Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction / Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Outlaw Star Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ The Reaper ❯ The Outlaw Cometh, Mayuka's Love ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids, blah blah blah. I do own a model though. Yadda yadda yadda.

Second chapter and you'll never guess what's gonna happen. Well you might have an idea, it might be right, though most likely not. And now the second chapter.

This chapter has almost nothing to do with the Blitz team. This is a story about a Zoid pilot that I made up. In this part of the story the group from Outlaw Star shows up and the XGP needs repairs. So Jim calls the best mechanic

The Reaper

Chapter 2: The Outlaw Cometh, Mayuka's Love

Nate and the Death Raptor were facing Bit and the Liger Zero Panzer. They were both crouched down, ready to strike. The Zoid's faces seemed to be mimicking the expressions on their pilot's faces. It was a look of pure concentration, intense pressure, and a hint of rage on Bit's part. The Panzer was about to fire when the Raptor did something completely unexpected.

It relaxed.

"I declare this match up a tie," Nate said over the com.

"A TIE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Bit yelled back, everyone on the hover cargo was just stunned.

"Yes, a tie. Our Zoids are too evenly matched, Bit Cloud."

"How would you know that?"

"I know a lot more than you think I know. I know about the Liger being an Ultimate X; mine is also an Ultimate X. If you think I'm as much of a pushover as Vega was, than you're wrong. Your Panzer is not supposed to be that maneuverable. This means that it wants to win as badly as you do. If that is the case, than the Raptor will exceed all its limits just to match it. That makes us even, like it or not," he turned the Death Raptor around and headed back to his hover cargo, letting it all sink in.

"He's right," Doc said. He was going the information over and over again in his mind, and it made perfect sense. "Bit, come back, it's a tie."

"Just to show that I'm a good sport, and not some Zoid killer, I'm transferring half the prize money to the Tauros account. Good bye, and I hope we meet again."

They just watched as his Zoid walked to the back of the hover cargo, stepped inside, and the hover cargo just turned and accelerated away.

"The battle is over, the battle is over," the judge yelled, "I declare this battle a tie. With the approval of both teams." The capsule closed, and lifted off, heading back to the satellite far above.

Nate stood at the console in the hangar, checking the systems on all the Death Raptor's accessories. He was reading the very fast type; it was in binary code. The ones and zeros passed by at a high speed. He took it all in, though it was somewhat difficult. Tapping a small blue button a soothing music filled the hangar. It warmed his body from head to toe.

Just as he was getting relaxed a voice crackled over the space radio, "This is Gene Starwind, of the ship the Outlaw Star. I am requesting assistance from Nate Sindel."

"What kind of assistance?" Nate asked calmly. He wasn't expecting something like this so late at night. There was a throbbing in his temples. `First the tie with the Blitz team, now this,' he thought.

"We need to have repairs done, and there don't seem to be any spaceports on planet Zi. People along the way told us that you were the best mechanical engineer in this part of space," this was a much younger voice.

"Okay, I'll help, how many are in your crew?" pulling up the file on the ship while he asked.

"Five, four humans and a Ctarl Ctarl."

"You aren't really expecting to be paid are you?" Gene asked uneasily.

"I don't expect payment, besides you already owe enough money to Fred Lo," he answered laughing. "Begin your landing preparations now. Please try to land the ship on its ventral side."

"That's the bottom of the ship, Gene," the second voice said with a hint of laughter.

"I know that, Jim," Gene yelled at him.

His left hand blurred across the console. Within moments the desert outside the hangar doors split in two. A long platform, like the kind you see on tractor-trailers, was raised up. On the top of the platform was a long tread-line, like the kind on treadmills. This tread connected to a segment in the hangar, underneath a series of mechanical arms that could be controlled from another console across the hangar.

Mayuka came in just as the ship landed. She looked at the long red vessel as it flew over the top of the Zeros base. It landed right on the treads, and Nate started the motors to bring it in. When it was inside the hangar he activated the twelve, foot-thick grappling chords to come down and grab the ship. The chords lifted it off the treads easily. The platform, which carried the ship in, disappeared under the ground.

The door on the side opened and out stepped five people. The first one out was tall and had red hair. The second was a girl who was about Mayuka's height; she had black hair. The third was a small boy no older than twelve. The next was easily recognizable as Suzuka, the bounty hunter. The last one out was a Ctarl Ctarl female with a long gray/tan braid.

"I'm Gene Starwind, and this is Gilium," the tall one said and he pointed to the ship.

