Okay, finally, here's chapter 3. I know I'm slow at putting these up, but I have no delusions of grandeur here. I write because I feel like it and because I have time. No other reason. At least not right now anyway. I do have Ch. 4 mostly planned out in my head. Actually I was going to put more in to Ch.3 but I decided it was long enough so I bumped it back.
"speech"
(:thought:)
'organoid speech'
(A.N.: recall the time distortion effects in Escaflowne when traveling between Earth and Gaea. They distortions can be whatever they need to be so I'm saying that the five plus hours Raven spent poking around on Zi finding Fiona equivocates to about five days here, so about a week has passed since Flyheight arrived.)
(A.N.: I could not find a translation factor between costa and any other actual known units anywhere online, but the scale models seem to indicate the height of Escaflowne averaging 8 ½ meters tall. Consequently, according to the Escaflowne Compendium at http://escaflowne. the Escaflowne's height is 8.2 costa. Therefore I am going to be lazy and simply say that 1 costa 1 meter and just use the specs provided on that site. If anyone finds information to the contrary please inform me, I'll gladly go back and change it, I'm just being lazy.)
"What's happening, what's going on?!!" Raven yelled. Suddenly Raven felt cold water wash over him through the open cockpit. "What on Zi?!!" The open cockpit quickly filled with water as the Genobreaker sank into the ocean the pillar of light had landed it in. Raven tried to work the controls, but they were sluggish and couldn't move fast enough to extricate the zoid from the water.
As the Genobreaker sank further and further from the surface Shadow grabbed Raven and flew back above the water. When he reached the surface he stopped and cracked open his chest slightly to let the water out, then he resealed it, and as he hovered he looked around for dry land to set down on. (:I can't see anything I need to go higher:) Shadow thought to himself so he flew way up into the air, being careful to mark where the Genobreaker sank.
Then Shadow saw something truly remarkable in the distance: A largish black dragon zoid with expansive dark wings. His interest piqued, he decided to follow it. It didn't take too long for Shadow to find land, so he set down knowing his master would want out, only noting the direction the dragon zoid flew in.
After Raven stumbled out he turned and looked at his friend, "Thanks Shadow." Shadow nodded in return then turned to glance at the receding form of the dragon zoid. At least it should have been receding; instead it had turned around and was now headed straight for them.
"What is that," Raven wondered aloud.
"Are you the ones who just arrived here in that pillar of light?" a voice called from atop the machine.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Raven shouted back, "but could you start by explaining where here is?"
"Climb on and when we land all your questions will be answered," The voice replied.
Raven opened his mouth to ask for help dredging up his zoid, then thought better of it, (:best not to mention something that powerful to an unknown:). Raven and Shadow glanced at each other, shrugged, and climbed on. To their surprise there seemed to be no one piloting.
"Please hold on tight, but don't touch the control rods," a voice came from what they could now identify as a speaker. Hours later they touched down in the center of what looked like it used to be a technological metropolis.
"Welcome, I am Doctor Ferdot, and these are my associates, Doctors Kline and Sal."
Raven looked down on the Doctors before deftly hopping off the winged zoid. "My name is Raven, this is my friend Shadow."
"Friend?" Dr. Sal asked, perplexed.
"Yes, friend. Now before we go any further, tell me, where is this place?"
"You are on the planet Gaea, currently in the remains of what used to be the most powerful empire on the planet: the Zaibach Empire."
"Looks like you guys haven't fared too well," Raven remarked, taking note of the scenery.
"Yes, the outer city has fallen into disrepair after the war ended a year ago."
"War?" Raven inquired.
"Our former head, Master Dornkirk, tried to develop a machine that would grant the desires of all people on Gaea. But the rest of the planet was too narrow minded to understand, so, in fear of the machine's power, they rose up in revolt."
Raven simply nodded. Dr. Kline spoke, "I suppose really don't want to hear all about this, you just want to get home right?"
