Alpha and Omega - Jackal's Story

Chapter 21

In collaboration with Subzero Dragon. Visit their profile to see the other side of this story.

"I don't really watch things like that." As a matter of fact, I don't watch a lot of things on television. There's never enough time to do so. If I do have time, it's usually spent training or sleeping. I should probably find a hobby; something I can do while I'm not sleeping or training. What did I do before my amnesia? Was I a hands-on kind of guy that would fiddle around with machinery? Or was I just lazy? Well, it's likely that I'm not going to remember anything like that. I should just find a new hobby.

"Trust me, you're going to love this!" Kota's smile never fades. He didn't seem very energetic when we were talking at the door, but he seems very energetic now. Kota must really like this program. I don't see the appeal of it though. "Take a seat." He gestures happily to the couch in front of the TV and I sit on it. Kota parks himself right next to me, his eyes glued on the television. I also look at the TV. From what I can tell, this seems to be some kind of action anime. One of the characters, dressed in red, has some sort of robotic suit that only covers about 40% of his body. The rest of his body has no armour at all.

"So who's this guy?" I ask Kota, only to make it seem as though I am interested in the program.

"That's the main character. His name is-" At this point, I decide to tune him out and just watch the program for myself. I've did my job, he thinks I'm interested in the program. Of course, I'll still watch it with him. I'll consider this payment for completing the favour I will ask him for soon.

Two hours later…

"Go on, Aeneas! Beat that guy up!" The character stated propels himself up into the air with a fantastic leap. His posture makes him look experienced in battle. As he jumps, he swiftly cuts through the airborne, bat-like enemies before his attention turns to the antagonist; Vikander. The bad guy sees Aeneas' attack though, and easily dodges it, mocking the protagonist in the process.

"I knew that would happen!" Kota shouts, on the edge of his seat. We're both so close to the edge that if I got any more excited, I would fall off of the couch. Vikander springs towards the red-clad protagonist; his face suggesting that this fight is all too easy for him. Instead of dodging the attack, Aeneas takes it head on. His decision shocks me, but I can understand it. It is a television show after all, it needs to entertain people and it is certainly doing that. However, before the two can collide, the screen freezes and the words "To be continued" appears on the screen.

"Ah." I utter in a depressed voice and shrink into my seat. "Are you putting the next one on?" I ask with hope lacing my voice. It's what he did for the when the past few episodes had finished.

"Unfortunately not." He slumps as he speaks, "I need to download the next season before we can watch it." A second of silence passes and I feel myself becoming more deflated. "But hey," Kota suddenly becomes cheery again, "I can let you borrow a season or two. You can watch them from the start rather than half way through the tenth season."

"There are that many seasons?" My eyes go wide. It would give me a chance to watch them all from the beginning. I'll be able to connect with the characters; learn more about them and learn their motivations. "Yeah, will you let me borrow a couple of seasons?"

"Yeah, dude. No problem." He smiles back at me as he leaves the couch and goes to his terminal. I see him pull out some sort of device from his terminal and he gives it to me. He sees the confusion on my face and speaks up. "This is a device they used in the past to store things on so you can carry them around with you. It's called a USB or something. There's five seasons of Bugarally stored on it. There's also a few seasons of other television shows." He hands it out to me.

"Thanks. I'll make sure to watch them." I give him my thanks, taking the device from his hand and making my way out of his room.

"Tell me as soon as you've finished them. We'll be sure to talk about it!" He shouts his last sentence as I walk though the door. He must be excited to talk to someone that shares his interest.

"Of course." I inform him with a smile and a wave as I head back to my room. I'll need to put it in my room so that I don't lose it. I can't believe that Kota's let me borrow something so prehistoric. How much money must it be worth? I walk into my room and place the device into my terminal. As soon as I do so, there is another option on my terminal that I can select. "Kota's USB" is what it's called. I click onto it and see a few files. One of which is Bugarally while the others are ones that I've never heard of. One of the files is called "Saiki Kusuo". Such a weird name… I wonder what it's about.

One hour later.

Apparently, the anime called "Saiki Kusuo" is about a teenager who has numerous super powers. However, he doesn't want people to know about his super powers. That's what I don't understand. Surely, you'd want people to know about your super powers. Imagine what you could do.

