Chapter 18

	I waited for Vincent to get well out of visual range and I ran back into 
the house.  I found Stephanie in her room sitting on the edge of her bed 
with tears still running down her face.  “Come on Steph, we are getting out 
of here right now.”  She looked at me like I had just said the last thing 
she ever expected me to say, and I couldn’t blame her.  “We… We are 
leaving?”  “Yeah, come on.  Grab some food and water and meet me in the 
cave.  We’ll get Kong and get the hell out of here before Vincent gets 
back.”  “He will come looking for us you know.  You won’t be able to hide 
from him.”  I couldn’t help but smile as the cold tingle of anticipation 
rolled down my spine.  “I don’t plan on hiding.”  Stephanie didn’t say 
another word, she just got up and walked out of the room.  I made my way to 
Vincent’s room only to find the door locked.  I pulled back my right arm and 
punched the door down, I was surprised how easily it fell.

I started to search through Vincent’s dresser and file cabinet looking for 
and maps or clues as to where we were.  I pulled open a drawer under his bed 
and found a lap top wrapped in canvas strips.  I opened the laptop and was 
disappointed when it didn’t work.  “No battery.”  I searched more and found 
a battery under some old clothes in the same drawer.  I finally got the 
laptop working and one file caught my eye.  It was titled “Kur”.  I opened 
the file and immediately a window opened containing pictures and detailed 
information about me from the time I was three years old all the way up 
until just yesterday.  The file also included the entire plan Vincent had 
laid out to create his ultimate challenge.  When he was telling me he 
planned everything from the beginning I thought he was laying but it was 
obvious now he wasn’t.  The part of his plan where I was to take the damaged 
AC in the desert was written 15 years ago.  The part of his plan where he 
found a corporation to fund him was planned almost 20 years ago.  The only 
thing I couldn’t find was the location of this damn house.  I closed the 
laptop and took it with me down the stairs into the cavern.  Stephanie was 
waiting for me next to Kong’s foot.

	“Do you know where we are?”  I really didn’t think she would and my guess 
was proven right with a simple “No.”  “Great.  Ok let’s get inside.”  I 
helped Stephanie climb into the cockpit and load our food, water and the 
computer into a storage bin built behind one of the concave wall panels that 
lined the entire cockpit.  I had no idea how I was going to get us both out 
of here, an AC cockpit was not designed for two people.  With the control 
arms coming from the wall to the pilot and swinging all over the place as 
the pilot moved, any passenger would be beat to death by the control arms 
before ten steps were taken.  I just didn’t see a safe way for both of us to 
be in the cockpit but apparently it wasn’t up to me to figure it out.  “Well 
strap in Kur, we don’t have all day, Vincent could be back any minute now 
you know.”  “But what are you going to do, you can’t just stand next to me 
in here you know.”  “Let me worry about that, you just suit up and strap 
in.”  It was just then I realized I had to change into my special Raven suit 
before I could pilot Kong anywhere.  And the look on Stephanie’s face told 
me she wasn’t moving from in front of the hatch.  I sighed at her and turned 
around while I undressed.  I felt kind of odd having never undressed in 
front of a girl that wanted me, hell not even Trish has seen me undress.  I 
got down to my underwear witch I knew had to come off to and I hesitated a 
little.  “Come on Kur, it’s nothing I haven’t seen already.”  So I took off 
my underwear and reached for the suit witch I keep folded on the control arm 
to the left of where I was standing, only the suit wasn’t there.  I knew 
where it was before I even looked.  I looked over my shoulder to see the 
suit hanging in Stephanie’s hand and a big smile hanging on her face.  I 
reached my arm out and nodded a ‘please can I have my clothes’ look at her 
and got a slow ‘come and get them if you want them’ head shake from her.

	Well after a minute or so of this I finally got some nerve (not to mention 
the warm air in the cockpit got rid of the shrinkage) and turned around.  
Now I never considered myself to be a big man in that sense of the word so 
the look on her face surprised me, and made me feel very confident at the 
same time.  Her eyes were glued to my crotch and she was almost drooling.  I 
didn’t know woman could be so horny.  I was feeling pretty good about myself 
at that moment so I did my best strut towards her and grabbed my suit out of 
her hand.  I did a quick turn and made my back to the other side of the body 
harness where I suited up then put my other clothes in the compartment with 
the food and water.  “Well I hope you enjoyed yourself Steph because that 
was the last time.” I said as I pointed an accusing finger at her.  Her 
reply was a husky “yummy.”

