Chapter 1: Cycle of History
The dust blew in from the desert, sand swirling. The sun blazed upon the wastelands from high above, the heat baking the wrecks and rocks that littered the vast lands below. A dark dot appeared on the horizon then, shimmering in the sunlight. A dust cloud billowed out behind the dot, which grew larger and larger as it drew closer. It was a hoverbike, a common sight in the wastelands here, a cheap and fast way to move around quickly from place to place. The small craft sped along at high speed, its lone rider hunched over as he piloted the fast moving vehicle.
Behind him though, another dark spot grew larger as well, a far larger dust cloud billowing out behind it. The shape soon became more distinct, forming into a zoid, a sight that while was hardly rare, wasn't all too common in the area. It was a Rev Raptor moving at high speed, apparently chasing down the hoverbike. The dinosaur zoid suddenly fired a few shots from its heavy machine-gun, though they went somewhat wild, hitting the ground easily to the side of the fleeing hoverbike, the sand and dust puffing up where the 18mm bullets struck the ground.
The hoverbike lurched forward again as it dodged this latest barrage, though it wasn't too hard to do so, the pilot of the Rev Raptor apparently wasn't all that experienced, and the hoverbike pilot was apparent quite skilled with his own craft. The hoverbike zoomed up the side of a large rock formation, briefly soaring a few meters high into the air before slamming back onto the ground on the energy-cushion of its hoverdrive. The Rev Raptor leaped up, somewhat clumsily admittedly, onto the rock formation.
It found the hoverbike pilot waiting, his own light-machine gun trained right were the Rev Raptor was, and a barrage of bullets spanged against the zoid's head, the small 15mm bullets barely making any marks in the zoid's armor. The hoverbike heaved forward before the Rev Raptor could respond with its return fire, and when it did, it only managed to shoot the spots behind the agile hoverbike.
Inside the hoverbike, Alare grumbled about his predicament. He was a native of a nearby township, and his hobby was scavenging the nearby wastes for zoid parts as he tried to build his own zoid. He was out today when he found a small cache of zoid parts, and tried to take them for his own, when he found that they were after all owned by a group of bandits, though only one was hot-headed and impetuous enough to pursue him after his mistake. At least at the start, cause there were two more in the distance, hopefully come to try and take back their companion.
He peered into the distance in front of him, trying to ignore the Rev Raptor's fire to find some sort of rock formation with more cover so he could try loosing him. He had never really come so far out from his town before, so most of the places here were hardly familiar. He soon spotted a rather large formation of rocks in front of him, a veritable island in the sea of dust and sand. He smiled and gunned his hoverbike's engines for it, and the small craft rocketed towards it. As he closed, he found a small crack, and aimed straight for it.
Be it luck or what, the semi-wild firing of the gun-equipped Rev Raptor managed to snag his hoverbike as it entered the crack. Alare grit his teeth as the hoverbike sagged to the side, the one hit damaging his right hoverdrive, and the bike dragged along the ground. Before he lost more control, the youth immediately slowed the hoverbike, and spun it into a controlled move that took him into a side crack and out of sight. He heard the thunderous sound of the Rev Raptor as it plowed to a stop and just managed to crash into the rocks. The crash caused not a few small boulders to fall from the sides, and sealed off the front entrance to where Alare was.
The hoverbike pilot shook his head, knowing that for the meantime he was safe. He could only hope that the stubborn hotheaded pilot would leave him alone now. As it was, the zoid could probably break through the crack in time, if the Rev Raptor worked to clear the rocks and crack the opening wider. He only hoped that the pilot wasn't that persistent. "Jeez…all that just for making a mistake. I mean, his own boss didn't bother to chase me. Just my luck I ran into a moron who thinks he has something to prove." Alare muttered annoyedly.
He shrugged, and opened the closed cockpit of his hoverbike,, and ran a diagnostics check on the vehicle. As he suspected, the right hoverdrive was indeed hit. He took out the repair kit from the storage compartment, and walked around to inspect the hoverbike. He bit back a curse as he saw the rather large crack and hole that was where his right drive was supposed to be. He looked at the insides gingerly, and was now unable to stifle his words.
