PREPARATIONS
Finally the morning of the tournament came, students piled into school early to get a good seat, considering they were allowed to watch it in certain classes. Attendance was taken, a few wealthier students were absent, probably in the stands with a front row seat. It was no surprise the three of us didn't show up at all, we'd often skip days at a time, though nobody knew or cared why. Many figured it was to get away from the bullying, which was a good guess, and technically was true; just a half-truth. 7 am, and the television was flooded with news.
"Here we are that the 7th Amity Battle Preliminaries…"
"We have Amity's Local Damon Grey and his daughter here for an interview, tell me Damon, why a Sniper?"
"This is the largest turnout we've seen here at the 7th…"
"There seems to be a ton of new teams showing up this year, Lance…"
No matter what channel was on, there was nothing but gossip and flashy reporting as each station tried to outdo the others. The school itself picked the local station starring Tiffany Snow and the ever-flighty weather reporter often dragged out of his element, Lance Thunder. Though watching the events unfold on tv and watching them in real life, were very different things indeed. The old train yard far past the dome was covered with stands and Zoids from all over, and a large white tent was set up past the arena for the pilots to converse in; parking the transports around the back.
That was another thing; the transports.
We arrived in a Gustav with our Zoids covered with tarps, so as to keep the surprise when the tourney started. Not from the other competitors, no, they already knew who was with what; but from the nosy paparazzi who could blow the surprise before anything got underway. Unbeknownst to my sister, her Zoid was here as well, however instead of being covered by a tarp like ours, hers was surrounded by metal walls. Afterall, she was an alternate, so we needed her zoid here, but it's not like we were going to leave it unprotected.
The sheer size of some of the transports were astounding though. Sure, there were the more common Gustavs and Hover Cargos, but as many teams didn't have their own transports they carpooled in massive Whale Kings or Hammer Kaisers, there was even a smaller Balloon Campus for one of the aerial teams which was a sight considering how rare they were in the area. The three of us had decided against taking the Manson's Pingitrain considering they were very large, and would've stood out much more than a small white Gustav.
Parking the Transport, we headed off to the competitor-only tent for registration and a bite before the real event began, and after an hour in-line, we were glad we got there early. We could only imagine how long we'd be waiting if we'd gotten there any later.
"Next."
I stepped up to the table, my friends at my side; "Team Phantom."
The lady looked down to the white binder with the list of entrants and found the team in question; "Zoid numbers and registration?"
Taking the lanyards from both my friends, I handed them to the secretary as well as a manilla envelope with all our information in it. Twenty minutes later and she returned them, having checked them all out and making sure we were who we said we were. Finally out of line and earshot of the other entrants, we headed towards the food bar on the other-side of the tent.
"Ugh, this is why I hate living in such a small town." Sam complained, slipping the lanyard back around her neck. They served as IDs for pilots, displaying up to date pilot ID number, Zoid type, basic statistics and information about the pilot and the Zoid's numbers. "That kind of registration should've been quick and easy; without all the paperwork. The whole point of these cards is to have everything in one place and accessible with a swipe, why even bother with them if we don't have the equipment for it?"
"Not everyone's as rich as you, Sam."
"Shut up, elephant-boy, they're cheaper than all this paperwork. It's a small town thing, not a money issue." She retorted, leading us to the food line and whipping out her card.
"Was that a jeer at my Zoid or are you calling me fat?" Tucker teased.
Sam rolled her eyes, "I don't have to pay for your gross animal carcass, you know."
"Oh c'mon Sam, you know gross animal carcass is my favorite!" He chimed, resulting in a gag from Sam, "Meat's a pretty hard to find commodity, I'm gonna eat as much of it as I can for as long as I can."
"That's all the more reason not to eat it." She frowned as we picked our chosen meals from the metal trays and turned to pick out a table.
"We gotta find a table Jazz can find easily…" I mumbled while scanning the room, "There." There was an empty table off to the left of the entrance which we headed to and sat down.
"So how'd Jazz take the news?" I was asked as soon as we sat down, by Sam of course. Tucker had already buried his face in his shredded beef sandwich and only showed interest through a curious grunt.
"I..I uh…" I rubbed the back of my neck, and both my friends deadpanned, "I haven't told her yet…."
I winced, anticipating Sam's outburst that of course sounded a lot like, "You haven't told her yet! It's the day of the tournament, Danny! I'm sure she would've liked a bit of a heads up before we possibly sent her into battle! What if she declines!"
"Yeah duhde!" Tucker shouted through his sandwhich, prompting an irritated look from Sam, "Wha if she got exspehnsif sheats or shomethin?"
