Officer Misako

Author's Notes: I made a slight mistake last chapter... I got the surnames the wrong way round. It's supposed to be Kayo Regalis and Kaede Maple, but it got mixed up. Also, there are some great movie references in this chapter, can you name all the movies?!
Also, thanks to Blade100 for his wonderful characters from 'A Rouge's Tale'!
(Note: Continues after chapter five of A Rogue's tale)
You should read his DF fanfic too. And now for my first disclaimer!
Disclaimer: I do not own Alexander or Kaiser, 'Mechquest' Alexander belongs to Blade100 and 'Mechquest' Kaiser belongs to Kaiser Alderman...

"Admina Strator!" Warlic roared as the blond girl winced, "How come Runehawk's stulos are still stuck in Pandora's Labyrinth?"Admina swept over touch-keyboards, glancing at the holographic screen. "I do not know; it shouldn't take them long!" Her voice started rising in a sudden panic. "Simulation's starting to collapse, sir!" Warlic was dazed. "It's impossible," he spoke as if in deep grief, "Runehawk lost its members, contact Jania, miss Admina."

"You called, Dean?" Jania responded; azure hair waving and her silent eyes accused the Dean.

Dean collapsed into a stiff wooden chair in his office, covering his face. "Jania please,"
Just then Jania frowned, was it just her or did Warlic seemed more depressed than usual?
It was then that she knew. Runehawk's students' dorms seemed strangely empty yesterday according to one of the teachers surveying them, but she had merely ruled out both procasination and sickness from her list.

"Wace! My stulos are stuck in Amina's maze of kelf?" Jania blazed with fury, pointing her shaking finger at poor Warlic who was shrunken with innate fear. "Get Them Out!" she roared, "or I'll never ever, ever forgive you, little snugglekin." Admina nodded, this was no laughing matter... But still quietly she chuckled at Warlic's shellshocked expression.

"Yes, dear Jania," replied Warlic as if he was stunned by a boulder, "I will ask every stulos in my University to attend assembly... Disregarding Runehawk, of course." he added after Jania was ferociously irate at his response. His deep voice was rather sloppy and lorn. "Sorry,"

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Warlic Blackmange." came Jania's biting comment back at the dean.
"I expect some either some brave or totally naive stulos to rescue my Runehawk house...!"

Warlic flinched, "Yes Jania, I shall announced this in my assembly, the atrious would listen."

"My dear fellow Stulos," Warlic began. Everyone attempted to listen, but were too bored.
"As you know, Gears and Mecha University prides itself on Mechanical excellence of the highest order. Due to some catrosphere, Pandora's virtual Labrinyth has been disclosed to the public, because of several... accidents." At this, he glared at Admina "Accidents, which were- unpreventable because of several unknown computer hackers." he repeated. "Yes."

"That's some speech, Warlic!" said Sys-Zero, the only one clapping with one hand. Jania didn't look too impressed with the Dean's performance. "The following Runehawk stulos were trapped in the maze, who also can't get out: Alexander Drufus, Kaiser Ottoman, Sally Coffronze, Olapen Jinitro and somehow..." Warlic paused. "some undistingushable name. Anyone foolish enough to enter the maze... will meet their DDOOOOOOOMMM!" Warlic finished rather lamely.

"We'll do it," volunteered Vixen as Misako tried to shush her loud friend. Unfortunately, the soundwaves carried out in the mostly empty hall and caught the Dean's alert attention.
"Well, well." grinned Warlic, "Soon to be Wolfblade warriors and rustic Runehawk stulos," Perfect and exceeellent!, I shall inform Admina of this unexpected development!

Warlic lead both Misako and Vixen to Runehawk's computer terminal. It was the weirdest thing ever seen. All around the terminal several stulos connected to wired goggles and body-suits which hummed, but that wasn't weird in itself. It was how they reacted while connected to terminal, some of them were screaming, others were twitching in agony and others were talking to a wall. "Ookay." Misako sweated, downright weird. Should belong to the Twilight Zone.

"My mind's purged over and over!" screeched Alexander Dufus, a Runehawk stulos.

"It's over 9,000." Sally Coffronze screamed in agony. "Make it stop! Coffee!"

"Leet, it created a monster!" shrieked Kaiser in pain, rocking backwards. "AAHH!"

"We're going to killed, aren't we?" gasped Devi blindly, attached to the terminal.

"Devi?!" Vixen froze in recognition, "You're not in Runehawk and Jania told us."

"Now you can see our problem," Warlic stated ironically calm, "can't get them out."

