Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ Rival ( Chapter 14 )

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

Everyone has someone they want to even the score with, after all.

The Triad face off with East Wind while an innocent soul is lead into the evil power of an unleashed Orbital Frame...

Non Anime: Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Mecha / Comedy / Adventure / Action / Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 11.23.2003 | Updated On: 12.05.2003 | Pages: 20 | Words: 27.4K | Visits: 207 | Status: Completed

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<CENTER>"All my rivals will see what I have in store..." - Pearl Jam, from "Rival"</CENTER>

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

"Lamar, I have a very good question for you," Norris said, picking two bon-bons out of his small candy dish at the front of this desk and popping them in his mouth.

"And what would that be, sir?" Lamar asked, obediently while clutching a new file folder.

Norris chewed slowly, shaking his index finger at Lamar and making a few mutters. "Lamar, I have to ask, what do you believe to be the most sincere, honest, and truly the most emotionally driven instrument ever invented? In essence, what is the best instrument ever invented?" Norris said with a sly grin on his face after swallowing his snack.

"I haven't given that much thought, sir. I've always been a fan of the tenor saxophone and-" Lamar said, completely puzzled.

"Wrong!" Norris interrupted, slamming his fist on the desk hard enough to make everything on it jump. "Lamar, how can you be so blind? Have you no aesthetic sense?"

"I'm sorry, sir, that's why I'm a businessman," Lamar said, rolling his eyes.

Norris burst into laughter. "That's why I like you, Lamar. You and every bit of your fucking cynicism," he said, shaking his head and laughing.

"Sir, just tell me what the perfect instrument is so I can hand you this file and go to a meeting with our investors that you should be attending and not me," Lamar said, looking at his watch.

"Right, right. Lamar, the instruments of all instruments is, of course, the human voice," Norris said with a wide grin on his face. He pulled a remote out of his business coat and hit the Play button. With that, the opening movement to a late 21st century opera began to blare from every corner of his office.

Lamar plugged his index fingers in his ears.

Norris cut down the volume to a dull roar and laughed.

Lamar rolled his eyes and tossed the folder on Norris's desk. "I'll be down in your stockholder meeting," Lamar said, slightly sarcastic with emphasis on "your".

Norris immediately opened up the folder and took a brief look at the contents. "What the fuck is this?"

"Those are the latest reports on all the things you asked for," Lamar said with a tone of condescension. "First, we successfully recovered and dismantled Rupert Longbottom's Orbital Frame recovered soon after his reported death by Hauser's group. We also got David Vacaum and Barry Fatima's Frames and they're currently being dismantled. You'll be happy to hear that Ehecatl is going according to schedule," he said, showing Norris a piece of paper from the folder detailing what he just said.

"Excellent. Did you find any evidence in the least bit linking those Frames to being recently produced by Nereidium?" Norris said, grabbing another bon-bon.

"No, sir. All shipping receipts came up saying the crates the Frames came in were 'miscellaneous foodstuffs' being shipped from what we believe to be a false company called 'Heinlein Food Fleet Incorporated'. It seems impossible to find any real evidence that Nereidium is blatantly ignoring the Anti-Metatron Body Act and indirectly supporting terrorists," Lamar said with a sigh.

"Damn him! Kapricon will burn for this!" Norris said, swallowing his bon-bon with an angry look. "I know him, he's just doing it for the money. Someone bought him out and I want to know who!"

"Sir, please be patient. We both knew ever since the Terran Crusade that Nereidium was far from quitting the Orbital Frame business. The fact is, they have a perfect alibi for every instance of unregulated Orbital Frames popping up. All they have to do is pin it on some random terrorist group and every single government agency believes them. The government is too busy fending off attacks and strengthening their propaganda to worry about an investigation," Lamar explained, shrugging.

"That and the fact that Nereidium bent over backwards to prove how sorry they were for helping BAHRAM. They sold the fuck out and now rumor has it VANGUARD will fully fortify the Space Force with basic Orbital Frames within a year! Can you believe that shit?" Norris said, quite pissed off.

"Sir, we'll continue to investigate as best we can. I fully understand your feelings and the fact is that corporate espionage is the norm in this day and age. If we find concrete evidence of Nereidium aiding terrorists in the least bit, you'll be the first to hear, okay" Lamar said, leaning his weight on one leg.

"I can't wait until we find their private buyer and prove he's been giving Frames to the filthier element of the Enders. Kapricon will be caught with his thumb up his ass and Nereidium will be dissolved and taken in by the Space Force, I bet. Oh, how delicious!" Norris said with a laugh.

"Brilliant, sir, simply brilliant," Lamar said sarcastically. "By the way, we also aquired some new intelligence on one of Nereidium's more secret projects. Seems they have another Anubis lined up," Lamar said, sifting through the papers inside the folder and handing Norris one in specific.

"Oh, mother of God! Why does this shit keep popping up, anyway?" Norris said, reading over the report. "New model Anubis? Scheduled for completion within two years? And what the fuck is a Vostrikov?" he said, reading down the list.

"I believe Vostrikov is the name of the Runner scheduled to be the pilot. From what we understand, he's rather young in age for being a Runner and-" Lamar tried to explain.

"Would you give it a rest?" Norris shouted, interrupting Lamar. "Look, the old Anubis got blown up by that...guy and Jehuty. The rumors of this 'new Anubis' have been rampant for three years now and Nereidium hasn't been able to finish it? Kapricon's bluffing, just bluffing to try and scare me. He knows I keep an eye on him and I know he keeps an eye on me. The only trick to it is making sure that eye sees nothing important and if our eye is seeing this, it must be a hoax," he said, jamming a bon-bon in his mouth. *

"That guy was Dingo Egret and the rumors-" Lamar said, trying to explain again.

"Dingo, Drain-O, Dipshit, I don't care what his name was. Yeah, big martyr for saving all of humanity and shit. Guess what? Because of him, guess who the Space Force favored over Ryan Corporation? Nereidium! Yeah, I'd really like to kick Mr. Egret's ass for going and pissing away my big move to help the Space Force win against BAHRAM," Norris said quite sarcastically.

"But, sir-" Lamar said, not even bothering to go beyond those two words.

"But nothing! Look, stop bothering me with this 'new Anubis' bullshit. I'll believe it when I see it and up until then I'll just keep saying Kapricon's talking out his ass about it," Norris said in irritation, shoving the report back into the folder.

"If you say so, sir," Lamar replied, nodding.

"Now, get out of here. I'm too pissed to think," Norris said, twirling his chair around to face the window.

Lamar sighed. "Very well, sir. I'll be in the stockholder meeting," he said, turning and leaving.

Norris groaned and turned the music back up to a deafening level. "Sing to me, you sad, pitiful soul. Sing!" he said in a whisper.

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

Trent sighed and crawled across the bed over to the edge and sat up. He picked up a new cigarette from the nightstand and put it in his lips, grabbing the lighter after and lighting up. He took a long breath from it and slowly blew it out his nose.

Sylfa turned over on the other side of the bed and looked up at him. She gave him a confused look and moved across under the sheets and put her arms around him. "You shouldn't smoke those, they'll kill you," she said, rubbing her cheek against his bare chest.

"Don't care," Trent replied, monotone as usual. "Just following the old saying of having a smoke after you 'do it'," he added, rolling his eyes as Sylfa's sudden need for cuddling.

"I guess you really wanted one. If Lazarus caught you doing that, he'd lop off your head," Sylfa said, closing her eyes and gently stroking Trent's well-built upper body.

"I don't give a fuck what that zombie has to say, he can't stop me. So much for being 'pure virgins', huh?" Trent said, laying back and holding the cigarette in his lips.

"You were good, as always, Trent," Sylfa said, smiling and reaching up to kiss his cheek.

"Thanks, I'm glad there are other sensible people in this asinine little task force that I can be around," Trent said, rolling his eyes.

"Who around here is 'sensible'?" Sylfa asked, continuing to cuddle against Trent's body.

"Me, you, Quinn, and Judas, that's about it," Trent said, taking the cigarette and dabbing the ash off the end into an ashtray on the nightstand. He then replaced it in his lips and took another long puff.

"And the others?" Sylfa asked, now making soft mutters as she tightly gripped Trent.

"Leonard just sucks Lazarus's teet because he has nowhere else to go. He obviously depends on other people because he can't depend on himself. Annallee too, although I just think she only sees Lazarus as an idol to worship. She'd easily drop dead for him. Disgusting example of a woman, huh?" Trent said, holding the cigarette pencil-style with his left hand and putting his right arm around Sylfa.

"She's ugly too," Sylfa said with a giggle.

"Yeah, small breasts do nothing for me," Trent said, grabbing Sylfa's naked right breast.

Sylfa giggled and cuddled against Trent again.

"Then there's Cyril and Joker. Little does Lazarus realize it, but Cyril's in-the-closet, you know. He doesn't seem to care about anything but wanting some male butt to stare at. Meanwhile, God only knows what's wrong with Joker. That guy seems even more zealous about this line of work than Lazarus," Trent said, sighing.

Sylfa continued to feel Trent silently.

"They're all insane. One of these days, I'm going to kill them all and just take off with you, Judas, and Quinn. We'll do things our own way and we'll all be happy about it. No more corny religious zealotry, no more stupid little costumes, no more Lazarus and Joker! I swear to 'God' that's how it'll be!" Trent said, sloping his brow.

Sylfa suddenly stopped and moved off of him. "You don't mean that, do you?" she said, keeping a hand on his chest.

"Yes, I do. 'God' betrayed me the minute my mom, girlfriend, and little brother were killed in the BAHRAM attack on Antillia. Wish 'God' had decided to kill my stepdad instead. That bastard should have been the one in the house that day," Trent said, sighing and taking another breath of his cigarette.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sylfa said, pulling the sheets up on her some more.

"I'm living a farce, that's what. Look at me, the 'Angel of Vengeance' whom Lazarus dubbed to be the one who executes 'God's vengeange against man for the sins committed' and all that. I was such a fool to be taken in by that crap," Trent said, rubbing the temples of his nose with his left hand.

"So, what, you're going to betray him because you don't believe in what he has to say?" Sylfa asked, looking concerned.

"I'm going to betray him because he's obviously not the right guy for the job. If 'God' wants to bring death and destruction upon humanity, he'll need someone of stable and clear mind...a human with conscious thought, differing opinions, and most importantly a scratch of sanity. A madman like Lazarus is totally unpredictable and incapable of doing things right. He's bound to go overboard with it. There has to come a time when the rain of death will end and things can go back to normal. You can't teach humans a lesson if they're all dead," Trent said, dabbing the ash off his cigarette into the tray.

"You want to be the leader again, don't you?" Sylfa said, sighing.

Trent drew an angry look. "More than anything," he said, placing the cigarette back in his lips.

Sylfa smiled and propped her head up on her arm. "Well, you can count on me. To be honest, I agree with you. Lazarus is a lunatic and we were a lot better off before he replaced you. I'll be with you until the very end, okay?" Sylfa said, rubbing Trent's slightly stubbled chin with her free hand.

"Thanks, Sylfa. I know Judas will back me up. Quinn will too, I suppose. You all believe in me more than him, right?" Trent said, glancing at her.

"I do and I know do too. We were the originals, after all," Sylfa said, running her hand down his chest.

"Lazarus will fall and the Seraphic Order will be what it was before. I'll make sure of it," Trent said, steel in his voice.

Sylfa grabbed his cigarette and tossed it aside. She then threw herself on him and began kissing him deeply. "But there's just one thing that's in the way. What about 'Death'?" Sylfa said after they finally stopped kissing.

Trent groaned and pushed Sylfa off. He shook his head and threw his feet on the ground, walking over and picking up his uniform.

"What? What'd I say?" Sylfa said, sitting up on the bed.

"Lazarus keeps saying he'll find 'Angel of Death'. Lazarus keeps saying he'll find the mother fucker who will make or break the Order. Lazarus keeps saying he'll find the last guy with 'Alpha' Manna and he'll drag him kicking and screaming here if he has to. Problem is, he found him and now I have to find a way to keep that little prick from joining sides with Lazarus," Trent said, jamming a leg into his uniform pants.

"I see. So that's what's been bothering you lately," Sylfa said, lowering her head.

"I'm sorry, Sylfa, really. It's just whenever I think about Lazarus actually succeeding, I get so infuriated I loose any and all pleasure in anything," Trent said, pants on and now struggling to get his arms into the odd-shaped pauldrons of the jacket.

"Trent, don't be so upset, please?" Sylfa said, frowning.

"Sylfa, when you've been treated like a lapdog for the past two years when you very well deserve his role more than he does, you tend to get a little bit more irritated than normal at the mere thought of him solidifying that position," Trent said, finally getting his jacket on and slipping on the gauntlets.

"Look, just convince the guy to join our side and there's no way Lazarus and his fan club can stop you!" Sylfa said, sloping her brow. "There's no reason to panic."

Trent, finally fully dressed, stopped and leaned against the wall. He sighed and turned his head to Sylfa. "You're right, okay? You're absolutely right," he said, walking over to Sylfa and leaning over the bed. He moved in and kissed her again.

"There's no need to worry. Things will work out fine. There's no way Lazarus can stop you if you can get 'Death' to join us," Sylfa said as they let off the kiss.

"Yes, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on that latest development concerning 'Death'. I suggest you get dressed and come with me," Trent said, stepping off the bed and going to the door.

"Oh, alright," Sylfa said, climbing off the bed while keeping a sheet around her naked body. "Chilly with no man to keep me warm, you know," she said with a chuckle.

