Reign of Chaos Chapter 11, a Zoids fanfic by Sh33p

Sh33p Disclaimer: I don`t own Zoids. Consider this disclaimer valid for the whole damn story :P

Foreword: Zoids - Evolution fits several parts of this chapter. Pick your own for everything else.

"... No go. The diamond is still standing, damage to it is non-existent and the surrounding area has been reduced to a molten crater," one of the officers exclaimed in a nearly mute tone of voice, disbelief plainly obvious in every word. It was the report that Conrad had been utterly dreading to have to hear. With the combined might of one of the largest task forces that the Republic had put together since the days when wars were as common as backyard baseball games at his disposal, he hadn`t even made a dent in the energy cocoon.

The visual he got through the 'hole' that had been punched into the smoke by the Hermann`s main guns showed that the terrain for close to half a mile or more around the diamond had been turned into liquid glass, staining black and churning with enough heat that it was starting to melt away at the inside of the crater itself, but the diamond remained in place, utterly unmoved, not even tarnished by the unbelievable amount of firepower that had just been dumped all over it.

"Damn," he finally said with defeat, rubbing two fingers along one temple and letting out a long sigh that crossed between despair, frustration and outright disbelief. Nothing was supposed to survive something like what they`d thrown at it, but there it was. Unscathed in every way.

For the first time, though probably not the last, Major Conrad Robertson realized just how horribly unprepared he was in coming into this operation.

And for the first time, though also probably not the last, he spoke with a hint of defeat in his voice.

"Tell everyone to withdraw. We`re heading back to base, unless the General objects..."

There was no reply, muffled chatter filled the room and the Europlas began to turn away, back towards the base.

"Belay that order," the comm officer stated. "General Hauser has just sent an order to hold position," he added.

"Best be ready to send someone for snacks, Lieutenant. We may be here for a while," he said with a dry tone, leaning his head halfway into one hand and strumming his fingers across the side of his skull.

"There`s Romeo," Leyon announced absently, finally feeling the pressure of the quiet leaving the control room as the Empress Heart majestically began to drift down through the clouds, already on course for landing at the city`s main airport, which was probably one of the four largest such facilities on the face of the planet, expanding out for a mile from the main city itself. "Any ideas on what we`re gonna do once we get there?" He asked. While it had basically been planned out from the start that they would be going there specifically to get Leon and the Red Blade Liger, no one was sure how exactly to go about it - or if he`d even be willing to come along for that matter.

"That`s a miles-wide city that`s been hit by bombs and at least one major assault in one night."

"Do you honestly expect to find Leon at all in that kind of environment? It`s worse than lookin` for a needle in a haystack..."

"I know where I can find him," Leena tossed in, mainly since she couldn`t stand doing nothing but circling the floor and spouting off potential names for the Uglena. It got a little old after a while.

"Well, so much for casual planning," Sarah mumbled out offhandedly, just trying to preserve the fact that everyone was speaking for once. Several hours of raw silence aside from Tauros` daughter walking around mumbling out two-word name suggestions had begun to grate on her nerves in more ways than one. She also didn`t want to get shot down by any of the six Pteras Zoids that had dropped out of the clouds above and behind the Empress Heart, all of them armed to the death with heavy gattling guns on four and close to a dozen missiles on the other two.

They`d had the sense to fly just close enough to avoid being in the great carrier Zoid`s firing arc while still avoiding the heated, turbulent backwash of it`s engines as well. In all likelihood, the flying fortress had just met it`s match without ever realizing it.

"This is Doctor Leyon Martin, Guylos Imperial citizen by birth, Neutral Zone citizen by choice. Unaffiliated. The Whale King is the Empress Heart, also unaffiliated," he said with a dry, bored calmness that was uniquely out of place.

"This heap," Leyon began hotly. "Can shoot every last one of you down and then turn the city into a pile of smoking crap. If I was here to attack, I`d`ve done it by now."

"Don`t mind Leyon," Steve cut in, clamping a hand over the pointy headed mad scientist`s mouth and yanking him away from the reciever. "He`s a bit high strung right now... No sleep in five months, caffine addiction, ramen noodle fetish, addicted to hearing the sounds of gunfire going up his Zoid`s ass... But anyway, we`re neutral, we mean no harm and we`re just looking for my son," he explained, even while Leyon flailed around in his desk chair, muffled screams coming from behind Tauros` hand.

"... This is getting repetitive," the pilot grumbled out. "Identify your self then," he ordered, a small alarm light going off just under the main viewscreen, showing that the six Zoids had each armed their weapons and locked on.

