New Age Chapter 29, a Zoids fanfic by Sh33p

Hats off to this fic. It tops most fics I've read....including most of the ones I posted here. Tim Seltzer, seltzer@seltzerbooks.com

"I still can`t believe you accepted a challenge from them," Steve groaned out sulkily. "Bad enough they pummeled us into a near draw last time we fought them, now we`re so evenly matched not even Jamie busting out with the Wild Eagle is going to do any good," he whimpered with obvious annoyance. Jamie on the other hand, as he had been for most of the past week, was still brooding to himself without a word, not even saying a single thing to anyone aside from the occasional outbursts about his alter ego having a blue haired, tanned skin fetish of some sort.

Leena on the other hand, was lazily gnawing on Bit`s skull while Brad was calmly sipping away on his usual mid-day cup of coffee. While dangling from the ceiling(the boards on the floor he`d been standing on had completely given out for some reason. One fall and an errantly placed pipe later, Brad was hanging upside down).

A grown man was whimpering to himself, a teenaged girl was gnawing on someone`s skull without aforementioned skull gnawing victim even noticing, a teenaged boy was complaining about a secondary personality having a fetish for girls with blue hair and tanned skin and an apathetic coffee drinker was dangling upside down from the ceiling. Just another perfectly normal day at Blitz Team HQ.

"Such as the fact that he is a greaseball in the first place," Brad pointed out annoyedly. Bram Hunt was obviously the first person to ever get very far under Brad`s skin in a very long time.

"That`s hardly good reasoning, Brad," Bit pointed out, nonchalantly dumping his own cup of steaming hot coffee over his shoulder and into Leena`s hair. "OW!!!" He yelped immediately afterward. "I think she just cracked my freaking skull!"

"... And on top of that, I`m surrounded by idiots..." Jamie grumbled to himself, rocking back and forth in a ball on the floor.

Elsewhere of course, Vega Obscura sat as he had for close to two days now, a tray of what had been a pound`s worth of food sitting off to the side, an unused sleeping bag sitting to the opposite side. The Fury still hung as if suspended by cables and hooks that didn`t exist, held aloft within a magnetic field that was powerful enough to supercede gravity. He had yet to sleep, but at least he`d bathed, used the bathroom and eaten during the time the Fury had hung there, healing slowly but steadily from the insane amount of damage inflicted by Kale.

A slight distance away though, stood one Katherine Takahori, who`d only slept about four hours during the past twenty-four or so that had gone by. She was visibly irritable, and not out of concern for the young pilot sitting indian-style in front of the service gear being used to restore his Zoid. She was irritable for another reason entirely: She hadn`t had a cigarette in ten hours. Like several others in the exceedingly tangled web that connected Vega Obscura, Bit Cloud, the Suicide, Thunder, Lightning, Blitz, Sabers and Fluegel Teams together, along with countless other individuals across the face of the planet who happened to be connected by the frayed ends of the web`s threads, Katherine was a smoker. Not just a casual smoker like Brad Hunter, or even an average smoker like Leyon Martin had once been, but a person with a two-pack-a-day habit.

That meant she was used to having a cigarette at least once an hour. Ten hours without a single smoke was enough to drive such a person to thoughts of homicide.

Thankfully, her 'shift' of watching Vega had come to an end now, Torson was taking over for the time being since the three members of Vega`s crew had been tasked to watch after him for about ten hours each, working in shifts. Torson, thankfully for him, was both not a smoker, and not someone who came unprepared for boredom, as evidenced by the datapad-styled handheld computer in one hand, along with a small case of CDs that Kat could clearly identify as relating to either mechanics, history or Zoid psychology.

"Have fun with King Chat," she muttered annoyedly, though Vega`s hearing was obviously far sharper than anyone was willing to give him credit for, even after the damage caused by his initial bout with his senior brother.

"Social contact chafes me," he stated bluntly, shifting for the first time in three hours straight.

