((This is just a general story to "explain" why the Descat tournament took...er, is taking, so long. I'll close it if you want me to, but I just had to get this story out of my head...sorry.))

Prologue: Pollux and Castor

The ZBC and Peacekeepers were patting themselves on the back this day, actually about three months ago. Not just for fun, but because a pair of their more exceptional brainchildren had finally been born and physically realized. After countless years of testing and destroying, rebuilding and testing again, the new Zoids had finally been born.

It was accepted that these Zoids should be rare, only a select few would be able to pilot them and even own one. To speak their names openly before the agreed public release was considered sacrilige, and thus they were code named "Pollux" and "Castor" after the twins in Gemini since they were to be released about the same time.

And so it came to pass awash a flurry of controversy and excitement that Pollux and Castor were unleashed upon the planet of Zi: the Salamader and the Descat.

It wasn't unexpected that everyone would want one of each, but it was unexpected that the Code Name: Castor (the Descat) would be used in a tournament of prototypes. Many begged that it not be done, claiming that the Descat's secrets could be stolen...but others were of a different opinion. They felt that these new Zoids should be proven before being reproduced and so the tournament was slated, accepting eight commonplace and eager pilots.

Code Name: Pollux (the Salamander) was also expected to have a tournament of its own to rival its "twin," but it was later discovered that the Salamander was already in the 'testing phase' by the Peacekeeper Organization, though the true amount of these flying demons was never declassified.

It was difficult for the ZBC to turn away pilots eager for the opportunity to pilot a Descat if even for one battle, but it was done when the eight were chosen to pilot them. The ZBC claimed that only nine Descats existed: the eight in the tournament and the ninth Descat to be given to the winner of the said tournament. But even then, no government institution exists without its dirty little secrets...

It was here in the antechamber of the prototype department of a classified Zoid-producing company that the tenth Descat stood idle, awaiting its move to the vault where other Zoid prototypes sat waiting to be declassified for public viewing. The Descat shone as the security guard walked around it, tossing his nightstick from one hand to the other.

The Salamander's prototype should have also been here, but it had been confiscated by the PKO for "further research." Even the PKO had to admit the potential of Code Name: Pollux...and perhaps later, Code Name: Castor would be realized as well, or so its creators thought.

A slight shift brought the guard to a stop under the display lights, his eyes narrowing as they searched the shadows of the antechamber. While nothing was openly wrong, even the guard couldn't discern the feeling he had experienced and took the radio from his belt.

"Jonas," the guard whispered into the radio's grill. "Jonas, where are you?"

"He's taking a little nap," a female voice answered from somewhere behind the guard and he turned, his head suddenly jerking back as an unseen blow landed on his chin. "Join him, won't you?"

The guard hit the ground with a dull whump, his nightstick clattering across the marble floor until it was stopped by a heavy, steel-tipped boot. A slight checkle punctuated the darkness as a man stepped from the shadows, waiting patiently as a woman wearing a hood slid from behind the Descat's nearest foreleg.

"Apparently they can't afford good security these days," the man said as he walked over to the guard and rolled the man over with his toe. "Pathetic, just like the other four."

"You'd think they would have a personal army guarding this thing," the woman snorted as she looked up at the Descat's protruding fangs. "I'd be sleeping in it personally."

"My dear, shall we get our Descat and go?"

The woman smiled darkly, her lips the only thing visible from under her hood. "Yes, let's."

((Any opinions or comments, please feel free to post them.))