Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nick breathed wearily. With a great amount of struggle she managed to turn her head despite the resistance of the cords pulling at her face and neck to give Riot a glance.

The glowing orb in Blaze's mouth begun to flicker as it gained less and less charge for the attack. ...Kai, she had spent more than a year thinking that her sister was dead, had she just tried to...?

Her mind tried to reach Edge and Kai if only to feel they were still alive. However, before she could focus any further on Kai, or Edge the core's own cords clicked before several much smaller cords emerged than plunged into Nick's skin. Each incision no larger than a needle. The tiny cords could be seen slithering under the skin as they attached to her muscles.

Nick tensed once more at the sting and pull of the cords feeding off what energy they could. Her mind begun to slip away once more. Blood, with a subtle crimson hue, begun to slide from the corners of her widened eyes, mouth, ears, nails and incision points along her skin. Her screams were muffled to little more than blood choked gurgling. The core begun to pulse.

Blaze's maw opened wide before the full force of the cannon was released upon the former bar.

Saga took Blaze's momentary internal distraction to move toward the bar in search for his pilot. The time allotted was not enough to even reach the bar before the massive beam was unleashed. In a last effort to save his master Saga dove toward the bar, in a direct path of the massive energy beam unleashed.

Jury released a screech at the sudden flash of light. All attention turned toward Edge and Kai as he continued charge forward. This land was about to be forcefully altered...

The slightly blue-flamed simmering beast of a Jager that stood watching the bar from some distance away could be seen turning and bolting at top speed without a pilot or any notable external command.

The brilliant blue jet of energy that lingered a little too long up above the bar finally seemed to make a decision and dove, fusing with the tremendous screeching Jury.

And the golden Seeker and his human wasted no time in running as well, their distance admirable- but could it possibly be enough?

Kreig could feel the core cooling as Blitz granted it a mercy. The organoid allowed this with no resistance, instead he curled tighter around the core, regretful he could not pull his friend out of this situation. If he tried to rocket to the sky he would be incinerated regardless.



Kreig was able to communicate with Blitz before the core was completely shut off and communications were severed. If organoids could grin Kreig would be doing so now. No regrets. He was proud of his friend regardless.

Jury turned around to face the black wing blade as it tried in vein to avoid the catastrophic explosion. He released a screech before altering his course and charging forward once more.

Marcia had returned to catastrophe some time ago and they had been making their way from the bar, Marcia had to walk a ways to rendezvous with her zoid and that took some time, but eventually they set out as a leisurely pace, had Marcia known what she had been looking for was set to appear she may not have left in the first place, perhaps some one still wanted her alive... Settled in catastrophe's cockpit a shudder ran down her spine as she instinctively reached for the chimera necklace she wore, what was it?

The feeling of the dark as it creeps up on you flowed over her, she was frightened, too much so to turn the zoid around and see what was happening.

Catastrophe did it for her whirling around and watching for a moment the horizon, nothing he could see but he felt, and heard, he would never forget an old rival, very few zoids could rival him and his armor, Saga was one of them, Catastrophe roared in response he could hear the chimera's voices, and sense the presence of the dark creature that had torn at his pilot's mind. He was unable to bring himself to move further but likewise unable to return to the bar knowing full well it would mean certain death for his pilot. the zoid and pilot could only watch.

The sky lit up and Marcia felt herself sink into the pilot's chair more. Everyone that had been there would be dead... Marcia felt catastrophe nearly loose his balance in the initial wind blast snapping herself out of the daze she had fallen into the zoid roared, as she suddenly had Catastrophe turn and run, a variety of other zoids she saw running from the scene all trying to escape, and others were consumed by that light.. the final roar of its rival could be heard before everything was silenced and a sense of urgency to survive took over.

The zoid ran as fast as it could he could feel his hell armor disintegrating revealing the mechanics inside, catastrophe ran, and ran, most of its armor gone the zoid stumbled, and roared painfully, as it vanished, catastrophe collapsed to the sands, before Marica asked him to stand again, catastrophe hoveled to its feet slowing making its way back, to the center of the scene limping painfully all the way, as his scorched armor began it's long and slow repair.

Marcia could feel blood flowing from her head, she reached to touch it, it wasn't too bad, Catastophe and Agumo had protected her she knew she was asking a great deal to have them continue moving but they couldn't stay in one place that much was certain.

Marcia was determined to find survivors... if there was any.

The zoid hobbled closer and uttered a low pained growl, as it began to approach a familiar badly damaged green stripped zoid. Marcia couldn't tell if the cockpit was in tact or not, or if there was even anyone in side. Marcia flicked on her radio,

"Is anyone out there alive?"

The Chaos Blade Jager sped across the land at speeds likely unheard of for any ground unit. But he had been too close- much too close- in an attempt to 'catch' his team to completely escape the blast. As the wall of disintegrating light ate away at the land just beneath his metallic paw prints, and the blades of his tail singed and burned, melting off of their very braces, the Jager's body erupted in a blue-fire-light. A mystical fire that looked much like the blaze that overtakes Edge upon fusion covered the Jager's armour and visual mechanisms. The moment the shield surrounded him, he spun and braced himself against the blast that, in miliseconds, engulfed him.

