Pinioned

Jason was restless. He stood from the log and walked around the fire. Even when Jake had come to wake him, he hadn't been asleep. Something was bothering him; making him worry, but he didn't know what. Jason walked around the camp, a silent shadow in the flickering lights of the fire. He suddenly froze. He sensed something. He felt like he was being watched. Lithely, Jason put his hand on his gun holster and looked around. There was a slight cracking of leaves, and Jason's head snapped around. He nimbly ran into the trees. The crackling was farther away. He kept running, like a lone wolf after a stag. Jason leapt out the bushes and into a clearing. His eyes batted around, looking for the source of the noise and he raised his gun. Then, he saw it: a dark shape in the shadows of the trees.

"Come out of your hiding place!" Jason barked.

The shape hesitated, then stepped out in the light of the full moon. Jason was transfixed. He blinked a few times, but held fast.

'What's a woman doing this late out at night?' he thought.

"Why raise your gun? I am not armed," the woman said, and raised her arms showing her palms. A gesture of surrender.

Jason involuntarily shivered at her voice. "Don't move."

"Would you shoot me?" the woman inquired, with a slight sense of derision in her voice.

Jason stared at the woman, but said nothing. He kept his gun aimed at her chest. Then Jason's eyes began to blur. He shook his head and blinked, until his eyesight returned. Startled, Jason took an instinctive step back. The woman had somehow gotten so close to him, the muzzle of his gun was almost touching her.

"Lower your gun," the woman said.

The voice sounded so faint to Jason. It sounded as if someone where trying to speak to him from the other end of a long highway tunnel. But to Jason's horror and amazement, he felt part himself wanting to comply. His head was swimming and filled with a red haze. He felt light, as if he could leap into the air and fly away with the wind. Jason was confused; part of his mind wanting to do whatever this lady told him to, the other part wondering why he had to do it. But finally, the confused and questioning Jason succumbed to the slightly dazed and dog-happy Jason, and he slowly lowered his gun. His arm fell limply by his side, and the gun clattered to the ground.

The she-demon smiled, showing hungry white fangs, waiting to be stained with blood. A human's blood. Jason's blood. Inari placed her hands on Jason's chest. Jason gasped. Her hands were like ice, and the cold seeped through Jason's clothes and skin to fill his whole body. The demon smiled at the human's distress.

"Such a strong heart," she purred, and slowly placed her hands over his heart.

Jason tried to pull away. He wanted to pull away. What was this woman doing?! Jason wanted to get away from the iron touch of this lady. He wanted to go back to the others. But he couldn't. He felt the darkness in his mind. He tried to fight the reddening haze, and regain control of his mind.

'She's in my head!' he screamed internally. 'Get out! Leave me alone!'

The darkness covered his consciousness. Jason could not longer think for himself. Everything was blurry and he couldn't even make out one single thought for himself. The red haze in Jason's mind grew, until that was all he could see within his skull. There was a faint voice in the background. What was the voice saying? Jason couldn't think. He couldn't comprehend. He fought, and regained a little control of his mind. He saw the demon-woman clasp her clawed hand around his right wrist, and pull it up to her mouth. Jason tried to yell, to scream, to call for help, but he could only watch the horror unfold. The demon put her mouth to his arm, and Jason could practically feel the eagerness. Then, there was a sharp pain. Jason wanted to cry out, but he couldn't. The demon was draining the life and blood from him. Jason felt his knees weakening, felt his body slump, felt his head fall to his chest. Inari lifted his chin and looked him in his drooping eyes. He saw crescent feline eyes glowing in the moonlight.

"You will not remember any of this. Now go. Return to camp. Rest, until I call for you," Inari said with a smirk.

"I...will remember nothing..." Jason murmured.

He pulled away and walked like a zombie back to the others. Inari watched the human, and smiled. A snake appeared behind her.

"The Last Guard Team has defeated the Kreuz Team. They have figured out what has happened to the pilots," Khai said, meekly.

Inari simpered. "All the better. Get in position. Round two will begin shortly."

With that, both shapes disappeared into nothingness.

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The five pilots stood around the girl. She was huddled on the ground, hugging her knees. The girl had dark brown eyes and dark skin. Her hair was pulled into one long, black braid, but with one strand of red hair hanging limply in front of her face. The pilots could also see black wolf ears that seemed to be covered at one point.

"So, you remember nothing?" Ariel inquired, trying to sound as calm and soothing as possible, though she wanted to yell and scream and stomp on the ground.

The girl looked coldly up at Ariel. "I told you all I know. My mind...is fuzzy...Maybe, I'll remember something later...I'm just really tired," the girl said, irritated. She turned away and rubbed her temples.

