S.D. Hey everybody. Steam Detective here. Knuckles: And I'm Knuckles. S.D. If you all don't know that by now you haven't been paying attention. As you can see I actually got this one up on time. Knuckles: Don't expect the next few chapters to come so fast though. S.D. Starting with answering some things first, I probably didn't stress this fact very much but the dome the guys were battling in last time was big and by which I mean huge. Second, the reason no one noticed Fire Wind's base taking off is simple, no one was looking for it and no one lives remotely near where it was. Third, although I'm sure I've seen stuff like it in a few places I made up the whole Fire Wind's base lifting up thing as a way to heighten the drama and not make the story come to a conclusion to abruptly. Finally we are actually grinding down to the last chapter here so you all know what that means. Knuckles: You're going to slack off for the rest of the summer? S.D. No! ...Well yes, but I'm still going to post a few more things before the summer is out. It's almost time for my reviewers acknowledgement where I personally thank all those who have reviewed my story. I did that back in chapter four and said I wouldn't do it again until the end of the chapter ya know. Knuckles: Oh, right, I remember now. S.D. Good well enjoy the chapter. No seriously enjoy it like I said we're almost to the last one.

Losing the Soul

Chapter 13: Run

The six warriors looked at the enormous crater before them. None one said a word all were to paralyzed to say anything for nearly five minutes. Bit and Vega had a look of both great disappointment and anger on their faces both of them having been deprived of their revenge. Ted: "...but...how...?" Leon: "Vega, explain." Vega: "I wish I could." Brad: "Was this all a setup?!" John: "That makes no sense Brad, the Fuma Team had Bit and Ted cornered. Sparing them just to kill them later makes no sense. Besides, Light Wing's scanners say this crater is only a few hours old." Bit: "Damn them! If only we'd gotten here earlier!" Jamie: "There was no way we could have Bit." Vega: "Now I remember..." Ted: "Remember what?" Vega: "I told you guys I was a prisoner in their base but I managed to sneak out several times. The only way to kill time was to learn ways of escape and not be caught. I went around the whole base and got very good at stealth and breaking locks and even computer codes but there were certain areas I was never able to break into and they were big areas too." Brad: "So?" Vega: "Those areas were easily big enough to have things like engines and other things capable of lifting something of that size." Jamie: "But that's impossible. The base is huge how would they power something like that?" Vega: "Fire Wind's been experimenting with just about everything in the last eight years. Power sources were something they delved their science divisions into."

John: "Uh, guys. I hate to interrupt but we have a problem." Leon: "What now?" John: "Light Wing's scanners are picking up a massive amount of zoids heading our way." Bit: "So what? Vega can just blow them all away." Vega: "I could but I'm not going to." Bit: "What?! Why?" Vega: "The only people who are going to die today are Fire Wind's mindless minions and no one else." John: "I think it be better if he didn't shoot them anyway." Jamie: "Why?" John: "Every zoid belonging to a specific army, militia, company or otherwise has a unique signal that comes up on radar and the ones I'm picking up are from the police departments of about fifty different cities, the Republican army, the ZBC and the Guardian Force." Bit: "What?!" Brad: "Shit, it's a trap!" Ted: "And we fell for it hook, line and sinker!" Vega: "C'mon! We need to get out of here now!" John: "We have to hurry we're being surrounded!" Leon: "From what direction?!" John: "Behind us!" Brad: "No!" Leon: "John, which way will take us longer going through that crater or around?!" John: "I dunno? That crater's deep but..." Bit: "Hurry!" John: "You guys'll have to go around it!

The four zoids on the ground began to run to the left side of the gargantuan crater while the flyers got ready to go over it. John: "Hold on a second Bit." Light Wing descended on the Liger and lifted him into the air. John: "You're taking the short route." Jamie: "I think now might be a good time to try that." Two grabber cables descended from the sides of the Raynos and picked up the Zero X. Ted: "Not that I don't appreciate the lift but why me?" Jamie: "Easy, Vega can get away much faster than anyone else and if only Leon and Brad are found I think they could weasel their way out of the police's grasp but if you and Bit are here they'll arrest everyone on the spot." Ted: "Huh?" John: "One of the companies Fire Wind controls probably tipped them off about this and they probably didn't say who else was here so they're only looking for Bit and the Liger and if you're here too they might suspect something." Ted: "Oh." Leon: "We'll meet back at Dr. Layon's, okay?" Bit: "Right."

