Zoids: Awakening

[Arratra]

"Shin unit online; no anomalies," Leonidas reported through his Zoid's radio, shifting the "Shining Victory Dragon" (That's what Gairyuki means, for those that don't know), then pressing the controls forwards. The Zoid responded seamlessly, beginning to walk, then run as he pressed the controls further forwards. It then skidded to a halt, then deployed the foot anchors and the tail sections opened. It opened its mouth, and the particles it was gathering collected at the tip of the barrel there.

"Beginning Ray Absorbing CPG compatability test," Leonidas said, locking onto the target; a metal skeleton that had a device to mimic a Zoid signature in targetting computers.

Leonidas pressed a control on the main control screen, switching from the Blox deployment panel to system monitoring for the Ray Absorbing Charged Particle Gun.

"Power levels, compression rate, particle charge," Leonidas muttered as his icy-blue eyes swept across the various systems, "Shin upgrade, no interference."

"All systems go," he said more loudly through the open line, "Firing Charged Particle Gun."
His thumb flicked up a safety cover, then pressed the red button that was the trigger for the Gairyuki's primary weapon.

The shimmery gold/yellow sphere of particles in the Zoid's mouth transformed instantly into a golden-orange beam of destruction that ripped the frame apart at an atomic level. The device that gave it a Zoid signature, which was quite expensive, was well-protected, and sensors shut it off the moment the particle blast hit. The recoil of the powerful weapon caused the Gairyuki to skid backwards a short distance despite the foot anchors.

"Target destroyed," Leonidas reported, "Charged Particle Gun fully functional. No interference from additional equipment."

There were sighs of relief from the other end, and Leonidas could well understand; during an early test with the CPG, a prototype Shin unit had exploded from a power overload. The Gairyuki it had been attached to died from the damage an hour later. The stone statue that resulted hadn't been moved since, as the entire science team involved had been badly rattled by the event, and no one really wanted to go near the thing. Another test had seen the CPG fail to fire at all, ending up in several frantic minutes of rerouting power to avoid a critical overload of the Zoid's core and weapons.

"Good work, Leonidas," the lead scientist stated, "We wouldn't have been able to get that thing to work were it not for your suggestions and help."

"Thank you, sir."

"Keep the unit," the scientist added, causing Leonidas the blink several times.

"Say wha-?"

"We've go the schematics... and the paperwork went through this morning. Congratulations, kid. You're now officially a member of the Guardian Force."

Leonidas couldn't believe it; his dream ever since awakening as a Zian (although he couldn't remember a whole heap before that; just a few sketchy details and a seemingly-innate knowledge of the history of the Republic and Guylos Empire... and the internal workings of a Zoid) had just come true; he was officially a member of the Guardian Force."

"Thank you, sir!" he shouted, putting as much emotion into his voice as he could; with their immobile faces, the Zians had to rely heavily on body language and their voice to communicate emotion to others.
The Gairyuki rumbled, shifting slightly on its own. Although it hadn't actually said anything, Leonidas understood; it was getting impatient and wanted to get moving.

"Permission to leave, sir?"

"Granted... and good luck, kid."

"Yes sir, thank you sir!" Leonidas replied, guiding the Gairyuki out of the testing range and out into the plains.

That night, Leonidas rested back against the foot of the Gairyuki.
<You have achieved your dream... what will you do now?> the giant metal tyrannosaur asked.

"I'm going to protect both the Helic Republic and the Guylos Empire... and get my revenge against Helios," Leonidas replied, "I won't let Helios harm anyone else. Anyone!"

He raised a closed fist in front of his eyes, and studied his body part.

"Are you going to help, Gairyuki?" he asked, turning to look at the orange plating that covered the Zoid's eyes.

<I was created to fight... and that is what I will do. I will fight beside you to protect others.>

Leonidas would have smiled if he were able to, and nodded, before turning to look at the fire.

"There's a long road ahead of us, my friend... but we're together, and that's what matters."

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow crawled forward slowly, staying under the speed that the Judge's motion tracker would pick up. If he picked her up too soon, she wouldn't be able to score a kill and the entire trip would be in vain, not to mention the annoying officials it would call down to apprehend her. The useless twin beam cannons on her back smacked against her shoulder with an obnoxious clang, making her duck down to stay undetected. While waiting for the Judge to return its attention to the fight, she surveyed it.

Under a large amount of artificial light, two groups were going head to head. One side was composed of three dinosaur inspired zoids and the other of Command Wolves. The dinos hard formed a tight circle, 360 degrees of guns and missile launchers pointed at the circling Command Wolves. However, the weapons were in the hands of the so called 'pilots' and missed horribly. The idea of having someone sitting inside of her filled Black Arrow with revulsion.

The Command Wolves' pilots had apparently had enough of the little game and swung their beam cannons in the dino teams direction, letting loose a torrent of shots that stirred up the dust and exploded around them, creating a smokescreen. Black Arrow tensed, waiting for the Command Wolves to move in. The Wolves formed up slowly, the leader in front, teammates behind and rushed in.

Black Arrow launched from her hiding spot and charged in a full on sprint, her boosters flaring to life and launching the Lightning Saix across the distance. The Judge's voice rang out in local broadcast, "WARNING! WARNING! Unauthorized combatant on the battlefield," his transmission focused on her, "attention unidentified combatant, this area is currently an active battlefield! Broadcast for immediate detour coordinates!"

She shut it out, ignoring its words. She calculated she had roughly 60 seconds before the officials were launched and another 10-15 seconds before they arrived. Plenty of time...

Her form vanished into the smoke, blending in with the ash coloration. She came upon the first Command Wolf almost immediately after entering the cloud. He never saw her coming as she pounced, digging her claws into the wolf's shoulders, teeth latching onto its neck and driving it to the ground. She gave it a sharp twist and then was up and off again. The next target she found was one of the dinos, who had separated while the Judge had been preoccupied. Black Arrow swept its legs out from under it, letting the weight of its guns smash it to the ground.

Gunfire sounded through the smoke as the remaining teammates fired blindly, trying to hit her. It was time for her to get out of there anyway. Her boosters fired as she broke free of the smoke and ran, leaving the two teams to demolish each other with crossfire. She reached the edge of the light before she heard the tell tale thumps of the officials landing. She put on another burst of speed, proud of herself.

There was going to be some interesting rumors by morning...

[Buzzwolf]

"Visual on the mark" dark armor of the Panthera unit scanned the battlefield. Watching the lightning Saix bolt onto the field, warning marks appearing on her displays of the illegal combatant. but the unit remained poised where it was, high up above the battle field where she had the most visual space. no authorization to engage had been given. a screen zoomed in on the lone zoid, replaying the couple moments before it was lost in the dust cloud "The hell...?"

She tapped a screen with a furred finger, furthering the zoom, this time in on the particle cannons on the zoids back, bouncing about, unused. she put a hand to her face "You gotta be fucking kidding me..." she tapped her headset "Command, this is Pantera Unit Fanged Rose"

"Why arent you on your mark pilot?!" the voice on the other end made her cringe and growl

"It ain't backdraft ya idiots! it's just some stupid feral looking for some fun" There was a string of curses through the backside of the mic. she watched the zoid bolt from the dust cloud like a bat outta hell, half amused at it's antics, half annoyed that she'd been deployed for nothing more than a feral picking fights "Authorization to intervene has not been issued, requesting the authorization." The warning screens suddenly turned green as authroization was passed, and the Fanged Rose shifted restlessly, eager to begin the hunt. Axel chuckled to herself and waved a hand over the consoles, the green authorizations vanishing as control was given

"Immobilize only Pantera," the order came across her mic, and she growled "We might be able to use a new speed class zoid" Immobilize orders. she hated Immobilize orders. "Aim for the legs, we can replace those Pantera unit"

"Roger that command" she growled into the mic. a deep rumble came from the Fanged Rose, knowing all too well that that command meant it wouldn't have it's kill. She ran a hand over the console, bringing up all the pilot controls in their respective places. she wrapped her paws around the twin control sticks, pushing the pair forward.

