~*~*~*~
"Ow. So are we ow, going to dinner? I'm starved!" Bit asked cheerfully, as he sat up on the small bed he'd been sleeping on after his little meeting with Madame Prombley.
He looked at each of their faces; Van was mumbling something incoherent to himself, nodding every once and a while. Fiona just smiled that pretty smile. While Moonbay looked fiercely at him. But Bit knew what she was thinking; she was worried about him. If only she knew about where he'd come from. If only she knew.
The sun had already set; apparently Bit was out like the dead for a good five hours. His stomach was growling and just the thought of food was enough to make him drool. Bit was so hungry he could eat Leena's cooking! Er, maybe not THAT hungry but he sure was close.
"Well?" he looked hopefully at Van.
"Yeah sure, why the hell not? It's not like we have anything better to do," Van placed his index finger on his chin in a thoughtful manner. "Say Fiona.don't we have tomorrow off?"
Fiona glanced up at the ceiling and nodded. "Yes. It's a holiday, everyone in the Republic has tomorrow off."
"The Republic?!" Bit burst out, his eyes wide. "We're in the Republic?!"
Van arched a dark eyebrow and nodded real slowly. "Yeah," he said in DUH kind of tone. "Of course. Why? You from the Empire?"
"No! I was just at New Helic City for the BBQ with Doc, Brad and Leena! Where I met the captain of the J team!"
Judging from the weird looks he was receiving, Bit must have said something they didn't understand. Great, now they thought he was crazy. Just great what he always wanted. Just his luck too. Not wanting to make himself any more of a fool, Bit placed his hand behind his head and laughed nervously.
Fiona frowned thoughtfully, was it just her or did that stranger Bit and Van have so much in common? Bit was blonde in the hair while her beloved was blonde at heart. She was almost positive she saw a connection between them, but wasn't sure what it could be. Was this blonde stranger somehow related to Van? So far she was open to any suggestions.
"So? Can we eat?"
Everyone face faulted with the exception of Bit, who just watched them and waited from an answer. He wasn't about to give up that easily. Oh sure he'd been begging for the past five minutes but anything was possible! He was sure if given another five minutes he could be on his way to an All-You-Can- Eat buffet and stuffing his face.
"Well?"
Van got up and wiped the dust off of his pants and shrugged. "I already said we can go.but the question is where? Hmmm.."
"There an All-You-Can-Eat buffet around here?!" Bit asked anxiously, his face just inches from Van's.
Van shoved the sixteen year old out of his face and entertained the idea. Well, what did he have to lose? Oh yeah, he remembered, his paycheck. That was what he had to lose. It was obvious that Bit didn't have any money on him, why couldn't they just have Moonbay cook? Moonbay was a damn good cook, besides it would be a little bit cheaper that way.
"Whoa there killer, easy now. How about this; we have Moonbay cook! It seems like centuries since I've had your cooking!" Van suggested.
Bit was tempted to ask if she was a good cook but thought better of it, his cheek still burned from when she slapped him earlier.
"Well, it's gonna cost ya," Moonbay winked at the black haired warrior, who just sighed. "Sure. That'd way we don't have to go through all the trouble of getting the Gustav out and asking Irvine."
"Either way I can't win," Van said with a depressed sigh. "Today just isn't my day."
Fiona laughed and wrapped her arm around his. "Yup. No worries though, Van, I suppose this probably my fault."
"Your fault?"
She nodded and smiled that pretty smile that made Bit's heart melt. "Yes, I told Bit I'd take him out to dinner." She winked at Bit who grinned in return.
Was that anger that Bit saw on his new friend's face? Oh God he hoped not. The last thing he wanted was for Van to beat him into a bloody pulp. No, he'd rather have the she-devil Leena have the honors for at least the last thing he'd see before he'd die would be her pretty hair. Whatever the emotion was that was plastered across his face, Van looked like a force to be reckoned with. Which he probably was.
"What are ya gonna make for supper, Moonbay?" Bit asked.
Moonbay's lips contorted into a vicious smile. "Oh you'll find out soon enough."
Great, Bit thought, just great.
~*~*~*~*~
"What?!" Jade Daingerfield's Blade Liger came to a screeching halt.
Jade couldn't believe her ears, on the comlink was Doc of the Blitz Team. He said that his convertible the one Bit Cloud was driving fell off of a cliff and into the ocean. She had just seen Bit at least ten hours earlier; never had she expected this to occur. The old saying was true then; death does come on swift wings. To some.
"Your kidding me! You can't be serious! That kid can't be dead, no way!"
Steve Taurous a.k.a Doc shook his head grimly. All of the color had drained out of his face, he looked like he was dead too. "I never said that Bit was dead. they can't seem to find the body."
Jade didn't know what was worse; the fact that he was most likely dead or the fact that they couldn't find him. His poor team, and right after they'd won the Royal Cup too. But Jade was almost positive that he wasn't dead, she could feel it in her bones. That kid was alive and well, she knew it.
"Would you like me to help locate him? I'd be more than happy too, Mr. Taurous," she added.
"Doc, please."
"Er.okay. Doc it is. My offer still stands, like I said I'd be more than happy to assist in any way," Jade said gently.
"Yeah, thanks but no thanks. We'll call on you when we need your help," with that he existed the com link, leaving Jade in a mixture of defeat and anger.
She'd bet anything that Bit was alive, her father always said she had an otherworldly sense maybe it would be right. Not that she doubted it or anything.
"Yo, Jade!"
Jade maneuvered her Liger so it turned around; a Lightening Saix raced up to them.
"What up, Jason," she said with no feeling what so ever.
Jason's boyish face appeared on the com link, his spiky brown hair remained in its spot from the mighty hold of the gel. He smiled at her. Jade always knew he had a thing for her, but he was only 15 way too out of her league. She always thought of him like a little brother.
"Some team called the Back draft wants to challenge us to a match, you game?"
Jade frowned at him, making her distaste evident. Didn't he know who the Back draft was? Honestly, kids these days. Jade wasn't in the mood to fight for her zoid and the zoids of her teammates.
