Sayonara Babylon! CHAPTER THREE!

BEGIN CHAPTER THREE: ROUTINE DAY! Survival of the Scavengers!

'Terra Prime!'

We see Earth, Shattered into a Swiss cheese like consistency, is orbited by several smaller chunks of it's former mass.

'Once a planet of peace and beauty, Now Destroyed; Hopeless to be repaired.'

We pan through mountains and valleys, all part of the former ocean floor. A Crater, every now and again, appears.

'Day to day, the survivors on this lifeless piece of carbon live their lives.'

We see the Tan vehicle connected to the Mobile Command center, driving through the desert that was once the Indian Ocean.

'One group, however, is about to find it even harder to do so...'

Driving the vehicle and it's trailer, is D.T. (currently wearing a tan fight jacket over his long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of camouflage patterned jeans), solely accompanied by his holographic companion, A.I.

"I still think we shouldn't be running towards the falling meteorite!" A.I. complains.

"The further away we are from Kai, the better!" D.T. announces. "He's been silent the past week. Meaning that he's got something up his sleeve."

Inside the trailer's front left corner, we can see T.s. (dressed solely in a loose t-shirt and a pair shorts) watching an old cartoon on a wall mounted screen. "ha-ha! Go Mister Mousy! GO!"

Inside the rear right corner of the trailer, we find M.D. (wearing a doctor's standard white ankle lengthed jacket, buttoned up from the bottom to the collar) reviewing one of his many books on doctoring'. "'Blood flow...' huh?"

'What challenges await these survivors varies from day to day:

'Today, however, will forever be separate from the rest.'

MEANWHILE_ _ _ K.I.'s OLD ABANDONED MISSILE SILO_ _ _

K.I., whom we met last chapter, growls over his loss a week prior. "Without that compy-lampy, I can't finish my grand project!" He stares out over the balcony he stands on into the chamber before him, In which rests a single, Military grade, Inter-Planetary Missile from the early twenty-two-hundreds.

"The Grand Restoration!" he shouts dramatically to enjoy the echo of the chamber. At least he still had SOME things to make him happy.

Wing, the girl mysteriously trained in a Samurai Sword, sighs. "I think we should just move along without the Cell Port. It should work just fine without it."

K.I. turns to face his lackey. "Oh? And what do you think will happen when, without that kyro-tapper thing." he frowns and smashes his hand into his fist. "The rocket encounters the electromagnetic remnants of the Meteorite? Or encounters a debris field?" K.I. growls, then whispers in Wing's ear. "What will happen is that we. Will." She pales. "Explode." The gulps as her boss pulls away and resumes to staring out at his Missile.

Wing casts a concerned glance at her fellow co-employee of K.I., also mysteriously trained in a Samurai Sword, Named Fang. He shrugs, signifying that he has no idea what to say.

K.I. frowns as he thinks aloud. "I may, nary just might, be able to work without this Ceramic-thing-a-ma-bob in my possession." He grins as he looks at the one still intact command monitor for trajectory control, currently hooked up (signal wise) to a spy satellite from back in the late Nineteen-Ninety's.

The screen shows Our Mysterious Canister, currently thought to be a meteorite by the surface survivors with access to the Satellites still in orbit, quickly approaching the form of Terra Prime.

K.I. turns to Wing and Fang. "My lads, power up the Power Drill. We've got a trap to set!"

This time Fang glances to Wing with concern.

DEEP SPACE_ _ _

It is said that all endings are merely beginnings, waiting to be born.

The destruction of the known galaxy could be said to be such a beginning.

The Mysterious canister rushes into Earth's Atmosphere.

For nearly ten years, Terra Prime has been floating, adrift, dead in space.

"Just an object."

No-one can truly know what lies in our future. But, I know one thing.

A plate of metal flings off of the canister, and hurtles down to the desert below.

From Life comes Death, and Like a phoenix, From Death comes Life; Reborn anew for all.

FORMER INDIAN OCEAN_ _ _

It came suddenly.

SHWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!

D.T. brings the convoy to a sudden halt as Terra Prime's very foundation begins to shake once more. "What the...?!"

"Is it another shattering?!" A.I. asks hurriedly as she performs a quick scan of the world's foundations.

"Look!" D.T. points to the sky.

