Here is part 2 of the Prologue!

I think this is way more exciting and informative than the first part. Maybe I should combine the two later...


Zoidiakos Prologue Part 2

Seira stared at the small talking statue. Then it came to her: this was a dream.

That's right! This is a dream! I'm dreaming!"

"There is much you need to learn, as we're already behind. I guess we should start with management, or maybe penmanship-hey!" the statue shouted as Seira moved on her way.

I guess I should do something exciting...this is one of those lucid dreams, huh-"Ow!" Seira's hand jumped to the back of her head. The statue had hit her from behind, and was now floating in the air. It looked very annoyed.

"This is very important! Listen to me!"

"I don't need a statue to tell me what to do! You're a statue!" Seira realized it was redundant, but it wasn't her biggest issue at the moment.

"I'm not a statue! I am Sirus, the advocate diety for the Zoidiakos-Hey!"

"You're a statue, you're a statue, you're a statue!" Seira cried, pressing her hands against her ears as she ran away. She got all the way to her house, quickly opened and slammed the door, and collapsed to the floor. Sprinting was not her strong suit.

"Wa-roo?" Tai trotted over to her and sniffed her.

"I know what that was." Seira panted. "It was a stress-caused hallucination. I haven't been sleeping well, after all." She scratched Tai's ear before she found her footing.

Brrrriiiinnngg!

The phone rang through the house. Being the only organism with thumbs, Seira moved to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Seira?" It was her dad's voice on the phone.

"Dad? What's up?"

"I'm glad I caught you after school. We need to work on getting you that cell phone..."

"Uh huh."

"Anyways, I'm calling to let you know I'm not coming back until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" Tai whimpered in response, so Teira rubbed him with her now bare feet. At a time when she really needed some normality, this happens. "Why tomorrow?"

"It's for your mom. You know how it is."

"Uh huh." A more dirty minded person would have had those kinds of thoughts, but Seira knew her parents weren't like that. Not anymore anyways.

"Anyways, I promise I'll pick you up from school tomorrow. We'll get ice cream!"

"You can't have ice cream, dad."

"Shhh!" Both she and her father had a laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow, Seira."

"Ok. Bye, dad." She hung up the phone feeling a little better.

"So, does this mean a house party?"

"No, of course not-" Seira realized that it wasn't Tai's bark and looked to see Sirus sitting on the kitchen table. "EEEEEKKK!"

"Wow, you're noisy!" Sirus rubbed his ears.

"How-why-you-it-"

"Are you done yet?"

"I'm crazy. I'm really crazy."

"You're not crazy."

"And you're not real! You can't be! Statues don't talk..." Tai cut her off, barking at Sirus, perplexed with the new arrival. Seira felt her mind sink. Tai could see it too. She slunk to the floor, defeated. "Fine. You're real. But what do you want with me?"

"Like I said, I'm here to train you to become the next leader of the Zoidiakos."

"What is the Zoidiakos?"

"It's a secret organization that spans the globe. We monitor world leaders, carry out assassinations, extort money-"

"Oh my god. It's the mafia?!"

"Of course not!" Sirus seemed very annoyed by that comment. "We're not as heinous as they are!" Seira narrowed her eyes.

"It sure sounds like it..."

"The mafia are children compared to the Zoidiakos." Sirus snorted. "We've been around for more than 2000 years!"

"Right...and you want to entrust that to a teenage girl."

"It's not like we have a choice. It's just how things are done."

"Uh huh. And, how are they done?" Sirus seemed to make a long scroll appear out of nowhere, startling Tai.

"Right now, it's the Pisces generation, led by the current leader, Seth Kassab. It's traditional for the next head to be an Aries."

"You...use the Zodiac to pick your leaders? How has that been working out?"

"Well, it's been the system for more that 2000 years, so I would have to say 'good'. It's my job to find, pick, and train the future leaders." Sirus unfolded the scroll, and a list of names appeared, followed by what appeared to be a birthdate. "These are the names of all the potential leaders." Seira noticed that the first thirteen names were crossed out.

"What happened to those guys?" Seira asked.

"Car accident, Shoot out, brain injury, heart injury, lovers spat, stabbed, masturbated too much, unmentionable, another shoot out, in that same shoot out, pneumonia, an STD, and rabies." Seira wasn't sure what to say. "Anyways, there's you." Sirus pointed to the words "Seira T. Reymond, April 4". Your blood is the next closest to the first leader, so you're next in line."