"Ah, man! How in the name of…gah!" He shook his head and dropped the kit to his side. With a sigh he inspected the damage. He quickly saw that it was repairable, but not with what he had here. He could rig the hovercraft to move balanced at about half its normal speed, not enough to run from the Rev Raptor if it gave chase, but more then enough to get back home in an couple of hours or so.
The sound of metal pounding and hacking on rocks reached his ears. Apparently the pilot was going to go after him. Alare looked around quickly, for another more secluded spot to park his hoverbike, and decided on moving the craft into another crack in the large rock form. He picked up his kit and threw it back into the compartment, locked it up, and jumped back into his hoverbike. A few seconds of button pressing, and the hoverbike rose form the ground again, albeit a bit wobbly. The vehicle moved forward and into the smaller crack, just one of many. As he moved deeper inside, where the shadows would help hide him, his eye picked out an oddly colored part of the rock face.
He slowed his bike down, deciding he was deep enough inside the split to avoid detection, and jumped out of the hovercraft, putting it into low-energy standby mode after parking it behind a few rocks. He walked up to the lightly-colored rock face and wiped a gloved hand over it. To his surprise, the dust stuck to his glove, and the dirty surface of a metal door appeared beneath. He took a step back in surprise, as the door shuddered, then slid open.
"Whoa…" He looked over to the side, where the sounds of rocks were still being heard. "Well, I'm hidden enough here. I guess a bit of exploring won't hurt much. I hope." He added the last belatedly, and stepped inside. The door slid shut slowly behind him when he took a few steps into the corridor. He looked behind him, and shrugged. He was committed now, no turning back. The young man walked onwards, his boots sounding loud against the floor in the clearly abandoned place. The looks of the place seemed like a laboratory of some sort to him, as there were old computers and other apparatus all over the place.
"I wonder what work was done here…must have been quite a long time ago." He mumbled this, tracing a finger over a desk, and noting the thick amount of dust. "Feh. I wonder if there's anything left in this place." He shook his head and turned to the side, then slipped on a small cylindrical piece of metal. He stumbled to the side and smacked himself against a wall. "Ouch!" He rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit of a bump. "That hurts!"
A crack-hiss behind him caused Alare to move away quickly from the wall, and revealed to him what seemed like a hidden room within the already hidden facility. The soft glow of lights inside showed him that there was at least something operating within. He cautiously peered inside, looking from side to side, when the lights of the room snapped on, causing him to jolt back a bit before calming down and entering the room again.
"This is freaky man. Though, I think I've heard of something like this happening a long time ago…darn, what was the story again?" He mumbled, as he looked at the now-lighted interior of the hidden room. Within the room was a large squarish thing, a few tubes and cables connected from it to a set of computers, the source of the small lights he saw. He walked over to the object and looked over it. "What is this thing?" he wondered, and saw nothing but a hazy figure inside.
He frowned a bit, then his eyes widened as he saw a glow come from inside, and the blurred form within moved just a bit, before relaxing. "Cyrogen-freezing? Man, what is this place!? What the heck have I gotten myself into?" He blurted out, taking a step away from the thing, and shaking his head. He looked at the monitors to the side and looked at the information on the screen. A set of numbers were displayed, which Alare recognized as a date set well over a century ago. Other images were also displayed, which he realized was the image of what was inside the cell.
A robotic thing, obviously a zoid of some sort, slept within, bathed in cold light. Alare grinned at this, as he recognized that this was most likely an organoid zoid of some sort, and with its help he could no doubt finally finish his dream zoid. He quickly began to look at the keys, trying to find one that would open the cell. Amidst his random pressing, he somehow hit the right key, and a soft beeping sound emanated from the cell. It hissed, and frosty smoke billowed out from it. The cell chamber opened up, and slid aside.
"Cool…" Alare gawked at the sight, as the zoid within stirred awake. The organoid stepped out of the chamber, a bit dazed, and found a grinning Alare looking at him. It was a tyrannosaurus-type, as were all organoids Alare had ever heard about. But what made it all the more amazing to look at was its coloring, which was dark gold in hue, with dull-silver highlights one its face and chest. "Uh, hi…!" Alare dumbly grinned, waving at the newly freed organoid. "You okay? You've been in there quite a long time!" He asked the organoid.
Silence ensued.