Torson snickered, Kat twitched and the sound of a door slamming shut followed suit as the young woman exited the hangar in a mild frenzy. For his credit though, Torson wasn`t snickering at Vega`s comment.

"Not too chatty, huh, Vegie?" The geeky mechanic asked with a grin two miles wide and twice as annoying as any expression that Bit Cloud could ever hope to show off. For what it was worth, Vega just twitched around a bit and glared back at the man with a bullish snort. "Thought so," Torson commented while sitting down on the floor, leaned against the wall next to the doorframe and idly turning the handheld on without another word.

Torson was a name that sounded oddly familiar to the boy, and had he thought to actually put any memory into it, he likely would`ve fallen over in shock that this Torson - Lars Torson - happened to be the older brother of the same Alfred Torson that had killed himself just a few months prior. Just another awkward connection in the undeniably tangled web of lives he was a part of without even knowing it.

Outside though, Katherine would likely have lit up a smoke and complained while storming over to where her on-job-quarters(Stoller was a good employer, he tended to make sure there were individual bed-and-bathrooms for the people who worked for him, especially if they had a record for working long hours and not going home every night after finishing work) to go to sleep after taking a nice bath. As it stood though, she was halted from this process by a young, silver haired man wearing a grin that could blind someone in an instant, holding a very nice gift in one hand, with the other tucked into his side pocket.

Said man was one Kyle Mazemia. Said gift was a bundle of some fifteen very large, white roses.

"Told ya I`d be coming to see you," he said with a tone underlined in affectionate sarcasm.

Almost on reflex, Kat dropped the cigarette she`d been about to light, and instead broke in a smile. It had easily been two months and well...

The battlefield was one that held a large tint of remembrance and familiarity to it as two gigantic non-Zoids, the HoverCargoes of the Blitz and Thunder Teams, pulled in at opposite sides in the same direction, turning ninety degrees to face one another from just over a mile apart. The first HoverCargo was a custom fitted model, the BlitzCargo as it was sometimes known. Blue and white, it could carry five Zoids on average, nine if the armor chambers of the Liger Zero were removed. It was also armed heavily with machine cannons. The second HoverCargo was also custom fitted, the ThunderCargo was what it was sometimes dubbed. Red and black, it could also carry five to nine Zoids, and it was also armed heavily with machine cannons.

The two things were like mirror images of one another. Same function, same size, same armament, same armor, everything about them was the same except for their color schemes and the people who were within.

At once, two Zoids that were the epitomy of opposing use were launched. One was the heavily armed, heavily weighted down Wild Weasel Gunsniper used by Leena Tauros. It was her first Zoid battle in at least a month straight, possibly longer. Her Zoid was tailored for what was literally known as 'Spam Raiding,' which was a tactic of completely plastering an area in gunfire and then letting someone else pick up the pieces of any unfortunate sap of an enemy left standing.

The other was the almost utilitarian Spike Sniper. It was armed with stabbing spikes instead of guns. Three of them took the place of fingers, all could be rotated just as if they were fingers. Three rows of rotating spikes on a significantly armored, semi-rigid tail ensured that the Zoid could stab an opponent in almost any location, while an additional three spikes jutted out from it`s head like horns, one from above and behind the cockpit, one from either side of the head. It`s only ranged armament seemed to be the gattling gun on it`s groin and the mortar launchers that were standard issue on any Gunsniper. Leena couldn`t tell if her counterpart - Laura Tendro - had kept the sniper rifle in place.

Again, two more Zoids launched in unison, landing with skids next to their team mates. The Scout Fox was defiant, more than a little cranky and the Command Wolf had obviously not forgotten their previous duel either, as evidenced by the low growl it gave off. It almost looked as if Brad and Bram would kick the match off before the Judge even arrived, but to their mutual credit, they stuck with insulting one another at a distance.

"I`m gonna wipe that grease out of your hair, lube up a golf club with it and shove it up your ass."

