Shattered Reality

He couldn’t get rid of them and they were really starting to get on his nerves. Raven looked around a corner and saw that they were yet again on pursuit of them. There had to be at least several dozen soldiers all over the place. ‘These guys are more persistent than the guardian force was,’ Raven thought with a scowl before ducking back into his and Reese’s private little alley where they were forced to stay for the time being.

“Are they still there Raven?” Reese asked since she couldn’t see what they were doing at the moment. Raven seemed to be a little more protective since they learned the truth about the guys that he wouldn’t even let her see what was going on. Even though it had everything to do with her,

Raven scowled again and took a seat against a wall in the small cramped alley. He figured it was the safest place to be since it was so small that they’d on be able to enter one at a time. Easier to take them out that way. “Yeah. At least now we know what they were after since Van notified us,” Raven said crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes in thought. ‘What do they want with Reese? I’d rather be rid of her but I can’t let them have her either,’ he thought before standing up and walking around. he hated being trapped like this.

“Great just what I needed people that want me for something,” Reese said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. ‘It’d be easy to use my mind powers if I knew the actual targets that I’m going to be using them on,’ she thought feeling helpless since her powers were useless right then.

Raven still had the scowl on his face as he paced around with his normal grumpy face. “I have two questions though. What do they want you for? Also, why’s it seemed they are working harder than ever in their search?” said Raven feeling like he could punch a hole in a wall just using the frustration that had been building up the past few weeks.

“I am guessing that it has to do with Fiona disappearing. They have no idea where she is so they change their target to the other one. What’s so special about the two of us in specific that make us a target?” Reese pondered the question going through her mind since she first learned the truth.

“Why would anyone want you anyways?” Raven muttered which earned him a glare from Reese. “I wonder if it could have anything to do with the deathsaurer. Then again, these guys aren’t exactly the same type of people that Hiltz and Prozen liked to use,” Raven speculated finally stopping his pacing and took a seat.

“That’s because their not. This has nothing to do with them as far as I can see,” Reese said standing up. She listened carefully and didn’t hear the normal sound of the soldiers. “Sounds like they’ve finally moved to a different area,” she said and Raven stood up as well and listened too.

“Come on. If we hurry we can get to the genobreaker before they realize that we aren’t even in this town anymore,” Raven said as he grabbed Reese’s hand and made a dash in one direction. He only managed to get by some soldiers because their backs were turned at the time.

After a few minutes of running they managed to make it to the genobreaker but to their unfortunate surprise there was about twenty different zoids that were surrounding it even though it was well hidden.

A soldier turned and saw the two of them. “There they are!” he shouted and several soldiers turned towards the two of them and several guns were pointed in their direction. “Give up or we’ll have to shoot you!” he said with a smirk at how they managed to get the two of them cornered.

Raven reached for the gun at his side but someone shot at his hand and he was forced to give up in his attempt. Raven looked in several different direction and then looked towards the genobreaker and a thought came to home. “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” Raven said with a grin before he yelled, Shadow!” yelled Raven at the top of his lungs since he knew Shadow was waiting in the genobreaker with Specula.

From where the genobreaker was standing a streak of light shot out from it and crashed into a number of the zoids before it landed behind Raven. It immediately opened up and swallowed Raven before taking back to the skies and back into the genobreaker before any of the soldiers could react.

Reese immediately knew what Raven was going to do and knew it would be wise to get out of the area or she may end being a casualty of the battle. “Specula!” Reese yelled already trying to get away so that Rave would have all the space he needed to fight without having to watch where he’s going.

Specula shot away from the genobreaker just as shadow had a few moments prior. It raced towards Reese who was waiting. Without even needing to stop, Reese jumped onto the back of specula and they both shot a decent distance away from the soon to be battlefield.

The genobreaker roared to life once Raven was inside the cockpit and it immediately took to trashing the other zoids. However, just at the sight of the feared red dinosaur type zoid, several of the soldiers immediately bolted knowing that they didn’t have much of a chance at winning. “Cowards!” Raven growled since he hated weaklings like that more than anything.

He then looked around and saw that there was still a few that were brave enough to stand up against it’s mighty power. “You guys have made the biggest mistake of your life,” Raven grinned as the genobreaker shot forward towards them as they fired weapons that didn’t even seem to have any effect on the powerful zoid.

Shooting out its claw it hit a dark horn that was approaching Raven at top speed. It swung it around so that it smashed into a large rock formation and then fell to the ground as if lifeless. It didn’t even attempt to get back up. It was nothing but a sitting target to Raven.