The two airborne units along with their passengers went off over the crater at top speed while the Berserk Fury activated it's boosters and went on ahead. Brad: "C'mon Leon, they probably won't be able to arrest us if they catch us but I don't want to have to think of some crazy story to get us off the hook." Leon: "Just try to keep up." Leon activated the Blade Liger's boosters and took off ahead of Brad. Brad: "Show off."

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Miles above the ground a monstrous fortress hovered in the clouds. The menacing black fortress was enormous consisting of several large cylindrical structures, a large structure that looked like the old Back Draft building, hangers and many various other shapes and parts connected by pipes and powered by gargantuan engines on the bottom of the structure.

Voice4: "Well, now what?" Altile: "We wait. Our surveillance teams will report any and all zoids leaving the omega flux zone." Voice7: "But how are we going to continue operations up here?" Altile: "We can't and we won't. As soon as the authorities arrest Bit Cloud we will land the bass at one of our pre-selected locations. I imagine that everyone will be to busy apprehending Cloud to even notice us." Voice2: "But what we can't let him live. Bit Cloud knows too much and if he is captured he will talk." Altile: "Which is why he will not be taken alive and why our own forces are with them to make sure certain accidents happen so they will be killed." Voice6: "For all our sakes I hope this works. If this fails I hate to think what will happen." Altile: "It won't fail. We've come to close to lose it all now."

[

Layon: "Back so soon?" John: We ran into some problems." Light Wing dropped the Liger on the ground and then landed next to it while the Raynos did the same with the Zero X. Layon: "Where are the others?" Jamie: "They're coming." Bit: "There was a problem with storming their base." Layon: "Which was?" Ted: "There wasn't one anymore." Layon: "What?!" John: "It would seem that Fire Wind's base has the ability to take off and land. When we got there all that we found was a giant crater." Layon: "But why did you all separate?" Jamie: "It was a trap. The police from a bunch of different cities, the army, the Guardian Force and the ZBC were all there coming to get us." John: "We think Fire Wind had one of there companies leak that we'd be there so Jamie and I went on ahead taking Bit and Ted so if Leon and Brad got caught they wouldn't be able to do anything to them." Brad: "Did someone mention us?" The Shadow Fox and the Blade Liger appeared at the Whale King. Jamie: "That was fast." Bit: "C'mon, we need to figure out what we're going to do next." Leon: "Where's Vega?" Vega: "Here." The Fury seemed to have appeared out of thin air behind the Fox and Blade Liger. Vega: "I would have been here sooner but Fury's engines began to over heat and it moves slowly on foot." Dr. Layon walked back into the Whale King and all of the zoids followed.

Everyone gathered in the Whale King's control room. Layon: "Well now what?" Leon: "This is a big problem." Ted: "We don't know where they are or where they're going." John: "We could go looking for it. You guys saw how big that crater was, I doubt they could hide something that big in the air." Jamie: "He's right, the police and everyone else don't know we're involved and probably the only reason no one's spotted the Fire Wind base is because no one's looking for it." Vega: "I might know where they are." Bit: "Where?" Vega: "They'll try and find another spot like the last one they had so they can't be detected and they have to do it while everyone is looking for us." John: "One problem with that is that there are dozens of places like that. In the last hundred fifty years there's been a lot of seismic activity in many different places making things like zoidmagnate appear in large quantity with lots of other metals around that amplify the sort of wave they give off in its purist form." Layon: "I think we should discuss this later." Brad: "Why?" Layon: "Because...we've got bigger problems." Layon brought up a screen showing what had to be thousands of zoids heading towards the Whale King.

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Voice8: "Well I'll be damned." Voice5: "Dr. Layon's old Whale King." Voice2: "Then that could mean that Dr. Layon has been assisting Bit Cloud." Voice4: "It makes sense. The design of the Liger Zero's new armor has several similarities to the Shadow Fox and it has many technologies that would take someone of his experience to make." Voice3: And if I remember correctly Dr. Layon had a violent infatuation with Leena Cloud's mother and Leena Cloud herself bore an almost exact likeness making Layon quite found of her." Voice6: "So it would make perfect sense for him to help Bit Cloud find out and punish who was behind her murder." Altile: "It does seem that way but it matters little. There is no where left to run. The forces that have gathered will soon surround the old Whale King and they will be unable to escape."

