ZOIDS
CUSTOMKING
I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ZOIDS
THIS STORY IS A FANFIC CREATED WITH
NO THOUGHT OF BENEFIT TO MYSELF
ENJOY!
Jhese was in fact busy; he had picked up six zabats from the battle and was confident that he could sell four as functional units with spare parts. The best news to him was that the zoid core from Shads was completely unharmed, though the rest of the body was a total write off. The blast had cut through all the chassis and structural framing but all the armour except the chest and two plates from the back were fine.
David heaved himself and the trailer full of spare parts into the hanger "Jhese, some of the zabats that have been left behind still have components that could fetch some dollars if we could get them out in working order" he shook out his shoulders "so I'll have my 'A.C. wolf while I go collect them"
"Yeah that's fine" Jhese waved David away "these won't be finished until well after you get back" David left and Jhese went back to work and back to brooding "I'm so sorry Shads, its all my fault. If I hadn't been so rash you would still be fine, I am an idiot"
"Damn straight, moron" Kat leant over Jhese's shoulder to examine his work.
"So much for sympathy" Jhese replied.
"I only give sympathy to those that really deserve it, you did play the hero, but you could have gotten both your asses fried out there by accepting that dumb challenge; and that idiot commander should have known better" Kat sighed "but boys will be fools"
Jhese glared back over his shoulder "and what does that make you tom-boy?"
"A hell of a lot smarter than you, after all my zoid is fine" Kat retorts "even after I came out to rescue your ass"
Silence.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't come down here just to insult you… I actually wanted to help, somehow…" Jhese looked up at Kat, the girl was like an older brother, ah, sister to him, but even he had never seen her sorry or apologetic before, he took a deep breath.
"How much do you know about zabats?"
Kat grinned "they make good target practice" then she looked thoughtful "do you still have the control receivers?"
"Most of 'em, but we don't have the transmitters"
"We don't need them exactly; I'm going to make a sort homing beacon for the radio signal that they use" Kat took off towards the junk sled to dig up the receivers, leaving Jhese alone with his problems.
Jhese, Cyrus, Finn, Scott and Dean walked along the isle that separated the displays of zoids, the ex-wolf pack members stared around in awe at the brand new zoids and modifications, while Cyrus tried to console a grumbling Jhese.
"Look Jhese, it's not all bad. So what if they don't have a second hand garage, don't be so cheap, these new zoids are awesome."
"I won't be able to afford a good one or even afford to modify it" Jhese looked away from his leader "Those zabats fetched us diddly squat!"
"Yeah well this is a Republic town-" Cyrus started
"I told you, that selling them all at once was a bad idea, it's all about rarity, you're just lucky I sold the spare parts to twenty odd people as rare Imperial parts" Scott finished.
Dean grinned "the only time Scott talks is when it involves money and on those occasions we all listen" Flint laughed and nodded, rubbing tears of mirth from his eyes.
"Bite me Dean" replied Scott shortly as possible.
………………..
Jhese wandered in his mind as he wandered through the showroom, barely looking at the displayed zoids, most were of Republic design; gun snipers, command wolves of all different types and gordos, there was nothing wrong with these zoids, but they weren't for Jhese; the gun snipers were small and nimble, they packed a killer arsenal of distance weapons, but fell behind in defence and close range combat, 'wolves were good all round but rather boring and gordos were just plain cumbersome. Then his eye caught it, a thing of beauty; the zoid looked similar to a gogulas, but smaller, much smaller probably rating as a medium zoid or just barely scraping in as a large type, its arms were longer than a gogulas's and tipped with claws that reminded Jhese of grappling hooks, this zoid was built to fight in close, it was narrower in the snout than a gogulas but thicker than a spinosaur, it would inflict a nasty bite, and it in some way made Jhese think of a liger zero, made famous by Bit Cloud, a junk dealer turned pro zoid warrior during the great peace, before the Back-draft wars.
Jhese was in love.
He made his way over to the display, not noticing or caring if the others had followed or not and stared up at the beautiful zoid, its silver body with electric blue panels looked almost festive, yet incredibly deadly. Jhese had to have it.
"Nice zoid isn't it lad" Jhese looked across at the speaker.
"Thomo!" the old man grinned, Thomo was one of the old mechanic Ben's friends; a zoid enthusiast who never retired from tinkering with his zoids.