"Yeah, uh...will anything like that happen to me?"

"Well a few of them were self-imposed-or were you talking about the shooting and the stabbing?" Seira nodded. "Well, that all happened before it was time for succession, so probably not. We're not a gang, you know."

"I'm still not sure about that. But anyways, can't you pick this guy?" Seira pointed to the name underneath hers.

"No can do. It has to be you."

"But I don't want to! I just want to make a sandwich, do my homework, play some video games, and go to bed!" There was a pause, and Sirus looked thoughtful.

"Ok."

"O-okay? Really?"

"I'm not unreasonable. If you don't want me here, I'll leave." Suddenly, Sirus disappeared, but his voice did not. "Just get ready..."

"Get ready?" But Sirus was now gone. Tai whimpered, sniffing the table. "Let's just forget about that, ok, Tai?"

Seira has never been good at cooking, so she made some cereal for dinner. Her homework was done in no time, and soon she and Tai were on her bed. Tai had already started to doze, and Seira would join him as soon as she got to level 10.

The next day, Seira found herself walking to school. She had hoped to meet Ryan again, but that didn't happen. When she arrived at school, she went straight to English class were Jane beckoned her over.

"Seira!"

"Hi." Seira sat down next to Jane.

"So, what did you think of that story?"

"Spooky. You'd think he had the worst life ever."

"I know!"

5 periods later, Seira found herself in her algebra class. She focused intently on the board, being sure to take notes when necessary. The class was an advanced level class, so most of the other students were paying attention.

"...And so, what's the answer? Wafai." Mr. Nicolas focused to a dark-skinned boy near Seira.

"...-4." Wafai said, sounding disinterested.

"Wrong." Suddenly, Wafai's cool demeanor shattered for a short while in shock. He swiftly recovered and put himself in deep thought. "Seira?"

"Um...4i?"

"Correct." Mr. Nicolas spared a brief smile, and continued to explain why Seira was right. Seira wasn't particularly happy or bothered by it, but she suddenly felt a chill on the side of her body. She looked over for a moment and caught a glimpse of Wafai glaring at her. She shuddered.

Great. I'm already making enemies. She groaned inside her head.

After school, Seira waited by the gate for her dad. To pass the time, she took out her game system and began to level grind her rpg characters.

"Hey, space case." Seira looked to see Ryan looking over her shoulder. She didn't realize that he was actually quite a bit taller than her.

"Hi, Ryan. But you know, my name's Seira, right?"

"I like space case." Ryan grinned. "Is that Naga-Eco?"

"Yep."

"Cool. I was going to get it, but then my baby broke." Ryan patted his motorcycle. Seira looked over it in fascination. She had never seen one not in motion and so close before.

"I guess money well spent, huh?" Seira smiled.

"Yep. Are you waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, my dad."

"Oh, ok. See you around then."

"Um, wait!" Seira paused, not really knowing why she stopped him. "Uh...can I use your phone? I just want to check on him."

"Sure, ok." He took out his phone and gave it to her. "Something happen to yours?"

"Yeah, I'm getting a new one soon though." If he knows it fell in the toilet, I'll be space case for life.

"...Of course he can't make it." Seira grumbled to herself. Her father explained that he would be home later than he thought, but definitely today. She decided to just walk home and thanked Ryan for the phone. Sighing, she figured she had time to explore the town a bit.

Comet Bay was split in the middle by the library, so areas were just referred to by their placement to the library. Most houses were in North L, with many of the shops in South L or East L. The beach, of course, was towards West L. The school and mayor's house both happened to be in L.A.-the library's area, not to be confused with the actual L.A., which was quite south of Comet Bay.

She ended up by the park in North L. Not many children were around, as Comet Bay didn't have that high of a kid population. Seira decided to sit on a bench and just space out. It would serve her father right if she was a little late.

"Ow!" Seira felt a sharp pain on her head, forcing her to look up. Squirrels were peacefully minding their own business, but also dropping their acorns. Seira looked at the ground at the nut, remembering what Sirus said. She grumbled. "Aries, prone to head injuries..." It wasn't that she felt astrology was complete bull, but she wasn't compelled to check her horoscope every day. "Ah!" another acorn hit her head. "Quit it!" she snapped at the squirrels. She looked up angrily and saw that the two little squirrels weren't so little anymore.