Vixen slid up to Dean Warlic, Misako did likewise - and Jania was confident that these two stulos would help Runehawk house regain its rank. Jania smirked victoriously and Vixen caught the expression on the Runehawk's face. It didn't seem to be a good-natured one.

"We'll do whatever it takes," the two girls yelled together in usion, "Just get our friends out!"
Jania rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Fine, if that's how desperate you all are, girls these days."
"We're not desperate little sods!" they protested, Jania grinned in delight at their anger...
Pressing a finger against their noses, she scolded them harshly.
"Then do it, rescue my stulos." the Runehawk house-leader shouted at the duo.
"You don't have to be soooo loud," Vixen shot back, really annoyed with Jania.

It was just as if ice-cold water was doused over them as the virtual maze built itself.

It felt like sea-spray to the face, Brr, cold! Misako could see foundations of the maze rising from the floor, neon blue walls constructing itself. There was tingling and a virtual replica of her gold Mecha popped out of nowhere, complete with wire connected.

"Well, doesn't look bad," Our heroine shouted emphatically to her best friend,
"Virtual reality sure rocks!" How this maze is considered hard for Runehawk, hah!

"Let's Tron!" yelled Vixen and her loud voice was unrestrained, "Yeeha! We're going to rock this joint like it's the year 3000!" The flame-haired girl clambered into her virtual mecha and started grooving away like one of those disco robot. "Look, I'm John Travolta from Terra!"

"Eh, Vixen." Misako pointed out as she sweatdropped, "It is the year 3000. Unless that was your attempt at humour? And who's John Travolta anyway?" Vixen laughed in glee. "Am you missing the point of my joke? That was sarcasm." Vixen started singing a gnarly pop song, which was pretty catchy as she lumbered towards a dead-end wall.
"Oh great," she grumbled.

Three hours later… They were still at it, racing through the maze at a top-notch speed, several times both Vixen and her friend got lost, so they had to retrace their steps. Surprisingly, the enemy mechas were totally low-levelled and easy to manage at first...

As they went along and between mecha battles, Vixen was telling Misako about the Greece mythologies of planet Terra, which they both enjoyed until Amina checked their progress and scolded both of them. "Vixen and Misako, have you forgotten your mission? Thanks to your laziness, the maze is even more corrupted by hackers than before and Runehawks are almost at their tether. So get a move on!"

"Battle on!" Misako cheered enthusticastically as they continued onwards... That is until she crashed into another neon-blue wall. "This is way too easy!" Her virtual mecha stamped on the broken remants of the Rifle-master, "I hadn't had this much fun since... well, since ever." she admitted as Vixen's image flashed onto the cockpit screen. Vixen looked really scared of something approaching her mecha from behind, seeing something that was beyond the camera. "What's wrong, Vixen?"

"Misako... You might want to consider running out of here." she panted really loudly, fog obsurinig the screen. Sliding back into the seat, Misako was confused, just what was that dark shadow from behind Vixen's mecha-camera... Well, whatever it was, it was extremely large and had... Silver horns of some kind. Gigantic copper horns at least a foot long that curved inwards. Plus steam poured out of its nostrils as it clenched a giant ray-gun. No fur in sight, only metal surface. "Vixen! Look out, it's a Minotaur!" she remembered that Greek myth.

"WACE?!" cried Vixen as the Minotaur robot roared and gorged its horns into the Mecha. It made a terrible screeching sound as the Minotaur-robot lifted up the whole thing like it was a toy, before tossing the virtual mecha into the air. To her shock, the creation had no trouble defending itself. The green mecha made a whistling sound as it collasped into a heap. Misako could have slapped herself, why couldn't she recognise the monstrous form earlier?!

"Shimei? Vixen, that thing hurt you pretty bad? Can you speak?" she asked, just then the whole green Mecha shuddered before it defragmented into tiny colourful bits of data. It flew towards the other side of the maze. "I'm alright," revealed Vixen a few minutes later, "But I'm back at the restart of the maze! AARRG. I have to go through it again to find Runehawk! Hey, there's a Runehawk stulos right here!" The human female remarked, "Kaiser!"

"I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared of the mecha!" revealed Kaiser, rocking back and 'fords.

"No time for talk," yelled Misako, "Oh shimei! It looks like this minotaur's going to blow! Yikes!"
"It missed me by this much!" An explosion boomed shortly afterwards. "I'm still alive!"
Immediately afterwards, some of the remaining robots on the field shuddered and exploded. Spraying virtual metal everywhere. "Talk about bad timing." screamed Vixen, "Misako!"

"It's like a minefield, Loritha help me!" Trying to dodge the explosions were more difficult than anyone could think, for starters one wrong slip or turn could potentially end the game. Leaping from ledge to ledge, it was a race against time and time was running out fast as more of them exploded.

