That night, the various zoid teams had gathered together for the New Year’s Eve party. Music blared from loud speakers with many people on the dance floor, doing the latest dance moves to the hottest songs. Other people stood around, deep in conversation, laughing and enjoying themselves.

Along with Indy and LJ, the girls were sitting at a table, observing all the activity. The Tasker sisters from the Lightning Team, Chris and Kelly sat with them.

“So, this is the big shindig everybody was harping about, eh?” Tabia remarked to herself.

“Is it always this loud?” shouted LJ, trying to be heard above the beat of the music.

“Yeah, it usually is.” Kelly replied. “I’m really not the partying type.” Indy nodded in agreement with her. “Me neither, I rather stay at home and read a good book, instead.”

“Hey, where did Orisha go?” asked LJ.

“She said something about finding her cousin.” Answered Chris. “Oh, there they are.”

Orisha rejoined her friends; a young woman with fiery red hair was with her. They wore similar outfits, long stylish coats that bared their shoulders, short skirts, leggings and boots. While the colors of Orisha’s outfit were blue and black, her companion’s were red and black.

“Guys, I want you all to meet my cousin, Naomi Flugel. She’s a zoid pilot just like me. Naomi, this is Indianna Mae Who, LJ James and Tabia Amoh. I believe you have already met Chris and Kelly Tasker.” Naomi shook hands with Indy, LJ and Tabia before sitting down. “Nice meeting all of you. So, how are you girls liking the party so far?”

“Its cool.” Tabia smiled. “A little loud, but alright.”

“Its ok.” Indy said, shrugging her shoulders, indifferently.

Naomi chuckled at their reactions. “Well, hopefully, it’ll get better towards the end of the party when they do the count down to the New Year.”

Tabia got up from the table. “I’m going to the ladies’ room, I’ll be back.” Everybody nodded in acknowledgement as Tabia left, disappearing into the crowd.

One of the servers came by the table, asking Naomi and Orisha what they wanted to drink. Indy took a sip of her soda and glanced around. She looked towards the back of the room and narrowed her eyes. “What are they doing here?” Indy snarled under her breath.

“Uh?” said LJ. Confused, she looked over her shoulder and stiffened. “Ah, man…I have a bad feeling about this.”

There was a large group of military soldiers standing around, talking to each other. They reminded Indy so much of the brutes she fought when confronting Lady Une. It unnerved her, for she had grown to dislike and distrust anyone wearing a military uniform. Indy and LJ leaned over to Orisha who was sitting between them.

“Orisha, those soldiers standing over there.” Indy whispered to her. “Why are they here?”

“Yeah, what’s going on?” said LJ, trying not to sound scared. “Are they part of Nia’s plan?

Orisha could hear the tension in her friends' voices and tried her best to put them at ease. “Heavens, no. They are just attending the party. There’s my aunt right now, talking with their CO.” Indy and LJ looked and saw the woman Orisha was referring to. Nia was talking to a young blond officer who was holding a hat in his hand.

“Mmmm…” thought Indy. She was still not convinced. The last thing she wanted was to have a bunch of military soldiers getting involved in Nia’s plan. Visuals of Jack Sisco getting arrested and possibly being beaten down from the likes of them would be done in bad taste. Jack can be a pain in the ass, but he didn’t deserve that sort of punishment issued out to him.

“Hey, where’s the food?” LJ said, looking around. “What’s a party without food? I did come here to eat, ya know!” Everybody at the table laughed at her comment, even Indy couldn’t resist chuckling. Leave it up to LJ to say something witty at a tense time like this.

“Speaking of which, where’s Jack?”

At the mention of his name, Orisha’s demeanor changed, she stared at the ice cubes floating in her drink.

Indy’s rolled her eyes and snorted. “Hmf, who cares.”

Naomi noticed the sharp edge in Indy’s tone of voice but tried to make the best of it. “He’s probably hanging out with the other zoid pilots, bragging about who’s the best.”

“It figures…” Indy tcked.

“He could be hassling Bit Cloud for all we know.” Said Chris. “Those two happen to be rivals.”

“Well, I guess he’ll drop by once he’s done…” Kelly stopped in mid sentence as Orisha suddenly pushed herself away from the table. “Orisha, where are you going?”

“I’ll be back.” Orisha said, before heading off.

Indy saw where Orisha was headed. “Ah, crap, she’s going to where those soldiers are.”

“Looks like she wants to talk to her aunt about something.” Naomi commented. “I’m sure she’ll be ok.”

Indy nodded but still, she casted a worried eye toward the back of the room. “This party would be better if they weren’t here.”

“Looks like we have company.” The military officer standing next to Nia said.

Nia saw Orisha coming towards her. “Hey!” Nia greeted her warmly, putting an arm around Orisha’s shoulders. “Orisha, I want you to meet a friend of mine, Colonel Karl Shubaltz of the Imperial Army. He’s the CO of the First Panzer Division. Karl, this is my niece Orisha Estus. She’s a member of the Stealth Team which fights in zoid battles.”

“Its nice meeting you, Orisha.” He told her. Orisha smiled and shook his gloved hand, not saying anything. Despite his good looks, he did have that tough and rugged quality about him, always the case with military commanders. Too bad the media didn’t focus on that aspect of him.

“I’ve seen you in battle from the television broad casts. I have to say that I’m very impressed.” Karl told her.

“Really?!” Orisha said suddenly in surprise. She than got a hold of herself, playing it down. “Yeah…uh, thanks.” She lowered her voice a bit so she wouldn’t sound hyper. If the guy had seen how she was at the beginning of her career, he would be thinking differently.

Karl chuckled at her response but then his eyes widen and then narrowed at something behind the women’s backs. “Don’t look now but I think more company is coming.” He motioned with his chin towards the other side of the room.

Curiously, Nia and Orisha turned and saw a young woman wearing a clingy low cut black dress, which left very little to the imagination. She kept looking in their direction.

“Hey, I know her!” exclaimed Orisha. “That’s the pop singer, Raven! I've seen her videos on the music channel all the time!”

Nia frowned, not impressed. “Yeah, I’ve heard of her too. She uses her looks instead of her so-called talent to be noticed, which explains why she’s half naked in all her music videos.”

Karl nodded. “She’s been checking me out all evening. I guess she thinks I’m a fan.”

Raven, in the company of her entourage, kept making come hinder glances toward Karl’s direction.

“I think she likes you.” Orisha said in amusement.

“Mmm...that’s nice.” Karl said nonchalantly, Raven didn’t impress him that much either.

As expected, Raven decided to leave her present company and was now, halfway across the room headed their direction.

"Oh gads, here she comes!" Nia groaned. “Brace yourself, Karl.”


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