((Okay, continuity and coherent timeflow involving my team is officially screwed. Here's how everything is going to be happening. Assuming Chris loses the battle against Nighteyes in the RC, Relaxing in the Sun will continue as normal. If she wins, it becomes a whole different ball game. Regardless, this event takes place two days after the end of the RC. The events transpiring around John's Liger Zero will take place in real time during this event.))

There was a general lack of noise within the hangar of the Team Vagrant base as three of the pilots sat cross-legged on teh floor, watching a big data projection against the wall. Streams of data were flowing across it as the other pilot worked within the cockpit of his Zoid. Finally, he wiped his brow.

"There, all done. The Magna Grappling System and the Delta Unit have been wired in. Now..." Blaine paused and wiped his sweaty brow. He settled into the pilot seat of his Gunsniper, fiddling with the controls while Matthew and Natalie turned to watch him. John kept focused on the data streams, watching to see if the Delta Unit made any real difference.

"Power her up, Blaine. Mr Frazier, I mean," added John. He gave a half salute to Blaine, who powered up Dragunov. His shining white Gunsniper remained still. He looked puzzled, glancing across the controls. Nothing was getting any reading at all, no trace of power in the slightest.

John looked at the data projection in surprised horror. All the diagnostics had spiked. Much more than they should have. Some of the energy readings were unrecordable, such was their height. He turned to shout to Blaine to get out of the Sniper, and froze, his mouth hanging open. Dragunov the Long Shot was pulsating light, beams washing out from between gaps in the armour. The most light was pouring out of the cockpit, and John was sure that whatever else was happening, Blaine would surely end up blinded by this... this mishap, or whatever it was.

The beams all faded away, the Gunsniper losing all it's light. It steadily began to turn more and more grey, until it became a shadow silhouette, sucking in all the light around it. John observed this all with a detached horror, his mind racing to keep up with events. Time seemed to be stretching out into minutes, but the clock on the projector stubbornly delared that it had been only fifteen seconds since the Delta Unit was activated. At twenty seconds, the blackness was blown back from the Zoid for a half second by a pulse of blue-white light emanating from what seemed to be the Zoid's core (and oh my god, it was the core, he could see it, even through the armour, it was so bright) before collapsing back. At twenty five seconds it happened again, sustaining itself for one and a half seconds this time before the intense blackness raced back in.

The timer ticked over to 00:32 and there was a massive blast of light, accompanied by a rush of what seemed to be wind, or some sort of energy, streaming from the Zoid in a ring. The light blinded John, Matthew and Nat, and they stumbled around, hollering silently, their voices broken and abused by this strange event. Eventually, the light began to clear and it became apparent that all the shadows in the hangar were distorted, flickering and twitching as all the objects in the big room were bathed in a deathly-blue light. Where the Gunsniper had been standing stood the reason for this strange light, a pulsating, spinning hemisphere of blue energy that completely encompassed the Gunsniper.

Dragunov, assisted by the Delta Unit, had reached a point above and beyond itself, and was taking it to the next level. It was evolving. Let the countdown begin.

14:00:00:00

Darkness. Inky darkness. Blaine started to become aware of dim light, and noises. Cracking noises that he knew well. Gunshots. He felt around blindly, searching for the canopy release switch. His hand stumbled over it and he flipped it, the canopy of the Gunsniper swinging open with a whoosh. It was night time, and the Gunsniper was in a thick fog. There were occasional dim flashes that coincided with the sounds of gunshots, so it was pretty obvious what was going on. Sort of. He still had no idea how he'd ended up here.

Blaine flicked on his penlight, running through the startup sequence, wanting to get Dragunov out of the fog as soon as possible. He prepped the switches, readied the Sniper and started him up. Nothing. Not even the slightest flicker of power came to the Gun Sniper. Blaine swore fiercely, blaming the goddamn new and experimental Delta Unit for preventing Dragunov from starting. Against his better judgement, Blaine decided to get out and look over Dragunov, make sure everything was okay. If everything he could see was okay, he'd uninstall the Delta Unit and be on his way. He hoped.

