HOME | DD

Description
"How could this have happened…?" Nel sat on the ground, her blade falling from her limp grasp, as she gazed at the pedestal. "Who could've done something like this!?"

The others were just too shocked to respond. Never, not once, had they thought that something like this was even remotely possible. Trace walked up to the pedestal, surveying the damage, Testarossa behind him. "Whatever it was, it didn't originate from this planet," he commented, calmly, shocking Nel and the others out of their trance. "More then likely, those machines that we fought outside were just decoys, meant to hinder us while they achieved their immediate goal." He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Testarossa.

She nodded, staring up at the hole in the ceiling. "Whoever they are, they couldn't have gotten far!" She shouted, leaping up, easily clearing the hole. Floating, she cast her gaze about for several minutes, her eyes latching onto something in the East. "Trace, their flying low to the ground to the east! They most likely want to get some distance before they lift into space! I'll go do what I can while you lead the others there!"

Trace frowned, opening his mouth to comment, but wisely shut it, having learned long ago that when Testarossa said she was gonna do something, she'd do it, come hell or high water. "Let's move people, we can still-" when he turned around, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see that everyone else had already left. "Well, you can at least warn me when your gonna leave..." He trudged afterwards, crossing his arms. "Damn, this is such a pain..."

--

"Hurry, we can still catch them!" Maria shouted back, leading the way. Hot on her heels, Nel merely grunted in acknowledgement. Fayt growled looking back at Trace, a fair distance behind.

"Come on Trace, move! Damn, how're we going to catch them, if their in a shuttle?" Fayt growled, his normally gentle eyes betraying his anger.

"-You got it Cliff? Prepare the weapons on the Diplo! As soon as they get in range, knock them down to the ground! We'll handle it from there!" Maria was saying into her communicator, before she misstepped on one of the animated blocks near the entrance, falling flat on her butt. She shook her head and moved to stand, but Nel used her back as a springboard, launching into the air to land a little under a story below on the walkway below.

"We don't have time! Just jump!" Nel growled, heading through the door. Again, before she could stand, Maria was used once again as a springboard by Kara and Fayt.

"I'm sorry, Maria!" Both shouted in unison, shrugging apologetically as they landed, rolling to absorb the shock before getting up and running again.

"Damn it! Don't use me as a lift!" Maria shouted after them, her back aching through her armor.

"Need a lift?" Trace asked, not entirely mockingly, as he swept past her, snatching her up in his arms, the wings that had sprouted around his wand tip propelling them at breakneck speeds, soaring past the others, nearly knocking them over.

"Hey, what gives!?" Maria shouted, once her senses had caught up with her, just outside of the queen's castle.

Trace looked down at her, his shining eyes clearly betraying his excitement. Before Maria could voice another question, Trace started babbling in a different language, one that, for one reason or another, wasn't in her translator's data banks, beyond a few passing words. "...Catch...speed...chicken...soba..." Needless to say, what she was understanding wasn't making much sense to her at all.

"Does it look like there's any frikking restaurants here??" Maria nearly shouted, but a sudden jolt as Trace sped up caused her to nearly bite her tongue in half.

"When your pilot is in flight, please refrain from speaking, Miss Traydor," a voice said, and it took Maria a moment to understand it was the wand speaking.

"Kratz, set piercing round!" Trace shouted, again in the language that Maria couldn't understand as she got dropped off on a tree branch. Trace hovered just a few feet above Maria, 'kneeling' and setting his wand the way a sniper might once he'd spotted his prey. Again, the wand spoke, but Maria could only catch passing words, which didn't really make much sense to her, but as it escalated into a heated debate, she figured out that it was the wand objecting to whatever half cooked plan Trace had devised.

Trace sighted down his weapon's handle, aiming at a point just a few feet above the tree line several dozen miles to the north east, waiting for some signal...

...

...

...

...

The shadows from the sun shifted ever so slightly as the planet rotated on its axis; Trace's wand wavered slightly as the minutes dragged on; and still, there was no sign of whatever sign Trace was waiting for. "What are you doing just wasting time!?" Maria shouted, moving to punch him, but he kept hovering just out of her reach, and since she was too high up to jump, and she couldn't climb, she was effectively stuck.

...

...

...

