Knight Fox
12-26-2008, 04:14 AM
KAMEN RIDER MARZ
By: Robert J. Wong
OP- “DAYBREAK’S BELL” – L’Arc~en~Ciel
-EPISODE 1-
Charging down a race track, on a black, 09 Kawasaki Z1000 was a man dressed in a black shirt, blue jeans and a grey, leather jacket with each sleeved rolled up—exposing strong forearms and his hands that had black, fingerless, racing gloves over them. Looking through the visor, of a complete jet black helmet with the noon sun shining off of it; everything appeared so clear, even with the weather report in the upper left hand corner, the track outline in the upper right, and the speed, going up and up in green, flashing numbers at the bottom center. It wasn’t distracting as some would think. In fact the sight enhancers were able to keep everything crystal clear for the racer, provided he didn’t decide to get lazy and crazy into something.
He came to a turn and flowed with it as he shifted gears, amplifying the engines power to make sure he’s come off the turn faster then his opponents. There were no other races, except for the ones in his head. He always pictured others when on the track. It kept him focused.
Then a male voice started to talk into his ear through the mike built into the side of the helmet. The voice was a little rough. Like that of an older man, but he was able to make out what was being said over the background static.
“That’s it CK, you’re on the final lap.”
“Good,” he smirked.
“Chris, don’t try to do anything stupid!” came another voice over the comm. in a warning tone, this one was feminine, and of a young woman with a slight Asian accent. The older man came back in then.
“…Yeah, CK, this is just practice, no need to be showing off.”
“Roger that…” he answered, with a subtle groan, disappointed about them telling him not to bring out the full power of this baby. Chris was just itching to bring her to full throttle, but he wasn’t too thrilled about going back to the hospital so soon either. So, reluctantly, Chris held back but continued on the speed he already had the bike at, until finally finishing the lap and slowed back into the pit.
Turning the engine off, the racer removed the helmet, revealing a twenty-three year old, Caucasian male, with medium length, dirty blond hair; a subtle square jaw with some hint of facial hair on his chin and upper lip. Chris’ deep blue eyes met the light green eyes of an Asian girl, twenty-four, with black hair that went halfway down her neck. She wore a white t-shirt with the team logo on the front that read “RUNAWAYS”, and red with golden trimmed, overalls with both sleeves tied around her waist.
They stood there, their eyes trained on one another for a moment that seemed to last forever. But then an elder, African man in his mid-forties came out, wearing the full suit and a utility belt with headphones hanging around his neck. They both looked away, with Chris turning his attention to the old man as he started removing his gloves.
“So, what’s the diagnosis doc?” Chris joked, smirking while still remaining on the bike, but the kick stand held it up.
“Nothing’s really in need of adjusting, but,” he replied then paused. Chris rolled his eyes knowing what he was going to say.
“You still want to check it out yourself, right Murdock?” finished Chris dismounting from the bike and headed for a long, wooden table with several cans of Molsen Canadian in the middle, among a few laptops and the Asian girl who sat at the other end.
“Right CK, right.” Murdock looked over the vehicle for a moment before turning back to young man, and pointed a finger at him. “Now to just get you to wear the team’s uniform.”
“I wear it, during races… but why should I have to wear it for practice?” he complained in protest, taking a swig from an opened can.
“Because,” Murdock stated, “it’ll save your life, son.”
“Yeah, I hear ya…” Chris said with a slight shrug and a quick glance to something else, but then he then remembered about her sitting there on the end of the table, looking over her chart that she held in her hands, trying to seem like she was preoccupied. “Come on Atsuko, let’s get some lunch.”
“Huh? What?” she tried to act surprised, but for Murdock and Chris, it wasn’t working.
Murdock sighed to himself, taking out a cloth and rubbing down the side of the gas tank, then broke the silence, “You two kids run along, I gots some work ahead of me. So there’s no need for you two to be stuck around with an old fart like me.”
“Ok doc, we’ll see ya, have one on me,” Chris chuckled as he gestured to the other unopened cans on the table as he headed towards the exit. Atsuko hesitantly followed but then turned back to the old man while he continued polishing the side of the bike.
“Don’t think that way James,” she told him, giving a comforting smile, “You’re better then that. Even Chris thinks so, even if he doesn’t admit it—you’re like a father to him. It’s just—”
“Him?” he finished. “Yeah, I know.” Murdock then sighed, but this time he a smile came through his grumpy expression and replied. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
= = = =
In a large, dark, open room with a long, oval table that narrowed towards one end, with a single faint light overhead. Sat seven people in business suits; one of them was a woman with long, orangey red hair, tied in a pony tail. She appeared to be in her twenties from what the men assumed. Though dressed in a blue blouse, black tie, with a black jacket and a skirt that went just above her knees, told them she was a very ‘no slack’ worker. Her fingers never left the keyboard in front of her as she continued typing on her notebook laptop, except to adjust her rounded, black framed glasses. But some guessed if her beauty was the reason for her high-up status in the company.
After a few moments, she had finished her work and shut the notebook, folding her hands on top of it. “Gentlemen, shall we begin?”
“Mr. Katsumoto has not arrived from the Japan Branch, Miss. Corbin,” spoke one of the men seated on the right towards the end of the table.
Unsurprised and somewhat disgruntled, she unfolded her hands and rose from her seat. “Well… let’s start on some of the lesser matters then, shall we?” Corbin asked to no one in particular as she sauntered around the table, one hand placed on her hip. “What of our investments in the sports department?”
A man in the center on the left, wearing a dark suit, opened a folder in front of him and flipped a few pages before coming to that section. “Mr. Murdock’s team seems to be a thorn in our side, Miss. Corbin. Our teams have all stated that, they could win the next few races, with how good the odds are showing to be in their favor.” He sighed and ran his fingers over his slicked back, salt and pepper hair, then slowly rubbed a long, articulated scar upon the right cheek with his thumb.
“Solutions?” asked Corbin, glancing at the five other men with a cocked eyebrow.
“How about we forget them and the whole racing debacle, Riley-chan?” said a raspy, male voice with a think, Asian accent.
“Katsumoto…” she said dryly, then returned to her seat, crossing her legs and folding her arms before her chest, “…glad you could join us. Now, tell me why we should forget about our sports problems?”
“It was a lesser matter as you said Mam,” a young man in his early twenties with short, brown hair, spoke up. Although his eyes never directly looked into Corbin’s, he just wanted to add something, but then again, he thought maybe breaking his silence could lead to some trouble he’d rather not have down the road.
