ZOIDS: Gunblade Liger, an ultimate battle
* Gunblade Liger is here on referred to as the Gunblade. Also Liger, at* times*
"Wow, that was one good fight! They thought they were going to knock me down with the Hyper Speed! Ha ha ha!" Leena laughed.
Jamie looked at the scanner for nearby Zoids. He frowned and called out, "Unidentified Zoid coming this way! At a high speed too!"
"Where? Oh, over there! Call them on the CTZ," Toros said.
Jamie pressed the CTZ button. A picture of a girl with short strawberry- blonde hair and blue eyes came up. She was about twenty or so. She stopped her Zoid and looked at the screen.
"Hi, are you from the Blitz team?" She asked curiously.
"Don't tell her anything! She might be working for Altile!" Bit yelled in the background.
At the sound of Bit's voice, she looked up sharply, "Hey, is that Bit? Is he on the Blitz team too?"
"Yeah, we're the Blitz team. We have four Zoids too. And we've won every battle thrown our way for the past three months. So, I'll have to warn you. If you want a battle, you're outclassed," Jamie said with confidence.
"Oh? Is that a fact? I want to challenge you to an un-sanctioned battle. Your Zoids against my one. How does that sound? The prize money is two thousand," The girl bribed.
"Right, down to business, my name is Jamie, this is Bit, Leena, Brad and Toros," Jamie said, pointing to each of the team members in turn. "And we will only fight you if you tell us your name,"
"Is that all? Of course!" She said. "My name is Ruby."
"OK, we're fighting a battle. Get to your battle stations, peoples," Jamie said to the team as he pressed the disconnect button.
"Mobilizing Liger Zero Jager!" Bit hollered.
"Liger Zero Jager C A S complete!" Toros called, because Jamie was piloting the Raynos, and couldn't control the battle system, too.
"Mobilizing Shadow Fox!" Brad yelled.
"Shadow Fox complete! Toros said.
"Mobilizing Gun Sniper!" Leena called out.
"Complete!" Toros replied.
"Mobilizing Raynos!" Jamie shouted over the noise of the Hover Cargo door opening.
"Complete!" Toros replied.
The three Zoids stood on the battlefield (except for the Raynos, its a flying Zoid) and looked at the Zoid in front of them. It looked like a Liger Zero, but it was too small. It had black armor that blended with anything if the Zoid wanted it to using a Stealth Shield that made it invisible to the naked eye. Two heavy looking fully rotating guns were mounted on its back. The tail was like a Liger's, and it had long front teeth. Since it was so small, only weighing about forty-four tons, it would probably be able to dodge bullets, and move faster than the Liger Zero.
"What kind of Zoid is that?" Toros asked over the CTZ.
"I don't know, a new type of Lightning Saix maybe?" Leena replied.
"No, I don't think so. It's way too large for that. Maybe it's a Zaber Fang," Jamie said.
Ruby cut in over the CTZ, "Nope, none of those. This ones a Gunblade Liger. The best of the best."
"Oh, a Liger... a Liger what?" Bit asked.
"A Gunblade Liger, they were supposed to be extinct, or be a myth. They were a legend, until now, when I found it exploring some ruins." Ruby said proudly as she patted the control panel of the Gunblade.
"Enough talk. Let's fight! " Jamie yelled as he dived from the air.
Oh, lets take care of this one, Liger, Ruby thought. Her Zoid had an uncanny ability to read the pilot's mind, so it obeyed.
As Jamie plummeted towards the Gunblade, he laughed, "Ha! She doesn't even know she's outclassed!"
But, just as Jamie got ready to shoot Ruby, the Liger dodged out of the way. Jamie, totally unprepared, and unable to stop himself, hit the ground at over four-hundred mph. Luckily for Jamie, his Zoid tried to pull out of the dive, and it's head didn't crash into the ground.
"Why am I always the one to go down first?" Jamie wailed.
The Liger aimed one of the guns at the vital spot on the Raynos, between the wings, and fired four shots. Jamie was down, not that he already wasn't. The Liger turned and looked at the rest of the Zoids. The Gun Sniper looked at it and took a step back.
The Shadow Fox and Brad stepped foreword and he said to Ruby, "OK, I'm the next contestant. Let's do it."
The Fox ran foreword and used the Smoke Eject. Smoke covered the Liger and the Fox. Ruby counted down from five, and as soon as she got to one, she turned around and shot four rounds into the smoke. She went to investigate. As she suspected, she had hit the fox, but she didn't drop it.
"So, Liger, what do you want to do? Buster Slash, maybe?" Ruby asked the Gunblade. It roared in approval. "All right, let's go."
Liger dashed foreword and jumped, with Ruby yelling out, "BUSTER SLASH!" The Liger's clawed paw and face- blades came smashing down, with a force greater than the Liger Zero's Strike Laser Claw, on the Shadow Fox.
The fox was out of commission. Brad hit the panel of the Zoid and yelled angrily, "How could she be stronger than the Liger Zero? Or the Fox? Even the Raynos should have been a tough fight, but she just blew us away! What is with that Zoid? Even more, what's with that pilot? It's almost as if she anticipated my every move! And how could it pack such power into an attack? It's impossible!"
