11AN - This isn't way overdue or anything _ Not much to say here, except a thank you to Darkened-Storm for helping to light the fire under my behind and get back to writing this.
(Guardian Force Timeline)
Raven almost growled in disgust. A lousy Helcat? Even one of the troops fresh out of the academy could take out one of these with a little luck. Why was it insisted that Raven take it out?
"Let's get this over with. Just stay off to the side, Shadow. You'd make it boring."
Shadow growled in response.
Raven pushed the Geno Breaker forward, shooting out a claw to catch the Helcat but the Helcat dodged easily.
Raven growled in annoyance, firing the boosters to chase his prey. There was no way the Helcat would escape the Breaker. Raven alternated between firing the guns and lunging with the pincers, determined to destroy the Zoid quickly. However, every time it seemed he had it in his grasp, it would miraculously slip through.
There's something strange about this Zoid. There's no way it should be able to keep getting away from me.
"Shadow! Get rid of it!"
Shadow let out a roar before taking to the air, turning into a blur of light as he sped towards the Helcat. Colliding with the Zoid, Shadow sped through it, determined to rip through the Core. Raven watched as Shadow came back out and landed heavily, electricity crackling all over.
Something is seriously wrong with this Zoid. Why couldn't Shadow rip out the Core? She's never failed at that before.
"Move it Shadow." Raven said as he hovered the Breaker just above the ground, opening the tail vents and extending the Charged Particle Cannon.
Shadow fused with the Geno, flipping the forehead blade forward as Raven pushed the power to the maximum.
"Let's see you dodge THIS!"
The beam shot forward, straight for the fleeing Helcat. It turned to run in a different direction, but Raven powered one booster, swinging his Zoid around to follow the Helcat's path. The beam caught the back legs of the Helcat, causing it to stumble and fall on its side. Suddenly, it vanished and Raven swore, turning the Breaker in to find it, still intent on finishing it off with the last remnants of the charged particle beam. Before Raven could turn the Zoid any more, it stopped responding to his controls.
"Shadow, are you doing this!"
The map popped up on the display, showing Raven's Zoid and the beam's trajectory. It was already dangerously close to the town they had passed by and if Raven had continued turning, the town would have been hit. Even though the beam was weaker at that distance, there would still be death and destruction. If that had happened, he wouldn't be able to leave the base for a long time and he might even lose possession of the Breaker.
"Hmph. Fine. I'll just finish it off up close. It makes no difference to me how it's destroyed."
Raven retracted the turret and looked for the Helcat. It was on the other side of the Breaker, somehow managing to get around him in the blink of an eye.
Pointing the Breaker right at the injured Zoid, he leaned the head forward, determined to spear the Core with the Breaker's blade. For added enjoyment, he would use the pincers to tear it in two.
(At a military base)
Colonel Karl Schubaltz walked down the hallway leading to the Zoid hangar. It was early morning and he wanted to see how repairs were going on his Iron Kong.
As he turned the corner, he saw Colonel Herman walking towards him.
Karl nodded to him, touching his hat. "Herman. Good to see you."
"You too, Schubaltz. I don't suppose you've seen Lieutenant Flyheight or Fiona around?"
Karl frowned. "No, I haven't. By the sound of it, I take it they're not in their rooms?"
Herman shook his head. "Nope. The Liger is still here and I found Zeke with it. I just checked the hangar to see if they took one of those Zoids, but no luck."
"Maybe Irvine or Moonbay would know? And weren't the two of them working on some new project with Dr. D?" asked Schubaltz.
"Irvine and Moonbay left the other day but Van and Fiona were here. I've heard Dr. D's still on base but I haven't been able to find him either."
"Hmm. I can understand why they might leave the Liger behind, but why leave Zeke? And if no Zoids are gone, did they drive? Nothing's in walking distance."
Herman shook his head again. "No vehicles are missing. I'm starting to worry. No alarms sounded so surely they weren't kidnapped…"
"What do you say we go see Zeke. If he wasn't running around or trying to pilot a Zoid, then I think we can safely say he knows they're fine and will be back soon."
"Good point." Herman said, turning to walk towards the research wing where the Liger was. "He was just standing there. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Not at all. I was just going to check on my Iron Kong."
"I can save you the walk, then. They finished repairing it a few hours ago."
Schubaltz nodded. "Good. I want to check up on a few leads later today."
"About?"
Karl frowned. "You mean you haven't heard the reports about a Geno Breaker that's been sighted? This one's black and we know nothing about it."