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Bit: "Shit! They must have been watching us!" Ted: "Now what do we do?" Vega: "I could blow them all away." Brad: "I thought you said you weren't going to do that?" Vega: "I did but we had another option that had nothing to do with giving ourselves up." John: "This is a problem. We could escape in the aerial zoids we have but we could be easily shot down." Jamie: "We're at the end of our rope." Layon: "Then there's no where to go but up." Everyone but Layon: "Huh?"

A massive group of König Wolves, Command Wolves, Rev Raptors, Cannon Tortoises, Gun Blasters, Pteraces, Redlers, Shield Ligers, Saber Tigers and a whole menagerie of other zoids waited outside the Whale King. The Whale King had closed its mouth and the part where the mid-section was missing was blocked off by steel plates so there was no way in. Unknown Pilot: "Attention! All of you in the Whale King are to come out now and surrender peacefully or we will use force!" Everyone waited to see what would happen. After five minutes they finally decided to go in. As a few Command Wolves cautiously walked closer the ground began to shake and an odd whining noise could be heard that sounded a lot like turbines. The missing section of the Whale King flashed a few times before reveling that it was completely repaired. Pilot: "My God, it's taking off!"

Layon: Ha, ha, ha, ha! Yes that's it! Rise, my Great Whale King!" The Whale King rose slowly off the ground. The turrets swiveled around to shoot down the Pteraces and Redlers around it before taking and flying away. Layon: "It works! It works!" Bit: "Oh yeah, I forgot that you were repairing this thing." John: "This little victory may be short lived guys." Brad: "What do you mean?" John: "Dr. Layon! Please tell me you put a shield on this thing!" Layon: "Well yes, but why-" John: "Raise it now!" Layon: "Alright already keep your shirt on." Dr. Layon fiddled with the controls for a second and a massive shield formed around the Whale King completely shielding all parts. Leon: "An all covering shield?" Layon: "I figured on something this big a shield would have to protect the whole thing."

No sooner had they finished talking than four large blue beams descended from the sky and hit the Whale King. Bit: "What the fuck!" Vega: "What the hell was that?!" Layon: "John, explain!" John: "Didn't it ever occur to any of you that the Judge Satellites have Plasma Particle Cannons mounted on them?!" Brad: "The Judge Satellites?!" John: "They never used them before because if they had Bit and the Liger would have been obliterated and they wanted him alive. Besides that the Liger was to small a target to effectively lock on to." Ted: "Damn! We might as well have a bull's-eye painted on us!" Jamie: Isn't there something we can do?!" Leon: "Shit, we're screwed." John: "Maybe not. Doc! Head for where the Fire Wind base was!"

The Whale King changed direction and started heading for the area where Fire Wind's base had been with Plasma Particle beams continuing to strike at the shield.

Layon: "Almost out of shield energy!" John: "Keep going!" Brad: "Crap! They're going to arrest us all!" Bit: "No, we've come too far to quit!" Layon: "Shields at 20% power! 14%! 6%! 2%! Shields are gone!" Everyone but John: Ahh!!!" Jamie: "Huh?" Leon: What?" Ted: "It stopped..." Layon: "Of course! They can't keep track of our movement here because of the omega flux!" John: "Finally, someone gets it!" Bit: "John, you smart son of a bitch!" Leon: "I hate to put a damper on the festivities but now they'll probably send flyers to pin point our location." Jamie: "He's right!" John: "I thought they might. Dr. Layon, get the shields back." Ted: "How's that going to help?" John: "It won't. It's for security measures only, I have another plan. Doc, as soon as the shields are back I need us to leave the area to use the protected line to my house."

[

Altile: "They're hiding." Voice4: "In the former location of our base no less." Voice6: "How ironic." Voice5: "What now?" Altile: "Isn't it obvious? We help the coalition forces search for them. They can only hide for so long." Voice3: "This very is exciting. I wonder how our T.V. studio is doing on covering this right now." Voice5: "With a story like this every set of eyes from New Helic City to Guygalos must be glued to their T.V. sets so I imagine our ratings are doing well." Altile: "Most likely. We'll send word for our survey company to lend pilots and airborne zoids to the search. At this rate it won't be long before they're all dead."