"Actually I'm looking for someone, but eventually, yes I do want to go home."
"Well I don't know what we can do about the first part, we simply don't have the resources to search the entire population of Gaea, if your friend is even here. On the second count, however we can probably be of more use."
"I'm all ears," Raven said.
"You see the machine behind you," Dr. Ferdot pointed and Raven and Shadow stepped aside and turned so as to see both the doctor and the zoid at the same time.
"It is linked to the same power that brought you here. We believe that if you are able to master the machine you may be able to manipulate the power and send yourself home."
"Then let's get started," Raven said and turned toward the machine.
"Wait one moment Raven." Dr. Sal spoke up.
"What," Raven turned his eyes on the three scientists.
"You may have noticed that no one was directly piloting the machine, we call it the EX-Ispano, EX for short, on your trip here. Right now it is currently configured for remote command input only. We must reconfigure it for piloted flight. However, this must wait for morning."
"Why is that," Raven asked, frustrated.
"When we spotted you on our external cameras, we had just finished a trial run of the basic systems. Two things must now happen before reconfiguration. Firstly, the trial data must be downloaded and analyzed. Secondly the three of us must sleep. We are tired old men and you wouldn't want us making a mistake on the installation."
"Fine," Raven said, letting up.
Dr. Ferdot smiled, "we can at least put you up for the night, there is a room, just up those stairs and at the end of the catwalk."
"If it's all the same to you I think I'll just poke around for a bit," Raven said.
"Just don't impale yourself on any debris," Dr. Sal joked.
Raven didn't even bother responding he just turned and walked past the EX-Ispano and out the hangar doors, Shadow right on his heels.
"This way gentlemen," Dr. Ferdot instructed his comrades. He pressed a few buttons and the machine dragon sauntered over to a large freight elevator. The doctors joined it and rode the elevator down to the laboratory.
"Look at this mess Shadow," Raven commented. Shadow growled in agreement. Raven let out a relieved chuckle, "it almost looks as if the DeathSaurer walked through here." As if saying it reminded his body of the recent battle he'd been through, he suddenly felt very tired and his legs wobbled. He couldn't even bother to walk back to the hangar and up the steps to the room the doctors said was free. He simply staggered over to a wall and lay down beside it, asleep almost as soon as his head came to rest on his arm. Shadow curled up next to his master and slept with one eye open for the night.
Raven awoke as sunlight filtered through the perpetual haze that covered the city capital of Zaibach. As he stirred Shadow growled and got up as well. Raven heard the whining of hydraulics and went back into the hangar mostly refreshed from a night's rest on hard ground. As he walked in he saw a new machine rising from below the surface, this one was humanoid in figure, but the same matte black color as the dragon.
It didn't take Raven long to notice that several features on the machine were very similar to the dragon, for example the chest looked like the top of the dragon's head and the gem in the humanoid's chest looked as though it were being grasped by the dragon's claw. When the elevator stopped Raven estimated the height of the machine to only be a little over 8 meters tall. Raven smirked, (:It's only a little taller than a command wolf and not even nearly as massive. But, size isn't everything, we'll see what its got:).
"Ah, Raven," Doctor Kline greeted with a muted smile. "Would you like something to eat before we get started," Dr. Ferdot asked.
"Sure," Raven said, "uh thanks," Raven surprised himself by adding. The sense of honor that he'd gained through watching Van had rooted deeper into Raven's personality than he had realized.
After breakfast Raven returned to the hangar to find the scientists huddled on top of the EX, now in dragon mode. "Hey, Raven, could you come up here, we need to calibrate the controls to take your input," Dr. Sal called down. Raven clambered up and stood in the pilot's position. Dr. Sal handed him the control rods and the doctors all ran him through a series of maneuvers designed to acquaint the man and the machine with each other. After about only a half an hour Raven was ready to give it a test fly.
"One more thing," Dr. Kline spoke up, "we discovered an interface port and protocol in the heart of the EX, but we're not sure what goes there. We suspect that whatever piece fits there is the key to unlocking the true power of the EX. In other words, we don't think you can go home until we find that device."