After quite a few moments of this, Alare teardropped, and opted for another approach. "Um, my name's Alare! What's yours?" He reached out to try and touch the organoid's snout, to which he received a most forcible response. He found himself in a bit of a daze, as he sat on the ground against the wall. The typical after-effects of being tail slammed by an organoid. He shook his heard clear and grit his teeth. "Okay, let's try that again."
He sighed and reached out in front of him, keeping a safe distance away from the organoid this time, and smiled. "I'm not here to hurt you, okay? I just…uh, want to be friends with you! I've never had a zoid before really…" He held his hands out in an open gesture. The organoid tilted its head cautiously at Alare, still looking at him with a bit more then just passing hesitance.
And there ensued a few moments of more silence, with the only sound being the organoids thick tail wagging around a bit, obviously having fun with Alare's exasperation. Annoyed and tired at this, Alare looked at the large wagging tail, and decided to jump for it. "Aaah!" With a cry, he leapt forward and wrapped his arms around the thick appendage. He found himself lifted off the ground, and dangling a bit with his arms around the tail, with the organoid looking most curiously at its new source of amusement.
Alare smiled sheepishly at the organoid, which after a sound that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, began to shake his around with its tail, causing his head to spin, and drop to the floor after a few moments of such shaking. "Ugh, I give up!" He moaned as he held his hands to his head, trying to stop the spinning of the world. The organoid huffed and stepped over, picking him up with its teeth by his bodysuit. Alare realized this after a few moments, also realizing that the organoid was walking around towards the entrance with him like a prized possession in its grasp.
"Hey, what do you know…I think it likes me." He grinned. Then immediately tried shaking himself free, sputtering, "Hey, wait a minute! I'm not a toy, put me down, darn it!" His struggles were useless though, the organoid was too strong for him to dislodge himself for its hold. After a while though, the two were at the entrance and the organoid dropped the struggling Alare on his back. The teenager grumbled about disrespectful zoids, and brushed the dust from his clothing, noting the stretch mark on one side where the organoid had used and carried him.
"Hmph, ungrateful thing. Do remember I'm the reason you're up and about." He looked at the organoid and waved a finger at it. "Ah, well…" He placed his ear to the door, hearing nothing. "I guess the coast is clear. That Rev Raptor must have given up." He smiled, and opened the door. Outside he found the same thing, and the coast was clear. He smiled and waved the organoid forward, and much to his delight it obeyed and followed him outside.
He walked over to where he'd parked his hoverbike, and frowned. "What the…I swear I put it here somewhere." He looked around cautiously, a dark feeling growing in his heart about the apparent disappearance of his ride. A loud thud and flash of white came from the edge of his vision, and he ducked and rolled to the side. The white was his hoverbike, thrown like a projectile at Alare. He rolled and got up, seeing the gloating form of the Rev Raptor standing tall above him.
"There's no escape, thief! You can't try to steal from the Desert Fox gang without getting payback!" The voice that came out was full of itself.
Alare glared at the Rev Raptor's pilot, his silhouette a bit blurred in the cockpit. "Freak!" He yelled back, though he knew that now he was quite helpless. Behind him, his hoverbike and its light guns were out of commission.
"Hey, what's this…an organoid zoid? I guess I'll just have to take this from you now." The Rev Raptor moved back a step, peering at the dark golden organoid, and reached a claw out to grasp it. Before it could close to try and hold the organoid though, a bullet spanged off the Raptor's cockpit, and it suddenly straightened.
Smoke from Alare's pistol easily showed where the shot came from. He looked over at the organoid, and gestured outwards with his head. "Get out! You can let this moron take you! Go!" He fired another shot at the Raptor again to keep the pilot's attention on him, and rolled to the side when the Raptor tried to pin him down with a claw.
The organoid looked uneasy at leaving Alare, he did free him after all, and seemed nice enough a person. After a moment of this, the organoid roared loudly, and sped off to run under the Raptor's legs and away.
Alare smiled grimly, knowing that the organoid could easily hide in the desert and escape to find its own way in the world. He reloaded his pistol again, the feel of it a bit strange in his hand. He'd never had to use it before, he was after all only a teen-aged scavenger, and only with that as a past time at that! He sighed, and checked his gun, hiding behind a large rock. He shook his head, and lurched forward, seeing the shadow of the Raptor's claw. He ran and fired at the Raptor's cockpit, a few of the bullets going wild, but most of them managed to hit the head of the zoid.
