.
// CH. 2
< L O A D I N G S Y S T E M >
"Mom?! Where are you?!" Moriko frantically called, bursting out of the apartment and ruining part of the doorframe. Then she forced herself to calm down, as people openly stared at the mech and the mess she had made. Their faces flickered with panic and they either froze in place or rushed inside somewhere. Moriko watched them and realized she was overreacting; maybe her Mother had just walked off to find her and bring her home. She'd done that a few times before. Moriko took a deep breath and rode the mech back towards the park, keeping an eye out for her Mom. She also tried to figure out how she was going to explain the mess she'd made of the apartment... and how her Mother was going to pay for it since Moriko was currently without a job. She groaned. She was just going to have to find a job soon--
*BAM* -- something hit the ground beside the mech Moriko was riding, and as she turned to see what it was she started to lose her balance. *BAM* another one hit the ground on her other side. Police cars and military vehicles left the cover of side streets to surround Moriko, and three other mechs dropped down as support in front and to either side of her.
"You, in the mech. Surrender peacefully and we can make a deal. You don't have to be in trouble." A voice spoke into a megaphone. He sounded tired.
"Uh... isn't this a little overboard?? I swear I was gonna--"
*BAM* Right between her feet this time, from the mech directly in front of her.
"Uh, I-I was gonna report it... I just was bringing it--"
*BAM* This one hit the mech's ankle.
"Ow!! I'm serious!!" Moriko exclaimed, shocked. At least the mech she was in had absorbed most of the impact. Although when the third mech raised his gun, Moriko instinctively raised her arms to her head and crouched. But this only made the other mechs open fire on her, until the tired voice cut through the sound of mech ammo.
"Stop, stop! For the love of God, stop shooting!! It's just a girl in there." The voice was saying.
The mechs stopped shooting, but they kept their guns facing her. The mech to her left opened his mic to speak. "With all due respect, sir, there's no way 'just a girl' can steal a mech from the military."
"I didn't!! I swear I didn't!!" Moriko's voice answered, pleading, as she cowered in her mech on the street. "It was just lying there, in the forest!"
"What forest?" The tired voice asked. "If you surrender quietly we can talk about all of this and probably just let you go with a slap on the wrist. No harm done."
*BAM BAM BAM* She didn't feel anything. She looked around for a moment. This time the mech ammo wasn't aimed at her; it was aimed at the other mechs and the police vehicles, and green mechs showed up - gang mechs, by the look of them. Four, five, six...
*BAM BAM*
This wasn't as cool as on TV. She crouched on the ground again.
*BAM, BAM BAM BAM*
When it was on TV, you were safe. In reality, it was scary even if your mech wasn't the one being hit.
*BAAAM BAM BAM*
A noise barely able to be heard over the sound of mech ammo hitting their targets. It was a voice? And she was being lifted.
"--hear me?! RUN! We'll find you later!" The voice yelled, using one mech arm to raise her into a standing position before propelling her away from the line of fire.
"Uh, okay!" She replied, running towards the park. She hadn't forgotten her Mom. And she wanted to make sure now, more than ever, that her Mother was safe.
She ran into the park. "Mom?" she called; she could still hear the fight, it hadn't ended yet. "Mom??" Moriko refused to let herself panic this time; she needed to make sure she could search throughly for her Mother. And that required a clear and calm mind. She searched the park for five minutes, then ten, when she heard a tree break. That couldn't be good.
Moriko turned around and saw a gun pointed at her; this one was larger than the other ones she'd seen today. She was about to greet them when she really saw what the mech looked like: orange, black and green. This one was definitely a gang mech, and she knew which one because only one of the three mech gangs had been on the news recently. The Cobra Gang. And this was the King mech, reportedly ridden by the son of the Cobra Gang's leader. Moriko stood there quietly.
"Dismount." A male voice commanded coldly.
"Uh, I can't..." Moriko replied nervously.
"Dismount." The voice spoke again, exactly the same as before.
"I don't know how..."
The mech's gun shot at her but missed. Was that on purpose? Then she heard a thud. Moriko turned to look, and there was her Mother. On the ground.
"MOM!!" Moriko screamed. She bent down to check on her Mother and got shot in the back.
"Dismount. Now." The voice ordered. "Or I'll kill you both."
"I can! It wasn't in the instructions--" Two bullets hit her back and one near her before abruptly ceasing.
"You can't?" The voice asked flatly, still cold. "Then I'll tear it from you."
"That's fine as long as--"
"And then I'll kill you both. Prepare to die."
"I don't think that's--"
The gang mech grabbed her and started trying to peel her mech apart. No, she thought... she couldn't let her or her Mother die this way. She threw a punch underneath his mech's chin, then pushed him away. "No!-"
"You almost had me fooled..." he said, this time with anger in his voice. At least it sounded human that way. But then he raised his gun at her Mother's body on the ground; she shielded her Mother. This mech didn't come with a gun, apparently, so she couldn't fight back. Dents were appearing in her mech's front, and it hurt a lot, until the gang mech was suddenly dragged backwards.
Moriko froze in place for a moment, then turned and scooped up her Mother's body and ran away. Friend or foe, didn't matter. She was going to take her Mother to a hospital right away, and then she was going to leave so the people chasing her would actually chase her and hopefully leave her Mother alone.
At least, that was the plan, until two other mechs showed up in front of her, guns raised. The mechs from earlier, the good ones.
"Drop the prisoner." One of them said.
"What?"
"Drop her. Now!" The other one barked.
"O-okay, but why is my Mother your--" Moriko set her Mother down.
"Silence!" One of the mechs ordered. "Now stand back with your hands behind your head."
Moriko backed away and raised her arms. "Okay but she really needs--"
"I said SILENCE!" The voice yelled. Well, that didn't sound professional... also... they weren't standing like the military mechs on TV....
"So, which unit are you guys from?" She asked quietly, and got shot for it. Her mech shut down. Crap. Must have been an EMP blast.
"Watch it, stupid!" The voice yelled. And then Moriko realized that these weren't the mechs from earlier, or they weren't the riders from earlier.
"It wasn't me, dude!" Another voice replied.
They bickered back and forth for the next few minutes. Moriko's mech slowly turned back on, and when she could see again, she noticed two important things:
One, her Mother was missing again.
And two, the other two mechs couldn't see, yet.
Moriko quickly stood in her mech, and ran again. She had to find her Mom. She also needed to pee.