"Jackal! Mission time!" Kota knocks on the door. I didn't realise we had a mission. Kota must have arranged one for the two of us.

"Come on, Jackal. We're waiting for you!" Robin speaks up too. I guess that makes three of us then.

"What are you doing in there?" Alisa speaks up before I see the door open. Alisa comes storming in, Kota and Robin come walking in after. "What are you doing by your terminal?" Alisa suddenly asks. I look at Kota to see his reaction. I don't know whether Alisa knows about Kota having a USB stick with a lot of anime on it. Kota gives no response. I guess he won't be of any help at all. "Didn't you get my email?" Alisa speaks with a less than impressed voice. I open my emails, closing the fifth episode of Saiki Kusuo and realise that she did send me an email. I open it up.

Mission time in half an hour.

We'll be against two Borg Camlanns. Make sure you're prepared. Meet us on the roof.

A short email, but it gets the point across. I guess Alisa did give me a warning about the mission. Two Borg Camlanns? I'm not really equipped for that. I will do a standard amount of damage, but it would be a lot easier to deal with them if my attacks did a lot more damage. There's no time to change it now though. Wait, there's something else included in the email.

P.S. Congratulations!

I have no idea what she means by that, and I guess I won't until I ask Alisa. Now isn't the time though. I look back to the group. Alisa isn't impressed at my cluelessness. Kota seems just like me; clueless; probably not for the same reason though. Robin just looks towards me; not saying anything. Her demeanour makes it seem as though something is wrong. Is it because they've been waiting for me on the roof and I never turned up? I'd understand having the silent treatment or something like that for a while, but she seems upset.

"I was just double checking I had everything." I comment before switching off the terminal. "I just need to pick up my Arc and then I'm all set." I give them a smile.

"It's already on the helicopter. Come on, Jackal! If we don't hurry up, the Aragami will have moved!" Alisa stomps her foot as she expresses her impatience with a frown on her face. She turns around and I follow her out of the room. Kota and Robin make way for Alisa to take the lead before following her. I follow behind them. Not one of them says a word until we're on the roof.

"So what were you doing on your terminal?" Kota slows his pace down before he asks me. The two girls of the group had walked further ahead, not slowing their pace. I notice Robin turn her head to us. Probably wondering why Kota slowed down. She turns her head back as Alisa begins talking to her, but not before I catch the same sadness in her eyes. I'll have to talk to her about that.

"Watching anime. Isn't is obvious?"

"I thought as much." He places his arms behind his head. I can hear the smile in his voice. "Was it Bugarally?"

"No, actually." I can feel Kota's stare as we meet the girls at the helicopter. "It was Saiki Kusuo."

"I didn't realise that one was on there. I haven't watched it yet." He speaks, looking up at the sky. He must be thinking about how he will watch it. "Don't give me any spoilers! Wait until I've watched it!" He quickly says, all attention on me.

"What are you talking about?" Alisa smacks Kota's head. I noticed this a while ago, but she really likes hitting him.

"Ow! Do you have to hit me every time?" He rubs his head in pain. I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end of Alisa's fist. She hasn't hit me though. Maybe she doesn't feel like we're good enough friends for physical abuse. Not that I mind; it means I can avoid being hit. I do feel sorry for Kota though. Alisa gets on the helicopter, then Robin.

"She does this all the time, man." Kota rubs his head before getting on the helicopter. I follow him onto it and sit down in the only available seat, next to Alisa. I guess Kota just didn't want to risk getting hit again but now I can't talk to Robin. She still looks quite sad. Has nobody else noticed yet? Surely Alisa should; she's our captain. Isn't it the captain's responsibility to check everyone's welfare? Has she not noticed that Robin seems depressed? I look towards Alisa. She's staring out of the window! Really? With a sigh, I think about asking Robin myself. I would have done so earlier but I was scared in case it was something she couldn't tell Alisa and Kota about. That is still a possibility. If that's the case, then I'd better not ask her yet. I'm sure we'll have time after the mission, I'll ask her then; and given the seating arrangements, I wouldn't be able to ask her now even if I wanted to.

"What's the plan then?" I turn my head to Alisa as I ask and see her already in thinking mode.

