Chapter 10 The Whole World Stops And...

I smashed through the trees and made a beeline towards the Red Dragon base. After a few minutes of running, I finally found what I was looking for. A clearing!

I immediately launched my helicopter blades and took to the skies. I kept low, just slightly above the tree line and flew off to the south, away from both the military and the Red Dragon gang.

It was a master stroke from me. It truly was.

The military would definitely follow my trail and when they found that it was suddenly cut off with no viable explanation on how it happened, they would get very alarmed.

Not only did the Red Dragon gang provoke them, it appeared that they have some sort of a secret too. They would raise the priority of obliterating this Red Dragon base to the highest. A confrontation of epic proportions was no longer avoidable.

They had to get to the bottom of if at all costs. If they couldn't, they would call for backup and make sure the back up could.

Phase Four - Create Pandemonium. Complete.

It's time for Phase Five - Absorb the White Mecha.

And for that, I needed the confrontation to happen first. I needed to find a place where I could observe the battle, and somehow still be far enough from being detected by the two belligerents of the mini-war that was about to begin.

Very soon, I saw the edge of the forest. I found a small clearing nearby where I could land and quickly landed.

Whoosh!

The mecha suit disappeared into my body. I turned around and looked at Emma, who had a calm and rather cold look on her face.

"Hey." I said.

Emma stared at me for a moment before replying with a "Hey." of her own.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Emma Whitefrost." She replied.

I blinked a few times. Trying to remember where exactly I've heard of the family name Whitefrost before.

"Uhh… Daughter of a rich businessman?" I ventured a guess.

Emma shook her head.

"Famous politician?"

She shook her head once more.

"Famous general?" I asked, randomly throwing out important roles in the government. Of course, I was well and truly surprised when she finally nodded her head.

"General Whitefrost?" I frowned.

"GENERAL WHITEFROST!!" I shouted as I finally remembered why that name sounded so familiar.

"Yes." Emma replied. "Ex-General Whitefrost of The Chinese Federation. Not daughter, though. Grand daughter"

I stared at her in absolute surprise. No wonder she asked me to kill that pilot. General Whitefrost was a ferocious soldier. He rose from the lowest rank of a mere private to become the most feared general of The Chinese Federation.

During the Third World War near the end of the 22nd century, he led the Chinese Army to victory from one insane battle to the next, going against all odds and defeating every army sent his way until he was finally captured by the combined might of nations that would eventually be USAA and The European Empire.

And even then, his capture was merely due to the fact that he had run out of ammunition. Fifty thousand men against almost a million men. And he only lost because he ran out of bullets.

His capture was the only reason why The Chinese Federation was not a superpower at that point in time. The Chinese Federation had so much riding on him that after he was captured, it only took the other countries five weeks to end the war.

If you're not a student of history, it is kind of difficult to explain the notoriety of General Whitefrost. You might think he was merely another captured great general of an enemy country.

Yes, he was all that.

But he was more than that.

His tactics and strategies were incredibly beautiful. So beautiful and ground breaking that they caused the rewriting of countless military textbooks. His applications of the ancient 36 Strategems of Sun Tzhi were absolute works of art and deserved to be included into the modern rendition of that famed military book as glowing examples of how creativity and ancient strategy could lead to incredible results.

And not only was he a great strategist, he was also a famed Mecha Pilot as well. His White Mecha held the record at that time of one thousand seven hundred fifty three kills. Of course, I broke that record rather easily early on in my career. But during the time of the Third World War, one thousand seven hundred fifty three mechas was a LARGE number. He was impressive. Very, very impressive.

He was THE general of that generation.

I had delved so deep into my new life as a junkyard scrapper that the memories of my life before my father died seemed so very far away. It was actually quite incredible that I forgot who General Whitefrost was, considering that he was my idol. Maybe it was a defensive mechanism that my mind took instinctively to protect me from the pain of remembering too much.

I read countless books about General Whitefrost in my father's library a long time ago. He was my one and only idol. The person I wanted to be when I grew up. Before my father was murdered before my eyes, of course, and that dream disappeared like the morning mist before the afternoon sun.

And before me was the granddaughter of that man.

What could I do? I gulped and gave her a weak smile.

"How… How's your grandfather?" I asked carefully.

"Looking for me, I presume. Worried sick. Killing people left and right." Emma shrugged, talking about her grandpa killing people as though he was merely out going shopping.

"Oh." I said stupidly. And gulped once more.

"What is that?" Emma asked as she pointed at my chest curiously.

I glanced down and saw that my chest was glowing red.

"Oh this. This is some sort of a mecha core, it's pretty mysterious, I don't really know how it works" I explained.

"Yeah. Of course you don't. You just broke out of a heavily armed base, baited a military base full of soldiers to come after you, all based on some mysterious mecha core which you have no idea how to operate." Emma nodded sarcastically in "understanding".

I blinked at her in surprise.

"Truly the granddaughter of a military demon!" I remember thinking.

"Yeah. Be more sarcastic to the person who just saved you and holds your life in his hands. Good going, keep it up, little girl." She wasn't the only one who knew how to be sarcastic!

"Based on what you did earlier, you can break down mechas from a distance at will. You can absorb them and turn into them. And I am guessing that it's all because of that red mecha core." Emma said quietly and ignored my sarcastic reply. "You just got your hands on a unique and very powerful experimental mecha core."

Emma, that little demoness, was very, very smart.

Well, of course she was, considering that she wasn't born of natural means.

But I had no idea then, and I was very suitably impressed by that eight year old who had just displayed the observational and thinking skills of a sixteen year old.

Or a ten year old junkyard scrapper like me.

Junkyard scrappers are, afterall, forced to grow up much, much faster than normal kids.

In a survival race between a ten year old junkyard scrapper and a sixteen year old kid from a wealthy family, I'd gladly put all my money on the ten year old junkyard scrapper.

Every cent.

Anytime, everytime.

But I digress. Back to the story.

"Alright, fine. You're right." I conceded. "I can do all that. Happy?"

I must have sounded much rougher and angrier than I thought, because at my words, Emma fell silent. Her body quivered lightly in what I assumed was fear.

I sighed.

First she got all sarcastic on me, then she became all fearful and started trembling.

What on earth do I do with her?

After a moment, her trembling stopped as she regained control of her body.

"But look. I can do this too." I summoned a mecha armor over my arms and gave them little helicopter blades. I switched them on and directed them at Emma which blew at her powerfully.

"You can turn them into portable fans. That's really useful! Especially during summer." Emma smiled at me.

I stared at her, mesmerized.

I still remember that moment as though it was only yesterday.

It was the first time I saw her smile, and by God she was beautiful. When she smiled, it truly felt like time the whole world stopped and stared at her for a while.