Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction ❯ Zone of the Enders: Triad 2177 ❯ Chaos In Motion ( Chapter 18 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Norris reveals his frightening ambition as Wahrsager appears to take his life. A clash between the two, plus Miryhn and Dingo, ensues with no clear victor.

Meanwhile, it's the emergence of Sailor Freya! Henshin yo!

And Judas comes aboard Entropy while Nash finds the latest anime craze: SD Orbital Frame!

Non Anime: Zone Of The Enders Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi / Romance / Mecha / Comedy / Adventure / Action / Angst | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.05.2004 | Updated On: 01.27.2004 | Pages: 13 | Words: 20.3K | Visits: 207 | Status: Completed

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<CENTER>"Insanity in individuals is something rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule." -Friedrich Nietzche</CENTER>

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Norris rocked his head back, letting the symphony envelop him with it's majesty. Ehecatl hovered quietly over the battlefield, a few clean-up crews below removing the Phantomas he just trashed from the test.

"Excuse me, sir?" Lamar's voice said faintly below the grand crescendo from the brass section.

Norris rolled his eyes and turned down the volume. "What is it? Can't you see I'm soaking in the fantastic feeling this Orbital Frame just seems to seeth with?" he shouted.

"Sir, I'm concerned about something. While you were fighting, I read over the schematics and apparently there is absolutely no automatic control mechanisms installed at all. The Frame is fully and entirely manually controlled," Lamar explained.

"Yeah, so?" Norris said, indifferent.

"Sir, that means if you had kept going at that rate any longer, you might have unknowingly overloaded every last corner of the reactor. At the very least you should have installed a power management system or some kind of automatic redirective management system. The wings alone could have overheated and the entire Frame would explode merely from no means of releasing or managing such enormous amounts of power! If you're not careful, sir, you'll find yourself flying a ticking time bomb!" Lamar explained.

Norris laughed. "Lamar, don't you get it? That's the flaw with Orbital Frames, they're so strung up with such involuntary action control systems that not all their full power is at the Runner's disposal. The solution is simple, if you have too much power, get rid of it!" he replied, then laughing.

"And I suppose after battle, when the enemy is defeated and the power system is still overcharged with no means of safely disipating the reserved charge that all our units will just fight each other?" Lamar replied, sarcastic.

Norris laughed harder. "No, Lamar, Ehecatl is my crowning achievement. This Orbital Frame marks a new era for the Ryan Corporation. We can now and will produce Orbital Frames that are more powerful than Nereidium's and there is absolutely nothing Kapricon can do about it! From this point forward, we'll begin my glorious plan to become the premiere military technology company in the entire solar system! My Lord, we could even become the most powerful force to be reconned with that any military force or militia group has ever seen! Ryan will be finally be a superpower among all of humanity!" he said, grandly and with a bright smile on his face.

Lamar fell silent. He was both scared of Norris at the moment and impressed by his plan. "Well, that sounds great, sir! However, how are we to get the same level of materials that Nereidium has?"

"That will all be answered in time, Lamar. For now, I just want to soak in this wonderful feeling a bit longer. Please, leave me. Me and Ehecatl must bond some more," Norris said, sitting back and closing his eyes while still smiling.

"Well, alright, sir. But I'm still concerned about your ideas of Orbital Frame development. You just proved full manual control is essential for more power and response, but what about the rudimentary safety systems? Certainly no one will want to pilot a Frame that could explode at any moment," Lamar said, concerned.

"Lamar, have you ever been a Frame Runner?" Norris asked, lowering his head, still smiling.

"No, sir, I went to business school and as soon as I graduated I started an entry-level job here and-" Lamar began to say.

"Then you have to understand something, Lamar," Norris interrupted. "A Runner and his Frame aren't just a man and machine. They are one being and depend on one another. There is no danger if the Runner can learn to trust the Frame and if they can learn to care for it like it was their own body," he explained. "I know Ehecatl will never betray me, it accepts me, I can feel it almost!"

"Whatever you say, sir," Lamar replied, now officially scared of Norris.

"Then leave us. I'll return when I've had my fill," Norris commanded, then cut off the comlink. He immediately turned back up the music.

Lamar sighed and shook his head. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, I can't decide if he's brilliant or insane," he said, rolling his eyes.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Leo sighed and fired another salvo of missiles. The enormous LEV leapt to the side and avoided the entire salvo. The dodging capabilites of this thing was no surprise, but he might as well have done something threatening, the damn thing managed to make it all the way back to Mars after all.

"Leo, we need a new attack plan! Switch to Sigma Delta Alpha!" Ken commanded over the comlink. With that, her Vic Viper shot forward and dove in an attempt to stab the retreating LEV in the back with one of the arm blades. The shield shone as the attack connected and her Vic Viper was sent backwards with a bright shock.

"Ken, we tried that three minutes ago. The shield on that thing just stopped it like it was nothing," Leo explained, getting aggrivated with the whole situation. He and Ken had been chasing the stolen prototype Behemoth LEV for quite a long time and unfortuneately Ken had been too stubborn to call in back-up.

"Then what will hurt this thing?" Ken cried out, desperate. She was halfway to tears from frustration as her Vic Viper recovered and caught up with a quick burst of speed.

Inside the Behemoth, Diaz was laughing with his inherent Spanish charm. As soon as he shook these pesky military types, he'd cash in this filched technology for a bundle on the black market. He could only taste the enormous sum that would soon grace his cash card. "Come on, muchachos, try that again!" he shouted, setting the lasers to lock-on.

Three turrets on the massive body of the LEV turned around and criss-crossed the area behind it with steady Halberd-like lasers. The two Vic Vipers shot around, avoiding the attack gracefully.

Leo then set the Vic Viper to autopilot and pulled up the blueprints Angie "borrowed" to the LEV on his console. "Prototype heavy assault LEV 'Behemoth'. One of the 'lost' designs created by Dezeele Zephyrs. Several were produced by Ryan Corporation, but never saw combat with the U.N.S.F. and were decommissioned in 2173 due to being 'too dangerous to civilians'. Due to the conflicts in 2174, they were asked to be recommissioned, but never made it due to...they 'just couldn't find them' and were later found in the hands of an obscure Martian liberation militia during the Terran Crusade. Recovered and placed back in storage, they haven't been heard of since," Leo explained. "Size comparable to standard issue Phantoma is nearly three times the normal size, but the massive power plant rumored to be Metatron powered that fuels it makes this LEV incredibly agile when not in Siege Mode. Ironically, the design and purpose were ripped off from a mech featured in a late 20th century video game, the Metal Gear Re-" *

"Would you get to the part about how to destroy it?" Ken screamed, interrupting.

Leo sighed and scrolled down the plans some. "Alright, it's armed with several machine gun turrents, all computer-guided. There is also a massive missiles battery on board that can launch salvos counting from six to thirty-three missiles all at once along with an auto-reloading feature that can replace fired salvos within seconds. The laser cannons are high powered and blah blah blah...oh, and it says here there's a rail cannon for launching Vector Bombs," he explained. "However, the barrier system on this thing is quite powerful in Assault Mode, which is the mode it's in now, but it weakens when it switches to the slower-moving siege mode so that power can be used for the weapons systems."

"Vector Bombs? What the hell?" Ken said, puzzled.

"I have no idea. Point is, unless he switches attack modes, we might never get a scratch on this thing," Leo said, suddenly grabbing the controls and barrel-rolling to the side as the Behemoth opened up with its machine guns. He countered with a Ripple Laser, which sadly only got absorbed by the shield.

"This is insane! He might never stop then!" Ken sobbed. "It's hopeless!"

"Then call for back-up! Sheesh!" Leo said, voice raised.

Ken sighed. "Leo, Dingo never gave up and called in for back-up! We can do it on our own too! We're strong enough without anyone else's help!"

Leo groaned. "There's a difference between being strong and being stupid!" he shouted angrily. "Ken, this is ludicrous! Make a call!"

"Yeah, but I'm not about to call the Space Force! East Wind will be a laughing stock for not being able to stop a mere LEV," Ken whined.

"Then grab Dingo's mercs. I'm sure they're doing nothing important," Leo replied, equally frustrated.

"Yeah, you're right. What could such average people be doing that's more important than supporting their local military task force?" Ken said with a smirk.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

After a quick pit stop at an ancient BAHRAM supply depot, Masamune was already repaired and recharged, following alongside Dingo's Vic Viper as the pair kept on the trail of the quickly departing Wahrsager. She had gone across the UCM borders and was out in the uncharted southern areas of Mars, the duo making a beeline for her.

"Come on, baby, where 'ya heading? You have to stop and hide sometime, right?" Dingo said, a confident smirk on his face as the tracking beep on the radar kept a steady pace southward.

Meanwhile, in Masamune, Miryhn was staring into space. He sunk low in the seat and sighed.

Dingo continued to smirk and laugh slowly. He began to notice how quiet Miryhn had been. "Yo, you alright over there? If you're worried, you shouldn't be. This time you got me to cover your ass," he said confidently.

"It's not that. It's just-" Miryhn replied, about to begin explaining. Realizing how rediculous it might sound to Dingo, he stopped and left the sentence unfinished.

"Just what? So you got your ass kicked around, big deal," Dingo said, nonchalant. "But then again, something was weird about her Frame. Did you notice it came to her without any means of radio voice transmission? She wasn't using one of those weird little cell phone things like you use. That and it totally dominated you, Mr. Ex-TEMPEST hotshot," he said, partly mocking.

Miryhn rolled his eyes and slid back upright in the seat. His butt was still kind of numb from his ungraceful landing upon Masamune's cockpit, but now his mind was kind of numb and clouded with everything that he had seen and heard during the power failure.

"Now if she kicked both our asses, I'd understand seeing as I've got to be one of the best pilots around. However, I have never even heard of a Frame that can cause something comparable to a mini-nuke with their Burst Shot. Something tells me someone is breeding some kind of wacky new super-Frames and that only means trouble for everyone," Dingo explained, reaching into the side of one of the compartments and opening a small cooler he kept hidden inside. He pulled out a proverbial "cold one" and cracked it open with a first twist of the cap.

"Or maybe she was right about all that weird banter she shouted at me. Maybe her and Adavari really do depend on one another. It found something in her that makes it more complete and she gets unbriddled power from it. It's symbiotic in relationship," Miryhn said, softer than normal as he folded his arms behind his head.