"Steven Tauros, and Sarah Obscura and my daughter Leena are also with me. Do I need to explain everything else to ya too?" He asked annoyedly.

"... What`s wrong, is he alright?" Steven asked on the verge of sounding frantic, letting go of Leyon in such a way that the mad scientist spun around on his chair and then fell over onto his side with a muffled crack.

"No sir, congratulations though. Pick a landing pad nearest the main airport, just avoid any traffic. Good day," the pilot said with a hint of respect, all six Pteras promptly breaking off of their previous attack formation and swooping back up into the clouds without another word, leaving Steven to blankly stare at the screen.

"Apparently he did something good," Sarah offered, blandly swiping Leyon`s chair and poking the downed scientist with her right shoe in the process. The doctor twitched vacantly as the high heel prodded into his cheek, but didn`t move aside from groaning and sprawling out on his front.

"It`s not that, I`m just worried he might have gone and gotten himself killed doing it," Leyon explained a bit darkly.

"He`s still alive," Leena cut back in with all the grace and refinement of a rusted, blood covered chainsaw in a B-movie horror flick, the tone of her voice more than telling Steven to shut up about thoughts that her big brother was dead. "And since none of you are being very optimistic about it, I`ll look for him," she exclaimed, taking charge of the situation in a way that terrified both Steven and Leyon and brought an amused - if not well-hidden - smirk to Sarah`s face.

"Yes`m," both men submissively replied, though Leyon`s was still partially muffled by the floor before he finally started to get back up. As for Sarah?

"Just like I used to be," she thought, and continued to think, all the way to the landing pad.

"Angsty romance novel fodder, yes, but I didn`t expect you two to fall asleep on a bench at the corner of the street," Naomi chided, slamming the roof of the cockpit down after hopping out of her Gustav, stepping down from the base of one of it`s antenna-like hitch-arms and then standing on the sidewalk next to the bench that Pierce and Leon had pretty much monopolized at some point before her arrival.

"We`re not asleep," the green haired woman finally pointed out, opening her eyes and leaning forward from the back of the bench, stretching her legs out.

"Speak for yourself," the sniper retorted, pointing to Leon with one finger. A low snore was the reply he gave, slumped over with his arms dangling down off the bench between his knees. It was a wonder the guy wasn`t drooling all over himself.

"Next time, I will," Pierce commented, re-crossing her legs and leaving her arms draped over the back of the bench while Naomi leaned smoothly against the streetlamp that sat less than three feet away. The Gustav was parked right in front of the three of them. In the middle of the street.

"Isn`t that a bit illegal?" The former Backdraftee questioned in an attempt to stir up conversation.

"I do believe every law in the books was thrown out last night in favor of survival," Naomi answered calmly, reaching into the inside of her trench-styled coat and pulling out a pack of cigarettes, nonchalantly thwacking them into her palm several times. "Want one?" She asked a bit lazily, the limited fatigue beginning to wear on her as much as it was on Pierce, and wasn`t on Leon since he was asleep.

"No thanks," Pierce replied, ignoring the quirked brow that came in question. The building from earlier was still standing, the smoke was now slowing to a halt after however many hours of work on behalf of the locals. Ambulances and police cars were still streaking by at dozens of miles past the speed limit, as well as firetrucks and the occasional Sinker - which was one of the few Zoids considered genuinely streetworthy due to their agility and ability to fly when need-be. The ones in Romeo served as everything from police S.W.A.T. support vehicles to fire engines, but never ambulances. There just wasn`t enough room in them.

"I`d`ve figured a lipstick lesbian biker bitch would be a smoker," Naomi pointed out, intentionally being a bit on the rude side. About the only people she`d ever made friends with without initially conflicting with them were Leon Tauros and Jamie Hameros, the older of the two being too focused and agreeable to have a verbal slugging match with, the younger of the two being too intimidated to be bothered with in such a fashion, though Jamie wasn`t exactly much of a friend, more of an acquaintance.

"A biker, yes. But you seem to be more of a bitch than me," she tossed back, too bored to really take any offense.

"I`ll take that as a compliment," Naomi replied, sticking a cigarette in her lips and then lighting up without another word.

Stepping down the ramp that was formed from the bottom half of the Empress Heart`s jaw, Leena Tauros was on-foot. It was now the middle of day, or so, she wasn`t using her Gunsniper since it`s throat had literally been torn out - among other things. The Zoid was just unsafe now, it would need another overhaul to get working again, and the Uglena was unfamiliar to her in every way - she only knew how to pilot Dibisons, Gunsnipers and a customized Pteras, after all. None of the other Zoids had been up her alley either, so she`d decided to make the search on foot.