"Have you lost your mind?" she said with calm anger. "We are not fighting the Back draft, apparently you've forgotten who they are. They are nothing more than common thieves, zoid thieves might I add. Now if you don't want me to attack that Lightening Saix of yours I suggest you get in contact with the Zoids Battle Commission and tell them the exact location of that battle."
Jason's eyes grew wide as he quickly nodded and with all the speed of the Lightening Saix raced back to their base.
"Little punk," Jade muttered to his retreating form.
"Well, well, what do we have here? A lil' ole Blade Liger. Funny how we found you with no problems. I suppose that makes our job a lot easier," a male voice sneered from seemingly out of nowhere.
Jade looked around but couldn't see anyone or anything; there was nothing on her radar. The sky, she thought, and looked up. Sure enough there was a large Whale king floating right over. Why didn't her zoid radar catch anything? She wondered but decided this was not the time to ponder it out.
The Blade Liger howled and took off at top speed in the direction of the base. A barrage soon stopped it. Jade growled and waited for the smoke to clear so she could somehow make her way back to the safety of the base. but then, by doing so she would put the J team and personale in danger. That was something she, as captain, could not afford to do. Then again, she couldn't take out the massive Whale king and the hundreds of zoids it surely had in its belly.
Why didn't she ask for a Lightening Saix? Oh yeah, Jade remembered now, she'd been in love with Blade Ligers since she was little when her father used to tell her about Van Flyheight, her secret hero, who lived many years ago and had a blue Blade Liger. That was why.
"You listen here, you little pieces of shit, I'm not going down without a fight. I refuse to let you take my zoid," Jade barked.
"My," now it was a different voice, the voice of a woman. "Who so ever said we wanted to confiscate your petty zoid?"
Jade scowled and narrowed her eyes at the image of a woman with long bluish hair. "My Liger is not petty."
The woman just smiled. "I'll let you think that. You see our organization has no interest in your Blade Liger, we've got enough to last us a life time."
"Then what do you want." If it wasn't her zoid that they wanted..then what could it be? Somehow, Jade didn't want to know.
"We want you. You're skills as a zoid pilot is most impressive, the Back draft could most definitely use talent like yours. By the way.my name is Sarah," Sarah said, still smiling.
Jade wanted to rip that ridiculous smile off of her face, she despised this woman already there was no way in hell she'd ever even consider joining. Who were they kidding, asking her to join the Back draft Group? Did they really expect her to join?
"I'm sorry to disappoint you and your organization but I refuse to join. I'm legit unlike you, now please leave me in peace."
"No is not an answer," Sarah replied, her smile gone, she looked ready to kill.
"Well too bad, it's gonna be an answer," with that Jade aimed her hybrid cannon to the belly of the Whale king and fired.
"Now," she said to the blue Blade Liger. "It's time to run like the wind, baby!"
~*~*~*~*~
"Man, Moonbay was I wrong about you. You cook even better Jamie!" Bit said happily as he rubbed his rather content stomach.
Moonbay grinned. "Thank you! I'm glad you feel that way."
Bit sighed happily, this had to have been the best meal of his whole life. When he went home he was going to miss Moonbay's cooking.
What Bit had said just sunk in. "What? How could have you think such a thing, Bit! I'm going to have to kill whoever said my cooking was bad."
Van laughed along with everyone else, with the exception of Moonbay who was glaring daggers at everyone. Van had no idea there was another person like him in the universe; one who inhaled his food and ate like a total and complete pig. It was kinda nice, having another of his kind that is.
"What's all the laughter about?" in walked a tall man with brown spiked hair and a weird looking patch over his eye, that Bit had never seen before.
"Irvine!" Fiona chirped. "Where have you been all this time?"
"Here and there, mostly in the hanger though."
Irvine smiled faintly and took a seat next to her. He reminded Bit of Brad, somewhat, he was a rugged looking man. Only Brad's hair was much longer than his was.
Bit studied everyone in the small back room of the kitchen carefully, each one of them reminded him of someone he knew. Everyone except Fiona. He couldn't think of anyone like her, she was so beautiful, graceful and elegant everything the perfect woman would be. But Leena wasn't anything close to her; Leena was loud, obnoxious, short-tempered, unwomanly, yet at the same time very sensitive even though she would never admit it. The two loves of his life.
"Hey Van," Bit began, eyeing the older pilot innocently. "There any zoids here?"
Van frowned in a thoughtful manner and cocked his head to one side. What an odd question. "Yes of course, this is a military base y'know."
"Can we see them?"
"Why?" Van asked suspiciously, that kid had something up his sleeve he knew it.
The blonde shrugged and glanced at the door. "No reason, I just wanna see them that's all."
"Sure, okay," he backed up his chair.
*Twenty Minutes Later.*
They walked into a massive hanger covered with shadows of zoids that hadn't seen light of day in years. The air smelled of old oil and dust mixed with coffee, dust mites danced cheerfully around in and out of people's nostrils. There were Republican Command Wolfs, Gogalas, and all sorts of other zoids that looked like they belonged in a museum. Only one Lightening Saix. There was one zoid that caught Bit's eye; it stood in between the Lightening Saix and Van's Blade Liger, it had white armor and looked awfully familiar like the...
"Liger Zero!!" Bit raced to the claw of his beloved zoid leaving behind a very confused Van. "Liger Zero! Old buddy old pal! This is where you've been all this time! I missed you soo much buddy!"
The Liger Zero growled and stuck it's nose in the air.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I am SO sorry! I didn't mean to leave you behind, really I didn't, it just kinda.. happened. I guess I got so excited after winning the Royal Cup I forgot all about the one who was responsible for helping me get that Cup. I know I screwed up. Can you ever forgive me?"
The Liger titled it's head several times as if debating which response would be better, and then nuzzled the young blonde's hair.
"Oh!" Bit said after rescuing his hair. "I just remembered! We got a one on one battle with the captain of the J Team!" at the Liger's confused growl he continued. "The J Team was one of the first teams to join S Class! I betcha Leena is probably dieing of jealously! Isn't that cool? I know we can beat her Blade Liger in ten seconds flat, it'll be nothing like the Berserk Fury!"
