Sweat and Tears
by WSJ
Chapter 3: Matchmaker
I don't own Zoids, but Lizzie and Rayna are mine.
Summery: Leena has a long, late night talk with Lizzie, and desides that she's needed to do a little matchmaking. But before she has the chance to interfere, Blitz Team is challenged to another battle. It's Lyger 0, one-on-one against SaberCat. Ready? Fight!
()()()()()
After watching Jamie leave the hanger to head back to his room, Leena shook her head and glanced at her watch. "Let's see..." she muttered to herself. "1:02, guess I'd better get up there before Lizzie desides to throw a fit."
She stood up and stretched, then grabbed the lantern Jamie had left behind and headed for the elevator. Two minutes later she entered the command room to find Lizzie at the controls, typing away at something on her laptop with amazing speed.
Leena leaned in over her shoulder. "What's this?" she asked.
Lizzie shreiked and tried to cover the screen with her hands. "I-It's nothing Leena! Nothing at all! Say, aren't you a bit early?"
"Actually, no. I'm five minutes late." Leena said, trying to pear around Lizzie's outstretched arms. The lavendar-haired girl made to turn the laptop off, but Leena grabbed her hands and stuck her face close to the glimmering screen. It was what appeared to be the end of a story.
"I didn't know you wrote." Leena said, blinking.
Lizzie blushed. "Neither did I. This is my first try."
"Can I read it?" Leena asked not unkindly.
Lizzie's eyes widened. "N-No! Don't Leena!" The girl blushed harder.
Leena winked at her younger friend. "Too bad, I'm going to anyway!" With that she proceeded to sit down, right on top of Lizzie, and read the story.
She ended ten minutes later with her mouth ajar and tears in her eyes. With a shreik she turned to face Lizzie, who had snuck out from under her somewhere around chapter three and had been sitting in a chair nearby. "You mean Lilly never gets the courage to tell Sir James her true feelings? You can't just end it like that!"
Lizzie shrugged helplessly, staring at a spot on the wall as if it was going to jump out and bite her. "But that's the way the story ends..."
Leena's eyes sofened and a knowing smile played on her lips. "Oh. I get it now."
"Get what? There's nothing to get!" Lizzie said severly, glancing harshly at her friend.
"I think there is." Leena said, nodding. "Believe me Liz, if you don't tell him then you'll be miserable for the rest of your life!"
"How would you know?" asked Lizzie, this time looking at her feet.
"My mom and dad."
Lizzie looked up. "You never talk about your mom. Neither does Doc."
Leena shrugged. "I don't know why. It's not like it's taboo or something. I guess it's just habit. But like I was going to say, Dr. Leon, you know, the crazy guy who leads the Backdraft Group?" After Lizzie nodded she continued. "Well he fell in love with my mom. He wanted to tell her, but he couldn't find the words, so he asked my dad to write a love letter, but sign it with Leon's name. But my dad didn't have the words either, so he asked Jamie's dad to write it. The only problem was, Jamie's dad thought that the letter was from my dad, and signed it Steve Tauros."
Lizzie winced. "Ouch."
"Ouch is right. Dr Leon got so mad that he's hated my dad ever since."
"That's horrible..." said Lizzie, shaking her head. She looked up at Leena, her eyes sympathetic. "How did she die?"
Leena bit her lip and looked away. "Dad never talks about it. I was only three. Leon, my older brother, said she died in labor with my little sister. Neither survived."
Lizzie nodded and smiled before shutting down her laptop and standing up to go. "I'll think about it."
"You'd better." Leena smiled, but Lizzie could still see the tears in her eyes.
~@~
The next morning they received a call for a one-on-one battle between Bit and a yet unidentified pilot and Zoid. The caller refused to reveil whether she was the pilot or not, and which Zoid it would be until the battle.
"I don't know..." Jamie said, rubbing his chin. "Seems veeery risky... We don't even know what type of Zoid it is... That'll be impossible to plan a stratagy for."
"We'll wing it." said Bit, shrugging. "We've done it before."
"How did whoever it is hear about Bit?" Brad wondered.
"Well that part's easy." Leena pointed out. "We've won so much that our faces are plastered all over the papers."
"What?" asked Lizzie, Doc and Brad all at the same time.
"Yeah, check it out." said Jamie, holding out the morning's paper. On the front page was a huge picture of the Lyger, with Shadowfox and GunSniper in the background. The article also gave detailed profiles on each pilot and his Zoid, including Jamie and Lizzie.
"I suppose it's your call Bit..." Doc said, shrugging. "After all, you're the one who was challenged."
"We can do it!" Bit yelled enthusiasticly, as usual. "Me and Lyger are going to take him down!"