The Liger loped casually towards the Gun Sniper as Ruby fiddled with the control system, not paying any attention to where they were headed. When she looked up at the screen, she smiled.
"Good choice, Liger. I was just going to say we should take the Gun Sniper out to save the best for last. Let's get into the smoke and sneak up on the Sniper! Good plan, eh?"
The Liger roared and ran back into the smoke. As soon as the thick black substance surrounded it, it walked to the farthest side and came out behind the Sniper.
Leena fired a couple rounds into the smoke, and then she turned around. Ruby was right behind her.
"So, Leena wants to play. Let's show her what we're made of. Liger, fire at will!" Ruby told her Zoid. Almost instantly, three hidden guns, two on the top of the shoulders and one on the tail appeared. Since the tail was maneuverable and long, it reached over the top of the Gunblade's body like a scorpion tail.
"What? More guns! But, how? And where from! They were perfectly concealed! Oh no, we won't win this one! Gun Sniper, use the Weasel Unit Total Assault!" Leena wailed.
"Surprise!" Ruby said as both the Gun Sniper and the Gunblade loosed firepower.
Leena sent out over fifty rounds compared to Ruby's six. Though smaller in number, Ruby's shots were aimed at the chest cavity of the Gun Sniper. Leena didn't aim in her panic, so she was hit dead on and the Gun Sniper was out. Leena was pissed. The Liger simply dodged the bullets sent by her Sniper and went to attack Bit and the Liger Zero.
Leena watched as the Liger ran off in a trotting gait towards Bit. She called him on the CTZ, "Bit, get ready to use the Panzer. I think our friend could do well to learn patience," She sneered.
"Yeah, if I can't beat her with the Jager, I'll switch to the Panzer, gotcha," Bit replied.
The Liger was already in front of the Liger Zero. Ruby came up on Bit's CTZ and smiled at him. "Well, it would be nice to have another Ultimate X in the battle. Make things more, say, challenging? You'll never win anyway."
"What! Your Zoid is an Ultimate X too? Are you sure, I mean, how do I know your not bluffing? I'd say your Zoid is pretty average," Bit taunted as he sat back in the Liger Zero's cockpit.
"Oh, really? Average? Well, I'll just let you think that one over, after we beat you!" Ruby shouted. To The Liger she said, "Let's get him, Liger. Don't hold back, I know your true potential."
Almost at the same moment, the Jager and Liger ran foreword and clashed in a messy tangle of claws, paws, and teeth. When the two Zoids backed away from the fray, the Jager suffered many scratches along the back and sides. The Liger, on the other hand, only suffered a minor scratch to the chest plate.
"Is that all an Ultimate X can do? That's a waste of my time!" Ruby complained to her Zoid.
Bit was astonished. "How can that Zoid be so fast? I gave it all I could and I still only got one Laser Claw in! How..." Bit suddenly remembered what Leena had told him, about the Panzer unit. "Hey, Doc, I'm coming back to the Hover Cargo. I'm using the Panzer."
"All right Bit, you can use the Panzer, but don't say I didn't warn you. If the armor gets to heavy and puts a strain on the joints, jettison it." Toros replied sternly.
The Jager was already on the platform to change the armor on the Liger Zero. The platform is located on the starboard side of the Hover Cargo. "Yeah, OK, OK, I hear you. Now can you get off my back for once? I know what I'm doing," Bit said angrily to Toros.
"You know what you're doing? That's scary. Oh, and don't forget anger management, Bit." Toros said as the Jager armor unit was stored in the hangers with the Schnider unit and the Panzer armor unit came out.
"Yeah. I'll remember that," Bit said in an annoyed voice as the shield parts for the Panzer were put on.
"Oh, and that girl, she fights real well. I can't believe she's only around eighteen. Just your age..." The long-range guns were being put on. The Ion boosters were already in place.
"Hey, you know, our team could use a little moral support here. Stop sympathizing with the enemy. And we would not make a good couple, if that's what you're getting at," Bit said firmly.
The Panzer was complete, and the Liger was sent back onto the battlefield. As soon as the Panzer, for that is the name of the Unit and therefore the Liger's too, was on the battlefield, Ruby came up on the CTZ with a look of concern on her face.
"Oh, what's the matter? Panzer the only unit you got, or is it that you're trying to beat me? Either way, I'm going to win," She said.
"How do you know about the Panzer unit? Wait! Did you look in the hanger when we took that vacation by the sea?" Bit asked.
Ruby smiled mischievously and replied, "Oh, I wouldn't give myself credit for a daring move like that. You see, I found this Zoid in some ruins. Of course, I didn't realize it's value until I fought against the Backdraft and won with ease against three Neo War Sharks, one Elephander, and one Helcat. They told me about your transformation armor, how it had beat over three hundred of their King Bats. I wanted to fight you and see it for my self. I then worked my way into the League, hoping to beat you in an official match when I went to the Championships. I easily rank in class S. Then once again, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to fight you before the Championships. If I lose, I'll tell you more."
The Panzer walked foreword. The armor was heavy, but Bit told the Panzer to use the Hybrid Cannon. Almost immediately two screens came up on the control panel. On each screen, there were two targets. They moved around rapidly, and eventually stopped on the Gunblade. The cannons on the Panzer's back collected energy as it waited for Bit to tell it what to do.