The bonds between a zoid and it's pilot was a mysterious one indeed, it amazed Van how that zoid, the same zoid that bucked off almost everyone at the base excluding himself and Fiona, was showing affection to that boy. Did it have an organiod in it? Dr. D had said when he examined it, none of the computers could begin to compute the data. Either it's system's were too ancient or too advanced, Van was willing to bet on the latter. He'd never seen anything like it before, it resembled strongly to a Liger but that was all.
"Bit," Van walked up to the boy and his zoid, his hand resting on his hip. "I'm guessing this is your zoid. Mind telling me how it got here?"
"Well, to be perfectly honest I have no idea. The last time I saw my buddy here was over a couple months ago at the Blitz Team base after we won the Royal Cup. Then after that I just chilled, I guess," Bit replied with a shrug.
Van decided not to pursue the subject further it would be seemingly fruitless. The kid didn't know how he got here; let alone how his zoid got here. Maybe he was from somewhere else on Zi, Van had never been off of this continent and the planet was huge and probably there were other kinds of zoids on the other continents.
"Lieutenant Flyheight, sir!"
A young solider with platinum blonde hair and green eyes appeared from seemingly nowhere and saluted. Van turned around and told him to be at ease.
"Your new mission from HQ is here, sir, you are to go undercover to Studio 69 in the capital and find out as much informative as you can," the solider paused and suddenly remembered he didn't say 'sir', quickly saluted and by doing so whacked himself in the forehead. "Da.sir!"
Bit fought back the urge to snicker, boy was he glad he wasn't in the military. He'd go crazy by having to call people 'sir' like some sort of mindless drone.
Van frowned thoughtfully. "Studio 69? Isn't that the new dance club with that new kind of music, what was it.. disco, right? That sounds simple enough, say it might actually be fun. Just what kind of information am I looking for, exactly?"
The solider glanced uneasily at Bit but Van dismissed his thoughts with the wave of his hand. "Don't worry about him, the kid's good."
"Okay then, sir, you are to look for any information dealing with Longfellow Alfred. He owns Studio 69 and up under recently reportedly had ties with Hiltz. Sir."
"Okay then, I'm on it."
As soon as the solider was out of earshot, Bit snorted.
"Longfellow?" he asked, laughing.
While Van, on the other hand, was not laughing and wore a serious expression. "Longfellow is an evil madman who loved gold so much he even lost his small army of zoids in an unfortunate smelting accident. He's crazy but he's not stupid."
Bit grasped his side that hurt from laughing so hard he couldn't believe his ears this was too good to be true, in an unfortunate accident? Not to mention his name was 'Longfellow' for crying out loud.
"Can I come?" he asked suddenly.
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*
The air was a mix of sweat and alcohol, everything was in a shade of gold, the walls everything. Even the disco ball was painted gold. It was obvious this Longfellow a.k.a Goldzoid dude was obsessed with gold. In the dance floor under the golden disco ball, dancers wore roller blades and literally skated to the beat of the music. A stage was in front of them, a bar in back of them and a place just to chill was on the side walls. The club itself wasn't too big, just two stories or so high. A golden balcony overlooked the club goers, half a dozen beautiful women all dressed in gold lined up against the golden rail.
"Let's spilt up, we can cover more ground that way," Van said in Bit's ear so he could hear him.
Bit glanced over at Van and fought the urge to snicker; the warrior had shed his uniform and dawned on a white suite with a black vest. He was something else, but then again by the way everyone else was dressed he didn't stand out at all. But Van was not the only one wearing a polyester suite, Bit wore just the opposite; a black suite with a white vest. Back in the future they would be a hoot.
"Wait," Bit said suddenly, tearing his eyes off of the scene around him. "What exactly am I looking for?"
"Anything dealing with Hiltz about Goldzoid, shesh. This is Goldzoid's club, there's bound to be a back room in here somewhere. Just make sure you don't get caught, k?"
Bit smirked. "No prob, c'mon I can't get caught. I'm smooth like greased lightening."
Van just let out a exasperated sigh and was absorbed into the now growing crowd until he was out of sight. So this is what being in the GF (Bit found out that meant Guardian Force) was like, club hopping, partying, well that sounds easy enough. Just who was Hiltz anyways? Whoever he was, he was obviously the source of trouble for everyone. In the future, there would never be anything like this. These people were so happy and carefree, although they had more worries than the people where he was from.
His attention was averted from a pretty young lady with a happy face on her bum shorts to the golden stage. Three women walked onto the stage, two of them looked like Naomi and Leena, and unsurprisingly they were dressed in gold. This whole gold thing was getting old, fast. He would never look at gold the same again. That was for sure.
The girl who looked like Leena took the center mic while the Naomi look a like and the other girl took the ones beside her. The disco music stopped and some other disco music began to play, the girls started to singing to it. From the looks of things the Leena look a like was the lead. For some reason, Bit couldn't hear the words, his ears had failed him due to the loud music.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to Studio 69! And here he is..Goldzoid!" shouted the Leena look a like.
All heads turned to the balcony where a small man with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed in a gold shirt and gold shorts, a golden sweatband graced his forehead. He laughed and waved his arms over the crowd. People were cheering, shouting things like "Go Goldzoid! Go Goldzoid! It's your birthday!" some were even swooning.
"Welcome everybody!" Longfellow 'Goldzoid' Alfred said to his eager fans. "Are you having a wonderful time?"
Hoots and hollers of approval were heard. "Oh Goldzoid!" shouted one girl in the center of the living mass of sweaty young bodies.
"Ah yes, sounds like you all are having fun! Whooosh!" and Goldzoid pushed himself off of the rail and begin roller-skating down the rest of the balcony.
Bit arched a blonde eyebrow and watched Goldzoid skate onto the dance floor, he even pulled his left leg up to his head while still skating. The girls dressed in gold right behind him, swooning and laughing. Kids at the bar raised their neon colored glasses at him. Needless to say Goldzoid was famous.
The Leena look a like got down off the stage and walked over to a small purple couch, a black haired teen followed her and Bit had no doubts as to who it was. He pushed his way through the crowd just in time to see a man take a seat in between Van and the girl.
