Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ A Tendency To Start Fires ( Chapter 17 )

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

Miryhn and Vera part ways once again as Miryhn goes back to the battlefield, wishing to get his mind off his episode with Ester and the Seraphs.

Who he battles will change his fate forever.

Meanwhile, Norris has completed Ehecatl, an overpowering Orbital Frame themed to classical Mozart. What could he possibly be able to use it for?

Non Anime: Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Mecha / Comedy / Adventure / Action / Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 12.17.2003 | Updated On: 01.27.2004 | Pages: 9 | Words: 14.1K | Visits: 208 | Status: Completed

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<CENTER>"My purpose in this world is knowledge and the dissemination of it,
 and it is I who is to restore the fruits of my labors to the entire world"
 - quoted by Schwarzwald, from the anime The Big O</CENTER>

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

Norris burst into his office, striding confidently and proudly. A wide smile was pasted onto his face as he sat down and fiddled his his sound system remote. Today was finally the day, the day he had been waiting for for such a long time: the completion of Ehecatl! Clicking through several tracks, Norris got to the infamous "Hallelujah Chorus" and let it play at full volume.

Over the past week, Norris had been more anxious than he had ever been in his entire life. Ehecatl was going to be Ryan Corporation's mighty stab into the weapons development market, giving Kapricon the kick to the nuts he so desperately deserved in Norris's opinion. The way Ehecatl was designed, it could produce amounts of power that went above and beyond most of the conventional "Type C" Orbital Frames Nereidium and BAHRAM specialized in so long ago. It was marvelous and manuverable, fast and graceful, and above all, Norris's pride and joy. Nothing could stop him now, Kapricon would eat his words right along with his stock values. Norris chuckled at the thought of a miniature Kapricon crying helplessly as a miniature Norris stomped on his head several times within his imagination. He had obviously been watching too much old anime, realizing the thought was rather childish.

Norris turned around to see Lamar screaming at the top of his lungs. Norris couldn't hear him at all thanks to the music being full blast. He turned down the volume and stood by his chair.

Lamar panted a few times, obviously having tried to yell over the music several times. "Sir! I have something to tell you."

"Go ahead Lamar," Norris said, a smug grin on his face.

"Ehecatl is about a half hour from completion. The spec teams want you to come make final checks," Lamar said, standing up after catching his breath.

Norris laughed and turned back up the "Hallelujah Chorus". He pranced around with a bright smile on his face.

Lamar glared.

"By all means, man, lead the way!" Norris shouted, turning back down the music and then cutting it off.

Lamar rolled his eyes and walked out of the office, Norris marching happily close behind. They walked down the long hallway leading from Norris's office to the other side of the building, windows on each side of it lined up perfectly even. After what felt like an eternity of travel they reached the elevators and stepped in.

"Do you have any idea how long I've had to wait for this, Lamar? Oh, I'm so very excited," Norris said, leaning against the wall of the velvet-lined elevator.

Lamar dug a paper out of his folder. "Exactly four months, eleven days, four hours, twenty-three minutes, and...fourty five seconds," he said, glancing at his watch for the obnoxiously added hours and minutes.

Norris rolled his eyes and stretched. "And do you know who I picked to be the test Runner?"

"You?" Lamar replied, nonchalant.

"Exactly!" Norris said, laughing.

The elevator passed the ground floor and continued into the basements.

"I use to be quite the Runner myself a long time ago. The end of the war forced me to turn to my other love, business," Norris explained.

Lamar was staring at his watch. "That's great, sir," Lamar replied, still indifferent.

"I can't wait to finally be back in the seat of a cockpit after all this time. Oh, dear me, I'm about to faint," Norris squealed with delight.

Lamar glared at him again.

The elevator reached the bottom floor and the doors slid open, revealing a short hallway with a heavy steel door at the end. Norris stepped off quickly and ran up to the door. He slid his card key through the slider and the lock clicked off. The door began to open, revealing a vast underground construction hangar. Norris jogged in and stopped at the handrail to the platform the door lead to, overlooking the entire area. Standing there was a fantastic Orbital Frame, clad in light green and gold. The head was relatively compact with a visor that wrapped around the face and off to the side a bit, ending with a pointed wing on each side. The breastplate was sloped slightly downward, the pauldrons large and doubled with much smaller plates on top of the large slightly box-shaped ones that the arms went through. The body resumed down to the waist with extra armor on the sides of the upper legs. The lower legs were the usual pointed tips with a slight wing forming off the top of the "boot" of armor that the lower leg was made up of. The most outstanding feature, though, were the incredibly large wings on the back of the Frame. A pair of them came off the back, went up just over the head of the Frame, and back down to a length even longer than the Frame was tall. "Feathers" were detailed amongst the wings, indicating that several thrusters were placed within each segment of the wings. The wing segments were all connected, allowing limitless positioning of the wings for flight or any other purpose they might serve. It was so beautiful, Norris burst into tears. *

"Sir, I'm glad you could make it down here. Ehecatl is almost complete and-" one of the workers said as he walked up with a clipboard. He stopped his sentence, noticing that Norris was too busy staring at the Frame and crying happily to notice.

Lamar tapped him on the shoulder, Norris suddenly turning around. Lamar pointed to the worker.

"Oh, excuse me. I was just gazing in awe at you wonderful, wonderful geniuses' work," Norris said, looking as if he were about to hug the worker.

"Well, I can see you're excited, but we have to make the final checks. As I recall, you are slated to be the test pilot yourself, sir?" the worker asked, looking over the clipboard.

"Exactly. This has been my dream for Ryan Corporation ever since I took this job: to construct an Orbital Frame superior to anything Kapricon can dish out!" Norris shouted proudly, then laughed.

"Then we'll notify you as soon as it's ready. Good day, sir," the worker said, nodding and turning away.

Norris turned to Lamar. "Tell Wolfgang to dispatch three unmanned Phantoma 2 squads to the testing field, now!" he ordered.

"For what, sir?" Lamar replied, raising an eyebrow.

"The minute it's ready, I want to see what my 'son' here can do, of course," Norris replied, looking back up at Ehecatl.

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

Dingo stared at the computer screen, hunched over with his bowl of Choco Puffs in hand and his spoon in the other. He wasn't very fond of being woken up so early in the morning, especially since the past week had been hell on the whole crew. They were on the trail of the red Orbital Frame that had emerged from Unknown Sphere 776-X where an entire VANGUARD recovery team had gone missing and the damn thing just wouldn't hold still. In the span of a week, it had crossed three counties and had been spotted leaving abadoned spheres in each nest it somehow managed to land in without anyone noticing.

"Now, here's what I manged to find out," Angie began to explain, sitting in front of the computer with Dingo just behind her. "The Runner of the red Orbital Frame has been landing in and then moving around among whatever nest she lands in. She spreads fliers around, which are giving her quite the cult following, and then leaves the nest from whatever abadoned sphere or section of a sphere that she managed to slip in to. It's funny, it's like she knows she can somehow cover up her Metatron reactions but doesn't care as she leaves."

Dingo crunched on his cereal, scratching his bare chest with the end of the spoon as he stood there clad in sweatpants. "'Cult'? What 'cult'?"