"Hybrid Cannon... Fire!" Bit hollered as the cannons fired. Two twin beams of light energy rocketed out of the cannon dead center at The Gunblade Liger. The Zoid didn't even have the chance to move in the slightest way before the beams hit it.
All that was left of the Gunblade was a big cloud of un-penetrated pitch-black smoke. The battle was over.
Or was it...
The Liger looked uneasily at the smoke, but Bit paid no attention. He cheered like there was no tomorrow. He called up to Toros, "Hey, Doc, we did it! We beat the Gunblade, another Ultimate... Ahhhh!"
As Bit was talking to Toros, the smoke had settled a little, and the Liger was still standing. The light shield created by its armor had held back the Hybrid Cannon. As soon as the Liger could see through the smoke, it fired eight shots, not aimed, at the Liger and Bit to make sure they knew Ruby was still in the battle.
"You are a fool. Yes, cheering before the dust settles. Foolish, yes, foolish." A voice said. Ruby was talking, mostly to herself, but her visual CTZ must have been damaged because her image wasn't on Bit's screen.
Bit's face was a look of pure confusion as he gaped at the thick smoke. "But... How? I mean... That's..." He snapped out of it and shook his head, "That was a direct hit! Not even the Neo War Shark could withstand it! Your shield is... It's stronger than the War Sharks..."
"Duh, that's what I've been trying to tell you. My armor is forty times stronger than the Neo War Sharks. See, it would pay to actually listen to someone," Ruby shut off the CTZ, disgusted. She simply waved her hand in the air and said to The Liger, "Do as you wish, but don't damage it too much. We're going to be on the team, you know. I'm sure you wouldn't want to fight with a damaged Zoid on the team."
The Liger roared in approval and aimed all four guns at the Liger Zero Panzer. Bit panicked and fumbled with the controls for a few seconds and then gave up.
"Liger, come on partner, move it, or she'll blow us to pieces! C'mon! Go!" Bit called up to Toros, "Doc! What should I do?"
"Get out of there Bit! The Ligers joints are seriously overheating. The temperature in the cockpit is over 130 degrees!" Toros yelled.
Bit yelled back in a frustrated fury, "No? Do you think? I'm the one in the cockpit!" To his Zoid, he shrieked, "Jettison it Liger! Jettison the Panzer Unit, or I'm going to take you off the team!"
Bit would never take the Liger off the team, but what he said seemed to motivate the Zoid and it shook like a dog. Bit slammed on the Jettison button, and the Zoids armor blew off in a rush of green to land with a thump on the ground. All that was left of the Liger's Panzer Unit was a mass of gray wires, pipes, springs and coils. The Zoid was the same shape, but the entire armor was gone.
Ruby came up on the CTZ screen. She seemed to have gotten the visual CTZ to work. "Wow, that's pretty impressive. I wish my Zoid had an armor like that. But, just to be fair, I'm going to jettison my armor. See?" Even as she spoke, she pressed the Jettison button on her control panel and her Zoids armor was on the ground and her Zoid was still just a silver mass of parts.
Bit sensed that something was wrong. The Liger was still sleek, but no trace of a weapon anywhere. And as it moved, it blended in with the ground.
Bit paid no attention, even though his thoughts were centered on the uncanny way the Gunblade blended with the ground. His Ligers lack of weapons made it ten times faster than with weapons. As his Liger ran foreword, Bit yelled with a renewed fury, "Strike Laser Claw!" His Zoids claw came down with crushing force on...
Nothing.
"Huh? Where'd she go?" The Liger turned in a full circle. No Gunblade anywhere. "Oh, this is great, just great. Now what am I supposed to do?"
As if to answer, Jamie came up on his screen. He looked pretty beat up from the crash, but otherwise he was fine. "Bit, use your speed. Run circles around her or something. Just, well, I don't think we're going to win this battle. With no one to help you, well, you know." He said.
"Yeah. I do... Huh? The Liger's sensors are coming up with something right in front of us. Jamie, I'll get back to you." As soon he turned off the CTZ, Ruby came up.
"Hello, Bit. The Battle is now almost over. Do you know where I am?" As she said that, gunfire from directly in front of the Liger, but nothing was there.
Bit smiled. Even though his Liger was almost finished, he knew what his opponent was doing. He called to Ruby,"Stealth Shields, eh? Well, that's playing real dirty, you know."
"Sure, I know. So, I'll not use them anymore." Her Zoid was suddenly visible to the left of where the shots were fired.
In a blinding flash of light, a sudden cannon blast issued out of the air. Bit and Ruby's Zoids were nearly knocked off their feet.
"What was that?" Bit yelled.
"The Backdraft! They're here, but why?" Ruby shouted back.
She was right. In mid air halfway in-between the treetops and low clouds, was a ship, or plane, of some sort. Right underneath was a Light Cannon. Even as the two Zoid pilots talked, hundreds of bat like Zoids called King Bats came out of the ship.
"Well, I don't care, but I'm changing to the Zero. See-ya!" Bit tore off in the other direction of the Hover Cargo yelling out to Toros to ready the Jager Unit.
