Foreward: I believe I'm gonna set this in a post Fuzors timeline. So, sorry if you haven't seen all of Fuzors, but this is set after RD achieves his hero status from saving Blue City. This also means that Savage Hammer has defected. Sandra's back with Mach Storm. Just where are Blake and Luke though? I'm not sure yet!

To Digital Lidier, thanks for the kind review. It means a lot. And thanks to Schala and randomcat and various other friends, like Sammich and Tilly, who have supported and helped me with this! You're all awesome! Fuzors needs love!


Sigma walked the streets of Blue City thinking about the bet he had made with Hop. "What was I thinking? I've never asked a girl out before... I've always been too focused on Zoids." He stopped for a moment to look around, wondering where to start. Noticing a small ice cream shop on the other side of the street, he perked up a little. He thought he recognized one of the patrons sitting at a table outside. "Hey, is that that news girl, Tracy? Maybe..."

"Absolutely not!!" Tracy stuffed another spoon of ice cream in her mouth and ate angrily. "Is this a joke? Because it's not even funny."

Sigma sighed, "No, it's not a joke. I'll ask again. Would you like to go out on a date with me?" He knew he had sounded more confident the first time, but Tracy's angered reaction caught him off guard.

"I'm saying no. Definitely, absolutely not!" She put her spoon down and glared up at him. "You have some gall asking when it's quite obvious who I like." She smiled for a moment, daydreaming to herself, "The only one I'm interested in is RD... What a strong, handsome pilot." Sighing happily, she seemed to forget that Sigma was even there.

"Right then. Nevermind." Sigma turned away from her, shoulders sagging. Of course he'd have been foiled by RD again. It always works out that way. No matter how hard he'd try, RD would always come out ahead, stronger, better, more popular. He walked on further down the streets, frustrated. "Aghh!! I can't let him WIN!! I'll beat you soon, RD!"


RD sneezed and wiped his nose. He was trying to make sense of the Zi Park map, but couldn't quite get himself oriented. "Where am I??"

"You're in West Town!"

Turning around, RD's jaw dropped in surprise. "Dan?! What are you doing here??"

Dan blushed, holding onto a bouquet of flowers. He grinned widely, "I came to see Amy."

"Figures."

"She took off right after the show ended though, I haven't been able to find her." The older man sighed in disappointment, but shrugged it off. "Nevermind that. What are you doing here, RD? I didn't know you liked theme parks..." He paused and then narrowed his eyes, "Or did you come to see Amy too...?"

"N-no! It's not like that. You see, well..." RD took a deep breath, "To make a long story short, Hop's wife showed up the other day..."

"No way! Hop is married?!"

"...apparently. Anyway," RD continued, "it seems that she had followed my dad when he left. And well, she came back with her son, who's... my little brother." He glanced off to the side, still finding the whole situation to be rather surreal.

"Your brother?" Dan found this all very interesting and leaned back against a park bench, giving RD his full attention. "That's pretty weird."

"Tell me about it! Well, my brother, his name is Skip by the way, he and Matt ran out today and they snuck into this park. I'm trying to find them."

Dan gave him a curious look. "What does Skip look like?"

"Well, he's about Matt's height, and he has dark green hair. He seems pretty shy."

"Is that him?" Dan pointed behind RD at a line for a roller coaster.

"What?!" RD spun around, searching the crowd for the boys. "There they are!!" Without another word, he stormed off towards the line.

"Don't I even get a 'Thank you?'" Shrugging, Dan kicked off the park bench and resumed his search for Amy.


Continuing his slightly aimless wandering through the city, Sigma looked for more opportunities to find a date. He had run across Ciao earlier and asked her, but she just went on about waiting for some dumb Jean Holiday guy to get out of jail. He also detected a hint of resentment or jealousy from her partner Deed, so he figured it was best to walk away from that one.

"Maybe I should ask someone I don't know..." Searching the crowd, he spotted a young woman with red hair, puffy pigtails and some outlandish clothes. Quirking an eyebrow at her strange appearance, he shrugged it off and walked up to her. "Hey, babe!" He smiled coolly, "What's a sweet thing like you doing out here alone?"