“Good point Keith,” was all she replied with, and then leaned forward with her hands back to being folded on her notebook, “So Katsumoto, shall we discuss the pressing matters?”
Katsumoto lightly brushed his mustache with his right thumb and index finger as he finally took a seat at the narrow end of the table. Then Katsumoto leaned on both elbows as his chin rested upon his clasped hands. For a moment he stared at the pool of light on the black, metallic table before shifting his eyes up towards Riley’s.
She noticed the smirk through his eyes, Corbin was one of the few who could detect it, and it was something she prided her self on knowing. Riley knew of his trickiness and not to let it fool her into how serious things were.
“Let’s,” Katsumoto replied, now showing a serious expression.
= = = =
Atsuko rode on the back of a crimson, DN-1 Honda with Chris in control. He was more careful when driving with someone, especially her as Atsuko made it quite clear, that she did not enjoy high speed driving when in or on a vehicle, many a time.
“How ya doin’ back there?” he called out, slightly turning his head to her, before looking back to the road.
“Good!” she shouted over the engines growl. A couple of seconds later she wrapped her arms a little tighter around Chris’ waist. It was a little nerve racking for her to be on the bike, but she bit her lip and tried to relax as they made a turn. Chris smiled, feeling her get a little closer to him, though unknowing of what the real reason was.
Soon they came down a not-so-busy street, and parked on the curb. Before turning off the engine, Atsuko had already hopped off and started removing the white helmet. Followed by Chris and he placed them both on the handlebars, then dismounted himself. They walked across the street and went into a small restaurant that was tucked in at the bottom of very large building. At the top in a long, red, rectangular side in black, oriental-esque letters read “Cheng Wu House”.
Inside it was a cozy and quaint place. Nine large, rectangular, dark brown tables lined the oak walls and in the middle of the room with four chairs at each. The walls also held a few paintings of landscapes of China, one including the Great Wall. At the very back were two doorways. One which led to the bathroom on the right and in the middle was a veil of red, blue and yellow beads, covering an open doorway that led to the kitchen. As soon as they took a seat at one of the center tables, an elderly Chinese woman in a green sweater, grey pants and a red apron came out of the kitchen and quickly walked over to Chris and Atsuko, holding a pad and pen in hand.
“Good afternoon, may I take your orders?” she requested, cheerfully smiling.
Chris gestured over to Atsuko, letting her order first. She gave a faint smile to him before turning to their waitress. “Yes, I’ll have a number three combo, please.”
“Number five for me,” Chris replied.
“Mmhmm,” she murmured as she jotted them down and nodded, still smiling, “The wait won’t be long.” After that she headed back to the kitchen to prepare their meals, leaving the two of them alone.
Waiting for the food to be served, there was a long silence between them. Although Chris’ attention was focused on the television positioned at the top right corner on the back wall, showing the results of a bike race that just ended a few minutes ago. Chris sat back, folding his arms and shaking his head as the ‘New Up and Coming Challenger’s’ face appeared on the screen, holding a trophy over his head and spewing whatever to the media. And they were eating it up, but he wasn’t.
“Chris?” Atsuko finally spoke.
“Yeah?”
“Are you ok?” she asked, concerned with the glare in his eyes.
“I’m fine, just peachy,” Chris commented bluntly, and never taking his eyes off the screen, “I’m gonna win the championship, not this pretty boy.”
Atsuko looked up at the screen now, seeing the new racer. He was awfully young, with long dark hair, a light complexion, and brown eyes. There was something attracting her towards him, she could feel it clouding her train of mind, and tried to shake it off. Then as she turned back to Chris she grinned mischievously and said: “You think he’s pretty too?”
Chris quickly uncrossed his arms and sat up with a quick shake of his head, “Huh?? What?”
She quickly put hand over her mouth trying to hold back the laughter, but a giggle slipped out nonetheless.
“That’s not what I meant--and you know it,” he retorted, looking her straight in the eye, but as he continued looking into them, something about her cheery gaze made him smile too. And he shook his head as he started to laugh a little as well. By then the food came and the waitress told them both to enjoy their meals before disappearing into the kitchen once again.
= = = =
A few hours after the meeting, Katsumoto and Riley wandered the metallic, light grey hallways. Katsumoto had his hands in his dark, grey, pants pockets, while Riley’s arms were crossed in front of her. Both of them walked casually along the Florissant lighted floor that seemed to be the most of the illumination in the corridors and hallways.
“Can you be sure of their movements?” Riley Corbin questioned.
“My sources have a good track record with information about their movements, Riley-chan,” he answered stopping at a large, beam shaped window. Katsumoto turned and placed both hands upon the bottom of the sill looking out into the vast, blackness of space and at the planet they orbited… earth. He sighed grimly, “I though wished, they were wrong in this case.”
Riley leaned up against the window, her arms still crossed, disgruntled. “The Ceed are finally making their move….”
“Hai,” answered Katsumoto, “With Marz still MIA, we may have to-”
“No,” Riley held up a hand in protest, “The other systems are not in the final stages—they’re not ready.”
“Sol-S has told me there has been no activity of any kind on the tracker in the Marz system, Riley-chan.” Katsumoto stated as he gave a low sigh, then turned around and leaned back against the window with her. “We may have to activate one or two of the others.”
“One,” she said, uncrossing her arms and turned to him, finally giving in a little, yet still remaining firm on her decision, “Just one… for now.”
Katsumoto gave a faint smirk and then said, “I’ll make the call.”
= = = =
Once they were done their meals, Chris and Atsuko went back on the motorcycle and went towards the north end of New Manhattan, towards the apartment complexes. Chris felt her arms holding onto him tightly, and he thought it would have made him relax a little, but that buzzing chill he felt during lunch hadn’t gone away. It continued twisting his insides out, but it wasn’t too bad as he was moving in the opposite direction from where the feeling was being directed to. Every so often Chris checked behind him just in case, only to see Atsuko looking at the surroundings and then setting her gaze on the setting sun. Looking over towards it as well, Chris found the scenery to be very beautiful. The sky being a bright orange and red as the sun was beginning to come down. It was a little mesmerizing to be honest, he thought, and then turned back to the road.
After driving around a few blocks they ended up next to a tall blue, metal building with a short case of stone steps. Atsuko hopped off and started to hand the helmet back to the Rider; he raised a hand and said for her to keep it. She looked a little puzzled yet held the helmet against her stomach.
“What’s wrong Christian?” Atsuko questioned, her voice sounding wry with concern.