Ruby shook her head, and, even though her unit was "stripped bare", or had no weapons, it came up with a long-range sniper gun. As the King Bats swooped in, she fired. In less than three minutes, Ruby had fifteen Zoids down. In five, she had almost forty of the King Bats down.
She continued to fire, and to her astonishment, Bit ran back with his original white Zero Unit. She stared at him, her mouth wide open. He was either coming to save her or to fight the Backdraft. She decided, to her liking, he was coming to fight. She didn't really like him at all, so it was fine if he didn't come to save her.
"OK, Liger. Let's do it. Fire at will partner." Bit told his Zoid. To Ruby he said, with a look of knowing on his face, "What did you say your name was?"
"Ruby." Ruby said.
"Yeah, well, I think I remember reading something about you in the papers..." Bit stopped and thought hard. "Oh yeah! You're a bounty hunter!" Bit said after a few seconds.
Ruby looked at him, completely taken aback. "No, I am not a bounty hunter. Bounty hunters have a bounty on me."
"What for? Did you kill someone or did you steal something real important?" Bit snapped his fingers and called out, "That's it! You stole the
Gunblade!"
She shook her head and said, "No, Bit. If I nipped The Liger from someone, would I parade out here? Well, you should know. You used to be a junk dealer. You know you don't parade around with something you take from a team. You are so slow," She muttered to herself and Bit at the same time.
"How... Do you know I was a junk dealer? Did you look at my records or something?"
"Oh, now that would be telling, don't you say, Liger?" Ruby said to her Zoid and to Bit she said, "Don't slacken up the fire, we could just get them. Look, they're retreating!"
Suddenly, a man came up on Ruby's CTZ. He was Altile, the leader of the Backdraft. He had short black hair with gray hairs that looked like as if it was plastered to his head. His cold gray eyes stared at her and he finally spoke:
"You haven't seen the last of me. Bit Cloud can't protect you forever. You have to come out from shelter sometime. You will need to get water soon." With that, the CTZ unexpectedly shut off.
Bit looked at Ruby's Zoid. At this point, he couldn't get to her with the CTZ. After he tried for the fifth time, she came up. Ruby was shivering, as if she had seen a ghost.
"Whoa, what happened to you? You look like you saw a ghost." Bit said with a little concern in his voice.
"Nothing, its nothing at all. Just, when I said there was a bounty on me, well, the Backdraft put it on me. I stole one of their cat like Zoids. They want it back, but it was totaled in the last encounter with them. From then on they put a bounty on me for stealing a Zoid from them and then destroying it. That's why I wanted to find the Ultimate X. To protect me. But having Liger didn't help ease my worries. I needed support. Since then, I tried to fight against teams to join them. Of course, I have to find a new team now, but..."
She turned her Zoid and started into the horizon.
Bit looked after her, and then he went into the Hover Cargo. As soon as he got to the main control center, he burst out all the news he had got to Toros. When he finished, he said, "So, we should have her on the team."
Just then, Brad, Leena and Jamie came in. Jamie had to lean on Brad to stand because the crash had been damaging, not only to the Raynos, but to Jamie as well.
Brad looked at Toros. "You know, for once Bit is right. We should have her on the team, before another team gets the Gunblade and puts us up on a battle. For once, I agree with him," Brad said simply.
"Well then we should call her up before she gets to far! Her Zoid moves with great speed, you know," Toros said with a grin.
Jamie, with the help of Brad, limped over to the control panel. He pushed the CTZ, and Ruby came up on the screen. When she saw the screen light up, she looked at it in astonishment.
"So, do you want to join the Blitz Team?" Jamie asked, grinning.
Ruby looked at him with a slight look of skepticism, "Is it a joke, or can I really join the team?"
"Nope, no joke. The jokes on me, you know. Look at me! I'm a wreck. That crash fooled with me. I was knocked unconscious and now I keep seeing things that aren't really there." Jamie smiled and said with a wry grin, "But I'm here, right? And seriously, we want you to join the team."
"Alright, yeah, I'll be on the team!" Ruby immediately turned the Liger around and the two raced back to the Hover Cargo.
As soon as they got to the Hover Cargo, Ruby put the Liger in the hangers so he wouldn't get wrecked, and walked apprehensively towards Toros, who was waiting by the door.
"Tank you so much, Toros, I don't know how to repay you. I am so glad that you let me join the team!" Ruby said with a look of pure pleasure on her face.
"Oh, I wouldn't t take all the credit. It was Bit and Leena who let you on the team. I wasn't the one who said you could join," Toros said with a slight grin indicating that he had a small part in it.
At that moment, Leena walked in. She stopped by her damaged Gun Sniper and looked at Ruby. "That was a pretty smooth move you pulled back in the battle. I would have never thought..."
"Well, if you weren't angry and jumpy, I'll have to admit that I would have lost right there!" Ruby said in a friendly way.
"Really? Well, we'll just see about that in our next battle, if we ever have one now that you're on the team," Leena replied.
"Yeah. I hope we will because you're one tough team. All the other teams are pushovers. I beat the Zaber team in a matter of minutes!" Ruby smiled.
Leena turned to her dad, "See? It was a good decision. She's an ultimate warrior!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wowee. This is a turn!
