Chapter 13


Skuld made her way over to her sisters, her eyes fixed on the huge mecha 
and wolf towering above her. Urd and Belldandy had edged away from Loki 
during the confusion, and Hel seemed to be ignoring everyone, simply 
standing in shadow, an enigmatic smile on the living half of her face.

"Oneesama, Urd, are you OK??"

Urd nodded, and Belldandy tried to smile in reassurance, almost managing 
it.

"For the moment. Until Fenris destroys that robot."

Skuld scowled at Urd for an instant, then sighed. For once, Urd was 
probably correct, no human-constructed mecha could hope to stand up for 
long against Fenris's power.

Belldandy looked up, her face filling with concern.
"They're going to fight..."

Urd chuckled ironically.
"You think they're going to dance, Belldandy? Of course they're going to 
fight!"

"But... all the people! If those two fight here, how many innocent 
bystanders will they kill?"

Urd frowned; as usual, she hadn't been thinking past the immediate 
moment of hoping that the giant robot could at least get a few good hits 
on Fenris before it was destroyed.

"Urd, Skuld, we have to try and help them!"

Urd nodded, stepping clear of her sisters as her arms slowly rose above 
her head.

"I have an idea. Lets make them run, at least that way most of them will 
get clear"

Her voice deepened as she spoke, as she started to chant, a soft green 
radiance gathering about her hands, lighting her with an eerie glow. 
Then she made a throwing gesture, releasing it, as it broke into shards 
of pale green light that vanished into the air about her. The three felt 
a wave of irrational fear sweep over them for a moment before they 
automatically blocked the spell out, its mindless message urging them to 
run, to get away, anywhere other then here.

Urd looked up at where the two giants were standing facing each other.

"I hope that will save some of them. It's all we have the time for, I 
think they are about to begin..."

************************************************************************

I felt Iczer-2 'speak' to me.
* This beast - if we don't stop it, was that girl right that this world 
would be destroyed? *

I nodded automatically, despite the fact that she couldn't see me. I 
didn't know how she was communicating, so I simply tried to talk back. 
It seemed to work, anyway.
* Yes. This world, and more. Why? *

I felt her sigh in my head, and her sadness wrapped around me for a 
moment.
* Because if we fight it here, in this city, many people will die. But 
we have no choice; if we don't, they will die anyway... so... *

I tried to project a feeling of comfort, not having any idea if I could, 
or if it would work, but having to so something. It seemed to help, I 
felt her sadness ease a little.

* I'm sorry, I shouldn't have put you in this position *
* No, it has to be done. But after - I will make the one responsible pay 
for this *

I hoped she meant Loki, not me.

We looked across at the wolf. It's tail was twitching slowly, as it 
crouched, muscles bunching as it prepared to spring. With part of me I 
could see the cables surrounding me, small pulses of soft blue light 
travelling along them in time with my heartbeat. I could feel Iczer-2's 
tenseness as Sigma moved into a combat stance.

* Here it comes *

************************************************************************

With a roar, the wolf leapt straight at us. Sigma lunged out, its arms 
catching him, stopping him from closing his jaws upon us and pushing him 
aside, but the incredible momentum of his body shoved us back, sending 
us staggering through buildings and skyscrapers as we tried to remain 
upright. Fenris fell on his feet, and grinned up at us again, a lupine 
grin on his face, rather giving the impression that he like to play with 
his toys before eating them.

He leapt at us again, and this time Sigma's fist caught him, impacting 
with a ringing crash that made the huge mech shudder, sending the cables 
holding me twisting as we slammed him down again. Again, he didn't seen 
too discommoded.

* He doesn't seem too vulnerable to physical force. Let's try something 
else *

************************************************************************

Skuld watched as the mech slammed Fenris aside, and sighed. While the 
mech was a wonderful display of massive mechanism in action, no purely 
physical force could hurt Fenris. She wished she could have warned them 
of that, now they'd probably die trying to do the impossible; still, at 
least Fenris would give them a relatively clean death compared to Loki, 
so maybe it was for the best. It was a shame, though, it was such a 
beautiful mecha...

She watched as Fenris got to his feet again, the mech standing, hands 
clasped in front of it, almost as if concentrating. A blue glow started 
to build around its hands, brightening into a glowing sapphire sphere as 
the hands parted to leave the ball of energy hanging between the, 
scintillating as it grew brighter and brighter.

