I'm posting the fic a little early this week in apology for being a little late last week.
Thank you to Randomcat23 for being the first reviewer this week yet again. 3 in a row isn't it? A new record lol. Thank you for your insight on my last chapter. I was always lead to believe that it was the norm for spontaneous kisses from romance novels I've studied. Love your advice though, it's what I need to learn!
To animeazngal: Has it become exciting already? Well I'm gonna try my best to make it more exciting ;D I've just completed my storyboard and know exactly where this story is going. If I pull it off right the most exciting parts are still to come!
To Tickleback: Yay for huge age-gaps! I knew I couldn't be the only one who loves them. And lol at "Karl's anal-ness" I was actually following a character guide created by the Colonel Karl Schubaltz Fans United Fanclub a few years back, we did one for the Major and the Colonel versions of Karl. On one of the Colonel pages were printed in bold letters WOULD NEVER OVERSLEEP. In fact the entire sheet was much dictating his spiralling loss of the spunky attitude he had when he was younger. It's been so long since I watched Zoids I had to assume that we knew what we were talking about. Lol I suppose he really does sound a bit like the Terminator. I'll keep your suggestion in mind and try to tone down the "anal-ness" for future chapters. 3
To Darkened-Storm: Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! It's awesome to see another Aussie who loves Karl! I'm so glad you like my fic! I'm doubly glad you're a stickler for Karl-in-characterness. I am one too. I hope if you ever find Karl OoC you'd shout your objections aloud.
To Levells: Haha you wouldn't believe I was ADHD by looking at my fic would you? And you don't read Karl fics often? Omg! That's such a huge compliment then! When a non-Karl fan would read a Karl fic! D=
ZOMG! Suddenly Reviewers! Everywhere! *pops the champagne*
I am so happy (T-T)
The title picture I drew for this fanfic is linked on my profile page. Please take a look for a visual on Ren and the Diablo Tiger.
Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids or any of the characters in relation.
Thanks to DuskStarDragon and Darkrad for Beta-ing my work.
Affinity
Chapter 7: Diablo
The sun had barely risen above the rooftops in the city of Guygalos when Serenity awoke. She had slept early the previous night, causing her to be refreshed long before her usual time of wakening. Lying in bed, she played back the previous night's events.
Her face flushed as she remembered his face, so close to her's...
With a groan she dragged herself out of the covers, she couldn't lie there anymore. She was too hungry.
Walking out to the bathroom with toothbrush in hand, Serenity was met with a closed door. Looking up she noticed steam leaking through the frame. It took a few seconds for her to register the implications. But when she finally put two and two together, the door swung open.
Out emerged Karl, shirtless, steam rising out of his skin. He was wearing a pair of grey trousers and was drying his hair with a white towel. He didn't notice Serenity...
But she noticed him...
He was built... and she was staring blatantly.
Finally, feeling her eyes bore into him, he turned. An awkward moment passed.
Serenity immediately looked away, sensing Karl's discomfort. Still, she couldn't resist sneaking in another peak.
Karl tried to shake off his embarrassment, "you're up early."
Serenity nodded, eyes straying to his chest.
"You know you're making me very uncomfortable..."
She immediately snapped out of her mesmerisation, and replied in a very self righteous way, "Well you're the one advertising!"
Karl was rather taken aback. Without another word he disappeared into his room and reappeared buttoning up his shirt.
Spoil sport. Serenity regretted her choice of words.
It came to Serenity's attention as they walked down the stairs, that Karl no longer used his walking stick for support. He had no gaiting limp, his form was perfect.
It almost seemed like he was never hurt at all.
However, his movements were so precise that she could tell it was all forced. That man could discipline his body to move so normally it was abnormal...
"Your leg?"
"Hmm?" Karl turned his head to glance at Serenity. He did not wear any distinguishable expression on his face.
"Is it healed? It doesn't hurt anymore does it?"
He paused, then admitted "It hurts, but I'll live."
Serenity cocked an eyebrow, "how badly?"
"Not very."
She nudged him gently in the leg and watched his face contort.
"You're such a liar..."
Karl stumbled to the bottom of the stairs and regained his composure.
"I wasn't lying; I was fine till you kicked me."
Serenity rolled her eyes and smiled, "riiight..."
She reached the bottom of the stairs where Karl stood waiting. She paused at the bottom step, with an almost suspicious gleam in her eye and a slightly guilty smile on her lips. Before Karl could move she closed the gap between them.