	I stepped onto the control arms for my feet and the straps locked 
themselves tightly around my feet and ankles.  The arms for my arms were 
next and then finally the torso and head.  I was all strapped in and afraid 
to move for fear of a control arm taking Stephanie’s head off.  “So now 
what?  How do I get us out of here?”  Without a word Stephanie walked in 
front of me and wrapped her arms around my neck then lifted her legs one 
after another around my waist.  “Let’s go!”  I was just about to tell her to 
get on my back when I remembered the two huge control arms coming out of the 
torso harness.  “Fine, but hold on tight, this thing pulls some serious G’s 
when I jump or boost.”  I sighed once again and started Kong up.  “Welcome 
back Kur.  Ms. Mactaggart, will you be joining us today?”  “Yes Kong, thank 
you.  You know Kur, I feel kinda dumb calling a female voice Kong.”  “Well I 
ain’t changing its name so deal with it.  And how did it know you were in 
here?”  “I designed this cockpit and computer remember?”  I rolled my eyes 
at my own stupidity and then realized I had no idea how to get out of the 
cave.  “You don’t think Vincent would be mad if I used his house as an exit 
would he?”  “You don’t think I don’t give a shit if he gets mad?”  It was 
all the encouragement I needed.  “Hold on.”  Stephanie laid her head against 
my chest and tightened her already tight grip on me with her arms and legs.  
I bent down slightly and jumped towards the doorway at the top of the stairs 
in front of me.  The house blew to pieces around Kong as the massive green 
machine tore right through the center of it.  Stephanie, for her part, 
couldn’t hold on with the extra G forces from the jump and fell off hard to 
the rounded concave cockpit floor with a loud thud.  She was quick though 
and attached herself back on to me just before a control arm from my right 
arm decapitated her.  I could feel her body against mine trying to take a 
breath and I knew the fall had knocked the wind out of her.

	Kong landed some one hundred yards from the now shattered house and sank a 
good three feet into the desert sand.  Stephanie held on this time but was 
still trying to catch her breath.  “Come on, lay down on the floor and catch 
your breath.”  She didn’t move a muscle.  “Come on I won’t move, and you 
will never catch your breath with your body all pushed up against me like 
that.”  Finally she let go and dropped to the floor.  She spread out and put 
her arms over her head and then lowered them to her waist and repeated it 
over and over.  I recognized this from elementary school gym class.  I got 
the breath knocked out of me and the coach made me do that little move, 
saying it kinda pumps air into your lungs.  Stephanie got a normal rhythm to 
her breath and started to stand up.  “I told you to hold on tight.”  “Well 
excuse me for weighing 900 pounds at that moment.  Jeez what were we 
pulling, 10 G’s?”  “Ha!  If we were pulling 10 G’s you would have weighed a 
lot more than 900 pounds.”  “Watch it Kur.”  “Well according to Kong we 
pulled 14 G’s at the moment we broke gravity.”  “Well no more jumping ok?  I 
don’t know if I can take that again.”  “Fine no more jumping…. What about 
over boosting straight up?”  “You jerk.”

	Stephanie climbed back on and rested her head against my chest.  I began 
running as fast as I could with Stephanie hanging off of me, bouncing up and 
down as she was.  I ran for hours, trying to get as much distance between 
Vincent and us as I could.  I knew that we couldn’t hide from him in the 
desert because the tracks Kong was leaving on the dry barren ground were 
pretty deep and not about to be covered in the wind any time soon.  It 
didn’t take long for day to turn to night and back to day again.  I was 
thankful to finally find some mountains where I could maybe find a place to 
hide Kong when it got dark again while we rested for a few hours.