A Giant fireball, hurtling from seemingly nowhere, smashes through Terra Prime's low quality atmo.

"Sonic Boom." He notes wryly, before starting up the engine again, and revving towards the to-be impact site.

INSIDE THE COMMAND CENTER_ _ _

T.s. nearly jumps through the roof as the command center resumes it's trek again. "What is he trying to do, kill us all?!"

"Heads up folks, Looks like it's goanna be a race to the finish!" D.T.'s voice suddenly filters through the nearby radio. "Who do you think will win? Me? or the crashing fireball in the sky?"

T.s. blinks. "What is he talking about?!" A quick glance out the sky light, however, confirms the race. "What is that?!"

M.D. walks into the room at that moment, distracted by his book. "What's what?"

"Just look!" T.s. points up. "D.T.'s driving us towards a crashing...!"

The Trailer suddenly rocks from side to side as an explosion occurs.

"Now what?" M.D. asks.

"We might have a slight problem guys..." D.T.'s voice comes over the radio again.

"A Big problem!" A.I. adds over the channel.

SEVERAL YARDS BEHIND THE MOBILE CENTER_ _ _

K.I. grins from the gunner's chair on top of his attack vehicle. "I have you now!" He launches off another RPG at the driven vehicle, which, somehow, manages to dodge the rocket.

The massive fireball above K.I. didn't scare him. It however, DID scare his two subordinates.

Wing, as the driver, was having a hard time trying to avoid several pieces of falling fire balls.

Fang, who was reloading his commander's RPG cannon, tried his best at hiding his fear of having his hand torn off by K.I.'s rapid firing.

What neither K.I. nor his crew noticed was that there was a shadow like thing behind them.

What exactly it was, we can-not tell, besides from the fact that it has a very large cannon mounted to the top of it, also painted black.

SHWOOOMPH!!!

It fires off a shadow like metallic round at K.I.'s vehicle...

KSHWAAAANG!

...And sends it deep into a newly formed crater on it's side.

Fang casts a glance into the driver's area at Wing. "Why is it that we always get beaten by someone we don't see?"

She shrugs and looks out after the shadow, now firing it's own rounds at the caravan.

"I think we're in for quite a show!"

As we watch our heroes evading the rounds being fired at them, we can't help but to wonder, why are they being chased? How is D.T. managing to evade so easily without being able to see who's firing at him? Will what's inside the crashing canister ever be of help to the world again? Will things ever pick up faster?

D.T. flips up a guard on his dashboard, revealing a bright, red button. "Time for a "Blam" Moment!" he grins and presses the button, causing the front mounted cannon to turn around a full one hundred eighty degrees, then raise up above the trailer's roof. The cannon pulses with power, and...

SHREEEEEE-KURGH-KLUNK!!!

...Stalls the engine.

D.T. quickly shouts a curse as the emergency brakes cut in, bringing the tan vehicle and it's trailer to a quick halt meanwhile it's shadowy companion blasts past them at break-neck speeds towards the meteorite touch down zone.

"Well, that wasn't exactly what we were going for." A.I. grins as they spot the shadow vehicle slow down to pull a U-Turn.

D.T. laughs as the meteorite they had been chasing impacts the planet's crater marked surface, right where the shadow chaser happened to be standing at that exact moment. The heat from the blast generates a burst of air against his face when it rushes past. "Now that..."

The smoke starts to settle, revealing the perfectly intact canister.

"That was...What is THAT!?"

END CHAPTER_ _ _

Sayonara Babylon! CHAPTER TWO!

BEGIN CHAPTER TWO: Sayonara Babylon! PART NI!

"What do you want this time, Kai?" T.s. growls.

"Oh, Nothing much." K.I. grins. "Just that fancy tip jar of yours."

"It's LAPTOP." D.T. corrects.

"Yes, yes, your fancy Clip-Car thing-a-ma-bob!" K.I. laughs. "Isn't that what I said?"

"Why do you want Ai for anyways?" T.s. asks.

"Ahh, deer, sweet, Tess." K.I. sighs. "Do I really have to explain it in full detail?" he snaps his fingers. "Wing."

The girl escorting M.D. draws the sword off of her back, and with a fancy katana stance, neatly slices off the gag over M.D.'s mouth, then holds the sharp edge of the blade against his neck.