"And that brings me to my next topic of discussion," Angie replied, switching files. A scanned picture of a flier came up on the screen.

Dingo squinted, his eyes unfocued from just having woken up, and read: "Denounce the holds of Earth and Mars government and military. Embrace Metatron and become that which both our specieses desire: an even better species. Only then can such things as racism and hatred be shaken off; when we are all the same as each other! Demand your Metatron and evolve with the rest of us. Follow the will of Adavari and the words of Wahrsager!"

Angie shrugged.

"What the fuck is a Wahrsager?" Dingo asked before shoveling more cereal in his mouth.

"That's the alias of the Runner, apparently, and Adavari is the name of the Frame," Angie explained, switching files again. She then brought up an official military document profile. "Wahrsager is actually Victoria Melphan, one of the people believed missing in the Unknown Sphere 776-X incident. DNA tests off the fliers brought her name up lickity-split. Also, 'Wahrsager' means 'soothsayer' in German. Don't ask me why she chose that name in particular."

"Okay, so Victoria snatches the Frame, flies off and is now starting a cult under the name 'Wahrsager'? This doesn't make much sense to me," Dingo said, stiring his cereal.

"Doesn't matter how much sense it makes. High Command wants her dealt with before she starts something," Angie said, taking a slip of paper off her desk. "They want us to hand her her severence pay. That check is how much they're offering. It's kind of like them saying 'take this and shut up or die' instead of sending in Aegis to start a mess," Angie said, leaning her head back and handing Dingo the check. **

Dingo took it in his spoon hand and his eyes widened. "That's a lot of zeroes," he said, staring at it.

"I know, I said the same thing when I saw it," Angie replied, leaning her head forward and rocking her chair back and forth a bit.

"And just how do they expect us to deal with it? Leo and Ken are out trying to find that Diaz guy after he snatched the Behemoth prototype! I'm all alone on this one!" Dingo said, angry.

"Haven't you figured it out by now, Dingo? We're the Space Forces fall-guys. We're stuck doing all the stupid crap while they march around and flex their muscles at the Martians. After all, except Leo, me, you, and Ken are just 'filthy Martians' to them. They could care less if we suceed or not as long as they don't have to deal with it," Angie said, then sighed. "Poor Elena just wanted us around to keep Mars from attacking Earth, now High Command makes her do things people like WIRED*** should be doing, not what we're trained for."

Dingo grumbled to himself. "Did it every occur to them that we're under-equipped for this? They gave us some shitbag 'new LEVs' instead of Orbital Frames and stuff us in a Nereidium ice mining ship for shit's sake! Now they want us, or rather me, to face a lunatic VANGUARD Runner with just my stupid freaking Vic Viper?" he shouted, highly irritated. "Why the hell not send in Aegis?"

"Don't ask me. I guess they're just hoping you die and Mars won't have a fearless hero that once liberated them around for everyone to look up to," Angie said, folding her arms behind her head.

Dingo cringed and shoveled more cereal in his mouth. "Those sick fucks. I can't believe I ever opted to help the Earth."

"You opted to help Elena, Dingo. It's just that she doesn't have much choice in the matter if it's High Command. You were right in your choice, she's a lot better than most Earth officials, but she's still in the Earth army," Angie said, turning her chair around to face Dingo in her darkened room full of computers and various components.

Dingo leaned against an old monitor and sighed. He swallowed his last bit of cereal and drank the milk from the bowl. "Fine then. I'll just have to call in some outside assistance if I can't get any from Taskforce Aegis," he said, turning to walk out the door.

"You don't mean those weirdos on that salvaging ship, do you?" Angie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, exactly, those 'weirdos' on the salvaging ship," Dingo replied, sarcastic, and left the room.

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

He woke up earlier than he thought he would that morning. By 'early', he meant 'before midday', of course. What was strange, though, was that Jim didn't wake him up with another piano recital. Not like it mattered, though, since he had wised up and began sleeping with music going on his headphones.

Unrolling from his burrito of covers, Miryhn put his feet on the cold floor and yawned. Taking off his electronica-pumping headphones, he slowly realized he wasn't in the dingy apartment on Callisto anymore, but back in his bed onboard Entropy. It then began to feel like he had woken up from a dream; like the trip to Callisto was all just a crazy dream and here he was, back on the ship like nothing ever happened or anything ever changed. Seeing his new sword on the floor, the Seraph uniform hung on his closet door, and the bird cage on the far table were striking reminders of the events that happened over the past week. Sighing, these reminders brought back up the same scene that had played over and over again in his head for days: Ester as the shot entered her skull and she fell to the floor dead, then, himself enraged as he struggled fruitlessly to avenge her. It wasn't nearly as painful as it was the first few times, in fact, now it was kind of annoying. He just wanted to get over it all and move on.

Walking to the bathroom, Miryhn shed his clothes and got into the shower; it was time now to enjoy some conditioner on his poor failing locks. As the water washed over him, Miryhn couldn't help but wander in thought back to Ester. Even if, according to Joker, she was forced to establish a relationship with him, what about after they had left TEMPEST and she didn't have to be forced? Did she actually, honestly, deep-down feel for him?

For one, Miryhn sighed and realized that at least he felt for her. Ester was a great woman; she was caring, determined, and didn't take shit from anyone. She wasn't stuck up and self-righteous, but she wasn't callow and weepy. She was that happy medium that just seemed to work best for him. There was no doubt in his mind now, he just never realized it until now, but he could honestly say to himself that he would have loved her more than a friend. She would have perfectly understood his "affliction" and possibly even helped him to understand it. In fact, to Joker's chagrin, the two of them could have done exactly what he didn't want them to do and help each other to understand the Alpha Manna. Then, Miryhn, with Ester bravely at his side, would strike him down and eliminate all that would get in their way. They'd be unstoppable, deep-felt love fueling their ambition as two humans, powered by angels, would live happily together until their death. It seemed very cheesey, but at that moment, Miryhn didn't care.

It would have been so perfect.

Miryhn leaned against the side of the shower, his conditioner finally having settled in. He leaned his head back and began to wash it out. It was pointless to have these thoughts, after all, Ester was dead. Miryhn would never see her again and he'd just have to get use to that. But the sheer fact that he let her slip through his fingers caused Miryhn to suddenly have a relapse of his depression. He ran his hand over his head and squatted down, letting the water wash over him just as it did the moment he realized he was freed from sin. Water had a strange way of trying to wash away whatever weigh was upon him, but to wash away Ester, it'd take a lot more of it than one shower head.

When he was finished, Miryhn decided to take lounge around for the day and simply put back on his pajama shorts with fresh boxers. He opened his closet and hung up the Seraph uniform on a hangar, then took one of his eight black dress-shirts out and put it on. Thanks to his singular wardrobe, he could wear the same outfit day in and out if he wanted, just like anime characters! But he did own some other shirts, he just never chose to wear them; he found his black shirts to be comfortable. Rolling the sleeves up to his elbows like he usually did, Miryhn walked down to the kitchen and opened a pack of Pop-Tarts. He sat at the table and ate them cold, staring into space as he pondered Ester some more.