Giving him a glance over, she turned up her nose. "I'm waiting for someone!"

"Aw, come on, no one should keep you waiting so long. How would you like to go out with one of the best pilots from Mach Storm?" Sigma wasn't going to give up easily.

"No. Get lost, buster." She turned her back to him, hands on her hips.

"Hey, Julia! I'm here!" A man with a big, purple pompadour ran up and gave her a hug. He pulled back in concern, "Julia? What's the matter??"

Still keeping her nose in the air, she motioned to Sigma, "This man was trying to hit on me, Mikey!"

"Was he now?" Mikey glared over at Sigma. "I won't let anyone get away with hitting on MY girl!"

Sigma froze in horror for a moment. Crap! He looked around in a panic. How was he to know the woman was taken?! "I-I'm s-so sorry!"

"You're going to be really sorry when I get done with you." Mikey pounded his fist into his palm.

"You're SO brave, Mikey!" Julia cooed from behind.

Sigma bolted.


"So THIS is where you are!" RD grabbed Matt and Skip by the back of their shirt collars. The two poor boys almost jumped out of their pants in fright.

"RD! What are you doing??" Matt pulled away, shocked at his friend's actions. He clung to Skip's arm. Skip said nothing.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Leaning in closer, RD lowered his voice. "I saw you both sneak in here!" He paused, "...you could have at least found a way to sneak me in too!"

Matt's shocked expression grew into a wide smile and he hugged his friend, "RD! I thought we were gonna be in trouble!"

"You will be if Sweet ever finds out about this, so let's keep it a secret," he winked at the two boys. He looked over at Skip who was still feeling pretty intimidated by the scare. "Aw, I'm sorry, Skip. I'm not mad, really!" RD smiled and patted his brother on the head. "We've got a couple hours before dinner time, so let's have some fun, okay??"

"Yeah!!" Matt could hardly contain himself. "Can we go on the roller coaster now?!"

"I wanna go on the roller coaster," Skip chimed in.

"Sure! Let's go!"


Back at the Mach Storm base, Hop was up on the roof again trying to clear his head. A lot was happening right now, and he wasn't sure if he could really handle it. Maybelle had just disappeared the day that RD's father left. She left a very vague note; it was enough for Hop to be able to pin her leaving with Harris. However, Hop was never able to locate them, and she never sent any word home. He had contacted her family about her disappearance, but they hadn't heard from her either AND they blamed Hop for her leaving. He never did figure out why.

Being that she was a missing person, there was no way for him to divorce her, plus at that time he really didn't want to. He was worried about her, and wanted to know what it was that had gone so wrong between them. It seemed that she didn't carry the same concerns that he had. Life went on...

Sighing heavily, Hop stared out over the city. What was he supposed to do now? His life at Mach Storm with these kids was what kept him going after Maybelle left. Sure, they ran him ragged sometimes, but he really enjoyed them and appreciated the escape and comfort. But if Maybelle was going to stay again...

"Hop."

Maybelle's hard voice grated against his thoughts. He looked over his shoulder and then sighed again, "What do you want now?"

She leered at him, frowning, "What kind of tone is that?!" Maybelle snorted, "I didn't come out here for you to use that tone of voice with me!"

Hop stood up straight and turned to her. "What DID you come out here for then? Why did you even come back here? Why did you LEAVE?"

"Why did I leave?!" She stared, as if she couldn't believe he had the nerve to ask the question. She fumed, "I left because...!!" She stopped, regaining her composure. Beginning again, she sounded more distant, "I left because... ...you're too boring."

"B-boring?!" Hop was shocked, "What do you mean 'boring?!'" He flung his arms up in disbelief. "That's such a lie and you know it!!"

Maybelle didn't look at him, but glared off to the side. "It's the truth. You're just an extremely dull man."