"Cleo? You see it went a little something like this." Van was saying.
"Two years and no phone call? No one stands up Cleo Lopez!" the black haired guy dressed in a purple rob with pink frilly lacing snapped his fingers in air.
Bit blinked; that guy sounded like a woman.. Wait a tic. Cleo or the Leena Look a Like was talking! She was talking for him. Weird.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry Cleo. I got caught up in the war and all.and who exactly is that?" Van indicated to the guy.
"I'm using this guy as a distraction!" both Cleo and the guy waved their hands in the air. "Can't let Goldzoid see us together, mind you."
"Ah, I see. About that phone call thing Cleo.."
"I'm waiting."
Van swallowed hard and glanced nervously around the dance floor, then he came across a certain bombshell blonde. "Bit! What in God's name are you doing here?!"
Bit snapped up in attention, he'd been seen. So much for the invisibility trick. He laughed nervously. "Looking for info?" he suggested hopefully.
"Wrong answer, what did I say? Honestly, good help is so hard to find these days," Van shook his head. "So I assume you saw Goldzoid?"
"Bingo was his nameo, you betcha. He looks crazier than I imagined!"
Cleo eyed the blonde teen curiously, from the corner of her eye. The man cleared his throat. "Like I said, two years and no phone call Van Flyheight. Not one goddamn phone call."
Cleo definitely did not talk like Leena, she may have had her looks but that was all she had. Bit was slightly disappointed; he'd hoped that maybe just maybe Leena had come to the past too. He wondered what she was doing right at that moment, but he could not imagine what she was doing. Laughing her head off maybe? No. that didn't seem right. At least he could rest assured that she'd be okay, she always said she hated him even he just loved to push her buttons.
"I know, I'm sorry. I've been rather busy lately, with ending the war and fighting the Deathsaurer twice. I haven't had any time for a social life," Van said apologetically, shrugging his shoulders.
So Cleo was an old flame of Van's, how fascinating. From the looks of things they still had a little something something going on, Bit thought gleefully maybe he still had a chance with Fiona! He rubbed his hands together happily, completely unaware he was being watched.
Something seemed to have alerted Cleo for the guy she was using to communicate with leaned closer to Van, rubbed his finger on his chest and whispered, "Now I'm in Goldzoid's club for my own reasons, my partner was killed by this dude. So consider it a bit of payback. There's a back room over there, inside should be many guards protecting something I don't know. But give this message to your organization: Goldzoid's teamed up with some dude named Hiltz.ring the bell any where?"
Van scowled deeply and nodded quickly, his eyes darted to Bit who was completely lost in the conversation. "Alrighty then, thankz a mil, Cleo."
The black-haired man pressed his lips feverishly against Van's, while Cleo looked perplexed at the strange sounds coming from. Van had gasped in surprise and was practically falling off the couch, and the guy was running his hands through his hair. The guy broke the kiss and pushed his lips together and winked at the young zoid pilot.
"Good luck," Cleo said, her words from the guy's mouth.
Van hastily nodded and got up.
Bit's jaw fell as his mind replayed the image of what had just happened over and over again in his mind, the look on Van's face was priceless! He was mentally cracking up and shocked all at the same time. He promptly fell onto the floor, choking with silent laughter.
He shook his head several times, rubbed his lips with his fist, and grabbed Bit's elbow. "C'mon."
The blonde wordlessly let him lead him through the bar area and to a dark purple door with the words "PRIVATENESS" printed in large gold letters. No one had stopped them yet, so meant one of two things either A) no one was expecting them or B) the exact opposite of A.
Van leaned close to Bit and narrowed his dark eyes. "Say a word of this to anyone and I will make you die a slow and painful death."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Bit sighed and slowly nodded, he didn't want to let such a thing go but he REALLY didn't want to die a slow and painful death either. He rather enjoyed living thank you very much. The disco ball moved in an almost hypnotic beat with the music, it probably was wired to go in sync with the music. He sighed once again as Van made the motion for him to stay put. Why is it he was the one to be a loser and be left behind? Honestly.
"Oh c'mon Van! You can't take on all the bad guys by yourself," Bit protested, his hands in fists to give him that urgent look.
Van just rolled his eyes at the blonde. "Oh please Bit, do you honestly think I can't hold my own? I defeated the Deathsaurer for crying out loud, I think I can take care of a simple mad genius."
With that he turned his back and walked casually towards the door. He glanced around to see if anyone was looking, then kicked the door down and bounded in with a handgun in hand. No one on either side of the hall or dance floor noticed a thing, which Bit found a little bit funny maybe they were too hyped up on drugs and booze. Go figure.
"If he thinks I'm gonna miss this then he's mad," Bit stuffed his hands in his pocket and casually walked towards the door, whistling innocently.
He peeked inside; there was Van twisting his gun in his hand, he was talking to someone and walked over to a bed or something then he disappeared. Bit gasped and stuck his head in the doorframe further. He promptly fell on the ground from leaning so far. The room was empty; there was only a large purple and green waterbed. Where the heck was Van?
Voices met his ears, they sounded as though they were coming from the wall. He walked over to the wall and pressed his ear against it. The voices were low so low he could hardly hear them. Something on the floor caught his attention, when he turned around to see what it was Bit tripped over his own feet and fell onto the bed.
Suddenly both the bed and the wall moved in a circular pattern, revealing Van standing with his arms above his head with golden pistols in the small of his back. Goldzoid had his aging hands folded neatly on top of an oak desk lined with many golden items. Standing behind Goldzoid was Cleo, filing her nails.
Bit glanced around at everyone, his cheeks burning, and wondered what everyone was doing. A couple of those girls off the dance floor were holding guns to Van's back, and Cleo was acting like this happened every day.
"Uh hey Van, what's up?" he asked nonchalantly. ~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note: What up! Did you guys like that? Sorry it took so long for this chapter! I just like lost inspiration for it, but all ya'lls reviews gave me hope lol. I don't like leaving something unfinished. Worthy of another chapter? Review and tell me okay?
PEACE OUT!
