I groaned as I hit the alarmed next to my bed and got up, my head all foggy. Yawning I walked to the bathroom to shower. I was barely awake and when I looked in the mirror I recoiled instantly, fully awake. It was me, but I looked half human half shield liger. I looked at my own hands which looked normal, but in the mirror they looked they looked like some combination of a liger's paw and a human hand, only on my right wrist the triple barreled shock cannon was attached to it. My body was a mix of darkened human skin and black liger armor. I still had my human face but it was covered by a semi-transparent orange face mask that was part of some liger head shaped helmet. I was scared to see what my legs looked like in this mirror but curiosity got the better of me and I brought the mirror to an angle where I could see my legs and they looked a lot like my arms, minus the weapon attached to it. I also noticed the shield liger tail just hanging behind me.

Suddenly I realized I was dreaming. With a sigh, I put the mirror back where it belonged and slumped against the wall. I was my normal self when I didn't look in the mirror and that was some comfort. I decided to take advantage of the false reality I was in and pretended to that being a shield liger was just a dream.

After a hot shower and breakfast, I went out to see the fake world I was in. It was exactly like the town I lived in, complete with the people who lived there. But there were also new faces I didn't recognize. I just wandered aimlessly really, stopping only to grab lunch at a local diner, where I confirmed this was a dream. The food was never this good in real life.

I got the idea that maybe I can use this dream world to find a hiding place in town. Now instead of aimlessly wandering, I wandered around town to find a spot where I can hide out. It felt like hours before I found a spot that was perfect. It was an old warehouse on the edge of town that had been abandoned years ago. I went back home as it was getting dark and went straight to bed.

As soon as I passed out in the dream world I woke up in the real one. Not much time actually passed in the real world, according to my on-board clock only an hour or so. It was still dark so I ran as fast as I could towards town, praying the military didn't cut off the entire area.

Entering town was easy as no one was awake but there were military patrols I somehow dodged. As I made my way around the edge of town I kept my IR online at all times, seeing the people in their homes or stores opening things up as dawn approached. When I got to the warehouse I noticed one very important detail I neglected when deciding this location.

The door was closed, and I have no idea how to open it when I'm in this body without damaging it. I glanced around to see if anyone was nearby then bent over try to use the tip of my fangs push the door to the side. I was only semi-successful and had to use my paw to push the doors all the way open for me to enter. I then tried to close it and had more success. Happy with my accomplishment I glanced around the warehouse. To my great surprise, and confusion, it was filled to the brim with zoids memorabilia. Dozens of model zoids lined shelves along the walls in front of their boxes as what could only be every single zoid-themed poster ever made lined the walls.

The creepiest thing was a life sized model of a shield liger staring right at me. I decided that this warehouse was not the one for me as obviously someone was using it. Not to mention all of the zoids stuff was creepy. Unfortunately, I sensed a car driving up the street.

And the driver was getting out of the vehicle.

And was walking towards the human-sized door.

My day just keeps getting better and better.

As the door opened a girl walked through carrying a box of parts. She was on her phone and didn't notice me until she had shut the door behind her, and spent a full five minutes talking to someone as she dug through her box.

She dropped both her phone and her box on the floor when she saw me. The silence was awkward. She made the first move when she walked up and touched me, probably to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. I recoiled instinctively and she jumped back with a yelp. I was desperate not to have to run away so I locked onto her phone and called it. She picked it up. "H-hello?"

"Please, please, please don't freak out."

"Wait…" She looked up to me and widened her eyes. "YOU are the one calling me?"

"Yes, and please don't tell anyone I'm here."

"Are you kidding!? People need to see you, you're the greatest thing since… ever!"

"Yes, and the military is after me."

"Oh…"

"And so are the people who made me."

"Wait, the people who made you? Meaning there's more zoids out there?" She sounded excited at that prospect.

"Yes, but right now they're in the hands of people who shoot down US jet fighters."

"Oh… Uh… sorry."

"Just… don't tell anyone I'm here and… I'll give you ride." That got her ecstatic and she nodded vigorously. I sighed in relief and the lied down. I also briefly looked through her phone in the seconds it took for her to finish nodding. Kinzoku Varan, a local mechanic in the garage. "Listen… I need a favor."

"Sure, anything, name it."

"I need repairs. My shield generator isn't fully functional as it was damaged in a... fight."

"I'd love to help, but I don't know the first thing about shield generators."

I paused, thinking for a moment before bringing up specifications of my generator and sending it to her phone as well as the current problem with my generator. "I just sent the specifications for my generator to your phone. Do you think you can handle it?" She studied her phone for several minutes before nodding.

"I think so, but it's gonna take some doing but I think I can jury-rig something. Oh, I'm Kinzoku, Kinzoku Varan."

"I'm… Shadow." I only said that because of something I read while I was in Yankee Base. I made a mental note to look it up later. "It's nice to meet you Kinzoku."

"You too. This is awesome!" She hung up and began digging through the box of parts. I didn't know how car parts were going to help me but she was the expert in mechanical stuff. Once again I passed the time by going through my systems, trying to unlock what I couldn't access and running simulations to hone my skills. All the while I kept an eye on my sensors to make sure no one was coming. But unless the military was arming birds with spy cameras nothing came.

I also listened in on all the radio frequencies in the area to see if anything about zoids was on the air. I picked up military chatter about encountering godos patrols in the forest near town there was nothing. The only thing I considered bad news to me was the fact that the air force was calling in the army to help deal with the mystery group in the mountains. Although it seems that Bishop wasn't willing to waste resources hunting me down as I didn't hear anything on any channel about a search party.

"Hey Shadow?" I came out of my little 'surveillance trance' and paid attention to Kinzoku. "I got the rig set up. I just need you to lift your head so I can access the damaged generator." I lifted my head and unfolded the generator. I felt as Kinzoku poked around there and installed the new part. After it was installed she got out of the way so I could test it. It came on at full power and Kinzoku squealed with joy.

With a chuckle I shut down my shield. Not to long after I heard explosions in the distance. Kinzoku did as well. She rushed to the warehouse door and pulled it open. Columns of smoke came up from the town as I picked up chatter from the military about one of their tank brigades running into what seemed to be a molga unit from the way they described them. The fighting seemed evenly matched from the chatter I was picking up.

Kinzoku looked at me with pleading eyes. I lied down and opened up my cockpit, surprising her. She looked over me one more time and climbed in, strapping herself in. I let out a roar and she squealed in delight. I ran into the town and saw a number of tanks in a defensive formation around the town firing on molgas who were crawling towards town, firing back at the tanks. The tanks even though they appeared to have the better firepower and armor were simply outnumbered and were losing ground.

I leaped over the line of tanks firing my shock cannon at the molgas, blasting them to pieces. They quickly focused their fire on me so I turned on my shield and rammed into them. The tanks used this to their advantage and concentrated their fires on the molgas that were either picking themselves back up from me ramming them to the side. The remaining molgas were trying regroup but by now the air force was coming in with jets bombing the enemy while attack helicopters supported the tanks. The combined force of myself and the military managed to drive the hostile zoids back.

After the last molga was driven away I looked back to the military who began to surround me, with Kinzoku inside of me. I opened up a text window in the cockpit. "Whatever you do, don't panic. I'll get you out of this."

"How?"

"Watch."