A Star is Born
On the dusty lands of Zi, a small town called Julai sat. The town was located thirty miles west of Wind Colony. In this town, a young boy by the name of Tobias lived. His town was most revered for its great Zoid pilots. But Tobias was not a good pilot. In fact, he had never been in a Zoid in his life. Had he tried, he would have been the worst pilot in Zi history. Tobias, you see, was not a good kid, almost as bad as his piloting skills might have been. Tobias was a rouge, doing what he wanted, when he wanted. He had no parents, he lived as an orphan on the streets, scrounging what he could eat from thrown out food in garbage cans. Because of this, Tobias was a very small boy. It was no way for a growing boy to live, but it was the only way to live in the town.
His luck suddenly turned one day, but that is a lot further in the story. Right now, you must hear about the present, and what Tobias was doing in the morning of the day his life changed forever.
Tobias Starr was a scraggly boy of sixteen, not much to him but skin and bone, because he lived on the scraps of food thrown out of stores and houses. He had a raggedy pair of pants on that were ripped in many places, including the left butt cheek, making a hole clear through to Tobias's boxers. His shirt was once white, but was now stained brown from the dirt. His hair, once a brilliant shade of blonde and done up in short spikes, was now hanging loosely, the color of dirt. His narrow face was dirty, as were his hands.
Tobias was standing on the outskirts of town, smoking a cigarette, waiting for the trash to be set out behind a restaurant called "Molly's Cookout." He heard the door close, but knew from experience he should not venture to the trash can until the door closed a second time, and the cook had left the building.
Tobias looked to the back of Molly's out of the corner of his eye. He saw the cook leave, so he walked over to the trash can. Flicking his cigarette away, he made sure no one was looking. He quietly slid the lid off the metal trash can, and set the lid down On the top of the garbage was a plate with a half eaten trout, and a pile of French fries.
Tobias took the plastic plate off the garbage carefully, and sat down beside the trash can with his legs crossed, the plate over the top of his legs. He plucked a French fry off the pile and popped it in his mouth, savoring the taste as if he would never eat again. He plucked another off the pile, and popped it into his mouth. He picked up a piece of the trout and stopped before getting it to his mouth.
There, in front of him, was a cop. The cop was bouncing his hand gun on his hand, his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses.
"What are you doing, boy?" the cop asked.
Tobias sneered, dropped the plate where he was sitting, and jumped up. Before the cop could do anything, Tobias was gone. He leapt into the alleyway and over more garbage cans he would have gladly went though had he not been being chased by a cop who wanted his head on the wall next to his "Cop of the Month" plaque. Tobias jumped the wooden slat fence and was gone before the cop could start his thank you speech.
Tobias stopped after reaching an abandoned alleyway, nothing in sight but a mangy cat cleaning itself on the top of a solitary trash can. Tobias swooped upon the can as if he would never get another chance to do so. The cat screeched in fright and ran helter-skelter out of the way as Tobias snatched the lid off the trash can. The only things inside the entire trash can was a Chicken bone and a newspaper.
"Meager scrapping," Tobias muttered under his breath. "Harsh."
Putting the trash can lid back on, Tobias turned to walk down the rest of the alleyway. Tobias kept meandering around the back of Molly's, seeing the cop was not there. He looked longingly to the trash can where he knew nothing was waiting because trash disposal had picked it up twenty minutes ago. Looking miserable, which wasn't hard to do for him, he trudged on to a destination he didn't know.
Tobias Starr went to the other side of his small town, the one that faced the ruins. Of course, he had been out there so many times, taking anything worth while. After his wonderful breakfast of two cold fries, Tobias decided to not push his luck, and set off to the ruins. Walking, it took him an entire hour just to get there. When he did, he found it worth while.