Her lips brushed against his.
He turned his head away before any more of such an action could occur.
With a sigh Serenity backed away, a little disappointed by Karl's response. He was the one who started this right?
"I didn't think you were the kind to kiss and run..." Serenity muttered in a mocking tone.
Karl kept his face turned, he could not bring himself to look her in the eyes.
"Were you just leading me on?"
He almost choked, and faced her with an expression of disbelief on his face. Him? A player?
Serenity noticed she had missed the mark and suppressed the edge in her voice, "well what is it then?"
Karl paused, carefully gauging up his answer. He did not want to hurt her, but nor could he let this situation go on.
"Ren..." Karl finally spoke, "you're a beautiful young lady with a good heart... you can have anyone else in the world-"
"But not you?"
"Be realistic, I'm eleven years older than you. That is an incredibly large age gap. As much as I hate to admit it I'm too old for you."
Serenity slowly digested this. She already knew there was a huge disparity in their age. She knew but she didn't care. It really shouldn't matter. She was eighteen, old enough to know what she wanted.
It really didn't matter if he was more than ten years older than her.
"So long as I don't mind it's alright...right?"
But Karl minded, he minded a lot. It was completely immoral and irresponsible, not to mention a million other things Karl couldn't yet think of.
"Eleven years... I was in the army before you even thought about going to school. It's not an ignorable difference."
"If you like me it doesn't matter!"
"But it does, I'll be old before you even become mature ... wait no ... I said that the wrong way!" Karl quickly corrected himself as Serenity immediately took offence.
"I'm eighteen! I'm an adult!" She shouted angrily at him.
"Yes but-"
"And I am legally an adult!"
"However-"
"I like you! It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, right?"
Karl was speechless, she just plain told him she liked him... His less disciplined part of him (a very small part) wondered what could be the harm of such a venture. But his stopped himself right there, she was young, she was too rash, she probably didn't know what she was talking herself into.
He shook his head slowly. "Serenity... it won't work, nobody will approve and I- ... I can't.."
"Nobody needs to know."
"Ren! You're eighteen, all I ask is think it over before you throw your life away."
"What about you Karl? You'll miss your boat soon."
This took Karl by surprise, up till now he had been focused on his career, he had not considered this. He got so caught up in his job, did not take any time to find anyone... He realised at some point he'd probably want a family; a wife to love and children to carry on the family name.
Now he has a chance for such a future... He couldn't take it.
It was immoral.
He turned around and headed for the door, there was nothing more to be said. They should get breakfast and use that time to cool their heads.
As Karl reached for the handle, it gave way under his fingers.
The door sprung open, he sidestepped it quickly. Any slower and he'd be ending up back in intensive care.
Thomas had burst in, looking stressed, he immediately strode into the hallway, doubling back when he realised Karl was right next to him.
He launched at his brother, "Karl! We have a situation! You have to return to base immediately!"
Upon catching sight of Serenity he paused, "... who is that...?"
Karl attempted to dodged the question, "What's the situation?"
"Karl! How old is she?"
"It's not what you think!"
"You can go to jail for this..."
"She's eighteen and what you're implying offends me!"
Thomas looked ludicrously at Karl, challenging him to explain.
"Look!" Karl growled frustrated and embarrassed, "Her name is Ren, she's the one that saved my life back then. And now she's the new tenant of our house!"
Thomas' eyebrows shot up into his fringe. The first thing Karl remembered of his ordeal was her... but if this is the case... that'd mean...
"Miss!" Thomas snapped back into formality, "We will require you to come with us."
Karl gave a bit of a start and snapped at him, "She doesn't! She has nothing to do with this!"
This offended both parties.
He had been worried that Thomas had drawn the connection between her and the mercenary group. He did not take time to consider his words before he threw them in his brother's face. It did not occur to him that Thomas had been completely off on another tangent or that Serenity would take offence to being excluded in such a fashion.
"Karl! What's with you?" Thomas exclaimed angrily, "You know I wouldn't drag a civilian into this unless I had to! This is important and if she was there with you she is required!"
"What for?" Karl bristled.
"That Tiger Zoid! We need to know everything we can! Since your memory is not reliable we'll need her help to fill in the gaps."
A hint of shock passed through Karl. That Zoid...
That demonic Zoid...
"Diablo Tiger?"