Vera, clad in her white kimono and pink sash, walked in yawning. Her hair was quite frazzled, but it didn't seem to matter to her right now. More than likely she had only woken up minutes ago. She poured some Choco Puffs into a bowl along with some milk and sat across from Miryhn. She unfolded the newspaper and began to read the comics.

"Vera, I've been meaning to ask you something," Miryhn said, looking at her from behind the paper.

Vera dropped a corner of the paper and looked him with a curious look.

"Why do you keep trying to help me with my problems? You hunt me down on Callisto, kidnap me in a car, and even butt in on one of my duels," Miryhn said, taking a bite of his Pop-Tart.

Vera stared at him. She smiled and put the paper down, taking one of his hands in her's. "Miryhn, tell me, why do you think so?"

"Because I think you like me," Miryhn replied bluntly.

Vera laughed. "Miryhn, no, I'm sorry, but that's just not it. To put it simply, I can't help you as much as you may want someone to. I just can't, I don't know what it's like, especially with your..." Vera said, smiling, then pointing to his eyes.

"Yes, that, I know," Miryhn said, tilting his head to the side a bit.

"Miryhn, if anything, you're like...an older brother to me. Our worlds are just too different, but I still want to help however I can because you're a friend, alright? That's how it's been and that's how it will remain," Vera said, putting his hand down.

"That's good to hear, because to be honest, I've been having some heavy thoughts this morning and I just wanted to let you down early," Miryhn said, taking another bite of his Pop-Tart.

"What kind of 'heavy thoughts'? Nothing bad, I hope," Vera said, looking worried.

"That I might never find a woman quite like I did Ester. I realized that...well, given our circumstances, I really think she would have been 'the one'," Miryhn said with a sigh. "I'm just not up for anyone getting close to me lately. You know?"

"Yes, I know. That's perfectly fine. I'm fine with whatever you're fine with," Vera said, nodding.

Miryhn nodded back and continued eating.

"By the way, I won't be available today. I'm going shopping in the Alys sphere today for a new bathroom design. That cold and ugly look Jim has in there is quite depressing, don't you think?" Vera said in between bites of her food.

Miryhn didn't respond.

Vera leaned over the table at him. "Geez, you must really miss her," she said, looking worried.

Miryhn nodded, finishing his second Pop-Tart.

Vera sighed and sat back.

"It's no big deal. I'll get over it eventually," Miryhn said, standing up from the table. "See 'ya around, little sister," he said, walking out the door.

Vera giggled and sat forward. "I'm sure he'll be fine," she said with a nod.

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

Nash had been staring at the picture on his desk all morning. Maria still hadn't contacted him about her safety and he was beginning to regret ever splitting the two of them up. He was a bundle of emotions at the moment; guilty for not trusting her, angry that she would use him like she did to get out of the syndicate, and worried shitless that she didn't make it to safely alive. He was also a little peeved, thinking maybe she was being a flake and forgot to take his contact information with her. He sighed, layed his head on his folded up arms on the desk, and considered doing actual work for the day. The best way to deal with it was to keep himself occupied, after all. If time passed without him knowing, then the faster the moment Maria would call him back, right?

Vera's head popped in his bedroom door. "Hey, I need someone to help me pick out some stuff for the bathroom. You have to come," Vera commanded.

"Get Miryhn to do it, I'm too tired," Nash whined from his position.

Vera sighed. "You know, I would, but he's having a bit of a problem," she said, stepping into the doorway fully dressed and wearing her long red coat.

"Oh boo-freaking-hoo, he's not the only one," Nash said, lifting his head and turning around in his chair.

Vera paused. "Ester is dead, Nash," she said softly.

Nash sighed and look down. "This isn't a joke, right? I know how screwed up her jokes are and she's bound to have gotten you and Miryhn in on this to-" he began.

Vera groaned. "No, she really is! And look, the point is, it has Miryhn all bent out of shape," she said, interrupting. "I'd love to help him on this one, but I can't. I've never had someone I might have had feelings for die on me. He'll just have to deal with it himself, after all, his problems are the only ones that matter to him," she said, bitterly.

"You can say that again," Nash said with a nod. "But what has you so upset?"

"He actually thought I liked him," Vera said, rolling her eyes. "He's greatly mistaken, for your information. As much as I like helping people with their problems, that's about as far as I go with it. I feel pity, but not empathy. I'd be glad to pat someone on the back, but I'm not going to share in the feeling. He can just forget about that," she explained.

Nash stared at her. "Whatever you say."

"Good, then get off your ass and help me out. Miryhn's no good if all he's doing is moping and worrying about his own shit," Vera said, waving for him to come on.

"Fine, I'll go. When do you want to go?" Nash said, sitting up.

"Right now, come on, I already have the car ready," Vera said, holding up the keys to the convertible.

"And Jim?"

"Jim is out buying some shit. I don't know where he is," Vera said, shrugging. "Now hurry up!" she added, turning and going down the hall.

Nash grabbed his wallet and stood up. He adjusted his glasses and fixed his hair in the mirror. As he stepped out of his room, he stopped and looked down the hall towards the bridge. He walked to it and opened the door, seeing Miryhn sitting in his seat on the piloting structure with his arms folded behind his head.

"Hey, me and Vera are going out. Want to go?" Nash asked plainly.

"No, go on. I'll keep an eye on things here," Miryhn replied, not moving.

"Well, alright. Be back later. See 'ya," Nash said, closing the door.

Miryhn didn't reply.

Nash leaned on the closed bridge door and thought about what he'd be like if he knew Maria was dead. For once, Nash sighed and realized that he could imagine just how bad Miryhn must be feeling. To not know where someone was is one thing, to know they're dead, that's heavier stuff.

"Nash! Hurry!" Vera's voice shouted from down the hallway.

Nash sighed, irritated, and stood up. "Coming!" he shouted, jogging down the hall.

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

Norris climbed into the cockpit and a tingly feeling of pleasure ran down his spine. He placed a hand on each control sphere as Ehecatl's canopy closed and the golden lines of Metatron flowed out of the spheres into the Frame. It was an incredible feeling that Norris had missed for three long years and now it was finally back well within his grasp: the feeling of power, the feeling of absolute and unabridged power.

"Final checks complete, everything is normal," a worker said over the comlink.

"Excellent. Let me handle it from here," Norris said, Ehecatl being released from it's parallel clamps. The Frame landed on the floor of the hangar and the wing lifted up and formed a T pattern as it slowly hovered out of the hangar. It picked up speed going up the long passageway that lead to the surface, doors and airlocks opening and closing behind him as Norris flew the Frame up the passageway. When it reached the surface, it shot off in a Burst dash, accelerating to an incredible speed.

"Wow, according to this, sir, Ehecatl is capable of reaching a speed about one and a half times what Type C Orbital Frames we have on record can reach," the worker said as the Frame activated all the wing thrusters and it accelerated even more. Norris was to the point that he could feel great G-force pressing against his body, but all he did was grin wider. The Frame then turned on a dime, suddenly changing directions by acute and impossible angles in every direction imaginable all while maintaining its speed. The wing thrusters easily allowed for such a level of manuverability, able to bend and form to any position needed.