* Gunblade Liger is here on referred to as the Gunblade. Also Liger, at* times*
"Wow, that was one good fight! They thought they were going to knock me down with the Hyper Speed! Ha ha ha!" Leena laughed.
Jamie looked at the scanner for nearby Zoids. He frowned and called out, "Unidentified Zoid coming this way! At a high speed too!"
"Where? Oh, over there! Call them on the CTZ," Toros said.
Jamie pressed the CTZ button. A picture of a girl with short strawberry- blonde hair and blue eyes came up. She was about twenty or so. She stopped her Zoid and looked at the screen.
"Hi, are you from the Blitz team?" She asked curiously.
"Don't tell her anything! She might be working for Altile!" Bit yelled in the background.
At the sound of Bit's voice, she looked up sharply, "Hey, is that Bit? Is he on the Blitz team too?"
"Yeah, we're the Blitz team. We have four Zoids too. And we've won every battle thrown our way for the past three months. So, I'll have to warn you. If you want a battle, you're outclassed," Jamie said with confidence.
"Oh? Is that a fact? I want to challenge you to an un-sanctioned battle. Your Zoids against my one. How does that sound? The prize money is two thousand," The girl bribed.
"Right, down to business, my name is Jamie, this is Bit, Leena, Brad and Toros," Jamie said, pointing to each of the team members in turn. "And we will only fight you if you tell us your name,"
"Is that all? Of course!" She said. "My name is Ruby."
"OK, we're fighting a battle. Get to your battle stations, peoples," Jamie said to the team as he pressed the disconnect button.
"Mobilizing Liger Zero Jager!" Bit hollered.
"Liger Zero Jager C A S complete!" Toros called, because Jamie was piloting the Raynos, and couldn't control the battle system, too.
"Mobilizing Shadow Fox!" Brad yelled.
"Shadow Fox complete! Toros said.
"Mobilizing Gun Sniper!" Leena called out.
"Complete!" Toros replied.
"Mobilizing Raynos!" Jamie shouted over the noise of the Hover Cargo door opening.
"Complete!" Toros replied.
The three Zoids stood on the battlefield (except for the Raynos, its a flying Zoid) and looked at the Zoid in front of them. It looked like a Liger Zero, but it was too small. It had black armor that blended with anything if the Zoid wanted it to using a Stealth Shield that made it invisible to the naked eye. Two heavy looking fully rotating guns were mounted on its back. The tail was like a Liger's, and it had long front teeth. Since it was so small, only weighing about forty-four tons, it would probably be able to dodge bullets, and move faster than the Liger Zero.
"What kind of Zoid is that?" Toros asked over the CTZ.
"I don't know, a new type of Lightning Saix maybe?" Leena replied.
"No, I don't think so. It's way too large for that. Maybe it's a Zaber Fang," Jamie said.
Ruby cut in over the CTZ, "Nope, none of those. This ones a Gunblade Liger. The best of the best."
"Oh, a Liger... a Liger what?" Bit asked.
"A Gunblade Liger, they were supposed to be extinct, or be a myth. They were a legend, until now, when I found it exploring some ruins." Ruby said proudly as she patted the control panel of the Gunblade.
"Enough talk. Let's fight! " Jamie yelled as he dived from the air.
Oh, lets take care of this one, Liger, Ruby thought. Her Zoid had an uncanny ability to read the pilot's mind, so it obeyed.
As Jamie plummeted towards the Gunblade, he laughed, "Ha! She doesn't even know she's outclassed!"
But, just as Jamie got ready to shoot Ruby, the Liger dodged out of the way. Jamie, totally unprepared, and unable to stop himself, hit the ground at over four-hundred mph. Luckily for Jamie, his Zoid tried to pull out of the dive, and it's head didn't crash into the ground.
"Why am I always the one to go down first?" Jamie wailed.
The Liger aimed one of the guns at the vital spot on the Raynos, between the wings, and fired four shots. Jamie was down, not that he already wasn't. The Liger turned and looked at the rest of the Zoids. The Gun Sniper looked at it and took a step back.
The Shadow Fox and Brad stepped foreword and he said to Ruby, "OK, I'm the next contestant. Let's do it."
The Fox ran foreword and used the Smoke Eject. Smoke covered the Liger and the Fox. Ruby counted down from five, and as soon as she got to one, she turned around and shot four rounds into the smoke. She went to investigate. As she suspected, she had hit the fox, but she didn't drop it.
"So, Liger, what do you want to do? Buster Slash, maybe?" Ruby asked the Gunblade. It roared in approval. "All right, let's go."
Liger dashed foreword and jumped, with Ruby yelling out, "BUSTER SLASH!" The Liger's clawed paw and face- blades came smashing down, with a force greater than the Liger Zero's Strike Laser Claw, on the Shadow Fox.
The fox was out of commission. Brad hit the panel of the Zoid and yelled angrily, "How could she be stronger than the Liger Zero? Or the Fox? Even the Raynos should have been a tough fight, but she just blew us away! What is with that Zoid? Even more, what's with that pilot? It's almost as if she anticipated my every move! And how could it pack such power into an attack? It's impossible!"
