Here we are at Chapter 27. Let's see if the gang can make any progress on their mission to stop Nexus. I do not own Zoids. They belong to their respective owners. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 27. Enjoy.
Chapter 27: Kuze Town
It takes the gang a few more days before they finally reach their destination, Kuze Town. During those few days, they get a few more reports of zoid groups being attacked and most or all of their members being killed. Only this time, the groups that are attacked are bandits and thugs rather than official zoid teams. Guess Nexus doesn't discriminate when it comes to attacking zoid pilots. When they reach the town, they park their Hover Cargo outside the town limits since there is no zoid institute here. The town is small, the kind you'd find in old movies, but it's alive for the most part.
"So, this is Kuze Town, home to the guy that has been trying to kill us for weeks," Colt mutters.
"Enough, we need to focus. Let's find anyone who may have known Hunter's family," Sarah says.
The group walk through town, and decide to split up to cover more ground. Since he's the only one of legal age, Sky checks out the local pub with Rickie to check for information, while Grace and Sarah go another way, leaving Colt all by himself. Sarah and Grace head to one place where they wouldn't really find anything, but Sarah wanted to go there anyway. The town's local cemetery. There, they find a few rows of gravestones with names etched into them. A few other people are here, paying their respects to lost loved ones. Sarah and Grace look through the names until they find what they're looking for. Three graves, with one of them having the name of Hunter Krato, while the other two had his parents' names, Brian and Rebecca Krato.
"The report said that the parents were killed, but they never found his body. I guess after a while, people just decided that he was dead too," Grace says.
Sarah just kneels down, staring at the stone, until...
"Come to pay your respects?" they hear and turn to find a middle-aged man wearing a brown jacket, a dirty cap, gray pants, and a black shirt underneath. "I don't recall seeing two young ladies like yourselves being from around here," the man says.
"Yeah, we're not from around here. We're sort of passing through, though we were planning on staying at least a day or two. I'm Grace and this is Sarah," Grace says, with Sarah waving to the man.
"You can call me Patrick," Patrick says, walking up to look at the graves they were staring at. "It's a damn shame. They were good folks. Heck, Brian and me knew each other since we were your age. I gotta ask, why are you here at their graves?" Patrick asks.
"Well, I like to read a lot, and I found this old article about them. It reminded me of my own parents from a long time ago, and I got a little curious. I was hoping to learn more about them," Sarah says, the mentioning of her parents gaining Grace's attention.
"Hmm, I see. Sorry about the questioning. Come with me. I'll tell you about them," Patrick says and walks away with them following.
"You never told me your parents were dead," Grace whispers to Sarah.
"Well, my dad died a few years ago. My mom died shortly after I was born after she got sick. It was a long time ago. I'm okay, Grace," Sarah whispers back.
Grace stops for a second watching her leader walk ahead before catching up to join her.
…
Sky and Rickie leave a pub, with Rickie looking a little grumpy.
"I can't believe they thought I was your son. We look nothing alike, and the last time I checked, I was the better-looking brother," Rickie complains.
"Get over it," Sky says as he walks away.
Rickie catches up, "So what now? We didn't get much from that place aside from baseless rumors and ghost stories," he notes.
"Keep searching," Sky replies.
"You know, one of these days, we gotta get you to speak more than ten syllables," he mutters, earning a slap to the back of the head. "Ow!"
…
Sarah and Grace are with Patrick at a small café, each of them sitting at a table with some drinks.
"So, you knew the family?" Sarah asks, sipping her tea.
"Yep, me and Brian had been friends for a long time. We dealt in the merchant business together. I was surprised to hear that he met someone, even more so when they had a kid. Then I met their baby boy, Hunter. That kid was always all over the place, so full of energy," Patrick thinks back on the good old days.
"Um, if you don't mind me asking, Patrick, what exactly happened to them?" Grace asks.
The smile leaves Patrick's face as he stares at his cup of coffee, "I honestly wish I knew. They were planning on taking a little vacation to the northern coast. The weather up there is always nice. On the day they left for the trip, I saw an explosion go off in the distance. Me and some of the guys went to go help, but found only a destroyed vehicle... Brian and Rebecca dead... and Hunter missing. We conducted search parties, looked for days across miles for the kid, but we couldn't find any trace of him. Eventually, the searches were called off and he was declared deceased as well. We gave them all burials. Still, there are times when I wonder what happened to the kid," Patrick explains.
"Was there anything that happened before they left for their vacation, anything that seemed off to you?" Sarah asks.
The man remains silent for a moment, "Well, there was one thing that was a bit off... I remember a few days before they went for their vacation that we saw a black Redler zoid flying low over the town," Patrick says.
