An Interesting Way to Meet New Faces (Come one come all!)

[Drakron DeManshai]

Drakron cracked a huge grin as he caught a look of half worry on Xero's face. He strolled over to his team-mate and whispered so that only the two of them could hear. "Don't worry bud, you'll get it eventually." He teased. Then he half coughed to clear his throat and raised the volume of his voice. "I don't know about any of you, but I'm ready for that swim. Meet me down at Pelican Beach. It's not far from here... especially not hard to find if you head straight for the water." He smiled even larger then turned to walk out the door.

After two paces he stopped and glanced back over his shoulder at the crowd. "If any of you have doubts as to how to find the place I suggest you follow me. I'm heading straight there." His gaze lingered for a moment on Reyna, then he resumed his stride and walked out of the bar. He headed toward his massive zoid and caught sight of a sports car sitting in the parking lot. "Nice ride." Drakron said to himself before Anubis bent down and he bounded up to the cockpit. Let's go for a swim buddy.

Bout time, I thought we weren't ever going to get out of here.

[Charles]

Charles thought about the swim. Should be fun, he smiled. He grabbed the top to his suit and followed the white haired man out the door. Watching him as he jumped into the cockpit of his beastly Zoid, Charles wondered what he would do to replace his beloved Elephander. From his inside pocket he produced a set of keys and pressed a button. There was a slight beep and the doors to his exotic car lifted. He slid inside and turned on the ignition.

The engine roared to life with that sound you hear especially fast cars make, not the loud obnoxious roar of a monster truck, but a cleaner sort of growl.  Following the much larger Zoid was simple, though he didnt need to follow it, the womans voice from his GPS was guiding him every turn of the way.  With his petal to the metal he raced down the street, passing the areas little gang and car fanatics as he did so. The windstream that he left behind rattled the trash and small plants that were planted along the outer edge of this main drag type street.

Arriving at the not so deserted beach was a little different for Char. For the past year he had been living in the lap of luxery and a public beach, while not so crowded, was still a bit odd. Even at this hour of night little groups were having their own parties. Pelican Beach itself was a big inlet from the regular ocean. The reef that divided it was a spectacular sight because it had a dim glow at night that illuminated the water in the inlet.

Slowly, he got out of the car leaving his jacket and white button up in the car so he was in a white tee and his black pants.

"This'll be great," he said to nobody inparticular.

[Xero Shifter]

Xero turned and shot a playful glare at Drakron after he finished whispering to him. Drakron mentioned the beach and Xero had shivers run down his spine. He shook his head very quickly and not even all the way before the shivers cleared. "Oh man...." He then turned to Reyna and motioned that he was going. In a way, asking her to follow.
Xero jumped into his cockpit and had Neverwind do the piloting while he changed. Of course Xero had no intention of actually getting in the water. The idea of ocean water frightened him so, but at least he would pretend that he wasn't afraid, and that it was simply to cold for him.
He arrived on the beach soon, and jumped out. He rushed down onto the sand and sat in it, creating a spot clear of shells and rocks. He set his hands at his sides as he watched the reflection of the moon on the waves. It was beautiful to say the least. The moment ended to soon as Xero's left hand was victimized by a wandering crab. "YEOWW!!" his yelp sounded almost like a cat screaming as he swung the crab around trying to get it off his finger. The crab finally flew off into the ocean, and Xero began to suck on his finger to prevent swelling and lessen the pain.

[Chevelle Bentley]

Chevelle grinned as Drakron mentioned heading to the beach again and people finally started to exit the building and get in their respective rides. She turned to Terensu, who was finishing up their game of pool. They hadn't talked much after introductions, but it had been a pleasant enough game. She extended her hand again.

"It was great shooting with you, and nice to meet you as well. I hope you'll join us at the beach!"

And with that, she was off toward Chan. Luckily she kept a swimsuit among a few other items stuffed in a duffel bag in her Fox's small storage compartment, were she ever to be stranded and need to get in the water. Which wasn't likely, sure, but it was about to come in handy enough. She had Chan keep the cockpit heavily screened while she changed and let him follow the others to the beach. Just as they were pulling up, she was tightening the neck strings on her swimsuit top. She hopped down from Chan's elevated cockpit and landed softly in the sand, barefoot. Wriggling her toes happily, she couldn't quell a small giggle the escaped from her throat. She did love the beach. From the corner of her eye, she saw Charles getting out of his car. She ran over to greet him and pulled him out on the sand.

"Swim time, Char!"

He chuckled at her excitement, but agreed to the swim. That was all it took for Chevelle. She was sprinting down the beach toward the water in a flash, only stopping for a short second to wiggle out of her jean shorts. Mischievously, she tossed them in Xero's direction, unhappy that he was merely occupying a square of sand.

"Come on, Xero!!"

