Alkalians (37 page)

When she notices the machine gunfire
stop, Rose rolls into a crouched position, looking out to see what
Buster would do next. What she sees, to her eye-widening dread, is
him suddenly in front of her, his right arm swooping low and
smashing into her with an uppercut to launch her into the air, a
thick bruise of yellowish green left on her torso. He follows up
the assault by forming his arm into a shotgun, takes aim at her in
mid-air, and fires a round into her, the spray of bullets tearing
more wounds across her before she hits the ground on her
side.

With her chest and waist blotched by
dark yellow, vital wounds from the heavy trauma, Rose grimaces
while rolling over, only to look up at Buster aiming his right gun
mount, hollowed out like a tank’s cannon, down at her. Fear and awe
cross her face as a faint light within the cannon glimmers before
it fires a single shot, the energy mortar blasting into the ground
with a thundering boom.

As the dust from the blast clears, the
crater left behind in the ground is empty. Instead of being
obliterated in it, Rose swiftly rolled out of the way with air
balance, coming to a stop on her feet about a hundred feet away.
Looking out at her, Buster laughs before yelling, “Come on, is that
all you’ve got, Rose? Let’s see a special trick or two from you.
Surprise me!”

Rose hardens her expression, already
planning to do so, before she places her hands close together,
gathering energy between them. As Buster watches, his vision zooms
in on her and he, indeed surprised, notices that her wounds are
becoming lighter, some vanishing off her. Rose is healing her
morph. He prepares his left gun mount, adjusting its barrel upward
and changing it into the square, six-chambered form of a rocket
launcher.

Buster takes aim at her with his
robotic vision when a swarm of leaves flies out from Rose’s energy
sphere and all around her, obscuring view of her until she
disappears in the mirage of leaves. Understanding the leaves are
concealing her, he doesn’t change his plans and follows through,
his vision locking on to random leaves within the storm, before
firing his gun mount, six energy-based rockets arcing through the
air and diving towards it.

The leaves, however, take on a mind of
their own and rush across the plain towards Buster, meeting the
missiles half-way for a chain of explosions, decimating the most of
them. The few leaves that get through fly to Buster’s face,
swirling around him like angry insects, where one of them cuts
across his left eye, blinding him on that side with the small
wound. Flinching from the leaf stinging his eye, Buster raises his
left arm to shield his face from the rest of the leaves when he
feels something tap his legs below him.

Before he can look down, the next
thing he feels is Rose jumping up and onto him from behind, one
dagger hooking to him through a gap in his mechanical armor and the
other stabbing into his metallic neck, leaving darkening wounds
with each thrust. Staggering about under the assault, he tries
reaching at her over his shoulder, where she ducks under and avoids
his grasp, until he decides to change it up once his neck wounds
are deep and glowing yellow. His left arm turns into a shotgun and
fires at her, but she swings out of the way and leaps off of him to
avoid the bullet spray.

After Rose evades his shotgun blast,
Buster whirls around and, with his right arm shape-shifted into a
grenade launcher gun, fires energy spheres after her as she
back-flips and hops away, avoiding the explosive blasts blooming
near her. Near the end of the side-winding trail of destruction, a
grenade splitting into a few more before they explode trips her,
sending her tumbling across the ground before she stops in a
crouch, the color of her wounds turned back to a dark yellow.
Buster can’t fire one more round upon her once he caught her,
though, as his gun’s core has to cool down.

While he prepares his gun mounts to
continue bombarding her, Rose gathers more energy to create a
large, thick log, held above her by her mental control of it. His
gaze drawn to the lumber, Buster isn’t worried when Rose aims the
length of it at him and throws it like a huge dart, as he can
side-thrust out of the way on air balance. When he goes to do this,
however, something is wrong as he can’t get airborne, and instead
feels like he is stuck to and tugging against the earth.

