Disclaimer: This stuff is owned by other people, except for the stuff that isn't. If you own the stuff I've used, please do not sue me. Chances are you already have one hell of a lot more money than I do. The Legacy of Kain - Chapter 13 (Call to Arms) There was an uneasy feeling in the air. The Masaki household, usually a beacon of light and noise - cheerful or otherwise - stood silent and dark. Even the woods were quiet...no birds sang, no insects hummed, no wind blew. Only the occasional crack of splintering wood and the thud of heavy footfalls from the woods broke the tomblike atmosphere. Roughly a half-mile from the house, several meters up in the branches of a tree, there was a sudden, soft disturbance. A sound, a soft -whumm-, was followed by a bout of coughing and choking. Kevin grit his teeth and forced himself to stop retching, reaching out to grab hold of a nearby branch to steady himself. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked up into Ryoko's concerned eyes. "How you feeling?" "I've been better. A little light-headed. That'll pass." Ryoko nodded, straightening to look around. She sniffed the air experimentally and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh...what the hell is that?" Kevin blinked and smelled the air. He gagged a little, almost losing what little was left in his stomach. The air hung heavy with a scent that was reminiscent of rotting meat and formaldehyde. "Great. Just great. Replicants." His face turned grim. "I hate replicants." Ryoko frowned. "What's a replicant?" "Trouble. Help me down. And you'd best get your blade ready." Kevin put his arms uneasily around Ryoko, who, despite everything, chuckled low in her throat. Kevin's temperature went up several degrees. They floated to the forest floor. Once on the ground Kevin closed his eyes and concentrated. His living shadows flowed over him, changing him into his battle dress. Ryoko followed suit. "Which way to the house?" he whispered. Ryoko pointed silently, and he nodded. "Let's go. I'll fill you in on the way. If there's replicants around, our guys could be in real trouble. I - " his head snapped up suddenly. "Down!" he barked, and hit the ground. Ryoko dove beside him as rapid gunfire erupted from the depths of the forest. Energy bolts zipped and crackled over their heads, destroying several nearby bushes and giving the tree they had just been in a pronounced lean. Kevin crawled around the tree, sitting up and glancing around warily. Ryoko phased in beside him. "Replicant?" "Uh-huh." "Where?" "Couldn't see." Another volley slammed into the tree, setting small fires along the trunk. Kevin winced. "Damn. Wish I had a gun. They're crack shots, but mostly harmless in close combat." Ryoko grinned. "Close combat, hmm? Leave it to me." "Ryo-" Kevin got no further before she disappeared. He sighed. "I really wish you wouldn't do that." Hunter wandered along the banks of consoles in Washu's lab, glancing up from time to time to admire a specimen floating past in the tanks. His long, delicate fingers reached out to caress the screen of a computer terminal. "Lovely," he whispered under his breath. "Such marvelous technology. If we had had this but a century ago..." A clamor erupted from the main laboratory floor. Hunter tsked and walked there, not hurrying. A large veiwscreen now dominated the far wall. INTRUDER DETECTED, blinked the words on the screen. "Show me," Hunter said. The display rippled and formed a shaky first-person picture. It showed a mostly destroyed tree. "Well?" Words flowed across the bottom of the screen as the view jerked from left to right, searching. TWO TRACES REGISTERED. 1 - POSITIVE MATCH - SPACE PIRATE RYOKO - CAPABILITIES: TELEPORT, FLIGHT, ENERGY DISCHARGE, BLADE - ESTIMATED THREAT 77%. "Hm," muttered Hunter. "Wondered what was keeping her. Continue." 