“I’ll… see you and doc, tomorrow…,” he replied calmly, though the sinking of his heart from sound of his name being spoken hurt. Keeping his gaze ahead, the anger and displeasure in his eyes was unmistakable as the buzzing chill came back with a vengeance, but he knew that Atsuko wouldn’t understand it, but he had to leave now. Chris then kicked up the clutch, throttled up and left the curb quickly, not once looking back. While she stood there, watching him until he disappeared down the street, heading towards a large green, and grey bridge.
There was no other place he was going, then that of the old Lost Haven. The last part of the first Neo New York that was taken out by the second great wave, twenty years ago. Down there were only a few towns, one of them being a ghost town, named by the locals as…“Ghost’s Yard.”
“What’s the matter with you Christian?” she asked to no one, holding the helmet tighter against her, and staring down the endless street.
= = = =
Crossing the Neotopian Bridge, images rushed into his mind. Images or death… blood soaked bodies, and then some of broken glass and a clear liquid… He shut his eyes for a second, holding back the pain he felt burning into his heart and then focused back on the street, passing a few cars and gaining headway towards the end of the bridge. The grey, smoldering and war-torn remains of Ghost’s Yard were very clearly distinguishable, right in the middle between the other two towns. The other two weren’t perfect either, but much better then where Chris knew he needed to go. Revving the throttle a few more times, the young Rider popped a wheelie and then charged head on.
Once on the main road, he slowed down and avoided the debris of building chunks that littered the street, and smoking, destroyed vehicles. Along with a few sheet metal shacks that edged out of a few alleys and into the side walks and street. Chris continued looking straight ahead. He didn’t want to look at the travesty of what became of Lost Haven’s primary hub. It remained the same way two years after the wave when that battle took place, both sides perished under explosions and gun fire. Even though there was warning signs, that last few people stayed there anyways, it gave them a sense of security he thought. Unsure why though, yet Chris knew why this portion of Lost Haven was left like it was, was because the government and Sol-S Corporation wanted it as a symbol, to show what they had lost due to their continuing wars… it never stopped the battles in other countries, but it prevented the anyone else from continuing the bloodshed that occurred there. Too many dead… too many horrible memories… too many ghosts....
As he slowed to a stop, he rested his feet down on the cracked pavement, the bike engine humming steadily. The buzz now became a sickening, cold spot in the pit of his stomach. Whatever was here--was close… very close. Chris looked about the surroundings, from large gaps in the buildings and down an alleyway to his right. He found nothing. Until he heard the footsteps and heavy breathing of someone young, a girl, maybe; Suddenly as he looked to his left through an singed, blast opening in the brick wall from the remaining structure of an apartment building—Chris noticed a little girl scampering away as fast as she could, repeatedly looking back at what he assumed was her pursuer, and holding a ragged teddy bear in her hand. Soon the pursuer ran into his view, it wasn’t human, whatever it was. Being humanoid though it was a pale blue, and had the distinct features of a Spider. With eight bulging, red eyes on its head. Long spider-legs protruded from the monster’s back, around its ribs and chest, and spider-web patches on each shoulder, forearm, lower legs and feet. All of the sudden it raised its arm up and fired a web-line and swung into the air, out of his sight; at that very moment Chris darted at a fast paced, weaving through the debris and hoping to find an opening.
There it is; Chris saw a large gap in the next building and quickly drove in, following behind the little, red haired girl. The Spider wasn’t too far behind either as Chris turned and saw it swing from web-line-to-web-line. He cursed under his breath and quickly sped up beside the child, scooping her up in his arm and held her tight while flooring it towards another exit. Only to feel the bike’s tires spinning though he wasn’t going anywhere. Glancing back he noticed a large web net had latched onto the back of his bike, the Spider holding it with ease.
“Damn you!” he cursed through gritted teeth and let the girl down, “Run!”
She did just that, though quickly hid behind a few boulders to watch what was going to happen. Obviously too young to know how curiosity killed the cat, he surmised.
Swiftly turning the bike around, the webbing seemed to snap off. Chris smirked and revved the bike, popping into a wheelie as he sprinted off and drove into the Spider, who had easily halted his assault by grabbing onto the front tire. Chris watched in pure shock as the creature slammed the front tire back down and slapped him in the chest with its palm, sending the young Rider flying back and the bike roaring onward, into a pillar.
Cringing and groaning in pain on his back, the young man slowly turned over onto his stomach and started to prop himself up with his hands. Then Chris quickly staggered back to his feet, knowing he couldn’t just lay there, otherwise he’d be dead. He tried to hold his footing but felt him self stumbling for a second, then shook it off as best he could. The stars were gone, so that’s one good sign.
“Alright, you wanna try that again!?” he exclaimed, nearly tripping over his feet again but caught himself and steadied his stance. Chris threw off his helmet and thrust out his right arm holding the right side of a wide, octagon shaped, black glass buckled, metallic grey sectional belt. The buckle also had silver outlines on it as well. On the left side of the belt strap was a circular pod, with a small square opening and a red stick with a gold triangular piece, sticking out. The right strap had a circular part as well, but with a one inch, hollow ring sticking out, as it something that connected there, was missing.
Spider just growled in a weird language, at least that’s what Chris assumed it to be. Though he stared at the monsters, dumbfounded for a moment before switching the belt to his left hand, and with his thumb and index finger he pressed the connector buttons, causing the buckle to separate from the right strap. “Whatever you say, Web-head,” Chris said with a smirk, throwing the belt around his waist and letting it reconnect with a click, followed by a powering up beep. “Let’s rock.” Chris tapped the top, rectangular, rounded red button. Several multi-colored, spinning light patterns appeared on the buckle’s screen. They were like dual turbines with two, sectional beams, one red and one green, in between them. The top one went from left-to-right and the bottom, right-to-left.
Chris saw the monster staring at it, mesmerized by the buckle’s light show, unbeknownst that it was activating the systems to call forth and form a protective armor. Everything was ready. All it needed was the code now. As the Spider quickly looked back up at Chris, he had a dark grin; the twinkle in his eyes bothered it more then anything.
Jolting his right arm across his chest and his left fist at his die, he swung his right arm up, turned it as his open hand became a fist as well and brought it down, until his hand was parallel with his shoulder, then shouted: “HENSHIN!!”
The twin multi-colored turbines became a single, blue turbine that soon changed as it blinked red from the center layer to the final, outer layer in sequence as red, holographic squares formed different pieces of armor all around him. Meanwhile his body was covered in a white light, except his head. Then as Chris brought his arms to his sides, but bent at the elbows, the holo-armor attached all at once, flashed, and revealed him in a silver suit with black and metallic-grey armor on his upper body, outlined with a red ‘M’.
