Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ Complication ( Chapter 13 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

While Dingo and Leo extract valuable information, the Triad fights off the latest assault on Ryan Corporation.

Amongst the combat, however, Vera struggles with Miryhn's greatest enemy: himself.

Non Anime: Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Mecha / Comedy / Adventure / Action / Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.10.2003 | Updated On: 01.27.2004 | Pages: 15 | Words: 20.4K | Visits: 192 | Status: Completed

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<CENTER>"tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away..." - Nine Inch Nails, from "Into The Void"</CENTER>

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Leo slid his card through the reader, then leaned against the side of the Tharsis County video-phone booth. He stroked his hand over his hair and sighed; Celvice would have a fit for him taking so long to call. She'd be pleased that he grew his hair some while he was gone; his bangs touched his eyebrows and the back was halfway down his neck. Celvice thought it was a bit more interesting (and fun to play with) and wanted him to try the style for a while.

Leo has made a promise to update Celvice regularly on his lifestyle; after all, they were going steady as it was. But with the promise he made to Dingo and Ken and Celvice waiting for him back home, he could only call her on occasion to prove he wasn't dead. There wasn't that much else to say; everything East Wind did was kept covert, so he couldn't talk about work. And that was the problem; that's all Leo did. He lived on the ship most of the time, piloted his Vic Viper other times, and would rarely set foot in the real world other than to simply collect reconnaissance and information; which was what he was doing now, or at least was suppose to be doing.

Dingo stood outside, leaned against a building. He adjusted his yellow sunglasses and yawned, glancing up and down the street. Leo had begged to make a call, insisting he wouldn't take long. Dingo didn't care, really; Leo was in love and love needed communication, simple as that. Their job could wait, the person in question had nothing better to do.

Leo pressed in Celvice's number and within a moment, it responded with a confirmation to his inter-planetary call. Leo pressed "Yes" and Celvice's phone began to ring. In a moment, she picked up; smiling brightly at seeing Leo.

"Hey there!" Leo said, grinning.

"Leo! How dare you wait three weeks to call!" Celvice said, giggling. She had put her hair up in a high ponytail, wearing a silky red top.

"Celvice, I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't mean to make you worry or anything, we've just been busy as hell like usual," Leo said, looking remorseful.

"Oh, I know. It's always 'we've been busy' and 'we have some hot new thing brewing somewhere and I had to run and check on it'," Celvice said with a yawn.

"But I'm serious! I wouldn't like to you about something so important to-" Leo started to say.

"Leo!" Celvice interrupted.

Leo paused.

"Leo, stop making excuses. You don't have to remind me every time, Elena already told me how important you and 'the other two' are to her and the rest of 'them'," Celvice said, shaking her head. "You don't have to make excuses with me, I understand entirely. I believe you, okay? You're a busy group and I appreciate you at least taking some time to talk to me," she said, smiling.

"Thanks, I'm glad you do," Leo said, smiling and nodding.

"Good, now don't let me stop you. Just do what you have to do and see me again when you have the time," Celvice said happily.

"Celvice, you're the best," Leo said with a laugh.

"Well, I try hard to make you happy. After all, what's the point of fighting hard if you have no one to come home to?" Celvice said, leaning on head on her hand, elbow on an off-screen table.

"Of course that's why. And that's why I work as hard as I do. Just to see you again," Leo said, smiling.

"Aww, you're so sweet," Celvice swooned.

"Well, the boss is giving me a weird look. I have to get going," Leo said, glancing to the right.

"Alright, go ahead and do what you have to do. I'll be waiting right here for you on Antillia," Celvice said, grinning. "I see your haven't chopped off all your hair again...but I have to ask, why are you still wearing that silly headband? You've had it on for three years now, I swear," she added, pointing into the video phone.

"Just a lucky charm, I guess," Leo said, scratching his head under his trademark headband.

"What, do you think this is a video game and wearing it gives you unlimited ammo?" Celvice asked with a laugh.

"No, not really," Leo replied, laughing too.

"Well, I'll see you when you visit or call next. I love you very much, mon amour. Good luck! Bye!" Celvice said, waving.

"Thanks, I'll see you too. I love you too, m'amour. Bye!" Leo said, waving back.

Both hung up their phone.

Leo stepped out of the booth and walked up to Dingo. Dingo jerked up to his feet from the wall and began walking down the sidewalk, letting his brown trenchcoat sway openly. Leo caught up to him and walked abreast to him.

"You take too long," Dingo said, digging a piece of gum out of the pocket of his jacket pocket.

"Sorry, sheesh," Leo said, rolling his eyes.

"I told you she could come with us. We could always use a cook or a dishwasher," Dingo said, unwrapping the gum and beginning chewing it while tossing the wrapper aside.

"We're not taking her with us! Besides, she said she'd rather stay on Antillia!" Leo snapped, giving Dingo an ugly look.

Dingo chewed his gum, not recognizing Leo's statement. "That's some reason. Sounds like you're scared she'll die because of you. You know, say if the ship were attacked while we were doing something and-" Dingo began explaining.

"You shut the hell up!" Leo interrupted. He gave Dingo a furious look.

Dingo stopped walking and looked at him.

Leo sighed and his face melted to a frown. "Sorry, you're just opening an old wound for me there. For your information, I almost did loose her because of my ignorance. Well, that and a cheap pot shot from the back," he said, resuming walking.

"Yeah, sorry about that. You never tell me these things, you know. You seem to be fitting firmly into a lifestyle of all work, no play, and no girlfriend," Dingo said, resuming walking beside Leo.

"I can't help it, something keeps compelling me to make sure no innocent civilians have to see combat in their peaceful lives ever again," Leo said, zipping up his brown leather jacket. "By and by, ever notice how chilly it gets on Mars this time of year? It's like the folks in climate control will never let a late fall happen in the spheres," he added, looking upward.

"I lived on a moon of Jupiter with temperatures cold enough to lock up a Rabbit L.E.V.'s navigation computer. What makes you think this place is any big deal for me?" Dingo said in between chews of gum.

"Just making conversation," Leo said, rolling his eyes.

"Look, just focus on the job," Dingo said, shaking his head. "We can't go into this slack-jawed, this is a Nereidium employee we're dealing with. He's no mailroom clerk, so he's bound to have some protection."

"Dingo, the minute we got here all you did was tell me to grab my coat and go out with you. You never told me the situation here," Leo said, glancing across at Dingo.

"Alright, fine. It's simple recon counter-intelligence or whatever the hell you want to call it. Everyone who watched HBC the night Tarver Urenbach attacked Ganymede's Urenbech Catapult knows that Orbital Frames are in a state where they are unregulated. Nobody feels safe and Earth can't mention it yet to win the peace talks. The simple fact that Orbital Frames are still around and they can do nothing to prove it is a slap in the face to Earth military and are also a threat to the peace talks since the Anti-Metatron Body Act is in place. You know that there has been a lot of terrorist attacks against the Earth army while they've been occupying. Tarver's move could lead to more and more dangerous attacks by the sleeping divisions throughout the planet if the Earth armies let Tarver's attack go without mentioning," Dingo explained.

"So what are we doing here?" Leo asked in reply.

"It's a little tough. See, Elena has ordered us here to find out whatever we can about stray Orbital Frames. She got information from a reliable source in the army's tech department saying that all the Orbital Frames we've seen up until now were sealed up in military computers here on Mars for three years. The plans were heavily encoded days before the U.N.S.F. performed The Terran Crusade probably to be unlocked later in a counterstrike. However, the dates for the finalized versions of the blueprints were circa a year after the production of Jehuty and Anubis. Apparently these Frames were meant to be part of a larger and more dynamic force commanded by BAHRAM, or perhaps were the plans to a counterattack force someone in the military who also had a link to Nereidium cooked up to fight back," Dingo further explained, turning a corner to another street.

"So you're basically saying Masamune, Freya, and Shango were all part of this sealed up assault force, right? Army encoding takes years to crack unless you have the latest technology, so that means there's no way terrorists could have found the blueprints and cracked the code. They also wouldn't have the resources or time to construct these Orbital Frames given those Frames appeared in perfectly mint condition. Not even the military has the technology to construct Orbital Frames in that amount of time or that perfectly," Leo said, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"You catch on quick. That leaves us with only one suspect," Dingo said, smiling.

"Everything else is ruled out...so...Nereidium itself?" Leo asked, giving Dingo a puzzled look.

"Exactly! If the terrorists can't even touch those Frames and the military can't construct them that well, then Nereidium is the only one left with the resources and know-how on how to make Orbital Frames," Dingo said, spitting his gum into a trash can.

"Alright, that explains a lot. So I'm assuming the military can't do anything about this unless we find hard evidence that Nereidium is at the center of this, right?" Leo said, looking forward.

"Exactly, once again. That's precisely why Elena sent us here. We're going to meet with a rather important Nereidium employee to interrogate...I mean, negotiate information from. It was rather easy, anyone can be bought for the right price," Dingo said, reaching inside his own coat and pulling out two cash cards. "Each of these cards holds thirty million fake credits. Something about they used a really old method called 'hex editing' to hack the cards and make them track the guy the minute he uses them. I assume they're going to capture him when we're done talking to him just for arresting's sake. I mean, Elena even prepped it so that the minute he uses these cards fifteen Marines will be up his ass...anyway. We give him one card, get the info, then give him the other card. Simple as that," Dingo explained, stuffing them back inside his coat.

"No one gets away with dissension and conspiracy on the Earth military's watch, eh?" Leo said, yawning.

"No, sir. Not as long as East Wind exists," Dingo said, unwrapping another stick of gum. "We're kind of like the CIA for the military, you know? Gum?" he asked, offering Leo a stick as he began chewing on his own.

"No, thanks, I'm fine," Leo said, waving a hand at it. "Yeah, we're like....preventers or something!" he added with a laugh.

"Suit yourself," Dingo said, putting the stick of gum back in his jacket pocket. "Locked and loaded?" he said, taking out a Ganymede Dragon to check the clip.

"Yeah, I'm good," Leo replied, taking a .45 caliber U.N. Enforcer out of his coat and slipping it back in.

"I even brought 'Ol' Trusty'," Dingo said with a grin, patting the backside of his coat.

