This section is a crossover with "Miner's Masacre" A K A "Curse of the Forty-Niner".

Zoids – Dimension Crisis

The Crusade Team's Hover Cargo, which ad somehow been completely repaired overnight, was now transporting the Crusade Team and people from many other teams into the desert. Attached to the Hover Cargo was a large platform that was transporting the Phoenix Team's Whale King.

Inside Hover Cargo-

"I don't know what's supposed to be happening here, but going back to the desert for no obvious reason is very stupid." Colin said, "Now we probably won't escape this time."

"It's not as stupid as you'd think." Ian said, "Well, the main reason for returning to this place, is because there's some device somewhere in the desert that's supposed to be causing all of this."

"Well generally speaking, if something's capable of causing all the destruction we've seen so far, we really shouldn't be heading towards it." Claire reasoned, "Actually, running from it would be a much better idea."

"Then maybe we should consider running from it instead of going towards it." Nick suggested, "This Hover Cargo is exceptionally slow, and by the time we reach the device… I don't really know, but maybe something will have happened."

"Maybe the amount of strange energy… well, the energy that's causing things and people from other realities to attack us, has increased, or will have increased by the time we're there." Lauren suggested.

"But then more people will be in danger of being slaughtered." James replied, "So, even though we don't care about these people even remotely, we must sacrifice our own lives to save them."

"Some people are heroic, but obviously you're just an idiot." Ted stated, "I don't know why you joined this team. Even if you had tried to join one of the other teams you wouldn't be able to."

"Maybe they would reject him, but Jake is, well, was insane, even more insane than everyone else." Nick reminded everyone, "Actually, I don't think this team would have existed at all if he wasn't."

"That's because this is possibly the worst team ever." Cheryl pointed out, "It's true that everyone here is insane and crazy… but those kinds of things don't always make people good Zoid pilots."

"I think we may have to rebuild many teams when this ends." Ian suggested, "Well, out of seven teams, none of them escaped intact. So maybe, if we can find this device, then after we prevent all the weird reality-distortion-related stuff, we can…"

"Yes, we get the idea, we can rebuild some teams but there will still be many, many teams that don't exist anymore." Nick said, "Well, the Artillery Team and Tyrant Team are dead, anyway."

"We'll have to avoid any other teams being killed then." Ian said, "And the Tyrant Team aren't actually dead. Frank survived, that's why he's in hospital right now. Hopefully he'll eventually recover."

"Yes, but as we know, many of the doctors there are mental." Nick said, "Although to be honest, they're probably not going to try to kill him. That would be a really stupid idea, even by their standards."

"Normally doctors don't try to kill people." Louise added, "So if these doctors have any intelligence, then Frank won't be killed. However, if they're morons, then he could be."

"Then he could be a moron?" Colin asked, "I thought we should have more respect to someone who's the last surviving members of… a team… that… nobody cares about… okay, maybe not."

"I meant he could be killed by the doctors." Louise replied, "Although, to be honest, if they're that stupid they probably won't be very successful at killing someone. Maybe he'll be safe."

"Maybe he will be safe, but it's also possible that he'll fall off wherever he is and fall several thousand feet and bounce off a trampoline and crash into a wall." Nick suggested.

"Why would a hospital be several thousand feet tall?" Lauren asked, "It's pointless if there's something that forces people to… actually, no that I think of it, there's no reason for a hospital to be several thousand feet tall."

"Although, if it was near the edge of a really high cliff, then he could fall out of a window. Then he would fall several thousand feet and bounce off a trampoline." Nick suggested.

"But that would be pointless." Zack replied, "Anyway, trampolines a partially metal and I don't know why the trampoline wouldn't sink, and even if it didn't there would be water below it."

"I still don't think a cliff would be several thousand feet tall, or that someone would put a hospital at the edge of a cliff if some people could fall out of it and kill themselves." Lauren added.

"That's true, but maybe there wasn't a cliff and then over thousands of years the land got eroded away and eventually someone's going to fall off the cliff because there's a cliff there now." James realised.

"But then the hospital could fall off the cliff if the erosion continued, and there must be someone who has the intelligence to not fall off a cliff when they know that falling off a cliff will cause their death." Colin said.

"Not many people on this planet have intelligence of any kind." James reminded everyone, "Although, fortunately for us, we have enough intelligence to remember what year it is."

"Well, most of the time we have enough intelligence to remember what year it is." Cheryl agreed, "However, sometimes we forget. And sometimes we forget when a year passes."

