Perfect Sacrifice

by Parker, Jack

  Its eyes weren't just red like most Geno's glass eyes. They were alit with red lights, giving the black beast an eerie look to it. Not that it hadn't been eerie before, but this was just too much. As more of its body was revealed, the knights began to back up, but none more than Ray. In fact, she was the most afraid right now. This Geno had eight legs, each one coming to a rather sharp point. Its main body was connected to the head where two pincher shaped fangs resided. It looked exactly like the thing it was meant to resemble.

  Ray began backing up even more, making her way past Abby, Brian, and Leon. All three of them looked back at her, but Abby and Brian were the ones confused.

  "Ray, what's wrong?" asked Brian, wanting to know why the confident ace knight was suddenly scared to death. After all her boasting, all of her big talk about how she'd destroy the monster, she was now trying to retreat.

  "Spider," she whispered in fear as her eyes remained on the large Geno before them. Never had she been expecting something like this. What was she supposed to do now? The very sight of the creature was sending a petrifying chill down her spine.

  "What?" questioned Abby, seeming thoroughly confused at this newest development.

  "Ray, snap out of it!" shouted Leon, trying to get through to her. However, it was no use. This was her only fear, and it was a bad one at that. Their only hope for winning was slowly being blown away like the desert sand around them. The most powerful pilot of the GRC, the ace knight, was scared stiff, now completely useless to this battle.

  "What's going on?" asked Brian.

  "Ray is afraid of spiders," answered Leon, now rather angry at this predicament. In the back of his mind, all he could think about was how dead the four of them were. This thing had taken the lives of eight GRC knights. What chance did two, plus an average pilot have against this thing?

  "Afraid of spiders?" questioned Abby, seeming as if she hadn't known that. She probably hadn't, come to think of it. She quickly turned to Ray, seeing the fearful expression on her video screen. "R.C, it's not a spider!" she said rather harshly. "It's a Geno, one we can't fight without your help. Now come on!" However, Ray made no attempt to move back towards them. Instead, she backed up further.

  "Pathetic," stated the pilot of the spider Geno. The machine let out a loud mechanical shriek before two machine guns appeared on its back. "I guess the ace knight won't be much of a threat now."

  "You heard us?" questioned Abby in disbelief. Their link was supposed to be private.

  "Of course," he responded with what sounded like a smirk on his face. "Every word." The two machine guns began firing, and the three Genos spread out. Luckily he wasn't going after Ray. There was no point. Attacking what was attacking him was a better strategy. He was very happy right now that Ramirez wouldn't be watching this battle. There was no way for him to. There wasn't a single news camera out in the desert. No one knew that this battle was even taking place except for one other person.

  "Good luck Aaron," said a voice over his private communication link, one he knew that only he could hear right now.

  "Thanks Andy," he said with a smirk. "But I won't need it."

  Bullets blanketed the area, and luckily not one of the three Genos was hit. In fact, they were managing to dodge everything quite nicely. Unfortunately, they were getting a little too close to the spider's legs. One was soon raised in the air, aiming to come down on one of the three.

  "Look out!" shouted Brian, and they all jumped out of the way just as the leg would have hit them. Instead, it met with the sand, picking up a rather large cloud of it. Unfortunately, the bullets were still being fired. Before any of them could be hit, they broke off running again. However, Leon quickly broke the sound barrier, running to the other side of the Geno, the side where the guns weren't firing. He spun into a stop, much like the way Ray did. He had learned it from her, after all.

  Leon quickly began firing with a gun that flipped up from his back. He launched a volley of missiles towards the two machine guns, managing to blow one clean off. However, the other was quickly turned towards him. Before any bullets could find their mark, he transformed into the water form and burrowed under the ground. He was really thankful for his white armor, because even a millisecond later would have been too late.

  Abby and Brian began firing at the last gun, seeing as how it was no longer aimed towards them. They managed to take it out, but an even larger one took its place. It quickly turned to them and began firing. They had no choice but to take off running again.