The final pair of combatants entered the fray without hesitation, and unlike the two before them, these two fought in Zoids that were almost nothing like one another. The first was the Schneider, orange, bladed and designed almost exclusively for fighting at point blank. The second was the Geno Saurer, a bluish Zoid designed to best it`s opponents mainly at ranged combat, though it could very obviously hold it`s own point blank. After it came a streak of blue -

- and all the smart talk that went with it as Borealis merged into the tyrannid Zoid`s back in a luminous display of blue and red outlining a blackish-colored center, leaving the Geno Saurer to roar it`s war cry across the battlefield, only to be met by an equally loud cry from the Liger Zero.

And then both Zoids` cries were shut out completely by the sound of the Judge Capsule slamming down with a furious sonic boom followed by the sounds of a robotic voice, eager to get things started.

"The area within a five mile radius is a designated Zoid Battlefield. This zone is now restricted to competitors and authorized personnel, all others must leave at once. Area scanned, battlefield set up. The Thunder Team versus the Blitz Team!"

I`m much more concerned with the 'confused youngster,' Zeke replied, obviously hinting at a different kind of confusion than preference for a set colorscheme.

"... Organoids can be like that?" Bit asked verbally in outright surprise. The Liger gave a sagely nod to itself, though Zeke was lying. The result was still the same either way: "Ew," Bit cringed. It was one thing for humans to be same sex oriented, but Organoids? Sheesh...

Both teams began to split apart from cohesion, singling one another out, member by member. Bit and the Liger paired off with Bill and the Geno, Brad with Bram and Leena with Laura, moving apart until they were all spread out in a matter of seconds.

In the background of a battle being waged a hundred miles away though, another battle was also waging as a Raynos, consipicuous in it`s absence from the Blitz Team`s HoverCargo, or base, touched down with a slow, almost methodical quality, landing in a slow set of strides on the edge of a cliff. The battle being waged was between an overworked conscience and an underworked secondary personality that had a massive complex when it came to dealing with guilt.

Jamie Hameros had a naturally guilty conscience. The Wild Eagle couldn`t stand dealing with guilt even if he was paid to. The clash within that resulted was quite obvious.

A moment passed as the cockpit flipped open, swinging up and being followed a quarter of a second later by the sound of Jamie`s safety harness swinging up and out of the way, followed by the sound of two sneakered feet smashing to the hard dirt beneath the Raynos` head. Hameros wasn`t alone though, nearby stood a single Zoid that was about the same size as the Liger Zero`s base armor, and the same color scheme as well. The key difference was that the Zoid was armed differently, in addition to being different in other ways.

It was a Konig Wolf. A large, heavily armored, agile and quick Zoid based off the Wolf model, rare and ideal for long ranged sniping or point blank combat. There was also another who happened to be standing next to it, significantly smaller, obvious human and obviously female. A slight regal stance was the first thing Jamie noticed, recognizing this as Leyla`s third, more mature personality: Eliza. Eliza happened to be the easiest to distinguish because her very posturing was straighter than the flirtatious one used by Connie, or the casual one favored by Leyla herself. Her hair seemed just a shade darker, her eyes seemed the same way.

"How did the tests go?" She asked autonomously, maintaining a well mannered appearance even then. The mention of the tests he`d undergone to make sure he was uninfected by any of the sexually transmitted diseases that were recently getting national attention almost brought Jamie to wince, but he didn`t. The Wild Eagle outright screamed profanity though.

"Right now, they think I`m gonna test negative for everything. Can`t be too sure `til the results come back though..."

"No. I think Brad might have a clue since he`s practically a mind reader, but no. How about the tests on your end of things?"

"Negative. I make sure to get Leyla tested once a month, and thankfully, Connie is usually too weakened to protest both of us at once," Eliza replied, reaching down and leaning against the ankle stabilizer of the Konig Wolf`s front left leg.

"Jamie," she cut off, ending whatever he was about to say in an instant. "I know that you have feelings for Leyla," she stated clearly. The young Hameros literally facefaulted. "And don`t bother denying it, I can and do read minds when I have to," she halted his retort in an instant once again. This time, he almost fell over. "But I cannot allow her to be compromised this early in life by a relationship. She isn`t ready for it, neither is Connie and her 'father' would likely try to kill you."

