Volt yet again struggled to get his unbalanced Owens up back on its feet.
When the Owens was back on its feet, Volt soon realized that the outside of the cockpit window was covered with a red liquid, occasionally streaked with blue. He soon realized that it was blood. Since he usually passes out when he sees blood, Volt soon felt very nauseous, his vision blurred, and he disgorged his lunch all over the controls.
Since nausea usually causes the loss of the sense of balance, and 'mechs use their pilot's sense of balance to balance themselves, Volt's Owens started sway dangerously, since it and Volt were connected through Volt's neurohelmet. Eventually, Volt passed out and his Owens fell backwards and crashed onto the spectator stands of the coliseum.
Luckily, there were no dragons there.
That evening, in the Wings of Fire room…
Queen Ruby was still shocked of what had happened down in the arena earlier that day that, even before all of the queens of Pyrrhia, she still couldn't describe what happened that killed seventeen, innocent dragons, in the most blood-curdling, gruesome way she could only imagine.
Ruby has gathered all the queens of the dragon tribes into the international war/peace cave, the Wings of Fire. It was located in the unoccupied territory, between the Rainforest and SandWing Kingdoms, in the Claws of the Clouds Mountains. It was rather large, enough to fit ten, large NightWings, with enough room to stretch their wings. In the middle of the cave was a large, circular table, large enough for two SkyWings to spread their wings and not touch the other's wing tip by an inch. Around the table, the following nine other queens were staring at Ruby:
Queen Tsunami. The SeaWing dragon of the original nine Dragons of Destiny wore her solid blue scales like armor; they were very well polished. She looked ready for war.
Queen Sunny. The SandWing dragon of the original Dragons of Destiny. Her golden scales radiated like treasure baking in the sun. She is very keen to hear what Ruby had to say.
Queen Glory. Queen of the Southern RainWings and the RainWing Dragon of Destiny. She looked as if she had been a lot lately, in which she has been. She has just recently finished a short war with the Northern RainWings and is feeling tired and worn out with last night's signing of a peace treaty between the two tribes.
Queen Marsh. Like all MudWings, Queen Marsh looked ready for any battle.
Queen Ice. Moon white scales, Queen Ice looked frigid and cold.
Queen Selva. Queen of the Northern RainWings, her polished silver scales metallically shone in the gloom of the room.
Queen Shadowweaver. Her dark scales made it nearly impossible to even see her silhouette. She would've been completely invisible if it were not for her eyes, which shone like emeralds.
Queen Styk. Her cunning form made her slightly weary of the other queens' presence, yet alert at all times.
Queen Starbolt. Her light blue lightning stripe zigzagged across her body, like its naturally-occurring counterpart does across the sky. Her bright-orange feathered mane shone slightly, but not as brightly as her electric-green eyes.
Queen Ruby stared at the queens individually, taking in all of the queens' looks. She then mentally drew up a speech to give to them. After a few moments of silence, Ruby finally broke it with a sigh.
"Now," she began, "most of do not know know what happened earlier today in the SkyWing Kingdom today, but...it is important to tell you that we are not alone in this vast universe."
This caught the interest of most of the queens' attentions.
"Today, seventeen non-combatants were…were...," she shuddered when the memory came back, in horrifyingly, vivid details, of the blood-coated section of the SkyWing Arena; she started to cry, "killed-no, not specific enough-squished, when a strange, metal being jumped the walls of the arena and was apparently unbalanced by a SkyWing, flying above...the...arena." She broke down completely after she uttered the last word.
The other queens stared at the SkyWing queen in both disbelief and shock. All of them were thinking whose fault this was. A giant metal being? What did it look like? A dragon? A Scavenger? Some other creature that they could not imagine? Eight queens just stood rooted to the spot, while Sunny went over and comforted a wailing Ruby.
"Don't worry, Ruby," Sunny said in her usual, sweet, calming voice. "We'll bring this giant metal being to justice." She gave Ruby a hug that Ruby enthusiastically returned.
Later that night, in the SkyWing Arena...
Volt woke up to the pitter-patter of rain hitting the windshield of the Owens. He opened his eyes and saw that his windshield was still red except for the places where the raindrops have hit it.
Volt sighed slightly and stared at his radar.
It was off.
Volt ignored the overwhelming smell of his own vomit and looked at his other instruments and finally concluded that his 'mech had automatically shut down after he passed out. He sat up in his seat and noticed that his 'mech has also fell backwards.
This time, Volt let out a long, frustrated sigh that clearly stated that he was going to have fun trying to get his 35-ton Owens back up on its feet. Volt flicked on the power switch to his fusion reactor, sensors, and weapon systems.
"Reactor, on-line. Sensors, on-line. Weapons, on-line. All systems nominal," the feminine voice, that was his computer, blared into the cockpit.
Volt looked at his damage meter and saw that his rear armor was nearly all gone. Great, he thought. The repair's going to definitely come out of my paycheck.
This, also, caused Volt to sigh with frustration again.
By this time, the now-pounding rain has washed nearly all the blood from the windshield, revealing a cloud-covered night sky and obviously rain. Volt thought it was a beautiful night, making him smile. He looked at his radar again, and saw something that made his smile fade very quickly.
Two green dots were closing in fast, and he knew, from instinct, that they were 'mechs. Although the question remains whether they are friendly or not, they were definitely 'mechs, just by examining the speed they were moving at. But there is one question that was still nagging at his mind: What kind of 'mechs?
Volt knew who to contact.
He switched on his comm.
"Wyldar," Volt said in a calm voice, "I've got two 'mechs approaching my position at Nav Beta. Can you please give me some information on them?"
Static.