"What are you talking about?" Dingo asked, puzzled. He then took a long swig from the bottle.

Miryhn sighed. "She told me that the Runner and Frame aren't just pilot and machine. She said that an Orbital Frame, in essence, is a living thing but it is bound by the limits humans put on it. It's bound to just being a combat machine because that's what humans make it into. However, deep down, a Frame looks for a near-perfect Runner...someone who can really bring out the Frame's power and make it whole. That Runner is called the Domineus, the human who can make that Frame it's strongest just by their pure willpower alone," he explained, closing his eyes.

Dingo fell silent.

"What? Am I scaring you?" Miryhn said, opening his eyes again and smirking.

"No, not really," Dingo said, then knocked back another swig of the bottle. "It's just there might be some truth to what she's saying."

"And how do you gather that?"

Dingo got comfortable in the seat and let out a belch. "Way back when I first got Jehuty, I have to admit, that Frame scared me at times. The sheer power of that thing was enough to make anyone who really knew how powerful it was turn their stomach, but deep down I felt like the damn thing really didn't want any of that. I might be mistaken, but maybe for a brief period of time, Jehuty picked me as 'Domineus'. Or at least it did as long as I felt like slaughtering Colonel Nohman," Dingo explained. "Right up through that and even in the moment when Aumaan was about to swallow up everything, me and it were a team. It's power and my unleashed pissed-off feelings as well as need for survival kept us going all through it."

"That's really touching," Miryhn said, now indifferent.

"But you know what? The other thing that really scared me about it was that sometimes it just seemed to take a life all its own. That first time I layed eyes on Anubis...Jehuty was freaking out. The cockpit got all fuzzy, this weird chant starts up in my head, and to be honest, I felt like someone else's fear was going through me. When we flew into that room of that battleship and as Jehuty spotted Anubis, I swear to God it grabbed its own head like it was in pain or something. Myself, I was just awash with shock from seeing Nohman again, I could hardly speak even as he insisted on knowing who the Runner of Jehuty was," Dingo explained, then pausing to knock back his bottle again. He let out a small burp and took in a quick breath. "I'd hate to say it, Miryhn, but I think I kind of agree with her. Orbital Frames are much more than just machines, so it seems. However, I'm not about to go causing a stir about it all across the planet."

"So you heard the chant too?" Miryhn said, sounding dazed.

"What? What are you talking about?" Dingo replied, suddenly interested.

"Her Frame somehow shut down all the systems on Masamune and the cockpit blacked out. I started to hallucinate and I heard some chick singing in my head. It was kind of like how you just explained Jehuty freaking out. The cockpit got fuzzy and this song was going in my head...but what happened after all that scared me shitless," Miryhn said, sitting forward.

"So that's why you were down for so long, eh?" Dingo said, smirking. He rotated the bottle and then took another long swig.

"Yeah, didn't it sound kind of like 'Ooo seni cu la'?" Miryhn said, speaking out the words.

"You betcha," Dingo said, nodding.

Miryhn sighed. "Then I guess Masamune here has really taken a liking to me," he said with a small smile.

"Guess so," Dingo said, finishing his drink. He popped it into the trash discharger and the bottle was instantly sucked outside and fell to the planet below. "So what happened after the fuzzy stuff and the song?"

"It's hard to explain," Miryhn said, scratching his neck.

"Eh, well, no use batting around theories on Orbital Frame spirituality, right? That won't hold my job or pay your bills, right?" Dingo said, grabbing the controls and cutting off autopilot.

"Dingo, I've been wondering, why aren't you still piloting Jehuty?" Miryhn asked, tossing some hair behind him.

"Well, for one, I promised Jehuty to be returned to my little buddy Leo. The kid loves that thing like one of his own family and honestly, I think it'd want to be with him more than me. Anubis and Nohman are both dead and so is BAHRAM, it doesn't need me anymore. I'd love to climb back into a good ol' Type C Frame someday, but not that one. There's just too much about it I don't understand," Dingo said, smiling and shaking his head.

Miryhn laughed. "And here I was thinking you'd keep piloting it because everyone thought you were 'meant to be' with it!"

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Don't you know? Everybody on Mars praises their precious Dingo and Jehuty, the duo that saved Mars! It's rare to find someone who doesn't think you two should be together. God forbid anyone who thinks differently be cut any slack. I even heard about a death threat placed upon one guy who didn't agree with that idea," Miryhn said, stretching out and grabbing the control spheres.

"So everyone thinks I should have kept Jehuty, eh?" Dingo said, laughing. "Well I'd hate to tell them, but no, I'm not. They can blow me, their hallowed hero."

"Well put! Now how soon until we intercept Wahrsager?" Miryhn asked, confident.

"Eh, might be minutes, might be hours, depends on when she stops. Problem is, she's still going," Dingo explained.

Miryhn groaned.

"But she's slowing down, that's a plus," Dingo said, leaning in closer to his console to read the tracking velocity slowly decreasing.

"You know, I forgot to mention this, but we're actually heading into land owned by Ryan Corporation. Is this alright?" Miryhn asked.

"Who cares? I have Space Force immunity from all charges placed upon me and you...well, you just haul ass out of here if anyone raises a stink about you," Dingo said, smirking.

"It looks like a testing area for their new weapons. I see all kinds of debris and laser barriers set up all around," Miryhn said, looking outside and down.

"Weird, what could she want way out here?" Dingo said, scratching his head.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"Are you absolutely sure about this? It sounds rediculous to me," Judas said, very doubtful of Trent.

Trent got up from his knees at the altar inside the chapel and turned around to Judas, whom was standing at the steps nearby Sylfa. He folded his arms and gave Judas a stern look.

"You actually want me to openly betray Lazarus and go find Miryhn? Not only that, but protect him?" Judas said, gradually raising his voice.

Sylfa put a hand at his shoulder and made a "shh" motion with a finger at her lips. Judas bit his lip and turned back to Trent.

"Judas, it's simple. Lazarus sees Miryhn as a threat now and wants him dead. I see him as an asset that needs nurturing and I want him alive. Perhaps you could help him get a hold of his own Manna 'power' and then when I weaken Lazarus, all three of us can bring him down together," Trent explained with a nod.

"It's not that, brother, it's just that...how am I to stand against one of my own? And with such a man as Miryhn who can't even use his full potential? He still doesn't understand how to be his true self," Judas said, sighing.

"All you have to do is keep him out of harm's way. I have faith in you, Judas, you are perfectly capable of being...a guardian angel, so to speak," Trent said, stepping down the stairs, Sylfa and him going into a kiss.

"Trent, I-" Judas began to say, but stopped and sighed.

"Look at it this way, it's only appropriate, considering your name," Trent said, shrugging as him and Sylfa stepped back from each other.

Judas sneered and slammed his hand down on the front pew. "I didn't choose this name, your mother did!"

Trent's eyes met his and in an instant Trent smacked Judas hard across the cheek. "Don't you ever mention her in anger, you hear me?" Trent said with his usual air of coldness. "That woman saw right through the folly of 'God' and 'church' and we are living proof of that. She was wise and caring well beyond what you'd ever know," he said, stepping back and taking Sylfa's hand.

Judas looked at Trent and sneered angrily. "So be it, half brother," he said spitefully, emphasizing the "half" part.

"Just follow through with your orders. I expect Miryhn to have no trouble with anyone thanks to you. We'll see you off as soon as we're ready preparing the big scene of your betrayal and escape," Trent said, nodding.

Judas looked at Trent angrily. "What is it with you? Do you fancy yourself some kind of director and we're all just actors in your play?"

"Perhaps," Trent said, glancing to the side.

"Well, dispite your odd outlook, I'll follow through. Anything to see Lazarus pay for this," Judas said, bowing.

"I'm glad you still trust my plans. So be it, then, you know what you have to do so do it," Trent said, nodding. He turned with Sylfa and walked out the backdoor of the chapel.

Judas stood upright and watched Trent leave. "Judas 'Iscariet' Ipson, now you finally live up to your name," he said to himself.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Vera groaned as she swaggered into the bridge of Entropy. She flopped backwards into her usual seat and unbuckled the belt to her short red coat. Using her sweet little excuse of having a "headache", she slipped away from Nash and left him to set up the new bathroom decorations.

She looked up at the riser and saw that Miryhn was missing. She stood up and walked up the staircase, finding a note in the seat. It read: "Got work, be back later. Call if you need groceries picked up." Vera smiled a little, thinking Miryhn must have gotten over himself by now if he had gone out of the ship to do something other than sulk. She stepped back down to her seat and sat, sinking into it and sighing contently.

Just then, an incoming comlink began to ring. One of Vera's hand-drawn animations of herself super-deformed looking very angry at a ringing phone popped up on screen along with the call. Vera herself responded with the same sentiments as her animated self and turned over, wishing it to go away. She was too tired to even answer the call at the moment.

The call stopped, the caller obviously having given up. Vera smiled and closed her eyes, about to nap in her seat.

But about ten seconds later, the call began again. Vera groaned loudly and sat up, grabbing the comlink and turning it on.

"Look, we're in a pinch. Come over now with whatever you guys got, alright? We'll discuss payment later," Ken said the moment her face appeared on screen.

It took a moment for her statement to register with Vera. She then sighed and replied,"Look, can't this wait? My colleagues are busy and I have a headache."

"Does a headache keep you from doing basic Frame manipulations? Come on, pop some pain relievers and get out here!" Ken yelled angrily.

"Well that's mighty rude of you. Perhaps I have plans?" Vera said, folding her arms.

Ken groaned and lowered her head. "There's a guy out here running some previously unheard of prototype death machine through the wastelands and we can't stop him with our weapons! Bring your Frame out here and give us a hand! I'm sure with your weapons you can break the shielding and we can take it down," she explained, trying to remain calm.

"Now who's telling civilians top secret information?" Leo said smugly over the communication line.

"Shove it, 'ya little turd!" Ken snapped at him.

Leo chuckled, knowing he was going to get it when they got back.

"Look, the only reason I'd help is if innocent lives are on the line. If he's out in the middle of nowhere, that thing will just run itself down eventually, right? LEVs can't go on forever," Vera said, leaning back in her chair.