"That's just as well," Raven said, "I need time to find my friends." (:I'm fairly certain they're talking about the zoid core of the EX when they say the heart,:) Raven thought to himself, (:so the interface they're referring to is probably the organoid hook up system. But these guys don't need to know that right now, I need time to find Van, Fiona, and Reese, I can't go home until I find them.:)
The doctors dismounted and Raven finally got completely settled into the pilot's position. He took hold of the control rods and abruptly froze. (:This machine is feral. It's not just that it isn't tame, it's almost like a blood lust that I can feel. This is dangerous, I'm going to have to be careful with the EX, but I will need to learn how to operate it eventually if this is indeed our best chance home.:) Raven walked the EX outside the hangar, it moved almost like a cat, it wasn't exactly graceful, but it managed to present a presence of being both tense and calm at the same time.
(:All right, let's see what you've got.:) Raven pulled back on the control rods and the EX leaped upwards and after a few deep wing beats it was safely cruising up in the sky, Shadow close behind. Even while wheeling about up in the sky, Raven could not shake the feeling of being just on the edge of losing control of the EX. (:It keeps saying it wants more, like some kind of adrenaline junkie.:)
"Raven, can you hear me?" Dr. Sal's voice came through a speaker that Raven hadn't noticed before. "If you can just speak up, the receiver is on."
"Yes I can hear you," Raven said, "what do you want?" One of the displays changed to show what Raven assumed to be a map.
"We would like you to check out the red dot on the screen, it's where we did our testing yesterday, the green diamond is the hangar, and the EX is always centered in the screen, with straight ahead pointing to the top of the screen."
"That's awful far to go, just for a test flight," Raven said.
"We were testing the range and endurance of the EX among other things," Dr. Kline said over the radio, "we were also conducting a field test of the guymelef mode, the humanoid form. If you wouldn't mind we'd like to run you through a similar battery in the same area. It should only take about an hour to reach your destination."
Raven wasn't used to taking orders from anyone but himself, and this didn't sit well with him either, but he swallowed his pride for now. He really had no reason to not go, and he'd rather not have them annoy him over the radio if they were so inclined, as he had no idea how to turn it off, and anyway, his hands were full at the moment. Gradually, as the trip wore on, the EX began to settle down as it realized that nothing exciting was going to happen for a while. As the coastline of the testing grounds came into view, so also did an airship with a strange coat of arms. The EX went berserk.
It dove out of the sky towards the airship, "What are you doing!!" Raven shouted at the EX and yanked the control rods hard. The EX flipped and grabbed a ball of dark light that had been streaking towards it. Raven looked over the edge in horror, "LET GO OF SHADOW RIGHT NOW!!!" Instead of complying the EX forcibly fused the organoid into itself. "SHADOW!!!"
Suddenly the EX transformed in mid air into guymelef mode and plummeted the last thirty meters to the ground. Raven found himself inside of a fully encapsulating cockpit instead of in the open air as he had been when in dragon mode. Raven could hear shadow scream in pain just below him.
"Stop th…" Raven was cut off in mid sentence when dozens of hypodermic needles drove themselves into various nerve clusters in Raven's body implanting bioelectrical sensors everywhere. Raven didn't even have time to scream, the pain was so intense that it overwhelmed his body and he blanked out.
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Van Flyheight was standing at the front windows of Fanelia's newly acquired leviship the Corsura. Fanel had told him it was a gift from Allen, and what a nice gift it was. Slightly larger in size to the Crusade, and a drastically different design, it was actually a little faster too, and certainly much faster than the merchant ships they were trying to find right now.
"Hey," Flyheight said in greeting when Fanel came up behind him and put his hand on his shoulder. Fanel opened his mouth to reply, but his body went stiff and his face looked pale.
