Keemew2: Well third is up. Hope you like it. And sorry about the long wait. Things are not going as I expected and well,let's put it this way. The more I think about this the more confusing it gets. I have WAY to many plot holes. Oh! Also, this takes place right after Bit and Brad find the voice synthesizer. It will also span through to the discussion in the cell. You will know when the time is connected again when I go back to the cell.

Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own Zoids New Century Zero. Kantaro Tomiyama or Tomy does. (is it all right to just say it now and not in the other chaps? Should be.)

Zoids

Ptera&Shasta

Ch. 3: Why Me?

G

Bit and Brad walked into the dinner. Leena and Steve were still eating. Leena was the first to notice them.

"So what took so long huh?" After closer inspection she noticed Jamie was still missing, "Where's Jamie?"

"We don't know." Bit said

"What do you mean you don't know?" Toros said looking up from his soup.

"Well, we went to the parts shop to get Jamie, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, when we got there, he was gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone. The guy said that I came back for him. I didn't."

"Then we found this." Brad said tossing the synthesizer to Toros.

"A voice synthesizer?"

"Yeah. When we found it, it was programmed to Bit's vocal patterns."

"That's funny. I wonder what this means."

"Uh, doc? We think Jamie has been kidnapped." Bit said

"Oh, nonsense. Why would someone want to kidnap Jamie?"

"What other explanation is there?"

"He could have just gone for a walk."

"Doc. This is Jamie."

"Huh, guess your right. Only one thing left to do now."

"What's that?" Toros put his head in his hands and mumbled, "Panic!"

"Oh." Toros lifted his head and looked at the others.

"Jamie's dad is going to kill me. He put Jamie in my care for a specific reason. Not kidnapped. He warned me not to let anything happen to his son. We may be good friends, but he's gonna tear me apart! We have to find Jamie before his dad finds out!"

"How? We don't know where to begin to look." Bit replied

"Well we gotta do something!" Leena replied

"You could contact the authorities." Brad said

"Good Idea Brad!" Toros said. "Let's go."

"So, how long has he been missing?" The officer asked. Toros looked at his watch.

"Um, about 1 1/2 hours now."

"That's it? What makes you think he didn't just get lost?" Bit looked at the officer.

"Uh, sir, don't get me wrong or anything, but, this is an awfully small town. The dinner is only 5 minutes away from the parts shop. Jamie is also a very smart kid. He wouldn't just get lost like that."

"Well, I guess I could post a missing persons report for right now. But I need proof of a kidnapping. Real proof, not a talk box." He said when Bit opened his mouth to speak. "Don't worry sir, we'll find your son."

"Well, actually he's not my son. He's my charge."

"What happened to his real father?"

"Oh, nothing." Toros said smiling, "He just put Jamie in my care for awhile. It's good for me though. He's a great strategist. Jamie also tends to be very handy in arial battles. He's exceptionally good for his age." 'Once he becomes the wild eagle anyway.'

"Well we should contact the father then." Toros lowered his head.

"I was afraid he'd say that." He sighed.

"Oh, one other thing."

The officer looked at them intently, "You said that he pilots an Arial Zoid?"

"Yeah."

"Well, now we have a lead."

"What?"

"There has been a lot of abductions by the Backdraft over the past week concerning Ariel Zoid pilots."

"I forgot about that."

"How old is he again?"

"16."

"Wait, are you the Blitz team?"

"Yeah." Having a 16 year old on the team isn't a common occurrence. Legally you're supposed to be 18 or older to be in Zoid battles. Unless of course you have a special waver like Jamie and Vega.

"You sure have been moving up in the ranks. Soon you're going to reach the next class. I always lay my bets on you guys."

"Uhh…Yeah, um could you put up that report now?" Bit asked. He was kinda worried about Jamie. This wasn't the same circumstance as when Leena was kidnapped. Mostly he remembered the time he was taken to the Backdraft headquarters. He almost didn't make it out of there alive.

