DISCLAIMER: See the original 12 chapters. Are you spotting a pattern here?
I certainly hope so, because the same holds true for this last
installment. Did you expect it to be any different now? Still don't own
'em. Still don't intent to infringe. Do you have any legal problems with
this? Email me if you do and I'll change what you want.
EPILOGUE
Things around the base changed drastically over the next few weeks. After that first eventful night, the conclusion was reached that perhaps Bit and Jamie should be the ones to make dinner in the evenings. Not that Leena, Brad and Doc didn't clean up and/or fix everything they had messed up in the kitchen. Quite the contrary. It was just that they all figured that the poor pizza guy would get mighty sick of traveling all the way out to the base every evening, and ordering out time and time again would certainly pile up in expenses. So it was decided that Bit and Jamie were to be the permanent caterers around the base - a decision to which no one opposed.
Everyone nowadays did his (or in Leena's case, her) own laundry. This made things considerably easier for poor Jamie, except for when Bit unknowingly put his white undershirt and his black sweatpants together in the same cycle, and discovered to his dismay that such an action turned the former this really ugly gray color. But, as Jamie pointed out, Bit had learned a valuable lesson from this, and at least it hadn't been his red pants in there with his shirt instead of his black ones.
Everyone took special care to separate the colors after that.
Much to Jamie's surprise, Leena didn't react negatively at all to her being left out of the upcoming battle. She seemed to agree with the Doc on the point of the Raynos being more useful in battle than the Gunsniper, and - as she had said herself - what was the point of a good Zoid battle if you couldn't blow your enemy to smithereens?
Thus the Stinger battle approached with the Blitz team on very good terms. The battle came. The battle went.
They won.
By a very satisfying margin, in fact.
Satisfying as in three Stingers and a Shadow Fox with system freezes and a Liger Zero Jager with slightly chipped blue paint.
"Yeah!" cried Bit, pumping his fist after the judge announced the results. "Look out, Class S! Here comes the Blitz team! Nice job, Jamie!"
"Way to go, team!" agreed Doc over the intercom. "You did excellent out there! And you, Jamie! You and the Raynos were *amazing*!"
The hatch to the Raynos' cockpit opened, and out jumped a single black haired young man. A breathtaking array of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks danced across the sky and the horizon as the sun sank slowly below the mountains off to the west. A small, contented smile played at the boy's lips as his gray eyes took it all in. Since the beginning he had only waited in the Hover Cargo after the battle ended for Bit and the others to finish outside and reload for their return. He had often wondered what it was that they could possibly be up to out there; why it was that Bit night after night consented to gaze into the sunset for what seemed like a full ten minutes without moving.
Now he was beginning to understand.
"Finally made it, Raynos," he said quietly to the graceful green Zoid beside him. "I'm a real warrior now." It was all he could to do not laugh out loud in triumph.
"Hey, you. . . kid."
Jamie turned around. A friendly looking woman with long lavender hair that reminded him of Pierce stood looking at him.
"You put up a really good fight today. Amazing feats for someone your age."
"Thanks," said Jamie with a timid smile.
"I haven't heard much about you. Mostly that Liger Zero and his pilot. I must say, the four of you certainly make a team to be reckoned with. We'll meet again in another battle, I presume?"
"Yeah," Jamie replied. "I'd like that."
"I'll see you around, kid."
"See ya."
Jamie returned his gaze to the setting sun and sighed happily. Things had become so different. . . so *right* after he returned to the base. It was like everything was falling into place. A feeling of triumph and achievement that he'd never felt before - even after they'd made it into Class S - began to creep up on him. *They'd* found their way to the top some time ago, but *he* had just made it, and it felt wonderful. To think that he could call himself a real warrior now. Maybe he wasn't quite to the level of Bit and Brad and the other top-of-the-line warriors, but he'd get there. Someday soon.
/At least I know I could beat out Harry if I wanted to,/ he thought with a laugh.
It was a feeling he loved, a moment he would cherish and remember fondly for a long, long time.
Just over the horizon, a small white comet made it's way across the sky and faded into the orange background. It was quick; it was inconspicuous and almost unnoticed. But one young man caught its brief appearance.
And he smiled broadly for all the world to see.
END EPILOGUE
END THE CUNNING WOLF
A/N: Hello, hello! You didn't think I'd end this thing without a really really long author's note, did you? Actually, I really can't believe it's over. I'm sitting here thinking, what? No more chapters to write on this thing? But I guess its all for the best. And I DO have that RPG that I started a while ago. . . *sigh* I guess I do owe it to people to get that one going, don't I?