Leo sighed as the pair stopped in front of and faced an abandoned firehouse. "When are you going to stop carrying that thing around? You aren't El Mariachi. You aren't even the slightest bit Mexican!" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Antonio Banderas is one of the most awesome twentieth century action heroes ever! Don't you ever speak an ill word of him!" Dingo said, sticking his index finger in Leo's face.

"You have to stop watching that 20th Classics Channel," Leo said, shaking his head. "And Johhny Depp was a lot more awesome than Antonio was in that movie! He was shooting blind!"

"Leo, he wasn't really blind. That was special effects and make-up," Dingo said, taking a step back.

"Yeah, right. Next you'll tell me people really are capable of dodging bullets!" Leo said with a chuckle.

"Wouldn't be surprised at all, nowadays," Dingo said, kicking down the door.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Miryhn, miles away at the Ryan storehouse where he just got pep-talked by Robert Wolfgang, kicked a vending machine the exact same moment Dingo kicked open his door. However, Miryhn wasn't trying to get in somewhere, he was trying to get something out. There, stuck on the end of the corkscrew device, was Miryhn's much-wanted bag of chips; glaring at him in the vending machine's lights, mocking him for totally uncalled for reasons.

When Miryhn was tired of kicking the side of the vending machine, he hunched over and took a few breaths. He stood up, backed up down the hallway a little bit and ran full-steam. He leapt, slammed into the side of the machine with a flying tackle, and landed in a heap while throbbing in pain. He crawled to the front of the vending machine to see the bag had ever so slightly moved off the corkscrew; still glaring and mocking Miryhn and his reluctance to buy the bag of pretzels furthest from the front of the corkscrew, knowing the chance was slim it'd fall off. Miryhn was pissed now; royally pissed.

He stood up and pulled his sword off his belt, keeping it in the sheath. He held it in his left hand by the handle and the right by the part of the sheath below the handguard. He drew back and...

"Miryhn! What are you still doing back here?"

Miryhn froze. He turned his head, not moving his body, to see Vera glaring at him.

Vera folded her arms and continued to glare.

Miryhn chuckled nervously. "Just getting a snack, no need to worry. I'll be out in a few moments," he said, smiling stupidly.

Vera tapped her foot on her heel. "Alright, but hurry up. The operation begins in a few minutes," she said, turning to leave.

As Vera walked off, Miryhn looked at the snack machine and grinned evilly; he laughed and broke out of his pose. With a mighty swing, he smashed the glass in the front of the machine open. He gave a triumphant cheer, but stopped when a small theft alarm started going off. Miryhn growled and let out a primal scream. He punched the keypad with his bare fist, then stabbed at it with the sheathed katana; the whole time, the keypad simply kept repeating "invalid selection, please choose another". When the keypad had been completely removed in mid-sentence telling him to choose something else, the alarm still didn't go off. Miryhn leapt up and grabbed the top edge of the machine, pulling it to the ground with a loud metallic bang. He grabbed the side and flipped it on its backside, then began stomping on it while letting out periodic screams of rage. He drew the sword out of the sheath and held it high in the air, stabbing the vending machine in random spots until a spark and fizzle caused the alarm to stop and humorously pitch bend down to nothing. Miryhn panted, sheathed the sword, and grabbed the last three bags of chips from the vending machine. He walked off, calm as if nothing happened, and opened a bag of chips to begin snacking.

"God, I hate machines," he said, shaking his head.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Moments later, Masamune lifted off from the parking lot (where they kept the Frames since there was no room in the hangar) and flew into the ground-based airlock. The doors shut behind and another set opened in front, allowing an exit from the sphere. Masamune resumed its flight, setting an auto-pilot path towards formation with Freya and Zeus as they followed Wolfgang's squad of Phantoma 2's to the mining site.

Inside the cockpit, Miryhn happily snacked on his stock of chips. He began to wish he had gone ape on the soda machine too; these particular chips were quite dry. Just then, a call came in on the console.

Miryhn muttered something incoherent, his mouth packed with food, and muttered something incoherent.

"Please don't talk with your mouth full," ADA said in reply.

Miryhn moaned and swallowed. "Fine, happy? Who's calling?"

"A conference call between the Robert Wolfgang, Vera, and Super Fly Nash-o-rama," ADA said.

Miryhn blinked. "What was that last one?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Super Fly Nash-o-rama Harsborough," ADA replied.

Miryhn snickered. "What the hell?" he asked, laughing.

"That is the name registered as the Runner of Orbital Frame Zeus," ADA said.

"That stupid prick. Doesn't even have the guts to use his real name. Look, you're actually a network between our three Frames, right? Mind if you change that name slightly?" Miryhn asked, getting a great idea to humiliate Nash once again.

"I can only do that if-" ADA began to say.

"Fine, use that excuse. Look, just change it to something really lame like...Dingus...or Pinky. He'll never live that down!" Miryhn said, laughing.

"As you wish, I shall register Super Fly Nash-o-rama Harsborough as being deceased or otherwise fraudulent and will change the name to 'Pinky'," ADA said.

"'Deceased'? Oh, man, this is great," Miryhn said, laughing at the thought of Nash's reaction.

"Are you still going to accept this call?" ADA asked.

"Yeah, go ahead. I completely forgot," Miryhn said in between laughs.

Three windows opened: one of Vera sitting in Freya, one of Nash sitting in Zeus, and the last of Wolfgang inside his Phantoma 2.

"Good day, mercenariez. Before we begin, I have to ask if any of you were involved in a small inzident back inside zee sphere," Wolfgang said, giving another monitor a funny look.

"'Incident'?" Vera asked, looking not the least bit surprised.

"Okay, so I didn't wash my hands after I took a crap, so what?" Nash asked, sighing.

"You sick fuck," Miryhn said, cringing.

"Nash, that's so disgusting! Ew!" Vera said, grimacing.

"No, not that. Zomething else," Wolfgang said, causing a new window to open on everyone's screen. It showed the remains of the vending machine Miryhn trashed; the window was a security camera tape from the hallway. Wolfgang played it on rewind, the scene with Miryhn beating the crap out of it playing back with his screams in reverse and at a higher pitch. He stopped it and played it from the beginning. Miryhn watched as Vera and Nash's expressions changed from completely freaked out to not-so-surprised look.

"Rage against the machine?" Vera asked, drumming her fingers on one of the control spheres.

Nash chuckled at the comment.

Miryhn shrugged and smiled, tossing a few chips in his mouth.

"You will be charged in full for zee replacement of zat machine as well as for zee merchandise you z-tole. It will come out of your payment," Wolfgang said, closing the window for everyone.

"Way to go, Miryhn!" Nash said, sarcastically.

"Just a drop in the bucket, right?" Miryhn said, shrugging.

"Conzidering what you're working for, I'd hardly call zat a drop in zee bucket," Wolfgang said with a grin.

Miryhn blinked. "Just how much is Contraus paying us anyway?"

Wolfgang simply laughed.

"That's not a good sign," Nash said, biting his lip.

"Jim's going to give you hell if your that little mishap killed the dough, Miryhn!" Vera shouted angrily.

"Debate zis later. The moment you arrive at zee mine, prepare for battle! We'll be arriving zere in three minutez," Wolfgang commanded. "For justice and glory!" he added before signing off, his window closing on all three other monitors.

Miryhn, Vera, and Nash paused, staring at each other through the video windows.

"You heard the guy! Just justice and glory!" Miryhn shouted before cutting up into laughter. He cut his video link thereafter.

"Why do I get the feeling we should have left him at the arcade?" Nash said, shaking his head.

"I'd ignore that feeling. I'm afraid Miryhn might actually be useful for this battle," Vera said, sighing.

"What do you mean?" Nash said, a bit curious.

"Well, you remember what he did to Tarver Urenbach, right? Miryhn pilots like he's been doing it for quite a while. Something is really fishy about him, you know," Vera said, raising an eyebrow.

"Should we trust him? Maybe he's part of some kooky terrorism group too," Nash said, laughing at the thought.

"Don't be ridiculous! The way he handles himself in that thing is far too professional for those likes! I've seen-" Vera started to say, but cut herself off. Miryhn made her promise not to tell anyone about the fight with Gabriel and Lazarus, after all. If Nash rubbed it in, Miryhn would know exactly who told him.

"What? What'd you see?" Nash said, cocking his head to a side with interest.

"Nothing, nevermind," Vera said, laughing as if it was nothing. She smiled and cut off the video link.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

The attack force was picked up coming from the east, so the three Orbital Frames along with Wolfgang's main unit were placed facing that direction about five miles outside the mining station. To the east was a series of plateaus that rose several hundreds of feet in the air along with the coastline about five more miles to the southeast. The sky was fairly cloudy with a sandstorm detected passing far to the south, making it a bit windy. Zeus rocked back and forth with each gust.

"Why's my Frame moving while you two have yours steady?" Nash whined, petrified he was about to do the stupidest thing he'd ever thought of doing.

"Your stabilizers are responding to your jittering, that's why," Miryhn's voice said over the scratchy sound-only comlink between the three Frames and Wolfgang's unit.

"You're meaning to tell me that this thing is mimicking every movement I even think of doing or actually do?" Nash said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's about right...I think," Miryhn replied, sinking down in his seat inside Masamune. Masamune and Freya were set in formation in front with Zeus in between them a number of yards back. "Orbital Frames have an odd habit of acting or otherwise responding exactly how the Runner is feeling and acting," Miryhn said, opening another bag of chips.

"You serious? What's with these things anyway?" Nash asked over the comlink, part curious and part freaked out.

Miryhn laughed with his mouth full of chips. "Man, you're easy to scare. Orbital Frames aren't living things, they're just machines," he said after swallowing his food.

"I'm not scared of Orbital Frames! Go shove it!" Nash replied angrily, the scratchy comlink distorting his voice a bit.

"Boys, settle down," Vera commanded over the comlink. "Things will get hairy in a moment here, the very second that-"

"Enemies spotted at 12 o'clock!" a soldier's voice shouted over the comlink, interrupting Vera.

"All units advanze! Fire at vill!" Wolfgang's voice shouted in command. "For peace and justice! All you men, fight vith your very zouls!"

"Yes, sir!" all the soldier's replied in unison.

"Hey! What about women?" Vera said, insulted.

"Just be glad your name isn't 'Will'," Miryhn replied, Masamune taking off from its hover with a quick Burst.

"That was his lamest joke yet," Vera said, sighing. Freya shot off right behind Masamune.

