“Haha, yep, that’s me! Buster Harmada, the one-and-only!”
“Oh!” Setting aside her flute and standing, Rose returns the salute, both a courteous and disciplined greeting for any citizen of the militarized state of Riaquen, before saying, “It’s an honor to finally meet you, Buster.”
“The feeling is mutual, Rose! All I’ve heard about you, back home and here even, have been good things about your intellect and skills. But now that I can see you myself, I’d say they were right about your beauty and grace, as well!”
Chuckling, Rose replies with a slight blush, “Your compliments are well received, Buster. And you’re not so bad-looking, yourself.”
“Haha, I would hope so! Hey, mind if we had a simple, friendly chat, out here? No need to worry about following formalities, either, we’re just mere students in this joint.”
“Um, sure, I won’t mind.” Rose sits back down on the grass, with Buster sitting down near her. “So, I’ve heard you’re pretty popular here at the college. A boss student, right?”
“Yep, that would be right. Never really wanted such a position, but it was kind of forced upon me as I kept beating people in battles. That, and our fellow brothers and sisters of Riaquen fell into line behind me, so I didn’t need to round up some lackeys!”
“Hah, how convenient. How do you like being a boss student?”
“Eh, it has its perks. The whole fear and respect deal from the other students, special treatment and services from student-ran sources, and being like a boss is, obviously, cool. But, I just wish they didn’t fear me so much. Sure, I’m a tough guy and related to the supreme general of Riaquen’s armed forces, but I don’t want them so scared of me just for that. Well, most of the time, anyway!”
“Uh huh. Too bad people can be intimidated so easily around here.”
“Aye, too bad, indeed. So, how about that Matthew Calamos. What’s he like? What makes him tick? Just what kind of a guy is he?”
Unprepared for him asking about Matt, Rose composes herself before replying, “Oh, he’s a good guy. He’s honest, kind, responsible, and, uh, nice to be around.”
Buster nods and says, “That’s good. I, as well everyone else around here, knows how well he fights with his battle morph, but how is he in school? Does he keep up with his studies and homework?”
“Oh yeah, he does fine. He’s getting good grades, and hasn’t gotten into trouble with the professors. You could say he’s an all-star student.”
“Indeed. Just like you?”
Rose chuckles. “Sure, I guess!”
“Hah, great! Yep, he sounds like a good kid, then. But, how does he feel about being a Dark Warrior? How has he taken the prejudice from other students?”
“Ah, well, he doesn’t rely on his ‘cursed’ power when he fights, he utilizes his techniques as if he didn’t have it. I know it’s true, I, I’ve seen him do so. And as to the other students, I don’t think it bothers him anymore. I mean, in his crusade against Cain, he’s shown he doesn’t care what others feel about him being a Dark Warrior, and that he won’t let anyone bully him or his friends. As long as others leave him alone, he’ll leave them alone.”
“I see. That’s good for him, then.” He holds a sage-like look for a moment before he asks, “And how about you, Rose?”
“Hmm? Me?”
“Yeah, duh! You are the only ‘rose’ out here, aren’t you?”
The wink paired with the silly compliment both amuses, and hardens, Rose, as Buster isn’t the first guy to use that comparison, before she says, “Well, what else is there to know, besides I’m smart and talented?”
“Ah, there is so much more, Rose! In fact, there are things about people that they, whether intended or not, could not tell about themselves. Do you know how one learns these things about them?”
“Uh, no. How’s that?”
“Oh, it’s pretty simple, really.” Buster stands up, walks off to be about fifty feet away, and turns to announce, “He fights them, in morph.”
Surprised, Rose stands and asks, “How does that work?”
“Well, again, it’s simple. One learns more about another’s behavior, resolve, potential, likes, or dislikes when in combat against her, because they all come out in how she fights. If you don’t believe me, then let’s fight, and I’ll show you!”
Both intimidated, but interested, as she figures Buster simply wants to duel her, she goes along with it. “Okay, wise guy, we can do that. If you wanted to fight me, you could have just asked.”