~*Mi*ChElLe*~
"Ow. So are we ow, going to dinner? I'm starved!" Bit asked cheerfully, as he sat up on the small bed he'd been sleeping on after his little meeting with Madame Prombley.
He looked at each of their faces; Van was mumbling something incoherent to himself, nodding every once and a while. Fiona just smiled that pretty smile. While Moonbay looked fiercely at him. But Bit knew what she was thinking; she was worried about him. If only she knew about where he'd come from. If only she knew.
The sun had already set; apparently Bit was out like the dead for a good five hours. His stomach was growling and just the thought of food was enough to make him drool. Bit was so hungry he could eat Leena's cooking! Er, maybe not THAT hungry but he sure was close.
"Well?" he looked hopefully at Van.
"Yeah sure, why the hell not? It's not like we have anything better to do," Van placed his index finger on his chin in a thoughtful manner. "Say Fiona.don't we have tomorrow off?"
Fiona glanced up at the ceiling and nodded. "Yes. It's a holiday, everyone in the Republic has tomorrow off."
"The Republic?!" Bit burst out, his eyes wide. "We're in the Republic?!"
Van arched a dark eyebrow and nodded real slowly. "Yeah," he said in DUH kind of tone. "Of course. Why? You from the Empire?"
"No! I was just at New Helic City for the BBQ with Doc, Brad and Leena! Where I met the captain of the J team!"
Judging from the weird looks he was receiving, Bit must have said something they didn't understand. Great, now they thought he was crazy. Just great what he always wanted. Just his luck too. Not wanting to make himself any more of a fool, Bit placed his hand behind his head and laughed nervously.
Fiona frowned thoughtfully, was it just her or did that stranger Bit and Van have so much in common? Bit was blonde in the hair while her beloved was blonde at heart. She was almost positive she saw a connection between them, but wasn't sure what it could be. Was this blonde stranger somehow related to Van? So far she was open to any suggestions.
"So? Can we eat?"
Everyone face faulted with the exception of Bit, who just watched them and waited from an answer. He wasn't about to give up that easily. Oh sure he'd been begging for the past five minutes but anything was possible! He was sure if given another five minutes he could be on his way to an All-You-Can- Eat buffet and stuffing his face.
"Well?"
Van got up and wiped the dust off of his pants and shrugged. "I already said we can go.but the question is where? Hmmm.."
"There an All-You-Can-Eat buffet around here?!" Bit asked anxiously, his face just inches from Van's.
Van shoved the sixteen year old out of his face and entertained the idea. Well, what did he have to lose? Oh yeah, he remembered, his paycheck. That was what he had to lose. It was obvious that Bit didn't have any money on him, why couldn't they just have Moonbay cook? Moonbay was a damn good cook, besides it would be a little bit cheaper that way.
"Whoa there killer, easy now. How about this; we have Moonbay cook! It seems like centuries since I've had your cooking!" Van suggested.
Bit was tempted to ask if she was a good cook but thought better of it, his cheek still burned from when she slapped him earlier.
"Well, it's gonna cost ya," Moonbay winked at the black haired warrior, who just sighed. "Sure. That'd way we don't have to go through all the trouble of getting the Gustav out and asking Irvine."
"Either way I can't win," Van said with a depressed sigh. "Today just isn't my day."
Fiona laughed and wrapped her arm around his. "Yup. No worries though, Van, I suppose this probably my fault."
"Your fault?"
She nodded and smiled that pretty smile that made Bit's heart melt. "Yes, I told Bit I'd take him out to dinner." She winked at Bit who grinned in return.
Was that anger that Bit saw on his new friend's face? Oh God he hoped not. The last thing he wanted was for Van to beat him into a bloody pulp. No, he'd rather have the she-devil Leena have the honors for at least the last thing he'd see before he'd die would be her pretty hair. Whatever the emotion was that was plastered across his face, Van looked like a force to be reckoned with. Which he probably was.
"What are ya gonna make for supper, Moonbay?" Bit asked.
Moonbay's lips contorted into a vicious smile. "Oh you'll find out soon enough."
Great, Bit thought, just great.
~*~*~*~*~
"What?!" Jade Daingerfield's Blade Liger came to a screeching halt.
Jade couldn't believe her ears, on the comlink was Doc of the Blitz Team. He said that his convertible the one Bit Cloud was driving fell off of a cliff and into the ocean. She had just seen Bit at least ten hours earlier; never had she expected this to occur. The old saying was true then; death does come on swift wings. To some.
"Your kidding me! You can't be serious! That kid can't be dead, no way!"
Steve Taurous a.k.a Doc shook his head grimly. All of the color had drained out of his face, he looked like he was dead too. "I never said that Bit was dead. they can't seem to find the body."
Jade didn't know what was worse; the fact that he was most likely dead or the fact that they couldn't find him. His poor team, and right after they'd won the Royal Cup too. But Jade was almost positive that he wasn't dead, she could feel it in her bones. That kid was alive and well, she knew it.
"Would you like me to help locate him? I'd be more than happy too, Mr. Taurous," she added.
"Doc, please."
"Er.okay. Doc it is. My offer still stands, like I said I'd be more than happy to assist in any way," Jade said gently.
"Yeah, thanks but no thanks. We'll call on you when we need your help," with that he existed the com link, leaving Jade in a mixture of defeat and anger.
She'd bet anything that Bit was alive, her father always said she had an otherworldly sense maybe it would be right. Not that she doubted it or anything.
"Yo, Jade!"
Jade maneuvered her Liger so it turned around; a Lightening Saix raced up to them.
"What up, Jason," she said with no feeling what so ever.
Jason's boyish face appeared on the com link, his spiky brown hair remained in its spot from the mighty hold of the gel. He smiled at her. Jade always knew he had a thing for her, but he was only 15 way too out of her league. She always thought of him like a little brother.
"Some team called the Back draft wants to challenge us to a match, you game?"
Jade frowned at him, making her distaste evident. Didn't he know who the Back draft was? Honestly, kids these days. Jade wasn't in the mood to fight for her zoid and the zoids of her teammates.
