Welcome to Gaia! ::

Despite the resigned fear and that bubble of maniacal laughter that threatened to attack him once more, Talon was fascinated with the displays. Never had he even seen readings like that. he found himself reaching for that marked manual he had poured over many months ago when he first got this goof-ball to try to make sense of what all of what was happening. He knew that the Core was strained and at capacity, but what could he do? The controls were all locked up, to an extent...

And he was halfway there to the manual when the weapons system shut down mysteriously. “Blasted bird, “ Talon cursed. It was followed by an appreciative whistle. That small lag time gave him enough to lock the weapons controls. Or at least make it more difficult for The Executioner to put them back online. Sometimes, he was seriously curious why Fate and Luck liked him. At least Shun wasn’t going to be blown to little bitty smoldering bits of ashes, for now.

This was an improvement! A great improvement. Talon was grinning from ear to ear as his hands moved across the control board. Second task was pulling up a status window for the core. Third task was ignoring the uncomfortable glowing control panel ( Things shouldn’t glow on their own. Ever. It was unnatural. Especially rocks. Rocks shouldn’t glow. ) Fourth... Fourth he found that his ever taxed radar system ( … that Core surge scrambled his settings terribly) was picking up something running at their position. He strained his eyes to look at it from a distance, not wanting to add to the tax to the core to use the ‘zoom’ feature. Blaze was no doubt not too far off from his master. But Blaze was red. This was blue. Or it looked blue... Maybe the monitors coloring had gone all wonky ( which wouldn’t be surprising in this situation)?

Still, it was the least of his worries right now. If they were friendly, it would be an improvement on the situation. Maybe. If they weren’t, well then Talon would have to weigh the odds. It would mean that the Executioner and the Switch had another competitor. That would put a whole new strain on their new relationship. ( Ha ha.. ha ha... Oh gods that was awful. ) Or what if they were an allie to them? Did they have allies in the... Republic? That was republic... That was a wolf. Oh...

Wait...

This might work in their favor. Maybe. With a wide, mad grin, Talon snickered to himself before attempting to move the strained Tyrant out of the way of the Striker. Yeah, it was the lowest on his priorities. And it was incredibly hard with the entire system screaming heat readings and ‘Core Capacity at 99.99999%’. He was putting all of his faith in Atelius right now. Okay, almost all of it. He still had to keep some sense about him. He controlled his laughter just long enough to shoot a Com at Shun. “There. Wolf. ... as if three crazies weren’t enough fun, huh? “ Talon didn’t bother mentioning the ‘incident’. He would deal with that much later, when they weren’t going to die in a few minutes. Besides... he had to worry about giggling. Giggling right now was bad. It was a very bad habit he was developing.

Moe was not amused.

(Because of Atelius' feet you'll have to be subject to my poor description of something new. We'll pluck the bird later... Sorry this took so long.)

Saga looked over his shoulder toward the rapidly approaching command wolf. His golden eyes flashed. It was odd to see a Republic ZOID out this far from the battle field by itself. Had it been escaping that terrible explosion they heard earlier? Where were its comrades? Than again it could have easily been a deserter.

-The ZOID is identifying as 'Defender'... however there is no pilot within. At least, if there is they are not responding.- Saga informed both Ander and Riot before turning attention back. -I cannot get more information from him.-

Saga's whiskers tucked back against his neck. Escaping would have been nice, however, there was another sudden burst of energy from the two ZOIDS 'happily' occupying the combating deities. It would seem Zutnic and Atelius had a great fighting spirit after all...

Just as the white command wolf, adorned with gold and silver crest of the Republic army on each shoulder, jumped from behind the trees in tune with a flash of lightning Talon and Shun would be engulfed with a light matching their ZOID's 'aura' color.

The wolf released a challenging howl to the two ZOIDs finally being revealed through their aura. The first ZOID to emerge was Tyrant. Where a sub geno had stood now stood the slightly larger archeopteryx-like ZOID. It's wings severed the tops of trees as they extended while its berserk-furher like head released a terrible roar. It looked to be fully capable of flight as well as running at decent speeds. The anchors in the back of its legs and wing edges suggested that it was fully capable of firing a much better version of the CPB. The color scheme remained the same green with maroon stripes and wing tips. However the underside of the ZOID was a much lighter color, almost a gray.

Next to emerge was the former blade fang. This ZOID took on the new form resembling a displacer beast. Best comparable ZOID would be the lightning saix with two tentacles on its back tipped with the same pincers it had before. It still bore the same signature zaber-fangs as well as the raptor-like big claw on its front and hind legs. Its eyes were still green (left ) and red (right) and its color scheme was still ebony with silver lined blades adorning its back and long tails. The blades looked to have been able to adjust to rest against the ZOIDs frame when running and extend forward when in combat.

