Post by Swim on Oct 10, 2015 18:49:00 GMT -5
This next short story skips ahead a little bit into the future. Jet has returned and is no longer presumed KIA after the Dagmor incident, and the New Generation Reploids begin infiltrating the ranks of the Maverick Hunters. Tank is brought back into the fold after exposing Alia as a fake and outing the New Gen impostor who had been causing all manner of problems behind the scenes. But that was only the beginning. The uprising prompts a return to conflict between two factions of mavericks which have been warring against each other for decades: a brotherhood of New Gen reploids led by the enigmatic V, and the legions of Maverick Lord Lucian Alexandre. Today's short story begins with Jet and Tank storming V's base of operations, hoping to confront the maverick and stop his New Gen sleeper agents, who are poised to cause havoc across the planet. However, it is perhaps more important because it concludes a story-line of one character in particular, although since they haven't had much exposure on ZV the ending will probably lack punch. But if you read the Smash and Grab Short last week you might make the connection. As always leave comments and critique in the reply section, and enjoy.
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Crystal Huntress
With a little encouragement from Tank the heavy door to V’s central control room exploded inward. The larger hunter rushed inward, shield poised to deflect enemy fire but none came. Jet dove in behind Tank, rolling for cover behind a desk and raised his buster, training it on their quarry.
“Freeze V!” Jet bellowed. “This is your last chance to come quietly.”
V looked up from his command table and wiped away the holographic map he’d been viewing. “Well how fitting that the two of you find your way here,” he sneered. “You know you two have caused me no small amount of annoyance, but you should know there’s no way to stop what’s coming.”
“Yeah?” Tank countered, “Taking you down seems like a pretty good start. Answer my partner, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?”
“The two of you are incapable of defeating an advanced reploid such as myself,” V huffed. “And though I would relish the opportunity to beat the life out of you Tank, I have to go and bring about a new world for my New Generation brothers.”
“We’re not just letting you walk away V,” Jet countered, vaulting over his cover and streaking towards him.
But V did not try to run, instead he looked straight at Jet, grinning a maniacal grin. "You really are terrible guests," he drawled. "Now only have you come in uninvited, you expect me to entertain when I'm right in the middle of cleaning house. I suppose I'll have to call on the mistress of the house to occupy you." After speaking he tapped a button on his arm, which summoned another being to his side.
She was taller than V, though not as broad, covered from head to toe in armor of polished crystal blue. No face was visible; it was covered by a helmet with slits at the eyes and mouth and encircled in a mass of green hair. Her arms were covered by spiked gauntlets and clutched a peculiar looking staff. One end was white, topped with a blue crystal. Further down the staff became brown in the middle, and blue and green on the other end, which was mounted with a blade. She looked formidable, but nothing that he and Tank couldn't handle together. The problem was that V clearly intended to use her as a diversion while he made his escape. They couldn't let him get away, but how long would it take them to defeat his guardian?
It looked like Tank was of the same mind. "Whoever you are," he called to the maverick in crystal armor. "This coward is going to leave you to die here, are you really sure he's worth it?"
She stood stoically, giving no response. V grinned broadly. "Pristine here would give her life for me in an instant if I demanded it," he told Tank. "And don't be so sure you'll win. It pains me to say, but Pristine is the most naturally skilled reploid I've ever met. I'm only sad that I don't have time to stay and watch how this little contest plays out, but I'll save and enjoy the recording for years to come. Goodbye Hunters."
V turned to leave. Jet and Tank rushed forward to stop him but Pristine blocked their path allowing V to make his exit through the back.
"Fine," Tank grunted, bringing his busters to bear. Jet could hear him warming up his chain guns. "Let's finish this quick."
Tank opened up by firing a lethal storm of bullets from both arms, clearly hoping to drop her with the first attack. Pristine responded immediately, bringing her staff in front of her and spinning it faster than even a reploid's eye could track. The bullets deflected wildly about the room, though the majority of them seemed to be redirected toward Jet. Jet caught several rounds to the chest and torso before dropping behind cover to avoid taking more serious damage. Tank's chain guns ground to a halt, the big hunter quickly recognizing that the attack was ineffective.
