Looks more like "Suddenly, ACTION!" to me, but whatevs.
SRWQ Gaiden Chapter 3: Suddenly, SCIENCE!
"Cool 'bot you got there." The large blonde man relaxing on the mech didn't look like he had bad intentions to Jil, so she figured she'd play along."Yours isn't too bad either." Alex's voice on the comm was confused, Jil not being the type to just play along with an unknown person.
"What're you doing Jil?" The blonde man laughed at Jil's earlier statement, his brown eyes seeming eerily inhuman.
"I wish. It's all duct-tape inside, especially the reactor. I love fixing stuff." The grey mech did look somewhat beaten, although not in a serious state of disrepair. "If I had somewhere where I could get my hands on some nanos or a lot of metal, maybe grab a hotdog or fourty, I could get it runnin' like new."
"Tell me your name, and I might be able to help you." The blonde man slid back inside his mech and started it up.
"Given that I'm from a place where everybody's trying to kill me and my friends... Just call me Co." The grey mech stood up and faced Hauteclere, motioning for the white mech to lead the way, the taller of the two mechs delivering on it's pilot's promise.
"Jil, what the hell are you playing at!?" Alex's protests were unheard as Jil and Co parked their mechs in the DIVER storage bay. "You just let some unknown wideload wander in here!" Jil sighed, muttered something under her breath, then knocked Alex out with a well-aimed punch to the face.
"What an idiot..." Co looked at Jil with some surprise, then promptly made a mental note of the 'no pissing Jil off' flavour.
"Anyway... That white 'bot of yours need anything done to it?"
"It's still missing it's main piece of equipment... It's a sword-wielder, you see. Also, flying around... Well, it's a pain in the ass. All those holes in the back? Thrusters." Co looked up at the back of Hauteclere, whistling as he did so.
"Uh... that's a lot of thruste--" Co was cut off as his mech's arm fell off. "Ehehe... oops. Forgot to mention, made that thing out of junk. Oh well... Say, you happen to know this thing's power source?" Jil nodded, and headed over to stand next to the only concious man in the room.
"Yep. 287-RX Petrol Combustion Drive. Fifteen minutes to the gallon." Co looked at Jil in surprise, his eyes widening with awe.
"Petrol...? You mean, this thing runs on gasoline? DO LIKE!" Jil facepalmed and walked away as the wide-eyed, wide-loaded admirer went about analysing Hauteclere.
"Mister Lukles..." The calm voice filled Alex's mind as he looked around, the world seemingly covered in fog.
"Whoa! What the hell?! Who said that!?"
"Who I am is not important... You are."
"Er... Afraid I don't follow."
"You are the pilot of Hauteclere. No one else is capable. Ensure this is the case, or expect unforseen consequences..."
"So I gotta pilot Hauteclere, and only me?"
"Correct."
"How do I know you're not joking?"
"The next time we speak... I will show you the truth of this world, if you adhere to my warning. Until then... Farewell."
"Wait, wh-" The world swiftly faded to white, Alex's question being cut off mid-sentence...
...To reality fading in from white.
"Hey... you should get up pal." Alex opened his eyes to see Co standing over him, the night-time lighting for the base having been activated. "Damn, that's one hell of a punch your girl got."
"Shit, how long was I out?" Alex hadn't clocked onto the second half of Co's wakeup call.
"About two hours." Alex sat up quickly, Co trying to make sure he didn't do himself another injury. "Easy there champ. Jil told me you'd be more interested in this list of stuff I had in mind for your bot. Anyway, I'mma go get something to eat." Alex took the notebook from Co's hand, and started reading through the contents when the alarm blared.
"Ah shit... seriously?" Grabbing his configuration key for Hauteclere, Alex clambered into the white giant, ignoring the shooting pains going up his arm.
"Al, what're you doing!?" Jil shouted up at the man who was activating Hauteclere. "You're going to get yourself killed, it's VE-13!" Alex's face tensed with rage, VE-13 was the Vertan that had abducted his father years ago.
"Revenge Jil. That's what I'm doing. Now let me out of here."