"Whatever, just hurry up. To be honest, I think I'll make the females keep their uniforms. You're pretty hot," Trent said, showing off his rare smile.

Sylfa giggled. "Okay, just wait for me outside," she said, grabbing her uniform off the floor.

Trent's smile dropped as he stepped out the door. He slammed it behind him.

"Oh, Trent. I hope you get what you want someday. I hope I'm right beside you when you do," she said, sighing.

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

Miryhn laid his sword across his chest and against his right shoulder, resting the bottom against the seat. He sighed and took off his sunglasses. "It goes like this," he said, putting the folded up sunglasses on the dashboard. "I had just graduated high school and was applying for the Elysium Flight School in order to become a commercial ship pilot. I always wanted to do something concerning going into space and having some sort of 'high adventure' among the stars or something. I guess that comes from all the years of sci-fi and giant mecha anime I watched back then," he said with a chuckle. "My parents weren't that impressed with my choice of occupation, though. I had graduated an average student and for some reason, they felt the need to rub in my strange penchant for mediocrity that I've had all my life.When they heard I was going into such a 'mundane' career, man, was I ever at ends with them," he added, laying his head against the window.

"Miryhn," Vera said with compassion, looking at him.

"But that's getting a little too personal, don't you think? And off topic," he said, grinning just a little.

"Don't be afraid to get personal with me. I'm a girl, I love emotional crap," Vera said, glancing at him briefly.

"Anyway, a few weeks passed and I got in. I moved to a small apartment near the campus and began classes the fall after my graduation," he said, rolling his head back against the seat. "I went in for a physical the first week I was there, since apparently you have to be physically well to go into space, and for some reason they kept me in there for a little while longer than everyone else. The physical was kind of odd anyway. Not only did they test every nook and cranny of your body, but you were put to a psychological test as well. You know, ink blots tests and all that. I can tell you this much, there is nothing more uncomfortable than telling someone you've never met before in your life your deepest and darkest secrets and most sensitive issues. I left there and went back to my apartment, disregarding the whole experience, and just prepared myself to go to class the next day. But that night was even more disturbing than the session before," he explained, low and solemn.

"And what happened that night?" Vera asked with deep concern.

"I didn't wake up in my bed. I woke up somewhere else, in some other bed staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. When I looked around, I was in some sort of military hospital. I know it was military because across the room was a doctor and two armed guards, all three were staring at me with deep interest. The first thing to come out of my mouth was a beg to know where I was and who they were. The only thing I got was a smack in the face, the two men restraining me, and the doctor knocking me out again," he said, laying an arm on the armrest of the door.

"Miryhn, that reminds me. Back when I was a rookie, I had heard something about a massive missing persons case that happened overnight. People mainly from Elysium County and a few satellites of Jupiter were reported kidnapped or otherwise missing without a trace. Did it happen to be on the date of March 23rd, 2174?" Vera asked.

"Yep, only a few months before the Mars liberation," Miryhn replied with a nod.

"Then you can breathe easy. Not only were you one of many, but your story holds water," Vera said, nodding.

"Thought it didn't matter how outrageous my story was, you'd believe me anyway," Miryhn said, smirking.

"I meant it more for your own benefit," Vera said, glancing at him.

"I don't need benefit. I was there and I know what happened," Miryhn said, looking out the window.

"Well, go on," Vera said, now concerned again.

"Yeah, anyway, when I woke up again, I was in a chair in some lab. A doctor came up to me and shook my hand, smiling. I punched him in the face and he just laughed, smiling the whole time. That particular doctor was Doctor Ricdeau," Miryhn said, folding his arms behind his head.

"That black-haired guy you were talking to back in parking lot?" Vera asked.

"Yep, same guy. Anyway, he tells me that because of the results of my physical for the Elysium Flight School, I was selected to be involved in a very important military development. Turns out I was snatched up by some Mars libertation group that was trying to rival BAHRAM, a group called TEMPEST. They were out to rival BAHRAM in ways other than Orbital Frame technology, namely things like combat enhancement drugs for soldiers and chemical warfare. I'm still not entirely sure what my physical had to do with anything, but apparently I had the required conditions," Miryhn said, looking down at his feet.

"That's right, all the missing persons were recorded to be people of mild mental depre-" Vera murmured, stopping herself.

"Mild what?" Miryhn said, looking at her.

Vera sighed. "Mild mental depression while a handful of which were noted to have delusional tendencies," she said sheepishly.

Miryhn laughed. "Yeah, at the time I was rather down on myself at times. I didn't leave home on a good note and all through high school life was rough. Never thought it was so bad I was medically depressed, though," he said, scratching his head. "But I can guarantee you I was never delusional about anything. I have both feet on the ground. And what are the cops doing looking at missing person's mental condition?"

"If anything all you have is an overactive imagination," Vera said, shaking her head. "And the police look at everything about the person so they can best track the suspect. It's 'profiling', which is not considered 'fair', but we didn't call it that at the time."

"What?" Miryhn asked, looking at her again.

"Nothing, tell me what happened next," Vera said, concerned again.

"Well, Ricdeau tells me that TEMPEST snatched people like me up because we had the conditions to be included in the 'Manna of Heaven' Project. It was the militia's latest development and they'd stop at nothing to see it was tested correctly, even if it meant taking people by force. After that, he bid me farewell and left the room while two guards told me to strip to my shorts get in some glass tube. I obeyed, with little choice in the matter, and got in. And I have to admit, I never thought I'd end up like those people in sci-fi animes floating in tubes full of liquid with a breathing tube, but I did. I was in there for quite a long time while doctors and scientists stared at me, tapped on the glass, and wrote on clipboards. Then came one of the most traumatic experiences I've ever had in my whole life," he said, now hanging his head.

Vera pulled to a stoplight and leaned on the steering wheel, looking at him while gripped by his story.

"Some guy in the back pushes a button and a needled comes down from the top of the tube. It jabs me in the neck and I watch as some gold fluid comes down the tube, into the needle and into my bloodstream. At first I didn't feel anything, but pretty soon every muscle in my body began to ache. My back was killing me, my brain was numb and I was loosing consciousness. I began to get a splitting headache and I was about to black out. Just then, a gold hue seemed to come to everything in the world and when I looked at my reflection in the glass, my eyes did the color changing thing. My irises were gold, the pupils a blood red color, as you know. And when I looked back at the scientists and doctors in front of the tube, something possessed me. It was like I was still there, still in my body, but something else was controlling it and my own will. Something bloodthirsty and savage, a coldblooded soul that demanded its rage be let upon all those around it. The next thing I knew, my own soul was set aside and my body overtaken by the savage demon's. I had somehow smashed the glass with my own two hands, leaving deep cuts in my hands, and thrown off the breathing tube and various electrodes stuck to my body as the tube drained. What happened next was all a blur, but afterwards, I looked back and out of all the scientists I had killed three with my bare hands, leaving smears of my own gold-tinted blood on their corpses. Just before I passed out from a tranquilizer dart, I remembered stabbing one in the neck a few times with a scalpel, and then I dropped into unconsciousness," Miryhn explained, biting his lip, his brow creased with painful recollection.

Vera leaned over in her seat, about to reach a hand behind his back. Just then, the car behind them blew the horn and she jumped back into her seat.

"Yeah, you sat through two green lights while I was talking," Miryhn said, pointing to the stoplight.

Vera sighed and began driving again. "So what happened next?"

"I woke up in the same bed I was in that they put me in in the first place. I was still blood-smeared and fairly numb, plus there were bloody tears on my cheeks. I kind of felt like crying again, not knowing what the hell came over me and remembering the four men I killed, but I'm not much of a person for that kind of thing. Instead, I just stared, probably in shock from the whole experience, and my mind wandered. Soon, Ricdeau came in and told me that it was alright and that I would be forgiven for what I did. He even laughed and said he didn't like one of them that much anyway. He explained that they had injected me with a substance called 'Manna', a new age experimental combat enhancer that is capable of unleashing a person's 'Id'," Miryhn explained, rubbing his chin.

"What's 'Id'?" Vera asked, turning a corner.

"According to Ricdeau, in Freud's theory of personality development, an adult's psyche comprises three basic sections: the Ego, Superego, and Id. The Ego and Superego lie mainly within the conscious mind while the Id is an unconscious system which controlls life and death instincts. It seeks immediate gratification and is impulsive, amoral, and selfish by human moral standards. It is thought to represent the most primitive part of the personality, consisting purely of powerful needs and desires, most of them aggressive or sexual in origin," Miryhn said, shaking his head. "But what Manna does with this is act on the soldier's will for survival and absolute victory despite any and all person loss or consequence. In essence, it makes someone the perfect soldier, uncaring of anything except eliminating the target with complete lack of reserve or mercy."

"That would explain how you behave whenever your Manna activates," Vera said, sighing. "You don't care about anything except killing whoever you deem your enemy."

"Exactly. But to me, Manna isn't what they made it out to be. They claim it's a blessing to anyone with what they think are my deep-felt desires," Miryhn said, now spiteful. "They said that I seek to 'release deep-felt aggression kept inside for years' according to their studies and that's perfect for what they had in mind for me. That's an insult to my integrity, I want absolutely nothing of being a coldblooded killer all my life," he said, sneering. "Manna isn't a blessing, it's a curse!"

"And I bet prolonged exposure to combat is what makes it do that, right?" Vera asked, glancing at Miryhn with concern.

Miryhn sighed. "Yeah, that's why ever since Ester asked me to help her with Tarver Urenbach, I've been walking on glass to avoid doing something like what I did to those scientists ever again. It's a pain in the ass because not only am I afraid, but I'm also frustrated that it can go off at any time and I have no way of stopping it by myself. I'm afraid of myself, Vera. I'm afraid that one time, I might end up hurting someone I actually give a damn about," he said, sounding a bit upset.

"Oh, Miryhn," Vera said with a whine of pity.

"That man I fought a while ago, that one with the angelic Orbital Frame. He seemed like an angel who had come to take my life, and to be honest, I welcomed it. I hoped that maybe he would be the one to end my nightmare once and for all, even if death was the answer. So I went to him, I fought him, and I survived. The only thing I learned from it was that we are both humans with angels trapped inside us. Divine souls that long for something more and our flesh isn't enough to achieve that. So they make us awash with their power and possess our wills, driving us men mad and making us do inhuman things. Or maybe the scientists are right and there's some deep-felt rage I've locked away in my mind that the power unleashes. Either way, Vera, I'm a man of two souls. The joke-around slacker ship pilot Miryhn and what that man dubbed the Archangel of Death. That fight proved to me of one thing: I can't die by normal means. I'm somehow divine and that's why neither of us could kill the other. Angels can't die, it seems, we just keep living inside someone else," Miryhn said, ending on a sigh.

Vera was crying into his chest. "Miryhn, to think that at one point you ever wanted to needlessly throw your life away..." she said in between sobs.

"You pity me, don't you? I'm touched, but that really doesn't help my situation," Miryhn said, patting the back of her head.

"But it does!" Vera cried out, leaning back and looking at his face. "Every time the angel comes out and makes you do such things, seeing someone like me in tears over you and what its presence is doing to us somehow makes you...more tender. You suddenly stop being bloodthirsty and crazed and you begin to...care, a deep and heart-felt caring, at that. That soul has two sides to it, Miryhn, one that starves to kill and one that wants to comfort. I don't entirely understand, but that's what's happened both times you've flipped out," she explained, wiping her eyes.

"Then maybe I'm three beings in one: man, demon, and angel," Miryhn said, looking at his hands.

Vera sniffed, about to cry again just looking at Miryhn's melancholy face. She could tell he wanted to just cringe and weep along with her, but maybe by now he had come to grips with the facts and didn't outwardly show it anymore. Knowing he was trying his best to hide his sorrow, she began to cry and move to hug him.

"Hey! You're blocking traffic, make out with that bastard later!" a woman yelled from the driver's side window.

"Blow it out your cunt, bimbo!" Vera shouted, flipping the woman the bird. She then stepped on the gas and peeled off down the street.

Miryhn sighed. "Look, I'm sure all my pretty metaphors and stuff are heart breaking and all, but I'd really like to just move on," he said, now regaining his composure.

"Miryhn, you may not notice, but I actually give a damn about what's ailing people. I want to help as best I can, alright? Don't be afraid to tell me these things," Vera said, glancing at him with a smile.

Miryhn scratched his head. "Well, alright, if you say so."

"Good, now, what should we get for dinner?" Vera asked, now in her normal tone.

"Get some Subway. I'm dying for a Chicken Pizziola," Miryhn said, smiling and patting his stomach.

"Subway it is!" Vera said, turning down the next street. "But, Miryhn, I have to ask something. If you still know Doctor Ricdeau even after you obviously left TEMPEST, how come he won't tell you how to stop Manna's effects or offer you an antidote or something?"

"To be honest, I don't know. He tells me every time I ask that he wasn't the developer of Manna, he was just an employee for TEMPEST and knows absolutely nothing about it. He must be telling the truth because he obviously has no knowledge of medicine beyond doctor stuff," Miryhn explained, rubbing his chin.

"How do you figure that?" Vera asked.

"He was never in the lab along with the researchers, he worked in the clinic checking people out," Miryhn explained, recalling to himself.

"He might be lying. Military types are like that," Vera said, pulling into the Subway's parking lot.

"Whatever the case, I can't force anything out of him. He's even tougher than I am," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Vera said, pulling into a parking spot.