"Oh wow, its got energy weapons too!"

Fenris crouched, eyes slitted against the glow, then again leapt for 
Sigma's throat. This time, however, he didn't make contact. As he left 
the ground, the sphere of radiance shattered, sending a titanic beam of 
energy directly into him, a coruscating wave of destruction a 100 feet 
wide, that swatted him aside, leaving a glowing trail of destruction through
the city for what seemed miles before it slowly faded out.

Skuld's eyes opened wide, her mouth half open in shock...
"Oh WOW!! Now THAT'S an energy weapon!"

************************************************************************

Unfortunately, Fenris was considerably less impressed. Although part of 
his hide was glowing with heat from where he'd been hit, it didn't seem 
to be worrying him at all. Growling, this time he leapt straight for us 
without any preparation, taking us by surprise.
Even though I knew what Fenris was supposed to be, I couldn't believe 
that blast had had so little effect. That would have vaporised a 
battleship; it seemed so unfair that all it had done was to annoy him!

Sigma's arm rose to bat the wolk away again, but this time too slowly. 
With a howl of triumph, his huge jaws clamped down on Sigma's left 
shoulder, tearing and worrying at it as the metal tore with a horrendous 
thundering screech, before letting go and crouching again, grinning at 
us.

I screamed as I 'felt' those jaws tear into 'my' shoulder. It only 
lasted a moment, then it became more distant. I could still feel it at 
second hand, howeverm through Iczer-2, but it was bearable.

With a groaning crash, Sigma slumped down onto one knee, its left arm 
hanging limp, dark fluids running down the metal arm almost like blood.

************************************************************************

Skuld bit her knuckles as she looked at the fight above her. She HATED 
being helpless. Turning to her sisters, she looked at them beseechingly.

"Can't we do ANYTHING to help them?? That poor mecha can't take much 
more damage from Fenris..."

Urd shook her head quietly, one arm about Belldandy, supporting and 
comforting her.

"Nothing. Not while he has that damned amulet, we can't touch him, you 
know that."

"Oneesama... can't you contact anyone in Heaven? Or any gods here on 
Midgard? Anyone at all??"

Belldandy tried to smile at her younger sister, but the mask cracked, 
showing her despair, her fear for her sisters, Keiichi, and everything 
else she held dear.

"No-one. It was the first thing I tried, but Loki is generating so much 
interference we can't get through. And it would take too long to build 
something to cut through it. He seems to have covered everything we 
could do to stop him."

Skuld groaned, her eyes drawn back again to the mech trying to stop 
Fenris. There must be something she could do to help it, surely the 
prohibition on attacking Loki didn't hold here. Not that she had 
anything available that stood any chance of upsetting Fenris in the 
slightest. 

She glared across at Loki, who was currently ignoring them as he watched 
the fight, an entranced expression of joy on his face as he watched the 
two giant forms struggle. Then she started to dig into her pockets for 
tools and parts. Starting to assemble something with frantic haste.

"I don't care, I'm going to do SOMETHING!!!"

************************************************************************

I felt Iczer-2 groan in pain. I could feel her force it back, 
determination and price pushing it aside as she turned us slowly to face 
the grinning, panting wolf. He was getting ready to come for us again, 
and I knew that we couldn't recover fast enough, that this time he would 
go for the throat and it would all be over.

I hung limp in the tank, seeing our death approaching, as Sigma tried to 
recover itself to stand up and face Fenris again. Then I saw the 
expression of gloating anticipation on his face change, to one of 
puzzlement, as his head started to shift from side to side. I blinked, 
and suddenly realised there was a SECOND Sigma, right next to us, 
looking identical...

* what....????*
* I don't know!! It's none of my doing!! *

The giant wolf's head twisted, as he looked from side to side, clearly 
unable to tell which was us. His nostrils widened as he sniffed, but 
didn't look any less confused.
He snarled in frustration, and finally made up his mind. With a terrific 
leap, his bunched muscles send him hurtling straight at Sigma's throat. 
And straight THROUGH it, as his teeth snapped shut with a thundering 
crash on nothing, as he hurtled through the other 'mech', to crash down 
to the ground in rage and confusion!