The Rose Growled and took off at a dash, the heavy armor of the Jager barely hindering the Pantera unit as the Magnesser system neutralized the weight, leaping down the cliff face, landing in a cloud of dust as it took off at a dash after the lightning Saix. while nowhere near able to match the speed of the Saix with the Jager armor on, she did have the advantage of the darkness. without a pilot to teach the zoid to properly use the sensors and weapons, the night would belong to the black pantera unit carrying the heavy plasma lances.

A pair of black Blade Ligers dashed up beside her, easily matching the Panteras pace, each marked with the colors of the Guardian Force, and a secondary symbol marking them as officials of the event, on orders from the main unit to assist with what might be rebels. She waved them ahead, passing on the order to immobalize, and getting the same groans from them as she'd given command, using their speed and tactic capibilities to cut off the inexperienced Saix for her to take down.


The Blade Ligers sped up, breaking away and dashing ahead into the darkness. the hunt was on.

[Arratra]

(All right guys, re-writing.

Now, that previous note about Fuzors still stands; please don't bring in Zoids that can potentially fuse with your own (except you, Shade, but I expect full technical specs beforehand, and you're only allowed a maximum of 2, a limit I will be observing myself).

Also, Shade, WTF?! I didn't say anything about the Backdraft! Never mind, I'll just run with it.)

Leonidas leaned back for a moment, then yelped as static squawked into his ear; all Zians had internalised radios, just like Zoids, but usually they didn't see much use. Leonidas shook his head slightly, then issued the mental command to tune into the line. He caught a section of the tail-end of the transmission, being relatively close to the gladiatorial battlefield and thus the chase. He leapt into the Gairyuki, which was already beginning to move in its eagerness to help out, ignoring the fire (which was the only part of the camp he'd bothered with for now), and initialised the controls, before switching over to the tactical interface used to semi-control the Gairyuki's support units.

Segments of the Gairyuki's outer armour detached and connected to each other over the head of his unit, before leaping forwards as the ion boosters ignited. The Hien, the swallow-type support unit, accelerated to Mach 0.92 in short order and performed a recon overfly of the chase. The Blade Ligers glanced in its direction, but otherwise ignored it, but the tyrannosaur-type with eerily-glowing orange panels (the Ray-Absorbing Verneirs) was less easy to ignore, and the one on the right, the direction Leonidas was coming into the chase from, turned its head slightly in the Gairyuki.

The Hien, having performed its recon, came flying back and disassembled, reforming the parts of the Gairyuki's armour that it was made from, as the Gairyuki lifted slightly off the ground and accelerated to 290 KPH, struggling to keep up with the Lightning Saix.

"Anyone mind telling me exactly what's going on here?" Leonidas asked, pulling up roughly level with the Fanged Rose, "That Saix is acting like a stray."

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow glanced up as something shot over her head, spiraling around and vanishing back into the night. Curiosity gnawed at her, but she didn't let it take hold and make her make a major mistake. Glancing over her shoulder, she noted the two Blade Ligers giving chase and the third zoid behind them, most likely sporting some kind of long-ranged gun. The Blade Ligers were speeding up to catch up to her and the Lightening Saix cracked her mouth in a vague imitation of a grin.

The zoid's ion engines cut rapidly, flipped around, and fired, decelerating Black Arrow at a rate that would jar a pilot hard enough to kill, digging in her front legs and swinging her hindquarters sideways. The ion engines tilted down and the zoid's ion engines flared to life as she jumped, letting the two ligers slam into a massive amount of concussive force as she rocketed over one and took off, racing toward a large section of rocky hills that rose out of the sand, zigzagging and flaring her ion boosters in random ways to mess with targeting systems.

Arrogance filled her with pride and she suddenly opened an open broadcast, sending a quick calling card to remember her by. Translated from the simple binary she used, the message came out as a picture of a black arrow sticking out of the center of a target, her name showing up beneath the picture in curly script.

[Buzzwolf]

"Shit, either of you two knuckle heads catch what that was?" the Rose swung it's head scanning the sky, following the shadow

"Naw, looked like some kinda big bird" one of the Liger pilots responded

"looked like some kinda small zoid to me" The second chimed in

"Zoid? are you on crack? that thing was way too small to be a zoid!"

"It was out of sensor range, who knows what it was!"

"I'm telling ya though, there is no way that --"

"Enough! both of you...geezus...I'm surrounded by idiots..." She put a paw to her face again, letting the Pantera control itself a moment "Focus on the target before that blasted zoid gets away, would ya!? Shit..." she set her hands back on the controls, piloting in unison with the Pantera unit.

The scanners suddenly went wild, a moment before both of the Blade Ligers reported a contact, a Rex sized contact trying in vain to keep up with the Saix as it pulled away. the transmission coming across the comms a moment later

"That's because that Zoid is a feral!" she responded with a growl over the comms "Stand down pilot! the situation is well under control!"

at that same moment a long string of curses came from her co-pilots in the blade Ligers as the Saix launched over one of the pilots and took off nimbly as it slipped away from the pair "Shit shit shit!" Axel banked hard, pulling back on the controls, far enough behind to make the turn and keep a lock on the Zoid, only to have the targeting systems go wild as the boosters flared left and right, throwing the systems off

"No good Axel! we don't have the booster packs to match that kinda manueverability! drop it! drop that fucker before it gets away!" the Ligers gave chase as futile as it was. Axel growled and thumbed the controls, toggling over to the main cannons, slowly glowing as the APU on the Pantera units back kicked in, supplying the additional needed power, arcs of electricity crackling between the four sets of plasma rails.

The anchors fired from the forward shoulder plate and she jammed her thumbs into the firing controls, lances of bright blue plasma arcing from rails like a small glowing sun, searing through the sky overhead...right where the Saix had been only moments before, exploding the ground just a few meters behind, spattering the Saix with droplets of hot plasma, little more than surface damage to the zoid as the ground behind her glassed and sizzled as it cooled.


"Fuck!" she slammed the controls into autopilot as she slammed her back against the pilot seat, not having realized she'd been on the edge of her seat. "God fucking dammit..." the Rose growled, the anchors retracting and the APU powering down under the zoids own control. Axel sighed and ran a hand over the control panels "Oh, I'm sorry sweetie...I'm not mad at you..." something caught her eye at that moment, an image on one of her displays. she leaned forward curiously, a smirk slipping her lips as she saw the calling card "that cocky little bitch" she chuckles "Very well, you've well earned your freedom 'Black Arrow'." she spoke to the viewscreen "I've no doubt we'll be meeting again one day..." She tapped the comm "Lets go gents, That Saix earned 'er freedom." she passed to the Blade Liger Pilots. her own unit turning and heading back toward their command unit under it's own control. The Pantera unit turned to look toward the Gairyuki with a low growl "Eh, whatever. New pilot, no command. do what you will Gairyuki, you are not my problem"

[Arratra]

Leonidas brought his unit to a halt, cursing under his breath. Without an Evo Flyer to fuse with, the Gairyuki's maximum speed was simply insufficient to keep up. The Hien, maybe, but its weapons, a simple pair of beam guns, were insufficient against anything but other flyers; it was an unparalleled dogfighter, but it was not a ground-attack aerial Zoid.