Nash whined and carefully accelerated in line with the others.

The Phantomas all squatted, hovering at high speed across the landscape. As the horizon scrolled past, several smaller Orbital Frames with thin arms and legs appeared. Every part of their body was rather lanky, except for the arms and legs which were a bit thicker. Their heads were no bigger than their chests, rotating constantly and collecting data. Three carried glowing blades on each arm and another two had four-shot missile launchers attached to the body of the Frame. They flew in formation: the three blade-bearing ones in a line with the missile-carrying ones in between each a short distance behind.

"Just five unmanned Raptors? This will be cake," Vera said, Freya drawing its spear and twirling it around on one hand and gripping it with both hands.

"They're called Raptors?" Nash said, curious.

"Everyone knows what a Raptor is by now, Nash. I mean, come on," Miryhn said, sighing.

"Can it! You're making me nervous!" Nash shouted.

As the Raptors approached, several Phantomas began opening fire from their machine guns and missile launchers. The two Raptors on outer part of the formation split off in opposite directions while the one in front flew upward. The two missile carriers dropped altitude and flew closer to the ground.

"Kind of smart for unmanned stuff," Miryhn said, activating a lock on the Raptor that ascended. On Vera and Nash's console, they received a small marker indicating Miryhn's lock-on.

"Might be an advanced program," Vera replied, taking a lock on the Raptor that flew to her side of the formation. Again, a small marker was placed on each of their screen indicating Vera's target.

Nash selected the one that flew to his side of the formation. Once again, the marker appeared for his target.

"No, take the missile ones. Have the Phantomas cover you and fire Thunder at them," Vera shouted in response to Nash's selection.

"What? Okay, well, how do I switch?" Nash said, glancing at the controls cluelessly.

"I don't know! Just press something, I can't remember at the moment," Vera shouted angrily, obviously pre-occupied setting up to attack her Raptor.

Nash whined and pressed random buttons. First, Zeus fired a Shot from its hand at nothing; then it Burst forward for a moment, turned left, and automatically grabbed a nearby Phantoma off the ground.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" the soldier in the Phantoma cried out.

"Sorry, pilot error!" Nash said, moaning in frustration. He kept pressing parts of the control spheres until the Phantoma was dropped.

"I don't know him, I just work with him," Miryhn said, laughing. Masamune drew its katana and spun around horizontally to slash vertically at the Raptor. The Raptor crossed its blades, blocking the attack.

Nash growled and finally got the aiming right. He instinctively pressed the right controls for Zeus to pull Thunder out of the Vector Trap and he held it out with full extension. One of the missile-carrying Raptors suddenly pulled to a stop and unleashed four missiles all at once. Two slammed into a Phantoma each, destroying the upper halves. Another went off-course and hit the side of a plateau while the last was heading for Nash. A small red indicator began flashing "Missile lock" and a beeping sound went off.

"The missile is locked on to Zeus. Evasive action is recommended," ADA said.

Nash whelped and fired the Burst, flying in random directions. He flew above and behind the row of Phantomas and turned hard around a plateau. The missile hit a column of rock, allowing Nash a sigh of relief. Without warning, however, Nash didn't watch where he was going, turned too hard, and Zeus slammed into the side of the plateau.

Vera skillfully attacked the Raptor; stabbing at holes in its defense. With one clean Burst spinning attack, she took off one of its arms. It did an evasive mid-air backflip and dashed forward for its own Burst attack while she was open. Vera cringed and tried to bring the spear back to block, but the Raptor stabbed into Freya's right shoulder. The damage was minimal, but the right arm was a bit unresponsive. She held the spear in the barely functioning right hand and grabbed it by the neck with the left arm. She tossed it hard into the side of a plateau, managed enough response in the right arm to hold the spear at her side, and Burst forward. She slammed the spear straight through the neck and into the side of the plateau, severing the head from the rest of the body. The body fell lifelessly to the ground; Vera pulled the spear out and let the head drop too along with it.

Miryhn was focusing on the Raptor that flew above, sword fighting with it. Miryhn yawned; the swordfight with the Raptor was just too boring. He was going easy on it, hoping the Raptor really was of advanced programming. He was let down quite a bit by this sad excuse for a Raptor.

The other bladed Raptor that flew to Nash's side was busying itself with the Phantomas; the Phantomas were barely handling it, keeping a few close to it with their scimitars and the rest firing machine guns at it. It nimbly dodged around the machine gun fire, swatting at the slow sword-bearing Phantomas and cutting each one down easily. Along with it, each missile-carrying Raptor kept firing volleys of missiles off and picking off some Phantomas themselves; Wolfgang's unit was quickly losing.

"Give us zome backup here!" Wolfgang shouted over the comlink.

"Never thought you'd ask. This sucks," Miryhn said, sitting up in his seat. Masamune blocked the next attack by the Raptor and suddenly spun around with an incredibly fast Burst slash. The attack sent the Raptor backwards with a bit of damage across its chest. Miryhn dashed forward and grabbed the Raptor by the head, switching targets to the other blade Raptor the moment he grabbed it. Masamune spun around several times and tossed the Raptor down at the other one. The Raptors collided and Masamune brought its sword forward at full extension. Having charged up his next attack during the spin, Miryhn fired a beam from the sword splitting the two Raptors and causing them to explode among the Phantomas. A few Phantomas were damaged in the explosion while some were just knocked over by the debris of the Raptors.

"Vat do you think you're doing!" Wolfgang shouted in response to Miryhn's careless attack.

"My job, man. Don't worry, they probably only got a bruise," Miryhn said brightly.

"You inzolent little-" Wolfgang began to say.

"Vera, you take the one on the left, I'll go right," Miryhn commanded, interrupting Wolfgang. Masamune spun its sword around nimbly and held it ready to stab downwardly on the remaining Raptors.

"Right on!" Vera said, Freya's right arm response returning as Freya held its spear to stab as well.

The Phantomas regrouped and began an intense concentrated fire on the two remaining Raptors. The Raptors dashed away from their positions of firing continuously and began dodging and darting around. A few shots nicked one Raptor while the other took a missile to the leg; the leg was blow off entirely, ruining its balance. Suddenly, in between the volleys of fire, Masamune and Freya dropped down, stabbing the Raptors into the ground. While Freya's Raptor exploded immediately, Masamune's began to twitch some. Miryhn rolled his eyes and pulled out the sword; he then cut at it three times with a few quick swipes, causing it to explode.

"That couldn't have been all, could it?" Vera asked, Freya landing on the ground and planting the spear upwards in her hand from the ground.

"Zat was just zee beginning!" Wolfgang said as three more shapes appeared on the horizon.

Miryhn turned Masamune around and zoomed in the camera. He chuckled lightly.

"What? What is it?" Vera asked, curious.

"AlterNeiths. I remember them," Miryhn said, Masamune landing on the ground as well. "This could get interesting," he added, smiling.

"I don't like the way you say that," Vera said, a bit retained.

"Another target has been picked up, coming from the upper altitudes. Looks huge," a soldier said over the comlink.

"Say what?" Miryhn and Vera asked in unison.

Suddenly, behind the approaching AlterNeiths, a large squid-shaped object crashed into the ground with its legs spread. The legs pulled together and it stood fully erect, almost four stories tall on four of the legs. Its "head" was a glowing dome and four of the "legs" came up as arms spreading flame all around it. Coming out of the front of it was the a long cylinder much like the cockpit on an Orbital Frame.

"Tempest!" Wolfgang yelled over the comlink in heated anger.

"You know what that thing is?" Miryhn asked in surprise.

"I waz on Antillia when BAHRAM attacked it five yearz ago. One of thoze killed zeveral of my men! I vant revenge!" Wolfgang said with an angry crescendo.

Zeus came flying up to Masamune and Freya, its path a bit wobbly. "Hey, did I miss anything? Woah, what the hell is that? Do we have to fight it?" Nash asked, completely clueless.

"You're damned right we're fighting it!" Wolfgang shouted. "All men, prepare to charge! Keep your diztance and never let up! For peace and justice! For all mankind!" he added, talking proudly.

"Yes, sir!" the remaining Phantoma pilots shouted in reply.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Dingo walked inside the run-down firehouse with Leo carefully following in tow.

"Two hallways to each side of the entrance, one doorway leading into the garage straight ahead. Take note of this," Dingo said, glancing to each side as they walked in the door.

"No stairways or other doorways to note, I see," Leo said, looking carefully down each hallway.

Dingo and Leo had made a good habit of knowing the building they were in as best as possible. This made an edge for them, allowing plenty of opportunities for setting up traps and other tricks.

Dingo reached forward and opened the next door. Behind the door was the garage to the firehouse, long since abandoned of firefighting equipment. A man with a brown raincoat and a wide brimmed hat on stepped around one of the pillars and nodded his head to the side for them to come to him. Dingo looked back at Leo and nodded to go ahead. Both approached the man and Dingo took a handheld tape recorder out of his own coat.

"You realize that by giving up this information, everyone will win in this deal, right? We'll be recording the conversation with this little guy, ok?" Dingo said, smiling and waving the tape recorder at the man.

"Fine," the man replied with a bit of what Earth people would call a "southern American" accent. "And just call me Mr. X, alright?"

Leo put his back to Dingo's and slowly looked back and forth, examining the area.

"That's fine. You don't necessarily have to give up your identity for this," Dingo said as he pressed the record button on the tape. He propped himself against the pillar with the microphone facing in between them. "Okay, you know why we're here, right?"

"Yes, I know. I'm to provide you with what you want to know in exchange for the sum we agreed on."

"Indeed. Let the record show I handed Mr. X the first cash card," Dingo said, pulling one of the cards out of his coat and handing it to Mr. X.

Mr. X reached out and took the card, stuffing it inside his coat.

"Now, tell me about the Orbital Frames that have recently been seen in a few incidents related to crime syndicates, bio-terrorists, and etcetera," Dingo said.

"It's simple, Nereidium is a business. We get payed to make things for people and someone payed for those Frames. What they did with them is their business and their business alone," Mr. X replied, nonchalant.

"Wait a minute, you're telling me Nereidium has openly defied the Anti-Metatron Body Act in order to make a fortune? Was it really worth the risk?" Dingo asked, almost like he was leading Mr. X.

