The fog rolled thick between the canyon walls, as the mouth of the canyon gave way into a darkened, seemingly lifeless, floor of the canyon. No birds sang their songs, no sound was heard. Traversing through, the canyon has seen it's wear and decay, as chunks of rock laying smashed on the floor canyon floor. The Canyon seemed to stretch for an enternity, and faintly, but surely, white eyes peered from deep within'. The canyon was as wide as 200 meters on some parts, but as thin as 50 meters in others.

Finally, a shape engulfed in the fog, it's eyes gleaming white, and piercing through the darkness, which had seemed to have gotten a bit lighter, and now it is easier to see what one is doing. The Iron Kong stood ready, inside the cockpit, Valen say at the controls, grinning.

A command wolf UCT piloted by Ryu Cloud enters the Cannon at a slow pace of 100kmph. Underneath the earth 10 meters down is his team mate Vincent in his Warshark. Vincent moved the controls forward slightly increasing the speed of the zoid to 120kmph moving ahead of the wolf.

Vincent's eyes watching the radar looking for the zoid they were supposed to be fighting. Ryu activated the wolf's radar in hopes of finding the zoid before it found them or at least to insure no sneak attacks.

The audio comminucations kicked on, as an unfamiliar voice sounded through the cockpits of the two, "So, your brave enough to face me?"

The Composite Sensor Unit acivated, giving him a good sense of where they were, with the fog obstructing view a bit, infared helped pick them out. The AI targetting system was focused on the Command Wolf, who was moving at pretty slow speeds, and not ready for combat yet, so taking charge, Valen grinned.

The 4 missiles from the CP-03 locked on it, the 45 degree angle taking in, so that way it would be harder to determine the Iron Kong's positioning. The BGU, firing at the back mounted weaponry as well, with the 10 shot rocket launcher launch off three shots, one at the Command Wolf's left, one to the right, and one dead on, so it didn't have anywhere to avoid getting hit. The Kong ran forward, BGU blazing for 3 second invervales, shifting it's weight on it's fist to avoid fire. At this area, the canyon was 150 meters wide, and on either side was a 50 meter opening, proceeding to the front, behind the Command Wolf, and behind the Kong. The fog was heavy here, heavier here then anywhere else, as if following the Kong. Once the distance was 200 meters, the Triple Barreled Grenade Launcher lobbed shots, though taking in for momentum and movement.

(This is God-Modding...Is it? New to the rules here.)

(( 0992/Canyon/500 meters, with a thick fog clouding the entire canyon, and it is a tad dark, so it's a bit hard to see. ))

The Kong appeared on the radars of both the CW and the Warshark before the two pilots had even heard the pilot speak.

The Warshark increases to its max speed (150kmph) and vears off to the command wolf's far right and surfaces (40 meters away from it) enough to fire off the missles safely. While facing the general direction of the iron kong as it acquires a lock on it fires off its 80mm beam cannons several times. Once the lock is acquired Vincent fires off all 4 of his missles and dives below the surface quickly to a depth of 14 meters and once again heading 120kmph heads straight toward the kong.

Using the 3D Mapping the kong's exact position was known to Ryu. Wasting no time he comes to a complete stop and fires off all 4 of the Heavy Munitions Mortor Pods the AZ50mm Beam Cannons and 4 rockets from each rocket pod. After firing the barrage the wolf begins to run to its right accelerating as fast as possible.

Okay people, this is officially an unofficial battle now. Since no judge was called down, this is not a 0992 battle, but a 0999 where anything can happen. Be warned.

The Kong's panel glowed brightly as it fixed onto the Command Wolf even through the piercing fog. It began to run its AI system as the bombs and missiles both begin to lock and the BGU fires out a spray of fire, as the Command Wolf UCT skids to a halt. At this range, the accuracy isn't great, but it still hoses across the front of the the Command Wolf, lacerating the armour on the frontal regions and slightly damaging the Mortar Pods. At the same time, Ryu was busy triangulating the location of the Kong with the 3D Mapping, and he grinned as he found it. He shifted stance slightly and then fired his Heavy Munition Mortar Pods, along with a flare of light from his beam cannons and eight rockets.

