Chapter Four

The Start of an Era

The judge satellite launched to the planet Zi, and slammed into the soft desert sand. On the right side of the judge, was a trio of rare Zoids.

"Are we ready?" Jack Sisco said to the other two members of his team, Chris and Kelly Tasker.

"All ready Jack. Let's hurry up and get paid." Chris Tasker airily expressed, filing her nails in the cockpit of her machine. "My favorite show is on."

"Ready to go." Kelly said, reading a magazine in the process.

They felt that their opponent was irrelevant. A Class C team was challenging the Class A team. They also happened to be the least Team to beat the Blitz team.

Moments later, they saw a transportation ship overhead. Their opponents had arrived to in the widest open area of the desert. Jack Sisco couldn't understand why he accepted the challenge to these "Class C Cinderella's", as the media called them. Then he realized how much money he stood to make. It made this a little more bearable.

"The ship is over the battlefield! Deploying Zoids!"

The ship lowered its altitude a few thousand feet.

"Blade Liger, deployed."

The Blue blade liger dropped from the ship onto the desert sand.

"Command Wolf, deployed!

"De-Bison, deployed!"

The other two Zoids dropped next to the Blue Blade Liger on the desert sand.

"Let's do it, Marauders!" Terrance yelled.

"Yeah!" Anastasia agreed.

"Let's go! MARAUDER!"

The next instant, the judge satellite dropped from the sky, and went through the formalities. The reporter went into the helicopter and the vehicle flew high above the landscape. "The match is about to begin! Don't turn your channel! The judge is here!"

Back at the base, the Blitz and Fluegel teams were all ready to see the fight; but contempt to sulk in the corner was Harry Champ.

"Well, we didn't best Jack our first time against him and his team let's see how they do." Brad said, sipping what was estimated to be his third cup of coffee.

"Well it's not like history is in their favor." Doc said.

Everyone looked at him for an explanation.

"They're a community organized and owned team. Most community teams never make it past C Class anyway. When Class C teams are going against opponents above their class, they have always lost, until the Marauder Team beat the Champ Team that is. (Harry sulked.) This is the first time a Class C team has even battled a Class A opponent, let alone a community team."

"Well, why is this match being televised then?" Bit asked.

"Well, this team is… different." Doc said. "They have been undefeated and have won some good battles against some proven opponents. Like the Champ Team, the Vipers Team and, as Bit called them, the Fuzzy Pandas."

Most of the people in the room laughed.

"Whatever, they're probably flukes anyway." Naomi said, scowling.

Back at the desert, the adrenaline was flowing, only on the Marauder Team.

"I'm a little nervous!" Anastasia said. "We haven't gone against a team like this!"

"Well, too late for that now! Remember our strategies!" Terrance yelled, and his Blade Liger roared.

The judge was ready to begin. "Area scanned. Battlefield set up! Battle mode: 0982. The Marauder Team versus the Lightning Team. Ready…! FIGHT!"

The Zoids all got into a bit of a roaring match. The loudest was the Blade Liger, as it seemed to take after Terrance, who was the most emotionally driven member. "Let's get a move on! Go Liger!" and his Blade Liger charged in quickly.

"Wait! Argh! Darn it, Terrance!" Anastasia shouted. "Remember, you stay back here, Desmond!"

And with that, the Command Wolf charged into the fray as well.

"Oh yeah. Stay behind. Whatever!" Desmond said.

"Chris! Kelly!" Jack roared. "They clearly don't know what they're doing. GO!"

The three Lightning Saixes roared, and charged off towards the oncoming Blade Liger using their trademark precision drafting strategy.

"Kelly!" Chris yelled to her sister. "Let's blow past these two and go after that D- Bison!"

"Why? That's not the biggest- Chris, look up!"

Chris Tasker looked up to see her attacker. Terrance's Blade Liger had its blades drawn and was about to slice the Zoid in half if she didn't react quickly enough. With the drafting strategy, Jack and Kelly flew past her sides, and her Zoids accelerated even faster, and Terrance's attack missed by the widest of margins.

"Darn it! I missed!" Terrance yelled as his Blade Liger landed, barely clipping the tail of the last Zoid in the line. "Hit them, Anastasia!"

"I got 'em lined up!"

Anastasia fired off several shots at the Lightning Saixes, all of them missing by an even wider margin.

"Oh my! Here they come!" Anastasia cried, and she turned around and ran back towards Desmond and his D- Bison.

"I got the assault lined up!" Desmond confirmed. "Just get out the way, Annie!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't shoot!" Anastasia pleaded. She sprinted as close as her command wolf allowed, and then she slid in the sand to duck the fire. "Okay, now shoot!"

"GO TIME!" Desmond yelled. Desmond fired from all of the cannons on the back of his Zoid, and caught nearly the entire Lightning Team of guard.

"These kids are starting to annoy me!" Chris Tasker grumbled. "Kelly move!"

The two girls split up and ran in separate directions to avoid the fire, and Jack Sisco tailed Chris Tasker. Chris moved to the right and was soon also evading fire from the white Command Wolf chasing her. When Kelly split up to the right, she didn't have as much luck. She was immediately tackled and brought down by the Blade Liger.

"You little brat!" she grimaced.

"Yeah, didn't think I'd just let you go!" Terrance taunted with a smile. "Argh!"

The Blade Liger took a few shots to its body and fell off of Kelly's Lightning Saix, courtesy of Jack Sisco.

"And now for that bison!" Jack yelled.

"Look up, Desmond!" Terrance yelled. "He's lining you up!"

