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The lights cleared leaving behind new ZOIDs in their wake. Zutnic and Atelius both stood atop their owner's ZOID's unharmed and still with dented heads. (And a missing eye in Zut's case)

Bent tail would feel a pull as the core was reworked, but everything settled once the ZOID had finished its evolution. The organoid would feel the new power within the ZOID.

Zutnic glanced over to Atelius. "Zutnic make this one look better still..." He held his head high only to get an 'eye roll' and a head shake from the Seeker. Of course Atelius -knew- his was the better looking ZOID.
(( It is completely up to you guys if some of their personality rubbed off on the ZOIDs ))

Now was not the time for such petty arguments however. Soon the fog roared with the sound of the Jury, Saga, and Blaze's battle. The noise was ungodly. Screeches, roars, hisses, screams. Not to mention flashes of multi colored light here and there.

"Run... while you can-...-not-...the affects of the... fog... can't be.... held off for much longer...-" Nick barely managed to send through the voice link. "About-face... head straight..."

Saga's involvement in the battle was short lived. The massive ZOID quickly, by request of Blaze and Nick, left the battle to aid in Talon and Shun's escape. Though the communications were still down, Saga was able to communicate with bent via organoid connection. -Follow my tail.- He mentioned as he neared the group. The snakes eyes on Saga's tail glowed bright enough to see even through the fog.

The cryptic and crackling message was clear enough for Talon to understand. The Tyrant let out a roar, and tried to quickly turn to start running away. Talon was quick to notice that this monster was a little slower than what he was used to. Though, it seemed sturdier and a lot more capable of taking hits. Maybe it ran faster... that'd be nice.

He'd crawl over it later.

Movement was noted . Quick underground movement. Talon stared blankly at this new blip, actually, he was staring blankly at this new sensor. When did that get there? Course, he was also highly curious about the new sharper looking dark Zoid that looked strangly and suspiciously like that one Striker he loathed. Hrm...

It was about at this time he saw the actual snake eyes of the Chimera's tail approach . Ooh....Maybe he should follow that. That looked like it was getting out of here. It seemed like bad logic, but right now bad was better than none. And Atelius didn't seem too alarmed. That and it was headed the way he had been ordered.

Soooooooooo Talon followed.

As Fang moved to follow the snake, Shun took note that the Zoid was moving with greater ease than it did before. Later on, he'd have to look over the tiger more thoroughly to see what the changes were exactly. He tried to look back to make sure Talon was keeping up alright, but the fog made it hard to see anything aside from the snake's bright eyes.

Once the fog finally lifted from their view, the soldier looked about to see where they were exactly. With his Zoid's navigation system down, he didn't have much of a clue where they were running. Around them were some vaguely familiar canyons that said they were no longer on Imperial territory.

Also, seeing how they were seemingly safe at the moment, Bent-Tail returned from Fang's core.

The message that popped onto his screen confused Shun momentarily. At first it was because some of the words seemed jumbled to him, but then it was the choice of wording. Was this Zoid missing its pilot as well? It seemed there were a number of mysteries surrounding the rogue Zoid.

"I'm fine," he said tersely before looking to see where Talon was. As he did so, he tried to remember details of the former Chimera Gang. The Zoid's name was lost on him at the moment. The pilot's was not though, considering how infamous the guy was, "Your pilot, Ander Quin. Is he not with you right now?"

Saga's heads looked at one another as the answer was stalled. The organoid went over the options and possibilities.

"He is accounted for." The organoid spoke directly to the pilots this time. Its voice a compilation of many voices it had heard over the years, to include Shun's own voice.

The com-link opened fully between the three. Ander's face appeared in the communication's screen. His face now bore a nice, and bloody fresh, cross scar over the right eye and another fresh scar under his left. He looked to have been roughed up quite a bit and near exhaustion.
"At this point it is pointless to hide myself from the world..."

*(Ander was previously thought dead after the Judge attacked and killed off the Chimera Gang. The event was recorded in the military as a gang fight in which Riot killed off the previous king of bandits and became the King himself.)

He took a deep breath. They may have gotten out of the fog for now, but this was far from over. These two soldiers were now permanently entwined with the Judge's affairs. Well, more so than anyone else.

"... Your friend asked me to hand over a report she compiled during our very brief battle. I've filled in she could not complete."

Ander sent the file to both of the ZOIDs. The document was neatly done in the standard fashion of an Imperial Written Report on Traumatic Events. (IWRTE) Ander was convinced Nick could have been one bad a** secretary. Though she had little time to write every detail the document was still thought up very quickly. He had no trouble with finishing it. Ander had seen his share of reports like this one before.

"You getting into a scrap with me would explain your prolonged absence. As for the evolution, Saga had an affect on your ZOIDs during the battle. From my previous engagements with the military they know I have an ancient."

In fact he had taunted them on several occasions with the organoid in the past.

"Ancient Organoids are a mystery to any military scientist... Seeing as your ZOIDs have obviously changed they will believe your story hands down." Ander's brow furrowed. Some of the scabs over his face cracked and begun to bleed slightly once again.

"I have no trouble with the military knowing my existence again... It is a far better alternative than the Jury and Executioner being brought to light. Hunting them down would be catastrophic..." As Ander had learned the hard way when he lost his gang.

Ander paused and waited for any comments the two soldiers might have before he would relay his last message to the two.

This situation was most... ironic. Never in his life did he imagine helping the Imperial military again.