Norris laughed happily, almost insanely, as he suddenly halted and landed Ehecatl within a open and empty expanse. Several towers shut up in about a two mile radius from him and a laser barrier formed from each of them connecting to another. Three squads of four unmanned Phantoma 2's came out of the ground from underground elevators and raised their guns.

"Now are you sure you want to do this?" the worker asked.

Norris, with hardly a blink of an eye, activated the stereo system within the cockpit almost like by thought alone. Mozart's "Requiem" began to play, the soft and dramatic cello and oboes kicking things off. "With Mozart at my side, I sure as hell can do this," Norris said confidently.

"Alright then, activating the-" the worker began to say.

"No!" Norris interrupted angrily. He slouched in his seat and closed his eyes, almost like he was going into a trance by the music. The violins came in and a smile crawled up his face again. The music came to a crescendo, the timpani joining in and everything ending on a grand chord. Norris waved his hand like he was giving the count-off conducting for an orchestra and on the pause in between movements, he shouted,"Now!"

The Phantomas came to life and began opening fire as Ehecatl's wings suddenly formed a full spherical shield around it by reaching over and covering the front side. The choir of "Requiem" began to theme his actions as the sopranos reached a high note and Norris shot forward, grabbing a Phantoma and clubbing another over the head with it; both machines exploding on impact. One of the wings swept up and cut another in half by heating the tips of the wings to the point that they would slice metal and the fourth in the squad was scissor-sliced in half by both wings.

With the same marked agility as seen before the battle, Ehecatl nimbly dodged around each hail of bullets from the other squads and it stood in the air, preparing an attack. The wings folded over the front of itself and then suddenly shot straight up and "flapped" forward, sending a excrutiatingly hot blast of plasma at one squad. The two in front melted into indeterminable blobs before exploding in a gooey metallic puddle and the back two simply detonated from overheated generators.

Norris opened his mouth and lip sync'ed with the basses and sopranos as they went into a up-down pattern of notes. In rhythm with this, Ehecatl landed and began swinging its wings back and forth, sending waves of the powerful plasmatic energy at the last squad. The front two took two shots and exploded, the waves continuing through the Phantomas and hitting the back two with a little less power. The chord as a whole joined together and Norris grabbed one and tossed it into the air, blasting it with a dual-winged plasma wave and it exploded in midair. The last Phantoma, however, got it the worst as the music's movement came to an end. Norris latched onto it and spread both wings around it. They heated until the Phantoma began to melt and exploded right in Ehecatl's face. It exploded just as the last note of the first movement played and Norris turned off the song. Ehecatl landed from the explosion with hardly a scratch.

"Bravo! Bravo!" the worker said, clapping over the comlink.

Ehecatl turned and took a bow, just like any good conductor would do after a brilliant performance.

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

"What do you mean you don't know where he went?" Miryhn shouted at the comlink screen, connected to a dumbfounded Ryan employee.

"I'm sorry, but Dr. Ricdeau is gone. He took all his belongings and left without a trace. I can't help you," the employee said, shrugging.

Miryhn growled and sat back in his seat, sighing.

"Look, sir, if we hear anything or find out where he is, you'll be the first to know, alright?" the employee said reassuringly.

"Fine, fine, whatever," Miryhn said, annoyed.

The employee cut off the comlink and the screen went black. The window disappeared from the ship's canopy.

Miryhn sighed and opened a bag of chips, the normal kind that he always buyed. "You're having one hell of a day, Miryhn. First you realize you love the one woman who could obviously have understood your problems, but is dead, and now you can't find the one guy who would love to hear your story from the past week," he said to himself with a sigh. He had been feeling better over the span of the morning, but the bag of chips was his saving grace. It had been a while since he tasted his beloved junk food and he had to get his cholesterol levels back up to feel better about himself. Blood problems ran in the family and at such a young age, he was already beginning to have the same problem his dad did.

That's when the thought of his family crossed his mind for a moment. Miryhn hadn't seen any of them since he was snatched by TEMPEST and ever since then, he was just too ashamed to go home. He wasn't so much scared of them as he was highly irritated by them. His parents would pick and prod at whatever was ailing him and then stare dumbly as he tried to explain it, his mom giving him her ever-annoying sloped brow look that indicated she thought you were a complete dumb-ass. They couldn't seem to accept the fact that there were things that they could never understand and when they don't, they give off the impression of believing you to be overreating and talking nonsense.

In fact, in many aspects they weren't that open minded; they dwelled on their pathetic little lives where dad would go to his desk job in the mining company, come home, mom would make dinner, and talk and blab about every single stupid thing in the world. His mom couldn't go five seconds without conversation and that was a problem too; Miryhn preferred the quiet, his mom wanted to yammer on and on for hours about anything and everything.

On the other hand, they were quite gracious and caring. When they didn't stare at him like he had a hole in his head, they actually attempted to help him with whatever was wrong; albeit not very well. They weren't stingy when it came to money, but then again, sometimes they were. They were horribly bound by tradition, or at least his mom was, and never strayed into the unknown or tried anything truly interesting. In fact, Miryhn doubted they had ever left Mars, let alone Elysium County!

And his sister...good grief, he wasn't about to recall every little thing that drove him up the wall about her.

Just then, the comlink began to ring again. Miryhn casually answered it.

"Troxel. Got a job for you," Dingo's picture said over the video link.

Miryhn sighed and shoved more chips in his mouth. "Oh?" he muttered, mouth full.

"Yeah, I need you and your partners to help me on something. The rest of my team is elsewhere and I could really use the back-up," Dingo explained, showing chagrin.

"What? You mean you want me to swat down some stuff with my Frame because your Viper can't?" Miryhn said, looking into the bag for a large chip.

"What do you mean 'me'? Don't you mean 'us'?" Dingo replied.

"Afraid not, Chumley, the rest of my team is elsewhere too. Bet it isn't as important as what your's are doing," Miryhn replied, taking a large chip out of the bag and eating it.

"They're...well, that's classified. Your's?" Dingo said, humoring him.

Miryhn laughed. "Then that's classified too," he said, smirking.

"Lovely, looks like we're alone on this one," Dingo said, scratching his head.

"'We'? I don't recall saying I'd do it," Miryhn said, popping another chip in his mouth.

Dingo rolled his eyes. "Alright, look, I'll offer ten thousand credits. Deal?"

Miryhn's eyes widened. "Woah, now you're talkin' about the Benja'mins," he said, reaching into the chip bag.

"Like that, don't you? I'm telling you, there's plenty of money to be made working for the Space Force," Dingo said, smirking.

"I appreciate that vague offer for joining up, but I don't like military stints. I prefer the mercenary way of life," Miryhn replied, crunching on a few chips.

"So you want to take the job or not? It's simple negotiations with a client. The only problem is, that client has an Orbital Frame and things could get messy. It'd really help to have a Frame helping me out," Dingo explained.

"You got yourself a deal," Miryhn replied with a nod and a smile.

"Excellent. We got a tip saying the client is currently in West Sphere Number Five of the Yetlio Nest, Vascilia County. Since Vascilia has been pretty much deserted since BAHRAM's defeat, it will be an easy place to battle if the time ever comes. Enter through the tunnels just outside the sphere. I'll meet you at the entry gate to the sphere interior," Dingo explained.

