S.D. Greetings everyone! Knuckles: Yo. S.D. Before we get rolling I'd like to take this time to acknowledge those who have taken the time to review this story and in turn acknowledge my work. *Ahem* I would like to thank Zapper Zaku, Wiggle Lizard, Alyssa, and Broli the Destroyah for reviewing and most of all I would like to thank AMC 08 for reviewing every chapter so far even though I'm only to the fourth one, don't worry I'll do this again at the end of the story. Knuckles, catch. (Throws clip board with names on them to Knuckles). Knuckles: Ahhhh! My eye, you hit me in my eye! S.D. Whoops, sorry. Come on though it can't hurt that badly. Knuckles: Well it does! I have big eyes you know! S.D. Oh yeah, well anyway the next thing I have to say concerns Lenna, look there's a good reason why she hasn't shown up yet and she's going to have a big part in the story so I'm not going to reveal it yet. If I'm asked anything else that concerns the plot I'll talk about it only if it's something you didn't understand or that I forgot to cover. Enjoy the story! (Throws note with speech on it away) Knuckles: Ahhhh! My other eye!

Losing the Soul Chapter 4: Discover

Liger lay on the ground, defeated, looking up at it's savior. The dragon just hovered there with it's wing pointed up, the reason for this is it had engines in the ends of it's wings which was what was allowing it to hover, staring at the Liger. John: "The reason I'm here, Bit, is to save your behind." Bit: "Then you knew this was a setup?! John: "Since thirty minutes ago, yes, that's about when the N.U.C.L.S.S. system woke me and Yuna up warning me that this was a setup by the GF." Bit: "Bet Yuna wasn't too happy about that, hey wait! You're saying the GF's after me now?" John: "First of all Yuna was very grouchy about it, and second what do you expect, you're becoming a real popular guy." Bit: "Well that's just great, think you can give me a lift back?" John: "I could, but my place is closer, I'll fix the Liger there, less likely we'll be seen." The dragon positioned itself over Liger and the large claw at the end of it's single leg began to lightly glow, Liger was immeadiately lifted off the ground. The claw was magnetic. Bit: "One more question." John: "What is it?" Bit: "Why didn't you use Light Wing's lasers instead of the gattling guns?" John: "Because, Bit, the Light Wing Dragon's homing lasers leave very distinct damage, I couldn't leave any evidence that I was here."

As Light Wing lifted off the ground with Liger hanging from the single large leg a third, more powerful engine, in it's tail fired up and it's wings slowly went back into their forward position, taking off at an incredible speed for such a large zoid. Little did either Bit or John know they were being watched. Jamie: "Seems John knows more about Bit than he told me, but I can't figure out where Bit got that new armor from. Maybe I should go see Doc in the morning." Jamie turned around and got back into his Raynos, which he had hidden in a small shallow canyon. Jamie: "I'll get to the bottom of this if it kills me."

In a dark room at an unknown location eight people sat in a circle around a light shown on the floor, all of their faces were obscured by the darkness and no one could be clearly seen. Voice1: (altered by some sort of computer to sound like two computerized voices) "Ladies and Gentleman we have a problem. An hour ago one of our companies reported that their ambush had failed, Bit Cloud is still at large and remains a threat." Voice2: "So the Guardian Force's new König Wolves and Gun Blasters did nothing?" Voice1: "Quiet the contrary, they had him pined for a moment but it would seem he had help, according to the story of the pilots as they were closing in on him something shot their zoids through the necks and then fired some sort of sleeping gas." Voice3: "So they only need to try again and have more zoids on the lookout for Cloud's partner." Voice4: "It's not that simple you fool! Need I remind you Bit Cloud is no ordinary pilot, nor is the Liger Zero an ordinary zoid? If the Guardian Force tries again he will not fall for the same tactics, and if he does the only advantage they had was the zoids they used were new, now that he has seen them and has an idea of what they can do it is unlikely they can pull off the same results." Voice5: "That would be true but, the Liger's Orginoid System memorizes individual styles, if they use different pilots they could stop him." Voice1: "No she's right, as much as it pains me to say, Bit Cloud is a superb pilot, no one in the Guardian Force can stop him by themselves and the numbers it would take to defeat him again would be too much to hide." Voice6: "Then perhaps we need only a few pilots." Voice7: "Are you mad?! We can't send one of our pilots to face him! It could give us away, we've worked to hard to keep our existence a secret we can't risk blowing our cover now! Voice8: "But if we don't stop him it could bring attention to the companies under our control and reveal us anyway! Voice6: "Calm down, those are both good arguments but I had a different idea. Cloud has fought in many battles since going under ground correct? Well if I'm not mistaking he has only killed those who work for us, every police unit that fights him only loses their zoids not their pilots, a few of them must have gained some knowledge of fighting him. Voice3: "Yes of course, we find some pilots in the police who are seasoned enough and have faced Bit Cloud several times and then have one of our companies "generously" offer them a new, more powerful zoid." Voice1: "I like it, all those in favor." Voices 2,3,5,6,8: "I!" Voice1: "Then it's decided. We'll let our good friends in the police force deal with Bit Cloud for us.