As the blast faded, the Jager remained intact. As the dust cleared, it revealed his form laying half covered by the sands from miles away. The Zoid looked dead as the second shockwave quickly passed, shifting the sand piles off most of him. Blank eyes flickered for a moment, but went out again. Another couple of minutes more, the blackened eyes flickered and re-lit. Growls rose up through the Chaos Zoid as he forced himself to stand, mechanisms creaking and complaining against every attempt at motion. The flames along his back blades were weak, but present. He shook himself and after a brief moment of consideration, tilted his head back and roared savagely into the sky.

As the echo faded, he forced his damaged mechanisms into function to head back towards the bar- or more specifically towards the Jury and his Kai.

For Marcia's search for life through radio, she would get a weird response from somewhere. The Jager opened a com-link, but there was nothing said beyond the eerie background of static and silence.


Although Arrow was impressively fast for something that looked like nothing more than an organoid, he wouldn't be fast enough with his limited stride to out run the majority of the blast like that Jager had. The blast wall gained on him quickly, and overtook him quicker. His back feet were stripped from the soil first, and his entire form seemed to be picked up by the end of the blast.

Thrown back feet over head, he landed on the ground hard, skid a few meters more, and then was overtaken by the blast mid-air.

Light within the light would be hard to see, but the impact of the blast ripped Rhett straight from Arrow's core- the core that just barely managed to protect the man's life. The man was left unconscious and alone in the middle of the stripped desert. Burns etched his back and down one arm that also appeared to be broken. Lacerations ringed his limbs and thorax, which beneath his shirt was extremely bruised- hinting towards the likelyhood of not only multiple broken ribs, but probably a punctured lung and other significant organ damage. The organoid, as the dust and light faded, was nowhere to be seen.

Some ways away, the caracal, while still in one piece, laid as a rigid statue partially covered by the sands. Every limb seemed cemented in the last pose it'd had while running for its life. No life glowed in its eyes. It was silent. Silent and frozen in time.

Despite the now burning pain in his shoulder that was pinned ( the more he thought about it the more it hurt, it seemed), Talon made out the approach of another Zoid. Even Tyrant's damaged servos tried to move to acknowledge this creature...that hadn't hurt them. In fact, the Tyrant recognized Catastrophy, letting a pathetic, whimper of a hiss out in greeting. It, as well as its pilot, was in a lot of pain. Alive... And would heal. They both knew it.


Moe ran over to Marcia as she came down, hooting and squeaking in worry and fear. Running back and forth from the cockpit where he wriggled out back to the woman that was approaching. Over and over and over.... until the bony fingers reached out to help pry the damaged and underpowered shield open. Moe let out a mournful coo, and Talon let out another curse as light hit his sensitive eyes.

Really the only thing that was keeping him pinned was his dislocated shoulder and shrapnel, other wise he would be scrambling and running the hell away, or trying to shoot those bone fingers that creaked, crushed, and lifted the damaged canopy. There was a monster on the loose, and it was going to kill them all at this rate. Missels. He remebered seeing missels...heading towards his ... Oh dear gods. Ranee. Ranee could be dead. So could Shun. So could... For a moment he gulped dryly as his imagination ran away with the mental carnage that could be his home, his city....

... That was the pain talking. It had to be. There was no way an entire city would be leveled like that... He held up his good hand, blocked out some of the light and squinted at this 'Florence Nightingale' come to save him. "Marcia...? "

A distant echo of another roar -- Liger class, probably-- momentarily froze Talon. It wasn't haunting...it sounded wounded. Maybe that pilot needed more help than he? What if they were aligned with the enemy? ( At this point, Talon was associating anyone willingly aligned with the Judge, Jury, and that lot as the Enemy. It seemed like the logical thing to do.) A glance at Moe, worried, with Tacker slowly slinking its way out of the cockpit to lean against its quadrupedal friend told Talon all that he needed to know: He wasn't' getting out of this without help, and he would need to help find survivors, which means...he needed to fix Tyrant.

"I don't suppose you have any pain pills on you right now? " he joked with a pained smirk. Yes, he did see that medical kit. Yes, he was thinking that there had to be some strong medicine in there...hopefully... And yes, he was laughing because it distracted him from the trauma. . . . This might be why the Judge liked him. Maybe.

Blaze's crimson eyes flashed as the chaos begun to settle all around him. Despite the intense and destructive fire from the explosion the colossal ZOID remained without so much as a scratch on its extensive armor.

He released a bellow as his attention moved from the Jury to the collective survivors just on the outer limits of what sands had turned to glass.

Jury's head lifted to glance at the colossal beast before turning slight attention to the survivors. Just as Blaze, the Jury remained without even the slightest scratch from the explosion. Actually, from ground zero those were the only two beings still standing. Even Saga's former armor was completely melted away as was any other ZOID in the parking lot. Thankfully his focus returned to his cupped hands without so much as a second glance to the survivors.

---

-"Do you need assistance?"- A transmission from unknown origins successfully sounded to both the Tyrant and Catastrophe, the message would not be hindered by system freezes or communication blocks. The voice on the other end belonged to that of an elderly gentleman it seemed.

Atelius had yet to make an appearance.