-Rebirth of the Guardians - The long awaited prequel to Zoids dysfunctional families.
Chapter one – the remaking of the guardian force.
This takes place six years before dysfunctional families, making reddy 8 and Tom 21 (meaning that in Dysfunctional Families they are 14 and 27 respectively). They are the only characters with predominant featuring that have been planned to carry into Families. Other characters may be featured in the sequel to families (I will make it) but I can't be sure because I don't plan this stuff out.
-Disclaimer- this is my own 'history' of the zoids continent, Tom and Reddy are my characters and the long awaited sequel/prequel are mine. Feel free to take the 'history' that I use without directly crediting me, but I would like to be asked about the characters.
-Begin-
He was the best candidate to join the force. His only requirements were to mainly be a solo man. He had explained how he would like to operate if possible. He would guard an area in the name of the Guardian Force; he would carry out missions in his area without question. And would reinforce friendly or civilian units in his area. It was accepted so he joined the Guardian force and was deployed far into the war zone in a moderately populated valley sanctuary within the foreboding mountains.
His name was Thomas Reynolds. He had a well customized command wolf. He also had the strange ability to turn his skin as black as darkness itself. Despite this strange ability he showed himself to be competent and dedicated so there was no objection to him going.
There had been an ongoing war between the provinces of Helia and guylar, former parts of the Helic republic and Guylos empire. Being the first nations to break off they also decided to carry on the age old feud between nations. It had been going on for hundreds of years on and off. The last all out war had been over 200 years ago but there had been border conflicts now and then. With the longest peace between the two countries being twenty years thus far, but it had led to the current thirteen year war that had dragged the northern half of the continent that was surmised of independent nations in the former Helic republic and Guylos empire.
Once the modern, much smaller but still strong, republic and empire were threatened the two rulers, king Rudolph Zeppelin the eight, and the second president Louise Camford, decided to revive and organization that had been removed only shortly after the forming of the majority of the independent nations. The guardian force.
Quickly using the elite soldiers from the pre-existing armies of the two nations to start the armies up once a defensive force had been established on the border, and in friendly nations, the call for new recruits went out en-masse.
Now two months later this six foot three man with blue eyes, brown hair and a general satisfied look about him went off to a forward base to receive his assignment.
Upon arriving, since he had his own zoid his items were transported to a base area. Where he would operate out of. It was a small building. There were a few Force members there. But they were zoid less. There was a five zoid hangar and a small tower that had an observation point with a single gun at the top. After his stuff was all in the right spots Tom made friends with his crew.
He started with the guy moving his stuff with a big crane. "Hey I'm Tom. I'm going to be the mobile defense guy. Or that's what they called me."
"What?" Came the cry of the crane operator.
Tom smacked himself in the forehead. "Of course he can't hear me. That crane is too damn loud."
"Just wait until I put your thing down." A moment passed and he did just that.
"That's some nice custom weapons you got there. A Gatling gun, a dual barreled rifle, a one barreled gun turret with dual mounted rapid fire weapons. I'm surprised the military would dare to pay your ammunition bill." The crane operator shouted due to the distance between the two people. He began to walk closer. Tom did the same. "I'm Oliver Kerensky. I'm the main tech guy. Odds are I'll repair and move your damaged zoid within the hangar. My assistant will reload and do the minor repairs." He was wearing a faded light blue shirt and pants. He wore a light blue baseball cap with the guardian force logo on the front. He always wore it backwards though. His face was scruffy and he needed to shave. And his hair was brown while his eyes were green.
"Tom Reynolds, a new volunteer. Got here with almost no official training."
"How desperate are they to do something like that." Oliver said as he smacked his forehead and chuckled.
Tom grinned knowingly and his hand turned black. "Someone who can do stuff like this" Tom said as black flames leapt out of his arm, "should survive on the battlefield."
"Well good luck then. Go do whatever you have to do." Oliver waved Tom off as he got back to moving the various things that had to be moved.