"Acknowledging; target got away." A sigh came across the link, "Leonidas, you ought to know that it isn't standard procedure to join a chase without asking for authorisation... Axel... meet your new partner; Leonidas Dragonblade."

"Wait, what?" Leonidas spluttered, hearing the announcement, "I'm her partner?!"
The Gairyuki jolted as well, although not in response to the controls, which Leonidas hadn't even been touching. Leonidas jabbed at the comminications controls, bringing up the video link, causing two holographic video screens to pop up in front of him. One was Axel, the other was General Herman, the one currently commanding them.
They, of course, could see him as well, and Herman blinked in surprise, his eyebrows shooting upwards.
"Oh, I didn't realise you were a Zian, Leonidas," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Not far away, following Black Arrow, a blue-and-white leonine Zoid ran. It wasn't particularly fast, but the way it moved indicated it had no pilot to worry about. Its guns gleamed slightly in the faint light from the twin moons. Those familiar with Blox-types would recognise it as a Leo Striker, a more advanced version of the Leoblaze.
It roared in the language of the Zoids, asking Black Arrow of perhaps it would be permitted to travel alongside her.

Not too far away, the Judge, forgotten in the mayhem, stood there, turning its head back and forth.
"Hey, is anybody out there? Hello?"

[Nelle Kozera]

“Where is he?”

Thwack!

The sharp sound of a backhand across the face of a man, followed by him falling to the floor resounded throughout the hanger. “Well jim? Where is he, where is the guy that fucked me jim?!” Spider kicked him straight in the side forcing the air out of his chest. In the middle of this assault he whizzed out “I…I don’t know…” He coughed up some of his own blood. Spider smiled, “Ok then, maybe you won’t tell me…” He lit a cigarette and took a long drag on it before he looked around the room. He caught the sight of a wood chair in the corner. “But maybe, just maybe…” he let the thought die in mid air as he went over to the chair. “Spi…der what are you doing?” Jim asked himself as he watched in horror as he saw Spider brake off a chair leg.

“Well maybe you won’t tell me, but maybe, just maybe, you will tell the Chair leg of Truth! Look at it, it speaks on the truth, and will make you only the speak the truth, those that refuse meet its wrath!” Spider walked back over to Jim with a sadistic smile on his face. “Well how about it?” he pulled jim back up to his feet, but before he could say anything Spider took the chair leg of truth and slammed it against his lower ribs, he could hear one of them snap under the force of the impact. He didn’t stop though, he hit him a few more times before Jim crashed into the floor, his breathing heavy from the compression on his lungs.

Spider just looked down and placed one foot solidly down on his chest and pressed for a second. He could hear Jim gurgling something but couldn’t make it out. “Well now did you want to say something Jim? Where you going to tell where Rack ran off to, or are you just going to lie to me some more and feel the wrath of the chair leg of truth? Well what is it that you plan to do?” He pulled his foot of Jim’s chest and looked down at him and smiled. Jim frowned before coughing up some more of his own blood. “He…he flew in the direction the current battlefield.”
Spider smiled, “Thanks, see, the chair leg of truth gets the truth out of people.” Spider let it drop next to him, “Have fun crawling to the phone…” He flicked the lit cigarette at Jims face who just moaned…

As spider walked away he radioed down to Jackson, his mechanic, “Load up the Liger, full mags, change the boosters, top off the afterburner tanks, everything!” He waited a second before hearing back. “yes sir, three minutes till completion.” It only took spider about two minutes to make down to his liger from the hanger bay that he was currently in. When he got there, the mags where still being loaded into the Zoid itself. “I’ll be done by the time that you suit up Spider.” He nodded before he got into the pilot house he lit three more cigarettes smoking them at the same time. Once he had himself strapped into the pilot’s seat. The pilot systems lit up.

“Everyone clear?!” he asked over the cockpit radio, they sent back confirmation singles almost immediately. With that he floored the ion jets and extended the wings before sprinting out of the hanger. The increased boost from the Ion Jets combined with the high base speed from the liger brought the Zoid to nearly 200km/h on the ground but it was at the maximum speed it could keep on the ground and be stable.
“Pitch flaps 15 degrees, activate solid boosters 1, 4, 8, and 12, dump fuel into the afterburners. We don’t have time to lolly gag.” He order, in doing so he was slammed into the back on his seat with the resulting G forces. With the massive increase in force the Zoid easily broke the sound barrier as it took flight the resulting sound could be heard for miles around. In the sky they would see a pair of wings followed by a massive smoke trail as the rocket boosters fired and the fuel burned in the exhaust of the ion jets.

Spider looked at the sensor read outs. “There’s that fuck, ok Rack I’m coming for you.” As he said that a targeting scope for the main rail gun came down. “Liger take over I’m going to shoot.” He looked down the scope he could see the outline of a Transhawk in the distance. On the read out he could see, the zoom readout ‘optimizing aim…optimized, firing.’ The main rail gun thundered as the first round rocketed out of the cold barrel only to miss by a fraction of a meter. “Fuck!” He looked down to see the round impact off the distance only to notice that he has entered a Zoid battle zone…

“You have entered a Zoid batt…” He shut the com off he realized that he was losing air speed as his boosters had been expended and the afterburners has shut down to prevent overheating. “Contacts detected to the rear…” The sensor system blared, “Fuck!” He banked heavily to the left narrowly avoiding a hail of missiles. “Activating typewriters, intercepting missiles…” The computer said as the small turrets on the Zoid powered up spiting a hail of lead down range to the returning missiles. Combined with his skills are aerial combat and the typewriter system he was able to avoid the missiles.

“200% power to left engines, turn right engines 180 degrees on the y axis.” He shut down the safety alerts from stress on the wing pylons. As the entire Zoid did a 180 in mid air before correcting itself. As it turn the pursuers came in a direct line with the under belly mounted rail gun of the Liger. It fired, the slug was a direct impact on one of the pursuing Zoids ripping of its wings sending it crashing into the ground but before he could correct his flight the liger suffered a massive impact from a sniper zoid somewhere hidden on the ground. The resulting impact ripped off the belly mounted sniper rifle and exposed much of the interior systems of the zoid.

“MOTHERFUCKER!!!” he saw that all his system froze and that the zoid was in a complete free fall. “Fuck liger, I really do not plan dieing inside of you.” He proceeded to rip the control panel off and hard boot the flight systems of the zoid. He knew that if he could them working he could limp the Liger back to base, but all it did was activating the remaining booster rockets causing it accelerate out of control. “Shit!” He pounded on the control panels of the liger. As he did so the panels came back to life, he had flight control again but it was too late. The other zoids following him had locked on and fired another salvo of missiles which he could not avoid. In the impact doomed his Zoid. The back end of the Zoid was torn to shreds and its zoid core was shattered.

Falling from the sky only the head was left in tack as slammed into the ground about 300 meters in front of the Black arrow wild Zoid with spider flung from the cockpit landing in her path.

[Buzzwolf]

Axels reaction nearly matched that of of her new partners, taking a few moments longer for it to sink in as her adreniline high of the chase wore off. "All due respect command...You <i>must</i> be fucking kidding me." She groaned as the Zian brought up the pair of holoscreens.