Looking down, Buster is startled to
find thick plant growth, like roots, ensnaring his legs and binding
him to the ground, rooting him in place. By the time he looks back
up, his right eye blinking, the log collides into him, smashing him
a few times like a battering ram in his chest, leaving him wobbling
after each impact and with orange wounds on him.

Between the damage glowing on his
torso and neck, and being immobilized, Buster is concerned about
his odds of winning when he at last stops the possessed log, using
the cannon of his left gun mount to pulverize it, its wooden debris
scattering across the ground. In a moment, however, the jagged
pieces of timber come back to life, rise into the air, and encircle
him before spearing him from all sides.

While the smaller pieces either
deflect off his armor or dive into gaps of it along his frame, the
larger pieces pierce through his arms and the barrels of his gun
mounts, disabling them by preventing his arms from becoming guns
and taking out the cores of his big guns. Now knowing he is really
in trouble, all Buster can do is watch as Rose sets up the final
blow by flinging a large leaf shuriken at him, its blades rotating
as it ascends towards him and cuts down into his neck, sawing
through it in bursts of red energy.

***

In an engulfing flash of red, Buster
demorphs, ridding of his metal bulk and the plant material that
harmed it and reappearing as his human self. Staggering on his feet
while holding a hand to his sore neck, he exclaims, “Wow, that was
my bad. I completely underestimated how good you are with your
elemental powers. However, that’s not the only reason why I lost.
You cheated!”

After she demorphs, Rose asks, “What
do you mean?”

“
Oh, you know what I mean.
You healed yourself! Of all the tricks you could have pulled out,
you had to come up with
healing
your battle morph. There are only a few battle
morphs in existence that are supposed to be able to do that! Now,
do tell, how
did
you do that?”

As she makes her way towards Buster,
walking past the smoldering field around her, Rose shrugs and says,
“Ah, well, it was a trick I recently discovered through my training
with Professor Serpanz. Turns out, since plants can grow and
restore themselves, I have a similar elemental ability to heal my
morph’s wounds. While it’s not as great as the abilities of morphs
meant for healing, it still works well for me. In fact, I’ve
learned how to simultaneously heal myself while gathering energy
for another elemental technique, as I did with the leaf
storm.”

“
Uh huh. That’s very
impressive. I’m sure, later on, that healing of yours will be much
more potent, and any morph is gonna have a hard time stopping
you.”

“
Oh? Why do you say
that?”

“
Eh, because that’s what I
see in ya. Sure, you come across as the kind and compassionate girl
out of battle, and you’ve got book smarts, but you’ve also got
fighting smarts, too. When it comes down to business, you’re
focused, calculative, and ruthless. You’ll do whatever it takes,
whatever you are capable of, to win the fight. Even if it means
cheating by healing yourself!”

While the last part of his statement
humors her, the rest of it Rose thinks over it, and she has to
admit, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That does sound like what I do
in combat.”

“
Yep. And, I figure that’s
how you are at other appropriate times. Focused, calculative, and
ruthless. You’re a nice gal, and you’ve got a good heart, but
you’re also well disciplined. I suppose you should be, since you’re
from Riaquen, like me!”

“
Hah, that’s true. Oh, and
you fought well, too. I will admit, I was intimidated by your
morph’s size, firepower, and
speed
! How did you become so good
with air balance, as a heavy-bodied morph like a
MechWarrior?”

“
Heh, how else? Through
training, of course! Besides my big guns, I wanted to have some way
of standing out from other MechWarriors, to put myself at a level
above them. So I worked at it, and eventually enhanced my air
balance potential so I could zoom around and outmaneuver them. As
it turns out, I can also outmaneuver other morphs, too!”

“
Yeah, I can see that,”
agrees Rose. “Anyway, what I got from you fighting is you are bold,
maybe even a bit cocky, but you’re also well disciplined and
talented.”

“
Eh, I suppose. If I came
across as cocky, can’t help it, I just enjoy fighting too much!
But, oh well, it was still a good fight.”

