Chapter 8: The Journey's Peak.

Tomiya stared out the window at the night sky. He sighed, then looked over at Ace, who was moving stuff away from his driving space. Ace threw a bag of chips away from him, it hit Tomiya.

"OW! Ace, you just hit me in the balls with a bag of chips!" Tomiya shouted, slightly pained.

Darien let out a chuckle, leaning back and staring at the ceiling of the truck.

Ace looked out the window at a nearby diner. "Hey...that truck looks familiar..." He said.

Tomiya looked at the truck. "Hey, that's Kaiser's Truck!"

Ace looked back. "Hey, let's go grab a bite to eat. We've got about an hour left."

Ace turned towards the Diner, parking the truck and turning it off.

Tomiya looked back at everyone else. "Come on, we're going to get something to eat...a real meal." He said as he got out of the truck.

Ace walked in first, nodding to the cashier, tapping Kaiser on the shoulder. "Hey, buddy."

Kaiser looked over his shoulder. "Hey! Ace! How's it goin'?"

Ace grinned a bit. "We were attacked earlier.."

Kaiser nodded "I heard...I was comin' to help, but I suppose you young kids handled the situation just fine."

Tomiya gave a thumbs up, tilting his head a little. "Yep. We won."

Kaiser grinned a bit. "I guess you can put another notch on your gun, cowboy."

"Yeah.." Tomiya said, sitting down.

"So, where were you all headed?" Kaiser asked.

Tomiya sighed. "To go get a part for Ace's AC, since his core got trashed in the last mission we did."

Kaiser chuckled a little bit. "Even if he's ranked above me, he still gets his AC trashed more than I do."

Ace just looked away, embarrassed.

A man tapped Tomiya on the shoulder. "Hey, I've got a bone to pick with you."

Tomiya closed his eyes, not moving. "You know...now's not the time to be picking a fight with me."

"Oh, why not?" The man said as he threw a punch for the back of Tomiya's head. The punch hit...but it didn't hit Tomiya. Instead, the fist went sailing right into Kaiser's rock hard gut.

Kaiser brushed some of his brown hair out of his face. He looked down at the considerably smaller man. Kaiser stood at about 6'11", 320 pounds. Kaiser was one behemoth of a man, with a build to boot, too.

Tomiya chuckled from behind Kaiser. "That's why."

Kaiser narrowed his eyes at the man. "So, are you going to swing at me like you've got a pair now? Because that last one sure did tickle."

The man tried to run away, but Kaiser wrapped his massive hand around the back of the man's neck, hoisted him up, and tossed him through the door.

Tomiya grinned slightly. "Well done..."

Darien had a look of shock on his face. "Remind me never to anger him anytime soon, or like, ever." He said, stammering.

Chiyo looked up at Kaiser, her blonde braid falling off of her shoulder, just blinking.

Kaiser looked down at Chiyo, then at Tomiya. "Maybe we should get going."

Tomiya looked up at Kaiser and nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here, Oh, and hey, you don't need to worry about us anymore...Go on home, spend more time with your old woman."

Kaiser's eyebrow raised. "She's NOT my old woman, we're just friends, that's all!"

Tomiya smirked "Riiiiiight...Yeah, seeya later. Hey, maybe when we get back, I'll challenge you in the Arena, you seem to be getting out of practice from what I saw a few days ago."

Kaiser gave him a dirty look. "Yeah, Alright." He tugged on the sides of his flannel jacket before heading out, ducking his head a bit to get out of the doorway.

Till looked at Tomiya. "You know, just because you're the southern A-1 Raven doesn't mean everyone is below you."

Tomiya looked at him. "Hey, I didn't say that. Besides, I was just giving him a hard time." Tomiya looked over at Ace. "If Ace were to practice more, he could beat me."

Ace jerked his head towards Tomiya. "Hey! Shut your face!"

"Kidding!"

"...Yeah, really..."

Mokohara yawned loudly. "Well, I'm getting bored! Let's get out of here!"

Tomiya looked at her. "Yeah..." He got up and headed for the door.

When they got outside, the loud roar of MT jets was heard close by. From their viewpoint, an Orange and grey AC with round shield extensions and a rifle was firing at the MTs. The rifle rounds tearing away at the metallic skin of the MTs.

Mokohara squinted a little. "Hey, isn't that-" she was cut off.

Tomiya's eyes widened a little. "Sam...!" He looked back at the others. "Come on, let's get into our ACs and give him some help!" He said, running for the truck.

A blur of Sky blue thrust through the dark air, cutting into the side of an MT, the blade eating it's way through armor and machinery alike, plodding through the entire machine. The stubby top half of the MT fell to the ground with a loud crash, the legs standing there, motionless. The ominous blue figure of Cold Dragon boosted to it's next target, laying down a barrage of machinegun fire. Beams of blue cut through MTs, as the reverse jointed Hell's wings boosted overhead.

"We can't take all three ACs!" one MT pilot shouted to the other.

"Yeah, let's get out of here!" The other shouted back, as they started to retreat.

Their retreat was cut short by a torrent of bullets, as Youthanasia's large amount of machinegun fire made short work of them.

The Orange AC remained silent for a few seconds. Then... "Tomiya...? Is that you?"

"Sam, what are you doing, getting yourself into trouble again?" Tomiya asked.

"Hey, I can survive anything, remember?"

"...Yeah, but there'll be that time when Lady luck stops smiling upon you." Tomiya told him.

"Yeah, that'll be the day." He replied. "I'm going to go get my payment, seeya." His AC's engines fired and he zoomed off into the darkness.

"...Yeah...watch your back anyways..." Tomiya said to himself, opening the cockpit door as he walked the AC back to the truck.

Another, unfamiliar looking AC slid onto the scene. Before it did anything else, it was already staring down the barrel of Hell's Wings' KARASAWA.

"Hey! W-wait! I'm on your side!" Ace said over the radio.

Tomiya stared at the new AC. "Ace, how much did this cost you?"

"I only paid for the core part, they transferred my old parts and recycled my old core, and gave all the parts a free paintjob." Ace told him.

Tomiya gave him the eyebrow. "Well, good for you, load it up in the truck so we can get the hell out of here.".

Darien got out of his AC, patting it on the foot. "Yeah, that means we can go back."

Chapter 8 End...