But it was far too late. Jack fired a furious amount of rounds at the D-Bison, and all of the shots connected, knocking the Bison off its feet onto the ground.

"Desmond!" Terrance and Anastasia yelled in unison, but to no avail. Desmond was knocked out of the battle.

The Blade Liger struggled to get to its feet. "Ana! How you holding up over there?"

Anastasia was running away and dodging fire from Jack and Kelly.

"Not too well! Unless you want to help, we got plenty of time!" she added sarcastically.

"Here I come! Run towards me, I have an idea!" Terrance yelled.

"This better do something!" Anastasia yelled, and came full circle and charged at Terrance.

Leon looked at the television and scratched his chin. "It looks a little grim for them."

"Yeah, that D- Bison was the only thing that had the destructive power to defeat Jack. The Command Wolf hasn't nearly the offensive capabilities to fight a Lightning Saix." Jamie added.

"So, how do they win this one? Naomi asked.

"Easy! They'll think their way through it, I'm sure!" Bit said.

"Look here, Ana. On the count of three, jump as high as you can! I'm gonna draw my blades and take the both of them down." Terrance planned.

"Are you crazy!" she yelled back. "No way will that work!"

"One… Two…"

"Terrance, no!"

"THREE!"

Anastasia and her Command Wolf jumped over the Blade Liger the instant both of its blades were drawn, and Jack and Kelly were taken by complete surprise at the sight of the oncoming Blade Liger.

"Where did he come from?"

"Move it!"

Terrance's Blade Liger's blades connected with the Lightning Saixes in one quick and seamless motion. On its right, it severed the front and hind legs off of Kelly's Zoid, and barely clipped the paint on the legs of Jack's Zoid. Terrance imagined hearing the cheers of his hometown at the sight of Kelly going down.

"Darnit!"

"Okay, you got lucky!" Jack taunted to Terrance, now a safe distance away.

The Lightning Saix and the Blade Liger began to roar at each other, forgetting all else.

"So you say! You're the lucky one!" Terrance yelled back.

"AAAGH!"

Both pilots looked for the source of the female scream. The Command Wolf had been shot down.

"I got the wolf, Jack." Chris said, feeling very accomplished with herself. "Now for the Liger."

The Lightning Saixes closed in on the Liger slowly, as it stepped backwards.

"Well well…" Jack spoke. "Looks like your luck has run out."

Terrance smiled. "You wish. Desmond now!"

On cue, the forgotten D- Bison began to fire every missile and bullet it had into the area of the standing Zoids. Terrance managed to boost his Zoids acceleration to get out of the line of fire at the last moment, and the barrage hit the Lightning Saixes.

"Amazing!" Jamie said. "They had the D- Bison play dead the entire time! It was never ruled out!"

Naomi was impressed. "These kids sure aren't a fluke." Referring to the battle she lost against the Blitz Team, where Bit fluked out and defeated her.

"Wow. Amazing tactic. Playing dead. Well, they aren't good enough to go directly against the Lightning Saixes. So they do have to pull out some tricks." Leon said.

"Nice move!" Bit and Harry yelled in unison.

The smoke cleared, and there was still one Lightning Saix left. Jack Sisco was not done yet. However, rage was clearly on his face at the loss of Chris Tasker, who was knocked unconscious. "Well, maybe you do have some luck on your side, but it won't be enough to get you to victory!" With that, the Lightning Saix let off a vicious assault on the Blade Liger with its cannon.

"Argh! I can't take much more of this!" Terrance yelled out, trying to stand his ground, wishing for some shoulder guns.

Desmond radioed into his Zoid. "Terrance! Get the hidden blade attack ready!"

Terrance knew what the plan was, but he forgot exactly how to execute it. He should have paid more attention in the meeting room. Never mind that! It was time to act, not think. "Fine, just help me out… with all this fire!"

"I gotcha!"

Desmond fired off a single shot into the air, and then it seemed to break up, and all of the fragments were aimed at Jack Sisco.

"A mortar!"

Jack ran for it, and using his Zoids maneuverability, he easily avoided any damage. But when the mortar fell to the ground, there was no explosion, no bang. It was just smoke rapidly filling the immediate area.

"What? It's another trick! Where are you hiding, kid! You can't hit me!" Jack yelled out, staying still. If he was to move, the advantage would be to his opponent. Jack figured the Blade Liger was as blind as he was. After all, Blade Ligers are incompatible with equipment that allows pilots to see heat signatures.

Terrance smiled. "I'm here Jack! You can't avoid what you can't see!" Terrance was in the air even in the midst of the thick smoke, and another blade was drawn out from the Ligers right paw, heading directly for Jack Sisco. "Hidden Blade Attack!"

The villagers were all watching the battle unfold from their homes as the snow fell outside. The village was quiet, all eyes on a television screen.

"I can't see anything!"

"They're in the smoke!" "

"What is going on!"

In what felt like an eternity, the smokescreen cleared out. What was then seen was a blue Blade Liger's paw, on top of the neck of a downed Lightning Saix.

Everyone's hearts and minds were expecting the judge to speak those words nobody expected to hear when he crashed down. "The battle is over! The battle is over! The winner is… the Marauder Team!"

The entire village screamed and yelled in happiness and joy. They ran from their homes to the center of their village, and in mere moments, the scene was pure pandemonium of excitement and glee, and people were yelling so loud, it could be heard halfway around the world.

"I don't believe it!" the female reporter yelled. "They upset has happened! Hell has frozen over! A Class C community team has defeated a top tier Class A team! Unbelievable!"

The world was stunned.