The Liger loped casually towards the Gun Sniper as Ruby fiddled with the control system, not paying any attention to where they were headed. When she looked up at the screen, she smiled.
"Good choice, Liger. I was just going to say we should take the Gun Sniper out to save the best for last. Let's get into the smoke and sneak up on the Sniper! Good plan, eh?"
The Liger roared and ran back into the smoke. As soon as the thick black substance surrounded it, it walked to the farthest side and came out behind the Sniper.
Leena fired a couple rounds into the smoke, and then she turned around. Ruby was right behind her.
"So, Leena wants to play. Let's show her what we're made of. Liger, fire at will!" Ruby told her Zoid. Almost instantly, three hidden guns, two on the top of the shoulders and one on the tail appeared. Since the tail was maneuverable and long, it reached over the top of the Gunblade's body like a scorpion tail.
"What? More guns! But, how? And where from! They were perfectly concealed! Oh no, we won't win this one! Gun Sniper, use the Weasel Unit Total Assault!" Leena wailed.
"Surprise!" Ruby said as both the Gun Sniper and the Gunblade loosed firepower.
Leena sent out over fifty rounds compared to Ruby's six. Though smaller in number, Ruby's shots were aimed at the chest cavity of the Gun Sniper. Leena didn't aim in her panic, so she was hit dead on and the Gun Sniper was out. Leena was pissed. The Liger simply dodged the bullets sent by her Sniper and went to attack Bit and the Liger Zero.
Leena watched as the Liger ran off in a trotting gait towards Bit. She called him on the CTZ, "Bit, get ready to use the Panzer. I think our friend could do well to learn patience," She sneered.
"Yeah, if I can't beat her with the Jager, I'll switch to the Panzer, gotcha," Bit replied.
The Liger was already in front of the Liger Zero. Ruby came up on Bit's CTZ and smiled at him. "Well, it would be nice to have another Ultimate X in the battle. Make things more, say, challenging? You'll never win anyway."
"What! Your Zoid is an Ultimate X too? Are you sure, I mean, how do I know your not bluffing? I'd say your Zoid is pretty average," Bit taunted as he sat back in the Liger Zero's cockpit.
"Oh, really? Average? Well, I'll just let you think that one over, after we beat you!" Ruby shouted. To The Liger she said, "Let's get him, Liger. Don't hold back, I know your true potential."
Almost at the same moment, the Jager and Liger ran foreword and clashed in a messy tangle of claws, paws, and teeth. When the two Zoids backed away from the fray, the Jager suffered many scratches along the back and sides. The Liger, on the other hand, only suffered a minor scratch to the chest plate.
"Is that all an Ultimate X can do? That's a waste of my time!" Ruby complained to her Zoid.
Bit was astonished. "How can that Zoid be so fast? I gave it all I could and I still only got one Laser Claw in! How..." Bit suddenly remembered what Leena had told him, about the Panzer unit. "Hey, Doc, I'm coming back to the Hover Cargo. I'm using the Panzer."
"All right Bit, you can use the Panzer, but don't say I didn't warn you. If the armor gets to heavy and puts a strain on the joints, jettison it." Toros replied sternly.
The Jager was already on the platform to change the armor on the Liger Zero. The platform is located on the starboard side of the Hover Cargo. "Yeah, OK, OK, I hear you. Now can you get off my back for once? I know what I'm doing," Bit said angrily to Toros.
"You know what you're doing? That's scary. Oh, and don't forget anger management, Bit." Toros said as the Jager armor unit was stored in the hangers with the Schnider unit and the Panzer armor unit came out.
"Yeah. I'll remember that," Bit said in an annoyed voice as the shield parts for the Panzer were put on.
"Oh, and that girl, she fights real well. I can't believe she's only around eighteen. Just your age..." The long-range guns were being put on. The Ion boosters were already in place.
"Hey, you know, our team could use a little moral support here. Stop sympathizing with the enemy. And we would not make a good couple, if that's what you're getting at," Bit said firmly.
The Panzer was complete, and the Liger was sent back onto the battlefield. As soon as the Panzer, for that is the name of the Unit and therefore the Liger's too, was on the battlefield, Ruby came up on the CTZ with a look of concern on her face.
"Oh, what's the matter? Panzer the only unit you got, or is it that you're trying to beat me? Either way, I'm going to win," She said.
"How do you know about the Panzer unit? Wait! Did you look in the hanger when we took that vacation by the sea?" Bit asked.
Ruby smiled mischievously and replied, "Oh, I wouldn't give myself credit for a daring move like that. You see, I found this Zoid in some ruins. Of course, I didn't realize it's value until I fought against the Backdraft and won with ease against three Neo War Sharks, one Elephander, and one Helcat. They told me about your transformation armor, how it had beat over three hundred of their King Bats. I wanted to fight you and see it for my self. I then worked my way into the League, hoping to beat you in an official match when I went to the Championships. I easily rank in class S. Then once again, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to fight you before the Championships. If I lose, I'll tell you more."
The Panzer walked foreword. The armor was heavy, but Bit told the Panzer to use the Hybrid Cannon. Almost immediately two screens came up on the control panel. On each screen, there were two targets. They moved around rapidly, and eventually stopped on the Gunblade. The cannons on the Panzer's back collected energy as it waited for Bit to tell it what to do.