Okay, so THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU*THANKYOU*!!!!!! To everyone who reviewed and/or emailed me concerning this story. Weather it was encouraging, critical, or even the occasional e-flame (actually, I didn't get any review flames, did I?) I seriously appreciated the feedback. People seem to think I have this sort of gift for writing, but I never saw it. Your encouragement is what kept me going, and I'm SOO grateful to you people who saw me through this.
And to those who said I made them cry. . . O.O me???? I've never done that to anyone before. That's. . . that's just cool. I hope this is a GOOD thing. I mean, I don't want to make you all depressed and everything, but the fact that this story made people cry is pretty cool from the author's perspective.
One thing I REALLY hoped for. . . if there is anyone out there reading this who isn't really an avid Jamie-fan (I know that if you're reading this, you don't hate the kid, but I mean for the people who prefer Bit or Brad or Leena or Harry) that I gave you a new insight on the kid. Maybe you didn't see it before, but the poor guy is seriously under-rated. Where Harry is shown sometimes as plain pathetic (he's kind of the comic relief) poor Jamie is overlooked time and time again and I for one do not like it. Can you see now what that poor kid is put through? Much of what I wrote about I here - Jamie's doing all the work, the fact that they'd fall apart without him, the possibility of Doc forgetting his birthday, his real potential BESIDES the Wild Eagle, Vega's being waywayWAY too young - is based on my own true opinion on the series. I wrote this with the intent of changing at least one person's view on the most underrated character in the series.
Snakelady Frohike: Yes indeed, it can. In fact, it is over. I can't stand stories that just go on and on and on for 37 chapters or so. You lose the plot. But don't worry - just because this story is over doesn't mean I'll never write another Jamie story again. There are NEXT TO NONE of them out there and I created this pen name intending to change that. (P.S. Naked Jamie? Ew. I'm sorry - I love the kid an all, but that. that's a bit much for me.)
EMPRESS: I felt I should include a personal message to you, because you reviewed this story more than anyone else. (Count 'em, folks! Every chapter except the first one!) That is so amazing. Seriously. It's awesome to post a new chapter and see that you are SO incredibly loyal that you review them all! And your comment about the fave's list didn't go unappreciated. Thank you so much! You will be here for my next stories. right?
So goodbye for now, and I hope to see you all when my next story comes out! Until then, review, email, do whatever, but. . . Uh oh. Do I need to put some sort of moral lesson thing in here? Okay . . . *sweatdrop* don't drink strawberry vodka if you find it lying around in a parking lot because, well, because it's just a very bad thing.
Thank you all!
~Superkat
EPILOGUE
Things around the base changed drastically over the next few weeks. After that first eventful night, the conclusion was reached that perhaps Bit and Jamie should be the ones to make dinner in the evenings. Not that Leena, Brad and Doc didn't clean up and/or fix everything they had messed up in the kitchen. Quite the contrary. It was just that they all figured that the poor pizza guy would get mighty sick of traveling all the way out to the base every evening, and ordering out time and time again would certainly pile up in expenses. So it was decided that Bit and Jamie were to be the permanent caterers around the base - a decision to which no one opposed.
Everyone nowadays did his (or in Leena's case, her) own laundry. This made things considerably easier for poor Jamie, except for when Bit unknowingly put his white undershirt and his black sweatpants together in the same cycle, and discovered to his dismay that such an action turned the former this really ugly gray color. But, as Jamie pointed out, Bit had learned a valuable lesson from this, and at least it hadn't been his red pants in there with his shirt instead of his black ones.
Everyone took special care to separate the colors after that.
Much to Jamie's surprise, Leena didn't react negatively at all to her being left out of the upcoming battle. She seemed to agree with the Doc on the point of the Raynos being more useful in battle than the Gunsniper, and - as she had said herself - what was the point of a good Zoid battle if you couldn't blow your enemy to smithereens?
Thus the Stinger battle approached with the Blitz team on very good terms. The battle came. The battle went.
They won.
By a very satisfying margin, in fact.
Satisfying as in three Stingers and a Shadow Fox with system freezes and a Liger Zero Jager with slightly chipped blue paint.
"Yeah!" cried Bit, pumping his fist after the judge announced the results. "Look out, Class S! Here comes the Blitz team! Nice job, Jamie!"
"Way to go, team!" agreed Doc over the intercom. "You did excellent out there! And you, Jamie! You and the Raynos were *amazing*!"
The hatch to the Raynos' cockpit opened, and out jumped a single black haired young man. A breathtaking array of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks danced across the sky and the horizon as the sun sank slowly below the mountains off to the west. A small, contented smile played at the boy's lips as his gray eyes took it all in. Since the beginning he had only waited in the Hover Cargo after the battle ended for Bit and the others to finish outside and reload for their return. He had often wondered what it was that they could possibly be up to out there; why it was that Bit night after night consented to gaze into the sunset for what seemed like a full ten minutes without moving.