"Kota should definitely back us up since he can't change God Arc forms." She begins, telling us what I'm sure we already knew.

"That makes sense." Robin speaks up with an acknowledging tone. She probably only spoke up so that Alisa wouldn't feel weird for pointing out the obvious.

"Hmm… None of us have crushing weapons, so we can't just use guerrilla warfare. The best chance we have is to take them out one at a time; making sure to stun them a lot and make them stumble." Alisa theorises.

"That way we can avoid getting hit." Kota finishes for Alisa.

"Where should we aim for though?" Robin asks a question that Alisa failed to address in her plan.

"To make them stumble, we should aim for the front legs but maybe we should aim for the tail first. That's definitely the most dangerous part of Borg Camlanns. Without their tails, they should be pretty easy to beat."

"So we stun them and make them stumble, then we aim for the tails?" I simplify Alisa's plan and am met with a smile and a nod of the head from Alisa. Instantly, silence takes over in the helicopter. It's not an uncomfortable silence though, we're all just preparing for the upcoming battle.

"Okay guys, we've got to stick together." Alisa comments, leading the pack through the complexities of the Sunken Grid. It should be pretty easy to separate the Borg Camlanns here if we need to. Plus, these Aragami don't have particularly good hearing so there's only a small risk of the other Borg Camlann hearing us while we destroy one of them. Robin and Kota follow behind her leaving me to be the last person in this diamond shape formation. Alisa said that me being last was to avoid any sneak attacks on Kota, our long-range attacker. Not that I was against being the last one in the formation, it means I can see where all of my team is at the same time. That's a big advantage. "Shhh" Alisa puts a finger to her lips as she says this before signalling us to halt as there is something around the corner. Alisa pokes her head around the corner. She holds her index and middle finger up in the air.

"Two of them." I whisper to myself. We're going to need to find a way to split them up.

"Any ideas then?" Robin enquires with a whisper.

"We could try shooting some bullets to make noise further up." I suggest but Robin quickly shoots the idea down.

"Then both of them would follow the sound. We could try shooting one of them with a very small bullet so the blast radius would only hit one of them." Robin suggests instead.

"Unless the bullet is very weak, it will cry out at the surprise attack. If it is weak though, it might not feel it. I think we should just settle here until one of them leaves." Alisa refutes Robin's idea in favour of her own.

"It might work. We don't know how long they'll be here though." Kota points out a flaw in her plan.

"It's the safest option. We'll wait it out." It looks like Alisa's chosen our course of action. "We're in no hurry, after all."

"Phew. One more left." I wipe the sweat from my forehead with my arm. The Borg Camlann that lies defeated before us had given us more than a run for our money. Even while we had all four of us ganging up against it. It felt a lot stronger than other Borg Camlanns. It took a solid five minutes to defeat it. We'd usually be able to defeat it a lot quicker. Five minutes is about the same amount of time you'd expect one person to defeat it. It even had a new attack; instead of spinning its tail around one, it did it multiple times. Regardless, now it's time to kill the other one.

"I'm picking up multiple Kongou energy signatures in your area." Hibari communicates to us in her business-like tone.

"What about the Borg Camlann?" I ask her. We'll definitely be able to handle a few Kongous but we won't want that Borg Camlann to get away.

"I'm not picking it up on any of the scanners. It must be long gone by now." I grumble at Hibari's response.

"How close are they, Hibari?" Alisa focuses us on the new task.

"They'll be there any second now!" With Hibari's words, I restock on my Oracle Points, preparing to fire a few bullets at the Kongous before I charge in with my scythe. "They're a lot faster than other Kongou!" Just a few seconds after she said that, the three Kongous enter our line of sight. Or rather, they leap into it; jumping down from the large abandoned power grid building in the middle of the area. The ground shakes as they land, and without even a second to think, they start attacking. I narrowly avoid an intense ball of wind being shot in my direction.

"Kota! Fall back and attack from afar!" Alisa commands while fighting one of the Kongous. Robin takes another one while I take the last one. I assume Alisa wants Kota to help with all of the Kongous.

"You got it!" He starts running towards a ledge but my Kongou jumps into the way.