	I laid Kong on it’s back under a rocky over hang, pretty much hiding it 
from view from above or to the sides.  Stephanie and I set up a small 
campfire and made small talk as we ate the food she had packed at the house. 
  “Kur?”  “Yeah?”  “Would you tell me how you and Trish first met?”  I 
really wasn’t expecting her to ask that but I didn’t see a reason not to 
tell her.  “Well, I was an AC mechanic and she was a Raven.  You could 
probably figure out the rest.”  “Well yeah.  But I mean, what was it about 
her that made you want to be with her?”  “Well… She was beautiful of course, 
in her white Raven suit and all sweaty because her air conditioning wasn’t 
working.  But it was the way she talked to me that made me fall for her.  
She was so nice to me when she really didn’t have to be.  Most female Ravens 
will just tell a mechanic ‘Fix it, I’ll be back in an hour and it better be 
done.’  But she was different.  She…”  My story was interrupted by a very 
familiar sound.  It was boosters, and they were getting very loud, very 
quickly.  I grabbed Stephanie by the arm and ran as far from Kong as I 
could.  I looked back to see her holding on to my hand for dear life because 
I was running so fast that she was lifted off the ground.  Past her I could 
see the faint outline of a light AC standing over Kong and prodding the 
earth around it for any signs of life.  I found a pile of large boulders and 
crawled in between them dragging Stephanie with me the whole way.  I went in 
as far as I could and put myself between Stephanie and the on coming AC.

	The AC slowly walked towards us along the cliff face and stopped right at 
the entrance to our hiding place.  Stephanie was making entirely too much 
noise because while I was dragging her through the rocks on our bellies, she 
was cut and scraped pretty badly.  I had to shut her up some how.  I 
whispered lightly into her ear “I’m sorry” and then I punched her square in 
the forehead.  She was out cold and I had never felt so bad about anything 
in my whole life.  I was always raised to never hit girls and I always 
thought there were no exceptions but I guess letting her get stomped on by a 
giant robot would have been worse.  With Stephanie knocked out, the desert 
became deathly silent.  I could hear my own heart beating and it seemed so 
loud I thought the AC might hear it to.  The AC on the other hand just stood 
there, not even 3 yards from us, listening for anything that might give away 
our position.  I turned slowly to look out the opening between the boulders 
and almost jumped out of my skin when the ACs head suddenly lowered into 
view right in front of me.  I didn’t move a muscle and I thought for sure we 
were done for.  I could see the huge lens of the optical sensor zooming in 
and out, trying to see through the pitch black of the small enclosure.  I 
was holding my breath now trying not to move at all.  The tension was 
killing me, I swear my heartbeat was causing my body to shake with each 
pulse.  My hands were sweating and I suddenly had to fart.  “Ok Kur, calm 
down, you are getting to nervous.  Jeez when is this thing going to just 
leave?  Come on, we aren’t in here, just go.”  I was still trying to make 
the AC leave with the power of thought when I heard a noise behind me, a 
loud one.  “Oh crap, what happened, I have such a bad headache.”  Damn, 
Stephanie woke up.  I saw the “eye” of the huge AC zoom in and then the head 
disappeared from view.  I reached back and grabbed Stephanie around the 
waist and made a prayer to nobody in particular “Please let this work!” as I 
jumped up and threw my right arm above my head and right through the huge 
rocks above me.  I looked down to see a huge bolt of green plasma melt it’s 
way through the rocks I had just been under.  I landed about fifteen yards 
away and began running again.

	Stephanie was out cold again, but I didn’t have time to worry about that 
right now.  A loud booming voice echoed through the mountainside “That’s 
right Kur.  Run as fast as you can.  I wouldn’t want you to die here tonight 
before we can have our final battle!”  I just kept running and found myself 
diving to the left just as another green bolt of plasma shot by my right.  I 
looked around to see the familiar green glow of my eyes was painting 
everything around me and I could feel my legs moving faster and faster as I 
ran.  Stephanie was trailing behind me like a flag in a tornado and if I 
didn’t slow down or put her down somewhere soon she might be torn apart by 
the force of the wind.  I quickly rounded a corner and stopped to set her 
behind some bushes near the cliff face and then started running again.  I 
looked back to see the AC following right behind me and leaving Stephanie 
right where I left her.  The Ac fired another shot from me and that was when 
I realized he was using my Karasawa.  He must have taken it from Kong when I 
was trying to hide in the stack of boulders.  I was thinking about this when 
I rounded another corner and found myself in a dead end.  There were cliff 
walls surrounding me on three sides and a dark red AC with a Karasawa behind 
me.  I turned around to face my opponent only to see a flash of bright white 
and feel myself flying backwards and into the cliff face behind me.  I fell 
from the indentation my body made and landed on the ground on my back.  My 
whole upper body and face hurt more than I ever thought possible.  I opened 
my eyes and saw the AC putting it’s right foot down.  “The mother fucker 
kicked me!  I can’t believe he fuckin kicked me!”  I stood up and brushed 
the dirt from my eyes.  “You want to try that again you fuckin prick?”  I 
had no idea what I was going to do.  I figured I was done for but at least I 
won’t go out crying like a pussy.  “Don’t mind if I do Kur, it was kind of 
fun using you for a soccer ball!”  A what ball?

