[Fanfic] Gear Breaker: 44 - Page 3

Ohh nice, twist. Good stuff, keep it up.

Yeah it may have been a bit abrubt, but don't worry about it.

Still a good story keep it up.

Chapter 4

Huff! Huff!" Rhiem flattened himself against a decript car. Glancing around the bumper, he motioned for Riu to follow. Riu slipped down behind a large net of garrote wires, and dashed across the street to follow him. Rhiem poked his head around the corner. A searchlight stood tall on the abandoned radio tower, sweeping the entire section of the town. He slipped into an imploded bakery, and lay up against the reception counter. Neither of the two made a sound.


A light, bright and baleful, cut across the room like a saber. A soldier stood in the doorway. Behind the red visor, the soldier scanned for lifeforms. Satisfied, the soldier moved on.
"Nice gun." Rhiem swept under the soldier like a whirlwind, trippig the man and smashing him hard against the concrete. Rhiem pried the gun from the unsuspecting soldier's hands, and pointed it at him.
"Don't move. Just wait there, and put your hands" The man struck Rhiem in the groin. "--Guh!" Rhiem recovered quickly and tried to point the gun at the soldier again, but the soldier was too quick on the draw, and smacked the firearm out of Rhiem's hands. Rhiem pulled out his Tomahawk, to match the Stun Fist that covered the Soldier's right fist. The Stun Fist was a dangerous weapon that delivered ten million volts of electricity every second, into machine or man. One scrape from the Stun Fist would paralyze him for hours. Rhiem swung at the man, aiming for the leg, and trying to trip him. The soldier swung the Stun Fist, the deadly guantlet crushing a nearby locker. He punched against, cracking the wall. Rhiem caught the forearm, and pulled it over his shoulder. Both went flying, however, Rhiem landed on the unfortunate man.

He checked the unknown man's pulse. Still alive.

Rhiem collected the Stun Fist, and the Rifle the soldier had. He checked the model. It was a SQR 234 Battle Rifle. Scope and the whole shebang. Rhiem motioned for Riu to follow him out. Riu glanced for a second at the unconcious man.
"Forgive me..."


It was morning. The sun rose along the skeletons of charred buildings, streaming through the cracks of burnt steel and crumbled walls. Rhiem woke up, and stared out at the gray sky. This was the first time he woke up without a ceiling to look at. For a second, it hit him that he had thrown away his entire life. The sky started spinning, and Rhiem felt dizzy in the head. He stood up again. The two of them needed to move.
Daylight travel was usually the safest. Hostiles could be seen for miles. However, in this case, any hostile would have to be deftly avoided, at all costs. Even a glimpse of either Rhiem or Riu would spell disaster. Rhiem made his way through an abandoned elevated highway, using the cover of the huge bridge to hide the from spy drones.

"...we should take a break here." Rhiem tossed the small rucksack he had on his back onto the floor. "Whew..."

Riu curled up, and stared at the ground.
"Where are we going?" Rhiem barely glanced at her.

"...To a Fringe settlement. Over there, where people live independant lives. You should be safer over there."
Riu's silver hair swept up as she turned her head.
"And what about you?"

Rhiem hesitated for a second. This was not missed by Riu.
"I...I'll go back to the Rubine Firebase. They'll let me back in..."

Riu curled up even tighter, and focused even harder onto the ground.
"I'm sorry..."
"..."




The fringe settlement was not hard to find. In the cove of a abandoned city, a wall made of broken pieces of concrete and scavenged metal stood like an enormous fence, surrounding the pocket of what Rhiem assumed to be a lake. The two of them came to a checkpoint in the road. Two guards, dressed in nothing more than plain clothes, stood, holding SMGs. One of them noticed Rhiem and Riu.

Alarmed, he scrambled to take the safety off his gun.

"HALT!" Rhiem was not impressed. The kid was over three years older than him, yet held the gun like an amatuer. "I SAID HALT!"

"Spare me."
"DROP YOUR GUN!" The second guard had finally found his magazine, and pointed his gun at Rhiem, too.

"DROP IT!"
In one motion, Rhiem grabbed the barrel of one SMG, and twisted the barrel to face the second. He quickly used the first barrel to knock the second gun into the sky, and ripped the first SMG out of the unsuspecting guard's hands. Rhiem tripped the guard with the stock, and gave him a kick for good measure. Rubina training was far superior to whatever wish-wash that the Fringe settlements conducted.

Rhiem grabbed the second SMG on its way down.

Holding both guns, he pointed the two at the unarmed guards.
"You two will escort me and this girl into your settlement. Now." The guards looked at each other, and then the guns.