"Tucker, swallow your food, that's disgusting!" She wiped her arm with a napkin, "You're spitting it all over the table!"
He was about to reply when I cut him off, "I know guys, but I couldn't find the time! She was so proud of us entering and was so excited about it, I didn't want to tell her she was an alternate in case she reacted badly."
They both gave me a solemn look and Tucker actually put his food down, "You have a problem with keeping things from your family, dude."
"Wha?" That was the last thing I expected to hear, "I do not!"
"Yeah you do. Your parents didn't even know you had a Zoid until last year and we've been piloting for four! That's borderline Sam behavior right there."
"Sam, you understand, right?" I turned to my other friend who I was sure would back me up on this, but she seemed lost in thought.
"No, he's right." She finally said, "That is a lot like what I do; the motives are different, but you're still avoiding the problem until you can't avoid it anymore." I groaned at her response. "Oh don't give me that. You keep making excuses because you don't want to tell them things."
"I don't want them to worry." I defended, taking a spoonful of my chili.
"Dude, they're your family, they're gonna worry regardless. Do your parents know Jazz is an alternate or just about you?"
"Well yeah. I had to tell them so I could get her registration IDs. It's not like I can pull a 'Surprise! You're an official member of the team!' without actually registering her."
"Well, that's one hurdle out of the way, at least." Sam frowned, "You gotta get better with explaining things like this, coward."
"I don't need that from you. You barely even talk to your parents. Do they even know they paid for our Zoids and upgrades?"
"For obvious reasons." She scowled, "They still don't like you two, and if they knew that I was on a registered team with you, there's no way they'd let me participate! I need to show them I'm capable as a pilot before I confront them about anything. And besides, my grandmother paid for our Zoids, remember?"
She took a bite of her salad and Tucker took that opportunity to speak up. "Ah yes, the cool one."
"You bet your ass the cool one."
I groaned, realizing I lost this debate and instead chose to focus on my chili, which was surprisingly good considering it's cheap tourney food.
I probably should have told Jazz ahead of time, but I didn't want to ruin her good mood if she didn't want to be an alternate. There's still time to deregister her if that's how it has to be, but hopefully it won't come to that. I felt nervousness and anxiety start to manifest in my gut at the idea of Jazz being anything but happy about this.
Yeah, I definitely should've told her ahead of ti-
"Ow!" I was broken out of my thoughts by a firm elbow to the ribs, "What the heck, Tucker!"
"Dude, isn't that Valerie?" He lowered his head and gestured to a table off to our right. Sure enough, there was the rich girl, sitting by herself a few tables away.
"Yeah, so? Her dad's competing, why wouldn't she be here?"
"Her dad's in the solo round, that's not until tomorrow morning, what's she doing here today?"
Sam eyed the both of us with a confused look before getting up and walking over towards her.
"Sam?"
"Sam, what are you doing!" We cried in hushed whispers, but as soon as she made contact we acted as if we weren't aware of the situation at all.
"What do you think she's gonna say?" Tucker asked and we heard a scoff, before some smart remark about why Sam was here. "This isn't going to end well." Raised voices, and soon enough Sam came stomping back to our table.
"Fucking prick." She mumbled. "I actually ask her politely and she treats me like shit. I'm wiping the floor with her dad if we come across him on the battlefield."
"Sam.."
"So what'd you find out?" Tucker interrupted eagerly, which caused her to roll her eyes.
"She's here a day early because her dad's getting registered, same as us. He also has to check a few mechanisms in the stands before the battles start."
"So how exactly did that go from informative to snarky to pissy in 3 seconds?" I asked. She got a lot of information for conversing with one of the A-listers who hated us. Before she could answer though, my sister took the opportunity to walk into the tent.
"Oh, scuse me! Sorry." She apologised as someone tried to leave while she was scanning the tent for us.
"Jazz!" I waved and she looked over to us before taking the two steps to our table. She glanced around the tent again.
"I thought you guys would've been sitting further in, not right by the door."
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, waiting for her to continue.
"So how excited are you guys! First tournament battle and everything!" Her eyes gleamed with excitement, and I was about to answer her genuinely when Sam cut me off.
"Not as excited as you should be!" Shit.
"Me?" She looked baffled, "I mean yeah I'm excited my little brothers in a tournament and you guys get to show off, but why would I be extra excited?"
