[PG 13] Zoids: Cataclysm (Part II)

[TheDoctor]

As the fist collided with Cadmus' cheek, he fell to the ground, his mind entirely blank. ...the...fuck? The punch hurt, that much was for certain. But it was more of the shock that came from the impact that perplexed Cadmus. I thought I was alone! What the hell?! As he fell back, his head hit the floor, and he stared up at the ceiling. Then he saw the girl standing over him.

"You need to quit sulking Cadmus. You're not the only one who has suffered the loss of a partner."

Growling, Cadmus quickly leaped up, grabbing the girl by the collar and shoving her against the wall. How dare she. She has no god damn right. Then he brought his face within inches of hers, staring into her eyes. That bitch knows nothing. Nothing!

"So you think that gives you the right to punch every man who has experienced a loss? You know NOTHING of what I feel, Agera. You don't know what I lost. I lost EVERYTHING." His eyes were full of a fiery rage, his teeth bared. "Don't even try to come in here and tell me what I need to do. You don't even know who I am!"

Then he stumbled back as he felt her punch him in the stomach, and he released her collar to hold his muscled abdomen. When he looked back into her eyes, he did not see fear or even sympathy. No, he only saw disappointment. Who does she think she is? I'll teach her a lesson she'll never forgot.

Then something stopped him. Well...who do I think I am? Rigon? Does that mean that I can stand up to anyone that I wish, refusing to take what people throw at me? I have no right either. I know her about as much as she knows me. His previous fury started to leave his body, and the tension is his face and shoulders faded. For all I know, she could have experienced the same. I mean, zoids...die. Nothing I can do can stop that.

Wiping the drying tears from his eyes, Cadmus let his shoulders fall and looked at the ground with a sigh. For the first time, the constantly burning fire inside of him had been smothered. Not entirely extinguished, but reduced to burning embers. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

Hunching his shoulders, he tucked his hands into his pockets, went through the door, and left to check on the supplies.

[MaskofSilence]

"Here." Nell jumped slightly when she felt Micheal's presence behind her. Before she could turn and talk to him, he placed his hands on her. Automatically, her body tensed as the warmth seeped through her clothes. Her pulse started to beat a little faster and she was now all too aware of the fact that he was shirtless and very close. "Hold that here like this. I need to secure it." Her mind was on the fritz, so she obeyed. When he moved next to her, she allowed herself to take a deep breath and concentrate again. "Ok it's good. You can let go now."

Releasing it, she suddenly picked up the faint sound of screaming from the back of her shop. Curiosity was about to get the best of her, but before it could, she was called upon by Micheal again. "Hey think you can install this while I do some patch work? It's simple, just pop it in and follow the on screen instructions." Micheal held out the drive to her. "Unless you don't want to do software work on a rare Zoid?"

She scoffed and wordlessly took the software from him. Climbing in the Zoid, she took a minute to look around the Zoid's cockpit. She knew a lot about most of the Zoids, like weak spots and what there programing looked like, but not this one. She had never gotten to work Kinami Liger, and probably never would again. Putting in the program, she got started, the screen glowing on her face she worked. She had a hard time keeping a small smile from finding it's way on her face. Outside, Necros laid down in front of the shop. His may eyes have been closed, but he was fully awake and aware of his surroundings.

[MarchingThunder]

Cadmus had reacted about as Agera expercted. First he had been violent, slamming her against the wall by her collar as he began lecturing her on how little she actually knew, but a solid five inch punch to his gut had been enough to drop him to the ground where he had held his stomach as he seemed to contemplate the issue at hand.

It took a few moments but eventually he wiped his tears and stood before giving her a small apology as he left to go take care of the supplies. With Cadmus moving along Agera sighed quietly to herself. He was taking the loss of his partner just as hard as she had though she didn't know how long it been since it had happened to him.

After a few minutes she headed back down stairs and into the night air. With a small smile, she looked up into starry sky.