A slight breeze caused the leaves to shiver, and the edge of some rogue spacecraft that Maria couldn't really make out crested, angling up towards space. Maria barely had time to register the craft before Trace's wand went off, one shot angling out over the miles, reaching out for the heart of the craft...and disappeared just outside of the hull as a shield caught it in the nick of time. For several long, agonizing minutes, the target hovered in the air, as if frozen in space.

And then, it happened-

The shockwave from the blast neatly leveled any form of plant life in the area, destroying some of the smaller nearby mountains, and even blew Trace away, spinning wildly in midair in an effort to regain some semblance of bouyancy, Maria clinging to his legs desperately throughout the wild ride. When she finally looked back at where the craft had been, she found herself staring at a crater miles wide, and even more miles deep. The sheer magnitude of the damage outclassed even what she had witnessed Fayt cause, and he was the bearer of the Destruction gene!

"Piercing Round; Barrier...Burst..." Trace muttered grimly, his eyes starting to close, several stories in midair. "Ugh, releasing the second power limit really was a bad...ide...a..."

Maria was in a state of blind panick, as she felt Trace's flight spell wearing off. "Hey!! Wake up you idiot!! Don't fall asleep!!" She knew it wasn't any good though, when Trace's eyes closed; Immediately, the pair plummeted towards the earth, several stories below, with nothing to catch onto or break their fall. Maria started to black out, though she thought she saw a black shape flying towards them...

--

"Any change in Trace's condition?" Maria asked, sipping some green tea with Cliff Fayt and Kara. It had been three days since the Sacred Orb had been stolen, and they still had no leads where it was. All they knew was that it wasn't on the ship Trace blew up.

"You're oddly concerned about Trace..." Cliff commented, leaning back in his chair. "You never stop checking on him! I heard from the officers at sick bay that you check on him every ten minutes! Why is that?"

Maria shook her head, a bit of a blush showing. "Why shouldn't I be worried? He's been unconscious for a few days. Isn't it normal to worry about your friends?"

The look that Fayt and Kara gave her was plainly doubting.

--

"Can I get a burger?" Trace wondered to the chef, sipping some cola.

"Sure, I guess. What kind you want?" Chef replied, shrugging. He turned back to the grill for a moment to check something, but when he looked back at Trace, he'd already disappeared.

--

"You're finally awake!" Fayt said with a grin, as Cliff brought Trace to their table. "We were worrying about you. What happened?"

"I used up too much power releasing the second power limit," Trace replied simply, sipping some orange juice. He sighed contentedly as Maria and the others stared at him leadingly, waiting for him to continue.

"...And?" Cliff prodded when it became obvious Trace wasn't going to clarify further.

"And what?"

"Tell us more about these limit releases," Kara supplied, looking sidelong at Fayt.

"Oh, well, why would you want to know about something like that?" Trace wondered, sipping his drink. "It's not really something that directly involves you, so there's no real benefit for you to know."

He stretched, casting off the others concerned glances with a reassuring grin. "Look, don't worry about it. It's nothing that serious-"

"Not serious!?" Maria slammed her hands down on the table top, her nails scraping it noisily. "You fainted in midair! You could've died if it wasn't for the fact that Testarossa managed to save us at the last moment! If that's not serious to you..." Maria looked, down, unable to continue, trying to hide the blush that was making its way across her face.

Trace didn't respond, looking away dazedly. "It's none of your concern...is it?" He asked more then stated, clenching and unclenching his hands.

"Look, just tell us what happened! What's so damn hard about that!?" Maria practically shouted, plainly surprising them all; Maria was not particularly known for exploding, after all.

"I wonder if it's too late to get some popcorn," Cliff and Kara wondered idly, sighing. Fayt just shrugged noncommitally. They could all tell it was gonna be a long day.

--

"Damnit, what the hell's the matter with me!?" Maria muttered, punching a wall. The pain brought her back to earth and she sighed, nursing her throbbing hand. Lately, she had been behaving uncharacteristically, that she knew well enough. She'd been getting agitated more and more often, ever since she'd brought Trace aboard. More then that, just the sight of him was enough to set her heart pounding. She sighed before heading out again, to the sick bay for a check up.

She probably just had a cold.

--

"Something's been weird about Maria lately," Cliff commented, looking at Roger Albel and Sophia as they lay in Sophia's room, playing card games(Albel insisted that he was only playing because he was immensely bored) .