"And sometimes we forget when several years pass." Colin agreed, "See, I don't remember how many years have passed. Maybe we need some kind of system to figure out what year it is."

"Maybe we should have some kind of system." Lauren agreed, "But anyway, I heard that there was gold buried here at some point. Maybe there's never been gold buried here."

"Maybe there was gold here at one point and everyone forgot that it even existed." Colin suggested, "So as a result, everyone began mining plutonium, but they couldn't find any."

"Aren't we supposed to be trying to find something that's… supposed to be… I forgot, wait… some kind of machine? Isn't that what we're supposed to be trying to find?"

"Well basically we have two choices here. We could try to find this machine and possibly save everyone on this planet, or we could attempt to find some gold that's useless to everyone." Lauren explained.

"Well, the gold would be useless, but if we get close enough to the machine it could kill us. I suggest that we try to find the gold, even though it will be no use to us anyway." James said.

"Although the whole point we came out here was to find the machine, maybe we should be trying to find something else." Nick suggested, "Finding a machine out here will be exceptionally difficult."

"Yes, because it's so hard to find a machine on this planet." Zack said sarcastically, "But then again, even if we save everyone we'll probably die, so we won't know if we saved everyone."

"But I don't see why gold would be any use to us." Colin said, "Unless we throw it at the people who aren't trying to find the machine, them being, well, everyone but us, except for dead people."

"I don't know why you would want to throw gold at people. Since they don't know that they're going to die, they'll probably steal it and run." Cheryl stated, "But if they did know, they'd probably still steal it and run."

"So basically, if we throw gold at someone, they'll steal it and run." Colin summarised, "So the only reason we should ever throw gold at someone is… well, there isn't one."

"Exactly. So now our only chance to throw gold at someone, is if we know we're going to hit them. Then they will want compensation for being injured and they'll get the gold anyway." James suggested.

"Yes, but if we don't throw it at people, we won't have to waste the gold by throwing it at people." Nick explained, "Then we can use it to buy anvils and drop them on people."

"Wouldn't dropping anvils on people cause them to get killed?" James asked, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why would dropping an anvil on someone kill them? This planet is crazy." Nick said.

"Well basically, dropping something really heavy on someone usually kills them." James replied.

"So people can get shot at by Zoids, which somehow never hit the cockpit of the other Zoids, ever, yet dropping an anvil on someone can be fatal?" Nick asked, "Maybe it won't hit them, since apparently people can't get hit."

"Anyway, how would you know if dropping an anvil on someone is fatal?" Zack asked, "Have you been climbing onto the top of building and dropping anvils on the people below?"

"Most of the time, I don't bother dropping anvils on people because it could make them mental… well, even more mental than they already were, which is a terrible idea." James replied.

"Well, since there's no chance of finding this machine, and since the machine just happens to be where the gold is, it's obvious that we have to focus on finding the gold." Lauren explained.

"Yes, but if the gold is near that machine, then maybe the machine made it appear." James suggested, "And if that happened, maybe the gold will come to life and chase people."

Somewhere in the desert-

"Well, there's obviously nothing here. Obviously the reports were mistaken. Maybe we'll never find that device now. Anyway, we should go home before something else happens." James suggested.

"Then what exactly is that thing?" Lauren asked, pointing to the device that had been dragged along the ground by the Diablo Tiger, which was lying on its side, damaged but apparently still functioning.

"I have an idea. If it's damaged, then we're already most of the way to completing this… weird stuff… well, we're halfway to completing whatever we're supposed to be finishing… someone understands this, right?" Neil asked.

"I think I get the general idea of what you're suggesting." Lauren stated, "However, that could be extremely dangerous. For all we know, we could be vaporised if we get closer to it."

"It is leaking some new kind of energy that can allow things to cross between realities." Ted stated, "That in itself makes it dangerous. This has to be stopped immediately."

"Well anyway, we can't discuss this for hours on end. Don't forget, we're supposed to be finding gold." Ian said, pressing a button. One of the Hover Cargo's turrets blasted the device, obliterating it.

"Ian, that was the stupidest thing I've seen so far!" Lauren shouted, "We had no idea what would have happened when you blew up the device… you could have slaughtered everyone!"

"Anyway, destroying the device has barely changed anything." Ted informed everyone, "Although with nothing to generate the energy that can merge the dimensions, these attacks by weird creatures are over."