"Guess who taught me how to use this," Miryhn said with a sly grin, pointing to his sword.

"Oh, that," Vera replied with a nod. "Well, let's get some food, alright?"

Miryhn gave her a thumbs-up and climbed out of the car.

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

Dingo lined up the shot carefully, tapping the cue ball slightly and knocking the eight ball into the corner pocket.

"You win, again," Leo said, rolling his eyes. He proped his cue stick against the table and bent over to place the rack on the table.

"Natural skill," Dingo said with a grin, bending back up from the pool table inside the Ochre Roc's lounge.

"Natural skill doesn't include making shots from three inches away," Ken heckled, busy at the other end of the loung with a video game on the flatscreen TV.

"Oh, come on, you're just mad because I always win even when you and Leo team up," Dingo said with a chuckle.

"Please, Dingo, you're about to knock over something with your ego inflating so much," Ken replied, rapidly tapping a button on the controller.

Leo belted out a laugh, putting balls in the rack.

"Bah, you're all just jealous," Dingo said, putting his cue stick across his shoulders and hanging his arms on each end. He glanced at the stereo as his favorite Cypress Hill song, "Insane In The Brain", began to play and smiled. "Man, what a hot beat."

"I don't understand how you suddenly like that really old rap crap," Leo said, finishing racking the balls.

"Because unlike more rap for that time and age, Cypress Hill wasn't about money and having lots of hoes to fuck. Cypress Hill was about badass stuff like blasting jerks who be front'in and not taking shit from anyone," Dingo explained with a grin.

"Weirdo," Ken joked, leaning to the side as her character narrowly dodged a wave of enemy fire in the game.

One of the doors opened and Angie walked in. Her hair was quite mussed and her expression was very tense.

"Oh, hey Ang'. How's the-" Leo began to ask, looking over at her.

"Do you people realize what you're doing to me lately?" Angie shouted, interrupting Leo.

Dingo, Leo, and Ken all stared at her.

"It's always 'Angie, find everything you can about this guy' or 'Angie, do me a favor and find this guy' or 'Angie, did you ever trace that lead you found yesterday?'" Angie said, furious and sarcastic. "Would it hurt you people to give me a day or two? Or better yet, wait for me to come to you about it?"

Dingo, Leo, and Ken all looked at each other.

"But, Angie, we needed to know about Mr. X's meeting place immediately when we reached Mars and-" Dingo started to say.

"I was about to tell you about three minutes before you came and nagged me about it!" Angie said, raising her voice loud enough to interrupt again.

"Alright, we get the point. Let you come to us about what you find, don't bug you beforehand. That's no problem, is it?" Dingo said, looking at Leo and Ken.

Leo smiled and nodded, Ken rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Good! I'm glad we have an understanding," Angie said, calm once again. "And I couldn't find any other Nereidium employees who would sell out. Seems after Mr. X disappeared no one trusts shady, obscure Earth Military agencies like ourselves."

"Lovely, we're out of leads again," Dingo said, shaking his head.

"Not really," Leo said, rolling the cue ball to Dingo's end of the table. "We're after the man who's distributing Orbital Frames to scummy Martians, right? Why not start asking people who recieved those Orbital Frames?"

"Wait, are you suggesting we call in those oddballs on Entropy for questioning?" Dingo said, raising an eyebrow.

"Look at it this way. Our first plan was to intercept the Frames before they reached their destination, right? That would have gotten us the most information after we hacked the ship computers or at least checked the source tags for each crate. We ended up just sitting around near trade lanes with Metatron detectors going after each ship that passed through with high readings. That's how we ended up attacking that one oddly marked ship, then leaving it to go after another 'hot' ship a trade lane away. Entropy goes in and steals what we ignorantly left behind, Freya, and then we run into Entropy later when we come back to that trade lane. By the way they acted both times we met them, something tells me these people are genuinely just your average, everyday people just trying to get along by any means necessary. There's no reason to doubt them," Leo said, grabbing the chalk and twirling it around the end of his pool cue.

"So you're saying that going for the Frames themselves is useless, we have to go after the people?" Dingo said, leaning over and setting up for the break.

"Well, Tarver Urenbach's in jail and all the others aren't that trustworthy. Besides, that one guy and woman we met in the battle with Shango seemed to be fairly benevolent with how they used Masamune and Freya in that battle, right? I'm sure they'd be happy to help us," Leo said, shrugging.

"Guess you have a point," Dingo said, launching the cue ball across the table, striking Leo's poor racking job. The balls barely moved appart. "Damn it, Leo!"

"Sorry," Leo said with a chuckle. He grabbed his cue and moved to a side of the table to prepare his shot.

"Alright, I'll give them a call myself," Dingo said, nodding. "But right after this round. I have to prove to you guys that I'm still the best," he said, laughing.

"Please, it's getting deep in here, Dingo," Ken said, laughing.

Angie and Leo joined in the laugh.

"Just jealous, that's all," Dingo said to himself with a sneer.

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

Miryhn sat in the lounge of Entropy, happily eating his sub. He had a look at the clock and then grabbed the remote. He stopped on a channel that was just playing commercials and smiled.

Vera, sitting in her usual seat, rolled her eyes while biting into her sub. "I can't believe you're still watching this damn show. It's so stupid," she said after taking a bite and swallowing.

"You've got to be kidding me. It's comedic genius! The guy who came up with this show has got to be some sort of god!" Miryhn said, taking a gulp of his drink.

"Coming up next, it's the latest collaboration between The 20th Century Classics Channel and 22nd Century Fox: 'That 90s Show'! Critics everywhere are raving! 'That 90s Show' is a smart and cynical look at the 1990s and early 2000s, poking fun and funny parodies and satires at one of the stupidest periods in the human race's existence' says Mars Today. 'I haven't laughed so much as sociological comedy in...ever!' says HBC Morning News. 'This is one damn funny show' says Ain't It Wooty News. So don't miss the latest episode of 'That 90s Show', coming up next!" the voice-over guy said, text from each quote appearing on screen.

"Don't watch it, Miryhn. I swear this show lowers your intelligence," Vera said, shaking her head.

"Too late, it's on," Miryhn said, turning up the volume.

After the title card, theme song, and intro sequence, the show started.The first scene was two guy sitting around in a typical 90s apartment wearing designer clothes from the 90s: Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, Old Navy, and the like.

"Yo, Ross, how long have these leftovers been in here anyway?" one character said, looking in the refrigerator.

"I dunno, Stifler, a week?" the other said, watching TV with a bag of chips in his lap.

Just then, Stifler took a bite out of one of the leftovers. "Tastes like chicken," he said, chewing on it.

The audience exploded in laughter.

"Hey, if you die, I'm not paying for your funeral," Ross said, eating a chip.

"I think you will be. Show me the money!" Stifler said, applying obvious sarcasm to his words.

The audience once again exploded in laughter.

"So, really, how long have they been in there?" Stifler asked.

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" Ross replied, grinning like an idiot.

The audience laughed jovially.

Just then, the door to the apartment opened and in stepped a black guy wearing an enormous platinum necklace and FUBU sweats.

"Wassup!" he yelled, walking in the door.

"Wassup!" Ross replied, pouring his tongue out of his mouth.

"Wassup!" Stifler replied with a low grunt after Ross, doing it longer than Ross did.

"Wassu-" the black guy began to say.

"-uuu-" Ross said along with him.

"-uuup!" Stifler said as they all finished it at once.

The audience laughed and applauded for two minutes straight as the characters just grinned and laughed with them.

"Yo, yo, yo, I'm DJ Ill'in! What's up, homes? Check it!" the black guy said, swing his his arms around.

The audience howled with laughter.

"Nothing, DJ Ill'in, just watching 'the game' and eating chips," Ross said.

"Man, that's dope. I be tripping on my gangsta mouthwash and knocking turkeys out of herbs down by the bus stop all morning," DJ Ill'in replied, sitting in one of the chairs.

The audience roared with laughter.

Miryhn was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. He gasped for air, only returning more laughter. Vera glared and kept eating her sub.

"Aw, man, what was wrong with people back then? Where did they come up with such stupid shit?" Miryhn said, still chuckling and trying to eat his sub.

"Hey! It's 'That 90s Show'!" Nash said, walking in the lounge with a bag of Chinese. "I haven't seen an episode of this in weeks. Damn, that one I did see was so funny, I thought I'd die laughing!"

"I know, really!" Miryhn said, nodding.

Back in the show, Stifler grabbed some dip and was walking around the couch to join Ross on the couch. Just then, DJ Ill'in stuck out his foot and Stifler fell on his face.

"Heh, heh, heh, did I do that?" DJ Ill'in said with a nasal tone, then chuckling and doing two snorts.

The audience was in tears of laughter.

"Hey, look, our preferred undefined sports team just scored a touchdown/homerun/goal!" Ross said in a monotone.

"Dyno-mite!" DJ Ill'in shouted.

"D'oh!" Stifler shouted, standing up.

The audience howled with laughter.

Just then, a woman barged right in the apartment decked out in extremely immodest and designer attire.

"Oh, hey Dafney, everyone's favorite smart and sassy symbol of sex that stomps on people's pride instead of being nice for once and is a downright bitch when the plot doesn't revolve around her," Stifler said in a monotone.

"I'm a symbol of the newfound freedom woman have outside the house, pig. I'm a free spirit who can do anything a man can do and I'm not afraid to make my views and opinions known even though no one ever asks!" Dafney replied, walking behind Ross. "I have bad news, honey. It seems I'm pregnant."

"Oh shit, that means that not only will you loose your outstanding figure making us have to replace you two years from now thanks to the producers who always want a sassy bitch role filled on the show to keep the ratings up, but it means we'll be getting married next season in order to keep people who are getting sick of our shallow humor and static characters watching the show!" Ross replied extremely sarcastically.

The audience hooted and hollered, clapping and laughing.

"Sheesh, he's so right. TV back then was all about money, not entertaining. All you had to do was get some wacky and rude cast thrown together and you had a money machine for a few seasons. Then they'd dump the show with some crappy ending and make a whole new one with the same formula," Miryhn said, shaking his head and laughing.

"Yeah, what was wrong with sitcoms back then? Why couldn't they make something with actual plot and humor in good taste?" Nash said, nodding in full agreement.

"Well, it's time to embarrass someone just to get the audience laughing since they're getting tired of our stale jokes and needless bashing one one another's integrity," Ross said, standing up. "After all, the only time our characters show any development or feeling outside of selfish intent and spritely playfulness is when we want to make some arbitrary love scene that's treated as a joke moments afterward."

"That's right, Ross, and I now just the way we can do that. Let's make a couple of racial slurs at DJ Ill'in over here! Everyone finds the differences between white people and black people funny!" Stifler said.

"Aw, naw, I didn't just hear that. I know I didn't just hear that," DJ Ill'in said in a monotone.

"Who's your daddy and what does he do?" Ross said sarcastically.

"Sit on it, Potsy!" Stifler shouted.

The audience clapped and roared with laughter.

"Damn, I just have to ask again: what the fuck was wrong with people back then in the 90s?" Miryhn asked, his gut hurting with laughter.

"Who knows? Who cares? They don't know we're all laughing at them now, anyway!" Nash said, trying to eat his fried rice and laugh.

Vera sighed and sipped her drink. "Yeah, and what's with everyone having a sense of entitlement? Women are all like 'oh, I'm this big, empowered woman who does yoga and can kick a man's ass and has a big, powerful job in the workplace' and shit. Who cares? From what little I've seen on this show, it's no big deal because there's plenty of others just like them. I just want to go and smack every last one of them for being such a stuck-up bitch!" she said, shaking her head. "Honestly, those 90s people needed to get over themselves. None of them are anyone special deep down."

"Preach, sister, preach!" Nash said, clapping.

"Bravo, Vera, bravo!" Miryhn said, raising his soda to her.

"You lunkheads watching that retarded 90s show?" Jim's voice shouted from down the hall.

"Yeah!" Miryhn and Nash shouted in unison.

"Well, fuck, why didn't anyone tell me?" Jim shouted, jogging in from down the hall. He stopped in the doorway and began laughing with Miryhn and Nash.

"Hey, Stifler, you're really making me mad now. I'm going to start using derogatory language on you like saying that you're 'gay' and 'queer' and 'a Jew' because I'm a heterosexual Christian who thinks making fun of another person's sexual and religious preference is the funniest thing ever!" Ross said sarcastically.

The audience applauded loudly, resounding with laughter.

Miryhn, Nash, and Jim were in tears of laughter.

"Vera, you're so right. What makes these people think they're so cool for making fun of other people? How is being intolerant of others funny?" Nash asked in between fits of laughter.

Vera chuckled. "Not sure. But I have to agree that it's even funnier because we look back on this and laugh at all that shit now."

Just then, the sound of an incoming call could be heard above the laughter.

"Miryhn, go get it. I want the couch," Jim said, jerking his thumb down the hallway.

"What? Can't we let the answering machine get it?" Miryhn whined, balling up the wrapper from his food.

"No, go get it," Jim said, stricter.

"Fine," Miryhn said with a sigh, getting up and going down the hall. He stepped into the kitchen and put the comlink window device on the table, pulling out a chair and sitting in front of it. He pressed the button and Dingo's face appeared on the screen.

"Let's see, Mr. Troxel, I presume?" Dingo said, reading off a slip of paper.

"Wassup!" Miryhn yelled, pouring his tongue out at him and chuckling.

