
Rebel358’s eyes widened with a spark, his eyebrows curved upwards, it was a signal; he was ready for combat. With a flick of his wrist Shadow’s generator began to pump energy throughout the MF. An eerie fuchsia glow began to emanate around the outer edges of Shadow’s armor; an after effect from the generator.

“I see. So I take it that you are ready to engage. Shall I hold back until you are properly adjusted to the combat capabilities of that MF?” Rebel’s voice was flowing, and full of confidence. He wasn’t arrogant, just confident, there was a difference.

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“As you wish then.”

A quick jolt from the boosters and Shadow sped towards Adam. At first Adam was in shock from the speed that Shadow displayed. He felt like a rookie once again in this MF, frozen in awe over the abilities of his opponent. But it didn’t last long; he was able to wake himself from the trance just before Shadow swung. Again Adam made a miscalculation, he never expected the MF to appear so suddenly and in an offensive position. His teeth grinding against one another he pulled the throttle inwards as fast as he could. The throttles were much harder to control; the added weight of the armor shroud was the cause. The MF barely managed to strafe to the side, as the bulky MF moved the left arm swung in upwards just scraping against the searing beam of energy that protruded from the saber in Shadow’s right hand.

“Damn it!” Adam screamed.

Rebel358 remained emotionless, his face stern and focused. In his peripheral vision he noticed the silver MF quickly regaining its balance along with raising the dual howitzer launcher.

“It’s a pity…” He mumbled under his cold breath.

Just as the rockets began to fire Shadow zoomed past the MF once again sending Adam back into his seat from the mere shock. Sweat slowly perspired from his pores, his body shaking, for the first time since he first fought the Chimera Adam was on edge. It didn’t help that he was piloting what he felt was a worthless children’s safety toy, with all the extra armor. But in truth the armor was only slowing him down in a weightless environment. Adam eyes shot open as he watched the left arm burst out in a quick spurt of flames. The arm slowly detached from the elbow joint in a clean slice and just floated lifeless in the dead abyss of space.

“Such speed….I’ve never seen anything like that before…(shit, I can’t defeat him; not in this thing anyway. If I’m to have any chance of winning then I’m going to have to be smart…)”

The missile pack flipped open as dozens of crimson square boxes filled the display screen all solidifying around the blackish MF. With a sea of burning embers fueling his pupils Adam fired the barrage. Rebel’s eyes slowly closed as Shadow sped forward towards the onslaught of metal warheads. Adam smirked, he figured that Rebel358 was the type of person to rush head into an attack if he was confident of his own speed; in a way they were alike.

Shadow nimbly strafed through the tempest of missiles avoiding every attack and slashing through some missiles. The silver MF had already taken off by this point and managed to get on the side of Shadow. Adam was reluctant to use the weapon, but it was his only means of close combat; the metallic sword. Just as the right arm swung fiercely the metallic sword cut through a few missiles that lingered. Shadow was gone, Adam began to look frantically but found nothing more than debris and looming stars in the distance.

“What the? Where the hell?!” Adam screamed. His voice cut out as he began to feel the brooding presence that Rebel358 and his MF managed to convey. At the last second the thrusters on the MF ignited pushing Adam to the side avoiding the oncoming attack. Shadow’s left arm now slashed through nothing allowing what Adam believed to be a weak point revealed. He quickly turned back to the missile system and fired a bundle of salvos at Shadow. He was confident that at such a close range not even Shadow’s above average speed would be of any use. But yet another amazing feat sent chills burning down his spine. All of the missiles exploded in a fiery splendor, smoke soon dissipated revealing a humming glowing crimson barrier of energy in between Adam’s MF and Shadow. Adam gasped; he had only seen that barrier in a few places prior, the Chimera and the wall cutting off the South Western territory. While Adam sat crushed Shadow spun around kicking the silver MF in the side. Adam was tossed around inside the cockpit, his head crashing into the right display screen and then being tugged back into the other direction abruptly. He couldn’t believe the skill level of his opponent, he knew it wasn’t because of the MF he was piloting; even in Blue Dragon he wasn’t sure if he could keep up with Shadow’s movements. They were undetectable, however that didn’t mean he was about to give up entirely.