"No, as a matter of fact, it will go on forever. It's installed with some kind of Metatron-powered reactor. It's some long-forgotten technology hidden away from four years ago by-" Ken began to explain, but stopped realizing Leo could very well repeat himself. "Look, point is, it'd be handy to have at least you around. You were once an LEV expert, right?"

"Well, I use to be very interested in them and researched them, but I wouldn't call myself an 'expert'," Vera said humbly. "How'd you know that?"

"Darling, I know everything about you. Your record with the Ganymede Police is pages long," Ken replied with a sly smirk.

Vera's eyes widened and she emitted a whining noise, looking like she could cry. "That's not fair! You can't blackmail me!"

"I won't if you get out here! Shit! He's firing again!" Ken said and there was a noise of lasers whizzing by the Vic Viper.

"Fine, fine, I can see you're just dying for someone to cover your lame asses. I'll be there in a little bit," Vera said, standing up and sighing.

"Good, just find our location using the trace from the last communication and-" Ken began to say.

"I know how to do it!" Vera shouted, cutting off the communication in the middle of Ken's sentence. "Sheesh, what a hotheaded little bimbo," she said, marching out the door.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"Ehecatl, you must understand just how much of a dream come true you are," Norris said, Ehecatl slowly flying over the testing fields. "Ever since I left the battlefield three years ago, I've longed to be back in an Orbital Frame. I knew that deep in my heart, I was still a warrior and I was still a champion of what I believed in with all my soul. The end of the conflict three years ago brought peace to Mars, but I knew I couldn't stop there. I wanted there to always be conflict, no matter how small and pointless, that I could fly in and save everyone from. I was brought up to fight and to fight for my beliefs, but the new peace made things difficult to say the least I had almost given up entirely on my dream to be once again a valiant warrior and nothing less," he said with a chuckle.

Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" played softly on his sound system. Ehecatl replied with the quiet hum of its thrusters, understanding him entirely.

"So after I left, I decided it was best to do the other thing I do best, and that was being a businessman. I knew it wasn't exactly a way to get back the life I wanted, but I knew if I worked for the right companies, I'd might realize my dream of returning to my life of Frame Running. I attempted to join N.U.T., but when I saw the stiff competition that was lined up to join that place, I moved on and found Ryan Corporation. They had been having a rough year after the death of the founder, Ryan Stewart, and the C.E.O. at that time was faceless and pathetic. Things were in shambles and the company would have gone under if not for the payments the Space Force made for them to produce LEVs for them. So I made a bold move and marched right into the Board of Directors room. I threw my resume from the years previous the war on the table and after passing it around, they hired me on the spot. Anyone was better than the loser they had there, after all," he continued, smiling.

Ehecatl responded with it's usual silent acknowledgement.

"And so I became the C.E.O. and President of Ryan Corporation in the year 2175. With my bold leadership, I picked up the slack and turned the company around using investments in things like utilities and even my now rivaled Nereidium. I announed the idea of producing firearms alongside LEVs and placed great courage in my idea to use scrapped Phantomas in a recycling program to restore the damaged spheres and nests. Of course, profiting off of that wasn't exactly 'legal', but hey, it was a multi-billion deal. That alone made Ryan more financially secure," he said with a small laugh.

The song skipped back to the beginning on repeat.

"Then one day I found the old records of Ryan Stewart. He and a man named Dezeele Zephyrs had made a number of phenominal LEVs. The Bizac, the Harut Marut, and the Behemoth come to mind as some of Zephyrs' finished and produced creations. While Bizacs are still made today in limited numbers and the Harut Maruts are our little secrets, the Behemoths ended up totally in the Space Force's hands. God only knows what they plan to do with them considering they've been banned," he explained. "However, Zephyrs did nothing more than rip off other peoples' ideas and make LEVs off of them. Such small thinking wasn't going to make us superior in any way from the way I saw it. So I began my greatest project to date, Ehecatl, I began to plan and organize your birth," he said with a smile.

Norris could tell that if it could, Ehecatl would smile at that comment.

"I waited, and then my sources caught wind of Orbital Frame popping up in the hands of seemingly arbitrarily selected individuals. I knew that if I could just get my hands on some Metatron, my plans would be able to be constructed. So when I heard the salvager Jim Hauser had a Frame that he wanted to sell, I hurried to Ganymede only to witness his ship pilot and LEV pilot perform a fantastic battle against Tarver Urenbach's Shango Frame. Being such a good businessman, I rescinded my former offer and instead made them mercenaries under my cause just in case some of my little closet skeletons came back to haunt my company with their own aquired Orbital Frames from the mysterious benefactor. My investment was a wise one and thanks to them, I got three Orbital Frames plus some Metatron on the side thanks to an attack on the company by the Stein Crime Syndicate. My mercenaries took them out with little to no effort and I recieved the Syndicate's assault Frames' refuse," he explained. "Then, in a swiftly accomplished project, you were completed my dear Ehecatl. Sure, some people may have been hurt or lost their lives getting the Metatron that was used to birth you, but now my dream has come true."

Ehecatl silently felt deeply appreciated, so Norris felt.

"And now, Ehecatl, with this accomplishment, I will show everyone just how powerful Ryan Corporation is. I'll show all of humanity that I alone can produce the most powerful Orbital Frames imaginable. Not the military and especially not even Kapricon can stop me or top me! This is a new era for this sad little company and it's all thanks to you!" Norris said, smiling happily and about to shed tears of joy.

The sound system suddenly switched back to "Requiem" on its own. Norris hardly noticed.

"Domineus of Ehecatl, what is your name?" someone said, having forced a comlink to Ehecatl.

Norris snapped out of his story and looked at the console with a funny expression. "What? Who are you?" he asked, emphasizing the "you".

"Oh, forgive me, it's rude to ask someone's name without first saying your own, isn't it?" the distinctly female voice asked with a small laugh. "I am known as Wahrsager."

"And what are you doing here? How did you force communications with me? And more importantly, how do you know the name of my Frame?" Norris said, Ehecatl stopping and slowly examining the area. There was nothing on the radar at all.

"Adavari sensed your presence the moment you let Ehecatl shine with all its glory. You have such a powerful Frame because you are close to it and don't rely on A.I. or control systems to control it. It spoke its name aloud for all to hear as you two ravaged your targets with incredible fury, however, no human can hear that name unless spoken by another human or unless spoken by the Frame itself to a fellow Domineus," Wahrsager explained.

"Who's Adavari? No, what is Adavari? What do you want from me?" Norris said, turning angrier.

Wahrsager laughed insanely. "Answer my question first," she said.

"Fine, call me Norris," he said, not about to let this wacko blackmail him against the authorities.

"You're lying," Wahrsager said plainly.

"What? No, I'm not!" Norris said, even angrier.

"Norris Contraus! That's your name! And the name Ehecatl chose as its Domineus," Wahrsager announced like it was a lottery drawing.

"Stop this mockery! Show yourself!" Norris shouted. He had to do something, this chick was starting to scare him now.

Suddenly, a red Frame appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It floated a fair distance away from Ehecatl with arms folded.

A video screen came up and Norris saw someone in a cloak with a wrap around their head sitting in the cockpit. The person tore off the wrap and he layed eyes on a beautiful young lady with long dark green hair and dark blue eyes, smirking back at him.

"That thing was awfully hot to wear. I only had it on as a precaution against the trap I just laid for my last victims. Too bad they just got burned in the last fire I started," Wahrsager said, brushing her hair around and letting it all fall down. It was actually very well-kept and fell just below her shoulders with a few bangs on each side of her face.

"What the hell are you? Some kind of maniac? Hasn't VANGUARD caught you yet?" Norris said, puzzled.

"I know how they work and they'll never catch me. I use to be in VANGUARD, after all," Wahrsager said with a laugh. "But there's no sense in wasting anymore time, I have to kill you now. Adavari says that your Frame is far too powerful to exist and only the chosen ones like himself may someday achieve what you have. Right now, you don't deserve that kind of power," she explained as whips extended from each of Adavari's gauntlets and began to flame with energy.

Norris gritted his teeth and Ehecatl spread its wings. "There's no way anyone is going to stand in my way. Prepare yourself!"

"So be it! Adavari, es ist showzeit!" Wahrsager shouted and Adavari shot forward to attack.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"Alright, we got something. Not just her tracking signal now, but a Metatron reaction. Looks big too," Dingo said, carefully examining his console.

"About time, damn it," Miryhn said, rolling his eyes.

"I have to wonder, though, who she's fighting way out here. Is it just some random loon VANGUARD hasn't collected from yet?" Dingo said quietly to himself.

"What are you mumbling about?" Miryhn asked, a bit irritated.

"Nothing, nevermind. Just pour on the speed and we'll intercept in a matter of seconds!" Dingo commanded, sending the Vic Viper into full throttle.

"Wanna drag?" Miryhn said jokingly as Masamune fired the Burst mode and got up alongside the Vic Viper.

Dingo rolled his eyes and kept quiet.

Within a few seconds they saw bright flashes over the horizon and two shapes in the distance clashing. Both resumed cruising speed and carefully entered the combat zone.

"Well, there's our girl, but what the hell kind of Frame is that? Who's piloting it so well?" Dingo said, arming his weapons.

Miryhn shrugged, but then realized Dingo couldn't see him doing so and just let the question hang without a reply.

Dingo switched to an open channel. "Will the Runners of these two Frames halt their activities and surrender? You are hereby ordered by order of the United Nations Space Force," he ordered as the Vic Viper switched to humanoid mode.

Adavari and the unknown Frame stopped and turned to face the approaching LEV and Frame.

"Shit! The military?" a male voice said, obviously from the unidentified Frame.

Miryhn heard the voice and instantly recognized it. "Contraus?" he asked in total surprise.

"Miryhn?" Norris replied with equal surprise seeing Masamune there.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Dingo shouted.

Wahrsager chuckled. "So they made it out of my fire. Guess they're more talented than I thought," she said to herself.

"Miryhn, what's going on? Why are you helping the military?" Norris asked.

"That is not your concern. If what he says is true, then you must be Norris Contraus, the President of Ryan Corporation. I'll have to report this as soon as you surrender your Frame," Dingo said loudly.