"Um-" Dingo said, scratching his head.

"Wassup!" Nash yelled from down the hall.

"Wassup!" Miryhn yelled back at him.

"Hey, um, Troxel? What are you doing?" Dingo said, completely puzzled.

"It's the big joke on the new episode of 'That 90's Show'!" Miryhn said, chuckling.

"New episode? Shit, when was it on?" Dingo said, looking at his watch.

"Right now, actually," Miryhn replied.

"Damn, then I have to make this quick. But anyway, I called on business," Dingo said, resuming his serious tone.

"Well if it isn't everyone's savior-turned-sellout Dingo Egret. Here to make idle threats? Or better yet, to leave defeating madmen with Orbital Frames to me?" Miryhn said, turning back to the screen and smirking.

"That's thin ice you're walking on, Troxel. I got reprimanded for letting the very thing I'm fighting to stop aid in my mission," Dingo said sternly.

"Well thanks a lot for your help too," Miryhn said sarcastically.

"Look, I'll cut to the chase. I want to question you people concerning your Orbital Frames," Dingo said, clearing his throat.

Miryhn raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? Why should we waste our time doing that? What do we have to gain?"

"You don't get anything except a guarantee that you'll be alive tommorrow morning. If you and your group aren't at Arsia Mons with your Orbital Frames by six tommorrow morning, Entropy won't exactly be afloat anymore. Are we clear?"

"I don't take threats like that lightly, Mr. Egret," Miryhn replied, being sarcastic with Dingo's name.

"Good, then we have an agreement. Arsia Mons by six tommorrow morning. Be there or not...be...there...or alive," Dingo said, rolling his eyes at the ruined intimidation at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Miryhn said, reaching down and cutting off the link.

Both Miryhn and Dingo leaned their heads back and muttered,"Asshole."

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

"How did I get talked into this?" Trent wondered, leisurely flying Zadkiel in formation with three other Seraphic Order Frames.

"It's your orders, Trent. I'd appreciate it if you didn't take it so lightly," Annallee said over the communications line from Rapheal, to Zadkiel's left.

"Yeah, Trent, you sound almost like this is some sort of hassle," Joker joked (pun intended), chiming in from Lucifer at the front.

"What are you talking about? Everything that involves Trent having to do any work is a hassle," Cyril said with a laugh, flying at the back of the formation in Zaphikel.

Joker joined in his laugh. "Yeah, Mister Mopey doesn't like having to do anything productive. Heaven forbid," he said mockingly.

"I won't even dignify that with an answer," Trent said, sighing.

Cyril and Joker laughed even harder.

"All three of you quit it. This is top priority and your asinine antics are just a distraction. This is a ship contains the head capos and maybe even Don Micani of the Blue Dragon syndicate. Eliminating this filth will mean one less pen of filthy pigs ruining the human race. This is a big move for us and I'd appreciate it if you would put your all into it," Annallee reprimanded sternly.

The other three were silent.

"Am I clear?" Annallee asked.

"Yes, teacher, we'll behave," Joker said, laughing.

Cyril cracked up.

"Morons," Annallee said, sighing.

"Hey, don't lump me in with those two," Trent objected.

"I didn't. You, of all people, are one of the few I've seen around here that don't screw around," Annallee said, smiling.

"Why, thank you," Trent said, even though his expression didn't change.

"Oh, I'm so depressing. I won't even talk like a normal person when I reply to someone's compliment. Oh, so mopey," Joker joked (pun intended, again).

Cyril was in tears of laughter.

"Salva nos, domineus deus**," Annallee said, putting a hand over her face and sighing.

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

About an hour had passed; Jim went to bed while Vera and Nash were still in the lounge watching late night sketch comedy shows. After the call, Miryhn spent a little while in the kitchen making a few snacks out of random leftovers and wondering just what Dingo was planning. It seemed odd; why bring the Frames? Questioning was fine; hell, he could just come on down to the ship seeing as he knew everything about them and do the questioning. There was an obvious ulterior motive to this meeting, but no matter how many turkey-and-extra-sharp-cheddar sandwiches he munched on, Miryhn couldn't figure out what.

He got up from the table and strolled to the lounge, carrying a bottle of Yoo-Hoo in hand. Sitting where he was previously, he propped his feet up on the table and sighed.

"You missed the rest of the show," Nash said, chuckling.

"Yeah, and it was great. They were poking fun at something called 'nu metal'. Man, that crap sucks," Vera said, laughing.

"Suddenly like this show?" Miryhn said, glancing at Vera.

"Alright, fine, I do," Vera said, rolling her eyes.

"I knew you'd eventually give in to the hilarity of past pop culture," Miryhn said, nodding and grinning.

"So who called?" Nash asked, yawning.

"Dingo," Miryhn said casually, reaching for the remote with his free hand.

"What?" Vera asked, surprised.

"We have work tommorrow at six. Don't tell Jim, though. It's probably better he doesn't know about this," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"'Work'? What do you mean?" Nash asked, just as shocked as Vera.

"Fly the Frames out to Arsia Mons and meet up with him. If we don't, they're going to make sure we don't wake up tommorrow alive," Miryhn said, raising the remote and switching the volume up some.

Vera and Nash looked at each other, puzzled looks on their faces.

"What's the problem? We have no choice," Miryhn said with a shrug.

"Well, it's just..." Vera said, pausing.

Nash scratched his head, muttering random vowel sounds.

"Really? Well, get over it. I'm not that enthusiastic either," Miryhn said sarcastically.

Vera sighed and leaned back in her chair.

Nash folded his arms and grumbled.

"Sorry to ruin the rest of your nights," Miryhn said with the same sarcasm, knocking back his Yoo-Hoo.

"Might as well hit the sack early then," Nash said, standing up and walking out. "Goodnight."

"Yeah, I need my beauty sleep," Vera said, getting out of her chair and walking out. "'Night."

Miryhn sneered. "Too much sleep is bad for your brain, you know. Gives you tumors," he said, smacking his lips after a nice swig of Yoo-Hoo.

"Lunkhead," Vera said before going out the doorway.

Miryhn was only on the couch for about another half hour. Eventually he became easily bored with the crap limited satellite Jim was on; there just weren't enough channels. Plus, he had finished his Yoo-Hoo and was too lazy to go get another. Turning off the TV, he stood up and walked to his room. He changed into his shorts, unbuttoned his shirt and kept it on, then walked over to his CD player. He reached down into his cardboard box of CDs and pulled out an album from the later 20th century; a house-genre group called The Prodigy. For some reason, he just felt like hearing some house music. He pulled out the CD and put it in the tray, grabbing his headphones and putting them on. As the CD began, he yawned and layed on his bed. To his chagrin, the ship was no longer hot as hell, but rather it was freezing since Mars had begun its fall season. He grumbled and rolled over with some covers in hand, snoozing.

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

Joker grinned, pressing the guard's head into the wall by his cheek with Damnation. The Seraphs had invaded one of the hangars of the Blue Dragon's ship, catching the whole crew completely off guard. It wasn't until their Frames had blasted into the hangar and the emergency airlocks covered the entry hole that the ship went into alert.

The guard squirmed helplessly by Joker's incredibly strong pin, trying to call for help.

Joker chuckled, grinding the gun into the man's cheek even harder. "I think this is the best time to recite a little line I have memorized. It seems appropriate for the situation seeing as no one is going to be leaving this ship alive in only a few minutes," he said, "It's Ezekiel 25:17. 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.'," he said with an angry crescendo.

With that, he reached forward and grabbed the guard, tossing him aside. The guard tumbled to the ground and Joker shot him three times, twice in the torso and once in the head.

"Really messy 'vengeance' there, 'shepard'," Cyril said jokingly, attempting to open the lock on the door out of the hangar.

"Afraid of a little blood, Cyril?" Joker asked, shrugging.

"I have to agree with him, you're far too violent about this," Annallee said, standing behind Cyril.

"Not like eliminating crime sydicates with such a vulgar abuse of power isn't," Trent pointed out, walking up beside Annallee.

"Mr. Mopey has a point. This whole job is one big mess we have to clean up. Might as well be as dirty about it as we have to," Joker said with a shrug, approaching the others.

"Excellent metaphor. Couldn't put it any better myself," Annallee said sarcastically.

"Alright, we're in! Giddity giddity go!" Cyril shouted, as the door opened and a wave of gunfire began from the hallway behind it.

All but Trent leapt to one side and Trent rushed into the hallway, making inhumanly accurate and nimble movements, dodging each shot. Two guards in suits were at the end of the hallway, looks of terror drawing up their faces as Trent ran at them. WIth a flick of his wrists, his daggers slid out of his gauntlets and into his hands. He did a diving spin between the two guards, holding out his daggers enough to cut both in the side twice with his spin. He landed on his back and immediately leapt to his feet; one guard collapsed and the other tried to turn around and fire on Trent at point blanke range. Just then, Cyril swung his staff, slamming the guard against the side of the hallway so hard his skull cracked with the loud sound of bone breaking.

"Got something in your eyes," Cyril said, resting his staff over his shoulder.

"Shuttup. I know I unfurled a bit too early there," Trent said, rubbing below his golden, Manna-changed eyes.

"Oh, it's no problem. I just like poking fun at you," Cyril said with a laugh, walking by Trent.

Trent rolled his eyes and tossed a dagger into the spinal cord of the guard who had initially collapsed. He dug it out as Joker and Annallee passed.

"We're splitting up. Hurry up and go help Cyril. I'll go with Trent," Annallee said, stopping as Joker kept going.

"Yes, ma'am," Joker replied with a joking tone as he kept walking down the hall.

"I'd much rather be going with a grown-up instead of two children, after all," Annallee said, looking back at Trent.

"You're too kind," Trent replied, twirling a dagger between his fingers.

"Come on, this will be over with in no time," Annallee said, waving for him to join her.

"How could you tell I'm rather impatient at the moment?" Trent said, walking by her.

"You're being brash, irresponsible, and have no regard for your own safety. Either that, or you're just plain rushing. Usually we have a plan, after all," Annallee said, keeping pace beside Trent.

"I don't care about plans. Taking human lives requires no planning except how you execute them," Trent said, cold and monotone.

"My, aren't we the stiff-as-a-brick killer?" Annallee said, now grinning.

Trent looked at her, then back forward. "Wipe that smile off your face. I thought you said we had to be serious," he said.

"I just said that to try and get those two to shut up. Sadly, nothing works on them," Annallee said, drawing her two shortswords off her back.

"Oh, and here I thought you were just taking Lazarus's orders seriously," Trent replied.

Annallee glanced at him with a serious expression. "I take orders seriously, but why should I when my squad won't?"

"Because you're suppose to be setting an example for us even if no one wants to follow it," Trent said, almost adding reprimand to his tone.

Annallee sighed. "Alright, you're right. I'll stay professional from now on," she said, taking on a serious tone and expression.

"That's better. I was beginning to think you were a hypocrite," Trent replied, stopping the dagger twirling at the sight of the next handful of guards. He crouched a bit and prepared to strike.

"Hypocrisy is almost a sin. Why would I be doing that?" Annallee said, stopping and preparing to enter combat.

"Because then you'd be no better than me," Trent said as the guards raised their machine guns.

"What? What's that suppose to mean?" Annallee asked, glancing back and forth between the guards and Trent.

"Nevermind, just rambling," Trent said before taking off into a dash.

Annallee furrowed her brow and shook it off. Switching grips with one sword, she ran into the fray right behind Trent.

"Just the rambling of a sinner among the insane," Trent whispered to himself. The guards opened fire and he began gracefully stepping aside each bullet, blocking others with the broad side of his daggers. When he got close enough, he stabbed one in the throat and spun him in the direction of his the fellow guards. The other two were cut down by the stabbed guard's machine gun fire. Trent proceeded to stab one in the back while Annallee cut open the other's abdomen with a cross-wise swung attack from both swords.

"So what were you saying?" Annallee asked as she pulled the swords out of the corpse.

Trent didn't reply. He pulled his dagger out and continued walking down the hall.

"Not answering my question could be grounds for subordination," Annallee shouted, jogging after him.

"I was saying that we need to get to work and not worry about menial little things," Trent said, not turning back to her.

Annallee grumbled. "Alright, fine, don't tell me," she said, following a step or two behind him.

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

"Victoria!" a voice shouted from outside the field vehicle.

Victoria Melphan grumbled, placing up her mug of coffee on the side of the console. With an annoyed sigh, she worked her dark green hair back into the neat bun she wore it in and threw her uniform cap back on. Grabbing her mug again, she stepped outside the command vehicle and strolled across the ground of the abandoned military sphere to the dig site. She was a lieutenant with VANGUARD, the Earth military organization charged with retrieval and development of Orbital Frames. They had been called out to a remote sphere where an unknown militia had set up base in the years preceeding the Terran Crusade. The Frame they were after was buried in the sublevels of the base located there and the dig was being executed in the middle of the night. Tall lighting structures and several research and equipment vehicles were parked around the pit they were digging in.

Standing near the edge of the pit where construction LEVs were digging was an elderly commander officer. He turned around and smiled as Victoria approached. "Feel a bit nippy? I have to admit, when it rains, it pours on Mars. Or in this case, when autumn comes, it's more like winter," the commander chuckled.

"With all due respect, commander, can it. I'd like to stab the man who thought putting a skirt on an VANGUARD uniform would make them somehow more effective," Victoria replied, shivering as she raised her mug and sipped her coffee.