His shoulder plating was round and red, and having two sectional metallic-grey lines going down the center of them. On the outside of the suit’s arms, were curving red lines, the lower part of the forearms and hands were black, around the wrists were dual, metallic-grey cuffs, black in the middle and silver tech-like lines. The outside of his legs had a single red line, the inner sides had black ones that went down to the top of his boots which were all black, aside from a curve, topped, ‘T’ that sectionalized down three quarters of the shins. At the top of in the center was a small disc, and a line spreading from either side, going all around the front, to the calves, and two smaller lines going up and down in the front, stopping at the first squared section piece. At the toes and heels of the boots were capped off in metallic-grey as well. Most of the helmet was black, aside from the thick, red section around the outside of the yellow, bug-eyes that went around to the back. Its mouth piece was primarily silver, and two black slits. The center of it going up towards the bridge between the eyes was sectionalized as well, though the rest was just a silver line with a red upside down, triangular tipped line coming down the other way. Split in a ‘V’ shape was two black antennas with red on the sides.
Quickly the Armored Insect Warrior leaped up and somersaulted over the stunned and bewildered creature, kicking it with his heel in the back of the Spider’s head as he came flipped behind the monster, and landed on one knee. He was up instantly and turned about to see the Spider had disappeared. Cautiously the Armored Insect prowled the area, hoping he’d be able to see the thing coming at him from a mile away. Then suddenly he felt something wrap around him, it was webbing—he cocked his head upward and was jerked up into the air and swung into several pillars, before being let go and fell onto a slab of a broken concrete. Sparks exploded and flew around him as he impacted hard. Cringing he started to tear off the web while the smoke hovered around him. It caused the Warrior to choke up a little, allowing the Spider to swing back down and quickly saw it fire another web-line. The Insect leapt away from it, watching it get attached to the slab.
Oh that’s gonna smart, thought the Warrior as he ripped the last of the webbing off and got to his feet, only to be smacked with the slab, having it break into the pieces around him, but the sheer force of the attack forced the him to fall over, but going with it, he rolled on his shoulder out of harms way. The Spider lost track of its prey and in a fit of frustration started picking up random pieces of debris and swung it about, smashing the pillars and everything else.
The little girl screamed as she fell out from her hiding spot, attracting the attention of the Arachnid. She started to crawl away, but her legs wouldn’t work properly she was so scared, the tears rolled down her face, full of fear and futility. The Spider slowly went towards her, savoring the moment of feasting upon her flesh, somehow it felt this wasn’t going to be a wasted endeavor after all. It finally caught up with her and raised a three clawed hand, about to strike her down for good—then suddenly the Armored Insect Warrior flew through the air and grabbed onto the back of the Spider, causing it to twist and turn violently in disarray, trying to remove what was latched onto its back. As soon as the girl had gotten away, the Warrior then back flipped off and landed on his feet. Spider turned around, swinging his arm and hitting nothing but air—the Warrior rushed in jabbing a left hook into its exposed ribs, then a right, and followed it with a jump round-house to its face. The Spider involuntarily cart-wheeled onto its side with a slam!
Quickly getting into a fighting stance the Rider hopped on his feet like Bruce Lee for a second or two. Then as the monster slowly got back up, he rushed in again and started landing punch after punch, and when it swung at him again, he leaned back and hopped into a jump-thrust kick into its chest, knocking the monster onto its back a few meters away. “Who’s your daddy!?” he shouted with a laugh.
Spider leaned up a bit, and snarled at the Insect Warrior who had just floored him yet again. He then went into a Bruce Lee fighting pose and gestured for the Spider to come at him again. Somehow he could tell the creature could sense his smirk from behind the confines of the helmet. Spider slapped the ground causing dust to lift off the dirt covered ground as it stormed back to its feet and charged again. The Rider turned and stopped the monster from getting too close as he stunned it with a side kick to its chest, followed by a couple punches then grabbing its shoulders and kneeing the creature in its left ribs. He quickly threw and landed a right hook, forcing the Spider to fly to the side and fall then tumble across the floor. Staggering back up, the Rider monitored it closely while his left hand grabbed the pod on the left of the belt, and with his thumb, slid out the red stick with the gold, triangle piece. Looking down at it he gave a quick “Hmph”, before spinning it so that long end stuck out. Quickly he slotted it into the left side of the buckle, starting up the single turbine again, this time it went from blue to a dark red, then to gold and dispersed, covering the buckles screen in gold light. He started to crouch down and before he could sprint forward the Spider in a last desperate act fired charged webbing globs at the ceiling, catching the Warrior off guard. He didn’t have time to move out of the way as the first few chucks were about to hit and so he braced himself with his arms up over him. Still the Insect Warrior fell onto his knees and in a matter of moments, he was covered in a large pile of smoldering debris. There was no movement… nothing.
Although the Spider had won, it did not feel like sticking around, its body ached all over and so to escape from anything else that could make its day, the Arachnid shot a web-line and swung out through the gaping hole in the rooftop it just made.
= = = =
Riley Corbin stood in the conference room, leaning against the edge of the table with her left arm across her stomach, and her right elbow resting on her left wrist while she held her chin between her thumb and index finger. She was in deep thought, wondering when she’d get a response on the next systems status of activity. Riley hoped that something on the Marz system would pop up though… but it was a fool’s hope.
Just then a circular, metallic-purple door appeared at the front of the room in the middle of the darkness. It had a line in it like that of a Yin-Yang, and opened so with the youngest board member, Keith, walking briskly into the room and stopped at the end of the table.
“Miss. Corbin?” he said.
“Yes Keith, what is it?” she asked blandly, still in thought.
“You need to see this,” he replied with a broad smile and tapped on a small keypad upon the conference table, bringing up a holographic screen in the middle of the room. It revealed the holo-map of the Lost Haven, in the War-zone Area, with a faint, flashing, dot marker. Keith used the mouse pad and scrolled over it, and out slid the word in red, bold, uninteresting letters: “MARZ system.”
Riley could not believe what she was seeing… was it really the Marz system? Or? No, there was only one signal like that. Each system had a specific energy signature, and it matched. “Get a team there A.S.A.P.,” she commanded, regaining her calm and collected composure.
“I’ve taken care of it already, Mam.”