"Wait, a black Redler?" Grace asks.
"Yeah, it zoomed by pretty close to the rooftops, but then it went up and started flying in circles above the town, like a bird that was searching for something. Everyone in town was first angry at the thing causing so much commotion, but then they started getting worried that it might have been part of a bandit group coming to attack, though the attack never came," Patrick says.
"Anything else that you can remember?" Sarah asks.
"No, nothing else really comes to mind. I always wondered if the two were related, but we never saw the Redler on the day of the explosion, nor have we seen it since. Never saw the pilot and it never landed near town, so nobody knows who piloted it," Patrick explains.
"I see. I'm sorry about all that. Thank you for the tea and for what you told us, but we'd better get going now. It was nice meeting you," Sarah says as she stands up, leaving some money on the table for the drinks.
"Are you sure?" Patrick asks.
"Yes, we weren't planning on staying long. Like I said before, we were just passing through," Sarah says as she and Grace leave.
"You intent on looking for that black Redler?" Patrick asks. Sarah stops for a second without looking back, but then continues on her way. Patrick sighs, "I thought so," he mutters.
The two girls walk through town, looking for the others.
"What's on your mind?" Grace asks.
"I'll explain once we've met up with the others. Let's head back to the Hover Cargo," Sarah says, a serious look in her eye.
…
Later in the day, the team regroup in the Hover Cargo in the recreational room, sitting on the couches to discuss what they learned.
"A black Redler, huh?" Colt notes, a hand to his chin in thought.
"It was Nexus that must've attacked Hunter's family and took him in the chaos. It makes sense. All of their zoids have always had a black color scheme aside from the Geno Scissors. And it would explain how Hunter ended up working for them if he's being forced to fight," Sarah explains.
"Okay, but why go after some random kid in the middle of nowhere?" Rickie asks.
"The Z-link system," Sky answers.
"Exactly. We learned that the Z-link system can only work with people who are compatible with the system. The Geno Scissors had the same system like Geno, and if they could successfully use it, it means that Hunter was compatible to it, like me," Sarah says.
"So, what, they have a way of figuring out if someone is compatible or not?" Grace asks.
"Or, they don't and were just targeting people at random until they found someone they could use," Colt theorizes.
"What do you mean?" Sarah asks.
"Well, I did some digging while you guys were off doing your own thing, and I found out that during that same year and the years before that Hunter was kidnapped, a large number of people went missing in other towns across the eastern hemisphere of the continent, and so far none of them have been found," Colt says.
"You don't think..." Rickie trails off.
"Nexus kidnapped them and used them as tests subjects until they found a suitable pilot for the Geno Scissors," Grace says.
"And they were probably also the ones responsible for what happened to Geno. It would explain why they were so interested in him," Sarah adds.
"What do you think happened to the other people they kidnapped?" Rickie asks.
"Honestly... nothing good. There's a good chance they'll never be found," Colt mutters sorrowfully.
"Okay, but how are they forcing Hunter to fight? His family is gone, so that card is out. Mind control, maybe?" Grace asks.
"Possibly. We have no idea what Nexus is capable, and we've seen quite a bit of what they can do, and what they WILL do to win," Colt replies.
"Or tortured him," Sky adds.
"Can we not forget that we're talking about the guy that killed Geno once and nearly put you six feet under?" Grace asks, pointing at Sarah.
"No one here has forgotten that fact, Grace, but we got to remember that Hunter is the one that informed us about the spy in the ZBC, which also explains how they've been able to track us throughout our journey and attack when we least expect it," Sarah replies.
"Which reminds me, again, do we have any idea who it could be?" Rickie asks.
"So far, I still have no clue who it could be. Again, most people in the ZBC don't know about our operation, so not many people to go through, but we still have no proof," Colt explains.
"You think it could be any of those former Backdraft Group guys?" Rickie asks.
"Hardly. They all left the Backdraft Group of their own accord. Why leave one crime group just to join another and be right back where they started? And even as much as I hate to admit it, the witch wouldn't want Vega involved with a group as bloodthirsty as Nexus, so they're out," Colt says.
"Okay, but then who does that leave us with again?" Grace asks.
"The ZBC chief, which is impossible, Lt. Roderick, though I don't think so. Those two have been in ZBC long before I got involved, and a few other high-ranking officials. Give me some more time to do some more digging, and I might have an answer," Colt says.
"Okay, so what should we do now?" Rickie asks.
"We got what we came for here, but honestly, I don't know where to go from here. I'm sure we'll have another zoid battle soon, but what then?" Sarah says.