Just then there was a blur as another robot crashed in front of the Mecha. Misako checked the stats gauge on the virtual screen as it lit up: "HP is 9, 000! No wonder Sally had so much trouble with this one! Strange, last time I checked the robot wasn't that difficult." she mused to herself in the cockpit. Glancing at the screen on the left, she noticed something strange and bizzare:

The robot shimmered incandencely, as if it was a holographic computer glitch or something similar. "Unless, this maze was hacked by someone who knew the internal coding of the V-R!" she realised, not realising that she spoke out loud, there was a loud snort as Vixen heard that comment.

"Duh, Mako gal, even I could have figured that out! And I'm no IPT technican." Kaiser pointed out, broadcasting now in Vixen's camera. "And did I mention you do look hot!" It was then that Misako promptly turned off the screen, to the annoyance of poor Kaiser. "Alvenos these days."

"Hey! Don't step on me!" cringed Alexander as a huge golden mecha-foot almost squished him. Hearing a loud shout, the girl craned her neck closer to the screen right next to the seat, it was a teenage boy with very messy looking hair and he was wearing a blue suit with fancy emblems.

Alexander breathed a sigh of relief, "Did I mention thank goodness you're here?!" He dusted his Runehawk uniform, bruises were apparent on his face and arms. He flinched as he leapt up,
"Hey, your mecha looks just like Misako's! How are you today?" he smiled affectionately.

"1. How did you know it was me? 2. How long were you Runehawks stuck in the maze?" Misako didn't feel like making idle chitchat, she was determined to get out of the virtual maze asap in at least two hours.

Alexander laughed, "It's not everyday you see a gold Mecha wearing a black cat-mask! You've gotta help us, we've been stuck here for 15 hours already! It's a firking nightmare I don't want to repeat ever again, please get us out of here! Misako, take my hand."
"What? Are you suggestive or something?" asked Misako, pretty annoyed with him.

"No, really, climb out of your Mecha for a minute, I want to show you where the stulos are." Alexander demanded. "I have bruises and cuts already and they sting a lot from the explosions."
"Okay, if you insist, but I'll rather prefer to stay in here. It's more feasible that way."
Alexander sighed in desperation, "Mako-kan, come on out!" he pleaded, "I want to see you."
Misako smiled in ingeniousity. "How 'bout this!" she realised, "You ride on my Mecha!"
Alexander looked like he was going to faint with joy. "Alright! Mako, you rule the cosmos!"

"I'm the king of the world!" Alexander hollered at the top of his lungs, "Wahoooooo!" He clung to the hard mecha as Misako directed the virtual Mecha through the maze. "There, there I see the Runehawks," he pointed out. "Hey Runehawk Alvenos and others! Look yon here!"

The group of Runehawks stulos were dusty, huddled together and raggedly. The various stulos looked up with tired eyes and slouched backs. They looked world-weary and pained with the virtual maze itself. "Hello," Misako stated, "What happened here?"
A tired looking stulos had a blank expression. "Well, which do you want to hear first?"

"So you're saying that one of the Runehawks are now missing, and that all your Mechas are broken by a strange looking person? Plus all of your mana are vanished now." Misako couldn't believe the tale, but she deduced it was somehow connected to all the SPD cases that happened over the past few months. "Olapen Jinitro, hmm...? I've heard of her." They nodded.

Great, ANOTHER missing person, exactly what I needed at the SPD office..
"We've been calling for her for the past hour. It's like she dissapated into air or something."
"That's impossible. For starters, this is a virtual game, everyone." Alexander snarkily said.
"Secondly, how can anyone from this plane of existance absorb everyone's mana?"
"Does THIS answer your question?!" said a familar male voice of a singer from a band.
The Runehawks stulos screamed in recognition at the figure, the glowing neon walls illuminated his human-like face. For the life of herself, Misako couldn't bring herself to recognise that person, she was too far away to see his full frontal face...
Suddenly, in less than a second, Alexander stood in front of the virtual Mecha.
"You can't get past me!" the Alvenos dared, the cyborg's face darkened in obscure anger.
"I'll be back, Alvenos." The male cyborg sang with pure rage, as instantly, his right hand transfomred into an instrument of pain. A dark realisation took place on Alexander's face.
"Oh yawa!" he swore as the cyborg pushed him aside roughly.

I should have ripped your arm when I got the chance," Kayo snarled inhumanly, with an iron-knife for a hand, he sliced through the virtual mecha like butter. All she could do was staring in terror at the humanoid machine dominating her vision. "Oeyken!"
Maid. She was his maid to toy with, and there was little any of the Runehawk could do. Is it?

