Necros: A War of Zoids
By THE Xenomorph aka familyghost
Synopsis: A world with a secret past is about to get a wake up call from the metallic warriors.
Chapter 7: The Crypt – Fabled Warrior's Resting Place
Morello woke up hours later to an abandoned battlefield, Torin's Geno Breaker was gone with signs that it had escaped at the cost of high damage. Morello smiled for a moment before he pulled out a mask with his squadron's symbol over the forehead. He had always wanted to fight a true monster, now he had gotten his wish and for a moment he thought about retiring. Then he saw the wreckage of his König, ripped to pieces beyond the recognition of most pilots, but Morello could barely make out his squadron's mark.
Morello then silently made his way to the piles of Command Wolves and found most of his men wounded and resting against the massive heaps. Some of the men were plagued by odd marks or burns. Morello didn't need to be told what had happened, one of the Necromancers had unleashed an acid spell and devastated his men.
"No man can have such power..." One of his men mumbled.
"Necromancers are not men." Morello said sternly through his mask. "Casualties?"
"Sir!" A private approached and saluted him. "We've lost the Sargent and most of the troop leaders and at least a half dozen other men."
"Damn..." Morello cursed. Even he couldn't escape the outcome of two failures, especially one that had casualties. He looked off in the direction the large Zoid tracks were in and grunted. "Get everyone together, we'll have to march to the nearest town. Leave no body behind!"
At the edge of the plains an almost endless desert was sprawled out before Lycus and his small group of friends and followers. Lycus was one of three awake as the Zero and other Zoids were being towed along by the Gustav. He sat at the front of the transport zoid idly watching the scenery as old thoughts painfully rose to the front of his mind.
"The past is a painful thing for you master..." The towering form of Revenant joined Lycus at the front of the Gustav. "You should not think on it so much."
"It's not that easy Revenant." Lycus sighed.
"What was it like when zoids were all around?" Revenant asked.
Lycus just gave a small smile. "Wondrous and at the same time... lacking."
"Lacking Master?" Revenant asked.
"It was a world where science ruled. Superstition, swords, and magick were all fantasy." Lycus smiled. "At least until we found out how magick really worked."
"Ah..." Revenant remained quite. "Sir, there's a small cement door in front of us."
"We're here." Lycus lightly applied the brakes tot he Gustav. "Get Ash and Frank, you three guard the area."
"Yes sir." Revenant nodded as he exited into the rear, Lycus soon followed.
"Everyone we're going in." Lycus smiled.
A few minutes later the group was outside the small cement door. Most of the group looked at the small cement and metal rectangle with confusion. Nami was even poking it with a stick.
"Uh... Lycus, not to question your dead friend, but why did he build a small shack in the desert." Tsurellis blinked in awe.
"It's an elevator, isn't it?" Tari jumped.
"Correct." Lycus smiled as he pulled the sword from it's sheathe and plunged it into a small hole in the shack. Then he twisted the blade and the door slid open. "Everyone in."
The group silently piled into the elevator where a single button was on the pad. Lycus pressed it and the elevator descended into the deep shaft. Soon a light tune began to play much to the confused look of everyone except Wraith and Lycus.
"AHAHAHAHA!" Wraith laughed at Lycus' look of embarrassment. "Elevator music! I like this guy already."
"DM..." Lycus growled in silent as the elevator descended and hit the bottom.
When the doors opened the small group exited the elevator where everyone's jaw dropped; except for Wraith who had no jaw and Lycus who smiled smugly.
"H-h-ow... many... zoids are here?" Tsurellis gawked.
"Not a lot..." Lycus admitted. "These ones are just shells meant for decoration."
"Why is that Gustav so small?" Tari pointed to a smaller Gustav shell.
"Because we're using the Great Gustav or the Gustav M.A.D.E. Model, a Metal Empire mobile base zoid." Lycus smiled. "One of DM's favorite..."
As the group walked down the giant hallway Lycus pointed out and named various zoid shells. Then the group came upon a great door where a Liger Zero stood, it was inactive and wore a strange armor that had multiple blades and was colored in the black and blue of the Zero Squad.
"Whoa..." Nami looked in awe.
"Sanguri Schneider Armor." Lycus smiled. "We can put that on the Zero a bit later." Lycus smiled as he tapped the sword's sheath against the Zero's shell. The door behind it then lurched open.
"Why such a large door?" Wraith asked as he observed the great height.
As the group entered they could not help but look up in fear and awe as a great zoid held a small tube between it's jaws. Even Wraith's eyes were wide in surprise.
"There's a person in that tube and he's alive." Wraith commented.
"What is that zoid?" Tsurellis gulped.
"Gojulas Giga!" Lycus shouted and the room lit up. The massive zoid's eyes lit as well and began to roar before it seemingly remembered the tube. "Release the tube gently."
Nami stared in fear as the zoid gently set the tube in a strange casing directly below it. Then she remembered what Lycus had told her earlier. "Is that your zoid?"
