Episode Seven
The Unveiling—The Desert Gang Reunites
"Mind the music and the step,"
"This is a good day." Bit yawned while stretching his arms above his head. He had just walked out of the last Zoids Parts store on his list and was feeling mighty grand. "I can't remember not being in debt. This is an interesting feeling." He stuffed his gloved hands in the pockets of his jacket and began strolling down the Main Street of Romeo City. "I think I'll thank the Liger again for being such a beast of a Zoid and helping me not be so broke!"
So he walked and whistled and ogled all the Zoids inside the many garages and shops on the street. He made sure to give the one with the rabid fangirl a wide berth.
"Hmm." To his left a garage was testing and repairing a Shield Liger whose large pink shield would pulsate and ripple, then fizzle out. He made an abrupt turn into the building and the automatic doors slid shut behind him. A strange popping sound followed a moment later, but he paid no heed and instead approached the Liger and focused on its broken energy mechanism.
So he didn't notice the man who's mouth dropped open as he pointed at a circular crack in the glass doors. "Was that a bullet?"
Many minutes passed, after which Bit was grinning like the Zoid maniac he was.
"Dude, thanks for your help." A mechanic in a grey jumpsuit said.
"No problem! I just wanted to see how a shield worked." As he walked towards the glass doors he turned to wave goodbye and smacked straight into a woman. "Oops! Sorry, babe."
He stepped around her and grimaced. "Bit, try not to have a picture of yourself getting punched in the face plastered all over the news." So, he continued his walk down the street, planning to head straight back to the Liger.
His shoelace caught a bramble in the sidewalk, he paused to pull it out, and a squirrel that was about a foot in front of him perching on a trashcan dropped dead.
"Squirrelman?" He took a step forward and then crouched down to inspect the tiny creature. A small lamp that hooked onto the shop next to him exploded. "This is getting strange."
He stood up and carefully walked over the rodent's head guts and almost got a good and normal stroll going again when the shop door he was passing opened with a bang and a man in a ski mask came tearing out.
"AH!" He cried and the man turned on his heel and headed straight for him, carrying a bag probably holding a lot of expensive Zoid tidbits. He waved his hands in front of himself for protection.
Like magic, the thief dropped the bag while shouting "My arm!" and was soon tackled by the mob that had followed him out of the store. The crowd pooled around the two of them to watch a few cops try and simultaneously bandage and handcuff the bleeding man.
Some tool-belted man came up to Bit, wide-eyed as he was, and shook his hand. "Thanks. Shooting him was a little unnecessary though."
While somebody else clapped him on the back, he began making a distinctive effort to escape. Bit had just ducked through the edge of the mob, and gotten hit with a bejeweled purse, when he noticed a familiar looking jeep parked in the distance. Two figures leaned against the side doors and were watching the chaos that had erupted around them, shrugging their shoulders.
One had a squirrel on his head and the other wore a really short skirt.
Brad? Naomi?
. . .
She met her brother on the couches in the meeting room. His chin was propped in his hand and his head was bandaged up nicely. "Are you going to come into town with me?" She asked.
He leaned back against the couch and patted the seat next to him. She sat down. "Why didn't you go with dad?"
"He and Jamie left really early this morning," she stuck her tongue out in disgust at the thought of waking up in those hours, "to get fuel and new battery packs."
"And I'm guessing Brad and Naomi are nowhere to be found." She nodded and he chuckled. "So I was your last resort?"
"No!" She put her fists on her hips. "You're always my first option, Leon."
He laughed again. "What a charmer you are."
She grinned and hugged his left arm. "Works to my benefit. So, are you coming with me? You have to get new blades anyways."
His face returned to the pensive stare she had walked in on. "I don't think so, Leena, I think rest and relaxation is what the doctor prescribed. Someone needs to watch the base anyways."
She huffed. "Leon! I don't want to walk alone!"
He ignored her protests and patted her on the back. "You can't trick me, baby sis, I happen to know that you can easily protect yourself."
"Oh, fine." She walked off towards the hangar. "My own flesh and blood abandons me to a foreign city! Even Bit would have gone with me." She glanced over her shoulder at Leon, but he just smiled back at her. "Ugh."
. . .
She rode her Gunsniper into town and dropped it off in a garage. She felt like shopping, but that was less fun when she had no one to buy her stuff. So she went to a gun shop instead, her second favorite thing to do, and sold back her plasma rifle in exchange for a plasma pistol for her tail. Only a little scope, but it would please Naomi and still give her control over the tail unit.
There wasn't much else to do if you were alone in a town (she certainly wasn't going to order a table for one), so she contemplated searching for her father and Jamie while tossing her new gun into the cockpit of her Zoid.