There, in the middle of nowhere, was a wonderfully delicious looking pie. With golden crisp crust, beautiful blueberry filling, and a silver pan, Tobias had his mouth watering. Looking carefully around him, to see no one was abound, Tobias snatched the pie and slipped into the shadows. He greedily took a chunk and stuffed it in his mouth, practically dieing from its sweet taste.
Taking another chunk, Tobias grinned in dumb satisfaction. After eating nothing but the throw-outs from Molly's, which rarely contained anything but French fries and old fish, a pie as simple as the one he was eating made him in heaven.
"Okay, Tobias, drop the pie," a sweet girl voice said.
Tobias dropped the pie in amazement, his mouth still full from the bite he had taken. "Who are you?" he asked through a mouthful of pie.
"My name is Sakuya," the voice said sweetly.
"I don't know any Sakuya's," Tobias stated simply, gulping down the chunk of pie in his mouth.
"I know you don't. I'm here to help you. Do you know of the Goddess of Truth?"
"Haven't heard of such a thing," Tobias considered.
"Well," a young girl walked out of the shadows of the ruins, "That's who I wish I was, but..." she looked around the corner at something Tobias couldn't see. "I cant be her, so I'll have to do with a regular life."
"I don't have time for your dumb stories," Tobias growled sarcastically.
"My name is Sakuya, and I'm here to help you! And if you do not want to have my help, then I shall leave, and I'm taking my pie with me!" the girl said calmly.
Tobias looked at her for the first time. She was dressed in strange clothing, from the old days of Zi, and had beautiful silver hair that cascaded to her shoulders. Her eyes were an electric shade of blue, and her face was narrow.
"Yeah, Goddess of Truth my ass," Tobias said irritably, turning to walk back to the town.
"I'll let you pilot a Zoid. But you have to stay."
Tobias turned around. "Whatever," he sighed, "That promise is like all the other ones, a lie."
"No," the girl said. "Its not a lie. I can bring you to a town where you can have food delivered to you every day, and you can choose from over seventy Zoids to pilot, and you can live in first class! Tobias, cant you see, you have the potential for greatness in you, but if you stay in this town, you're never going to get there," she said desperately.
"One week," Tobias said. "One week, and if I don't like it, I come back home"
"Okay, then, lets begin. First we need a transport, so we'll just walk around the corner for that, and then we'll need to get you new clothes, but before that we have to get you a Zoid, well, lets go get you a Zoid, hmm?"
Tobias looked stunned, but Sakuya ignored him and walked around the corner, followed by Tobias, who looked in awe at the Zoid around the corner. It was deep blue in color, with silver fangs, silver claws, and red eyes. It was big, liger-like in appearance. But it was too well-equipped to be a liger. There was a long range sniper rifle, missile pods, and blades on the sides of its cheeks.
"Wow," Tobias whispered. "Wow, this is yours? What is it?"
"Its a Liger. A Shield Liger mutation, in fact. With a lot of equipped units, like the Weasel Unit, I had to custom fit it, a sniper rifle, and titanium alloy claws."
"But you're the Goddess of Truth." Tobias's face dropped into a look of suspicion.
"This is an old Zoid. I haven't used her since, say, the last war on Zi. That was, what, seventy, eighty years ago?" Sakuya asked, smiling devilishly.
"Now I know you're crazy. You can only be, what, seventeen? How could you have fought in a war seventy eight years ago? And if you were the goddess of truth, you wouldn't run around with a Zoid that could take out all of Zi."
"Okay, so you got me. I'm not a goddess, but who cares? Its not like I parade around as the Emperor of Zi."
Tobias side stepped away from the crazy girl who thought she was a goddess. "Yeah, right."
"I'm serious. Now, one two, up you go!" Sakuya cried in delight, pointing to the cockpit, which had two seats. "Come on, get in!"
Tobias stepped up into the cockpit and sat in the back seat with a strange look on his face. In front of him, installed into the back of the pilot seat, was a tracker, and a computer screen. There was a panel that Tobias had never seen before with more buttons than you could shake a stick at.
