The Lost Riders

Tritsteel

Tritsteel

Kalise para todos!
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. One post per day
  3. 1-3 posts per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Primarily Prefer Male
  2. Primarily Prefer Female
  3. No Preferences
Genres
Modern, Action, Adventure, Fantasy. SCI-FI
Paris... What a city. A place for love, good food, beautiful women... And Dragons. For some reason those creepy bastards found France, and Europe in general, of their liking. It must be the weather, said Aaron all the times the question popped out. Aaron Riley Sanderson, Captain of the Lost Riders. Or as people knew them, those crazy bastards who hunt down evil stuff. Yeah, that may be a pretty vague description, but as soon as something bigger than an plane appeared, you wanted them for the job.

"Right right! No! Left, leeeeft!!" Yelled Aaron as the armored humvee he drove opened his way through the narrow streets of Paris. "Where the hell is that thing!? I can't see it!" Replied the co pilot trying to locate the blood dragon who was causing panic over the city. "Behind Us! Get in!" Said the gunner who quickly got into the car before the dragon puked fire over them. "I just painted it you asshole!!" Yelled the gunner as he got on his position again and fired upon the dragon again.

"Keep it steady damn it!" Demanded the gunner. "Stop playing with him and take it down already!" Ordered Aaron. The chase took them to the Eiffel tower, and without any real care, Aaron drove the humvee straight into the park in front of the tower. "That things is coming for us!" Said the co pilot. The crimson dragon flew around the tower, visually injured, and then proceed to charge against the team. Aaron pushed the throttle and raced his way against the dragon as the gunner kept firing against it. "Come on!!"

The mithical creature flew real close to them and then, a few meters away, it crash landed, creating a cloud of dust and debris. Aaron braked and turned around, stopping at a safe distance. "Ozone! You stay here! Provide covering fire!" Ordered Aaron. The man on the gunner seat nodded and after reloading the mounted gun, he kept a close look at the cloud as the other two advanced forward.

"I can't see a thing..." Muttered the other man. The breathing of the dragon could be heard close, but into the cloud of dust there wasn't any visibility yet. For their surprise, the dragon shook its wings once, not enough to make it fly, but enough to dissipate the cloud and take the two men by surprise. "Watch out!" Said Aaron as the dragon refused to give up and breathed fire against them. "Distract him!" Ordered Aaron to the other man, who began to open fire at him with tracer bullets. Fun fact: Monsters got really pissed off when exposed to the intense light of bright burning chemicals.

With the huge creature distracted, but not for much more, Aaron ran towards it and climbed on top of it, trying to keep the balance as he got as close to its neck as he could. Climbing those things was easy enough, its big scales made the job pretty simple. Walking over it? Totally different. But with enough skill and as muck of luck, he got to put a charge of Thermite explosive between its scales at the height of its neck before the dragon shook him off. "Fire in the hole!" Yelled Aaron covering himself as he pushed the detonator.

More than a explosion, the Thermite caused a quick and bright fire-burst which burned the creature's neck, and with a loud pain scream, the dragon finally died. Rest in peace, infernal creature. Thought Aaron as he got up. The dead corpse of the huge creature lay over the grass as the other men got close to Aaron. "Well... That wasn't all that hard..." Said him. Ozone slowly drove the Humvee next to the two men, honking with a funny rhythm as he got close to them. "So... Captain, when will we get more reinforcements? Or spare parts. Sasha really needs a new transmission." Said Ozone patting the humvee. Aaron took a look at the dead dragon and sighed. "Nobody is crazy enough to willingly join us, Ozone." Replied Aaron.
 
There came loud static from the radio and then a female voice came loud and clear. "Hey boys you better get back here, we've got a situation."

Alexandra awoke to a bright. "Oh god did I die?!" She creamed aloud. Slowly she registered a loud beeping and turned her head towards it. Hooked to her arm was an i.v. And a small white clip adorned her finger. The beeping noise was coming from a heart monitor that was monitoring her. Alexandra started to lift her arm, but a previously unnoticed shackle held her arm down. Her heart monitor spiked at her sudden panic at being held in a foreign place. Frantically she looked about, trying to infer where she was. White sterile walls surrounded her and many lightbulbs attached to the ceiling ensured that it stayed bright in her celled off room. There was one small one way glass area on the far wall and she had a sense that she was being watched.

A few hours later a doctor entered the room. He checked her vitals and changed her drip bag. "Please can you tell me where we are?" He ignored her very pointedly. "Sir please? Where am I?" She almost yelled.