“Hehe, you’re a lot more skilled than I was lead to believe.”

“As are you. No one has ever managed to dodge one of my attacks, let alone two. But that with standing, you are of no challenge to me, I really hope it is because your range of motion is restricted in that primitive MF.”

“Heh…(this isn’t good at all…)”

            “So they’ve met so soon…this was quite unexpected.” Luscious said as he took a sip of his mulled wine. Both Caleb and Severen sat comfortably on the leather couch in the main corporate lounge over seeing the battle.

“I think you have over estimated Novus Luscious. He can’t keep up with the failure.” Caleb replied.

“It may seem that way, but I’m pretty confident the young boy is just using this encounter to analyze Shadow. I mean why would he put all of his effort into a fight where the power, and speed of Shadow clearly out match the standard MF ten fold. You are still naïve Caleb, yes you understand how to fight and you do that quite splendidly I might add. But still, you rely on your power and instincts alone, that won’t always get you through the battle. This is a tournament you know, and if one intends to be victorious then one needs to sacrifice pride for knowledge.” Luscious replied. His fingers slowly rubbed against the outer edge of the red wine glass as it was placed on the table.

Caleb cringed, looking back at the flashes of light bursting out in space.

“You still haven’t told me Luscious why you’re having this tournament in the first place. I thought you wanted this war more than anyone. But you have taken out the single most important factor in this war. Without MFs each side is going to resort to using ineffective means of fighting. Foot soldiers and armored tanks…all fighting over an area neither side has been able to enter.”

“It wasn’t ineffective in the early 21st century, before Genesis advanced the concept of war.” Luscious replied.

“True, but each side will sustain heavy casualties.” Caleb replied.

“Doesn’t make much of a difference to me if that happens. The way I see it, it’s just saving me the trouble of doing that deed myself later on when the time is right and everything is set in motion. This tournament has brought together the best MF pilots Earth has to offer, we are seeing the cream of the crop here Caleb. Plus we still have a nearly infinite amount of lifeless purposeless clones awaiting programming.” Luscious’ plans were known only to him, Caleb and Severen were aware of the general idea but nothing in too much detail.

“Are you saying we’re going to use the clones? They weren’t just for research?” Severen interrupted.

“Of course we’re going to use them. What was the point of spending all that money if we’re just going to leave them floating in a tube?”

“I see…wait a minute?” It struck Caleb at that very instant, what Luscious was planning with the Azure Cup tournament. Even though the plan seemed a bit surreal at first Caleb realized that everything Luscious had been doing over the past few years were nothing short of idealistic.

“Just wait and watch how this all folds out. You will get your shot at Novus when the time comes. Until then, he needs to be paired with Rebel…it is something that will be of personal benefit to me later on…now just relax and enjoy the ride.”

            Adam was panting every few seconds that managed to pass. He even began to wonder how he was still piloting. His fingers were aching on the border of muscle spasms. Shadow continued to hover before him, mocking him as the light from the sun gleamed off the perfectly intact metallic armor. Adam’s standard MF however was not holding up as well, the left arm was severed as was the right leg. The missile pack was out of ammo as was the assault rifle; he was left with the broad metallic sword. He sighed wiping the crimson trail of blood that ran down his nose.

“So I’m left with this useless sword huh…hehehe, not much hope here. I’m going to need a miracle for this one.”

“It was an entertaining battle. You are by far the most skilled opponent I have come to face here so far. It is no wonder that my counter part is so interested in your abilities.” Rebel mentioned. Even though the two had been fighting profusely he still talked without a stall or pause in his breath. Adam stared wide eyed at Shadow; he wasn’t completely sure what he meant by “counterpart” but at the moment that didn’t matter. His original goal of seeing how Shadow moved and reacted had been attained a good amount of time ago. He just wanted to land a blow now. Something caught his attention, something he seemed to have over looked; it was the part specifications for the metallic sword.