As soon as Tank stopped firing Pristine drew a pair of handguns and began to return fire. Jet doubted they would inflict serious damage against a reploid as well armored as Tank, but even so his brother raised his shield reflexively to protect himself. Pristine began to move toward Tank, increasing her rate of fire as she ran. When she reached him she kicked off the front of his shield, soaring through the air and bringing Jet into her line of sight. The staff appeared in her hand once again before being launched at Jet with the force of a cannon. Jet barely scrambled out of the way, narrowly evading the spear end which struck the floor next to him and began coating the area around it with a thin layer of ice. Jet wasn't prepared for the freezing, resulting in the ice trapping both of his legs for a moment. The huntress landed near him, snapping up her staff to spear him but Jet ignited his sabers which were already in his hands and blocked the attack.
Tank was coming up behind her now, broadsword in hand and brought it around for a horizontal sweep. Pristine heard him coming and vaulted backward over the desk and out of his reach. As Tank recovered she punted the desk into him, knocking Tank backward and removing Jet's cover. By this time Jet had freed himself from the ice by the heat of his blades and jumped back to his feet in time to parry the next round of spear thrusts and staff strikes. Pristine's assault drove him backward, closer to Tank who by now had knocked the desk away and come to Jet's side. Tank lunged forward with a thrusting attack which Pristine easily sidestepped, but had to flip away from Jet's follow up.
V hadn't been kidding, she was extremely skilled. "We haven't even landed a blow on her yet," Tank muttered, taking a moment to evaluate things.
"She seems to be targeting me, she can tell my armor isn't as strong as yours," Jet observed quietly. "Let's try to coordinate our attacks, catch her from behind when she's focused on me. I'll try to immobilize her somehow."
Pristine didn't give them any more time than that, drawing her handguns again and opening fire. Tank stepped in front of Jet to shield him from harm, pivoting on the spot as she tried to sidestep around for a better shot. She was being smart about her bullets too, every so often she'd slow her firing speed to reload but it was always one gun at a time, she always had the other ready to go. Even so, Tank saw this as their best opportunity and dropped his shield long enough to launch a tank shell at her. While Pristine rolled out of harm's way Jet flew out from behind Tank, wreathed in an aura of blue flame. Skimming low to the ground he lashed out with one of his sabers, this time leaving his mark. A fiery red gash appeared in her armor where his saber had struck, a long cut from the middle of the chest to her upper left thigh. It must not have been deep enough to get beneath the armor though, she blocked his follow up swipe as if she hadn't felt the hit.
Tank was barreling in trying to take advantage of the situation and land another hit, but before he got there Pristine dropped low and slammed her fist into the ground, unleashing a frozen blast which once again pinned Jet in place. This time the ice spread up over his knees. Jet held out his sabers anticipating the need to block but instead she shifted her focus over to Tank.
Tank was as surprised as Jet when Pristine charged right into his attack, an upward-diagonal slice. She dropped, using her momentum to slide along the floor evading the attack, slipped around his legs and proceeded to hamstring them from her position behind him. A lesser reploid would've dropped to his knees, but Tank whirled around with a horizontal sweep that she ducked under. As Tank recovered she popped him twice with her staff, light hits on his leg and upper arm. He brought Redemption down hard but she twisted around the strike and landed another couple jabs with her staff. They didn't hurt much thanks to his armor, but she was annoyingly agile. If he could only hit her Tank was quite sure it would be over, but that was proving more difficult by the second. When she flipped over Tank's next sweep he became aware that he was slowing down. Over each spot she had struck him patches of ice had begun to spread. What's more, Tank now realized with a twinge of equal parts respect and horror, most of her jabs had been targeted around joints and pressure positions. Pristine took a step back and fired a blast of cold air from her palm, Tank felt like he was standing in a blizzard. Then everything locked up.
Jet watched as his brother had been systematically disabled. Using his sabers it had only taken him a couple of seconds to melt the ice enough to break free, but those seconds had been all she needed to wear Tank down and put him on ice. Now she was spraying him with some kind of mist, Jet didn't know what it was but he couldn't even take a shot from his vantage point without the risk of hitting Tank. All he knew was that it was now a one on one fight and he had to keep pressure on her or she could execute Tank.