“Haha, well, I normally would, but I didn’t want to scare you off like I would other students. In this case, however, I can see that a strong guy like me doesn’t scare you. Which is good! That’s one more thing I now know about you, you are brave. Let’s see what else makes you tick!”
Finding herself eager for the contest, Rose muses to herself she is getting her workout that day after all while getting ready with a meditative pose. “Yes, let’s do that. And at the same time, I can learn more about you.”
“Aye, precisely! It can go both ways. It’s a mutual exchange, both of us benefit! But, sadly, only one of us is going to win.” Buster and Rose lock stern expressions as they steel themselves for battle, a breeze rolling by across the field between them.
***
The two morph simultaneously, Rose in a flash of green and Buster in a gray flash. While she reappears in her green battle suit, he is in a larger, more intimidating form. Standing about fifteen feet tall, looming over her like a statue of steel, a robot in iron gray and jet black armor stares down at her through green, mechanical eyes. It has a humanoid figure, but its face is covered in a mask for its block-like head, and it appears even larger with the two huge gun barrels mounted off its back, each connected by a joint that allows movement for aiming adjustments. Rose can’t help but gawk at the MechWarrior opposing her as she understands how he has such a reputation at the college.
Seeing her rooted to her spot for the moment, Buster makes the first move as his left gun mount lowers to aim at her over his shoulder, its barrel filling and twisting into a gatling gun with smaller, multiple barrels already spinning in a rapid circle. Rose only has to blink, becoming aware of what’s coming, when a stream of bullets drills towards her, the ground rupturing and spitting up dirt with each bullet stinging into it. Before they can pierce through her where she stands, she side-leaps and dashes on air balance out of the way, avoiding the bullet barrage as it chases after her several yards.
When she notices the machine gunfire stop, Rose rolls into a crouched position, looking out to see what Buster would do next. What she sees, to her eye-widening dread, is him suddenly in front of her, his right arm swooping low and smashing into her with an uppercut to launch her into the air, a thick bruise of yellowish green left on her torso. He follows up the assault by forming his arm into a shotgun, takes aim at her in mid-air, and fires a round into her, the spray of bullets tearing more wounds across her before she hits the ground on her side.
With her chest and waist blotched by dark yellow, vital wounds from the heavy trauma, Rose grimaces while rolling over, only to look up at Buster aiming his right gun mount, hollowed out like a tank’s cannon, down at her. Fear and awe cross her face as a faint light within the cannon glimmers before it fires a single shot, the energy mortar blasting into the ground with a thundering boom.
As the dust from the blast clears, the crater left behind in the ground is empty. Instead of being obliterated in it, Rose swiftly rolled out of the way with air balance, coming to a stop on her feet about a hundred feet away. Looking out at her, Buster laughs before yelling, “Come on, is that all you’ve got, Rose? Let’s see a special trick or two from you. Surprise me!”
Rose hardens her expression, already planning to do so, before she places her hands close together, gathering energy between them. As Buster watches, his vision zooms in on her and he, indeed surprised, notices that her wounds are becoming lighter, some vanishing off her. Rose is healing her morph. H
e prepares his left gun mount, adjusting its barrel upward and changing it into the square, six-chambered form of a rocket launcher.
Buster takes aim at her with his robotic vision when a swarm of leaves flies out from Rose’s energy sphere and all around her, obscuring view of her until she disappears in the mirage of leaves. Understanding the leaves are concealing her, he doesn’t change his plans and follows through, his vision locking on to random leaves within the storm, before firing his gun mount, six energy-based rockets arcing through the air and diving towards it.
The leaves, however, take on a mind of their own and rush across the plain towards Buster, meeting the missiles half-way for a chain of explosions, decimating the most of them. The few leaves that get through fly to Buster’s face, swirling around him like angry insects, where one of them cuts across his left eye, blinding him on that side with the small wound. Flinching from the leaf stinging his eye, Buster raises his left arm to shield his face from the rest of the leaves when he feels something tap his legs below him.