************************************************************************

Beneath us, Skuld bounced up and down in excitement, the circumstances 
forgotten for a moment as she relished the success of her holographic 
projector.

"Yay! Skuld's Super Holographic Duplicator Projector with full 
Sensaround!!"

I looked up to see the wolf snarling, twisting around from its abortive 
jump through a fake image, buildings crumbling under its feet, as it 
snarled at us, eyes glowing with the fires of hell. I could still feel 
the burning pain in 'my' shoulder where he had bitten Sigma, as we 
struggled to 'our' feet, standing crouching as Fenris readied himself 
for another, and this time probably final, leap.

Faintly, I could hear screams and shouting; diverting my attention 
downward for a moment I saw with horror that there had been people in 
those buildings Fenris had crushed when he'd missed us. Bodies lay 
scattered and bleeding, and I felt sick as I realised it was our fault 
for not managing to stop him.

I looked up at Fenris, my pulse hammering in my head. Up to this point, 
I hadn't really hated him; feared him, yes, but he had been a sort of 
impersonal thing attacking us. But when I saw what he'd done, carelessly 
and without even considering it, to the helpless inhabitants of those 
houses, I felt the hatred growing inside of me, twisting and curdling.

With a part of me I still 'felt' Iczer-2. She was concentrating on 
Fenris, her emotion determination and desperation, knowing we didn't 
have the power to stop this thing but determined to try anyway. My hate 
and anger grew, faster, and this time I didn't do anything to try and 
restrain myself, indeed I fed the flames, feeling the heat burning 
inside me. I'd had enough. So far I'd been shunted around, used and 
treated as a puppet by Loki, but now I wasn't going to take it any more. 
This far, but no further. Loki was going to find what a stubborn bastard 
he'd gotten for his plans if it killed me to show him. There was one 
form of attack that might upset the damn wolf, if we could pull it off.

I growled, and felt the burning angry rage spread out of me, a scarlet 
glow filling the tank I was in with fire as Iczer-2's emotions wrapped 
me in a startled amazement that changed, oddly, into those of 
anticipation. I felt her mind closer and closer to mine, only a small 
fraction of me that refused to give up my personality holding back, not 
wanting to become lost in the gestalt.

************************************************************************

Skuld looked up sadly. It looked like her device had only bought the 
mecha some time. It had staggered to its feet, but didn't look in any 
better shape. It's left arm wasn't working, and it raised its right in a 
posture of defense as the wolf's snarling roar filled the sky, making 
the ruined buildings around her tremble.

Then she blinked, and her eyes widened in amazement, as glowing scarlet 
snakes of energy started to rise slowly from Sigma's body, curling about 
it and lighting the landscape with a flickering scarlet glow. The 
outstretched hand opened and closed, as the mecha straightened, seeming 
to gain fresh energy as it stood ready to meet the wolf, the energy 
curling brighter about it.

Fenris leapt, jaws gaping wider and wider, as though to swallow a 
planet, not just a robot. But this time Sigma was ready. With a rapid 
movement seemingly impossible for such a huge creation, the mech grabbed 
Fenris's upper jaw with its right hand, twisting as the foot slammed 
down on the monster's lower jaw, trapping it with mouth held open!

Skuld gaped in amazement. Where had the mecha got all that energy from?
"But it can't...!!!!"

The wolf struggled, snarling, trying to free his jaws for long enough to 
bite down upon Sigma and end the fight. The flickering scarlet flames 
outlining Sigma grew brighter and brighter, casting carmine-edged 
shadows across the ravaged ground as, slowly, Fenris's jaws were opened 
wider and wider.

Now the wolf was no longer trying to attack. His howls of frustrated 
rage turned to whimpers of fear, as he struggled to escape the grasp 
which was implacably trying to tear him apart. Suddenly, with a howl 
that spilt the sky, and a terrible cracking noise, the wolfs body 
shivered, and then _faded_, slipping past, not through, the clutching 
hand as Fenris made his escape.

Skuld gasped, realising she'd not been breathing, as she watched the 
mech's fire fade abruptly, as it sagged slowly to its knees. It's 
outline shimmered, outlined for a moment in blue fire, as it flickered 
back into whatever space it had been drawn from, leaving two figures 
huddled on the ground.

To be continued.