To Be Continued…
ED- "SPIRIT DREAM INSIDE" - L'Arc~en~Ciel
By: Robert J. Wong
OP- “DAYBREAK’S BELL” – L’Arc~en~Ciel
-EPISODE 1-
Charging down a race track, on a black, 09 Kawasaki Z1000 was a man dressed in a black shirt, blue jeans and a grey, leather jacket with each sleeved rolled up—exposing strong forearms and his hands that had black, fingerless, racing gloves over them. Looking through the visor, of a complete jet black helmet with the noon sun shining off of it; everything appeared so clear, even with the weather report in the upper left hand corner, the track outline in the upper right, and the speed, going up and up in green, flashing numbers at the bottom center. It wasn’t distracting as some would think. In fact the sight enhancers were able to keep everything crystal clear for the racer, provided he didn’t decide to get lazy and crazy into something.
He came to a turn and flowed with it as he shifted gears, amplifying the engines power to make sure he’s come off the turn faster then his opponents. There were no other races, except for the ones in his head. He always pictured others when on the track. It kept him focused.
Then a male voice started to talk into his ear through the mike built into the side of the helmet. The voice was a little rough. Like that of an older man, but he was able to make out what was being said over the background static.
“That’s it CK, you’re on the final lap.”
“Good,” he smirked.
“Chris, don’t try to do anything stupid!” came another voice over the comm. in a warning tone, this one was feminine, and of a young woman with a slight Asian accent. The older man came back in then.
“…Yeah, CK, this is just practice, no need to be showing off.”
“Roger that…” he answered, with a subtle groan, disappointed about them telling him not to bring out the full power of this baby. Chris was just itching to bring her to full throttle, but he wasn’t too thrilled about going back to the hospital so soon either. So, reluctantly, Chris held back but continued on the speed he already had the bike at, until finally finishing the lap and slowed back into the pit.
Turning the engine off, the racer removed the helmet, revealing a twenty-three year old, Caucasian male, with medium length, dirty blond hair; a subtle square jaw with some hint of facial hair on his chin and upper lip. Chris’ deep blue eyes met the light green eyes of an Asian girl, twenty-four, with black hair that went halfway down her neck. She wore a white t-shirt with the team logo on the front that read “RUNAWAYS”, and red with golden trimmed, overalls with both sleeves tied around her waist.
They stood there, their eyes trained on one another for a moment that seemed to last forever. But then an elder, African man in his mid-forties came out, wearing the full suit and a utility belt with headphones hanging around his neck. They both looked away, with Chris turning his attention to the old man as he started removing his gloves.
“So, what’s the diagnosis doc?” Chris joked, smirking while still remaining on the bike, but the kick stand held it up.
“Nothing’s really in need of adjusting, but,” he replied then paused. Chris rolled his eyes knowing what he was going to say.
“You still want to check it out yourself, right Murdock?” finished Chris dismounting from the bike and headed for a long, wooden table with several cans of Molsen Canadian in the middle, among a few laptops and the Asian girl who sat at the other end.
“Right CK, right.” Murdock looked over the vehicle for a moment before turning back to young man, and pointed a finger at him. “Now to just get you to wear the team’s uniform.”
“I wear it, during races… but why should I have to wear it for practice?” he complained in protest, taking a swig from an opened can.
“Because,” Murdock stated, “it’ll save your life, son.”
“Yeah, I hear ya…” Chris said with a slight shrug and a quick glance to something else, but then he then remembered about her sitting there on the end of the table, looking over her chart that she held in her hands, trying to seem like she was preoccupied. “Come on Atsuko, let’s get some lunch.”
“Huh? What?” she tried to act surprised, but for Murdock and Chris, it wasn’t working.
Murdock sighed to himself, taking out a cloth and rubbing down the side of the gas tank, then broke the silence, “You two kids run along, I gots some work ahead of me. So there’s no need for you two to be stuck around with an old fart like me.”
“Ok doc, we’ll see ya, have one on me,” Chris chuckled as he gestured to the other unopened cans on the table as he headed towards the exit. Atsuko hesitantly followed but then turned back to the old man while he continued polishing the side of the bike.
“Don’t think that way James,” she told him, giving a comforting smile, “You’re better then that. Even Chris thinks so, even if he doesn’t admit it—you’re like a father to him. It’s just—”
“Him?” he finished. “Yeah, I know.” Murdock then sighed, but this time he a smile came through his grumpy expression and replied. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
= = = =
In a large, dark, open room with a long, oval table that narrowed towards one end, with a single faint light overhead. Sat seven people in business suits; one of them was a woman with long, orangey red hair, tied in a pony tail. She appeared to be in her twenties from what the men assumed. Though dressed in a blue blouse, black tie, with a black jacket and a skirt that went just above her knees, told them she was a very ‘no slack’ worker. Her fingers never left the keyboard in front of her as she continued typing on her notebook laptop, except to adjust her rounded, black framed glasses. But some guessed if her beauty was the reason for her high-up status in the company.
After a few moments, she had finished her work and shut the notebook, folding her hands on top of it. “Gentlemen, shall we begin?”
“Mr. Katsumoto has not arrived from the Japan Branch, Miss. Corbin,” spoke one of the men seated on the right towards the end of the table.
Unsurprised and somewhat disgruntled, she unfolded her hands and rose from her seat. “Well… let’s start on some of the lesser matters then, shall we?” Corbin asked to no one in particular as she sauntered around the table, one hand placed on her hip. “What of our investments in the sports department?”
A man in the center on the left, wearing a dark suit, opened a folder in front of him and flipped a few pages before coming to that section. “Mr. Murdock’s team seems to be a thorn in our side, Miss. Corbin. Our teams have all stated that, they could win the next few races, with how good the odds are showing to be in their favor.” He sighed and ran his fingers over his slicked back, salt and pepper hair, then slowly rubbed a long, articulated scar upon the right cheek with his thumb.
“Solutions?” asked Corbin, glancing at the five other men with a cocked eyebrow.
“How about we forget them and the whole racing debacle, Riley-chan?” said a raspy, male voice with a think, Asian accent.
“Katsumoto…” she said dryly, then returned to her seat, crossing her legs and folding her arms before her chest, “…glad you could join us. Now, tell me why we should forget about our sports problems?”
“It was a lesser matter as you said Mam,” a young man in his early twenties with short, brown hair, spoke up. Although his eyes never directly looked into Corbin’s, he just wanted to add something, but then again, he thought maybe breaking his silence could lead to some trouble he’d rather not have down the road.