"I knew I would accomplish something decent!" Ian shouted, "Now that the device has been smashed, there's no chance of anything crossing dimensions, so I've saved everyone!"

"If there's no chance of anything crossing dimensions, doesn't that mean anything that crossed to this dimension is now stuck here?" Lauren asked, "And doesn't that mean we have to be certain…"

"It doesn't really matter." Darren pointed out, "We can still track the energy and be certain that anything following us is basically doomed… well okay, the doomed part was a lie, but…"

"Right, we can use these weird devices that we somehow invented overnight to monitor the energy field and how it's been since we killed that python, so we'll know if anything else appeared." Nick agreed.

"Apparently something else came through this dimension warp, but it could have been that demon we killed at some point." John suggested, "Anyway, aside from that nothing came through that didn't travel back through."

"That's strange… if there were creatures that travelled through the dimension warp and they went back through it, you'd think we'd have run into some of them and then been unable to find them." Colin said.

"Anyway, if that demon came through the dimension warp after the python came through it, then there's really no chance of there being any threat. Now that this is over, maybe we can find the gold." Nick suggested.

The desert, several hours later-

Several people were trying to find gold. Unfortunately, they hadn't realised that the gold from the mine had already been dug up, and in fact they needed to enter another mine.

"Even though the device has been destroyed, there are still people here." Ted stated, "So obviously nobody has the intelligence to get out of the desert where a weird dimension warp just was."

"Is there such a thing as a regular dimension warp, if that dimension warp was weird?" Lauren asked, "Then again, is there really such a thing as gold in that mine? Nobody's left it."

"Maybe that's because there's only gold in the other mine… and to make things worse, there's actually only two mines around here, so it's really stupid that nobody investigated the other one." Ted explained.

"And somehow, apart from us, everyone is still crazy enough to keep searching through a mine when they've been there for hours and not even come close to finding gold." John replied.

"Wait… how can you tell if anyone's come close to finding gold?" Lauren asked, "Unless you can see through the ground, then you wouldn't have any real way of knowing if someone found gold."

"Yes, but nobody's tried to leave that place, and there's been no enthusiastic… well, there hasn't been anything enthusiastic. It doesn't seem like anyone succeeded in finding gold." John explained

Inside mine-

"After everything that's happened, fifteen people have ended up here." Darren announced, "Well, I guess everyone else is dead, except for Frank… twenty-two people died."

"For all we know, several others, not including Frank, managed to live somehow." Colin stated, "Well, not everyone who was attacked by something died, according to certain people…"

"Yes, but are those people believable?" James asked, "Several of them are on my team, but it doesn't make me stupid enough to continue believing them… or does it? Maybe it does."

"So basically, you have no idea whether you believe several people from your own team?" Darren asked, "Well, you're near them almost every waking moment… why would they be honest with you?"

"That is a good question." James agreed, "I really don't understand why they haven't thought of loading an ejector seat into the Slash Liger so that it throws me out when I try to pilot it."

"Fortunately, the Decalto Dragon is piloted by two people, so nobody is stupid enough to use stupid pranks. That's also why the Decalto Dragon is constantly fused." Darren explained.

"Okay, I was wondering why it was constantly fused… by the way, doesn't anyone else find it really weird how we haven't actually found any gold here?" James asked, "We should have found some by now."

"Maybe there's no gold here." Nick suggested, "Or maybe there was gold here, and somehow, the gold got eaten by something long before it could be removed from this mine."

"Maybe someone moved the gold away, and that's why we aren't finding any gold." Colin suggested, "And since there's been no sign of any thing anywhere, for all we know, there could easily continue to be no sign of any gold."

"Okay, so maybe we should search in another mine." James suggested, "I saw another mine when we were entering this one. Maybe some people should have been searching for gold there…"

Outside the mine-

"We didn't find any gold in the mine, but since there's another mine, the gold could easily be inside that one." Colin reported, after everyone in the mine had decided to leave, except for Zack.

"Although, Zack still thinks he can find some gold in that mine, despite the fact that we're all convinced that there isn't any." Colin stated, "And despite the fact that he's probably seen those signs before…"

Colin pointed to two signs. One of them, pointing to the mine they had just come out of, said 'There is no gold here', while the other said, 'I left my gold in this mine, don't touch it.'

"So is it the mine or the gold that we're not supposed to touch, according to that sign?" Lauren asked, "Either way, I still think it's a better idea to not try to find any gold."