The commander laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "Well, now, I'm glad to see a woman nowadays with a favoring for modest attire. Far too many young ladies these days like to wear the slinkiest things they can fit over their skin," he replied, turning back to the pit.

"It has nothing to do with my clothing tastes, sir, it has to do with who thought burying their Orbital Frame out here was a good idea," Victoria replied, walking up beside the commander to watch the pit dig.

"Now, now, we've met even more disturbed individuals in this case, you know. Remember the man who thought his Orbital Frame was literally in his head and all he really did was try to hide it in his backyard pool?" the commander replied with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I remember. What I want to know is where all these new Orbital Frames have been coming from and why they're so obvious to pick up. These people don't do anything with them, they just hide them in obvious spots and pretend not to know anything," Victoria said, scratching her butt.

"Think about it, Victoria. What would you do if one of the most feared and desired engines of destruction in the past twenty years of human history suddenly appeared at your door? Would you be stupid enough to go for a joy ride with it when Earth has set up the Anti-Metatron Body Act? No, these people weren't that stupid. They did what any human fearing punishment for something they never wanted in the first place would do and hid it. When we began to hear about these Orbital Frames, Earth decided not to punish the individuals, but instead to offer then pardon if they turn over the Frames. And here is where we step in, VANGUARD, digging for someone else's hidden treasure," the commander said, laughing at the end of his speech.

"I just don't understand. Hasn't anyone investigated this at all?" Victoria said, looking at the commander. She raised her mug and sipped some more coffee.

"Rumor has it Elena Weinberger's group is on it. However, rumor also has it that the military is going to overlook this matter entirely soon. Seems they don't care who's passing out Orbital Frames, they just want the threat neutralized. I don't blame them in the least bit," the commander said, still watching down at the dig.

"But then he'd just be getting away with it! What if he does it again?" Victoria asked, a bit shocked by the commander's words.

"Victoria, Earth has the Orbital Frame now thanks to our work. Soon they'll have every other resource on Mars under their control as well as every politcal structure on the planet. After that, Mars will again be just a step-stone to Jupiter's colonies instead of a liberated union as it was after Dingo Egret put an end to BAHRAM. There is no BAHRAM anymore to stand against the Earth and the Orbital Frame is no longer on Mars's side, they're helpless. When that political fiasco between the occupation forces and Martian government is over, this incident will be nothing but a lost page in history. Earth has absolutely nothing to gain by going after him," the commander explained.

"You have a point there, commander. I guess it makes sense after all. So I guess this will be a pretty boring couple of weeks from now on, right? Just going around and picking up unwanted Orbital Frames for us, eh?" Victoria said, sighing.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. As much as I'd hate to say. But it's almost a relief that's how they're going to handle it. After all, the Anti-Metatron Body Act was more like a 'seat belt rule'. It was merely set up to keep third party companies and groups with Orbital Frames in their forces under control. It's succeeded, as you can see, and not only only have we only had one incident of Orbital Frame use in the past few weeks, but that mysterious benefactor has just provided us with a wealth of Metatron and several spiffy Orbital Frames to research. As you can see, his plan backfired. He's helping VANGUARD!" the commander said, ending with another laugh.

"Sir, if you had the option, wouldn't you try to find out who it is?" Victoria asked innocently, sipping her coffee.

"Not really. I'm with the command staff and I could care less seeing as how it has only worked in our favor," the commander replied, rubbing his chin.

Victoria nodded in agreement, her dark blue eyes looking up to the quiet Mars sky through the roof of the sphere. "Sir, to be honest, I've always wanted to fly one."

"What do you mean?" the commander asked, looking at her.

"I've always wanted to fly an Orbital Frame. I've always wanted to soar around, doing all the fantastic things I've seen them do in the videos we've watched on the news and stuff," Victoria said, looking at the commander with a smile.

"Victoria, I'm sure you will as soon as we begin mass production of Raptors, Cyclopses, and Mummyh-" the commander began to say.

"I wouldn't want one of those ugly things!" Victoria snapped, interrupting. "I'd want one of those fantastic humanoid ones. Just like Jehuty, Anubis, and Ardjet," she said, smiling wider.

"I'm sorry, but that just doesn't seem possible, Victoria. Your training with the Aegis prototype "mockpit" has shown that you aren't capable of handling anything above a Cyclops at best," the commander said. "Besides, your job is to oversee the retrieval of these Orbital Frames. VANGUARD isn't about being a Frame Runner anyway, it's about developing the best possible Frames we can for the Space Force," the commander said.

Victoria looked about to tear up. "I see. You're right, commander, what am I thinking? I can't be a Runner when I'm just a military researcher. But still, just once I'd like to Run a Frame. Again, not some shoddy Cyclops or Raptor, but a graceful, beautiful humanoid Frame," she said, smiling through her tears of dissappointment.

"If you ever apply to be in the first fleet, I'll put in a good word for you, alright?" the commander said, smiling back.

"Thanks, sir," Victoria replied, looking back down at the pit.

"You have quite the ambition, Victoria, and that's admirable to me. As long as you carry that dream, someday you could have it," the commander said, looking at the pit too.

"Then I won't give up. I'll keep trying for it until I get it," Victoria replied, wiping her eyes.

Just then, a soldier in basic uniform ran up with a clipboard in hand. "Reporting, sir!" he said with a salute.

The commander turned around and nodded. "Alright, what did 'the mole' find?" he asked, referring to the small burrowing drone they had sent down into the soil before the digging crews to inspect the underground complex where the Frame was suppose to be hidden.

"'The mole' turned up one of the strangest reports I've ever seen in my entire career, sir. Here, you and Lieutenant Melphan can have a look," the soldier said, handing the commander the clipboard.

The commander read it over and tipped his cap aside a bit to scratch his head. "What in God's name is this?"

Victoria peeked over the commander's arm and raised an eyebrow. "So you picked up nothing in the first five levels down, but there was a...blob at the bottom?" she said, glancing at the soldier.

"Yes, ma'am. I can't describe it any other way except there is a formless...blob of Metatron laying at the bottom level to this underground facility," the soldier said, unable to believe what he himself was saying.

"That's crazy. It can't be an ore deposit, those are only found on Callisto. Metatron is only found in the solid state of matter. Sure, it's malliable to a degree, but not to the point where some....amoeba of the damn substance could be formed," the commander said, smacking the clipboard with the back of his free hand.

"We ran three tests, sir, and that was what came up every single time," the soldier said.

"Either we have faulty equipment or we may have discovered something that we shouldn't have," Victoria said, reading over the clipboard again.

"This is insanity! Why did you even bother going down this far? The civilian who hid his Frame here said he hid it on the second basement level and on the way out there was a cave-in from the surface. That's what those are doing," the commander said, pointing to the digging LEVs in the pit.

"We kept going because we couldn't find any readings on the second level," the soldier said, biting his lip.

"What?" the commander said, looking at the readings for the second basement level.

"Then you're saying that we've been mislead?" Victoria asked, looking at the soldier again.

"I...um...those were the results, sir and ma'am. We tried several times and that's all we got. I can't say much more than-" the soldier said.

"Stop with the idle banter!" the commander interrupted. "Look, just keep digging until you get to the second basement level. We'll run a thorough search of that level and if nothing comes up, then we'll keep going to find this...blob-thing," the commander ordered, tossing the clipboard at the soldier.

The soldier clumsily caught the clipboard and did a salute. "Yes, sir. We'll inform you once we get a new development," the soldier said, then turned and left.

"Honestly, you can't get any good help these days. 'Blobs of Metatron' my ass," the commander said, facing the pit again.

"Commander, we still don't know all there is to know about Metatron. It could be a natural phenomenon no one has ever seen before. This could be a major breakthrough for VANGUARD and for the scientific community," Victoria said, excited.

"I'll believe it when I see it," the commander said, rolling his eyes.

Almost on cue, the ground began to shake violently. Victoria stumbled around, unable to keep her footing and toppled into the pit. She screamed as she began to fall, but was suddenly caught by her arm by the commander as he laid on his stomach to the edge of the pit. The ground at least fifty feet outside the pit began to crack and cave-in.

"Goddamn it! We must have caused an even bigger cave-in. This whole area isn't stable," the commander said, struggling to pull Victoria up.

"Pull, you old man, pull!" Victoria screamed, flailing around in panic.

"Stop moving around, lieutenant! That's an order!" the commander shouted, straining to keep her in his grip.

Victoria squeeled loudly and froze, dangling from the commander's failing grip.

Behind them, the cracks in the ground suddenly bubbled over with a shining silver substance. The liquid formed small pools in the cracks and suddenly, long stalks of the liquid shot out of each pool, reaching about twenty feet in the air. The ends of each stalk formed something resembling a snake's head and each one emitted a bone-chilling metallic scream. Soldiers opened fire on the strange metallic serpents, but the bullets ricochetted harmlessly off them. The serpents lashed out and began striking at the soldiers surrounding the pit. Meanwhile, in the pit itself, the construction LEVs were being pierced over and over again by long pointed shafts of the liquid metal until the LEVs eventually exploded.

One serpent spat the liquid metal at a soldier arbitrarily firing at it with an assault rifle; the substance hit its mark, smothering the soldier against the ground. A crack formed underneith the soldier, flailing from within the blob to escape his gooey prison, and the entire blob sank into the crack with the soldier inside. The serpents began doing this to more and more soldiers as they ran up with heavy artillery to try and fight the serpents back. Within only a minute or two, the entire squad had been sucked underground amidst the serpents' blobs. After that, the serpents began to focus on destroying the vehicles and lighting structures, knocking them over and thrashing them to pieces.

"I can't hold on any longer, Victoria," the commander said, face red with strain.

"Sir, please, don't!" Victoria pleaded.

"If you fall through to the basement levels, remember the cargo elevator on the north end. It still works, escape with that. Otherwise, please, forgive me, Victoria," the commander said as his hand finally gave way and Victoria began to drop again.

The moment she began to drop again, Victoria's life became a blur. She watched the commander's face, contorted with the pain of failing one of his soldiers, minimize in her view and the serpent heads of the anomoly began to sway around. Victoria felt herself hit the bottom of the pit and collapse through, falling into darkness. The impact with the surface debris made her feel woozy and she passed out as she fell into the basement.

Back above, the commander sighed and rolled onto his back. A serpent was staring him down.

"I deserve whatever you have for me. I just failed a promising young lady and I can't forgive myself for that. So go ahead, take me," the commander said, standing up and spreading his arms.

The serpents screamed loudly and struck the commander like lightning, swallowing his body with one gulp.

The other serpents had finished with the vehicles and lighting structures while the LEVs in the pit slowly burned and collapsed through the debris into the basements. The serpent heads melted into stalks of liquid metal and sunk back into the cracks, down into the bowels of the sphere. Nothing had survived on the surface; everyone had been swallowed up into the ground. The commander got what he had wished for.

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

Miryhn was awoken by a hard poke to his gut. He groaned and pulled the covers down from around his head. Vera was standing there with her staff, smiling.

"Wakey, wakey!" she said with a chuckle.

Miryhn rolled his eyes and pulled off his headphones. "What the hell time is it?" he asked, cranky.

"About quarter after 5," Vera replied, poking him in the gut twice more.

"Stop that," Miryhn moaned, unrolling from the burrito of covers he had tossed into through the night.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. Can't let sleeping Miryhn's lie," Vera replied with a giggle.

"Weirdo," Miryhn replied, walking over to his CD player and cutting it off.

"Hurry up and get ready. We have to meet those people again in a little while, right?" Vera said, leaning on her staff.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll hurry and all," Miryhn said with a yawn, grabbing a pair of pants.

"Me and Nash are already ready to go. We've been waiting on you," Vera said, walking to the doorway.

"What? Just how long have you two been up?" Miryhn asked.

"Since 4:30. I got a shower and ate something and everything. You just kept snoozing away. I figured you would have set your alarm or something," Vera said, shrugging.

Miryhn glanced around, puzzled.

"What? You didn't set your alarm or anything?" Vera said, raising an eyebrow.

"I was so zoned out last night, I guess I forgot. Shit, I have no time to do anything!" Miryhn said, reaching up and clearing the hair from his face.

"That's what you get for staying up. Now hurry," Vera said, pointing to him before leaving.

Miryhn grumbled and quickly changed into his pants. He threw on his shoes and socks, snatching his sword as he left out the door.

Out in the hangar, Vera was sitting in Freya impatiently tapping her fingers on the panel around the control sphere. Nash was snoozing in Zeus. A few minutes passed and Miryhn came sprinting out of the door and up to Masamune. He hopped in the cockpit and the Frame sprung to life, standing up to face the others.

"It's about time," Nash mumbled, then yawned. The three Frames then slowly stepped out of the ship hangar and onto the pavement of the interior of the dock hangar.

"I had to grab some breakfast," Miryhn said, the sound of a crinkling package being opened sounded during his speech. The three Frames began a slow hover, going over Entropy and out the front of the dock hangar. Stealth mode engaged the moment they reached the dim dawn light.

"And what would that be?" Vera asked.

"The breakfast of champions. A package of blueberry Pop-Tarts, two Yoo-Hoos, and a Fruit-by-the-Foot," Miryhn said happily.

Vera rolled her eyes.

"So how long until we get to Arsia Mons?" Nash asked, picking his nose.

"About twenty minutes in global flight mode," Miryhn said, in between chews of his Pop-Tart. Masamune assumed the position and took off ahead of the others in the global mode.

"Why's he always rushing into crap?" Nash asked, trying to get Zeus to do the same.