"Keep going!" I shout as he passes the Kongou, evading a swinging arm attack that was heading towards him. I launch a couple of mortars into its face before switching to my Scythe, slashing an arm that it swings at me. Suddenly, the Kongou tenses before shaking its body slightly. I deploy my shield, unsure exactly of what it's doing.

"Gah!" I'm lucky to have deployed my shield in time as three intense, large balls of wind force me back at least ten metres. I drop my shield and go to run at the Kongou only for it to roll towards me at an abnormal speed. I only just manage to dodge by jumping to the ground. I don't have time to lie around though as the beast heads towards me for round two. I avoid this rolling attack easily by leaping to the side. Strangely though, the beast stops only one metre away from me. I instantly go on the attack; slashing at its tail numerous times until it becomes unbound.

"I'm detecting two more Aragami in the area. ETA 5 minutes." Hibari announces and I fight the urge to swear.

"Where are they all coming from?!" I speak instead in an exhausted tone. "And how do they know we're here?!" I sweep the Kongou off of its feet and plunge my scythe right into its chest; destroying its core in one massive swing. I don't let myself rest though as I run towards the Kongou that Robin is battling.

"We're going to need to retreat! There's too much for just the four of us!" Kota shouts in a fearful tone although he doesn't let up on the shooting. One of his bullets narrowly misses Robin and hits the Kongou. It's clear that he's beginning to panic.

"Hibari! Send a helicopter!" Alisa shouts through her earpiece and microphone, agreeing with Kota to make a tactical retreat.

"I've already sent one out. It should be there in 15 minutes."

"15 minutes?!" A weary Robin shouts as she finishes off her Kongou with a blow to the face. I let Robin extract its core as I rush to help Alisa. Before I get there though, she has already delivered her finishing attack and is extracting the beast's core.

"That means we're going to need to fight these next two Aragami before we can escape. Let's just hope that no more will come after us." Alisa confirms our next steps. "We've got a few minutes to rest. Heal up and don't let your guard down." I take the opportunity to take a couple of restore pills and feel myself gaining more energy as I do so. "Hibari, what are the two additional energy signatures?"

"There's one large energy signature and one small energy signature. The smaller one is probably an Ogretail. I don't know what the larger one is. Be cautious."

"Thanks, Hibari. How far away is the helicopter?" Alisa enquires impatiently.

"Still about 15 minutes away. Maybe you should ask again after you've defeated these two Aragami. They should be there very soon. They're coming from the same direction that the Kongous came from." Hibari informs us and the four of us take our stances; Kota running to a ledge a reasonable distance from us to provide backup.

One minute later, we see the Aragami heading towards us. It has a brown colouration as well as a couple of missile pods. This isn't going to be an easy fight but with the four of us attacking it, it should be pretty easy. The small Aragami can be easily dealt with which just leaves this Quadriga as our final target for the day. I feel pretty good about this. Smiling, I turn towards Robin,

"We've got this!"

"Y-Yeah…" She continues staring towards the beast that is yet to see us.

"It shouldn't be a problem. I'm glad it isn't anything more difficult like a Garuda or something." Alisa smiles as she speaks, stretching her shoulders as well, the two of us being very confident in this fight.

"Mhm." An unenthusiastic response from Robin brings my attention back to her.

"You okay, Robin. You don't seem very confident." I walk closer towards her. At my words, Alisa turns her head towards us.

"Is something up?" Kota speaks through our earpieces.

"Robin?" I place a hand on her shoulder. She suddenly stiffens.

"Guys, it's heading towards you!" Kota shouts and I look towards where we last saw the Quadriga. I'm confident that we can beat it but I want to know why Robin looks as though she's seen a ghost. I feel my hand leave her shoulder but I'm not the one to remove it.

"Hey, Robin!" I shout as the girl sprints away from the battle. "What are you doing?!"

"Huh?" Alisa's just as surprised as me about Robin suddenly running away from the fight. "Kota, go after her!" She locks eyes with Kota as she speaks who I assume gives her a nod or some sort of signal telling her that he's going to comply.

"Why him?!" I don't like that decision. Robin is mine. I should be the one to look after her. I should be the one to support her during her hardships.

