FireWind Chronicles

[Vince the Dark]

Awwh... :th_PyongLlora: Bro...

[Dr. Strange]

I caught it. That's funny!

[flames]

Here we go, prepare for the beginning of the end...again. (I'll add to this little by little as time goes on)

Chapter 15: Untold Tale V - Suspense
Greetings again...stranger. No need to get your money out this time, I'm payin'. No need to look so shocked, I've grown to enjoy your company. Besides, you're eager to hear the end of my tale, eh? Very well then.
And so thanks to recent developments the resistance began to fight back, far fiercer and stronger than ever before. It wasn't just the new technology or the removal of the threat that was the X virus...no, they had regained their fighting spirit and their fires were burning like never before; that it was truly pushed them forwards until they were finally ready to assault Phantom and end this war once and for all.

It was almost too easy by this point. But the resistance members had become blind, not realising the true threat that this seemingly final obstacle would give them. But even so, it looked like Omega would probably recover at some point today or tomorrow. If things were slightly more difficult or Phantom escaped the assault, with the current strength of the resistance and having Omega re-join their ranks, surely there would be nothing to worry about, right?
Leviathan executed a perfect battle-strategy, fully utilizing the soldiers, vehicles and weapons available. The resistance slowly but surely swept out the area outside Neo Babylon with virtually no casualties. An ominous wind began to blow as they entered Neo Babylon, dark clouds unlike anything ever witnessed rolling in, the sky alive with energy as sand was swept into the air from the deserts. Thunder boomed in the sky, lightning struck down from the heavens as darkness engulfed the planet. People could only stare agape at this incredible occurrence, this sudden sign from above, an omen of things to come.
The soldiers inhaled heavily and entered the city in small groups, constantly wary for signs of droids.

Something was not right...where were all the humans? Where were the security droids? The anti-air defenses? The patrols? As the leader of one group was relaying this truly unnerving information back to the base, a roar erupted outwards with all the fury of a an enraged tornado. This time it came not from the sky, but the surroundings. Levi and the mission controllers at the base barely had time to look at one another in confusion before screams of pain and the sounds of bones breaking met their ears. Several more horrible, blood-curdling sounds so gruesome that it was best not to even ponder as to what was happening came though before a brief silence and the hiss of static...

What must have felt like a brief eternity of silence later for the pair and a frantic researcher burst in, eyes nearly popping out of his head. "Miss Leviathan!" He exclaimed, trying to get his breath back. Levi raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly at how he addressed her.
"Dan, you know full well I hate being placed above others or given titles...but that's not important, why are you here, we're in a critical situation here and we requested not to be interrupted." She said with a slight bite in her voice before she re-collected herself, wondering what was so important for him to hurry here.
"My apologies Levi, but this is an emergency! The Prototype Virus Armour we've been working on has disappeared, along with the recently recovered, reconstructed and modified Crimson Shinigami! What's more is that the terminals we've been working on had been logged into, with the information on the project on display..."
Levi briefly cursed mentally before addressing the researcher, bewildered and stressed out by all that had happened in the last few minutes. "...But if whoever took it accessed all the data on it, than why on earth would they take such a risk with it? They can't use it in its current state, it's too unstable. Besides, it hasn't even been infused with enough X Viruses to fully power it anyway...Whoever did this surely has a death wish!" After a moment of thought she added: "...and perhaps they have a thriving supply of the virus?"

As the three of them silently pondered on this for a moment a beep came from the command console and a voice rang through of one of the doctors on a lower level of the base. "Levi? Are you there? I've got to tell you some-"
Levi turned to face the console and activated the monitor to see the kindly face of a certain doctor who had been with the resistance since the beginning. Even Levi had long since forgotten his name, choosing instead to refer to the old man by his nickname as everyone else did: Good Doctor. "Ah, doctor, I've been hoping to hear from you...I can only hope that your news about our recovering men and women will be more positive than the recent disasters?"
The rather pale man coughed, wheezing a little before replying. Levi's expression softened at this sight, recalling all he had done for them. The poor man had been working non-stop as of late, working even more tirelessly than usual with the urgency of the attack against Phantom and extracting the virus from people. "Most of our injured reploids and humans will be fine and Omega should be up in less than an hour. Knowing that active youth he'll demand to leap out into the battlefield the moment he's awake." This comment eased the tension somewhat as he even the solemn mission commander smiled a little at those words. "However...Little Celestia appears to be on her deathbed and her children have are dying by her side. It Xan succeeded in his wretched desire to rid the world of Anthros at last...I had hoped that the relatively low level of infection in that family would have allowed them to survive, but it seems fate has dealt us an ill hand."
At this Dan bowed his head in respect to the poor mother and her children. Levi felt a tear run down her cheek as she realised that their attempts at preserving the species had been for naught. The mission commander was silent and unmoving, back turned to the others. They all showed their sorrow in their own way. "So...only Flames is still alive..." Levi muttered to herself a little louder than she intended.