“Good point Keith,” was all she replied with, and then leaned forward with her hands back to being folded on her notebook, “So Katsumoto, shall we discuss the pressing matters?”
Katsumoto lightly brushed his mustache with his right thumb and index finger as he finally took a seat at the narrow end of the table. Then Katsumoto leaned on both elbows as his chin rested upon his clasped hands. For a moment he stared at the pool of light on the black, metallic table before shifting his eyes up towards Riley’s.
She noticed the smirk through his eyes, Corbin was one of the few who could detect it, and it was something she prided her self on knowing. Riley knew of his trickiness and not to let it fool her into how serious things were.
“Let’s,” Katsumoto replied, now showing a serious expression.
= = = =
Atsuko rode on the back of a crimson, DN-1 Honda with Chris in control. He was more careful when driving with someone, especially her as Atsuko made it quite clear, that she did not enjoy high speed driving when in or on a vehicle, many a time.
“How ya doin’ back there?” he called out, slightly turning his head to her, before looking back to the road.
“Good!” she shouted over the engines growl. A couple of seconds later she wrapped her arms a little tighter around Chris’ waist. It was a little nerve racking for her to be on the bike, but she bit her lip and tried to relax as they made a turn. Chris smiled, feeling her get a little closer to him, though unknowing of what the real reason was.
Soon they came down a not-so-busy street, and parked on the curb. Before turning off the engine, Atsuko had already hopped off and started removing the white helmet. Followed by Chris and he placed them both on the handlebars, then dismounted himself. They walked across the street and went into a small restaurant that was tucked in at the bottom of very large building. At the top in a long, red, rectangular side in black, oriental-esque letters read “Cheng Wu House”.
Inside it was a cozy and quaint place. Nine large, rectangular, dark brown tables lined the oak walls and in the middle of the room with four chairs at each. The walls also held a few paintings of landscapes of China, one including the Great Wall. At the very back were two doorways. One which led to the bathroom on the right and in the middle was a veil of red, blue and yellow beads, covering an open doorway that led to the kitchen. As soon as they took a seat at one of the center tables, an elderly Chinese woman in a green sweater, grey pants and a red apron came out of the kitchen and quickly walked over to Chris and Atsuko, holding a pad and pen in hand.
“Good afternoon, may I take your orders?” she requested, cheerfully smiling.
Chris gestured over to Atsuko, letting her order first. She gave a faint smile to him before turning to their waitress. “Yes, I’ll have a number three combo, please.”
“Number five for me,” Chris replied.
“Mmhmm,” she murmured as she jotted them down and nodded, still smiling, “The wait won’t be long.” After that she headed back to the kitchen to prepare their meals, leaving the two of them alone.
Waiting for the food to be served, there was a long silence between them. Although Chris’ attention was focused on the television positioned at the top right corner on the back wall, showing the results of a bike race that just ended a few minutes ago. Chris sat back, folding his arms and shaking his head as the ‘New Up and Coming Challenger’s’ face appeared on the screen, holding a trophy over his head and spewing whatever to the media. And they were eating it up, but he wasn’t.
“Chris?” Atsuko finally spoke.
“Yeah?”
“Are you ok?” she asked, concerned with the glare in his eyes.
“I’m fine, just peachy,” Chris commented bluntly, and never taking his eyes off the screen, “I’m gonna win the championship, not this pretty boy.”
Atsuko looked up at the screen now, seeing the new racer. He was awfully young, with long dark hair, a light complexion, and brown eyes. There was something attracting her towards him, she could feel it clouding her train of mind, and tried to shake it off. Then as she turned back to Chris she grinned mischievously and said: “You think he’s pretty too?”
Chris quickly uncrossed his arms and sat up with a quick shake of his head, “Huh?? What?”
She quickly put hand over her mouth trying to hold back the laughter, but a giggle slipped out nonetheless.
“That’s not what I meant--and you know it,” he retorted, looking her straight in the eye, but as he continued looking into them, something about her cheery gaze made him smile too. And he shook his head as he started to laugh a little as well. By then the food came and the waitress told them both to enjoy their meals before disappearing into the kitchen once again.
= = = =
A few hours after the meeting, Katsumoto and Riley wandered the metallic, light grey hallways. Katsumoto had his hands in his dark, grey, pants pockets, while Riley’s arms were crossed in front of her. Both of them walked casually along the Florissant lighted floor that seemed to be the most of the illumination in the corridors and hallways.
“Can you be sure of their movements?” Riley Corbin questioned.
“My sources have a good track record with information about their movements, Riley-chan,” he answered stopping at a large, beam shaped window. Katsumoto turned and placed both hands upon the bottom of the sill looking out into the vast, blackness of space and at the planet they orbited… earth. He sighed grimly, “I though wished, they were wrong in this case.”
Riley leaned up against the window, her arms still crossed, disgruntled. “The Ceed are finally making their move….”
“Hai,” answered Katsumoto, “With Marz still MIA, we may have to-”
“No,” Riley held up a hand in protest, “The other systems are not in the final stages—they’re not ready.”
“Sol-S has told me there has been no activity of any kind on the tracker in the Marz system, Riley-chan.” Katsumoto stated as he gave a low sigh, then turned around and leaned back against the window with her. “We may have to activate one or two of the others.”
“One,” she said, uncrossing her arms and turned to him, finally giving in a little, yet still remaining firm on her decision, “Just one… for now.”
Katsumoto gave a faint smirk and then said, “I’ll make the call.”
= = = =
Once they were done their meals, Chris and Atsuko went back on the motorcycle and went towards the north end of New Manhattan, towards the apartment complexes. Chris felt her arms holding onto him tightly, and he thought it would have made him relax a little, but that buzzing chill he felt during lunch hadn’t gone away. It continued twisting his insides out, but it wasn’t too bad as he was moving in the opposite direction from where the feeling was being directed to. Every so often Chris checked behind him just in case, only to see Atsuko looking at the surroundings and then setting her gaze on the setting sun. Looking over towards it as well, Chris found the scenery to be very beautiful. The sky being a bright orange and red as the sun was beginning to come down. It was a little mesmerizing to be honest, he thought, and then turned back to the road.
After driving around a few blocks they ended up next to a tall blue, metal building with a short case of stone steps. Atsuko hopped off and started to hand the helmet back to the Rider; he raised a hand and said for her to keep it. She looked a little puzzled yet held the helmet against her stomach.
“What’s wrong Christian?” Atsuko questioned, her voice sounding wry with concern.
