Warnings: Ah! I think I'm still getting the hang of this. I think it gets better somewhere around the middle, though.. honest! Don't let the beginning sway you. It's rough around the edges. X_x Oh yeah, and chapter 2 is the shortest chapter in the fanfic. My longest one is 5, I'm thinking. ^^
Disclaimer: Izumi, Shiro, and the Drache Rebirth are my creations. Everything else is credited to the creators of New Century Zoids.
Enter, Drache Rebirth
It's begun…
The control room seemed unusually crowded as both the Blitz Team and Fluegel Team gathered together, eagerly awaiting Jamie's report.
"All I've been able to find out is that the Zoid's full name is Dreigon Rebirth. It's technical name is actually Drache Rebirth, "drache" meaning "dragon". I guess "Dreigon" was just easier to pronounce. At any rate, this Zoid is apparently the only kind of it's Zoid type, type dragon, class 5, and like most Zoids, requires an 2AAA module to function properly. Go figure, huh? It's pilot is Hagime Izumi, and this is apparently her first year as a registered competitor in the Zoid battles. There's not much information on her, though, just the usual bio. I dug up her approximate age, her blood type, all the basic information every Zoid fighter has to give in order to compete in registered Zoid battles. Sorry, guys."
Brad glanced up from his conversation with Naomi, "Do we know what she looks like?"
"Uh, yeah, just gimme a sec. I got a picture from the Judges' administration a few minutes ago. Here."
Jamie tapped a key on the computer keyboard, and a picture with a side view of a woman sitting in a lounge appeared on the screen, her head tilted slightly as though just noticing the camera that captured this picture. They all stared at it for a moment, every person in the room, as if they could barely make out the subject of the scanned photograph. Bit was the first to speak, "So that's a woman?"
The boy at the computer blinked and turned in his chair to look at the photograph, "Uh, I'm pretty sure."
But Bit was right. The woman's gender was well masked by the neutral styling of her hair, black and straight, covering half of her face, concealing her right eye which was covered by an eye patch. The cloth strap ran across her forehead, wrapping around her head from behind. From what could be seen, her eyes were a keen, yet deep violet, and the items of clothing she wore were subtly masculine, consisting of a man's dress shirt with leather boots that matched the color and material of her black pants.
"Not a very attractive person, is she?"
"You shouldn't really say things like that about people you don't know, Leena…"
"I know enough. I know that she managed to kick my ass with just two shots from her particle cannon!"
"It's actually a combination of a particle beam cannon and rifle. That's pretty impressive because I never knew mechanics could build two separate weapons into one another to form a whole new item. I really aught to learn how to do that. Maybe we could improve our winning streak."
"Up until a few hours ago, we had the best winning streak there was!"
"What're you going to do? Find her and challenge her to another fight?"
The conversation was taking a turn for the worst with Leena's temper boiling up to her forehead. Naomi chuckled from her corner of the room and turned to leave the control room, her right hand reaching back to grasp Brad's wrist. He followed willingly as she led him into the peaceful night atmosphere that surrounded the Hovercraft.
"Leena hasn't changed a bit… None of you have."
"Did you drag me into the cold just to talk about my teammates, Naomi?"
"Well, maybe not just about your teammates."
Brad drew a lightly muscled arm around Naomi's waist as his right hand lifted to the side of her head, his thick fingers barely touching her deep red hair. She smiled at this rare display of affection, letting both of her arms slide around him in a loose hug while nudging forward so that his back would be resting against the side of the Hovercraft.
They remained close and gazed at one another, neither uttering a single word. They were content in that moment, when they were alone, unaware of a shadow that stood on a cliff overlooking what had been a battlefield and what was now a place of blossoming emotions…
Tonight, I'm alone. And that's how I'll always be…
"It's there!"
Jamie lurched forward in his seat as he narrowed his eyes at a radar on the screen, the glowing radius spinning around, searching. The room was silent now because everyone had already gone to bed with a sense of security, reassured that the berserk Zoid and its pilot would not return in the middle of such a quiet and peaceful night.
"I just saw it!"