"Hmph... this place has changed a lot. Fitting, really." The slender black mech landed in the middle of a residential district, the locals scattering in all directions as the impact shook the ground, the pilot surveying the slight state of disrepair the neighbourhood had fallen into. "I wonder if there are any DIVERs left." The answer to those thoughts became obvious as a familiar white mech landed next to it. "Hmph... White Rift. I suppose you'll do." The black mech pulled two plates from it's legs, it's cyan cape fluttering in the wind as it attached the two plates to it's wrists, which then reshaped themselves to a more blade-like shape, sort of like a giant wrist-mounted katar.
"VE-13... I'LL KILL YOU!" Alex set Hauteclere's thrusters to maximum power, the RPM indicator for it's petrol engine coming up with 'ALRIGHTY THEN' on the digital display.
"What th--" The pilot of the black mech was cut off by a massive right hook from Hauteclere to the torso of his mech, knocking it back a considerable distance. "If that's how you want to fight, then so be it." The black mech engaged it's own thrusters, meeting Hauteclere's follow-up punch with it's own, both fists hitting the head of the other mech. Alex, blinded by rage, attempted to follow up with an uppercut from Hauteclere, only to lose the mech's left arm, sliced cleanly off at the shoulder by the wrist-mounted blades on the black mech.
"Is that all you have, fleshbag? I thought your kind were greater than this." Alex stood Hauteclere up, using the remaining arm as leverage to help the slightly disarmed mech stand.
"You took everything from me... My father! My mother! My friends!" Exhaust billowed from behind Hauteclere, its poorly-maintained power supply barely able to keep up with the demands placed upon it.
"I took nothing from you... You took everything from yourself by involving yourself in the pointless war." The black mech moved in to gut Hauteclere's torso on it's wrist blades, only narrowly missing due to the swift response of the intended victim's pilot.
"Bullshit! You're as much to blame as the rest of your kind for not rebelling against the war!" Alex launched Hauteclere off the ground, driving a dropkick into the black mech's wrists, removing the blades and their usual mount due to the sheer force of a full-speed Hauteclere ramming the majority of its full weight into them.
"Et tu, Fleshbag? Would you continue the war that your predecessors were consumed by?" The black mech responded by kicking Hauteclere's legs out from underneath it upon landing.
"You have no idea as to why I fight!" Upon standing, Hauteclere assumed a stance that meant only one thing. "I'm ending this now! Hyper Burst!" Hauteclere's thrusters once again fired to maximum, sending the mech high into the sky.
"Hyper Burst eh... Fine by me. Dark Burst." The black mech flicked it's arms out to either side of it, palms open, both beginning to glow with a dark purple energy.
"I don't care what you throw at me! My anger will empower me, and my sorrow will drive me to victory!" Alex threw the lever for the Hyper Burst he had in mind, his voice echoing across the surrounding countryside. "Arrowhead Kick!"
"Anger and sorrow without restraint will be the end of you. Giga Breaker Punch." Hauteclere rearranged itself into a flying side kick formation, whilst the black mech locked it's hands together, the fingers overlapping the opposite hand, forming a line of knuckles. The two attacks impacted against each other, releasing a shockwave that levelled about four blocks squared, cracks forming in the weapon of choice for both sides, as well as causing both the shin of Hauteclere and the forearms of Gigagiru to crumple slightly.
"Give up already, and I might spare your life!"
"You were the one who struck first. I should be asking you that. Gigagiru will show me victory." Hauteclere's leg and Gigagiru's fists cracked more, the sheer force of the energies being used shredding both mech's capes to about a quarter of their length.
"I can't lose! I won't lose!"
"I refuse to let you win though." Both mech's thrusters flared up to full power for several seconds, before both machines' powerplants spluttered and died, causing them to shut down. For Gigagiru, this didn't really cause anything to happen outside of total mechanical seizure, but for Hauteclere, the sudden loss of thrust caused it to drop from the sky, landing rather awkwardly, shattering it's leg.
"I can't... let you win..." Alex clambered out of Hauteclere, his arm still wrapped in the support bandage to help the bruising on his arm heal.
"You're crazy to want to continue this fight outside of your machine." The pilot of Gigagiru clambered out of his mech's torso, revealing himself, and the general appearence of his kind, to Alex for the first time.