As she stepped into the bustle of the sidewalk, she decided against it. "I doubt I could find them in this mess." What was there for a girl to do?
So Leena let her feet carry her, eventually passing through antique shops and paraphernalia stores alike. There had been a particularly accidentally humorous musical box with a dancing elephant that she should of snagged, but alas, she had a reputation to uphold.
In light of this fact, she headed a few streets over to a more Zoidian district and searched for an armory. I can get Leon some blades. Some really cool ones. He'll thank me for it later. As she approached, she recognized a name from one of her father's magazine subscriptions, which probably made it one of the most techno-geeky Liger shops in the city. Good that she stumbled across it then.
She entered and turned her head, looking for someone who seemed like they knew what was going on in this giant place, and smacked flush against some man. Just above her left ear she felt him say "Oops, sorry, babe," while distractedly placing his hands on her waist and steering himself around her. Her jaw dropped open.
The nerve! To walk into her and then put his hands all over her…she had beaten other guys to within an inch of their lives for much less. And this prick wouldn't have gotten away with it either if his hands hadn't left her feeling…feeling what? Nothing of course.
She flushed, pinched herself, then walked forwards to a large Liger that stood in front of her. A mechanic dressed in grey wiped his brow on his greasy sleeve. "I need two blades for a Blade Liger. Whom do I talk to about that?"
"You can talk to me about anything." He replied suavely.
She glowered.
"Let's check if there's anything that suits you. If there's nothing in stock, I'll show you the order list." He moved towards a wall that held all kinds of additions for a Liger, beckoning her to follow. "What does a pretty thing like you want with Liger blades anyways?"
She almost said 'to stab you with' but kept her mouth shut. Her self-control was off the charts today.
He pointed at a pair of small yellow blades. "Those look good?"
"Those baby things? Don't make me laugh." She gave him a slap on the back. His eyes widened and he coughed, probably just realizing to stop with the lewd comments before she ripped his tongue out. "How about you show me something good now?" Two black blades caught her attention. "Now, that's what I'm talking about. Those look lethal."
"Uhm," he said while taking a step away from her, "those are probably a little out of your price range."
"Excuse me! Do you know who I am?" She was just about to give the fool a piece of her mind when someone grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around. "Hey, I'm talking over here!" She yelled.
"Leena. I thought it was you." She blinked, confused, and then Bit grinned at her. "Y'know, I walked past you a second ago. And I thought you were some woman!" He threw back his head and guffawed.
She shoved him in the shoulder, but provided a witty retort. "Y'know what's really funny? I thought you were some asshole. So it looks like we were both right!"
"Sadly, this isn't your deranged dream world."
She raised her right hand and slapped him hard across the face.
He yelped. "Let's redo that, shall we? What's…up?"
She raised a fist, so he caught it. She tried with her other but he caught that hand too. "Okay, maybe I deserved the first one, but I don't deserve to get slugged in the middle of Romeo City!" She scowled and dug her teeth into his neck.
He shouted in surprise. "Get off of me, you crazy woman!"
She unclamped her jaw and withdrew her head. He dropped her hands. Calmly, as if she didn't have his blood on her lips, she said, "So now you agree that I'm a woman?"
He grinned and his mouth opened, ready to harass her, but then he thought better of it. "Of course."
Leena frowned, accepting the answer, then grabbed a fistful of his jacket and shook him. "Why didn't you call after you fought the Pillbug? It came after us! You could have spared a warning!"
The incredulity on his face made her stop. "It attacked you?"
Someone cleared their throat and the two of them turned their heads to look at the guy in grey. He was tugging at the collar of his coverall and looking altogether awkward. "I'm still in the room, in case you forgot." By the way they stared at him he gathered they did. Then they glanced back at each other and immediately jumped apart. Obviously they hadn't noticed how close they had been either. "Do you still need some blades, lady?"
"Yes, the black ones please." She replied sweetly.
"What are you getting serrated blades of death for?" Bit questioned, raising his eyebrows.
"Leon needs new ones." She grinned. "They were destroyed in the battle. It was the most awesome fight I've ever seen. And you weren't even in it, that should knock your ego down a few notches, eh?"
"First of all, it is not possible for anything to be as cool as the Liger Zero. Second, Leon will not want those torture devices."
She crossed her arms with a huff, but tilted her head, listening.
"The first time I ever saw Leon battle, he took out a Zoid using the shield of his Liger. So," he pointed at a pair of dark blue blades, "you should get those Metal-Zi double edged type. He's just the kind of person who would attack backwards.