So Jamie was speaking to himself, delusional and overly enthusiastic. What a fascinating Zoid. If only he could've watched it just a little bit longer…
The next morning, in a pit stop a few miles from the desert battlefield, eager spectators were gathered and gathering for a quick bite to eat or some time to chat with old friends about the latest gossip, or just to have a lonely drink as they watched pilots and their Zoids fighting each other, in teams or on their own, on television screens. Battles were always complete with a judge and live coverage. Such places could be found wherever Zoid battling was a popular "sport" or pastime. Gamblers especially liked these places.
Bit Cloud had found a comfortable stool at the bar, where he sat stooped over a plate of chowder, and both Brad and Leon sat with him – Brad to his left, and Leon to his right. Leon had a glass of orange juice, (he didn't like the idea of drinking anything alcoholic) and Brad went without anything at all – his stomach couldn't tolerate food when it was too early in the morning. They were silent, so strangers couldn't decide if these three knew each other or just happened to be sitting in a row as two stared up at one of the larger television screens available to customers and the blonde between them ate furiously.
The silence between the three was disturbed when Leena Toros came marching into the lounge with her fists clenched at her sides. When she spoke, her words were forced through clenched teeth, "There you are…"
Leon blinked up at his sister, "Is there a problem?"
The pink-haired daughter of Steve Toros seemed perplexed for the longest time as she suddenly straightened, her eyes going wide as she froze in thought, and then replied sheepishly, "Well, no… It's just that I'm still a little upset…"
"From yesterday's loss, you mean?"
Bit didn't even look up as he spoke, and it seemed that he'd never stopped chewing either.
"I think that's what she meant," Brad's voice was as smooth and sterile as it usually appeared to sound, "when we were beaten by the Drache Rebirth and its pilot, over there." He glanced away from the television to tilt his head towards a woman sitting eight seats down at the bar. It was a pilot teetering between adulthood and adolescence, the same female pilot that they had seen in the photograph the night before, and she wore the same boots, the same pants, and the same white linen shirt with two cowhide belts looped over her upper body, crisscrossing one another, a seemingly pointless choice of attire. Now, they saw that the purpose of the oversized belts was to hold her shirt in place while the dress shirt was left wide open along the front, which led down to the unbuttoned (and partially unzipped) black leather pants. The eye patch seemed even more useless now, as a curtain of hair over where the patch would've been able to cover her eye on its own. Yet, she didn't seem gaudy in any sort of way – just a bit too black and white. The color scheme matched the bland expression, if it were an expression at all, over her face as she sat there, carving away at a cup of vanilla ice cream in front of her with a teaspoon, feeding herself so painfully slow that the longer Leena watched, the more irritating the scene became.
"That's IT!"
Leena was, once more, furious over absolutely nothing, and as the pilot rose from her seat, she seemed ready to attack the woman on the spot. Bit acted before her, taking care to quickly wipe his mouth with a napkin before shuffling over to the pilot, "Hiya!"
No response.
"Hey, Miss Izumi, my name's Bit Cloud. I fought you and your Zoid just yesterday and let me tell ya', you're one heck of a Zoid pilot, and your Zoid is some piece of work! 'Course, you probably get that from a lot of people…"
He offered an awkward grin as he extended a hand to Izumi.
Are you trying to say "hello"?
She ignored his gesture by turning away from him, also ignoring the puzzled look over his naïve face, "Innocence will kill you, Bit."
"Of all the rude, inconsiderate bi-!"
Leena was hysterical; Leon held her back. Hagime Izumi's reaction was calm, and she moved lethargically to turn her head just to look Leena in the eyes, "Most people… and animals… feel terror because they're sharp enough to understand such a feeling. So you see, you're not being courageous at all, Miss Toros, only stupid."
"Why you-!"