"Roger, fellow negotiator," Miryhn said, holding up a chip.

Dingo glared at him and cut off the comlink.

Miryhn leapt out of his seat and jogged down the stairs. Maybe he just needed some work to clear his mind? He walked back to his room and snatched some pants, the transmitter, and his sword. He spotted the bird cage and sighed. Inside, his black crane was probably quietly sleeping.

"Now that I think about it, I would rather be in your position, buddy," Miryhn said, pointing to the cage. He shook his head and sighed, heading out the door.

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

It didn't take as long as he suspected it would; after all, Tharsis wasn't exactly right next door to Vascilia. Clad in pants now with his sword tucked in his belt at his left hip, he walked up the staircase from the underground entry tunnels. The light from the mouth of the tunnel was irritating his darkness-adjusted eyes, so he popped on his sunglasses. Reaching the top, he saw Dingo leaning against the wall of the tunnel entrance. He turned his head to look at Miryhn with a powerful glare off his yellow sunglasses.

"Didn't know you were so eager to get to work," Dingo said, smirking.

"You must have known, else you wouldn't be here," Miryhn replied, approaching.

Dingo laughed and stood off the wall. He nodded towards the inside of the sphere and began walking inside. Miryhn caught up alongside him.

"I have to admit, sometimes I envy you. Going around doing things at your leisure and all," Dingo said, leading them into the empty streets of the deserted sphere.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Miryhn said, shaking his head.

"Something wrong?" Dingo replied, looking over at Miryhn.

"Had a rough week," Miryhn said, yawning.

"Right, right. Well don't worry, this should be cake if you're still as good as you seem to be," Dingo said, looking back forward as he headed for a tall building.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Miryhn said, following him up the stairs to the building.

"As I said, you're good, but you'll never top me," Dingo said, smiling with arrogance.

"I don't care about 'topping' you. I still don't understand why you're not like the rest of the Earth military and just snatch up me and my Frame," Miryhn said as they entered the deserted building.

"Miryhn, I'm not from Earth and I don't owe them anything. They went back on the pact I made them make with Mars and I'm not doing them any favors," Dingo said, pressing the elevator call button.

"So why are you working for them?" Miryhn asked, stopping beside Dingo in front of the elevator.

Dingo sighed and lowered his head. "I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that after I put a stop to Aumaan and Ken had my organs replaced, I just wanted to go back to being a soldier. Being in Jehuty taught me that I still like being a Frame Runner and that I like fighting for a cause," he explained, smiling with sentiment.

"A 'cause'?" Miryhn shouted, laughing.

Dingo gave him a dirty look. "Hey, say what you like, but it's true. I'm not sure who told me this, but I was told to 'use power for the right things, or at least the things you believe in'. My power is that I'm a talented Runner and a proficient soldier, so I'm going to flaunt that until I die," he said with steel in his voice.

The elevator bell dinged and the doors slid open. Both stepped inside and Dingo hit the button for the roof.

"I don't believe in anything but myself. After all, in the end, that's all you have, right? Besides, unless I support myself, I'm afraid I might not have made it as far as I did in life," Miryhn explained, leaning against the wall and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Now it's my turn to ask. What's that suppose to mean?" Dingo said, folding his arms and leaning on his side against the wall.

"That's a bit personal," Miryhn replied.

"Oh, alright, won't ask then," Dingo said, nodding. "It's just you seem to openly welcome this anti-hero-like way of life. You really don't have anything else to live and fight for other than your own well-being?"

Miryhn shook his head. "No, all that dropped dead right in front of me a week ago. Didn't realize I valued it as much as I did until she was gone."

Dingo paused and lowered his head. "And that Frame?"

"It's just a junky old Frame I can't get rid of. I only pilot it for cash," Miryhn replied.

Dingo slowly nodded. "Well, I guess to each his own. As long as you don't go off trying to slaughter millions of people, I won't care. Not like that Radium Lavans guy. I still don't see what Viola saw in him."

"Who? What?" Miryhn said, looking at him puzzled.

"Nothing. Nevermind," Dingo said as the elevator reached the top floor and dinged as it stopped. The doors slid open and the pair walked out across the rooftop. They were about twenty five stories in the air, high above the abandoned sphere floor.

"And what are we doing up here?" Miryhn said as the two of them stopped in the middle of the roof.

"My contact with the client said she wanted to meet up here. God knows why," Dingo said, folding his arms.

There was a long pause as the two of them stared off across the cityscape. Then, a piece of paper floated down and landed at Miryhn's feet. Curious, also unaware of where it came from, he reached down and picked it up.

"What's that?" Dingo said, looking towards him.

"'There is but one truth. If you avert your eyes from it, you will remain nothing more than a puppet.' That's what it says, over and over again, I might add," Miryhn said, reading off the paper and then showing it to Dingo. The paper had the line repeated over and over again, evenly spaced as if it were written on a typewriter.

"I spent the first few years of my career as a scientist, studying modern military technology. I discovered how to make more and more effecient ways of killing more and more people, studied them, and then joined the military itself in order to put that knowledge to use. I ended up in VANGUARD, the scientific elite that was to outfit the entire Earth military with the coveted and feared Orbital Frame," a female voice shouted, a figure suddenly appearing on the edge of the roof behind them. "But then I discovered, all too well, the truth about Orbital Frames. I learned the things that the feeble-minded and self-righteous scores of military figureheads would never, ever be able to learn or understand about those machines."

Dingo turned and scowled, seeing a young woman with a forest green cloak on and a red scarf wrapped around her head. The rim of the cloak was high enough to cover her mouth and the wrap around her head covered all of her features except her mouth and eyes.

"But what was worst is that I realized that no one cared about the truth. The thing they don't realize is that the truth must be known, it's for the good and future of all humanity. They only saw Orbital Frames as machines of combat and destruction, but these machines are much more than you heathens could ever imagine," the female explained.

Miryhn stared directly at her, then back at the piece of paper.

"So I learned that truth, I learned what must be known, and I intend to spread my knowledge far and wide across the masses. Metatron and Orbital Frames are more than any of you could ever dream and that is why I am here," she continued. "To now spread my knowledge to you, the corrupt dogs of the Earth government strung up on your leashes of donated power," she added, louder in volume.

"Are you Victoria Melphan?" Dingo demanded.

"'Victoria Melphan' has vanished from this and every other world. Go and tell that to your masters, those shallow-minded military fools," the female announced.

"And what name do you go by then?" Miryhn said, smirking.

"For the time being, you can call me 'Wahrsager', for that is what I am," the female said, a wide grin showing over the brim of her cloak.

"'Soothsayer', huh? Now I get it," Dingo said, chuckling. "You're mighty confident, huh?"

"Indeed, Adavari told me everything and there is no doubting the source," Wahrsager said, "And you can tell your masters that they will never see their precious 'Victoria Melphan' in this solar system ever again!"

"I'll be sure to tell them that. Meanwhile, I want to talk to you about something," Dingo explained.

"Oh?" Wahrsager replied, strongly curious.

