I don't own any of the Zoids characters. There I said it.
The Chronicles of the Fluegal Team
A Challenger for Leon
"Chalk up another win for the Fluegal team." Said Naomi.
"Yeah, with my Liger fixed, we are back in the action. It was too bad what happened at the royal cup. But Bit really deserved the win for that one." Replied Leon.
"Well, he was the first one to take me down."
It was at this point in the discussion that a young man, maybe as old as bit, stepped forward. He was wearing a red jacket and black pants. He had a mess of red hair on top of his head, and his blue eyes were deep set.
"Are you Leon Tauros?" the stranger asked.
"Yeah, who wants to know?"
"My name's Dart Rannon. I have come to challenge you to a one on one match."
"I know you; you were that warrior who disappeared for a while after that one loss that trashed your Zoid. Why do you want to fight me?"
"You could say I have a score to settle."
"But you and I have never fought."
"I know."
Leon sat in silence for a moment, staring at this warrior who had come out of the blue.
"Alright, I accept your challenge."
"Good. You will get the data on the battle tomorrow. Till the match."
When the kid had gone, Naomi looked at her partner.
"So why did you accept?"
"I heard about him. He was a good warrior, but in his last battle, his Zoid was damaged beyond repair. Thing is, he piloted a grey blade Liger. He was ambushed by the Back Draft group, and some of their weapons were able to take him down. His Zoid's motor systems were nearly destroyed; about all that was still intact was the Laser Blades. I wonder what he found to replace it."
"I guess we wait to find out."
The next day.
"Hey Naomi, we are getting the battle information. Check it out"
Battle Mode 0154: 1/1 no ammunition based weapons.
Battle field 327
Time: 18:00
Fluegal Team / Dart Team
"Well there you go. What ever he has, it is designed for close combat, but they don't give us his statistics. It says here that his Zoid will be registered at the battle. Means no clues for us."
"Looks like we just wait till tomorrow."
"Guess so."
"Hey Naomi, would you check this place out. With all these canyons, it would be tough on ranged combatants even if there wasn't a restriction already."
"Yeah, glad this isn't my battle."
"Well let's see if my opponent is here yet. Yup, there is a transport on its way here, should be here in a few minutes."
The two watched in silence as the transport rolled up. Then they saw a man jump out of the cockpit and run back behind the snail transport to the thing it was pulling. Then after another minute or so, a Zoid marched out.
"I don't believe it. That looks like my red blade."
"Yeah, it does, but something is strange, its body is a little different from your blade. Well he has set the challenge down, better go answer him."
"Right."
Dart's Liger stood facing Leon's Liger, and now some of the differences become more obvious. Dart's Liger was slightly shorter and blockier in form. The blades also stuck out straight instead of hooking forward. And the armor on the legs looked slightly different as well.
After a few moments of silence a loud crash was heard, the judge had arrived.
"Warning, Warning, the area for a 6 mile radius is a designated Zoid battle arena, all others must leave. Area scanned. Battle Field set up. Ready, FIGHT!"
Both ligers charged, and blade met blade, meeting with a loud clang. The two Zoids passed and began a second charge. This time both began sending energy through the blades. This time when the two collided the results were a little more damaging. Leon's liger had a deep slash on its face, while Dart's had several slash marks from the claws of Leon's liger. That was when Leon saw something strange. Where his enemy's liger had been slashed, the paint was no longer all red, some more paint had scratched off and you could see blue underneath.
'What's up with that?' Thought Leon.
The two ligers were about ready to really start mixing it up when suddenly another loud explosion was heard, and both pilots stopped and stared in the direction of the judge pod. The white judge had been shot by some type of cannon. Then came another explosion, and a dark judge capsule landed near the sight of the first judge.
Leon sighed, "Don't these guys ever know when to quit."
However a very different reaction was heard from over the radio from Dart.
"I wondered how long it would take for them to take the bait."
"Huh, what are you talking about?"
"Tell you later Tauros. We have some trouble on our hands, and I think you should tell your partner to mount up. We might need the firepower, depending on what they have in store for us."
"Alright, but we are gonna talk later, I want to know what you dragged me into."
"You got it."
After that little exchange, both warriors got a little surprise; a massive whale king deactivated a cloaking shield high above them. Then the image of a Blonde haired man came over the communication screens.