Sam elbowed be in the ribs when I didn't pick up the conversation. Hard. I scowled and rubbed my side, and then spoke, "B-because!" I tried to change tone, picking up her tournament card and handing her the lanyard. "Guess who's an official alternate of Team Phantom!" I cheered. My momentary excitement turned to a wince as she just stared at the card dangling from my hands. "Uh… your jackets in your cockpit, sis, zoids are out back….Jazz?" I half expected her to politely decline when she didn't respond right away, but sure enough, my sister is my still my sister.
She let out a high pitched scream, making several of the other attendees look over to our table and Valerie to spill her coffee on her lap. Which I know Sam caught because she let out a smug laugh.
"Oh Danny, thank you! I mean, you know you didn't have to do this, right? It's- I- Ahhh! Thank you!" She grabbed me in a hug which I returned, and with a little less excitement and more sincerity, she thanked me again.
"You're welcome, Jazz!" I laughed, we knew she was angry with us for skipping classes so often, and when I were forced to tell my family we were skipping to practise our skills she seemed a little off. Like she was glad it was something productive and nothing bad, but like she felt left out and was disappointed we skipped class to spar and tweak new components. "It's the least we could do." Which was true, because afterwards, she'd go on parts runs with us in our parent's modified Redler, which saved a lot more time than taking a slow gustav for the same parts. My mom refused to let us fly it because of the increased dangers of aerial travel, but with my sister's experience in high speed fliers, she caved. "So where are mom and dad? I'm shocked they're not in here boasting to everyone about us being in the tourney." I asked as I pulled away from the hug.
"Up in the stands. They bought out front row seats and brought the most ridiculous equipment to record your fights. Be glad you don't have to sit with them."
"Well you don't either, considering you're a teammate."
"Yeah, but I want the best seats for your first fight. I brought my camera too." She smiled at us before getting up and ushering us into the light. "OH! I need to get a picture of you guys! C'mon, I need one of you guys in front of your Zoids before it starts too!"
We spent an hour getting toted around by my sister for her photo collection and wandering the arenas. The preliminaries start promptly at 10 o'clock, so we had a lot of time to waste. It went by quickly and soon it was quarter to so we headed to the viewing room to check our standings in the preliminaries.
"Fourth battle, that's pretty early." Jazz noted. There were 64 teams gathered here that had to be weeded out, and we ended up in the 4th battle. "And they're pretty fast zoids, too. Tucker, you gonna be okay out there?"
"I'll be fine, they're just raptors. I mean I have my energy shield and custom boosters for worst case scenario. Not like someone would expect it on a Zoid like mine, so if we get in trouble Sam and Danny could take it out before it hits me."
"That and Elephander's a tank." Sam noted, "I doubt a revraptor can even do any damage to it without heavy artillery, and that goes against the zoid's design."
"And the sniper doesn't have any range in such a small arena. All he's got is maneuverability and speed, he can't set up his rifle in such close quarters without the chance for immediate and irreversible damage." I continued with a frown. "This looks like it might be a really fast fight."
The team itself is pretty well thought out, especially if the pilots knew what they were doing, but they were outmatched due to how small the arena was.
"The gunsniper's gonna be useless if it turns out it's only equipment is it's rifle." Jazz muttered loud enough for us to hear. "If you want to show off, you're going to have to rely on skill and speed. This already looks like a fast fight, so go flashy."
"Useless? Show off? You saying the Ripe Raptor team's a pushover?" A man that looked to be in his midtwenties/early thirties, called out to us; apparently the three of us weren't the only ones listening to Jazz. "Yo, get a load of this, these preschoolers think they're gonna school us in their first fight." He called to his friends, who laughed.
No surprise, we were fifteen. No one was going to take us seriously until we got on the battlefield, not if we talked a big game without any proof, anyway.
The Ripe Raptors were an interesting batch to say the least, jackets that match the Rev Raptor's markings and an alternate colored one for the sniper pilot who sported a noticeably large green mohawk.
"We're gonna get schooled by the three of yoose? Your Zoids are all mismatched, your ages a joke! Take us with skill, ha! Give us your best shot, kiddies." One of the raptor pilots jeered, looking to his friends for backup, "They think they can outspeed us, boys!"
We groaned and walked away, ignoring the insults that followed us. They were overconfident, there's no way they'd outmaneuver us if they didn't take us seriously.
"Sounds like they already lost." Sam muttered, crossing her arms as we settled on the otherside of the room near another monitor.
My sister shrugged, "Well, that's good for you guys in any case. People still won't be expecting it. After this fight though, don't show off too much. You want people to take you seriously, not know all your cards." An announcement came overhead as the start of the first battle went underway, which she took as her cue to head to the stands. "Call if you need me."