At this same moment, the BGU missiles locked and the rocket bombs fired in concert with the missiles. And bad things happen. but while we wonder what that is, we'll check on the Warshark.

Vincent surged off to the side of the Wolf and popped out after about a second, reorienting itself with the Kong through the use of its radar systems. It spent a few seconds locking its missiles and firing a few beams at the Kong, a few of which tagged undetermined areas of the Kong, some missing completely. When he was ready, he added his missiles to Ryu's own and then went underground and surged towards the Kong.

Now, back to the Kong and the Wolf. As twelve explosives lanced from the Wolf and seven from the Kong, the BGU was still firing wildly. This had somewhat of an interesting effect as a blistering plasma bolt hit one of the heavy mortars as it streaked away from the Wolf. It exploded in a massive blast, though not nearly as big as it would have if it'd been able to hit something. The resulting explosion took out four of the smaller rockets as they sped through it, but four of them and the remaining three Heavy Mortar Pods continued forward. The BGU ceased firing and the Kong took a step forward, but then the accelerated explosives struck.

There was a massive immolating blast as the equivalent of roughly forty missiles detonated around the Kong. Needless to say, it hurt the Kong, a lot. The explosion stripped away most of the armour across the frontal region of the Kong, and the grenades inside the BGU detonated, blowing up forcefully and deadening the right arm completely as well as strip that side of the head of most of its armour. The entire structure was wreaked and blackened, but somehow the Kong was still functioning, if only barely. However, Valen could draw some comfort in knowing that his rockets and missiles had made it to the wolf unhindered.

The Juggernaut had been hit with the rocket bombs first, stripping away almost all the frontal armour that had been heavily damaged by the BGU, the missiles following through to blow into the front structure and Ryu had a frightening moment of mortality when the cockpit glass blew inwards, slicing open various wounds across his body. The left front leg was removed completely and the right one wasn't operating at all well. And those cuts were really quite severe. He was losing blood fast, but he was still concious and his Zoid was still able to act. Without thinking, he automatically jerked his Wolf to the right and without the left leg to support it it swayed drunkenly as it charged, halting only when it met the cold unfeeling rock of the canyon wall. The head of the Wolf snapped back and the rest of the body sort of collapsed as Ryu slipped into the depths of unconsciousness. He was out of this impromptu battle.

Vincent continued on his merry way, closing the gap between him and the Kong by roughly a hundred and twenty meters, to bring the distance down to three hundred and seventy meters. Valen was badly shaken up and too groggy to try to move the kong for the time being.

The warshark continued on dead ahead at full speed going from a depth of 14 meters down to 15 meters as it continued its journey heading towards the Iron Kong.

As Valen slowly began regaining control of the Iron Kong, he noticed the Warshark was still not appearing, through the IR tracking, so switching to X-Ray vision, he smirked, determining the location of the Warshark, but remaining still, the TBGL, BGU, which was cooling at the moment. He merely lined up with the Warshark, which at this point he could see. He was waiting, the AI of the computer giving different calculations to where the Warshark would rise. Promptly, it would be met with TBGL rounds, BGU fire, the 7 remaining self-guided rockets, and if close enough, a good smack to the face, by a big, strong, heavy, fist. For now, Valen chuckled in his cockpit, still a little groggy from the attack before.

Valen began to pick himself up as Vincent sped towards him through the dirt, completely unaware of the state that Ryu was in. The cockpit of the UCT was a blood-soaked mess, it looked like something vital had been cut open. Ryu was losing lots of blood, very quickly. His heart was erratic, weakening and then speeding up and causing more blood to spill from the cuts he'd sustained. In fact, if any doctor were around at the time, he or she would be stressing the incredibly dangerous situation Ryu was in right now. Without quick attention, it is very likely Ryu will perish.

