Well, uh, here I am again! :) Just a quick little notice: If you guys need to see if I've done anything I try to keep regular updates in my bio page….just thought you guys might wanna know.
Anyway, on with the fic!
-Biddett da Pigeon Stalker-
I can't remember clearly what I did. It was all cloudy. The gunshot…and then I rammed into Flyer, knocking her sprawling. The gunshot missed her, and then it was just all pain. Pain and confusion. One of my eyes blacked out. I remember launching myself onto the bandit that had shot, and tore viciously into the guy's clothes. The other two tried to dislodge me, but I just swung my tail around. It all happened too quickly. I was growling and snapping and well, I couldn't control myself.
Before I knew it, Ryu, Cat, Reja and Hunter were all there, the bandits nowhere in sight.
"Whoa…talk about your major freak-outs." Ryu said.
I stood still, shoulders heaving, still growling menacingly.
"…Mystic? You okay?" Reja asked, concerned.
"Ow…my head…" Flyer groaned as she stood up. She glanced up and around and then at me.
"Mystic! What happened?!" She reached out to me and I snapped at her hand, and snarled forebodingly.
"…Mys…?"
I was being dragged down the hallway. What was he going to do to me?! I struggled against the grip. But it didn't loosen up. I snarled and growled. Let go of me!!!
Suddenly, he stopped and opened up a door. Then he threw me in there. There was another man and kid, about twelve. The man had long silver hair, and cruel eyes. The kid had black hair and looked almost just as frightened as me.
"If you can tame him, Raven, you can keep him." The man said. He left me with the kid, Raven, I think he called him.
I just wanted to get the hell out of here! Raven began to advance on me. I paced back a bit, and then growled a warning. Don't get in my way. I'll kill you if I have to get out of this miserable place.
Without warning, I charged. Raven jumped out of the way and pinned me. He pushed me to the ground and I wrestled with him, trying to get away from him. God, he wasn't bad-he was a strong kid. Maybe…maybe if I just teamed up with him for a while, I could get him to get me away from here…back to my pod. It was so much better than out here. I hadn't wanted to be woken, but they had woke me up anyway.
I stopped struggling and admitted defeat. Well, for the moment anyway…
I reeled back to the present. Man, what were all these weird images? First of that bomb, now of this…What were they? Memories? Hallucinations? Premonitions?
The world swirled around me. I was so dizzy. With one last shuddering cry, I doubled over and fell to the ground.
"Mystic!" The five of them yelled at once.
Something snapped in my mind. I swaggered back up, my mind clearing. What had just happened was still a foggy blur, the gunshot, the assault, the illusion…but now I seemed just fine. Except for a searing pain in my left eye.
=My eye…= I said painfully. Now their attention finally turned more onto my physical state.
"Your eye! What the heck did they do to you?!" Hunter exclaimed. Flyer stood back as everyone crowed around me.
"She…took that shot those bandits fired at me…" Flyer said to herself quietly. She seemed touched.
Ryu overheard her though. "WHAT?! They SHOT Mystic?!" He almost yelled, vexed.
"Did they? Man, I'm gonna get 'em next time!" Cat sounded pretty annoyed too.
"No…they meant to get me, not Mystic. I don't think they want to harm her." Flyer finally spoke up.
"And so she took the shot for you? What a brave little organoid you are!" Reja replied, astounded.
=Uhhh…can we, um, go somewhere to get my eye fixed? I'm half blind and it hurts like hell.= I suddenly said, bluntly. For, now that I noticed, along with the acute pain, was a blackness of one half of the world. I could only see to the front and right.
"Right, right!" Reja said. "But…all the shops have shut up. There's nowhere to go, unless we cross to another town or something…but who would know how to fix an organoid?"
"It wouldn't be that much different than a normal zoid…would it?" Ryu suggested.
Something moved past and blocked out the sun. It was a large, black D-Bison. It scanned the area, and Reja pushed me into a rubbish pile. Then we all froze as it stood there for a moment, just watching us. It couldn't see me in all this junk, but all five of the others sure looked suspicious.
Out of nowhere, Cat threw a punch at Hunter.
"OW! What was that for?" He yelled.
"You wanna fight me, kid? I'll take you on any day!" Cat threatened.
"Oh…is that what you want, is it?" Hunter replied cockily. He rolled up his sleeves.
"Come on you two! Where's your sense?" Reja grabbed onto Hunter as he tried to hit Cat back.
Flyer caught Cat's eye and smirked. "I think you've had enough to drink, Cat. I think I'd better take you home."
"Yeah…right!" She scoffed.
"Come on…" Fly grabbed the boisterous woman by the shirt and dragged her away.
The D-Bison finally gave it up, and pressed on.