I saw The ACs foot coming this time so I jumped to the right to avoid it 
only to see a huge metallic hand coming right at me.  The hand ran into me 
and sent me flying back into the cliff again.  This time my body was buried 
nearly five feet into the cliff face.  I was just starting to climb out when 
the AC lifted its foot and kicked at the cliff face, crushing me in tons of 
earth and rock.  The pressure was enormous.  My arms were pinned at my sides 
and I could barely breath.  Vincent must have still had his foot pressing 
into the cliff because the pressure was getting more and more intense.  I 
was suddenly beginning to feel very claustrophobic and started to panic.  I 
was trying to free myself but I couldn’t even wiggle my fingers, much less 
dig my way out.  “Calm down Kur” I thought to myself, “Just calm down and 
think of a way out of this.”  The pressure was growing unbearable and the 
breath was forced from my lungs.  I tried to take another breath in but I 
couldn’t, my lungs just wouldn’t expand to draw in the air.  I figured I had 
twenty, thirty seconds at the most before I passed out from lack of oxygen.  
Time went by at a snails pace and my lungs burned more and more with every 
passing second.  I was beginning to see lots of colorful dots and I was 
fading in and out of consciousness.  “Jeez I just want this dirt off of me!” 
  And just like that, it was.  I fell and landed on a smooth dirt surface.  
I drew in a breath and never enjoyed it so much in my life.  I stood and 
looked around at where I was.  I was inside of a perfect sphere, just like 
the cockpit of an AC but about three times the size.  I suddenly had 
memories of the incident with the androids in the street where the ground 
beneath me was some how pushed into a bowl shape.  “So I did do this.  But 
how?”  I bent over and felt the ground below me.  The dirt and rock was 
packed in very firmly.  “It must be some kind of concussive force or 
something.”  I didn’t have much time to think about it because the spherical 
cavern suddenly lit up brightly as a plasma bolt came through one side and 
exploded on the other, leaving a large crater in the once perfect sphere.  I 
quickly jumped through the hole the plasma bolt came in and hit the ground 
outside running.

	“Oh so you are still alive.  You are proving to be harder to kill then I 
ever imagined.”  I ran right past the AC and out of the cul-de-sac I was 
almost killed in.  There was a steep slope to the mountain on my left so I 
began running up it, trying not to trip over rocks and shrubs in the near 
total darkness.  Half way up the mountainside I heard the roar of boosters 
behind me.  I looked back to see Hellfire hovering where I had left him in 
the dead end.  I turned back up the mountain and began running again as fast 
as I could.  My lungs were still hurting from being completely empty for so 
long so I was getting tired very quickly.  I just made it to the top of the 
mountain only to see a large drop off in front of me.  I looked back to see 
Hell fire over boosting at me at an incredible speed.  I jumped off the 
cliff face and felt the torrent of wind rush over me as Hellfire just missed 
ramming me at full speed.  I fell for quite a while and landed with a loud 
echoing thud.  The impact drove the air from my lungs and caused my left leg 
to go numb.  I didn’t have time to catch my breath so I stood and started to 
run, only to fall flat on my face when my left leg wouldn’t hold me up.  I 
looked at the ground beneath me and thought it was weird to be so smooth.  
Heck it almost looked like I could see my reflection in it.  I looked ahead 
of me and found a large boulder that looked oddly symmetrical in shape.  
Suddenly the whole area became brightly lit and I saw that I was actually 
lying on Kong’s leg.  I looked up to see that the source of the light was 
the boosters on Hellfire’s back and legs.  I jumped up again and hobbled on 
my right leg to the still open cockpit of my AC and climbed inside.