Fortunately she wasn't trying to hide behind him; instead she pushed Tank on his side and emerged firing. Several of the shots hit Jet, even as he returned fire, but not enough to stop him. His own buster shots were completely rebuffed off of the armor's mirror-like sheen, giving her the upper hand and forcing him to find cover once again. This time Jet tried a new tactic, forming spheres of electrical energy in his palms and pitching them at the ground on either side of Pristine. Although they did not hit her, the spheres created a miniature electrical field which limited her ability to dodge. Jet knew he only had a few seconds, he picked up the desk he was hiding behind and threw it at Pristine, who crossed her arms defensively and braced for the hit. The desk shattered on impact, but Jet was right behind it flying in to deliver a cross sweep with his sabers. Another pair of lines appeared to mark the armor, intersecting with the first cut. The armor slowly began to fall away, melting away like snow at first but when the first piece touched the ground it all shattered like glass.
A soft groan escaped Pristine's mouth, as if she were relieved not to be carrying around the extra weight. Underneath all that armor she was a normal looking reploid. Adult, female, of average height and build. That armor had given her an extra couple of inches at least, now she was about two inches shorter than Jet. She wore interesting clothes, part vest part dress-skirt over leggings, all white except for a red undershirt. It was a unique style but it all seemed to suit her, apart from the ugly black necklace... or collar. it looked painfully tight and would pulse every now and then with a red light. Jet had a hunch now why she hadn't said anything, and why her eyes seemed so blank and unfocused.
The moment he made eye contact with her she flew into motion, closing the distance before Jet could blink. Her staff caught him in the chest, making him double over. Her follow up struck his back and knocked him to the floor. But before she could skewer him with the spear he flared his jet boots and rocketed back a short distance before flipping to his feet.
She was coming at him even faster now, the loss of her armor had seemingly only made her more agile and she was changing her fighting style to accommodate for this. As she had done with Tank before, Jet charged back at her, hoping the aggression would catch her off guard. She had been keeping him on the defensive for the entire fight, it was time to change that. His jet propulsion quickly closed the distance and the momentum added power to his swing. Pristine blocked it, but the blow forced her off balance. Jet swiped his sabers down low and popped the staff up and out of her hands. Although she was disarmed Pristine was not defenseless, lashing out with a kick to Jet's face before pivoting into a side kick to his chest and driving him backward. A moment later the staff fell back down into her outstretched arms.
Jet flew back in, hovering about two feet off the ground and tried to get through her defenses with a spinning kick. Pristine responded quickly, extending a hand and dousing Jet with a mini-blizzard from her palm before grabbing his leg and heaving him behind her. Jet rolled to a stop and stumbled to his feet but Pristine was upon him before he'd fully recovered. She ran in at full speed, Jet braced for an attack but instead she flipped over him. Before he could turn, before Pristine even landed, she grabbed him under the arms and flipped him, slamming his head on the ground with a suplex.
The blow stunned Jet momentarily, he was dimly aware that she'd drawn one of his beam sabers and was reaching around to plunge it into his chest but to her surprise the energy blade would not come on. Jet's sabers were for his hands alone. That was the chance Jet needed. He clamped down on her hand with both of his and engaged his thrusters for full burn, dragging her along the ground and then lifting her into the air. She was an accomplished grappler with both feet on the ground, but up here she was at his mercy. Still clutching her arm he spun Pristine in an arc, building momentum and launching her at the floor.
Pristine tucked herself into a ball, hoping a roll would reduce the impact but the throw still did its damage, crashing into the floor and splaying her body in a supine position. Jet hoped that would end the fight but her hands moved, reaching for her guns. Jet wreathed himself once more in an aura of blue flame, streaking downward even as the bullets began to fly at him. He slammed into Pristine with incredible force, blades drawn and embedded in her neck and upper arm.
As soon as he realized what he'd done Jet powered down his sabers and moved off of her chest and to the side. He had been aiming to impale her shoulders to pin her arms down but she had moved in the last moment, turning a crippling strike into a lethal blow. Pristine was breathing ragged breaths and coughing up vital fluid, but she didn't have long. All of the fight had gone out of her now, Jet noticed that the collar was no longer pulsing with red light and that focus had come into her eyes. Those eyes were now locked onto his own and a peculiar feeling came over Jet, like he'd seen those eyes before. It was one of his earliest memory files, one he had never been able to explain. It was just a pair of eyes, of precisely that shape and color.