"You just wait for Aaron to get here. He'll answer all of your questions then." Replied the doctor right before he exited the room.

Outside in the hall the doctor stopped to talk to a small woman in a gray uniform. "It's definitely her ma'am. She holds the power of the gods. What are we going to do with her?" He questioned.

"That's easy, Aaron is going to train her. Whether she likes it or not."
 
"Copy that, ma'am." Replied Aaron to the radio. "Come on, let's go back to base." Ordered Aaron as he got into the humvee with the others and left the place. And the dragon's corpse? Well, their job was to kill them, not to clean them. That was something the local authorities took care of. "Back to base, Back to base. We are going: Back to base..." Snag Ozone as he drove. "Are you going to sing all the way back?" Asked Aaron. "Who knows Captain. Who knows..."

He did not sang all the way back, but he did it all the way to the airport. Once in there, a V-22 Osprey took them to base, a whole complex built into the mountains of a secret place. "Ahhhh! It feels great to be home!" Said Ozone getting down the plane and stretching his arms. "Check the equipment, get supplies and be ready to take off. You know the drill." Ordered Aaron as he walked into the facility. the Lost Riders could be called at any time, from any place and to take down any kind of creature, so they had to be ready to leave at any time.

The base was always quite busy. A place that used to be a cold war facility was now refitted and re-purposed to be the central command for those few who dared to fight the evil that roamed the Earth. Of course, all of them were there just monitoring stuff from satellites or doing science stuff to throw at the ugly faces of the monsters. In the end, people actually taking down the huge enemies, were just three. Used to be four, but sometimes things don't go as expected and the price for those mistakes is pretty high.

"Ma'am." Said Aaron saluting a woman in gray uniform. Once he was debriefed, he looked through the one way mirror at the girl lying on the bed. "I'm not sure about this, ma'am. No offense intended, but we are not daycare." Said Aaron. "Being out there requires... A set of skills that, honestly, I can't see in this girl." Said him, still looking through the glass, wondering if all that story about the power of the Gods was even truth. "Are we sure she is the one we are looking for?" Asked him.
 
Alexandra had lain in that bed for many hours without any human contact at all and was beginning to get very antsy. Not to mention the fact that she had to use the restroom.

"We're one hundred percent certain Aaron. This girl holds the power to completely exterminate the supernatural monsters roaming this Earth. Don't doubt her Aaron give it a chance. I need you to train her. She may jot cooperate at first, but its imperative to our survival that this girl discovers her power. Come in I want you to come meet her." She stated before opening the door to the room. And shoving him in.
 
"Fine, fine." Muttered him as he was taken into the room. He looked over the girl, having all those weird machined Aaron didn't understood and all the light in that place. Aaron wasn't sure how was he going to convince her of doing something like she was supposed to do, but since Aaron had slight traces of ataraxia and other minor physiologic issues he just went for it. "How have been your day, girl? Mine it's been quite crazy." Said him as he approached to her. "You know? I took out a dragon a few hours ago. I know, I know.... That doesn't sounds like much in this times... But hey, I try not to take too much merit off it." Explained him as he began to untie her. "To be honest, is not all that difficult. You just have to make him tired enough to force him to land, and once in the ground... Well they are too big to be agile enough to actually be able to hit you. If you are fast enough, of course." Aaron kept talking as he untied the girl.

"The tricky thing comes with their scales. Those things are thick.... Usually some plastic explosive or anything that burns white hot is enough to hurt them, but to actually kill them you must hit them in a vital part, like their neck or their heart. Maybe their crotch.... Never tried that tho...." Said him as he finally got rid of her ties and gave a few steps back to let her get up if she wanted. "Don't try to put explosives in their face, you may end up eaten if you do." Said Aaron as he leaned next to the door. "Oh, and that only works for dragons. We still have centaurs, giant golems, insane three-snake-headed dogs, huge titans of iron and many other crazy things. Hell! Every day we got reports of some new creature tormenting some town on the other side of the globe!" Said him leaving out a chuckle.

"By the way, my name is Aaron."
 
Suddenly the door to Alexandras's cell was thrown wide open and she nearly cried out for joy. Finally someone to let her loose! In strode a handsome but worn young man. He looked as though he had been in a fight recently. He marched right over to the table and began to untie her as he asked about her day. Just as she had opened her mouth to reply he began right on talking though and so she decided to keep silent. Soon he was blathering on about how to kill a dragon and all young Alexandra could do was lay in absolute quiet. Soon he had her untied and had stepped away from the table.