"I call it the Gogu-Dragon, but no one believes in close range zoids any more so it's not too successful, I can't get a company to finance the cost of putting one on their teams, but in three years close range zoids will be all the rage again just like they were after Bit Cloud won the Royal Cup six years ago, and of course I can't find a zoid core that works for it" the old man sighed
"Is this one for sale?" asked Jhese.
………………..
"Holy shit" David stated as he bought up the Gogu-dragon's weapon system on the big monitor.
The crew were back in the whalord and waiting to see what the Gogu-dragon was capable of while David and Jhese programmed its combat system.
"I see an E-shielder that can take up to the damage of a Buster Cannon, so even if this thing moves like a cannon tortoise it is gonna get within range of most enemies, it is primarily a four legged zoid but it can raise up to make use of its claws; which I might add are called electro talons and can charge 5,000 volts into the enemy which will freeze most combat systems. Get this. It has two ion boosters modelled off the liger zero and all similar aero dynamics to keep it on the ground at high speeds. Okay this is the scary part; it has attachments that allow for the installation of just about any gun you want and it packs a C.A.S. system, but no parts have been built yet."
"I'll get around to it, when I can afford it"
The crew turned as one to look at Old Thomo as he walked in.
"These things cost. And it's hard to do test runs when you don't have a core for the blighter. Now where is this Dark spiner core you were telling me about lad?" Jhese got up and walked over to a storage tank
"In here" he said pointing at the lid "I wanted to make another one so I kept it fresh"
Thomo pressed the release button and the tank opened with a hiss.
"Alright you lot clear out. Core transplants are a delicate business, David and Jhese will you two please stay and help, I'm just an old geezer and there will be some heavy lifting involved, the rest of you sods… clear off!" scowling at the old mans antics and abusiveness the rest of the crew departed.
"Now gentlemen, it's time to operate." Thomo muttered
David and Jhese exchanged glances.
This could get interesting.
"Lady and Gentle- Ah who am I kidding guys and gal I present the new zoid known as the Gogu-dragon!" Jhese dropped into the cockpit of his new zoid as it roared a greeting, or maybe a challenge to the world. The electric blue shone in the afternoon sunlight and the 'dragon just looked plain cool. Jhese inserted his warrior I.D. and grinned as the canopy lit up in its own neon green glow "vengeance never looked this good"
"Well Mr. Vengeance" purred Kat "first you are going to have your ass handed to you in the Zoid Derby, as are all you other clowns!" Kat punched the air "my 'siax is going to cross that line for that big hunk of prize loot"
The Zoid Derby was a notorious race that unleashed as many as two hundred zoids together to compete over a four lap course that was known to be one of the hardest tests for man and zoid alike; Hell Kats, liger zero with Jaeger armour and of course the lightning siax were among the most common victors in this event, flying type zoids weren't allowed, but sometimes a zaber fang or a command wolf would outlast or simply outgun his opponents to be first across the line, one year a dark horn had literally blown his opposition away at the start using a large particle cannon to vaporise everything in front of him, which was… well… everything. The next year he tried the same trick and was met with a wall of E-shields. Jhese had always wanted to compete in this event but had up until now been held back by his lack of a zoid. But this year was different, he had a zoid and a competitive one at that, and that prize money was way too tempting to pass up; even third place got a payout that was almost four times the usual reward for a C- class victory, and first place made an easily enough to buy himself almost any zoid he could desire. Jhese leaned back in the cockpit seat, first thing he would have to do was change the interior, and there was no way his ass would last the eighty five kilometre race in this chair. A voice from below caught his attention
"- kids should just stay at home, I will win and make sure I blow those sad excuses for Tonka toys apart on my way to the line" Jhese looked over the rim of his 'dragon at a familiar figure. "Colby, you bastard!" Roared Scott "what do you want?"
"I just popped around to display my new toy and the next big winner of the Derby" Colby whistled and a wolfish zoid sprang lightly into view "meet my shadow fox XS, or extra speed, it can even outrun a lightning siax. On that note, adios losers!" Colby sprang into the cockpit of his zoid as Dean and his command wolf charged down the whalords loading ramp " pilot this jerk!" he yelled as he fired at the 'fox, but the nimble zoid merely fired its boosters and rocketed away from the blasts.
"We are entering that race" Dean stated in a way that invited no argument.