"Have you lost your mind?" she said with calm anger. "We are not fighting the Back draft, apparently you've forgotten who they are. They are nothing more than common thieves, zoid thieves might I add. Now if you don't want me to attack that Lightening Saix of yours I suggest you get in contact with the Zoids Battle Commission and tell them the exact location of that battle."
Jason's eyes grew wide as he quickly nodded and with all the speed of the Lightening Saix raced back to their base.
"Little punk," Jade muttered to his retreating form.
"Well, well, what do we have here? A lil' ole Blade Liger. Funny how we found you with no problems. I suppose that makes our job a lot easier," a male voice sneered from seemingly out of nowhere.
Jade looked around but couldn't see anyone or anything; there was nothing on her radar. The sky, she thought, and looked up. Sure enough there was a large Whale king floating right over. Why didn't her zoid radar catch anything? She wondered but decided this was not the time to ponder it out.
The Blade Liger howled and took off at top speed in the direction of the base. A barrage soon stopped it. Jade growled and waited for the smoke to clear so she could somehow make her way back to the safety of the base. but then, by doing so she would put the J team and personale in danger. That was something she, as captain, could not afford to do. Then again, she couldn't take out the massive Whale king and the hundreds of zoids it surely had in its belly.
Why didn't she ask for a Lightening Saix? Oh yeah, Jade remembered now, she'd been in love with Blade Ligers since she was little when her father used to tell her about Van Flyheight, her secret hero, who lived many years ago and had a blue Blade Liger. That was why.
"You listen here, you little pieces of shit, I'm not going down without a fight. I refuse to let you take my zoid," Jade barked.
"My," now it was a different voice, the voice of a woman. "Who so ever said we wanted to confiscate your petty zoid?"
Jade scowled and narrowed her eyes at the image of a woman with long bluish hair. "My Liger is not petty."
The woman just smiled. "I'll let you think that. You see our organization has no interest in your Blade Liger, we've got enough to last us a life time."
"Then what do you want." If it wasn't her zoid that they wanted..then what could it be? Somehow, Jade didn't want to know.
"We want you. You're skills as a zoid pilot is most impressive, the Back draft could most definitely use talent like yours. By the way.my name is Sarah," Sarah said, still smiling.
Jade wanted to rip that ridiculous smile off of her face, she despised this woman already there was no way in hell she'd ever even consider joining. Who were they kidding, asking her to join the Back draft Group? Did they really expect her to join?
"I'm sorry to disappoint you and your organization but I refuse to join. I'm legit unlike you, now please leave me in peace."
"No is not an answer," Sarah replied, her smile gone, she looked ready to kill.
"Well too bad, it's gonna be an answer," with that Jade aimed her hybrid cannon to the belly of the Whale king and fired.
"Now," she said to the blue Blade Liger. "It's time to run like the wind, baby!"
~*~*~*~*~
"Man, Moonbay was I wrong about you. You cook even better Jamie!" Bit said happily as he rubbed his rather content stomach.
Moonbay grinned. "Thank you! I'm glad you feel that way."
Bit sighed happily, this had to have been the best meal of his whole life. When he went home he was going to miss Moonbay's cooking.
What Bit had said just sunk in. "What? How could have you think such a thing, Bit! I'm going to have to kill whoever said my cooking was bad."
Van laughed along with everyone else, with the exception of Moonbay who was glaring daggers at everyone. Van had no idea there was another person like him in the universe; one who inhaled his food and ate like a total and complete pig. It was kinda nice, having another of his kind that is.
"What's all the laughter about?" in walked a tall man with brown spiked hair and a weird looking patch over his eye, that Bit had never seen before.
"Irvine!" Fiona chirped. "Where have you been all this time?"
"Here and there, mostly in the hanger though."
Irvine smiled faintly and took a seat next to her. He reminded Bit of Brad, somewhat, he was a rugged looking man. Only Brad's hair was much longer than his was.
Bit studied everyone in the small back room of the kitchen carefully, each one of them reminded him of someone he knew. Everyone except Fiona. He couldn't think of anyone like her, she was so beautiful, graceful and elegant everything the perfect woman would be. But Leena wasn't anything close to her; Leena was loud, obnoxious, short-tempered, unwomanly, yet at the same time very sensitive even though she would never admit it. The two loves of his life.
"Hey Van," Bit began, eyeing the older pilot innocently. "There any zoids here?"
Van frowned in a thoughtful manner and cocked his head to one side. What an odd question. "Yes of course, this is a military base y'know."
"Can we see them?"
"Why?" Van asked suspiciously, that kid had something up his sleeve he knew it.
The blonde shrugged and glanced at the door. "No reason, I just wanna see them that's all."
"Sure, okay," he backed up his chair.
*Twenty Minutes Later.*
They walked into a massive hanger covered with shadows of zoids that hadn't seen light of day in years. The air smelled of old oil and dust mixed with coffee, dust mites danced cheerfully around in and out of people's nostrils. There were Republican Command Wolfs, Gogalas, and all sorts of other zoids that looked like they belonged in a museum. Only one Lightening Saix. There was one zoid that caught Bit's eye; it stood in between the Lightening Saix and Van's Blade Liger, it had white armor and looked awfully familiar like the...
"Liger Zero!!" Bit raced to the claw of his beloved zoid leaving behind a very confused Van. "Liger Zero! Old buddy old pal! This is where you've been all this time! I missed you soo much buddy!"
The Liger Zero growled and stuck it's nose in the air.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I am SO sorry! I didn't mean to leave you behind, really I didn't, it just kinda.. happened. I guess I got so excited after winning the Royal Cup I forgot all about the one who was responsible for helping me get that Cup. I know I screwed up. Can you ever forgive me?"
The Liger titled it's head several times as if debating which response would be better, and then nuzzled the young blonde's hair.
"Oh!" Bit said after rescuing his hair. "I just remembered! We got a one on one battle with the captain of the J Team!" at the Liger's confused growl he continued. "The J Team was one of the first teams to join S Class! I betcha Leena is probably dieing of jealously! Isn't that cool? I know we can beat her Blade Liger in ten seconds flat, it'll be nothing like the Berserk Fury!"