[Charles]

Char laughed aloud as Chev pulled him into the sand. He looked up at her with a sly grin and promised to himself that he would prank her later in the evening. His gaze averted to Xero, who was loudly occupying a spot of sand and sucking on his finger. Charles laughed again and stepped a bit closer to his car. With a small beep the trunk (which was located at the front) opened revealing some clothes and some heavy duty suitcases which held things of immesurable destructive capability. Char grabbed a pair of red shorts and pulled them on after taking off his black pants. He also removed his shirt revealing the long white scars on his back.

"Chev wait up!" he turned.

He walked briskly to the edge of the sand. The darkened water was very creepy but the glow made it look ghostly. The moon combined with the coral was a spectacular and very different sight to see. Everywhere he looked he could see small groups of colored fish and once he even thought he spotted a stingray. The smile couldnt leave his face as he watched his new piloting friends hop right in. Char never really liked cold water but he decided to plung.

The moment his flesh touched the icy water a shiver ran down his spine. The water was cool and refreshing but almost too cold. He kicked downwards to swim along the dimly lit reef. His eyes opened and the salt water began to sting them. Charles focused a bit of his secret power on his eyes creating an airbubble around them. He looked around for a few more seconds and then jetted towards the surface. He noticed the amount of people joining them. His hand shot from the water and waved towards Chev.

"Come out here and check out this reef" he shouted.

[Xero Shifter]

Xero was unexpectedly hit in the face with a pair of jene shorts. He rolled his eyes as he looked in the direction they came from. Of course Chevy was there telling him to get in the water. Xero shook his head and stood up. He walked over to the ocean, just where the waves stopped short of him, he watched the water as he would creep up close to him, fall just short, then recede back into the ocean. He poked a finger into the water a short ways away from him and was imediatly assaulted by images of his first trip to the ocean.
----
"Come on, Xero! the water is great." A woman with black hair down to her shoulders, and soft brown eyes beckoned him into the water. It was his mother. She was pregnant with his soon to be little sister. Xero couldn't remember how old he was, it all seemed lost. He watched the next few moments play out in horror as he stepped into the water unable to control his actions, because they had already happened.
His feet touched the cold water and he waddled in, trying to reach his mother.
A small wave assaulted him and sea water entered his mouth and nostrils. The pain was minor, so he continued on. Just then he felt a tug on his ankle and Xero shot under the water.
He kicked and screamed to fight against what ever had him, he could feel himself drowning, unable to breathe as he choked for air, sea water entering his lungs. Soon the tugging let go and his mother was there with him, he was laying on the beach.
----
As Xero witness his first encounter with death over again, he reacted weirdly. First by freezing completely, then by giving quite moans, his eyes wide open and strait ahead. The moans became a bit louder and eventually he snapped out of it and scuttled back up the beach a ways, tripping over his own limbs several times in an attempt to get away from the water.

[Charles]

(Downy! This topic has become dead, so Charles will come and save the day!)

Diving down to the glowing spectacle was a feat that took an extreme tolerance for cold. The water, though shallow was freezing. During the day it was normally nice and warm in the surrounding area but at night the water temperature dropped considerably. Char dove down and letting a little of his power seep out, created a protective air bubble around his head. His eyes darted around, staring in wonderment at the almost magical reef before him.

Char swam slowly, twisting and turning like a shark would swim. Occaisionally diving extremely close to the ocean floor to dig up things under the layers of sand or prod at a bright pink crab. He smiled as he kicked up from the sandy bottom and rocketted to the surface. Rising up six feet before feeling the breeze of fresh air. The teen turned to his friends and ushered towards them.

"Come on guys, there arent any sharks, you should really check this out!"

[Drakron DeManshai]

Drakron had seen the reef. He had been diving out here before, of course he was probably the only one that had been there before. It was him who mentioned the place. He had changed during the flight to the beach, slipping into a pair of yellow swimming trunks as Anubis plunged along at top speed. He was also the first one at the beach, and had waited for everyone to begin their newest arrival in a far more casual spot. He wiped a bit of sweat from his brow as he saw the one that had been catching his eye for quite some time. Chan bounded in, just as excited looking as Drakron felt when his thoughts roamed to the pilot of that magnificent zoid. Private thoughts for later days. He mused to himself. Then he kicked off of his Dragon's armor and landed fully fourty feet out into the water from the shoreline. The zoid was almost swimming itself.

The water was almost ice but Drakron seemed not to notice as he lazily flipped around on his back and began kicking, making a beeline for the sand. He wasn't moving fast, but realized that he didn't really want to. The sky was clear and the stars were brilliant, twinkling in a million galaxies across the wide universe. It was a perfect night for a swim and soon he was lost underwater, marveling at the hidden beauty that was concealed by the ever shifting surface. The ocean floor was where life could flourish, and here was one of the prime examples on the planet. There was a myriad of fish, anemones and coral along with every type of aquatic plant life that was fathomable. The way the wildlife moved and swayed with the gentle motion of the waves was soothing, and could have put the hardiest of men into a trance or slumber.