"Really? I havn't really noticed anything," Sophia looked up as she played her Premature burial card (yes, I like the game Yu-Gi-Oh!)

"The cheerful maggot never notices anything," Albel snorted, countering it easily. (lol, Albel playing card games XD I hope he's not a sore loser!)

"Why're you playing girly card games Albel! I challenge you to a 'Real Man' contest!" Roger shouted, pulling on Albels hair, before quickly making a break for it, Albel angrily swinging his katana and claw at him, trying to rip him to shreds.

"I don't think anyone else has noticed, but lately Maria's acting weird around Trace. You think that maybe she has feelings for the guy?" Cliff asked Sophia, ignoring Albel choking the life out of Roger.

"Um, uh, I don't know if..." Sophia replied hesitantly, watching Roger worriedly, "that'd mean anything...Albel! Quit killing Roger!!" She finally shouted, yanking hard on both of Albel's antenna, knocking him over from surprise. "KYAAAA!! Don't kill me!!" She shouted, running as Albel chased after her now.

"Saved by a girl," Cliff commented looking down at Roger, who was getting to his feet dizzily.

"Sh-Shut it, you big lummox!" Roger shouted, kicking Cliff in the ankle.

--

"Have you managed to find out anything?" Maria asked Mirage, blushing, watching as Trace sat at a nearby computer searching for any leads. Mirage shook her head, glancing at Maria knowingly out of the corner of her eye.

"Sorry. I havn't found anything out yet Maria. Why don't you ask Trace if he's found anything? I have a feeling that he'd have a better idea of what to look for then I would."

Maria looked at her shocked. "What? Why would you think that?" She kind of knew the answer already though; He and Testarossa had already known about the machines that had attacked the shrine, and he'd also anticipated the movements of the enemy spacecraft, and had shot it down from a distance of well over a hundred miles.

Maria sighed, hesitatingly approaching Trace, before voicing her question.

"Have you found out anything...?" She querried softly, looking away.

"Oh yeah, I've found quite a bit..." Trace replied grimly, looking nearly overwhelmed. Maria looked at him surprised tilting her head to the side, but before she could ask, he added softly.

"It's-"

Description
"How could this have happened…?" Nel sat on the ground, her blade falling from her limp grasp, as she gazed at the pedestal. "Who could've done something like this!?"

The others were just too shocked to respond. Never, not once, had they thought that something like this was even remotely possible. Trace walked up to the pedestal, surveying the damage, Testarossa behind him. "Whatever it was, it didn't originate from this planet," he commented, calmly, shocking Nel and the others out of their trance. "More then likely, those machines that we fought outside were just decoys, meant to hinder us while they achieved their immediate goal." He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Testarossa.

She nodded, staring up at the hole in the ceiling. "Whoever they are, they couldn't have gotten far!" She shouted, leaping up, easily clearing the hole. Floating, she cast her gaze about for several minutes, her eyes latching onto something in the East. "Trace, their flying low to the ground to the east! They most likely want to get some distance before they lift into space! I'll go do what I can while you lead the others there!"

Trace frowned, opening his mouth to comment, but wisely shut it, having learned long ago that when Testarossa said she was gonna do something, she'd do it, come hell or high water. "Let's move people, we can still-" when he turned around, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see that everyone else had already left. "Well, you can at least warn me when your gonna leave..." He trudged afterwards, crossing his arms. "Damn, this is such a pain..."

--

"Hurry, we can still catch them!" Maria shouted back, leading the way. Hot on her heels, Nel merely grunted in acknowledgement. Fayt growled looking back at Trace, a fair distance behind.

"Come on Trace, move! Damn, how're we going to catch them, if their in a shuttle?" Fayt growled, his normally gentle eyes betraying his anger.

"-You got it Cliff? Prepare the weapons on the Diplo! As soon as they get in range, knock them down to the ground! We'll handle it from there!" Maria was saying into her communicator, before she misstepped on one of the animated blocks near the entrance, falling flat on her butt. She shook her head and moved to stand, but Nel used her back as a springboard, launching into the air to land a little under a story below on the walkway below.

"We don't have time! Just jump!" Nel growled, heading through the door. Again, before she could stand, Maria was used once again as a springboard by Kara and Fayt.