"Plus, it runs in the family. You're all backwards in the head." His chuckle quickly turned into his loud laugh, and before he had a chance to regain any sort of sense, she had leapt at him with hands outstretched—ready to throttle him until he begged for forgiveness.
. . .
Two young men with choppy black hair were on their bellies overlooking Main Street from a tall building. One had a black rifle pointed at a large crowd surrounding a police car, scanning the area back and forth.
"I lost him, man."
"What do you mean you lost him, Jubon!" This guy had a radio in his hand and gave the shooter a good whack with it.
"I mean I lost him! He just disappeared!"
"McNair's going to hit us good for this one."
The cousins looked at each other and gulped, then radioed back to headquarters and relayed the news.
"Idiots." McNair replied tersely before cutting off the connection.
"It was nice knowing you, Kishon." Jubon moaned grimly and lay the gun down.
"Oh please, get over it. We're good pilots; McNair got us out of jail for a reason."
"Yeah maybe, but that bitch is calling all the shots now."
Just then the radio crackled and McNair's rough voice brought them to attention. "The missus says pack up and get your asses back here. She's got our Sinkers. We'll get our revenge the old-fashioned way."
"Alright!" Kishon grinned and grabbed the back of his partner's neck. "The Desert Gang is back!"
. . .
Back at the Hovercargo, Bit was sitting on the kitchen counter.
"So Jamie, it appears you've gotten better at boiling water."
"It's spaghetti." He looked up at him with grey mirth-filled eyes, "With the way all of you eat, it takes me three hours to make it all!"
"Sorry, kid." He chuckled, then patted him on the head. "I sure missed your home cooking though, and Leena's food."
"I bet you didn't miss the beatings." Jamie laughed and the blonde pilot grimaced, rubbing his cheek where her handprint probably still was.
Leon walked in with a few more boxes of pasta and dumped them into a second pot of boiling water. "Hey, Bit. Glad to see you stopped by. I had heard that you ran into Leena."
"Yeah, literally." He winced in memory of her abusiveness, but after a second thought realized he didn't really mind bumping into her.
"Thanks for the input on the blades. They were affordable too."
"Yeah, no problem. The dude there owed me a favor anyways, and Leena can be real scary when she wants to. Doc!"
"Hello!" Dr. Toros replied cheerfully before turning to Jamie. "I've been looking for you! I found this great update for the Hover Cargo, so please give me the cashcard you hid."
"No way!" Jamie cried, flustered, "It's probably super expensive and will use up all of our prize money!"
"No it won't; we're rich!"
"We won't be if I let you get at the savings account."
"Wow, look at Jamie cracking that whip!" Bit and Leon broke into laughter; a stern Jamie and a pouting Doc wasn't something you got to see everyday.
Suddenly, there was a jolt and the entire ship rocked to the side. Bit slid off the counter with a yelp and Jamie was forced to catch the pot of boiling spaghetti as it splashed onto him.
"Hot! Hot!"
"What was that?"
"Oh Helic that burns!"
Leena skidded into the lounge at that moment, her eyes wide and panicked as she grabbed theirs. "Those sand-stingrays are attacking again!"
"I though they were imprisoned?" Bit shouted back over the roar of shooting.
"Well certainly not anymore! They definitely aren't ghosts!" She grabbed Bit and Jamie by the collars of their shirts and dragged them forward. "And Brad saw the Hammerhead!" Then she disappeared out the side door with the two boys.
"They're attacking again already?" Leon grimaced, "Plus the Red Liger is in no shape to fight. Neither is Naomi's Gunsniper."
"We've got those two turrets at the top of the cargo. Get your teammate up there and protect my base!"
. . .
"Mobilizing Liger Zero JAGER!" Bit launched himself into the fray. Jamie was peppering the Sinkers with gunfire from his Raynos, and with the help of Leon and Naomi a battle line had been set up, but it wasn't going to last for long, especially with the speed these stingrays had.
"Hello, Blitz team! Never thought you'd see me again didja?"
"And who exactly are you?" Brad replied to the man that had popped up on all of their vid-screens. He had close-cropped black hair and a wicked widow's peak. If Dr. Laon had a son…
"McNair. The leader of the Desert Gang, and you would do well to remember me." Another slightly more familiar boy scowled at them next. "And I'm Kishon, and with the help of the Undrafted, today we'll be digging your graves!"
"Nobody move." Leena whispered, "I've got them all targeted."
Suddenly, three stingrays broke from the shifting ranks in a V formation and Brad had to leap into the air to stop it.
"Wild Weasal Total Assault!"