"Goddam it, caught in the act," Norris said under his breath. He had no choice, the soldier had to die before he could report this to anyone. Ehecatl was never meant to be seen by military eyes until Ryan was officially acknowledged for their superior work. In the meantime, commonly seen Type A and B Frames were the ones Norris would pitch to the military; but Ehecatl was never to leave his side, ever, and the way things were looking Ehecatl would just be another trophy in VANGUARD's collection.

"You honestly think you can push anyone around, can't you? What will you do? Send his Frame to VANGUARD and stick him in an Aegis training program?" Wahrsager said.

"As for you, you should give up too. You don't have any urban surroundings to take advantage of now," Dingo commanded.

"You think I'd just hand this Frame over to you? Don't you know that this Frame is exactly what you greedy military-types want? I'd rather sell the prototypes based off this model than hand it over. I'm telling you, taking my precious Ehecatl is ludicrous. Just wait until I propose the spin-offs from this Frame to the Space Force," Norris explained. "So why don't you just go about your way and pretend you didn't see anything? Both of us stand to benefit."

"I can't do that, sir, now stand down and disembark from your Frame," Dingo commanded.

"I'd like to see you make me! If you won't ignore this, then I'll just have to kill you. Nothing will stop what Ryan Corporation has planned!" Norris said with a sly grin.

"Is that a threat?" Dingo said, drawing a more serious look.

"Of course it's a threat. No one can stand between a Frame and its Domineus. You of all people could never understand that, you pathetic military-" Wahrsager began to say.

"Would you just shut up and stand down too? What are you doing here anyway?" Dingo said, aggrivated.

"That is none of your business," Wahrsager replied.

Dingo growled and prepared the Vic Viper to attack. "Look, both of you stand down and surrender now! I won't say again!"

"And what if we don't? Will your pathetic little LEV and Zechs Merquise here attack?" Wahrsager said mockingly.

"Excuse me, who?" Miryhn said, up until now hardly paying attention to the conversation.

"Nothing, nevermind. You just reminded me again of someone from an old mecha anime," Wahrsager said, laughing.

Miryhn raised an eyebrow. "Weirdo," he said, putting hands on the control spheres.

"Yes, as a matter of fact we will attack! Miryhn, have at 'em! It's go time!" Dingo shouted as the Vic Viper tackled Ehecatl and began stabbing into it with the armblades.

"You little snit," Norris said, swatting the Vic Viper off with one swing of Ehecatl's left wing. Just then, Masamune flew by, slicing through the backside of Ehecatl. Masamune swung up and spun around, drawing its katana and then facing the opposite direction back at Ehecatl. "And you! How dare you attack me!"

"I'm not working for you right now, am I?" Miryhn replied, stopping as Ehecatl swung at Masamune with one of its wings. Masamune stopped in front of the attack and then quickly countered with a wave of energy given off by the swing of its charged-up katana. The energy wave continued and met the backside of on of the wings, harmlessly being deflected by an energy shield the wings gave off.

"This won't help your credibility with me, you insipid little merc," Norris said, then shouting as the Vic Viper slammed it sideways with a Gauntlet.

Miryhn quickly called up the Geyser subweapon and tossed a tight cluster at Ehecatl, the Frame instantly paralyzed. Adavari suddenly swooped in and smacked it three times with a fancy whip combo; then it wrapped one around the neck of Ehecatl and swung in a wide arc, slamming it into both Masamune and the Vic Viper. It let off and all three combatants were sent into the ground. There was a moment of dust and the pile, Vic Viper on the bottom, Masamune in the middle, and Ehecatl on top, was still.

"Hey, just who's side are you on anyway?" Norris asked as Ehecatl slowly recovered from the hit.

"I'm on no one's side. I want all three of you dead, simple as that," Wahrsager replied.

"That's nice, but will you get the hell off of me?" Dingo shouted, Vic Viper's arms wiggling wildly at the bottom of the pile.

Miryhn groaned and Masamune stabbed into Ehecatl's right wing. Ehecatl shot up and into the air, Masamune following suit just a quickly. Vic Viper took a moment to fire the thrusters again and got back into midair.

"So this is what it's come down too, eh? I want the little twit soldier dead, he wants us to give up, and all three of us are fighting for our lives against her," Norris said, Ehecatl beginning to charge up the wings.

"Reminds me of a classic conflict seen at the end of a rather ancient mecha anime. Four combatants each with a goal in mind and two different opponents they want dead for different reasons...and one who wants them all dead!" Wahrsager said, cracking each whip to each side.

"You people talk too much!" Dingo said, holding each armblade in front of the Vic Viper in a crosswise fashion.

"This is going to get interesting then," Miryhn said with a smirk. "Come on, Dingo, let's see how this is going to end up."

"Sounds good to me!" Dingo said, smiling as Vic Viper flew forward with an armblade drawn back to strike Ehecatl.

Masamune raised its katana and flew upward and forward, preparing to strike from the top down.

"Time to get serious. Fine, no one will get out of this alive but me," Norris mumbled, finishing the charge of Ehecatl's wings and beginning a sweep of pure energy on all of his opponents.

"What a raging fire I've started. Now to make sure it consumes them all," Wahrsager said, Adavari's whips flaming up again as Adavari flew in to meet all three of the others and swipe at all of them.

A split second passed and from miles away, there was merely a flash as all four attacks met.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Freya was flying leisurely over the Mars landscape, following the radar blip provided by Ken. Inside, Vera kept her eyes shut as her fake headache was slowly turning into a real one.

"Just my luck I had to be called into work today," she mumbled to herself.

"Oh, good, there you are. I just picked you up on radar," Ken said over the wide band communication line.

"Yes, here I come! To save the day!" Vera said, holding up a V-sign with her index and middle fingers in one hand while smiling brightly.

"Don't get cocky. This thing has a shield comparable to a batttleship-issue defelctor shield," Leo warned.

Up ahead, Vera spotted the two Vic Vipers dodging around many poorly aimed shots fired from a metallic monster. Vera pushed aside thoughts on her headache and drew a serious look, knowing this was the time to step in and be the hero. She giggled, thinking of herself as some kind of magic girl in a bishoujo anime or something seeing as she had to show up and defeat the despicable and vile monster that was doing evil things.

"Well, okie-dokie. Be there in a minute!" Vera said spritely as Freya jetted forward at top speed. She flew past the Vic Vipers with the shield raised and passed over the fleeing Behemoth.

"Oh, what's this? Another nice seniorita to tickle my fancy?" Diaz said from within the Behemoth. He then said something rather sensual in his native Spanish.

Freya dropped down in front of the Behemoth and floated at the same speed as it, keeping a fair distance between the two. Freya then spun its spear around in one big, fancy motion and then stopped as it struck a pose holding the spear to the side and the opposite hand in front.

"Halt, evil-doer!" Vera commanded. "I cannot allow you to go any further! Or in the name of justice, I shall punish you!"

Diaz, for no other reason then being dumbstruck, slammed on the brakes and the Behemoth lurched to a stop, Freya stopping with the same distance in front of it. The Vic Vipers switched to humanoid mode and stopped close behind the Behemoth.

"What's she doing?" Ken asked, just as puzzled as Diaz must be.

Leo suddenly realized it and began laughing as hard as he could.

"What? What's so funny?" Ken demanded to know.

"She's acting out an old cliche in anime. The good old-fashioned magic girl act," Leo replied, in between fits of laughter. "I can't believe it actually worked. This guy must be a real moron to stop for this."

"What you say?" Diaz said, scratching his head.

Vera cleared her throat. "Your reign of terror ends here, you evil...cretin!" she said, maintaining a level of pride and grandeur in her voice.

"Just who are you anyway?" Diaz said, curious.

"Well, I'm uh..." Vera said, looking aside to come up with something.

"Try Sailor-something," Leo said, breaking down into laughter again.

"Yeah! That's it! You can call me Sailor...Freya! Yeah! The champion of love and justice!" Vera said, Freya's extended hand doing a V-symbol and then placing it across the Frame's "forehead".

Diaz stared, the Behemoth motionless.

Ken's jaw dropped and stayed that way.

Leo was howling with laughter.

Vera chuckled nervously and could just imagine the anime sweatdrops that would be going down the sides of the LEVs's heads. She then extended Freya's hand again and she struck yet another pose. "Sailor Freya, protector of what's good and right! Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

That last line had Leo laughing so hard his gut was hurting. Ken twitched with aggrivation; not only was this goofy act a mockery of Ken's integrity as a soldier, but it was actually working as a diversionary tactic! How could this be?

"This has been fun and all, but I really must be going. I'd love to see you try and stop me," Diaz said as the Behmoth turned all its weapons to the front.

"Meep," Vera squeeked out, quickly switching Freya to a combat stance. "Threaten if you like, evil-doer! I'll never loose! I fight for love and justice!" she said with the same grandeur as a stereotypical magic girl.

"Damn it, Leo, he's open, now's our chance!" Ken said, now angry at how successful Vera's act was.

Leo was hunched over his console laughing. "I can't, Ken, I'm sorry but...oh, just give me a moment to calm down, I just...oh, man," he managed to get out in between fits of laughter.

Vera sighed and decided the first move had to be hers. Freya shot forward with a Burst and prepared for a quick, powerful cut across the Behemoth's frontside. She nimbly barrel-rolled around a few rounds of gunfire, but got through unscathed and readied the attack. "Freya Slash!" she shouted as the attack swung forward. It was met by the full force of the deflector shield, causing the attack to be halted entirely and shock the entire Frame momentarily before sending it backwards with a faint sizzle coming off of it.

"Ha! See? This LEV is invincible! No one can stop it!" Diaz shouted, then laughing confidently.

"Well, nevermind what I just said. We'll just have to see if she can disable the shield," Ken said, sighing.

Leo was still chuckling to himself.

Freya climbed back up and began levitating again. It did another fancy spin of the spear all around its body and then held it in front as it flew forward again. "You can't put me down that easily! Time for a Freya Combo!" she said as Freya got within range again and did a four-hit combo attack with amazing speed, every attack harmlessly deflected by the shield.

Diaz countered with a powerful shot by the 155mm cannon right to Freya's face. The Frame was sent onto its back again.

"This is boring, you know?" Diaz said, yawning. He then laughed and said a few insults in Spanish.