  Without the machine's knowledge, Leon resurfaced, transformed, and quickly took off, leaping into the air. He was going to take out that gun and get on top of the extremely large Geno. It was probably one of the more vulnerable places on the machine. However, one of the legs came up, aiming to bat him away. Before it could, his Geno transformed again, now in its aerial form. It took off, getting away from the leg as it swiped downwards, cutting nothing but air.

  "Wow," said Brian, seemingly quite impressed. "He's gotten better."

  "I'll say," agreed Abby with a smile. He really had improved from their last encounter.

  Leon soared high above his enemy, a second machine gun appearing to shoot at him. He spun and dodged the line of bullets as it tried to follow his path. He wasn't about to let himself get hit. This battle had to be taken seriously, more seriously than the battles he was used to. Besides, he had a promise to keep. He had told Ray that he'd keep her safe from any and every spider, and that included this one. He was going to fight as hard as he could. Besides, the consequences for not giving it his all were far too costly. This was one of those battles where you either killed or got killed. It was a win lose situation. There was no in between.

  Abby and Brian were quick to follow Leon's example, changing into their air born forms. They began dodging the machine gun fire as yet another one surfaced on the back of the giant Geno. Not only that, but something that looked like a missile pod appeared as well. Without any warning, it fired, sending off every air born's worst fear: anti air missiles.

  "Get out of the way!" shouted Abby as she began dodging the missiles. All three of them swerved and dodged, managing to get out of the way just in time. The missile pod continued to litter the sky with the anti air missiles, and they were starting to get sick of it. Between the machine guns and the missiles, dodging was getting hard. Leon began firing at an angle, lining up the missile pod. Just as he blew it off, a few machine gun bullets connected with his gun, knocking it clean off. His Geno faltered a little, but he quickly regained his balance, rejoining Abby and Brian in the sky.

  "I have an idea," proclaimed Abby as she lowered her altitude. The machine gun had to realign with her, but before it could, she took off at top speed, breaking through the sound barrier. She zoomed right over it, ripping off two of the machine guns. The other was quickly shot off by Brian at it tried to go after Abby.

  "Come on!" she shouted, circling around at a slower speed. "Let's hit it hard before any more guns come up! Use a sonic boom!"

  "Alright," said Brian as he began lowering his altitude. Leon followed suit. The three of them were soon side by side, flying towards the giant spider.

  "Are you up to this Leon?" asked Abby, seeming a little concerned.

  "Of course," he responded, sounding very determined at the moment. "I haven't been practicing for nothing." Abby and Brian were both a little confused, but they decided to ask later. They had more important things to take care of.

  "Now!" shouted Abby as they all flipped the switch, sending all three of their Genos racing forwards. They flew right over the top of the Geno in hopes of causing a sonic boom great enough to knock it over. Unfortunately, all they accomplished was ripping a bit of the armor off of its back.

  "It didn't work," stated Brian in shock. What else could they do? Their weapons weren't working, and now their most powerful technique had just failed. What was left to try?

  Before any of them could think of a plan, one of the legs lifted up and swatted at th
em, sending them plummeting to the sandy ground. Lucky they all changed back into the feline forms before hitting the ground. After all, cats always landed on their feet.

  "Now what?" asked Leon, hoping for an answer.

  "I don't know," responded Abby, sounding very disappointed at the moment. She was good at coming up with ideas, but this battle seemed hopeless. At least they were all still alive, but no one knew how long that would last. As if to prove her point, one of the legs struck out at them again. They all leapt into the air to avoid it.

  "Well, we better come up with something," stated Leon, "or we're all going to get kill-" He was cut off as another one of the legs struck him from behind, slamming him into the ground.

  "Leon!" cried out Abby, fearing the worst. When the dust from the impact cleared, they could see that his Geno wasn't moving. "Leon, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

  "I'm fine," came the somewhat agonizing reply. He was currently rubbing at the back of his head, a bump now forming there. Strangely enough, the soap bar Ray had thrown at him a week ago had hurt more.

  "Get up!" shouted Brian. "You can't stay there!"

