A/N: Here's a story on the request of ArgentivaV.

I hope you'll enjoy, it's going to be a little crack-ish.

01 –

As he kicked a pebble considerably far away in the distance, Dax continued on his angry way through the thick and seemingly quiet woods. He was muttering curses and lashing out randomly as he did, with very little consideration for the tiny animals that scurried away from his path. The reason for his violent outburst were hardly difficult to indicate, when hearing his occasional exclaims of 'damn Suno always has to team up with Glasses and Princess' and 'they always me blame for pretty much everything'. His hands were balled into tight fists inside his pants pockets as he approached the front of a tree. In a fit of rage, he pulled his arm arm back and slammed a fist right into the center of the tree with all the force he could muster. If the Lowlander hadn't been shaking with pent up anger, he might've stopped to think about how much that had hurt. But alas, he was completely and royally pissed and with a dissatisfied grunt, he continued his way to annoy the hell out of nature.

Now it could've been his imagination, but Dax thought that might've been the reason why Darkspin had managed to spot him so quickly. But who was he to deny them the right to be completely crushed by his Monsunos because honestly, he needed let out some steam and beating them in a Monsuno Battle sounded absolutely wonderful to him right now.

"You guys picked the wrong time to fuck with me, mates."

Medea gave a mocking, shrill laughter before ordering her lackeys to launch their Monsunos at him. Well, three against one was kinda unfair. For them. Dax only needed to summon Bioblaze and it practically wiped his opponents with his Wave Cutter Strike alone. It hit all three simultaneously, causing them to fly a decent distance away into the forest. While Medea's team members were fussing over the amount of damage they'd all taken altogether, Dax gave the leader a mocking motion with his hand for her to step forward and attack him already. "Thought you said it was payback time but the way I'm seein' it, I'm still up and about and didn't pay a dine."

Those words failed to give the Lowlander his desired reaction, his victorious rush decreasing somewhat. Medea's pink lips stretched into an excitedly evil smile as she pointed her finger directly at Dax' Monsuno. She ordered; "Launch the sonic cannon!"

And that's when shit hit the fan.

Apparently, Medea had already had full and total control over the situation from the very beginning. From above ground-level and flying tall in the sky, two of the woman's Monsunos - Dragonwolf and Poinsonwing – were to seen. The latter was holding the former airborne with its strong vice-like grip as Dragonwolf prepared a deadly attack from it's strike gear.

That apparently was a fully-equipped cannon.

The exact same moment that the cannon had finished loading was about the same time that Dax had spotted the Medea's Monsunos from above, completely frozen in place, a second too late to order Bioblaze to dodge or even to retreat it to its core.

The impact of the attack collided with the Dragonfly Monsuno in a huge explosion and Dax' screaming was nearly overridden by the sheer blow from that shot that seemed to completely vaporize his Monsuno, his companion. The power from that same impact shook Dax' body from its spot and caused him to fly backwards into the air. His breath and voice were both caught in his throat until he hit something solid with such a force that he thought his skull had broken into two. Fresh pain rippled throughout his body similar to that of a pebble dropped in a lake, although to his surprise, the pain unexpectedly dulled out. No responses from his mind could order his body to move and Dax ever so slowly felt himself hyperventilate when blood rushed down the side of his face and mingled with the dirt on the ground. The faint but familiar sound of a Monsuno returning to its core sounded in the Lowlander's ringing ears but he couldn't distinguish if it belonged to him or the Darkspin.

"Don't count your cores before they're taken, Daxie-boy," Medea's sultry voice said somewhere. "You should make a habit of it when dealing with the Queen of Darkspin. If anyone does find you before you're dead, that is," she paused to let out a humming giggle. "It was a pleasure doing business with you!"

Dax knew that he should be beyond angry now; that he should pull himself from the ground and fight Medea with his bloody fists if he had to, but his body just didn't correspond with his brain anymore. He couldn't feel that mad either; a strange tranquility started to seep into him like a drug, numbing his every limb until the only thing sounding in his ears was his own heartbeat.

- Strike Squad -

After an hour or so, a small but robust and combat-effective vehicle drove closely by around the scenery of a recent battle, slowing down until finally coming to a halt. The travelers inside revealed themselves to be five teens, all wearing matching battle-armor but otherwise diverse in looks and height. Their redheaded leader took a minute to scan the surroundings with a pair of binoculars, silently observing the deserted environment.

"Given the rather large damage that's been dealt to this particular area, I'd say Team CoreTech has already been here," Tango put a hand on her hips, idly eyeing the woods. "From the looks of it, it might've been a rather violent fight so it would be too stupid of them to stick around. We should get going."

"Wait," Alpha called out, putting away his binoculars to gaze into a certain direction. "I see something blue gleaming. An object, I think."

"You think they left something?" X-ray asked in question, watching curiously as his leader quickly went over to the direction he had pointed out, kneeling and searching around the burnt grass until he brought something interesting up in his hand. A CoreTech Core.

"I'm not so sure they would leave one of their cores lying around on purpose," Alpha continued, inspecting the core further. "There also appears to be blood trails around here as well. I doubt they encountered a group that could deal them this much damage to the entirety of their team but one of them might just be injured."

"Which means that they're not only slowed down considerably because of this," Kilo added, the details of this newfound discovery sounding very promising to his ears. "but the trail of blood can lead us right to them."

"If that appears to be the case, we'll not let this opportunity go to waste. Spread out, Strike Squad and find the CoreTech members. Even further clues that might lead to their whereabouts will suffice."

"Yes, sir," the four others agreed in union before launching out their Monsunos and scattered from their meeting spot in a search to find their enemies. Bravo sat on top of Deadfall, lazily gazing around and wondered who the injured one in Team CoreTech could be. He stopped abruptly upon hearing a few soft but somewhat audible noises coming from his left, so he ordered his Monsuno to go steadily but cautiously, in case it was another one of those traps that the Strike Squad had encountered before. Bravo's senses were on full alert when he approached his target, the long leaves and thick bushes making it rather difficult for him to make out the presence in front of him before he got close enough. The sight was definitely not one he had expected to encounter.

Dax was leaning clumsily against the trunk of a tree, his beanie lying dirty and bloodied on the ground beside him. He was passed out, that much was clear, seemingly due to blood loss and exhaustion due to dragging himself all the way this far. Bravo jumped off Deadfall and onto the ground with a thump, calmly walking towards the Lowlander with less caution now as he knelt before him to inspect his wounds. Drops of blood fell slowly down the side of Dax' head from a wound that was definitely serious, sweat coated his dark skin in a gleaming layer and his lower lip was split, a drop of liquid falling from there as well.

Bravo reached forward and wiped the blood away from the other's lip, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Why, Dax, long time no see."

A/N: To be continued.