"Exactly. Her father is a genetics scientist, he can`t afford to have his only specimen compromised," Eliza answered with an air of what sounded vaguely akin to a mixture of impatience, annoyance and outright displeasure. There would be a long pause before either of Eliza or Jamie spoke again.

In the same desert where Bit Cloud first defeated Stigma Stoller, and years before him, Bill Chapman defeated the same man in Stigma`s final official battle for four years, the Blitz and Thunder teams waged a battle like few others. On one end of the spectrum, the Command Wolf and the Scout Fox played the dangerous game of chicken-with-bullets, with each Zoid only barely dodging out of the way with every attack.

On another, Leena Tauros and Laura Tendro played a dangerous game of their own, but it was also going to be the first game to end. Despite being rustier than a nail in someone`s coffin, Leena was near the top of her usual game, hopping back with every shot she took. Laura jumped forward with every dodge made, and after a matter of seconds, the two were at point blank. Leena was quicker, but Laura had dumb luck and pure equality on her side, launching her pick-like hands forward just as Leena opened up with every gun in her arsenal.

Both Zoids fell sideways at the same time. Leena had managed to vape the armor of the Spike Sniper with enough force to knock out the command system, while Laura had made her attacks with enough speed to stab into the Gunsniper`s throat with her right thumb-spike, severing the Zoid`s equivelent of a jugular and a spine. It had ended in a draw that helped neither Laura`s ego, nor Leena`s ever wavering confidence.

As one game ended, another was kicking into high gear. Despite being mismatched by range, Bill, Bit and their Zoids were going at it blow for blow, with every shot causing minor damage on both sides.

The Liger touched down with a swaggering skid, and behind it, the Geno Saurer roared with indignance, a fresh, smoking cut trailing along the side of one leg, though by that same token, the Liger growled with annoyance at the two thinner, longer cuts trailing along it`s stomach from the Geno`s outstretched, clawed arm. As one, the two Zoids leered back to face each other, and with them, their pilots grimaced.

"We`re pretty even," Bill commented, perhaps tinged by a bit of a competitive tone of voice that made Bit`s blood boil.

"Even for now, no one stays equal with me for very long," he pointed out as if giving an insult in an arguement. Bill only matched his tone a moment later.

"Fine, fine," both grumbled back at once, just as their Zoids wheeled around completely to face one another, the Schneider`s blades swinging down and into attack mode. "I`m not taking this lightly anymore," he exclaimed threateningly, almost at his wit`s end after only a few minutes. Bill nodded sternly to himself and replied in kind.

"Here we go, Zeke," Bit thought, a familiar bluish glow veiling over the actual shape of the Schneider`s main blades. "Here we go," he thought again, just as the Liger started to walk forward. "Here we go," he repeated in thought. "Here we go," he muttered to himself once more before finally...

In another blistering exchange, the two Zoids charged, and came to a grinding halt, swinging from each other`s momentum to a dead stop as the Geno caught the Schneider by the base of one blade, using one clawed hand to do so. Both Zeke and Borealis, and Bit and Bill, poured their strength into the lock up, but neither could power through the other.

The Liger was on even footing with the Geno Saurer. Neither Zoid could overwhelm the other on raw force alone, and Bit couldn`t manage to swing his blades forward because Bill`d had the foresight to make his grab on the exact base of the blade, so precisely that it prevented the gears from working at all while at the same time avoiding the blade itself.

"You forgot something," Bit pointed out, the Schneider`s head mounted blades on it`s right side swunging out as it turned it`s head to gain leverage. At the same time, the Geno`s head pointed down at the back of the smaller Zoid, head cannons powering up visibly for a double attack.

"So did you," Bill replied in the same tone. Neither made any attack, it was a matter of psychological warfare, the kind that required both more intelligence and skill - and far more guts - than most people would ever credit to Bit Cloud, or Bill Chapman for that matter. After all, they were both underachievers, both had never gone to college and both had only barely passed high school.

