Switched Reality
By
Fionarox
Chapter One
The wind colony really was a peaceful place to live. A peacefully boring place, that is. There were no aspects of danger or adventure, (much to the mothers' delight), only farmers, farming zoids and farming. There weren't any battles, even though there was a rumor of war on the way. All day, market ran sluggishly, and people cooked, cleaned and, of course, farmed.
It really could get old.
A young teen sighed quietly as the wind fssshed through the long grass that crept up the broad hill that he lay on. The windmills behind him hummed as they spun in the wind, creating the energy and electricity that the colony depended on. His sharp violet gaze searched the colony, and a pale hand reached to brush the dark sable hair out of his gaze. Finally, he got up, brushed imaginary dust off clothes that had seen better days, and picked up the hoverboard he had brought up with him. No one was watching, and Maria was nowhere to be seen. His adoptive 'sister' was very protective of him; for all that he was an orphan.
'What a boring place.' He muttered.
Kicking the board down, he quickly jumped on the hovering board, and jetted off into the surrounding desert. The Wind colony was only an oasis here. Without the energy the wind provided, the desert would erode the grass and the farming that many had so carefully cultivated.
Feeling the wind against his face, the young man known only as 'Raven' sighed, and smiled gently, as he clutched the hoverboard's controller in his hand. Here, he didn't have to bother with the scathing comments of the pathetic men who only knew how to farm land and coax life out of barren soil.
Raven had no need for such things. He yearned for adventure, for the unexpected and for thrills beyond the small village his mother had brought him to. And then she had done him the inconvenience of dying, leaving him with no known relatives, and nothing to his name.
For now, it was all he could do to escape his minders and feel the desert sun and fresh wind on his face.
But today, he was headed for the ruins, about a mile from the village. It had been explored many, many times before, but Raven felt too energetic to stay in the Colony today. A dash for the ruins, through wild zoids territory was about as adventurous as it got around here, he thought wryly before his ears heard the gigantic thundering that was a zoid's footsteps. He turned around, and sneered. It was a Scorpion like zoid, and it looked pilot-less. He sped up to stay away from the murderous creature, and the smile left his face as he concentrated on gaining more ground than the mad zoid.
Finally, the ruins came into view, and with it, sanctuary.
Thinking rapidly, Raven tilted the board's surface as he neared the building, and nearly broke his thumb, pressing so hard on the projector button as he zoomed up the vertical surface of the ruins that were built into the cliff
As he leaned back to watch the wild zoid run into the building, his hoverboard caught on an edge, and threw him into an old room, via window. His surprised expression was quickly wiped away.
'Agh!' He clutched his ankle in pain. His foot had been caught on a rocky ledge inside the building, making him spin into a wall, landing in a crumpled heap. As he picked himself up, he gingerly put some weight on his injured foot, before whipping the weight off again.
'Stupid.' He muttered in a long chain. ' Stupid stupid stupid.'
He then turned and spotted his hoverboard, and nearly banged his head on the wall in frustration.
'I can't believe this. My board's shot, my legs broken, and I'm trapped in the ruins by a wild zoid.' He ground out through clenched teeth. As if to aggravate him further, the scorpion like zoid banged against the wall outside, trying to destroy the ruins on top of him most like. He coughed heavily as dust seeped through the buildings, and it tilted slightly, startling the teen.
Would they fall?
He waved a hand in front of his face, still coughing and struggled forward on his one good leg, using the longest piece of his hoverboard as a cane. He reached the wall, groping blindly, and felt the wall start to cave in. He hastily stepped back with a muttered oath as the wall crumbled away, revealing-
'A secret passage?' Raven couldn't believe his eyes.
He made his way forward, until he stumbled over a rock that was conveniently in his path. He lurched forward, and landed with an oomph on something cool and hard. Looking up, he saw that a giant capsule had broken his fall.
Speechless for a few moments, he ran his hand on the smooth glass of the thing. Looking inside, he spotted a dark shape shifting in a mass of...something. His hands trembled as he silently pushed a green button on the capsule's side, and fell back with a cry of pain as the container began to pulse and tremble.
With a huge, metallic cry, a silver dinosaur type zoid, very small considering other horrific monsters, staggered out of the capsule, breaking the glass and sending it arching through the air. Raven flinched as the glass spiraled past him, one drawing a long line of red on his cheek. The zoid shuddered to a stop, and collapsed. He was, after all, just immerging from a thousand-year slumber. Of course his body functions wouldn't be what they used to right after he was released. The zoid slowly rose on his feet, and roared at the stunned Raven.
'Hey now, I'm not going to hurt you.' Raven said, watching as the zoid went into attack mode. A silver flash was Raven's only warning as the zoid lashed out with his tail at raven's face, and connected. But the human didn't go down. His head merely turned with the hit, absorbing most of the energy, and then he turned to look at the stunned zoid. Raven raised a hand to his red cheek, and scowled at the zoid.
'You didn't have to do that.'
The zoid roared in response.