"But... you're just like a human... except..." The only particular things that stood out with Giragiru's pilot's appearence were the fact that he was 8'3", and seemed to have some form of canine to his appearence. "Fucking furries..." was all Alex could muster before he passed out.
"So you return... Very well. As promised, I shall tell you the secret of this world. Alex looked around, finding himself in the fog where that mysterious person told him that only he can pilot Hauteclere.
"Great... you again."
"I have to admit, you were rather fast in returning here. Were you that eager to die, may I ask?"
"If it meant avenging my father, yes."
"Oh yes, VE-13, or rather Hasha Giru, was responsible for your father's disappearence..."
"You owe me a secret telling. I came back here, having made sure that I'm the only person who pilots Hauteclere."
"Yes... Yes, I do. Alex Lukles, this world you live in now... It is not the same as it once was."
"Afraid I don't follow."
"Your entire universe was destroyed. For you, the event known as 'The Walling' is when your world was destroyed."
"So what you're saying is that my entire universe was trashed?"
"Correct. By the hand of what you called UE-01."
"Right... Go o--" Once again, the world faded into white, as it did the last time Alex found himself in there.
"Motherfucker!" Alex attempted to sit up quickly, but pain shot up through him, forcing him to lie back down. The first thing Alex saw after the world faded back into view for him was Jil, her face red and tear-stained.
"Alex... Thank god you're okay." The blonde gently cuddled into Alex, taking special care to be gentle and avoid inflicting pain on him. "I was worried you weren't going to wake up..."
"Huh? How long was I out?" Alex looked at the rather nervous-looking Jil, who looked at a nearby calendar.
"...Two weeks." Co and Carl both wandered in, both of them seeming pretty happy. Carl was the first to speak:
"Hello there sport. How're you today?"
"Felt worse. You?"
"Pretty good. Me and Coop here fixed up Hauteclere, complete with Olivier. Only real problem was with the old shield cape, so we've adapted that into a scarf."
"A scarf?" Coop was the one who chimed in with the answer to the question:
"Scarfs are awesome." Alex laughed at the scientist/mechanic's comment, nodding in agreement. "Oh, I also noticed expansion slots under where the cape was... So I rigged together an expansion pack. Should make flying around easier, and also give you a bit more firepower." Alex smirked, sitting up slowly to try and minimise the pain.
"So when do I get to see this new pack?" Jil walked over to him and sighed, looking rather depressed. "Huh...? What's wrong Jil?"
"You're that obsessed with Hauteclere, you've not realised that you nearly died last time you piloted it! What the fuck were you thinking!?" Alex realised just what he'd been doing both times he'd sortied in Hauteclere, and his heart sunk.
"Sorry. I guess I've been putting defending this place above you guys... I didn't realise you guys needed me that much... Hauteclere just has that kind of effect on me."
"Then you now know what I meant by the war consuming you." Giru's voice rung across the room, causing Alex to look in that direction. "I'm only here because I learned the truth: Verta is gone. This place is all I have left to tie to my life. I have nowhere to go, so I will help you." Alex sat on the side of his bed, motioning for the Vertan to come over.
"Only if you tell me what happened to my father, Colin Lukles." The xeno did so, his red eyes piercing straight into Alex's green ones.
"Last I heard, he was still on Verta... I'm sorry, but the chances of him still being alive are slim." Alex closed his eyes and sighed.
"I see. I appreciate you being honest about it." Alex put his left hand out, offering for the Vertan to return the favour. "Give me your left hand." Giru did so reluctantly, letting Alex shake his hand. "You never did tell me your name, and I never gave you mine. Now that we're on the same side, I think we should at least know that. I'm Alex Lukles." Giru smiled, this was his first new friend in a very, very long time.
"I am Hasha Giru. Long may we work together, I suppose."
Next time on SRWQG: The White Sword of Justice
"Do you not understand? You destroyed our leader and comrade. We cannot let that go unpunished."
"Who cares about tactics, I just want to smash things! That's what I do best!"
"You have no idea what you're messing with..."
"Lukles... Strength is not the only road to victory. Speed is crucial in a battle where your enemy is small."
"Gotcha! Hauteclere Massacre, let's fly!"
"Like hell I don't! Rough Divider!"
Chapter 4: Flight of the Massacre. Out whenever it's finished.
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