This is Rated R for blood, violance and similar themes. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Do Angels Fear the Reaper? CHAPTER 3 Before she could react she was thrown aside against a wall a yard or so away. She hit it hard but was uninjured. She looked on to see Chris was tossed aside nearly running into some of his scattered parts and contraptions. He appeared to be alright. The box was sliced open in one strike of a sword and the sword was sheathed again. “Shall we continue, Christopher, Kei?” he growled. “What the hell are you doing?” Kei got up sounding very furious. “Don’t yell at me, Hyoomon, I was being merciful. I won’t let it happen again,” he walked out of the room and soon left the warehouse for the night once again. “You hurt, Kei?” Chris got up and walked over. “No, are you?” Kei walked back over to the box meeting him half way. “No more than usual, he was checking in on us. Well that’s how I translate it anyways,” Chris got down and lifted a black cloth from the box. It looked like a cloak much like the Reaper’s yet it was perfectly clean and there were no sleeves. “Blood?” Kei looked at her hand having placed it at the back of her neck without much thought. “Yeah, it happens,” he shrugged. “How can you be so,” “Look, Kei,” he interrupted, “I would love to save all of those humans out there even though I am not a human myself. They are living beings and what their relatives did to us has nothing to do with them. I can’t do a thing to change his mind. Nothing I can say will matter. I couldn’t even protect Vicky, Techtonica, whatever her name was. I’m weak, I pain for them, but being hurt does not let one live easily, I ignore it for my own health. I do help them when I can though. Every little thing is worth it. Helping those in need makes my life feel right. Even if they are to die soon because of my friend, I don’t regret anything,” Kei looked on as he defogged his goggles. He whipped his eyes, “I may never see you again after this, so I want you to know something. No matter how evil Cent may seem, deep down he is like me, like you. He is a living being, a mortal. He has the right to live and die just like us. I know not if he could ever know love and frankly I feel sorry for him. I know the addiction all to well. It is stronger than any drug, any drink, any thrill. It is like breathing. If you don’t do it, you will die. Actually it is not death that comes. It is unspeakable torture and pain from within. Like training a lion with a cattle prod, but that’s not saying much at all.” Kei nodded and began to realize what would drive a being insane like that, but even after all this known. It would not save Yuri. It would not be enough to save herself. She had to play along until the moment she could drag Yuri and Robert’s butts from the bed into a ship and escape the planet for their new home on IG88. They had friends there. It was the best place to be. “We are a doomed race of anthropomorphic beings trapped in human bio- reengineered human bodies. We do what we can to survive even though every day of living is hell for us.” He handed the folded cloak to Kei and shut the sliced box. He shoved it aside and took a seat on a metal casing unit. “What is this?” Kei looked it over. “I was able to take a sample of Techtonica’s technology and rewrite it into a body suit. Her body is made up of near infinite amount of nanites,” “Nanites? Molecular machines? We only have those for healing right now and only for the rich at that,” “The technology of this planet before the Dreadnought was launched. That is the reengineering etc. It was far superior to most places of today. It would of started a whole new way of life across the universe theoretically, but it was to be used for specific purposes and no one outside the planet were to know about it. That’s my speculation anyways,” he grabbed some computer boards and started fidgeting with this and that. He pulled a welding knife out of a pocket and started playing with the circuits. Smoke came off of it. “What would a being with that many nanites do?” “She isn’t human, she isn’t anthropomorphic. Frankly she doesn’t give a care about any living being. Whether that’s Cent’s fault or her original programming, I know not. All I know is that she can be anyone or anything. She can change any limb into any device on her memory.” “That’s what Cent meant,” Kei thought for some time, “Can she be defeated?” “I have no idea, but if anyone can do it, it’s you and Cent. This cloak of sorts will help, I think. Just put it on. I’ve tested it on myself earlier. That’s why Cent locked it in the box,” he explained. “Ok,” Kei unfolded it and put it around herself. At once it adjusted and readjusted itself until it gripped her body like a cat suit. She felt like she was a scuba diver. “What happened?” “Just adjusting to your body’s uh contours,” he tried to choose his words carefully. “What about my clothes?” “Assimilated, just give your new suit commands, it will regenerate them. They won’t be the same, but you can’t tell the difference,” She thought of her jacket and it reappeared just as it was before she put the nanite cloak on. “This is incredible technology,” “Cursed technology as Cent puts it. Techtonica might not be mortal. Her powers are very similar, but I don’t know how well this copy can handle against her. She may even be able to absorb your suit leaving you uh, defenseless,” again he chose his words