2 - NEGATIVE MATCH - UNKNOWN - CAPABILITIES UNKNOWN - ESTIMATED THREAT UNKNOWN. Hunter's head snapped up. "Reason for negative match." TRACE 2 - UNABLE TO SCAN - TRACE APPEARS ON VISUALS ONLY. "I see." He crossed his arms and turned away from the screen, his head bowed. "So...he's here. I should have expected that. This changes matters somewhat." "Replicant M-32. Orders - Terminate with extreme prejudice. Treat unknown trace as 99% threat capability. Put out a wide band transmission to all M and A type replicants to converge on your position. Maximum alert. That is all." CONFIRMED. The screen blinked and went dark. Hunter stayed that way for a few moments. His face twisted momentarily, perhaps revealing a moment of irresolution. "All right, Walker," he said. "Come get me." He walked away to begin the preparations. It was going to be a very special evening. Ryoko hit the ground on all fours and stayed that way for a few seconds. Her eyes narrowed as she sniffed the air. Her sense of smell was as acute as her sight, if not more so, and she carefully filed away the information her nose was sending her. The soft, organic smells of the fertile earth and the deep woods, and Kevin's scent, which lingered on her. It was a bit distracting, actually, and it took an effort of will to ignore it. Over all that was the rotting meat smell, somewhere close by, ahead of her. Funny, it seemed almost familiar somehow, but... There was a fresh burst of gunfire. Ryoko used the sudden noise to dart forwards a few precious feet, stopping when she came within sight of the replicant. It was massively armored, a huge shadow hunkered down in the undergrowth, a plasma rifle trained on the tree, which was starting to look much worse for wear. A feral grin snaked its way across her face. Felt good to be the hunter after so long. She got slowly to her feet and let the instincts take over. "Say, ugly," she said. The figure whipped around at a surprisingly quick speed considering its bulk and trained the rifle on Ryoko with unerring aim, but by the time it squeezed off a few shots Ryoko wasn't there any more. Teleporting to its side, she made a single, quick cut with her blade, and the replicant lost its gun. Also the arm it had been attached to. It almost caught her off guard, the way it didn't flinch, or even seem to register that it had taken what should have been a mortal wound. Swinging fully around, the light of the moon refracting on the segmented visor of the helmet it wore, the replicant lashed out with a fist. A pair of nasty-looking serrated blades popped out of the suit's arm and came down in a lethal sweep. Ryoko caught the arm near the elbow joint and sneered. "Uh-uh. Not today, bucko," she said, and snapped her arm forwards in a quick punch, shattering the visor and rocking the replicant's head back. Thick, viscous fluid burst from the sundered helm, and when it came back up Ryoko found herself face to face with Detective First Class Mihoshi. Or what was left of her. Ryoko gaped in complete shock. Mihoshi kicked out her leg, catching Ryoko in the side. She fell backwards, the crushing weight of the armored suit landing on top of her. The hand, with its lethal blades, swung towards her throat. Ryoko, reacting on pure reflex, wrenched her arms out from under the bulk of the suit and caught the arm. Ryoko's second hand found it's way to Mihoshi's throat and began to squeeze. A little pressure, a snap, and it was over. Ryoko rolled the bulk off her. Shaking, she looked down for a closer look. Mihoshi's skin was bloated and puffy, glistening with some sort of sticky substance...which explained the rotting smell. It looked as though she really was in a state of decay. One of her eyes had been replaced with what looked like a camera lens, and - I killed Mihoshi. - and there were wires snaking over most the left side of her face. Her hair had been shaved off half her skull, and there were various plates and components that the wires fed into, as well as down into the suit. I KILLED Mihoshi. Looked like a direct neural shunt. Ryoko had heard Washu talking about these, said that it was pretty crude stuff, always damaged the recipient, oh god. "Oh god." "Ryoko." Kevin was beside her suddenly, his hand on her shoulder, his warm, comforting scent permeating her awareness. "I...I killed..." "No," said Kevin firmly. "It's not her. You killed a replicant. An organic killing machine." "What?" Kevin picked up the rifle, hurriedly examined it. "There must be an alert out by now. We should get away from here. C'mon." Ryoko shook her head, as if to clear it, and followed Kevin as he began to walk. "My people," said Kevin quietly as he walked, "were confined in a pretty small space with limited resources for a long time. Out between galaxies, there wasn't exactly anywhere to stop and pick up food and fresh air. So for quite a while the main thrust of research was towards recyclers, making food from waste, good air from bad and so on." He ducked around a tree, listened for a few moments, then continued on. "Eventually we discovered the replicator, a machine that's the closest anyone will ever come to direct energy-matter