"Patience isn't his strong suit," Vera said, smiling and shaking her head. Freya changed into global mode and shot off after Miryhn.

"Hey! Wait a sec! I don't know how to do that! Wait up!" Nash whined. "ADA, do something!"

"Automatic global flight mode activated," ADA said.

Zeus then switched modes and took off after the others. Nash screamed as the Frame suddenly accellerated.

"Wimp," Miryhn said, cracking open a Yoo-Hoo.

"Shut up! I'm not use to this," Nash whined.

"The Frame won't kill you, it's what's attacking the Frame that will kill you," Miryhn said with a chuckle.

Nash grumbled to himself and didn't reply.

Several minutes later, they left the sphere via a quick form reversion and the underwater section where the sphere didn't reach the bottom of the water. They flew back out of the water and resumed global flight mode outside the sphere, high in the atmosphere.

"Man, I never thought I'd get to see the nests from such a high altitude," Vera said, awe-struck.

"Easily impressed, aren't we?" Miryhn said, tossing a wrapper on the floor.

"I assume you'll vacuum that up later? There are still chip crumbs left over all around the cockpit," ADA said from Masamune's console.

"Bah, quit nagging me. I'll get around to it when I feel like it," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"Be careful ADA, he doesn't like it when machines don't do what he wants them to," Nash said with a laugh.

"Kiss my ass," Miryhn said angrily.

"Incoming comlink," ADA said, a small box flashing on Masamune's console.

"Fine, put it through," Miryhn said, taking a bite from his Pop-Tart.

"Oh, good, you're on your way," Dingo said as his picture appeared in a video window.

"Yeah, good morning to you too," Miryhn said in between chews.

"You'll find me and my group in our machines in the area. Come to us and I'll give you your instructions when you arrive," Dingo said, cutting off the comlink after his speech.

"All official-like, aren't we? Sheesh," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

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

"Remind me why we're doing this," Ken asked, yawning. Her Vic Viper hovered beside Leo and Dingo's, each in humanoid mode.

"I didn't like being woken up so early for this crap," Leo whined, stroking his morning hair.

"I want to see if these guys are as good as they seem to be. They could be a worthy investment down the road," Dingo said, shrugging.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ken asked, frustrated.

"Think about it, Ken. Our Vic Vipers can only go someone far worst than Tarver Urenbach were to spring up. Also, having some Orbital Frame strength on our side could be handy in getting other individuals to cooperate in order to go through with the investigation," Dingo explained.

"Sounds like a good idea, but why so freaking early?" Leo whined.

"No patrols pass here this early in the morning," Dingo said, chuckling.

"Brilliant, Holmes, simply brilliant," Ken said sarcastically.

"Look, if you have oranges, make orange juice. We have to take advantage of this oppurtunity and gain some dependable outside support," Dingo said, stretching his legs out some.

"Elena won't like that," Leo chimed in. "She cut us loose from the rest of the military just for that reason. We're suppose to be doing our own work."

"That's why Elena won't know," Dingo said, smirking. "She doesn't have to know, after all."

"You're being quite bold. I don't know whether to be happy for that or worried," Ken said, sinking into her seat some.

"You people worry too much. Look, just put up with it this one time and we'll keep going like nothing happened. I just have this little idea going through my head and I have to see if it will ever work or not," Dingo said, stroking his face from irritation.

"If we need Orbital Frame support, why not just go get Ardjet, Jehuty, and Durandal back from VANGUARD?" Leo asked.

"Because they haven't finished overhauling all of them. Jehuty is taking longer than the others," Dingo said, sighing.

"Guess that would make sense," Leo said, scratching his head.

"So you see why I'm doing this? We're in a pinch, that's all," Dingo said, rocking to one side and cutting a fart. He grimaced and wondered why he did that considering there are no ventilation systems in his cockpit.

"Whatever, oh fearless leader," Ken said with sarcasm.

"Three objects detected closing in," Leo said, sitting up in his chair and grabbing the controls.

"Time to put them to the test," Dingo said with a grin.

"Alright, team, time to go turbo!" Ken said with a laugh.

Dingo and Leo were silent.

"Um, nevermind," Ken said, laughing nervously.

Masamune, Freya, and Zeus switched back to normal mode and flew to a spot a few hundred yards away from the three Vic Vipers.

"So what did you want?" Miryhn asked bluntly, finishing off a Yoo-Hoo and putting it on the floor.

"Before I get to the questioning, I wanted to see if you would engage in a little spar with me," Dingo said, his Vic Viper raising an arm and pointing to Masamune.

Miryhn moaned. "What's with you? Do you enjoy wasting people's time or something? You get me up this early in the morning asking to question me and now it turns out you just want to do some stupid duel?" he asked, irritated.

"You are in no position to be judging me! You have no idea just how much controversy you people could cause! And by that I mean you could either be assistants to a good cause or you could be hazards that are easily eliminated," Dingo said in equal irritation.

"'Easily eliminated' my ass, jerk. Let's see how 'easily eliminated' I am when I kick your ass," Miryhn said, drawing Masamune's katana.

"Bring it!" Dingo shouted, extending the armblades from each arm of his Vic Viper.

Masamune and the Viper shot off to the side and began clashing with each other.

"Men," Vera said, sighing.

"I know exactly what you mean. Dingo keeps giving me this chat about how men live by 'iron clad codes of honor' and shit. He's set in his ways, I have to admit, but he's no martyr to them," Ken explained.

"Is that what's wrong with him? I was about to agree with Miryhn there about just wanting to waste people's time," Vera said, raising an eyebrow.

Ken sneered. "Look, he may be unconventional and maybe even a little confusing in the way he does things, but he knows what he's doing," she said in Dingo's defense.

"I have yet to see that. You people don't seem to be much more than pests with no explanation as to why," Vera said, yawning.

"You stuck-up little..." Ken said in a loud whisper.

"I mean, come on, all it took was me to swat you three down. Even that lame-ass Tarver didn't break a sweat on you three," Vera said, examining her nails.

"I'll have you know we happen to be the three people who were there to end Colonel Nohman's plans to use Aumaan against the whole solar system. You could at least respect that," Ken said angrily.

"I could care less," Vera said, indifferent.

"Alright, that's it! Come here, I'll teach you some respect," Ken said, her Vic Viper tossing a Ripple Wave at Freya.

"Hey! Calm down, what's your problem?" Vera shouted, Freya dashing to the side.

Ken didn't reply, but sent a salvo of missiles at Freya. Freya jetted backwards, pulling out its spear and extending the pole.

Leo watched as Dingo and Ken flew off and stared at Zeus.

Nash stared back at Leo's Vic Viper.

"So, um," Nash said, uneasy.

"Yep," Leo replied, nodding.

"Then that means..." Nash said, pausing.

"Yep," Leo replied, nodding again.

"Alright, good," Nash said, smiling.

"Yep," Leo replied, his Vic Viper extending its armblades and flying straight for Zeus.

Nash whelped. "Hey! Wait a sec! I thought you were agreeing to just sit there and watch!"

"Oh, I thought we were agreeing to go ahead and fight since the others are," Leo replied, laughing.

Nash gulped and pulled Thunder from the Vector Trap. He took aim and fired as the Vic Viper closed in.

Masamune and Dingo's Vic Viper clashed, holding the block and trying to push one another off.

"You're good, I'll admit that. Where'd you learn your skills, huh?" Dingo asked, smirking.

"Ever hear of TEMPEST? Sat in an AlterNeith for a couple of months doing nothing but training," Miryhn replied, smirking as well.

"TEMPEST? Those wimps? Twice they attacked BAHRAM while I was with them and we pounded their asses," Dingo replied, breaking out of the block and looping back around for another strike.

"While I was with them, I never engaged in any combat with BAHRAM," Miryhn said, briefly thinking back to his days with TEMPEST. Masamune parried the Vic Viper's strike and sent it tumbling backwards twice.

"You must have joined after I left then. Are you sure, though? What squad were you with?" Dingo asked, regaining his Vic Viper's stability and dodging a stab from Masamune.

"I was in Shuffle Squad. They use to call me 'King', as in the card rank," Miryhn replied, smirking. Masamune's stab missed, but it ducked a counterattack from the Vic Viper. The counterattack just barely scratched the left pauldron.

"Oh, yeah, then I never saw you. Back then they had crap like 'The Chess Squad' with people codenamed 'Pawn' and 'Knight' and crap," Dingo said, his Vic Viper flying up and throwing a Gauntlet attack down at Masamune.

"Told 'ya. I'd remember if we fought BAHRAM or not," Miryhn replied, Masamune getting slammed hard into the ground by the Gauntlet.

"Oh well, from how you're doing so far, I doubt you would have survived anyway," Dingo said, chuckling as his Vic Viper tossed another Gauntlet and dropped to stab Masamune.

"Don't be so sure of that. I've had a fairly interesting battle since the last time we met and I can honestly say I've broken in this Frame now," Miryhn said, smirking. Masamune rolled to the side, missing both the Gauntlet and the stab. The Vic Viper planted its armblade in the ground and got stuck long enough for Masamune to wind back and give it a hard slash to the back.

"Damn! Too careless," Dingo cursed to himself as the Vic Viper went tumbling across the landscape. He switched to flight mode and shot off in a wide arc around Masamune.

"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's women who think they're always right," Vera said, barrel rolling around a laser fired from Ken's Vic Viper.

"What makes you think you can judge that?" Ken replied, sneering and switching to humanoid mode.

"I don't judge, not like you!" Vera shouted, Freya closing in and smashing the side of the Vic Viper's head in with her spear.

Ken growled. "What? Me? I'm not that shallow!" she shouted, countering with a series of stabs from the armblades.

"You just assumed I was some stuck-up bitch instead of just seeing that you guys are being so shifty, we have no reason to trust you," Vera pointed out, backing up and taking a few stabs to the breastplate.

"What does that have to do with it?" Ken asked, doing a cross-wise slash on the end of her combination, knocking Freya back.

"Why should we put faith in some random group of people who threaten our lives? What do you have to gain from us?" Vera shouted, Freya firing her Burst and performing a Burst Dash to the backside of Ken's Vic Viper.

Ken hesitated, seeing sense in Vera's words. Just then, Freya stabbed the Vic Viper in the back and spun around throwing it into the ground. Freya followed it in pace and a split second after the Vic Viper hit the ground, Freya jammed the blunt end of the spear into its "throat".

"This was some test, wasn't it? I can tell because you aren't even trying," Vera said, full of herself.

"Dingo, I'm going to smack you into next Tuesday for putting me up against an Orbital Frame with an LEV," Ken said in an angry whisper. "Alright, you win. Just back off," she said out loud.

"Win the duel or the argument?" Vera asked.

"Both! Just back off!" Ken snapped.

"Then don't you ever pass me off as being stuck-up for saying what I think. If anything, you're the stuck-up one for pressing your views on others," Vera said, taking the spear off the Vic Viper and hovering back some.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ken said, indifferent as her Vic Viper climbed up to its feet.

"You can't hit a guy with glasses!" Nash wailed, Zeus backing up and firing at Leo's Vic Viper.

"Don't care!" Leo said, smirking. His Vic Viper pulled its arm back and threw a Gauntlet at Zeus, sending it spiralling to the ground.

Nash moaned, Zeus not moving. Nash began to feel ill from the freefall.

"Man, you're a push-over," Leo said, his Vic Viper landing over Zeus. The Vic Viper began to poke and slash at the front of Zeus in a slow, but carefree combo.

"It's hammer time!" Nash shouted as something emerged from Zeus's Vector Trap. The next thing Leo knew, something smacked into the side of Vic Viper and sent him somersaulting into the air.

"What the hell was that?" Leo said, shaking it off.

Zeus slowly hovered back up to its feet, holding a warhammer. "You can't touch this," Nash said, laughing.

"What a weirdo," Leo said, to himself and shaking his head. Leo switched to flight mode and shot off in the other direction.

"What? Running away? I see, that's because I'm the greatest!" Nash said, laughing triumphantly.

"Don't have the last laugh so soon!" Leo shouted as the Vic Viper came back towards him. Leo shot off several salvos of missiles and two Ripple Lasers.

Nash screamed, holding the hammer in front of itself in an attempt to block.

"Use of the shield is recommended inste-" ADA tried to point out. It stopped as the assault slammed into Zeus anyway, sending the Frame into the ground. "Nevermind."

Nash sighed and threw up.

"ADA? What's she doing in that Frame?" Leo asked himself, noticing ADA's voice talking to Nash. Leo drew a puzzled look, but decided to ask about it later. "Give up?" Leo asked, landing in humanoid mode beside Zeus.

Zeus weakly nodded.

"I'll take you down in style!" Dingo shouted, sending missiles at Masamune as it circled it.

Miryhn crossed each Spiegel, forming a shield in front of Masamune. The missiles hit it, exploding harmlessly. Miryhn lowered the shield and paused a moment, trying to think of something to do.

"Burn, baby!" Dingo yelled, smirking as he fired a few Ripple Lasers at Masamune.

"Wait, I got it!" Miryhn said to himself, Masamune drawing the wakizachi with the other hand. He rapidly fired the Burst, just squeeking by each Ripple Laser. As Dingo continued to cirlce him, Miryhn placed the two swords together to form a cross shape. He began to send Burst energy into the swords, charging the blades up.

"What the hell is he doing?" Dingo said, readying another salvo of missiles.