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Layon: "Power to shields restored." John: "Good. Dr. Layon, move the Whale King out of the omega flux." Layon: "Move the what?" John: "(sigh) Please move the GREAT Whale King out of the omega flux." The Whale King's shields activated and it began to move.

[

Meanwhile at the ZBC Ultrasaurus. Operator: "Sir!" ZBC Commissioner: "What is it?" Operator: "The Whale King is leaving the Omega flux zone!" ZBC Commissioner: "What?! Why are they doing that?!" Operator: "They seem to have regained their shield." ZBC Commissioner: "They must be trying to make a break for it. Where are they headed?" Operator: "Uncertain. They seem to be going very slow." ZBC Commissioner: "Why would they be doing that?" Operator: "Unknown. Sir, your instructions?" ZBC Commissioner: "Blow them out of the sky! They must be up to something and we'd better stop them before they can finish it."

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Voice3: "They're leaving?" Voice7: "But why? That's suicide." Voice4: "They have no where to run. The nearest place that has an omega flux phenomenon is a day's flight from their current position they won't make it in time." Altile: "This is troubling. They always seem to have a trick or two up their sleeves in case of an emergency so there's no telling what they are doing." A man in black uniform came running into the room. Man: "Commander Altile!" He faced Altile and gave him a salute. Altile: "What is it?" Man: "The Whale King has a small hole in the bottom of its shield and there seems to be a communication signal going through it." Altile: "What?! Where's it going?" Man: "We have been unable to determine that, sir." Altile: "Well then find out! We can't afford to give them any opportunities to get out of this. For all we know they may be contacting the ZBC and telling them about us!" Man: "Yes, sir!" The man turned around and left.

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Yuna was sitting on the couch in the family room watching the news. She was literally on the edge of her seat as she watched the police and army search for Bit and she just knew that John was involved. She jumped out of her seat when the phone rang. Yuna: "Hello?" John: "Yuna." Yuna: "Oh, John it's you. What's going on? They have the search for Bit all over the news and-" John: "Yuna, I hate to interrupt you but this is important. I need you to do something for me." Yuna: "Sure, anything." John: "Good. First, where are the kids?" Yuna: "Pete's asleep in his room and Eureka is taking her nap, why?" John: "I really don't want them to know about this. First I need you to take the head set for the phone then switch the phone from video to the head set." Yuna put the head set next to the phone on her head and flipped a switch on the video phone and John's picture disappeared. Yuna: "Okay, now what?" John: "Head to the hanger and take the elevator to the room with the N.U.C.L.S.S. computer in it."

Yuna did as she was told. Quickly getting up from her seat in front of the phone she ran down the hall and went through various doors until reaching the hanger. She pressed a panel on the wall in and a control panel appeared beside it. She pushed a few buttons in and the elevator rose out of the floor. Yuna got on the large elevator and pressed a button on the elevator's control panel.

Yuna entered the vaguely lit room that was lined with pipes and wires with the large N.U.C.L.S.S. computer monitor at the end. N.U.C.L.S.S.: "Good afternoon, Ms. Yuna." Yuna: "Hello N.U.C.L.S.S. Okay I'm here." John: "Alright. I need N.U.C.L.S.S. to do something but it's a secure feature so it has to be done manually so you can't use voice commands." Yuna: "What?! But I don't know how to-" N.U.C.L.S.S.: "Allow me to assist you." The computer screen flashed to a Windows desktop with a meadow background. Yuna: "Windows?" John: "I tried to make it simple."