Before Raven could destroy the zoid, another zoid popped up out of nowhere. It was a black shield liger type zoid. Raven suddenly imagined that Van was the one piloting the zoid and grin before smashing the zoid with the genobreaker’s tail. ‘Only Van really knows how to pilot that type of zoid properly,’ he groaned in annoyance as several redlers came soaring in on him.

“All of you suck at piloting zoids!” Raven yelled as the clamps on the genobreaker hooked into the ground and the mouth started to intake energy before he fired at the flying zoids. Fortunately for them, it only hit their wings and they crashed into the ground with a large thud.

It only took a few minutes before Raven was done and all the zoids were trashed with only their pilots getting injured with very few deaths. ‘I’m getting a bit rusty,’ Raven thought with a grin as he stopped the genobreaker and hopped out of the cockpit to take a look at his work.

The scene looked a lot more devastating than the casualty count actually made it look. There were trashed zoids all over the place. Some that you wouldn’t even be able to tell what they originally were but there was also several pilots lying all around. They were all wounded badly but they still appeared to be alive at that moment.

“I must be getting soft. Only a few years ago I would have killed all of those guys without a second thought,” Raven said as he admired what he just did. “Oh well, it’s their fault for getting in my way. They shouldn’t have been following me,” Raven said as he saw Reese land and hop off specula.

Looking around the field at all of the trashed zoids with a few pilots that were still barely breathing. Reese whistled in an impressed way and turned to look at Raven. She only had one thing to say, “I’m surprised. There are still a few of them alive,” stated Reese with a smirk on her face.

Raven scowled at how she was teasing him and turned back to the genobreaker. He knew this was their chance to escape before more soldiers decided to come and help. Raven could take them down but he didn’t feel like fighting weaklings right then. “Shut up and get in,” Raven said as he got back into the genobreaker.

Reese soon followed and got into the genobreaker quickly as it started up once again and took off as fast as it could so they could get away from the town and the soldiers. “If we can just find some cave to hide in for the time being, we should be able to get away from them,” Raven muttered as the organoids took flight after them and followed from the air.

Raven didn’t even listen to wonder if Reese was saying anything or not. He kept his eyes trained all around them so that there wouldn’t be any sort of surprise attack. He didn’t see any zoids around so he calmed down a little and started to slow the genobreaker down since they were already several miles away from the town. They couldn’t even see it anymore.

Reese sighed in relief since she didn’t feel anything around them as well. “I think we’re far enough away. I can’t feel the presence of anyone around here anyways,” stated Reese when she realized that there was no one following them.

She spoke too soon though because only a matter of seconds later they were shot at by an iron kong that was standing only a few feet away. “What the hell?! I thought you said that you didn’t feel anyone around us!” Raven yelled as the genobreaker was thrown to the ground where it skidded for a few seconds before finally coming to a stop. He picked it up and faced a brown iron kong standing a good fifty feet away.

“I did! I still don’t feel anyone! For some reason, whoever is in that zoid is blocking me from getting into their mind” Reese yelled as she managed to pull herself back into her seat after being thrown around the cockpit of the genobreaker.

Raven growled and griped the controls. “Maybe it’s just a sleeper zoid. Then again, I get the strangest feeling that it isn’t. I’ve never heard of an iron kong being a sleeper zoid,” Raven said as he watched the zoid carefully. It just stood there patiently as if waiting for something.

“That’s because there are none. The republic uses guysacks and the empire uses molgas as sleepers,” Reese said growing annoyed as she tried to probe the mind of the man in front of them again and once again fail. ‘It’s either he doesn’t think or there’s more to it than that,’ she thought angrily.

A screen popped up in the genobreaker’s cockpit showing a very familiar face, yet one that Raven just couldn’t seem to place. “So you guys didn’t learn your lesson back there did you?” Raven asked clutching the controls tightly ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

A screen popped up showing a strong looking man that had a sneer on his face. “Those guys were pathetic. I could defeat them all in my sleep without the help of an organoid,” Ryan said with a confident look on his face. “No use trying to get into my mind zoidian, your powers have no effect on me,” he said in a cocky tone.

Raven was wondering how he knew of a way to block Reese’s mind powers. Somehow Raven knew that it would be wise for him not to underestimate the power of the man and zoid that was standing before him. He didn’t know why though. “Who the hell are you?” Raven asked.

Ryan just smirked as he studied Raven over the communication. “You’ve met me before. Remember when you went to visit Flyheight?” Ryan asked with a confident smirk on his face and it only increased when a look of recognition crossed Raven’s placid face. “Good you remember now,” he said laughing.