That afternoon they sat in the desert, eagerly waiting the arrival of the Judge as well as Bit's opponant. Jamie squinted at the screen, trying to figure out the blur on the horrizon. "That might be him..." he said. "But with all the heat waves and mirages it's hard to tell."
"See the Judge yet Bit?" Doc asked into the microphone.
Outside in the Lyger Bit craned his neck to look at the sky. "Not ye-Wait, there he is."
The Judge crashed to the ground, then slowly raised itself and opened, reveiling the standard white Judge. The whole of Blitz Team breathed a sigh of releif. They'd been half-expecting to see the Black Judge of the Backdraft Group.
The Judge glanced around, his scanners looking over the battlefeild. "Battle mode 3400, area scanned, battlefeild set up. The Blitz Team against the DragonFang Team"
"Guess the myserious caller did show up. DragonFang..." Leena muttered at the same time Jamie said "Mode 3400 is the one-on-one, no rules style. Hear that Bit?"
"Roger." Bit answered.
"Ready, fight!" the Judge commanded, crossing his arms in the standard start-up possition.
Bit blinked. "Huh? How'm I s'posed to fight him if I can't see him?"
"Her." said a voice over his radio. A face appeared on the screen. It was a girl about his and Leena's age, maybe a bit older, but not as old as Brad. She had long, jet black hair in lots of tiny braids and dark, oriental-style eyes. What Bit could see of her jumpsuit was spandex and blue and green. "I'm Rayna Kilonny, pilot of the SaberCat. I want you Bit Cloud. I want you defeated."
It was then that Bit, distracted by the pilot's call, saw the Zoid charging at him out of the hot desert. He gaped and swiftly pulled Lyger out of the way, sending Rayna's Zoid behind him. He quickly turned to face her.
Her SaberCat Zoid looked like a newer, modified version of the LightningSykes. It also looked like it had had some elements drawn from the Lyger and Shadowfox too. "Jamie!" Bit yelled over the com. "Give me something here!"
Jamie was typing away as fast as he could, Leena and Lizzie on the other computers helping. "Ok, here. The SaberCat is a very new hybrid Zoid, there are only a half-dozen in existance. It's based mainly on the LightningSykes's design, but has the agility of the Shadowfox, as well as the destructive power of the Lyger."
"So I'm battling myself plus Brad too? Great..." Bit muttered under his breath.
Turning around he went running back towards the HoverCargo, Rayna's laughter trailing after him. "Giving up already?" But he ignored her, shouting at Doc as soon as he was inside. "Mobilise the Jager, we're going to need speed and agility here!"
"Mobilising Lyger Jager." Doc answered.
As soon as the transformation was done Bit raced back out onto the sands to find the SaberCat right where he'd left it. "Alright, *now* let's play." he said by way of a challenge. Rayna gave no answer but to charge after him, which he quickly dodged. She managed to turn on a dime and was back in pursuit.
Gritting his teeth Bit fired up his boosters and went tearing across the desert, leaving the SaberCat far behind... He thought...
"Is that the best you can do?" Rayna mocked him. In shock he turned, and sure enough, there was the SaberCat, guns leveled at him.
"Oh shit..." he muttered. He pulled the throttle back hard, skreeching to a halt as the missles flew through the space he would have been in and impacted a sand dune behind him. Realising she'd been duped, Rayna turned around and began a charge again.
"So you want to do it that way, eh?" Bit asked. He pushed the throttle forward and Jagar let out a happy roar before shooting off across the desert in what would have been a collision course. Bit had a feeling that Rayna was too stubborn to break off, and it was up to him to avoid disaster. Perfect.
As the two feline Zoids drew nearer and the space between them closed, a faint smile came to Bit's lips. "Strike Lasar Claw!" (I know that's not Jagar's attack, but I can't think of it at the moment). The Jagar launched into the air, coming down hard on the still running SaberCat, who stumbled on for a few more strides before falling to the ground.
"Function ceased! The winner is... The Blitz Team!"
In her cockpit Rayna smiled. The radio was busted. "I really admire your fighting skills Bit. May we meet again..."
~@~
Leena shivered. "She gave me the creeps!"
"How so?" asked Doc.
It was supper time and Bit was still gloating about his victory against one of the newest and most advanced Zoids on the market. "How's *that* for winging it?" he'd been telling Jamie all day.
"I don't know." Leena confessed. "There's just something about her that makes me feel, I don't know, threatened. I don't think we've seen the last of her."
"No," said Brad, "Neither do I..."
()()()()()
Ok, you can tell I suck at battle scenes... *.*
Chapter 4: Night on the Town: The Blitz Team desides to stop at a city for a night of relaxation and fun. Bit and Leena are determined to get Jamie and Lizzie to confess their love before the night is over, and Brad's busy trying to figure out who's following him. A rather more humerous chapter after the seriousness of this one.
by WSJ
Chapter 3: Matchmaker
I don't own Zoids, but Lizzie and Rayna are mine.