"Well, even if you claim not to be, I still have to give you Victoria Melphan's severance pay. It's in exchange for halting your activities," Dingo said, taking a slip of paper out from his trenchcoat pocket.

Wahrsager leapt into the air and landed in front of Dingo. She snatched it from him and began to look it over. Miryhn stood behind Dingo, arms folded.

"No deal!" Wahrsager shouted, tossing the check into the air. In the blink of an eye, she suddenly brandished a whip and snapped the piece of paper in half. Both halves fell to the ground, flaming.

Dingo took a step back and reached into his coat for his gun. With another lightning-quick movement, Wahrsager brandished another whip in her other hand and whipped it at Dingo, wrapping around his arm. She yanked and Dingo fumbled his gun out of his pocket, it falling to the ground.

"What's the meaning of this? The Earth Military is going to quite pissed off when that check bounces," Dingo said, trying to work his arm out of the whip.

"I don't care about money. I don't care about whatever your pathetic standards of society have to offer. When Metatron and humanity embrace, there will be no more need for it," Wahrsager said, an insane grin crawling up her face as she began to laugh maniacally.

Miryhn folded up Wahrsager's "introduction paper" and put it in his pocket. He then placed his hand on his sword and got in stance to strike.

"What's this? A bodyguard toting around a sword, hmm?" Wahrsager said, laughing.

"I'm not his bodyguard, I'm his back-up," Miryhn pointed out,

"Good, he'll need it," Wahrsager said, releasing the whip on Dingo's arm and pulling it back to herself. She then leapt backwards, landing perfectly on the edge of the roof again. "Now, burn, you dogs!" she shouted, then snapped her whips on the rooftop, igniting a stream of flame that made the entire roof of the building burst into flame.

Dingo quickly snatched up his handgun and aimed for the elevator just as the fires whipped up around the two of them. He fired three shots until the fire extinguisher hung on the wall beside the elevator door burst and a clear path was made for the elevator.

"There is but one truth and I will make the world know it!" she screamed, then laughed maniacally as she jumped backwards off the edge of the building. "Adavari, es ist showzeit!"**** she announced and there was a rumbling of Verniers being fired from the ground. A moment later, Wahrsager could be seen standing on the head of an Orbital Frame as it slowly flew up beside the building.

"Miryhn, come on! We'll have to chase her when she gets out of the sphere! We can't loose her now!" Dingo shouted over the flame, pointing to the door.

Miryhn dug his transmitter out and looked at Dingo with a smile. "You know what? Go ahead. I'll take care of the rest here and you go grab your LEV," he said casually.

Dingo growled. "Are you insane? Come on! She must have coated this rooftop with an odorless ignition fuel, the flames will only get worst!"

"Alright, Masa', it's showtime!" Miryhn shouted into his transmitter. Another low rumble could be heard, this time from what seemed like the building itself.

"What?" Dingo said, giving him a puzzled look.

"I'm not sure myself...wait a minute...shit, Dingo, run!" Miryhn said, looking at the small display on his transmitter.

In the next moment, two things happened. First, Masamune came up from under the building using the underground network of tunnels. The second was Dingo found himself running blindly through the blaze in order to dive off the building and land on another beside it. When he got to his feet, he looked up and saw Masamune standing on top of the building, it's fist raised in the air gripping its katana by the handle and Miryhn standing, arms folded, on the knuckle of the hand.

"Damn show-off," Dingo muttered to himself, then took off in a dash to get to the ground floor.

"Amazing, truly amazing," Wahrsager said to herself, now in Adavari's cockpit. "Could he be one too?" she said with a sly grin as Advari slowly circled the area above the cityscape.

Miryhn, for whatever reason possessed him, leapt off the knuckle and dropped towards the cockpit. The canopy didn't open, however, and he landed with a splat on top of it. Writhing from the painful sting, the canopy then opened and he dropped inside, it closing back again.

"It was not advisable to jump from that height. I did not know you wanted to be let in," ADA said from the console.

"Well of course!" Miryhn yelled. "It's just like in mecha anime, the pilot always makes some really cool entrance into his mech," he explained, sitting up and grabbing the control spheres.

"I was not aware of that. What is 'mecha anime' anyway?" ADA asked.

"Nevermind," Miryhn groaned, Masamune jetting up and out of the building and landing in the street in front of the building. It took the katana in both hands and searched around for Adavari.

"So you are a Runner too, huh? You're not match for a true Domineus, though!" Wahrsager yelled, Adavari slamming into the back of Masamune. Masamune stumbled over and crashed into a building, making a giant Orbital Frame-shaped impression in the side of it.

Masamune spun around and did a quick charge-up on the swords. "How do you know what a Domineus is?" Miryhn asked, Masamune swinging three times as it flew back at Adavari. The sword came off energy waves with each swing, two waves blocked by Adavari's shield while the last missed entirely as Adavari took off upwards and landed on top of a building.

"I know what one is because I am one! Adavari chose me!" Wahrsager shouted, snapping one of Adavari's whips downward, stopping Masamune in it's path.

So that's what Domineus Ex Deus was suppose to mean, Miryhn thought as he remembered back to Joker's speech on the train. "I hardly call that an advantage," Miryhn said with a smirk as Masamune plunged it's katana into the building Adavari was standing on. It shot upwards, attempting to slice Adavari in half as the blade charged up again and the building began to explode from the heat with each floor it passed through.

"It's more of an advantage you'd expect. Little do you know it, but by your creative use of that Frame you just might be one too," Wahrsager said, Adavari taking off in a backwards arc.

Masamune barely missed making contact and the building collapsed, falling over on the others in the block.

"You're being awfully aggressive. Is something frustrating you?" Wahrsager taunted.

Miryhn didn't respond. Masamune shot off to the side, locking on Adavari. It suddenly halted and sent several Homing Lasers after it.

"Delicious! Absolutely delicious!" Wahrsager cried out with a fit of maniacal laughter. Adavari took off again and flew low over the cityscape, the lasers hitting and destroying several more buildings as three actually homed in correctly and were simply defended by the shield.

"Damage to sphere and the surrounding area increasing due to battle," ADA said.

"Shut up!" Miryhn snapped. He chased after Adavari, raising the right arm and firing Shots.

Adavari suddenly looped back and grabbed Masamune's head. The backwards momentum was enough for Adavari to swing Masamune over it's own head and send it flying backwards. It crashed through two skyscrapers and landed in the middle of the street three blocks down from Adavari.

"Damage level exceeding sixty-five percent. A change in tactics is recommended," ADA said.

Miryhn rubbed the side of his head, having taken a nasty knock to the head from that move. Blood was running down his cheek. "Sounds good to me," he replied.

"You're pathetic. Your Frame is pathetic. I can't believe this!" Wahrsager said with a crazed laugh.

"Why am I always fighting lunatics?" Miryhn screamed as Masamune shot back up into the air. "Why can't I have a normal opponent for once?"

"Because I'm not a normal opponent, negotiator," Wahrsager replied as Adavari floated up to his level and got into a stance with both whips ready.

"'Negotiator'?" Miryhn said with a dumbfounded look.

"Oh, excuse that. You just remind me of a character from an old mecha anime. Or at least your voice did," Wahrsager replied, normal toned. *****

Miryhn continued to look dumbfounded, scratching his head.

