Chapter 2
Two years after finding Blaze, a seven year old black haired young boy with a scar across his right eye was playing at the ruins near the fire colony where he lived, a recent sand storm had uncovered a large portion of a Konig Wolf just outside the ruins and the boy was playing in the broken cockpit with Blaze making sure he stayed in the cockpit and didn't get hurt.
"Blaze, can you fuse with this Zoid?" Wolf asked pushing finger against the screen in front of him.
*I can but I don't think anything would happen, this Zoid has been inactive for a very long time,* the black and red Organoid growled in response.
"Can we try?" the young black haired boy asked bouncing in his seat. Blaze was taken aback by the sudden excitement of the boy.
*If I activate it, you must promise to maintain it properly, I can't help with tuning,* Blaze growled in a low tone.
"I will, I promise," Wolf said bouncing in the seat even more.
Blaze launched into the Zoids core, and reactivated and reconstructed the Zoid.
"Blaze, it worked," Wolf screamed as the controls lit up and the canopy closed over the small child. When Blaze let go of the core and disengaged from the Zoid, the Konig started to act very strange, jumping and leaping around while growling angrily.
*Wolf, stop playing,* the black and red Organoid growled.
"I can't, it's doing this on its own," the blue eyed boy screamed completely terrified. The Konig Wolf simply shut down completely after five minutes of thrashing around.
*Wolf, are you alright?* Blaze growled as he flew to the cockpit, opening it using a switch by the left ear with one of his toes. Wolf sat in the seat with a grin from ear to ear and laughing like a maniac.
"That was so fun and I wasn't even doing it," he half screamed excitedly.
Blaze piloted the Zoid back to the village so it wouldn't act out again while Wolf was still playing with the controls even though he had no control.
"Daniel, come check this out," Wolf said dragging his brother out of the house like he had the day Blaze was found.
"Wolf, this thing is awesome where did it come from? Whose is it? When did it get here?" the young blonde asked firing off questions like a Gatling gun.
"Slow down Daniel, it came from the ruins, it was brought here today by Blaze and me," Wolf said still trying to get his five year old brother to calm down a little.
"So it's yours. Can I ride in it PLEASE?" Daniel begged on his knees hands clasped together like he was praying.
"Maybe, but it's a little wild right now," Wolf said scratching the back of his head.
"Aww come on," the blonde haired boy said morphing his face into those puppy dog eyes that no one can resist.
"Okay, but I warned you about it being wild," Wolf said in a stern voice, "Blaze, keep close, this thing goes nuts get him out of here."
Blaze nodded his agreement as Wolf started the Zoid. It stayed calm for a few minutes, but then started going wild all over again. 'I wish this thing would calm down, someone is gonna get hurt,' Wolf thought as he was thrown around in the cockpit. The Konig suddenly calmed down and the message 'A BOND BORN OF A CHILD'S WISH,' appeared on the screens in front of him.
"What does that mean?" Daniel asked as he pointed to the screen.
"I don't know, but let's try something," Wolf said as he pushed the controls forward. The Zoid leaped into a dead run pinning them both to their seats. Wolf pulled the controls and it turned hard right, he moved the controls again and the Zoid turned left.
"I think that message meant that the Zoid understands me," Wolf said with a grin from ear to ear.
Over the next couple of months Wolf taught himself to pilot the Konig to some degree getting as far as moving at high speed without falling over, learning how to aim and fire the weapons was the easier part. Daniel also learned to pilot some in the Zoid when Wolf was with him to make sure he could reach the controls. The Konig rarely allowed regular citizens to approach it after a few of the boys in the village found out it was Wolf's and decided to try and take it for a joy ride, it did not react well and injured them rather heavily. Wolf's mother would often send him out to various other villages for errands, he got quite used to spending nights out in the open desert and was quite happy to know that his mother trusted him with such a task.
When he turned ten a few years after finding the Konig someone in the village offered to help paint the large Zoid after the black haired boy had helped the man paint his home. Wolf quickly but politely turned the man down saying that if he decided to paint it Blaze would be help enough.
"So Wolf, are you ever going to take me for a ride in that Zoid?" a black haired girl with bright green eyes asked as the black haired young man walked by her.
"No rides Samantha, she's still too wild, every now and then I get tossed myself," Wolf replied with an apologetic tone and a small smile, "But you can come watch me practice if you like, Daniel is supposed to be sneaking out."
"I can't, I have to mind the store for mom," the green eyed girl shrugged.
Wolf simply nodded before running the rest of the way out of the village and finding his Konig and Blaze waiting for him. For a few hours each week, and when he wasn't helping someone in the village, he would come out to the ruins and run the Zoid around letting Blaze pick a few targets on the deserted buildings for him to shoot at when he was in a bad mood. Blaze would often fly over head to make sure the still young boy stayed out of any bandit trouble by warning him if they were coming.
Wolf was out playing around in the desert one day shortly before turning fourteen and a small group of bandits hit the village. The black haired young boy charged in head first finding a good high hiding place among the ruins and managed to cripple all the Zoids before stepping from his sniping spot, he deepened his voice and kept the video link off warning the bandits not to return or he would do worse than cripple the Zoids.