Zutnic peeked up from his position behind the ZOID's neck. Ohhh! He could sense another of the great mother's organoids.
"Prudentia..." He hissed enthusiastically. Saga nodded in acknowledgment of the little striker.

Atelius circled above as Ander gave the humans information. Once the information stopped the seeker perched atop of Tyrant's head. Ander was in possession of 'Maximus' the obliterator... dented head and all. That would certainly explain the rough appearance of this man... a temple excursion with the Iron Judge. How fetching.

Moe squeaked, chirped and wriggled about rather enthusiastically! They were alive, safe ( for now anyways) and going home! Hooome! Where he was going to burry himself in his little bed and take a loong nap.

As with the case of an overly enthusiastic Moe, Talon was a little more reserved right now. This entire event had been one trauma after another, and what with this new development, he wasn't too keen on getting involved anymore. Sadly, karma was quite clear to ignore the pleadings of un-involvement.

As the full communications link opened up, Talon couldn't help but glare. It wasn't Ander's fault really. It had just been a very trying day and this new development wasn't helping Talon's mood. Not to say he wasn't thrilled that there was a pilot ( and a supposedly dead pilot too.... There would be many hours of teasing Shun about these 'dead' pilots. ) behind the beautiful and deadly colossus, he was just kinda fed up with the military getting shocks.

"Why do people keep un-dying? Is dead no longer what its cut out to be?" Talon grumbled, not really seeking an answer. As much as he wanted to know that answer, he wasn't sure if he really could handle that much truth in one go. He'd happily take a letter or something he could open at a later date while enjoying a cup of coffee. This would be when the very concise report was thrown over.

Moe squeaked and started pouring through it, clearly entertained by how fast the words scrolled by. Talon, on the other hand, was more interested in the small details and how well organized it was... Dang...now he had to actually put in some effort to writing reports now. Siiigh.

He seemed in a better mood, even if that meant focusing most of all his attention on the report so he could answer questions and elaborate if asked. With what Talon read in the report, heck, the Empire would probably believe that flying pink cows caused this.

Talon frowned softly. The rogue had a point. A harsh, cold, and unpleasant point. It'd be better for the Imperial army to chase after the Rogue than to even fathom going after the... Talon let out a heavy sigh, and leaned back, letting Moe crawl and flop onto his shoulder. The little MRZ waved to the other two, apparently oblivious to the doomy conversation topic.

Considering what Talon had said moments ago, the information presented by Ander was somewhat amusing in a rather morbid sense. He had only heard vague rumors of what had happened with the rogues awhile back, but it seemed that they were true for the most part. In any case, the Republicans were about to be hit fairly hard soon.

"Hopefully. Though if there's anything I've learned in the past week or so, it's that the superiors will only believe what they want to believe," he growled. That particular thought annoyed him quite a bit. For all he knew, some of the higher officials may already know of the threat and just chose to disregard it or passing it off as some old wive's tale.

Tilting his head, the Organoid stared at Saga some more, sensing something out of place with the Zoid's core. He couldn't figure out what it was, but Zutnic had more or less explained. It sounded like the Ancient was stuck fused to the larger Zoid or something along those lines. That certainly didn't sound pleasant. And plus, he wouldn't be able to get hugs and pettings any more if he was stuck inside the core all the time!

"Dun worry Zut! I promise ye dat I won't get stuck!" he chirped somewhat cheerfully. Now that all the fighting and danger was done with (for now), he was in a much better mood and feeling more carefree. Though, he did want to go home and take a nice long nap to try and forget the terrors of today.

Ander could only silently agree with Shun as he remembered his past experiences with the military. Most of them seemed corrupt with the power at their disposal. With a slight hint of a** kissing to boot. It was a long line of officials with the heads up the tuckas of the person in front of them. Not that the rogue chain of command was any better... just not as official and back stabbing.

"Yeah, best of luck to you both...." Ander gave a nod of his head before severing the video communication with the two pilots.

It was slightly disappointing to be revealed in the military once more, but it was a better alternative for everyone. No doubt he could look forward to bounty hunters again. That was always fun...

Ander didn't wait for a response from the two pilots before about facing his ZOID carefully than vanishing into the earth once more. Honestly, it was a mystery how such a massive ZOID managed to do such a thing.... but it did none the less and was gone from any radar immediately.

Zutnic snorted. "Good, cause Zutnic get rat out... and that wont be fun for anyone."

Atelius left from the Tyrants head and took to the skies. "It would seem as though the Jury has cleared along with its minions... now would be a good time to head back."

Atelius scanned the previous battle zone for any sign of the red ZOID as well, but there were no traces to be found. In fact any sign of the battle itself was gone. The sands looked to have been undisturbed as before. No hole in the ground, no exploded obliterator parts... and the temple was hidden under the sands as well.

It was FACINATING how the Chimera could just vanish under the sands like that. A nifty trick, in fact it seemed totally useful in getting away and ambushing. Talon's mind had wandered off again, it would seem.

Not far enough to where he couldn't process what was being said. "Ah. . . it's always a coin toss with her. " He chuckled lightly, relaxing from this stressful encounter with not one evil, but pretty much all of them in one place.

The fact that they were alive was worth celebrating.

. . . Despite that there was no evidence of the encounter other than their word and battle damage to their Zoids. This would have to be researched another time when he wasn't on-duty. "I see, Atelius. . . " This was most troubling.

The Tyrant let out a deep hiss as it stretched itself out before following Fang to the nearest base.