"I'll get in contact with the Zoid Battle commission." The officer replied, "We could use their resources. They have better equipment then us. Besides, it involves the Backdraft group so they will want to know. With the ringleader behind bars, it should be easy to get at these guys. Though I thought that all of them were caught. Oh, well. You should contact the kids father."

"Come on dad." Leena said, "You have his number in the hover cargo."

When they reached the hover cargo, they saw a familiar Pterace standing next to it.

"No." Toros mumbled, "Please tell me that Zoid doesn't belong to who I think it does."

"I would, but it would be lying." Brad said as Jamie's feather, Oscar Hemeros, came from around the cargo. He seemed to be inspecting the thing. He caught sight of them, smiled, and walked over.

"Hey! Steve! I was wondering where you got to! I know, kinda unexpected, but I wanted to see Jamie again. Where is he?" He looked around but didn't see him. He saw the nervousness in Toros.

"What's going on? Where's Jamie?" He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Um. Oscar. I was just heading to the Cargo to call you. Um, well, it seems that, well…"

"Spit it out."

"Jamie's missing." He mumbled

"What? I didn't quite hear that. It sounded like Jamie's Missing."

"He is." The former Wild Eagle looked at Toros. He looked at the other's. Then he started laughing.

"Hahaha. That's a good one. You had me going there for a minute. So, where is he really?"

"I'm sorry, but we are not joking. I'm dead serious Oscar. Jamie has been kidnapped." He sobered quite abruptly. He looked at Toros for a long minute.

"Jamie? Why? How?" He stood in shock. His son. His only son was gone.

"Well, you see, the Backdraft is back in commission. We have reason to believe that they are the ones who nabbed him."

"Why? Why Jamie?"

"They seem to be challenging arial pilots to battles and taking them as well as their Zoids after they defeat them. Jamie won his battle. I guess they wanted him badly enough to kidnap him." Toros looked at his long time friend. He understood how he felt. When Leena was kidnapped he was very worried. He'd never been so worried in his life.

"We should have been more careful sir." Bit said, "We should have realized that the Backdraft would have done something like that. Unfortunately we didn't."

Obviously, Jamie's father was having a hard time dealing with his shock. He was still frozen in the same position. But he did hear them, he just couldn't respond. It was as if his muscles were frozen. He finally found his voice and managed a weak word.

"How."

"What?"

"How could they have grabbed him?" He started recovering from his shock and was now looking at Steve as if he were responsible, witch in a way, the only way, he was. "He's 16, Darnit!"

"Well, we, um…" Toros trailed off as the irate father looked at him through a death glare. Everyone was not sure how to react to this usually nice guy. Even Brad had stepped back a bit.

"Calm down Oscar. There's no reason to get hysterical. I don't think they want to hurt Jamie, after all, they did go out of their way to get him."

"What do you mean out of their way." Oscar asked, a little calmer. More or less out of curiosity.

"Um, well, you see, after the battle we went to a town a few hundred miles away. Um, we, well, I guess someone followed us. Jamie was filling out the form, as standard procedure goes, and, well, we, um…that is to say…"

"We left Jamie there alone to get some lunch." Bit finished for the Doc. "We didn't think anything of it because no one has ever had reason to abduct him before. So we went to get lunch. Jamie was taking to long. The dinner was only five minutes away. Me and Brad went to check on him and the guy said that I already came for him. Then we found a talk box with my voice on it and figured he'd been nabbed. That's to make a long story short." Oscar looked at them. One by one. Until he got back to Bit. Then he turned to Steve.

"What possessed you to leave him by himself in the first place." He ground out.

"Why don't we go inside, huh?" Toros said.

"Don't change the subject!" He snapped

"I'm not. I was just suggesting we go inside. It's pretty hot out here."

"Fine."

"Good."

(inside)

"Hey, Leena!" Bit called

"Yeah?" Leena asked as she walked into the area where Bit was at. Her father and Oscar were talking privately. Brad was lying on the couch, Bit was eating a sandwich, and she had come in to ask if he was eating the last of the good stuff, but was caught off guard by his question.