On that same note, both had won the Royal Cup for their teams, Bill Chapman against the Velarious Team four years earlier, Bit Cloud against Vega Obscura barely two months earlier. Despite being the same age, destiny had practically fated the two to continually accomplish similar feats, not to mention looking like near twins and both relying partially on Organoids for the majority of their skills in combat.

"Will you two just shut up?!" Bill and Bit demanded just as both the Geno Saurer and the Schneider fired up their boosters, with the advantage in raw power instantly going to the Geno while the advantage in pure agility and influence instantly went to the smaller Schneider, with both Zoids completely offsetting one another. In a flurry of movement and impacts, the Schneider was thrown completely clear of the Geno, while the Geno was just thrown face first first into the ground, skidding along for several seconds before standing back up, just as the Liger slammed into the ground on it`s gut and sprang up to it`s feet in an instant.

"I guess we won`t be settling this one very easily, now will we?" Bit asked, the Schneider`s side-blades swinging to point forward as a familiar aura started to glitter up around the entire Zoid`s body, bolts of electricity swirling about between the five blades mounted on the Liger`s head, both enormous head thrusters lifting up entirely like ears perking to listen for that opportune moment, the one instant where a battle could be decided.

In reply, the Geno Saurer seemed to stiffen, it`s entire body going completely rigid as it turned to completely, perfectly face the other Zoid, ankle locks clamping it into place, mouth spreading wide and an equally familiar glow of charged particles erupting into view as the sphere coalesced into existence. Like the Liger, the Geno seemed to completely tense into the wait, eying it`s foe for any potential movement, anything that could give away the direction the Schneider would comit itself to for a dodge. It was like trying to hit a mosquito with a hammer; even one minute movement could screw the attack completely and leave the Geno open to reprisal.

But Bill seemed unworried. In fact, he was loving every second of it in the same fashion as his opponent was, and he wasn`t afraid to say so either. "Damn right it won`t. We`re gonna make this one for the ages, pal," he exclaimed proudly.

"Glad you agree, buddy. But I`m still going to make you pay for that sandwhich you cost me."

"Eh?" Bit and Bill asked at once, glancing to see that the Fox and the Wolf had pulled off an exact repeat of their earlier draw, acing one another in the same movement as before. Even the shots had been perfectly aimed to hit in the exact places as before, the Fox with three rounds of varying sizes between it`s shoulders, the Wolf with three shots into the throat, practically blowing it open. As with before, the two former mercenaries were out of the battle.

"Gee, how productive," Bill commented. "At least we can actually damage each other without knocking one another out of the battle," he added with an obvious sardonic jab at Bram.

"Yeah, really," Bit muttered, turning his attention back to the Geno Saurer and cracking his neck. "Shall we?" He asked, observant to the extreme of the charged particle cannon aimed right at he and his Zoid.

- an aura of blue flame shot around one, a blast of white light engulfed the front of the other`s head -

- and in an instant, the Liger and the Geno vanished within a blinding explosion visible from across the battle, resembling a newborn star in every way as the Schneider whipped a whirlwind tide through the stream of super heated charged particles, looking like a pair of energy beams smashing into one another for several seconds. It looked like the Liger was about to win, carved through the beam by inches at a time, but the Geno refused to yield even in the slightest, dumping more and more raw energy and Zeke fought to hold his own against the raw firepower that his younger opponent, Borealis, brought to the table.

The clash intensified, Bill screamed, Bit replied in kind and time seemed to stop, and then -

A clash of light against light, outlined in an instant of inverse darkness. Two roars, two hissing explosions and two pained expressions.

