Madness!

"Thanks Doc for coming," Said Law Keeper Cooper, "With Eren Nidel still in Canada, we are a bit short handed when it comes to those with medical expertise."

"No problem, Law Keeper, although I usually don't make house calls. Belle is, after all, one of our own over at Fortress Kshaa," Cheerfully replied the diminutive Liberata, Doctor Orion, as he tugged at the end of his long mustache, then his tone turned serious, "However, I don't understand why she is not waking up after I removed this bullet from her skull. Her EGO is healing her head trauma nicely, but she is not waking up, appears tortured in her sleep, and I don't know why."

Dr. Orion narrowed his beady eyes as he looked at the small bullet clutched between his stubby forefinger and thumb, staring at it as if he could somehow read the answer engraved on its ebony surface, then glanced back to Cooper asking, "Do you have a lab nearby that I could borrow? I could go back to my lab at Fortress Kshaa, but I would prefer to stay on this side of the bridge in case Belle needs me."

"I'll call Rosa Rodriquez," Answered Law Keeper Cooper, "Eren has the best lab in Paradise over at Topnotch, and I'm sure Rosa won't mind you using it after what your team did to save Eren from the Inquisition. I'm sure she feels she owes you one, given Eren and Rosa's relationship. I'll hail her right now."

As Cooper hailed Rosa, Dr. Orion watched Belle toss and turn in bed, sweat gleaming on her pale freckled face amidst moist strands of blond hair plastered there. Her eyes could be seen to quiver under her eyelids, and audible gasps of pain were periodically heard emanating from her dry rose petal lips. Dr. Orion wondered what horrors were going on in her mind as she slept, and a chill went up his spine knowing her history and the possibilities of what she could be reliving from it.



In the distance, Dr. Orion could hear the sound of construction, and asked, "What is all that racket about?"

"Some of our Castithan community have taken upon themselves the responsibility of building a cleansing rack across the street from the ranch," Replied Cooper with disdain in his voice.

For a second time, Dr. Orion found a cold chill going up his spine.

Working on the vehicle was hard work. Alot of these parts looked like they were rusted and many looked as though they had been slapped hastily on. In the end I just took the entire thing apart replaced the bad pieces with new ones and put it all back together again. Volodja is going to have a much smoother ride next time he gets on this, I think as I slot the last piece back into its rightful home.

Volodja moaned mentally after Cooper's action. Why? Why this? He delivered Micor when he was soft and ready to talk, but instead of interrogating him, Cooper just threw him to the cell, so guy had a chance to rearrange his thoughts and start to knit another intrigue. Volodja had to admit that Micor was really flexible. And now they needed a specialist to crack Micor again. Someone ruthless, someone homicidal, someone like....Atticus.

The big guy was missing from the radar and Volodja was worried about him ever since when he tried vainly to contact him. Wandering alone in the wasteland with his present state of mind means a TROUBLE. If Atticus had negative thoughts and violent urges haunting him, then he should find another path to release them. Even negative energy can be used for something good when you find the right channel. Even Volodja's own sadness saved some lives when he searched forgetfulness in catastrophe situations and ended up protecting people. Atticus could use that method as well. Especially when it helps to save Lady, Atticus' lover, wife and mother of their children. And that wasn't all. Lady begun to develop herself as a personality, take responsibility for her actions and now she was punished for that. 

It was bloody unjust to her and must be stopped. And Atticus can be just the right man for revealing the truth. And even without that hope, he must look for Atticus Batman - his friend and brother in arm. For everyone's' sake. Their little family should be together during hard times.

Belle Starr felt the exuberance of youth and new discovery. The lanky teenager was sure she had arrived at the ark break before anyone else, it being kismet that she was close by when it first fell from the sky, and now she had it all to herself, her first ark fall, at least until other ark hunters arrived. She eagerly crawled through the ragged breach in its side, adjusting her ill fitting machinist uniform that overwhelmed her skinny body upon entering the ark fall, and made her way to its center where she had heard all the best loot was located, including the highly prized ark tech. She managed to destroy the few drones she ran into, and cloaked when a Volge trooper went by, making it safely to the center of the ark fall.