M.D. gulps. "Ahh..."

D.T. growls. "Kai, you Go....!"

"Ah-ah-ah!" K.I. shakes a finger. "Don't even bother, or your friend's head will roll."

T.s. and D.T. share a glance, easily exchanging and dismissing plans over a single second.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have a schedule to keep." K.I.'s easy going attitude falters to a sinister, evil, state. "Give me that kyroncutter, or I will be forced to use force!"

As if on cue, A boy, with another sword on his back, jumps out of the tank. He stands next to the girl holding M.D. captive.

"You will give us that Cell Port..." The girl starts.

"...Or your friend dies." The boy finishes, drawing his own sword.

M.D. gulps. "Guys! I think they mean business!"

"Be Quiet!" The girl snarls in his ear.

"Sorry about this, Ai." D.T. pulls the computer out of it's slot on the vehicle, and turns it around a few times in reminiscing before climbing out and handing the laptop's frame to T.s.

She sighs and walks half way towards the Tank and it's group. "Send the Doc back, you get the computer."

K.I. nods, and his two lackeys push M.D. towards T.s. "Now hand me that circulinaitor thing!"

T.s. looks to M.D., giving a slight gesture to signal him to run at a moment's notice.

He nods.

"Any time now." K.I. growls.

D.T. unties M.D., and nods to T.s.

"Okay...If you want it so bad..." T.s. then tosses the cell into the air and runs back to the car/thing. "GO FETCH!"

"NOOOOO!" K.I. shouts as...

KASHROOOOOOO!

...Two laser guided rockets launch from the front of the Tan vehicle, one hits the much loved laptop, and the other flips K.I.'s Tank onto it's side.

Several.

Several.

Several.

Times.

"SAYONARA!" The familiar holographic dragon taunts from the top of the Tan vehicle as it spins ninety degrees and rushes off into the distance.

SKREEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

K.I.'s jaw nearly hits the ground. "Why...Why me...?" He doesn't even look as his tank explodes violently behind him.

The boy and the girl sigh as their boss dissolves into gibberish.

SOMEWHERE IN SPACE_ _ _

A cylindrical object hurtles through space.

It's mineral composition was earth-bound- nothing about it was foreign, even it's design.

The single line of text on it's surface reads; HYDRO-ELECTRIC-CRYO-UNIT, with the letters H, E, C, and U italicized to form an acronym.

This...canister...holds a precious cargo.

Six biologically varying clones.

Only...due to damage to this canister sustained in it's violent launch from one of Terra-Prime's outer-reach space colonies, one third of the cargo has perished.

The on-board guidance system had also sustained damage, and hence it's radar detecting systems have gone off line, allowing it's one programmed target, Terra-Prime itself, to remain registered as "Un-altered" in the log systems, despite the damage that occurred ten years previous.

The canister begins it's final approach towards Terra-Prime.

One Month.

BACK TO TERRA PIRME_ _ _ OUTSIDE A MOBILE COMMAND CENTER_ _ _

The Tan vehicle pulls up to an old camping trailer, with no engine, and no tires, that wouldn't move until the vehicle had formed a connection with it.

"Ah, Good ol' house and home!" M.D. sighs as he jumps down from his spot on the right side of the roll cage.

"Yeah yeah yeah." T.s. slides down from the left side of the cage.

D.T. remains silent as he twirls the Memory Circuit, looking like a tiny version of the laptop in of itself, from the for-mentioned device between his fingers. "we'll find out what's coming for us, Ai... I know we will!

"But the question is..."

D.T. Looks to the sky in wonder.

"...Is it good, or bad?"

END CHAPTER TWO_ _ _

Ahhem. Small update to the Blog.

Well, Take a look to the side here.

=================>

See that? It's a list of characters.

:)

_DT

Sayonara Babylon! CHAPTER ONE!

BEGIN VOLUME ONE: CHAPTER ONE: Sayonara Babylon! PART ICHI!

Terra prime! Once a beautiful planet, filled with water, trees, and other such marvels- Now nothing more than a desolate wasteland. The Human race, once the planet's masters, now struggles to survive on native-yet-foreign-ground!

The entire population was reduced in an instant, leaving only those beneath the age of twenty un-scathed-and even then, at a cost.