“I’ll… see you and doc, tomorrow…,” he replied calmly, though the sinking of his heart from sound of his name being spoken hurt. Keeping his gaze ahead, the anger and displeasure in his eyes was unmistakable as the buzzing chill came back with a vengeance, but he knew that Atsuko wouldn’t understand it, but he had to leave now. Chris then kicked up the clutch, throttled up and left the curb quickly, not once looking back. While she stood there, watching him until he disappeared down the street, heading towards a large green, and grey bridge.
There was no other place he was going, then that of the old Lost Haven. The last part of the first Neo New York that was taken out by the second great wave, twenty years ago. Down there were only a few towns, one of them being a ghost town, named by the locals as…“Ghost’s Yard.”
“What’s the matter with you Christian?” she asked to no one, holding the helmet tighter against her, and staring down the endless street.
= = = =
Crossing the Neotopian Bridge, images rushed into his mind. Images or death… blood soaked bodies, and then some of broken glass and a clear liquid… He shut his eyes for a second, holding back the pain he felt burning into his heart and then focused back on the street, passing a few cars and gaining headway towards the end of the bridge. The grey, smoldering and war-torn remains of Ghost’s Yard were very clearly distinguishable, right in the middle between the other two towns. The other two weren’t perfect either, but much better then where Chris knew he needed to go. Revving the throttle a few more times, the young Rider popped a wheelie and then charged head on.
Once on the main road, he slowed down and avoided the debris of building chunks that littered the street, and smoking, destroyed vehicles. Along with a few sheet metal shacks that edged out of a few alleys and into the side walks and street. Chris continued looking straight ahead. He didn’t want to look at the travesty of what became of Lost Haven’s primary hub. It remained the same way two years after the wave when that battle took place, both sides perished under explosions and gun fire. Even though there was warning signs, that last few people stayed there anyways, it gave them a sense of security he thought. Unsure why though, yet Chris knew why this portion of Lost Haven was left like it was, was because the government and Sol-S Corporation wanted it as a symbol, to show what they had lost due to their continuing wars… it never stopped the battles in other countries, but it prevented the anyone else from continuing the bloodshed that occurred there. Too many dead… too many horrible memories… too many ghosts....
As he slowed to a stop, he rested his feet down on the cracked pavement, the bike engine humming steadily. The buzz now became a sickening, cold spot in the pit of his stomach. Whatever was here--was close… very close. Chris looked about the surroundings, from large gaps in the buildings and down an alleyway to his right. He found nothing. Until he heard the footsteps and heavy breathing of someone young, a girl, maybe; Suddenly as he looked to his left through an singed, blast opening in the brick wall from the remaining structure of an apartment building—Chris noticed a little girl scampering away as fast as she could, repeatedly looking back at what he assumed was her pursuer, and holding a ragged teddy bear in her hand. Soon the pursuer ran into his view, it wasn’t human, whatever it was. Being humanoid though it was a pale blue, and had the distinct features of a Spider. With eight bulging, red eyes on its head. Long spider-legs protruded from the monster’s back, around its ribs and chest, and spider-web patches on each shoulder, forearm, lower legs and feet. All of the sudden it raised its arm up and fired a web-line and swung into the air, out of his sight; at that very moment Chris darted at a fast paced, weaving through the debris and hoping to find an opening.
There it is; Chris saw a large gap in the next building and quickly drove in, following behind the little, red haired girl. The Spider wasn’t too far behind either as Chris turned and saw it swing from web-line-to-web-line. He cursed under his breath and quickly sped up beside the child, scooping her up in his arm and held her tight while flooring it towards another exit. Only to feel the bike’s tires spinning though he wasn’t going anywhere. Glancing back he noticed a large web net had latched onto the back of his bike, the Spider holding it with ease.
“Damn you!” he cursed through gritted teeth and let the girl down, “Run!”
She did just that, though quickly hid behind a few boulders to watch what was going to happen. Obviously too young to know how curiosity killed the cat, he surmised.
Swiftly turning the bike around, the webbing seemed to snap off. Chris smirked and revved the bike, popping into a wheelie as he sprinted off and drove into the Spider, who had easily halted his assault by grabbing onto the front tire. Chris watched in pure shock as the creature slammed the front tire back down and slapped him in the chest with its palm, sending the young Rider flying back and the bike roaring onward, into a pillar.
Cringing and groaning in pain on his back, the young man slowly turned over onto his stomach and started to prop himself up with his hands. Then Chris quickly staggered back to his feet, knowing he couldn’t just lay there, otherwise he’d be dead. He tried to hold his footing but felt him self stumbling for a second, then shook it off as best he could. The stars were gone, so that’s one good sign.
“Alright, you wanna try that again!?” he exclaimed, nearly tripping over his feet again but caught himself and steadied his stance. Chris threw off his helmet and thrust out his right arm holding the right side of a wide, octagon shaped, black glass buckled, metallic grey sectional belt. The buckle also had silver outlines on it as well. On the left side of the belt strap was a circular pod, with a small square opening and a red stick with a gold triangular piece, sticking out. The right strap had a circular part as well, but with a one inch, hollow ring sticking out, as it something that connected there, was missing.
Spider just growled in a weird language, at least that’s what Chris assumed it to be. Though he stared at the monsters, dumbfounded for a moment before switching the belt to his left hand, and with his thumb and index finger he pressed the connector buttons, causing the buckle to separate from the right strap. “Whatever you say, Web-head,” Chris said with a smirk, throwing the belt around his waist and letting it reconnect with a click, followed by a powering up beep. “Let’s rock.” Chris tapped the top, rectangular, rounded red button. Several multi-colored, spinning light patterns appeared on the buckle’s screen. They were like dual turbines with two, sectional beams, one red and one green, in between them. The top one went from left-to-right and the bottom, right-to-left.
Chris saw the monster staring at it, mesmerized by the buckle’s light show, unbeknownst that it was activating the systems to call forth and form a protective armor. Everything was ready. All it needed was the code now. As the Spider quickly looked back up at Chris, he had a dark grin; the twinkle in his eyes bothered it more then anything.
Jolting his right arm across his chest and his left fist at his die, he swung his right arm up, turned it as his open hand became a fist as well and brought it down, until his hand was parallel with his shoulder, then shouted: “HENSHIN!!”
The twin multi-colored turbines became a single, blue turbine that soon changed as it blinked red from the center layer to the final, outer layer in sequence as red, holographic squares formed different pieces of armor all around him. Meanwhile his body was covered in a white light, except his head. Then as Chris brought his arms to his sides, but bent at the elbows, the holo-armor attached all at once, flashed, and revealed him in a silver suit with black and metallic-grey armor on his upper body, outlined with a red ‘M’.