"I know you," Jet said softly. It was both a question and a statement. "Don't I?" Pristine coughed but somehow Jet felt it was in affirmation. "I'm so sorry," he said to her.
She opened her mouth and tried to speak but the effort seemed to cost her. Jet's head was abuzz with questions he wanted to ask but he held his tongue, not wanting to chance talking over her. Each word now might be her last.
"Kyle!" She managed to gasp out at last. Jet was stunned. She knew his name, there was some sort of connection here, only...
"Proud... of you..." Pristine choked out a couple more words and tried to smile. She began to raise her good arm, the one that hadn't been stabbed toward Jet's face but she didn't have the strength left to get there, so Jet reached out and took her hand in his own. After a minute her head rolled to the side and she was gone.
Jet knelt by her side for a few more moments, letting waves of confusion and mixed emotions wash over him. He felt bad for not knowing what to feel. There was some connection, but he didn't have enough memory of her to feel strongly about her passing. It was a perplexing sensation. She had seemed to know him, which made him want to mourn for her even if he didn't know how or why. He walked over to Tank and began to thaw his brother from the ice. Once he was free Jet gave his systems a jump, shocking him back into consciousness.
"What happened, where is she?" Tank demanded, looking around and picking himself up. Jet pointed over to where she lay. "That's her? Under all that armor, she was just a regular girl?"
"Not just some girl, she knew me Tank."
"What do you mean she knew you?" Tank questioned, "Who is she? Was she, I guess."
Jet shook his head. "I don't know. But she knew my name. My real name."
Tank gave him an odd look. On one hand there weren't many maverick hunters who knew their given names, only the top brass and their closest squad-mates, but at the same time V was a personal enemy of theirs and had probably dug deep enough into their history to learn a few personal details. "I wouldn't let it bother you," he told Jet.
"I'm serious Tank," Jet insisted. "I feel like I remember her too from somewhere. Take a good look and tell me if you don't know her."
Tank obliged, peering in closely to examine Pristine and scanning his memory banks. "Nothing," he said after several moments of searching. "I've never encountered her before today."
Jet's expression was one of defeat, Tank could tell he'd let him down. "Hey, if it's that important to you we can run a search on her when we get back to base," Tank suggested. "But right now it's more important that we catch up to V, I'm sure he's got a big head start on us now."
Jet looked conflicted but nodded, accepting that Tank had the right of it. His eyes swept over the room one last time, sparing one final look for Pristine and followed his brother out the door.
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Crystal Huntress
With a little encouragement from Tank the heavy door to V’s central control room exploded inward. The larger hunter rushed inward, shield poised to deflect enemy fire but none came. Jet dove in behind Tank, rolling for cover behind a desk and raised his buster, training it on their quarry.
“Freeze V!” Jet bellowed. “This is your last chance to come quietly.”
V looked up from his command table and wiped away the holographic map he’d been viewing. “Well how fitting that the two of you find your way here,” he sneered. “You know you two have caused me no small amount of annoyance, but you should know there’s no way to stop what’s coming.”
“Yeah?” Tank countered, “Taking you down seems like a pretty good start. Answer my partner, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?”
“The two of you are incapable of defeating an advanced reploid such as myself,” V huffed. “And though I would relish the opportunity to beat the life out of you Tank, I have to go and bring about a new world for my New Generation brothers.”
“We’re not just letting you walk away V,” Jet countered, vaulting over his cover and streaking towards him.
But V did not try to run, instead he looked straight at Jet, grinning a maniacal grin. "You really are terrible guests," he drawled. "Now only have you come in uninvited, you expect me to entertain when I'm right in the middle of cleaning house. I suppose I'll have to call on the mistress of the house to occupy you." After speaking he tapped a button on his arm, which summoned another being to his side.
She was taller than V, though not as broad, covered from head to toe in armor of polished crystal blue. No face was visible; it was covered by a helmet with slits at the eyes and mouth and encircled in a mass of green hair. Her arms were covered by spiked gauntlets and clutched a peculiar looking staff. One end was white, topped with a blue crystal. Further down the staff became brown in the middle, and blue and green on the other end, which was mounted with a blade. She looked formidable, but nothing that he and Tank couldn't handle together. The problem was that V clearly intended to use her as a diversion while he made his escape. They couldn't let him get away, but how long would it take them to defeat his guardian?