"Isn't my problem anymore. I plan to retire the minute you hand me that other cash card," Mr. X said with a laugh.

Dingo chuckled too. "But, seriously, tell me who this fantastic benefactor is. Who bought those Orbital Frames from Nereidium?"

"I don't know who, but the who and the what are scenery. I'd recommend you ask why," Mr. X said, glancing around.

"What's that suppose to mean? I asked you a simple question. We already discussed the penalty for defying this interrogation," Dingo said strictly.

"You Earth scum, always being so official about things. Look, if you're so concerned, you have to be trying to find the motives here. If you know why they're doing this, then it's easier to find out 'who'," Mr. X said, ignoring Dingo's threat.

Dingo sloped his brow. "Stop telling me how to do my job!" he shouted, pushing the index finger of his free hand into Mr. X's chest.

"I don't know any more than that. You're asking the wrong guy. Now hand over the other card," Mr. X said, wiping his coat where Dingo had touched him.

Dingo glared at him for a moment. He lowered his head and tipped his sunglasses a bit to see over them. Mr. X was obviously in a hurry and what was even more obvious was that Mr. X thought he'd get away with a few thousand Earth taxpayers money scot-free. Dingo knew his type; he was obviously one of the anti-Terran racists. With this in mind, Dingo pushed his sunglasses back up his nose, stopped the tape, and grabbed Mr. X by the coat collar.

"Hey, what is this?" Mr. X said, surprised.

"I bet you don't like 'Earthers", do you? The joke's on you, buddy, see, I'm from Mars. Why not be cool and just tell me the rest of your story, eh?" Dingo said, shaking Mr. X violently.

"I said I don't know nothing! Besides, how do I know you're from Mars?" Mr. X replied.

"Oh, so you admit to blatant racism, huh? Guess I get permission to treat you as hostile," Dingo said, starting the tape again. "Mr. X has shown an outright distaste for myself and is to be treated as hostile. I am proceeding to use the necessary measures for interrogating his type."

"I'm sick of this! Give me the other card! We had a deal!" Mr. X demanded.

"No! I'm not giving you shit until you tell me who bought those Frames from Nereidium!" Dingo shouted, pointing accusingly at Mr. X.

"Dingo, are you sure about his?" Leo whispered over Dingo's shoulder.

Dingo sighed and tossed Mr. X to the ground. He turned around to face Leo's back. "I know what he's doing. He's withholding information because he doesn't like those aligned with Earth!" Dingo said, then turning back to Mr. X.

"Yeah, so what if I am? Yeah, you didn't get that on tape, did you? Won't have to worry about getting that information back to the damn Earthers if you're dead, can you?" Mr. X said, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, the sound of several small machine guns rattling and clicking came from each doorway. Upon hearing this, Leo and Dingo each pulled a handgun out of their coats. Mr. X chuckled and crawled against a wall.

"Idiots, trusting a double agent like myself," Mr. X said, laughing.

"And what does that mean?" Dingo said, not moving a muscle.

"You think Nereidium is just some normal company? A good quarter of its employees are with the Stein crime syndicate, including myself. You're up against some of the best grunts we have working the streets, gentlemen. I hope God will let you into heaven after we piss on your dead bodies," Mr. X said, digging a handgun out of his coat.

"What the hell are Martian crime syndicates doing working in a weapon development company?" Leo said, putting his back against Dingo.

"Why did you pick now to ask the plot-thickening question?" Dingo said, aiming at Mr. X.

"Oh? Aiming at me? That's it, you're dead! Get 'em, boys!" Mr. X yelled, raising his gun to shoot Dingo.

At that very moment, machine gun fire lit up the room.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"No one ever said this would be easy, did they?" Miryhn asked, opening a new chip bag.

"And just how do you propose we fight that thing?" Vera asked, awe-struck.

"By any means necessary! Charge!" Wolfgang yelled at the top of his lungs.

In that instant, the remaining Phantoma forces fired their thrusters and began flying towards the Tempest at full speed.

"What a bunch of idiots," a smarmy voice said over the comlink.

"Yeah, what kind of moron sends a squad of Phantomas into what's obviously a slaughter?" another replied in a deep tone.

Vera cocked her head to the side. The voices were coming in through her comlink. "Hey, Miryhn...why can we hear what they're saying?"

"Runners communicate over a universal band of communication. Haven't you noticed that by now?" Miryhn said, replying to her stupid question.

"No, not really. I never noticed while I was piloting why I could hear the opponent talking," Vera said, scratching her head.

"Must be for convenience or dramatic effect," Nash said, chuckling."You know, like in video games."

"Shut up," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"You people are weirdos," the smarmy voice said, teasing.

"Yeah, you're the best mercs Ryan could come up with?" another voice said in a cool, laid back tone.

All three AlterNeiths passed over the Phantomas and landed a few hundred yards away from Masamune, Freya, and Zeus.

"We're not terrific, but we're competent," Miryhn replied, grinning. "Except the guy in the green Frame over there."

"You shut your mouth, Miryhn!" Nash shouted, Zeus suddenly pointing Thunder at Masamune.

"Oh? Is this a challenge?" Miryhn replied happily, raising Masamune's katana.

Vera groaned, shaking her head in shame.

"Why are we bothering with them? They're obviously going to just kill each other," the smarmy voice said. With his speech, the AlterNeith on the right turn its head to the middle one.

"Because we have to distract them while Baker toasts the Phantomas," the deep voice said, the middle AlterNeith turning its head to the right AlterNeith.

"Know what? You aren't even worth it," Miryhn said, teasing Nash. Masamune let down its sword and turned away from Zeus to face the AlterNeiths.

"Asshole!" Nash yelled, Zeus turning on dime and folding its arms.

"Both of you quit it and just fight these guys!" Vera screamed in a commanding tone.

"Alright, alright, I was just getting to that," Miryhn said, Masamune beginning to hover slightly.

"Yeah! So was I!" Nash said, Zeus unsteadily beginning to hover.

All three AlterNeiths began to hover, doing poses.

"My name is George and I'm going to make your faces meet my good friend the ground!" the smarmy voice said, the right AlterNeith shifting its pose.

"I go by Harman. I'll beat you so badly no plastic surgery in the world can help you!" the cool voice said, the left AlterNeith shifting its pose.

"And I'm Ruth. I'll hit you so hard, your loved ones will feel the pain...if you had any!" the deep voice said with a hearty laugh, the center AlterNeith shifting its pose.

There was a long pause in the conversation.

"What?" Miryhn asked.

"Yeah, what the heck was that suppose to mean? I'm not offended in the slightest bit," Vera chimed in.

"Um..." Ruth said, embarrassed. "Just get them anyway!"

With that, George and Harman's AlterNeiths rushed Masamune and Zeus.

"What brashness," Miryhn said, grinning. Masamune dodged backwards with each swing George's AlterNeith made at him with its armblades. Masamune blocked one and held it for a moment. As the block was being held, Masamune reached down and drew the wakizachi with its free hand. Masamune then let off the block and did a flip over the AlterNeith as it continued forward. In mid flip, Masamune did two quick cuts and landed behind the AlterNeith as it stumbled to the ground, the left shoulder and the right side of the head fizzling from damage.

"What was the point of that?" George said, his AlterNeith scrambling to its feet and beginning hovering again.

"You'll notice that not only is your left arm disabled, but most of your sensors are now not functioning," Miryhn said, smiling.

"What?" George screamed. His AlterNeith began to struggle to move the left arm. "You bastard!"

"You know what they say, all's fair in-" Miryhn began to say before noticing the mess of chips all over the cockpit from the flip. "Nevermind," he said, rolling his eyes while picking a chip off the floor and eating it.

As Harman's AlterNeith dashed at Zeus, Nash panicked again and began flying backwards at full speed. Zeus held Thunder out at began firing at the AlterNeith continuously. The AlterNeith did a few fancy barrel-rolls, dodging each shot effortlessly. The lock-on was useless; the AlterNeith was just too fast with its reflexes to be hit with such a slow-firing weapon.

"Aw man, what the hell am I going to do?" Nash said in a whine.

"May I suggest an alternative, Pinky?" ADA said.

"Sure, that...Pinky?" Nash said, sloping his brow.

Miryhn's jovial laughter came over the comlink.

"You son of a bitch! I'm going to...nevermind, you aren't worth it!" Nash said, ending in a teasing tone of voice.

"Oh, nice comeback," Miryhn replied.

"What's the plan, ADA?" Nash said, Zeus continuing to fire at the AlterNeith as the AlterNeith began to fired back with lasers from its armblade.

Vera didn't waste any time going after Ruth. She boldly stabbed at it with both hands on the spear. Ruth dodged to the side and cut her twice in the back with the armblades. Freya spun around, smacking the AlterNeith with the pole end of the spear in the gut. The AlterNeith drifted back a moment long enough for Vera to jam the spear into its chest. It drifted backwards and began to twitch a little.

"Aw, shit!" Ruth shouted.

"Fear my leet skills!" Vera shouted, activating the Burst. *

Freya held its spear out with both hands and fired the Verniers, the Frame spinning around three times and cutting straight through the AlterNeith each time. The first cut lopped off its head, the second severed the hips from the chest, and the last cut off the legs just below the cockpit. At the end of the spin, Freya jabbed the cockpit backwards from the rest of the Frame a split second before the whole thing exploded. The cockpit and the section of the hips leftover fell safely away from the explosion and to the ground.

"Whoot!" Vera cheered. *

Meanwhile, Miryhn and George were in a somewhat slow-paced sword fight. Masamune switched directions of its grip on the katana while easily fending off the AlterNeith with the wakizachi. With surprising speed, the moment George pulled back from a blocked attack, Masamune swung back and tossed the wakizachi at high speed. The sword plunged into its throat and out the other side, pinning it against the side of a plateau. The AlterNeith flailed helplessly to jar it loose, George's voice whelping over the comlink.

"Like a beetle in a bug collection. Time to dissect you!" Miryhn said, Masamune floating up to George's helpless AlterNeith.

"Back off, man! I'm serious, get back or I'll blow this thing up!" George said, panicking.

"Not if I do this first!" Miryhn shouted, Masamune jamming its katana into the chest of the AlterNeith. At the same time, the AlterNeith stabbed Masamune in the gut with its operating armblade. Both paused a second; Masamune finally taking a step back and letting the AlterNeith drop its arm. "Okay, I've had enough of this" Miryhn said, holding the katana horizontally to indicate a finishing move.