The bonds between a zoid and it's pilot was a mysterious one indeed, it amazed Van how that zoid, the same zoid that bucked off almost everyone at the base excluding himself and Fiona, was showing affection to that boy. Did it have an organiod in it? Dr. D had said when he examined it, none of the computers could begin to compute the data. Either it's system's were too ancient or too advanced, Van was willing to bet on the latter. He'd never seen anything like it before, it resembled strongly to a Liger but that was all.
"Bit," Van walked up to the boy and his zoid, his hand resting on his hip. "I'm guessing this is your zoid. Mind telling me how it got here?"
"Well, to be perfectly honest I have no idea. The last time I saw my buddy here was over a couple months ago at the Blitz Team base after we won the Royal Cup. Then after that I just chilled, I guess," Bit replied with a shrug.
Van decided not to pursue the subject further it would be seemingly fruitless. The kid didn't know how he got here; let alone how his zoid got here. Maybe he was from somewhere else on Zi, Van had never been off of this continent and the planet was huge and probably there were other kinds of zoids on the other continents.
"Lieutenant Flyheight, sir!"
A young solider with platinum blonde hair and green eyes appeared from seemingly nowhere and saluted. Van turned around and told him to be at ease.
"Your new mission from HQ is here, sir, you are to go undercover to Studio 69 in the capital and find out as much informative as you can," the solider paused and suddenly remembered he didn't say 'sir', quickly saluted and by doing so whacked himself in the forehead. "Da.sir!"
Bit fought back the urge to snicker, boy was he glad he wasn't in the military. He'd go crazy by having to call people 'sir' like some sort of mindless drone.
Van frowned thoughtfully. "Studio 69? Isn't that the new dance club with that new kind of music, what was it.. disco, right? That sounds simple enough, say it might actually be fun. Just what kind of information am I looking for, exactly?"
The solider glanced uneasily at Bit but Van dismissed his thoughts with the wave of his hand. "Don't worry about him, the kid's good."
"Okay then, sir, you are to look for any information dealing with Longfellow Alfred. He owns Studio 69 and up under recently reportedly had ties with Hiltz. Sir."
"Okay then, I'm on it."
As soon as the solider was out of earshot, Bit snorted.
"Longfellow?" he asked, laughing.
While Van, on the other hand, was not laughing and wore a serious expression. "Longfellow is an evil madman who loved gold so much he even lost his small army of zoids in an unfortunate smelting accident. He's crazy but he's not stupid."
Bit grasped his side that hurt from laughing so hard he couldn't believe his ears this was too good to be true, in an unfortunate accident? Not to mention his name was 'Longfellow' for crying out loud.
"Can I come?" he asked suddenly.
*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*
The air was a mix of sweat and alcohol, everything was in a shade of gold, the walls everything. Even the disco ball was painted gold. It was obvious this Longfellow a.k.a Goldzoid dude was obsessed with gold. In the dance floor under the golden disco ball, dancers wore roller blades and literally skated to the beat of the music. A stage was in front of them, a bar in back of them and a place just to chill was on the side walls. The club itself wasn't too big, just two stories or so high. A golden balcony overlooked the club goers, half a dozen beautiful women all dressed in gold lined up against the golden rail.
"Let's spilt up, we can cover more ground that way," Van said in Bit's ear so he could hear him.
Bit glanced over at Van and fought the urge to snicker; the warrior had shed his uniform and dawned on a white suite with a black vest. He was something else, but then again by the way everyone else was dressed he didn't stand out at all. But Van was not the only one wearing a polyester suite, Bit wore just the opposite; a black suite with a white vest. Back in the future they would be a hoot.
"Wait," Bit said suddenly, tearing his eyes off of the scene around him. "What exactly am I looking for?"
"Anything dealing with Hiltz about Goldzoid, shesh. This is Goldzoid's club, there's bound to be a back room in here somewhere. Just make sure you don't get caught, k?"
Bit smirked. "No prob, c'mon I can't get caught. I'm smooth like greased lightening."
Van just let out a exasperated sigh and was absorbed into the now growing crowd until he was out of sight. So this is what being in the GF (Bit found out that meant Guardian Force) was like, club hopping, partying, well that sounds easy enough. Just who was Hiltz anyways? Whoever he was, he was obviously the source of trouble for everyone. In the future, there would never be anything like this. These people were so happy and carefree, although they had more worries than the people where he was from.
His attention was averted from a pretty young lady with a happy face on her bum shorts to the golden stage. Three women walked onto the stage, two of them looked like Naomi and Leena, and unsurprisingly they were dressed in gold. This whole gold thing was getting old, fast. He would never look at gold the same again. That was for sure.
The girl who looked like Leena took the center mic while the Naomi look a like and the other girl took the ones beside her. The disco music stopped and some other disco music began to play, the girls started to singing to it. From the looks of things the Leena look a like was the lead. For some reason, Bit couldn't hear the words, his ears had failed him due to the loud music.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to Studio 69! And here he is..Goldzoid!" shouted the Leena look a like.
All heads turned to the balcony where a small man with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed in a gold shirt and gold shorts, a golden sweatband graced his forehead. He laughed and waved his arms over the crowd. People were cheering, shouting things like "Go Goldzoid! Go Goldzoid! It's your birthday!" some were even swooning.
"Welcome everybody!" Longfellow 'Goldzoid' Alfred said to his eager fans. "Are you having a wonderful time?"
Hoots and hollers of approval were heard. "Oh Goldzoid!" shouted one girl in the center of the living mass of sweaty young bodies.
"Ah yes, sounds like you all are having fun! Whooosh!" and Goldzoid pushed himself off of the rail and begin roller-skating down the rest of the balcony.
Bit arched a blonde eyebrow and watched Goldzoid skate onto the dance floor, he even pulled his left leg up to his head while still skating. The girls dressed in gold right behind him, swooning and laughing. Kids at the bar raised their neon colored glasses at him. Needless to say Goldzoid was famous.
The Leena look a like got down off the stage and walked over to a small purple couch, a black haired teen followed her and Bit had no doubts as to who it was. He pushed his way through the crowd just in time to see a man take a seat in between Van and the girl.