Colt sighs, "You know, I'm starting to get tired of always playing on defense here with these guys. It would be nice if we could make an attack of our own on these guys. Maybe get the jump on them for once," he notes.
Everyone grows silent from then on.
"Okay, guys, there's no use fretting over it for now. Let's get something to eat, get some rest, and get a fresh start in the morning. Come up with some ideas then, okay?" Sarah suggests.
They all nod in agreement and decide to relax for the time being. After having something to eat, they returned to the Hover Cargo and called it a night.
…
Deep in her dreams, Sarah opens her eyes to find herself in some kind of factory, with machines running automatically. She looks around, finding various zoids being made around her.
"Another one of Geno's memories," Sarah mutters.
The scene changes again, showing a large number of black Rev Raptors all lined up like soldiers preparing to march for battle. Sarah can feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up in worry at the scene before the scene changes again, this time with her outside the factory, finding it deep within a mountain range that she does not recognize. She then gets another image, this time of the original Geno Ritter as various machines work on its armor and weapons. It's body looked old and somewhat damaged.
"Was this... the place where Geno was born? No, more like where it was reborn after they found him," Sarah mutters again.
…
Sarah wakes up again, only this time she's not breaking out in a cold sweat and out of breath.
Sarah raises a hand to her head, "Another clue. Another lead from Geno..."
When the morning came, the group are in the kitchen area, having breakfast when Sarah tells them about her dream.
"So, another secret base of Nexus huh? That sounds promising, however, did your dream give you any indication about where this factory is?" Colt asks.
"Unfortunately, no. All I got were images of a mountain range, which included two twin peaks towering above the rest, but that's all," Sarah shakes her head.
"Great, so now what do we do?" Rickie asks.
"Find the twin peaks," Sky replies.
"Sky's right. The last time Sarah had a dream like this, we found an old abandoned factory that was apparently operated by Nexus, and it was there that we learned more about Geno and the Z-link system. If we can find those peaks, we'll find the base and uncover more of Nexus' secrets," Grace says.
"Okay, but where do we start?" Colt asks.
"I don't-," Sarah begins before a screen on the kitchen wall comes on, showing an old jeep approaching the Hover Cargo.
"Who's that?" Colt asks.
Sarah and Grace notice the old cap on a man's head, "It's Patrick. We talked to him yesterday. He's the guy that told us about the attack on Hunter's family," Sarah says.
"What does he want?" Grace wonders.
The group head outside just as Patrick's ride stops next to their transport. Patrick practically jumps out of his vehicle and runs to them, hunching over to catch his breath for a moment.
"Patrick? What's going on?" Sarah asks.
"I wanted to catch you guys... before you left... I remembered something else about that black Redler from that one time," Patrick says.
"What is it?" Grace asks.
"I remember that after it flew in circles over the town, it then changed course and went southwest from the town. It kept going that way until we could no longer see it," Patrick answers.
The group look in the direction he indicated, "What's southwest of here?" Colt asks.
"Nothing much except for more desert and some mountains around thirty miles from here. That's about it," Patrick replies.
The mention of the mountains and the direction that the Redler went quickly gets the team's attention. They thank Patrick for the info and get moving towards those mountains. While there is no guarantee that they'll find what they're looking for, it's the best lead they got right now, and Sarah's dreams haven't failed them yet.
"So, what's the worst we can expect from this place?" Rickie asks.
"Well, from the dream, there looks to be a lot of Rev Raptors there. There could be other zoids in the vicinity as well. It looked like a factory for making and outfitting zoids," Sarah replies.
"You think that Hunter guy will be there?" Grace asks.
"I don't know, but it would be better to assume he is and not find him than the other way around. I think it's time we take the fight to them now, rather than wait for them to come to us," Sarah replies.
"Okay, but what exactly are we looking for there? Aside from kicking more Nexus butt, I mean?" Rickie asks.
"Anything that could point us to their spy, maybe their base, or what their next move is. At the very least, we can take out some of their forces and stop another one of their attacks. If we don't so something quick, more lives will be lost," Sarah says.
"Shouldn't we inform the ZBC about this?" Grace asks.
"Probably not the best idea with the spy looming around. We'll tell them AFTER we take out the base," Colt says.
"You think they'll get mad about that?" Sarah asks.
Colt shrugs his shoulders, "Probably. But, I've been chewed out before. It won't make much difference to me," he says, making some of the chuckle a bit.
The group continue on their way then towards their next destination.
And that's the chapter. I know it's a little short, but I felt that this was a good stopping point for this chapter, so there's that. Sarah and her team head to a possible Nexus base to go on the offense this time, but what will they find when they reach their destination? What else does the Nexus have planned for their team and for Hunter Krato? Until then, Please Read and Review.