carefully. “Well, I’ll do what I can to save Yuri.” “Yuri? Who’s that?” “My partner.” “Partner, uh, sorry.” “We used to work for the 3WA.” “Oooh, the Lovely Angels, right?” Kei bout fell over backwards in shock from his guess. “Or was it the D.” “Angels, Lovely Angels, you had it right,” she said in a spurt of laughter. “Oh, cool, heh,” he laughed to himself and continued welding circuits together on the board. “So how do you work this thing?” “Just like you did before, think of it and it will comply. I installed a great bit of weaponry and armor into it. Uh, one moment,” he tossed the board aside carelessly and opened the box. He got out a pad of paper from the bottom and handed it to her. “Glance through this, it has various UG, 3WA, and other legal and illegal weaponry and armor cataloged in there.” “Ah, great, thanks,” she glanced through it to find laser rifles, old blades, pulse cannons, sound cannons, rocket launchers, rail guns, shot guns, oozis, machine guns, etc. “Plasma gattling gun? What the hell?” “It’s a very evil weapon, capable of destroying near any armor, and every building. Use with caution. Also know that she loves that weapon,” Chris cautioned. “Alright, near any armor?” she looked through the notepad some more. “Energy deflection shields might work for some time, but I recommend getting the heck away from it.” “Did Centurion ever go up against that gun?” “Yes, don’t know how he survived and don’t care. After I saw that initial fighting, I got the heck out of there. I’m thankful I did.” “Alright, fully automatic mid size, pulse cannon, right arm,” Kei called aloud. At once the armor on her right arm grew until such a weapon appeared. It only took a few seconds, but was fun to watch. “Heh, ok, 3WA standard Gravity Wings,” with this said, two wings stretched out from her back allowing flight. “Grav wings uh,” “It’s an intelligent system, just use whatever sounds right,” Chris was fiddling with another circuit board. “Ok, Grav wings, return,” “If it’s faster you can just think to yourself, mastering the system should give you quite an advantage. Well, best you can get,” “All I want to do is save Yuri, she’s a very good friend of mine. She’d die for me, but I can’t stand to have her die without me. I want to be there to save her no matter what.” “Yeah, I can see that, but to be on the same path as Cent is not a wise decision. He will do what it takes to relieve his pain. I can’t imagine why you survived this long. Must have been hard on him,” he sighed softly. “On him?” “Well, I’m sure Centy was hard on you too, sorry for that.” “Centy, hehe, don’t worry about it, I’m ok. Well, for now anyways.” “Spend the night practicing. It’ll be along flight to that paradise planet anyways.” “Paradise planet? Nexus?” “Yeah, thanks, I forgot the name.” “How do you know she’s there, heck, how the hell does Cent know?” she continued to read through the list of weapons and armor. “Well, we sometimes talk about this and that over some root beer, nothing special. I don’t stay up on the news of the universe, but I hear this and that from people and him.” “Heh, alright, I guess,” she got up and stretched. “I’m going to head out now, thank you for everything, Chris.” “Heh, no problem, glad I was able to help.” “Heh, you take care then, I’ll come back in an hour or so.” “Alright.” Kei walked through the mess nearly tripping a few times. Upon reaching the doors she signaled the device to launch the grav wings. She lifted into the air and flew across the street. She remolded guns onto her arms and the suit engulfed her face. She was completely concealed now. A few thoughts later and the electronics allowed her to see clearer than ever. The night became day and targeting was a dream. She formed some large empty cartridges from the missile launcher weapon and set them on a roof top nearby, flying over to the other side she targeted them, a few shots later and they were all taken out. “Heh, try a moving object.” “What?” “Get your ass down here,” Centurion shouted. He didn’t sound too angry though. “Fine,” she landed softly a yard in front of him and returned the grav wings back into the suit. “Alright,” he unsheathed his sword and charged at her with it. She almost fell on her back from the sight of him attacking her. “What the hell are you doing? Block the attack, you coward!” Kei jumped back and called upon an arm shield and parried. The metal of the armor was cut, but she was uninjured. “What are you doing?” “Look, if you can’t handle me, Techtonica will slice you into ribbons and reform you into a sweater!” “You sound like you talk from experience.” He would not reply as if to say he did, he lunged again half heartedly only to be blocked with as much skill as Kei could use. “You better get your ass in gear. I’m barely doing anything here!” “Barely?” Kei reformed a bladed weapon which molded and remolded until it was as strong as it would allow. She parried his attack and tried to punch him only to have her arm grabbed, flipped, and slammed to the ground. “Kei, you are not being serious about this!” “Serious?” Kei was flustered. She didn’t realize how rusty she was being. Was it the fear? The past week’s events? She had to be rid of those it seems. “Fine,” he helped her up. “Pray to whatever god you foolishly worship that you’ll be able to fend for yourself. Techtonica has my anger or worse, an unending lust when desired and your powers or more. This final battle will not be pretty.” She