On Tom's way out he ran into a younger, shorter, looking fellow. Both of them fell over upon impact. "Hello there comet."
"Oh I'm sorry, just the crane needs lubricant soon. I didn't look. And now let's waste some more time talking shall we." The new guy was 21, but he looked younger. Unlike Tom who looked much older. He was short, had blonde hair, he wore a less faded version of Oliver's clothing. "Well my name is John silves. Oliver, the main tech guy, calls me his apprentice, who I guess I am, but I can do almost every job but yours."
"What's my job?" Tom asked.
"Well since command said that there was going to be a new guy, and I know you're not one of our current six base members you must be the new zoids pilot. You've got a command wolf correct?" John asked, Tom nodded yes, "Then why did you ask me what your job is."
"I just wanted to know if HQ's version of my job and your version differed." Tom said as he got up. "Smart kid, if Sherlock Holmes was real that's the type of thinking he would do too." Tom and John walked off in different directions, John to the hanger, Tom to the quarters.
Other than the watch tower the quarters were just like a larger house. It seemed like the guardian force had bought a house and thrown the hangar and observation tower, but the hangar had looked like it was always part of the house.
All of the six people that lived in the building had their own rooms. The 'mess hall' was a dining room with three four person tables. The chef and gunner could often be found in there. And they were the next people Tom met.
"Greetings you people seem to be the only people who have any time to relax out of everyone that I have met here." Tom said to a man who wore a chef's uniform, and a man who wore a regular uniform. It was obvious who the first one was, the second one Tom was not sure of, commander, radar man, extra mechanic? In his mind all were possibilities.
"Ah hello new guy." Came the casual friendly voice of the man at a table looking out the window. "We're the only people here who you've seen relax because were the only ones who know how to really relax." The man got up and shook hands with Tom, "I'm the gunner guy, and I help old chef Perrone when I'm not gunning." The chef waved, "And vice versa. Cause this guy is really good with the turret."
"That's great." Tom said. "My name's Tom, and despite you saying all that stuff I still don't know your name."
"Ah, my name is Devon Silverman. You are the new pilot that's replacing our two dead ones. You have to be good if you can replace them."
"Really what were they like?"
"Well I they were average folks and all, but there were two of them and they had team work. Not to mention two stable peteras. While you've got one stable command wolf. The fact is the two were shot down by a group of six zabats. And odds are you alone are not enough to take them." Devon got back to looking out the window.
"Well I'll have you know I was the amazing solo team, team ryu before this and I've taken out four zabats in one match, if I get surprise what's two more."
"Arrogant aren't you." Devon said with slight disdain in his voice.
"What you call arrogance I call confidence. You must have low opinions of my 2000 win no loss ever solo streak."
Devon raised an eyebrow, "Ah well. There's difference between matches and battles."
Tom just smiled with a knowing grin. "Yes there is, but what would you know. You're zoid-less now and odds are you were zoid-less before the war. Just don't try to insult me or underestimate me, you'll regret it."
Chef Perrone looked up, "Hey don't insult my cooking and I'm perfectly happy with you win or loose."
"That's good." Tom shook hands with Perrone and then walked to his quarters.
When he got to his room he mentally called the place 'the inn'. It was just like some of the nicer, zoid accommodating, inns he had been to in his life as a zoid battle participant. This had been a six year stint. Not one loss ever, he wasn't worried about the trouble six zabats could ever cause him. He was certain if he could get the advantage of surprise he could beat them without taking a single hit.
On the way out he ran into two clip board bearing people. One was a girl the other a man. They walked right by Tom and were almost at the stairs when Tom decided to make some noise. "Ahem." Was all he said.
"Oh hi." Was the rushed response he got from the girl.
Then the girl and guy turned around. "Oh wait I thought you were one of the old pilots." The girl said, "But it looks like you're the new guy."
"By old pilots you mean the ones that were shot down and probably killed, correct?"
"Yeah."
"So did you just mistake me for a dead guy."
"Oh my." The girl said as she put her hand to her mouth and blushed.