In a subterranean chamber underneath John's hanger Bit and John were kneeling on the top of Liger, who's armor had been removed, with welding torches and welders masks, both were still in there battle gear, and John's, which could be seen better now, had the same black and white star, that usually hung around his neck, on the right arm of his flight suit, the words "Team Dragoon" on the left and the dragon from his jacket on the back. Bit: "Hey John, mind if I ask you a tired question?" John: "If you must." Bit: "Why don't we do things together as friends anyway?" John: "You know the answer to that. I would come under suspicion if anyone knew that we were friends or even know each other. It's not that I don't have the guts to help you out in the open, but I've got my family to worry about, I can't risk getting arrested." Bit: "Yeah I know, just wanted to see if you were serious or changed your mind, speaking of your family, how they doing?" John: "Pretty good, Peter's just as curious about zoids as ever, asking what's this for what does this do, can I help, it's cute but annoying. Eureka is learning more words every day and Yuna's as good as ever." Bit: "End of the zoid season not hurting ya'. John: "Nah never does, our savings are pretty deep good thing to considering how much we spend during this time of the year." Bit: "Pardon me if I'm wrong but don't most warriors spend less this time of the year?" John: "Most warriors don't have four birthdays, including their own, in the summer and have an entire collection of zoids they don't use to polish, fix, take out, and tune up." Bit: "Right, I forgot. Oh yeah, ol' Doc Layon said he'll have the Whale King flying soon as long as no one notices the damage on it is being holographically projected. I still say as bad idea." John: "Don't worry, the ZBC and GF aren't anything to worry about as long as you stay over international waters, and until we expose them, Fire Wind won't pose a problem yet. Now please keep working, I'd like to get some sleep before the kids wake up."

10 in the morning Ted Hawkings sat on his couch in his city view apartment. He was thirty-three had buzzed red hair steel gray squinted eyes and worked for the local police force. He lived in his apartment with his girlfriend Lara Fielding, who had short black hair, brown eyes and was also thirty-three and worked for the police. Along with their partner Lance Riays, who was thirty, who had slick brown hair was 5'3 in other words short and had light blue eyes, they were the best their police force had to offer as pilots. All of them had faced Bit Cloud in battle many times over and lost. The phone began to ring on the wall. Ted: "Lara, could you get that?" Lara: "Don't you have ears you lazy bum!? I'm in the shower!" Ted: (to himself) "Oh right." Ted lazily got up and walked over to the wall phone and picked it up. Ted: "Hello. Oh hey Lance, wus' up. Uh-huh, you don't say, really, you're kidding, no, hold on let me right this down, hold on I'm writtin' as fast as I can, okay got it, see ya there." Ted hung the phone up and Lara walked into the room wearing a towel. Lara: "Who was it?" Ted: "It was Lance, said one of the companies that damn Bit Cloud's been attacking has been looking through police records and chosen some of the pilots who have fought that bastard to give some better zoids to ta see if they can beat im', and guess who's on the top of their list."