Their fur was now dark purple and spikey, and their bodies were now the size of a small child. Their eyes glowed with violent violet and they were drooling out of their large fangs.

"W-what?" Seira looked around, and saw that her surroundings were that of when she first met Ryan-it was dark-shaded with small dots of light around. Before she could pinch herself, a squirrel jumped down to swipe at her. Screaming, Seira jumped off the bench, only her jacket getting frayed at the end. "What's going on?!" she cried, running away from the squirrels.

"You're in the Cosmic Zone."

"Huh?" Seira stopped short to see Sirus floating in front of her. "The Cosmic Zone?"

"Better get out of the way." Seira had almost forgotten she was running for her life. "You're not very athletic, are you?"

"Shut up!" Seira yelled while trying to breathe. "What's going on?!"

"It's your job as the head of the Zoidiakos to quell their core. It's been infected."

"But-eek!-why me?!" Seira narrowly dodged a side swipe.

"Do you see anyone else around?" Seira looked around. Comet Bay wasn't L.A., but it wasn't as barren as she saw now. "They only care about you because you're a descendant of Zoidica. They smell your core. I hear they find it quite delicious."

"THEY'RE GONNA EAT ME?!"

"Not if you fight back."

"H-h-" Seira wasn't used to running for so long, especially not in a life-or-death scenario. "H-how?"

"You don't have any special talents, do you?"

"Uh...does beating Final Fantasy count?" Sirus sighed.

"Guess I have to help you. Stop here." Seira and Sirus stopped behind a building. "Ok, here!" Sirus touched the middle of Seira's forehead. "Temper is your weak point, but it's also your strength. Aren't you mad at someone right now?"

"...mad..." Seira only felt a little mad that her father had bailed on her, but now it was reaching a near irrational level. Nothing else was getting through to her, except for Sirus' voice in her head.

Now, channel it towards your opponents-let all your rage out at once!

The squirrels narrowed in, mouths wide open. Seira's eyes might as well been flames.

"Aries Temper Flash!" Her furious aura shot out, piercing the squirrels. In their middle, a small purple light flashed a few times before reducing to a gentle white. The squirrels then resumed their normal appearance and the Zone disappeared. Seira was now in the middle of a busy sidewalk, and Sirus was gone.

"Sirus...?" Seira looked at her frayed jacket. It wasn't a dream.

Tired and scared, Seira finally arrived home. Her only solace was that whatever she did to those squirrels had calmed down all of her anger.

"I'm home..." Tai happily greeted her, like always.

"Welcome back, Seira!" Her father came out from the kitchen. "I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up. How was the walk?"

"It was fine." Except for the mutated squirrels that tried to eat me. Seira went upstairs to her room and fell over on the bed.

"So, changed your mind about being the Zoidiakos' leader?" Seira snapped her head up to see Sirus looking smug.

"You knew that was going to happen." She growled.

"Of course. Whether or not you accepted your destiny, they were going to smell you out. When you're near an infected core, it's my job to take you to the Cosmic Zone where you can fight them without being seen by outsiders. It also prevents the real world from being damaged." Seira did notice that the park seemed ok despite the bench being slashed during the fight. "Normal people can't fight them, as they're influenced by something higher than the earthly plane."

"So? The Zoidiakos' leader is pest control?"

"The infection doesn't just take over the cores of rodents-anything that was born has a core, and that core can be infected." There was a pause. "This means humans as well."

"I got that!" Seira replied.

"In order to keep track on which cores become infected and to be able to take care of it, the Zoidiakos keeps tabs on world leaders, smuggling, orders necessary hits, blackmails-"

"Ok, see, that sounds like the mafia."

"We're not the mafia."

"Whatever..."

"So, you see you need me to let you defend yourself, and I need you to become the next leader of the Zoidiakos." Sirus smirked. "Do we have a deal?"

"Wh-?" Seira realized she had been pushed into a corner. "Nooooo!"


And now, Seira must train to become a mafia-I mean, not a mafia leader. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with KHR? You'll find out soon...soon...*insert evil hand rubbing*

Sakura Mizuki