  "I know that!" he shouted back, seeming rather irritated. He wasn't stupid. He knew better than to stay in one place for too long during a battle. He grabbed the controls and tried to bring his Geno to its feet. However, it wasn't moving.

  "Leon!" shouted Abby in warning, drawing his attention to his monitors. He looked up and saw one of the spider's legs, now raised high above his Geno. The black metal gleamed in the sun, making the sharp point seem all the more deadly. He began pulling on his Geno's controls, begging it to get up, but it just wouldn't. There was no way out this time. He needed a miracle.

  All through the battle, Ray had been watching, trying to calm her mind enough to help them. Who ever would have thought that her worst fear and what she was the most confident about would ever clash? Now she was nothing but a cowering child, watching and waiting for the threat to disappear. However, it wasn't about to. She knew that for a fact. At the rate they were going, her friends were going to lose. A sonic boom hadn't even worked. What else was there to try?

  Her breath caught in the back of her throat when she saw Leon get slammed into the ground. Something inside of her twisted, something she wasn't sure of. Fear filled her eyes as she saw the giant spider lifting its leg above Leon. It was about to crush him, just like it had some of the other knights. He was about to die.

  That one thought echoed in Ray's mind as she watched Abby and Brian rush forwards, but another machine gun quickly had them running the other way. That was it. Leon was alone, unable to get his Geno to respond. No matter how hard Ray tried, she couldn't get herself to get in there and help him. But she had a promise to keep, right? She had sworn on her honor that she wouldn't let Ramirez kill Leon. Even though this man clearly wasn't Ramirez, he was working for him. She had to keep Leon alive. However, the spider began bringing its leg down.

  "Leon!" she cried out in worry, her voice filtering into his cockpit. Before he knew what was happening, his Geno sprang to life, jumping away at the last second. The spider's leg came down on nothing as Leon bounded back, skidding a little on the sand. His Geno crouched down, a low growl escaping its mechanical throat.

  "Whoa," he heard Brian say out of awe. They had just taken care of the machine gun.

  "That was smooth Leon," congratulated Abby. Despite the praise, Leon was confused.

  "But I didn't…" he began, knowing for a fact that his hands hadn't even been on the controls. How had his Geno moved? He hadn't done anything. He knew for a fact that he couldn't have done it. His Geno had just moved on its own. How was the question here. He had only seen a Geno move on its own twice before, and both times it had been Ray's. That one thought caused him to glance back at her still Geno. Right before his had moved, he had heard her scream his name. Did you do it? Was it you, Ray?

  There was no time to ponder the thought, since the giant spider wasn't about to stop its onslaught. Yet another large gun appeared on its back, firing round after round of bullets at the three warriors.

  "Damn," whispered Aaron. "I was sure I had him. How'd he move so fast? Normal people don't have reflexes like that." He tried to shoot at them, but they were moving too fast. He needed another gun. He smirked when he remembered what kind he had. His large cannon was perhaps gone, but he still had the smaller one.

  The machine gun on the spider's back quickly disappeared, being replaced with a different gun. This one was much larger and looked rather heavy. Not to mention that it had five cannon barrels on it, each one able to move in every direction.

  "How many weapons does this thing have?" questioned Abby, getting very sick of all the guns. It was like it had a never ending amount. Then again, since the spider Geno was so big, it was obviously very slow. It had to make up for that speed loss with firepower, and artillery like that cannon was definitely the way to go. There was no way they would be able to blast that one off. It would require a sonic boom.

  "We have to get rid of that cannon," stated Brian as it began charging up. All four of the cannon barrels were currently aiming towards them.

  "Split up!" shouted Abby just as all five cannons fired, each one letting loose a beam of white light. The three of them spread up, going in different directions. Two went after Abby, two went after Brian, and only one was aiming towards Leon. Nevertheless, they were hard to dodge. The beam was tearing up the sand behind them, slowly gaining. The beam chasing Leon was soon right on him, and before he got hit, he flipped a switch, sending his Geno blasting across the sands. Abby and Brian found that they had to do the same.