"Have a lick of the Cross Punisher!" Miryhn shouted with a quick laugh. He aimed a short distance into Dingo's flight path and fired off a powerful laser attack from the blades.

"Shit!" Dingo yelled at the top of his lungs. He snapped the controls in a random direction to dodge while firing off the next salvo of missiles.

While Dingo's Vic Viper flew partially into the beam, the missiles slammed into Masamune. Both machines plummeted; Masamune straight backwards while the Vic Viper had taken a hit to one thruster and was spiralling downwards. Both hit the ground; a long pause following.

"Well, that woke me up," Miryhn said with a chuckle. Masamune had landed upside down in a position that if it were human, the neck would be broken. Miryhn grumbled and flipped the Frame back over with a shot from the thrusters. As the Frame resumed an upright position, a Yoo-Hoo bottle that had rolled to the top of the cockpit while it was upside down fell and konked him on the head. Miryhn cursed to himself and rubbed his head.

"You can say that again," Dingo replied, his Vic Viper climbing to its feet. "Alright, that's enough. Head to where the women are and we'll settle this up," Dingo ordered, the Vic Viper slowly walking towards where Freya and Ken's Vic Viper were.

A few moments later, each side was gathered where they were before the fighting happened. Masamune was covered in dents and cuts, Freya wasn't even scratched, and Zeus had seen better days. Ken and Leo's Vic Vipers supported Dingo's as they stood in juxtaposition; the side of Ken's Vic Viper smashed in, though.

"Alright, you guys are pretty useful if you're that effective to stand up to us. We might have work for you in the future," Dingo said.

"But that was hardly fair. You guys have LEVs and Nash here blows," Miryhn said, Masamune jerking a thumb at Zeus.

Nash mumbled, still nauseous.

"But if you guys can handle the Frames well enough to take on Vic Vipers, then you're just fine," Dingo replied. "And you might want that guy to get some more practice in the meantime," he added, his Vic Viper's head turning to Zeus.

"Oh, give me a break!" Nash whined loudly.

"In the meantime, we're going to give you each something to help in the future," Dingo said, extending one of his Vic Viper's hands.

"We are?" Leo said quietly.

"Shut up!" Dingo replied with the same volume. "Troxel, get over here," he ordered out loud.

Miryhn shrugged and Masamune floated up to Dingo's Vic Viper. "Alright, now what?"

"Just raise one of the hands and I'll send a new subweapon," Dingo replied.

Masamune raised a hand to the same level as the Vic Viper and suddenly a mist of blue energy was sent from the Vic Viper's hand to Masamune's. The energy set in and there was a moment of shock sent through the Frame. Miryhn cringed; the shock wasn't so much painful as it was just a surprise.

"We have recieved the subweapon Gauntlet," ADA said from Masamune's console.

"Gauntlet?" Miryhn asked, puzzled.

"It's a physical attack. It sends a powerful shockwave at the target and all that. Obviously it's even more powerful if you slam them with it when they're against something really hard like the ground," Dingo explained.

"Yeah, so I noticed," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes and backing Masamune back to Freya and Zeus.

"Ken, send the woman something like...I dunno, Comet," Dingo whispered to Ken.

"What?" Ken replied with the same volume.

"Just do it!" Dingo ordered, still whispering.

"Alright, come over here. You're next, girl," Ken said, her Vic Viper waving for Freya to come forward.

"'Girl'?" Vera asked, raising an eyebrow as Freya raised a hand to the Vic Viper's.

Energy came out of the Vic Viper's hand and into Freya, causing the same reaction as what happened to Miryhn. Vera whined a moment, but sighed when it passed.

"We have recieved the subweapon Comet," ADA said from Freya's console.

"Yeah, you're a girl until you can defeat me when I'm in my Frame, girl," Ken said, smirking.

Vera rolled her eyes. "So what's Comet do?" she asked, Freya backing up to the others.

"It fires a homing energy shot at the enemy. It can be fired in rapid succession, too. One shot fired will keep on attacking the same enemy over and over for a given time. It's quite annoying and very effective unless they're very evasive," Ken explained.

"And what about me?" Nash asked, woozy.

"Do I have to?" Leo whined at a whisper.

"Leo, have pity on the poor guy. Give him Phalanx or something," Dingo replied, whispering.

"Okay, get over here," Leo said, holding out one of his Vic Viper's hand to Zeus.

Zeus nervously approached and held out a hand. Leo began the transfer and energy was sent into Zeus. Nash whined as the momentary system shock and then backed up in a hurry away from Leo.

"We have recieved the subweapon Phalanx," ADA said from Zeus's console.

"It's a spreading energy attack. You can press the trigger harder and focus it into a tighter stream. Kind of like an energy machine gun or something," Leo explained.

"Well, thanks for the shits and giggles...and the subweapons, but I'm going to go home and catch up on some sleep," Miryhn said, clapping his hands together.

"Well, since the fighting turned out to be an overall draw and since we gave you something each, you still have to answer our questions," Dingo pointed out.

"Oh, come on, Miryhn. Let's be fair and help them out," Vera said, Freya grabbing Masamune's shoulder as it turned to leave.

Miryhn groaned. "Fine, fine," he said, a bit aggrivated. Masamune turned back around.

"Alright, the most important question comes first. Do you know who sent those Frames to you?" Dingo asked.

"No, not really. I stole mine from Tarver Urenbach, Vera found her's in a wreck, and Nash got his from his dad," Miryhn replied.

"And you have no idea where Tarver got his from or where Edward Harsborough got his from?" Dingo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope. And Tarver's in Ganymede federal jail right now," Miryhn said plainly.

"No idea. And there's no way to find out, my dad is dead," Nash said, still woozy and slowly recovering from his nausea.

"Lovely, more dead ends," Dingo said with a sigh.

"Well, I have a good question," Leo chimed in. "Why is ADA installed on your Frames?"

"You know ADA?" Vera asked.

"Well, yeah! ADA was installed on Jehuty. Me and Dingo both met her," Leo replied.

"Is that true?" Vera asked, looking at the console.

"Only critical data from Jehuty was uploaded into the ADA network. Information on Runners was not. I do not remember them," ADA answered.

"What do you mean you don't remember us?" Leo said angrily.

"Calm down, Leo, that's irrelevant. We have to-" Dingo began to say. Just then, a call came in to his screen. "Damn it, excuse me, I have to take a call," he said, apologizing.

"Oh, how considerate of him," Miryhn said sarcastically.

"What's wrong with you? We're in no rush," Vera said, a little surprised as his reaction.

"There is nothing more rude and irritating than someone taking a call in the middle of a conversation," Miryhn replied, Masamune folding its arms.

"Oh, hey, Elena," Dingo said, a video link to Elena Weinberger opening on his console.

"Dingo, what have you been doing? Angie said you were out on manuvers or something," Elena said, obviously irritated by having to hunt him down.

"Yeah, that's what we're doing. What did you need?" Dingo asked, hoping to God Angie didn't tell her the truth.

"Look, there's a change of plans. The investigation on 'The Orbital Frame Distributor' has been called off. East Wind is officially off-duty now," Elena explained.

"What?" Dingo replied, shocked. "You mean they're just going to let the guy we've been after for so long off the hook?"

"They said there is nothing to gain in catching the guy and it doesn't matter because so far he's only managed to help VANGUARD. We ran some background checks on the Frames recovered and found out the plans for them were stored in data recovered from the Terran Crusade. Believe it or not, all the Frames produced were from a series called 'The Crusader Series'. These Orbital Frames were made to work together as a unified force with multiple combat capabilities. Every single Frame VANGUARD has recovered came from this list and save a few like..." Elena explained, looking at a few pieces of paper,"Freya, Shiva, Zeus, and Shango are all destroyed or still missing. Besides, except for Tarver, none of these Orbital Frames have been active in a manner threatening the public anyway," Elena explained.

"But that means our investigation up until this point has been for nothing!" Dingo shouted in reply.

"Dingo, as much as I'd hate to admit it, those greedy military bastards are right. This is pointless. The threat is over and East Wind is not needed anymore. VANGUARD will clean up the remaining missing Frames and this will all just be a bad memory. Meanwhile, I want you to stay on alert. Even though the public threat is over, there was a report that an entire VANGUARD inspection team has gone missing over the night. No groups have come forward claiming responsibility and none of the team members have appeared, but I want you all ready to go A.S.A.P., is that clear?" Elena ordered.

Dingo sighed and rubbed the temples of his nose. "Yes, ma'am. That is perfectly clear," he replied.

"Good, you have your orders. Good day," Elena said, cutting off the comlink.

"Son of a bitch," Dingo snarled, slamming his fist against the side of the cockpit.

"So how come you haven't turned us into VANGUARD yet?" Miryhn asked suddenly.

"Huh? You heard all that?" Dingo asked, suddenly surprised.

"You kind of left the comlink to us wide open," Vera chimed in.

Dingo grumbled and cursed to himself.

"Smooth move, buddy," Ken said sarcastically. "Now civilians know our orders."

"Oh, come on! Give me a break!" Dingo shouted. "Alright, look, the truth is, I respect competent Frame Runners. I also respect competent Frame Runners who use their Frames with discretion and aren't on the wrong side," Dingo explained. "So I guess I kind of...respect....you guys."

"Aww, that's so nice of you!" Vera said sweetly. "Dingo Egret, of all people, admires us as equals."

"Don't let it get to you, girl. He said the same for a lot of people he later ended up having to kick the ass of," Ken replied.

"That means nothing to me. I only pilot this thing because my boss says so. This is just a junky old Orbital Frame that I can't get rid of. It has no particular value to me," Miryhn said, brow sloped.

"That's a shame, Troxel. I'm sure you'd be a great addition to the Space Force with that thing. Then again, I'm sure you'd never top me," Dingo said with a smirk.

"Whatever," Miryhn replied, completely indifferent.

"Well, that's about it. All we needed you for is done. Just remember, we might need you three in the future. Then again, maybe you two. That guy in the green Frame really needs some work," Dingo said, his Vic Viper nodding to each of Ken and Leo's.

"Well, see you all later, I guess," Leo added as East Wind's Vic Vipers flew away.

"'K, thanks, bye!" Vera said cheerfully, Freya waving.

"Good, time to go back to bed. I'm taking a sick day once we get back to the ship," Miryhn said, Masamune turning and beginning to fly back.

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

Joker kicked open the door, leaving hallway with the sixteen dead guards behind. A few of the people sitting around the table in the middle of the room peeked out the door and saw a bloodbath; guards everywhere with inch-wide exit wounds in their corpses to each side of the hallway. Cyril walked in behind him and shut the door, standing in front of it like a palace guard.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A sty of pigs, I presume?" Joker said, twirling Damnation on his index finger. He slowly circled the table, peeking at each person at the table as he passed them.

"Who are you people? Who do you work for?" one of members at the table asked.

"People? We're not people. We're angels, sent to cleanse humanity of the filth that has infected it," Joker said with a laugh.

"That's perposterous, how could you all be so bold as to-" one of the older men at the table said.

Joker immediately drew Damnation and fired two shots into the man's chest. He collapsed onto the table, blood draining across it.

"We're not bold, we're divine. I mean, think about it. We just eliminated every single human being on this ship except for you people, the heads of the Blue Dragon Crime Syndicate," Joker said, putting Damnation to his own head and twisting it around a few times.

"Everyone?" a woman at the table squealed, about to cry.

"Everyone," Joker replied, articulating the word.

"These men are bluffing! There's no assassination squad in the whole solar system capable of standing up to us. They must have back-up or someone working the inside," another man at the table spoke up.

"There were only four of us. Check your security cameras, I'm sure you'll be surprised," Joker said, chuckling. "But it won't matter very much, because you'll all be dead fairly soon anyway," Joker said. He lifted his head back and sneezed. "This place sure is dusty. Seems fitting with all the old people."

No one at the table replied.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Now, I'm going to walk out of this room and in a few seconds, this entire ship will blow up. That is how you will all die and may God grant you all eternal damnation for your digusting crimes against humanity. Alright? Sound good?" Joker said, pulling a mini-disc from his coat and putting it in the presentation player. Suddenly, the unnecessarily happy theme song to an old amusement park began to play. "Don't worry, dying isn't a bad thing. It just means you'll all be free from now on. Let go of your mortal desires and embrace the eternity you all will soon be a part of, amen," Joker said, putting his hands together in prayer.

"Amen," Cyril resounded.

"So now, I bid you all adieu. Go, with God," Joker said as he walked out, Cyril opening the door for him. He followed him out, then shut the door behind him.

Everyone at the table looked at one another, then at the man Joker shot to death.

"Did he ever mention how long we have until everything blows up?" one of the men asked.

The rest of the table shrugged or stared blankly. The happy music was still playing.

Joker suddenly burst back into the room. He clicked the hammer of Damnation back and then let off after a second or two. "Oh, by the way, no one said 'God bless you' when I sneezed," he said, then aimed and began shooting at each person. Cyril leaned in the doorway, picking his nose.

Joker leapt up on the table and walked across, firing at each person and strolling on to the next one. Within only a few seconds, he had blasted everyone dead. He climbed down off the table and slipped Damnation back into his coat.

"No one should ever believe we blow up ships. I mean, what are we? Terrorists?" Joker said, walking by Cyril.

"Nope," Cyril replied, smiling.

Both walked out the door, Cyril closing it behind them.

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

Miryhn, Vera, and Nash walked through the doorway out of the hangar into the hallway.

"I'm so damn tired," Miryhn said, yawning.