"Miryhn! Go help Nash, he's too far away for me!" Vera commanded.

"What? I'm not going to baby him, he can go screw up on his own!" Miryhn said angrily.

"Do it!" Vera said, more strict this time.

"Fine!" Miryhn said, Masamune starting to hover. "You stay put. I'll finish you off in a second," he added, Masamune pointing to George's AlterNeith. He then turned and took off for Nash's battle.

"Like hell!" George grumbled, the operating arm of his AlterNeith reaching up to try and work the wakizachi out.

"Simply toss Zeus's hammer at the opponent at this speed," ADA said.

"Alright, guess that'll do it," Nash said, reaching Zeus's arm around to its backside, pulling the hammer from the Vector Trap.

"It is recommended you try to hit while it is damaged and unable to move at optimum speed," ADA said.

"How can I do that with it dodging everything I fire at it?" Nash asked angrily.

"Try Homing Lasers," ADA said.

"Oh, of course, the Homing Lasers," Nash said sarcastically. Grumbling to himself, Nash fired up the Burst, gaining a bit of speed on the AlterNeith. He held down the primary firing trigger and the lock-on indicator switched to a small circle. Letting off both the Burst and trigger, Zeus suddenly decelerated and fired off a maelstrom of lasers. Harman's AlterNeith did the same evasive maneuvers, but several lasers struck the Frame. It began to lag in comparison to Zeus's speed and wobbled a bit. Nash grinned and Zeus brought its arm back to throw. Suddenly, several small white orbs covered the AlterNeith and it froze. It crashed into the ground and began skidding along at its flight speed.

Harman screamed at the top of his lungs.

"What? Were you shot down, Harman?" George replied, almost having worked the sword out of his Frame's throat.

"What's your status? Answer!" Ruth shouted, sitting in his cockpit and ready for capturing.

"This can't be! My Frame is paralyzed, nothing is responding! I'm done for!" Harman yelled in reply.

"Throw it now!" Miryhn yelled over the comlink as Masamune flew alongside the AlterNeith a moment and then banked off to the left.

Nash sneered and Zeus pitched the hammer at the crashing AlterNeith, it spinning in midair rapidly. It slammed into the AlterNeith and took its head clean off and continuing down the back. The hammer then somehow stopped and flew back into Zeus's hand, the Frame catching it automatically. The AlterNeith sparked and fizzled, its skid beginning to come to a close.

"Guess I'll see you two in hell, eh?" Harman said over the radio.

"Harman!" George and Ruth yelled in unison.

Harman's AlterNeith exploded, sending the debris in the direction of his crash.

Nash gasped, Zeus coming to a stop and hovering in place.

"What was that you just did, Miryhn?" Vera asked, Freya flying towards Masamune.

"Just a little gift someone gave me. It's some special weapon called Geyser. I guess it paralyzes stuff," Miryhn said, Masamune glancing towards Freya.

Zeus floated up to Masamune, Nash shuddering in his breath.

"What's wrong with you?" Miryhn asked, Masamune glancing at Zeus next.

"I just killed someone, didn't I?" Nash said in long breaths.

"Well, yeah, that's what we had to do. We had to defeat or otherwise capture them," Miryhn said, grabbing a handful of chips from the back corner of the cockpit.

"How could I...I mean, what gives me the right to...Oh, my God," Nash said, hyperventilating.

"You alright?" Vera asked with concern as Freya arrived in front of the other two Frames.

"I just took a life...oh, good God," Nash said, sounding like he was about to cry.

"Yeah, so?" Miryhn asked, nonchalant.

"Miryhn! Show some sympathy here!" Vera said, offended.

"Sympathy? I'd like to high-five the guy. That's what we do now, Nash, we fight and we defeat enemies. We're mercenaries in the middle of a war on terrorism," Miryhn said as Masamune began to hover again. "And now we have one more target to eliminate, so get over the loss of a meaningless life or end up losing your own here on the battlefield."

"How could you say that so easily? No life is meaningless! Do you honestly believe he deserved that?," Nash said, boiling with anger.

Miryhn paused. "If he's your enemy and is to take your life, you have every right to defend yourself. Even if defending yourself means taking his life, then so be it. In the end, your conflict is meaningless anyway, so who cares?" he explained.

"What's wrong with you? How could you be so cruel?" Nash cried out.

Miryhn sighed. "You'd never understand," he said, Masamune turning its back to Zeus.

Nash screamed in anger, burying his face in his hands.

"Wait, I just remembered. I left that one guy pinned to the cliff. Go ahead to Tempest and back up Wolfgang, I'll be right there," Miryhn said as Masamune took off for George's AlterNeith.

"We'll go there now," Vera said, finally adding to the conversation.

"I'm not going," Nash said in between his sobs.

"Nash, look," Vera said, Freya drifting in front of Zeus,"you don't have to kill people. Just use Zeus to disable them! Capturing is an option too, right?"

"But what if I miss and end up hitting a cockpit or-" Nash began to say.

"Then don't miss!" Vera said, raising her voice to interrupt.

Nash paused, sobbing one more time.

"Nash, you don't have to kill if you don't want to!" Vera shouted,"It's okay, alright? Just calm down and come help me."

Nash slowly nodded and Zeus slowly drifted up to Freya. Freya turned around and took off for Tempest with Zeus in tow.

Miryhn heard Vera's last sentence and sighed. He looked at his reflection in the cockpit screen; the yellow eyes were just now beginning to wear off some. He clearly remembered "unfurling" the minute he stabbed the Raptor, but he was lucky this time. At least he didn't loose himself again.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Leo's last thoughts were leaping behind a pillar the moment the machine guns started and three shots were fired from Dingo and Mr. X's direction. When he opened his eyes and peeked around the pillar, he saw Dingo laying on his back with his Ganymede Dragon in both his hands and Mr. X slumped against the wall. Mr. X had a hand tightly gripped on a wound on the shoulder of his arm that held his gun and a wound in his left leg. Dingo, however, had a hole in his coat a few inches to the right of his stomach. Mr. X's gun layed on the ground a few feet away, apparently jarred from his hand by Dingo's powerful handgun.

No rational thought in this awkward moment could come to Leo except to ask if Dingo was okay; but by doing so, the thugs would know where he was and would open up their fresh magazines on him. Luckily, Dingo dropped gripped gun to his chest and looked at Leo. Leo nodded for the door and Dingo nodded back.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You could have killed me!" Mr. X screamed, writhing in pain.

"Stay put," Dingo commanded and swung his legs over himself. He swung them forward and whipped his body upright as he landed. As another round of machine gun fire was fired into the room, Dingo turned and hauled ass for the doorway, Leo right behind him dashing out with his head ducked. Both of them pushed open one of the double doors, knocking one thug onto his butt in the process, and slammed the doors behind them.

Leo looked down and saw the thug slowly pulling himself off of a chunk of brick rubble he had landed on. He deftly kicked the small machine gun in his hand away and stuck his handgun in the thug's face. "Got a live one, Dingo."

"What moron stands behind two doors and doesn't even shoot when the target is running right for him?" Dingo said, putting his Dragon back in his coat and taking out his own .45 caliber U.N. Enforcer.

"My gun jammed, that's all," the thug said, shrugging.

"How many more of you guys are there?" Leo asked insistently.

"Three, two on the left side, one guy on the right," the thug said, nodding to each end of the hallway.

"He's lying," Dingo said, peeking back inside the main room. Mr. X was still writhing around in pain in the same spot they just left him.

"How do you know?" Leo asked, not taking his eyes off the thug.

"There's five spots with...no, wait, almost seven spots in the room with pock marks. Might be more, but I can't see them," Dingo said, moving his head around to see through the crack.

"That's because kids down the street come here to play with their parents' guns," the thug said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, right, whatever," Dingo said, stepping away from the doorway.

"If you don't believe me, then just look behind you!" the thug said, looking to the left.

Dingo and Leo both looked and two other thugs started firing their machine guns from down the hallway.

Dingo leapt and rolled into one of the siderooms. Leo grabbed the thug off the ground and held him in front of him. "Don't want to shoot your buddy, do you?" he yelled, putting an arm around his neck and the handgun to his head.

The two thugs stopped, looked at each other, then resumed shooting.

"So much for comradery," Leo said, pushing his human shield forward and leaping into a sideroom himself. The thug took five bullets and collapsed, dead.

After Dingo go to his feet, he watched from just inside the doorway as the thug got cut down by his own men. "Sons of bitches," he said, reaching into his coat for the back of his belt. He pulled out a sawed-off shotgun from his belt and slipped the handgun back into his coat. Next, he reached into the breast pocket of his coat and took out two shells, loading them into the shotgun. "No regard for a fellow human's life, huh? Don't care what happens to others as long as you pull through, eh?" he shouted, taking a few steps back from the doorway. "Well, guess what? You see this? This is my boom-stick!" he shouted a little louder and leaped into midair going out of the doorway, facing the two thugs. He squeezed off both shells in the middle of his dive and skid on his side to a stop a few inches from the wall opposite the doorway. Both thugs were knocked backwards in the attack and fell on their backs.

Dingo stood up and slipped his sawed-off back into the back of his belt. Both thugs were bleeding from multiple points from where the shots struck, but only one was struggling to get up. Dingo suddenly kicked him in the head hard enough to send him rolling to the wall and fall unconscious. The other was struggling for breath, having taken two shots to his lungs. "Don't know or care if you two will survive. In my opinion, you don't deserve it. Use deadly force against me, I can get over it. Use deadly force against each other or innocent bystanders, and then I start to give a damn. I can't stand your kind," Dingo said, spitting in the face of the thug struggling for breath.

"Are you quite done giving speeches yet? We have one more to worry about," Leo shouted, peeking around the doorway he was hiding in.

"Sorry, I have a bad habit of that, I guess," Dingo said, taking out his Enforcer again.

No sooner had he done so than one more thug whipped around the corner from the hallway in Leo's direction. Dingo ran back inside the doorway he leapt out of while Leo put his hand around the corner of the doorway and blind-shot at the thug. The thug whipped back around the corner in response.

"So why are you shouting lines from Evil Dead now, Dingo?" Leo said loudly.

"Because Evil Dead is the shit," Dingo said, peeking out of his doorway a little.