A tan painted, five wheeled vehicle whose name has been long forgotten drives across the wasteland. It's driver, is a boy of age seventeen, who, like all survivors, has little to no memory of life on Terra Prime before the incident.

Including his own name.

This boy, with formerly golden hair- now browned by the sun's rays- and now dark green irises, goes by the title of "D.T.", off of the few pieces of memory he can recall.

FLASHBACK!

SOMEWHERE IN THE FORMER UNITED STATES_ _ _ JUST AFTER THE 'EXPLOSION'_ _ _

A six year old boy with blond hair opens his light green eyes as the building groans around him.

"Wh...wh..." he tries to talk, but finds no words to describe his situation.

He was laying on the floor of what appeared to be an office building.

"What's an office building?" He finally manages to say, and then jumps at the sound of his own voice. "Is...that really...me?" the boy blinks, and tries to stand.

Gravity takes over, and the boy starts sliding side wards, into one of those office cubicals- again, how did he know these words?- and into an awaiting, lifeless, cold body.

The boy's instincts immediately react- Grabbing the nearest weapon (which happened to be a stapler laying on the floor) and swinging it into the already dead man's head...

SNAP!

...now sporting a nice shiny piece of metal.

The boy's heart starts to slow down, while his mind speeds up. Where was he? Why was this man dead? Why was he the only one in this building.

Do-Do Do Do!

As if to answer his question, a lap-top on the near-by desk finishes re-starting itself, and the log-in screen, showing the chosen logo for the user account, taunts him with information.

The boy resigns himself, and drags the corpse out of the poor man's former office before returning to the computer.

The user name simply read...

END FLASHBACK!

...Dejital Transit System-User: #113.09

D.T. took the first two letters of the account as his own name, for he lacked his own, and easily broke the pass-word on the account.

FLASHBACK!

It was a simple thing.

D.T.- for that was what he was calling himself now- had simply clicked the password hint.

"Type the following: Sayonara Babylon!"

Access to the strangely shaped laptop (a rectangle, with two short corners cut off and two long corners cut off) was then granted. And D.T. hit the jackpot.

"Nice to meet you, new user!"

The computer's A.I. (one of the world's most advanced common computer programs) was intact, and it ran off of solar energy, meaning charging without electricity wouldn't be a problem.

END FLASHBACK!

"Ai, how close are we to the drop off?" D.T. asks the computer cell, now mounted into a slot in the vehicle.

"Approximately Four Point Two Miles away." A small, holographic image of a blue scaled, child like dragon appears out of the projector lens on the widest side of the computer. "Dee, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

The boy raises an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Well..." The A.I. seems to shrug. "I don't know what it is really, but tapped into the old satellite grid last night..."

"Spit it out already." D.T. frowns. "I hate it when people trail off like that."

"Sorry." The holo-dragon sighs. "...I detected something heading at high velocity towards our sub-spatial location."

D.T. slams the breaks.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!~!~!

"What? Is it another meteor? Like the one that...?" He panics.

"No no!" The A.I. dismisses the through. "It's way too small for that!"

"Ai, how big is it?" D.T. glances to the blue and green planet-chunk above him.

"No bigger than this scout car." The A.I. replies. "But it's metallic. Earth native elements from what I could read."

D.T. runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "Tess'll want to hear about this." he shifts gears and heads off towards the dig site once more.

A few minutes later, he presses the breaks once again, and pulls a donut, coming to a halt next to a crater that seemed to be dug out by hand.

D.T. kills the engine, then climbs out. He looks down into the crater and sighs.

A girl with long, brown hair and nearly orange eyes was seemingly talking to herself. This girl was his friend, currently going by the name "T.S."- though, the pronunciation of this always came out as "Tess."

They had met years ago, not too long after the...well, you know by now.

FLASHBACK!

ONE YEAR POST METEROITE_ _ _ SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WESTERN COAST_ _ _

D.T. sighs as he looks out over the barren wasteland where an ocean had once resided.

Gulley, hills, mountains, and valleys, and lots of dead fish.

D.T. glances to his left, then to his right.

Left was down south, warmer. Right was up north, colder.

"Ai, where do we go?" He asks the computer resting gently inside his backpack.