Walking out of the shadow of the Whale King with a purpose, one could almost spot an authority in every step she made, moving with a purpose across the massive airfield that had been left mostly undefended in the scramble to protect the immediate cityscape. By the time she`d made it to the shade of the airport`s abandoned exterior overhang, it struck her that searching an entire city on foot was over the top.

"No way. In Hell. Am I going back there," she told herself, determined in the extreme not to make a fool of herself after having effectively taken control. Leena Tauros wasn`t exactly someone known for making was decisions, but by that same note, she wasn`t someone known for backing off without a good reason to.

There was a car parked in the lot on the inner-side of the airport, probably the only one left. Most of it`s windows were broken, it was located the entire way across and she didn`t know how to hotwire it, but closer than that was a bike. An ordinary bike, from the looks of things, not a sports model or an offroader, just a street bike.

That represented a problem as well for a simple reason, which Leena herself recalled as she came to a stop in front of it, the sticks impossibly dangling from the hairpiece on the back of her head slumping in the same fashion as her shoulders.

"I don`t know how to ride a bike..." She said with an air of defeat, staring down at the concrete of the sidewalk for several seconds before straightening up and taking a deep breath.

There was a simple reason that she didn`t know how to ride a bycycle though, it just isn`t something many people put at a high level of importance when they`re brought up on a base in the middle of the desert, spending the majority of their free time learning how to pilot and maintain a select few Zoids. While the average little girl would learn how to ride a bike and immediately flock to one that was pink and had ribbons dangling from the handlebars(among other things), Leena Tauros had learned how to pilot a gigantic green-black-and-gray Dibison and immediately flocked to blowing things up.

"I can do this. Damn it," she stated matter-of-factly, swiping the bike off the rack after making sure it wasn`t chained into place. She had to doubt anyone would give a damn anyway, the end of life as everyone on the planet had known it was enough to make anyone forget the tiny matter of a bike. The rider had probably only used it to get to the airport, then hopped on a Hammerhead or some other transport Zoid and flown off to some percieved safe place.

One leg over the seat. Then she half-sat, propped on one leg, the other foot on a pedal. Hands on the handlebars, but not tightly enough that her knuckles would turn white or anything like that. As an afterthought, she felt around the back of the seat for something to lower it with. The thing was purely uncomfortable regardless, nowhere near as accomodating as the cockpit of a Zoid.

She lifted her foot from the ground and pressed the pedal, precariously balanced for several seconds before the mixture of under and overconfidence kicked in, with the under taking the lead for the time being as both feet shot to the ground to hold herself in place. A nervous sigh, she shifted her eyes in either direction to make sure that no one was watching.

The airport was almost a ghost town. There weren`t even any looters in sight, just a few rats running along in the parking lot.

Again with the nervousness, she lifted one foot, the one that had been balancing her the first time, and put it on a pedal, starting again by pushing down. This time she kept her balance, long enough to pull her other foot up and apply it to a pedal as well, briefly swerving before straightening out and slipping down into the parking lot itself through one of the sloped spots in front of the main entrance that usually served for convenience when dragging along a suitcase on wheels.

As with before though, she started losing her balance and putting too much thought into things, making it as far out as the middle of the parking lot before uselessly stopping and planting both feet down. She didn`t have to, really, but that mixture of feelings forced it.

"I`m wasting my time on this thing," she thought to herself, glaring at the buildings that formed the abandoned 'buffer' ring around the city itself. "I`d probably be better off trying to jack the car..."

She stopped short of finishing the thought, deciding to give it one more try. After all, the third time was usually the charm, right?

Again, she placed her weight on the seat, and again, she put one foot on a pedal. A pause and she collected her breath, concentrating on not concentrating too hard this time. A blink, another breath and then she pressed down on the pedal, doing so a second time with her other foot, rigidly holding her balance before relaxing a bit. This time though, she succeeded.

It took her three tries in a row but at the age of fifteen, Leena Tauros was finally riding a bike. She wasn`t doing so with confidence, for a little while, but she managed, going slowly at first before finding the resolve to go faster. Then faster after that, until she hit the contraption`s limit and found that she had the urge to grin like a lunatic and chant out her greatness to anything in sight.

"I still have a job to do," she reminded herself sternly, standing on the pedals but never slowing down. Still, though, there was an ecstatic feeling tugging at the edge of her senses as she pulled past the first three rows of buildings and into the populated interior of the city, though she was still smiling the entire way in. In the process of doing so, though, another missing piece of her confidence had come back. It was still a long way to the top, but she would make it there - with time.