"Something's coming," the King whispered, and he dashed to the starboard side of the Corsura, followed closely by the zoid pilot. They both looked out and up through the Corsura's bulging windows and saw a black machine hurtling towards them.
As the nimble midnight machine flipped, this time it was Flyheight's turn to be shocked, "Raven?" Flyheight barely caught a glimpse of the pilot as the dark dragon zoid hurtled past, but he could have sworn it was him. "No it couldn't be," Flyheight said out loud.
"Why not," Fanel said, "you were drawn here. Perhaps, since his life was so closely bound to yours, he was brought as well." The two shielded their eyes as a bright light glared from the ground below.
They both looked, "hey that looks an awful lot like your…" Flyheight started.
"Yes, I know, my Escaflowne," Fanel finished for him. "Captain, retreat to a safe distance! I'm going out to try and find out what's going on." Without even waiting for a reply the two Vans started running back towards the hangar bay. "This must be the dark dragon the messenger spoke of."
"But why would Raven be piloting it," Flyheight continued the train of thought, "I can't just believe he's gone nuts like this. There's got to be some sort of mistake here."
"Well, let's go find out." Fanel slapped the hatch release and then he and Flyheight jumped into a prototype vehicle, a leviskimmer. It was a slender two person variant on leviships, and it used four very small levistones to fly. It had been on the Corsura when the leviship itself had been given to Fanelia. Allen had told Van that it was a new idea, but that nobody in his or her right mind wanted to test it because small levistones were too unpredictable.
The leviskimmer rocketed out of the hangar and then dropped like a rock for several feet before Fanel got it under control. "This leviskimmer is so light it helps if we turn with our weight, so when you feel the leviskimmer move, you follow unless you think we're gonna capsize, got it?" Fanel relayed.
"Understood," Flyheight replied. The black zoid Escaflowne was now in guymelef form on the ground below them staring up. Fanel swooped and stopped just outside of arm's reach of the machine. "Raven!!" Flyheight called, "Raven are you in there!?" No reply.
"If you're not Raven, then who are you!?" Fanel shouted. Still no reply.
"Answer me!! Who are you!?" Flyheight yelled again.
A few moments later the eyes of the seemed to shimmer and the zoid's right hand reached behind it's head almost faster than the eye could perceive. If Fanel had not recognized the motion for what it was and yanked the leviskimmer backwards and up the sword that flowed through their previous position less than half a second later would surely have slammed the two young men to the ground. Unfortunately it still wasn't enough as the draft from the speedy sword swing sent the unsteady leviskimmer twirling through the air and eventually crashing into the ground.
As the zoid-like machine approached the wreck it paused seeing no bodies. It did a quick scan of the area and found the Fanelian king flying up towards the leviship holding one of Flyheight's arms in both of his own.
The black Escaflowne crouched and then leaped, transforming in midair to dragon form. "Here it comes!" Flyheight shouted to Fanel as he saw the black dragon take off.
"Crud, neither we nor the Corsura can outrun that thing, gotta think of something," Fanel thought out loud, meanwhile tucking in his wings to dive out of the way as the dark Escaflowne passed just over head.
"Oh no…" Flyheight spoke out loud as he saw two guymelefs drop from the Corsura.
"NO!! YOU DON'T STAND A CHANCE, GET AWAY!!" Fanel yelled, tears streaming from his eyes, in vain at two of the guard guymelef units that had accompanied him from Fanelia.
Colonel Alvin didn't even know what hit him, as the dragon passed overhead it simply opened its tail and let the sword fall, it bisected the guymelef and pilot on the way to the ground. Alvin's partner Quar had both his guymelef's and his own head ripped off by the dragon's outstretched claw.
Fanel and Flyheight's eyes widened in shock at their comrades deaths and at the brutal power required to dispatch two guymelefs in just five seconds. The dragon wheeled and came back for its initial quarry. As it did Flyheight saw why the sword had only to be dropped to cut a machine in half.
"Fanel, don't let that sword touch you it's an energy blade like the Blade Liger's!"
