Author's Note: Summer is a wonderful thing and allows me to up date a little more regularly.

The Black Angel

Chapter 14

Breakout

Alex looked at herself in the mirror. Her brown hair was carefully pinned up. She wore a black halter-top that showed off the recent brand marking, as well as a tattoo of a black cat. Her dark washed jeans were tucked into her boots. Alexandria Claws looked like a member of the Dessert Panthers.

"Cat, lets go," Alex ordered as she pulled on a jean jacket.

Karl and Alex had spent the entire car ride arguing about the situation. According to him, there had to be a different, better way than asking Chaz to take over the Panthers. While she did not doubt that there were other options, Alex was concerned with timing. By the time the military had come to a decision, the problem could worsen.

Alex and Cat walked into a quiet computer room. There was only one man on post, and a well place punch sent him into unconsciousness. Alex logged onto the computer as Van, considering his password was the most obvious of the groups. From the computer, Alex was able to order a nearby sleeper zoid to attack the base.

She had carefully planned the tactic years in advance, incase she ever needed to flee from a base quickly. However, she knew Jon Kruger would never fall for it again.

As the base mobilized around her, against the attacking zoid, Alex was able to slip through the base generally unnoticed. At some point, she stripped out of her jacket, throwing it into a waste can. She made sure a surveillance camera got a clear view of the brand and tattoo, but not of her face.

Chaz sat awake in his cell, carefully watching the guard's face. He watched as it contorted with pain before he slumped gently to the ground.

"Little one, I'm impressed," Chaz said as he watched his sister ease the solider to the ground.

"Coming from you, that's a compliment," Alex said as she and Cat approached the cell. "I have a proposition for you. I'll get you out of here if you take control of the Panthers."

"What's the catch?" Chaz asked, sizing his little sister up.

Alex smiled. "You are going to have to obey Uncle and me. If you play the game, you are playing it our way."

"Sounds like fun," Chaz said with a shrug.

The young woman quickly produced the prison keys, curtsey of Ford, and let her brother out of the cell. Chaz lunged for Alex, pulling her into a bear hug. The young woman had barely avoided a heart attack with the gesture. The last time Chaz had lunged at her, it had been with a knife.

Cat led the pair towards the hanger. Anyone who was up was dealing with the attacking zoid. It left the hanger bare, and the choice of zoids minimal.

"I want that one," Chaz said, walking over to the newest edition of the lighting siax that the base had. Alex sighed, her original plan had included command wolves, but she didn't have time to argue. Plus the siaxes would get them away from the base faster.

Cat quietly merged with Alex's zoid, and the brother and sister quietly slipped out of the base. They would hopefully have a few hours before someone, mainly Kruger, figured out they were gone.

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Karl and Herman stood next to Kruger as he glared down at the remains of a sleeper zoid, which had called the three men from their respective beds. The men who had been stationed avoided the eye contact of their superiors, embarrassed by how long it had took them to take down the unmanned zoid.

"I thought all the sleeper zoids have been rounded up and deprogrammed?" Karl asked simply.

"Most of them have been," Herman responded. "Unfortunately we haven't accounted for every single one."

"Sir," a soldier said as he approached the group. "It seems like the zoid was being controlled from within the base. The computer was logged in as Lt. Flyheight."

"Does he have an alibi?" Kruger asked, out of habit and not from thinking the young warrior would do such a thing.

"Yes," the soldier said uncomfortably. "Fiona claims they were both in his room the entire night."

Herman snickered and Karl rolled his eyes.

"Chaz Claws is also missing," the soldier said quickly. All three men turned and stared at him.

"Go on," Kruger urged.

"The only person who has reported missing keys to the cells is Major Ford. However, he wasn't even in the base tonight. Some of the men took him out drinking because of…" the soldier glanced at Karl and decided to stop explaining why Ford needed a drink or two.

"Anything else?" Kruger asked, confident he knew who had caused all the commotion.

"We caught Alexandria Claws on camera. We didn't get her face, but we saw her tattoo and her organoid," the soldier said with confidence.

"Good work," Kruger congratulated. "You are dismissed."

The older man waited for the soldier to be out of earshot before he began to speak. "Who, in this base, is smart enough to know that we would never think Van would attack our base. Upset enough to set up Ford. Has dual personalities and clever enough to hide both?"

"Alex has out done herself," Herman said as he ruffled his hair.