"I'm sorry, Maria!" Both shouted in unison, shrugging apologetically as they landed, rolling to absorb the shock before getting up and running again.

"Damn it! Don't use me as a lift!" Maria shouted after them, her back aching through her armor.

"Need a lift?" Trace asked, not entirely mockingly, as he swept past her, snatching her up in his arms, the wings that had sprouted around his wand tip propelling them at breakneck speeds, soaring past the others, nearly knocking them over.

"Hey, what gives!?" Maria shouted, once her senses had caught up with her, just outside of the queen's castle.

Trace looked down at her, his shining eyes clearly betraying his excitement. Before Maria could voice another question, Trace started babbling in a different language, one that, for one reason or another, wasn't in her translator's data banks, beyond a few passing words. "...Catch...speed...chicken...soba..." Needless to say, what she was understanding wasn't making much sense to her at all.

"Does it look like there's any frikking restaurants here??" Maria nearly shouted, but a sudden jolt as Trace sped up caused her to nearly bite her tongue in half.

"When your pilot is in flight, please refrain from speaking, Miss Traydor," a voice said, and it took Maria a moment to understand it was the wand speaking.

"Kratz, set piercing round!" Trace shouted, again in the language that Maria couldn't understand as she got dropped off on a tree branch. Trace hovered just a few feet above Maria, 'kneeling' and setting his wand the way a sniper might once he'd spotted his prey. Again, the wand spoke, but Maria could only catch passing words, which didn't really make much sense to her, but as it escalated into a heated debate, she figured out that it was the wand objecting to whatever half cooked plan Trace had devised.

Trace sighted down his weapon's handle, aiming at a point just a few feet above the tree line several dozen miles to the north east, waiting for some signal...

...

...

...

...

The shadows from the sun shifted ever so slightly as the planet rotated on its axis; Trace's wand wavered slightly as the minutes dragged on; and still, there was no sign of whatever sign Trace was waiting for. "What are you doing just wasting time!?" Maria shouted, moving to punch him, but he kept hovering just out of her reach, and since she was too high up to jump, and she couldn't climb, she was effectively stuck.

...

...

...

A slight breeze caused the leaves to shiver, and the edge of some rogue spacecraft that Maria couldn't really make out crested, angling up towards space. Maria barely had time to register the craft before Trace's wand went off, one shot angling out over the miles, reaching out for the heart of the craft...and disappeared just outside of the hull as a shield caught it in the nick of time. For several long, agonizing minutes, the target hovered in the air, as if frozen in space.

And then, it happened-

The shockwave from the blast neatly leveled any form of plant life in the area, destroying some of the smaller nearby mountains, and even blew Trace away, spinning wildly in midair in an effort to regain some semblance of bouyancy, Maria clinging to his legs desperately throughout the wild ride. When she finally looked back at where the craft had been, she found herself staring at a crater miles wide, and even more miles deep. The sheer magnitude of the damage outclassed even what she had witnessed Fayt cause, and he was the bearer of the Destruction gene!

"Piercing Round; Barrier...Burst..." Trace muttered grimly, his eyes starting to close, several stories in midair. "Ugh, releasing the second power limit really was a bad...ide...a..."

Maria was in a state of blind panick, as she felt Trace's flight spell wearing off. "Hey!! Wake up you idiot!! Don't fall asleep!!" She knew it wasn't any good though, when Trace's eyes closed; Immediately, the pair plummeted towards the earth, several stories below, with nothing to catch onto or break their fall. Maria started to black out, though she thought she saw a black shape flying towards them...

--

"Any change in Trace's condition?" Maria asked, sipping some green tea with Cliff Fayt and Kara. It had been three days since the Sacred Orb had been stolen, and they still had no leads where it was. All they knew was that it wasn't on the ship Trace blew up.

"You're oddly concerned about Trace..." Cliff commented, leaning back in his chair. "You never stop checking on him! I heard from the officers at sick bay that you check on him every ten minutes! Why is that?"

Maria shook her head, a bit of a blush showing. "Why shouldn't I be worried? He's been unconscious for a few days. Isn't it normal to worry about your friends?"

The look that Fayt and Kara gave her was plainly doubting.

--

"Can I get a burger?" Trace wondered to the chef, sipping some cola.

"Sure, I guess. What kind you want?" Chef replied, shrugging. He turned back to the grill for a moment to check something, but when he looked back at Trace, he'd already disappeared.

