Perfect Sacrifice (44 page)

Currently, he and Ray were out again, this time far into the desert.  They were in a completely barren place, ready to practice some more.  Leon only needed to fine tune a few things before he'd be just as good as a trained GRC knight.  High speed battle was their specialty after all.

"Okay Leon," said Ray.  "Let's get ready."  They were both about to take off when a beeping noise drew their attention to their monitors.  Ray quickly brought up her tracking system.  There were two Genos only a mile ahead of their current location.

"What is it?" asked Leon, unsure exactly what was going on.  Ray didn't respond.  Instead she used her console to bring up a communication link with one of the Genos.  The way the dots flashed indicated that they weren't her enemies.  She was, however, a little surprised to be greeted with Abby's face.

"Abby?" she questioned, startling the other knight.  However, Abby quickly smiled to Ray, giving her a small wave.

"Hey R.C," she greeted.  "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," said Ray, a puzzled expression on her face.  Leon quickly appeared on her screen as well, still seeming a little lost.

"Ray, what are you doing?" he asked her, but he quickly noticed Abby.

"Hey Leon," she greeted with another wave of her hand.  A fourth communication link was opened, and Brian joined their conversation.

"Abby, what are you…?  Oh, hello Ray, Leon," he greeted with a small smile.  This was starting to get confusing for everyone.  Neither group knew what the other was doing.  They were all in the middle of the desert after all.

"Okay," began Ray.  "Would you guys please tell me what you're doing out here?"

"We received a call," began Brian, his voice holding a very serious tone to it, accentuated by his expression.  "Someone sighted that mysterious black Geno.  We came out to investigate it…"

"Without me?" she asked in disbelief, cutting Brian off.  "I can't believe you guys!"

"Relax," said Abby with a small smirk.  "We were coming to get you, honest.  This saves us a lot of time though.  We think it might be somewhere up ahead."

"Alright," Ray said with a smirk, the anxiousness burning in her eyes.  She was all heated up now.  She was ready for a battle like this.  However, she couldn't forget about her partner.  Leon was still there.  "Hey Leon," she began, drawing his attention.  "I want you to head back to the base."

"What?  Why?" he asked, sounding rather disappointed at her demand.  "I want to help."

"You'll just get in the way," she said, not meaning to be mean.  She wanted him to leave for other reasons.  After all, she was still under the oath of her promise.  She couldn't let him get killed.

"I won't be a burden," he stated, desperately wanting to help her.  He hadn't done all this high speed training for nothing.  This was the kind of battle he had been preparing for.

By now, Abby and Brian had made their way over to the two feuding pilots, arguing back and forth about why Leon couldn't stay even though he wanted to.  Neither Abby nor Brian saw the conversation going anywhere.  In fact, they were starting to repeat themselves.  They'd be stuck there for hours if someone or something didn't end it for them.

Unfortunately, that wish was granted, just not in the way they had hoped.  About ten stray bullets came flying towards them, and all four miraculously managed to dodge.  The four felines quickly began looking around, trying to find where the shelling had come from.  It wasn't until a gun was fired again that Ray saw it.  She had snapped her head the second she had heard the gun fire, and quickly jumped out of the way.  In the middle of thin air was gun, seemingly just floating there.  However, it quickly disappeared, and they were left with nothing but the desert before them.

"It's here," stated Ray, watching the desert sands for the slightest sign of movement.  She was lucky to have good eyes.  She could catch even the smallest flinch.  Nothing really escaped her line of sight.

"Hello knights," greeted a young but deep voice.  All four of them just crouched down, ready to move when necessary.  "I've been waiting for you."

"Likewise mister," stated Ray as her Geno gave a throaty snarl.  "I've been waiting a long time.  I'll make you pay for what you did on Azran and Trin.  I swear on my honor as the ace knight that I'll get revenge.  You're not leaving here alive."

"We'll see," he said, and Ray could have sworn that he was smirking.  All of them knew that this wasn't going to be easy.  They had no idea what the creature in front of them was capable of.  And more importantly, Ray had lost her argument and would now possibly break her promise.  After all, Leon was still there.

CHAPTER 23

Revelation

All four of them stood, facing what they thought to be their invisible enemy.  Ray was watching the sand for any movement.  She wasn't about to let this thing get the upper hand.  If they had any hopes of winning, they would need everyone to remain intact.

"So," asked Leon, "how do we go about doing this?"  They were all currently on a private link so that their enemy couldn't hear or see them.

"Easy," began Ray, preparing her Geno to lunge at the enemy at the first sight of movement.  "We take out the stealth transmitter.  It should be located on top of the Geno somewhere."

"Oh?  And how do we do that?  It's invisible!" he shouted at her, not really getting this.  Ray only smirked in response, keeping her eyes on the desert sands.

"You obviously don't know much about stealth technology," she said, earning herself a small glare from him.

"It's like this," began Abby.  "Only the armor is invisible.  That's why we can see the guns when they flip up from the hidden panels.  It's true that the transmitter is also invisible, but if you aim for the gun when it pops up, we should get pretty close to hitting it too."

"Alright," he said, still not seeming too sure about this.

"Are you afraid?" asked Brian, more in a question than in mockery.  After all, only a fool wouldn't be.

"Well," he began, seeming to really think it over.  "Yeah, I mean, if the other knights couldn't do it, why should we be able to?  I'm not even a knight."

"Don't worry," said Ray with a confident smirk.  "We'll win.  You guys have me, remember?"

"Don't get too cocky R.C," warned Abby as she shifted her Geno a little, waiting for their enemy to make the first move.  Just as she began wishing for it, the sands shifted.

