As the AU storm into the city our troops position themselves to attack. To the northeast there is a small explosion from a frag grenade, signaling that the fighting has started. A troop of about twenty AU units are right below us. My father and I swoop down landing on top of two and shooting the others with our energy blast. One comes from behind me with a sword but I simply duck, flipping him over my shoulder I kick him in the face knocking him out. X and Furrock join the fight when my father and I are surrounded. With their help we manage to take out the first group with ease. My father commands Jet, Sorona, X, Sange and I to go west and dispatch our enemies. He reminds us not to kill unless we absolutely have no choice.
When we arrive it’s a blood bath as our fellow brethren are being killed off as if they’re cattle. X and I fire blasts of energy at the AU scum. Jet turns into his Phercon form and attacks. Their numbers dwindle down as the five of us unleash an onslaught of attacks on the AU. X is slashing at one of his opponents when another sneaks behind him. I reach in my bag and throw a ninja star. It strikes my target in his temple, the ground in front of raises up. When I look over Sange has a smirk on his face. He points his finger to my twelve. Closing my eyes I can now hear the snipers firing their silenced guns above us. The five of us make shields of earth to cover ourselves.
“I got this”. I yell.
Changing into Kimoshiran form I use the K-gateway (Kimoshiran Gateway) technique to appear behind the snipers. Their surprised but their quick reflexes make them no easy opponent. I draw my sword deflecting their bullets away from myself. They soon overwhelm me though and about knock me off of the roof. X though comes to my rescue drawing a couple of the snipers fire. I lay waste to the two still firing at me, cutting them in half. The third and fourth one I hit with the bottom of my sword, only knocking them out.
“Shinruga, we could use your help down here”. X yells.
Rejoining my friends on the ground we soon are surrounded by AU insurgents. I change back into Psychian warrior form and tell my friends to make four shields to enclose the five of us. Using my energy I make an enormous Implosion box around the AU and the five of us. By squeezing my hand into a fist the box shrinks, when it touches the first AU guard the box explodes. Smoke fills the area and when it dissipates there are only dead bodies left. The five of us check around and find a startling surprise.
“The Psychian bodies they were kids”. Sorona says.
“They look to be about ten or eleven years old”. X remarks.
We have little time to look as the explosions are getting closer to our area. The five of us take to the roofs and wait for our enemies. I caution the team to duck as our enemies come into the plaza. As we’re crouched down I notice Jet losing his footing. He falls in between two buildings and in seconds the AU have their guns focused on his location. We wait for the opportune moment and strike, creating a plaza of death. Jet turns into his Phercon form once again as the four of us fire blasts at the other enemies. The fighting has stopped but I catch an AU soldier out of the corner of my eye. Sange realizes this before I do and chucks his sword; the blade strikes the soldier in the head.
“All this bloodshed and for what”! Sange yells.
“Our freedom and lives”! X says.
Sange walks over and pulls the blade out the soldiers head. Hearing more explosions to the east we press on, leaving the bodies of the AU and our Psychian brothers and sisters behind. The town of Shiran a few hours ago so beautiful now burned and battle scarred, full of bodies and blood.
When we get closer to the explosions my father appears out of nowhere and pushes me to the side. An RPG bullet is coming straight in his direction. He puts energy in his hand when the RPG gets close to him he captures it in the energy and shoots it back at our opponent.
“How did everything go in the west quadrant”? He asks.
We relay the grim news to my father. Furrock soon joins our group with an energy wolf at his side. Soon more insurgents are coming our way but my father and Furrock only take a few seconds to dispatch the troop of AU. The five of us are mesmerized as they seem to be gods. After the two of them dispose of our enemies we all take cover behind a destroyed building wall. As we’re sitting there resting another one of Furrock’s energy wolf approaches. The wolf turns sideways and in the middle of its stomach an image of a Psychian appears.
“Master Furrock this is Lao in the south quadrant we’re taking extreme fire and need assistance. The western and eastern sections are under control. If we lose the southern part of Shiran there will be critical losses”.
The image disappears and the wolf goes back to where it came from.
“Ok, here’s what we will do. Since we haven’t heard anything from the northern section Furrock you X, and Sange go to the north. Shinruga, Sorona, Jet and I will go to the South”. My dad says.
Before we depart my father and Furrock shake hands and hit their shoulders to each others. Their friendship runs thicker than blood.