But let's get onto the more important thing right? The unofficial battle that is worth nothing except having to repair your Zoids? That's the important thing here, right?

Well, Vincent powered along, happy as Larry, making a straight beeline for the downed Kong. Meanwhile, Valen hauled himself up in his seat and gripped the controls, slowly bringing the Kong to bear as he activated the X-Ray sensors. Sadly, they weren't very effective at spotting the Warshark through 15 meters of dirt from the distance Valen was at. So he decided to just fire away in the general direction of right in front of him. So groggy was he that he continued to press the firing trigger for the grenade launcher and the Beam Gatling Unit, seemingly missing the big diagnostic screen that showed that there simply wasn't a shoulder on his right side any more, really. The AI tried valiently to get a lock, but with only brief glimpses of the Warshark through less dense pockets of dirt, no luck was had. Vincent powered forward, to about one hundred and twenty meters.

Ryu continued to bleed.

The Kong was faster then the Warshark could dig, he said to himself, his remaining rockets ready to fire, should it pop it's head. He charged forward, the X-Ray radar trying to pick up a detection of the Warshark, while the rockets were still ready to fire, having been on his oppisite shoulder, and only had fired three in the first round.

Charging forward, Valen was both pissed, and groggy, not a good combination, though coming to grips with reality, "Seven?", he assured himself, "Seven, yes." Ready to release them all, or pound the Warshark with his fists, when it popped it's head, he opened the communications link, "Your friend is dieing. Should you like to save him, respond, and then come to the surface, facing away, and deactivate your Zoid." Valen said, confidently, though still charging forward, ready to clobber it, should it not follow his exact orders. Seven rockets? Plenty.

"Carrel? 'Pparently those Zoids have beat each other up good. Go in for the capture?" came a garbled voice over the Deadborder's radio. The Kraken they were swanning around in was generating a lot of heavy interference witht he radio spectrum, and helped hide them from radar view. Not that the Zoids below could see them. Such was the danger of a canyon, you couldn't see over the sides. Not even with the common radar systems and the like. Much too high. So the Kraken was simply resting on the flat, snowblown landscape while a few Zoids shifted in the hazy fog outside.

Inside the Deadborder's cockpit, Carrel frowned. He was patching the radio transmissions from the Zoids in the canyon, thanks to the modified antenna of the Kraken, and it seemed someone was dying. He contemplated moving, but decided to wait until they had a little more info.

"Negative Buster. Just keep that Electromag Radome running, an' make sure yer Flarestars are ready for a combat situation."

Carrel glanced out of the Deadborder's cockpit at the hive of activity around him. The Kraken was a big carrier, but it was almost filled with Zoids and various workers steadily repairing, finetuning and otherwise fiddling with them. And they were all under his command. He smirked grimly, and decided for the umpteenth time how much he loved being the leader of a ruthless gang. Being on Nyx, none of the world organizations bothered them, and they made their livings off the lands and the occasional foolish wanderers who slipped into Nyx. He checked the diagnostics of his Deadborder, and, satisfied, clicked the comm unit. When he spoke, his voice echoed through the speakers around the Kraken.

"Badland Boys, combat readiness. We might be goin' in. Med units, prepare for a few incoming guests. If we can capture peacefully, chances are we'll have a near-dead guy on our hands. Be prepared."

((Bastard. I was just about to have either Stryker or the Sheriffs show up to bitchslap everybody involved.))

Vincent's frowns as he opens the communications link.

"Anyone out there! My partner needs immediate assistance, he is wounded badly!"

He knew he was going to have to act fast to save Ryu, but the kong was still up there. However something told him that the pilot of the Kong wouldn't go along with a ceasefire.