"Jump back!" commanded Ray, and they all did as she said, just dodging a swipe from the mechanical ghost in front of them.  A gun on its back quickly flipped up and began firing, but they all managed to dodge the bullets, each running in a different direction.

Ray began firing her own gun, aiming for the one he had on his back.  She had to keep running to avoid getting hit by anything else, like one of the thing's legs or hands or whatever it used to swipe at them.  She kept running until she was sure she was at a safe distance.  She quickly spun into a stop, two side panels flipping out to reveal more guns.  With the one on her back, she began blanketing the area in shelling.  All it took was a few nicely placed shots, and the gun was blown off of the thing's back.  Ray just smirked as she watched the gun slide off what was probably the main body and then clatter to the ground.  It was crushed not long after, probably as the creature was turning to face her.

"Ray, be careful!" warned Brian.  He, Leon, and Abby were still on the other side, unsure of exactly what to do.  Without Ray's eyes there to help them see, they weren't sure how close it was to them.

Ray stood her ground, waiting for the slightest sign of movement.  It never came, however.  Instead, another compartment flipped up on its back, and everyone's eyes widened as they laid them on what came out.  It was a huge cannon, at least three times larger than the one Ramirez had used against her.  She quickly recognized it as the same cannon that had completely obliterated the GRC base on Trin.  It was also the cannon that had taken the life of more than one fellow knight.

"Ray, get out of the way!" shouted Brian, worry filling his voice.  However, Ray didn't move.  She just positioned her Geno into a pouncing position, now watching and waiting for the cannon to fire.  The way she saw it, she'd have only a matter of seconds to jump away before it reached her.  She'd have to be quick.  This was her only chance to get rid of the cannon and the stealth transmitter.  The cannon was just about ready to fire.

"R.C, move now!" shouted Abby out of worry.  Too late.  The cannon fired.

"Ray!" called Leon as they all watched the beam of white hot light race towards her Geno.  In a split second, she jumped up, her boosters flaring, launching her not only up but over.  As she began going over the cannon, still up in the air, she began firing her two side guns and her back mounted one.  She covered the top of the Geno in shelling, eventually managing to blow the cannon clean off its back.  That's not all she did.  Just as she landed, she fired off a few more shots, and one hit the stealth transmitter, knocking it off the back of the Geno.

"Alright R.C!" cheered Abby.  "That was amazing!"

"I'll say," whispered Leon, obviously impressed.  The ace knight never ceased to amaze him.  It was like she had a hundred different tricks.  She was unlike any Geno pilot around, seeming completely unafraid of whatever was thrown at her during a battle.  That was about to change, however. 

The stealth shield slowly began wearing off, revealing one part of the Geno at a time.  Just like the reports had said, it was indeed black, and it was incredibly big.  Their Genos didn't even compare to this thing. It was a good ten times longer and five times taller than their Genos could ever be. 

Its eyes weren't just red like most Geno's glass eyes.  They were alit with red lights, giving the black beast an eerie look to it.  Not that it hadn't been eerie before, but this was just too much.  As more of its body was revealed, the knights began to back up, but none more than Ray.  In fact, she was the most afraid right now.  This Geno had eight legs, each one coming to a rather sharp point.  Its main body was connected to the head where two pincher shaped fangs resided.  It looked exactly like the thing it was meant to resemble.

Ray began backing up even more, making her way past Abby, Brian, and Leon.  All three of them looked back at her, but Abby and Brian were the ones confused.

"Ray, what's wrong?" asked Brian, wanting to know why the confident ace knight was suddenly scared to death.  After all her boasting, all of her big talk about how she'd destroy the monster, she was now trying to retreat.

"Spider," she whispered in fear as her eyes remained on the large Geno before them.  Never had she been expecting something like this.  What was she supposed to do now?  The very sight of the creature was sending a petrifying chill down her spine.

"What?" questioned Abby, seeming thoroughly confused at this newest development.

"Ray, snap out of it!" shouted Leon, trying to get through to her.  However, it was no use.  This was her only fear, and it was a bad one at that.  Their only hope for winning was slowly being blown away like the desert sand around them.  The most powerful pilot of the GRC, the ace knight, was scared stiff, now completely useless to this battle.

"What's going on?" asked Brian.

"Ray is afraid of spiders," answered Leon, now rather angry at this predicament.  In the back of his mind, all he could think about was how dead the four of them were.  This thing had taken the lives of eight GRC knights.  What chance did two, plus an average pilot have against this thing?

"Afraid of spiders?" questioned Abby, seeming as if she hadn't known that.  She probably hadn't, come to think of it.  She quickly turned to Ray, seeing the fearful expression on her video screen.  "R.C, it's not a spider!" she said rather harshly.  "It's a Geno, one we can't fight without your help.  Now come on!"  However, Ray made no attempt to move back towards them.  Instead, she backed up further.

"Pathetic," stated the pilot of the spider Geno.  The machine let out a loud mechanical shriek before two machine guns appeared on its back.  "I guess the ace knight won't be much of a threat now."

"You heard us?" questioned Abby in disbelief.  Their link was supposed to be private.

"Of course," he responded with what sounded like a smirk on his face.  "Every word."  The two machine guns began firing, and the three Genos spread out.  Luckily he wasn't going after Ray.  There was no point.  Attacking what was attacking him was a better strategy.  He was very happy right now that Ramirez wouldn't be watching this battle.  There was no way for him to.  There wasn't a single news camera out in the desert.  No one knew that this battle was even taking place except for one other person.

"Good luck Aaron," said a voice over his private communication link, one he knew that only he could hear right now.

"Thanks Andy," he said with a smirk.  "But I won't need it."