"Fabulous...he's green AND he's a Zian..." her paw found it's way to her forehead again "A fucking weapons tester is the Last thing my team needs right now! Hell, I bet he's never even seen any real combat! just blowing the fuck outta the targets set up for him"

At that moment her sensor panels went wild, the sensors picking up on the large explosion high above as the Aether Liger took it's lethal hit and began it's spiral downward "Shit! fuck that, no time!" She grabbed on the control sticks, both holoscreens vanishing to be replaced to the sides by readouts of the Aether Liger "Aether Liger is on a collision course Gerneral," the readouts suddenly started flashing red, the course unstable and uncorrectable, even as it showed systems lighting back up "Shit, Aether Liger is down, moving in for pilot recovery" She silently cursed to herself again. Spider was far too reckless with that zoid of his, she had known it'd been only a matter of time before something happened, she had hoped though that it'd never have been this bad. if the Zoid had survived the impact, it was going to take weeks, maybe months of work to nurse that zoid back to functioning order, another month plus before it could even consider seeing combat.

She pulled the control sticks hard around, both of her partnered Blade ligers already taking off at a sprint to secure the crash site, her Pantera unit taking off as well, covering them at range with the long plasma cannons. "Stick Close Gairyuki, looks like we're gonna get chance to see just what you got"

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow had been basking in her own prideful arrogance and let out a startled yelp, tucking her hindquarters slightly, as the beam vaporized the ground behind her. She'd never been shot at with that kind of weaponry before, which meant whoever was in charge of all these fights must be getting sick of her. This thought crossed her mind after a brief span of frenzied sprinting, not wanting to give the shooter time to recharge that weapon and line up for a second shot, filling her with a sense of higher pride, knowing that she had become an interest to someone with access to those kind of resources.

She didn't have long to bask in the glory of it all though, for at that moment, another zoid called out to her, asking permission to travel with her. The Lightening Saix tilted her head to look at the Leo Striker on her tail and she parted her jaws in a hiss, telling it that frankly, she didn't care one way or the other if it followed her, ran beside her, or took off wherever the hell it wanted so long as it didn't run in front of her.

A bright flash of light illuminated the sky above her, making her yelp, thinking that the shooter also had artillery fire, but as she looked up, scanning the sky, she noticed several flying zoids zipping around the smoke-filled section of the sky, a piece of debris rocketing toward her. Flaring her boosters in reverse, Black Arrow skidded to a halt mere meters from where the dismembered head of an Aether Liger crashed to the ground in front of her, pitching a body free from the cockpit.

She shuddered in revulsion to seeing this, but curiosity got the better of her and she stalked forward, lowering her large nose toward the limp form, giving it a light shove with her snout. It twitched and she jumped back with a hiss, circling until she stood next to the head that was rapidly turning to stone. The Lightening Saix's metallic tongue slipped out and licked the cheek of her fallen brother. Whatever sick choices he had made in life didn't mean anything in his death and she hissed out a short apology for the incompetence of "pilots."

She scanned the skies, but the other zoids seemed to not have the desire to pursue their prey to the ground and ensure it was dead. Black Arrow turned her attention to the fallen pilot and she huffed out a sigh, realizing that her dead brother's last wish would probably have been for the pilot to be taken to safety. She shuddered as she approached Spider, lowering her head until her lower left fang slipped under his shirt and lifted him, taking off gently in the direction of the nearest town...

[Arratra]

"Hey, I'll have you know I've had moving targets before," Leonidas fired back defensively, before the explosion caught his attention. "Oh sh-," he almost swore, but cut himself off, lifting his unit slightly into the air with its magnesser system and firing the ion boosters even as Alex told him to keep up. The result was that he actually edged out ahead of the Fanged Rose. Usually he would have deployed the Hien again, but the tiny Blox Zoid was unsuited for rescue operations, and the thing's internal energy stores, already drained from testing that morning, had been completely depleted by that recon run, and had yet to recharge from the Gairyuki's mainframe.

The Leo Striker looked a little put out, but followed, rumbling forth a warning not to go too fast; humans were fragile things sometimes, after all. It shifted to its melee-oriented form and slowed up slightly, so that it was acting as a rear-guard.

The Gairyuki, Fanged Rose, and the two Blade Ligers arrived shortly after Black Arrow and her new companion had left. Gairyuki moved over to the Aether Liger's head of its own volition and crouched to get a better look. It let out a mournful sound, seeing the spreading rock that was overtaking the entire unit already.
"Dammit! The Aether Liger's dead," Leonidas yelled, thumping the armrest of the cockpit seat, "Gairyuki, any life-signs of the pilot?"
A rumbled, wordless negative came from the Tyranosaur-type Zoid, as it nosed the remains, turning the head slightly to reveal the forced-open cockpit.
"In the nearby area?" Leonidas asked, only to recieve another wordless negative. "Dammit, the pilot's dead!" Yet another negative greeted that, and the Zian blinked. "Wha-? The pilot's still alive? Then where is he?"
<Gone. Someone's already taken him. Look at these footprints.>

The Zoid bent down so that its pilot could get a closer look at the prints."
"Two sets," Leonidas noted, frowning, "That's a Saix... one of the claws is missing from a leg. And those look like the paws of a Leoblaze or Leo Striker."
<A few have been known to go stray,> Gairyuki supplied; for those that understood them, Zoids could be a literal fount of information, as a fair number of people forgot that they were actually alive. They were also prone to gossiping when in the hangar, so even one tended to know news, often classified, from across the continent and beyond.
"Right... So, what's the plan, Alex?"

The Blade Liger pilots shared a glance from inside their Zoids; they might not like it much, but the fact that Zoids and the vast majority of Zians could communicate and converse like humans had proven to be useful. On one occasion they'd managed to capture a prototype Energy Liger through this ability. Rumour had it that this Zoid had been given to the friend of Van Flyheight, Fiona, and was used in tandem with the Liger Zero that Van's Blade Liger had become shortly before the release of the Blade Liger into mass production, and the Jet Falcon that seemed to follow them around.

[Nelle Kozera]

Spider impacted the ground acting like a rag doll as he sputtered across the ground coming to a halt. He was dazed from the impact and blacked out at the end of his skid across the ground…

“You know, this place I used to come here when I was younger, but I never actually went into the building itself. Now but now I wish I had come in a long time ago.” He was talking to the ghostly form of his Aether liger standing beside him. “Well I guess this is the end of our time together, it’s been a good…”

He was jerked awake by a shift in his center of gravity he came too to the sight of him being carried on a tooth, he nearly flipped out seeing the bear behind him and realized that he was being carried by a Zoid.

His mind started racing, wondering exactly what happened. After a few seconds of thought he came to a few possible answers.

A. That one of the people he knew where taking him back to base.

B. Someone had picked him up

C. A wild Zoid had found him and was taking him somewhere

D. He really really really need to have a smoke.

In the end he went with D, and decided to figure it out later.

He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a cigarette. “Hmmm, down to my lucky, well I guess it really is lucky today.” He pulled it out and lit it taking a slow drag on it before savoring the minty taste. “I’m going to make this last.” Now that he had relaxed a little he turned his attention back to the fact that he was being carried.

“SO….where are you taking me…eh…I never got your name.”

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow hissed out an affirmative to the Leo Striker, stating that she knew full well just how fragile humans could be. Smoke wafted into her nose, filling her receptors with the gunky smell of a cigarette, gagging her. She pulled to a stop as the human asked her where she was taking him, lowered her head, and promptly dropped Spider on his ass.

She leaned in with a quiet hiss and flicked her tongue out, her tongue snapping the upper half of the cigarette from the bottom, sending it flying a few feet away where she proceeded to stamp on it harshly, burying it under the ground with each stamp, ignoring any complaints he might be shouting at her. That done, she shoved her large head inches from the human, letting out a huff and snorting out the captured smoke in her body into his face with a shake of her head.

Black Arrow proceeded to hiss, snarl, and growl out that despite whatever fetish his sick, pink, soft, oil-covered, rust-inducing, maggot-feeding people had, she did NOT appreciate having the ash and smoke filling her systems and clogging her systems from doing what they were supposed to. She hissed in frustration as the human had enough sense to understand that she was angry with him, but obviously didn't understand her elegant statement.