Fanel promptly flipped over and power-dove towards the ground as the sword whizzed over them. Fanel then flared his wings, not for breaking but just to alter direction and utilize the velocity they had gained to skim blazing fast just meters over the wreckage of the nation of Basram.
"Stay out of sight," Fanel said to Flyheight.
"Huh?" queried a befuddled Flyheight as the Fanelian king dropped him at full speed, just barely making it to the coastline. Flyheight skipped like a stone twice and then slowed to a stop. It only took him a moment to realize what was happening and he quickly took a deep breath and dove under the water while Fanel used his remaining speed to try and gain some altitude to work with.
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The three scientists watched the video feed with rapt attention as the EX forcefully fused with Shadow and took over Raven. "We thought this might happen," Dr. Kline said, and the two others nodded in agreement with him.
"Interesting contraption, but quite useless," Dr. Sal commented when the leviskimmer came into view.
"Wait a second!! Look at this!" Dr. Ferdot said excitedly, pointing to his monitor.
"This… this unity reading is off the scale!" Dr. Sal exclaimed, "and it's for the passenger on that small leviship."
"I'm on it," Dr. Kline turned back to his own interface and opened the voice command for unit for the EX. "Change in plans. Grab the passenger, still eliminate everything else." The affirmative light winked on as the EX unit itself accepted the order.
As the fight began Dr. Sal made a puzzled sound.
"What is it?" Dr. Kline inquired.
"Oh, we just had a small hiccup in accepting that command." Dr. Sal said, "It appears the smaller machine had not been quite completely integrated yet and so it slowed the initial sword draw, that's why it missed. Don't worry, it's been suppressed now."
The scientists returned to the video feed just in time to see the EX drop into the water. A few moments later it flapped its wings and rose up, the sword now returned to the tail and in its place in the right hand claw was a struggling young man.
"Objective one acquired. Proceeding to objective two." A synthesized voice came from the speakers.
"Belay that order, return to base," Dr. Kline spoke into the microphone.
"You said I could destroy more," the voice sounded almost as if it was sulking.
"We can't risk hurting the primary objective, maybe later, and next time… don't question orders," Dr. Ferdot lectured the EX's AI.
"Affirmative, all orders accepted, returning to base," the EX responded over the speakers.
As Dr. Ferdot was about to shut down the machine Dr. Sal spoke up, "one more thing." Dr. Sal took the controls, "EX, this is Dr. Sal. Dump your current pilot on the way home. Keep the small machine and the objective, but the pilot is trash. Switch to autonomous mode when this is complete and continue in that mode. Oh and make it quick."
"Affirmative," the EX replied. "Ejecting pilot."
"RAVEN!" The doctors heard the voice of the objective over the still active external microphone pick up, Dr. Sal promptly flipped a switch and turned that speaker off.
"Switching to autonomous mode. Beginning ignition sequence. Firing… ETA: Twenty minutes."
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"RAVEN!" Van Flyheight shouted as he could only watch helplessly as Raven fell like a rag doll and streaming blood to the ocean surface below. Suddenly the dragon squeezed him a little tighter around the middle and he passed out as the boosters ignited, sending Van and the EX hurtling towards Zaibach.
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Van Fanel groaned as he awoke to the Corsura setting down on the shoreline. The dark Escaflowne had barely flicked him with its tail on the way by as he tried to stop it from making off with the other Van. This had broken both of his wings, and his ribs had bruised, maybe fractured, he couldn't tell, on impact with the water. The ocean waves had easily washed him back ashore.
As Van began to push himself up he winced as his wings took on their own weight. (:I won't be able to fly with these for a while. I should also have them set before I try to retract them.:)
"King Van!" a couple of his men called out to him. He raised his hand in reply instead of yelling back, he didn't want to find out what it would be like to try to yell with bruised ribs.