Before he can look down, the next thing he feels is Rose jumping up and onto him from behind, one dagger hooking to him through a gap in his mechanical armor and the other stabbing into his metallic neck, leaving darkening wounds with each thrust. Staggering about under the assault, he tries reaching at her over his shoulder, where she ducks under and avoids his grasp, until he decides to change it up once his neck wounds are deep and glowing yellow. His left arm turns into a shotgun and fires at her, but she swings out of the way and leaps off of him to avoid the bullet spray.
After Rose evades his shotgun blast, Buster whirls around and, with his right arm shape-shifted into a grenade launcher gun, fires energy spheres after her as she back-flips and hops away, avoiding the explosive blasts blooming near her. Near the end of the side-winding trail of destruction, a grenade splitting into a few more before they explode trips her, sending her tumbling across the ground before she stops in a crouch, the color of her wounds turned back to a dark yellow. Buster can’t fire one more round upon her once he caught her, though, as his gun’s core has to cool down.
While he prepares his gun mounts to continue bombarding her, Rose gathers more energy to create a large, thick log, held above her by her mental control of it. His gaze drawn to the lumber, Buster isn’t worried when Rose aims the length of it at him and throws it like a huge dart, as he can side-thrust out of the way on air balance. When he goes to do this, however, something is wrong as he can’t get airborne, and instead feels like he is stuck to and tugging against the earth.
Looking down, Buster is startled to find thick plant growth, like roots, ensnaring his legs and binding him to the ground, rooting him in place. By the time he looks back up, his right eye blinking, the log collides into him, smashing him a few times like a battering ram in his chest, leaving him wobbling after each impact and with orange wounds on him.
Between the damage glowing on his torso and neck, and being immobilized, Buster is concerned about his odds of winning when he at last stops the possessed log, using the cannon of his left gun mount to pulverize it, its wooden debris scattering across the ground. In a moment, however, the jagged pieces of timber come back to life, rise into the air, and encircle him before spearing him from all sides.
While the smaller pieces either deflect off his armor or dive into gaps of it along his frame, the larger pieces pierce through his arms and the barrels of his gun mounts, disabling them by preventing his arms from becoming guns and taking out the cores of his big guns. Now knowing he is really in trouble, all Buster can do is watch as Rose sets up the final blow by flinging a large leaf shuriken at him, its blades rotating as it ascends towards him and cuts down into his neck, sawing through it in bursts of red energy.
***
In an engulfing flash of red, Buster demorphs, ridding of his metal bulk and the plant material that harmed it and reappearing as his human self. Staggering on his feet while holding a hand to his sore neck, he exclaims, “Wow, that was my bad. I completely underestimated how good you are with your elemental powers. However, that’s not the only reason why I lost. You cheated!”
After she demorphs, Rose asks, “What do you mean?”
“Oh, you know what I mean. You healed yourself! Of all the tricks you could have pulled out, you had to come up with healing your battle morph. There are only a few battle morphs in existence that are supposed to be able to do that! Now, do tell, how did you do that?”
As she makes her way towards Buster, walking past the smoldering field around her, Rose shrugs and says, “Ah, well, it was a trick I recently discovered through my training with Professor Serpanz. Turns out, since plants can grow and restore themselves, I have a similar elemental ability to heal my morph’s wounds. While it’s not as great as the abilities of morphs meant for healing, it still works well for me. In fact, I’ve learned how to simultaneously heal myself while gathering energy for another elemental technique, as I did with the leaf storm.”
“Uh huh. That’s very impressive. I’m sure, later on, that healing of yours will be much more potent, and any morph is gonna have a hard time stopping you.”
“Oh? Why do you say that?”
“Eh, because that’s what I see in ya. Sure, you come across as the kind and compassionate girl out of battle, and you’ve got book smarts, but you’ve also got fighting smarts, too. When it comes down to business, you’re focused, calculative, and ruthless. You’ll do whatever it takes, whatever you are capable of, to win the fight. Even if it means cheating by healing yourself!”