Summery: Leena has a long, late night talk with Lizzie, and desides that she's needed to do a little matchmaking. But before she has the chance to interfere, Blitz Team is challenged to another battle. It's Lyger 0, one-on-one against SaberCat. Ready? Fight!
()()()()()
After watching Jamie leave the hanger to head back to his room, Leena shook her head and glanced at her watch. "Let's see..." she muttered to herself. "1:02, guess I'd better get up there before Lizzie desides to throw a fit."
She stood up and stretched, then grabbed the lantern Jamie had left behind and headed for the elevator. Two minutes later she entered the command room to find Lizzie at the controls, typing away at something on her laptop with amazing speed.
Leena leaned in over her shoulder. "What's this?" she asked.
Lizzie shreiked and tried to cover the screen with her hands. "I-It's nothing Leena! Nothing at all! Say, aren't you a bit early?"
"Actually, no. I'm five minutes late." Leena said, trying to pear around Lizzie's outstretched arms. The lavendar-haired girl made to turn the laptop off, but Leena grabbed her hands and stuck her face close to the glimmering screen. It was what appeared to be the end of a story.
"I didn't know you wrote." Leena said, blinking.
Lizzie blushed. "Neither did I. This is my first try."
"Can I read it?" Leena asked not unkindly.
Lizzie's eyes widened. "N-No! Don't Leena!" The girl blushed harder.
Leena winked at her younger friend. "Too bad, I'm going to anyway!" With that she proceeded to sit down, right on top of Lizzie, and read the story.
She ended ten minutes later with her mouth ajar and tears in her eyes. With a shreik she turned to face Lizzie, who had snuck out from under her somewhere around chapter three and had been sitting in a chair nearby. "You mean Lilly never gets the courage to tell Sir James her true feelings? You can't just end it like that!"
Lizzie shrugged helplessly, staring at a spot on the wall as if it was going to jump out and bite her. "But that's the way the story ends..."
Leena's eyes sofened and a knowing smile played on her lips. "Oh. I get it now."
"Get what? There's nothing to get!" Lizzie said severly, glancing harshly at her friend.
"I think there is." Leena said, nodding. "Believe me Liz, if you don't tell him then you'll be miserable for the rest of your life!"
"How would you know?" asked Lizzie, this time looking at her feet.
"My mom and dad."
Lizzie looked up. "You never talk about your mom. Neither does Doc."
Leena shrugged. "I don't know why. It's not like it's taboo or something. I guess it's just habit. But like I was going to say, Dr. Leon, you know, the crazy guy who leads the Backdraft Group?" After Lizzie nodded she continued. "Well he fell in love with my mom. He wanted to tell her, but he couldn't find the words, so he asked my dad to write a love letter, but sign it with Leon's name. But my dad didn't have the words either, so he asked Jamie's dad to write it. The only problem was, Jamie's dad thought that the letter was from my dad, and signed it Steve Tauros."
Lizzie winced. "Ouch."
"Ouch is right. Dr Leon got so mad that he's hated my dad ever since."
"That's horrible..." said Lizzie, shaking her head. She looked up at Leena, her eyes sympathetic. "How did she die?"
Leena bit her lip and looked away. "Dad never talks about it. I was only three. Leon, my older brother, said she died in labor with my little sister. Neither survived."
Lizzie nodded and smiled before shutting down her laptop and standing up to go. "I'll think about it."
"You'd better." Leena smiled, but Lizzie could still see the tears in her eyes.
~@~
The next morning they received a call for a one-on-one battle between Bit and a yet unidentified pilot and Zoid. The caller refused to reveil whether she was the pilot or not, and which Zoid it would be until the battle.
"I don't know..." Jamie said, rubbing his chin. "Seems veeery risky... We don't even know what type of Zoid it is... That'll be impossible to plan a stratagy for."
"We'll wing it." said Bit, shrugging. "We've done it before."
"How did whoever it is hear about Bit?" Brad wondered.
"Well that part's easy." Leena pointed out. "We've won so much that our faces are plastered all over the papers."
"What?" asked Lizzie, Doc and Brad all at the same time.
"Yeah, check it out." said Jamie, holding out the morning's paper. On the front page was a huge picture of the Lyger, with Shadowfox and GunSniper in the background. The article also gave detailed profiles on each pilot and his Zoid, including Jamie and Lizzie.
"I suppose it's your call Bit..." Doc said, shrugging. "After all, you're the one who was challenged."
"We can do it!" Bit yelled enthusiasticly, as usual. "Me and Lyger are going to take him down!"