A holographic dragon, blue colored, yet smaller than the one we've already seen in the present, appears on his shoulder. "West is the way we've been going, but I don't think we can climb down that side of the oceanic floor in one piece. So...I don't know, Dee."

D.T. goes to nod, but freezes as he feels a sharp, round, metallic object press into the back of his neck.

"Don't move a mussel." Comes a voice that, though not much older than D.T. himself, has an older sounding tone to it. Add to the fact that it's immediately recognizable as a girl's voice, D.T. and the Computer A.I. are very confused.

D.T. turns his head slightly. "Now, I don't..."

"I-I said D-Don't move!" The girl behind him stammers. "I've got a gun!"

This changes the situation, quite a bit.

Rule one of the end of the world: Find a weapon.

D.T. just happened to have a nice little Energy field manipulator (liberated from the offices where he woke up) resting next to the computer in his backpack. Too bad he couldn't reach it currently. "O-okay." he starts, calmly. "I'm not here to hurt you or..."

"Urusai! Now give me that computer!" the girl's supposed gun presses deeper into D.T.'s neck, and gives away a very important clue.

"Hey, That's not a gun!"

The girl blinks her orange-ish eyes. "W-what? Of course it's a...!"

"Really? I have to dis-agree, it feels more like a piece of plastic piping than a gun." D.T. agrees.

The Holodragon nods enthusiastically, and D.T. turns to face his would be attacker.

She wasn't even a month older, maybe less though, and her hair was a light brown- which would eventually darken to it's present day shade- and, exactly as was guessed, a PVC pipe was firmly griped in her hands.

"Why'd you want my computer for anyways?" D.T. asks.

"Well..."

ENDFLASHBACK!

"...so, I needed this guys laptop for it's circuit board so I could fix this trans-Atlantic communication system so I could try to contact one of the other terra-clones." T.s. continues to the beetle. "So, I grabbed a near by pipe, held him up at 'gun point', saying it was a gun, when it was really a metallic pipe, and then he...!"

"And then I introduced myself." D.T. finishes from his perch on the edge of the dug out crater.

T.s jumps as the beetle tunnels into the ground. "Dee! Don't scare me like that!"

"Oh, come on, Tess!" he laughs. "You know how the Doc gets when he has something important to show us."

T.s. blinks. "When did he say that?"

"About half an hour ago, he radioed both of us, you didn't reply, I came looking." D.T. explains.

T.s. pulls out- then timidly holds up- a smashed Radio from her pocket. "It fell and my shovel..."

"Tess..." D.T. sighs, then stands up. "It's okay, I needed Radio parts anyways. Now, then. Off to Doc's little crater of mystery?"

T.s grins. "Sounds fine by me."

A moment later, and the five wheeled vehicle races off into the desert.

VVVVRRROOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!

T.s., hanging loosely onto the outside of the roll cage, grins as she watches the barren wasteland rush past. "You know, for a place that used to be filled with water, the Indian Ocean sure is...dry."

"Yeah yeah." D.T. laughs.

"Soooo..." T.s starts. "Got any clue what's up?"

D.T. shakes his head. "Nary a thought."

T.s. frowns. "So, for all we know...it could be a...Giant waste of time?"

"It could be a giant whale skeleton." D.T. shrugs. "Or, it could be a giant under ground cavern."

"Or it could be something that no-body ever thought of!" The A.I. program speaks up.

"Is that so, eh?" T.s. grins.

"Knowing the Doc though, it's probably something that'll either help us out greatly, or send us to..." D.T. Trails off as he presses the breaks, nearly throwing T.s. off.

"Ow! Hey! What do you think you're...?!" T.s. also trails off as she sees what's before them.

"Why, hello yet again, Scavengers." Says a tall, nearly nineteen year old man with purple-near-black colored hair under the title K.I. as he climbs out of an old U.S. Military issue Tank. "What a...'surprise' to see you both again!" he laughs.

Two figures dismount the tank next, one bound and gagged, and the other escorting him.

"Doc!" T.s and D.T. gasp in shock.

Their favorite Medical Doctor with light brown hair, and near crimson eyes was being held hostage.

"Or should I rephrase..." K.I. laughs. "What a surprise to see you ALL again!"

"Oi, Doc, what'd you get your self into this time?" D.T. mutters.

END CHAPTER ONE_ _ _