Disclaimer. I do not own these wonderful, fun-to-torture characters. I own nothing but my mind, and I'm not even sure about that.

Just for the record, flames will be used in the usual way, i.e., to toast marshmallows. Also, be it known that I do not like Bit, so there most likely will be some Bit-bashing (I love that word)

Chapter 1: Everybody loves checkers

"Checkers!?!?"

Leena grinned, shaking the box she held to make the pieces rattle. "Sure! It's raining, I'm bored, and there's nothing else to do. Unless you're afraid I can beat all of you."

Brad, disinterested as usual, went back to surfing the tv. Bit raised his head out of his bowl of popcorn long enough to stare stupidly at Leena. Jamie and Dr. Toros, however, were intrigued.

"Alright, Leena, I'll play you. But before we start I think you should know that I was Checkers Champion at my old school." Jamie said. "Fine," grinned Leena, "That'll make it all the sweeter when I beat you."

Leena went to the dining table and set up the board. "Red or black?" she asked Jamie.

"Red. It's my favorite color."

~*~*~*~*~*

Ten minutes passed. The only sounds to be heard were the crashing of thunder, the click of the remote, and Bit's loud chewing. Jamie had taken all but three of Leena's pieces, and Dr. Toros was looking dejected about the money he was going to lose to Bit for betting on Leena. Then, suddenly, Leena jumped all but one of Jamie's pieces, and trapped that so that it couldn't move without being jumped. Leena was grinning more than ever, while Jamie just stared silently at the board. "Another game?" he asked quietly.

"sure!" Leena replied

"Hey, Bit! They're playing again! Double or nothing?"

"You're on!"

~*~*~*~*~*

After winning ten out of ten games, and laughing at Bit losing all his prize money to her dad, Leena retired to her room for some REAL competition on the Zoids Battle Commission website. Aside from stats and team information, the site hosted a rather large gameplay room, with chess, poker, blackjack… and checkers.

Online, Leena's name was 'DibSniper', and her password was… er… oh, yeah, she remembered! 'food&weaponry', her two favorite things in the world!

After checking out a few games and deciding the players were too weak even to get points off of, she sat down at a table with a player named 'KingHC', who looked like a decent player. He was one of the best there, after all, with 7187 points racked up.

Dibsniper: wanna play?

KingHC: sure. Think you're good enough?

Dibsniper: are you kidding? I just hope you don't run home to your mother when I beat you!

KingHC: alright, then. Ready! Fight! ^_^

Dibsniper: =p you're still going down, bad sense of humor notwithstanding

~several moves pass~

KingHC: so… obviously you battle Zoids, what team are you on?

Dibsniper: nuh-uh, don't ask me anything about my team or my Zoid, and I won't ask you about yours. That is confidential information!

KingHC: ohh… big words O.o

Dibsniper: what? You expect less from the beautiful, the wonderful, the genius…

KingHC: yes?

Dibsniper: no way! You're not going to trick me into revealing myself THAT easily!

KingHC: Darn. I guess I'll just have to settle for winning. Another game?

Dibsniper: what?!?!? You can't have won. There's only been ten moves!

KingHC: umm, I think you had better look at the board.

Dibsniper: You better give me another chance to beat you :: holds KingHC up by his collar:: or else…

KingHC: ::gulp:: alright. This time tomorrow? I have an early morning battle…

Dibsniper: alright, you got yourself a game!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~* @---- *~*~*~*~*~*~

after that first game, Leena and the mysterious KingHC played checkers every day. Soon they stopped playing checkers entirely, after it became obvious that when one would win a game, the other would win the next one, and talked like old friends. Leena felt like she had known KingHC all her life. She knew that his favorite color was yellow, that his family had money, and that he prefered dogs over cats. Leena smiled. Finally, finally, she had a friend she could rely on, who liked her for HER, not just for her zoid or her piloting skills or the prize money.

What's you think? Should I continue? BTW, KingHC is Harry, if you haven't figured that out yet… King Harry Champ? Get it?