At this the Good Doctor snapped out of his mournful trance and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "And that reminds me of what I contacted you for. I was checking through the recovery rooms and noticed that...I don't understand how it could have happened, he had no way of recovering to live as a cripple, let alone get up..." By this point he was just muttering in a bewildered fashion to himself but Levi was quick to interrupt and steer him back on track. "What is is doctor?"
"I don't quite know how to put this but...HoKaze no Flames has left the building!"

The sky growled and the earth shook as if in fear as the world darkened, but one fiery Anthro, seemingly the last of his kind, was not shaken by this nor the disaster laid out before him, the disaster he was running straight towards. He had took the “Protovirus” Armour and the modified Crimson Shinigami knowing full well the dangers of using such equipment and he had established a communications channel with the resistance when he started his journey, so he had also by now overheard the various conversations in the mission control area between Levi and the other resistance members. Now that all the pieces of the puzzle had falln into place and he was but a few minutes away from the entrance to Neo Babylon, he simply had to wait for Levi to realise that a communication channel was open between them and give him more Intel. As expected he didn’t wait long.
“Flames, do you read me?” Levi’s strained voice came through in his earpiece.
“Loud and clear. Currently en route to last known location of our soldiers before the signal was last. Awaiting further orders and Intel.” Flames replied calmly and professionally, although not without a rather quiet but noticeable gasp of pain.
“What on earth where you thinking!? You knew what happened to our army, are barely alive right now and are using an armour that isn’t likely to stand more than one hit! Flames…” Levi began, before hesitiating.

“Levi. You know full well that nothing you say will change my mind, I know full well that even a glancing blow from one of the weaker droids will kill me at this point, but I also know that I only have a few hours left in this world anyway…This is my last chance to make a difference, our last chance to stop this threat to decent life. I’m going to die at the end of the end of the day regardless of what happens; you know as well as I do that with all the risks and impossible objectives I took out I should have died years ago, but I refused to.”
At this Levi approached her monitor currently showing Flames’ location and briefly shut her eyes, deep in thought and wrestling with her inner struggles.
“Very well. HoKaze no Flames…Last Hope of the Resistance…Warrior of FireWind, lend us your strength one last time!” Levi commanded, eyes full of the same burning passion to save the world as she had seemingly lost not too long ago. “Your mission objectives: Investigate the cause of the disappaearance of our soldiers and eliminate it before launching the main assault on Phantom’s fortress. Eliminate all threats and…try not to get yourself killed too soon; avoid all enemy fire and use stealth tactics where necessary. This will be your last mission…Any objections?”

[Vince the Dark]

Very interesting bro. It'll be very interesting to see what actually happened to all the soldiers when they entered Neo Babylon. Keep it up. ^.=.^

[flames]

Chapter 15: Untold Tale VI – Showdown
And so it began…the final mission of HoKaze no Flames, an impossible mission like none other which no mortal could possibly accomplish alone. With the realisation of this, the fate of the planet on his shoulders and the grinding pain of his imminent demise cutting him apart, he stood alone in the darkness before it all; even now refusing to give in, refusing to break his promises, refusing to let everybody down.
The last true Anthro left, a warrior more dead than alive, someone whose fate had been sealed in stone so many times only for said to be shattered, opening up a new path in the destiny of his own life and the lives of those around him. With Death waiting eagerly by his shoulder, the lone warrior entered the deserted city, utilizing the light weight of the Protovirus Armour to move swiftly and ilently through the shadows, avoiding detection by any of the security systems still intact.

What met his eyes was enough to make even the most seasoned and hard-boiled soldier want to throw up. There was naught but mutiliated bodies, ripped muscle tissue, snapped bones and various organs splattered around the place, with a dark river of blood painting the buildings and streets a morbid crimson. The sheer stench of the torn bodies and various decaying matter alone was enough to knock you unconscious with but one whiff of it all. Flames’ sensitive nose felt this foul incarnation of death like a hammer to the head; the scents bringing bitter tastes and making him once more wish to throw up. It almost felt as if the stench was attached to his actual body, sticking to his fur and seeping into his mind. This bowel-churning massacre assaulted all of his senses, leaving him struggling for breath.
“Levi…I think it’s safe to say that our soldiers are well and truly dead…” He just barely managed to splutter out, gasping for clean air.
Slowly pulling himself together and focusing on his objective, he stealthily infiltrated deeper into the city, on the look out both for what could have caused such brutal murders and for any of the inhabitents of the city, who seemed to have vanished. Could Phantom have killed the humans of Neo Babylon too?