Ariel looked like she was about to raise her voice when Angel caught her arm. "What about the other pilots? I think we should take them back to the base."

"Well, why tell me? I ain't the cap'n," Ariel said gruffly.

Angel snorted and turned to K.O. "Well?"

K.O. had an apathetic look on his face. He started to say no, but the girls glared at him, and K.O. froze. Strider tried to stifle a laugh in the background, but failed. K.O. scowled at him.

"Fine, fine!" he finally said. "Whatever..."

Strider stood up and saluted. "Well then fearless leader! Permission to go fetch the Whale King!" he tried to keep a straight face, but he failed again, and busted out laughing.

"Just GO already!" K.O. snarled.

Strider saluted again, and ran off toward the parked Whale King. Stride motioned Drake to come too, and Drake shrugged and followed. The two girls and K.O. were left to pull the remaining pilots out of their cockpits. The girl with the ears fainted, so they dragged her into the Whale King as well. After about and hour, the girl awoke once again. She and the rest of the unconscious pilots had been moved into the Last Guard Team base. She sat up with a start.

"Oh no!" she yelled.

"What?" Angel said, and raised her eyebrow.

"I forgot about Chemuk!" the girl yelped and ran out of the room.

"Che-what?" Angel wondered.

But she got up and followed the wolf-girl out of the room to the hangar. She stood on the bridge and looked down. There was some black shape near the Konig Wolf. Angel leaned against the rail, and watched. The wolf-girl ran to the black shape, and kneeled down. She seemed to be saying something, but Angel couldn't hear. Finally, Angel sighed, and jumped over the railing.

"A wolf?"

The girl glared. "Chemuk. She's an organoid, not a wolf."

"An organoid eh? Okay. But you, still have some answering to do. You seem well enough to run all the way here anyway," Angel said, and grabbed the girl's wrist. "Let's go."

"But Chemuk-"

"Don't worry. Hey! Ariel! Injured organoid thing here! Check it over for the girl okay!?"

The two walked out of the hangar. Angel lugged her into an empty room, and sat her down on a couch. Angel sat down opposite to her.

"Okay, now the interrogation begins. First off, what's your name, what team do you belong to, and what Zoid do you pilot?"

"I'm Amrit Harusame of the Kreuz Team. My teammates call me 'Rit though. I pilot a black Konig Wolf called Caelestis Storm," 'Rit said.

Angel nodded. "I assume your other teammates are the rest of those people?" She gestured toward the hallway.

'Rit nodded.

"Alright then. Why were you fighting for that demon-lady?"

"I...Let me think...I don't exactly remember what happened. I remember...We had just won our fifth battle, and we were celebrating. The lights went out. We were trying to find the emergency power switch when we realized -- Oh my God! Where's Vega!?" 'Rit stood up, panic in her eyes. "Where is he?! Is he okay?"

Angel grabbed her arm and yanked 'Rit downward. "All your teammates are doing fine. They haven't woken up yet, but they're not going to die any time soon. Now finish answering the question."

'Rit took a deep breath. "Okay. So the lights were out, and we realized Vega, our captian, was missing. We'd though he went to go find the power switch like us, but it's not like him to go somewhere without confronting the rest of us. He is our captain after all. Then the lights came back on. We searched for Vega, and found him propped against his bed in his room. There was a nasty wound on his right arm. It looked as if an animal had bitten him, but I knew it wasn't Chemuk. Chemuk hadn't left my side, and besides, she knows better than to bite Vega. The scary thing was, though, that Vega's eyes were wide open. They had sort of a distant look to them, and looked a little red. We shook him awake, and he started freaking out. He wouldn't let us come near him. Then the rest of us heard a voice...Vega stopped yelling. He fell into some sort of trance. Then, we heard this horrible noise. I tried to cover my ears, but the sound went right through. And through the noise I heard a voice. It said, 'Come to me. Listen. Lend me your flesh and fight.' We fell into sort of a trance after that. The voice gave us orders and all we could do was follow them."

Angel was silent. Then she spoke. "So, we're dealing with some sort of demon vampire here?"

'Rit shook her head. "No. She only took Vega's blood. I don't know what happens to those she drinks blood from, but the rest of us were untouched. It was just the noise and the voice...Some sort of spell."

"Well, what happens to those she sucks blood from?" Angel asked.

"I really don't know."

{A/N: Mwahahahaha! What do you think? Now it's getting all supernatural isn't it? This is where the weird stuff starts happening, so yeah. Like I said before, you mustn't care what I do to your characters too much, because a lot of bad stuff is going to happen to them. What you ask? I'm not telling. XP You'll just have to find out for yourself.}