"I should probably tell Zack about this." Claire said, "As far as we know he hasn't read the signs… either that, or he doesn't believe them. Anyway, there's still some chance that…"

"Maybe there is some chance of something happening, but there's also some chance that there's nothing wrong with that mine." Darren stated, "At least if Zack stays there there's some chance of him finding something."

"Well, twelve people found nothing." Claire pointed out, "So if this continues, you're increasing the chances that nobody will find anything… or the chances that some weird events will change things."

"Well, now that the weird events are over, maybe we have a better chance of something happening that doesn't involve everyone and everything dying for once." Nick suggested.

"Maybe for once nobody will act like an idiot, but just because there's a chance of it happening doesn't mean it actually will happen." Neil pointed out, "Anyway, we have to find out if there's something in the mine."

"If there is, it's probably the gold that someone left there." Lauren replied, "And if someone left the gold there, that means they probably intend to come back for it at some point in their lives."

"They should have come back for it before anything else happened." Darren stated, "More specifically, before anyone else arrived… but there's no reason to take the gold away."

"Maybe we should leave a note explaining that we moved their gold to somewhere where no body would steal it." Neil suggested, "At least then there's no chance of… anybody stealing it."

Inside second mine-

"Doesn't anyone think it's strange that someone just left gold here?" Nick asked, "When you think about it, that gold could serve many purposes, but maybe its real purpose is…"

"Maybe we just shouldn't touch it at all, and just leave it here until someone returns to take it." Neil suggested, "Although, if we take it back to the Hover Cargo, that eliminates the chance of anyone stealing it."

"Well I don't see why we need to prevent anyone from stealing it." Claire announced, as she and Zack entered the mine, "We only need to avoid stealing it, so that it won't be stolen."

"Maybe not by us, but there's still a chance that the next person who comes through here would steal it." James said, "Even though nobody would really have any motivation to come to these mines."

"But we have been searching for gold for some time now." Colin stated, "Maybe we should find the gold that was left here and take it out of here. At least then we would have gold."

"But if someone left it here, they must intend to come back and get it." James pointed out, "So we can't take it away from here... unless we're using the idea of leaving a note informing them of where it is."

"I still don't see why we need to protect the gold." Colin stated, "We can find more gold in this mine, and then we cane remove it and the gold that was left here from the mine."

"If someone left it here, they obviously don't care about it." Claire stated, "The sign they left must have been some kind of joke, or some strange way of informing everyone that there is gold here."

"Actually, since we arrived here I haven't seen any gold lying around." Neil said, "Maybe he left the sign, then came back and took his gold away, but then he forgot to remove the sign."

"That's actually possible. Maybe we should continue trying to find gold." Zack suggested.

"We already have been trying to find gold for the last several hours." James pointed out.

Outside the mine-

"At least they' have some chance of finding gold. Unfortunately, everyone with any remote idea of how to pilot the Hover Cargo has decided to search for gold, so we won't be leaving for several hours now." Lauren stated.

"Maybe we won't be leaving for some time, but at least we can watch everyone acting like idiots… even though that's been happening for ages now, and you'd think we'd be sick of it." John replied.

"I know, but thankfully, eventually they'll have to stop being stupid. They could stop by themselves, or eventually they could run into walls and knock themselves out." Lauren explained.

"Hopefully, this kind of insanity will stop before we're leaving this place." John said, "And for some reason Ted is still trying to pilot the Hover Cargo… by this time you'd think he would have realised that he can't."

Inside the mine-

"Things are getting even more boring that they were before." James said, "Our only chance now is to leave this mine while there's still a chance of finding gold, or somehow if we don't we will never find gold."

"I think you're going even more insane that you were before. I don't know why you haven't realised this, but to find gold in the mine, we actually have to be inside the mine." Colin stated.

"I forgot about that." James admitted, "But if this continues, then we'll never get out of this mine. Maybe we're not exactly trying to anyway, but we haven't found any gold in this mine since we got here."

"We've found too much gold." Colin replied, pointing to a huge mountain of gold that had somehow appeared, "Well actually, very tiny pieces of gold that we found assembled into that."

"That's definitely very different from what I expected." James said, "But at least we found some gold. But since we can't take it anywhere anyway, shouldn't we be trying to…"

"It doesn't matter. We have to get out of this cave… er, mine anyway." Cheryl pointed out, "I don't know what the reason is exactly, but according to the script we must."