Ootya Fringe Settlement


"What? An intruder?!?" The fat and portly minutemen commander fell off his chair. "Get the troops out! Sound the bell!" The town hall, (a large amount of scrap concrete and wires) Rang out its warning bell. Screaming, unprepared men rushed from their homes and to the armory. They swarmed in front of the doorway to the armory, while the Minutemen Commander made his way to the lock.

"Come on....open!" The lock fit in, and the Commander rushed his troops in. "Hurry! Arm yourselves!"






Suddenly, everyone was rushing out.

"Where are you going? Hey! Get back here!" The Commander took a look into the Armory. Rhiem sat on a box of RPG warheads. He held a Battle Rifle in one hand, and an SMG in the other.

"Hey. Nice guns."

It wasn't an important aspect of the story, so I elected not to ruin the flow of writing with dead explanations.

He's not a tough-man military commander, the minutemen commander of the Fringe settlement, in short, is a pussy. You'll see later on that the commander is really incompetent.

Chapter 5

"So what is your reason for being here?" Riu and Rhiem were across the Fringe Settlement leader, Chief in council. There were rough pads set across the floor; a low-set tea table made of old wood held the center of the small tent. The Chief was dressed in an extremely old Yukuta, that flowed far past her, ending like a small train behind her dainty feet. The enormity of the dress offset the fact...

The Settlement Chief was merely a small girl.



"Well? I'm not here to solely to enjoy your company. Speak." The Chief poured some more root tea, and sipped slowly.

"...I...I'm sorry for the trouble we caused!" Riu bowed down, and hid her face.

"Psh. I'm glad you scared my troops. They needed a kick in the ass to get moving anyhow." She nodded to Rhiem, who was tied up in a corner. He was gagged and strung up so many times he looked rather like a moth in a cacoon.

"And don't worry. I'm sure you had a legitimate reason to hold two of my guards hostage, seize control of my armory, and taser my second-in command. But until then, you can stay tied up there."
"(mmmfff)"

The Chief returned attention to Riu.

"Now hurry up."
"...I was on the run from Rubine Forces. And he, Rhiem, helped me. More than I could ever repay."
"You would be suprised how easy it is to 'payback' men...him in particular. I assume you pursue refuge here, in Ootya?"
"Y-yes...I will work for my stay, I'll do anything you ask."
"I'm not concerned with that" The Chief waved a dimunitive hand in dismissal. "I can tell a person's character. You'll work, no doubt. What I want to know...is what to do with ...Him."

"H-He said he will return to the Rubine Firebase."

"Ha! You believe that?" The Chief glanced back at Rhiem. His eyes narrowed in frustration at this brat...struggling, Rhiem twisted around, trying to free his bonds. Chief turned her head back.
"No...If he helped you, nothing awaits him back there. So the next thing you'll ask is if he can stay here?"

"..."
"No. He's not staying here."
"Wha?"
"He's a stupid brat. Even if I put him to work, it would be done half-assed, and with reluctance. You would be the only thing keeping him here, and eventually his concern for you would turn to hatred. The doubts of helping you in the first place would creep into his mind until it turned malignant, and then he would lash out at you. You would then seperate, and die hollow lives from then on."

The Chief seemed to darken at her own prophecy.

"I'll going to do something else with you two." She stood up, and cricked her knuckles.
"What...what are you going to do?"

......

"He can join our hunters."
"H-Hunters?"
"You know why every one of our guard is pathetic? It's because anyone worth anything at fighting has joined our specialty mercenaries. The Hunters." The Chief poured some more tea, and then kicked back on the mat she was on.
"Hunters are paid by assignment from our Guild Hall. They make good money...if they can survive."
"Is it really alright for him to do such a dangerous thing?"
"This stupid brat is good enough. He took apart my entire town guard, let's see how he does against those ravaging machines."

.......

"But wait...."
"Hm?"
"What does that have to do with Rhiem staying here?"


The Chief cracked an evil smile.
"Because stupid brats..." She looped a length of rope around Rhiem's neck. "Sleep outside city limits!" She dragged Rhiem outside. "Make yourself at home. Not like I have much of one."

Thunk!

"(mmmmfff!)"
Rhiem's head had collided with a rock.
"Oops. Watch your head."
"(mmmfffhhhuukkk yooouuuuu)"

Thunk!

...

"Hm! Heheh, Hahaha!" Riu laughed out loud, and clear.

It felt good... she had not laughed before in her life, but it felt really, really good. She kept on laughing, and laughing until tears came out. She crouched down, and held her sides. Tears flew freely now.

Soon, these tears of laughter mixed with tears of joy. She slumped down, and covered her face.

She...Riu....She had a home...

Alright, thanks Rekee. I'm avoiding the trap I fell into last time. Sticking to the roots.

Those sketches are better than I could do but.... They has no pupils!


Besides that, AWESOME, keep it up. .... Hahaha! It's so good I'm even reading it while on vacation!