The first fight was a team of helcats versus a leoblaze team. The battle dragged on for about 45 minutes. Despite the small arena, the helcats made good use of their stealth, which the leoblazers, as they called themselves, combated with swift dodging, resulting in a dragged out game of cat and mouse. The helcats won out in the end, though, sending them on to the second round of preliminaries and the leoblazers home.
The other two fights didn't last as long, a saber tiger, helcat and dark horn were taken out by a team of pteras followed by the defeat of three command wolves by a gravity saix and a couple dark spiners.
Nothing spectacular though. All three rounds, the teams were pretty evenly matched, and they fought with the same amount of skill.
When it finally came to our battle, we were stoked, the announcement finally blasted through the waiting room we were in, "Phantom team and Ripe Raptor teams, please make your way to your Zoids and into the arena."
As we made our way down the halls to where we parked the gustav, we heard our introduction, which was pleasing to say the least. "The fourth round of the first set of preliminaries will be between the newly established Team Phantom from right here in Amity Park, and the Ripe Raptors from Sentinel across the way. This match looks to be a pretty uneven one though folks, as the Phantoms just barely qualified for the preliminaries at age 15. The youngest team we've seen here in the last five tournaments."
We got in our Zoids and headed towards the arena, preceded by our opponents who got a warm welcome, having competed in the last tourney "Introducing the Ripe Raptors, two rev raptors and a gunsniper, noted for their quick kills and precision teamwork in battles with much tougher Zoids. Fast hitters, their opponents are usually quick to fall thanks to the sheer speed of the these tiny assassins."
The audience cheered, and we entered the arena, our introduction following in the same manner, "And their opponents, Team Phantom! Another oddball assortment of Zoids; a Konig Wolf, a Zaber Fang, and an Elephander. And look at those colors!" Where the Raptors had standard colors with matching decals, ours were all custom paints with matching elements. Sam's Konig Wolf was purple and black, My Zaber Fang was black and white, and Tucker's Elephander was dark blue and black, all with matching logos and green and white accents. "This team certainly has style, but they look to be the underdog in this fight, the Zoids they're using are hard to pilot Zoids that some veterans have trouble with, can three 15 year olds handle them properly? It's time to find out!" It was clear they were talking about the Elephander. Konig was rarely seen, but they were on par with Ligers in terms of ease of control, meaning they required skill, and there was no way they were talking about my Zaber. Zaber Fangs are a pretty standard piece of machinery, standard to pilot, but expensive to upkeep, which was why they were hardly seen outside the military.
I had no doubt in Tucker's ability with the Elephander though. He definitely had the most trouble piloting it at first, but Sam had him practice in one of her family's Dark Horns and work his way up to it, and even then he mastered it pretty quickly, which was to be expected considering his parents were mechanics. He knew all the tricks of the trades when it came to a Zoid's system and how to pilot it correctly.
"Do the teams have anything to say to one another before we begin?"
"Yeah." The guy in the gunsniper piped up, "We're gonna clean your clocks, kids. Better enjoy those Zoids while they last, because they aren't leaving this arena in one piece."
"Tough words from Gunsniper pilot, Nicolai; does the Phantom team have a rebuttal before the ensuing fight?"
"Big words from such a disadvantaged zoid." It was Sam that chimed up, "Hope you enjoy losing to a pack of 15 year olds, boys."
"And tough words back! But enough chitchat, we have a battle to watch. Zoids set! Reaaady? Fight!"
The alarm sounded and the raptors took off, the two rev raptors skimming down the sides of the circular arena, and the gunsniper running down the middle, straight for my Zaber Fang. They were going for a close range strike. Sam lowered her Zoid to the ground, bending the Konig's right leg enough to avoid the height of the rev raptor's blade and knock a leg out from underneath the Zoid, sending it tripping off towards my Zaber as it tried to regain balance. The other raptor ignored Tucker's elephander was was heading towards me as well, and the gunsniper launched itself into the air above me.
I jumped backwards, my Zaber rearing up after settling and pierced the sniper with it's fangs, leaving it's claws it intended to strike with scraping to grip the Zaber's face, a feat the Zoid simply wasn't capable of. The raptor that went after Sam was sent in a collision course with the other one, causing it to cease it's attack and avoid getting stomped by my Zaber as gravity took it's toll and my Zoid was placed firmly on all fours once again. Two shots from my shock canon and the sniper was frozen. I dropped the Zoid as Tucker's elephander stomped on the rev raptor that had regained it's balance a little too close to the elephant's reach. Rev raptor number one was out of commission.