Jamie lay face down on the bed in his hotel room sleeping soundly as the clock next to him changed to read 12:46 p.m. Jamie began to stir, he slowly turned his head then slightly opened his eyes and turned his head back. He then immediately pushed himself off of his bed grabbed the clock and starred at it. Jamie: "Shit! I overslept! Ungh... that's what I get for chasing Bit all night long." Jamie rolled out of bed and quickly went to put his vest and shoes back on. Jamie: "I'd better get over to the old base and then maybe I can try to find Brad and..." Jamie was interrupted by his stomach which suddenly growled violently. Jamie: "Uh... maybe I should grab lunch first, it's not like they're all going somewhere."

Bit, not unlike Jamie, lay sleeping in his bed as the clock ticked past 1 in the afternoon. Dr. Layon was in the hanger fixing Liger Zero's armor. Layon: (mumbling) "Damn it, I still can't believe we were set up like that, and we walked right into it to boot. A good thing that John helps us or don't know where we'd be sometimes." John and Bit had fixed Liger's main body and had fixed the major damage in the armor so things like the stealth shield still worked. Bit had gotten in at 6:30 briefly explained why he was late. Went to his room and fell right on his bed and drifted into a state of sleep he hadn't been in for years. Dr. Layon on the other hand was forced to finish fixing Liger. Layon: "Damn it, I know it was more of my fault that this happened but he could of stayed up long enough to help me, that guy can be such an immature brat for someone of his age and experience."

Jamie approached the old base in his Raynos and was saddened when he saw the condition of the base. Jamie: "Man, they've really let the base go, doesn't anyone clean it anymore, I just hope they don't expect me to continue where I left off and start by cleaning the place up." Jamie landed the Raynos in the old base and quickly jumped out of the cockpit and was a little disturbed when a cloud of dust stirred up when he landed. He had checked before coming that the Tauroses still lived there but everything looked so dirty and desolate. He walked around the hanger a bit to see if he could find everything, he was greatly disturbed at what he saw, large parts of the walls caved in some of the cat walks had fallen down, there was dust everywhere, but what disturbed him the most were the hunks of scrape that resembled parts of the Hover Cargo. He suddenly stopped. Jamie: "Leon's Blade Liger?!" Jamie starred at the majestic red lion for a second, noticing that it was still in good condition which meant someone was taking care of it.

Jamie entered the residential section of the base, which was more depressing still, the walls had cracks, many of the lights needed fixing, he began calling out. Jamie: "Hello! Is anyone here?!" Jamie continued walking until he thought he heard a noise coming from Dr. Tauros's room. Jamie carefully approached the room opened the door and ... Dr. Tauros: "Halt! Who goes there?!" Jamie suddenly found himself starring down the barrel of an old rifle that he hoped wasn't loaded. Dr. Tauros was the one holding it, along with wearing an old round army helmet and camo jacket over his normal coat. Jamie: "D...da... Doc, it's me, Jamie!" Dr. Tauros: "Jamie? Jamie!" Dr. Tauros dropped his rifle, the and of which fell on Jamie's foot, and gave Jamie a big, way too tight, hug. Dr. Tauros: "Bout' time you got back from your vacation the mess around here is huge. I keep catching Leon trying to clean it up and having to stop him and remind him that it's your job, I've even had to question him, what are you trying to do steal his position, don't worry through I'd never let him do that! Jamie: 'He'd better be kidding'. "Uh Doc... you feeling okay? Dr. Tauros: "Never better, why da' ya' ask?!" Leon: "Dad put him down he's turning blue!" Dr. Tauros released Jamie and he took several long gasps. Leon: "Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Jamie: *cough*, *cough* "What? Have I changed that much?" Leon: "Jamie?"