Layon: "John, I don't mean to rush you but we don't have much time!" John: "Right. Yuna, use the mouse and click on start." Yuna: "Okay, now what?" John: "Select programs and look for one called ORGLUDICROUS." Yuna: "Uh, okay. Found it!" John: "Alright. Now, when you activate the program you should get a world map of Zi. At the bottom there is a small box for running a search with the word domain over it." Yuna: "Okay, I see it." John: "Type in atmosphere." Yuna: "Okay...done." John: "Alright, you should now be looking at a 3-D map of Zi with the atmosphere highlighted. There should be another search box that says specify. Type orbit into the box." Yuna: "Alrighty. Done." John: "You should now be looking at a list of satellites that are in orbit around Zi. There is a small box next to each name. Ignore this for now. There should be another longer search box at the vary bottom of the screen but you'll have to scroll down to see it." Yuna: "Okay. I see it." John: "Type in attack, surveillance and Judge Satellites." Yuna: "Okay." John: "Now what should have popped up are the names of all the Judge Satellites and all the attack and surveillance satellites orbiting Zi. At the top right hand side of the screen there should be a box that says highlight all, click on it." Yuna: "Okay, a box that's asking if that's all just appeared." John: "Don't touch that! Click no and once you do that on the bottom left side of the screen there should be another box that says add. Click that one." Yuna: "Okay."

John: "Now you should be back at the first screen. This time type in ground level." Yuna: "Okay." John: "Now type in bases and you'll get a list of all different kinds of bases. Now when you get to the search box at the bottom of the screen type in ZBC, Republican Army, Republic police and Guardian Force." Yuna: "Okay, give me a minute. Okay I'm done." John: "Okay now highlight them all. When you do that the box from earlier will show up. You'll have to click no again. When you get back to the first screen just type in Fire Wind." Yuna: "Hold on...okay." John: "You now have a list of everything Fire Wind controls. Highlight everything. Now this time click yes when that box shows up and once you do that another box will show up that asks if you are sure. Click yes." Yuna: "Okay. John it's asking for a password." John: "The password is superstitious." Yuna: "Okay. John-" John: "Click activate!" With that the computer screen flashed and all of the pipes running through the room began to light up.

Over the top of the base portion of the house a giant beam of light came out and split into several different directions. The blasts went all over Zi and into space hitting all the satellites.

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ZBC Commissioner: "What's going on?!" Operator: "Uncertain! All of our satellites are losing power and our bases too. What the-?!" A beam of light came straight at the Ultrasaurus. ZBC Commissioner: "Raise the shield, damn it!!!" The shield quickly covered the Ultrasaurus but the beam passed right through and hit the enormous zoid. The Ultrasaurus let out a low call and then fell to its legs and its head hit the ground. ZBC Commissioner: "What happened?!" Operator: "I don't know, sir! The Ultrasaurus seems to be incapacitated!" ZBC Commissioner: What?!"

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Altile: "Incredible!" Voice7: "What just happened?!" Voice4: "How should we know?!" Voice8: "Whatever that was it seems to have rendered all of the satellites unusable." Voice5: "Does anyone else suspect that this was the doing of Cloud and his friends?" Voice2: "I think that's a little obvious." Voice6: "This might actually work in our favor. If everything is down we can attack them ourselves." Altile: "Somehow I don't think we can." Voice3: "Why not?" Voice7: "Probably because of that!" On the screen, the images from one of their reconnaissance zoids showed a large beam of light heading toward it. The screen went to static. Voice6: "Oh..." Altile: "What could have caused that I wonder."

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Bit: "What the hell was that?!" Layon: "I'll tell ya what it was, it was incredible!!" Brad: "But what just happened?!" Leon: "John, explain!" John: "Hold on a second. Yuna you can go back now, thanks." Yuna: "You're welcome, sweet heart." John: "That was the Ludicrous System." Jamie: "Ludicrous System?" John: "It sends a signal similar to an EMP surge out. I used some of the technology from Light Wing to design that beam thing. To be blunt, what it does is shut down any kind of computer system anywhere on Zi even zoids." Ted: "Which means...?" John: "Which means we're now free to make our getaway without being watched or attacked." Layon: "That's great but where are we going?" John: "I have someplace in mind."

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ZBC Commissioner: "What's taking so long?! We've been down for hours!" Operator: "Sorry sir but the crew is working with flash lights here. To make matters worse it looks like there's nothing wrong with the Ultrasaurus it just won't start." Suddenly the lights began to flicker and the computers came back on line. The Ultrasaurus began to rise to its feet. ZBC Commissioner: "Finally it's fixed." Operator: "We're getting a message from the repair team and it seems they don't know why the Ultrasaurus is coming back on line." ZBC Commissioner: "That's strange. What about the satellites?" Operator: "They're all back too." ZBC Commissioner: "What about the Whale King?" Operator: "It seems to have moved while the systems were down." ZBC Commissioner: "What? Why am I not surprised?"