It looked like Tank was of the same mind. "Whoever you are," he called to the maverick in crystal armor. "This coward is going to leave you to die here, are you really sure he's worth it?"
She stood stoically, giving no response. V grinned broadly. "Pristine here would give her life for me in an instant if I demanded it," he told Tank. "And don't be so sure you'll win. It pains me to say, but Pristine is the most naturally skilled reploid I've ever met. I'm only sad that I don't have time to stay and watch how this little contest plays out, but I'll save and enjoy the recording for years to come. Goodbye Hunters."
V turned to leave. Jet and Tank rushed forward to stop him but Pristine blocked their path allowing V to make his exit through the back.
"Fine," Tank grunted, bringing his busters to bear. Jet could hear him warming up his chain guns. "Let's finish this quick."
Tank opened up by firing a lethal storm of bullets from both arms, clearly hoping to drop her with the first attack. Pristine responded immediately, bringing her staff in front of her and spinning it faster than even a reploid's eye could track. The bullets deflected wildly about the room, though the majority of them seemed to be redirected toward Jet. Jet caught several rounds to the chest and torso before dropping behind cover to avoid taking more serious damage. Tank's chain guns ground to a halt, the big hunter quickly recognizing that the attack was ineffective.
As soon as Tank stopped firing Pristine drew a pair of handguns and began to return fire. Jet doubted they would inflict serious damage against a reploid as well armored as Tank, but even so his brother raised his shield reflexively to protect himself. Pristine began to move toward Tank, increasing her rate of fire as she ran. When she reached him she kicked off the front of his shield, soaring through the air and bringing Jet into her line of sight. The staff appeared in her hand once again before being launched at Jet with the force of a cannon. Jet barely scrambled out of the way, narrowly evading the spear end which struck the floor next to him and began coating the area around it with a thin layer of ice. Jet wasn't prepared for the freezing, resulting in the ice trapping both of his legs for a moment. The huntress landed near him, snapping up her staff to spear him but Jet ignited his sabers which were already in his hands and blocked the attack.
Tank was coming up behind her now, broadsword in hand and brought it around for a horizontal sweep. Pristine heard him coming and vaulted backward over the desk and out of his reach. As Tank recovered she punted the desk into him, knocking Tank backward and removing Jet's cover. By this time Jet had freed himself from the ice by the heat of his blades and jumped back to his feet in time to parry the next round of spear thrusts and staff strikes. Pristine's assault drove him backward, closer to Tank who by now had knocked the desk away and come to Jet's side. Tank lunged forward with a thrusting attack which Pristine easily sidestepped, but had to flip away from Jet's follow up.
V hadn't been kidding, she was extremely skilled. "We haven't even landed a blow on her yet," Tank muttered, taking a moment to evaluate things.
"She seems to be targeting me, she can tell my armor isn't as strong as yours," Jet observed quietly. "Let's try to coordinate our attacks, catch her from behind when she's focused on me. I'll try to immobilize her somehow."
Pristine didn't give them any more time than that, drawing her handguns again and opening fire. Tank stepped in front of Jet to shield him from harm, pivoting on the spot as she tried to sidestep around for a better shot. She was being smart about her bullets too, every so often she'd slow her firing speed to reload but it was always one gun at a time, she always had the other ready to go. Even so, Tank saw this as their best opportunity and dropped his shield long enough to launch a tank shell at her. While Pristine rolled out of harm's way Jet flew out from behind Tank, wreathed in an aura of blue flame. Skimming low to the ground he lashed out with one of his sabers, this time leaving his mark. A fiery red gash appeared in her armor where his saber had struck, a long cut from the middle of the chest to her upper left thigh. It must not have been deep enough to get beneath the armor though, she blocked his follow up swipe as if she hadn't felt the hit.
Tank was barreling in trying to take advantage of the situation and land another hit, but before he got there Pristine dropped low and slammed her fist into the ground, unleashing a frozen blast which once again pinned Jet in place. This time the ice spread up over his knees. Jet held out his sabers anticipating the need to block but instead she shifted her focus over to Tank.