Herman was shocked. "A black Geno Breaker? How much damage has it caused?"
"That's the thing, it doesn't attack. People see it briefly before it disappears. It seems to have a travel companion, but the only thing we know is that it's a red Zoid."
Herman punched in his access code and the door slid open. Karl could see the Blade Liger at the back, hooked up to some machine with wires. Zeke was standing by the computers, staring at the floor in front of the Liger.
Karl walked to Zeke, while Herman looked at the computer, looking for anything that would help.
"Hey Zeke. Where are Van and Fiona?"
Herman reached out to touch a lever next to the computer.
"Don't touch that!" came a voice from the Blade Liger.
Herman froze and Karl spun around to see Dr. D crawling down from the tangle of wires on the Liger.
"Dr. D! I was hoping to find you. I'm trying to find Van and Fiona." Herman said, walking over to him.
"Well, I'm afraid I can't help you. I don't know where they went." came the Dr.'s reply.
"Y-you don't?" Karl said.
"Nope. They were doing tests on the new system, last I knew. They were supposed to let me know how things went."
The door opened and guard ran in. "Dr. D! I did as you asked and you're not going to believe this!"
"Oh? What happened?" the crazy scientist asked.
Herman had to ask, "What did you ask him to do?"
The guard paused to take a breath before saying, "Dr. D asked me to review the security tapes for this room to see what happened. They just vanished!"
"What?" was everyone's reply. Zeke tilted his head in confusion.
"You have to see it to believe it. Follow me." said the guard.
All four of them followed the guard back to the surveillance room, where the scene was ready to be played back. The guard pushed a button and the video began.
The timestamp showed that it was 2 a.m. yesterday morning. Van was standing by the computer, inputting data. Fiona came into view a few moments later to stand behind Van. The two talked animatedly about something before Van pulled a lever and the duo walked over to the Blade Liger, standing in front of it. There was a flash of light, causing everyone watching to blink. When they looked again, Van and Fiona were gone.
The next few moments passed in silence until Karl wondered aloud, "How did that happen?"
"This is not good." murmured Dr. D.
Herman jumped on his statement. "Does that mean you know what happened?"
"I think so. It seems my experiment doesn't quite work the way I intended it to. But it's a marvel of science that it does that!" the doctor exclaimed.
"Maybe you should start from the beginning." Karl said.
"Very well. But not until I've had my morning coffee." Dr. D said stubbornly.
"You can't be serious. At a time like this, you hold off for coffee?" Herman said, annoyed.
"Now now Rob. I'm not getting any younger. And coffee will help me remember. You wouldn't want this old scientist to start forgetting parts of his story, now would you?"
Karl sighed. "I'll get it. I haven't had any yet either. Plenty of salt for the doc. You want a cup, Herman?"
"Black. We'll meet you in the conference room?"
"Fine with me. Anyone else we need to involve?" asked the Imperial colonel.
"Hm…your brother, along with Irvine and Moonbay." Dr. D said.
"Moonbay and Irvine aren't back yet. They should be soon though. As for Thomas…" Herman trailed off.
"Thomas is probably in his room. He's more of a night owl than an early riser. I'll grab him on my way." said Karl, moving toward the door.
A knock on his door caused Thomas to stir slightly. He didn't know what time it was, but it was too early. He was lucky if he had gotten 4 hours sleep, having spent most of the night working on improvements to BEEK.
"Wake up, Lieutenant. We need you in the conference room."
Thomas groaned, but sat up and looked at the clock. Three and a half hours ago, he had stumbled into his bed. He was still wearing his uniform.
He called out to his brother, "I'll be there in a minute Karl."
Karl sighed. "We're technically off duty, but you know it's Colonel Schubaltz. We'll be meeting Colonel Herman and Doctor D. I'm getting coffee."
The door opened and Thomas came out. "I'll join you."
The two brothers walked to the kitchen and Karl started pouring cups for himself and Herman. "You can make yours and Dr. D's."
Thomas wordlessly poured salt into their cups, his brain still trying to remain awake.
Herman and Dr. D were sitting at the table in silence, looking up when the door opened. The brothers handed out the cups wordlessly, everyone taking deep draughts before Thomas spoke.
"So what happened that's so major?"
"Van and Fiona are missing." Dr. D spoke up.
Thomas almost spit his coffee in shock.
"Something's happened to Miss Fiona?"
AN- Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I know it's been a long time since I've updated it and I'm really sorry.