Rev Raptor number two had headed towards Sam and jumped, clearly seeing how ineffective his partner's blades were the first time around. She didn't even bother to dodge, just angled the 50mm double barrel beam canon she had specially installed on her Konig's back and shot it out of the air with a couple shells.
She quickly jumped into the air and crushed the zoid with Konig's front claws before it could react, and that was the end of the other raptor.
The battle didn't even last five minutes.
"So much for cleaning our clocks." Tucker snorted.
The arena was silent, save for my parents and sister's loud cheering as people tried to process how quickly the battle had ended.
"That was...unbelieveable folks! You saw it right here, a two minute total takedown by one of the youngest teams here today! Was it skill or was it luck? The raptors didn't see it coming, that's for sure! This is definitely a team to keep an eye out for!"
We led our Zoids into a bow and exited the arena, thoroughly pleased with the reaction we got. "Did you hear how quiet they were?" I laughed as I dropped from my Zaber, now safely tucked away in the temporary hangar reserved for the winners of the first round of preliminaries. "Just wait until they find out who piloted those Zoids!"
"Oh man, they'll probably do a spit take or something!" Tucker cried, still in the cockpit. And those raptors, I wish I could've seen the look on their faces! Two minutes! Two minutes! That's a record, right there!"
"Well they did line up nicely for us, and they didn't even bother to use any artillery." Sam whined, "I wanted to see how my boosters held up in such a small arena!"
"Oh come on, Sam. We won and we got a great reaction out of everybody. The next fight'll be better, I'm sure. I mean they won't underestimate us, now." It did suck they didn't put up much of a fight, but it couldn't be helped. Their strategy was probably close combat with the raptors as a distraction, while the gunsniper fried the Zoids from afar. Not like that could be pulled off in such a small area.
"I can't wait until they interview us though. The look on Dash's face when we go to school before the first round will be great! Imagine if they're rooting for us! What a slap in the face that would be!" She laughed, "Ooh, and Paulina. Always gloating about that precious Descat of hers and how we couldn't afford to up in anything better than dingy old cars. Imagine her face when I show up in the winning Konig wolf!" She looked up to her Zoid with a grin, "We're gonna slap that smug look right off her face, right Konig?"
The Konig wolf responded with a growl as she took a seat on it's claws. "From now on, you're coming to school with me, baby."
"You're gonna start calling you zoid 'baby', now?" Tucker laughed, "Oh this is great, where's Jazz and that camera when you need her!"
"It's nothing compared to what you call that thing. Remember 'The Packing Pachyderm'? 'Mutilating Mammoth'?"
I chucked, "You're forgetting about the 'Love Machine'."
"Who's side are you on!" Tucker yelled, causing the both of us burst out laughing. He crossed his arms and slunk down in his seat, "Can't even trust my best friend to back me up, I can't believe this. Least I have you, Tusker. You're on my side, right?"
The elephant grunted before ejecting his seat and launching Tucker out of the Zoid, only to come floating safely down beside it thanks to the parachute. The elephander trumpeted and I could've swore it was laughing, which only made us laugh harder as Tucker tried not to laugh, "Unbelievable!"
"Sir, five battles have taken place, in the tournament already, but I found something you might want to take a look at." A large man, covered in sparingly placed silver armor walked into the room. He sported a helmet with a green plume crest, and bowed before the wooden desk of his boss.
"What is it, Skulker? And are the modifications to my Maddie complete?" The man asked, looking up from the monitor imbedded in his desk.
"Ah, not quite. You still have a few days before you need to make an appearance at the tournament anyway, I can guarantee the upgrades will be finished by then."
"Well, if that's the best you can do, I suppose I have no choice. Now what were you babbling about when you came in here?"
Replacing the scowl from that last comment with an indifferent look, Skulker handed him a manilla folder, "These fighters look promising. Took out their first battle in under two minutes, they're only 15."
Flipping through the papers, the man looked back to Skulker, "What does this have to do with me, exactly? It's certainly impressive, I'll give you that, but the other pilots could've simply been novices as well."
He frowned, "I thought the names of the participants would interest you, sir."
"Names?" The man looked back to the folder and reskimmed. "Manson? The Manson? Well well, that is certainly interesting stuff." He stopped at a file photo of the girl, "Yes, I know her parents quite well. One of our biggest buyers." He flipped to the next page, "Foley…. That name means nothing to me."
"The last two pilots are the ones I thought you'd like to see."
"Last two, huh?" Removing the two profile pages, he set them side by side on the desk. "Fenton." He stared, "Jazz and Danny Fenton." He looked through the pages for the parental signatures and set the page between the two profiles. "Ah. Maddie."
"I've found you."