"At over six feet tall I really stand out." Tom sighed, "You two look like you are nerds. Do you know my name."
"Name, time of enlistment, age, height, and a bunch of other things." The guy said.
"Ah but I know nothing about you other than the fact that you are nerds."
"I'm Robert Clements." The guy said.
"Just call me jess." The girl added on.
"No last name for you?" Tom said, "Odds are you are my superiors, so what about military statues and all that stuff they sent me to boot camp for?"
"Just jess in 'the inn' will work with me."
"Ah I'm correct in my considering this place was an inn then." Tom said as he moved from one side of the door frame to the other.
"Yes, it was my grandparent's inn before they were killed in town. Both Robert and I were from around the area and signed up specifically for this location when we heard it was an army post." Jess sighed.
"Well go on, I don't want to make a pretty girl cry." Tom waved the two away. "I've still got to see the major in charge, my guess is she's in the observation tower, no?"
"Yes, she was working on something and wanted us to leave. Me to get some parts, Robert to get food." Jess said.
"She wants you to come back, Robert to leave. Wonder what I'll end up walking in on." Tom laughed out loud. "Please ignore my twisted sense of humor. It should pass."
Tom walked up the hallway towards where the two tech nerds came from. There was a hatch and the end of a short set of stairs. At the moment it was closed. "Should I knock?" Tom spoke to himself. "Official protocol says zilch. If someone wanted to tell me to knock it would have been one of the last two I met, I told them I was going this way. I'll barge in; say that there was no advisory against if it was the wrong idea." Tom reasoned. Then he paused, "How bad of a person am I to think of an excuse before I do something. Oh well conscious not making this door any heavier." Tom gave the hatch an experimental nudge up. It moved, that meant it was un-locked. With a hint of effort Tom shoved the hatch up. Tom emerged into a very, very, very, (dare I say it?) very hot room. "God this is worse than the desert by a mile. It's so stuffy. The rest of 'the inn' has windows and almost all of them are open. This is a glass bubble, and it seems to lack central air or a fan even." Then Tom felt a momentary breeze, air conditioning. "Salvation." The breeze stopped, "Eternal damnation"
When the breeze stopped a feminine voice said, startled, "Ow, damn it! That stupid wire shocked me." A moment paused. "Oh jess you're here, do you have the gear, filter and pipe."
Tom went up an extra step or two putting not a foot in the actual observation bubble. He around the hatch to face the major. "Well no, but I am a –oh! - You really must be hot." There in front of Tom the major was working at a panel around Tom's head height, wearing undergarments only from the waist up. "I'll be going now." Tom turned around and got down the stairs to meet jess carrying the requested items. Jess looked confused when she saw how strong Tom was blushing but she ignored it. "Jess, is the air conditioning broken?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?" She said, almost suspicious but mostly confused.
"I think I can fix it. But the major set herself up for quite the awkward situation. So, um could you ask her to let me take care of it? I'll be somewhere." Tom walked off.
Jess was quite confused at that little talk, but she decided to go through with it anyway. "Major Darlain the new guy says –oh- I now can see why he was embarrassed. Tell me next time to tell anyone coming not to come, or at least knock first. You're bound to set yourself up for that if you don't." Jess left the box in the chamber with the silent major. She then walked down the hall and looked in Tom's room. "He's not here. Where could he be?"
Actually Tom was in the hangar, no longer red in the face, talking with Robert while looking at the blue prints for the air conditioner unit. "We think either this," Robert pointed to one technical device, "Or this," another technical device, "is broken. Also the tube that carries the coolant seems to be leaking, so we have a better one to replace it."
Tom looked the plans over. "I already know how to fix the entire thing; I used to have to repair one. And also let me guess, your filter won't fit?"
Robert nodded, "We try different sizes but none work."
"Just get me a bigger size I'll get it to work before dinner."
He was true to his word, an hour before dinner, just an hour after he started, it was done, and while 'the inn' was airy enough the observation tower and hangar were much more closed and quite hot and those locations felt relief.
