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 waited while his teammates re-armed their zoids, with no one to talk to and no real way he could help speed things up Jhese had moved a short distance from the others, figuring that he might be of some use playing lookout for the others. He soon got down to the all important role of bickering with his partner.

You can start by vacuuming out the cockpit, and I want one of those little pine trees, you know, the ones that make me smell less like you.

"Hey, I only agreed to a polish, what makes you think I'm gonna give you a whole detailing job while I'm at it?"

Did I not make it clear that smelling like you is a bad thing?

"You don't even have scent receptors; you don't know what I smell like"

You callin' me a liar Boy?

"You're just doing this because Kat puts one in her Lightning Siax; you're jealous"

Three zoids came into view, cutting off Shads' reply. Jhese studied the zoids but couldn't figure out what they were; they were dinosaur types, similar to his own partner, maybe bigger, a definite large zoid, bipedal like the Gogu Dragon or Gun Sniper. They had broad heads and powerful looking jaws, closer in appearance to a Gogulas than a Gun Sniper or Dark Spiner, they moved on strong legs and were balanced by a powerful but stiff looking tail and sported twin AZ double barrel beam guns; one on each shoulder.

But the thing that caught Jhese's eyes were the front claws; they sported an electrical system almost identical to those on the Gogu Dragon.

The comm. buzzed and a stranger popped up on Jhese's screen "Hello Jhese"

"Do I know you?"

"Most probably not, see we're the Kathleen Raystone Fan-club, and we decided that she would be better off without you"

"So here you are"

"You got it, once we deal with you and the other two jerks we will escort Kathleen to victory"

Shads snorted indifferently weirdoes.

Jhese cautioned his partner they do pose a threat Shads; there are three of them and only one of you.

Are you trying to say I'm not worth four of those cheap knock-offs?

The three zoids charged towards the pair, opening fire with their shoulder mounted beam guns. Shads made tracks; accelerating away from the powerful beams and leaving clouds of thick smoke in his wake.

Jhese twisted the controls and the Wraith Dragon zigzagged before arcing off and doubling back to the three zoids. Jhese knew that the ocean breezes would dissipate the smoke quickly so he needed to work fast. One of the dinosaur zoids popped up on his sonar and Jhese plugged it with the mid-range rifle before the Wraith Dragon bit down on one of the powerful hind legs; rendering it useless. The zoid collapsed as the Wraith Dragon let go.

Flames erupted along the ground and the Wraith Dragon quick-stepped to avoid them "A flamethrower? Maybe I should get you one of those, you being a Dragon and all"

Nah, too many weak spots. Like this. Two shots raced into the flames, a bright flash momentarily made visibility possible as the fuel tank on the dinosaur zoid exploded, revealing the pair's location to the third and final zoid. The zoid lunged; reaching to grab the Wraith Dragon with what Jhese was now positive were Electro Talons. Jhese reacted by grabbing them with Shads' own claws.

Both pilots activated the charge at the same time; resulting in a stalemate "You have already been battling, you will run out of energy first and I will become Miss Raystone's savior!"

"Who are you?" Jhese demanded, frankly he'd had enough of this punk; he wanted answers.

"I already told you, I AM Miss Raystone's number one fan, I am Gilbert!"

Jhese twisted the controls experimentally; testing the strength in the zoid's arms. What do you think partner? He thought at Shads.

Strong, but not an unbreakable grip.

"Ha! Do you see how futile it is? Now I will-huh?" Gilbert blinked in surprise as his zoid fell sideways, four neat holes still smoked in his armour.

Kat's Lightning Siax stood still, its Twin Laser barrels still smoking "Two Arosaurers by your lonesome, not bad Jhese. You weren't planning on hogging the personal points to yourself though were you?"

"Miss Raystone…" Gilbert's face popped up on Kat's screen, a person in his late teens, black hair and dark green eyes set on an unusually pale face, a face filled with adoration.

"Who the hell're you?" Kat demanded. Nobody but the police referred to her as 'Miss Raystone'

"The leader of your fan-club apparently" Jhese noted wryly.

"Fan-club?!" Kat regained her composure after a moment "Aw, that is so sweet, thank you" her final shot shut down the Arosaurer's command system completely.

"That seemed harsh" Jhese commented quietly.

"What? I told him it was sweet of him didn't I?"

"I...oh never mind"

The two zoid pilots waited in their zoid's until the others arrived, then Jhese headed back to the bunker to re-arm with different armour.

…………………

Official Chase sat slumped in his chair as he watched the Battle Royal on his large monitor; Jhese's battle had been the first in nearly fifteen minutes. Now the official needed to think; ratings had soared in the first hour of carnage, the sheer size of the island had meant he was able to pack it with every team in class B and the prizes had drawn them all in, but as team numbers had dwindled, many of the teams had chosen the ambush tactic, a good strategic move, but one that had set the ratings plummeting. Now the official needed to find a way to convince the pilots to move around and find each other, instead of waiting around for a target. A wide grin split the official's face as the answer came to him.

…………………….

All the Crew team looked at their comm. units as they beeped. A black square showed up on the screens, followed by a compass that depicted north. A map Jhese concluded. Two portions were revealed on the map; both depicting clusters of red dots, one also showed the colors blue and green, while the other just showed green.

Official Chase's face popped up on the screen "To all remaining teams, congratulations on making it this far in this event. We have given you all maps that show your location, and the location of one of your opposing teams, as you or your teammates cover ground more of the map will be revealed to you, eventually giving you complete knowledge of the island and your opposition's movements. Good luck"

With that the Official was gone; leaving the map on the screens.

"So what now fearless leader?" Jhese quoted to Cyrus.

"Jhese, you go with Kat and David. We'll meet up every five minutes; we should be able to reveal more ground with that strategy. Don't stick to any pattern or other teams will be able to predict you" with that the Buster Eagle took to the air, leaving the four ground zoids to choose a direction.

Jhese started heading south towards the nearest water barrier and David turned his zoid to follow, Kat didn't budge "Where are you going? The enemy is that way" she turned her zoid to the east "Look at their icons, if we don't make a bee line to them, we are just opening the map for them" Jhese looked at his own screen and saw she was right, as the other team moved away from their location. Without a word he turned the Gogu Dragon back to the east and followed Kat.

Seeing the other two would be at her side, or back, Kat took off at a brisk run, funnily enough a brisk run for the Lightning Siax turned out to be flat out for the Hound Soldier. They covered the distance between them and the other team quickly.

………………

Cyrus scanned the skies for other airborne zoids, but found nothing. It surprised him to realize that he was bored. That explained why the ZBC had engaged such a strange twist. Due to safety reasons zoid battles could only be watched as a televised event and therefore were dependant on ratings. Introducing the map had forced the pilot's to give up their sniper holes in exchange for information, eventually forcing even the coolest head to search for their opponents.

A quick check of the clock told him it was time to catch his teammates.

Any one else get the feeling that Official Chase is an Age of Empires fan, or maybe a C&C geek? Damn its hard to avoid putting referrences to things that have no place in the world of zoids in this FanFiction, pop culture, animals that don't exist on the planet Zi even zoids that should be unknown to the people of New Century sometimes need to be edited out. It's a bloody nightmare.

And the funny part is when someone says they enjoy reading it it makes it all worthwhile.

Signed: the Attention Seeker.