"Evil will never succeed as long as Sailor Freya still exists!" Vera said as Freya got back on its feet and did a pose with its hand against its hip and the other hand once again doing a V-symbol across the forehead.

Leo broke into laughter again.

"You want more? I give you more!" Diaz said, laughing. The Behemoth then opened the missile bay on the top of the LEV and shot off three salvos of six missiles each.

Vera gritted her teeth and quickly put up the shield. It didn't last long, though, and the missiles eventually broke through and struck Freya backwards. Several more hit and it rolled to a stop behind a cliff at the mouth to a canyon. It laid there, not moving.

"Damn it! Vera! Vera! You there?" Ken shouted into the comlink.

"That was pathetic. Some champion of love and justice," Diaz said, laughing. "That was fun, it was worth stopping for. But since it seems not even the almighty Orbital Frame is a match for Behemoth, I might as well swat you two down while I'm at it," he added as the Behemoth turned to face the two Vic Vipers.

"Oh, this is just great. Leo, come on!" Ken ordered.

"Right, got 'cha," Leo said, immediately regaining his composure.

While the Vic Vipers began to duke it out once again with the Behemoth, Vera was laying against the canopy in the overturned Freya, cursing to herself.

"Magic girls aren't suppose to lose their first fight, they have to win unconditionally! It happens in every single one! They pull power out of their ass and obliterate the enemy with overkilling and extremely pretty magic!" she mumbled to herself.

"What about pulling it out of the Local Server?" ADA said, finally chiming into the battle.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vera said, grabbing a control sphere so that the Frame would right itself. As it did, she hopped back into the seat.

"All across Mars there are Local Servers that have access to many different things. Their exact origin and original purpose are unknown, but perhaps you can find a useful Subweapon or something to aid in this battle," ADA explained.

"Well, sounds good to me. Where is it?" Vera said, rubbing her head where she had knocked it on the canopy as Freya fell.

"Due east, ten meters," ADA replied.

Freya turned left and there was a tall metal structure just sitting there, caked with Martian sand. The Frame slowly approached and landed, extending a hand to it. The sides of it suddenly opened and dropped, sending a wave of sand to the ground. A few Metatron lines floated off the top of the spire into Freya's extended hand and within a few seconds, there was a small chime from the console.

"Well, what'd you find?" Vera asked anxiously.

"We have obtained the Subweapon Halberd. It is a powerful energy beam that can pierce most shields and cause considerable damage to the enemy," ADA explained.

"Good, but I'll need to come up with an ultra-pretty name for it now," Vera said, giggling, as Freya took off for the battlefield again.

"Do as you wish," ADA said.

As she approached, the Vic Vipers and Behemoth were in their usual scheme of dodging and firing at one another. Neither side was gaining any advantage at all. The Vic Vipers were just too nimble to hit and the Behemoth still has its rediculously powerful shield.

"You thought you could keep down the advocate of love and justice?" Vera announced as Freya stopped and did the V-symbol on forehead and hand on hip pose it did before. "Well you were wrong, and now I shall defeat you!"

Diaz groaned and turned the Behemoth around again. He aimed every single weapon at the Frame and prepared a missile lock. "I'm sick of these annoying military pests and your pathetic little Sailor act! All of you just die! I have a deal to close!" he shouted.

"Then you shall recieve just punishment for your crimes!" Vera said, Freya breaking the pose and flying upward, only to do a backflip and fly straight for the Behemoth at full speed. "Prepare to face my ultimate attack! The Sparkly Fancy Love-Love Freya....Halberd!" she shouted, grandly as the Halberd appeared under Freya's right arm and extended forward with the powerful purple beam attack. The beam punched right through the shield, shattering it momentarily as the Frame kept going and stabbed the Behemoth straight through the "head" section.

Inside the cockpit, Diaz nearly wet himself, looking up at the purple beam as it just barely missed him and managed to break the ceiling of the cockpit.

Freya then turned off the subweapon and it disappeared back into the Frame's Vector Trap. It charged up the spear and Freya shoved it into the chest of the LEV, causing it to spark and explode internally. It shot backwards as the Behemoth soon became engulfed in flame, breaking down and falling appart. As the cockpit ejected, she could have sworn she heard Spanish cussing coming from the pod as it was lost in the distance.

"You've just been...um...moon-du....no, I mean...Freya-dusted!" Vera said as Freya struck another pose, the spear holding hand on the hip and the other hand extended in front with the V-symbol.

Leo snorted and laughed. Ken was in shock.

"So how was that? How much do I get?" Vera said, giggling.

Ken struggled for words. "I'll, um, call," she said, overwhelmed by how something so seemingly moronic actually worked.

"Hey, why was the beam...purple?" Leo asked, dying to know.

"Oh, that's easy. Purple is my favorite color! Plus it's the most magical and pretty color of them all," Vera explained, as if it were pure fact.

Ken simply turned her Vic Viper around and took off, unable to utter a word. She'd just have to deal with the payment after she got back in touch with reality. Leo's Vic Viper followed behind after he took a moment to gave upon Freya's goofy pose and laugh one more time.

"And the day is saved, thanks to Sailor Freya!" Vera cheered, Freya holding up its spear triumphantly.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

For all four combatants, it was over like a flash.

First, Ehecatl launched an intense wave of plasma energy at Dingo. Dingo caught the side of the wave, but then rolled to the side and out of the beam. From overhead, Masamune brought its katana down hard on Ehecatl's helmet with enough force to crack it. However, Ehecatl was much more well-built than that and was only momentarily stunned; it's plasma wave was also knocked off aim and swung around just as Adavari's wips cracked forward and smacked Ehecatl and the Vic Viper in their backs. The whips powered up sharply and Wahrsager somehow made the air around each whip combust with enough force to interrupt Ehecatl's attack entirely and push the Vic Viper and Ehecatl into each other. As they collided, Masamune came tumbling down in between Adavari and the collided machines. Wahrsager made note of this quickly and formed a Burst Shot quickly enough to toss it at the trio. It wasn't nearly as powerful as the one she had previously used to nuke the sphere, but it was enough to send her opponents hurling away, smoking.

All this happened within the span of mere seconds.

Shaking off the awesome blast, Miryhn clutched the control spheres hard and regained control of Masamune. The Frame righted itself and stopped in midair, at long distance from Adavari.

Dingo, however, was in bad shape. His Vic Viper had taken a critical hit to the right wing and flight was difficult to maintain. The armor was also half-baked (pun intended) and his console was flashing with all kinds of other problems. Still, he persisted and quickly righted the LEV in midair. It floated there, occassionally sagging on the right side, with a few spots sizzling and sparking.

Ehecatl took no time at all to right itself. Norris cursed to himself as he turned around and watched Wahrsager laugh with Adavari's arms crossed.

"This is going nowhere fast. She's just too powerful. I know I can take her down myself, but with those two on my case..." Norris said to himself. "Hey, Miryhn!"

"What?" Miryhn replied, checking on Masamune's failing damage index. He was already down below fifty-five percent.

"I'll double whatever the uniform is paying you. Just help me out here. She'll be no match for two Frames," Norris said, smirking.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Dingo chimed in.

"I dunno....sounds tempting," Miryhn said, smiling and rubbing his chin.

"Shit. Shit shit shit," Dingo spouted to himself. "Don't you dare, Miryhn."

"Hey, I'm only out here for money, right? Might as well take the best deal I can get, right?" Miryhn said, shrugging.

Dingo glared forward. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"You betcha. It's always best to shop around and compare prices of all other competitors, right? That's what it means to be a good customer."

Dingo swore to himself. "Alright, look, I'll top that then. Instead of just twenty-thousand, I'll go for...twenty-five thousand!"

"Fifty," Norris said instantly.

"Good grief!" Miryhn said, then laughing happily.

Dingo roared. "Alright, sixty!"

"Seventy-five," Norris said, once again without missing a beat.

Miryhn chuckled happily.

"Alright, I'll give you seventy-five and a guarantee that I won't hand you over to VANGUARD! How's that?" Dingo said, sneering.

Miryhn arched his brow and laughed. "Looks like me and the officer here are still in a deal. Sorry, Norris, no dice," Miryhn said, then yawning.

"Guess I lost then, eh?" Norris said, then lowering his head and sighing. "Great, looks like this chaos in motion will just have to continue."

"Enough idle banter! Why won't you people just die?" Wahrsager said, Adavari still floating there with crossed arms.

"Hard to kill, I guess," Miryhn said, Masamune shrugging.

"You're vastly underestimating Ehecatl, my dear," Norris said, with a matter-of-fact tone.

Wahrsager growled and then began laughing. Then Adavari to suddenly took off again and threw a whip arond Ehecatl's neck. It took off west-ward, dragging Ehecatl along behind it.

Miryhn stared as they took off, then looked to Dingo.

"Well, don't just stand there! Go after them! Come on!" Dingo shouted, the Vic Viper switching modes again and taking off after them.

Wahrsager dragged Ehecalt for about a minute or two until she came to a stop and threw Ehecatl forward, releasing the whip and letting the Frame tumble until it righted itself in midair. Norris shook his head and looked around, baffled by what juat happened.

"What was the point of that?" Norris said, annoyed and puzzled.

"I saw something that might make things more interesting," Wahrsager replied, Adavari pointing downward.

Norris looked down and saw one of Ryan Corporations's lab facilities far below them. His eyes widened, wondering just what madness Wahrsager had in mind.

"Alright, folks, it's show time! Get ready for my Limit Break!" Miryhn said, Masamune rocketing onto the scene. Miryhn was getting fed up with the battle and had every intention of ending it no matter what the means and no matter who had to die in the process.

"Limit what?" Norris said, even more confused.

Miryhn shouted and sliced into Adavari's backside with a powerful Burst Slash just as it arrived within range. Masamune then used a Gauntlet to send Adavari into the ground and Masamune dropped, sword held in a position to stab Adavari in the back.

"Heh, good job. You're finally proving to be a suitable Domineus if you can manage to catch me off-guard," Wahrsager said right before Adavari hit the ground just outside the lab complex.

Immediately after it hit, Masamune landed beside it and plunged the sword through its torso. He panted as Adavari suddenly seemed to drop lifeless from the attack, and then he smiled contently knowing he had achieved victory. Masamune, however, began to react strangely again to being around Adavari. The cockpit began to fizzle and Miryhn, too surprised to react, began to hear and see things again.