When Tom was done he confronted the major, "It's done." He said as he fished around for his shirt, "If you wait a few minutes this place will be tolerably cool and you can keep your clothes on."
"My names Major Relena Darlain, what's yours?" Tom really looked at the major for the first time. She had wavy brown hair, a soft face, an amazing figure, and what looked to be decent height about her. Add to that her vivid green eyes and Tom could loose his breath, if he had any sort of romantic tendencies.
"Tom Reynolds kinda forgot my rank. Don't think it'll really matter once people see my battlefield record."
"But you don't have one." Relena commented.
"Inform me when those six zabats come a callin' I'll get one soon enough." Soon enough was sooner that soon was suspected to be.
The next day the now cooled radar facility and its staff found the six zabats, they showed up just a little after half the day had passed.
Already Tom was in his zoid's cockpit. Oliver was at the crane controls moving a turret with a small single barreled gun at either side of it and a center that looked like it could have been a UFO on top of the command wolf. John was at the joining point shifting the things into place. And making some final checks on the turret itself. All three looked at the speaker once the announcement was made about enemies in radar range. If only on the border of it.
Oliver looked at Tom, "You talked like you were going to spring into action once they appeared, but you're not springing."
"Nah, I have feeling that they know our radar range. I would like to get at them before they enter it. Possibly get them before they get off the ground. Besides, I need this turret to be in order and I need to paint this thing." The brown and black earthy tones really bored Tom. "I was thinking a green color it is the new official color and all."
"That's all? You could be out by tomorrow if you waited until you returned to do the painting."
"Nah, I'll need to wait. Fact is I need to train my new gunner."
"New gunner, who's that?"
"Well I always wanted to steal an apprentice."
"John. What do you see in him?" At the mention of that John perked up, although neither Tom nor Oliver could see his face or figure John's interest out.
"Well he can help with minor repairs that will be handy against tougher opponents or larger numbers. Also he's smart so he should pick up fast. And last and by far the most important it that he cares about the zoids and has a genuine interest in them. Will I let him pilot my command wolf on that alone, no. But that's more than enough to get him to accompany me on longer outings." Tom had not changed his pattern of pushing buttons to help with the computer synch. "Well john, I'm waiting for an answer."
John stopped entirely.
"Yeah john, we need an answer too." Oliver said as he turned to face his apprentice.
"Um, I guess I'll do it."
"Good." Tom said as he pushed one last button. "Get in the cockpit; I've got the simulator started already."
-Some time later-
John had become good at being the gunner. And in the entire time he had spent training there had been no attacks in the official response area of their base. So that had led to lots of practice, and a chance to completely re-paint the command wolf to a green color.
All the crew liked the color. And the golden Guardian Force symbols added on the face, gun, and sides seemed to complement it well. Major Darlain was especially impressed. And took some time from her normal strictness to let her weakness to Tom grow.
"It's very beautiful." She commented late on the night that it was complete.
"Ah so the royal bitch of discipline has a sense of beauty." Came the sarcastic comment from Tom.
"How dare you insult you're commander!" Came a furious shout. Really she was furious that he had been able to find her soft/awkward side every time he appeared. And then the sarcasm and insults didn't help either. Furious at the latest of those she ran over and slapped him.
"Well I won't complain about what I deserve." Tom chuckled as though all that was going on was big joke.
"And what are you doing awake at this hour!" Major Darlain said trying to find an excuse to punish him.
"It's my patrol tonight with Chef Perrone. We thought you were an intruder so I went to deal with you. Never would have guessed how well you sneak by the security system." Tom looked up. "Almost a full moon tonight."
Major Darlain was appalled by her new, still un-tested in combat, pilot absentmindedness. "What the hell does the moon have to do with anything!?!"
"Don't yell I'm right here." Tom said as he turned off the lights. "And the full moon has a lot to do with a lot of things."