He was able to shoot them down from his vantage point, but Leena shrieked and a bullet hit his leg, sending the Shadowfox spinning to the ground. "Helic, Leena! You could have waited another half second!" He swore as he righted himself, but none of his teammates seemed to pay him any attention.
"What happened?" Leena cried. Her Gunsniper was half submerged into the dirt, as if a hole had opened up underneath her left leg.
The Raynos roared and dived at a stingray that was trying to shoot at her while she was down. "It was a Cobra! It must be hiding under the battlefield."
"There's probably more of them." Bit added as he avoided a burst of gunfire.
Brad made a cursory glance around the zone as he tried to cut off another wave of Sinkers. There were a lot of craters, probably from the shots of hers that went wild. However, about half of the army had been hit and had fallen back, so it wasn't a complete waste.
Leena shrieked again and ducked her Zoid's head as Jamie shot down another stingray that had tried a kamikaze attack. It came to rest just inches from her Zoid. "Somebody get me out of this ditch!"
Bit glanced over his shoulder. "To tell you the truth, Leena, you're probably safest behind that blast shield."
"Bit, I said GET ME OUT!" She started thrashing around again with her tail, but her Zoid was too ungainly to lift itself out.
As Bit turned his back on the battle and Jamie swooped down to cover him, the frozen Sinker suddenly flew from the ground and crashed into the Jager's chest. The ground exploded in front of Leena and a Cobra shot out of the ground and wound itself around her Gunsniper's neck, trying to drag her the rest of the way under.
She was screaming and jerking her controls around, trying to escape, but her Zoid's neck got closer and closer to the ground, and closer and closer to snapping off.
Jamie, as the Wild Eagle, swiveled mid-air and fired a torpedo right into the gut of the snake. It unleashed the dinosaur type Zoid and hissed, but a keen from the Raynos sent it back underground. The Jager let out another threatening growl before closing its jaws on the back of Leena's Gunsniper and pulling her out of the ground. "Stop writhing around will you!"
As soon as her Zoid's feet touched the ground she stilled. "I need ammo." Then she turned and skedaddled back to the hangar.
He shook his head exasperated, but then took notice of the chaotic battle. "Brad, can you hold the fort while I switch to the Panzar?"
"Sure," he grunted, while firing at another line of Sinkers that were trying to circle behind him to the unprotected back of the base.
Out of the corner of his eye, Brad watched the blue Jager leap into the Hover Cargo, then he set his sights on the massing enemies. He curled his fingers around a lever and grinned. His Zoid was the perfect machine. It fit his piloting skills terrifyingly well and was the best partner he could ever find. It let out a high-pitched yowl as he landed on top of a hot pink stingray and Strike Laser Clawed it into scraps. From its back, he leapt to another stingray, and another, making quick work of the enemy Zoids as he went along.
After reaching the left side of the battle line, he began zigzagging back, shooting off rounds of the Vulcan on areas Jamie couldn't reach. As he was bringing down another stingray the nose of a Cobra started to push out of the ground, but he and the Shadowfox were too agile for something that obvious, and they easily dodged around it before even its gills had cleared the sand. As an afterthought, Brad deployed the net gun in his tail and it wrapped tightly around the snake's head as it was trying to retreat back to safety. Waves of electricity pumped through his competitor and it fell over—frozen on the ground.
He chuckled, "Piece of cake." His Zoid let out another chilling howl. "Anybody else man enough to fight me?" The Liger had nothing on the Shadowfox—this was definitely the best partner out there.
A few shots rang out and he heard a loud bang from just behind him. Swiveling, he saw another Cobra smoking on the ground. "What?" With shock evident on his face, he glanced up at the Hovercargo, where a single turret was facing him.
He was going to have to rephrase that. The Shadowfox was only the best Zoid partner out there.
.
The side of the Hover Cargo opened and Bit stepped out with the Liger clad in green thick armor heavy with artillery. It took a few steps forward, leaving shallow craters in the ground, and let a deep growl rumble in its throat.
The army of enemies slowed, backing up while unsure what to do with this unexpected Liger type. Immediately, Bit triggered the scope and began locking onto the scores of Sinkers. He gripped the controls harder as he felt the sweat pooling in his hand from the quickly overheating cockpit.
His vid-screen beeped and a brunette flashed onto his overhead screen, smiling delightedly.
"You!"
"Me." She grinned cheshirely.
Wavy brown hair and grey eyes. A battle-suit mixed with shadowy colors and a silky voice that dripped with zealous confidence. She smirked at him with familiar painted lips.
Lady Fuma. She and her team had been employed by the Backdraft and attacked them in their Warsharks. There were also a few other instances where her name had cropped up in the same sentences as the Backdraft Group.