“What is this? An energy beam edge? I wonder what that does.” Adam shrugged his shoulders; he already had nothing to lose. The MF’s right arm extended as the metallic sword became elongated. Then something new happened, two thin beams of crimson energy shot out running along the edges of the blade.

“Well its not a full energy beam, but it’ll do for now!”

“I see…”

            “What the hell is Adam doing?!” Reine screamed as his hands pressed forcefully onto the pane window. Stephen just stood at the edge silent; his eyes thinned focusing on the frame structure of Shadow. His hands rested in his pants pocket while he remained collected. Both Reine and himself had walked out to the training room just to watch Adam in space and were shocked to see him in the midst of a battle with Rebel358.

“He can’t defeat him! So why is he still trying?” Reine continued to scream.

Stephen smirked.

“It is because he can’t win. I am positive that he is clearly aware of that right now.” Stephen replied.

“I see, is it because he’s using a standard MF instead of his own?”

Stephen sighed shaking his head.

“No, Adam knows there is a big gap between their skill levels. Even if he had his MF, he couldn’t win.”

“Huh?!” Reine appeared to be appalled by the lack of trust Stephen had for his brother’s skills.

“He’s probably trying to continue the fight so he can find any patterns in Rebel’s attack strategies…if there are any.”

            The heated water pounded lightly onto their tan smooth skin. Steam filled the shower room as the water came into contact with the eloquently patterned tile floor. Her fingers moved slowly through her drenched shampoo soaked hair, rubbing softly against her scalp. Her eyes remained closed as she found herself in a state of ecstasy; her body was more relaxed than it had ever been in a while. Her chest rising with each passing breath, the aroma that filled the room was sweet and sensuous; naturally no man would ever get the chance to partake in the essence that was filling the room.

“So how long have you two been…you know dating?” Ashley’s voice broke the sensual silence that the girls had become accustomed to. Sharon’s eyes slowly opened, she smiled while continuing to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. The ivory velutinous suds of soap oscillated down her nude body caressing every alluring curve on her body.

“Well it’s hard to say, he has never gone as far as asking me to be his official girlfriend. But we’ve been very close for about 2 years now…” Sharon mumbled as the sound of the water impacting the floor echoed.

“Adam tends to be indecisive and just non-commiting.” Heather interrupted as she was the first to step out of the shower. She began to dry her flourishing skin.
Sharon chuckled a bit and continued to rinse her long dark brown hair.

“He was like that when I knew him too. Although it was never something as serious as a relationship, but still he could never be committed to a project. He would always just bail out at the last second.” Ashley replied.

“I don’t know, I just get this feeling when I’m around him….it’s kind of hard to explain it thoroughly.” Sharon replied, her hands clutching onto the opposing shoulders.

“Love huh.” Ashley replied.

Heather smirked and continued to dry off her body while Sharon just stopped what she was doing and turned completely towards Ashley. Ashley was smiled while Sharon just stood staring at her with a blank face blushing as the water continued to rinse the soap off her body.

“Heh, I can tell by the look in your face. You are in love.” Ashley replied.

“I….I…”

“Don’t worry about it Sha, we understand.” Heather replied as she began to get dressed.      

“What about you Ashley?” Heather asked.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“We’ve seen the way you look at Stephen.” Sharon replied with a grin.

Ashley’s eyes widened, she turned around waving her arms from side to side. “Its nothing! We’re just friends….and he just happens to be cute.”

“Hahahaha…” Both Sharon and Heather began to laugh simulatenously. Then something strange happened, Sharon’s pupils went pale and she quickly clutched her heat.

The laughing ceased and both Heather and Ashley jumped into Sharon’s stall with the water still running as they caught her limp body as it fell to the floor. Sharon’s breathing was sporadic and heavy.

“What happened?!” Ashley screamed.

“I…I don’t know!”

            Adam’s eyes slowly closed leaving nothing but darkness in his wake. The last thing he saw was Shadow disengaging its energy saber. The silver MF floated lifelessly through space as nothing more than a severely damaged core.