A moment passed. Major Darlain was confused. And when Tom confused, embarrassed, or showed her up Major Darlain got angry. "What the hell did you turn the lights off for damn it! Put them on now!"
"Find my command wolf from here and I'll do it."
"How stupid are you?" Major Darlain said turning around, "You're command wolf is right th-! Where is that zoid!!!?" Where the command had been there now was nothing.
"The new paint job helped with this. I also added in special a special night stealth system. Can make this zoid physically invisible at night. It's already invisible to most radar in part due to the armor, part to the paint, part to being land based. What will really scare you is this."
Then the one hole in the ceiling designed for aerial zoids opened up. The moon was right above it and it shone on the spot where the command wolf had been. The zoid still wasn't there. "Don't blink." Came a dark sounding voice from where Tom had been. The command wolf then appeared. Only it was glowing black, glowing and emitting some aura like smoke.
"HOLY CRAP!" Swore, shouted, and jumped Major Darlain.
"Nice trick eh? It's more than you're average glow in the dark paint. Should give me quite the reputation. They called me the black dragon in the zoid league. I'm not sure what I'll be called by the enemy forces but it will most definitely have something to do with darkness." A glint of a smile from a now invisible Tom scared major Darlain some more. Then the smile emitted the same black glow that the zoid did.
"Is this the man that 'she' warned me about. The man the wielded the powers of hellfire and calls darkness his ally. Can I trust him at all?" Major Darlain thoughts went heard only to her, but still the lights turned back on and the hatch closed, as if Tom could sense the fear the Major's thoughts carried. "Reputation, isn't that a bad thing?" The major still seemed to shiver in her voice.
"It can be. But I would like to think that it were not. Now I would like all the records you have of the six zabats appearing on radar. Also, if you have them, the radar reports of the two zoids you lost when they encountered the zabats. Every time if they encountered them more than once. If you don't have them then I would like the location where the zoids were shot down."
"Huh?" Major Darlain was confused.
"Everything is ready. I would like to find those zoids before they know that we know where they are."
-The next day-
On a mess hall table a map was laid out. The map showed the area to the north sixty miles, thirty miles further than the radar showed. It had topography and towns on it. Radar patterns of the six zoids were laid over the map. Also the radar reports of the two shot down peteras and their final crash site was marked on the map. Most of the base was present. The major was moving between the map and the lookout tower. Chef Perrone was in the kitchen, but that was a few feet away. Oliver, John and Devon were there looking things over, offering their theories. Various locations were pointed at, but most of them fell within a single valley. The valley was wide and deep. They could hide in one of the valley's many crevices. It seemed ideal. Also it was an excellent ambush site. No-one would expect it.
"Alright our stuff is ready, john and I will embark ASAP." Tom looked around at mostly concerned faces, and one semi-eager one. He didn't seem worried himself but no-one knew why he was so confident. "Don't worry." He added as a footnote. "I have another ace up my sleeve."
Later on Tom and john were well on their way as the night fell. John yawned he asked, "When do you plan to stop?"
"At the rate we're going… Not for three more hours or so. I want to stop in specific locations, not by time."
"Really. How many stops will we be making?" John seemed semi-irritated.
"Including this, two. Then we stay at the second one until three days of waiting has passed and then we return on exactly the same route. Save probably at a higher speed."
"Why not go faster now?" John muttered as he looked at the schematics of the slightly improvised booster rockets that were attached. "It'll be cool enough for a couple minute burst even if you lacked a cooling system."
"Good point. And they would be nowhere near here. Well then boosters it is." Tom revealed a wheel on his controls and moved it the slightest amount. The command wolfs speed increased greatly. John was not ready for the actual speed increase.
"Going a little fast aren't we?" John got out once he reached the same speed as the zoid.
"Hardly, this is just enough to get us there in around two hours. I could get us there at top speed in… eh, about forty five minutes, maybe an hour since it ain't flat, if I really want to test the limit. But then we'd go over 150 miles an hour. And if you can barely tackle this I doubt you'd handle that." (Actually the calculations say that the command wolf is doing somewhere between 55 and 65 mph. now)
"I guess. Well um then tell me when we arrive." John yawned a little yawn. "I won't be asleep by definition, but I'll be too dazed to realize we arrived."