He clenched his fist in anger, "Lies. It's a lie!! I'll have you know that you are WRONG! And I'll prove it!" With that he quickly disappeared back into the building, leaving Maybelle outside with her own thoughts.


Ducking around a corner and down an alley, Sigma finally took a moment to relax and catch his breath. He felt lucky to be a pretty decent runner, he didn't want to know what would've happened if that Mikey guy caught him. It's not that Sigma couldn't fight, he just... really didn't want to. Getting a date wasn't worth that sort of trouble. "Man, what am I going to do?" He felt his heart rate slowing down to normal. "Well, it's just the first day, right? I still have a whole week."

"Is there a problem?"

Jumping a little, Sigma looked further down the alley to spy another young woman. Hey, it's that chick from Vareth's gang. Saber, right? She's kind of cute. He relaxed and smiled, "No, there's no problem at all. In fact," he was trying to turn on the charm again, "you're just the person I was looking for."

"I am?" Saber cocked her head to the side, thoroughly confused.

"Chyeah! How would you like to go out with me?"

"Out?" She still looked confused, "But I'm already outside."

"No, not like that!" Sigma tried to explain, "I mean, on a date!"

"Oh. Okay!" She smiled at him. "What's a date?"

Sigma rubbed his face with his hand. What is with this chick?

"Saber!" Dart, another member of Vareth's gang, materialized beside her, causing Sigma to jump again. "Vareth says we have to go home now. He's had enough of this Blue City."

"Aw, I was having fun too..." She pouted and looked back at Sigma. "Sorry, but we have to go! See ya!" With that, she and Dart disappeared into thin air.

"...the heck was that?" Sigma stared at the empty space where they had been. "Ah, well... That probably would've been a disaster anyways." He sighed in defeat. "I give up. That's enough for one day. I'm going home."


It was getting close to dinner time, so RD rounded up the kids to head home. They had had a blast and RD was rather enjoying this Big Brother thing. They really wanted to play some games, but unfortunately RD was out of money. He promised he'd win them something next time. Taking a shortcut past the food vendors, RD's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh! Wow, everyone is here today!"

Following RD's voice, Blake and Luke looked up at him. Luke had a big bag of cotton candy in his hand. Blake gave him a slight glare, "Buzz off, RD."

Matt seemed oblivious to Blake's irritation. "This is Blake, Skip!" He waved his arms excitedly. "He's a really good Zoid pilot! AND he's RD's rival!"

"Wow..." Skip stared up at Blake in awe. "You're my brother's rival? That's pretty cool."

"What?" Blake stared back down at the kid confused.

"It's a long story..." RD laughed nervously.

Eyeing Luke's cotton candy, Matt pouted some. "I want some cotton candy... Are you sure you don't have any money, RD?"

"I'm tellin' ya, Matt, they cleaned me out when I bought the ticket!"

"Typical." Blake scoffed. "Unprepared as always." RD growled at him in annoyance.

Luke laughed some and held the cotton candy bag down for Matt and Skip, "Here, you can have some of mine. I can't eat all of this."

"All right! Thanks, Luke!" Matt grabbed a handful of cotton candy and started munching away.

Skip also took a handful and smiled warmly at Luke, "Thanks, mister."

"You're welcome!" Luke stood back up and smiled at them. "You have a nice brother, RD."

"Uh, thanks." RD scratched his head. "Well, we need to get going. See you later!" Leading Matt and Skip on, RD waved at Blake and Luke and vanished into the crowd.


RD and the kids arrived back at Mach Storm just in time for dinner. "We're back!" RD called out cheerfully.

"Oh, good!" Sweet smiled at them, "I was afraid you wouldn't make it! Sigma just got back too!"

"Oh..." RD didn't really care about whatever Sigma had gone out to do. He watched as Skip and Matt ran over to Maybelle, excitedly talking about their day. I sure hope Sweet doesn't hear them... He looked around... Helmut and Sigma were busy watching the news on TV, Sweet seemed to be checking her e-mail. Something just seemed off... What was missing? "...Wait. Where's Hop??"

No one seemed to know.