"Looks like they`ve stopped," Bit commented, uneasily listening for another blast of gunfire - even though it would temporarily deafen him in the process. The Liger rumbled with an equal uneasiness, though Zeke himself said nothing for the time being, leaving Bit to make his own conclusions. "I wonder if they actually pulled it off," he mused, only to feel emotions that equated to a big fat 'no' from the Organoid that had previously kept silent.

They failed miserably. Shadow still lives, he and the Geno Saurer aren`t even hurt.

"Is it even the Geno Saurer anymore?" Bit asked, knowing that the other Zoid was undergoing a similar transformation to one that Fiona had once told him about.

["What happened then?" A far younger Bit Cloud asked, dressed in a set of Blade Liger pajamas and looking riveted.

"Well..." A pause. Fiona briefly looked a little confused and a little upset, but quickly finished the story. To an extent.

"That`s another story for when you`re older," she said knowingly, leaving out the part about how Raven, Shadow and the Breaker had single handedly slaughtered one of the most impressive ground armies ever assembled.]

"Is it skipping ahead to a Fury?" He asked, glancing up sideways at his enormous companion. He had never been told about the paths of Zoid evolution, but he had an idea of it all. Shield Liger, Blade Liger, Liger Zero. Geno Saurer, Geno Breaker, Fury. It seemed rather cut and dry really.

I fear that Shadow is going beyond even that. Kale`s own influences in the matter are going to effect it as well...

Zeke trailed off and Bit grimaced to himself, privately wondering if it was even worth sticking around when all that was left to take place was a massacre that hadn`t even started yet.

He`d looked into the mirror before. He`d fought the devil incarnate and found out that it was nothing other than himself. He only had scant memories of his own mass murder of at least a hundred-and-fifty people during the previous night`s chaos, and it wasn`t something he wanted to see again - from any side of the action.

Bit Cloud wanted to leave. He wanted to haul out of the base, find a little corner in the middle of nowhere and beat his head against a rock until he stopped having the urge to ruthlessly kill everything in sight. He didn`t want to stick around just to watch someone else carry out his desires to slaughter everyone and everything. Whether that was from envy or disgust, he truly didn`t know.

Quiet. Both the Guardian and the Ancient shifted their gaze from the turmoil that was consuming Three to the bloody carnage that was just waiting to explode like a firecracker in a glass jar.

"Shadow`s gotten stronger," Madison mused. "The last time I saw him, he wouldn`t have been able to do this type of thing with a Rev Raptor."

I am more concerned as to how much of the power actually changing the Geno Saurer is Shadow`s, and how much is Kale`s...

"... Yes," she agreed, her usual blandness remaining completely intact as she gave a nod to the Organoid that she was still standing on. "This could prove bad for the people of Zi."

Indeed. It has the same potential for destruction as the people blindly serving Vilhelm Rommel.

At this, Madison finally grimaced. Not for her own sake of course, she was one of those rare people who could look death in the face and just shrug at it boredly. She was grimacing more for Roc. If anything had become powerful enough to worry the First Born, then he would likely want to intervene as quickly as possible. She would probably have to play the role of preventing him from getting himself killed if she was right.

"Can you gauge his power?" She finally asked, though it wasn`t really needed. Bound links ran like a two way street, after all.

"I`ll take your word for it," she answered, idly gripping the hilt of her club a bit tighter for no real reason at all.

He vaguely registered the words, almost finished processing them before a resounding *THWACK* echoed across the back of his head.

Concrete. Yes, it was concrete. It had to be concrete because it was grainy and porous, and it was probably wet concrete too, because it didn`t feel dry at all. Yeah. It was wet. He also had the feel of asphalt grinding briefly against the base of his scalp.

Well, this was all fine and dandy, he barely recognized the first two voices but the third - and the smack that had hit him across the back of the head - were distinctly familiar. Now who did he know who hit and screamed like that...

Naomi? No, her voice was smooth even when she was screaming her lungs out, plus she was usually too laid back to go ranting and raving all the time...

Pierce was just about the same. Possibly the reason why she and Naomi had seemingly developed an instant dislike for each other was how different and alike they were at the same time.

There was Abbie but no, the hand was a bit too big. She was too small and tended to use frying pans when she had to hit someone to get their attention. Plus she tended to hit far harder than that, he`d clocked her arm at something like 150 miles per hour when a drunkard had hit on her as she was leaving the diner once.

"ACK!" Screamed a thirteen year old Leon Tauros, literally flying off the couch and crashing through the coffee table with enough force to leave a body imprint in the carpet. One that would stay visible for another four years.]