Her tail twitched angrily as she addressed his question, thrusting her head at him, then lifting up and thrusting her head in the direction of the nearest town, the lights visible on the horizon line from where they stood. She turned to the Leo Striker and huffed again about the incompetence of pilots and made the comparison to Zians and their ability to at least comprehend what she was saying in comparison to the COMPLETE lack of understanding that most humans exhibited.

She stalked back and forth, forgetting them both for the moment as she raged about how she didn't understand how any sentient Zoid could POSSIBLY deal with the constant inability of their so-called 'pilots' when they couldn't even understand the true BASICS of Zoids and their abilities, much less dare to claim to understand the true depth of Zoid intelligence when so many of them treated her kind like common animals, snarling that taking on a pilot had to be the WORST decision any Zoid could ever make.

With a final note of wrath, she lifted her head and let out a roar that roughly translated <STUPID PILOTS!!> before twisting around and sliding her tooth under Spider's shirt again, lifting him up, still growling to herself...

[Buzzwolf]

"No! no no no!" She yelled at the control screens, seeing the stone surface edging over the Aether Ligers frame as the Pantera pounded to a halt, She watched horrified as the stone consumed the once proud creature. the cockpit eased open and she hopped to the ground, a barely audible crack coming from under her as she landed and made her way up to the stone liger, gently setting a hand on it.


All she'd done, all the work she'd put into that beast to make sure Spider's recklessness would keep it from danger...all for nothing now. Her paw ran down the surface and fell to her side, an inner turmoil for the beast keeping her rooted in place, not even noticing the crack of the stone below her till she found herself hoisted up by her shirt collar by the fang of her Pantera Unit, a ragged hole in the rock where she'd just been standing a moment before. The pantera unit took slow, careful steps back, till the faint cracks stopped some meters back before setting her down once more. She muttered a muted 'Thanks' to her zoid, touching it's metal nose gently as if a truly living creature.

She looked up at the sound of a frustrated roar somewhere off in the distance before looking up to the Gairyuki cockpit addressing her as 'Alex' "First off, I don't know where you got it...the Names Axel, not alex, and this is my Fanged Rose" She said, climbing back up and into her open cockpit "The 'Plan', would be to find our down pilot...so I can personally strangle him..." She muttered the second part nearly inaudibly, surely not enough for the Gairyuki pilot to catch "And by the sound of that roar, it would seem our Saix got here before us. We find our Saix, we find our missing pilot." She navigated through her controls with practiced ease, pulling up the control console for the Magnesser system and increaasing it's output to decrease the Panteras weight, and swung the Pantera around to look to the two Blade Ligers "You two knuckleheads watch your step, I'm reading a massive cave system just below that the Aether Liger cracked the ceiling of, so unless you want to end up like it, I suggest you step lightly..." she glanced toward the Gairyuki before starting off at a careful step in the direction of the Saix "that goes for you to unless you came along to go cave diving" soon as she was clear of the cracked ground she throttled the beast forward, taking off at a dash for the Saix's location, leaving behind a retrieval marker for Command. if nothing else could be done with the zoid, they'd at least be able to give it the dignity of not being nothing more than a corpse in the open.

[Arratra]

"Oops, sorry Axel," Leonidas said sheepishly, rubbing his snout plating.
He manipulated the controls carefully, causing the Gairyuki, floating on the Magnesser System, gliding around the Aether Liger, then fired the ion boosters to catch up.

The Leo Striker growled a slightly irritable acknowledgement, but its head twitched a second later, and it skidded to a halt.
<Left! Go left! Humans aren't allowed in the area straight ahead!> the leonine Zoid roared, sounding almost stunned, <There's a Birthing Pool on your current path!>

Leonidas and the Gairyuki, although still quite a distance away, were able to hear it, and both froze. The Gairyuki kept going, as it was still floating on the magnesser system, but the ion boosters cut out.
"Everyone, cut left half a kilometre then accelerate," Leonidas said, "Our target's going to have to go around an area forbidden to humans. We can catch up and take charge of our downed pilot."
He switched to the command frequency.
"Command, I hope there's an aerial unit in the area. A pteras will do the job."
"Negative, Gairyuki Shin. Only flier in that area is a civilian Redler."
Leonidas groaned; some Zoids were modified for civilian purposes, which meant their weapons were removed and often replaced by more civilian-oriented equipment. A Redler was not capable of becoming an EMT vehicle, unfortunately, which meant it was likely just someone who liked flying, just like the Zoid itself.

Not too far away, however, a matte-black Fury, equipped with the Storm unit's X-breakers and the basic armour's Buster Claws, watched them idly. Next to the distinctive Zoid stood a black Organoid with ice blue eyes.
Within the cockpit, the pilot of the Zoid leaned back, shaking his head.
"Why did those two end up partnered, anyway?" he muttered, as the customised Fury shifted of its own accord.
He scraped a finger along the line of his facial armour, resting said finger on the distinctive mark that he'd kept even in this new form.
"Thank Eve Van was the one who found me and Reese," the second Fury Zian murmured, removing his hand from the circle-and-curved-angle birthmark that made him so distinctive.
"We'd better follow, them, Fury, Shadow," Raven said, "But we'll keep our distance. We might have authorisation for this, but it's still top-secret."
<"Right,"> Shadow replied, jumping up onto the Fury's back.
<I understand,> the Fury rumbled, activating its boosters and vanishing from view off the cliff.

[Nelle Kozera]

“Fuck me…I spend a full year tracking down a type cigs that AJ wouldn’t flip out over when I smoked them and not it seems you don’t like mint cigs like he did…” He grumbled, he said AJ with a pang of sadness. It could be connected that AJ was the name or nickname of his now dead Zoid. The black zoid had picked him up from this front of his shirt this time. He wasn’t sure it was because she wasn’t paying attention or because she wanted to keep an eye on him.

He went with the latter mostly because assuming that meant he had be more cautious in his actions. Her little show also it proved that this zoid was wild, and even more wild than most.

Great…she is taking me the nearest town, sweet, wait…who do I know in the nearest town…what is the nearest town to here? He pondered this for awhile because depending on the town it would mean if it was a bad thing or a good thing. He figured he would wait and see.

“So, it’s rather apparent that you’re a rouge Zoid, pilotless, etc etc…” He was addressing her directly. “So here is my question to you, though I’m pretty sure even if you tell me the answer I can’t understand you, I had to have some help from people to rig up a translator between me and AJ.” To her it might have sounded like it hurt for him to say his name. “So why pick me up in the first place? If you are a wild Zoid then you have zero obligations to care for the pilots of other Zoids. So I’m surprised that you picked me up in the first place, I figure it’s more likely that you would have sooner left me out there to rot than pick me up and bring me to a town. Are you actually curious about humans in general? Or is there something else I’m not seeing that should be staring me in the face…?” It was clear to see that he didn’t see Zoids as mindless animals, but as intelligent beings.

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow gave out an irritated hiss as the Leo Striker panicked, telling her to go around the area. She hated having others tell her what to do. <The shortest path between me and getting rid of this disgusting little thing is a straight line. You don't like it? Take it up with someone else. You followed me, not the other way around.> She turned and walked arrogantly into the forbidden zone, Spider hanging off of her tooth.

Black Arrow bit back an annoyed huff as the human began moping about his lost cigarette and how the Liger had only let him smoke that specific type. She paused midstep as she noted the sound of regret in the human's voice as he spoke about the fallen zoid. Then he asked her why she was carrying him. How was she supposed to explain the kinship of her kind to someone who didn't even understand her language?

