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The initial shock of being pulled away from everything that loved in that one swift moment Kagi ejected from the core of the ancient Saber Tiger was almost too much to cope with. With the Executioner baring down on him, and doom and destruction not a breath away, Talon hadn’t much time to come to grips with the situation. His first few thoughts were on his home far away and how they would take the news that their source of income was gone, then it fell on to MOE and how the poor MRZ would deal with the loss of its favorite perch, and finally it fell on how much it would internally shame folks that knew him. There was a brief moment of wondering how exactly his death would be explained to the public on this secret mission. Was he going to be just on a secret mission or was he just going to be known as the one guy that screwed up on a routine scouting run?

It didn’t seem to matter much in the long run as the massive monster emitting the toxic hallucinogenic fog vanished. And once that monster vanished, the Tiger jolted forward in an endless run to nowhere. With no control, and no how knowing where he was going Talon felt the sinking sensation that he was now going to be on a mission for some unknown amount of time that he knew no details other than he must survive. Atelius and Green Tyrant were with him. That was all that mattered… Or so Talon kept telling himself as that cavern slowly faded away to nothing. If he tried, he could make out the purple of Ranee’s ZOID flying over the crater created from the Obliterator’s movements and the chaos that had been caused in just those few moments.

Hours and hours were spent inside that cramped quarter with that spider rolling along the control dashboard in apathy. Every so often, Tyrant would call out trying to get that Tiger that stole its pilot to stop, but nothing. Nothing until they were miles away from anything, and even then that Tiger continued running until the moon was high and the night’s cold grip strangled the land. It wasn’t until he was roused by the ‘derk’ of the spider tapping at his nose that the exhausted pilot realized that he was now allowed to get up and out. Bleary eyes gazed at the control panels taking in all the information given to him and was relieved to see Tyrant not too far off with Atelius perched on one of the larger toes. It wasn’t as nice as seeing the friendly faces of Shun and Ranee, but it would do for now. Though, he missed MOE something fierce, even Cuddles was being missed at this point.

For now, the spider that he had decided to call ‘Tacker’ would be an okay replacement until he could return home. For now, Tacker, Tyrant, and the Seeker would have to be the company Talon needed to survive this wasteland he now found himself standing in, and he would need every bit of their support to make it to the dawn after all of that chaos.

Come the morning’s light, Talon was curled up beneath a tarp tent he erected in the darkness. It was crude and not at all something pretty to look at, but it did its job of keeping the morning moisture off his makeshift bed and keeping him as dry as possible. He found himself sitting poking at the coals of a fire as he chewed over a warmed can of sardines he found in Tyrant’s compartments just in case something like this should have happened. It was a bit crunchy, but it was warm and that was what his body wanted right now, warmth and some semi-balance of civilization. It wasn’t much, but it would do.

And the navigation on both the Tiger’s and Tyrant’s computers told him he was so far from civilization he was best off just wandering around until he hit a town. The nearest town wasn’t for a hundred miles, and that was deep in Bandit Territory. With nowhere else to go, Talon decided to plot a course to see if he couldn’t at least meet up with this ‘Savage Fox Gang’ the Tiger had been spouting about for a few miles yesterday. Obviously it was something important if he was being directed there, but how to contact them? He was pretty much screwed since he didn’t own a Fox Zoid and he doubted Tyrant would be well received as he was. Talon thought this over and then decided to see if he couldn’t raid a convoy and steal all their canvas. (If he was going to be a bandit, he needed to act like one. Though, the poor convoy would be utterly confused when they were being held up at gunpoint asking for all their canvas coverings… Talon really was an eccentric.) Tyrant’s coloration needed to be covered up. And that sandblasted canvas that was used on those types of transports would do nicely. Dual covering, that should hold him out until he could get the proper equipment to get a better fit. Perhaps hire a proper tailor.

“Tyrant,” Talon said through a mouthful of preserved fish, “ find me a convoy that is traveling through here. One within twenty miles of here would be nice if not less.” A few screens went offline as the massive raptor like ZOID processed the request, sending scanning signals through the area and bouncing transmissions off satellites…lots of fun stuff. Eventually, after what may have been an hour or two, Tyrant relayed the information to Talon who was now properly setting up camp in his little rocky outcrop. It was a nice mini cave with no chance of caving in. And it was sheltered from the wind, rain, and possible flash floods. It was a very nice cave. Not to mention it was almost at Tyrant’s eye level which would make evacuation very easy. Or well, more dangerous, but easier in the long run. Sometimes he lucked out. With the information now on his console tablet ( nifty upgrade he installed before he left on this bad adventure that he swore he wouldn’t ever need, but got it anyways in that ‘just in case’ whim) Talon mused over when and where would be a good place to strike. And maybe he could use that extra Zoid he had on hand to give the impression that he had more members than just one human. His eyes fell on the spider that was now running around happily with a burning coal in its ‘well’… “Tacker, how would you like to pilot a larger mechanical beast?” The spider just seemed to blink its eight glowing blue eyes. Talon took this as a ‘yes’, and scooped up that hand sized spider for a crash course in piloting without using the foot pedals.

This was going to be a raid to remember!

Or at the very least a raid that both sides of the armies would know exactly who hit them and still wouldn’t know quite how to react to this. At least Talon sent Atelius over with a note written for both sides that pretty much said, “ No raise, no report ~ TB.” Then again, the duplicate notes were written on napkins. The chances of them actually reaching either of the generals let alone a person of little standing in the army were so slim that Talon ended up cackling madly all the way back to his little rock to start the long process of modifying the canvas to make a very nifty cloak for his Sub-Geno Seeker.

It took the lad an entire day to draft out the pattern. It took him another two days to cut the parts out, another day to acquire all the thread and needles he would need, and a week to find a thimble. Apparently, thimbles are harder to find than needles if you suddenly find yourself needing one. With all the materials in place, Tacker and Talon finished the giant cloak apparatus relatively quickly. It only took them another week because of a freak snow storm/sandstorm that came out of nowhere. ( In reality it was Atelius that was screeching about the weather getting bad, with Tyrant and Old Man ( the Saberfang seemed to resent being called that, but didn’t seem to complain too much about it as Talon saw it. ) harping on Talon to get back inside his little hovel. Apparently Talon had to learn the hard way when suddenly he couldn’t see and barely could breathe. No harm though, he just had to redo an entire day’s worth of stitches a couple of times. ) It was quite a catchy look, and Talon had to remember to ask for something a bit more fitted once he got back to Base, whenever he was allowed back that was. And he even had enough to outfit himself a nice little cloak out of the same canvas material. It was a bit heavy and slightly difficult, but he did manage it. Tacker wanted one as well, and that in itself was a bit difficult to manage. Thankfully, Atelius opted out. That would just be silly for a bird to have a cape.
With all that in place, Talon packed up his little camp of a month and a half and set off to find these ‘Foxes’ that the Old Man kept on talking about. Tacker opted to dink around in the old Saberfang while Talon let himself relax in Tyrant, constantly keeping an eye out for anything that could be seen as harmful or useful… He had to pass by a few caravans simply because they were military units moving, but he did stop at a few and had a nice chat and traded some goods.