Suddenly he tripped on a rock, and fell, skinning his knee, and the pistol flew out of his grasp. He gasped, and turned around, but too late for the Raptor's claw crashed down and pinned him to the ground. "Time to die, kid." Came the pilot's voice again. As the claw slowly began to close, Alare wondered what would have happened if he just decided to stay home today. The grip became tighter, and tighter and all of a sudden, it released him, as the Rev Raptor abruptly straightened, as if in pain, and stumbled a step backwards.
"What the…?" He had jus begun to ask, when he saw what it was. On the Raptor's back was the organoid he'd discovered, and it had managed to damage the Rev Raptor, a small but apparently deep hole in the large zoid's back. The organoid leaped off the zoid rather gracefully, landing beside Alare. He'd had barely enough time to say anything more when the zoid picked him up, and began running off, passing once again through the Rev Raptor's legs and out into the main part of the rock formation.
Alare hung onto the zoid for dear life, his arms clutched around its neck. The zoid was fast, no doubt of that. It ran back into the main path, where to his horror Alare saw two more zoids waiting. The two were desert colored Saber Tigers, waiting for the Rev Raptor to come back out, and obviously were surprised by Alare's appearance. He managed a weak grin and wave at the two surprised zoid pilots as his organoid sped past them in a veritable blur.
The Rev Raptor then showed up as they exited the rocks, the organoid looking around as if it was searching for something. It veered off to the left all of a sudden, to which Alare cried out. "Where do you think you're going?!" The sound of a cannon firing and hitting the ground just meters behind them reached his senses. "Keep going, keep going!" The organoid grunted, and increased its pace.
The pair managed to cross a sand dune, the three zoids still making their way out of the tight rocks, and giving them a head start. Again, to Alare's surprise, the zoid stopped, dropping Alare on the ground, and began scuffing at the ground with its feet. "Hey, these guys are after us, what do you think you're doing…?" His voice trailed off as he saw the glint of metal beneath the sand. "Hey, is this a…zoid?" He dropped to the ground and began to help the organoid clear the sand away. In a few seconds, they'd cleared enough to show the cockpit of a buried zoid.
The organoid managed to pry the cockpit open, spilling sand on Alare, and nudged him inside. "What the…? This thing is a wreck, we can't use this…" Wordlessly he was shoved inside though, and the cockpit slammed down on top of him by the organoid. He pounded against the armored cockpit, to no avail. "Darned organoid, what the heck does it think its doing?" He sat down in the cockpit seat looking at the old controls. "If only this thing worked, maybe we could run away or…"
It was a day of surprises for the sixteen year old, and this one was just another one of them. The cockpit's monitors and controls glowed, as an eerie golden light suffised them. The broken screens and manged control sticks shifted and mended themselves, and the zoid that he was in rose from beneath the sands. He knew then that the organoid had somehow resurrected the zoid he was in, and repaired it again to full ability. It was still a bit sandy inside, but sans the sand, everything seemed perfectly fine.
He wrapped his hands around the controls, amazedly, and was awed at this turn of events. "Oh, yeah, this is some fine hardware!" He realized that the revived zoid was one of the rarest zoids in existence, if any of them still existed at all. It was an ancient Blade Liger, easily one of the most powerful zoids in the hands of the right zoid warrior. Of course, he was hardly the best, but he guessed his chances against the idiot piloting the Rev Raptor were quite fair enough. The other two though, were unknowns.
"Okay, how did this go…" He searched his memory again for what to do. It had been a bit of time since he last tried to simulate piloting a zoid, since he had focused most of his time into building one, though now with a Blade Liger at his disposal he didn't have to worry about that anymore. The zoid stepped forward fluidly, as if his piloting was corrected, though the general action was still his. He supposed that the enigmatic organoid once again had something to do with this.
Before he could try formulating more theories however, the appearance of the Rev Raptor and the two Saber Tigers over the sand dune caught his attention. "Oops. I guess its time to run…" He made ready to run away again, when a thought entered his mind. If he ran they would give chase to him, and most likely track him down to his town. No, he was going to stop. He was going to stand here and fight. "No...no more running." He shook his head, and turned the zoid around, to face the approaching Rev Raptor.