"Oooooo...."

Unlike last time, the experience was brief and slightly more shocking. In addition to the Voice of Metatron briefly getting in a line of its cryptic song, Miryhn could have sworn that in the distance, he could hear a young child crying...

"...Seni cu la...."

Miryhn gritted his teeth and forced Masamune to pull out its sword. The whole hallucination ended and he sat back in the seat, rubbing his head as Masamune stumbled backwards. The Frame stood over its felled opponent and Miryhn couldn't bring to words what he was feeling; he opened his eyes and he could have sworn he saw a few white feathers blow by his vision and then disappear into the walls.

Meanwhile, Dingo rushed Ehecatl with a Ripple Laser and two straight lasers. Ehecatl's wings swung forward and the shots exploded on contact, but by Dingo's guess, they probably made contact with Ehecatl's shield again. For the first time in a long while, Dingo actually found himself angrier than normal; and in particular, he was growing angry with Elena. These Vic Vipers just weren't cutting it anymore if they were being put up against enemies with Orbital Frames; the thought of retreat actually crossed his mind.

"I absolutely hate it when such pathetic little whelps insist on pestering me more than they should. Don't you know when to give up? You're worst than Lenard Kapricon!" Norris shouted as Ehecatl began swinging its wings forward, sending razor-like plasma waves at the Vic Viper.

Dingo sneered and barrel-rolled around each of them, returning fire from the straight lasers again. As expected, they did little against the Frame's powerful shield. "I can't believe the president of Ryan Corporation, of all people, is involved in this mess! What does Mars need with war anymore? What does it need with the Orbital Frame when it will just lead to all-out war again? When will this madness ever end?"

"You of all people would never understand! Orbital Frames are fantastic machines! No one in their right mind would let go of this fantastic power!" Norris shouted as Ehecatl raced forward and swung a wing at the Vic Viper with every intention of cutting it in half.

Dingo, knowing the weak armor of the Vic Viper couldn't stand up to its attacks anymore, hit the reverse thrusters and backed away making the attack barely miss. "It's the same old shit time after time, isn't it? Power corrupts and power destroys, right?"

"But this isn't power, it's destiny! It's strange and I doubt you'd ever understand, but it's like Metatron and man were meant to be! It's a match made in Heaven!" Norris said as Ehecatl lunged forward to try and wrap its wings around the Vic Viper and heat it to its exploding point.

"You're just as insane as Wahrsager, aren't you?" Dingo said, sneering, as he rolled the Vic Viper to the side to dodge.

"I'm not insane, I just have great ambition. It's your ambition that is your true power as a human being. Nothing can stop a man who has nothing else in mind but his ideals and dreams. Nothing is more admirable and unstoppable than a man with pure and unbending willpower," Norris said as he quickly grabbed the Vic Viper with Ehecatl's left hand.

"Looks like we agree on something, at the least," Dingo said just before being grabbed. Cringing, he struggled to get out of the grip to no avail.

Norris laughed and threw the Vic Viper downward at an incredible speed. It landed on the tall stone wall surrounding the lab facility and then rolled off onto the ground. The Vic Viper's cockpit now turned red with all kinds of critical system failures. Dingo, now sweating from overexerction and probably fear, managed to get the fizzling and failing LEV to stand up and lean against the wall. Ehecatl landed a few meters away, flapping its wings as it landed; it folded its wings back onto its back as it stood there, ready to finish off Dingo once and for all.

"Looks like this battle ends with my victory. I know Miryhn has no reason to keep fighting if you die. It was impressive he took down Wahrsager by himself, just as I've come to expect of his work," Norris said, smirking. Ehecatl raised a wing and it heated up with collected plasma energy.

Dingo growled, an angry look stretched across his face. There was no way in hell he could die here. Ken would never forgive him, Angie would be mad at him, and Leo certainly couldn't keep things going by himself. However, he was just no match for this guy with an inferior machine; he began to reach for the ejection switch.

Miryhn shook his head vigorously, clearing the last of the numb feeling from his mind and gathering his senses. He had to get away from Wahrsager; he had to get away from whatever strange truth there was to his Frame and he had to figure it out some other time. Ehecatl was still there and he'd never collect unless one of the two of his remaining fellow combatants were to perish. He didn't care who, as long as someone was alive and he could collect some amount of scratch. He came into view of Ehecatl, wing raised to send a finishing blow at Dingo's Vic Viper, which was up against the wall and looking a complete wreck. He froze for a moment, a choice suddenly racking his brain: keep fighting Norris or let Dingo be defeated and let it all end?

"You'll be sorry you ever screwed with me," Norris said, chuckling. "Ehecatl is invincible. No one will ever stand in our way as long as me and it are together...as long as me and it are one!"

Dingo then glanced at his console and saw that the emergency ejection system was shot. Not only that, but the life support systems were failing. It was no use, there was just no way out of this; no matter what he did, he'd die. He sighed and dropped his angry look. He smiled instead and opened a small compartment overhead. He took out a small jewelry box and cracked it open. Inside was a gold ring with a series of small crystals on it. Someday, maybe when their job was done, Dingo was going to offer this to Ken as an engagement ring. Dingo began to get sentimental, knowing he had always and will continue to dodge commitment; he loved his job first and foremost and no woman was going to take that away from him. He knew it was probably greedy to do things that way, but it didn't matter now, did it? "I'm so sorry, Richard....I'll be with you and the others soon. I'm even sorrier to you, Ken...go on without me," Dingo whispered to himself, clutching the box as he shut it.

Miryhn's eyes suddenly widened as he heard the whisper over his and Dingo's comlink. He lowered his head, the choice now becoming tougher as Dingo's sincere words somehow caused him to pause in his decision a moment longer. He had only known Dingo on a professional level up until this day, but something told him that there was more to the man than just a battle-hardened soldier; after all, he was a popular hero of Mars and his death would mean a lot to many people. Perhaps now it was Dingo's time for being saved? He just didn't know what to do; up until now, fate seemed to have decided most everything for him but when the choice was his, he buckled under the pressure.

"Ready to die?" Norris said with a laugh. Ehecatl then began to swing its wing with the attack.

Miryhn pinched his eyes shut and bit the bullet. Masamune instantly charged up its sword with a terrifying flame of energy. "No!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he opened his eyes and Masamune swung its sword in a wide arc. The attack sent a massive energy wave forward, plowing through the ground in front of it and severing a piece of Ehecatl's raised wing. It continued past, destroying the wall beside the Vic Viper and went into the lab complex. The Blade Beam (the proper name for this attack) entered one of the buildings and destroyed it with a fantastic explosion.

Norris was shocked, noticing part of the wing was cleanly cut off. Ehecatl turned around and faced Masamune. "Guess I should never turn my back on you, huh?" he said, almost amused by the attack.

Dingo looked up and turned the Vic Viper around. Behind him, he saw the lab complex building in a smoking, burning heap. He could see, buried in the wreckage and spread around the debris, the dead bodies of the technicians and engineers that were probably trying to evacuate. He suddenly grew angry again, infuriated beyond belief.

Miryhn, on the other hand, was staring forward. For some reason, without knowing at all how he had done it, he was looking straight forward with the gold hue all around him. Looking at himself in the reflection of the canopy, he was gold-eyed; but to his disbelief, he felt perfectly normal. The only real problem was that he had no idea how it happened and he was almost afraid of it wearing off without him ever able to bring it back up again. He sat back in his seat and shuddered, putting his hands at his head. He didn't want it to end, the realization came slowly to him: he had managed to take control and he was, for this brief moment, that angel that Lazarus said he was. The only question was how? Or more importantly, why?

Dingo watched over the small video link to Miryhn's cockpit, paralyzed with anger. "His eyes....just what is this guy?" he whispered to himself.

"Look, I'm sick of you guys for one day. I won't hold any of this against you, Miryhn, seeing as you just proved you're still as badass as you have been previously. Toodles," Norris said, Ehecatl taking off at full speed. Norris sighed, trying to conjure up a way to cover this all up.

"You...you killed them all. All those innocent lives," Dingo said, hiding his fury.

Miryhn sat forward, anxious to maintain the Manna as long as possible. "No, Dingo, not on purpose. I had to to save you," he explained.

"Better they live than me!" Dingo said loudly, hot with anger.

Miryhn was silent.

"What were you thinking? Didn't you know your attack would do that? What's wrong with you?" Dingo said, louder with as much anger as he could summon in his voice.

"I wouldn't have reached in time with anything else. My Frame isn't designed for long-distance attacks and-" Miryhn tried to explain.

"Don't give me that load of horse shit!" Dingo interrupted. "Have you no value for human life? Don't you give a damn about innocent people?"

"I use to, to the point of being paralyzed with fear of taking a life that didn't deserve it. But then I discovered it didn't matter. As long as I'm doing what's right, I'm forgiven," Miryhn said, hanging his head and referring back to his slightly religious experience watching blood wash off his hands in Lazarus's trap.

"You self-righteous son of a bitch," Dingo said, mad enough to kill Miryhn himself.

"You're awfully spiteful for someone who's just had their life saved. I did it because I heard you talking about someone you obviously care about," Miryhn said, raising his head and voice at once. "I turned soft for a moment and believe me, that's a rare thing for me. I felt like I owed you that since you've been such a sport about letting me live life like I want to."

Dingo sneered and slammed his fist into the side of the cockpit, making a dent. "I don't care if I die if it means others will survive. That's my duty as a soldier and as a respectable human being. You should know that, it's only common courtesy and common desency as a man," he said, angrily flipping the manual override for the cockpit and disabling all the alert systems.

Miryhn lowered his brow. "Why don't you shove your beliefs down someone else's throat?" he said, returning the anger. "I told you, I don't care who dies as long as what needs to be done gets done!"

"Wrong! You only do what's convenient for you at the time. My death would mean no payment, right?" Dingo said, the Vic Viper marching towards Masamune.

"That's part of the reason. You should know that I don't see most human life as anything but a price tag. I use to be an assassin, in a former life," Miryhn said, a bit calmer.