"You're right, Evil Dead was shit," Leo replied with a laugh.

"Shut up, it rocked," Dingo said, moving back inside his cover.

"It didn't rock, it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. The jokes sucked, the action sucked, and Bruce Campbell sucks," Leo said, standing up while staying behind the wall.

"I'm so going to kick your ass for that, Leo. Evil Dead was a lot better than the crap you like. Rush Hour? Beverly Hills Cop? What is it with you and action- comedy anyway?" Dingo replied.

"Evil Dead is action-comedy!" Leo said, a bit aggravated.

"But the other guy is right, but Bruce Campbell could kick Eddie Murphy's ass any day," another voice said.

"What?" Dingo and Leo said in unison.

"Evil Dead rocks! The white-haired guy is right, your crap sucks," the thug said, looking around the corner.

"See? Two-to-one, Leo. Just admit Evil Dead rocks!" Dingo said with a laugh.

Leo sneered in anger and whipped out of the doorway. He shot the thug once in the exposed shoulder, spinning him around and making him stagger out of his cover a bit. Leo fired two more shots, hitting the thug in the left thigh and the right shin. The thug collapsed, crying out in pain.

"Don't you ever say Eddie Murphy sucks!" Leo shouted, walking into the hallway and up to the thug. He stomped on the thug's stomach until he was dry-heaving.

Dingo walked up and pushed his sunglasses back up his nose. "Sheesh, calm down. Okay, so he wasn't necessarily bad in Beverly Hills Cop, but what about that Daddy Daycare shit?" Dingo said, facing the thug and looking at Leo beside him.

Leo froze, his foot still in the thug's stomach. "Alright, you're right, you're right. Let's just call it even then, okay?" Leo said, sighing.

"Yeah, just leave it at that, exactly," Dingo said, nodding in agreement.

Both Leo and Dingo turned and walked back to the garage. Mr. X was almost to his feet, leaning against the wall behind him. Leo and Dingo walked up to him, Dingo with a rather pissed-off look on his face.

"Didn't I tell you to stay put?" Dingo said, raising his voice.

"Fuck off, Earth-scum!" Mr. X said, giving Dingo the finger.

"Oh, that's it!" Dingo roared, turning around and roundhouse-kicking Mr. X in the head.

Mr. X stumbled aside, bending over but staying on his feet. He spat out a molar and some blood and looked up at Dingo with a smile. "I'll only say it one more time, I have no idea who bought those Frames. He keeps his identity secret and sends people in his place. If you want information, you'll just have to check every single mother fucker who goes in and out of Nereidium daily every single day of the week," Mr. X said, staggering backwards.

Dingo sighed and looked at Leo. "Look, I'm sick of him. Let's just leave and let the army deal with him, alright?" he whispered.

"Sounds good to me. Guess we'll have to check back with Angie and find some other people to ask," Leo replied in a whisper.

"Yeah, and I want to see if Ken is finally over her time of the month," Dingo said sarcastically, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. "Alright, Mr. X, we got everything out of you that we wanted. Here's the other card and have a nice day," Dingo said, looking back at Mr. X and tossing him the other cash card.

Mr. X caught it and stuffed it in his pocket. "I thank you kindly. See 'ya later, suckers!" he said, laughing madly as he hobbled out the back door as fast as he could hobble.

"If suckers have a squad of Earth Army interrogation specialists waiting to capture him two blocks away in each direction, then we must be," Leo said, laughing.

"Come on, let's get out of here. If you admit Evil Dead rules, then I'll buy you a pizza on the way back," Dingo said, turning and walking out the door.

"Guess I get no pizza then. But if you can admit that Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan were a good pair, then I'll buy the pizza," Leo said, following after.

"Guess I get no pizza either," Dingo said, laughing.

Both walked out of the building and stopped on the sidewalk. They looked in both directions for a moment, then at each other.

"So, uh..." Dingo began to say.

"Yeah?" Leo replied.

"Know what? Let's get that pizza anyway," Dingo said, shrugging.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to feel lazy. Must be a side effect of 'hunger'," Leo said, nodding.

Both started walking down the street for the nearest Vulcan's Oven Pizza chain restaurant.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

George panicked, seeing Masamune close in after helping take down Harman. He jammed the controls as hard as he could and the free hand of his AlterNeith responded with a mighty surge of power, pulling the wakizachi out and tossing it aside. The head of the Frame fell off as a result and crashed to the ground, but the rest of the machine was free. He fired the Burst and it took off at full speed up and over the plateau and into the distance.

"You will all pay for that! I swear it! Harman will be avenged!" George cried out before cutting off communication.

"Damn, wasted my time coming over here then," Miryhn said with a sigh. He casually moved one of the controls and Masamune extended its hand. The wakizachi flew off the ground and was attracted back to Masamune's hand. Masamune slipped it back in the sheath as Miryhn grabbed a few more chips off the floor of the cockpit and ate them. "Oh well, how much damage could that guy do anyway?"

Meanwhile, Vera and Nash had arrived at the battle with the Tempest. For some reason, the Tempest was just standing there with Wolfgang's Phantomas encompassing it with their guns drawn. Nobody had fired a single round and the Tempest didn't seem to have any weapons online. Just then, the comlink picked up a conversation.

"And furthermore, your actionz have cauzed more grief than you could ever imagine!" Wolfgang's voice scolded over the link.

"Hey, old man, are you quite done yet? I was patient enough to listen to your little story, but I'd really like to just toast your squad now," another gruff voice replied, presumably the Tempest's Runner.

"You will be silent while I explain your crimez to my men! They muzt feel zee pain I have in order to be morally charged!" Wolfgang said, his Phantoma standing out in the middle of the pack by waving its index finger at the Tempest.

"And we do, sir!" a soldier cried out, obviously in tears.

"Yes! We support you to the very end!"

"It's so tragic! Oh, commander, your words are inspiring! You've been through so much!"

Vera blinked a few times.

Nash scratched his head.

"Men, zee time is now! Open fire and banish this filth to hell in zee name of justice and peace!" Wolfgang commanded, his Phantoma swinging its arm back and slowly dropping it to an extended index finger point at the Tempest.

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers yelled enthusiastically. Immediately, every machine gun and missile launcher was shot at the Tempest.

"What the fuck is wrong with you people? Just for wasting my time, you're all going to get it!" the Tempest Runner yelled. The Tempest squatted amongst the gunfire and launched off high into the sky.

The whole squad stopped and looked upwards. There was a long pause.

"Where's he go?" one soldier finally spoke up.

"Did he land yet?" another chimed in.

"Nonsenze, of course he'll land, momentarily. He'll land over zere or zomething," Wolfgang said, pointing in an arbitrary direction.

Freya and Zeus glanced to the sky, a good distance away from the squad. Neither spoke a word, being just as confused as the others.

Suddenly, the Tempest fell at terminal velocity, legs spread widely. As it smashed into the ground, several Phantomas were crushed under it and exploded immediately; all others were blown away and smashed against plateaus or sent tumbling across the terrain. Freya and Zeus braced for a moment when the gust of wind almost sent them flying backwards. They steadied themselves and continued to hover in place.

Wolfgang's Phantoma struggled to its feet having merely been sent into a roll and crashed against a rock. The left arm was damaged, but the right arm with the machine gun was intact. "You zon of a bitch!" he screamed, opening fire on the slowly erecting Tempest.

The Tempest Runner was laughing as hard as he could. "You people are complete dipshits to fall for that," he said in between fits of laughter. The Tempest then swung one of its arms over at Wolfgang and fired a stream of flame at it. Wolfgang whelped and fired his thrusters, hovering at full speed for cover. He ducked behind a rock and the Tempest waved its arm back into position at its side.

"Guess this is where we step in," Vera said, smiling.

"Yeah, guess so," Nash replied, solemnly.

"Don't be so down. Just fire at its legs or something. I'm sure your gun is powerful enough to knock something off," Vera replied as Freya spun its spear around in a fancy motion.

"Guess so. I'll try," Nash said, sighing. Zeus twirled Thunder around by the trigger on its index finger and held it out, ready to fire.

"Good, let's show it our leet skills!" Vera yelled, happily laughing. Freya shot off straight for the Tempest with spear in both hands.

"Oh? What's this? Ryan has Orbital Frames? No, wait, that can't be right. You guys must be mercenaries or something that just so happened to come across Frames meant for us," the Tempest Runner replied, aiming an arm at Freya.

"None of your business!" Vera screamed, hitting the Burst and primary weapon control. Several targets appeared on the joints of the legs, indicating a Homing Laser cluster was ready. Freya spun around once, sending a blade-like wave of energy at the Tempest's extended arm. At the same time, the Homing Laser cluster fired, and struck the joints of the legs, making it wobble around on weakened limbs.

"Shit, who the fuck are you?" the Tempest Runner asked, the Frame staggering back a few paces.

Vera was feeling rather playful after seeing how easy this guy was to attack. "Just call me one of the champions of justice!" she shouted with a giggle.

"Zat's zee spirit!" Wolfgang said, his Phantoma waving a fist in support.

"Shut up!" the Tempest Runner shouted, firing a fireball at Wolfgang's cover rock. It exploded into bits, sending Wolfgang head over heels backwards. His Phantoma just layed there, face-down.

"What are you people doing? Attack the dome!" Miryhn shouted as Masamune flew past Freya at full speed with katana drawn. He suddenly changed direction to straight down over the top of the Tempest's dome and he swiped at it several times leaving an asterisk-shaped series of cuts in the dome.

The Tempest suddenly leapt back and fired off a series of fireballs from the forward arms, striking Masamune with three of them while the rest were deflected by a shield generated out of the Spiegel Beta in his free hand.

"Well, we just started and-" Vera began to say.

"Touchy little prick, aren't we? Can't even take your work seriously, huh?" Miryhn said, ignoring Vera and talking to the Tempest Runner. Masamune hovered for a second, changing the grip on the katana.

"I take my work plenty seriously," the Tempest Runner replied, swinging all of its arms forward to fire one large stream of fire at Masamune.

"Then how come there are people still alive?" Miryhn screamed, flying to the left, perpendicular to the stream of flame. "You should have defeated the entire squad minutes ago. You're pathetic!"

"What do you know? You're just some selfish merc," the Tempest Runner said, ending the stream.

