Disclaimer: my first attempt at a fanfic, and I decided with my recent resurface of my Zoids obsession, why not to do it on Zoids? And who other should I squeeze than the lovable Raven? I DO NOT own Zoids, nor 'I Caught Myself' by Paramore. Just fancied the title. This is a RavenxOC pairing. Please read and review and be the fuel to my fire of continuing this story!
There was only silence, other than his breathing and the low hum of the Geno Breakers cockpit. He was listening. The boy remained inert, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes shut. Shadow growled, stealing the boy's attention from his focus.
"Yes, Shadow. I know you think my actions are futile." Raven acknowledged the organoid, questioning his pilot's intentions. They were surrounded by darkness; the inky, silent darkness that consumed everything. This unnerved Shadow, but Raven could care less of Shadow's feelings at this point. His directive was the only thing he was concerned with.
He knew this was consuming him: he was, after all, chasing the ghost of a Zoid and its pilot, if it even had one, driven by some sort of obsession brooding within him. He was following shadows into forests, finding himself lost and the Geno Breaker too bulky to navigate easily through the dense brush. He would get cornered and have to blast his way out of the trees, giving away his location to the phantom he was chasing only to drive it away further.
This eternally frustrated Raven. He was one of the best pilots on Zi, and here he was being eluded by some mystery Zoid which he still had no proof even existed. Just flittering glimpses of ghosts dashing across his visage. Either he had truly gone mad or this shadow was playing with him, deliberately dancing just out of his reach: toying with him as if he were mere child's play and this thing thought it was better than him.
"You can't out run me!" Raven clenched his teeth and slammed his white-knuckled fist on the console of his Zoid. Shadow looked up at the Geno Breaker at Raven's sudden outburst. This declaration of discovery Raven swore was concerning Shadow, not that Raven ever bothered to listen to Shadow when he was concerned. That's when he heard it.
Just slightly to the east, Shadow caught the faintest whisper of a voice floating through the air, carried down to him by the wind. Shadow growled, lowering himself to the ground in the direction he had caught the disturbance.
Raven noticed Shadow's shift, and he looked in the direction his organoid was alerting to. If he followed the hunch, this would take them up the mountain some, where the trees would thin out but jagged ledges would mark the face of the mountain.
Concern abandoned, the boy took the controls of the Zoid in his hands and pressed it onwards in the course Shadow had signaled.
"You better be right about this." Raven threatened the organoid following now behind the red Zoid stalking through the trees, on the hunt for Raven's prey.