“
Yes, it was. I’m glad we
had the chance to, ah, learn more about each other,
Buster.”

“
Haha, as am I! In fact,”
Buster says, his tone becoming more serious while his escorts
rejoined him, “this all helped me make an important decision. I’m
on your side, now.”

“
Pardon?”

“
You know, in this contest
between Matt and Cain! I’ve had it with how corrupt and arrogant
Cain has become, as well as his ridiculous schemes, and you guys
sound like a lot more fun to be with than him. So, if there’s
anything more you need help with in taking him down, count me
in!”

“
Oh, well, thank you,
Buster. I’m sure the others will greatly appreciate another senior
student on our side.”

“
Hah, they’d better, or
maybe I’ll have to smack them around a bit!” They both laugh before
he goes on, “But yeah, there ain’t no way I’m sticking with Cain
now. Especially after that latest plan of his.”

“
Hmm? What do you
mean?”

“
Yeah, well, remember that
fight between you and Matt? See, Cain had Irene Goros watching from
far away, waiting to shoot you out-of-morph when Matt defeated you.
But, since you defeated him instead, she didn’t get the
opportunity. Cain wasn’t too happy about that wrench thrown into
his…” When he sees the shocked expression on Rose’s face, Buster
blinks before he gets it. “Oh, right. You probably didn’t know
that, did you?”

“
I, yeah, I didn’t know
that. Cain was going to have Irene shoot me? But, what if that, you
know, killed me?”

“
Yeah. Hence why I no
longer want to be around the guy. Doesn’t seem to care for the
lives of others, nor the federal law, as long as he gets his
way.”

“
I, I can’t believe this.
We’re all mere students here, but Cain and Irene would go so far as
to mortally harm, maybe even kill, for something so trivial as
being the popular students on campus?”

“
Appears that way, yeah.
If they try another insane plan and it inevitably backfires on
them, I don’t want to be caught up in it, anyway or
how.”

“…
Yeah, a wise choice.”
Besides feeling upset and horrified her life had been in danger in
another way that day, Rose feels something else as she gets out,
“They won’t get away with that. They will not walk away from
endangering me or Matt’s lives.” Looking back to Buster, she nods
and says, “Sorry, but I should be going now, back to the cabins for
the evening.”

“
Hey, go right ahead,
don’t let me keep ya around if you don’t want to be.” When she gets
back to the tree and retrieves her flute, Buster remembers
something and calls out, “Oh hey, don’t forget to let Matt know I’m
on your guys’ side, now!”

“
Right, I’ll tell him,”
Rose returns before jogging away across the field, towards the
cabins far off in the distance. As she runs, her thoughts swirl
around the crime Cain and Irene had been willing to commit if they
got the chance, and how she was their intended target, a sacrifice
for their fiendish plots. It shakes her how afraid it has made her,
that somebody would threaten her life at school, almost as much as
she had been from the fiasco she had with Matt. However, she is not
going to cower or despair over it. In her own way, she vows to
herself to make sure Cain and Irene, especially Irene, would come
to learn how to be afraid for their lives, too.

***

Matt is still overcome with elation as
he shoots down the fourth foe in a row within the pit arena, the
knife-wielder dropping and demorphing from a black bullet going
through his head. Anytime before earlier that day, either his
lessons with Amelia or his bathing with Rose, was nothing compared
to the ecstasy he felt from actual intercourse with Amelia. It was
as if all those other times had been hints and peeks of the whole
package, teasing him to wonder and want more. And when he finally
got it, he was no longer in the dark, his eyes were fully opened to
the beauty, the passion, the relief of sex. He had been so
impressed by the ordeal, he was still reeling from it as the
evening passed. He had not gone back to the cabins as he took a
hot, steamy bath with Amelia in the fancy bathroom located next
door to the study hall, and then went to the casino to cool off and
clear his head, and body, of the past encounter.