"Greeting Nate Sindel, I am Gilium II the onboard computer of the fastest most advanced ship in the galaxy," a mechanical voice from the ship said.

"Just call me Nate, and if you're in the mood call me The Reaper," Nate told Gilium with a smile.

The black haired girl walked up to him and introduced herself to be Melfina. The Ctarl Ctarl didn't introduce herself; she was busy looking at all the things in the hangar.

"Don't mind Aisha, she's a little too curious sometimes," Melfina said smiling at the Ctarl Ctarl, who was about to touch the Wild Weasel system. Her hand was an inch away when she got a small shock.

"Curiosity killed the cat, she should remember that here," Mayuka said laughing, "We don't entertain much, so everything in here is calibrated to our DNA. Anyone else tries to touch it while it's being stored and they get shocked."

"And who, might I ask, are you?" Gene asked in his semi-drunk voice. It was as though he were hitting on Mayuka. But we all know that that's not possible, or is it.

"I'm Mayuka Masaki, Nate's…assistant," she answered coldly.

"I'm Jim Hawking, I'm hoping to help you fix the ship," Jim said with a smile as he looked at all the high-tech equipment.

"That's great, but it's late and I really don't like to work unless I get my needed five hours," Nate said yawning and stretching. "Since you're all guests here I'll show you to your rooms." He started heading for the door when they heard Aisha getting shocked again.

"Aisha, come on, we're heading inside," Suzuka called to her before following Nate and the others through the door. Aisha followed them, rubbing one of her hands.

"Why did you have to do what you did to those power components?" she asked walking quicker so she was instep with Nate.

"It keeps them clean," he said in a callous toned voice. It was late, he had a headache, and he was hoping to relax tomorrow. With his plans for the morrow destroyed by these people, he had no choice but to deal with it. They stopped at the end of the hall in front of the guestroom. "There's five of you and two rooms."

"What do you mean two rooms?" Mayuka asked with a confused look on her face.

"This room and your room," he said still in his callous voice, "You can have my room, since you spend more time in there than in your own room anyway."

"Oh," she said in a happy tone.

"I'm gonna lock up, then I'm gonna take the couch."

"Oh," her voice dropped slightly.

"So who gets which room?" Jim asked cringing at Mayuka's room.

"You and Gene get the guest room and the girls get Mayuka's Room," Nate said turning to go back to the hangar. He heard doors close, and two sets of footsteps behind him. A door opened and closed while he was walking, now there was only one set of footsteps behind him. The door to the hangar opened and he walked inside.

On inside he walked back to the console he was at before. He typed a few key codes and the outer and inner hangar doors closed and locked. He turned around and saw Aisha standing by the door. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was looking down at the floor.

"Did you want something?"

"I wanted to say thank you," she said looking up, "Everytime I meet a human for the first time they treat me like an animal."

"Except for Melfina, and Suzuka who just didn't care, right?" he asked staring up into her face, his tone of voice was a bit more inviting. "You're welcome Aisha, it's good to have a few more people here for once."

He walked past her and into the living room. He lifted up the seats on the couch and pulled out a sheet and a pillow. When he looked up Aisha was still there. He tossed the sheet and pillow on the couch. `Why is she still here, I thought she would have gone to bed by now," he thought to himself.

"Aren't you going to bed?"

"Suzu kicked me out of the room, she said I might break something," she said looking at the floor again.

"You can sleep here then," he said pointing to the couch. `Why am I being so nice, I'm the Reaper.'

"Thank you," she lay down and fell to sleep almost instantly.

Nate couldn't help but smile; she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place it. He just shrugged and made a bed for himself on another couch. Before going to sleep he decided to get something to eat. When he entered the kitchen he saw Gene checking out the fridge.

`This is getting old,' he thought, `They haven't even been here an hour.'

Gene was obviously oblivious to Nate's presence. Odds were that he wouldn't find anything he liked anyway. Mayuka hadn't gone shopping for a week. Nate figured he would give Mr. Starwind a scare. He pulled the caster out of the holster on his hip, walked up behind Gene, and stuck it to his back.

Gene jumped about five feet in the air. He had an indignant look on his face like this kitchen was his own.

"What do you think you're doing pulling a gun on me?" he asked in a very annoyed voice.

"I'm asking the questions, what are you doing in my kitchen?"

"Getting some food, duh."

"I suggest you go to bed, or do you not want me to fix your ship?"

"Is that a caster?" he asked eyeing Nate's gun.

"Yes."

"It looks a lot more advanced than mine."

"As are the shells I use."

"What?"

"Go to bed."

"Fine." And he stormed out of the kitchen.