Slowly Alexandra sat up and looked down at her arms. Quickly she ripped all of the i.v's from her arm and pulled the heart monitor off of her finger before standing. She listened to him continue on about monsters for a minute more before he finally introduced himself. So this was the Aaron guy that everyone kept talking about! "Hello Aaron, I'm Alexandra Du'mont, owner of Du'mont corporations. It's all well and good for you to tell me all of these things about monsters, but why should I care? I'm not a monster hunter I'm a weapons producer. What need do I have of this information?" Alexandra was becoming quite flustered by now and her urge to use the bathroom had only increased as she had stood.
 
"Du'mont! I have a grenade launcher of that brand!" Exclaimed him. "To be honest, the 40 mm buckshot cartridges fit a little bit tight in the chamber... Almost got killed once because of it... Lucky me I had my tungsten blade on me... You had to see the face of that ugly spider when I..." Then he stopped talking. "Well, technically spiders doesn't have faces... But I think you already may have an idea of what I did meant." Said Aaron.

"Anyway, to the issue that occupy us. Come with me." Said Aaron as he walked out of the room. "As you may already figured out, we are in the base of the guys who take down giant monsters. Or the Lost Riders, as people knows us." Explained him as they walked through the narrow hallways. "Alexandra, right? Well, Alexandra, you see? I have a little bit of an issue here. My team was used to be formed by four people. The most crazy and insane four people you may even meet, but capable and brave ones." Said Aaron. "The thing is that one of our members was... Taken down to put it in some way, a few months ago. Since then we have been operating just the three other members, but sometimes it gets really hard managing situations with such a small group." Said him as they reached a much bigger place, with all kinds of monitors, holograms, beeping machines and busy people working in there.

"So, long story short: Someone in the upper ranks thought you could be a very valuable asset to our team, so here you are. Now, how I see it you have two choices: You give it a try, prove that you are really capable and stay on the team, or you refuse and then I'm sure we will have to send you one of those noisy 'preachers' we have to convince you to join us until you give up and then, join us." Said him partially joking. "Hey, I was kidding. We don't have preachers, but I'm sure the people 'upstairs' won't be giving up so easily." Said Aaron.
 
Alexandra laughed when he spoke of the spider and the 40mm cartridges. "We just came out with an improved version this year actually. We hollowed out the barrels one eighth inch wider so that we didnt have to do a total recall on shells."

Alexandra did as Aaron instructed and began to follow him. When he asked if her name was Alexandra she nodded. "You can call me Alex." She listened attentively while he talked about one of the members of his team dying like it was nothing. What kind of people were these guys?! As they entered a large room with a bunch of machines she had started to get nervous. Just a little while ago she had been hooked to a few machines herself.

"Woah woah woah! I don't have any fighting experience and I know abso-freaking-lutely nothing about monsters! I only produce the killing machines, I'm definitely not one. You better tell the people 'upstairs'," she gave air quotes as she said upstairs, "that they've got the wrong gal. I'm a seventeen year-old emancipated business tycoon. Not some badass killing machine!"
 
Aaron rose a brow and looked at her. Seventeen! Well, she looked way older, that's for sure... Anyway, that changed things. One thing was to have to train a new soldier from scratch and one totally different was to take care of someone that young. "Well, I doubt we got you wrong... But since I see I'm not going to convince you, I guess I will leave now." Said him as he looked around. "But you can't leave yet, tho. This is a secret base and I'm sure we want to keep it that way, so, until the babysitter gets here, you stand still and just.. Don't touch anything." Said him as he walked deeper into the huge room.

"Aaron! Dot." Said a man in a scientist coat. "Another one? How many are there?" Replied Aaron as he got close to a hologram of the Earth filled with little red dots, lines, some other dots of other colors and many other marks. "Ehmmm... 12 red ones sight now." Said the scientist. "And the new one? What it is?" Asked Aaron. "Well, Chinese government warned us about the appearance of... An army of people made of stone? Near Shaanxi province." Stated the Scientist. "A stone-things army? That's even possible?" Asked Aaron, but ceased in his search for an answer. "What a dumb question... I guess it is." Said him. "Hey, and can the local militia just take care of them? I mean, they are just a bunch of rocks."
 
Alexandra stood staring after him opened mouth. Babysitter! She didn't need a damned babysitter! After a minute she followed him and grabbed his arm yanking him around. "Listen here you smartass. I may be seventeen- er eighteen today but still! I don't need a damned babysitter! I've seen more shit than I care to admit and then to top it off assholes like you kidnap me and then insult me!" Alexandra shoved Aaron backwards with more power than she looked capable in her small body. "I'm so TIRED of people like YOU!!"