got up and was thankful he let go of her hand. She had to get to Nexus and soon. “When will we depart?” “In the morning, you’ve a few hours to rest, use them however you wish,” That night Kei refused to sleep, she fought and trained against imaginary enemies. She aimed to combine everything learned at the 3WA training and on the job training. She near worked herself to exhaustion. Standing watch from the doorway was a half asleep warrior. His cloak was covered in blood having never been washed. It was left so in honor to those he chose to sin against. He waited minute by minute for dawn to come upon the Martian surface. The last remaining minutes of night approached and the moment of night’s darkest black. Centurion opened his eyes and tossed back his cloaked hood to see Kei kick high and fall upon her back. She has worn her body to the limits and more than likely needed a break. Light shot across the far side of the city. It engulfed the darkness of night with a brilliant red glow. The sky watched the ground with a bloody eye. This was the only dawn the Reaper ever enjoyed. He looked on until the deep red became a subtler pink. He put his hood back on and stepped forward. A sword ripped from its sheath in a false rage followed by a slam on the ground ending with a fierce grin. Kei stood beside him having had barely a second to dodge. "Satisfied?" Kei asked. "Never, but for your sake, that had better of been a good thing," he replied. "Dawn has come," Kei added. "The night that comes may be our last," he walked back into the warehouse. Kei walked in after him. She watched his every move. He, even ignoring his image and history, walked with an eerie evil prominence which spoke of righteousness. She hated herself for getting into this. This cycle of hatred could never be broken and now she was walking the path behind a philosophical psychopath with dire justification for his extinction of the human race. "Christopher Wulf! Get your ass out of bed!" he yelled with the force of a drill sergeant. "Cent? What is it?" Chris rolled out of his hammock and fell upon the ground beneath him. "Cent?" Kei thought. She didn't know what Centurion thought of his rather demeaning nick name. She recalled the many ways she confronted her own hated nick name. Judging by this, his reaction could prove all but apocalyptic. "We are shipping out in an hour, meet me at the local bar in ten minutes. Bring the 'angel' with you," he smirked and grinned beneath the shadow of his cloak. "Alright," Chris replied. He actually looked sad for once. "One last drink before the battle?" Kei asked agreeingly. Centurion didn't answer. He left the warehouse once again. Chris walked over with a slight frown. "Something the matter?" Kei asked. "It's the day I feared the most, let’s go," he walked off after his friend with Kei close behind. This was the most unsettling moment Kei had felt yet. She didn't know what to make of this situation. They would depart soon and Yuri would be saved. Kei trusted her friend to be alive just to keep herself moving. The thought of her dieing alone only served to make her hate herself for not being there. She would go there and set things straight. The bar was run down and empty except for a scared bartender. "Mr. Jones, three mugs of root beer on the house," Centurion grabbed a bar stool and slouched in his seat. As regal as he was, this was most out of character. "Y, yessir," the bartender replied, he had apparently seen him often, but could never get him out of his mind. He looked ghastly as he poured the drinks. "Three?" Kei took the seat to his left like back on IG88. It must have been burned in her subconscious. Chris sat to his right and watched him with much concern. Kei couldn't understand how they could be friends. "Yes, this is to be my last visage, my last drink before my journey's end," he stared at the mug before him. "I've never been fond of the drink," she let each word drip off showing reluctance to make the comment. Chris slid the drink aside much to Kei's concern. "You two have no need to partake in my visage. The cycle of hatred is my path to walk. You are but unfortunate pedestrians along for the ride," he took the mug in his hand and sat upright. He smelled the drink as if it was some sort of wine. With this, the being known as Centurion Hammerfall spoke, “I as the last warrior of the royal guard take this drink and its memory of home with me to my final battle. I will not drink of this again. I may not live to see another wretched peaceful night and pacified horrific dawn," with that he drank a few swallows and sat the glass upon the counter. He stood up and left the bar at once. Each stride was with full rigor and poise. His presence shook the area around him. People ran in fear outside and cars took other routes hurriedly. Kei turned to Chris whom just wiped his eyes. "You ok?" "I won't ever see him again, I won't ever see him or Vicky. I'm as good as alone now," he smelled his mug, thinking about having a drink. "You have the humans; make a business out of your hobby. Be happy," with those words Chris smiled again and set the mug down. This visage was not for him after all, but with what she said Kei was stricken near heart broken. Yuri found her happiness with Robert, to hate her or him for it was beyond wrong. She would do anything for those two now. "Kei, Chris," Centurion stood at the doorway once again. Both stood up. "The time has come,"