Chapter 15: The War Begins I

"WHADAYA MEAN 'NO SLAYING FOR A MONTH?!' "

"Clara, please try to understand," Magus reasoned, holding his flat palms out to me in case I tried to attack him, "it'll take me that long to complete the upgrade. The headaches should stop now, but if they come back let me know right away. Your body needs to adjust to the software but it can't do that on it's own. I need to reset all the settings to every part of your body one by one. I'm sorry that I have to detain you like this, but you will be spending a majority of the month shut off anyway."

"But what if the dragonoids attack and I'm not there?!" I objected desperately. "I've got to be there!"

"That's why there's three androids and not one. Tokyo, London and the others can do just fine against the dragonoids. Now, come on. We should get started." He started walking towards the lab, and I had no choice but to follow.

So, to take my mind off of my anger, I decided to change the subject.

"Hey, old man," I began, "do all Snakes wear blindfolds?"

"Yes." He nodded, stepping down the stairs. "It keeps outsiders and dragonoids from identifying Snake members."

"But Snakes can't see with those blindfolds on."

"Sure they can. The blindfold is made of a special material that allows someone to see through it when they put it on."

"Oh. I get it." I nodded. "Glad I got that cleared up."

***

I was shut off and woken up days at a time, but it felt like minutes had passed instead of days. It was a little confusing and hard to get used to, and I really wanted to spend more time with Tokyo. Plus I really wanted to be ready for a dragonoid or the "blind man." It really sucked to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Oh well, I was getting some really cool upgrades while I was being fixed.

"I wanna take Juunanogou out for a ride." I requested one morning.

"Okay." Magus nodded. "Just don't fight any dragonoids if you see any."

"It's daylight." I moaned.

"Yes, I know." He nodded. "But don't think their human forms aren't dangerous. They don't have their strength or element breathing abilities, but they can pull out a gun and shoot you."

"I don't die easily." I assured.

"But you can die, nevertheless." Tokyo interrupted, walking into the room. I groaned at him angrily.

"Stop with the eavesdropping thing!" I commanded.

"I do no such thing." He insisted, then he smiled at me. "Going out? I'll go with you. I need to test drive Crisis Management."

" 'Crisis Management?' "

"My bike. She's finished."

" 'She?' "

"Good idea, Tokyo." Magus butted in after some thinking. "I'll feel better if you went with her…" Then he smiled. "…and so would she." I dismissed that comment.

"You made your bike a she?!"

"I get along better with women." Tokyo admitted.

"You certainly do." Magus laughed.

"Shut up, old man!" I snapped as Tokyo took my elbow and started herding me towards the garage.

***

"Hey, hey, Juunanogou!" I called into the garage as I headed for my bike. "I missed ya, buddy."

"Yo, yo, Clara!" he greeted back as I hopped on his seat. "Missed ya too, babe. Is the operation over?"

"Not yet." I shook my head. "We have another two weeks to go."

"L "

"Yeah, bummer."

"Sure does."

I looked over at Tokyo as he wheeled out his heavy duty Kawasaki. He swung himself into the seat and looked down at the monitor.

"Crisis," he called, "are you online?" His bike's response was in lavender.

"Prepare for travel."

"Oh my God!" I cried out in annoyed shock. "You've got to be kidding! Is that a motorcycle or a spaceship?!"

"Hey James Bond," Juu-kun taunted, "why don't you confirm her ID while you're at it?!"

"Hey!" Crisis outbursted in red, "Shove it up your tailpipe, dickweed!"

Juu-kun made a smiley with huge, surprised eyes and was anything but an actual "smiley." I had the same look on my face.

"Whoa." I gasped. Tokyo smiled slyly.

"I kept her straight foreword and to the point, and I gave her a verbal defense so strong nobody can argue with her." I looked man and bike up and down, then slumped in disappointment.

"Crap." I moaned. "Tokyo cloned himself."

***

Crisis Management performed very smoothly, according to Tokyo. We did a couple runs up and down the country road, and two laps around town. Trying to get to know Crisis better was like trying to get to know a rock. She wouldn't talk to Juunanogou or me. It was really frustrating, esspecially for Juu-kun, who was in love with that beautiful fem-bike.

Heading back home, Tokyo and I were really quiet. That was bothering me. He never talked about anything until someone brought up a conversation first. He esspecially never talked about me and how he really felt. I wasn't so sure if I was in love with him or not, but he didn't let me know what his feelings were like.