The introverted figure of the Dreigon's pilot made it as far as the exit this time before she was stopped by Brad, an equally withdrawn character who had remained silent up until now when he stopped her with the mere sound of his voice, or perhaps the demanding tone of it, "The Fluegel Team is still trying to recover because of your inconsiderate actions and your inability to follow traditional Zoid battle rules. The Blitz Team wants to challenge you to a-"
Again, Izumi interrupted mid-sentence,"-a duel, correct? I hope you'll fight with the rest of your team, Brad Hunter, because you can't defeat me with just the Shadow Fox, just as Leena Toros would never stand a chance against me with her Gunsniper, as Jamie Hemeros could never beat me with either of his flying Zoids, and as Bit Cloud could never… ever… defeat Dreigon and I with his Liger Zero, no matter how many modifications are made."
This time, no one made any attempt to stop her as she stepped through the door, the edge jingling a plain dinner bell hanging on its frame. She paused on her own, speaking to the Blitz Team without turning around to face them, "Drache Rebirth got its name from the 'Project Dreigon', in case you were wondering why I called it by 'Dreigon'."
Should I tell them the truth of things? I know I can't keep…
"Oh man," yawned Bit, as he stepped from his sleeping quarters, still straightening his turtleneck. He was a little startled to find the tactics room empty except for Dr. Toros, who was sitting on one of the benches while he was hunched over his plastic Zoid models, too busy smashing them into one another and making crude sound effects to notice that Bit was standing right beside him, watching. It was then that Jamie appeared at the door leading into the control room. He blinked when he saw Bit before speaking, "Oh, Brad and Leena left to meet the Dreigon already."
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah… They didn't want to wait for you, so they left, thinking you could catch up in the Liger Zero later. Er, you might want to outfit Liger with a different weapon system, considering what happened the last time…"
"Yeah, sure, Jamie."
… winning forever. I'll have to…
When Bit Cloud arrived at the scene of the battle, it had already begun, and he was forced to stop when the Judge asked to confirm his identity. By the time he was through with the Judge, Leena's heavily modified Gunsniper came flying by, smashing into a mass of trees belonging to the forest bordering the battlefield. When the smoke cleared, Bit could see that the blue Zoid had already lost its right leg and a good portion of its tail – oh, wait – and the tail came flying through the air, smacking the orange armor on Liger's head. It was then Leena's face appeared on his monitor, "You picked the Schneider weapon system for this battle?! Why couldn't you pick something faster?! The Drache Rebirth'll tear you to pieces!"
"We'll see about that… See you later, Leena!"
The Liger Schneider shook itself like a wet dog before taking off in the direction of gunfire and major explosions, where he was expecting to find the Dreigon and Shadow Fox snapping at each other's throats, or not, but he didn't want to fight this opponent alone, because for once, Bit Cloud was feeling unsure of himself.
Don't you believe in love at first sight?
"Damn it, why is it so hard for me to actually hit that thing?"
Frustration wracked Brad's mind as he guided the Shadow Fox in a series of sharp turns, quick dodges, and high jumps, while he was jerked around inside the cockpit despite the seat belt holding him in place. A yellow beam struck the ground beneath him, and his Zoid was sent tumbling into a fresh ditch.
"That's it!"
Seconds later, the Shadow Fox was bounding up the wall of the crater-like hole, returning to the surface to face the Dreigon, showering the Zoid with 70 mm shots, firing rapidly from the Electromagnetic Net Cannon set upon his Zoid's back, the fox's feet digging into the dirt to resist the slight recoil of its weapon. It stopped only when Brad could no longer see through the cloud of dust and smoke his shots created, but he was confident that he had won. He couldn't have missed that monstrous thing, but then, why didn't it dodge? He'd seen it move and it could move pretty damn fast…
"I'm here…"
The Shadow Fox whirled around, crouched as its head jerked up in time to see the Dreigon coming down on it from above, giving no time for reaction as it rammed its alloy claws through the fox's shoulders, removing both its forelegs. The dragon leapt away and tilted its head as if admiring its work before lifting its head to roar.
"I had hoped Bit Cloud would appear."
Brad cursed her from his cockpit.
Then why do you fight with such passion in your eyes?
"Hey, Izumi!"
Izumi turned her head and then coaxed her Zoid to turn as well so they could both see the Liger Schneider perched on a hill, returning the Dreigon's cry with one of its own.
"Hmm? Look, Dreigon. Our judgment stands there."