Vincent continued on his way at full speed heading toward the Kong until he was less than 5 meters away from him (still 15 meters below surface). He adjusted the angle of the zoid's head and pointed it straight at the kong's front. Rather than just fire away, he assumed the kong wasn't standing up and fired the zoid's 80mm Beam Cannon at it's chest area squeezing the trigger rapidly as the zoid slowly rose to a depth of 10 meters below the surface.

Carrel listened in for a moment longer before he decided to make his move.

"Badland Boys, entrapment positions. Go!" he commanded as his Deadborder began to move, stomping out of the Kraken. He made his way towards the narrow and steep path that led down to the canyon floor, watching his monitors. His recon Wolf was overseeing the battle movements using its powerful Viking Lance RADOME.

On Carrel's command, four Demantis rears swung over the edge of the canyon, pointed down at the battered Iron Kong. From hiding holes came powerful beams of carving light, shearing neatly through the frame that held the Ballistic Missiles, and they clunked to the ground behind the Kong, rendered useless. From one end of the canyon came the clattering of a tread-equipped Cannon Tortoise, mounting a Heavy Beam Cannon and a jury-rigged pair of CP-01 Beam Cannons from a Shield Liger. At the other end of the canyon came two Gorhecks, one sporting the powerful Ontos, the other mounting a pair of jury-rigged Cannonry Units.

Emerging from secret crevices and cracks in the canyon came three Command Wolves, two mounting a Beam Gatling Unit and the third an outlawed and outdated modification, a huge box filled with spikes, commonly called the Deathrain Unit. They surrounded the Kong, almost all the firepower focusing on it. Some of the firepower instead tracked the Warshark under the ground, using feed from the RADOME Wolf up top.

"Zoid Pilots! Surrender your Zoids, you've encroached on Badland Boys territory! As recompense, we will take your Zoids," boomed the voice of Carrel over an open broadcasting station. The pilots would have to comply, but just to make sure...

"Pilot of the Iron Kong! In your damaged state, the multitude of weapons we have targeted on your cockpit will punch through it and kill you the moment we get any readings of your Kong powering up or preparing for combat. Warshark owner, we have dispatched a complement of five burrowing Zoids to take you out if you do not surface and surrender now. We will take the injured one and care for him, and he will be dropped at the nearest hospital on the Western Continent when he is stabilized."

Carrel's Deadborder emerged from the passageway, his Deadborder turning to face the Kong. Immediately he engaged the Magnesser Beams mounted on his heavy weapon pods, one pushing the Kong, the other pulling it. The pilot wouldn't know it, but whether he wanted to move or not he was fixed in place. Carrel couldn't help but give a snide comment.

"Heh, so sad. But when we've robbed ya and dropped you off on the Western Continent, go see the bleeding softies at the ZBC. You're insured right? If so, we're all friends, your pal doesn't die, and we all get what we want. Situation resolved."

((By the way. As this is basically the end of you two fighting, the Kong incurred Heavy Damage, has no BGU or attached weapons, no ballistic missiles, and has expended three rocket bombs. The UCT has moderate damage, but it's the shattered cockpit and bleeding pilot that are the problem. Vincent and his bloody Warshark have nada wrong with them. But there are people closing in on him in a ring. Ha.))

Vincent's radar was showing blips coming from all around, several of which were closing in on his position. He had a decision to make at that moment. Either hand over his zoid or be killed and it still be taken from him. The answer was very obvious at this point. He sighed and looked down at the controls as he gripped them tightly and moved them forward causing the Warshark to surface.

"I surrender..."

Valen began laughing inside of his cockpit, heard loud over the audio sensors. It wasn't a laugh, like someone just told a joke, a laugh that sounded disturbed. It echoed through all the cockpits, and churned down to a low murmer, "Ha!" He finally screamed, "Couldn't take me by yourself, could you?" He began his disturbed laugh again, "Had to wait until I was weakened, and outnumbered!" He continued laughing.

"Ha-ha..hmm...Yes...Quite the laugh. Coward." His comments were aimed towards the Deadborder pilot, who was obviously in charge. He started laughing again, this time lower. "Led by a man too afraid to face me himself."