Clambering down the Sniper, Blaine was halfway when he noticed a sharp beam of light cutting through the misty swathe around him. Interestingly enough, it seemed to be coming from Dragunov, a few meters to his left. He craned his neck to look around the arm he was climbing down and gasped out loud, losing his grip and falling. As he tumbled the remaining few meters to the ground, his eyes were fixated on Dragunov's chest. It seemed to be cracking, splitting apart. There was a faceted surface a meter or so in and as he impacted the dirt bodily, Blaine realized he was staring at the core of his Zoid. Then his head snapped down, hitting a tree root, and he lost consciousness.

12:19:20:31

John chewed his nails anxiously as he held a holo-conversation with an AIZDAT PR agent. Nat was nearby, also listening intently.

"So you're sure that this... cocoon isn't harmful then?" asked John anxiously. The man nodded an affirming gesture.

"Certainly. AIZDAT has engineered a few evolutions, and generally what comes out is a standard Zoid."

John nodded, grasping the concept. Then something else occurred to him.

"The Gunsniper had a lot of modifications though... by my understanding of what you're saying, won't they be integrated into the new Snipe Master? And will it harm Blaine?"

The PR agent paused for a moment, referring to some notes. Here was some shuffling, and then he found what he was looking for.

"Ah, no, everything seems to be fine. None of the Zoids evolved with modifications seemed to pose inherent problems..." the man finished lamely. John and Nat picked up on the tone, getting a gut instinct that the truth was not being told.

They hounded him with questions, until finally he got rather frustrated.

"Look! It's not the Delta Unit that is doing this, it just speeds the process up a little! If you want details about what happens during an evolution, contact someone who's been inside an evolution cocoon! Contact Wyatt West, damn it!" shouted the PR agent and then hung up. Nat and John glanced at each other.

"What do we do now?" asked Nat, very worried. John called up the ZBC database and selected a name. The holo-phone began to dial.

"We talk to Wyatt West."

The phone rang for about three minutes before Wyatt picked it up. There was no visual feed, and the sounds of a shower in the background told them why.
"Hello?"

"Ah... is this Wyatt West? If this is a bad time, I can call back, its just that we have a team member who's been submitted to a rather strange... evolution. Since you're the only person our team could think of who's been through a similat process, we'd like to talk to you, when your not so busy."

John fiddled with his jacket uncomfortably, awaiting the response. He had an irrational fear of this man, for some unaccountable point. Admittedly though, the guy was a world champion, and he seemed rather vicious in combat, so maybe the fear did have some foundation in reason.

07:00:17:36

Wyatt paused while he shut off the shower. "Yeah. Just gimme a coupla minutes an' I'll give you visual."
He really wasn't all that bad a guy. He was the most personable of his mostly now-deceased team, after all. A little arrogant, perhaps, but what would one expect out of a world champion?

((Well, didn't get as much of this done as I'd hoped. Oh well.))

The swirling cocoon flickered and faltered. Matthew, who'd been on the watch shift, blinked and snorted drowsily, the flickering beginning to wake him up, but not entirely. The next thing did. There was a crack like thunder and the energy cocoon blew outwards in all directions like a heavy wind, tossing loose objects around. one of which was Matt. With a startled yell he went flipping backwards over his chair, slamming into the wall. He sat, dazed for a moment, and looked up. The sight that met his eyes took his breath away.

It was a Snipe Master, but it was black instead of white. It also looked more organic, and was covered in all sorts of spikes and geometric points. Streaks of deep purple highlighted certain areas, and there were little patches of bold silver located in a seemingly random but systematic layout. The end result was something that looked sleek and deadly, powerful and vicious and at the same time very much a demon that wasn't meant to be seen.

Pulling himself up, Matt began to tread towards the Snipe Master, softly and warily. There was a flare of light as the armoured canopy swung open, and light blared out. There was a silhouette struggling to get out, one Matthew recognized. Blaine. He ran towards the Master, and watched the figure pull himself out groggily and topple from the cockpit. Almost like lightning, the right arm of the Master swung out and caught him, settling Blaine on the ground with a gentle motion. Blaine's hair had grown, his face was covered in thick stubble, and he was completely naked. Even his prosthetic leg was missing. Matthew looked fearfully at the Master, and then ran to the phone on the wall. He hit 0, dialling the main room of their little hangar/base.

"Nat? Is that you? It's Blaine! He's come back, the Gunsniper's finished evolving. He looks... he looks in real bad shape!"