Inside the Rev Raptor, the zoid pilot called Kyle gawked at the zoid that we was facing. The Blade Liger was about to run, he saw, but suddenly turned around, and roared out a challenge at him. From his comm screens, the faces of his two companions, superiors really, had expressions of surprise as well, and perhaps a hint of fear. "That's a Blade Liger! If only we'd found it. Amazing..." Rhine, a dark haired and rather stocky man, piloting one of the Saber Tigers behind Kyle, mumbled.
"Who said we won't?" Kyle grinned, the momentary surpise fading as he responded in kind with a roar of his own from his Rev Raptor.
"Kyle, wait...!" The voice of the other zoid warrior, in the other Saber Tiger tried to caution the brash pilot, to no avail as Kyle cut him off and shut his comm system down. The man cursed under his breath. "Young fool! Rhine, don't help him. If he can't even listen to orders from his betters, he surely doesn't deserve our help."
"But sir, he's probably..."
"Outclassed by the Blade Liger, and its pilot? Yeah. But he dug his own grave." The man smiled wryly. "We'll dig him out of the wreck, but no more then that."
Alare smiled as the Rev Raptor roared back and charged him head-on. Alare had only a passing familiarity with the controls used by the Liger, a bit modified from the classic command system, but surprisingly it felt almost natural in his hands. The Liger, colored a blazing gold, dodged the Rev Raptor's charge, leaping off to the right. The quick dodge left the Rev Raptor plunging along, and stumbling into the sand dune. Alare almost snorted derisively, after all, he wasn't all to skilled himself but he could handle better then that at least.
It was clear that the pilot was letting his emotions get to himself, as his Raptor pulled away to charge at Alare's Liger once again. And once more, the Liger leaped away, but this time, instead of leaping to the side, the Blade Liger soared upwards in a powerful leap, jumping straight over the Rev Raptor, and as it landed, it twisted and power lunged towards the Raptor, which was only now turning to face the Liger in its new position.
Kyle didn't have much of a change as the Liger crashed into its side, its claws reaving open its side, and opening a meter long gash in its side armor. Sparks flew out, and the zoid roared out and toppled over on its side. Alare didn't spare him any more time, as he moved his Liger to face the two Saber Tigers, who were closing slowly. They circled him, but didn't fire their guns, instead they just began to drag the Rev Raptor away.
An open signal reached Alare's comm unit. "What's this...?" He tapped the button, and the face of one of the Saber Tiger pilots popped into existence. The man smiled at Alare, no sign of hostility in his face.
"Well done, zoid warrior. You handled Kyle quite efficiently, I must commend you for that. Take care of yourself though, you still attacked my band. We'll meet again another time to settle that." The signal stopped then, after the brief message, and the screen faded to blackness. Outside, the two Saber Tigers had managed to get the Rev Raptor standing, and were marching it away. Before the three faded away, one of the Tigers paused and let out a challenging roar back at Alare, then turned back to the setting sun and slowly became a blurry form in the distance.
Alare watched as the three vanished, and as they vanished from both sight and sensors, he heaved a sigh of relief. "That was close…if they all ganged up on me, I'm sure I would have had a tough time getting out alive!" A bolt of light flashed in front of him as he set the Blade Liger to lie down on the desert floor. He saw that it was the organoid, growling softly at the Liger, almost as if it was pleased with itself. "Mmm, I guess I have you to thank for this thing…?" He grinned as the Blade Liger's cockpit opened and allowed him to speak directly with the zoid. The replying roar made him chuckle a bit, and he jumped out of the zoid.
About an hour later, Alare found himself piloting the Blade Liger once again, with his Dunhurst XL-12 hoverbike being towed at a respectable speed of about 150km/h behind his newfound zoid. And within the zoid itself was the organoid, fused or joined with the Blade Liger's core, aiding his piloting, which he deduced explained for the relative fluidity and smoothness at which he'd managed to pilot the Liger just awhile ago.