  As soon as Leon was far enough away from the beam, he transformed his Geno into the aerial form, taking off quickly into the sky. Unfortunately, the beam followed, still shooting for him. He was safer up there than on the ground though. He had more space up in the air. Abby and Brian quickly followed his example. Besides, if they could time it right, they could take the cannon off with a sonic boom. It was their only hope. This Geno had so much power that the cannon would be able to keep firing long after their Genos were drained of energy.

  "Okay," began Abby, "let's try this again. We've got to time this just right, because it'll take all of us to rip that cannon off." Leon and Brian nodded in agreement. This had to go perfectly, or they wouldn't be able to disable the cannon. The fact that it was still firing at them was only going to make this harder.

  "Ready?" asked Brian, getting into position while still dodging the beams.

  "Yeah, let's go," said Leon, wanting to get this over with.

  "Brian, you go in on the right, Leon go in from the left, and I'll take the top, okay?" said Abby as she veered her Geno to her position. "Remember, don't get hit. It's a long, or should I say short way down if you do. This is just one of the reasons that high speed battle is so dangerous."

  "Let's do this," said Brian enthusiastically. He really wanted to get this over with too. All of them were pretty scared. So much could go wrong right now.

  "Ready?" began Abby as they all placed their hands by the switches. The second they dodged the lasers, Abby yelled "go!" They took off, breaking through the sound barrier and just missing the cannon fire. As they flew by the cannon, the sonic boom that followed tore it off. It rolled down the spider's back, crashing to the ground below.

  Aaron smirked as he pressed in a button. He had another trick up his sleeve. They weren't about to get away.

  "I've got you this time," he stated as a compartment opened on all eight legs of the Geno. A gun appeared on each one, all quickly going towards the three Genos that were about to land. The second they touched down, the guns fired. They were blanketed in a wave of constant fire, the sand from the desert getting picked up in the ambush of bullets.

  Ray was still on the sidelines, and now she was awe struck. Her friends were being covered in gun fire, and she couldn't even see what was going on anymore. It was only after the shelling stopped and the veil of dust lifted th
at she was able to see the damage that had been done. All three of their Genos were lying in the sand, their armor pierced in a few places by the bullets. What really scared her though was the fact that she wasn't getting a signal from any of them. They were all silent.

  "Well," she heard Aaron say. "I guess it's time to finish this." All eight guns were about ready to fire again. He was going to finish them off.

  At that moment, everything snapped. Ray's mind was quickly overwhelmed, forcing her current fear from it. Reality quickly hit her as she realized what was about to happen to the few friends she still had left. This man had already taken eight of her family members. He wasn't going to take any more; she'd make sure of that. She had a promise to keep. However, that excuse was slowly becoming less and less of a reason. It's not that she had to protect Leon. She wanted to.

  Before any of the eight guns could fire, Ray began firing her own, knocking off every single one in a matter of seconds. The spider quickly turned to her, its eyes glowing fiercely, but she didn't care. Not anymore. She had more important things to do. She had friends to protect.

  The spider turned to her fully, and Aaron was rather bemused. After learning of her fear, he hadn't thought he'd have much of a problem taking them all out. If she wanted to fight, he'd have to step things up a notch.

  "Are you finally ready?" he asked her, but all he received was a growl from her Geno as it lowered itself to the ground.

  "Ray?" questioned Leon as his Geno slowly rose from its position on the ground. Abby and Brian were doing the same. Their Genos were soon back on their feet, a little wobbly, but they were at least standing.

  "Let me handle this," said Ray, her voice rather low. "I owe him." She tightened her grip on the controls, her red eyes flaring angrily. "Do you hear me?" she asked him, her voice rising. "I won't let you take another life. Not now, not ever!" She flipped both switches simultaneously, and her Geno was off, ripping through the sound barrier. As she maneuvered her Geno, she began passing by four of the legs on the spider. As she passed them, the cannon on her back shot off rounds, hitting all four of the legs. The spider quickly began falling, but not before managing to turn around one last time, attempting to use one of its still functioning legs to crush her. However, she was too fast. She spun around and began charging back the way she came, shooting at the other four legs, disabling them all. Now it was nothing more than one big target.