And what of Atelius and Zutnic? When the light cleared around Talon and Shun they would find themselves among Saga, Riot, and Ander across the way on their new 'ancient' organoids. With the power of the 'great mother' and Switch they had managed to evolved themselves. Talon would find himself sitting atop a ostrich (Or chocobo ) looking mechanical creature with long tail and wing blades. The wings were tucked nicely against his body and around Talon's feet. The long feathers on either side of his head, which looked a little like cords, were lifted back so Talon could take hold of them like the reins on a horse.

Shun would find himself on the back of a large displacer beast-like organoid just behind the two front tentacles. This form was sleeker than the ZOIDs with much smaller spikes and only one tail. The two tentacles had the same pincers as the striker's tails, only covered in more spikes. Its head looked to be adorning the skull of the striker with the same scarred eye as Zutnic had.

(*From this point on feel free to take control of the characters. They both count as Ancient organoids. I'll get a fancy skill set for them st some point. It is possible that they lost a good portion of their memories during the change. I'll leave that up to you guys. <: )

-No, that command wolf...- Nick responded to the matter of going to Timber. -It was sent for you. Love, that is your brother's organoid.-

As for the other matter, she was shocked to say the least. Who knew? But now was not a time to dwell on such things.

-Talon, Shun, we will have to get your zoids back later... for now, run.- She spoke through Saga to the two brave companions. There even with a Blade liger and an elite command wolf they would have no hope against the newly evolved ZOIDs and their captors. Without second thought Saga jetted toward the ECWolf, merging with it for a mere second before returning to the group. Nick held tight to the core of the ZOID, helping defender turn the mechanical beast back to the group so they could proceed to make their escape.

As it neared the group the canopy opened while its head ducked low so Ander and Riot could get in. Ander would enter the cockpit after Riot if he chose to do so, while saga decided to run along side Talon and Shun with their new companions.

Everything was still glowing. Everything. And then Talon found himself amongst the crowd on the ground observing the great monsters that were...That was Tyrant? That was Tyrant! It ...He... Talon didn't know what to say. It didn't even register that he was astride a great bird at the moment, as his attention was on the great behemoth that had been his raptor companion. "Zaaaaah...?" came a confused statement from the pilot. Moe and Tacker, just kinda stared as well, though the spider did give an enigmatic 'tckt' before crawling to hide in one of Talon's many pockets. Moe squeaked, cooed and hollared over to where the other pilot was, Shun. It took some effort but Talon tore his eyes away from the new monstrosity that was his ZOID to Shun, noticing that the man was with some sort of crazy cat thingy that reminded him of Zutnik.

Wait, where was... Atelius, the proud bird, shifted on its feet to join in the running away. Talon barely had time to grab the 'reins' before speeding off after the others. What was going on? What had just happened? WHY DID THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO THEM!? Why couldn't things just not be so difficult for once and go exactly as they planned it? Through the grimmace that grew on his face to a full snarl, he was sure he didn't really want an answer for all of this. There apparently was so much more going on that his little might knew about. It was screaming that retreat was the smartest option, and yet it didn't like it any more than Talon did.

They all should have been dead at this rate. Should have probably been dead several times over. Who was it that kept on making sure that they made it out alive to tell their tale? That was the question of the year. Funny how things came to him when they were running away.

"What... Just... How?" Talon called to Shun, knowing full well that the other probably was just as shell shocked as he was. Still, it gave him some comfort. ... How were they going to explain this evolution to their general? With a snarl and a low growl, Talon hissed at that thought that the woman would already know. So who was telling her? Her spy? The secrecy surrounding her was thicker than ice. The large raptorlike bird followed along side the command wolf, away from this place. He didn't know where they were going, but he did know that leaving behind Tyrant under the control of such a powerful, mad being was not settling well.

... At least the core hadn't overloaded. "Run. Yeah. Good plan! " he stated. A great plan! BEST. PLAN. YET! At least it was one he could fully get behind.

Eventually the two soldiers would have been shown what was behind the curtain or 'every day life'. Weird events such as the Judge's attacks were only a bare scrape at what was really going on, and it was only going to get worse. The Executioner was setting her plan in motion. The Rogues had already been hit with the purge with only Hog's gang remaining. Or, at least a fraction of his gang was. This war being fought now was proof the purge had begun in both the Republic and Empire.