--

"You're finally awake!" Fayt said with a grin, as Cliff brought Trace to their table. "We were worrying about you. What happened?"

"I used up too much power releasing the second power limit," Trace replied simply, sipping some orange juice. He sighed contentedly as Maria and the others stared at him leadingly, waiting for him to continue.

"...And?" Cliff prodded when it became obvious Trace wasn't going to clarify further.

"And what?"

"Tell us more about these limit releases," Kara supplied, looking sidelong at Fayt.

"Oh, well, why would you want to know about something like that?" Trace wondered, sipping his drink. "It's not really something that directly involves you, so there's no real benefit for you to know."

He stretched, casting off the others concerned glances with a reassuring grin. "Look, don't worry about it. It's nothing that serious-"

"Not serious!?" Maria slammed her hands down on the table top, her nails scraping it noisily. "You fainted in midair! You could've died if it wasn't for the fact that Testarossa managed to save us at the last moment! If that's not serious to you..." Maria looked, down, unable to continue, trying to hide the blush that was making its way across her face.

Trace didn't respond, looking away dazedly. "It's none of your concern...is it?" He asked more then stated, clenching and unclenching his hands.

"Look, just tell us what happened! What's so damn hard about that!?" Maria practically shouted, plainly surprising them all; Maria was not particularly known for exploding, after all.

"I wonder if it's too late to get some popcorn," Cliff and Kara wondered idly, sighing. Fayt just shrugged noncommitally. They could all tell it was gonna be a long day.

--

"Damnit, what the hell's the matter with me!?" Maria muttered, punching a wall. The pain brought her back to earth and she sighed, nursing her throbbing hand. Lately, she had been behaving uncharacteristically, that she knew well enough. She'd been getting agitated more and more often, ever since she'd brought Trace aboard. More then that, just the sight of him was enough to set her heart pounding. She sighed before heading out again, to the sick bay for a check up.

She probably just had a cold.

--

"Something's been weird about Maria lately," Cliff commented, looking at Roger Albel and Sophia as they lay in Sophia's room, playing card games(Albel insisted that he was only playing because he was immensely bored) .

"Really? I havn't really noticed anything," Sophia looked up as she played her Premature burial card (yes, I like the game Yu-Gi-Oh!)

"The cheerful maggot never notices anything," Albel snorted, countering it easily. (lol, Albel playing card games XD I hope he's not a sore loser!)

"Why're you playing girly card games Albel! I challenge you to a 'Real Man' contest!" Roger shouted, pulling on Albels hair, before quickly making a break for it, Albel angrily swinging his katana and claw at him, trying to rip him to shreds.

"I don't think anyone else has noticed, but lately Maria's acting weird around Trace. You think that maybe she has feelings for the guy?" Cliff asked Sophia, ignoring Albel choking the life out of Roger.

"Um, uh, I don't know if..." Sophia replied hesitantly, watching Roger worriedly, "that'd mean anything...Albel! Quit killing Roger!!" She finally shouted, yanking hard on both of Albel's antenna, knocking him over from surprise. "KYAAAA!! Don't kill me!!" She shouted, running as Albel chased after her now.

"Saved by a girl," Cliff commented looking down at Roger, who was getting to his feet dizzily.

"Sh-Shut it, you big lummox!" Roger shouted, kicking Cliff in the ankle.

--

"Have you managed to find out anything?" Maria asked Mirage, blushing, watching as Trace sat at a nearby computer searching for any leads. Mirage shook her head, glancing at Maria knowingly out of the corner of her eye.

"Sorry. I havn't found anything out yet Maria. Why don't you ask Trace if he's found anything? I have a feeling that he'd have a better idea of what to look for then I would."

Maria looked at her shocked. "What? Why would you think that?" She kind of knew the answer already though; He and Testarossa had already known about the machines that had attacked the shrine, and he'd also anticipated the movements of the enemy spacecraft, and had shot it down from a distance of well over a hundred miles.

Maria sighed, hesitatingly approaching Trace, before voicing her question.

"Have you found out anything...?" She querried softly, looking away.

"Oh yeah, I've found quite a bit..." Trace replied grimly, looking nearly overwhelmed. Maria looked at him surprised tilting her head to the side, but before she could ask, he added softly.

"It's-"