"So the truth comes out, huh?" Dingo said, voice raised like it were a grand revelation. "Well, that's nice to know since I absolutely despise your kind. I hate nothing more than those that let the innocent take the cheap shots in order to save their own ass. Not only that, but then go saying they were right in it just because they did the right thing. You're no better than every other shitbag who set out to do something for their own gain," he added as the Vic Viper took to the air.

"Well I can't stand those who have to have conditions placed on everything they do. No innocent lives at risk, huh? I say it only gets in the way. You're weak if you think you can save everyone all the time, Dingo. Get over yourself, you did a good thing to save the entire planet but even heroes can't stop everyone from getting hurt because of them. Get off our high horse, you were just as much afraid of dying as everyone else!" Miryhn said, returning the spite.

Dingo sneered. Miryhn seemed to have a way of getting under his skin at the moment; he had nailed Dingo's pride. "So are you saying you're any better? You think you can save people too instead of just killing them?"

Miryhn closed his eyes and sighed. "There's no wings on my back, man. I'm no hero and I'm no good at anything but killing."

"That's a shame. Perhaps we'll never totally understand one another then," Dingo said, his Vic Viper taking off. "You'll get your payment in full, but I'm cutting it down to twenty-five. I'm a man of my word and I said I'd pay you, but there's no way I'm giving such a hefty sum to such a..." he then said, unable to finish the sentence. He just wasn't worth talking to anymore to Dingo, so he fired the thrusters and shot off.

Miryhn opened his eyes and noticed the gold hue was gone. He whined out loud and slumped into his seat. But at the very least, he now knew that he could control it, if even for a little while. His thoughts returned to Dingo's words, some echoing in his head as he sat up and made Masamune take off back into the sky. He had had enough work for one day; he was dying for some time to try and piece it all together...and for a nice bottle of Yoo-Hoo.

As Masamune left the scene, Adavari suddenly came back to life and its armor began to slowly mend itself. Wahrsager laughed as the Frame got to its feet and immediately began hovering again. "Self-Supporting Armor 2, activated and complete. You truly are amazing Adavari," she said, smiling. "It just might be that only God himself can stop that man, seeing as he aspires to be a god," she added, Adavari picking up the severed piece of Ehecatl. "May fire consume all who go against Metatron's true will."

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

"Captain Jehuty! The Dark BAHRAM is attacking the city!" the small, computer-generated child said to a super-deformed version of Jehuty.

"Those scoundrels! Tricking us into going to the amusement park while they attack the new city park!" a super-deformed version of a Phantoma said, clenching his fist as him, Captain Jehuty, and a super-deformed Vic Viper stood in the middle of a giant amusement park.

"Never fear, Phanto, we'll make it in time. Vic here can carry you and we'll fly back!" Captain Jehuty said with an over-the-top degree of heroic tone in his voice.

"I'm not carrying him! He weighs a couple of metric tons!" Vic said, folding its arms and turning away from the group.

"But Vic, you guys have to work together! Teamwork is more powerful than anything the Dark BAHRAM can throw at you guys!" the small child shouted.

"I know, Chode, but...well, he's heavy! Loose some weight!" Vic said, waving an accusing armblade at Phanto.

"We'll be happy to help you work off some of that, Rapto," a super-deformed Raptor said from down the aisle of the amusement park.

"Gadzooks! A pack of Raptors!" Captain Jehuty said, putting its hands at its waist.

"Captain Jehuty! What are we to do?" Phanto said, cowardly shaking its knees.

"Rapto! Rapto!" the pack of Raptors chanted as they hopped around, waving their laser blades.

"We fight!" Captain Jehuty said, flipping forward its Spiegel.

"Yeah!" Vic said, brandishing its armblades.

"O-kay..." Phanto said, pulling its gun out of nowhere.

Captain Jehuty, Phanto, and Vic rushed forward and proceeded to beat up the Raptors in a comedic battle filled with slapstick attacks and clumsy counterattacks. Of course, the good guys won unconditionally.

"R-Rapto..." a Raptor said weakly before collapsing with an X in its optic sensor.

"Good work, men! Now, we have to stop Anubis's latest scheme to ruin the city's fun!" Captain Jehuty said, taking off into the sky. "And away!"

"Wait up for us!" Phanto shouted as he grabbed onto the transforming Vic. Vic took off in flight mode after Captain Jehuty, followed by Chode in his magical flying helicopter vehicle.

"Damn, this show is great!" Nash said, watching the adventures of Captain Jehuty unfold in the latest anime: "SD Orbital Frame". Nash pulled out a nail file and began carefully rubbing it across his left hand ring fingernail. "Sure, it's geared for the younger crowd, but just seeing a chibi mech talk...phew, it's comedic genius!"

"Bwa ha ha! Not even Captain Jehuty can stop my latest and more nefarious plan to ruin the city's fun! I'll cut down all the trees in this park and make it ugly and desolate and no one will want to come here! As an added bonus, there won't be any shade, so people will have to walk through here and bake to death and feel uncomfortable! Bwa! Ha ha ha ha!" a super-deformed version of Anubis said, cackling evilly.

"But sir, rapto, how are we going to clear twenty square acres before Captain Jehuty gets here, rapto?" a Raptor asked.

"That's easy. He's too busy being distracted at the amusement park to do anything about us here! The Dark BAHRAM will finally succeed! Bwa ha ha ha ha!" Anubis replied, waving its hand into the air.

"Think again, you mutt!" Captain Jehuty said, diving out of the sky and punching Anubis in the face.

Anubis rolled backwards until it hit a tree. A pile of apples fell out of nowhere and buried Anubis. His head popped out of the pile with swirly eyes.

"This park is a preserved place of peace and nature. Your evil ways can never ruin it!" Vic said, dropping Phanto and landing in humanoid mode.

"Yeah, we'll stop you no matter what you do!" Phanto said, pulling its gun once again out of nowhere.

"You goody-two-shoes! You always ruin my plans! Boys, get 'em!" Anubis shouted, leaping out of the pile of apples.

Just then, another squad of Raptors surrounded them. Mixed in were some Cyclopses and Mummyheads. The Cyclopses softly chanted "Cyclo!" and the Mummyheads chanted "Mummo!" as they prepared to put the heroes down for good.

"This looks bad, Captain Jehuty!" Vic said, brandishing its armblades.

"I'm s-s-s-s-scared!" Phanto said, its gun quivering its hands.

"Don't worry, my friends, we'll make it through just fine!" Captain Jehuty said confidently.

Just then, a loud knock could be heard from the hangar. Nash looking up, wondering when the last time was that someone knocked on the hangar; usually they just call ahead or something. He climbed out of his seat on the couch and headed for the stern of the ship, walking into the hangar. He hit the cargo door opener switch and stood back. The door lowered and Nash glared as a young man with raven black hair stood there dressed in black boots, pants, and a black leather jacket with a green shirt on. He had a travel bag in his left hand and two assault rifles slung over his right shoulder.

"Um, can I help you?" Nash said, slipping his nail file back into his pants.

"Yeah, I'm here to see Thanatos," the young man said softly.

Nash gave him a funny look. "Who? What?"

The young man stuttered and looked aside. "I mean, Miryhn...yeah, Miryhn," he said, smiling like it was all a joke.

Nash stared at him. "So you're one of Miryhn's buddies, eh? Guess I should have known, you lugging that heavy artillery around," he said, pointing to the young man's armaments.

"Is he here? Can I come in?" the young man asked politely.

"Yeah, sure, come on in. He's off doing some work, but he'll be back by dinner I bet," Nash said, waving for him to come in.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. How rude of me. My name is Judas, you can just call me that," the young man said, stepping inside.

"I'll just call you Jude, is that okay?" Nash said, smiling.

"Whatever you desire, mister...?" Judas said, looking at Nash as he walked by him.

"Nash, just call me Nash. No nicknames, please, and if you call me 'Pinky' I'll gouge out your eyes with a rusty set of pliers," Nash said, shutting the hangar cargo door.

"Charmed, I'm sure," Judas said, nodding.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Dr. Kaguya Ricdeau placed his stethoscope into his doctor's bag and snapped it shut, grabbing it and his other bag and walking out of the small guest bedroom he had stayed in. As he stepped out of the room and down the hallway, he stopped when he heard the click of a cane coming around the corner just up ahead.

"Leaving so soon, old friend?" Ricdeau's chess partner said, looking concerned.

Ricdeau sighed and shook his head. "I appreciate the hospitality you provided for me, but out meeting time is over. The plan has been reset, considering our recent loss, but something is still bothering me. I need to go make sure he's proceeding smoothly in accordance with the plan, and also to find out which pawn I'm going to move forward next," he explained.

The chess partner lowered his head and sighed. "So I take it we can think of this as you planning your next move?"

"Exactly," Ricdeau said with a nod, his ever-present smile pasted on his face. "I'd just like to make sure everything is going smoothly. I'd never forgive myself if we passed up this oppurtunity. I would have never expected that one of my mistakes would blossom into such a danger, but at the same time result in such a magnificent specimen that could counter it. It seems karma hasn't caught up with me yet," he said, ending with a small chuckle.

The chess partner chuckled too. "Both of us made our mistakes, Kaguya, and we have no choice now but to atone as best we can. But what's wrong with atonement and personal gain all in one motion?"

"Absolutely nothing," Ricdeau said, continuing past the other man. "I really wish you'd find a better place to hide out. This old oxygen planet is falling appart."

"I'm not hiding, I'm merely running away until our plan is in place," the other man pointed out, resting on his cane.

"That's always your excuse. Hiding behind such things all the time won't get you anywhere. Pledging loyalty to the wrong people and hiding yourself like you did, it's a shame," Ricdeau said, glancing over his shoulder back at the man.

"Better than going out in the open only to nearly die at a the hands of our competitors," the man quickly shot back.

"Touche," Ricdeau said, continuing walking. "I'll return when I have the information I need. Look after Wikkakil while I'm gone, I'm taking the boat."

"As always, old friend. I don't know why you hold on to that antique, but I know you have your reasons. We still keep secrets from one another," the other man replied.

"And because of that, there may come a time when we will have to betray one another, you know," Ricdeau pointed out.

"I pray that will never happen. Our research has become too intertwined now for us to become rivals. What we have done may tear humanity appart," the other man said, worried.

"Time will tell, old friend, time will tell. It all depends on who planned the furthest ahead. They will be the ones who win the game," Ricdeau said, waving overhead as he walked out the door.

