[center][h2][color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi Hasegawa[/color][/h2]
Paved Wilderness- North-Northeastern Road
Lvl 9 [color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi[/color] (9/90) -> Lvl 9 (12/90) 
Word count: 1,759 words [/center]



Getting a ride from Sectonia was…an experience. It wasn’t a terrible experience at all, and with Blazermate (and Juri, if she deigned to help) nearby, they’d be well-equipped if it came down to battle. For a while, the ride towards the crash site was fairly uneventful. Scrublands as far as the eye could see, filled with tall, yellow grasses and cacti. It reminded him of stories he’d heard of the Great Plains of America, hundreds of miles of wide-open space where scenes like this played out daily. While he certainly didn’t hate living in Japan, he would’ve loved to see it. This was a good substitute, he supposed.

Eventually, signs of civilization emerged, shacks and stores, an inn and a cafe. They flew past them all, intent on reaching their goal as quickly as possible. Not too long after the last shack was in their proverbial rear-view mirror, the terrain started to become more hostile. Plumes of gas emerged from bogs, and the ground became rockier and more solid. 

Eventually, the group came around a bend, and before them was a massive landship engaged in battle. Its size reminded Zenkichi more of a naval vessel than a land vehicle, but it sped along the ground at a surprisingly fast pace nonetheless, all the while under attack by alien creatures. Zenkichi pointed at the attackers, calling out to Sectonia, [color=BFBFBF]”Oh jeez, we oughta give those guys a hand. They might be able to give us a lift, too.”[/color] He added, in case Sectonia was of a more practical mindset. 

Once she slowed down enough for him to safely dismount, Zenkichi hit the ground running, his Phantom Thief attire appearing on him as he watched the Choppers chase around the Mammoth, soon setting their sights on the smaller vehicles that deployed from within the landship. Their explosive shots tore up the ground as they rode around, and as one turned to realign its guns with its target, Zenkichi struck. He raised his revolvers as the Chopper bled off its momentum into its turn, firing one after the other into the side and back of the Locust pilot. Its initial reaction was a panicked jerking of the controls which led to a swiftly-corrected spinout, but the blood pouring from its side gave away its dilemma. 

After a moment, the Chopper turned for Zenkichi, who quickly stowed his revolvers for Ragnell, throwing himself aside as the massive wheels of the vehicle nearly churned him into paste. He pushed off the ground, swinging the holy blade at the pilot, and the second beam of light connected, sending it into another tailspin. The undersized rear where the pilot sat was an obvious weak point, and while the oversized, armored wheels and forward-mounted guns were an obvious counter to that weak point, they weren’t enough to make the thing unstoppable by any means. 

By the time the pilot got the Chopper under control again, Zenkichi had gotten close enough to fire a few more blasts from Ragnell, and a moment later, he was close enough to tackle the Locust right off the vehicle. Stronger than it looked, even bloody and battered from gunshots and holy energy blasts, the Locust pilot drew a [url=https://i.imgur.com/xBwwEdR.png]brutal revolver[/url] and fired, striking Zenkichi in the gut. Staggered by the surprise blow, Zenkichi stumbled a step back, allowing the Locust pilot to close the gap and hit him in the face with the butt of its pistol, the loud smack of the metal on his skull ringing in his ears. As the Locust aimed to fire again, Zenkichi rallied and threw Ragnell into the air, evading the shot with Aether. As he came down, he could feel the vitality he regained from the blow, even as the follow up launched the Locust back, its formidable hide entirely ignored by the second blow. 

It weakly raised its arm into the air, before the limb dropped limp as it dissolved into ash. Zenkichi quickly scooped up the humanoid creature’s Spirit, a quick flash of guilt running through him, before he shook it off and jumped on the Chopper. The controls were alien, but far from overly complex, so after a few moments of jerking around with the few things there we to manipulate, the vehicle got going again. He jerked forward in the strange hovorbike, before correcting his inputs and slowing to a steady pace, turning towards the hoversled that Armstrong had given a pummeling. Once the Striker had dissipated, it had returned to attacking the LAVs that had come from the Mammoth, leaving its back open to Zenkichi.

He carefully crept up on them, careful not to touch the very obviously-marked firing button. Whatever made this vehicle, did so with little estimation for its rider’s intelligence, which he appreciated right now. Having to parse some alien language would have been annoying. Once he got a good shot on the pilot of the sled, he pressed down the button, a salvo of explosive rounds slamming into the hoversled and its pilot, though most went slightly off-course due to a combination of his momentum and the recoil throwing his aim off in the unfamiliar vehicle.