	I got into the control arms as fast as I could and started Kong up.  I hit 
my boosters and Kong slid on it’s back across the desert floor until I stood 
it up some 300 yards from Hellfire.  “You know Kur, you really pissed me off 
when you took off like that.  I have been planning this for years.  Years 
Kur.  And you think I am just going to let you run off and ruin everything?” 
  Hellfire leaned forward and a burst of brilliant white light shone 
brightly behind the crimson AC.  “I don’t think so!”  The absolute anger in 
Vincent’s voice scared me.  But I didn’t have time to think about it because 
Hellfire was well on his way towards me with blade extended.  Time slowed 
down but Hellfire didn’t.  I didn’t have time to move out of the way so I 
just stood there and waited for the last moment to lift my left arm 
extending my Starlight blade, and block the overhead swing of Hellfire’s 
blade.  As soon as our blades met, I planted Kong’s right foot into 
Hellfire’s core and fell backwards, letting Hellfire’s own momentum carry it 
over me.  I pushed as hard as I could with my right leg and watched as 
Hellfire crashed back first and upside down into the cliff face behind me.  
I followed Kongs momentum and continued my backwards summersault and stood 
up pivoting at the same time to stab Hellfire through the cockpit and kill 
Vincent once and for all.  Vincent however had no intention of letting that 
happen and lifted his right arm deflecting my left arm and causing my blade 
to stab through his core but not his cockpit.  Without thinking about it, I 
jumped backwards just as Vincent’s blade swiped in front of my core.  I 
boosted backwards and stopped, waiting for Vincent to right himself and 
stand up.  I knew I couldn’t beat him in a blade fight, whether he was 
upside down and stuck in a cliff face or not.

	Vincent finally got himself standing and facing me.  “If you think you are 
going to beat me with shit moves like that, you may as well kill yourself 
now.”  With that said, Hellfire leaned forward and then exploded.  “Wha…..” 
was all I heard over the com link as a huge ball of fire and brilliant white 
light enveloped Hellfire.  After a few seconds all I could see was black 
smoke pouring out of Hellfire’s back as the red AC lay face down on the 
ground.  I finally realized that his boosters must have exploded when he 
activated them.  I must have damaged them when I stabbed him with my 
Starlight.  Hellfire wasn’t moving at all and I took the opportunity.  I 
boosted forward and drug my blade below me hoping to slice Hellfire in two 
as I boosted over it.  It seemed like I was just inches from slicing into 
the head of the fallen AC when time slowed dramatically and Hellfire shot 
straight up in front of me and lifted the Karasawa he stole from me and 
pointed it directly at my cockpit.  He was playing possum with me and I fell 
for it.  I planted my feet into the ground just as the huge green bolt of 
plasma fired from the barrel of the Karasawa at nearly point blank range.  I 
jumped as hard as I could and began a front flip to try to get Kong up and 
over the bolt, but I was too slow.  The bolt began melting through the armor 
on my upper core but thankfully Kongs upwards movement pulled the core out 
of the way of the bolt before it hit anything vital.  Suddenly time returned 
to normal and I found myself doing a front flip into the same cliff face I 
had thrown Hellfire into not even a minute ago.  I continued my flip and 
landed feet first on the cliff face right above Hellfire.  I jumped once 
again and just missed getting sliced in two by a quick blade swing from 
Vincent.  Still in the air I hit my boosters and decided to get the hell 
away from Vincent before he killed me.  The only problem was that Stephanie 
was still down in the mountains somewhere and I couldn’t leave her there for 
Vincent to find.

	I turned and followed the canyon between the mountains where I left 
Stephanie and found her just waking up and stumbling from behind the bushes 
I left her behind.  I came in fast and landed hard right in front of her.  I 
kneeled Kong down as far as it would go and then leaned forward, placing the 
cockpit entrance right in front of Stephanie who wasted no time in jumping 
inside.  As soon as She was inside I jumped and hit the boosters, throwing 
Stephanie against the back wall of the cockpit and knocking her out again.  
I looked down to see Hellfire standing where we just were with its blade 
buried in the ground.  I continued boosting out of the mountain range and 
back over the open desert, trying to get as far away from Vincent as I 
could.  I was just taking comfort in the fact that I got away when a large 
green bolt of plasma shot over my head.  I looked back and was amazed to see 
Hellfire running on the ground below me and doing a very good job of keeping 
up.