"Nash, what's Miryhn talking about?" Vera asked, a bit worried for obvious reasons.

"Ask that cold-blooded freak yourself," Nash said, sighing. "Meanwhile, what are we suppose to do while him and that thing exchange blows?"

"Miryhn said to attack the dome. I guess he's distracting it while we do something to it," Vera said, watching Masamune dart around the Tempest as it fired fireballs and streams of flame at him.

"I know what's going on. The cut mark is a target. I'll fire a full blast from Thunder at it and you-" Nash said, catching on.

"No, don't use Thunder. Use a fully powered up Burst Shot. It has more power and will definitely break through its armor," Vera interrupted, Freya suddenly flying off for the Tempest.

"What are you going to do?" Nash said, puzzled.

"Fight Miryhn's demon off for him again," Vera replied with a sigh.

"What the fuck?" Nash said, raising an eyebrow.

"Just use the damn Burst Shot!" Vera shouted in reply.

"Fine, fine," Nash said as Zeus held up the free hand and began to gather energy from Burst into a gigantic ball.

"Little whelp, I'll put you down once and for all," Miryhn said, now grinning as Masamune deftly dodged each attack the Tempest fired at him.

"Who are you calling a 'whelp'? You're freaking me out, man!" the Tempest Runner replied.

"I call all pathetic humans like you 'whelps'. Tremble at the might of a divine being!" Miryhn shouted with a crazed laugh. Masamune fired its thrusters and prepared to stab the cockpit of the Tempest.

"You're fucking nuts! Get away from me!" the Tempest Runner screamed in terror. He placed two arms in front of the cockpit to shield while the other two arms poured flame in Masamune's path.

"You can't hide from death itself. It's always after you, ready to swipe your soul from your flesh the bat of an eye. Welcome it freely!" Miryhn said, chuckling madly. Masamune flew through the blaze with the Spiegel Beta shield up until he was past the arms. He charged up the katana to the point it looked like it was flaming with energy and slashed at the two arms in front of the cockpit. They fell apart in even segments, leaving small stumps where the arms came out of the body of the Frame. Masamune raised its sword and prepared to cut the cockpit in half. "May God bless your eternal soul. Death has judged you so!"

"Miryhn, that's enough!" Vera screamed as Freya tackled Masamune out of the air. Both crashed into the side of a plateau.

"What are you doing?" Miryhn shouted, half-crazed.

"This isn't you! I don't know who you are, but you aren't Miryhn!" Vera yelled, Freya struggling to keep Masamune pinned to the plateau.

"Of course I'm not! I'm death itself! The Angel of Death incarnate!" Miryhn shouted, laughing right after. Masamune wiggled to each side, escaping her grip.

"Miryhn, why are you doing this? Why are you acting so weird every time you fight someone?" Vera shouted as Freya pushed harder. "It's like you're a whole different person!"

"Idle banter! Stop distracting me from those whom I have judged!" Miryhn shouted, struggling even harder.

Nash had finished the Burst Shot and the moment Vera had knocked Masamune away, he threw the ball at the asterisk. The explosion knocked the Tempest forward and shattered the dome on impact. The Tempest staggered to keep its footing and finally stabilized. A tall monolith resembling a head came out of the middle of it.

"ADA, what can I attack now that'll simply disable it?" Nash asked, drawing Thunder up again.

"Attack the 'head' until destruction and you should be able to completely disable the Tempest. That is what the first Runner of Jehuty did and he succeeded in a successful disabling of it. Of course, the Tempest exploded, but it gave enough time for the Runner to eject," ADA said.

"Sounds good to me, I guess," Nash said with a sigh.

"Let me go!" Miryhn roared, Masamune firing its Burst to try and push Freya off.

"No!" Vera yelled, firing Freya's Burst as well.

"Fool! How dare you stand in the way of divine intervention!" Miryhn shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Vera screamed with an angry crescendo. She suddenly burst into tears.

"How could you ever understand the position I've been given? I only know a world of death, while you know of a world of choice. Step aside, innocent, and allow me to execute my duty!" Miryhn commanded.

Vera bit her lip and sobbed. "ADA, open video link to Masamune! Now!"

ADA opened a video link to the inside of Masamune's cockpit. Miryhn was hunched over, an insane grin on his face. His head was lowered enough so she could see his eyes behind his sunglasses. She sobbed again and held in a scream, seeing his irises had changed to a gold color around blood-colored pupils. It was happening again, the same thing that seemed to take over his will when he fought that other Orbital Frame. Miryhn was not himself at all, he was a demon; a blood-thirsty, ravenous demon.

"What's the meaning of this? Why do you look upon me?" Miryhn roared.

"Miryhn, don't you know me? Can't you see what you're doing to me?" Vera said, sobbing.

Miryhn's expression seemed to soften for a moment. His grin dropped and he squinted his eyes.

"Miryhn, come back!" Vera screamed, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

Just then, the Tempest held out its two remaining arms and aimed for the side of the plateau. It fired off a volley of fireballs, striking the side of the plateau and sending a rain of boulders down over Freya and Masamune.

Hearing what just happened, Miryhn's eyes shot open and his teeth gritted. Masamune tightened its grip on Freya's hands and swinging it around. He let go and sent Freya flying downward to safety. Masamune then wrapped both arms in front of itself and activated the Spiegel Betas' shield and faced upwards. The boulders disintegrated on contact with the shield while a few managed to remain intact through the barrier, striking Masamune as they fell past it. Vera watched on the video link as Miryhn was shedding tears of blood, struggling to put as much power into Masamune's shield as he could.

"I'm not going to let...anyone hurt...her," Miryhn whispered, gritting his teeth.

"What'd you say?" Vera said, whispering a little with surprise.

Miryhn screamed and let off the shield as the last of the rocks fell. Masamune lingered for a moment in midair and then dropped to Freya's height. It hovered there in front of her, dented and scuffed from some of the most resistant rocks.

Vera gulped, watching on the video link as Miryhn took off his sunglasses and wiped his cheeks. He payed no mind to the fact he was crying blood, but he was panting heavily like he was having an asthma attack. His eyes were still the eerie gold color.

"Miryhn? Are you...alright?" Vera asked, sniffing and wiping her own eyes.

"So innocent...can't let you...get hurt because of me," Miryhn said, leaning his head back and smiling.

"What?" Vera asked in a whisper.

"So sweet...I won't...I can't..." Miryhn said, seemingly in a daze.

"Speak up! What's the matter with you?" Vera cried out.

"My....guardian angel," Miryhn said, smiling. Not his insane smile from a few minutes ago, but a smile that seemed as though he was at inner peace.

Vera shook her head, now sobbing again. She covered her mouth and began to weep.

"Please, just stop crying. It's all right now," Miryhn said in a warmer tone, sounding comforting.

"Miryhn? What are you talking ab-" Vera started to say. Just then, Masamune grabbed Freya and hugged tightly. Vera was so startled, she stopped sobbing and Freya slowly hugged back. Vera then sobbed again and smiled.

"It's all right. Nothing bad will ever happen to you...not when you have a guardian angel," he said in the same tone, beginning to shed tears of blood again.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

The Tempest, after firing the fireballs at the cliff, was then assaulted by Zeus pelting it with shots from Thunder. The Tempest threw a few fireballs at Zeus, easily knocking it from the sky.

"Some pack of mercs they were. That one guy was bad-assed until that chick Frame showed up," the Tempest Runner chuckled.

"What's wrong with chick Frames?" a female voice said.

"Aw shit, who else now?" the Tempest Runner said as the Tempest turned around.

Flying out of the sun came a new Orbital Frame. The body was yellow with a female breastplate, a pauldron on each shoulder, and a belt with "strips" of armor flowing off of it. The armor was colored light green and it held a weapon in each hand. The weapons were crescent-moon shaped blades with handles in the middle of the inside of each crescent. The head of the Frame was helmet-less and shaped like that of a beautiful goddess, strips of "hair" extending to it's beltline down its back while flowing in the wind.

"Who the fuck are you?" the Tempest Runner said as the new Orbital Frame stopped in midair a short distance away from it.

"My name is Ester Shelby, Runner of Orbital Frame Shiva. I also happen to be these people's back-up," the Runner of the new Frame said.

"Guess it doesn't matter who you are, I'm going to kill you all now and just get it over with," the Tempest Runner said.

With that, the Tempest hopped into the air and began to hover. It brought its legs up and tucked its head into the body of the Frame. The legs separated on an axis to just below the cockpit and began to spin rapidly. It now hovered around at high speed and launched itself towards Shiva.

"That's certainly a new trick. I guess they've been improving on the old Tempest designs," Ester said with a grin. "Have a taste of my moon-blades!" she shouted as Shiva dashed over the approaching Tempest. In mid-air, she tossed one of the blades down into the hole where the head of the Tempest was. There was a split second of sparks and fizzling within the hole and the Tempest continued to spin its legs and move in a straight line.

"Hey! Wait! Stop!" the Runner yelled, unable to control his Frame now. The Tempest was heading straight for a plateau. It continued forward until the legs collided with the side of the plateau. Both rocks and segments of the legs broke off within the spinning and eventually the Tempest crashed to the ground, leg-less. The head extended out and Shiva flew up and retrieved its moon-blade. Shiva activated its Burst and then dashed into the side of the head, striking several times in a spectacular combo with its weapons.

"You people are nuts!" the Tempest Runner shouted as the head of the Tempest exploded twice. The cockpit ejected from the rest of the Frame and shot into the distance.

Ester let out a sigh of relief. "Guess I showed up just in the nick of time. Never should have bothered with that one guy," she said, rolling her eyes.

Just then, a lone Phantoma climbed on top of the Tempest's burning husk. It raised its free hand to the sky and made a V-symbol with it's index and middle finger (like a 20th century "peace sign") while holding the machine gun in the other hand sideways.

"V is for victory and I am victoriouz!" Wolfgang yelled triumphantly.

"Hooray for Commander Wolfgang!" several of the remaining conscious soldiers yelled in reply.

Suddenly, the Tempest exploded, sending Wolfgang's Phantoma spiralling into the air. The entire Frame broke down into itself and was finally destroyed. Wolfgang's Phantoma landed on its head.

"Zis is not a very good day for victory," Wolfgang said, shaking his head and hanging upside down in his cockpit.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"Well of all people to show up. What the hell are you doing here?" Nash said, Zeus floating up towards Shiva. He sounded less than excited to see her.