Karl turned his head in a start., How did Ren know?
"It was displayed on its console screen," She said sheepishly, a hint of fear in her voice. "I read it when I dumped you in the cockpit."`
That did it for Thomas.
"Right! No time to waste! Get into the car and tell me more about this. Karl, you'll be briefed on the situation when we arrive! Go!" And he ushered them out to the car, breakfast forgotten.
Thomas had driven them to the Guygalos Imperial army airstrip where two specially modified carrier Redlers stood waiting for them. After making last minute arrangements for an unexpected third passenger a third Redler was found along with a pilot.
Karl sat himself into the passenger seat of one of the Redlers, his mind was racing a mile a minute. That Zoid, what was happening? Why was Ren scared? He couldn't remember...
He could feel something was wrong, he felt apprehensive too. He was nervous... about what? He can't remember...
He closed his eyes and envisioned its demonic red eyes.
This wasn't fear he was feeling... this was... hope?
He looked out of the open cockpit at Ren, now climbing into the back seat of the third Redler. Something happened down there, and she knew, and it scared her. But what? Why can't he remember?
"All set Colonel?" A young pilot climbed in and saluted. Karl nodded and the young man settled himself into the front seat. He jabbed a button and the hatch closed.
The radio cleared them for takeoff and Karl settled himself comfortably for a moderately short flight.
About this Diablo Tiger, he'll know soon enough.
Soldiers saluted as Karl passed them.
He was back in uniform. His steel studded boots rang out in the echoing corridors as Karl strode to the conference room.
Thomas walked beside him with Serenity following behind them.
Two soldiers opened the conference door to admit them.
Serenity followed apprehensively into the large room. She nervously noted the enormity of the room.
The high ceilings gave the room the feel of a cavern, a feeling she's all too familiar with. In the centre of the room, stood a great table which set within it was an electronic map. Some important looking officers stood around it with grim expressions on their faces. Among those there were some younger people who didn't seem to fit into the picture. None of them were in uniform... one of them was a giant metal lizard...
This wasn't your average conference that's for sure.
Karl strode into the room confidently, saluting the officers before taking his place at the table. He glanced over at Van and his entourage and nodded a greeting. He had already changed into uniform, and for some odd reason, he looked a lot more intimidating than how Serenity remembered him. His face was set in a stony frown as he observed the map, trying to glen whatever information he could before the briefing. His recent "vacation" left him somewhat out of the loop, so to not look absolutely ignorant; Karl's mind was going over time, trying to resurrect any and all lingering memories of that incident.
"Colonel Schubaltz, good to see you alive and well." A blond republican officer greeted.
Karl snapped out of his brooding daze and greeted back, "Yes, good to see you too, Colonel Herman."
"I hear there was an attempt on your life..."
"Yes, it's all in the past now. We should get back to the current and more pressing matters."
Herman smiled in acknowledgement, and tapped the electronic map. An area immediately magnified to reveal an imperial base.
"This border base is Zephyr's Sand base, back in the war you imperialists captured this from us and we conceded it to you. But as most of us here would know, this is one of the few bases that the Guardian Force convenes on. Also the base that the arms talk was going to be held."
A majority nodded, only Serenity remained perplexed. She wasn't even quite sure why she was privy to such dangerously vital information.
Herman glanced up, "A week ago, this base was attacked."
This statement was directed more to Karl than anyone else, he had missed that meeting as well as being the only one there that was completely unaware of the situation.
"A while after the Guardian Force left in search for you."
"Then why are we just taking action?" Karl questioned sternly.
Herman frowned slightly. "With all due respect Colonel, but you had never warned us about how dangerous your new friend was, we had no idea of what it could have possibly been till Van drew the connection... and believe me that took a lot longer than it should have."
The ditz in question made a face but was quickly quietened down by the lady beside him, Fiona, whose expression at this moment was of worry and muffled confusion.
Karl frowned in thought, at this moment, he felt just as confused...
"How is it, if I may ask, that you know it's this Zoid in particular?" Karl ventured the question.
Van answered, "Well honestly nobody saw that zoid clearly, it attacked in the dead of the night, and all the reports via communications were panicked and rushed. At first we thought Raven was at it again... but then we were getting stagged reports about zoid attacks whereby a purple tiger zoid would completely destroyed zoids. A day after you were discharged from the clinic, we found the remains of your zoid in a depression in the sand. It didn't take a genius to figure it out."