“Oh it’s you. You were the one that killed that man before he could tell us anything,” Raven said as his face went blank and he just stared at the man before him. “That cause me quite a bit of trouble after that,” Raven growled and glared at the man on the screen.

Ryan wasn’t even the least bit fazed by the glare. In fact, it actually seemed to make him more confident. “Yes but now that you know what we want it will make things a bit easier for me. Now hand her over,” Ryan said ready to attack since he knew what Raven’s answer would be.

Raven’s face went blank once again as he clutched the controls. “I think not. When it comes to me you will never have an easy time,” Raven said pushing on the controls full strength. He charged towards the iron kong and was about an inch away from hitting it when it moved out of the way at a speed that had to be too fast for an iron kong.

The next thing Raven knew the genobreaker was hit quite a distance when the iron kong appeared at his side and slammed its fist into the head of the genobreaker. It shook Raven up quite a bit but he recovered quickly. “What the hell!” Raven yelled glaring at the iron kong.

Ryan just chuckled when he saw the genobreaker trying it’s hardest to stand up from that one attack. “Normal tactics are impossible to use against me. I know every move you will make before you even make it,” Ryan said with a confident voice and smirk on his face.

Raven didn’t like this. Nobody had given him too much trouble except for Van. The genobreaker took its footing in the ground as the clamps on its feet latched itself to the ground. The genobreaker was preparing for a charged particle beam. “I’m afraid that this is the end for you. Later!” Raven smirked as the particle beam came to full charge.

Ryan just watched it as if it was a normal occurrence. ‘He actually thinks he’ll get me with that attack?’ he thought as he took a footing into the ground as if he planned to actually take the charge particle beam full blast. “Nice try!” he said with a laugh as he watched the genobreaker about to fire.

Raven was really surprised to see that he wasn’t even going to try to move out of the way of one of the most dangerous attacks ever. “Idiot!” Raven yelled as the genobreaker fired the charged particle beam at the iron kong and it hit it dead-on at full force.

*****

Raven bolted up in a bed as he regained consciousness. “Where am I?” Raven asked as he clutched his forehead since the bright light of the room were giving him a bit of a headache. He was glad when he saw that they were dimmed and he looked up to see his biggest rival standing in front of him.

Van leaned against the wall next to the door with a hand on the light switch. “You’re at the Red River Base,” Van said as he stood up straight and walked towards the hospital bed. He may not have had the best past with Raven but he had respect for the guy.

Raven growled as he swung his feet over the side of the bed and tried to stand up but he became a bit dizzy and ended up falling back down. “Where’s Reese?” Raven asked as he gave up trying to stand up at the fiftieth try.

“She’s fine. She has actually been worried about you since you were brought here a few days ago,” Van said as he walked over to the window and too a look at the bright day outside. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw a day as bright as it was that day. A part of him couldn’t help but wonder if it was the same for Fiona.

Raven searched his mind but he could find an answer to one question that was swarming through his head. “How did I get here?” he asked as he finally managed to stand up and walked over to shadow who happened to be standing loyally in the corner of the room.

Van just pointed to the black organoid with a straight face. “You’re organoids brought the two of you her. You were in pretty bad condition at the time and we treated you,” Van said as he leaned against the wall again. ‘Took a lot of convincing to get them to help,’ he thought remembering what happened. “What happened to you?” Van asked wondering how his toughest rival could’ve been put in such a shape.

Raven knew what happened what was still confused on how it was even possible. “He should’ve been killed,” Raven murmured to himself as he thought back to what had happened after he had fired the charged particle beam.

***Flashback***

There was dust everywhere and nobody was able to see what had happened on the battlefield asked the intense shot of the charged particle beam. Raven found himself staring at the field with a feeling of triumph in him. “He was just all talk and no action. I hate people like him,” he said as he prepared to leave.

He was about to turn around when the dust started to settle and the iron kong stood there looking as if it didn’t have a scratch on it. “What the hell! How is that even possible?” yelled Raven staring in disbelief as the weapon that once could take down several zoids at once failed to even leave a dent on the iron kong.

Ryan just laughed at the disbelief that Raven was feeling. “I told you that normal tactics were useless against me. Maybe you should rethink your strategy because you won’t be able to use those tactics again,” Ryan said as the Iron kong charged forward and just barely missed the genobreaker. “Pretty quick to be able to dodge that,” he said not looking angry at all. In fact, he was looking rather pleased still.

“Go to hell bastard!” Raven said firing the claws without warning but growled when the first of the two missed. He then shot the other one and this time it managed to grab the iron kong’s legs and Raven smirked. “Gotcha!” he said sending a shockwave through the claw.

