A Second Chance

Chapter 1: Re-Awakening

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" A tall form asked from the shadows of the doorway to Khoal's laboratory, his voice carried a deep resonating tone. "Was he not dangerous enough in the past? What do you suppose he will do here and now in the present or in the future for that matter?"

"You worry to much, Guri," Khoal replied from her spot by the table, that had been rotated to what would be a standing position with a form strapped down securely so not to fall off. The form looked much like that of the mangled robot that Khoal's twin had been working on down the hall, now that it had been covered in armor. Truth be known he was still working on it, as the damaged areas were becoming harder and harder to repair.

The form strapped to the table appeared as if it were sleeping, the new armor that had been placed upon his body shined glossy black. Several tubes that looked much like IVs ran in and out of his right arm. He looked much like the Reploids that were now so common to see in this day and age, but in fact he was so much more.

System coming online, read the computer screen, all systems green, ready to start final countdown in 5…4…3…2…1…system is now fully operational.

She waited and the seconds seemed to crawl by like hours, there was no movement. Had she done something wrong? But what, what had gone wrong? Khoal was just about ready to panic all that hard work for the system not to work.

Then there was a flutter of heavy lids before they slid open to reveal crimson orbs. Slowly he turned his helmeted head of black and tarnished gold from side to side, as he tried to get his eyes to focus. "Wh…where…am…I?" came a rasped question from his lips. "H…how…"

"Easy," Khoal said softly as she walked around to stand before him. She reached out a hand to touch a finger to his lips, silencing him.

"I know that your going to have a lot of questions but please try to relax, you've just been revived," she explained the best she could at the moment. "I'm going to release the bindings so that you can move about. It will be good for you to do, to make sure that your system is running smoothly."

The eyes of the figure standing in the door narrowed slightly. Guri did not like the idea that she was going to let this one walk about the complex given what is know about what his previous incarnation had done. A long tasseled tail twitched behind him, showing his disposition about Khoal's choice to re-awaken him.

"Are you sure that it is safe?" He called from his place by the door. He was no longer going to leave, just in case something might happen.

"Guri, I know what I am doing," she responded coolly as she removed the tubes from his arm before she started to remove the straps one by one.

The figure on the table just watched Khoal work, what else could he do? He was confused, so thoroughly confused. What has happened to me, he thought, where am I? What am I doing here? So many questions plagued his mind. Once the last strap had been removed he took a tentative step down. His metal encased foot landed with a resounding clang as he stumbled slightly.

Khoal moved forward a few paces to catch the stumbling form. "You may find yourself to be a little weak and unsteady for a couple of days. Think of it as waking up after a long sleep and needing a recharge," she tells the dark armored figure.

"I guess… that you could… say that," he responded to Khoal as he leaned on her a bit as he tried to regain his balance and center of gravity. His sentences started to flow smoother and smoother from his lips.

"Thank you," he added simply as he straightened up and looked about the room again, his eyes came to rest on Guri's shadowed form in the doorway. "Who is that?"

Guri frowned, when he found himself being watched ears flattened a bit tighter against his skull for just a moment. His tail twitched more spastically as his irritation grew. He in truth didn't know why he was bothered by this new addition to the team, he just was.

"That would be Guri," Khoal said in answer to the question looking over at the shadowy form. "Why don't you come in and introduce yourself," she said with a smile.

Guri rolled his eyes and gave his head a soft shake before entering the room. Guri was huge, standing well over six and a half-foot tall. A soft resonating clang sounded with each footstep as the Leonid entered the room. He was a unique Bioroid, for his form was that of a bipedal lion. His body color was a rusty red coloration with a black mane and tassel. Slited eyes of amber traveled up and down the newly awakened Bioroid before him. He stood there arms crossed about his chest, he was dressed in a pair of heavy pants and a loose shirt, armor was not needed when he was not on duty, though at the moment he wished he was wearing it.

"Forte, I'd like you to meet Guri," she said to the black armored Bioroid, as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Guri, this is Forte."

Forte held a hand out to Guri, in which the Leonid looked at his hand for a few moments before he reached out and took it in one of his own. "Nice to meet you…" Forte said, as he gave Guri's hand a shake, not sure of what to say or do for that matter.

"Yes," Guri responded evenly.

"Guri," Khoal said with a light laugh, "be nice."

The Leonid set out a soft sigh as he was chastised before he added, "I hope that you will find this place a great source of learning." He then reclaimed his hand and turned to leave the room.

"Guri, before you leave, have you seen Draka?" Khoal asked as she watched the exchange between the Leonid and the Bioroid.

Guri paused in his motion towards the door and looked over his shoulder. "I believe that she is still out on assignment," was all he said before he headed out the door.

Forte stood there not sure what to think, he raised a hand to his head, rubbing it with his two for fingers. "Did I do something wrong," he said all of a sudden.

"No, of course not," Khoal responded softly as she took Forte by the arm and started to lead him out of the room. "Guri is just…temperamental… at times. That and sometimes it takes him a while to get used to new people."

Both of her statements were true, but what Khoal lacked to add is that Guri didn't trust Forte one bit. She figured that at this point in time she was not going to worry about it, unless Guri said something that was far too inappropriate then what he should.

"Come on," Khoal said with a smile, "I'll show you around," she added as they left the room.

"Ok," Forte said with a light sigh, what else was he to do? He was in a strange place, where he had no idea what was going on, so he just let himself be led around.