"He was..." Lycus said as the zoid bent down almost like a dog would expect a pat on the head for doing good. Lycus simply walked past and the zoid let a low confused growl escape.
Lycus then walked to a control panel and pressed a few buttons. The tube then hissed to life as half of it slid open. Soon a long yawn came from it and a young man appearing as the same age as Lycus popped up. He wore a camouflaged jacket and black shirt, reflective sunglasses covered his eyes and his shaggy brown hair and silly smile made Tari laugh.
"Awww..." The young man moaned, "I was having a nice dream..." Then he noticed Lycus in the corner. "Hey man!"
"It's been a while." Lycus nodded as the Gojulas Giga gently bumped it's massive snout against it's master. "Not now." Lycus tone caused the massive giant to back away.
"Still the same as ever." The young man groaned. "It's all right Giggles, he's just being stubborn."
"Giggles?" Tari laughed. "I like it!"
"Hey Ly, you gonna introduce me?" The young man asked. As he jumped out of the tube in camouflaged boxers.
Lycus just smiled as everyone else gave some exaggerated reaction. "Everyone, this is DM..."
"Nice to meet you." Tari walked up to DM as he struggled to put a pair of camo pants on. "I'm Tari, Lycus' student and that's my sister Nami, she pilots her ancestor's Liger Zero." She then leaned in and whispered. "I think she likes Lycus too."
"What was that?" Lycus and Nami shot dual deadly glares at the young mage in training.
"Yup, and he likes her as well." DM whispered back.
"Will you two stop whispering?" Lycus snapped.
"Ok, so Nami and Tari." DM smiled as he went to an odd machine and pressed a few buttons and a cup with coffee popped out of a small hole. "Whose the ghost and uh... the other guy?"
"You mean the fashion fruit here?" Wraith nodded towards Tsurellis.
"WHAT?" Tsurellis snapped. "I'll have you know the Detoug Kingdom sees this as the height of fashion!"
"Thats Tsurellis, Ovin's son." Lycus smiled.
"Didn't he have a sister?" DM asked.
"Touchy area DM." Lycus said.
"Got it, steer clear of sister talk with fruit boy." DM smiled.
"HEY!" Tsurellis protested his new "nickname".
"The ghost is Wraith." Lycus said coldly.
"Love the elevator music." Wraith smiled as he too got a cup of coffee from the machine.
DM looked in awe as the ghost downed the cup of coffee with ease. "Lycus?" DM noted the lack of coffee on the floor.
"Don't ask." Lycus said. "You'll hurt your head."
"Well let's get your zoids down here so we can outfit them." DM smiled as he leaned against a wall. "I assume that's why you woke me up."
"Why else." Lycus said, then explained. "The field's been absorbed by the magick in the world. I don't know how long zoids have been active, but it took some time for it to reach me in the form of a mage in a Geno Breaker."
"Whoa." DM stood up straight for the first time. "You still got your stuff in the cellar, right?"
"I doubt anything survived the self destruct... if it went off." Lycus growled. "But we managed to get the Barrigator Brigades and a Cannon Tortoise along with Nakiro's Zero... excuse me, Nami's Zero."
"So..." DM walked over to Nami. "This is Nak's descendant huh?"
"Uh, hi..." Nami blushed. "It's nice to meet you."
"She's a bit shy ain't she?" DM smiled.
"Shy?" Lycus raised an eyebrow. "I highly doubt that."
"HEY YOU SHUT UP!" Nami shouted as she tried to lunge at Lycus, but DM simply grabbed her by the collar.
"Yup, she's related to Nak all right." DM gave a flat smile. "You just have to piss off everyone you meet, don't you?"
"It's a gift." Lycus smiled as he left the giant hall. The Gojulas Giga quickly followed.
"Damn him.." DM pushed his glasses up by the bridge of his nose.
"I couldn't agree more, what an ass." Nami pouted.
"You don't get to talk about him like that." DM frowned. "I have multiple reasons for being pissed at him."
"My step father disowned us because of him." Nami growled at DM.
DM just harrumphed, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to put the Schneider armor on your Zero." Suddenly the entire underground was shaken. Several shells outside in the hall shook and fell.
"What the hell?" DM jumped to a small panel. "Who are these guys?"
"Let me Tsurellis pushed DM out of the way and looked at the screen that had appeared.
"Hey watch it fashion fruit!" DM snapped as he stood back up.
"Detoug! They have zoids?" Tsurellis blinked.
"Not just any zoids..." DM felt sick. "AI driven Blade Ligers."
"Not to worry I'll take care of them." Nami bolted out of the room.
"Wait no!" DM shouted, but Nami was gone.
"Let her go, she's a natural." Tsurellis said confidently.
"Not even Nakiro could beat these things you lunatic!" DM shouted as he ran and grabbed his sword the Lycus had left lying on the ground. "I gotta get to K2."
"To what?" Tsurellis asked as DM ran past him.
"My zoid!" DM shouted.