As Alexandra yelled all of the computers nearby exploded and she screamed, covering her head to shield from the explosions.
 
All the people in the place went silent and looked at her, staring at her agape. How could anyone do something like that with their voice? Of course, far from surprised, Aaron grabbed her and pushed her against the wall with a strength that could easily outmatch anyone. "Oh yeah? So you thing you are a though girl, eh? You saw a lot of 'shit' and you think you are better than us?" Said him. "So tell me, how the fuck do you take care of a three headed - Cerberus can the size of the Madison- fucking-Square! Or how to manage a group of minotaurs ramming shit with the strength of a truck?" Asked him releasing her.

"You don't know because you don't know what 'shit' means. But hey, you are more than welcome to prove that ego of yours is big enough to be of help." Said him with his regular careless behavior. "Who knows... You may be even able to crush something under it..."
 
Slowly all of the lights in the room dimmed and a strange look came over Alexandras features. "I watched everyone in my family be killed. I watched as a creature with razors all over its body shredded my father, a gorgon turn my mother into stone and then break the pieces apart in a spray of blood. Worst of all, I watched my three year old brother being taken in by the song of a siren. I watched her slit his throat and play in his blood and the whole time I couldn't save any of them because of this so called gift that grandfather gave me. Whatever this 'gift of the gods' thing is, you can have it. All it has done is kill everyone I love. I have seen more shit than you think and if this is the way I'll be treated I'm not helping anyone." The lights in the room stayed dimmed low by an unforeseeable force and Alexandra's face remained stoic.
 
Aron looked at her, but didn't cared about what was happening to the lights even if he noticed it. Hell, a cyclops could appear right there right now and he wouldn't even mind. "So, you want to play 'I do more?' game? Tell me, which one of the dozens of horrific crimes do you want me to describe? I even got a few that involve white phosphorus! Tell me, do you know what does that do?" Asked him. "You should look it on the internets, learn the difference between a tragedy and hell on Earth." Said him.

"This is no playground, lady. If you don't want to be treated like a little girl, then earn the respect of the others." Said him as he returned his attention to the scientists. "Or you can walk away if you want. Let some other family suffer the same you have to suffer. That looks like it worked on you, didn't it?" Said him grabbing some papers and reading them. "Anyway, can you turn the lights on again? People is trying to work in here."
 
"You kidnapped me remember? Your stupid... whatever the fuck this thing is. Took me from my home and brought me here. The least you could do is be courteous!" Infuriated Alexandra whipped around and stormed away. Her brooding mood followed after her as the lights around her continued to dim. As she exited the room the lights following her continued to dim down the hall, but the lights in the large hall came back on. Alexandra had never been able to control the powerful things that occurred in her body. She didn't care what these ridiculous people wanted, she didn't want to even be here. She slowed down as she wandered the halls and realized she was lost.

The commander had witnessed what had happened and approached Aaron. "Aaron, I told you to convince her to join us. Not to be rude to her. We need her Aaron. Fix this." The commander gave him a reprimanding look before she walked away. Sometimes that man really irked her.
 
"Pffff...." Muttered Aaron. "Can the Chinese take care of those walking rocks then?" Asked Aaron looking at some of the scientists before he stood up. "Well... I don't know..." Said one of the scientists. "Those things are fucking rocks, right? Just tell them to blow them up and everything will be fine." Said him before he walked out of the room. "Pffff..... Rock people... Unbelievable. "Hey, hey. Have you seen a little brat, like this height? A girl." Asked Aaron to one of the guards on the hallways. The guard simply shrugged and kept paroling. "Damn it..." Cursed him between teeth.

I tried to be gentle, but no, that little spoiled girl has to be on the team. She has some crazy power we need, they said... Thought Aaron imitating the voice of the Commander in his head. She is special... Pffff.... Whatever. "Hey! You can't be in here!" Yelled some guard not to far from there. Aaron went to look, and how ironically lucky he was. It looked like he found that girl he was looking for. "I must ask you to leave." Said the guard being as nice as he could. "Hey. That girl is with me." Said Aaron. The guard looked at them and then nodded, saluted and left. Everything so mechanical it seemed like if he had did those exactly same thing a million times before.