[The Bartender]

Mora had pitched a camp between some big rocks outside the sand town and had sent Matter back into the HQ for the new upgrades that had been ordered for every member of the Zealots short time ago.
Mora laid on the ground, looking at the stars and pulled her planket higher. Blue Devil... Black knight... They want to kill Prime... I won't let them do that... I hope the plan is already getting forward as there has been no information to us during the last months... Mora sighed and fell asleep only to be woken up by Matter few hours later;
"Mora, wake up Mora. The Raynos shouted cheery as Mora slowly got up and looked around only to see Matter sitting on one of the rocks but Mora didn't first even notice him as the colour of the Zoid was different than usual; He wasn't the aquamarine Matter usually had but now his colour was dark purple with black stripes along the wings.
"Whoa, it's quiet hard to see you when it's dark. The other gadgets were also applied, right?" Mora asked and rubbed her eyes,
"Of course. It was an order from the HQ to equip the jammers to all Zoids, actually it was given already few weeks ago but you just ignored it everytime." The Raynos scolded Mora who just began to pack her gear in order to leave.

[Ushima]

Michael put on a pair of goggles and grabbed a welder before he started patching up some holes in his zoid. It got hot fast. But this needed to be done to hold up the structural integrity of the Kinami liger. "Damn bullets." Michael cursed. Still though there weren't many patches he needed to take care of.

~

Delta wandered over to Cadmus. "Are the supplies in order? Do we need to send someone into town to get anything we're missing?"

~

After finishing two welds he moved over to the cockpit, sitting on the edge he watched Nell work. She seemed focused. He admired her skill. "Hey how's it going in here?"

[TheDoctor]

Luckily enough, Cadmus was able to scavenge most of the necessary supplies from within storage units. As he lifted one of the heavy metal boxes, he grunted, placing it on top of another box. Peering inside, he found flashlights, batteries, and other miscellaneous electronics. Meh. Why the hell not? Grabbing the contents of the box, he transplanted them into a large black duffel bag with other electronic materials for repairs. There were about three other identical duffel bags filled with supplies for minor zoid repairs, two boxes full of small, compact meals, and five gas tanks full of water. We might need to resupply along the way, but we are more or less finished. Leaning back, he looked at the stars and yawned. It's late. We need some shut-eye.

As he dusted off his hands, the organoid Delta approached.

"Are the supplies in order? Do we need to send someone into town to get anything we're missing?"

Cadmus gestured at the bags, boxes, and canteens. "We're set. I'm gonna start distributing the supplies amongst the zoids so that we can leave tonight. We can set the zoids to autopilot and sleep on the road." As he lifted two of the heavy black duffel bags, he let out another grunt of effort. "Let Agera know that we're getting ready to go, and we should be out in an hour."

As Cadmus walked away with a duffel bag over each shoulder, he went to the garage where the Kinami Liger was hiding in. He noticed that Michael was on the edge of the cockpit, and Nell was inside working on the software. Snorting, Cadmus approached them, looking up at the cockpit from below. Lazy bum.

"Michael, get your ass moving and help me out with these supplies!" He threw the two bags at the paw of the Kinami, turned around, and started to leave the garage. Then he paused as he remembered something, turning back to face him. "Also, mind if I ride with you to Arcadia? I'm..." He looked at the ground, trailing off. My zoid...I need another zoid. I can't keep walking around when the others are in their zoids. I'll just slow them down. I need to get myself a new one.

But it won't be the same...

Then he snapped back to reality. "I'm gonna need a ride to get there."

[MaskofSilence]

Working, Nell barely noticed the shadow that appeared in her vision. She wasn't worried about it though because she already knew who it was. "Hey how's it going in here?" Micheal. She let her eyes flicker off the screen for a second before answering. "It's going well." The ghost of a smile was the only real indication as to what she had been feeling. She then sighed, that was cold. He had just let her work on his rare Zoid and that was all she had to say? She was about to further emphasize her amazement and thanks when Cad interrupted.