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" He screamed, springing back up from the concrete in an actual blur and completely shattering his normally serious front with such force that both of the nearby women were left slack jawed.

"YOU WERE SLEEPING ON A CITY-BENCH, YA DOPE!!!" Came the reply in that loving manner that only an irate sister could give.

"YOU DIDN`T HAVE TO SMACK ME UPSIDE THE HEAD!" He shot back in an equally warm, fuzzy kind of way that just screamed 'I`m going to kill you because I love ya, Sis!'

"WELL NYEH!" Leena finally let loose, pulling down one eyelid, sticking out her tongue and flipping him the bird all at once.

He stopped himself short of causing a typical dustcloud of violence that came with a Tauros-sibling spat, finally realizing just where he was and just what had happened, and with those two facts - just who had seen it.

The result was a few thinly muffled snickers that reached his ears. He responded in kind with a groan, straightened up and then counted to ten. Leon then promptly swiped his hand over his face, let out a muffled sigh and hung his head.

"And people wonder why I moved into the HoverCargo at sixteen," he said, having completely facefaulted out of his wits.

"They`re brother and sister alright," Naomi said, barely able to keep from falling over and howling with laughter. Pierce was too busy snickering and snorting like an utter, raving lunatic to bother with a reply.

"Hmph," Leena sounded before continuing. "Dad told me to come and get you," she half-lied. Leon saw right through it, but chose to avoid bringing it up, instead shifting back to his more mature, usual self, though his tongue had seemingly planted itself into his cheek.

"How nice of him," he growled out, switching the subject finally and making note of the fact that his currently-annoying-as-sin younger sister was dragging along a bike. "You finally learned to ride?"

"That`s... Nice... Leena. Where`s Dad at and can he wait long enough for my to get my Zoid?"

"I met Bit`s quasi-evil clone in a Geno Breaker and got my ass kicked. Simple enough for you?"

"About him, yeah," she answered, blissfully allowing both of them to completely shut out Pierce and Naomi, who were still giggling, snickering and grinning like idiots. A crack had been formed in Leon Tauros` armor of seriousness, now all they had to do was figure out how to expand it...

"You can tell me on the way to pick it up. Hope you don`t mind having to go slowly," he exclaimed, giving Leena more than enough of a hint that they were going to be going alone. Without Pierce and Naomi. At that, the older of the two siblings started walking off, obviously annoyed by the fact that he was speed walking around the corner of the street.

Leena just stared blandly for a moment and then glanced over at the other two. "Wanna come?" She asked, the epitomy of the innocent younger sister, her choice of clothing and the thick glasses she wore practically emphasising cuteness despite the somewhat-grizzly look of the scars that could be seen on her hands and face.

Almost with a sadistic slowness, Pierce and Naomi shared a sideways glance. While it was true that this was all completely out of their usual character, the fact that Leon had finally cracked and blown up at something was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

Early evening now. The relative calm and quiet that had settled Garnhelm Base was almost unnerving in comparison to the rash of activity that had permeated the past day or so. What had been a full scale mobilization had turned into what basically amounted to a duck hunt where the duck happened to have six foot long claws and an atomic suicide bomb and all the hunters were armed with was a BB gun while sitting out in the open.

For Bit Cloud, this early evening calm was even more upsetting than the firing that had repeatedly rendered him temporarily deaf, while the lack of people was both an eerie comfort and an ordinary annoyance. It was annoying because he had no one to talk to other than Zeke - and Zeke wasn`t being much of a conversationalist tonight. That was upsetting too, Zeke`s usual craving for freedom wasn`t even apparent to him anymore.

While he didn`t have anyone to talk to, he also didn`t have anyone to think about disemboweling with the nearest sharp object, namely the Handleblade.

At present, Bit was sitting a bit ponderously atop the the 'popup' barrier walls that surrounded Garnhelm`s outer perimeter, which were also the only walls that both a: Weren`t electrified, and b: Weren`t topped off with barbed wire. The seating was uncomfortable for him, but it was also the least of his worries. He had been thinking. A lot. Considering, contemplating, trying to find a distraction, almost asking to be put out on the front lines since he had a Zoid and was already wearing a uniform - however 'borrowed' it had been.

Bit Cloud didn`t like thinking. He liked doing. Thinking - no surprise there - required thought. Bit didn`t want to think right now, he wanted to do something, but all he could do was sit there and think, which basically defeated the purpose of wanting to do something to avoid thinking in the first place, which made everything become a little more annoying in the process.

And all that he could think about was the same types of things that made him not like thinking in the first place.