"Hybrid Cannon... Fire!" Bit hollered as the cannons fired. Two twin beams of light energy rocketed out of the cannon dead center at The Gunblade Liger. The Zoid didn't even have the chance to move in the slightest way before the beams hit it.
All that was left of the Gunblade was a big cloud of un-penetrated pitch-black smoke. The battle was over.
Or was it...
The Liger looked uneasily at the smoke, but Bit paid no attention. He cheered like there was no tomorrow. He called up to Toros, "Hey, Doc, we did it! We beat the Gunblade, another Ultimate... Ahhhh!"
As Bit was talking to Toros, the smoke had settled a little, and the Liger was still standing. The light shield created by its armor had held back the Hybrid Cannon. As soon as the Liger could see through the smoke, it fired eight shots, not aimed, at the Liger and Bit to make sure they knew Ruby was still in the battle.
"You are a fool. Yes, cheering before the dust settles. Foolish, yes, foolish." A voice said. Ruby was talking, mostly to herself, but her visual CTZ must have been damaged because her image wasn't on Bit's screen.
Bit's face was a look of pure confusion as he gaped at the thick smoke. "But... How? I mean... That's..." He snapped out of it and shook his head, "That was a direct hit! Not even the Neo War Shark could withstand it! Your shield is... It's stronger than the War Sharks..."
"Duh, that's what I've been trying to tell you. My armor is forty times stronger than the Neo War Sharks. See, it would pay to actually listen to someone," Ruby shut off the CTZ, disgusted. She simply waved her hand in the air and said to The Liger, "Do as you wish, but don't damage it too much. We're going to be on the team, you know. I'm sure you wouldn't want to fight with a damaged Zoid on the team."
The Liger roared in approval and aimed all four guns at the Liger Zero Panzer. Bit panicked and fumbled with the controls for a few seconds and then gave up.
"Liger, come on partner, move it, or she'll blow us to pieces! C'mon! Go!" Bit called up to Toros, "Doc! What should I do?"
"Get out of there Bit! The Ligers joints are seriously overheating. The temperature in the cockpit is over 130 degrees!" Toros yelled.
Bit yelled back in a frustrated fury, "No? Do you think? I'm the one in the cockpit!" To his Zoid, he shrieked, "Jettison it Liger! Jettison the Panzer Unit, or I'm going to take you off the team!"
Bit would never take the Liger off the team, but what he said seemed to motivate the Zoid and it shook like a dog. Bit slammed on the Jettison button, and the Zoids armor blew off in a rush of green to land with a thump on the ground. All that was left of the Liger's Panzer Unit was a mass of gray wires, pipes, springs and coils. The Zoid was the same shape, but the entire armor was gone.
Ruby came up on the CTZ screen. She seemed to have gotten the visual CTZ to work. "Wow, that's pretty impressive. I wish my Zoid had an armor like that. But, just to be fair, I'm going to jettison my armor. See?" Even as she spoke, she pressed the Jettison button on her control panel and her Zoids armor was on the ground and her Zoid was still just a silver mass of parts.
Bit sensed that something was wrong. The Liger was still sleek, but no trace of a weapon anywhere. And as it moved, it blended in with the ground.
Bit paid no attention, even though his thoughts were centered on the uncanny way the Gunblade blended with the ground. His Ligers lack of weapons made it ten times faster than with weapons. As his Liger ran foreword, Bit yelled with a renewed fury, "Strike Laser Claw!" His Zoids claw came down with crushing force on...
Nothing.
"Huh? Where'd she go?" The Liger turned in a full circle. No Gunblade anywhere. "Oh, this is great, just great. Now what am I supposed to do?"
As if to answer, Jamie came up on his screen. He looked pretty beat up from the crash, but otherwise he was fine. "Bit, use your speed. Run circles around her or something. Just, well, I don't think we're going to win this battle. With no one to help you, well, you know." He said.
"Yeah. I do... Huh? The Liger's sensors are coming up with something right in front of us. Jamie, I'll get back to you." As soon he turned off the CTZ, Ruby came up.
"Hello, Bit. The Battle is now almost over. Do you know where I am?" As she said that, gunfire from directly in front of the Liger, but nothing was there.
Bit smiled. Even though his Liger was almost finished, he knew what his opponent was doing. He called to Ruby,"Stealth Shields, eh? Well, that's playing real dirty, you know."
"Sure, I know. So, I'll not use them anymore." Her Zoid was suddenly visible to the left of where the shots were fired.
In a blinding flash of light, a sudden cannon blast issued out of the air. Bit and Ruby's Zoids were nearly knocked off their feet.
"What was that?" Bit yelled.
"The Backdraft! They're here, but why?" Ruby shouted back.
She was right. In mid air halfway in-between the treetops and low clouds, was a ship, or plane, of some sort. Right underneath was a Light Cannon. Even as the two Zoid pilots talked, hundreds of bat like Zoids called King Bats came out of the ship.
"Well, I don't care, but I'm changing to the Zero. See-ya!" Bit tore off in the other direction of the Hover Cargo yelling out to Toros to ready the Jager Unit.