Raven sighed heavily, and sat on the ground, his leg beginning to ache. Seeing his opponent weakened, the zoid sniffed, his sensors searching for something. His optical sensor found the other capsule, and silver zoid began to snuffled about the capsule, the one that had been right next to his own. It was a smaller version, but raven knew that zoids could come in different sizes. He hoped another zoid wasn't in the capsule.
He got his wish (hope), albeit it wasn't exactly what he expected.
As the unnamed zoid pressed a red button, raven watched as the capsule shattered, and a young girl, with floating blonde hair, abnormally pale skin, and vermilion eyes. He watched as she stepped out, and promptly collapsed.
What surprised him more was that killer zoid seemed parental towards the child, and nuzzled her gently before standing over her protectively. Did it think Raven was a threat?
'Are you alright?' he asked, trying to make himself seem indifferent, but rapidly failing. It wasn't everyday you watched a zoid and a girl be born. Perhaps this was where babies came from? Raven's cool mind dismissed the foolish idea that popped into his head. He reached out a hand as if in peace towards the pair, and the zoid kept a wary eye on him. But Raven persisted, reaching more, finally standing and hopping as slowly and as undangerously as he could towards the zoid. His hand rested briefly on the zoids cheek before the silence that had surrounded the trio shattered as the Guysak slammed into the room from the outside. Well. Raven snorted. It seemed they were on ground level after all.
'Turn over the silver zoid, and maybe I'll let you and your girlfriend go.' Boomed over the speakers, and Raven could hardly contain himself. That thing had a pilot?
'Why don't you beat it back to whatever junk yard you got that zoid from, huh?' he said, standing defensively in front of the zoid, and missing the zoid's look of gratitude.
The pilot's angry reply was to shoot a missile.
'Get out of the way!' he yelled angrily to the two as he hopped away from the projection missile's path of destruction. The zoid picked up the silent girl and panels in his back opened to reveal boosters. He rocketed away, and grabbed Raven's cloak in passing, dragging the two humans with him as he soared out of the way of the missile, through the gaping hole the Guysak had made, and into the sky. Now that they were out of the dark interior of the ruins, Raven could vaguely see the girl was dressed in strange, skin-tight clothes. He stared at her odd clothing, and, as they landed, gave her his cloak to use as an outer layer. She tied it around her neck, effectively covering everything, although she didn't understand why she had to wear it.
She stared at the way he held himself, and looked at the silver zoid.
'Zeke?'
The zoid roared his approval, and cast his gaze about, searching for something. Raven was clueless.
'What are y-' he was cut off as the strange girl leaned over and kissed him.
Zeke looked thunderstruck.
Just as Raven looked. 'He pulled away, and spat contemptuously. 'What was that for?'
She stared levelly with him. 'I transferred energy. You can stand now, correct?'
He stared at his healed leg, and brought his gaze back up to the strange girl.
'Who are you?' he asked, his voice with a bit of an edge to it.
'Fiona.' She answered promptly.
'Fiona, huh? Well-' once again he was cut off, this time as the zoid that had been attacking them attacked again. While the two had been talking, he had sneaked through the dunes of sand to the trio. Zeke roared a warning, scooped up the two and headed to the ruins of a zoid.
'What are you doing?' Raven cried over the wind, getting just a teensy bit angry. He hated not knowing what was going on. Fiona's surreal eyes glanced at the ruins in satisfaction, and Raven sighed as Zeke prodded him forward. Raven clambered into the pilot's seat, and Zeke roared in approval once more, before transforming into silver energy and diving into the zoid's core, reviving it, and rejuvenating it.
Blue and orange, red and green, colors flooded the zoid, and Zeke roared from somewhere inside the core. Raven smiled wickedly.
'Yes.'
And then he attacked the zoid whose footsteps had thundered after him for a minute too long. Fiona sat and watched, her white-blonde hair floating in the breezes created by the two pilots. Needless to say, the other pilot was readily dispatched, and his zoid froze. Raven's zoid roared triumph, and the pilot leaped from the machine. 'Yes!' His face, normally unreadable, was impossibly stretched by a smile. Somehow Fiona knew that he didn't smile often.
She watched as he ran to her, and his eyes were alight. She searched his eyes for the hate and anger he always poured, but only found a child's delight. She nodded to herself, and her mouth curved upwards as she watched him come nearer. Perhaps that was what it meant to smile? Zeke, still in the zoid, bounded to her, and reached her a few minutes before Raven. She stroked his head with her small hand, and watched him settled himself with the sound of muffled thunder into the sand. Raven stumbled as the shock went through his legs, but he still made it to the girl.
'Thank you!' he cried, and promptly hugged her tight. She was as surprised as he. Raven hadn't meant to do that. But he was so excited! He could leave the colony, and go adventuring! 'Come with me to my village?' he asked, calmer now. He stared at the impassive zoid, and knew suddenly that they would follow each other, the girl and this zoid.
'Of course.' She replied, and his heart soared. He could leave, they could leave, and he could figure out why the girl and this zoid were in the capsule later.
Today was really turning out to be a good day.