The Westren Continent. A land full of chaos, tragedy, backstabbing, bloodsucking beauracrats, and dozens upon dozens of con-artists. Lance's kind of country. A Leomaster plodded along cannons gleaming in the sun as it headed toward's it's destination. To link-up with the Stonecutters and see if he was set for becoming a team pilot. Sounded so cliche. Lance hated working with idiots so hopefully this team would have something positive about it.
"You think too much pilot if they are idiots we'll just blow a few holes in them as we leave."
The Leomaster's voice was a deep rumble as Lance shifted the Leomaster to jog.
"And you need to think with more then how many holes you can blow in someone."
If the Liger wasn't moving it probably would have shrugged nonchalantly.
"At least my way is simple."
Lance sighed and shook his head yeah he really picked a zoid with a golden personality.....

"Viva los Guysacks!" A burst of semi-maniacal laughter skittered over the comlink before the sound of close beamfire echoed over the transceiver.
"Dammit! Hold still a minute!" A woman's voice, terse and tense, sounded after another volley of beamfire.
"I think not, Madame Kitty-Cat!" The apparent Guysack pilot cackled again.

Lance saw the upcoming disruption and glanced at the team data he was sent earlier. A Guysack and a Shield Liger having a little spar. The bug apparently had a more skilled pilot at the helm. Leveling his beam cannons he squeezed a singly shot to go flying over the little roach-scropion thing.
"Now now you should be fair to the kitty cats because you never know when another one will come in."
Missile pods snapped open as he acquired a lock on the Guysack as the Beam Cannons readied for another volley. The 20mm Repeatered flipped open as the pop-out missile pods revealed themselves as well. The Repeaters quickly trained on their target as the Machinegun targeting systems came online as well to provide a small firepower mix for the bug.
"Don't you realize that playing the cat and mouse game with a cat is always deadly to a mouse?"

"Bandit!"
"Teammate!"
"Oh." Angel pulled off her own beam cannons, which she'd aimed at the newcomer. "Lesson to be learned. Don't screw with Guysacks."
The Guysack disappeared, vanished in a blur of motion. The little bugger seemed to be everywhere at once, and then a sextet of perfectly-aimed lances arrowed for the Shield Liger DCS-J.

The shield deployed taking the hits as Lance watched the shield energy steadily fall for a couple seconds and undeployed. Taking note that the bugger was circling his ass he rolled his eyes skyward.
"I hear Guysacks are a great delicacy to other Ligers."
Disputer rumbled as the three pairs of missiles hit the areas where the Guysack was circling to force it to surface for a second since the ground would be collapsing again. Taking aim he fired a blast of beam cannon fire along with a hailstorm of Repeater and Machinegun fire to drive it out of the ground and lead it along into the firing arc of his beam cannons.
"It's annoying."
"I concur."
The Shock Cannons began having a ball impacting random spots in front of the Leomaster to keep the bug in his firing arcs as he carefully turned keeping a weary why out for any depressions in the ground but notably kept moving so the Guysack wouldn't get the idea to nab him from below.

((The 'Sack's on the surface.))

From out of nowhere Angel's Liger slammed into the Leomaster.
"Teamwork. It's a bitch." Her Liger stood over his, exhibiting a clear dominance pose. "And so're you."
"Angel!" Gary laughed as his Guysack came to a halt. He was always dizzy after doing the dance. "So, Lance, what's up?"

The Leomaster got up and shook off the dust Disputer giving the zoid equivalent of the middle finger to Shield Liger.
"Linking up with the team persay."
Lance said calmly.
"Though I hope Ms. Kitty here doesn't volunteer for biting my head off all the time. I'd hate to be on her bad side if this is her average mood."
I'll leave it as implied to avoid rudeness.
"Easy for you to say you didn't just try and dance with a cockroach sized scorpion and a cat on endorphines."
Lance chuckled at the Leomaster's protest.

"You are Lance Asakura, right? 'Cause if we just beat up somebody completely unaffiliated with our Team . . ."
"He is," Gary interrupted. "I recognize his voice from talking with him over the phone."

Arrogant...
"Yes name's Lance Asakura, newly registered for the Stonecutters and reporting in."
Lance repeated dully to the snort of the Leomaster.
You make it sound like a morgue.
Lance glanced at the screen and gave a mental chuckle and typed a return.
Isn't it?
Maybe but at least this way we get more kills.

"Well, we're about finished here. Our Gustav's parked about half a kilometer from here, though we only have the two magna platforms on it." Gary turned his Guysack towards the Gustav. "My brother's not around, so you won't get to meet him. He pilots the Red Blade Liger."

"I'll walk along with the transport as for meeting the other there is no rush really." Lance replied as the Leomaster stood beside the Gustav now waiting for the other two.

Angel looked over his zoid. "After travelling how far? I'm amazed your zoid hasn't pooped out already. It looks half-dead as it is. Where's your ZBC-licensed Gustav, anyways?"