Ryan didn’t even feel the effects of the shock as the iron kong grabbed a hold of the genobreaker’s claws and pulled it off of it’s legs. “Such pathetic attacks won’t harm me,” he said pulling on the claws which sent the genobreaker flying forward.

“Damn it!” Raven yelled as he did his best to pull the genobreaker up right. He did just in time as the genobreaker skidded across the ground several feet before it final came to a stop.

Raven barely had time to react before he saw the iron kong running at him with it’s fist raised in the air ready to strike down upon the genobreaker. Raven was barely able to get the shield up before the fist hit it full force.

Ryan smirked putting more power into the fist pushing it into the shield even though it was causing the zoid’s fist to take some serious damage. The sheer stress of it shattered the shield somehow but in the process the iron kong lost it’s fist.

“Damn it! How did he break the shield?” Raven asked himself as he looked over the genobreaker quickly to see if there was anything wrong. He found it strange when he saw that the genobreaker’s shield was just fine before then. “What the hell is going on?” Raven asked himself narrowly dodging the only good fist on the iron kong.

“I think it’s time that I finished this,” Ryan said coming down with his fist again. Just as he saw Raven preparing to dodge, he changed attacks and slammed into the genobreaker with the shoulder of the iron kong and then slammed his good fist really hard at the cockpit area.

It didn’t manage to breach the cockpit but the force of it forced the cockpit open and caused Raven to be thrown out of it and landed hard on the ground. He skidded for several moments as Reese tried to get a hold of herself in the cockpit before he finally came to a stop.

Raven opened his eyes weakly and watched as the powerful iron kong walked slowly towards him. Before everything went black he saw shadow come down and pick him up just as the iron kong’s fist came down for the kill.

***End Flashback***

Van listened intently as Raven recounted what happened in the battle. It was really distressing to him to hear that there was someone powerful enough to use an iron kong to defeat a zoid that was powerful as the genobreaker. “Who would’ve thought he’d be able to do that,” Van muttered as he sat in a chair and tried to digest the large amount of information he was being given.

“I wasn’t as prepared for the battle as I normally was. I swear that the next time I see that man, I will drive that iron kong of his into the dirt and give it a nice going away present with my charged particle beam!” Raven said angrily as his fist slammed down upon the table next to his bed.

Van watched Raven take out of his anger without saying a word. He knew what Raven was feeling at that moment. He felt weak. Lost at something that he thought was going to be easy. Van had experienced that in the few battles he lost against Raven and also at the mere thought of Fiona.

“Where’s my genobreaker? I’m going to hunt down that guy and make sure he pays for the humiliation he made me go through!” Raven said turning towards the door but stopped when he felt Van grab his arm. “Let go of me Van!” he growled out in no mood for someone to try and hold him back from his revenge.

“I really don’t think it would be wise for you to head out to face him as injured as you are Raven,” Van said as he stared coldly at Raven. “And with your zoid still damaged, I doubt you will be able to defeat him anyways. I know you are feeling humiliated but give it some time!” Van said sternly.

“No one asked for your opinion Van,” Raven said calmly as he opened the door. “Now tell me what happened to my genobreaker!” he said coldly staring at Van and smirked when he saw Van fidget a little.

Van had never seen such hatred in Raven. Sure Raven hatred him whenever he lost to Van but this was something that seemed to be even larger than anything Van had ever seen in Raven before. “Fine. You’re genobreaker was just brought in and it’s being repaired now,” Van said finally giving in. ‘If he wants to get himself killed that that will be his fault. I said my part,’ Van thought staring at Raven as stood in the doorway.

Raven smirked as he opened the door and walked out of the room. “Good because I don’t want to stay here for one more second,” Raven said as he calmly walked down the halls and watched as several soldiers fearfully moved out of his way so as to avoid the wrath of one of the most powerful zoid warriors on planet Zi.

Van watched him walk away with a frown. “He could have at least said thanks,” Van said as he too left the room and headed towards his own. He figured that he would never understand why Raven was as hard headed as he was. Van secretly hoped that Raven would get his revenge. Van and Raven didn’t get along but Raven was still his greatest rival and he had all the respect in the world for him.

*****

Reese was just sitting off to the side watched as men reluctantly did their repairs on the Genobreaker. She just knew that they wouldn’t be doing it at all if it were for Van. They would rather just see Raven and her die for all the pain and suffering that they caused in the past.

That wasn’t the case though. The two of them made a deal after the deathsaurer and made a promise that they would stop fighting the Empire and the Republic and occasionally give help to the guardian force should the need arise. In return, they would be granted some sort of freedom.