She searched her mind for ideas, all of them turning up fruitless and she finally just settled for a huff, turning to look back in the direction of the Liger's fall, keening softly before turning her head back toward the city, striding forward...

____________

"Retrieval marker of the Fanged Rose confirmed, marked as fallen zoid. Move in for pickup." Samuel's ears flicked as he heard the driver in the cockpit telling them what they already knew after having Spider's zoid go dark. The small hovering vehicle slowly approached the Liger, spotting its remains with floodlights.

Samuel stood with the five other recovery team members, waiting until the door on the back of the vehicle opened before rushing out. All five immediately went for the head, muttering under their breaths as they gently patted the petrified zoid. Samuel felt a pang of helplessness and the husky turned away from the sight, the familiar feeling of failure welling up in his chest.

He took one step, looking for other pieces they would need to grab... and the ground fell out from underneath him. With a startled yelp, the husky fell into the earth, slamming into and sliding across loose pebbles that dragged him deeper. The tunnel he was in slanted steeply, sending him sliding, picking up speed each moment. He grasped in vain and the sides of the tunnel, finding only more loose pebbles.

The tunnel leveled out sharply, shooting Samuel out into a wide cavern, throwing him across the floor to roll several times before slamming into a rock, coming to a halt with a jarring thud...

[WolfyWetFurr]

Underneath the destabilized roof of the earthy resting place, a dormant zoid began to muster. The clash of zoids over head and resulting impacts caused vibrations great enough to trigger his boot up protocols but his systems were sluggish from too much sleep. A field about him crackled up before fizzling out and pink stand by lights began to illuminate along his dusty frame. The audio receptors were the first to activate to identify the disturbance.

As information began to trickle in, it was evident that he had been disturbed by an event that had already resolved its self. After another moment the Zoids scanning functions came online only to determine there was no noticeable changes to compromise his den, the fractures in the earth above being to small to pick up. The tunnel he had dug to get here had long collapsed for the most part how ever and should he want out, he would have to make a new exit that would likely result in opening up his den to potential collapse.

This was more true than he knew. The layer of earth over his cozy cavern hand been worn and blown away over the years and had been heavily compromised by the body that landed so near, or perhaps partially on, it. However, with no perceivable threat to the zoid, it remained in its restful stand by mode, unmoving.

Some time later there was a clatter followed by the tumbling of many small stones and a larger one. The pebbles pattered and panged off his fore paw followed by an uncharacteristically soft 'thump!' as the larger object hit. Starting the rest of its boot up sequence, the stand by lights brightened and the eye plates raised up into the head to sport the pink glowing eye sockets beneath. With a low grating rumble, the zoid cleared it's throat with a growl that echoed in the chamber and adjusted its eyes to gaze upon the rubble at his paw, only to deduce the larger object that he heard was a life form.

After raising his fore paw away from the small, delicate, life form, the zoid plugged the hole, that seemed to be a small remain of his tunneling, to prevent any more debris from entering his dwelling as he took a moment to examine his guest.

[Buzzwolf]

"Yeah, I see it" just as both the pilot and the Gairyuki had heard the call, the Fanged Rose had heard it as well, though to Axel it was little more than a warning roar, but to the rose it was all the directions it needed and had already pulled up a map displaying the unauthroized sector, and a route around it by the time the Gairyuki pilot had commed her. "Good thing I ain't a human eh?" she smirked and waved the map aside. the Rose giving a growl of approval and putting on an extra burst of speed "Go around if you like, but I'm gonna cut through and cut that Saix off from the far side."

"Axel!" the comm shouted at her, one of the blade ligers calling out, both of which had human pilots, and neither of the blade ligers would willingly carry them into the forbidden zone.

"Go around! kick in your thrusters and try an swing wide on the Saix, cut off any escape to the side, we'll pen 'er in!" she fired back at the comm, getting nothing but an acknowledgment light in return before the pair broke off, following the reroute the Rose had originally passed.

[Arratra]

The Leo Striker angrily split off, turning left and sprinting away, not wanting to see the supremely rude Lightning Saix again. He only barely missed the Blade Ligers, and only then because the Leo Striker was not the target or carrying Spider's personal beacon.
Which was moving straight through the forbidden zone.
"What in the-? Is that Saix nuts?!" Leo asked, "Zoids are reluctant to let in Zoidians at the best of times. What in Eve's name is that Lightning Saix thinking?"
Zians and Anthromorphs were the exceptions to this rule for some reason that wasn't understood yet. Organoids were also an exception, but that was going to happen anyway. It wasn't yet known if humans bonded with Organoids were allowed; there hadn't been reason for said humans to actually enter these zones.
Gairyuki was apparently thinking the same thing, as its head tilted in confusion.
<Fanged Rose,> it started, <What is your maximum speed while utilising that armour?>

One of the recovery specialists noticed someone was missing, and shouted to the supervisor, who called for an assembly of those still there.
"Great, no we need to find that damn husky," a Zian Pteras grumbled, earning himself a clonk over the head from the Zoidian of the group, whose Organoid growled something.
"His name's Samuel, junk head," another worker, this one a human, fired at him.
The Zian turned away, giving a long-suffering sigh.

[Nelle Kozera]

Spider looked around, he had never been in this position in his life, and he was hoping that it would be over soon enough. He also noticed that he was going towards an area that he had never been in before but was rather curious about for a long time, and unlike other Zoids this Zoid didn’t seem to give a shit about some rules that others had put in place.

As he was musing this he felt something give in his shirt and he looked down just in time to see her tooth rip through his shirt. “Holy…!” he instinctively grabbed for the saix’s tooth just as he felt the support of his shirt give way. He was now dangling by his hands on the Zoid’s tooth. “Help?”

(Sorry short post, not a lot i can do at this moment)

[Shade Leshyr]

Black Arrow barely registered the Leo Striker turning and leaving. She mentally shrugged as she processed this, wondering why other zoids had such an aversion to bringing humans to the Birthing Pools, they let every other abomination under the sun invade the pools. Her jaw squeezed tighter at the thought of all the squishy little creatures invading such a place.

Her ears registered the sound of tearing fabric and she felt the human's grip on her tooth as he drew her attention to the fact that she had sliced through his shirt in her aggrivation. She slowed to a stop, weighing her options. She could, of course, put the human in the small space for his kind in her head, but the thought of the dirty, little, hairless ape in her body sent a shudder through her body.

She couldn't hold him like this any further if she was to get him anywhere alive. She could put him on her back, but her cannons flipping around might crunch him into a puddle. She shuddered as her last and only option became clear to her. Lifting her head, she opened her mouth and gently shook Spider loose, her tongue catching him as her jaws snapped shut around him.

Black Arrow gagged for several seconds as her tongue registered his 'taste,' fighting the desire to empty her gut of the necessary fluids in her body. Weakly, she arched her tongue in a makeshift seat and, fighting her urge to vomit the entire time, started off again, able to go a bit faster now that the human was safely restrained by her tongue...

___________________

Samuel's first action was to gently move every muscle in his body, checking for any serious injuries. Nothing was broke, as far as he could tell he was just bruised and battered from the fall and a little scraped from the slide. Then he heard the growl.

Moving slowly, Samuel levered himself up and placed his feet under him, grunting as he rose on the sore muscles to look up. The stone he had slammed into resolved itself to be a single claw on the paw of a Zoid, buried under the ground. The canine saw the massive eyes centered on him, looking him over.

The husky stood, holding the zoid's gaze as he searched for a mark of allegiance, eyes widening slightly as he didn't see any, "A wild," he asked out loud, painfully aware of how far his voice carried, "and a model I've never seen before to boot," the husky took a bow, it was always good to be respectful to something that could splatter you all over, "a pleasure to meet you."