"Errr well let's just say it got turned into target practice a few miles back."
He said with a small laugh.

"The Guysack's small. It can stand on the Gustav's topside if I'm in it." Gary's little zoid scuttled over towards the transport zoid.
"That works." Angel's Leomaster hopped into the open magna platform. "Waitaminute. Who turned it into target practice?"

"Well I'm not sure dead men don't tell many tales I'm sure there carcasses could tell you."
He said with a small smirk.

" . . . Zah?" Gary blinked. "What kind of . . . y'know, morons would . . . okay, please tell . . . never mind. Just . . . never mind." His Guysack scuttled atop the Gustav. "Angel, you get to drive."
"Well, duh." Angel climbed out of the Leomaster's cockpit and walked out as the magna platform sealed shut behind her. "Get into the second one, Lance."

The Leomaster hopped onto the spare Magna Platform and he hopped out and headed to the Gustav cockpit and entered the backseat and relaxed popping open a bottle fo water.
Never argue with women.

Angel inserted the keys into the ignition and started up the Gustav's several motors. It set up a pleasant rumble as the little transport set out across the wasteland.
"So, Lance, where're you from?"
"I'm getting whisker-whipped up here." Gary's voice came over the comms. panel. He sounded somewhat giddy.

Lance's small frame was streched out on the backseat as he leaned his head against a seat arm. The pleasent rumble of the Gustav's engine was definantly something he was used to and he was glad he didn't have to drive.
"Southren Edge of Nyx."
He replied in a no-nonsense response as if he didn't feel like going into specifics.

"Ooh, stop, slow down. I'm getting airsick up here."
Angel ignored Gary. "Ever been to Dustoff Point?"

"A few times I've done quite a bit of traveling."
More like kill assignments.
Lance thought to himself quietly as he continued to relax in the back taking another drink of water.

Angel nodded. "Ever been to the Bluffs?"

"Once and it was for another line of work so I didn't really explore."
He said quietly and opened a pill bottle and took a couple washing it down with water as well.

"And those pills are?" All casual tone left her voice. Angel was quite serious about not having an abuser on their Team. She slammed the breaks, causing Gary's 'Sack to tumble down quite humorously.

Lance simply applied pressure to his seat to brace himself and glanced at her with unemotional eyes.
"They're to ensure that I get at least four hours of sleep tonight."

Angel stared at him long and hard before accelerating the Gustav again. Gary's voice came over the comms. panel. "What in the Nine Hells are you two doing in there? Having wild monkey sex on the steering wheel or something?"

"Here."
He handed a prescription note to Angel for her to read. The note was from a liscensed physician in the Central Continent. It noted it was a heavy sedative that was to give Lance dreamless sleep since apparently he had a deep trouble with it.

Gary's Guysack scuttled back up the Gustav.
Angel flipped on the comms. "Yes. Leave us alone." She handed the perscription back to Lance. "I had a few friends go down that path, y'know?" She turned her eyes back to the dirt road as the engines once again rumbled away.

"Going down that path is only self-destructive I went through insanity once it wasn't pretty I have no intention on going through that cycle again."
Lance's reply actually had a tinge of emotion this time a bit of sympathy as if he understood. He settled in the backseat again as he looked over Gary and Angel.

Angel nodded as Gary did not shut up.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we th-"
"No!"
"Are-"
"Yes!" Angel let out an exasperated moan as they pulled up to the Stonecutters garage in Mandragor Gap, a small town in the wildlands of Delpoi. She looked to Lance. "He's usually like this when he's bored, by the way. It's only when he's piloting that he gets anything resembling serious."

"Isn't that how all children act?"
Lance asked with small amusement as he hopped out of the Gustav and headed to his Leomaster as the Magna Platforms opened up. Starting up the Leomaster again he moved it to a parking space that didn't seem to have been used recently before making sure the Liger was hooked up as necessary and hopping out again. A small containment area and dropped down and Lance grabbed all three of his bags.

"He does it on purpose."

Gary's Guysack barely avoided stepping on Lance as he went about the business of stowing the zoid on the magna platform. "Y'know, we'll have to get our hands on a fourth magna platform for this guy. Either that, or see about getting him a second Gustav." His voice boomed over the loudspeakers to either side of the little zoid's cockpit.
Angel nodded. When Gary got out of the cockpit and dropped to the floor, he continued. "Shouldn't be too hard. The ZBC gives those things away, after all; they're dirt cheap to make."

Lance raised his brows and shrugged.
"Doesn't matter to me."
As he shouldered one of his bags and carried the other two.
"Just tell me where the rooms are so I can drop these off."

Gary nodded. "Follow me."

He led Lance to a nearby apartment complex. "My brother and I live here," he explained. "But Aden's out for a while, off making some movie or another. You can bunk on the couch until we get you set up proper." He fumbled for the keys, then cracked open the door.

"Works for me."
Lance replied calmly just neatly setting his bags out of the way and flopping on the couch like a guy with one objective in mind. And that objective didn't involve movement.