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Altile: "Curses! There's no telling were they are!" Voice4: "It would make sense to stay where they were. No one would start by looking there." Voice2: "Perhaps but it's just as likely they moved." Voice8: "This, of course, means we'll have to send troops everywhere to find them." Voice5: "Easier said then done. The areas that have omega fluxes are huge and even something of the Whale King's size is easy to miss." Voice6: "We have no choice we can't just wait for Bit Cloud to start attacking us." Voice3: "Let us not forget they are looking for us as well." Altile: "Yes I believe searching for them may be the best solution now. Knowing Layon he won't just abandon that Whale King of his so they have no choice but to look for a place that can hide it."

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Leon: "John, you didn't plan all of this out in advance, did you?" John: "Sort of." Bit: "Whatever, the important thing is that we got away." Jamie came running into the control room. Jamie: "Hey John it's done." John: "Good." Layon: "This might be a bad idea." Vega: "We can't wait any longer. When I was held captive I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were nearing the end of their plans." Ted: "He's got a point. I don't know what those Fire Wind guys are planning but the companies they control have been around for a while and let's face it, Bit didn't get all of their supplies." John: "Right, so this has to get going now." Brad: "But won't they pick up our signal here?" John: "Hell no. There hasn't been any sort of settlement here since after the Guylos War when the only village here was destroyed and the fog of Mt. Iscolena will actually work to mask the origin of our signal."

[

Operator: "Sir!" ZBC Commissioner: "What is it?" Operator: "We're receiving an unusual signal and it seems to be overriding the systems!" ZBC Commissioner: "What?! Can't you stop it?!" Operator: "No sir! We're trying but nothing's happening!" Operator2: "Sir! You might want to have a look at this!" A screen popped up in the middle of the Ultrasaurus control desk and began flashing pages of information and schematics and a random assortment of lists. ZBC Commissioner: "Well what is it?!" Operator2: "It seems to be data referring to some sort of underground crime organization." Operator3: "Sir! Look!" ZBC Commissioner: "What?! It can't be! The Back Draft organization!!!"

[

Police stations and military bases all over the Republic area and parts of the Empire were receiving this information blowing the lid off Fire Wind.

[

Altile: "No! No! Those bastards! They're telling the whole world about us! Voice4: "Where the hell are they?! Voice7: "Our sources can't pin point them!" Voice2: "Damn them!" Voice8: "Commander, what do we do now?!" Altile: "First, everyone calm down! I hate to say it but we have no choice but to accelerate our plans." Voice3: "But Commander!" Altile: "No buts! We have no choice!"

[

Everyone back on the Whale King was busy laughing their heads off. Bit: "Ha, ha, ha! Let's see them hide now!" Jamie: "Everyone in the military must have their jaws dropped right now!" Brad: "Now they won't be able to hide anymore!" Ted: "Um...guys." Everyone began to regain control of themselves. Leon: "What is it Ted?" Ted: "That." Everyone looked in horror as the image of a city came on screen as it was being destroyed by waves of D-Manti. Layon: "Oh my God..."

[

The scene was the same all over the continent as all buildings of companies controlled by Fire Wind began releasing their zoids and sending out a message to all of their troops that their plans had been accelerated. Whole cities were being attacked and demolished by the Fire Wind zoids. Whole mountains and large fields crumbled to reveal launch sites that quickly began launching old Dark Judge Satellites and new red Fire Judge Satellites including a giant one the size of the ZBC's mega satellite that they had launched at the end of the Royal Cup.

[

Everyone on the Whale King looked blankly at the screen. Layon: "How did we miss all of that...?" Leon: "Good God, they're everywhere." John: "Guys, I hate to say it but it looks as if we just opened Pandora's Box."

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S.D. That's right I'm leaving you on this huge cliff hanger. Knuckles: Sorry but we're all out of time. S.D. I'll try and get the next chapter up as fast as I can. Remember, I'm sort of sorry to say it but the next chapter or the chapter after that may be the last. See ya. Knuckles: We're outta here!