Belle became alarmed when she heard voices; not the guttural speech of the Volge, but human voices, so she pulled the VBI Autopistol she had found shortly after the strato-carrier that had brought her and the other ark hunters to the Bay Area crashed. Her big blue eyes grew bigger when she saw two heavily armed men speaking indiscernibly to each other in low tones, a tall thin pale man with a mop of red hair and a fat grimy bald man with a dark brown beard who seemed to be perpetually sweating, so she darted down a side hallway, waiting for them to pass and her EGO power to recharge. Every sense in her body screamed danger, despite the fact that her EGO radar identified them as purple neutrals as opposed to red enemies. Suddenly she was grabbed by two strong hands from behind, smelling the foul breath of her attacker before she could actually see him as he twisted the pistol out of her hand and thew it to the side.

"Now just what do you think you were going to do with that Chiquita?" The voice behind her said in a heavy Mexican accent, then twirled her around to rip open the front of her bulky Machinist outfit, exposing her firm but small pale breasts to the cold air of the ark, making her nipples pucker and grow hard. As the man with the dark beady eyes, greasy hair, and gold tooth leered at her, he yelled to his compatriots while grabbing in an iron grip the tousled blond hair on top of her head with one dirty hand to keep her from running as he twisted her small right breast with the other until she yelped in pain, "HEY AMIGOS. I FOUND A DIFFERENT KIND OF TREASURE HERE! SHALL WE PLAY X MARKS THE SPOT!"

The bearded bald man quickly moved behind her, moving faster than one would think a man of his girth could move, but whether it was because he was naturally fast or was moved to speed because of his lust, Belle didn't know or care. She merely felt his strong hands grab her from behind and throw her to the dusty floor of the ark break, then dropped down beside her to hold her down by her narrow shoulders as the lanky red headed man pulled off the torn pants of her machinist uniform from her, exposing her virgin nether regions to the elements.

"Finders get first dibs, amigos," Muttered the Hispanic man, the sneer on his thick lips accentuated by the pencil thin mustache he wore as he undid the huge death's head buckle on his fatigue pants, dropping them to the ground as he fell to his knees, then used his strong hands to pry her skinny pale legs apart, which Belle hoped in vain she could keep locked tight by sheet force of will.

Belle felt the excruciating pain at his unwanted intrusion into her most private place - the place her girlish dreams had exclusively reserved for the Prince Charming she hoped to one day meet! The bald man's sweat fell into her blue diamond eyes stinging them as he held her down while she screamed, but soon the dark skinned Hispanic villain grunted as he completed his dastardly pleasure. As he limply pulled out of Belle and rolled to his side, the red haired man quickly took his place, but already Belle was too numb to notice, only seeing the evil look in his green eyes that were inches above her own and feeling his hot breath as it hit her pretty freckled face, now twisted in pain and horror. After the red haired man was finished, it was the bald bearded fat man's turn, but by that time Belle was only semi-conscious and no longer struggled against the inevitable, but merely laid there like a broken doll, which in a way, she was now.

How many times they each had their way with her she lost count, only knowing it seemed like an eternity and that by the end she was praying for death. When they got bored with her, they kicked her several times to reassure themselves that she was, if not dead, unconscious, then began to search the room for loot. From the corner of her eye, she saw her discarded pistol laying not far from her on the ground, and when she thought her rapists were not looking, she crawled towards it slowly, hoping to grab it and blow at least some of the bastards away before she died.

"Not so fast Chiquita" She heard the now familiar voice of the man with the gold tooth, then felt a sharp pain in her side and heard her rib break as he kicked her hard. Soon the others joined him in a kicking frenzy as she vainly tried to shield her head with her thin pale hands, but to no avail. Blood seeped out of her body in a dozen places, and her once bulky yellow machinist uniform was now merely a series of tattered red strips of cloth that barely covered any of her bruised and battered skinny body.

"Think we overdid it Juan," Said the red haired man, regret in his voice not because of what he had done but because of lost scrip, "I don't think we could even sell her in Lima."