"Okay, so I'm not a goddess, I just like thinking it. But," Sakuya giggled, stepping in the cockpit herself. "Lets get going. The screen you see in front of you monitors the Zoids in the area. Unfortunately, it won't pick up sleepers."
"Sleepers?"
"Zoids used by the Republic and Empire that are un-piloted. Mostly, they're the Rev Raptors, Guysaks, but sometimes they can be stronger."
"Rev Raptor? Guysak? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, you are a very hopeless child, are you not? If you do not know what a Rev Raptor is, and have no idea what a Guysak is, you have lived a very sheltered life. And yet, all the same, not so sheltered at all," Sakuya laughed.
"You think that's funny? I haven't seen Zoids before. I mean, not the ones you keep on talking about. I've seen a Liger, and a Genosaurer, maybe a Viper, but other wise, I have no idea what you keep on talking about."
"You will soon. That radar picks up any Zoid within a two mile radius. That's about the distance a Particle Cannon can go if there are no obstacles."
"Uh-"
"You'll know what I'm talking about later, Tobias," Sakuya said before Tobias could say anything. "Just tell me when you get a signal on the screen, okay? Then you'll just sit back and watch the party."
"Are you expecting to get into a battle?" Tobias asked curiously. "I mean, its not like there are any Zoids around right now."
"Like I said, the radar won't pick up the signal on the sleepers."
"So will we be attacked by sleepers?"
"I don't think so, no. It's just a caution."
"Oh."
Tobias looked out the cockpit window, watching the desert go by in a red haze. The screen beeped, and he looked at it in amazement. There was a three mile radius map of the area they were in. On the outskirts was a red dot. It was labeled "Shadow Fox" and was moving away from them.
"Er, Sakuya, there's a Shadow Fox on the screen. What's a Shadow Fox?"
"Nothing for us to worry about," Sakuya replied.
"Oh, okay."
Tobias went back to look at the desert. He was about to turn his head and look somewhere else when he saw ruins, and from those ruins, were Zoids. He didn't know what kind, but he knew they were Zoids. And they were coming right for them, not looking too friendly.
"Sakuya-"
"I know, Tobias, I'm already on it."
The Liger turned on a dime and was loping across the desert to meet the Zoids head on. There were three Rev Raptors, blades extended and claws ready, and four Guysaks with their claws raised. The Liger was about a hundred yards away, and it came to a screeching halt. It's armor clinking, the Weasel Unit came out of its armored case. The missile pods came out with metallic chinks, the guns came to the Ligers sides, and the energy dish flipped up.
A small eye piece flipped down from the cockpit ceiling, resting itself over Sakuya's right eye. Aiming precisely, a screen came up on the cockpit computer, the same screen came up in the eye piece. It showed all the Zoids on the field, each with targeting red marks. When each of these marks were lined up in place, Sakuya smiled.
"Weasel Unit Total Assault!" Sakuya laughed, slamming down on the button marked Weasel Unit.
The missile pods exploded with the force of the attack, the guns went nuts, the seven Zoids in front of the Liger were downed. The red target marks on the cockpit screen terminated, and the Weasel Unit was packed back into the armor plates.
The Zoids in front of the Liger stood for seconds more, then, smoke billowing everywhere, they fell.
"Wow." Tobias said simply.
"I just wanted to impress you. These Zoids were really easy. When you're surrounded by over a hundred of the things, it gets complicated to fight your way out. That's why most Zoid pilots travel in twos or threes."
"I never knew how exhilarating a pointless second of battle could be," Tobias said in both amazement and mock sarcasm.
"You'll learn to appreciate it, Tobias, trust me."
"Yes, I'm sure I will."
O.o
Special. My first new Zoid chapter in forever. I was really good at these stories. I only finish a small percent of my stories, and every finished story is a Zoid story. Each of thenm run about 80 pages size 10 Times New Roman on my computer, but this one is a lot less than that.