"I was just wondering, why did Jamie's dad leave him with your dad?"

"Why are you asking me? I have no clue. Remember, I was in the dark too when we all thought Jamie was an orphan."

"Huh. I forgot about that. You think we'll ever find out?"

"If it's important."

"It's really none of your business." Brad said from the couch. Eyes still closed.

"Well, anybody would be curious. After all, Jamie's dad doesn't look like the type that would abandon a kid. And he does come to see Jamie an awful lot lately."

"All I know is that Jamie showed up one day. He was asking to see my father privately. After Leon and I found out he was staying, I tried to get information out of him myself. Turned out he knew less than I did. He had no idea where he was or who wee were. Only that he was supposed to come here. That's all I ever got, so I left it alone."

"Weird."

"Tell me about it."

"How long has it been anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, since Jamie came to stay with you."

"Oh. I don't know. About a few years. Two or three."

"Did Jamie ever see his dad?"

"You know, that could be why he took small trips by himself once in a while."

"Small trips?"

"Yeah. It before you got here he would take small trips and be gone for hours. Never said why he went. Once he even came back crying. Hid it well though. Only reason I know he was is because I heard him in his room. He was going Why why why why. Don't ask. I have no idea."

"Anybody care how long he's been missing?" Brad asked uncharacteristically annoyed that they were more interested in Jamie's past then present situation.

"Um, about five hours now." Leena said

"Aw jeeze! Poor kid. I sure wish we knew were he was at!" Bit said dejectedly.

"I know."

Jamie looked at the guy like he was crazy.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Oh, man."

"What's wrong kid?"

"I don't want to do this." Jamie was showing his fear and he didn't care who saw it. He wasn't a very brave person. He just wished he was back at the hover cargo doing chores, cooking meals, and planning strategies. That's what he was best at. Planning. He wasn't a warrior. He liked flying and all; it was in his blood. He just didn't think being a warrior was his thing.

"What? Why not?" Jany asked

"I'm not a very good warrior. I'm a strategist."

"Coulda fooled me. I saw you."

'Just what I need.' Jamie thought, 'I knew this alter ego of mine would get me in trouble.' Jamie was visibly shaking now the more he thought about it. Jany looked at him with concern.

"You know, I think this kid is serious." Jany whispered to one of the men next to her.

"If he is, he's in some serious trouble." He whispered back. Suddenly everyone's attentions were drawn back to the door. It was opening again. Jamie suddenly got a huge lump in his throat. When it opened three figures stood there and a fourth figure was slumped against them. They tossed the forth into the cell and closed it again. The figure, obviously female, landed on the floor. Green hair sprawled across it, covering the face. She didn't move at first. Then she slowly tried to get up. Shasta immediately ran to her to help her in another position. She lifted her head to Shasta and Jamie recognized the face. It was bruised pretty badly, and had cuts on it, but he still recognized it. Pierce. She looked awful.

"W-what's going on?" One of the women asked. Pierce looked up as she sat in a better position. She looked around the room at all the people.

"Shasta, sweaty, when did all these people get hear?"

"While you were gone. What did they do to you?"

"Oh, nothing. They just interrogated me."

"Are they going to do that to everyone?" Shasta was horrified. Pierce gave her a look that just shouted; Are you nuts; and chuckled a little, wincing as she did so.

"No! Whatever gave you that idea?"

"I don't know. I was just thinking…"

"I thought I explained it to you already."

Hey! It's not my fault if I have an overactive imagination!"

"I understand."

"No you don't."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you ranaway 10 years ago and never came back! You know nothing about me!"

"Hey, I had good reasons to run off!" Pierce winced after she yelled, and held her chest.

"Sis? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think I just have a few cracked ribs. That's all."

"What?? And you think your fine?"

"As fine as I'll be for a while. Now I'm changing the subject to something more important then my welfare."

"Like what?" Shasta asked sarcastically. Pierce glared at her.

"What were you doing with that Zoid? How did you get it?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because I'm your sister."