His shoulder plating was round and red, and having two sectional metallic-grey lines going down the center of them. On the outside of the suit’s arms, were curving red lines, the lower part of the forearms and hands were black, around the wrists were dual, metallic-grey cuffs, black in the middle and silver tech-like lines. The outside of his legs had a single red line, the inner sides had black ones that went down to the top of his boots which were all black, aside from a curve, topped, ‘T’ that sectionalized down three quarters of the shins. At the top of in the center was a small disc, and a line spreading from either side, going all around the front, to the calves, and two smaller lines going up and down in the front, stopping at the first squared section piece. At the toes and heels of the boots were capped off in metallic-grey as well. Most of the helmet was black, aside from the thick, red section around the outside of the yellow, bug-eyes that went around to the back. Its mouth piece was primarily silver, and two black slits. The center of it going up towards the bridge between the eyes was sectionalized as well, though the rest was just a silver line with a red upside down, triangular tipped line coming down the other way. Split in a ‘V’ shape was two black antennas with red on the sides.
Quickly the Armored Insect Warrior leaped up and somersaulted over the stunned and bewildered creature, kicking it with his heel in the back of the Spider’s head as he came flipped behind the monster, and landed on one knee. He was up instantly and turned about to see the Spider had disappeared. Cautiously the Armored Insect prowled the area, hoping he’d be able to see the thing coming at him from a mile away. Then suddenly he felt something wrap around him, it was webbing—he cocked his head upward and was jerked up into the air and swung into several pillars, before being let go and fell onto a slab of a broken concrete. Sparks exploded and flew around him as he impacted hard. Cringing he started to tear off the web while the smoke hovered around him. It caused the Warrior to choke up a little, allowing the Spider to swing back down and quickly saw it fire another web-line. The Insect leapt away from it, watching it get attached to the slab.
Oh that’s gonna smart, thought the Warrior as he ripped the last of the webbing off and got to his feet, only to be smacked with the slab, having it break into the pieces around him, but the sheer force of the attack forced the him to fall over, but going with it, he rolled on his shoulder out of harms way. The Spider lost track of its prey and in a fit of frustration started picking up random pieces of debris and swung it about, smashing the pillars and everything else.
The little girl screamed as she fell out from her hiding spot, attracting the attention of the Arachnid. She started to crawl away, but her legs wouldn’t work properly she was so scared, the tears rolled down her face, full of fear and futility. The Spider slowly went towards her, savoring the moment of feasting upon her flesh, somehow it felt this wasn’t going to be a wasted endeavor after all. It finally caught up with her and raised a three clawed hand, about to strike her down for good—then suddenly the Armored Insect Warrior flew through the air and grabbed onto the back of the Spider, causing it to twist and turn violently in disarray, trying to remove what was latched onto its back. As soon as the girl had gotten away, the Warrior then back flipped off and landed on his feet. Spider turned around, swinging his arm and hitting nothing but air—the Warrior rushed in jabbing a left hook into its exposed ribs, then a right, and followed it with a jump round-house to its face. The Spider involuntarily cart-wheeled onto its side with a slam!
Quickly getting into a fighting stance the Rider hopped on his feet like Bruce Lee for a second or two. Then as the monster slowly got back up, he rushed in again and started landing punch after punch, and when it swung at him again, he leaned back and hopped into a jump-thrust kick into its chest, knocking the monster onto its back a few meters away. “Who’s your daddy!?” he shouted with a laugh.
Spider leaned up a bit, and snarled at the Insect Warrior who had just floored him yet again. He then went into a Bruce Lee fighting pose and gestured for the Spider to come at him again. Somehow he could tell the creature could sense his smirk from behind the confines of the helmet. Spider slapped the ground causing dust to lift off the dirt covered ground as it stormed back to its feet and charged again. The Rider turned and stopped the monster from getting too close as he stunned it with a side kick to its chest, followed by a couple punches then grabbing its shoulders and kneeing the creature in its left ribs. He quickly threw and landed a right hook, forcing the Spider to fly to the side and fall then tumble across the floor. Staggering back up, the Rider monitored it closely while his left hand grabbed the pod on the left of the belt, and with his thumb, slid out the red stick with the gold, triangle piece. Looking down at it he gave a quick “Hmph”, before spinning it so that long end stuck out. Quickly he slotted it into the left side of the buckle, starting up the single turbine again, this time it went from blue to a dark red, then to gold and dispersed, covering the buckles screen in gold light. He started to crouch down and before he could sprint forward the Spider in a last desperate act fired charged webbing globs at the ceiling, catching the Warrior off guard. He didn’t have time to move out of the way as the first few chucks were about to hit and so he braced himself with his arms up over him. Still the Insect Warrior fell onto his knees and in a matter of moments, he was covered in a large pile of smoldering debris. There was no movement… nothing.
Although the Spider had won, it did not feel like sticking around, its body ached all over and so to escape from anything else that could make its day, the Arachnid shot a web-line and swung out through the gaping hole in the rooftop it just made.
= = = =
Riley Corbin stood in the conference room, leaning against the edge of the table with her left arm across her stomach, and her right elbow resting on her left wrist while she held her chin between her thumb and index finger. She was in deep thought, wondering when she’d get a response on the next systems status of activity. Riley hoped that something on the Marz system would pop up though… but it was a fool’s hope.
Just then a circular, metallic-purple door appeared at the front of the room in the middle of the darkness. It had a line in it like that of a Yin-Yang, and opened so with the youngest board member, Keith, walking briskly into the room and stopped at the end of the table.
“Miss. Corbin?” he said.
“Yes Keith, what is it?” she asked blandly, still in thought.
“You need to see this,” he replied with a broad smile and tapped on a small keypad upon the conference table, bringing up a holographic screen in the middle of the room. It revealed the holo-map of the Lost Haven, in the War-zone Area, with a faint, flashing, dot marker. Keith used the mouse pad and scrolled over it, and out slid the word in red, bold, uninteresting letters: “MARZ system.”
Riley could not believe what she was seeing… was it really the Marz system? Or? No, there was only one signal like that. Each system had a specific energy signature, and it matched. “Get a team there A.S.A.P.,” she commanded, regaining her calm and collected composure.
“I’ve taken care of it already, Mam.”
To Be Continued…
ED- "SPIRIT DREAM INSIDE" - L'Arc~en~Ciel