The sun began set, the skies growing a light red, as he headed towards his hometown of Winhurst. The outskirts of the fairly sized town, large enough to support a small industry of hoverbike production, where he got his own ride from, but small enough that most of the people were closely knit and knew most of each other fairly well. Alare slowed down a bit, wondering if it was a good idea or not to bring the Blade Liger around.
"Nah, it would probably cause a bit of a panic or something. Maybe I should just hide it somewhere else. But where…?" He wondered, and slowed the Blade Liger even more. He smiled and snapped his fingers. "Ah, of course! Mister Dunstan will help me out here." He tapped his fingers over the comm panel of the Liger, and in a few moments, the system managed to call up the owner of the local hoverbike factory owner, Vlad Dunstan.
The grizzled face of Vlad looked up and smiled at him. "Hey, its you Alare! You're running late today you know…what did you haul?"
Alare grinned at the man in the monitor. "Heh, you won't believe me until you see it."
A whistle filled the hangar that Alare used from Vlad, the shining figure of the Blade Liger zoid lying on the concrete ground. The zoid was shut down now, or sleeping, as the case may be, and on top of it the organoid dinosaur zoid dozed contentedly. Vlad scratched his chine, shaking his head in wonder at the sight. "Jeez, Alare! This is quite the haul, no doubt about that. It's a good thing you brought it over here rather then take it into town, it would've cause a bit more then just a stir. Zoids aren't all that common in these parts, and the Blade Liger is one of the rarest zoids to ever have been made on Zi, and one of the most powerful ones at that."
He shrugged and grinned at Alare. "But of course, you already know that. And the organoid is hardly the least of your treasures this time around. Organoids are even rarer then the typical zoid. Then again, you already knew that too."
Alare nodded, and returned the smile. "Yeah, I know. Taking care of it is going to be a rough time though. Its already given me a few bumps…" He rubbed gingerly at his side, where the organoid had tail whipped him a few hours ago.
Vlad laughed, shaking his head. "Oh, well, there's that as well! But…" He looked at the dark golden organoid. "Still, that thing is a treasure. You're lucky you know, finding a hidden organoid lab in the Wastes. That is a one-in-a-million thing! I've heard of something like that happening a long time ago though, during the time of the Guylos Empire and the Helic Republic. Who was that pilot again…?"
The young pilot slapped Vlad's back, breaking free the older man from his reverie. "Oh, enough of the ancient history pops. The Guylos Empire, Helic Republic and the old wars were almost two centuries ago. That age is long gone, what we have now is the League!"
"Ah, yes…the Zoids Battle League. I suppose so." Vlad shrugged. He was always a fan of history, especially of those times long ago when the world had been unified under the flags of great nations. All there was now, he mused, were the various city-states and their zoid teams battling it out. He guessed that perhaps that was better. There was still organization, and the glory of the old empires were still retained in part in the states in the form of the great cities and technological wonders of today.
He smiled and slung a hand over Alare. "Yeah, let's go on. Your sister's going to be waiting for us! She called me up over an hour ago you know?"
"What? Why didn't you tell me? She's going to be furious!"
A sleepy grunt came from the organoid as the lights turned off and the hangar closed. The golden zoid jumped off the Liger and sniffed around, fiddling with the internal controls, and after a while managed to get outside, then began following the two unwary men. The wind blew from behind, the sun now completely set and dusk falling over everything and the township of Winhurst.
"I'm home!"
"About time!"
Alare cringed, raising his hands up in a defensive gesture at his sister's voice. Vlad chuckled at this sight, to which the ire of Alare's sister was quickly focused on as well. "And you! Where have you been keeping my brother?" She waved an accusatory finger at the old man, who could only grin sheepishly. Before either could reply, she turned around and huffed, running a hand through her hair, raven black.
Alare's sister was one of Winhurst's more beautiful young women, but had as of yet resisted the efforts of any one trying to get her affections. While she was a bit strict and harsh on her brother at times, Regina undoubtedly cared for him in her own way. It was just that at this moment, it was kind of hard to see that. She fixed her already immaculately fixed hair, and strode inside and pointed at the food on the table. Behind the two, a gold organoid head peered inside in curiousity. In less then five seconds the three were beside the table.