"I understand." Nick agreed, "If that's true, then we really have to get out of here immediately… we should probably be trying to leave this place, despite the obvious problems."

Outside mine-

"What obvious problems were there?" James asked, "We were able to leave that mine without any difficulty. I don't even know why anyone could think we had problems leaving."

"Well technically, it could be considered a problem that we can't take very much of the gold with us." Cheryl replied, "We'll have to return to this place and remove the remaining gold."

"But what will be the point of removing gold?" John asked, "Anyway, we've been here for ages and there still hasn't been any sign of… well… anything that can help us."

"We've already blown up the machine that caused our lives to be in danger." Ian replied, "It's not as if there's going to be anything trying to kill us… well, hopefully there won't be."

"Then we're going to have to find something useful somehow." Claire stated, "Well okay, to be completely honest, we don't really have to, but I get the idea it could be useful."

"Everyone, I've found something that could be important to us." Nick announced, "The demon didn't travel through the dimension warp after the python passed through it."

"So there's something else that came through the dimension warp?" Ian asked, "So basically, there's something in this area right now, and we could be killed by something here?"

"Well, actually, no." Nick announced, "I actually read these energy readings wrong. There hasn't been anything else that passed through the dimension warp and didn't go back through since then. There's been some interference at one point though."

Inside Hover Cargo, later-

"Well, we could leave at any time." James said, "But it's been proven that there's no threat from anything, and now we only need to find some way to take the gold to the Hover Cargo."

"Maybe we should." Cheryl replied, "But despite finding that gold, there's been a lot of deaths here caused by a machine that was right here at one point… well, until it got blasted apart anyway."

"So are we supposed to sit here waiting for everyone to return?" Nick asked, "So far, Carl, Karl, Ian, Ted, Lauren, Darren, John and Neil have left the Hover Cargo, and waiting for them to get back…"

"Waiting for them to get back won't help anyone… except them, I guess." James said, "Anyway, Colin and Claire are supposed to be working on something now… possibly involving piloting the Hover Cargo."

"So basically, there's no idea when everyone will get back." Louise pointed out, "And that means we're going to be here for a long time. If we hadn't blown up that machine, then…"

"The Decalto Dragon is getting closer to this place, at least." Nick reported, "I have no idea what the pilots of the Decalto Dragon are planning, but maybe they'll eventually return."

Near the mines-

As the sky began to get darker, two Command Wolves approached the mine. Carl and Karl disembarked from the Command Wolves and began to approach the remaining gold, which nobody had been able to take back to the Hover Cargo.

"We should have thought of using the Zoids before. Now we can easily take the rest of the gold back to the Hover Cargo, and then there's no reason to inform anyone that we have." Carl said.

"I don't understand why we're not explaining to them that we have the gold." Karl said, "Well, to be completely honest, I don't know what the point of keeping this secret is."

"There's fifteen people here." Carl explained, "See, basically we can keep this secret easily. They'll suspect the three people who weren't interested, thinking that at least one of them really was interested."

"I understand." Karl said, "So while this is happening, we can take this opportunity to run… well actually we need to get to the transport first, and running while we're on the transport would be stupid."

"Although, acting stupid would draw the suspicion away from us, since we would be as we normally are." Carl reasoned. Karl heard a loud thump and almost immediately heard another thump.

Karl ran over to where Carl had been, only to find him lying on the floor. Then he saw someone else approaching. This person raised something that Karl couldn't quite see and swung it towards him.

Hover Cargo, later-

"So far there's been no problem with anything, but for all we know, there could be something happening." James said, "Isn't anyone else wondering why those people with the machine went insane?"

"Well, they were probably already insane." Cheryl replied, "I think they would have to be, in order to try to invent a machine that can send people and creatures to different realities."

"At least we know that they built the machine, and they either died or ran away somewhere when they were defeated. Maybe creatures from a different reality ate them." Nick suggested.

"So basically whatever happened to them, there's really no chance of anyone building another machine." Darren realised, "Which means that there's nobody controlling things."

"If nobody's controlling things, then we have at least some chance of surviving." John said, "Wait… we've already survived because there's nothing from another reality that's still here."

"Everyone's returned except for Carl and Karl." Darren reported, "We should be able to retrieve the gold and leave now, except that they're not back. And I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but there was no gold lying around in that mine."