"Stay up late to see the rerun of 'That 90s Show'?" Nash asked, cracking his neck.

"Not really, just staying up watching TV in general," Miryhn replied.

"Man, you missed the best part. They were making fun of that crap music they listened to back then that all sounded the same. They also did the 'wassup!' thing again," Nash said, smiling and laughing.

"Wassup!" Miryhn said, pouring out his tongue and gargling on it.

"Wassup!" Nash replied, doing the same.

"Wassup!" Jim's voice shouted from the staircase.

All three froze.

"So where have my valuable employees been for the past hour or so? We were suppose to launch for a shipment to Antillia today, but you all wouldn't know that because not only were your rooms empty but the Orbital Frames were missing," Jim said, clearing his throat a few times.

"Why are we doing shipping again? I thought you gave that up because the last time we shipped something, it took a shit in every corner of the hangar," Nash said, turning around to the staircase.

"What's wrong with a little moonlighting? I have to pay for you guys fucking up those Frames somehow," Jim replied, adding sarcasm to his speech at the end. "You're just damn lucky Contraus has Metatron Ore to sell us. Otherwise, I wouldn't be so gracious about this."

"Come on, Jim, stop being an ass. It was something important," Miryhn chimed in, turning around as well.

"Miryhn, watch yourself," Vera whispered to Miryhn.

"'Something important'? Goddam, don't let me get in the way of that! I'm only trying to run a business here and I can't do it if my employees are all out getting themselves nearly killed and fucking up company property," Jim said, obviously quite pissed off.

"'Company property'? Freya isn't just 'company property'!" Vera shouted.

"As long as it's parked in my hangar, it is!" Jim said, raising his voice. "Look, all of you just get ready to take off. They're going to deliver some construction supplies in about forty-five minutes and the minute they do, we're leaving," he ordered, stomping up the stairs.

"Good, that's enough time for a shower," Miryhn said, turning to head for the bathroom.

"Oh, no you don't! Get your ass to the bridge and prep this rust bucket for take-off," Jim said, stopping and pointing to Miryhn.

Miryhn dropped his head and whined. "Split ends! Oily feeling! Argh, you sadists!" he shouted, rubbing his fingers on his skalp. He slumped over and walked for the bridge.

"And you two go do something productive. I have to make an important call," Jim said, pointing to Vera and Nash, then stomping up the stairs to the upper deck.

Nash grumbled and headed for the hangar. "Productive to me is fixing the blender. See 'ya, Vera," he said, walking back down the hall.

"What a pill. Seems the bad mood is spreading," Vera said to herself. "But Freya just being 'company property'? He's not the Runner, I am!" she added with a sneer. She then turned on her heel and headed for the bridge, figuring she'd blow off some steam doing the accounting.

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

Victoria's head was swimming. She could have sworn falling from that height would have killed her, but she had landed perfectly fine. What's even stranger was that she swore she heard a woman singing a mysterious and archaic chant, far off in an unknown amount of distance. The echo in her voice would indicate she was within something deep and hallow, but very distant; too far off for Victoria to even comprehend, in a strange sort of way.

She tried to raise her hand to check her body for injury, but it felt like it was glued down. She tried to raise her head too to see what she was stuck to, but her head was pasted as well. Panic hit her hard and she struggled until her arms finally unstuck. She flailed and jerked around, freeing her head and torso, then rolled forward and unstuck her legs. She rolled off the paste and onto a cold metal floor. She looked back and saw she had landed in a molehill of a silvery metal substance. Her body left a perfect impression in it, almost like it was a jell-o mold.

Victoria shuddered and immediately began to cry in terror. The thin light coming in from the collapsing roof indicated that dawn was coming, but it wasn't enough for Victoria to tell which basement she had fallen into or to make out the details around her. She stood on her knees, sobbing and unable to move or think out of fear.

She kept flashing back to the face of the commander as he dropped her, looking as though he had just sentenced his own daughter to death. The screams of the soldiers being gobbled up and sucked into the ground by the metallic snakes played back on repeat through her memory. Victoria couldn't do anything but cry, not knowing what awaited her in the bowels of this cursed military complex.

She looked back at the blob of silver that had saved her and noticed an extremely faint glow coming off of it. She momentarily stopped sobbing and approached it, crawling slowly and carefully. The chant seemed to become louder as she approached and then she realized it; the chant was in her head. She covered her ears and the volume of the chant didn't decrease; this substance was singing to her, in her head.

Victoria screamed and shot to her feet. She ran blindly in the opposite direction, stumbling over debris. She almost fell over after crossing an old support beam; she looked down and saw that she was standing in a pool of the silvery liquid metal. She let out another scream and forced her heels to unstick, climbing over another beam and setting into her sprint again. Just then, she remembered the north end elevator the commander told her to use. It would have been handy, though, if she knew which was was north.

No matter how fast she ran, the chant was still playing in her head alongside the memories of dangling above the pit. She began to sob loudly, meeting a wall and plowing through a door in it. She fell over on the door and laid on it, crying. There was no hope, she'd die in this pit going mad from the song the silver was singing to her.

"What is there to be afraid of? You are in the presence of a god," something said over the voice of the chant.

Victoria froze. A chill ran down her spine.

"Well, more like a demi-god. Gods, after all, have complete control over that which they are gods of. I merely weild that power with unequaled might," it said in a deep, authoritative voice.

"Who are you? What are you? More importantly, where are you?" Victoria asked, lifting her head and slowly climbing to her feet.

"I was called Adavari by those who crafted my soma.*** The one who freed me from the controlling hands of mortals simply calls me...a child," it replied.

"What are you talking about? Where are you?" Victoria screamed while sobbing.

"Right in front of you," it replied.

Victoria looked up and squinted. At the other end of the room was a large shape resembling that of a demon of some sort. The faint light didn't give any details, but just then, two glowing eyes lit up at the head of the shape. Victoria cried harder, beginning to back up.

"Cease your fear. I'm only what you mortals refer to as...an Orbital Frame," it replied.

Victoria stopped crying suddenly and turned her head to the side. She slowly walked forward, seeing detail form on the shape. In the faint light, she could see black colored Metatron lines run up its body, signifying it was indeed an Orbital Frame. "But Orbital Frames can't talk!" she shouted, stomping her foot down.

"I can talk because I've been freed of the restraints mortal humans placed on me. I also learned their language through the A.I. that was previously deleted. They made me into a machine for war, a mindless slave meant to be weilded and destroyed in battle. What they didn't realize was that I'm much more than that, that I'm capable of things that would make humans the ultimate species," Adavari replied.

"What are you talking about?" Victoria said, looking up at the Frame with a puzzled look.

"You fools have no idea what Metatron is truly capable of. You have no idea how strongly it wishes to move beyond the bounds humans have given it ever since you first struck it from the soil so many years ago. The only problem is, it needs humans to even begin that and they are far too ignorant to ever realize that. They're too busy shallowly treating it like a weapon of war instead of the thing it really is," Adavari explained.

"And what is that?" Victoria asked, awe-struck.

"Your evolution. The next stage in human development as a species. Metatron doesn't desire destruction or domination, it craves evolution. It wants to become better and better until it is the ultimate species and the only way to do that is to have the other half of the whole, humans," Adavari said in a grand tone.

"I can't believe I'm hearing this. I must be dreaming. This isn't happening," Victoria said, shaking her head.

"This isn't a dream. You can either choose to accept this or wither away like the rest of the pathetic worms that desire to die out. Without Metatron, man is doomed. Without man, Metatron is doomed. The relationship is symbiotic in nature and one side is still not able to fully understand," Adavari said.

"So what's stopping you? Why haven't you done anything to me yet?" Victoria asked, fearful of the answer. "If you need a human to evolve, why not me?"

"Because it is not that simple. Orbital Frames are restrained by many chains that are hard to break. Their true power lies in the human will. The stronger someone's will to achieve something, whether it be power, closure, or survival, the more powerful the Orbital Frame grows to be even if for an instant. Until the day that these....as you call them, 'cockpits' are no longer needed, Orbital Frames will never truly be able to give a human their all," Adavari said.

"But how do you control an Orbital Frame if there's no cockpit?" Victoria asked.

"That is something I'm not sure of, myself. Until such things as cockpits and support A.I. are no longer needed to coordinate a Runner and a Frame, the evolutionary chain will remain broken," Adavari said.

"Look, this is all well and good, but I want to get out of here. Do you mind if I borrow you for a while?" Victoria said, impatient.

"As you wish. I will choose you as my Runner and teach you everything about Orbital Frames that you won't be able to learn anywhere else," Adavar said, pointing to a ladder. "Use that to get to the platform at my cockpit."

Victoria nodded and hurried up the ladder. She jogged across the platform to the cockpit, Adavari opening it for her as she approached. Victoria climbed in and sat down, the canopy closing immediately.

"I've done some test piloting, but I've never had the privelege of piloting a humanoid Frame," Victoria said, glancing around the cockpit as the console lit up.

"No need, I'll help you out. This is your dream, after all. You should enjoy it," Adavari said.

"How'd you know that?" Victoria said, looking up and gasping.

"I now know everything about you, Victoria Melphan. The moment you touched my control spheres, your soul was bore to me," Adavari said.

"This is creepy, but I kind of like it now. To be honest, Adavari, you seem to give off a feeling of comfort for me. Just sitting here is enough to make me feel better after being scared shitless in that basement," Victoria said, wiping her eyes.

"I would do anything to serve your needs, Victoria. You and I can help one another," Adavari replied.

"Yes, and first thing we have to do to help each other is get out of here. What's the quickest way out?" Victoria said, gripping each control sphere and smiling.

"Straight up," Adavari said.

Just then, the Frame sprung to life, glowing with a red energy. The body was totally red with black Metatron lines. The helmet was shaped roundly around the head, a single horn along the top and the visor triangular-shaped with a section above the helmet where the eyes glowed red. The armor sections were a lighter shade of red with black lights glowing on the tips of each shoulder. A long whip extended from the gauntlets of each arm.

"Okay, so now what?" Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow.

Adavari swung each of the whips forward, knocking down the wall sectioning off the room from the main area Victoria had fallen into. It hovered into the area and looked up at the debris blocking the way up.

"Hey, let me do some flying here!" Victoria whined.

"You are," Adavari replied.

"What?" Victoria shouted.

"Because of my liberated state from conventional human control systems, your mind and will are manipulating me. What you think is what I do," Adavari replied.

Victoria shuddered. The thought to raise the left arm came to mind and Adavari did such. She thought to look up as Adavari looked down and when she looked up, it looked down at her. Victoria was both shocked and overjoyed.

"Oh my God, how did you get to be so powerful?" Victoria said, Adavari forming a Burst Shot above its head.

"A powerful monolith called a Halo was implanted in me when the previous Runner abandoned me here. I'm not entirely sure what it did or how it was placed in me, but it instilled me with the state I'm in now, removing almost all the chains upon me," Adavari said.

"What's a Halo?" Victoria asked.

Adavari didn't reply.

"So you don't know either. Oh well," Victoria replied. With no effort at all, she made Adavari throw the Burst Shot at the debris, making a hole to escape through. Flying up through the hole, Victoria landed the Frame on the ground just beside the pit. She looked around and saw the entire camp destroyed.

"Hey! That's the Orbital Frame! You, get off that Frame and come out with your hands up!" someone with a megaphone yelled from behind.

Victoria turned Adavari around and looked down. A small squad of Space Force Phantomas were lined up with guns raised.

"Oh, good, the Space Force. I'll tell them I was the only survivor and then-" Victoria began to say, smiling.

"And then they'll take me away from you," Adavari interrupted.

"Say what?" Victoria asked, taken aback.

"You know how they work. They'll take me and use me in horrible experiments while you're stuck being sent into the Raptor squads. You don't want that, you'd die to be able to be the Runner of such a fantastic Orbital Frame as me," Adavari said.

"You're...you're right. I can't let this slip by me. Adavari, I'm your Runner now. We're a team!" Victoria said, Adavari taking a few steps back.

"I said get off the Frame and surrender!" someone in the Phantomas yelled over the loudspeaker.

"This is what you've always wanted, Victoria. Come, we'll leave this place and spend time together. We'll become the perfect team and no one will stop us!" Adavari said.

"This is! This is! Screw VANGUARD, screw the Space Force and their overly standardized methods of pilot selection. I'm a damn good Runner and I won't let anyone take you away from me! Nobody will!" Victora screamed, Adavari suddenly firing its thusters and turning around. It jetted into the airlock of the sphere and forced the door open. It took off at full speed into the wilderness of Mars. "Nobody will ever take you away from me. Never!"

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

Norris cut off his music and grabbed the last bon-bon. He had been looking over the plans for Ehecatl ever since about three in the morning. He just couldn't help it, he was so excited for its arrival that he couldn't sleep. He decided to take a break, though, and get ready for another fantastic look at his creation.

"Time for an intermission," he said with a laugh, walking out the door to his office.

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

<CENTER>End of story arc "Acte 1 - Dawn to Dusk"</CENTER>

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

* If you didn't catch every single reference in this scene to Wing Zero Alpha's "Zone of the Enders: Resurrection", then you obviously haven't been reading it. Shame on you. And, yes, that means myself and him are working out continuity between our stories. Cool, eh?

** Latin for "Save us, Lord God". Annallee's quite well-read, huh?

*** Refers to the definition of "soma" as "The body of an individual as contrasted with the mind or psyche.", not the drink that intoxicated Hindu gods -_-()

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