"Anyway, I'm just warming up! Literally!" Wahrsager said with a laugh. Adavari's whips then began flaming with energy. It dashed forward and began swinging at Masamune.

Miryhn cursed to himself and swatted aside each whip attack with the katana. Wahrsager continued to laugh as the speed of each attack quickly increased. Miryhn knew he couldn't keep up if she kept going at this rate, so with the next whip attack, he spiralled the katana around one of the whips making it wrap around the blade. Wahrsager paused a moment and Miryhn saw his opening. He ignited the Burst and pulled the blade out from the whip spiral, doing a perfect Burst Slash and sending Adavari backwards.

"No! How did you time that so precisely?" Wahrsager shouted as Adavari sparked and fizzled with a gash across it's breastplate.

Miryhn simply growled in response and Masamune drew it's wakizachi, dashing forward at Adavari. Masamune did a complete five hit combo, ending with a vertical Burst Slash that sent flying Adavari downward, landing hard on the street pavement.

Wahrsager laughed insanely as Masamune landed a short distance away. It sheathed the katana and wakizachi, then flipped forward the Spiegel Beta on the right gauntlet.

"I guess disabling your Frame will satisfy Dingo more than killing you would. Besides, you might have a fat bounty on your head," Miryhn said, Masamune stepping forward to the downed Adavari. "So much for your edge as being a 'Domineus'," he added with a laugh.

"Think again, mister negotiator," Wahrsager said with a smirk.

Adavari raised it's arms and shot the whips out, wrapping tightly around each of Masamune's gauntlets.

"Hey, that's cheating! Come on, when the mecha hero is ready to finish off the bad guy they don't interrupt the attack," Miryhn complained as Masamune struggled to get out of the whips.

"This isn't a mecha anime, this is reality!" Wahrsager shouted, Adavari climbing to it's feet. Wahrsager began laughing again as the whips lifted Masamune off its feet. It swung up and down, slamming Masamune into the pavement face-first. Wahrsager laughed harder and did it three more times. Next, it swung to the right and then back left, sending Masamune into the side of a building and then back the other way even harder into the building on the opposite side of the street. It let Masamune drop back on its face and it laid there, now sparking and scarred with damage.

Miryhn, half-conscious from all the exaggerated motion, raised his head and rubbed his face. "No, not again," he said under his breath.

Wahrsager stopped laughing and simply gazed on her prey with a devilish grin.

It was happening again. But this time, he was somehow more aware of it. His sight washed over with a gold tint and a tingling feeling ran down his spine and through each of his appendages. "This is your chance, Miryhn, control it....try and control it!" he said to himself, grabbing his head with both hands.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you trying to resist?" Wahrsager questioned.

For a split second, he felt as though he could control it; somehow, like he could dwell within the feeling. However, in the moment after it, it was almost like something else took control and his train of thought was thrown into the back of his mind. "K-kill," he muttered, teeth cringed.

"What did you say?" Wahrsager asked, further puzzled by her opponent's behavior.

Miryhn rocked his head back and a wide grin was on his face. The once angelic devil had seized him and it was ready to draw blood.

"Troxel!" Dingo's voice shouted over the comlink.

Suddenly, he was brought back up to his own sense and Miryhn hunched over again. He sat up, a pained look on his face, and smacked himself hard. He opened his eyes and the gold tint was gone along with the tingling feeling. He was briefly proud of himself, this was the first time someone else didn't have to beat back his alter ego. Then business came back to mind. "Yo, what?" he replied, sighing.

"You doing alright? I had a problem with the start-up computer, but I'm on my way," Dingo replied.

"I'll be fine, I'm sure. Everything is just peachy," Miryhn said, sarcastic.

"Good, be right there," Dingo said, then cut off.

"Let's just see how badly you've surpressed that poor Frame of yours," Wahrsager said. The Metatron lines along the whips began to run rapidly as Masamune's did across the whole body.

Miryhn cringed and began jerking with the controls, but somehow the whole Frame was paralyzed. Nothing responded.

"Oh, yes, yes, I see now. You are indeed the Domineus of this Frame. It chose you the second you woke it up with your powerful will," Wahrsager explained. "It goes by...'Masamune'? Yes, I see now, that's the name given to its Soma."

"What the hell are you doing? How are you doing that?" Miryhn demanded. Suddenly, the cockpit visor began to distort and make white-noise.

"Masamune here tells me you are its Domineus. It wants nothing more than to join with you just as Adavari does I," Wahrsager explained. "It's crying out, screaming in fact. It's one true desire above all others is to fulfill your will and in exchange, become you as Adavari does me."

"Stop talking like that! What's wrong with you?" Miryhn shouted, cringing with irritation. He slammed his fist onto one of the control spheres as the cockpit began to act even weirder. A voice was coming from it.

"Don't you hear it too, Miryhn?" Wahrsager said with a small laugh.

"How do you know my name?" Miryhn asked, getting creeped-out.

"It's stored in the memory of your pathetic little battle computer as well deep within Masamune. It can't say your name though, but it's still calling out to you. Can't you hear it? Please, tell me you can hear it!" Wahrsager shouted.

Miryhn didn't want to admit it, but he did hear something. It resembled an ancient chant, performed by a singular female voice. "ADA, stop that!" Miryhn said, eyes widening with fright.

"I am- I am- I am not doing- Masamune is resonating with- it is-" ADA stuttered, unable to complete a sentence. The console eventually cut off altogether.

"Hey! What? ADA!" Miryhn shouted. Eventually, the cameras cut off and the cockpit went completely dark. The voice got louder and Miryhn began to feel cold, chilled to the bone.

"Oooooo.... Seni cu la...."******

"What's going on? What are you doing?" Miryhn shouted, now scared to death. He could hear the song louder than before, but it felt as though it wasn't coming from any direction; rather, from within his head, or perhaps his own soul.

"So you hear it? That's The Voice of Metatron. Metatron isn't like humans, it can't communicate with humans by speech like we do each other. It has no grasp on language or translation, so it adopted music as its medium. This chant is all it knows, it's the only way Metatron, or more specifically, the Frame itself can reach about and try to speak with the Runner," Wahrsager explained, the comlink starting to fizzle out too.

"Eeeeaaaayy.... Eouhe hoooehooea ooha la mo se ha ahhnn..."

Miryhn pinched his eyes shut and grabbed his head with both hands. "Stop it, stop it whatever you're doing! I'm not insane like you!"

"This isn't insanity, Miryhn, Domineus of Masamune, this is reality!" Wahrsager shouted right before the comlink cut off entirely.

Now he was all alone.

"Aaaaaahhh lieee mo seee mo he ee... aaaahh..."

The bone chilling feeling wasn't just his imagination, he could feel something happening. As The Voice kept going like CD track on repeat, Miryhn began to space out. The tingling feeling was washing over him again, but somehow his mind didn't respond like it did before with the demon taking over. It was like his soul was leaving his body, the cold feeling turning into a numb feeling, and like Thanatos was carrying it away into a black abyss. He actually thought it was really happening as he began to see, strangely enough, white feathers coming down around him in the void his soul was being lead through. He smiled a bit and reached out, touching one. Fear and curiosity clashed; it felt like a real feather. He looked up and saw a pair of white angelic wings, feathers gently falling off of them. His feeling of terror sharply increased as it began to feel as though they were real; and on his back. He looked to each of his sides, on each a wing, indicating a second pair. He looked down and saw a third pair. Something finally linked it all together and he was brought out of his trance. Realizing what he was seeing, he hunched over again and screamed in pure terror.