Nick held tight to the core while she drew information from the ZOID's memory banks. Her own cords attached to the outer wall of the core while the core's own cords attached to the specific points in her body. It wasn't as brutal as Blaze's when it was highly unstable. Taxing, but easy to manage. She may have been part organoid, but she was also still somewhat human at least.

She wanted to give Riot a good report, to sooth his worry by assurance that his fears had not come to pass. However it would be difficult with what this ZOID saw. It was not helping that case. The Ixion White was at the head lines with his elite guards fighting and holding the Imperial army back. Than, slowly the general's support begun to pull back, all but the closest guards were left to defend their general and hold back the enemy. The com-link went crazy with orders that seemingly went ignored. -Fall back! -but! -FACK! I AM IN COMMAND! *Static* We can't fire, the general- DO AS I SAY! FIRE! For the good of the Republic! He knew the risks of this job when he signed on. *Sounds of a struggle* Damn soldier. I'll do it myself! *Gun fire, launch countdown*- Soon strange fog-covered ZOIDs begun to surround the general and the battle was quickly being swayed the other way.

A flash of light.

It wasn't long before the massive ZOID was rendered immobile. A surge of lightning struck its horn than spread to the surrounding ZOIDs, the elite guards already eradicated by the enemy, pushing them back for only a moment before more took their place.

Another blinding light illuminated the sky.

The enemy ZOIDs begun to hold tight to Ixion White as if to keep it pinned. At that point something comparable to a meteor was falling toward the general's ZOID. Mere seconds before impact something bright shot from the ZOID than merged with one of the fallen wolves. As it ran a massive blast followed it, destroying everything in its running path. The wolf continued its run, following Nick's signature to their current location.

Even Defender's condition had been proof of that struggle. The Shepard organoid had suffered some affects of the gravity cannon as it detached from the Ixion, keeping with his master until given the stern order to go find Riot. Nick still couldn't access the organoid's memories, but she had managed to gather at least that much information.

-It is not for sure, Love. Defender couldn't see the whole blast. Nicodemus' ZOID was by far the toughest Zi has seen when it comes to defense. He would not let his pilot go down...-

As they ran the two newly evolved, and still very much possessed, ZOIDs begun to fight. Thankfully the Switch and Executioner were too distracted by their own hatred for each other to pursue the fleeing group. Shun and Talon's ZOIDs might need a little repair when they were able to recover them again...

As for Talon and Shun? They probably deserved a good explanation at his point. As soon as they found a safe place to stop they would be rewarded with such information. This new event thankfully caused a new 'WTF' to distract from the last one she had learned from Saga... At least for her.

Ander sat back in the passenger seat of the fleeing command wolf. It was as if his wold had been put into a box, shaken, light on fire, than placed in another box to have the entire ordeal repeated. The whole time... It was the whole time and he couldn't even sense a resemblance before.

He drew a deep breath before looking over to Riot.

"Even the Rogues knew the armor on his ZOID were better than anything out there. I doubt that cannon scratched him." Ander assured Riot with a slightly shaken voice. He was still having a hard time getting over the other information received. "Dr. Fox would have prepared him for anything, even that."

His golden eyes shifted to the ZOID's core monitors. How could he not have seen the resemblance to her?

Saga took to running along side Talon and Shun. The poor soldiers who had been chosen to get neck deep in all this madness. Even the Organoid couldn't help but feel sorry for all the surprises they were going through as of late.

-Executioner is the base of all ZOIDs and Organoids in existence. Her energy likely caused a reaction in the seeker and striker causing them to change.- Saga tilted his head toward Talon than Shun, hopefully the explanation would ease some of this madness? -The switch is a creation of the Executioner, in a sense, and was probably channeling the dread mother's energy. On your human 'bright' side, Zutnic and Atelius are still loyal to you. It is a boon to have such a companion.-

What else could they do, Talon asked to himself as he bounced along ( rather pleasantly in fact if he ignored the whole battle going on) astride a great bird/raptor, but run and fight another day? This was the smartest thing to do in this situation, and yet he still glanced back at the great Zoids that he could only assume, though it boggled his mind, were Blades and his own.

Now what?, he could only ask himself. Will we really go back after the demons are expulged from the cores? I don't think they will ever be the same after this. They look so...feral now. Feral. That word felt heavy on his tongue and hung in his mind. Everything was becoming wild, free, and dangerous. Order was collapsing, but this was what the thing wanted, wasn't it? Gritting his teeth, and baring down as that thought struck him, Talon snapped at the reins to urge his stead onward.

A squawk of indignation came as eyes of green wheeled around to glance at the rider. Talon muttered a quick appology, not expecting to be face to face with what was his sentient ancient bird friend. " Atelius...? " he squeaked out, more out of surprise and the relief that his pal, his friend, his fantastic companion was okay. ... Though he was going to take a while to get used to this new form. Oh gods, what will the guys back at the base think... Was he even going to go back to the base after this? Was there enough time to report back to the general?