With that done Nate got himself a glass of milk. He had the gun so Gene was quick to comply. He could have taken care of the outlaw without the caster, and using it would have been overkill. The throbbing in his temples returned. Looking over at the thermostat he saw it was way up.

"I didn't set it that high," he said to himself. Heat was one of the things that gave him a headache. He walked over and turned the dial down to off. If it could go to negative numbers he would have turned it down farther. Turning around he went back into the living room, dropped on the couch, and fell asleep thinking about how he had gotten here.

Nate was so excited to be going on this trip with his father. Hyperspace was amazing to look at, the yellow lines speeding past the windows. He was beginning to feel a throbbing in his temples; closed spaces made him feel like this. He was glad he had the window seat, and the girl in front of him was kinda cute. She is Mayuka.

Then it happened. When the ship was halfway through the gate, the gate closed and exploded. It left half the ship in hyperspace. The part of the ship left was losing air fast. The portholes were bursting, inward, and people were getting doused with shards of glass. Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling, trapdoors opened in the floor leading to the escape pods.

Mayuka was holding tight to Nate while this was going on. His father put on a mask and stuffed one on both their faces. He then grabbed both of them and shoved them through a trapdoor. The escape pod was only big enough for the two of them, but Nate would not let go of his father's hand. Then a piece of shrapnel sliced his cheek. This caused him to let go, but he could feel a loop the size of a ring in his hand. The door closed and the pod was launched.

When they were at a safe distance, the ship finally exploded. A few of the pods were destroyed along with it. They had people in them, trying to get family in with them. It was lucky that his father's hand had been sweating, or else the ring would not have come off and Mayuka and him would have been dead.

A piece of the ship was still intact. When it floated by the two of them could see bodies. Singed, burned, mutilated bodies, hanging from the bulkheads. One of the faces was less than a foot from the window. It was his father's face. He started screaming.

He woke up screaming, and Mayuka fell to the floor. She was up before she knew what was happening. When she looked over at Nate, he had the chain around his neck out. He was looking at the ring on the end. There were tears down his cheeks and a cold sweat on his brow.

It took them a moment before they realized that Aisha was up too. And they heard a rustling in the rooms down the hall. They were still breathing heavily.

"What, what happened," Aisha said looking around. She was expecting something to jump out of the shadows.

"Nothing," Mayuka said sitting next to Nate and holding him, "just a bad dream." She stroked the back of his head and cooed softly, like a mother would to calm their child. Looking at the clock she sighed, it was 4 AM. "Go back to sleep Aisha, everything will be fine," she assured to alert Ctarl Ctarl.

She did go back to sleep, but Nate and Mayuka didn't; the memory of the gate accident all too fresh in their minds. They just stayed as they were, Mayuka holding Nate against her breast. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. She knew that he was hers, and no one was going to take him away from her.

"He saved us," Nate said quietly.

"What?" although she already knew.

"My dad saved us, and I still can't figure out why."

Mayuka had been on the ship alone, on her way to Jurai. Zi was one of the stops on the trip. She kept in constant with her parents, though she had not left Zi since that day. They were coming to visit. She wasn't really his stepsister. He just said that so people would keep thinking of him as a heartless warrior. But during the past year he's become more emotional. Tonight was the night that she knew he would accept her, and not push her away.

"Yes, you do know why."

"How many times have we gone over this?"

"This is the tenth time you had that dream."

He rubbed the scar on his cheek where the shrapnel had sliced it.

"It's been seven years and you still keep track?"

"Yes," she held him closer.

"When are they coming, your parents I mean."

"Next week."

Looking up into her face he saw the true love in her eyes.

"That's good, I've been waiting to meet them in person."

"The whole family is coming."

They both sighed, this meant Mayuka might be taken back to Jurai. Nate reached up and touched her cheek.

"You will stay, won't you?"

"Can you two please shut up, or go someplace else?" Aisha asked sounding very cranky.

"I'll answer you in the morning now let's go to sleep," Mayuka said laying down, and dragging Nate along.

TBC

This is only the second chapter, please let me know how you like it. I've been waiting for some reviews on the last chapter but it seems you people don't want to review. **gets down on knees and begs** please, please review, I need to know what you think. Don't miss the next chapter where Nate fixes the XGP and they leave. Then the Zeros team is challenged by the Backdraft Organization. Mayuka gets a gift from her newly acquired lover and takes them on herself. Will she need help? Wait and see. **bows to all and leaves the lecture hall** this time review. I need to know how you like my stories. Expect a gundam fic by next month, or march at the latest.