They walked down one of the seemingly endless hallways of the complex, past the door that led to the Cerebral Matrix and down towards the control center, often called the war room by Guri. Forte looked about in curiosity apparently quite a bit had changed since he had gone off line. The complex itself was quite large and halfway though the maze of hallways he had stopped trying to memorize which direction that they had come from as well as which way they were going. The echoing sound of a large door shutting could be heard as they reached the control room.

"Here we are," Khoal said as she opened the door and waited for Forte to step inside, at the sound of the metallic thud she turned her gaze down the hall to her right. "It appears that Draka has returned," she said with a light amused smile upon her face.

Forte just nodded as he stepped past Khoal and into the control center and he stopped a few paces in, blinking. He hand not anticipated the room to be quite this large, Before him the wall was pane of think glass, which overlooked a large hanger. The wall to the left was completely dedicated to that of a large computer, it had to span nearly thirty feet width against the wall. The right wall was full of shelves of all sorts with equipment and charts and other things. In the center of the room was a large table that was fit with a complete holo-grid, surrounded by several chairs. Forte looked around the room slowly trying to absorb everything that he saw and nearly jumped out of his armor at a light tap on his back that caused him to look over his shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt your curiosity, but I would like to get into the room, please," Khoal said with a cheery smile on her lips just before she gave the taller Bioroid a light push.

At the push he stumbled in a few steps, obviously his motor system was not up to full compasity yet. "Sorry," Forte managed to say just before he caught himself on the table in the center of the room. His armored hands landing with a metallic sounding clack against the metal surface of the table.

"Don't worry about it," Khoal said with a smile as she walked in behind Forte as he steadied himself before standing back up straight again. She walked over and gave him a light pat on the shoulder before walking over to a chair before the computer. Pressing a few buttons an image came upon screen. It was a partial view inside the Cerebral Matrix. The visual image gave out before it reached the circular pad in the center. A setting that she had programmed in for a good reason at this point in time.

"Slate are you there?" she called into the COM.

All of a sudden a form whirled over to be in front of the screen. "Yes, dear sister," came Slate's response before his mouth just kind of dropped open when he saw Forte. "Why didn't you contact me earlier!"

"You were busy and I didn't want to interrupt. I know how much of a stickler you can be over that, bro," Khoal responded with a wide grin.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," Slate said enthusiastically before he disappeared off screen. "Draka! Get out of the way girl!" could be heard from somewhere out of video rang as well as a bunch of loud clanging followed by a loud thud and a muffled "ow."

Khoal turned away from the screen with a soft chuckle after she turned of the COM and the video connection to the Cerebral Matrix.

"What was that all about?" Forte questioned as he stood by the table looking down at Khoal.

"That would be my brother, I would say that he's just a tad bit excited wouldn't you," Khoal added with a sly grin before she motioned for Forte to sit down. "Have a seat, it will be more comfortable then standing," she added.

"I believe that would be an understatement," Forte commented back a bit dryly over Slate's reaction to seeing him. He looked over his shoulder at one of the chairs before turned moved to sit down in one. "Why was he so excited anyway? I really don't think that I appear to be anything special."

"If only you knew," came Khoal's reply with a light shake of her head. "You're far more special then what you could ever imagine. That and Slate has put quite a bit of time and effort to help bring you back from the dead, so to speak."

Outside in the hall there was the sound of scrambling metal feet, four of them by the sounds of it before a muffled voice shouted out, "Easy boy!" Followed by a metallic clank and the shaking of the door.

"Would somebody pick him up before he knocks himself silly," came the muffled sound of Slate's voice from outside of the door, followed by the sound of metallic claws scrapping on the door. The sound of struggling came from the other side of the door as well as a yelp that sounded vaguely dog-like.

"Easy boy, easy," came the muffled sound of another voice, this one more feminine. "See, that's better, be a good boy and you'll get a nice yummy copper bone out of this."

Forte swiveled the chair to face the door at the sound of the thud. That wasn't something that he was expecting to hear. He leaned forward, his elbows on the arms of the chair as he tried to figure out exactly what was going on. Khoal just sat there hands folded up before her chin to hid her smile. She had forgotten to mention this to Forte upon his awakening and she felt that it was no use telling him now, when he would see what was going on in a few moments.

After things had apparently calmed down outside the door, it suddenly slid open to reveal, Slate, Guri and one other form that was hard to see behind the two. Slate came in first followed by the Leonid; there left to stand in the doorway was a reptilian Bioroid.

The Drakanid was quite tall, almost as tall as Guri; her coloration was a deep blue with amethyst eyes. A dragonish head with two long horns was supported by a short thick, but flexible neck. A crest could be seen folded down against her neck took on the resemblance of hair. The arms and legs of this Bioroid were long and sinuous. Three long fingers adorn each hand as well a long thumb. Feet formed in a gargoyalian fashion with three thick toes supporting long talons and what looked like a dewclaw. A long tail snaked out behind her, swayed softly. There she stood, holding the squirming form of Gospel, Forte's faithful dog companion, and a smile on her reptilian lips.

"Lookie what I found," she said jovially as she walked in. Once in the light it could be seen that she was wearing a pair of holy blue jeans and a purple tank top.

Forte's mouth just dropped. He couldn't believe it, "G…Gospel!" he said in shock.

This caused the dog to explode out of the Drakanid's grasp and charge across the short spance of the room to get to Forte. The black armored Bioroid held arms open and was soon knocked over chair and all by a one excited canid.