"Oooooo.... Seni cu la...."

There was an explosion and suddenly everything cut back on in the cockpit. He opened his eyes and the illusion was gone; the wings, the feathers, everything. The tingling feeling from Manna, the gold tint he believed was there, and The Voice's chant had been silenced. He looked up and saw Dingo's Vic Viper fly overhead fast launching a second volley of missiles. Adavari stumbled backwards and retracted the whips.

"Hey, what the hell were you doing? Did you cut off your comlink or something?" Dingo shouted.

Miryhn was still in shock by the whole experience. He shook his head a few times and gathered his senses. "No, I just had a bit of...technical difficulty. The whole Frame was acting wacky," he explained.

"Well get your ass up! Come on, she's getting away!" Dingo commanded.

"Domineus! Now you know what it feels like to get closer to Metatron. Your will was manifest, signifying that you truly are the Domineus of Masamune," Wahrsager explained as it turned to leave.

"What do you mean? Tell me"! Miryhn shouted desperately.

"Your little angel act, of course," Wahrsager said with a chuckle.

Miryhn sat back in his seat. He didn't understand at all what was going on or what she was talking about. "And how did you do that to me? How did you do that to my Frame?"

"I simply used some of Adavari's power from its Halo. In case you didn't know, that's how you liberate an Orbital Frame. You have to stop seeing it as a machine and acknowledge it as a living thing with a soul. However, yours has been chained down and restrained to the point where anyone would conceive it as just a machine. That is the truth, mister negotiator, that is the reality of Metatron. To become one with whom it chooses," Wahrsager explained, shielding itself effortlessly from Dingo's Ripple Laser as he passed over again. "And that is why I ask, Miryhn Troxel, is it us who controls them or they who control us? Are we truly the controllers of these beings or are they controlling us the moment they align with us?"

Miryhn growled and grabbed the control spheres. Masamune, shaking as it moved, struggled to pick itself up. Miryhn cringed hard and roared, gripping the spheres tighter. The Frame then suddenly sprung up with renewed strength, getting back to its pointy feet.

Wahrsager laughed. "That's it! Now I see why it chose you! That steel will, that unbending resolve, that powerful ambition! When you set your mind to it, you go at it full steam and never let up. Your will is powerful just as your Frame could be someday," she said, taking off. Adavari stopped near the top of the sphere and began twirling it's whips above its head in a fast circular motion.

Dingo looked up and saw her doing this. He landed the Vic Viper beside Masamune in humanoid mode. "Miryhn, move it! She's warming up one hell of a Burst attack!"

Masamune staggered around. "I can't, this thing is barely responding," Miryhn said, one of the wing thrusters weakly firing as Masamune fumbled around.

Dingo growled and his Vic Viper snatched Masamune by the arm and took off at full speed.

"Die!" Wahrsager shouted as Adavari flung a gigantic fireball down into the middle of the sphere. It hit the streets below and envoloped everything within two miles of ground zero with the explosion. Cars that weren't melted where they sat were flung three blocks and buildings crumbled like sand castles. Shadows were burned into the pavement just outside the blast radius. The smoke cleared and a two hundred foot deep crater was left in the middle of the sphere.

Laying in a heap was the damaged Masamune and slightly singed Vic Viper. The Vic Viper climbed off the Frame and looked upward. Adavari had escaped through a hole it formed in the roof of the sphere with the explosion. Dingo growled and the Vic Viper looked back down at Masamune.

"Hey, it might be a good idea to find some Metatron Ore to fix your Frame up with. This being Vascilia, I bet a lot of old BAHRAM supply depots are around here. Come on, we have to go find one," Dingo explained, sighing.

"What about chasing Wahrsager?" Miryhn said, rubbing his throbbing head. He had quite a headache after the whole encounter.

"That will be easy. I tagged her with a homing plate. We can take as much time as we need," Dingo replied, smiling from his brilliant plan.

"Sounds good to me. I think I can get both thrusters online now," Miryhn said, Masamune lifting itself up with both wing thrusters.

"Alright, got one. Metatron Ore detected three miles southeast. Let's go!" Dingo shouted, switching to flight mode and taking off out of the hole in the roof.

Miryhn grumbled as Masamune slowly got to speed, flying up to the hole. "Damn show-off," he said to himself.

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

"It was such pity to have to find out that she was dead, old friend," Ricdeau said, moving a bishop across the chess board.

"You're well aware of how badly this sets back the plan, right? Without a failsafe in place, Lazarus has already won," the man across from him replied.

"I suppose. But you know, the game is far from over, they still haven't taken the King yet," Ricdeau said, looking out over the Hellas Sea as the other man moved a pawn up two blocks.

"They did, at one point, but he escaped. But now Lazarus wants him dead, he doesn't care about getting a sample of Alpha anymore. He wants to go ahead with the plan as soon as he can," the other man replied.

"And how do you know this?" Ricdeau said, examining the chess board.

"I can't let all of Balthasar's plans work. Just think of it as 'friendly competition' seeing as he's been at odds with Gaspar for the past year or so," the man replied with a small chuckle.

"You didn't answer my question," Ricdeau said, placing his finger on a rook.

"Simple, I have a very convenient spy," the man replied.

"You tricky old fool. You never cease to amaze me," Ricdeau said with a chuckle, moving his rook up three spaces.

"So tell me, how are we going to make sure that victory is already ours this time?" the man asked, immediately moving a knight in response.

"Simple, old friend. We'll just have to promote a pawn to replace what we lost. The problem is, which one has the safest path to the other side of the board?" Ricdeau said, looking at each of his pawns.

"Perhaps we should send a knight or two to assist?" the man replied, smirking.

"Sounds lovely," Ricdeau said, his ever present smile turning up from the board to the other man.

"I'll make the preparations immediately," the other man said, nodding.

"Never fear, old friend, just like chess, if you plan far enough ahead, you've already won!" Ricdeau said, knocking over a knight with his bishop. "Checkmate!"

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

* For the mecha illiterate, think Orcrist from Fist of Mars with Wing Zero Kai's wings.

** Yes, ZOE: Resurrection fans, Taskforce Aegis is around now in 2177.

*** WIRED= World association of Inspection and REconnaissance for Defense. An Earth organization featured in the Dolores,i anime. Currently operating on Mars to aid VANGUARD.

**** German for "It's showtime!". Weird, she sure is saying and acting a lot like Schwarzwald from Big O. Then again, this whole chapter is....hmm....

***** This is kind of an inside joke. See, I picked Steven Blum (guy who plays Roger Smith in Big O and Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop) for the guy who should play Miryhn if Triad were to be an anime. I dunno, just having some fun with it...

****** Transciption of words thanks to Wing Zero Alpha; this interpretation also seen in his story.

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