Tank was as surprised as Jet when Pristine charged right into his attack, an upward-diagonal slice. She dropped, using her momentum to slide along the floor evading the attack, slipped around his legs and proceeded to hamstring them from her position behind him. A lesser reploid would've dropped to his knees, but Tank whirled around with a horizontal sweep that she ducked under. As Tank recovered she popped him twice with her staff, light hits on his leg and upper arm. He brought Redemption down hard but she twisted around the strike and landed another couple jabs with her staff. They didn't hurt much thanks to his armor, but she was annoyingly agile. If he could only hit her Tank was quite sure it would be over, but that was proving more difficult by the second. When she flipped over Tank's next sweep he became aware that he was slowing down. Over each spot she had struck him patches of ice had begun to spread. What's more, Tank now realized with a twinge of equal parts respect and horror, most of her jabs had been targeted around joints and pressure positions. Pristine took a step back and fired a blast of cold air from her palm, Tank felt like he was standing in a blizzard. Then everything locked up.
Jet watched as his brother had been systematically disabled. Using his sabers it had only taken him a couple of seconds to melt the ice enough to break free, but those seconds had been all she needed to wear Tank down and put him on ice. Now she was spraying him with some kind of mist, Jet didn't know what it was but he couldn't even take a shot from his vantage point without the risk of hitting Tank. All he knew was that it was now a one on one fight and he had to keep pressure on her or she could execute Tank.
Fortunately she wasn't trying to hide behind him; instead she pushed Tank on his side and emerged firing. Several of the shots hit Jet, even as he returned fire, but not enough to stop him. His own buster shots were completely rebuffed off of the armor's mirror-like sheen, giving her the upper hand and forcing him to find cover once again. This time Jet tried a new tactic, forming spheres of electrical energy in his palms and pitching them at the ground on either side of Pristine. Although they did not hit her, the spheres created a miniature electrical field which limited her ability to dodge. Jet knew he only had a few seconds, he picked up the desk he was hiding behind and threw it at Pristine, who crossed her arms defensively and braced for the hit. The desk shattered on impact, but Jet was right behind it flying in to deliver a cross sweep with his sabers. Another pair of lines appeared to mark the armor, intersecting with the first cut. The armor slowly began to fall away, melting away like snow at first but when the first piece touched the ground it all shattered like glass.
A soft groan escaped Pristine's mouth, as if she were relieved not to be carrying around the extra weight. Underneath all that armor she was a normal looking reploid. Adult, female, of average height and build. That armor had given her an extra couple of inches at least, now she was about two inches shorter than Jet. She wore interesting clothes, part vest part dress-skirt over leggings, all white except for a red undershirt. It was a unique style but it all seemed to suit her, apart from the ugly black necklace... or collar. it looked painfully tight and would pulse every now and then with a red light. Jet had a hunch now why she hadn't said anything, and why her eyes seemed so blank and unfocused.
The moment he made eye contact with her she flew into motion, closing the distance before Jet could blink. Her staff caught him in the chest, making him double over. Her follow up struck his back and knocked him to the floor. But before she could skewer him with the spear he flared his jet boots and rocketed back a short distance before flipping to his feet.
She was coming at him even faster now, the loss of her armor had seemingly only made her more agile and she was changing her fighting style to accommodate for this. As she had done with Tank before, Jet charged back at her, hoping the aggression would catch her off guard. She had been keeping him on the defensive for the entire fight, it was time to change that. His jet propulsion quickly closed the distance and the momentum added power to his swing. Pristine blocked it, but the blow forced her off balance. Jet swiped his sabers down low and popped the staff up and out of her hands. Although she was disarmed Pristine was not defenseless, lashing out with a kick to Jet's face before pivoting into a side kick to his chest and driving him backward. A moment later the staff fell back down into her outstretched arms.
Jet flew back in, hovering about two feet off the ground and tried to get through her defenses with a spinning kick. Pristine responded quickly, extending a hand and dousing Jet with a mini-blizzard from her palm before grabbing his leg and heaving him behind her. Jet rolled to a stop and stumbled to his feet but Pristine was upon him before he'd fully recovered. She ran in at full speed, Jet braced for an attack but instead she flipped over him. Before he could turn, before Pristine even landed, she grabbed him under the arms and flipped him, slamming his head on the ground with a suplex.