That afternoon they sat in the desert, eagerly waiting the arrival of the Judge as well as Bit's opponant. Jamie squinted at the screen, trying to figure out the blur on the horrizon. "That might be him..." he said. "But with all the heat waves and mirages it's hard to tell."
"See the Judge yet Bit?" Doc asked into the microphone.
Outside in the Lyger Bit craned his neck to look at the sky. "Not ye-Wait, there he is."
The Judge crashed to the ground, then slowly raised itself and opened, reveiling the standard white Judge. The whole of Blitz Team breathed a sigh of releif. They'd been half-expecting to see the Black Judge of the Backdraft Group.
The Judge glanced around, his scanners looking over the battlefeild. "Battle mode 3400, area scanned, battlefeild set up. The Blitz Team against the DragonFang Team"
"Guess the myserious caller did show up. DragonFang..." Leena muttered at the same time Jamie said "Mode 3400 is the one-on-one, no rules style. Hear that Bit?"
"Roger." Bit answered.
"Ready, fight!" the Judge commanded, crossing his arms in the standard start-up possition.
Bit blinked. "Huh? How'm I s'posed to fight him if I can't see him?"
"Her." said a voice over his radio. A face appeared on the screen. It was a girl about his and Leena's age, maybe a bit older, but not as old as Brad. She had long, jet black hair in lots of tiny braids and dark, oriental-style eyes. What Bit could see of her jumpsuit was spandex and blue and green. "I'm Rayna Kilonny, pilot of the SaberCat. I want you Bit Cloud. I want you defeated."
It was then that Bit, distracted by the pilot's call, saw the Zoid charging at him out of the hot desert. He gaped and swiftly pulled Lyger out of the way, sending Rayna's Zoid behind him. He quickly turned to face her.
Her SaberCat Zoid looked like a newer, modified version of the LightningSykes. It also looked like it had had some elements drawn from the Lyger and Shadowfox too. "Jamie!" Bit yelled over the com. "Give me something here!"
Jamie was typing away as fast as he could, Leena and Lizzie on the other computers helping. "Ok, here. The SaberCat is a very new hybrid Zoid, there are only a half-dozen in existance. It's based mainly on the LightningSykes's design, but has the agility of the Shadowfox, as well as the destructive power of the Lyger."
"So I'm battling myself plus Brad too? Great..." Bit muttered under his breath.
Turning around he went running back towards the HoverCargo, Rayna's laughter trailing after him. "Giving up already?" But he ignored her, shouting at Doc as soon as he was inside. "Mobilise the Jager, we're going to need speed and agility here!"
"Mobilising Lyger Jager." Doc answered.
As soon as the transformation was done Bit raced back out onto the sands to find the SaberCat right where he'd left it. "Alright, *now* let's play." he said by way of a challenge. Rayna gave no answer but to charge after him, which he quickly dodged. She managed to turn on a dime and was back in pursuit.
Gritting his teeth Bit fired up his boosters and went tearing across the desert, leaving the SaberCat far behind... He thought...
"Is that the best you can do?" Rayna mocked him. In shock he turned, and sure enough, there was the SaberCat, guns leveled at him.
"Oh shit..." he muttered. He pulled the throttle back hard, skreeching to a halt as the missles flew through the space he would have been in and impacted a sand dune behind him. Realising she'd been duped, Rayna turned around and began a charge again.
"So you want to do it that way, eh?" Bit asked. He pushed the throttle forward and Jagar let out a happy roar before shooting off across the desert in what would have been a collision course. Bit had a feeling that Rayna was too stubborn to break off, and it was up to him to avoid disaster. Perfect.
As the two feline Zoids drew nearer and the space between them closed, a faint smile came to Bit's lips. "Strike Lasar Claw!" (I know that's not Jagar's attack, but I can't think of it at the moment). The Jagar launched into the air, coming down hard on the still running SaberCat, who stumbled on for a few more strides before falling to the ground.
"Function ceased! The winner is... The Blitz Team!"
In her cockpit Rayna smiled. The radio was busted. "I really admire your fighting skills Bit. May we meet again..."
~@~
Leena shivered. "She gave me the creeps!"
"How so?" asked Doc.
It was supper time and Bit was still gloating about his victory against one of the newest and most advanced Zoids on the market. "How's *that* for winging it?" he'd been telling Jamie all day.
"I don't know." Leena confessed. "There's just something about her that makes me feel, I don't know, threatened. I don't think we've seen the last of her."
"No," said Brad, "Neither do I..."
()()()()()
Ok, you can tell I suck at battle scenes... *.*
Chapter 4: Night on the Town: The Blitz Team desides to stop at a city for a night of relaxation and fun. Bit and Leena are determined to get Jamie and Lizzie to confess their love before the night is over, and Brad's busy trying to figure out who's following him. A rather more humerous chapter after the seriousness of this one.