The moment Flames thought this a great screeching cry met his ears and the ground trembled, shaking some of the splattered organs of the buildings along with small chunks of rubble. A single crash of lightning lit up the city, outlining a dark shape standing tall on a huge pile of scrap metal. With a single swift moment born from a lifetime of pain and fighting, the young, doomed Anthro drew himself into an appropriate battle stance; his small figure an almost laughable contrast to the towering beast above. The flashes of lightning and distance between the two made seeing details of this ominous creature near impossible. Staring in the face of the unknown with death on his shoulder, Flames was indeed afraid. He was a normal living being after all and even he was not fearless…but the way he easily overcame his fears of the unknown and of death; that is what allows him to stare bravely in the face of his demise and often emerge victorious.
With a gradually loudening rumble of thunder the dark shape cried out to the angry heavens once more, this time leaping forward from its perch on top off the heap, impacting the ground much like a meteor, an explosion of dirt and rubble rushing outwards from the impact area. The shape was no longer a dark outline high above a good distance away. It now looked up from within the deep crater it had made, staring at the suddenly silently sky. Buildings toppled as the very visible shockwave of the landing reached them and the great deafening sound said explosion had made seemed to have silenced the very heavens, so ashamed were they at being beaten. The figure simply looked upwards, as the clouds dispersed away from the figure, as if afraid of its presence. A brief beam of sunlight illuminated the beast as Flames could only look on with blade gripped tensely in his gloved hand, still shook up by the impact…

It was truly a fearsome creature, as I’m sure you have gathered. When I myself heard of this encounter I was simply told that mere words could not describe the truly revolting form of this massive foe. An organic mess, of various tissues and pieces of scrap machinery littered throughout the body, sticking out here and there; with several larger structures of metal and blackened bone holding up a large, imposing looking weapon on what was assumed to be its back.
But it was not this sickening mashup of organic flesh and machinery that brought vile vomit to the young Anthro’s mouth. No…Phantom had done the ultimate abomination against nature and against humanity. Flames now knew where most of the humans of Neo Babylon had now vanished to. For within that complex mesh of flesh bone and scattered bits of machine the limbs, heads and torsos of fresh, human corpses were clearly visible. A truly stomach-churning and repulsive beast this was, an artificial life-form born of gelantenous, genetically-engineered beings, the most advanced technology left in the world and through the monstrous murders and absorbtion of innocent humans…and possibly a few captive Reploids held prisoner by Xan and then Phantom in the fortress, used as naught but test subjects for their latest maniacal experiments.

Flames had the deep inferno burning in those blazing crimson orbs otherwise known as eyes; eyes that had seen the world and could pierce through any enemy. But it was now that they shone with such determination never seen before. Waves of heat and gusts of wind could almost be felt just by knowing that those unblinking eyes were open. His heart was beating fast yes, but not as much as one would expect, for in the face of such danger he still kept his calm, cool collected manner. Blazing hot yet coldly calm...A tornado of whirling contrasts he was and his body mimicked this whirlwind with a flurry of impossibly fast slashes. The Protovirus Armour fed off the X Virus cells within the Anthro and when combined with the warrior's Spirit of FireWind technique his barrage of attacks gained devastating power and speed.
Each slash left afterimages in its wake, each slight movement summoning great rushes of air to be blasted outwards and every last impact against the foul creature's body shook the ground ever so slightly. Gashes appeared in the wretched creature's tissue, causing sludge-like goo to ooze out slowly whilst the metal parts simply clanged and were scratched.
Flames stooped his assault and flipped backwards just in time to dodge an attack from the beast's weapon mounted on its back. The moment he landed more attacks darted into his path as the beast hit the ground, sending shockwave after shockwave after the young warrior. If but one hit him or possibly even scratched him, he would be done for. Thankfully the armour was light and Flames was brimming with more energy than he had ever felt coursing through his veins before. He dodged the relentless and brutal attempts to murder him with swift skill and grace, his body moving perhaps even faster than it had done for his own attack against the creature.

Flames landed from an impressive set of somersaults and skidded backwards a little, looking up at his foe, noticing that it had stopped. It seems the beast was temporarily worn out by its efforts but as he prepared for another assault on the creature, he noticed that the ooze created from the earlier wounds had seeped back in and the wounds had healed, albeit with some scarring and damaged metal pieces.

(Still more to come)

[Dr. Strange]

..... anything else you going to hit me with? Nice addition. =]