"I see when I'm beat, but I'm glad to see you've begun treating me like a real opponent."
He scowled. "Why don't you come down here and fight me, then I'll really treat you like an opponent."
She chuckled unhumorously. "I'll save your destruction for another day, Bit Cloud. Until then…" She landed the Hammerhead and the Desert Gang slowly began loading into the open mouth. "Sleep on this, 'I will not be long.'" The base turned its boosters to face the ground and launched itself into the air. "You wouldn't fire on a lady when her back was turned, right?"
He grit his teeth, but didn't launch a bullet as she meandered into the distance, rising higher and smirking as she cut off the connection. When the Hammerhead was just a dot in the sky he shut down the weapons system and released the Panzer armor. Frowning, he unzipped his jacket to mop his face with it.
"What in the entire Republic is she up to, Liger?"
. . .
"Seconds anyone?" Jamie held up the last pot to the pilot residents that were all lounging on the kitchen counters.
"No way, I've had enough burnt spaghetti for one night." Leon chuckled and scrunched up his face in mock disgust.
Bit laughed too, nodding in agreement, "When I said I missed your cooking, Jamie, I didn't mean anything like this."
The entire group joined in the amusement and Jamie pouted. "Aw, you guys! It's not my fault we got into a battle in the middle of cooking!"
"They're just kidding, kid, it was great. Thanks for dinner again." Naomi gave him a small smile.
"Yeah, thanks." Leena leaned over Bit to give the aviator a noogie. "But I don't know if my stomach will ever forgive you for it."
"You know, I wasn't the only one in the kitchen when they attacked!" The mature youngster replied, brandishing a fork, "Anybody else could have turned the stove off!"
Dr. Toros frowned, "Sure, but nobody else knows how to do that!"
"Oh, dad."
Jamie leapt up into an empty space near Leon, and everyone tacitly agreed to not mention that it took two attempts. Or that he almost fell in the sink. As they all took a moment to munch happily on their food, Brad spoke up. "You're looking comfortable over there, Bit. Are you planning on staying?"
He looked upwards thoughtfully, "Hmm. Only under one condition," he paused for effect and everyone fell silent. He was going to ask for terms? Really? "Jamie promises not to try and poison me again."
He immediately broke into laughter, and everyone joined in moments later. "Shove it, you guys!" Jamie cried, but he was grinning along with them.
And so, the sun set on the Blitz and Feugal Teams. Everyone had massive repairs and maintenance checks to start the next morning, and a tangible worry for the new menace hung over their heads, but their smiles remained undaunted. Because, really, this was family. And everything (and everyone) was more fun a little burnt anyways.
. . .
Next time on Zoids:
"I know I've been behind the scenes recently, but finally my Gunsniper is fully functional. Unfortunately, the only battles coming our way are ones that would waste my time. Especially the ones with Leena, but I think I've found a fun button she wasn't expecting me to press. Also, proof (as if we needed any more) that Liger pilots are too battle crazy for all our goods. Next time on Zoids, the blades unleashed—Tigers vs the Ligers. The Fuzzy Panda's att—wait, no, who are they again? Ready! Fight!
Fight scenes... this was much worse than last chapter's. What a non-epic battle to come after an epic one. Oh well, I still liked the little Brad/Naomi segment heh heh. On that note, let's not mention the horrible Bit/Leena attempts. We can mention Jamie saving Leena...because he totally has a crush on her. What, what?
Besides that, hmm. I guess you can say we've ended the Introductory Arc and have officially begun the Undrafted Arc. Yay!
Also, they say "Helic". Tis a curse word now. If you find yourself using it, please wash your mouth out with soap.
Wait, I almost forgot! Fuma is the evil villian. What do you think? I sort of love using the Fuma Team because it gives me four 'villians' to work with. You'll see why they went 'evil'...later.
Disclaimer: I do not own NC0. Jubon, Kishon, and McNair are actual canon characters, but I did make up their spellings.
Reviews: You guys are so nice! Especially DarkElement (you slay me)—I'll dedicate a better episode to you in the future. But seriously, just those three Episode 6 reviews had me writing a whole bunch of new stuff. (I still need to organize it because I just sort of write randomly...) However, there is an episode coming up soon that is really in need of some 'prompts.' In your next review, please tell me something you'd like to see. Like, "Character A talking to Character B about anything." That would be totally awesome...because I love prompts...because they always get twisted hahah.
Excited about the next chapter? It's the Tiger's team, and I give them individual personalities! Sort of. What do you think of the Desert Gang in league with the Undrafted? Anybody craving burnt spaghetti? Happy to see Bit finally back with the Blitz?