When they arrived John found it was a cave that they were staying in. Actually a tunnel was what Tom had told him, 'so that they could escape if pursued'. However once inside with the command wolf's stealth system on and the zoid and pilots a few hundred feet in the cave the only worry was that someone was using the cave. The peaceful night with watches by both Tom and John showed there were no enemies inside.
The next day the command wolf started at high speed. Fully visible upon reaching the top of the plateaus. However the command wolf slowed down after a while, and once the boosters were dead the stealth system went back on.
"Why did you slow down?" John asked after noting that the command wolf was not even going at a full run.
"Because, dust with no source is just as suspicious if not more suspicious than dust with a source. At this speed there may be dust but not enough for the zabats to see even at the closest they've ever been." Tom had barely moved his grip on the controls since starting the day. And he really sounded bored an uninterested.
"Well you sound excited."
"Why should I sound excited. We'll be stuck in this zoid until early tonight at the earliest. Then we'll wait up to three days in the little niche that we'll be hiding in and then we'll go back." A sigh was heard. "That's army life for ya'."
Any further attempts at conversation for the day were stifled before they began. That night they arrived at a small opening in the side of a rock wall. The zoid was backed in a ways and then the two began the waiting process. The whole first day passed by with the zoid invisible at all times. And then the night came. Most of it had gone by, and john and Tom were both awake an hour before sunrise Tom near the cockpit, John on the Zoids back.
"You know, this is real boring. I mean we have almost no chance of getting to see any action here." Tom grunted. "I mean if they passed us by and we missed them somehow they would never find us unless they had real good eyesight and noticed two guys sitting on nothing." Again Tom grunted. "Hey! Is it possible that we did miss them?" Tom grunted more of a no grunt. "Ah so you didn't sleep your watch either. Well that's that then." John settled against the invisible command wolf gun base when the alert monitor beeped and flashed. "The alert monitor!?!" True to the name john was now on alert.
"Yeah radar shows six zoid sized objects on radar. They're flying low. Must be aiming to hit somewhere at dawn. But they'll be shot down before that happens." A sadistic grin came to Tom's face. "Let's get ready to shoot them down."
When the zabats passed by john was ready on the missile pods in the turret. Tom had the machine gun sights in line with the zabats altitude. "I get the first two you get the second two. Got it?" John was now the one to grunt. "Good."
A minute or two passed by. Then the first one came into view. Tom pressed his trigger and let loose hundreds of bullets from two machine guns at the two front zoids. They just impacted when pre-programmed micro missiles went streaming into the hostile zoids. Hitting and almost completely dissolving one zoid and slightly damaging the other due to an evasive maneuver on its part.
"Crap I missed!" John swore even as he programmed the next two zabats in his targeting system.
"Miss? You got them both that counts as two hits in my books. Anyway now the second one is damaged so he'll be easy." Tom sent his zoid out of the cave and quickly fired off a few second burst at the injured zabat. "I got him. Are the other programmed in?" Tom had begun moving upwards to the top of the mesa.
"Yeah, want me to fire?"
"Only the forward missile pods. I'm not sure if you'd hit them no matter how many missiles you use at this range." The zabats were very far away. And the pilots had seemed to react very quickly once the first barrage had gone off. Although Tom had ignored them then, radar showed that fact well enough. Tom stopped the zoid on a mini plateau and turned it to face the two circling zabats. "Blast em'."
"Eat this!" John pressed the red trigger button and over 100 micro missiles flew towards the circling zabats. Quickly turning to face the missiles the zabats let their guns blast and a large percentage of them were shot down. Whatever was left the two zoids evaded easily. "No damn it!" John swore as the command wolf boosted its way uphill, the whole time firing off rounds at the pursuing aerial zoids. "I really screwed it up didn't I?" John sighed. "We're screwed now aren't we?"