"Right. Ian can retrieve the gold by himself. Darren, we've piloted the Decalto Dragon before so piloting this Hover Cargo can't be hard." John said, "If everyone else searches for Carl and Karl, this will be over faster."

"I saw a building not far from here." Colin reported, "It was a stone building that looked abandoned, but basically intact. I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to investigate that place."

Near the mines-

Ian had disembarked from his Mad Thunder. After several seconds he had become irritated, however. The main problem was that there was no sign of the huge pile of gold that had been collected.

"Carl and Karl must have taken this gold." Ian said, but then he realised something, "No, it must have been someone who's already back where the carriers are. That would reduce suspicion-" A rock hit Ian's head, and he stumbled backwards.

Ian staggered towards a mine. A few seconds later another rock went flying through the air. It collided with Ian's head and he fell into the mine, falling downwards a considerable distance.

Near a large, stone building-

Ian slowly walked through the building. A large amount of the building was just one room, which Ian thought was very strange.

"Is there anyone else here?" Colin asked, but he only heard his own echoing voice, "Okay, this is getting stupid. There's nobody here, and the Warriors of Command could even have returned to the Hover Cargo."

Someone charged at Colin and he turned towards them, but he wasn't prepared when something slammed into his head.

Elsewhere in the desert-

"I don't know what's happening here, but you'd think by now we'd have seen at least some sign of Carl and Karl." Louise stated, "The Warriors of Command must be here somewhere."

"Maybe they decided that this place was too weird, so they decided to run from it." Neil suggested, "That's the only reason I can think of for why they would have left by now."

"Maybe there's another reason." Louise suggested, "Maybe the decided to move the gold from that place to somewhere inside their Command Wolves and used the Command Wolves to transport it away."

"We really should have only sent three people out here." Neil pointed out, "See, if we sent only three people, there wouldn't be all this confusion… and is it really that hard to destroy a machine?"

"Apparently not. Ian destroyed it quickly enough." Louise reasoned, "Although, this really isn't as bad as it could have been. While it won't be easy to find them, there's no threat now."

"Although, isn't there some chance that there still is a threat?" Neil asked, "After Ian blasted the dimensional device, the dimension warp should have closed, but can that really happen instantly?"

"Maybe not, but we'll have to assume that it can, because it just gives us another reason to get killed for being stupid." Louise replied, "Anyway, Nick's device didn't monitor anything coming through it."

"So far, nothing stupid has happened then." Neil realised, "And if we can get out of this desert before anything else happens, then there's really no chance of being exceptionally stupid."

"Well to be completely honest, we are already somewhat stupid, and if we stay here there's a good chance of us getting stupider." Louise reasoned, "But even if something could come through the dimension warp, we should have seen it."

Suddenly, several laser blasts tore into the Salamander. Neil was thrown around inside the cockpit and another shot struck the Salamander, knocking it to the ground. Neil fell out of the cockpit.

The Bear Fighter began firing at the direction the laser blasts had come from. Several explosions erupted, and immediately afterwards a loud crashing sound was heard. The Bear Fighter charged towards the target.

Neil disembarked from his Salamander and ran towards the target as fast as possible. When he reached it, he found that the target had been a Snipe Liger, which Cheryl was now standing outside.

"What just happened?" Neil asked. Not surprisingly, he was shocked that the Snipe Liger had been firing on him. Neil quickly realised that there must have been some kind of confusion.

"After all the weird things that happened, I saw movement and thought there was something about to attack, so I just fired on it, and it turned out there wasn't a threat." Cheryl explained.

"Well, try to take the Salamander and Snipe Liger back to the Hover Cargo." Neil suggested, "I have another idea, though… Louise, we have to find out if Carl and Karl are at the mine."

The mines-

The Bear Fighter approached the mines very slowly. Louise and Neil disembarked. They turned towards where the Command Wolves had been, but there was no sign of anyone.

"Carl, Karl and Ian have already come to this place, but there's no sign of the Zoids they pilot anywhere." Neil announced, "There has to be something else happening here."

"Maybe they got bored of piloting Zoids and made their Zoids run over a cliff." Louise suggested, "Or maybe their Zoids are somewhere close, but we haven't seen them yet."

"Maybe there's something else happening." Neil suggested, "Well, maybe there hasn't been anything that's happened recently that helped people to discover the secret of living for five seconds longer than usual, but-"

Suddenly, a rock went flying through the air. It struck Louise's head and knocked her to the ground. She was about to fall down a mine, but Neil grabbed her and prevented her from falling.