The blow stunned Jet momentarily, he was dimly aware that she'd drawn one of his beam sabers and was reaching around to plunge it into his chest but to her surprise the energy blade would not come on. Jet's sabers were for his hands alone. That was the chance Jet needed. He clamped down on her hand with both of his and engaged his thrusters for full burn, dragging her along the ground and then lifting her into the air. She was an accomplished grappler with both feet on the ground, but up here she was at his mercy. Still clutching her arm he spun Pristine in an arc, building momentum and launching her at the floor.
Pristine tucked herself into a ball, hoping a roll would reduce the impact but the throw still did its damage, crashing into the floor and splaying her body in a supine position. Jet hoped that would end the fight but her hands moved, reaching for her guns. Jet wreathed himself once more in an aura of blue flame, streaking downward even as the bullets began to fly at him. He slammed into Pristine with incredible force, blades drawn and embedded in her neck and upper arm.
As soon as he realized what he'd done Jet powered down his sabers and moved off of her chest and to the side. He had been aiming to impale her shoulders to pin her arms down but she had moved in the last moment, turning a crippling strike into a lethal blow. Pristine was breathing ragged breaths and coughing up vital fluid, but she didn't have long. All of the fight had gone out of her now, Jet noticed that the collar was no longer pulsing with red light and that focus had come into her eyes. Those eyes were now locked onto his own and a peculiar feeling came over Jet, like he'd seen those eyes before. It was one of his earliest memory files, one he had never been able to explain. It was just a pair of eyes, of precisely that shape and color.
"I know you," Jet said softly. It was both a question and a statement. "Don't I?" Pristine coughed but somehow Jet felt it was in affirmation. "I'm so sorry," he said to her.
She opened her mouth and tried to speak but the effort seemed to cost her. Jet's head was abuzz with questions he wanted to ask but he held his tongue, not wanting to chance talking over her. Each word now might be her last.
"Kyle!" She managed to gasp out at last. Jet was stunned. She knew his name, there was some sort of connection here, only...
"Proud... of you..." Pristine choked out a couple more words and tried to smile. She began to raise her good arm, the one that hadn't been stabbed toward Jet's face but she didn't have the strength left to get there, so Jet reached out and took her hand in his own. After a minute her head rolled to the side and she was gone.
Jet knelt by her side for a few more moments, letting waves of confusion and mixed emotions wash over him. He felt bad for not knowing what to feel. There was some connection, but he didn't have enough memory of her to feel strongly about her passing. It was a perplexing sensation. She had seemed to know him, which made him want to mourn for her even if he didn't know how or why. He walked over to Tank and began to thaw his brother from the ice. Once he was free Jet gave his systems a jump, shocking him back into consciousness.
"What happened, where is she?" Tank demanded, looking around and picking himself up. Jet pointed over to where she lay. "That's her? Under all that armor, she was just a regular girl?"
"Not just some girl, she knew me Tank."
"What do you mean she knew you?" Tank questioned, "Who is she? Was she, I guess."
Jet shook his head. "I don't know. But she knew my name. My real name."
Tank gave him an odd look. On one hand there weren't many maverick hunters who knew their given names, only the top brass and their closest squad-mates, but at the same time V was a personal enemy of theirs and had probably dug deep enough into their history to learn a few personal details. "I wouldn't let it bother you," he told Jet.
"I'm serious Tank," Jet insisted. "I feel like I remember her too from somewhere. Take a good look and tell me if you don't know her."
Tank obliged, peering in closely to examine Pristine and scanning his memory banks. "Nothing," he said after several moments of searching. "I've never encountered her before today."
Jet's expression was one of defeat, Tank could tell he'd let him down. "Hey, if it's that important to you we can run a search on her when we get back to base," Tank suggested. "But right now it's more important that we catch up to V, I'm sure he's got a big head start on us now."
Jet looked conflicted but nodded, accepting that Tank had the right of it. His eyes swept over the room one last time, sparing one final look for Pristine and followed his brother out the door.
