Arizda: Yah, I guessed that my rating on 1-10 would be an 8. : p NEway, sorry about the underdevelopment of some of the characters... namely D-chan and Dalanette. They were supposed to be major characters in upcoming chapters.... ^_^; Hehe... I'll see if I can get them more "developed" before chapter 20. :) *passes out snacks* ok. Here ya'll go!


Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, if you're a regular reader, then you know how this goes... lol.



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"Izumi! Izumi, you're here, too!?" Runa cried, happily. Izumi smirked and threw her arms up in the air.

"Yah! Sure am! Kashie and a few others are, too! Come on, let's go!" she replied, and then started running down the hallway that they were presently in. It was extremely dark, was coated with slight condensation. It also went straight *down*.

"Wasn't there security or something?" Runa asked.

"Not by the entrance where we found you!" Bit replied. The hallway was about 30 yards before the first obstacle was clearly in front of them.

"Wow... a door..." Izumi muttered. Chemuk paced in front of the dark steel door, waiting for one of her human friends to do something. Runa placed her hand on the door. She stared at it with immense concentration, obviously, Bit and Izumi seeing beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

'It's cooling... it's freezing... we're in the Arctic... the chill is freezing it...' she thought. She had done this before. It was in her psychi classes she took last year. Question was--could she do it again?

'Oh, this again, Runa?'

'Yeah, come on, you can help me with it again, right?'

'The test was over a year ago. What do you want me to do?'

'Help me! Pleeeeaaase! I can get outta this place if you just help me get this thing frozen!'

'Aaaah, cyrokinesis... well, in my opinion, it's better than using pyrokinesis, so yeah, I'll help.'

Bit and Izumi stared in awe as the steel door in front of them slowly began to freeze. Then, after a few seconds of hard concentration, Runa opened her arms and smiled. Then, she rammed it, and it shattered.

"On to freedom!" she sang, tightly gripping Bit's hand.


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"Woo hoo!" Kashie yelled, throwing hard... hardware at the rest of the guards that had been coming towards him. The weapon storage closet across the hallway, where Dominik and Tigra were, was slowly emptying, seeing as how Dom and Tigra had to frequently reload their pistols.

"Hey, I think that was the last of them! Better call the rest of your team before it's too late! I think I see Bit and Izumi coming down the hallway!" Tigra called. Kashie's ears perked up.

"With Runa!?" he asked. He waited for Tigra's voice once again.

"With Runa!" she answered.

"YUSS!" Kashie shouted, throwing his arms up in the air. He quickly took his mini-console out of his pocket and pressed the re-dial button.

"CAN WE COME, NOW!?" came the eager voice of D.

"YES, DAISURI, YOU CAN COME! BRING DALANETTE AND LEWIS!" Kashie yelled to the console.

"WHEEEEEEEEEE!" D-chan shouted. The screen immediately went blank, and Kashie shoved it back into his pocket. He stood up and armed himself with a good piece of thwacking metal.



It was a pretty good showdown--The Star Confederation's front line of defense against just a few people... Kashie, Dominik, Tigra, Bit, Izumi, Runa, Lewis, Dalanette, and D-chan. The Confederation had a really good defense set up for such a quickie situation--A good line of Gustavs, two lines of Demantis', and a short line of Pteras. The battle was too sloppy to explain, really... random firing here and there. But one of the biggest sights was the twin particle cannon shot from Dalanette's Darkness Panther. Two birds with one stone, literally; two Pteras' were taken out. 15 minutes, give or take a few, and the defense line was out. D-chan led everyone out of the area with the Starbuddy Penguin.

"We have a whole two Quadrants to cross, so be quick and careful, since we'll still probably have a few of The Confederation's defense Zoids on our tail! They're a minor assault, but that's not the point!" D-chan repiled, taking control of the group. She was known for being a leader, hence the name "Daisuri Hiramoto" under the "Leader" section of the Star Team member profiles.

"How are you holding off, Runa?" Dalanette asked, being the one who usually kept the group together.

"I'm fine... thanks to you guys," Runa answered.

"Thanks to Bit and Kashie," Dominik answered.

"Agreed..." Tigra said. Izumi smirked.

"I'll have to admit, I was just backup in their plan," she replied.

"No, it was all of you. I thank you again... I was so stupid... stupid enough to get caught by the enemy team. I can't believe someone would waste their time on such a worthless soldier like m--"

"Don't let their talk get to you, Runa. You are not a worthless soldier. You know who you are. You are NOT worthless, in fact, you ARE the best The Alliance has. It doesn't matter what anyone else says... it doesn't matter what anyone else has. You're the only one who ever passed the first given mission, correct?" Dom asked.

"Well... d-does that really matter?" Runa asked.

"Of course it does!" Dalanette replied. "It means just about everything. If it weren't for YOU, we wouldn't have been the top team in The Alliance."

"It should be you in the leader position... not me..." D said softly.

"D-chan! Don't say that! You have every right to be in the position of leader!"

"Come on now, everyone is all in their respectful positions. Don't bicker over them. Runa just... well... it's not that she's BETTER than anyone else. She just... well... I dunno. What do you think it is, Runa?" Lewis asked. Runa really didn't feel comfortable with talking about her being better than anyone else. In truth, she really didn't think of herself like that.