He looked around, seeing no other zoids. He hadn't fallen into a sleeping hollow, at least not a group one, "Sorry for invading your home. If this is your home," he looked back up into the zoid's eyes, "Have you been down here for a long time?"

[WolfyWetFurr]

The zoid had no way to show it at this time, be he was most relieved by the lack of panic. The respect was expected, and yet refreshing. Those that were used to being around zoids regularly often lost the respectful habits. But this creature before him now, was very new to him. It looked like the animal some humans had kept but stood upright. None the less, it looked more than capable of being a pilot. It was the right shape and size, and could speak the language of past small creatures he worked with.

A low rumble came from the large wild creature. Almost a hum like sound. The tone was low and non threatening so as to not leave room for uncomfortable silence as the zoid mulled the situation over. He was not keen on talking to people. Or more accurately put, he was very selective. So if he opened up to this young man, or dog, before him, it had to be some one he would continue to talk to. His method of communication was reserved for his pilot and mechanics usually. Scanning the husky for any personal communication devises, the Zoid locked onto one and sent him a text message:

"From No User Data: Pleased to meet you, small creature. I have been sleeping here a long time. I no longer have a home. Please cooperate to minimize risk of structural damage to your body."

When Samual would look back up at the zoid, he would find it's jaws gaping like a dark cavern with in the cavern he stood. The mouth was black with white teeth and the tongue was pink with a metallic shine. No real details were visible with only the glow of the pink stand by lights along the zoid's body to work with. With a very heavy thud, the tip of the tongue hit the floor at the huskies feet and he would find it had a textured surface similar to loading ramps to prevent slipping. He would also find he had no other direction to go but in as the large beast's paw curled behind him to cut off all other directions.

When the small one was safe inside, the Zoid would consider answering questions while he processed what to do with the vulnerable creature.

[Arratra]

Even that brief pause, however, gave the Fanged Rose and Gairyuki time to catch up almost completely; they were now in sight of the Lightning Saix, the Gairyuki visible to Black Arrow as well due to its glowing panels.
"Target in sight... but we can't fire," Leonidas stated to Axel, "The stray's still carrying him, and I... whoa."
They had just arrived at the pool itself; the glowing, pale-lavender fluid that made up the pool was beautiful enough, but what really caught Leonidas' attention were the round balls with spindly limbs, necks and tails.
"Those are... infant Zoids," he breathed, astounded. Before now, the only times an infant Zoid had been seen was in artificial birthing pools, created from samples of the fluid brought in by robotic probes from apparently-abandoned pools.
Even though this would only be a fleeting glimpse to them, with the ongoing chase going just past the edge of the pool, this was something Leonidas knew he would always remember; the glowing spheres of the infants' bodies (in actuality primarily the Zoid Core around which their proper body would form), and the little blinking lights that were their eyes watching them as they went past.
"Axel, did you see that?" Leo asked excitedly, quite unusual for him, "Infant Zoids!"

[Nelle Kozera]

Spider flinched as black arrows teeth closed him in. “Well this could be…” He was halted though by fact that the Zoids “tongue” was cupping him to makeshift seat for him. He held on as the Zoid sped up, “This is new…” He said looking out through the teeth of the saix as she was passing through the birthing pool. “So this is what the actual birthing pools look like…” He said in slight awe as she passed through at an impressive speed for someone caring a passenger that wasn’t restrained with any safety gear. Still he was wondering where she was taking him, he hadn’t come that this far in this direction before so this was foreign territory for him, at least he hadn’t come here on foot.

_____

“Well…this blows…” Hazel said to her pilot as they where skirting the edge of a cliff that over looked the pools. She was skirting the pools not for any reason other than the fact that she didn’t trust the ground in the pool with her weight involved. She was more comfortable with bed rock under her legs. She had originally planned to burrow underneath but this was just less hazardous in the end.

Looking over she could see some Zoids that where traversing the birthing pool it looked like there was a lightning Saix being perused by two other Zoids that she wasn’t exact familiar with. Soon though she saw two blade ligers, one passed by her the other was on the cliff on the opposite side of the birthing pool.

Below though she was curious as to why the Saix was being chased.

<Lighting Saix, why are you being chased by Zoids? And…what’s in your mouth?> She asked black arrow over the radio. She didn’t bother asking the pursuers, she figured the Zoid being chased would tell her.

“Hey you think the Saix is going to tell us why they are chasing it? Not like there is much we can do from up here without destroying the pools in the process. Guess for now we can just enjoy the show. You think these are the same people that where involved with the Zoid battle that we were heading to watch?”

Below anyone that looked to there left and up, or those cued in by Blade Ligers (Assuming they took notice) would see a Death Stinger skirting the edge of the cliff...

[Shade Leshyr]

She wasn't sure what prompted her at first, but as she passed by the birthing pool, Black Arrow opened her mouth a crack, letting the human in her mouth see the miracle of her birthplace. She thought about it for a moment and she realized that she wanted him to see this, to see that the zoids would live even if his entire race vanished off the planet. They didn't need 'pilots,' she was proof enough of that, but allowing him to see this place that was almost holy in the eyes of zoids seemed to accent the idea, show him beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was they who needed the zoids, not the other way around.

She watched tenderly as some of the infant zoids shifted, gazing at them with innocent eyes. These were true zoids, so many of them, untamed and brimming with personalities... personalities that were so easily stripped from them to make them into war machines. She couldn't help the matronly purr that escaped her throat as she saw a few here and there sleeping soundly, their dreams undisturbed by war and destruction. For a moment, she forgot about the human in her mouth, or the events only a few minutes ago, and only observed the little zoids with motherly affection as she passed by them...

Then reality reared its ugly head as a zoid somewhere up on the ridge to her right contacted her and unknowingly warned her that she was being chased. Twisting her head back to look, she hissed softly in annoyance as she saw the two zoids pursuing her. She was loath to do anything near the pool, but if she broke to open ground, the two of them would overtake, apprehend, and enslave her...

Arguing with the pilots would be pointless, but those two zoids were still her brothers, hopefully still reasonable. She slowed and turned, facing the oncoming zoids with her fierce, unchanging gaze. Unwittingly, the two pilots had set themselves on her terf. This close to the pool, they wouldn't dare fire their weapons, much less with the human in her mouth. She stamped her foot <STOP!>

She held her ground as the two zoids slowed to a stop just in front of her and she hissed <Look, I don't know why you're following me, but if I had to guess, it would be the human currently resting his filthy form on my tongue. Brothers, I don't care overly for your choice, but I for one am NOT letting one of these filthy apes into my head, I'll kill you both before I let that happen! Now you explain this to your 'pilots' because I will NOT degrade myself by speaking to them: if they want the pilot, they can have him, but I demand my freedom!> her voice was breaking on the edge of panic, before she hissed out softly...

<Try to take my freedom, and I'll crush the little meatbag between my jaws....>

_________________

Samuel felt a pleasant vibration in his bones as the zoid before him vibrated in the darkness, only the lights along its body giving any indication of movement. Samuel could understand the zoids' language for the most part, but the dialect coming through the rumble was strange, archaic even. It was to the normal zoid dialect as Latin was to English, a rising syllable matching a word from what he knew slightly, but the rest being unintelligible to him.

The husky was saved from hours of frustration of trying to translate by a beeping on the datapad at his waist. Bringing it up, Sam scanned the zoids message, wondering vaguely what it meant by "structural damage." It didn't give him long to wonder though as he looked up, hearing the sound of movement and saw, by the eerie glow of the zoid's body, gleaming fangs towering over him just before the dark hole that lead into the zoid's throat.