"I can't handle a Quadriga by myself. We need at least two melee attackers." Alisa reasons before steeling herself for the battle. Reluctantly, I prepare myself as well. I take a deep breath to temporarily clear my mind of Robin before advancing forward; sprinting at the beast that has just deployed several missiles. They're easy to dodge with a single leap upwards and the two of us continue charging towards the beast. As we approach it, I realise that we don't have a plan.

"We need to stop it from launching missiles. We should target the pods on its back and the front armour." I tell Alisa before running between the Aragami's front legs and landing a good few swings on the beast.

"Don't be so reckless!" Alisa shouts in a worried voice and I immediately retreat. It wouldn't do any good to get injured while under the Quadriga, especially since it is known for charging towards enemies. "We'll get the missile pods first." She speaks as she jumps up to one of the and lands a powerful swing. Instead of following suit, I change my Arc to Gun Form and fire several mortars at the one that Alisa isn't targeting. I see the Aragami's legs bending and quickly give a warning to Alisa.

"It's jumping!" It would kill us instantly if we were under the monster while it jumped. No shield could save somebody from the force of gravity. I'm glad I moved when I did. I judge it's effective radius and wait just outside of it, preparing my God Arc to devour part of the Aragami. When it lands, it hits nobody. The shockwave of its force against the earth isn't enough to take me off of my feet as plunge my Arc into the Quadriga's leg. I backstep straight after doing so and aim my Arc at Alisa, firing the Aragami bullet towards her Arc and giving her a temporary burst of power. I switch back to Melee Form and unload a barrage of slashing and sweeping attacks at the beast's leg.

"Fire wall!" Alisa shouts and I'm forced to retreat further back and only just avoid a torrent of fire swirling around the beast. Since the two of us are on different sides of the monster, the large missile it fires ahead of it misses us. Thankfully, the barrage of attacks on its leg has filled my OP meter again which I use to fire at the missile pod I previously targeted. It breaks after the last mortar hits it and the Aragami roars in pain. I give it little time to recover as I repeatedly hack away at the exposed area.

It doesn't take much longer to kill it. Alisa was right though. It was easier with the two of us rather than just having the one melee attacker. As soon as it drops, and Alisa removes the core, we run in the same direction that Robin ran in.

"Any idea what would make her run off like that?" She asks through panting.

"None at all but I noticed that something was wrong before the mission. I wonder if the same thing is bugging her but I have no idea what a Quadriga has to do with any of it." I reply through my own panting.

"Guys…" I hear Kota through my earpiece sounding very exhausted, almost as though he's struggling to stay awake. "You'd better come quickly or else we're going to die."

"Don't say things like tha-" Alisa reprimands but in a heavily worried voice, she is interrupted though.

"Tsuchinoko" It only takes one word for the two of us to break into a sprint.

When we arrive on the scene, we notice that Kota's already flat on his stomach; knocked out. Robin appears to be on her last limbs and the Tsuchinoko is about to deliver the finishing blow. We try to run and help her but the Aragami's attack sends her flying into a wall. She doesn't get back up. I go to sprint to her side however Alisa's arm around my waist stops me. Just as I feel like tearing away from her grip, I see an electrical scale being thrown by me. If I had been hit by that directly, it probably would have cut me in half, judging by its velocity.

"She'll be fine. We won't be if you can't focus though." She speaks sharply, getting the message across. I take another deep breath to calm myself. I deploy my shield and Alisa does the same to avoid a barrage of scales being thrown towards us. "We need to make a tactical retreat! Where's that helicopter?!" Alisa shouts. She knows that we only barely escaped with our lives the last time we fought the Tsuchinoko and our God Arcs aren't very effective against it. Robin was able to damage it previously by throwing its own electrical scale at its head. With two of our team members down though, it's probably going to be impossible to kill it.

"We can't risk having the helicopter come and get us. We need to go to it." I inform her. I can perfectly remember what happened the last time I was in a helicopter and the Tsuchinoko was nearby. It ended up crash landing due to it attacking the helicopter. That was also our first meeting with the Aragami. "And we'll need to lose this guy." I continue while holding up my shield and walking towards the beast.

"Carry Robin and Kota away from here." Alisa commands.