"Maybe the dimension warp has been sealed, but there's still something else happening here." Neil realised, but then he noticed that Louise had been knocked unconscious.

Neil found it very difficult for himself and Louise to both be in the cockpit of the Bear Fighter, and his inexperience at piloting it became obvious when he accidentally made it fall down a mountain.

Elsewhere, several minutes later-

A Liger Zero, Slash Liger, Gairyuki and Gojulas Giga were standing around, but the pilots had disembarked from them. Somehow, they had met with each other, despite this being extremely unlikely.

"So far, nobody found Carl, Karl and Ian, but somehow we've all run into each other." Zack said, "But I know what really happened. It's obviously because you are mental."

"I don't think that's very likely. Somehow we have met here, though." James agreed, "Nobody was following you because there's no reason any sane person, or even any insane person would want to."

"Okay, maybe assuming you followed me was stupid, but there's something happening and I have no idea what it is." Zack said, "Even though that machine's been destroyed…"

"Maybe there's something very strange happening." Lauren suggested, "That machine has been destroyed, so logically most things can't come through the dimension warp… well technically, nothing can."

"How often do you see things from other dimensions walking around and attacking people as if it's nothing different from what normally happens?" Zack asked, "There's no technicality. Nothing can get through!"

"Sometimes I've thought James could easily be from another dimension." Lauren replied, "Incidentally, he isn't. I found that to be the most surprising fact in history. Except for that time when all the wheels on the planet rolled around by themselves."

"Maybe there is something interesting happening here." James suggested, "I know, there probably isn't, but there's a slight chance that there could be. Maybe we haven't thought of something."

"Maybe we've thought of everything already, and now we're going round in circles." Ted suggested, "Although, even if that was true, we'd have found where Carl and Karl are by now."

"Maybe they went after the gold, but then again, many people have already begun searching over near the mines." Lauren said, "Anyway, if they had gone after the gold someone would have found them by now."

"There has to be something else happening, though." Zack stated, but then a Gunguyarados began to fly towards the area. It landed and for several seconds nothing happened.

"I've just found that building Colin decided to explore… but Colin is dead, someone or something killed him, and I have no idea what's going on!" Claire shouted. Everyone else didn't know how to react…

Suddenly, an undead miner began to approach from the top of a nearby hill. Although he was some distance away from everyone, the miner's flesh was clearly partially decomposed.

The miner leapt off the hill, landing on the head of the Gunguyarados. Everyone began to run towards their own Zoids, obviously worried now since they hadn't expected there to be any threat.

The miner shoved a shovel forwards. The shovel shattered the glass of the Gunguyarados pilot and struck Claire's neck. Claire was killed very quickly, as the blade passed through her neck, decapitating her.

The miner turned towards everyone else. Having seen Claire get killed brutally, they made an intelligent decision for once and decided to run. The two Ligers ran to the left while the dinosaur-based Zoids ran to the right.

Elsewhere in the desert-

The Gairyuki had left the Gojulas Giga and was running by itself now. There was no sign of anyone following it. However, Ted realised that he was about to run into a mountain, and tried to make the Gairyuki turn to one side.

However, the Gairyuki was too close to the mountain. Its left leg slammed into the side of the mountain. The Gairyuki collapsed, and Ted was knocked out of the cockpit by the impact.

Ted stood and ran to the Gairyuki. Although the leg shouldn't have been badly damaged by the impact, the armour on the front of the lower leg section had, been shattered.

"That's no sign of that miner anywhere." Ted realised, "They have repair devices back at the Hover Cargo. Repairing the Gairyuki shouldn't be hard." Ted immediately realised one problem with this plan.

"In order to get back to the Hover Cargo… I have to walk across the desert… with that miner still chasing people." Ted realised. Suddenly he heard a noise, and when he turned he saw a pickaxe flying towards him.

Another part of the desert-

The Gojulas Giga hadn't run into any mountains. Although Lauren was no less terrified than the other three people who had seen the zombie miner, she was still barely capable of not running into a mountain.

However, several relatively large rocks had been positioned in front of the Gojulas Giga. It ran into then, and knocked itself over, completely crushing one side of its head.

Lauren began to climb out of the shattered cockpit, but she heard someone approaching her. Despite being shaken by the impact, she turned, in time to see someone raising a pickaxe…

Hover Cargo-

Fortunately, James and Zack had managed to return to the Hover Cargo without running into the miner. They also hadn't seen any sign of any of the others while running, but when they got back, Nick had already returned.