Sam's first reaction was to retreat away from the terrifying visage, but twisting his head, it became clear by the position of the paw behind him that the zoid was not taking no for an answer. Sam jumped as the large tongue planted itself before him, but as the movement stopped, Sam decided that if the zoid had wanted to hurt him, he wouldn't be having this internal debate and reached for his flashlight, switching it on and scanning the interior of its mouth. Aside from the strange ramp pattern on the tongue, Sam could have sworn that he could see the vague outline of something on the roof of its mouth.

Carefully lifting one boot, Sam brushed the footwear off before easing his weight onto the tongue, repeated the move with the other boot, stepping up the tongue one measured pace at a time, hoping to convey more confidence than he felt at finding himself climbing into a zoid's open maw...

[Arratra]

(Nelle, I had specifically said to wait until Buzz's other character was approved. Please don't do that again. That being said, Buzz's character is approved now, so I'm letting this pass... just the once.)
The Gairyuki skidded to a halt, staring straight at Black Arrow.
<Violence... is strictly forbidden in the area around the birthing pools. Even if that were not so, I would not risk opening fire with infants nearby, human or Zoid.>
"Why did you attack the battle?" Leonidas asked after a long moment, "I know you're not with the Backdraft; they'd force you to have a pilot even without your consent. If you're looking for a bit of fun I recommend you do something else; attacking battles like that could attract the Backdraft or worse; Neo-Zenebas and that psycho, Helios Prozen."

The Blade Liger yowled in shock, and the pilot let out a gasp, as both jolted violently away from the Zoid... then skidded to a stop, realising that this one was considerably smaller than the monstrosity Van Flyheight had faced.
"Who are you?" the pilot asked, "What are you doing out here? And why did a Death Stinger of all Zoids consent to having a pilot?"

[Buzzwolf]

"Yeah yeah, infant Zoids...Whatever" she knew she was going to kick herself for it later, but her mind was too focused in on her current mission, made all the worse as she spotted the Saix. The Rose putting on an extra burst of speed as it darted skillufully about the birthing pools and other obstacles.

She nearly missed the warning from the blade Ligers if not for the Rose turning her head to look in it's direction "Shit..." She growled, making a mental note of it, for the time being, the zoid, as big as it was, didn't seem to have any interest other than watching them, and for all she cared, it could remain as such as long as it didn't try to interfere.

The Rose suddenly gave an odd sounding growl, snapping her out of her daze as she realized the Pantera unit was slowing to a halt, the Saix standing not fifty yards from her own unit as it finally stopped.

A click and a loud humm came from behind Axel as the APU kicked to life of the zoids own accord, a low rumble coming from the Pantera unit as it slowly stalked around the Saix, <you're hardly in any position to make demands of us> the Zoid growled out, all four of the Plasma lances glowing as the APUs power was fed to them, preparing them to fire <and neither are you in a place to make threats. Kill the Human,> the pantera brushed Spiders death off as being nothing more than a mild inconvience to her <he is not mine, and I shall be given the chance to watch you burn in respite for killing him, you filthy feral> the voice seemed sharp and harsh as she snarled the message out <you cannot hide behind the young, not forever...and not from me> the Rose growled out <you can release the pilot and come with us, and I give you my word, you will be unharmed, resist and your options become less...desirable>
_______

The small female chuckled and kicked her feet up on the control console of the Death Stinger "I don't think we're gonna have to wait for an answer" she said as the Saix growled out it's warning "She's got their pilot and's run out of ground to run. Ha! poor thing ain't gonna stand a chance against those Jager Lances if it decides to open up!...what in the hell is that carrying them...?" she kicks her feet off the panel and leans forward on the edge of the seat, trying to get a better view of the unknown Pantera unit, moments before the blade ligers surprised her and dragged her attention away.

She rolled her eyes at the ligers demands "Why?! why do they always ask me that?!" she held her hands up, mocking a pair of 'mouths' with her paws "why did a death stinger choose you? why did it consent to a pilot? blah de blah de blah! geez...no one ever wants to know what I'm doing anymore, just how I ended up with you..." she rambled to the Stinger, huffing as she crossed her arms, deciding just what to do, a sly smirk coming over her muzzle "Lets have some fun shall we? Hazel, open a channel, and throw a vader filter over it, they're gonna shit themselves when they realize who's actually behind the wheel"

"Who are you to ask such of me?!" she spoke into the comm, a deep male voice resembling that of 'Darth Vader' coming out the Blade ligers end "I could crush you with barely a wave of my hand! leave me be while I am still in a good mood!" she giggled as she switched her end off, waving one of the various weapons at the blade ligers threateningly, waiting to see how they took it

[WolfyWetFurr]

The zoids eyes brightened as the husky looked up, silently delighted by the expression on Samuel's face when he gazed into the impressive maw of the machine for the first time. Cameras and sensors in his mouth too small to notice allowed him to examine each of the huskies reactions. When the small male checked for possible escape routs, finding none of course, the Zoid did not hold it against him.

The low hum continued again as Samuel dusted his boots courteously and stepped onto his large tongue. Having life of that kind near him again was refreshing and under much better terms than the last. While he had recovered from the physical damage and the loss of the imperial pilot that he called his own so many years ago, it left a void that needed to be filled. The husky brought new life to the zoid, making his core feel as young as he did before the slumber that fully restored his body.

With full composure, there was no motion in the tongue as Samuel took several steps to deliver himself into the jaws of the beast until he was near the center of the tongue. At that point the tongue retracted, feeling a bit like a conveyer belt that could be your doom, and the teeth clanged shut. The comforting hum stopped and the back of the tongue lifted to seal off the throat.

At first, it was pitch black with in the mouth which seamed to manage a near perfect seal. Though as the Zoid booted up the rest of its systems, loading lights along the gums began to light up like pink movie theater guide lights in the dark. Details remain obscured, but the combination of the loading lights and the husky's hand light could perhaps provide Samuel needed comfort.

After he recovers from any possible stumbles that may have occurred during this transition atop the very hard yet pliable surface, Samuel's data pad would beep once more:
"From No User Data: I am glad for your mutually beneficial cooperation. Given the lack of personal restraining devices, I'd like to advise you to brace yourself as we make the transition to the surface."

No sooner did the smaller male finish reading did he hear and feel the rumble of motion. If he did not find something to hold on to, he would find himself tumbling towards the back of the tongue as the zoid raised its head and began to burrow upwards though a layer of dirt much thinner than the zoid anticipated. The recovery team above would be treated to a very dirty and dramatic breach.

[Nelle Kozera]

Word really can’t describe the amount of dread that was flowing through spider’s veins by the truck loads, thankfully he was a very good liar, if not to himself to others. As the tension was escalating he could feel the blood levels lowering in his adrenalin veins. Somehow he was sure that this day proably couldn’t get much worse.

So there was only one word on his mind.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!”

(OOC: There are 196, count them)

____

Hazel looked between the scene developing below, slightly amused before turning to the blade ligers.

"Who are you?" the pilot asked, "What are you doing out here? And why did a Death Stinger of all Zoids consent to having a pilot?"

Hazel chuckled as Italy gave her response before adding one of her own. “So what’s wrong if I consented to having a pilot? Why is that so surprising?” A mature female voice came across; it wasn’t the same as before. This voice, nearly dripping with malice, “Should I show you why I choose this pilot…” With that the channel cut…

Inside the pilot’s house Hazel was laughing as her tail cannons waved in blade liger’s direction. “People need to learn to lighten up sometime.” Inside her voice was far more cheery. She looked back at the scene below, not much had changed. “I’m going to record this, could sell for something later…”