- the Liger Zero Schneider touched down behind the Geno Saurer, armor scorched fiercely at several areas, cracks showing across the surface of it`s body. Deep, brutal cuts lined the body of the larger Zoid, it`s charged particle cannon stopped firing. Even upon using their ultimate methods of attack, the two couldn`t overwhelm one another, and in an instant, the Liger roared and collapsed sideways, blades swinging out of use while the Geno Saurer`s footlocks swung up and the huge Zoid fell to it`s belly without so much as a single cry of agony, defeat, victory or satisfaction.

"Can`t be over yet," Bit commented, coaxing Zeke back up on his own intensity alone. "It cannot be over yet," he growled, yanking the controls and motivating the Zoid completely as the Geno rose back up with the same fire in it`s blue and red eyes, so eerily similar to those of the Organoid enhancing it.

"Agreed," Bill finally said, turning his Zoid to face the other with an indignant, defiant look burned into his brown eyes. "It ain`t over `til the fat bitch sings, and she hasn`t even hummed a few bars yet."

"Glad we see eye to eye," Bit commented. The next thing to pass though, dashed his hopes.

An enormous explosion as an emerald green Whale King soared overhead, raining down a fiery hail of death onto the unsuspecting Judge and shadowing out the area of the battlefield over Bit and Bill. Both pilots grimaced angrily. "Rotten bastards," they muttered in the same tone, just as the belly of the enormous carrier slipped open in similar fashion to that of the Whale Kings favored by the Backdraft Group for carrying Zabats, but the difference here was that while they were deploying Zoids similar to the Backdraft`s Zabats, these were also different, carrying headpods like those used for Sinkers, along with faster firing machine guns and two bombs each, distinguishing themselves as being far less oriented towards reliance on sheer numbers to win a battle.

They were also fast as hell. At least close to the sound barrier, though no faster for some reason or another.

"Grand, them again," Bill commented sourly, still remembering the last time an unauthorized Zoid had interfered in one of his battles.

"I can knock `em all out pretty quickly if you can buy me time to switch to the Panzer armor, just make sure they don`t hit our team mates."

Bit nodded, Bill growled and the two Zoids broke apart, with bolts of bluish plasma and lasers ringing out behind the Schneider on it`s course for the BlitzCargo, leaving Borealis, the Geno and Chapman to fend for themselves for a short while, but that would prove just long enough.

The Liger swung on it`s forepaws, thrusters kicking in for breaking, just as a green bolt of energy arched wide in a spiral through the cloud of slowly thinning Foxbats, possessing a speed and agility that seemed eerily familiar, if not to Bit, then to Zeke.

An impact with the side of the huge Zoid and the Geno Saurer effectively vanished in a blinding flash of green, which shot up into the Whale King as the enormous Zoid carrier sang it`s song, quickly ascending away from the battlefield with surprising speed for such a large object, yet leaving it`s fighters behind.

"Shit," he muttered with contempt, already realizing that the whole thing had been a set up to leave the Geno unaided for a short while.

"I`m goin`," Bit uttered to the Organoid, wheeling the Schneider around again and taking off in a run for the BlitzCargo once more, though this time under covering fire from both of the enormous ground carriers. With moments not to spare, the Schneider vanished into the Blitz Team`s mobile base, but what emerged in the aftermath was anything but an agile, melee combatant.

Extending from the side of the BlitzCargo like a green demon king, Zeke howled angrily up at his attackers, even as their bombs fell upon he and his pilot with no effect whatsoever. Steven had already flung the weighty Zoid off the side of the HoverCargo, and had also moved away accordingly.

"You bastards think you can interrupt on my matches?" Bit asked with even further contempt than before. There was going to be no mercy as the armored panels on the immensely heavy Liger Zero Panzer whipped open with dozens of seperate clacks ringing out in perfect unison, the cockpit viewscreen lighting up with hundreds of independent targeting reticles, though the largest two were focused inaccurately on the tail of the fleeing Whale King.

The sound of over four hundred individual explosions rang in the distance, followed by the visual of two enormous orange beams of energy rippling by the huge green Zoid, tearing off into the distance while Vilhelm Rommel stared ahead. At thirty-three, he was the head of the Rommel Corporation, having ruthlessly... 'Purchased' the arms-and-Zoid manufacturing company from his younger brother, shortly after he had learned of Henry 'Surak' Rommel`s undeniably intense, lethal drug addiction to illegal sports enhancers known as stims.