Tom chuckled. "My job is to take all screw up's and turn them to our advantage."
"How do you turn this to our advantage?" John muttered even as he began to lock on the targeting system once more.
"By winning." Tom's voice had become deep and barely seemed to be Tom's voice at all. The zabats began to fire. The command wolf nimbly dodged each and every shot. "I'll tell you when to fire the missiles. Do not think of pressing the button until then." John froze in his position watching as the command wolf would leap out of the way on incoming fire.
Then the zabats used their missiles. Each fired off all four of their missiles and aimed them right for the dusty red hot, but otherwise invisible, command wolf. "Fire the missiles now!!!" One button released hundreds of micro missiles. The zabats missiles, just out of their firing slots were shot down, and one zabat was utterly turned into nothingness.
"Wow you've got good timing." John said as he stared at the screen full of smoke.
"Good, now you shoot the last zabat. Try and hit it if you can." Tom switched the gun controls to the rear seat from where he was and then really began to move the zoid.
John let out short machine gun burst from time to time, but the pilot easily evaded each burst with the slightest disruption to the action the zoid had been engaged in, usually firing off its guns. "Damn, I can't hit that guy." John was looking at screen that split the cabin in two for the time being. "He must be an ace at least if he's this good."
"An ace huh?" Tom grunted as he made an especially hard turn to the left. "Well we've got five kills already. That makes us aces correct?"
John smirked, "If we get back to base they'll never believe it."
"We'll get back." Was Tom's reply. Then Tom began maneuvering more intricate and fanciful maneuvers, while the command wolf dodged the fire on a tighter and tighter line.
A few minutes passed, and then john looked at where the command wolf was headed. "WHAT!!! You're headed right to a cliff you know!" John leant back in his seat, ignoring his firing duties. He looked around the cockpit in fear when he noticed that his jet monitor read zero boosters out put. "Why are you going so slowly! He'll be right on top of us!" Then he noticed the stealth system was off. And that the 'special effects' armor was off as well. "No stealth, are you out of your mind!!!" More and more bullets streaked past, closer and closer to the zoid. The zabat stopped firing long enough to end up right above and behind Tom's command wolf. "God, he's insane. Tom's going to kill me and him. He's got the stealth and the boosters off. He's not even telling me to fire." John then began to pray and begin something along the lines of repentance.
"Stop worrying crybaby." Tom chuckled out as he pushed the stealth button. "I've got a plan."
It must have been a strange sight for the zabat pilot. He thought that the stealth system was detectable. He had been doing so before when the zoid was invisible, and now that it was visible shooting the thing was even easier. But once it turned invisible completely, even the dust was gone, and there was no reading, despite having been maybe eighty feet behind the zoid, he was confused. Stopping in flight he looked around. There were some prints, but they ended at a cliff. There was one small little plateau in the middle between two cliff's. So that was the only place the command wolf could have been. Trying to level up with so he could hit the little spit of land in between the two cliffs Tom finished his plan.
Having long since turned around to face where he had come from Tom sat fingers ready to press a button and move a knob. First he moved the booster know to the max, rocketing forwards. Then he turned off the stealth, and due to the full moon low in the horizon the shadowy glow surrounded the command wolf. It leapt, mouth open. "DIE!!!" Tom shouted as loud as he could. The zabat and command wolf met, the command wolf bit down on the zabats wing and sent the whole zoid flying in the opposite direction it had been going. Then the command wolf savagely tore the zabat apart with its mouth and claws. When it was done, both wings, and the head, had been ripped off. Then at last sunrise arrived. A green command wolf quickly turned and went at its fastest back to its home.
-End-
All right, chapter one is done. It's on time too!
My calculations say the distance is 112 miles. Based of 150 mph for 45 minutes on a perfect straight run. 150 miles in an hour 112 miles in 45 minutes. So to arrive in two hours would put them at 56, but since the land ain't flat they're going a little faster.