	Vincent was firing my Karasawa and his machine gun at me at the same time, 
I was far enough away that I had little trouble in dodging but I still had 
to get away from him before I ran out of energy for my boosters.  I hit the 
over boost and shot forward at over 2000 mph but it didn’t do any good, 
Vincent was still somehow able to keep up with me just by running.  “Fuck!  
What does it take to ditch this guy?”  All I got for an answer was a groan 
from a half unconscious Stephanie, who was plastered against the back wall 
of the cockpit from the G-forces Kong, was pulling at the time.  I looked 
back to see Hellfire getting closer and extending his blade, witch could 
only mean he was getting ready to jump at me and take a swing.  Just as 
Hellfire jumped, I released the limiter on my generator and immediately Kong 
accelerated to 3000 mph, then 4000.  The speedometer kept rising as my 
generator poured pure raw energy into the boosters on Kongs back and legs.  
Hellfire missed me by a long shot but began running again as soon as he 
landed.  My speedometer was climbing up over 6000 but Hellfire was right on 
my tail and not backing off.  “I’ve got you now you little prick!”  Vincent 
was in a blind rage.  I could just imagine his eyes glowing like two small 
stars and his face twisted into a look of pure anger.  I looked back to see 
Hellfire’s speed increase greatly and he jumped again.  This time there was 
nothing I could do, he was coming in too fast and I was going too fast to 
maneuver without crushing Stephanie with the G-force.  I was going to die.

	I had always been afraid of death.  It was the only thing I was ever afraid 
of.  I always thought I could handle anything that came my way, but the 
thought of dying and not existing at all just scares me.  But oddly that 
wasn’t what I was thinking about right then.  I could only think of Trish, 
locked up somewhere waiting for me to come and get her so we could live our 
lives together.  I missed her so much and now I was never going to see her 
again.  And then there was Stephanie, the poor girl was going to die with 
me, and for what?  She was manipulated by that psycho Vincent.  Just the 
thought of it all was too much for me to handle and it drove me over the 
edge.  I could feel the pain in my stomach and it began to spread through my 
whole body as I began to yell as loud as I could.  My cockpit was glowing 
brightly in that familiar green glow but it was no use, no matter how much 
my power grew, Kong could only go so fast.  At least that is what I thought.

	My speedometer was climbing so fast the numbers were just a blur.  I looked 
back to see Vincent landing on the ground and fading away over the horizon.  
I suddenly found myself flying over the open ocean.  My speedometer topped 
out at just under 10,000 mph and I cut the over boost.  “Kong, keep boosting 
in this direction.  Keep us airborne as long as possible.”  “Affirmative”  
When I was sure the computer had full control over Kong, I climbed out of 
the control arms and kneeled down next to Stephanie who was now laying on 
her back on the floor of the cockpit.  Her face was covered in blood witch 
had been forced out of her eyes and nose during the extreme acceleration.  
She was in pretty bad shape but at least she was alive.

	I took a moment to look myself over for injuries as well.  I found that my 
left leg, along with a few ribs, was broken.  I looked down to see a huge 
bruise covering my chest and stomach from being kicked by Vincent’s AC.  I 
was also filthy.  My own blood mixed with desert soil and sweat was emitting 
a nauseating smell that I couldn’t stand for very much longer.

I opened the compartment that held our food and supplies and pulled out a 
small bottle of water.  I gently washed most of the blood off of Stephanie’s 
face before I used the rest of the bottle to scrub whatever dried, bloody 
mud I could off my own body.  Once I was satisfied we both looked our best I 
began to think about what had just happened.

We were being chased by Vincent who was able to keep up with my over 
boosting just by running.  That wasn’t too much of a surprise being as how I 
was able to run a good 5000 mph just the other day.  What really surprised 
me though was that he was just about to take us out and Kong suddenly 
doubled in speed so that Vincent couldn’t catch us.  That was what I needed 
to figure out.