Now he was beginning to understand.
"Finally made it, Raynos," he said quietly to the graceful green Zoid beside him. "I'm a real warrior now." It was all he could to do not laugh out loud in triumph.
"Hey, you. . . kid."
Jamie turned around. A friendly looking woman with long lavender hair that reminded him of Pierce stood looking at him.
"You put up a really good fight today. Amazing feats for someone your age."
"Thanks," said Jamie with a timid smile.
"I haven't heard much about you. Mostly that Liger Zero and his pilot. I must say, the four of you certainly make a team to be reckoned with. We'll meet again in another battle, I presume?"
"Yeah," Jamie replied. "I'd like that."
"I'll see you around, kid."
"See ya."
Jamie returned his gaze to the setting sun and sighed happily. Things had become so different. . . so *right* after he returned to the base. It was like everything was falling into place. A feeling of triumph and achievement that he'd never felt before - even after they'd made it into Class S - began to creep up on him. *They'd* found their way to the top some time ago, but *he* had just made it, and it felt wonderful. To think that he could call himself a real warrior now. Maybe he wasn't quite to the level of Bit and Brad and the other top-of-the-line warriors, but he'd get there. Someday soon.
/At least I know I could beat out Harry if I wanted to,/ he thought with a laugh.
It was a feeling he loved, a moment he would cherish and remember fondly for a long, long time.
Just over the horizon, a small white comet made it's way across the sky and faded into the orange background. It was quick; it was inconspicuous and almost unnoticed. But one young man caught its brief appearance.
And he smiled broadly for all the world to see.
END EPILOGUE
END THE CUNNING WOLF
A/N: Hello, hello! You didn't think I'd end this thing without a really really long author's note, did you? Actually, I really can't believe it's over. I'm sitting here thinking, what? No more chapters to write on this thing? But I guess its all for the best. And I DO have that RPG that I started a while ago. . . *sigh* I guess I do owe it to people to get that one going, don't I?
Okay, so THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU*THANKYOU*!!!!!! To everyone who reviewed and/or emailed me concerning this story. Weather it was encouraging, critical, or even the occasional e-flame (actually, I didn't get any review flames, did I?) I seriously appreciated the feedback. People seem to think I have this sort of gift for writing, but I never saw it. Your encouragement is what kept me going, and I'm SOO grateful to you people who saw me through this.
And to those who said I made them cry. . . O.O me???? I've never done that to anyone before. That's. . . that's just cool. I hope this is a GOOD thing. I mean, I don't want to make you all depressed and everything, but the fact that this story made people cry is pretty cool from the author's perspective.
One thing I REALLY hoped for. . . if there is anyone out there reading this who isn't really an avid Jamie-fan (I know that if you're reading this, you don't hate the kid, but I mean for the people who prefer Bit or Brad or Leena or Harry) that I gave you a new insight on the kid. Maybe you didn't see it before, but the poor guy is seriously under-rated. Where Harry is shown sometimes as plain pathetic (he's kind of the comic relief) poor Jamie is overlooked time and time again and I for one do not like it. Can you see now what that poor kid is put through? Much of what I wrote about I here - Jamie's doing all the work, the fact that they'd fall apart without him, the possibility of Doc forgetting his birthday, his real potential BESIDES the Wild Eagle, Vega's being waywayWAY too young - is based on my own true opinion on the series. I wrote this with the intent of changing at least one person's view on the most underrated character in the series.
Snakelady Frohike: Yes indeed, it can. In fact, it is over. I can't stand stories that just go on and on and on for 37 chapters or so. You lose the plot. But don't worry - just because this story is over doesn't mean I'll never write another Jamie story again. There are NEXT TO NONE of them out there and I created this pen name intending to change that. (P.S. Naked Jamie? Ew. I'm sorry - I love the kid an all, but that. that's a bit much for me.)
EMPRESS: I felt I should include a personal message to you, because you reviewed this story more than anyone else. (Count 'em, folks! Every chapter except the first one!) That is so amazing. Seriously. It's awesome to post a new chapter and see that you are SO incredibly loyal that you review them all! And your comment about the fave's list didn't go unappreciated. Thank you so much! You will be here for my next stories. right?
So goodbye for now, and I hope to see you all when my next story comes out! Until then, review, email, do whatever, but. . . Uh oh. Do I need to put some sort of moral lesson thing in here? Okay . . . *sweatdrop* don't drink strawberry vodka if you find it lying around in a parking lot because, well, because it's just a very bad thing.
Thank you all!
~Superkat