"So," I began, "how are you?"

"Fine."

"Crisis was just as you expected?"

"Yes."

"That's good."

Silence.

That was it? He was really pissing me off. I gripped Juu-kun's handlebars and snapped my head over to him.

"Dammit! Say something!"

"About what?"

"About us! About our relationship! You have nothing to say?!"

"Uh oh." Juunanogou worried.

" 'Relationship,' Tokyo-sama?" Crisis wondered.

"Why should I talk about that?" Tokyo asked me.

"Didja wanna talk about it alone?"

"I don't 'wanna' talk about it at all. There's no point."

I angrily grabbed the brakes and screeched Juunanogou to a halt. Tokyo noticed I stopped, and hit the brakes as well. I shook my fist at the Asian jerkoff.

"You God damned bastard!" I screeched at the top of my lungs. "After all we've talked about and all that we did, you don't care?!"

"Why should I?!" he shouted back. "All that we said and did meant something to you but nothing to me. There is a reason why…"

"Son of a bitch! I'll kill you!"

"Yeah! Sic 'em, Clara!" Juunanogou cheered me on. "Slice him to bits!"

"Paris, listen to me." Tokyo urged. "Just stay where you are and listen. You and I were built to be pawns. We were carved like chest pieces to be moved around the board and bump off the opposing player. We were designed to fight, to slay dragonoids, to protect mankind from a foe they cannot fight. We are machines, not humans. We cannot have feelings of passion or fear, we were not made for feelings. We must fight, slay, and destroy all opposition…we may have to call war on the entire dragonoid empire. We have no room or time for happiness, peace…or love."

"That's not true!" I cried. "Everyone we've ever done proves that's not true!"

"Oh my God!" Juu-kun screamed in yellow. "You did have sex with him!"

"Shut up!" I yelled at my bike, kicking him over to the ground. I looked back at Tokyo. "True, we're killing machines, but we're humans at heart. Or do you have a heart?" He glared at me like I had insulted him.

"Are you calling me a human?!" he accused. "You are, aren't you?"

"What is wrong with being a human?" I dared angrily.

"Humans are stupid, primitive, worthless weaklings who created us to fight their battles. I hardly have a reason to care if they live or…"

"What about Kaguya?! Is she stupid?! Is she a primitive?! Is she worthless or a weakli…"

"Don't talk about Kaguya-san like that!" he snapped.

"You care about her?!" I teased with a grin. "But she's a human. You don't care if she lives or dies."

"She's been a mother to me!" he cried. "For the last five years she prepared me for the dragonoid's arrival! I am the ultimate warrior, she made me what I am today! You have no right to insult her!"

"If you have feelings for her," I theorized, "then you can have feelings about me. You said it yourself that I'm a good friend. I can only be a friend if you let me."

"Paris…" he began for another boring lecture, suddenly he became alarmed. "…LOOK OUT!" I heard a loud crack, and pain surged through my chest with such force that I fell over foreword. I heard Tokyo run up to me and both bikes beeped something. They were all saying the same thing.

"Paris, are you alright?!" I felt something wet and sticky in my throat, and I coughed it out in my hand. The red oil. I gagged and tried to stand up.

"What happened?" I asked with a hoarse voice.

"It's that Snake!" Tokyo explained, helping me up. "He shot you…"

"What an idiot." I coughed. "He can't kill me with a gu…"

"…with a deer rifle." I froze as Tokyo stood me on my feet. A gun like that would blow a man in half no matter where you shot him. I looked down the street behind me, and saw the tall man draped in the gray cape walking towards us with a very long gun. I snarled at him, causing me to cough up more oil.

"What do we do now?" I asked, wiping oil off my mouth.

"Take Juunanogou," Tokyo advised, "and get out of here. You're injured, you're useless in a battle."

"What?! No way!" I objected. "I’m not hurt that bad! I can fight!" The Snake quickened his pace towards us. I felt that frightening feeling again, and my heartbeat raced. I felt that I shouldn't leave. I felt that I should stay and fight.

"No, you can't!" Tokyo insisted, shoving me towards Juunanogou. "Get out of here! Go back to the old man and get that wound healed!"

"I want to fight!" I screamed, unsheathing my sword. Suddenly, I found myself shoving Tokyo aside and running towards the Snake ready to slice his head off.