When the men arrived Van had gotten to his feet, although wobbly, he could stand and insisted on doing so. He turned to the captain, "Are Alvin and Quar…" he couldn't bring himself to finish the statement. "I'm afraid they're gone sir," The captain of the Corsura said.
Colonel Quar had been an orphan who had signed up after the war, hoping that maybe he could payoff his debt to his King and country for stopping the bloodshed.
Alvin had been a Colonel that he actually didn't know really well. A rarity for a Royal Guard, Van had made it a point to know each of them personally, to understand them and their strengths and weaknesses. Colonel Alvin had been newly appointed just before Van went out inspecting the pillar of light, to take the place the aging General Narsima had only recently vacated. Normally he wouldn't have taken one of the new Guards, but he had come personally recommended by Narsima himself. Van had been hoping he might get to know Alvin later in this trip, but now that would never happen.
As Van turned to go inspect the damage to the guymelefs himself, he stumbled over his own weak feet and found himself face to face with another of his other Royal Guards and that Guard's personal student, both on their knees, heads bowed, and holding their swords of rank out to him.
"My Lord," both said in unison. The Guard spoke up, "Forgive us, we were weak. When we saw what happened to Alvin and Quar, how easily they were slain, we were filled with fear and could not move. Please do with us as you would any deserter."
"I'm just glad you're both ok, Shin, Ivan. I don't mean to demean your skills, but you would not have lasted long out here. I'm glad you both stayed behind." The two men looked up completely bewildered. "I know it's your duty Shin," Van cut in before they could speak up, " and by default you take it upon yourself as well Ivan even though you are not yourself a Guard. But," Van paused as he searched for the right words to say, "Well, for one thing, I wouldn't be doing my self a favor getting rid of one of my own Guards. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good Guard?" Van asked with a slight grin on his face. "As for Ivan, he's your student Shin, he's your charge."
"If I may my Lord. If I was truly a good Guard I would not have hesitated," Shin put in.
Van Fanel sighed, slightly exasperated, "Soldier. Are you questioning my judgment in picking my own Royal Guards? I do pick them myself, if you recall," the Fanelian king said with a weary tone as he stood back up. No reply came. "Now go help with the recovery of the guymelefs."
"Yes my Lord," Shin and Ivan said together, and quickly left.
The ship's medic came carrying her bag of supplies. She took one look at his wings and gasped a little. "One moment My Lord, this will hurt a bit," the doctor said as she approached Van's left wing. (:Compound fracture…and broken in two places. I have to make sure I don't make the fractures worse while I set the breaks.:)
Iris, the doctor, set her bag down and opened it getting out some splints and setting them on top of the bag. She turned again to the wing and reached gently for the first break. A swift jerk and a hiss of pain from king Van and the first break was set. Iris clamped a small splint over the first break temporarily, then moved and repeated the same procedure to the second. Once she clamped a larger splint over both left wing breaks and the fractures she moved to the right wing.
The right wing was only broken in one place but it was really broken. The bone was slightly crushed because of its hollow nature and then it protruded out the back of the wing. (:It's a wonder Lord Van hasn't passed out from this yet.:) Iris thought to herself.
She gave it a swift yank out and then a sharp tug backwards to set it in place then place as Van let out a pained cry. Once she got the last splint on she picked up her bag. "Lord Van that should be good enough for you to be able to fold your wings enough for you to get on the Corsura, but I'm nowhere near done with you. Once in the infirmary I'm going to do a better job in the cleaner environment."
"Understood. Thank you Iris. Lead the way."
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Landing hard on the water jolted Raven awake. However, he almost immediately passed out again from blood loss, but he managed to maintain consciousness. (:This is bad. If I don't die from blood loss, I'll probably become a snack for something real quick.:)
As Raven finally began succumbing to sleep he felt himself being pulled along by the arm, not by a set of teeth, but rather by a pair of soft hands. His eyes fluttered open one last time and through his blurry vision he saw a human body attached to…a fin? (:A…a mermaid?:)
Raven finally fell asleep.