Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Armored Core series. That belongs to Agetec and From Software. I only own the characters: Kaze, Chief, Pyromaniac, Tsubasa, Bug, Rebel and Hyper. Thank you.

In TALON's Grasp

by T.R. Fanatic

Chapter 4: Allies

An hour had past before Chief and Kaze arrived at the final stop of the tour.

"A computer room?" Kaze asked.

"Not really..." Chief responded. "This is the place where we customize our AC's. Just pick out the parts and weapons, give it some color, throw on your personal emblem, and you're done! ...Though, I gotta admit, it takes longer than five minutes, seein' that you got a wide variety at your fingertips."

"You have all of the AC parts here?"

"Bingo! 'Every Raven for themselves' is not our policy here! We share the parts we have and salvage parts from others. So, don't worry if you think if you're taking someone else's weapon, we have extras!"

"Good to hear..."

"Well, I'll leave you be so you can contemplate on your design." Chief said as he headed for the door. "Oh, and lunch is served in two hours."

"Thanks!"

Chief left, leaving Kaze to begin on his AC design.

I'll make it look like the one that I first piloted... he thought, starting with the head designs.

He drew the image in his mind: the black and red mid-weight bi-pedal AC, armed with a deadly machine gun in its right hand and carried a mid-size missile launcher and a small silver energy cannon on its back.

At least, I know more now than I did then. You won't take me down easily this time!

For the next hour, Kaze was deep in thought, designing his ideal AC, until he noticed that he was being watched from behind. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Nope." the voice of Pyromaniac replied, leaning on the back of the chair. "Just lookin' at the new AC that's all. It must beat piloting the ol' test model, huh?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't even tried it out, yet."

You lie! You lie! Kaze's mind screamed. There was that one time...

"Well, when you get the chance to pilot it, I wanna be your first opponent!"

Kaze turned a half-circle in the chair to look at the wild redhead pilot dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt with red flames coming from the bottom.

"I thought your AC was being repaired on?" asked Kaze.

"It is..." whimpered Pyromaniac. "But, it gets really boring fighting the same old AC's every other day..."

The person, wearing a red bandana on her head, standing behind Pyro sent a flying open hand to the back of his head. "You better not be callin' my AC old!" barked the voice of Rebel.

"I wasn't..." muttered Pyro, rubbing the back of his sore head.

"And I guess you didn't introduce yourself to the newcomer, yet, huh?" Rebel asked as she folded her arms in front of her chest.

"I was going to do that before you showed up..."

"Well, anyways, welcome to TALON, Kaze." Rebel announced. "My name's Rebel. I pilot the quad-leg, Dust Devil. But, you're not gonna see much of me in battle, since I also work as one of the team's mechanics."

"The story goes," Pyro added. "we asked the Nest for a mechanic, but we got a Rebel, instead."

Rebel slapped Pyro in the back of the head once more, but this time, a little bit harder. "At least try and be nice for once!" she barked.

What a strange team... Kaze thought.

"And this is Pyromaniac," Rebel noted. "Pyro for short. He pilots a heavyweight bi-pedal, flamethrowin' AC he likes to call Firestorm. And I'd feel real sorry for you if you got partnered with him on any mission. He can be quite the pain in the ass."

"Am not..." Pyro whined, still rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, grow up, will ya?" a new voice asked. This one of the young pilot, Bug.

"I wanna, but Rebel won't let me..."

"Crybaby..." Bug muttered under his breath before asking, "Hey, are you guys doing your introductions now?"

"We just got done with ours," Rebel replied. "but you can go ahead and introduce yourself if you want."

Bug nodded and began, "Around here, my name's Bug. I'm the youngest pilot on this team (...unless you're younger than thirteen). I pilot a reverse-joint leg model AC that I call Mantis."

Kaze smiled back. "A pleasure to meet all of you."

"No, no, you haven't met everyone yet." Rebel noted. "If you're done customizing that AC of yours, we can go and look for the others."

"I finished as soon as Pyro barged in." Kaze replied.

Rebel turned and stared down at Pyro.

"What?" Pyro asked. "I was only curious..."

"Hey, wait." Bug said. "Kaze, you're not done yet."

"I'm not?" the newcomer asked.

"You still gotta give the AC a name and an emblem."

"He can work on the emblem later." Pyro said. "I just wanna see what the AC's name will be and then go find the rest of the team."

Kaze turned the chair back so that he faced the computer screen and the blank name box. Damn. he thought. The first AC didn't really have a name. I guess I'll just have to make one up... With his fingers on the keys, he began typing:

"M... e... c... h... a..." he muttered.

"Mecha?" Pyro questioned the AC's name. "That's a little too original, don't you think?"

"Original, but mysterious," Rebel commented. "like the AC itself. I like that name."

"Good name, Kaze." Bug cheered, adjusting his glasses.

"Thanks." Kaze said with a smile.

That's right. Mecha: the AC that will, one day soon, defeat Nine-Ball.

To be continued...