Disclaimer: we don't own, so don't sue.

Chapter 2: New Allies?

Caitlin approached the base, piloting her striker. Following her was a Gustave with an odd-looking, and pretty much trashed. Zaberfang called

Tora. As she approached her parking stall, Colonel Kruger walks up to the liger.

"I thought I ordered you to bring that zoid back unharmed," stated Col.

Kruger.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," Caitlin says, looking embarrassed. "Although, it was either I brought it back damaged or not at all."

Getting out of her relatively destroyed Zaber, Skye told him, "That was

my fault. I refused to go with her until I was given more info. Also,

Guerra, here –" a neon blue and green ball of light shot out of Tora and landed next to Skye, forming into her organoid "– didn't really want to give in."

"Hmm..." mused Kruger.

"Is there a problem, other than the obvious one?" Skye asked scornfully.

Finally, Kruger turned to Caitlin, "You may go lieutenant. I don't expect any more trouble from this pilot."

"Yes, sir," was the simple reply.

"Hold it, why have I been brought here?" Skye asked. "I have no conflict with you, only with the Empire. What do you want me for?"

"We want you to join the Guardian Force," the colonel stated bluntly.

"Give me a reason. I already told her that I never have served anyone, especially not any military unit, and I never will. What makes you think I'll change that now?"

Kruger looked at her, then looked at the Zaber fang, "The Empire was close to finding you, if you work with the young lieutenant I sent to get you, we can keep you away from them."

"They've come closer than this before and we've gotten out of it. It's been six years, why would they still be looking for me anyway?"

"You're a good pilot, that's why."

"How would they know that I'm a good pilot? I ran away before my parents could enroll me in that stupid Imperial academy."

"They have been keeping watch over you. It is hard to totally escape

the military."

"Wonderful. You still never said why I should join. I know we have a common enemy, but we - Tora, Guerra, and I - can handle them, we've done it before. Probably more times than you would think."

"Follow me," Kruger said imperiously. He started to walk out of the room, looking back to make sure that Skye was following him. Skye was following, but she was wary of any possibilities. As he was walking Kruger said over his shoulder, "You may know that the war is over, but there are people who want to start another war. We need all the good pilots we can find, and since it is well known that you didn't want to join the Empire, we thought you would like to work with that young lieutenant." "And you thought we would get along because why?"

"You two have similar personalities, only Amaroq has had her's tempered by training."

"Well, the way you went about it was great, not telling her. That's the only reason I tried to get away. I refused to go unless she told me why, as I've said before. The only reason I started fighting was because they shot first. And I haven't always been this way. I actually used to be quieter and less inclined to…express myself, but you try living on the run for six years and see what happens."

Kruger chortled, "If I told her, she would have been offended that she could not do this next job herself. And, to respond to the second part of what you said, Amaroq was also like that when we found her."

"Well, that explains a lot. How did you find out about me, though?"

"Since the end of the war, some information was traded between the

Empire and the Republic, the search adds your parents has out was one of them." "Fair enough. Now what was that job thing you mentioned?"

"You will be briefed on that mission in a bit."

"So, why didn't you just hand me over to them, instead of bringing me here?" Skye asked with a suspicious tone in her voice. "That probably would have been seen as a passive act and may even have helped you out a bit." The colonel looked thoughtful, he answered, "Not sure."

"There must be a reason."

Suddenly, an alarm went off.

Kruger looked around, then back over at Skye

"Can you pilot a Gunsniper?" he asked.

On her way to the hanger, Caitlin came flying past.

"Maybe, never done it before, but it can't be that hard. I've seen plenty of them in action."

"Seen what?" asked Caitlin.

"Why a Gunsniper, of course," stated Kruger.

Caitlin looked at Skye and told her, "There are some extra ones in the hanger."

Skye told Kruger as she was walking away, "I'm good at adapting; I'll give it a try. If all else fails, Guerra will figure out how to work it in no time, then she'll tell me."

"Well then come on lets go," Caitlin said impatiently. "Whoever is attacking won't wait for us!"

"Okay. You'd better get ready, Guerra, looks like there's gonna more than one fight today."

Guerra growled excitedly.

As they entered the hanger, Caitlin pointed to one end of the hanger,

"The Gunsnipers are over there." Then she turned and jumped into the striker. Skye got into one of the Gunsnipers and Guerra followed.

"This is liger zero striker, ready to mobilize." Liger ran out of the hanger. "Same here." Skye followed. The striker ran up to the opposing zoids, there were two of them, an Iron Kong and a Command Wolf.

"I'm usually a fight later ask questions first kind of girl, but you lead the way." "You're a sniper, so go snipe."

"Shouldn't we find out who they are first?"

"Well, then, get to a sniping position."

"Fair enough."

"Better be ready than caught with your pants down. Unidentified zoids, this is the Guardian Force. Identify yourselves at once."

"Why should I identify myself to you?" inquired an eerily familiar voice.

"Hiltz."

"Because, we don't like strangers," Skye told him.

"And no one is stranger than Hiltz," stated Caitlin.

"At least we agree on that one," laughed Skye.

"Skye? Is that you?" asked a whiny female voice.

"Yes, Sara, it's me," stated Skye coolly.