conversion. There's a little breakdown of the patterns, a little loss of matter each time it's recycled, but more than enough to keep us going. And, of course, it wasn't too long before some hotshot idiot decided to see what would happen if he tried to recreate a person." "And? What'd he get?" "Abominations," spat Kevin. "Proteins, nutrients, those were what we needed when the thing was designed. It was never built to recreate an entire living body, let alone something with the complexity of the brain. So he got pathetic, mewling creatures, barely alive...vegetables. Their imperfectly recreated bodies began to decompose the second they were created." He stopped and leaned up against a tree, sighing. "Course, that isn't a problem if you replace most of the brain with a cybernetic system. Give 'em a computer net as a brain, give 'em a suit that can keep them alive...you've got yourself a perfect, cheap soldier. One that can be...manufactured...at a bare minimum of resource loss." He looked away, a bitter expression on his face. "I'd hoped to never see one again." "...Kev?" Ryoko said, hesitantly laying a hand on his shoulder. She'd never seen him this visibly upset before, not even when he'd been routed out of the household. Kevin stiffened for a moment before relaxing and taking her hand in his. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be getting all emotional at a time like this. Are you all right?" Ryoko blinked. He looked like he was about to cry, and he was worried about her? "I'm fine, but..." Kevin raised the rifle and fired to his left suddenly. There was a muffled crash, and one of the huge replicants fell from the shadows, landing face down on the turf. Mixed in with the fluid that spilled out over the ground was the crimson of blood and a lock of purple hair. Ryoko swallowed and looked away. Kevin set his jaw. "Feel like kicking a little ass?" he asked. Ryoko smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Do I have to say the words?" "Not really, no. Let's go, Ryoko." Half an hour and seven dead replicants later, Ryoko and Kevin were crouched in a tree overlooking the house. It was a mass of activity...the replicant forces seemed to have fallen back to the house, pacing back and forth, their rifles trained on the woods. There were easily twenty, though an accurate count was difficult in the darkness of an overcast night. Kevin cycled the power cell on the rifle, replacing it with the extra cell stored in the butt. Ryoko looked over at him. "Whaddya think?" "I think," said Kevin, squinting towards the house, "that it's a tactical nightmare. I think the best we can hope for is rushing them from two sides, hopefully closing before they get a chance to shoot at us too much. When all else fails, rely on chaos." "I like the way you think, Kevin." He rolled his eyes, smiling. "Yeah? Tell me that again if we live through this." "Deal." Ryoko rose up a little, balancing on the branch. "Ready?" "As I'll ever be." "Say, Kev...you ever do this sort of thing before?" Kevin cocked his head to one side, puzzled. "This sort of thing?" "Yeah...fight a better equipped force that outnumbers you ten to one with a plan that's suicidal at best." "Er...no." Ryoko burst into her widest, most dazzling smile. "You do it," she said, "like this." And she vanished. There is a certain swear word in Jurian. It is untranslatable in any Earth language. The concept it embodies is so foul and vile that at one point uttering it within Jurian space was punishable by ten years hard labor and cauterization of the vocal chords. Kevin muttered it to himself over and over under his breath as he stood, brought the rifle to his shoulder in one fluid motion, and began to fire. Ryoko had barely materialized before she was whooping at the top of her lungs, dropping directly into a clump of replicants. Their dead, dull eyes slowly tracked over to her as she brought down her sword as she landed, neatly slicing the nearest one in half. She circled, eyeing the nearby replicants as they brought their rifles to bear. She bit her lip. Easy now, Ryoko, she thought. You're only getting one shot at this. She heard a click. Ryoko vanished, reappearing twenty feet away. She watched in satisfaction as the automatons opened fire, the bolts of plasma ripping through the air where she had been and felling six or seven of the rotting creatures. She spun around and immediately threw herself backwards, narrowly avoiding the sweep of a pair of claws. She brought up her sword, somewhat