Everything out here was in shambles. Everything had gone mad. Rogue groups were vanishing, turning, and destroying one another over stupid things that one wouldn't think possible. Talon knew that there was something more, and he was slowly realizing that the whole point of this was to destroy both the Empire and Republic. It was terrible.

Okay, he had to admit it was pretty good to play two major superpowers against one another.

He just wished it wasn't himself.

And what was going on with Riot and Ander...why did the bandit king look a little green around the gills when he saw the Command Wolf?

Saga's compliment pulled him out of his thoughts. Talon managed a smirk and grinned wildly, "Right now, I'll take it as an asset. I would rather them than the military at this point. Right, Shun? "

Ander's sharp gaze narrowed on Riot as he easily recognized those flood gates being opened. He had seen this before. Without a second thought his hand reached out to take hold of Riot's wrist before he could slam it down to the console, hopefully saving him from breaking anything. Now was not the time to be injured in such a manner. In the same motion his other hand quickly moved with his body as he took hold of the back of Riot's head and thrust it forward toward the control panel.

"Get control of your emotions!" He roared. "You are thinking for more than just yourself! Your emotions affect her as well!"

The warning signals from within the cockpit begun to flare as the core was now pushing over 122% and continuing to climb as the ZOID's life source was becoming overloaded.

"Riot!" He called again in case his original message went ignored.

As Nick's communication with Riot begun to fade she begun to double her efforts to reach and sooth his mind. There was nothing set in stone, his brother could have survived... Ixion was a strong ZOID. However, despite her efforts to keep mentally sound the Iron Judge persona tore to the surface to answer to Riot's distress. Just as revenge was in his mind it took over the Iron Judge's drive.

She released a sharp scream while her hold on the ZOID's core tightened. Defender was promptly removed from his own hold and left to fall into the inner chamber surrounding the core. There was no way he could compete with what was coming, not in his condition.

The command wolf released a howl as its gears gave off a feint red glow. Its pace begun to quicken while its course begun to veer away from the group.

Saga's eyes flashed to the instructions he received from his bonded. Stay the course. Not hard to do considering he wasn't dealing with a mentally unstable organoid woman and an emotionally upset man. Quin had the hard job.

-I would agree with Shun. Despite what you have seen and know, you are still better off where you are now. - Saga gave the raged wolf a side glance. -Ignore them for now, Ander is working on their problem. Stay the course and they will meet with us.-

Ah, so that was the problem. Once again his golden eyes flashed. He could only search radio signals for such a distance, the battle field was growing more and more distant. He had not sensed anything yet... They were heading for literally the middle of nowhere.

-It would 'seem' as though the General of the Republic army has been murdered by the order of his own men. I could only assume what chaos is engulfing your own nation as well at this point.-

The world fell. Talon stared at Saga when those words fell. Nicodemius is dead? The General Nicodemius? Mouth dry, Talon tried to regain feeling, or at least a productive thought process. It was jarring. It was... He couldn't even begin to fathom what horrors were going on back home. A glance was given to Shun, and Talon clicked his tongue to move faster in the direction. They needed to get out of here. Now.

"Shit." he muttered, steeling himself and pulling that momentary panic back for later. He could freak out later. He could bash everyone's heads in later. Hell, he could probably hunt them down and deliver noticies for court appearances for mental trauma later! Right now... right now?

Right now, he needed to go away and figure out what was going on... and how to breathe.

"Saga... That is less than comforting. " With a sigh, and Moe clinging to Talon for comfort, Talon glanced back once more at the clash between his and Shun's Zoids. Inside, he was torn between the desire to see his Zoid come back in one piece, or just see them turned to rubble in their dispute. Moe cooed, skidding down to sit in front of Talon, holding onto the pommel of the saddle.

The great raptor ( ...bird. BIRD! BIRD! ) glanced at Zutnic, letting out a soft coo of a hoot, before speeding up to get well away from the dangers. With the Command Wolf now almost compromised, it was best to keep the humans not involved, well away from this...

Oh, what a twisted web the spider lay, thought Talon. Then he remembered, finally, that he had a second Zoid at his disposal. An old, old saberfang. That Old Man, that he dubbed. No doubt that would have some sort of understanding of what was going on. Would it be able to answer questions? It probably would. And no doubt it would know what was up. ( That thing was sharp as a tack, despite it being almost older than dirt. )

That little thought of sanity brought a wide smile to his face. "Ha! "