"Something about all of this just doesn't feel right. Both the communication systems on the zoids were operating just fine. That can only mean that Van either actually didn't say anything or Zack intentionally did it to get Van hurt," Crougar said looking over the files on both the Blade liger and the leoblaze.
"Yeah but how much can you actually say you about this guy?" Thomas asked walking into the room only to hear what Crougar was talking about. "I know of every military personnel who has ever made any impact on things but I have never heard of this guy Zack," he admitted taking a seat in a chair.
"His files have been kept well secret up till now for some reason. I have even called up people from where he was from and they gave me a report about him. He has never had so much as a misdemeanor against him," Crougar said putting down the files Dr. D gave him.
"I stick with the fact that I don't trust the guy. There is something about him that is suspicious. Why would his records need to be hidden anyways?" Thomas asked and Crougar just shrugged his should while wondering the same thing as well. "Anyways, you wanted to see me sir?" Thomas asked sitting up straight in his chair.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I need you to take that other new recruit of ours out for some training. I figure that you are the best to ask since Van is still recovering, and Irvine is out. Think you can do that. We need to get a bit of information from her zoid for research," Crougar said folding his hand in front of him.
"Sure as long as there isn't a repeat of what happened to Van," Thomas said scratching his head. He had a feeling that he could trust the woman though. From what he had seen, she was a very caring individual. She was very similar to Fiona and yet very different at the same time.
"Ok then, better get suited up," Crougar said standing up as well as Thomas. He saw Thomas salute to him. "Dismissed," Crougar said and Thomas left the room. Crougar just watched him leave without another word.
When he was gone Crougar fell back into his chair with a loud groan. He hoped that this test went a lot better than the one with Van and Zack. It had been a while and he was still trying to get everything sorted out. He didn't even know what happened or who caused it. 'I really need a break,' he thought rubbing his head.
"So what is it that we have to do again?" Ashley asked looking over the empty desert terrain. "It doesn't really look like there is anything out here," she said looking for target ranges or anything of the sort. There was none as she did a quick flyby of the area.
"There will be shortly. You are going to go through some test so that we can get some data on your storm sworder," Thomas said typing some things into Beak. He grew frustrated though. "Damn it Beak, give me some help!" Thomas yelled frustrated but sighed when everything started to be completed much faster than he could do it himself. He just wanted to get back then.
"Yeah, I know that part already but you have yet to mention what I have to do," she said in a dull voice. "Oh wait. I see what you are doing. There is nothing out here and you just wanted to get me alone. How sweet," she said giggling.
Thomas couldn't help but gap at her accusation. "O-of course not. M-my heart belongs to Fiona. And I hope that someday she will see that," Thomas said although at this point he knew that would be physically impossible.
"Funny… She seems awfully into Van Flyheight. Hell, she is carrying his child. Maybe you should just give up on that hope," Ashley said with a chuckle as she waited for anything. "Now where is this damn thing I am supposed to go through?" she said growing frustrated just flying in circles.
"In a few moments several zoids will be released. Do whatever you can to at least come out of it. Everyone has to go through this. Don't mind if you don't accomplish it on the first time either. Not many do," he said finished typing and it would only take one button to get it started.
"Yeah well I don't accept defeat. It has to be the worst thing on the planet. I will finish this without even getting hit. Bet no one has been able to do that before," she said in a playfully arrogant voice.
"Actually I think Van has done that several times. It pisses me off when he rubs it in my face. Not literally. But he just seems to do it mentally whenever he manages to pull it off. Anyways, I am just going to give you a bit of backup incase something goes wrong during the tests," Thomas said pulling his Dibison back a bit. "Here they come," he said as several chambers opened up and zoid after zoid fell out of them.
Ashley looked around her and her jaw fell open. "Oooookay. Maybe this won't be as easy as I thought. How the hell could he have accomplished it without being hit?" she asked herself as shelling started to fly at her.
She managed to dodge most of it but only after she got hit in the wing slightly. Damn it! What the hell was I thinking?" she asked herself angrily as she soared through several zoids at top speed knocking several of them over. Then taking out her blades and slicing through several command wolves.
Thomas watched her rather impressed with her skills. He hadn't really seen many female guardian force members before now except for Fiona and Fiona didn't even really pilot a zoid unless it was completely necessary for her to do so. Ashley seemed to have a very natural skill. He didn't expect her to last as long as she was.