"Farewell, Kaguya," the other man said, turning to walk back down the hall.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Dingo stomped into the main lounge of Ochre Roc, stopping beside the small drink bar and grabbing a bottle of some random drink. He popped open the top and began drinking it straight out of the bottle.

"You shouldn't do that. It's unhealthy," a familiar voice said from the other side of the room.

Dingo laughed and put the bottle down, seeing a familiar blonde head sitting in the circle of couches around the widescreen TV. "Elena, are you stalking me?"

Elena sighed and stood up, holding a glass of red wine that she had obviously treated herself to. She slowly rotated the glass in hand and folded her other hand under her drink-holding arm. "No, but I did come to talk to you about something very important."

Dingo walked forward and sat on the edge of the pool table. "Alright, go ahead."

"Just a moment, your crew members are using the bathroom," Elena said, nodding to the door leading to the bathrooms and living quarters.

Just then, Leo came barging through the door. He spotted Dingo and began laughing. "Dingo! Dude! You have got to hear what that crazy blonde Runner of Freya did today!"

"Not now, Leo, have a seat," Elena commanded.

Leo shrugged and quietly sat on one of the couches behind Elena.

Next was Ken, not even greeting Dingo but instead running up to him and embracing him in a long kiss. After they let off the embrace, she took a step back and shrugged. "I told you they were weirdos," she whispered. "And I have no doubt in my mind now about that," she added before taking a seat on the top of the couch at the end of the couch Elena was on.

Finally Angie came in without a word and layed on a couch, curled up. She had been sleeping eleven to twelve hours a day in order to make up for what she lost investigating the Frame Distributor. Whenever she was awake, she was usually spaced out and flakey, but she continued to spend a decent number of hours a day doing some work.

"Good, now that you're all here, I wanted to discuss the future prospects of this organization," Elena said, then sipping her wine.

"What do you mean? Are we being disbanded?" Leo asked.

"No, not yet at least. I've just been concerned about the recent assignments they've been giving you. They're being very reckless with you guys," Elena replied.

"Well, that's no surprise. They're all a bunch of racists who hate Enders. Three out of the four of us are just that," Dingo said with spite.

"That's true and that's why I fear that they're merely toying with you. I established this organization because I wanted an elite peacekeeping force for the entire solar system. That, and I wanted to give you all something to do since you're all valuable members of the military and don't deserve desk jobs...especially Dingo," Elena said, looking down into her glass.

"So what? We'll keep taking orders and winning, right? We're hardcore! We're badass! No one can stop us!" Leo cheered.

"Wrong," Dingo said bluntly. "It's quickly becoming a state in which someone might stop us."

"What do you mean?" Elena asked with concern, then sipping at her wine.

"They us after a protoype heavy assault LEV and an Orbital Frame, Elena. Our piece of shit Vic Vipers are no match for that kind of shit," Dingo said, beginning to get angry. "I almost got my ass killed today, for your information!"

Elena sighed and shook her head. "Don't get mad at me, Dingo, I'm only the middleman in this affair."

"'Middleman'? You were the one who set this thing up! You have ever right to take and refuse orders, right? You're also the one that should have provided us with better firepower by now!" Dingo said, pointing an accusing index finger at Elena.

Elena drew an angry expression. "What do you expect? Orbital Frames? I told you, Browning is working on it and there's only so much ducking and weaving he can do around protocol to get your Frames completed. You'll just have to be patient," she said, returning the anger.

"We can't wait anymore! They're sending us on suicide missions praying we don't come back alive! I'm this close to quitting!" Dingo said, holding up his index finger and thumb, barely pinched together.

"And that's the reason I wish I had never thought up this entire farce!" Elena screamed.

The room fell silent.

"At first I thought I'd be allowed to handle things on my own, but then High Command noticed I was harboring you, Dingo, and your friends. They also saw that Leo wanted to tag along and they began to worry even more. They thought of Leo as a kid hanging out with the wrong crowd with them as the concerned parents unable to stop him. They see you as status symbols for the waining comradeery between Earth and Mars and they now wish you all were dead. I bet they're close to just doing it themselves in a massive conspiracy!" Elena said loudly. "The fact is, I regret now more than ever putting you guys in harm's way and I just wish there was something that could be done."

Dingo raised his head. "So why'd you come here?"

"What?"

"Why'd you come here?" Dingo said, louder and angrier. "Our lives as well as the political standing of the Earth military with Mars is on the line. You think apologizing is going to make everything right?"

"No, but warning you ahead of time might stop a disaster," Elena said, finishing her wine.

"Elena, I'm telling you, give us our Orbital Frames and we'll never have to worry. We were raised and trained at piloting them greater than any random Earther might," Ken chimed in.

"It's not that easy, Ken. Browning is keeping the restoration of Jehuty and Ardjet under wraps, but the results will be worth it. His research within VANGUARD has yielded a method that will enhance those two Frame substantially. Meanwhile, he's picked out something nice for Dingo. He says it's a surprise," Elena said, looking at each of them.

"And then we have to keep it a secret from Taskforce Aegis, right?" Leo said, concerned. "If they find out any other organization but them had Frames, we really would be toast then. They'd brand us AWOL or something and attack right off the bat."

"All I'm saying is give it time, Dingo. Don't go in under your head anymore, alright?" Elena pleaded.

"You're just lucky I found some mercs who are of any use. As much as I hate that low-life son of a bitch that helped me today, he's not half bad for a Runner. And as much as I'd hate to admit this too....he's the reason I'm sitting here right now. There may be some good to him, but the way he...nevermind," Dingo said, sneering as he thought back to Miryhn's heartless execution of the lab complex.

"Flame all you want, it won't stop what's happening, Dingo!" Elena shot at him. "Chances are you'll be sent on the most blatantly deadly trap of your entire life next time and you know what? Unless you want all of us to be branded traitors and thrown up for capital punishment, you'll have to do it! You're considered a dead man walking to Earth military!"

"Then maybe I'll just have to quit someday and do things my way! How does that sound?" Dingo shouted back.

"Dingo!" Ken screamed. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Stop it, alright? We'll be just fine if Elena says so. Just be patient and forget about whatever happened today. We all made it back just fine and that's all that matters, right?" she sobbed.

Dingo looked at Ken and then down at the floor, his expression relaxing. "Alright, alright, you're right. Just forget I raised any complaints, alright, Elena?"

"You're forgiven," Elena said with a nod. "Just trust me, I'll find a way out of this mess," she said, placing the wine glass on the table beside Dingo and starting for the door. She stopped in the doorway and turned back to the group. "Rumor has it Colonel Paul De Franz has been ordered to keep an eye on us. If that doesn't give me a good sign that we're all up for conspiratal execution, nothing will."

"De Franz? You mean that guy who just recommissioned all those Behemoths and Vector Bombs?" Angie said, waking up from her snooze.

"Wait just one second! Vector Bombs?" Dingo said with shock. "Those are the creation of a sick mind. Why would he want those?"

"Rumor has it he's been called in to surpress the minor terrorist attacks on the military. You all know who he is, he's the one with the impressive resume of massive execution of 'potential threats'. With that sick little twit on our case, there's no doubt in my mind now that we, me included, are thought to be a threat to High Command. I stood against the Mars re-occupation, I harbored Dingo Egret and fellow Enders, and I've 'infected' Leo Stenbuck with 'filthy Martian influence', so if anyone is going to die first, it'll be me," Elena explained, lowering her head.

The others were silent.

"Tell me, though, what's a Vector Bomb?" Leo asked, curious enough to break the tension of the conversation.

"It's simple. It's a Vector Trap that draws in anything and everything within five hundred square meters. The only problem is, it doesn't come back out," Dingo said, folding his arms. "I watched a demonstration, once upon a time, and it's one of the many things that make me believe mankind has gone insane as a whole after finding Metatron."

"De Franz is a madman, be on the lookout for him and his men from now on," Elena warned. "Now I must be going, I'm going to go pay Browning a visit."

"Bye, Elena!" Leo said, waving.

"Good luck," Ken shouted.

Dingo simply waved.

Angie snored.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

Miryhn hopped out of Masamune, lugging a large box with him. He happily strolled down the hallway and up to the lounge. Inside, Nash was sitting there watching more "SD Orbital Frame".

"Turn that crap off, I just bought a Playstation 3000 and I wanna try it out," Miryhn commanded.

"Go to hell, it's a marathon," Nash said, crossing his legs on the coffee table.

Miryhn narrowed his eyes and put down the box. He walked behind the TV and unplugged the satellite.

"Hey! What the hell?" Nash said, instantly sitting up.

"I told you to turn it off and you didn't, so I did it for you," Miryhn replied, opening the box and pulling out the audio/video inputs.

Nash whined and walked out of the room. He quickly stopped himself and turned back around. "Oh yeah, someone is here to see you."

Miryhn stopped as he put the plugs into the back of the TV. "Wait, for me? Who?"

Just then, there was a flush from the bathroom down the hall and Judas came out, wiping his hands on a paper towel. "Those new wall patterns are very nice. I compliment your decorator," he said to Nash as he walked by and into the lounge, pitching the paper towel.

Miryhn looked behind himself and saw Judas standing there. He stared, wishing this wasn't really happening.

"I'll just leave you two alone. I'm sure I don't want to know what you two know," Nash said, leaving.

Miryhn was frozen, unable to compute how or why Judas was here.

Judas laughed. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? I'll go grab each of us a soda and we can talk," he said, stepping back for the door.

"Make mine a Yoo-Hoo," Miryhn pointed out.

Judas quickly hurried out and down to the kitchen. Miryhn groaned and took the Playstation 3000 out of the box, hooking it to the input cords. He then noticed there wasn't a free power plug in the whole room.

"One problem after another. Chaos in motion, I tell you," Miryhn said to himself, shaking his head.

<CENTER>-----------------------------</CENTE R>

* You may be wondering why Dezeele Zephyrs suddenly gets mention in my fic. Well, that's because I finally found Fist of Mars and I've been playing it non-stop. I figured since Zephyrs loves to rip off other people's ideas, why not use that to my advantage? ^_^ Just a small note, too, that Triad follows the "good ending" to Fist of Mars (destroy more fighters than the Mars Angels do in Scene 12).

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