His mother and brother were proud that he'd fought off the bandits, the village elders on the other hand were under the impression that he'd just caused more problems than he'd solved. On Wolf's fourteenth birthday the bandits came back, he once again managed to fight them off on his own, this time damaging three of the four Zoids irreparably.
"Well done young man, you're a fine young pilot to take on so many Zoids on your own," one of the village elders said with a smile.
"I warned them last time that it would happen that way," Wolf said his eyes showing a deep red causing the elders to back away slightly, "And since I've fought them off a second time, I'm going to leave."
"You can't leave, you're the villages only protection," another of the elders said, "You have an obligation to your home young man."
"That's not what you said last time, last time you were ready to run me out of this village, now I'm leaving voluntarily and you're telling me I can't," the black haired young man shouted in disbelief, "I don't think you get it, I'm leaving, I'm taking Blaze and MY Konig with me end of story."
Wolf walked away from the elders and towards his home to pack a few things and say good bye to his family. Julie was not happy to let him go but her son barely spoke as he packed, even though Daniel was twelve years old he was trying his hardest not to cry as his older brother ran off into the sunset.
Wolf ran into the young black haired girl named Samantha on his way out of the village and said his good byes to her and asking that she look after Daniel since she and the blonde young man were apparently dating. She agreed and watched him run the Konig into the desert before turning around and running to the Novis house.
A week after leaving the village Wolf came across a bandit base and was invited to stay and train with them, the leaders name was Razor and his brother was Vailen. The young boy agreed quickly going against the many protests of his Organoid.
During Wolf's three years with the bandits he'd become one of the fastest and best pilots on the crew, outclassing most of the older pilots without help from Blaze. He also fell in love with a girl his age during the first few months, they spent every amount of time they could together after they started dating officially. Wolf had every intention of bringing her along when he left to join the military, but his mind was so fogged when he left that he'd left the young woman there.
Two weeks after leaving the bandit's behind Wolf and Blaze came up on Red River base, it was on high alert since he'd blazed a path through the field of defenses without a single scratch on him and without firing a single shot.
"What business do you have at Red River base?" the guard at the gate asked staring at the head of the large Konig Wolf.
"I just came from Fire Colony, I want to join up," the black haired young man replied without opening the canopy.
He was allowed passage to the main hanger where he was met with two armed guards to which he relinquished the pistol Razor gave him for two years on the crew and forty Zoids downed, he'd never shot anyone with it but his aim was just as solid with it as it was with the rifles on the back of the Konig. Blaze went to strike at one of them but Wolf called him off before he could get to the guard. They led him to the base commander, a tall blonde fellow named Rob Herman.
"Young man, why did you not answer our calls?" the tall blonde man asked standing behind his desk.
"My radio receiver was damaged during my journey, I never received any calls," Wolf lied as he simply stared right back at the man.
"What's your name son?" Herman asked with a smile.
"Wolf Novis sir," the black haired young man replied quickly.
"Well, consider yourself under my command until Headquarters has time to process your application and posts you where they see fit."
"Can I request that I be posted here sir? I'd like to be close to home as much as possible."
"I'll do what I can after seeing your skills. I would like to ask why you never fired a shot while coming through the minefield that is our defenses here."
"I also ran out of ammunition sir, a few bandits tried to swipe my Zoid with me in it on the way out here, never shot anyone before so I'm glad they didn't get the chance to open my canopy."
"I'd heard you handed over a pistol when you came in, I'll make sure that gets back to you," Herman asked with a chuckle, "I take we won't be hearing about that bandit group again?"
"Probably not sir," Wolf answered with a small smirk.
A month after joining the military Wolf was out on patrol wearing nothing more than his ID tags since HQ had yet to return any acknowledgement of his joining the Guardian Force. The black haired man spotted a familiar looking black and white Zaber Fang sitting just outside of the village. He made his way to the small town's hotel and just after checking in he ran into someone.
"Watch what…Wolf is that you?" a tall man with short blonde hair and green eyes asked.
"Razor, what are you doing here?"
"I came hunting for you, right after you left something happened, we'd better go sit down," Razor replied pulling the young man to a table in the corner, "Wolf, someone attacked the base, you'd been gone less than two hours, neither Vailen or I could find you after it happened, I was worried about you man."
"Is everyone okay? Are they with you? Did you bring her with you?" Wolf asked starting to panic.
"I'm sorry Wolf, not everyone made it out…" Razor paused to try and figure out how to word it without setting the younger man off, "Melody was hit by one of the beams that held the ceiling up, there was nothing we could have done, she didn't make it."
Razor noticed his friend's eyes beginning to turn red and he pulled the younger man out of the hotel in an attempt to get him away from other people since he'd seen this before. Once they were on the outskirts Razor released the black haired young man and took up a fighting stance to give him a target. Nothing happened, no explosion of anger, no attempt to attack him, Wolf simply turned around and walked back to his Konig tears falling freely from his eyes as he went.
Blaze piloted the Konig back to Red River, when they got there Wolf stayed in the cockpit and let himself fall into a pit of despair as he cried himself to sleep in the Konig's cockpit.
In this chapter you probably noticed a time gap between a couple of paragraphs. If you're interested, the whole story of those three years can be found in 'Wolf Novis: The Bandit Years.'