Midday, towards the end of summer; The golden sun raised high in the purple sky, gleamed in magnificence over the inland deserts; its luminescent rays catching in particular, the attention of a wandering skyblue Command Wolf AC, trotting about humbly in boredome through the dryest desert of the continent. Inside the cockpit slept a girl; a girl no more than five-feet-six-inches in height nor eighteen years of age. She lay there, horizantally across the twin pilot seats of her modified wolf(RP purposes only), and her legs scrunched up in discomfort, with a tanned white skin and brownish-gold hair, which seeped five inches lower than her shoulders. Asleep, she had an angelic, innocent face; but in nature she was anything but. Some would say her crazy, meandering in summer through the harshest desert in all of the Eastern Continent, and perhaps she was; yet she was there for a reason beyond that of a joyride or dangerquest, as could be seen from the joy which eluded her face.

Tough winds blew against the softsand, whirling the enormous dust in a raging spin which pressed upon the clearglass of the cockpit, sheating the glass under grains of brown sand. The wolf refused to stop, being set on auto-pilot and being told to do so by her owner; however, Stryke, as the wolf was called, had been mezmorized by the neverending sea of sand, unaware of any direction, simply just trotting without a clue, and weary from the lack of lubrication on its joints.

However, Stryke had soon enough regained full conciousness, letting out a large wolfish howl; her legs had dissapeared from under her, and her body was being dragged around in constant circular motions as he sunk deeper, and deeper into the sand. The violent jerks had knocked the girl of her less than comfortable makeshift bed, and dropped her unto the not so spacious floor. It was..a rather unpleasent way to wake up, let's just say, and she made the very valid.

"Umpf.... Stryke!! What was that for?"

She snarled at her zoid, but the zoid was preoccupied, constantly being drawn below by unmentionable forces. The girl, realizing this, quickly shifted back to manual control and transmission, but it was far too late; the head of the zoid had sunk in wholly into the sand, and out from the bottom end, the entire wolf flew downwards unto a hardened, rocky floor, unlike any found in most deserts. An underground shelter?

The cockpit window slammed open upon contact, and the girl was sent vicously rolling out, her head bleeding and her skin scarred. The girl, lay there, stranded and unconcious, with her metallic gaurdian by her side faring not much better than herself.

(I'll continue this later, feel free to join if you wish)

A white Helcat with a green canopy trotted slowly through the desert. Cepheus, seated inside, was very familiar with this section of the Eastern Continent. He spent his entire childhood in this very wasteland and had grown to know that travelers weren't very common. His gang of misfits just ten years before were a formidable team, preying on small convoys. As the nostalgic Cepheus began to dream, he spotted something on his radar "What's this?" he mumbled to himself. The Helcat stopped and peered over the horizon. Its curiousity overwhelmed Cepheus. He decided to approach cautiously.

The Helcat's radar was ever watchfull. Cepheus began to slouch in his seat. At this pace, it would take an hour to reach the other zoid. He leaned back into the cool seat and closed his eyes. Almost abruptly, the Helcat froze. Annoyed, Cepheus awakens to find that the radar signal had dissapeared. This could mean one of two things... Either the zoid was destroyed, or... it was intentionally cloaking itself. This grasped the man's attention. The leisurly pace formed into a gallop. Cepheus approached the scene in the thrashing sand, looking for any signs of life.

-- Before the arrival of the Helcat --

The eyes of the young girl flickered to life; her vision obscured from the rapid dialation. Bright green eyes pierced the moderate darkness of this new cavern which she had seemed to have unwillingly stumble upon. Her eyes had yet to get acquainted to this darkness, yet she could make out basic outlines. Above her was a calm surface of seemingly weightless sand, it was perfectly layed out in what looked like a relatively large circular platform. The most curious part about this sand was the fact that it had no form of support to be pressed against the cave top as it was, it was as though the sand was itself floating.

The girl, peering straight up, scrunched her face and bit her lip; droplettes of sweat beginning to drop from her heat embowled face. Though she was concealed from the bright light of the midday sun, the heat had certainly passed through the sandy barrier, and had even, in some way, amplified. Her face red, she continued to peer at the strange sea of sand, able to see just outlines of the overhead world. Her attention however, was soon diverted; she had just the weak howls of her downed wolf, and rushed to see how Stryke was faring.

The ironclad wolf was laying on its right side, belly facing the rushing girl; though rigid inside, the girl had felt much pain to see her zoid in such pain. Externally, apart from a few standard dents, the wolf was alright, however, internally, the wolf's system wasn't looking so good. The girl, hesistant, hadn't any idea what to do, having no training on even basic zoid repair, and internal rewiring was even past advanced level. She lay her head on the wolf, staying by its side, afraid to do anything but wait there until she could find some way to help her, zoid, nay, friend.

-- After the arrival of the Helcat --

The calm overhead sea of sand had once more turned into a whirling tempest, as it formed, to what the girl could see, a funnel like shape much like a tornado, with a narrow base about to "touchdown" on the ground of the concealed cavern. Bright lights broke the darkness of the cave, yet violent gusts of sand had kept her vision limited. She peered straight up, searching for any signs of life, spotting what seemed as though the outline of a zoid she couldn't quite identify.

Even out of distrust and unknowingness, she had decided to call for help, for the sake of her downed wolf. She stood, and, facing the outline directly, and wandering as close to the tempest as safely possible, yelled, as loud as she could, though her better instincts told her that her voice could not breach the violent airbursts of the tempest.

"Is...Anybody...Out...There!? HELP!"

The collumn of sand touched down into the surface of the desert. Expectedly, most of the sand from the ground was airlifted. It erupted into the air. The Helcat was completely blind by the continuous pounding of the millions of grains of sand into the head. Cepheus lowered the cat into a crouching position to avoid the more powerfull gusts of wind. Thoughts raced through his mind as he attempted to decide what to do next. What was that zoid doing out in the open? Was it hostile? Could this be a trap? What if the zoid was just an adventurer? What if it wasn't? He approched the apex of the storm, determined to satisfy his curiosity.

Cepheus eased his controls forward, against the wind. He sunk the Helcat's paws deep into what was left of the desert surface. He slowly advanced. Sand was now pounding further into the joints. Cepheus felt the controls lag and fight back his grip. Gaining a firm grasp, he once again pushed them forward, but this time, he spotted something. Ten meters away from him, was a black void. A hole in the desert. It vanished as another wave of sand covered the Helcat's head. Having a close experience with these types of conditions before, Cepheus pushed on into where he found the funnel of sand, and the void.

Expectedly, he began to sink. Cepheus lunged all four legs out, into a position where it would be easy to recover from a long drop. They held firmly as the sand was pushing forward, toward the blackness of the void. The Helcat finally was engulfed by the desert.
His was cut short as he experienced the weightlessness of the fall. Cepheus let out a gasp for air- *BANG* The Helcat's weight struck the solid stone letting out a bonecrunching slam. The pilot wasn't expecting such a short drop. It couldn't have been more than twenty meters, and as such, so was the Helcat. The shocks built into the legs braced the impact. Even so, the momentum carried over as the Helcat tipped over to the side. The shoulder armor absorbed the damage, but Cepheus wasn't faring so well. After being jerked into the side of his seat, a prominent bruise was formed on his shoulder. Nevertheless, he was fully focased. Easily spotting the Command Wolf and the girl, Cepheus lifts the Helcat up to its feet. He sees the motion of her mouth.. over and over. Not hearing a word, he cautiously opens up the canopy.

[The beam of light coming illuminating the "cave" is slowly becoming smaller and smaller. The tempest is dying down, and bringing the sand with it.]