Alare blink, counting them all. One for him, two for Vlad, and three for gold organoid. Gold organoid was not supposed to be here. Vlad and Alare quickly looked at each other, glanced at the nearby stairs leading to Alare's room, and at Regina who was still talking about being irresponsible while facing away from the three. A general consensus was quickly reached, the two knowing Regina's most likely response to a gold organoid zoid filching food from the table that it couldn't probably eat anyway.
"And furthermore…huh?" She turned to find the food untouched, and with the sound of Alare's door shutting close. She sighed, exasperatedly, and closed the main door and sat down at the table. "Ugh, why do I bother?"
Upstairs the two heaved a sigh, and Alare wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "That was kind of close."
"Yes, it was. You need to keep a watch over this guy more closely." Vlad commented, looking at the gold organoid accusingly, while it growled confusedly. A knocking on Alare's door sent the two humans into another panic as to where to hide the organoid.
"Alare?" Regina asked, as she looked inside, and found Vlad struggling with a indistinct thing covered in a bedsheet, while Alare stood directly in front of Regina with an innocent smile on his face.
"Uh, hi! What do you want?" It was to no avail, for besides being quite the beauty, she was hardly stupid. A frown crossed her face as she took in the sight.
"What are you trying to hide from me…?" she asked seriously, stomping past Alare. "This had better not be illegal contraband or something, or I'll…" Her words trailed off as she pushed Vlad away and pulled off the bed sheet to reveal the golden organoid grinning with its metal teeth at her. A moment of silence, the one before the veritable storm arrived.
She gasped, breathed and readied to release a scream when Alare shouted, "Stop her!" At this point both Vlad and Alare jumped Regina, both of them holding onto her to silence her scream with their hands.
"Ouch! Stop moving!"
"It won't bite I swear!"
"Watch the haa…ack!"
Alare shook his sister firmly, and stared at her in the eye. "Stop that! Look, I'm going to unhand you, but please, don't scream! All right?" He waited until she nodded her affirmative, before he slowly released her. She caught her breath slowly, taking in the organoid.
"What is that thing?" She managed. "It can't be what I think it is…can it?"
Alare grinned, still oblivious to the fact that Vlad was hunched over the floor, clutching his hands towards his lower body, and stemming a whimper of his own. "Yeah, its an organoid. Amazing huh? I found it in the Wastes! And I found a Blade Liger as well, thanks to, umm…it." He grinned, a bit awkwardly.
"It? What's its name?" She asked as she looked at it, quickly getting used to the fact that there was an organoid sitting, or standing, in the middle of her brother's room.
Alare shrugged, "Well, I never really got around to naming it yet. I never really thought about that yet."
"Alare! How could you? It has to have a name you know!" She chastised him. She raised a finger to her lips, thinking of possible names for the golden organoid. "Let's see…how about Shadow? No, wait he isn't dark. Zeke? No, too bland. What could we name it?"
While Regina rambled on, Alare shook his head and turned to the organoid. He smiled and pet its snout. He kept on doing that, as he looked at the dark gold organoid, looking at the dull sliver that highlighted its colors on its chest. "Hmm, what to name you."
The organoid cocked its head to its left, and growled something. Alare raised an eyebrow, and bent closer. "Hmm? Did you say anything?" He shrugged, then suddenly snapped his fingers. "I know! Why don't I call you Radiant? You sure look bright and fiery, so Radiant would suit you fine."
The organoid growled appreciatively at this choice, and Alare laughed. "Then Radiant it is, and I can call you Ray for short! Although I think Radiant still sounds way more cooler!" He grinned at the zoid, and after rubbing its snout, got overcame but some unknown feeling and leaped out to try and bear-hug the zoid. "You're my organoid now, Radiant!" A devious glint appeared in his eyes, and a evil-sounding cackle escaped from his lips. Radiant growled uneasily at this sudden change, and a teardrop formed as it tried to pry Alare from itself.
Meanwhile, a number of miles away from Winhurst, a few people gathered around a campfire.
One in particular was smiling, apart from the rest, and sitting on the cockpit of his Saber Fang. His grin was quite predatory, as he recalled the events of the day, before he was interrupted by a call from below for dinner.
"I'll find you again, kid. Your organoid and Liger are mine." He promised to the wind, before jumping off to join his comrades.
Note: Edited version, 1.01. Typos and the Title corrected/changed. Thanks for pointing them out, those who have reviewed.