Drakron swam back to the surface and headed right to the bank. There was still dried wood lying everywhere so he gathered up a large amount and piled it, letting Anubis release a deadly blast of flame to catch the pile on fire. It was a big fire, nearly ten feet tall at it's apex and fully six foot in diameter. "Who wants some S'Mores? How 'bout some hotdogs, or hamburgers. I brought the meat with me. We can eat and camp out for the night. Nobody will bother us down here especially with the zoids blocking the entrance to the beach. 'Elle, care to give me a hand?"

[Chevelle Bentley]

The chill of the water gradually subsided as Chevelle swam lazily near the shore. While she loved the beach, she wasn't entirely keen on being in the ocean itself; the danger of some of the larger marine animals to her human body was always at the front of her mind, especially when she was so vulnerably far from Chan's cockpit. Of course, she didn't want the others around her to become aware of her ridiculous fears, and so she'd made a big show of jumping into the water without hesitation. Now she was beginning to regret that decision, and she had almost made up her mind to head back on land to start a bonfire. A short distance away, Charles' voice called out to her, distracting her for a second from the imending sense of doom the dark water around her created in her head.

"Come out here and check out this reef!"

She shot his offer down quickly with a glance he wouldn't have seen in the dark. No way was she going further out. Returning her gaze to the beach where some others were starting to arrive, she watched Xero have a small moment of awkwardness at the water's edge before retreating several yards back up the beach. Elle sighed. She knew she wouldn't be able to squelch her curiosity about that moment for too long - she'd have to try to talk to him about it. Drakron's swimming could be heard not far from her own position and she thought off-handedly about trying to sneak over and dunk him. She grinned at the thought and herself, knowing that it would never work, but happy that she could at least begin to relax a little knowing that she had friends around her. Char's voice interrupted her surroundings once more.

"Come on guys, there arent any sharks, you should really check this out!"

She grinned and headed toward him - he'd said the magic words! The glowing reef really was incredible. A tiny sort of ecosystem in itself, offering a home for hundreds of different marine species, she knew. After the impressiveness of the reef began to wear off, though, the coldness of the water on her skin started to creep back upon her. A quick glance toward the beach offered a vision of heat in the fire that Drakron's Savage Dragon had provided. She thanked Charles for showing her the reef and headed back to shore with broad, even, and quick strokes. At least she could be proud of her swimming skills.

Back on the beach, Drakron was musing about the possibilities of the pilots remaining overnight as she passed him up to retrieve a towel from her bag. She dried off quickly as she listened to his idea, shaking her hair out and scrunching her nose as the usually calm waves curled up more tightly into large ringlets. The mention of food items was what really caught her attention, and she realized that was actually rather hungry.  She was pulling a t-shirt on over her swimsuit when he called over to her.

"'Elle, care to give me a hand?"

"Definitely, you know I can always go for a burger!" she replied, laughing. She joined him near the fire to see what would need to be done first.

[Drakron DeManshai]

Drakron climbed back into the cockpit of Anubis and opened up a storage hatch. "There's a cooler in the hatch. It's got onion and tomato which will both need to be sliced up, I've got a knife...", he dug around in his pocket for a second to locate his pocket knife. "Right here!" He said as he pulled it out. "Cut the leafy stuff, there should be lettuce in there as well. I'll get the meat going." Then he turned to everyone else. "Hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner then. There's mustard, cheese, ketchup, you know the works. There's more than enough for everyone, so we might as well make a night of it." He smiled as everyone started crowding around.

Send an invite to all available pilots that way we have some more people out here. We should fill this beach, it's Xero's party after all and he doesn't look like he's having much fun.

Gotcha, and go talk to him. It might make it better for him.

Anubis immediately sent invites to all pilots registered with the ZBC. The invites gave co-ordinates to the beach as well as a list of who all was already there. He was going to make sure that most everyone could go to the beach party. The clever Dragon also added the words BYOB and a reminder to park just outside the beach, unless something needed to be unloaded.

Drakron headed over to Xero after having watched his reaction to the water. He knew what was wrong but he wasn't going to bring it up unless Xero spoke to him about it. "All men have to deal with their own fears." He said to himself as he pulled up a patch of glittering golden-brown sand. He looked at Xero who did not respond. The night air was chilly against wet skin but the Fury pilot had something else on his mind and did not pay attention.

"How's your party so far Xero? More pilots turned out than what I first thought. You having fun?"

It was friendly idle chatter and he didn't mean anything by it but recieved no response. So he got back to his feet slowly. As he started to walk back to the fire and the meat he was about to cook he called back over his shoulder to his fellow Furian. "You need to talk about anything I'm right over here." But he didn't watch to see if Xero said anything back, and instead decided to start pounding out a couple of hamburger patties.

Drakron absently grabbed a grate from Anubis' side storage hatch and laid it gently across the flames, watching them dance around the cold steel. He stood stone blocks that were aproximately the same size on either side of the fire to hold the grate steady. Then he began dropping hamburgers and hotdogs on the make-shift grill. When there were about fifteen of each done he set them on a plate. If more people came he would make more. "How are we on our veggies 'Elle? Do we need some more or what? I can send someone, or go myself if we need something else. Is everybody good? Cool."