Down the road a little ways there is something blocking our way. It looks as to be some kind of metal machine that can move.
My father warns us not to stay in one spot for more than a few seconds. We soon learn why a small thin blast comes out of a gun mounted on its shoulder.
“Shinsaga, we need to make some kind of diversion”. Jet yells.
“Agreed”!
Sorona and I run in from side to side to confuse the hunk of metal. The machine begins firing randomly hoping to hit one of us. Unfortunately it does, as Jet is trying to launch an energy blast the machine fires one of its lasers skinning the top of his right shoulder. The robot moves in closer to finish Jet but my father jumps on its back, grabbing the gun pointing at the robots head. The bucket of bolts crashes to the ground with a gaping hole in its head. Sorona runs over to Jet applying energy to his wound in an attempt to heal it.
The sound of another explosion towards the south sends us running back to into harm’s way. When we arrive to the rendezvous point our brethren is under heavy fire.
“Where’s Lao”? My father asks.
“Dead sir, he took a bullet to the head”.
“You get your wounded out of here whoever can fight keep them here”. He orders.
For the Psychian’s still able to fight he commands them to try and get to higher ground. When I peak my head up to see our enemies there’s nothing. The shooting has disappeared along with our enemies. We carefully stalk to where the firing was coming from.
“An automated Gatling gun. There around they wouldn’t leave something that could later be used against them”. The first lieutenant says in anger.
“All right spread out men and watch your backs”. My dad commands.
Pulling out my sword with my right hand and filling my left with energy, I creep into an alley way. While I’m in the alley way I can see them about forty AU soldiers charging at me. I yell out for my fellow companions to help. They begin firing energy blasts at the AU but one of them tackles me to the ground. Puts his gun around my throat and begins choking me.
My only thought is that I’m going to die that no matter which way I move, his strength will overpower mine. That’s when I can see it Furrock’s energy wolf, jumping over me and ripping out my enemies throat. My father grabs me up by the arm and orders me to keep fighting. We stand back to back swords drawn and waiting for our enemies to shoot us down.
“Fire”! Yells out the AU soldiers superior.
When he does we simply deflect their bullets back at them with our swords. Looking around most of the AU soldiers is dead. Their superior however is not, Sorona walks over to him and finishes him.
“These scum I wish they’d all die”. She says.
“Easy Sorona, no unnecessary killing”. My father reminds her.
Furrock’s energy wolf walks by us once again, with a sketchy message from Furrock himself.
“My friend it’s been reported from the outer wall, that another one hundred and fifty AU soldiers have been spotted”. Furrock relays
. “This looks like it might go on for a couple of days...M”.
The message cuts out as an RPG goes by Furrock’s head.
“Is he dead”? Jet asks.
My father reminds Jet that the energy wolf has not disappeared, so Furrock is still alive.
“But he could be hurt badly, so we should make haste”. Sorona points out.
We run in the direction of our fallen comrade as we hope for the best. The sun is now coming up over the horizon as it marks the second fight for all of Shiran. I pray that this glorious city defenses can hold till we scare off our enemies.
Day One
When we get to where the message was recorded at, there is only rubble and death. My father tells us to feel for Furrock’s energy, after a few seconds Jet locates him. He’s hiding under a board propped up so you can barely see into it. Jet carefully pulls him out from under his hiding place. The right side of his jacket is burned and shredded. His skin is dark red from the heat. Sorona runs over to tend to his wounds.
“There first degree burns but he should be ok”. She says.
“Soldiers are still in the area. They’re using some type of device to communicate, a walky talky I think”. Furrock mutters.
“Keep him awake and heal him at the same time if his energy wolf are gone the AU will have this place in a matter of hours”. My father remarks.
Just as he’s finished with his sentence we’re attacked by a troop of AU. My father yells for us to take cover. Sorona crawls under the boards with Furrock.
“All of you use your energy to create a grenade, focus your energy into the middle of your hand for three seconds and chuck it”. My father commands.