Serenity's eyebrow twitched, they should have figured it out the moment they knew a "purple tiger" was involved.
Karl felt the same way but he did not let his thoughts show on his face.
Herman nodded, "And that's all we have now, Colonel... but I hear we have someone who might be able to shed some more light on the situation with us." He glanced over to Serenity. She immediately stiffened, having caught the attention of everyone in the room. Karl gave her a little nudge forward, she had previously been hiding behind him. She stood next to him, unsure of what to say, she glanced at Karl appealing for him to help.
He got the message.
"Ren, tell them, where we found that zoid. Then tell everything you remember about it."
She took a deep breath and nodded.
X marks the spot, Karl flicked his pen along a map. He was back in his office, mapping out the origin point of the zoid, and then in turn marking out all the points where attacks occurred. He leant back and sighed. It was fairly late, and he felt no desire to sleep. He was up to date now, and a plan had been thought up thanks to Ren's information about the emergency distress beacon.
But Karl couldn't shake the feeling; there was something more to it...
Why did that zoid carry him if it was such a fearsome enemy...?
He sighed further and took one more glance at the scribbles on the map and folded it up. There was nothing more he could do on this case, so he might as well move on. It was Van's job to destroy that tiger zoid, and he had no doubts the young man could handle it.
Karl took out a key and unlocked one of his drawers. In it was a stack of papers, none of which he gave a second glance. He wedged a section out of the base of the drawer and drew out a small black book. Half the book were tagged with multicoloured markers, it was evident it had been studied thoroughly.
The rest of his papers were still at home, Karl made a note to get Thomas to fetch them for him later, as well as his pot plant. He took out a notebook from the hidden compartment and opened his page to where a blue marker stuck out. The book was in Latin, a language that was almost completely lost on planet Zi. Only some linguistic scholars partook in the study of this otherwise redundant language. The Latin, as it turns out, was the easy to figure out part. Much of the translated Latin only contained lines of script that made no sense with numerical-letter codes printed beside each paragraph. Karl had not been able to decipher the whole thing, but he was slowly taking it apart. This was his research, and the thing he suspected had him marked for assassination. After all... his father died for the same thing. Karl grabbed a hand-written Latin dictionary out of the bottom draw, one he himself had written up as a youth.
Karl and Thomas had once been made to learn this dead language. Karl's understanding of the language had always been shaky at best. He never understood his father's desire to make them learn something so useless, that is, until the moment he first opened this journal.
He knew it was important, the day he set eyes on it. It had no title, no name, nor any form of identification. But the moment he saw what was inside, the writing... it was unmistakable. That was his father's writing. And the meaning was undeniable either. This book was left for him.
There had always been an element of mystery as to why his father had died. Karl's rank in the army allowed him to be privy to the fact that his father had been involved in the investigation of a rebellion plot and was killed for it.
But that was never the case.
The rebellion had been instigated years before the assassination. His information no longer held any weight... nor would revenge be well founded. They had long since taken a large chunk of imperial land and christened it a "Republic." They were had already succeeded in what they were trying to do, and revenge on an officer that was merely investigating them was a bit beyond his capability to consider.
And the other thing...
His father was killed by an Imperial assassin...
There was another reason his father had been killed.
And Karl had all the answers in his hands.
However, he discovered this purely by accident. He was originally assigned to investigate Prozen's Deathsaurer research facility, only to discover, that it was one of the original research facilities created by anti-imperialists before the separation of the Republic from the Empire. The less sinister ones were on what is now Republican territory, and were converted to zoid manufacturing factories after the split. The dangerous ones were those that lay in secret deep in Imperial territory... Just like a dozen others that his father had revealed. The ones discovered were either dismantled or converted to the Empire's own use.
But the one Prozen had not been one of those discovered.
It was from here Karl's investigation stemmed into the past, digging up old documents that had been over looked and discarded. And then this ... journal...
Handed to him by a friend of his father's, someone who had revealed that he too had had been participating in the investigation, but was never privy to his father's information. From him, Karl learnt many details of the case, including the nature of these research facilities, and the extensiveness of their reach. It was still unknown how many there actually were since when the Republicans detached from the empire, they abandoned and destroyed many that were at risk of being discovered, and took the ones that were on the land they occupied, however on that note they themselves could not locate every last facility, for not all of them were created with freedom in mind.