Ruby shook her head, and, even though her unit was "stripped bare", or had no weapons, it came up with a long-range sniper gun. As the King Bats swooped in, she fired. In less than three minutes, Ruby had fifteen Zoids down. In five, she had almost forty of the King Bats down.
She continued to fire, and to her astonishment, Bit ran back with his original white Zero Unit. She stared at him, her mouth wide open. He was either coming to save her or to fight the Backdraft. She decided, to her liking, he was coming to fight. She didn't really like him at all, so it was fine if he didn't come to save her.
"OK, Liger. Let's do it. Fire at will partner." Bit told his Zoid. To Ruby he said, with a look of knowing on his face, "What did you say your name was?"
"Ruby." Ruby said.
"Yeah, well, I think I remember reading something about you in the papers..." Bit stopped and thought hard. "Oh yeah! You're a bounty hunter!" Bit said after a few seconds.
Ruby looked at him, completely taken aback. "No, I am not a bounty hunter. Bounty hunters have a bounty on me."
"What for? Did you kill someone or did you steal something real important?" Bit snapped his fingers and called out, "That's it! You stole the
Gunblade!"
She shook her head and said, "No, Bit. If I nipped The Liger from someone, would I parade out here? Well, you should know. You used to be a junk dealer. You know you don't parade around with something you take from a team. You are so slow," She muttered to herself and Bit at the same time.
"How... Do you know I was a junk dealer? Did you look at my records or something?"
"Oh, now that would be telling, don't you say, Liger?" Ruby said to her Zoid and to Bit she said, "Don't slacken up the fire, we could just get them. Look, they're retreating!"
Suddenly, a man came up on Ruby's CTZ. He was Altile, the leader of the Backdraft. He had short black hair with gray hairs that looked like as if it was plastered to his head. His cold gray eyes stared at her and he finally spoke:
"You haven't seen the last of me. Bit Cloud can't protect you forever. You have to come out from shelter sometime. You will need to get water soon." With that, the CTZ unexpectedly shut off.
Bit looked at Ruby's Zoid. At this point, he couldn't get to her with the CTZ. After he tried for the fifth time, she came up. Ruby was shivering, as if she had seen a ghost.
"Whoa, what happened to you? You look like you saw a ghost." Bit said with a little concern in his voice.
"Nothing, its nothing at all. Just, when I said there was a bounty on me, well, the Backdraft put it on me. I stole one of their cat like Zoids. They want it back, but it was totaled in the last encounter with them. From then on they put a bounty on me for stealing a Zoid from them and then destroying it. That's why I wanted to find the Ultimate X. To protect me. But having Liger didn't help ease my worries. I needed support. Since then, I tried to fight against teams to join them. Of course, I have to find a new team now, but..."
She turned her Zoid and started into the horizon.
Bit looked after her, and then he went into the Hover Cargo. As soon as he got to the main control center, he burst out all the news he had got to Toros. When he finished, he said, "So, we should have her on the team."
Just then, Brad, Leena and Jamie came in. Jamie had to lean on Brad to stand because the crash had been damaging, not only to the Raynos, but to Jamie as well.
Brad looked at Toros. "You know, for once Bit is right. We should have her on the team, before another team gets the Gunblade and puts us up on a battle. For once, I agree with him," Brad said simply.
"Well then we should call her up before she gets to far! Her Zoid moves with great speed, you know," Toros said with a grin.
Jamie, with the help of Brad, limped over to the control panel. He pushed the CTZ, and Ruby came up on the screen. When she saw the screen light up, she looked at it in astonishment.
"So, do you want to join the Blitz Team?" Jamie asked, grinning.
Ruby looked at him with a slight look of skepticism, "Is it a joke, or can I really join the team?"
"Nope, no joke. The jokes on me, you know. Look at me! I'm a wreck. That crash fooled with me. I was knocked unconscious and now I keep seeing things that aren't really there." Jamie smiled and said with a wry grin, "But I'm here, right? And seriously, we want you to join the team."
"Alright, yeah, I'll be on the team!" Ruby immediately turned the Liger around and the two raced back to the Hover Cargo.
As soon as they got to the Hover Cargo, Ruby put the Liger in the hangers so he wouldn't get wrecked, and walked apprehensively towards Toros, who was waiting by the door.
"Tank you so much, Toros, I don't know how to repay you. I am so glad that you let me join the team!" Ruby said with a look of pure pleasure on her face.
"Oh, I wouldn't t take all the credit. It was Bit and Leena who let you on the team. I wasn't the one who said you could join," Toros said with a slight grin indicating that he had a small part in it.
At that moment, Leena walked in. She stopped by her damaged Gun Sniper and looked at Ruby. "That was a pretty smooth move you pulled back in the battle. I would have never thought..."
"Well, if you weren't angry and jumpy, I'll have to admit that I would have lost right there!" Ruby said in a friendly way.
"Really? Well, we'll just see about that in our next battle, if we ever have one now that you're on the team," Leena replied.
"Yeah. I hope we will because you're one tough team. All the other teams are pushovers. I beat the Zaber team in a matter of minutes!" Ruby smiled.
Leena turned to her dad, "See? It was a good decision. She's an ultimate warrior!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wowee. This is a turn!