"Paris, stand your ground!" I heard Tokyo shout. He sounded so far away. "He has a gun! Paris! Stop!" I didn't listen. I kept my eyes on the Snake as he suddenly stopped walking and aimed at me. Before I realized it, he fired. Something hit my chest, causing me to fall over and pain erupted next to my heart. I hit the ground on my back, and the worst headache known to man throbbed on my forehead. I carefully sat up, and held my head in my hands. I was sucked into a world of pain, my head hurt so bad that I couldn't open my eyes. I could only listen to everything around me.

I heard Tokyo run past me with a war cry. I heard the blow of the rifle, and felt a bullet zoom over my head. Tokyo didn't get shot. Then I heard the clash of swords. The Snake had a sword. I tried to open my eyes, and caught a split second glance of the Snake wielding two dragonoid styled swords. Dragonoid swords? The last dragonoid I saw with those was Kappa. That was all the proof I needed to know that the Snake had every intention to kill us.

I tried to ignore the pain, and stood up with my sword. I kept my eyes open easily enough but keeping my vision clear was next to impossible. So, I had to resort to a trick I learned based off the software copied by Tokyo. I forgot to tell you about it; It was the ABHS, Android Brain Hacking System. It was untested, and I had never used it before, but I had to chance it. If the Snake was an android, then I could tap into his computer brain and predict his every move and counter it. I could even get his name and find out where he came from.

I closed my eyes, and logged in. Instantly I felt Tokyo, Juu-kun and Crisis nearby, and I relaxed a bit. Then I felt another android, and it was the Snake. I knew it, I knew he was an android! Upon closer hacking, I discovered that he wasn't a Kid Series model. I didn't recognize his model name, but I had the ABHS memorize it. It was AAU #263891 Version 4.0. Looked like I had to interrogate a few dragonoids later on.

I tapped into the battle program of the Snake, and jumped into the fight. Knowing his every move, that battle was going to be won quickly. Tokyo made room for me to take a swing, and the Snake instantly blocked me. I let him lead his attacks on me so that he would be attacking me and fending off Tokyo at the same time. Hopefully, if he had too much to concentrate on then he would make a mistake and one of us would kill him.

As I blocked one of his strikes, I kicked him in the stomach, and Tokyo flung a shuriken at his throat. But, our opponent didn't fall over. Instead, he stood back up, and drew his swords across our necks. I sensed that he would stab his swords foreword, so I ducked my head out of range as he shoved his swords sharply at us.

Tokyo wasn't so quick. The Snake stabbed through his neck. I screamed as the Snake flung away Tokyo's limp body. I completely forgot about the opponent and ran to Tokyo. Oil oozed out of his neck, spilling the red fluid down his body. According to the ABHS, Tokyo couldn't move, see, hear, or talk. He had been shut off. I twisted around to the Snake and held up my sword defensively.

"Who are you?!" I screamed. "What do you want?!"

"A victim should know the name of her killer." The Snake commended, pointing his swords at me. "I have no name, but they call me Ghost."

"Ghost?" I wondered. Before I could wonder anything else, Ghost lunged for me…

***

…then was suddenly flung backward. I took the small moment to carefully gather Tokyo in my arms and stand up. As Ghost got up, I found there was an arrow in his forehead. Then I heard a car horn right behind me. I spun to see Glynn, Corey, and London and their convertible. London and Glynn grabbed the bikes while Corey loaded another arrow into his bow.

"C'mon, love!" he urged me, the fired a shot. It sailed over my head, and hit Ghost in the chest. He fell on his back and made no move to get up. I ran to the car as London and Glynn started up the bikes. Corey helped me lay Tokyo in the back seat, and I got in next to him. Corey hopped into the front seat and turned the car around, heading back to the mansion. London and Glynn rode behind us.

Tokyo looked lifeless. His face was so pale, and the oil almost covered his body and clothes completely. I carefully took off his shirt and started to clean away some of the oil. I had little luck. I felt to helpless that I started to cry.

"Please God," I whispered, "don't let him die. Don't let him die." I stared into his face, and my heart beat faster in fear. Suddenly, I had made up my mind about my feelings and what was to come in the future. That made me cry even more. I reached over and hugged his neck. "Please, don't die, Tokyo!" I sobbed into his chest, my eyes flooded with tears. "I love you…"