What was the state of the Blitz Team? Was the Doc okay? Was Jamie still ripping himself apart? Had Leena stopped moping around without being egomaniacal? Was Brad still the picture of the apathetic bastard who had a heart of gold - assuming he hadn`t sold it for some reason? And what about the Fluegel Team? Was Naomi alright? Was Leon okay?

Hell, Bit really never thought of them as friends. Friends made you think. Thinking was bad. Doing was good. Bit saw them all solely as distant acquaintances, the only ones he really got along with to any great degree were Brad, Steven, Leon and Jamie. Brad because he didn`t ask questions and he didn` t go half-insane whenever Bit made a screw-up, nor did he ever waste time bragging. Bit didn`t like it when people bragged, he didn`t like it when they tried to hype his skills either.

Steven was someone Bit liked to a mixed degree. He despised the man`s greed, but at the same time envied his intelligence. He pitied how many cares that Tauros actually had but he had to applaud how well he hid them by putting on an almost mirror front to the one that he probably would`ve developed if he had actually stopped to think at any time during the past two years.

Leon was someone he had mixed feelings about to, mainly since Leon had instantly befriended him and given him respect where most people would`ve just mocked the fact that he was supposedly a complete airhead - and this was after tripping the guy`s Shield Liger and handing him a concussion, a broken foot with an ankle to match and a broken arm to go with it. That was enough to make Bit like him from the start, but he didn`t like how intense Leon had become through the past months since they`d first met. He needed to slow down or he`d burn out.

That reminded the blonde that he needed to slow down and relax again or he would burn out as well.

Jamie was someone Bit liked just because Jamie took pride and enjoyment out of his work and held up admirably despite having a second personality. The experience had jarred the teen considerably but he had held his head up through it, not out of spite - at least Bit didn`t think so - but more out of determination. Jamie also loved his Zoid, in a way that translated as more than 'Look at all the guns! Hehehehehehe!'

In short, there were four people that Bit truly had any real like for and even then he viewed them only as acquaintances. After that came the other three. They were the ones that Bit felt the strongest about.

First there was Vega. Vega was like Bit had been when he was younger. Just smarter. And better cared for. And even less social. That`s why Bit had adopted him as a surrogate little brother, even if Vega was just trying to use him to replace Kale. Kale was another person Bit felt strongly for, not out of like, but out of sheer contempt. If there was any living being on all of Zi, at any singular point in history that Bit wanted to murder in cold blood - regardless of his mindset - it was Kale. That spoke volumes enough.

Then, finally, there was Bill. Bill had been Bit in reverse as far as appearance went. The styles of their clothes were virtually the same aside from color, they looked exactly like each other aside from hair and eye color and they were both Royal Cup Champions with Organoids and Zoids that supposedly no one could beat. They were perfectly matched in combat, even when it came to fists, and they were easily equal everywhere else. Bit would even venture to guess that Bill had probably left his family in roughly the same way that he had, but that was another story.

Right now, most of his thoughts were focused on these people and others. Which made him hold them in partial contempt because he didn`t like thinking.

A voice stirred him somewhat, thankfully terminating the freight train of thought he had been embedded in, and causing him to jerk upright ever so slightly. He didn`t turn to face whoever had called him though, thoughtlessly regarding the glow of the moons upon the firing lines of Zoids that had gathered off in the distance.

Odd. He didn`t remember sounding that vindictive before. Somewhere in his jumbled, confused mess of a mind, he supposed that he was in need of sleep - though he doubted greatly that he would get that well deserved rest. He probably needed to eat sometime soon as well, but the cafeteria was probably closed by now, knowing his recent run of luck.

"Where can I find Kale Obscura`s cell?" The voice asked, and Bit only vacantly noted the tingle of rigidness at it`s edge after a few seconds. Whoever was behind him was either intimidated or unflenching - not that he particularly cared either way, but still.

"Main building, underground, hall one, cell thirteen," he answered coldly, absently noting again that his voice still sounded vindictive, poisonous. However his intrusive visitor had taken the answer, he didn`t bother to find out. Liger didn`t even growl, merely maintaining what seemed a silent vigil near it`s pilot, having helped him up to the top of the wall in the first place close to an hour ago. The man - at least he thought it was a man, his immediate short term memory was fried for some reason, to such an extent that he barely even remembered the answer he had just given - left by the time that the blonde let out a sigh and resumed thinking.