Kruger nodded. "But why?"

Karl swallowed and turned to the two men. "We were going to tell you in the morning…."

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Chaz and Alex made it their destination, a small hide out that belonged to their Uncle. There, they set up cloaking devices and made sure that the siaxes wouldn't be found. Cat detangled herself from the zoid and rubbed against Alex.

"I get to keep it, right?" Chaz asked, with a smile on his face.

Alex shrugged. "I'm not going to be in a position to take it away from you."

Chaz's smile grew as the trio walked into the hideout. There was only a small group inside, huddled around Kyle as he explained the idea. The Lioness was there, in her normal get up, but hood pulled down. Alex approached the other woman.

"How'd you get him out?" the Lioness asked.

"It really wasn't that hard," Alex replied. "Where's Darren?"

The Lioness shrugged, her blonde hair falling into her face. "I don't know if he is mad about your new boyfriend or that his plans on taking over the Panthers is ruined, either way he wants nothing to do with us."

"I don't think he'll be able to be mad about Karl," Alex sighed. "He's not going to be happy when they find out what I did. I had promised I would wait till morning."

"But this way he can say he wasn't involved," the Lioness pointed out, as she wrapped an arm around Alex's shoulder for a slight hug.

Cat growled and the blonde woman releases Alex.

"Can we trust him?" one of the men asked Kyle as he finished summarizing the plan.

"I don't know," Kyle answered truthfully. "You have some comforting words for us Chaz?"

Chaz looked up from the corner he was tucked away in. Despite being one of the oldest children, he had never aspired on getting to the top the way his brothers and sisters had. He thought long and hard about what to say, not used to talking at meetings. "From what I understand is that you need me to give credit to this take over, and most of you are upset with the recent political play that has been going on in the organization."

Most of the men within the room nodded in agreement. Chaz turned to his sister who gave him thumbs up.

"I'll lead the Panthers," Chaz said. "Then I want to go away and never come back to the Republic or the Empire. Kyle can be leader then."

The men were dumbfounded by the answer. Alex and the Lioness cheered from their seats, laughing all the while.

"I don't think it will be that easy Chaz," Kyle sighed.

Chaz shrugged. "You're the smart one, make it work."

"We move out at dawn," Kyle said, with a shake of his head.

Alex sighed and headed outside, with Cat at her heels. She pulled out her pack of cigarettes and the lighter she had stealthily stolen from Karl. In between the arguing they had done last night, they had burned through about half a pack of cigarettes. She had managed to pocket the lighter during that time.

"Those aren't good for you," the Lioness commented as she and Chaz followed Alex outside.

"Don't care," Alex said in a muffled voice as she lit the white stick.

The Lioness shook her head, long blonde hair gently swaying. "Where did you pick up that habit? It's gross."

"Gimmie one," Chaz begged. Alex took out a cigarette for her brother and handed it and the lighter to him. Chaz lit the stick and sucked in the air quickly, before releasing the smoke. "I missed these in prison."

"Good, one of you have smokes," Kyle said as he joined the trio. Alex passed him a cigarette and Chaz passed him a lighter.

"Does your entire family smoke?" the Lioness asked, groaning more than speaking.

"Everyone except our father," Alex responded.

"Of course, the most feared bandit on the continent would be the only member of your family who doesn't smoke," the Lioness said, with a roll of her eyes. "Who would have ever guessed that?"

"He got lung cancer," Chaz explained. "Come to think of it, that's when this whole mess began."

The Lioness stared at the brothers and sister dumbfounded. She shook her head and pulled her hood up, as the group noticed a set of zoids coming their way. Alex laughed, as she looked down at her watch. "They're late."

"How'd they find us?" Kyle asked, concerned as the three zoids came closer.

"My guess is the tracking devices on the zoids that Chaz and I stole," Alex responded.

"But you said I could keep it," Chaz said with puppy dog eyes. "I like my new zoid."

Alex took in a breath of cigarette and released the smoke before responding. "I said I wouldn't be in a position to take it from you, they will be."

The group watched as the Guardian Force arrived, and jumped down from their zoids.

"Hey it's Irvine!" Kyle said, reaching his hand out to shake Irvine's.

The Lioness, through the shadows of her hood, looked Thomas up and down before turning to Alex. "If you get a green eyed boy, I want this one."

Alex carefully watched as her two worlds met, before taking in another drag of smoke.