"Skye, who are these people? Besides Hiltz. I'm getting a picture on my screen of a man and a woman."

"My mom and I'm guessing that my dad's with her."

"We've been looking for you for so long, Skye," said Alex, her father.

"Glad I don't have to worry about that," said Caitlin.

"Skye, what are you doing with them?"

"Don't know, Alex, what are you doing with a deranged psychopath?"

Caitlin snickered.

"I am NOT a psychopath!" shouted Hiltz.

"Oh, really? Then why were you terrorizing half the world?" asked Skye.

"It's my duty to completely destroy the weak!" stated Hiltz.

"Skye, please come back with us, sweetie," begged Sara. "We've really missed you!" "Shut up, Hiltz, you pathetic excuse for a person!" commanded Skye. "And no,

Sara, I won't come home."

"You know," said Caitlin. "This is one of the few times I'm glad my parents were killed."

"I wish I could say the same," said Skye.

"Doubtful," said Caitlin.

"Enough talk, now die," Hiltz laughed evilly, getting ready to shoot at them.

"To straightforward for my taste," admitted Skye.

"That's Hiltz for ya," joked Caitlin. "Try to aim for his neck, that's the most vulnerable spot."

"Okay," consented Skye.

"Hey, wait, you promised that no harm would come to her," came Alex's angry voice.

"I lied," was Hiltz's answer.

Putting up her shield, Caitlin asked, "What do you want me to do about the wolf?"

"Freeze it up," Skye told her. "But don't hurt them...too much."

"Rodger, Rodger," answered Caitlin.

Alex was trying to take control of the wolf, but he couldn't because of the organoid.

Caitlin charged, firing at the wolf's zoid core area.

"LET'S SHOW 'EM, BLITZ!"

Meanwhile, Skye charged at the Iron Kong, firing at the vulnerable point.

"You can't beat me," Hiltz taunted.

"Wanna bet?" challenged Skye as she jumped into it, spiraling the tail around like a whip. "I may be reckless, but it's fun."

Hiltz punched the gunsniper, boasting, "Any rookie should know, GUN

SNIPERS STINK AT CLOSE COMBAT!"

Skye groaned, sure she would soon get a concussion from that blow because it had knocked her head around quite a bit. She could not stay on the ground, however, because Hiltz was advancing. At this point, Sara was basically scared out of her wits and whimpering.

"Didn't I tell you to find cover and snipe?" asked Caitlin.

"Didn't I say I don't take orders from anyone?" retaliated Skye. To

Hiltz, she said as she was getting up, "Rule #1: never advise your opponents."

Hiltz laughed, while firing missiles at the sniper, "I'm so much better that it doesn't matter."

Caitlin knocked the wolf over, and laughed, "HA," but it got back up,

"Dang it all, that's what I get for forgetting the organoid."

Skye scampered out of the way of the missiles, then fires at him.

"Ouch! You will pay for that!" Hiltz yelled.

"Try and make me!" Skye shouted back.

"AMBIENT," Hiltz called.

"Two can play at that game," said Skye. "Guerra, let's show this jerk-off what we can do!"

Ambient left the wolf and fused with the Kong.

"HAHAHA DIE NOW!" (Do I really need to tell you who said that?)

Caitlin knocked the wolf over again, "And stay down."

"Guerra, you take care of the movements and reflexes, I'll worry about the guns," instructed Skye.

"Need help, Skye?" asked Caitlin.

"No, not really," answered Skye.

Hiltz laughed yet again, "You think that that weakling of an organoid will stop me? NOT LIKLEY!"

Caitlin prowled around behind Hiltz.

"We can't let him get away with insulting you, can we, Guerra?" asked

Skye. Guerra growled.

Unfortunately, at the same time when Caitlin charged at Hiltz with her laser blades, shouting, "YEHA!"

Skye fired at Hiltz. Hiltz dodged Caitlin, calling her a simpleton, and the shots hit her instead.

"Ow..." moaned Caitlin.

"Aw, crap, sorry. I didn't mean it," apologized Skye.

"Skye, I'll hold him here, get to a sniping position!" commanded

Caitlin.

"We need the power of the sniping rounds to damage him."

"Deal," said Skye and she actually followed instructions for once.

Caitlin rammed Hiltz with all her might, "EAT THIS!"

Skye used the rounds to shoot at the neck of the Iron Kong.

Caitlin jumped away from Hiltz, "Don't mess with us, we fight back."

The Iron Kong fell, and a red beam of light could be seen leaving.

"I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME!"

"Yeah right!" Skye yelled after him. "I'd like to see you try!"

"What do we do with your parents?" Caitlin inquired.

Skye went over to the fallen zoid that her parents were in, looking at it with an expression of disgust. Then she said, "Let's just get this hunk of junk inside."

"Alright," Cait agreed. "Base, this is liger zero striker. Please send out a gustave for a fallen command wolf."

"Rodger, striker," the base responded.

"Just so you know," Skye said icily. "I was talking about my par- I mean Sara and Alex."

A/N. that's right Hiltz is back.

Anyone know how to spell the name of Thomas's university? (the one that the trinity ghost where based out of.)

I Will get chapter three up latter.