A handsome man by any standard, black hair and piercing green eyes, he was also more than a little tyrannical. And more than slightly skilled and thought out. His motives never seemed clear at first, his techniques often seemed flawed to those who didn`t know him well, but to know him well was to have a death wish. Vilhelm had a tendency to murder anyone who could identify a weakness in he, his plans or his goals.

At thirty-three, Vilhelm Rommel was sedately calm as a green sizzle rippled into his private room, just behind him. Two dull thuds and a pained gasp later, he finally took a quiet sip of his sparkling green whine and glanced over his shoulder.

I never fail, the green Organoid replied in kind, planting it`s foot firmly into the space between Bill Chapman`s shoulder blades, all the while holding the younger Borealis` neck in a deathgrip.

"What the hell do you want from us?" Bill demanded with obvious defiance, though the question was answered in another way as Vilhelm placed his glass down, using the same hand to lift what looked like a silver choker from the table, snapping it open without a care in the world - or so it seemed.

"Services. Since I can`t get Kale or Vega Obscura, and since Bit Cloud won`t be alive much longer, you happen to be the best available pilot on all of Zi - which means that if you play your cards right, I just may let you live."

"Eh-OW!" Bill screamed as Spectacle put a bit more pressure behind it`s foot, causing his head to snap up and exposing his neck for all of a second. It was just long enough for Rommel to snap the choker into place, and it was both a bit too tight and a good deal uncomfortable. That done though, he stood back up and spoke.

"As of the placement of that collar, you and your Organoid must do exactly as I say. Within the collar is a specially designed bomb, intended to take your head off, and in addition to that is an electroshock system instantly hotwired into the pain receptors of the base of your brain. Disobey me once - or if your Organoid disobeys me once, the collar will shock you. Twice and it will shock you into unconciousness. Thrice and it will temporarily paralize you for a week. Four times and the bomb will go off," Vilhelm explained dryly, walking back to the window after grabbing his wine again. "Do as I say and you`ll get better liberties, and more comfortable quarters. Fail and... Well, you already know," he said with a murderous chuckle, taking a sip as the door slipped open and a quartet of guards came in.

Borealis growled as Spectacle unleashed him, though the green Organoid seemed eager to bite his younger counterpart`s head off on a whim.

"Leave and your friend dies. Loyalty to him, or loyalty to your own selfishness. Take your pick."

The blue-and-red Organoid paused, finally lowering it`s head with a tone of submission as the guards yanked Bill off the floor and to his feet after Spectacle moved out of the way. "Good," Vilhelm stated. "Very good. Take them to their new home for the time being, and prep their Zoid for forced evolution as well."

"When I get this collar off of me," Bill threatened angrily in though, followed by Borealis as several guards literally dragged him out of the room on his ankles. Alone with his Organoid once more, the lone head of an organization ready to carry out genocide smiled to himself.

Author`s Note: Cat`s outta the bag about who Big Evil is now, eh? But who`s more dangerous, the maniac at the head of a worldwide organization, or the maniac who happens to have Shadow and a Geno Saurer handy? And what of Leyon and Steve`s theories? And what`ll happen to poor Bill `n Borealis? *Evilly points at Ye Olde AHBL Button.* >D

EndlessAdventure: Yes. Yes, the shit will be hitting the fan pretty soon. Very soon in fact :P

Rhade: Chapter 28 falls in with parts 11 of OP, and 15-through-17 of Generations as one of my all-time-favorite pieces of a story I`ve written. Glad to see it`s still having an impact on readers even two chapters later :]

Hopefully this chapter wasn`t too much of a letdown. Had to re-write a bit of it at the Jamie part, and hopefully, Vilhelm is a pretty good villain so far.

New Age by Sh33p

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New Age

Chapter 29

Broken Mirror Redux