When we throw our grenades the AU soldiers duck for cover. In the middle of our fight one of Furrock’s energy wolfs gets in front of me. One of our commander’s faces appears, he asks for my dad but instead I say he’s too busy and take over. The commander tells me that they are taking to heavy of fire to even move. Thinking for a few seconds I suggest that they put their swords into the ground and push it into the earth in front of their enemies to deflect their bullets back at them. He thinks about it for a second and says he’ll give it a try. Furrock’s wolf goes away and I return to the fight at hand. My father and Jet have moved up to another house to take cover. The wolf that had appeared in front me a few minutes ago is now up by my father. He looks back at me and tells me to advance up to his position.
“General, Shinsaga your sons plan worked out perfectly. The southeast division of Shiran is now clear”. Says the commander.
“Good to hear commander now get your men to the north outer wall. We’re taking heavy fire and short on troops”. He commands.
“Where’s X and Sange at”? I ask.
“That’s a good question”. He says.
The AU soldiers take position behind the destroyed library. From what we can see they have set up two Gatling guns. Aiming at precise parts of the destroyed house we’re in the whole place starts falling apart. We jump to our sides to avoid being crushed by the building but find ourselves outside in our targets sights.
We hear the leader of the AU soldiers yell out to fire. As the bullets get closer my father holds me and hopes that I will be shielded. The bullets are in front of us now and we think we’re done for when a wall of rock shields us. X and Sange jump in front of us, they send the wall of earth at the AU. Soon energy rain down upon us. We move out of the way so we won’t be hit by the blasts. We look around for our attacker but no luck.
“That was definitely Psychian energy”. X says.
‘It’s him Shadow”. Jet says. “That’s his sign to let you know he’s around”.
We press on slashing our enemies down but another hundred AU soldiers arrive. We’re outnumbered by a lot and no chance at winning. That’s when they arrive the commander we talked to in Furrock’s wolf.
“Sir, it’s been reported that another two hundred troops have entered the city”.
“Sure glad you came”. My dad replies. “We have a couple of Psychian traitors on our hands”.
Our last remaining troops try to fend off the few dozen left. We have our enemies backed up against the wall when my sight suddenly goes blurry and my head is ringing. Luckily I put up a shield to defend myself from harm and so the entire troop.
“A flash bang men”. Says my father.
He asks Sorona to come out of her hiding place. Furrock is lifted out as well and he looks a lot better, Sorona’s healing abilities out match any of us other Psychian’s.
“Where were you two at”? My dad asks.
“We got pinned down in the northeast region”. X’s quick to answer.
My father gives X a weird look seeing as he’s so quick to answer the question. Furrock is now able to stand and checks in with all of his wolves. If it wasn’t for his wolves I don’t think things would be going as smooth in this war. One of the commanders in the southeast is being pinned down by a skirmish of AU soldiers. Heading towards the direction that we’re going we run into a small group of Psychian’s.
Their faces I can still remember them scared but ready to fight. Most of their team is wounded, shot in the arm. As we’re running one of our Psychian comrades falls to the ground.
“Leave him, he’s dead”. My father commands. “I felt his power slipping from his as we were running”.
Could my father’s senses be that great, that even in the heat of battle and running he can feel energies?
After a few minutes of running we stop to grab something to eat. We find refuge in a home and move boards to make it look as though it is abandoned. Something about the house looks familiar and then I realize it’s our old house. My father must know it to because he hardly says a thing the whole meal. Memories fill back into my head, of me being a child and playing with my mom and dad. Sorona has to shrug my shoulder to snap me out of my hallucination.
Our troop marches forward to defend the city against its intruders. As the sun sets we get closer to the location where are brethren is being pinned down. When we get to the location most of our men is dead. We take cover with the few surviving Psychian troops.
“What happened here solider”? My father asks.
“We were fine until two Psychian’s showed up. I figured they were friendly but when we turned our backs they started attacking”. He says.
He looks frightened his eyes are going nuts as they look in every direction. It’s now turning to night time slowly and we wait for the Psychian bogeys to return. A few hours later I can hear some rustling in the broken down house to my left. Jet and I explore the house, at first nothing happens. In a second an AU soldier jumps out at me, I kick him in the head knocking him to the ground. Jet gets surprised by two men and easily handles them. Thanks to his quick reflexes he deflects another attacker’s kunai.
“I was wondering when you’d find me”. Jet says.
“You knew I would come”. The voice says.
From a Shadow a Psychian appears and another to his right. Now on guard Jet identifies the other assailant as Gringold his partner in evil. The first of the two is Shadow his torturer of Pokera.