Leon and Jamie sat in the old briefing room drinking coffee. Leon: "You'll have to excuse dad, he's been like this for awhile, some days are worse than others. You just happen to catch him on a bad day, don't worry that gun wasn't loaded." Jamie: "I guess it doesn't surprise me, Doc never really was all there to begin with." Jamie took a sip of his coffee. Leon: "He's not insane Jamie, though I know he may look it. He's just spiritually broken, I think the team being split up was a big factor of it. You need to really consider what's happened to understand how but just think, Brad left, then you, I came back but I didn't really help, I'm sure you've seen what's happened to Bit, and Leena, well she's gone too. I guess it was too much for dad to take in all at once."

Jamie: "Wow, I'm a little sorry I left now." Leon: "Only a little?" Jamie: "Don't get me wrong if I had known this would happen and me staying would have made a big difference I wouldn't have left. But I think you don't understand how important the time I spent away was." Leon: "Right, your journey to find yourself, how'd that go?" Jamie: "Very well, I'm glad to say." Leon: "Well as you can see this place is falling apart, I try to keep it running but doing it by myself isn't easy, good thing dad's mental state doesn't seem to allow him to buy useless junk anymore. Hey, I hate to ask but if you're staying would you consider joining up with us again, I know it seems unusual but I really need help. Ever since the team broke up I've been trying to put together a new one, but finding the right people has been difficult and..." Jamie: "Say no more, I'd be happy to, just as long as I don't need to clean this mess by myself, and one more thing." Leon: "What's that?" Jamie: "I'm looking for Bit, I need to finish that first, I don't suppose you have any info." Leon: "Well, all I can tell you is that trying to talk Bit out of this is like talking to a brick wall, I know he's doing this for a reason but he won't tell me, he doesn't want anyone else involved."

Ted, Lara, and Lance were led down a clean looking hallway ban a man in a suit each of them still in their police uniforms. Man in Suit: "Please follow me your new zoids are down this hall." Lance: "If you don't mind me askin' why would anyone just donate us zoids?" Man in Suit: "Well it's quite simple really, me employer's business has suffered greatly because of that bandit. Besides although they man not seem it the people who run this company are very compassionate and feel he is a hazard to public safety."

They entered a large white clean room with three zoids lined up. Ted: "Whoa!" Lara: "Oh my God." Lance: "Awesome." Man in Suit: "The Brown König Wolf with the extra guns on it's back and missile pods on the sides is yours Mr. Hawkings, I should start by warning you that through reverse engineering we have given this zoid a copy of the Strike Laser Claw. Ted: "Strike Laser claw?! You're kidding!" Man in Suit: "I'm most certainly not. Ms. Fielding the red Gun Blaster is yours, I should warn you as well we've made the armor stronger, given it explosive ammunition and an energy shield." Lara: "Really, that's amazing!" Man in Suit: "Which of course means the Pteramander is yours Mr. Riays, some also call it the Salamander but it seems pointless, I'm afraid everything on it is standard issue, but Mr. Cloud has never, to our knowledge, seen one so you will have the element of surprise." Lance: "That's fine with me." Ted: "Guys I think we might actually beat that son of a bitch now."

S.D. Oh ho, looks like Bit's in trouble, yet again. Knuckles: Are you trying to suck the drama out of this? S.D. Shut up, anyway I once again tried to change how I start my sentences by adding a few spaces in front of their names, but once again FanFic.net wouldn't let me. By the way for any of you who are wondering, yes, I do know I spelled losing wrong in the title and I can't fix it. And I apologize if the paragraphs are too long, don't blame me blame my school, you should see how long the paragraphs are, it's enough to make you...*sniff* Whaaahaha! Knuckles: There, there, it's okay. (Pats S.D. on back) S.D. *sniff* thanks, is it any wonder why I keep this guy around? Anyway time for my closing statement, Knuckles the lights. Knuckles: Got it! (Turns on spot lights) Ah! My eyes I'm blinded, it burns! S.D. Whoa, maybe you should put on your sun glasses. Knuckles: Good idea. What's that sound? (Boulder falls on Knuckles) Ah there is broken glass in my eyes! S.D. Dang this just ain't your day buddy, next time we do our show away from the cliffs, see ya next time. Knuckles: MY EYES!!!!