"I... I don't know," Runa said, meekly.

"Don't torment her... I'm sure this is the last thing she wants to talk about," Dalanette said. "And I KNOW that I shouldn't necissarily kept it going, but we shouldn't continue this topic..."



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"What do you mean, he chased after them and never came back!? He HAD to have come back! Where did he go!?" Leena shouted, terrified. Doc sighed and buried his face in his hands. Him, Jamie, Leena, and Brad were sitting at the dining room table, the dimmed light being the only one on in the hover cargo.

"Bit left to go after Runa, you see? And... he left right after she was taken, and he hasn't come back, yet..." Doc explained. Leena whined.

"What if he doesn't come back!?"

"He'll be back..." Brad replied. "He'll be back with Runa, too."

"How can you be so sure?" Jamie asked. "What if he DOESN'T get Runa? He doesn't know a thing about where she comes from, or where the people that took her came from!"

"Calm down. He'll come back sometime today. Maybe tonight. Who knows how far he could've gone?" Doc wondered.

"THAT'S RIGHT! Who KNOWS how far he went!? What if he got lost?!" Leena wailed.

"Leena, why do you care?" Brad asked.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHY DO I CARE!? How can I not care?" Leena asked.

"Well, with all do respect, I thought you were bent on being a bitch around him," Brad answered. "I mean, after all, you have to admit... you did BITE on him quite a bit."

"WE CAN'T JUST SIT HERE!!! We have to go and get Bit!" Leena cried.

"Leena, pleeeease calm down! Let him come back! The last thing we need is someone else getting lost! Uh... not that I'm saying that Bit's lost or anything, by the way..." Doc said, being careful as to what he said in front of his hysterical daughter. Leena sighed.

'Maybe I should give it up and stop acting so hysterical...' she thought to herself. Indeed, it was just a tad bit ridiculous when she began to scream and yell. 'All I want to do is find you, Bit Cloud. Where did you go? When will you come back? ... Will you come back?'



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Bit took one last look around The Alliance before he left. He didn't want to stay, either. Horrible how certain people could start "cults" like these. However, The Alliance did seem to be much less of a "cult" then The Confederation. All the same though, it really was. Just the sides. The Alliance did all of the hard work while The Confederation tried to butt in and say that they did it. Selfish people deserve to die.

Bit wandered into Runa's chambers, where she held her younger brother in a tight hug.

"Thank you so much, Kashie... I certainly owe you and Bit one... well, three for Bit, now..." Runa mumbled. Kashie shook his head.

"I did it not because you were taken, Runa... I did it because you're my sister. Brothers and sisters love each other, right? I wouldn't have let you stay there... I wouldn't give a damn about The Alliance's orders. You're my sister... I was afraid, Runa..." Kashie said. "I was afraid that you wouldn't come back... I didn't want you to not come back..."

Runa gave her brother the last few moments of the hug, and then let him go.

"Go get some sleep. You need it, you look tired. I'll make sure that the rest of today goes smoothly for you," she replied.

"Heh, even though The Confederation is going to be bombing the hell out of us, right? Surely we can stand up to their not-so-tough Zoids..." Kashie confirmed, yawning. Runa nodded. Kashie left, and Bit walked in. Runa didn't know what to say. She instantly walked into the embrace that was waiting for her.

"Why did you do it?" she asked. "You know that you just risked your life for someone you don't know nearly as well as you would like to..."

"Haven't you already guessed?" Bit asked.

"Oh, I know," Runa said, putting her arms around his waist, so her could hold her in the embrace. "But why? You know that I would've been devestated if you were hurt... now... now I owe you three..." she said with almost a smirk. Bit gave her a smile and gave her butterfly kisses all the way from her cheek down to her collar bone. Something told Runa that she wanted him to stop, but she ignored the feeling, for she knew that it wasn't true.

'Runa...!'

'Go away...'

Runa recieved another line of butterfly kisses, this time, making her shiver, to a light extent. She smiled.

"You can cut the light crap any time now..." she told him.

'Hey, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into...'

'Didn't I tell you go away? I happen to be falling for him, y'know!'

'Mebbe that's what YOU think...'

'Which means it's what YOU think... hey, and what do you mean?'

'You'll figure it out the hard way, seeing as though you REFUSE to stop toying around. Don't you know when to follow subconscious's roadmap?'

Runa blinked in confustion a few times just as Bit's face met hers. She put a finger to his lips as he was about to kiss her.

"Bit..." she said, a little disappointed. "Not to be rude or anything, but I think there's something wrong..."


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Arizda: Oh yah, like, what could it POSSIBLY be, now? Lol. Only more problems for Runa... -_- Anyway, how will OC Starbuddy *me* develop D-chan and Dalanette, bringing in the information the readers need to know about them? Heh, lol. And... and what's going to happen to Zero, him being responsible for Runa? UH OH SHE'S GONE! I think hell's gonna be raised in a strange form when Tsuki finds out! Ah, yeah, I bet you all forgot about him, yah? Well... NEway, stay on the edge for the next chapter! And as always... *passes out snacks* READ and REVIEW! ^____^