"We better get out of here before a damned Law Keeper comes by," Said the bald fat man, nervously tugging at his beard and sweating even more profusely from all his effort.

"Ah, she'll be dead soon if she isn't already, stupid Chiquita coming in here by herself," Replied their dark skinned leader, his gold tooth reflecting the dim light of the ark fall as he grinned wickedly. "But lets vamoose with out loot amigos!"

Once Belle was sure her three rapists were gone, she looked around, looking for her revolver and once spotting it, began the long and painful crawl to it. Years later, she would lie to her heroic role model Chase Lonehart, telling him she always chose life, and that she would never eat a bullet no matter how dire the situation. Whether she was trying to impress him or herself, she really never knew, or maybe this was part of the memory she sought to suppress. but when she reached her pistol, she put the barrel into her mouth, and without hesitation pulled the trigger. The gun made a large click sound, and continued to make the sound as she pulled the trigger over and over until she finally went unconscious.

In the present time as Belle writhed in tortured and restless sleep in a bunk bed at the Iron Demons Ranch, the tiny nanos in her brain placed there by the sniper's bullet rewound the tape of the worst hour in Belle Starr's life, making her relive the hopeless horror of that dark day in the ark fall over and over again by replaying it constantly. Already she had relived that incident three times, and she would relive it another twenty-one times before the current day was done. Her EGO psyche, unable to stop the nano's rampage, figured that at that rate, Belle would completely lose her sanity in less than five days.

Belle Starr felt the exuberance of youth and new discovery. The lanky teenager was sure she had arrived at the ark break before anyone else, it being kismet that she was close by...

Hanging up from a call from a Doctor Orion I sigh. They wanted me to help try and identify the bullet that had hit Belle. It's a sad day when an engineer is called to play doctor. Nonetheless I hop on Volodja's newly rebuilt vehicle and drive to belle praying that he wouldn't notice anything amiss if he gave back. Upon arriving at belle's side the doctor leads me to a lab and points out the bullet.
"There's some equipment you can use in the drawers" says Orion.
I shake my head "my equipment will be much more advanced than anything in here."
Opening the suitcase of tools I brought with me I set up a portable poison and disease scanner. I pick up the case the bullet is in pick out the bullet with a pair of pliers and set it in the machine. I close the top and let it do its thing. Serveral minutes later I look at the screen expecting to see nothing and that is exactly what I saw a black screen. I smack the side which boots it up for a second before shutting down. But what I saw was worse than any disease I could imagine. There in the little writing said one word "Nanites."

"Then you better pray for me, Tommasino," said Volodja. "Because I am going to place myself between him and the rest of the world. According what you say, I won't have any problems finding him. In fairy tales someone leaves behind breadcrumbs to mark his way. All I have to do, is follow the trail of dead bodies. Just do me a favour in case something goes wrong and I am unable to communicate. No! I don't mean that I am getting torn apart or something like that. Just inform my team-mates about the situation. Since you are all about family business, then you should understand the importance of the family ties. They have right to know. And no! I have not lost my mind. I am as sane as someone who is about to sign his will. I might not be strongest, but I will handle the problem."

Volodja manoeuvred Taffer's Dodge through the mob, stopping only for a second to open the side window and pull one of potential leaders of the pack,  who was just opening his mouth to yell something to the rest of the crowd, against the car, whispering:

"I'd keep my mouth shut for the rest of the evening. You were about to do something really stupid which you would regret afterwards. I will return soon and if I see or hear you after my arrival, then you can be sure that the shit hits the fan and lands on your face! Think as conscious individual and I really suggest to think about aspects of surviving as an individual." His usually warm brown eyes became cold and steely, making guy he was talking with, shiver.

It was his small hommage to the researches of the mass consciousness. By neutralizing one of the leaders, he stalled the riot a bit, putting their classical discoveries and conclusions to the test. Then he hit the pedal and Dodge Challenger speeded up and took a course towards the Golden Gate. His day was ruined by the angry mob and rigid officials anyway, so one suicide mission more or less doesn't count.