"Huh. Some reason. As far as I know my sister ran away when she was 12."

"Shasta. Please. They caught on that you're my sister. They will use it to there advantage. That's why I'm not dead yet." This immediately got Shasta's attention.

"Why would they want to kill you?" Pierce thought for a minute, like she didn't want to tell her.

"Because I got information I wasn't supposed to have before I quit."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Excuse me, not to ruin a perfect touchy feely moment or anything, but would somebody mind telling me what's going on?" One of the other men asked, "Sorry, but your sudden appearance has got a lot of people freaked. What with your current condition of course." He gestured to Pierce.

"Are they all here for the same reason?" Pierce asked the girl

"Yeah. Um, they have all gone now, well except for him." She pointed to Jamie who was still staring wide eyed at Pierce, "He just got here several hours ago and also just woke up. I guess they drugged him or something." Pierce looked at Jamie for a second, then recognition flared.

"Oh! It's you!" This seemed to snap Jamie back to reality.

"Huh? What?"

"Calm down. I thought you looked familiar. You're that Wild Eagle kid. You look a little different."

"My name is Jamie. Not Wild Eagle."

"Okay, Jamie."

"You met him before?" Shasta asked

"Yeah. He's one of the reasons I quit the Backdraft group. Though I still gotta pay him back for shooting me down. And calling me little lady." She giggled a little at that.

"Little Lady?" Jamie asked, frowning.

"Yeah, don't' you remember."

"NO!"

"Sheesh, don't bite my head off."

"Sorry." He mumbled irritatedly

"Here, let me clean you up some." Shasta said turning back to Pierce. Jamie turned away from them and stood up. He wasn't sure when he stood up last, but he was stiff. Then a hand appeared on his shoulder. He turned to see Jany looking at him strangely.

"You okay?"

"Not really. This has to be the worst day of my life. No, check that. The worst day of my life was when my dad said I wasn't going to come home like he promised. This just ties with it." He said bitterly.

"You don't live with your dad?"

"No."

"Oh geeze. That sucks."

"Well, it isn't that bad. In a way, I have an older sister now. A crazy one, but one nonetheless. Not to mention Brothers. I consider the Blitz team my family now. Even though they don't really know that."

"That's cute. So…" She wasn't sure how to bring up the topic she wanted to discuss, the mere mention of it made the kid cringe, "Do you think your ready to try the Zoid?"

As she suspected, he cringed.

"I'm not sure." He said, "What am I supposed to do out there? And how do they now the person who gets the Zoid to fly isn't going to get away?"

"We all ask that Question. Their answer? You'd find out. That's all they say. Though, no one ever gets to find out. Personally the curiosity is getting to me."

"What about her?" Jamie said pointing to Shasta

"Well, the answer I got was that she wasn't flying it."

"She wasn't?"

"No. It was on auto pilot. She swears up and down that the Zoid flies her around. Don't bother asking. She gives out the same answer all the time. 'I ain't talkin' and I believe her. She's as stubborn as a mule."

"You know, the more you talk about it, the more interested I am. It's different then the Liger Zero."

"How do you mean?" She was interested in the whole weapon X thing or whatever it was called.

"Well, when we got the Lyger no one could pilot it. In fact, the Zoid went crazy anytime someone tried to fly it."

"Huh. This one doesn't go crazy. It just does weird things."

"Huh?"

"You'll find out." Jamie thought about that and two sides formed. 1) He wanted more than anything to fly it. 2) He wanted to run as fast he could the other direction.

Keemew2: Okay. I know this chapter sucked big time! Don't worry, I promise the next one will be better. In fact, Jamie will actually be flying next time. All right? Oh and how do you like my plot twists? I now have more than enough to work with. I am going to go out on a limb and ask for suggestions. I don't usually do this, but…Why not. Now I just want your opinion on what I should do next. I am starting immediately on the next one. It should be up in maybe (and hopefully) two or three days. So…REVIEW!!!! Better yet, e-mail me with your new suggestions.

Keemew2@yahoo.com