“Jet, prisoner I-200 last name unknown. I have a warrant to bring you back or to kill you on sight”. Shadow says.
They stare each other down for a few minutes and then attack. Gringold charges at Jet as well but I step into harm’s way. I block his kunai from going into Jet’s head.
My father finally figures out our location. After a few minutes another troop of AU soldiers come marching into the plaza. My father and X uses their energy to swing a broken roof down to block us while they duck for cover.
Gringold and I are in a standoff, his muscles are rippling out of his body. His eyes are dark with evil and as if he’s heartless. There are broken blades absorbed into his body that went to deep to retrieve. Most likely from all the fights he’s been in. He charges again but I learn of what all the blades in his body are for. They’re an attack the blades stick out of
his body, blood starts pouring out of his wounds.
“What the hell”? I ask.
How am I supposed to fight an enemy I can’t touch? Quickly jumping out of his direction I think over a strategy. The blood pouring out of his wounds will take its toll eventually he will have to stop using this fatal attack or else he will bleed to death. Moving backwards my feet are stopped suddenly by something hard. Directly behind me there is a fence of sword blades sticking out of the ground.
“Trying to buy enough time till I bleed to death”? He asks. “Try something new kid, I’ve been around the block a bit more than you have”.
He charges a few more times trying to impale me but fortunately no success. Angry he extends the blades out of his body even further. The blood begins to pour faster now but when he does ram there will be no safe spot in this fenced area. When he charges I pull out a few shurikens and throw them but they do no good. He’s only a few feet away from impaling me when a red dot appears in the middle of his head. A bullet zooms by my head, striking Gringold directly between his eyes. Looking back I can see my father on the ground with a gun resting on his shoulders.
“Good shot”. I yell.
He nods and commands the troop to finish the job. Rushing over to watch Jet he is nowhere to be found. As I listen closer my ears pick up faint grunting sounds. A story up Jet and Shadow are duking it out still. My father soon joins me at my side, to view the fight. It’s now a concept of the former slave defeating his owner. This is the day Jet has dreamed of for a while now to take his revenge and finish off the one who mistreated him all those years. The rest of the troop come from below and relay the good news to my father.
“Sir, master Furrock’s wolves have all come back. They all report the same the AU insurgents have been killed and or scared off”.
“You hear that Shadow, it’s over. You’re the only one still fighting, give up now”. My father demands.
Shadow keeps fighting with Jet and ignores my dad’s command. Jet’s opponent disappears into a shadow but Jet turns into Phercon form. He opens his mouth and blast the surrounding area.
“He’s wasting energy”. I say.
My father tells me to look closer at Jet’s strategy. After a few seconds my brain finally figures it out, about half of this room is made of wood and now it’s on fire. Without any shadows to hide in Jet’s opponent appears instantly.
Shadow charges but Jet simply throws his opponent off of him and stomps on his chest again and again.
“I give up”. Shadow yells. “Kill me then Jet, it’s what you’ve always wanted isn’t it…DO IT”.
Jet unsheathes his sword and holds it high up in the air. My thoughts race as he holds that sword up, is he really going to do it, would he kill him for revenge? Right when I think Jet’s going to take his revenge he puts his sword back into its sheathe.
“I can’t do it”. Jet says.
“Then you’re still weak you fool”. Shadow rants.
Jet turns and starts walking away from his beaten opponent. Shadow stands up and starts glowing white a sign that he’s using his life energy. He extends his arms out and fires the glowing white energy at Jet. Before Jet has any time to react my father appears in front of the blast with his hand full of energy. He walks closer to Shadow, who only adds more energy to his surprise blast. I yell out as my father is only a few feet from Shadow.
“NO, DIE SHINSAGA”! Shadow yells.
As my father inches closer I can see the energy consume his opponent, the blast starts disintegrating his skin. Soon there is nothing left of Shadow as the blast has completely obliterated him into dust.
I run to my father to make sure that he is all right.
“Yeah, burned my hand a little that’s all”. He says.
As we stand there on top of the building it reminds us of how lucky we are to have each other. Also to know that Shiran is now safe warms our hearts a little. Now we look forward for our days to help each other rebuild this proud city. Shiran was finally able to claim it’s vengeance on the AU. Somewhere I would hope Kita is banging his fist against the wall filled with anger.
Chapter 14
Rebuilding