"Leave her alone," boomed Alexander, "Our rescuer's innocent!" Kayo laughed wildly.

Immense confusion as Kayo smashed through her cockpit and grabbed the only arm holding control. Kaiser attempted to prise his grip, but Kayo tossed him aside.

Misako gritted her teeth in retaliation as he twisted it, mustn't scream, mustn't- She glimpse a steely cruel look in the cyborg's eyes, it was agony not to scream in V-R, much less remember that this was a simulation. Alas, that weakness. Is it possible to be killed in a simulation? Even if this isn't a real experience? But it feels SO real to me.

Suddenly Kayo jolted backwards, sensing her thoughts, "It isn't possible," he withdrew his arm, "Your will for life burns just like your own mana!" For some moments Misako saw humanity in his eyes, and felt hers widen. "You're- you're Kayo. The missing."

"Damn straight" Kayo used a Terra word as he reverted back to his steel voice.
"Misako, forsaken marked one, you realised that your tine will be up soon?"

"What are you talk-?" questioned Vixen, there was loud noise camouflaged his words.

BOOMCRASH! A section of the wall crumbled away as a dark-red mecha appeared.

"Hey, Runehawk Alvenos and Oeyken!" Devi waved as Kayo snarled and jumped away.

"Yay, Devi!" smiled Misako and Vixen, the rest of Runehawk were like 'Huh?'

"Who is this cool teen?" wondered Alexander, "Is he cool?" Kaiser stunned him.

"Did you come from Mystraven maze?" Devi nodded. "It's crushable, cheat to win!"

"What? Devi, so is this the answer to getting out of this maze?" Sally yelled.

"Yes, the firkin code is 0E5K4L3! Hurry," Devi urged. "Simulation's gonna crash."

"Wait for me," panted Vixen as she finally caught up with the others. "We don't wanna get trapped here! Do we, Kaiser?" she asked her occupant. Kaiser shook his head. Admina flashed on screen, "10, 9..."

"This is WOLFBLADE!" Misako yelled as huge heavy iron sword crashed into Kayo then twirled into her Mecha's hand. Kayo howled in apparent agony, clutching his arm. "Alright, every Runehawk stulos, grab onto the mecha! Go!" Devi's virtual had to grab onto the cord as well as Vixen's mecha. All of the Runehawks quickly grabbed on to the mecha...
"8, 7, 6, 5, 4..." continued Admina as though calmed down.

"This is insane!" screamed Alexander as his friend Kaiser held onto the giant Mecha. Then the string drew every stulos into fast-forward blur as the Mecha whizzed through to the maze's entrance. "WHEEE!" agreed Sally.

"3, 2, 1... Computer shutdown activated!!!" Immediately, the entire scenario shuddered and dissolved and there was darkness and the Runehawk stulos screeched in joy some more. The ride never seemed to end: MAZE COMPLETED. Finally a distant crash and everyone felt sea-spray on their face before waking up to their reality…

Misako removed her V-R head-gear immediately, still shivering from the sea-spray effect. Her arm ached dully as if it was twisted. This was one wild ride she wasn't likely to forget. Vixen breathed "Woah," and Devi shook his body like a Xuntolv.

"Welcome backs to our reality everyone!" Amina smiled, "The maze is complete!"

As soon as Alexander removed his VR goggles, he rolled his eyes and fainted. Likewise Kaiser and Sally did as well – CLONK! Loud thuds hit floor. "I'm sure they'll be okay," exclaimed Warlic, "Mana was completely drained, but Runehawk will survive, provided they rest." Alex started snoring in response to Warlic's comment…

"Warlic, while we were playing, we saw… Kayo." Vixen stated. Warlic was shocked.

"Kayo? Was he trapped in there?" he demanded at the stulos. "Where's Kaede?"

"You don't understand, Kayo's a cyborg and he's out to stalk us." Devi shivered.

"Don't think about such morbid stuff," snorted Warlic, "You're safe at Gears."

Meanwhile:

"I can't believe you didn't target that red-haired girl!" Kaede snarled as she withdrew her copper finger away from the computer terminal, ejecting the hacked data along with it.
"Don't blame me, blame my programming" Kayo protested, a resounding slap from Kaede.
"Listen, cyborgs. Don't take it too harshly," Therus stated as he youthfully smiled. "After all, they're running out of options. Oh, and I still require my daily Quo essence, heheeheee."

"Right away Marquis. That Runehawk stulos will do quite nicely." Harlin interjected as he dragged a familar looking stulos to the Marquis's side. "Just as you ordered, fair brother."