"So, what are you and Dad doing here?" Leon asked casually, still hellbent on ignoring the fact that Pierce and Naomi had just happened to wander along - not to mention ignoring that they`d been right in claiming that he`d need the Gustav to haul his busted-up Red Blade Liger over to the Whale King. He was also ignoring the fact that Leena had openly agreed with them both. Currently, he and his sister were both standing on a catwalk overlooking a repair machine that was finishing up one of it`s cycles before the Liger could be loaded onto the Gustav.

He was also ignoring Pierce and Naomi, who were standing fairly close by, occasionally popping off inside jokes that only people who either knew or thought they knew one or both of the Tauros siblings would understand.

"Leyon heard that Bit`s at a base on a straight line from here, and the last time you called, you said you and Naomi would be coming here for an overhaul on the Gustav," Leena explained simply, one hand on the railing as she glanced down at the Red Blade Liger with a hint of unease. Bit and the Schneider hadn`t even done that sort of damage to the once-majestic Blade Liger, which still bore some sort of hidden royalty even in it`s brutalized state. "Pretty simple choice, really."

A sagely nod and Leon glanced down at his Zoid. "Yeah, that probably would be annoying. How`s Dad, anyway? Haven`t seen him since he and Leyon tried to kill each other..."

"He`s still as crazy as ever. Mostly healed up but he still walks kinda stiffly though," Leena answered with the same casual tone, which abruptly became a good bit more serious. "I still can`t believe any of this happened," she admitted. Again, Leon gave a nod, but didn`t speak. He knew better than to say anything less than three seconds after Leena said something, unless it was question. Otherwise she`d likely take his head off and fling his brain at a random passer-by. His sister may have toned down significantly but she was still a stick of dynamite when she wanted to be.

"I keep expecting to wake up in bed and go out to the mall with Bit and Brad to meet you and Naomi and shop my head off..."

"I get what you mean," the older Tauros commented. A pause. No one spoke, not even Pierce and Naomi.

"How many people do you think can fit onto a Type III Whale King?" Leena asked curiously, something very odd and quite out of place appearing in her voice. None of the others could quite piece together just what it was, but Leon at least knew the answer.

"Probably..." He paused, doing the math in his head. "700 to 2,500 comfortably, depending on the trip. Why?"

"How many civilians do you think need to be evacuated?" Leena asked, that odd... Thing appearing in her voice again.

"Probably too many to do what you`re thinking," Leon replied knowingly, a somber expression on his face.

"I`d guess... 7,000 on an unloaded Type III, not very comfortably but they`d probably fit."

"Take into account the addition of the HoverCargo and... Nine Zoids," Leena ordered after a few seconds.

"6,800, 6,950 if we cram people onto the HoverCargo, 6,990 if we cram people onto the HoverCargo and under any Zoids with space beneath their main bodies."

"Good. Hope you don`t mind overseeing a light evacuation," Leena stated with authority, and it was at about that moment that Naomi finally managed to identify just what was changed about her voice during those few sentences. It hadn`t been there before, it probably wouldn`t be there again, but for a short while, Leena Tauros had shown compassion and a willingness to use that dominating personality for something constructive.

That pretty much made Naomi`s day right off the bat. Her night too. Pierce and Leon were both still clueless, but the sniper somehow figured they`d guess it eventually if Leena showed it again.

It was disturbingly silent in the hall of cells, after the two guards were frozen in place where they`d been standing, each halted in mid-blink. They didn`t hear the door open, they didn`t do anything other than breathe in perfect synch with one another, standing to either side of the only occupied cell in the entire hallway.

For a moment, the figure at the door paused in curiosity. No intimidation, no fear, just curiosity. And then a voice rang out as the door clumsily slammed shut with no one pushing it.

"Getting in with the wrong crowd, being hunted by a renegade sports company gone terribly awry and getting shot out of the sky twice in a row by the same person tends to delay someone," Rayth said without a hint of remorse or apology, just the same cold tone as a block of ice in a pool of liquid nitrogen. "Behind bars as usual, I see."

"Depends on the bars, pal," Kale answered mockingly, not once moving from where he was seated in his prison cell, not even bothering to look up when Rayth came to stand in front of the bars. "Come to finish the job, old friend?"

"Kill you, you mean?" Rayth said perceptively, finally causing the other to look up and meet him eye to eye, even if they were seperated by bars that were proven to be resistant to just about any kind of damage. They looked eerily different, they always had, to an extent, but now it showed even more. Kale`s psychotically calm smile was offset by Rayth`s all-business look of neutrality. Their eyes were even tinted similar shades of different colors, Rayth`s dark green eyes contrasting sharply against the equally dark brown rings set around Kale`s black hole-like pupils.