That was the main objective in this investigation, he was to discover any and all facilities and their principle of research so that they could not be used against the empire again.
And that is where the journal came in. A small black encrypted book that detailed his father's investigation... or Karl had thought. It took months before Karl could get a grasp upon the code, and even then it was a small portion. But what he learnt was startling. From this diary, in his father's own twisted and jumbled words, he admitted his own involvement in one of the facilities, participating in their project. The location was never mentioned, nor could Karl make sense of enough to get an understanding of why. He could only guess, his father had turned traitor and was duly put down.
Bitterly he acknowledged the irony. Being a man who did not dwell on the past, he delved into it quite diligently.
Karl leant back and sighed once more. He was beginning to get a headache, the journal evidently did not wish to be deciphered.
He absentmindedly flicked through the book. When a smudge of colour caught his eye.
A spot of red within the black text of writing and the tatty yellow of the pages.
A red page marker folded in on itself from another page.
Karl gently peeled it back, revealing what it had hidden.
He could only make out a few words
Empire... X...
Diablo.
Karl did a double take.
He wasn't imagining it. There was the word Diablo. Printed clear and plain in English.
In shock he translated as much of the text underneath it as possible.
May it never come to pass that they will walk freely upon Zi.
Karl could not help but draw parallels...
Diablo tiger... this... is...
Such an impossible coincidence.
Diablo tiger.
The demonic beast.
But such a coincidence...
But if it was true, then it held more importance to the Empire than anything he could ever have imagined.
He sat there, dumbfounded...
If this was the case, than a crucial piece of the puzzle was just unwittingly handed to him.
And Van was out there... hunting it...
He had no doubts the man could handle the job...
That's the problem.
A/N: Finally! The actual plotline begins! I apologise for how long it took me to finally start. That build up was waaaaay too longwinded.
Medical fact: You might be wondering how Karl is able to get around and about in just over a week's recovery time especially since after severing a vein in which case stitches would need about a fortnight to set the wound (Well one of my lecturers claimed it would need about a month, another said it'd be right as rain within a few days... so don't take my word on it) as well as muscular damage which would be really tender and fragile before full recovery. Well the thing is accelerated healing is observed within patients who are in comas. There was a case of a man who suffered burns to about 40% of his body and had to be put into a drug-induced coma to allow him to be better treated and to heal faster. The doctors had originally estimated it'd take him a month in this coma to recover, however within nine days he was well enough to be taken out of the coma and was up and walking about three days after that. This is however an example of a "beneficial coma" and not all comas are beneficial. Comas occurring from brain-damage such as "traumatic coma" (getting hit really hard) and "hypoxic coma" (loss of oxygen) are rarely beneficial comas. Even so, beneficial or not, all comas come with a price. The longer a person is in a coma, the longer they'll take to recover when they come out of it due to muscle deterioration and ulcerations (bedsores) leading to infection. If I were to classify Karl's coma it'd be Hypoxic, however not to the point of brain damage.
-Zoid Data-
This section was created to give readers some idea of the power comparison of each zoid mentioned in the fiction. After all, not everyone has the privilege of having an entire zoid encyclopaedia at one's beck and call.
Black Redler (aka Redler Interceptor)
Alliance: Imperial
Pilot: Unknown
Weight: 39.5t
Speed: Mach 3
Main Weaponry: (Power based on a point evaluation system)
Cannon - 90
Booster - +400 speed
Anchor Claw - 130 (Anti-air damage)
Armour defence: 25
Note: Seriously... why on earth was Van running in that episode Heroes of the Sky? These things couldn't hurt a fly. Plus if you factor in that they can reach speeds of Mach 3, which is 1020.87m/s. Further convert it to km/h and we get 3675km/h. Now consider the Blade Liger, its top speed is 305km/h. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but unless the boosters on the Blade Liger could accelerate it twelve times faster than its top speed, there's no way Van could have outran the Redlers.
Irritating convo-
Darkrad: Oh I see what you did there...
Me: What?
Darkrad: At the beginning of this chapter...
Me: What?
Darkrad: You know... the... you know...
Me: ... what?
Darkrad: ... *facepalm* Read the end of your last chapter... then read the beginning of this one.
Me: ... ok? *reads chap 6* hmmm... *reads chap 7* ... ... !
Darkrad: So... not on purpose?
Me: F-F-F-FREAKIN HELL! NOW I CAN'T UNSEE IT!