Pulses in the Dark, Atum Stories Pt.1

[Jeremy Hunter]

We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.

-Tom Robbins


Jeremy Hunter's feelings for Aelita had waned in the past years, her relationship with Storm souring what his heart tried to convey. Now he followed Michal into the fray, relying on two submachineguns instead of the assault rifle he had on his back - or the twin swords he had made himself, a nod off to antiquity and the fact not many people expected one to draw blades in a world of lasers and planet-crushing aliens. The shock value was the most defining trait he had utilized with his weapons, but right now, he chose the range and safety of the twin SMGs - dubbed "Deathflowers" - as his weapons. Kemwer Munitions were a wide range of weaponry, not just ammunition. These SMGs, the Reaper's Kin Assault Cannon (jokingly called a shotgun) that Michal had...Kemwer had many things to it's name, and many of them were being used to clear the Atum-Ra...to little effect.
"Colonel, Type-Twenty Four Sentry Drones are guarding the bridge."
"Relics of days gone by...the Atum-Ra hasn't been refitted with the newer weaponry." Jeremy reloaded the SMGs, then looked around. Michal had taken out a good chunk of the initial wave with his gun, and Jeremy frowned. "Micha - Admiral. Ghost Team Epsilon reports a weird door guarding the reactor. I'm suggesting you lead a science team down to take it offline. I'll link up with team Nu and assault the bridge." He spun the SMGs, his cocky side showing. "Doubt these toasters can handle both of us at once. Might as well make it fair." He waved a team over, holstering the small SMGs before unslinging the somewhat oversized assault rifle - a Hybrid Pulse variant, able to switch between full auto, three round burst, and single-shot, it was the new standard AR of the Order's Marines, being dubbed the "Seventy Sixes" due to the Marine's making a list of Seventy Six ways to kill someone with them. It had an underslung helix tri-rocket launcher, making it an all-around weapon for the marines. Jeremy hefted it with little problem, though it looked...comical with him. He waved the soldiers forward, and headed through.

What came next was as if from a movie. Drones crawled all over, heavier bots tying to block. What Jeremy couldn't get through tactically, he just blew up with extreme prejudice. The halls would shake at the sheer amount of times Jeremy said "forget it." And ordered whatever blocked him be removed - violently. The drones tried to adapt, but nothing the Atum-Ra could throw at Jeremy was able to survive the fact he could adapt on the fly, causing whatever was running the Atum-Ra much displeasure, he was certain.
But he did make it to the bridge, to where the really big, and really armed, sentry drones sat. He handed the rifle to a subordinate, then took out a small handled. It extended into a gilded Katana, a gift from the laser-melee forges of Akihibara. He began to advance, and as the laser chainguns revved up, he held up a portable shield gauntlet. It sprung to life, blocking everything thrown...but it wouldn't last long.
Not that it would need to.

Once close enough, Jeremy turned it off and sprinted. The guns had tried to track, but he already was sliding underneath, blade slicing through the underside of the first one. It didn't do much damage at first, but as he hacked at a few legs and jumped onto the first's back, the next opened fire. Jeremy of course just hopped off as the first was hit, and it flaired...and caused it's legs to collapse, sending it groundside. Jeremy used the time to rush forward and draw and SMG, cutting open the bottom and inserting the barrel, unloading the magazine into it's innards. He got out before it collapsed, and he cut it down the middle for good measure.
Returning his blade to it's holding spot, Jeremy looked to the Ghost Team, who was indifferent to his peculiar brand of insanity. "Sir, how do we get into the bridge? Your Shinkiro isn't going to get through the shield."
He took out another, which formed a broadsword, much like Excalibur. He then activated the energy emitters and stabbed it into the wall, and dragged it just close to the phase wall...and cut down as close as he could. Sparks flew and the wall flickered, and he repeated the process on the other side.
The wall died, leaving the Ghosts to finally admit that, yes, his insanity did work. Sometimes. Not that they were impressed at that...no, the stories of Hunter were very weird, to which they bore uncertain skepticism to his very existence. But he was a friend of Golanski, so they followed him onto the bridge...where the blast doors closed. Turrets on the cryopod came to life, as did...two...really big sentry bots.
"Sir?" One Ghost asked nervously, raising his Seventy-Six. Jeremy just leaned against a wall, nonchalant about possible impending doom. They began to advance, the Ghosts taking cover and preparing to engage. Jeremy then walked towards said robots, hands in his pockets.
"Sir, you trying to die?"
Jeremy just chuckled. The robots turned to him...then froze. He walked right past them, before they smashed into each other, crushing their sides. They were then slammed into the ground, where they tried to rise, before the Ghost Team blasted their heads off with rockets and emptied Kemwer munitions into their inner workings, leaving them there...but now the Ghosts were nervous. Nothing like that should have happened...could have happened...that was now what scared him. How did Jeremy get them to smash into each other, how did he act so confident and cool under the threat his plan couldn't work?
They only could shoot the turrets off, as he stood in front of the cryopod.
"...I came back, Ael. Like I promised."

The Ghosts slowly advanced. "Sir?"
"Ghost Team Nu, I'm declassifying the Blackreach Files. The woman claiming to be Aelita Stone, who currently resides in the Razgriz Straits Science Complex's Deep Quarantine, under close watch of my sister, is not the true Aelita Stone. Her name is Milly Stone." He keyed the pod open, revealing another cybernetic girl connected to the vessel. "This is Agent Aelita Stone, CO of the CV-Lyoko, and the girl who originally started the Tombstone Project."
"And also, one of my closest friends."
They could only watch as he began to unhook her, when the main screen snapped on to show the Eye of Horus, and a disembodied voice.
"Jeremy Hunter! You took the Lyoko Cortex, you found Aelita...but I was charged with protecting her! I will fufill the mission Milly Stone set out for me, I will-"
Bang
Jeremy's hand cannon boomed, the screen now sporting a new hole. The disembodied voice had stopped. "Milly Stone is a traitor to the Order, to Humanity. And if you continue attempting to keep Aelita, or the Order, from reclaiming this cruiser, I will personally tear every single wire from your screaming matrix, and listen to your programming error and die after I upload the FOXDEATH Virus into your system. I will watch, and I will laugh."
"You talk, oh Colonel, but you are not of such vile actions. Even to I, you cannot do something so horrid!"
"Feelin' lucky?"
The voice had fallen silent as Jeremy resumed unhooking Aelita. He then picked her up. "Go find the Admiral and assist him. I have an AI to tear asunder."
"I HAVE NOT D-"
"I decided for you."

The AI screamed and threatened, but all the Ghosts could see was Hunter - and how, despite his appearance, and his insanity...was something far more dangerous. Something that they were going to have to contend with. They immediately turned to link up with the Admiral, but Jeremy stayed behind. He laid Aelita out beside the main console, and took to it. His hands danced across the console, and soon every screen showed a symbol, long forgotten to the sands of time.

"You are fighting forces of antiquity, Lyoko...forces older than you, your gunship, this cruiser..." He said quietly. "...Beware of the coming resurgences of antiquity long forgotten."
He turned and picked Aelita up, as the Atum-Ra's engines cycled down, leaving the cruiser still...save for the highly trained Ghost Teams currently in the cruiser, led by the Viking, and the one whom the Defcon Hunter protocol had been made for.
It was a very dangerous game that was playing.
A game of shadows.

Knight to Delta Five.