"I don't know why you're so terrified, but I've failed to find anyone." Nick announced, "When you think about it, that's really strange. I really can't see how I can fly over the desert and see nobody."

"Maybe, but there's some kind of homicidal dead guy running around outside!" Zack shouted, "We met some of the others, and then Claire got killed by this zombie guy, and now…"

"Did anyone else return to this place?" James asked, "Some of the others ran from that zombie guy when we saw him, but they decided to run in another direction. Then again, they would have had to run past him if they didn't."

"Well, when I got here, Cheryl was already here." Nick said, "Apparently, she somehow shot Neil's Salamander, so she had to bring it to the Hover Cargo so it could be repaired."

"I'm confused here… why wouldn't Neil be able to pilot his own Salamander?" James asked, before realising, "Actually, if a Salamander had to walk, it would be really slow."

"Anyway, John and Darren are also here." Nick explained, "Apparently, they've been trying to figure out how to pilot this thing for several hours now. I don't know why this is happening, but maybe…"

James noticed the zombie miner walking towards the Hover Cargo, although he was still possibly several hundred feet away. Despite this, James remembered what had happened to Claire with the Gunguyarados.

"That's weird; there really is a zombie miner guy!" Nick shouted, "Maybe the interference was him gaining life force from the dimension warp or something." Nick turned, running towards the weapons turret controls.

The hover Cargo began to turn towards the miner. Somehow, Darren and John had managed to find a way to pilot the Hover Cargo. It began to speed towards the miner… well; maybe 'speed' isn't the best word.

The miner leapt into the air, presumably attempting to land on the head of the Hover Cargo. However, this time, Nick fired the cannons on the turret. The miner was hit hard and fell towards the ground…

The miner didn't hit the ground, because the Hover Cargo slammed into him while he was still three feet off the ground. The impact sent him flying and the Hover Cargo shot him in mid-air again, sending him flying out of sight.

Hover Cargo, several hours later-

"We've offloaded the gold." James reported, "Maybe the gold was the reason he attacked us. Anyway, we've thrown it into a mine and now there's no sign of anyone approaching us."

"If nobody's approaching us, how would you explain that?" Cheryl asked, pointing to a radar device that indicated something approaching the Hover Cargo at high speed, but couldn't give a visual image.

"Well I don't know what's happening, but I'm guessing that somehow that miner is charging towards us." Nick stated, "And now he's preparing to kill us with a pickaxe that can somehow penetrate anything."

"Well, maybe he isn't running towards us." John suggested, "Didn't it occur to you that that thing that's showing up on the radar has been detected by radar, which means its metal?"

"Yes, but that guy had a pickaxe." Nick said, "For all we know, the metal parts of that pickaxe could be activating the radar, which in turn is showing us exactly where he is, and he happens to be running towards us!"

"Well at any rate, he's closing in really fast." Darren announced, "So if you're going to make an attempt to stop him, you're going to have to think of something really fast."

James opened the door, expecting the miner to be waiting to strike, but instead he saw the Bear fighter standing next to the Hover Cargo. Neil and Louise disembarked from the Bear Fighter's cockpit.

"Louise got knocked out at some point and I had to pilot the Bear Fighter even though I really don't know how to." Neil reported, "Anyway, that's why we couldn't get back here."

"Well as long as everyone who's still alive returned…" James said, trying to think of how to finish the sentence, "… since you've been near the mines, I'm assuming you haven't seen Carl, Karl or Ian."

"Unfortunately, it looks like they all died." Neil replied, "Their Zoids were nowhere in sight either. Maybe whoever killed them moved the Zoids elsewhere, or maybe they fell into a third, giant mine."

"Then I guess we have no choice but to rebuild the Crusade Team. I guess from this point onwards, there's only going to be one team from this town." Cheryl informed everyone.

Nobody had any objections and the Hover Cargo soon began to head back towards the town. After all the events that had happened, everyone knew that they shouldn't have a problem working as a team in the future…

Near the mines-

Ian slowly began to stand. As he stood, he realised that he could barely remember anything that had happened since he fell into the mine. For some reason his head didn't hurt despite being hit with rocks.

"Is anyone there? If there's someone there, I really need you help to get out of this place!" Ian shouted. After a few seconds he heard footsteps, but then he saw a pickaxe flying towards him…