"I see the odds are not in my favor, nor can I do anything in this current state." He never said he surrendered, he had too much pride for that. "So yes...Come get me if you want me." He powered down the Iron Kong, and sat in the cockpit, his blood stained hair hanging in his face, and running down his shirt.

Carrel simply sent a few orders to various members of his gang as the Kong pilot attempted to derade him. He'd heard it all before, and it had never made any difference. He was a great pilot, and was confident in his abilities. He had no reason to prove himself.

"Kong and Warshark pilots, exit your cockpits. Do not attempt to run away. If you do, you will be dead far too quickly to make any progress."

Carrel smiled cruelly as he thought of the pilots trying to escape into the harsh environment of Nyx. It wasn't like they'd get far, but still...

"Once you are on the ground, you will remove all items of clothing on your person, and all accessories, throwing them far away from you. The weather is cold, so the faster you do this, the better," suggested Carrel as a heavily modified Molga bored its way out of the canyon floor and trundled towards the two enemy Zoids. The Molga, having originally been an APC, was the perfect prisoner transport Zoid for situations like these. It pulled to a halt about fifty meters from the Zoids.

Valen sighed, opening the cockpit and unstrapping himself. He walked to the edge of his cockpit, peering down. He dropped straight down, cringing once he hit, crouched, to absorb the pain. He still fell forward, landing on his open palms, with a sharp rock digging into his palm. He stood up, shaking his hand. He wiped the blood off his face, walking forward.

He reached behind him, pulling out a pair of pistols which had been sheathed to his lower back. He spun them around, then pointed his arms straight out, barrels facing either side, smirking. He ran his thumb over the engravings on each of the handels, 'There Is No Peace', the other, 'Without War'.

"I better be getting these back." He ordered, twisting them in his hand so the butt of the pistols now faced away from him. He lowered them to the ground slowly, "I'm not throwing them, if thats what you think."

He'd been wearing a black cloak, and black gloves, which reached all the way to his forearms. He unclipped the brooch of his cloak, letting it fall to the ground. Under, he wore a simple black suit vest, buttoned until mid-way up his chest, with no undershirt. He had a pair of black dress pants on, with a black belt, silver buckel. He had on a pair of black dress shoes on, which would normally be shining, but the ground had covered them in a soft layer of sand.

Crouching to the ground, he pulled up his pant leg, and pulled out a standard military short knife. He held it out, pointing it at the Molga, then rolled it acrossed his fingers, catching the blade between his pinky and ring finger. He threw it up, as it was spinning in the air, he reached out and grabbed the handel, thrusting it blade down. It hit the sand and stuck there.

"I'm not disrobing. I've still got some pride left." He said, rubbing his thumb on the underside of his nose. The weather was cold, and raised goose bumps up and down his arms, but he didn't shiver, he pretended he wasn't cold. One can't show weakness.

Vincent unstraps himself and presses a button opening the cockpit. He stood on the head of the zoid a moment before jumping off the side and braces himself as he lands on the ground. He unbuckles his holster and throws it to the ground.

Many ideas ran through his head as he continued taking of his jacket, t-shirt, jeans, and shoes. He was now standing only in his boxers with his wristbands on with his arms folded glaring at the zoids.

Maybe there was some way for them to get out of this mess..... He'd have to wait for the opportunity though no way he could do anything against them all in that warshark.

Carrel frowned at the Kong pilot's defiance of his orders. He sent another order to the Molga, and the back hatch opened, and two men jumped out, each with a large tranquilizer rifle. Before the prisoners knew what was happening, they were out for the count. Two more men hopped out of the Molga and they all went to the two poor souls, binding them and gagging them too, before hauling them back to the Molga.