He heard the Locust bandits grunting and yelling before the sled turned around, and Zenkichi threw it into reverse, keeping the massive wheels between him and his enemy as he continued firing, explosive rounds peppering the hull of the other vehicle. [color=BFBFBF]”Could use a hand over here!”[/color] He called out, turning a little out of the way to try and dodge a few shots, but the turret operator was quick to pivot his aim, a few plasma bolts hitting him and the ground around him, causing Zenkichi to hiss in pain and jerk his arm, sending him into a short tailspin. 

While the unpredictable maneuver saved him from further shots for a moment, it also left him facing the wrong way. The Prowler beared down on him, the turret ominously turning as the Locust grunted victoriously. Then, a line of sword crashed down directly in front of it, causing the forward momentum of the vehicle to suddenly become upward momentum as the lopsided vehicle tried to keep going forward but couldn’t. It flipped over in the air, landing on its top and bouncing, before rolling to a slow stop, pinning the Locust on the turret to the ground as the pilot and side passengers scrambled to get out from under the vehicle.

Zenkichi angled his Chopper to face them, holding down the fire button and using short taps of the controls to keep his aim relatively on point, the explosive cannons quickly mulching two of the Locust bandits, leaving behind only their ash and Spirits. The third managed to get enough distance that it could raise its assault rifle and fire off a few bursts of high-caliber shots at him, but the oversized wheels of the Chopper blocked all but a few rounds, which pinged off the sides or landed in the hard dirt behind him. Zenkichi turned his aim on the Locust, continuing to fire, when one of the Bloodmounts crashed into his vehicle, sending it careening out of control in a tailspin. 

Dazed, Zenkichi grunted as a burst of fire from the surviving Locust found its mark, crashing into his shoulder and breaking his focus. He let go of the Chopper’s controls, abandoning the vehicle and dodging a swipe of the Bloodmount’s claws, summoning his revolvers. He only had a few shots left in each, but he quickly spun to the Locust bandit and fired everything he had, only a couple of shots landing before the Bloodmount was on him again. 

Rather than flesh and scattered armor, however, its claws slammed into a massive sword, Zenkichi having favored the Greatsword Sandalphon had bought him over Ragnell. Its size and power made it somewhat better as a shield, even if its attacks came slower. He pivoted and stepped backwards, letting the Bloodmount push forward and lose its balance as it lunged towards where he had been a moment ago, leaving an opening for the massive lump of iron to cave its spine in. The Bloodmount proved tougher than that, however, and lashed out with a kick pushing Zenkichi back at the surprising force.

Remembering how quickly the earlier Locust fell to Aether, Zenkichi repeated the move, hurling his oversized Greatsword into the air and coming down on the Bloodmount like a meteor, healing a bit from the attack and shredding through its formidable hide with the second. It wasn’t enough to finish the mount off, but it had been weakened noticeably. Another lunging claw swipe was blocked with a fair amount of ease, and Zenkichi swung his sword, crushing one of the monster’s claws beneath its weight and breaking the bone. It tried to rise, then collapsed as the accumulated damage overwhelmed it, dissolving into ash. Zenkichi grabbed the thing’s Spirit, then looked to the overturned Prowler, where a group of Sectonia’s Antlers had eviscerated the last two Locust, one of which had returned to help its comrade escape being pinned beneath the vehicle while Zenkichi was busy with the Bloodmount. Nother pang of guilt slammed into Zenkichi at the empathetic action, but he sighed. Nobody said things would always be easy, and if these things were this intelligent, then they had chosen a life of banditry. And antisocial behavior like that was bound to earn you enemies in a world like this. They’d be back eventually, and the cycle would repeat anew.

Shoving off the existential dread of that, he approached the Antlions to offer his thanks and work with them to right the Prowler, the minions proving to be intelligent enough to offer their aid. He left the vehicle as it was, not wanting to risk friendly fire now that the battle was calming down more, the LAVs having made short work of the majority of the bandits while he and Sectonia had fought off the rest, with Blazermate’s support. Speaking of which, he sighed as he felt her medibeam land on him, giving the robot girl a thumb’s up. He’d been moving around a bit too much on the Chopper for her to have been able to safely follow before, even with the speed matching the healing gun gave. Besides, with his own natural bulk and self-healing, he was more than fine to fight a few grunts. It was Sectonia and the soldiers on the Mammoth who needed the most help, with the Queen being such a large target and the soldiers being fairly bog-standard human.