I stumbled out of the pile of rubbish, and Cat wrenched out of Flyer's grip and came back.
"Wh…wh…what just happened to all of you? Did you guys drink something funny or something?" Ryu asked, a little sarcastic.
"No, it was to fool that stupid D-Bison pilot. I made it out so we were just a couple of dumbasses who had too much and were picking on a kid." Cat answered tartly.
"Well, now what?" Hunter asked. "What are we going to do about Mystic? We can't just hang around here- she'll be in danger. But where are we gonna go?"
"Well, let's get out of here, first. We'll think of that when we're safely away from these crazy bandits!" Reja suggested.
"Yeah, that sounds good…" Everyone agreed.
We managed to sneak our way to the limits of the village, and quickly everyone jumped into their zoids.
=Um…guys? What about me?= I said kind of lamely as I realised there was no zoid for me.
"You can just waddle along next to us, I suppose." Hunter replied.
"What? No way! That's far too dangerous!" Fly barked.
"Huh? What's got you so moody all of a sudden?" Hunter responded with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Oh, sorry…it's just that she's already been damaged, and what if we get attacked?" Flyer sounded a little caught off guard. She probably hadn't realised what she had sounded like.
Ryu glanced around in his Mecha-ryu. "So where are we headed? I know we haven't decided exactly, but we can't just wander aimlessly…"
"Follow me!" Cat's Blade Liger, Anarchy, bounded off. Hunter followed along, quickly tailed by Reja and Flyer. Ryu gave one last glance around and then looked at Mystic, and followed suit.
=Heyyyyyyyyyy!!! Just go and forget about me why don't you?!= I yelled. I flicked on my boosters and hovered up beside the small group.
"If nobody else has room, you'll have to come back with me then." Flyer stated, and paused so I could clamber on.
"Oh, don't worry. I have some room." Cat replied cheerfully. I flew over to the pink Blade Liger and she opened up the cockpit. I landed in a seat just behind her and she closed up again.
"Cat…being helpful? What's the world coming to?" Ryu snickered.
&&&
The desert and rocky outcrops soon gave way to lush fields of greenery. Even with my blind eye I found it hard not to be cheerful. Everything just seemed so…bright, and happy. The tall grass vivid green was echoed by the bright blue sky, a clear blue with no clouds. The sun no longer beat down on the five zoids heatedly; it was a nice climate.
And Cat seemed to know where she was going and so far nobody had questioned her.
"Look at that, it's so nice here. Can we stop for the day?" Reja asked hopefully.
Cat glanced at me. "I suppose so." Anarchy came to a halt.
It was all plains, not a single hill in sight. A few trees dotted the landscape, and a river or two snaked their way towards the horizon.
Flyer stopped under a large, old, and gnarled tree, overlooking one of the small streams. The roots poked right through the bank and the water lapped around them, as if the water was cradling the roots gently.
We all clambered out and joined Flyer by the old tree. She brought out some of the supplies she had bought in town. The rest had been split up and a small portion was placed in each of everyone's zoids. We didn't have a Gustav to pull huge loads so we could only have enough food and water to last us a fortnight at the most.
I soon found myself wandering around, checking out the scenery. It was real pretty out here. When all this with the bandits calms down, I want to come back here.
Nosing my way through the tall grass, I found Ryu sitting by the tree, reading.
=Hey!= I greeted. Ryu jumped slightly, and put down his book.
"How's your eye? Has the pain gone away at all?" He asked, concerned. A sudden gust of wind came out of nowhere, and sent his short brown hair in all directions.
I hadn't really been paying attention to my eye. I had been so busy checking everything out that I only realised the sharp pain just then.
I winced as much as an organoid could and replied, =It's okay. Haven't noticed too much. I've been busy looking around.=
"Mmmm…it is real nice here, huh?" Ryu's hazel eyes then went back to his book.
I turned around and left. Ryu probably just wanted me to leave him alone so he could read his book. I poked my way through the thick, green grass and found Reja and Cat…fighting.
I didn't really want to stay. Knowing them, eventually I'd get caught up in it somehow. I ambled off through the grass again, to find Hunter.
I searched the whole area. Nowhere! Where was he? The dark-brown haired and friendly green-eyed twelve-year old had disappeared! I poked into crevices, looked through everyone's zoids, searched the riverbank, and investigated under the gnarled roots of the wisened old tree.
"Uaaaaahhhhhhhh!!" A young voice startled me. Jerking my head upwards, towards the scream I finally spotted Hunter, who was climbing up the tree! Well, was, I should say. He had made it half way up and had slipped. Hunter now hung onto one of the huge limbs of the ancient tree with only his arms, the rest of his body dangling away below him.
"Well, how stupid are you for climbing that thing!" Reja yelled at him, slightly irritated.