I climbed back into the control arms being very careful not to move in any 
way that might cause the arms to hit Stephanie.  “Kong, return control to me 
please, and give me a damage report.”  “Affirmative.  Front core armor 
heavily damaged, over boosters overheated 450%, recommend immediate 
landing.”  Jeez, it takes a lot to overheat over boosters that much.  I 
really had to figure out where that extra power came from.  I would think 
that new generator that Stephanie installed but that was only supposed to be 
250% or so more power, not the thousands of percent it would have taken to 
do what I just did.  And now I am supposed to land to save my boosters but 
all I see is water and more water.  I would just land in the water but with 
my cores armor half gone, I don’t know if I should or not.  I know armor 
could take the pressure but with my armor damaged, the only thing fighting 
the pressure would be the outer hull of my cockpit.

“Boosters failing, please make emergency landing.  Boosters failing.”  Well 
I guess my decision was just made for me.  We were going under, I just hoped 
it wasn’t too deep.  Kong hit the water like a flat rock hits a pond.  I 
grabbed Stephanie and held her as still as I could while Kong skipped across 
the water.  We finally stopped skipping and sank like a rock.  I could hear 
the water rushing in through the hole in the armor until the inside of the 
core was full and the only thing keeping us dry was the cockpits outer hull. 
  I watched the altimeter intently as we sank further and further into the 
deep blue.

I was thankful to hit bottom at 1270 feet.  I stood completely still 
listening to the cockpit groan under the pressure of the water above.  Once 
the groaning calmed down I turned on the outer floodlights and nearly jumped 
when a huge great white swam in front of me.  I slowly began to walk forward 
but was having difficulty.  The muddy ocean floor was swallowing Kong’s legs 
up to the knee joints, and fighting the vacuum to pull them out was proving 
to be difficult with a broken leg.  I finally made my way to an area of the 
ocean floor with was covered by gravel and sand, with was much easier to 
walk on.

It was about this time that Stephanie woke up.  “Kur?  Wha… What happened?  
I can’t see anything.”  I was expecting her to panic at the thought of being 
blind, but she was keeping calm, although she did sound a little worried.  
“It’s ok.  You were bounced around quite a bit when Vincent was chasing us.  
You can’t see because the G-forces probably detached your retina.”  “Am I 
going to be blind?”  This time the worry in her voice was more apparent.  
“No no, don’t worry.  This kind of thing happens to ravens all the time.  
Doctors can repair that kind of thing easily, I just have to get us to one, 
that’s all.”  “Ok….. Are you all right?  You aren’t hurt are you?”  “I’m ok, 
just a couple bruises and scratches.”  I don’t know why I didn’t tell her 
about the leg and ribs, I guess I just didn’t want to worry her any more 
than she already was.

Eventually I noticed that my altimeter began to drop.  The water was slowly 
getting shallower and shallower, witch was good.  Several hours later I was 
walking up steeper and steeper embankments and soon I could see the surface 
of the ocean a few hundred feet over head.  I was soon surrounded by fish of 
all colors, shapes, and sizes.  The shallower the ocean got, the more 
beautiful the scenery became.  “It’s beautiful.”  Stephanie was standing 
next to me whispering into me ear.  She was obviously able to see again, so 
her retina must have just been stretched a little and not torn.  “So you 
aren’t blind anymore huh?”  “Nah, I’ve been able to see for a couple hours 
now.  I was just watching your ass while you were walking.”  Stupid me 
thought she was talking about the view of the ocean, but then I realized I 
was the one wearing the helmet witch supplied the 360-degree in all 
directions view of the world outside the AC.  It felt like I was free 
floating 30 feet of the ocean floor without getting wet.  I stopped walking 
and climbed out of the control arms.  “Here, why don’t you take a look?  It 
really is an incredible view.”