"So, taking a look at our vehicles?" Asked Aaron turning some light on, illuminating a pretty big hangar with ground vehicles. "Come over here, I will introduce you to 'Sasha' " Asked him, being gentle again. Not that he was faking it, he just didn't gave a thing about pretty much anything. "Look at her..." Said him showing her a really damaged 'humvee', fixed a hundred times, improved with several parts of other cars or mechanical things. "She had seen better days... But hell! In the field nothing is more reliable than she is!" Said him patting the hood of the 'humvee'.
 
Alexandra was jolted from her silent reverie by a guard. "Hey! You can't be in here!" he yelled. Although she really didn't care she stopped and gave him a look. "I must ask you to leave." he said. 'And I must ask you to kiss my ass' she thought silently. Before she could answer him though, she heard an all too familiar voice. Aaron had come to find her. He approached the other guard. "That girl is with me." The guard saluted and then continued his patrol of the hallway. The light in the hallway following her had long since stopped dimming and her attitude had calmed considerably. Although she was just eighteen, as of today, she was quite mature for her age and that maturity even showed on her face. That maturity had applied to this situation just as any other had and she had quickly gotten over her anger. Not even aware she had been near the vehicle hangar and was startled when he asked if she was observing the vehicles. She shrugged offhandedly and followed him as he turned on the lights.

The light momentarily stung her eyes as her corneas got used to the sudden brightness. Aaron approached a Humvee. "Come over here, I will introduce you to Sasha." He patted the hood of a rather beat up Humvee. She looked like she had been through hell and back, although the way Aaron spoke of her she was quite reliable. Alexandra approached. "May I look under the hood?" She asked and without waiting for an answer she popped the hood. Coming around the side Alexandra pushed the hood up and set it in place. She observed the engine and whistled real low. "Wow, she's had a lot of modifications. I can see why you say she is so reliable! Look at the mechanics on that engine. She's pretty."
 
"You know about cars too, girl?" Asked Aaron quite impressed. "I'm more of a driver than an actual mechanic. Is Oxyde, another of my team members, the one who takes care of her." Explained Aaron looking into the hood with Alexandra, like if he knew what was going on in there. "Hey! You there! Wat'cha doin' with my lady friend?" Asked a voice coming from the other side of the hangar.

"Speak of the devil..." Muttered Aaron. Oxyde seemed to be dragging a weird cart with the transmission of another vehicle hanging from it. "Making a tour around the facility for our guest here." Said Aaron. Oxyde looked at Alexandra once he got next to them and smiled gently, but then looked at Aaron again, like if he just forget about her. "I found this laying around. I think it will fit." Said Oxyde. "That thing? You sure? Where did you found it?" Asked Aaron. "I don't know, someone left a LAV 25 laying around.... With a few modifications it should be agile enough to fit in the 7 gear gearshift of 'Sasha' " Explained Oxyde. "You are going to put the transmission of a tank into a 'Humvee'..." Replied Aaron. "Well, it worked with the reactive armor, right? Besides, technically, the LAV is not a tank." Said Oxyde. "Unbelievable..." Muttered Aaron.
 
"Yes, I love cars! My dad taught me before he died. Cars were a passion that we could share." As Alexandra heard the new voice she turned away from the Humvee.

"Guest?" Alexandra snorted and gave a hateful look. "More like hostage." She muttered quietly. She turned her attention to Oxyde and smiled in return. She observed the transmission that Oxyde was carrying. He said that it should fit into the Humvee, but... "What size bearings you got on that? If they're too big it won't work you know. That or you'll have to grind the hole a bit bigger. What kind of operation you got going here where LAV 25's just lie around? Those aren't exactly cheap nor practical." Alexandra seemed astounded by the technology provided in this place. It wasn't a half bad place to be.
 
Aaron and Oxyde looked at the girl, one surprised by her knowledge in vehicles, the other one.... Well, not sure why, but Aaron just waited for her to stop questioning everything. "What you said about the transmission, I don't really know what to answer. About the 'operation'...." Said Aaron looking at Oxyde. "What? nobody was using it anyway." Replied him. "Hey. Once finished with the 'Sasha' make sure that LAV gets fixed." Ordered Aaron. "I don't know if I will have the time, boss." Replied Oxyde. "Well, then tell someone else to do it, but make sure it works again, alright?" Said Aaron.

Oxyde mumbled something but then got back to work, further ignoring Aaron and Alexandra as he began with the transmission, looking at the transmission again and gabbing some tools to make the space for the transmission bigger.

"So, we have plenty of other fun places to 'play' in. Mind if I offer you a tour?" Asked Aaron as he walked out of the garage with Alexandra.
 
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