"Cleo? You see it went a little something like this." Van was saying.
"Two years and no phone call? No one stands up Cleo Lopez!" the black haired guy dressed in a purple rob with pink frilly lacing snapped his fingers in air.
Bit blinked; that guy sounded like a woman.. Wait a tic. Cleo or the Leena Look a Like was talking! She was talking for him. Weird.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry Cleo. I got caught up in the war and all.and who exactly is that?" Van indicated to the guy.
"I'm using this guy as a distraction!" both Cleo and the guy waved their hands in the air. "Can't let Goldzoid see us together, mind you."
"Ah, I see. About that phone call thing Cleo.."
"I'm waiting."
Van swallowed hard and glanced nervously around the dance floor, then he came across a certain bombshell blonde. "Bit! What in God's name are you doing here?!"
Bit snapped up in attention, he'd been seen. So much for the invisibility trick. He laughed nervously. "Looking for info?" he suggested hopefully.
"Wrong answer, what did I say? Honestly, good help is so hard to find these days," Van shook his head. "So I assume you saw Goldzoid?"
"Bingo was his nameo, you betcha. He looks crazier than I imagined!"
Cleo eyed the blonde teen curiously, from the corner of her eye. The man cleared his throat. "Like I said, two years and no phone call Van Flyheight. Not one goddamn phone call."
Cleo definitely did not talk like Leena, she may have had her looks but that was all she had. Bit was slightly disappointed; he'd hoped that maybe just maybe Leena had come to the past too. He wondered what she was doing right at that moment, but he could not imagine what she was doing. Laughing her head off maybe? No. that didn't seem right. At least he could rest assured that she'd be okay, she always said she hated him even he just loved to push her buttons.
"I know, I'm sorry. I've been rather busy lately, with ending the war and fighting the Deathsaurer twice. I haven't had any time for a social life," Van said apologetically, shrugging his shoulders.
So Cleo was an old flame of Van's, how fascinating. From the looks of things they still had a little something something going on, Bit thought gleefully maybe he still had a chance with Fiona! He rubbed his hands together happily, completely unaware he was being watched.
Something seemed to have alerted Cleo for the guy she was using to communicate with leaned closer to Van, rubbed his finger on his chest and whispered, "Now I'm in Goldzoid's club for my own reasons, my partner was killed by this dude. So consider it a bit of payback. There's a back room over there, inside should be many guards protecting something I don't know. But give this message to your organization: Goldzoid's teamed up with some dude named Hiltz.ring the bell any where?"
Van scowled deeply and nodded quickly, his eyes darted to Bit who was completely lost in the conversation. "Alrighty then, thankz a mil, Cleo."
The black-haired man pressed his lips feverishly against Van's, while Cleo looked perplexed at the strange sounds coming from. Van had gasped in surprise and was practically falling off the couch, and the guy was running his hands through his hair. The guy broke the kiss and pushed his lips together and winked at the young zoid pilot.
"Good luck," Cleo said, her words from the guy's mouth.
Van hastily nodded and got up.
Bit's jaw fell as his mind replayed the image of what had just happened over and over again in his mind, the look on Van's face was priceless! He was mentally cracking up and shocked all at the same time. He promptly fell onto the floor, choking with silent laughter.
He shook his head several times, rubbed his lips with his fist, and grabbed Bit's elbow. "C'mon."
The blonde wordlessly let him lead him through the bar area and to a dark purple door with the words "PRIVATENESS" printed in large gold letters. No one had stopped them yet, so meant one of two things either A) no one was expecting them or B) the exact opposite of A.
Van leaned close to Bit and narrowed his dark eyes. "Say a word of this to anyone and I will make you die a slow and painful death."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Bit sighed and slowly nodded, he didn't want to let such a thing go but he REALLY didn't want to die a slow and painful death either. He rather enjoyed living thank you very much. The disco ball moved in an almost hypnotic beat with the music, it probably was wired to go in sync with the music. He sighed once again as Van made the motion for him to stay put. Why is it he was the one to be a loser and be left behind? Honestly.
"Oh c'mon Van! You can't take on all the bad guys by yourself," Bit protested, his hands in fists to give him that urgent look.
Van just rolled his eyes at the blonde. "Oh please Bit, do you honestly think I can't hold my own? I defeated the Deathsaurer for crying out loud, I think I can take care of a simple mad genius."
With that he turned his back and walked casually towards the door. He glanced around to see if anyone was looking, then kicked the door down and bounded in with a handgun in hand. No one on either side of the hall or dance floor noticed a thing, which Bit found a little bit funny maybe they were too hyped up on drugs and booze. Go figure.
"If he thinks I'm gonna miss this then he's mad," Bit stuffed his hands in his pocket and casually walked towards the door, whistling innocently.
He peeked inside; there was Van twisting his gun in his hand, he was talking to someone and walked over to a bed or something then he disappeared. Bit gasped and stuck his head in the doorframe further. He promptly fell on the ground from leaning so far. The room was empty; there was only a large purple and green waterbed. Where the heck was Van?
Voices met his ears, they sounded as though they were coming from the wall. He walked over to the wall and pressed his ear against it. The voices were low so low he could hardly hear them. Something on the floor caught his attention, when he turned around to see what it was Bit tripped over his own feet and fell onto the bed.
Suddenly both the bed and the wall moved in a circular pattern, revealing Van standing with his arms above his head with golden pistols in the small of his back. Goldzoid had his aging hands folded neatly on top of an oak desk lined with many golden items. Standing behind Goldzoid was Cleo, filing her nails.
Bit glanced around at everyone, his cheeks burning, and wondered what everyone was doing. A couple of those girls off the dance floor were holding guns to Van's back, and Cleo was acting like this happened every day.
"Uh hey Van, what's up?" he asked nonchalantly. ~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note: What up! Did you guys like that? Sorry it took so long for this chapter! I just like lost inspiration for it, but all ya'lls reviews gave me hope lol. I don't like leaving something unfinished. Worthy of another chapter? Review and tell me okay?
PEACE OUT!
~*Mi*ChElLe*~