Stephanie cracked a mischievous smile like she was about to do something 
very naughty.  “You are really going to let me drive this thing?”  I had 
forgotten how exciting it is the first time you strap into an AC.  I guess 
this was Stephanie’s first time the way she was acting.  I nodded my head 
and she was strapped into the control arms and had the helmet on in no time. 
  “Wow, it is so beautiful out there.”  She was looking all over the place 
trying to take in as much of the view as she could like it was going to go 
away at any moment.  “My mother used to take me scuba diving when I was 
younger.  We would call it our girl’s only vacation.  I miss her.  I haven’t 
seen her since Vincent came into my life.  If he makes it to Mars before we 
do, he will kill Trish…. And my family.”  Stephanie climbed back out of the 
control arms and I could see tears rolling down her face and off her chin.  
“Hey, come on now.  We will get to Mars before him and I will stop him 
Steph, you know I wouldn’t let him kill Trish or your family.”  She buried 
her face in my chest and hugged me tightly, still lightly sobbing.  “I know, 
but it just seems like there is no stopping him.  And I hate myself for 
helping him.  I should have realized what he was doing sooner, then maybe I 
could have stopped him.”  “Now you know that isn’t true.  If you had found 
out sooner, he would have just threatened you sooner.  You had no choice, 
and besides, you are doing the right thing now and that is what is 
important.”

I held Stephanie until she cried herself to sleep in my arms.  I felt so bad 
for her but I was also thinking about Trish.  I know she was being guarded 
so if Vincent got to some kind of long-range communications equipment he 
could send the order to have her killed.  I know his AC didn’t have that 
type of equipment and I didn’t remember seeing any at the now destroyed 
house I was held prisoner at for so long.  Then again, I didn’t think 
Vincent could give the orders, he was just giving orders through Stephanie, 
so maybe she was right, if we beat him to Mars, we could save Trish and 
Stephanie’s family.

I woke up with Stephanie still sleeping in my arms.  As I pulled away from 
her she woke up to and smiled at me like she was the happiest person in the 
world.  “How did you sleep?”  She said it as if it had a double meaning.  “I 
slept fine, how bout you?”  She smiled and arched her back to stretch, 
jutting her breasts out like a girl in a hentai movie.  “Best sleep I ever 
had thanks to you.”  Jeez, she never quit.  By then I was strapped into the 
control arms and was ready to get going again.  “Well miss perfect sleep, 
are you about ready to get goin?”  She stood up and wrapped her arms and 
legs around me just like before and let out a deep cat like moan as I began 
to walk as quickly as I could on the ocean floor.

It only took another hour and a half to get to shallow enough water where 
Kongs head was above the surface.  Ahead of me I could see a shoreline with 
a huge forest behind it.  But best of all, I could see a building poking up 
through the forest.  I quickly made my way on shore and was greeted by a 
little girl in a multi-colored bikini who couldn’t have been more than eight 
years old.  She ran right up to Kong and smiled as big as she could and 
began waving as hard as she could.  I couldn’t help but smile as I kneeled 
Kong down on the sandy beach.  I opened the cockpit and carried Stephanie 
out and onto the warm sand.

“Hi!  Wow, I never thought I would see a real armored core out here!”  The 
little girl was so sweet I could feel my teeth rotting.  “My name is Carol 
Ann Simmons, what’s yours?”  Stephanie walked up to the girl and when she 
spoke I almost cracked up laughing, she was a giggly and sweet as the little 
girl herself.  “My name is Stephanie Mactaggart and this is my very good 
friend Kur.”  The little girls eyes lit up when she heard my name.  “Wow, 
it’s Kur!  You are the C-11 ranked Raven!  My daddy says that you would have 
Taken the A ranks by storm if you hadn’t disappeared.  My daddy says that 
nobody could find you for months and they thought you died on a mission.  
Where have you been?”  I wasn’t used to people recognizing me like that but 
I figured I could take advantage of my slight celebrity here.  If this 
little girls dad was a fan of mine then maybe he could help me out.  “Well 
I’ve been a little too busy to fight in the arena for now, but I’ll go back 
someday.  Anyway, Carol right?  Could you take me to see your dad?  I’d like 
to meet him.”  “Wow, he is going to be soo happy when he sees you, he might 
forget that I broke his glasses, come on!”  Carol turned and started running 
into the forest behind her.  I helped Stephanie and we both hobbled on after 
her.  We made our way through the thick under growth until we hit a small 
path that was heavily shaded by the forest canopy some hundred feet over 
head.  The whole time we walked the path, Carol wouldn’t stop talking about 
me, her favorite Ravens, and how pretty Stephanie was and how she wanted to 
be just like her when she grew up.  Carol was a sweet girl but the constant 
questions were beginning to annoy me.  I was happy to finally make it to the 
building I had seen from the ocean.