I took the situation into my own hands, and dashed up the tree, clawing up the trunk, piercing right through the old bark with my claws.
=I'm coming!= I called to him.
Hunter grinned. He chuckled to himself softly. "No need, Mys, I'm fine…I was just startled a little, that's all!" Hunter hauled himself onto the branch and smiled.
"But I could use the company. Climbing this old girl's only going to entertain me for a while, y'know…" He added as he grinned.
=Hey…have you seen Flyer at all, Hunter? I haven't seen her all day…= I asked him.
"I saw her go out in her zoid a while ago. I think she'll be back soon anyway." He replied, grunting as he reached out for a branch above his head.
I followed him up the rest of the way of the giant, chatting the whole way. I noticed he called me 'Mys' quite a bit…not that I minded. I think I've heard Flyer call me Mys once or twice…
We paused as Hunter climbed up the last branch to poke his head out of the top of the leaves.
"Whoa…Mys, come take a look!" Hunter beckoned.
I scrambled up and just stopped. You could see so far…I surveyed the land, horizon to horizon. To the east, I think, the plain stretched endlessly. It just kept going, into oblivion. Then, to the west, the rivers seemed to congregate. They kept merging into one another until a huge raging river swirled about and then it just settled, into an absolutely massive lake that covered the rest of the plain to the point where it touched the horizon.
As I looked back to where we had come from, the grass slowly sank into rock, and canyons stretched into various lengths that gave the earth a kind of scratched look from the distance I was viewing the world at. Then it just was swallowed up by the sand. Endless, lifeless and unbearably hot. That was all that was left of that view.
I gazed across to see where I think we were heading in. We had being going in that direction all day, so I guess we were going to continue that way. The plain continued on, but then the grass slowly grew shorter. It then stopped, and a snowy mountain range grew up from the edge. The mountain was uniformly a slate grey, but every now and then a small forest climbed up the slope. Once the mountain reached so far in the sky, it turned a complete white, capped with snow. I couldn't really see behind the mountain range but I thought I saw more forest, coated in a blanket of snow.
=Whoa…it's so pretty…= The sight had taken my breath away.
"Yeah…" Hunter's amazement was shown clearly.
Something darkly-coloured caught my eye near the huge lake.
=Look! You can see the Dragon Fire!= I exclaimed.
"Where…?" Hunter glanced around.
=Near that huge lake!=
"Oh…I see now! Sheez, you can really see for ages up here!"
The Gunsniper now began to move in their general direction. "And she's coming back now. I told you she wouldn't be gone for much longer!"
&&&
We were now all seated around a campfire, next to the ancient, gnarled tree beside the stream. It was dark and everyone chatted comfortably.
"So…exactly where are we going, anyway?" Reja finally asked Cat. It had been bugging the auburn-haired woman all day long.
"Oh…right. I know there's a lady who lives in the mountains up there-" Cat paused and pointed to the snowy mountain range I had seen earlier. "And apparently she knows about organoids. So I thought if we take Mystic up there she could fix her up, and learn a little about her, and why she can't fuse…" She then quickly added. "But some people say she's just a crazy old hag who believes too much in fairy tales."
"Well, it's not as if we have much else to do anyway." Reja replied, propping herself against a huge twisted root.
Soon enough, everyone began to disperse to go to sleep. Only Flyer remained for a while, staring into the flames.
She looked over at me and sighed.
"You haven't seen what you look like, haven't you?" She asked me softly.
=No.= I replied.
"C'mon then." She stood up and signalled me to follow. As we walked away from the campfire, everything turned black. But then as we emerged from behind the giant tree's shadow, moonlight flooded the area.
The silver-haired woman led me down to the creek and walked along it for a while. She glanced down and then leapt down past the bank. I crooned worriedly a little, before realising that just here the water dried up a little, allowing people to walk down the almost-dry river.
I followed and she sat down next to the glistening water. I glanced down and saw my black face. My crimson eye was fine, but my golden eye was scarred black, and was cracked a little. Scratches trailed up my left side of my face. I shuddered and sat down next to Flyer.
We sat there, in each other's company, enjoying the silence in the moonlight, listening to the river's water flowing past. I glanced up to her and saw her purple eyes disappear into a daydream.
I don't know how long we sat there, but it did feel like an eternity. Not as in a bad way, but I enjoyed it. My tail found the water and swished through it. I was soon lost in thought. Again with those weird images…
THERE! I'm done! :) My, that was a quick update! Don't know how long the next one will be, so hold onto your hats and don't forget me! =)
Hmmm…if any of you guys can think of any small chapter-long plot ideas (people to meet along the way, etc) that would be appreciated, as I'm kinda dry in that area.
R&R, k?
-Biddett da Pigeon Stalker-