"This battle has been taken over by the Back Draft Group. You will battle our team, if you win we will pay 4 times the normal prize money, but if we win we take your Zoids."
"You got a deal Mueler." Replied Dart.
"I guess I don't have much of a choice now do I? Lets fight." said Leon.
Naomi, who had climbed into her Gun Sniper, also shouted to the blonde man. "Let's see what you've got you Back Draft scum."
The whale king landed a short distance away, and deployed a pair of Elephanders.
"Meet Team Chaos. They are your opponents."
The dark judge began to speak in his very obnoxious voice.
"Battle Field Set up. The Chaos Team vs. The Fluegal and Dart teams. Ready Fight."
Naomi jumped up to a high ridge to get some angle on the Elephanders while the liger pilots charged in from either side. The Elephanders started firing blasts from their lasers, but couldn't match the maneuverability of the ligers. Dart came up and slashed the leg of one of the Elephanders, slowing it down even more than it already was. Leon came in from the other side. And neatly sliced off the trunk of the other Elephander.
The two ligers circled back around, but were suddenly caught in a missile barrage from a pod on the trunk-less Elephander. When the smoke cleared, Leon's liger had taken some minor damage, while the only visible change do Dart's was that the red paint had come off, revealing a blue coating and some fake armor on the legs had fallen off, revealing there normal, color.
Leon stared at the liger on left.
'That isn't a blade liger; it is a shield liger with attached blades, that's why it looked different. But that Shield Liger looks familiar somehow.' He thought.
The now revealed shield liger took no time in charging the Elephanders. The missile armed one was about to launch another volley, when several laser shots took out the missile pod. The pilot of the Elephander looked up and saw the red gun sniper on a high ledge raining death down upon them.
Suddenly the shield came up and slammed into both Elephanders causing severe damage to the legs, causing both to collapse.
"Hey Naomi," called Dart, "do you have anything that could cause some damage to that Whale King?"
"I have two special shells, but you are reimbursing me for this."
"You go it, target the engines and bring her down. These guys need to be brought to justice."
Naomi took careful aim, and fired the first "special" shell. This shell possessed a plasma explosive capable of leveling half a city block. It had no trouble destroying the engine. She set her sights on the second wing engine and promptly destroyed that one too. The whale king which had begun to lift off promptly fell back to the ground.
"Okay, I called the cavalry; we have Battle Commission cops on the way. I think we are good now."
"If we are good, can you tell me what the hell is going on, you seemed happy that the back draft attacked, how did you know they would."
"With a shot at two rare ligers, as if they wouldn't. Any other questions should wait till we can talk in private."
It was about three hours later, and they were sitting in a lounge back at Dart's base. They all had mugs of coffee, and their Zoids were being repaired by the dart base technicians.
"Thanks for fixing our Zoids. You better have some shells for my partner here or she might come after you."
"Don't worry; I will give you three to replace the two you had to use. Now I imagine you want to here the whole story. The first thing I am going to tell you is that I am not Dart Rannon."
"What?" Naomi nearly dropped her mug.
"My name is actually Tarn Rannon. Dart was my twin brother. You remember how he disappeared after a battle with the back-draft. Well he was badly wounded during that battle, and died from those wounds. Remember I said I had a score to settle. It wasn't really with you; it was with Mueler of the back-draft. I also wanted to apologize to you for something else I did. You saw that my Liger is a modified shield liger. Well the parts for it actually came from the ruined shield liger you piloted. I found it after you abandoned it, and salvaged what I could; I used the main core of the shield liger, but added the weapons of my brother's blade. I painted it red, so it would look more like a blade liger and less like a shield one. I wanted the shield to be a secret."
Naomi looked at Leon, and then looked back at Tarn. "Well that is some story. I actually believe it. But we should probably get going now. I imagine our Zoids have been repaired by now."
"Actually I had one last thing to ask."
Leon ha been getting up to follow Naomi and turned back to the younger man. "What is that?"
"Well, my brother always fought alone. He nearly died alone. I don't want that. I was wondering, if I could join you?"
Naomi was actually struck speechless. "Gain another close range combatant. That would be nice."
"Not only that, but you would gain Dart Base. It and its technicians would be at your disposal."
Naomi looked at Leon, and he nodded to her, "Mr. Rannon, welcome to the Fluegal team."