It came out of nowhere, a shot rung out and slammed into the wing of the storm sworder. With a slight scream from Ashley, and the storm sworder plummeted to the ground but thanks to the sand underneath, it cushioned the fall and the zoid just skidded on the ground until it came to a stop.
Ashley groaned and rubbed her head after it was over. "Damn it. I don't know how that guy could have possibly have done it without getting hit,' he thought as she opened the canopy and got out.
Thomas was very impressed with the woman's skills. It took him a lot of tries to just get to this part of it. He was more impressed that she was still up after the fall that she just took. 'I have to admit it, she's good,' he thought jumping out of the dibison and running over to the woman. "Not bad," he said with a smile.
"Damn it! It isn't good enough though. I wanted to finish it!" she said angrily. She suddenly put on a smile and looked up at Thomas. "So tell me. Besides that, how did I do?" she asked with a grin.
Thomas was perplexed by her sudden change in emotion but just shrugged it off. "Pretty good for a newbie. Don't worry about finishing it. Van and Irvine are the only ones that have an easy time with it. You did better than most who have tried. Just give it time," he said with a smile. "Come on. We should get back," he said and she just nodded at him.
Ashley ran up and walked next to him back to a gustav. "So tell me, when did you finish it?" she asked with a smile curious to know how long it takes an experienced guardian force pilot to have completed it.
Thomas stopped suddenly and he saw her turn to look at him with inquisitive eyes. He scratched the back of his head and the pretended to cough. "I… um… I'll tell you when I finish it," he said suddenly feeling very self-conscious about the subject of his piloting skills.
Ashley stared at him for a few seconds as all that he said registered in her mind before her jaw dropped to the ground. She suddenly ran up and got into his face. "Now wait a minute. You're a guardian force pilot and you've never finished this? How many have finished it?" she asked stunned by this revelation.
"Um… two that I know of," he said chuckling nervously as a sweat drop formed at his head. "I've gotten close to finishing it but the speed of the dibison isn't fast enough to keep up with all the zoids. I can take down multiple enemies but it can also leave me open to an attack afterwards," he told her the truth much to his displeasure. His zoid was a heavy weight zoid and was slower than most.
Ashley gave him a look of pity. "That's sad. I thought someone like you would have been able to finish it by now," she said as they loaded up her zoid onto the transport vehicle. She frowned at the sight of her damaged zoid.
When the zoid was loaded, the two of them jumped into the cockpit of the gustav and started to head back to the base. It was silent for the first two minutes of the ride but Ashley kept looking towards Thomas.
Finally she just couldn't take the silence much longer. "I can't take this silence!" she yelled grabbing her own hair. Suddenly she was so calm and she smiled at him. "Let's talk about something," she said brightly.
Thomas was stunned by her sudden change in mood. 'Are all women like this? Fiona's been like that a lot lately as well,' he thought before shaking his head. "Sure, what do you want to talk about?" he asked her keeping his eyes ahead of them.
Ashley thought for a second before she smiled. "Why exactly did you join the guardian force? You just don't seem like the fighting type. You seem like the type who likes working on zoids rather than piloting them against an enemy," she said from what she's seen of him.
Thomas looked at her in shock. No one had ever asked him that sort of question. He was actually kind of grateful that she did. People complained but never asked why he was there. "It's because of my family," he said quietly turning his head back ahead of him.
Ashley looked at him thoughtfully waiting for him to continue but he didn't seem to want to so she did it for him. "Because of your family? Why would you join just because of your family?" she asked him watching him carefully.
"Many generations of my family has been in the empire's military. I was always looked down upon. I was always compared to how great my older brother was. If I did something good, it would be compared to him doing it even better. He's a colonel in the imperial army and I'm just a lieutenant. When they offered me a position in the guardian force, I just couldn't refuse, I thought it was my time to show everyone that I was my own person and not just Karl's brother," he said sadly somehow finding it relieving to get it off his chest.
"I wouldn't know what that would feel like. I never had any brothers or sisters. They were all killed when I was young. I was brought in by this man and he taught me everything I knew about zoids. He too was murdered and everything past that just seems a little blurry. I joined just because I wanted to find the murderer of those that were close to me and bring him to justice," she said closing her eyes in pain at the memory of it all.
Thomas found something odd about her words. "How do you know it's person that killed your family is the same on that killed your mentor?" he asked taking a quick look at her but it didn't last long.