Reese looked up at the damaged Genobreaker. She just knew that they kept a tracking device installed to keep tabs on where the two of them were at all times. Neither her nor Raven were planning on taking it off because they figured that it would be best to just live in peace so that they wouldn’t have to fight the guardian force anymore.

Reese then looked over and saw Raven approaching. “I see that you’re finally up,” Reese said happily as she walked over to him and looked at his angry face. “You don’t look too happy,” she commented and knew that he was pissed off at his loss to Ryan. She too was angry that even her mind powers couldn’t work against the man that defeated Raven.

Raven was silent for a few seconds as he regarded the genobreaker. When he finally did say something all he said was, “We’re going,” he said before he headed towards the still severally damaged genobreaker ready to take it out exactly as it was. He didn’t want to stay in this military base any longer and keep getting the stares he was getting. He found it to be really annoying.

Reese groaned because she was still tired from all of their running. “Can’t we just stay and rest for a while because we have been running from those guys for a long time and it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a little bit,” Reese said as she leaned against the crates and slid to the floor with a tired sigh.

Raven could only growl with what she was saying. The more he stayed in a military base, the more it continued to irritate him. “I would really prefer if we got out of her immediately!” he growled angrily shooting a glare at two young soldiers who were gawking at the sight of him in the military base.

Reese groaned as her head fell to stare at the floor. She really was too tired and the few days she had to rest while he was unconscious really didn’t seem like it was enough because she just wanted to rest more. She just kept pleading with him.

Raven didn’t know why but he felt his anger die for a little bit. “Fine, but not for long!” Raven said getting annoyed with her. “And I’m only doing this because we are going to search for that guy and I don’t want you slowing us down because you’re tired,’ Raven said as he too took a seat and waited impatiently for them to get done with the repairs.

He would never completely admit it but in the past years both of them had changed so dramatically that there didn’t seem to be any evil left in them. They just seemed to want to try and prefer a peaceful life.

Raven actually just hid them away for a while and also hid the genobreaker. He only really decided to get back into it’s cockpit because of the threat that the organization that was causing so much trouble. He knew it would be unwise to leave them alone when they attacked him and Reese so he got back in and started piloting again.

Reese was the one that changed most of all. She even seemed to get along great with Van and the others now and even seemed to become good friends with them. Raven originally could never really get used to it and tried to remain like he used to be, but now he realized that he was actually starting to like things more.

It was really strange for him but he even seemed to be falling in love with Reese, which made it seem like she had a lot of control over him and could make him do a lot of things even if he didn’t feel like it.

Yes, he was definitely growing soft but he knew that it didn’t mean that he wasn’t still a dangerous person. He would prefer it if people continued to fear him so that they would leave him alone. A peaceful life was all that he really wanted now but the organization seemed to take any chances of that away from him.

‘God I wish they would just finish the repairs soon. I’m going to find and rip out the throats of the guy in charge of the organization and also the throat of that man,’ he thought in contempt leaning back and closing his eyes figuring that he could just get a little rest before they left. He didn’t care where but if he was going to be forced to stay here a little longer than he was going to rest. He’d prefer if it was closer to his genobreaker in case of an emergency.

“Hey Raven,” Reese said as she watched the slow progress on the genobreaker. He didn’t reply but she knew that he was listening anyways. “Are we going after him?” she asked and she just saw him nod his head without opening his eyes. “How do you plan on doing that? I know you don’t have a plan,” she said with a sigh.

Raven smirked as he sat up and took a glance at her. “I don’t think it will be possible to avoid them forever if you’re going to travel with me,” he said and Reese nodded her head. “I’ll meet him again eventually and I’ll fight and defeat him,” Raven said with a smirk at the mere thought of it.

Reese was willing to go through anything if it meant that she could help Raven get his revenge. She would be willing to put her safety in jeopardy. She knew that Raven would protect her though. She knew it wasn’t what he liked to talk about but she knew that he was different and actually cared for things me, including her. “Fine.”

*****

Worry was etched out all over Fiona’s face. She really didn’t know what she was going to do. She was worried for the safety of hers and Vans daughter. Their daughter and Van were the most precious things in her life and she didn’t want to see either of them hurt.

Fiona stood up and walked over to a small crib holding the small baby girl in it. “Is it possible that they could come after you as well?” she asked quietly as she reach down and lightly caressed the cheek of the baby so softly that it didn’t wake it up from it’s sleep.

Fiona then pulled her hand away carefully and smiled at the little girl. “No they haven’t found me yet so she is safer with me for now,” Fiona said looking at her pride and joy. A tear fell down as she watched her little girl. “Sooner or later they will find me but until then both me and our daughter will be safe Van,” Fiona said before bursting into even more tears.