"Michael, get your ass moving and help me out with these supplies!" She let out a small laugh. It was almost like old times. When Micheal walked away, she got back to work. It wasn't long before she finished the programing. Hopping back out, she gently pats the Zoid on the side and walks to her room in the back. Opening the door, she looks around. It wasn't much, but it was was a life.

Walking over to her dresser, she pulls out a small bag. Swiftly, she starts to pack the bag with necessary items. Since she didn't have much to begin with, so she didn't have much to pack. Swinging the bag on her back, she then grabbed a tool set. Reaching in the back of her closet, she pulled out the last item. Her father's cloak. It had been a while since she wore it, after all, there was no need for it when working as a mechanic. But it was time to bring it out once again.

Smiling warmly at the cloak, she swung it over her shoulder and proceeded toward Necros, who was outside the garage. He stood when she saw her, fully aware of what was happening. Quickly she loaded everything she was carrying, except the cloak, which she threw around her own shoulders. She then went back in and loaded miscellaneous items, things that might be useful.

When she was sure she was done, she let Necros lay back down. Deciding to be useful, she then went to find out if they still needed help loading anything. She had decided to leave with them, in the dull hope that the reinforcements would follow them when they left. If not...well, Nell would deal with that if it came.

[Ushima]

"Michael, get your ass moving and help me out with these supplies!"

"Lazy?" Michael loked down to Cadmus as the teen walked away. He snorted. "I've just been bsting my ass." He was hot and sweaty from hard work. And the minute he takes a break he gets called lazy? Not fair. Jumping down to the ground he eyes the duffle bags. "Hm we might need to stop somewhere." Michael said to no one. "Well we'll cross that bridge when we get there." Grabbing the bags he easily lifted them and stored them in an empty compartment in the Kinami's underside.

"Are we ready to move out?" Delta approached Michael.

"Yeah. Get in the Liger. Nell finished the software." Michael grabbed his shirt, tie and jacket as Delta fused.

"This software is already making things better."

"Mind if I ride with you to Arcadia?"

Michael looked back to see Cadmus. "Yeah hop in." There was no way he'd say no to giving a friend a ride. He put his shirt back on. He spotted Nell wandering around and went over to her. "Hey Nell. Thanks for helping out. I really appreciate it. If you need anything let me know and I'll help any way I can. It's the least I can do." He reached out, put a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks." Giving her a nod Michael climbed back into the Kinami. "Ok everyone ready?"

[MarchingThunder]

Agera looked back to the rest of the motley group as Michael spoke up calling out if everyone was ready. She gave a brief nod before climbing into Fury as the zoid lowered his cockpit down to a height where she could easily reach a hand hold and clamber up. From there she settled back in under her jacket and prepared herself for the journey to Arcadia. She and Fury were already fully provisioned for a much longer journey, but having extra supplies was a bonus when they could be gotten.

She did take note of Cadmus hitching a ride with Michael and felt a pang of sadness for the man, she knew he needed help, and she would do what she could, but only when she could. Going out of the way would make it worse for everyone involved.

[TheDoctor]

-Four days later-

Their journey had been surprisingly enjoyable. Although the travel in the zoids was rather mind-numbing, it was comfortable for Cadmus. After a couple of days, he felt easier around Agera, and the tension between them faded. They didn't run into much trouble; no bandits, few wilds zoids, and enough checkpoints among wasteland for them to resupply when they needed.

With a wide yawn, Cadmus leaned back in the seat behind Michael, kicking his legs up on the shoulders of Michael's chair. They were very close to Arcadia, and they would probably reach it by nightfall. He stretched his arms up, his joints popping. It was midday, and Cadmus' limbs were stiff.

"Hey Michael," he stifled a yawn as he spoke. "Let's take a break. I feel like my legs are about to fall off."