"He was after me, that's why? I escaped from him once and he came after me to finish the job. He didn't kill me though. I remember being captured and then somehow finding myself all alone in the middle of nowhere. I don't know his face, I just hope that I can somehow find him someday," she spoke in such a soft tone that it was almost hard to hear.
"And I thought I had it hard because of my brother. If it helps any, I hope that you do find him and get your revenge on him. Maybe then you can move on with your life," he said smiling at her slightly.
She couldn't help the blush that slightly crept onto her face. The more she talked to the man, the more she started to like him. "Thank you," she said with a nervous smile before everything went quiet again. 'What's wrong with me? I've never acted like this in front of anyone before,' she thought with a sigh as she leaned back and closed her eyes.
Van was lying down on a bed with his hands behind his head staring up at the ceiling. Fiona was lying right by his side with her head on his chest. It did kind of hurt with his broken ribs but at the same time, her mere presence soothes his injured body in a way that no medicine could.
Fiona looked up at Van with a smile. "We need to think up some names Van," she said making him look towards her. "I know I am still early on but I want to start thinking up names for out baby," she said placing her hands on her still rather flat stomach.
Van looked down on her with a smirk on his face. "How about Waldo for a boy's name," he said laughing at the funny expression that was suddenly on her face. "Don't worry; the kid would hate us if we named it that. I have no ideas really. What do you think?" he asked her placing his own hand next to hers on her stomach.
Fiona had a look of thought on her face as she tried to think up any names. Only one seemed to come to mind. "I like Kristine for a girls name. We can also call her Kristi for short," she said with a smile.
The name just seemed to stick with Van. The name sounded perfect as if it had been decided long before then. "How do you know it's a girl? What if it's a boy? What would we name him then?" he asked in a teasing manner. Yet just like when they had this discussion before, he felt the same with Fiona in that it was a girl.
"Didn't we already discuss this Van?" Fiona asked with a small chuckle. "Even then you agreed that we both felt that it would be a girl.," she said with an even brighter smile. She loved the thought of having a baby girl and it made it better that she knew that it would be Van's.
"Yeah, yeah. I like the name though. It just seems so right," Van said and was about to start speaking when he heard a small commotion outside of the door way. "I wonder what's going on," Van said as him and Fiona got off the bed and headed for the door.
The door slid open and two heads peeked out into the deserted hallway. There was no one there except for two people. Thomas and the new girl who appeared to be asking him something and he didn't seem to want to answer. In fact, he looked a little agitated.
"Now there's something you don't see everyday. Someone is annoying Thomas instead of vice-versa," Van said with a chuckle only to have Fiona lightly hit his chest with her hand. It wouldn't have hurt so much if he wasn't hurt. "Careful, I'm hurt Fiona," Van whimpered to his love.
Fiona just rolled her eyes at him and continued to watch the scene that was playing out before her. It was obvious that the girl had some sort of crush on the dibison's pilot. "They look good together," she said quietly and saw Van just nod his head in an unsure way.
She saw Thomas face snapped up as if he heard her and he smiled in their direction. "Hello Fiona. How are you doing?" he asked waving at her and Fiona could see that Ashley didn't seem too pleased with it.
Fiona couldn't help but chuckle. 'It seems she gained some sort of crush on Thomas,' she thought with a smile. "I'm fine. As good as I can be in my state," she said before an idea came to her. "Ashley, I was wondering if I could speak to you for a second," Fiona said as she reluctantly stepped away from Van.
Ashley looked confused for a second before she nodded and followed Fiona down the hall into another empty room. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked eyeing Fiona suspiciously.
"You like Thomas, don't you?" Fiona asked and she saw Ashley suddenly blush which was all the confirmation that she needed. "It's ok. I think it's a good thing. Thomas is a lonely person who can use someone like you," she said with a smile.
"Now hold on. I never said that I liked him. He's a goof," she said but she could tell that Fiona wasn't falling for it. "Am I that transparent?" she asked Fiona as she hung her head in defeat.
"A little. Moonbay always said the same about me about my feelings for Van. I guess I can agree with her. Thomas is a good person though and I think I can help you," she said with a smile. This didn't seem like something she would normally do but hormone's can make a woman do weird things. 'Tomas was upset about Van and I. This is the least I can do,' she thought smiling at the apprehensive woman.