Carrel refocussed his Magnessor Beams and with two working in concert he was able to easily drag the Kong towards his own Deadborder. He knew that soon some pilots would be down to take the Zoids back to the Kraken. Once that deed was done, he simply decided to observe happenings, watching as medics swarmed over the downed Command Wolf. A stretcher came out of the Wolf's cockpit, with a prone body lying on it, and two medics pushing magnessor trollies with vital life-support equipment followed. All three of the captured Zoids were requisitioned, and with this done, the Badland Boys began to make their way back to the Kraken.

Jason wakes up and becomes aware of the fact that he is lying on a bed. He slowly opens his eyes and looks over the entire room. He gets up and quickly gets dressed and sits back down on the bed pondering what to do about the situation.

As he is thinking a man wearing a desert camo uniform steps up to the bars.

"Our leader wants to speak with you."

Not wanting to be rude, he simply nods his head and stands up as the door to his cell is opened. The man slaps handcuffs on him and he walks behind the man following him down several corridors towards a large brown door. The man opens the door revealing a rather large office with a man sitting with his back turned to them.

Carrel clears his throat and shifts around in his chair a bit before speaking.

"Vincent... You are here because I have a proposition for the storm riders. I want the 4 of you to become members of the Badland boys. We watched your battle with Valen and your other battles. From what we've seen your team isn't bad, however they could be much better. We'll also let you keep your zoid's or pay you what they are worth... Whichever you prefer.

You would be one of a few teams we have that are registered with the ZBC. Teams tricked into unofficial battles are captured and stripped of their zoids. This most of the time will be your purpose should we need your services. However, once you become a member you can never leave. Once a member of the Badland boys always a member."

Vincent thinks carefully as he stares at the back of the man's head. It wasn't exactly a bad idea. There was no telling what the ZBC would do to them if they had been caught fighting in an Unofficial battle like that. Their zoids would probably have been taken and they would have been heavily fined or worse. A concenered look appeared on his face as he remembered Ryu.

"How is Ryu doing?"

He quickly answered, " Ryu is stable and will recover from his injuries fully."

It was settled when he answered that question in Vincent's mind.

"Sure we'll join, and we want our zoids back."

Carrel nodded and snapped his finger which was a sign to the guard to take him to the zoid hanger.

Vincent blinked as he realized something.

"How will you contact us?"

Carrel laughed and said in an assuring voice,

"Don't you worry about that Vincent."

The guard tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and then the two were off to the zoid hangar. It took them a while to get there because of the size of the place. He wasn't sure exactly where they were. He knew that they were most likely at their homebase or some kind of transport.

The guard stopped at in the middle of a door way and moved toward the side with his hand motioning for Vincent to enter. He walks in and sees the warshark, command wolf, and even the Iron Kong. The repairs on the the wolf were complete, the kong however was gonna be next probably.

Vincent walked through the door and down along the railway to his zoid which gets into and checks out.

"Everything is as i left it...."

He sighed and his eyes wondered around the bay to the many other zoids in it. The intercom comes on breaking his concentration.

"Vincent in roughly 2 hours we will be meeting up with your Gustav, we will drop you and your partner off there."

He went about his business checking out his systems and for the better part of 2 hours sat bored. Just like they promised they dropped them and their zoids off with their gustav and left.

Vincent pushing Ryu in a wheel chair towards the gustav called out to Jason who was just getting out of the cockpit of the Gustav.

Jason looks at them with an interested look on his face.

"What took you so long, I was only supposed to be out here a 5 hours tops. YOU GUYS WERE GONE FOR 4 DAYS!"

A suprised look appeared on vincent's face, but disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"We were out for four days?" he thought quietly to himself.

Of course that would explain a lot of things, such as how Ryu has looks to have recovered a bit since last time.

Jason yelled, "Do you hear me talking to you?"

Vincent looked up from the gustav to him and nodded.

"Well what happened to Ryu, Vincent?"

"The glass from the command wolf's cockpit shattered and flew into the cockpit cutting him. Anyways... Lets go inside and i'll tell you what happened. Ryu needs his rest."

The three entered the gustav and left for home.