"Saving your pathetic ass. Where's Miryhn and that bimbo?" Ester said, Shiva glancing around.

"I dunno, over by that cliff doing something," Nash said, Zeus pointing downward to one of the plateaus. Shiva glanced down and saw Masamune and Freya hugging, completely oblivious to her defeating the Tempest.

"What the hell?" Ester said, Shiva dashing downwards to them.

Shiva stopped at the same height as Masamune and Freya. Over the comlink, she could hear Vera sobbing while Miryhn remained completely silent.

"What's going on here?" Ester shouted.

Vera whelped and Miryhn blinked a few times. Freya suddenly let off the embrace, floating backwards and turning around to face Shiva.

"Ester? What are you doing here? Where'd you get that thing?" Vera asked, wiping her eyes and resuming her composure.

"I could ask you the same last question. I never knew Norris picked you three to work for him," Ester said, Shiva moving to the side a little to get a better view of Masamune. "What's wrong with him?"

Miryhn pinched his eyes shut and wipes his eyes. When he opened his eyes, his irises were back to their normal brown color with the pupils black. He gasped and looked down at the video link. Vera was looking back at him with a smile on her face. Miryhn shuddered and put his sunglasses back on. "Vera, I..." he began to say. He stuttered "I" a few more times and sighed.

"Miryhn? What is it?" Vera asked, her smile turning to a concerned look.

"Nothing. Let's just head back, okay?" Miryhn said, sighing again. Masamune then turned and fired its thrusters, heading back to the sphere.

Tears welled up in Vera's eyes again as Freya began to follow him. She didn't sob as badly as before, but she still cried.

"What'd I do?" Ester said, Shiva shrugging as she watched Masamune and Freya take off. Ester shook her head and took off after the others.

"Those two are weird, don't ask," Nash said as Zeus caught up behind Shiva.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Later, after arriving back at the Ryan building, the group sat their Frames down in the parking lot. Miryhn and Vera both climbed out of their Frames in complete silence, daring not to look at one another. As soon as Ester got out of Shiva and caught Nash as he was getting out of Zeus, she grabbed him around the neck and gave him a noogie.

"Ah, it's so great to see you weirdos again!" Ester said happily.

"'Weirdos'?" Nash said, teeth gritting at Ester's noogie.

"Yeah! You three are the weirdest bunch of weirdos that were ever weirded!" Ester said, laughing.

"At least we have a somewhat dynamic vocabulary," Nash grumbled.

"Oh, the hell with you too, Nashy," Ester said, letting off the noogie and pushing Nash into a bush in one of the medians.

"You all performed very well!" Norris said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere in front of all four of them. He applauded and bowed, Lamar behind him doing the same. "I'd love it if you would perform an encore some other time," he said, grinning.

"You'll have to talk to our employer about that," Miryhn said, a little reserved. The Orbital Frames then took off on auto-pilot back for Entropy while Ester's remained there.

"I'll be sure to keep you all in mind," Norris said, turning and walking back towards the office building. "Bravo once again, see 'ya around."

"Yeah, sure, bravo," Miryhn said, sighing. He turned and began walking for the car.

Vera reached out and caught his wrist. He turned his head and he reached up with her other hand and pulled his sunglasses down his nose some. She looked up and smiled at him. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about that time either," she said, winking.

Miryhn sighed and pushed his sunglasses back up his nose. "Thanks," he said, monotone.

Vera's smile melted to a sad look. She let go of his wrist and quietly followed after him.

"Hey, Ester, I didn't have any luck finding a bite to eat. Seems some lunatic knocked over the snack machine inside," a familiar male voice said, coming from the direction of the building.

"Grandpa, stop making stuff up," Ester said, sighing.

"Grandpa?" Miryhn said, turning his head the other way.

There, to Miryhn's complete surprise, was Doctor Ricdeau. He looked the same as always, still grinning for no apparent reason all the time.

"Oh, Miryhn! How are you today?" Ricdeau said politely.

"Doc? What the hell are you doing here?" Miryhn said, completely puzzled.

"When I heard my granddaughter was going to visit Mars, I simply had to go with her and see this place once again," Ricdeau said, shrugging. "Besides, it seems you're in luck. You look awfully pale right now and I am your primary care physician, after all," he said with a chuckle.

"I...am?" Miryhn said, now shocked.

Ricdeau laughed and moved in for a closer look at Miryhn. "You might want to see me about this strange lack of color in your skin. Also, those traces of blood along your cheeks," he said, rubbing his chin.

"Okay, I'll keep you in mind, alright, Doc? I just want to go home and have a nap," Miryhn said, shaking his head.

"That's fine, but I must insist you see me soon. Myself and Ester will be staying in town while she's working for Ryan Corporation and we'll contact you as soon as we get to our residence," Ricdeau said, adjusting his small eyeglasses.

"Fine, fine, see 'ya around, Doc," Miryhn said, walking towards the car.

"About time you stopped talking. I need some dinner myself," Nash said, walking beside Miryhn, Vera close behind.

Vera sighed and clenched a fist. "That sounds like a good idea. Nash, you go get some food. Me and Miryhn will go for a drive, alright?" she said in one breath. She then dashed forward, grabbing Miryhn by the arm and running to the car. She opened the passenger side and threw Miryhn in the seat.

"But-" Miryhn tried to say before Vera slammed the door in his face.

"See 'ya later, Nash!" Vera yelled, running to the driver's side and leaping in. A moment later, the car started and peeled out, speeding out of the parking lot and down the street.

Nash stood there in complete shock, almost as if what just happened didn't happen at all.

"Need a ride?" Ester asked from behind, sounding aroused. She leaned over to rub her calves, showing her cleavage in full view.

"Um, no, thanks. I'll just...walk," Nash said, grinning stupidly at Ester. He then broke into a jog, leaving the parking lot.

"What's wrong with him?" Ester said, scratching her head.

"I'm afraid your 'assets' make him nervous, dear granddaughter," Ricdeau said with a laugh.

"Oh, whatever," Ester said, rolling her eyes. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's afraid of attractive women."

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Dingo stuffed the pizza box as best he could into the fridge, squishing several week-old leftovers and a few cans of beer to the side. When it was against the light bulb, Dingo had finally had enough. He stepped back and gave the box a good kick, smashing the light bulb but making the box fit in the fridge finally. He grumbled, seeing all the broken glass on the tray and contemplated cleaning it up. He figured Leo would notice later when he'd come down for his midnight snack and decided he'd have to deal with it. He grinned smugly and shut the door, turning around to meet Ken face to face.

Ken glared up at him, straight-faced. Dingo smiled stupidly, admiring her new hairstyle once again. In the months after they broke off to work outside the Space Force, Ken had decided to go through a bit of a make-over. Her hair was now wavier, not so much solid and dome-shaped anymore. She wore it now with two large clumps of bangs on each side of her face and the back up in a bun at the moment with two chopsticks holding it there. Normally she'd wear it with the bottom layer down and the top layer in a ponytail over the other layer when they were casual; however, the bun indicated she must have been in the "mockpit" earlier.

"It's called 'putting the pizza in plastic bags so you don't have to break the fridge putting a pizza box in it', Dingo," Ken said sarcastically.

"Sheesh, get off my case. I've have a long day," Dingo said, rolling his eyes.

"You and your 'long days'," Ken said, rolling her eyes at him too. She side-stepped around him and went to the cabinets to take out a bag of nachos.

"I'm serious, I nearly got killed once again," Dingo replied, turning around to face her.

"How did you do it this time?" Ken said in between chews.

"Four guys with machine guns," Dingo said, shrugging.

Ken made a whining sound. "It's always 'four guys with machine guns'. If I didn't know any better, this is just your usual test to see if I'm being a bitch for the day."

Dingo laughed. "How'd you guess?"

"Because if I nag you about it, you know I am. If I saw 'aw, that's so terrible, let's make out' you know I'm not," Ken said, munching down a few more nachos.

"So are you?" Dingo asked sheepishly.

Ken sighed and put her bag of nachos down. She stomped up to Dingo and pushed him against the wall.

"No?" Dingo asked, a little scared.

Ken snarled. "You bet I'm not. I missed you while you were out," she said, suddenly softening her tone and throwing her arms around his neck. She then her lips against his and Dingo closed his eyes and put his arms around her waist. They began deeply kissing repeatedly.

Leo walked in the doorway, wanting to pick up a drink from the fridge. He froze when he saw Ken and Dingo embracing.

"Um..." Leo said, staring at them.

"Go on, get what you want and get out," Dingo said, stopping the embrace and looking a little irritated.

Leo sheepishly walked to the fridge, took a can out of it and walked out, never leaving Dingo and Ken's gaze.

"Stupid kid," Dingo said, shaking his head.

"Nevermind him, where were we?" Ken said, smiling.

"I think we were in the middle of this!" Dingo said, suddenly putting his lips back on her's, continuing the make-out session.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"So what's the matter?" Miryhn asked, slumped in the passenger seat.

"Miryhn, I'm worried about you. There is no way I'm ever going to let you get back in a Orbital Frame until you tell me exactly what's going on with you. That little episode back there has me worried sick about you and-" Vera began to say.

"Worried? Who said you were responsible for me? Look, it's my own problem and I'm going to deal with it," Miryhn shouted.

"Your problem is my problem. I'm just sick of being left in the dark when it's fairly obvious I'm part of that problem! Haven't you noticed by now that I'm in some way involved the last two times it's happened?" Vera said, voice raised. "Just tell me what's wrong. You can trust me, I'll do my best to help. I seem to be the only one who can put an end to it, right?" she added, now with a bit more concern in her tone.

Miryhn sighed. "If I told you the truth, you'd think I was insane," he said, shaking his head.

"Miryhn, no, I wouldn't. Your eyes change color, you act strange, and you can somehow make an Orbital Frame bring out its full potential. Believe me, I have reason to believe anything you tell me. What's the matter with you and how can I help? Just tell me so we can get through this!" Vera said, half to tears again.

"Alright, you want to know? I'll tell you. I'll tell you exactly what's the matter with me," Miryhn said, sighing.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

* In the future, l33t-speak is considered slang. Let us all do our part to take down this rediculous and callous abuse of the English language and ASCII standard keyboard and end l33t-speak NOW!

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