While the last part of his statement humors her, the rest of it Rose thinks over it, and she has to admit, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That does sound like what I do in combat.”
“Yep. And, I figure that’s how you are at other appropriate times. Focused, calculative, and ruthless. You’re a nice gal, and you’ve got a good heart, but you’re also well disciplined. I suppose you should be, since you’re from Riaquen, like me!”
“Hah, that’s true. Oh, and you fought well, too. I will admit, I was intimidated by your morph’s size, firepower, and speed! How did you become so good with air balance, as a heavy-bodied morph like a MechWarrior?”
“Heh, how else? Through training, of course! Besides my big guns, I wanted to have some way of standing out from other MechWarriors, to put myself at a level above them. So I worked at it, and eventually enhanced my air balance potential so I could zoom around and outmaneuver them. As it turns out, I can also outmaneuver other morphs, too!”
“Yeah, I can see that,” agrees Rose. “Anyway, what I got from you fighting is you are bold, maybe even a bit cocky, but you’re also well disciplined and talented.”
“Eh, I suppose. If I came across as cocky, can’t help it, I just enjoy fighting too much! But, oh well, it was still a good fight.”
“Yes, it was. I’m glad we had the chance to, ah, learn more about each other, Buster.”
“Haha, as am I! In fact,” Buster says, his tone becoming more serious while his escorts rejoined him, “this all helped me make an important decision. I’m on your side, now.”
“Pardon?”
“You know, in this contest between Matt and Cain! I’ve had it with how corrupt and arrogant Cain has become, as well as his ridiculous schemes, and you guys sound like a lot more fun to be with than him. So, if there’s anything more you need help with in taking him down, count me in!”
“Oh, well, thank you, Buster. I’m sure the others will greatly appreciate another senior student on our side.”
“Hah, they’d better, or maybe I’ll have to smack them around a bit!” They both laugh before he goes on, “But yeah, there ain’t no way I’m sticking with Cain now. Especially after that latest plan of his.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Yeah, well, remember that fight between you and Matt? See, Cain had Irene Goros watching from far away, waiting to shoot you out-of-morph when Matt defeated you. But, since you defeated him instead, she didn’t
get the opportunity. Cain wasn’t too happy about that wrench thrown into his…” When he sees the shocked expression on Rose’s face, Buster blinks before he gets it. “Oh, right. You probably didn’t know that, did you?”
“I, yeah, I didn’t know that. Cain was going to have Irene shoot me? But, what if that, you know, killed me?”
“Yeah. Hence why I no longer want to be around the guy. Doesn’t seem to care for the lives of others, nor the federal law, as long as he gets his way.”
“I, I can’t believe this. We’re all mere students here, but Cain and Irene would go so far as to mortally harm, maybe even kill, for something so trivial as being the popular students on campus?”
“Appears that way, yeah. If they try another insane plan and it inevitably backfires on them, I don’t want to be caught up in it, anyway or how.”
“…Yeah, a wise choice.” Besides feeling upset and horrified her life had been in danger in another way that day, Rose feels something else as she gets out, “They won’t get away with that. They will not walk away from endangering me or Matt’s lives.” Looking back to Buster, she nods and says, “Sorry, but I should be going now, back to the cabins for the evening.”
“Hey, go right ahead, don’t let me keep ya around if you don’t want to be.” When she gets back to the tree and retrieves her flute, Buster remembers something and calls out, “Oh hey, don’t forget to let Matt know I’m on your guys’ side, now!”
“Right, I’ll tell him,” Rose returns before jogging away across the field, towards the cabins far off in the distance. As she runs, her thoughts swirl around the crime Cain and Irene had been willing to commit if they got the chance, and how she was their intended target, a sacrifice for their fiendish plots. It shakes her how afraid it has made her, that somebody would threaten her life at school, almost as much as she had been from the fiasco she had with Matt. However, she is not going to cower or despair over it. In her own way, she vows to herself to make sure Cain and Irene, especially Irene, would come to learn how to be afraid for their lives, too.
Alkalians Page 26