Disclaimer: I do not own Medabots or any of the characters from the original manga. I own myself (hopefully) and my characters. I also own the plot to this fanfic. You cannot use my characters unless you have MY permission. You cannot sue me mainly because of this disclaimer. So take that! Watch out or I'll go law and order on you rear!

Author 's Note/ Warning: Some OCness here with Foxfire. Not exactly enjoying it really ^_^U. Hope you guys don't mind.

While Metabee and Rokusho rushed farther into the forest, now having a new found determination for the search, Brass and Foxfire still walked quietly down their path, peering under bushes and near tree roots.

No luck, of course.

Brass and Foxfire were doing about just as well. No luck at all. The best they had found were coins and nuts shaped like the trinket.

"Rokusho... euh... Metabee said that if we walked a couple yards off of a large beech tree we'd be there." Brass recited before sighing in annoyance. "But there are tons of beech trees here!"

'Try following the smell of oil then.' The dark side chuckled. Foxfire rolled her optics.

'That's not funny!'

The FOX type kicked a few bushes, as if hoping that the device would conveniently fall out. She then looked up to a tall and mighty horse chestnut tree.

"I'm gonna try and see if I can get a bird's eye view of the place and maybe spot the device."

Brass nodded in acknowledgement and watched Foxfire take a small leap to the first branch and disappear in the brush of leaves and maze of branches. She could see Foxfire's progress to the top because each jump she made onto a different branch shook the leaves.

After a few moments of the sound of grunting and metal hitting wood, Foxfire poked her head out of the top with the sun bathing her in light.

She winced a little before looking down and peering at the ground.

Brass yelled up to her. "See anything?!"

"I'm looking. There should be-Wait! I see something!" A small glint or silver appeared behind a bush about five yards way from the SLM.

"To your right! There's a bush near you. It's just beside it! Look there!" She called to her.

Brass' medal skipped a beat. She glanced over and kneeled down for a better look. She spotted another silver coin just beneath the under brush of branches and picked it up.

"Is this what you saw?" Brass shouted back up to her and held up the coin. Foxfire squinted to see if she was right. She leapt down and groaned.

"I REALLY thought I had it!" Brass patted her on the shoulder. "We both did. Come on, let's keep looking."

Foxfire nodded, a little put off by the failure and continued walking along the path. Brass suddenly felt the need to talk to her. She had a question, and wondered about it often. And now seemed better then any other time.

"Euh, F-Foxfire?" The FOX looked over her shoulder before looking back to her front.

"Yes Brass?"

"W-euh, h-how do you feel about M-Metabee?" Brass stuttered, highly hesitating of even mentioning her question.

Foxfire blinked a few times in confusion and gave a shrug.

"What do you mean?"

"W-well, do you REALLY like him? O-or are... you leading him on?"

That caught Foxfire off guard. She came to a full halt and turned around. And yet was almost relieved she asked that.

"Brass I've been PRAYING to tell someone else about this! But I've never really known how to put it." It was now Brass' turn to blink in confusion. "Look, you must understand I've grown really fond of Metabee over the time I've known him. But he's more of a big brother to me than anything."

Brass listened diligently, not wanting to miss any of this. "Continue...."

"Well you know the way Metabee is, and I-I just don't want to see that.... that look on his face. I really don't mean to lead him on! And I REALLY want to tell him. But it's so hard, knowing that he'll probably never speak to me again."

Brass sighed. From one point of view she saw how mean it was for Foxfire to keep Metabee unaware of she really thought of him, but from another point she saw that it really would hurt him if he was aware.

"Brass? What should I do?" Foxfire wanted to know what the SLM type was thinking. She was silent with her own thoughts. She half-expected Brass to lash out and tell her how insensitive she was.

Well she certainly didn't lash out or yell. Instead Brass sat down on a nearby brush of grass and put her hands on her knee joints.

"To be honest, *I* think you need to tell Metabee soon, before this goes out too far and when you do tell him, it will crush him. And you have to make sure he completely understands what you're telling him so he doesn't jump to conclusions and think, I don't know. You're an alien or something!"

Foxfire let out a breath of relief, liking the sound of that. "That's great advice, Brass. And it helps a lot, I can't thank you enough!" Something then came to her attention. "Hey Brass, why were you so interested in how I felt about Metabee?"

"Hunh?" Brass' pink optics widened. "I-I don't know what you mean...."

"Actually, I think you do." Foxfire said slyly, walking over to her. "Brass, let me ask you a question. How do YOU feel about Metabee?"

Brass quirked an optic and tried to think of a way out.

"Metabee? He's-he's nice. We've been friends for awhile. Nothing else to say really." Brass gave a sort of nervous laugh. Foxfire narrowed her optics before bending down to be at optic level.

" I didn't ask what your relationship was like. I asked how you feel about him. Now answer my question." The dark side was having a bit of fun and offering some soul into the questions.

Brass was now not only nervous, but scared, not sure what to say. "W-w- well, I-I-I-I d-" Her stammering and stuttering had found it's way back.

The dark side had become very interested and now Foxfire's optics were dark purple. She leaned in a little further, until her cybernetic fox nose picked up a scent.

True, smelling was more of a dog's feature, but foxes ARE apart of the canine family. (AN: Don't lie, you know it's true!)

Foxfire rose up from her knees and began sniffing the air, walking over to the right a little, leading off the path.

"W -what are you doing Foxfire? What do you smell?"

The dark FOX paused for a few moments before answering. "Oil."

Brass got up as well and followed her, although was careful to keep her distance.

Foxfire pushed past some tall grass in the forest, not surprised it had grown length, and Brass did the same. The grass was soon enough back down to their ankle joints.

Every now and then Foxfire took another whiff of the air and would either continue straight or take a sharp turn. Sometimes even doubled back.

Finally after slipping in between a couple of trees, the all-too familiar clearing came into view. The light side shuddered as she looked upon the spot, remembering such horrible memories from the place.

Brass rubbed her arm in discomfort, recognizing the clearing as well. "Should I shoot up now? We found the place didn't we?" She looked over to the FOX, her optics now back to their light mauve color.

She gave a nod before dimming her optics. "Good idea."

Brass acknowledged her and aimed her right arm to the sky above them.

"Short shots!" She shouted before firing to the air, sending speeding bullets high over the treetops.

---------------

Rokusho and Metabee looked up as they heard and saw bullets being shot into the air. They nodded to each other before running into that direction.

Metabee's medal skipped a beat as he soon thought of finally rejoining his body.