Even their height and build was different. Kale was taller, lankier and pale, Rayth was a bit on the short side at 5'9", somewhat stocky in build and had a tan that offset his vague resemblance to Karl Schubaltz. Their clothes were different as well, Rayth had apparently 'borrowed' the uniform of a private, the nametag read as 'Pvt. Harold Kaughman,' and there was a faint, barely visible inkling of liquid red still apparent on the gray-red collar of the shirt. Kale, on the other hand, wore only a brightly colored blue prison uniform - blue stood out more than orange or black and white against the background of the desert.

"If that`s what you assume," Kale answered again, even his voice contrasting sharply with Rayth`s own. One was a mixture of emotions that held nothing but an underlying sense of impending death and destruction, the other was the smoothly calmed voice of someone who`d let military-like training go to his head at an early age.

"I`d say 'thanks,' but there`s a reason I haven`t tried escaping on my own as it is."

"It has something to do with the diamond, I`m guessing," Rayth stated rather than questioned. Questions weren`t something the two of them really threw at each other.

"Death stopped being funny after Al and Randy died," Rayth shrugged again, getting out a looped-style ring with a few dozen keys on it and seeming to count along to number thirteen.

A pause while Kale waited to answer, standing up this time and walking forward to the bars, pressed and leaned against them at once, his hands vanishing from Rayth`s sight behind either of the frozen guards.

A hushed whisper edged at Rayth`s senses. He had no Zoidian blood, but he was still someone naturally adept at 'hearing things.' A latent psychic, in fact, just like Alfred Torson and Randal Clark had been. That was another part of the Five Kings project that hadn`t been recorded - all five of the subjects involved had been at least latent telepaths.

"The start of sundown," the shorter of the two finished, glancing up the remaining three inches to meet Kale`s eyes, intentionally finishing the other`s sentence for him.

"Perceptive as ever," Kale said, stepping back and turning away before turning around again and plopping onto the bed, arms behind his head and legs gingerly, almost lazily crossed at the knee. Most people would have been ready to go into hysterics by then, Obscura`s presence alone had enough force behind it to terrify most ordinary people into screaming for their parents. He could`ve put the fear of god into an athiest just by saying hello with a smile.

Rayth Takahori was not like most people. He wasn`t athiest and he wasn`t religious, he just didn`t care. Kale`s presence didn`t terrify him in the least, which made him a cut above just about everyone that had ever met either of them and lived to tell about it.

"You can leave now. I`d like to eat soon, they`re serving up this really nice mushy slop that almost tastes like mashed potatoes and gravy, along with a helping of something that vaguely resembles fried chicken!" Kale stated with enthusiasm so fake that it sounded genuine.

"It`s name is Shadow," the taller of the two answered pre-emptively, knowing the question before it had ever even been asked in the first place. "And yes, it`s what shut the door."

With that, Takahori turned and left, and the guards unfroze and no one noticed that anything had happened other than Kale, and he certainly wasn`t saying a thing.

Whisps of energy flittered up and about, trailing circles around the ominous looking diamond of energy, five at a time, going a few inches quicker with every journey. The ground around it had cooled down by now, forming a glass half-shell around the base of the diamond itself, which was balanced impossibly at an angle on one tip, most of it`s lower half vanishing out of sight in the glass, which itself was black, yet glowed a deadly, distorted crimson.

No one dared to venture past the very edge of the portion of the glass that had formerly been the edge of a crater, though it now looked more like the cereal bowl from Hell at this point. The sound kept playing itself out, becoming quicker with every single heartbeat, yet only a few could hear the sound, and only three of them were actually paying attention to it. Ominous. Foreboding.

Death was in the air as a demon`s grim laugh turned the twin moons of Planet Zi a dulled shade of red and orange for the second night in a row. It was an impossibly ill omen of the bloodshed to come.

Author`s Note: Ahhh! Leena actually developing! Ahhh! Rayth still hasn`t died! Ahhh! Leon showed off the fact that he really IS a Tauros!

Illidan: Bit will start doing things soon. Whether or not it`s of the villainous kind, I`ll let the readers be the judge. Speaking of mind-fucking the readers about who`s good and who`s evil, I gotta focus some on Jamie, Brad and Leyla soon... *nods to self.*

The Big Fisch: Thanks and I`ll do my best to do just that :D I also highly suggest reading some of Zinou`s work, it`s better, IMO >_>;

Other Author`s Note: As an aside, I may pause work on ROC for a bit to work on a prequel to New Age and Reign of Chaos centered on Thomas. It`s starting to scream at me to be done... And it may end up being a songfic o_O; *Hmm...*

Reign of Chaos by Sh33p

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36

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