belatedly as a plasma bolt whined from the darkness and struck it in the head. Ryoko turned. They were coming for her - the replicants had learned from the example of their fallen comrades. They stowed their rifles in holsters on their backs as they marched towards her, hand to hand weapons coming to bear. Wrist blades and energy swords, dozens of them, hundreds, coming for her. Ryoko grinned very wide, running a tongue over her fangs. She took a step, then another, and the old red veil was descending across her eyes. She was among them, and death was with her. Ryoko lost track of time then, as the battle lust took hold of her - later the only moment she could remember clearly was a brief moment of worry when she realized Kevin had waded into the fray. He seemed to be holding his own, though, and she quickly put him out of her mind, lost in the pitched conflict. After some time she slowly came back to herself, breathing hard as she looked around for new targets and realized there were none near her. Ryoko straightened and looked behind her, and then her breath caught in her throat as she saw Kevin a ways away facing a dozen replicants. She floated a few feet forward, thinking to help, and slowly drifted to a halt as she took in what she was seeing. Kevin Walker with a sword. It is a rare and strange pleasure to watch someone doing what they were born for, and Ryoko felt it then. Kevin did not so much fight as dance, each movement, each cut, thrust and parry ice cold in its precision and perfection. He did not move with the frenetic power that Ryoko did, or the driven will that Tenchi sometimes tapped into - not even with the polished grace of Katsuhito's training. It all seemed effortless - a replicant swung at him, and he was not where he was, pirouetting out of the way and slicing two foes in half with a single efficient swipe. There were ten replicants, then eight, then five, then only one, in less time than it takes to describe it, and Ryoko realized belatedly that the only reason Tenchi and his grandfather had done so well against him was that he had been concealing his true skill. The last, realizing the field of fire was clear, snapped forward its rifle and fired. Kevin growled. The shadows flowing across his body whipped forward and solidified, forming a shield that deflected the bolt harmlessly. He thrust a hand, palm up, into the dark blob, and it changed again, lancing forward like black lightning to encircle the replicant. Kevin clenched his fist, and the armored figure crumpled like a crushed pop can. Ryoko teleported to his side. Kevin turned to look at her, and she involuntarily took a step backwards - his eyes were filmed over, the blue of his eyes so dark they were nearly black, his teeth gritting in rage. "Be...fine...in a...moment," he breathed, closing his eyes and sitting on the bile-soaked ground, visibly collecting himself. Ryoko sat crosslegged in the air, regarding him. "Kev...how...?" "Gifts..." Kevin took a deep, ragged breath and let it out slowly. He opened his eyes, startlingly bright and blue. "Gifts from Kain. Some small compensation for what he did to us, I guess. We can all tap into his strength when we need to. It's dangerous, though. To use his gifts is to give yourself over to his rage. Sometimes..." He shut his eyes. "Sometimes you don't come back." Ryoko blinked. "Is that how you spoke to me like that?" Kevin nodded wearily. "Yeah. Most of us had a little telepathic sensitivity. I was the strongest to come along in a while. Usually I just get feelings, hunches...you, though, I can get actual thoughts from." Ryoko glanced off towards the house. "We should get inside...there might be more. You alright to go on?" "Yeah, I-" Kevin's words were cut off by a sound from the house. It began as a low rumble, getting louder and higher until it culminated in a sharp, piercing whine. The roof burst up and out, exploding in a shower of shingles as a small, cylindrical object rocketed skywards. It was out of sight in a matter of seconds. "What," said Kevin in a deadpan tone, "was that?" Ryoko sighed. "Nothin' good. C'mon." Together they picked their way across the body-strewn battlefield towards the house. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry this has been so long in coming...things got nuts around Christmastime and, well, you know how it is. Thanks to everyone who sent comments...I'll be getting around to mailing you sooner than later. Please send C&C to kakapo101@hotmail.com. Thankee!