"I can't do that. You'll be against that thing by yourself!" I attempt to reason with her. She plans on sacrificing her own welfare for the safety of her team mates. There's no way I can let her go through with that!

"I won't be by myself. You can rush to help me after you've carried them away." She reasons. I'm stuck in a dilemma. I can either comply with Alisa's plan; saving two team mates while leaving one to fend for themselves or I can help Alisa now at the expense of Kota and Robin being subjected to attacks from the Aragami. I grit my teeth in frustration. There's no choice really.

"Damn it!" I grumble before sprinting towards Kota. He'll be the hardest to carry, so I'll need more energy to move him. I work my arms under him and get him onto my shoulders. Thankfully, he's carry his own God Arc and it doesn't look as though his grip will soften and release it. I grunt as I force legs to carry the two of us forward. Nevertheless, I force myself to speed up, my legs almost crumble under the pressure but I continue anyway.

After a few minutes, I manage to get Kota to a safe spot; behind a large rock near an open clearing. I quickly communicate with Hibari that this should be the spot where the pilot lands. She says that she will send the coordinates to the pilot. With that being communicated, I run back to get Robin. I can only hope that Alisa is holding her own against the beast.

I mustn't have hoped hard enough as Alisa can barely manage to stand. She uses her God Arc to keep herself upright. It's not enough though.

"I'm sorry, Robin, Jackal." Alisa manages to speak as she looks towards the monster before falling to the ground in an unmoving heap. I could hear the pain in Alisa's voice but that's not what surprises me. It's the position of the Tsuchinoko that surprises me. It stands one metre away from Robin, hovering over her and ready to deliver a killing strike. I know why Alisa apologised. She failed in protecting Robin. And that makes my blood boil. My teeth grid against each other and I swear I can taste blood. My eyes focus on the Aragami before me and the girl by its feet. Everything else doesn't matter now.

"GRRAAAA!" I speed towards the Aragami, my angered shout makes it aware of my presence and it launches numerous electrical scales. I use my Arc to bat them away with a care and without breaking a sweat. A swing my scythe toward the beast, making sure to curl it away from the semi-conscious girl at my feet. I can hear Robin shuffling around. It's the least of my concerns at the minute; especially since the I can see a clear mark where I've inflicted damage to the beast. It screams in pain and I smile in triumph. It can be defeated!

"HAHAHAHA!" I continue slashing at the monster as it screams, sparks fly from it every time my scythe hits. I hear Hibari through my earpiece but I don't care. I'm having the time of my life! I slash the bastard once more before I see it prepare an attack. I'm ready for it though and deploy my shield. It stops me taking damage from the front but since it's an area of effect attack I take damage from behind. The electricity rises up my leg but they feel like little jolts of static electricity.

"HAHAHAHA! IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?!" I convert my Arc to Gun Form and fire a few mortars at its body. They leave very visible blood marks on the beast and I continue to slash at its chest. The blood pumps through my veins as every hit against the beast feels like I'm in heaven. I feel so good that I completely ignore the fact that the Tsuchinoko is making its move. I feel its sharp jaws clamp down on each of my shoulders. Due to the adrenaline though, it isn't as painful as it should be. In fact, it gives me the opportunity to do this!

"YOU'RE FINISHED!" I shout in utter delight as I break free from its grip on my shoulders and manage to slice the monster down the middle of its two heads. It's blood spurts all over but it doesn't phase me as I strike the same spot again, almost like I'm cutting down a tree. After ten more solid hits, I back off and admire my work. The sickening smile on my face must make me look crazy but I'm thoroughly enjoying this massacre. I don't want it to stop!

"Are you finished? BECAUSE I SURE AS HELL AIN'T!" I charge at the almost lifeless corpse of the monster and hack off each of its appendages. Its head go first and then its tail. Then I keep slashing at its chest until I see something interesting. "Is this your core? I prepare my Arc to bite the core whole. I'll admit that its blue, green and yellow combination is very fascinating, but I'd much rather let my Arc devour it than admire it's prettiness. As soon as I've let my arc devour its core, it stops moving completely. That's when I hear a thud from behind me. I turn around and see a Borg Camlann.

"AH, YOU CALLED IN SOME BACKUP?! WELL HEY, THE MORE THE MERRIER!"